BAY VILLAGE, Ohio -- City Council President Dwight Clark recently weighed in on the controversy surrounding Councilwoman Sara Byrnes Maier who, while seeking to fill a vacant council-at-large seat, was allowed as the citys Ward 3 representative to sit in on interviews of potential fellow candidates.

Some residents wrote letters or expressed themselves on social media, saying they were not happy with the process and didnt see it as fair.

Nancy Stainbrook resigned from the council-at-large seat effective Dec. 31 due to expanded duties in her full-time job. She had been appointed to council in 2017, then was elected to a full four-year term, which is due to expire at the end of 2021.

Clark said there were 30 applicants for the seat -- an unusually high number, he noted. Also unusual was that a current council member was applying to fill the vacancy.

2021 has been unique, Clark said, because we had a sitting councilperson applying for the seat. I talked to our law director, Mark Barber, and shared my concerns. Would it be appropriate (for her to sit in on other candidates interview), I asked? He said we couldnt preclude (Maier) from the interview meetings as she was a sitting member of council.

There were no precedents, Barber told Clark, but it would not be illegal for Maier to attend the interviews with her City Council colleagues. Clark noted that Maiers qualifications and experience would be an asset in the interviews.

Clark also spoke of how the interview sessions were structured, which, he said, should counter any problems with allowing Maier to sit in on the interviews.

Council members had to have one or two questions prepared to ask (applicants) for what ended up to be 21 people who were finally interviewed, Clark said. And our first concern was that (Maier) not know any questions in advance from the others, so we interviewed her first. The same set of questions was then utilized for each applicant.

Ultimately, the majority (of council) recommended her, mostly due to her current legislative experience, he said. The final vote was 4-2 in favor of confirming Maier.

(Maier) was a planner for the (Cleveland) Metroparks and was very valuable when we approved our master plan in 2017, and she was also helpful in implementing plans related to the Cahoon Lakefront Plan, the (Bay Village) library and projects about connectivity in the city with paths.

One other unusual matter was that Maier will have to take a pay cut as she becomes a council-at-large representative. Clark said the council members yearly salaries for their two-year terms had been raised to $12,500. Salaries are always adjusted in an election year, he noted, but since Maier would fill the council-at-large seat midstream, she will have to go back to the previous salary of $10,496.

Maier said she thinks some of the problem was people not understanding the process, but she noted that it wasnt easy for her, either.

I wrestled with that myself, she said, because our charter does not specify what to do if a member of council vacates a seat. Its not super clear. I can understand the optics of it.

She noted that she also talked to the law director. My read was that I was supposed to participate, though I can understand peoples concern, she said.

Maier also mentioned that there is a city charter review coming up in 2023: Perhaps the charter could be worked on with some amendments in the matter. Then it would go to a vote of the people.

Going forward, Maier said, My main motivation is that my council committee is working with legislation that has the potential to impact the use of peoples property. I feel like I need to fully represent the city at large rather than a ward council seat.

An example, she said, is a tree ordinance being considered. There is no regulation for trees on residential property, and we are working with the tree commission to reach a good balance on the issue.

Maiers Ward 3 council term will formally end Dec. 31 of this year, but her term as council-at-large will require her to run for a full, four-year term this fall.

Now, Maiers former council seat in Ward 3 is open. We will have to appoint a new councilperson to take Saras Ward 3 place, Clark said. The window for applications will be in effect through Monday, Feb. 8.

We tried to strive for openness and transparency, he said. People in Bay Village dont do this (serve on council) for the big money. It is for part-time public service and making Bay Village a better place to live.

Council interviews for the Ward 3 position will be scheduled after Feb. 8, he said. The city charter states that council has 30 days to fill the vacancy or the mayor will appoint someone.

Bay Village residents can apply for the newly open council seat by visiting https://www.cityofbayvillage.com/460/City-Council-Vacancy.

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During a January 28 meeting with government officials, Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko compared the 20202021 Belarusian protests with recent nationwide demonstrations in Russia following the arrest of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

Lukashenko said law enforcement had kept Belarus from falling into the abyss of another color revolution.

The term color revolution was widely adopted in the ex-Soviet space after the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution against widespread election fraud following the November 2004 presidential runoff in Ukraine. Orange was the color chosen by then presidential challenger and pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko for his election campaign; he was running against pro-Russian incumbent Viktor Yanukovych.

The protest movement resulted in the initial runoff results being annulled. Yushchenko then won a second runoff, becoming president in January 2005 and ending the Orange Revolution.

Belarus, Russia and others portray color revolutions as protest movements fomented by the West with the aim of destabilizing or overthrowing the governments of target states.

We have suppressed the most vivid manifestations of protest activity, Lukashenko said, adding: The difference between the Belarusian and Russian events, youll see, there may be several. But the main difference in our case, [they] decided to carry out a blitzkrieg in August. Instantly overthrow the government, or at least show that the government has fallen, and bring in NATO troops.

Russia will be rocked for a long time. They understand perfectly well that it is impossible to carry out a blitzkrieg in Russia.

Lukashenkos assertion of outside orchestration is false. There is no evidence that Western governments staged protests in Belarus or planned to send in military forces.

However, Western powers have supported free and fair elections in Belarus, as well as civil society efforts in the country.

Opposition to Lukashenkos 26-year rule, which has become increasingly authoritarian during a time of global pandemic and economic decline, has grown into widespread public protest.

Most of the violence during six months of protests has been perpetrated by Belarusian state authorities.

Young people in particular have joined the opposition to Lukashenkos rule. In an online ZOiS survey conducted among 2,000 Belarusians aged 1834 from June 22 to July 4, 2020, only 10 percent said they had planned on voting for Lukashenko during the August 2020 presidential election.

About 80 percent of respondents said they planned to vote. Another 20 percent said they knew someone who had protested in the past year.

On August 9, 2020, the Belarusian presidential election was held after five days of early voting. That evening, protesters took to the streets when state TV claimed Lukashenko had won 80 percent of the vote.

The Associated Press interviewed election workers who said they saw ballot fraud or were pressured to falsify results in favor of Lukashenko.

The following weekend, up to 200,000 people marched against Lukashenko in Belarus capital Minsk  a large number in a city of roughly 2 million. The BBC estimated that only 4,000 to 5,000 people attended a pro-government counter-demonstration.

An independent journalist who spoke to National Public Radio noted the protesters had come from all walks of life, including students, technology workers, small business owners and factory workers.

"There is no sense of radicalization among these protesters," the journalist said. Its sort of a united front of social discontent.

Indeed, in August hundreds of state television employees went on strike to protest what they called a rigged presidential poll. Factory workers and students also launched nationwide strikes to get Lukashenko to step down.

Elderly people also took part in the protests, with one person saying that the presence of older citizens seemed to curb police violence. There were also reports of police officers quitting despite facing legal repercussions.

Lukashenko was nonetheless sworn in for his sixth term on September 23. In November, an expert report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe found the presidential election fell short of fulfilling the basic international requirements for genuine elections.

The European Union has sanctioned Belarusian officials for repression and election falsification. The U.S. has also sanctioned Belarusian officials for their roles in the fraudulent presidential election and subsequent violent crackdown on peaceful protesters.

Following the election, tens of thousands of people were arrested during a series of weekend demonstrations. From August 9-12, riot police detained an estimated 7,000 protesters and bystanders, holding them in inhuman and degrading conditions, and torturing and otherwise ill-treating hundreds, New York-based Human Rights Watch reported.

One thousand people were detained during a peaceful protest in November.

Rights groups have reported unlawful use of force, torture and even state-backed killings.

The minimum number of people injured by police during August and September was 1,373 people, according to a report released by Mediazona, a Russian media outlet, in conjunction with Open Democracy. That report relied on documents leaked form Belarus Investigative Committee.

Detainees have been subjected to beatings and electric shocks. Belarusian police have also reportedly sexually assaulted those detained at protests.

Opposition leaders have shared images on social media they allege are of concentration camps being set up for protesters. The reports appear to be corroborated by leaked audio recordings obtained by Radio Free Europe, in which a senior Belarusian Interior Ministry official can be heard discussing plans for a barb wire enclosed internment camp for demonstrators.

The same security official can be heard instructing security forces to use excessive force against demonstrators.

Another leaked audio recording obtained by the EU Observer appears to confirm that Lukashenko gave a green light to assassinate political opponents and journalists abroad.

Lukashenko has previously accused neighboring states of seeking to annex Belarusian territory, while also baselessly claiming a NATO invasion was being planned. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has also blamed the U.S. for recent protests in Russia.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos valentine to New York City restaurants has left close observers of the citys coronavirus data scratching their heads. Mr. Cuomo said Friday that on our current trajectory, New York City could reopen indoor dining on Feb. 14, typically a busy day for the restaurant industry.

As the governor spoke, average per-capita case counts in New York City were 64 percent higher than when he announced an indefinite ban on indoor dining in December.

Coronavirus cases in New York City Seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 people 66.1 Cuomo announces indoor dining may resume 60 40 40.2 Cuomo announces indoor dining ban 20 0 Dec. 1 Dec. 11 Jan. 1 Jan. 29 66.1 Cuomo announces indoor dining may resume 60 40 40.2 Cuomo announces indoor dining ban 20 0 Dec. 1 Dec. 11 Jan. 1 Jan. 29 Source: New York Times database of reports from state and local health agencies

Average Covid-19 hospitalizations in the city, while trending downward, were still 60 percent higher late last week than they were when Mr. Cuomo closed the restaurants.

Covid-19 hospitalizations in New York City Seven-day average per 100,000 people 335 300 200 209 Cuomo announces indoor dining ban 100 0 Dec. 1 Dec. 11 Jan. 1 Jan. 28 335 300 200 209 Cuomo announces indoor dining ban 100 0 Dec. 1 Dec. 11 Jan. 1 Jan. 28 Source: New York City Department of Health | Note: Because of reporting delays, values for recent days are incomplete.

And the test positivity rate was more than a percentage point higher.

Coronavirus test positivity rates in New York City Seven-day average 6 % 5.3% 4 4.0% Cuomo announces indoor dining ban 2 0 Dec. 1 Dec. 11 Jan. 1 Jan. 29 6 % 5.3% Cuomo announces indoor dining may resume 4 4.0% Cuomo announces indoor dining ban 2 0 Dec. 1 Dec. 11 Jan. 29 Jan. 1 Source: New York State Department of Health | Note: Data is as of Feb. 1.

Mr. Cuomo has said that the decision to open any part of the economy is based on four metrics: new cases per capita, hospitalizations, the test positivity rate and the rate at which people are infecting one another.

That fourth measure, known as R t , has improved for New York State since December and is now less than 1, meaning each infectious person will infect fewer than one other person. A state official said models used by the state put New York Citys R t between 1.03 and 0.95.

Gareth Rhodes, a deputy superintendent at the state Department of Financial Services and a member of the governors Covid-19 task force, said the important metrics are not where the numbers are but where they are headed  and that trends are all headed downward, both across the state and in the city.

He said the opposite was true in December, when trends suggested a climb in cases and hospitalizations.

Mr. Rhodes also noted that businesses began reopening in May even though more than 6,000 people remained hospitalized because trends indicated the numbers would improve and that they did.

The C.D.C. places on-site dining with capacity limits in the higher risk category for coronavirus transmission, with the highest risk being indoor dining without precautions. Mr. Cuomos plan to reopen indoor service on Valentines Day includes a 25 percent capacity limit and other restrictions.

New York City is at an extremely high risk level for coronavirus, according to an assessment by The New York Times and public health experts.

The decision to reopen indoor dining came amid growing criticism of the governor for scorning the expertise of public health officials over the advice of the business lobby.

Even the governors own virus data proved less rosy than he presented on Friday, a review of the numbers shows.

Mr. Cuomo suggested test positivity rates for New York City had fallen by 30 percent with a chart depicting a drop using data points chosen from daily swings.

Gov. Andrew Cuomos Jan. 29 presentation suggested a drastic drop in New York Citys test positivity rate. New York State Governors Office via YouTube

In fact, the numbers he presented  7.1 percent and 4.9 percent  were the highest and lowest daily numbers in January to that point, extremes that did not exactly reflect the overall trend.

Here is the daily test positivity data, presented alongside a seven-day average to account for daily fluctuations. The averages show a more modest 17 percent drop in test positivity, compared with the 30 percent drop in Mr. Cuomos chart.

Daily vs. average test positivity rates in New York City Data points the governor highlighted are circled in red. 7.1% 6.4% Daily positivity rate 6 % 5.3% 4.9% 4 7-day average 2 0 Dec. 1 Dec. 11 Jan. 5 Jan. 28 7.1% Daily positivity rate 6 % 6.4% 5.3% 4.9% 4 7-day average 2 0 Dec. 1 Dec. 11 Jan. 5 Jan. 28 Source: New York State Department of Health | Note: Data is as of Feb. 1.

The governors chart had other issues: The vertical axis wasnt labeled and did not begin at zero, so, at a glance, it suggested that the latest positivity rate was closer to zero than it actually was. And the graphs curve did not follow any underlying values between the two data points.

However you look at it, the positivity rate was still higher than it was on Dec. 11, when Mr. Cuomo announced the ban on indoor dining. It has remained steady since.

Mr. Cuomo acknowledged on Friday that emerging variants of the virus could affect the infection rates in the coming weeks, and said the state would keep a close eye on hospital capacity numbers to determine whether further closures may be needed.

I understand all the possibilities, he said. And if there are facts, and if the facts change, then we will have a different situation.


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When President Biden won the election he was surround by his beloved family: his wife Jill, of course, his daughter Ashley, son Hunter and his wife and baby Beau, and his five other grandchildren.

His seventh grandchild was nowhere in sight, perhaps because Hunter has made it brutally clear he wants nothing to do with the toddler daughter he had with former stripper after their brief tryst in 2017.

But Lunden Roberts and two-year-old Navy Joan have a new man in their corner - a hunky cage fighter who is raising the adorable little girl as his own, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

Princeton Foster, a 26-year-old roofer and ripped amateur MMA fighter, has been secretly dating Lunden since late 2018, when Navy Joan was just a few months old.

The couple got engaged the following April but kept their relationship under wraps as Lunden chased Hunter, 50, through the courts to force him to take a DNA test confirming the child was his.

Lunden, 29, secured a reported $2.5m settlement when the paternity suit was resolved which she used to buy a newly-constructed three-bedroom home last October for herself, Navy Joan and Princeton.

The cute trio are now living together as a family after builders put the finishing touches on the smart $200,000 property in her native Arkansas.

Hunter Biden's baby mama Lunden Roberts is engaged to Princeton Foster, a 26-year-old roofer and ripped amateur MMA fighter, DailyMail.com can reveal.

The couple got engaged the following April but kept their relationship under wraps as Lunden chased Hunter, 50, through the courts to force him to take a DNA test confirming the child was his

He has also competed in a handful of without limits MMA contests since 2018, choking his first opponent into submission and beating another on points before losing his third bout

Throughout the election campaign and in his early days as President, Biden has frequently talked about his grandchildren and invited them on stage with him

Hardworking Princeton runs his own roofing and handyman business and previously worked as a welder for a lawnmower company.

He has also competed in a handful of without limits MMA contests since 2018, choking his first opponent into submission and beating another on points before losing his third bout.

A video posted online of one of his fights shows Princeton pinning an opponent to the canvas and pummeling him mercilessly with a flurry of punches and elbows.

The aspiring parent showed off his gentler side this week, however, when he played ball and fooled around with Navy Joan in their front yard, his t-shirt emblazoned with the words Girl Dad.

He obviously dotes on the little girl and treats her like his own. They make a fabulous, young family, said an onlooker.

Princeton, who gets on well with Lundens parents Rob and Kimberly and goes hunting with her brother-in-law, Camden Bolin, is described by the couples friends as a great role model.

Recovering-drug addict Hunter, meanwhile, has never met Navy Joan and could not pick her out of a photo lineup, according to court filings.

She is also yet to meet her grandfather Joe, 78, despite the President eulogizing his love for his six other grandchildren and inviting them on stage when he claimed victory in Novembers election.

Navy Joan gets none of the perks, nor the round-the-clock Secret Service protection enjoyed by the rest of the 46th Presidents brood after he took office last week.

However family friends say the blonde-haired toddler is adorable, loved, safe and very happy as she grows up blissfully unaware of her proximity to the caustic world of US politics.

Princeton, who gets on well with Lundens parents Rob and Kimberly and goes hunting with her brother-in-law, Camden Bolin, is described by the couples friends as a great role model

None of the family ever discussed her in public until she turned two in August and Lundens sister Randi Jo Bolin posted a rare photo of the toddler on Facebook, her face turned away from the camera to protect her anonymity

Navy Joans settled upbringing is in stark contrast to the fractious court battle Lunden waged throughout 2019 to have her daughter acknowledged by scandal-plagued Hunter.

The pair had a brief fling in late 2017 after reportedly meeting up at the Mpire Club, a strip joint in Washington, D.C. where Lunden was moonlighting under the stage name Dallas while studying to be a forensic investigator at George Washington University.

Navy Joan - the fourth of Hunters five children - was born the following August.

Her existence remained secret until Lunden filed for paternity and child support in May 2019, just days after Hunter had married his second wife, Melissa Cohen, after dating her for just six days.

Having initially denied Navy Joan was his, Hunter was forced to take a DNA test in November 2019 which proved once and for all that he was the father.

The battle was far from over, however, as Lunden had to battle for months to force the Presidents youngest son to disclose his financial affairs.

Investigators alleged in court documents that Hunters assets were worth a staggering $156m, owing largely to his much-scrutinized $50,000 per month role at the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, and his business interests in China.

Lunden, 29, secured a reported $2.5m settlement when the paternity suit was resolved which she used to buy a newly-constructed three-bedroom home last October for herself, Navy Joan and Princeton

A video posted online of one of his fights shows Princeton (right) pinning an opponent to the canvas and pummeling him mercilessly with a flurry of punches and elbows

Hunter pleaded poverty, however, insisting that he was cleaned out by his 2017 divorce from first wife Kathleen Buhle, with whom he has three kids.

He repeatedly failed to hand over his tax returns, reveal his home address in Los Angeles or even supply his phone number, citing the threat of media intrusion into his life while his father contested the Presidency.

In an effort to demonstrate to this Court my good faith, I attest that I am unemployed and have had no monthly income since May 2019, Hunter said in filings lodged with the Independence County Circuit Court.

I currently have significant debts (in part as a result of obligations arising from my divorce which was final in April 2017) that are being calculated by accountants.

The filings show that Hunter ultimately agreed to pay child support and pay his share of Navy Joans healthcare, though the exact terms are under seal.

He was accused several times of treating the proceedings with contempt but it was announced in March last year that the two sides had reached a global, final settlement of all issues without the need for a trial.

Dominic Casey, a private investigator who says he assisted Lundens legal team in untangling Hunters finances, said the final figure was $2.5m.

He also told DailyMail.com that the payout was strictly a one-off and there would never be any further financial assistance or security provided by the Bidens.

The child is going to get nothing more, Joe does not recognize her as his blood. Neither does Hunter, despite the DNA result, he said.

Lundens attorney, Clint Lancaster, said in court filings that Hunter has never so much as looked at a photograph of angelic Navy Joan.

The defendant has had no involvement in the childs life since the childs birth, never interacted with the child, never parented the child  never seen the child, and could not identify the child out of a photo lineup, he wrote.

The pair had a brief fling in late 2017 after reportedly meeting up at the Mpire Club, a strip joint in Washington, D.C. where Lunden moonlighted under the stage name Dallas while studying to be a forensic investigator at George Washington University

The only child missing from the wholesome family celebration was Navy Joan

The child has had no exposure to the defendant. The defendant is a complete stranger to the child.

Throughout the election campaign and in his early days as President, Biden has frequently talked about his grandchildren and invited them on stage with him.

In the wake of Novembers vote the career Delaware Democrat gushed that it was his granddaughter Naomi, 26, who broke the news that the networks had called the election in his favor.

Naomi and her siblings Maisy, 18, and Finnegan, 20, are Hunters children with Kathleen, his first wife, whom he divorced after 22 years of marriage. Hunter also famously had a relationship with his late brother Beaus wife, Hallie.

The three girls took to the stage when Biden declared victory, joined by Beaus children Natalie, 16, and Robert Hunter Biden II, 14.

Hunter was also there with Cohen and their seven month old child  Hunters fifth  a little boy reportedly named Beau in honor of his brother who died from brain cancer in 2015.

The only child missing from the wholesome family celebration was Navy Joan.

When DailyMail.com published exclusive details of her life in November last year, Lancaster brushed aside any notion the snub would diminish the sweet youngsters upbringing.

I can confirm that Ms. Roberts is well and that the child is healthy, adorable, loved, safe - and very happy, he said.

Despite Hunters reputation as the Black Sheep of the Biden family, his father has always leapt to his defense, hailing him the finest man I know.
Tunis/Tunisia  Only essential travel to Spain is allowed till February 28, 2021, following the new health restrictions imposed by the Spanish authorities, national carrier Tunisair announced Monday.

More specifically, the persons allowed to travel to Spain are:

- Ordinary residents of the European Union, Schengen associated States, Andorra, Monaco, the Vatican (the Holy See) or San Marino travelling to Spain, providing supporting documentary evidence.

- Holders of long-stay visas issued by a Schengen member or associated country traveling to Spain.

- Health professionals, including researchers, elderly healthcare professionals, going to or coming back from their professional activities.

- Transport staff, seafarers and aviation crew required to carry out air transport activities.

- Diplomatic, consular, international organisations, military, civil defence and humanitarian workers in the discharge of their duties.

- Students pursuing their studies in the Schengen member or associated States and who hold the required authorisation or visa and the relevant medical insurance, provided that they travel to the country where they are studying and that entry takes place during the academic year or 15 days before.

- Highly qualified workers whose work is needed and cannot be postponed or carried out remotely, including participants in high-level sport events held in Spain. These circumstances must be justified by documents.

- Duly accredited persons travelling for compelling family reasons.

- Persons who have documents justifying reasons of absolute necessity, or whose entry is authorised on humanitarian grounds.

- Residents of third countries provided that:

* They came directly from these countries.

* Transited only through one of the countries listed below.

* They made international transits via any airport in the world but still coming from: Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, China, the Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macao.
The United States is "concerned" by Beijing's pattern of ongoing attempts to intimidate its neighbours, the Biden Administration said on Monday, adding that it is closely monitoring the situation along the India-China border.

"We are closely monitoring the situation. We note the ongoing talks between the governments of India and China and continue to support a direct dialogue and a peaceful resolution to border disputes," Emily J Horne, spokesperson, National Security Council (NSC) of the White House, told PTI.

He was responding to a question on recent Chinese attempts to intrude into Indian territories and occupy it. "The United States is concerned by Beijing's pattern of ongoing attempts to intimidate its neighbours," Horne said.

"We will stand with friends, partners and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security and values in the Indo-Pacific region," he added.

This is the first response of the Biden Administration on India-China border clashes.

Addressing a joint session of Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind last week said India has strengthened its military presence at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) along the two countries' shared border to protect its sovereignty. "My government is fully committed to the protection of the interests of the nation and is also vigilant. Additional forces have been deployed to protect India's sovereignty over the LAC," Kovind said.

"New India-China border clash shows simmering tensions," The New York Times said in a report 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.)
The wrenching collapse of Myanmars once-celebrated democratic opening had many witting and unwitting accomplices along the way. But its central driver, activists and experts say, was a yearslong power struggle between the military and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the countrys civilian leader.

Democratic transitions can be a messy business. Old regimes tend to surrender power slowly, piece by piece. In a transitional phase that might last decades, the authoritarian and democratic systems often operate side by side. If they stay on tolerably good terms, with a shared understanding of their eventual destination, they have a chance to make it.

That was once the hope for Myanmar. The countrys military junta, after decades of iron-fisted rule, in 2011 began handing off power to a civilian government. After her partys election victory in 2015, that government was headed by Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient for her resistance to the junta through years of house arrest.
YEREVAN, 2 FEBUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 2 February, USD exchange rate up by 0.32 drams to 519.20 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.96 drams to 626.52 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.03 drams to 6.84 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.64 drams to 710.63 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 4.98 drams to 31097.6 drams. Silver price up by 36.50 drams to 493.85 drams. Platinum price up by 144.96 drams to 18662.4 drams.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Crews are working to determine when they can rebuild a section of scenic roadway near Big Sur, California, after it collapsed in torrential rain last week.

Officials say the damage isn't as bad as from a 2017 landslide that cut off the tourist destination for over a year. Crews are clearing debris piles and stabilizing damaged sections of roadway.

The winding highway is a popular driving route renowned for its ocean views.

The head of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce says the damage will force those traveling from Southern California to take a two-hour detour. But he said the majority of visitors come from Northern California.
As snow began piling up, changes were made to Fenway Park and Gillette Stadiums vaccination sites to ensure some people could still get their COVID-19 vaccine, allowing more than 2,000 people to still get vaccinated during the noreaster.

CIC Health opened both sites an hour early, and asked people to come in as early as possible, hopefully making it in before the storm hit the hardest.

The storm brought in 3.8 inches of snow to Boston, 13.8 inches to Worcester and 9.6 inches to Springfield, and as much as 20 inches of snow was recorded in Wilmington.

Still, about 500 people were vaccinated at Fenway Park and nearly 1,700 at Gillette Stadium on Monday, CIC Health said.

Eastfield Mall in Springfield was also open on Monday. MassLive reached out of state officials to find out how many people were vaccinated at the Springfield location.

CIC Health, in regards to the Boston and Foxborough locations, also allowed people to reschedule appointments because of the storm.

CIC Health has control over all appointments and can open additional appointment slots for exceptional situations like this. They can also increase staff, etc. as needed to match shifting needs, the company said. No matter what, CIC Health will accommodate those who need to reschedule appointments due to this storm.

There were 300 reschedule requests from people with appointments Monday at Gillette Stadium and 45 at Fenway Park, CIC Health said.

Theyll all be contacted today [Tuesday] with private links to reschedule on their preferred dates, the company said.

The vaccines for those who couldnt make it or rescheduled didnt go to waste either.

CIC Health mass vaccination sites at Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium said only a certain number of doses are taken out of refrigeration and opened vials. They then slow down that process throughout the day specifically to avoid exposing doses that could go unused.

We carefully manage the vaccine in order to avoid having extra doses at the end of the day, CIC Health told MassLive.

If there is a case where a few doses are leftover, we will offer them to clinical staff working on-site who are eligible, CIC Health said.

The two sites are back to normal operating hours, although people can still reschedule if they cannot get there safely due to the snow.

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By Harry J. Kazianis



For roughly 30 years, the United States has maintained a policy that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)  known in most circles as North Korea  should never be able to research, create, deploy, or proliferate nuclear weapons. Clearly, by any reasonable measure, that policy has failed miserably, and now, North Korea is on the cusp of  or already has  the capability to strike the U.S. homeland with a nuclear weapon.



So why does America stick to the same old failed policy year after year, no matter who sits in the White House, regardless of who they are, what party they are from or what their foreign policy perspective is? How can the world's most powerful nation seemingly stick with a policy that ensures that a rogue regime like Pyongyang continues to build ever more powerful nuclear weapons? These nuclear weapons soon could be deployed on submarines or, even far more worrisome, be sold in some capacity to the highest bidder?





Harry Kazianis, senior director at Center for the National Interest / Korea Times file
After successfully establishing air and sea links, Israel is looking into the potential of road links with the UAE to further develop the bilateral trade corridor, said the top diplomat at the newly opened Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

The air and sea links have already enabled goods traffic on flights within a few hours and ships within 16 days between the two countries, pointed out Eitan Naeh, Head of Mission at the embassy to the Emirates News Agency (Wam).

Naeh is expected to officially submit his diplomatic credentials to the UAE Government soon.

"Now we are looking into the potential of trailers and lorries carrying goods from the UAE reaching Israel in three days and vice versa in the near future," the diplomat, who arrived in Abu Dhabi early last week, said.

Corridor linking East and West

"I truly believe that the UAE on the eastern part of Arabia and Israel on the western part of Asia - on the Mediterranean - can create a trade corridor through land and sea [to the rest of the world]," he added. "This corridor of peace will create great possibilities for trade and tourism."

"It all has to be investigated. Business communities in Israel and the UAE are now looking into ways to increase trade. Each country brings its relative advantage. We have trade agreements with the West [US and European Union]. You are an opening to the East. So, it is a huge market," explained the 57-year-old diplomat who had earlier served as the Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Turkey, and Deputy Head of Mission at the embassy in London.

130,000 Israelis visit UAE

The envoy revealed that around 130,000 Israeli tourists visited the UAE since the air traffic was launched in the wake of the Abraham Accords, which was signed in September 2020.

"Were very curious people. We like to travel. Israelis are traveling all over the world," the Israeli diplomat said.

He heard from tourism industry sources that nearly 50,000 Israelis a month may visit the UAE during the winter season. "We are talking about a few hundred thousand of visitors a year."

Once the vaccination against Covid-19 is complete in both countries, he expects increased tourist traffic. "I know that UAE tourism companies already making enquiries about packages in Israel. Israel has got many climate zones, forests and mountains and water bodies, which will attract visitors from the UAE."

Infrastructure, investments and technologies

The envoy pointed out that both countries have an advanced infrastructure. "We can learn from each other."

Israel has identified around 29 potential areas for cooperation with the UAE and bilateral agreements in eight areas have already been signed, he said.

On investment front, the Israeli Head of Mission already had talks with some investment companies from Israel that want to come and invest in the UAE.

"I think there is a lot of room for mutual investments. More Israeli companies will open their front offices here in the UAE or set up factories," he said.

In science and technology sector, setting up joint research and development centres where each country can bring its expertise and advantage, is a potential priority.

"No one country knows everything. Israel is in the semi-arid climate, so we do have a very advanced desert research centres down in the south," he noted. "There are things that we already know and there are things that we can study, then research and develop together."

"Israelis are firm believers and thats why we believe in what we call circles of innovation. We can set up joint circles of innovation."

Dialogue to overcome baggage of history

He believes dialogue between Israel and the UAE will encourage many others to follow suit to settle their differences. "We are very ancient people. We carry with us a long history. We carry that bag on our back, but were certainly the kind of people like yourselves [Emiratis] who look very much into the future," he said.

Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 00:26:19|Editor: huaxia

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OUAGADOUGOU, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed and properties were burned in an attack at a gold mining site on Sunday night in southwestern Burkina Faso, the national news agency AIB reported on Monday.

The attack occurred in Gaoua commune around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday when assailants stormed into the Djikando gold mine, firing automatic weapons in the village, it reported.

An investigation is under way.

Since 2015, the gold-rich country has been facing a worsening security situation with terrorist attacks that have claimed the lives of over 1,000 people and displaced thousands of others. Enditem

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NEW DELHI : Chocolate maker The Hershey Company on Tuesday announced the appointment of the companys current India managing director Herjit Bhalla as vice president, India and Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa (AEMEA), effective January.

Bhalla was appointed managing director for the India market in 2018. He has spent several years working across the consumer-packaged goods industry including Hindustan Unilever Ltd., apart from a stint at German retailer Metro Cash & Carrys India business. The company did not name an immediate successor to Bhalla.

Over the last few years, the packaged foods company has stepped up launches in India with Hersheys Kisses introduced in the market in 2018. It now sells syrups, spreads, flavoured milk and chocolates in India. Over the course of his tenure as MD for the India business, Bhalla has successfully led the companys transformation agenda and developed a strong, multi-category play with leading share positions across chocolate syrups, chocolate spreads, milkshake, soya milk and lollipops," the company said in a statement.

The Hershey Company competes with Mondelez, Nestle and Ferrero in Indias confectionery and chocolates market.

The company first entered India through a joint venture with Godrej Industries in 2007; the two subsequently called off their partnership in 2012 with The Hershey Company taking full control of its India business.

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Party General Secretary, State President Nguyen Phu Trong, photo VNA

The 13th National Party Congress tenure is a major milestone and very important transition, laying firm groundwork to the next tenures to successfully accomplishing the national development strategy until 2030 with a vision to 2045.

Promoting the whole nations will and strength and the consensus of the will of the Party and heart of the people, we resolutely implement the system of tasks and solutions advanced by the documents at the 13th National Party Congress, in order to take the country to a new development period with the following focuses.

We will continue boosting the construction and reorganisation of the Party and building of the socialist-oriented law-governed state and the sturdy and spotless political system.

It is necessary to harmoniously, closely, and effectively combine the construction and reorganisation of the Party, between the construction and protection of the Party. Efforts are to be made to continuously raise the capacity and renew the leadership method of the Party in the new condition.

The Party must be further constructed politically, and great importance must be given to building the Party ideologically. We must be steadfast with the Marxism-Leninism and the Ho Chi Minh ideology, while being consistent in the goal of national independence and socialism, and in the doi moi policy with the serious implementation of the Partys organisational and operational principles.

It is needed to increase education on the Party and the nations cultural tradition, history, and glorious revolution, and continuously improve the political ideological competence for cadres and Party members, while frequently fighting and staying conspiracies and sabotaging activities of reactionary and hostile forces, and protecting the Partys ideological foundations.

A focus is also placed on constructing the Party in ethics, and actively preventing and combating bureaucracy, corruption, and negative phenomena; while pushing back effectively the depressions in political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, and manifestations of self-evolution and self-transformation.

Besides that, the focus is also laid on studying and following the ideology, ethics, and Ho Chi Minh style, while promoting the responsibility of setting examples of cadres and Party members under the motto that high positions mean high exemplariness.

It is necessary to strongly and effectively renew the growth model and restructure the economy, and boost industrialisation and modernisation based on science and technology, innovation, and high-quality human resources. We have to construct and improve the institution for the socialist-oriented market economy in a sufficient, modern, and integrative manner.

We also have to build a national modern strong industrial sector featured by fundamental industries and pivotal industries in connection with smart technology. Vietnamese businesses are encouraged to develop new and modern industrial sectors.

Agriculture must be further restructured, and the rural economy must be developed in association with new rural development. Services sectors quality must be improved, with priorities to be placed on the sectors with big potential and advantages, while importance is attached to services supporting industrial and agricultural development.

It is needed to quicken and effectively conduct state budget restructuring, manage the public debt safety, and boost restructuring of public investment, credit institutions, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and ensure macroeconomic stability.

A focus must be put on taking sturdy solutions to soon perfecting the socialist-oriented market economy institution. There must be better resolution of the relations between the state, the market and the society, and between the state, enterprises, and people. Obstructions against national development, particularly those on institution and policy, must be removed.

There is a need to synchronously develop and closely connect areas, regions, economic sectors, and business and production forms; to accelerate the construction of national planning and development plans, regions, sectors suitable to potential and advantages of each locality and the country in order to raise the economys resilience.

Inter-sector, intra-region, and inter-region connectivity must be strengthened, while furthering the participation of global production networks and value chains, ushering in new development spaces.

The role of SOEs continues to be increased in forming and expanding chains of production, supply, and values, especially in key sectors that require to be controlled by the state. All favourable conditions must be created for the private sector to develop quickly and sustainably, and grow in size and quality.

Operational effectiveness of collective economic organisations and cooperative economic organisations must be improved, with a focus laid on cooperatives and support for developing household-based economy. There must be a shift in attracting foreign investment from quantity to quality, with a priority on projects with modern technology, high added value, and modern governance models, and on projects having spillover effects and connecting with the domestic economic sector.

All resources must be effectively mobilised, allocated, and used to create momentum for rapid and sustainable economic development. A boost is needed in research, transfer, and application of scientific and technological progress, innovation, especially achievements from Industry 4.0 so that science and technology can become a really main impetus of economic growth.

National digital transformation must be beefed up, together with the development of digital economy and digital society to create a breakthrough in raising the productivity, quality, effectiveness, and the competitiveness of the economy.

We also need to closely manage and properly and effectively use land and other natural resources; increase environmental protection, and take the initiative in implementing solutions in climate change response.

We must formulate and ameliorate the institutional system on effectively managing and ultilising natural resources, with a focus on land, water, and minerals. A system must be established on law, policies, and mechanisms on supervising natural resources, the environment, and climate change, and on forecasting and warning natural disasters, pollution, environmental catastrophe, and epidemics.

It is necessary to curb and strictly punish all violations on natural resources and environment We must take the initiative in proactively international cooperation in sharing information, combination in research, management, exploitation, and effective and sustainable usage of natural resources, ensuring ecological security, environmental security, water security, food security, and energy security.

We have to harmoniously solve the relations between economic development and environmental protection. It is needed to develop a green economy with less greenhouse gas emissions.

The circular economic model is encouraged for development in order to effectively use the outputs of the production process.

We have to increase the resilience and adaptability to climate change of the countrys infrastructure system and economy, while implementing smart solutions to respond to climate change in agro-forestry-fishery, and other sectors of the economy.

During the implementation of these major tasks and solutions, we need to concentrate into investment in resources, and attach special importance to leading and directing the implementation of the three strategic breakthroughs advanced by the 12th National Party Congress and implemented and concretised by this 13th National Party Congress in order to be suitable to the new development period.

The first breakthrough is to synchronously improve institutions for development, firstly the institution for the development of the socialist-oriented market economy. Priorities must be centred on well implementing the law system, mechanisms, and policies so as to create a more favourable and transparent, and fairer investment and business climate.

Efforts are to be made to effectively mobilise, manage, and use development resources, especially land and finance; to boost decentralisation properly; and to strengthen inspection and supervision of power via efficient measures.

The second breakthrough is human resources development, especially high human resources. Priorities are placed on boosting human resources for leadership activities and key sectors, and on radically improving the quality of education and training, and fostering talents. It is necessary to increase technological research, transfer and development; and arouse aspirations for developing a prosperous and happy nation.

The third breakthrough is developing a synchronous infrastructure system which is modern in economy, society, defence, and security. Priorities are put in developing some national key works in transport, climate change response, IT, and telecommunications, laying firm groundwork for boosting national digital transformation and gradually developing a digital economy and society.
Vietnam reported tremendous export growth to China in 2020

According to statistics published by the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam exported 9.86 million tonnes of steel in 2020 and acquired $5.26 billion, signifying increases of 47.9 and 25 per cent on-year.

Among the 10 largest export markets, the export turnover to China, the Philippines, Taiwan, and India hiked by at least 30 per cent. Especially, a breakthrough was reported in trade performance with China.

China was the largest export market with the total export turnover of 3.54 million tonnes worth $1.48 billion, up 717 and 670 per cent compared to the figures for 2019.

Cambodia is the second-largest export market, however, the export value to this country plunged in 2020. Notably, the total steel exported to Cambodia was 1.56 million tonnes worth $840 million, with an 8 per cent drop in turnover and 7.5 per cent in selling price compared to year prior.

The third-largest market is Thailand with 675,482 tonnes worth $390.5 million, accounting for 7 per cent of the steel export turnover for the whole year.

According to a report by Vietnam Steel Association, in 2020 the steel industry still reported positive results in spite of being impacted by COVID-19.

Global steel demand will contract 6.4 per cent in 2020 as a direct result of COVID-19, according to the World Steel Associations Short Range Outlook, but will bounce back in 2021.

The World Steel forecast is that 1.65 billion tonnes of crude steel will be produced this year and that production will increase by 3.8 per cent to 1.71 billion tonnes in 2021.

The forecast assumes that most countries lockdown measures continue to be eased during June and July, with social distancing controls remaining in place. It is also dependent upon major steelmaking economies not suffering from substantial secondary waves of the pandemic.
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Islamabad, Feb 2 : The Pakistan Army said on Tuesday that that three terrorists were killed after they tried to infiltrate into the country's northwestern region.

In a statement, the Army's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) media wing said security forces on Monday night conducted an intelligence-based operation to thwart an infiltration attempt by terrorists close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the Lower Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, reports Xinhua news agency.

"During exchange of fire, three terrorists got killed," the statement said.

A large quantity of weapons, ammunition and grenades were also recovered, according to the ISPR.

These terrorists were involved in several target killing incidents in the country's northwestern Swat region in 2019, according to the Army.

They had planned to infiltrate and target several notables inside Pakistan, but were timely engaged and killed, it added.

The Army did not say which militant group the terrorists were affiliated with.
In Kabul there was another roadside bomb attack on the police. This one wounded two policemen and is one of a growing number of such attacks. The Taliban denies responsibility but Afghan police dont believe that because the Taliban have often used unclaimed terror attacks in the past, and there is growing evidence that this is happening again as the Taliban continued trying to scam the Americans into leaving Afghanistan.

The Afghan president is trying to get the new American government to halt withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. This is essential so American logistical support can continue and enable other NATO members, like Canada, Norway and Germany to keep their military training and advisory teams in Afghanistan. It appears that the Americans wont be leaving because the Taliban have been regularly violating terms, they agreed to in February 2020, that were to enable the Americans to withdraw all their troops by May 2021. The Taliban deny these accusations and blame the Americans for violating the ceasefire.

Any agreements with Islamic radical or terrorist groups are unlikely to be kept. One might call this phenomenon the Ikhwan Factor, in recognition of its prominent role in the establishment and maintenance of the Saudi Arabian government and most other rulers of Moslem majority states. The Ikhwan were early 20th century Islamic terrorists who worked with the Saud family to create the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Current Islamic terror groups are similar to the Ikhwan. These groups justify their violence on the need to defend Islam against infidels (non-Moslems) or heretics (Moslems who dont agree with the radicals). The Islamic radicals cite Koran verses that support all the lies and broken agreements. Governments in Moslem-majority- nations understand this and realize that for their governments to survive, any Islamic extremist groups must be destroyed or expelled. The Saud family understood this when they struggled to establish their kingdom in the 1920s. One radical militia (the Ikhwan) refused to demobilize and kept invading neighboring countries in an effort to impose Sharia (Islamic law) on the population. The Saudis killed the Ikhwan leadership in the late 1920s and forcibly disbanded the militia. That brought peace with its neighbors and once more reminded all rulers of Moslem majority nations that the radicals cannot be trusted or tolerated. Since then, Saudi Arabia has used lethal force against any Islamic radicals that contest Saudi rule.

Most Afghans agree that the Taliban are no different from the Ikhwan , ISIL or any number of Islamic fanatics doing whatever they want because they are on a Mission From God, and will not take orders from any lesser powers. Many Afghans learned this via painful personal experience and dont trust the Taliban. Another reason for Afghans hating the Taliban is because the group has been under Pakistani control since its creation over two decades ago.

Another issue that does not get much attention in the foreign media is that the power of the drug gangs will increase with the Americans gone, so more heroin and opium will be exported to world markets. The Afghans understand that with the Americans gone the Taliban. Pakistan and drug gangs can turn their attention to taking control of the Afghan government. In the midst of all this are the warlords of northern Afghanistan getting ready for an other civil war. The majority of Afghans not only oppose the Taliban, drugs gangs and Pakistan but have made it clear that they, especially the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara in the north, are ready to resume the war with the Taliban that was going on in 2001 and only ended when the Americans came in to provide air support for this Northern Alliance. In 2001 the Americans told Pakistan to decide if they would side with the Taliban and against the U.S. or turn on their Islamic terrorist creation. The Pakistanis lied and said they would stop supporting the Taliban. Pakistan had adopted the use of Islamic terrorist groups in the 1980s as a deniable weapon for attacks on India and any uncooperative government in Afghanistan. The Americans trusted the Pakistanis for over a decade but finally cut financial and military support for Pakistan and are still seeking ways to deal with continued Pakistani support for Islamic terrorists.

A basic problem with any Afghan peace negotiation is that a major faction, Pakistan, cannot officially be acknowledged. Pakistan continues to officially insist that it is not backing the Taliban and drug gangs. Technically that is correct because its not the government of Pakistan, but the Pakistani military and its ISI intelligence service that support and maintain Pakistani interference in Afghan affairs. It is important to note that, when Britain dissolved its Indian (including what is now Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka) colonial government, the new nations that emerged were quite different. One major difference was how these new nations handled their armed forces. India ensured that the military remained subservient to the elected government. That did not happen in Pakistan or Burma so their militaries frequently took control of their governments. While Pakistan is technically run by an elected government, that government cannot do anything the military disagrees with. The Pakistani military has a foreign policy towards Afghanistan that supersedes anything the politicians come up with or agree to.

The Pakistani military have always seen Afghanistan has an unstable region that posed a potential threat to Pakistan. Historically this was true. Massive invasions and tribal raids have been coming out of Afghanistan and into India (and Iran) for thousands of years. While India was always a potential (and unlikely) invader of Afghanistan, the threat from Afghanistan was real and constant. Most Pakistanis recognized this threat and there was never a lot of popular opposition towards the Pakistani militarys actions towards Afghanistan. That continues to the present. For the Afghan Taliban it means they are very dependent on the good will of the Pakistani military to survive.

The drug gangs and Taliban survive because of support from the Pakistani military. That support included allowing essential chemicals (for converting opium into heroin) into Afghanistan and allowing most of the heroin to be exported via Pakistani ports (naval and air) to world markets. The Taliban provides the muscle while Taliban leaders maintained their 1990s relationships with the drug gang leaders and the Pushtun tribes. The Pakistani military and ISI profit from the support they provide the drug gangs, as does the Taliban.

The possibility of American forces withdrawing has Afghans seeking replacement allies. Iran is a popular choice with many Afghans openly developing relationships with Iran, and the Afghan government is doing the same. While Iran has a hostile relationship with the United States, such is not the case with Afghanistan. This is nothing new and the two nations have been developing better economic relations for over a decade. Afghanistan backed this to get free from economic dependence on Pakistan, whose two border crossings have long handled most Afghan exports and imports. Since 2001 and the arrival of the Americans, Pakistan often used access to these two crossings as an economic weapon against any hostile moves by the Afghan or American governments. Back in 2015, Afghanistan began discussions with India and Iran over a solution. That led to the 2020 completion of a railway giving Afghanistan access to world markets . This was the direct result of a 2017 agreement that had Iran and India finance and build a 1,300-kilometer-long rail line from Iran's Chabahar port near the Pakistan border to the Afghan border in the north, and then inland to Herat in Afghanistan. The last link is actually an earlier (2007) project to build a rail line from the Iranian city of Khaf to the Afghan city of Herat. Most (77 kilometers) of the railroad is in Iran with the other 62 kilometers in Afghanistan. This is all part of a larger Afghan project to build their first national railroad system. The Iran link will eventually be 220 kilometers long with over 90 percent of that in Afghanistan. In 2016 the first direct rail link to northern neighbor Turkmenistan was completed and that connection will eventually become part of an Afghan national rail network.

India provided over two billion dollars to upgrade the port of Chabahar and build new roads and railroads to Afghanistan and Central Asia. For Iran the Central Asia link is the most valuable one. But for Afghanistan having another way to move most of their imports and exports is a major achievement because Pakistan and Iran will have to complete and that will keep costs down for Afghans and reduce the use of closing the border, which Pakistan has done frequently, to coerce the Afghans.

Iran maintains good relations with Pakistan because they both see the Americans and Israel as archenemies. At the same time Pakistan is on good terms with the Gulf Arab oil states while Iran is at war with them. Pakistan is in a delicate situation here and has to tolerate Iran becoming close to Afghanistan economically and in many other ways. Iran does not want Afghanistan becoming a narcostate controlled by Pakistan. While the Pakistani military controls, supports and profits from the Afghan Taliban and drug gangs, Iran despises the drugs and the Taliban. While Pakistan responds helpfully to Iranian complaints of Sunni Islamic terrorists killing Pakistani Shia, there is no such cooperation when the Taliban kill Shia, especially before 2001. Since then, the situation has changed. Fifteen percent of Afghans are Shia and most reside in central Afghanistan. Shia also dominate several neighborhoods in Kabul and these are where most of the IISL attacks on Shia occur. Since 2015 the Afghan Taliban have been denouncing attacks like this. Since ISIL showed up in 2015 the Taliban saw an opportunity to repair their relationship with Iran. Since then, anti-Shia violence has been monopolized by ISIL, even though in the past the Taliban killed a lot of Shia. Now, however, the Afghan Taliban is receiving support from Iran, a Shia majority nation that is hostile to groups that kill Shia unless those groups make themselves useful to Iran. This puts the Taliban in a difficult situation because Pakistan tolerates the heroin trade and Iran never would. The difference is that the military is running things in Pakistan while Iran has a religious dictatorship that keeps its own military in check. Heroin and opium from Afghanistan are unpopular in all three countries because of the millions of addicts that have been created. The Pakistan military and Taliban dont care but everyone else does.

With all that in mind, it should be no surprise that Iran and Afghanistan are close to completing negotiations for a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement that will officially give Afghanistan a new economic and military ally against the Taliban and the Pakistani military. The last item being negotiated is the security aspects. Apparently, this item is not a roadblock but is subject to a fair amount of haggling. One item to work out is the need for Afghanistan to continue working with the United States against international terrorist groups, like al Qaeda and ISIL, that still maintain a presence in Afghanistan. Iran has long provided some support to al Qaeda as long as that connection improved the chances of carrying out successful attacks on Americans or Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil states. One generally ignored aspect of Iranian politics is that the religious dictatorship in Iran is well aware that they have a potential Ikhwan problem of their own because their IRGC (Islamic Republican Guard Corps) is in danger of going full Ikhwan and becoming a lethal threat to the senior Shia clerics who run Iran. This is one thing the Islamic rulers of Iran and Saudi Arabia have in common. The Ikhwan factor is taken for granted by most Iranians in or outside Iran but most Western media cannot or will not comprehend the Ikhwan problem.

January 30, 2021: During 2019 and 2020 the downward trend of fewer civilians killed in Afghanistan by terrorist violence continued. In 2020 the civilian deaths were apparently under 3,000. Back in 2014 nearly 4,000 civilians a year were being killed, most often by the Taliban, which is usually responsible for 70-80 percent of such deaths. The security forces account for 10-20 percent, 3-10 percent by ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and the rest (often as many as ten percent) by unknown perpetrators. For most of 2019 it looked like the annual total would be higher but Taliban violence against civilians (and in general) greatly declined in the last three months of the year. That trend continued into 2020 as the Taliban concentrated on hurting Americans and Afghan security forces, which was a lot more dangerous for the Taliban. Civilian casualties continued to decline in 2020, mainly because the Taliban were concentrating their attacks on the Afghan security forces and foreign troops. The Taliban were supposed to halt their attacks on Americans after the February 2020 ceasefire agreement with the United States. The Taliban attacks on U.S. troops declined but never stopped completely. In 2020 eleven American troops died in Afghanistan. Thats way down from the 26 in 2019.

January 29, 2021: Another Afghan shortcoming is corruption. The arc of Moslem majority nations stretching from northeast Africa, through the Middle East and Central Asia continues to be one of the most corrupt regions on the planet. The extent of this corruption c an be seen in the international surveys of nations to determine who is clean and who is corrupt. For 2020 Afghanistan ranked 165 out of 180 nations.

In contrast, the least corrupt nation in region was UAE (United Arab Emirates), which ranked 21st out of 180 nations. The most corrupt was Syria and many other Arab states were on the most corrupt end of the list. Corruption is calculated and ranked annually in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. Corruption is measured on a 1 (most corrupt) to 100 (not corrupt) scale. The most corrupt nations (usually Yemen/15, Syria/14, South Sudan/12 and Somalia/12) have a rating of under 15 while of the least corrupt (Finland, New Zealand and Denmark) are over 84.

The current Afghan score is 19 (up from 16 in 2019) compared to 71 (71) for the UAE, 61 (61) for Israel, 15 (15) for Yemen, 67 (69) for the United States, 33 (35) for Egypt, 25 (26) for Nigeria, 44 (44) for South Africa, 21 (20) for Iraq, 40 (39) for Turkey, 53 (53) for Saudi Arabia, 33 (30) for Ukraine, 47 (45) for Belarus, 56 (58) for Poland, 80 (80) Germany, 65 (65) for Taiwan, 40 (39) for Turkey, 40 (41) for India, 30 (28) for Russia, 61 (57) for South Korea, 42 (41) for China, 18 (14) for North Korea, 36 (37) for Vietnam, 85 (85) for Singapore, 74 (73) for Japan, 37 (40) for Indonesia, 38 (38) for Sri Lanka, 34 (34) for the Philippines, 31 (32) for Pakistan, 26 (26) for Bangladesh, 25 (26) for Iran, 28 (29) for Burma, and 25 (28) for Lebanon.

The Afghan corruption score has actually improved over the last decade. Back then it had Afghanistan contending for last place with a score of eight. Meanwhile the UAE achieved the most favorable corruption score in the region because it has long depended on foreign trade to survive and to make money in that business you must be known as an honest trading partner. The UAE is also different in that it is a federation of formerly independent emirates that realized the wisdom of joining forces. Laws and customs vary somewhat among the emirates and some are more gangster than others. The UAE became a place where foreigners, and locals, feel comfortable doing business. Before the recent peace deal with Israel, there was always some unofficial Israeli business being done in the UAE. Afghanistan has tried, since 2001, to achieve some of that economic success but is hampered by Pakistani aggression the growing economic and political power of the drug gangs.

January 28, 2021: In the south (Helmand province) security forces killed 26 members of anti-government militias associated with the drug gangs, the Taliban and Pakistani smugglers. Four of the dead were later found to be Pakistani citizens. This operation also found and destroyed four Taliban storage areas where weapons ammunition was stockpiled.

January 27, 2021: In Kabul four bombs went off in various parts of the city throughout the day. Two policemen were killed and four wounded along with five civilians. There was one such explosion the day before that killed one civilian wounded two. No one took credit for these five explosions that appear intended to terrorize more than kill.

The government ordered the head of the UN polio vaccination program to leave the country within 24 hours. Vaccination efforts continue. The expulsion order was not related to polio vaccinations but because the UN official refused to supply the Afghan president with data on how much the UN was spending in Afghanistan on covid19. Polio is still a problem in Afghanistan.

Earlier in the month someone fired on a someone fired on a polio vaccination team that was working in northwest Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), killing a policeman escorting the female vaccinators. This came two years after Pakistan launched a media campaign against those who oppose polio vaccination and vaccinations in general. Despite strenuous efforts, Pakistan has been unable to eliminate polio via vaccinations. For a long time, the main opposition were Islamic conservative clerics who called the vaccinations an attempt by Western nations to poison Moslem children. While few of those clerics remain, there are now more Pakistanis agreeing with Western anti-vaccination groups and insisting there are harmful side effects. Numerous controlled studies have not demonstrated any evidence of this but it has become a popular cause. There are other problems unique to Pakistan and Afghanistan. For example, polio is making a comeback among refugees on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border. This came after another major effort in 2017 to vaccinate vulnerable Afghan and Pakistani children against polio. In 2016 there were 20 cases of polio in Pakistan and 13 in Afghanistan. There were four in Nigeria, a country was declared free of polio in 2020. In Pakistan and Afghanistan there are still religious problems with vaccination. The Afghan Taliban have openly supported the vaccination program but there still some rural areas where local Moslem clerics or teachers still denounce the vaccinations. There is a similar situation in Pakistan, where some fringe Islamic groups will still try and kill members of the vaccination teams. Since 2008 over a hundred vaccinators and police escorts have been killed. This year there are a quarter million vaccinators and nearly as many security personnel seeking to vaccinate 40 million young (under five) children.

January 24, 2021: Afghan security officials report that over ten percent of the Taliban prisoners released since February 2020 have been rearrested for criminal or terrorist activities. Officially the February ceasefire agreement enabled the U.S.-Taliban peace talks to continue and specified that the Taliban would halt attacks in cities and against American troops. There was also a prisoner exchange with 5,000 Taliban released as well as a thousand police, soldiers and civilians held by the Taliban. It was assumed that Pakistan would halt its attacks via the Haqqani Network but that was not the case and Haqqani continued carrying out attacks in cities that are disruptive to the peace negotiations. Pakistan denies that it controls Haqqani and Haqqani rarely takes credit for attacks. Al Qaeda has an interest in the Taliban negotiations succeeding, so al Qaeda is unlikely. That leaves ISIL, which is currently much weakened and inclined to quickly and loudly take credit for such attacks. In this case ISIL did claim responsibility. The Afghan Taliban also resumed its attacks although they insisted it was not them. The February agreement mandated that all American forces be gone by May 2021. If the Taliban did not keep their end of the bargain, then the Americans were under no obligation to leave.

January 23, 2021: Afghanistan, Tajikistan and China have a joint border force of 150 personnel that monitors border threats and coordinates responses by all three countries. This was organized because China asked for such a force and provided generous financial support. Recently Afghans noted that there were now more border guards on the Tajik side of the border closest to China as well as more Chinese forces along the smaller Chinese border. The Tajiks border force now have much better weapons and equipment, courtesy of China. The Tajik border with Afghanistan is 1,357 kilometers long while the Chinese border is only 76 kilometers long. This is the gateway to the 350-kilometer long Wakhan Corridor that is only 13-35 kilometers wide. And the only direct access between Afghanistan and China. There is no high speed (railroad or highway) passing through the corridor and China bans foreigners from the corridor unless they have been authorized. The corridor is thinly (10,000 people) populated and t he key bottleneck passage between Afghanistan and China is the 4,923 meter (15,261 feet) high Wakhjir Pass. The Wakhan Corridor area has never been very violent, and escaped most of the fighting that has torn apart Afghanistan since the 1970s. For a long time, China refused to open its border with Afghanistan, fearing complications with the mainly Moslem Uighur population on the Chinese side of the frontier. There are other problems with this border. There are no roads through the pass, only trails. The pass is closed five months of the year by snow. For several more months the pass is closed intermittently by bad weather. The Wakhan Corridor itself was once part of the Silk Road, but only when weather allowed caravans through. The Chinese Wakhan Corridor border has been closed to traffic for over a century and China considers it too difficult and expensive to build a road or rail line through it. North of the corridor there is a year-round road between Afghanistan and China via Tajikistan. The longer road route via Tajikistan works because it is open all year and safe. Google Earth images have shown that China built a new road to the border area, along with additional guard posts after 2010. The Chinese road was only built to make it easier to move border guards, and their supplies, to the frontier. That is more of a danger to China than the Wakhan Corridor and the main reason for the joint border force. China provides economic aid to Tajikistan and Afghanistan mainly to purchase cooperation along the border.

January 9, 2021: In the southwest (Nimroz province) an airstrike on the Taliban killed 14 of the Islamic terrorists. Afghan troops were able to follow up and identify the dead, discovering that most (nine) of them were Pakistani. This is increasingly common. The Afghan Taliban have always contained some foreigners, most of them from Pakistan but the percentage of Pakistani members has been increasing. Nimroz Province borders Iran and Pakistan (Baluchistan),

December 27, 2020: In the southwest (Nimroz province), across the border in Pakistan (Baluchistan) seven border patrol personnel were killed on the Afghan border when their checkpoint was attacked by Baluchi separatists who were apparently operating from Afghanistan.

December 25, 2020: China is angry at Afghanistan, which earlier this month arrested ten Chinese citizens and accused of being MSS (Ministry of State Security) seeking to establish links with Islamic terror groups in Afghanistan. China denied that and demanded an apology and repatriation of the ten Chinese. The Afghans refused and have been making public their evidence.

December 22, 2020: In eastern Syria (Deir Ezzor province) an airstrike against an Iranian base killed or wounded over a dozen Afghan mercenaries. Iran is still hiring Afghans to fight as mercenaries in Syria. The Afghans cost more but are worth it because most of the other mercs in Syria are local Arabs working for Turkey or the Russians.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) Former employees of Sputnik Estonia, which was forced to close on January 1, 2020 due to pressure from the Estonian authorities, have created a new independent news outlet, Sputnik Meedia, which went live on Tuesday.

"After spending a year without being able to work at Sputnik, to which we devoted four years of our lives, we decided that it was time to return. Sputnik Meedia will remain faithful to the path trodden by Sputnik Estonia, it will occupy the niche of alternative news content," Elena Cherysheva, former editor-in-chief of Sputnik Estonia, said in a Facebook post.

Cherysheva said that the new platform will continue to advocate for the development of friendly relations between Russia and Estonia.

"We will continue to advocate for good and friendly relations between Estonia and Russia, standing against the demonization of our eastern neighbor. We intend to stand firmly for historical truth, particularly when it comes to World War II. We will fight falsification by striving for the facts," the former Sputnik Estonia editor-in-chief added.

Sputnik Meedia is not involved in any contractual relationship with the Rossiya Segodnya media conglomerate and its funding comes from independent sources.

"We understand perfectly well that officials in Tallinn can, under the slightest pretext, accuse the Sputnik Meedia team of cooperating with us, so we have ruled out any official contacts with the new website," Dmitry Kiselev, the CEO of Rossiya Segodnya, said.

Kiselev also praised the courage of the former Sputnik Estonia staffers to establish the new media portal.

"Sputnik Estonia was closed due to the threat of EU sanctions, which are only imposed on me personally, spreading to the entire media conglomerate I manage, as if the budget of a state organization was my own. This is madness but thank God, the repressed journalists, having shown their courage, found an investor to continue their work in Estonia," Dmitry Kiselev, the CEO of Rossiya Segodnya, said.

The creation of Sputnik Meedia also received the support of Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya media conglomerate.

"We wish Sputnik Meedia every success. Elena Cherysheva and her colleagues have been through many difficulties. Their courage, perseverance, and readiness, in spite of everything, to uphold freedom of speech is admirable. It is important to tell the truth in the Baltics, especially at the present moment," Simonyan said.

Rossiya Segodnya-affiliated media outlets operating in the Baltic nations have come under sustained pressure over the past year.

After the closure of the Sputnik Estonia portal, sites such as Baltnews and Sputnik Latvia have also been targeted, as their employees on December 3 were charged with violating the EU sanctions regime currently in force against Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the crackdown on Russian-speaking journalists in the Baltic states on multiple occasions.
A local fuel company lost nearly US$200 000 to two employees through illegal transactions with other fuel dealers between November last year and January this year.

Platinum Fuels, run by Acie Lumumba (real name William Gerald Mutumanje), lost 153 000 litres of diesel worth US$158 520 and US$30 500 cash to its employees Tatenda Maredza (31) and Malcolm Dodo (26).

Maredza and Dodo appeared at the Harare magistrates court charged with theft of trust property, corruptly concealing a transaction from a principal and unlawful dealing in petroleum.

They were not asked to plead to the charges when they appeared before magistrate Mrs Barbara Mateko, who remanded them in custody to today for bail application.

Allegations against the duo are that sometime in November last year, Platinum Fuels received fuel worth US$244 780 from Comoil and they were tasked to pay US$212 025 for the supply.

The court heard that the two only paid US$202 125 and failed to account for US$9 900.

During the same period, the two employees are said to have received 60 000 litres worth US$61 800 from Veinex which they sold and converted the cash to their own use.

It is said they received 93 000 litres of diesel worth US$96 720 from DA Motors and signed for it, but failed to account for its sale.

On December 3 last year, the duo is alleged to have supplied International Freight Services with 18 000 litres of diesel without the knowledge of the company.

It is alleged that on January 6 this year they also supplied 25 000 litres of diesel to the same company without the knowledge of the employer.

Last month, the duo is alleged to have received an order of 30 000 litres of diesel from Genesis Service Station in Kuwadzana and supplied it at US$1.03 per litre and declared 10 000 litres to the company.

They allegedly failed to account for the US$20 600 realised from the sale of the fuel.

During the same period, they also allegedly supplied 10 000 litres to Skyline Service Station located along Masvingo Road and pretended as if it had been supplied by Platinum Fuels.

The court heard that the two had no licence to deal in petroleum.
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Britons are known for their conservative nature - but in the bedroom its a different matter, according to a study.

The UK has come second in a ranking of the worlds sauciest countries, drawn up by researchers who looked at Google search volumes for sex-related terms, including sex toys, sexy lingerie, dating apps, sex tips, kinks and sex positions. These were then crossed-referenced with population to reveal a Sexy Search Index.

According to the data, the sexiest nation in the world is Portugal, with its citizens most popular kinks being BDSM, threesomes and electrostimulation and their most-searched-for erotic toys being dildos, fleshlights and butt plugs.

The UK has come second in a ranking of the worlds sauciest countries

Britons most-searched-for sex toy is the fleshlight (a male sex toy), followed by dildos and vibrators, their most-Googled sex position is reverse cowgirl, followed by doggy style and missionary, and their favourite lingerie is stockings, then corsets and G-strings.

And according to the study, commissioned by lingerie brand Pour Moi, they are looking for love on Tinder more than any other dating app.

The third raunchiest nation is Ireland, with a corset being the favourite item of sexy lingerie, Australia comes fourth, with doggy style the most-search-for sex position and in fifth place is Sweden, with dildos the most-search-for sex toy followed by fleshlights, vibrators and butt plugs.

Drilling down to specific categories, Portugal searches most for kinks and the UK is the country searching for sex toys the most.

According to the data, the sexiest nation in the world is Portugal, with its citizens most popular kinks being BDSM, threesomes and electrostimulation

TOP 10 'SEXIEST' COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD AND THE UK'S SAUCIEST TOWNS AND CITIES TOP 10 SAUCIEST COUNTRIES 1. Portugal 2. United Kingdom 3. Ireland 4. Australia 5. Sweden 6. Netherlands 7. Germany 8. United States 9. New Zealand 10. Denmark TOP 10 SAUCIEST UK TOWNS/CITIES 1. Belfast 2. Edinburgh 3. Dundee 4. Slough 5. Manchester 6. Salford 7. Newcastle 8. Gateshead 9. Barnsley 10. Bournemouth Source: The Global Sexy Search Index by Pour Moi. Twelve months of Google Keyword Planner data was used as the source of search volumes. Advertisement

Ireland is the top country for dating apps, whereas its the Dutch that are Googling sexy lingerie the most.

Poland is top for researching sex positions and Denmark is Googling sex tips the most.

The study also produced a ranking of UK towns and cities for sauciness  and its Belfast thats No1.

Two Scottish cities, Edinburgh and Dundee, take second and third spot as sexiest cities in the UK, with Edinburgh also the second-kinkiest city in the UK.

Ireland is the top country for dating apps, whereas its the Dutch that are Googling sexy lingerie the most

Slough places fourth in the UK overall, but is the sexiest town or city in England. The data also shows that people in Slough are Googling sex positions the most.

Michael Thomson, CEO at Pour Moi, comments: It was fascinating to use Google searches as our data source for this index, as our search history can often reveal the most intimate parts of our lives.

As lingerie makers, we were particularly interested in seeing what the most popular types of sexy underwear were, and pleased to see classics like stockings and suspending still such a favourite.
William Speakman / Korea Times file



By Kang Seung-woo



William Speakman, a British veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War, has been honored as the war hero of February for his outstanding bravery against Chinese troops and commitment to save his fellow soldiers, according to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, Monday.



Speakman, then-a 24-year-old native of Altrincham in Greater Manchester, was dispatched to Korea as part of the 1st Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, and participated in a battle on Mount Maryang at the mouth of the Imjin River on Nov. 4, 1951.



During the hard-fought combat, the private displayed bravery and courage fighting off waves of advancing Chinese troops by throwing dozens of grenades and engaging in hand-to-hand combat for more than four hours to save fellow soldiers and help British troops withdraw safely  although he sustained a serious leg injury.



Speakman was transferred back to Britain in January 1952, but volunteered to return to Korea three months later and took part in the war until August of that year.



His gallantry gained recognition in February 1952, after he was awarded the Victoria Cross by Queen Elizabeth II, the highest and most prestigious award in the British honors system. In addition, a building and a bridge in his hometown of Manchester were named after him.



The Korean government also conferred the First Class Taegeuk Cordon of the Order of Military Merit, the highest in Korea, on him in July 2015 for his services.



Speakman died at age 90 on June 20, 2018, and in accordance with his wishes that his ashes would be scattered over Korean soil, he was buried at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan in February 2019.



"Speakman was a just and honorable British soldier who took the lead in promoting world peace," President Moon Jae-in said in his eulogy during Speakman's burial ceremony.



"Korea has never forgotten the sacrifice and friendship shown by Britain, which helped defend freedom by shedding blood on this soil, nor has it forgotten Speakman."



Speakman was the seventh Korean War veteran from the U.N. allied forces to be buried at the U.N. cemetery after passing away in their home countries.


ALBION, MI -- Dr. Raymond Barclay, picked as Albion Colleges new and first chief planning officer, wants to bring his skill set and expertise to support and collaborate with students and faculty to help create innovative liberal arts collaborations with the community.

Barclay will lead initiatives on campus planning, data and physical infrastructure, capital projects and strategic space management, sustainability partnerships and administrative systems re-engineering.

Hes especially looking forward to working with the campus and city of Albion on community engagement initiatives aimed to create partnerships to further expand economic and sustainability development, Barclay said.

Its the opportunity to pursue community and civic engagement work that was one of the primary attractions for me, Barclay said. A partnership with downtown, thats really exciting.

Initiatives include rehabilitating an old bank and the Washington Gardner Elementary School, which closed in 2009, and partnering with the YMCA to create a hub for wellness and arts to increase innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities for Albion students and faculty. Barclay also hopes to help create more bike trails for students and the community.

Almost every position Ive had has had planning in the title, Barclay said. Whats similar is those positions require you to think horizontally and vertically. You have to dig in and go deep on projects using an array of technical proficiencies, but you also have to be able to lift out of the work to communicate, leverage and build bridges across the college. The problems are always interesting to try and help the institution solve. Not to mention, solving problems is one of my favorite things about this type of role.

Barclay is a first-generation student from Beaver County, Pennsylvania who obtained a bachelors degree at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. From there he earned a masters in divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, a masters in sustainable design degree from the School of Architecture and the Built Environment at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and a doctorate in educational psychology at Temple University.

Barclay has more than 25 years experience in leading and providing support to academic, enrollment, budget, curriculum, space and capital and resource planning. He has most recently served president of Enrollment x Design LLC, an enrollment and academic planning consulting firm in Princeton, New Jersey.

Barclay also has worked at Stetson University, the College of Charleston, the University of North Carolina, the College of New Jersey, and Burlington County Community College in New Jersey.

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SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The city has begun its search to fill the newly created position of a chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer to better connect with and reflect the entire community.

Our DEI work continues on a variety of fronts, and our goal remains to have it incorporated in all that we do, Mayor David Weiss told City Council in January.

He launched the initiative last year in response to calls for national social and racial justice reforms following the deaths of George Floyd and others at the hands of police elsewhere.

But the job -- which will pay an annual salary on the lower end of $100,000, commensurate with experience -- will encompass more than just race, focusing as well on aspects that will include gender, sexual orientation, religion and economic standing.

Our goal is to get our own house in order first, looking at our own service delivery, said Shaker Heights Chief Administrative Officer Jeri Chaikin, who worked with Human Resources Director Sandra Middleton in creating the new directors position, which council included in this years budget.

The administration also has elevated work in this area to a new DEI committee, to be chaired by Councilman Sean Malone and joined initially by fellow City Council members Anne and Carmella Williams.

When Malone asked if the new chief DEI officer will also oversee a mental health component policy for city staff, Weiss said the current job description is a lot to put on one person already.

With Chaikin agreeing that we dont want to set the new hire up to fail, separate mental health initiatives will be developed later this year.

Police reforms

The ongoing review of policing reforms continues to be led by the administration and Police Chief Jeffrey DeMuth, who said that work in this area actually started about five years ago.

Between last June and December, the top priority in our reform work that demanded immediate attention was the use of force and duty to intervene policies, although those reforms were not as drastic for us as they were for other departments, DeMuth said.

In December, Shaker police received an updated complete compliance report from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).

Thats important to us as a department, DeMuth said of the national accreditation that city police have received since 1989, adding that he and his officers continue to work with the Ohio Collaborative, a state review board that established standards in 2015 regarding the use of deadly force, and most recently on policies for handling mass demonstrations and protests.

Later in December, the department was contacted by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) about the formation of a multi-county task force on officer-involved shootings, in-custody deaths and certain use-of-force incidents.

Two Shaker detectives have already applied to be members, as the department continues to work on systemic issues and building trust in the community, most recently through roundtable discussions with Shaker African American Mothers Support (SAMS), covering issues such as racial profiling and cultural competence.

We can do all of the policy work we want, but its important that the training is there also, DeMuth added, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely curtailed in-person training in favor of virtual training, which every officer completed last year.

Economic development

Similar to the police, Shaker Economic Development Director Laura Englehart told council that her department has also taken a holistic look at the citys DEI initiative.

The city kicked in $5,000 on a $24,500 Small Business Recovery Grant program funded also by Citizens Bank and the Ohio Community Development Corp. that was administered through the Shaker Heights Development Corp. (SHDC).

With minority businesses disproportionately affected by the pandemic, 18 local businesses received grants ranging from $200 to $2,000, with an average allocation of $1,400, Englehart said.

The funding could be used to purchase protective equipment, to enhance online presence and marketing, as well as make health and safety improvements to local businesses.

The city continues to collaborate with the RMS Investment Corp. and the Urban League in the Van Aken District with an entrepreneur program that provides food incubator and retail pop-up opportunities.

This includes The Corner in the Food Hall, geared toward minority-owned businesses and featuring wrap-around services and no long-term leases.

Working with the Heights-Hillcrest Chamber of Commerce and the Cleveland Urban League, more than 40 minority-, female- and veteran-owned businesses had already signed up for certification training that could be used for doing future business in Shaker.

Back in July, the Shaker Heights City School District hired JeffriAnne Wilder as its first DEI director to help implement and advance the districts Strategic Plan and Educational Equity Policy.

Read more from the Sun Press.
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INDIANA, (WTHI) - The Alzheimer's Association is urging lawmakers to pass house bill 1542.

This is geared toward strengthening Indiana's approach to Alzheimer's and dementia.

House bill 1542 will do three main things.

Require the state of Indiana to have a dementia coordinator within state government.

Have a revised and updated plan for Alzheimer's dementia diseases for the state and provide basic training for first responders on how to engage with folks who have dementia.

"Alzheimer's is actually the most expensive disease in America. So we believe that as Indiana has more resources invested in the front end, a stronger plan to tackle this issue then we can actually make a difference for a lot of people in their lives when there dealing with this disease," said Natalie Sutton.

Natalie Sutton is the executive director of the Alzheimer's Association Greater Indiana Chapter.

She says 110 thousand Hoosiers are suffering from this disease.

"And then once we have a plan, we definitely would like to make changes and execute that plan so that we can make a difference for those living with dementia and their caregivers and as well as our health care system," said Sutton.

Representative Ethan Manning is the author of the bill.

He says house bill 1542 would be a great asset to Hoosiers.

"We can better coordinate the state's response to dementia and dementia-related illnesses then we'll just be better off."

The bill still has to go through three steps.

It must have a hearing in the house public health committee.

Step two, move to the Indiana house for a vote, then to the senate so it can move through the legislative process.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, yesterday met remotely with Indian Ambassador Piyush Srivastava.

His Royal Highness stressed His Majesty the Kings full support and commitment to Bahraini-Indian relations.

HRH Prince Salman noted the ever-growing strategic partnership between Bahrain and India, especially during ongoing efforts to combat COVID-19.

He extended his appreciation for Indias role in addressing the global pandemic and the success it has achieved in its pharmaceutical industry.

His Royal Highness wished Srivastava success in his new role before discussing regional and international issues of common interest.
Oman's Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning has announced plans to build a total of 141 residential units for its low-income families (whose monthly income does not exceed RO300) as well as the social security families, from this years budget, said a report.

The ministry is also set to grant 3,600 housing assistance this year, including 878 housing assistance to the tune of RO21.9 million currently under process from the 2020 budget. This is in addition to another 2,800 cases at a value of RO70 million which are expected to be finalized in the current year, reported Oman Observer.

In addition, in case of availability of financial allocations, the ministry plans to construct 26 residential units in Sarij township in the Wilayat of Jaalan Bani Bu Ali in South Al Sharqiyah Governorate as well as 9 residential units in the Niyabat of Tiwi, 51 residential units in Wadi Bani Khalid, 30 residential units in Musandam Governorate and 25 in Al Buraimi Governorate, it stated.

In another development, the ministry said it has plans to establish a cooperative housing system which is aimed at attracting and regulating housing assistance provided by charitable and public organizations and social responsibility sectors at the private sector as well as citizens willing to contribute, and bringing them under one umbrella.

The unified system is expected to enhance the role of the cooperative and charitable sector as well as reduce reliance on the government in implementing social housing programmes, it added.
Washington: The Democratic lawmakers who will prosecute former President Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial urged the Senate on Tuesday to convict him, saying he pointed a mob "like a loaded cannon" at the U.S. Capitol before a deadly Jan. 6 rampage.

In a brief filed a week before the Senate trial is set to begin, nine House of Representatives lawmakers known as impeachment managers also rejected Republican claims that it would be unconstitutional to try Trump since he became a private citizen after leaving office on Jan. 20. The Democrats urged the Senate to bar Trump from holding office again.

Trump also faced a Tuesday deadline to respond to the article of impeachment passed by the Democratic-led House on Jan. 13 charging him with inciting insurrection in his speech to supporters before rioters stormed the Capitol, leaving five people dead including a police officer.

"President Trump's conduct offends everything that the Constitution stands for," the managers wrote in an 80-page brief that noted that Trump had begun voicing his intention to contest an election loss months before the Nov. 3 election was held.

"He summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue. As the Capitol was overrun, President Trump was reportedly 'delighted,'" they said.

During his Jan. 6 speech, Trump repeated false claims that the election was fraudulent and exhorted supporters to march on the Capitol, telling them to "stop the steal," "show strength" and "fight like hell." The rampage interrupted the formal congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's election victory and sent lawmakers into hiding for their own safety.

"The Senate must make clear to him and all who follow that a president who provokes armed violence against the government of the United States in an effort to overturn the results of an election will face trial and judgment," the Democratic managers added.

Trump is just the third president to have been impeached, the first to be impeached twice and the first to face trial after leaving office. Members of the 100-seat Senate will serve as jurors in his trial.

Convicting Trump would require a two-thirds majority, meaning 17 Republicans would need to join the Senate's 50 Democrats in the vote. That presents a daunting hurdle. Last week, 45 of the 50 Republican senators voted in favor of a failed bid to dismiss the impeachment charge as unconstitutional because Trump has left office.

A conviction could lead to a second vote banning Trump from holding public office again.

TRUMP RESPONSE DUE

The Tuesday deadline for a response by Trump comes just days after he parted ways with his initial legal team amid a reported dispute over how to respond to the charge. Trump is still making his false claims of a stolen election.

One of Trump's recently hired lawyers, David Schoen, called the impeachment process "completely unconstitutional" in an interview with Fox News on Monday but did not outline the former president's legal strategy.

"I think it's also the most ill-advised legislative action that I've seen in my lifetime," Schoen said. "It is tearing the country apart at a time when we don't need anything like that."

In their brief, the Democratic impeachment managers said the Senate has jurisdiction to try Trump now because the House impeached him while in office for acts he committed as president.

"There is no 'January Exception' to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution," the managers said.

The brief made no mention of any witnesses the managers planned to call during the trial, though it did cite a phone call Trump placed to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to "find" just enough votes to undo Biden's victory in that state.

Trump's first impeachment trial, on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress arising from his request that Ukraine investigate Biden and his son Hunter, ended last year in acquittal by the then Republican-led Senate.

A group of Republican former officials rebutted the argument that the trial was unconstitutional in an open letter released on Tuesday.

It is "essential to focus the nation on the gravity of what Mr. Trump did," the group said in a statement.

The three dozen former officials signing the letter included former Governors Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey and William Weld of Massachusetts and Carter Phillips, a veteran Washington litigator and assistant solicitor general under former President Ronald Reagan.

"It will be a permanent stain on the history of the Republican Party and the legacy of its members in the U.S. Senate if they fail to find a way to hold a president of their party to account for this unprecedented mayhem at our nation's Capitol," the group wrote.

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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CHICO, Calif.  As of Feb. 2, 2021, in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins Universitys Covid-tracking map, there are now more than 443,000 deaths across the country. Many of those are seniors.

As the rate of deaths from Covid hit the county, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in a recent report, indicates the country is facing a shortage of nurses with that projection impacting communities across the country.

Action News Now Morning Anchor Julia Yarbough recently spoke with a facility caregiver about the challenges of caring for elders during the pandemic; work that has been compounded by staff shortages as well as the personal and emotional toll of losing clients.

All of this, as the demands on caregivers, are increasing and anticipated to become even more demanding in the years to come.

The caregiver who spoke did not wish to be identified, but tells Yarbough, working in the healthcare field during Covid-19, can "make or break anyone."

The challenges, they explain go beyond the threat of Covid and include the emotional aspects of elders, being isolated from loved ones and others.

"They are in community homes and we have to quarantine them. They are no longer allowed to have visitors, explains the caregiver.

You're told to spend the least amount of time as possible in the room with them. They feel useless and that feeling alone can deteriorate someone's physical health.

How severe is the loss to our nations elders? AARP created what is called a Covid Dashboard, tracking real-time information on client and staff deaths within senior living facilities nationwide.

As of mid-January, 136,000 seniors were reported dead from the coronavirus and related illness. The loss of so many seniors is already being felt by those caring for those seniors.

Projections indicate our country is set to experience a boom in the population of seniors in the coming years. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2030, the number of those over age 65 will swell to 82-million. In California, the numbers of those 85 and older is the fastest-growing population segment in the state.

At the very time, the nursing industry is experiencing shortages, those trained to administer such care are already under strain; from care staff stretched thin, to the emotional losses being experienced. Experts say, regardless, front-line workers will be asked to shoulder an even greater burden, master additional skills, and be more prepared for the years ahead.

Jennie Chin Hansen has spent her career as a registered nurse. She is also a member of the Task Force for Californias Master Plan for Aging. She says the challenges nurses face will increase in the coming years not only from the long-term emotional impacts from the pandemic but also shouldering the increased demands of caring for an aging population.

"Likely 40% will have dementia or cognitive loss and that requires a level of training and education and skill-building that will be important to do over this next decade, explains Hansen.

The training required by nurses and other caregivers will extend to having an emotional bandwidth to deal with continual loss. Across the country, those caring for our most vulnerable are already feeling the impacts.

Dr. Toni Miles is an epidemiologist with the University of Georgia. She studies bereavement, with much of her work in nursing homes.

"The people who work there themselves are dying of Covid so you've got a double-whammy, explains Dr. Miles. You've got people who cared for the seniors and when the seniors die they are injured in the process. Right now it's hitting people the hardest who are connected to these older adults."

Yarbough talked at length with the local caregiver. They say during a normal year, they may lose four to five elders in their charge. During 2020, they say they processed the loss of close to 20.

"I've seen so many patients go [die] when they had vital signs within all perimeters and they are otherwise by the book healthy and should not be dying.

Yarbough asked what impact that loss is having.

It's just really hard to see all these people dying and you are trained as a caregiver to try and help them, says the caregiver. It is really hard when you work one shift and you take care of somebody and they're fine when you leave but then you come back the next day and they are no longer there. Because they have died.

Has caregiving during the Covid pandemic made this professional reconsider the caregiving/nursing career?

"It has made me want to be the best nurse I could possibly think of and there's nowhere else on earth I would rather be than at a hospital or a home trying to help somebody, they say.

This caregiver likens the feeling of loss to that of an employee spending hours, maybe even days on a project. They say imagine if you left the almost finished project on your desk but returned the next day to find someone had destroyed your work.

They say it creates a feeling of questioning, why keep making the effort, because your project, in this case, a human being, is going to die, so why bother?

Difficult emotions which this caregiver says tests their faith on a daily basis, but says the desire to help others is stronger.

*This story was produced with support from the Gerontological Society of America, Journalists Network on Generations, and the RRF Foundation for Aging*
Western Australian health authorities have come under fire, amid claims they waited almost 12 hours before informing the federal government and other states of its first locally-acquired coronavirus case in almost 10 months.

A Perth quarantine hotel security guard contracted the highly-contagious UK strain of the virus, which sparked a five-day lockdown of the city and the state's Peel and south-west regions until at least Friday.

There are fears pandemic protocols may have breached amid reports the security guard visited around a dozen venues across Perth for up to five days while infectious.

Questions have also been raised as to why daily testing of quarantine hotel workers was only implemented in WA last Friday, despite a National Cabinet decision to roll out initiative three weeks earlier on January 8.

Health officials told an Australian Health Protection Principal Committee meeting Sunday morning that WA had again recorded zero community infections, despite confirmation of the positive test result hours earlier at midnight.

More than two million Western Australians are in day two of a five day lockdown after the state recorded its first locally-acquired case in almost 10 months. Pictured is Perth resident being tested on Monday

The news prompted an unaware federal Acting Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd to publicly declare Australia had gone two weeks without recording a locally-acquired case.

Professor Kidd was finally told the bad news about the new case three hours later at 2.30pm AEDT (11.30am Perth time), The Australian reported.

Sources told the publication health authorities also failed to inform the National Incident Room, despite expectations to update federal authorities by midday each day.

WA Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said Sunday's AHPPC meeting, held at 7.30am Perth time was 'an extraordinary meeting to discuss reinstatement of the New Zealand bubble'.

He added more details about the new locally-acquired case were still being gathered at the time.

'WA Health was still collecting contract tracing information on the case and the probable cause, including the possibility of a variant case,' Dr Robertson told The Australian.

'Further detailed information was required to allow jurisdictions to make appropriate decisions, which was not available at 7.30am when when the AHPPC meeting was held.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Western Australian Health for further comment.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison declined to comment, claiming it was a matter for the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.

'Oh look I'll allow those matters to be dealt with at the AHPPC and through the normal processes,' he told Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, ahead of the first sitting day of federal parliament for 2021.

There are reports Western Australian health authorities waited almost 12 hours before informing the federal government and other states of new locally-acquired coronavirus case. Pictured are Perth residents who queued in sweltering heat to be tested on Monday

The infected hotel security guard worked two 12-hour shifts at the Sheraton Four Points hotel on both January 26 and 27 while there were four cases at the hotel, including two with the highly-infectious UK variant and one confirmed to have the South African strain.

It remains unclear how the guard, aged in his 20s, contracted the virus, having assured police he did not enter any rooms and is said to be fully cooperating with investigators.

Authorities have identified 66 close contacts of the man dubbed 'case 903'. They have been ordered to self-isolate.

Eleven 'high-risk' contacts, including his three housemates, are in hotel quarantine.

The new locally-acquired case worked as a security guard at the Sheraton Four Points hotel

It comes as an insider blasted WA's hotel quarantine system and accused security companies of hiring and exploiting foreign students.

The source claimed guards were paid minimum wage in cash and off the books so they could work double the 20 hours allowed under their visa arrangements.

It was also alleged that hotel security guards were sharing IDs so they could get away with working a second job such as rideshare drivers.

The insider told The West the security services in the state were run by a 'bunch of cowboys'.

Western Australians face an anxious wait this week with tests results over the coming days are set to reveal whether the state has dodged a bullet with the new COVID-19 outbreak.

Western Australia recorded no new cases from 3100 tests conducted on Sunday.

The latest lockdown in Perth has sparked a new wave of panic buying. Pictures are queues of supermarket shoppers in Maylands on Monday morning

The new case of the infected security guard ended Western Australia's 10-month streak of zero community transmissions.

Hundreds of Western Australians queued for hours in scorching heatwave conditions to be tested on Monday.

The lockdown enforced on Perth, Peel and South West regions affects 80 per cent of the state's population

The lockdown sparked a wave of panic buying across packed supermarkets and prompted South Australia to close its borders to WA without warning, along with Victoria, Queensland, Northern Territory, and later the ACT.

Health authorities have listed 15 venues, on top of Sheraton Four Points hotel, as potential exposure sites after they were visited by the security guard. Pictured: Map shows venues the positive Covid case visited

The state's Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said the coming days would be 'quite critical' as 60 close contacts of the security guard have been identified.

'We call him case 903. This is a person who we suspect has got the UK variant strain but that will be confirmed in the next 36 hours,' Mr Dawson told 6PR Radio on Monday.

'If he has that more transmissible (strain) then that's what's causing us the concern.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan announced another review of the state's quarantine arrangements, along with a police investigation.

'WA police will allocate strong resources into this investigation,' he told reporters on Monday.

'They have the forensic expertise to do the work that is required. This will run in parallel with the review led by the former chief health officer  We will leave no stone unturned to ensure we find out exactly what happened to prevent it from happening again.'
On Friday morning, Josh Lease left his house in Meyers at 6:45 a.m. to go skiing on the other side of Lake Tahoe at Alpine Meadows.

Usually, the 55-mile drive takes about an hour and a half. Lease, who is a 20-year Tahoe resident, knew he needed to get an extra early start because there was bound to be ski traffic. Friday was the first big powder day of the winter, and that morning, the storm lifted after delivering more than 6 feet of snow to the region.

Around Tahoes East Shore, the roads were snowy, not too crowded. But as soon as Lease drove up the hill to Dollar Point, a few miles north of Tahoe City, he hit bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Lease spent the next three hours idling on Highway 89, inching his way up the last 7 miles to the ski resort. Usually, thats a 10-minute drive. Lease figured he had already driven most of the way, so he didnt want to turn around.

It was just an insane amount of people that Ive never seen before, he said. It just seems like every weekend is just getting more and more and more people coming up here.

In Tahoe, if a blizzard breaks on a Friday morning, the weekend crowds that follow are hellish  and predictable. This year, even a pandemic isnt making a dent in the number of cars that arrive. Some officials say the pandemic is actually making traffic patterns worse because few are carpooling and public transit options have been impacted.

Tahoe hasnt seen a break in traffic or crowds for months now. The sky-high number of visitors that arrived in the summer has become the norm, with locals saying theres no longer a shoulder season, or slower off-time for tourism, in Tahoe.

And who can blame people for coming? For days leading up to the weekend, Tahoe  as in, the media, the weather forecasters, the ski resorts, the hotels, the tourism agencies, even emergency officials  broadcast a message, albeit with warnings about traffic, delayed openings and weather, to millions of people who live within driving distance, about the storm that delivered some 6 feet of snow.

Heres what happened next.

Caltrans and California Highway Patrol held traffic multiple times on Interstate 80 throughout the storm to clear spinouts  including semi trucks that slid into the snowbanks and blocked both freeway lanes.

Sierra-at-Tahoe filled to capacity at 8:40 a.m., before the lifts even opened.

At Heavenly Ski Resort, the line of skiers and snowboarders waiting for the gondola last weekend was so long it wrapped through the village, around the street corner, and back toward the casinos. A similarly long line appeared at Northstar. Both ski resorts have a reservation system designed to limit crowds during the pandemic. Even so, certain places on the mountain, like lift lines, are busier during peak hours, said ski resort spokesperson Susan Whitman. Theres also the additional challenge placed by COVID protocols, like spacing out different households on lift and allowing for physical distancing in the line.

Mornings tend to see longer lines as it takes time to load everyone with our new physical distancing and safety protocols, especially on substantial powder days, Whitman said. Our operations teams are working tirelessly to open the mountain safely. However, once the lifts start loading, the lines move fast and guests can spread out on the mountain.

In North Lake Tahoe, a nonstop stream of bumper-to-bumper traffic clogged Highway 89, en route to Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, for hours, every day, all weekend long. The ski traffic backed all the way to Truckee, clogging the towns main arteries and lining up onto Interstate 80, where eastbound traffic on Saturday morning was stop-and-go all the way past Donner Lake.

Plan wisely, Truckee CHP said in a tweet, on Saturday, ... because you will be stuck in traffic.

On the other end of Highway 89, heading to Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows from the opposite direction, traffic stretched for more than 10 miles, through Tahoe City and up to Old County Road.

Cars idled for hours, and for many of them, the parking lots at the ski resorts were full by the time they arrived. Squaw Alpine officials announced on Twitter that parking lots were full by 10 a.m.

When parking fills up, cars are stopped and turned around at the entrances of the two ski areas, which can worsen backups on Highway 89, said Liesl Hepburn, spokesperson for Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows. Managing parking is a crucial part of ski resort operations on busy days so cars dont park illegally and block shoulders, side streets or resident driveways.

Hepburn said overall visitation to Squaw Alpine is down this year because of the pandemic. The ski resort is selling a limited amount of daily ski tickets  about 70% fewer than prior years. But the pandemic is changing the way skiers and snowboarders arrive on the mountain.

Fewer people are sharing rides outside their household, and they are less likely to use public transportation, Hepburn said. As well, public transit options are fewer. For example, Squaw Alpine had an on-demand microtransit program called Mountaineer that took about 12,000 cars off the road. That service has been canceled for this season because of funding shortfalls caused by the pandemic, Hepburn said. Whats more, regional efforts to improve transportation are on hold during the pandemic.

Two years ago, Squaw Alpine filled their parking lots on six days. Last year, they never filled their parking lot. So far this winter, theyve filled the parking lot on two days. The ski resorts mountain operations team posted regular updates about the traffic on Twitter. If you are not very close, we suggest you find something else to do today and apologize for any disappointment, they tweeted at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

When we say we are full, we are full, and so continuing to drive toward us only makes things worse for everyone, Hepburn said.

I was among the cars bound for Squaw Valley late on Friday morning. After 45 minutes of stop-and-go traffic from Tahoe City, I made it to the parking lot. Luck was on my side and I snagged a good spot as another driver left. But then I walked into the ski resorts base area and saw thousands of people huddled in line for the tram, the funitel and all of the chairlifts.

After such a big storm, the effort to make the mountains safe is a serious, difficult undertaking. Squaw Valley has invested millions into their snow safety infrastructure in recent years to make it easier and safer for ski patrol to open the mountain quicker. That the ski resort was able to open most of their lifts, including the ones higher up on the mountain, by midday Friday was remarkable. But I was overwhelmed. I didnt have the patience to wait for more chairlifts to open and the crowds to thin.

Meanwhile, at Alpine Meadows, Lease finally escaped the crowds on the mountain. With a bit of strategy and timing, he avoided the busiest life lines.

I had an incredible day, Lease said. I rode some really steep, technical [terrain]. It was 100% worth it.

But the weekend of terrible traffic wasnt over. On Saturday, Lease drove from Meyers to Placerville. On the way down Highway 50, he drove past a stream of cars headed the opposite direction. When he turned around to come home, he was stuck in the same line. For four hours.

Every single turnout was full of cars, he said. At one pullout, he even saw a birthday party.

With balloons, Lease said. They had a gas-powered barbecue on the snow banks. Ive never seen that. The fact that you almost made it to Tahoe and youre just going to stop on the side of the road, at a turnout, and have a barbecue.

Mostly, families were pulling off to the side of the road to go sledding, which seems like a harmless activity until you take stock of the trash and litter. Earlier this winter, volunteers picked up 2,000 pounds of trash from a popular sled hill on Spooner Summit, a lot of it broken plastic sleds left behind.

This much traffic on Tahoes network of rural highways unnerves Lease. He was one of the first firefighters to respond to the Angora Fire in South Lake Tahoe in 2007 that destroyed more than 300 homes, commercial buildings and other structures.

It was the most insane thing Ive ever seen. It was mass chaos, with far less people, Lease said. He often thinks about that scene when hes stuck in traffic now. The picture is so terrifying hes considering other options. For the first time in my 20 years, Im starting to think about alternate places to go.

In the meantime, Lease stays home in Meyers. He even built a snowboard park in his front yard, so he can go outside and ride without having to deal with the crowds.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the years when Squaw Valley's parking lot filled up.
President Joe Biden held talks with several Republican senators at the White House to discuss their stimulus proposals

World stocks Tuesday extended the previous day's rally on brightening US stimulus hopes, while oil soared close to pre-pandemic levels on an outlook for stronger demand.

Silver prices sank by 5.0 percent to $27.50 per ounce, having soared the previous day to an eight-year peak on chatroom-driven demand.

The precious metal is still up by 3.8 percent over the last three days.

Asian and European stocks fired higher once again, after overnight Wall Street gains, as investors got back in the saddle following last week's global rout to snap up bargain shares.

"The new month continues to be good to equities, which have thrown off their late January despair and staged an impressive bounce from the lows of last week," said IG analyst Chris Beauchamp.

- Oil powers higher -

New York oil prices surged on the back of upbeat market sentiment and a snowstorm in the northeastern United States.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil soared to $54.91 per barrel, a price last seen on January 24, 2020.

Europe's London Brent North Sea crude hit $57.73, a level last reached nearly a year ago.

"Oil prices powered higher... lifted in part by the positive sentiment returning to equity markets, but mostly because of frigid weather sweeping the United States, pushing up the demand for heating," said OANDA analyst Jeffrey Halley.

The rebound marks a stunning turnaround for the oil market, which briefly turned negative early last year, as the deadly Covid-19 outbreak shuttered economies and companies worldwide.

But BP shares nonetheless tanked by 3.4 percent Tuesday after the energy major revealed that it slumped into an annual net loss of $20.3 billion (16.8 billion euros) on coronavirus fallout.

- US stimulus hopes -

On the US stimulus front, President Joe Biden on Monday held a meeting with Republican lawmakers to discuss their stimulus counter-proposal as he looks to push through a bipartisan deal.

The $600 billion plan backed by Republicans is less than a third of one put forward by the White House, and includes smaller handouts and no provision for state and local governments -- two issues that Democrats are likely to reject.

Story continues

While investors' mood was a lot lighter than last week, the ever-present shadow of the coronavirus, along with stuttering vaccine rollouts and spiking infections, continues to persist and keep gains in check.

Elsewhere, fears about the social media-led retail investor battle with Wall Street hedge funds appeared to be abating.

- Key figures around 1200 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 6,507.18 points

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 1.3 percent at 13,795.01

Paris - CAC 40: UP 1.8 percent at 5,557.22

EURO STOXX 50: UP 1.6 percent at 3,585.89

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 28,362.17 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 1.2 percent at 29,248.70 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,533.68 (close)

New York - Dow: UP 0.8 percent at 30,211.91 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.2027 from $1.2060 at 2200 GMT

Dollar/yen: UP at 105.00 yen from 104.93 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3674 from $1.3663

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.99 pence from 88.27 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.3 percent at $54.79 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.3 percent at $57.63 per barrel

burs-rfj/bcp/wai
"There may have been initial struggles, but this clearly shows that the industry has risen to the occasion, pivoting quickly to help organizations ensure business continuity while staying protected during these challenging times." -- Nimmy Reichenberg, CMO and head of strategy, Siemplify

Siemplify, the leading independent provider of security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), today released new research on The State of Remote Security Operations. Based on a recent survey of nearly 400 security operations (SecOps) professionals, the report studies how the sudden shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic has affected SecOps analysts ability to perform their jobs and the impact on overall security postures.

The research reveals that overall cybersecurity posture has remained strong due to greater investments in security automation technologies and reliance on managed security service providers (MSSPs), potentially paving the way for many security operations centers (SOCs) to become permanently remote.

SecOps is a highly collaborative function, with security analysts working closely in physical SOCs to address tens of thousands of alerts and security incidents daily, hunt for threats and problem-solve responses. The unexpected shift to remote workforces means that these professionals have been tasked with the challenge of securing more complex and dispersed, cloud-based environments at the same time that they themselves are working from home and have lost the benefits of collaborating with their colleagues in a centralized SOC.

With threats growing in frequency and sophistication, and with the added challenges of performing SecOps from home, I think many people expected organizations cybersecurity postures to take a hit during the pandemic, said Nimmy Reichenberg, CMO and head of strategy of Siemplify. But our research showed just the opposite  74 percent of respondents said their cybersecurity posture has remained largely the same or has even improved. There may have been initial struggles, but this clearly shows that the industry has risen to the occasion, pivoting quickly to help organizations ensure business continuity while staying protected during these challenging times.

Key Findings from The State of Remote Security Operations Report:



SOCs will forever change: The physical SOC will most likely never return to its glory days, as virtual or hybrid SOCs offer more flexibility in recruiting hard-to-find cybersecurity talent and result in more satisfied security analysts. More than a quarter (26%) of respondents say it will be 12 months or longer before SecOps teams transition back to on-premises work, or that their SecOps teams do not intend to ever go back to on-premises. Only 30% of respondents mentioned their morale had been reduced, while the rest had reported their morale has not changed (31%) or improved (39%).

Challenges are mounting as alerts increase: Forty-two percent report that their alert volume is higher now than it was prior to the pandemic. Respondents also report that their jobs have become more difficult since going remote. Fifty-one percent say investigating suspicious activities is more challenging in a remote environment, 47% say collaborating with their peers is more difficult, and 39% say problem solving and alert handling are more challenging from home.

Insecure home networks and cloud adoption are the biggest threats: When asked to identify the top security risks facing their organization since transitioning to remote work, respondents named their employees insecure home networks as the top threat, followed by increased cloud adoption at a close second. Additionally, 57% report seeing more phishing threats since the shift to remote work.

Investments in automation and managed services are increasing: To cope with the challenges of remote work, SecOps teams are turning to security automation technologies and the help of MSSPs. More than three-fourths (76%) of respondents say the COVID-19 pandemic has played a role in their actions to increase SecOps automation or is expected to in the near future. Thirty-seven percent have prepared new automated playbooks to respond to emerging, remote-specific threats, and 52% say their use of an MSSP has increased.

Security postures remain strong: Even as SecOps has become more complex in todays remote landscape and alerts have increased, security professionals have managed to keep their organizations well protected. Almost half (47%) say their security posture is mostly the same as before the pandemic and 27% say their security posture has actually improved. Just 26% of respondents say their security posture is worse than it was before the pandemic. Additionally, one-third of respondents are planning to or have already enhanced benefits to help retain SecOps staff.

Although the SecOps profession has been flipped on its head by COVID-19, one possible silver lining is that organizations are hiring additional cybersecurity talent, enhancing their benefits and increasing investments in automation technologies in order to better support their SecOps teams, Reichenberg said. In an industry that is notorious for high stress and high turnover, this signals to me that teams are focusing more than ever on the right things.

To access the full State of Remote Security Operations report and read the complete findings, visit https://www.siemplify.co/resources/the-state-of-remote-security-operations/.

Survey Methodology

Siemplify commissioned a third-party research firm to survey 393 cybersecurity operations professionals, consisting of managers or directors overseeing a cybersecurity function, as well as security analysts, architects and engineers. Respondents work in a variety of sectors, including technology, manufacturing, finance, retail, healthcare, government and education. Respondents work at organizations that employ an average of 1,095 people. The survey was conducted through emails sent in late 2020.

About Siemplify

Siemplify, the leading independent security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) provider, is redefining security operations for enterprises and MSSPs worldwide. The Siemplify platform is an intuitive workbench that enables security teams to manage their operations from end to end, respond to cyber threats with speed and precision and get smarter with every analyst interaction. Founded in 2015 by Israeli Intelligence experts, with extensive experience running and training security operations centers worldwide, Siemplify has raised $58 million in funding to date and is headquartered in New York, with offices in Tel Aviv. Visit us at siemplify.co and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Products, service names and company logos mentioned herein may be registered trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Contact

Dan Kaplan

Siemplify

dkaplan@siemplify.co
Failte Ireland has announced details of its new 55 million Tourism Business Continuity Scheme.

The announcement was made at a special virtual industry event watched by thousands of operators, providers and employers from across the tourism sector.

The allocation was secured by Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport, Gaeltacht and Media Catherine Martin TD in Budget 2021, and Failte Ireland is responsible for developing and administering the scheme.

The scheme will support those tourism businesses that were not eligible for the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) payment or previous Failte Ireland continuity grant schemes.

The National Tourism Development Authority also announced its heavyweight domestic marketing plans, investment commitments in outdoor dining and urban animation and its strategic priorities for the year ahead. The event entitled Survive to Thrive provided industry with details of Failte Irelands plans that will help support resilience and survival in the short-term and the recovery of the sector in the long-term.

I welcome Failte Irelands action plans for 2021, which I am confident will have a positive impact on the industry and will be key to helping it survive and thrive in the year ahead," Minister Martin said.

"I allocated 55 million to Failte Ireland for the Tourism Business Continuity Scheme as part of Budget 2021 and this will be important to help those strategically important tourism businesses that are ineligible for other supports. The Government will continue to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy and ensure that appropriate supports are in place. We are now developing tourism for survival through the pandemic and recovery in the medium and long-term.

In his address, Failte Ireland CEO Paul Kelly announced the main priorities for Failte Ireland this year to support the tourism industry. Grant schemes to provide financial assistance, domestic marketing at national and county level, urban outdoor investment, business and employee supports with a special focus on mental health, and a new digital transformation programme were unveiled.

This has been the most challenging year tourism has ever faced," Mr Kelly said.

"The sectors revenue has declined by a massive 6 billion and tens of thousands of jobs have been lost. We are launching the first phase of the 55 million Tourism Business Continuity Scheme on February 11. This will provide those tourism businesses who have not received support through the CRSS or previous Failte Ireland business continuity schemes, with direct financial assistance.

"Domestic tourism will be the first to return and we plan to invest significantly in domestic marketing once domestic tourism can restart. Our research tells us that the Keep Discovering campaign we launched prior to the Covid-19 pandemic resonates even more strongly with people now and we will be rolling the campaign out at both a national and county level to drive domestic tourism when the country reopens.

"We are also launching two new funding schemes in collaboration with our local authority partners to improve the quality of outdoor dining spaces in our key tourism destinations and enhance urban areas to make them more appealing to visitors."

Failte Ireland has set out a number of key initiatives for 2021:

A 55million Tourism Business Continuity Scheme to help tourism businesses offset fixed costs incurred in 2020 and support them to continue operating through 2021.

Heavyweight investment in Domestic Marketing to drive domestic tourism once the country reopens including county-specific campaigns and a focus on Dublin.

Employee, business and sector supports on areas such as strategy and leadership, finance and cost efficiency, food and beverage innovation, maximising revenue and service excellence to drive performance and help businesses navigate the challenges they are facing, as well as wellbeing services to support employers and employees at this difficult time.

The enhancement of urban areas through 31 Destination Town projects across the country and two new funding schemes - the Outdoor Dining Grant Scheme which will improve the quality of outdoor dining spaces and offer reassurance around safety and comfort, and the Urban Animation Grant Scheme to animate our cities and towns with innovative lighting and art installations.

Preparing for the return of tourism by working with industry to build improved websites and online booking capability through a new digital transformation programme and continuing to keep Ireland front of mind for overseas buyers through a range of virtual sales events including Meitheal, one of Irelands largest travel trade shows.

More information is available on www.failteireland.ie.
Ministry of Transport and Public Works spokesperson Andrew Mthiko says dredging works at Chipoka Bay in Salima will delay construction of Likoma jetty.

In an interview on Sunday, the official said they had to dredge Chipoka Bay to increase the depth of the harbour to allow the use of barges.

Dredging started in December 2020 and it is expected to be completed this month," said Mthiko.

However, according to the construction schedule, the contractor was scheduled to start installing piles to support the jetty deck in April this year.

"But due to dredging works at Chipoka and the period required to transport the pre-cast units, installing the piles might be delayed," he said.

Mthiko, however, said there is progress in pre-casting deck units, construction of camp buildings and the preparation of transport route.

The campsite in Likoma will comprise offices, storage buildings, workshops and concrete batching areas.

Sub-Traditional Authority Mwase asked government to speed up the construction of the jetty.

"People of Likoma have waited for the project for so long," he said.

People from Likoma use boats after getting off Ilala on Lake Malawi as the vessel docks 100 metres away from land.

A businessperson, Ellen Malamula, said it was dangerous to use boats to ferry people to board the ship or vice-versa.

"With the jetty, it will be safe to the ship," he said.

Besides Ilala, people of Likoma and Chizumulu islands use boats to travel to the mainland.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. Member of the European Parliament, Head of the Delegation for the South Caucasus Marina Kaljurand, the European Parliament's Standing Rapporteur on Armenia, MEP Andrey Kovatchev and the European Parliament's Standing Rapporteur on Azerbaijan, MEP Zeljana Zovko issued a joint statement, emphasizing the necessity of resuming negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement.

 Last years war between Armenia and Azerbaijan was a terrible

human tragedy,

We applaud the fact that the situation has stabilized after the agreement of 9 November 2020 and that  apart from deplorable but isolated incidents  the ceasefire has been respected, but a lot more is necessary to achieve much-needed reconciliation.



Negotiations on a lasting settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and on the regions future legal status remain as indispensable as ever. We call on both parties to reaffirm clearly and publicly their willingness to re-engage in the process led by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and founded on the groups Basic Principles that they themselves agreed to, reflecting the Helsinki Final Act principles of non-use of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples. At a time of a fresh momentum brought about by the new US administration, we firmly reiterate the European Parliaments  and, indeed, the European Unions  continued support to this process and these principles.



The complete implementation of the ceasefire agreement is a necessary first step and it is regrettable that the exchange of prisoners of war has not been carried out fully yet. We welcome last weeks release of several of the Armenian servicemen captured after the end of hostilities and appeal to Azerbaijan to release the rest, so that trust can be rebuilt.

We also urge the parties to ensure fully unhindered access of international organizations for the purposes of humanitarian assistance and the protection of cultural heritage. These issues underline even

more the need for renewed multilateral efforts to support finding a lasting solution to the conflict, reads the statement.


ALBANY  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said local elected officials can decide whether to open up vaccinations to restaurant workers, taxi and ride sharing drivers and those within the disabled community after news from the White House indicated a planned increase in the number of vaccines provided to New York.

Cuomo announced on Tuesday during a news briefing that vaccine allotments from the federal government will increase to 20 percent, allowing for the state to increase the number of vaccines it provides to localities and expanding New York's overall vaccination capacity.
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The Federal Government has approved the establishment of a new polytechnic in Ayede, Ogo-Oluwa Local Government Area of Oyo State.

The approval was contained in a letter signed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, and addressed to Governor Seyi Makinde.

It also also explained that President Muhammadu Buhari endorsed a take-off grant of N2 billion for the new Polytechnic.

I write to inform Your Excellency that, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has approved the establishment of Federal Polytechnic in Ayede, Ogo-Oluwa Local Government Area, Oyo State.

Mr. President also approved a take-off grant of N2 Billion for the new Polytechnic from the funding resources of TETFund for the provision of core facilities for immediate take-off. This has been duly conveyed to TETFund for implementation.

In view of the above, A Technical Team from Federal Ministry of Education and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) will soon visit your state to identify the site in Ayede, Ogo-Oluwa L.G.A. and assess its readiness for commencement of academic activities in October 2021.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of the esteemed regards of the Honourable Minister, the letter read.

Also, the personal assistant on new media to Mr Buhari, Bashir Ahmad, confirmed the approval on Twitter

President @MBuhari approves the establishment of Federal Polytechnic Ayede, Ogo-Oluwa LGA, Oyo State, with an approval of N2 billion from the funding resources of TETFund for the immediate take-off, the Ministry of Education confirmed in a letter to Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.

President @MBuhari approves the establishment of Federal Polytechnic Ayede, Ogo-Oluwa LGA, Oyo State, with an approval of N2billion from the funding resources of TETFund for the immediate take-off, the Ministry of Education confirmed in a letter to Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.  Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) February 2, 2021

Vice president Yemi Osinbajo in January 2019 promised the residents of Oke-Ogun that a polytechnic would be established in the area, after the re-election of Mr Buhari

We have been touring Oke-Ogun for a few days now. We have received all the requests from the people and we will address them. Oke-Ogun deserves a federal institution, we will give you a federal polytechnic. We will also ensure that we see to the trans-border market in Saki. It will be part of our plans, the vice president said then at the Bagi of Saki palace in Saki town.
Local law enforcement put this story on blast today in order to highlight impressive work keeping a victim safe and demonstrate their fierce opposition on local streets.

Read more . . .



Fox4: Kansas City Police recuse 6-year-old girl after father uses her as shield while firing at officers

Deets . . .



Police managed to rescue a 6-year-old when her father used her as a shield after firing at officers Sunday night.

Officers were called to the 3300 block of E. 60th Street about a man dragging a screaming child down the street at about 9:30 p.m. Jan. 31. Officers found the house where the man had gone and saw drops of fresh blood on the porch leading to the front door. Officers could hear a child screaming inside, so they went in.

The screams were coming from upstairs in the house. When the officers got to the top of the stairs, a 37-year-old man confronted them holding a gun. One of the officers deployed his Taser at the man to get him to drop the gun. The man responded by firing at the officers on the stairs. They retreated back down the stairs, with one falling and injuring his arm.

The officers again tried to contact the man, only this time they saw he was holding his 6-year-old daughter in front of him like a shield as she continued to scream for help. The officers did not see a gun in his hand this time, so they rushed toward him to save the girl. One pulled the child away and passed her down the stairs to a waiting officer who whisked her outside to a patrol car to wait for an ambulance. Officers then were able to safely get the man into custody at that time.

Other than the officer who injured his arm retreating from the suspects gunfire on the stairs, no one was physically hurt. Investigation is continuing into both the apparent child abuse and assault on officers.

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Developing . . .


I still truly believe that remote learning with robust and frequent services is a better educational tool, but we must pivot, Shapira said at the board meeting. What we cant pivot from: our teachers are part of our community ... I think its important that we work with our teachers because, as I said, they are part of our community and we are all part of this community.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has described as unpatriotic, Nigerians calling for the International Criminal Court to p...





Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has described as unpatriotic, Nigerians calling for the International Criminal Court to probe the immediate-past service chiefs.

Mohammed spoke on Tuesday during a Radio Nigeria programme, Politics Nationwide.

President Muhammadu Buhari appointed four new service chiefs last week after much clamour from Nigerians that he bring in fresh hands to pilot the countrys anti-terrorism war.

The new service chiefs are Major-General Leo Irabor as Chief of Defence Staff; Major-General Ibrahim Attahiru as Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral A.Z Gambo as Chief of Naval Staff; and Air-Vice Marshal I.O Amao as Chief of Air Staff.

The new service chiefs took over from the ex-service chiefs General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin (Chief of Defence Staff); Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (Chief of Army Staff); Vice Admiral Ibok Ibas (Chief of Naval Staff); and Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (Chief of Air Staff).

But the Peoples Democratic Party and some other Nigerians have since demanded the probe of the Olonisakin, Buratai, Ibas and Abubakar to unravel circumstances behind the security lapses during their tenure.

Reacting on Tuesday, the minister said, To the best of my knowledge, our service chiefs obey the rules of engagement and where there are infractions, there are internal regulations and internal mechanisms to address them.

Those who are calling for the ex-service chiefs to be invited to ICC are unpatriotic people.

Mohammed also said civilians are not competent to talk on military structure and formations, whether in the North-Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa or in any other parts of the country.

Those who talk about the structure, what do they know about the structure of the military? I dont think any of us is competent to talk about the structure of the military, he said.

The minister, however, assured Nigerians that the new service chiefs have hit the ground running and would ensure Nigeria overcome the insurgency war in the North-East and in other parts of the country.

For over 10 years, the Boko Haram terror group had killed hundreds of Nigerians in the North-East. The sect had also burnt down and bombed scores of villages as well as churches. The Nigerian Army and the Presidency had at several times claimed the group had been technically defeated and weakened but the Abubakar Shekaus bloodthirsty faction continues to strike with daring effrontery and crude savagery.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP)  The FBI has confirmed that two agents were killed and three were wounded while serving a federal search warrant in a case involving violent crimes against children. The suspect also is dead, the FBI said.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. APs earlier story follows below.

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP)  Several FBI agents were shot Tuesday morning while serving a warrant in a child exploitation case in South Florida, authorities said.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that multiple FBI agents were shot while serving the warrant, and that the extent of their injuries was not immediately known. The official could not discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Law enforcement agencies swarmed the neighborhood in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Sunrise after the shooting, as a suspect reportedly remained barricaded inside the home.

Another large contingent of officers gathered outside a Fort Lauderdale hospital where victims were taken, according to television video.

The Sunrise Police Department tweeted about the heavy police presence and the closure of surrounding roads.

The shooting happened around 6 a.m. in a middle-class neighborhood of single family homes, duplexes and apartment buildings. Hours later, Sunrise Police urged residents of Water Terrace to remain inside their homes while law enforcement blocked the entrances to their community.

___

Balsamo contributed from Washington. Frieda Frisaro contributed from Fort Lauderdale.
In both Houses of the Parliament, Opposition leaders protested loudly against the three farm bills, which are also at the root of a massive farmer agitation underway in Delhi for over two months

Both Houses of the Parliament were disrupted intermittently leading to frequent adjournments on Tuesday as Opposition members protested loudly against the three farm bills, which are also at the root of a massive farmer agitation which has been underway in Delhi since over two months.

Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Tuesday after the House convened thrice with Opposition leaders creating an uproar demanding discussion on the issue of farmers' protest over the three new farm bills. Similar scenes were witnessed in Lok Sabha as Speaker Om Birla dismissed an adjournment motion, which when allowed, provides for putting on pause any other business scheduled for the day in favour of a discussion on a definite matter of urgent public importance.

The Lok Sabha too was reconvened several times but had to be adjourned within minutes of assembly due to the protests and sloganeering. This was only the second day of the Budget Session, the first opportunity since Budget presentation to take up legislative and other businesses.

Farmers' agitation was the bone of contention behind a wasted day in the Parliament.

Even though the Centre reiterated that it was open to discussions both inside and outside Parliament, it remained unrelenting on farmers' issues.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police turned the protest sites into a fortress with concrete barricades, metal spikes and barbed wires. Some members also alleged that water and electric supply of the protest site was cut off to get the crowds to dissipate.

The Union government also, reportedly, refused to compensate families of farmers who have lost their lives during the protest. It said it has no information on the losses farmers faced for not being able to sell their produce in Delhi due to the protests.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs sought to defend the Delhi Police's action in the wake of 26 January violence stating that cops had no other way of controlling the mobs.

The Centre had maintained that 'extremist elements' had hijacked farmer's stir while the Delhi Police blamed movement's leaders for 'deliberately inciting' the mob. The farmers, meanwhile, have maintained that it was a conspiracy to malign and discredit their peaceful movement.

Rajya Sabha

Rajya Sabha was first adjourned for about 40 minutes till 10.30 am, then till 11.30 am and then to 12.30 pm. When the House re-assembled at 12.30 pm, protesting members again trooped in the Well raising slogans, forcing Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh to adjourn proceedings for the day.

Before adjourning the House, the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman appealed to members to return to their seats and follow COVID-19 protocols. However, they did not heed to his requests.

Four bills were listed for consideration and passing in the legislative business for the day. They were: The Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020; The National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2019; The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020; and The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2020.

Earlier in the day, Congress, Left, TMC, DMK and RJD members first walked out from Rajya Sabha after their demand for suspension of business of the day for taking up the discussion was rejected by the Chair.

Opposition members shouted slogans to disrupt the Question Hour, forcing Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to adjourn proceedings till 10.30 am. As the sloganeering continued, Naidu asked the Opposition members to return to their seats. When the House met at 10.30 am, the sloganeering continued and the deputy chairman, who was in the chair, tried to persuade members to allow the House to function.

However, as the opposition members did not yield, he adjourned the proceedings till 11.30 am. At the time of adjournment, ports, shipping and waterways minister Mansukh Mandaviya was speaking on The Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020.

Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said Opposition members themselves were demanding Question Hour and the government agreed.

"Question Hour is going on... whether they (protesting members) want Question Hour or not, let them place it on record," he said, as Opposition members were raising slogans.

Opposition parties including the Congress, Left, TMC and DMK had given a notice under rule 267 that calls for setting aside of business of the day to take up a discussion on the issue pressed.

When the House met for the day, Naidu however, disallowed the motion.

"As we are going to start a discussion on Motion of Thanks to President's Address tomorrow, members can participate and raise their concerns," he said rejecting the 267 notice.

He also said several rounds of discussions have happened between the government and the farmers' group. "I understand the concern (of members) for the need to resolve the issue at the earliest date," he added.

Naidu, however, allowed members who gave notices to make very brief mentions.

Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the farmers have been camping for more than two months and the issue needs to be discussed.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) said the House is not aware of what is going on between the government and farmers and the House should discuss the issue separately from the Motion of Thanks. "We want a discussion on a specific issue," he said.

While CPI leader Elamaram Kareem said water and electricity supply to the protests sites has been cut, DMK's Tiruchi Siva said farmers have been sitting on roads for over two months in the cold and the issue needs to be discussed separately.

Manoj Jha (RJD) said the Parliament should at least discuss the issue. However, Naidu did not agree to their motion after which the members of Congress, Left, TMC, DMK and RJD staged a walkout.

"No one is stopping you from discussing the issue tomorrow. Tomorrow you will get an opportunity," he said.

Naidu said 10 hours have been allocated for discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President's address and an equivalent amount given for discussion on Budget.

"Please take the opportunity tomorrow," he said.

Lok Sabha

Lok Sabha also conducted negligible business today as protests and disruptions meant the House could barely function for a few minutes before Speaker Om Birla adjourned it each time.

When the House reassembled after several adjournments at 7 pm, Birla asked BJP member Locket Chatterjee to initiate the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the president's address amid sloganeering by the opposition members.

Chatterjee began her speech by praising the government for deciding to celebrate the birthday of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on 23 January as 'Prakram Diwas' every year. The member from the poll-bound state of West Bengal continued her address amid the din.

After repeated appeals by the speaker and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi failed to calm the agitated members, Birla adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier in the day, as soon as the proceedings started, Opposition members from parties including the Congress, DMK and the Trinamool Congress trooped into the Well of the House, raising slogans demanding repeal of the three "black" laws.

Members from the Shiv Sena were seen raising slogans from the aisles. Former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal was also seen holding a poster demanding repeal of the contentious agriculture legislations.

Birla urged the members to return to their seats and follow the COVID-19 protocol. He said that in the ongoing Question Hour, questions related to farmers were listed and members can raise their issues at that time.

He also said during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the president's address, members can raise these issues. But opposition members refused to relent, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings repeatedly.

Govt won't compensate kin of those who lost lives

The Centre replied in negative to a question seeking to know if the government had any plans of compensating the family of those who had lost their lives during the course of the agitation.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, when asked if the government was aware that several farmers had died or fallen ill during the over-two-month-long sit-in protest, and if so whether it had the related statistics, the Union Agriculture Minister Tomar said, "Government of India during the discussion with these farmers unions representative appealed many times that children and elders including women should be requested to go home in view of the cold and COVID-19 situation and other hardships.."

The answer was "No sir," when asked whether they intended to compensate the family of those who had lost their lives.

While the government did not confirm the number of casualties during these protests, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had claimed in the House that at least 70 farmers have died during the ongoing agitation.

Centre informs #LokSabha that it will not provide compensation to families of such farmers who lost their lives during the #FarmersProtestpic.twitter.com/ly93fGTcJo  Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) February 2, 2021

The Centre also said that it has not received any information on losses incurred by farmers for not being able to sell their produce in the National Capital owing to the protests at various border points of the city. "Hence, the question of compensation for loss of produce does not arise," Tomar said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, are agitating for over two months now seeking repeal of the three new farm laws enacted by the Central Government as well as a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

The minister said some of the farmer unions have been agitating against the newly enacted laws  The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement On Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The agitating unions are demanding the repeal of these three laws. So far, 11 rounds of negotiations have been held between the government and the agitating farmer unions to resolve the issues, he said in a separate reply.

The government's 11 rounds of talks held with 41 farmers' unions to end the protest have not yielded concrete results so far.

The Centre has offered concessions including keeping the laws on hold for 1-1.5 years, which unions have rejected. The government, however, in the last meeting had asked the unions to reconsider its offer and convey their final decision.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court-appointed committee is also looking into the matter. The panel, which has to submit its report in two months, has so far held two rounds of consultations with the farmers.

There is no clarity when the talks will resume, although the government has made it clear that its doors are always open for discussion with farmers. The farmers' body, Samyukta Kisan Morcha, has, however, turned down the offer to talk in wake of the police action against farmer leaders and protesters.

The morcha said there was no question of conducting any talks until the "harassment was stopped" and the farmer leaders under arrest have been released.

With inputs from PTI

Shooting Leaves 6 People Dead, Including 5 Children: Oklahoma Police

Six people are dead, including five children, after a suspect opened fire at an Oklahoma home, said police on Tuesday.

The Muskogee Police Department said a man was also killed in the incident, and a woman suffered life-threatening injuries. The identities of the victims were not disclosed.

Authorities arrived on the scene and found the suspect, who was not named, holding a gun, according to Fox23. Police said an officer shot at the gunman as he tried to flee the area.

After a short chase, the suspect was apprehended by police, officials said.

When inside the home, authorities found a man and four children dead. A fifth child died after being airlifted to a hospital in Tulsa, police added.

Police confirmed to KPAX-TV that the suspect is related to the victims but did not elaborate.

The Muskogee Police Department further stipulated that the shooting appears to be a domestic incident.

Police responded to the home in the 900 block of Indiana Street at around 1:30 a.m. after a caller told 911 that several people were shot, according to KPAX-TV.

Officials told KTUL they dont believe there are other suspects.

Other details about the shooting were not provided.

Muskogee is located about 30 miles southeast of Tulsa and more than 100 miles east of Oklahoma City.
Workers of the Cross River Basin Development Authority (CRBDA) recently took to the streets to protest the poor running of the federal agency.

The workers protested round the agencys host community, Ikot Eneobong, Cross River State, according to a report by Vanguard newspaper.

They accused the federal government of continually foisting inept management on the agency.

The tenure of the last management expired a few days ago.

Cross River Basin Development Authority, one of the 12 River basin development authorities in Nigeria, was established in 1976 to, among other things, help develop water resources and control flood and erosion in the areas within its jurisdiction which today has been reduced to only Cross River and Akwa Ibom states.

The agencys fortune and impact has continued to dwindle, for some years now, and the workers are now demanding the appointment of a technocrat, instead of a politician, to run it.

We are not against anybody but we are for the better management of CRBDA which has for some years now been reduced to a squalid environment where the vision and mission of what the place was set up to be has been misplaced or at best destroyed, Joseph Etim, the leader of the workers union in CRBDA, said.

We are making a passionate appeal to the Minister of Water Resources, who personally flagged off a farm at the Basin Authority, last year, to come and see the state of the farm. No crop was planted in that farm and the place is completely covered with weeds.

We know that if it was a civil servant that is at the helm of affairs in this place, he will strive to do well because he would have the fear of losing his job or messing up his career, Mr Etim said.

He said the irrigation projects in Obubra/Wakande, Ogoja, Ijegwu/Yala, Obudu and the Cross River Songhai Farm the agency took over at Itigidi are now overgrown with weeds after they were abandoned.

We certainly cannot continue like this except we want the place to die completely, Mr Etim said.

If properly managed, CRBDA has the capacity to produce food to feed the entire South-south states and also export, but there should be proper appraisal of the state of affairs in the authority before a new management is appointed, he added.

The CRBDA is supervised by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

A recent failed attempt to sanction the agencys outgone managing director, Bassey Nkposong, over corruption allegations and the controversial removal of the board chairman, Eseme Eyiboh, speaks volumes of the politics in the management of the CRBDA.

Mr Eyibohs sack came about two months after the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, overruled the board on the suspension of Mr Nkposong who was accused of irregularities in the award of N250 million worth of contracts and other breaches.

Mr Nkposong refused to respond, twice, to the corruption allegations, including a query from the board before he was suspended.

Mr Eyiboh was not queried by the ministry. The allegation of corruption was also not investigated by the ministry.

The Board under my chairmanship did not reckon with the organised corruption ring that had the active connivance and protection of the power grid at the supervising Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mr Eyiboh said in the statement, after his removal.

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The trajectory of the boards running battles to ensure transparency and probity by the management of the CRBDA shows clearly that the agencys Managing Director could not have been acting independently of a powerful protective cocoon located in the supervising ministry.

Six months after the composition and inauguration of the Governing Board of the Cross River Basin Development Authority by the President, the management of the CRBDA engaged in the most scandalous public auction of the commonwealth of the people occasioning the carting away and conversations of public assets under spurious circumstances and continued to run the Authority as if there was no board, with the Managing Director acting as a sole administrator, as it were before the board was constituted.

The Governing Board had to invoke its oversight powers by setting up an ad-hoc committee to look into the activities, programmes and projects of the Basin Authority, Mr Eyiboh said.

Mr Eyiboh said his removal should not end the quest for accountability at the agency.

I want to restate that Hon Eseme Eyiboh may be the target, but he is not the issue at stake at the Cross River Basin Development Authority. The main issue is corruption, which I believe is actively being covered up from high places. If the supervising ministry dares, let the minister institute an independent panel to confirm or rebut the findings of the board, he said.
The anti-vaccine protest that temporarily cut off access to a mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium was organized on Facebook through a page that promotes debunked claims about the coronavirus pandemic, masks and immunization.

The Facebook page, "Shop Mask Free Los Angeles," issued a call last week to gather Saturday at the baseball park. Health authorities have been administering shots to as many as 8,000 people a day at the site, one of the largest vaccination centers in the country. Such venues form a critical component of the effort to corral the pandemic, which has lashed Los Angeles County so brutally in recent weeks that oxygen for patients has been in short supply.

The online activity illustrates the extent to which Facebook remains a critical organizing tool of the anti-vaccine movement, despite the company's repeated vows to curb coronavirus misinformation. It also shows how social networking services could foster more confrontational tactics by those committed to false ideas about the dangers of immunization as the mass vaccination effort ramps up.

"I'm concerned this is the next phase of their anti-vaccine activism, going to places where the vaccine is being distributed and being disruptive there," said Tara Smith, an epidemiologist at Kent State University and an authority on vaccine resistance.

Such activity, she said, could come to resemble protests at abortion clinics or demonstrations against stay-at-home orders at state capitols, a prospect that worries public health officials as they aim to speed vaccinations in a race against more-transmissible and possibly more-lethal variants now confirmed in this country.

Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever said the company was reviewing the page and would "take action against any content that violates our policies."

"Shop Mask Free Los Angeles" publicizes opportunities for "maskless shopping," in violation of state and local rules requiring face coverings outside the home. It posts videos of confrontations inside businesses in Southern California, where anti-mask extremists film themselves going toe-to-toe with other customers and law enforcement. In the videos, the individuals behind the smartphones rail against what they see as "discrimination" and "medical tyranny." A message sent to the page went unanswered.

The page itself has only about 3,000 followers, but the notice about what it termed a "PROTEST/MARCH" at the mass vaccination site was shared extensively in Facebook groups and on pages fixated on false ideas about masks, such as that they restrict breathing and that the Constitution forbids mandating their use. Names of the online forums include "Anti-Mask REVOLUTION!" and "Unmask California."

The technology giant committed at the end of last year to enhancing its policies against coronavirus-related misinformation. That included a pledge to remove misinformation about the safety, efficacy, ingredients and side effects of coronavirus vaccines.

In a sign of gaps in the company's enforcement, however, the "About" section of the anti-mask page promoting the Saturday protest included a link to a website devoted to the baseless "Plandemic" narrative accusing shadowy elites of enriching themselves by engineering the coronavirus and a vaccine for it.

The 26-minute documentary introducing the groundless theory went viral on Facebook in the spring before the company moved to erase it from its platform. When a follow-up came out in August, Facebook blocked users from posting it.

But the anti-mask page directs users to "Planned-demic" website that features a wide range of videos devoted to the misinformation. Some of the links to the videos are broken. The site elevates claims by the video's central figure, Judy Mikovits, a former scientist at the National Cancer Institute who has made discredited claims.

Ellsworth Fortman, assistant Los Angeles fire chief, said that while scorching temperatures and high winds have interfered with testing and other aspects of the pandemic response, he never expected anti-vaccine activists would thwart other people's access to inoculations.

In addition to the demonstration's promotion on Facebook, Fortman said, in the days leading up to the protest he also received word about its advertisement on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. One post transmitted to the department, which he shared with The Washington Post, came from an account called "socaltrumptrain." It announced plans for an "anti-lockdown freedom rally and march" at Dodger Stadium.

The protest included only about 50 people, who waved signs and shouted anti-vaccine slogans. But their presence was sufficiently disruptive to force authorities to close the stadium's gates, delaying thousands of motorists in line for a vaccine. Ultimately, it did not affect the number of people who were able to receive shots, officials said. No arrests were made.

Especially in Los Angeles, an epicenter of the pandemic, any effort to throw up barriers to vaccination threatens to undermine the pandemic response, said Diana Shiba, president of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. The disruption, she said, could not come at a worse time, with medical workers racing to stay ahead of virus variants.

"It's so unfair to those who want to receive a vaccine," she said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.
Marilyn Mansons music has always had sinister and violent undertones, he has written lyrics about killing people and his music leans toward an obsession with harming others. Now, actor Evan Rachel Wood has come forward to accuse Manson of horrendous abuse during their four-year relationship.

The allegations, as well as Mansons road to success and his choice in a stage name, are extremely unsettling.

Marilyn Manson | David Pomponio/FilmMagic

Marilyn Manson is being accused of horrific abuse by Evan Rachel Wood and several other women

Though she has discussed being in an abusive relationship in the past, Wood never revealed her abusers name until now. On Feb. 1, 2021, the Westworld actor came forward to accuse Manson of abuse. She shared on Instagram,

The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson. He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.

Manson and Wood dated for about four years in the mid-2000s beginning when she was 19 and he was 36. He has spoke openly about fantasing about doing violent things to her, including bashing her skull in with a sledgehammer.

Now, several other women have come forward to accuse the rocker of sexual assault, psychological abuse, and/or various forms of coercion, violence, and intimidation. Former adult film star Jenna Jameson said she also had a disconcerting experience with Manson when they dated briefly in 1997.

We didnt go out long because I cut it off after he would nonchalantly say he fantasized about burning me alive, she told Daily Mail. Amid the allegations of abuse, the rocker has been dropped from his record label.

RELATED: Did a Child Actor From Wonder Years Grow Up to Be Marilyn Manson?

This is how Marilyn Manson became famous

Manson rose to fame in the late 80s and 90s after forming a rock metal band, Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids later he he became known as simply Marilyn Manson.

Over the past 30 years, the band has released 11 studio albums and 10 independent releases. Manson has been nominated for several Grammy Awards and hes had several acting credits in projects like Lost Highway, Jawbreaker, Party Monster, American Gods, Salem, and Sons of Anarchy among others.

In addition to his music and acting, Manson has released several books including his autobiography called The Long Hard Road Out of Hell. He also has a side business, Absinthe Mansinthe.

According to Celebrity Net Worth the rocker is worth $10 million.

Marilyn Mansons real name is Brian Warner

Mansons real name is Brian Warner, he was born in Canton, Ohio to deeply religious parents and became interested in music as a way to rebel. Manson chose his stage name because of the publics obsession with violence and celebrity.

His name is a mix of 1960s bombshell Marilyn Monroe and seriel killer Charles Manson.

How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area
A man arrives to be inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccine at the Chaoyang Museum of Urban Planning in Beijing on January 15, 2021. (Photo by Noel Celis / AFP) (Photo by NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Fake COVID-19 Vaccines Reported in China

Recently, reports about fake COVID-19 vaccines in China have been carried by Chinese media outlets and spread by people on Chinese social media as virus outbreaks continue to worsen in parts of the country.

According to the media reports, police in Beijing and the provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong rooted out a crime ring that was manufacturing and selling fake COVID-19 vaccines.

Chinese authorities said that the gang of more than 80 suspects was arrested on charges of producing and selling counterfeit vaccines. They had reportedly filled injectors with a saline solution which were to be sold as COVID-19 shots. Over 3,000 fake products were confiscated by authorities.

The official reports say the gang had begun its criminal activities in September 2020 and was selling the counterfeits at high prices. It also said that police had been able to identify the places where the counterfeits had been produced and sold.

Chinese citizens expressed their anger online over the exposed scandal.

We had fake masks, one netizen said in a post. Now comes the fake vaccine. Is there anything that cannot be fake [in China]?

Another said: This isnt manufacturing and selling fake products in an ordinary sense. This is killing.

A netizen with a username Lao Zhuang Sun Zi VV commented this is more wicked than drug trafficking.

Another asked: Isnt inoculation done in licensed hospitals? How could fake vaccines enter [the system]? Really terrible.

In fact, China had its vaccine administration law approved on June 29, 2019. The law went into effect on Dec. 1 the same year.

The new law came after multiple vaccine safety scandals in China.

In 2004, 6,000 non-qualifying vaccines were found by the Suqian Medical Products Administration of eastern Chinas Jiangsu province to have caused injury to about 3,000 children.

In June 2005, the Center for Anti-Epidemic and Health Protection of Dazhuang town in Si county, Anhui province, conducted Hepatitis A vaccines on 25,000 elementary and secondary school students. However, 121 of them suffered adverse effects, including one death and 20 severe cases.

During 2007, there were also several cases of casualties among children administered vaccines in northern Chinas Shanxi province. But local authorities strictly controlled any reporting on the health crisis until 2010, when reporter Wang Keqin published his findings in China Economic Times after interviewing 78 households with child victims who received sub-standard shots.

Wangs coverage sparked nationwide indignation at and distrust in Chinese-made vaccines.

In 2009, Jingang Andy Biological Products illegally added nucleic acid material in its rabies vaccines, leading to a marked reduction in virus antigen content and nearly halving the vaccines efficacy.

In 2012, an illegal vaccine case worth over 100 million yuan (about $15.5 million) was brought to light by police in Weifang city, Shandong province, involving influenza, hepatitis B, rabies, and chickenpox vaccines.

On July 15, 2018, a local medical products administration of northeastern Chinas Jilin province said in a notice that Changsheng Bio-Technology falsified production records. Later, the firm was found to have sold more than 250,000 substandard DPT vaccinesdesigned to protect babies against diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanusin Shandong province.

The firm was fined 3.4 million yuan (about $526,000) by a provincial regulator. The following year, it received a much heavier fine of 9.1 billion yuan (about $1.41 billion) for falsifying production data for its rabies vaccine.

The Changsheng Bio-Technology vaccine scandal led to the downfall of more than 80 officials, Chinese authorities said. The companys chairwoman Gao Junfang and 14 other employees were placed under criminal detention as well.

So far, no details have come out regarding specific penalties against Gao and her staff.
Republicans vote on Tuesday, Democrats vote on Wednesday, is this a crime now?

Theres a reason the Soviet Union, East Germany, China and North Korea never produced a Jerry Seinfeld - much less a Lenny Bruce or Sam Kinison.

Humor was a crime in those places.

America is becoming such a place - because the Left doesnt think it's funny to mock anything the Left considers serious - and intends to make sure that message gets out.

As in the case of Douglass Mackey - a wise-acre who faces ten years in federal prison for posting unfunny (to the feds, now the sic em troops of the Left) memes designed to annoy Leftists, including supporters of Hillary Clinton.

Mackey created an African Americans for Hillary mock-up that encouraged people to avoid the line and vote from home by texting Hillary to 599925. When they did, they got a reply from the actual Clinton campaign hipping them to the fact that they'd been punked.

Whether this is funny or obnoxious depends on your sense of humor; but is it criminal? Deserving of a decade behind bars?

The feds say yes.

Mackey has been charged with serious felonies, as in conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate persons in the free exercise of a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution - notwithstanding the obvious fact that no threat was leveled at anyone, nor was anyone oppressed - except perhaps according to the Leftist definition of "oppression," which amounts to having their feelings hurt.

This is becoming an actionable offense in Joe Biden's Woke America.

The defendant exploited a social media platform to infringe one of the most basic and sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution: the right to vote, said Nicholas L. McQuaid, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Departments Criminal Division.

Except he did no such thing. He made and published a visual. No one was prevented from voting or threatened if they did.

Mackeys memes - he made several others - are the Internet eras equivalent of the prank phone call, perhaps. Good thing the Jerky Boys are retired.

It's the filling out of magazine subscription cards and the ordering of a dozen pizzas or late-night taxis, sent to the home of a person who who didnt order them, as a gag.

Actually, they are not even that as no one got the bill for anything - or got something they didnt want delivered to their home.

They saw a meme on their Twitter or Facebook feed.

This constitutes "depriving individuals of their constitutional right to vote"?

So says the indictment.

One could make a stronger case that weaponized hysteria over "the virus" did more to actually deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote" - by terrorizing them to not vote, something Mackey never did.

But don't expect Fauci or the Scarf Lady to be indicted.

Once upon a time, humor was not only funny - it made you think. George Carlin, for instance. His most famous rant had to do with who owns you - and what these owners want, which is - as Carlin put it -obedient workers. People who dont question and who are kept from asking questions about their owners by being kept ignorant and busy working constantly to just barely keep their heads above water.

This sort of comedic analysis resonated with the Left, once upon a time - when the Left at least pretended to be concerned about the plight of the working man.

As opposed to the endlessly offended feelings of the woking man.

If its okay to say man.

Comedians like Sam Kineson were famous for saying it - part of Sam's iconic stand-up act. One of his most unwoke routines revolved around starvation in Africa and the Left's efforts to ameliorate it by sending food. Sam would pace the stage and then scream: "It's a desert! Nothing grows there!! Just sand! Move to where the food is!"

It was as hilarious as it is unspeakable . . . today.

Lenny Bruce - who was considered a liberal in his day - would be prosecuted by the Left today.

Bruce actually was prosecuted - for obscenity - and was defended by the Left. But that was 1964 and the Left defended free speech back then. Today, free speech, including speech that makes you laugh, is actionable, if the punchline involves gays or women or men who identify as women; anything the Left decides isn't funny.

If the punchline is Donald Trump - or the meme his severed head, a la Kathy Griffin - then its hilarious.

Which isn't very funny.

Which brings up Seinfeld, who is - very.

Or rather, was. Jerry no longer does stand-up because the crowds are too Woke. They can't take a joke and - worse - can't laugh at themselves anymore.

And Jerry is, like Lenny was, a liberal.

It echoes of the old Soviet Union, which America is on the cusp of resurrecting under the rheumy gaze of Brezhnev revisited - in the form of Uncle Joe, his unsteady hand slowly waving as he totters to Lenin's mausoleum, smiling vacantly at a joke that's on us.
BOSTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE: HAE) announced that financial results for its third quarter fiscal 2021, which ended December 26, 2020, are available on its Investor Relations website.

The Company will host a conference call and webcast with investors and analysts to discuss and answer questions about the results at 8:00 a.m. ET on February 2, 2021. The conference call and webcast can be accessed with the following information:

U.S. / Canada toll free (877) 848-8880; International (716) 335-9512

toll free (877) 848-8880; International (716) 335-9512 Conference ID required for access: 7792833

A live webcast of the call can be accessed on Haemonetics' Investor Relations website

Direct link to conference call webcast: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/6nszefg7

In addition, the Company has posted to its Investor Relations website the earnings release, analytical tables and supplemental information as well as a presentation about the Company's pending acquisition of Cardiva Medical, Inc. ("Cardiva") that will be referenced on its conference call and webcast, direct links to which are available below.

Direct link to 3Q FY21 Earnings Release:

https://haemonetics.gcs-web.com/static-files/96ed8312-dab2-41e8-802f-e1f2fdeb21e5

Direct link to 3Q FY21 Analytical Tables and Supplemental Information:

https://haemonetics.gcs-web.com/static-files/c42660a4-daae-4339-9a9d-7c640ad7741b

Direct link to Presentation about Cardiva's acquisition:

https://haemonetics.gcs-web.com/static-files/7b2b766f-d66e-4478-9999-e0dfb0d2a82f

A replay of the conference call and webcast will be available for one year beginning on February 2, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. ET using the conference call webcast link provided in this press release.

About Haemonetics

Haemonetics (NYSE: HAE) is a global healthcare company dedicated to providing a suite of innovative hematology products and solutions for our customers to help them improve patient care and reduce the cost of healthcare. Our technology addresses important medical markets: blood and plasma component collection, the surgical suite, and hospital transfusion services. To learn more about Haemonetics, visit our website at http://www.haemonetics.com.

Investor Contact Media Contact Olga Guyette, Director-Investor Relations Carla Burigatto, VP-Communications (781) 356-9763 (781) 348-7263 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Haemonetics Corporation

Related Links

http://www.haemonetics.com/


The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will turn away any passengers who try to enter airport terminals, board planes, trains or buses without masks, and those who refuse could face federal fines, the federal authority said Sunday night.

Mask rules on transportation follow the Biden administration's executive order that face coverings be worn on all federal property.

The new rule will go into effect at midnight Monday night and will remain in effect at least until May 11.

Officials at TSA did not specify how much the fine might be.

But documents obtained by CNN reveal that the airlines and airports will be required to report anyone who refuses to wear a mask and comply with other COVID-19 measures.

Starting February 2, TSA will turn away passengers who refuse to wear masks inn airports, on flights or other forms of transportation under its authority

Passengers who refuse to mask up could face fines and will be reported to federal officials, according to the TSA's Sunday announcement (pictured)

Coronavirus cases and deaths are finally on the decline in nearly every state in the US.

But the progress is precarious, and the US has already seen how a spike in travel can fuel compounding surges in coronavirus cases after the Thanksgiving holiday's aftermath brought then-unprecedented rates of more than 200,000 daily infections and, later, more than 3,000 deaths a day.

President Biden signed 17 executive orders on his first day in office, including several at addressing the pandemic, including the mask mandate.

Public health officials have advised against a nationwide mask mandate, but it was a stark contrast to former president Trump's approach to masking.

Research by airlines and university partners suggests that the risk of coronavirus transmission on a plane, or even on subways and buses, is 'very low' - with proper measures in place.

Airports and airlines fall under the Federal Aviation Administration's authority, meaning they are subject to the same executive order that requires masks in the Oval Office

The high rate of replacement of air on planes helps prevent potentially infectious particles from drifting throughout the aircraft, but it's likely not enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on its own.

Travel is a fraction of what it was in February of 2019, but nearly six times more people flew on January 31, compared to the low point of travel in the spring.

For the past week, an average of more than 700,000 people passed through TSA checkpoints in the US.

Air travel falls under the Federal Aviation Administration, giving the Biden administration authority over airlines and TSA.

However, most airlines already required all passengers to wear masks during travel, as a matter of their company policies.

Last month, passengers on their way to the Trump rally in Washington, DC, reportedly refused to wear masks, harassed other passengers crew members who, according to a Reuters report.

Enforcement actions were brought against several such passengers.

In addition to re-instating and expanding travel bans lifted by the Trump administration shortly before Inauguration Day, Biden added the mask mandate, which will now have more legal teeth than private companies' policies.

It also backs up a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order passengers on all modes of public transportation to wear masks during travel, boarding and disembarkation.

'TSA will fully comply with the Presidents Executive Orders, CDC guidance and the DHS National Emergency determination to ensure healthy and secure travel across all transportation sectors,' said Darby LaJoye, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the TSA Administrator.

'This will help prevent further spread of COVID-19 and encourage a unified government response.

'As we continue to experience impacts from this pandemic, we are committed to this measure as the right thing to do for the TSA workforce, for our industry stakeholders and for passengers.'

The directive seen by CNN will also require the 'full names and contact information' of all non-compliant passengers or airport-goers to be be submitted to federal officials.

It also directs FSA to make their 'best efforts to disembark the person who refuses to comply' with mask mandates.
Egypt's National Authority for Military Production and El-Sewedy Electric have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a plant to manufacture electric panels and lighting poles, as well as extend and install power grids.

The plant is set to be established in one of the companies affiliated with the country's military production ministry as part of its plan to be integrated with different local and international companies.

The signing ceremony was attended by Minister of State for Military Production Mohamed Ahmed Morsy and the Chairman of El-Sewedy Mohamed Zaki El-Sewedy, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

El-Sewedy Electric, a giant Egyptian electrical company, said the military companies have "great" industrial, technological, and human capabilities, which paves the way to achieve "fruitful" cooperation.

Military Production Ministry Spokesperson Mohamed Eid said the ministry is keen to develop the manufacturing, technological, and technical capabilities of its subsidiaries and units in a way that achieves added value to the Egyptian economy.

Short link:



The Seattle Times reports that Suzi LeVine, the departing head of Washingtons Employment Security Department (ESD), is Joe Bidens pick to lead the federal office that helps states manage unemployment benefits. In this post  interim assistant secretary of the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) at the Labor Department  LeVine would be at the forefront of the Biden administrations economic response to the pandemic.

The ETA has more than 900 employees and had a budget of around $9 billion in 2020. Thats nearly three-quarters of the Labor Departments overall appropriation.

The problem is that LeVine appears to be incompetent, at least when it comes to this kind of work. According to the Seattle Times:

LeVines move from Olympia to Washington, D.C., also comes amid continued criticism of the ESDs response to pandemic-related job losses and fraud, renewed scrutiny of its slow response to public records requests by media outlets. . . . News that LeVine was leaving the ESD ignited a storm of criticism last week over problems at the ESD during her 2-1/2 year tenure. Notable among those was a fraud scheme last spring that siphoned off $600 million in unemployment funds, as well as chronic delays in benefit payments to legitimate claimants during the pandemic.

Why would Biden select someone this incompetent for such an important job? Because LeVine and her husband donate generously to Democrats. The LeVines gave more than $400,000 to the Biden campaign and other Democratic causes in 2019 and 2020, according to federal campaign records. In 2017, they were appointed as deputy national finance chairs for the Democratic National Committee.

Its not surprising to see the Biden administration rewarding contributors who helped enrich the Democratic Party by giving them jobs without regard to their competence. But given the importance of combatting the economic effects of the pandemic, it would be nice if Biden would reward them the old-fashioned way  with ambassadorships to second and third tier countries, the way the Obama administration rewarded Suzi LeVine  not by putting them in charge of key federal bureaucracies.
(CNN)  There's a golden rule in politics: Don't mess with a member in his or her home state unless you want trouble.

Which is why it's more than a little perplexing that Vice President Kamala Harris gave an interview to a local West Virginia TV station late last week expressly designed to put pressure on West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) to support the Biden administration's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus plan.

"To your point in West Virginia, one in seven families is describing their household as being hungry, one in six can't pay their rent, and one in four small businesses are closing permanently or have already closed, so it's a big issue in West Virginia and across the country," Harris told WSAZ. "And that's why the president and I are offering the American Rescue Plan."

Which -- BREAKING NEWS! -- Manchin didn't like.

"I saw [the interview], I couldn't believe it. No one called me [about it]," Manchin told WSAZ over the weekend. "We're going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward, but we need to work together. That's not a way of working together."

(Harris, it's worth noting, also did an interview with a local station in Arizona to pressure Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on the same bill, according to Punchbowl News.)

Made aware of Manchin's annoyance, the White House reached out to the West Virginia Democrat over the weekend to smooth the waters, according to CNN's Manu Raju. It's unclear whether the outreach calmed Manchin down.

"We've been in touch with Sen. Manchin, as we have been for many weeks and will continue to be moving forward," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday. Psaki declined to say on Monday whether Harris' interview was designed specifically to apply pressure on Manchin.

Regardless, it's a weird, rookie mistake for this administration to make. Both Biden and Harris spent time in the Senate and should understand how a move like this would be perceived by Manchin -- as a not-at-all-subtle threat for him to get in line (or else.)

That urging is the sort of thing that works far better in a phone call -- or a White House meeting. No senator is going to like the vice president (of their own party!) doing an interview with a local news station in their state to say that this piece of legislation that they are unsure about is actually really, really good thing for their state. Not one.

Manchin has so far resisted taking a position on the stimulus package. He told CNN that he had concerns about the price tag, but added: "We're gonna try to make Joe Biden successful."

(Interestingly, West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice advocated for Congress to go big with a stimulus package during an interview on Monday morning with CNN's Poppy Harlow. "Trying to be per se fiscally responsible at this point in time ... if we actually throw away some money right now, so what?" said Justice.)

Why play hardball so quickly? Because the Biden White House is almost certainly going to need to pass the Covid-19 stimulus bill through reconciliation -- a legislative tactic that would allow Democrats to move the package to the floor (and to passage) with a simple majority rather than 60 votes. (Read this for more on reconciliation.)

But in order for that to work, Democrats need all 50 of their senators to support the legislation. If that happened, Harris would be able to break the tie in Democrats' favor.

Look, Manchin may well wind up finding a way to be for the $1.9 trillion package. But, this move certainly doesn't help him get there.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, expressed optimism that his side would get there.

"All of us will have differences of opinions, this is a $1.9 trillion dollar bill, I have differences and concerns about this bill, but at the end of the day we are going to support the President of the United States," he said on ABC on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a group of Republican senators have offered their own Covid-19 stimulus counter-proposal (with a $600 billion price tag) -- and are headed to the White House on Monday to talk to President Biden about it.

That could, in theory, offer the White House a way out if they don't believe they can count on Manchin to vote for the $1.9 trillion proposal. It's not at all clear they are willing to admit defeat on that, however.

What is clear is that the White House made a beginner's mistake by putting pressure on Manchin via the Harris interview. Something about catching more flies with honey than vinegar.

This story was first published on CNN.com 'Joe Biden just made his first big mistake as president'
Three Fairway and Vivo hotel-to-multifamily conversions

Fairway America Management Group IV LLC and Vivo Investments, LLC, as Co-Managers, have announced the launch of Fairways newest investment Fund, the Fairway Vivo GP Fund LLC.* The Fairway Vivo GP Funds objective is to acquire hotels and motels in favorable locations throughout the U.S. and convert them to work-force level multifamily properties.

After collaborating on multiple middle market hotel-to-multifamily conversions, Fairway and Vivo believe that recent and current pressures on the hospitality real estate market, combined with an undersupply of work-force level multifamily housing throughout the U.S., create a unique and significant market opportunity to acquire hotel and motel properties at attractive prices nationwide and repurpose them into a more attractive asset class. The Fund is designed to provide potential investment advantages to investors by giving them an opportunity to make general partner-level investments through the Fund into the special purpose entities (SPEs) that will own each asset and be funded primarily by limited partner investors in those SPEs.

Fairway and Vivo believe hospitality is one of the asset classes most negatively impacted by the economic disruption caused by COVID. Hotels experienced an abrupt and near total halt in business, and we believe that many hotel owners cash flows are no longer adequate to service debt. This has created a massive market for similar product at attractive economics, reported Fairways Founder and CEO, Matthew Burk. The structure of the Fund allows investors to participate at a GP level and earn a pro rata share of 100% of the net income of the Fund, with no profit participation by the Co-Managers at the Fund level. Instead, Fairway and Vivo will earn any profit participations at the SPE level.

Burk said Vivos team has impressive credentials, highly valued and diverse professional skills, and a long history of managing and performing full renovations. Over the years weve developed a strong partnership, mutual respect, and have enjoyed creating compelling investment opportunities together.

Vivo Investment Group specializes in converting low-demand hotels to efficiency apartment complexes at market-rate pricing to renters while reducing traffic, waste, and sprawl. President and Founder of Vivo, Dan Norville, has led the structuring, financing, acquisition, disposition, leveraged buyout, valuation, and due diligence of over $1.2 billion in completed real estate and M&As in his career. Vivos mission is to enhance the lives of those in our communities, said Norville. Our business model is in response to the rapid gentrification crowding out our younger population and exacerbating income inequality across the country. The Fund allows us to make the GP-level investments needed to deliver on our mission and repurpose hotels into affordable housing.

Fairway and Vivo see the multifamily market as remarkably resilient, while conversely hotels and motels exist in oversupply in most major cities in the U.S. Traffic and urban sprawl are increasing, pushing renters in search of affordable housing.

About Fairway

Fairway America, a full-service investment firm, is a leader in U.S. middle market real estate. Fairways process of vetting and developing select executing partners reduces friction points for investors and opens greater investment opportunities in the vast, highly fragmented, and opportunity-laden $8+ trillion** middle market.

Established in 1992, Fairway enjoys a unique position of strength in evaluating potential investments in all asset classes and providing investors with streamlined access to this potentially lucrative market segment. Its visceral and grassroots understanding of the middle market space enables Fairway to provide co-sponsors with key functions in the investment process, thereby providing investors with uniformity, transparency, and access.

Fairway, and its subsidiary real estate administration company, Verivest LLC, are recognized in the sponsor and the investor communities as trusted players in U.S. real estate. Fairways close relationship with Verivest gives Fairway a deeper insight into the operational aspects of real estate fund management and helps it understand and address the needs of both sponsors and investors.

Fairway America, LLC

16150 SW Upper Boones Ferry Rd. Portland, Oregon 97224

Phone: (503)906-9100

Fairway America, LLC (fairwayamerica.com) and its affiliated and related companies (Fairway), offers real estate investment opportunities and real-estate related equity securities. Equity securities are offered through North Capital Private Securities Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC. For more information on how to become a Fairway investor or to seek capital, please visit fairwayamerica.com.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities in any of the companies mentioned or any related or associated companies. Any such offer or solicitation will only be made through private placement memoranda, offering memoranda, or other formal offering documents. Investors must not rely on information provided in this press release for investment decisions.

*This offering is speculative and involves substantial risks. Consider the risks outlined in the formal offering documents, including the Private Placement Memorandum before investing. Risks include, but are not limited to illiquidity, lack of diversification, complete loss of capital, default risk, and capital call risk. Investments may not achieve their objective.

** Source: Nareit Research, July 2019 Estimating the Size of the Commercial Real Estate Market and 4Q19 United States Capital Market Report, Newman Knight Frank
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  If only Staten Island Chuck published a bettors guide.

Chuck, of the Staten Island Zoo, rolls into Tuesdays virtual Groundhog Day ceremony on a heater. The West Brighton-based prognosticator has been making the right picks for the past few years, correctly predicting 10 of the last 11 years.

On Feb. 2, 2020, a month or so before the coronavirus (COVID-19) rattled North America, Richmond Countys beloved groundhog accurately predicted an early spring in front of a large crowd at the Zoo.

The furry fella was last wrong in 2017. Before that, he was last inaccurate in 2009  the same year he took a bite out of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Last year, the Advance/SILive.coms Erik Bascome broke down Chucks accuracy, and how his predictions are measured.

Chuck has been predicting the future since 1981, with his accuracy being tracked by local youth, dubbed junior weather predictors, in recent years. The children track how many days over the six weeks following Chucks prediction are warmer  or atypical  for winter weather, defined as days when the temperature rises above 40 degrees.

At the end of the six-week period, if there were more atypical weather days than typical weather days, it means we had an early spring. If there were more typical weather days than atypical weather days, we had six more weeks of winter.

Master of ceremonies, Deputy Borough President Ed Burke was not short on Groundhog Day puns. February 2, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon)

Heres a look back at some of Chucks recent performances, again, courtesy of Bascome:

2019: For the fifth straight year, Chuck failed to find his shadow when exiting his burrow, calling for an early spring. While Mayor Bill De Blasio was not in attendance at the Zoos event, he didnt escape a dig from Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn), who opened his speech with [Deputy Borough President Ed Burke] drops jokes and animal facts like the mayor drops groundhogs.

2018: Chuck searched in vain for his shadow, then predicted an early spring when he popped up from below in his plastic enclosure. Well done, Chuck. PS 45 students supported his prediction, since warmer days prevailed. Deputy Borough President Ed Burke acted as emcee during the annual celebration, while Public Advocate Letitia Lames and NYC Comptroller Scott Springer announced the prediction.

2017: Despite the cold morning, Chuck predicted an early spring. Unfortunately, after six weeks of tracking the temperature, third-graders at PS 45 in West Brighton declared his prediction wrong. For the first time since 2009, Chuck made an inaccurate prediction.

2016: A small crowd gathered at the Staten Island Zoo in hopes of an early spring. Fortunately, Chuck delivered. The little guy searched and searched for his shadow, but couldnt find it, signaling the start of an early spring. This was Chucks second year in his new clear plastic enclosure.

2015: On a cold, wet February day, Chuck called for another early spring, as he failed to find his shadow in his newly minted clear plastic case. De Blasio stood a safe distance from the groundhog, reading the prediction from a scroll, after the previous years fiasco.

2014: It was a Groundhog Day full of drama when the mayor said: Chuck and my predecessor didnt always get along, but Im hoping we can start a new day, and then proceeded to drop the poor animal. However, it turns out that the groundhog he dropped was Charlotte, Chucks mate, who had been swapped out before the ceremony. Unfortunately, Charlotte died seven days later, of what the Staten Island Zoo referred to as unknown natural causes. At least Charlotte died a martyr, making another accurate prediction, this time for six more weeks of winter.

2013: Staten Island Chuck doesnt agree with his rival  Punxsutawny Phil  very often, but he did that year. Then-City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said that the prediction was because Chuck was having a good day this morning, adding that she had a conference with him about what was going to happen. Her pep talk must have worked, because he predicted an early spring and he was right.

2012: A couple days before the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl for a second time, Chuck gave New Yorkers something else to cheer about. He predicted an early spring, and much to the delight of Emma Boyd, an 11-year-old student at Blessed Sacrament School, West Brighton, he was right. Boyd said, Im tired of winter now.

2005: After the past few weeks of frigid temperatures, and still coping with the residue of a 15-inch snowfall, most borough residents were rooting for Staten Island's most well-known weather prognosticator, Chuck G. Hogg, to predict an early end to winter. Their hopes were realized when the intrepid prognosticator back in 2005 and emerged from his cozy cottage at the Staten Island Zoo and did not see his show.staten island advance

2011: If ever there was a need for an early spring, 2011 would have been it. The weather was icy, slushy and cold while Chuck munched on corn and sweet potatoes and the audience enjoyed a Groundhog Day-themed cake made by Cake Boss Buddy Valastro. Chuck scurried out of his new log cabin home  with solar panels on the roof  but couldnt find his shadow, signaling the start of an early spring that everyone so desperately desired.

2010: Chuck reminded us that sometimes you just need to press the snooze button even if you have work in the morning. Chuck overslept and had to be woken by chants of We want Chuck from the audience. Even though he was still drowsy, Chuck accurately predicted an early spring and began a streak of correct predictions.

2009: Groundhog Day 2009 is the day that will live on in New York City history as the day Staten Island Chuck bit then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The mayor held out an ear of corn in an attempt to lure Chuck. However, Chuck didnt appear very grateful. He ran over and bit the mayors hand before running off with the corn. To top it off, Chucks prediction was inaccurate.
MOSCOW - A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years, finding that he violated the terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. The ruling ignited protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Police stand blocking approaches to the street as protesters try to break through during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. Thousands of people have taken to the streets across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up the wave of nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. Hundreds have been detained by police. (AP Photo/Valentin Egorshin)

MOSCOW - A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years, finding that he violated the terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. The ruling ignited protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission.

After the verdict that was announced about 8 p.m., protesters converged on areas of central Moscow and gathered on St. Petersburg's main avenue, Nevsky Prospekt.

Helmeted riot police grabbed demonstrators without obvious provocation and put them in police vehicles. The Meduza website showed video of police roughly pulling a passenger and driver out of a taxi.

Police detain a man during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Siberian city of Omsk, Russia, on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. Thousands of people took to the streets Sunday across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up the wave of nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. Hundreds were detained by police. (AP Photo)

The ruling came despite massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends and Western calls to free the 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner.

We reiterate our call for the Russian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Navalny, as well as the hundreds of other Russian citizens wrongfully detained in recent weeks for exercising their rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after the ruling.

The protests lasted until about 1 a.m. About 650 people were arrested, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests.

The prison sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and politically motivated.

Navalny was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from his five-month convalescence in Germany from the attack, which he has blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny any involvement. Despite tests by several European labs, Russian authorities said they have no proof he was poisoned.

Detained protesters walk escorted by police during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. Thousands of people took to the streets Sunday across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up the wave of nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. Hundreds were detained by police. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

As the order was read, Navalny smiled and pointed to his wife Yulia in the courtroom and traced the outline of a heart on the glass cage where he was being held. Everything will be fine, he told her as guards led him away.

Earlier in the proceedings, Navalny attributed his arrest to Putins fear and hatred," saying the Russian leader will go down in history as a poisoner.

I have deeply offended him simply by surviving the assassination attempt that he ordered, he said.

The aim of this hearing is to scare a great number of people, Navalny added. You can't jail the entire country."

Russias penitentiary service said Navalny violated the probation conditions of his suspended sentence from the 2014 conviction. It asked the court to turn his 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into one that he must serve in prison, although about a year he spent under house arrest will be counted as time served.

In this handout photo provided by Moscow City Court Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny talks to one of his lawyers, left, while standing in the cage during a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. (Moscow City Court via AP)

Navalny emphasized that the European Court of Human Rights ruled that his 2014 conviction was unlawful and Russia paid him compensation in line with the ruling.

Navalny and his lawyers have argued that while he was recovering in Germany from the poisoning, he couldn't register with Russian authorities in person as required by his probation. He also insisted that his due process rights were crudely violated during his arrest and described his jailing as a travesty of justice.

I came back to Moscow after I completed the course of treatment, Navalny said during Tuesday's hearing. What else could I have done?

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets the past two weekends to demand Navalny's release and chant slogans against Putin. On Sunday, police detained more than 5,750 people nationwide, which was the biggest one-day total in Russia since Soviet times. Most were released after being handed a court summons, and they face fines or jail terms of seven to 15 days, although several face criminal charges of violence against police.

I am fighting and will keep doing it even though I am now in the hands of people who love to put chemical weapons everywhere and no one would give three kopecks for my life, Navalny said.

Servicemen of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) gather at the Red Square to prevent a protest rally in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. A Moscow court has ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had earlier denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

Navalny's team called for a demonstration Tuesday outside the Moscow courthouse, but police were out in force, cordoning off nearby streets and making random arrests. More than 320 people were detained, according to OVD-Info.

Some Navalny supporters still managed to approach the building. A young woman climbed a pile of snow across the street and held up a poster saying Freedom to Navalny. Less than a minute later, a police officer took her away.

Before the ruling, authorities also cordoned off Red Square and other parts of central Moscow, as well as Palace Square in St. Petersburg, anticipating protests. Police flooded the centres of both cities.

In court, Navalny thanked protesters for their courage and urged other Russians not to fear repression.

Millions can't be jailed, he said. You have stolen people's future and you are now trying to scare them. I'm urging all not to be afraid."

Police block the Palace Square to stop Navalny supporters during a protest in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. A Moscow court has ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had earlier denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Observers noted that authorities want Navalny in prison, fearing he could run an efficient campaign against the main Kremlin party, United Russia, in September's parliamentary election. If Navalny remains free, he is absolutely capable of burying the Kremlins plans regarding the outcome of the Duma election," said political analyst Abbas Gallyamov.

After his arrest, Navalnys team released a two-hour YouTube video about an opulent Black Sea residence allegedly built for Putin. It has been viewed over 100 million times, fueling discontent as ordinary Russians struggle with an economic downturn, the coronavirus and widespread corruption during Putin's years in office.

Putin insisted that neither he nor his relatives own any of the properties mentioned in the video, and his longtime confidant, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, claimed that he owns it.

As part of efforts to squelch the protests, authorities have targeted Navalnys associates and activists across the country. His brother Oleg, top ally Lyubov Sobol and several others were put under house arrest for two months and face criminal charges of violating coronavirus restrictions.

The jailing of Navalny and the crackdown on protests have stoked international outrage.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the "perverse ruling, targeting the victim of a poisoning rather than those responsible, shows Russia is failing to meet the most basic commitments expected of any responsible member of the international community.

Russia has dismissed the criticism as meddling in its domestic affairs and said Navalny's current situation is a procedural matter for the court, not an issue for the government.

A Russian citizen sentenced by Russian court in accordance with Russian laws. Who gave US the right to judge if it was wrongful or not? Wouldnt you mind your own business, gentlemen? Recent events show that there are a lot of things for you to mend!, Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, said on Twitter.

More than a dozen Western diplomats attended the hearing. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said their presence was part of efforts by the West to contain Russia, adding that it could be an attempt to exert psychological pressure on the judge.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is ready for dialogue about Navalny, but sternly warned it wouldn't take Western criticism into account.

We are ready to patiently explain everything, but we aren't going to react to mentor-style statements or take them into account, Peskov told reporters.

Jim Heintz in Moscow and Jill Lawless in London contributed.
The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is the regular armed forces of the Peoples Republic of China. It is one of the worlds largest army with an estimated two million service members. The mission for the PLA was first laid out by Chinas former paramount leader Hu Jintao. These missions were--to protect and safeguard the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CCP), to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China and to safeguard the countrys interests.

From the wordings, it is clear that the PLA first and foremost exists to protect the primacy of the CCP in China and that all other goals are a distant second for the PLA. It is also an interesting fact that in China, the Country is merely a reference to the CCP only. Even the flag officially displayed by China is that of the CCP.

For decades the CCP has used the PLA for its ambitions to bully and threaten other nations, primarily in the South China Sea. Even though China has relied on the perceived might of the PLA to try and project power, in reality, the PLA is more of a fragile giant when compared to some of the other armies in the world. It primarily resorts to displaying its sheer size to intimidate other nations into following China's wishes. But the raw size of the PLA is deceptive, and in some cases also its biggest weakness.

One of the prime disadvantages of having a mammoth-sized army is the obvious problem faced during its modernization or introducing any other developmental changes. In the 1980s, the PLA used to comprise a whopping 3.8 million service members, when the leaders realized that their sheer size was preventing them from ever being able to develop a modern force.

One of the first chinks in the PLAs armour is China's policy of conscription. Most of the PLA is composed of conscripted soldiers who are often forced to serve in the PLA for two years, after which they are retired. Due to this, many of PLAs soldiers hardly undergo any rigorous military training.

According to an article titled China's Conscription Cycle: Challenges, Vulnerabilities and Opportunities published in Small Wars Journal, China requires 450,000 conscripts (20% of the total force) each year to maintain its strength. Due to China's conscription cycle, China loses a large portion of its combat power each year, after which new conscripts have to be trained all over again and this creates a potential weakness for China and restricts its training options. This glaring weakness primarily affects the PLA ground combat forces.

Moreover, all PLA operational units suffer from an under-strength dilemma for a few months each year. The PLA Army relies most heavily on conscripts due to the branch's size as well as the lower technical requirements. Combat units that rely heavily upon low-skill conscripts experience the most significant swings in combat power due to the conscription cycle, something that does not occur in professional armies. The time, effort and resources required to train conscripts each year is substantial drainage of power for the PLA.

In light of Chinas growing economy, the sub-standard conditions of a conscript have made the PLA an unfavourable option for young Chinese men. Most of China's conscripts come from socially backward and disadvantaged sections, who are in most cases, solely responsible for their ageing parents, due to Chinas previous One-Child Policy.

An average conscript in the PLA is paid 800-850 Yuan a month (the equivalent of Rs 9,000-12,000). However, an officer in the PLA is paid 10,360 Yuan, almost 13 times the pay of a recruit. Given the high cost of living, as well as the burden of ageing parents, a conscript will find it extremely hard to make ends meet.

Another major consequence of conscription, which is plaguing the PLA is the lack of qualified personnel, especially in the technical branches of the PLA like the Navy and Air force. Due to the revolving door conscription cycle of the PLA, no soldier stays in the PLA for more than two years and this prevents them from getting familiar with the sophisticated equipment. The PLA has acknowledged this glaring weakness, which forced President Xi to strategise certain changes in the PLAs recruitment process. These changes were introduced in mid-January 2020. However, any possible improvement as a result of these changes will take time.

In recent years, the PLA has been accused of being infected by the peace disease, peacetime habits and peace problems. According to reports, the last time China and the PLA went to war was in 1979 and due to this, a peacetime approach to training has permeated into the PLA. This casual and peacetime approach to training greatly influence the PLAs wartime combat readiness. Perhaps to overcome this shortfall, CCP often resorts to engaging them in coercing neighbouring states.

After new market reforms in the 1980s in China, the PLA moved into the realm of business in search of opportunities to make money. This led to large scale political corruption in the PLA and thus greatly affected the PLAs ability on the battlefield, its military image and slowed the development of the national defence. President Xi has apparently introduced certain harsh measures to tackle corruption within the PLA since becoming CCP general secretary.

But due to internal resistance, senior officers in the PLA found guilty of corruption are now transferred and reassigned instead of being removed. The anti-corruption measures introduced by Xi has, thus, become tools of removal of the irritants to CCPs and Xis authority rather than merely the corrupt ones.

Similar to China's general population, the PLA also has a very large (57 million) pool of veterans. These PLA veterans demand post-retirement benefits, as well as better retirement deals. These post-retirement wages, pensions and living subsidies are incurred from Chinas defence spending. This substantial cost which is only due to rise will certainly affect PLAs capital expenditure in the future.

In addition to this, the PLA also has to contend with the rising cost of maintenance of equipment, vehicles and vessels. Sometimes the maintenance cost far exceeds their manufacturing and commissioning costs. These twin drains on the PLAs budget and resources also pose a great obstacle to the Chinese military's modernisation drive.

In addition to the weaknesses highlighted here, the PLA also has many other areas wherein they are yet lacking, such as  limited to none airlift Capabilities, open-sea refuelling capabilities as well as weak joint Operations capabilities. All these glaring weaknesses in the PLA mean that despite its sheer size it will find it hard to go against well equipped, well trained professional armies.

Perhaps being aware of its own shortcoming, China routinely chooses to use other avenues to coerce nation-states such as using soft power, taking control of the narrative to prevent criticism and using its large economy as leverage instead of relying on PLA. China realises that the PLA is a hollow shell, with its might being simply an empty threat.
Patna, Feb 2 : The 'smart prepaid meter' scheme implemented in Bihar will now be extended nationwide. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to introduce the meter throughout the country in the Budget presented in Parliament on Monday.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar welcomed the announcement and said Bihar's plan to install 'smart prepaid meters' will now be implemented across the country.

The work of installing such meters in Bihar is going on at a rapid pace. The North and South Bihar Power Distribution Company signed an agreement with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a public sector company, in 2018. After this, it was decided to install the meters in the state in 2019 in a cabinet meeting.

Officials of the department say that so far more than one lakh smart prepaid meters have been installed in the state. The government has now decided to speed up this work further. Consumer meters would now be converted into prepaid ones on a large scale. With the prepaid connections, the consumer would not be able to consume electricity without paying for it.

Public sector EESL has tied up with Bihar's two power distribution units to install 23.4 lakh smart meters in the state.

EESL said this is the first time that such meters are being installed on such a large scale in the state. This would bring major changes in the power sector in Bihar.

Bihar Electricity Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said, "The power sector is facing huge technical and commercial losses. 'Smart prepaid meters' could play an important role in solving this challenge for Bihar. I am confident that by installing these meters, the state's power sector will benefit immensely and this will improve the financial situation of power distribution companies." There is a steady increase in electricity consumption in Bihar. According to data, the per capita electricity consumption in the state was only 145 units in 2012-13, which has increased to 345 units in 2018-19. The number of consumers in the state has also increased.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 23:17:30|Editor: huaxia

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MUSCAT, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Omani health ministry on Tuesday announced 161 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number in the sultanate to 134,685, official Oman News Agency (ONA) reported.

Meanwhile, 105 people recovered during the past 24 hours, taking the overall recoveries to 127,054, while the death toll remained at 1,532, according to a ministry statement quoted by ONA.

The ministry urged the citizens to adhere to social distancing instructions by the supreme COVID-19 committee. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 22:51:02|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran has installed new centrifuges at the Natanz and Fordow uranium enrichment facilities, the representative of Iran in Vienna was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency on Tuesday.

Iranian nuclear scientists "have successfully installed two chains of 348 IR-2M centrifuges in Natanz with a capacity approximately four times that of the IR-1, and they are working with UF6," Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the Vienna-based international organizations, said.

"Installation of two chains of IR-6 centrifuges has also begun at Fordow" enrichment facility, Gharibabadi said, adding that more new centrifuges will be installed.

He said it's a part of its mitigating steps pertaining to the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is still able to carry out verification activities in Iran, and they will be informed of the progress of installation plans, he added.

In January, Iran launched 20-percent uranium enrichment process as part of Iran's Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions which was approved by the parliament in December 2020.

In response to the U.S. withdrawal from JCPOA in 2018 and re-imposition of sanctions, Iran has suspended implementing parts of its obligations under the deal. Enditem
Editors note: The snowfall forecast map above predicts snowfall expected over a 48-hour period. It updates automatically every six hours. Click the play button to begin the hour-by-hour forecast. Put your cursor anywhere on the map to see the forecast total. You can get specific forecasts for your neighborhood by entering your address in the search window at the top of the map.

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Syracuse, N.Y. -- More snow will fall today in Upstate New York as a noreaster tracks along the East Coast, pulling lake effect snow in its wake.

Much of Upstate could get several inches of snow today through the combination of the coastal storm and the Great Lakes. Central New York could get another 3 inches today and 3 more inches on Wednesday as snow showers linger into early Thursday morning.

Nearly 2 feet of snow has fallen in the Catskills so far. The highest total in Central New York is McGraw, in Cortland County, which had recorded 14.4 inches by 7 a.m., according to National Weather Service reports.

The storm, as expected, dropped the heaviest snow in the lower Hudson Valley, New York City area and Long Island. In Central Park, 16.3 inches had fallen by 11 p.m. last night. In Westchester County, one spot recorded 24.5 inches by 8 p.m.

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Its not just schools: Community closings due to the storm, Tuesday Feb. 2

Groundhog Day 2021: Did Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow?

East Syracuse Minoa superintendent sings snow day jingle to tell families school is closed Tuesday (Listen)
BARNWELL  As U.S. Rep. Tom Rice prepares to fight for his political life after voting to impeach former President Donald Trump, the Myrtle Beach Republican may have to do it without a particularly vigorous defense from some of his longtime friends in Congress.

The Post and Courier asked all seven other Republicans in South Carolina's congressional delegation what they thought of Rice's impeachment vote, whether they felt the S.C. GOP executive committee's decision to censure him was appropriate, and whether they would support him in a contested GOP primary next year.

Most of them offered some praise for Rice's overall record in Congress, but none criticized the censure, and just one  U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of Springdale  was willing to say at this early stage that he would stand by Rice against primary challengers.

The only member who did not respond at all was U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan of Laurens.

The responses underscore the politically perilous situation Rice now finds himself in after becoming one of just 10 Republican House members to vote for impeachment, as well as the enduring influence Trump holds over both Republican voters and their elected officials.

"In normal times, members of a delegation support their co-partisans when running for reelection," said Jordan Ragusa, a College of Charleston political science professor who specializes in studies of Congress. "But these certainly aren't normal times."

Already, two state lawmakers have announced they are eyeing potential GOP primary campaigns against Rice, and more potential challengers are expected to emerge in the weeks ahead.

Ragusa suggested the lawmakers would likely be wary of criticizing the S.C. GOP's censure because they would not want to draw the ire of the party themselves.

"For many of these members, they're in districts that are so reliably Republican that the only way that they lose is in a primary, not in a general election," Ragusa said. "And so, for better or worse, they have to worry about the base that has more intense opinions on these kinds of matters and are more attentive to day-to-day politics."

Like many other South Carolina political observers, Wilson said he was shocked by Rice's vote and initially believed it was a mistake. He said he wished Rice had talked to him about it in advance.

But Wilson added that he would encourage the voters in Rice's Pee Dee district to consider the fact that, other than impeachment, Rice has one of the most pro-Trump records in Congress and helped advance what Trump considered one of his signature legislative achievements, a sweeping tax overhaul.

"I strongly disagree with what he did, but he's just a wonderful person," Wilson said. "I would look at his voting record. There may be a vote that people object to, but look at the whole voting record."

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Most members responded with similar statements to the one issued by U.S. Rep. William Timmons, R-Greenville, who said he does not agree with Rice on impeachment but has "a tremendous amount of respect for him as a fellow legislator and colleague."

"He has been a valuable, conservative member of the South Carolina delegation for years, and his position on the Ways and Means Committee has been a huge asset to our state," Timmons said. "Ultimately, the decision on who represents South Carolinas Seventh Congressional District will be up to the voters of (the district)."

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Charleston, said the impeachment stemmed from "an unprecedented event"  the riots at the U.S. Capitol that impeachment supporters argue Trump incited  and each member had to reach their own determination about the constitutionality of the process.

"I may disagree with Congressman Rices decision on impeachment, but I support his vision of limited government and the work hes done for South Carolinians over the years," Mace said.

After working with Rice for years, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott's spokesman Brad Traywick said the senator knows Rice to be "a man of conservative principles." But Scott disagreed with Rice's impeachment vote and believes it is up to the voters in his district to pick their congressman, Traywick said.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Rice "has been a great Congressman and valuable member of the South Carolina congressional delegation."

He did not comment on the censure or say whether he would endorse Rice in the primary. While the primary is still about 16 months away, Rice spoke in support of Graham at his 2020 reelection campaign kickoff event in Myrtle Beach 14 months before Graham faced three GOP primary challengers.

U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman's spokesman Austin Livingston said that while the Rock Hill Republican, "obviously has a different view on impeachment, he knows Rep. Rice to be a solid conservative in the House, and a very strong proponent of President Trumps policies over the last four years."

"Both Rep. Rice and the SC GOPs Executive Committee have done incredible work for our state and the Republican Party over the years, and Rep. Norman is confident this will continue to be the case going forward," Livingston said.

Rice, for his part, said he does not expect his working relationship with the other South Carolina Republicans to change.

"We have a delegation of good people working hard to lift South Carolinians," Rice said. "Generally, we align on issues. When we don't, we debate, we vote, we shake hands and move on to the next."

Three days after the S.C. GOP's decision to censure him, Rice said party Chairman Drew McKissick still had not called him to talk about it directly.
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A child has been rushed to hospital in a serious condition after being struck by a car in Sydneys lower north shore on Wednesday morning.

The boy, 8, was struck by a four-wheel-drive Suzuki Jimny on Blaxland Street in Hunters Hill just after 8am.

Three ambulance crews and a Careflight helicopter arrived on the scene, where the boy had suffered head, facial and chest injuries.

He was treated at the scene before he was transported to the Childrens Hospital at Westmead in a serious condition.

NSW Ambulance Inspector David Morris urged the public to stay vigilant on the citys roads.

Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue.

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Which country makes the most fun-to-drive cars? The definition of what constitutes a fun car is variable and highly subjective. This is because the word 'fun' in itself is highly subjective. Fun is not something you can put your finger in, it's something you experience. So while you can quantify which country makes the most number of cars, which country makes the fastest cars etc, how exactly do you quantify which country makes the most fun cars? That's what this thread is all about.



Now, given that car companies these days are extremely global, the rules are:



1) The country of origin would be the country where the car brand was first established and/or attributes its heritage to. So, Mini is British (not French), Volvo is Swedish (not Chinese), Renault Kwid is French (despite sourcing most parts from India and being designed in India) etc. and the only Indian brands would be Tata and Mahindra (Maruti i.e Suzuki is Japanese).



2) If the cars are just rebadged cars from other brands like MGs, then the country origin would be that of the origin brand (eg. MG Hector would be Chinese)



Here are some of the contenders, feel free to add any I might've forgotten.



1) Germany



Ah Deutshland, the home of braadworst and the world's second-best beer. Germany makes the best cars in the world. Their three main car corporations - VW, BMW, and Mercedes are industry titans while VW has a range of brands that together absolutely dominates the car segments in the EU ranging from the VW Up! to the Bugatti Chiron. But are they are the most fun? In India, the VW Polo GT practically started the trend of dedicated sporty sub-10 lakh cars while brands like BMWs, Mercedes, and Porsche are the by-word for main-stream sportscars. When it comes to engineering, German wins by a big margin and more (except for EVs these days) but do they make the most fun cars in the world?



2) Japan



Ah Japan, the land of Godzilla which like its car companies has migrated to other Asian countries with more booming economies (Hong Kong in the case of Godzilla). While Japanese car brands are the most main-stream of all main-stream brands, these brands who are sitting on a pile of cash from selling ultra-reliable Camrys to Americans and Ultra-reliable Swifts to Indians have made some really fun cars - Supra, 86, NSX, 370Z, swift sport, Type R etc. Everyone who has driven a swift knows how fun it is and while the Toyota 86 despite being slower than a Camry V6 is easily the most fun car I've ever driven (and it was an automatic!)



3) USA



Ah America, which let's be honest at the end of the day is just a big American Corporation. America made muscle cars for the masses which were cheap unlike those Europeans during the 60s and 70s who only made fun cars for the elites. Americans know how to make fun cars despite what those Europeans say. Who on God's green earth thought putting a 707 Bhp engine in a rear-wheel-drive charger is a good idea? And then for balance, they made the Tesla Model 3 performance!



4) Italy



Ah La Italia, the only country to take romance and scandals more seriously than the French. I don't even need to explain anything here - Alfas, Fiats right up to Ferraris and Lambos. The question is, do the Italians make a car which is not fun?



5) UK



Ah Britain, the world's largest contributor of Independence days worldwide! Now, barely any British brands are really British anymore. They are owned by foreign companies or are downright engineered abroad. That's not to say that the British don't know how to make fun cars! Minis are known for their go-kart performance while JLR still isn't done putting supercharged V8s in every car they produce.



6) France



Ah France, the only country hated by each and every other European country! The French were actually known for its hot hatches in the 90s and the 2000s like the 205 GTI, Citroen Saxo and the Renault Clio (which is popular even today). The French know the real meaning of fun after all.



7) South Korea



Ah South Korea, the better Korea! They aren't really known for fun cars but the new N cars from Hyundai are really killing it while the Stinger is fast, fun and desirable as hell! The Koreans want to make more fun cars and they are succeeding.



8) China



Ah China, the country where Dragons are actually the good guys! Well, the Chinese make a lot of cars but not really fun ones. But they are really pulling ahead in the EV race which means in a world of EVs, the Chinese will probably make some fun cars. Offcourse, this is a future entrant.



9) India



Ah India, the country with more Engineers than populations of many European countries! Again, India is an up-and-coming player and the only real 'fun' car made specifically for that would be the JTP Tatas though current gen Tatas are generally fun according to the reviews. So, this is a future entrant as well.



7) Other European countries:



Well other European countries which only have one brand or aren't that famous for fun cars. Examples are Spain (Seat, Cupra), Sweden (Volvo), Czech republic (Skoda). I'm surprised that the Belgians and the Dutch have no real car brands left.



8) Other countries:



The thing is, no many other countries actually have car brands which make cars. Brazil, Mexico and Turkey produce a lot of cars but are from foreign brands. So, feel free to suggest more names.
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "Over 3 years ago, at an airline counter in Beijing, China, I was forced to unpack my bags and throw away personal items to meet weight restrictions. I was so embarrassed, as I did this in front of a line of annoyed travelers who looked on," said the inventor from Ellwood City, PA, "so I invented the No-Lift Portable Luggage Scale."

Transportation companies (airline, bus, train, cruise ships) are constantly revising the maximum luggage weight they will allow before fines are imposed or even bags refused. And now, many international airlines are limiting the weight of carry-on bags as well! My invention is the essential no-lift portable scale, which can be carried by any traveler to weigh their bags - anytime and anyplace.

Any luggage scale for sale today (whether mechanical or battery powered) requires a traveler to physically lift the piece to display the weight - sometimes in excess of 50 lbs.!

My patent-pending invention eliminates the need to lift heavy luggage in order to weigh it. It is efficient and user-friendly and eliminates the need for travelers to guess the physical weight thereby avoiding the embarrassment at the check-in counter and having to pay additional fees. The proposed cost of my invention would be less than the fees for one bag that was overweight. My invention features an accurate, compact, lightweight, durable and water-resistant design that is convenient to transport and store in any carry-on bag or backpack. My device has a rechargeable battery to supply power to a large backlit electronic display. Bluetooth technology is also integrated into my design to connect with a smartphone application to display the weight in lbs. or kg.

The original design was submitted to the Pittsburgh sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 19-PIT-1085, 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.

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MOSCOW - A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years, finding that he violated the terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. The ruling ignited protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Police stand blocking approaches to the street as protesters try to break through during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. Thousands of people have taken to the streets across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up the wave of nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. Hundreds have been detained by police. (AP Photo/Valentin Egorshin)

MOSCOW - A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years, finding that he violated the terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. The ruling ignited protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission.

After the verdict that was announced about 8 p.m., protesters converged on areas of central Moscow and gathered on St. Petersburg's main avenue, Nevsky Prospekt.

Helmeted riot police grabbed demonstrators without obvious provocation and put them in police vehicles. The Meduza website showed video of police roughly pulling a passenger and driver out of a taxi.

Police detain a man during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Siberian city of Omsk, Russia, on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. Thousands of people took to the streets Sunday across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up the wave of nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. Hundreds were detained by police. (AP Photo)

The ruling came despite massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends and Western calls to free the 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner.

We reiterate our call for the Russian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Navalny, as well as the hundreds of other Russian citizens wrongfully detained in recent weeks for exercising their rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after the ruling.

The protests lasted until about 1 a.m. About 650 people were arrested, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests.

The prison sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and politically motivated.

Navalny was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from his five-month convalescence in Germany from the attack, which he has blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny any involvement. Despite tests by several European labs, Russian authorities said they have no proof he was poisoned.

Detained protesters walk escorted by police during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. Thousands of people took to the streets Sunday across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up the wave of nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. Hundreds were detained by police. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

As the order was read, Navalny smiled and pointed to his wife Yulia in the courtroom and traced the outline of a heart on the glass cage where he was being held. Everything will be fine, he told her as guards led him away.

Earlier in the proceedings, Navalny attributed his arrest to Putins fear and hatred," saying the Russian leader will go down in history as a poisoner.

I have deeply offended him simply by surviving the assassination attempt that he ordered, he said.

The aim of this hearing is to scare a great number of people, Navalny added. You can't jail the entire country."

Russias penitentiary service said Navalny violated the probation conditions of his suspended sentence from the 2014 conviction. It asked the court to turn his 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into one that he must serve in prison, although about a year he spent under house arrest will be counted as time served.

In this handout photo provided by Moscow City Court Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny talks to one of his lawyers, left, while standing in the cage during a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. (Moscow City Court via AP)

Navalny emphasized that the European Court of Human Rights ruled that his 2014 conviction was unlawful and Russia paid him compensation in line with the ruling.

Navalny and his lawyers have argued that while he was recovering in Germany from the poisoning, he couldn't register with Russian authorities in person as required by his probation. He also insisted that his due process rights were crudely violated during his arrest and described his jailing as a travesty of justice.

I came back to Moscow after I completed the course of treatment, Navalny said during Tuesday's hearing. What else could I have done?

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets the past two weekends to demand Navalny's release and chant slogans against Putin. On Sunday, police detained more than 5,750 people nationwide, which was the biggest one-day total in Russia since Soviet times. Most were released after being handed a court summons, and they face fines or jail terms of seven to 15 days, although several face criminal charges of violence against police.

I am fighting and will keep doing it even though I am now in the hands of people who love to put chemical weapons everywhere and no one would give three kopecks for my life, Navalny said.

Servicemen of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) gather at the Red Square to prevent a protest rally in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. A Moscow court has ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had earlier denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

Navalny's team called for a demonstration Tuesday outside the Moscow courthouse, but police were out in force, cordoning off nearby streets and making random arrests. More than 320 people were detained, according to OVD-Info.

Some Navalny supporters still managed to approach the building. A young woman climbed a pile of snow across the street and held up a poster saying Freedom to Navalny. Less than a minute later, a police officer took her away.

Before the ruling, authorities also cordoned off Red Square and other parts of central Moscow, as well as Palace Square in St. Petersburg, anticipating protests. Police flooded the centres of both cities.

In court, Navalny thanked protesters for their courage and urged other Russians not to fear repression.

Millions can't be jailed, he said. You have stolen people's future and you are now trying to scare them. I'm urging all not to be afraid."

Police block the Palace Square to stop Navalny supporters during a protest in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. A Moscow court has ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had earlier denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Observers noted that authorities want Navalny in prison, fearing he could run an efficient campaign against the main Kremlin party, United Russia, in September's parliamentary election. If Navalny remains free, he is absolutely capable of burying the Kremlins plans regarding the outcome of the Duma election," said political analyst Abbas Gallyamov.

After his arrest, Navalnys team released a two-hour YouTube video about an opulent Black Sea residence allegedly built for Putin. It has been viewed over 100 million times, fueling discontent as ordinary Russians struggle with an economic downturn, the coronavirus and widespread corruption during Putin's years in office.

Putin insisted that neither he nor his relatives own any of the properties mentioned in the video, and his longtime confidant, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, claimed that he owns it.

As part of efforts to squelch the protests, authorities have targeted Navalnys associates and activists across the country. His brother Oleg, top ally Lyubov Sobol and several others were put under house arrest for two months and face criminal charges of violating coronavirus restrictions.

The jailing of Navalny and the crackdown on protests have stoked international outrage.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the "perverse ruling, targeting the victim of a poisoning rather than those responsible, shows Russia is failing to meet the most basic commitments expected of any responsible member of the international community.

Russia has dismissed the criticism as meddling in its domestic affairs and said Navalny's current situation is a procedural matter for the court, not an issue for the government.

A Russian citizen sentenced by Russian court in accordance with Russian laws. Who gave US the right to judge if it was wrongful or not? Wouldnt you mind your own business, gentlemen? Recent events show that there are a lot of things for you to mend!, Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, said on Twitter.

More than a dozen Western diplomats attended the hearing. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said their presence was part of efforts by the West to contain Russia, adding that it could be an attempt to exert psychological pressure on the judge.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is ready for dialogue about Navalny, but sternly warned it wouldn't take Western criticism into account.

We are ready to patiently explain everything, but we aren't going to react to mentor-style statements or take them into account, Peskov told reporters.

Jim Heintz in Moscow and Jill Lawless in London contributed.
New Delhi: A blanket of toxic haze engulfs the national capital, on Nov 13, 2019. The Delhi air quality index (AQI) is at emergency levels again on Wednesday with an overall count of 476 and not much relief is expected for the next two days till Frid Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Feb 2 : The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has informed the Supreme Court that the continuous ambient air quality monitoring system (CAAQMS) data for Delhi reveals that the annual concentration of PM (particulate matter) has decreased gradually since 2016.

"Despite the increase in the number of vehicles, growing population, increased industrial activities and adverse meteorology, there has been a consistent improvement in air quality, resulting in 38 per cent reduction in PM 10 and 30 per cent in PM 2.5 in 2020 with respect to 2016 in Delhi," said an affidavit filed by the MoEF&CC.

The ministry in the affidavit submitted the details of the steps taken by the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and adjoining areas to prevent and control air pollution in Delhi-NCR.

In 2016, which has been taken as the base year, PM 2.5 (ug/m3) was 135, which was reduced to 124 in 2017 (a drop of 8 per cent). In 2019, PM 2.5 was reduced to 109 (a drop of 19 per cent). In 2020, there was a 30 per cent drop in PM 2.5, which was at 95.

PM 10 (ug/m3) in the 2016 base year was 291. In 2017, it was reduced to 266 (a drop of 9 per cent), and in 2018 PM 10 dropped to 243 (a drop of 16 per cent). In 2020, PM 10 was 181, a drop of 38 per cent from the base year.

The affidavit has also given details on comparative air quality index status of Delhi from 2016 to 2020.

In 2020, the air quality was good on five days (between 0-50) and it was severe (>401) for 15 days. Whereas in 2016, the air quality was severe for 25 days and barring 2017, when it was severe for seven days, the air quality has been in severe category for more than 20 days.

"Improvement was noted in 2020 in comparison to 2016 with the number of good, satisfactory and moderate days increasing to 227 against 108 in 2016, and the number of poor, very poor and severe days decreased to 139 against 246 in 2016," added the affidavit.

The affidavit cited that stubble burning incidents had increased in Punjab in 2020, recording a 15 per cent rise in comparison to 2017 figures, when 67,079 such incidents were reported.

"In Haryana, continuous reduction in number of fire incidents has been reported in comparison to the fire events of 2017. The reduction was by 42 per cent in 2018, 106 per cent in 2019 and 130 per cent in 2020. In Uttar Pradesh, reduction in number of fire events has been reported in comparison to the fire events of 2017 which were 33 per cent in 2018, 108 per cent in 2019 and 89 per cent in 2020," said the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, the number of fire incidents at landfill sites came down in the last three years. The dumpsite at Bhalswa reported three fire incidents in 2020, compared to 100 in 2018; The Ghazipur dumpsite reported 6 fire incidents in 2020, while no fire incident was reported at Okhla and Bandhwari dumpsites.

The Commission for Air Quality Management was formed on November 5 last year, within a week after the Centre issued an ordinance to set it up.

In December last year, the Supreme Court had said that it was "not satisfied" with the work done by the commission, constituted by the Centre to tackle air pollution.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, had submitted that the commission was working on a war footing and several steps were taken by it. The top court, which made these observations while hearing a PIL filed by a minor seeking ban on stubble burning, had adjourned the matter for further hearing in January 2021.

(Sumit Saxena can be contacted at sumit.s@ians.in)
The Supreme Courts hearing in the presidential election petition filed by John Dramani Mahama on the 30th of December 2020 is ongoing.



Cross-examination of the Petitioners first witness, Johnson Aseidu Nketia by the 2nd Respondent is expected to continue and possibly end Monday. This write up seeks to summarize activities from the proceedings from last week and further explain the key process that was before the court.



Tuesday 26th January 2021



The Petitioner had several motions before the Court; Stay of Proceedings Pending the determination of Review, Leave to file additional grounds for Review, and the Review application itself and Abridgment of Time.



Review Application is a right opened to a party to basically challenge a decision of the Supreme Court on the ground of exceptional circumstances. This is rarely granted by the court as the court position is that litigation must come to an end.



Stay of Proceedings Motion is basically a legal step taken by a party to suspend the further continuation of a case until an event happens. In this instance the Petitioner wanted the entire hearing of the case to be suspended until his review motion had been held.



Leave to File additional grounds and further supplement arguments have the effect of seeking to further amend the review application filed by the Petitioner. Abridgement of Time Motion is a process that is filed by a party to reduce the time for an event to happen. In this regard, the ECs lawyers wanted the Review Motion which was meant to be heard by the court on Thursday to be brought to Tuesday to ensure speedy and effective justice.



It will be recalled that, before these Applications being filed, the Court had made an order for parties to file their respective witness statements and legal submissions. The Witness Statement basically means a document containing the oral testimony of parties and their witnesses together with their evidence, be it documents, audio or video. The Legal Arguments related to the preliminary legal objection filed by the Respondents that the Petition should be dismissed.



In the petitioners defence of failing to file his Witness Statement and written submission in response to the Preliminary Legal Objection he stated that having filed a motion for stay of proceedings, he didnt comply with the order because he did not want to be deemed to have taken any fresh step which will prejudice his case and defeat the purpose of filing the application for stay of proceedings. This did not sit well with the panel as they stated that the petitioner ought to have complied with pre-existing orders made by the Court before the Petitioner filing the application for stay.



The Court proceeded to give a further direction stating that it will not countenance non-compliance of its orders and rehashed its powers under CI 99 to strike out a petition for failure to comply with orders of the court as such, the petitioner was once again ordered to go and file his witness statements and response to a legal submission before he will be granted audience on his pending motions before the Court.



Thursday 28th January 2021



At the beginning of the proceedings for the day, Counsel for the Petitioner withdrew the application for Stay of proceedings for which the Court struck out as being withdrawn. Similarly, the 1st Respondent also withdrew his application for Abridgment of Time for the Application for Review and same was struck out as being withdrawn. This was because the said processes which were all meant to be heard on Tuesday had become moot and overtaken by events.



Counsel for the Petitioner then proceeded to move his Motion for leave to file additional grounds for the Application for review and leave to supplement the Statement of Case for the Application for Review of the ruling of the Court on interrogatories on 19th January 2021.



The panel was reconstituted and Amadu Tanko and Mensah Bonsu JJSC were added to the original panel for the motions to be moved and heard.



On the Application for Leave to file additional Grounds and Supplement to Statement of Case, Counsel for the Petitioner, relied on several cases to establish a pattern and precedent which he believed was basis enough for the Court to exercise its Jurisdiction in his favour.



The Court dismissed the application stating that the Rules of Court did not provide for such application and consequently cannot be allowed.



After the application was dismissed the Petitioner proceeded to move his substantive Review Application.



Counsel for the Petitioner in moving the Application for Review of the Courts ruling given on 19th January 2021 on interrogatories argued extensively on why the Court should take a second look at its earlier ruling on interrogatories.



Mr Tsikata cited the case of ABUBAKAR, GCON and 2 OTHERS v. YARADUA and 5 OTHERS (SC 72/2008) [2008] 10 (12 December 2008)a Nigerian case where the Nigerian Supreme Court had held that denial to grant leave to a party to serve interrogatories was a breach against a persons right to a fair hearing.



Counsel for Respondents argued that Mr Tsikata had failed to discharge the test as provided under rule 54 of CI 16 for which reason the court should dismiss his application.



Rule 54 of C.I. 16 which provides that:



The Court may review any decision made or given by it on any of the following grounds:

a. exceptional circumstances which have resulted in miscarriage of justice.

b. discovery of new and important matter or evidence which, after the exercise of due diligence was not within the applicants knowledge or could not be produced by him at the time when the decision was made.



In essence Counsel for the Respondents submitted that all that Mr Tsikata had done was to re-echo his arguments earlier canvassed in the substantive motion and had failed to demonstrate to the Court any exceptional or special circumstance that had resulted in the miscarriage of Justice.





The Court after hearing the arguments of counsel for the parties held that it was not satisfied that the applicant had been able to meet or discharge the test on the grounds for review as stipulated in the Rules of Court and accordingly, again, unanimously dismissed the application. The court adjourned the Petition to Friday, 29 January 2021 for hearing.



Friday 29th January 2021



Counsel for the Petitioner informed the Court that Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia was ready and available to testify. Mr Asiedu Nketia subsequently took the oath and his Witness Statement was adopted as his evidence in chief.



Objection to Paragraphs in Witness Statement



Lawyer for the 2nd Respondent objected to parts of the Witness Statement of Mr Asiedu Nketia because they were not based on the pleadings and unduly prejudicial and scandalous.



The position of the law is that the testimony of a witness must be based on his case that he had presented in court which is his Petition. The objections were in respect of paragraphs 21, 6, 7, 25, 26, 28, 30, 32, 33, and 37



Mr Amenuvor, Counsel for the 1st Respondent associated himself with the objections raised by Lawyer Akoto Ampaw.



Mr Tsikata opposed the objections and argued that the Witness Statement of Mr Asiedu Nketia was supported by the pleadings and Material to his case .

The Court in its ruling held that paragraphs



6and 7 ought to be struck out as the witness (Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia) cannot testify on the facts in the said paragraphs.

Paragraph 25 and 26 were struck out as same was not based on the pleadings,



paragraph 26 was also struck out on the basis that it had no foundation in the pleadings.

Paragraph 28 according to the Court was not borne out of the pleadings and the same was accordingly struck out.



In respect to paragraph 30, the court was of the view that it had no foundation in the pleadings as it just referred to C.I. 127 which the witness cannot testify to.



However, in respect of paragraphs 32 and 33 the court was of the view that it was based on the pleadings and therefore maintained it. In respect to paragraph 37, the Court stated that it was just an inference to be drawn and not evidence and therefore proceeded to strike it out.



Out of the 10 objections raised by Mr Akoto Ampaw, the Court maintained 3 of the paragraphs of the Witness Statement of Mr Asiedu Nketia and struck out 7 which were expunged them from the Witness Statement of Asiedu Nketia.



Commencement of Cross-Examination:



Mr Amenuvor began and completed his cross-examination of Mr Asiedu Nketia. Mr Asiedu Nketia stated under cross-examination that the Petitioner was in court to challenge the performance of the constitutional obligations of the Electoral Commission.



Lawyer Akoto Ampaw commenced his cross-examination, he requested to play a video he had attached to the witness statement of the 2nd Respondent however the video facilities were not readily available in Court. The Court therefore adjourned the case to Monday 1st February 2021 for the continuation of Cross-examination of Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah.









Source: Dennislaw Media









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Guam residents requiring emergency medical care are allowed to enter the Philippines on a case-by-case basis, the governor's office announced Tuesday.

The Office of the Governor's Medical Referral Assistance Office, its Philippines medical referral coordinator, PhilMD, and St. Luke's Medical Center's International Business Relations Group are working closely with the Philippine Department of Health, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Consulate Office in Guam, to coordinate medical emergency care for Guam residents, the press release states.

"As we continue to respond to COVID-19, we cannot forget that regular medical care is necessary and sometimes patients need more services than what we can provide here on our island," Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero stated in a press release. "We want to thank our Medical Referral Office, PhilMD, the Philippine Consulate Office, and the Philippines Department of Health and the Department of Foreign Affairs for allowing Guam residents access to crucial medical care during the pandemic."

For more information regarding medical emergency referral coordination for the Philippines:

 Call: 637-5433/489-5433

 Email: info.philmd@teleguam.net
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(Newser)  Bloodshed among a sea of white in Pennsylvania, where three people ended up dead after a Monday morning dispute about snow shoveling. Plains Township Police say they responded to a call on West Bergh Street and found the bodies of James and Lisa Goy outside. CNN cites a press release from the Luzerne County District Attorney's Office that says James, 50, and his 48-year-old wife had been shoveling snow from their parking spots on the street onto the property of Jeffrey Spaide, 47. Spaide allegedly asked them to stop doing so and an argument ensued. Per the release, Spaide collected a handgun from his house then shot the couple outside at "close range." He then allegedly went back inside, fetched an AR-style rifle, and shot again at the Goys, "executing" the wounded couple, per Plains Township Police Chief Dale Binker.

story continues below

Police say that after arriving on the scene they heard a single gunshot emanate from Spaide's home and believe it it was the shot that killed him. "We can confirm that a pistol was used and a long gun, but we have not been able to yet confirm the type of long gun that was used," says Luzerne County First Assistant District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce, per WNEP. Luzerne describes the dispute about snow as a long-running one. "They're across the street from each other, and when they would remove snow they would throw it across the street at the other person's property," the Citizens' Voice quotes him as saying. The Goys leave behind a 15-year-old son with autism whose grandparents will now have custody. (Read more snow shoveling stories.)
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The Police in Abuja, on Tuesday, confirmed the kidnap of John Makama, father of Bwari Area Council Chairman, John Gabaya.

The divisional police officer (DPO), in charge of Bwari Police Station, Biodun Makanjuola, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Mr Makanjuola said that the incident took place at about 1 a.m. on Tuesday, adding that the police were gathering details of what actually transpired.

He said that the victim was kidnapped alongside his two other siblings, adding that the police were strategising to rescue them unhurt.

A family member of Mr Makama told NAN on condition of anonymity, that the gunmen stormed the home of the victim and shot sporadically into the air.

The source said the gunmen initially seized Mr Makama, his wife, simply referred to as Mama, and two others, but released Mama after her husbands plea.

According to the source, the kidnappers left a contact number to reach them, and had already requested for an undisclosed amount to be paid as ransom before the victims would be released.

(NAN)
WASHINGTON (AP)  Tom Vilsack, President Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of agriculture, pledged Tuesday to focus on climate change initiatives and work to address racial inequities in agricultural assistance programs.

Vilsack, who testified before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, would bring much on-the-job experience to the position. In addition to serving two terms as the governor of Iowa, he spent eight years as President Barack Obama's Agriculture Secretary.

In his opening remarks, Vilsack, 70, sought to dispel concerns that he would be coming to the job with antiquated ideas.

I realize that I am back again. But I also realize that this is a fundamentally different time, he said, referencing a need to rebuild parts of the country's agricultural infrastructure in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The reality is we lacked openness, fairness and competitiveness and resiliency, as the COVID-19 crisis has shown, in many of our agricultural markets, he said.

In his testimony, Vilsack heavily endorsed boosting climate-friendly agricultural industries such as the creation of biofuels.

Agriculture is one of our first and best ways to get some wins in this climate area, he said.

He proposed building a rural economy based on biomanufacturing and turning agricultural waste into a variety of products. He pledged to work closely with the Environmental Protection Agency to spur the industry on biofuels.

Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa questioned whether Vilsack's commitment to biofuels would clash with the Biden administration's public commitment to switch the federal vehicle fleet to electric cars and trucks.

We're going to need both, he responded, saying there was room for both climate-friendly industries to thrive and pointing out that the Navy has begun to deploy warships that run partially on biofuel.

With systemic racial inequity now a nationwide talking point, Vilsack said the Agriculture Department needed to seriously examine if it was sufficiently supporting farmers of color.

He envisioned an equity taskforce to identify what he called intentional or unintentional barriers that make it difficult for people to access the programs.

Sonny Perdue, agriculture secretary in the Trump administration, sought to purge hundreds of thousands of people from the SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program  commonly known as food stamps. That effort was defeated in court, and Vilsack said the SNAP program was particularly vital to the country's recovery from the pandemic.

He said he wanted his department to work directly with governors across the country to make sure SNAP benefits were being accessed smoothly and to address the issue of food deserts in low-income communities.

Its all well and good to give someone a SNAP card and say, Go to your local grocery store and buy more food," he said. "Thats great, assuming you have a grocery store. But if you dont have a grocery store, what then?

Vilsack seems to enjoy bipartisan support and faced no serious criticism from Republicans on the committee. Senators from both parties seemed to treat his confirmation as a foregone conclusion, and at one point New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand referred to Vilsack as "Mr. soon-to-be Secretary.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 2, 2021 - 21:15 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Some people in Japan expressed anxiety Tuesday about the economic and social impact of the government's one-month extension of a coronavirus state of emergency for Tokyo and nine other prefectures.

In the Marunouchi business district in Tokyo, Hiroshi Aso, 47, said, "As the number of infections has not decreased so much, the extension seems unavoidable."

However, Aso, who was on his way to work before the government extended the state of emergency to March 7, said he did not feel that the remote working adopted by his company was "too much of a hassle."

Osamu Kondo, a 53-year-old taxi driver, said the extension "cannot be helped," but added he felt a hit to his hip pocket as taxis are competing for fewer and fewer passengers.

Kondo, who was interviewed while in a taxi rank in front of JR Tokyo Station, said he had been working days rather than nights as many eateries are closing at 8 p.m., in line with a Tokyo metropolitan government request made when the state of emergency was reinstated in January.

Under the state of emergency, the government has also urged people to refrain from unnecessary outings.

In Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Keiko Tanaka, 57, who works at an eatery, complained that the amount of compensation paid to businesses complying with closure requests was insufficient.

A 20-year-old university student also in the western Japan city said his part-time working hours had been reduced and he hopes the emergency "will be lifted (by the government) after assessing the situation."

Meanwhile, Tochigi Prefecture, north of the capital, saw the emergency declaration lifted as the coronavirus situation has significantly improved.

In Tochigi's capital Utsunomiya, Masataka Inoue, 48, who works at a clothing retailer, said more people had been coming to the store since last weekend following news reports that the state of emergency would be lifted in the prefecture.

"While I'm expecting the return of customers who had avoided shopping, I'm also worried that infections will increase again if people are less careful (in taking anti-virus steps)," Inoue said.

Japanese business leaders, meanwhile, largely expressed understanding for the government's decision, given the current severe strain on the health care system.

"It is necessary for all people and business operators to cooperate as one" to ride out the pandemic, Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, known as Keidanren, said in a statement.

Nakanishi also requested that the government sufficiently address the impact of the extended measure on people's daily lives and the Japanese economy.

Kengo Sakurada, head of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, told reporters the government's decision could have a negative impact but was "inevitable."

"However, I believe the whole of Japan will not suffer catastrophic damage," he said, citing the relatively small number of corporate bankruptcies last year.

Related coverage:

Japan to extend virus emergency to March 7 as hospitals strained

Tokyo's daily coronavirus cases drop to 393, total tops 100,000

Tokyo Jan. virus cases near 40,000, double from previous monthly high
H2 Health acquisitions

include local firm

Three transactions completed on Dec. 31 by H2 Health, an outpatient rehabilitation firm that has a presence in nine states, include the acquisition of Good Physical Therapy, which has a site at 48 Tunnel Road, Pottsville.

The moves, according to an H2 Health press release, aim at growth and strengthening strategic networks for the H2 system.

The H2 transactions also included a merger agreement with Greenbrier Valley Physical Therapy, operator of 11 physical therapy clinics and third-party rehabilitation management, and the closing of a $27.5 million credit facility with BMO Harris Banks Sponsor Finance team to assist with working capital management and strategic growth, according to the release.

Good Physical Therapy has two central Pennsylvania locations. In addition to its Pottsville facility, it has a Kenhorst-Shillington setup at 600 High Blvd., Kenhorst.

The closing of these transactions positions H2 as the largest provider of therapy services throughout the Blue Ridge and adjacent regions, Guy Sansone, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officers of H2 Health, said in the release.

Sansone said the deal with BMO Sponsor Finance strengthens H2s balance sheet and provides strategic growth capital.

With the moves, H2 Health has 27 locations within its Blue Ridge Mountain Region, and the Good Physical Therapy acquisition increases its network to 16 locations along the I-81 corridor in central and eastern Pennsylvania, according to the release.

Good Physical Therapy can be reached by calling 570-622-0182. Appointments can be made by going online to goodptnow.com. Sansone can be reached by calling 646-642-6263 or via email to gsansone@h2health.com.

Two to reopen Eagle Mart site

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN  Entrepreneurs Ravi Panchal, Bethlehem, and Mike Sonu Patel, Whitehall Township, plan to reopen buildings they bought that were formerly used as the Eagle Mart gas station, convenience store and beer distributor at Route 61, and reopen the site as Blue Mountain Travel Plaza and Blue Mountain Beer Depot including a Dunkin setup, referring to Dunkin Donuts.

According to a press release, Jeff Barber, of Lehigh Financial Group LLC, Allentown, obtained Small Business Administration small business financing for the brothers-in-law to purchase and overhaul the property, which had been vacant for several years. Panchal and Patel, who bought the property at an auction, closed on the loan at the end of December.

Panchal said in the release he and Patel plan a complete redo of the property, including installing new gas pumps and diesel fuel, adding features to make it a mini-truck stop and adding a drive-thru Dunkin to the convenience store. They also plan to add more merchandise and food offerings and to significantly upgrade the interior of the beer distributorship.

They hope to have a grand opening in May, when the work is anticipated to be complete. Currently, work has been slowed as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Panchal and Patel also own two gas stations/convenience stores in the Lehigh Valley, one in Northampton and the other in Allentown.

For more on Lehigh Financial Group LLC, go to its website at www.lehighfinancialgroup.com.

A to Z Food Mart now open downtownSHENANDOAH  The A to Z Food Mart, a newly remodeled business outlet at the northwest corner of Main and Lloyd streets, has opened for business at the site that once housed Triangle Shoes and, most recently, was part of the Bargain Anney variety business complex.

In the 100 block of North Main Street, it previously was mentioned by the revitalization group Downtown Shenandoah Inc. as a sign of interest and development resulting from DSIs planned innovation building, the Center for Education, Business and Arts, on which construction is to begin this year on the east side of the street in a section that previously housed a JCPenney store, Karvois Cleaners and Davisons Furniture.

A to Z is among several business initiatives that have begun or are underway in the communitys commercial district, according to the periodic Downtown Shenandoah Update, which tracks business and commercial developments in the borough.

Overall, projects have been slowed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which remains a threat despite vaccines that have been developed to counter its life-threatening danger.

Other developments have included the reopening of the Lyric, a landmark Shenandoah eatery and tavern that originally was a movie theater at the northeast corner of Centre and Jardin streets. Dwight Williams, Philadelphia, bought the site from John P. and Kathleen M. Phillips, who had been the Lyrics longtime owners and operators.

Ongoing work at the largest downtown storefront, the former Woolworths in the first block of North Main Street, which was vacant for many years, has been noted for several weeks now. However, there has been no announcement about the goal of the preparation.

New train station for Mahanoy City?

MAHANOY CITY  A new train station at the site where a previous station once stood in the community?

The possibility is being addressed, Jeff Bowers, Mahanoy Area Chamber of Commerce president, told eight chamber directors on hand for a meeting held Jan. 27 at City Seafood.

The station idea was among a few items Bowers said are still being addressed and added he hopes to have more information about the topic for the February meeting.

Tamaqua in eastern Schuylkill has train service and is even slated for passenger train service with its refurbished historic train station and the recent installation of a platform area at the station to accommodate train passengers. Train service to Mahanoy City is within the realm of possibility.

Bowers also updated directors on Cares Act Phase 4, which includes a second round of Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance grants and Paycheck Protection Program loans. He said the chamber will coordinate a meeting for area small businesses with the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce, according to a Mahanoy chamber meeting release.

The chamber acknowledged a donation of $2,100 from the Mary Comerford Charitable Trust for the community Christmas street lighting program. Other donations for the 2020 holiday lighting program totaled $1,702.55.

Directors also noted a new business on East Centre Street, Jennifer Coleman State Farm Insurance. Another business, a coffee shop and restaurant, is in the works at the former Jones News Agency building.

The next chamber meeting is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, at the Village Inn.
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[February 02, 2021] Salesforce Announces Extension of the Expiration Date for Consent Solicitation

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), a Delaware corporation (the "Company") announced today the extension of the expiration date of its previously announced solicitation of consents (the "Consent Solicitation"), on behalf of Slack Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Slack"), to adopt certain proposed amendments (the "Amendments") to the indenture, dated as of April 9, 2020 (the "Indenture"), among Slack and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee, governing Slack's $862,500,000 in aggregate principal amount of 0.50% Convertible Senior Notes due 2025 (the "Slack Notes"). The Company hereby extends such expiration date from 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on February 1, 2021, to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on February 5, 2021 (as the same may be further extended, the "Expiration Date"). Holders of Slack Notes who have previously delivered consents in connection with the Consent Solicitation do not need to redeliver such consents or take any other action in response to this announcement in order to consent to the Consent Solicitation. The Consent Solicitation is being made upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the consent solicitation statement, dated as of January 26, 2021 (as amended hereby and as the same may be amended or supplemented from time to time, the "Consent Solicitation Statement"). Except as set forth herein with respect to the Expiration Date, the terms and conditions of the Consent Solicitation, as well as the proposed Amendments to the Indenture, remain the same as set forth and described in the Consent Solicitation Statement. The Company reserves the absolute right, subject to applicable laws, to amend, waive or modify the terms of the Consent Solicitation with respect to the Slack Notes in any manner. For a complete statement of the terms and conditions of the Consent Solicitation, Holders of the Slack Notes should refer to the Consent Solicitation Statement. As previously announced, on December 1, 2020, the Company, Skyline Strategies I Inc., a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company ("Merger Sub I"), Skyline Strategies II LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company ("Merger Sub II"), and Slack executed an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") providing for the merger of Merger Sub I with and into Slack, with Slack continuing as the surviving corporation (the "First Merger"), immediately followed by a second merger of Slack, as the surviving corporation in the First Merger, into either Merger Sub II or the Company, with either Merger Sub II or the Company continuing as the surviving company, as applicable (the "Second Merger" and together with the First Merger, the "Mergers"). The obligations of the Company, Slack and the other parties to the Merger Agreement to consummate the Mergers in accordance with the terms thereof are not conditioned on the successful completion of the Consent Solicitation or on obtaining the requisite consents to the Amendments. The Solicitation Agent in connection with the Consent Solicitation is BofA Securities. Questions regarding the consent solicitation may be directed to BofA Securities at (980) 388-3646 or debt_advisory@bofa.com. Global Bondholder Services Corporation is serving as information agent (the "Information Agent") and tabulation agent in connection with the Consent Solicitation. Requests for assistance in delivering consents or for additional copies of the Consent Solicitation Statement should be directed to the Information Agent at (866) 470-4500 (toll free) or (212) 430-3774 (banks and brokers). This announcement is not an offer to purchase, a solicitation of an offer to purchase, or a solicitation of consents with respect to any securities. The Consent Solicitation is being made solely by the Consent Solicitation Statement and is subject to the terms and conditions stated therein. The Company reserves the right to modify the Consent Solicitation Statement or to terminate the Consent Solicitation. About Salesforce Salesforce, the global CRM leader, empowers companies of every size and industry to digitally transform and create a 360 view of their customers. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.



Forward-Looking Statements This communication relates to a proposed business combination transaction between the Company and Slack. This communication includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements relate to future events and anticipated results of operations, business strategies, the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction, the anticipated impact of the proposed transaction on the combined company's business and future financial and operating results, the expected amount and timing of synergies from the proposed transaction, the anticipated closing date for the proposed transaction and other aspects of our operations or operating results. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "foresees," "forecasts," "estimates" or other words or phrases of similar import. It is uncertain whether any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do, what impact they will have on the results of operations and financial condition of the combined companies or the price of the Company's or Slack's stock. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the parties' control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: the impact of public health crises, such as pandemics (including coronavirus (COVID-19)) and epidemics and any related company or government policies and actions to protect the health and safety of individuals or government policies or actions to maintain the functioning of national or global economies and markets; the effect of the announcement of the merger on the ability of the Company or Slack to retain and hire key personnel and maintain relationships with customers, suppliers and others with whom the Company or Slack do business, or on the Company's or Slack's operating results and business generally; risks that the merger disrupts current plans and operations and the potential difficulties in employee retention as a result of the merger; the outcome of any legal proceedings related to the merger; the ability of the parties to consummate the proposed transaction on a timely basis or at all; the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to consummation of the proposed transaction, including the ability to secure regulatory approvals on the terms expected, at all or in a timely manner; the ability of the Company to successfully integrate Slack's operations; the ability of the Company to implement its plans, forecasts and other expectations with respect to the Company's business after the completion of the transaction and realize expected synergies; and business disruption following the merger. These risks, as well as other risks related to the proposed transaction, are included in the registration statement on Form S-4 (as amended, the "Registration Statement") that was filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and declared effective by the SEC on January 29, 2021, the prospectus that was filed by the Company with the SEC on January 29, 2021 (the "Prospectus") and the definitive proxy statement that was filed by Slack with the SEC on January 29, 2021 (the "Proxy Statement"). While the list of factors presented here is, and the list of factors presented in the Registration Statement, Prospectus or Proxy Statement are, considered representative, no such list should be considered to be a complete statement of all potential risks and uncertainties. For additional information about other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Company's and Slack's respective periodic reports and other filings with the SEC, including the risk factors identified in the Company's and Slack's most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Reports on Form 10-K. The forward-looking statements included in this communication are made only as of the date hereof. Neither the Company nor Slack undertakes any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.

No Offer or Solicitation This communication is not intended to and shall not constitute an offer to buy or sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities, or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made, except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Additional Information about the Merger and Where to Find It In connection with the proposed transaction, the Company filed with the SEC the Registration Statement and the Prospectus, and Slack filed with the SEC the Proxy Statement. The Registration Statement was declared effective on January 29, 2021 and the Prospectus and the Proxy Statement were first mailed to shareholders of Slack on or about January 29, 2021. Each of the Company and Slack may also file other relevant documents with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction. The information in the Prospectus and Proxy Statement may be changed. This document is not a substitute for the Registration Statement, the Prospectus and the Proxy Statement or any other document that the Company or Slack may file with the SEC. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT, THE PROSPECTUS AND THE PROXY STATEMENT AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS THAT MAY BE FILED WITH THE SEC, AS WELL AS ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS TO THESE DOCUMENTS, CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN OR WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. Investors and security holders are able to obtain free copies of the Registration Statement, the Prospectus and the Proxy Statement and all other documents containing important information about the Company, Slack and the proposed transaction, once such documents are filed with the SEC, through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by the Company may be obtained free of charge on the Company's website at http://www.salesforce.com/investor or by contacting the Company's Investor Relations department at investor@salesforce.com. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Slack may be obtained free of charge on Slack's website at investor.slackhq.com or by contacting Slack's Investor Relations department at ir@slack.com. Participants in the Solicitation The Company, Slack and certain of their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the proposed transaction. Information about the directors and executive officers of the Company, including a description of their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is set forth in the Company's proxy statement for its 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on May 1, 2020, and the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020, which was filed with the SEC on March 5, 2020, as well as in a Form 8-K filed by the Company with the SEC on June 1, 2020. Information about the directors and executive officers of Slack, including a description of their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is set forth in Slack's proxy statement for its 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on May 5, 2020, and Slack's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020, which was filed with the SEC on March 12, 2020. Investors may obtain additional information regarding the interests of those persons and other persons who may be deemed participants in the proposed transaction by reading the Prospectus and the Proxy Statement and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction when such materials become available. Investors should read the Prospectus and the Proxy Statement carefully before making any voting or investment decisions. You may obtain free copies of these documents from the Company or Slack using the sources indicated above. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/salesforce-announces-extension-of-the-expiration-date-for-consent-solicitation-301219636.html SOURCE Salesforce

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Anthony Jackson, security coordinator for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, receives a dose of the new Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 19, 2021, at a new vaccine clinic set up on the Fred Hutch campus.

On the morning of Dec. 29, as a historic and harrowing year was drawing to a close, Dr. Steven Pergam bared his left shoulder to receive his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

An infectious disease physician-scientist at Seattles Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center  and a cancer and kidney transplant survivor himself  Pergam had plenty at stake in getting a safe and effective shot.

He described it as a moment of reflection, a time to remember those lost to the pandemic and the millions more patients and their families affected by it. The pandemic has preoccupied him for a full year, and it was crucial that the shots be safe to give to millions.

Last month Pergam sat on the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which reviewed results of last years massive clinical trials testing both the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. He voted to endorse their emergency use.

Now, as the U.S. grapples with the effort to distribute massive quantities of vaccine, the fundamental challenge is the more delicate task of persuading tens of millions of others it is safe to take it. A message of safety and clear benefit must overcome reasonable concerns sparked by the speed and trailblazing nature of the vaccine development effort.

That message is grounded in the results of those trials. They were structured to test the vaccines in enough people that, were some safety issue to arise, it would stand out in the data. Instead, the independent studies of both vaccines showed no significant safety concerns and found the two were more than 90% effective in preventing severe disease.

In laymans terms: amazingly good.

Vanishingly small risks

Some people on the fence about taking the vaccine might be convinced to get it by the shocking statistic that nearly one in every 800 Americans has already died from COVID-19  in less than a year. In comparison, the risks of an adverse reaction to a vaccine are vanishingly small.

Since the start of mass vaccinations last month, one side effect not detected in the clinical trial process emerged in small numbers of recipients  a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Although it has occurred rarely, at a rate of only 11 in every 1 million shots delivered, it is a serious reaction requiring a shot of adrenaline (the ingredient found in EpiPens carried by people with severe food allergies) and hospitalization. The CDC is closely monitoring these cases to find out if an ingredient of the vaccine might be responsible.
The government is preparing to bring stressed assets worth Rs 2.25 lakh crore under the proposed Bad Bank. The entity which will be entirely funded and managed by commercial banks, said two top bureaucrats in an exclusive interaction on February 2.

As per the plan, bad loans above Rs 500 crore will be brought under the entity from 68-70 accounts, they said. The entity will be floated soon.

But, the government - which has initiated consultations with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the proposed Bad Bank - will not have any direct participation in the proposed entity either in terms of funding or management control, said Debasish Panda (Secretary - Department of Financial services) and Tarun Bajaj (Secretary - Department of Economic Affairs) in the interview.

The funding will be done by banks from both the private sector and the public sector, they said. It is not clear what is initial capital estimated for setting up the Bad Bank.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on February 1, announced an entity in the form of an asset reconstruction company/asset management company commonly called a Bad Bankto help the banking system get rid of the existing stock of problematic loans.

A Bad Bank is defined as an entity that absorbs the existing stock of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in the banking system and attempts resolution through a professional approach.

Bad Bank to use 15:85 model

Explaining the details about Bad Bank, Panda said the Bad Bank would function in a 15:85 mechanism. It means that banks will get 15 percent upfront payment as cash and 85 percent value as receipts.

The government is not going to put any money, nor is it going to have any shareholding of Bad Bank, Panda said.

The comments from the top bureaucrats on governments passive participation in the Bad Bank is significant as the entire funding burden of Bad Bank will fall on the banking system. In May 2020, the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) had proposed the idea requesting the government to put in an initial capital of Rs10,000 crore. But, with the government bureaucrats clarifying that the Centre will not fork out money for Bad Bank, banks will have to shoulder the burden and operate the entity.

This will have capital implications on PSBs that own 60 percent of the assets in the banking system. Government has over 70 percent ownership in ten PSBs and over 90 percent in three.

Bad Bank to be floated soon

Panda said the Bad Bank will be floated soon in the ARC-AMC model and since banks have already made significant provisions, the capital burden on banks will not be huge.

These are those assets for which banks have already made provisioning. So there will not be any impact on the bank's balance sheet, Bajaj said. By selling these assets, banks will get enough capital, which have been blocked and it will fully fill the capital requirement of the banks too.

To be sure, the idea of a Bad Bank itself is not new. In 2018, the government announced a plan for PSBs called 'Project Sashakt', which had a five-point plan for bad loan resolution in public sector banks.

The government then spoke of a model, with the guiding principles of an Asset Management Company (AMC) resolution approach, under which an independent AMC would be set up to focus on asset turnaround, job creation and protection. The functions of this new company will be aligned with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process and IBC laws, the government said.

The government did not call it a Bad Bank then and made it clear that it won't get involved in the bad asset resolution process and the process will be led by banks. On January 27, Moneycontrol reported that a Bad Bank is likely to be announced in Budget 2021.

Nearly 8 percent of the total loans have gone bad (overdue more than 90 days) at this stage. In a recent interview with Moneycontrol, former SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said that time was ideal for creation of a Bad Bank.

Today, the net book value of NPAs is very lowhardly 15 percent in many cases. The point is if there are people specialising in resolution and if all NPAs are brought to one place, bank management can focus on the rest of the business, Kumar said.

PSBs own 60 percent of the banking system. We cant transfer (bad loans) to any other entity other than a government-owned company. This is the logic (of saying the government has to fund the project), said Kumar.

Bad loan woes mount post COVID-19

The existing stock of bad loans is a big worry for banks. At the end of September 2020 year, the total gross NPAs of the banking system was 7.5 percent of the overall industry loan book.

This is expected to shoot up to 13.5 percent by March-September, according to the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) projection. That is a base case scenario. In the worst-case scenario, the bad loans are likely to rise up to 15 percent of the total loans.

This will be a big shock to banks as they will require significantly higher capital to cover the impact of bad loans. Moving the existing stock to a separate entity at the earliest could be an escape route.

COVID-19 has given an extra jolt on the bank balance sheets. The pandemic has impacted the overall economic activity significantly, inflicting pain on the balance sheets of banks. The six-month loan moratorium gave temporary relief to companies.

But, after the moratorium period, some of these accounts have been restructured by banks. Going by the numbers indicated by banks so far, the weaker banks have been impacted more.

To give an example, Yes Bank, which has one-third of its loans under the stressed category, has restructured around 5 percent of the loan book. Analysts expect overall restructuring in the industry (on account of COVID-19) to be around 3 percent of the loan book. A lot will depend on economic recovery going ahead.
HOOKSETT, N.H., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Merchants Fleet, the nation's fastest-growing fleet management company, announced today its plans to further electrify its portfolio with BrightDrop , the new business backed by General Motors, offering electric first-to-last-mile products and software services. Merchants is working with BrightDrop to procure 12,600 BrightDrop EV600s, an all-new, electric light commercial vehicle purpose-built for the delivery of goods and services over long ranges. The EV600 is powered by the Ultium battery system and combines zero-emissions driving with segment-leading safety features. Merchants Fleet expects BrightDrop EV600s to enter its clients' fleets starting in early 2023.

"We are proud to be the first fleet management company to work with BrightDrop, the innovative and vital new solution from GM," said Brendan P. Keegan, CEO of Merchants Fleet. "Merchants Fleet is fully committed to the future of electrification, and working to add BrightDrop EV600s to our clients' fleets is an exciting part of our broader strategy. We look forward to continuing to expand our EV fleet capabilities to provide our clients with a range of electric vehicle services and solutions to meet their evolving needs."

"Merchants Fleet's move to add such a large number of BrightDrop EV600s to their portfolio signals their strong commitment to accelerate the electric fleet movement, and their belief that BrightDrop solutions will help them and their clients achieve a greener and more efficient future," said BrightDrop President and CEO Travis Katz.

Merchants Fleet aims to have 50% of its mobility fleet portfolio electric by 2025, and 50% of its managed fleet portfolio fully electric by 2030. The company has officially launched Electrify Fleet, an innovative vehicle electrification initiative designed to rapidly deploy new electric commercial vehicles into the market with OEM partners. In addition to increasing EV availability, the initiative is also focused on educating clients about the advantages, applications, and options available to them and providing tools and insights to help them make a seamless and cost-effective entry into EV. In December 2020, Merchants hired industry-leading electrification expert Hari Nayar as Director of Electrification and Sustainability to lead its program.

About Merchants Fleet

Merchants Fleet is the nation's fastest growing fleet management company, providing flexible funding and service options for organizations that leverage vehicles to run their operations, serving as a single source for all vehicle needs, including electric vehicles. Merchants Fleet is headquartered in Hooksett, New Hampshire, and its Innovation Center is located in the Chicago, Illinois, area. For more information, please visit merchantsfleet.com.

About BrightDrop

BrightDrop is building a smarter way to deliver goods and services. Its ecosystem of electric first-to-last-mile products, software and services are designed to help businesses deliver goods and services more efficiently, while improving overall sustainability. For more information, visit gobrightdrop.com .

Media Contacts:

Merchants Fleet

Matt Conroy, Stanton

[email protected]

203-610-1421

BrightDrop

Katie Downey

[email protected]

313-421-9024

SOURCE Merchants Fleet

Related Links

https://www.merchantsfleet.com


A MAN racially abused a General Election candidate in an anonymous phone call by telling him: Dont get involved in Irish politics. Irish politics is for Irish people, a court has heard.

Edward Smith (61) made the phonecall to Dublin Fingal People Before Profit 2020 General Election candidate John Uwhumiakpor just weeks before last years election.

His actions left a profound effect on the victim and his family, Balbriggan District Court heard.

Smith claimed he consumed alcohol on the day he made the anonymous phone call and lost the run of himself.

The court heard Mr Uwhumiakpor - who ran in the Dublin Fingal constituency in last years General Election -received a phone call to his home in Balbriggan, Co Dublin at 12.26pm on January 29 last year.

The defendant asked if he was John and then proceeded to say Dont get involved in Irish politics. Irish politics is for Irish people.

The court heard Mr Uwhumiakpor is originally from Nigeria and is an Irish citizen.

He was a candidate for the People Before Profits political party, Sergeant Patricia McGarrity told the court.

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After Mr Uwhumiakpor reported the menacing phone call to gardai, an investigation was launched and Detective Garda Ross Rowan discovered the mobile phone number was registered to the accused on June 1, 2020.

Det Rowan called to the defendants home and seized the mobile phone and sim card which had the same number as was used to call Mr Uwhumiakpor.

The defendant made a voluntary caution statement and made full admissions, the court heard.

The 61-year-old, of Mount Talbot in Co Roscommon pleaded guilty to sending a message by telephone which is grossly offensive or menacing to Mr Uwhumiakpor at his home address in Balbriggan, Co Dublin on January 29, 2020.

He fully apologised to gardai and the injured party, said Sgt McGarrity.

Defence solicitor Fiona Kelly said the defendant apologised to Mr Uwhumiakpor through gardai as he was told not to make contact with him.

Ms Kelly said the defendant consumed alcohol and lost the run of himself.

He was out of order and out of line, said Ms Kelly.

He accepts what he did was unacceptable and shouldnt have said what he said, said Ms Kelly.

He is generally a reserved, quiet man but he got worked up on alcohol, Ms Kelly continued.

And he understands the effects his words had on the injured party, Ms Kelly said, adding the defendant has 800 for Mr Uwhumiakpor and is hoping he wont get a conviction.

He undertakes not to behave in this fashion again, said Ms Kelly.

However, Judge Dermot Dempsey said it would be a step too far not to convict him.

It is a very serious matter and had a very serious and profound effect on the injured party and his family, the judge said, referring to the Victim Impact Report handed into court.

Judge Dempsey convicted and fined Smith 200 and ordered he pay Mr Uwhumiakpor 600 in compensation.
Police in Midlands have arrested two Harare men driving around the country with fake Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe identity cards, swindling businesses after accusing them of using the wrong foreign exchange rate.

The two were arrested at the weekend in Shurugwi when a highly-suspicious supermarket owner called in the police.

A search of their car allegedly found in addition to the fake Reserve Bank identity cards they were using in the supermarket, more fake identity cards in different names for the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

Maxwell Madiwaya (46) of Kuwadzana 6 and Mike Chidziyo (42) of Hopley were found with RBZ tags bearing their names and a fake RBZ fine book.

They were travelling in a new Mazda BT50 twin cab vehicle and police said their fake receipt books showed they had swindled hundreds of businesses in several towns and cities.

They were wearing identical suits and neck ties which they were apparently using as uniforms.

Midlands provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Emanuel Mahoko yesterday said the two were arrested on Saturday.

"The two were arrested after they approached management at Vital Supermarket in Shurugwi and demanded to see their receipts and how they were using the forex exchange rate," he said.
analysis

Having been declared the winner of a contested election in December 2018, President Felix Tshisekedi's Cap pour le Changement (CACH) sealed a governing alliance with his powerful predecessor, Joseph Kabila's Front commun pour le Congo (FCC). The arrangement hasn't worked in the president's favour. It resulted in pro-Kabila allies occupying two-thirds of cabinet positions and limiting Tshisekedi's ability to govern.

Tshisekedi announced the dissolution of the alliance on 6 December 2020. When he facilitated a vote of no confidence in prime minister and Kabila ally Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba on 27 January, Tshisekedi took another step in his strategy to reshape parliamentary support in his favour and reduce Kabila's influence.

He can count on the support of opposition heavyweights Moise Katumbi and Jean-Pierre Bemba, with whom he intends building a new 'sacred union' majority. Should he succeed, the president's room to manoeuvre and prepare for the 2023 elections will increase.

While Tshisekedi has had some early successes, the aims and make-up of the sacred union are still unclear. It's concerning that the exercise resembles the country's past power-sharing arrangements, whose record is poor when it comes to delivering democracy, stability and good governance.

Political compromises have stalled governance and security in DRC over the past two decades

Before Ilunkamba's removal, the dismissal of National Assembly speaker Jeanine Mabunda just a few days after Tshisekedi's 6 December speech showed the president's determination to break up the alliance.

He weighed in heavily on all the initiatives that followed to consolidate his power base. This includes appointing a provisional bureau led by Mboso N'kodia Mpwanga to conduct current business until the election of a new speaker in Parliament. Mpwanga is a veteran of Mobutu Sese Seko's regime, a former FCC member and currently the most senior Member of Parliament (MP) in the National Assembly.

The president has won over 200 of the 367 pro-Kabila MPs, who agreed openly and in writing to support his actions. Mpwanga will probably be rewarded with the National Assembly speaker position.

As he gains the upper hand, the balance of power is swiftly changing in Tshisekedi's favour. When he appointed Senator Modeste Bahati Lukwebo to serve as the 'informateur' charged with identifying members of a new majority in the National Assembly, the formalisation of the process was set in motion. Lukwebo is leader of the Alliance democratique du Congo et Allies, and an FCC dissident.

This was the most delicate part of his plan to capture a new majority in Parliament. A constitutional court decision lifting the floor-crossing ban on MPs provided the legal basis for the exercise.

It's unclear what the new parliamentary majority can achieve in Tshisekedi's remaining years in office

Lukwebo has just made official the identified new majority composed of 391 MPs. It comprises a wide range of individuals from various political parties. They are all part of the sacred union but lack a shared vision, commitment and focus - apart from weakening Kabila's control or preserving their positions.

More importantly, it's not clear what this new majority can achieve in Tshisekedi's remaining years in office. The content and objectives of the sacred union lack clarity and serious political differences are evident between Tshisekedi and some of his major allies, including Katumbi and Bemba.

Initially Katumbi supporters, and other political actors, raised concerns about the overwhelming presence of FCC members in the sacred union. They fear this might be a strategic move to undermine Tshisekedi from the inside.

Politicians in the DRC are no strangers to opportunism and sabotage, and the presence of hardliners such as Lambert Mende Omalanga, former communications minister, and Ilunkamba, heightened suspicions. The allocation of government positions before the appointment of the new cabinet is also apparently at the root of the disagreements.

This shifting political landscape could see the new majority in Parliament, along with the new prime minister and his cabinet, supporting key legislative reforms ahead of the 2023 elections. And it is anticipated that they will support Tshisekedi's actions to lift the country out of chronic political crisis and insecurity.

Concerns were raised about the overwhelming presence of FCC members in the sacred union

However, Tshisekedi still holds one of his most feared cards close to his chest - the dissolution of Parliament and a call for early elections. Article 148 of the constitution provides for this, but the option is politically risky and financially challenging.

Repeated political compromises and power-sharing deals have stalled effective governance and security in the DRC over the past two decades. To break that cycle, electoral laws are among the many processes that must be reformed. This is an essential first step to putting citizens at the centre of democracy and giving the political process legitimacy.

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A group of 13 personalities (G13) from various political parties and civil society organisations propose reforms that include depoliticising the Independent National Electoral Commission, a presidential election with a possible run-off, and new laws on the financing of electoral processes.

Now that Tshisekedi is likely to garner wide political support, there's little standing in the way of passing those key legal amendments. But whether the reforms will be inclusive, transparent, fair and comprehensive, or again tailormade to suit the president's ambitions and so cause another deferred crisis, remains to be seen.

Three years before the end of Tshisekedi's term in office, a focus is needed on restoring popular legitimacy to political processes and building the DRC's institutions of governance. This is imperative, not only for peace and stability in the DRC but the entire Great Lakes region.

David Zounmenou, Senior Research Consultant, ISS
A congressional aide to Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, a Trump acolyte, posted a video in support of the fascist mob as it was storming the Capitol during the January 6 coup attempt, according to archived media posts uncovered by the website Gizmodo.

From the top of the Capitol office buildings, WE HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR! #StopTheSteal, wrote Joel Valdez on the right-wing social media network Parler.

Screenshot of Joel Valdez Parler account (Parler / Wayback Machine)

Valdez attached a five-second video to the post showing the crowd pushing its way toward the Capitol. The video was taken at roughly 1:14 p.m., when Trump supporters, including neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, III Percenters and Oath Keepers, were attempting to overrun an undermanned Capitol Police force.

According to his LinkedIn account, Valdez has been a press assistant for Gaetz for just over a year. Prior to that he interned for Trumps White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Valdez also claims on his profile to have worked for two months, February through March 2020, as a war room analyst for Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.Full time.

Parler was taken offline within days of the fascist assault by Amazon, which previously hosted the website. A hacker who goes by the Twitter handle @donk_enby was able to exploit a flaw in Parlers code to download thousands of videos and posts from Parler users, including incriminating evidence of these individuals breaking into the Capitol, which have since been uploaded onto the internet.

Gaetz has been a political attack dog for Trump since his election to the House in 2016. Indicative of the general rightward shift of the ruling class and the Republican Party toward fascism, Gaetz has peddled anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, claiming that Holocaust survivor George Soros funds South American migrant caravans.

He has appeared on the fascistic Alex Jones program. For the 2018 State of Union address, he invited Holocaust denier and founder of far-right news website GotNews, Charles Chuck Johnson, to attend as his guest, personally giving him a ticket in his congressional office. Johnson has previously fundraised for the Nazi website Daily Stormer.

In another development, Mike Dunn, the 20-year-old commander of the Virginia-based Boogaloo group Last Sons, told ProPublica that he and members of his group were in D.C. on January 6 and may have breached the Capitol.

It was a chance to mess with the federal government again, Dunn said. Interviewed a few days after the assault, he said he would be willing to die in the streets and felt that Were looking at the possibilitystronger than any time since, say the 1860sof armed insurrection.

Dunn said that members of his group were calling to avenge Air Force and Air National Guard veteran Ashli Babbitt, a QAnon adherent who was shot dead by an unidentified Capitol Police officer as she was attempting to break into the House Speakers lobby. Babbitt spent six years in the Air Guard with a unit, colloquially known as the Capital Guardians, tasked with defending the Washington D.C. region.

In the last 18 months, ProPublica and FRONTLINE have identified more than 20 Boogaloo Bois or sympathizers whove served in the armed forces. ProPublica notes that 13 of those identified have been arrested on charges ranging from the possession of illegal automatic weapons to the manufacture of explosives to murder.

Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Ongoing revelations regarding the January 6 coup attempt add to the mountain of evidence that the Trump White House was the political nerve center of the plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election and with it democratic forms of rule in America. A sprawling article in the New York Times on Monday entitled, 77 Days: Trumps Campaign to Subvert the Election, details the increasingly desperate and unconstitutional measures in which Trump and substantial sections of the Republican Party engaged.

One of the more startling revelations in the article involves the blatantly unconstitutional attempt led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to suppress some 20 million votes in the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all of which were won by Biden.

This took the form of a baseless lawsuit filed December 7 with the US Supreme Court on behalf of the state of Texas, claiming massive voting fraud in these states and calling on the court to overturn Bidens victories. Doing so would have taken away Bidens margin of victory in electoral votes and handed the election to Trump.

The suit was joined by the Republican Attorneys General Association and 126 House Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The suit specifically called on the high court to protect the rights of Texas and other states by allowing state legislatures to reject the electors determined by the popular vote and instead name their own slates of electors. In this, the Republican Party was urging the Supreme Court to establish as a matter of law the totally undemocratic argument advanced by Justice Antonin Scalia in the 2000 case Bush v. Gore. Scalia asserted that the electorate had no constitutional right to choose the US president.

In that infamous case, the Supreme Court ruled, in a 5-4 party line decision, that Florida had to stop a vote recount that would have given the states electoral votes, and hence the presidency, to the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, the winner of the national popular vote.

The Texas complaint was unceremoniously tossed out by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the plaintiffs had no legal standing.

The Times article reveals that the legal complaint was drafted not by Paxton but by Lawrence Joseph, who had previously worked on Trumps efforts to prevent federal courts from ordering him to release his tax returns. This bit of information further demonstrates the pivotal role of the Trump White House in the conspiracy to overturn the election and establish a dictatorship, which included the failed coup of January 6.
BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. (Update 4:21 p.m.)  One woman has been rescued after her vehicle went 200 feet over the edge below the Skyway near Lookout Point, according to Cal Fire Butte County crews.

Several first responders in the area worked to pull the driver and vehicle back up to safety. The woman was transported to the hospital with moderate injuries.

Alcohol does not seem to be a factor in this incident. The CHP told Action News Now the woman rescued was reaching for her phone when she lost control of her car and went over the edge of the road.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is launching a series of events throughout 2021 to commemorate 100 years of creating a more inclusive world for people who are blind or visually impaired. First up: Dinner and Music for a Historic Celebration, on February 11 at 7 p.m. EST.

This virtual celebration includes a conversation with three blind individuals who are excelling in creative and sensory pursuits. MasterChef winner, cookbook author, and restaurateur Christine Ha; chemist, entrepreneur, and wine expert Hoby Wedler, Ph.D.; and jazz pianist and composer Marcus Roberts will discuss food, wine, music, community building, and pursuing one's dreams. All three are also serving as AFB Centennial Ambassadors.

Attendees can participate by preparing delectable dishes from a special menu by Ha, tasting wine from a list created by Wedler, and discovering music from a compilation curated by Roberts. Russell Shaffer, senior director of Global Culture, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Walmart Inc., and former AFB board chair, will host this celebration of the senses, community, and the power of inclusion.

What: Dinner and Music for a Historic Celebration

Who: Christine Ha, chef/restaurateur; Hoby Wedler, Ph.D., wine expert and entrepreneur; Marcus Roberts, composer/pianist

When: February 11, 2021, 7 p.m. EST

Where: afb.org/DinnerAndMusic

"AFB has long been at the forefront of representing the needs of people with vision loss, their families, and the professionals who serve them," said Dr. Kirk Adams, AFB President and CEO. "Our history of achievement has included everything from inventing Talking Books, the precursor to today's audiobook, to helping develop HTML and advocating for landmark legislation, like the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our mission is to create a world of no limits for individuals who are blind or have low vision, and to clear the way for those like Christine, Hoby, and Marcus to share their talents. Our centennial year theme is 'Inclusion Knows No Limits' because we believe everyone benefits when those who are blind or have low vision have their voices heard."

The evening is made possible through the generous sponsorship of partners like Hewlett Packard Enterprise, American Printing House for the Blind, Exelon, Google, Northrop Grumman, Pepco, Walmart, Microsoft, Charter Communications, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and the in-kind sponsorship of Francis Ford Coppola Winery.

Visit AFB's Centennial page for more information around this and other forthcoming celebrations. For those interested in sponsorship opportunities, please contact Amanda Kolling, Senior Engagement and Brand Manager at [email protected].

About the Celebration's Special Guests

Christine Ha is the first-ever blind contestant and season 3 winner of TV's MasterChef. Ha holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Houston and a Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin. Her first cookbook, Recipes from My Home Kitchen: Asian and American Comfort Food, was a New York Times bestseller. Ha has also spoken about disability advocacy at the United Nations and served as a culinary envoy overseas for the U.S. Embassy as part of cultural diplomacy programs in Jordan, Serbia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, and Croatia. She was a co-host on the Canadian cooking show Four Senses and a judge on "MasterChef" Vietnam. She also served as an executive producer of the "Blind Love" docuseries on PBS's Independent Lens. Ha received AFB's Helen Keller Personal Achievement Award in 2014. She owns two restaurants: The Blind Goat, which opened in 2018, and Xin Chao, which opened in late 2020; both are in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Hoby Wedler is an insightful, disarming, and passionate thinker who loves to bring people together to help them see new possibilities. Hoby has been blind since birth. He is a scientist, an entrepreneur, a sensory expert, and is driven by his passion for innovative, creative, and insightful thinking. In 2016, Hoby earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from UC Davis. In 2011, Hoby founded a non-profit organization to lead annual chemistry camps for blind and visually impaired students. In the same year, he began opening doors to the world of wine aromas by developing Tasting in the Dark, a truly blindfolded wine experience. He has expanded the program to a global market in a variety of industries and special projects. Over the years, Hoby has become a motivational speaker, a mentor, and an educator. He is also committed to making the world an inclusive, equitable, and accessible place for everyone. Numerous people and organizations have recognized Hoby's work. President Barack Obama recognized Hoby by naming him a Champion of Change for enhancing employment and education opportunities for people with disabilities. Also, Forbes Media named Hoby as a leader in food and drink in their 30 under 30 annual publication.

Marcus Roberts, hailed as the "the genius of the modern piano," taught himself to play piano after losing his sight at age five, and started taking lessons at 12. At 18, he went on to study classical piano at Florida State University. Roberts has won numerous competitions and awards, including AFB's Helen Keller Achievement Award in 1998. Roberts' critically acclaimed legacy of recorded music reflects this tremendous artistic versatility. In addition to his renown as a performer, Roberts is also an accomplished composer who has received numerous commissioning awards, including those from Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, ASCAP, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra, and the American Symphony Orchestra. Roberts is an associate professor of music at the School of Music at Florida State University and is currently serving as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music at Bard College. He holds an honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Juilliard School.

Russell Shaffer is serving as the evening's emcee and is the senior director of Global Culture, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Walmart Inc., and AFB's former board chair. He has worked at Walmart for more than 15 years and has held roles managing global internal communications and benefits communications, in addition to previously overseeing corporate strategy and stakeholder relations for aging constituencies and people with disabilities. He has served two terms as chair of Walmart's inABLE disability resource group, and has been a board member of Sources for Community Independent Living in Fayetteville, Ark., since 2012. His service has included positions on the Disability:IN Corporate Advisory Board, the Disability Equality Index Advisory Committee, and the National Council on Independent Living's Corporate Development Council. In July 2019, Disability:IN honored Russell as the annual recipient of the prestigious John D. Kemp Leadership Award in recognition of his commitment to advance disability inclusion inside Corporate America.

About the American Foundation for the Blind

Founded in 1921, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is a national nonprofit that creates a world of no limits for people who are blind or visually impaired. AFB mobilizes leaders, advances understanding, and champions impactful policies and practices using research and data. AFB is proud to steward the Helen Keller Archive, maintain and expand the digital collection, and honor the more than 40 years that Helen Keller worked tirelessly with AFB. Visit: www.afb.org/100

SOURCE American Foundation for the Blind

Related Links

http://www.afb.org


LONDON  Britain, painfully aware of the dangers posed by mutations of the coronavirus after a variant fueled a surge in deaths this winter, has sounded a full-scale alarm over the detection of another variant, this one first registered in South Africa.

In one of the largest concerted testing efforts in the country since the outbreak of the pandemic, the British authorities dispatched mobile units and began testing for 80,000 residents living in areas where the variant had been detected. Free home testing kits left in mailboxes, mobile testing teams going door to door, and new screening sites were among the measures instituted across the affected regions.

As of Monday, health officials had identified 105 cases of the variant in Britain, including in London, with 11 of them not linked to international travel.

Britain, a world leader in genomic surveillance, is well placed to find mutations.

The country has submitted nearly half of the genomes held in a global library run by the nonprofit Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 01:51:21|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Feb. 1, 2021 shows a resting place for federal parliamentarians blocked by the military in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. (Photo by U Soe/Xinhua)

Under Myanmar's cabinet reshuffle, new union ministers were appointed for 11 ministries while 24 deputy ministers were removed from their posts on Monday.

YANGON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar military announced a major cabinet reshuffle hours after a state of emergency was declared on Monday.

Under the cabinet reshuffle, new union ministers were appointed for 11 ministries while 24 deputy ministers were removed from their posts, the military's statement said.

Union Chief Justice and Judges of the Supreme Court of the Union, Chief Justices and Judges of Regional or State High Courts are allowed to remain in office, according to the military's statement.

Members of Anti-Corruption Commission, chairman, vice chairman and members of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission will also remain in office.

Chairmen and members of the Nay Pyi Taw Council and the Union Civil Service Board will be removed from their posts while a new chairman is appointed for the Union Civil Service Board, the statement said.

The move came after the President's Office declared a state of emergency for one year and the legislative, executive and judicial powers were handed over to the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services earlier Monday.

Photo taken on Feb. 1, 2021 shows military vehicles parking in City Hall in Yangon, Myanmar. (Xinhua/Zhang Dongqiang)

Myanmar leaders including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint, regional and state ministers and some central executive committee members of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) were detained by the military in the early hours of Monday.

The military also announced earlier Monday that the Union Election Commission (UEC) will be reformed and the electoral process in the parliamentary elections held in November last year will be reviewed in accordance with the law during the state of emergency.

The military has called on the government and the UEC to review the election results, noting that there were some irregularities in the voting process in the previous months.

"When these tasks have been completed in accord with the provisions of the State of Emergency, free and fair multiparty general elections will be held and the assigned duty of the state will be handed over to the winning party meeting norms and standards of democracy," the earlier military statement said.

Myanmar held its multiparty general elections on Nov. 8 last year and the ruling NLD won a majority of seats in both Houses of the Union Parliament.

At present, access to state-run broadcasting channels and telecommunications have resumed after being cut off for some hours across the country earlier Monday.

All local banks will resume their services starting Tuesday, Myanmar Banks Association issued a directive on Monday.
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The global Handheld Electric Nutrunner Market report offers a comprehensive analysis of current trends and future opportunities. This report is responsible for quantitative estimation and foreseen future for upcoming years based on the recent companies strategic moves and historical data. Further, the market report is categorized into different segments, regions, and countries level. This report also provides competitor analysis with its market share and developments.

The final report will cover the impact of COVID-19 on this industry.

The global Handheld Electric Nutrunner market report presents a complete research-based study of the industry including details such as company shares, forecast data, in-depth analysis and an outlook of the market on a worldwide platform. The report further highlights the market drivers, restraints, and the top manufacturers at the global and regional levels. For a thorough understanding, the report also offers market segmentation and regional analysis for the forecast period from 2021 to 2026.

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According to this latest study, the 2020 growth of Handheld Electric Nutrunner will have significant changes from the previous year. By the most conservative estimates of global Handheld Electric Nutrunner market size (a most likely outcome) will be a year-over-year revenue growth rate of xx% in 2020, from US$ xx million in 2019. Over the next five years, the Handheld Electric Nutrunner market will register an xx% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ xx million by 2025.

This Handheld Electric Nutrunner market report also splits the market by regions: Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), APAC (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain), Middle East & Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, GCC Countries).

This report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of the Handheld Electric Nutrunner market by type, application, key manufacturers, key regions, and countries.

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Bosch Rexroth

Atlas Copco

ESTIC Corporation

Apex Tool Group

Dai-ichi Dentsu Ltd.

STANLEY Engineered Fastening

Sanyo Machine Works

ALFING Montagetechnik GmbH (AMT)

Ingersoll Rand

Nitto Seiko

FEC Inc.

Maschinenfabrik Wagner GmbH & Co. KG

Tone Co.

AIMCO

Desoutter Industrial Tools

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This study considers the Handheld Electric Nutrunner value and volume generated from the sales of the following segments:

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Pistol Type

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The phased reopening of schools begins next week, but there is still no timeline for the return of all pupils to the classrooms. Leaving Cert students are also facing a wait of at least another week for a decision on the 2021 exams, and whether calculated grades are back in the mix.

About 16,000 pupils with special needs will benefit from the deal reached between Education Minister Norma Foley and unions yesterday, and will be the first to return to the classroom since Christmas.

It allows for special schools to reopen from Thursday, February 11, with a maximum of 50pc of pupils attending each day, while special classes in mainstream schools will be back on Monday, February 22.

After two failed attempts last month to reopen in-school education for the most vulnerable pupils, the breakthrough was greatly assisted by the ongoing fall in Covid cases.

Read More

The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) and Forsa, which represents special needs assistants, have also secured a range of enhanced supports and risk-mitigation measures.

Forsa told its members that based on public health advice cases would continue to decline throughout February, the union executive determined that returning to limited in-school services was at least as safe as it was last term, if not safer given the improved safety and mitigation measures agreed.

INTO president Mary Magner said the protocols and plans provided critical protections and deliver a carefully planned, phased return to the classroom for the most vulnerable pupils and their teachers.

She said: Over the coming weeks, our attention will turn to the general reopening of all primary schools. Against an improving public health landscape, we believe this is possible.

But uncertainty remains about a return date for more than 900,000 primary and post-primary students, including about 60,000 Leaving Cert candidates.

The public health advice supporting the initial reopening is specific to special schools and special classes.

Ms Foley said yesterday that it would be foolish to give a date on when Leaving Cert students would return.

The minister also told RTEs Six One that her department wanted to make a full announcement in as short a time-space as possible on whether or not exams would run and how Leaving Cert students would be graded.

A two-hour meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Education finished without any decision on the matter. Ms Foley presented a number of options including using a combination of written exams and calculated grades or reverting to calculated grades.

They also discussed extending the date for the school term, holding the exam later in the year and increasing the number of third-level places.

A hybrid of calculated grades and exams is finding favour within the Cabinet, but it presents huge logistical challenges, and is not favoured by the teacher unions.

Ministers decided to reconvene the meeting next week when, it is hoped, a decision will be made on how the Leaving Cert will be conducted.

There will be further discussions on the options today  and over coming days  within the Leaving Certificate Advisory Group, which includes representatives of students, parents, teachers, school management bodies, the State Examinations Commission and the Department of Education.
SIU committed to serving first-generation students

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Succeeding in college isnt a given, and its even more difficult for first-generation students, those who are the first in their families to earn a bachelors degree. Southern Illinois University Carbondale and its First Saluki Center are determined provide all of the tools and support first-generation students need to thrive  and those efforts have earned national recognition.

Two of every five SIU students identify as first generation, and were proud to serve them, said Lanel Love, assistant dean of students and director of the First Saluki Center. Our goal is to inform students about critical information regarding their college education to help set them up for success.

Just for first-gens

SIU established the First Saluki Center in the fall of 2019 to address the unique concerns and needs of first-generation students. Launched by a seed grant from the SIU Foundation, its essentially a one-stop shop to access services. Through the First Saluki Center, students will find:

First and Proud Living and Learning Community, an inclusive student residence environment at Neely Hall for first-generation students.

First Generation Connection, a campuswide collaboration to help first-generation students build social networks with peers, faculty and staff and help them feel connected to SIU.

Peer mentoring, through which juniors, seniors and graduate students who are also first-generation meet at least weekly with mentees to guide them and connect them with resources and assistance, encouragement and support.

First Gen Summit, a conference during which participants can network with peers on campus and from other universities, identify allies, discuss issues and create plans of action, strengthen advocacy skills and make presentations.

Student success workshops covering a wide range of topics including health and wellness, study strategies, financial literacy, career exploration, communication skills and more. The office partners with other campus units including the Career Development Center , Financial Aid Office and Counseling and Psychological Services.

Financial Aid Office and Counseling and Psychological Services. Book and tuition scholarship assistance.

First generation graduation stoles that students can wear during commencement to mark their accomplishment.

Love said that as a result of a survey conducted of SIU first-generation students, the First Saluki Center is also in the process of creating a new tutoring program.

As a first-generation student herself, Love, a double alumna of SIU, knows well how important a support system is.

Recognized for its efforts

According to the U.S. Department of Educations Institution of Education Sciences, more than 80% of 10th-graders who would be first-generation college students expect to attend college, but only 20% will earn a bachelors degree by the time they are 25.

SIU wants to do something to change that and has already earned national recognition from the Center for First-generation Student Success. In 2020, SIU was named a First-Gen Forward Campus. SIU was one of just two higher education institutions in Illinois selected for the initiative of the NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and The Suder Foundation.

Now, SIU is being recognized in the nonprofit Strive for Colleges 2021 Im First! Guide to College, a comprehensive guidebook to help low-income, first-generation college students. The guide features profiles of SIU and 163 other universities across the country, along with articles and advice for students, parents and their mentors. SIU became a partner organization in 2020 after taking steps to demonstrate its commitment to first-generation students, showing it shares in the Strive for College mission to serve these students, Love said.

SIU Carbondale is committed to offering programs and services that can help all of our students reach their full potential, said John Frost, director of admissions. We are very proud to be profiled in the 2021 Im First! Guide to College as this is the kind of information families and prospective students need to know when considering which college is right for them.

The guide is sold and distributed to high schools and organizations across the country that serve youths.

Wide range of services

SIUs outreach to all students, and especially first-generation students, begins before they get to campus and extends to numerous areas of campus life, officials said, and the Im First profile notes this as well. SIUs campuswide, collaborative student support and outreach effort includes:

Project Upward Bound, which enables qualifying high school students to prepare for college during a special summer program.

New Student Programs, facilitating the transition to college life with orientation sessions, Saluki Startup, Weeks of Welcome and programs to integrate new students into the Saluki family.

Achieve Program, a supplemental support program for students who are neurodiverse learners.

McNair Scholars Program, helping college students who are low-income, first-generation or from underserved groups reach their full potential, achieve academic success by providing enriching educational experiences with the goal that they will complete graduate school and pursue a doctorate.

For more information

Find additional details about the First Saluki Center and the many ways it helps first-generation students, at salukicenter.siu.edu, email salukicenter@siu.edu or call 618-453-6870.
Republican lawmakers introduce resolution opposing the COVID 19 vaccination of Guantanamo Bay 'terrorists' before regular Americans.

A vaccination program had been expected to begin on Monday at the maximum security detention camp at the United States Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which houses some of world's most infamous terrorists including the suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Terry Adirim, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, signed the order Wednesday, to vaccinate the detainees to make it easier for federal prosecutors to move forward with war crimes hearings during the pandemic, Fox News reported.

But the Pentagon paused the plan on Saturday to 'review force protection protocols' and confirmed that 'no Guantanamo detainees have been vaccinated.'

On Monday, GOP representatives Ashley Hinson and Elise Stefanik introduced a resolution to ensure the vaccine rollout at Guantanamo could not be resumed until the rest of the US population had received theirs.

'It is inexcusable and un-American that President Biden is prioritizing vaccines for Gitmo terrorist detainees over American citizens, including veterans, first responders, 9/11 first responders, and seniors,' Stefanik said in a statement to Fox News.

GOP congresswomen will introduce a resolution opposing the vaccination of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay before Americans

Representatives Ashley Hinson, left, and Elise Stefaniks said it was 'inexcusable' that detainees would receive the vaccine before Americans

'Every American should have access to vaccines before these heinous terrorists.'

This September will mark 20 years since the Wahhabi terrorist group Al-Qaeda claimed 2,977 innocent lives in 2001. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been detained at Guantanamo since 2006.

Hinson told the outlet she was motivated to speak up with the resolution when she realized KSM 'was slated to get the vaccine before Iowans,' her constituents.

'Americans need to get the vaccine before terrorists, and it's upsetting to me that that even was a question, and I think we need to make sure the administration is held accountable for this and that's what I think this resolution does,' Hinson told Fox News.

'It puts a spotlight on the thinking and the planning that was going on behind this.'

Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, who is the suspected architect behind the 9/11 attacks, is housed at Guantanamo Bay

Khalid Shaikh Mohammad has been detained at the prison in Cuba since 2006

Nearly 40 detainees remain imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, pictured, down from more than 700 during the height of the Global War on Terror

Vaccinations at the prison were expected to begin after trials were delayed due to the pandemic

Several first repsonders to the 9/11 terrorist attacks told the New York Post that they were outraged about the Gitmo vaccination plan.

Tom Von Essen, who was the city Fire Commissioner during 9/11, told the outlet that 'it's f**king nuts' that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would receive the vaccine before most Americans can.

'You can't make this up. The ridiculousness of what we get from our government,' he said.

Brian Sullivan, a retired special security agent with the Federal Aviation Administration, said: 'I'm incensed. It's totally outrageous.'

'I'm 75. I haven't gotten my COVID vaccine. They're going to give it Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?'

The resolution notes that more than 400,000 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 in the United States and only 7 percent of the population has been vaccinated.

Another three detainees with links to Al Qaeda are also expected to be prioritized due to their upcoming arraignments when the vaccine is avaiable at the prison.

Encep Nurjaman, aka Hambali, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, all members of Southeast Asia-based extremist group known as Jemaah Islamiyah, have been in US custody since 2003.

The group is blamed for a string of bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 202 people. The three are also alleged to have links to Al Qaeda.

The vaccination effort at the facility will allow the trio to receive both doses of the vaccine ahead of their arraignment on February 22.
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's capital Bogota will lift tough restrictions and a city-wide red alert against COVID-19 on Wednesday, Mayor Claudia Lopez said on Tuesday, having overcome the peak of a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Surging infections in the new year following celebrations in December saw intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy rates rise above 94%, prompting Lopez to impose curbs on movement, neighborhood quarantines, and nightly curfews.

ICU occupancy rates for patients with coronavirus have since fallen to 81%, according to local government figures.

"We have passed the peak of the second wave of COVID-19. With this favorable trend we will be able to lift the red alert and zonal quarantines from tomorrow and get back to business," Lopez said in a message on Twitter.

"This afternoon we will announce how we will proceed."

Restrictions in Bogota, which has more than 8 million inhabitants, delayed children returning to schools and caused setbacks for economic recovery due to limits on entering shops and other businesses.

Colombia has reported 2.1 million cases of coronavirus, as well as 54,272 deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. There are 89,582 active cases in the South American country.

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Myanmar has descended into chaos since a junta seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. Armed forces and police have fired on demonstrators, who appear undeterred by curfews and a nationwide state of emergency, but the military have also entered shops and houses to attack people. The country is on the brink of collapse and civil war. More than 500 have been killed, with children among the victims. Thousands of people have been detained, including leaders of the former civilian government. Air strikes have been launched against ethnic minorities and the UNs special envoy to Myanmar has warned of a possible multi-dimensional catastrophe in the heart of Asia. The most famous person arrested is Suu Kyi, the 75-year-old civilian leader whose party won the November 2020 elections in a landslide. Key allies of the Nobel peace laureate have also been locked up, including Sydney academic Sean Turnell who has long served as an economic adviser. He faces up to 14 years in prison under colonial-era laws. This latest coup happened after she came into conflict with armed forces commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who questioned the legitimacy of the November 2020 elections that returned Suu Kyi with a massive majority. The target of US sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act for his alleged involvement in human rights abuses against the Rohingya minority and others, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has for 10 years maintained significant power even as the country has moved towards democracy. Did Suu Kyi ever really have power? What has triggered this latest turn of events? And wasnt Myanmar a democracy? Anti-coup protesters run to avoid military forces during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar, on Wednesday. Credit:AP

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What do I need to know about Myanmar? The south-east Asian republic, once a British colony called Burma, lies to the west of Thailand and also shares borders with China, Bangladesh, India and Laos. Officially a federation of states and regions known as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, it is the worlds 25th most populous nation with 57 million people, nearly 90 per cent of them Buddhist. Myanmar became independent from Britain in 1948 but endured military rule almost uninterrupted between 1962 and 2011. The generals flirted with democracy in 1990 when they held a general election but rejected it when Suu Kyi, then under house arrest, won. Then, a decade ago, a group of generals traded khaki for suits and set up a new, quasi-civilian government. They promised elections, and largely delivered in 2015 when Suu Kyis party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), scored a resounding victory. The next election, when the NLDs five-year term was up, was in November  and the partys win was even more emphatic. Loading The military has never handed over power unconditionally, though, and under the junta-drafted constitution of 2008 it holds key positions in the cabinet, picks one of the three vice-presidents and is guaranteed a quarter of the seats in Parliament (which are therefore never up for election). Myanmar has seven large ethnic groups of which the largest is Burman with about 68 per cent, and the government recognises nearly 200 ethnic minorities and clans. The government does not recognise the Rohingya, a Muslim minority; Myanmars military has been accused of waging an attempted genocide against the Rohingya, leading to more than a million displaced people, including about 700,000 in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

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Myanmars military, called the Tatmadaw, has also been involved in civil wars with state-level armed forces that opposed central rule or rebelled against the oppression of a one-party state. The national governments recent efforts to broker a truce among the states have yielded mixed results. Demographically, the country is young: more than a quarter of the population is aged under 14, yet it has one of the lowest rates of spending on education as a percentage of gross domestic product in the world. The CIA World Factbook ranks Myanmar at 175 out of 228 countries for real GDP per capita. Women working in a paddy field in the Irrawaddy region of Myanmar in August. Credit:Getty Images Who is Aung San Suu Kyi, and why is she controversial? Born in British Burma in 1945, Suu Kyi is the daughter of a general who played an important role in the fight to establish an independent Myanmar after World War II. General Aung San was assassinated in 1947, and he remains a hero to the Burmese majority, including to the military leaders who detained Suu Kyi. A diplomat and scholar, Suu Kyi married Oxford historian Michael Aris and had two children. She was outspoken on human rights issues and confronted the military as its hold on power grew more repressive in the late 20th century. Aris died in 1999. Suu Kyi under house arrest in her dilapidated mansion in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) in 1996. Credit:Getty Images

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The pro-democracy movement of 1988 was a turning point for Suu Kyi, who had returned to Myanmar from Britain. The 8888 Uprising grew during the year, building up to August 8, 1988, a date people considered auspicious. However, the army killed 350 people (activists claim the true toll is thousands) and detained many more. Suu Kyis speech urging non-violent resistance at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon on September 26, to more than half a million people in the aftermath of the massacre, became an iconic moment. Adored as The Lady, Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 while under house arrest in Yangon. The generals refused to hand over power. Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace while detained; she spent about 15 years in total under house arrest before being released in December 2010 during a thaw in relations with the military. Aung San Suu Kyi defends her country against accusations of the Rohingya genocide at the top UN court in the Hague in the Netherlands on December 11, 2019. Credit:Getty Images Her election victory in 2015 was hailed as a watershed moment for Myanmar democracy  she was allowed to campaign openly and to actually take power  but there were already questions about whether she had compromised too much of her credibility by engaging with the generals. She was criticised during the campaign for failing to rebuke the military for their longstanding abuses of the Rohingya minority, who had been denied citizenship and the right to vote. The condemnation grew after she was in office, as the military launched a crackdown that United Nations agencies have likened to genocide, in October 2016. Two years later, at the World Economic Forum, she equivocated by saying we have to be fair to all sides. Amnesty International stripped her of the Prisoner of Conscience Award shortly after while other honours have been revoked. Despite agitation from activists, there is no possibility of rescinding the Peace Prize under the Nobel statutes. Police charged Suu Kyi for illegally possessing communications equipment, allegedly found during a raid on her house in the capital, Naypyidaw, and when she first faced court in secret on February 16, The New York Times reported she was also charged with contravening a natural disaster management law by interacting with a crowd during the coronavirus pandemic.

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The military are both unearthing obscure colonial-era laws and drafting new cybersecurity bills to counter online activism. International Commission of Jurists accountability director Kingsley Abbott told the BBC one law, threatening public tranquility, was so vague and so broad is can pretty much be used to arrest anyone on any pretext. The bottom line is the military is completely above the law, and these developments are really a full-frontal assault on human rights and the rule of law in Myanmar. A protester holds a placard with a defaced image of Myanmar military commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Credit:AP What does the military want and why has it struck now? The military has been involved in politics since independence. Military dictator Ne Win had already served as prime minister when he staged a coup in 1962 that led to the establishment of a one-party, socialist state. Ne Win stood down during the protests of 1988 but he was replaced by the notorious State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which detained thousands of political prisoners. It renamed itself the State Peace and Development Council in 1997; armed forces chief Than Shwe led the council from 1992 to 2011 and served as prime minister for part of that time; now 88, he remains an influential behind-the-scenes figure. His successor is Min Aung Hlaing. These decades of military rule left Myanmar a pariah state. Australia was among the countries that imposed sanctions on the nation after generals rejected Suu Kyis win in 1990 elections. Subject to sanctions and reliant on China, the former rice bowl of south-east Asia became an economic ruin, reaching crisis point in 2008 after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy delta, killing 138,000 people. The military was criticised for blocking relief efforts and international aid.

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The opposition Rainbow Alliance has branded President George Manneh Weah's fourth Annual Message as recitation of his previous Annual Messages, as it paints a gloomy picture of the Liberian economy of which it claims the government has no positive action to create hope for small and medium businesses.

Rainbow Alliance Acting Chairman Mr. Reginald Goodridge told a press conference Friday, 29 January that the bare truth is that President Weah's annual message is plastered with restatements of promises that have not been kept, and brought forward for new achievements that are hard to defend.

"Contrary to the President's statement that the country's development agenda is on the right path, international integrity institutions paint a different picture. For example, the World Bank Economic Freedom Report has ranked Liberia poorly 165 out of 186 countries surveyed," he said during the press conference at the Vision for Liberia Transformation Party (VOLT) office in Sinkor.

The Rainbow Alliance fears that Liberia risks losing a whole generation of citizens who are increasingly becoming hopeless, claiming that the change for hope promise of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change is sadly not mainstreaming this generation of Liberians but conscripting them into suspicious nefarious groups such as the Cuba and Porcupine Warriors.

Further, Mr. Goodridge laments that Liberia has an overburdening tax regime which strangulates business and investment and impedes economic growth, besides statutory taxes that are drowning businesses and making Liberians poorer.

He criticizes the administration for introducing a draconian and shadowy taxation scheme in the name of Tracking Fees which supplanted internationally recognized shipping tracking services such as BIVAC.

"As a result, importers and businesses have redirected their shipments through neighboring Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast thus depriving our economy of much needed revenue," he continues.

The Rainbow Alliance claims that unemployment is peaking at a record high of 74.2 percent particularly among the youthful population, while businesses are crumbling with no positive action or policy to create hope for small and medium businesses.

Mr. Goodridge suggests that "the absence of noise in this country should not suggest to any serious government that indeed this environment is stable."

"You cannot have a stable environment when people are unemployed. Unemployment is 74 percent, according to the latest report from the United Nations Human Development report," he adds.

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Mr. Goodridge describes this as scaring and requires any serious governmental institution to understand that having the bulk of the people unemployed and surviving on hand outs is deceptive.

He claims that three years following the inception of the government, it continues to say the same things it said in the first and second years, pondering on what hope is there that something better will happen in the remaining years.

Dr. Jeremiah Z. Whapoe, Political Leader of the Vision for Liberia Transformation Party (VOLT), says "this government has failed the Liberian people"

"To buttress his statement, we have provided indications that tell you that this government, what they have provided to the Liberian people is way far from the truth. In nutshell, this government has failed the Liberian people," says Dr. Whapoe.

The Rainbow Alliance also criticizes the president's Annual Message for being silent on the 8 December 2020 Referendum, mid - term senatorial and by - elections.

It calls on the government and Liberia's development partners to constitute a national constitutional review committee to re-write the entire constitution to bring it in line with current social, political and economic realities of the nation.
R&W Machine, 6551 W. 74th St. in Bedford Park, which provides precision machining and manufacturing of large and complex parts such as gear boxes, bearing housings, railway axles and drive train components. including CNC, machining services, for a wide variety of markets, was approved for a Class 6b  SER incentive. This incentive lowers the normal property tax assessment, is not renewable and is for companies that have been in business for more than 10 years.
[February 02, 2021] Agiloft Closes Out 2020 with 124% Increase in Sales, $45M in Funding, and Significant Advances in AI Development

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Agiloft, the global standard in no-code contract and commerce lifecycle management, today announced strong growth in 2020 with a 124% increase in new sales over the previous year. Along with adding three new C-level leadership positions, Agiloft grew its headcount by 40% to serve its growing client base and accelerate product innovation in the contract management space. "2020 was a remarkable year here at Agiloft, despite the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Eric Laughlin, Agiloft CEO. "Our dedicated staff did not miss a beat as we managed to accelerate the innovation of our no-code CLM platform and drive sales to unprecedented levels. An implementation success rate of 99.6% and consistent positive feedback from our growing base of loyal customers contributed to our industry leadership recognition from top analyst firms. With a $45 million capital injection, the additions to our executive team, and the expansion of our partnerships, we are in a prime position to build on the momentum for further growth." Growth Equity Investment Agiloft secured a $45 million growth equity investment from FTV Capital in August of 2020. Bootstrapped and profitable since its establishment, Agiloft will dedicate this first round of external funding for the accelerated development of its AI-based CLM software as well as the expansion of its vertical and geographic market presence. Expansion of Executive Team Four new management roles have been established in tandem with the growth plans and equity investment. Accomplished legal tech executive Eric Laughlin was appointed chief executive officer, allowing founder and former CEO Colin Earl to take on the new role of chief technology officer. Following this, contract management industry veteran Kevin Niblock joined the leadership team as chief revenue officer to lead the sales expansion, while accomplished SaaS pre-sales leader Steven Coulange joined the sales organization as VP of solution engineering. More recently, product management and legal technology veteran Andy Wishart was appointed chief product officer to advance the development of the AI-enabled CLM platform. Revamped Partner Program After a 300% increase in channel revenue over 2019, Agiloft revamped its Partner Program, focusing on a strategic set of reseller, service, and technology partnerships geared towards greater joint customer value and expanded partner opportunities. Led by Elisabeth Bykoff, VP of global alliances and partnerships, as well as Danielle Haugland, global alliance director, the program aims at tripling channel revenue while extending its reach in international markets such as EMEA and APAC as well as deepening its thought-leadership and presence in specific industries such as Financial Services, Healthcare, and Public Sector with partners such as Periscope Holdings.



Product Releases & New Integrations Featuring GUI enhancements, advanced usability, and expanded functionalities, two product releases in 2020 provided new AI capabilities to integrate complex contract processes with enterprise applications and ecosystems. Included in its latest update, the Agiloft Contract Assistant provides direct Agiloft CLM functionality within Microsoft Word, the Dell Boomi Connector enables integration with large application ecosystems such as ERP and CRM, Tableau integration provides one-step syncing with advanced data visualizations, and updated integration with Salesforce enables real-time, bi-directional synchronization with Salesforce.

Industry Awards and Recognitions Agiloft's strong year was validated by several industry accolades by top analyst firms. Most recently, Agiloft won the Business Intelligence Group (BIG) Innovation award for its AI Core in its product category. It also won a Silver Stevie in the 2020 American Business Awards for its AI-powered software. Additionally, Agiloft was ranked a leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contract Life Cycle Management and received the highest scores in every use case in the 2020 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Contract Life Cycle Management. Lastly, Agiloft achieved the highest rating among Contract Life Cycle Management vendors on Gartner Peer Insights, with customers rating Agiloft 4.9 out of 5 on average over the last 12 months. Agiloft at Legalweek 2021 This week, Feb. 2-4, Agiloft will attend the Legalweek conference and host a virtual booth to talk to attendees about contract transformation and its impact on corporate legal teams. In addition, the company will host a panel on Feb. 2 titled "How to Maximize the Efficiency of Your Legal Operations with Contract Management." Learn more and sign up for Legalweek here. About Agiloft

As the global leader in contract and commerce lifecycle management (CCLM) software, Agiloft is trusted to provide significant savings in purchasing, enable more efficient legal operations, and accelerate sales cycles, all while drastically lowering compliance risk. Agiloft's adaptable no-code platform ensures rapid deployment and a fully extensible system. Using contracts as the core system of commercial record, Agiloft's CCLM software leverages AI to improve contract management for legal departments, procurement, and sales operations. Visit www.agiloft.com for more.

Media Contact:

Jeffrey Miesbauer

Agiloft

650-587-8615 ext 4003 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/agiloft-closes-out-2020-with-124-increase-in-sales-45m-in-funding-and-significant-advances-in-ai-development-301220203.html SOURCE Agiloft

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President Joe Biden's choices for Transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, and Department of Homeland Security head, Alejandro Mayorkas, were confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday.

Buttigieg received overwhelming bipartisan support - with a vote of 86 to 13 - to become the nation's first openly gay Senate-confirmed cabinet secretary.

Mayorkas got through with a tighter votoe of 56 to 43.

He's the first Latino and immigrant to lead DHS, which was formed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The Senate voted 86 to 13 to confirm Pete Buttigieg (pictured) as President Joe Biden's Transportation secretary on Tuesday. Buttigieg will be the country's first Senate-confirmed openly gay cabinet secretary

The Senate also confirmed President Joe Biden's pick to leader the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas (pictured), seen testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on January 19

The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg as President Joe Biden's Transportation secretary with a vote of 86-13

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (left), another rival of President Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg's (right) in the 2020 Democratic primaries, greets Buttigieg and his husband Chasten (center) at a January 21 confirmation hearing

President-elect Joe Biden (right) announed his decision to make Pete Buttigieg (left) his Transportation secretary in mid-December, introducing Buttigieg at the Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware

President Joe Biden (left) and now Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (right) competed against each other in last year's Demoratic primary and while Buttigieg won the Iowa caucuses, he dropped out at backed Biden by early March before the Super Tuesday primaries

Chasten Buttigieg (right) watches as his husband Pete Buttigieg (left) testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on January 21

Mayorkas, a Cuban-born American, will be sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris early Tuesday evening. He previously served in the Obama administration as deputy secretary of DHS.

Mayorkas' confirmation process was tripped up by Sen. Josh Hawley, who's been under fire for his role in the January 6 insurrection, as he backed House Republicans who challenged Electoral College votes, lending credence to former President Donald Trump's false claims that the election had been stolen from him.

On January 19, Hawley objected to a swift confirmation of Mayorkas over concerns about the incoming administration's immigration policies.

According to the Missouri Republican, Mayorkas 'has not adequately explained how he will enforce federal law and secure the southern border given President-elect Biden's promise to roll back major enforcement and security measures.'

'I haven't looked at that specific question,' Mayorkas answered during a confirmation hearing that day when asked if he would tear down portions of Trump's border wall.

An inspector general's report from the Obama years was also problematic for Mayorkas during his confirmation, as it alleged 'an appearance of favoritism and special access' for certain visa applicants.

Buttigieg previously competed against Biden in last year's Democratic primaries, winning the Iowa caucuses, but dropping out and throwing his support behind the former vice president before the Super Tuesday contests in early March.

A key ally to Biden's campaign, who helped with now Vice President Kamala Harris' debate prep, Buttigieg was reportedly being considered for a number of roles before Biden settled on Transportation head.

Buttigieg, who was deployed to Afghanistan, had been rumored to be in the running to head Veterans Affairs, and as a possible ambassador to China.

In mid-December, when Biden announced Buttigieg as his DOT pick from Wilmington, Delaware, the ex-mayor said he had a 'personal love of transportation ever since childhood.'

'More than once, as a college student, I would convince a friend to travel nearly a 1,000 miles back to Indiana with me on Amtrak,' Buttigieg recalled.

'Though I know that in this administration I will be at best aspire to be the second biggest train enthusiast around,' Buttigieg added, a reference to Biden's reputation of being 'Amtrak Joe.'

Buttigieg said, for him, that travel is 'synonymous with growth, with adventure, even love.'

'So much so that I proposed to my husband Chasten in an airport terminal,' Buttigieg said. 'So don't let anybody tell you that O'Hare isn't romantic,' he added referring to Chicago's bustling airport.

Buttigieg, who turned 39 last month, also spoke about how his youth made him a barrier-breaker, noting that he's the 'first millennial invited to a seat at the table.'

He also said he hoped he would be an example to other LGBTQ Americans, recalling how he watched President Bill Clinton name the openly gay James Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg in 1999.

Buttigieg said, at the time, he was years away from coming out - or thinking that a presidential appointment was something that could happen to him.

'At that age, I was hoping to be an airline pilot,' Buttigieg said.

But he recalled how the appointment had been blocked by detractors in the Senate, though Clinton got it through using a rare recess appointment executive privilege.

'I watched that story and I learned something about some of the limits that exist in this country when it comes to who is allowed to belong, but just as important I saw how those limits can be challenged,' Buttigieg said.

'I'm thinking about the message today's announcement is sending,' he added.

Biden had pledged to have a cabinet of 'barrier-breakers.'

Buttigieg appeared on Capitol Hill the day after Biden's swearing-in for a confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

That panel approved Buttigieg's nomination 21 to 3, setting up Tuesday's floor vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer previewed the vote earlier Tuesday by saying, 'I'm excited to call him Secretary Pete by the end of the day.'

Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, went by the nickname 'Mayor Pete' for much of his political career - in part because Buttigieg was difficult to pronounce.

Out of the gate, Buttigieg will be tasked with ensuring masking is taking place on public transportation, a Biden executive order to slow the spread of COVID-19.

'We are prepared to make sure that we use all relevant authorities to enforce the President's executive order to ensure that across all modes of transportation, workers, passengers, commuters are protected,' Buttigieg said during his January 21 confirmation hearing.

Buttigieg also agreed to work with lawmakers on the long-stalled Gateway tunnel project, which would replace the crumbling Amtrak and commuter railroad tunnel between New York City and New Jersey.

While former President Donald Trump was a native New Yorker, the project was held up under his watch.

'We need to build our economy back, better than ever, and the Department of Transportation can play a central role in this, by implementing President Biden's infrastructure vision,' Buttigieg said in his opening remarks before the committee.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Buttigieg would appear in the briefing room when the administration decides to roll out a larger infrastructure package.

Under Trump, another openly gay public servant, Richard Grenell, briefly held the cabinet-level position of Director of National Intelligence.

The appointment was only temporary, so he wasn't Senate-confirmed.
The continued cold war between the United States government and Chinese electronic companies seems to grow a notch higher every quarter. The recent designation of Xiaomi as part of the Communist Chinese military follows heavily on the ban on Huawei Technology company that sent shockwaves across the world.

These Chinese mobile companies have made a name for themselves across the globe with Xiaomi edging out Apple from the third spot during the July-September 2020 quarter. According to the data released in December 2020, the top three mobile phones globally are from China.

In Africa, the Chinese brands have dominated smartphone shipments according to IDC's Q3 Global Mobile Phone Tracker. Transsion brands (Tecno, Itel, and Infinix) continued to dominate Africa's smartphone space in Q3 2020, with 42.2% unit share. Samsung and Huawei followed in second and third place, with respective unit shares of 19.9% and 8.7%, the report said.
WASHINGTON - Tom Vilsack, President Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of agriculture, pledged Tuesday to focus on climate change initiatives and work to address racial inequities in agricultural assistance programs.

FILE - In this Dec. 11, 2020, file photo former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who the Biden administration chose to reprise that role, speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

WASHINGTON - Tom Vilsack, President Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of agriculture, pledged Tuesday to focus on climate change initiatives and work to address racial inequities in agricultural assistance programs.

Vilsack, who testified before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, would bring much on-the-job experience to the position. In addition to serving two terms as the governor of Iowa, he spent eight years as President Barack Obama's Agriculture Secretary.

In his opening remarks, Vilsack, 70, sought to dispel concerns that he would be coming to the job with antiquated ideas.

I realize that I am back again. But I also realize that this is a fundamentally different time, he said, referencing a need to rebuild parts of the country's agricultural infrastructure in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The reality is we lacked openness, fairness and competitiveness and resiliency, as the COVID-19 crisis has shown, in many of our agricultural markets, he said.

In his testimony, Vilsack heavily endorsed boosting climate-friendly agricultural industries such as the creation of biofuels.

Agriculture is one of our first and best ways to get some wins in this climate area, he said.

He proposed building a rural economy based on biomanufacturing and turning agricultural waste into a variety of products. He pledged to work closely with the Environmental Protection Agency to spur the industry on biofuels.

Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa questioned whether Vilsack's commitment to biofuels would clash with the Biden administration's public commitment to switch the federal vehicle fleet to electric cars and trucks.

We're going to need both, he responded, saying there was room for both climate-friendly industries to thrive and pointing out that the Navy has begun to deploy warships that run partially on biofuel.

With systemic racial inequity now a nationwide talking point, Vilsack said the Agriculture Department needed to seriously examine if it was sufficiently supporting farmers of colour.

He envisioned an equity taskforce to identify what he called intentional or unintentional barriers that make it difficult for people to access the programs.

Sonny Perdue, agriculture secretary in the Trump administration, sought to purge hundreds of thousands of people from the SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program  commonly known as food stamps. That effort was defeated in court, and Vilsack said the SNAP program was particularly vital to the country's recovery from the pandemic.

He said he wanted his department to work directly with governors across the country to make sure SNAP benefits were being accessed smoothly and to address the issue of food deserts in low-income communities.

Its all well and good to give someone a SNAP card and say, Go to your local grocery store and buy more food," he said. "Thats great, assuming you have a grocery store. But if you dont have a grocery store, what then?

Vilsack seems to enjoy bipartisan support and faced no serious criticism from Republicans on the committee. Senators from both parties seemed to treat his confirmation as a foregone conclusion, and at one point New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand referred to Vilsack as "Mr. soon-to-be Secretary.
Elsewhere, the company continues to progress BFS activities on its Maniry Graphite Project in Madagascar where activities include community and environmental works as part of BEMs ultimate plans to obtain a Global Environmental Permit from the Ministry of Strategic Resources - Madagascar.

BEM holds the flagship Maniry Graphite Project in Southern Madagascar, with the bankable feasibility study (BFS) underway

( ) is in trading halt regarding the signing of an MOU relating to graphite down-stream processing.

The trading halt will remain in place until the beginning of trade on February 4 or when an announcement is made to market, whichever occurs earliest.

Field work at Donnelly River Project

On December 14, 2020 the company completed its first program of field exploration on the Donnelly River Nickel-Copper-Platinum Group Elements (PGE) project around 240 kilometres south of Perth, Western Australia.

At the time the company was encouraged by the results and decided to proceed to the next phase.

Donnelly River Project adjoins the Thor and Odin nickel-copper-PGE prospects identified by ( ) ( ) and Venture Minerals Limited ( ) ( ) at their South West JV.

BlackEarth managing director Tom Revy said: Based on the historic exploration results compiled and our recent field program, the board is highly encouraged to proceed with the next phase of exploration.

Having identified the right rocks in the area, the company eagerly awaits the imminent geochemical results ahead of the upcoming aerial EM survey.

MOSCOW -- A Moscow court has ordered Aleksei Navalny to serve 2 years and 8 months in prison after finding him guilty of violating his parole in a reversal of a suspended sentence the Russian opposition politician says was driven by President Vladimir Putins fear and hatred.

Judge Natalya Repnikova on February 2 ordered a suspended 3 1/2 year sentence Navalny received in 2014 to be changed to time in a penal colony, adding that time previously spent under house arrest in the sentence would count as time served, thus reducing his incarceration to 2 years and 8 months. Navalny's lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, said the ruling will be appealed.

Immediately after the ruling, Navalnys supporters called for further large-scale protests that have rocked the country over the past two weekends while also kneecapping his teams ability to campaign against the ruling United Russia party ahead of key parliamentary elections in September.

The court decision sparked severe Western criticism amid already tense relations.

The United States condemned the decision. "We reiterate our call for the Russian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Navalny, as well as the hundreds of other Russian citizens wrongfully detained in recent weeks for exercising their rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on February 2, minutes after the ruling in a Moscow court.

"Todays perverse court decision shows Russia is failing to meet the most basic commitments expected of any responsible member of the international community, U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominik Raab said in a tweet.

The judge made the ruling following a tense hearing that preceded two hours of deliberation. Navalny faced a maximum sentence of 3 1/2 years in prison.

Hundreds of Navalny supporters gathered in the vicinity of the courthouse, which had been blocked off by law enforcement, to await the ruling. At least 300 had been detained prior to the judges decision, according to independent rights monitor OVD-Info.

WATCH: RFE/RL's Russian Service Live Coverage

The ruling comes after tens of thousands of Russians across the country rallied the past two weekends calling for the release of Navalny in some of the biggest protests against Putins rule in a decade.

The anti-corruption campaigner has been held in detention since his high-stakes return on January 17 from Germany, where he had been recovering from an August nerve-agent poisoning he blames Putin of ordering.

The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) accuses Navalny of parole violations relating to a suspended sentence he had been serving in a 2014 embezzlement case he calls trumped up.

"Todays verdict against Alexey @navalny is a bitter blow against fundamental freedoms & the rule of law in #Russia. Already in 2017, the #ECHR criticized criminal prosecution in this case as arbitrary. Alexey #Navalny must be released immediately, German Foreign Minister Heikko Maas said in a tweet.

'Vladimir The Underpants Poisoner'

In a statement to the court earlier in the day, Navalny mocked Putin -- whom he accuses of being behind a poison attack that almost killed him -- repeatedly while stressing the aim of the hearing was to try and intimidate anyone who stood up to the Kremlin.

Everyone was convinced that hes just a bureaucrat who was accidentally appointed to his position. Hes never participated in any debates. Murder is the only way he knows how to fight. Hell go down in history as nothing but a poisoner. We all remember Aleksandr the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise. Well, now well have Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants, Navalny said in his address to the court, referring to how his attackers allegedly laced his underwear with a military-grade nerve agent to poison him.

Unlike other times when he appeared via video link from a pretrial detention center, Navalny was present in court as he outlined how the European Court of Human Rights ruled that his 2014 conviction was unlawful, adding that Russian officials had admitted as much by paying him compensation in line with the ruling.

The main thing in this whole trial isnt what happens to me. Locking me up isnt difficult. What matters most is why this is happening. This is happening to intimidate large numbers of people. Theyre imprisoning one person to frighten millions, Navalny, wearing a blue hoodie, said as he faced the court in a glass-enclosed holding cell.

Everything Im saying now reflects my attitude toward the performance youve staged here. This is what happened when lawlessness and tyranny become the essence of a political system, and its horrifying, he added.

Nationwide Protests

Navalnys detention and growing public anger over perceptions of rampant corruption and deteriorating living conditions has spurred tens of thousands to protest across the country the past two weekends.

Police have responded with a sometimes violent crackdown, detaining some 10,000 people. Many of Navalny's close associates and his wife, Yulia, have been either detained, fined, or ordered under house arrest.

Expecting more of the same, police were out in force ahead of the hearing at the Moscow City Court. Surrounding streets were closed, and many police were deployed around the court complex equipped with riot gear. Police buses also lined nearby streets.

Before proceedings began, Navalny praised Yulia, his wife, who was present after being fined the previous day for taking part in a protest to demand his release.

WATCH: Russian Police Reportedly Detain Hundreds Outside Navalny Court Hearing

"They said that you had seriously violated public order and were a bad girl. I'm proud of you," Navalny said via a microphone from his glass-walled holding cell.

At the hearing, the FSIN repeated its request for the court to convert that suspended sentence into a real jail term of up to 3 1/2 years.

An FSIN representative told the court that Navalny had violated public order many times since being handed the original suspended sentence, which ended last month, and that he had systematically failed to report in to register.

Navalny said he was unable to report to the prison service at the end of last year because he was recovering in Germany where he was flown in an air ambulance after being poisoned in Siberia. The FSIN said its complaints predated his poisoning and that Navalny had in any case been well enough to meet journalists after being discharged from a Berlin hospital in September 2020.

Navalny told the court that the whole country knew he had been poisoned and was in Germany at the end of last year.

"On what grounds are you saying you didn't know where I was? You're misleading the court," he told the FSIN official, who told Navalny he should have got in touch to formally inform the service of his circumstances

As the hearing proceeded, the Kremlin accused Western diplomats of trying to influence the court.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted cars with diplomatic license plates were seen near the court, warning "diplomats mustn't resort to actions that may be associated with attempts to pressure the court."

It was not clear whether any diplomats were actually inside the courtroom where the hearing was taking place on February 2.

The jailing of Navalny and the crackdown on protests have stoked international outrage, with Western officials calling for his release and condemning the arrests of demonstrators.

"Sweden and the EU are concerned about the situation with democracy, civil society, and human rights in Russia," Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, the current chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

The diplomat said Navalny's poisoning and the response by Russian authorities to the street protests will be part of the discussion.

Peskov said that Russia is ready for dialogue about Navalny, but sternly warned that it wouldn't take Western criticism into account.

"We are ready to patiently explain everything but we aren't going to react to mentor-style statements or take them into account," he said in a conference call with reporters on February 2.

The Kremlin has dismissed extensive evidence that state agents poisoned Navalny and has rejected international calls for his release.

Prosecutors claim Navalny broke the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence in an embezzlement case for not checking in while receiving life-saving treatment in Germany.

The European Court for Human Rights has already ruled the so-called Yves Rocher fraud case was "arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable."

In a television interview aired on February 1, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was "deeply disturbed by the violent crackdown" and that the U.S. administration was considering a response to Navalnys detention as well as other issues of concern.

Blinken did not commit to specific sanctions against Moscow.

EU officials have said they were waiting to respond -- including more comprehensive sanctions -- pending the outcome of the Navalnys hearing.

EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell is expected in Moscow from February 4-6 to meet with top Russian officials and civil society.

Navalnys detention and poisoning is expected to be high on the agenda.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa
Cabem Technologies As part of the Massachusetts community, we are proud to be a technology contributor to EOTSS on their information technology security program." Jay FredkinCEO at CABEM Technologies.

In response to EOTSS RFQ 21-00401, CABEM Technologies has announced a new partnership with MAs Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) to deploy a web-based solution supporting third party risk management.

The configurable application will:



Support the requirements of EOTSS third party management policy

Address various security (NIST 800-53) and other standards as required

Allow third parties to complete online assessments as well as post evidence and supporting documentation to EOTSS for review

Automatically evaluate responses, assign risk, and flag concerns

Record and retain objective evidence for compliance and audit purposes

As part of the Massachusetts community, we are proud to be a technology contributor to EOTSS on their information technology security program, says Jay Fredkin, CEO at CABEM Technologies.

The initial deployment will occur over a 6-month period. CABEM will configure the existing Competency Manager application and Livia survey tool to address EOTSS' requirements.

To learn more about CABEM Technologies, visit their website at http://www.cabem.com. To learn more about EOTSS, visit their website at http://www.mass.gov.

About CABEM Technologies: Since 2002, CABEM Technologies has provided sophisticated products, solutions, and technology services to a discerning client base. With expertise in custom development and cybersecurity, CABEM provide solutions to a variety of markets including healthcare, government, manufacturing, financial, environmental, and more.

About EOTSS: Within the Commonwealth of MA, the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security, (EOTSS) is the states lead agency for technology and innovation. Their mission is to provide secure and quality digital information, services, and tools to constituents and service providers when and where they need them.
Famous Couples Whose Relationships Have Stood the Test of Time

10 Pairs of Celeb Lovebirds With the Most Unbreakable Bonds in Hollywood

Hot Hollywood couples come and go so often that it becomes an almost celebratory public event when their relationship hits the tabloids for being well, still intact.

But with all the messy breakups, theres remained a handful of celebrities whose relationships have managed to outlive a get together/split timeline many onlookers have become all too familiar with seeing.

RELATED: Hollywoods Finest Couples That Called It Quits Without Warning

From A-class sweethearts whose relationships have spanned decades to couples you may not even know existed, here are 10 celebrity couples whose relationships have stood the test of time.

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She was only 16 when Goldie Hawn laid her eyes upon the 21-year-old Kurt Russell on the set of Disneys The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1966. Their romance wouldnt begin until reuniting while filming Swing Shift in 1983, but close to 40 years later, and Hawn and Russell are still happily together despite never getting legally married.

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Tom and Rita first crossed paths on the set of ABCs Bosom Buddies during the 1980s while Hanks was still legally married to his first wife. While sparks flew hard on set, it wouldnt be until 1988  a year after Hanks divorce was finalized  that the two made it official by getting married. Now, after 33 years and a couple of COVID diagnoses later, the two are as happy as ever. To be fair, its biologically impossible to be unhappy around Tom Hanks.

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Kyra Sedgwick has the distinct pleasure of telling friends and family her degree of separation from Kevin Bacon is effectively zero. Married for more than 30 years, Kyra first laid eyes upon Kevin in a play during the early 70s, but was reportedly not into him. About a decade later, the two re-met while shooting the PBS film Lemon Sky, giving way to a lost-lasting marriage that began in 1988.

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Its a match made in 1995s version of heaven, which definitely includes floppy hair and midriff-showing shirts. Playing opposite each other in horror classic I Know What You Did Last Summer, the two were officially set up through a mutual friend who conveniently couldnt make it, leading to a more-than-20-year romance that just cant be killed. Unless theres a wooden stake involved, you know, because of Gellars penchant for vampire slaying and such.

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Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham have decades of love between them with a marriage spanning more than 30 years. Thats more than everyone born in 2000 has been alive! Theyve got that classic celebrity meet-cute. He was an entrepreneur, she was about to become one of the most influential women in the world, they met at a charity event, and you know the rest.

GettyImages

One day in 1971, Michael Caine and a friend were watching TV when a Maxwell House commercial came on. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Caine had just laid eyes upon a) some terrible coffee and b) his future wife. The woman was a 25-year-old Guyanese actress and model named Shakira Baksh. After finding out Baksh lived closeby, Caine sought her out, courted the runner-up Miss Guyana and got married. Now, 48 years later, the couple is still together and hopefully drinking better coffee.

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Samuel L. Jackson seems like the kind of guy whos hard to pin down. Latanya met Sam while she was a student at the all-female Atlanta's Spelman College (Jackson was enrolled at the then all-male Morehouse College) in 1970 and married 10 years later. Now, after being together for 50 (!) long years, the two have a daughter named Zoe and a pledge to never go to sleep angry with each other.

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This Is Spinal TapRolling Stone. Curtis recalls the moment she saw Guest wearing a plaid shirt and a waggish smirk, telling her friend she was going to marry that man. The friend knew Guests agent, set the two up for a date, and 37 years later their relationship is still at a solid 11.

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It says a lot about you as a person when your relationship can forge on after blaming a cancer diagnosis on too much oral sex, but thats just true love, baby! Married for more than 20 years, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones love story technically begins in 1998 after Douglas spotted (and subsequently fell in love with) Zeta-Jones in The Mask of Zorro. A month later, the two went out for drinks where Douglas confided in Zeta-Jones that he was going to be the father of her children. Welp, he was right. The two married and had a son named Dylan Michael and a daughter named Carys Zeta.

GettyImages

Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell arent just known as Hollywoods Golden Couple because of their shared genetic disposition towards blonde hair, but rather a beautiful relationship thats lasted over ten years. The two met at a dinner party in 2007, and even though Bell reportedly felt no sparks whatsoever after meeting Shepard, the two fell in love in 2009 during the filming of When in Rome. In March 2013, the couple welcomed their first daughter and got married shortly after.

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El Trompillo Airport, Santa Cruz, Bolivia [ SRZ / SLCZ ]

If you are planning to travel to Santa Cruz or any other city in Bolivia, this airport locator will be a very useful tool. This page gives complete information about the El Trompillo Airport along with the airport location map, Time Zone, lattitude and longitude, Current time and date, hotels near the airport etc... El Trompillo Airport Map showing the location of this airport in Bolivia. Santa Cruz Airport IATA Code, ICAO Code, exchange rate etc... is also provided.

Santa Cruz Airport Info:

Santa Cruz Airport IATA Code: SRZ Santa Cruz Airport ICAO Code: SLCZ Latitude : -17.8111 Longitude : -63.1715 City : Santa Cruz Country : Bolivia World Area Code : 312 Airport Type : Medium Santa Cruz Airport Address / Contact Details :

El Trompillo Airport (SRZ), Av. Horacio Vasquez, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia Airport Type : Public / Military Established Year : 1920 Timezone : America/La_Paz El Trompillo Airport Timezone : GMT -04:00 hours Current time and date at El Trompillo Airport is 14:25:56 PM (-04) on Saturday, May 29, 2021

Looking for information on El Trompillo Airport, Santa Cruz, Bolivia? Know about El Trompillo Airport in detail. Find out the location of El Trompillo Airport on Bolivia map and also find out airports near to Santa Cruz. This airport locator is a very useful tool for travelers to know where is El Trompillo Airport located and also provide information like hotels near El Trompillo Airport, airlines operating to El Trompillo Airport etc... IATA Code and ICAO Code of all airports in Bolivia. Scroll down to know more about El Trompillo Airport or Santa Cruz Airport, Bolivia.

El Trompillo Airport Map - Location of El Trompillo Airport Load Map Bolivia - General Information Country Formal Name Republic of Bolivia Country Code BO Capital La Paz (administrative/legislative), Sucre (judical) Currency Boliviano (BOB)

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The Federal High Court in Kano on Tuesday fixed March 16 for the continuation of hearing in a suit seeking an order stopping the Kano State Government from borrowing N300 billion from China for a light rail project.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the suit was filed by the Centre for Awareness on Justice and Accountability (CAJA) and Kabiru Dakata.

Those joined as respondents in the suit are the Kano State Government, Senate President, Kano State House of Assembly, Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministry of Finance, Debt Management Office, China EXIM Bank and China Embassy.

The plaintiffs had on December 4 applied for an interim injunction restraining the respondents from taking further action about the loan.

But the judge, Saadatu Ibrahim-Mark, who declined to issue the order, directed that the respondents be put on notice and appear in court to show cause why the applicants prayers for an interim injunction should not be granted.

Tuesdays hearing

On Tuesday, plaintiffs counsel, Bashir Yusuf, told the court that all the parties in the suit were duly served with all the necessary documents.

Mr Yusuf urged the court to adjourn the matter, adding that some applications made by the respondents had yet to be served on him.

Responding, the respondents counsel, Marcelliinus Duru, said he had filed a counter-affidavit on January 26, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear and determine the suit.

The court lacks the jurisdiction to determine the subject of this suit under any guise whatsoever, he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Northern Patriotic Fund and Ibrahim Ali, Lukman Abdallah, sought to be joined in the suit as respondents.

Their application was filed on January 28.

The applicants said they sought to be joined in the suit because the light rail project would be of benefit to the people of the state and non-indigenes of Kano State.

The judge, Ms Ibrahim-Mark, adjourned the matter till March 16.

Suit

The plaintiffs, among other prayers, urged the court to hold that the state government, having allegedly failed to follow due process, does not have the power or authority to obtain the N300 billion loan from China Exim Bank for the construction of light rail.

The plaintiffs stated, As a matter of fact all these procedures of external borrowing have not been complied with by the first respondent.

The revenue of Kano State Government as of 2019 stands at not more than N40.6 billion and the external loan requested by the first respondent is about N300 billion.

(NAN)
Its no secret that Amal Clooney changed everything for George Clooney. For years, the actor said that he would never get married again, and he seemed content with his work, family, and friends. However, just over a year after meeting the Lebanese-born British barrister, the Clooneys walked down the aisle.

Now, the Oceans Eleven star is getting candid and revealing how love letters keep their romance alive.

George Clooney and Amal Clooney | Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

George Clooney and Amal Clooney met by chance

Clooney was a notorious bachelor who was adamant about never marrying again following his divorce from actor Talia Balsam in 1993. Therefore, he was left speechless when Amal showed up on his doorstep on a summer day in 2013.

I didnt leave the house, Clooney revealed on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. No, its the wildest thing. A mutual friend of ours said, Im stopping by, and can I bring my friend? And I was like, Of course. I got a call from my agent who called me and said, I met this woman whos coming to your house who youre gonna marry.

Clooney was smitten when the lawyer and activist immediately. They began by exchanging email addresses, and their friendship blossomed into a romance. They spent Christmas together in Cabo San Lucas, and went on a safari in Kenya. By February 2014, the actor/director was planning to pop the question.

George and Amal Clooney still write each other love letters after 4 years of marriage. https://t.co/rqxT09mxF0 pic.twitter.com/2meUmfWtpY  etalk (@etalkCTV) January 31, 2021

RELATED: George Clooney Sews His Kids Clothes and Mends Amals Dresses

George Clooney asked Amal Clooney to marry him out of the blue

Almost immediately, The Mightnight Sky actor knew that his wife was the one. I knew fairly quickly that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Amal (but) we had never talked about it, so there wasnt like a Hey, maybe we should get married' he told Marie Claire U.K.

In fact, when Clooney did pop the question, Amal was stunned into silence. I asked her out of the blue, took her a long time to say yes. I was on my knee for like 20 minutes; I finally said, Look, Im gonna throw my hip out,' he told CBS This Morning.

The pair tied the knot in September 2014 and welcomed twins, a daughter and a son named Ella and Alexander, respectively, in June 2017.

George Clooney writes Amal Clooney love letters to keep their romance alive

Now, nearly seven years into their marriage and with toddlers to wrangle, the actor is determined to keep the romance alive with his wife. He told AARP,

Even in lockdown, Ill write a letter and slip it on her desk, or shell write a letter and leave it under the pillow. Im a big believer in letters. I have letters from Paul Newman, Walter Cronkite, Gregory Peck. I have them framed. I put them in the house. If it were a text, it would feel different. Maybe thats a generational thing, and maybe it wont be that way 20 years from now, but for me, somebody sat down and wrote it.

The couple also has a yearly tradition. Each year, they go on a romantic weekend away just the two of them, but before they leave, they write each of their children a dated letter for them to have as a keepsake.

WARREN, MI  A pair of thieves who stole two vehicles and 100 sets of car keys from a Warren car dealership were arrested by police after a short chase.

WXYZ-TV reports that the incident began when police responded to an alarm at Andys Auto Sales on Van Dyke Avenue at 3:30 a.m. on Monday. Police tracked the suspects down 9 Mile Road before they bailed on foot and were eventually arrested.

The 17-year-old driver from Detroit faces fleeing and eluding, auto theft, breaking and entering, resisting and obstructing and other charges, according to the TV station.

The 20-year-old passenger from Detroit faces similar charges and carrying a concealed weapon.

They ransacked it. Tore the alarm off the wall, George Porto, manager at Andys Auto Sales, told the TV station. This is the second time in a month. The first wasnt as bad. They took four really expensive rims off a car.

Police also say nearby used car lots had similar shoe prints left behind by the suspects at Andys. Police are investigating if they could be tied to a similar case out in Detroit, WXYZ reported.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Warren Police Department at (586) 574-4700.
A mother from Chicago is threatening to sue the Chicago school union for 'cultivating fear and panic' as teachers appear to headed for strike or lock-out in a dispute as teachers and the union failed to come to an agreement on a novel coronavirus safety plan.

On Monday, the Chicago Public Schools told the parents of 67,000 pre-kindergarten, special education, elementary and middle school students, to keep their children at home after it could not reach an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

Sarah Sachen, a mom of three said she shared the frustration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot over the battle between the two bodies.

Chicago mom, Sarah Sachen, is threatening to sue the Chicago school union for 'cultivating fear and panic' which is preventing teachers returning to the classroom

The Chicago Teachers Union represents 28,000 public school educators and has been locked in negotiations with the district for months over gradual reopening



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'I believe that the schools have been open, they've been ready, they've been receiving students and now they're closed again for reasons of fear and panic and the CTU has cultivated this fear and panic amongst its members,' Sachen said to Fox News on Monday.

'Since when did Chicago become a city that doesn't believe in science?' she said, referring to information from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that suggested schools and in-person learning were not a major source of coronavirus transmission.

In December, Dr. Robert Redfield, who was director of the CDC at the time, stressed his advocacy for in-person learning, citing evidence that schools aren't a major source of coronavirus transmission.

Sachen explained how she believed a plan put forward by Chicago Public Schools had been working.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (pictured) has ordered teachers to return to classrooms on Monday but ultimately both teachers and students stayed at home

The CTU, which represents the city's 28,000 public school educators, has been locked in negotiations with the district for months over a gradual reopening of schools for the system's 355,000 students. The two sides have been at odds on teachers demands for stronger safety protocols to prevent the spread of the virus in classroom.

On Monday staff were told to report to their schools or face losing access to remote teaching tools.

Those who do not report to work  and I hate to even go there  but we are going to have to take action. Let's avoid that,' Lightfoot said during a news conference Sunday night. 'Let's avoid it in the first instance by getting a deal done ... and that's the message I gave to CTU President Jesse Sharkey.'

The union, in an email to its rank-and-file last week, threatened it would order its second strike in less than two years 'if CPS retaliates against members for exercising their right to a safe workplace.'

Chicago Teacher's Union said it has voted to strike if teachers are locked out of remote learning tools. Pictured is the union's strike action from 2019

65,000 K-8 students were initially supposed to be their classrooms on Monday, but a vote by the union instructed its members to continue teaching remotely instead.

Last week, the union threatened to order a second strike in less than two years 'if CPS retaliates against members for exercising their right to a safe workplace.'

Sachen said parents are afraid to speak out because of potential pressure from the union.

'There is social media backlash from the public and union representatives when parents speak out,' she said, noting that parents who voice the need to get children back into classrooms are 'bullied' and 'our businesses and places of work are contacted.'

'I will continue to speak out because I am not afraid to advocate for my child's education,' Sachen went on to state.
Private equity firm Eos Capital has announced it is in talks to acquire a minority stake in Erongo Medical Group (Pty) Ltd - the owners of the Welwitschia Hospital at Walvis Bay.

The transaction will cost several millions, and the deal is expected to be closed next week.

The Namibian understands that the price and shareholding are yet to be made public.

Erongo Medical Group (EMG) does not only run the Welwitschia Hospital, but also has Erongo Radiology, Ongwediva Medipark, and Medixx Occupational Health Services under its wings.

Matthias Braune, EMG's chief executive officer, says his company is excited to have Eos Capital as a partner, and it will be good to see them adding value by providing strategic and transaction advisory support to enable the group to grow organically and inorganically - thereby building a scaled regional healthcare company.

Ekkehard Friedrich, an Eos Capital partner leading the transaction, says his company is looking forward to building on this foundation and strengthening the healthcare sector in Namibia.

The country's health sector over the years has emerged as one of the investment areas attracting private capital.

Public health has been a struggle, however.

EMG is a Namibian Walvis Bay-based private healthcare group, which started out as a radiology centre at Walvis Bay in 1998.

It has since branched out to own the Welwitschia Hospital and has interests in several other healthcare entities.
While many others destroy forests for timber and clear land for farming, a man in central Vietnam has worked tirelessly to bring back green to a once barren hill.

Vu Va Chong a resident from Huoi Tu Commune in central province of Nghe Ans Ky Son District consider each tree as one of his friends. Photo plo.vn

Vu Va Chong lives in Huoi Tu Commune in Nghe An Provinces Ky Son District and has planted po mu (fokienia) and samu (Chinese fir) trees and inspired other local residents to follow his example.

Twenty years have passed and he now has thousands of po mu and samu trees.

Chong recalled his life as a young man.

It was in 1984, I undertook military service at Ky Son District Military Command. My comrades and I were assigned to deal with illegal loggers at po mu forest in the border area many times," he said.

Looking at the hundred-year-old po mu and samu trees that had been cut down, he could not help but feel sad. He hoped that he could do something to stop them from disappearing.

Po mu is known as a precious species and has been in Vietnams Red Book list of endangered species since 1996.

It is heavily exploited for its unique smell and beautiful wood grain.

After he completed military service, Chong asked local authorities to allocate him Au Tien  a barren hill - for production.

In the first three years, he only planted tea trees and raised chickens. With the money gained from selling tea and chickens, he bought po mu and samu seedlings. But he failed in his first attempt.

The first batch of trees was a huge failure as half of the 3,000 seedlings died, he told Phap luat Thanh pho HCM (HCM City Law) newspaper.

However, he did not give up and went to neighbouring Tay Son Commune to learn about planting techniques.

He knew the reason for his failure  the holes he made were too small and the soil was not soft enough.

In addition, he needed to maintain moisture for the plants.

His efforts have paid off as the trees grew up very well.

Now Chong has more than 6,000 po mu and samu trees planted on a hill.

Samu is valued for durable wood as well as its resistance to termites, rot, and numerous fungi.

He boasted that many tourists have visited Au Tien Hill to enjoy the forest. Children in the localities often come here for parties.

Au Tien Hill which once a barren hill has become a tourist attraction thanks to efforts by Vu Va Chong. Photo plo.vn

Chong said many people had offered him large sums of money for the wood, but he refused them.

Ive planted and tended the trees for nearly 20 years. I consider each tree a friend. It is very sad to sell them, he said.

Danh Ba Long, vice chairman of Huoi Tu Communes Peoples Committee, said Chongs model of planting po mu trees could be expanded in the commune to help re-plant the forest and improve the incomes of local residents who wanted to use them for sustainable commercial purposes.

According to Long, afforestation in Huoi Tu is not easy because most of the local people are of the Mong ethnic minority and poverty has been lingering for many generations.

The land which is 1,200 metres above the sea level makes it difficult to grow any plant, he said.

Inspired by Chong's success, other locals have started planting trees, Long said.

Many households such as Vu Nhia Hua's and Lay Y No's in Huoi Mu Village and Vu Giong Cho's in Huoi Dun Village have planted from 1,000-2,000 po mu and samu trees. They have also cultivated Shan tea in combination with raising chickens and cows which brings good income and helps alleviate poverty.

Chong doesnt only supply seedlings for local people at affordable prices and but also gives them instructions on how to plant them properly, Long said. VNS

We are 'trading nature for economic benefits': senior expert Prof. Nguyen Ngoc Lung, Director of the Institute of Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Certification, has been working in the forestry industry for nearly 60 years. He is called "the man of the forest".
Seattle, WA, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today the Technology Alliance released a groundbreaking report on the remote learning challenges facing students across the country and recommendations to best address them. In the fall of 2020, the alliance formed The Remote Learning Task Force including a diverse group of Washington state education, business and government leaders to explore problems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. In preparing the report Learning During Calamity the Task Force recognized that instead of just preparing for the next pandemic, the shortfalls they discovered should be addressed immediately to serve current students while preparing for future remote learning needs, from snow days to temporary school building closures.

The recommendations include:

Better Connectivity:

Every child deserves access to reliable internet connections no matter their address. Right now in Washington state, 150,000 to 200,000 students lack adequate, reliable internet access.

Every child deserves access to reliable internet connections no matter their address. Right now in Washington state, 150,000 to 200,000 students lack adequate, reliable internet access. Technology Equity:

One-to-one devices for every Washington child. There is currently a shortage of 200,000 devices for students in our state.

One-to-one devices for every Washington child. There is currently a shortage of 200,000 devices for students in our state. Educator & Student Readiness:

The state should support districts in creating high quality, personalized digital content that is both inclusive and diverse. Teachers should be given additional support & resources to prepare lesson plans for both remote and blended settings.

The state should support districts in creating high quality, personalized digital content that is both inclusive and diverse. Teachers should be given additional support & resources to prepare lesson plans for both remote and blended settings. Better IT Support:

Districts should be provided the resources to create an IT support systems to address any student or educator needs. Currently, IT support in urban and suburban schools is often understaffed or non-existent in small and rural schools.

Districts should be provided the resources to create an IT support systems to address any student or educator needs. Currently, IT support in urban and suburban schools is often understaffed or non-existent in small and rural schools. Improving Family Communications:

The key to remote learning success is clear communications with students and their families. The state should consider family engagement programs, including an engagement coordinator within schools and requiring schools to track family communication and report on its effectiveness.

Too many of our students have already lost out on learning opportunities, and they cant wait. We need to act, even while in the middle of this great challenge, to ensure our current and future students have access to the learning opportunities they need to thrive, said Technology Alliance CEO Laura Ruderman.

A public school system that fails to provide an equitable education opportunity to all of our students fails and impacts all of us, added Bellevue College President and former WA Governor Gary Locke. It is vital to address those inequities on all levels, including remote learning.

About the Technology Alliance:

The Technology Alliance is a statewide, non-profit organization of leaders from Washingtons technology-based businesses and research institutions united by our vision of a vibrant innovative economy that benefits all our state's citizens. Through programs, events, data analysis, and policy activities, we advance excellence in education, research, and entrepreneurship to support the growth of our high-impact industries; the creation of high-wage jobs; and economic prosperity for our entire state.
Sen. Josh Hawley Announces Fundraising Surge After Objecting to Electoral Certification

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) brought in a significant fundraising haul after he objected to the electoral certification during the Jan. 6 Joint Session of Congress.

The Missouri Republicans office released a memo on Monday that showed his campaign netted nearly $1 million in January, saying that 12,000 new donors pitched in.

The campaign now has about $2.1 million on hand as Hawley is aiming to get reelected in 2022.

It is crystal clear that a strong majority of Missouri voters and donors stand firmly with Senator Hawley, in spite of the continued false attacks coming from the radical left, Hawley pollster Wes Anderson said.

His team said the fundraising haul came in spite of aggressive attacks by national Democrats after he objected to certifying Pennsylvania on Jan. 6. A number of Democrats have alleged that Hawleys objection led to the storming of the Capitol, although the objection is entirely lawful under the Constitution and similar objections have been lodged by Democratic lawmakers in recent presidential elections.

The same is also true of the fundraising data we have seen over the past month. Despite much ink being spilled about corporate political action committee (PAC) support being paused and three doors separating themselves from Senator Hawley, the Hawley campaign has seen a surge in financial supportraising nearly $1 million in January with thousands of new donors, the memo said. It was likely referring to some major corporations announcingin the aftermath of the Capitol incidentthat they would pause or stop donations to Republicans who objected.

A poll of Missouri voters also found that 57 percent agreed that Hawley was within his constitutional duty to object to Pennsylvanias 20 electoral votes, according to a poll released by his team.

For his part, Hawley condemned the violence and said he will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections, according to a statement he released last month. Thats my job, and I will keep doing it.

Hawley was the first senator to announce that he would object to the results. About a dozen other GOP senators and dozens of House representatives also joined him. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, was the first Republican in Congress to announce he would challenge the results in key states.

Weeks later, Hawley said that he was never trying to overturn the 2020 election.

I never said that the goal was to overturn the election. That was never the point and that was never possible, Hawley said on Jan. 28, remarking that he was concerned about election integrity.

Separately, the first-term senator, who is widely viewed as a possible presidential contender, told news outlets last week that he will not try to run for president in 2024.
SAO PAULO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. ("Company" or "Itau Unibanco"), in compliance with Article 157, Paragraph 4 of Law 6,404/76 and Instruction no. 358/02 of the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, informs its stockholders and the market in general that as of this date it has announced its projections for the year 2021 in accordance with the provision in item 11 ("Projections") of the Reference Form.



Consolidated

2021 Guidance Brazil

2021 Guidance Total credit portfolio2 Growing 5.5% to 9.5% Growing 8.5% to 12.5% Financial margin with clients Growing 2.5% to 6.5% Growing 3.0% to 7.0% Financial margin with the market Range from R$4.9 bn to R$6.4 bn Range from R$3.3 bn to R$4.8 bn Cost of credit3 Range from R$21.3 bn to R$24.3 bn Range from R$19.0 bn to R$22.0 bn Commissions and fees and results from insurance operations4,5 Growing 2.5% to 6.5% Growing 2.5% to 6.5% Non-Interest expenses Range from -2.0% to 2.0% Range from -2.0% to 2.0% Effective tax rate Range from 34.5% to 36.5% Range from 34.0% to 36.0%

(1) Includes units abroad ex-Latin America; (2) Includes financial guarantees provided and corporate securities;(3) Includes Result from Loan Losses, Impairment and Discounts Granted; (4) Commissions and Fees (+) Income from Insurance, Pension Plan and Premium Bonds Operations (-) Expenses for Claims (-) Insurance, Pension Plan and Premium Bonds Selling Expenses; (5) 2021 guidance does not consider XP Inc. equity result starting in February 2021.

It is noteworthy mentioning, currently, the Company considers, for management purposes, a cost of capital of around 13.0% per year.

Information on outlooks for the business, projections and operational and financial goals are solely forecasts, based on management's current outlook in relation to the future of Itau Unibanco. These expectations are highly dependent on market conditions, general economic performance of the country, of the sector and the international markets. Therefore, our effective results and performance may differ from those forecasted in this prospective information.

Sao Paulo, February 2, 2021

Renato Lulia Jacob

Group Head of Investor Relations and Marketing Intelligence

SOURCE Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.

Related Links

www.itau.com.br



Well, that was fast. A few months ago, the United Arab Emirates, a seven-member group of emirates on the Arabian Peninsula with a majority Muslim population, signed a peace treaty, known as the Abraham Accords, with Israel, a Jewish nation. Although the two countries don't share a common border, the UAE had previously joined with other Muslim nations opposing Israel. Now they are discussing joint business ventures and cultural exchanges.

The most visible example of this change is the appearance of top Israeli model, Yael Shebia, gracing the February, 2021 cover of UAE's magazine L'Officiel Arabia, highlighting their major cover story, "A Peace of History."

"I'm so happy to be a part of this historic cover," Shelbia wrote in an Instagram post. Thank you @lofficielarabia & @laishamag Together we are stronger."

"Together we are stronger." Now, that's a lesson that editors of American magazines, especially the so-called women's magazines, should really learn. In the four years of President Donald J. Trump (R)'s presidency, his wife, Melania Trump, a very attractive woman who was a professional model, did not appear on the cover of one magazine, as usually happens with the wives of other presidents. No cozy tours of the White House with Melania, no interviews with her about raising a child in the public eye for their readers.

Hmm, perhaps the editors were prejudiced? Melania was a legal immigrant who spoke English and a successful woman in her own right. Yeah, that must be the reason; the narrow-minded editors couldn't cope with that. Trump's daughters and daughters-in-law are also attractive, intelligent women with interesting backgrounds and experiences, but they too were ignored by the editors of these magazines. Hmm again.

Maybe, just maybe, the editors of the American women's rags...umm...mags will learn from their overseas counterparts that diversity and pluralism are basic to American life and that "together we are stronger."

Or am I too optimistic?
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A State High Court in Dutse, Jigawa State on Monday sentenced a 27-year old man, Suleiman Ahmed, to life imprisonment, after convicting him of rape.

The court also sentenced another person it found guilty of the same crime to 21 years in jail and acquitted another suspect.

The spokesperson of the state Ministry of Justice, Zainab Baba-Santali, disclosed these in a statement on Tuesday.

She said Mr Ahmed, of Lutai village in Birnin Kudu Local Government Area of the state, committed the crime on March 15 last year in Babaldu town.

The statement said the convict had lured an 11-year old girl into an uncompleted building where he raped her.

Ms Baba-Santali said the prosecution, led by the state Attorney-General, Musa Aliyu, presented four witnesses after the defendant denied the charges.

The witnesses included two of the girls friends who testified that they saw the convict taking her into the uncompleted building. They said they had followed them, only to see him sexually abusing the girl.

The trial judge, Musa Ubale, said the prosecution proved their case beyond reasonable doubt against the defendant, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Other judgements

In a similar case, the judge, Mr Ubale, also jailed one Adamu Ali 21 years for raping a nine-year-old girl.

The convict, a resident of Birnin Kudu town, was accused of luring the girl with N500.

According to the prosecution, the girls parents and the management of her school noticed her discomfort and after a medical examination, reported the case of rape to the police.

The prosecution tendered four witnesses. The court convicted Mr Ali and pronounced the sentence of 21 years imprisonment on him.

One suspect cleared of rape

Mrs Baba-Santali also said one Mohammed Musa from Asayaya village of the same Birnin Kudu LGA was alleged to have raped a 15-year-old girl.

She said the judge, however, said the prosecution did not discharge the burden of proof beyond reasonable doubt, and discharged and acquitted the defendant.

She said the judgment was delivered on January 20.
Over 4,000 variants of the CCP virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2 or the novel coronavirus, have been identified across the globe. (Corona Borealis Studio/Shutterstock)

UK Finds Mutations of Concern in Bristol and Liverpool: Health Secretary

British health authorities have identified 43 cases of CCP virus mutations of concern in Bristol and Liverpool, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday.

He told Parliament that 11 cases of mutations of concern had been identified in Bristol, and 32 cases in Liverpool.

In response, the government has expanded its ongoing door-to-door testing programme, initially intended to identify cases of the variant first identified in South Africa, to these two areas, he said in an oral statement.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks during a press briefing at Downing Street in London, on Feb. 1, 2021. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

The UK has now identified 105 cases of the South African variant, 11 of which do not appear to have any links to international travel.

Those cases are the first in the UK of community transmission of the variant, which is more transmissible and more resistant to antibodies, raising fears that the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines could be reduced.

Health authorities have started door-to-door surge testing for the variant in eight local areas in England, a programme which will now be extended to Bristol and Liverpool.

In all the affected areas, the authorities will attempt to test every resident over the age of 16 and will sequence every positive test, Hancock said.

In all these areas, it is imperative that you must stay at home and only leave home where it is absolutely essential, he emphasised.

Mobile testing units will be deployed to offer PCR tests to people who have to leave their home for work or other essential reasons, he added.

Hancock said 9.2 million people across the UK have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including almost 9 out of every 10 people over 80 and over half of people in their 70s.

He said the government is confident that it will be able to meet its target to offer the vaccine to all the most vulnerable groups by Feb. 15.

On Monday, the government announced that it had ordered another 40 million vaccine doses from French company Valneva, bringing the total number of vaccine doses secured by the UK to 407 million.

Hancock said the government had invested early in various vaccine candidates and had also built up Britains own vaccine manufacturing capability at home.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is now being manufactured in Oxford, Staffordshire, and Wrexham, and the Novovax vaccine is made in Teesside, he said.

Last week, the French company Valneva started commercial manufacturing of its COVID-19 vaccine in Livingston in Scotland.

Its a great example of what we can achieve together, working as one United Kingdom, said Hancock.

Simon Veazey contributed to this report.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Scotland will require all arrivals from outside the UK to undergo "managed quarantine", First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Tuesday, as she criticised the British government's more limited self-isolation travel rules.

Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament the new policy, which is yet to be set out in detail, will begin as soon as possible and is necessary to prevent coronavirus strains from being imported.

The UK government in London announced last week that only travellers coming from 30 countries deemed at "high risk" from COVID-19 variants will have to quarantine in hotels, under ramped-up regulations yet to take effect.

Arrivals from other nations will still be able to enter if they have tested negative for the virus within 72 hours and must still self-isolate at home for specified periods.

"Managed quarantine must be much more comprehensive," Sturgeon said on Tuesday.

"We intend to introduce a managed quarantine requirement for anyone who arrives directly into Scotland, regardless of which country they have come from."

However, it was unclear how the new policy would work on a practical level if people arrive into other parts of the UK and travel on to Scotland.

Sturgeon acknowledged Edinburgh, which has responsibility for various domestic policy areas but not immigration and border enforcement, could not unilaterally implement quarantine on people who arrive into other parts of Britain.

She said her devolved administration would continue to urge UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government to adopt a similar approach, and if it did not "to work with us to reduce the risk among people travelling to Scotland".

Britain, which has been the worst hit country in Europe by the pandemic registering more than 106,500 deaths and nearly 4 million cases, has been under strict lockdown measures for weeks.

After record infection levels and daily fatalities earlier this month, the situation has slowly improved and leaders across the four UK nationsEngland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Irelandare mulling loosening restrictions in the coming weeks.

Johnson has signalled the current English lockdown would remain until at least March 8.

Sturgeon said Tuesday Scottish rules would stay in place until at least the end of this month, but "a careful and gradual easing" may be possible "around the start of March".

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

 2021 AFP
TASHKENT  Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, who is heading a high-level delegation to meet with Uzbek officials and attending the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan-Pakistan trilateral meeting in Tashkent, met with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov on Monday.

Foreign Minister Atmar thanked the Uzbek authorities for inviting the Afghan delegation to discuss mutual interest issues and strengthening bilateral relations in the fields of economy, security, trade, and transit.

The two sides discussed implementing the Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway project and considered the completion of this project important in expanding trade, economic growth, and regional connectivity.

The Foreign Minister also stressed the Cargo and Freight Transportation Center and effective

use of Tirmuz city to increase trade between Kabul and Tashkent.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan welcomed the Foreign Minister and his accompanying delegation to Tashkent and assured Mr. Atmar of his country's full support for the Afghan peace process.

Sardor Umurzakov added that Afghanistan's peace and stability are the keys to development, economic growth, and increased cooperation at the regional level. He noted that his country is ready to invest in Afghanistan's infrastructure and support comprehensive regional connectivity.

The Foreign Minister highlighted the significance of current investment, trade, regional connectivity, and private sector cooperation and called for further development and expansion of economic and cultural cooperation between Kabul and Tashkent.
Over the last week, Grand Duchy police carried out more than 330 checks in connection with compliance with Covid-19 measures.

The officers were mainly focussing on whether citizens were respecting the curfew and 280 checks were carried out in this context.

Sanitary/hygiene measures in supermarkets and gatherings of people were also checked.

170 people were found not to be in compliance with current and measures and were fined on the spot: 90% of them for not respecting the curfew.

In seven cases, it was the sanitary measures that were not respected.

A report of each non-compliant incident was sent to the competent authorities.



Prabhas has just wrapped up his next Radhe Shyam and also announced his another project Salaar, and here we get the news that he kick starts shooting for his next Adipurush. The Baahubali actor whos a phenomenon nationwide, gets everyone excited with his project announcements.







Today Prabhas shared a picture on his social media where he announces that he starts shooting for Adipurush from today. With the logo of Adipurush, the picture also states the word Aarambh which means the beginning of their shoot. The film is helmed by Om Raut and its the adaptation of the greatest saga  Ramayana. The film stars Prabhas in the lead role and he will play the role of Lord Ram and Saif Ali Khan will play the antagonist in the film and play the role of Raavana. While the two leads are announced by the team, the leading lady has yet not been officially announced by the makers. But rumours are rife that Kriti Sanon is roped in to play Sita.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Prabhas (@actorprabhas)

Adipurush is said to be high on visuals and never to be seen before visual treatment. This will be Prabhas first Hindi film and the audience is damn excited to watch him in the Ramayana adaptation which plans to release in August 2022. Speaking about his other project Radhe Shyam, the film stars him opposite Pooja Hegde and has been shot extensively in London. Hes also joining hands with KGF director for Salaar and recently announced the leading lady for the film  Shruti Haasan.
San Francisco's Lowell High School, founded in 1856, is the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi. In 1894, it was renamed after Lowell, Massachusetts. By the 20th century, Lowell admitted students, not by neighborhood, but by academic qualifications. These qualifications meant the school was disproportionately White; Jewish; and, for the last 50 years, Asian. Leftists have wanted to destroy it for decades. Thanks to BLM and the Wuhan virus, they are finally getting their chance.

When I attended Lowell in the late 1970s, admission was based on junior high school grades. At that time, the student body was roughly 50% Asian. The year I graduated, Lowell was ranked as one of the top ten public high schools in America.

In the 1980s, the NAACP sued the school because the academic requirements meant that few Black students made it to Lowell. The suit ended with a consent decree requiring a written test for admission and mandating that Asians score 62 out of 69 on the test, while White students could score 58, and Blacks could enter with a lower score (which articles about the school refuse to identify).

Asians pushed back in the 1990s and eventually forced a new consent decree that created a "diversity index" substituting socioeconomic factors, the mother's education level (missing fathers?), academic achievement, and language spoken at home. The school returned to being primarily Asian. Lowell always did have a huge infusion of Asian students who lived in abysmal poverty, with parents who spoke no English, but who emphasized education over everything, resulting in students with superior grades.

The San Francisco School District got its revenge on Lowell by sending it some of the worst teachers in an already lousy district. The theory was that, because the students were good, they didn't need good educators.

A virus from China, ironically, gave the school district the ammunition it needed to destroy a school that had, for generations, churned out intelligent, well educated students from all over the city. The first salvo was the district's decision that, because there was no in-person learning in 2020, the academic standards for admission would be put in temporary abeyance. Everyone could see where that was headed.

San Francisco has now lined up a death blow to Lowell. Several commissioners announced that the school is a center of "ongoing, pervasive, systemic racism." Why? Because relatively few minorities qualify for Lowell; "Black, Latinx, and Samoan Pacific Islander students" don't feel "physically, emotionally or culturally safe and valued at Lowell"; there were "microaggressions"; and Ibram X. Kendi says anything that shows that non-Whites and non-Asians don't do as well academically is inherently racist.

For those, and other race-hustler reasons, the commissioners resolved that Lowell should become a regular high school with a lottery admission beginning in the fall of 2021. Oh, and it will also be subject to a Maoist struggle session review "to address the exclusion and ongoing toxic racist abuse that students of color, specifically Black students, have experienced at Lowell High School since the school's creation."

Lowell is such an integral part of old San Francisco pride that even the editorial board of the hard-left San Francisco Chronicle was moved to protest, worried that the lottery "threatens to erode the school's ability to maintain its level of academic excellence[.]" Ya think?

Not only is Lowell on the verge of losing its unique academic cachet, but it's also losing its name. The San Francisco Board of Education went on a rampage last week, renaming 44 San Francisco schools, claiming that all the existing names are racist. I wrote here about the risible, historically ignorant reasons for renaming Lincoln High School.

It's not just Lincoln who's being erased. George Washington (slave-owner), Paul Revere (false claim that he helped conquer the Penobscot Indians), Teddy Roosevelt (imperialist), and Dianne Feinstein (allowed a Confederate flag to be flown and used to oppose same-sex marriage) are all being stricken. Lowell is getting a new name because of flawed Wikipedia research. Wikipedia said the school was named after famed abolitionist James Russell Lowell, who happened not to like Blacks much. The rush to rename is so insane that even leftist Mayor London Breed objected.

Frankly, if the school's just going to be another lousy San Francisco public high school, I'm glad that the name is being changed. That prestige that attached to the Lowell name shouldn't be dragged down. My suggestion for the school re-naming committee is that they call the proud institution that once was Lowell "Just Another Lousy Public School" or JALPS.

Oh, wait! I forgot. In the world of racial madness, acronyms are banned, too, as a symptom of "white cultural supremacy."

While it's dubious whether a majority of Americans voted for Biden, it's a dead certainty that a majority of San Franciscans voted for the school board. They wanted leftism, and now they're getting it good and hard.

Image: Lowell High School. Public Domain image.
VACAVILLE, Calif. (AP)  Police in California arrested a man suspected of two killings after someone reported seeing a livestream on social media that showed him with a gun and two women lying on the floor.

The Vacaville Police Department says officers went to an apartment complex Saturday after getting a call from a woman about the livestream.

Police say the video showed the man carrying a handgun and two women lying motionless.

A SWAT team arrested a 29-year-old Sacramento man, later identified as Raymond Michael Weber, and found the two women dead. Police have not released any information on the cause of their deaths or their identities.

According to Vacaville Police, Weber was wanted on an outstanding warrant for crimes including domestic battery and assault with a deadly weapon. He now faces two murder charges for the deaths of both women.
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Partly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms possible. High 82F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

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Bashkir Construction Minister arrested on abuse of office charges

 

11:09 02/02/2021

MOSCOW, February 2 (RAPSI)  Minister for Construction and Architecture of Russias Republic of Bashkortastan Ramzil Kucharbayev has been apprehended on charges of abuse of office, RAPSI has learnt in the Invetigative Committees press service.

A case is related to his work as the chief of the Capital construction management of Bashkortostan, the state enterprise.

According to investigators, in 2017, the accused in violation of law signed a construction completion certificate for an uncompleted object as part of state agreements worth over 95 million rubles ($1.3 million ) signed with a contractor.




London: Testing and tracing teams are being deployed to doorsteps across Britain to try to squash community transmission of nearly a dozen cases of COVID-19 caused by the South African coronavirus variant.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they had discovered 11 cases of the variant, that could not be linked to travel, in five different locations across England - in the East, West Midland, South East and North West as well as in London. More than 150 cases attributed to the variant have been identified to date.

People walk past a closed brach of Topshop next to a bus stop coronavirus information sign on Oxford Street in London. Credit:AP

Britain remains in the grip of lockdown as it battles to curb the spread of a variant first discovered on its own shores, as well as trying to keep out other more transmissible variants that have emerged in countries with major outbreaks, including Brazil and South Africa.

Mobile surge testing units are being sent to the areas to carry out door-to-door testing and everyone living in the areas were urged to get tested regardless of whether they had symptoms. Every positive case will also be genomically sequenced.
BLOOMFIELD, Conn., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cigna's (NYSE:CI) International Markets business has published its fourth COVID-19 Global Impact Study. This series, which builds on Cigna's annual 360 Well-being Study, provides further insight into the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's well-being in 11 markets around the globe.

Cigna engaged more than 23,000 people across Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States between January and October 2020, to show the changes in attitudes during the pandemic.

Uncertainty about the future is the greatest cause of stress

The latest survey data shows that after months of pandemic-related restrictions, periodic stay-at-home orders, changing restrictions on travel and social gatherings, and multiple waves of infection, people worldwide have become even more concerned about the future. According to the study, almost half of global respondents said concern for the future is their greatest cause of stress.

Another common area of stress is the balance between work life and family life. More than 40% of respondents reported low well-being scores and high stress levels in both of these areas, with 14% saying their level of stress is currently unmanageable.

"The increased levels of self-reported unmanageable stress are concerning, with stress often adversely impacting a person's overall physical health and well-being," said Cigna Global Employer Health, Americas CEO, Ann Asbaty. "Access to fully integrated wellness programs and well-being solutions can have a positive impact on managing whole person health. In 2020, Cigna's International Employer Assistance Program saw a 33% increase in utilization, with a 53% increase in visits to the website alone, compared to 2019."

U.S. remains upbeat despite global declines

While perceived well-being declined worldwide, in the U.S. it was a more positive picture, with the well-being index improving by a remarkable 2.6 points. Respondents reported significant improvements in their feelings of health and well-being.

While previous Pulse Study results showed a similar overall view on the impact of COVID-19, this report highlights the varying changes in global perception. Global regions are adapting to the new landscape differently, and these differences are influencing the views and emotional responses of people in these geographies.

Continued interest in virtual health

The latest study results show a more lasting shift in how people manage their health. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed indicated they now care more about the health care services they have access to, and 30% say they have changed their approach to managing their mental health. Supporting that outlook, the study finds widespread use of virtual health services, initially driven by the need to socially distance due to COVID-19, will outlast the pandemic.

Nearly three in five respondents (59%) said they are likely to continue using virtual health services if given the option. Additionally, 29% of respondents now view virtual health as their preferred health service option.

The three most commonly preferred aspects of virtual health were unchanged from the previous survey of global populations conducted in August - generic health support, prescription delivery, and mental health support.

"The fact that so many have transitioned seamlessly to using virtual care bodes well for the ongoing adoption of solutions that provide greater access to care beyond the pandemic," noted Asbaty. "By offering consumers alternative ways to experience the health care industry we have an opportunity to enhance not only access, but consumers' overall whole person health."

For more information about the Cigna Global Impact Study, and to read the full results, visit https://www.cignaglobalhealth.com/na/en/knowledge/covid-19-global-impact-study.

About Cigna

Cigna Corporation is a global health service company dedicated to improving the health, well-being and peace of mind of those we serve. Cigna delivers choice, predictability, affordability and access to quality care through integrated capabilities and connected, personalized solutions that advance whole person health. All products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Evernorth companies or their affiliates and Express Scripts companies or their affiliates. Such products and services include an integrated suite of health services, such as medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, vision, supplemental benefits and other related products.

Cigna maintains sales capability in over 30 countries and jurisdictions, and has more than 170 million customer relationships around the world. To learn more about Cigna, including links to follow us on Facebook or Twitter, visit www.cigna.com.

SOURCE Cigna

Related Links

http://www.cigna.com


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  As February 2021 begins, we look back to what it looked like last year at this very time. It appeared to be a month full of promise for restaurants and the usual Staten Island regimens  planning for Valentines Day, fundraising for the St. Patricks Forest Avenue Parade and thinking about spring.

When did you see things starting to change in the shadow of the pandemic, particularly in the eating out department?

The first day of bowling in the pandemic on August 17, 2020 at Rab's in Dongan Hills. (Staten Island Advance/ Alexandra Salmieri)

Its amazing. Its a year already, said Frank Wilkinson, owner of Rabs Country Lanes in Dongan Hills. The bowling alley reopened in August at 25% capacity although, until Feb. 14, food purchased at resident restaurant Gennaros or from vending machines must be consumed off-premise.

Last year, Wilkinson started to see changes in patterns around Chinese New Year. The Year of the Rat started on Jan. 25 and to celebrate, Wilkinson went to some of his favorite Manhattan Chinatown haunts.

Roast Pork and Shrimp Dumpling Noodle Soup at Empire East (Staten Island Advance File Photo)Staten Island Advance

He reflected, Restaurants were empty and deserted. Two days before I went to a sushi place on Staten Island and people were calling the place and asking if owners were Chinese. Then, the owner said theyd hang up. To me, thats when Chinese restaurants started to suffer due to the perception of what some called the China virus.

Yes, the Advance and other news outlets across the country detailed the effect of the virus on the Chinese community. An Silive.com report noted in late February, [Owners] said the fears are unwarranted since the business is a grueling one, demanding long hours and providing little time for owners and employees to travel anywhere, including China, where more than 77,000 cases have been reported and the death toll has risen to 2,663.

China Chalet in Eltingville has reopened under new ownership. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)Staff-Shot

An employee of China Chalet in Eltingville told the Advance about a year ago: Weve lost business, but theres nothing to be afraid of.' The restaurant closed in the spring and reopened this fall under new ownership. Its sister eatery in downtown Manhattan closed permanently.

Additionally, the phenomenon of all but three of the boroughs Chinese restaurants shutting down completely for months from mid- to end of March showed just how damaging that virus stigma truly was.

The YMCA Broadway remains closed. (Staten Island Advance File Photo)STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

So was February a good time or a weird time in 2020? Well, maybe a little bit of both in retrospect. On Feb. 1 last year, I was teaching a Saturday morning kids cooking class at the Broadway YMCA in West Brighton. Many of the students had the sniffles and several of my friends were under the weather. The Y gym was at full capacity that day and it felt good to be indoors doing things in winter. It really was a germ-y time although I truly miss the Y and am sad to see it still closed indefinitely.

But those moments in time had their bright spots and there certainly was hope.

That early February afternoon at the 5 p.m. Mass at Sacred Heart R.C. Church, Cardinal Timothy Dolan delivered the homily. He talked about the Super Bowl in winter as a great idea, that getting together with food and friends can be a boost in the midst of winter blues. Now, of course, that was just before the pandemic truly took hold of our local world. Yet that day also happened to be the celebration of the Presentation of Christ. Perhaps the upshot of that memory is that there is always a light to which to look toward.

Right now, that might seem like Feb. 14 when indoor dining starts up again. And Ill take it.

Keep in touch.

Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.
UTICA, N.Y.  The final steel beam was placed atop the framework of the new downtown Utica hospital Tuesday, during a topping off ceremony at the site.

Members of Mohawk Valley Health System and Gilbane Building Company attended in celebration of the hospital milestone.

The health care industry has been overwhelmed throughout the coronavirus pandemic, and MVHS president Darlene Stromstad says it has highlighted the need for a new hospital in the region.

A spotlight has been shown on the healthcare field over the past year, and everyone has been feeling the stress and strain of the continued COVID-19 pandemic. The need for a state-of-the-art facility in our region is apparent and I think this project provides a beacon of hope for the future in these tough times, she said.

A customary small evergreen tree and an American flag were attached to the beam before it was hoisted to the top of the structure. The tree is a nod to the Native American belief that no man-made structure should be taller than the tallest tree.

Construction on the hospital is expected to be completed in early 2023.
Washington: US President Joe Biden has condemned the military coup in Myanmar, calling the takeover a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy - and setting up an early test of whether recent efforts to overturn the US presidential election result will weaken its role as a global champion of free and fair voting.

In a democracy, force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election, Biden said in a statement, suggesting that the United States may impose economic penalties and urging a coordinated international response.

People hold up images of Myanmars de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a protest outside Maynmars embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. Credit:Getty

The coup unseated a fragile civilian government and posed a test for Biden - and more broadly, for the United States as an advocate of democratic values worldwide. Critics have warned for months that former president Donald Trumps repeated, baseless claims of election fraud, culminating in a deadly assault on the US Capitol a month ago, could be used to undermine the American position abroad.

Biden, who proclaimed at his inauguration that democracy has prevailed, has pledged to return the United States to a leadership role in condemning anti-democratic actions worldwide, even as most of his administrations energy is focused inward on the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout.
Medical experts have described the late Prof David Katzenstein, a globally renowned HIV researcher as a humble giant and great scholar who was at the forefront of the effort to contain AIDS, especially in sub -Saharan Africa with the highest rate of HIV infection in the world.

Head of the Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI), Dr Shungu Munyati said the death of Prof David Katzenstein was a huge loss at a time when the world needed his expertise most.

"We have lost today a giant in the global scientific community," she said.

"He touched many people all over the world in a special way and we will carry his legacy with pride."

Dr Junior Mutsvangwa, a microbiologist, said he was shocked to learn about the death of the top HIV researcher.

"The loss is quite unimaginable," he said. "Prof David Katzenstein, was a rare, selfless and very passionate scientific research giant and mentor. It has been extremely hard to come to terms that he is no more."

Prof Collen Masimirembwa, head of AiBST said he learnt about the death with great shock and disbelief.

"It's a great loss for AiBST as we have collaborated with him over the years in the training and mentoring of young scientists. His passion for research and public health was unparalleled."

He succumbed to Covid -19 on January 24 at the age of 69. After working as a professor of medicine for Stanford University for several years, he later joined the BRTI in 2016 as a principal investigator when he retired.

Prof Katzenstein was a passionate advocate for access to antiretroviral therapy and virologic testing in Sub-Saharan Africa for more than three decades.

He is survived by a daughter and two grandchildren.
A recent video of Chloe Bailey's Instagram received immense criticism from netizens who deemed the video as too sexy and turning into a sexual object. Chloe took to her Instagram handle and talked about how she was just being herself and would not change for society. As tears rolled down her eyes, fans of the celebrity rushed to Twitter to show their support to her.

Chloe Bailey's IG

Read Also | 'High Time The Truth Came Out': Govinda After Krushna Abhishek's 'defamatory' Comments

Here is what Chloe Bailey said on her Instagram live

For every woman out there, don't change who you are to make society feel comfortable. And I'm telling myself that's not what I'm going to do, even when I posted the video yesterday, I posted it because I was saging and doing Palo Santa and I was like, 'Let's spread positive vibes. I didn't even really notice you guys were talking about my ass because I was like, 'OK, I'm just walking in from one seconds, two seconds. And I feel like I've shown my ass more than I have with that like if you look at our performance videos, the last performance we had in December. Like, I was just so excited and on stage, and just being myself, so... I don't know. I just felt it was important to address it, so you guys get to kind of know who I am inside. And it's really hard for me to think of myself as sexual being or an attractive being quite frankly. So, when I see all the uproar about my posts and stuff, I'm a bit confused. Like, I really don't understand because I've never seen myself in that way.

Check out the video below:

For every woman out there, dont change who you are to make society feel comfortable. - Chloe Bailey pic.twitter.com/Twp6AHYWpH  philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) February 1, 2021

Read Also | Payal Ghosh Poses Question On 'credentials' Of Actors Amid Ongoing Drug Probe

Fans support Chloe Bailey

Numerous fans of the celebrity gushed to Twitter and extended their support to the celebrity. Several fans wrote in the comments that they could relate to her and that society should not tell women how to post videos on social media. Many other people defended Chloe and asked who made such nasty comments about the young celebrity. Check out some of the fan tweets below.

Such a sweet, talented, beautiful young lady. And the fact that she feels she has to explain herself breaks my heart. You have more supporters than not, Chloe   Eve J. (@shejustwrites_) February 1, 2021

I wanna fight whoever came for Chloe pic.twitter.com/E152xgBL15  BeautifulSyn (@Seal_of_Yofiel) February 1, 2021

Oh man!! Wish I can give her a hug!! She good ppl I know it  iii  (@Supr94) February 1, 2021

Oh wow, thats really sad she feels has to defend herself, for being a YOUNG WOMAN. people are so disgusting.  _AirCandi  (@_AirCandi) February 1, 2021

She seems beautiful inside and out.  Carrie (@Iloveyoutoochat) February 1, 2021

You are so beautiful!!!!  Angelice Cunningham (@DJGieSpot) February 1, 2021



Read Also | Milind Soman Replies To Fan Who Asks Him To Recreate Beach Running Picture In Cold Weather

Read Also | Australia's Platypus Habitat Declines By 22 Percent Over 30 Years: Study

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.

A British tourist is missing after being swept away by raging seas off the coast of Barbados.

Police and the local coast guard are searching for the man, 61, who was last seen on the beach near Sunset Crest, St. James on Monday.

A police spokesman at Holetown Station said that they received a report from a member of the public who saw a man on the beach.

A British tourist is missing after being swept away by raging seas off the coast of Barbados (File image)

The tourist, who was staying at a guest house in Sunset Crest, was repeatedly warned by other beach-goers not to venture into the water due to rough conditions.

He nevertheless ventured into the sea and was bit by a large wave.

The witness said he did not see the man resurface and could not find him after looking for him.

Police, coast guard, and other personnel have searched both land and sea.

A police source said: 'The man was on the shore before he eventually went into the ocean.

'He was warned about the danger by the locals but it did not seem that he listened to their advice. The sea was very choppy and he was told that he should not go in the water.

'He ignored the warnings at his own risk and peril.'
[February 02, 2021] The New Look of Caseworthy

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CaseWorthy, the leading provider of Case Management software for nonprofit and government organizations, introduces an all-new brand image today with a fresh logo, an immersive, vibrant website and even a friendly mascot. At a time when the need for Case Management software is more apparent than ever before, CaseWorthy redefines its look to more closely match its energy & passion for the work of their clients. CaseWorthy works alongside human services and government entities across the country as a true case management partner. Their software allows nonprofits to access a variety of tools to better organize and manage the ever-changing needs of their clients. With CaseWorthy, these organizations can compile and share information from multiple providers to more efficiently track each client's case & better serve each client. Ultimately, this leads to stronger relationships and trust in their communities. CASEWORTHY IS A SCALABLE & CONFIGURABLE SOLUTION TO MATCH EACH UNIQUE ORGANIZATION In addition to their new branding, CaseWorthy is unveiling a video to showcase just how impactful their system can be. CaseWorthy is proud of their partners and the amazing things they do. This extra spotlight will not only reinforce the legitimacy of their platform but bring attention to the real heroes on the front lines in their communities. "The old branding didn't represent the level of passion we hold for our clients," says Rhett Richins, President at CaseWorthy. "We don't just sell software. We understand the diverse nature of nonprofit work necessitates you have a fully-itted case management system in place. With the explosive growth we've had over the past few years, it was time for us to update our branding to match the energy and heart of our organization."



The company culture has developed alongside the brand. In 2020, they adopted new, employee-created values: Excellence : We strive for excellence. We take pride in our work. We go above and beyond the call of duty.

: We strive for excellence. We take pride in our work. We go above and beyond the call of duty. Collaboration : We're stronger together, our team has a cooperative spirit and mutual respect. Good ideas come from anywhere, so the more voices the better.

: We're stronger together, our team has a cooperative spirit and mutual respect. Good ideas come from anywhere, so the more voices the better. Service : Our clients are at the heart of everything we do. We strive to provide a service that's anything but basic.

: Our clients are at the heart of everything we do. We strive to provide a service that's anything but basic. Compassion : It's compassion and kindness that wins over our clients at the end of the day, and that effort of understanding and accepting others is one of our biggest strengths.

: It's compassion and kindness that wins over our clients at the end of the day, and that effort of understanding and accepting others is one of our biggest strengths. Empowerment: We have the resources and freedom needed to complete our projects. We work to enrich the lives of everyone we serve. CaseWorthy invites you to join in the celebration by letting them know what you think of their new branding, website, and video. Find them on LinkedIn to engage.

About CaseWorthy: Established in 2008, CaseWorthy has been raising the bar on how human service organizations interact with their software partner. CaseWorthy enables organizations to successfully capture and manage client data in one, secure location. Built from the ground up around the idea that case management software should support the needs and workflows of the staff and organization rather than dictate how they work, CaseWorthy supports the daily efforts and data needs for hundreds of human service organizations and community initiatives. By consolidating data and systems into a single platform, CaseWorthy helps nonprofits and other government agencies access the information they need to better coordinate services and more effectively address the 360 degree needs of every individual and family they serve. To learn more about CaseWorthy, visit their brand-new website at CaseWorthy.com. Media Contact

Valentina Gillespie

877-347-0877

290220@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-new-look-of-caseworthy-301219970.html SOURCE CaseWorthy, Inc.

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Coral reefs are highly productive and visually stunning marine ecosystems that are formed mainly of calcium carbonate secreted by the colonies of reef-building coral polyps. They represent the planets most valuable resource, both in terms of the high global biodiversity and the wide variety of ecosystem goods and services they provide. Sir Charles Darwin, in his book The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, had rightly described these underwater ecosystems as an oasis in the desert of the ocean. Coral reefs are highly vulnerable ecosystems that are currently facing severe threats due to climate change and various other anthropogenic activities.

Content:

Conditions Favoring Coral Reef Formation

Aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Temperature: The reef-building corals are very sensitive to temperature fluctuations and are generally found in warm tropical and sub-tropical oceans (located below 30 latitude), where the annual water temperature ranges between 20-28C. It has been estimated by various studies that, if the water temperature becomes lower than 18C or increases above 30C, most of the corals will get bleached.

Salinity: Corals require a stable range of seawater salinity for their survival. Researchers have estimated that if there is a drop in salinity below 20ppt for more than a day, then it will lead to the mortality of corals and other associated reef organisms.

Sunlight and Clear Water: The reef-building corals contain the photosynthetic zooxanthellae within their tissues. These algae require sunlight for photosynthesis and growth. Hence, the coral reefs are usually found within a depth of 50m in the clear, nutrient-poor, sediment-free, and shallow oceanic waters.

Distribution Of Coral Reefs

Occupying less than 0.1% of the worlds ocean area, the coral reefs are scattered throughout the Western Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific oceans. The Western Atlantic reefs are limited to Bermuda, the Caribbean Islands, Belize, Florida, the Bahamas, and the Gulf of Mexico. About 700 species of corals are found in the Indo-Pacific region while only 145 species are found in the Atlantic region. It has also been observed that the coral reefs thrive best on the eastern shorelines of the continents where the shallow substrates in the open oceans provide suitable habitat.

Coral Reef Ecosystem

Often referred to as rainforests of the sea, the coral reef ecosystems are widely known for their biological diversity, as they support about 250,000 known marine species on the planet  which includes over 4,000 fish species, 700 coral species, and thousands of other marine flora and fauna. By supporting such a high variety of flora and fauna, the coral reefs help to maintain a functional ecological balance between the different predator and prey species.

Coral Reef Plants

The autotrophs in the coral reef ecosystem include photosynthetic organisms like phytoplankton, cyanobacteria, algae (macro and micro), and seagrasses. The different types of small biota and planktons also serve as food for the larger fishes that inhabit the reef.

Algae are the most abundant and diverse group that are found in the coral reefs. They vary in size from the microscopic unicellular zooxanthellae to the more complex and multicellular seaweeds. Green, brown and red seaweeds (macroalgae) are widely distributed within the coral reef ecosystem. However, the excess growth of algae due to pollution from the harmful chemicals significantly reduces the oxygen availability for the other organisms inhabiting the ecosystem.

Corals and other invertebrates grow in a shallow seagrass meadow in Komodo National Park, Indonesia.

Besides algae, other species that also provide benefits to the coral reefs are the seagrass meadows. Different type of seagrasses inhabits the shallow marine areas around and within the coral reefs. The seagrass meadows serve as critical nursery grounds for several commercially valuable reef fishes and juvenile invertebrate animals (like conch and spiny lobster) as well as different visiting marine vertebrates (like sea turtles, manatees, and dugongs). In addition to this, they also shield the coral reefs from pollution and freshwater.

The mangroves which are located at a distance from the main reef formation also play a significant role in the marine ecosystem. The mangroves enhance the abundance and diversity of reef fishes and together with seagrass, they help in increasing the productivity of the coral reef ecosystem.

Zooxanthellae-Coral Symbiosis

Anatomy of a coral showing the zooxanthellae-coral symbiosis.

The development of symbiosis between the reef-building corals and the dinoflagellate zooxanthellae is the main driving force promoting the high productivity and growth of coral reefs.

The reef-building corals form a close association with the microscopic single-celled photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae, that resides inside each of the coral polyps. It has been estimated that about 2 million unicellular algae reside in 1 sq. cm of the coral tissue. The zooxanthellae provide oxygen from photosynthesis as well as nutrients (sugars and amino acids) for their cnidarian host. The corals in turn supply the algae with crucial inorganic compounds that are required for photosynthesis, besides providing a safe and protected habitat for the symbiotic algae. The photosynthetic process helps in carbon fixation by transforming the inorganic carbon into organic carbon. The organic carbon is then released into the surrounding water by the corals, as dissolved organic matter (coral mucus). This mucus acts as a food source for many reef organisms and forms a base for the rich marine ecosystem. The coral reefs also exhibit a variety of bright and vibrant colors due to the presence of these symbionts.

Cyanobacteria and benthic diatoms are also abundant in the reef ecosystem and cover the surfaces of seaweeds, seagrass, mangrove roots, and also on the open sand between the reefs. The high productivity and biomass of these microalgae provide for most of the primary production occurring with the reef ecosystem. The cyanobacteria also help to build the structure of the reef and serve as an important food source for other reef species.

Coral Reef Animals

Red Octopus on coral reef in the Red Sea.

The coral reefs provide a perfect habitat and a safe shelter for a vast number of fishes, crustaceans (mantis shrimp, spiny lobster, and hermit crab), echinoderms (sea urchins, sea cucumber, and starfish), mollusks (nudibranch, giant clams, octopuses and common reef squid), sponges, sea anemones, sea turtles and other marine faunal species. The faunal biodiversity around a coral reef also significantly depends on the time of the day as some species rely on the reefs during the day while others rely on the reef at night.

Invertebrate animals like sea urchins and sea slugs play an important role in the coral reef ecosystem. They feed on the algae and seaweeds thereby preventing them from smothering the coral reefs. The sessile sponges produce chemical compounds to deter predators. Polychaetes like the Christmas Tree Worm are generally found embedded in the head of large corals. The shrimps and crabs are mainly found on the body surface of corals and fishes and function as cleaner stations  feeding on the mucus, parasites, and organic particles on the host bodies.

As estimated by scientists there are over 4000 species of fish residing in the worlds coral reefs and these fishes are extremely diverse in their coloration, forms, and behavior. The fishes have also developed a wide range of adaptations for ensuring their survival in the reef habitat. To optimize their movement, the fins of the reef fishes are differently designed compared to the other ocean fishes. The reef fishes also possess a wide range of colors and patterns primarily to provide camouflage and to blend with the surrounding reef. Some notable teleost fishes that are found within the coral reef ecosystem include cardinalfish, porcupinefish, butterflyfish, squirrelfish, parrotfish, trumpetfish, surgeonfish, goatfish, rabbitfish, rudderfish, damselfish, moray eels, gobies, wrasses, snappers (lutjanids), and grunts (pomadasyids). Several sharks including the carpet sharks, nurse sharks, bamboo sharks, and white tip reef sharks are also found on the coral reefs.

A school of colorful Parrotfish feeding on a tropical coral reef.

The species of fishes that are found on the coral reefs, occupy various levels of the food chain. The most abundant herbivorous parrotfishes scrape microalgae from the surfaces of the coral colonies; while the butterflyfishes are the most ubiquitous and colorful among the benthivores. The carnivorous reef fishes like grunts and snappers feed on other small fishes and invertebrate animals. The sharks are apex predators and help to maintain greater biodiversity in the ecosystem.

Coral reef sharks are the apex predators of the coral reef ecosystem.

Large marine mammals are rarely found in coral reefs. However, few mammals are observed in coral reefs, when they usually visit to feed. Some most common mammals that are found in the Great Barrier Reef include dolphins (like spinner dolphin and bottlenose) and whales (such as the humpback and Dwarf Minke whales).

The coral reefs also serve as important habitats for different species of seabirds. The Midway Atoll located in Hawaii hosts about 3 million seabirds. The most notable albatross species that make their home on the Midway Atoll include the Laysan albatross and the short-tailed albatross.

Coral Reef Food Web

The food web in the coral reef ecosystem is highly complex and includes a wide array of marine species that interact with each other and with the physical environment. The three basic trophic levels that are characteristic of all coral reef food webs have been discussed here.

The sun serves as the initial source of energy for the coral reef ecosystem. The autotrophs (or, producers) - are the phytoplankton, algae, and other plants, which convert this light energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis. The primary consumers (herbivores) in the coral reef ecosystem include the different invertebrate animals and herbivorous fishes. The secondary consumers then feed on the primary consumers. These organisms include the larger reef fishes like the groupers, snappers, and barracuda. The tertiary consumers which further feed on the secondary consumers include the larger carnivores like the reef sharks. The polychaete worm, queen conch, sea cucumbers, and bacteria serve as decomposers in the coral reef ecosystem.
Republican Announces California Gubernatorial Run as Newsom Recall Nears Threshold

A prominent California Republican on Feb. 1 announced his entry into the states gubernatorial race as a recall effort against Gov. Gavin Newsom nears the threshold to get on the ballot.

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in a campaign video that the state has become the land of broken promises.

And it doesnt have to be this way. We can clean up California, and it starts at the top, he added.

Gov. Newsoms ruling class has failed us. They promised equality, but gave us some of the worst income inequality in the nation. They promised modern infrastructure. They cant even keep the lights on. They promised prosperity, but created high costs, higher taxes, and killed jobs, all to protect powerful special interests. They promised compassion, but enable addiction and despair. They promised to fix failing schools, but put special interests ahead of kids every time.

Faulconer, who left office last year due to term limits, said that his administration in San Diego helped cut waste, corruption, and incompetence.

Newsom, a Democrat in his first term, is facing criticism from within his party and from Republicans for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other matters. A recall effort has garnered 1.3 million signatures of the 1.5 million required to get on the ballot, and some Silicon Valley players recently voiced support.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom outlines his 2021-2022 state budget proposal during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 8, 2021. (Rich Pedroncelli/Pool/AP Photo)

Chamath Palihapitiya, a Democrat, announced last week that hes running for governor. The CEO of the venture capital firm Social Capital and former Facebook executive said on his campaign website that California is too expensive, our teachers are underpaid, and our schools arent good enough.

Faulconer is known as a centrist Republican. He opposed former President Donald Trumps candidacy and criticized a number of Trumps policies, including the construction of a wall along the southern border.

Mike Cernovich, a conservative firebrand who supports Trump, also announced a gubernatorial bid on Feb. 1.

Cernovich said in a video stream that he cant win the election but may be able to get enough of a base of a support to force Newsom to answer for his human rights violations.

He pointed to Newsom dining out while overseeing mandates that shut down dining in portions of California, and Newsom sending his children to private schools while many public schools have been closed.

A spokesman for Newsom has told news outlets that the recall campaign is a waste of money and that the governor would rather focus on getting through the homestretch of the pandemic.

State Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks claimed last month that the campaign is a California coup led by Republicans with extremist allies.

Samantha Corbin, a Democrat who lobbies the state government, said on Twitter she was extremely disappointed and disturbed by the language.

Linking a legal & constitutionally appropriate CA recall attempt to the violent insurrection at the US Capitol & ongoing coup attempt is worse than a bad PR call. Its irresponsible, will breed division & perpetuates ignorance, indifference regarding our constitutional rights, she wrote.

Hicks later said he would choose his words more carefully. Newsom, when asked during a press briefing if he agreed with Hicks, declined to answer.
Some striking CDC workers Screenshot from amateur video

The Government has pledged to support the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, in the payment of the wages of its workers despite the shocks occasioned by the crisis in the North West and South West Regions.

This is the kernel of a tripartite meeting held in Yaounde Tuesday, February 2, 2021, between the government, the CDC management, and trade union leaders.

CAAWOTU had declared a Collective Labor Dispute from Tuesday, February 2 to Friday, February 5, 2021, in all CDC Estates, Factories, Mills, and Establishments to voice out the grievances of workers, especially those who have not had pay for close to 30 months.

Tuesday's tripartite came to foil the workers' strike that would have paralyzed operations of the Corporation, which is a victim of the crisis in the North West and South West Regions as well as the novel coronavirus.

The working session chaired by the Minister of Labor and Social Security in the Conference Hall of his was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and those of the Ministry of Finance, the CDC General Manager, and leaders of Trade Unions in the CDC.

The discussion focused on concerns raised by Trade union Leaders and particularly by the Cameroon Agricultural and Allied Workers Trade Union (CAAWOTU) contained in their correspondence dated 12 th January 2021, and on the avenues to arrive at solutions to the crisis, Labor Minister Gregoire Owona said in a press release co-signed by eight others.

The CDC has about twenty thousand contracts of employment and a related monthly wage bill of about FCFA 2.5 billion.

Considering the fact that the Anglophone crisis has adversely affected production activities in many of the estates and industrial units, the corporation has been unable to pay wages.

Government to support wages of CDC workers (c) Reserved

Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, President of CAAWOTU regrets that some workers have gone for about 30 months without salary.

"Since the start of 2018, some 20 workers have been murdered in their line of duty while others have had their hands or fingers chopped off with machetes. Workers have not received their monthly salaries for close to 30 months and over 10,000 workers have been placed on technical leave, not leaving out retired workers who are yet to receive their retirement benefits, "Mbene said.

In a bid to ensure social peace reigns and for economic revival to be restored in CDC establishments, the government pledged to support the CDC management in the payment of monthly wages as well as arrears.

Following the discussion, the Government pledged to support the CDC Management in the payment of wages and the monthly payment of arrears in the days ahead, Minister Gregoire Owona said. In addition, the security issue will be looked into by competent administrations.

A working session to assess the situation will take place in three months, the Labor Minister promised.

Unionists have welcomed the Yaounde meeting, hoping that government will fulfill her promises. The trade union leaders have asked workers to put in their best to make sure the CDC returns to its glory days.
MAULDIN, SC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2021 / Spartan Military Prints is pleased to announce the launch of their new website. This website is intended to not only expose the company's military art products to a wider audience but also to give their customers a more user-friendly experience while shopping with them. The company was founded way back in 1985 by Stu Patton, a retired Special Forces soldier. Since that time, they have been providing a wide variety of unique military art choices to those in their local area and beyond. When Patton first started the business, he had hoped to use his extensive military background to bring exclusive military art prints to present & former military members and others that more accurately represent true military experiences.

Patton says, "When I first started this niche art business, I had a vision of where it could potentially end up, and to see that happen is very heartwarming, to say the least. With the launch of our new website, we expect even more demand for our already popular high-quality military art. The newly launched website will make it much nicer for our customers that are far away to see the different military art prints that we offer with more clarity and to simplify their purchases of them. We will continue to do whatever it takes to give our present & former military customers and others the access they want to unique and hard to come by military art prints."





The company's founder went on to say that the new website has a very pleasant layout that is descriptive but not overrun by text and photos. This was meant to better display examples of such collections as their 'Into the Breach' military prints (which even include Ranger scrolls below the image) and their large assortment of other canvas giclees. Even the dropdown menu selection on the recently launched website was intentionally kept simple to make it easier for their customers to quickly get to the information on the company and their unique military prints that they are looking for. The inspiration behind all of the company's military art choices is also nicely described in the new website's 'About Us' section. There is even a 'contact us' page on the recently launched website that contains the company's email and a quick callback form that the customer can fill out to get a response to any inquiries they have about this company's limited-edition military art prints.

The new website also gives some nice background information on Stuart Brown, the renowned British artist and illustrator that creates all of Spartan Military Prints unique military art collections. He is an artist that from early on always showed a passion for using military subjects as the basis of his limited-edition art. This section of the new website states, "With a free hand, Stuart Brown developed a style ideally suited to military subjects with a balance of atmosphere and technical accuracy." The website also mentioned that he is so good at what he does, that, "Today, prints of his work are collected worldwide with commissioned originals in the collections of numerous military units."

Those at the company are also excited about their upcoming release of some new spartan military prints that Brown has created. These prints will center around the actions of the United States Marine Corps and their proud traditions. Patton added that their customers can expect these new prints to be available around the fall of 2021. Customers that are interested in seeing these prints will be able to do that when their designs are added to the 'New Releases' section of the recently launched website. Patton also talked about how they designed their new website in such a way that it's very flexible. That way they can change it any way they want in the future so it better showcases their military art collection. Both present & former military members and others that would like more information on the existing prints and upcoming releases this studio offers can get this information by visiting their recently launched website.

For more information about Spartan Military Prints, contact the company here:

Spartan Military Prints

Stu Patton

864-256-0843

info@spartanmilitaryprints.com

9 Trailstream Drive

Mauldin, SC 29662

SOURCE: Spartan Military Prints

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627217/Spartan-Military-Prints-Launches-Brand-New-Website
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, say goodbye to law and order Joe.

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LONDON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- After a turbulent year of cancelled travel plans, 2021 can be the year it's possible to tick 'seeing more of the world' off the bucket list. Hyatt Hotels has launched 'The Great Relocate,' a long-stay package to cater to the pent-up desire amongst consumers for travel and longer stays abroad.

The package provides guests, who can work remotely, with a unique way to see new parts of the world, while working and living in the comfort of a Hyatt hotel. The offer is open to World of Hyatt members, with stays eligible to contribute towards achieving elite member status.

More than 80%1 of employers are now said to be expanding offers to their employees to work remotely, after the last year proved many people can work effectively across different postcodes and time zones. This combination of a shift in work patterns and consumers' pent-up desire for travel, after months of quarantines and travel restrictions, means there is an increasing demand for long stay-travel.

The Great Relocate offers the change of scenery that so many who have been working from home crave, with spacious guestrooms and suites, refreshing pools, twice weekly housekeeping, private work areas, complimentary gym access, high-speed internet and IT concierge on hand, laundry services, airport or train station pickup and 25% off onsite dining*, working remotely can be a breeze. When combined with Hyatt's highest standards of cleanliness, to ensure the health and wellbeing of guests, all stays are as relaxing and seamless as possible.

"We know there is a strong desire for consumers to travel this year, after many plans were put on hold in 2020," said Genevieve Materne, Senior Vice President, Commercial Services Europe, Middle East, Southwest Asia. "The pandemic has been a major catalyst for the increase in the 'work from anywhere' trend and we know it has accelerated significant shifts in the way we live, work and play. That is why we've created The Great Relocate."

The Great Relocate is perfect for guests who are looking to swap their spare room for working poolside, trade standing lunches for lunches in rooftop restaurants and cosy cafes, sneaking a pamper session in after a morning meeting, or going for an afternoon swim with their family before dinner.

Genevieve went on to say, "This is the perfect offer for all the Digital Nomads out there and for those, who define luxury as not being tied to one place. We are making it more affordable than ever to take a long stay in one of our hotels, for a similar amount you would pay for the average city-centre rent. We look forward to welcoming guests, whether they want to relocate on their own, bring their partner, their family or even their pet!"

The offer is valid across Hyatt hotels in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia, for a minimum of 29 days up until 31 December 2021, when you book by 3 December.** To take advantage of the package, guests should sign up to World of Hyatt before booking.

To learn more, book an escape or check Terms and Conditions, visit https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/en/offers/work-from-hyatt/the-great-relocate.html

* Benefits are subject to time restrictions and availability at participating hotels. Discount could exclude specialty restaurants, room service, alcohol, or venues operated by third-party vendors.

** Terms and conditions apply

The term "Hyatt" is used in this release for convenience to refer to Hyatt Hotels Corporation and/or one or more of its affiliates.

About World of Hyatt

World of Hyatt is Hyatt's award-winning guest loyalty program uniting participating locations in the Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Alila, Andaz, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Destination, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Thompson Hotels, Hyatt Centric, Joie de Vivre, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, UrCove and Hyatt Residence Club brands on a global scale. Members who book directly through Hyatt channels can enjoy personalised care and access to distinct benefits including Guest of Honor, confirmed suite upgrades at time of booking, diverse wellbeing offerings, mobile key and exclusive member rates. With more than 22 million members, World of Hyatt offers a variety of ways to earn and redeem points for hotel stays, dining and spa services, wellbeing focused experiences through the FIND platform, offerings through Hyatt's wellbeing brands Exhale and Miraval; as well as the benefits of Hyatt's strategic loyalty collaborations with American Airlines AAdvantage, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Lindblad Expeditions and MGM Resorts International. Travelers can enroll for free at world.hyatt.com, download the World of Hyatt app for android and IOS devices and connect with Hyatt on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

About Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company offering 20 premier brands. As of September 30, 2020, the Company's portfolio included more than 950 hotel, all-inclusive, and wellness resort properties in 67 countries across six continents. The Company's purpose to care for people so they can be their best informs its business decisions and growth strategy and is intended to attract and retain top employees, build relationships with guests and create value for shareholders. The Company's subsidiaries develop, own, lease, operate, manage, franchise, license or provide services to hotels, resorts, branded residences, and vacation ownership properties, including under the Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Alila, Andaz, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Destination, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Thompson Hotels, Hyatt Centric, Caption by Hyatt, Joie de Vivre, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, tommie, UrCove, and Hyatt Residence Club brand names, and operates the World of Hyatt loyalty program that provides distinct benefits and exclusive experiences to its valued members. For more information, please visit www.hyatt.com.

1 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2020

SOURCE Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Related Links

https://www.hyatt.com



LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- N95 masks are considered the gold standard in personal protective equipment since the N95 filters 95% of large and small particles. Boston Medical Center physicians state that in just four weeks these masks could end the pandemic in the US if worn widely by the general public. A former FDA commissioner argues that higher quality masks are a simple step that could make a big difference. The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) says a well fitted N95 is the best you can do. In fact, European airlines are now requiring these high filtration masks in order to travel.

COVID Educator and former network Chief Medical correspondent Bob Arnot MD says:

"With the rapid spread of this COVID variant and airborne nature, a high filtration mask like the N95 is vital to enhance protection for the general public. This is especially true for front line workers from teachers to firemen who have not been able to obtain this high level of protection. Masking with low quality cloth have produced modest results at best. High filtration like the N95 could dramatically reduce the number of new infections combined with improved indoor air quality."

The problem? Lack of supply. One year into the pandemic hospitals and the public still struggle to find enough N95s. Now AirQueen.com announces the availability over 100 million masks a month, helping to end the supply problem for not only frontline workers, but also to make high level protection masks available to the general public. Airqueen.com is a leading supplier of consumer hi-filtration masks in the USA with an average filtration of over 97%, which is even higher filtration than the N95. The Air Queen mask is classified as an N95 substantial equivalent by the FDA and after rigorous testing by Nelson Labs Air Queen achieved a 510K clearance.

Produced by TopTec a leading South Korean manufacturer, the AirQueen mask is a revolutionary new filter technology which uses a highly advanced nano-fibre material to provide extreme protection while simultaneously allowing for advanced breathability and comfort. The AirQueen is so protective it is approved for use during surgical procedure.

Authentic Air Queen masks available at the official airqueen.com site

Media Contact:

Ian Wilson

351.247.7833

[email protected]

SOURCE AirQueen.com

Related Links

https://airqueen.com


"The ability for us to see hospital outcome data for both individual patients and in aggregate is a giant leap for the industry."

ESO, the leading data and software company serving emergency medical services (EMS), fire departments, hospitals and state EMS/trauma offices, today announced an industry-first feature in ESO Health Data Exchange (HDE) that provides EMS agencies with comprehensive insight into patient outcomes at the click of a button. This new feature translates custom emergency department and hospital disposition values into a standardized data format for quick and easy access.

This new feature is a game changer for both hospitals and EMS agencies, said Dr. Brent Myers, Chief Medical Officer for ESO. We have built upon the power of our HDE platform that allows EMS providers, performance improvement officers, and medical directors to see how individual patients fared after EMS transport by standardizing these outcomes to be viewed at an aggregate level as well.

ESO Health Data Exchange facilitates the bidirectional exchange of data between EMS agencies and hospital emergency departments, ensuring real-time access to important clinical information.

Key Functionality Includes:



Standardize Custom Disposition Values: Translate custom disposition values into standard CMS-1450 Data Set.

Individual and Aggregate View: See patient outcomes at both the individual level and aggregate level to drive agency-wide improvements.

Easy Access: Workflow automation provides instant access to important data around survival status, need for admission, transfers, etc., in a searchable way.

The ability for us to see hospital outcome data for both individual patients and in aggregate is a giant leap for the industry, said Dr. Jose G Cabanas, Director and Medical Director of Wake County EMS. These new functionalities enhance our ability to build stronger quality improvement programs that ensure we are serving our community with the best possible care. Additionally, it helps us create a much stronger relationship with our hospital partners to ensure we get patients to the right facility at the right time to receive the right treatment.

To learn more about ESO HDE, visit: https://www.eso.com/ems/health-data-exchange/

About ESO

ESO (ESO Solutions, Inc.) is dedicated to improving community health and safety through the power of data. Since its founding in 2004, the company continues to pioneer innovative, user-friendly software to meet the changing needs of todays EMS agencies, fire departments, hospitals, and state EMS offices. ESO currently serves thousands of customers throughout North America with a broad software portfolio, including the industry-leading ESO Electronic Health Record (EHR), the next generation ePCR; ESO Health Data Exchange (HDE), the first-of-its-kind healthcare interoperability platform; ESO Fire RMS, the modern fire Record Management System; ESO Patient Registry (trauma, burn and stroke registry software); and ESO State Repository. ESO is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.eso.com.
Slate has relationships with various online retailers. If you buy something through our links, Slate may earn an affiliate commission. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. All prices were up to date at the time of publication.

Excerpted from How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch by Sushma Subramanian. Copyright  2021 Sushma Subramanian. Used by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.

Think about televisions and computer displays for your eyes, and speakers for your ears, Ed Colgate, a professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern, tells me at the annual World Haptics Conference being held at his university. Haptic interfaces are the same thing for your hands. Haptic engineers develop devices that can be programmed to feel and behave like all manner of things when you touch ad interact with them.

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Colgate is a well-loved, avuncular leader in the field of haptic engineering. He led the first-ever World Haptics Symposium, which became part of the World Haptics Conference, and was the founding editor in chief of the leading journal on the subject, IEEE Transactions on Haptics. He explains that the small feelings like rumbling, skin pressure, and muscle strain give us cues about whether were handling our technologyhammers, cars, you name itcorrectly. These signals are missing in many of our virtual interfaces, like when were using a controller to moderate the speed of a car in a video game or remotely operating a robot. This places a heavier burden on us to concentrate with our eyes. Thats why engineers working in haptics are working on finding ways to reproduce the most useful of these sensations.

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Colgate and I are in a large hall trying out tactile novelties. There are phones that let a user send a vibrational pattern, like the beating of a heart, to someone on the other end of the line. Theres a dental training simulation that quite convincingly imitates the way it feels to drill into a tooth. Several other presenters are unveiling not fully developed applications but small haptic tricks that they hope to implement one day. One has as stationary block that, when vibrated in a particular pattern, gives the impression its going from sticky to smooth even though the surface isnt changing at all. Another presenter has me try on a belt that vibrates at my side and makes me reflexively turn at the waist.

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The poster boards have titles such as Active Touch Perception Produced by Airborne Ultrasonic Haptic Hologram, Should Haptic Texture Vibrations Respond to User Force and Speed?, The Effect of Manipulator Gripper Stiffness on Teleoperated Task Performance, and The Effect of Damping on the Perception of Hardness.

The field of haptic engineering originated in the 1940s, but it remained a small and mostly ignored subspeciality of engineering until a few years ago, when Apple introduced force touch to its MacBook laptops and the word haptics finally went mainstream. There are sensors in the trackpad that detect how much pressure is being applied, and when they detect the downward force, a motor pushes the trackpad against the finger and vibrates slightly to simulate a click. The finger feels like it is moving down and back up, but its not. The pad is also responsive to different kinds of touch. Depending on the number of fingers that are used and how they move, we can change the size of the screen, scroll, and toggle between displays.

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This developmentusing our fingers in multiple ways to interact with a trackpad and with our screenshas opened up possibilities for the field because it required entirely new ways of thinking about how a user could use touch. Engineers are developing a new tactile language that mimics the kinds of maneuvers we make with three-dimensional objects, such as the shuffling of images or the flipping of pages on a flat surface. The challenging part is to make us feel them. Haptic engineers believe these tactile cues matter much more than we realize. They lament the loss the tangible interaction that we used to get when our devices had levers, switches, and gauges, and theyre hoping they can bring them back.

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While our technology is presented to us as ever improving, a generation that grew up with digital tools is now seeing renewed value in analog. The reason we continue to prefer some of our older artifacts isnt just about nostalgia or street cred. Were gravitating toward touch. We may not be aware of all the tickles and bumps we get from physically handling objects, but in subtle yet significant ways they affect how we think. They activate parts of our minds associated with action and get us to engage with them in a different and deeper way. Adding more tactile effects to our phones and computers could do the same. They can make us feel more connected to our devices and trigger us to manipulate and play around with them in new ways, perhaps even expanding the possibilities of what we can create with them.

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This is whats on my mind over the months following the World Haptics Conference. But its not what Im thinking about when I finally get a pair of Tpads, special touch-enabled tablets, mailed to me at my new home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In the past few weeks, my life has been a whirlwind. Ive moved here for a job teaching journalism at a university south of Washington. Getting the job offer set off another course of events in my romantic life. My boyfriend, Kartik, had supported my taking the position, but as my move came closer, it was clear he was having doubts about joining me. He was worried about what it would mean for his own career, but we didnt talk about it that much. Instead, we got into many passive-aggressive fights. After one of these, we broke up. Then, a couple of days before I left, we decided to change course and get engaged instead.

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As Im sitting alone in my stark new faculty apartment, surrounded by the standard-issue dorm furniture, I obsess over everything thats happened between us. I wonder if we made our decision too fast and whether Kartik felt forced. Maybe it was all a huge mistake. But I dont tell him any of this. Instead, we talk about how much Im enjoying getting to know my colleagues and students and about the Pinterest pages Ive been checking out for inspiration for our wedding. Weve never been good at heartfelt conversations over the phone. With the Tpads in hand, Im excited to have a project to work on with him, something to get our minds off of everything thats happened between us. And Im not just interested in solving engineering questions anymore; I want to know how communicating through touch could help bridge the distance between us.

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On my next weekend trip up to New York to visit Kartik, I give him one of the Tpads and tell him that well be performing an experiment together. By sending haptic messages to each other for a few days, he can help me figure out what touch might contribute to our technology. Theres a program on the phones that lets us send haptic pictures. It turns the black-and-white images we take into a textural pattern based on their lightness or darkness. The first week I get some images of the wood grains on his desk and the creases of his hand. Theyre kind of interesting to feel. His favorite of mine is a picture of my pajamas, which are covered in black-and-white snowflakes. The stark pattern creates a texture on the screen that is almost like softness when he touches it.

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Do you think touching them helped you feel closer to me? I ask.

Well, the pajamas reminded me of you, Kartik says. I dont really think it was the haptics.

I dont think the images are very compelling, either. The experiment fizzles out when we stop taking our phones out with us because theyre bulky and were hardly sending each other anything anyway. Im disappointed, and I end up talking over the issue with my new colleague, a computer science professor. Together we come up with a new plan. What would be even better than the static haptic pictures would be the ability to touch Kartik virtually in real time. My colleague says he can have his son, a computer scientist based in Austin, Texas, whose hobby is creating prototypes for smartphone apps, make an app for us. He has it ready a week later, and we agree to test it out together at first.

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When I swipe over the image of a finger on the display, it feels as if my colleague touching me back. His finger doesnt have the texture of a real one, but it does seem ever so slightly raised, like hes reaching out at me. I keep running over it, amused, because I can see with my own eyes that the glass is completely flat. The vibration of the screens surface is changing imperceptibly depending on where my skin makes contact with it. My brain interprets this tiny shift in friction as a three-dimensional bump. It takes me a few seconds, as I move my finger back and forth, to remember that Im having this exchange with an actual human, and I stop abruptly. I wonder if hes as creeped out as I am.

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Im as uncomfortable as I would be if I were fondling a real stranger in the flesh. I dont know him well enough to ask if he feels the same way, but the stiltedness of his speech and the speed with which the image of his finger disappears when Im done suggest that what hes experiencing is not too dissimilar from me. I thank him profusely and get off the phone quickly. I actually take our mutual aversion as a good sign. If this short interaction could elicit the same kinds of emotions as true skin-to-skin contact with someone we dont know, then Im hopeful that the same might be true when I use it with Kartik.

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Kartik gets the phone in the mail soon after, and we test it together. Our fingers meet up near the center of the screen, and I can feel the little raised spot, like the glass screen is a little warped. We stay there, rubbing the impression of each others presence. I let him take a few seconds to make sense of what hes feeling and then I move my finger away. He tries to come closer again. I dart away, and he chases me. I stop and let him catch me, letting his finger linger on top of mine. We gently nuzzle them against each other. We are flirting, haptically!

OK, it doesnt feel anything like the intimacy of skin-to-skin contact, but it is surprisingly moving. For the first time in a very long time, were allowing ourselves to connect. Instead of being burdened by hashing out whats happened over the past few months, were enjoying each others company the way we did when we had just started dating. We realize we need more moments like this one. When our emotions are at their most intense and the words havent been coming, it is through touch that we are able to express ourselves again.

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Soon after our experiment, we have to give our phones back to the lab, and I miss them immediately. Its akin to someone telling me that I can keep my smartphone, but it wont have a camera or a voice recorder anymore. Having that extra ability opened me up to new ideas about what my technology can do for me. What I had once thought of as a needless accessory had become an essential communication tool. Thats what so often happens with our gadgets. We dont realize we need something until we have to give it up.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Spring Fertility, a premier provider of fertility care known for delivering a superior patient experience and exceptional IVF outcomes, today announced the opening of new care centers and labs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Silicon Valley  This week, Spring Fertility opened the doors to its Sunnyvale clinic and lab, which will bring a new level of care to the fertility services offered in Silicon Valley. Patients no longer have to travel to San Francisco in order to access the unique lab services and attentive patient care that Spring is known for.

East Bay  Spring Fertility also opened a state-of-the-art IVF lab in Oakland, which accompanies the existing Oakland clinical center and occupies a newly transformed out-patient surgery center one floor below the clinic.

Additional Locations  Two new satellite practices will open in the coming weeks, including a San Francisco clinic located in the iconic Salesforce Transit Center and clinic in Danville.

Spring Fertility is redefining the fertility experience. By partnering with patients and empowering them to achieve their goals, Spring delivers patient-centric, individualized, and compassionate care for individuals seeking fertility treatments including egg freezing, IVF, and third-party reproductive services. Spring has grown organically since its founding in 2016, and this expansion allows the network to continue to put patients' needs first. With additional convenient locations, extended hours, shorter wait times, and a compassionate care team, even more individuals can experience the Spring difference.

"We saw an opportunity to build a new kind of fertility center, one that would strive to deliver the level of care that we would want and deserve if we were patients," said Dr. Peter Klatsky co-founder of Spring Fertility. "We are able to achieve superior clinical outcomes and pursue scientific advancements without compromising compassionate care, and that shows in the humbling and overwhelming support we've received from patients and referring providers. In this new phase of growth, we look forward to partnering with even more people as they pursue their fertility goals."

Industry-leading Labs

Spring is world-renowned for pioneering and implementing cutting-edge innovations that are pushing the boundaries of reproductive science and fertility preservation. By leveraging proprietary technology and procedures not seen elsewhere in the industry, Spring's labs are a point of differentiation and contribute to the fertility network's superior outcomes. The two new labs have been built to the same exacting specifications as the San Francisco lab, providing Spring's team of leading embryologists with the latest resources and equipment to support patients on their fertility journey.

A Growing Team of Expert Physicians

As demand for Spring's services grows, so is Spring's care team. Several exceptional physicians have joined, with Dr. Malinda Lee in Sunnyvale, Dr. Temeka Zore in San Francisco, Dr. Serena Dovey in East Bay, and Dr. Ijeoma Okeigwe will begin seeing patients at the East Bay clinic in the coming months.

As part of Spring's commitment to delivering an unparalleled experience of individualized, patient-centric care, every new physician to join Spring undergoes an intensive "Spring Training" led by Medical Directors Dr. Nam Tran and Dr. Deb Minjarez. This program is purposefully designed to ensure every physician is practicing according to Spring's protocols and standard of care.

To learn more about Spring Fertility or book a consultation, please visit SpringFertility.com.

About Spring Fertility:

Spring Fertility was founded by leading physicians with the goal of redefining the reproductive and fertility patient experience to improve comfort, communication, and care while advancing scientific excellence. It quickly became the premier fertility platform in Northern California, and one of the country's fastest-growing. Spring was founded in 2016 by Peter Klatsky, MD, MPH and Nam Tran, MD, PhD and provides a broad range of fertility treatments including IVF and egg freezing. Spring has practices in San Francisco, Oakland, Redwood City, and Sunnyvale, in addition to Genesis Fertility Centre in Vancouver, Canada, which joined the Spring network in early 2020.

For press inquiries, please contact Meghan Dwyer at [email protected]

SOURCE Spring Fertility
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 19:30:15|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Six people were arrested Monday for altering the Hollywood sign, an iconic Los Angeles landmark, to read "Hollyboob," said authorities.

"A few hours ago, a group attempted to vandalize the Hollywood sign," Captain Steve Lurie, Los Angeles Police Department Hollywood Area commanding officer, tweeted after the incident.

"Los Angeles landmarks are precious to those of us and this was way uncool (not to mention the terrain is quite steep & dangerous)," said Lurie, adding that Hollywood patrol officers had arrested all six individuals.

According to police, the individuals placed a tarp on the iconic sign to change the "W" and added a dash to change the "D," saying that the move was to raise awareness of breast cancer.

The six arrestees will be charged with misdemeanor trespassing and released, Lurie told The Los Angeles Times.

The sign was restored to normal soon after the incident.

It is not the first time that the sign was briefly altered by trespassers. A prankster was arrested for altering the sign to read "Hollyweed" in January 2017. Enditem
Farmers' Protest: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut meets BKU leader Rakesh Tikait at Ghazipur border

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Feb 02: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday met farmer leader Rakesh Tikait at the Ghazipur border and extended the Maharashtra government's support to the farmers' protest.

"We are here to show support. Uddhav Thackeray supports the farmers. The Maharashtra government is supporting the protest," Raut said.

Earlier, Raut took to Twitter and announced his visit to the Ghazipur border today at 1 pm, in support of the protesting farmers.

Coronavirus outbreak: Rashtrapati Bhawan to reopen for public from February 6

It can be seen that thousands of farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

On January 26, the Shiv Sena leader had termed the violence during a tractor rally taken out by farmers in Delhi as national shame which stained their protest against the new agri laws. "The Centre too will have to take responsibility for the developments," he had said.

Speaking to media Raut had said it is the arrogance of the central government which has led to the deteriorating situation in Delhi and asked it to introspect as to why the law and order in the national capital collapsed.

Bengal allows full occupancy in cinema halls

Meanwhile, a farmers' mahapanchayat in Bijnor, the fourth such congregation in western Uttar Pradesh in as many days, on Monday resolved to relocate smaller protests in the region to Ghazipur.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

Thousands of farmers and locals from Bijnor and surrounding areas started pouring in at ITI Ground on tractors and other vehicles for the mahapanchayat, which started at 11 am with several regional farmer leaders in attendance.
Miracle Baby Born at 23 Weeks as Mom Thought She Was Having a Miscarriage

A UK mother feared she was having a miscarriage when she went into early labor at 23 weeks.

The premature baby was immediately rushed into intensive care, weighing no more than a block of butter, and given only a 5 percent chance of survival.

One year on, baby Jase-James Rogers recently celebrated his first birthday.

Parents Leah Rogers, 21, and William McCready, 19, of Lancashire in England, rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital when Leah started bleeding, reported Manchester Evening News.

Leah gave birth to a baby boy on Jan. 5, 2020, but the couple was delivered a crushing blow: Doctors did not expect him to live longer than 24 hours.

I couldnt get my head around it, Leah, a community carer, told the newspaper.

It took around 10 to 15 minutes for him to take his first breath, it was a really scary time, she recalled. My mom pleaded and begged them to do everything they could to keep him alive.

Baby Jase-James weighed just 590 grams (approx. 1.3 pounds) at birth, according to the Greater Manchester-based news outlet. He had a hole in his heart, suffered two brain bleeds, and was placed on life support in the NICU.

Miraculously, the little warrior made it through the first 24 hours and continued to fight for his life one day at a time.

Jase-James was so tiny that he fit into the palms of his mothers hands.

Leah said it was so scary to see her baby hooked up to wires, tubes, and a breathing machine to help his struggling body.

After two months of specialist care at Preston Royal Hospital, Jase-James returned to Blackpool, where he received two operations and steroid treatment. He was finally allowed home for the first time on May 9 last year, but the familys journey wasnt over.

Babies born at 23 weeks gestation are described by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) as being at the threshold of viability and present a major medical and ethical challenge.

Increasingly, however, survival rates for extremely premature babies are improving.

When [Jase-James] was discharged he was still on oxygen for a month or two, Leah told Manchester Evening News. I didnt even sleep. I just sat up all night watching him breathe.

The baby underwent further procedures to save his eyesight and repair a hernia, but as he grew healthier and stronger, his happy personality began to shine through.

Leah said since coming off the oxygen, her infant son has been trying to sit up on his own. Ive never seen such a happy baby in my life, considering what hes been through, she said.

The couples immediate family, who had to wait patiently for baby cuddles owing to lockdown restrictions, has since made up for the lost time.

It was especially tough for my niece, who is just 10 years old and didnt understand it all, Leah acknowledged.

A year since his birth, baby Jase-James weighs a healthy 17 pounds 3 ounces (approx. 8 kg). His diapers, once the size of Christmas tree baubles, are now a standard size. He can even say Dadda, the Manchester Evening News reported.

Leah and William threw a joyful first birthday party for their son in January, replete with balloons, a cake, and many presents.

Perhaps the most special gift of all was an album of photos and handwritten notes, chronicling Jase-Jamess incredible journey from birth to a bouncing 1-year-old.

Leah says her son is doing brilliantly and is a happy, cheeky little boy.

I just look at him sometimes and think Im so proud to be his mom, she said. Hes so strong and such a battler.

I never thought we would get this far, but were so happy to have him home. Its amazing.

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: https://www.theepochtimes.com/newsletter
COVID-19 testing information for west-central Illinois counties:

Morgan County

Jacksonville

Days and times: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. (Note: Site is closed Wednesday, Feb. 3)

Location: Drive-through testing site located at the intersection of Dunlap Court and Morgan Streets.

Details: No appointment necessary. Photo ID and insurance card requested but not required.



Brown County

Mount Sterling

Days and times: By appointment.

Location: Brown County Health Department, 120 E. Main St. 217-773-2714

Details: Testing eligibility determined by telephone screening.



Cass County

Beardstown

Days and times: Monday-Friday 9-11:20 a.m.

Location: Cass County Health Department, 8590 St. Lukes Drive. 217-323-2182

Virginia

Days and times: Monday-Friday 1-3 p.m.

Location: Cass County Health Department, 331 S. Main St. 217-452-3057

Details: Testing by appointment only and is limited to those who live or work in Cass County. Schedules subject to change.



Greene County

Carrollton

Days and times: By appointment. Open seven days a week.

Location: Boyd Rural Health Clinic, 800 School St. 217-942-3600

Details: Testing performed if medically indicated, pre-op with doctors order, or return to work. Must call and leave message with name and callback number.



Jersey County

Jerseyville

Days and times: By appointment.

Location: Jerseyville Community Hospital Walk-in Clinic, 903 S. State St. 618-498-2273

Details: Testing performed if medically indicated.



Macoupin County

Gillespie

Days and times: By appointment.

Location: Maple Street Clinic, 109 E. Maple St. 217-313-5078

Details: Drive-through free testing. Register by phone or online at mcphd.net.



Pike County

Pittsfield

Days and times: By appointment.

Location: Quincy Medical Group, 320 N. Madison St. 217-277-4001

Details: Testing performed if medically indicated.

.

Days and times: Monday-Saturday 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

Location: Illini Express Clinic, 101 E. Washington St. 217-277-3504

Details: Testing performed if medically indicated. Register upon arrival.



Scott County

Winchester:

Days and times: Mondays and Fridays 9-11 a.m.

Location: Scott County Health Department, 335 W. Cherry St.

Details: Schedule subject to change. See Facebook page for updates.
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Syngenta Group:

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005145/en/

(Photo: Business Wire)

Syngenta Group achieves milestone of 125 million acres of farmland actively managed by growers using the Group's digital services

Syngenta Group is the only agricultural company to have leading digital service platforms in the top four agriculture markets: The United States, Brazil, China and Eastern Europe

The Group's industry-leading digital services range include advanced scouting, seeds selection, imagery decision support, weather risk management, financial planning, crop and farm operations management

Greg Meyers, Syngenta Group Chief Information and Digital Officer: "We firmly believe that digital innovations in agricultural technology will lead to better, greener and more sustainable farming. As the world's most local agricultural technology and innovation partner, to now have 125 million acres of farmland managed with our digital services underscores the progress we are making with growers around the world to make that future a reality."

About Syngenta Group

Syngenta Group is one of the world's leading agricultural technology and innovation companies, with roots going back more than 250 years. Its 49,000 people across more than 100 countries strive to transform agriculture through breakthrough products and technologies that play a vital role in enabling the food chain to feed the world safely, sustainably and with respect for our planet. Swiss-based and Chinese-owned, the group draws strength from its four business units Syngenta Crop Protectionheadquartered in Switzerland, Syngenta Seeds headquartered in the United States, ADAMA headquartered in Israel, and Syngenta Group China that provide industry-leading ways to serve customers everywhere.

Data protection is important to us. You are receiving this publication on the legal basis of Article 6 para 1 lit. f GDPR ("legitimate interest"). However, if you do not wish to receive further information about Syngenta Group, just send us a brief informal message and we will no longer process your details for this purpose. You can also find further details in our privacy statement.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This document may contain forward-looking statements, which can be identified by terminology such as "expect," "would," "will," "potential," "plans," "prospects," "estimated," "aiming," "on track" and similar expressions. Such statements may be subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from these statements. For Syngenta Group, such risks and uncertainties include risks relating to legal proceedings, regulatory approvals, new product development, increasing competition, customer credit risk, general economic and market conditions, compliance and remediation, intellectual property rights, implementation of organizational changes, impairment of intangible assets, consumer perceptions of genetically modified crops and organisms or crop protection chemicals, climatic variations, fluctuations in exchange rates and/or commodity prices, single source supply arrangements, political uncertainty, natural disasters, and breaches of data security or other disruptions

of information technology. Syngenta Group assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005145/en/

Contacts:

Contact Information

Media Relations

media@syngentagroup.com



Head of Global Media Relations

Saswato Das

saswato.das@syngenta.com

TORONTO, Feb. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Wednesday, February 3rd, ACORN will be holding actions in nine cities across the country calling on the Federal Government to immediately plug the tax loophole in the Income Tax Act that exempts Canadas biggest landlords or Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) from paying taxes. REITs have been buying up massive swaths of Canadas aging rental housing stock and pursuing a strategy that has led to a mass tenant displacement and skyrocketing rents. To counter this, ACORN is pushing for a new regulatory framework that would tie tax rates for REITs to how much affordable housing they are protecting.



Read more about REITs, their role in Canadas housing crisis, and what ACORN is calling for in New Rein in the REITs Report: https://acorncanada.org/resource/rein-reits (Link will be live on Feb 3rd morning)

LOCAL ACTION

What: ACORN actions across the country.

Toronto: Chrystia Freeland's constituency office (344 Bloor Street West) at 11:00 AM

Peel: Brampton South MP Sonia Sidhu's office at 5 Montpelier St #214, L6Y 0C3 at 11:00 AM

Ottawa: Sandalwood Park at the corner of Sandalwood Dr/Baycrest Dr in Herongate at 11:00 AM

London: MP Peter Fragiskatos's office at 231 Hyman St. at 3:00 PM

Montreal: 6415 Boulevard Monk, H4E 3H8, office of Lasalle-Emard-Verdun Liberal MP David Lametti at 11:00 AM

Nova Scotia: Andy Fillmore's office at 1888 Brunswick St in Halifax at 12:00 PM

BC: Jocye Murray's Constituency Office at 2112 W Broadway, Vancouver V6K 2C8 at 1:30 PM

VIRTUAL VIDEO RALLY

When: Wednesday, February 3rd at 1PM Eastern

Where: http://bit.ly/DayOfActionACORN

What: ACORN leaders from across Canada will describe the REIN IN THE REITs Campaign and facilitate phone blitzes to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Liberal MPs.

New Report exposes:

Analysis of seven residential REITs shows that if they were taxed at the same rate as non-REIT Canadian corporations, they would have paid over $1.2 billion more in taxes since 2010. CAPREIT, Canadas biggest REIT, CAPREIT would have paid over $425 million more in taxes1.

Despite the pandemic, REITs boast of making record profits. About time to Rein in REITs!

ACORN Canada is a national independent organization is an independent national organization of low- and moderate-income families with 140,000+ members in 20+ neighbourhood chapters across 9 cities.
Sony PlayStation 5 has gathered enough hype in the past few months. And to some extent, it seems justified. You get a futuristic design, good quality AAA titles and powerful hardware inside the console. Priced at 50,000, the device has started shipping out in India today, for those who have pre-ordered it already. We were lucky enough to get our hands on PS5 a few days ago. Since then we have been playing Spiderman Miles Morales and Tom Clancys The Division 2 on it. While its too early to talk about the performance in general, what we can indeed talk about is the design, UI and the DualSense controller.

PS5 is a big-sized machine. At 4.5kgs, you can feel the heft when you pick it up and since it is larger from all sides, placing it under your TV might be difficult and require you to make some extra space for it. Some might even be concerned about the amount of dust it can collect over time, considering it has an exposed spine at the front, back and top. But on the brighter side, you get options to customise, something that is not possible with the competitor. The biggest plus point here, what we think, is the space-age design. The PS5 not just looks like a mini spaceship but is something that wont go unnoticed in your room. It is not a natural progression from PS4 series but a bold move can work in Sonys favour after all.

Spiderman Miles Morals on Sony PS5. (Sony)

The PlayStation UI is simpler and cleaner this time around. If you are upgrading from PS4, it wont be a learning curve for you to get used to the new interface. Most elements are familiar. The only major change is on the homescreen, which now shows more content upon scrolling downwards. With this, Sony seems to be moving away from the simple, side-scrolling row of options. Everything from the download UI, Settings to PS Store, it looks familiar yet new. For now, you dont get customisable themes but Sony has confirmed that this will be coming later.

As for the DualSense Controller, its definitely better in terms of responsive triggers, better handling and easy to functionality. The vibration motor works really well in supported games (Miles Morales) and the weight is less as compared to what you get in Xbox Series X controller, which still supports AA batteries.

Sony DualSense Controller. (Sony)

While these are not enough to conclude if PS5 is the console you need or not, it does manage to impress us since the list of pros is more than cons right now. However, in the end, it all comes down to the quality of titles and minor tech changes that makes the overall package worth it. Stay tuned for more information in our review later this week on HT Tech.
02/02/2021

Photo (c) Kilito Chan - Getty Images Coronavirus (COVID-19) tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.)

Total U.S. confirmed cases: 26,330,506 (26,194,662)

Total U.S. deaths: 443,923 (441,409)

Total global cases: 103,572,661 (103,090,224)

Total global deaths: 2,243,638 (2,230,829)

Moderna proposes more vaccine per vial

Moderna, one of two pharmaceutical companies trying to keep up with demand for the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, has proposed filling vials with more of its vaccine. It says that would ease bottlenecks that have occurred in manufacturing and distribution.

Currently, each vial of the vaccine contains 10 doses. Moderna said it could easily increase that to 15 doses but would have to get permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is allowing distribution of the vaccine under an emergency use authorization (EAU).

"Moderna would need to have further discussions with the FDA to assure the agency's comfort with this approach before implementing," the company said.

U.K. variant mutates again

The first mutation of the coronavirus was discovered in the U.K. Now, scientists say the variant of the original virus appears to have undergone another mutation.

The BBC reports that its not unexpected that variants are appearing or that they will continue to change -- all viruses mutate as they make new copies of themselves to spread and thrive.

The BBC quotes Dr.Julian Tang, a virus expert at the University of Leicester, as saying the finding is "a worrying development, though not entirely unexpected."

Biden urged to reject GOP stimulus compromise

President Bidens meeting with 10 Republican senators on Monday produced lots of smiles, but it remains to be seen if it produces a bipartisan agreement on additional coronavirus aid and stimulus. The two sides are very far apart.

Democrats are backing a $1.9 trillion package that pays all individuals $1,400, provides billions of dollars to state and local governments, and raises the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The 10 Republicans back a plan to spend $900 billion.

Democrats in Congress have urged Biden to reject a GOP compromise, believing they have the necessary votes to pass the massive spending plan as part of a budget resolution that would require only 51 votes.

Airlines celebrate federal mask rule

Since early in the pandemic, domestic airlines have required both passengers and crew to wear masks in airports and onboard aircraft. But there have been isolated cases of passengers defying airline rules.

Now those rules have the force of the federal government behind them. The Biden administrations mask mandate for all forms of public transportation took effect today, and violators could face fines.

We recently got good news when President Biden signed an executive order mandating face masks across interstate travel, including airports and aircraft, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian told employees. This adds a layer of protection for our people who have been integral in enforcing our mask policy.

Catholic schools mostly remain open despite COVID-19

The pandemic, now in its 11th month, has been hard on public schools. Many had to pivot to online learning or, at best, a hybrid of electronic and classroom instruction.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Catholic schools have largely been the exception, with most continuing to provide classroom instruction where it has been allowed. Because of that, there was a migration last year by many students from public to Catholic schools.

The science is clear that there is no substitute for in-person learning, especially for poor and minority children most at danger of falling behind, Tom Carroll, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Boston, told The Journal. Across the nation, the Catholic school approach is to stay open wherever we are allowed.

Around the nation
 Read the full article on Motorious

This Plymouth muscle car is an absolute stunner!

The 2020 Motorious Online Car Show concluded on News Years Day, and the team unanimously picked a stunning 1971 Plymouth 'Cuda as the overall winner. While we had hundreds of some of the most impressive cars from all varieties, this classic 'Cuda stole the spotlight. We recently got a chance to sit down with the owner to find out the backstory of the 'Cuda, and we uncovered a charming story behind the car.

When Al Young was 17 years old and in high school, his Automotive class really ignited his passion for working on cars. It was then when he talked to his parents about buying a car to fix up, with the intent of buying and selling a few. Al asked his brother Richie about any cars for sale, and he heard through a friend that there was a car in NYC worth checking out, so they did.

The car they went to see was parked outside of this taxi cab repair shop. It was this purple car with yellow taxi cab wheels,white vinyl top, white interior, bench seat, rear spoiler, front rubber bumper, column shifted automatic with this scoop sticking out of the hood. It was the 'Cuda you see before you today, bought by Al in 1977.

"My brother thought that was cool because it shakes with the engine, so we took it for a ride - it was loud and fast and I could hardly see over the dash and for the price of $500.00 dollars, I was Hooked." Al Young tells Motorious, "I fell in love with it and as you can see I never sold it, she was my daily driver to school and it was the only purple car around town and I painted it a candy apple purple with white pinstripes."

When Al and the 'Cuda had some wild days back then, with plenty of racing and cruising that resulted in tickets, and even had a few accidents. He shares with us a pretty funny story:

"Here in New Jersey the Great Adventure theme park had a animal drive thru park where all the animals roamed free with no chain link fence like they have nowadays. You drive along the paved road and the animals are free to jump on your car. Monkeys rip your wipers off and at one point a lion took a liking to my right front rubber bumper and started to tear it apart rocking my car back and forth,I honked the horn to get him to move but he did not so silly Me I got got of the car to scare him away knowing that I can get killed but did it anyway and the Lion let it go and to this day I still have the front bumper and the piece of the corner left dangling now displayed in my garage."

Story continues

After all this 'fun', his brother told him the insurance became to much for him under his name to cover on the 'Cuda, and so Al decided to store it away. It was a long 5 years for Al Young, and in those years, he went to custom car shows in New York City and Long Island. It was the influence from these shows that got him hooked on chrome and fancy paint jobs, wild displays.

Al started saving up enough money, and in 1986, he took the 'Cuda apart. The complete front and rear suspension were sent out to get chromed, as well as the torsion bars, steering parts, rotors, brake drums, axles, leaf springs, driveshaft, engine components - anything that unbolted was chromed.

The interior was redone, the paint and body work were completed, and painted Black Cherry with a white metal flake shaker and tail panel. The paint garners a lot of questions, because people can't quite figure out what color it is, especially without a lot of light, but stuff like that can cause two strangers to bond at car shows, or make a friend out of a curious gearhead at the gas station.

The year 1987 was the build's coming out party, and the 'Cudas 1st car show entry at Mopars at Englishtown and many more 1st place trophies to follow. After many years on the show circuit it was time to do something else with the car, so why not try enrolling in movies or pictures, or automotive modeling. Although this Plymouth 'Cuda has the looks of a movie star, it was never picked for a movie, but did have a role in a music video for the band The Dirty Pearls for a song called "Whos Coming Back to Who."

Image from the 'Making of' for the Music Video

In 2019, New York City had its 1st rooftop concours show at Pier17 and Al's 'Cuda was invited to participate. The 'Cuda was one of only a few to participate with a muscle car, and the rest were elite class cars.

As it sits today, the 1971 Plymouth 'Cuda is powered by a 340 engine with aftermarket cam and Holley 780 carb setup, and it exhales through a set of Hooker headers and a Flowmaster exhaust. It rolls on old school Cragar wheels with BF Goodrich rubber to grip the pavement.

Al Young, like many people with 'lifer' cars, feels as though the 'Cuda found him, in a way. He was only set out to find a car to fix and sell, with nothing in particular in mind, but it turned out to be one he couldn't part with. So many people regret selling cars like these, but Al knew her couldn't let her get away.

As far a future plans go, enjoying the 'Cuda and maintaining it are the main priorities. Al's car is also going to appear in a calendar soon, so we hope he send us a copy to enjoy!





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SILICON VALLEY, Calif. and BOSTON, Feb. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Volpara Health (ASX: VHT), a health technology software company whose integrated breast care platform assists in the delivery of personalized patient care, is pleased to announce the acquisition of CRA Health, LLC, a breast cancer risk assessment company spinoff from Massachusetts General Hospital  a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital.

Volpara is paying US$18.0M to acquire all outstanding equity of CRA, with a further US$4.0M payable upon its meeting key performance targets over the next 18 months.

CRA Health has been singularly focused on cancer risk assessment for more than 15 years and conducts more than 2M assessments annually. CRA software is cloud-based and tightly integrated into EHR systems. CRA receives patient information, including breast density, and returns the risk of breast cancer alongside appropriate recommendations, including whether additional imaging or genetics testing is needed according to established guidelines. Importantly, CRA has electronic interfaces established with all the major genetics companies.

CRA Health and Volpara Health  both born out of scientific research at Harvard Medical School and Oxford University  have long shared the common mission of saving more families from cancer and have collaborated on major projects like the on-going UK PROCAS project for personalized breast care.

For more than a decade, Volpara Science, a set of clinically validated algorithms that use AI to assess breast tissue composition and imaging quality, has helped more than 27 percent of all breast centers in the US optimize mammography workflow and deliver personalized care.

Combining the two companies will allow us to identify and deliver personalized breast care to more high-risk women across all care settings: obgyns, primary care providers, oncology specialists, and breast centers.

Dr. Ralph Highnam, Group CEO of Volpara, said: "The acquisition of CRA is very significant for Volpara. CRA is a leading provider of risk assessment tools within major EHR systems and has integrations already established with the main genetics companies. CRA brings world-class knowledge about risk and genetics. CRA will accelerate us on our mission to save families from cancer by preventing advanced stage breast cancer."

Women in the US are increasingly being recommended for risk assessments, including genetic testing in some cases, to supplement traditional mammography screening. Most notably:

The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) is promoting risk and genetics testing and has recently launched a new marketing campaign.

The American College of Radiology and other groups are recommending risk assessment at age 30 to set down screening protocols.

Many insurers are now reimbursing for MRI and genetics testing for high-risk women.

The US government as part of its value-based care initiative  Merit-based Incentive Payment System  has included conducting breast cancer risk assessment as a key quality metric that can contribute to a positive adjustment to annual Medicare reimbursement.

Both CRA and Volpara have experienced strong growth despite the pandemic, signaling the value placed on using evidence to medically necessitate genetic testing and additional imaging. Volpara Health recently reported its largest-ever Q3 sales performance with an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of US$13.5M  up 20% compared to the previous corresponding period  driven by increasing demand for the Volpara Breast Health Platform.

Chester Black, outgoing Chair of CRA, said: "With the tailwinds behind cancer risk assessment and ensuring all women get the right screening at the right time building globally, we are delighted to join Volpara, a company that is substantially larger and enjoys the most scientifically-validated technology platform in the breast screening industry. This is the time to make the most of an opportunity to save many families from cancer in the United States and beyond."

About Volpara Health

Volpara provides an advanced AI software platform that works with a healthcare provider's expertise to more efficiently enable a high-quality, optimized, and personalized cancer screening experience. From the time a patient enters a clinic to the moment they obtain key results, the Volpara Breast Health Platform collects and analyzes information to better understand a patient's breast cancer risk, while also objectively evaluating image quality and workflow-improvement opportunities. These capabilities are being extended to lung cancer screening. The Volpara Breast Health Platform is supported by numerous patents, trademarks, and regulatory registrations, including FDA clearance and CE marking, and is validated by a volume of peer-reviewed publications unrivaled in the breast screening industry. For more information, visit https://www.volparahealth.com.

SOURCE Volpara Health

Related Links

https://www.volparahealth.com


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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 05:21:48|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that the bodies of 8 illegal migrants have been washed ashore off Libyan coast over the past week.

Hundreds of illegal migrants, including women and children, were rescued off Libyan coast so far in 2021.

Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly Africans, choose to cross the Mediterranean from Libya towards Europe, due to the state of insecurity and chaos in the North African nation following the overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Enditem
In a Veterans Day opinion column, I criticized the Defense Departments slide toward opaqueness over the past few years.

When the piece appeared, a general I had worked for in Air Force public relations said he wanted to remind me of the DODs Principles of Information and the doctrine of maximum disclosure, minimum delay.

His comment showed he believed the institution is doing all it can do to be transparent.

Unfortunately, the doctrine of max disclosure, min delay has eroded as the bureaucratic momentum toward silence accelerated and slow rolling became easier for government agencies under President Donald Trump.

Trumps disdain for journalists percolated across the country, even reaching some of my friends and family, whod say things like the media is the enemy.

Then came the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, where rioters assaulted photojournalists, scrawled murder the media on the walls, wore T-shirts with the same message and destroyed a pile of journalists gear.

Related: Accelerator: Ready to dig into South Texas' tech, startup X-factor

While thats one extreme, another is developing in the business world, especially among tech companies  the silent treatment.

Increasingly, some firms are shrinking away from talking to reporters; most notably among those companies is Elon Musks Tesla and SpaceX.

Tesla disbanded its public relations department in October. But even when the office was open, the electric vehicle maker was rarely forthcoming with the news media.

Nevertheless, the Public Relations Society of America called Teslas move alarming and noted it sets an extraordinarily dangerous precedent for blocking the continued free flow of information from one of the worlds most innovative and influential companies.

It added, Disengagement is not a path to success.

Some critics have noted that not maintaining relationships with the media can be dangerous, especially during crises.

On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: Transparency, listening would unite military, civilians

But despite moving away from answering journalists questions, Musks cult of personality, combined with success after success, has given Tesla and SpaceX a massive following of rabid fans whore quick to attack naysayers on social media.

SpaceX has hit that sweet spot of posting just enough content to generate buzz and cultivate cult followers, said Pete Wall of Rochester, Minn., while standing on the shoreline of South Padre Islands Isla Blanca Park awaiting SpaceXs Starship SN8 launch in December.

Wall nailed the point that SpaceX isnt completely silent. In some ways, its more open about its testing than other aerospace companies, and Musks tweets are basically cryptic, odd and often funny news releases for his companies.

Many of his followers take the messages as gospel.

In months of covering SpaceXs Texas operations, Ive reached out to the company dozens of times and only received one response, a mass email that just regurgitated some information that was already public.

My colleagues havent had any better luck with Tesla.

Apparently, radio silence is trending in San Antonio, too.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio cybersecurity firm expanding

Cloud-computing giant Rackspace Technology has responded to about 75 percent of my queries, which isnt bad considering Ive never actually spoken with its public relations person. Our relationship, apparently, is still in the email-only stage.

A couple weeks ago I approached local cybersecurity firm Silotech Group with questions about its business and some expansion plans we came across in public records.

The company, which launched in 2008, is consistently ranked in Inc. magazines list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies. In its 2020 listing, the firm showed 133 percent growth over three years.

Silotechs LinkedIn profile lists 104 employees, and according to the companys website, 58 percent of them are veterans.

I reached out multiple times to CEO Tiffany Tremont, Executive Vice President Kelly Tremont and Chief Operating Officer James Roy.

Needless to say, we never connected, and the article ran without their perspective.

The company works with many military units and the National Security Agency, an organization not known for transparency. Several of its job postings require applicants to have, or be able to get, a top secret security clearance with a polygraph test and be cleared for Sensitive Compartmented Information.

Related: SpaceX to convert offshore oil platforms into spaceports

Maybe Silotech stays quiet because of the nature of its work. Maybe theres a compelling business case to remain out of the spotlight. Maybe it just missed my calls and messages.

Or maybe its karma. There were times in my military public relations career when we werent as responsive to media requests as we couldve or shouldve been.

As a journalist, I have a better grasp of how the news cycle wont wait for the bureaucracy to craft the most neutral and risk-free answers.

One good sign, at least with the military, is that its open to ideas that will improve its information-sharing. In one example, the Air Force embeds several public affairs officers in corporate communications departments at companies around the country for career-broadening experience.

This year, one captain is working with SpaceX media relations.

However, when I reached out to see how its going, I heard only silence.

Brandon Lingle writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. brandon.lingle@express-news.net
Morgan County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Jarrod L. Holtz, 48, homeless, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:11 p.m. Saturday on a possession of methamphetamine charge and an out-of-county warrant accusing him of failing to appear in court on a contempt of court charge.

Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Dylan P. Watkins, 29, of 1042 E. Morton Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:40 p.m. Sunday on a possession of drug paraphernalia charge.

 James B. Morris, 68, of 19 Clarke Drive was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11:18 a.m. Saturday on charges of driving while license is suspended, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and illegal possession of adult-use cannabis and a traffic signal violation.

 Joshua L. Stewart, 39, homeless, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 5:43 p.m. Friday on a charge of criminal trespass to land.

THEFTS, BURGLARIES

 About $150 cash was taken from a car while it was parked in the 800 block of West Douglas Avenue, according to a report filed at 8:48 a.m. Monday.



Pike County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Verle E. Gibson, 42, of Pearl was arrested at 1:10 p.m. Thursday on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender.

 Devon L. Wagner, 22, of Hannibal, Missouri, was arrested at 8:56 p.m. Jan. 26 on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
KLA global conference: Minister emphasises need to transform state into production hub

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 2 (UNI) Kerala Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar on Tuesday emphasised the need to evolve interventions and strategies to transform the state into a production hub.

He said this while speaking at the three-day Kerala Looks Ahead (KLA) Global Conference and Consulation after setting the ground for deliberations on Modernising Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Resources.

Product diversification and value-addition are two key components in this process. For example, Kerala can emerge as a global production centre of fruits and flowers. Api culture also needs to be promoted so that we can market Kerala brand honey.
[February 02, 2021] American Water Accepting Applications for 2021 Environmental Grant Program

American Water (NYSE: AWK), the nation's largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility company, announced today that applications are now being accepted by its participating state subsidiaries for the company's 2021 Environmental Grant Program awards. The grant awards will be available in American Water service areas in 10 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.



"For American Water, delivering a reliable supply of safe, clean, water to our customers and treating their wastewater is just a start. Our goal is to provide essential services in ways that minimize our impact on the environment and strengthen the communities we serve," said Cheryl Norton, Chief Environmental Officer of American Water. "We are all responsible for protecting our nation's water and watersheds, and this program is just one way we help communities engage in this important effort." Established in 2005, American Water's Environmental Grant Program offers funds for innovative, community-based environmental projects that improve, restore or protect the watersheds, surface water and/or groundwater supplies through partnerships. Last year, American Water and its state subsidiaries funded 42 projects that were awarded grants totaling approximately $141,000.

Information and application requirements can be obtained directly from participating American Water state subsidiaries, or on the Environmental Grant section of the company website. Applications must be postmarked by March 31, 2021. About American Water With a history dating back to 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. The company employs more than 6,800 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to 15 million people in 46 states. American Water provides safe, clean, affordable and reliable water services to our customers to make sure we keep their lives flowing. For more information, visit amwater.com and follow American Water on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005831/en/

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Coinciding with the start of Black History Month, the National Park Foundation (NPF) announced it is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its African American Experience Fund (AAEF) throughout 2021. Established in 2001, with the support of the 15th Director of the National Park Service (NPS) Robert G. Stanton, the first African American NPS Director, AAEF's mission is to connect all people to the role of African Americans in U.S. history through national parks. Thanks to the generosity and ongoing partnership of the Fund II Foundation (Fund II), NPF is increasing philanthropic support for AAEF, focusing on projects at 13 national park sites.

The National Park Foundation is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its African American Experience Fund (AAEF). Established in 2001, with the support of the 15th Director of the National Park Service (NPS) Robert G. Stanton, the first African American NPS Director, AAEFs mission is to connect all people to the role of African Americans in U.S. history through national parks. Video credit: Rebecca Guldin/National Park Foundation

"Black history is American history," said National Park Foundation Chief Program Officer LaTresse Snead. "The stories our national parks tell will be enriched by investing in sites and programs that preserve and share the diversity of our country, including the contributions of Black people in America."

The National Park Foundation works hand in hand with NPS and other partners to preserve and share stories that honor Black history in parks and communities across the country.

In 2013, NPF helped establish Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio, which honors the first African American national park superintendent, by funding the purchase of Col. Young's historic home from the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.'s Friendship Foundation and donating it to NPS.

More recently, the Fund II Foundation's investment has dramatically expanded AAEF's impact.

"We're grateful to the Fund II Foundation for their partnership to honor and elevate the stories, contributions, and leadership of African Americans through the lens of national parks," said National Park Foundation President and CEO Will Shafroth. "Thanks to the generosity and vision of partners like Fund II, the National Park Foundation is increasing public understanding of and access to our shared heritage within national parks."

In Atlanta, NPF and Fund II worked together to purchase the homes where Dr. King was born and where he and Coretta Scott King raised their family and launched the civil rights movement. These homes are now a part of Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. NPS will now be able to preserve and share these critical pieces of American history in perpetuity, including through digital platforms. Among the projects now underway is one to create an exhibit to interpret and celebrate the life and legacy of Coretta Scott King.

"Fund II Foundation is honored to preserve the cultural richness of the African-American experience in the places we share, places that are as close to sacred spaces as you can get," said Fund II Foundation Founding Director Robert F. Smith. "The outdoors is a natural antidote to despair, and in these times, that's essential for us to trust in the future. I am awestruck when I see the tender, loving care being taken by the Park Service to preserve the lands and buildings that were so important to our ancestors. Their sacrifices shaped history as well as today and tomorrow, and they deserve our honoring them."

In Auburn, New York, NPF acquired the Thompson Memorial AME Zion Church, donated it to the National Park Service, and is now helping to restore it. This church is where Harriet Tubman's funeral was held in 1913.

In Chicago, NPF has raised and contributed more than $10 million to support bringing Pullman National Monument to life, transforming the iconic clocktower into the park's visitor center and enabling the planning, design, and renovation of the 10,000 square foot building and surrounding 12-acre factory site. NPF funding will also facilitate the installation of new exhibits at the future visitor center and the development of educational programming for young visitors and their families. These exhibits will connect people to the important role that Pullman Porters played in labor history, including calling attention to the growing wealth inequality of the Gilded Age and advocating for better working conditions and wages.

In Mississippi, NPF was instrumental in the effort to establish Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, honoring Medgar's legacy and Myrlie's ongoing leadership in advancing civil rights. Through a grant to the National Park Service, NPF provided the funds necessary to acquire the Evers' property from Tougaloo College.

In Alabama, NPF is supporting the Discovery Lab at Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site. The lab will serve as a central location for aviation research, education, training, and public programming. It will enhance visitors' interpretive experience and train the next generation of aerospace engineers with virtual reality flight training using a flight simulator system.

During the summer and fall of 2020, NPF partnered with NPS, Greening Youth Foundation, and Fund II on the internX program to place 12 collegiate interns with national parks, including Harriet Tubman National Historical Park and Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site. The internships create on-ramps for future leaders in conservation and preservation.

Individuals, foundations, and companies can support NPF's AAEF efforts to preserve and share Black history and culture through national parks by visiting the NPF website.

Endnote: In this press release, NPF uses the language Black and African American interchangeably. While the intent is to honor inclusivity and be representative of various ways that people identify, we recognize that this language does not account for all identities. We also recognize the importance and need of specificity in reference to particular communities.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION

The National Park Foundation is the official charity of America's national parks and nonprofit partner to the National Park Service. Chartered by Congress in 1967, the National Park Foundation raises private funds to help protect more than 84 million acres of national parks through critical conservation and preservation efforts and connect all Americans with their incomparable natural landscapes, vibrant culture, and rich history. Find out more and become a part of the national park community at www.nationalparks.org.

SOURCE National Park Foundation

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www.nationalparks.org


WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - The West Lafayette City Council voted on several hot topic resolutions when it met virtually on Monday.

One of the resolutions the council voted on was an amendment to the city's unified zoning ordinance of Tippecanoe County pertaining to solar energy. The ordinance created more guidance for accessory solar energy structures, meaning individual property owners who would like to install solar panels to their homes or apartment complexes.

It also created more guidance for a decommission process for large-scale solar energy systems. One of the distinctions added is that if a large-scale system is abandoned, the city can request to re-zone that land.

The Tippecanoe County Area Plan Commission also passed new solar energy regulations on Monday.

The West Lafayette ordinance passed unanimously by the city council. Click here to read more about the ordinance.

The council then heard a resolution sponsored by President Peter Bunder committing again to the city's promise to work towards a cleaner environment as part of the Climate Emergency Mobilization program. President Bunder iterated to the council that climate change is not an issue that can't be postponed, and the city must make it clear to its citizens, to the state and to the nation that climate change is a matter of urgent public safety.

Next, the council address the COVID-19 vaccine. The original resolution on the agenda is called "A Resolution To Mandate SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination For City Councilors" sponsored by Councilman David Sanders This original resolution made it so all city councilors had 30 days to get their vaccine once it becomes available to them, or face a $100 fine.

However, Councilman Sanders proposed an amended version that says, "All elected officials of the City of West Lafayette are strongly urged to receive one of the approved vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 within thirty days of being eligible to be vaccinated, contingent upon the availability of the vaccine."

He said in his remarks that it's important for elected officials to lead by example by getting the vaccine, a sentiment Mayor John Dennis agrees with. This resolution passed unanimously.

Finally, the council addressed Resolution No. 04-21. This resolution endorses and urges Congress to support the Healthcare Emergency Guarantee Act of 2020 and the Medicare for All Act of 2019.

Mayor Dennis said he knows they can't do much to influence national politics, but it's about speaking up for something that could help people in our community.

"I understand that there are people who feel the socialization of our medical system is anti-American, but in all honesty, if we don't start somewhere, nothing will ever change," he said.

The resolution listed some local statistics to put the issue of inequity of health care into perspective. It says, "Before the pandemic, it is estimated that more than twenty thousand residents of Tippecanoe County did not have any health insurance," "it is estimated that close to 2000 Tippecanoe County residents have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing the number of residents without health insurance," and, "in West Lafayette, about 12% of children and about 21% of residents between the ages of 25 and

34 live below the federal poverty level, and people living in poverty must forgo needed healthcare because of inability to pay."

Mayor Dennis said many people often must give up needed health care because of inability to pay.

"You look at some of the folks that have been laid off work, folks who are barely living paycheck to paycheck, they are one catastrophic health event from complete financial collapse," he said.

The resolution was sponsored by six of the board's eight current members. Councilors Sanders and Gerald Thomas shared that they had received a lot of messages from community members supporting this resolution. Councilman Thomas shared a personal story of the shock of having to pay for his own heart medicine.

Councilman James Blanco remembered the periodic times in his own life when he was without health insurance. He said there are times when if he experienced some sort of intense health issue, it would have bankrupt him. Councilwoman Kathy Parker shared the stress of trying to get her child coverage when the child was declared uninsurable because of a pre-existing condition. Councilman Nick DeBoer said that real freedom means the freedom to be able to leave a job and not have health insurance tied to it. He finished his remarks by saying this was the easiest and most obvious vote he would make as a city councilor.

The resolution passed unanimously.

News 18 asked Mayor Dennis for an update regarding filling former Councilman Norris Wang's seat on the council. As we previously reported, Councilman Wang passed away on January 17th at the age of 65.

He said there have been several people who have expressed interest in the position, but the successor must come from Councilor Wang's district and must be a Republican. The Republican Precinct Committee will work to choose the right person to fill that seat.

Branding Science Opens Berlin Office

London-based health sector consultancy Branding Science has expanded to Berlin, Germany, where it has hired Anne-Sophie Lenoir to lead the new office.



Branding Science, which also has offices in the US, the Philippines and Singapore, integrates brand consultancy with customer and patient insights to help pharmaceutical and medical device companies build brands at every stage of the product lifecycle - from assessing market opportunity to preparing for forthcoming product launches.



Lenoir (pictured) joins from health sector market understanding specialist Exevia, where as a Consultant she led marketing and insights projects for international and German pharma and medical tech clients. Prior to this she served as Consumer Behavior Manager at Danone's research and innovation division Nutricia Research; and she was a stategy and insights specialist at product development business ZS Associates.



In her new role, Lenoir will lead insights-driven consulting engagements and workshops for German and international pharma and medtech clients. Joe Gadilhe, Managing Director UK & Europe, comments: 'We are proud of the work we have done in Germany over the last few years. The launch of our Berlin office underlines our commitment to better support our German clients. With its diverse and creative atmosphere, Berlin is a perfect fit for Branding Science and our company culture'.



Web site: www.branding-science.com .




After calling the recent Myanmar election free and fair, the Cambodian government said it would not issue any statements or interfere in the coup staged by Myanmar's military in the early hours of Monday morning.

The Myanmar Armed Forces, also called the Tatmadaw, declared a one-year state of emergency Monday afternoon, hours after it arrested senior National League for Democracy (NLD) members, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

The coup detat comes months after the NLD won a general election in November, after which opposition parties aligned to the Tatmadaw claimed widespread election fraud. The mass arrests came hours before a new session of parliament was scheduled to convene.

Prime Minister Hun Sen mentioned the coup detat at a ceremony in Phnom Penh Monday morning. He said Cambodia would not make any comments about the developments in Myanmar, calling it Naypyidaws internal affair.

For the time being, in Yangon [and Myanmar] it is happening. The President and the State Counsellor are arrested and detained, Hun Sen said.

But Cambodia shall not make any comments on the internal affairs of any countries regardless if they are within the framework of ASEAN as member states or outside, he added.

The Cambodian Embassy in Yangon released a statement on November 11 calling the November 8 general election free and fair and reiterated its support for Myanmars democratic process.

A week later, Hun Sen sent a letter to State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi congratulating her partys ability to garner overwhelming support during the polls, which was a result of his domestic policies.

I am confident that with the new mandate of the NLD, Myanmar will continue to further promote democratic values, paving the way for inclusive and durable peace, stability and prosperity in the country, Hun Sen wrote in the November 18 letter.

The Tatmadaw and military chief Min Aung Hlaing had said it was unlikely they would accept the results of the election, hinting at a takeover. They supported the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Partys claims that the national election was marred with election fraud of around 10 million suspect votes.

Government spokesperson Phay Siphan said Cambodia would maintain diplomatic relations with whoever was in charge of Myanmar.

We dont expect anything to change, Phay Siphan told VOA Khmer. Our Constitution provides a guiding principle that we shall not be in any capacity to interfere with anybodys affairs.

Phay Siphan dodged questions about Hun Sens endorsement of the November election, polls that are now being used by the Tatmadaw to legitimize their takeover on Monday.

We at the time provided our assessment on the conduct of the general election, but the decision on any political arrangement [in Myanmar] shall be the sovereign decision-making right of that nation. We will not interfere, Siphan said.

In Channy, the president of Acleda Bank in Cambodia said it was the political stability Myanmar had seen in the last decade that convinced the banks leadership to invest in the country.

Acleda has invested $20 million in Myanmars microfinance sector since 2013, he said.

We look into that aspect [political stability] as a prerequisite whether to go there or any other country, In Channy said. And now this prerequisite has taken a hit in Myanmar.

Cambodias decision not to interfere with Myanmars coup was in line with Thailands and Philippines responses, whereas countries with one-party rule, like Laos and Vietnam, remained silent.

Biden reintroduces tariffs on aluminum from Arab Emirates Move freezes European hopes of a tariff revocation

(ANSAmed) - WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 2 - In one of his first trade decisions, US President Joe Biden reintroduced for national security reasons the 10% tariff on aluminum imports from the United Arab Emirates that his predecessor Donald Trump had removed one day prior to leaving the White House, coinciding with the sale of 50 F-35 aircraft to Abu Dhabi.



The move seems to freeze European hopes of an immediate revocation of tariffs imposed by Trump on steel and aluminum that the EU ambassador to Washington asked for last week with the promise in return of immediately removing counter tariffs.(ANSAmed). (ANSA).




Zimbabwe is among the first 14 developing countries that will benefit from the Chinese made COVID-19 Vaccine in an effort to contain the virus.

The coronavirus which originated in China has claimed more than 1000 lives of Zimbabweans with more than 33 000 cases being recorded in the country to date.

The government has in the past few weeks hinted that a vaccine is on the way and clear indications are that Zimbabwe, together with 13 other countries,s will be the first to take the jabs.

Three vaccines are currently far along in development in China. They are the vaccines from the companies Sinopharm, Sinovac Biotech and CanSino.

Only partial data on the efficacy of the vaccines have been released from their respective phase II and III trials. Sinopharm was the first company to officially announce data at the turn of 2020.

In a statement by Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, developing countries like Sierra Leone, Palestine, Belarus, and Myanmar will also receive the vaccine ahead of other developing countries together with Zimbabwe.

Below is the full statement.

"China has been acting through concrete actions on President Xi Jinping's solemn commitment of making COVID-19 vaccines, developed and deployed in China, a global public good, thus contributing to greater accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries. That's what we've been saying and what we've been doing.

First, apart from Pakistan, China is also providing vaccine aid to Brunei, Nepal, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Palestine, Belarus, Sierra Leon, Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, altogether 13 developing countries. Going forward, we will also assist another 38 developing countries with vaccines. We also take an active part in the WHO-led COVAX and provide vaccines through this platform to developing countries.

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Second, China supports Chinese companies in conducting joint vaccine R&D and production with foreign partners. Vaccines made by Sinopharm and Sinovac have been exported to countries including the UAE, Morocco, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil and Chile where clinical studies have been conducted out.

Third, China supports relevant companies in exporting vaccines to countries in urgent need that have approved Chinese vaccines and authorized their emergency use. For instance, Serbia has started vaccination with recently imported China-made vaccines. More and more countries are approving the use of Chinese vaccines.

The whole world needs to pull together in order to defeat the pandemic. China will continue to provide in a timely manner, to the best of its capability, vaccines to relevant countries, especially the developing countries, and contribute its share to building a community of health for all mankind. We also hope the international community will work together to promote the equitable allocation and use of vaccines globally to make sure developing countries have access to and can afford them.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 03:58:40|Editor: huaxia

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VIENNA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Austrian government on Monday announced measures of "gentle relaxation" -- going into effect from Feb. 8 -- in lieu of the country's third lockdown that has been in place since Dec. 26, 2020 to contain the coronavirus.

Schools, stores, and cultural venues such as museums and zoos will be allowed to reopen under strict precautionary measures, said Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at a press conference.

Elementary school students will be taught in schools again, while secondary school students will be taught in shifts and only those who can take tests regularly will be allowed to attend face-to-face lessons, said Kurz.

Trade premises can also reopen, with only one customer allowed in per 20 square meters and FFP2 mask mandatory. People can go to the hairdresser, beautician or masseur again if they have a negative COVID-19 test not older than 48 hours.

"It is only possible to take careful opening steps," Kurz said. "From an epidemiological point of view, the safest way would be to maintain the lockdown."

The government wanted to reduce new infections to a maximum of 700 per day, but the number is still in the four-digit range of over 1,100, he said.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 236 candidate vaccines are still 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 the World Health Organization on Jan. 26. Enditem

Retail pharmacies will bring more COVID-19 vaccines to Houston and across the country following a boost by the Biden administration to increase distribution to the public.

CVS Health will roll out 38,000 COVID-19 vaccines to 70 Texas locations starting Feb. 11; a CVS spokesperson said they are still determining how many Houston locations will be part of the initial distribution. People who fall under the states 1A and 1B eligibility criteria will be able to make an appointment.

The pharmacy giant is setting up online and phone systems to book a time slot for the first dose. To register, eligible people can visit CVS.com or call 800-746-7287.

Vaccinations will be by appointment-only and we want to encourage eligible patients to use our online scheduling tool to find a location that is convenient for them to access, said Monica Prinzing, a CVS spokesperson.

WHATS COMING: Everything you need to know about AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccines

People can book appointments starting Feb. 10, Prinzing said, a day later than originally announced.

CVS Health was one of several retail pharmacies, including Walgreens and Rite-Aid, named in a federal partnership to administer the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to the public. Since December, the company has vaccinated almost 2 million residents and staff at nearly 8,000 long-term care facilities nationwide.

The CVS announcement comes as the Biden administration pledges to broaden vaccine access. Federal officials will ship 1 million doses per week at the beginning of the program, which could be administered as soon as next week, POLITICO reported.

Federal and state officials have come under fire for vaccine rollout as distribution lags. More than 26 million people - less than 10 percent of the U.S. population - have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 1.9 million of whom are in Texas.

Pharmacies could be key to speeding up vaccine rollout. Patients already rely on them to pick up prescription drugs and receive flu and shingles vaccines, and may keep their local pharmacy in mind when it comes to obtaining a COVID-19 shot.

As of 2015, there are approximately 67,000 pharmacies in the U.S., according to the science journal PLOS One.

You have pharmacies on every corner in the country, said Dr. Asim Abu-Baker, associate dean for clinical and professional affairs at Texas A&Ms College of Pharmacy. Theyre used to handling the publics questions and giving flu vaccines, while its a bottleneck to try and get into a hospital.

Texas is one of 11 states in which CVS will roll out COVID-19 vaccination to the public.

GOT COVID QUESTIONS?: Ask the Houston Chronicle Health Desk here

One of our greatest strengths as a company is our presence in communities across the country, which makes us an ideal partner for administering vaccines in a safe, convenient, and familiar manner, Karen S. Lynch, CEO of CVS Health, said in a statement.

Public health officials and independent doctors have expressed frustration over Texas decision to direct most of its vaccines to hospital systems. One in five Texans lack health insurance, according to federal data, and that hinders the chances they regularly see a primary care doctor who can sign them up for an appointment at a vaccine hub.

The move by federal officials to bring more vaccines to pharmacies increases the chances for people to get the vaccine, said Dr. Julianna Fernandez, vice chair of the University of Houston College of Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research.

It really opens the doors to so many patients that would not be connected with a health care system, Fernandez said.

Other pharmacies, including H-E-B and Kroger, are in the process of setting up portals for the public to sign up for COVID-19 vaccinations.

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The next epidemic could be a fatal fungal infection named Candida Auris, stated experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It could be fatal if it enters the bloodstream, particularly if it enters the body via healthcare and hospital settings.

Experts describe the yeast-like fungal infection as a nearly "perfect pathogen."

Deadly Fungus as Next Epidemic

The fungus was first identified in 2009. According to Johanna Rhodes, an epidemiologist with London's Imperial College, it is almost impervious to antifungal drugs.

Rhodes helped tackle a 2016 outbreak of Candida Auris in England. She stated it is not merely the fungus' resistance to drugs that makes it remarkable.

According to Rhodes, "One of the things that makes Candida Auris so scary is the fact it can linger on inanimate surfaces for long periods and withstand whatever you throw at it," reported New York Post.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated no one knows where the fungus originated.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-century plague that is the worst outbreak of its type in history. That reportedly does not mean we could stop being concerned about fatal diseases with the potential to become prevalent across borders rapidly.

Scientists at the CDC are cautioning the next pandemic is likely to come from a yeast-like fungus that closely resembles that of the Black Plague.

The fungus will doubly become fatal if it passes into catheters or other tubes passing into the body in healthcare settings, reported The Sun.

Candida Auris is largely not affected by antifungal drugs.

Rhodes added that it is drug-resistant, which makes it a potential candidate for the next pandemic.

The fatal infection has become the cause of hospitalizations in Florida in recent months and has become prevalent in COVID-19 wards.

According to the CDC, "Candida Auris can spread in healthcare settings through contact with contaminated environmental surfaces or equipment, or from person to person. More work is needed to further understand how it spreads," reported The Epoch Times.

Previously this January, the Florida Department of Health and CDC conducted a joint investigation targeting infection prevention.

According to Dr. Tom Chiller, who runs the CDC's antifungal division, no one knows where it originated. "It is a creature from the black lagoon. It bubbled up and now it is everywhere."

Experts remarked it is important to create better weapons against enemies such as Candida Auris now before they replace COVID-19 as the next pandemic.

Epidemiologists have identified many contenders for the next global health crisis, including Candida Auris.

Candida Auris was first witnessed infecting the ear canal of a Japanese woman.

Chiller compared it to the Black Plague and remarked it mirrored that of substances found in lagoons and other bacteria-ridden areas.

Scientists across the globe have cautioned in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a dire need for disease specialists and centers to begin investing in and developing the prevention and treatment of infectious pathogens.

The CDC report concluded, "Outbreaks such as that described in this report highlight the importance of adhering to recommended infection control and PPE practices and continuing surveillance for novel pathogens like Candida Auris."

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Early stage clinical trial data from coronavirus vaccine manufacturers Johnson & Johnson and Novavax released late last week showed a decreased efficacy against the emerging South African variant of the virus.

The trials showed the vaccines provided between 49 and 57 per cent protection against the strain.

Australia will begin distributing vaccines at the end of this month from Pfizer, who is still awaiting fresh data on its ability to combat this new variant of COVID-19.

As the virus continues to mutate and new strains are being discovered, experts say scientists will need to chase the virus by changing the vaccine.
USA urged Myanmar's military to release detained officials, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and warned of a response over the apparent coup, as per a report in AFP.

Suu Kyi and the country's president were in the military's custody after weeks of rising tensions over allegations of fraud in November's elections.

AFP

"The United States opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede Myanmar's democratic transition, and will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

We "urge the military and all other parties to adhere to democratic norms and the rule of law, and to release those detained today," she added.

The military last week signaled it could seize power to settle its claims of irregularities in the polls, which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won easily.


Russian opposition leader mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin as "Vladimir the Underpants Poisoner," shortly before he was sent to prison in a verdict immediately condemned in the West as politically motivated. Navalny was referring to extensive evidence that Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) tried to poison him by putting a Novichok nerve agent in his underpants. Listen to excerpts of his impassioned courtroom speech here.
press release

As of 1pm on 29 January, the Western Cape has 14 658 active Covid-19 infections with a total of 265 789 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 240 939 recoveries.

Click here for statistics.

The Western Cape has recorded 56 additional deaths, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the province to 10 192. We send our condolences to their loved ones at this time.

Additional data is available on the Western Cape Covid-19 data dashboard which also features active cases per sub-district, active cases per 100 000 and 7-day moving averages. Access the data dashboard here: https://coronavirus.westerncape.gov.za/covid-19-dashboard

Support for the events industry:

The events industry in the Western Cape has been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 lockdown and restrictions that have been in place since last year. The Western Cape is well known for our events economy- from our major sporting events, music festivals to weddings and conferencing. These events and the industry as a whole support thousands of jobs in the province.

We have seen a number of events companies adapt, and using technology, have hosted online awards ceremonies, music events and conferences. In a bid to support this sector, the Western Cape Government, working with Wesgro, has devised a series of informative webinars for the events industry. The next one will be held on Monday morning, focusing on the theme "from cancellation to recovery" and unpacking the event sector's new normal for events and festivals in the Western Cape. It will explore the role of technology and hybrid events.

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Speakers include Justin van Wyk, CEO of Big Concerts who will discuss their partnership with Health Passport Europe, Brendon Knott, Associate Professor at CPUT, on global responsiveness to technology and the role of data, and Savarion Arendse, national key account manager at Old Mutual on their stance on corporate sponsorship and partnerships. I encourage all those in the events industry to join the webinar to learn from the experiences of these industry heavyweights. Register for the webinar which starts at 10am on Monday, 1 February here: https://wesgro.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EB7ExZ63QPOXTLPb15UWFg

Wesgro is also currently looking to increase the profile of the Western Cape as an events destination, through events that deliver tourism and economic benefit to the province, align with identified strategic niche activities such as adventure, wine, food, halal, arts and culture and which attract international and domestic visitors to the region.

Wesgro will consider non-financial and financial support for events which are in the adventure, wine, food, halal and arts and culture space and which will be taking place between April and October this year. For more information on the qualifying criteria and how to apply, email: inge@wesgro.co.za

Caution: The deeply sardonic humor that follows is entirely unintentional on the part of Apple.

It's Black History Month again, this time after a horrific summer of rioting, arson, looting, and murder, all in the name of "Black Lives Matter." So, naturally, Apple Computers, headquartered in Cupertino, California (where Blacks constituted 0.6% of the population as of the last census), is all in on combatting "systemic racism," the latest boogeyman indicting the United States as inherently evil in the eyes of virtue-signalers.

MacRumors reported yesterday:

Apple today added a new Racial Equity and Justice Initiative page to its website that highlights the company's long-term efforts to "help ensure more positive outcomes for communities of color, particularly for the Black community." The page emphasizes Apple's commitment to education, criminal justice reform, and economic equality. "As global leaders in technology and business, we have an urgent responsibility to dismantle systemic racism and grow opportunities for people confronting it every day," wrote Apple. Last year, Apple committed $100 million towards a new Racial Equity and Justice Initiative to "help dismantle systemic barriers to opportunity and combat injustices faced by communities of color." As part of this commitment, Apple is supporting the launch of an innovation and learning hub in Atlanta for students enrolled in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, venture capital funding for Black and Brown entrepreneurs, and more.

Follow the link in the first paragraph and you will be treated to vapid rhetoric like "bringing existing teams and projects together under one umbrella"; "compounding and magnifying their results"; and, of course, "holistic focus and companywide scale."

All those words!

And graphics, too!



Apple.com home page, screen grab 2/2/21.

But what about where it counts: who has the jobs at Apple now? Do you see any "systemic racism" in Apple's display of its leadership?



Source: https://www.apple.com/leadership 2/2/21.

Odd that I don't see any Black faces. And, in a company where a reported 23% of employees are Asian, maybe one mixed-race person of Asian heritage? (I am guessing races and might be wrong.)

I really wish that Tim Cook would identify which companies in tech engage in systemic racism. And, with all the white faces on the leadership page, Tim could do some real good by stepping down for a Muslim black trans person. After all, if racism is really systemic, that means that Tim got a leg up because he's white. He should renounce his own white privilege.

I will not hold my breath.

New Delhi, Feb 2 : The central government's decision to permit theatres to operate at 100 per cent occupancy saw mixed reactions from people in the national capital as a few were optimistic while some were not excited about it.

Speaking to IANS, Sunil Singh, head of the managing team at Yellow Chilli's outlet in east Delhi's V3S mall said, "Our business is very closely connected to the number of people coming to cinemas. We are always hopeful that we will get big business from the cinemas." He said that he felt the effect of the government's announcement on Monday itself as sales went above 50 per cent and added that in future business would grow even more than 50 per cent.

"This clearly indicates that theatres running on 100% occupancy has managed to usher a sense of optimism in the market," Singh said.

Kriti Yadav who owns Nails Site, Salon and academy which comes under Beautify Spot said, "This pandemic has affected the entire country and due to the pandemic, the client footfall is less." She added that if the footfall of people to the cinemas would be more, then it would be beneficial for their business.

Sukanya Roy, who owns a Jawed Habib outlet located in the V3S mall, said the government should not have taken this decision as Covid-19 has not been completely eliminated.

However, she maintained that if people would come business would grow.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Razumkov opened the fifth session of the parliament of the ninth convocation.

According to Razumkov, the opening of the session is attended by members of the Cabinet of Ministers, heads of central authorities, the judiciary, representatives of churches and religious organizations, heads of diplomatic missions of foreign states.

According to the parliament's agenda for Tuesday, February 1, the MPs at the plenary meeting of the fifth session plan to approve the 2021 work plan of the Verkhovna Rada (bill No. 4691).

At second reading, the Verkhovna Rada intends to consider bill No. 4413 regarding the elimination of a conflict in the issue of appointment and dismissal of members of the supervisory board of the National Public Television and Radio Company of Ukraine.

In addition, parliamentarians are going to adopt bill on sanctions against Nicaragua (No. 4689), which was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Tuesday's agenda includes bill No. 4229 on amending the laws on the judicial system and the status of judges and on the High Council of Justice regarding the completion of competitive procedures for holding positions of judges in local courts.

The second reading in the Verkhovna Rada should pass bill No. 3987, which provides for the introduction of information about the state border into the State Land Cadastre.
A bill filed by a Dallas-area senator would ramp up regulations for certain chemical companies that use above-ground storage tanks.

A trip out Texas Highway 225 reveals countless above-ground tanks. They're also scattered throughout the Greater Houston area.

BAT SIGNAL: Texas bats are dying, and you can help save them

The state demands that tanks buried underground are regulated and protected from floods, like we see here in Houston quite often. But these above-ground storage tanks are relatively unregulated, Houston Public Media's Katie Watkins reports.

Democrat Sen. Nathan Johnson's SB 126 seeks to require more stringent building regulations for above-ground storage tanks in flood-prone areas. State Rep. Mary Ann Perez, a Democrat representing Pasadena, filed an identical bill in the House of Representatives.

"We are seeing an increase in catastrophic, major weather events that would threaten these types of structures," Johnson told Wakins.

Houston saw massive floods, fires and dangerous chemical releases during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Most notable of these was the ITC plant in Deer Park, which burned for days and released toxins into the air.

The bill would apply to existing and new tanks if it became law, Watkins reported.
A project manager 'stressed' by working on London's Nightingale hospital at the ExCel centre 'went absolutely berserk' and tried to murder his mother and stepfather, a court has heard.

James Wells, 43, of Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, is accused of attacking Linda Holford and her husband Adrian Holford at their home on March 30 last year.

Bristol Crown Court previously heard that Wells had become stressed at work and was driven to the couple's home in Shalbourne, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, by a colleague.

He allegedly used fireplace tools at the detached property, as well as a pewter tankard, to bludgeon the couple hours after arriving.

Wells has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two charges of attempted murder and is on trial.

James Wells, 43, of Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, is accused of attacking Linda Holford and her husband Adrian Holford at their home on March 30 last year. Pictured: Police at the scene

On Tuesday, the jury was played interviews with both Mr and Mrs Holford recorded by police after the incident.

Mr Holford, 75, first spoke to officers from his hospital bed and told them he had been 'brutally and viciously' attacked by Wells.

He described how Wells was 'hyper' when he arrived at the couple's home at about 4.30pm on March 30 and they were aware that he had not slept for four days.

Wells went for a walk with his mother before eating dinner and going to bed but then re-emerged with his suitcase and was questioned by the couple, Mr Holford told police.

'At that point he went absolutely berserk,' Mr Holford said. 'He grabbed Linda by the throat, threw her on the floor and tried to strangle her.

'He had both hands on Linda's throat. When I pulled one of his hands off, he put it around my throat.'

Mr Holford described how Wells was 'kicking, headbutting, punching' and attempted to strangle his mother again.

Wells then used the poker and ash pan, as well as a pewter tankard, to attack the couple, Mr Holford said.

'I've never seen anything like that in my life,' he told officers.

Bristol Crown Court previously heard that Wells had become stressed at work and was driven to the couple's home in Shalbourne, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, by a colleague. Pictured: Police at the property in Shalbourne

'He suddenly headbutted me. This must have gone on for about 45 minutes. I thought: "We are going to die here, we are not going to get out of this." There was blood everywhere.'

Mr Holford managed to call 999 and request police and paramedics while Wells was in the shower washing blood off himself, the court heard.

He said Wells was 'shouting and screaming' in a military style and kept asking Mr Holford to salute him.

'I thought Linda was dead, but I was conscious that I ought to stay between her and him all the way,' Mr Holford told police.

'Then he dashed to the kitchen and started opening cupboards and drawers. He pulled out a big carving knife out of one of the drawers. I thought, 'this is it'. I was bleeding heavily.

'He didn't use the knife but he had it in his hand and was walking around the house with it.'

During the incident, Wells said: 'I want to murder Mum and I think I've done it,' Mr Holford told officers.

Police and paramedics arrived at the property at about 7.50pm, and a Taser was used on Wells, who was arrested and taken into custody.

In an interview at home, Mrs Holford said she had no memory of the incident and learned in hospital that her son had attacked her.

'It was so hard to believe and hard to understand. Just one's worst nightmare,' Mrs Holford, 70, told police.

She described learning of the severity of her injuries as 'distressing', and said she was 'very lucky' that her husband and paramedics had saved her life.

Mrs Holford spent a month in hospitals receiving treatment for injuries including a fractured skull, facial fractures and bleeding on her brain.

Her husband sustained lacerations to his scalp, a fracture to his skull, and a broken jaw and nose.

Wells also denies assaulting a police officer who he is alleged to have spat on while being placed in the back of a police car following hospital treatment for minor injuries.

He denies the three charges against him and the trial continues.
Agra, Feb 2 : The people of an Agra village have hit upon a novel way to tackle stray cattle menace.

The people of Pachgai Khera village locked up dozens of cattle in a state-run primary school on Sunday. Raising slogans against the state government, they alleged that 'officials did not understand our plight.' They warned that they would continue doing so until the officials solved the problem.

"The stray cattle not only destroy our crop but also attack people, especially children. The officials refuse to take remedial steps and we have no option but to resort to such steps," said Madan Lal Gautam, a local resident.

Meanwhile, administrative officials and police arrived in the village on receiving information about the cattle being locked on the school campus.

More than 50 stray cattle were shifted to a nearby cow shelter.

Additional District Magistrate Prabhakant Awasthi said, "The animal husbandry department shifted the locked cattle to a nearby cow shelter. We are increasing the capacity of cow shelters in the district. Besides, the administration is also taking necessary action to keep a tab on stray cattle menace."
A Texas woman is thanking members of her community after her wallaby escaped during a dust storm and was found before befalling any harm.

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Shayli McCartor, owner of Wolfforth's Party Time Ponies and Events, said Rascal, a 2-year-old wallaby and one of the main attractions of the business, went missing during a Saturday morning dust storm at her Lubbock home.

"I'm never gonna see him. That was the first thought like, it just seemed impossible, especially out here," McCartor told KLBK/KAMC. "People dump dogs out here, and there's so many wild dogs, and there's coyotes, and there's a fox."

McCartor put out a call for help on Facebook, and reports of sightings soon started rolling in.

"So many people were like, 'I can't believe I saw that, or I didn't know what I was looking at,'" McCartor said. "And it really made the people in the community aware, like, yeah, we're looking for this, and it's not something you're gonna see every day, but he really is lost and he is out there."

McCartor said a local resident, Jason Cole Pepper, found Rascal in a field about a mile and a half from home. The marsupial was captured safely about 6 hours after his escape.

"We're so thankful for everybody that did help," McCartor said.


(from left) Richard Tsang, Chairman, SPRG and Co-Chairman, Montieth SPRG, and Montieth Illingworth, CEO and Global Managing Partner, Montieth & Company and Co-Chairman, Montieth SPRG

Asia, Feb 2, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Strategic Public Relations Group ("SPRG"), one of the largest public relations networks in Asia-Pacific, and Montieth & Company ("M&Co"), a global communications consultancy, have joined forces to launch a new agency in Hong Kong: Montieth SPRG.Montieth SPRG is the result of a collaboration between the two agencies that dates back to 2006 and represents the next evolution of global communications. The new company will provide fully integrated, cross-border communications strategies that move seamlessly and nimbly across media markets and achieve high-impact results and influence. Montieth SPRG will deliver key corporate initiatives that encourage audience engagement, raise/build brand awareness and drive growth. In its initial phase, the firm will serve clients from the Americas and EMEA that seek to penetrate new markets in Asia-Pacific and expand across the region. Core offerings include marketing communications and media relations, issues and crisis management and financial communications/IR.Richard Tsang, Chairman, SPRG and Co-Chairman, Montieth SPRG said: "SPRG and M&Co have been working together for 15 years now. We hope to offer the best solutions to global companies looking for a compelling and competitive edge in the region's markets. In M&Co, we have a true partner in innovation and together we will help our clients from different sectors to take advantage of their biggest opportunities in Asia-Pacific."Montieth Illingworth, CEO and Global Managing Partner, Montieth & Company and Co-Chairman, Montieth SPRG said: "SPRG's depth of experience and expertise in the region is invaluable. This is an opportunity for Montieth & Company to serve our North American and EMEA clients in some of the world's fastest growing economies. The Asia-Pacific region has vigorously tackled the pandemic and the benefits are evident."The latest UN figures show that China has become the number one market for foreign direct investment. GDP growth for Asia is projected to reach 8.3% this year according to the IMF, settling to 5.9% in 2022. Among the beneficiaries will include those in the financial services, e-commerce, AI, gaming and infrastructure industries.About Montieth SPRGMontieth SPRG brings together Montieth & Company ("M&Co"), a leading global PR agency with SPRG, Asia's leading communications firm. Montieth SPRG serves global organizations in the Americas and EMEA across sectors that want to expand into Asia-Pacific. The firm's highly integrated, flexible and efficient services and solutions produce high-value results that raise/build brand awareness and drive growth.www.montiethsprg.asiaAbout Montieth & CompanyMontieth & Company ("M&Co") is a global communications consultancy which operates through three global hubs, New York, London, and Hong Kong, and projects into over 20 media markets. Its multi-lingual team deliver targeted media relations counsel, support and execution for a variety of clients. The agency receives regular recognition for its work and has been ranked as one of the top 50 PR firms by The New York Observer.www.montiethco.comAbout SPRGSPRG is one of the largest public relations networks in Asia-Pacific and the largest public relations consultancy in Hong Kong. It has over 290 professionals working from 15 wholly-owned offices and an associated company in Australia. SPRG has garnered over 420 prominent awards in the client campaign and agency categories and was ranked Global Top 100 PR agency by PRWeek and PRovoke.www.sprg.asiaContactDayvic LeungSenior Manager, Montieth SPRGdayvic@montiethsprg.com.hkTel: (+852) 2114 4935Source: Montieth SPRGCopyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Samsung offers most of its premium phones with two different chipsets in different markets, leading to the inevitable comparisons year after year. Last year's Exynos 990 was a step behind the Snapdragon 865, especially in terms of battery life. This year the difference is far smaller if this latest batch of benchmarks is to be trusted.

Golden Reviewer ran the SPECint2006 benchmark on the best chipsets for the past 12 months, giving us a few interesting numbers to look at and compare. The benchmark determines a chipset's cluster of cores' power draw and performance rating.

Despite its higher clock speed the Exynos' Cortex-X1 big core scores 7% lower than the Cortex-X1 core in the Snapdragon 888. This leads to a performance per watt difference of 12% in favor of the Qualcomm chip. Looking at the cluster of 3x Cortex-A78 middle cores on both chipsets, the Exynos 2100 delivers 12% more performance, but at the expense of 52% higher power draw, making it 26% less efficient per watt.

Still if we use the benchmark to compare the Exynos 2100 to the Exynos 990 from last year and we see big improvements for the newer chip. The 2100's big core delivers 22% more performance and 34% higher efficiency.

Moving on to a video comparison between a Galaxy S21 Ultra with the Exynos 2100 and the Snapdragon 888, which shows the processors swapping blows in different benchmarks. The scores are close, but the Exynos proves to be running ever so slightly cooler than the Snapdragon.

But the 888 has a big lead over the 2100 when it comes to frames per second in the graphics benchmarks. Samsung is looking to move away from the Mali GPUs it's been using in favor of AMD ones.

In any case benchmarks show an intangible difference between Exynos and Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S21 devices. Unlike last year, where some markets got a better performing chip, this year it essentially doesn't matter which version you get.

Source | Via
Insurance fraud seems like it might be an easy thing to do. Insurance companies are often so huge, one wonders how they might not even notic...
Islamabad: Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had supported and funded ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, a former Pakistani diplomat who also served as a minister in the PML-N supremos cabinet has alleged.

Yes, Osama supported Mian Nawaz Sharif at one time. However, that is a complicated story. He (Osama) used to extend financial assistance (to Sharif), Pakistans former envoy to the United States Abida Hussain claimed this during an interview to a private news channel, Geo TV reported.

Abida, also an ex-cabinet member of Nawaz Sharif's government, recalled that at one-time bin Laden was popular and liked by everyone including the Americans but at a later stage, he was treated as a 'stranger'.

Her remarks come days after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Member of National Assembly Farrukh Habib alleged that Nawaz Sharif had laid the foundation of foreign funding in the country and took USD 10 million from Osama bin Laden to bring a no-confidence motion for overthrowing Benazir Bhutto's government.

Nawaz Sharif, who has been the prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, has been accused, time and again, of taking money from slain terrorist Osama bin Laden in order to promote and fund jihad in Kashmir. He served as prime minister from 1990-93, 1997-98, and 2013-17.

Sharif, the 70-year-old supremo of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) who was ousted from power in 2017 by the Supreme Court on corruption charges, is in London for medical treatment.

California: Indian Diaspora holds community vigil against vandalisation of Gandhi statue

Indian-American Bhavya Lal appointed by NASA as Acting Chief of Staff

Biden says he wont settle for COVID-19 aid package that fails to meet the moment
Johnny Depp's bid to overturn a ruling that he assaulted his ex-wife Amber Heard and left her fearing for her life is set to be heard by the Court of Appeal next month.

Last year the Hollywood star took The Sun to court as he claimed a comment piece written in the paper was libellous for calling him a 'wife beater'.

After a three-week trial at the High Court, Mr Justice Nicol found The Sun's claim was 'substantially true'.

The judge ruled the Pirates of the Caribbean star had assaulted Ms Heard, 34, on a dozen occasions and put her in 'fear for her life,' three times.

Lawyers for Mr Depp, 57, are challenging that ruling, as they claim to have new evidence, after previously commenting that Justice Nicol's decision was 'plainly wrong'.

His application for permission to appeal against it will be heard in March.

Last year the High Court ruled The Sun's claims that Johnny Depp was a 'wife beater,' were 'substantially true'. Lawyers for Mr Depp, 57, are appealing that decision as they feel he 'did not receive a fair trial'

Mr Depp sued The Sun's publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) over a 2018 column by its executive editor Dan Wootton, which referred to 'overwhelming evidence' he attacked Ms Heard.

Following the high-profile trial, Mr Justice Nicol ruled against Mr Depp, but the actor claims he 'did not receive a fair trial'.

In documents filed with the Court of Appeal, Mr Depp's barrister David Sherborne has asked the court to 'set aside the judgment and order a new trial'.

But Adam Wolanski QC, representing NGN, argued Mr Justice Nicol conducted 'a painstaking analysis of the evidence', adding: 'There is no basis to conclude that the judge failed to examine the evidence or provide reasons for his findings.'

In an order issued on Monday, Lord Justice Underhill said Mr Depp's application for permission to appeal should be considered at a hearing, 'if possible between March 15 and 31'.

Mr Justice Nicol ruled the Pirates of the Caribbean actor left ex-wife Amber Heard (pictured outside the high Court) fearing for her life on several occasions, and assaulted her 12 times

The judge said an application by Mr Depp's lawyers to rely on new evidence, which was not heard at the trial, would also be dealt with at the same hearing.

Lord Justice Underhill added: 'Whether the hearing will be at the Royal Courts of Justice or conducted remotely will be decided nearer the time by reference to the conditions then prevailing.'

In his judgment, Mr Justice Nicol concluded that 12 of the 14 alleged incidents of domestic violence relied on by NGN in its defence of the actor's claim did occur.

The judge also found Mr Depp put Ms Heard in 'fear for her life' on three occasions, including one the actress described as a 'three-day hostage situation' in Australia in March 2015.

But Mr Depp's legal team claim Mr Justice Nicol 'failed to examine the competing accounts of each incident, or to explain whether he found them proved and, if so, on what basis'.

They also argue that 'the judge should have analysed the extent to which Ms Heard's evidence undermined her credibility in relation to her allegations of physical assault/injury'.

Mr Sherborne said Mr Justice Nicol 'took little or no account of the striking examples of Ms Heard's willingness to lie or commit wrongdoing'.

It has not yet been decided whether the hearing will take place at the Court of Appeal or over video-link, due to Covid-19 restrictions

In his response, however, Mr Wolanski said the trial judge's ruling was 'long and thorough, with each conclusion of fact supported by a detailed analysis of the relevant oral and documentary evidence'.

He also argued that Mr Justice Nicol 'explained his assessment of the witnesses' - especially Ms Heard's - credibility in considerable detail'.

Just days after the ruling in July, Mr Depp announced he had been asked by Warner Brothers to resign from his role in the Harry Potter spin-off franchise Fantastic Beasts - the very role which prompted Mr Wootton to ask how JK Rowling could be 'genuinely happy' Mr Depp was cast in the film.

Mr Depp is currently embroiled in a separate libel battle in the US, having sued Ms Heard personally over a 2018 Washington Post opinion piece in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse but did not mention the actor by name.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2021) - Bayhorse Silver Inc. (TSXV: BHS) (the "Company" or "Bayhorse") announces, that, due to overwhelming demand, and subject to TSX-V Exchange approval, it has increased its previously announced non-brokered private placement for up to 20,000,000 million units by the allowable 10% overallotment to 22,000,000 for gross proceeds of $1,760,000, and has closed the financing.

Each C$0.08 cent Unit will consist of one (1) common share and one (1) transferable common share purchase warrant, with each warrant exercisable into one (1) common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.15 cents, exercisable for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance. The securities issued are subject to a hold period of four months plus a day from date of issuance.

Bayhorse CEO, Graeme O'Neill, has subscribed for 5,750,000 Units of the Placement, funding his subscription with an arranged sale through the facilities of the TSX Venture Exchange (Gypsy swap). Bayhorse CFO, Rick Low, has subscribed for 375,000 Units.

In addition to any other exemption available to the Company, participation in the non-brokered financing is also open to all existing shareholders, even if not accredited investors, under the "existing shareholder" exemption of National Instrument 45-106 as promulgated in Multilateral CSA notice 45-313 in participating jurisdictions.

The funds raised are for the purpose of both fulfilling the silver Offtake Agreement with Ocean Partners UK Limited ("Ocean") for delivery of the first 300 tonnes of silver concentrate, and to initiate underground drilling to expand the Bayhorse Silver Mine resource as well as general and administrative costs.

Bayhorse CEO Graeme O'Neill comments, "When we acquired the Bayhorse Silver Mine in 2014, spot silver was at US$21 per ounce and the Gold/Silver ratio was under 70:1, and steadily rose to 131:1 this past year, when silver fell as low as US$11 per ounce. We have persisted during these seven hard and lean years, and appreciate that many of our shareholders have been loyal and stuck with us during these years. We have built the Bayhorse Silver Mine through hard work and perseverance during this time, and have significantly advanced our ability to ship silver concentrate under our recently concluded Offtake Agreement with a strong partner, now reached with Ocean. We look forward to a rewarding next seven years for our shareholders, employees, partners and other stakeholders."

Graeme O'Neill further comments, "This past week we have seen a dramatic change in the silver market with the advent of the Reddit participation that appears to have been one of the reasons that precipitated this change in the market's perception of silver. The gold/silver ratio that rose to 131:1 in early 2020, now looks as if it is fully reversing in an overswing, that in my opinion, may go as low as 40:1 before reverting back to the mean. We believe the rise in silver spot prices will significantly benefit Bayhorse as it prepares to initiate shipments of its silver/copper concentrate under our Offtake Agreement with Ocean."

The Company is not basing any decision to produce on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and advises there is an increased uncertainty and specific economic and technical risk of failure with any production decision. These risks include, but are not limited to, (i) a drop in price of commodities produced, namely silver, copper, lead and zinc, from the pricing used to make a production decision; (ii) failure of grades of the produced material to fall within the parameters used to make the production decision; (iii) an increase in mining costs due to changes within the mine during development and mining procedures; and (iv) metallurgical recovery changes that cannot be anticipated at the time of production.

Finder fees may be payable on a portion of the financing not taken down by insiders according to the policies of the TSX-V.

This News Release has been prepared on behalf of the Bayhorse Silver Inc. Board of Directors, which accepts full responsibility for its contents.

On Behalf of the Board.

Graeme O'Neill, CEO

604-684-3394

About Bayhorse Silver Inc.

Bayhorse Silver Inc. is an exploration and production company with a 100% interest in the historic Bayhorse Silver Mine located in Oregon, USA. With state of the art Steinert Ore-Sorting technology reducing waste rock entering the processing stream by up to 85%, we have created a minimum environmental impact facility capable of mining 200 tons of mineralization per day and the ability to process and supply 3,600 tons per year of silver/copper concentrate ranging between 7,500 to 15,000 g/t using standard flotation processing at its milling facility in nearby Payette County, Idaho, USA, with an offtake agreement in place with Ocean Partners UK Limited. The Company also has an option to acquire an 80% interest in the Brandywine high-grade silver/gold property located in B.C. Canada. The Company has an experienced management and technical team with extensive mining expertise in both exploration and building mines.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73381
NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Australian investment manager, QIC, and consortium partner Ullico, have won a bid to acquire a 100% interest in the US business of Enwave Energy, North America's largest single-district energy platform. Enwave Energy's market-leading US business ("Enwave Energy US") provides district energy solutions by transferring thermal energy in the form of cold water, hot water or steam from a central energy plant through urban areas or campuses to cool and heat buildings.

Enwave Energy US currently serves more than 340 clients and operates in eight cities across eight states, providing energy solutions to more than 400 buildings across sectors including universities, school districts and hospitals such as Syracuse University and Louisiana State University.

With the delivery of essential services transitioning away from large centralised systems to decentralised models, the acquisition of Enwave Energy US is a continuation of QIC's focus on decentralised, sustainable infrastructure, having recently invested in two decentralised platforms: in February 2020, QIC invested in Generate Capital, a sustainability-focused distributed energy platform, based in San Francisco, and in December 2019, invested in Pacific Energy, a remote generation platform, based in Perth, Australia.

Ross Israel, QIC's Head of Global Infrastructure, said: "We are delighted to have been successful in securing such a high quality, core infrastructure platform which provides services to its customers under long term contracts and concessions.

"Our sector centric, thematic-based investment strategy targets distributed energy and sustainability, and Enwave Energy US is well positioned to take advantage of this growing market, leveraging its leading position in green energy and its demonstrated credentials operating North America's largest thermal ice storage facility in Chicago and executing in Denver on the largest sewer heat recovery system in North America.

"We are looking forward to leveraging our energy sector experience and working with the management team of Enwave Energy US to maintain, invest and grow the business into the future, continuing to differentiate it as an energy transition partner for its customers."

President and CEO of Ullico Inc., Edward M. Smith, said: "Ullico is proud to invest in an important district energy platform providing critical and sustainable infrastructure services to some of the largest and fastest-growing cities in the country.

"We hope to be long term partners in the communities we operate in and continue delivering innovative infrastructure solutions."

QIC's acquisition of Enwave Energy US further diversifies its North American portfolio, where in addition to the investment in Generate Capital last year, QIC has US concession investments in the campus parking systems of MasParc at Northeastern University and CampusParc at The Ohio State University, as well as in the Long Beach Courthouse PPP.

This acquisition expands QIC's global infrastructure footprint to 20 assets in six countries across the transport, energy and utilities and the social/PPP sectors.

About QIC

QIC is a long-term specialist investment manager in alternatives offering infrastructure, real estate, private capital, liquid strategies and multi-asset investments. It is one of the largest institutional investment managers in Australia, with A$85bn (US$65bn) in funds under management1. QIC has over 800 employees and serves more than 115 clients. Headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, QIC also has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Copenhagen. For more information, please visit: www.qic.com.

1As at 31 December 2020

About QIC Global Infrastructure

QIC is a long-term infrastructure investor with an established global platform, an active management approach and a proven, 14-year track record. With a global team of more than 55 professionals across five offices (including an office in New York), QIC Global Infrastructure manages A$14.5bn (US$11.2bn) across 19 global direct investments and has realised a further A$7.2 billion (US$5.6bn) of investments for its clients2. Its sector-centric and thematic-based investment strategy deconstructs risk across sector value chains identifying relative value for investment across market cycles. This drives a targeted origination approach, enabling the firm to build diversified portfolios for its clients.

QIC's investments in decentralised infrastructure include Generate Capital (a sustainability-focused distributed energy platform based in the US) and Pacific Energy (a remote generation platform in Australia).

See QIC's insight piece on decentralised infrastructure: What's behind Distributed Energy?

2As at 31 December 2020. USD values converted using 31 December 2020 FX rates

About Ullico

For more than 90 years, Ullico has been a proud member of the labor movement, keeping union families safe and secure.

From insurance products that protect union members, leaders and employers, to investments in building and infrastructure projects that have created thousands of union jobs, our customers continue to trust us with protecting their families, employees and investments. The Ullico Inc. Family of Companies includes The Union Labor Life Insurance Company; Ullico Casualty Group, LLC; Ullico Investment Company, LLC (Member FINRA/SIPC); Ullico Investment Advisors, Inc.; and Ullico Benefit Solutions, LLC. For additional information, visit www.ullico.com.

Important Information

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Relative of Shanghai Doctor Reveals Details About Forced Organ Harvesting

A California resident said his relative in China was involved in state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting and asked him for patient referrals in the United States, according to a recent human rights report.

Lu Shuping, a U.S. permanent resident originally from Shanghai who is more than 70 years old, shared his full name in making the revelation in October 2016 to the nonprofit World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG). The New York-based human rights group didnt release the interview details for four years, out of concern for Lus safety.

Zhou Qing, who is the older sister of Lus sister-in-law, worked as the director of the Shanghai Wanping Hospital in Xuhui district, according to Lu. During a trip to China in 2002, Lu recalled that Zhouupon learning that he knew many doctors through his home renovation business in the United Statesasked if he could connect her with anyone who needed an organ transplant, especially a cornea, kidney, or liver.

Lu said that when he, Zhou, and her husband were sitting together once, her husband told me in person that she went to a military hospital to do [organ transplant surgery].

He also said that its quick money and the sum is quite large, Lu told WOIPFG.

He said, You should get people over from outside, and that this is in really good quality, all fresh and alive.

While the word alive puzzled Lu at the time, he began to piece the information together over the years, as he heard more about live organ harvesting in the media.

The information provided by Lu adds to a growing body of evidence that points to a massive on-demand organ industry, where prisoners of conscience, such as practitioners of the faith group Falun Gong, are killed for their organs, which are sold for profit for use in transplant surgery.

Adherents of Falun Gong have been a target of severe persecution since 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party mobilized its entire security apparatus to eradicate the discipline. Millions of adherents were arrested and thrown into labor camps, prisons, psychiatric wards, and other detention facilities.

In 2019, a London-based peoples tribunal concluded, following a year-long investigation, that there was clear evidence of forced organ harvesting having taken place on a significant scale and that imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners were likely the principal source.

Zhou, the Shanghai doctor, performed several organ removal surgeries but eventually stopped due to fear, Lu said.

She said that she was having nightmares for doing this, Lu said. He prodded his sister-in-law, Zhou Yu, to reveal more details about what she knew of her sisters work. She relayed that when Zhou Qing did the surgeries, people who werent sedated would scream with all their might in sheer agony.

She said anesthesia cannot be used in every place, and the area where [the organ] is needed cannot be anesthetized. The fresher and the less anesthetized, the better. The quality is guaranteed, you can rest assured, he recalled. The victims kept saying Falun Dafa Hao when they were brought in for the organ harvesting, the sister-in-law told him. The phrase Falun Dafa Hao is often said by practitioners as an affirmation of their faith as they face persecution. It translates to Falun Dafa is good.

A total of three to five people, including armed police and military doctors, were usually present in the operating rooms.

The job came with an emotional toll, Lu said. She said that money is not that easy to make, he recalled, adding that Zhou Yu repeatedly told him not to ever mention that to others.

Lus account is eerily similar to information from whistleblowers such as Annie and Peter, who first approached The Epoch Times in 2006 with information about organ harvesting in China, drawing international attention to the issue.

Annie, whose ex-husband was a neurosurgeon in Liaoning Province in northeastern China, said her husband had removed corneas from Falun Gong practitioners who were alive during surgery. The victims bodies were then thrown into incinerators after the surgeries, she said.

In 2009, a man who was working at the police bureau in Liaoning at the time recounted in vivid detail how he had witnessed two military surgeons cut open a middle-aged Falun Gong practitioner while she was fully conscious to extract her organs.

While China claims that its been sourcing all organs through voluntary donations since 2015, WOIPFG, in a 20152020 investigation, received confirmation from doctors, including some in Shanghai, that they had used Falun Gong practitioners organs in transplant surgeries.

Eight doctors from various Shanghai hospitals promised during phone calls short waiting times, from immediate to one to two months. While Shanghai received a total of 400 legal organ donations from August 2013 to August 2017, according to official data, the citys Renji Hospital alone boasted that it conducted more than 800 liver transplant surgeries in 2017, which Chinese media hailed as the worlds highest annual liver transplant record for one institution.

In Shanghais Pudong area, about a dozen practitioners recently reported that police officers had come to their homes and forcibly entered to draw samples of their blood, at times threatening arrest if they didnt cooperate. Experts have said the blood samples could potentially be used for organ matching.
Indias government fortified Delhis borders and asked Twitter to block the accounts of key protest leaders and journalists as it braced for another major street demonstration Saturday planned by farmers agitating against the countrys new agricultural laws .

Farmers unions have called for roads to be blocked across India on Feb. 6 to protest against the laws as well as the crackdown against protesters and reduced farm sector allocation in the annual budget announced Monday.

At least 122 people have so far been arrested in the Indian capital ahead of the latest demonstrations and following violent clashes on Jan. 26 when thousands of protesters entered New Delhi for a tractor rally, Delhi Police said in a statement. Police investigations have also been initiated against several journalists and opposition lawmaker Shashi Tharoor for tweets about the police response to that violence.

About 250 Twitter accounts, including those belonging to the news magazine The Caravan and other journalists and activists were blocked for several hours Monday over claims they spread rumors about the protests. The handles, restricted in response to a valid legal request from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology" were later restored because they constitute free speech and are newsworthy," Twitter said in a statement.

Police have erected concrete barricades, spread concertina wire and hammered long metal spikes at the key protests sites on the outskirts of the capital where tens of thousands of farmers have been gathering since late November. Internet connections have also been suspended for prolonged periods of time on police orders.

Creating fear

The government is desperate to quell the farmers protest by any means," said protest leader Darshan Pal Singh. They are violating human rights, harassing farmers and creating fear for protesters."

The farmers are demanding the repeal of the legislation pushed through parliament by Prime Minister Narendra Modis government, which they say will make agriculture vulnerable to market vagaries by allowing corporates to take control of farming. While the government has offered to suspend the reforms for 18 months and the Supreme Court set up a mediation committee, protesters have remained firm on their demand the laws be scrapped.

The decision on the heavy barricading of the city was taken to avoid a repeat of the Jan. 26 clashes, when protesters breached security to swarm the city and managed to reach the iconic Red Fort, said officials familiar with the developments, who asked not to be identified citing rules on speaking with the media.

Federal Home Minister Amit Shah -- who oversees the Delhi Police -- is monitoring the situation, they said. The Ministry of Home Affairs didnt immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Adjournment, Intimidation

The Indian parliaments upper house was adjourned for a few hours on Tuesday after opposition parties demanded an immediate discussion on the farmers agitation and actions against protesters and journalists.

Police have charged Tharoor, a member of the opposition Indian National Congress and six senior journalists with sedition, criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity and for posting malafide, defamatory, false and misleading" tweets blaming the Delhi police for the death of a protester on Jan. 26, the Hindu newspaper reported. Delhi police have denied any involvement in the death.

The Indian authorities response to protests has focused on discrediting peaceful protesters, harassing critics of the government, and prosecuting those reporting on the events," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. The government instead should conduct a transparent and impartial investigation into the January 26 violence in Delhi.".

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Jonathan McPhail is a keen student who wants to fill substitute teacher shortages. However, he says, assignment instructions on how to do just that have been murky.

Jonathan McPhail is a keen student who wants to fill substitute teacher shortages. However, he says, assignment instructions on how to do just that have been murky.

On Jan. 8, the province announced Red River College was launching two condensed programs  Basic Classroom Skills for Limited Teaching Permit Holders and Educational Assistant Essentials  for Manitobans hired by school divisions to address staffing shortages.

The former, a free, week-long limited teaching permit training, was designed to provide foundational K-12 instructional skills to people hired on a temporary basis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eligible candidates are required to have one or more of the following: early childhood education training, EA training, or an undergraduate degree.

An aspiring teacher with a bachelor of arts, McPhail said the program appeared to be a perfect fit. Hes out of work because of the pandemic, in the process of applying for an after-degree education program, and has watched his childs school scramble to find substitutes this year.

No one from either Red River nor a school division, however, seems to know where exactly to point him to the right job postings. Repeated inquiries have gone unanswered or been answered with directions to existing postings that require applicants to have an education degree, he said.

"But why would you apply to this course if you had these requirements?" said McPhail, an adult student who has been going back to school over the last year to obtain teachables, bolstering his arts degree.

The six divisions headquartered in Winnipeg have either indicated they are not participating in the programs, or have not responded to his queries.

The Free Press confirmed Monday half of them: River East Transcona, Pembina Trails and Seven Oaks are not taking part in the program, citing success in how they have been filling absences this year.

Winnipeg School Division said Monday it had yet to advertise the program to staff. St. James-Assiniboia indicated it has submitted applicants for both courses.

To date, Louis Riel has received 39 limited teaching permit applications, four of which are approved staff who are attending Red River training. Seventeen candidates have their certifications pending, while the remaining are under review.

Eligible candidates have to be certified for a limited teacher permit, said superintendent Christian Michalik, who offered his apologies for any delays or miscommunications in the division.

Thirty students are currently enrolled in Red Rivers limited teaching permit program, while 76 are taking the EA essentials course.

"RRC is currently seeing a high level of participation in the French-language delivery for both courses, in addition to a greater need for this type of training shown by school divisions outside of Winnipeg," said Conor Lloyd, college spokesman, in a statement Monday.

Lloyd added the programs, created in collaboration with the Manitoba Association of School Superintendents, are open to any division should they need to recruit additional EAs or non-certified teachers.

Meantime, McPhail said hes just about given up on the program: "Its a little frustrating when you see a system straining, but also resisting help."

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
She's due to give birth to her first child any day now.

And Elsa Hosk didn't hold back in her latest Instagram post showing off her huge baby belly.

The model, 32, posed for a close up snap wearing a lacy pale blue bra and an unbuttoned blue men's shirt.

Pregnant: Elsa Hosk, who is expecting her first child any day now, posed for an Instagram snap Monday wearing a lacy pale blue bra and showing off her huge baby bump

She was shown keeling on the floor with her bump front and center and with her hands behind her head.

'Any day now lil monkey,' she wrote on the image.

Hosk is having a daughter with longtime partner Tom Daly and is 38 weeks pregnant.

'Almost': Hosk, 32, is having a daughter with longtime partner Tom Daly and is 38 weeks pregnant

Getting ready: A week ago, the Swedish-born model shared via Instagram that she was doing 'one last hypno birthing class'

Focused: She posted a photo showing her legs and feet perched on top of the back of a sofa as she reclined looking up at the ceiling at her Southern California home

A week ago, the Victoria's Secret Angel shared via Instagram that she was doing 'one last hypno birthing class.'

She posted a photo showing her legs and feet perched on top of the back of a sofa as she reclined looking up at the wooden ceiling and paper lamp at her Southern California home.

After discovering they were going to be parents, Hosk and Daly relocated from New York to a lavish home outside of LA.

The couple splashed out $6 million for the residence in South Pasadena that features walls of glass and is situated on an acre of lush green landscaping.

The home boasts three bedrooms and three bathrooms as well as a detached guest house and a swimming pool.

Move: After discovering they were going to be parents, Hosk and Daly relocated from New York to a lavish home in South Pasadena, outside of LA. They're pictured in NYC in April 2019
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has approved the decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the imposition of sanctions on Nicaragua.

As an Ukrinform correspondent reports, 322 MPs voted for the adoption of the draft resolution No.4689 "On approval of the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine of February 1, 2021 On the application of sectoral special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) to the Republic of Nicaragua".

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov explained that Nicaragua opened an honorary consulate in Crimea on February 10, 2020. Oleg Belaventsev was appointed as an honorary consul.

The official also reminded that Belaventsev was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

"The Republic of Nicaragua did not react to warnings and notes," Danilov said.

As stated in the draft resolution, the list of sanctions is set forth in the relevant decree of the President of Ukraine, but the text of the decree is not published on the website of the Head of State.

As reported, on November 10, Ukraine launched a sanctions process against Nicaragua over the opening of honorary consulate in the occupied Crimea. Oleg Belaventsev, a participant in the Russian annexation of Crimea, was appointed as honorary consul. According to media reports, he was sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison in Ukraine for participating in the annexation of the peninsula.

In August, Kyiv sent a note of protest to Nicaragua over the opening of the consulate. The country was then warned of possible imposition of sanctions.

Nicaragua is one of the countries that regularly do not vote for UN resolutions initiated by Ukraine to recognize Russia as an occupying power due to the annexation of Crimea.

The Verkhovna Rada officially announced February 20, 2014 as the date of the beginning of the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by Russia.

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For most of history, whenever a woman showed up to a battle, ready to kill random dudes while imagining they're the husband who never gave them an orgasm, most men got all flustered and went, "Hold on, I'm confused, don't you have a vagina?" And because life isn't an action-comedy, most women in that situation didn't go, "Yeah, which means I've bled more times than you and am still around, so stand aside while mama turns a few necks into sprinklers." Instead, they returned to jobs that were deemed more suitable for women, like cleaning, cooking, and dying in childbirth.

5 In Ancient Japan, There is Only War

Don't get us wrong, Japan very much believed that women should mostly be unseen, quiet, and obedient to their masters. Basically, ninjas you'd want to have sex with. Which we guess are just regular ninjas, only sexist. The thing is, though, this philosophy only really caught on around the mid-17th century. Before that, women warriors weren't really the norm on the battlefield and definitely weren't on equal footing with the men. But in times of war when the men needed every single person who could hold a weapon to defend their lands, they sure as hell didn't care what was between your legs as long as you could point a sharp piece of metal between the legs of the people charging your position. Here's the important context: until about 1603, Japan was at war pretty much all the time.

Library of Congress "Okay, every hang back a sec while they finish painting the last battle, THEN TO BATTLE!"

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So, because war so common back then, the people of Japan realized that it's just a matter of time before their women had to exchange irons for iron, so, they reckoned, it would save everyone a lot of trouble if they started teaching them how to use weapons. This eventually led to the rise of onna-musha or onna-bugeisha, literally "woman warriors." Some may call them "woman samurai," but that's not entirely accurate as "samurai" is a very specific title that didn't really apply to women. Also, onna-musha were around way before there technically was such a thing as the samurai. If you count legendary figures, Japanese female fatality fencers date back to like the 2nd century AD.

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These women were mostly the wives and daughters of men from the warrior class, but sometimes also of high-born feudal lords. They were taught things like politics (to know which clans to stab when the time came) and martial arts and, of course, given weapons training. This turned out to be bad news for piles of poor bastards on the wrong side of history, especially if they went against Tomoe Gozen.
SOMERVILLE, Mass. and HOUSTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Greentown Labs Houston (Greentown Houston), the city's first-ever climatetech startup incubator, today announced its network of partners has grown by five with the addition of CenterPoint Energy, Gexa Energy of NextEra Energy Resources , EIV Capital , Wells Fargo , and Williams as its newest Founding and Grand Opening Partners. These partners join a diverse group of 16 existing partners that represent a broad community of energy organizations, renewable energy experts, and organizations committed to supporting early-stage cleantech startups.

"Greentown Houston is proud to have CenterPoint Energy, Gexa Energy, EIV Capital, Wells Fargo, and Williams join our roster of partners that are committed to climate action and accelerating the deployment of climatetech solutions," said Dr. Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs. "These partnersfrom energy providers to financial services organizationswill play a pivotal role in enabling the success of both our operations and the Houston startup community."

In September 2020, Greentown Houston announced its location at 4200 San Jacinto St. in the Innovation District being developed by Rice Management Company . The general contractor for the project is Miller LaPoint Construction , based in Houston. Design services for the project are provided by Abel Design Group and Silverman Trykowski Architects . The incubator will provide more than 40,000 sq. ft. of prototyping lab, office, and community space for about 50 startup companies, totaling 200-300 employees.

At a celebratory ceremony alongside Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Feb. 2, Greentown Houston will reveal what the exterior facade of the building and interior layout will look like once it opens. The building's exterior will be painted gray with Greentown Labs' brand colors incorporated as accent details. Greentown Houston is working with the Houston Arts Alliance to identify a local artist to install a large mural on the east side of the building to display Greentown Houston's mission around climate action, community collaboration, and entrepreneurial partnership.

In light of COVID-19 restrictions, the Feb. 2 ceremony is private but interested parties can view images and footage of Greentown Houston here , and all are invited to a public, virtual EnergyBar networking event on Feb. 4 at 4 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. ET., where attendees can hear a recap of the Feb. 2 ceremony, learn about Greentown Houston's progress, and get a sneak peek of what the incubator will look like when it opens this spring.

"Houston is delighted to welcome Greentown Labs to our expanding innovation ecosystem, and we can't wait to see the incubator's facility open in a few short months," said Mayor Sylvester Turner. "Last year, we released our first-ever Climate Action Plan, and we believe organizations like Greentown Labs, its impressive network of partners, and climatetech entrepreneurs will help us achieve the ambitious goals outlined in the plan. The City of Houston is focused on catalyzing and leading the global energy transition, and we're excited to work with Greentown Labs on this effort."

Greentown Houston is a proud member of the Greater Houston Partnership and is actively involved in the organization's economic development efforts to help Houston lead the global energy transition.

"It is essential that we position Houston as the leader of the global energy transition, and Greentown Houston is a crucial part of that effort," said Susan Davenport, Chief Economic Development Officer with the Greater Houston Partnership. "We are thrilled to join Greentown Houston to celebrate this critical step forward in their much-anticipated expansion with the addition of these new partners. These organizations, and the expertise and resources they bring, join a thriving ecosystem built of major corporate energy R&D centers, corporate venture arms, and VC-backed energy startups. We are eagerly anticipating Greentown Houston's official opening this spring and look forward to working together to build a more efficient and more sustainable low-carbon future."

Greentown Houston sits adjacent to The Ion , a 288,000 sq. ft. innovation hub that anchors the Innovation District being developed by Rice Management Company.

"We are excited to recognize Greentown Houston's momentum. This is another step in solidifying Greentown's presence as Houston's premier destination for cleantech and climate change technology," said Ryan LeVasseur, Managing Director of Direct Real Estate at Rice Management Company. "Greentown's role in the innovation ecosystem further solidifies the Innovation District's position as a hub for the advancement of the region's economy. Together, The Ion and Greentown Houston will set a new standard for creating new opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs."

Greentown Houston's Growing Partner Network

Since announcing its expansion to Houston in June 2020, Greentown Labs has received a warm welcome from the Houston business communityunderscoring the city's eagerness and enthusiasm to lead the energy transition. Today, Greentown Houston is fortunate to welcome three new Founding Partners to its ecosystem:

As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation, and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas. As of Sept. 30, 2020, the company owned approximately $33 billion in assets and also owned 53.7 percent of the common units representing limited partner interests in Enable Midstream Partners, LP, a publicly traded master limited partnership that owns, operates, and develops strategically located natural gas and crude oil infrastructure assets. With approximately 9,600 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years.

"At CenterPoint Energy, we are energized by this partnership with Greentown Labs. Our company has a strong commitment to the delivery of clean energy to customers and we see this partnership as an opportunity to lend our expertise and industry knowledge to help craft and accelerate a clean energy future," said Kenny Mercado, Executive Vice President of Electric Utility at CenterPoint Energy. "As part of our new long-term growth strategy, we plan to provide a modern, reliable electric grid to connect the large number of renewable energy projects being built in our Houston service territory. We are also committed to the continued development of alternative fuels programs, including renewable natural gas, that would provide customers new energy choices."

Gexa Energy , a wholly owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources , is one of the fastest-growing retail electricity providers in the U.S., serving over 1.5 million residential and commercial customers. NextEra Energy Resources is one of the largest wholesale generators of electric power in the nation and the largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun in the world.

"Greentown Labs is an exciting forum for Gexa Energy to collaborate and accelerate early stage innovation. We look forward to developing new ideas in Houston that benefit our customers and the broader markets," said Brian Landrum, President at Gexa Energy.

Wells Fargo is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets and proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10 percent of all middle-market companies in the U.S. Wells Fargo is committed to playing an important role in accelerating a just transition to a low-carbon economy and reducing the impacts of climate change. Through strategic partnerships, its goal is to do this by increasing its operational efficiency, advancing clean technology, innovation, and other environmental solutionsat work, at home, and in the communities it serves.

"Wells Fargo is committed to bringing innovation and entrepreneurship to Houston," said Chad Johnson, Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo's Technology Banking Group. "This is an exciting time to see Houston's tech ecosystem expand and become home to cleantech incubators. We know Greentown Labs will provide critical resources to entrepreneurs that will enable them to launch innovative businesses, which will help build a more sustainable future for our city."

Greentown Houston is on schedule to open its facility in Spring 2021, and has a subset of partners dedicated to the success of its grand opening. Naturgy and FCC Environmental Services (FCC) were the first Greentown Houston Grand Opening Partners and today EIV Capital and Williams join them.

EIV Capital , a Houston-based private equity firm, specializes in providing growth equity to the North American energy industry. EIV concentrates on midstream infrastructure, emissions management, and alternative energy. The firms' management has extensive experience leading and investing in successful companies across the energy value chain, including companies focused on carbon reduction.

"EIV Capital is proud to support Greentown Labs and welcomes them to Houston. We believe fostering collaboration between Greentown Labs' climatetech and cleantech entrepreneurs and Houston's world-leading energy community is essential to developing and scaling the solutions needed to address climate change while still providing affordable and reliable energy," said Patti Melcher, Co-founder & Managing Partner of EIV Capital. "We are committed to Greentown Labs' mission and pleased to be joining a robust and collaborative partner network that will ensure its success."

Williams , an industry-leading energy infrastructure company, is committed to the safe delivery of natural gas products to reliably fuel the clean energy economy in the United States. Williams manages 30 percent of the nation's natural gas used for clean-power generation, heating, and industrial use. In 2020, Williams announced ambitious climate commitments, aiming to reduce 56 percent of company-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and is on a pathway to net zero emissions by 2050.

"Williams is excited to join Greentown Labs as the first midstream corporate partner to support cleantech entrepreneurship that will accelerate the transition to a low-carbon future," said Chad Zamarin, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategic Development at Williams. "It is through technology innovation and collaboration with organizations like Greentown Labs that we can develop solutions to reduce emissions and build a clean energy economy on our path to net zero by 2050."

In 2020, Greentown Labs was thrilled to announce its 14 inaugural Houston Founding Partners: Chevron , NRG Energy and Reliant Energy , Shell , BHP , Vinson & Elkins , Microsoft , ENGIE North America Inc. , Rice Management Company, Saint-Gobain , Sunnova Energy International Inc ., The American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact , SCF Partners , Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co ., and Direct Energy .

Greentown Houston recently announced its 16 inaugural startup members. It is actively accepting startup members through its early access membership offering and welcoming additional partners in advance of the facility opening in Spring 2021. Interested startups and prospective partners should reach out via this form .

About Greentown Labs

Greentown Labs is a community of climatetech and cleantech pioneers working to design a more sustainable world. As the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America, Greentown Labs brings together startups, corporates, investors, policymakers, and many others with a focus on scaling climate solutions. Driven by the mission of providing ground-breaking startups the resources, knowledge, connections, and equipment they need to thrive, Greentown Labs offers prototyping and wet lab space, shared office space, a machine shop, an electronics lab, software and business resources, a large network of corporate customers and investors, and more. Greentown Labs' 100,000 sq. ft. campus in Somerville, Mass. is home to more than 100 startups and has supported more than 300 startups since the incubator's founding in 2011. These startups have collectively created more than 6,500 direct jobs and have raised more than $1.2 billion in funding. For more information, please visit www.greentownlabs.com or Twitter , Facebook , and LinkedIn .

Greentown Labs Media Contact:

Julia Travaglini

VP of Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

603-867-3657

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A renowned pharmacist and a former chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Sam Ohuabunwa, has declared his intention to run for Nigerias presidency in 2023.

He is the president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria.

At my age and time, I dont come out just for the fun. I am not seeking popularity. I am running for real, Mr Ohuabunwa, 70, said during an interview with an online television, TV360 Nigeria.

The interview was published on Sunday.

Mr Ohuabunwa is a technocrat who is known to have stayed off partisan politics in Nigeria.

He told his interviewer, Deji Badmus, that it was time he got involved in politics to provide the needed leadership that could help transform Nigeria, instead of offering advice from the background.

Mr Ohuabunwa said he ran away for too long from politics, but that Nigeria was not getting much better.

Biblical Jonah

He likened his entry into politics to the fate of a biblical figure called Jonah, who was forced to accept a divine call to go and preach to a set of people after living for three days in the belly of a fish.

Mr Ohuabunwa said not contesting for an elected position before was not a problem, same with not having money to buy voters because, according to him, the time has come for change to happen in Nigeria.

We are accustomed to a particular way of doing things, when the new ways come we easily ignore or do not notice. Nigeria is about to change.

All the prayers we have prayed, all the things we have spoken about in the past, I believe the time to see them happen is now. And when things need to happen, strange things begin to come.

There is a man called M.K.O Abiola, I am not aware he ran for any office. I dont think Donald Trump ran for any office (before he became the US president).

He, however, refused to disclose the political party he would be running under.

I belong to a political party, so you may not know because I have not advertised it. But I am not willing to disclose it for now, until when we get to the point where we are talking about elections.

We are just selling our ideas under the platform of the New Nigeria Group.

The group, he said, is a socio-political movement.

When prodded by the interviewer to mention his political party, Mr Ohuabunwa said there was no difference between the different parties in Nigeria.

People go from one party to the other overnight, they dont even consult their constituencies and we clap for them, we vote for them. People are not principled. I am not that kind of person. Why I cant say it is that by the time I take a decision, I have taken a decision, he said.

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Mr Ohuabunwa said he supports the agitations for the South-east to produce the president in 2023 as a means of healing the nation.

But thats not why I am running. I am running because I believe I am competent, I believe that I have the character, I believe that I have the appropriate courage to make a difference. But that I happen to be from the South-east may be an added bonus if Nigerians are willing to buy into the need to have the South-east given opportunity.

We have followed money for long, I think most Nigerians have come to the conclusion that this money politics has not paid us.

In this little time I have been in this business I have gone (to the) north, I have gone south, I have gone east, I have gone west, I meet ordinary folks, I meet the youth, I meet all those who collect the N5,000 and N2,000 and whatever to change their opinion. They are tired because they have gone through this cycle many times, he said.
The Biden administration has announced it will be sending one million Covid-19 vaccine doses to some pharmacies in the United States starting next week, to scale-up distribution of the jabs.

These doses would be initially delivered to about 6,500 pharmacies across the country each week beginning 11 February, said Jeffrey Zients, President Joe Bidens coronavirus czar, on Tuesday during a White House press briefing.

This would be the first phase in Mr Bidens federal pharmacy programme, which will offer more vaccinations for communities through local pharmacies. The Trump administration first announced in November that the federal government would partner with drug stores to administer Covid-19 jabs, but at the time no vaccines were approved.

Already the Biden administration is delivering 10.5 million doses each week to states to be distributed among residents. But the additional one million doses for pharmacies will also now be distributed each week.

The current vaccine supply of 11.5 million total doses sent out each week will be the minimum amount the federal government will ship for the next three weeks, a White House press release stated.

Mr Zients said the additional one million doses available for the federal government to send out was due to the ramping up of manufacturing from Moderna and Pfizer, the two companies that received emergency use authorisation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their vaccines.

Read more: Follow live updates on the Biden administration

People who would be allowed to access these additional jabs would have to fit eligibility criteria put in place by the states, and this vaccine would be free for the individual.

Many pharmacies were already administering vaccine doses for different states, but the new programme will involve the jabs arriving directly to different locations from the federal government.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) worked with states to select initial pharmacy partners for the new federal programme. Chain pharmacies agreeing to participate will include Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy, Walmart, Rite Aid, and Public Super Markets. Not all locations would supply vaccines initially in each state.

Mr Biden has made the commitment to administer least 100 million vaccines within his first 100 days of office in an effort to control the spread of the novel virus.

As of Tuesday, nearly 50 million vaccine doses have been distributed to states and more than 32 million were administered, according to the CDC vaccine tracker.

Mr Zients also announced that the federal government would be reimbursing states fully for FEMA-eligible services, such as masks, gloves, sheltering at-risk population groups, and utilising the National Guard for Covid-19 response efforts.

The reimbursement would be backdated to the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020 and estimated to total $3bn to $5bn.

But to fully support states, the Biden administration has called on Congress to approve the American Rescue Plan. If approved, $350bn would go directly towards states and their response to the pandemic.
Kerry Washington joins the brand in a one year-long birthday celebration as OPI's 40th Anniversary Campaign Ambassador.

#40YearsOfColor

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OPI, the world's number one salon nail care brand, has announced that actress, producer, director and activist Kerry Washington will serve as brand ambassador for the company's 40th anniversary this year. Washington returns to OPI where she previously served as the brand's first ever Creative Ambassador in 2016. In this role, Washington collaborated with OPI co-founder Suzi Weiss-Fischmann to create the "Washington D.C." collection.

Throughout all of 2021, OPI will spotlight 40 of the brand's most iconic shades. To no surprise among the top shades is Washington's previously co-created shade "We the Female" a commanding red nail lacquer that was part of the previous collaboration.

"We are delighted that Kerry is reprising her role as brand ambassador during our anniversary year," said Weiss-Fischmann. "She is a woman of style and substance who is fierce in everything she undertakes, from acting to activism." Washington is a Primetime Emmy Award winner and Emmy- and Golden Globe- nominee who has been honored five times with the NAACP Image Award. In 2014 she was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People, and is one of the co-founders of TIME's UP.

"It is always inspiring to work with Suzi, one of the first female co-founders of a major beauty company," said Washington. "She may be known as the 'First Lady of Nails," but she is also a true champion of women's causes - one whose impact far transcends her own industry."

Founded in 1981, OPI originated as a dental supply company during the acrylic nails movement of the '80s. Realizing dentures and artificial nail extensions shared a similar chemistry, co-founders and in-laws George Schaeffer and Weiss-Fischmann saw an opening in the market and seized it. OPI began dropping off the "rubber-band special" at every salon on Ventura Blvd. in Los Angeles. A jar of powder, liquid and primer - rubber-banded together - became the OPI Traditional Acrylic System and was a huge hit, establishing the brand's roots in the professional nail industry. OPI then took its products to consumers with the launch of 30 groundbreaking Nail Lacquer shades. With its famous bottle, incredible colors, high-quality formula and unique names, OPI revolutionized the nail care industry. Some of these original shades - Alpine Snow, OPI Red, Malaga Wine - became so iconic they are still sold today. They are also among 40 legendary OPI shades that will be spotlighted throughout the 40th anniversary celebration.

Today, OPI's iconic, trend-setting shades and seasonal collections feature just-off-the-catwalk colors inspired by compelling destinations across the U.S. and the globe. OPI is known for creative partnerships with celebrities, pop culture phenoms, new motion picture releases, and like-minded classic brands.

Nail Lacquers retail for $10.50 USD and Infinite Shine retails for $13.00 USD at Professional Salons and select retailers. For more information, visit OPI.com and @OPI on Instagram , TikTok and Facebook and Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS !

ABOUT OPI

OPI nail lacquer is available in more than 200 shades. OPI Infinite Shine is a no-light three-step long wear lacquer system offering long-wear, high-shine and ease of application and removal and available in more than 150 shades. OPI retails in over 100 countries and offers a full line of professional items including OPI GelColor, Powder Perfection (matching iconic OPI lacquer counterparts) with up to three-week wear, nail treatments, finishing products, lotions, manicure/pedicure products, files, tools, gels and acrylics.

ABOUT WELLA COMPANY

Wella Company is one of the world's leading beauty companies, comprised of a family of iconic brands such as Wella Professionals, Clairol, OPI, Nioxin and ghd. With 6,000 employees globally, presence in over 100 countries, Wella Company and its brands enable consumers to look, feel, and be their true selves. As innovators in the hair and nail industry, Wella Company empowers its people to delight consumers, inspire beauty professionals, engage communities, and deliver sustainable growth to its stakeholders. Further information found at www.wellacompany.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1431135/OPI.jpg
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Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey Thursday announced five appointments to the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board:

Jeri Williams, Phoenix Police Chief

David Rhodes, Yavapai County Sheriff

Christopher Vasquez, Eloy Police Chief

Matthew Figueroa, Coconino County Detention Services Commander

Kevin Robinson, Arizona State University Professor

As always, the safety of Arizonans and our communities remains a top priority, said Governor Ducey. Its crucial that AZPOST members and all law enforcement personnel have the resources, training, and knowledge needed to protect Arizonans and enforce the rule of law. Todays appointees bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the Board, and Im confident they will serve civilians and law enforcement professionals well."



The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST) is composed of 13 members and stands to foster public trust and confidence by establishing and maintaining standards of integrity, competence, and professionalism for Arizona peace officers and correctional officers.



AZPOST was established in 1968 to address the need for minimum peace officer selection, recruitment, retention and training standards, and to provide curriculum and standards for all certified law enforcement training facilities. Today, it provides services to approximately 159 law enforcement agencies encompassing over 14,500 sworn peace officers, 6,500 correctional officers, and 16 police training academies.



The Governor has been meeting with community leaders to understand ways the state can continue to foster trust between law enforcement and the community. One of the recommendations was to ensure that AZPOST better reflects the diversity of the community they serve. Today's appointments reflect that recommendation and will serve the community well.



Below are details on the appointees:



Jeri Williams serves as Chief of the Phoenix Police Department. Williams began her career at Phoenix PD as a patrol officer in 1989. In 2011 she joined the City of Oxnard Police Department as Police Chief, where she stayed until 2016 when she returned to Phoenix PD in her current role.



In her role, Williams handles executive leadership and direction of personnel and resources to provide police services to the community, including patrol, investigations, tactical unit, property, records, traffic enforcement, internal affairs, crime lab, crime analysis and central booking. She oversees approximately 4,000 sworn and civilian personnel as they work daily to improve the safety of all Phoenicians.



David Rhodes serves as Sheriff of Yavapai County and has 27 years of experience in areas ranging from community policing to criminal investigations, mental health diversion, jail development, and agency executive leadership.



Rhodes was appointed to the Committee on Mental Health and the Justice System in August 2018. He also earned the Crisis Response Officer of Distinction Award - Mental Health Criminal Justice Advocacy Coalition, the ASU Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy Award, and more.



Christopher Vasquez has served as Chief of the Eloy Police Department since 2017. In this role, he is responsible for the organization and direction of more than 50 police department employees and volunteer staff, committed to serving the community of Eloy.



Vasquez also served as the Interim Chief of Police of the Casa Grande and Kearny Police Departments, among numerous other roles.



Matthew Figueroa has served as Detention Services Commander of the Coconino County Sheriffs Office since 2014. In this role, he provides administrative leadership, supervision, training and direction, and assignment of duties of Detention personnel and supervisors in the daily operations of a 596-bed facility.



Figueroa also served as associate faculty with Coconino County Community College with the ability to instruct students in the areas of Administrative Justice. He joined the Coconino County Sheriffs Office in 1996 as a detention officer.



Kevin Robinson is an instructor and lecturer for the Arizona State University School of Criminology and Criminal Justice with more than 35 years of law enforcement experience. He teaches a wide range of classes including Race Ethnicity and Criminal Justice, Advanced Criminology Theory, Police Organization and Management, and more.



Robinson holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Phoenix and Master of Public Administration from Arizona State University. He also completed a Delinquency Control Institute fellowship at the University of Southern California.
San Francisco opened the first of several neighborhood coronavirus immunization sites in the Mission District on Monday, moving forward with plans to reach communities hit hardest by the pandemic even as vaccine supply remained severely limited.

The new clinic was hailed as another hopeful sign of nearing an end to the pandemic, especially welcome after the state and Bay Area emerged from the single deadliest month so far. More than a third of COVID-19 deaths in the Bay Area occurred in January, with 1,677 people losing their lives last month.

The staggering toll reflects state and national numbers: Nearly 15,000 Californians and more than 95,000 people in the U.S. died from the virus in January. In total, more than 441,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19.

The worst surge of the pandemic appears to be waning, though. Cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 peaked in late December and early January. But public health experts say the need to quickly vaccinate people and dramatically slow down spread of the disease has never been more urgent. Several new variants that may be able to partially evade vaccines already are spreading in some parts of the world and have arrived in the United States.

We just need more vaccines to get out the door and get into arms as quickly as possible, said Dr. Grant Colfax, San Franciscos health director, at the Mission District vaccination clinic on Monday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday that 471 cases of three different variants have been identified in at least 32 states. Scientists in Stanford Universitys Clinical Virology Lab have discovered variants first identified in the United Kingdom and Brazil in the Bay Area, and the U.K. variant in particular appears to be spreading in parts of Southern California.

Colfax said the variants found in California seem to be largely covered by the vaccines already approved.

At the Mission District vaccination site, located in a parking lot at 24th and Capp streets, city and state officials cheered Monday morning as the leaders of two Latino nonprofits who have been serving the community throughout the pandemic received their first shots.

The Mission site is the first of what city officials plan for a network of neighborhood vaccine clinics. The Department of Public Health expects to open similar sites in the Bayview, Excelsior, Visitacion Valley and other neighborhoods with the highest infection rates for the coronavirus. The city is also partnering with Safeway pharmacies to bring vaccines to various neighborhoods.

Im really excited today, Mayor London Breed said at the Mission vaccine site Monday. We know this is the best shot we have at getting back to the lives that we all know and miss.

California has administered more than 3.5 million vaccine doses so far, or about 60% of its total supply.

The state on Monday released letters of intent signed late last week with Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente to hand over management of its vaccine distribution network in an effort to speed up the delivery of doses. Though the contracts have not been finalized, the letters confirmed that the two Oakland-based health providers would be working at or near cost and will not profit from this agreement.

Among other responsibilities, Blue Shield will help design a system of incentive payments to encourage vaccine providers to use their doses more quickly, at a higher volume and with a focus on communities that have been hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus, according to the letters. Kaiser will oversee at least two mass vaccination sites and other efforts to vaccinate hard-to-reach populations.

San Francisco has built up the infrastructure to administer 10,000 vaccine injections a day, but is getting only around 11,000 a week, Colfax said. Breed said San Francisco has so far received 150,000 doses and issued over 90,000 of those. The rest are scheduled for second doses.

Though counties are allowed to offer vaccines to all residents age 65 and older, San Francisco is still prioritizing health care workers, plus in-home support services staff and long-term care residents. So far, 104,000 out of 210,000 people in that first phase have received a dose, Colfax said.

Weve seen what I call a relatively steady state compared to where it was a few weeks ago, but were still at a very low number of vaccines, Colfax said.

Ramping up the new site in the Mission District depends on supply. During a soft-launch period, the health department said, the site will administer about 120 vaccinations a day. The site may increase to 400 vaccinations a day as supply increases.

The Mission site currently operates on an invitation, appointment-only basis, serving community health workers and local residents over age 65 within the Unidos en Salud/United in Health network.

The new location targets a community that has been disproportionately impacted by the virus. Latinos in San Francisco make up more than 42% of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city, despite accounting for just 15% of the population, according to the most recent public health data. They also account for over 20% of the deaths from the disease.

Its taken the entire barrio to deal with this pandemic, said Roberto Hernandez, co-founder of the Latino Task Force. A lot of the people we work with are the most vulnerable people, the hardest-working people, minimum wage workers who have no health insurance, they have no 401K. They have no retirement plans. This pandemic has hurt them in more ways than you can ever imagine.

The site opened at 9 a.m. for the first appointment Monday. By 10 a.m., Jose Ortiz, family support specialist with nonprofit Casa Corazon, had received his first dose. The 43-year-old was eligible as a community health care worker since he works closely with impacted families. Ortiz said everyone in his community knows at least one person who has fallen ill or died from the virus.

When you work with people all the time, you need to protect yourself and your family, and their family as well, he said. Placing a clinic in the heart of the Mission is very important, so everybody can see and go.

The new clinic will work in conjunction with a coronavirus testing site at the BART plaza at 24th and Mission streets, which operates four days a week. The privately funded vaccine clinic grew out of Unidos en Salud, a collaboration between UCSF and the Latino Task Force that has run testing sites in the Mission.

San Francisco opened its first mass vaccination site, run by UCSF Health in partnership with the citys Department of Public Health and private health care providers, on Jan. 22 at the City College of San Francisco main campus. The city is working on creating a centralized appointment booking system, Colfax said Monday.

This is a community that never stands by and lets anyone fall to the wayside, said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the Mission, at the vaccination site opening on Monday. Hang in there, San Franciscans. Were almost out of this and we can get to the end together.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Alexei Koseff contributed to this report.

Mallory Moench and Aidin Vaziri are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com, avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench, @MusicSF
The opinion reflected in, Team GOP, whats your plan now? is short sighted when it implies that President Trump lost because of his personality. That implication ignores two inconvenient truths for many Republicans who buy in to the Democrat and media narrative that blame the candidate instead of the reality on the ground.

First is the reality that whoever the Republican presidential candidate, he or she would have been vilified as have been Republican presidential candidates and Republican presidents for decades.

President Reagan throughout his two terms in office was repeatedly denigrated in the media and by Democrats as a clown, and actor. President Herbert Walker Bush, a World Word II combat veteran, was depicted on the cover of Newsweek magazine during his campaign for president against then Arkansas Governor Clinton (who avoided military service), as having the wimp factor. President George W. Bush throughout his eight years in office was repeatedly accused of stealing the presidential election and labeled as illegitimate. Those who questioned the result of his election in 2000 were heralded as heroes of democracy, and freedom of speech to question the election was passionately defended by Democrats, Republicans, and media alike.

This is in direct contrast to the 2020 election cycle, where Hillary Clinton was lauded when she said Biden should never concede the election no matter what, and virtually any questioning of election results are met with condemnation and personal attacks by Democrats and media designed to silence opposition while at the same time repeating the narrative that there is no evidence of election fraud  utilizing an old strategy of if you say a statement often enough people will believe you.

Second, and of more concern, is that because of the current control and politicization of mass communication platforms such as Facebook on behalf of Democrats, messaging to Americans is now censored and controlled on a massive scale. Such messaging control would have resulted in a Biden win regardless of who was the Republican candidate.

What is the purpose of media control and censorship of the GOP message? CNBC recently reported that 98% of the millions of dollars contributed to political candidates by media this cycle went to Democrats. Why? Because in Washington money buys access to power. Media wants Democrats in power so they will continue to allow media to maintain their control and power. Any dissent is a danger to their joint control, so must be silenced. The Democrats are playing a dangerous game  if the power of the media giants continues to be protected and expanded, they are strengthening a monster that in time they will not be able to control when it finally comes for them

It is agreed with the op ed author that Team GOP must examine national election implications for the state of Alabama - but not with focus on the personality of Republican candidates who will be vilified by the Democrat media regardless, but instead on the realities that now exist on the national level for the GOP where the Democrats and their media sycophants control the message. Republicans won on local and state levels. Why? Because the media and Democrats were not controlling and censoring the message to a large extent at that level.

The media and the Democrats will continue their fight to control media platforms, and hence the message, and thus the voters and who they elect. Their fight began at the national level and will continue its expansion to effect political races at the state and local level. Team GOP must accept the reality of the media/Democrat game plan, act accordingly, and start playing chess instead of checkers.

Sydney Dean is an attorney in Huntsville and proud Army veteran.
One of the mysteries of the ages was resolved in the late 1950s, when biologists confirmed once and for all how legions of ants adhere to precise lines in their quest for food. Renowned biologist E.O. Wilson, building on the work of predecessors, discovered a gland in an ants abdomen that secretes a substance called pheromone. The worlds preeminent myrmecologist at last confirmed that the hive follows without deviation the line of pheromone signals that scout ants have lain down.

Texas lawmakers also possess a pheromonic ability. Every 10 years they use new census data and lay down district lines that lead inexorably to their own form of sustenance: the right voters, in the right quantities, who will either keep them in office, lever their opponents out of office, or both. The age-old mystery yet to be resolved in Texas is how to get them to home in on the voters interests, not their own, when they draw boundary lines for the states congressional, legislative and State Board of Education offices.

In other words, how can we insist that they draw lines that allow voters to choose their representatives rather than the other way around?

Texas lawmakers here at the start of a new decade have been preparing to plunge into the complicated but contentious redrawing of maps, but the Trump administration  and COVID 19  threw a wrench into the U.S. Census count and population figures wont be ready until July. The legislative session ends on May 31, so Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to call a special session after the numbers are available and before the 2022 midterm elections.

If history is any guide, the process is likely to produce a menagerie of gerrymanders, a venerable portmanteau word invented to describe curiously drawn districts vaguely shaped like salamanders to accommodate the elected representative or party in power. With 10-year gaps between redistricting sessions,, gerrymanders, like gophers, are hard to root out. It only got harder in 2019 when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to join the battle against nakedly partisan gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering matters. When politicians choose their voters through craftily drawn districts, they can safely ignore constituents with contrary views, and the issues they care about. Worried only about potential primary opponents, they tend to run to extremes, left or right. One party or another entrenches its hold on governance, even when it doesnt reflect the general voting populace. Citizens may  and too often do  conclude their vote is useless.

This year could be even worse than usual in a state where population growth may add three new congressional seats. In every decade since passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965, courts have found that Texas lawmakers drew brazenly politically motivated maps. They also drew maps that disenfranchised voters, particularly minorities. Because of its shameless history of voter suppression, Texas was required to seek preclearance from the Justice Department before making any redistricting changes. In 2013, though, the U.S. Supreme Court liberated Texas and eight other states  all but one in the South  and scores of counties across the U.S. from those requirements, meaning mapmakers neednt fret all that much about respecting minority voting rights.

Republicans draw maps benefiting Republicans. Democrats draw maps benefiting Democrats. Software has gotten ever more sophisticated, so politicians who control it  currently, Republicans  are able to move voters around with almost tweezer-like precision.

Lawmakers are about as likely to give up redistricting power as ants are to pass on a glob of pancake syrup. As with ants, its a matter of life and (political) death. Voters in 23 states, recognizing that letting the dominate party draw its own district lines is an inherent conflict of interest, have forced the issue. Arizona, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, California and New York are among those now relying on alternative methods such as independent commissions.

We Texans, meanwhile, live in a state where GOP Chairman Allen West urges Republican lawmakers to realize this strategic opportunity and not concern themselves with fairness to the progressive socialist left. West, a bloviating hothead, may be saying in crass terms what his fellow partisans are thinking.

Texans only hope may be with Congress. House Resolution 1, the so-called For the People Act, would prohibit extreme partisan gerrymandering by, in part, requiring that congressional redistricting be done by independent commissions. The bill passed the House in 2019 but has been mired in a GOP-controlled Senate. Its future is brighter now that Georgia elected two Democratic senators.

Absent federal legislation, fair-minded Texans are left to hope that the states fast-growing and fluid population thwarts sophisticated software. Whose computer would have predicted a decade ago that suburbs drawn safely red would flip to blue? Or that true-blue Rio Grande Valley communities would trend red?

Last week, the state Senate Redistricting Committee heard public comment in a virtual hearing. For more than two hours, Texans pleaded for fairness.

Their efforts are laudable  and necessary  but concerned Texans cant rely on party goodwill. Voter-organizing efforts, as in Georgia, also thwart the experts. Whether its breaking up a line of pheromone-following ants advancing toward a picnic spread, or stubbing out extreme gerrymandering, participation is key.
Mercedes not blocking Red Bull-Honda deal

Mercedes will not stand in the way of Red Bull's engine plans for 2022.

Red Bull has said its plan to take over the departing Honda's engine operations depend entirely on whether rival teams support a 2022 development 'freeze'.

"If the freeze is necessary to keep Red Bull Honda in business, we will support it," Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told the German broadcasters RTL and n-tv.

"We all have to work together to keep the manufacturers in Formula 1," he added.

"The Red Bull-Honda project is very ambitious, but I think they can do it. That's why we are basically in favour of a freeze."

Wolff, however, said Mercedes' main focus at the moment is on putting together the thousands of parts of the team's 2021 car.

"It is nowhere near ready," he revealed. "And it won't be ready until the last moments before the shakedown. So at the moment there is not much to see of the new car.

"Right now, it looks like someone tossed over a full box of Lego."
Coronavirus deaths are beginning to level out in the Lake Houston area as vaccines continue to be distributed to Phase 1A and 1B qualifying individuals.

While vaccines are still troubling to distribute in Texas, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are expected to apply for federal emergency use authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine according to earlier reporting.

LOCAL: Big Rivers Water Park sets Spring Break opening date, crawfish festival

By Feb. 2, there were 16,256 confirmed cases and 118 deaths in the Lake Houston area zip codes according to data from Harris County Public Health. Texas reached 2,398,142 cases and 36,553 deaths according to the Houston Chronicle data team on the evening of Feb. 1.

More Information Data on the coronavirus as of Feb. 2 from Harris County Public Health can be viewed by zip code. These zip codes cover the Lake Houston area. 77396 4,064 confirmed cases 581 active cases 3,453 recovered cases 30 deaths 77346 4,216 confirmed cases 698 active cases 3,491 recovered cases 27 deaths 77338 3,151 confirmed cases 489 active cases 2,607 recovered cases 52 deaths 77339 858 confirmed cases 123 active cases 710 recovered cases 25 deaths 77345 442 confirmed cases 43 active cases 396 recovered cases 3 deaths 77044 3,525 confirmed cases 502 active cases 3002 recovered 21 deaths Totals July 31: Total: 2,928 cases, 51 deaths Aug 31: 4,572 confirmed cases, 80 deaths Oct. 26: 7,818 confirmed cases, 116 deaths Nov. 24: 9,127 confirmed cases, 129 deaths Dec. 30: 11,878 confirmed cases, 143 deaths Jan. 26: 15,632 confirmed cases, 159 deaths Feb. 2: 16, 256 confirmed cases, 158 deaths See More Collapse

Humble ISD reported 325 active student cases (0.91 percent) and 109 active staff cases (1.45 percent) as of 7:20 a.m. on Feb. 2. There have been a total of 1,507 student cases and 653 staff cases since public reporting began on Aug. 11. Meanwhile, Humble ISD reported 301 active student cases (0.85 percent) and 116 active staff cases (1.55 percent) as of 7:20 a.m. on Jan. 26.

Humble ISD not longer follows the COVID-19 matrix as a way to determine whether schools should close due to the spread of the coronavirus. As of this week, numbers have started to fall from the peak that followed the winter break in the local district.

POLITICS: Gov. Abbott leads GOP push to limit COVID liability for Texas businesseses

The closest mega testing location this week to the Lake Houston area from the Houston Emergency Operations Center is at Houston Community College - North Forest, 6010 Little York Rd. For free testing locations, visit the Harris County Public Health website here and the Houston Emergency Operations Center here.

As was reported previously, Harris County Public Health has been distributing a limited number of vaccines to people within the Tier 1A and 1B designation. To view a map of provider locations, visit the interactive website here.

savannah.mehrtens@chron.com

HOUSTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bryce Catalyst, a unique investment company focused on high-growth sectors, and dealcloser, a legal technology transaction management company, both welcome Dan Wales to their respective teams. Dan will be joining Bryce Catalyst in an advisory capacity and is joining the dealcloser leadership team as their new Chief Growth Officer.

Dan has spent over fifteen years at large global law firms and founded DW Reporting in 2013 to meet law firms' complex BI, reporting, pricing and financial data management needs. At BigHand, Dan was the influential driving force behind the creation of a new enterprise strategic sales and account management function that focuses on the largest global law firms, achieving record results. Dan has led sales growth strategies for industry leading providers of productivity and profitability software, focused on UK Legal Top 100 and AMLAW 200.

"I am personally delighted to work with such a strong and well-known team at Bryce Catalyst," said Dan. "I believe Bryce Catalyst has a great business model and talented management team that uniquely positions itself to capitalize on opportunities in Legal Tech. In addition, the opportunity to support the dealcloser team at such an awesome stage of growth and opportunity was one that I had no hesitation in joining. My experience with growing technology companies will only aid and accelerate our mutual success."

As an investment company focused on high-growth sectors including cyber security, legal technology and regulation technology, Dan is a perfect addition to the Bryce Catalyst's advisory team.

"Bryce Catalyst has many opportunities for growth right now, and the addition of Dan to our advisory team is a huge win for us," said Cary Burch, President and CEO of Bryce Catalyst. "With close to 10 years' experience advising law firms on technologies, operational efficiencies and profitability gains within the Business of Law, enabling a focus on legal operations transition, Dan fits in perfectly with our strategy."

Last month, Bryce Catalyst made its first investment in dealcloser. Investing $1.75M in dealcloser allows for the startup to accelerate its product roadmap, sales and marketing effortswhile also bringing Dan Wales onboard as Chief Growth Officer.

About Bryce Catalyst

With headquarters in Houston and virtual offices in San Diego, Menlo Park, Denver, Tampa and Salt Lake City, Bryce Catalyst is a unique investment company with a focus on high growth sectors including cyber security, legal technology and regulation technology. Bryce Catalyst is managed by highly recognized software operators with proven track records of growing software & technology enabled companies. As operators for operators, we have an affinity for closely held and operator-owned companies; and believe that beyond profits, aligned interests and a shared purpose are true measures of a successful partnership. For additional information, visit www.brycecatalyst.com.

Contact:

Kelly Kelleher

[email protected]

619-861-3704

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Bryce Catalyst

SOURCE Bryce Catalyst
River City Bank promotes Riley Gardner to Commercial Banking Business Development Officer, providing commercial banking services to businesses in all sectors in Sacramento and Reno, NV. Along with his work here in Sacramento, were excited to make Reno a core focus of Rileys business development efforts as he works to nurture relationships with leaders in a variety of sectors.

Following a challenging yet successful year that saw record net income in 2020, River City Bank announces the promotion of Riley Gardner to the role of Commercial Banking Business Development Officer. Gardner will be responsible for developing new business within the greater Sacramento region and expanding the Banks presence into the Reno market. He will focus on providing commercial banking services to businesses in all sectors, including commercial real estate, healthcare, food and agriculture, clean energy, construction, professional services firms, and non-profit organizations.

Like weve seen in Sacramento over the past several years, the Reno market is experiencing significant growth and is shaping up to be the next expansion market on our radar, said Steve Fleming, President and CEO of River City Bank. Along with his work here in Sacramento, were excited to make Reno a core focus of Rileys business development efforts as he works to nurture relationships with leaders in a variety of sectors.

TWEET THIS: People on the Move: @RiverCityBank looks to solidify its core in Sacramento and initiate expansion to the Reno market with the promotion of Riley Gardner to Business Development Officer. #commercialbanking

River City Bank has achieved exceptional growth over the past decade due to a focus on high quality customer service, quick and efficient decision making, and providing banking products and capabilities that meet client needs and save them money, said Riley Gardner, Business Development Officer at River City Bank. Working with Steve and the rest of our phenomenal team at River City Bank, I am excited to build more new relationships in the Sacramento and Reno markets, and I look forward to sharing the River City Bank experience with more high quality local businesses.

Gardner brings more than 12 years of experience in business development and commercial portfolio management, having most recently overseen credit analysis for commercial accounts as Senior Credit Analyst at River City Bank. He is also an active member of the Capitol Region Family Business Center where he leads the NextGen group. He has hosted numerous webinars for River City Bank and the Family Business Center focused on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and its loan forgiveness process.

After growing up in Sacramento, Gardner graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies and a focus on Economics. Prior to joining River City Bank, he also spent several years working in Asia and the Bay Area in business development roles.

For more information about River City Bank, visit RiverCityBank.com.

About River City Bank

Named one of Sacramento Business Journals 50 Fastest Growing Companies for each of the past four years, River City Bank is the Sacramento regions premier business bank with assets over $3.3 billion. River City Bank offers a comprehensive suite of banking services, including loans, deposits and cash management tools to the business, consumer and commercial real estate sectors. With tailored, executive-level service and a Superior financial rating from the nations leading independent bank-rating firm, Bauer Financial, River City Bank redefines the banking experience and every touch point that surrounds it. River City Bank is the largest, independent, locally-owned bank in the Sacramento region with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and a presence in Southern California. For additional information, please visit RiverCityBank.com or call (916) 567-2600. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The typical crowd that attends the Staten Island Zoos Groundhog Day celebration is unable to do so this year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Instead, the Zoo has chosen to stream Staten Island Chucks prediction. The live stream will begin at 7:45 a.m. with Chuck set to emerge from his burrow at 8 a.m.

The prediction will be announced by a representative of Investors Bank, which is the events sponsor.

To watch the event, click here.

The Groundhog Day tradition can be traced to Candlemas, an early Christian holiday where candles were blessed and distributed. Those who celebrated Candlemas decided that clear skies on the holiday meant a longer winter.

The Germans eventually began to believe that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, a hedgehog would cast a shadow  predicting six more weeks of harsh winter weather. And it was the Germans who brought this belief to the United States.

When German immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania, they found a large number of groundhogs. And they tasked the groundhog, which resembles the European hedgehog, with the job of predicting the weather.

The holiday started with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, founded in Punxsutawney, Pa., in 1887. The editor of the Punxsutawney newspaper was a member of the club, and he claimed that Punxsutawney Phil was the only true weather-predicting groundhog.

Tens of thousands have traveled to Gobblers Knob in recent years for Phils prediction. A smaller  but still passionate  crowd typically attends Staten Island Chucks event at the Staten Island Zoo.

Chuck has been making his prediction since 1981  and some years have been more eventful than others. In 2009, Chuck bit then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And, in 2014, Chuck was dropped by Mayor Bill de Blasio. That groundhog, which was actually a female stand-in named Charlotte, died several days later.

Chuck has proved a particularly prolific prognosticator in recent years, having made an incorrect prediction only once since 2010.

Last year, Chuck predicted an early spring.
Over the past year, in towns and cities everywhere, law enforcement officials have been challenged by those that would defund police departments.

While many communities across our state experienced pro-public safety and de-fund supporters clashes, the result in Hartford was a big loss for the safety and security of communities across our state.

Upset supporters on both sides took to the streets, resulting in tremendous street theater, generating news headlines and ratings. In the end, the defund lobbying campaign clearly won in our state capital, as Connecticut passed the Police Accountability Act, making policing more expensive for municipalities and also more difficult for officers.

As some might have predicted, crime is on the rise.

Some academics and defund advocates are incredibly blaming, of all things, the pandemic for the spike in crime, more illegal guns and drugs on the streets, a rise in the number of shootings and overall greater level of violence encountered by law-abiding families everywhere.

Those of us working in patrol cars and walking beats in communities all across our state simply do not fall for that false narrative for one minute. The members of law enforcement recognize a direct connection between climbing crime stats and Hartfords rush to legislate police reform rules.

Remember, we do not make the rules and regulations, the Connecticut state Legislature does.

Now two of our states most important and historic cities  New Haven and Hartford  have been identified by the real estate database NeighborhoodScout.com as among the two most dangerous places to live, go to school and work. New Haven was No. 85 on that ranking and Hartford was No. 97. At least they did not make the top five worst, which included Detroit, St. Louis and Baltimore.

Even in Stamford, the community has seen murders increase by 20 percent, aggravated assaults up 33 percent and weapons violations up 36 percent, according to unofficial numbers tallied by the Stamford Police Association. This is not a reality we should be content to accept.

As a 20-plus-year law enforcement officer, I stand together with my fellow officers in these and other towns, all of whom want nothing more than the ability to protect and serve, while upholding their oath of office with the greatest of dignity and respect.

My hope and it is that all of my fellow officers from across the state can all come together in Hartford during 2021 to work with all key stakeholders on community policing strategies that do not divide us, but rather unite with a shared vision and belief in a plan to make our streets and schools safer for our children, grandparents, families and the businesses our downtowns rely upon.

Sgt. Kris Engstrand is president of the Stamford Police Association and vice president of the Police Officers Association of Connecticut.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 22:58:37|Editor: huaxia

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KATHMANDU, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Nepal on Tuesday confirmed 171 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national total to 271,289, said the health ministry.

Meanwhile, one more death from the virus was reported, raising the national death toll to 2,030.

At the end of January, the Nepali government started the first phase of a vaccination campaign against COVID-19, with the targeted groups including health workers, sanitation workers, and elders living in care homes. Enditem
Insurance fraud seems like it might be an easy thing to do. Insurance companies are often so huge, one wonders how they might not even notic...
Medics are seen conducting mass testing of Covid-19 in Hai Duong Province, February 1, 2021. Photo by the Ministry of Health.

Hai Duong Province recorded one locally transmitted case of Covid-19 Tuesday morning, raising the national tally of the ongoing outbreak to 271.

The new patient is a 44-year-old man living in Cam Giang District in Hai Duong Town of the eponymous province in northern Vietnam.

His sample was taken via a mass testing campaign that has been conducted all over the province after it has emerged as the biggest cluster of Covid-19 since last week.

Now tagged "patient 1851," this man developed Covid-19 symptoms of fever, cough and sore throat last Sunday and his tests arrived as posivitve the next day.

Ever since community tranmission returned on January 28, infections have spread to 10 cities and provinces, including Hanoi with 19 cases and HCMC one.

Hotspot Hai Duong where one of the first cases were detected has registered as many as 206, Quang Ninh 30, Gia Lai six, Bac Ninh three, Hoa Binh two, Binh Duong two, while Hai Phong and Bac Giang got one each.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, said on January 28, when Vietnam got a record high single-day tally of 93 which also broke the nation's streak of nearly two months without a community transmission, that it is highly possible community transmissions had appeared in Hai Duong 10 days before.

Until now, officials have yet to identify the source of transmissions of the new wave.
The SNP's civil war burst out into the open today as an MP called in police over a 'vicious threat' to her personal safety the day after she was sacked from a senior post.

Police Scotland said officers are investigating following a report of 'threatening communications' being made online against Joanna Cherry.

The 54-year-old, an ally of former party leader Alex Salmond and widely tipped as a future SNP leadership challenger to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, was replaced yesterday as justice and home affairs spokeswoman at Westminster.

The QC, who has been involved in an internal party row over gender recognition and trans rights, she had been removed from her role despite 'hard work, results & a strong reputation'.

Her sacking sparked a huge row within the party, which has been riven by the schism between Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond. They are also on opposing sides of an investigation into the mishandling of sexual misconduct complaints against Mr Salmond in 2018 over which he was later cleared.

Ms Cherry lashed out at SNP colleague Kirsty Blackman today after the Aberdeen North MP supported her and attacked the 'totally unacceptable' threats.

Ms Cherry, who represents Edinburgh South West, replied: 'Thank you for your concern but this is what can happen when you rile up your base with lies & smears.

'Actions have consequences so please think hard again before you attack a colleague on social media.'

Police Scotland said officers are investigating following a report of 'threatening communications' being made online against Joanna Cherry.

Ms Cherry lashed out at SNP colleague Kirsty Blackman today after the Aberdeen North MP attacked the 'totally unacceptable' threats

Her sacking sparked a huge row within the party, which has been riven by the schism between Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond

They are on opposing sides of an investigation into the mishandling of sexual misconduct complaints against Mr Salmond in 2018 over which he was later cleared

Cherry the most high-profile casualty in 'proxy war' between Sturgeon and Salmond Joanna Cherry is the most high profile victim of what many see as a proxy war being fought between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond for control of the SNP and independence. At one time the most unified party in the Commons, cracks have widened in recent months as the current party leader and her predecessor. Mr Salmond, who quit as SNP chief and First Minister after losing the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, is said to be frustrated by Ms Sturgeon's more cautious approach to securing independence for Scotland. Until recently she has tried to rein in the most extreme elements of the party who have called for a new vote irrespective of whether Westminster grants one or not. Mr Salmond has been linked with a return to Holyrood as Ms Cherry's deputy, if she runs for the leadership. She was the first senior figure after his acquittal over sexual misconduct charges to call for Mr Salmond to be let back in to the party. One source told the Mail last year the hostility between Miss Sturgeon and Miss Cherry is such that 'the two cannot bear to be in the same room'. She heaped more pressure on Miss Sturgeon by throwing down the gauntlet to her low-profile but powerful backroom fixer husband Peter Murrell, the SNP's chief executive. Miss Cherry called on Mr Murrell to let Mr Salmond back into the party 'without delay' and lead an investigation into the handling of the allegations against him. The two sides are currently squaring off against each other in an independent inquiry into how sexual misconduct claims against Mr Salmond were handled by senior Government figures. In January Mr Salmond accused his successor of giving 'simply untrue' evidence. In an explosive intervention, the former First Minister accused his successor of making 'ridiculous' and 'wholly false' claims about their meetings to discuss the handling of complaints. His account claims that Holyrood 'has been repeatedly misled on a number of occasions' about a meeting he had with Miss Sturgeon at her home in April 2018. That year he sought a judicial review over the government's probe into the two complaints. He went on to win and was awarded 500,000 to cover legal fees. Ms Cherry, who is gay, has also faced criticism over her attitude to trans rights. She has urged caution over the Scottish Government's plans to allow people to self-identify their gender without a medical diagnosis. Along with other senior politicians, she has raised concerns over the impact it could have on women's rights. This has brought her into conflict with other SNP MPs, and she publicly clashed with Kirsty Blackman on the subject only last week. In December Ms Blackman claimed young and trans people were 'giving up' on the SNP because of the row, saying 'things have moved on since the 1980s. The spat prompted Sturgeon to intervene and say there was no place for trans-phobia in the party. Advertisement

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: 'Around 7pm on Monday 1 February 2021 officers received a report of threatening communications having been made online. Inquiries are ongoing.'

Ms Cherry has urged caution over the Scottish Government's plans to allow people to self-identify their gender.

This would allow people to change their gender legally without a medical diagnosis.

Along with other senior politicians, she has raised concerns over the impact it could have on women's rights.

This has brought her into conflict with other SNP MPs, and she publicly clashed with Ms Blackman on the subject only last week.

Last night's reshuffle revealed that Anne McLaughlin had been appointed as the party's Westminster spokeswoman on justice and immigration, without mentioning Ms Cherry's departure.

An official reason for removing Ms Cherry from the frontbench was not given by the SNP amid speculation that it could have been because of the trans rights row or because she is viewed as a leadership threat to Ms Sturgeon.

As the reshuffle was announced, Ms Cherry tweeted: 'Despite hard work, results & a strong reputation I've been sacked today from @theSNP front bench.'

She added: 'Westminster is increasingly irrelevant to Scotland's constitutional future and @theSNP would do well to radically rethink our strategy.'

Later on Monday the MP said she had contacted police after receiving a threat from a man.

She tweeted: 'Action and inaction have consequences. Tonight I've received a vicious threat from a man to my personal safety.

'The matter has been reported to Police Scotland and I'm somewhere safe. Thank you for all the lovely messages of support.

The decision to sack Ms Cherry prompted a furious backlash from supporters as fellow SNP MP Kenny MacAskill tweeted: 'This is the leadership's call but many of us find this inexplicable and harmful to our cause.'

An SNP parliamentarian told The National newspaper they believed Mr Blackford had sacked Ms Cherry with Ms Sturgeon's approval.

'It's been well known that Jo and Nicola have not been getting on well for a long time,' they said. 'Ian Blackford was the willing stooge to wield the knife. There is no way this would have happened without Nicola Sturgeon. Not a chance.'

Meanwhile, an SNP source claimed to the New Statesman that the dismissal was for 'continued gross disloyalty'.

The reshuffle saw four SNP MPs join the party's frontbench team in the Commons, with Patricia Gibson becoming spokeswoman for housing, communities and local government, while Angela Crawley takes on the role of shadow spokeswoman for the Attorney General.

Richard Thomson and Stephen Flynn, both of whom were only elected to the Commons in 2019, have also stepped up, becoming the party's Northern Ireland spokesman and business, energy and industrial strategy spokesman, respectively.

Meanwhile, Tommy Sheppard switches to constitutional affairs, having previously been the SNP's Cabinet Office spokesman.

In a statement, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said they party had a 'wealth of talent and experience', and that the reshuffle 'ensures we are in the best possible position to hold the UK Government to account during this global pandemic and the aftermath of Brexit, to support colleagues ahead of the Scottish elections, and to deliver independence'.

There was no mention of Ms Cherry in his statement, with the SNP Westminster leader adding: 'We are at a crucial time in politics. Never before have we faced a challenge as great as the global pandemic, and Scotland is acutely feeling the ramifications of leaving the European Union.

'With the Scottish elections on the horizon and independence in touching distance, our new team is ready to work hard for Scotland.'
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Many of us may have inadvertently contributed to the growing climate scepticism of recent years, a widespread phenomenon fuelled by "system errors" built into journalism, social media and parliamentary debates. A new book illustrates the nature of the problem.

In the United States, more than 15% of the population believe that climate change does not exist or is not caused by human activity. The corresponding figure among climate researchers is under 1%. According to Associate Professor Sune Auken of the University of Copenhagen, this gulf between researchers and the general public is due to an inherent problem of balance in climate debates, e.g. in the media and among politicians.

"For the format to function, television debates - and even important hearings on climate change in the United States Congress - require two parties. One for, one against. This is seen as part and parcel of the political and journalistic requirement for objectivity and balanced debate, according to which all parties must be heard. The format implies that it is as meaningful and legitimate to deny climate change as it is to believe in it," says Auken, who is co-editor, along with independent consultant Christel Sunesen, of the new book Genre in the Climate Debate.

"99 out of 100 climate scientists around the world are in complete agreement that climate change is real and caused by human activity. In 99% of cases, therefore, objective and fair journalism ought to discuss climate issues based on the premise that they exist and seek to agree on solutions to them," says Auken.

Towards a new climate understanding

The new book contains wide-ranging analyses of how the climate is addressed in a number of different "genres", including political hearings, newspaper cartoons, topical satire and Twitter debates. The book represents a milestone in genre research, which since the 1980s has become more and more fully developed as a discipline for cultural analysis.

"Genres can be used to understand people's thoughts and actions. Be it 'political consultation', 'newspaper article' or 'Facebook post', genres structure our understanding and communication. We believe that continued climate scepticism is linked to imbalances in the genres that debate the issue. It is a serious issue because the ongoing scepticism legitimises politicians and businesses sitting on their hands and is one of the reasons why the green transition is lagging behind. Greater awareness of the problem would help change the genres so that they reflect a more accurate picture of the facts," says Sune Auken.

Genre in the Climate Debate will be published by De Gruyter on 2 February 2021. Download the book free of charge under the open access rules from http://www. degruyter. com

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Seven has confirmed it has parted company with longtime host Andrew OKeefe ending a 17 year relationship together.

It follows reports The Chase host is facing assault charges this week. His contract formally ended with Seven last year.

Seven is of course very concerned to read the reports regarding Andrew OKeefe. Seven has had a 17-year relationship with Andrew across a number of programs, although he is no longer with the network, a spokesperson said.

As this is a police matter before the Courts, we cannot comment further. The program hosted by Andrew, The Chase Australia, is not currently in production. The program is produced for Seven by ITV Studios Australia. Production will resume soon and a decision about who will host future series is still to be made.

The versatile OKeefe has been ever-popular within the Seven stable across The Chase, Deal or No Deal, Weekend Sunrise amongst other shows and known as a hard worker and team player. His shows have been key to the networks success, especially leading into Seven News.

But Seven has also demonstrated considerable patience as OKeefe dealt with health and personal issues, including halting production to afford him time to recover.

A year ago he said, Im not in the least ashamed to admit Ive struggled at times over the last year with issues around my mental health, but thanks to the excellent support of friends, family and expert clinical practitioners, Im in a very good place at the moment.

The network also has a hefty stockpile of completed Chase episodes, but there is also no decision on primetime specials Beat the Chasers at this time. On the weekend the network denied OKeefe was to be replaced, but that was before charges emerged.

Andrew OKeefe is due to appear at Waverley Local Court on Thursday.

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Mr Kellys posts include a recent call on the media to start reporting the truth because the Medical Association of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil had recommended chloroquine and ivermectin. The association is not an arm of the Brazilian federal government nor the government of Rio Grande do Norte, a state in the north-east of the country with a population of about 3 million. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Weve been very clear to point out where you get your information from. You dont get it from Facebook, Mr Morrison told the National Press Club on Monday. You get it from official government websites, and thats what I encourage everybody to do and thats what were doing and thats what were investing in. Dont go to Facebook to find out about the vaccine. Go to official government websites.

Loading Asked whether people should go to Mr Kelly, the Prime Minister responded, Hes not my doctor and hes not yours. But he does a great job in Hughes. Mr Kelly stood in the Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday morning, the first gathering of Liberal and Nationals MPs this year, to argue he was right to air advice about other treatments for COVID-19. But fellow Liberal Katie Allen, a paediatrician who won the Melbourne seat of Higgins at the last election, spoke up on the need for clear communications to support the mammoth vaccination program. Dr Allens colleagues saw her remarks as a warning shot about Mr Kellys posts.

Mr Kelly told the party room of the work of an Australian immunologist, Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy of the University of Newcastle. Professor Clancy told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he had not met Mr Kelly and did not agree with everything he said but thought he was absolutely right on hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Early treatment is highly effective. Vaccines are critically important. They should not be seen as mutually exclusive. You need them both, he said. Professor Clancy said the evidence showed hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were safe and should be used. But they mustnt be used instead of a vaccine. They need to be used together, he said.

But Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said last month there was no evidence to show hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin should be rolled out to Australians. Loading He needs to decide what is the appropriate thing for a member of Parliament to be commenting on, Professor Kelly said. Im not going to talk further about this because it just gives prominence to views that I just dont agree with and are not scientifically based. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners rebuked Mr Kelly for appearing in an interview with celebrity chef Pete Evans, who was removed from Facebook last year after telling followers not to get tested for COVID-19. It is unacceptable that Craig Kelly is persisting in disseminating misinformation concerning COVID-19 and to appear on this podcast with a disgraced former celebrity chef is very unhelpful, RACGP president Dr Karen Price said.

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said last month it was disappointing to see crackpot ideas spread by people who should know better. AMA vice president Chris Moy expressed disappointment that political leaders cannot stand up very clearly for upholding science and fact against Mr Kelly. Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said he got along all right with Mr Kelly but gave voters credit for making their own judgments. In Parliament you have a right to say what you like, even though at times its completely flawed and erroneous and incorrect, Mr Joyce said. If a professor of epidemiology says something to me, I think 99.9 per cent of us are probably going to listen to the professor. Asked if Mr Morrison should do anything to silence Mr Kelly, Mr Joyce said, No, that would just be poking the bear. People are smart enough to make their own decisions, and Craig is not a doctor. Mr Kelly has not opposed COVID-19 vaccinations but Labor, the Greens and some Liberals believe his arguments on Facebook will weaken support for the vaccination program, one of the governments top priorities for the year ahead.

Labor accused Mr Morrison of weakness for claiming Mr Kelly was doing a great job when the MPs claims could undermine the $24 million federal advertising campaign to encourage people to take COVID-19 vaccines. Craig Kelly is a dangerous menace and a threat to the nations COVID response and its beyond time that the Prime Minister developed the backbone to pull him into line, Mr Butler said. Labor assistant communications spokesman Tim Watts said Mr Kellys posts had been shared 10 times as much as Department of Health posts on Facebook. A real leader would have stepped in and said that they would have nothing to do with any MP who is spreading medical misinformation during a pandemic and would have demanded that Craig Kelly be dis-endorsed by the Liberal Party, Mr Watts said. Former Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon said he supported free speech but Mr Kelly had to be more responsible when Australia faced the risk of vaccine hesitancy with COVID-19.
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Cardiac mapping is a technique in which the information from cardiac electrograms is gathered and displayed. Cardiac mapping is used to diagnose the heart rhythms especially in case of arrhythmia. The cardiac mapping procedure is usually done by inserting catheter into the heart chamber percutaneously and recording the electrograms sequentially, this is done in order to correlate the electrograms with cardiac anatomy.

The new 3D cardiac mapping systems create the three dimensional model of any chamber of heart and can track exact location of the catheter. This allows movement of the catheters without using X-ray. They are designed to improve the resolution and gain prompt cardiac activation maps.

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The 3D cardiac mapping system market is anticipated to grow with a significant CAGR owing to the increase in number of patients with arrhythmia and other cardiac disorders, rising pressure to reduce diagnosis errors and increasing healthcare expenditure.

The major factors driving the growth of 3D cardiac mapping systems is the precision and patient safety enabled by real-time monitoring. The increase in aging population who are more prone to chronic heart disorders will elevate the demand for the 3D cardiac mapping system.

The increase in prevalence and diagnosis rate of cardiac illness is the major factors which is creating the demand for 3D cardiac mapping systems. The 3D cardiac mapping also help in reducing the time of diagnosis. The restraining factors for the 3D cardiac mapping system market are high cost of services and limited adoption rate of the systems.

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The awareness of 3D cardiac mapping system is giving rise to the adoption of the systems. The elimination of errors in diagnosis helps the physician in providing better treatment and cure.

The adoption rate of 3D cardiac mapping system by the hospitals is high as compared to that of independent clinics and is estimated to be the fastest growing segment. Electroanatomical mapping are used widely as it hold the potential to increase the safety, efficacy and efficiency of catheter. Real-time positional management (Cardiac Pathways) EP system contribute maximum share in the overall 3D cardiac mapping systems during the forecast period.

On the basis of geography, the global 3D cardiac mapping system market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. North America contributes maximum share to the 3D cardiac mapping system market.

European countries are expected to represent significant growth rates due to the growing healthcare practices. Amongst the Asian countries, India and China are more promising due to large population pool, increased prevalence of cardiac diseases, increasing awareness, rapid improvement in healthcare services with the saturation in the developed markets.

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Some of the key players in 3D cardiac mapping system market are Biosense Webster, Inc., St. Jude Medical and Boston Scientific Corporation, Inc. The companies are majorly focusing in the improvement of services provided to customers with the new techniques that provide the physicians in better and quick diagnosis.

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There will be people who stop doing the valuable work they are doing over fears it will be considered conversion therapy. The unintended consequence is that it will make people more and more reticent to support people who really need our help. Victorias peak medical body has sought independent legal advice on the governments proposal. Julian Rait, president of the AMAs Victorian branch, said he supported the intent of the policy but said that the sanction was extreme. We are just very anxious, Associate Professor Rait said. We think they should reconsider the high penalty. He said the association would like to see the penalty brought in line with other jurisdictions where those found guilty of conversion therapy face prison terms of two years or less.

While we vehemently oppose conversion therapy and we acknowledge the LGBTIQ community has been subjected to discrimination, we think the bill needs further explanation. Even though the government has tried hard to craft this legislation, it could well be something that discourages health practitioners, he said. The Victorian branch of the AMA has raised its concerns with the government but has yet to receive a response. We dont feel we were appropriately consulted as we only saw the bill for the first time when it was introduced to Parliament, Associate Professor Rait said. On Tuesday Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said the proposed legislation was based on extensive consultation with survivors and other interested parties.

This bill contains necessary caveats so health services and health professionals can still do their jobs and does not prevent them from following their professional guidelines, she said. Loading They also clearly set out the kinds of actions that constitute change or suppression practices  anyone doing the wrong thing should and will be captured by these laws. On Monday, Ms Symes told The Age: LGBT people are not broken and they do not need to be fixed  these views wont be tolerated in Victoria, and neither will change or suppression practices. We consulted closely with survivors, LGBTIQ+ organisations and religious organisations on the legislation to make sure it is effective in stamping out abhorrent change and suppression practices once and for all.

The new laws strike the right balance between protecting people from the serious harm caused by change or suppression practices, while respecting the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Doctors and psychiatrists are also concerned that the bill conflates the separate issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, which they say require differing approaches. For some people those two things are intertwined, but we take a different approach in terms of how we approach them as issues with patients, Dr Rubin said. As an example, hormonal treatments wouldnt be given to someone with a different sexual orientation but it can help with gender identity. I see people who come to me and say I wish I wasnt gay and its up to us to challenge and explore why they might feel that way. The National Association of Practising Psychiatrists and Victorian Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists have also written to the government and upper house MPs demanding changes to the legislation.

This comes as faith-based organisations ramped up their opposition to the bill on Tuesday. More than 75 Christian protesters held a demonstration at Parliament House. Protesters on the steps of Parliament House on Tuesday. Credit:Eddie Jim The Victorian bill goes further than a similar law to ban conversion therapy passed in Queensland last year in that it outlaws harmful practices not only in healthcare settings but also in religious settings. The Liberal Party confirmed on Tuesday that it would not oppose the bill, after The Age obtained a leaked email outlining the state oppositions plan to put forward amendments that would ultimately fail. In the upper house, where every vote counts, this sends a signal to Legislative Council MPs that the party room supports the bill, which has already passed the lower house.
Russia has documented 16,643 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, with the total case tally reaching 3,884,730, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Tuesday.

The daily increase rate has reached 0.43%.

The lowest increase rate has been documented in the Altai Republic, the Tuva Republic (0.1%), the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Magadan Region, the Chechen Republic, and Moscow (0.2%).

Another 1,701 coronavirus cases were confirmed in Moscow in the past 24 hours, which is the lowest number since September 25. A total of 933,810 people in the Russian capital have been infected so far.

According to the crisis center, the daily growth rate stands at 0.18%. The authorities reported 2,037 cases a day earlier.

Seventy-four coronavirus patients died in the past 24 hours, a total of 13,569 fatalities have been reported so far.

Another 5,012 patients in Moscow recovered in the past 24 hours, with the number of recoveries reaching 824,623. At present, 95,618 people continue treatment.

In the past 24 hours, 1,484 in St. Petersburg, 1,053 COVID-19 cases have been documented in the Moscow Region, 459 in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, 371 in the Voronezh Region, 370 in the Rostov Region.

Currently, there are 470,027 active COVID-19 cases in Russia, TASS reported.
Closed Highway and Dangerous Desert Detour Underline Challenges to Libyan Peace

TRIPOLILibyans watching a peace process nearing a critical phase this week in Switzerland need only try driving from one side of their country to the other to understand the obstacles to diplomacy.

An October ceasefire called for all foreign mercenaries to leave the country and for the main coastal road between west and east to reopen. But the mercenaries remain, the United Nations said last week, and the road is shut.

For those who cannot take one of the flights that resumed last year between the capital Tripoli in the west and Benghazi in the east, it means a long, dangerous detour through the desert.

Drivers face violence and abuse. Sometimes we lose contact with the drivers for two days until they reach safety and can get a mobile signal, said a transport company worker, who asked not to be named fearing reprisals from armed groups.

A 24-year-old driver from Benghazi, waiting in Tripoli to fill his minibus with goods to take back, said he had no other way to make a living.

The road is difficult and there is a lot of looting. The trip takes about a day and a half, he said. That is double the time it would take along the coastal road.

The continued closure of the key artery, and lawlessness along alternative routes, underline how Libya remains beset by instability 10 years after the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi but unleashed civil war.

Overview of the first day of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum at an undisclosed location, Switzerland, February 1, 2021. (Violaine Martin/U.N. Photo/Handout via REUTERS)

The United Nations last week urged both sides of the conflict to reopen the road, as it hosts a meeting near Geneva to select a new transitional government for the whole country to oversee the run-up to elections scheduled for December.

Belqasem Egzait, a member of the State Council set up as part of an earlier peace process, said he believed diplomacy was moving forward, but would be slow.

The political track is by its nature complex. That complexity will continue, he told Reuters.

However, some Libya experts have warned of the risk of renewed fighting as the process drags on.

The transport company worker said stories of attacks on drivers were commonplace.

Last week a group of armed men stopped a driver and stole everythingeven chemotherapy doses. The thugs will target anything they find.

Obstacles

Libya has been split between factions in the west and east since 2014.

The latest round of diplomacy follows the failure last year of Khalifa Haftars eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) to capture Tripoli, seat of the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA).

In recent interviews with Reuters, leaders on both sides of the frontlines accused each other of refusing to abide by ceasefire terms that temporarily halted the 14-month assault.

The GNA defence minister, Saleh Namroush, who has nominated himself for a leadership role in the transitional government, said the LNA was bringing in more equipment and digging new defences.

But in Benghazi, LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari blamed armed groups in the west for breaching the agreement.

Along the frontline between the cities of Sirte and Misrata, a joint military committee is still discussing ceasefire terms. Both sides have dug in.

On the GNA side, a local field commander, Musa Araibi Mayouf, said the absence of fighting since the summer showed that the current talks were serious. But he acknowledged the risk of a return to warfare.

There are obstacles. And they are the gentlemen who sit in the political chairs, he said. His fighters, in camouflage uniforms, stood atop their technicalspick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.

By Reuters Libya Newsroom
Aung San Suu Kyi served for 10 years as a democratic fig leaf to cover the cruel and despotic military rulers of Myanmar (also known as Burma). The people of Myanmar, however, gave massive support to Ms. Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy in Nov. 8 elections and turned their backs on the armed forces. Stung by the humiliation, the military masters this week locked her up once again and put themselves back in direct charge of the country.

Aung San Suu Kyi served for 10 years as a democratic fig leaf to cover the cruel and despotic military rulers of Myanmar (also known as Burma). The people of Myanmar, however, gave massive support to Ms. Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy in Nov. 8 elections and turned their backs on the armed forces. Stung by the humiliation, the military masters this week locked her up once again and put themselves back in direct charge of the country.

Ms. Suu Kyi won worldwide admiration, expressed by her 1991 Nobel peace prize, during her house arrest between 1989 and 2010 while she preached non-violence to her followers. Her NLD had won the 1990 election in a landslide, but the military leaders clung to power and suppressed the NLD.

The admiration turned to dismay when Ms. Suu Kyi accepted a role in the military government. She appeared in 2019 before the International Court of Justice at The Hague and defended Myanmars rulers against charges they had committed genocide against the countrys Muslim Rohingya minority. The apostle of non-violence became an apologist for mass murder.

Don Wong / The Associated Press FILE Myanmars leader Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested during a military coup.

The people of Burma/Myanmar have lived under military rule for most of the time since the country won independence from Britain in 1948. They may not easily accept loss of the slightly enlarged freedom they have enjoyed since 2015 under the government of the National League for Democracy.

As Myanmars military rulers watch popular uprisings in Minsk and Moscow, they may find that despotism isnt what it used to be. Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus and Vladimir Putin in Russia are already finding that abused and maltreated citizens are no longer intimidated by beatings, tear gas, imprisonment and torture that might formerly have bullied them into submission.

Because of her flirtation with her countrys despots, Ms. Suu Kyi no longer enjoys the former adulation outside Myanmar. Within the country, however, she remains a potent force. That was proven when her party won a landslide victory in the Nov. 8 elections. The army, whose supporters lost that election, took a leaf out of Donald Trumps book and alleged widespread electoral fraud. Trump-like, they presented no evidence. They simply detained Ms. Suu Kyi and her colleagues and locked up the national assembly.

This fresh imprisonment may raise the tainted hero back up to her pedestal. Released now from justifying the despots before the world, she can return to tending the flame of democracy and holding out hope for a brighter future for Myanmar.

The watching world should not forget the role she played in relation to the Rohingya people. It should be noticed, however, that no one else has a solution, either: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh refuse to return to the Myanmar killing fields from which they fled. Myanmar does not want them back. Bangladesh wants them gone, but the Muslim world has offered no help. Even Canadas high-mindedness has not found them a safe place to live.

Ms. Suu Kyi remains Myanmars brightest hope for modernization and for expansion of civil rights and political freedoms. The countrys zig-zag path over the last half-century shows that progress is extremely slow and difficult against an entrenched and ruthless military dictatorship.

If Ms. Suu Kyi can find a way forward, even one that involves dancing with the military devils, democratic countries should cheer her on.
Because God said so: Louisiana church helps raise $125K to help people pay energy bills

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A congregation in Louisiana has helped to raise $125,000 to help people pay their electricity bills, which have recently been on the rise for multiple reasons.

Household of Faith Family Worship Church International, a nondenominational congregation located near New Orleans, oversaw the charitable outreach to help people pay bills owed to the energy company Entergy.

First Lady Dale Barriere, wife of Senior Pastor Antoine M. Barriere, told The Christian Post on Monday that they decided to do the charitable event because God said so.

Our prayer was how can we help those who are hurting and He said $100 towards Entergy bill, explained Barriere. Our hope is to encourage the community to never give up and when you think theres no help, out of the blue help steps in.

According to Barriere, the church initially raised $50,000 while Entergy itself matched their amount. Businesses and church members added an extra $25,000 to the bill aid.

The New Orleans branch of Entergy provides electricity for over 250,000 customers, as well as natural gas for around 108,000 others, based on 2019 figures on their website.

The company has garnered recent controversy over allegedly hiking up bills for their customers, with many taking to social media to complain about costs that seemed to double in recent times.

Entergy New Orleans CEO David Ellis told Jessica Williams of Nola.com last week that the higher bills were due to colder weather and people staying home more because of pandemic shutdowns.

"We had colder weather, so people were using heat more. We had an end of holiday period where people were not traveling normally," explained Ellis. "What those point to is higher consumption."

For their part, The New Orleans City Council, which oversees the regulation of Entergy New Orleans, will hold a special meeting this week regarding the rising costs of bills.

By no later than next meeting, I will have a documented item and an investigation, or a directive message, or whatever we deem necessary to get to the bottom of why these bills are going up, explained Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Lambert Boissiere III, as reported by Nola.com.
A nursing home where four residents died over 24 hours after a horrific tidal wave of Covid-19 swept through it has appealed for help.

Brian McNamara, director of Greenpark Nursing Home in Tuam, Co Galway, said the loss of 12 residents over the last three weeks rips your soul clean out.

Mr McNamara told RTEs Drivetime on Monday that residents began to test positive a week before they received their first vaccine.

It has been absolutely horrendous since, he said.

Greenpark remained Covid-19 free throughout the first and second wave of the virus but in the past three weeks, 35 out of 49 residents tested positive, and 12 have since died.

Between Sunday and Monday, four deaths occurred.

An emotional Mr McNamara said four undertakers attended the home on Monday.

It has just been an absolutely horrific 24 hours.

Thats the second undertaker here today, and there is two more to come.

Its like you are fighting something you cant see, and its just so heartbreaking.

It just rips your soul clean out of you. I know these people; Ive known a lot of them before they ever came here.

It just sucks the life clean out of you, he said.

Its so hard to see these people who may have had small things wrong with them, but they werent ready to die yet.

To be so cruelly taken away by this horrible disease  its indescribable, he said.

Mr McNamara revealed that many of the residents who tested positive had already received the first dose of the vaccine, including three who died in recent days.

Just because you got the first dose of the vaccine doesnt mean you are safe.

I dont want to criticise anyone because it has been a horrendous year for everyone, but it is peoples behaviour that has caused this to spread.

Before the outbreak at Greenpark, Mr McNamara discussed with residents and their families what to do if they became seriously ill, with most opting to stay in the home.

We have a number of people who are unwell. We had sat down with families before this and with residents and discussed what to do in the event of them becoming very sick.

And the majority of them have said they wanted to stay and be looked after here.

Hospitals, wherever people go, are overrun. Healthcare is overrun with this (Covid-19) at the moment.

Sending an old person with confusion or delirium into a hospital  unless their life can be saved, they are better off with people who can look after them and make them as comfortable as possible.

Half of all staff at the family-run facility and a number of volunteers have also tested positive for Covid-19.

My biggest fear is we are starting to get low on nursing staff. Our nurses are working too many hours at the moment, and they need a break.

They need a day off, and Im desperately trying to get some more nurses in through agencies.

Unfortunately, we did have a nurse from the HSE, but she is being redeployed somewhere else, which will leave us short for three days.

If there are people out there who want to help, we would gladly accept.

Mary Murphy, whose mother Tilly ODee died two weeks ago at Greenpark, said she found not being able to hold her hand in her final moments the most difficult.

"Its Ireland  we all have our special way of saying goodbye and that all had to be done through a window that couldnt even be opened.
FLINT TWP., MI  A new seafood restaurant that offers crab legs and more in the Flint area is officially open.

The Tangy Crab - Cajun Seafood and Bar, 3366 Corunna Road, in Flint Township, opened on Monday, Feb. 1, according to the restaurants Facebook page.

We hope to see everyone Monday!, the post reads.

Cindy Wang, originally from Florida, opened the eatery for dine-in and take out services.

Wangs parents co-own the business with family, but they reside in Florida.

Related: New seafood restaurant opening in Flint Township to offer crab boils, chicken wings and more

Michigans dine-in ban expired at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 31. It started Nov. 18 in response to a second wave of COVID-19 cases spreading across the state.

Some of the menus offerings feature chicken wings, fish, poboy sandwiches, shrimp and, of course, crab boils.

The boils, ranging from $20-$30, are served in an oven bag with the option of lobster tails, snow crab legs, king crab legs, mussels, shrimp and scallops, topped with the restaurants blend of spices and seasonings.

The restaurant -- a neighbor to Kroger and Northgate, a warehousing, packaging and distribution company -- will also have a full bar.

The hours of operation are 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Wangs parents also own the Tangy Crab location in Lansing with David Wangs parents, who live in Michigan. Wang and Yang are cousins and their parents are siblings.

The Lansing location is also open for dine-in and take out today, per the business Facebook post.

Wang has emphasized the seafood is fresh and will come whole, so customers will have to do the work deshelling their food to get to the good stuff.

Read more on MLive:

New Burton restaurant offers authentic Thai cuisine made with family recipes

Local Eats: Prime Eight Ten in Mt. Morris Township offers upscale dining with lamb chops and lobster tails

Dine outdoors in luxurious suites, shanties and igloos at these mid-Michigan restaurants

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Allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called for immediate protests today after the Kremlin critic was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for violating the terms of a 2014 conviction.

Following the sentence, Navalny's allies called for a protest in Moscow's Manezhnaya Square. Riot police have been photographed dragging protesters away from locations in the capital and St Petersburg.

According to protest monitors, at least 679 people have been detained across Russia today. Around half were seized this morning as they gathered near the Moscow court to support Navalny during the ruling. The rest were detained in this evening's demonstrations.

As his sentence was read, Navalny made a heart sign with his hands and smiled at his wife Yulia from behind the glass panel of his holding cell. He told Yulia, who was crying as the verdict was read out: 'Don't be sad, everything will be fine'.

The 44-year-old dissident was tried today for breaking the terms of a 2014 embezzlement conviction, for which he received a three-and-a-half year suspended sentence. The Moscow court today ordered Navalny serve his original sentence in a penal colony, minus the one year he already spent under house arrest.

As Navalny faced his first night in prison, Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined a chorus of world leaders calling for the Kremlin critic's release.

'Alexey Navalny's decision to return to Russia after being poisoned was a truly brave and selfless act. In contrast, today's ruling was pure cowardice and fails to meet the most basic standards of justice. Alexey Navalny must be released immediately,' wrote Mr Johnson.

The spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, told other nations to 'not interfere' with her country's internal affairs.

'For the last few weeks we have been in a state of comments and responses to similar attacks and statements. You should not interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. And we recommend that everyone deal with their own problems...There are a lot of problems in these countries, there is work to be done,' she told Russia's business broadcaster RBC.

Earlier today Navalny mocked Putin by giving him the nickname 'Vladimir the Poisoner of Underwear' and told a judge his trial is only taking place because the Russian leader had failed to kill him with Novichok.

Navalny told the Russian courthouse that Putin is 'demanding to steal underwear from opponents and smear them with chemical weapons'.

He also said Putin wanted him imprisoned to 'scare millions' and warned the President that 'people will realise.'

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny makes a heart sign as his prison term is handed down by a Moscow court today

Policemen detain a protester after allies of Alexei Navalny called for supporters to protest a Moscow court's decision to sentence him to two-and-a-half years in prison

A woman is dragged to jail after attending a protest demanding the release of imprisoned pro-democracy opposition leader Alexei Navalny

A woman is dragged away by Russian police during nationwide protests, called for by now-imprisoned pro-democracy opposition leader Alexei Navalny

A man is lifted away by Russian police during protests in Moscow today, following the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny

An injured protester cries out during protests against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow today

Riot police officers detain a man during a protest against a court ruling which ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny be jailed for nearly three years, in downtown Moscow in the early hours of this morning

Officers scramble to detain protesters during a demonstration against the two-and-a-half year jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow yesterday

Protesters run during demonstrations against the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in Moscow yesterday

A Navalny supporter is escorted away from protests outside the Great Hostiny Dvor Shopping Centre in downtown St Petersburg last night

A man shouts as a police officer detains him during protests against the jailing of Putin foe Alexei Navalny in Moscow yesterday

After his sentence was read this afternoon and the 44-year-old was dragged away to the cells, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab demanded the 'perverse ruling' be reversed.

'The UK calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Alexey Navalny and all of the peaceful protesters and journalists arrested over the last two weeks,' said Mr Raab.

'Today's perverse ruling, targeting the victim of a poisoning rather than those responsible, shows Russia is failing to meet the most basic commitments expected of any responsible member of the international community.'

US President Joe Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed Raab's demands, calling for his immediate release.

'We reiterate our call for the Russian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Navalny, as well as the hundreds of other Russian citizens wrongfully detained in recent weeks for exercising their rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly,' Blinken said.

French President Emmanuel Macron added to the growing condemnation of Russia's actions on Twitter.

'The conviction of Alexei Navalny is unacceptable. A political disagreement is never a crime. We call for his immediate release. The respect for human rights such as democratic freedom are not negotiable.'

The Vladimir Putin critic was arrested last month for violating the probation terms of a 2014 embezzlement conviction.

His detention has sparked weekends of demonstrations by tens of thousands of protesters across Russia.

A man scraps with police officers during a street gathering to protest the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in Moscow yesterday

Riot police officers drag a man down a set of steps during an unauthorised rally in support of Alexei Navalny tonight in Moscow

Riot officers detain a man during demonstrations in support of Alexei Navalny, following his imprisonment of two-and-a-half years

Protesters detained following a protest demanding the release of Alexei Navalny await their jailing in Moscow this morning

Navalny supporters are detained last night following Navalny being jailed for two-and-a-half years by a Moscow court

Russian police drag a Navalny supporter in downtown Moscow this evening

Russian police detain a man in downtown Moscow this evening after the Kremlin critic was sent to prison earlier today

Detained people are seen inside a police vehicle in downtown Moscow this evening

Police escort a man from the scene of protests in downtown Moscow earlier this evening

Russian reinforced police units stand guard on the street in downtown of St. Petersburg, Russia today

Officers detain a man during protests after the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow today

A man draped in a Russian flag walks among protesters demonstrating the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow today

Riot police officers guard Bolshaya Morskaya Street in St Petersburg today. The city authorities tightened security measures as Moscow's court sentenced Alexei Navalny to three-and-a-half years

Russian police drag a protester away in St Petersburg, Russia today. Protesters descended on Russian cities after dissident Alexei Navalny was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in a penal colony

Today, 354 Navalny supporters were hauled away by riot police as he faced down a representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) inside the Moscow courthouse.

'It's easy to lock me up,' Navalny said in his closing statement during his trial, reports The Moscow Times. 'The main thing in this process is to intimidate a huge number of people, this is how it works. They are putting one person behind bars to scare millions.

He continued: 'I really hope that this process will be perceived as a sign of weakness.'

Warning Putin about his actions, Navalny added: 'You can't put millions and hundreds of thousands in jail  and I hope people will begin to realize that. Once they do  and this moment will come  you won't be able to jail everyone.'

Navalny said the 'elephant in the room' is that his trial is only taking place because he 'offended' Putin for surviving the Novichok poisoning.

A man scraps with police officers during protests against the jailing of Kremlin critic

A riot police officer searches a man during protests against the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in Moscow yesterday

Police pull a man's jacket over his head as they lead him away from the scene of a protest outside a St Petersburg shopping centre last night

Riot police detain a man involved in unauthorised protests in central Moscow last night

A man is detained by riot police in Russia today as protesters gathered to demand the release of jailed dissident Alexei Navalny

Navalny supporters, and their dogs, are escorted away from the scene of a protest in downtown St Petersburg tonight

Russian riot police detain a participant of an unauthorised rally in central Moscow tonight

Russian riot police detain a Navalny supporter after the dissident called for protests against his three-and-a-half year imprisonment

Russian police detain a protester in central Moscow this evening

Protesters gather in central Moscow tonight to protest the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny

'We know why this is happening,' he said. 'The reason is the hatred and fear of one man in a bunker. Because I offended him by surviving after they tried to kill me on his orders.

'No matter how much [Putin] tries to pose as a geopolitician, his main resentment toward me is that he will go down in history as a poisoner.'

Mocking the Russian President, Navalny continued: 'There was Alexander the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise. Now we'll have Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants.

'The police are guarding me and half of Moscow is cordoned off because we have shown that he is demanding to steal underwear from opponents and smear them with chemical weapons.'

Navalny faces three-and-a-half years in jail if the judge, who is now deliberating their verdict, decides to trigger the suspended sentence handed down following his 2014 money-laundering trial.

Navalny rejects the conviction as politically motivated and believes the suspended sentence has been resurrected to gag him.

Yulia Navalnaya, 44, the wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, walks into the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow on Tuesday morning

Today, 311 Navalny supporters were hauled away by riot police as he faced down a representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) inside the Moscow courthouse. Pictured: A Navalny supporter is hauled into a police van by heavily armoured riot police

Riot police lead a Navalny supporter towards a waiting van this morning

Alexei Navalny, 44, appears in court this morning accused of violating probation after he was handed a suspended sentence in 2014 for money laundering - a conviction we rejects as politically motivated

Navalny today said Vladimir Putin wants to imprison him to 'scare millions' and warned the President that 'people will realise you can't jail everyone'. Pictured: Navalny speaks with his lawyer Olga Mikhailova at the court in Moscow this morning

Navalny speaks with his lawyer ahead of the sentencing hearing

The verdict is expected to be returned at 8pm (5pm GMT) according to the Mediazona news website.

His defence lawyer Vadim Kobsev likened Navalny's poisoning to a 'political Chernobyl' and ended his speech with a quote from the TV series 'Chernobyl'.

He said: 'Legasov says: 'Dyatlov broke all the rules and brought the reactor to self-destruction. Nobody in that control room knew that the shutdown button would act as a detonator.' Dear judge, don't be like Dyatlov, don't push the button.'

Navalny shot down accusations he broke terms of his parole, arguing that he 'was in a coma' at the time.

His defence team argue that for much of the period which the penitentiary service says he was in breach, he was in a coma at the hospital in Berlin, telling the judge today that the 'the whole world knew where he was.' The opposition leader says he was poisoned by the Kremlin.

The FSIN official claimed that he'd failed to supply documents to provide 'serious reasons for not showing up' to parole appointments in person.

'I was in a coma!' Navalny replied. 'Comrade captain, do you respect the Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin? ... You said you don't know where I've been since August. Putin said on television that thanks to him I'd been sent to Germany for treatment.'

'I was in a coma, then I was in the ICU,' he continued. 'I sent you medical documents. You had my address and contacts. What else could I have done to tell you where I am? I have a lawyer and my lawyer has a telephone. How could I have informed you better?'

The FSIN official asked the judge to replace Navalny's suspended sentence with a real sentence, adding they are willing to count the 12 months that he had spent under house arrest toward the sentence. This would mean he would face a maximum prison sentence of two-and-a-half years.

'The court showed unprecedented lenience towards Alexei Navalny despite the gravity of his crime by giving him suspended sentences,' the official said. 'However, Navalny, despite the humanism the court expressed toward him, continued to violate the terms of his probation.'

Navalny faces three-and-a-half years in jail if the judge, who is now deliberating their verdict, decides to trigger the suspended sentence handed down following his 2014 money-laundering trial

Navalny rejects the conviction as politically motivated and believes the suspended sentence has been resurrected to gag him

One of hundreds of Navalny supporters being detained by Russian riot police today near the Moscow City Court

A Navalny supporter holds up his phone and wallet in the air as he is searched and detained by Russian riot police

Russian riot police stand guard in front of the Moscow City Court house this evening as the judge considers their verdict

The case presents one of the most serious challenges to the Kremlin in years and has led to calls for new Western sanctions against Putin's government.

The Kremlin said today it wasn't following the court proceedings, adding that it hoped the 'nonsense' would not lead the European Union to draw any 'foolish' conclusions.

Diplomats from the United States, Britain, Bulgaria, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and other European countries attended, according to local media.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this 'isn't just meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, but the self-incrimination of the West's unsightly and illegal attempts to contain Russia.'

Navalny was seen standing inside the glass-panelled dock wearing a black hoodie as he spoke with his lawyer Olga Mikhailova.

When asked by the judge to state where he lived, Navalny joked that he resided at the Matrosskaya Tishina prison.

He also demanded that journalists be allowed inside the courtroom. Reporters have only been allowed to watch a live video feed from a separate room.

Navalny's defence say that while he was recovering from the Novichok poisoning he was unable to register with Russian authorities in person as required by the terms of his probation.

But prison officials told the court he failed to make himself known to them while going about his business in Germany.

A representative for the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said: 'Since the end of September 2020, Navalny has been in outpatient treatment. Judging by media reports, he moved freely and gave interviews.

'He did not contact FSIN inspectors, although their phone number was posted on their website. He was put on the wanted list, as the service decided that he was systematically evading a suspended sentence.'

Navalny replied: 'Comrade captain, do you respect the Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin? ... You said you don't know where I've been since August. Putin said on television that thanks to him I'd been sent to Germany for treatment.'

'I was in a coma, then I was in the ICU,' he continued. 'I sent you medical documents. You had my address and contacts. What else could I have done to tell you where I am? I have a lawyer and my lawyer has a telephone. How could I have informed you better?'

Navalny's lawyer Vadim Kobzev added: 'The whole country, the whole world knew where he was.'

Law enforcement officers detain Navalny supporters close to the court building this morning

A woman is escorted away by riot police this morning

Police drag a demonstrator away by his arms outside the court

Riot police push a demonstrator towards their van

Law enforcement officers detain a man outside the Moscow City Court in Moscow on Tuesday

A Navalny supporter is dragged into a police van on Tuesday morning

Russian policemen detain a Navalny supporter near the Moscow City Court building

A woman is arrested outside the court this morning

Russian police detain a woman close to the courtroom on Tuesday

A man is led away with his hands behind his back outside the courtroom

Navalny supporters are patted down before being loaded onto a waiting police bus

Navalny supporters sit inside a police bus after they were arrested outside the court

Navalny, who in the last decade has emerged as Putin's most prominent domestic critic, believes the 2014 case was retribution by the authorities for his political activities.

They say the Kremlin is now resurrecting it to muzzle him.

His arrest on January 17 sparked massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets to demand his release, chanting slogans against Putin.

Police detained more than 5,750 people during Sunday's rallies, including more than 1,900 in Moscow, the biggest number the nation has seen since Soviet times. Some were beaten.

Most were released after being handed court summons and face fines or jail terms of between seven and 15 days.

Several people faced criminal charges over alleged violence against police.

Navalny's team has called for another demonstration Tuesday outside the Moscow court building.

Police were deployed in force near the court building and cordoned off nearby streets, making random detentions.

While he has never held elected office, Navalny has made a name for himself with anti-graft investigations exposing the wealthy lifestyles of Russia's elite.

Navalny speaks with a member of his defence team (left) and in handcuffs (right)

Navalny smiles at his lawyer inside the courtroom this morning

Riot police and mounted officers patrolling outside the court this morning

Yulia Navalny speaks to police outside the entrance to the court this morning

Yulia Navalny is surrounded by police and reporters outside the court in Moscow on Tuesday

Riot police early this morning prepare for the arrival of Navalny and his supporters

A prison truck arrives at court this morning with Navalny inside

Navalny is seen through the bars of a prison van as he arrives at the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow

Two days after he was placed in pre-trial custody last month, his team released an investigation into an opulent Black Sea residence Navalny claims was given to Putin through a billion-dollar scheme financed by close associates who head state companies.

The video has been viewed over 100 million times, fuelling discontent as ordinary Russians struggle with an economic downturn and the coronavirus pandemic.

Putin insisted last week that neither he nor his relatives own any of the properties mentioned in the video, and his long time confidant, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, claimed that he owns it.

As part of efforts to crush the protests, the authorities have targeted Navalny's associates and activists across the country.

Protesters rally in support of Navalny in Moscow on Sunday

A demonstrator in Moscow on Sunday as thousands gathered to protest against Navalny's detention

His brother Oleg, top ally Lyubov Sobol and several others were put under house arrest for two months and face criminal charges of violating coronavirus restrictions.

The United States and the European Union have called for Navalny's immediate release and denounced police violence on demonstrators.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is expected to raise the issue of Navalny during a visit this week to Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has responded by saying the case is a 'domestic affair' and that 'we will not allow anyone to interfere in it.'
Kevin Lee, new president of Samsung Vina Electronics

The new president of Samsung Vina is a seasoned veteran in the mobile industry with over 30 years of experience in many leadership positions across various markets. Accordingly, Kevin was senior vice president, Verizon Account in Samsung Electronics America; and president of Samsung Electronics Benelux and Greece prior to becoming the president of Samsung Vina Electronics.

Samsung is the worlds leading consumer electronics company, and the quality and features that come with each product all come from Samsungs relentless research and innovation.

Vietnam is going to be in the spotlight in 2021. I want to be a part of Vietnams success stories by capturing opportunities for growth: economic recovery, Internet of Things technology, open business environment and a young, captivated generation of new consumers, said Kevin Lee. I envision Samsung to be the brand that seizes the right opportunities, at the appropriate channels where we provide the most value for consumers. Then, and by only then, we can become the most beloved brand and stand out in a competitive landscape.

Samsungs ultimate goal in the coming years is becoming a brand that has widespread brand recognition across business units, winning consumers hearts and advocacy, and maintain leadership positions in products categories where it has a presence.

In order to reach this goal, Samsungs strategic growth roadmap under Kevin Lees leadership will revolve around the two following main driving forces.

The first focus more on people. For consumers, Samsung Vina will maintain a consistent brand voice allowing consumers to recognise and remember the brand with ease.

Samsung Vina will strengthen strategic partnerships with business partners as well as influencers on a win-win basis. All sides will be working towards a shared goal of creating value and move beyond simply transactional relationships.

The companys staff will receive rigorous training and new talents complementing the team to make sure the workforce remains competitive and receives best-in-class benefits to keep business functioning optimally.

In localities where Samsung Vina operates, the company conducts diverse corporate social responsibility programmes, especially specialised training programmes in line with the governments directive to improve Vietnams digital literacy, and other initiatives that improve overall quality of life.

Second is utilising impactful innovations with on-demand flexibility.In this new normal, consumers behaviours are changing rapidly to adapt to the volatility of their daily lives. Therefore, Samsung Vina is committed to delivering the most meaningful products, and at the same time reimagining operations in this new age.

Under the new leadership, Samsung Vina seeks to maintain its commercial success in Vietnam, expand its sustainable business practices, build stronger and more impactful strategic partnerships, nurture innovation, and become Vietnams premium consumer electronics brand.
Bengaluru, Feb 2 : Many foreign nations have shown interest in procuring indigenous fighter Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday while inaugurating the third production line for the jet in Bengaluru.

The unit was inaugurated a day before the mega Aero India show.

During the inaugural speech, Singh said that under the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan', the country is looking forward to increasing its defence manufacturing capabilities. "India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence," the defence minister said.

"Tejas is not only indigenous, but it is also better than its foreign equivalents on several parameters and also comparatively cheaper. Many countries have shown interest in Tejas. India will achieve the target of Rs 1.75 lakh Cr in the field of defence manufacturing in few years," he said in a tweet.

Last month, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the highest decision-making body for security issues headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the purchase of 83 Tejas fighter jets at a cost of Rs 48,000 crore, including infrastructure, for Indian Air Force.

The CCS approved the largest indigenous defence procurement deal worth about Rs 48,000 crore to strengthen the Indian Air Force's fleet of the home-grown Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)-Tejas.

Out of the 83, HAL is all set to manufacture 73 Mark 1-A, the new variant of the Tejas which will be more potent and effective than the previous Mark 1, 10 will be Mark 1 trainers.

Giving out details about the Cabinet decision, the Defence Ministry had said in a statement: "The Cabinet has approved procurement of 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircrafts and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 Trainer aircrafts at the cost of Rs. 45,696 Crore along with Design and Development of Infrastructure sanctions worth Rs.1,202 Crore." Light Combat Aircraft Mk-1A variant is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern 4+ generation fighter aircraft. It is equipped with critical operational capabilities of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile, Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite and Air to Air Refuelling (AAR), a potent platform to meet the operational requirements of Indian Air Force, IAF.

The LCA-Tejas will be the backbone of the IAF fighter fleet in the years to come. LCA-Tejas incorporates a large number of new technologies many of which were never attempted in India. The indigenous content of LCA-Tejas is 50 per cent in the Mk1A variant which will be enhanced to 60 per cent.

The Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is indigenously designed by the Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

HAL follows a system integrator model in the LCA Mk1A programme and acts as an umbrella organisation, fostering manufacturing and design capabilities in private industry.

The first squadron of the Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas was raised in 2016.
During January, the pandemics deadliest month, Laredo, Texas, held the bleak distinction of having one of the most severe outbreaks of any city in the United States. The death toll in the overwhelmingly Latino city of 277,000 now stands at more than 630  including at least 126 in January alone.

When the virus made its way to the borderlands almost a year ago, Dr. Ricardo Cigarroa could have just hunkered down. He could have focused on his profitable cardiology practice, which has 80 employees. He could have kept quiet.

Instead, Dr. Cigarroa has become a top crusader and the de facto authority on the pandemic along this stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border.

On regional television stations, he calmly explains, in both English and Spanish, how the virus is evolving. Known for making Covid-19 house calls around Laredo in his old Toyota Tacoma pickup, he is interviewed so often that Texas Monthly called him The Dr. Fauci of South Texas, comparing him to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the countrys top infectious disease expert  though Dr. Cigarroa holds no official government portfolio.
An Australian comedian has revealed the three 'over-used' phrases she believes should be left in 2020 - including one she claims makes 'no fricking sense'.

In a recent TikTok video, 'Nikki the Chameleon' said she feels ill when she sees the terms 'rent free' and 'baby daddy' used on social media.

Nikki, who has 23,600 followers and 1.2million 'likes' on the video sharing platform, also said she can't stand hearing Covid being referred to as 'The Coronavirus'.

The rant, which has been viewed 10,300 times since it was uploaded online on January 26, has sparked dozens of amusing responses.

'The term 'baby daddy' confused me. I always assume it's someone not involved with the child, then it turns out to be their husband,' one woman replied.

Australian TikTok star 'Nikki the Chameleon' (pictured) revealed the three terms she believes should be left in 2020

Others weighed in with the terms they would prefer not to hear in 2021.

'I could to without the word "toxic",' one woman wrote.

'Phrases that I don't want to hear are "being an influencer" like it's your job and personality,' added another.

Some hailed Nikki a voice of the people for saying what thousands are thinking.

'I think I love you,' one man said, while a second added: 'So with you.'

Nikki (pictured) said she feels physically ill when she hears her peers refer to the father of their children as their 'baby daddy'

Rent-free

The slang phrase 'rent free' implies someone is unable to stop thinking about a person, thing or situation, usually in a negative context.

'I don't know if it's that one girl, in that one stitch that we've all seen 19million times,' Nikki said.

'No hate to you sister, I'm sure you're getting a lot of notifications, but I don't want to hear that phrase EVER AGAIN.'

Stitch is a feature on TikTok that allows users to clip and integrate scenes from another person's video into their own.

Nikki is referring to a viral video from an American woman named Jess Marciante.

The clip begins with Ms Marciante asking viewers to share an iconic pop culture moment that lives in their head 'rent free'.

The screen then pans to footage of an 18-year-old Justin Bieber and 20-year-old Selena Gomez dancing to the 2012 Carly Rae Jepsen hit, Call Me Maybe, before they are pulled apart by their friend and fellow child star, Ashley Tisdale.

Nikki raged that the term 'rent free' is also illogical because all thoughts are intangible and occur without charge.

The slang phrase 'rent free' implies someone is unable to stop thinking about a person, thing or situation, usually in a negative context (stock image)

Baby daddy

Nikki struggled to verbalise the term 'baby daddy' because she feels it has been so painfully over-used in recent years.

She said she can't understand why so many women refer to their children's father as their 'baby daddy' on social media.

'Just say, the father of my child,' Nikki added. 'Stop it  you're a grown adult.'

Nikki said she feels physically ill when she hears her peers using the term.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines 'baby daddy' as 'the biological father of a woman's child, especially one who is not married to or in a long-term intimate relationship with the mother'.

Nikki said she can't understand why so many women refer to the father of their children as their 'baby daddy' on social media (stock image)

'The Coronavirus'

Nikki took aim at those who call Covid 'The Coronavirus'  including her own grandmother.

She said she shudders when she hears a 'the' placed before the deadly respiratory disease, which has claimed the lives of 2.24million around the world since the outbreak began in late 2019.

'I really just, ughhh,' Nikki said of hearing her grandmother refer to the virus.
Myanmar's military has declared a state of emergency for a year and installed a former general as president, the military-owned Myawaddy television station announced on Monday.



A former general named Myint Swe, who was previously serving as vice president, has been installed as acting president.



However, under the state of emergency military commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing has effectively taken control.



The military announcement came hours after the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and numerous other government officials, along with leaders of smaller parties, were detained in pre-dawn raids across the country.



There were reports of internet and phone lines going down on Monday as soldiers appeared on the streets in major cities.



Army trucks were parked in front of City Hall in Yangon and troops were seen in the country's capital, Naypyitaw.



The country had been gripped by fears of a coup for days amid escalating tensions between the military and the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, with the army refusing to rule out taking over and suggesting it could revoke the constitution.



Regional ministers and student activists were also among those detained, Wai Wai Nu, an activist from Myanmars Rohingya minority, said on Twitter.



The raids came just hours before a newly elected parliament was due to convene in Naypyitaw.



The military had called for a postponement of the new term after claiming to have uncovered potentially widespread voter fraud during the general election in November, though they did not provide any direct evidence.



Suu Kyi rejected the call for a delay and other requests during a high-level meeting with the military last week, according to The Irrawaddy news website, which quoted an unnamed source.



Local election observers said in a statement last week that they found no major irregularities during Novembers poll, which the NLD won by a landslide.



"The results of the elections were credible and reflected the will of the majority of voters," the statement said.



NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt told dpa Monday morning, as he was confirming the detentions of Suu Kyi and other party officials, that he expected security personnel to detain him soon.



"I am waiting for their arrival now," he said. "I dont think anyone can guess what will happen next."



Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said he feared for activists inside the country.



"We are especially concerned for the safety and security of activists and other critics of the military who may have been taken into custody," he said.



"The military should recognize that it will be held accountable for its actions, including any mistreatment in custody and excessive use of force. We urge concerned governments to speak out forcefully against the militarys actions and consider targeted sanctions against those responsible."



Myanmar spent almost five decades under military rule before beginning a political transition in 2010 that saw many political prisoners freed and ushered in partial civilian rule.



Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest and is a Nobel Peace laureate, was among those freed.



She came to power in the country's freest election in decades in 2015 amid a wave of intense optimism sparking widespread hopes for a new democratic era.



She was barred from becoming president under a widely opposed 2008 constitution written by the military, but had been serving as state counsellor, a role akin to prime minister which was created to help her lead through a puppet president.

Source: dpa/GNA









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The Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) castigates the Liberian government for banning the "Costa Show" on D-15 radio, pointing out that the action is a violation of the country's constitution.

This statement was originally published on cemespliberia.org on 18 January 2021.

The Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) says the action of the Government of Liberia, banning the relay of the "Costa Show" on D-15 radio, violates Liberia's constitution and contradicts the country's expressed commitment to the intent of the Declaration of Table Mountain to promote a strong, free and independent press to watch over public institutions.

Liberia was amongst the first group of countries that signed the Declaration of Table Mountain, a continental press freedom agreement that calls on governments to play a germane role in preventing the press from being hindered and punished through 'insult laws' and criminal defamation.

The Government of Liberia on Sunday, January 17, 2021, warned D-15FM, a privately owned commercial station not to relay the "Costa Show", arguing the host and political commentator, Mr. Henry P. Costa, is a "fugitive" from justice, and hence "cannot host radio programs from the United States meant to communicate to the Liberian audience."

Without attempting to divert from its core focus of the current freedom of expression violation and get into the travel document controversy involving Mr. Costa, CEMESP states that Article 13(b) provides that "Every Liberian Citizen shall have the right to leave and to enter Liberia at any time." And that in the case of a crime, Liberia should exercise its extradition treaty agreement with the United States to have Mr. Costa answer to any charges.

More importantly, the government ban on Mr. Costa from broadcasting violates Article 20 of the Constitution of Liberia that guarantees that "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, the security of the person, property, privilege or any other right except as the outcome of a hearing judgment consistent with the provisions laid down in this Constitution and in accordance with due process of law... "

Mr. Costa has never been convicted of any crime in any court and therefore he cannot be deprived of his right to freedom of expression guaranteed in Article 15 of the Constitution, which stipulates that, "Every person shall have the right to freedom of expression, being fully responsible for the abuse thereof" and that "This right shall not be curtailed, restricted or enjoined by government save during an emergency declared in accordance with this Constitution,"

If the Government proceeds to maintain its ban on Mr. Costa, stopping him from broadcasting and or revoke D-15's broadcast license for pursuing its partnership with Mr. Costa to relay his show, the government would be denying Mr. Costa and several other Liberians the "equal opportunity for work and employment". This would be a further violation of Article 18 of Liberia's 1986 constitution.

This ban comes fifteen months after Roots FM, Mr. Costa's radio station, was shut down and the equipment seized by state security for not having a license to operate.

This will become the third visible action by this administration to silence Mr. Henry Costa who many consider a critical voice - firstly with Voice FM (Mr. Costa's former FM operation) being denied a licence; secondly with Roots FM being shut down and vandalized; and lastly, an apparent attempt to stifle a registered owned and licenced station to relay The Costa Show.

CEMESP, therefore, draws the attention of the Government of Liberia to the disadvantage there is for governance as they try to stifle the press, and shut down critical voices.

The government cannot proceed with these old regime tactics after celebrations of the enactment of the Kamara Abdullai Kamara (KAK) press freedom law that abolishes libel and promoting a free press and a society of divergent views.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Media Legal Affairs Liberia By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

Roots FM (The Costa Show) and Punch FM are the two radio stations that have been shut down with no plan by the government to issue them license.

This is evident that it is not within the government's interest to have them broadcast, rather an attempt to keep alternative voices at bay.

The Government of Liberia should do the right thing by revoking all threats and allow the D-15- Costa Show partnership to proceed.

Signed:

Malcolm W. Joseph

Executive Director / CEMESP

Center for Media Studies & Peace Building (CEMESP)
LANSING, MI - Confidence is growing that Michigan education officials will be able to reopen K-12 education in weeks, as long as pandemic numbers remain flat.

Furthermore, school districts across the state are becoming increasingly supportive of in-person learning due to factors such as improved COVID-19 protocols and the need to address pandemic learning loss in students, said state Superintendent Dr. Michael Rice Tuesday.

The desire of school districts to return to in-person learning is directly tied to a list of factors that increase confidence that mitigating pandemic spread is possible, Rice said in a Feb. 2 joint meeting of the state House and Senate education committees.

The flattening case growth rate, the availability of antigen tests for school staff, the beginning of vaccinations, the belief that our mitigation efforts when followed are effective and the Governors encouragement that districts offer the option of in-person instruction on or before March 1, Rice said, adding because of those factors more school districts in January were planning to offer in-person instruction this school year.

Over the last week, Michigan has averaged 1,166 cases and 39 deaths per day. The states latest daily case average is the lowest its been since Oct. 12, while daily deaths average is the lowest since Nov. 7.

Rice cited data from a Jan. 2021 report by the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative that showed districts increasingly planned for in-person learning before the fall surge of COVID-19, during which Whitmer paused in-person learning for high school and college students. Since then, Whitmer made her March 1 reopening recommendation, while House Speaker Rep. Jason Wentworth, R-Clare, last week said his goal is to get kids in the classroom as fast as possible.

Vigilance in maintaining health standards and getting vaccinated will see a lifting of statewide school shutdowns, Rice said.

If we do all of these things and keep the new case surge largely flat, all districts will be able to open by this winter, he said.

Rice also addressed the Department of Educations implementation of the Return to Learn plan approved by Whitmer and the Legislature last year. The legislation provided the framework for virtual education for the 2020-21 school year, allowing for in-person, remote or hybrid teaching models.

Read more: Gov. Whitmer signs back-to-school legislation allowing for virtual learning

In particular, he listed a series of lessons MDE learned about education in the COVID-19 pandemic era. The first was that children have lost time in the classroom and districts need to compensate with more classroom time next school year. That means the minimum number of in-person school days needs to increase from 180, he said.

Due to the pandemic...most students will have received less instruction from March of last year (until now) than any other period of their education, he said. The current minimum number of days was too low before the pandemic. It isnt even close to high-performing nations.

While Rice requested the Legislature approve an increase in days, Senate Education Committee Chair Sen. Lana Theis, R-Brighton, argued that local school districts have the power to do themselves.

Another lesson Rice listed was that certain special populations received less in-person instruction than others, so schools need to focus extra time on catching up those students. By special populations, he referred to certain rural and urban populations, as well as Black and brown children.

Some districts will need to add time for all of their students above a statutorily raised state minimum (of days), he said. Some will need to add time for particular groups of students, or particular students. Some will need to add time for all three.

He emphasized the need to focus on literacy and reading skills, crediting the Legislatures efforts to intervene on childhood literacy and calling it a foundation necessary for the success of young people. He said this could mean bolstered options for summer school, which House Republicans outlined $135 million in funding in their recent COVID-19 recovery plan.

Related: Bipartisan bills aiming to boost child literacy introduced in Michigan Senate

MDE also learned was that virtual education is a supplement to in-person education, Rice said, and should not be the primary means of education.

We need to close the digital divide in the nation, he said.

Additional lessons were that school districts need more funding for food programs, mental health initiatives and staffing for social workers, psychologists and counselors.

One of Rices takeaways that met heavy Republican resistance was his departments efforts to request federal waivers of statewide test assessments for students this year. House Education Chair Rep. Pamela Hornberger, R-Chesterfield Twp., said she was disturbed by this waiver attempt, characterizing it as an attempt to avoid accountability.

There has been in this pandemic no other profession that Ive witnessed that has advocated for lack of accountability in their jobs, she said.

Since districts are still required to conduct benchmark assessments of their students for their own use, Rice argued that statewide testing shouldnt be the tail that wags the dog coming out of a pandemic.

We need to invest more time in our children, he said.

That should mean an investment of $2.1 billion in federal relief money towards next years K-12 budget, said Rep. Darrin Camilleri, D-Browntown. Rice responded by urging the Legislature and Whitmer to bang out a pandemic recovery plan swiftly to get those funds to schools.

The urgency in making a deal is to give districts and teachers time to prepare lesson plans that will make up for learning loss from the pandemic closures, he said.

If this ends up wandering into the summer, you are going to adversely affect children and our ability to serve children moving forward, Rice said. It absolutely has to be done sooner, rather than later.

Hornberger responded that district budgets already have their funding approved after Whitmer and the Legislature approved funding last fall. Michigans education budget is $17.65 billion after Octobers budget deal.

Related: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signs $62.8B state budget

My point is less about the next couple of weeks, Rice responded. It is more about planning for next year, and we begin to plan in the winter for next year. This will be the most complicated school year for which most of us have ever planned in their careers.

Some Democratic colleagues either attended the meeting remotely or left before it was finished due to some Republican members not wearing masks. Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, accused Hornberger and Rep. Brad Paquette, R-Niles, of being anti-maskers.

I felt unsafe to physically attend a joint committee of which I am the Minority Vice Chair today because at least two @MI_Republicans (Hornberger and Paquette) refuse to wear masks at the Michigan Capitol, she tweeted.

Hornberger was asked to leave a room to grab a mask at an October press conference for a GOP-led plan to charge local health departments with enforcing COVID-19 standards. Republican lawmakers have not all adhered to CDC guidelines for COVID-19, such as mask-wearing, social distancing or self-reporting of positive tests.

Read more: Michigan legislature has internal COVID-19 protocols, but lacks buy-in from some GOP lawmakers

Camilleri said he left early, because one Republican member was coughing without a mask. He called the Legislature the least COVID-safe workplace in the state of Michigan.

Read more from MLive:

How COVID-19 has changed the future of education

Virtual learning a nightmare for special education students amid pandemic, parents say

Michigan asking feds to cancel standardized tests after year of inconsistent education

The bilateral trade between Vietnam and Hungary hit a historic record of more than 1 billion USD in 2020. (Photo: baochinhphu.vn)

Hanoi - Bilateral trade between Vietnam and Hungary hit a historic record of more than 1 billion USD in 2020, reflecting the enhanced relationship between the two countries in recent years.

According to the Vietnamese Embassy in Hungary, it was the first time in history two-way trade reached 1.297 billion USD, a rise of 73.88 percent over 2019.

Of the figure, Vietnams exports to Hungary were worth 925 million USD, an increase of 126.69 percent.

The historic record trade demonstrated that the relationship between the two countries was growing stronger than ever, especially since the two countries upgraded relations to a comprehensive partnership in 2018.

The official visit of Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto to Vietnam in August on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the two countries diplomatic ties reflected that Hungary attached much importance to the relationship with Vietnam.

Hungary was also among the first countries in the European Union (EU) to approve the EU  Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and EU  Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) to create a long-term and stable framework to further economic, trade and investment co-operation between Vietnam and the bloc.

In recent years, Vietnam mainly exported computers, electronic products and components, machinery and equipment, phones and components and garment products to Hungary. Hungarys major export products to Vietnam included animal feed and raw material, machinery and equipment and pharmaceutical products.

In 2018, the two-way trade between Vietnam and Hungary topped 645 million USD.

[February 02, 2021] Plume Raises $14M to Scale First Transgender Health Tech Company

DENVER, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Plume , the first and largest health tech company built for the transgender community, today announced a $14 million Series A funding round, led by Craft Ventures with participation from General Catalyst, Slow Ventures and Town Hall Ventures, Andy Slavitt's venture fund. Demand for Plume's services, which are focused on radically increasing access to gender-affirming care, medication and products for the trans community, is growing rapidly. The world's leading digital gender-affirming care service, Plume will use the funds to scale growth nationally, invest in top tier talent specialized in trans health, and expand reach in new markets, making gender-affirming care available to every trans person who needs it. "The trans community has long been denied the healthcare it deserves and Plume is changing that. Our telehealth model allows us to scale quickly in new markets and provide expert care at an affordable price for our members," said Dr. Matthew Wetschler, Plume co-founder and CEO. "Our platform isdesigned to make the journey for those seeking gender-affirming care a seamless and joyous one. Our goal is to transform health care for every trans life."



Since its launch in December 2019, Plume has fundamentally changed how trans folks seek and receive gender-affirming care. Guided by a top notch team of trans and allied executives and clinicians, Plume provides safe, expert, and quality gender-affirming care through the convenience of a smartphone. Plume clinicians uniquely tailor plans to achieve member's individual goals and provide resources, guidance, and support along the way. Few medical services engage as deeply with people's self-expression, identity, and well-being as gender-affirming care for the trans community. Co-founded by Wetschler and Dr. Jerrica Kirkley, Plume Chief Medical Officer, Plume leads the trans digital health category in the US. With Plume, no insurance is necessary. Members pay $99 a month and receive 24/7 access to gender-affirming care, personal consultations, lab monitoring, letters of support, and home delivery of their hormone medications.

"Access to gender-affirming care can be lifesaving for those who need it," said Lainy Painter, Principal at Craft Ventures. "While a small number of clinics have focused on the trans community, the vast majority of patients have been unable to access affordable care. Plume has built a team of providers, care coordinators, and clinical managers that are trans specialists and allies to their patients: they are making possible what has until now been a distant promise of the future. We are excited to partner with this excellent, purpose-driven team." The trans community makes up more than two million Americans. Over 30% of trans people delay health care for fear of discrimination and up to 50% of trans people in urban areas buy medications off the street. Plume eliminates these barriers by making gender-affirming care accessible for anyone who needs it without ever having to step into a doctor's office. For more information visit www.getplume.co . About Plume Plume is the first health technology company built for the transgender community focused on radically increasing access to care, medication and products for the trans community, supporting a bold, authentic and healthy lifestyle. Its vision is to make gender-affirming care available to anyone, anywhere until it transforms healthcare for every trans life. Plume is currently available to over 90% of the trans population across the United States. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/plume-raises-14m-to-scale-first-transgender-health-tech-company-301219833.html SOURCE Plume

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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has reversed his position on allowing restaurant workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine, adding them to the current eligibility phase at the discretion of local heath departments in the state.

Cuomo said on Tuesday that restaurant workers, taxi drivers and people in developmentally disabled facilities could join Phase 1B of vaccination, if local governments allow it.

It came just a day after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a desperate plea to the governor, begging him to allow restaurant workers to join the ranks of eligibility as the city's restaurants prepare to reopen dining at 25 percent capacity on February 14.

Phase 1B, which is currently eligible for vaccination, already includes first responders, teachers, grocery store workers, and anyone over the age of 65, and Cuomo said that with the vaccine supply expected to expand 20 percent in the next month, cities could add the new categories if they choose.

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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has reversed his ban on allowing restaurant workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine, adding them to the current eligibility phase

A restaurant server carries plates away from customers seated outside on Sautrday in New York City. The pandemic continues to burden restaurants and bars as businesses struggle

The first eligible group in New York, Phase 1A, was limited to healthcare workers. Cuomo opened up Phase 1B for vaccination last month.

'Local governments across the state are all in a slightly different population and a different position,' Cuomo said at a press conference.

'If they wanna add taxi drivers, Uber drivers, restaurant workers, they can do that if they think it works within their prioritization locally,' he said. 'They have that flexibility.'

'But that's going to be up to the local government to add if they think it makes sense,' he said.

It was not immediately clear whether de Blasio would begin offering vaccines to New York City's restaurant workers, but his push to allow the move suggested it was likely.

New York's restaurant industry, which has been battered by pandemic restrictions for nearly a year now, cheered the move to vaccinate workers.

'I'll support the vaccines for anyone that works in restaurants -- we are as essential as everyone else who hasn't stopped working,' said Brian Yanez, a server at Italian restaurant Baker & Co in Greenwich Village, in an interview with DailyMail.com.

'A lot of people lost their jobs or business, so I see the vaccines as a stepping stone for many to get jobs back again,' he added.

People walk past Eataly's outdoor dining area near Madison Square Park on Friday in New York City. Restaurant workers are glad they may be able to get the vaccine sooner

Registered Nurse Rita Alba gives a patient the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination site at the Bronx River Community Center in the Bronx on Sunday

Yanez, who has worked in the industry for six years, said he is 'extremely grateful' that he got the call to return work in July, when outdoor dining reopened. 'The restaurant isn't as busy as before, but I'm still happy to get a pay check,' he said.

As winter set in and partial indoor dining shut down again, New York's restaurant industry once again relied on outdoor dining, which has suffered in the colder weather.

'Twenty-five percent is just the start,' Yanez said of the partial re-opening of indoor dining on February 14. 'If they can make it with that until the weather gets a little better then you know, God bless.'

The head of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, which represents the restaurant industry, also applauded the governor's announcement in a statement.

'Restaurant workers have been essential to our city during the pandemic, and we applaud Governor Cuomo for expanding vaccine 1B eligibility requirements to include them,' Executive Director Andrew Rigie said.

The rolling-average of new cases in New York City has been declining from the recent peak

Hospitalizations in the city are also down, as the virus crises eases in New York

Daily virus deaths in New York City, a lagging indicator, remain at high levels

'The NYC Hospitality Alliance is committed to advocating for our industry, and is ready and willing to support vaccine education and outreach to the restaurant community immediately upon its availability to these essential workers,' he added.

Cuomo suggested in his remarks that local health officials should prioritize first responders, teachers and others in Phase 1B, but said that if a city is completing its rollout in those categories it could expand on to restaurant workers and taxi drivers, who had also lobbied heavily for access to the vaccines.

The governor said that the federal government was increasing New York state's vaccine supply by about 20 percent over the level from three weeks ago, after he and other officials had complained of shortages.

So far, New York state has administered 66 percent of the 2.9 million doses it has received, while NYC has administered 63 percent of its 1.1 million doses, according to data from Bloomberg.

Cuomo said that 75 percent of healthcare workers in the state had now received the vaccine.

Cuomo touted plans to open a mass vaccination center at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, which will only be open to Bronx residents.

Cuomo touted plans to open a mass vaccination center at Yankee Stadium (seen in a file photo) in the Bronx, which will only be open to Bronx residents

A map of zip codes in New York City shows the seven-day positivity rate in each

New York state has given about 8 percent of its population at least one vaccine dose

'We're also going to look at targeting vaccinations by locations with high positivity rates. We're going to do a demonstration in the Bronx. The Bronx has a very high positivity rate in New York City and it has had for weeks,' he said.

It came as the virus crisis began to ebb in New York, with statewide infection rate and hospitalizations in decline.

'The holiday surge has tapered off, and we are on the decline,' Cuomo said. 'You see the hospitalization rate is going down.'

As on Monday, the statewide test-positivity rate was 4.95 percent, the lowest it has been since early December.

Statewide hospitalizations are now just above 8,000, a drop of almost 14 percent from the winter surge-high 9,273 people admitted less than two weeks ago.

New daily case averages are down 24 percent from the recent peak, the governor said.

It's the first time since the holiday surge began that all three state core metrics are on the decline, based on a one-week rolling average.
Till a day after Republic Day on January 26, the ongoing farmers' agitation was not being seen as a significant threat to the Bharatiya Janata Party's political capital. The reason being the movement along Delhi's borders for over two months was primarily viewed as a protest by farmers of Punjab, the state where the BJP is a minor political force and had generally depended on its estranged ally Shiromani Akali Dal.

All through the months of December and January as the major thrust of the agitation remained on the Singhu and Tikri borders of Delhi and Haryana, the Kisan Dharna at the Ghazipur Border with Uttar Pradesh was often seen more as a sideshow. In terms of buildup and overall momentum, it was clear that the movement in UP didnt have the Punjab and Haryana sort of passion and anger. For the BJP it was obviously a reason of relief: the party's actual political capital lay invested in Uttar Pradesh and that too heavily in western UP.

Leading the agitation at the Ghazipur border were Naresh and Rakesh Tikait. The brothers from Muzaffarnagar who also head the Baliyan Khap that is ranked as one of the biggest among the Jat community. Natives of Sisauli village, the brothers have emerged from the legacy of their father Mahendra Singh Tikait, the man who kickstarted some major movements, often stroked controversies and was once titled "Mahatma" by a leading English daily.

Over the months and following rapid developments in the past week, the Ghazipur protest site has become a new flashpoint and Rakesh Tikait has emerged as one of the stalwarts of the agitation against the Centre's new farm laws. As attempts to end the dharna by force were washed away in the tears of Rakesh Tikait, it is the BJP which is now feeling the heat.

As massive panchayats of khaps and farmers continue to extend support to the agitation, the protest has gained momentum in UP. The question is can it dent the BJPs poll prospects ahead of assembly elections early next year?

THE TIKAIT LEGACYSTRUGGLES AND POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM

For long the leadership of the Baliyan Khap has been with the Tikait family, the sarpanchi often being hereditary. But it was not till the mid 1980s that someone from the family that hailed from Sisauli village of Muzaffarnagar shot to national fame and became a leader in his own might. It was Chaudhary Mahendra Singh Tikait who rose to become the new voice of farmers in western UP, often also referred to as Jat land.

It was the time when the aura of former Prime Minister, the messiah of kisan, Chaudhary Charan Singh was diminishing and his US-returned son Ajit Singh was not in a position to inherit his fathers legacy. The elder Tikait emerged as the tallest leader of a massive movement on the issue of electricity tariff hike against the Veer Bahadur Singh-led Congress government in the state.

It was also the period which saw the formation of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) under Mahendra Singhs leadership. From then on for many years, Tikait senior led several major campaigns, including the historic 1988 Boat Club protest in the national capital. The movement also saw Rakesh leaving his job as a constable with Delhi Police and jumping into the agitation.

However, with time the claimed political neutrality often faced serious questions. Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, Mahendra Singh Tikait stoked controversy when he issued an appeal to vote in the name of Lord Ram. The years that followed saw Tikait throwing his weight behind political parties depending upon public mood and prevailing equations. In 2007, Rakesh, his son and the present day star, even contested the assembly elections on a Congress ticket. The senior Tikaits major confrontation with BSP supremo and the-then chief minister Mayawati in 2008 was another high point.

2013 MUZAFFARNAGAR RIOTS AND THEREAFTER

The year 2013 came as a defining moment both in the politics of western UP and that of the Tikaits. While Mahendra Tikait was fading from social life because of old age, the politics of Hindu-Muslim communal polarisation was fast gaining ground in the Jat land. It is no secret that the 2013 Kanwal Panchayat, which is alleged to have triggered one of the most gruesome riots that claimed 63 lives, was fully supported by the Baliyan Khap of which the Tikaits were a prominent part.

Since then, all through the general elections of 2014, UP assembly polls of 2017, and then again in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the dominant Jats in western UP have largely remained with the BJP. Rakesh Tikait was quick to learn lessons, when as a Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate from Amroha, he got less than 10,000 votes.

Going by the communitys mood, the Tikaits then supported the BJP in the 2017 and 2019 elections. Though no open endorsements were made, the neutrality clearly was lost, a fact which the Tikaits now publicly lament. Caught in the heat of the ongoing protests, elder brother Naresh and the younger Rakesh now say, Voting for the BJP in 2019 was a mistake.

AHEAD OF 2022 POLLS, HAS BJP HIT A SPEED BUMP?

The teary eyes of Rakesh Tikait, building up of his leadership and growing stature are now also being observed for their possible political and electoral impact. The massive turnouts in the panchayats held in Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor and Meerut have clearly raised concerns for the BJP and given new hope to opposition players like the RLD, Samajwadi Party and Congress.

As khap after khap rallies behind the Tikaits and extends support to the protests against the farm laws, there is an increasing sense of vulnerability within the BJP ahead of 2022 UP assembly polls. The fact that the Muzaffarnagar Panchayat saw the return of shared unity of Hindu and Muslim khaps can be a cause of further concern for the saffron dominance.

However, a lot will depend on how Rakesh and Naresh choose to move forward. Will they continue to remain as distanced from the BJP as they seem at the moment or can the BJP yet again broker a deal? Good personal rapport between the Tikaits and the top leadership of the BJP is not too far back in the past. The answer lies in the future and how the movement goes forward.
San Francisco is a city built by eccentrics, artists and adventurers, and nowhere encapsulates that spirit of wanderlust more than Vesuvio Cafe, the historic cocktail bar thats been watching over North Beach for over 70 years.

I like to think of Vesuvio as the little boat that keeps cutting through the water, owner Janet Clyde says.

Clyde first started working the bar in 1979, when the little alley that runs between it and City Lights bookstore, connecting North Beach and Chinatown, was still called Adler.

It means a lot to me that it means so much to so many people, it keeps me in this.

Shes right, and it means a lot to me, too. Its the only bar Ive ever referred to as the best bar in America, and I stand by the hyperbole.

My fawning over Vesuvio is rooted in fond memories of when I discovered this city. On my first visit to San Francisco from the U.K. in 2004, me and three other young British Kerouac-wannabe visitors, in the midst of a 6,000-mile six-week road trip around the country, spent four nights in a row on 255 Columbus Avenue. Sure, there were other bars and neighborhoods to go visit, but we just wanted to step back through those doors.

We soaked up the city and the whiskey sours and watched life in North Beach pass by from the balcony windows after buying Beat paperbacks from City Lights next door. Is there more of a cliche than reading "Howl" while drinking a Kerouac cocktail on Vesuvio's balcony? There is not, but we didn't care.

On our fourth day, we smoked cigarettes with a man with a magnificent beard in the alley outside who told us he had a campground down the coast and we should come visit. A week later  without even a phone number let alone Google Maps  we somehow made it there and camped with him on the Big Sur river. It was one of those magical adventures that all started at that little bar on Columbus.

But Vesuvio is so much more than one writer's hazy memories; its the heart and soul of San Francisco.

Stepping inside feels like walking into the bowels of a pirate ship adorned with decades of history and loving kitsch, from the giant wicker chair where soused poets read their verses, to the stained glass windows, to the antique Beware of pickpockets and loose women sign under Jack's portrait, to the steep steep bathroom staircase that dives unsteadily into the depths of North Beach as the upper decks balcony spirals around you.

Its truly majestic.

The bar and City Lights together form the hub of the citys literary history and a global mecca for bohemian writing.

Courtesy

Founded in 1948 by artist Henri Lenoir, Vesuvio predates Lawrence Ferlinghettis iconic bookshop by five years. The Examiner once described Lenoir as "the last of the Bohemians." He was by all accounts a true eccentric, described in his final days by the paper as as naughty and as haughty as you want him to be, dapper as ever in his omnipresent black beret and seersucker suit.

Lenoirs Vesuvio soon became a legendary literary hangout for radicals and poets and eccentrics, years before hippies made their way to the Summer of Love. The bar's alchemy imbibed some of the greatest minds of the 20th century. Allen Ginsberg, Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan frequently drank at the cafe. (Ginsberg wrote about Vesuvio's in the 1954 poem "In Vesuvio's Waiting for Sheila.")

Courtesy

On one infamous evening in 1960, Jack Kerouac  already entering his sad, booze-soaked final years  arranged to visit writer Henry Miller in Big Sur. Instead of making his way down the coast, he spent the night drinking in Vesuvio, calling Miller through the night from the bars payphone to apologize for choosing that little corner of San Francisco over the rest of the world, as so many do. The scene was immortalized in one of Kerouacs last great novels, Big Sur.

Adler Alley would be officially named after Jack in 1988.

Lenoir was still hanging around North Beach when Clyde started working behind the bar at Vesuvio in 1979.

In 1997, with the help of the US Small Business Administration, Clyde bought the cafe and building with another family, at the same time Ferlinghetti gained ownership over City Lights long-term rental. The move was a concerted effort to protect the institutions from the corporatization of San Francisco, something that was already a major concern years before tech moved in.

Andrew Chamings

While its still part Beat shrine, the bars clientele have always been a true mix of San Franciscans, from beret-wearing philosophers to working class Italian families to FiDi bros waiting for Broadway strip clubs to open their doors, to regulars who have seen the people, but not the bar, change over its seven decades.

Vesuvio may be most notable for its balcony that circles the bar. Clyde tells me that in the '90s, owners of a restaurant and bar chain in Oregon made a surprise visit.

They were analyzing us, they came by shopping for a Vesuvio, like what makes this place? A few months later she heard of interior balconies showing up in a chain of historic bars on the West Coast.

To her horror, a tourist once told Clyde that the bar looked like a Buca di Beppo. Oh no, it cant look like a Buca di Beppo! she said, but realized that while trends come and go, Vesuvio stays the same.

Beyond its literary bona fides, the cafe has a real sense of humor.

Courtesy

On entering, the words above the doorway read, We are itching to get away from Portland, Oregon! Clyde tells me that this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a century ago when Portland suffered numerous flea infestations, causing many to travel south to wait out the epidemic in San Francisco.

Its a childs paradise, but you have to be 21 to get in, Clyde laughs. Years ago, kids would be occasionally let in during the day, so long as they got out by five.

Clyde believes that what makes the bar special is that it was made by a group of artists, not business people, realizing their vision and having fun.

The bohemians filled this place with surrealism, a sense of humor, whimsy and lightness, and I love them for it, she says. It was how they entertained themselves, they didnt have phones to stare at back then. While some bars were full of these gruff chess-playing businessmen, these guys had this wild sense of humor and creativity."

Courtesy

Clyde's "little boat" has been cutting through some stormy waters of late. Through most of 2020, as a business that didnt serve food (despite the cafe in the name), the bar was forced to shut its doors because of COVID-19 mandates.

More for you Food Can you stock a bar for $100?

In October, they found a creative solution and partnered with Bulgaras Rotisserie and Grill, enabling them to feed and imbibe patrons outside the bar on Kerouac Alley, until the second shutdown hit in December.

While Vesuvio's current situation is a battle, it's not as dire as many city bars, largely due to the purchase of the building by the management in the '90s.

Clyde is currently assessing if they can continue to operate in the alley, now outdoor dining has reopened in San Francisco. We just want to open safely; we dont want to contribute to the spread of this thing.

Before the pandemic, Clyde says that high school class literary tours sometimes came by Kerouac Alley to discuss the bar, and shed go out and talk to the kids.

Id tell them that they can make a Vesuvio, too! The people who made this place harnessed their artistic vision, thats what created this, they made it their own. I asked the kids what their vision is and tell them that they can build it, she says.

Courtesy

I received a thank-you note saying, I can't wait to be 21 so I can hang out in there, she laughs, but its just a little cocktail bar, were not running the Pentagon here.

It is just a little cocktail bar, but little cocktail bars are maybe more important than ever after a year that saw the permanent closure of more than 100 bars and restaurants in the city.

There arent many greater San Francisco moments than walking out of its doors at dusk onto Columbus with a little whiskey sour buzz, watching the light fall over the Sentinel building under the Transamerica Pyramid, and breathing in the city before grabbing a slice from Golden Boy Pizza.

In this cold dark February of 2021, those doors are still shuttered, and beautiful but bleak poetry now covers the windows. The last poem on the Columbus-facing window is an iconic one written by a man who in his day held court inside the bar, Dylan Thomas.

Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

My favorite bar in America has heeded his words for 73 years.

---

Its North Beach Month at SFGATE. Well be diving deep into the neighborhood for the entirety of February as part of a new series where well be highlighting a different corner of San Francisco every month this year. Catch up on last months stories here.
The company expects the release to take place early in the second quarter of 2021 in partnership with its Latin America cybersecurity distributor Micronet

GlobeX is seeing a surge in demand and inquiries for its secure and private communications solutions amid new measures that reduce privacy

Ltd ( ) ( ) said Tuesday that it is preparing to launch its Sekur and SekurSafe communications products in Colombia and Panama.

The Toronto and New York-based company said it expects the release to take place early in the second quarter of 2021 in partnership with Micronet, its Latin America cybersecurity distributor.

Micronet, which is headquartered in Spain, manages a network of 3,000 resellers in 11 countries through Central and Latin America.

"We are excited to launch our secure solutions with Micronet, starting with Colombia and Panama, GlobeX CEO Alain Ghiai said in a statement.

COVID-19 has delayed our launch and we are grateful to Micronet as they have demonstrated a serious effort to start the launch. Micronet has dedicated a staff of sales and cybersecurity experts in order to increase the success of our distribution throughout Micronet. Colombia and Panama are a great start and we look forward to years of continued growth in the Latin American continent with Micronet.

As GlobeX is not connected to the major cloud platforms like AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud, it can offer a truly independent, private and secure means of communications through secure messaging, secure voice record transfer, secure voice and video conferencing, and secure email through its proprietary technology and secure servers based in Switzerland.

We have put a lot of resources in order to translate our entire platform in Spanish language for the Sekur and SekurSafe solutions, as we plan to expand to several countries in Central and Latin America in the coming years, Ghiai added.

The CEO also said GlobeX is seeing a surge in demand and inquiries for its secure and private communications solutions amid new measures that reduce privacy on major applications like Facebook and WhatsApp.

GlobeX said it will reveal full pricing details for the Latin American market at the time of launch.

Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas
Many countries have shown interest in India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday while inaugurating the third production line for the fighter jet in Bengaluru.

The LCA unit was inaugurated a day before the mega Aero India show.

During his inaugural speech, Rajnath Singh said that under the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan', the country looks forward to increase its defence manufacturing capabilities. "India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence needs," the Minister said.

"Tejas is not only indigenous, but also better than its foreign equivalents on several parameters and also comparatively cheaper. Many countries have shown interest in Tejas. India will achieve the target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore in defence manufacturing in a few years," he said in a tweet.

Last month, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the highest decision-making body for security-related issues and headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the purchase of 83 Tejas fighter jets at a cost of Rs 48,000 crore, including infrastructure, for the Indian Air Force.

The CCS approved the largest indigenous defence procurement deal to strengthen the IAF fleet of home-grown LCA.

Of the 83, HAL is all set to manufacture 73 Mark 1-A, the new variant of the Tejas which will be more potent and effective than the previous Mark-1. Ten others will be Mark-1 trainers.

Giving details about the Cabinet decision, the Defence Ministry had said in a statement: "The Cabinet has approved procurement of 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircraft and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 trainer aircraft at the cost of Rs. 45,696 crore along with design and development of infrastructure sanctions worth Rs 1,202 crore."

Light Combat Aircraft Mk-1A variant is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern 4+ generation fighter aircraft. It is equipped with critical operational capabilities of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile, Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite and Air to Air Refuelling (AAR), a potent platform to meet the operational requirements of Indian Air Force.

The LCA will be the backbone of the IAF fighters in the years to come. LCA Tejas incorporates a large number of new technologies many of which were never attempted in India. The indigenous content of LCA Tejas is 50 per cent in the Mk-1A variant which will be enhanced to 60 per cent.

The Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is indigenously designed by the Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

HAL follows a system integrator model in the LCA Mk-1A programme and acts as an umbrella organisation, fostering manufacturing and design capabilities in private industry.

The 83 LCA are in addition to 40 LCA Mark-1, for which the IAF placed an order in 2016 with HAL so as to set up two squadrons of the fighter jets at its Sulur air base in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore. The first LCA squadron was raised in 2016.

The HAL has since delivered 20 Tejas and is in the process of delivering the remaining 20.

"The phase-1 of the facility getting ready on 35 acres of land will enable us to enhance its production capacity to 16 from 8 aircraft every year," said HAL Chairman R Madhavan.

Defence Production Secretary Raj Kumar, Karnataka Minister Arvind Limbavali, Deputy Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sandeep Singh and Director General (Aero) Tessy Thomas were present at the inaugural event.

"We will deliver the 83 aircraft to the IAF over a decade, commencing 36 months from contract signing, with 16 fighters in a year," said the company in a statement here.

The LCA production programme will catalyse the aerospace ecosystem in the country and enable us to fulfil the Prime Minister's vision for 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', the statement added.
Of all those patients who pass through our public hospitals, 99.999 per cent will have a positive outcome, a spokesperson said. Just 0.001 per cent of all patients discharged from hospital will be involved in a clinical incident which results in serious patient harm, known as a sentinel event. The spokesperson said the NSW government has built or upgraded more than 130 hospitals and health facilities since 2011, with a further 80 projects under way and more than two-thirds of those in rural and regional areas. A further 8300 frontline staff were being added this term of government with 45 per cent going to the regions, the spokesperson said. The submissions - heavily redacted by the inquirys staff - include multiple letters from whistleblowing nurses and doctors fearful of retribution from management if they are publicly named.

An anaesthetist from Lismore Base Hospital recounted their shock at the horrendous workload of two junior nurses, describing the ward as looking like a mini-tornado had gone through. It would have taken an Olympic effort to get through all that and have clean, pain-free, well-fed and hydrated patients, never mind their medications, the anaesthetist said. One nurse said the situation was desperate at Batemans Bay and Moruya hospitals on the South Coast. The hospitals were so understaffed nurses left their shifts emotionally and physically shattered. You should come down here and shadow us  youll be incredibly proud of us, but also embarrassed that you are letting us work in these conditions. Patients in regional areas turn up to the emergency departments where no doctors are physically present, leaving treatment via videolink the only option.

A woman said her son had been left with a deformity after a nurse at Cobar Hospital had to apply a plaster to his broken hand, while the doctor watched via videolink. His hand has healed with a large knuckle protruding from the side, the parent said. The same resident said her husband was misdiagnosed as having an anxiety attack when he attended Cobar Hospital with blood clots in his lungs. Locals are complaining about Cobar Hospital, which they claim doesnt meet the communitys health needs. Credit:Janie Barrett Condobolin resident Allan Small told the inquiry a virtual doctor in emergency misdiagnosed his appendicitis as gastro.

This potentially fatal mistake I believe could have been averted if there was a doctor in person, he said. Coolah hospital has been without a doctor since January, a situation branded a disaster by locals. One community member said they were offered a telehealth doctor when they turned up at the hospital with a lacerated foot. I have no idea how the doctor through a screen was going to stitch my foot, they said. After over an hour of the nurse trying to stop the bleeding I was sent home with this injury unstitched.

I feel that this is a totally unacceptable level of healthcare in Australia. Glen Innes mayor Carol Sparks said a young woman recently died from what was believed to be an inadequate assessment on arriving at the local hospital. People from the city laugh when we say we dont have a doctor at our hospital, she said. Mid-Western Regional Council said it was extremely concerned about the use of telehealth as the default for emergency treatment. Glen Innes mayor Carol Sparks.

Gunnedah Council surveyed its employees and 91 per cent rated the availability of medical services in the town as bad or terrible. General manager Eric Groth said the situation was a handbrake on the regions growth. One man described waiting 15 months for a colonoscopy at Broken Hill Hospital after an urgent referral due to abnormal test results. It was only after he turned up bleeding at emergency that he underwent the procedure, which uncovered bowel cancer. If this was seen to back in 2019 when it was URGENT, I wouldnt be looking at all this pain, suffering and anguish, he wrote. Richard Doyle, 92, was sent home from Kempsey Hospital with a broken neck after the doctor misread his X-ray.

Loading His plight was detailed by the Macleay Valley Branch of the ALP, which said: The hospital buildings are first class but are understaffed and under-resourced. A woman told the inquiry she had a caesarean in agony at Griffith Base Hospital because the anaesthetic didnt work. My anaesthetist gave me the warnings about the possible complications  all the while telling me how tired he was and that he had been on the ward for nearly 24 hours, she said. She would never forgive the hospital for the trauma the ordeal caused.

The inquiry heard Griffith Base Hospital requested another patients relatives bring their own bandages to dress a leg wound, which they thought seemed ridiculous. The Council of the Ageing said some patients were discharged late at night with scant public transport options and unable to afford the expense of a taxi. It was aware of a situation where an older woman began walking five kilometres home until she was picked up by a passer-by. One complainant took her elderly mother to Gulgong Hospital, where she was seen by three telehealth doctors in three days for an infected bedsore. The third doctor suggested going home and let nature take its course.
People in Laois and all over Ireland are being urged to force the incidence of Covid-19 down further by the doctor who has lead the fight against the pandemic but has had to announce the worst daily death toll from the disease in Ireland today.

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, made a plea to the people in the wake of confirmation by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) that February 2 marked the day when a new record was set for the number of lives lost to the virus.

NPHET announced the deaths of 101 people across the country.

This is the highest number of deaths we have reported on any single day of the COVID-19 pandemic so far," said Dr Holohan in his daily statement.

He said the deaths are the result of the third wave which began at Christmas.

"The high mortality we are experiencing as a country at the moment is related to the surge of infection we saw several weeks ago, and the hospitalisations and admissions to ICU that followed as a direct result," he said.

YOUR POSITIVE ACTIONS MATTER...PLEASE KEEP IT UP

He said more progress has to be made to reduce the number of deaths by stemming the tide.

Although we have seen great improvement in the level of infection being reported, we have a long way to go and incidence needs to decline much further. The best way to honour those who have died from COVID-19, and those who loved them or provided care for them, is to follow the public health advice. Stay at home unless absolutely necessary, and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

What we can have control over today is the outlook of this disease in the weeks to come. Your positive actions matter and they add up at a collective level. Please keep it up, he said.
Revolutionary Payment App added to leading casino and sportsbook payment offering

LONDON, Feb. 02, 2021as a payment provider to give a truly secure and enjoyable banking alternative for their sportsbook and casino customers.



With multiple different payment options available, NetBet is continually looking at new and innovative ways to improve its customer experience and allow its players to enjoy its products in a safe and secure environment. By offering multi-awarding MuchBetter as a payment method, NetBet is maintaining its reputation as a leading provider of revolutionary software for its players.

MuchBetter's industry-leading eWallet goes further than others on the market, to make payments easy and protect sensitive customer information. Users can simply deposit and play using the MuchBetter app on their phone, meaning no more redirects, cumbersome passwords, and extra devices to carry. Also, MuchBetter accounts are protected with device pairing, touch ID, dynamic security codes, and a transaction review system to ensure that only legitimate transactions go through.

NetBet's Head of Payments Ana Stef said: "We're excited to offer MuchBetter for our players. This payment method is the leader in eWallet solutions and it shows our customers that we are always looking at ways to improve their gaming experience with the best features in the market."

"We believe that MuchBetter is the most secure iGaming eWallet on the market," said MuchBetter CEO, Israel Rosenthal. "It's why so many of the world's top gaming brands, including NetBet, trust us to deliver their payments. However, we've never let security come at the expense of usability. The MuchBetter user experience was also a key requirement for NetBet when they analysed potential new payment partners."

For more information contact press@netbet.com .

Notes to editors:

About NetBet

NetBet was established in 2001 and has held a European license from Malta since 2006, which has allowed the online sportsbook and casino to prosper. In addition to the sportsbook and casino, there are also other products available including Poker, Vegas, Lotto, and Live Casino. The site is held in high esteem across Europe due to its accessibility in multiple languages and a wide selection of games and betting markets.

About MuchBetter

MuchBetter, operated by MIR Limited UK Ltd, an FCA-licensed and regulated e-money issuer, is the new payments application for iGaming. Available on Android and iOS, MuchBetter make effortless online, offline and contactless payments throughout EMEA. Funds can be transferred and received in real-time and MuchBetter's unique commercial model increases operator revenues while its anti-fraud features and use of best in class technology reduces risk.
New Delhi, Feb 2 : Twitter, the social media giant, has stunned the Chinese propaganda machine. Recently, it has gone the extra mile to pick up Chinese state-sponsored tweets, and alerted users about the mischief. Using sophisticated algorithms, Twitter has suitably stamped these tweets as products of "CHINESE STATE AFFILIATED MEDIA".

The appellation has gone a long way in alerting Twitter users that they are encountering propaganda material marshalled by the Chinese authoritarian state. As a result, a sharp decline in viewership of these tweets has been registered.

Twitter could embed suitable filters, only after fully understanding the Chinese modus operandi for expanding Beijing's propaganda footprint.

According to a research report published by ProPublica, a New York based non-profit organisation that publishes investigative journalism in public interest, the Chinese web of deception to hijack valid Twitter accounts begins fairly innocuously. The first step is to funnel content in Mandarin language in a person's Twitter Account. The subscriber, who is located away from mainland China, at this point, assumes that his or her account has been hacked. Consequently, the person opens a replacement account.

Phase two of the operation begins now, after the valid account has been hijacked.

With the follower base already built by the previous user, the valid account then begins tweeting propaganda steered by the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The subjects used in the hijacked accounts can vary. For instance, the account can be used to promote the China made vaccine, while deriding and questioning the safety of West made jabs to counter coronavirus. Theories of the Covid-19 pandemic starting from somewhere other than China are floated. The Hong Kong Police handling of the protests is praised. By the end of the month, the account gets a Chinese name and bio and the transformation is complete.

The ProPublica report further states that a thorough examination of interconnected accounts suggests that OneSight, an internet marketing company is covertly pulling the strings of the operation.

Records indicate OneSight holds a contract to boost the Twitter following of China News Service - one of the largest state-owned news agency. Some of the bot accounts owned by this internet marketing company are eerily similar to legitimate Western News Agency's Twitter accounts. Masquerading as a news agency helps provide an element of authenticity to the propaganda spread by these accounts.

By 2019, Twitter began its fightback, taking concrete steps to combat the misuse of its platform. In this year, it enacted a policy to stop state-linked accounts from promoting and advertising tweets on their plank. Following through with its decision it suspended around 5,000 accounts suspected of being controlled by the Chinese state, and banned 2,00,000 related accounts that are not very active. It also attached a 'Chinese state affiliated media' to accounts run by official mouthpieces of the party and the journalists working for them.

Tweets by newspapers such as China Daily and CPC mouthpiece People's Daily, global broadcaster CGTN and Xinhua, an official news agency, now appear with the same. Their tweets have also been restricted from being displayed as the 'top' result among searches.

In doing so, Twitter was attuning with Facebook, which had a similar policy in place from June 2020. According to a report by Stanford's Cyber Observatory Centre, labelling tweets has had a significant impact on the reach of the tweets-likes and retweets have declined by 20% and 30% respectively.

Advanced tools like a Machine Learning Algorithm have been deployed by Twitter to identify illegitimate accounts. Engagement with these fake accounts has also hit an unprecedented low. An analysis of 35,00,000 tweets by Amal Sinha, an independent researcher suggests that 98.22 per cent of the posts do not receive any likes and retweets. Recently these accounts began tweeting pornography in an attempt to increase engagement.

A report published by Jordan Schneider, an independent researcher and data scientist based in New York makes it evident that the people controlling these accounts are given weekends off. Data suggests an average twitter user increases their engagement during the weekends while the bot accounts cease tweeting.

There is also evidence that suggests that tweet volume by these accounts increases during Chinese standard time, even reducing during their lunch hours. This feature signals that the propaganda tweets are likely to have a Chinese origin.

The bot accounts also lack political nuance. For example, accounts claiming to live in Hong Kong usually write in Simplified Chinese Characters which is widely used in China but not Hong Kong.

With its propaganda failing to have an impact on social media, the CPC has now set its sight on popular Chinese YouTubers, using its carrot and stick policy to influence the content. There was an attempt to rope in YouTubers such as Winston Frederick Sterzel, also known by his YouTube pseudonym SerpentZA-- a South African vlogger and video producer who lived in Shenzhen in the Guangdong province of China for 14 years-and Matthew Tye in the project. Their refusal to accept the CPC's request was met with relentless harassment, prompting them to leave the country. Finally, Sterzel moved to Los Angeles in 2019.

(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
AS the white pirogue drifted in the waters just off Belle Garden in Tobago early yesterday morning, fishermen working nearby knew something was wrong.

What they saw in the small vessel stunned them.

Fourteen bodies, all of them male, along with a skull and other skeletal remains, were piled inside the vessel as it floated four miles off Belle Garden, police confirmed.

The bodies were all clad in tracksuits and green rain jackets and were severely decomposed, police investigators said.
In his message, King Norodom Sihamoni congratulated Nguyen Phu Trong on his re-election as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee for 13th tenure.

The King said he believes that under the sound leadership of Party General Secretary and State President Trong, Vietnam will gain greater achievements, grow strongly and advance in many spheres, and continue to hold an important role and position in the region and the world at large.

He hoped Vietnam and Cambodia would have closer ties and maintain peace, stability, cooperation and development.

The King wished the Vietnamese top leader good health and more attainments while serving the nation and people.

In his message, Hun Sen said Trongs re-election mirrors the trust of the CPV Party and the people of Vietnam in his capacity and leadership in socio-economic development, as well as maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in Vietnam.

Hun Sen expressed his firm belief that under Trongs leadership, the CPV will successfully implement guidelines, policies and targets set by the 13th National Party Congress.

During the new tenure, I believe that the traditional friendship, solidarity and close cooperation between the Cambodian People's Party and the Communist Party of Vietnam will be further enhanced and deepened, for the sake of the two countries and their peoples, he said.



SAN DIEGO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- People worldwide have been wearing masks, yet many have been infected and died. Most masks do not protect the wearer, creating a false sense of security. The current morbidity rate is not surprising given how people guard their lives by wearing masks that provide little to no protection.

Antonio Stefano Design AS MASKS HELP ABUSED DOGS

People don't realize just how risky disposable masks can be. Most are water-resistant; if water can't get through them, neither can air; people are inhaling and exhaling contaminated air from above the nose and below the chin. Regrettably, even hospitals and retirement facilities use these masks yet remain surprised when people wearing them are still contracting COVID or dying.

Antonio Stefano, a San Diego-based clothing brand, has engineered a mask that can help save lives. The clothing design firm was originally founded to pay veterinary bills for abused dogs, and launched with hand-made Italian neckties that have been sold worldwide. Stefano Riznyk, the CEO, has backgrounds in biochemistry and genetics, as well as fashion. Combining these disciplines, he designed a mask that protects the wearer; they are 100% hand-made in the USA. The designs, however, emanate from Lake Como, where he created the looks that can even be worn when visiting royalty.



The 3-layer mask has been professionally tested and has a 99.3% bacterial filtration rate. In addition, it holds a PM 2.5 filter, available on Amazon, that would add another 5 layers of protection, for a total of 8. Surprisingly, it does not impair breathing much; one can even jog with all 8 layers, as Stefano does. The outer layer is highly wicking, repelling water droplets that contain COVID, while the layer closest to the mouth is a very soft and comfortable cotton, perfect for all-day wear.

Antonio Stefano will transfer at least 75% of net profits to a non-profit to pay veterinary bills for abused dogs. With frustrations created by COVID isolation, dog abuse is an increasing, yet unaddressed crisis of its own. Designed for efficacy, fashion, and charity, Antonio Stefano masks is meant save the lives of both people and dogs. The company website is www.AntonioStefano.com.

Contact: Amana Berkshire

[email protected]

(858) 964-0625

4225 Executive Square, Suite 600

La Jolla, CA 92037

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An experienced rock climber fell off a 95-foot cliff to his death at Death Valley National Park in California.

Justin Ibershoff, 38, was descending Deimos Canyon on Saturday when he stepped on a loose rock and triggered a rockslide, according to the National Park Service.

The rockslide then pushed Ibershoff past two of his climbing companions and over the edge of a dry fall.

His body was recovered on Sunday by an Inyo County search-and-rescue team and a California Highway Patrol helicopter.

Justin Ibershoff, 38, (pictured) fell off a 95-foot cliff to his death at Death Valley National Park

Ibershoff was descending Deimos Canyon (pictured) on Saturday when he apparently stepped on a loose rock and triggered a rockslide, according to the National Park Service

Officials advised climbers to avoid the upper section of Deimos County because the rock slide left it unstable.

The six friends who were out climbing with Ibershoff had used an emergency beacon to alert authorities immediately after he fell, but by the time they found him he was already dead.

Ibershoff, who lived in Los Angeles, was described by loved ones as a 'very experienced' canyoneer and longtime member of the Rim of the World Climbing Club (ROWCC).

The amateur climbing club paid tribute to Ibershoff in a Facebook post on Monday.

'Justin has been an active member for many years and made many friendships during that time,' the statement read.

'Justin is not only an accomplished rock climber, but a lover of the outdoors and nature.

'He was an active mountaineer, canyoneer, peak bagger, split boarder, and spent much time romping around the Eastern Sierra.'

Ibershoff, who lived in Los Angeles, was described by loved ones as a 'very experienced' canyoneer and longtime member of the Rim of the World Climbing Club (ROWCC)

ROWCC President Brad MacArthur remembered Ibershoff as 'one of the nicest people I have ever met, one of the safest rock climbers I knew, and an overall good human being'

ROWCC President Brad MacArthur remembered Ibershoff as 'one of the nicest people I have ever met, one of the safest rock climbers I knew, and an overall good human being'.

'He is quiet and humble, but when that smirky smile would sweep across his face you just knew he was going to say something hilarious with his subtle dry sense of humor,' MacArthur said in the Facebook post.

'He had so much respect for the mountains and enjoyed what they have to offer.'

'I am so sad to lose a good friend. The world has lost a truly good human being. The club has lost a valued member,' MacArthur concluded.
Travelers are seen wearing masks at the international arrivals area at the Toronto Pearson Airport in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 26, 2020. (Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images)

Mandatory COVID-19 Testing Begins at Toronto Airport as More Variant Cases Confirmed

A rule requiring international travellers landing at Ontarios largest airport to take a COVID-19 test came into effect Monday amid growing concern over vaccine deliveries and new reported cases of contagious COVID-19 variants.

The Ontario government implemented the measure at Torontos Pearson International Airport as a stopgap while waiting for a similar federal program announced last week to get off the ground. Premier Doug Ford has praised Ottawa for announcing a new testing plan but said Ontario will conduct its own traveller testing until the federal program kicks in.

Canadas chief public health officer said new COVID-19 cases have been trending downward across the country in recent days, but she is warning its crucial to keep strong measures in place to maintain the tendency.

With still elevated daily case counts and high rates of infection across all age groups, the risk remains that trends could reverse quickly, and some areas of the country are seeing increased activity, Theresa Tam said in a statement.

Quebec reported fewer than 1,000 daily COVID-19 infections Monday for the first time since early November, while Ontario reported 1,969 cases due to what Health Minister Christine Elliott describes as a data catch-up that includes some previously unreported cases.

But authorities have said the reports of a contagious variant spreading in parts of Ontario as well as a slowdown in national vaccine deliveries justify the need for tough new travel restrictions.

Ontario has recorded dozens of cases of the U.K. variant of COVID-19, and on Monday it reported its first case of a variant that emerged in South Africa late last year. A small number of cases have already been confirmed in other Canadian provinces, including Alberta and British Columbia.

The provinces chief medical officer said the case was found in Peel Region in a person who did not have a known history of travel or any known contact with someone who has travelled.

Both York Region and Toronto Public Heath reported new cases of the U.K. variant on Monday, including two linked to an outbreak at a meat processing facility.

Canadas new travel rules, expected to take effect soon, include a requirement that inbound travellers spend the first three days of their quarantine at a supervised hotel and take a COVID-19 test at their own expense.

The rules are causing anxiety and frustration for Canadians currently abroad, according to Evan Rachkovsky, a spokesman for the Canadian Snowbird Association.

He said the group is supportive of mandatory COVID-19 testing at points of entry but is opposed to the hotel quarantine measure, which is expected to cost travellers about $2,000 each.

We believe its unreasonable, and we believe that this is going to be a financial hardship for many Canadians that are currently outside of the country, he said, adding that more than 30,000 of the groups approximately 110,000 members are currently outside of Canada.

He said there are other unanswered questions, including whether the rules will apply to land crossings and whether travellers pets will be accepted at the government-approved hotels.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last week that Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat had agreed to suspend service to Mexico and the Caribbean as of Sunday. The restriction will last until April 30, and Trudeau said the airlines will help arrange the return of customers currently outside the country.

Spokespeople for Air Canada and WestJet confirmed that the airlines were operating one-way flights from those destinations for the next week or two to help people get home.

Aviation experts have warned that the suspension of flights could have widespread repercussions for Canadas beleaguered airline sector and force permanent closures for airports and travel agencies.

Meanwhile, Canadas international trade minister told a parliamentary committee on Monday that shes worried about new European export controls, even though European leaders have given assurances that new export controls on COVID-19 vaccines wont stop shipments destined for Canada.

Mary Ng told MPs that Canada has been promised multiple times, including by the president of the European Commission and the trade and health commissioners, that Canadas vaccine shipments will continue as expected.

However, she said those promises have not been put in writing and acknowledged the export controls are concerning.

All Canadas doses of the COVID-19 vaccines from both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are made in and shipped from Europe. Both companies have recently announced slowdowns in their vaccine delivery schedule due to production delays.

At least three other companies, Novavax, Astra-Zeneca and Johnson and Johnson, have launched the process of having Health Canada approve their vaccines.

The death toll from the pandemic showed little signs of abating Monday, a day after Canada crossed the threshold of 20,000 deaths. Ontario reported another 36 deaths, Quebec reported 32, Manitoba had three and two people in Saskatchewan died from the virus.

By Morgan Lowrie
The new US Secretary of State accuses Beijing of violating its commitments for the territorys autonomy. The prosecutor wants to deny bail to the magnate: the doubts of the Court of Appeal. Criticism of Carrie Lam for having met the territorys highest judge shortly before the hearing.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The United States must give refuge to dissidents who contest the repression underway in the former British colony, says the new US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He was speaking yesterday immediately after democracy activist and tycoon Jimmy Lai was returned to prison.

In his first interview as the head of US diplomacy, Blinken condemned the security law, a tool Beijing uses to silence Hong Kong's democratic front. He pointed out that China has "shamefully" violated its commitments with Great Britain. London returned the city to the Chinese in 1997; Beijing agreed to recognize a broad autonomy to the city until 2047 in compliance with the principle "one country, two systems".

Yesterday the Final Court of Appeal took some time to decide on the request for bail presented by Lai. On December 23, the High Court had ordered his release on bail, granting him house arrest. An intermediate court overturned the decision on December 31 at the request of the Justice Department.

The 73-year-old owner of the Apple Daily newspaper - a critical voice of the city and Beijing leadership - is accused of "collusion" with foreign forces, a crime under the national security law. The prosecution formulated the charges based on the interviews that Lai granted to newspapers from other countries. His alleged call on foreign governments to sanction Hong Kong leaders for their actions against the democratic movement is also singled out. The trial is scheduled to begin on April 16: he faces life imprisonment.

Three of the five appellate judges expressed reservations about the prosecution's position that crimes that threaten national security do not involve the granting of bail. As noted by Lai's lawyer, general principles such as the presumption of innocence and the right to freedom in assessing the case must be taken into account, so it is up to the investigators to prove that the billionaire could flee or tamper with evidence once released.

The Final Court of Appeal is under pressure for Lai's trial. Carrie Lam, pro-Beijing chief of the city executive, came under fire from her critics after meeting with the president of the court a few days before yesterdays hearing. Lam defended herself by saying that she did not interfere in any case and that it is her prerogative to speak with the highest judicial authority of the city.

Employers have asked the national industrial umpire to let retail and hospitality workers trade their penalty rates for higher wages in a move they say will fix pay problems that new data suggests affects a third of businesses in the sectors.

The Fair Work Commission is working to simplify the awards that contain minimum pay rates and employment conditions for the sectors 1.3 million workers at the urging of Attorney-General Christian Porter.

The Restaurant and Catering Association wants rules to allow chefs to be paid a flat rate. Credit:Jim Rice

Retail and hospitality employer groups say their proposal would encourage businesses to hire more workers as it would simplify pay calculations and reduce fears of being hit with underpayment claims, but Labor and unions view it as a scheme to cut pay.

In question time on Tuesday, the Opposition argued workers who traded their penalty rates for higher base wages could be up to $10,179 a year worse off under an exemption rate proposal advanced by retail associations.
[February 02, 2021] Building a Prosperous Partner Ecosystem, H3C Initiates Channel Kickoff 2021 in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- H3C, a leader in digital solutions has initiated its first virtual event of the year here in Malaysia -- H3C Channel Kickoff 2021, Moving your business forward. H3C global business has seen a 166% year-on-year (YoY) of revenue growth. So far, H3C Channels has certified 355 partners and 245 engineers. In Malaysia, H3C has also successfully certified more than 60 partners and at least 100 engineers. With the theme of "Moving your business forward", the virtual event encourages global partners to embrace new challenges and seize opportunities alike, to create more business value with H3C in the new year. Representatives of local partners and industry customers in Malaysia have been invited to attend the virtual event. Gary Huang, President of the International Business and Senior Vice President of H3C, said "As the foothold of Southeast Asian economic development, Malaysia is actively implementing its digital transformation vision. H3C will continue to increase investment in the local market development in Malaysia, providing a full range of services from end-to-end integrated solutions to top-level design, and work closely with ecological partners to continue to optimize the global market layout to help global customers realize digital transformation." During the virtual event, H3C highly affirmed its Malaysian partners with the 2020 Partners Awards. The awards were given out by H3C to appreciate its partners' contribution in the past year. In the ceremony, eight of its Malaysian partners were rewarded the Top Sales Elite Award, Industrial Market Development Award, Solutio Sales Elite Award, Top Service Sales and Delivery Award, and lastly, the Best Collaboration Award.



According to one of the representatives of the award-winning partner, "2020 is indeed a difficult year. In order to overcome the challenges brought by the epidemic, we have carried out closer cooperation with H3C, achieved major breakthroughs in many fields, and achieved good performance. We are looking to constantly explore new opportunities to expand digitalization into broader and deeper fields, hand in hand with H3C to achieve business growth." During the virtual event, H3C highlighted its digital solutions for various sectors including government, education, healthcare, finance, and etc. The company's AI-oriented digital solutions have an ABC converged platform consisting of a seer network with intelligent products which can provide a comprehensive intelligent solution from H3C's cloud, to the network, to their end-users. The company also introduced a series of new products, including the WW First AI-Powered Aggregation Router.

H3C's HCI (Hyper-Converged Infrastructure) products UIS (Unified Infrastructure System) 7.0 (seventh generation) have recently won two major awards in the field of financial technology (fintech) for their outstanding contributions in promoting financial informatisation applications and improvements in financial services. In partnership with Spirent, the global-leading provider of automated tests and solutions for networks, H3C has successfully completed the industry's first-ever, large-scale 400G test with its latest 400G Port. Presented during the virtual event is the highlight on SYABAS (Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn. Bhd.), the largest water operator in Malaysia, one of H3C's customers deploying AD-Campus (SDN) solution. SYABAS is responsible for the distribution of water services to over 10 million people. H3C offers SYABAS to interoperate with third-party wireless networks, syncing user accounts with LDAP server, providing consistent policies across the network, as well as cameras and printers batch onboarding system. H3C is committed to supporting customers to accelerate digital transformation and boost business agility amid the rapidly changing market conditions. H3C is looking to collaborate with more partners by placing their priority on satisfying customers' needs while improving its partners' business performance altogether. Rockies Ma, Country Manager of H3C Malaysia said, "We would like to express our gratitude to all of our partners. Through today's event, we hope to inspire and gather high-value ecological partners and together, we contribute to the digital transformation of Malaysia." As a leading Digital Solutions provider, H3C is committed to becoming their customers' most trustworthy partner for their business innovation and digital transformation. Collaborating with its partners in building a prosperous ecosystem and growing together, H3C will forge gloriously ahead in the New Year to create more outstanding achievements. About H3C



H3C is an industry leader in the provision of Digital Solutions and is committed to becoming the most trusted partner to our clients in their quest for business innovation and digital transformation. H3C offers a full portfolio of Digital Infrastructure products, spanning across compute, storage, networking, security and related domains, and provides a comprehensive one-stop digital platform that includes cloud computing, big data, interconnectivity, information security, new safety, Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G solutions, as well as end-to-end technical services.



For more information about H3C, please visit http://www.h3c.com/en/



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[February 02, 2021] Kohlberg & Company Closes $3.4 Billion for Kohlberg Investors IX Kohlberg & Company, L.L.C. ("Kohlberg"), a private equity firm specializing in middle market investing, announced today the final closing of its ninth private equity fund, Kohlberg Investors IX, L.P. ("Fund IX") with $3.4 billion in total commitments. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005357/en/ (Graphic: Business Wire) "We are grateful to our longtime investors for their continued support, and are pleased to welcome an august group of new investors into the Kohlberg community," said Sam Frieder, Managing Partner at Kohlberg. "We are humbled and gratified by the enthusiasm expressed towards the Firm as experienced stewards of capital and view that responsibility as a privilege and an honor." Global investors who participated as limited partners in Kohlberg Investors IX include a diverse group of public pension funds, financial institutions, endowments, family offices, corporate pensions, sovereign wealth funds and funds of fund, with commitments coming from investors in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The overwhelming majority of investors from Fund VIII increased their commitment for Fund IX. "Kohlberg is delighted to have received such strong support from our existing limited partners and to have been able to secure commitments from several new investors, many through entirely virtual diligence," said Shant Mardirossian, Chief Operating Officer at Kohlberg. "It was certainly an unprecedented period to be raising capital, and against that backdrop our proven track record of success, coupled with our over 30 years of experience in the middle market, especially resonated in our marketing efforts for Fund IX." "The Firm looks forward to continuing to leverage its differentiated core practice area expertise and thesis-driven White Paper (News - Alert) investment strategy into being the partner of choice for sellers and management teams," said Gordon Woodward, Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Kohlberg. "We are excited by the opportunity to construct a portfolio poised to build on our consistent track record of business transformation and value creation." Kohlberg has more than 60 investment and portfolio support professionals who will be responsible for deploying Fund IX. The investments will be focused across five broad sectors, including industrial manufacturing, consumer products, business services, healthcare services and financial services. Lazard acted as placement agent for Kohlberg, while Ropes & Gray served as legal counsel in the formation of Kohlberg Investors IX. About Kohlberg & Company, L.L.C. Kohlberg & Company, LLC ("Kohlberg") is a leading private equity firm headquartered in Mount Kisco, New York. Since its inception in 1987, Kohlberg has organized nine private equity funds, through which it has raised $11 billion of committed equity capital. Over its 34-year history, Kohlberg has completed 84 platform investments and over 200 add-on acquisitions, with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $27 billion. For more information, please visit www.kohlberg.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005357/en/

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 67,367 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2018, the most recent year for which complete data is available, and two-thirds of those cases involved opioids. The intervening years have seen the rise of new synthetic opioids, such as carfentanil, that are 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times moreso than fentanyl, according to the CDC . Some of these substances are dangerous just to handle , and if youre a narcotics officer working in a corridor from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic  from Ohio to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.  youre relatively likely to come across them on the job.To minimize the danger and time involved, a pair of Ohio state agencies is deploying handheld technology from the spectrometry company 908 Devices that can perform chemical analyses in minutes.Its called the MX908, and its the latest investment by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission (OOCIC) in their efforts to get opioids off the streets. According to 908 Devices CTO Chris Brown, MX908 is the worlds only handheld mass spectrometer, a field-ready alternative to bulky lab equipment that performs chemical analyses by separating particles according to mass.Founded in 2012 and named after a specific parameter in their spectrometers  like the Pi of mass spectrometry, Brown said  the Boston-based 908 Devices started selling portable mass spec devices in late 2017 with first responders in mind. He said this included not only law enforcement but also EMTs, the Department of Homeland Security, hazmat teams and anyone else handling substances so potent that a few milligrams could put them in a coma. He said powerful opioids are often heavily cut or diluted, and if someone is testing a powder thats 99 percent sugar with a tiny bit of fentanyl, other portable field technologies wont find the needle in the haystack.Given the small quantities, they needed technology that was very sensitive, so it could detect tiny traces of material. That really didnt exist in the field in a handheld form factor for them in the past, Brown said. If youre sending first responders to a scene  you dont want the responders getting in trouble with inadvertent contact and not knowing what theyre dealing with.In a public statement , Ohio BCI Superintendent Joe Morbitzer called the MX908 a breakthrough in narcotics investigations.We have been able to deploy the devices statewide to assist task forces and agencies in investigations, he said. Not only do the devices provide instant preliminary results but, more importantly, reduces the risk of exposure to our staff.OOCIC Executive Director Rocky Nelson said in a public statement that the devices were an investment in both safety and efficiency.When just a speck of fentanyl can cause an overdose or death, equipping our task force officers with a device that can safely field test and identify deadly narcotics is a lifesaver, he said.According to Brown, 908 Devices has sold more than 1,000 portable mass spectrometers, mostly to state and federal agencies for field use in the U.S., but also to labs and agencies in more than two dozen countries. The company brought new executives on board in October and had its initial public offering in December.
NEW DELHI: People of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) are living under hell, like slaves, and are denied all forms of human rights, including freedom to practice religion of their choice, speak their language or follow their culture and customs, global human rights activists have said.

At a panel discussion on 'Rhetoric vs Reality: Comparing Human Rights & Development in J&K and PoJK-GB' organised by Law and Society Alliance and Defence Capital, the activists noted that accepting and acknowledging that a genocide took place against minorities in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and this was fomented by Pakistan-sponsored Jihad, will be the first step to heal the deep wounds that have been perpetrated.

The event marked the release of the Hindi and Urdu versions of the study report 'Human Lives Matter: Comparative Study of Human Rights and Development in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan'.

Pakistan-origin human rights activist Arif Aajakia, joining the online discussion from London, said, "We have been seeing the havoc Pakistan has caused in Kashmir for over 70 years. Pakistani Army has kept the issue burning as this conflict provides its leadership their bread and butter." He said, the entire G-B has been mortgaged to China. "Basically, the people of G-B and PoK are living under a hell, like slaves. We also see that the demography has entirely changed in these two regions."

Aajakia said, whereas people of India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir enjoy human rights, eat Kashmir food, speak Kashmiri language, and wear Kashmiri clothes, and practice Kashmiri customs for the last seven decades, people of PoK and G-B cannot speak in their mother, cannot wear ethnic clothing, practice local customs, and have no freedom of religion, or language. There is also a demographic change that has happened in PoK and G-B."

A key Kashmiri voice, social activist Sushil Pandit, in his arguments, said the comparison between J&K and PoK was a bit odious. "Because Pakistan came into existence on an exclusivity principle based on incompatibility. It asserted that Muslims cannot live with Hindus, therefore, they need a separate state. They failed to explain how Muslims continued to stay with Hindus for centuries now."

Pandit said, India's plurality is visible in all aspects of its national life, be it languages, ethnicity, culture, food, clothing, religion and even Gods. "Pakistan's singular exclusivity begins with God and narrows down to language. Why did Pakistan lose Bangladesh? Because it practiced hatred towards the Bangla language and the Bengali race, used it as a colony, and denied them their legitimate political share in power. Now, they are attacking the plurality even within Islam. Look at Shias, Hazaras, Ahmedis, and Balochs. Now they are talking about Takfiri Islam -- who is a true Muslim?"

The Delhi-based activist said Pakistan was not true to its Punjabi culture and language. "At the Lahore Literature Festival last time, not a single Punjabi book was seen or was talked about. To speak in Punjabi even in the Punjab Legislative Assembly is banned. This is also what they have done to Kashmir and Kashmiris. We are talking about an anomalous state, a diseased state."

As the way forward, he suggested that the world needs to be honest in acknowledging what happened in Kashmir and its responsibility to deliver justice. "What is happening in Kashmir is Jihad  naked and unabashed Jihad. This is not about disenchantment and alienation or about development or anything else. It is about a civilisational assault."

Sonam Mahajan, a social activist and geopolitics commentator, highlighted from the reports of the Law and Society Alliance that India has done much better in human rights and development indexes than Pakistan.

"Nothing talks better than numbers. Let me remind everybody about some important numbers. The annual budget of PoK is $173 million against the budget of $1.55 billion in Jammu and Kashmir. Similarly, the health budget of PoK is $62 million against Jammu and Kashmir's health budget of $618 million. Also, there are over 5,000 hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir and there are only 73 hospitals in PoK."

On the linguistic freedom in both the regions, Mahajan said Dogri, Kashmiri, Urdu, and Punjabi are spoken and these languages flourish in Jammu and Kashmir, whereas in PoK, there is a clear language imposition: Only Urdu. "Pakistan just wants to exploit the vulnerable people in Jammu and Kashmir  who feel vulnerable for no reason! You can see how the rest of the country is doing without carrying baggage.

Sunrise in Kashmir chairman Faaiz Dijoo called for ignoring Pakistan and looking more at the problems faced by India's own citizens. He said, "if we talk about development and human rights, let us only talk about ourselves. Somewhere down the line we are giving too much importance to Pakistan. It is a third-grade country. We have our own problems. Let us talk about human rights in Kashmir. Let us talk about our youth."

He called for working on counter-radicalisation measures in Kashmir. "Kashmir people want to do all those things that an average Indian is doing." He said, the youth of Jammu and Kashmir do not want to raise ISIS flag. To hell with Pakistan or what their proxies do. I have a strong faith in India and the Indian Army. I trust them and believe that they would stop the enemy where they are standing."

Ajmer-Sharif Gaddi-Nishan and Chairman of Chishty Foundation Haji Syed Salman Chishty said he was certain the latest reports from Law and Society Alliance will "expose the fictitious stories and narratives peddled by Pakistan, and help people to know more about the actual situation pertaining to J&K, PoK and G-B. It shall also help in raising the unheard voices from the region."

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The Dig and other traditional ancient series are on the queue on Netflix. Series of recommendations for well-timed books, films, podcasts, and music keep you within the knowledge.

Unopened sarcophagus caches in Egypt. Eight miles of work on Ice Age rock found in the rainforest of the Amazon. In northern Italy, an elaborate Roman mosaic floor was excavated. These are simply one of the preceding year's significant archaeological discoveries.

Netflix's latest film, "The Dig," a historical drama featuring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes, could pique your interest if you are endlessly intrigued by these discoveries.

The Dig retells the story of how, in 1939, a widow and a self-taught archaeologist found an Anglo-Saxon burial ship on a private land plot in Suffolk, UK, based on a true story. The remarkable discovery, which took place as the specter of the Second World War loomed over Europe, became one of the nation's most valuable treasures and helped refute the idea that the British Isles were the British Isles during the Dark Ages culturally and economically siloed.

"The film is about time and the fragility of our existence," screenwriter Moira Buffini said in a video interview; Buffin adapted the script from John Preston's book of the same name. "It's about the brevity of life and what endures -- what we leave behind us."

Mulligan plays Edith Pretty in this movie, a landowner and mother whose husband died of cancer. The world gives her something in exchange, even though part of her life has been stripped from her and returned to the ground.

Pretty has a hunch about two massive mounds on her property, rumored to be a burial ground for the Vikings. They discover the remains of an 89-foot ship from the 7th century after hiring Basil Brown, played by Fiennes, to examine and excavate the site.

The Dig impression to Netflix audiences

The wood ship buried at Sutton Hoo had finally rotted away since the film recounts, but it left a well-preserved impression within the grime, much like the perfect beast's fossil. Within, along with an ornate iron helmet, an elaborate golden belt buckle, and lavish objects from the Byzantine Empire and Center East, a chamber was filled with lots of beneficial artifacts, shining a lightweight on the trade and cultural trade that occurred.

The vessel was used for a ship's funeral, whereby large ships were used as tombs for significant figures. There was, however, no hint of the person who had been buried with the ship, presumed to be Anglo-Saxon royalty.

While the ship's remains in "The Dig" are a ghostly presence, the film focuses on the human tales behind its discovery. Each character deals with the problems they will leave behind, from their physical possessions to their broader legacies.

Here is other love historical discoveries shows on Netflix.

"Secrets of the Saggara Tomb"

In 2019, Egyptian archaeologists discovered a large cache of outdoor Cairo mummified animals, along with cats and snakes, in the Saqqara necropolis. When they find the grave, which had gone unseen for over 4,000 years, this documentary follows a crew of specialists.

"Piranesi"

The novel's protagonist, Piranesi, explores his alternate universe through the hundreds of enigmatic statues lining its corridors and the odd ephemera left behind by unknown visitors, set in a surreal world of countless rooms and hallways crammed with mutable ocean tides.

"The Archeology Show'

Hosted by archaeologist Chris Webster and educational April Kamp-Whittaker, this podcast discusses different topics in their discipline, from dispelling Cleopatra myths to inspecting the latest archaeological discoveries, resembling the final identification of the oldest yarn fragment found in the world.

'Time Team: Saxon Burials on the Ridge.'

The archaeologists on British TV's "Time Workforce" have found their fair share of Saxon burial grounds throughout 20 seasons. The crew examines what might be a Fifth-century cemetery concealed under a discipline in this episode of Season 11.

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It is often said that dream positive and disbelieve in impossibility, this is the case of a youthful medical Doctor, J. Nutai Kolleh who has risen himself hard above the bar to become an inspiration to many young people of Liberia.

A.M Dogliotti Collage of Medicine with honor. Not just that, he was pronounced dux and given special recognition for being the best student among those who walked out of the walls of Dogliotti in 2019.

"It was surprising when I was announced as the dux it was great feeling of joy" Dr. Kolleh said.

Before explaining how the youthful medical doctor is performing in his career now, let's just look back as his days as a child growing up. A child who walked distances to gain his primary education in one of Liberia's counties, Bong.

Dr. Kolleh, like any other child raised by his parents- an educated father and an uneducated mother who sells her in the market to make ends meet ensuring that she and her family does not lack.

"Growing up as a child, I still remember those days when the English teacher would come in class asking that we write an author biography" he recollected his days in elementary school. (school)

He said; "I can remember it was a common thing for us to write that we wanted to become a medical doctor upon leaving high school."

"Me and other friends back than felt that medical doctor was the very biggest of all careers" Dr. Kolleh said as he looked on and laughed faintly.

The child back than in high school has grown up after so many years of preparation as a young man.

During his preparatory stages, he attended various high schools and graduated from the World Wild Mission High School situated in Paynesville after which he rerolled at the University of Liberia.

I asked him if all was rosy during his days at the University of Liberia. He looked and this was how he responded: "Things was hard. During our days, we had one bus leaving from Paynesville to UL Fendell campus. I remember doing desktop publishing to enable me get those things I needed when I was in school."

He has gone through his own ups and downs, his good and bad times- those times which has shaped him to become a better person.

He explained to me that when he graduated in 2019 from the A.M Doglitti Collage of Medicine, he did not hesitate to do his internship. So, on the 27th of January 2020, a process he said required of him to cover four departments in four hospitals in Liberia:

To track the personality for the week, it was not an easy one. Busy with patients, doing his regular rounds, talking with people privately and many more.

"When I get the phone call, I will be on call, he said.

I did not know the terminology of a person on call. My journalistic thoughts were, once you are on call, it means, you are on a phone call. But I missed it big time. In the medical field, on call means, to see patients. After he told me this, I left and laughed at my behavior.

Anyway, let's leave that because it is not really the issue I want to push here.

Now that the internship of Dr. Kolleh has come to an end, I was inquisitive to know if he was just going to be assigned as a doctor, but he responded by saying, "I was sent to school by the government of Liberia and I must work for the government as part of the agreement. But first, I need to be licensed by The Liberia Medical and Dental Council (LMDC)," he explained.

He indicated that after the process of his licensing, he will have to work for the Liberian government for a period of one year, mainly in the rural parts of the country. This according to him, is intended for more exposure. He does not want to be ungrateful to the Liberian government. So, the best thing is to abide by whatever agreement that was reached. in addition to his experience during his internship ELWA, Du-Side and other places, he still thinks that he has a lot more to do for those waiting.

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He is not satisfy with the level of education thus far. He wants to specialize in a particular area in the field of medicine.

When he was asked which area he has earmarked to specialize in, the youthful medical doctor said, " I want to specialize in surgery" but he said it is still open as to which of surgeries he want to focus.

Anyway, that is a good place. At least he did not go into Gynecology as one of my friends did.

The personality of the week still thinks that Liberia needs many medical doctors so as to help those already in the field.

The youthful medical Doctor has promised to specialize himself, work to help address medical issues in Liberia.

This is the personality of the week. Read next week to know who the personality will be.
Kyrgyzstan will receive 504,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus next month, acting Health Minister Alymkadyr Beishenaliev said Tuesday

BISHKEK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) Kyrgyzstan will receive 504,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus next month, acting Health Minister Alymkadyr Beishenaliev said Tuesday.

During his speech in parliament, Beishenaliev told legislators that the vaccine would be supplied within the framework of the COVAX Facility.

"We have clarified everything concerning the initiative, we will receive 504,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March. We said earlier that we had been offered the US vaccine Pfizer but we refused it. The vaccination program is being implemented already," Beishenaliev said.

According to the minister, Kyrgyzstan is preparing for the possible third wave of the pandemic as well as a possible spread of the UK strain of the virus.

In January, Beishenaliev said that Russia had agreed to supply 500,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine free of charge.
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By Lee Min-hyung





Kyobo Life Insurance Chairman Shin Chang-jae
Source: AP

One declined to prosecute Bill Cosby for rape, trading lawsuits instead with his alleged victim; another considered defending alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The two lawyers former president Donald Trump has hired to defend him in his Senate impeachment trial are confident, tough and media-honed criminal case experts who could liven up what is already set to be a nationally televised spectacle.

A day after breaking with his original legal team, reportedly over strategy, on Sunday Trump named David Schoen and Bruce Castor to represent him at the trial.

They have one week to muster a strategy to ensure that the ex-president receives enough support from Republican senators to avoid conviction, for the second time in one year.

That should be easy: conviction requires a two-thirds majority of the 100-member Senate, and already 45 of the 50 Republicans have signaled they believe trying Trump after he has left office is unconstitutional.

But according to reports, Trump has been adamant about arguing the case that President Joe Biden's election win was based on fraud.

That claim, despite there being no evidence to support it, propelled the violent assault on the US Capitol that forced Trump's vice president Mike Pence to go into secure hiding and left hundreds of members of Congress fearing for their safety.

Arguing such a case could conceivably erode some of the already tenuous Republican support for Trump. The strategy reportedly contributed to the split with his original defense team.

Constitutionality question

The turmoil with his legal team may have persuaded Trump to change his mind on the strategy.

"The strength of our constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history," Castor said in the statement issued by Trump to announce the new line-up.

Schoen reiterated that stance in an interview with Fox News on Monday, saying the impeachment trial is "tearing the country apart at a time when we don't need anything like that."

The two attorneys will face prosecutors -- Democrats from the House of Representatives -- arguing the single charge of "incitement of insurrection."

They allege that Trump fostered sedition by stoking the January 6 attack on the Capitol that left five people dead and halted, for several hours, Congress' certification of Biden as the election winner.

Trump had earlier called for the process to be stopped.

Both attorneys have deep court experience.

Schoen is a trial lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia, with a record of picking up notorious cases and clients. He helped convicted Trump political advisor Roger Stone in his appeal case, before Trump pardoned Stone.

He was also in discussions to represent Epstein before he committed suicide ahead of his trial for sex trafficking of minors.

"I represented all sorts of reputed mobster figures," Schoen told the Atlanta Jewish Times in an interview last year, pointing to organized crime figures from Russia, Israel and Italy.

Castor, 59, spent much of his legal career as a prosecutor in Pennsylvania, rising from the county level to become the top state attorney.

He was criticized for declining in 2005 to prosecute the mega-celebrity Cosby for rape, saying the evidence against him was too weak to win a trial. He went on to trade defamation lawsuits with the alleged victim, Andrea Constand.

The case moved forward under Castor's successor, and Cosby was convicted in 2018.

After Trump's original five lawyers dropped out on Saturday, the need to assemble a new team was urgent. The ex-president needs to submit a formal response to the summons to trial on Tuesday.

On February 8, his team then needs to submit a pretrial brief, opening the way for arguments to begin, probably a day later.

The change in the defense team so close to trial, said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, should lead to a postponement.

"A week is clearly insufficient to prepare a defense," he said on Twitter.

But with Trump's acquittal widely considered a foregone conclusion, it might not matter.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the release from prison of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the man acquitted of the gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

The decision on February 2 comes after a three-judge panel reviewed and confirmed its decision last week to acquit Sheikh, who had been on death row for 18 years since originally being convicted by an anti-terrorism court for his role in the kidnapping and murder of Pearl by Al-Qaeda and Pakistani Islamist militants in 2002.

"He should be moved to a comfortable residential environment something like a rest house where he can live a normal life," Justice Omar Ata Bandyal, the head of the panel, said in the ruling.

The acquittal of the former London School of Economics student -- as well as three others convicted in the case -- stunned Pearls family and the Pakistani government and sparked outrage in the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the courts decision as an affront to terrorism victims everywhere, including in Pakistan, and said the United States was prepared to prosecute Sheikh domestically.

Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story about Islamist militants.

A video showing Pearl's decapitation was delivered to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi nearly a month later.

A letter handwritten by Sheikh in 2019, in which he admitted a minor" role in the killing of the Wall Street Journal reporter, was submitted to Pakistan's Supreme Court earlier this month.

It wasn't until January 27 that Sheikh's lawyers confirmed their client wrote the letter, which doesnt exactly say what his alleged role in Pearl's slaying was.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, AP, and Dawn
Human Rights Watch Tuesday urged support for aid groups to ensure 'equitable' distribution of coronavirus vaccines across all of war-torn Syria, warning against any discriminatory approach by Damascus.

'Those supplying vaccines for Syria should do everything in their power to ensure that they reach those most vulnerable no matter where they are in the country,' HRW researcher Sara Kayyali said.

"The Syrian government has never been shy about withholding healthcare as a weapon of war, but playing this game with the vaccine undermines the global effort to control the pandemic."

"International aid groups should have support to secure the widest and most equitable distribution including all areas controlled by different groups, the rights organisation said.

The New York-based group made the call following restrictions to aid deliveries to the country's rebel-held northwest and Kurdish-held northeast Syria in recent years, under pressure from Damascus' ally Moscow at the UN Security Council.

Aid can only enter northwest Syria from a single border crossing from Turkey, which backs rebels in that area, while aid to northeast Syria now needs to transit through Damascus, where HRW says authorities often withhold or delay permission.

Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak last year, Syria's government has recorded 14,096 cases of Covid-19 in areas it controls, including 926 deaths.

In rebel-held northwest Syria, opposition officials have said 21,006 people caught the virus, of whom 400 died.

In the Kurdish-held northeast, the Kurdish administration has said 8,490 people fell ill with coronavirus, including 296 who died.

But doctors and rights organisations believe the numbers are probably much higher, especially in northeast Syria where HRW said the government has refused to allow the UN to set up Covid-19 testing labs.

Syria's prime minister last week signed on to the World Health Organization's Covax initiative, state news agency SANA said.

The health minister last month said the country would not accept the vaccine being procured at the expense of "Syria's sovereignty", in what HRW said was likely a sign that northeast Syria was not included in its rollout plan.

Authorities in most of northwest Syria told HRW they had submitted a proposal to Covax for areas under their control.

But northeast Syria had no arrangement to obtain vaccines independently, the rights group said, although civil society organisations could request doses through a Covax humanitarian buffer.

Even in government-held areas, HRW said it was worried about equitable vaccination, after what HRW called earlier discriminatory distribution of Covid-19 protective gear, tests and ventilators.

Beyond these concerns, the country's war-ravaged electricity network, fuel shortages and depleted medical infrastructure were challenges to distribution and maintaining the vaccines at low temperatures.

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Islamic extremists hack 36 to death with machetes, including Christian pastor in DRC

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Suspected Islamist militants hacked to death over 30 people, including an Anglican pastor, in overnight attacks on villages in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Tuesday, four villages were raided by the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamist group, in the west of Beni territory, Reuters reports. The rebel group has its origins in Uganda but is now based in DR Congo's Beni region.

Beni Governor Donat Kibwana told AFP that members of the terrorist group hacked all victims to death with machetes. In total, 36 individuals were killed, including an Anglican pastor.

The main attack took place in Manzingi, a village northwest from Oicha, while the pastor was killed in the village of Eringeti.

"The victim had the misfortune to pass them on his way to the field with his wife," Omar Kavota from rights group CEPADHO said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Launched in the mid-1990s by Ugandan Muslim rebels forced out of Uganda, the ADF has become the conflict-stricken DRCs most active and violent rebel group over the past two years. Led by Musa Baluku, the group is known for committing crimes such as murder, rape and abduction of women and children, as well as slavery and indoctrination.

The Beni region has seen a surge of violence since Oct. 30 when Congolese troops launched an offensive against the rebels. In total, 265 people have been killed by the ADF since November, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, a research initiative that maps unrest in Congo's east.

Persecution watchdog group Open Doors USA notes that the operation to push ADF out the area has come at great cost to the mostly Christian population.

In November 2019, attacks carried out by the ADF killed at least 84 people, including men, women and children. Over half of the victims were Christians.

In March, six Christians, including a 9-year-old child, were reportedly killed when rebel forces attacked the largely Christian village of Kalau near the city of Beni. Additionally, 500 families were forced to flee from their homes.

In August 2016, ADF was blamed for carrying out what is known as the Beni massacre, where at least 64 people were hacked to death.

Pastor Gilbert Kambale, president of the Beni city civil society organization, urged the international community to pray to God for deliverance for Beni and the DRC.

Even as the night is long, day will surely dawn, Gilbert told Open Doors.

In December, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the leader of the ADF and five others for perpetrating serious human rights abuses including mass rape, torture and killings, Reuters reported.

According to the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control, Baluku assisted the group through recruitment, logistics, administration, financing, intelligence, and operations coordination.

The ADF continues to perpetuate widespread violence and innumerable human rights abuses including the abduction, recruitment, and use of children during attacks and other violent operations."
(Newser)  Jack Palladino, the flamboyant private investigator whose clients ranged from presidents and corporate whistleblowers to scandal-plagued celebrities, Hollywood moguls, and sometimes suspected drug traffickers, died Monday at age 76. Palladino suffered a devastating brain injury Thursday after a pair of would-be robbers tried to grab his camera outside his home in San Franciscos Haight-Ashbury district. He held on to the camera but fell and struck his head, and the photos he took before his attackers fled were used by police to track down two suspects. They were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and other crimes. He would have loved knowing that, his wife and business partner, Sandra Sutherland, told the AP on Monday. She added that she had told her husband while he lay unconscious in the hospital: Guess what, Jack, they got the bastards, and it was all your doing."

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In a career spanning more than 40 years, Palladino worked for a whos who of the famous and the sometimes infamous, alternately hailed as a hero or denounced as a villain, depending on who his client was at the time. He was hired by Bill Clintons 1992 presidential campaign to put a lid on women who were coming forward to claim they had had sex with the future president. He was also the investigator for the family of a 14-year-old boy who won a multimillion-dollar settlement against Michael Jackson after accusing the entertainer of molesting him. Jackson was never charged with a crime in that case. Two of his most prominent clients were former tobacco company executive and whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand (Palladino played himself in The Insider, the 1999 film about that case) and former automotive executive John DeLorean. Also among his and his wife's clients: the Black Panthers, Hells Angels, Courtney Love, Robin Williams, Kevin Costner, and the Grateful Dead. (Click for much more on his life.)
A son who lost his mother to Covid-19 has told how he recorded songs for her to listen to while she was sedated in hospital so that she could 'hear his voice' in her final days.

Dean McCaw, 24, was unable to visit Kelli McCaw, 48, from Galgorm in County Antrim, after she was admitted to intensive care at Antrim Area Hospital in December.

After rallying a few times, Kelli tragically passed away on January 12. She had rheumatoid arthritis but no other underlying heath conditions, however she deteriorated quickly as the virus 'ravaged' her body. People with rheumatoid arthritis are considered to be in the 'vulnerable' category for Covid.

Travel blogger Kelli had been unable to have phone calls with her son or husband Stephen due to her sedation, so Dean posted recordings of his songs online so that nursing staff could play them to her.

Dean McCaw, 24, was unable to visit Kelli McCaw, 48, from Galgorm in County Antrim, after she was admitted to intensive care at Antrim Area Hospital in December, so he recorded songs for her to listen to

After rallying a few times, Kelli tragically passed away on January 12. She had rheumatoid arthritis but no other underlying heath conditions

'We were assured she could hear us,' Dean told Sky News. 'I just wanted Mum to hear my voice.'

Her final words to Stephen, as she struggled to walk to an ambulance, were 'I love you'. That was also the final time that the couple had physical contact.

Widower Stephen described childhood sweetheart Kelli, whom he'd been married to for 26 years, as a 'an amazing wife, an amazing mother and a very loyal friend'.

Both he and Kelli contracted Covid at the same time, but it hit Kelli's body harder.

Stephen told how Kelli went from having 'the standard nose oxygen to the full face mask in 24 hours' - and 48 hours after that, she was sent to intensive care.

Widower Stephen described childhood sweetheart Kelli, whom he'd been married to for 26 years, as a 'an amazing wife, an amazing mother and a very loyal friend'

Writing on Facebook, Dean said he and his father take comfort in the fact Kelli is no longer in pain and are thankful for the time they had with her. Pictured recording the songs that nurses played to his mother in ICU

'Mum didnt die because her lungs were dodgy  it got into her body and it ravaged it. It was multi-organ failure,' Dean told ITV.

'People have this idea that its only people with underlying conditions that will be affected, but its like Russian roulette. You just dont know.'

In her final moments, Dean and Stephen were taken to the neighbouring room and allowed a final video call to say goodbye.

Dean, who hadn't seen his mother in person since August as he lives in London, told how they prayed with her, told her they loved her and shared their favourite memories.

'I read Psalm 46 to Mum,' he added. 'Just as I finished the passage, the doctor said Mum's heart had stopped so the last thing she heard would have been "be still and know that I am God".'

In her final moments, Dean and Stephen were taken to the neighbouring room and allowed a final video call to say goodbye

Dean, who hadn't seen his mother in person since August as he lives in London, told how they prayed with her, told her they loved her and shared their favourite memories in her final moments

Writing on Facebook, Dean said he and his father take comfort in the fact Kelli is no longer in pain and are thankful for the time they had with her.

'She fought Covid with everything she had, but everything wasn't quite enough,' he wrote, alongside a final song he recorded for her.

'This is not the the outcome we hoped for, and in all honesty I'm really struggling to deal with that. But I don't want anyone to lose heart or belief, and Mum wouldn't either.'

He added: 'Although it really hurts, Dad and I to let her go, she is better off for it. There was a lot of pain in life for Mum and none will follow her.'
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have demonstrated that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be caused by defects in the mitochondria of brain cells. The findings were published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Multiple studies have revealed hundreds of mutations associated with autism spectrum disorder, but there is no consensus as to how these genetic changes cause the condition. Biochemical and physiological analyses have suggested that deficiencies in mitochondria, the "batteries" of the cell that produce most of the body's energy, might be a possible cause. Recent studies have shown that variants of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are associated with autism spectrum disorder.

The study team hypothesized that if defects in the mitochondria do predispose patients to ASD, then a mouse model in which relevant mtDNA mutations have been introduced should present with autism endophenotypes, measurable traits similar to those seen in patients. For this model, the traits related to autism included behavioral, neurophysiological, and biochemical features.

"Autism spectrum disorder is highly genetically heterogeneous, and many of the previously identified copy number and loss of function variants could have an impact on the mitochondria," said Douglas C. Wallace, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine and the Michael and Charles Barnett Endowed Chair in Pediatric Mitochondrial Medicine and Metabolic Diseases at CHOP, co-senior author of the study, with Eric D. Marsh, MD, Ph.D., attending pediatric neurologist, Division of Child Neurology at CHOP.

The researchersincluding co-first authors Tal Yardeni, Ph.D. and Ana G. Cristancho, MD, Ph.D. - introduced a mild missense mutation in the mtDNA ND6 gene into a mouse strain. The resulting mouse exhibited impaired social interactions, increased repetitive behaviors and anxiety, all of which are common behavioral features associated with autism spectrum disorder. The researchers also noted aberrations in electroencephalograms (EEG), more seizures, and brain-region specific defects on mitochondrial function. Despite these observations, the researchers found no obvious change in the brain's anatomy. These findings suggest that mitochondrial energetic defects appear to be sufficient to cause autism.

"Our study shows that mild systemic mitochondrial defects can result in autism spectrum disorder without causing apparent neuroanatomical defects," Wallace said. "These mutations appear to cause tissue-specific brain defects. While our findings warrant further study, there is reason to believe that this could lead to better diagnosis of autism and potentially treatments directed toward mitochondrial function."

Explore further Autism spectrum disorder linked to mutations in some mitochondrial DNA

More information: Tal Yardeni el al., "An mtDNA mutant mouse demonstrates that mitochondrial deficiency results in autism endophenotypes," PNAS (2021). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Tal Yardeni el al., "An mtDNA mutant mouse demonstrates that mitochondrial deficiency results in autism endophenotypes,"(2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2021429118

Gov. Kay Ivey will deliver her annual State of the State address tonight to television and webcast viewers but without the live audience that traditionally attends the event at the Capitol.

It will be the fifth State of the State speech for Ivey, who took office in April 2017 when Robert Bentley resigned and was elected to a full term the next year.

The governor is expected to explain her goals for the year and what she hopes the Legislature will do during the session that started today.

If you cant see the broadcast above, here is the link to the speech.

Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, minority leader of the Alabama Senate, will deliver a response at 7:30 p.m. or immediately after Iveys speech.

Related: Gov. Kay Ivey to propose 2% raises for teachers, state employees


Mastercard has launched its Global Cyber Forward programme in partnership with Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the leading global financial centre and largest FinTech hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region.



According to an industry study, the threat of direct and indirect cyberattacks on global businesses is significant over the next five years, with an estimated $5.2 trillion in revenue potentially being at risk, while another study reported that 50 per cent of global businesses are not prepared to deal with cyberattacks, reported Emirates news agency WAM.



This partnership between DIFC and Mastercard will help boost cyber readiness and resilience across the financial industry, enabling effective cyber security oversight through the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) that was launched in January 2020. The Global Cyber Forward programme combines Mastercard's cutting-edge capabilities in cyber security with those of leading public sector organisations to create secure digital eco-systems at a national, local and city-level.



DIFC is home to over 2,500 financial related companies, including 17 of the worlds top 20 banks and over 250 FinTech and Innovation companies. DIFC continuously develops innovative laws and regulations enabling the future of finance.



Essa Kazim, Governor of Dubai International Financial Centre, said: "This global partnership between DIFC and Mastercard supports the National Cybersecurity Strategy and Dubai Cyber Security Strategy. As the leading financial centre in the MEASA region, we are committed to being at the forefront of initiatives, including cyber security and data protection that will advance the finance industry globally, regionally and in Dubai. Firms and individuals will be able to benefit from our collaborative approach to managing the issue and see Dubai as the regions safest place to undertake their financial activities."



Ajay Bhalla, President, Cyber and Intelligence, Mastercard said: "Cybercrime is one of the biggest threats to consumer trust. Without trust we cannot do business  more so now than at any other time in history. We are developing and embedding the latest cyber technologies, in collaboration with our partners around the world, to help advance security and trust in the digital ecosystem. Our partnership with DIFC will help to create more secure and thriving digital economies."



"DIFC has the regions most robust and resilient legal and regulatory framework. Our partnership with Mastercard recognises the importance of cyber security and will help DIFC clients and the global finance industry accelerate their digital agendas safely and effectively. Collaborating with leading, like minded organisations on cyber security is a key factor that will help us drive the future of finance," said Arif Amiri, CEO of DIFC Authority.



"Knowledge sharing and access to secure, innovative technology are our best defence as we address the cyber threats that lead to cybercrime. Our strategic partnership with DIFC is a significant milestone and one that sets a secure foundation for fostering a strong cyber-resilient ecosystem that inspires trust in the digital economy," said Khalid Elgibali, Division President, Middle East and North Africa, Mastercard.



Learnings gained from this initial programme will be applied across the globe through Mastercard programmes and other public-private partnership efforts. Together, they will secure everyday transactions, while delivering even greater trust in every interaction through the continued application of emerging technologies.
analysis

The government's failure to clearly stipulate the penalties for transgressing the regulations against large gatherings, which include protests, should alarm all South Africans.

Just two weeks into the new year, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, released adjusted level three lockdown regulations. As South Africa tries to address its second wave of Covid-19 infections, certain actions have understandably once again been prohibited, including gathering in large groups.

Many such actions are specifically listed in the "offences and penalties" clause of the new regulations and their consequences are clear. Yet the penalties for protests or "political gatherings" are not - instead, they are hidden in an obscure clause.

Section 84 of the adjusted level three regulations sets out the rules governing gatherings at this time. It gives guidance on how people should conduct themselves in a group. For example, regulation 84(1)(a) and (b) requires people to "wear a face mask" and to "adhere to all health protocols" when attending a specifically permitted gathering, such as in the workplace for work purposes.

The guidance is provided with the aim of limiting exposure to the coronavirus. While certain gatherings are permitted under specific conditions, other types are completely prohibited, for example, political gatherings.

Regulation 84(3)(a) provides that "all political gatherings are prohibited". Political gatherings are supposedly those regulated by the Regulation of Gatherings Act. I say "supposedly", because the act regulates gatherings or protests "at which the principles, policy, actions or failure to act of any government, political party or political organisation, whether or not that party or organisation is registered in terms of any applicable law, are discussed, attacked, criticised, promoted or propagated". As a result of this archaic act, a protest about a lack of access to services is seen as a "political gathering" because it is staged against the failures of a government.

As a fundamental democratic right, protests are embedded in the fabric of South African society. Protest actions allow us to challenge the status quo and seek accountability from the government. Moreover, "political gatherings" aid people to challenge principles, policies, acts or omissions of the government, or any other institution. Given issues of corruption and the mismanagement of public funds, it comes as no shock that the government has prohibited and criminalised protests in the name of saving lives and livelihoods.

Hiding the penalties

An interesting question is why the legislature specifically excluded the participation in or convening of "political gatherings" from regulation 87 of the "adjusted" regulations? Regulation 87 is the "offences and penalties" clause, and it provides that "for the purpose of this chapter, any person who fails to comply with or contravene a provision of regulations 82(1) and (3), 85(1), (2) and (3), and 86(1), (2), (3) and (4) of these regulations commits an offence and is, on conviction, liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such a fine and imprisonment".

It is therefore a criminal offence, for example, to fail to abide by the curfew time; to operate a cinema, casino or restaurant after 10pm [previously 8pm]; to engage in initiation practices or celebrations thereof; or to sell, distribute and transport alcohol under the previous regulations. These practices are punishable statutory offences. It is also clear from regulation 87 what type of punishment follows the failure to comply with the specific provisions of regulations 82, 85 and 86 of the level three lockdown regulations, namely a fine or imprisonment, or both.

Yet the sanction for convening or participating in political gatherings is unclear. In order to clear the mist, we must revisit regulation 84(17)(b) of the level three lockdown, which obliges a law enforcement officer to order participants of a prohibited gathering to disperse immediately. If participants fail or refuse to disperse, the law enforcement officer may take action subject to the Criminal Procedure Act, including arrest and detention.

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Basically, regulation 84(17)(b) of the level three lockdown regulations vests power in the charging officer, guided by the relevant provisions of this act, to impose criminal charges for convening or participating in "political gatherings". Consequently, if one is convicted for convening or participating in a "political gathering", the sanction is not clear-cut and it may even be direct imprisonment for a period exceeding six months without the option of a fine.

The failure to legislate a sanction for those who engage in "political gatherings" is absurd and leads to further questions as to whether one can be sanctioned for participating in a political gathering in a democratic country. But in a country like South Africa, where the government is intolerant of protest actions (what the government now deems to be "political gatherings"), the prohibition and lack of clarity on the sanction come as no surprise.

Stanley Malematja is the attorney at the Right2Protest Project, which is based at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.



The jab was safe and offered complete protection against hospitalisation and death

The COVID-19 Sputnik V, developed by Russias Gamaleya Institute, was found to be effective in 91.6% of cases in late-stage clinical trials.

The jab was safe and offered complete protection against hospitalisation and death after tests on nearly 22,000 adults, according to an article published on scientific journal The Lancet.

Russia had been criticised in the summer because it started a rollout of Sputnik V though the scientific community didnt consider the available data sufficient to assess its safety and efficacy.

Experts warned the Russian data, albeit encouraging, was based on a small number of participants compared to other companies clinical trials.

Argentina, Palestinian territories, Venezuela, Hungary, the UAE and Iran have also issued authorisations for use.

Just like the vaccines developed by PLC ( ) and ( ), Sputnik V is based on the traditional method of using a genetically modified version of the common cold virus (adenovirus) to stimulate an immune response.

By providing the bodys defence mechanisms with advanced warning of the virus, the inoculation triggers production of the antibodies required to fight the real thing when it is contracted.

However, the two doses contain different formulas in the hope to cause a long-lasting effect.

Moreover, it can be stored at 2-8C, so its compatible with standard distribution channel without the need for extra infrastructure.
Fox News' Tucker Carlson rushed to the defense of QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday night as he claimed that she is only being targeted because CNN says she has 'bad opinions'.

In the opening of his show, Carlson blasted the push to have the freshman congresswoman from Georgia expelled from Congress, and branded CNN as 'children'.

He branded it the 'new democracy' where 'CNN gets the veto'.

Carlson also claimed that 'free inquiry is dead and unauthorized questions are hate speech', as he criticized attempts to cast the conspiracy-theory-loving lawmaker as 'America's greatest enemy'.

His commentary came just after Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell condemned Green as a 'cancer for the Republican Party' due to her 'loony lies'.

House Democrats are currently mounting an effort to formally rebuke the newly elected congresswoman, who has a history of making racist remarks, embracing conspiracy theories, and endorsing violence directed at Democrats.

Scroll down for video

Tucker Carlson rushed to the defense of QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday night as he claimed that she is only being targeted because of 'bad opinions'

He claimed that the likes of CNN is using Greene, above, as a distraction from other stories

Yet Carlson claimed Monday that the lawmaker is only receiving attention because news organization such as CNN do not agree with her, and that she is being used as a distraction to take focus off other stories linked to the Biden administration.

'No woman is more dangerous than this freshman member of Congress,' he joked.

'The threat that she alone poses, as they say on cable news, is existential. This single congresswoman may be just weeks away from developing nuclear weapons.

'Oh. How dangerous is this three-named congresswoman you have probably never heard of?' Carlson continued.

'Well, so dangerous that in the name of democracy, she must be expelled tonight from the Congress!'

Carlson noted that Greene won her election 'with 75% of the vote' which he said was 'roughly the same percentage that Nancy Pelosi got out in San Francisco'.

'There's no question that her voters very much wanted her to represent them in Washington,' Carlson said, yet added 'on the other hand, what do her voters have to do with democracy?'

'That's not how democracy works,' he quipped.

'In the new democracy, CNN gets the veto. If cable news doesn't like your views, you have to leave Congress. That's the rule.

'The test is entirely ideological. You don't actually have to harm anyone to lose your job. This new member of Congress has barely even voted, but CNN says she has bad opinions. Therefore, she's the greatest threat we face.'

Carlson blasted attempts to expell Greene from Congress as an attack on freedom of thought

Greene has been hit with wave of calls to resign over her support of conspiracy theories

He then again accused CNN of attempts to take his show from the air as he claimed: 'Anyone who suggests that this one member of Congress is not really America's greatest enemy is by definition one of America's greatest enemies.'

He slammed CNN as 'children', yet warned 'that does not mean they will not win in the end or that it won't get worse in the meantime'.

Carlson added that the news network was now looking for a new target as 'Donald Trump is gone now'.

'If there's no more Donald Trump, that means you get to be Donald Trump,' he cautioned.

'The sad thing is, they're missing a lot. This is the media, after all. Their job is to cover the news.

'And there are tons of interesting things happening right now, things that you tend to miss when you spend all day screaming about a single member of Congress from Georgia.'

He then referenced the Reddit versus Wall Street controversy from last week, after earlier claiming that the Biden administration had snuck some early day decisions under the radar.

Among them he listed Biden sending troops to Syria and attempts to make the District of Columbia the country's 51st state.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (pictured) denounced QAnon congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday calling her a 'cancer for the Republican Party'

Greene immediately hit back at McConnell's comments on Twitter, as pictured

'No presidential administration has changed so many basic facts of American life as quickly as Joe Biden's administration has over the week and a half that it's been in charge,' Carlson alleged.

The TV host's defense of Greene came after McConnell issued his heavily critical statement about the congresswoman on Monday evening, and as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy prepares to meet with her on Tuesday.

'Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.s airplane is not living in reality,' said McConnell.

'This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.'

Greene immediately pushed back on McConnell's comments on Twitter, writing that 'the real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully'.

'This is why we are losing our country,' she added.

McConnell's statement is expected to put pressure on House Republican leaders to discipline her, despite Greene boasting on Monday that she would soon be visiting Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

On Saturday, she had also claimed that she enjoyed a 'great call' with the former president and that he fully supported her.

Given Trump's enormous sway within the party still, McCarthy is not anticipated to act against Greene when he meets with her Tuesday.

Democrats have teed up action Wednesday to send a resolution to the House floor that would strip Greene of assignments on the House education and budget committees, if McCarthy doesn't do so first.

Greene's views were in the spotlight even before she joined the House last month.

The Georgia Republican has expressed support for QAnon conspiracy theories, which focus on the debunked belief that top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking, Satan worship and cannibalism.

Facebook videos also surfaced last year showing she'd expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views, and more recently emerged of harassing Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg overe gun control.
Midland resident Chris Welch had been cruising at high altitudes for more than six years until the COVID-19 pandemic grounded his commercial pilot career last spring.

Instead of feeling sorry about his nine-month furlough, Welch started working with dough, creating more than 30 cookie recipes in his kitchen.

With his passion for baking and his desire to run a business, he changed the narrative of 2020 and started his own cookie business. Many pilots have second businesses, Welch said, so he decided to join their ranks.

Aviator Cookie Company, located at 230 E. Main St. in downtown Midland, is expected to open in March. It will provide fresh, creative, bakery-quality cookies at an affordable price, Welch said.

Midland doesnt really have just a cookie bakery, he said. All we are going to do is cookies. Its all made in-house. We are going to bake our cookies fresh every single day.

He plans to sell at least 12 varieties each day with mainstays like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin and rotating specialty cookies like salted caramel and cinnamon roll. The Aviator Cookie, baked once a week, will share its proceeds with aviation-related charities, Welch said.

The demand for unique cookies appears to be strong. He crafted a Facebook post about Aviator Cookie Company opening and it received more than 73,000 impressions across the world.

I have had requests to ship as far as Spain, Welch said.

Selina Tisdale, community affairs director for the City of Midland, said downtown Midland businesses are excited about Aviator Cookie Company.

We are thrilled anytime new businesses join our downtown family because it strengthens the diversity, Tisdale said. It brings a new element to downtown.

Daniel Buzzell, manager of Ace Hardware, 419 E. Main St, said he is looking forward to the salted caramel cookie and the momentum Aviator Cookie Company will bring downtown.

"We should see several new businesses opening up downtown in 2021, which is fantastic considering how hard 2020 has been on some of our local businesses, he said. Aviator Cookie Company will be a great addition to the environment we have been creating downtown, and it is just going to keep getting better and better throughout 2021."

Tisdale credited Welch for his ingenuity and drive to build a business during a pandemic.

I think his aviator angle will be really cool, she said.

The bakerys aviation theme will be highlighted at the counter, which features an actual airplane wing. Welch said the building is around 100 years old and needs some improvements before it can open.

He expects the final stages of permit approvals in the coming weeks. When he receives the permits, he will begin a weeklong renovation of the space with a goal of opening in March.

I am really excited to get it open, he said.
Sagana  A promise by President Uhuru Kenyatta to push for a Sh2 million car grant warmed the hearts of over 500 Members of County Assemblies drawn from the Mt Kenya region, in return committing to pass the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Bill.

The Bill was sent to county assemblies last week by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that gave them 3 months to debate and file their report.

With the MCAs now critical in determining the fate of the Bill that was borne out of a peace deal between President Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, a charm offensive is the only way out to win the vote and that is why the Head of State chose to fly to his backyard to seek the support of the local leaders.

President Kenyatta kicked off a four-day tour of the Mt Kenya region, setting base at the Sagana State lodge where he met MCAs from counties in the region ahead of a major meeting with other elected leaders at the weekend.

"At some point, the MCA's became jittery when a senior Principal Secretary was speaking," a source who was in the meeting said, "But the mood changed immediately the President made the commitment to ensure we have a car grant as fast as possible."

The MCA's were drawn from Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Embu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Murang'a, Nyandarua, Kiambu, Laikipia and Nakuru County Assemblies.

President Kenyatta's pledge effectively unlocked a 2016 deadlock that culminated to empty promises to the MCAs across the country.

The President who rooted for the initiative on the grounds of more funds for the devolution said it was not about the 2020 succession politics.

He told the MCAs to desist the habit of insulting him in public over the succession politics, while accusing him of reneging on a promise to support his Deputy William Ruto when his second and final term ends in 2022.

"Yes, I said ten years for me and ten years for my deputy (William Ruto), but has my term ended?" the President posed. "I brought (the Deputy President) onboard to ensure there is peace in this country. But I wonder why some of you keep on insulting me over Ruto's candidacy."

Ruto has been actively campaigning to position himself for the 2022 presidential election, even seeking the support of over 40 MPs from Kenyatta's backyard, who skipped the Sagana meeting.

The MPs who include Senate Majority Whip said in a letter to the president that they were unhappy with the BBI push, while accusing the Head of State of appearing to force them to support Odinga's candidature in 2022.

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While President Kenyatta insists that BBI is more about resource sharing, Ruto and other leaders opposed to it feel it is all about getting Odinga to ascend to power.

On Friday, the President observed that the current national resource sharing architecture works against populous regions noting that BBI seeks to rectify the imbalance.

He questioned the motive of those opposed to the equal allocation of national resources to all parts of the country and cautioned Kenyans against what he described as "politics of deceit perfected by some leaders."

"It is our responsibility as leaders to ensure we do justice and not to threaten or insult others. We need to ensure justice and development for those who elected us," the President said adding that his biggest wish for Kenya is "unity and progress."

"What I never want to see in our country is bloodshed because of politics and leadership. Since I would never want to see incidents that occurred in 2007, I said it's better I humble myself for our citizens to live in peace," the President rallied the County leaders.
The Ukrainian monitors have filed a corresponding note with the OSCE mission.

Russian sniper warfare has become more active in the Donbas warzone lately, the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group reports.

On February 2, a Russian [sniper] seriously wounded a Ukrainian fighter. The latter was rushed to a hospital but the medics' efforts were in vain  the soldier succumbed to his wound in the medical institution, the delegation wrote on Telegram.

"The Ukrainian side to the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center has submitted an appropriate note to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission," the report reads.

Donbas warzone: Latest

The Command of Ukraine's Armed Forces has reported five violations of the latest ceasefire agreement, committed by Russia-controlled armed groups in Donbas on Monday, February 1.

In particular, the Russian Federation's armed formations fired automatic, hand-held anti-tank and under-barrel grenade launchers near the town of Avdiyivka, grenade launchers near the village of Pyshchevyk, and automatic rifles near the village of Novomykhailivka.

Memo

Participants in the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE) on the peace settlement in Donbas on July 22 agreed on a full and comprehensive ceasefire along the contact line from 00:01 on Monday, July 27, 2020.

On the very first day of the newly-agreed truce, Russia's hybrid military forces mounted three attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Ukraine has reported more such violations over the latest period.

Reporting by UNIAN
New VP of Human Resources, Michael Hirschler I look forward to partnering with my colleagues to make Staypineapple extraordinary, both as a place to stay for our guests as well as to work for our Team Members."

Staypineapple, a hospitality company based in the Pacific Northwest, announced Michael Hirschler as Vice President of Human Resources starting in January 2021. Hirschler is responsible for upholding a consistently excellent work experience for all team members within the Staypineapple hotel portfolio by providing direction and consultation to the operations team and collaborating with the executive leadership team to establish Staypineapples comprehensive people leadership strategy. Hirschler received his Bachelor of Science degree from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.

"I am excited to join an organization that values the uniqueness of every individual, Hirschler said. I look forward to partnering with my colleagues to make Staypineapple extraordinary, both as a place to stay for our guests as well as to work for our Team Members."

Prior to Staypineapple, Hirschler held a variety of positions within the hospitality industry. He began his career at the historic Fairmont Copley Plaza Boston as the Training Manager. He later oversaw a multi-million dollar restoration of the landmark hotel. Hirschler moved on to Four Seasons at the brands Boston and Chicago properties before arriving in Seattle as the opening Director of People and Culture, a post he held until mid-2019 when he was promoted to a corporate role overseeing university relations and early career development.

Hirschler is an active community member. He is the Founder and Co-Chair of Run of Hope Seattle, an organization that raises funds for Seattle Childrens Hospital. He also sits on the Board of Trustees for the Seattle Childrens Hospital Guild Association and is past President of the Seattle Area Hospitality Human Resources Association.

A California native from Rancho Cucamonga, Hirschler resides in Ballard with his partner, Starrla, and their beloved rescue dog, Sadie. During his free time, he patronizes local establishments to experience the regions excellent food, wine, and craft beer. An avid traveler, Hirschler especially enjoys visiting unique destinations around the country and the world.


Gov. Tom Wolfs 2021-22 budget proposal contains the largest increase in education spending Pennsylvania has ever seen along with a sizable increase in the states personal income tax rate.

While the governor is proposing to raise the income tax for the first time in nearly two decades, some of the new money would be directed to provide tax relief for lower income families and some tax-shifting at the local level.

According to sources, the governor will be proposing hiking the 3.07% personal income tax rate rise to 4.49%, starting July 1. That would be the first time it has increased since 2003. An increase of that size in the personal income tax would raise more than $3 billion annually.

There are nine states with flat tax rates like Pennsylvania currently range from 3.07% in Pennsylvania to 5.25% in North Carolina. With this proposed increase, it would push Pennsylvania into the seventh spot out of nine with only Indiana at 3.23% and Michigan at 4.25% being lower.

The budget proposal seeks to address the inequities created by the states flat personal income tax rate by expanding the tax forgiveness credit, according to an administration official. Filers with incomes at or below these thresholds  $15,000 for single filers; $30,000 for married filers; and $10,000 allowance for each dependent  will receive total 100 personal income tax forgiveness. The percentage of tax forgiveness declines by 1 percentage point for each $500 above the threshold for 100 percent forgiveness.

So families with two children making less than $84,000 will receive a tax cut while a family of four making $50,000 will have their taxes eliminated.

It appears the governors budget proposal also attempts to boost overall state spending to $37.7 billion which is what the states Independent Fiscal Office indicated is necessary to maintain spending at current levels. This years general fund budget totals $33.1 billion in state spending with $3.4 billion in federal stimulus funding to help soften the blow from the pandemic recession.

More than $1.3 billion raised from a higher income tax would go to basic education funding, boosting that total to about $8.1 billion. Most of that would go through the 5-year-old funding formula designed to iron out inequities in how Pennsylvania funds the poorest public schools as well as to allow for some tax-shifting off local revenue sources, according to sources.

Wolf is proposing to increase funding for special education by $200 million, to a total $1.4 billion, and the total increase in funding for public schools could approach $2 billion, according to the Associated Press.

The governor is proposing to reduce the 9.99% corporate net income tax and impose a severance tax on natural gas drillers. Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state that doesnt have a severance tax on the product at present; instead, the state imposes an impact fee that is assessed on each drill site. According to the states Independent Fiscal Office, the 2020 impact fees equaled an effective tax rate of 3.3%. (West Virginias rate, by comparison, is 5%.)

Wolfs budget proposal also is expected to revive Nelly Bly scholarship program designed to help low- and middle-income full-time students who attend a Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education university. It would be funded by the Race Horse Development Trust Fund, which receives money from slots gaming in Pennsylvania casinos.

He also once again wants to impose a fee on municipalities that rely on the state police for police coverage, and raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour and ratchet up by 50 cents a year until it reached $15.

The Democratic governor will need approval from the Republican-controlled General Assembly to approve his spending plan and his proposals to raise the state income tax and increase the minimum wage.

*This post has been updated to include more information about the tax forgiveness proposal in the governors budget.
interview

Mr. Seun Adegoke is the Managing Director of SGL Farms, a company that cultivates 5,000 acres of rice. He tells Bennett Oghifo that it will make economic sense for the federal government to do all that is necessary to reduce the cost of rice production, rather than engage in unsustainable border-closure policy.

The federal government has been talking about boosting local production of rice, while shielding growers from foreign competition. What else can be done?

There is a lot that the government can do. The government has to be consistent with policies. This is very important. Then, of course, there is need for more investment in agricultural research. For instance, in some nations, it is possible to attain 12 to 14 tonnes of rice per hectare. Here we attain about 4 tonnes on research fields. Unfortunately, most of us as farmers cannot invest in research. It has to be the government coming in to help. It is important that government shoulders research because of the long term goal of benefitting the people. There also has to be some sort of subsidies available for farmers. For us, the subsidy can come in the form of machinery. It is important to have installmental payment packages available. It would make farm financing easier if the schedule of payment is convenient.

What is your opinion about border closure and its impact on rice production?

Quite a number of people have been asking about this. Policy consistency is important. Inconsistency will give investors shocks. No matter how much you try, if the market is flooded and you can't sell your products, everybody will have headache.

Policy consistency is most important. Even when government shuts the borders, there was still smuggling. Actually, I don't personally believe in border closure. I believe that market forces should dictate. If we produce more at less cost, we will counter the low cost of foreign rice. The problem is that cost of production is very high in this country. If local rice is affordable and are good in quality, foreign rice will disappear to oblivion. If we have eyes on a philosophy of stimulating increased local production through less stress in production, we would be better for it. Instead of the unsustainable policy of closing the borders, we should aim at getting rice to be produced at cheaper rates. Research would also help boost returns relative to investment. Thus, increased production or supply will force prices to drop. This goes across board for everybody. This is the way I see it, makes economic sense. In speeding achievement of the national objective of food self-sufficiency, and going forward, food independence, the country really has to support the farmer.

Besides the required intervention from the government, do you have any corporate social responsibility plans?

Right now, we are committed to breeding new generations of rice farmers. We are setting up a boot camp. Young minds can live with us on the farm, where we all live for three to four months. They'll understand the dynamics of rice production. The practical aspect is different from what you read in books. We want to encourage people. We are looking to having about 1,000 people with us on the farm. We are commencing this in January 2021. We'll train them; we try to reach out to organisations that can support them. The more we have these kinds of people taking to rice cultivation, the better for the country.

Tell us about SGL Farms

We have farmlands in Anigbado - Yelwa North Local Government, Ogun State. We also have at Wasimi. Currently we have operations going on at Anigbado farm. The current capacity is 5,000 acres. We are working towards expanding this acreage. We've have done majority of the land clearing. Right now, we are at the stage of land preparation and nursery establishment. In the next couple of weeks, we should be transplanting.

What are your challenges?

So far, so good, we have a few operational challenges which are normal in farming but we are on course. So far, we have not had any but we have structures in place.

What do you want from your investors?

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We appreciate the confidence they repose in us. We appreciate their sustained support and encouragement. By God's grace, we shall keep meeting our obligations to them.

What is your current employment strength?

We have about 400 people in our employ. Most are farm labourers. We have 17 supervisors and support teams attending to welfare, health, security, etc.

How do you sustain this large number?

We are putting in our best. Our pay is competitive relative to the sector. I believe we have been fair. We pay more than the average labour rate. Many of the workers live on the farm. We have a suitable accommodation for them. We take care of their health and do other necessary things.

What are your projections?

We hope to increase production by more folds to the point where we can contribute reasonably to rice availability for consumption in Nigeria.
Mumbai, Feb 2 : The Maharashtra unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday demanded that the state government should immediately book student leader Sharjeel Usmani for his 'anti-Hindu' remarks at the recent Elgar Parishad held in Pune.

Training guns on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis wrote a letter demanding an FIR invoking sedition charges against the student leader from the Aligarh Muslim University for his 'inflammatory' and 'defamatory' utterances against Hindus.

Speaking at the Elgar Parishad in Pune on January 30, Usmani said: "Aaj ka Hindu Samaj Hindustan mein buri tarike se sadd chukka hai (The Hindu community has badly degenerated in today's India)," sparking off a furore in the political circles.

When asked, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that the speeches at the conference will be scrutinised by the Maharashtra police.

"If anything objectionable is found, we shall take action accordingly. However, I can't comment more as the police investigation is underway," Deshmukh told mediapersons.

Besides Fadnavis, other leaders like Ram Kadam, Atul Bhatkalkar and Keshav Upadhye also questioned why no action has been taken against Usmani although three days have passed since the offensive remarks were uttered on a public platform.

Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal sought action against Usmani by asking: "If any Hindu leader had made a similar statement about the Muslim community, would it be tolerated?" In his letter to Thackeray, Fadnavis said that given the background of the Elgar Parishad and the Bhima-Koregaon incidents of January 1, 2018 and the subsequent caste riots that year, it was wrong to grant permission for the conference.

"We shall not tolerate if anyone speaking such things in the land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who laid the foundation of the 'Hindavi Swaraj'. We will not keep quiet on this," warned Fadnavis.

The state BJP has served a 48-hour ultimatum to the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to act against Usmani, failing which it would launch a statewide agitation.

Usmani had earlier been arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police for his alleged role in the clashes that erupted outside the AMU campus during the anti CAA-NRC agitation in 2019.

The annual Elgar Parishad was organised by the Bhima-Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerana Abhiyan on January 30 to coincide with the fifth death anniversary of late Dalit scholar from the University of Hyderabad, Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide on January 17, 2016.

Others who attended or addressed the conference included writer-activist Arundhati Roy, ex-IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, ex-Judge B.G. Kolse-Patil and retired IPS officer S.M. Mushrif.

Complainst against Usmani have been filed in Mumbai and Pune, demanding an FIR against the student leader under different sections of the IPC.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan  Chinese police have arrested more than 80 suspected members of a criminal group that was manufacturing and selling fake COVID-19 vaccines, including to other countries.

Police in Beijing and in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces broke up the group led by a suspect surnamed Kong that was producing the fake vaccines, which consisted of a simple saline solution, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The vaccines were sold in China and to other countries, although it was unclear which ones. The group had been active since last September, according to state media.

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China has already reported the situation to the relevant countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing Tuesday.

The Chinese government highly values vaccine safety and will continue to take efforts to strictly prosecute any counterfeits, fake sales and illegal business, and other related actions that involve vaccines, Wang said. At the same time, China will strengthen our law enforcement cooperation with the relevant countries, to earnestly prevent the spread of this type of illegal and criminal action. He did not offer further details.

China has a long history of vaccine scandals resulting from manufacturing issues as well as business practices. In 2016, police arrested two people who were in charge of a ring that sold millions of improperly stored vaccines across the country.

In response to recent scandals, China reformed vaccine safety regulations and increased criminal penalties for those caught making counterfeits.

Domestically, many Chinese citizens did not trust homegrown vaccines and surveys previously showed that trust in vaccines fell after scandals like the one in 2016. However, since the pandemic has struck, confidence has been high. A total of 74% of respondents in a recent survey published in Chinese business magazine Caixin said they would take a COVID-19 vaccine if it was available.

China has at least seven COVID-19 vaccines in the last stage of clinical trials, and has one that has been approved for domestic use, made by state-owned Sinopharm.

Chinese vaccine makers have seized the opportunity provided by the pandemic to go global, with Sinopharm and other Chinese companies making deals or donating their vaccines in at least 27 countries around the world.

Domestically, China has given more than 24 million doses of its homegrown vaccine candidates, as part of a mass vaccination campaign. It has so far refrained from giving the vaccine to the most elderly, instead targeting key groups such as medical workers and workers who work in food- related industries, as well as adults between the ages of 18 and 59.

___

Associated Press researcher Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.
SpaceX is planning to fly a group of civilians into Earths orbit later this year  and with the help of a billionaire, its giving everyday space enthusiasts a chance at two of the seats.

This is an important milestone toward enabling access to space for everyone, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said during a news conference Monday. Because at first things are very expensive, and its only through missions like this that were able to bring the costs down over time and make space accessible to all.

Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, an integrated payment processing and technology solutions company, announced that hes buying a flight in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Isaacman, 37, will be the commander, and hes paying for three other people to ride with him.

Another private mission: Houston's Axiom Space names three who will pay $55M each to visit the International Space Station

In addition to helping people reach microgravity, Isaacman would like to inspire support for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, based in Memphis, Tenn.

As such, hes donating two seats to St. Jude. The first seat is reserved for a health care worker who is helping kids fight cancer. The second seat will be given to an individual who enters the sweepstakes at inspiration4.com. The sweepstakes encourages participants to donate to St. Jude, but this is not required. Isaacman is donating $100 million and hopes to raise more than $200 million.

I believe that in the future everyday people will explore amongst the stars, Isaacman said. But before that, we better have defeated some of lifes greatest hardships. St. Judes mission is not about rockets or space exploration. Its about treating some of the most heart-wrenching conditions that any parent could imagine. And if were going to continue making advances up there, in space, then we have an obligation to do the same down here on Earth.

The fourth seat will go to an entrepreneur who uses the new Shift4Shop eCommerce platform. The entrepreneur must have an online store and then share his or her entrepreneurial journey on Twitter. A panel of celebrity judges will review the top trending videos and select the most inspiring entrepreneur.

This mission, called Inspiration4, is not the first civilian spaceflight to be announced this year. Last week, Houston-based Axiom Space announced the three members of its private crew set to launch in January 2022. They are American real estate and technology entrepreneur Larry Connor, Canadian investor Mark Pathy and Israeli impact investor Eytan Stibbe.

Each are paying $55 million to launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon and then spend eight days on the International Space Station conducting research and philanthropic projects. The fourth member of their crew will be former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael Lopez-Alegria.

More private missions to space are great for everyone, Axiom said in a statement. To normalize private spaceflight and drive costs down over time, it is essential now for as many of those who can go  or can sponsor others to go  to do so. We applaud SpaceX and all involved in the Inspiration4 mission to Earths orbit, and others like it sure to come, as we look forward to our missions to the International Space Station.

Isaacman did not disclose how much hes paying for the four seats that will launch from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. His trip will not go to the International Space Station. Musk estimated the trip could spend two to four days orbiting the Earth, though hes giving Isaacman leeway on how much time is spent in space. Whatever Jared would like to do, its up to him, Musk said.

During this time, the crew will conduct experiments for St. Jude and other educational institutions. They will return to Earth by splashing down off the coast of Florida.

Isaacman, who Forbes reports has a net worth of $2 billion, launched Shift4 Payments in 1999 when he was 16 years old. It started from the basement of his familys house.

Shift4 handles payments for a third of Americas restaurants and hotels, Forbes said, and Isaacman took the company public last year.

His other passion is flying. On Monday, he recalled looking at space shuttle books and telling his kindergarten teacher that he would go into space.

She told me that shed be watching in a rocking chair someday, Isaacman said. So my passion for aviation and the dream of going to space has really been lifelong.

Isaacman has a bachelors degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and hes rated to fly military and commercial aircraft.

Other news related to Elon Musk: Houston company could provide answer to Elon Musk's $100 million question

Hes flown in more than 100 airshows as part of the Black Diamond Jet Team, where hes dedicated the performances to charitable causes.

In 2011, Isaacman co-founded Draken International, which provides tactical aviation services for all branches of the U.S. Military, Department of Defense and other military forces. With a fleet of 150 tactical fighter aircraft, Draken owns and operates the worlds largest commercial fleet of ex-military aircraft to support military training objectives around the globe. Isaacman sold the company in 2019 to The Blackstone Group and remained CEO until early 2020.

For the spaceflight, the Inspiration4 crew training will include operating in microgravity, emergency preparedness and getting in and out of their spacesuits and spacecraft. There will also be mission simulations and stress testing.

But taking it one step further, Isaacman said hes planning activities that will get the crew familiar with one another and used to being, well, uncomfortable.

Just drawing on some of my other passions, I am going to ensure that I introduce some very uncomfortable and stressful situations here on Earth long before we go up in space, Isaacman said. Im a little bit of a mountain climber, and I intend to get four people in a tent  that I can attest is absolutely smaller than the Dragon spacecraft  on a mountain when its snowing out.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder




Haiti - FLASH : Cancellation of all flights to Cuba





As the number of new cases of Covid-19 explodes in Cuba https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32916-haiti-covid-19-haiti-special-report-318.html , in order to avoid the spread, Cuban authorities have decided to cancel all flight frequencies from Haiti to their country until further notice.



As a result Sunrise Airways informs that it is authorized to operate the last flight to Port-au-Prince / Santiago de Cuba (SCU) on February 4, 2021.



The flight authorized by the Cuban authorities is PAP-SCU-PAP 300/301 on Thursday 4 February ONLY



All other scheduled flights will be canceled until further notice.



All 300/301 flights are canceled at ZENITH from February 11 to February 25



All ticketed passengers returning from Santiago, Cuba or Port-au-Prince on February 4, please confirm your flight to ensure you are ready to travel.



For protection subject to seat availability, contact the Reservation Center at reservations@sunriseairways.net or by calling + 509 28112222 +1 809 236 0777 +1 305 433 2707 Or visit the nearest Sunrise Airways office for help.



Passengers with tickets issued from Cuba who cannot travel due to these new restrictions will be able to make a change without penalty of change until October 30, 2021.



Depending on flight restrictions and availability, fare rules may apply to protected passengers on flights that are not traveling (NO SHOW fare rules)



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32916-haiti-covid-19-haiti-special-report-318.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32680-haiti-flash-sunrise-airways-all-useful-information-on-flights-to-cuba.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 18:06:15|Editor: huaxia

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WINDHOEK, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Namibia faces difficulties in preserving lives as well as stimulating economic growth and prosperity in the midst of a devastating COVID-19 pandemic, Namibian President Hage Geingob said on Tuesday while officially opening the cabinet session of the year.

The Namibian President said he will this year launch the second phase of his economic blueprint, code named the Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP) with the aim of stimulating growth, dealing with the effects of the pandemic and creating economic relief for many Namibians.

He called for the uprooting of corruption in all sections of society.

"I have always maintained that corruption is not systematic in Namibia, and we must intensify the fight against corruption," he said.

Geingob said Namibia continued to perform well in dealing with social ills that affect citizens.

"The pandemic has left untold suffering among our people with many lives lost prematurely. I sincerely hope that the resilience of Namibians will help us rebuild our country," he said, adding that, "The path to recovery will need the effort of everyone. We need to engage in constructive discourse and implement programs that affect our lives."

The Namibian President told his cabinet to work resolutely in improving the lives of Namibians and also took note of the challenges faced by the southern African country last year including a shrinking economy as well as the effects of the pandemic on the day-to-day lives of many.

Geingob called on his cabinet to push hard to implement developmental projects in shorter periods of time to improve the living standards of Namibia. Enditem
WASHINGTON  The federal government will launch a new effort to send COVID-19 vaccines to pharmacies, including some that are in hard-to-reach areas, increasing the availability across the country and in Connecticut.

About 6,500 pharmacies will receive shipments of the vaccines directly from the federal government next week. In addition, the White House will increase vaccine shipments to states by 5 percent, after another 16 percent increase this week.

The list of pharmacies that will receive shipments bypassing the state includes national brands such as Walgreens, CVS and Walmart; and independent locations.

On Feb. 11, CVS will start vaccinations at 11 Connecticut locations including Avon, Bristol, Coventry, Glastonbury, Guilford, Hamden, Middletown, North Haven and Uncasville. The federal government will provide CVS stores in Connecticut a limited roll out of about 6,800 total doses. Residents should be able to begin scheduling vaccine appointments as early as Feb. 9 by registering online or calling customer service.

Starting Feb. 12, Walgreens will administer COVID-19 vaccines in medically under-served areas vulnerable to the virus, including about 50 stores in Connecticut. Walgreens declined to provide store specifics Tuesday. Walgreens will have 4,400 doses to administer in the near future. Like at CVS, the vaccinations will be given out only by appointments, which can be scheduled online.

Data released by Gov. Ned Lamont Monday showed wide disparities in the percent of residents receiving at least the first dose of the vaccine since the program started on Dec. 14. Cities with lower income, largely non-white populations, including Bridgeport and New Haven, showed significantly lower vaccination rates, especially among people age 75 and older who are the first targeted group in the general population.

Its unclear how effectively the direct-to-pharmacy program will address those disparities. The announced CVS locations are not in places that have been underserved.

To help all vaccine administrators, federal authorities have also arranged to ship special syringes allowing nurses and pharmacists to extract an extra dose of the vaccine from every vial.

The expansion of vaccine availability reflects the increasing production of vaccine doses by Pfizer and Moderna, Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 coordinator, said Tuesday. A limited supply of the vaccine has been the chief complaint of governors and health departments across the country and in Connecticut as they try to immunize millions of at-risk and elderly people.

While the noreaster dumping snow across the East coast has forced the cancellation of some vaccine appointments in Connecticut and other states, the storm has not delayed any federal shipments of doses, Zients said Tuesday.

The White House is also using the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pump billions of dollars to states to speed immunizations, support testing and boost other coronavirus response efforts. FEMA will now reimburse states for all COVID-19 costs going back to the start of the pandemic, Zients announced Tuesday. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, pushed President Joe Biden to make this change in January.

Previously some costs were only eligible for 75 percent reimbursement. Zients estimated this change will cost the federal government $3 billion to $5 billion.

Zients discussed these changes with governors on a phone call Tuesday morning, as the Biden team tries to amp up communication between states and the federal government on the vaccine.

We are in active discussion with FEMA for a variety of vaccine and other reimbursement costs, said Josh Geballe, the states chief operating officer, said late Monday.

Geballe and other state officials including Lamont have all said the states response has not been slowed by the pace of reimbursement. Lamont has said he would use money from the states reserve fund, now $3 billion, much of which might be needed to fill budget shortfalls over the next two years.

Over the past two weeks, FEMA has committed to pay $1.7 billion to 19 states to reimburse them for the costs of vaccinating their residents. Some states, like New York, have estimated the full cost of vaccine distribution in their states, reached an agreement for FEMA to pay for it and received an advance payment of half the money. New York and FEMA agreed last week that the projected cost of vaccine distribution in that state was $934 million.

State officials are discussing vaccine funding with FEMA, but no agreement on payment has been reached yet, according to

Were not ruling out a similar agreement like New Yorks, said Max Reiss, spokesman for Lamont. However, the concern we have is the potential difference between receiving an advance as opposed to a full reimbursement. There is inherent risk with receiving advance funding as there is potential for a claw-back in the future.

But Reiss added, The state will not leave any funding on the table to support residents, no matter the approach.

In December, Congress included about $8 billion to fund national and state vaccine distribution efforts in its COVID relief bill. Connecticut will receive an estimated $45 million in vaccine funds from this legislation, according to DeLauros office.

Connecticut has so far had one of the most successful vaccine rollouts in the nation when comparing doses administered to the doses received, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, individuals 75 years and older are eligible to get the Pfizer or Moderna shots in the state.

The state is administering the vaccine at hospitals, pharmacies, local health departments and mass vaccination sites.

As for the CDC shipments that will bypass states, the list of pharmacies will include Walgreens, Duane Reade, CVS Pharmacy Inc., Walmart Inc., Sams Club, Rite Aid Corp., Kroger, Harris Teeter, Publix Super Markets, Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp., Safeway, Star Market, Shaws, Acme, Randalls, Giant Food, The Giant Company, Hannaford Bros Co, Stop & Shop, Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. and other independent pharmacies. Not all locations of these pharmacies will receive doses next week.

Walgreens and CVS helped efforts to vaccinate nursing home residents across the country.

Walgreens was one of the first pharmacies to begin administering COVID-19 vaccinations in December to long-term care facility staff and residents, and we look forward to leveraging our experience to support the federal government and CDC in expanding access to these vaccines, said John Standley, president of Walgreens. Our pharmacy teams have already provided nearly two million COVID-19 vaccinations and stand ready with their expertise to help educate and vaccinate additional Americans, including those in rural and underserved communities.

To help the national rollout, President Joe Biden has also directed FEMA to establish federally run mass vaccination sites around the country and mobile vaccination units. State officials said they were unaware of any plans to erect a federal mass vaccination site in Connecticut, and the state already has more than enough capacity to administer the vaccines its receiving.

Biden also gave states a slight boost in the vaccine shipments when he took office, placed orders for 200 million more doses to arrive in the summer and promised states reliable forecasts of how many doses will be shipped to them a few weeks in advance.

Bidens $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan includes an additional $160 billion for a national vaccine program, including $20 billion to support distribution. More funding for vaccine distribution has bipartisan support in Congress, although Bidens full stimulus plan is considered too large by many Republicans.

Democrats in Congress are looking to pass this plan as soon as this week using a process called budget reconciliation that would allow them to pass the legislation without Republican votes.

Staff Writer Peter Yankowski contributed to this story

emilie.munson@hearstdc.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
Syracuse, NY  A 14-year-old accused of killing an elderly Syracuse woman was arrested soon after the murder, but was released after leading state police on a high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle, according to the Onondaga County District Attorney.

Jahkim Robinson remained free for nearly another week because authorities had not yet discovered Eva Fulds stabbing and beating death, DA William Fitzpatrick told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard Tuesday.

Without knowledge of the murder, there was no legal way to keep Jahkim, or two others in the stolen vehicle in custody, Fitzpatrick said.

Its unclear what charges Jahkim and the other two juveniles face in the high-speed chase. Because of their ages, that case was sent to Family Court, the DA said.

Details of Jahkims police-chase case remain sketchy, known only to have occurred in the Phoenix area near the Oswego County and Onondaga County line.

Fitzpatrick said the chase is believed to have happened only hours after Fulds death in her Grant Village apartment in Syracuse. The time of her murder has been estimated at 4 p.m. on Jan 21. Her body was found on Jan. 25.

The DA declined to say whether authorities checked on Fulds status the night of the police chase.

Eva Fuld, a longtime teacher, was killed in home invasion burglary in Syracuse.

The revelation of the police chase provides an answer to why authorities believe others might have been involved in Fulds murder: Jahkim was with two others, in a stolen vehicle, not long after her death.

So far, only Jahkim has been charged in Fulds murder, Fitzpatrick said Tuesday morning.

Even though Jahkim is accused of stealing Fulds vehicle after the homicide, thats not the vehicle he and the two others were in later when chased by police, the DA said.

They ditched her car and stole another one and led cops on a high-speed chase, Fitzpatrick said. Of course, they were all released and cops did not know Eva was dead.

The DA declined to say whether police were tipped off to Jahkims alleged involvement in Fulds murder at the time of the police chase. Because Jahkim is accused of stealing yet another vehicle, the link back to Fulds death remains unclear.

Fulds car wasnt found until a day after the police chase, Fitzpatrick said. Police say theres evidence that Jahkim had possession of her stolen vehicle after her murder.

The states recent bail reform law required the release of all three juveniles after the chase, since they were not charged with a violent crime. Its unclear if police would have opted to release Jahkim before bail reform, anyway, due to his young age or if they would have released the others too before bail reform.

Editors note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the day that murder victim Eva Fulds car was found. Her car was found on Saturday, Jan. 23.

Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.
[February 02, 2021] AKHAN Semiconductor Adds Two New Members to Its Board of Directors

AKHAN Semiconductor, a technology company specializing in the fabrication and application of synthetic, lab-grown electronics-grade diamonds addressing the semiconductor, telecom, consumer display and global markets, announced today that it has added veteran business executive King R. Lee and corporate finance and strategy consultant Holger Heims to its Board of Directors. Lee and Heims both bring distinct business acumen and decades of experience to AKHAN and will be instrumental in the company's efforts to expand its Miraj Diamond products globally across verticals, including consumer electronics, semiconductors, telecom/optics among the various industries AKHAN has targeted for key growth. King R. Lee, a veteran CEO with 25 years of experience working in both public and private international companies, currently serves as a Partner of Resource Capitalist, LLC, where he advises companies in the technology space. In his recent past, King acted as the CEO of Good Technology (News - Alert) , a cybersecurity company targeting mobile devices, where he helped transition from a consumer-focused company to an enterprise solution, increasing revenue by 700%. In addition to his experience across technologies, King has held numerous positions as CEO of both public and privte technology companies, international and domestic, and worked with top tier international private equity firms as a board member, including fundraising in private and public transactions for growth companies.



"As AKHAN continues to develop their patent portfolio and its applications addressing several huge technology sectors, my experience in building high growth corporate structures and focusing on execution will be helpful in ensuring the Company reaches its goals," said Lee. "Whether it's for the semiconductor, telecom or automotive sector or applying it to other cutting-edge technologies, AKHAN's diamond tech is an industry-changing solution with great global opportunity." Holger Heims also joins AKHAN's board with extensive experience as CEO and CFO of public companies in the U.S. and Europe, and a track record of helping technology companies scale to a global level and enter new markets. Currently acting as the Managing Partner of Falcon Equity Advisors of Switzerland, Holger has more than 30 years of professional experience, in international private equity (Deutsche Bank and others), M&A and cross-border corporate finance, particular in the Middle East and emerging markets, all of which will be helpful to AKHAN as it targets new regions for expanded manufacturing capacity.

"As companies across industries come to realize they need AKHAN's breakthrough solution, I've been provided with a great opportunity to step in and collaborate with existing leadership during this period of rapid growth," said Heims. "As we continue to identify crucial avenues where AKHAN's products can be applied, I'm confident my experience can assist in positioning the company for further successful and sustainable growth, and advancing their technology portfolio with almost limitless possibilities in entering various global markets." About AKHAN AKHAN is enabling the "Diamond Age" of electronics. The technology company specializes in the fabrication and application of synthetic, lab grown, electronics-grade diamonds for breakthrough applications across several vast markets including semiconductors, telecom/optics, consumer displays and others. AKHAN is headquartered in Gurnee, Lake County, Illinois. Additional information about AKHAN is available on the Company's website at http://www.akhansemi.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005162/en/

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Parades may be canceled, but thats not stopping Burgersmith from getting into the Mardi Gras spirit. The Louisiana-based restaurant is bringing back its king cake burger collaboration with Baton Rouge-based Calandros Supermarket for a second year, just in time for the Carnival season.

The Mardi Gras Mambo Burger will be available at all six locations for a limited time starting Feb. 1. The burger features Burgersmiths signature beef patty, melted cheddar cheese and crispy bacon, sandwiched between two slices of Calandros Supermarkets classic cinnamon king cakecomplete with icing, sprinkles and a traditional king cake baby on top.

I think were all missing our Mardi Gras traditions this year, so we wanted a safe way for customers to keep the celebration going, said Russ Umbricht, Vice President of Operations. Thats why were excited to bring back the Mardi Gras Mambo Burger.

The Mardi Gras Mambo Burger was first introduced in 2020 with limited quantities quickly selling out at all restaurant locations. Known for its handcrafted burgers and sides, Burgersmith is no stranger to exciting takes on classic dishes. The king cake-burger combo is the creation of Jay Ducote and Charles Chuck P Pierce, co-hosts of the Jay Ducote Show on Talk 107.3 in Baton Rouge.

Its no secret that I love bold flavors, so combining two of our favorites (king cake and burgers) was a no-brainer, said Jay Ducote. The result was even better than we anticipated! Its part tradition, part nostalgia and a whole lot of deliciousnessafter all, isnt that what Mardi Gras is all about?

The Mardi Gras Mambo Burger will be available for dine-in and take-out at all six Burgersmith locations from Feb. 1 through Feb. 16, Mardi Gras day. To learn more, follow us @EatBurgersmith on Facebook and Instagram or visit our website at burgersmith.com.

Burgersmith's Mardi Gras Mambo Burger available for a limited time.

News15 at Noon got the chance to sample the festive treat, and let's just say, you better get them while you can!
Mr Kellys posts include a recent call on the media to start reporting the truth because the Medical Association of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil had recommended chloroquine and ivermectin. The association is not an arm of the Brazilian federal government nor the government of Rio Grande do Norte, a state in the north-east of the country with a population of about 3 million. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Weve been very clear to point out where you get your information from. You dont get it from Facebook, Mr Morrison told the National Press Club on Monday. You get it from official government websites, and thats what I encourage everybody to do and thats what were doing and thats what were investing in. Dont go to Facebook to find out about the vaccine. Go to official government websites.

Loading Asked whether people should go to Mr Kelly, the Prime Minister responded, Hes not my doctor and hes not yours. But he does a great job in Hughes. Mr Kelly stood in the Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday morning, the first gathering of Liberal and Nationals MPs this year, to argue he was right to air advice about other treatments for COVID-19. But fellow Liberal Katie Allen, a paediatrician who won the Melbourne seat of Higgins at the last election, spoke up on the need for clear communications to support the mammoth vaccination program. Dr Allens colleagues saw her remarks as a warning shot about Mr Kellys posts.

Mr Kelly told the party room of the work of an Australian immunologist, Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy of the University of Newcastle. Professor Clancy told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he had not met Mr Kelly and did not agree with everything he said but thought he was absolutely right on hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Early treatment is highly effective. Vaccines are critically important. They should not be seen as mutually exclusive. You need them both, he said. Professor Clancy said the evidence showed hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were safe and should be used. But they mustnt be used instead of a vaccine. They need to be used together, he said.

But Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said last month there was no evidence to show hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin should be rolled out to Australians. Loading He needs to decide what is the appropriate thing for a member of Parliament to be commenting on, Professor Kelly said. Im not going to talk further about this because it just gives prominence to views that I just dont agree with and are not scientifically based. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners rebuked Mr Kelly for appearing in an interview with celebrity chef Pete Evans, who was removed from Facebook last year after telling followers not to get tested for COVID-19. It is unacceptable that Craig Kelly is persisting in disseminating misinformation concerning COVID-19 and to appear on this podcast with a disgraced former celebrity chef is very unhelpful, RACGP president Dr Karen Price said.

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said last month it was disappointing to see crackpot ideas spread by people who should know better. AMA vice president Chris Moy expressed disappointment that political leaders cannot stand up very clearly for upholding science and fact against Mr Kelly. Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said he got along all right with Mr Kelly but gave voters credit for making their own judgments. In Parliament you have a right to say what you like, even though at times its completely flawed and erroneous and incorrect, Mr Joyce said. If a professor of epidemiology says something to me, I think 99.9 per cent of us are probably going to listen to the professor. Asked if Mr Morrison should do anything to silence Mr Kelly, Mr Joyce said, No, that would just be poking the bear. People are smart enough to make their own decisions, and Craig is not a doctor. Mr Kelly has not opposed COVID-19 vaccinations but Labor, the Greens and some Liberals believe his arguments on Facebook will weaken support for the vaccination program, one of the governments top priorities for the year ahead.

Labor accused Mr Morrison of weakness for claiming Mr Kelly was doing a great job when the MPs claims could undermine the $24 million federal advertising campaign to encourage people to take COVID-19 vaccines. Craig Kelly is a dangerous menace and a threat to the nations COVID response and its beyond time that the Prime Minister developed the backbone to pull him into line, Mr Butler said. Labor assistant communications spokesman Tim Watts said Mr Kellys posts had been shared 10 times as much as Department of Health posts on Facebook. A real leader would have stepped in and said that they would have nothing to do with any MP who is spreading medical misinformation during a pandemic and would have demanded that Craig Kelly be dis-endorsed by the Liberal Party, Mr Watts said. Former Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon said he supported free speech but Mr Kelly had to be more responsible when Australia faced the risk of vaccine hesitancy with COVID-19.
A Dubai expat has hit out at the 'idiot' influencers whose flouting of the UK lockdown and anti-Covid measures has been blamed for a tightening of restrictions imposed today by the emirate's government.

Pubs and bars have now been closed for the whole of February and restaurants and hotels will have to severely restrict the numbers of guests they can accommodate at any one time.

The 'body positive' blogger known as 'Sapphire' issued a heartfelt plea to the droves of reality stars and influencers who have beaten a path for Dubai to escape the UK lockdown to 'stay away, unless you can follow the rules'.

She pointed out that last year's lockdown in Dubai was far more stringent than the British version, with people  often living in apartments with no outside space  only allowed to leave home once every three days to buy groceries, which required a government permit.

The blogger, known as 'Sapphire' (pictured above), issued a heartfelt plea to the droves of reality stars and influencers who have beaten a path for Dubai to escape the UK lockdown

She pointed out that last year's lockdown in Dubai was far more stringent than the British version, with people only allowed to leave home once every three days to buy groceries

She wrote on her Instagram account @lovingmycurvyself: 'That is why Dubai recovered so quickly. We all happily went along with the restrictions that they feel will help us the most.

'Even today which sees a new set of rules on social distancing announced by the Government of Dubai, we are going to comply with no objections.'

But she added: 'What makes the majority of Dubai residents I have spoken with angry is that our city and our health is being compromised by people who come here for a sunshine break and think the rules shouldn't apply to them. THEY DO!

'The rules apply to all of us. If you can't follow the rules then do not come. We are so happy to see the UAE's economy growing again because tourism was allowed.

'But now that's been ruined by a small group of idiot tourists and influencers who blatantly disregard the measures put into place by our government as they feel they are more important than anyone else.'

One British restaurateur in Dubai's marina district backed up the blogger's comments, telling MailOnline: 'We are now going to have to reduce the numbers at any one sitting by around half, so that's another blow to our takings.

'Of course it's not just the influencers, but they certainly haven't helped matters by flaunting their behaviour, such as partying and failing to wear masks, which is a bad example for Dubai, and just makes people back in the UK angry.'

Over the last week, MailOnline has revealed a string of British influencers topping up their tans in Dubai  not always telling their followers they'd even left the UK, including make-up queen Lottie Tomlinson, her boyfriend Lewis Button and former TOWIE star Mario Falcone.

Lottie Tomlinson pictured posing with her two friends and a glass of wine, with the trio tagged in at upmarket hotel One&Only, The Palm Dubai

Mario Falcone was recently caught living it up in Dubai during Britain's lockdown while posting old photos online, giving the impression he was still in the UK

Geordie Shore's Sophie Kasaei, who welcomed in the New Year in Dubai, pictured in the city in a throwback snap that was shared to Instagram on Tuesday

TOWIE's Yazmin Oukhellou shared a snap on Instagram on January 7 with boyfriend James Lock in Dubai

The news has come as the UK remained in national lockdown, with the government enforcing rules to stay at home to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Under strict law, UK citizens are only advised to leave home for essential reasons, such as exercising with someone from your household.

Ministers have stepped up their war against illegal foreign holidays with a new ad campaign telling Britons not to travel  as influencers continued to live it up in Dubai.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office have launched adverts warning 'going on holiday is currently illegal' amid a clampdown on illicit trips.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 19:24:14|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Mongolian government will provide all possible support to implement the policy to provide housing accommodations for citizens, Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene said Tuesday.

Oyun-Erdene made the remarks during a meeting with representatives of public and private organizations operating in the construction sector.

"In order to create a prosperous middle-class in the country, we must first provide our citizens with housing, and quality and accessible education and health care. That is why the government will provide all possible support for implementing its housing policy targeting ordinary citizens, especially youths," said Oyun-Erdene.

In the first phase, the government planned to implement three projects of apartment complexes targeting youths in the country's capital Ulan Bator and other areas. A working group led by Chief Cabinet Secretary Tsend Nyamdorj to implement these projects will be formed soon, Oyun-Erdene said.

Housing is one of the most pressing issues in Mongolia, especially in the capital city, home to over half of the country's 3.3 million population.

More than half of the capital's population live in the city's ger districts, with no running water, central heating or sewerage systems. Enditem
The central government has no plans to enact an anti-conversion law to curb interfaith marriages, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said issues related to religious conversions are primarily the concerns of state governments, adding that law enforcement agencies take action whenever such instances of violation come to the fore.

ALSO READ | Rules Under Preparation for Over a Year, Centre Gets More Time to Implement Citizenship Amendment Act

Reddy said in a written question that the central government has no plans to enact a central anti-conversion law to curb interfaith marriages. "Public order and police are state subjects as per the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution and hence, prevention, detection, registration, investigation and prosecution of offences related to religious conversions are primarily the concerns of state governments and Union Territory administrations.

"Action is taken as per existing laws by law enforcing agencies whenever instances of violation come to notice," he said.

Last year, BJP-ruled states - Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka - had called for laws to curb "love jihad". Consequently, UP, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and MP came out with laws seeking to curb "forced conversions". Haryana has formed a three-member committee to draft an anti-conversion law.

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had in November last year reiterated taking "strong measures" against "reports of religious conversions in the name of love jihad" in the state.

'Love Jihad' is a term coined by right-wing groups to accuse Muslim men of 'forcibly converting' women from other religions under the 'guise' of love.

In January, the Supreme Court agreed to examine controversial new laws of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand regulating religious conversions due to inter-faith marriages.

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde refused, however, to stay the controversial provisions of the laws and issued notices to both state governments on two different petitions. The pleas, filed by advocate Vishal Thakre and others and an NGO Citizen for Justice and Peace, have challenged the constitutional validity of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020 and the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018 which regulate religious conversions of inter-faith marriages. A Muslim body has also moved the apex court seeking to be made a party in the batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of controversial new laws.
Libyas strongman in the east, General Khalifa Haftar, is selling through illegal corporations oil pumped in areas in eastern Libya under the control of his forces, Turkish media reported on Tuesday.

Turkey supports the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), which has been fighting with Haftars forces for control of Libya and its oil riches.

Haftar has signed an agreement to form a parallel company to sell oil from Libya, security sources told Turkish IHA news agency. Haftars corporation is reportedly selling the oil to another company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The report of parallel oil sales highlights the division in Libya since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi ten years ago.

Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) blocked Libyas oil export terminals in January last year, which led to crude oil production in OPECs North African member to plunge from 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to less than 100,000 bpd.

Haftars forced lifted the blockade on Libyan oil fields and terminals in the middle of September 2020, which allowed the countryexempted from the OPEC+ cutsto start restoring its oil production.

The faster-than-expected production increase in Libya added another headache to OPEC and the oil market in assessing demand and supply balances while the pandemic is still suppressing demand.

Two months after the eight-month-long blockade on Libyan oil ports ended, the country had already reached the level of production from before the blockade1.2 million bpd.

The recovering production in Libya, however, saw disruptions last month, and the country was producing slightly less in January compared to December, the monthly Reuters survey found last week. A leak that forced the shutdown of an oil pipeline reduced Libyan oil production by as much as 200,000 bpd for a week, while the Petroleum Facilities Guard briefly shut down the Hariga oil port in eastern Libya after the National Oil Corporation delayed the payment of salaries for its members.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Odisha: Fishing sector hopeful with Union Budget 2021-22 allocation for Paradip

February 02,2021 | Source: Down to Earth

Fishermen, seafood exporters and those engaged in ancillary industries in Odishas Paradip welcomed Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharamans announcement of developing a fishing harbour and fish landing centre in the port town in Jagatsinghpur district. Kochi in Kerala, Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Petuaghat in West Bengal will also be developed as hubs for economic activities.



In May 2020, the state fisheries department had submitted a proposal to the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying asking for Rs 30 crore to modernise the states biggest fishing harbour at Paradip. The funds would be used to fill the infrastructure gaps and promote seafood export under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), the letter said. We are happy the finance minister gave green signal to the project by providing money in the budget, said Pabitra Behera, joint-director, fisheries (coastal) department of Odisha.



The department plans to upgrade the hygiene standards in the fishing harbour by establishing an effluent treatment plant among other amenities under the project. Ice-crushing machines, solar-powered lighting and CCTVs will be installed in the harbour with the funds. A mechanised fishing vessel repair workshop will also be set up, Behara said. The auction hall and the periphery of the harbour will be modernised, he added.



The fishing harbour in Paradip was constructed by the state in 1996 at a cost of Rs 39 crore. The state government handed over the harbour to the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) in 1998 for maintenance. In 2019, PPT handed over the fishing harbour to the fisheries department. In the financial year 2019-20, around 32 companies in Odisha exported around 45,000 tonnes of seafood worth around Rs 3,200 crore. Of this, Paradip fishing harbour contributed Rs 500 crore. Odisha has resources like 480 kilometre of coastline along with 24,000 square kilometers within the continental shelf for which we are determined to fulfill all the hygiene and other norms in the fishing harbour, added Behera.



Three years ago, a two-member delegation from the European Union (EU) inspected the fishing harbour at Paradip to assess its conditions, infrastructure facilities and hygienic conditions for seafood export trade in the state. In the past, the European Union had banned seafood from Pakistan and a few other countries owing to unhygienic conditions for not meeting required quality standards.



The European Commission has brought in a new regulation which insists on validated-catch certificate or certificate for consignments of fish, shrimp, squid, cuttlefish, octopus and others exported to the EU. This requirement is compulsory for all consignments made out of catches from the sea. "We are delighted that the Union finance minister announced to modernise the fishing harbour. We hope the work will be done soon and the harbour will be able to meet the hygiene requirements prescribed by EU for sea-food export," said Sumant Kumar Biswal, secretary of Odisha Marine Fish Producers Association (OMFPA), Paradip. Hundreds of marine fishermen and related workers will benefit from the funds announced, said Prasana Behera, the president of Odisha Traditional Fish Workers Union.
Certain wells were shut-in for most of the company's first-half

( ) has highlighted a 1.5% increase in annual output, with 2020 net production totalling 106,400 barrels.

Moreover, this annual gain came despite the disruption caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and a five and a half month shutdown for the Blazhiv-3 and Blazhiv-Monastyrets-3 wells - which had licences expire, and subsequently renew in June.

The Ukraine-focused oil and gas company noted that it established administrative and healthcare measures to provide safe working conditions for its employees  there were a total of 10 cases of its employees testing positive for COVID-19 and all recovered.

Operations continued zero lost time incidents (LTIs) or total recordable injuries (TRI), amassing 1.26mln man hours since the last incident.

The company also noted that it introduced a claim before court to challenge a decision of the State Geological Service of Ukraine for not granting the Bitlyanska 20-year exploration and production license.

Additionally, a subsidiary of the company introduced a claim against the State fiscal authority regarding additional tax assessment and penalties. It won in the first instance Court and in the appeal Court, Cadogan noted.
We had no idea that we were going to receive that call this morning, Law said. All seven of us coordinated our communications, and there was this thought that we needed to get this out because our staff is also eligible to register in the Lake County system to get their vaccine. We wanted to make sure that if the opportunity presented itself today, tomorrow, or whenever, they wouldnt ignore it because they thought that our (point of distribution) would be open for them to get their vaccination.
NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Everberg Capital ("Everberg"), a structured capital fund focused on investing primarily in the U.S. middle market, announced the closing of a significant preferred equity investment supporting Two Sigma Impact and BayPine's investment in Penn Foster, a leading workforce education platform for middle-skilled workers. BC partners and FS Investments, among other institutional investors, joined Everberg in the preferred equity investment. The transaction marks a watershed moment in Everberg's growth and evolution and was its largest to date.

Founded in 1890 as a correspondence school, Penn Foster has evolved into a digital learning platform focused on closing the skill gap by preparing workforce-ready employees for middle-skilled careers. Penn Foster serves more than 300,000 adult learners seeking to move beyond entry-level employment, graduating more than 40,000 students each year. In "Unstuck in the Middle," a white paper released by Penn Foster last year, the company made the case that recognizing skill attainment along a spectrum could unlock economic mobility for workers employed in jobs that require more than a high school diploma but not a four year degree. According to the National Skills Coalition, while middle-skill jobs make up the largest portion of the US labor market, just 44% of workers are currently trained to the middle-skill level. A recent study published by the nonprofit, [email protected], suggests that the estimated 71 million Americans who lack four-year degrees, but are "Skilled Through Alternative Routes" (STARs), represent an untapped pool of talent for US employers.

Scott Siegel, Managing Partner, at Everberg Capital said: "COVID-19 is further driving the demand for self-paced remote education programs and accelerating the trend towards digital learning. We are proud to support Penn Foster as it continues to up-skill and re-skill workers, which is paramount in securing a job in this challenging labor market. Our investment in Penn Foster highlights our commitment to investing in socially responsible companies with community-focused partners. We firmly believe a healthy corporate ecosystem is built upon alignment of interests and principles of transparency, integrity, and understanding."

Ian Blasco, Partner, at Two Sigma Impact said: "Everberg was the ideal partner for us. They created a customized financing solution tailored to the needs of the company and then worked quickly to execute it. We look forward to partnering with them again in the near future."

Tom O'Rourke, Managing Director, at BayPine said: "We are pleased to partner with Scott, the Everberg team, and Two Sigma Impact to invest in Penn Foster and develop a modern, agile education platform that leverages the power of data to drive better outcomes for working learners."

About Penn Foster

Penn Foster is bridging the gap between education and economic opportunity to build tomorrow's workforce. We partner with employers, education and workforce organizations, and local community groups to design and deliver digital and blended learning programs that attract, upskill, and retain workers in America's fastest-growing fields and professions. With more than 40,000 graduates each year, Penn Foster helps individuals discover pathways to opportunity through accredited diploma, certificate and degree programs that matter in the world of work. For more information, visit https://www.pennfoster.edu.

About Everberg Capital

Everberg Capital is a structured capital fund focused on investing primarily in the U.S. middle market. The firm partners with both seasoned family founders / entrepreneurs and innovative financial sponsors to provide bespoke private capital solutions, operational support, and capital markets expertise. The firm's capital is used not only for growth financing and acquisitions, but also to stabilize companies and to alleviate burdensome capital structures. https://www.everbergcapital.com/

About BayPine

BayPine is a private investment firm that seeks to create lasting value for the firm's investors, portfolio companies and communities in which they operate by driving innovation, digital transformation and sustainable growth in market-leading businesses across traditional sectors of the economy. Headquartered in Boston, BayPine was founded by a team of accomplished investors and senior executives who have a shared passion for building enduring companies. For more information about BayPine, please visit www.baypine.com.

About Two Sigma Impact

Two Sigma Impact is a business of Two Sigma. Its mission is to combine active, principled ownership and data science with the goal of achieving superior returns and positive social outcomes. The Two Sigma Impact team is focused on workforce impact  where they anticipate innovative and thoughtful investments in humans will lead to an enhanced employee experience, productivity, and long-term financial returns. As part of Two Sigma, Two Sigma Impact has access to expertise in data science, technology, and a range of corporate specialties, and seeks to support its portfolio companies with those resources. For more information about Two Sigma Impact, please visit www.twosigmaimpact.com

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For Everberg Capital

Max Hilton/Darius Athill

Peregrine Communications

917-960-5064

For Penn Foster

Ben Watsky

Whiteboard Associates

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For BayPine

Jonathan Gasthalter/Nathaniel Garnick

Gasthalter & Co.

(212) 257-4170

For Two Sigma Impact

Andrew McGloin

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New Delhi:

AIIMS Recruitment 2017: The new six AIIMS are struggling to fill 1,285 posts and the seats remain vacant as the Union Health Ministry is struggling to find appropriate candidates.

Last year a total of 1,300 posts were advertised for professors at the AIIMS at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh. According to the reports, only 300 were selected out of which only 200 joined. At his annual press conference last month, Health Minister J P Nadda admitted, We are not getting good people. Hum chalis-chalis logon ko reject kar rahen hain (We are rejecting up to 40 people at a time).

Elaborating on the proposal to hire retired professors on contract as faculty, a Health Ministry official said, That way we may get good, competent people who have retired from institutes like AIIMS-New Delhi, and PGI-Chandigarh.

It is also been said that salary is one of the major concern as a professor at an AIIMS would get around Rs 2.12 lakh monthly salary including HRA, an additional professor is entitled to around Rs 1.91 lakh. In the private sector, depending on a doctors discipline and the demand for it, he or she can earn up to Rs 7-8 lakh, said the director of one of the six AIIMS.

This year Bophal has posted 251 vacancies, Bhubaneswar 178, Jodhpur 204, Patna 253, Raipur 204 and Rishikesh 205, lesser than previous years. Each

AIIMS is allowed 305 posts, which are filled differently across different cities, from 55 in Patna to 135 in Bhubaneswar.

It is also believed that departments like nuclear medicine, neurosurgery in the private sector shell out higher salaries, preventing the candidates from applying to posts of professor and additional professor. The Officials also said that newer AIIMS do not have proper facilities due to small centres.

For all the Latest Education News, Jobs News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.

Groundhog Day 2021 is seeing a war amongst the countrys most famous rodents.

As Pennsylvanias own Punxsutawney Phil scurried back into his hidey-hole after seeing his own shadow, another groundhog, Staten Island Chuck, stood brazenly in the cold winter snow and saw.nothing.

Thats rightChuck was interpreted to have said, Spring is on its way.

The New York Post reports that the city groundhog made his prediction during a virtual ceremony hosted at the Staten Island Zoo. The waddling creature searched for his shadow on his own, as the usual crowd was kept home due to COVID-19 safety restrictions.

Chucks failure to spot his shadow is a win on the part of bipeds, as it means that an early spring is on its way.

At least, perhaps thats how it is for New Yorkerstheres as much disparity amongst groundhogs in their 2021 meteorological predictions than there is in the opinions of the women hosting The View.

While Chuck and several other groundhogs have claimed winters departure will be ahead of schedule this year, otherssuch as Yorks Poor Richardwarn that the cold weather will linger for another six weeks.

However, while the majority of Pennsylvanian groundhogs err on the side of more winter, the New York Post additionally notes how Chuck was found to be the most accurate groundhog meteorologist of them all.

Whichever way you cut it, theres still more snow on its way. Ah, well!

Similar stories:
New Delhi, Feb 3 : The Rajya Sabha was adjourned on Tuesday amid the opposition's demand for a discussion on the farm laws and their withdrawal. On Wednesday, the Upper House is scheduled to discuss the motion of thanks to the President.

"Bhubhneshwar Kalita to move an address to be presented to the President in the following terms: That the Members of the Rajya Sabha assembled in this session are deeply grateful to the President for the address which he was pleased to deliver to both the Houses of the Parliament on January 29, 2021," read the bulletin of the Rajya Sabha business list.

The opposition on Tuesday forced the Upper House to be adjourned after the House witnessed sloganeering the moment it assembled a day after the Union Budget was presented in the Parliament.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected a suspension notice given by the opposition on the farm laws. The rejection did not go down well with the opposition parties with their members raising slogans before the Chairman's podium.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said: "The opposition should adhere to the Chairman's decision." Naidu said: "The ongoing dialogue between the agitating farmers and the government can be discussed during the motion of thanks to the President on Wednesday." The suspension notice was given by Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress, T. Shiva of DMK, Ashok Siddarth of Bahujan Samaj Party and E. Kareem of CPI-M. The opposition gave the notice under Rule 267 of the Rajya Sabha.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "The farmers have been agitating for months now. The matter is serious and should be discussed."
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No Discover Pass needed on Juneteenth, state land managers say Following passage of a bill designating Juneteenth a state holiday, recreationalists now wont need to display a Discovery Pass for day-use parking at many Washington state public lands during 

Inslee pushes COVID-19 vaccinations, defends climate change vetoes in interview Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday that if sports fans want to root on the Cougars and Huskies this fall in-person, the best way to make that happen is to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. "It's a distinct 

Toutle River rest areas closed for maintenance The Toutle River rest areas on Interstate 5 near Castle Rock will be closed until no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, May 28 for maintenance and repair work. The rest areas closed at 7 a.m. on 

Son of convicted murderer faces charge of killing stepfather The son of a man convicted of killing three people in 2016 now faces his own murder charge after allegedly stabbing his stepfather to death. Brent Luyster, Jr., 17, made his first appearance in 

Woodland woman charged with two counts of vehicular assault A 37-year-old woman from Woodland was charged with two counts of vehicular assault after an injury collision occurred in Pacific County on Tuesday, May 25. The Washington State Patrol said Amy M. 

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Grace tells the story of ten astonishing days in America in June 2015, when President Obama and Keenan together composed critical speeches to meet a whirlwind of dramatic moments too implausible for a full season of "The West Wing": the horrific Charleston church massacre, where nine Black churchgoers were murdered by a white supremacist, a public debate over the Confederate flag, and two long-awaited Supreme Court decisions: one that would decide the fate of health care for millions, and one that would determine the right to marriage equality for millions more. President Obama's soaring eulogy for the victims served as the coda at the close of those ten extraordinary days  and in what is considered one of the finest moments of his presidency, Obama surprised everyone by leading the country in a chorus of "Amazing Grace."

Through his riveting recounting of this pivotal period of American history, Keenan delivers deeply textured insight into the craft of speechwriting at the highest level and the most intimate look yet at the even higher demands of the work when your boss is Barack Obama.

"Grace started with a string of tweets on the second anniversary of that week," Keenan said. "At first, all I wanted to do was tell a story to show what this country can be at its best and what writing with Barack Obama is actually like when the stakes are highest. The years since have only added context to how those ten days help make sense of the broader sweep of American progress and backlash, this clash of two fundamentally opposing visions of America  and this feels like the right time to finally sit down and write it all up."

Keenan has written with Barack Obama since 2007, rising from a campaign intern in Chicago to become chief speechwriter at the White House and Obama's post-presidential collaborator. A sought-after expert on politics and current affairs, Keenan speaks to universities, foundations, and conventions around the world. He teaches a popular course on political speechwriting at his alma mater Northwestern University, where he delivered the commencement address in 2018, viewed more than nine million times on Facebook, and where the graduating class of 2020 chose him to deliver its "Last Lecture."

HMH editor-at-large Deanne Urmy acquired North American and audio rights at auction for HMH's Sugar23 Books imprint from Todd Shuster, co-CEO of Aevitas Creative Management.

"Grace offers an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of President Obama, and, it introduces another prolific American thinker to the world, Cody himself," said Michael Sugar, principal of Sugar23. "To be in proximity to Cody and to help publish Grace is one of the true honors of my life to date. I started Sugar23 Books with the intention of helping to tell stories that deserve and need to be told, and Grace is exactly that  a beacon of hope, light, and well, grace, at a time when we all need it most."

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media

For nearly two centuries, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has published some of the world's most renowned novels, nonfiction, children's books, and reference works. As part of a leading global learning company, it is uniquely positioned to offer educational and entertaining content for all audiences. Its distinguished author list includes eleven Nobel Prize winners, forty-eight Pulitzer Prize winners, fifteen National Book Award winners, and more than one hundred Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, and Sibert Medal and Honor recipients. Current and recent authors include Tim O'Brien, Natasha Trethewey, Paul Theroux, Alison Bechdel, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Adam Hochschild, Chinelo Okparanta, Mateo Askaripour, Tim Ferriss and a celebrated roster of children's authors and illustrators including Kwame Alexander, Lois Lowry, Linda Sue Park and Chris Van Allsburg. HMH is also home to The Best American series The Whole30, Weber Grill, How to Cook Everything, and other leading lifestyle properties; books by J.R.R. Tolkien; and many iconic children's books and characters, including Curious George, Little Blue Truck, and The Polar Express. HMH Productions develops and produces media and licensed products related to brands such as Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail. HMH Audio publishes audio books of HMH front list and backlist titles.

Contact:

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SVP, Executive Director of Publicity

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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[email protected]

SOURCE Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Originally from Haifa, she was elected president of the movement founded by Chiara Lubich. She brings with her the experience of dialogue in the Holy Land, where the Focolare have been present since 1977. Her commitment to building an international center for unity and peace

Jerusalem (AsiaNews). The Focolare movement general assembly has elected its new president: Margaret Karram, 58, an Arab Christian from Haifa. The appointment was announced yesterday after confirmation by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, as required by the general statutes of the movement. She takes the place of Maria Voce, who has been at the head of the movement for 12 years, taking up the baton from the founder Chiara Lubich.

Margaret Karram brings the vivacity of the groups of the Holy Land to the presidency of the focolarini - present today in 182 countries around the world. There are nine communities in Jerusalem, Galilee, the Palestinian territories and Jordan. After encountering the vocation to dialogue and unity typical of the Focolare charism in Haifa, Karram, an Arab, went to study Judaism at the Jewish University of Los Angeles. After returning to the Holy Land, in addition to holding positions of responsibility in the movement, she collaborated with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land and the International Coordinating Council in Israel, the largest Israeli interreligious body.

For her commitment to dialogue between cultures and religions, in 2013 she was awarded the Mount Zion Prize for Reconciliation, awarded to her together with Jewish scholar and researcher Yisca Harani. Since 2014 she has been already carrying out her service in Italy as a councilor of the International Focolare Center.

The vitality of the movement in the Holy Land is linked to a specific desire of the founder Chiara Lubich. In 1956, during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, she was particularly struck by the site of St Peter's Gallicantu, where tradition places the prayer of Jesus "that they may all be one" (Jn 17:21).

In 1977 this intuition materialized in a first presence in the Holy Land that has grown over the years: today there are about 2 thousand people who among Israel, Palestine and Jordan recognize themselves in the focolarina spirituality. Their commitment, as well as in the spiritual formation of local Christians, touches the sphere of encounter and dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims through visits, social and recreational activities, common moments of study and prayer for peace.

This commitment, in Jerusalem, should soon take on the face of a physical place near St Peter's in Gallicantu: the planning authorities have approved the construction of an international center for unity and peace that will make Chiara Lubich's dream come true. In addition to welcoming pilgrims, it will also host seminars and conferences on ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, prayer meetings for unity and peace and animation activities for young people, families and educators.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border Friday, officials said.

The incident occurred around 7:38 a.m. about one mile away from the Hidalgo Port of Entry, 240 miles south of San Antonio.

An agent responding to a report of several illegal entries fired his weapon while trying to arrest a man, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The man was transported to a local hospital with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at 9 a.m. The agent was not injured.

The incident is under investigation by the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility, DHS Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Graham Warns Democrats Over Calling Witnesses During Trump Impeachment

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned Democrats not to call witnesses for the impeachment trial in the Senate, saying that it could blow up in their faces. He instead cautioned them to end the trial as quickly as possible.

To my Democratic colleagues, if you try to call one witness, youre going blow up the United States Senate. Dont do that. Lets get this travesty over with, quick, Graham told Fox News on Monday.

There are more than a handful of Democrats praying that Joe Biden will get on the phone and call Schumer and say its over because they understand this is going to blow up in their face, politically, Graham added.

The U.S. House of Representatives impeached Trump in a two-day, no-witness, process with a vote of 232 to 197, with 10 Republicans joining, for what they said was the former presidents role in inciting the breach of the Capitol building on Jan. 6. The impeachment now moves to the U.S. Senate and the trial is set to start the week of Feb. 8.

The South Carolina senator said he is disappointed in President Joe Biden for not discouraging the second impeachment. He said he believes Democrats are afraid of the left-wing of their party that has called for both the impeachment of Trump and the expulsion of senators and representatives that objected to the electoral college votes in swing states, during the joint session of Congress.

I think Democratic senators are afraid of the left-wing of their party that if they dont give some credibility to this trial that started in the House, theyre in trouble, said Graham.

The second impeachment of Donald Trump is not wearing well over time. Democrats are in a box; they started this thing in the House, he added. They impeached the president of the United States in Nancy Pelosis House in less than 50 hours from bringing up to a conclusion, without a lawyer. Not one witness was called.

The office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, Schumer has said that the impending Senate impeachment trial will be fair and full.

Graham said that Senate Republicans are united under the belief that the impeachment process is unconstitutional, although he was not certain the Republicans had the 51 votes needed to dismiss the trial on Feb. 8, since five senators voted to proceed at the time the article of impeachment was introduced in the Senate last week.

Had a great meeting with Sen. McConnell today; I think every Republican sees the House process as an affront to the presidency and due process, Graham said.

Now I think well pick up at least one Democrat, maybe more.  Sen. McConnells come up with a plan that I think is good for the country, good for the Senate, fair to the president, he added.
SUV

Its long lifespan allowed for the family to expand and cover a variety of segments, from off-road-bound machines like the J40 to comfort-packed ones like the more recent J200.Presently, Toyota offers the Land Cruiser in the U.S. only as an(though it will stop soon as 2021 is the last year for the model in America), with the sole pickups in the lineup being the Tundra and Tacoma. But theres a certain old variant of the Land Cruiser that rocks the sales charts on the pre-owned market.Its called FJ45 , and it was introduced in 1960s in several variants as a means for the Japanese to tap into the expanding pickup truck market. The one we have here, a 1965 short bed, is one of the best-looking weve seen in a while. And its a perfect fit for this Februarys Truck Month here on autoevolution.What youre looking at is a custom-build FJ45, designed as a collector truck but also mean to be driven and enjoyed, including off the beaten path. According to the one selling it on Race Dezert , the truck is so well made that it was on more than one occasion featured in magazines both in the U.S. and Japan.Riding high on Dakar springs and Bilstein shocks, the shiny-red body hides under the original hood an LS1 crate engine good for 400 hp and running a 5-speed transmission and a 4-wheel-drive transfer case. It breaths through a custom dual exhaust were told makes it sound throaty.The asking price for the truck is $57,500, which may seem a lot, but given the apparent state of this one and the chance of having a real collectible on your hands, it may turn out to be just right.
Lecrae says Charlie Kirk's call to ban him from church is racist rhetoric

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Hip-hop artist and Christian speaker Lecrae recently responded to Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, who said the rapper "should never be allowed" to perform in Christian churches because he campaigned for Raphael Warnock, a pro-choice Democrat.

"I don't think people see the amount of racist rhetoric that comes out they mouth when they try to cancel, the Reach Records founder said on the Higher Learning Podcast with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay.

Referring to Kirk, he continued, "You represent one of the largest majority white institutions and organizations out there and you're saying, 'Don't invite this black man into another church again?' All the white supremacy wrapped up in that is crazy that they don't even see it. That's wild to me."

Lecrae was a featured performer at a December 2020 event in Atlanta called "Get Out the Early Vote Rally & Concert," which was hosted by Democrats Warnock and Jon Ossoff before Georgia's runoff elections. While there, the artist stressed the importance of ones freedom to vote.

During an appearance at Pastor Jack Hibbs Calvary Chapel Chino the week of the inauguration of President Joe Biden, Kirk, author of The MAGA Doctrine, said, In my personal opinion, [Lecrae] should never be allowed to perform at another church after advocating for Raphael Warnock.

Stressing the issue of abortion, Kirk further commented to The Christian Post, "While I hold no personal animosity toward Lecraeand would be happy to discuss the issue with him privatelythe scriptures are incredibly clear that we are 'fearfully and wonderfully made' and that God 'formed us in our inmost being' and 'knit us together in our mothers womb.'

"Senator Warnock calls himself a 'pro-choice pastor' and that makes him complicit in the genocide of nearly 400,000 black babies that are killed every year in America alone. Lecrae nevertheless decided to publicly campaign for this man and I find that morally incompatible with our Christian faith. I stand by what I said."

Lecrae called Kirk's comments "sad."

"First of all, sad that you so connect the church to a political party, that a person who votes opposite of you, or you perceive that they voted opposite of you, is now some sort of heretic or the Antichrist," the artist said.

He further noted that 96% of black people vote progressive while 86% of white people vote conservative because of their different worldviews and experiences. That's just America, he stated.

"What it tells me is you haven't done the research to understand why black people vote in the way they do and you taking this higher moral ground as it pertains to pro-life as if babies in a womb are more important than Tamir Rice outside the womb, he added, referring to a 12-year-old boy who was shot by a Cleveland police officer in 2014.

You got the higher moral ground? How about we care about it all and we'll make the decisions in the midst of everything going on that we feel like best suits our situation and our circumstances. Give people the freedom to do that.

The I Am Restored author said ultimately, Kirk cannot cancel God's call on his life.

Even on a spiritual level, it's like bro, who are you? You can't cancel God's plans. If God wants to use me, Hes gonna use me. What are you talking about? You can't stop the hand of God. If God don't want to use me, then cool. But if He do, He do, he said.
As soon as the Senate received the lone article of impeachment accusing President Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in the Jan. 6 mob assault on the Capitol, Rand Paul rose to object.

The Senate, he said, has no right to try a private citizen, which Trump now is. Thus, what we are about to do is flatly unconstitutional.

Forty-five of 50 Republican members agreed with Pauls motion.

This vote indicates its over. The trial is all over, said Paul. If you voted that (the Senate trial is) ... unconstitutional, how in the world would you ever vote to convict somebody for this?

Consistency says you would not.

Susan Collins of Maine, one of five Republicans who voted against Pauls motion, agreed that the vote portends the final vote on conviction.

Do the math, Collins said. Its extraordinarily unlikely the president will be convicted.

Rand Paul may have just derailed the second impeachment of Donald Trump.

Chief Justice John Roberts, the constitutional officer designated to preside over Senate impeachment trials, has said he will not preside over this latest trial of the ex-president. With Roberts seeing no constitutional duty, and declining the honor, his replacement as the presiding officer will be Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the longest-serving Democrat and the president pro tempore of the Senate.

But Leahy is viscerally hostile to Trump and one of a Democratic bloc that voted twice last January to convict Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors. How will it look to the world if this partisan is installed as both judge and juror at the trial of his political enemy?

Welcome to Zimbabwe.

Does the liberal establishment, now back in power and controlling the House, Senate and presidency, not see how this is all going to look in the history books, generations hence?

Blinded by hatred of Trump, enraged by the mob that stormed the Capitol, Nancy Pelosis House, in a rush to judgment, without hearing a single Trump witness and without letting his lawyer offer a defense, impeached, i.e., indicted, Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection.

But how could Trump have incited the riot and the attack on the Capitol when the mob swept up the stairs before Trump finished speaking a mile away? And he would end his rally remarks by urging the crowd to march to the Hill peacefully and patriotically.

We have subsequently learned that plans and plots were being hatched days before the assault on the Capitol began.

Was the Trump White House, or Trump, privy to those plots?

In August 1974, it was a near certainty that the House would vote to impeach Richard Nixon. But after the president resigned, the House did not impeach, and Ford pardoned Nixon so the country could move on.

The rage of the establishment at being deprived of its revenge against Nixon who had turned the Silent Majority against it, not unlike today, knew no bounds. And, though history has vindicated Ford, his pardon of Nixon precipitated a plunge in his poll numbers.

Half a century on, however, history says Ford did the right thing.

Why then are the Democrats continuing with this exercise in vengeance?

They want Trump convicted so that he will be prohibited from ever again holding public office. The establishment fears that Trump could make a comeback, win the Republican primaries in 2024, become the nominee, and return in triumph as president.

They are determined to abort that possibility. Many openly admit it.

What does that say about the liberal establishments love of democracy when they would disqualify, in advance, the largest vote-getter their opposition party ever had, out of fear he might come back to win the presidency as he did in 2016?

Trust the people! was a campaign slogan made famous by George Wallace. Our national establishment prattles endlessly on about its devotion to democracy, but it does not trust the people.

But the establishment is going to pay a price for trying to squeeze the last ounces of juice out of this rotting fruit. President Joe Bidens call to unity are being drowned out by Democratic howls for a trial, conviction and banishment.

This effort to convict and disqualify Trump from running again tells us more about the people behind it than it does about Trump.

For the odds are slim at best that Trump would or could, at 78, win the nomination and the presidency a second time, as Grover Cleveland did in 1892.

Yet, a fearful establishment does not want to take the chance.

For all the babbling about democracy we have heard in recent days, the establishment wants to eliminate the possibility that the people could rise up, and, horror of horrors, elect Trump once more.

You can smell the fear.

PAT BUCHANAN is the author of Nixons White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever. To find out more about him and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.
Hindu extremists and police officers have assaulted and filed false charges against Christians in India, reports say.

A group of about 20 Hindu extremists assaulted the members of Heavenly Gospel Mission Church in Shahjahanpur District in Uttar Pradesh, India. The incident was also witnessed by police officers but one of them only joined beating the Christians. They were then brought to the police station and charged with the state's new "anti-conversion" law, Christian Headlines reported.

The church pastor, H.S. David, said that the assailants just burst into the worship service, ensured that none of the congregants could escape and started beating them while cursing Christians and Christ. They were told that the beatings will not stop until Christians curse the name of Jesus. The extremists also assaulted the Hindu owner of the church's rented building.

According to Rajat, one of the congregants, they were then dragged outside and the assailants continued to beat them and threatened to kill them. The police officers saw what happened but did nothing.

Another police officer named J. Pratap Singh came and without saying anything, he also beat them with a baton and then arrested them. He also verbally abused the Christian women around and threatened to arrest them.

The Christians were then brought to the police station where they found a group of Hindu extremists waiting for them and in their presence, the head officer of the police station threatened the Christians, cursed Christ and said derogatory caste remarks against them.

Speaking to Morning Star News, Pastor David said that the head officer proceeded to beat them and when the police officers took the injured Christians to a medical clinic, the doctor refused to treat them. They were only asked where they were hurting, wrote something on a paper and gave it to the cops.

They were taken back to the police station and were forced to sign two documents, which the pastor said that they were not even able to read the contents.

The police confiscated some of their personal items such Bibles and Christian literature as evidences of the forced conversion allegations. Other things such as a keyboard, diary, table and other items were also taken. They were finally released at 8:30 p.m. of that day.

The pastor said that aside from the physical injury, the church members were also suffering from emotional trauma. Pastor David himself sustained some internal and external injuries including swelling in his legs and fluid discharge in one of his ears. He also said that during the beatings, they were told that it would not stop unless the Christians praise the Hindu god Rama and curse Christ.

"We were already so much in pain, and the assaulters would just not relent. After the physical torture did not come to an end, we decided to do what they were forcing us to do - we cursed Lord Jesus Christ," he said.

Much to their shock, they have learned that the women and children were also beaten.

The pastor further revealed that before their release, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Rajesh Awasthi approached and threatened him saying that he would spend his entire life in prison. A young boy who accompanies the Hindu extremist leader also told him that he would have to convert to Hinduism.

They were charged under Section 3/5(1) of the state's new law on anti-conversion which prohibits "unlawful conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage."

The pastor questioned the charges filed against them saying that they are only poor people who cannot afford to entice people to convert with money or material things. He also tried to file a complaint about the assault against the Hindu extremists but the police officers simply refused to accept it.

The pastor said that the harassment continues after he received reports that the Hindu extremists were searching for Neha, one of the Christian women who were assaulted. The next day, police officers also came to his area and were heard saying that the extremists should "cut the pastor in pieces" and that they "would take care of the rest."

Pastor David further disclosed that on the last Sunday of December 2020, a man came and recorded a video of their worship service. When they confronted him, he merely shouted at them and threatened too.

According to religious rights advocates, the hostilities against non-Hindus of India's National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has strengthened Hindu extremists' attacks against Christians in several areas of the country since the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi rose to power in May 2014. NDA is being led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Open Doors' 2021 World Watch List ranks India as the 10th country in the world where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country ranked 31st in 2013 but it was made worse during Modi's reign.
Dhaka, Feb 2 (UNI) The government of Bangladesh has rejected the desperate smear campaign instigated by extremists and their allies, working from London and elsewhere, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Dhaka also regretted that Al Jazeera has allowed itself to become an instrument for their malicious political designs aimed at destabilising the secular democratic government of Bangladesh with a proven track record of extraordinary socio-economic development and progress, the Ministry stated in a release.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government of Bangladesh has learnt of a false and defamatory report titled All the Prime Ministers Men by Al Jazeera news channel.

"The report is nothing more than a misleading series of innuendos and insinuations in what is apparently a politically motivated smear campaign by notorious individuals associated with the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami extremist group, which has been opposing the progressive and secular principles of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh since its very birth as an independent nation in 1971," the statement said on Monday night.

The fact that the reports historical account fails to even mention the horrific genocide in 1971 in which Jamaat perpetrators killed millions of Bengali civilians and raped more than 200,000 Bengali women, is but one reflection of the political bias in Al Jazeeras coverage and that of its principal commentator, David Bergman, convicted by International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh for challenging the official death toll of 1971 Liberation War, it said.

It is noted that the main source of Al Jazeeras allegations is an alleged international criminal claimed to be a psychopath by Al-Jazeera itself.

"There is not a shred of evidence linking the Prime Minister and other State Institutions of Bangladesh to this particular individual, and it is highly irresponsible for an international news channel to draw conclusions on the basis of the words of a mentally unstable person," MoFA said.

It is also not surprising that the report aligns with the string of anti-Bangladesh propaganda habitually orchestrated by a few convicted absconding criminals and discredited individuals patronised by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, which on certain occasions have conspired with international extremist groups and news media specially the Al Jazeera, the statement reads.

UNI XC MAZ SB 1358
The temple town doesnt have an underground drainage system, it has been announced as a revenue division but there is no office.  DC Image

Vemulawada: During his visit to Vemulawada, TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao had said that Vemulawada and Sircilla were like his two eyes, and that he would develop the temple town also. When Rama Rao is taking responsibility of the development of the temple town, where is Vemulawada MLA Chennamneni Ramesh Babu, asked state Congress secretary, Adi Srinivas on Tuesday.

Speaking to presspersons, Srinivas, who has filed a case questioning Ramesh Babus citizenship, said that the TRS leader had promised the people that he would be available to them round the clock but had gone to Germany after winning the election.

For the last six years, Vemulawada is lagging behind in terms of development, the Congress leader said. What happened to the promise of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao that he would release Rs 450 crore for the Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy temple, Srinivas asked.

The TRS government did not fulfill any promise it made to the people of the Vemulawada constituency. The oustees of villages affected by the Mid Manair reservoir have not received the compensation of Rs 5.04 lakh each, work on the left and right canal works of the Kalikota Suramma project have not yet started. In Rudrangi, there are no signs of the promised 30-bed hospital and of the girls degree college in Vemulawada, Srinivas said.

The temple town doesnt have an underground drainage system, it has been announced as a revenue division but there is no office. There is no trust board for the famous Vemulawada temple, the VMDA office is in Hyderabad. Steps are not taken to shift the office to Vemulawada and there are no signs of development of Gudi Cheruvu, Srinivas said.

When Rama Rao issued orders that the government will take action against the village sarpanch if even a tree in the village dies, why is action not being taken against Ramesh Babu who did not come to the constituency from a year, Srinivas asked.

During the tenure of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy, the Chandurthi and Vemulawada regions received water but there is no development under the TRS government. People are watching every move of the TRS and are not in a mood to believe their false promises, he added.
The Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) amended Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016, to include the aforementioned regulation to allow the PG students of Ayurveda for practicing the general surgery.

The IMA also said that all specialty associations across the country have joined the strike through the Federation of Medical Associations (FMA) under its aegis. The association plans to turn the strike into a national movement."Dental Association has also joined this national movement. We will release the awareness movement for people of the country. All Members of Parliament & MLAs & respective state governments will be upraised regarding the national movement. Internationally, IMA shall apprise various associations from different countries about this unscientific notification," it said.The IMA has also instructed its Medical Students' Network (MSN), Junior Doctors' Network (JDN), IMA Women's' Wing, IMA Hospital Board, In-service Doctors, Medical Colleges to participate in the hunger strike.The whole exercise by the IMA is to push for immediate withdrawal of the latest notification by CCIM which, the association claims, is impractical, unscientific and promotes "mixopathy" of different streams of medicine."We have launched the freedom struggle of modern medicine from the forces of mixopathy," it said.Through the notification, the Central government had allowed Post Graduate students of ayurveda to perform a variety of general surgery including orthopaedic, ophthalmology, ENT and dental through notifying an amendment in a gazette notification the CCIM issued in November. The latest amendment allows PG Ayurveda students to receive formal training for such procedures. The training modules for surgical procedures will be added to the curriculum of Ayurvedic studies.The CCIM amended Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016, to include the aforementioned regulation to allow the PG students of Ayurveda for practicing the general surgery.This move has drawn a lot of criticism from the doctors of modern medicine which also result in a series of protests the country witnessed last December, called by the IMA."Though there are many systems of medicine, ayurveda, siddha, unani etc. IMA respects, welcomes & proposes that all our traditional systems should strive hard & make themselves more people centred & evidence based. New government policy of Mixopathy of all systems, in which the mutually unrelated principles & mode of operandi are integrated unscientifically together as a one system. IMA strongly opposes the proposal to make a single doctor practicing all systems together," the association said.The IMA has also filed a civil writ petition in the Supreme Court against the CCIM notification.Source: IANS
A police officer stands at a station to prevent illegal entries in Chi Linh Town of Hai Duong Province, which is currently under lockdown, January 31, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

The new wave of Covid-19 in Vietnam is being caused by the fast-spreading U.K. variant of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health has said.

Health minister Nguyen Thanh Long said gene sequencing of samples from 12 of 276 confirmed patients, 11 in Hai Duong Province and one in HCMC, a Hai Duong returnee, confirmed it is the U.K. strain.

Officials have yet to identify the source of the transmissions.

The strain is more contagious and has a shorter incubation period, and as a result, in less than a week 276 cases have been recorded, Long said.

"The new virus variant can be transmitted through the air and therefore we need to scrupulously follow regulations on wearing a mask. Those who do not comply must be severely punished."

Quang Ninh and Hai Duong provinces in the north were the first places where cases were detected -- on January 28 -- breaking a streak of nearly two months without local infections in Vietnam.

Long said he has discussed with Quang Ninh authorities the imperative for applying social distancing in Dong Trieu District.

Chi Linh Town in Hai Duong has been locked down since last week and social distancing is in place across the province, now the epicenter of the disease with 207 cases.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, said the committee and the health ministry have also discussed with authorities in Hanoi, now with 20 confirmed cases, the need for stronger measures to contain the infection.

"The city is speeding up efforts to identify affected areas and isolate them. The fight against the pandemic there might take longer than we expected."

He has instructed local authorities to limit gatherings, especially in closed, air-conditioned venues.

Vietnamese will celebrate the Lunar New Year, their biggest and longest holiday of the year, next week, and usually people travel back home to celebrate it with their extended families.

Vietnam has had 1,856 Covid cases, 396 still active.

The new wave since last week has also spread to Hai Phong and Bac Ninh, Hoa Binh and Bac Giang provinces in northern Vietnam, Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands, and HCMC and its neighbor Binh Duong Province.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was so frightened of being killed by the MAGA mob that ransacked the US Capitol on January 6 that she hid in colleague Katie Porters office where a staffer lent her sneakers in case she needed to run for her life.

'I hope I get to be a mom, I hope I dont die today, the progressive New York congresswoman told Porter as a large mob of hundreds of Trump supporters invaded the Capitol on January 6.

Porter, the House lawmaker from Californias 45th congressional district, told MSNBC on Monday that during the riot, the progressive New York congresswoman asked to come into her office.

The California Democrat recalled how Ocasio-Cortez and several of her staffers appeared in front of her office door and asked to be let in.

House Rep. Katie Porter (left), a California Democrat, recalls allowing her colleague, House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (right), to hide in her office during the January 6 MAGA riot at the United States Capitol building in Washington, DC

A mob of Trump supporters ransacked the US Capitol in an attempt to interrupt Congress' certifying Joe Biden's election victory on January 6

Alex is usually unfailingly polite and very personable and she wasnt even talking to me, Porter recalled.

She was opening up doors and I was like Can I help you? What are you looking for?

Im looking for where Im going to hide, Porter recalled Ocasio-Cortez saying.

Porter told MSNBC: The thing that will always stay with me - as a mom, what was really powerful for me - was when I was saying: Dont worry. Im a mom. Im calm. Ive got everything here we need. We could live for like a month in this office.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was discussing the aftermath of the Capitol insurrection on Instagram Live on Monday night

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tweeted on Monday night about her experience that she shared with more than 150,000 Instagram followers online

And she said: I hope I get to be a mom. I hope I dont die today.

Porter then recalled how Ocasio-Cortez was wearing high heels, which would have made it difficult to run in case she needed to flee the MAGA mob.

I was wearing flats, Porter said. I remember her saying to me: I knew I shouldnt have worn heels. How am I going to run?

And we went and we found her a pair of sneakers to wear from one of my staffers, so she could run if she needed to literally run for her life.

Porter said that she, Ocasio-Cortez, and both of their staffers were huddled in Porters office for some six hours fearing for their lives while the Capitol was being ransacked.

No one came to check on us, Porter said.

We heard voices in the hallway, we didnt know what they were, whether those were police officers, whether those were intruders, and so we just stayed dark, we shut the curtains, we turned our phones off, we silenced everything and we just sat as still and as quiet as we could be in the hope that they would just run on by.

Ocasio-Cortez ended up in Porters office because she and other lawmakers werent told where to go after being informed that there was a bomb threat, according to Porter.

When they evacuated the Cannon Office Building, they did not provide anywhere or any direction for those members to go shelter, Porter said.

They told them there was a bomb threat and they needed to immediately evacuate their offices.

But they didnt tell them where they could go to be safe.

Porter said that she also took in another congressional staffer who works for a colleague because that person did not know where to go.

In response to Porter's interview on MSNBC, Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter and remarked: 'Thank you for holding it down that day. you're a wonderful friend.'

Porter made the comments on the same day Ocasio-Cortez posted a video on her Instagram in which she revealed that she thought she was going to die and that the MAGA riot forced her to relive a similar trauma she experienced from a past sexual assault.

Ocasio-Cortez grew emotional as she described her experience hiding from the Capitol rioters

The 31-year-old made the revelation during a 90-minute Instagram live video on Monday night that has been viewed more than 2 million times.

While speaking about her terror, Ocasio-Cortez chastised those who she said were pushing for people to put the day behind them and not recognize the lingering impact of such an event.

'The reason I'm getting emotional in this moment is because these folks who tell us to move on, that it's not a big deal, that we should forget what's happened, or even telling us to apologize, these are the same tactics of abusers,' Ocasio-Cortez said.

'I'm a survivor of sexual assault, I haven't told many people that in my life.

'As a survivor, I struggle with the idea of being believed.'

She gave no details about the assault or when it took place.

The New York congresswoman drew parallels between the lawmakers seeking to 'move on' from the Capitol riot and the denial tactics used by abusers.

'They're trying to tell us to move on without any accountability, without any truth-telling, or without confronting the extreme damage, loss of life, trauma,' she said

'When we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other.

'There's no, something really big happens to you and then you deal with it and you move on, and then when something else happens to you, you deal with that.

'Whether you had a negligent parent, or whether you had someone who was verbally abusive to you, whether you are a survivor of abuse, whether you experience any sort of trauma in your life, small to large. These episodes can compound on each other.'

'All of your traumas can, kind of, intersect and interact.'

She said those telling people to move on were using the same tactics as abusers.

She specifically called out some Republicans, including Ted Cruz, who she says encouraged the violence.

'These are the tactics of abusers, or rather, these are the tactics that abusers use,' she said.

She said she heard someone storming into her office as she hid in a bathroom . She then told how she was 'a survivor of sexual assault' with tears in her eyes

'This is not about a difference of political opinion, this is about basic humanity.

'The accountability is not about revenge... It's about creating safety. And we are not safe with people who hold positions of power who are willing to endanger the lives of others if they think it will score them a political point.'

At one point, Ocasio-Cortez appeared to wipe away tears.

She had earlier apologized to her friends and family watching who may learn 'things about me that you didn't know before'.

'It's not about hiding. Sometimes you just can't tell the same story over and over,' she said.

Ocasio-Cortez explained how at one point a man whom she believed to be a rioter broke into her congressional office as she hid in the bathroom.

She recalled hearing him yelling: 'Where is she? Where is she?'

'This was the moment where I thought everything was over,' she said. 'I thought I was going to die... I have never been quieter in my entire life.'

She later said she found out the man was actually a Capitol Police officer.

Ocasio-Cortez came out shortly after when her legislative director told her to and saw the officer in the office. She said the officer told them to go to another building, but didn't say specifically where or escort them.

'You don't know if that person was actually trying to protect you or not,' she said.

'My story is not the only story, nor is it the central story, it's one of many stories of what these people did in creating this environment,' Ocasio-Cortez said.

'These folks who are just trying to tell us to move on are just like pulling the page - they're using the same tactics - of every other abuser who tells you to move on.'

Ocasio-Cortez went on to address calls for her to apologize after tweeting last week that Senator Ted Cruz 'almost had me murdered' during the riot.

'Some of the representatives who actually encouraged people to threaten members of Congress are actually asking me to apologize for saying and speaking truth to what happened.

'These are the tactics that abusers use... And how I feel is, not again.

Ocasio-Cortez went on to address calls for her to apologize after tweeting that Senator Ted Cruz 'almost had me murdered' during the riot

'I'm not going to let it happen to me again and I'm not going to let it happen to our country.'

She told viewers: 'If you have experienced any sort of trauma, just the fact of recognizing that and admitting it is already a huge step. Especially in a world where people are constantly trying to tell you that you didn't experience what you experienced, or that you're lying...

'Those are additional traumas on traumas that you've already experienced. There's the trauma of going through what you went through, and then there's the trauma afterwards. Of people not believing you, or trying to publicly humiliate you, or trying to embarrass you.'

Ocasio-Cortez, whose district includes parts of the Bronx and Queens, is one of the most prominent progressive leaders in the United States.

She become an influential voice in both New York city and national politics, often drawing intense and sometimes vitriolic criticism from those on the right.

She had strong condemnation for Trump for inciting the riots, as well as members of his administration who did not invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office, as well as those who voted to overturn the election results.
Image: Radiotherapy machine at The Royal Marsden Hospital. Credit: Jan Chlebik, The ICR

Giving people with bladder cancer fewer but larger doses of radiation reduces the risk of their disease returning and should be adopted as the new standard of care, a new study shows.

Patients who received a shorter course of radiotherapy for bladder cancer that had invaded the surrounding muscles had a significantly lower risk of their cancer coming back than patients on a longer course.

Delivering larger but fewer doses of radiotherapy, and a reduced overall dose of radiation, did not increase the risk of side effects compared with those who received larger numbers of lower doses over a longer period.

The results could mean patients needing 12 fewer trips to hospital, without reducing the quality and impact of their bladder cancer treatment.

Findings support a change in standard of care

Researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and the University of Manchester analyzed data from two previous clinical trials using advanced statistical methods to compare the two different radiotherapy schedules.

The study is the first to directly compare the two radiotherapy schedules that are currently used to treat muscle-invasive bladder cancer. It is published today in The Lancet Oncology, and the trials were funded by Cancer Research UK.

The researchers, who also included consultants who specialize in radiotherapy-related research at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said their findings supported a change in standard of care for muscle-invasive bladder cancerand stressed the particular benefits and relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study found that patients who received a 20-dose radiotherapy course delivered over four weeks had a 29 percent lower risk of their cancer returning, over the five years following treatment, than those receiving a 32-dose course delivered over six and a half weeks.

No increased risk of side effects

The reduced risk of disease returning was observed whether patients received a combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, or radiotherapy alone.

Patients on the shorter course received a total of only 55 Gy of radiation, compared with 64 Gy on the longer one.

The study found no increased risk of side effects with the shorter course, and no significant difference in quality of life and overall survival between patients receiving the two radiotherapy schedulesconcluding that the shorter course produces a similar outcome while using fewer resources.

Minimizing hospital visits for cancer patients reduces their risk of exposure to COVID-19, and is more convenient for patients, while reducing demand on the NHS.

The two trials were the largest national phase III randomized clinical trials in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated with radiotherapy. The trials recruited similar patient populations, and the decision to use either radiotherapy schedule was taken by participating centers according to local standard practice.

Freeing up vital NHS resources

Study co-leader Dr. Nuria Porta, principal statistician at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: "This study presented a unique opportunity to use data from two large randomized clinical trials to make comparisons between the two different radiotherapy schedules used to treat muscle invasive bladder cancer in the UK.

"Using robust statistical methods, we showed that the shorter course of radiotherapy was at least as good for patients overall and reduced the likelihood of a person's cancer coming back after treatment.

"Not only is the shorter course more convenient for patients, but it also helps keep people out of hospital for their own good and to free up NHS resources, which is a vital consideration during the current pandemic."

Joint study leader Professor Ananya Choudhury, consultant in clinical oncology at the Christie and the University of Manchester, said: "These are very exciting results and we have made significant progress in understanding how radiotherapy can help bladder cancer patients. We know bladder cancer can advance rapidly, so giving a higher dose over a shorter time can really benefit the patient. Around 10,200 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer in the UK every year. We hope these findings will lead to a new standard of care which will increase survival rates and extend the lives of many thousands of people in the future."

Joint study leader Professor Robert Huddart, Professor of Urological Cancer at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Consultant in Urological Oncology at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:

"Our study shows that people with bladder cancer can receive the same or even better results in a shorter course of radiotherapy that is delivered over four weeks, versus the longer course over six and a half weeks.

"Shorter radiotherapy courses involving lower overall radiation dose have already been proven to be just as effective at treating other cancer types, including breast cancer and prostate cancer, than longer, higher-dose options. The new findings are an important step forward in bringing kinder, smarter treatment to patients with bladder cancer and are especially timely in the current COVID-19 era, where there is a real imperative to keep patients out of hospital wherever possible.

"We are strongly advocating the widespread use of the shorter course of radiotherapy for bladder cancer and believe it should be adopted as the new standard of care for patients with the disease."

Joint study leader Professor Nick James conducted the phase I and II studies at the University of Birmingham, leading to the BC2001 trial, and is now Professor of Prostate and Bladder Cancer Research at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. He said:

"Through this study we have shown that delivering fewer but larger doses of radiotherapy is highly effective against bladder cancer, and the reduction in risk of the disease returning is observed whether patients received chemotherapy alongside radiotherapy, or radiotherapy alone.

"Our findings showed that the shorter radiotherapy course can safely be used in conjunction with chemotherapyan important consideration, because the two treatments should be used in combination as this leads to superior results compared with radiation alone."

Professor Charlie Swanton, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said: "Although developing new treatments is important, it's great when we can improve and get more out of those we already have. This study found that when comparing two current radiotherapy plans for bladder cancer, a higher dose shorter course had a similar survival outcome to a lower dose longer course, without additional side effects. Studies like these are especially important in the COVID era where we are trying to minimise the number of visits cancer patients make to hospital and maximise health care resources for patients."

Explore further Dramatic changes to radiotherapy treatments due to COVID-19

More information: Hypofractionated radiotherapy in locally advanced bladder cancer: an individual patient data meta-analysis of the BC2001 and BCON trials. The Lancet Oncology, doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30607-0 Journal information: Lancet Oncology Hypofractionated radiotherapy in locally advanced bladder cancer: an individual patient data meta-analysis of the BC2001 and BCON trials.
Burma Myanmars Ousted NLD Demands Military Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President

President U Win Myint and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at the Union Parliament building in Naypyitaw in March 2018. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

The National League for Democracy (NLD) on Tuesday called for the immediate release of Union President U Win Myint, party chairperson-cum-State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and others detained by the Myanmar military on Monday when it staged a pre-dawn coup.

The NLDs Central Executive Committee said in a statement that the militarys staging of a coup detat violated its own Constitution and ignores the sovereignty of the people.

The commander-in-chiefs takeover of power, hours before the convening of the new Parliament, which was about to be attended by members of Parliament who were elected in the 2020 general election as well as military appointees, is against the Constitution. Furthermore, it ignores the peoples sovereignty, read the statement.

The NLD called on the military to acknowledge the election results and to convene the Parliament, as per the Constitution.

It said the militarys action was a huge deterrent to the countrys democratic transition and efforts to build a democratic federal union, overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, and continue building ethnic unity, peace and development.

The NLD won Myanmars Nov. 8 general election in a landslide. NLD candidates won 920 of the 1,117 elected seats nationwide, including seats in both houses of the bicameral Union Parliament and the state/regional parliaments, as well as ethnic affairs minister posts.

The militarys proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, won 71 seats.

In statements last week, the military hinted at the possibility of a coup over the governments inaction on its claims of electoral fraud in the November general election. It said the Union Election Commission (UEC) failed to address voter list irregularities, which the military claims number more than 10 million.

Prior to seizing power, the military (or Tatmadaw) demanded that an emergency session of Parliament be called, that the government convene a National Defense and Security Council meeting, and that the opening of the new Parliament be postponed. The NLD rejected all of the demands last week. The military cited these as justifications when announcing its takeover on Monday.

After the military announced it had taken control of the country and declared a one-year state of emergency, commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said the Tatmadaw would hold a new election as soon as it completed implementing emergency measures, and would hand power to the winner of the election.

In a message prepared in advance and released after her detention, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi urged the public to resist the coup.

She said the militarys action completely disregarded the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and was an attempt to reimpose dictatorship upon the country.

I urge people not to accept the coup by the military, and resist it resoundingly, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said in the statement.

The international community, including the United States and the United Nations, has urged the military to release the detainees.

The NLD chief ministers of all states and regions remain under house arrest after being allowed to return home on Tuesday.

The elected MPs are still surrounded by soldiers outside the government guesthouse where they reside in Naypyitaw.

You may also like these stories:

ASEAN Dusts Off Non-Interference Policy as Generals Grab Power in Myanmar

Myanmars Health Minister Resigns After Military Takeover

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Urges Myanmar People to Resist Coup
Tampere  The trial of Gibril Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean man accused of committing war crimes in Liberia, will start Wednesday, the Pirkanmaa District Court in the Finnish city of Tampere has said.

Finnish State Prosecutor Tom Laitinen detailed the charges against Massaquoi at a preparatory session on Monday (when the court announces its schedules and plan for translation). Among his charges are murder of civilians, including children and other vulnerable individuals, and rape.

Massaquoi is accused of committing the acts in multiple locations in Liberia, including Lofa County, between January 7, 1999 and March 9, 2003, according to the 20-page indictment.

The main trial will commence on Wednesday. Massaquoi, who is currently held in pretrial detention in Finland, is expected to appear. After two weeks of the proceedings in Finland, the case is expected to be moved to Liberia, the country's first war crimes trial. He will remain in Finland while the trial is ongoing in Monrovia and make a virtual appearance.

Prosecutors are calling for a life sentence.

In the preliminary response to the charges delivered to the court by his defense, Massaquoi denies all charges, arguing that he was not even in Liberia after June 2001.

Massaquoi, 51, moved to Finland over a decade ago after acting as a key informer for the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). As a top figure within the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Massaquoi was well-placed to provide information on the group's inner workings.

In 2018, an investigation into his alleged crimes was launched by Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). He was arrested in March last year, with charges delivered on January 25. NBI said it interviewed several witnesses in Liberia, who it says will testify in the case.

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As signatory to international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions, Finland is obligated to investigate and prosecute international crimes, even if they did not take place on its soil, Laitinen said.

Finland takes its obligations to international law seriously. The case against Massaquoi is exceptional in Finland, but not the only one of its kind. Two Iraqi brothers recently stood trial for war crimes and other offenses allegedly committed in Iraq. They were cleared of charges due to insufficient evidence. Kaarle Gummerus, Massaquoi's lead lawyer, defended one of the brothers in that trial.

Massaquoi is the third person who is not a Liberian to be prosecuted in over the country's civil war, which killed an estimated 250,000 and displaced a million. The first was Chuckie Taylor, the American son of former President Charles Taylor, who is serving a 97-year prison for torture in Liberia. And the other is Guus Kowenhoven, a Dutch timber dealer who was found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes in the West African nation in 2017.

A verdict in Massaquoi's case is expected later this year.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project
A woman in her 30s has been rescued from an underground rubbish container in San Pedro de Alcantara, Marbella.

It happened last Sunday at around 11.45pm when a Local Police patrol saw two young people who were acting suspiciously.

As the officers approached them, one of the young men ran off, but they soon caught up with him.

When they were talking to pair, they heard the woman's cries for help, coming from inside one of the underground containers.

The police called in the fire brigade, who finally rescued the woman with the help of waste disposal staff.

Once safely outside, the uninjured woman, who suffers from a mental disability, explained to the officers that some men had tricked her into getting into the container, according to the Malaga Hoy newspaper.
What explains such stark differences? Wealth? Hospital capacity? Age? Climate?

It turns out Covids deadliness depends on something simpler and more profound: cultural differences in our willingness to follow rules.

All cultures have social norms, or unwritten rules for social behaviour. We adhere to standards of dress, discipline our kids, and dont elbow our way through crowded subways not because these are legislative codes but because they help our society function. Psychologists have shown that some cultures abide by social norms quite strictly; theyre tight. Others are loose  with a more relaxed attitude toward rule-breakers.

This distinction, first noticed by Herodotus, is in modern times capable of being quantified by psychologists and anthropologists. Relative to the US, the UK, Israel, Spain and Italy, countries like Singapore, Japan, China and Austria have been shown to be much tighter. These differences arent random. Research in both nation-states and small-scale societies has shown that communities with histories of chronic threat  whether natural disasters, infectious diseases, famines or invasions  develop stricter rules that ensure order and cohesion. It makes good evolutionary sense: following rules helps us survive chaos and crisis. On the flipside, looser groups that have faced fewer threats can afford to be more permissive.

Neither type is better or worse  until a global pandemic hits. Back in March, I started to worry that loose cultures, with their rule-breaking spirit, would take longer to abide by public health measures, with potentially tragic consequences. I was hopeful that they would eventually tighten. All of our computer models prior to Covid suggested they would.

But they didnt. In research that tracked more than 50 countries, published this week in the Lancet Planetary Health, my team and I show that, taking into account other factors, loose cultures had five times the number of cases that tight cultures did, and more than eight times as many deaths.

Remarkably, our analysis of data from the UK firm YouGov revealed that people in loose cultures had far less fear of the Covid-19 virus throughout 2020, even as cases skyrocketed. In tight nations, 70% of people were very scared of catching the virus. In loose cultures, only 49% were.

Reality never bit in these populations in part because people in cultures that are adapted to low levels of danger didnt respond as swiftly to the threat signal embodied by the pandemic when it came. This can happen in nature too. The most infamous case is the fearless dodo bird of Mauritius, which, having evolved without predators, became extinct within a century of its first contact with humans.

The dodos story shows that traits honed in one environment can become a liability when the environment changes. This is what scientists call an evolutionary mismatch, and it has led to thousands of unnecessary Covid-19 deaths in loose-leaning societies. Obviously, loose groups arent destined to disappear from the face of the earth. But their continuing struggles with a year-old pandemic shows the difficulties they are having in adapting.

The virus has been especially effective at turning some societies propensity for rule breaking against them. Americans exemplify this spirit. Its why the United States boasts a great deal of creativity and innovation . Its also a major liability during times of threat. Such maverick behaviour is supposed to subside in emergencies. Yet countless US citizens continue holding parties, shopping maskless and generally scoffing at the virus. When the fear reflex is triggered, its often in a perverse way: fearing lockdowns and mask mandates more than the virus itself.

These cultural mismatches made that threat signal harder to discern. But former President Trumps messaging silenced it for millions. Just stay calm. It will go away, he said on 10 March 2020. Even in January 2021, well after more than 300,000 Americans had died, he complained of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions supposed exaggerations.

The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, also interrupted the fear reflex in the UK. As cases rose last March, he boasted: I was at a hospital the other night where there were a few coronavirus patients, and I shook hands with everybody, youll be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands  people obviously can make up their own mind.

Tragically, citing worries about behavioural fatigue, Johnson and his ministers deliberately enacted health measures slowly, essentially hitting the snooze button on the alarm citizens were supposed to feel. Its no surprise that Kings College London found just one in 10 people in the UK who were exposed to a confirmed Covid-19 carrier are actually following orders to isolate for two weeks, or that fewer than one in five have been self-isolating after developing symptoms themselves.

To minimise further Covid fatalities, and to ready ourselves for future collective threats  one expert called this a dress rehearsal for what is to come  loose nations must adapt and heed the right threat signals. We can begin by building cultural intelligence to outsmart the threat. Three actions are key.

First, we need to shift the way we communicate about the type of threat were facing. We tighten quickly in response to vivid, concrete threats, such as warfare. By contrast, because germs are invisible and abstract, the threat signal is easier to ignore. Public health officials need to make Covids dangers vivid. Simply scaring people, however, can backfire: when we feel helpless, psychologists find that we adopt a defensive, passive posture. To persuade people to change their behaviour, we should be candid about Covid symptoms while also calling on our can-do spirit.

Second, we need to make clear that tightening is temporary. A society of rule-breakers can get on board with tighter procedures if they know theres an end in sight. The faster we tighten, the faster well reduce the threat, and the faster well restore freedom. What all nations need is what we call cultural ambidexterity: the ability to adjust how tight and loose they are based on how dangerous conditions are. New Zealand exemplifies this approach. Kiwis are famously loose, but they enacted some of the worlds strictest measures early on  and tamed their rule-breaking spirit, limiting Covid-19 deaths to just 25.

Finally, we need to recognise that were all in this together. The Washington Post profiled one small town that exemplifies this approach. For months, Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, was free of cases. But when the outbreak hit, it united people in a powerful display of public health coordination. Resident Reta Pruitt captured the towns ethos: Theyre taking it serious now. But thats the whole trouble: the first time, we werent serious about it. An evolutionary mismatch was thwarted just in time by compassion and coordination  and, above all, getting the threat signal right.
At least fifty residents in Rujeko and St Irves high-density suburbs in Chinhoyi who recently got their properties submerged in floods have condemned Chinhoyi Municipality for flouting its own by-laws by allocating stands on wetlands.

Some of the residents were late last week left counting losses after incessant rains resulted in the flooding of a nearby stream. Residents were allocated the stands through the council and cooperatives.

The local authority assessed and approved construction of the structures.

"We were allocated these stands through cooperatives while some of us got the residential stands through the council. Council officials assessed all the houses here and approved them.

"The officials are also assessing under-construction properties. It is however, worrisome that the council approved the allocation of stands and construction of houses despite knowing that it was violating its own by-laws and national laws ," a resident from Rujeko suburb, Ms Nelia Chitima said.

"I have lost my furniture to the water and the whole suburb is on the verge of contracting water-borne related diseases."

Residents bemoaned council's the government to help address the challenges. Chinhoyi Residents Association executive member, Mr Tendai Musonza said the council was failing to enforce the Urban Councils Act, Housing Standards Control Act among other laws endangering the environment and residents.

"The council has allowed the allocation of stands on wetlands including awarding some of its workers stands on disputed areas. Several council officials own properties along wetlands but the council has remained mum," he said.

Recently, six council officials who were suspended for illegal parcelling out of stands were acquitted by the courts. Council town clerk Mr Maxwell Kaitano said he would issue out a statement on the matter as he was yet to get comments from the responsible departments.

Environment Management Agency (EMA) provincial education and publicity officer, Mr Munyaradzi Nhariswa said councils across the province were flouting environmental laws and failing to protect wetlands.

He called on local authorities and stakeholders to address pollution issues and to integrate water and wetlands into development plans and resource management.
SAN ANTONIO - An El Paso, Texas, woman who witnessed a mass shooting of Latinos at a Walmart in 2019, and provided critical information to state and federal investigators, was deported last week after the Texas attorney general successfully sued to temporarily block President Biden's 100-day pause on deportations.

The 27-year-old was headed home Wednesday when El Paso police stopped her because of a broken brake light, officials said. Officers discovered that the woman had outstanding warrants for unpaid traffic violations and took her into custody. That arrest, along with a 2019 deportation order tied to a drunken-driving conviction, resulted in her removal to Mexico - a place she has not lived since she was 11 years old.

The deportation came days before her attorneys filed an application for a U visa, which confers legal status to undocumented people who are crime victims or witnesses who cooperate with law enforcement in an investigation. The woman is one of several witnesses slated to testify in the capital murder trial of the Dallas-area man accused of killing 23 people, including Mexican citizens, in the August 2019 shooting rampage. Police said the shooter told authorities he was targeting "Mexicans."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents walked the woman, whose name is being withheld because of her status, across the international bridge to Juarez, Mexico, three days after a federal judge blocked Biden's deportation pause. Her deportation occurred before the administration's new immigration enforcement priorities - targeting security threats, recent border crossers and convicted felons - went into effect Feb. 1.

"President Biden ran on a platform of humanity, and what has happened has been inhumane," said Melissa Lopez, executive director of El Paso's Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services, which is representing the woman. "She is the complete opposite of a national security risk. She is the epitome of the kind of person we want in the United States, people who witness horrific crimes and come forward to help."

ICE officials did not respond to questions about the woman's deportation.

The woman's troubles began in 2015 when police stopped and cited her for a seat belt violation and not having a driver's license. Then, in 2018, she was charged with driving while intoxicated and pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor. That conviction led to several days in the county jail and immigration removal proceedings, records show.

She appealed the deportation order but was denied, Lopez said.

In an interview, the woman said she came to the United States with her father as an 11-year-old to escape an abusive family situation in Mexico. She graduated from an El Paso high school and works in a restaurant.

The woman wanted to fight the DWI charge because her blood-alcohol reading was within the legal limit, court records confirm. But she said she was given advice from an attorney to accept a plea deal sentencing her to 40 days in the county jail.

Months after her removal order was issued, the woman found herself in a Walmart parking lot when, authorities say, Patrick Crusius, then 21, unleashed a hate-fueled spray of gunfire on shoppers in the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in the city's history.

Both the state and the FBI have levied charges, including hate crimes, against the alleged gunman. The woman initially hesitated to come forward with details about the shooting but weeks later contacted Lopez's office to help her share her story with investigators. Her attorneys said she was traumatized by her experience and underwent therapy to cope with the memories of what happened that day.

"Something told us that we needed to speak up," the woman said, referring to the decision she made with her sister, who also was a witness. "I prefer not to say anything and be quiet, because when you speak it's negative for you when you're an illegal. But we saw things that we needed to say, and the police needed to know."

Applying for a U visa requires documents from law enforcement attesting to the role a person played in an investigation. The El Paso County District Attorney's Office issued that certification for the woman last fall, Lopez said.

The district attorney's office confirmed it provided the woman's lawyer with U visa certification documents Sept. 16 but declined to answer any other questions about the upcoming trial.

The pandemic caused delays for attorneys in gathering the documents for her application, which was sent to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Monday, Lopez's organization said. Living in Mexico does not necessarily disqualify her from applying for the coveted visa, but a decision could take years.

"In a community of immigrants like El Paso, there would be so many crimes that would go unprosecuted and defendants who would go unconvicted" without people like the woman, Lopez said. "That is exactly why we have the U visa, to encourage people to come forward in the safety of knowing they will be protected, and that system failed her."

A trial date for Crusius has not been set. The woman said ICE agents knew that she was a witness and allowed her to call her attorney, Anna Hey. But the call went to voice mail. By the time Hey learned of the deportation a few hours later, the woman was in Mexico.

Attorney General Ken Paxton made Texas the first state to sue the new Biden administration, arguing that a halt to deportations - intended to give ICE time to overhaul its enforcement priorities - would unfairly burden the state. Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump appointee, issued a temporary restraining order, and a new hearing is scheduled this week.

"The state of Texas intervened and put this woman in a situation that allowed ICE to make this decision," Lopez said. "The state of Texas, who is prosecuting this shooter, just made a decision that will affect their own prosecution."

The woman's defense team will ask ICE to consider bringing her back to the United States or petition state and federal prosecutors to intervene. It is unclear whether the woman's deportation will prevent or affect her trial testimony.

"I really want to testify because I want to help, even though this happened," the woman said. "I want to help my community, because it was my community, too."
Every child who presents to an emergency department with a head injury should be re-examined by a doctor within two weeks of their initial treatment according to new national guidelines developed by a Melbourne-led research team.

The guidelines  the product of a collaboration between emergency medicine physicians, GPs, neurosurgeons, radiologists, paramedics and nurses in Australia and New Zealand  are the first nationally consistent protocols for treating children with head injuries.

Jakob Salter, 15, pictured with his father Matthew Salter, was hospitalised with concussion and underwent a CT scan after crashing his BMX bike. Credit:Penny Stephens

Lead researcher Professor Franz Babl from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI) said one of the principle aims of the guidelines, published on Wednesday in the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia, was to help emergency clinicians decide when to use radiation-intense CT scans on childrens brains.

There is currently a substantial variance in how readily doctors order CT scans, with a five-fold difference in the rate of use reported by different emergency departments. Exposure to radiation can have a greater impact on children than adults, particularly in cases that require multiple scans.
Iraqi sovereignty and the war against extremism are fights the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is committed to winning, according to a top GCC official on Monday.

GCC Secretary-General Nayef Falah al-Hajraf arrived in Baghdad on Monday and met with President Barham Salih at al-Salam Palace, where the leaders and an accompanying GCC delegation discussed political, economic and security concerns. Hajraf also met with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Foreign Affairs Minister Fuad Hussein and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Halbusi.

Discussions focused on terrorism challenges and mutually beneficial opportunities for trade and development, according to a statement by Salihs office.

Kadhimi also stressed revisiting pledges made during the Iraqi reconstruction conference held in Kuwait in 2018 following the territorial defeat of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq a year earlier. Among promises was a nearly $30 billion vow of international support, well short of the $88 billion Baghdad said it needed for full recovery, as well as an additional roughly $480 million pledge by the EU for humanitarian aid, stabilization, reconstruction and longer-term sustainable development.

Iraq and the GCC have discussed strengthening relations for years. In 2019, Iraq signed a deal to connect its power network with GCC states. The agreement included a 300-kilometer (about 186-mile) power line from Kuwait to Iraqs southern port at al-Faw that would bring an additional 500 megawatts of power to the country.

Its imperative Iraq work with its neighbors to bolster its economy and combat terrorism and the ongoing campaign to pursue its remnants, Kadhimi tweeted.

Kadhimis message comes as a pair of suicide bombers rocked a busy market in Iraqs capital on Jan. 21. The attack killed over 30 people and injured over 100 in the worst attack Baghdad has experienced in years. IS took responsibility for the bombings.

Strengthened Iraq-GCC relations could also lessen Iraqs energy dependence on Tehran. Iraq still owes Iran billions of dollars in unpaid bills for gas imports. As punishment, late last year Iran temporarily reduced gas shipments to Baghdad.

Not all parties inside Iraq are encouraged about a larger Gulf presence. Pro-Iran militia Ashab al-Kahf issued a statement condemning Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for allegedly interfering with internal Iraqi affairs. The Gulf states are "aiming to destroy what remains of the Iraqi economic security and perpetuate a state of instability in Iraq," the statement read.

Iran, however, has grown more and more isolated from its neighbors following recent steps to end the Gulf rift. Since 2017, Qatar has faced an air, land and sea embargo by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt over its alleged ties to supporting terrorism. Steps to end the rift came earlier this month at the conclusion of the GCC Summit in Saudi Arabia. The event concluded with the signing of al-Ula declaration on solidarity and stability.

There is a desperate need today to unite our efforts to promote our region and to confront challenges that surround us, especially the threats posed by the Iranian regimes nuclear and ballistic missile program and its plans for sabotage and destruction, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told attendees.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 03:49:19|Editor: huaxia

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COPENHAGEN, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Denmark took a first tentative step towards reopening amid the coronavirus crisis when Minister for Health and Senior Citizens Magnus Heunicke announced at a press conference on Monday that from Feb. 8 the country's youngest students would be heading back to school.

"Our goal with the massive closure was to reduce the number of COVID-19 infections and give breathing space to our hospitals. We can now state that it has succeeded. Therefore we can reopen our schools for students in first to fourth grade," Heunicke said.

All other students will continue to be subject to the coronavirus restrictions, which have been in place since Dec. 12, 2020.

"This is the precondition for us to be able to maintain control of the epidemic," he said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced last Thursday the extension of the restrictions until Feb. 28, and said that it was important to reopen schools for the youngest children before that date.

The decision is based upon the recommendation of the Statens Serum Institut (SSI).

Meanwhile, the number of new COVID-19 infections continues to fall in Denmark but the new and more contagious coronavirus variant known as B117 is spreading fast across the country.

According to the SSI, Denmark registered 488 new COVID-19 infections and a further 20 deaths in the past 24 hours. To date, the country has reported 198,960 COVID-19 cases and 2,145 deaths.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in many European countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 237 candidate vaccines are still 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 the World Health Organization on Jan. 29. Enditem
[February 02, 2021] Coalition Announces New $0 Retention for Canadian Customers Using Coalition Incident Response Services During a Claim

Cyber Investigations Leader Shelley Ma to Lead expansion of Coalition's In-House Incident Response Team in Canada TORONTO, Feb. 2, 2021 /CNW/ -- Coalition , the leading provider of cyber insurance and security, is now offering a $0 retention as part of its policy for its insureds in Canada that use Coalition's in-house Incident Response services. For small to midsize businesses facing a cyber claim, this policy enhancement provides immediate access to Coalition's dedicated Incident Response team, with no out-of-pocket retention expense for security and forensics services. To best serve Canada-based policyholders, Coalition has hired cyber investigations leader Shelley Ma, based in Toronto, to lead the expansion of Coalition Incident Response in Canada. An EnCE-certified examiner, Ma previously held leadership roles at Arete Incident Response and Kivu Consulting. She specializes in network intrusion investigations, complex breach investigations, computer forensics and incident response. Since 2014, she has analyzed, responded to and investigated over 600 cases, and has received numerous recognitions for her work. Ma will lead a team of cyberecurity experts throughout Canada that bring experience working with government agencies, leading incident response firms and corporate security teams. This team is available to Coalition's Canada-based policyholders at no cost and has the authority and expertise to provide immediate assistance. With an average response time of under five minutes, Coalition Incident Response drastically reduces the costs and potential time lag for organizations that experience an attack.



"Shelley possesses a tremendous breadth of expertise in cyber and complex breach investigations, and we are thrilled to have her leading the incident response team in Canada," said Shawn Ram, Head of Insurance at Coalition. "Being able to offer our insureds, large and small, access to a dedicated team of this caliber  at no extra charge  is truly exciting, and we know that with this team in place, our customers will be in the best position to mitigate the damage of any cyber event." In May 2020, Coalition launched its offering in Canada, providing proactive cybersecurity products and services and best-in-class cyber and technology error & omissions insurance to help keep businesses safe. In addition to Incident Response, Coalition offers a full range of free cyber security tools and services to support customers throughout the entire lifecycle of their risk exposure  before, during, and after an incident.

As a result of its real-time threat intelligence, automated security alerts, and pre-breach security services, Coalition has handled 45 percent of reported events without filing a claim and avoiding any expense to the insured. Coalition's Incident Response and Claims teams have also recovered 84 percent of all funds lost by policyholders in social engineering events. Coalition offers up to CAD $20 million of comprehensive insurance coverage supported by the financial strength of Swiss Re (A.M. Best A+) to companies with up to CAD $1 billion in annual revenue. To learn more about Coalition, visit coalitioninc.com . About Coalition Coalition is the leading provider of cyber insurance and security, combining comprehensive insurance and proactive cybersecurity tools to help businesses manage and mitigate cyber risk. Backed by leading global insurers Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, Lloyd's of London, and Argo Group, Coalition provides companies with up to USD $15 million of cyber and technology insurance coverage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as CAD $20M of coverage across all 10 provinces in Canada. Coalition's cyber risk management platform provides automated security alerts, threat intelligence, expert guidance, and cybersecurity tools to help businesses remain resilient in the face of cyber attacks. Headquartered in San Francisco, Coalition has presences in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Denver, Austin, Vancouver and Toronto. SOURCE Coalition

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The new Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Dermot Farrell, has said the Church must embrace the future.

Speaking at his installation ceremony at St Marys Pro Cathedral in Dublin today, Dr Farrell warned against defending the status quo.

Rather than being focused short-sightedly on the glory of the past, and the magnificent institutions which our sisters and brothers before us built  we need to accept the responsibility of mission as we experience it now, he said.

The ceremony was concelebrated with his predecessor Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Jude Okolo, and was restricted to just 10 people.

None of the new archbishops family were able to attend in person due to Level 5 restrictions; they had to view proceedings online via the cathedral webcam.

Referencing the writer LP Hartley, Dublins new church leader said: The future is a different country, we must do things differently there.

He added: This is not to forget the past, and especially not the painful past where so many were hurt.

The 66-year-old former bishop of Ossory said the Church must never again put its needs before the needs of the little ones.

Among the many challenges awaiting Archbishop Farrell in Dublin are an ageing priesthood, where half the capitals clergy are aged 70 or older, as well as ageing and diminishing congregations, notably in the inner city, where levels of Mass attendances are some of the lowest in the country.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also seen the dioceses finances plummet.

Speaking to Independent.ie after the ceremony about the challenge of being a new face in the countrys largest diocese, with 197 parishes and 350 active priests, Dr Farrell said due to Covid restrictions he was having to try and meet his clergy for the first time and his advisory councils via zoom.

In his address, Archbishop Farrell said he was happy to embrace this new mission and began it with hope in my heart.

This time  both in the crisis that is the global pandemic, and the many crises confronting the Church  with all its frustration and fear, is rich with possibilities, he said.

Welcoming him into his role, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson, said Archbishop Farrell was taking up office in circumstances that challenge the pastoral heart of every Christian.

For almost a year now, we have been working hard to stay together by staying apart. For all religious traditions this imposes particular challenges and limitations.

Archbishop Farrell told the Irish Independent the Church must play it part in protecting vulnerable members of communities despite the huge financial cost of keeping churches shut.

Last month over 1,000 people died; that is a very serious situation. All of us are asked to play a responsible part in terms of protecting the vulnerable members of our communities.

Inevitably it is impacting on peoples mental health, emotional health, and it isimpacting on their finances. It is impacting on the finances of the Church. But gatherings are where the disease spreads. The Church has to play its part and act responsibly.

He told lay people on Tuesday that their active participation in the Church was essential as they constitute the vast majority of the people of God.

It is an illusion to envisage a plan of evangelisation which is carried out only by clergy while the rest of the faithful are merely onlookers.

Stressing the need for dialogue and collaboration, he said leadership in the Church was not about telling people what to do but overcoming a mindset which relegates the laity to a subordinate role on the edges of Church life.

Acknowledginghe had no pre-packaged plan to address the Churchs challenges, he underlined that parishes would be key in the future.

The former president of Maynooth has spoken in the past about the need for a new vision of parish and acknowledged that there are tough decisions to be made about the current number of parishes and churches in Dublin.
New animated preschool series Santiago of the Seas premieres on Nick Jr. next week.

The series is created by Dora the Explorers, Niki Lopez, Leslie Valdes and Valerie Walsh Valdes. The series teaches kids the value of teamwork, honesty and kindness, while also encouraging them to learn Spanish phrases and fun facts about marine biology.

Infused with a Spanish-language and Latino-Caribbean culture curriculum, the action-adventure series follows eight-year-old Santiago Santi Montes, a brave and kind-hearted pirate, as he embarks on daring rescues, searches for treasures and keeps the high seas safe in a fantastical Caribbean world.

In the series, Santiagos (Kevin Chacon) steadfast and loyal crew consists of Tomas (Justice Quiroz), his clumsy energetic cousin whose magical guitar can be used to harness the wind, and Lorelai (Alyssa Cheatham), a knowledgeable mermaid who can speak to sea creatures and transform into a young human girl.

Together, Santi and his best mates sail the seas on the majestic ship El Bravo, using their smarts, pirate skills and moral compasses to guard their home of Isla Encanto from villains like the nefarious pirate Bonnie Bones (Kyndra Sanchez) and her Palm Crow sidekick Sir Butterscotch (John Leguizamo).

In the Santiago of the Seas series premiere, The Legend of Capitan Calavera, Santiago and his friends become the new pirate protectors of Isla Encanto after discovering the lost treasure of the legendary Capitan Calavera.

Monday, 15 February at 8:30am on Nick Jr.

Related
President Joe Biden is threatening to slap new sanctions on Myanmar after a coup that saw the military arrest the civilian leaders of its government.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been a US democracy promotion project for decades, though there have been recent and serious concerns about its backsliding into authoritarianism. Disappointment with former opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyii, who has been detained by the military, has run high.

Also Read | How India can fight vaccine hesitancy

The militarys seizure of power in Burma, the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian officials, and the declaration of a national state of emergency are a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy and the rule of law," Biden said in a statement.

In a democracy, force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election. For almost a decade, the people of Burma have been steadily working to establish elections, civilian governance, and the peaceful transfer of power. That progress should be respected."

He noted that the US had removed sanctions on Burma after its transition to democracy but that it would not hesitate to restore them.

The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action," Biden said. The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack."

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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SUN PRAIRIE, Wis., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pro-Active Engineering is beginning the first quarter of 2021 with a significant capital investment in equipment. Vice President, Paul Schwanbeck projects that the addition of two Mycronic DX100 high-speed pick 'n place machines will increase capacity by up to 40%. He goes on to explain "the two machines have been configured in a synergy line and are capable of placing up to 80 thousand parts per hour."

Building Expansion Plans

Pro-Active Engineering, Inc. is Celebrating 25 years in business this May. Designing and Manufacturing your electronic products the Pro-Active Way since 1996. Highly dedicated, on-time supplier of quality electronic design, PCB layout, board assemblies, box build assembly, and quick-turn prototypes.

A five-year outlook plan for the Sun Prairie electronics company includes an extensive building remodel. Schwanbeck explains, "the redefined space will more than double the manufacturing footprint." The initial blueprint showcases a defined space for a growing engineering team, which now offers contracting services in rapid prototyping, 3D printing, mechanical design, PCB design/layout, electrical, mechanical, and software engineering. The design also incorporates additional conference rooms, upgraded employee break areas, and a new lunchroom.

New Hires Meet Electronics Industry Demand

Pro-Active has hired 10 new employees in the last two months. Human Resources Manager, Rachel Fuerstenberg, notes they expect to add an additional 10 to 20 employees in 2021. She attributes the growth to the existing and future demand in the marketplace for industrial and medical electronic devices, electronic equipment, and IoT adaptation. These new jobs will be in operations, engineering, production, supply chain, management, and quality.

25th Anniversary for Pro-Active Engineering, Inc.

The planning is already underway to celebrate Pro-Active Engineering's 25th Anniversary both in person and virtually with customers, employees, and the community. Founder and President, Toby Klusmeyer, started the Wisconsin based electronics company in May 2006, in a 400 sq. ft. basement in downtown Sun Prairie. His initial business plan was to help customers design, develop and bring their products to market fast.

About Pro-Active Engineering, Inc.

Since 1996, Pro-Active Engineering Inc. has been providing professional electronic design, PCB layout, board assembly, and box build assembly services for a wide range of industries including industrial equipment, medical devices, led lighting, energy systems, pharmaceutical products, military/defense, underwater autonomous vehicles (UAV), and scientific/research equipment. The company currently operates over 45,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing in Sun Prairie, WI. In addition to the electronics manufacturing services (EMS), product design, and engineering services, Pro-Active Engineering also offers quick-turn prototyping through its dedicated Speed Shop line. proactivepcb.com

CONTACT

Melanie Hoffman

(608)-837-7838

[email protected]

SOURCE Pro-Active Engineering, Inc.

Forests, countryside and clean seas need to be added to measures of economic growth to protect nature, a major report backed by Sir David Attenborough has warned.

The 600-page review will be launched today at an online event attended by Prince Charles and Sir David.

Author Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta argues that nature is a blind spot in economics and it needs to have a value to help safeguard it.

He warns that current economic growth and prosperity has come at a devastating cost to nature.

The 600-page review will be launched today at an online event attended by Prince Charles and Sir David

Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta argues that current economic growth and prosperity has come at a devastating cost to nature

Declines in biodiversity and the environments ability to provide food, clean water and air, regulate the climate and absorb pollution are fuelling extreme risk and uncertainty for our economies and well-being.

The review calls for humanity to change food production and consumption, and invest in natural solutions such as restoring forests and protecting habitats.

Professor Dasgupta wrote: Nature is our home. Good economics demands we manage it better.

Sir David said: The survival of the natural world depends on maintaining its complexity, its biodiversity.

Putting things right requires a universal understanding of how these complex systems work. That applies to economics too.

This comprehensive and important report shows us how by bringing economics and ecology face to face, we can help to save the natural world and in doing so save ourselves.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the review, commissioned by the Treasury, and said the UK would be leading by example in regard to nature.
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The best pizza in Alabama will always be a point of contention. Last month, a trio of judges embarked on a search to find Alabamas best pie and the winner was a pizzeria in Moody.

Carpenettis Pizzeria, run by owner Frank Carpenetti and his family, earned bragging rights in the Bamas Best Pizza contest, sponsored by the Alabama Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association (AFVGA) and Alabama Farmers Federation Dairy Division.

In addition to a plaque and cash prize, Carpenettis Pizzeria will also be featured on Season 7 of Simply Southern TV, the Alabama Farmers Cooperative & Alabama Farmers Federations statewide network television show dedicated to agriculture and rural living.

Carpenetti, whose grandfather Americus Carpenetti came to New York from Italy, grew up on a dairy farm. His job as a machinist drew Carpenetti to Alabama, where life pushed him toward pizza.

We ate pizza all the time growing up, but I never made a pizza for anyone until I opened the restaurant, Carpenetti said in a press release. Im here at 6 every morning, and I lock the door at night. I love it. You gotta love it.

Carpenetti keeps busy in the kitchen tossing pizza, swirling sauce and sprinkling toppings. Carpenettis Pizzeria will celebrate its 24th anniversary this summer.

The other finalists in the contest were Giovannis Italian Restaurant in Sylacauga, Top-Notch Pizza & BBQ in Vernon, and Valentinas Pizzeria & Wine Bar in Madison.

Denton, TX (76205)

Today

Sunshine and a few clouds. High 77F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Uphold, the leading digital money platform, today announces its acquisition of Optimus Cards UK Limited, a leading debit and credit card issuer across the UK and Europe.

An Electronic Money Institution (EMI) regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Optimus acts as a primary card issuer (including FX multi-currency) and payments facilitator. Today, the firm serves customers in the fintech and Credit Union sectors offering a sophisticated platform that supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, Open Banking, as well as contactless and virtual cards, IBANs, UK sort-code and accounts, plus 'cardless' cash withdrawal.

'We're delighted to have acquired an issuer with such a technically-sophisticated platform and a full EMI license,' said JP Thieriot, CEO of Uphold. 'These attributes will shortly allow us to issue multi-asset, crypto-enabled debit cards across the UK and Europe. After passing the FCA's rigorous 'Change In Control' process, we're very excited to get to work and help scale Optimus's thriving EMD agency business, which already supports several major crypto and fintech ecosystems.'

The acquisition comes after a spectacular year for Uphold during which the U.S. firm added more than 2 million customers and grew reserve assets to more than $1 billion. The Uphold platform aims to democratise investments by opening up access to traditionally hard-to-reach asset classes, including cryptos, precious metals, U.S. equities*, and even carbon credits. There are no minimum amounts, and users can trade seamlessly from Bitcoin to Tesla - or any other assets - in one trade.

'From April, we plan to start rolling out the world's first, multi-asset, crypto-enabled debit card on the Optimus platform in Europe,' said Thieriot. 'The card has already proved a hit with our U.S. customers offering a unique combination of utility, convenience and crypto-back rewards.'

The Uphold account allows users to toggle instantly between more than 100 funding sources and spend any of their holdings - from XRP to Tesla stock - at more than 50 million merchants worldwide, as well as access to cash at virtually all ATMs. A generous cashback program has also caught the imagination of U.S. users with purchases made using Bitcoin, as an example, earning 2 percent back in BTC.

'The combination of Optimus's tech-forward card platform and Uphold's unique multi-asset wallet should create a compelling product,' said Thieriot. 'Very soon our European customers will be able to receive part or all of their salary in Bitcoin - or any asset of their choice - and spend it using Uphold Cards issued through Optimus.'

About Uphold

A digital money platform serving almost 5 million customers in more than 150 countries. Uphold now manages more than $1 billion in customer assets. The Silicon Valley firm currently opens around 50,000 accounts a day as consumers seek a more versatile and cost-effective home for their financial lives. Leveraging blockchain technology, the platform provides both consumers and businesses with easy access to 38 digital assets, 27 national currencies, four precious metals and 50 fractional U.S. equities. Uphold's unique trading experience - 'Anything-to-Anything' - allows customers to trade directly between asset classes, saving time and money. Uphold supports financial inclusion by enabling customers virtually anywhere to open an account in less than a minute and trade with no minimum investment amounts. Customers can send money to virtually anyone with an email address free of charge. To learn more, please visit https://uphold.com/en-us/ .

SOURCE Uphold
Fiesta San Antonio has been postponed for the 2021 installment due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Fiesta Commission confirmed the event would be moved to June 17-27 on the official website.

RELATED: Fiesta Oyster Bake confirms 2021 cancellation due to COVID-19

The event traditionally takes place each April. Officials decided on a similar postponement plan in 2020, pushing the party to the fall, but that also was eventually cancelled. Oyster Bake, St. Mary's University's headliner event for Fiesta San Antonio, has already decided to cancel the 2021 event.

The commission said the postponement decision was made after consulting with Metro Health and Dr. Martin Makary, a consultant for the organization.

RELATED: 'We're back': Poteet Strawberry Festival planning for April, ticket info coming soon

"The Fiesta San Antonio Commission's goal has always been to conduct Fiesta in 2021. The June dates have been selected so that Fiesta can continue its mission of supporting many local non-profit organizations, while maintaining its #1 priority, the health and safety of all Fiesta's attendees, volunteers, staff and community," the commission said in a statement.

Makary shared his summer outlook in the announcement.

"Based on the current data on viral transmission, June is projected to be a very low point in the viral prevalence in the area, given the high levels of natural and vaccinated immunity we will achieve by May," he said in the statement. "The Fiesta San Antonio Commission and Mayor's office have appropriately prioritized safety in considering a modified Fiesta."

The release said the commission and city are working with Metro Health and participating organizations and vendors to determine health and safety protocols for the postponed Fiesta events.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the postponement is the "right move" in his statement.

"Through the ongoing vaccination program and our continuing efforts to suppress COVID-19, we are working to be in a better position by June," Nirenberg said. "We are deeply appreciative of the Fiesta San Antonio Commission's willingness to work with the city's health professionals to ensure San Antonio's safety."

This is not the first time Fiesta has been affected by world events. The celebration did not take place from 1942-1944 during World War II. It was also canceled in 1918, during World War I.

Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye

(@FahadShabbir)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) The share of children among the victims of human trafficking has tripled over the past 15 years, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a fresh report on Tuesday.

According to the UNODC, children now make up 30 percent of all human trafficking victims, up from 10 percent more than a decade ago.

Girls are predominantly trafficked for sexual exploitation and boys for forced labor, the UN agency said.

Adult women make up roughly half of all human trafficking victims, the agency said, noting that the share of adult men among victims has nearly doubled in the same time period.

"Millions of women, children and men worldwide are out of work, out of school and without social support in the continuing COVID-19 crisis, leaving them at greater risk of human trafficking. We need targeted action to stop criminal traffickers from taking advantage of the pandemic to exploit the vulnerable," UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said in a press release.

The UN agency said that 62 percent of individuals convicted of human trafficking are male.

UNODC's global report draws data from the world's largest human trafficking database, which contains statistics from 148 countries.

EUGENE, Ore.  Alabama is a 2-year-old pit bull terrier mix who is described by Greenhill Humane Society staff as sweet, gentle and loving.

Alabama has a mild manner and is cautious when meeting new people, but loving and friendly after being introduced. She is looking for a family who will love her, spoil her and see that she gets the exercise and outdoor play that she needs.

She has a good history with other dogs and would probably be ok with a dog-savvy cat.

Greenhill Humane Society staff members say she has a medium-to-high energy level and enjoys playtime and going for walks. She came into the shelter as a transfer on Jan. 27.

Alabama weighs between 65 and 70 pounds and her fee is $200. This helps pay for shelter expenses such as vaccinations, microchip identification, spaying or neutering, a certificate for a free veterinary exam, post-adoption support and more.

Alabama was Tuesdays Pet of the Week on KEZI 9 News. Every Tuesday, KEZI showcases a homeless pet on the Midday newscast at 11 a.m. and again at 4 p.m.

If you are interested in Alabama or the other animals at Greenhill Humane Society, click here.

Greenhill Humane Society is located at 88530 Green Hill Road and is open daily by appointment only from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Its phone number is 541-689-1503. Adoptions are also currently by appointment only.

To ensure a good match is made, potential adopters must go to the animal shelter in person to meet with the animal and kennel staff. All family members should be present to ensure the animal is compatible with everyone in the household.

To watch a video of Alabama click here.
Bengaluru, Feb 2 : Don Heflin, ChargA d'Affaires of the United States in India, said on Tuesday the U.S. industry is actively exploring ways to work with Indian partners to bring advanced technologies and manufacturing capabilities to the country and to engage with local partners on co-development and co-production.

Addressing a press conference here, Heflin said that the growing number of joint ventures and partnerships between U.S. and Indian defence companies continues to strengthen the robust network of defence suppliers in India with the potential of equipping partners in the broader Indo-Pacific region.

"These companies also create jobs, while producing exports for markets around the world," he said.

Heflin said that together with Indian partners, the US is building greater cooperation through defence technology and trade initiative.

According to him the U.S. designation of India as a Major Defence Partner in 2016 marked a milestone in U.S.-India defence cooperation, expanding the range and depth of our defence ties.

"The United States is a reliable defence partner to India's defence sector, offering the world's best defence equipment. India plays a key role in the Indo-Pacific region, and our cooperation advances our shared vision of a rules-based international order that promotes the prosperity and security of all countries," he explained.

Heflin added that robust military exercise regime, official visits and exchanges, military education and training, and the integration of advanced U.S. defence systems and platforms into the Indian armed forces.

"These activities and efforts are deepening the familiarity, compatibility, and interoperability between the U.S. and Indian militaries," he said.

He also added that the U.S. defence industry has demonstrated its commitment to partnering with India to provide high-quality, technologically advanced defence equipment and systems that are widely considered the most operationally reliable in the world.

"U.S. companies are already cooperating closely with the Indian armed services to deploy these systems to enhance India's military capabilities," he said.

He observed that although both countries have faced extraordinary challenges this year in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US and India took important steps to further their overlapping security objectives for the region and beyond.

While US Air Force Deputy Undersecretary, International Affairs, Kelli L. Seybolt told reporters in response to a question about possible "changes" in defence ties with the new administration taking over in the US, said her expectation is that the deepening of cooperation will only continue because "there is so much common interests in doing so, as we all look for secure and free Indo-Pacific." "Our expectation is that things will continue to grow in our defence ties and relationship, and we will work closer together and the good demonstration of that is - the Secretary of Defence Austin's (Lloyd J Austin III) first call was to his counterpart in India (Defence Minister Rajnath Singh). That speaks volumes," she added.

Lieutenant General David A. Krumm, 11th Air Force Commander, said that Aero India 2021 is another excellent sign of the commitment to partnership between India and the United States.

"Notwithstanding the recent dynamic international environment, the strength of the India-U.S. partnership has become only more apparent over the last year," he said.
On Monday, country singer Dolly Parton announced on The Today Show that she had declined two offers to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom over the last four years.

According to The White House, "The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nations highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

The news comes after her multiple philanthropic efforts over the past few years. Parton was previously honored with the National Medal of Arts at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony.

DOLLY HELPS HOUSTON: Dolly Parton's book initiative, Imagination Library, brings books to Houston kids

Although Parton surely had many reasons to not accept the award, it wasn't because of what you thinkParton says that her life's circumstances just got in the way.

"I couldn't accept it because my husband was ill and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn't travel because of the COVID," she said.

She also mentions that she's heard from President Joe Biden about receiving the award, but also chose to decline, for fear of making a political statement.

"Now I feel like if I take it, I'll be doing politics, so I'm not sure," Parton said. "But I don't work for those awards. It'd be nice but I'm not sure that I even deserve it. But it's a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it."

While the famed songwriter may not believe she deserves the high accolade, she made headlines last year for donating $1 million for coronavirus research at Vanderbilt University. The funding helped develop Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.

Previously, the Presidential Medal of Freedom has been given to celebrities like Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Elvis Presley.
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Sin Chew Daily



We fail badly in the war against the coronavirus. As of January 31, we recorded 214,959 cumulative positive cases at 657 cases for every 100,000 people, the highest among Asean countries, 13th in Asia and 55th in the world.

We used to pride ourselves in our battle against the virus but are now completely overwhelmed!

Right then our finance minister Tengku Zafrul said in his FB post that IMF had projected Malaysia's GDP to grow by 7% this year, in line with the 6.5%-7.5% growth he had projected earlier on.

IMF also said Malaysia's growth rate would be the third highest in the world, after India and China.

Well, this projection does serve as a much needed morale booster at this gloomy moment but on the flipside, the virus is completely out of our control now, and it is inevitable that the vaccines are to arrive here late.

Very few economic sectors can be spared from the scourge of the virus, and there is no good reason for the economy to stage a powerful rebound this year.

IMF's optimistic projection has been established upon two conditions, that the country sees steady rise in domestic and foreign demands and that the nationwide vaccination program takes off smoothly in March..

Today, we don't seem to meet either of the two conditions above. International trade minister Azmin Ali said last weekend that our external trade this year would only expand marginally by 2.7%.

Each quarter IMF will adjust its projections for countries and it is anticipated that the result to be unveiled this April is going to be a disappointing one. Perhaps World Bank's 4% growth projection looks more reasonable.

To be honest, Tengku Zafrul knows very well what's happening, and while releasing this heartening piece of news, he has also urged Malaysians to strictly adhere to all the SOPs in hope of flattening the curve so that IMF's projection could turn out to be a reality.

Bear in mind that we will never enjoy enviable growth without having successfully defeated the virus.

The government is commanding all the resources that can be deployed to fight the virus; all decisions on MCO and SOPs are made by them while the distribution of medical resources and vaccine procurement are at their sole discretion, and we are all governed by them. Who then should be held accountable for our lackadaisical performance in handling the virus?



With things largely out of control and three consecutive days of over 5k new cases, the government and the people are beginning to point their fingers at each other.

Selangor MB Amirudin Shari accused private hospitals for late reporting causing a dramatic surge in the state's cases of late. It doesn't really matter now whether the late reporting will affect the accuracy of the state's case reporting. What we are really worried is that this may defer the reporting of new infection clusters, causing the situation to go out of control.

Association Of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) president Dr Kuljit Singh refuted the MB's allegation, arguing that private hospitals never reported cases late.

And then health DG Noor Hisham blasted at the public for not appreciating the relaxed rules and for violating the SOPs, causing the virus to spread rapidly.

This accusation couldn't have come at a worse timing, as many who obediently abide by the SOPs feel he has not been fair to them.

The DG should have specified exactly which groups of people have flouted the rules instead of making a generalized statement in a bid to find excuse for his own lapse.

In the meantime, the prime minister's public health advisor Dr Jemilah Mahmood accused the West of monopolizing the vaccine supply market.

We feel that such finger-pointing will not work at all in mitigating the outbreak, as WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged wealthy nations not to stockpile vaccines, thus depriving poor nations of the vaccines they can use.

We are not a poor nation by any measure. Our GDP was ranked 33rd in the world with US$376.6 billion in 2019. Our per capita GDP was US$10,460 at 57th, considered upper middle income group.

The poor nations that the WHO director-general has referred to are those in the lower middle and lower income groups. While Indonesia and the Philippines are poorer than us, they have acted much more positively than us in vaccine procurement.

Take a look at our tiny southern neighbor Singapore. They should complete their vaccination program for majority of citizens within half a year, but here in Malaysia, we don't purchase vaccines based on the overall virus containment strategy but rather the costing.

Khairy Jamaluddin said last month that Singapore could have bought overpriced vaccines. Where this is concerned, time is money, and we may lose big for trying to make a small saving!

Those in power should learn to admit their failure instead of putting the blame on the people. They should know that the rakyat are their bosses who can vote them out come the next general election.

When no penalty is being meted out to government leaders who do not put on masks, and when they make numerous U-turns on MCO and SOPs, and are far behind others in vaccine procurement, we as the voters indeed have the right to question them.

We all hope that the nation will stand united against such a powerful enemy so that we can lead our normal lives once again. As the media, we will continue to carry inspiring stories to lift the spirits of our readers, but as the fourth estate, painting an unrealistically rosy picture is never an option when things don't really look good at all.
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- United Steelworkers (USW) International President Tom Conway released the following statement in reaction to a last-minute Trump administration proclamation intended to grant the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the opportunity to ship state-supported aluminum products into the United States, effective Feb. 3, 2021. After reviewing Trump's action, President Biden stepped in and revoked it.

"President Trump's action as he was rushing for the White House door constituted a blatant attack on American workers.

"Section 232 restraints helped shore up sectors like aluminum that are vulnerable to unfair trade and clearly essential to our national defense. The USW supported the initiation of these efforts so that America's aluminum companies and their workers could meet our nation's national security and critical infrastructure needs.

"Trump's plan to lift tariffs on imports from the United Arab Emirates would undermine the effectiveness of the program and essentially exempt the vast majority of aluminum imports.

"If Trump's actions were allowed to become effective, UAE's state-supported aluminum producers would have had the right to flood the U.S. market, resulting in new trade attacks on our industry.

"In short, as he was walking away from the White House, Trump demonstrated that his concern for American workers was a facade and that he was willing to sacrifice their jobs and security.

"We applaud President Biden's decision to revoke Trump's sell-out of America's aluminum workers.

"President Biden said he would stand by America's workers, and he's kept his word. During the campaign he committed to reviewing the existing 232 programs as well as how best to strengthen America's economy and manufacturers and stand up for America's workers. Now he's following through.

"Our union looks forward to being a continuing partner with the new administration as together we fight for America's workers."

The USW represents 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.

Contact: Jess Kamm Broomell, 412-562-2444, [email protected]

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)

Related Links

http://www.usw.org


PRESS RELEASE  The Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE), home of the annual SUN n FUN Aerospace Expo, is very pleased to welcome Doug Jeanes as its new Executive Director. He will be relocating from Addison, TX, where he recently retired after 27 years with the renowned Cavanaugh Flight Museum (CFM), serving from 1993 to 1998 as Director of Maintenance and an impressive 22 years since as the President and Executive Director.

Doug brings a wealth of aerospace knowledge and experience to ACE. He managed an annual budget of over $2m dollars in his previous role, supervising the daily operations of a large, multi-airport flying museum with dozens of employees and hundreds of volunteers. His position allowed him to regularly interface with the FAA, media, education, and community leaders to develop successful partnerships, resulting in CFMs recognition as one of the most impressive aviation museums in the U.S. During his tenure, Doug oversaw the transition of the CFM organization from a private collection to becoming a 501(c)3 educational museum with a focus on STEM and Living History aviation experiences.

I am thrilled to be coming aboard at such a pivotal time for the Aerospace Center for Excellence. The STEM mission and aerospace engagements ACE provides are at the heart of my passions, and I am very much looking forward to helping the next chapter of ACEs story unfold, Jeanes said in a recent interview. I am thrilled to be coming aboard at such a pivotal time for the Aerospace Center for Excellence. The STEM mission and aerospace engagements ACE provides are at the heart of my passions, and I am very much looking forward to helping the next chapter of ACEs story unfold, Jeanes said in a recent interview.

John Lites Leenhouts, President and CEO of ACE, is enthusiastic about bringing Jeanes onboard. Having a person of Dougs experience and caliber will be a tremendous asset for our programming, especially at such a critical time for ACEs evolution. He brings a plethora of experience and expands our scope with a wide array of skills that will greatly benefit us going forward.

In addition to his museum leadership experience, Doug is an Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic (A&P) with Inspection Authority (IA), plus he has held FAA certification as a Designated Airworthiness Representative (DAR), which allowed him to perform licensed examination, inspection, and testing services necessary to the issuance of airworthiness certificates for aircraft that have been built, restored, or repaired. From 1975  1992, Doug held positions as a pilot and aircraft maintenance manager with several airlines and repair facilities, and between 1975 and 1982, he served in the US Air Force Reserves as a cargo and special handling specialist, supervising and training over 120 airmen in his squadron.

Doug is an accomplished pilot and has flown in hundreds of airshows since 1980. He holds Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) and Commercial Helicopter ratings, plus an Experimental all makes and models Letter of Authorization from the FAA to pilot most WWII through Vietnam era aircraft, including B-29, B-26, B-25, B-24, B-17, C-47, C-7, P-51, P-47, F-4U, A-1, MiG-15, T-33, and many others.

ACE has been in rapid development since its launch in 2014. Many people have been critical to that success, none more than outgoing Executive Director Ed Young. Acknowledging his many contributions, Leenhouts complimented Young, saying, We are very grateful to Ed, who has been a tremendous benefit to ACE over his two plus years. Most notably, he has overseen the launch of Project: SkyLab , the multi-million dollar, 22,000 square-foot expansion of the Florida Air Museum into a world-class STEM learning complex. He is moving on to a position with the Lakeland Linder International Airport in their finance and operations area. His energy, enthusiasm, and contributions to moving ACE forward have been outstanding, and he will be missed.

About Aerospace Center for Excellence, Inc.

BEV

During the January to December 2020 period, Lexus global deliveries totaled precisely 718,715 vehicles, representing a 6% slide compared to 2019. Although it looks bad, it might have been even worse because the first six months of last year showed a 16% drop compared to the first half of 2019. That was partially compensated by the 2% increase in sales during the latter half of the year.Still, Lexus has a positive outlook to the future, with the company mentioning that the UX 300e , its first fully electric vehicle, was quickly snatched by eager customers wherever available. Now the brand is preparing to expand the availability of the UX 300e across more markets and is also teasing the impending arrival of a fresh brand vision.This spring, we will unveil our new brand vision, along with a new concept, which illustrates our intentions for the future and marking the beginning of the next generation of Lexus, explains Koji Sato, the Chief Branding Officer and Lexus International President.Better yet, the official hinted the first series-production model developed according to the new corporate strategy would also arrive later this year, while more introductions will take place in 2022 and further into the future.As far as we can tell, the teaser (we did a little bit of Photoshop magic to try and reveal some of the hidden lines) possibly depicts the same electric concept car that was first glimpsed back in December. At the time, Lexus also announced the upcoming introduction of the Direct4 next generation electric drive control technology.The Japanese automaker said back then that the new Lexus Electrified technology will become core to its future hybrid and battery electric vehicles, bringing a new system that will enable instant electric control to all four wheels to transform dynamic performance, working instantaneously according to driving conditions and driver intentions.By the looks of the two teaser images, back in December Lexus showcased the front of their newdesign, while the new preview most likely covers the other end of the concept car.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a frequent target of former President Donald J. Trumps scorn during his time in office, recounted hearing a mans voice yelling Where is she? while she hid in a bathroom.

Then came an unsettling encounter with the apparent source of that demand: a Capitol police officer who she said looked at her with a tremendous amount of anger and hostility.

She also recalled taking shelter in the office of Representative Katie Porter, Democrat of California, who was having a cup of coffee when a panicked Ms. Ocasio-Cortez came in, having already thought twice that day, she recalled, that I was going to die.

At one point, she appeared to wipe away tears.

I felt that if this was the journey that my life was taking, that, I felt that things were going to be OK, and that, you know, I had fulfilled my purpose, she said, her voice breaking with emotion.

Those who have argued that it is time to move on from the events of that day, she said, were using the same tactics of every other abuser who just tells you to move on.
The Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office has identified a pedestrian who died after she was hit by a car in Harvey and a motorcyclist fatally injured when authorities say he hit a dog that ran into the roadway.

Omari Jones, 18, of Harvey, died Friday of multiple blunt-force injuries two days after she was injured in a crash at Manhattan and Lapalco boulevards, according to Mark Bone, chief death investigator for the Coroner's Office.

The crash occurred about 6:45 p.m. Wednesday. A 33-year-old Terrytown woman was driving west in the middle lane of Lapalco when she "heard and felt" an impact, said Capt. Jason Rivarde, spokesperson for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

The woman stopped her vehicle and discovered that she had hit Jones, a pedestrian, according to the Sheriff's Office. The woman told investigators she didn't see Jones before the crash.

Jones was taken to University Medical Center in New Orleans in critical condition, but she died of her injuries, according to authorities.

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The Sheriff's Office cited the motorist for driving with a suspended license, Rivarde said. Investigators don't believe she was impaired, but she did submit to toxicology testing. The results were not immediately available.

Robert Hobbs, 63, of Avondale, was identified as the motorcyclist killed in a crash Sunday afternoon. Hobbs was riding in the 400 block of George Street, a few blocks from his home, when a dog dashed into the roadway about 4 p.m., according to the Sheriff's Office.

+2 'Sadistic': Marrero man accused of raping, beating woman he locked in closet for 4 days A man viciously and repeatedly beat and raped a woman for four days while keeping her bound and locked in the closet of a Gretna home, accordi

Hobbs hit the dog and was thrown from his bike. He was not wearing a helmet and suffered fatal injuries, the Sheriff's Office said. Hobbs was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy listed his cause of death as blunt-force injuries to the head and torso.
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Some hoodlums attacked Umuoba Police Station in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area of Abia State on Monday and killed a police inspector.

The police spokesperson in the state, Geoffrey Ogbonna, who confirmed this on Tuesday in Aba, said the hoodlums invaded the police station on Monday at about 3 a.m.

Mr Ogbonna said the hoodlums razed down the station and its operational vehicles.

In the course of that attack, one inspector lost his life, another policewoman was seriously injured.

The hoodlums then broke into the armoury and stole some arms, including the gun of the inspector who was killed.

They also burnt down the station and the vehicles parked in the premises, including one of our serviceable patrol vans, he said.

The spokesperson said the inspectors corpse has been taken to the mortuary, while the female officer is being treated at the hospital.

The police in Abia are investigating the attack.

Mr Ogbonna urged residents to be on the lookout in their communities for intruders and unknown faces.

He also called on hoteliers to volunteer credible information on certain visitors who would want to leave the hotels at midnight to commit crimes.

The police promised to protect the details of anybody who would volunteer information that could lead to the arrest of the hoodlums.

(NAN)
New Delhi, Feb 2 : A day after the police barricaded the national capital's borders with barbed wire and put spikes on the streets, the Delhi Congress on Tuesday accused the Arvind Kejriwal government in the city for helping the force in digging up roads with cranes, installing iron grills and spikes, and cementing the barriers to the ground through the PWD.

Addressing a press conference here at the Delhi Congress office, former MLA Alka Lamba said, "Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's so-called sympathy for the farmers' agitation was a put-on drama to mislead the farmers, as he has been acting with ulterior motives, at the behest of the Modi Government at the Centre." Slamming the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for acting on the behest of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, she said, "AAP spokesperson and in-charge of Punjab wrote a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, stressing the urgent need for police protection for protesting farmers of Punjab, whereas the Delhi government has been helping the Central government-controlled Delhi Police in digging up roads with cranes, installing iron grills and spikes, and cementing the barriers to the ground through the PWD," she alleged.

Her remarks came a day after the Delhi Police put barricades at the Delhi-Haryana Singhu and Tikri borders and Delhi-Uttar Pradesh Ghazipur border with the iron spikes, barbed wires to stop farmers from entering into the national capital.

Thousands of farmers from Haryana, Punjab and westrn Uttar Pradesh have been protesting demanding the repealing of three farm laws since November 26 last year.

The Delhi Police adopted this new technique after violent clashes on January 26 'Kisan Gantantra parade' in several parts of the city. The agitating farmers also hoisted a pennant at the Red fort after violent clashes with the police personnel. The Delhi Police had filed several cases against the farmer union leaders for the clashes.

Lamba said that if Kejriwal was so concerned about the safety and security of the farmers, why didn't he write letters to the Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Firing salvos at the AAP government in Delhi, she said, "Why did Kejriwal keep quiet when the anti-farmer laws were notified by the Central government on June 5 last year and why did the Delhi government endorsed one of the three Laws?" She alleged that AAP national convenor had neither tweeted, nor gave a press statement, against the three farm laws.

"He was an active party in suppressing the farmers' voice, and weakening their agitation," she accused.

Lashing out at the AAP government in the city, former MLA and Congress leader Adarsh Shastri said, "Kejriwal's government attitude towards the farmers' protest, demanding the repeal of the three black laws, has been one of conspiracy, drama and betrayal." He said that Kejriwal's "secret agenda" is to become the "Chief Minister of Punjab". "And that was the only reason for showing an outward display of sympathy for the farmers' agitation," Shastri said.

Firing salvos at the Delhi government, he said, "How could the DTC, which is under the Delhi government, provide buses without the Chief Minister's knowledge, to transport the police personnel and take arrested farmers to jails?"
President Moon Jae-in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the border truce village of Panmunjeom during their summit on April 27, 2018. / Korea Times file

'Seoul, Washington shared info on Moon's economic project proposal for North Korea'



By Kang Seung-woo



Allegations that the government planned to assist North Korea build a nuclear power plant are expected to raise concerns with the new U.S. administration over inter-Korean projects sought by South Korea, according to diplomatic observers, Tuesday, although they said they do not buy into the claims.



President Moon Jae-in faces allegations that he offered to build the plant in North Korea as part of cross-border reconciliation projects during his April 2018 summit with the North's leader Kim Jong-un. The opposition parties are denouncing the alleged offer as an "act benefitting the enemy."



The government flatly denies the claims, with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy unveiling an internal document to reaffirm that it had merely reviewed some ideas for possible inter-Korean economic cooperation projects after the summit. The government said Moon only offered economic projects the two Koreas could cooperate on if denuclearization talks progressed.



The U.S. government has yet to comment on the allegations. But President Joe Biden and his team could be concerned about the Moon administration's push to engage the North through means Washington may find unpalatable.



"In the past the U.S. has put energy assistance for North Korea on the table to try to convince Pyongyang to move ahead with denuclearization. But I think that the Biden administration will want to consult more closely with South Korea than the Donald Trump administration ever did regarding potential inter-Korean economic cooperation," Ramon Pacheco Pardo, an associate professor of international relations at King's College London, told The Korea Times.



"Thus, the South Korean government will have to openly discuss with the Biden administration this and other potential projects, even if they are only at the planning stage."



If the nuclear power plant proposal was part of an extensive list of economic and infrastructure projects that the Moon administration considered offering Pyongyang, Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst and senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation, said the proposals would have violated international sanctions had they been implemented.



"The U.S. government became so concerned with Seoul's efforts that it directly contacted South Korean government agencies, banks, and businesses to remind them of existing laws," Klingner told The Korea Times.



In response to the allegations, Foreign Minister nominee Chung Eui-yong said, Tuesday, there were no discussions about building a nuclear power plant during inter-Korean talks.





KBS seeks to open Pyongyang Bureau: report North Korea beefs up missile units, special forces over past years: defense ministry Energy ministry unveils document to calm dispute over North Korea reactor plan "In the current circumstances, no country can offer to build a nuclear power plant, so we had no internal review on the issue and no discussions with North Korea about it," Chung told reporters. Chung was the chief of the National Security Office at the time and participated in the summit.



He also said that the government told the U.S. multiple times about the inter-Korean projects that were detailed and stored on a USB stick that President Moon gave to the North Korean leader.



"It was a plan to implement if North Korea moved ahead with denuclearization and the U.S. fully agreed with the idea and showed a positive response to it," Chung said, adding he showed the content of the USB to his then-U.S. counterpart John Bolton.



He added the U.S. also offered a similar idea to the North during a summit between former President Donald Trump and Kim in Singapore in 2018.



Nuclear plant accusation 'unrealistic'



The opposition camp also claims that the Moon administration was proceeding with the plan surreptitiously, without informing the U.S. or the United Nations.



However, experts said it would have been impossible to build a large-scale nuclear plant without commercial satellite imagery detecting it  let alone without consent from the U.S. and the international community.



"A nuclear reactor is visible to overhead satellites, thus it would be hard concealing such a program," Joseph DeTrani, a former U.S. special envoy to the six-party talks, told The Korea Times.



"Personally, I believe the ROK would discuss any such program with the U.S., given our allied relationship and partnership in pursuing a peaceful resolution to the nuclear issue with North Korea." The ROK refers to the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.



In the past, the Korea Energy Development Organization was building two light water reactors in the North Korean city of Kumho, although the project was suspended in late 2002 when North Korea was found to be processing highly-enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. In addition, the joint statement from the six-party talks in September 2005 also talked about energy assistance to the North, DeTrani added.



Pardo also said, "There have been multiple discussions about potential inter-Korean economic projects over the years and certainly under the Moon administration. In this context, I'm not particularly surprised that there could have been discussions about potentially building a nuclear reactor in North Korea to supply energy to South Korea.



"But I think that claiming that South Korea could build a nuclear reactor in North Korea without the international community, or South Korean civil society, realizing it is far-fetched," he said.




The U.S. economy should expand at its normal pace over the next decade, starting in mid-2021, once the coronavirus pandemic is under control, budget forecasters in Congress predicted Monday.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said as millions of Americans are vaccinated against the virus, "the economic expansion that began in mid-2020 will continue" through 2031.

The CBO said the $20.8 trillion U.S. economy, the world's largest, "is projected to return to its pre-pandemic level in mid-2021 and to surpass its potential" -- its maximum sustainable level -- in early 2025.

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Union Cabinet clears Rattle Hydroelectric Project, J&K LG terms it historical decision

Jammu, Jan 20 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday announced the approval of Rattle Hydroelectric Project by the Union Cabinet.

Terming it a ''historical'' decision for making J&K power surplus UT, the Lt Governor thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving the much awaited 850 MW Rattle Hydroelectric Project in Jammu & Kashmir at an investment of Rs 5282 crore and ensuring the unprecedented development of Jammu & Kashmir.

Mentioning the lacklustre approach of the earlier Governments towards the execution of this important Hydroelectric Power Project, the Lt Governor said that Jammu and Kashmir was deprived of this mega project for so long because the previous regimes were scared to move ahead due to Pakistans threats of going to International court for arbitration, and making representation in the World Bank.
COVID-19 testing in NSW has reached its lowest levels since the Christmas period, as the state recorded its 16th consecutive day without any locally-acquired cases.

There were about 6000 tests conducted in the latest reporting period, the lowest non-weekend figures recorded since Christmas Day.

A health worker carries out a COVID-19 test at the Merrylands drive-through clinic in Sydney. Credit:Getty

Daily testing numbers peaked at 63,600 on December 21 and have declined since then.

NSW Health continues to be concerned by low rates of testing, the agency said in a statement released on Tuesday.

We urge people across the state to come forward for testing with even the mildest of symptoms that could signal COVID-19, such as a runny nose or scratchy throat.

High testing rates play an important role in helping to contain the spread of the disease, as it gives us the best chance of finding new cases and preventing new chains of transmission from becoming established.

Testing has fallen across all local government areas in Sydney in recent weeks, with the lowest weekend figures recorded in Burwood, where 25 tests were conducted on Saturday and Sunday, followed by Hunters Hill, with 58 tests.

Northern Beaches continues to have the highest testing numbers, with 768 tests conducted over the weekend.
Ansonia Police / Contributed Photo

ANSONIA  Police are asking for the publics help as they investigate reports of two purses stolen from cars parked this weekend outside local businesses.

The first theft occurred about 11:55 a.m. Saturday at the Stop and Shop on Division Street. The female victim was loading groceries in her car when a male suspect entered the unlocked front passenger door and took her purse, Lt. Patrick Lynch said Tuesday.
RapidEye/iStockBy IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News

(OLYMPIA, Wash.) -- Members of a housing advocacy group were arrested in Washington state Sunday after they allegedly stormed a hotel in Olympia and occupied it while demanding better care for people living on the streets.



Olympia police said around 11 a.m., around 45 members of the group Oly Housing Now, some of whom were reportedly armed with hatchets, batons and knives and had gas masks, helmets and goggles, gathered outside the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia and made their way inside.



Oly Housing Now released a statement in which it claimed the members took the hotel for "emergency pandemic housing," and demanded the city pay for rooms using Federal Emergency Management Agency funding.



"It's too cold for people to be sleeping on the streets," the statement read.



The hotel's staff called 911 after they said they "felt under threat from the group, and that an employee was allegedly assaulted," according to the police. The staff of seven sheltered in the hotel's basement for the rest of the afternoon and early evening while the activists took the hotel.



Before the demonstration, the group had reserved and paid for 17 rooms, which they used to house people experiencing homelessness, according to the police. Guests in 40 rooms sheltered in place during the incident, police said.



Officers eventually escorted the staff out of the building later in the night and went floor by floor clearing out the hotel. The people without homes who were living in the hotels were connected with the city's social services, according to the police.



"The Citys Crisis Response Unit is connecting those unhoused people to services. They will not be allowed to remain at the hotel," the police said in a statement.



Olympia Interim Police Chief Aaron Jelcick told reporters Monday that 10 people were arrested and charged with various crimes, including burglary in the first degree, assault in the first-degree and obstruction of a public servant. Jelcick said the group allegedly recruited about 30 people from homeless encampments throughout the city to stay in these rooms, telling these individuals that they could stay in the rooms indefinitely.



No homeless individual was charged related to the incident, police said.



Representatives from Oly Housing Now did not immediately return messages for comment. A spokeswoman for the Red Lion Hotel chain said the company has been in touch with the owner of the Olympia hotel and they are working with officials in their investigation.



In a statement to the press Sunday, Olympia Mayor Cheryl Selby said the city is taking its homelessness issue seriously.



"Olympia has led on responding to homelessness, on coordinating shelter and other basic needs," she said in a statement. "The tactics used today by Oly Housing Now are unproductive and wont make the mission more attainable."



Copyright  2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, February 2, 2021

February 2, 2021

WE NOW ARE IN THE MIDST OF VACCINE SOLUTIONS CREATED AND DISTRIBUTED AT WARP SPEED- AND THESE VACCINES WERE CLEARLY CHOSEN OVER OTHER ALTERNATIVES. HAVE WE, THE PUBLIC BEING COMPETENTLY INFORMED ABOUT THEIR NATURE AND THEIR ALTERNATIVES? CONSIDERING THESE VACCINES WERE RELEASED UNDER EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION, ISNT THIS THE LARGEST MEDICAL EXPERIMENT IN U.S. HISTORY?

The Biden Administration has been critical of the slowness and lack of care of the Trump Administration in eliminating the destructive power of the novel coronavirus. During the end of the Trump regime, it was clear that many Republicans were heading, along with Trump, to ending of the lockdown throughout the country. Trump, although the engine behind the

Warp Speed vaccination, still entertained and actually used alternative therapies. In terms of the regulations offered by Fauci and others, he had to be practically pummeled before he would wear a mask- and resorted to his preferred alternative solution when he supposedly came down with the virus. Here is what Biden said before his election.

[embedded content] Biden criticizes President Trumps response during COVID-19 pandemic | USA TODAY

But despite Trumps apparent vaccilations, no doubt the majority of establishment Republicans and Democrats endorse the vaccination solution. Considering that one of Bidens first initiatives was to demand the continual use of masks in Federal buildings and properties and this is supposed be absolutely in accordance with Science, as mentioned so effectively above.

Of course not everyone is so sure of the science. And now, as Ron Paul describes, there is a new edict from the CDC regarding the necessity of having two masks when riding public transportation. Could it be that wearing masks could be more dangerous than not wearing masks?

[embedded content] CDC Now Demands TWO Masks  ScienceOr Tyranny?

And if masks were so important, can you imagine how absolutely Science, in Bidens estimation, must be important in his decision to fast track the Warp Speed vaccines, which turned out not to always being distributed at faster-than-light speed. We are so lucky our elected officials know so much about science as applied to the pandemic and the general nature of science. Science? The last word.

But still, some sayScience  is not so authoritative just because people can quote some clinical studies or have really good credentials.

In a fascinating report, written by Peter R. Breggin, M.D., a psychiatrist, who is working with attorneys to address the justifications for the lockdowns in certain states, addresses this important point about science, in the beginning of his paper, COVID-19 & Public Health Totalitarianism: Untoward Effects on Individuals, Institutions and Society

Public health experts and policymakers believe that they can estimate what is scientifically required to fight a pandemic and that their personally determined requirements override most or all other considerations. But as a physician, psychiatrist, and researcher who has spent more than fifty years writing and evaluating research studies, I can explain why public health experts and officials are vastly more limited in their scientific knowledge than they admit.

As other experts will confirm in this report, there is no historical precedent and no scientific basis to the ever-changing pronouncements by public health officials that have driven this nation into a state of fearful lockdown. Nearly every policy and practicefrom closing of schools and the stay-at-home orders to the use of various medications and respiratorsis subject to varied and conflicting scientific opinion, and to an overall lack of sound data.

The opinions being expressed with such authority come from people who have, for much of their lives, held themselves out as the last final word in their fieldsbut that does not make their opinions scientifically sound. In fact, the very word authority should never be uttered in the same breath with scientific. There are no scientific authoritiesthere is the body of research and opinion, always conflicted, forever evolving, with innumerable individuals searching for and comparing their versions of empirical truth. The idea of scientific authority is a fiction created by media analysts and politicians seeking seemingly superior experts to bolster their preconceived biases and opinions.

Please click here to download Dr. Peter Breggis whole report.

In this discussion, we shall look at the justification for the vaccines and other related solutions and those who have found many elements surrounding all this problematical. Here is Perre Kory, M.D., an Associate Professor of Medicine at St. Lukes Aurora Medical Center, delivering story about a potential non-vaccine treatment before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

[embedded content]

Here is a video from the Highwire.com, one of the more alternative sites discussing the pandemic. It is hosted by Del BigTree, who produced the VAXXED and VAXXED2 documentaries. His account was deleted from YouTube. In this video, several powerful anti-viral medicines are discussed.

One of the people I listen to (I am also a member of his organization, Advanced Medicine) is Dr. Rashid A. Buttar. As one of his subscribers, he sent me an email (one of a series of six, where he described the extreme censorship which has blunted his messages, generally sent to thousands of followers:

Johnny,

I know you havent heard from me for the last 6 weeks or so. But there was a reason for that. You will understand why shortly but its because of censorship!

Over the next 72 hours, I will be sending out a total of 6 emails with very specific, critical information for you. Each of these is an urgent call to action. This is the first of the six. And each email will build upon the previous.

I dont think its any news to anyone watching whats going on in our world today, that the social media platforms have completely taken over the information that we receive, censoring what ever they want and swaying us in what ever direction they deem appropriate!

YouTube put me in YouTube jail yesterday and has prevented me from posting videos. Instagram has already prevented me for 2 weeks now from live-streaming my weekly Monday night public livestreams.

In July and August, my YouTube channel had no new subscribers. I was frozen at 413,000 subscribers despite a meteoric rise in subscribers from April to June. But it all came to a stop in June. In July and August, I did not have a single new subscriber.

I was told maybe you lost your mojo. Then, from Aug 18 to Aug 21, my YouTube channel exploded. In less than 72 hours, I had over 84,000 new subscribers. Someone at YouTube forgot to hit the BLOCK button on my channel. And then, for the next 3 months, not a SINGLE new subscriber!!!!!

My subscribers went from 413,000 to 497,000 in 3 days. Then NO NEW SUBSCRIBERS for 3 months! Mind you, I was being massively shadow banned anyway before that. But now it was blatant. Thats because the powers that be were actively trying to block all or our abilities to communicate with each other!

Dr. Lipton, Nia Peeples and I did a video on GRATITUDE!!! And it was blocked after hitting a million views in less than 4 days. WHY???

Well, my livestream from yesterday explains it all. It could not have been put out at a more perfect time. It was totally unplanned. And before going live, I had NO idea YouTube had blocked my largest audience.

The fact is that alternative voices, often censored, have decried the reality of the pandemic altogether. They have suggested that the most often used PCR test us tragically flawed and does not provide any usefulness of a test. For one thing, some say it was never meant to be used as a test- only a device for enlarging the image of a molecule by replicating it many, many times- and that, even if there were a specific substance or organism that could be identified, it could never tell whether it had caused a specific illness, anyway. Further, even if could identify a certain substance, in this instance, the virus was never isolated at all.

The justification for the lockdown, the vaccinations, the quarantine and all its regulations are all supported by science and the authorities would like to make us think that they have definitive proof for each and every element that they have imposed on citizens. 

In Doctor Buttars case, he has challenged most of the main elements used by government to respond to the pandemic. To learn more about or even join Advanced Medicine, please go to Dr. Buttars site:

In this article in Life Site News, we can watch a powerful video by a young medical doctor warning us about a new level of totalitarianism being reached by the censorship we now are experiencing every day.

We are reaching an unthinkable level of totalitarianism: MD on pandemic | News | Lifesitenews https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/we-are-reaching-an-unthinkable-level-of-totalitarianism-md-on-pandemic

One of the main points of contention about the pandemic is that all of these lockdowns and restrictions supposedly can only be legally imposed by a state government if there is an emergency. Here Pam Popper, interviewed by Spiro Skouras, explains about the lawsuit to which she has dedicated herself and her organization. If you want to find the main reason that was used to justify the lockdowns and restrictions- it was the statistics. Did they every add up to an emergency to lock up this planet and the opportunity for survival and prosperity for the citizens of this planet?

[embedded content] The Lawsuit That Could End Covid-1984 with Dr. Pam Popper

Freedom of speech is one of the essential components of the Bill of Rights and is actually of major importance in the area of scientific investigation. To limit the expression of doctors, scientists and journalists because it disagrees with mainstream narratives is a dangerous game to play if you wish to have a democracy.

DISCLAIMER:

We Beg to Differ, a blog presenting alternative medias view of Mainstream Narratives, basically presents links, most often to whole videos and articles, from Mainstream Media and Alternative Media to contrast their views. If one wonders what alternative media means, it is media developed privately by independent producers, not owned or directed by the handful of media companies that control a vast amount of media output in the world.

We share various types of videos for you to scrutinize. Unless we specifically say so, we do not necessarily agree with their content, in whole or in part. Sometimes, we will present written or audio/video material concerned with health issues. We always recommend that before you try anything, you check with your medical or certified health professional.
Great Lakes Safety Training Center is grateful for their volunteers who serve on its board of directors.

They have three dedicated individuals who have just recently retired from the board and they'd like to thank them for their service: J.W. Fisher of Fisher Companies (past president); Ted High of Three Rivers Corporation (past president) and Mark Trinklein of Valley Electrical Contractors (past treasurer).

At this time, the company welcomes three new board members: Mark Craig of Three Rivers Corporation; John Fisher of Fisher Contracting; and Ryan Smith of GE Insulation.

Craig joined Three Rivers in 1994 and currently is the executive vice president and CFO, where he builds upon the finance team's strengths, keeping them consistent with the company's focus and commitment toward people and customer service. Craig is also a director and treasurer on Three Rivers Board of Directors and a member of the executive committee and finance/compensation committee. He attended CMU, earning a bachelor of science degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance and accounting.

Fisher is the environmental health and safety director for Fisher Contracting. He has more than 16 years of experience in the construction field. He began his career working at Fisher Contracting's heavy diesel mechanic shop as a shop assistant at the age of 15. Since then, Fisher has worked his way up to where he is today. He oversees a team of safety representatives and is responsible for the safety program at Fisher Contracting.

Smith started at GE Insulation over 20 years ago and is currently the vice president. He is responsible for daily operations, overseeing/bidding/running commercial, industrial and chemical plant projects, hiring and placement. He is active in the Contractor Owner Safety Team (COST) and served as chairperson for two years. While being a part of GE Insulation, they have won National Safety Excellence and Merit awards in the category of Specialty Contractor for multiple years.

Incoming 2021 Officers are: President Mike Erickson, MidMichigan Health; Vice President Jason Hatfield, Nexteer Automotive; Secretary Ronnie Neumann, Alloy Construction; Treasurer Mark Craig, Three Rivers Corporation; and Immediate Past President Roger White, National Industrial Shop Coatings.
Andrew Zenoff, CEO and founder of My Brest Friend, with his family The original My Brest Friend pillow was such a game changing product and the design has really stood the test of time because it provides unprecedented support.

My Brest Friend, the worlds leading breastfeeding support product, celebrates its 25th anniversary with the launch of The Super Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition Nursing Pillow. My Brest Friend is known for its patented wrap-around nursing pillow design, which provides maximum support and comfort to nursing moms and babies. 25 years ago, My Brest Friend set out to reimagine nursing pillow design, and to develop a product that truly addressed the challenges of breastfeeding  to provide support that enabled moms to breastfeed more comfortably and focus on bonding with baby. It quickly became the #1 recommended nursing pillow of lactation consultants and the top choice for birthing hospitals. After 25 years of supporting many millions of nursing mothers, in more than 35 countries, My Brest Friend is introducing an upgraded nursing pillow with even more support and additional features that nursing moms will appreciate.

Breastfeeding can be very challenging for new moms; I knew that when I set out to design a better nursing pillow and now I understand that even more after welcoming my fourth child just this past month. From the start I couldnt understand why there wasnt a product that better supported women during this critical time, says Andrew Zenoff, CEO and founder of My Brest Friend. The original pillow was such a game changing product and the design has really stood the test of time because it provides unprecedented support. We thought about all the things that nursing moms needed and designed it to truly help them. I had always been an inventor at heart and wanted to design products that truly helped people, and My Brest Friend was just that. At the time, People magazine even called me Mr. Mom because of the impact the pillow was having.

My Brest Friend is the only nursing pillow designed to perfectly position the baby for latch-on while supporting moms body where she needs it most. When mom is comfortable and at ease while breastfeeding, the result is a healthy and happy baby. No other nursing pillow on the market is designed to meet the specific needs of the breastfeeding mom and baby in the same way. It has remained the industry leader because it is more supportive than anything else on the market and moms are the first to tell other expecting parents that it is a must-have product.

The new 25th Anniversary My Brest Friend Super Deluxe nursing pillow offers enhanced support in all the right places to help ensure mom's maximum comfort, ideal positioning and breastfeeding success. The design incorporates years of feedback from medical and lactation professionals as well as breastfeeding women around the globe. The brands patented wrap around design secures the nursing pillow to the body, helping mom and baby maintain ideal positioning and latch. This nursing pillow also provides back support, unlike any other pillow on the market. The increased thickness of the front cushion makes it easy to comfort baby and lift baby closer to the breast, so mom doesn't have to hunch over. It also includes thoughtful design features such as a right/left side tracker to remind mom which side to start feeding on next time, Velcro and silent release buckle for easy one hand use, inner waterproof cover for easy cleanup and attached pouch to stash burp clothes, phones or anything that mom might want in arms reach.

The new Super Deluxe My Brest Friend Nursing Pillow is available now in extras-soft plush fabric in both platinum and gold color options. Exclusively on Amazon.com, available nationwide at select retailers soon, MSRP $58.95.
The Durban FilmMart Institute (DFMI), in partnership with Berlinale Talents, an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, is calling for project submissions for the 14th edition of Talents Durban.The programme opens entries to African screenwriters and directors with fiction, documentary, animation, and hybrid projects in development. Talents Durban will again accept projects of all media formats, such as film, television series, web series and content for mobile platforms. Click here to submit your entry for Talents Durban 2021 by 19 March.
London: Testing and tracing teams are being deployed to doorsteps across Britain to try to squash community transmission of nearly a dozen cases of COVID-19 caused by the South African coronavirus variant.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they had discovered 11 cases of the variant, that could not be linked to travel, in five different locations across England - in the East, West Midland, South East and North West as well as in London. More than 150 cases attributed to the variant have been identified to date.

People walk past a closed brach of Topshop next to a bus stop coronavirus information sign on Oxford Street in London. Credit:AP

Britain remains in the grip of lockdown as it battles to curb the spread of a variant first discovered on its own shores, as well as trying to keep out other more transmissible variants that have emerged in countries with major outbreaks, including Brazil and South Africa.

Mobile surge testing units are being sent to the areas to carry out door-to-door testing and everyone living in the areas were urged to get tested regardless of whether they had symptoms. Every positive case will also be genomically sequenced.
Beaux Cormier, 35, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder

A Louisiana uncle accused of raping his niece allegedly hired two of his friends to kill her so she couldn't testify against him in court  but the hitmen botched the job and shot and killed two women protecting her instead.

Hitmen Andrew Eskine, 25, and Dalvin Wilson, 22, have been arrested for the January 13 double homicide after the victims were found dead by deputies at a home in Montegut, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Timothy Soginet said in a press conference on Monday.

The intended victim's uncle Beaux Cormier, 35, has also been arrested for the deaths of the two women, his 34-year-old sister Brittany Cormier and her 37-year-old neighbor Hope Nettleton.

Victim Brittany Cormier was the mother of the girl allegedly raped by Cormier, The Advocate reported.

Samantha LeMaire, a close friend, told the outlet that she never expected Cormier would have to sacrifice her life to protect her daughter.

'She would do anything for her kids,' LeMaire said. 'But to this extent? I would have never thought it would ever have come down to this.'

Brittany Cormier's daughter and stepdaughter were hidden in a closet when their mother was shot to death, LeMaire and Soignet told the outlet.

'Maybe they hid in the closet because they were scared. But I like to think she locked them in the closet to protect them,' LeMaire said.

Brittany Cormier, left, who is reported to be the girl's mother was killed with neighbor Hope Nettleton

Brittany Cormier, pictured, reportedly told the hitmen hired by her brother that she was the victim

There were reportedly five people in the home, pictured, at the time the victims were shot to death

Cormier, Eskine, and Wilson have each been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and prosecutors said that the death penalty 'is absolutely on the table.'

Beaux Cormier was initially arrested for the rape in March 2020 in nearby Lafayette Parish and 'is already a convicted sex offender,' according to officials.

'Cormier hired Eskine and Wilson to murder the rape victim so she could not testify,' Soginet said.

Cormier hired Eskine and Wilson kill his niece and the three conducted surveillance on the target home 'sometime after July but before November,' cops said.

Andrew Eskine, left, and Dalvin Wilson, right, have been arrested by deputies in Louisiana for the January 13 double homicide

Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Timothy Soginet said the two hit-men have confessed in the case

Eskine and Wilson returned to the home using a family vehicle in November to kill the niece but the attempt failed and a neighbor reported the license plate to police.

Cops said Wilson returned to the home using Eskine's truck on January 13 to commit the double murder.

The alleged shooter asked for the rape victim by name and Brittany Cormier pretended to be her daughter  'accepting her fate to save the life of the actual victim,' Soginet said.

He said: 'Hope Nettleton actually struggled with the shooter and was shot fighting him off. Andrew Eskine and Dalvin both confessed to their involvement in this incident.'

There was initially five people present in the home at the time, cops said.

Soginet said that it took law enforcement a couple weeks to crack the case of the double homicide and the license plate noted in November was 'critical' to solving it.

'We don't get this type of things happening, double homicides, in Terrebonne Parish, especially Montague  it's a small town. People are very close over there and you know there were good people that ended up dying as a result,' Soginet said.

District Attorney Joseph L. Waitz, Jr. said prosecutors 'feel like we have a very strong case.'

'I will get convictions in this case. The only issue, I'm sure everyone wants to know, is about the death penalty. That decision I do not make on my own,' Waitz said.

'I am in the process of scheduling a meeting with the victims. That decision will be made with myself and them after we have along conference and some soul searching about what's the proper thing to do.'

He added: 'But as far as the death penalty, that is absolutely on the table.'

The three men have all been booked into the Terrebonne Parish Criminal Justice Complex and each are being held in lieu of a $2million bond.
Montana Brown has admitted she is stuck what to upload on Instagram amid the backlash over influencers flaunting bikini-clad snaps while on 'work trips' abroad.

The Love Island star, 25, took to Instagram on Monday to explain her dilemma as she admitted she is wary if she posts too much about being in Barbados it could upset her followers who are in lockdown 3.0 in the U.K.

A slew of reality TV stars and influencers have been trolled online after being slammed by Home Secretary Priti Patel for jetting abroad under the ruse of a 'work trip' despite strict COVID-19 travel rules.

It's a tough life: Montana Brown has admitted she is stuck what to upload on Instagram amid the backlash over influencers flaunting bikini-clad snaps while on 'work trips' abroad

Taking to Instagram, Montana said: 'Hello my sweet angels. I need some guidance actually from you guys.

'I want to know what you want to see. Im still conscious I am away. I dont want to make anyone upset.

'So do you want see more fitness things? What would make you feel better about the current situation?

What to do: The tv star, 25, took to Instagram on Monday to explain her dilemma as she admitted she is wary if she posts too much about being in Barbados it could upset her fans

Treading carefully: 'I want to know what you want to see. Im still conscious I am away. I dont want to make anyone upset,' Montana said

'Do you want to see more skin stuff, me to go on live more, more stories?

'Give me some guidance, always love a little tip off from you guys. I need to do more dont I content wise? But I'm not sure what you want to see.'

Ministers are understood to have been increasingly concerned about social media 'influencers' and other celebrities turning up in exotic destinations while the rest of the country is in lockdown.

One government source told MailOnline last week people appeared to have been exploiting grey areas about what counts as 'essential' work trips.

'It is quite clear there are some high profile people getting away with it and what they are claiming as work is not,' they said.

Wary: 'So do you want see more fitness things? What would make you feel better about the current situation?', she continued

Backlash: Ministers are understood to have been increasingly concerned about 'infuencers' and other celebrities turning up in exotic destinations while the country is in lockdown

And last week Priti Patel criticised those who have been holidaying in the sun when they have been told to stay at home.

She said going on holiday was 'not an exemption' as she unveiled a strict borders clampdown to slow the spread of the virus, telling the Commons: 'People should simply not be travelling.

'We see plenty of influencers showing off where they are  mainly sunny places.'

As the criticism intensifies, members of the public appear to be taking umbrage with their tone deaf posts from Dubai - now dubbed 'Covid Cosablanca.'

Fury: Laura Anderson, who appeared on Love Island in 2018, moaned about how 'hard it was to be an influencer' after she was met with a backlash about her Dubai trip

Hostile messages on Instagram and Twitter pages are accusing them of recklessly spreading the virus and putting the NHS under increasing strain.

Many claim they jetted off for 'unavoidable work trips' - with some even going so far as to suggest that their social media posts should make them 'key workers'.

Laura Anderson, who appeared on Love Island in 2018, moaned about how 'hard it was to be an influencer' after she was met with a backlash about her Dubai trip, before claiming she went as a 'coping mechanism' to deal with COVID.

Scores of reality TV stars 'used loop holes' to flee to the likes of Dubai, St. Barts, Mexico and the Maldives to lounge in luxury hotels, pose for pictures with cocktails on sun loungers and enjoy beach parties.

Angry: A slew of reality TV stars and influencers have been trolled online after being slammed by Home Secretary Priti Patel for jetting abroad under the ruse of a 'work trip'
Li Jinbin, Party chief of Anhui province and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial Peoples Congress, delivers a speech at the closing meeting of the 4th Session of the 13th Anhui Provincial Peoples Congress on February 1, 2021. (Photo by Xu Guokang)



The 4th Session of the 13th Anhui Provincial People's Congress held its closing meeting in Hefei, capital of East Chinas Anhui province, on Monday.

Li Jinbin, Party chief of the province and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial Peoples Congress, delivered a speech at the meeting.

Shen Suli, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial Peoples Congress, chaired the closing meeting.

Wang Qingxian was elected governor of the province at the meeting.

Meanwhile, Wei Xiaoming was elected vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the 13th Anhui Provincial Peoples Congress. Bai Jinming was elected secretary general of the Standing Committee of the 13th Anhui Provincial Peoples Congress. Wang Yingchun, Zhao Xinqun, Gao Li and Guo Decheng were elected members of the Standing Committee of the 13th Anhui Provincial Peoples Congress. Chen Wu was elected chief procurator of the Anhui Provincial Peoples Procuratorate.



The provincial legislature approved a resolution on the annual government work report, a resolution on the provinces 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives through the Year 2035, a resolution on the provinces implementation of the annual plan on economic and social development in 2020 and a draft plan for 2021, and a resolution on the implementation of the budgets in 2020 and the draft budgets for 2021.

Resolutions on the work reports of the standing committee of the legislature, the Anhui Provincial High People's Court, and the Anhui Provincial Peoples Procuratorate were also passed at the closing meeting.



The 4th Session of the 13th Anhui Provincial Peoples Congress closes in Hefei on February 1, 2021. (Photo by Xu Guokang)


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President Donald Trump's new lawyers argued in their first formal response to his impeachment Tuesday that the process is not constitutional because he is no longer president  and that his speech before the MAGA riot was protected by the First Amendment.

Trump lawyers Bruce Castor and David Schoen transmitted the defense to Congress days before the former president's Senate trial will begin  and after a shakeup that had five Trump lawyers departing over the weekend in a spat over Trump's claims of a fraudulent election.

In the wake of that dispute, the legal brief charges that the impeachment  tried in the House before Trump left office  is unconstitutional since he can no longer be removed, while also claiming his Jan. 6 did not incite the Capitol riot and that Trump's language was protected speech.

Not constitutional since Trump is no longer president

'It is denied that the quoted provision currently applies to the 45th President of the United States since he is no longer 'President,' says the filing.

'The constitutional provision requires that a person actually hold office to be impeached,' Castor and Schoen write, citing language about removing a president from office.

The matter of whether a former president can be impeached is disputed by constitutional scholars  and the brief also argues that House managers 'rushed' to bring the impeachment without providing Trump due process.

Trump's call to 'fight like hell' was not an incitement to violence

The brief also denies the charge Trump engaged in 'incitement of insurrection,' and defends his speech to supporters at the Ellipse, near the White House, on January 6 where he told supporters to 'fight like hell.'

'It is denied that the 45th President engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States. The 45th President believes and therefore avers that as a private citizen, the Senate has no jurisdiction over his ability to hold office and for the Senate to take action on this averment would constitute a Bill of Attainder,' according to the brief.

Democrats released a legal brief Tuesday arguing the case for impeaching Donald Trump for 'incitement of insurrection,' claiming his rhetoric before thousands of his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6 was like him 'aiming a loaded cannon' at members of Congress

Trump was only expressing his 'opinion' when he said the election was stolen and he denies that his statement was 'in error'

It also points to claims by Trump's prior lawyers who led the effort to overturn the election results  but soft pedals the claim, stating Trump's belief the results were 'suspect.' Trump said he 'won' and that the election was 'rigged' in the weeks before the riot.

'It is admitted that after the November election, the 45th President exercised his First Amendment right under the Constitution to express his belief that the election results were suspect, since with very few exceptions, under the convenient guise of Covid-19 pandemic 'safeguards' states elections laws and procedures were changed by local politicians or judges without necessary approvals from state legislatures,' according to the brief.

The brief addresses the claim that Trump incited the mob by saying 'we won this election, and we won it by a landslide.' It says he expressed his 'opinion' that the results were suspect, as is his right.

'To the extent Averment 5 alleges his opinion is factually in error, the 45th President denies this allegation.'

Trump didn't incite the crowd and was calling for 'election security in general'

Trump's lawyer also disputes the interpretation of Trump's urging the crowd to 'fight like hell.'

He admits that 'persons unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol.' But it calls the phrase 'Seditions acts' a 'term of art that he denies.

The brief denies that Trump 'incited the crowd to engage in destructive behavior' and denied the phrase 'if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore' had 'anything to do with the action at the Capitol as it was clearly about the need to fight for election security in general.'

Trump acknowledged that a leaked recording of his call with Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger from Jan. 2 was accurate, but disputes the claim about his demand that the election official 'find' one move vote than necessary for him to be the winner of the states.

It is denied that the word find was inappropriate in context, as President Trump was expressing his opinion that if the evidence was carefully examined one would find that you have many that arent even signed and you have many that are forgeries.

The full context of that section of the call, which the legal argument does not provide, begins with Trump blasting a consent decree reached between Republicans and Democrats before the election, and goes as follows: Okay, whatever, its a disaster. Its a disaster. Look. Heres the problem. We can go through signature verification, and well find hundreds of thousands of signatures, if you let us do it. And the only way you can do it, as you know, is to go to the past. But you didnt do that in Cobb County. You just looked at one page compared to another. The only way you can do a signature verification is go from the one that signed it on November whatever. Recently. And compare it to two years ago, four years ago, six years ago, you know, or even one. And youll find that you have many different signatures. But in Fulton, where they dumped ballots, you will find that you have many that arent even signed and you have many that are forgeries.'

'Okay, you know that. You know that. You have no doubt about that. And you will find you will be at 11,779 within minutes because Fulton County is totally corrupt, and so is she totally corrupt, Trump says on the call.

At another point, Trump says: All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.

It also states Trump's denial that he threatened Raffesnperger.

Scroll down for the full statement by Donald Trump's legal team

WHAT THE DEMOCRATS CLAIM

Trump endangered the lives of all members of Congress when he aimed a mob of supporters 'like a loaded cannon' at the U.S. Capitol, House Democrats said Tuesday in making their most detailed case yet for why the former president should be convicted and permanently barred from office.

The legal brief forcefully links Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election to the deadly January 6 riot at the Capitol. It claims the former president bears 'unmistakable' blame for actions that directly threatened the underpinnings of American democracy.

'His conduct endangered the life of every single Member of Congress, jeopardized the peaceful transition of power and line of succession, and compromised our national security,' the Democratic managers of the impeachment case wrote. 'This is precisely the sort of constitutional offense that warrants disqualification from federal office.'

The legal brief lays out for the first time the arguments House lawmakers expect to present at the impeachment trial next week as the trial kicks off on February 9.

Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin is leading the team of House impeachment managers as they prepare to argue their case for convicting Trump in the Senate next Tuesday

It not only explicitly faults Trump for his role in inciting the riot but also aims to preemptively rebut potential defense claims that Trump's words were somehow protected by the First Amendment or that an impeachment trial is unconstitutional now that Trump has left office. It says Trump's behavior was so egregious as to require permanent disqualification from office.

'THERE'S NO FREE PASS FOR MISCONDUCT IN A PRESIDENT'S LAST DAYS'

'President Trump committed this high crime and misdemeanor amid his final days in office,' the brief details in arguing why it is still appropriate to move forward with impeachment after the former president's term has ended.

'President Trump will argue that it serves no purpose to subject him to a trial and that the Senate lacks jurisdiction to do so. He is mistaken,' the managers continue.

'As we explain at length belowand as scholars from diverse viewpoints have long recognizedthe text and structure of the Constitution, as well as its original meaning and prior interpretations by Congress, overwhelmingly demonstrate that a former official remains subject to trial and conviction for abuses committed in office.

'Any other rule would make little sense. '

'The Constitution governs the first day of the President's term, the last day, and every moment in between,' the brief reads. 'Presidents do not get a free pass to commit high crimes and misdemeanors near the end of their term.'

The Constitution specifies that disqualification from office can be a punishment for an impeachment conviction.

'This is not a case where elections alone are a sufficient safeguard against future abuse; it is the electoral process itself that President Trump attacked and that must be protected from him and anyone else who would seek to mimic his behavior,' the legal brief states.

DEMOCRATS DISMISS TRUMP'S DEFENSES

Democrats made clear that they disagree with all the defenses Trump was already expected to raise.

'The only honorable path at that point was for President Trump to accept the results and concede his electoral defeat.

'Instead, he summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue,' they wrote.

Meanwhile, Trump's legal team is still scrambling to nail down its defense strategy as a deadline looms at noon on Tuesday for the former president to reply to a charge of incitement of insurrection brought by the House last month.

Over the weekend, Trump split with his previous team of lawyers, with reports indicating they were unwilling to center their legal strategy on election fraud claims. His new lawyers, which were announced Sunday, have not indicated what defense they have planned for the 45th president.

Those who will represent Trump in the Senate trial next week are David Schoen, a Fox News commentator and former counsel to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and Bruce Castor, a former county prosecutor in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania  where Trump's campaign sued over claims of fraudulently counting mail-in ballots.

The team shake-up and lack of legal strategy maintains as there's just one week left before the former president's impeachment trial is set to start in the Senate.

Democrats in the House voted to impeach Trump for a second time last month, claiming his actions and rhetoric on January 6  and before  led to a violent mob storming the Capitol in the name of preventing Congress from certifying the election for Joe Biden.

During the trial next week, Democrats will continue to argue Trump 'incited an insurrection,' and therefore should be convicted.

Donald Trump's impeachment lawyers, David Schoen (left) and Bruce Castor (right) have not yet outlined their legal defense for the former president as a deadline looms Tuesday at noon for them to respond to the charge for 'incitement of insurrection'

TRUMP CALLS IN NEW LAWYERS

Schoen said Monday that the former president had 'nothing' to do with the Capitol riot as he warned the trial threatened to tear the country apart and damage American democracy.

The Atlanta-based lawyer insisted that the trial of a former president was 'unconstitutional'.

Neither Schoen nor Castor have expertise in constitutional law, which many see as the most promising path for Trump's defense  and some argue the Constitution does not allow for an impeachment trial of a political figure who has already left office.

Acquittal of the former president is almost certain as 67 senators are needed to vote in favor of conviction, meaning 17 Republicans would need to cross the political aisle. And most Republicans voted last week that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer president.

Schoen argued further Monday that Trump was not to blame for the violent protests at the Capitol, which killed four people including a Capitol Police officer.

Schoen, a Fox News commentator and former counsel to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, appeared on Fox News on Monday night to discuss the impeachment trial with Sean Hannity

Schoen said that the storming of the Capitol after Trump's January 6 rally was not the 45th president's fault

At a 'Stop the Steal' rally on the morning of January 6, Trump told his followers: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.'

Schoen said: 'He condemned violence at all times. Read the words of his speech. It calls for peacefulness.

'This has nothing to do with President Trump and the country doesn't need to just watch videos of riots and unrest. We need to heal now. We need to move forward.'

Schoen, who will represent Trump along with Bruce Castor, the former district attorney in Pennsylvania who declined to prosecute Bill Cosby, said the impeachment case was 'the most ill-advised legislative action that I've seen in my lifetime.'

He added: 'It is tearing the country apart at a time when we don't need anything like that.'

Schoen, an Atlantabased lawyer, also told Hannity (right) that the January 6 riot 'has nothing to do with President Trump'

Schoen said the the process was being made a mockery because those involved had already made up their minds, before it had even started, and strongly criticized the 'awful bias and prejudgment shown.'

He continued: 'Could you imagine any American citizen considered to be on trial, in which the judge and jury has already announced publicly the defendant must be convicted in this case?

'It undercuts democracy. How could you possibly have a fair trial? Senator Schumer promised a fair and full trial. You can't when you know that they are biased going in.'

Trump was impeached by the House on January 13.

He appears highly likely to be cleared, for a second time, by the Senate after a procedural vote showed that Republicans were unlikely to convict him.

On January 26 the Senate was asked whether they wanted impeachment to proceed.

The Senate voted 55-45, meaning that impeachment will go ahead.

But it showed that regardless of what happens in the trial, there almost certainly won't be enough Republican support to convict Trump: conviction would require 67 votes, or two-thirds of the Senate.

Schoen insisted that the trial was designed to end Trump's political future

Schoen said the trial was being held to damage Trump and bury him politically.

'This is the political weaponization of the impeachment process,' he told Sean Hannity on Fox News.

'There was a rush to judgment. Once President Trump became president, on the day he was elected, there were calls for his impeachment.'

He said the 'agenda' from the Democrats was to 'simply to bar President Trump from ever running for president again.'

Schoen added: 'And that is about as undemocratic as you could get.

'Can you imagine the slap in the face that is to the 75 million or more voters who voted for Donald Trump?'
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Xiaomi has filed a patent that suggests the company could be making its own smart glasses technology. Besides the typical smart glass feature, the new glasses will be capable of a few new features that include a new therapeutic signal emitter and 4D detection, as per a report in the China Devices website. As per the report, the therapeutic emitter feature of the glasses will be capable of phototherapy, which will allow them to treat problems like eye fatigue, mental conditions like depression or anxiety, and other disorders.

The upcoming smart glasses from Xiaomi are said to come with a therapeutical light signal emitter. The technology in the glasses will reportedly pack signals like infrared, ultraviolet, laser, and visible light signals for therapeutic benefit. To further enhance the device's capabilities, the glasses will reportedly be able to transmit sound signals simultaneously with visual signals. What is important to note is that the patent win for Xiaomi is not a guarantee that the product will be available commercially, since numerous patents in the past for smartphones and gadgets didn't make it to be final products.

Some brands, like Apple, have made smart glasses in the past, and could be on their way to making products like it. Facebook, too, is making its own pair of smart glasses that could become commercially available. Huawei already has two generations of its Gentle Monster Smart Glasses, which offer UV protection and support for picking up and ending calls.
Breakbulk Middle East (BBME), the GCCs leading breakbulk and project cargo event, held under the patronage of The UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, will be presented digitally, this year.

Titled Breakbulk Middle East Digital Special, the new version of the much-awaited event, will take place on February 9 to 10, 2021. The next in-person event is scheduled for February 2-3, 2022 in Dubai with DP World, UAE Region as the Host Port, a statement said.

The two-day event will feature experts, speaking about critical issues, right from tackling the pandemic, lessons learnt from it, project outlook for the year and beyond and the need to shape the minds of young aspiring professionals. The Women in Breakbulk Leadership Forum will be one session that will feature successful women leaders who have been taking their firms and the industry to newer heights. Through this enlightening session, the event hopes to attract talented women from the industry, nurture aspiring women professionals and retain outstanding talent.

Breaking the glass ceiling

Since its inception, Breakbulk Middle East has highlighted topics of strategic importance in the industry. Focusing on women professionals, who have significantly contributed to industry growth, has been one of the core themes of the event. Through the Women in Breakbulk Leadership Forum, the primary aim is to be able to bridge the gender gap in the breakbulk and project cargo industry.

HRH Princess Sarah Al Saud, Director of Maritime Business Development at the International Forum for Maritime Transport, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport in Alexandria asserted: The industry is male-driven and this is a known fact. However, today with women excelling in every sphere, we are seeing the trickle effect in our industry too. Over the years, the representation of women in leadership roles has drastically increased. According to Grant Thortons Women in Business 2020 report, in 2019, the proportion of women in senior management roles globally grew to 29 per cent. This goes on to show that the world and peoples mindsets are changing. I firmly believe that women have the power to not only help the industry thrive, but they can also play a huge role in the success of countries around the world. It is inspiring to see events like Breakbulk Middle East that are giving us women a platform to speak and discuss our journeys.

Noura Al Shamsi, Head of Community Engagement, The Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport Branch in Sharjah said; Having a diverse workforce changes the dynamics of the industry. Every individual, irrespective of gender brings to the table something unique. At the Academy too, we are constantly working towards encouraging young women to chase their dreams of being a part of the industry. Almost 43 per cent of our students at our Academy are women. We can proudly say that we have the highest percentage of female maritime students in the MENA region. We are hoping to bring about a change in this regard, but there is still a long way to go. And we are confident that our partnerships with events like BBME Digital Special will help us in this endeavour.

Speaking about the need for awareness about women working in the breakbulk and project cargo industry, Nicola Good, Head of Brand & External Relations, Marine & Offshore, Lloyds Register explained: The local community has a huge role to play. It is all about building awareness about the industry. People arent aware of the fact that the industry exists and that women too can work in it. This prevents us from getting people engaged in the industry. Though I must say that countries around the world and organizations like the IMO are doing their bit to ensure that women get their due credit for contributing to the growth of the industry.

Inspiring young women professionals

Women make up a mere 2 per cent of the worlds maritime workforce that includes 1.2 million seafarers. This number encompasses all aspects of shipping, ranging from seafarers and only a few top-level executives. To ensure that this figure sees an increase and more women gain recognition, platforms like Breakbulk Middle East are integral because they inspire young women who aspire to join the global maritime workforce, motivating them to work towards achieving new heights.

The Women in Breakbulk Leadership Forum will feature two sessions  The Many Paths to Female Leadership: A Career Blueprint and How Women Are Contributing to a Post-COVID Business Recovery. Both sessions will highlight topics ranging from career journeys of women leaders, womens contribution during the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of women leaders to enhance the growth of companies and more.

Ghazalah Moloobhoy, Director, Moloobhoy Marine Service LLC said, I am thrilled to be a part of Female Leadership session at Breakbulk Middle East Digital Special. The industry has ample scope for women to contribute in various roles and we must speak about it. Over the years, Breakbulk Middle East has demonstrated great support to achieve gender equality within the industry. This year, the Digital Special too has women from a multitude of sectors in the industry, who will not only share their many achievements but also dole out career advice to inspire other young women. This is what the industry is in dire need of and I feel honoured to be able to do that.

Kateryna Yakunchenkova, General Manager, Al Safina Security asserted: There has been a gradual shift and the industry has become more accepting of the fact that women are equally capable of participating in the industrys success. Companies are now becoming aware of the many changes that women can bring about with their quick thinking and problem-solving mindset. Even during a crisis, I think women are genetically engineered to be calm and composed. They have the ability to use these innate traits to benefit the organizations they work in.

Year after year, Breakbulk Middle East addressed the challenges women face and their success stories. The 2021 virtual edition will do just this yet again with a global audience. The on-demand sessions will be accessible to all from anywhere in the world.

Leslie Meredith, Marketing Director, Breakbulk Events & Media said: With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the industry witnessed a downturn. Yet when it came to Breakbulk Middle East, this year, we worked harder to ensure that our supporters dont miss out on the opportunity to hear from industry experts, both men and women. We will always support the womens cause in the industry and this year even though we are going virtual, things will not be different. We have successful women, who have achieved great feats as part of both our sessions. We are confident that our attendees will be truly motivated after participating in these sessions. Our ultimate goal is to be able to do all that we can to promote the growth of the industry.

Breakbulk Middle East Digital Special will be free for all. A detailed schedule of the event will be released soon, the statement said. Breakbulk also recently launched the Breakbulk365 program that includes engaging webinars and the BreakbulkONE Show to ensure the project cargo industry stays connected and updated on insights and regional information at all times.TradeArabia News Service
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has talked with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the importance of keeping vaccine supply chains open, as Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed Australia is on schedule to begin rolling out the Pfizer vaccine from the end of the month.

The European Union has given itself the power to block COVID-19 vaccine shipments due to supply shortages. The controls could affect shipments of the Pfizer and international AstraZeneca vaccines Australia is expecting in coming weeks.

We are on track on current advice, repeated this morning by our officials who have been working with the EU for commencement of Pfizer vaccinations beginning in late February - thats always subject to shipping and national events, Mr Hunt said during question time on Tuesday.

Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed Australias international vaccine timeline on Tuesday in Parliament. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In the Prime Ministers talks with his German counterpart on Monday night, the pair discussed the economic impact of the pandemic and compared vaccine rollout strategies. Australia has a four-phase vaccine rollout plan, which will be delivered by doctors, nurses, pharmacists and community health networks among others.
Kinshasa  The World Bank said Monday it was suspending a first tranche of USD100 million in a programme to fund free schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo over "fraud and corruption" in the country's education sector.

Directors at the development lender had signed off last year on USD800 million of funding for free primary schooling, a flagship project of President Felix Tshisekedi.

But in a report published in November, the DRC's Inspector General of Finances "revealed a number of shortcomings and alleged cases of fraud and corruption in connection with the use of public funds in the sector, as well as weaknesses in internal controls," the World Bank said in a statement.

"The disbursement scheduled for December is currently on hold, while the World Bank similarly exercises its own fiduciary responsibility," the institution added, saying it was "working closely with the Congolese authorities".

Fake invoices

In its report, the IGF said it found fake invoices, lists of teachers stuffed with fake names at non-existent schools, as well as the suspected embezzlement of 63 billion Congolese francs ($31 million).

Trade union sources told AFP that two senior civil servants in the education system singled out by the report, including the head of teachers' payroll, were in pre-trial detention.

"These two added large numbers of non-teachers to the payroll system on a regular basis," said Jean-Bosco Puna of the National Catholic Teachers' Union.

Tshisekedi's education push saw four million new pupils sign up during the 2019-20 academic year, although the coronavirus pandemic forced a pause in teaching for six months.

Schools and universities had to close for a second time in December after reopening two months before.

The free schools programme was estimated to cost USD2.6 billion when it was launched, more than one-third of the DRC's annual budget for 2021 -- even as other public goods like hospitals and roads are lacking.

Most of the DRC's 87 million people are under the age of 20.

The Indian embassy in Yangon has asked all Indian citizens residing in Myanmar to take due precautions and avoid unnecessary travel, in an advisory issued following the military coup and subsequent political developments in the country. Myanmar's powerful military grabbed power in a coup against the civilian government and imposed a state of emergency after detaining Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) in the early hours on Monday. "In view of the recent developments in Myanmar, all Indian citizens are required to take due precautions and avoid unnecessary travel," the embassy said.

"They may be in touch with the embassy, if required," it said in the advisory titled 'Message for Indian citizens residing in Myanmar in connection with the recent political scenario in Myanmar'. In its reaction to the developments in the country, India had on Monday expressed "deep concern" and said the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld in the country.

India also said it was monitoring the situation closely and that it has been steadfast in supporting the democratic transition in that country. The Myanmarese military staged the coup amid its rising friction with the ruling NLD government over the results of the November 8 general election. The NLD had registered a thumping victory in the polls. However, the military had alleged discrepancies in the electoral process.

The democratic transition in Myanmar had taken place in 2011 after decades of military rule. According to the Indian embassy, around 7,000 non resident Indians are living in Myanmar while the number of Indian origin people in that country could be in the range of 1.5-2.5 million.

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PUCL condemned the police action against Mandeep Punia and demanded that FIR filed against him be immediately withdrawn and case be closed forthwith.

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Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Delhi has condemned the filing of FIR against freelance journalist Mandeep Punia and called it scandalous.

In a statement, PUCL Delhi said, It is shocking that the Delhi police filed an FIR against Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist, and arrested him on the allegations that he had misbehaved with an SHO at Singhu Border, Delhi on the night of 30 January 2021. As per information, Punia has been carrying out the assigned task of covering protests of farmers at Singhu border for the last two months on behalf of two magazines i.e. The Caravan and JUNPUTH and hours before his arrest he had posted a Facebook Live about the violence at Singhu border on Friday which showed that how men claiming to be locals had pelted stones on the peaceful protesters in the presence of the police. He was picked up by the police and has been accused of obstructing the police in the discharge of their duties and beating police personnel. His wife claims that no information was given to his family till late night about his detention and arrest. The family came to know of his arrest only when a fellow journalist went to the police station to lodge a missing person complaint about Punia.

PUCL said that Mandeep Punia was merely carrying out his journalistic duties and trying to place before the people a truthful account of the events taking place at the protest site. It appears that the police is trying to intimidate and threaten the journalists who are trying to place the real picture of the events happening at the protest site, PUCL said, adding, Though Mandeep Punia has been granted bail, but the very FIR lodged against him is uncalled for and unwarranted. It is a blatant attack on the freedom of the Press.

PUCL condemned the police action against Mandeep Punia and demanded that FIR filed against him be immediately withdrawn and case be closed forthwith.

The statement was issued by N.D. Pancholi, Sheoraj Singh, T.S. Ahuja, Arun Maji, Shalu Nigam, Amit Srivastava, Surya Prakash, Vertika Mani on behalf of PUCL Delhi.
Calls to cast aside the Northern Ireland protocol are completely unrealistic, Simon Coveney has said adding it will not happen.

Ireland, the EU and the UK have a legal obligation in an international treaty to implement the protocol, the Foreign Affairs Minister said.

The protocol is not primarily the problem here, the problem is caused by Brexit, and the kind of Brexit Britain pursued and insisted on, because there were alternatives that would have been much easier to implement.

The EU wanted to share a customs union and a single market with the UK, that would have meant no barriers to trade. The EU was willing to support the backstop, Minister Coveney said.

The Fine Gael TD said the Irish government will look for flexibility when it comes to the movement of goods into Northern Ireland where appropriate, but said any flexibility must come from within the protocol itself.

The UK and EU are set for crunch talks with Northern Irelands leaders over mounting tensions around post-Brexit Irish Sea trading arrangements.

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UK Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic will hold a virtual meeting with First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill to discuss the ongoing furore over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Mrs Foster and senior DUP colleagues will hold a separate virtual call with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday morning ahead of the early evening engagement with Mr Gove and Mr Sefcovic.

Physical inspections on goods entering the region from Great Britain, which are required under the protocol, have been suspended amid threats and intimidation of staff.

Mr Coveney said there is a lot of tension in Northern Ireland and in Northern Irish politics in the context of the protocol at the moment.

The decision that the European Commission made on Friday has made that a lot worse.

While that decision was reversed - and would not have happened at all if there had been consultation - it certainly has triggered a political response in Northern Ireland, which makes implementation of the protocol even more difficult when you have a significant minority of politicians in the North who are saying they will not cooperate with the protocol, Mr Coveney added.

This poses real difficulties, the Minister added, coupled with the unacceptable threats to people working in Larne and Belfast Port. Mr Coveney said while the PSNI has stated it is not a wider Loyalist paramilitary issue, he admitted it was still very intimidating for workers there.

DUP politician Nigel Dodds said: I think there is a recognition across the board of the damage done as a result of the EU move.

Mr Dodds said he welcomed the fact Simon Coveney and others were now not focusing on the rigorous implementation of the protocol and are recognising the problems with it.

They were closing their eyes to it up to that point, he told Morning Ireland.

Mr Dodds said there were real economic and societal issues at stake and that the significant difficulties of implementing the protocol are now centre-stage.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein has accused the DUP of whipping up hysteria after it laid out plans aimed at undermining the Northern Ireland Protocol and warned it will not continue to act as if North-South relationships are normal.

Shortly after the DUP announced its five point plan, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed Northern Irelands place in the UK will be protected and strengthened.

It comes following the EUs move on Friday to invoke Article 16 - which allows either side to unilaterally suspend operations of the protocol if it is causing major problems - to control the export of Covid vaccines into NI. The EU later performed a U-turn on the issue.

The NI Protocol was designed to avoid the implementation of a hard border on the island of Ireland by having Northern Ireland continue to follow EU trade rules, thus creating a de-facto border down the Irish Sea, something which has angered unionists.

Issues have led to threats against staff carrying out checks at ports in the North. Inspections of goods arriving at Larne and Belfast ports were suspended on Monday and officials withdrawn after sinister graffiti and reports of intelligence-gathering on inspectors.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan held a meeting with officials over the threats on Tuesday and said, while he is concerned over signs of tension within the community recently, there is no evidence paramilitaries are behind the threats.

In a statement released yesterday evening, the DUP said the EUs actions regarding Article 16 were revealing and a very significant game-changer for those who have long opposed the NI Protocol.

A party spokesperson said the EU has demonstrated the protocol can be changed without prior consultation from the other party, that the EU Commission will act to suit its own interests, and it had lowered the threshold for triggering the mechanism.

They added Fridays actions show the arguments for the protocol advanced by the EU were not borne out of principle but rather political opportunism.

The revealing actions on Friday by the EU have caused very significant anger and harm within Northern Ireland and has compounded the notion that the EU is playing fast and loose with Northern Ireland, attempting on the one hand to require the UK Government to enforce its obligations whilst being prepared to waive elements of the Protocol when it suits the needs of the EU, the spokesperson said.

The DUP said its plan was to:

- Not participate in any North-South political engagement on issues relating to the protocol. They added DUP members cannot and will not continue to act as though relationships are normal,

- Strive for a united unionist message demanding scrapping of the arrangements,

- Attempt to build support for the anti-protocol position at Westminster; and

- Launch a parliamentary e-petition with a view to securing enough signatures to force a Commons debate on the issue.

Regarding north-south engagement, the DUPs Westminster leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told the BBC his party will not co-operate with Dublin on implementing the NI protocol for as long as it continues to harm the wellbeing and economic prosperity of Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald TD spoke with Taoiseach Micheal Martin earlier today about the situation.

"The majority of people and parties in the north opposed Brexit and worked hard over five years to secure the Irish Protocol. It protects the Good Friday Agreement and it is critical to future economic progress, she said.

"The Irish Protocol allows businesses in the north to export to Britain and the EU seamlessly, something that is of huge benefit to the north. It is critical that it is not unpicked and undermined after five weeks in operation.

"The position adopted by the DUP is reckless and is not driven by the best interests of the people of the north. I urge them to pull back.

"Now is the time for calm leadership and solutions to deal with the disruption which has arisen as a result of Brexit."

Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill hit out at the DUPs plans, stating last night: Whilst those of us are calling for calm and resolution the DUP are whipping up hysteria. Businesses do not need more uncertainty; they need stability, they need resolution to any outstanding issues. I look forward to the meeting with the EU Commission tomorrow to seek solutions.

Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister tweeted: Our commitment to the people of Northern Ireland and our Union is unshakeable. Recent EU moves have undermined the protocol & understandably provoked concern. Let me underline that, now & in the future, Northern Irelands place in the UK will be protected and strengthened.

What is needed is urgent action from the EU to resolve outstanding problems with Protocol implementation, so as to preserve the gains of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement & ensure that Northern Ireland benefits from Brexit just like every other part of our United Kingdom.

Alliance leader Naomi Long said the DUPs proposals would only bring deadlock and misery.

The DUP needs to engage with the reasons why the protocol exists  which is Brexit  and work with the rest of us on achieving mitigations, flexibilities and derogations from it, she added.
Thats likely whats going to happen with this 1963 Impala convertible, as the car looks like its been saved after many rough years only to be then parked close to a forest (or surrounded by lots of vegetation anyway) - all in the hope someone would eventually give it a second chance.Unfortunately, eBay seller marin1102 doesnt provide too many specifics about the car, so well have to stick with what the eyes can see in the photos included in the ad.The only thing were being told is that its a matching-numbers and complete project, though this is something the seller would have to inspect in person before anything else.Other than that, its pretty clear this Impala is quite a wreck, and this is the reason its likely to end up selling for less than $1,000. The highest bid at the time of writing is $560, so depending on where you live, you could end up paying more on bringing the car back home rather than on the Impala itself.The rust has clearly taken its toll on this Impala, and if you were hoping to at least get a working engine, that doesnt seem to be the case either.As expected, the engine that once powered this Impala is a mysterious unit we know nothing about, though it's worth reminding that most of the 1963 models came with 283 (4.6-liter) and 327 (5.4-liter) V8s.If youre one of the few thinking this Impala is worth a second chance, you can send your bid in the auction linked above. The car is parked in Northford, Connecticut, if youd like to inspect the car in person before spending your beer money on it.
Teraco has secured R2.5 billion in financing for the construction of its new 38MW data centre in Ekurhuleni, South Africa.

The facility is called JB4 and will be the largest data centre in Africa once it is built.

The company said these funds will be used together with its own money to finance the building of the facility.

Teraco will use the funds raised together with internally generated cash to finance the build, Teraco said.

The new transaction cements Teracos commitment to continuing investment in the regions digital infrastructure and expanding Africas largest data centre platform.

Teraco Chief Financial Officer Samuel Erwin said that the shareholders and lenders of Teraco have a long-term vision for Africas digital transformation and support its continued investment in data centre infrastructure.

He said this funding round, and continued investments in data centre construction, align with Teracos support of the South African Governments investment drive and Teracos 2020 commitment to invest billions of rand into South Africas digital infrastructure.

The funding transaction is led by Absa and includes several other large institutions, Teraco said.

Absa has continued along the growth path with Teraco. Their understanding of our business model and funding requirements and ability to offer tailored funding solutions to suit our needs has contributed to Teracos success Erwin said.

Teraco said it is investing in delivering resilient and highly flexible infrastructure that offers businesses the ability to scale as network strategies evolve to secure a competitive advantage in their industries.

Organisations working to accelerate their digital transformation utilise Teraco to scale their IT infrastructure, adopt hybrid and multi-cloud architectures and interconnect with strategic business partners within the Platform Teraco ecosystem of over 600 global and local clients, Teraco said.

Teracos data centre infrastructure and platform offer a direct private connection to leading cloud providers, allowing companies to deploy public, private, and hybrid cloud strategies with complete freedom of choice, the company said.

Phase one of the JB4 data centre is scheduled to be completed in Q1 2022 and the entire data centre will require a total investment of $250 million (R4 billion) to complete.

Images of what the new data centre development will look like after it is completed are shown below.

Teraco JB4 Data Centre
The Boston Red Sox have announced their spring training camp will begin Feb. 17. Games at JetBlue Park will be at approximately 24% capacity. No fans will be allowed to attend workouts on the backfields because of COVID-19.

In previous years, fans could attend workouts for free.

The equipment truck will leave Fenway Park for Fort Myers on Feb. 8. But the Red Sox are asking fans not to gather outside Fenway on Truck Day or at JetBlue Park when the truck arrives there.

Per a press release, The Red Sox will implement appropriate physical distancing and safety protocols that will allow fans to return in a limited capacity for 2021 Spring Training exhibition games by operating JetBlue Park at approximately 24 percent of its normal capacity (around 2,400 fans each game; regular seating capacity is 9,909). All tickets will be sold in physically distanced pods comprised primarily of 2-4 seats that will allow for at least 6 feet between groups. Season Ticket Holders will be offered the first opportunity to attend exhibition games and additional tickets may go on sale to the general public depending on availability.

The Red Sox will hold their first workout for pitchers and catchers Feb. 17. The first full-squad workout will take place February 22.

Bostons first spring training game is scheduled for Feb. 27, at JetBlue Park against the Pirates. The exhibition game against Northeastern on Feb. 26 has been canceled.

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The mayor of Sudbury, Ont., is calling for highway checkpoints that would discourage non-essential travel to northern Ontario as more cases of highly infectious COVID-19 variants are detected in the province.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau adjusts the microphones for Brian Bigger, Mayor of Sudbury, as he speaks during an event in Sudbury, Ont. Thursday April 7, 2016. Bigger is calling for stronger travel rules to control the spread of COVID-19 in northern Ontario. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The mayor of Sudbury, Ont., is calling for highway checkpoints that would discourage non-essential travel to northern Ontario as more cases of highly infectious COVID-19 variants are detected in the province.

Brian Bigger said he plans to reach out to the provincial government and other local leaders about a proposed "northern bubble" to help curb the spread of the virus in the region where case rates are lower, but have been on the rise over the last month.

"We are in the middle of winter and at a crossroads in this pandemic," Bigger said in a statement.

"To remain safe, we need to insulate our city for a short amount of time and by any means necessary stop the spread of the COVID-19 variant that is creeping north."

Bigger said he wants to see a plan that will "stop or stymie traffic" up Highway 69, a major highway connecting northern and southern Ontario, noting that travel has been a major driver of cases in the region.

"Now is not the time for casual tourism," he said in the statement issued Monday. "We have seen the tragic consequences of travel in our city and it must stop immediately."

The province reported 97 active cases of COVID-19 in the health unit for Sudbury and the surrounding area as of Tuesday.

Last weekend, the local public health announced two deaths due to the virus, for a total of nine deaths in the region since the pandemic began.

Bigger said the spread of a variant that first emerged in the U.K. is particularly concerning given that it is "creeping north" and has been linked to a number of outbreaks in the Simcoe-Muskoka region.

He argued that the idea of travel checkpoints isnt unreasonable, pointing to a similar initiative in Quebec last fall meant to discourage non-essential travel.

The provincial government said Tuesday, however, that it's not considering highway checkpoints as a pandemic measure.

A spokesman for the solicitor general's office said a stay-at-home order issued last month to control COVID-19 infections already discourages non-essential travel.

"Our government and Ontarios medical experts have been clear, people should not be travelling to different parts of the province, and should stay home except for essential reasons," Stephen Warner said in a statement.

Any future measures will be decided upon after consultation with the government's team of expert public health officials, he said.

The idea of implementing travel rules within Ontario has been floated in different parts of the province over the last week as cases of the new variants have climbed.

Toronto's medical officer of health said last week that idea is "worth considering," though it would depend on the findings of ongoing studies.

Public Health Ontario is scaling up testing and tracing for three variants that have emerged in different parts of the world.

Ontario has so far reported 109 confirmed cases of the variant that originated in the U.K., though regional health officials have said they believe the number is higher.

The province on Monday also recorded its first case of a variant that originated in South Africa. The Peel Region resident infected in that case had no known link to travel.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2021.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 17:13:33|Editor: huaxia

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WINDHOEK, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's health sector remains intact and cabinet has begun working in earnest to ensure that the most vulnerable citizens will soon get access to much-needed COVID-19 vaccines, the country's President Hage Geingob said Tuesday.

"All avenues will be exhausted when it comes to safeguarding the health of Namibians," he said at an official opening of cabinet on Tuesday.

According to Geingob, COVID-19 has brought untold destruction to Namibia.

"Lives have been lost prematurely, many Namibians are in hospital and have had their health compromised, our economy has suffered adverse effects, and we have been forced to adapt our lives in ways that have affected us physically, psychologically and spiritually," he added.

Despite the gloomy circumstances, Geingob said the government, in conjunction with development partners, the private sector and citizens, has worked tirelessly over the past several months to fight the war against the invisible enemy, COVID-19.

Namibia has recorded 34,168 cumulative confirmed cases and 353 deaths since the outbreak in the nation. Enditem
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The global Analog Cheese Market report offers a comprehensive analysis of current trends and future opportunities. This report is responsible for quantitative estimation and foreseen future for upcoming years based on the recent companies strategic moves and historical data. Further, the market report is categorized into different segments, regions, and countries level. This report also provides competitor analysis with its market share and developments.

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According to this latest study, the 2020 growth of Analog Cheese will have significant changes from the previous year. By the most conservative estimates of global Analog Cheese market size (a most likely outcome) will be a year-over-year revenue growth rate of xx% in 2020, from US$ xx million in 2019. Over the next five years, the Analog Cheese market will register an xx% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ xx million by 2025.

This Analog Cheese market report also splits the market by regions: Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), APAC (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain), Middle East & Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, GCC Countries).

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The key manufacturers covered in this report: Breakdown data in Chapter 3.

Follow Your Heart

Daiya

Tofutti

Heidi Ho

Kite Hill

Dr. Cow Tree Nut Cheese

Uhrenholt A/S

Bute Island Foods

Vtopian Artisan Cheeses

Punk Rawk Labs

Violife

Parmela Creamery

Treeline Treenut Cheese

Others

To inquire about report customization, feel free to reach out to our team of expert analysts @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/ask-questions-31790

This study considers the Analog Cheese value and volume generated from the sales of the following segments:

Segmentation by type: breakdown data from 2016 to 2021, in Section 2.3; and forecast to 2026 in section 11.7.

Soy Cheese

Cashew Cheese

Others

Segmentation by application: breakdown data from 2016 to 2021, in Section 2.4; and forecast to 2026 in section 11.8.

Catering

Ingredients

Retail

In addition, this report discusses the key drivers influencing market growth, opportunities, challenges, and the risks faced by key manufacturers and the market as a whole. It also analyzes key emerging trends and their impact on present and future development.

Purchase the Complete Global Analog Cheese Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-31790

Research Objectives

To study and analyze the global Analog Cheese consumption (value & volume) by key regions/countries, type and application, history data from 2016 to 2021, and forecast to 2026.

To understand the structure of the Analog Cheese market by identifying its various subsegments.

Focuses on the key global Analog Cheese manufacturers, to define, describe, and analyze the sales volume, value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in the next few years.

To analyze the Analog Cheese with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market.

To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).

To project the consumption of Analog Cheese submarkets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries).

To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.

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DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research report provider, enriching decision-makers, and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research reports, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.

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Reference Source:

https://www.topnewscorner.com/analog-cheese-market-study-by-observing-top-players-trends-forecast-till-2026/
New Delhi, Feb 2 : Ahead of the Assembly polls in West Bengal, the Congress is going to hold divisional workers' meets to take feedback from them and strengthen the organisational set up in the state.

The central observers of the party are scheduled to reach Kolkata on February 6 in this connection.

The party's in-charge for West Bengal, Jitin Prasada, said, "We have decided to divide the state into five zones and prepare for the elections zone wise." The meetings will start after mid-February and all the district committees have been asked to prepare for the same.

With the BJP proposing to take out five 'yatras' in the poll-bound state, the Congress' plan is to counter the saffron party by holding workers' meets to reach out to the people directly.

Central observer of the Congress, B.K. Hariprasad, and other observers will reach West Bengal on February 6 and start meeting the committees responsible for the Assembly elections from February 7.

The Congress has missed the seat sharing deadline, which was January 31. The party is now pressing its state unit to finalise the seat sharing agreement so that the preparations for the elections could be started immediately.

The Congress has authorised the state alliance committee headed by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for the purpose.

The Congress in West Bengal is engaged in seat sharing talks with the Left parties for the upcoming polls. Sources privy to the talks on the seat sharing agreement said that the Congress' main focus will be on quality of seats and not quantity of seats, unlike in Bihar where the party contested too many seats but won only 19 .

The Congress has set up a committee to chalk out a seat sharing agreement with the Left parties, which includes Chowdhury, Abdul Mannan, Pradeep Bhattacharya and Nepal Mahato.

The committee has identified the strong seats and is talking to the Left with all the prospects on the table. One of the panel members said, "We are focusing on the strong seats only." Congress sources said that the results of the Bihar Assembly polls will not have a bearing on West Bengal as every state is different. In the 2016 Assembly elections, the Left had contested more seats but it was the Congress which came second with 44 seats.

The Congress and the Left face a tough challenge this time as the BJP in the last five years has placed itself as the main opposition party in Bengal, winning 18 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019 while the Left could not even open its account in the state which it once ruled for over three decades.

The 294-member West Bengal Assembly will go to the polls around May. While the Trinamool Congress has the challenge to retain power, the Congress also has to gain ground in the state.
For months, the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba has been reporting alarming COVID-19 numbers.

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For months, the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba has been reporting alarming COVID-19 numbers.

There are a reported 2,780 cases of COVID-19 in First Nations people, while the province reports 3,466 active cases overall.

Finally, yesterday, the provincial government and the secretariat got together to speak to Manitobans.

Long before the pandemic arrived in the province, it was predicted First Nations would be hit hard. This has come to pass. First Nations make up more than 50 per cent of COVID cases in Manitoba.

Dr. Marcia Anderson, public health lead for the Manitoba First Nation Pandemic Response and Co-ordination Team, joined Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead for Manitobas Vaccination Implementation Task Force, on Monday to address these facts.

Both doctors explained the steps being taken to protect First Nations, such as the dedicated program for Moderna vaccines being sent to First Nations.

But what many Manitobans do not understand are the conditions on reserves that might lead to higher numbers. For example, what does overcrowding in households actually mean?

Anderson noted that overcrowding doesnt just happen on reserves  it is also an urban reality. But regardless of the setting, Indigenous people are more prone to develop respiratory illnesses.

"Over the long term, what weve seen in previous respiratory illness outbreaks, for example, H1N1, is because viruses are spread more easily when youre in closer contact with people, the more people you have in any space, especially a home, the more that virus is going to spread," said Anderson.

"Every year, we see more influenza amongst First Nations people. And, when we saw more HIN1, we still have ongoing tuberculosis outbreaks in First Nation and Inuit communities, that is largely driven by overcrowded, inadequate housing and then worsened by other factors, like income insecurity, food insecurity, higher rates of underlying chronic illnesses."

Anderson said that during COVID-19 one measure that should be noted is the secondary attack rate.

"This is the percentage of close contacts to a case of COVID-19 who go on to become a case. So, the percentage of people who are close contacts who become cases is over 40 per cent. And, in general, this has been closer to 10 per cent for the rest of the province."

Anderson talked about single households with one bathroom, with two or three bedrooms, with 12 to 20 people living in that space.

"I think if we want to imagine the provinces usual advice, which is a best-case scenario, have a private bedroom and have a private bathroom to isolate when youre in the double digits in a single-bathroom household, that is going to be almost impossible," said Anderson.

"And that is what drives a lot of the spread that we see in First Nations communities."

 mletourneau@brandonsun.com

 Michele LeTourneau covers Indigenous matters for The Brandon Sun under the Local Journalism Initiative, a federally funded program that supports the creation of original civic journalism.

The COVID-19 update from the province on Monday saw three additional deaths listed, none in PMH.

The province reported 89 new cases, but two cases were removed due to data corrections, bringing the new case total to 87.

The new cases are as follows:

 22 cases in the InterlakeEastern health region;

 42 cases in the Northern health region;

 three cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region;

 four cases in the Southern HealthSante Sud health region; and

 18 cases in the Winnipeg health region.

The five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate was 7.9 per cent in the province, and 4.9 per cent in Winnipeg.

Lab-confirmed cases in Manitoba total 29,651, with 83 deaths.

The province reports 3,466 active cases and individuals who have recovered total a reported 25,353.

The province also reported 104 people are in hospital with active COVID-19, as well as 151 people in hospital with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require care, for a total of 255 hospitalizations.

Twenty-seven people are in intensive care units with active COVID-19, as well as 11 people with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require critical care, for a total of 38 ICU patients.

In the PMH region, there are a reported 169 active cases, with 1,760 recovered. There are five active cases hospitalized, and seven people hospitalized who are no longer infectious. There are two patients in ICU. The region has seen 51 deaths.

Brandons active case count is 37, with 906 recovered and 21 deaths.

Sunday, 1,603 tests were completed, for a total of 478,810 since February, 2020.

 Source: Province of Manitoba
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 21:35:10|Editor: huaxia

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Afghan security force members stand at a security checkpoint after armed clashes on the outskirts of Kunduz city, capital of Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province, Feb. 2, 2021. Four soldiers and three militants were killed during armed clashes on the outskirts of Kunduz city, capital of Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province early Tuesday, authorities confirmed. (Photo by Ajmal Kakar/Xinhua)
HARRISBURG  Gov. Tom Wolf will move his annual budget address to Wednesday, amid a snowstorm that was prompting restrictions on highways across Pennsylvania and the cancelation of legislative hearings and sessions, his office said.

The release of Wolfs budget proposal and his address had been scheduled for Tuesday.

Pennsylvania governors typically deliver their messages about state spending plans and priorities on the Tuesday in the first full week of February.

In 2005, then-Gov. Ed Rendell asked House and Senate leaders to push back his speech a day to so it would not conflict with him and others returning from the Philadelphia Eagles appearance in the Super Bowl or a potential Eagles victory parade.

Legislative leaders agreed to the request, but the Eagles lost that year.

In any case, the setting for Wolfs seventh budget address will be unusual because of the pandemic.

Wolf will deliver the address  usually 30 or 40 minutes long  by a pre-recorded video instead of speaking in-person to a joint session of the House and Senate.

Lawmakers will not join each other in a joint session, but plan to watch the video on screens in their respective chambers, or from home, since many may not travel in the snow and others routinely join floor sessions remotely to protect themselves during the pandemic.
This schematic representation shows the new structure: nickel oxide stripes run perpendicular to the actual material, serving as a passing lane for the electrons. Credit: Lutz Muhlenbein

A new method for constructing special solar cells could significantly increase their efficiency. Not only are the cells made up of thin layers, they also consist of specifically arranged nanoblocks. This has been shown in a new study by an international research team led by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), which was published in the scientific journal Nano Letters.

Commercially available solar cells are mostly made of silicon. "Based on the properties of silicon it's not feasible to say that their efficiency can be increased indefinitely," says Dr. Akash Bhatnagar, a physicist from the Centre for Innovation Competence (ZIK) "SiLi-nano" at MLU. His research team is therefore studying the so-called anomalous photovoltaic effect which occurs in certain materials. The anomalous photovoltaic effect does not require a p-n junction which otherwise enables the flow of current in silicon solar cells. The direction of the current is determined at the atomic level by the asymmetric crystal structure of the corresponding materials. These materials are usually oxides, which have some crucial advantages: they are easier to manufacture and significantly more durable. However, they often do not absorb much sunlight and have a very high electrical resistance. "In order to utilize these materials and their effect, creative cell architectures are needed that reinforce the advantages and compensate for the disadvantages," explains Lutz Muhlenbein, lead author of the study.

In their new study, the physicists introduced a novel cell architecture, a so-called nanocomposite. They were supported by teams from the Bergakademie Freiberg, the Leibniz Institute of Surface Modification in Leipzig and Banaras Hindu University in India. In their experiment, the researchers stacked single layers of a typical material only a few nanometres in thickness on top of one another and offset them with nickel oxide strips running perpendicularly. "The strips act as a fast lane for the electrons that are generated when sunlight is converted into electricity and which are meant to reach the electrode in the solar cell," Bhatnagar explains. This is precisely the transport that would otherwise be impeded by the electrons having to traverse each individual horizontal layer.

The new architecture actually increased the cell's electrical output by a factor of five. Another advantage of the new method is that it is very easy to implement. "The material forms this desired structure on its own. No extreme external conditions are needed to force it into this state," says Muhlenbein. The idea, for which the researchers have now provided an initial feasibility study, could also be applied to materials other than nickel oxide. Follow-up studies now need to examine if and how such solar cells can be produced on an industrial scale.

Explore further New study reveals secrets to solar success

More information: Lutz Muhlenbein et al, Nanocomposites with Three-Dimensional Architecture and Impact on Photovoltaic Effect, Nano Letters (2020). Journal information: Nano Letters Lutz Muhlenbein et al, Nanocomposites with Three-Dimensional Architecture and Impact on Photovoltaic Effect,(2020). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c03654

Provided by Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg
Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG executives ignored warnings from colleagues about troubled steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta as they channeled $1.2 billion of client funds to his businesses, according to people familiar with the matter.Bankers in Credit Suisses commodity trade-finance unit blacklisted Guptas Liberty Commodities Ltd. in 2016 because they suspected some of its deals werent legitimate, the people said. When they learned about two years later that the bank was lending to his companies through a suite of investment funds, which eventually grew to $10 billion, they flagged their worries to leaders in compliance and the division that housed the loans, one of the people said.The disclosure that Credit Suisse may have put clients at risk despite internal concerns over Guptas businesses adds a new twist to the debacle stemming from the March implosion of Greensill Capital, the finance firm at the center of the three-way relationship.Investigations, LawsuitsThe U.K. Serious Fraud Office is now investigating Guptas group of companies for suspected fraud, including in its financing deals with Greensill, according to a May 14 statement. Credit Suisse has sued to force Guptas Liberty Commodities into insolvency and has since shut the funds that made the loans and launched an internal investigation. Investors are staring at losses as the bank confronts embarrassing lawsuits.We are currently focusing our efforts on recovering our investors money, Will Bowen, a spokesman for Credit Suisse in London, said in an emailed statement, adding that the banks internal probe will focus on all of the issues linked to the funds. We are committed to learning the lessons and will share the relevant lessons learnt at the appropriate time.Andrew Mitchell, a spokesman for the Gupta Family Group Alliance, or GFG Alliance, a collective of businesses linked to Gupta including Liberty Commodities, denied any wrongdoing.The Greensill saga represents just one of the two disasters that rocked Credit Suisse in the first half of 2021. Since Greensill began unraveling, the bank has announced a $5.5 billion hit from the blowup at Archegos Capital Management.ApologiesFormer Chairman Urs Rohner apologized to shareholders and his successor, Antonio Horta-Osorio, who arrived at the end of April, has promised a sweeping strategy review.Chief Executive Officer Thomas Gottstein, who was head of the division that oversaw trade finance, wasnt aware of the internal concerns about Gupta that had prompted the bank to cut him off, according to a person familiar with the matter.Employees at the trade-finance unit, which lends money for the buying and selling of commodities, cut ties with Gupta in 2016 after becoming skeptical toward his Liberty Commodities, the people said. They distrusted the documents the company provided, triggering doubts about its transactions, they said. In one example reported by Bloomberg, the company had presented another bank with what seemed to be duplicate shipping receipts. Credit Suisses commodity team had stopped working with Gupta after identifying suspicious shipments while the banks credit-structuring team lobbied against the Greensill funds, the Wall Street Journal reported in April.A spokesman for Gupta has denied any wrongdoing.Banking TiesLiberty Commodities pledged assets to Credit Suisse as security for borrowings in 2013 but by early 2016, all such commitments had been extinguished, indicating that the financing relationship had ceased, U.K. Companies House filings show. And while Guptas company listed the Swiss bank as one of its lenders in its 2014 annual report, it didnt in the following years report, which is dated May 2016, according to the filings.Their counterparts at other banks, including Macquarie Group Ltd. and Sberbank PJSC, halted trading with Liberty Commodities around the same time because of similar concerns; Goldman Sachs Group Inc. also stopped in 2016, Bloomberg has reported.Nevertheless, executives at Credit Suisses asset-management division -- which creates investment products for clients and charges a fee for overseeing them -- began arranging a suite of funds focused on supply-chain finance in 2017. The entities bought securitized loans packaged by Greensill, a firm created by Australian businessman Lex Greensill. Much of the debts were linked to Guptas businesses.WarningsOfficials at the commodity trade-finance unit were concerned when they found out about the funds links to Gupta and took their fears to Thomas Grotzer, general counsel for the banks Swiss division. They also warned Luc Mathys and Lukas Haas, the bankers who helped oversee the trades at the asset-management unit.Grotzer was promoted last month to interim global head of compliance at Credit Suisse. He didnt respond to requests for comment. Mathys, head of fixed-income at the asset-management division, and Haas, a portfolio manager, were put on temporary leave in March. Neither responded to requests for comment.The bank pushed ahead with the funds and marketed them to investors as being made up of short-term debt secured on invoices, assets considered so safe that Credit Suisse gave the largest vehicle its lowest rating for risk. Yet part of the loans were linked to mere possible future revenues.Other parts of the bank continued working with Gupta as well. Credit Suisses investment bankers were due to lead an initial public offering for Libertys U.S. steel arm, which was ultimately pulled, according to a statement from the company. Gupta also announced that the Swiss bank would finance his planned acquisition of Thyssenkrupp AGs steel unit, which fell apart earlier this year.Credit Suisse has so far recouped about $5.9 billion of the $10 billion in these supply-chain funds, but it remains unclear how much will be returned ultimately to investors. Loans to Guptas businesses are among a batch of debts that are the principal sources of valuation uncertainty, the bank said earlier this month.Liberty Commoditiess external legal advisors investigated alleged rumors concerning the paperwork it used in 2019, according to Mitchell, the spokesman for GFG Alliance. They found no evidence to substantiate the rumors, nor was the company ever subject to further complaints or proceedings, he said.LCL has ongoing banking relationships with separate financial institutions, Mitchell said, referring to Liberty Commodities. The trade-finance market has been hugely challenging for all but the very largest commodities traders in recent years. Nevertheless, no financial institution has been left out of pocket as a result of lending money to LCL. On the contrary, they have received substantial commercial returns.More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.
analysis

The Central African Republic will struggle to emerge out of the cycle of violence until there is serious international commitment to end it.

On January 4, the incumbent president of the Central African Republic (CAR), Faustin-Archange Touadera, was re-elected for a second term after the country's electoral commission announced he defeated 16 other candidates and garnered 53.9 percent of the vote, enough to render a runoff unnecessary.

The elections have generated an upsurge in violence triggered following the Constitutional Court's rejection of former President Francois Bozize's candidacy on December 3. The court cited his failure to meet the constitution's "good morality" requirement due to an international warrant and UN sanctions against him for his alleged involvement in assassinations, torture and other crimes during his tenure.

Following the announcement, Bozize joined a coalition of armed groups, the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), some of whom were formerly part of the Seleka coalition which toppled him in 2013. They launched attacks on several towns outside of Bangui in an effort to force an election postponement and initiative a new round of peace talks.

Over the course of December, hundreds of civilians died, 30,000 were forced to flee into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while another 185,000 were internally displaced. Three UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSCA) peacekeepers lost their lives in the violence.

To help quell the violence, the CAR requested additional military assistance from Rwanda and Russia. Both sent troops and supplies in support of the Central African Armed Forces (FACA), while France carried out flyover missions in the days preceding elections. CAR prosecutors have launched an investigation into Bozize, who is accused of plotting the alleged coup.

Violence has escalated further since the announcement of Touadera's victory, with most of the opposition calling for the election results to be annulled citing voting irregularities and the fact that instability prevented many from casting their ballot. On January 13, the CPC launched a coordinated attack on the outskirts of Bangui before being pushed back by MINUSCA in fighting which killed one Rwandan soldier and several CPC fighters.

The election, which is only the second in the country's history, was supposed to be an important milestone. However, this new round of violence has laid bare the deep flaws in the peace process and threatens to undo the tentative progress made towards stability since the signing of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in February 2019.

If urgent action is not taken by international and regional actors to both address flaws in the peace process as well as some of the country's deep structural drivers of conflict, the CAR could slip into civil war in the coming months.

A cycle of violence

Since gaining independence from France in 1960, the CAR's political history has been punctuated by military rule, rebellion, and multiple coups against a backdrop of state disintegration, deep interethnic cleavages, and high levels of intercommunal conflict. The violence which was seen before, during, and following the December election is not unique, it is instead merely the latest expression of this long-running conflict.

Former President Bozize seized power in a 2003 coup before being removed in 2013 by the Seleka: a coalition of predominantly Muslim armed groups, at least some of whom represented communities in northern CAR, who have historically been politically and economically disenfranchised. Following the rebellion, an opposing association of local Christian and animist self-defence groups, the "Anti-balaka", engaged in retaliatory attacks, which escalated to the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population.

In the following years, the country was plagued by violence despite efforts to restore stability, including the deployment of a 12,800-strong UN peacekeeping force. After a two-year transition led by a temporary government, the CAR returned to constitutional democracy with the election of Touadera in February 2016.

The new president continued to engage in dialogue with former Seleka and Anti-balaka armed groups, who had by this time fragmented and reconfigured. In February 2019, the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation was signed between the government and the country's 14 main armed groups.

Despite the political agreement, as well as the deployment of MINUSCA peacekeeping forces, the conflict has continued. The 2020 UN Panel of Experts' assessment of the political agreement reported hundreds of violations and noted the continued exchange of accusations of reneged commitments by both the government and armed groups.

Since 2013, it is estimated that of the country's population of roughly five million, about one in five people have been internally or externally displaced, thus creating the world's highest humanitarian caseload per capita.

Outsourcing governance

There are a number of structural issues that keep the CAR trapped within a cycle of conflict and underdevelopment. Multiple peace agreements have failed to address these deeper realities, and some have, at times, contributed to incentivising those who benefit from instability.

As outlined by Louisa Lombard, professor of anthropology at Yale University, rather than develop local government administration, French colonial officials leased the CAR's territories to private companies to run at their own profit or loss and to strike deals with local tribes to provide labour and security.

This system has effectively continued post-independence, whereby political elites in Bangui with little capacity, experience, or interest in extending governance beyond the capital, grant mining concessions to a range of international actors who rely on private military companies (PMCs) to facilitate transport and security without building out local government or infrastructure.

Basic services are mostly outsourced to the UN, European Union, and international NGOs and due to multiple coups, and in particular, Bozize's efforts to reduce the army to a presidential guard] to ward against coups, the state does not have a monopoly on the use of force in most of its territory.

Security has been privatised in a chaotic way by local leaders, clans, and militias, leaving communities to essentially fend for themselves. It has also provided ample opportunity for non-state actors to develop criminal enterprises in order to exploit the country's vast natural resources.

Today, armed groups control most territory outside of the capital and there is little in the way of a social contract between citizen and state.

Militarisation of politics and peacemaking

In a closed political system, comprised of a small political elite in Bangui, violence has become a tried and tested route to power. Rebel leaders cycle between armed groups, which serve both as a vehicle for illicit criminal activity as well as helping to guarantee them a place on the political chessboard when the incitement of enough chaos forces the government into a political dialogue.

The state has a history of incentivising this behaviour by co-opting rebel leaders during political settlements in the interest of creating temporary peace, thereby rewarding those who make a living out of provoking insecurity. Most major peace agreements since 1997 have awarded government positions to rebel leaders.

The 2019 Political Agreement was no different. Like previous peace deals, it provided the leaders of signatory armed groups government posts. For example, three of them gained positions as "Special Military Advisors" to the prime minister to oversee the creation of Special Mixed Security Units (USMS) comprised of armed group combatants and Central African state forces.

After disagreements regarding the pay and titles of former combatants within the new USMS units, two of the three special military advisers - who are also leaders of the country's two strongest armed groups - resigned, while the third used his status to continue the operations of his armed group and expand his territorial control.

Last month's election was an attempt to move the country towards a more orderly political settlement, whereby leaders would represent a political base and have popular support to hold office. The armed groups can no longer be said to represent communities' grievances and are widely despised by citizens. They are therefore reluctant to transform into legitimate political parties and by disrupting the elections, hope to return the CAR to a state where, as political-military entrepreneurs, they can find themselves a seat at the table.

A playground for foreign actors

Adding complexity to finding a lasting political solution to the conflict in the CAR are the large number of international and regional actors who have interests and influence in the country. Over the last 10 years, Chad, Angola, and most recently Sudan, have all played host to political negotiations between armed groups and the CAR government - each driven by their own geostrategic interests. The porous borders between the CAR and its neighbours have allowed for ethnic groups having strong cultural allegiance and economic ties outside of the country.

In recent years, Russia has stepped up efforts to support Touadera's government through the Wagner Group: a private security company closely connected to the Kremlin and often used by the Russian state as a proxy force when plausible deniability is necessary. The head of the Wagner Group in the CAR was appointed national security adviser, affords President Touadera personal protection services, and provides some training to FACA.

Russian interests in the CAR seem to be both financial (acquiring access to diamonds, gold, and other mining contracts) and part of the country's wider strategy in Africa, aimed at countering American influence and gaining greater African support for Russian initiatives at the UN.

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France, which has historical ties with the CAR, and contemporary economic and security interests in the country, continues to push back against Russian influence. Ahead of last month's elections, rival French and Russian disinformation campaigns that sought to influence internet users in the CAR emerged.

Facebook released a statement saying it had suspended over 100 accounts and pages for "coordinated inauthentic behaviour" linked to the CAR. One network was linked to "individuals associated with French military", while another two had connections to "individuals associated with past activity by the Russian Internet Research Agency" as well as Russian businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group.

Charting a way forward

Escalating insecurity in the CAR calls for a thorough review of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in order to determine whether it remains a relevant road map for peace and stability. If armed groups continue to refuse to transform into legitimate actors and can simply instigate violence as a means of political manoeuvring with little repercussion, a negotiated political process seems unlikely to work in the long term.

At the very least, MINUSCA should be strengthened and their mandate revised so they can take a more aggressive posture against those armed groups that continue to act as spoilers to peace. A more concerted effort is also required to train, equip, and expand the CAR's armed forces to the point where state authority may be reinstalled across wider regions of the country.

The international community must also face the reality that without significant investment in the economic development of the CAR, the country may not ever be able to rise out of the cycle of conflict and poverty. This will require international community and influential regional actors to raise the interests of the CAR above their own and work together in a transparent manner to support sustainable peace efforts.

The African Union (AU) should use the CAR's recent election as a case study in developing a typology of online disinformation strategies and countermeasures, in order to counter future attempts by foreign actors to influence African elections through online disinformation campaigns.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.

To read the original article, click HERE
Javed Akhtar had filed the complaint of defamation against Kangana Ranaut in November last year, after which the Andheri metropolitan magistrate had directed the Juhu police to conduct an inquiry into the complaint in December.

Actor Kangana Ranaut has been summoned by a metropolitan magistrates court in Mumbai on the basis of a complaint filed by lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar.

The summon notice was issued on Monday after the city police informed the court that further probe was required into the alleged offence of defamation. Akhtar was also present in the court and lawyer Niranjan Mundergi presented arguments on his behalf. Thereafter, the Andheri court issued a process against Ranaut for offences under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) pertaining to defamation.

According to NDTV, Akhtar had filed the complaint of defamation against Ranaut in November last year, after which the Andheri metropolitan magistrate had directed the Juhu police to conduct an inquiry into the complaint in December, 2020.

The police submitted its report on Monday that said the allegations are made out for further investigation. Magistrate RR Khan issued notices to the actor after going through the report. Ranaut is yet to respond to the summon.

Ranaut can take two courses of action. She can either challenge the courts order summoning her or appear before it and deny the charges made against her. As per the law, the court will then proceed with the trial accordingly and Akhtar can be called in to face cross-examination by Ranaut.

Akhtar had said in his complaint to the court that Ranaut had appeared in an interview for a national media channel and said things that have damaged his reputation. Her defamatory statements were alleged to be a clear campaign to malign and tarnish the reputation of the complainant [Akhtar] in the eyes of the general public.

The actor had mentioned Akhtars name while talking about the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the lyricist alleged, saying she was giving her opinion on his death without appearing to have any direct personal knowledge of the circumstances around his death.
In Bengaluru for 2021, which his ministry has billed as Asias most prestigious air show, Defence Minister on Tuesday inaugurated a second production line at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) that will boost its capacity to build the Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA).



With HAL currently discharging an order for 20 Tejas Mark 1 fighters and poised to sign a Rs 45,000 crore contract with the Indian Air Force (IAF) to build 83 Tejas Mark 1A fighters, the new production line doubles HALs capacity from eight to 16 Tejas fighters each year.



HALs new LCA facility is an example of how Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) is shaping [up] and HAL deserves the largest indigenous order of 83 LCA Mark IA The fighter is superior in many ways when compared to others fighters in its category besides being cost effective, said the defence minister.



The Aatmanirbhar Bharat theme is set to dominate the truncated, three-day 2021 which Rajnath will inaugurate on Wednesday. One reason is the reluctance of foreign policymakers, industry chiefs, pilots and technicians to travel to India, given the uncertainty over the Covid-19 situation here.



Even as larger, more globally-recognised air shows, such as the Paris Air Show, have cancelled for this year, has ploughed ahead, notwithstanding the risk of exacerbating the pandemic.



Addressing the media in Bengaluru on Tuesday, he painted this as a triumph, claiming that holding 2021 was a display of Indias indomitable will.



Defence ministry official Anurag Bajpai claimed that this was the worlds first hybrid air show, where virtual seminars were being conducted on-line, even as flying displays were enthralling spectators on the ground.



At the site of the Aero India 2021 show in Yelahanka Air Base, outside Bengaluru, there was a subdued atmosphere, uncharacteristic of the day before an air show. Missing was the usual roar of jet engines and spectators craning their necks to see the aerobatics displays performed by flying display teams from different countries. This was especially true in previous editions of Aero India, when global aerospace vendors competed fiercely in back-to-back aerobatics displays with the aim of catching the eye of Indian decision-makers.



This time there will be just three countries participating in flying displays: India, Ukraine and the US. It is left to the Indian Air Force (IAF) and HAL to thrill the spectators with fighter and helicopter aerobatics.



Indian defence manufacturers, especially defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs), the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) have been told by the defence ministry to participate in strength, with each of their units presenting themselves as individual entities. That has allowed the defence ministry to claim record breaking participation, with 522 Indian firms participating compared to 238 in Aero India 2019.



However, the number of foreign companies and delegations has dropped markedly: There are just 78 foreign firms participating this time, compared to 165 in Aero India 2019.



Strict Covid-19 guidelines have been imposed on all visitors to the show. Participants are required to obtain pre-approval for entry, based on a negative RT-PCR test carried out by a government-recognised laboratory on, or after, February 1.



For Bengalurus public, which throngs the traditional public day of every Aero India show, this year will be a disappointment.



There are only three business days this year and the public days have been cancelled.
analysis

Chris Hani has a unique place in liberation history, a martyr not dissimilar to Che Guevara, and like Guevara, his qualities tend to be lost in the romantic fervour that attaches to his name. It is important that we clearly identify the qualities of Hani that won him great respect, as we advance models of leadership for people to emulate.

This article first appeared on Creamer Media's website: polity.org.za

"We have always lived the ANC in our camps. We have dreamt about the ANC. There was no other life for us except the African National Congress. Let us make it a strong organisation. Let us build our Party because it is the alliance of the ANC and the Party which made the army what it is." - Extract from an undated speech by Chris Hani addressing an uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) camp in exile, transcribed from a video given to the author by Zeph Makgetla, formerly head of the ANC video unit.

I do not know many people in the ANC or SACP who would speak like this, as Hani did in addressing an MK camp. He often expressed himself passionately and often used words like dream or love (notably when...

A suckler herd of Limousin cows and calves including some Angus and Simmental

Regulation on the definition of a genuine farmer remains under negotiation at EU level and Ireland  like all member states  is contributing to the final text which will be incorporated into the looming CAP Strategic Plan.

To date the Department of Agriculture has contended that any definition of a genuine farmer should recognise the role of pluri-active and part-time farmers in the Irish context and that it should not place an undue administrative burden on farmers.

Ahead of the final text, expected this June, farm organisation views on the wording of the definition have been sought by the Department.

The president of ICMSA says a genuine farmer definition that recognises that payments must ultimately support the person farming the land and taking all the risks associated is required.

Pat McCormack said: ICMSA has not finalised its position on this matter and is awaiting guidance from the Department on what measures are allowable.

In the past, ICMSA proposed a minimum stocking density, but such a measure was ruled out.

Our opinion has not changed. It remains our firm view that a minimum stocking density limit should be considered going forward.

ICMSA also questions the continuation of payments to large corporates and people with substantial off-farm incomes.

Previously, the EU Commission provided guidance on the definition of an active farmer which was largely unhelpful. If we focus on income tests and labour units we run the danger of having a very bureaucratic system at the expense of genuine farmers.

Impossible

In a statement INHFA outlined its definition as: any natural or legal person whose holding is situated in the territory of a member state and who carries out an agricultural activity on the agricultural area of that holding.

INHFA said a narrower definition will lead to an excessive administrative burden and the misuse of public funds.

Income tests and labour inputs will be impossible to measure and administer and will further complicate a system that is already very complicated.

It is our belief that this is an unfair system and should not be introduced in Ireland.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for IFA outlined its position on the genuine farmer' definition with the following:

It is clear that people want to see CAP payments going to active farmers. However, defining who is not a genuine farmer is complex.

"IFA will be looking at this issue in further detail in the context of the current trilogues and feedback from our recent regional meetings.

"The concept must be fully explored to target payments towards active farmers. A further issue to be evaluated is the practice of farmers leasing out their entitlements having exited farming.

ICSA did not respond to queries regarding its position on the genuine farmer definition before this article was published.
FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2017, file photo, Myanmar's Vice President Myint Swe, left, sits with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, right, and then President Htin Kyaw, for a photo session after the second anniversary of the signing of nationwide ceasefire agreement at the Myanmar International Convention Center in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Myanmar military television said Monday, Feb. 1, 2021 that the military was taking control of the country for one year, while reports said many of the countrys senior politicians including Suu Kyi had been detained. The military TV report said Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country, while Myint Swe would be elevated to acting president. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)

The man installed by army leaders as Myanmar's president after Monday's military coup is best known abroad for his role in the crackdown on 2007 pro-democracy protests and for his ties to still-powerful military leaders.

Myint Swe was the army-appointed vice president when he was named on Monday to take over after the military arrested civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her party.

Immediately after he was named president, Myint Swe handed power to the country's top military commander, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

Under Myanmar's 2008 constitution, the president can hand power to the military commander in cases of emergency. That is one of many ways the military is assured of keeping ultimate control of the country.

Min Aung Hliang, 64, has been commander of the armed forces since 2011 and is due to retire soon. That would clear the way for him to take a civilian leadership role if the junta holds elections in a year's time as promised. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party's humiliating loss in last November's elections would likely have precluded that. The military justified the coup by saying the government failed to address claims of election fraud.

"It seems there's been the realization that Min Aung Hlaing's retirement is coming and he expected to move into a senior role," said Gerard McCarthy, a postdoctoral fellow at the Asia Research Institute. "The fact that the USDP couldn't deliver that sparked a realization that the system itself isn't designed to create the outcomes that they expected."

The U.S. government in 2019 put Min Aung Hlaing on a blacklist on grounds of engaging in "serious human rights abuse" for leading army troops in security operations in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine region.

International human rights investigators say the military conducted what amounted to ethnic cleansing operations that prompted some 700,000 members of the Rohingya minority to flee, burning people out of their homes and committing other atrocities. In 2017, Myint Swe led an investigation that denied such allegations, saying the military acted "lawfully."

In 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department froze Min Aung Hliang's U.S.-based assets and banned doing business with him and three other Myanmar military leaders. Earlier, it banned him from visiting the United States. Min Aung Hlaing also was among more than a dozen Myanmar officials removed from Facebook in 2018. His Twitter account also was closed.

Myint Swe, now elevated to president, formerly was among military leaders included in an earlier Treasury Department list of sanctioned Myanmar officials and business figures. That designation was removed in 2016 as the U.S. government sought to support the country's economic development after nearly a half decade of reforms.

Myint Swe, 69, is a close ally of former junta leader Than Shwe, who stepped down to allow the transition to a quasi-civilian government beginning in 2011.

That transition eventually allowed Myanmar to escape the international sanctions that had isolated the regime for years, hindering foreign investment. It also enabled Myanmar's leaders to counterbalance Chinese influence with support from other governments. But with the coup, Beijing may well end up with still more sway over the country's economy.

Myint Swe is a former chief minister of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, and for years headed its regional military command. During the 2007 monk-led popular protests known internationally as the Saffron Revolution, he took charge of restoring order in Yangon after weeks of unrest in a crackdown that killed dozens of people. Hundreds were arrested.

Though he has not had a very high international profile, Myint Swe has played a key role in the military and politics. In 2002, he participated in the arrest of family members of former dictator Ne Win, Myanmar media reports say.

Myint Swe arrested former Gen. Khin Nyunt at Yangon Airport during the 2004 purge of the former prime minister and his supporters. Soon afterward, Myint Swe assumed command of the former military regime's sprawling military intelligence apparatus.
Saudi Arabia's asset management industry reported favourable results over the past 12 months amid continued bullish trend on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), and a domestic focus of affluent investors, according to KPMG, a leading provider of audit, tax and advisory services in Saudi Arabia.

The inclusion of Saudi Arabian equities in global indices such as MSCI and FTSE in mid-2019, coupled with the mega Saudi Aramco IPO listing on Tadawul in Q4 2019, profoundly impacted global and local investor sentiments, satted KPMG in its debut edition of the Asset management review, which analyses the industry's financial performance through the lens of twelve large asset management firms regulated by the Capital Market Authority (CMA).

The report details the dynamic shift in investment strategies and business plans amid COVID-19 crisis and how varied investor behaviors have evolved in recent times.

While the Covid-19 disrupted the global markets in 2020, the asset management sector in Saudi Arabia weathered the pandemic storm well, owing mainly to the strong affluent client base that could absorb price volatilities not be impacted by liquidity constraints.

The asset management industry has reason to be cautiously optimistic about the growth prospects ahead, especially in light of the recent development and deployment of preventive vaccines.

Based on KPMG's analysis of the most recent available financial information of the evaluated asset management firms in Saudi Arabia, 2020 has been a growth year in revenue, profitability and assets under management (AUM).

By the end of September 2020, these asset management firms managed in aggregate SR471 billion of AUMs, a growth of 14% since December 31, 2019.

Ovais Shahab, the Head of Financial Services at KPMG (Saudi Arabia) said: "A resilient asset management industry has withstood the two-fold challenges posed by the decline in oil prices and the Covid-19 pandemic, whereby investor redemptions have been limited and asset prices have either been stable or have rebound. The industry is well prepared to play a pivotal role in providing the necessary impetus to the overall economic recovery."

KPMG predicts an uptick in the deployment of necessary capital to start-ups and entrepreneurs through venture capital (VC) or private equity (PE) type investments arising from imminent privatizations and the presence of distressed assets as a result of the pandemic.

"In line with the global trend, we expect fund managers to offer a diversified investment suite to potential investors as the risk/reward appetite evolves in the market and fund managers shift their investment strategies accordingly," remarked Khalil Ibrahim Al Sedais, the Office Managing Partner at KPMG in Saudi Arabia.

Given the tax landscape continues to evolve in the Kingdom, KPMG believes the asset management firms will need to have a robust tax risk management framework to assess and manage any emerging tax risks and expected changes in tax regimes, said Shahab.

"A continued focus on digitalization and offering tailored solutions to investors will prove to be decisive. Asset managers who excel in these areas are expected to do well in a market experiencing increased competition," he added.-TradeArabia News Service


FOUR days after she disappeared, the police have not yet found Andrea Bharatt despite an extensive search in the Fishing Pond forest in Sangre Grande yesterday.

Officers of the Eastern Division Task Force and the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment journeyed about two miles into the Fishing Pond forest from approximately 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. searching for the 22-year-old clerk but came up empty-handed.

The Express was on scene during the search.
Madam Constance Swaniker, founder, Design and Technology Institute, has called on graduates of the Ho Technical University (HTU) to demonstrate total commitment to time and its management towards achieving greater things for themselves.



She said proper and productive use of time was crucial to making positive strides in self-reliance.



Madam Swaniker, who was the guest speaker at the Universitys 21st Congregation urged the graduands to persevere and seize opportunities around them to bridge the gap in the unemployment levels.



She charged them to challenge themselves and be counted.



Madam Swaniker admonished them to have role models and mentors to guide them as they pursued their goals and be bold and focused, making sure nothing distracted them.



She implored them to take advantage of technology to acquire the relevant skills that would build their capacity towards continental or global brands that could cushion them to achieve greater heights.



Professor Ben Honyenuga, Vice-Chancellor of the University said the University was collaborating with the Design and Technology Institute to equip students with technical and entrepreneurial skills to prepare them for the job market.



He said partnerships with other relevant institutions were crucial in the delivery of comprehensive knowledge and essential skills set to our staff and students.



Professor Honyenuga said the University would continue to partner with relevant institutions both locally and internationally to enhance teaching and learning, research, and promote the exchange of students and faculty.



The VC said the University had made tremendous gains in the last academic year with respect to teaching, research, and extension services.



However, our focus on internationalization was seriously impeded by the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in the temporal suspension of all staff and student exchange programmes over the period with partnering Universities abroad, he disclosed.



Touching on infrastructure, he said a five-story Faculty of Art and Design classroom complex was currently under construction to reduce the infrastructural deficit and appealed to GETFund to release funds to facilitate timely completion of the project.



Professor Honyenuga said inadequate infrastructure and other facilities were a great challenge hampering the effective delivery of academic work.



He appealed to the government to expedite action on the completion of all GETFund projects and the establishment of more ultra-modern laboratories to enhance smooth and effective academic work in the school.



A total of 1,079 students graduated with various honours in Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech) and National High Diploma (HND) programmes.



A total of 130 graduands obtained first class, 612 had second class upper, 309 obtained second class lower while 28 had passed.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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Engineering Ambassadors selections announced for 2021

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021



MANHATTAN  The Kansas State University Carl R. Ice College of Engineering has made its selection of 31 students for membership in the Engineering Ambassadors organization.



Engineering Ambassadors are current College of Engineering students chosen to promote the engineering profession and act as hosts for the college. Each ambassador assists with recruitment initiatives that occur both on and off campus.



Students with strong academic and leadership records are eligible for membership, and must have successfully completed the Engineering Leadership program, E-LEAD, in addition to participating in a two-round selection process.



Advisors Leanne Reineman, assistant director; Mitchell Pivovar, recruitment coordinator; and Craig Wanklyn, assistant dean, announced the following members for 2021:



Kail Dubbert, junior in mechanical engineering, Beloit.



From Greater Kansas City: Julio Gutierrez Martinez, junior in electrical engineering, Kansas City; Ava Stoltz, sophomore in biological systems engineering, Leawood; Chris Brown, freshman in computer science, Danny Eckerberg, sophomore in chemical engineering, Cameron Kotwitz, sophomore in computer engineering, Rachel McElyea, junior in civil engineering, Cynthia Ndegwa, freshman in industrial engineering, Maddy Rigdon, junior in industrial engineering, and Emily Straub, junior in electrical engineering, all from Olathe; Nathan Eckman, sophomore in mechanical engineering, Alison Holthaus, freshman in chemical engineering, Luke Horsch, sophomore in computer engineering, and Matt McBride, junior in mechanical engineering, all from Overland Park; and Grace Hartman, junior in civil engineering, Hunter Harris, sophomore in computer science, Lauren Stanton, freshman in biological systems engineering, and Will VandenBos, junior in mechanical engineering, all from Shawnee.



Harrison Pankratz, junior in mechanical engineering, Hutchinson; Audrey Birkenbaugh, sophomore in chemical engineering, Kingman; Erick Rodriguez, sophomore in electrical engineering, Liberal; Josh Brandt, sophomore in industrial engineering, Manhattan; Brittany Bahr, senior in chemical engineering, PrairieVillage; Codi Mueller, freshman in biological systems engineering, Robinson; Arran Wilson, freshman in mechanical engineering, Salina; Caitlin Donahue, sophomore in chemical engineering, Wamego.

From Wichita: Bode Sadd, sophomore in mechanical engineering; Jadin O'Reilly, sophomore in computer science; and Paige Albert, junior in chemical engineering.



From out of state: Jess Barnett, sophomore in chemical engineering, Fishers, Indiana; and Gabe Sappington, sophomore in electrical engineering, Peculiar, Missouri.






The United States is deeply concerned by a prison term meted out to Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday, and repeated its call for his immediate release, saying it would coordinate closely with allies about how to hold Russia accountable.

"The United States is deeply concerned by Russian authorities' decision to sentence opposition figure (Alexei) Navalny to two years and eight months imprisonment," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

"Even as we work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, we will coordinate closely with our allies and partners to hold Russia accountable for failing to uphold the rights of its citizens."

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(Newser)  He played Mark Twain for 60-plus years, was "Deep Throat" in All the President's Men, and won an Emmy for playing Lincoln. Now, a goodbye to Hal Holbrook, who died Jan. 23 at the age of 95, the actor's assistant told the New York Times on Monday. Born Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. on Feb. 17, 1925, in Cleveland, Holbrook's parents deserted him when he was a toddler, leaving him with his grandparents in Massachusetts. After a stint in the Army in WWII, he took to acting, appearing in mostly small film roles, with exceptions such as All the President's Men and The Firm. In 2008, at age 82, he became the oldest actor ever to get nominated for an Oscar for his role in Into the Wild, per NBC News. Holbrook won five Emmys for his TV and mini-series roles, including in 1976 for the NBC mini-series Lincoln. He also had a recurring part in the CBS sitcom Designing Women.

story continues below

But it was his turn as Mark Twaincomplete with "wig to match Twain's unruly mop, a walrus mustache, and a rumpled white linen suit," per the Timesthat ended up becoming his life's passion. The idea to play the American writer and humorist started with Ed Wright, his theater professor at Denison University. "Ed, I think this Mark Twain thing is pretty corny," Holbrook said he told Wright after his first crack at it. "I don't think it's funny." But he kept up the role, kicking off a one-man show in 1952 and taking it on tour in the US and Europe. Holbrook wasn't even 30 when he started playing a 70-year-old Twainmuch makeup was involved, though he eventually aged into the role. He won a Tony in 1966 for his Broadway run and ended up with more than 2,200 performances, per Variety. His last Twain performance was in 2017. Holbrook is survived by a son and two daughters, as well as two stepdaughters, and four grandkids. His third wife, actor Dixie Carter, died in 2010 of cancer. (Read more Hal Holbrook stories.)
SEATTLE, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 5G Open Innovation Lab (5G OI Lab), a global applied innovation ecosystem of developers, corporate enterprises, academia and government institutions, today announced the launch of its first application development field lab for the agricultural industry with dedicated access to a 5G-capable, CBRS LTE-based network and edge computing platform fueled by technology provided by the partners of the 5G OI Lab. The Food Resiliency Project, an economic development initiative funded by a grant through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), establishes a virtual and physical space for Snohomish County to bring together food growers, and distributors with technology companies to collaboratively develop new capabilities that will improve the resiliency of Snohomish County's agriculture sector and minimize future food service disruptions for consumers and regional agribusiness.

The 5G Open Innovation Lab (5G OI Lab), a global applied innovation ecosystem of developers, corporate enterprises, academia and government institutions, today announced the launch of its first application development field lab for the agricultural industry with dedicated access to a 5G-capable, CBRS LTE-based network and edge computing platform fueled by technology provided by the partners of the 5G OI Lab.

Said Jim Brisimitzis, General Partner of the 5G Open Innovation Lab, "Every modern industry benefits from data and analytics. Agricultural sites typically lack the high-speed Internet access necessary for connecting devices and generating the data growers and industry suppliers need to make real-time decisions for optimal impact. With the support of Snohomish County and our partners, we've proudly built an application development field lab with two dedicated sites through which our ecosystem members, partners, academia, and industry can collaborate to experiment, test, and learn. The outcome is the development of commercial use cases by way of research and innovation that agricultural vendors like John Deere and Cargill, for example, can use today."

"Agriculture has always been a key sector in Snohomish County. This last year has taught us how vital it is it to ensure we have a steady, local supply of food," said Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers. "Our partnership with 5G Open Innovation Lab can help safeguard our agriculture industry by providing farmers the tools they need for success, while securing fresh food for our community. We will continue to support innovation to strengthen and diversify our economy."

The foundation of the field lab is a dynamic testing platform with dedicated access to a 5G-capable, CBRS LTE private network through co-development access points. The two agriculture sites operating in Snohomish County are: Swans Trail Farms, a retail farm and event venue featuring apple orchards, strawberry fields, and a pumpkin patch; and Andrew's Hay, Inc., a commercial grower and supplier of premium feed for horses, cattle, livestock and seed crops. Each site will connect to an edge computing environment allowing developers to tap into cloud computing capabilities essential for latency-sensitive and compute-intensive applications. IoT applications include soil sensors measuring temperature, volumetric water content, oxygen levels and photosynthetic radiation, as well as supply chain and logistics tracking of food from farm-to-table to ensure safety and security.

The dynamic testing environment enables edge computing by using Dell servers based on Intel Xeon processors, VMware's Telco Cloud Platform operating system for 5G applications and the Intel Smart Edge multi-access edge computing platform. Wireless access is provided by T-Mobile with live radios connected to T-Mobile's broadband network for Internet backhaul. Expeto, an alum of the 5G Open Innovation Lab program, was selected to provide the wireless network core orchestration and end device (SIM) management platform. Two of the initial partners leveraging the field lab to drive learnings and solution development with the installation of IoT sensors and advanced research are Washington State University and innova8.ag, another alum of the 5G Lab's program.

"As the leading network silicon provider we are passionately committed to ushering in the full potential of 5G and edge by supporting a range of industries, including ones that power our social fabric like agriculture," said Caroline Chan, Vice President, Data Center Group and General Manager, Network Business Incubator Division, Intel. "This first-of-its-kind field lab is showcasing the benefits of 5G-to-farm-to-table, and is a strong example of how industry collaboration can drive innovations that address both business and human challenges."

"The Food Resiliency Project is an example of what can be accomplished using 5G technology, virtualized, cloud-native solutions, and the ecosystem of partners created by the 5G Open Innovation Lab," said Sue Boyd, Microsoft Assistant General Counsel and 5G OI Lab board member. "The combined solution which will include a Microsoft 5G-capable network core, has been deployed in record time, and represents an invaluable collaboration between private and public domains that benefits the farmers, consumers and the environment."

"T-Mobile is America's 5G leader and we're building a network to serve all Americans, including rural farmers, giving them the tools they needs to transform their businesses  for farmers that means producing more food using fewer resources," said John Saw, EVP of Advanced & Emerging Technologies at T-Mobile. "We can't wait to see the 5G innovation that occurs as we work together to build the next big thing in agritech."

"VMware is a proud founding partner of the 5G Open Innovation Lab. We, along with fellow partners, are driven to help communication service providers fully grasp the 5G opportunity so they can bring a new generation of services and applications to the world," said Stephen Spellicy, vice president of product marketing and solutions, Telco and Edge Cloud business, VMware. "With our telco cloud platform and industry expertise, we can support projects like the Food Resiliency Project to bring more agility, scalability and efficiency to enhance their day-to-day operations, food delivery and safety for the agriculture industry."

The Amdocs next-generation OSS and service management platform will make automating and managing the multi-vendor environment more efficient. With Amdocs network policy and converged charging systems, farmers will be able to investigate the monetization elements and business models for planned commercial use cases. F5 will provide security software for the private networks and the applications running on them.

Said Angela Logothetis, CTO Amdocs Open Network, "Effective commercialization of innovative services based on 5G requires automation systems to manage the end-to-end service lifecycle that covers design, deployment, orchestration and monetization across a hybrid and multi-vendor network. We are excited to have Amdocs OSS and BSS solutions be part of this agricultural field lab to support the planned use cases and demonstrate the practical aspects that need to be considered in launching and supporting new services."

"Because farming is a critical business which may lack easy access to certain technology advances due to terrain and geography, F5 is collaborating with other leading technology companies to help source and co-develop local networks to address access challenges and, most urgently in this case, improve digital and physical supply chains to more efficiently get food on tables," said James Feger, VP and GM for Service Provider for F5. "The field lab we've rapidly built together to support smart agriculture use casesleveraging analytics, IoT, and automationis also designed to be easily adapted to other industries. Specifically, we are thrilled to offer our expertise in securing and managing the 5G and IoT network traffic and applicable applications to provide a more robust and secure edge infrastructure for the project to ensure a resilient and robust food supply chain."

The Lab selected the Nokia AirScale Radio for ultra-low latency and the ability to adapt to evolving architectures with a future-proof solution for 5G networks. A simple unpack and deploy model was used to enable farmers to utilize the network to homeschool young children, automate planning and harvesting, and measure soil conditions. Said Joydeep Hazra, Nokia Radio Product Manager, "We are proud to be working with our partner T-Mobile and other technology leaders on the Food Resiliency Project which opens up doors to public-private partnerships and provides an open ground to all industry players to collaborate and accelerate innovation for the greater good."

The Expeto Nextworking platform enables network managers to set and manage application policies over a unified framework across private and public mobile networks and control all core network functions within one interface. Expeto will be responsible for the ongoing management over the coming year. The Expeto platform delivers what smart farming applications and field devices need: highly reliable, outdoor wireless networking with the low latency, full end-to-end data path control and security. Within the Nextworking platform, farmers can be confident they can both scale their operations and protect their wireless network data across both public and private networks. Lab participants and farmers will be able to manage these hybrid networks as easily as traditional Wi-Fi but with all the security and robustness of a stand-alone private LTE solution.

"The field lab is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate practical applications which can make a meaningful difference in the overall efficiency and yield of these farms," said Michael Anderson, CEO of Expeto. "According to the United Nations, food production will have to double in the very near future in order to meet growing population demand. We will have to leverage innovations, like we see in the field lab, to help farmers, and for that matter, participants from all verticals, to scale existing supply chains to support our growing population."

The Lab selected Seattle-based Ballast Networks to design, manage and deploy the hardware, switching infrastructure and networking gear at both sites. The development environment and access points at both sites are designed to be operational for ten years.

Said Jon Morris, CEO, Ballast Networks, "The pandemic has shined a bright light on the need for greater resiliency in managing our food supply. There are just over 2 million farms in the U.S. and we have seen disruptions in the food supply. With the 5G Open Innovation Lab, we are deploying efficient networks to be more agile in our farming practices. This will pave the way for great innovation in this area."

innov8.ag is a leading partner of the Food Resiliency Project providing data analytics and artificial intelligence sensors through its partnership with Washington State University. Said Steve Mantle, founder and CEO of innov8.ag, "We enable leading-edge insights for progressive farms like Swans Trail Farm and Andrew's Hay. We start with foundational insights that bring together environmental, soil, chemical, nutrient, labor, water, and imaging data which enables efficiencies and better outcomes in yield and quality. Growers are equipped to further enable food resiliency, while also having a baseline dataset to leverage the coming wave of equipment automation."

The 5G Open Innovation Lab is also a founding member of Washington's Innovation Partnership Zone (IPZ), a statewide initiative, sponsored by the City of Bellevue and administered by the Washington State Department of Commerce. The IPZ is designed to stimulate regional economic growth by providing access to intellectual capital, and to accelerate the development of new technologies, marketable products, company formation, and job creation.

Said Carol Miles, Interim Director, Washington State University's Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center (WSU NWREC), "We are excited to be partnering with innovative startups, and tech industry leaders to help growers access data and develop meaningful products that drive informed decisions regarding resources to increase efficiency and output. Our initial work in the 5G field lab will be focused on real-time sensing of in-field weather and soil attributes with remotely sensed crop physiological data products to guide informed irrigation management and precision chemical application decisions with the goal of improving produce quality and yield."

Said Washington State Commerce Director Lisa Brown, "Washington's Innovation Partnership Zones are an example of public-private partnerships that can accelerate development of technologies with tremendous potential across all of our key industry sectors. Commerce is committed to support emerging innovations like 5G which will provide vital connectivity to strengthen businesses and communities through an equitable economic recovery."

"There are test beds across the United States and around the world, but they tend to be academic in nature. While they serve an important purpose, we wanted to design a dynamic, development platform that facilitates collaborative experimentation for commercially viable use cases. It is a true collaborative public-private environment for startups, with best-of-breed solutions delivering all the capabilities of a real enterprise platform," said Brisimitzis. "This co-development platform is the first of many we plan to deploy in the future serving other industries. We believe that better connectivity and edge computing are the future and are working with our partners and ecosystem companies to make that vision a reality."

About Snohomish County

Snohomish County is the third largest and one of the fastest growing counties in the State of Washington. Snohomish County is home to the largest manufacturing facility in the world and is one of the top tourist destinations in the region. From the waves of Puget Sound to the ice fields of Glacier Peak, Snohomish County has diverse ecosystems, while also being home to a thriving agriculture industry and dynamic urban centers. www.snohomishcountywa.gov

About the 5G Open Innovation Lab

The 5G Open Innovation Lab is a global applied innovation ecosystem of developers, corporate enterprises, academia and government institutions working together with early- and later-stage start-ups to fuel the development of new capabilities and market categories that will transform the enterprise and the way we work, live and play. The Lab provides startups at all stages unparalleled access to open platforms, enterprises, and markets needed to create, test, and deploy new use cases and innovations for 5G and 5G-enabled technologies. The 5G Open Innovation Lab is committed to the transformation of networks to intelligent software-defined platforms for enterprise applications and solutions. To learn more about the Lab and its ecosystem of companies, please visit www.5GOILab.com or follow us on Twitter at @5GOILab.

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Nairobi  Kenya is gearing up to vaccinate more than 1 million health care workers and essential providers against COVID-19 from next month.

Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr. Mercy Mwangangi said the government hopes to start receiving the vaccines from February for the first phase to start until June.

"We want to start with the most vulnerable group and that will start next month when the vaccine arrives," Dr. Mwangangi said.

Kenya is acquiring vaccines that will be a mix of AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and any other that will be included to the COVAX facility.

"Given the current global shortage of adequate vaccine stocks, the government is exploring procurement through other mechanisms like the Africa CDC, and plans committment of doses to cover an additional 5 million people over the same period to achieve a vaccination coverage of 40 per cent," she sad.

In 18 months, she said, 16 million Kenyans will have been vaccinated.

Already the government is in the process of developing required infrastructure for storing the vaccine.

While the country has an established a vaccination infrastructure with central storage facilities in Nairobi for vaccines requiring a cold chain of up to -20 degrees, she said there is limited capacity for -70 degrees in the major urban areas.

"The government plans to expand and enhance storage space by the end of 2021. This is important so that the saving childhood vaccination programs are not interrupted," CAS Mwangangi said.

She assured that any vaccine that will be used in Kenya has undergone trials, to ensure it is safe.

In phase two of the vaccination, which is set to kick off in July and end in June 2022, 9.7 million Kenyans will be vaccinated.

The government said it will target mostly people aged above 50 years and those above 18 years but who have underlying conditions.

Kenya had recorded 100,563 COVID-19 cases and 1,753 and 83,82 by Friday.
Ex-separatist fighters demand to be reintegrated Luam Valentine

Ex-separatist fighters lodged at the National Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, NDDR, Centre in Buea ran wild Monday, February 1, 2021, blocking traffic along the Mermoz- Bokwango stretch of road.

The repentant combatants said they were living in dire conditions at the DDR Centre, the opposite of the promises government made at the time it launched the program.

Those familiar with the situation say poor living conditions and the lack of adequate training in trades that can offer them opportunities to be reintegrated into the employment market led to the protest.

Aside from calling on the government to hastily reintegrate them into the job market, they asked that their living conditions at the DDR Centre be improved.

Ivo Makoge, Coordinator of the Buea DDR Center failed to calm down the flaring tempers.

Administrative authorities zoomed into the area accompanied by truckloads of anti-riot police officers. With sticks and stones in hand, the protesting ex-fighters were unmoved. They said they had been abandoned to their fate and matters are not getting any better.

The Divisional Officer for Buea, Abba Abdouraman, and the Secretary-General at the South West Governors Office, Dr. Mohamadou asked the protesters to return to the center so they could dialogue. The ex-fighters initially turned down the request of the administrators.

Repentant separatist fighters protest in Buea (c) WhatsApp

I have been here for close to 18 months and there are no prospects that I will be reintegrated. I am tired of listening to your promises, one of the protesters told the scribe at the Governors office.

We want a solution to our grievances, not new promises. We want our freedom. We just want to be told that we are free and we will leave from here and see what to do with our lives, others chorused.

The protesters later listened to the voice of reason and returned to the DDR Center. Authorities in Buea have promised to look into the issues raised.

A presidential decree dated 30 November 2018 established the National Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Committee. Placed under the authority of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, the Committee headquartered in Yaounde has regional centers in Bamenda, Buea, and Mora.

The Committee is responsible for organizing, supervising, and managing the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-fighters of Boko Haram and armed groups in the North-West and South-West Regions willing to respond favorably to the Head of State's peace appeal by laying down their arms.
New York : Calling the military's seizure of power in Myanmar a 'direct assault' on its transition to democracy, United States President Joe Biden on Monday threatened to slap new sanctions on the country after the junta detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint and other political leaders.

According to media reports, an announcer on Myanmar's military-owned Myawaddy TV declared on Monday morning that the military had taken control of the country for one year.

Myanmar's leader Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party have been detained in an early morning raid, the spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy (NLD) was quoted as saying in the media.

'The military's seizure of power in Burma (Myanmar), the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian officials, and the declaration of a national state of emergency are a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law,' Biden said in a statement.

Biden was briefed by his National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Sunday night.

'In a democracy, force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election. For almost a decade, the people of Burma have been steadily working to establish elections, civilian governance, and the peaceful transfer of power. That progress should be respected,' he asserted.

Biden said the international community should come together in one voice to press Myanmar's military to immediately relinquish the power they have seized, release the activists and officials they have detained, lift all telecommunications restrictions, and refrain from violence against civilians.

'The United States is taking note of those who stand with the people of Burma in this difficult hour,' Biden said.

'We will work with our partners throughout the region and the world to support the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, as well as to hold accountable those responsible for overturning Burma's democratic transition,' he said.

'The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action,' Biden said.

The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack, Biden asserted.
OSLO, Norway, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Norwegian Energy Company ASA ("Noreco" or the "Company") announces that it has entered into an underwriting agreement with five banks for a USD 1.1 billion Reserve Base Lending facility (the "RBL" or the "facility") with a seven-year term and maturing in 2028. As a result of this, the Company will have a strong financial position as it progresses the Tyra Redevelopment project with amortizations scheduled to commence from the second half of 2024.

The USD 200 million increase in the RBL facility and two-year maturity extension will further reinforce the Company's capital structure and is underpinned by a borrowing base that is expected to provide cash drawing capacity of USD 1.0 billion at close. In addition, Noreco has established a link in the RBL to ESG targets on emissions intensity reduction and power from renewables that will support progression of the Company's ESG strategy.

The USD 1.1 billion facility will be fully underwritten by BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, ING Bank, Lloyds Bank and Natixis.

"I am pleased to announce that we now have in place an underwritten agreement to increase and extend our RBL facility, ensuring the Company has a solid financial platform with significant liquidity, a robust capital structure and enhanced commercial flexibility. We continue to benefit from a strongly supportive RBL bank group, and today's announcement demonstrates the long-term value proposition of Noreco's participation in the Danish Underground Consortium (the "DUC") and further evidences the Company's proactive approach to enhancing this position," said Euan Shirlaw, Chief Financial Officer at Noreco.

Contacts:

Euan Shirlaw, Chief Financial Officer

Phone: +44 7979 690622

Email: es@noreco.com

Cathrine Torgersen, EVP Investor Relations & Communications

Phone: +47 91 52 85 01

Email: ct@noreco.com

About Norwegian Energy Company ASA

Noreco is a publicly owned company with focus on the oil, gas and offshore industry. The Company's shares are listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker NOR). For further information, please visit: www.noreco.com.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/noreco/r/noreco--underwritten-rbl-increase-to-usd-1-1-billion-and-maturity-extension,c3277905
UW Business Incubator Client CEO Says Businesses Key to Combating Human Trafficking

Ashleigh Chapman, president and CEO of the Alliance for Freedom, Restoration and Justice, says other businesses are key to combating human trafficking in Wyoming, the United States and the world. (Ashleigh Chapman Photo)

In 2019, human trafficking was estimated to be a $150 billion business annually and involves roughly 40 million people trafficked worldwide, with more than 325,000 victims in the U.S. Ashleigh Chapman believes calling on all types of businesses in the fight against human trafficking is key to helping eliminate these sordid crimes.

For many years, the burden of combating human trafficking has rested nearly entirely on government and nonprofit efforts. Human trafficking is a business, in the very worst sense of the word, says Chapman, president and CEO of the Alliance for Freedom, Restoration and Justice (AFRJ) and Altus Solutions Inc., which are housed in the University of Wyomings IMPACT 307 business incubator. And it will take an uprising of the business community to push back. Every business is uniquely positioned to come alongside government and community efforts in ways that will make a significant impact, and in ways only business can accomplish.

Last month, Chapman was one of the primary speakers invited to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Zoom meeting that focused on the subject of eradicating human trafficking. January is designated as National Human Trafficking Awareness Month in the United States.

Governments give what they can, and nonprofits are giving it all they can, Chapman said during the hearing. But the missing person at that table, at the global and local scales, is business so much of the time. Yet, they are someone who is a powerful player -- not just in making sure youre not part of the problem, but in becoming part of the solution.

Chapman points to UPS Inc. as a prime example. The package carrier has trained over 50,000 drivers on the indicators of human trafficking, which led to a significant uptick in tips reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

Additionally, Marriott Hotels and Delta Air Lines have trained over 500,000 staff globally to identify trafficking and develop protocols to rescue victims when traffickers use their airlines to transport or hotel properties to perpetrate these crimes.

Randstad, a global staffing firm, developed the Hire Hope program, an apprenticeship-to-career program for survivors of trafficking. AFRJ helped Randstad launch this program in Atlanta and just expanded the program to Singapore.

Deloitte, Qlik, Expedite and Pomerol Partners have outsourced their technologists to support our work to develop new technologies that are helping accelerate the end of human trafficking in communities, such as our Engage Together project, which we are deploying now for the entire state of Wyoming alongside the attorney generals Division of Victim Services and with support from UW interns, Chapman says. Anthem, a national health care company, is working with us to provide health care professionals the online training they need to recognize and respond to human trafficking through our Justice U project. And there are many more examples of how businesses are powerful partners in this fight.

For the past 19 years, Chapman has worked solely on issues of human trafficking and protecting vulnerable populations. Before founding the AFRJ and Altus, Chapman was the co-founder and director of the Center for Global Justice at Regent University School of Law in Virginia; the director of a nonprofit serving thousands of at-risk youth in Tennessee; a childrens pastor; and a court-appointed special advocate for children in foster care.

The AFRJ, a business incubator client since April 2019, launched the Every Day Heroes Challenge Jan. 11, 2020. The challenge is designed to engage everyday people to become heroes against human trafficking by completing a free one-hour online course. The campaign goal was to get 1 million people to take the course and earn their online Human Trafficking Awareness badge so citizens can move from awareness to action.

And we all know what happened next: COVID-19 hit the world, Chapman says, referencing the pandemic. What most people dont know is that the pandemic greatly increased the presence of human trafficking and the vulnerabilities that drive it, in our nation and everywhere.

Still, as of Feb. 1, the number of people who have taken the online course stands at 3,400 learners in 47 states and eight countries. Chapman points to real-world results that came about due to this training.

A mom in Ohio has now identified and reported two trafficking situations of minors in her neighborhood. A church in Tennessee is now providing their property to support their local foster care agencys needs. A businesswoman in Florida realized her family member was about to be trafficked and successfully intervened. A law enforcement officer realized he had just missed a trafficking situation that he mistook for domestic violence, and now knows how to intervene. A health care facility realized they were treating victims of sex trafficking and did not know it, and are now developing protocols to address it the next time. Education is key, Chapman says. And we added an Impact Analytics team to help us track it all down in better ways this coming year.

Chapman says the AFRJ will renew the campaign later this year in time for World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, which takes place in July.

Chapman recently was invited to be a member of UW President Ed Seidels new Council on Economic Development. The goals of this special initiative are to strengthen Wyomings existing industries, pioneer new opportunities, and increase alignment of all partners to support one another and the success of Wyomings economic strength and landscape.

Its not far removed from what I do every day at AFRJ and Altus, working with communities or countries to help them develop comprehensive and collaborative strategies to address complex societal issues, Chapman explains.

Altus is an effort to launch a business for good that powers solutions that can not only help accelerate the anti-trafficking movement, but also could fund the nonprofit side of her business. Altus has been launched, and is already powering Justice U and Engage Together.

We are, however, still pursuing impact investors, as the economic impact of the pandemic this past year froze investor interest and opportunities, Chapman says. I do think that is thawing now, and we are reaching out again in earnest.

A bill presently before the Wyoming Legislature to recognize for-profit public benefit corporations would help Altus greatly, were it approved. Chapmans hope is that this bill will ignite a passion for impact investing in Wyoming not only for her company, but also many others with a passion and a plan to create sustainable and profitable solutions that help the world.

What I know and believe is that when the business community joins the fight -- bringing with them the innovation, resources and excellence inherent to business -- we will see a turn of the tide, Chapman says.

For more information, email Chapman at Ashleigh@altusnow.com.

For Wyoming statistics on the National Human Trafficking Hotline, go here.

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[February 01, 2021] Bank of Asia 2021 Outlook: Digital Banking is the future

TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital banking has maintained rapid growth in 2020 because of its convenience and efficiency, shrugging off the challenges of the outbreak of COVID-19. British Virgin Islands-headquartered Bank of Asia, serving global customers, has always been in the front line of the digitalisation of the banking industry. Looking ahead to 2021, Bank of Asia will continue to lead the development of digital banking and to offer its customers professional cross-border financial services. Digital Banking Transforming the World Digitalisation has changed every aspect of people's lives and has also penetrated their financial behaviours. The CX platform Lightico found that 63% of people surveyed said they were inclined to try digital banking while 82% of consumers were concerned about going to physical banks after the pandemic. The market size of digital banking is estimated to be nearly US$8 trillion in 2019 and is poised to register gains at over 6% CAGR from 2020 to 2026; total transactions of international digital payments will exceed 750 billion in volume, with the value accounting for over US$700 trillion, according to a recent report by Global Market Insights. Digital banking is the irreversible trend. The vast adoption of Fintech has allowed banks to offer more efficient, swift, and convenient services while guaranteeing high security at the same time. Bank of Asia has pioneered in launching remote account opening service for corporate and individual consumers, meeting the increasing demand of digital banking services due to the pandemic. In 2021, Bank of Asia will partner with leading service and technology partners and upgrade their core banking systems, client management and service systems to even better provide high-quality service to its customers. Bank of Asia will continue to develop BOA Pay, the new digital payment channel launched in 2020, to provide customised services to corporates and individuals. In the meantime, the e-Wallet service is in the pipeline to bring the fully-fledged e-Payment technology to the Caribbean region to realise cashless transactions and to provide digital banking services for the BVI population. BVI's Digital Asset on the Way In the past year, some leading international financial institutions have started innovative trials on broadening their digital asset offerings, thus the capital maret has realised the value of digital assets and authorities worldwide have also started to review the relevant regulations and policies.



In April 2020, The G20 rolled out the rules to regulate Global Stablecoins such as Libra cryptocurrency to prevent financial risks. The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission also issued guidance on 13 July 2020 regarding the regulation of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.

The recent launch of the BVI's regulatory sandbox allows industry participants to trial innovative Fintech products and services, for a limited period, under the supervision of the BVI Financial Services Commission. Lorna Smith OBE, Vice Chairman of Bank of Asia, said, "BVI has always been committed to innovation. It has made huge efforts in moving forward the digitalisation of financial services and establishing the digital infrastructure geared to support the relevant offshore financial services. The recent passing of the BVI Regulatory Sandbox Regime allows players in the digital asset sector, including startups, to use offshore structures more efficiently." "Bank of Asia is based in the BVI and is familiar with the latest regulation regime; thus it can provide consultancy services to clients who are interested in applying for the sandbox license," she added. "Meanwhile, Bank of Asia can bring digital asset related products and services to the industry participants, fully leveraging the advantages of the BVI as an offshore jurisdiction." Belt & Road Initiative - the Bridge As Belt & Road Initiative moves forward, the integration of onshore and offshore resources is now the key to cross-border projects. Offshore jurisdictions like the BVI have strong advantages, such as tax neutrality, political stability, privacy and a well-established legal system; thus the offshore structure has become an efficient tool for companies who are looking for resources in restructuring and integration, overseas investment and M&A. Bank of Asia joined the Belt and Road Service Connections in September 2020, becoming the first international banking institution to participate in the scheme to support the projects under the Belt & Road initiative. Bank of Asia's President Lisa Lou said, "Bank of Asia is a digitalised bank set up on a Fintech platform and is experienced in cross-border services. We are joining forces with partners from Kazakhstan, Mainland China, Hong Kong and the Philippines to accelerate our global footprints. As the first international banking institution participating in the Belt and Road Service Connections, Bank of Asia not only understands the local markets, but also has the expertise in setting up offshore structures and related financial infrastructure and can provide a one-stop comprehensive solution to our clients." "We will continue to utilise our advantages to pave the way and bridge the gap for companies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative and support them with the necessary financial services," she added. Bank of Asia, a pioneer of digital banking, has been developing rapidly and will continue to provide essential cross-border banking services on its cutting-edge fintech platform. It will allow corporates and individuals to carry out financial activities despite the impact of the COVID-19 and local measures put in place to manage the pandemic outbreak, so that clients can meet their cross-border business needs in the long term. In 2021, Bank of Asia will bring its clients more solutions, helping them achieve their financial aspirations. About Bank of Asia Bank of Asia provides banking and asset management services to companies, high net worth individuals, family offices and trusts across the globe, especially those with interests in offshore jurisdictions, through its digital platform. The Bank's vision is to change the way people bank through delivering cost effective, efficient and user-friendly FinTech solutions, underpinned by innovative technologies and robust quantitative analytics in the Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering process. In addition to general banking services such as deposits and loans in multiple currencies, cross-border payments and remittance, it also provides investment banking, corporate advisory and structured financing, private banking, insurance, investment and asset management services through its business partners. Bank of Asia is licensed and regulated by the Financial Services Commission of the British Virgin Islands (BVI FSC). For more details, please visit www.bankasia.com. SOURCE Bank of Asia (BVI) Limited

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Then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping toast during a state luncheon for China hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington on Sept. 25, 2015. (Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Faces Tough Challenges in Fixing World Trade System

WASHINGTONGlobalists await President Joe Bidens reset on U.S. trade policy, although deep-seated problems and lack of consensus among allies are likely to create a significant hurdle for the new administration in fixing the global trading system that has failed to contain non-market economies such as China.

Biden has promised to take a more multilateral approach in dealing with trade issues, and he is expected to radically change U.S. policies toward the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The new administration signaled that it would engage with other members to revive the international body, which has been crippled by the Trump administrations policies.

However, WTO is a longstanding bipartisan issue, and its downward spiral started long before Trumps presidency. The United States has accused the organization of overstepping its mandate in dispute settlement and creating unjustified rules.

Under the Obama administration, Washington began to block the selection of judges to the WTOs Appellate Body, a seven-member independent court. Since 2016, Washington blocked all new appointments to the court, depriving the organization of its ability to rule on trade disputes.

The Biden administration, however, isnt expected to bring a quick end to the impasse over the appellate body.

The WTO is in crisis and needs ambitious reform to address new challenges and unfair trade practices, according to Clete Willems, top trade negotiator and former deputy director of the National Economic Council under the Trump administration.

The Biden officials are not going to simply roll back the Trump administrations position. The concerns about the appellate body are bipartisan, theyre long-standing, Willems told The Epoch Times.

The Biden administration will recognize the same problems but I think, unlike the Trump administration, they will put forward solutions to fix it, he said.

In a recent paper, Willems argued that all three functions of the WTOnegotiations, implementation and monitoring, and dispute settlementrequire reform to revitalize the organization.

The Trump administration, he noted, made progress in putting forward proposals on the negotiations side, trying to update agreements and improve commitments. Bidens team is expected to pursue a similar trajectory and continue to push for new rules that govern non-market economies such as China.

On the dispute settlement side, while the previous administration raised concerns and got members attention to the issues, it was critiqued for not offering solutions, Willems said. Hence, the Biden administration will seek a negotiated outcome to allow the resumption of appointments [of judges] to be made.

As a first step to end the standoff at the WTO, trade experts believe that Biden will unblock the appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Nigerian finance minister, to lead the organization.

This step would reinstate direction at the highest level at the WTO and revitalize its ability to promote multilateral economic cooperation, Chad Bown and Anabel Gonzalez, senior fellows at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in a report.

While Okonjo-Iweala was the consensus choice by the member states, the Trump administration vetoed her last year due to her lack of trade experience.

David Bisbee, charge daffaires at the U.S. mission to the WTO, said at a virtual WTO ministerial gathering last week that the Biden administration is looking forward to progress on the selection of a new director-general and other key priorities in the short term.

Bisbee, however, gave no indication whether the administration would back Okonjo-Iweala.

The EU Challenge

The WTO was created in 1995 to oversee the global trade rules among nations; however, the world has changed significantly since then.

Former President Donald Trump criticized the organization for its outdated rules, which have become dysfunctional in regulating global trade disputes. He railed against the international body, calling it a catastrophe and a disaster.

At the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2018, world leaders came around to Trumps views and called for the necessary reform of the WTO to improve its functioning.

After the summit, the United States, the European Union, and Japan held trilateral meetings to develop reforms to address concerns such as government subsidies, state-owned enterprises, and forced technology transfers.

Willems, who was previously involved in trade negotiations with foreign governments and bodies including the EU, believes that theres a possibility for the Biden administration to make progress on WTO reforms. But Washington has reservations about Europes ambition to address Chinas bad behavior.

We often havent seen the level of ambition out of Europe necessary to really make progress on these issues, Willems said.

Its really easy to say we all want to work together on China, but its really hard to actually come up with ambitious language that would achieve that, he added. He also noted that the automotive and some other sectors of the EUs economy are very much reliant on China, making it difficult for the bloc to harden its stance on Beijing.

Any successful WTO reform effort requires the United States and the EU to figure out how to better cooperate first and once they achieve that, they need to deal with other members, he said.

Its just so much easier to say than it actually is to do.

The United States has repeatedly expressed discontent about the WTOs inability to address Chinas unfair trade practices. According to the latest report by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), Chinas record in complying with WTO rules remains poor.

Nearly two decades after its accession to the WTO, China still hasnt embraced open, market-oriented policies. The state remains in control of Chinas economy, and it heavily intervenes in the market to achieve industrial policy objectives, the report stated.

Chinas industrial policies, for example, have disrupted critical sectors of the global economy such as steel, aluminum, solar, and fisheries.

The United States and other WTO members have tried to address the challenges presented by China for nearly two decades. These efforts, however, havent resulted in meaningful changes in Chinas behavior. Beijing has many times promised to address the concerns raised by other members but failed to fulfill its promises.

According to the report, the United States has brought about two dozen cases against China at the WTO to dispute its wide range of policies including massive subsidies, significant market access barriers, and inadequate intellectual property rights enforcement.

What compounds the problems in the WTO is the fact that some member states can self-declare developing-country status to avoid taking on the same commitments as other members. Among the WTOs developing countries are some of the worlds wealthiest economies, such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, China, and Hong Kong.

The Biden administration says it will seek a more coordinated approach with U.S. allies to address all these challenges. But its unclear whether the administration will make trade policy a top priority and immediately return to multilateral economic cooperation.

In the near term, the administration has signaled that its focus will be to fight the pandemic and boost domestic manufacturing capabilities.

At the Davos Agenda event hosted by the World Economic Forum on Jan. 25, Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned about the consequences of building alliances to threaten other countries or starting a new cold war, in a veiled message to Biden.

We cannot tackle common challenges in a divided world and confrontation will lead us to a dead-end, Xi said, calling for a return to multilateralism.
GODFREY  Lewis and Clark Community College Student Activities is hosting and promoting a myriad of free virtual events for Februarys Black History Month, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If theres a positive to functioning during the pandemic, its offering opportunities that I normally would not have been exposed to, said Student Activities Coordinator Jared Hennings. Theres a wide range of subject matter, both educational and entertaining, fusing speakers, music, theater and history.

One headliner of L&Cs lineup of events is a virtual talk with St. Louis Cardinals KMOX Radio Broadcaster Mike Claiborne, scheduled for 10 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 10.

Claiborne will speak via Zoom (Meeting ID: 917 4694 3596) to both L&C students and members of the public who wish to join on what it takes to be a successful broadcaster.

On Tuesday, Feb. 16, at 1:45 p.m., multi-experienced communicator, facilitator and emcee D.C. Cooper will present Who Wants to be a Good Public Speaker? (Meeting ID: 920 4351 1762). The program will provide tips on how to improve ones public speaking skills in front of one or 1,000 people.

Another highlight will feature 20-year St. Louis Police Officer Sean James, who will explore how policing has changed over time and what it takes to be an effective officer today. That Zoom event (Meeting ID: 922 7100 0628) is scheduled for 12:15 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 18.

On Friday, Feb. 26, Professor and Tour Guide Eric Robinson will share his documentary on the Underground Railroad in the Riverbend. Robinson provides visuals and commentary to not-so-well known Underground Railroad locations, including Alton and Brighton. The event will premiere on L&Cs YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/lewisandclarkcc, at noon.

Im pleased that this year were able to offer some of my traditional staples, such as collaborations with faculty, criminal justice, radio broadcasting and communications, Hennings said. Having Eric Robinsons documentary on the local Underground Railroad is a great addition for our students and community.

To participate in a Zoom event, download the free meeting client at https://zoom.us/, and log in or create a new account. Just before the event begins, open Zoom, find the Home tab, click Join and enter the appropriate meeting ID to enter.

See the events calendar at www.lc.edu/events for more information on these activities and more, or follow Lewis and Clark Community College (@lewisandclarkcc) and Student Activities at L&C (@LewisandClarkStudentActivities) on Facebook.

New this year, Hennings is also encouraging the campus and greater community to check out Black History Month events being offered virtually through St. Louis County Library. A complete list of their programming can be found at www.slcl.org/black-history-celebration.

Hennings can be contacted at jhenning@lc.edu.
CHICAGO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Greeley and Hansen, a leading global engineering, architecture, and consulting firm in the water infrastructure sector, today named John Lenti as a Principal of Greeley and Hansen Architects, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Greeley and Hansen. As Principal and Managing Director, Lenti will oversee and direct day-to-day business operations, as well as advance strategic growth plans for Greeley and Hansen's architectural services practice.

John Lenti has been promoted to Principal of Greeley and Hansen Architects.

"John is a highly experienced lead architect who has designed a wide range of water, wastewater, and solid waste facilities as well as other municipal, commercial, and mixed-use projects," said John C. Robak, Chief Executive Officer of Greeley and Hansen. "He has extensive expertise in sustainability and resource efficiency, and he has been instrumental in developing building systems that maximize infrastructure resiliency for our clients."

Lenti is a licensed architect in nine states, a LEED AP, and an Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP). He earned an MBA in sustainability from the University of Saint Francis, a Master of Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Lenti is also a member of the American Institute of Architects, the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, and the Water Environment Research Federation.

About Greeley and Hansen Architects

Greeley and Hansen Architects is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Greeley and Hansen, a leading global engineering, architecture and consulting firm serving the water sector since 1914. Greeley and Hansen Architects is a full-service architectural firm with proven expertise to meet the varied needs of municipal and industrial clients today and in the future. The firm offers a complete range of architectural services to successfully deliver projects from planning and design through construction services. http://www.greeley-hansen.com/new.htm

For more information, contact:

Miguel Carbajal

800-837-9779

[email protected]

SOURCE Greeley and Hansen

Related Links

http://www.greeley-hansen.com


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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More than 50% of the companies listed in the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) have at least one woman on the board of directors as of 31 July 2020, slightly up from 47 percent in 2019, according to the Board Diversity Index 2020 report released by TheBoardroom Africa.

The report indicates that more effort is needed by EGX listed companies to increase the representation of women on their boards of directors,

TheBoardroom Africa is a regional network of female executives in Africa that aims to improve access to board opportunities for women and accelerate the presence of women on boards by working with development finance institutions, private equity investors, and companies to accelerate the appointment of women on boards and build a growing pipeline of board-ready women.

The report was prepared in partnership with the Women on Boards Observatory at The American University in Cairo (AUC) and the EGX.

The index tracks the number of listed companies boards by country and identifies all board seats filled by women while also monitoring the number of women chairs and in other executive positions.

To date, the index covers publicly listed boards across 11 African countries, including Egypt.

As of July 2020, among the 242 companies listed on the EGX, women hold only 10.8 percent of board seats, according to the report.

Although this figure represents a 0.7 percent increase in board seats held by women from 2019, women are rarely included in the governance and management of some of Egypts most notable companies, said the report.

Key sectors assessed in the 2020 index include banking, energy, industrial goods, shipping, textiles, travel and leisure, and utilities.

Among these sectors, the textile and durables sectors have the highest percentage of women board directors, with 2 out of 8 companies having more than 30 percent female directors, according to the report.

However, in terms of the aggregate number of women, the energy and support services sector outperformed all sectors, as 23 percent of all directors in the sector are female, according to the index.

Marcia Ashong, founder and CEO of TheBoardroom Africa, said that over the last decade, Egyptian women have made significant strides in access to rights, education, and the labour market.

While Egyptian universities turn out more female than male graduates, those gains have failed to translate to equitable representation in the workforce and at the highest level of leadership, the boardroom, she added.

Ghada Howaidy, founder of the Women on Boards Observatory and associate dean for executive education and external relations at AUCs School of Business, said that good corporate governance helps firms improve performance, drive growth, and manage risk.

To be truly effective, a board requires a diversity of skills and perspectives. The Board Diversity Index shows that many EGX listed companies are true gender diversity champions, but that there is still much work to be done, she added.

Touching upon the role of stock exchanges in promoting gender diversity, Mohamed Farid, chairman of the EGX, said that the bourse is fully committed and aware of the impact that greater inclusivity could have in building competitive, value-creating companies and ,therefore, resilient and inclusive economies.

To that end, we have collaborated with the AUC Women on Board Observatory to promote stronger board governance for listed companies, build a board ready women database, offer board placement services to listed companies, develop an annual monitoring report for women on boards, as well as provide corporate governance awareness and training programs with an embedded gender component to highlight the benefits of board diversity, said Farid.

Moving on, to close the gender gap, all listed companies are now required to put at least one woman on their boards.

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Worshipful Company of Distillers launches scholarship programme

The Worshipful Company of Distillers is launching a programme of scholarships and bursaries which will support more than 100 students over the next three years.

The Livery will be tripling financial support for key qualifications with its UK education partners and will be placing greater focus on helping students from less advantaged and more diverse backgrounds.

Jonathan Driver, Master of the Worshipful Company of Distillers, said: "During these unprecedented times, we are very pleased to be able to make a difference to young people to help them attain future employment opportunities. We will also be capitalising on the rich source of skills and knowledge that resides in the membership of the Livery company, by offering a powerful new mentoring programme with added networking benefits."

As part of the new programme, the Livery will fund:

25 Distillers' awards of bursaries and scholarships for students to take Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) qualifications at levels one to three

Two full bursaries per year at the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (IBD) for the General Certificate in Distilling, plus two further three-year full bursaries per year and an annual scholarship for the IBD's Diploma in Distilling

Continued delivery of the MSc course scholarship at the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD) at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh

Past Master at the Worshipful Company of Distillers, Richard Watling, who leads the programme, added: "These new initiatves will provide real impetus for training in distilled spirits in the UK and we are thrilled to be able to support talented young people using all our considerable resources."

2 February 2021 - Bethany Whymark
One week ago, an 18-year-old man was attacked and stabbed to death by two minors in Bonnevoie.

The presumed culprits are aged 15 and 17, one of them already being known to the authorities. Sadly, this was not the only violent incident recorded last week, as another group of minors threatened a bus driver in Kirchberg, and yet another minor committed a knife attack in Gare.

Luxembourg City Mayor Lydie Polfer commented: "The willingness to commit violence seems to be growing and it is time to address the issue. We need to open a constructive dialogue with young people and break this vicious circle. For a while now it has been a question of time until one of these incidents had fatal consequences."

The capital's council met on Monday for an extraordinary session. They were joined by police representatives, as well as the responsible minister. It was concluded that all parties need to cooperate to tackle the problem effectively. Mayor Polfer noted in that regard that preventive measures could already be introduced in primary schools, as there have also been violent incidents at young ages.

Polfer further explained: "Fear in these areas of the city remains high. I have been contacted by several parents, who told me how lucky their children were not to be present during the deadly attack. They are also afraid that retribution might take place."

The Luxembourg City council is adamant about sending out a clear message, denouncing violence as unacceptable under any circumstances.
Marshall Receives Grant for Illegal Dump Cleanup

By West Kentucky Star Staff





MARSHALL COUNTY - On Tuesday, Governor Andy Beshear and Kentucky Energy and Environment (EEC) Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman announced $587,000 in grants for the cleanup of 72 illegal dumps in 18 counties, including Marshall County.Lisa Evans, Grants Administrator for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet told West Kentucky Star that Marshall County will receive $2,084.58 as a reimbursement for a previously cleaned dumpsite.The grants for the Illegal Open Dump Grant Program originate from the Kentucky Pride Fund, which is generated through a $1.75 environmental remediation fee for each ton of garbage that is dumped at Kentucky municipal solid waste landfills."Kentuckians deserve to live in clean, safe communities. Illegal dump sites can affect families' quality of life and property values through no fault of their own," Gov. Beshear said. "This grant program provides a healthier environment for thousands of our people."State officials say Kentucky has made great progress in addressing illegal dump sites thanks to the funding, along with statewide cleanup and education campaigns hosted by local, state, and federal agencies.To receive the funding, the counties were required to provide a 25 percent match on the grant amount. The Kentucky Energy and Environment may waive the match on any illegal dump where the cleanup cost will exceed $50,000.Other counties that will receive funding from the program include: Adair, Breathitt, Butler, Floyd, Green, Hart, Henderson, Johnson, LaRue, Lawrence, Madison, Magoffin, Metcalfe, Pike, Warren, Whitley and Wolfe.
A still frame from a Rochester Police Department body-camera video shows a handcuffed 9-year-old girl in police custody in a police cruiser after police used pepper spray on her as she screamed for her father, in Rochester, N.Y., on Jan. 29. 2021. (Rochester Police Department via AP)

Rochester Mayor Suspends Police Officers Who Restrained 9-Year-Old Girl With Pepper Spray

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren has ordered the suspension of police officers who were involved in using pepper spray to restrain a young girl, the city announced late Monday.

Body camera videos released by Rochester, New York, police showed officers using pepper spray to restrain a handcuffed 9-year-old girl on Avenue B on Friday.

The city did not specify how many police officers were suspended. The suspensions will continue until an internal police investigation is completed.

What happened Friday was simply horrible, and has rightly outraged, all of our community, Warren said in a statement.

Rochester Mayor Lovely A. Warren addresses members of the media during a press conference related to the ongoing protest in the city in Rochester, N.Y., on Sept. 6, 2020. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Unfortunately, state law and union contract prevents me from taking more immediate and serious action. I will lead the charge that these laws be changed as part of our response to the Governors Executive Order 203, she added, referring to an executive order about policing reform that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed in June 2020.

And, we will be asking our state legislators to join me, and make numerous changes in Civil Service Law that would allow cities to more quickly issue discipline in cases like this one, Warren added.

Police released body camera footage on Sunday of the Friday incident that showed officers trying to restrain the girl. Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson told reporters at a news conference on Sunday that officers were responding to a family disturbance call, and that the girl was suicidal. He said the girl, who is not identified, indicated she wanted to kill herself and she wanted to kill her mom. He added that after the girl tried to run away, officers handcuffed her and tried to drive her to a hospital in the patrol car. The police body camera videos showed that the girl, who appears to be black, was restrained on the ground in a snowy scene. At one point in the video, she asks them to remove the snow from her, complaining of the cold. You had your chance, one officer tells her, while another shouts, Get in the car now! Throughout the video, the girl was yelling I want my dad! as she resists getting into the patrol car.

This is your last chance. Otherwise pepper spray is going into your eyeballs, an officer tells her, adding, I will call your dad.

An officer then used pepper spray on the girl to restrain her, the department said on Sunday.

The girl was later taken to Rochester General Hospital and released to her family.

Warren met with the interim police chief, Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan, before announcing the suspension of the officers.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James takes a question at a news conference in New York, N.Y., on Aug. 6, 2020. (Kathy Willens/AP Photo)

New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Monday that her office was looking into what happened. She called the incident deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable.

President of the Rochester Police Union Mike Mazzeo said Monday that although the arrest had not been an ideal situation, there had been no violation of conduct by police during the incident.

When its determined that she needs help, and theres a mental hygiene, they have to be restrained. If thats not going to be the policy, then we need to change them. But they have to operate on what they have and what they can utilize, he said of the police officers.

Im not saying theres not better ways to do things, but lets be realistic here in what were facing  Its not TV, its not Hollywood.

I think its clear that there needs to be an overhaul of city government, behavioral health, school district, and the health system. But the only changes being called for is policing. Very narrow vision for what is needed in this city! he said.

When asked by a reporter about how police were being considerate of the mental impact of their actions on the girl, Mazzeo responded, How about the traumatic situation that shes been dealing with. Did you listen to the words that her mother was saying to her? Thats whats sad. Thats whats disturbing.

Officers go home and say, How does that girl have a chance in life. Whats that officer supposed to do? he asked.

The New York Civil Liberties Union said Rochester police should no longer be involved in mental health crises.

There is no conceivable justification for the Rochester police to subject a 9-year-old to pepper spray, period, NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said Monday.

Protesters, among them advocates for Black Lives Matter, marched to the citys police station on Monday over the incident.

The latest incident comes months after Rochester saw protests over the death of Daniel Prude, a black man who was arrested in March 2020 when he was suffering a mental episode. Prude stopped breathing after officers put a spit guard over his head and pinned him to the ground face down for about two minutes to restrain him outside, in the snow.

A medical examiner concluded that Prudes death was a homicide caused by complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint. The report lists excited delirium and acute intoxication by the recreational drug phencyclidine, or PCP, as contributing factors.

After Prudes death, Warren suspended seven police officers over the incident, and fired the police chief, LaRon Singletary. Warren then named Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan as the first woman to run the department.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Even as more districts reopen their buildings and President Biden joins the chorus of those saying schools can safely resume in-person education, hundreds of thousands of Black parents say they are not ready to send their children back. That reflects both the disproportionately harsh consequences the coronavirus has visited on nonwhite Americans and the profound lack of trust that Black families have in school districts, a longstanding phenomenon exacerbated by the pandemic.

It also points to a major dilemma: School closures have hit the mental health and academic achievement of nonwhite children the hardest, but many of the families that education leaders have said need in-person education the most are most wary of returning.

That is shifting the reopening debate in real time. In Chicago, only about a third of Black families have indicated they are willing to return to classrooms, compared with 67 percent of white families, and the citys teachers union, which is hurtling toward a strike, has made the disparity a core part of its argument against in-person classes.

In New York City, about 12,000 more white children have returned to classrooms than Black students, though Black children make up a larger share of the overall district. In Oakland, Calif., just about a third of Black parents said they would consider in-person learning, compared with more than half of white families. And Black families in Washington, Nashville, Dallas and other districts also indicated they would keep their children learning at home at higher rates than white families.
Wilmington, DE and Ashdod, Israel, Feb. 02, 2021), a non-invasive device for measuring glucose levels in people with Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, announced today that it has promoted Erez Ben-Zvi to General Manager in addition to his current role as Vice President of Product, effective immediately. Mr. Ben-Zvi will assume the day-to-day responsibilities of David Malka who will be stepping down as President effective April 6, 2021.



Erez joined the Company in July of 2020 as Vice President of Product where he has been a principal driving force in restructuring and organizing a strong team and developing our future product roadmap.

Erez brings over 15 years of exceptional product management and leadership experience developing rapid growth and commercialization strategies for medical device companies, including 3D Systems Healthcare, Simbionix, and Paieon Medical. He holds a B.Tech degree in Industrial Engineering from Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, and an M.B.A from Bar-Ilan University.

"On behalf of the entire Board, we are happy to announce the promotion of Erez as General Manager, where he will take on more responsibility and continue to contribute to the growth and success of Integrity," said Andrew Sycoff, member of the board of directors. "Since joining the Company last year, Erez has demonstrated superior leadership qualities, and together with his vast experience, industry knowledge and market vision we are thrilled to have him guide us during the next stage of the Company's development. Lastly, on behalf of the Company, we want to thank David Malka for his dedication and contribution to the Company and wish him well in his future endeavors."

"I leave the Company at a very exciting time in its history", said David Malka. "It has been a privilege to serve the Company since its founding and I wish Erez the best in his new role, and I look forward to the Company's continued success."

About GlucoTrack

GlucoTrack is a truly non-invasive monitoring device that rapidly measures and displays an individual's glucose level in about a minute without finger pricking or any pain. GlucoTrack features an ear clip with sensors that clips to the earlobe and measures the user's glucose level using innovative and patented sensor technologies. The measured signals are analyzed using a proprietary algorithm and then a calculated glucose level is displayed on a small handheld device the size of a small mobile phone. The glucose results are stored in the device and used to estimate HbA1c level using a proprietary algorithm. The device can also display glucose values graphically, enabling the user to monitor glucose levels over time. GlucoTrack has received approvals for CE Mark in Europe and from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in South Korea for type 2 diabetes and prediabetes and is currently available in selected markets in Europe and Asia.

About Integrity Applications, Inc.

Integrity Applications, Inc.and http://www.glucotrack.com .

Investor Contact: investors@integrity-app.com

Media Contact: media@integrity-app.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "expect", "plan" and "will" are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that certain important factors may affect Integrity Applications' actual results and could cause such results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements that may be made in this news release. Factors that may affect Integrity Applications' results include, but are not limited to, the ability of Integrity Applications to raise additional capital to finance its operations (whether through public or private equity offerings, debt financings, strategic collaborations or otherwise); risks relating to the receipt (and timing) of regulatory approvals (including FDA approval); risks relating to enrollment of patients in, and the conduct of, clinical trials; risks relating to its current and future distribution agreements; risks relating to its ability to hire and retain qualified personnel, including sales and distribution personnel; and the additional risk factors described in Integrity Applications' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 as filed with the SEC on April 14, 2020.
The public distribution system is criticised for encouraging the poor to satiate their hunger with cheap cereals at the expense of other non-cereal food items, thus indirectly aggravating deficiencies of protein and other nutrients. An in-depth analysis shows that this is not actually so; the consumption of some non-cereal foods increases with the consumption of cereals, indicating a complementary relationship. This becomes possible through the implicit savings the PDS generates for its beneficiaries, due to subsidised cereal prices. Despite this, nutrient deficiency among poorer sections persists, and a comprehensive expansion of the PDS introducing certain non-cereal foods into its ambit can help tackle this issue.

The discourse on the public distribution system (PDS) in India has mostly been centred on its ability (or the lack of it) to provide basic food security to the poor in terms of calories, by providing carbohydrate-rich cereals at a cheap price. There are studies that have shown evidence of its effectiveness in augmenting the calorie intakes of poor beneficiaries (Kumar and Ayyappan 2014). The critics, on the other hand, have pointed out the inefficiencies of the PDS due to leakages, and targeting errors (both inclusion and exclusion errors), particularly after the universal PDS was restricted to below poverty line (BPL) families and restructured into a targeted public distribution system (TPDS) in 1997 (Kochar 2005; Ray 2007).

However, post 200506, some states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, etc, rapidly checked and reversed the problems of leakage and poor targeting (Khera 2011). Some of the problems faced by the PDSby the very act of restructuring from universal to a TPDSgave rise to a demand for restoring the universal PDS. In 2013, the National Food Security Act (NFSA) came into being, which expanded the coverage of PDS much beyond the BPL population. A primary survey evaluation conducted in 2016, with a substantial sample size and spread,1 shows that the NFSA, 2013 did achieve a higher coverage of households with lower targeting errors, though a lot still remains to be desired (Dreze et al 2019).
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Two Arrested in Graves Stolen Trailer Case

By West Kentucky Star Staff

GRAVES COUNTY - Authorities arrested two men Tuesday morning after a camper trailer was stolen in Graves County.The Graves County Sheriff's Office said a deputy responded shortly after 6 a.m. to a report of a stolen camper on West Slaughter Road. The trailer was found a short time later near the intersection of Coplen Road and Central Road.The deputy located and arrested 19-year-old Hunter Hedgepath and 18-year-old Blake Jacoway, who still had the trailer hooked up to the truck they were in.Hedgepath and Jacoway were charged with theft by unlawful taking over $10,000. Jacoway was also charged with possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.Both were booked into the Graves County Jail and the camper trailer was returned to the owner with minor damage.
Alabama hasnt received a lot of coronavirus vaccine doses compared to other states - Gov. Kay Ivey said in a release late last month she was frustrated the federal government couldnt keep up with demand. But even with its limited supply, Alabama is struggling to get those doses into arms.

There are a number of ways to measure vaccine distribution, but any way you look, Alabama is near the bottom. As of Feb. 1, the state was dead last in the nation for the percentage of vaccines given out relative to what it got from the federal government, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the state is near the bottom in all other measures.

Yet the state is preparing to open up the eligibility requirements for who can get the vaccine, allowing teachers and people over 65 to sign up. Thats approximately 1 million more Alabamians eligible for vaccines as of Feb. 8, despite state concerns about the supply and no availability to sign up in many counties.

Alabama has received fewer doses per capita than most other states.

As of Feb. 1 - the last day for which CDC data was available for all states and the District of Columbia - Alabama had received 659,400 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines. Thats just under 13,500 doses per 100,000 people - the 10th lowest mark in the country.

[Cant see the map? Click here.]

As of Feb. 1, Alabama had given out 358,280 doses, according to CDC data. Thats about 7,300 doses per 100,000 people. That ranks second to last in the nation behind only Idaho.

In terms of the percent of its population that has received at least one dose - both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two doses, several weeks apart, for full protection - Alabama ranks fourth from the bottom.

Alabama is second to last in terms of percentage of people whove gotten a second dose.

And the slow rollout is not entirely based on supply issues, as Alabama has been slower than other states to distribute what it does have.

The 358,280 doses Alabama has reportedly administered is just 54.3 percent of the doses its actually received. That percentage is lowest in the nation.

[Cant see the map? Click here.]

There is a slight delay between data shown by the CDC and that shown by state health departments.

The Alabama Department of Public Health reports 373,907 doses have been administered by the state, out of 714,275 doses delivered to the state. But at 52.3 percent, that percentage is actually less than what the CDC data shows.

Neither of those figures includes the doses delivered to long term care facilities in Alabama through a federal program that is counted separately.

Alabamas struggle with vaccine distribution has been well documented. The state rolled out an online dashboard for vaccine signups earlier this week, and the rollout has frustrated many. As of Tuesday morning, only 31 of Alabamas 67 counties had time slots available for vaccine sign-ups through the health department, and many of those appointments werent available until March or were only for second doses.

The White House has warned states against holding back second doses - saying instead that vaccine should be used when its available. Last month, Alabama said it would take doses away from providers who werent giving them out fast enough - and since then health officials have moved at least 4,000 doses from slow providers. But Alabama health officials last week said that hadnt happened, and supply was still based on population.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.
According to a study published in Frontiers in Immunology, the reason is their genetic heterogeneity and lack of proportional representation in the Brazilian bone marrow bank. Credit: Diogo Meyer

A paper by a multidisciplinary team of scientists affiliated with various Brazilian institutions, including the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and the National Cancer Institute (INCA), shows that people of African descent are less likely to find a donor in the National Register of Voluntary Bone Marrow Donors (REDOME) than people with predominantly European ancestry. The paper is published in Frontiers in Immunology.

REDOME is the world's third-largest bone marrow bank, with more than 5 million registered voluntary donors.

According to the study, having mainly African genetic ancestry can reduce a person's chances of finding a donor by up to 60%, and having African copies of HLA genes, which must be compatible with the donor's to make a transplant possible, can reduce them by 75%.

As the degree of African ancestry increases, the likelihood of finding a match on REDOME decreases, according to the study, which also discusses what the authors argue is a weak correlation between self-identification in accordance with the categories used by IBGE, the national census bureau, and actual genetic ancestry. IBGE's classification "explains only a small amount" of people's ancestry, they write.

"The classification is coarse in terms of predicting the genes that matter for transplants, which are the immune function genes, but it's used by REDOME. Donors have to choose one of these categories when they fill out the registration form. A person can be of African or European ancestry in terms of immune function genes, but the identifiers 'black," 'brown' and 'white' don't really line up with those categories," said Diogo Meyer, a professor at USP who specializes in population genetics and was the principal investigator for the study.

The study concludes that people who self-identify as "preto" (black) or "pardo" (brown, i.e. mixed) are up to 57% less likely to find donors than those who self-identify as "branco" (white).

HLA (human leukocyte antigen) immune function genes bind to antigens, including potentially toxic residues of cellular metabolism or fragments of an invading pathogen. T-cells, an important part of the immune system, can distinguish between antigens produced by the organism and invaders. When HLA molecules bind to antigens that are not recognized, immune responses are triggered. A perfect match between recipient and donor is therefore critical to avoid rejection and assure the success of a stem cell transplant.

There are several reasons for the difficulty of finding a match for Brazilians of African descent, Meyer explained. They are not proportionally represented in REDOME, which anyway uses imprecise ethnic categories. They are more diverse and heterogeneous genetically than the rest of the population, and two unrelated Africans are unlikely to have identical HLAs because human migration began in Africa. The people who made the journey carried only part of the existing variability.

The paper, whose first author is biologist Kelly Nunes, a postdoctoral fellow at USP, associates the 75% reduction in the odds of finding a donor with having an MHC region of exclusively African ancestry. MHC stands for major histocompatibility complex, a group of genes that help the immune system recognize foreign substances. It includes the HLAs.

"Self-identification as 'preto' is a predictor that the person has African genetic ancestry in their genome. That includes immune function genes, which are the ones that matter in the case of a transplant," Meyer said. "This is a rule of thumb, however, and there are exceptions, especially in a highly admixed population like Brazil's, where it's not unusual for a person who self-identifies as 'preto' to have European HLA genes. Indeed, donors for African patients in REDOME may self-identify as 'branco." However, the more genetically African individuals we found in a population sample, the larger the proportion of black donors."

The results do not mean black people have no chance of finding a donor in REDOME, Meyer stressed. "We compared the probabilities of matches for different ancestries. In an actual transplant case, HLA typing has to be done to a high degree of precision, and the donor must be in good health and have a carefully analyzed genotype to make sure they're genuinely compatible. Each step reduces the chances of a transplant occurring," he said.

Combinations of chromosomes

Many questions remain unanswered, according to Meyer. "One thing we haven't addressed so far is whether what makes it hard for Brazilians with African ancestry to find donors is having African chromosomes or having an admixture of African and European genes," he said. "The European and African parts are presumably represented in REDOME, but the two combined may be rare, and thousands of these combinations may be possible."

According to Meyer, the team cannot yet answer the question regarding the degree to which admixture and the percentage of African ancestry hinder a match. "These two things are a little different. What we know is that on average people with African HLA genes tend to have more difficulty than people with European ancestry," he said. "It remains to be seen if there are combinations of European and African chromosomes that can also reduce the probability of a match."

In Brazil, moreover, the term "African" can refer to people from various different parts or regions of Africa. "We may be dealing with genotypes that only exist in Brazila mixture of ancestries associated with different parts of the African continent," Meyer said. "All this depends on what's represented in REDOME since we didn't characterize the repository from the genetic standpoint. We just had the labels 'preto," 'branco' and 'pardo.'"

Methodology and sampling

The group, which comprised scientists in the areas of human health, biology, statistics, and computation, used two Brazilian cohorts as samples: Recipient Epidemiology and Donor EvaluationBrazil Sickle Cell Disease (REDS-III Brazil SCD); and EPIGEN-Brazil, part of a Latin America-wide population genomics and genetic epidemiology initiative.

From the former they selected 2,703 individuals with sickle cell disease recruited from four institutions: three blood banks (Fundacao Hemominas in Belo Horizonte, Juiz de Fora and Montes Claros; Fundacao Hemope in Recife; and Fundacao Hemorio in Rio de Janeiro); and the Children's Institute of Hospital das Clinicas, the teaching and general hospital run by the University of Sao Paulo's Medical School (FM-USP).

In the case of the EPIGEN-Brazil cohort, 5,334 individuals from Salvador (Bahia State), Bambui (Minas Gerais State), and Pelotas (Rio Grande do Sul State) were included in the study sample.

"The sample wasn't made up of people on the waiting list for a bone marrow transplant," Meyer said. "It was a convenience sample comprising individuals with known ancestry." With regard to those with sickle cell disease, however, the results may anticipate future situations. "Most people with the disease are of African descent and there's a prospect of treatment by marrow transplant, so these are people who may benefit from this type of intervention in future."

Laboratory analysis of the genotypes of more than 8,000 individuals would have been too costly, so the researchers used a technique called SNP-based HLA imputation. "The structure of our genome lets us make predictions. A mutation in one position in the genome can predict another since we pass on our genetic material in the form of bits of chromosomes. These bits are recombined, but not fused as if in a blender: there's a certain logic, enabling statisticians and geneticists to develop an algorithm to predict a person's HLAs from the mutations in their physical vicinity," Meyer explained.

The software used to infer genetic ancestry was fed with data for the frequency with which genetic variants occur in the ethnic groups comprised in the Brazilian population.

Next steps

According to the researchers, the results support the idea that if REDOME wished to be representative and assure equitable access to people of African descent, it would have to have more donors with African ancestry. "However, for people of African descent to have as many matches as people of European descent, it would probably be necessary for the proportion of the former in REDOME to be larger than the proportion in the total population, since they're more 'demanding' in terms of sampling."

The researchers now plan to find out whether it is difficult for Brazilians of African descent to find a donor because African chromosomes are rare in REDOME or because the admixture with European chromosomes creates hard-to-locate combinations. "We also want to conduct an evolutionary quantitative study to investigate kinship in terms of MHC in different parts of the worldin other words, to find out how much more closely related two Europeans are on average than two Africans," Meyer said.

Explore further Genetic variants linked to heart health in African American childhood cancer survivors

More information: Kelly Nunes et al, How Ancestry Influences the Chances of Finding Unrelated Donors: An Investigation in Admixed Brazilians, Frontiers in Immunology (2020). Kelly Nunes et al, How Ancestry Influences the Chances of Finding Unrelated Donors: An Investigation in Admixed Brazilians,(2020). DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.584950
Bengal-Maharashtra fake currency racket: NIA arrests key accused

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 02: The National Investigation Agency has arrested an absconding accused, Mohammad Shadab Khan in connection with a fake currency case.

The case was originally registered in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra following the seizure of 239 fake currency notes of the Rs 2,000 denomination with a face value of Rs 4,78,000. The notes were seized from the possession of Rehan Abbas, Safad Mukthar, Ani Iqlakh Shaikh, Kishor Namdeo Phular, and Rohit Singh.

NIA charges 4 in Siliguri fake currency case

All are residents of Bandra. During the probe, three more accused persons namely Samir Kalicharan, Sabir Ali and Abdul Kader were arrested.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

The NIA filed a chargesheet against 8 persons before the Special Court in Mumbai. The NIA said that the Khan, was the key player in the smuggling racket as he was responsible for taking delivery of the fake currency notes at Malda, West Bengal from Samir Mondal and then bringing it to Mumbai for the purpose of circulation of various parts in the country. The NIA said that further investigation is and the probe is also focusing on the fake currency traffickers in Bangladesh.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 8:25 [IST]
New research has found that men who have the Western world's most common genetic disorder are more likely to develop dementia, compared to those without the faulty genes.

Researchers at the University of Exeter and the University of Connecticut have previously found that men with two faulty genes that cause the iron overload condition haemochromatosis are more likely to develop liver cancer, arthritis and frailty, compared to those without the faulty genes.

Now, the team's new analysis of more than 335,000 people of European ancestry in UK Biobank, funded by the Medical Research Council and published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, has found that men who carry the two faulty genes that cause haemochromatosis are more likely to develop dementia than men who do not carry any copies of the faulty gene.

The latest study analysed 2,890 men and women, aged 40-70 years with two faulty haemochromatosis genes (called HFE C282Y homozygous) in UK Biobank. The team found that 25 of the 1,294 men with the two faulty genes went on to develop dementia, which was 83 per cent more common than for those without the faulty genes. The team also found a build-up of iron in key areas of the brain linked to dementia, in a subset of men with two faulty genes that cause hemochromatosis. The same group of men were also significantly more likely to develop delirium, itself linked to dementia, over a ten-year follow-up. These findings could influence calls for the UK National Screening Committee to recommend screening for the condition, which is currently under consultation.

Haemochromatosis causes a build-up of iron around the body. An estimated 175,000 men and boys of European ancestry in the UK have the two faulty genes that cause haemochromatosis. The disorder is known as the "Celtic curse" because it is particularly prevalent in Celtic bloodlines. Reliable tests are available to identify those at risk - blood tests for measuring iron levels and genetic testing. Symptoms can include feeling tired all the time, muscle weakness and joint pains, meaning it is often misdiagnosed as the signs of ageing. Once diagnosed, the condition is easily treated by a process similar to donating blood several times a year, to lower iron levels.

Lead author Dr Janice Atkins, of the University of Exeter Medical School said: "We know that a build-up of iron in the brain is linked to dementia in people without haemochromatosis. Our study is the first to show that men with the mutations for haemochromatosis may have a substantially increased risk of dementia, although the numbers of people who develop dementia are still low. We now need more research to establish whether the genetic condition causes brain decline, particularly as haemochromatosis is easy to treat, and could be a route to preventing some dementia."

Professor David Melzer, who leads the research group in Exeter said: "In the past, there was debate about whether having the haemochromatosis faulty genes caused excess disease. It is now clear that these genes cause high rates of liver cancer and increased rates of several diseases including dementia. We now urgently need clinical trials of early diagnosis and treatment for people with the haemochromatosis genes in the UK, to pave the way to a screening program for this condition."

Of those 1,294 men with two faulty genes, 78 participated in an MRI study which included brain scanning. Their data were compared to 11,082 participants who did not have the two faulty genes. The brain imaging data on men with the two faulty genes for haemochromatosis found a build-up of iron in areas of the brain including the hippocampus and thalamus, known to be linked to memory.

Haemochromatosis tends to be more serious in men, with women partially protected because they lose iron through menstruation and childbirth, although some younger women do develop the disease. The study found no increase in dementia risk in women with faulty haemochromatosis genes.

Dr David Steffens, Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and a co-author of the paper, noted: "This study adds to the list of modifiable factors that may point to prevention of dementia. If our results are replicated, it may become routine for clinicians to test for hemochromatosis in the evaluation of patients with memory complaints and in the screening of older asymptomatic patients."

Neil McClements, Chief Executive of the charity Haemochromatosis UK, said: "This study furthers our understanding of the toxic effects of excess iron on the body. It's important that families with genetic haemochromatosis get their relatives screened for the condition. Early diagnosis saves lives and improves quality of life, too."

The NHS advises that it is important to talk to your GP if you have a parent or sibling with haemochromatosis, even if you don't have symptoms yourself - tests can be done to check if you're at risk of developing problems. People are also advised to talk to their GPs about haemochromatosis if they have the following persistent or worrying symptoms - particularly if you have a northern European family background. Typical symptoms include feeling very tired all the time (fatigue); weight loss; weakness and joint pain. Also, some men with haemochromatosis develop an inability to get or maintain an erection (erectile dysfunction), and some women have irregular periods or absent periods. These symptoms usually come on between ages 30 and 60.

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Useful links:

NHS: https:/ / www. nhs. uk/ conditions/ haemochromatosis/

Patient charity: https:/ / www. haemochromatosis. org. uk/

The paper is entitled "Hemochromatosis mutations, brain iron imaging and dementia in the UK Biobank cohort", by Janice L Atkins, Luke C Pilling, Christine J Heales, Sharon Savage, Chia-Ling Kuo, George A Kuchel, David C Steffens and David Melzer, and is published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. https:/ / content. iospress. com/ articles/ journal-of-alzheimers-disease/ jad201080

About the University of Exeter Medical School

The University of Exeter Medical School is part of the University of Exeter's College of Medicine and Health. Our mission is to improve the health of the South West and beyond, through the development of high quality graduates and world-leading research that has international impact.

As part of a Russell Group university, we combine this world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 19,000 students and is ranked 12th in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020.

The University of Exeter Medical School's Medicine course is in the top 10 in the Complete University Guide 2020.

The College's Medical Imaging programme is ranked in the top 5 in the Guardian Guide 2020 and the Complete University Guide 2020.

The University of Exeter entered the world top 20 for Biomedical and Health Sciences in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2019, based on the percentage of publications ranked in the top 10 per cent most cited. https:/ / medicine. exeter. ac. uk/

About the Journal Alzheimer's Disease
Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur fears her party is losing touch with the working class.

In recent interviews with The Hill newspaper, Kaptur recalled one Democratic colleague's advice to the constituents in her Rust Belt district.

'Well, Congresswoman Kaptur, the answer is: Leave,' Kaptur says she was told, declining the identify the member.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, an Ohio Democrat who is the longest-serving woman in the House, told The Hill newspaper that her Democratic colleagues are losing touch with the working class

Residents of Toledo are photographed in November loading up items from a food pantry. Kaptur warned that Democrats from more affluent districts are dominating the party

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (left) meets with then Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris (right) in Cleveland, Ohio. While Joe Biden won Kaptur's district, President Donald Trump made inroads

'They just can't understand,' Kaptur continued. 'They can't understand a family that sticks together because that's what they have. Their loved ones are what they have, their little town, their home, as humble as it is - that's what they have .'

'Respect it. It was so insensitive,' she added.

Kaptur, who started representing her hometown of Tolelo in 1983, is the longest serving female House member. Her 9th Congressional district has been nicknamed the 'snake by the lake' for curving around Lake Erie almost to Cleveland.

She told The Hill that it ranked 418th in median household income.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents the country's fourth richest district.

Kaptur told The Hill that she fears the party is being dominated by members from more affluent districts.

'Several of my colleagues who are in the top ranks have said to me, "You know, we don't understand your part of the country." And they're very genuine,' Kaptur said. 'You can't understand what you haven't been a part of.'

That part of the country has increasingly become more red, especially with the advent of President Donald Trump.

While Ohio twice went for President Barack Obama and then Vice President Joe Biden, Trump won it in back-to-back races.

In her own Congressional district, while Hillary Clinton and Biden won easily, Trump made gains in 2020 attracting nearly 40 per cent of the vote - a 9-point improvement compared to Mitt Romney in 2012.

Trump lapped up working class support by branding himself the champion of the 'forgotten man and the forgotten woman,' as his adviser Kellyanne Conway said.

After Democrats lost a number of House seats in purple districts in 2020, despite winning the presidency, some in the caucus argued that the rhetoric on the left was what hurt them.

On a call after the election, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a moderate Virginia Democrat, said the party needed to 'not use the word "socialist" or "socialism" ever again.'

But Kaptur's own backing of self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016 over Clinton indicates it's more than just a moderate-left conversation.

Sanders' two presidential campaigns were centered on the idea of helping workers over billionaires, which resonated in Rust Belt communities.

Kaptur's own idea of how her party could move forward was to 'understand what has happened economically in these places,' she said. 'For heaven's sake!'
After a grueling national election in 2020, San Antonians are looking ahead to the May city election. A detailed Express-News Voter Guide will be released prior to the election.

When is Election Day?

General elections for the City of San Antonio is May 1. Early voting is from April 19-27.

Today, April 1, is the final day to register to vote in the upcoming election. To register or check your current status visit the Bexar County elections page.

What is on the ballot?

Mayor:

So far, 12 candidates have filed before the Feb. 12 deadline.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg: The incumbent filed on Jan. 22 and is seeking a third term. He was first elected in 2017. In 2019, he defeated Greg Brockhouse in a runoff with 51 percent of the vote.

Frank Muniz: The San Antonio lawyer filed on Jan. 15.

Tim Atwood: The middle school teacher filed on Jan. 15. Atwood ran in the 2019 mayoral race, but only received about 1 percent of the vote, according to Ballotpedia.

Denise Gutierrez-Homer: The former school teacher and interior designer filed on Jan. 22. She ran in 2019 for the District 2 city council seat but only received about 20 percent of the vote, according to Ballotpedia.

Ray Basaldua: The small business owner, who works in the construction industry, filed on Jan. 13.

Gary Allen: The retired teacher filed on Jan. 25. He ran to be the Republican nominee for the 20th U.S. Congressional District but lost in a runoff to Mauro Garza.

Jacq'ue Laurell Miller: The military employee, known as JL, filed Jan. 27.

Greg Brockhouse: Brockhouse is taking on Nirenberg again, filing for the mayoral race on Feb. 5. He was the District 6 councilmember from 2017 to 2019.

Michael "Commander" Idrogo: The Navy veteran ran for mayor in 2019 but only received .4 percent of the vote in the general election. He filed on Feb. 1.

Anthony "Tony" Diaz: He filed on Feb. 8.

Dan Martinez: He filed on Feb. 9.

Justin Macaluso: The director of manufacturing at a local lighting company filed Feb. 11.

Justin James Galvan: He filed Feb. 12

John Velasquez: The psychologist filed Feb. 12. He ran in the mayoral election in 2019 but only received 1.6 percent of the vote in the general election, according to Ballotpedia.

City Council:

All 10 city council seats are up for grabs. The city council members serve two-year terms for their respective districts.

Sixty candidates have filed for various seats.

The list of candidates for each district can be found here.

Other:

Fix SAPD: The local activist group was able to get 20,000 certified signatures to allow voters to decide if collective bargaining rights for police officers should be repealed. The potential repeal of Chapter 174 will be placed before the voters, City Clerk Tina Flores confirmed on Feb. 4.

Can I vote by mail?

San Antonio residents will be able to mail-in their ballots if they meet certain requirements, according to the Bexar County Elections Department. To receive a mail-in ballot, residents must be over the age of 65, disabled, out of the county at the time of the election or in jail without a conviction to be eligible.

Eligible residents must submit an application on the Elections Department website. This needs to be done each calendar year to be eligible and no later than 11 days before election day.
State Track: Arrows' Mack and Heesch among six area event winners on opening day

Watertown seniors Cooper Mack and Maggie Heesch and four other area athletes notched event wins Friday during the opening day of the 2021 State High School Track and Field Meet.
STOCKHOLM: Sweden has seen an increased spread of the British COVID variant, with 11% of screened positive tests showing the mutation, thought to be a more contagious form of the virus, the Public Health Agency said on Tuesday.

Out of a total of 2,220 positive samples that were screened for the British variant, about 250 were found to be of that strain.

The Health Agency also said it would not use Astra Zenecas COVID vaccine for people over 65, citing lack of evidence it was effective for that group.

Sweden, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, registered 9,649 new coronavirus cases since Friday, Health Agency statistics showed on Tuesday.

The figure compares to 9,123 cases the corresponding period last week.

The country of 10 million inhabitants registered 224 new deaths, taking the total to 11,815. The deaths registered have occurred over several days and sometimes weeks.

Swedens death rate per capita is several times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours, but lower than in several European countries that opted for lockdowns.

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
With an onslaught of freezing winter weather, doctors have one message for Philadelphians: Stay inside as much as possible.

In order to get frostbite, you have to be out in freezing temperatures, said Bob McNamara, chair of emergency medicine at Temple Universitys Lewis Katz School of Medicine. So the number-one thing would be to stay inside.

Temperatures in Philadelphia, which were already below freezing Wednesday, are expected to drop to the teens Thursday and remain below freezing until Sunday. Winds at 20- to 30-mph will make it feel even colder, and increase the risk of frostbite.

People should also be concerned about hypothermia, McNamara said, which can occur indoors too, if people dont have proper heating. Roughly half the cases of severe hypothermia we see happen indoors, he said.

But fear not! There is plenty you can do to prepare for the winter not-so-wonderland.

While curling up under a fuzzy blanket is always a good call, here are some tips from experts, including one whos just returned from Antarctica.

Frostbite

When the body gets cold, it restricts blood flow to the extremities, prioritizing major organs instead. So the first signs of frostbite include tingling or pain in the fingers, toes, ears, nose, and elsewhere on the face. Numbness and graying patches of skin are more serious indicators that frostbite is setting in.

Older people and young children are at high risk, as is anyone with a medical condition that might affect their circulation.

 READ MORE: How to keep your pets safe in freezing temperatures

Steps to Prevent It

Nothing beats staying indoors, but if you have to venture out, try to spend as little time outside as possible, McNamara said. And go prepared.

Ted Daeschler, a scientist at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, returned to Philadelphia one week ago from a research expedition in Antarctica, where he and colleagues camped in 5- to 15-degree temperatures.

He said he often wore two pairs of socks, hooded long underwear, a second layer of long underwear, shirt and pants, a fleece jacket, insulated wind pants, a wind jacket, a neck gator, and wool hat and gloves.

Still there were times when the wind made it too cold to work outside and we remained in our camp, he wrote in an email.

While you may not need to go to Antarctic levels of preparedness, its a good idea to follow the advice your parents gave you as a kid: warm hat, gloves, snow boots, a wind-resistant jacket, and layers of clothing. The air between layers retains heat, McNamara said.

 READ MORE: How to keep your pipes from freezing in cold weather

When to Get Help

"If you catch frostbite early, it can be reversed, McNamara said.

Mild cases of frostnip, in which the skin feels cold and is just starting to tingle, can be reversed by getting indoors or using a warm bath, he said.

But if the skin becomes pale, waxy, or hard, people should seek medical attention. Those are signs of tissue loss and may require amputation.

Every winter we see people who lose body parts from frostbite in the city of Philadelphia, McNamara said.

Hypothermia

When the body is exposed to the cold for long periods of time, it can lose heat faster than it can produce it, causing a dangerously low body temperature, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wet conditions are especially dangerous, even when temperatures are above freezing.

Hypothermia is a life-threatening condition, McNamara said. Major organs can stop functioning properly when body temperature drops.

It can be difficult to spot, though. People may have slurred speech, stumble or trip over themselves, and seem confused. A mistake people can make is to think they just had too much to drink, McNamara said.

 READ MORE: Tips for staying warm from Philadelphians who work outside

Steps to Prevent It

Stay inside and stay dry, the CDC recommends. People should check on neighbors and the elderly to make sure everyone has functioning heat. Not just a space heater, McNamara said.

When To Get Help

If you think someone has hypothermia, call 911 and get medical attention, McNamara said.

If youre stranded or waiting for emergency responders, try to get the person dry, wrap them up in blankets, and get them as warm as possible.

And a warning on alcohol: While some people believe drinking can stave off the cold, its actually very dangerous, McNamara said. Alcohol dilates the blood vessels on the skin, making you feel warm. But this process increases heat loss. So you wont know youre cold and youll be getting colder by the minute, McNamara said.

Another concern doctors in the emergency room see during cold snaps: people with broken bones and head injuries from slipping and falling on ice.

All the more reason to stay indoors, McNamara said.

 READ MORE: Biking in the winter: How to ride in freezing weather
In the series about a fictional Los Angeles high school, Screech was a nerdy sidekick to main character Zack Morris. Diamond reprised the role in two successful spinoff series throughout the 90s.

Diamond had first shared news of his diagnosis last month. TMZ reported that the cancer started elsewhere in his body and metastasized in his lungs.

Outside of the popular Saved By the Bell franchise, Diamond appeared in reality shows and music videos. But he also was known for an infamous sex tape released in 2006 that he later told Oprah Winfrey involved a stunt double and not him.

He had also served three months in prison for stabbing a patron at a Wisconsin bar in 2014.
University of Glasgow joins European University alliance

The University of Glasgow has secured associate member status of CIVIS - a European University alliance.

Amongst other shared objectives, CIVIS member universities aim to work together to boost international student exchanges, contribute to European civil society and increase cooperation with institutions in Africa.

The alliance aims to tackle the big social challenges of the 21st century, to carry out relevant research, and to work responsibly and sustainably with an eye to the future.

Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, said: Like the CIVIS alliance, the University of Glasgow is a collaboration-oriented civic university with its roots in our local community, but with global ambitions and impact.

We are an institution which has always been, and will always remain, proudly European. We celebrate our international outlook, while committing to social transformation and civic engagement at a local level.

Rachel Sandison, Vice Principal, External Relations at the University of Glasgow, said: Being part of the CIVIS European University alliance means growing our international collaborations and partnerships in Europe, providing many opportunities for both staff and students to engage.

In this post-Brexit landscape, Glasgow continues to consider itself a proudly European institution with much to contribute to, and many benefits to be had from, collaboration with European partners.

CIVIS includes partners from all types of higher education institutions and covers a broad geographic scope across Europe. This alliance will allow our students, academics and external partners to cooperate in inter-disciplinary teams to tackle some of the biggest issues facing us today including climate change and the environment.

The CIVIS Alliance is funded by the EU through the European University Initiative under the ERASMUS+ program and it focuses specifically on five thematic areas: health; cities, territories and mobilities; climate, environment and energy; digital and technological transformation; and society, cultures and heritage.

Professor Marian Preda, Rector of the University of Bucharest, President of the Board of Rectors of CIVIS, said: The alliance is made up of eight member universities with the University of Glasgow the only associate member. CIVIS develops innovative study and research programmes and projects with inter-disciplinary teams drawn from across Europe and Africa based on the five CIVIS themes.

The eight pioneer universities of CIVIS, one of the very first European universities, are positively delighted to welcome the University of Glasgow as an Associate partner. The amount of talent, experience and reach of the University of Glasgow, will significantly strengthen the alliance at a time when CIVIS is developing a range of ground-breaking initiatives in education, research, innovation, and links with society.

Moreover, we find that welcoming a Scottish university into a European alliance (with partners from Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, and Sweden), at this particular time in European history is, by itself, utterly significant.

For more information contact Aine Allardyce, Communications Manager, External Relations on email on aine.allardyce@glasgow.ac.uk

CIVIS

CIVIS is a European Civic University formed by the alliance of eight leading research higher education institutions across Europe - Aix-Marseille Universite, France; National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece; Universitatea din Bucuresti, Romania; Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium; Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain; Sapienza Universita di Roma, Italy; Stockholm University, Sweden and Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen, Germany.

Out of 54 applications received in 2019 under the first pilot call, the first 17 European University alliances involving 114 higher education institutions from 24 Member States were selected. The results of the 2nd pilot call in 2020 have now also been published. Out of 62 applications received, 24 new European Universities alliances have been selected involving 165 higher education institutions from 26 Member States and other countries participating in the Erasmus+ programme.

Full partner - those participating organisations that contribute actively to the achievement of the European Universities objectives. Each full partner must sign a mandate to confer to the coordinating organisation the responsibility of acting as main beneficiary and act in his name during the implementation of the proposal;

Associated partner - European Universities can involve associated partners who contribute to the implementation of specific tasks/activities or support the dissemination and sustainability of the alliance.
Australias ostensibly free press is regulated by a complex and controversial set of rules  none more so than our defamation laws which are arguably more rigorous than in any comparable democracy.

Nine, the owner of the Herald and The Age,has just fallen foul of those laws in relation to a joint investigation into Chinese-Australian billionaire and enthusiastic political donor Chau Chak Wing.

The Federal Court ordered the ABC and Nine to pay $590,000 for defaming Mr Chau by suggesting he paid bribes in the form of donations and and carried out the work of a secret lobbying arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

The media outlets say they are deeply disappointed by the judgment and urged state and territory legislators to speed up reforms to defamation laws that have been agreed upon by a national working group. Without in any way questioning the courts application of defamation law, the case is a reminder of some areas where the law needs to be improved.

Defamation law is crucial to regulating a free press. Citizens must have access to the courts to demand compensation from the media for malicious damage to their reputations. Newsrooms companies should not hide behind legal arguments when genuine mistakes are made. The Herald also accepts some readers may find this editorial self-serving.
TAIPEI, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infortrend Technology, Inc. (TWSE: 2495), the industry-leading enterprise storage provider, successfully enabled Chinese Provincial Public Security Department with a reliable, high performance and cost-effective EonStor GS unified storage solution for the physical evidence database system that is simultaneously accessed by more than 1,000 staff.

The Public Security Department of Jiangsu Province in China is a functional department in charge of the province's security maintenance, including public security, traffic, criminal and economic crimes, IT network security, border fire protection, immigration, and prisons within the province. The Department was looking for a cost-effective storage for setting a comprehensive management and control system with such functions as physical evidence entry and tracking, photo collection and archiving, inquiry, and statistical analysis. The main requirement was reliability and strong protection of centrally stored data, generated by all platforms. In their normal workflow, the database was simultaneously accessed by more than 1,000 people, so the storage had to offer high performance with response time not exceeding 5 milliseconds.

The Department selected EonStor GS 2000, as it is a perfect suit for the project requirements. GS 2000 guarantees performance of read/write 11,800/6,300 MB/s and 633K IOPS to provide 2,000 concurrent access connections so that personnel could query and rapidly retrieve the corresponding evidence material. Moreover, GS has a massive expandable storage capacity to satisfy the needs of evidence database growth, data protection and recovery functions, and simple management interface.

"The IT-staff of the Public Security Department chose EonStor GS 2000 for storing the evidence database because of its high performance and supported concurrent multi-user access; moreover, it offers the best cost/performance ratio compared to other vendors' solutions of the same type. The GS truly provides strong support for public security in handling cases," said Frank Lee, Senior Director of Product Planning.

Learn more about EonStor GS 2000

About Infortrend

Infortrend (TWSE: 2495) has been developing and manufacturing storage solutions since 1993. With a strong emphasis on in-house design, testing, and manufacturing, Infortrend storage delivers performance and scalability with the latest standards, user friendly data services, personal after-sales support, and unrivaled value. For more information, please visit www.infortrend.com

Infortrend and EonStor are trademarks or registered trademarks of Infortrend Technology, Inc.; other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
National League for Democracy (NLD) the elected ruling party of Myanmar had on Monday announced that its de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with several senior party officials had been 'detained' by the country's military in an apparent coup. The party's spokesperson had pointed out that the Nobel Peace Prize winner had issued a pre-emptive call to her people just hours before her arrest through her Facebook page and urged them to 'reject a coup' at all cost.

On Monday, Feb 1, Myanmar's military detained the democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and imposed a one-year state of emergency in the country as it seized power in a bloodless coup. It is imperative to note that the military claims that the arrest was made because of widespread assertions made against NLD over election fraud allegations in last year's elections. Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior NLD leaders were taken into custody by soldiers on the same day as the first new parliamentary session which was due to be held on Feb 1 since the national elections last November.

How did the crisis begin?

NLD first came to power in 2015 as the country just began flirting with the idea of a transitional democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi not only swept the polls then but also emerged as an immensely popular figure in the elections, sending clear signs to the Army that previously controlled the country for nearly 60 years since its independence. Her popularity among the people grew more with time and in 2019 helped her win the biggest mandate the country has ever see. All this despite the tarnished reputation the Noble Peace prize winner has earned over the alleged crackdown on the stateless Rohingya minorities in 2017  a crime which she denies she had any part in but continues to haunt her since then. It is important to note that during her previous term, Aung San Suu Kyi circumvented a rule that prevented her from becoming President by taking the de facto leadership of State Counsellor  a loophole which the military had not foreseen.

Given the chronology of events and her evident rise to power, the military claimed they had reason to suspect that the 2019 election was 'plagiarised by irregularities,' as reported by Myanmar Army TV. The allegations further suggested that the military had uncovered over 10 million instances of voter fraud in the country and have thus demanded the government-run elections commission to release voter lists for cross-referencing.

Following the allegations, both sides exchanged barbs until General Min Aung Hlaing  arguably the most powerful individual in the country who threatened to 'revoke' the recently drafted Constitution and send the country back to its previous form of ruling, that being a military-run government. Tensions grew after the General made such an open and violent call and also followed it up by briefly deploying tanks on the streets of Yangon and the nation's capital Naypyidaw along with pro-military protestors who took to the streets against the apparent election results.

Can Myanmar's military revoke the Constitution?

Myanmar's Constitution was drafted in 2008 with the intention of replacing the first Constitution adopted by the Constituent Assembly and enacted for the Union of Burma in 1947. After the 1962 Burmese coup, a second Constitution was enacted in 1974 which held the military in the highest regard. It wasn't until the 2008 Constitution  the third one since Myanmar's independence that the country's current Constitution was formed after a referendum which still gave the military a significant amount of power.

The Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) continues to enjoy 25% of seats in the Parliament unopposed, and automatically reserves key roles such as Home Ministry, Border Affairs, Defence Ministry, and one of the country's two vice presidency positions all to itself. It is mandated that these roles are headed by a serving military officer. This not only dilutes the little influence that civilian leaders have over the security establishment but they also risk losing the current status of democracy in transition if they upset the military and thereby expose the nation to the possibility of an older Constitutional framework.

Read | Myanmar leader Suu Kyi Aung given hero's welcome on return from The Hague

What is the current situation in Myanmar?

Television signals have been effectively cut across the country, as are phone and internet access in the national capital Naypyitaw. While intra-city travel is not banned, intra-state travel has been restricted and all passenger flights grounded. Phone service in other parts of the country have also been disengaged and internet access is reported to be patchy in some less volatile and violence-prone areas of the country.

The cities are barricaded with barbed wires, concrete roadblocks and military units have begun to appear outside government buildings such as City Halls with armoured tanks and soldiers deployed in Yangon, the largest and most populous city in the country. ATMs, restaurant and grocery shops are overcrowded as panic buying sets in, despite a large looming fear of Covid-19 infection. Local residents have out of fear removed the symbols of Aung San Suu Kyis party and NLD flag from their premises and there is a great deal of outcry on social media as people take to Facebook and Twitter to document whatever they can about the present scenario there before complete internet access is revoked.

What will happen to Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar?

Military-run news channel Myawaddy TV announced in their official statement that Myint Swe, a former General who ran the Yangon military command and the current vice president will become acting president for the next year. The statement also added that control of legislation, administration and judiciary departments have also been handed over to another military loyalist and serving officer Min Aung Hlaing thereby effectively returning Myanmar to its former military rule. Notably, Myanmar has been ruled by military regimes for most of its history since independence from Britain in 1948.

As for Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader who has been trying to amend the charter in the Constitution which gave the military unparallel power and access since winning the election first in 2015 and then in 2020 with little success, will be forced to stay in detention (under house arrest) along with her government until the military evaluates the threat levels and carries out a trial in the now compromised judicial system via its military court.

While the military maintains its actions are legally justified, the announcement also cited a clause in the Constitution that allows the military to take over in times of emergency. However, Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD spokesperson along with and several growing voices outside the party have said its effectively a coup that dismantles the democratic progress Myanmar has made in the last five years.

Read | ICJ orders Myanmar to protect 'vulnerable' Rohingyas; seeks report within 4 months
Chips Tales: The Miraculous Rescue: a profound illustrated narrative that shares an adventure between newfound friends who explore the meaning of purpose and identity. Chips Tales: The Miraculous Rescue is the creation of published author Virginia Cummings Kirk, a gifted storyteller.

Kirk shares, This story, written in simple poetic form, is easy-to-read. In it, you will meet Chip, a slightly disgruntled carrier pigeon, who cant seem to find any reason for being what he is until he meets a nine-year-old boy named Lucas Lemon. Through this unique relationship with Lucas and events that follow, Chip discovers the true value of being what he is and gains a new found respect for himself and his kind.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Virginia Cummings Kirks new book will present the first in a series of Chips Tales taken from the journal of Lucas Lemon, a collection of Chips rescues, adventures, and various involvements as he meets and makes new friends along the way.

View a synopsis of Chips Tales: The Miraculous Rescue on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase Chips Tales: The Miraculous Rescue at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Chips Tales: The Miraculous Rescue, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
First Covid-19 patient in new outbreak: 'I was shocked and scared'

A fleet of ambulance cars arrive at a facility in the northern Hai Duong Province where Vietnam Poyun Electronics Co., Ltd workers are isolated to bring those who have been confirmed positive with coronavirus to hospitals, January 29, 2021. Photo by Manh.

Six days after becoming the first patient in the new wave of Covid-19, a woman in Hai Duong Province says she is still shell-shocked.

Speaking to VnExpress on the phone from her hospital room, the woman from Chi Linh Town, identified only as patient 1552, cannot hide the crisis she has been going through since being diagnosed with Covid-19 on January 28.

Recalling how she contracted it, the 34-year-old said for several days she had felt like she had a cold and went to a private clinic. A doctor there said she had bronchitis and prescribed some medicines.

But though she did not feel better despite taking the medicines, she kept going to work at Vietnam Poyun Electronics Co., Ltd in Chi Linh, and felt some discomfort at night and slight fatigue.

Last week she came to know her sister-in-law, also an employee of the company, had tested positive for Covid-19 on arriving in Japan. Authorities do not know from whom that woman, who left for Japan to work on January 17, contracted the virus.

On contact tracing, samples were taken from patient 1552 and she tested positive.

"I was shocked and scared, I had no idea how I got the virus," she said.

"I was so confused. Even in my dreams I did not picture myself being a Covid-19 patient. I only went to work and stuck around in my neighborhood and everything seemed just fine."

Following her infection, Hai Duong has now become the Covid epicenter with 207 cases being reported as of Tuesday morning.

Just as she was being diagnosed with the disease, a male staff at Van Don International Airport in Quang Ninh Province bordering Hai Duong also tested positive, becoming patient 1553, after having symptoms for several days.

His source of infection too is not known.

With the two, the streak of 55 straight days without local transmission in Vietnam came to an end.

On her first day in hospital, she was distraught and cried.

Then a friend informed her that 72 others at her company also tested positive. It was around noon on January 28 and the news was announced by Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long at an emergency meeting.

That had made her feel worse.

"I was even more shocked and could not feel anything at all. It turns out that the pandemic had been so close to me and I didnt have a clue."

Thinking about her two children at home and worrying if anyone else in her family had contracted the virus from her, she cannot either eat or sleep.

She has depended on the reassurances and encouragement given by the doctors treating her to overcome the crisis.

Every day she asks them about her condition and whether she could have infected others.

"I have asked them so many questions. Even when it is very late at night, they give me the answer. They reassure me to make me feel comfortable."

Thanks to the doctors' efforts, she has been more at ease recently.

She has joined a chat group of colleagues who have been infected, and they update and encourage each other.

For now her only wish is that no one else in her family should contract the virus.

"All I wish now is for the number of infections to stop rising. I hope all the patients recover soon, I wish for a miracle for all of us."

Doctors at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, where she is being treated, said she has pneumonia and so is in the ICU.

But her condition has improved and she can breathe more easily and eat better.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, said on January 28, after a record single-day tally of 93, that it was highly possible community spread had begun in Hai Duong 10 days earlier.

Though the source of transmissions has yet to be identified, it has been confirmed that all the cases have been caused by the U.K. variant of the virus, which is thought to be 70 percent more contagious than earlier strains.

From Hai Duong and Quang Ninh, the infection has spread to 10 other places, including Hanoi and HCMC, with the tally rising to 276 by Tuesday morning.
New drivers between the ages of 15 and 25 account for nearly half of the more than one million road deaths that occur worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization. Educational programs often use fear-based messaging and films of crash scenes to reduce risky driving behavior among young people. But does this "scary" approach work?

A new study published in the journal Risk Analysis suggests that fear-based messaging fails to reduce risky driving behavior, while fear-based Virtual Reality (VR) films depicting a violent collision may actually lead young drivers to take more chances behind the wheel.

A team of psychologists led by University of Antwerp researcher Clara Alida Cutello, PhD, conducted a study of 146 students who had been legally driving for less than five years. The researchers examined the impact of both content (fear vs. positive) and delivery mode (2D vs. VR) of driver safety intervention programs.

Fear-based driver ed films often show terrible crash scenes in graphic detail. The assumption behind this approach is that arousing a sense of fear by depicting a serious consequence such as death will persuade young people to drive more carefully. Positively framed films take the opposite approach, using humor and empathy and modeling safe driving behaviors that result in positive consequences.

Three tests were used to gauge the risk-taking behavior of the young drivers before and after participating in the intervention program. One was a Driver Behavior Questionnaire. The other was the Vienna Risk-Taking Test on traffic, which asks participants to watch video clips of driving situations from the point of view of the driver and choose whether they view a situation as too risky. For example, choosing whether to pass another car in icy conditions. A third test was a 21-item Emotional Arousal Scale that measured the level of emotional arousal (such as feeling afraid) after watching a film.

The results showed that participants who viewed the fear-based VR film reported riskier driving behaviors afterward, while those who viewed a positively framed VR film exhibited the greatest reduction in risky driving behavior. This finding supports other research that has shown that exposing participants to an extreme and graphic collision tends to activate defensive mechanisms, such as paying attention for a shorter time, disengaging, rejecting a message, and an increase in risky behaviors.

"Fear appeals have been used in many health and environmental campaigns, such as smoking, anti-drug, safe sex, and HIV prevention campaigns," says Dr. Cutello. "Further experimental research is needed to determine whether the use of fear is effective."

###

About SRA


The UN Security Council on Tuesday will discuss the situation in Myanmar, where the military staged a after detaining top political figures, including de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and look at a "range of measures" with an idea of respecting the people's will expressed in the November general election.

Myanmar's military on Monday staged a and detained Suu Kyi and other top members of her governing party. The announcement on military-controlled Myawaddy TV came after an earlier declaration that because national stability was in jeopardy, all government functions would be transferred to military chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

It was also announced that the military had taken control of the country for one year.

The United Kingdom, President of the Security Council for the month of February, will hold closed-door discussion on when the Council is also expected to hear from Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Christine Schraner Burgener.

"We want to address the long term threat to peace and security of course working closely with Myanmar's Asian and ASEAN neighbors, Barbara Woodward, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month, told reporters during a virtual press briefing.

She said the topic of was originally scheduled to be discussed in the Council later this week, but was moved up to Tuesday given the developments in the country over the weekend, underscoring the urgent need to discuss the situation following the

The Council last discussed Myanmar in September 2020, before the November elections.

When asked if the Security Council will discuss the issue of sanctions, Woodward said the power organ of the UN will want to have as constructive a discussion as possible on Myanmar and look at a range of measures with the idea of respecting the people's will expressed in the vote and releasing civil society leaders.

"Those will be our overriding aims and we will want to consider measures that will move us towards that end, she said.

The Council meeting is expected to be a closed-door discussion in order to allow for a "frank discussion", she said.

"At the moment, we don't have specific ideas on the measures. We are, first of all, trying to establish what is happening and then discuss in our national capacityso to bring together a sense of what the UN Security Council can most effectively do in terms of the measures it might take as opposed to what individual countries might do bilaterally. The aim remains to see a restoration of democracy and the release of prisoners in the first instance and an end to the coup and the military rule, she said.

The UK remains deeply concerned by the humanitarian plight of the Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar as well as in Bhasan Char, the island where Bangladesh has been moving some of the refugees to, Woodward said.

Stephane Dujarric, the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said at the daily press briefing the events that have taken place in Myanmar will have a ripple effect.

"One of those impacts is not only delaying any safe and voluntary return of those refugees that have made it into Bangladesh and other countries and in other countries, we do not know what will happen to the Rohingya that are remain in Rakhine State," he said.

He said Burgener remains actively engaged on the issue in Myanmar and she has spoken to Myanmar interlocutors outside the country.

She is trying to connect with leaders in Naypyitaw but communications with the Myanmar capital are very difficult at this moment, Dujarric said, adding that colleagues in the UN country team on the ground in Myanmar are also following the situation closely with deep concern, especially in light of the need to prevent and respond to the ongoing pandemic.

"They are working to ensure that the recent events do not adversely impact the most vulnerable people in Myanmar. The UN team has supported Myanmar's COVAX application, as well as the national COVID-19 and vaccination plans by assessing the country's readiness and mapping the cold chain capacity," he said.

When asked whether the UN had any information on Suu Kyi and other leaders who have been detained, Dujarric said: "No, we do not we have not been able to get information."



"Our Special Envoy has been trying to reach her interlocutors in Naypyitaw. She's not been able to get through, and our country team has not had any information, he said.

The UN official stressed that it was important that all those people who have been detained be released, adding that no one in the UN has been able to reach the current authorities in Myanmar due to the communications challenges.

On whether the Secretary General would seek to talk to the military leaders in control of Myanmar, Dujarric said the UN chief is always ready to talk to anyone to try to advance the situation in the right way, be that the people directly involved or regional powers.

"I think what we're facing right now is a situation that's still a bit obscure. What we do know is that the will of the people of Myanmar has been overturned in an undemocratic way, and that needs to change. The will of the people needs to be respected, Dujarric said.

He emphasised that it was important for the community to speak with one voice and what will come out of the Security Council, if something does come out, will just add more weight to that call.

(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.)
Marvel fans were sent into meltdown on Monday when a series of images surfaced appearing to show a Thor fan completely ignoring Matt Damon while approaching Chris Hemsworth for an autograph.

The throwback photos, which were posted on the Fitzy and Wippa Instagram page, showed the fan, named Bron, looking elated as Chris kneeled down and signed a tattoo of Thor's hammer on her left thigh.

Inconspicuously standing in the background was Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso.

Forgetting someone? Marvel fans were sent into meltdown on Monday when a series of images surfaced appearing to show a Thor fan completely ignoring Matt Damon while approaching Chris Hemsworth for an autograph

'Thor fan Bron got her leg signed by Chris Hemsworth a few years ago at Rainbow Beach! And guess who was there... MATT DAMON!' Fitzy & Wippa captioned the image.

'And she didn't even notice Matt Damon,' one follower wrote under the post.

However, Bron herself quickly hit back in a comment, claiming that she did in fact notice Matt standing in the background.

Would you have recognised him? 'Thor fan Bron got her leg signed by Chris Hemsworth a few years ago at Rainbow Beach! And guess who was there... MATT DAMON!' Fitzy & Wippa captioned the image

False alarm! However, Bron herself quickly hit back in a comment, claiming that she did in fact notice Matt standing in the background

Clearing it up: 'Of course I did,' she responded. 'I did talk to him but he wasn't a super hero and clearly that's a super hero leg'

'Of course I did,' she responded. 'I did talk to him but he wasn't a super hero and clearly that's a super hero leg.'

'Why would I get another signature? Who knew he was ever going to be in a marvel movie.'

Indeed, Matt recently joined the Marvel universe, having nabbed a role in the upcoming flick Thor: Love and Thunder alongside Chris and other Hollywood heavyweights, including Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt and Christian Bale.

From superstar to superhero! Indeed, Matt recently joined the Marvel universe, having nabbed a role in the upcoming flick Thor: Love and Thunder alongside Chris and other Hollywood heavyweights, including Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt and Christian Bale

The cast and crew is currently filming scenes in Sydney's Centennial Park after the latest Thor franchise installment was a recipient of the Federal Government's $24.1 million Location Incentive grant.

The film is being directed by New Zealand's Taika Waititi - and will invest more than $178million in the economy, create around 2,500 jobs and enlist services from 1,650 businesses.

Marvel has also set up a trainee program for Australian actors and crew as part of the deal.
[February 02, 2021] ECS / My IT Appoints New Chief Revenue Officer

SHREVEPORT, La. and NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ECS / My IT today announced Newton (Newt) Higman has joined the Gulf South's leading IT managed service provider as its Chief Revenue Officer, effective February 1, 2021. An experienced strategy and revenue generation executive with more than 20 years of experience, Higman joins from Sharp Managed IT Services where he was National Director. "I couldn't be more thrilled to welcome Newt to ECS / My IT where he will undoubtedly make an immediate impact as we continue to build a leading IT managed services platform, offering best in class solutions to customers in each market we serve," said Kevin Cook, Chief Executive Officer of ECS / My IT. "I am particularly impressed with Newt's ability to scale and lead both sales and marketing functions, and he will add seasoned executive leadership to our team." "I am excited to join ECS / My IT," Higman said. "I'm eager to help ECS / My IT as it continues to expand its offerings and service platform to the growing base of small and mid-size businesses in the GulfSouth region and beyond. Kevin and his executive team are on a mission to build ECS / My IT into one of the premier MSPs in the industry, and I'm delighted to be a part of it."



As CRO, Higman will be responsible for driving ECS / My IT's go-to-market strategy including overseeing the performance, strategy and alignment of the sales and marketing functions at ECS / My IT and will report directly to Cook. The addition of Higman continues the expansion of ECS / My IT's executive leadership team including the hiring of Jay Geiger (Chief Financial Officer) and the promotion of Holly Lawrence (Chief Experience Officer) in 2020.

Higman attended Auburn University with a concentration in liberal arts, and he has served on both the Continuum and SonicWALL Partner Advisory Councils. About ECS / My IT

Formed in January 2020, through the combination of Enterprise Computing Services and My IT, ECS / My IT is a managed service provider for IT services to small and mid-sized businesses. ECS / My IT offers a broad set of services including managed IT, hosted cloud services, disaster recovery, virtual CIO and security services. The Company has offices in both Shreveport, Louisiana and New Orleans, Louisiana and consists of approximately 80 highly trained team members serving businesses throughout the Gulf South region. For more information, visit www.myitsupport.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ecs--my-it-appoints-new-chief-revenue-officer-301220116.html SOURCE ECS / My IT

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Jeff Bartos, a Montgomery County Republican, is taking steps toward a run for U.S. Senate, signaling that he is likely to formally join the race in the coming weeks.

I am very seriously considering a run for the Senate, Bartos said in a telephone interview Tuesday. Were taking the next steps toward making it official.

Bartos, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2018, said he will be calling community, business, and party leaders to discuss his plans, and will begin raising money for a potential campaign in the next couple weeks. He said he plans to make a formal decision by mid-March.

Bartos, a real estate developer from Lower Merion, will likely be one of many Republicans joining the contest for a seat being vacated by Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican who is not seeking reelection in 2022.

The primary is shaping up as an early test of how the Republican Party will approach politics after former President Donald Trumps tenure in the White House.

 READ MORE: Pat Toomey's retirement makes the 2022 elections in Pennsylvania a total free-for-all

Bartos, 48, has spent much of the last year leading the Pennsylvania 30 Day Fund, which has distributed more than $3 million in forgivable loans to more than 1,000 small businesses struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

I hear time and again that these small business owners on Main Street, they just feel completely abandoned. Weve taken up the mantle of fighting for them, Bartos said in a pitch that sounded likely to be part of a campaign. I feel that having spoken to all these women and men around all 67 counties, they need someone fighting for them.

Bartos began a brief run for Senate in 2017 before switching to the lieutenant governors race, and has struck up a friendship with the Democrat he opposed in that contest, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. They could again be opponents  Fetterman is also making moves toward a 2022 Senate run  but Fetterman praised Bartos on Tuesday after news broke about his intentions.

Love that dude, Fetterman wrote on Twitter, adding, A truly great dude that would elevate the conversation in Pennsylvania.

Former U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, of Chester County, has also taken steps toward seeking the Republican nomination in what is expected to be a crowded competition for both parties.

For Republicans, the 2022 elections for governor and Senate will test whether the GOP follows the path that Trump paved to much success in 2016, or attempts to pivot away from a style of politics that then cost them the White House, Senate, and House in subsequent elections.

Bartos, a longtime fund-raiser with ties to Pennsylvanias Republican establishment, ran for lieutenant governor in 2018 as a more reserved partner to the combustible Scott Wagner.

 READ MORE: Pa. lieutenant governor candidate Jeff Bartos of Montco is a calm ballast on the Republican ticket

Bartos said he voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, and supported many of the former presidents policies, including on Israel and Iran.

The president and the way he went about his work, millions and millions of Americans felt for the first time in a long time there was someone fighting for them, Bartos said.

He acknowledged, though, that many opposed Trump with equal passion  I live in Lower Merion, for Gods sake  and that we have to get past the bombast.
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Hal Holbrook, Prolific Actor Who Played Twain, Dies at 95

NEW YORKHal Holbrook, the award-winning character actor who toured the world for more than 50 years as Mark Twain in a one-man show and uttered the immortal advice Follow the money in the classic political thriller All the Presidents Men, has died. He was 95.

Holbrook died on Jan. 23 in Beverly Hills, California, his representative, Steve Rohr, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Actors across the spectrum mourned Holbrooks passing, including Bradley Whitford, who called him an incredible actor and Viola Davis, who wrote RIP to the always wonderful Hal Holbrook.

Holbrook pursued a busy career in theater, television, and movies, winning five Emmys and a Tony. His more than two dozen film credits ranged from Steven Spielbergs Lincoln to Oliver Stones Wall Street. He was a steady presence on TV as well, having appeared on such shows as The West Wing, Greys Anatomy, and Bones.

But his most famous movie role was as a key source for Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (played by Robert Redford) in the 1976 adaptation of All the Presidents Men, the bestselling account by Woodward and fellow Post reporter Carl Bernstein about their investigation of Richard Nixons administration and the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation.

Holbrook played the mysterious informant Deep Throat (later revealed to be FBI official Mark Felt) who provided key information to Woodward. The most famous tip, uttered from the shadows of a parking garageFollow the moneybecame an instant catchphrase but was never said in real life. The line was invented by screenwriter William Goldman.

Follow the money may have been his most famous film words, but Twain was his defining role. The association began in 1954 when an instructor at Ohios Denison University gave Holbrook the role as part of a thesis assignment.

Holbrook and his first wife, Ruby Johnson, later created a two-person show, playing characters from Shakespeare to Twain. After their daughter, Victoria, was born, he started working on a one-man Twain show while working on the soap opera The Brighter Day.

Actor Hal Holbrook, who plays Mark Twain in Mark Twain Tonight! appears in his dressing room in New York, on April 10, 1959. (Ruben Goldberg/AP Photo)

Holbrook, raised in Cleveland, was 29 when he first performed as Twain (who was portrayed as 70) and eventually developed the role into a two-act, one-man show called Mark Twain Tonight! taking it to schools, nightclubs, and theaters. He took it to Broadway three times1966, 1977, and 2005and won a Tony Award as best dramatic actor for the 1966 version.

The truth is that hes been wonderful company, Holbrook told The Plain Dealer newspaper in 2017. It would be an understatement to say I like him. He never ceases to amaze me. Even after all these years, Im still stunned by his insight into the human character. So much of what he had to say more than 100 years ago is right on the money for today.

In 1959, after years of honing his material in small towns, Holbrook debuted his Twain at an off-Broadway theater in New York to high critical praise. Mr. Holbrooks material is uproarious, his ability to hold an audience by acting is brilliant, said The New York Times. The New Yorker called it a dazzling display of virtuosity.

Holbrook would tour as Twainwith the writers familiar white suit and white hairwhenever he wasnt busy with other acting jobs. He would update the show to fit the times and performed the role by his account some 2,200 times. He hung up the white suit in 2017.

He did a ton of work over the years, never less than first-rate, but the Twain performances approached perfection, and they will stay with me forever, tweeted Michael McKean.

He was meticulous in his preparations, taking as long as 3 1/2 hours to don his makeup and insisting on oversized stage furniture so that, at 6 feet tall, he wouldnt appear larger than the 5-feet-8 1/2-inch Twain was. He read books by and about the author and scoured newspaper files in search of interviews with Twain and stories about his lecture tours.

During a performance on the open-sided stage at Wolf Trap near Vienna, Virginia, lightning flashed and thunder cracked just as Holbrook reached toward the humidor for a cigar. He scuttled backward. A roar of laughter followed. Holbrook looked out over his glasses at the audience. When he could be heard again, he spoke: He wasnt talking to you.

Over the years, Holbrook took Mark Twain Tonight! to numerous foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia. His audiences included Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter.

When he wasnt portraying Twain, Holbrook showed impressive versatility. He was Burt Reynolds crotchety father-in-law in the 1990s TV series Evening Shade. He appeared as Abraham Lincoln in two different miniseries on the 16th president and won one of his Emmys for the title role in the 197071 TV series The Senator.

Other notable stage credits included After the Fall, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, and I Never Sang for My Father. In 2008, at age 82, he received his first Oscar nomination for playing a lonely widower who befriends young wanderer Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) in director Sean Penns Into the Wild.

Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter arrive at the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan. 27, 2008. (Chris Pizzello/AP Photo)

In 1980, he met actress Dixie Carter when both starred in the TV movie The Killing of Randy Webster. Although attracted to one another, each had suffered two failed marriages and they were wary at first. They finally wed in 1984, two years before Carter landed the role of Julia Sugarbaker on the long-running TV series Designing Women. Holbrook appeared on the show regularly in the late 1980s as her boyfriend, Reese Watson. She died in 2010.

Holbrook had two children, Victoria and David, with his first wife, and a daughter, Evie, from his second marriage to actress Carol Rossen. He was stepfather to Mary Dixie Carter and Ginna Carter.

By Mark Kennedy

The Ogun government on Monday refuted reports suggesting that it enlisted the help of Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a Sunday Igboho, to combat crimes in the state.

The State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Abdulwaheed Odusile, dismissed the report in a statement issued in Abeokuta hours after Igboho arrived the state.

Mr Odusile said that the report which emanated from an interview granted by Remmy Hazzan, the special adviser on public communication to Governor Dapo Abiodun, was quoted out of context.

The interview was twisted to achieve sensational effects.

In the interview, Hazzan had said that the state government, in its usual inclusive approach to governance, would continue to work with all the stakeholders, both within and outside the state to ensure security of lives and property.

Sadly, however, this statement was disingenuously twisted to mean that the state had invited Mr. Adeyemo (Igboho) to help curb insecurity.

This is regrettable and totally misleading.

The Dapo Abiodun-led Administration, since inception, has been known to be inclusive in its approach, collaborating and engaging with a wide range of stakeholders including security issues.

This has resulted in the achievement of the enviable status and recognition we enjoy as the most secured state in the country.

 A recent award given to us by the Business Day Newspaper, among other organisations is a testimony to this, he said.

Mr Odusile recalled that the Dapo Abiodun-led administration had taken giant strides in securing the state since it came to office.

Upon assuming office, this administration restructured the Ogun Security Trust Fund and put the critical stakeholders (private sector) at the driving seat.

It strengthened the engagement with security agencies in the state and provided them with 100 Hilux patrol vehicles, 200 motorcycles and other equipment to make them more effective and efficient.

Our government also partnered with other states in the South-West region to set up the Amotekun Security Network

We have also appointed two Special Assistants ( on ethnic relations) to ensure smooth interface with non-indigenes on a wide variety of issues, including security.

This constant stakeholders engagement approach runs through all the government activities and programmes.

Therefore, Hon. Remmy Hazzans statement of working with stakeholders within and outside the state should be viewed within this context.

For avoidance of doubt, Ogun government will continue to deploy all constitutionally sanctioned means to fight crimes and criminals in the state.

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It will continue to work with institutions that the constitution and other statutes have saddled with the responsibility of protection of lives and property.

At all times, the government will ensure that all security agencies and indeed all stakeholders operate within the ambit of the law.

 The government will neither welcome nor endorse any initiative that amounts to self-help or one that is outside the contemplation of the constitution, he said.

Mr Odusile assured that the government would continue to attract and welcome all those with legitimate reasons to live and work in the state, adding that Ogun is home to all Nigerians and foreigners alike.

He, however, stressed that the state would not be conducive for any group or individuals who tried to undermine peace, security and social wellbeing of the citizens.

The commissioner explained that the government had directed the security agencies to be unrelenting in swiftly apprehending and bringing to justice any perpetrator of crimes in the state.

Mr Odusile who thanked the the residents enjoined community and religious leaders as well as other stakeholders to continue to co-operate with the government and security agencies in the joint task of securing the state.

The self-styled Yoruba freedom fighter, Mr Igboho, arrived the state on Monday, saying he was visiting to help expel problematic herdsmen from the state.

Mr Igboho, on arrival in Abeokuta, the state capital told journalists, We are here in solidarity with our brothers and sisters. Fulani herders are killing us in various South-west states, and thats why we, the youths, came out to demand our rights.

That is why I am saying all Fulani herdsmen should vacate Yoruba land. There is peace now in Igangan and thats not the only place I want peace to reign. We are going to all Yoruba land. I appreciate Ogun governor, he loves his people and thats why we are in Ogun State today.

We are going to Yewa now where Fulani kidnappers are terrorising Yorubas in Ogun State.

Mr Igboho has been in the news recently for giving an ultimatum to herdsmen in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State to vacate the area and upon the expiration of the ultimatum, the home of the Seriki Fulani in the area was attacked.

Consequently, the Seriki Fulani, who said his house was destroyed and several cars parked within his compound burnt, fled the area for Kwara State with his family.

There have been several reports of criminal activities carried out by herdsmen especially in the Ogun West senatorial district of the state.

However, under Nigerias laws, no citizen has the right to expel other citizens or residents from wherever they chose to live or do business in the country.
[February 01, 2021] aelf Mainnet's Full Function Tryout will Bring the Maximum of $200,000 USD Prizes including ELF Mainnet Token, Tesla Car, iPhone 12 and PS5, etc

SINGAPORE, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Before token swap, aelf will carry out the mainnet's full function tryout for the community. Participants will have a chance to win prizes worth $200,000 USD, including 200,000 ELF (Mainnet Token), 600,000 ERC20 ELF Token, a Tesla car, iPhone 12, PS5 and a lot more! Users who participate in staking will receive earnings. Users will get ELF Token (Mainnet Token) and LOT Token (Lucky Draw) for the tryout by staking. This is also a large trial run before the mainnet token swap, which can avoid unnecessary problems and losses and ensure the security of the future mainnet token swap. Campaign Schedule The campaign is divided into 3 phases Phase ?: Staking Time: 18:00, February 318:00, March 5 (SGT) Phase ?: Full Function Tryout for Community Time: 12:00, February 418:00, March 3 (SGT) Phase ?: Divvy up the Prize Pool Time: March 3 18:00  March 5 18:00 (SGT) Rules This campaign includes 5 parts: Staking

Daily Task

Lucky Draw

Lucky Box

Divvy up the Prize Pool 1. Stake and get returns Users need to stake the ERC20-ELF token to join this campaign. The pre-staking will be starting from 18:00 (SGT) on February 3rd. The total staking period will last 30 days. Participants can receive ELF (mainnet token) at the ratio of 400:1 by staking. At the end of the staking period, users can manually redeem their staked ERC-20 ELF. To fully try out the mainnet functions, aelf team recommend the staking amount to be greater than 1000 ELF (=1000 ELF). In addition, no matter how many tokens were staked, users can get the LOT token at the ratio of 1:1. The LOT Token can be used to participate in the Lucky Draw, divvying up the prize pools and the Lucky Box Game. The ELF Token (mainnet token) and LOT token can be collected manually from the campaign page, with a delay of up to 10 minutes. 2. Daily Tasks During this campaign (12:00, February 418:00, March 3), users can get extra LOT tokens to participate in the lucky draw after completing daily tasks. The available functions include the same-chain transfer, cross-chain transfer, resource token trading, etc. Wallet transfer function: Same-chain transfer: 100 LOT /day Cross-chain transfer: 100 LOT /day Trade Resource token (buying and selling): 100 LOT/day Users can only make the same-chain & cross-chain transfer once a day. A successful transfer is regarded as the completion of the cross-chain task. The cross-chain transfer function is available for ELF Token, LOT Token, and Resource Token. aelf team advise users use LOT Tokens to try out the transfer function since ELF (Mainnet Token) will be used as transaction fees. Submit Feedback If users have any problems during the campaign, they can get LOT Token by submitting feedback. Submit feedback about the mainnet function tryout here https://forms.gle/RRiTGSmaeFKqmNfj6



Rewards will be distributed in accordance with the rating upon the aelf team's review. The evaluation will take 1 or 2 working days upon submission. aelf team recommend that users should submit as soon as possible, and there may be evaluation delays near the end of the campaign. Junior: 100 LOT

Intermediate: 200 LOT

Senior: 500 LOT Bug Report

If users find any bugs during the campaign, they can get the LOT token via Report Bug here: https://forms.gle/gs2y7ksdqxsfvvja8 Participating in on-chain bug submission. Rewards will be distributed in accordance with the rating upon the aelf team's review: Junior: 100 LOT

Intermediate: 500 LOT

Senior: 1000 LOT The evaluation will take 1 or 2 working days after submission. aelf team recommend that users should submit as soon as possible, and there may be evaluation delays near the end of the campaign. 3. Lucky Draw During the campaign (12:00, February 418:00, March 3, SGT), users can use the LOT token to swap the lucky draw code, that is, to participate in the Lucky Draw. aelf team will announce the results every Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Users can switch the lucky draw code from the previous results to the current results (100 LOT = 1 lucky draw code). There is no upper limit on the number of lucky draw codes. Prizes include iPhone 12, Switch, PS5, etc. Don't miss it! 4. Lucky Box During the campaign (12:00, February 418:00, March 3, SGT), users can use the LOT token to buy tickets in Lucky Box App and draw prizes every 10 minutes. If users win, they can manually collect the LOT token. Lucky Box is an open-source DAPP based on random numbers developed by aelf team, which can guarantee the reliability and security of random numbers and avoid the security problems brought by pseudo-random numbers. When users log into the Lucky Box, they had to bind the aelf Wallet, which shared the LOT balance. Lucky Box App Download here: iOS TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/qr46HH9X

Android: http://d.zqapps.com/anaelfRandom aelf Wallet App Download here: iOS TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/TclFysmO

Android: http://d.alphaqr.com/aelfwalletandroid This campaign has set up rankings: accumulated winning amount and accumulated participated times. aelf team will count the 'accumulated winning amount' of the users who have received the prizes and the 'accumulated participated times' of all the users who have participated in the Lucky Box during the campaign, and show the top 10 on the two rankings in the App. Based on the above list, two prizes will be created for this event: User whose accumulated winning amount ranks first will receive the grand prize (Tesla Model 3). A Total of 200,000 LOT tokens are awarded to the top 4 participants (based on the accumulated participated times). These LOT tokens can be used to share out the prize pool. Note: *The accumulated prize amount refers to the total prize amount of all participants. *How to define the accumulated participated times? No matter how many lottery tickets users buy in the current lottery period, they are regarded as having participated once. *If the ranking is tied, the reward will be divided equally. For example, if two people are tied for the first place, each person will get 75,000 LOT tokens. *Anti-cheating instructions: the technical team will analyze the backend data, and if anyone is found to be cheating, they will be disqualified. 5. Divvy up the Prizes Pool After the end of the campaign, the prize pool dividends (ERC20 ELF) will be paid based on the number of LOT tokens in users' account. That is to say, the more LOT Token users submitted, the more rewards users can get. aelf team will unlock the corresponding prize pool rewards (ERC20 ELF) based on the total staked volume during the campaign. How to divvy up the prize pool: One user's bonus = LOT tokens submitted by one user / LOT tokens submitted by all users * 100% * the bonus amount in the prize pool The ultimate prize pool module will be unlocked and shown on the campaign page after 18:00 on March 3. After the prize pool is available, the user may check out the total prize amount of the prize pool on the corresponding page. After 48 hours (18:00 on March 5), users can get the ERC-20 ELF award of the prize pool in proportion. This is based on the submitted LOT amount and Ethereum wallet address. When the winners are announced, the page will display the amount of rewards that users can get. aelf team will distribute the tokens within 7 working days after the announcement. Notes: aelf team suggest users to use v8.x.x or v9.0.2, instead of using Metamask v9.0.1.

30 days after the staking period expired, users can begin to redeem their stakings. The first batch of staking users can redeem the staked tokens at 18:00 on March 5th . The last batch of staking users can redeem the staked tokens at 18:00 on April 4 (SGT).

. The last batch of staking users can redeem the staked tokens at 18:00 on (SGT). The deadline for swapping lucky draw codes is 18:00 on March 3 . After users receive the rewards of the Lucky Box after 18:00 on March 3 , they still have 2 days to swap the lucky draw codes and divvy up the prize pool.

. After users receive the rewards of the Lucky Box after 18:00 on , they still have 2 days to swap the lucky draw codes and divvy up the prize pool. In this campaign, users will get ELF (Mainnet Token) as staking rewards. It can also be used to buy and sell resource tokens and pay transaction fees during the mainnet function tryout.

The use of the LOT token is limited to this campaign and has no intrinsic value. Please do not buy or sell it to avoid unnecessary loss.

All the prizes will be sent out within 7 working days after the end of the event. Please fill in the relevant information correctly. Join this mainnet function tryout to not only familiarize with the mainnet functions but also get super-high-annualized revenues or win a Tesla car! Get Everything Ready & Join now! Instructions on how to Install & Use the Must-have software for Mainnet Full Function Tryout: https://aelf.io/gridcn/How_to_Prepare_Must-have_Software_en.pdf Media contact: Business development: contact@aelf.io Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1430558/aelf_Mainnet_Full_Function_Tryout.jpg

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One element of a controversial 246-unit housing plan on the former Bessborough mother and baby home estate in Cork has been shot down.

Planners in Cork City Council have refused planning permission for a 67-apartment scheme on a parcel of privately owned land which has also been earmarked for a larger housing project by the same developers, MWB Two Ltd.

Their reasons will not be publicly available until later in the week.

A spokesperson for the developer said: "MWB Two Ltd notes the decision by Cork City Council in relation to its proposed Gateway View development and will take the time to review the Council's decision over the coming days."

The Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance (CSSA), which represents more than 50 families of children who died at Bessborough, welcomed the decision.

"The CSSA is relieved and delighted at the decision and we have had a rare happy morning calling our members to tell them that we've had a victory in relation to the local planning application," a spokesperson said.

"We're all still worried about the An Bord Pleanala application but today's news is heartwarming."

The developers separate planning application for 179 residential units is still being considered by An Bord Pleanala under the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process. A decision is due on that application next month.

MWB Two Ltd are behind plans for over 200 apartments on a 3.7-acre privately owned parcel of land in the south eastern area of the former Bessborough Estate.

Planning application

The company applied to Cork City Council last November for planning permission for the construction of 67 apartments in an eight-storey apartment building comprising 29 one-bedroom apartments and 38 two-bedroom apartments.

And because of zoning issues, the developers applied separately to An Bord Pleanala under the SHD process for a larger residential development of 179 residential units on an adjoining area.

Part of the SHD site overlaps an area of land identified as a childrens burial ground on history maps.

City planners have now refused permission for the 67-apartment project. The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes found that 923 babies associated with Bessborough died between 1922 and 1998. But the burial sites of the vast majority have not been identified.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 21:30:22|Editor: huaxia

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LUSAKA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's cabinet has approved the introduction and publication of a bill to introduce a law on cybersecurity and cybercrimes, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Chief Government Spokesperson Dora Siliya said during its meeting on Monday, the cabinet approved the publication and introduction in the parliament of the Cyber Security and Cyber Crime Bill.

She said in a release that the move follows the approval of the National Cyber Security policy by the cabinet last month.

Siliya said the cabinet was concerned at the lack of comprehensive legislation that provides for cybersecurity in the country that offers protection to persons against cybercrime or that provides child online protection.

The law, she said, intends to promote the responsible use of social media platforms.

The bill also aims to ensure the provision of cybersecurity in the country, declaration and protection of critical information infrastructure, provide for the collection of and preservation of evidence of computer and network-related crimes as well as provide for the registration of cybersecurity services providers. Enditem
India on Tuesday urged its citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to Myanmar after a military coup.

"In view of the most recent developments in Myanmar, all Indian citizens are required to take due precautions and avoid unnecessary travel," India's embassy in Myanmar said on its website.

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As time passes, as one minute melds into the next, there are 8 minutes and 46 minutes we must never forget.

That is the time it took to kill George Floyd, his neck ground into the asphalt by a Minneapolis police officer above him. Floyd begged for relief; he never got it.

Some members of the Texas Legislature are trying to make sure that other potential victims get the relief that Floyd never did. The legislation carries his name  the George Floyd Act  but the ramifications go beyond one man, one death. Floyd has become a symbol for police brutality toward African Americans.

Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Elijah McClain, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Daniel Prude: This is but an incomplete list of victims. Protests and promises followed these deaths, but protests and promises are not enough. These tragedies demand action.

In Texas, legislation has been introduced by state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, and state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas. The legislation would ban chokeholds and require police officers to de-escalate situations involving excessive force. It would also hold officers accountable, removing the qualified immunity that shields government officials from legal actions.

While we want (law enforcement officers) to be able to fulfill the task for which we hired them, we dont want them to be abusive in that task, Thompson told KLTV in East Texas.

Of the people killed by police in Texas between 2013 and 2020, 22 percent were African Americans, even though they represented only 12 percent of the population, according to Mapping Police Violence, a research and advocacy group.

Its long past time to put statutory limits on the use of lethal force and more clearly set out expectations for all use of force by peace officers, Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, said.

The issue is so broad that it goes beyond police action. State legislators have also called for the removal of Confederate statues from the Capitol grounds. We remove litter; we should do the same with these statues.

This isnt about whitewashing or removing history. Its about recognizing the truth of history. As state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, told reporters: The descendants of slaves have to look at the  statues and plaques, knowing their ancestors had been persecuted by those very people.

Floyd died on May 25, 2020, and the Texas Black Caucus unveiled the legislation seven months later.

The Texas Legislature recently opened the 2021 session, and the crucial question is whether the outrage caused by the deaths of African Americans is enough to carry this legislation forward.

Previous efforts have failed, often in the face of opposition from police unions, but officials are hopeful.

Gov. Gregg Abbott has indicated his support of increased police training, but it is unclear whether he advocates the other measures in the proposed legislation, which its supporters consider crucial.

Hopefully, he will partner with us on this legislation,West said.

It would be a tragedy if the legislation failed to pass. Floyds death captured this nations attention. Its past time for change.
Hamilton contract situation 'unpleasant' now

Lewis Hamilton's contract situation is becoming "quite unpleasant" for the new seven time world champion.

That is the view of Russian F1 commentator Alexey Popov, who wonders if Hamilton is miscalculating his rumoured demands as he negotiates with Mercedes.

"I thought, like Bernie Ecclestone did, that this was all a marketing ploy so that people would talk about Mercedes," the Match TV broadcaster said.

"But it seems like 80 percent of British people don't want to see Hamilton in that car this season," Popov added. "Maybe it's because it would be a British driver to replace him.

"Anyway, the situation is quite unpleasant for Lewis."

Former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde thinks the situation is a double-edged sword for 36-year-old Hamilton, with both his on-track dominance and off-track personality a turn-off for some fans.

"He has really changed as a person," he told RTL GP.

"Sometimes Lewis went crazy off the track, but not anymore. What he does on the track is great, but outside the track he has become a bit of a boring guy," van der Garde told the Dutch source.

"It's the opposite with Max (Verstappen). He changes zero. He has remained a normal guy who you can always laugh with."
Shadina Smith, 29, had just left her apartment on West 150th Street near Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Harlem at around 12.30pm on January 16, when she quickly returned home to tell her fiance she had been groped

A Harlem woman described as a 'wonderful mother' was fatally gunned down in Manhattan while her fiance was left injured after the pair confronted a man who had just groped her moments earlier.

Shadina Smith, 29, had just left her apartment on West 150th Street near Frederick Douglass Blvd. at around 12.30pm on January 16 when she was accosted in the street by a man who grabbed her.

She responded by heading back to her apartment to tell her fiance what had happened.

Smith and her fiance, identified on social media as 26-year-old Josh Hall, then rushed outside and got into a argument with the suspect that escalated into gunfire, the New York Daily News reports.

The pair were hit with numerous bullets while inside of the first-floor hallway of their apartment complex, according to authorities.

Hall was hit in the chest and left arm while Smith was struck three times in the chest.

Smith and her fiance, identified on social media as 26-year-old Josh Hall, rushed outside and got into a argument with the suspect. He then shot at the couple

The pair were hit with numerous bullets while inside of the first-floor hallway of their apartment complex

The couple were rushed to the Harlem Hospital, where Smith died. Hall has since been released from the hospital.

At the shooting scene, police detectives found casings that led them to believe that the gunman fired from outside the building, into the hallway.

The suspect is still on the loose.

Corine Booker, Smith's 33-year-old aunt and close friend, described the mother as being obsessed with her young son Uriel - who is just over one year old.

Hall was hit in the chest and left arm while Smith was struck three times in the chest

Corine Booker, Smith's 33-year-old aunt and close friend, described the mother as being obsessed with her young son Uriel - who is just over one year old

'It's been a horrific nightmare situation,' Booker said of the shooting.

She later added: 'She was very invested in her son and his future. I hate that he won't be able to know how wonderful and how resilient she was. She did not pout,' she said. 'We just want to make sure to give him all that love.'

A GoFundMe for 'Dina' shares that she was an 'amazing person with a big heart.'

'She always checked up on her loved ones and made sure she did whatever she could to make sure everyone was okay,' the fundraiser reads. 'She had a fire inside her which attracted anyone who crossed her path. She was funny, witty and had such a positive vibe.'

The mother's death comes as the Big Apple has seen an increase in violent crimes, especially in fatal shootings. Murders in New York City went up more than 40 percent from 2019 to 2020.

According to the most recent available data, through January 24, there have been 726 reported robberies and 1,193 felony assaults in New York City so far this year.

That is down 27.4 per cent and 4.8 per cent, respectively, from 2020, when there were already exactly 1,000 robberies and 1,253 felony assaults at this time.
The Landless People's Movement (LPM) has rejected claims that it is predominantly a party of the south, describing such perception as unfounded, 'frivolous' and without factual basis.

"We are a party for all Namibians. Anyone that has been following us for the past four years knows what issues we have advanced. Anyone that has listened to parliamentary debates knows the issues we have advanced," said LPM operative secretary Edson Isaaks.

Isaaks said the party has managed to win seats on local authorities throughout the country such as in Okakarara, Khorixas, Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and in the capital, Windhoek.

"We have demonstrated that we are a party for all Namibians regardless of race, sex, origin," said the soft-spoken Isaaks whose position is equivalent to that of secretary general.

LPM made history when it won seven out of eight seats on the Hardap Regional Council as well as winning control of most local authorities in the //Kharas region.

Hardap was previously dominated by the ruling Swapo that could only manage to retain Rehoboth Urban East constituency.

Isaaks, who is also a member of parliament, said his party's success is attributed to the relentless pursuit of justice, equity and truth by the movement.

"We have also worked hard to groom youthful leaders in the movement that were able to galvanize the electorate," he said.

"For example, the chairperson of the management committee of the Keetmanshoop municipality Easter Isaak is a youthful leader who has been groomed and now serves the community in a key position in the council," he explained, adding that the party's performance is the cumulative effort of four years of diligent work.

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He also shot down claims that he was 'wheelbarrowed' into the position because of his long-term friendship with party leader leader Bernadus Swartbooi.

"I was never wheelbarrowed into any position. We have campaigned and fought for the poor, landless and destitute Namibians, even when we as a movement didn't have any finances. We have worked extremely hard to build this organization on a solid foundation of integrity and tenacity," said Isaaks who is a former teacher.

He said he made a humble contribution to the birth, growth and formation of the party.

"During the initial phase we worked extremely hard to build a strong support base. I was instrumental in organizing community engagements. We furthermore had consultative meetings, called smart talks, where we invited land experts, lawyers and various academics to discuss the burning land question, with a view to influence public policy," he said.
PARMA, Ohio -- There will be a changing of the guard at Padua Franciscan High School this summer when David Stec, currently the principal, transitions to become the schools first lay president.

He will replace the Rev. Allan DaCore, a Franciscan friar who has served as president for eight years.

Stec, a 1986 Padua graduate, begins his new role on July 1 when DaCore retires. He was chosen for the position by a selection committee consisting of members of the schools board of trustees, faculty, parents and alumni. The Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart also approved the appointment.

Stec joined Padua in 1996 as a theology teacher. Two years later, he was named director of campus ministry. He became principal in 2005. Among his accomplishments are creation of Paduas MedTrack and MyTrack programs, as well as the emerging technologies of virtual reality.

Dave Stec is a visionary and faith-inspired leader whose concerns for his students and relationships with others are embedded into the fabric of his faith, said Nick Iafigliola, chairman of the schools board of trustees.

Stec, an alumnus of St. Charles Borromeo School and Padua, both in Parma, earned a bachelors degree from Borromeo Seminary, a masters degree in clinical counseling from John Carroll University and a masters degree in educational administration from Ursuline College.

Ive had the privilege of working with Dave Stec for the past eight years and have witnessed his enthusiasm and love for Padua Franciscan, DaCore said. An alumnus of Padua, his 25 years of employment gives him a unique knowledge that will serve the Padua family well in these challenging times.

Stec said he is very honored and excited to be the next president of Padua Franciscan High School.

Founded by the Franciscans in 1961, Padua is a college preparatory, coeducational school with an enrollment of 760.

Padua, a 760-student coeducational high school, is located at 6740 State Road in Parma. (Carol Kovach/special to cleveland.com)

Beware: Officials in Independence are warning residents to be on guard against COVID-19 scams. Due to the high demand and limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines, scammers are preying on unsuspecting residents who are eager to receive a vaccine.

According to the Better Business Bureau, these criminals call, text or email people with an offer to move them up on the vaccination list for a fee or to request a prepayment for the vaccination. Sometimes the callers claim to be from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a state, county or local health agency; insurance company; pharmacy; or healthcare facility.

Authorities said COVID-19 vaccines are free and the doses are monitored carefully by federal, state and local health agencies. You cannot pay to get vaccinated any faster.

Often, the scammers target senior citizens because they are among the first who are eligible to be vaccinated. However, no one from a vaccine/healthcare provider, a private insurance company or public health official will call asking for your Medicare number, Social Security number or your credit card or bank account information to sign you up to get the vaccine.

So, play it safe and if you get a suspicious call, hang up.

Get crafty: Parents of children ages 4-10 can stop by the Parma Heights Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library to pick up the new Take & Make activity bag. This weeks craft is Popsicle stick art. Each bag includes instructions and supplies.

There is a limit of one bag per child, while supplies last. Curbside pickup is still available.

Parents are invited to post a photo of the completed craft on Facebook using the tag @cuyahogalib and the hashtag #takeandmakeCCPL.

Gift of life: A Red Cross Bloodmobile will visit the Community Room at the Brooklyn Senior Center, 7727 Memphis Road, Brooklyn, from 1 to 7 p.m. Feb. 16. To make an appointment, call 800-733-2767 or visit redcrossblood.org. Use the sponsor code BrookynSeniorCenter.

All donations are tested for COVID-19 antibodies. Plasma from antibody-positive donations may help current coronavirus patient in need.

Blood donors will receive a $5 Amazon gift card by email.

Poster contest: The Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District is sponsoring its annual poster contest for Cuyahoga County students in grades K-12. Entries can be submitted until April 30.

Awards will be given for first and second place in the following grade categories: K-1, 2-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12.

The 2020 National Association of Conservation District Stewardship Week and Poster Contest theme is Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities. Free educational materials are available. Visit nacdnet.z2systems.com/.../nacdnet/catalog.jsp...

For more information, contact Jacki Zevenbergen at 216-524-6580, extension 1006.

Information, please: Readers are invited to share information about themselves, their families and friends, organizations, church events, etc. in Brooklyn, Independence, Parma, Parma Heights and Seven Hills for the Sun Postings column, which I write on a freelance basis. Awards, honors, milestone birthdays or anniversaries and other items are welcome. Submit information at least 10 days before the requested publication date to carolkovach@hotmail.com.

Read more from the Parma Sun Post.
Head of Psychology at the University of Ghana, Professor Joseph Osafo has urged Ghanaians to dispel the conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines.



There are several stories about the vaccines with some people claiming it has dire health repercussions on those who take the vaccines.



Some also claim it's the mark of the beast, 666, stated in the Bible and others believe the vaccines are aimed to kill about 3 billion Africans among many more unproven theories.



These theories have pumped fears in Ghanaians making a lot of them skeptical about the vaccines.



Making his submissions on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Prof. Joseph Osafo asked Ghanaians to ignore all those theories and allegations because they are unfounded.



He stated that there is no way the vaccines will be made to extinguish Africans.



''Africans are equally scientifically minded. So people shouldn't think those who come up with the vaccines are not Christians. They also know. There are scientists who are Christians. There are scientists who are morally sound; they know and will speak up if it's not good. We should deceive ourselves that only Whites know everything; it's not true today or tomorrow. There are Africans in there who also know the composition of this vaccine'', he accentuated.



He also called on the government to immediately begin public education on the vaccines to expel all the theories for the smooth administration of the vaccines.





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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In this June 22, 2020, file photo, a police offer stands posted at the entrance of an Applebee's restaurant, in St. John, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. A gunman opened fire inside the restaurant, killing one and injuring at least two others, police said. A new study released Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice and Arnold Ventures looked at 34 U.S. cities and found a 30% spike in killings in 2020 compared to 2019. The study said the coronavirus pandemic and the racial injustice protests that followed George Floyd's death were factors. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP File)

Killings rose dramatically across the U.S. last year, and a study released Monday suggests the coronavirus pandemic and racial injustice unrest were factors.

The study released by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, along with the Houston-based philanthropic organization Arnold Ventures, looked at crime rates in 34 cities of varying sizes. It found a 30% spike in homicides in 2020 compared to 2019. Study leaders called for urgent action to improve police-community relations and expand anti-violence initiatives.

Richard Rosenfeld, a University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist and one of the study's lead authors, said officers around the country were forced off the streets and into quarantine due to either contracting COVID-19 or to avoid being exposed by colleagues. Even when on the job, social distancing requirements kept officers from interacting closely with the community, he said.

"That really reduced the ability of law officers to engage in the kinds of proactive policing that can reduce crime," Rosenfeld said in an interview.

Rosenfeld's home city was among those studied, and among the most violent. St. Louis recorded 262 killings last year, the most since 267 in 1993, when the city's population was substantially higher.

St. Louis was far from alone. Homicides rose in 29 of the 34 cities studied. Killings more than doubled in Chula Vista, California, and Chandler, Arizona.

Larger cities were hit hard, too: Milwaukee's homicides rose 85%, Seattle saw a 63% increase, Chicago killings jumped 55% and New York City saw a 43% increase.

Milwaukee police Sgt. Efrain Cornejo said in an email that several factors contributed to the city's rise in killings. Efrain said the city is still researching the cause "to develop better and new strategies to reduce gun violence in the future."

In this Sept. 7, 2020 file photo, a woman kneels on the ground outside the University of Chicago Medicine's Comer Children's Hospital where an 8-year-old girl was taken after being killed in a shooting that wounded three others in Chicago. A new study released Monday, FEB. 1, 2021, by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice and Arnold Ventures looked at 34 U.S. cities and found a 30% spike in killings in 2020 compared to 2019. The study said the coronavirus pandemic and the racial injustice protests that followed George Floyd's death were factors. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP, File)

The study found that the pandemic "has disproportionately affected vulnerable populations, placing at-risk individuals under additional physical, mental, emotional, and financial stress."

The virus also strained police, courts, hospitals and other entities tasked with responding to violence, and hampered violence reduction outreach efforts, the study found.

Homicide rates in 2020 topped 2019 levels during every month, but the increase was steepest after massive protests spurred by George Floyd's death in Minneapolis on May 25. The study found that in June through August, homicides rose 37% compared to 2019.

Rosenfeld said that deploying large teams of officers to demonstrations "reduced policing out in the community where it's needed to keep crime in check."

The authors said homicides also spiked in the mid-2010s when protests followed the deaths of young Black people at the hands of police, including 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

While it will be months before the federal government compiles full national statistics, authors of the study said it is likely that 2020 will see the worst one-year homicide rate increase ever, topping the 13% increase in 1968.

The study noted that despite the spike in killings, homicide rates in the U.S. have dropped sharply over the past quarter of a century. The overall homicide rate for the 34 cities study was 11.4 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2020, compared to 19.4 deaths per 100,000 residents in 1995.

Other violent crimes also rose in 2020. The study showed that rates of aggravated assaults rose 6%, and gun assaults jumped 8%.

But residential burglaries dropped 24% and drug offenses declined 30%. Rosenfeld said the fact that so many people were staying home and off the street was a factor in the reduction of non-violent crime.

Explore further Some crimes have seen drastic decreases during coronavirus, but not homicides in the United States

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Multiple COVID-19 testing clinics for people not experiencing symptoms of the virus are set for this week in Cayuga County.

The Cayuga County Health Department and Auburn Community Hospital are hosting a no-cost drive-thru clinic for asymptomatic residents from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Feb. 3, at the hospital on Lansing Street. Visitors should use the helipad entrance, and will be given instructions on how to get results from an online portal.

Two more clinics for people who are not experiencing symptoms of the virus are scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, and Saturday, Feb. 6, at Emerson Park Pavilion, 6843 E. Lake Road, Owasco. This is a rapid-result test clinic, and people should be prepared to wait on-site for 30 minutes to get their results. Masks must be worn and social distancing will be enforced. Attendees are asked to park in the lot, not in the circle in front of the pavilion, and follow the signs.

An appointment is required to be tested for any of the county's clinics, and registration will be closed if/when a clinic becomes fully booked.

Even after signing left-hander J.A. Happ to a one-year, $8MM contract late last month, the Twins may not be done addressing their rotation. They remain in touch with one of their own free agents, right-hander Jake Odorizzi, and were in attendance for righty Jake Arrietas throwing session last Friday, La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reports. The Twins will stay in touch with Arrieta, according to Neal.

Odorizzi spent the previous three seasons with the Twins and combined for a 4.11 ERA/4.34 SIERA in 337 innings. In his best season, 2019, Odorizzi earned an All-Star nod and pitched to a 3.51 ERA/4.14 SIERA with a a career-best 27.1 percent strikeout rate and an 8.1 percent walk rate over 159 frames. The Twins then handed Odorizzi a $17.8MM qualifying offer, and he accepted it instead of trying his luck in free agency.

Minnesota was no doubt expecting another quality showing from Odorizzi when it gave him the QO, but it wasnt to be in 2020. Injuries, including to his back, chest and right middle finger, limited him to 13 2/3 innings of 10-run ball. Odorizzi doesnt seem to be a free agent at the ideal time, then, but considering his positive track record with the Royals, Rays and Twins, he could still land a solid multiyear payday this offseason. Other than the Twins, Jon Morosi of MLB.com lists the Angels, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Giants and perhaps the Mets as teams vying for the soon-to-be 31-year-old.

Either Odorizzi or Arrieta would fill out a Twins rotation that currently has Happ, Kenta Maeda, Jose Berrios, Michael Pineda and Randy Dobnak comprising its top five. Of course, unlike Odorizzi, Arrieta probably isnt in line for better than a one-year contract. While Arrieta is a former NL Cy Young winner (2015) with the Cubs, hes now on the market after a pair of disappointing seasons with the Phillies. Arrieta, 35 in March, put up his worst ERA since 2012 last year (5.08) in 44 1/3 innings. He also logged a meager 16.8 percent strikeout percentage  one of the worst of his career  though he did record an above-average walk rate of 8.4 percent and a 51.8 percent groundball rate.

OPEC+ expects global oil demand to rise by 5.6 million barrels per day (bpd) this yearlower estimated growth than OPECs assessment of 5.9-million-bpd demand increase from less than three weeks ago, according to the groups Joint Technical Committee (JTC), which met via videoconference on Tuesday.

Last year, oil demand is estimated to have crashed by 9.72 million bpd, Amena Bakr, Deputy Bureau Chief and Chief Opec Correspondent at Energy Intelligence, tweeted quoting the JTCs assessment, which also notes that this year, global oil demand is forecast to rise by 5.60 million bpd compared to 2020.

Less than three weeks ago, OPEC said it expected demand to rise by 5.9 million bpd in 2021 from an estimated average demand of 90 million bpd in 2020, leaving its 2021 demand growth forecast unchanged from December but warning that the pandemic was still skewing risks to the downside.

Regarding oil production, the JTC panel found that total oil production from all OPEC+ members exceeded the required quotas by 72,000 bpd in December, Bakr tweeted.

Sources at the OPEC+ group told Reuters last week that the producers part of the OPEC+ alliance complied with the oil output cuts at 99 percent in December 2020, down from 101 percent compliance in November.

Opening the JTC meeting today, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said the prospects for the global oil market and the world economy were improving, with global economy expected to grow by 4.4 percent this year, after a 4.1-percent contraction last year.

With the crude oil market currently switching into backwardation, we are hopeful that 2021 will be a good year for overall demand, Barkindo said.

The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) is set to meet on Wednesday, but considering that quotas are set for February and March, the market doesnt expect major announcements about changes in the production pact.

On the day OPEC+ began its regular monthly meetings, oil prices jumped by more than 2 percent early on Tuesday, with oil prices hitting their highest level in a year, and WTI Crude topping $55 a barrel.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Travellers who breach soon-to-be introduced mandatory home quarantine laws will faces fines of up to 2,500 and/or a six month prison sentence.

The strict new travel laws are to be introduced in the coming days and will require passengers to remain inside their homes for up to two weeks after they arrive in the country.

The regulations are to be signed into law by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and are among a suite of measures aimed at clamping down on international travel.

Read More

The home quarantine rules will replace existing guidelines which require passengers to restrict their movements for a fortnight after they arrive in the country.

The home quarantine laws will apply to all passengers arriving by airline or ferry and gardai will be expected to enforce the regulations.

Passengers arriving from South Africa, Brazil and some other South American countries will be told to quarantine at home for a full two weeks, even if they have a negative Covid-19 test result.

All other passengers with negative tests will be required to quarantine at home for at least five days, after which they can pay for a Covid-19 test and, if they get a negative result, can leave their home.

Essential workers will not be required to quarantine at home if they are travelling into the country for work-related reasons.

Legislation to introduce mandatory quarantine in designated centres such as hotels is still being drafted and will not be signed into law for at least another week.
She is known for her array of striking inkings.

And Angelina Jolie proved her love of tattoos has passed down through the family as her eldest son Maddox, 19, flaunted a huge snake tattoo down his torso in a portrait from her stunning new spread for British Vogue's March issue.

The actress co-parents Maddox, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and 12-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox with ex Brad Pitt, however Maddox's relationship with his father has been fraught with drama in recent years.

Wow: Angelina Jolie proved her love of tattoos has passed down through the family as her eldest son Maddox, 19, flaunted a huge snake tattoo down his torso in a portrait from her stunning new spread for British Vogue's March issue

Angelina is famed for her love of body ink and has at least 20 tattoos, including the coordinates of her children's birth places and a huge tiger.

It seems Maddox enjoys her style as one of the images from the Vogue spread featured a black and white image showing Angelina doing her son's hair.

Angelina's designs include a Tennessee Williams quote, a Buddhist prayer and geographical coordinates of where her children were born.

The three largest tattoos on her back were added in 2016 ancient Buddhist mantras down her right shoulder blade, a temple in the centre of her back, and, below it, a grid design known as a Yantra, believed to bring good luck.

Beneath these is the image of a large Bengal tiger that she acquired in 2004 to celebrate her Cambodian citizenship.

Wow: The snake inking was similar to some of his mothers' tattoos

'They're helping me': The screen star co-parents Maddox, 19, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and 12-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox (pictured in 2019) with ex Brad Pitt

She got the tattoo in Bangkok, which was was made in traditional Thai style with a manual needle, and was blessed by the tattoo artist, who chanted an ancient hymn while making it.

A tattoo on her left shoulder blade is a script dedicated to Maddox, whom she adopted in Cambodia, and was done in 2003 in a Thai hotel.

Just months before actor-turned director Angelina split from her husband of 12 years, Brad Pitt in 2016 the couple had a former Thai monk flown to Cambodia where she was filming.

He drew designs on both stars using the same ink to symbolically and bind them as husband and wife.

Think before you ink: She is known for her array of striking inkings

Epic: Beneath these is the image of a large Bengal tiger that she acquired in 2004 to celebrate her Cambodian citizenship

Angelina also has gothic lettering on her neck reading Know Your Rights, the title of a song by The Clash, one of her favourite bands.

The Oscar-winning actresss whirlwind marriage to actor Billy Bob Thornton in 2000 after a two-month courtship prompted her to have his name and a dragon tattooed on her shoulder. By 2002, the ink had been erased by laser.

Out soon! See the full feature in the March issue of British Vogue from February 5

She said at the time: Ive moved on  thats why its going. It was replaced with the coordinates of her childrens and Pitts birthplaces.

Angelina filed to absolve her marriage to Brad in 2016, saying in a June 2020 interview with Vogue India that it was for 'the well-being of my family,' adding 'it was the right decision.'

It was reported at the time that Pitt had gotten into an alcohol-fueled violent screaming match with Jolie, prompting eldest son Maddox to defend his mother.

Jolie was granted temporary custody over all six children and Brad was granted visitation rights with a court-appointed therapist present.

In 2018, a court ruled in favor of Brad after he alleged that Angelina was preventing the children from having a consistent relationship with him. He was given a temporary summer custody that allowed him to spend time with the kids without Jolie present.

She then alleged that summer that he had not been paying 'meaningful' child support for over a year, with Pitt retorting that he had loaned Angelina $8M and given an additional $1.8M to help with bills.

Woah! She has up to 20 tattoos

The custody trial was supposed to begin in November 2018 but the two reached an agreement instead, with ET reporting that it was in the best interest of the children and eliminated the need for a trial.

Pitt was granted less than 50 percent custody of the kids despite wanting equal joint custody, prompting him to continue fighting for what he saw fit in another trial.

The pair were ruled 'legally single' in April 2020 but the status did not finalize the divorce or the custody battle.

Brad continues to seek joint custody with a trial that was scheduled for October, as he compiled a list of over 20 witnesses to strengthen his case.

The couple had already decided that Maddox was not a custody consideration and could decide when he wanted to see Brad as he was no longer a minor.

Important: The TV and film star has taken a hands-on approach in her humanitarian duties ever since her trip to Cambodia for Tomb Raider back in 2000 (pictured in Maddox in 2003)

Many details of the trial have been kept under wraps, though a decision was purported to be expected at their next trial which was scheduled for December 21.

In her latest interview with Vogue, the Unbroken star also touched on her role as the special envoy from the UN Refugee Agency.

Angelina shared: 'I started in my early twenties, putting on my boots and backpack, and going out to try and figure out what the hell was going on in the world.

'I tried to give myself a broader education than Id had at school. I grew up in a very empty place, in many ways, so had to go to find a wider understanding.'

The activist went on to admit she believes the perception of refugees has 'worsened' over time, explaining: 'We speak as if refugees are a burden. But theyve had to adapt. They have a different skill set, a different look in their eye.

'I'm not good at it at all': The actress, 45, admitted she doesn't view herself as 'a traditional stay-at-home mum' as she touched on her 'hard' few years and approaching her fifties

'Theyve confronted their own humanity in such a profound way. Theyve stood up to oppression. We should honour their fight. Honour the people whove fled bombs and protected their kids.'

ressing the importance of teaching global citizenship to her kids, she added: 'They are from across the globe. When I see Mad in Cambodia, its his home.

'He is a Cambodian man, and at the same time, he is also an American citizen and a global citizen. But its not just important for him to go there, its important for his siblings to go there, too.

All 27 international Vogues are dedicating their March issues to Creativity. Each issue is a celebration of those who encourage us to look at life in a new way, featuring portfolios of the brightest young stars in fashion, music, art and film, alongside inspiring editorials and extraordinary fashion through each Vogues local lens.

See the full feature in the March issue of British Vogue available via digital download and on newsstands Friday 5th February.
Trouble and worries.

Those two words expressed yesterday by the father of kidnapped Andrea Bharatt sum up his state of mind as he waits in agony for a phone call from the kidnappers or a police breakthrough in the case.

Andrea, 22, a clerk at the Arima Magistrates Court, has been missing since Friday evening after she boarded a taxi from Arima for home with a friend. The friend was dropped off at her home but Andrea was not.
[February 02, 2021] MackeyRMS and InsiderScore Announce Strategic Merger

MackeyRMS, a provider of SaaS (News - Alert) -based research management software, and InsiderScore, a provider of actionable data and analytics on publicly traded U.S. companies, today announced a strategic merger to create a best-of-breed investment and research management data, analytics, and software platform. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005269/en/ Facilitated by Resurgens Technology Partners, MackeyRMS' private equity partner, this strategic merger addresses growing market demand among traditional and alternative investment organizations for a platform solution combining investment and research management data, analytics, and software. MackeyRMS is the industry's best-in-class cloud-based research management platform, and InsiderScore is the market leader in delivering data and analytics on corporate, financial, and regulatory filings for publicly traded companies in the US. These two highly complementary product offerings deliver a powerful suite of data, analytics, and software solutions for investment teams conducting fundamental research for actively managed client portfolios. Together, MackeyRMS and InsiderScore are uniquely positioned to deliver investment organizations with a platform solution that provides actionable investment insights, improves individual analyst productivity, tightens investment team collaboration and increases operational and organizational efficiency and control over investment IP.



"We are delighted to join forces with InsiderScore to build the essential one-stop, end-to-end research platform supporting the fundamental investment research process," said Chris Mackey, founder and CEO, MackeyRMS. "And while we will continue to fully support the individual needs of both InsiderScore and MackeyRMS clients, the combined platform we're building will empower modern investment teams to do their best work." According to Rusty Szurek, founder and CEO, InsiderScore, the merger was driven by the two companies' complementary product portfolios, their focus on the same target market and client segments, the opportunity to increase the value proposition for the companies' shared clients, and the opportunity to deliver added value to non-mutual clients.

"We are excited about the natural synergies our teams and offerings already have and the added value our combined company will deliver to the investment management community," said Szurek. "Our combined company will have greater technical resources, deeper domain expertise, broader capabilities, and better positioning to drive product innovation." Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a Stifel company, served as exclusive financial advisor to InsiderScore. Financial terms of the transaction will not be disclosed. About MackeyRMS MackeyRMS is a leading provider of SaaS-based research management software engineered to optimize the way analysts and portfolio managers generate, share, debate, and act on investment research conducted for actively managed portfolios. Relied upon as a single system of record for research supporting the fundamental investment process, MackeyRMS is used by many of the world's leading investment managers to organize key investment workflows, engender trust from investors, and streamline regulatory and compliance oversight. MackeyRMS is a trusted partner to institutional investors across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in New York, London, and Sydney. For more information, visit www.mackeyrms.com. About InsiderScore InsiderScore is the leading provider of actionable intelligence on insider transactions, stock buybacks, management changes, and institutional holdings to the institutional investment community. Founded in 2004, InsiderScore offers advanced expertise in transforming unstructured public company SEC (News - Alert) forms and filings data into actionable intelligence for active institutional investors. InsiderScore is headquartered in Princeton, NJ, with additional offices in Seattle and Boston. The company serves hundreds of U.S. hedge funds and asset managers, with more than 30% of clients having tenure of ten years or more. For more information, visit www.insiderscore.com. About Resurgens Technology Partners Resurgens Technology Partners is an Atlanta-based private equity firm focused on investing its $200 million fund in North American-based, lower middle-market software and tech-enabled services businesses. The Resurgens founders and broader team includes professionals with significant investment and operating experience in the tech private equity industry. The firm is building an operating and portfolio management model that is differentiated in its market segment and will help drive value to its portfolio companies. To learn more about Resurgens and its investment strategy, visit www.resurgenstech.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005269/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
Russia's controversial coronavirus vaccine is 92 per cent effective at blocking symptomatic illness, early trial results suggest

Russia's controversial coronavirus vaccine is 92 per cent effective at blocking symptomatic illness, trial results suggest.

Just 16 out of 16,500 people given the two-dose jab  dubbed Sputnik V  developed symptoms, while no-one died from the disease or needed hospital treatment.

In a huge boost to Russia's immunisation ambitions, the vaccine was also found to be 74 per cent effective at blocking Covid after just a single dose.

For comparison, Oxford University's vaccine is roughly 70 per cent effective at blocking symptomatic Covid after two doses, while the efficacy for jabs by Pfizer and Moderna is around 95 per cent. But directly comparing results from trials done in different countries is difficult because trial methods and standards vary.

British scientists reacting to the findings, published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, said the UK should be 'more careful about being overly critical about other countries vaccine designs'.

Sputnik V, named after the former Soviet space satellites, has been shrouded in controversy since Vladimir Putin green-lit its approval for mass-use in Russia last August before any human trials had been rigorously analysed. But the jab has still not actually been rolled out nationwide.

Top UK scientists and politicians denounced the move because there was no evidence to prove the vaccine worked or was safe and accused Putin of trying to elevate Russia's international standing.

The following month British spies accused the Kremlin of launching a cyber attack on Oxford University scientists who developed an almost identical vaccine, raising fears Moscow was stealing research from the UK.

The UK Government, which has spent 2billion on pre-orders for 407million vaccines made by seven different developers, has so far made it clear it has no plans to purchase supplies from Russia.

But that hasn't stopped more than 50 countries, including swathes of South America, India, South Korea, Belarus and Hungary, from placing orders.

At about 7 per dose, Sputnik is one of the cheapest Covid vaccines on the market  for example Pfizer's jab costs about 15 per shot, while a dose of Moderna's is 25. Oxford's is still the cheapest, at 3 per dose.



Sputnik V, named after the former Soviet space satellites, has been shrouded in controversy since Vladimir Putin green-lit its approval for mass-use in Russia last August before any human trials had been conducted.

The Russian jab is what is known as an adenovirus vaccine  which uses a weakened virus that causes the common cold that has been modified not to trigger illness.

Researchers have already used this technology to produce vaccines against a number of pathogens including flu, Zika and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).

After the vaccine is injected into a persons arm, the adenoviruses enter human cells and travel to their nuclei, the chamber where the cells DNA is stored.

The vaccine are programmed to carry the genetic code of the coronavirus's 'spike protein', which Sars-CoV-2 uses to invade the body.

Covid vaccines can be tweaked to fight new variants in a matter of weeks, expert says Coronavirus vaccines could be tweaked to spark immunity against new variants in just three weeks, a top scientist has said. Professor Robin Shattock, who is working on booster shots, revealed the rapid turnaround and said jabs could be got into the arms of patients within three months. He added antibodies triggered by jabs based on the old virus would still be effective at preventing serious illness should someone suffer an infection with a new variant. The Imperial College London scientist was leading trials of a Covid-19 vaccine, but abandoned them last month saying it was because other jabs were being rolled out. Scientists are concerned new variants may be able to dodge jab-triggered antibodies, and possibly cause an infection or serious illness. They are most concerned about the South African variant and the Brazilian strain which have sparked international alarm. And today fears were raised over the Kent variant after it emerged it may be mutating to include a key mutation making it better able to resist immunity. Advertisement

It uses this genetic code to trick the body into mounting an immune response, priming the immune system to attack coronavirus if the real virus infects the body.

Reacting to the findings, Dr Julian Tang, a clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, said: 'This Russian Sputnik V adenovirus-vectored vaccine... appears even more effective after two doses (91.6 per cent) than the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine standard dose regimen...

'So despite the earlier misgivings about the way this Russian Sputnik V vaccine was rolled out more widely - ahead of sufficient Phase Three trial data - this approach has been justified to some extent now.

'Such pandemic-related vaccine rollout compromises have, to be fair, been adopted in the UK vaccination programme also - with the extended intervals between first and second doses, as well as the approval of the Oxford-AZ vaccine for over 55-year-olds - despite little formal clinical Phase Three trial data to support this.

'So we should be more careful about being overly critical about other countries vaccine designs/ programmes.

'In this context, I look forward to seeing similar data/reports on the Chinese Sinovac/Sinopharm vaccines - as well as hearing how the Oxford-AZ and Russian Sputnik V teams might be collaborating to enhance and maintain the performance of their Ad-vectored Covid-19 vaccines.'

The study was conducted between September 7 and November 24 last year, with a total of 21,977 adults randomly assigned to receive the vaccine (16,501) or placebo (5,476).

After 48 days there were just 16 cases of symptomatic Covid-19 confirmed in the vaccine group.

The trial included 2,144 participants more than 60 years old, and vaccine efficacy was 91.8 per cent in this group.

Dr Alexander Edwards, associate professor in biomedical technology at the University of Reading, added: 'The vaccine trial results are coming thick and fast as high infection rates in areas where Phase Three clinical trials provide increasing amounts of data that together encourages us to believe that vaccines will soon be able to drive down the human cost of Covid-19.

'The more trial data we have, the better placed we are to understand how to make and use vaccines- so these results are welcomed. There are some exciting details in this.'

Four deaths were recorded during the trial  three in the vaccine group, and one in the placebo group.

In the vaccine group, one death was associated with a fracture, and two had underlying conditions and developed symptoms of the virus four to five days after the first dose of the vaccine.

Both participants were deemed to have already been infected before inclusion in the trial.

In the placebo group, the death was associated with a stroke. None of the deaths were deemed to be associated with vaccination.
Photo: Glacier Media

The natural resources sector has helped B.C.s economy fare better than economies elsewhere in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the industry could drive the provinces economic recovery  if government allows it.

That is the message the sector presented at the 18th annual BC Natural Resources Forum, held Jan. 2628. Industry officials said a united front on globally promoting the provinces resources  forest products, minerals and energy  will be key to creating jobs while also setting a global example through B.C.s industry practices on the environment, community engagement, and innovation.

One sector showing its potential as an economic engine is the provinces forest industry, said Alexa Young, vice-president of government and public affairs at the BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI).

Young, who noted that the sector benefited from people staying home more and opting to upgrade their dwellings during the pandemic, said the industrys growth in 2020 is a potential road map for B.C.s economic recovery.

Its the depth and breadth of forestrys reach into B.C.s economy that has driven [economic] continuity, Young said. This is an industry that supports 100,000 good-paying jobs. Its in Vanderhoof and Campbell River for sure, but its also in our cities in Burnaby, Surrey and right here in Vancouver. Companies are making machine parts and high-tech tools, delivering services and getting our products to market. It extends to businesses you wouldnt even think about, like catering companies.

Its important because you need private-sector engines. You need to anchor jobs. You need to anchor economic activity to enable resilience. And when times get tough  [people] need to know there are big employers out there, putting money in employees pockets.

The forums opening panel  which included Young; Prince Rupert Port Authority president and CEO Shaun Stevenson; LNG Canada CEO Peter Zebedee; and Teck Resources (TSE:TECK.B) vice-president of communities/government affairs Amber Johnston-Billings  offered the public a glimpse of what B.C. natural resource sector officials have done to weather the COVID storm, as well as the industrys future potential.

Johnston-Billings said Tecks handling of the pandemics economic uncertainty shows that the mining industry can provide a strong foundation for peoples livelihoods in B.C.

[A pandemic] probably wasnt what we were all thinking about two years ago, but if any sector is well designed from the beginning to handle something like the pandemic, it is probably the mining sector because we already have so many safety protocols in place, she said, noting Teck quickly added masks, social distancing and working from home to its policies while maintaining operations as COVID-19 took hold in Canada.

We didnt change anyones take-home pay, Johnston-Billings said. No one lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. Teck really made sure we didnt reduce head count, and we were very clear at the beginning of this process that we wanted to make sure peoples health and mental well-being around the security of their jobs are safe.

Outside of the natural resource sectors response to COVID, both Johnston-Billings and Zebedee noted that B.C. commodities such as natural gas, copper and metallurgical coal produce a much smaller carbon footprint than those produced in other jurisdictions because of B.C.s strict environmental regulations and companies internal commitments.

Its an advantage, Zebedee said, that B.C. should be leveraging in the global market at a time when environmental awareness has permeated every step of business decision-making in economies around the world.

[LNG Canada] is of course a showcase project that will export low-carbon natural gas to Asian markets that need it so, so badly, Zebedee said. It creates well-compensated jobs here in the local economy, and it differentiates ourselves from our competition in that our carbon footprint is so much smaller than that of our competition  while feeding into markets that are growing.

We are working together with all levels of government  on a framework for us to get credit for our low-carbon footprint in a global market. Some large energy companies are selling carbon-neutral LNG [liquefied natural gas] cargoes into the market right now. This will form a competitive advantage for us at LNG Canada, and we need to work together with the government to develop a policy framework around requirements to enable that.

Global annual LNG demand is expected to double current levels to 700 million tonnes by 2040, industry projections show.

B.C. also has a logistical advantage with its West Coast ports in meeting the growing demand for natural resources in Asia.

Stevenson said demand has been driving unprecedented growth at the Port at Prince Rupert over the last decade.

He adding that he hopes the ports capital projects underway now  as well as those slated to start this year  will help the port surpass Montreal as Canadas second-largest before long.
With concerns rising over the impact of long-term remote learning on students' academic preparedness and mental health, providing as many tools as possible for schools to reopen is critical. Pooled classroom testing, which combines swabs from all consenting individuals in a classroom and runs them as a single test, is an effective way to significantly increase testing capacity and lower the cost of testing programs. Scaling cost-effective pooled testing across Massachusetts and other states nationwide will be an essential part of any effort to meet the Biden-Harris administration's goal of reopening the majority of schools within the first 100 days.

Through the program, Ginkgo and other pooled testing service providers will supply lab and data processing services, all materials needed to collect and ship samples, as well as training for school staff to ensure a seamless implementation. All tests will be analyzed at a CLIA-certified laboratory. Ginkgo, which has been running a free pilot program through Concentric by Ginkgo to bring COVID-19 pooled testing to K-12 classrooms across the U.S., is currently supporting over 100 schools with testing nationwide, including dozens in Massachusetts. Through its pilot program, Ginkgo has supported a diverse set of schools in bringing testing on-site, ensuring that onboarding and testing processes are simple and scalable for districts across the country. Students are able to easily self-administer tests and reception to the pilot program has been positive, with school administrators and students alike describing the testing process as simple and painless.

"We commend Massachusetts for leading the charge to provide schools with the guidance and support to operate robust COVID-19 testing programs," said Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks. "Low-cost, widespread testing that is quick and easy to administer is absolutely critical to facilitate the return to in-person learning. We look forward to playing an integral role in the American pandemic response strategy and helping students, teaching staff, and their families feel confident about going back to school."

The testing initiative was announced as part of DESE's resources and supports available for schools returning to in-person learning during the 2020-2021 school year, and marks the first state-sponsored pooled testing program within the U.S. It will run through March 28, 2021, after which schools will be able to leverage federal relief funding to continue offering the program.

"A top priority has been, and continues to be, finding a pathway for students and teachers to learn in school safely. Ginkgo has proven that they're capable of running an effective testing program that K-12 schools can implement with confidence," said Marylou Sudders, Secretary of Health and Human Services and Director of the Commonwealth's COVID-19 Command Center. "With the support of Ginkgo and our other pooling service providers, the DESE and EOHHS feel confident that we are putting schools in the best place to facilitate the return to in-person learning."

To date, Ginkgo has announced $70MM in fundraising to bring next-gen sequencing technology to testing and the availability of millions of rapid antigen tests in partnership with Access Bio . Learn more about Concentric by Ginkgo and our ongoing COVID-19 response efforts here .

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Headquartered in Boston, Ginkgo Bioworks uses the most advanced technology on the planetbiologyto grow better products. The company's cell programming platform is enabling the growth of biotechnology across diverse markets, from food to fragrance to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo is also actively supporting a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including community testing, epidemiological tracing, vaccine development and therapeutics discovery. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com .

For More Information:

[email protected]

Media Contacts:

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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks
Uber Technologies announced on Tuesday that it will be acquiring Boston-based Drizly, an alcohol delivery service, for $1.1 billion in stock and cash.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Drizly had been growing at a rate of 300 percent year-over-year, and that the rideshare company hopes to accelerate that trajectory by introducing the concept to Uber customers.

Wherever you want to go and whatever you need to get, our goal at Uber is to make peoples lives a little bit easier, Khosrowshahi said in a statement. Thats why weve been branching into new categories like groceries, prescriptions and, now, alcohol.

After the business deal is finalized, Drizly will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber, Drizly says. Drizlys customer base over time will be integrated with the Uber Eats app, while also maintaining a separate Drizly app. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2021.

Uber expects that roughly 90% of paid consideration for Drizly stockholders in the transaction will be in the form of shares of Uber common stock, with the rest to be paid in cash.

Third-party delivery services, like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Drizly, have gotten a boost from the coronavirus pandemic as more and more retailers moved their offerings online.

Drizly plans to innovate and expand independently in its fast-growing and competitive sector, while also gaining access to the advanced mobile marketplace technologies of the worlds largest food delivery and ridesharing platform, the company says.

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What I dont want to do is sacrifice any of the approaches that weve taken, that have gotten us to this day, Holcomb said. Here, we are trending in the right direction. ... I almost grieve at the deniers and defiers because that just means everyone else has to do more or stand by and watch.
The Editors Guild of India said on Monday the arrest was an attempt to muzzle young 'courageous' voices of independent scribes and demanded his immediate release even as Punia told the court that a freelance journalist not carrying a press card can be no grounds for a case or arrest.

New Delhi : A Delhi court will pass the order on Tuesday on the bail plea of freelance journalist Mandeep Punia arrested by the Delhi Police from the Singhu border protest site here where farmers are agitating against the three contentious agri laws.

Punia was arrested by the police on Sunday in a first information report registered under various Indian Penal Code sections including 186 (Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 332 (Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty).

He was later sent to 14-day judicial custody.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Satvir Singh Lamba reserved the order for Tuesday after hearing the arguments of the accused as well as the public prosecutor.

Advocate Akram Khan, appearing for Punia, told the court that the accused was merely carrying out his journalistic duties.

Khan said that another journalist was detained along with Punia but he was released around midnight.

The journalist who was released was identified as Dharmender Singh.

The reason police gave different treatment to the accused was because he was not carrying a press card, he claimed.

"Accused is a freelance journalist and not carrying a press card can be no grounds for a case or arrest. The accused is a well respected member of the society being a journalist including being a frequent contributor to the Caravan magazine," he said.

Delhi Police sought dismissal of the bail application, claiming he may again indulge in instigating the protestors and create nuisance at the protest site.

The police alleged that the accused tried to break the barricades and scuffled with police personnel deputed for the highly sensitive law and order arrangement in connection with the protest by the farmers.

It claimed that during the investigation, Punia neither cooperated nor did he disclose any name of his associates.

Demanding that Punia be released forthwith, the EGI said in a statement that Delhi Police should 'restore circumstances' in which the media can report without fear or favour.

'The EGI is deeply concerned over the incarceration of freelance journalist Mandeep Punia who was reporting on the farm protest from the Singhu border.

'Punia's arrest is an attempt to muzzle young courageous voices of independent journalists that through reporting are busting fake news and speaking truth to power,' it said.

The Indian Women's Press Corps, Press Club of India and the Press Association had on Sunday demanded Punia's immediate release and said no journalist should be disturbed while carrying out their duties at any place.

'Such crackdowns impinge on the media's right to report freely and interferes with our right to freedom of expression, and freedom of the press as guaranteed by the Constitution of India,' the bodies had said in a joint statement.
Myanmar's fragile, flawed democracy has collapsed. In the early hours Monday, the country's military initiated a coup, arresting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other politicians, including ministers from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party. A state of emergency was declared for a year. Soldiers blocked roads and fanned out across the capital Naypyidaw and Yangon, the country's largest city.

The military carried out the predawn raid just hours before Myanmar's new parliament, dominated by Suu Kyi's NLD, was scheduled to sit. The generals and their proxy political party, which suffered badly in November elections, claimed voter irregularities, though Myanmar's electoral commission last week rejected allegations that fraud played a significant role in the NLD's landslide win. (My colleague Adam Taylor wrote a helpful primer on the current state of play.)

From Beijing to Washington, governments issued statements of concern and condemnation. Sanctions may be issued by a host of western capitals. But the country's military establishment is accustomed to foreign censure and appears intent on halting Myanmar's democratic experiment, which had seen Suu Kyi occupy a central position of authority and influence.

"The coup underscored the fragility of Myanmar's decade-old, quasi-democratic transition. Many assumed that despite its imperfections, Myanmar's political evolution would continue with Suu Kyi as de facto head of the civilian government and with entrenched powers for the military, led by Min Aung Hlaing," wrote my colleagues Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin. "But the military was never comfortable with its enduring unpopularity and Suu Kyi's godlike status among ordinary Myanmar people, analysts said, after it had helped open the country after half a century of isolationist rule."

Though powerful and popular at home, Suu Kyi, 75, is no longer the flower-haired champion of democracy once glorified in the West. Three decades ago, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent struggle against the military junta. The daughter of Aung San, a leading Myanmar nationalist, she spent 15 years over a 21-year period under house arrest before her release in 2010. She then toured the world as a transcendent global icon - receiving the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington in 2012, delivering lectures on freedom and spirituality in Britain and getting feted by rock band U2 and the Riverdance troupe in Ireland.

Her fall from grace coincided with her rise to power. For the past half decade, she and her party entered a tenuous power-sharing political structure alongside the country's military. She ran interference for the generals in the wake of their violent repression of Myanmar's Rohingya minority; a bloody 2017 campaign of rape, looting and violence forced some three-quarters of a million Rohingya refugees to flee to squalid camps in Bangladesh, where they mostly remain. International organizations and human rights groups cast the government's actions as ethnic cleansing and tantamount to genocide.

But Suu Kyi rejected the opprobrium of the international community and defended the military's counterinsurgency against supposed Islamist extremists. In 2019, she became one of the first national leaders to appear at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, rebuffing allegations of genocide leveled at Myanmar's military. She even refused to utter the word "Rohingya" - an implicit reflection of the widespread (and prejudiced) view within Myanmar that the community comprises Muslim "interlopers" from Bangladesh and doesn't have an indigenous claim to the country.

Some suggested she was playing a delicate game, striving to consolidate democracy while appeasing a military establishment that could interrupt that work at any moment. "Suu Kyi's supporters say that her refusal to speak up on behalf of Myanmar's vulnerable communities is not innate chauvinism but rather a political pragmatism that comes from wanting to deny the military an opportunity to once again seize full power," wrote Hannah Beech of the New York Times last November. But she added that Suu Kyi's apparent "unwillingness to defend the rights of ethnic minorities" was a reflection of a deeper nationalist mood among the majority ethnic Bamar population.

Critics within Myanmar venture that Suu Kyi has not actually strengthened democracy. Though Myanmar's civilian political class comprise many former political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, hundreds more languish in prison under her government's watch. Political leaders from the country's tapestry of ethnic minority groups accuse Suu Kyi of chauvinism and embracing a political dispensation that sidelined minority voices in a country beset by decades of ethnic insurgencies.

"Change in Myanmar is dependent only on the ruling party and the government, and how much they would like to build peace," said Tu Ja, chairman of the Kachin State People's Party, to my colleagues last year. "We don't have a fair chance, or a shot at federalism."

Now that Suu Kyi is once more beholden to her military jailers, observers abroad may be more likely to see her as the loser in a ruthless game of thrones than the apostle of "democracy and human rights" once hailed by the Nobel committee. And the tangled geopolitics of the moment may mean that her most useful backers sit in Beijing, not the capitals of the West.

"China will not welcome news of the coup," Champa Patel of the Chatham House think tank told the Guardian. "The Chinese have warm relations with [Suu Kyi] that have deepened as western countries criticized her civilian government's response to the Rohingya crisis. The military, on the other hand, is perceived as having a more independent streak that sought to balance against Chinese influence."

Meanwhile, analysts warn against aggressive sanctions that would punish ordinary people in Myanmar rather than its military leadership. "While everyone's thinking about Myanmar politics please also think about Myanmar's poor," tweeted historian and author Thant Myint-U, adding that the "lives of tens of millions have been descending into disaster" with surging poverty rates. "Myanmar urgently needs vaccines and an equitable economic recovery (not a coup)."
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The Adaklu District Director of Health Services, Dr Charles Azagba, has appealed to faith-based institutions to use the pulpit to raise awareness on the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Religious leadership must disabuse the minds of their members of the non-existence of the coronavirus pandemic and does not appear in human form.



While you preach the word of God to your members, use those opportunities to also educate them of the existence and the need to observe all the safety protocols to escape the ravaging effects of the pandemic, he advised.



Dr Azagba who made the appeal in a telephone interview with the Ghana News Agency said COVID-19 was real and destructive.



He said the Adaklu District Health Directorate had formed a 13-member task force to educate the people on the need to acquire basic PPE and observe all the safety protocols.





The director said the committee was also tasked to enforce compliance of all the protocols in all communities in the district.



He said the communities were also directed to form taskforces, which would include; a health worker, Assemblyman or his or her representative, opinion and religious leaders and the youth to assist the district taskforce to execute their mandate.



Dr Azagba appealed to all health facilities in the district to ensure strict compliance of all the protocols by their clients and advised them to step up precautionary protocols and protect themselves before attending to their clients.



He said there were about 100 suspected cases in the district and that their samples were taken to the laboratory for testing, while the task force was keeping surveillance on the suspects.



The director said using one nose mask always was not healthy and added that the re-usable masks should be washed regularly after use.



He, therefore, appealed to parents to provide their wards with additional nose masks adding make sure your wards wear their nose masks before leaving the house.

Source: GNA









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VACAVILLE, Calif. (AP)  California police arrested a man for investigation of two killings after a caller reported seeing a social media livestream showing him armed inside an apartment and two women lying on the floor.

The Vacaville Police Department says officers went to the Rocky Hill Veterans Apartments at 12:42 a.m. Saturday in response to the call from a woman about the livestream.

This photo released Jan. 30, 2021, by the Vacaville Police Department shows Raymond Michael Weber. California police arrested Weber for investigation of two killings after a caller reported seeing a social media livestream showing him armed inside an apartment and two women lying on the floor. The Vacaville Police Department said officers went to the Rocky Hill Veterans Apartments at 12:42 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021, in response to the call from a woman about the livestream. Raymond Michael Weber, 29, of Sacramento was booked into the Solano County Jail. (Vacaville Police Department via AP) This photo released Jan. 30, 2021, by the Vacaville Police Department shows Raymond Michael Weber. California police arrested Weber for investigation of two killings after a caller reported seeing a social media livestream showing him armed inside an apartment and two women lying on the floor. The Vacaville Police Department said officers went to the Rocky Hill Veterans Apartments at 12:42 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021, in response to the call from a woman about the livestream. Raymond Michael Weber, 29, of Sacramento was booked into the Solano County Jail. (Vacaville Police Department via AP)

Police say the video showed the man carrying a handgun and two women lying on the floor and not moving.

A SWAT team arrested a 29-year-old Sacramento man and found the two women dead. Police have not released any information on the cause of their deaths or their identities.
The report of a committee set up by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to review why the party lost 2019 presidential election has attributed the party's defeat to disenchantment by South-east governors over the choice of former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, as the party's running mate.

THISDAY's findings showed that the report of the committee, headed by Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, also accused other presidential aspirants, who lost to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in the race for the PDP's ticket of being indifferent to working for the party's electoral victory.

In the race for the party's ticket, Atiku scored 1,532 votes to defeat 11 other aspirants, including, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, who scored 693 votes; former President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, 317 votes; Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, 158 votes; former Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State, 111 votes; former Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, 96 votes; and former Kaduna State Governor, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, 74 votes, among others.

However, Atiku lost the election to President Muhammadu Buhari, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP had set up the committee following a recommendation by Atiku at the party's 87th NEC meeting in Abuja last year.

The committee, which has the Deputy National Secretary of the party, Dr. Emmanuel Agbo, as secretary, was tasked with the probe of why the PDP lost the presidential election and also make recommendations on the way forward.

The North-west geopolitical zone was represented on the committee by Lamido and for Minister for Special Duties, Mr. Tanimu Turaki (SAN); while a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara (then as a PDP member) and Mr. Alhassan Muhammadu were selected to represent the North-east.

Other members are former Niger State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, and Mr. Istifanus Gyang (North-central); Mr. Francis Nwaifuru and Austin Nnamani (South-east); while Hon. Austin Okpara and Mrs. Stella Omu represented the South-south.

A member of the committee, who spoke to THISDAY on condition of anonymity, said the committee discovered that the PDP lost the election because of issues like indifference and non-commitment by some of the presidential aspirants, as well as the roles played by some PDP governors over the nomination of Obi as Atiku's running mate.

He said: "Despite the anxiety and expectations of Nigerians for a change, the aspirations of Nigerians were dashed because of the indifference of the co-presidential aspirants that contested and lost at the Port Harcourt presidential convention of the party.

"The convention organised by the party under the chairmanship of the Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, was basically seen to be free and transparent but events that followed thereafter marred the campaigns.

"We left Port Harcourt as a team and ready to move into the campaign but the signals we get from the co-presidential aspirants that contested against Atiku was a bad one. There were indifference and absence of commitments.

"Except a few of them that came into the campaign with vigour, others were not fully committed.

"Another matter that marred the campaign was the way and manner the vice presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, emerged. This could be described as the last straw that killed the enthusiasm of the campaign. For a long time into the campaign, it haunted the campaign."

According to him, the committee discovered that many PDP leaders saw the choice of Obi as not based on consultation but merely imposition.

He stated that Obi was Anambra State governor for eight years and a friend of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

He said Obi was seen as a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and an outsider, without a strong root in PDP and should not have been given such a position.

According to the source, "You can see that even some bold members of the party in the South-east were not in support of Peter Obi as the vice-presidential candidate. They believed that he was imposed as a vice-presidential candidate.

"The choice of Peter Obi was like a sword that divided the PDP in the South-east. Some of the PDP governors openly worked against the Atiku/Obi presidential candidate. You know the role eventually played by some of the South-east governors in the allocations of votes to the APC and the controversial manner President Muhammadu Buhari scored 25 per cent in the zone.

"Not only PDP governors, some members of the party at the National Assembly played an indifferent role. Some of them were expecting appointment as the vice presidential candidate and when the announcement came and Peter Obi was chosen, these members were indifferent to the entire campaign."

He stated that the committee also discovered that the one-man campaign strategy of Atiku put off many members.

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According to him, most members of the party were not carried along and in most cases, they were denied funds.

He added that the release of campaign fund and eventual disbursement were subject to Atiku's approval.

"The entire campaign became so to say, a one-man show," the source said.

"These were some of the pitfalls we saw as a party and would want to avoid them like the 2023 presidential election draws nearer," he added.

THISDAY gathered that the committee, which had visited former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd); former President of the Senate, Senator David Mark; and other party members, would soon submit its report.

"We were slowed down because of this COVID-19.

"Our report shall highlight all these issues and advise the party on how to run a collective campaign where the party will have input and all decisions carried to the advantage of the party in the 2023 presidential campaigns.

"The Governor Bala Mohammed-committee wants to ensure a united party before discussions on 2023 should commence. This is also our focus," he stated.
Dr. Gurney said that the errors seemed to be simple miscalculations. I dont think theres any attempt to systematically or intentionally underestimate emissions, he said. Although some cities correctly estimated their emissions, he noted, though whether thats right for the right reasons or right for the wrong reasons, its difficult to know.

Dr. Gurneys work receives funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and one of the authors, Kimberly Mueller, is a scientist there. James R. Whetstone, an official in the institutes greenhouse gas measurement program, called the new paper an important step forward in properly measuring greenhouse gases from cities. What will serve the nation best is if we have a consistent way to state emissions that goes from the city level to the national level, he said.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, he noted, focuses much of its efforts on atmospheric monitoring, and so Dr. Gurneys method can help to measure the same thing in different ways, and thus gain confidence in the results.

Earlier studies by researchers at the University of Michigan, Harvard and the federal government found that emissions of methane, another powerful greenhouse gas, were also undercounted by many cities. Dr. Gurney said that both gasses should really be part of this systematic approach.

The cities efforts so far, Dr. Gurney said, have been a laudable endeavor, but they havent had a lot of tools to do it. Whats more, he said, Cities are struggling to pick up the garbage and fill potholes, much less keep detailed reports about their emissions.

Reducing emissions in a city, he said, requires a deep understanding of where the biggest problems are, including specific traffic-choked highways and industries, so that the authorities can take focused actions that provide the greatest benefit at the lowest cost. Putting in high-occupancy vehicle lanes or rapid bus lanes on every highway could be wasteful; it would be better, he said, to know which road projects could do the most good.
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today announced the company awarded $75,000 to three local branches of the NAACP for their college scholarship programs. The grants will support 15 college students, supplying them each with $5,000 scholarships for tuition, books, housing and other expenses. The grants will be awarded to students selected by the NAACP's San Fernando Valley, Pomona Valley and Riverside County branches. SoCalGas has been a community partner of the NAACP for over 20 years.

(PRNewsfoto/Southern California Gas Company)

"SoCalGas is proud to partner with the NAACP to support students within the communities we serve," said Eugene "Mitch" Mitchell, vice president state government affairs and external affairs at SoCalGas. "Paying for tuition and other school-related necessities can be intimidating for many young people, so we are pleased to provide some financial relief for these deserving students, especially during a time when so many families are struggling."

"We are grateful to our community partners like SoCalGas who provide funding for our college scholarship program," said Dr. James Thomas, president of the NAACP San Fernando Valley. "This grant has enabled us to provide critical support for young people who are attending college and who may not be able to continue their education if it were not for the financial support of the NAACP and our community partners. Thank you, SoCalGas."

"Due to the Coronavirus, I am not able to use the computer lab at school. The programs I need for my electrical engineering courses are very demanding and my current computer cannot run them well. The scholarship award SoCalGas provided via the San Fernando Valley NAACP will help me get a better device in order to succeed in my studies," said AbdulKarim, student at California State University, Northridge.

"As the State Senator representing the 20th State Senate District, I appreciate SoCalGas providing this funding to three NAACP branches in Southern Californiaincluding Pomona Valley in my districtfor their college scholarship programs. These scholarships for excellent students in our region will certainly help them succeed in college and beyond," stated Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino).

Each year the NAACP, through donations, provides scholarships to outstanding students. Annually, the NAACP's Scholarship Committee to select the most outstanding individuals to receive these awards. The NAACP does not provide financial aid to individuals, only scholarships through this process and continues to mentor students throughout their time in college.

Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation with over 2,200 units and branches across the nation, along with well over two million activists. The organization's mission is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.

SoCalGas' commitment to the communities it serves goes beyond providing customers with affordable, safe and reliable natural gas service. As a leader in the community, SoCalGas understands it has a responsibility to recognize racial injustices and assist in closing the gaps in social inequities. Last year, SoCalGas doubled our charitable spend among the Black communities we serve, in areas including educational resources to students from vulnerable communities, Black-owned businesses and supporting workforce training programs that could lead to jobs at SoCalGas.

About SoCalGas

Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers affordable, reliable, clean and increasingly renewable gas service to 21.8 million customers across 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California, where more than 90 percent of residents use natural gas for heating, hot water, cooking, drying clothes or other uses. Gas delivered through the company's pipelines also plays a key role in providing electricity to Californians about 45 percent of electric power generated in the state comes from gas-fired power plants.

SoCalGas' mission is to build the cleanest, safest and most innovative energy company in America , delivering affordable and increasingly renewable energy to its customers. In support of that mission, SoCalGas is committed to replacing 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply with renewable natural gas (RNG) by 2030. Renewable natural gas is made from waste created by dairy farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for our customers. From 2015 through 2019, the company invested nearly $7 billion to upgrade and modernize its pipeline system to enhance safety and reliability. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), an energy services holding company based in San Diego. For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.

About the NAACP

Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation. We have over 2,200 units and branches across the nation, along with well over 2M activists. Our mission is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.

SOURCE Southern California Gas Company

Related Links

http://www.socalgas.com


[February 01, 2021] Einvestment Fund: eMarket Store to Be Shut Down with the Start of Mass Vaccination in Europe

LISBON, Portugal, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Einvestment Fund has decided to shut down its anti-viral devices business, eMarket, due to the beginning of mass vaccination around Europe. This decision was made because the business was primarily created for the sake of the holding's contribution to tackling the impact of COVID-19. eMarket showed outstanding results, with its annual revenue reaching 13.3 million. In under a year, the store sold more than 110,000 deices in 26 countries globally. Around 85% of the goods were sold via the network of local distributors around European countries, where the devices were fully certified and received a CE mark. The remaining 15% were sold in the Asian market.



"Revenue has always been a secondary purpose for the eMarket store as it's a part of our socially responsible investing strategy for so stressful 2020. We are shutting the project down because the situation starts to stabilize and vaccination begins. We are happy that the coronavirus threat is getting closer to disappearing. This will restore peace around the globe, positively affecting global economies, and, therefore, our investment products."  says Einvestment's Executive Director, Martha Vodvik. The fund doesn't exclude the possibility of restoring eMarket's operations. It may be enriched with an updated stock. Currently, the fund is researching and analyzing product categories that are going to boom in the near future.

SOURCE Einvestment

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[February 02, 2021] Cappfinity and NSCS to help thousands of students build career readiness skills with new partnership

NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 10,000 students a year will be given free access to career readiness support through a new partnership between HR tech company, Cappfinity, and The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). The initiative will give NSCS premium members unlimited access to Cappfinity's Virtual Experience and Engagement platform (VEE). A market first, VEE provides learners with a self-paced learning journey including customized, unbiased work simulations, strengths feedback and interactive training exercises to build the vital skills in demand by top employers. On completion, an accreditation is awarded that learners can include on their resume and share with future employers to show they are 'Certified Career Ready.' NSCS Executive Director, Scott Mobley, spoke about the partnership: "As an organization committed to recognizing and elevating high-achieving students from all backgrounds, we are delighted to be able to share Cappfinity's VEE platform with our membership. The combination of realistic work simulations and developmental resources adds real value at a time when students are preparing for a competitive and challenging job market, enabling them to start their careers with confidence." Cappfinity Co-founder, Nicky Garcea, explained what the company hopes to achieve with VEE: "We are delighted to be working with NSCS to bring VEE to their membership. We recognize the impact te pandemic has had on those who are about to enter the world of work and the partnership with NSCS will help us to reach and support more students. Through VEE, learners will benefit from free, unlimited access to practical tools and resources they can use to develop career readiness skills and connect with real job opportunities."



Visit www.cappfinity.com/vee for more information. Contact:

Rachael Ramos

Cappfinity

rachael.ramos@cappfinity.com

+44 (0)7719 986909

ABOUT THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF COLLEGIATE SCHOLARS (NSCS) The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) is an honors organization that recognizes and elevates high-achieving first-and-second year student. With its three pillars of scholarship, leadership and service, NSCS is proud to provide career and graduate school connections, leadership and service opportunities and gives out more than a million dollars in scholarships (often with multiple recipients per award), awards and chapter funds annually. NSCS has 300+ chapters nation-wide and nearly two million lifetime members globally. NSCS is a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit, certified member of the Association of College Honor Societies, member of the National Collegiate Honors Council, American Association of Community Colleges, and 100 percent FERPA compliant, per an independent review by AACRAO. ABOUT CAPPFINITY Cappfinity is the global leader in strengths-based hiring, providing award-winning recruitment and development solutions to forward-thinking companies. Cappfinity was founded in 2005 by Dr Alex Linley, a leading expert in positive psychology and Nicky Garcea, psychologist and strengths expert. We partner with our clients to create consumer-grade experiences, improve quality of hire, enhance efficiency and increase productivity, retention and diversity. Our teams in the US, UK, Ireland and Australia are proud to be working with more than 200 organizations and millions of individuals in service of our shared purpose  Strengthening the World. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cappfinity-and-nscs-to-help-thousands-of-students-build-career-readiness-skills-with-new-partnership-301220370.html SOURCE Cappfinity

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools announces a month-long celebration of Black History Month highlighted by sharing the inspiring stories of four education leaders who are making an impact in the charter school community. Each week throughout the month of February, the National Alliance will feature Black advocates, teachers, and school leaders across its website and social channels, as part of the "Making Black History in the Moment" campaign. The campaign is designed to showcase leaders who are making Black History right now and touching the lives of thousands of students.

"Throughout the year, and especially during Black History Month, it's important to acknowledge the tremendous contributions of Black Americans to our nation," said Nina Rees, president and CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. "However, not all of these great leaders are found in history books. Some are making history in real time by changing the world around them and making our country better today. It's our honor to highlight the accomplishments of four of these outstanding leaders who have chosen education as the field to make an impact," added Rees.

Featured Leaders include :



Lenny McAllister, CEO

Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools

Pennsylvania native Lenny McAllister has been a champion for education equity, civil rights, and policy reforms as a leading voice on local, statewide, and national platforms throughout his decades-long career in Pennsylvania and nationally. The growth of public charter schools in the state is at an all-time high due in part to the agility charter schools have been able to exercise in the face of the pandemic.

"I welcome the opportunity each day to be an advocate for charter students and their families as we work together to ensure these children have the academic opportunity they deserve," said Mr. McAllister. "I believe education is the great equalizer and I am honored to support our network of charter schools, which serve students in every corner of the state," says Mr. McAllister.

Genel Fowler, Instructional Guide

Detroit Achievement Academy

A Detroit native, Genel Fowler has been a dedicated educator for more than five years in the city that raised her. Ms. Fowler was featured on the Today Show earlier this year for her remarkable dedication to students throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Her boundless energy and enthusiasm are infectious, bringing joy to both students and fellow staffers. A born educator, Ms. Fowler says she decided on her profession when she was in elementary school. She prides herself on never giving up on a student and always seeing the best in each one.

"This is the reason I get up every day," said Ms. Fowler. "I look at the young people in our school, and I see myself. I grew up in this community and I know I would never have made it through without teachers who believed in me. I want to be that person for someone else. When one of my students had to move and said he would no longer be able to attend our school, I made it my business to change that. Now, I pick him up on my way to school, and drop him off afterwards. I'm going to do whatever it takes."

Khadijah Williams, Senior Education Organizer

Rocketship Public Schools

Khadijah Williams is a nationally recognized advocate for homeless youth and a survivor of homelessness herself. After nearly 20 years of living without a permanent home  including time spent in Los Angeles' infamous Skid Row Ms. Williams was accepted into Harvard University, where she graduated in 2013. Today she leads parent engagement work at Rocketship Public Schools, a charter school network based in the Bay area, Milwaukee, Nashville and Washington, D.C.

"I believe it is incumbent on a coalition of diverse leaders to seek opportunities to identify, challenge, and change prevailing narratives about educating vulnerable youth, while ensuring there is a place for marginalized voices within both the affected community and within positions of power," says Ms. Williams. "All lives have value and we can't afford to overlook talent and potential in anyone. Diverse leaders thrive when organizations prioritize the perspectives of all marginalized voices across departments, positions, and decision-making. I am committed to making sure everyone understands that."

Lagra Newman, Founder and Head of School

Purpose Preparatory Academy Charter School

Lagra Newman has a proven track record of transformative academic outcomes for students. Ms. Newman founded Purpose Prep in an economically-underserved area of Nashville. In 2017, Purpose Prep was recognized as a Tennessee Reward School for academic achievement, ranking within the top 5% of schools in the state of Tennessee. Purpose Prep is the first elementary school in North Nashville to ever have earned this distinction. It was also recognized as one of the top academic performing schools that accelerates the achievement of economically-underserved students.

"I believe in the power of a high-quality education and I know it can change the trajectory of a child's life. As an education advocate and leader of color, I am devoted to educational equity. I want all children to have access to high-quality public schools. As the Founder of Purpose Preparatory Academy Charter School, I am a part of the solution to realize this vision for my community," says Ms. Newman.

From the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, to the sweeping impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on schools, to the hyper-local work of school leaders, teachers and advocates, education and Black History have long been tied. To ensure all students have access to an outstanding public education that nurtures their unique brilliance we salute generations of educators and freedom fighters -- symbols of the role education has always had in the ongoing fight for equality.

"I am humbled by the work of the four leaders we are honored to recognize this month," said National Alliance President and CEO Nina Rees. "Mr. McAlister, Ms. Fowler, Ms. Williams and Ms. Newman are making history right now as they work alongside thousands of charter school educators to close the opportunity gap and deliver an excellent education to every student they reach."

For media interested in interviewing any of the "Making Black History in the Moment" featured leaders, please reach out to Reed Mitchell at [email protected] .

SOURCE National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Related Links

publiccharters.org


Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED is seeking applicants for the 2021 edition of the company wide "Pay It Forward" program, which aims to provide African-American youth with opportunities to celebrate students' achievements and further their success. Normally, this program is a week-long, in person experience; however, this year due to COVID 19, students will participate virtually.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities students from 16 schools throughout Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITEDs six-state footprint are asked to submit applications beginning Feb. 1 through April 30.

Now in its sixth year, the opportunity is open to those age 18 years or older at time of entry, and they must be enrolled as a full-time undergraduate college student at a participating Historically Black College and University.

In 2015, Birmingham and Montgomery Coca-Cola UNITED implemented the Pay It Forward program to provide African American youth opportunities to succeed. Three years later, Coca-Cola UNITED expanded the program to include historically black colleges and universities throughout UNITEDs six-state footprint.

Those selected for the program will be given the opportunity to participate in a week-long internship at a Coca-Cola UNITED facility. The program offers students firsthand experience in a range of roles available at Coca-Cola, including operations management, packaging, pricing, event planning and philanthropy.

Coca-Cola will review the applications for the program and select 32 students total based on their standout applications. A $1,000 stipend will be given to each of the HBCU students at the end of the program and a lifetime of Coca-Cola Brand Ambassadorship.

These selected students will engage with Coca-Cola Company teams possibly in person and virtually to learn more about the organization and how to conduct business most effectively during a fun and informative development session to be held late summer 2021.

During this internship, students will gain experience in a wide range of roles at Coca-Cola including sales, production, marketing, pricing, event planning, packaging, philanthropy, and community relations. One of the main goals of the program is to teach the interns, to put it simply, how to go to work. It teaches them how to read statements, how to network with others in their industry, and other important skills that will get them ready for the job market. Over 100 students from Coca-Colas partner HBCU Colleges and Universities have participated in the Pay it Forward internship to date.

More than ever Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED is looking forward to providing these outstanding group of Pay It Forward interns with unique opportunities to learn tangible business skills, said John Sherman, president and CEO Coca-Cola Bottling Co. UNITED. Our intent through this program is to engage with these young adults, empowering them to set goals as they embark on their bright futures, hopefully at Coca-Cola.

For more information and application details on the annual "Pay It Forward" student opportunity, visit "Pay It Forward" Internship Opportunity - Coca-Cola UNITED.





Birthing a new space telescope takes a long time and a lot of money and inspiration. Astronomers first began pestering NASA for the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope even before that telescope was launched into orbit in 1990. Back then they thought it could cost less than a billion and be ready in the first decade of the 21st century.

Thirty years, $8.8 billion, multiple mishaps and budget crises and a threatened congressional cancellation later, the James Webb Space Telescope is finally ready. NASA now plans to launch it into orbit as early as Oct. 31 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket supplied by the European Space Agency, from a site in French Guiana.

During a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society, technicians and engineers showed off the telescope for what they hoped would be the last time to humans on the ground.

The next time the observatory looks like this, said NASAs Eric Smith, a program scientist for the telescope, it will be beyond the moon and appear to us as a roughly 17th-magnitude point source.
Korean businesses that take advantage of cheap labor in Myanmar are hunkering down after the coup d'etat there.

Sources say Korean companies are taking steps to ensure the safety of their workers and families but are also trying to ensure minimal disruption to their operations.

According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and Export-Import Bank of Korea, Korean companies set up 107 branch offices in Myanmar over the last three years and invested US$668 million.

Most are textile manufacturers, but some major conglomerates also operate there. Hyosung has been producing steel and chemical products since 1995, while POSCO set up a joint venture in 1997 to manufacture galvanized steel products.

Samsung opened a local branch there in 2013 to handle sales and after-sales service, and LG followed suit in 2014. POSCO International has been involved in a gas-field business since 2013.

A staffer at POSCO International, which sent Korean 70 workers to the Southeast Asian country, said, "The safety of our staff is of utmost importance and we've instructed them to work from home. We don't expect our business operations to encounter any problems, but we're closely monitoring the situation."

GS Engineering and Construction, which is building a bridge in the main city of Yangon, said normal construction operations are impossible at the moment. "We place the top priority on the safety of our workers and told them not to venture outdoors," the company said.

Korea Land and Housing Corporation or LH, which started building an industrial complex in Yangon late last year, is also being briefed on the situation. A staffer at LH said, "We are continually checking the safety of our workers there."

"Our business project is insured by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, so we can continue our operations regardless of political risks or regime change there," the staffer added.

The military is unlikely to go after foreign businesses, but deposed de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for mass protests against the putsch that could turn violent.
The daily tally of new coronavirus infections stood at about 300 for the fourth day on Tuesday morning with 336 cases, the fewest since late November.

Although the numbers are dwindling, group infections are spreading to big hospitals.

Infections traced to Hanyang University Medical Center have increased to nearly 50. On Jan. 27, health authorities said a family member of a patient at the hospital tested positive for coronavirus, prompting tests of 3,433 medical workers and patients there.

The rest either tested negative or are still waiting for results to come out. The hospital sealed off the entire ward where the infection was detected.


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STANDISH, MI  An Arenac County man is accused of trying to kill several police officers by rigging his home with a booby trap.

The case began on Jan. 19 when a Merritt woman filed a fraud complaint with the Michigan State Police Houghton Lake Post. The woman said her credit card was used to purchase more than $1,500 worth of items from the Walmart in West Branch, according to MSP.

Troopers worked with Walmarts Loss Prevention and were able to identify Roger A. Broadstone, 67, as a suspect. The purchase was made online using the victims credit card and Broadstone was listed as a secondary person to pick up the order.

Surveillance camera footage showed Broadstone picking up the order at Walmart, troopers said.

On Jan. 20, troopers went to Broadstones Twining home to interview him. Broadstone refused to come out.

Troopers said he barricaded himself in his house and told them through an open window that they would need a search warrant to come inside.

Troopers then obtained a search warrant and entered Broadstones home, finding he had set up a booby trap and made other preparations to harm them. Broadstone resisted as he was being arrested and ended up disarming one trooper of his Taser, said Special 1st Lt. Derrick Carroll. A trooper was also injured, though Carroll declined to provide specifics of the injury.

Troopers also found several items from the Walmart purchase in Broadstones home, they added.

Carroll said he could not describe the booby trap.

Its an open investigation still, the lieutenant said. Its going to be a big case. I dont want to give too many details as far as what he had done.

Broadstone was not injured when arrested, Carroll added.

Broadstone on Jan. 25 was arraigned in Ogemaw County District Court on single counts of illegal use of a financial transaction device and using a computer to commit a crime. On Feb. 1, Broadstone was arraigned in Arenac County District Court on the following 16 charges:

 Five counts of attempted murder

 Four counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police

 One count of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police causing injury

 One count of disarming a police officer, non-firearm

 One count of attempting to disarm a police officer of a firearm

 One count placing an offensive substance with intent to injure

 One count of arson-preparation to burn a dwelling

 One count of felon in possession of ammunition

 One count malicious destruction of police property.

The arraigning judge set Broadstones bond at $1,125,000.

The five attempted murder counts relate to five individual troopers, Carroll added.

Broadstones criminal record includes convictions of malicious destruction of property in 1997 and maintaining a drug vehicle, assault with a dangerous weapon, unlawful imprisonment, carrying a concealed weapon, and delivering or manufacturing marijuana, all from 2011. In September 2011, Broadstone was sentenced to 18 months of probation on a concealed weapons conviction, according to Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz.

Gautz also said Broadstone had been employed by the MDOC in the 1980s and 90s.

Broadstone is to undergo a court-ordered competency evaluation, the date of which is pending.

Read more:

Body camera video shows Michigan man attack police with hockey stick at Captiol riots

Police seeking man in U-M hoodie involved in violent riots at U.S. Capitol

Saginaw man who fled to North Carolina told half-sister he killed his best friend

Between the arrival of COVID-19 and the long distance nature of Erin and Aaron Sorrells move from Alaska to Houston, house hunting was going to be tricky.

Technology came in handy when the Sorrells could have video calls with their Realtor and, later, a contractor and interior designer to evaluate the needs and wants for the next home for their family of five.

Through video calls, they could talk about their future home and ways to make it their own so the couple could feel more comfortable buying a home they hadnt set foot in.

Erin and Aaron were high school sweethearts who grew up in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area and moved to Alaska for jobs with BP, settling in Eagle River, north of Anchorage.

They were expecting the adventure to last a few years, but they and their three children fell in love with the place, its winter sports, hiking and fishing. When BP sold its Alaskan property to Hilcorp in 2019, the Sorrells had two choices: find new jobs or move with BP to another city.

They chose to stay with BP and in January 2020 settled on a move to Houston. An online house hunting search began and their initial plan was that Erin would move here first and get their new home ready while Aaron stayed in Eagle River as their kids  Evie, now 20 and a student at the University of Pennsylvania; Walter, 17 and a junior in high school; and Ellie, 14 and a freshman  finished their school year.

Then the coronavirus pandemic shut down one city after another, and the family came to the conclusion that their children could attend virtual school anywhere.

Their Realtor lead them through home tours virtually, and the Sorrells made offers on three different houses, finally reaching a deal with the third, an older couple retiring from Shell and moving back to their native Australia.

A move-in ready home wasnt what they needed, but they were looking for something that a minimal amount of remodeling would be needed to suit their taste.

Their home, in Cinco Ranch in Fort Bend County, was built in 2001 and had wood floors that were in good shape. They decided to keep the flooring as is, even though the reddish stain wasnt their style.

But the kitchen cabinets were stained wood and the homes paint was dark tan, making the whole room seem way too dark. The kitchen island was small and an irregular shape  funky, but fixable  and all of the counters were black.

In the living room, ceramic tile with a faux green-black marble finish surrounded the fireplace opening and its hearth, with sheetrock and a wooden mantle covering the rest. Built-in bookshelves were meant to hold the kind of TV that few still have  one that needs cable plug-ins instead of wireless capability.

The Sorrells were more interested in the bones of the home: good windows that didnt need replacing, a floor plan that flowed without different flooring levels and lots of natural light. Everything else was fixable  on a budget.

We were coming from a place thats earthy and warm and dark and had a lot of browns and neutral tones, so I wanted to brighten it up and feel cooler and lighter, Erin said of their new home. We wanted it to reflect us, and there was plenty of time to get it done before we would get in the way.

In their previous homes, Aaron had lot of input. This time around, his request was simple: Dont make our house look like an Easter egg with flowers and pastels.

They found interior designer Karen Davis of Marker Girl online, and asked her to walk through the home without them and provide feedback on the things they couldnt see up close.

She honed in on their style, recommending a number of changes.

In the kitchen, cabinets didnt need to be replaced, but they did need paint: Sherwin-Williams Mineral Deposit, a light gray with blue undertones, and slim brushed nickel hardware. The square beige backsplash tile was replaced with natural stone arranged in a linear mosaic pattern (Daltiles Namaste) and the black counters were replaced with a soft colored quartz, adding an organic feel and a bit of color. Some of the wall cabinets were removed, both to make the room feel lighter and to display pretty things on floating wood shelves.

A bigger island allowed for more storage and is roomy enough for three barstools.

Off to the side is the breakfast area, which got its own easy update: painting lower cabinets to match the kitchen and replacing upper cabinets with floating wood shelves.

This kitchen-breakfast area opens up to the living room  there are only a couple of pillars in between, providing support  so the whole area was painted Sherwin-Williams Frosty White, a white with just a hint of gray.

Davis brought in some great gray-and-white tile to cover the hearth and the fireplaces entire exterior, instead of just a strip around the opening, a simple change with big impact, and it works in many homes built in the 1990s and 2000s.

The built-in bookshelves were re-imagined as display shelves, leaving a spot on another wall for the TV and allowing them to orient the room in a different direction.

In the living room, a new sofa, vinyl-covered ottoman and colorful rug join a pair of midcentury-style chairs they brought with them from Alaska. Yellow adds a sunny pop of color to the room in the form of pillows, a lamp and the rug.

Because they made changes that werent disruptive to the floor plan, they were able to finish the project in a matter of weeks. In fact, it all wrapped up the day before their belongings arrived from Alaska.

It could have been very stressful given the pandemic, but it wasnt, Erin said. My husband thought I was pie-in-the-sky to think it would get done in time. We had some delays on furniture delivery, but the actual house came together on time.

To have your home remodeling project featured in the Chronicle, write to diane.cowen@chron.com
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An all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday demanded immediate withdrawal of the three farm laws while holding the BJP-led central government responsible for a substantial delay in resolving the crisis.

Terming the violence during the tractor rally on Republic Day in Delhi as sponsored, the meeting also demanded a judicial probe into the laxity and complicity of those responsible for maintaining peace at the Red Fort.

The meeting also decided to send an all-party delegation to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and raise various issues relating to farmers' agitation.

While the BJP boycotted the meeting, the Aam Aadmi Party walked out over their demand for deployment of the police personnel to protect farmers protesting at Delhi borders.

The Congress, SAD, Lok Insaaf Party, SAD (Democratic), BSP, CPI and CPI (M) attended the meeting, a government release said.

Amarinder had called the meeting to evolve a consensus on the way forward on the issue of the farm laws and the farmers' agitation.

Representatives of all parties appreciated the position taken by the farmers' unions and the meeting passed a resolution to this effect.

Accusing miscreants of seeking to sabotage the historic and unparallel farmer agitation through untoward incidents at the Red Fort on the Republic Day, the resolution said these acts are truly condemnable and need to be probed thoroughly.

These incidents, however, should not be made a pretext to victimize agitating farmers, farmworkers and others, including the media persons, the resolution said.

It also called upon the central government to take steps to ensure that the farmers and farmworkers participating in the agitation are not victimized in any manner.

Through the resolution, the parties asked the Centre to withdraw all cases registered against farmers, farmworkers, journalists and other peaceful agitators and release all those detained by the police or any other agency".

The missing agitators should also be traced and restored to their respective families without any delay, they said.

During the farmers' tractor rally on January 26 n Delhi, thousands of tractor-borne protesters had trampled police barricades on roads, clashed with police and hoisted a religious flag at the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort.

The resolution also called upon the Centre to make the Minimum Support Price a statutory right of the farmers.

The resolution lauded farmer leader Rakesh Tikait for his contribution to the struggle and thanked Haryana farmers for their support to their Punjab counterparts in the agitation.

Amarinder Singh promised to look into SAD's Prem Singh Chandumajra's suggestion that the state government should provide loan waiver to the families of all those killed during the ongoing farmers' agitation.

The meeting got a host of suggestions from participants of all parties, ranging from an independent probe into the Red Fort violence to a joint meeting with the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister for their intervention for the resolution of the crisis, among others.

The meeting started with a two-minute silence to pay tributes to those who died during the agitation.

As of date, 88 farmers from Punjab have lost their lives in these protests, the chief minister said.

Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar hit out at the central government over the situation prevailing at Delhi borders, pointing to Tuesday's photographs in the media about the Delhi police personnel standing with steel rods besides those of armed protectors, cemented roadblocks and spikes on roads.

Terming the images as "appalling", he said these were reminiscent of the Chinese troops standing at the Galwan Valley.

What happened at the Red Fort was condemnable but it has to be investigated properly to identify and expose those responsible for the violence and for bringing a bad name to the farmers' agitation, he said.

Jakhar also ridiculed the Sangh Parivar for raising a hue and cry over the 'Nishan Sahib' at Red Fort, alleging that the RSS, which did not allow the flag to fly over their headquarters for decades, was raising a ruckus now with the sole purpose of alienating Punjab.

AAP MP Bhagwant Mann suggested that representatives of all Punjab parties should jointly go and meet the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister to put pressure on them.

SAD leader Prem Singh Chandumajra said an independent commission should be set up, under a retired judge, to expose the entire conspiracy behind the Red Fort violence.

(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.)
Posted Monday, February 1, 2021 5:07 pm

Gov. Jay Inslees largely-unexpected announcement last week that the West and Puget Sound regions would move into Phase 2 of his reopening plan after the weekend gave restaurants a few days to prepare and get the word out.

So, did hungry locals show up Monday morning?

Oh gosh yes, Judy McCann, of Judys Country Kitchen, said.

At 9:30 a.m., she described the diner full of thrilled customers.

Theyre all cheery and excited and happy to be able to eat in, she said. Its a very warm, fun feeling right now.

Up the street, at OBlarneys Irish Pub, Morgan Malloy said staff had been waiting for the announcement for weeks.

Our staff is very excited and were ready to see some hungry, happy, wanting-to-drink faces, Malloy said.

She spent Friday telling customers that they could finally eat inside after the weekend, instead of getting takeout or sitting under the restaurants tent outside. Other restaurants took to Facebook to spread the word and drum up crowds.

Woohoo! We cant wait to see you all next week for limited indoor dining, a post from Dawns Delectables in Centralia read.

Even with all the excitement, OBlarneys plans on keeping its outdoor tents up, just in case infections surge and the county swings back into Phase 1, prohibiting indoor dining again. Along with new metrics, Inslee also announced that regions would be evaluated by the state on a two-week basis, instead of a weekly basis, hopefully minimizing whiplash caused by counties bouncing back and forth between phases.

While many took the announcement as good news, some lawmakers criticized Inslee, calling the reopening metrics arbitrary and saying the easing of restrictions doesnt do enough for Washingtonians, about half of which are still in Phase 1.

While this is very good news for Southwest Washington counties like Lewis, Thurston, and Grays Harbor, it reinforces the arbitrary and subjective basis for the governors reopening plan, Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, said in a statement last week.

District 19 Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, offered a similar critique, pointing to the fact that his legislative district is now split into constituents allowed to eat indoors and constituents who are prohibited from doing so locally.

Inslee said the decision to move some regions forward despite concerns of more contagious COVID-19 variants spreading in the U.S. was partially informed by the states ramped-up vaccination efforts, as well as a quite significant decline in transmission state-wide.

We certainly like our progress weve recently made bringing down COVID activity, he said Thursday. And so these are some promising signs were headed in the right direction.

Its good news not just for owners and residents itching to socialize, but for employees now able to pick up more hours. Minutes after announcing they would offer indoor dining this week, OBlarneys also posted a job opening to their Facebook. At Judys Country Kitchen, McCann confirmed that she was able to bring six employees back onboard, while Tim Filer, owner of McFilers in Chehalis, said indoor dining will allow him to offer more hours.

I have a few staff members who are only working literally four hours a week or something, Filer said Friday. So Im hoping to bulk everybodys hours up just enough and spread it evenly among staff.

Filer is already planning to re-up regular trivia nights and movie nights, and even hopes to book a rock show soon.

Its a breath of fresh air, and its nice to know that theres a light at the end of the tunnel, he said. We get back some sense of normalcy.
WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden condemned a military coup in Myanmar on Monday, calling the takeover "a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy" and setting up an early test of American moral authority following domestic efforts to overturn the U.S. presidential election.

Biden threatened to reimpose U.S. economic sanctions on Myanmar, also known as Burma, after the forcible removal of the civilian government and the detention of its de facto leader, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

"In a democracy, force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election," Biden said in a statement that urged a coordinated international response.

The coup unseated a fragile civilian government and posed a challenge for Biden's new administration. Critics have warned that former president Donald Trump's repeated, baseless claims of fraud in the U.S. election, culminating in a deadly assault on the Capitol a month ago, could be used to undermine the American position abroad.

Biden has pledged to return the United States to a leadership role in condemning anti-democratic actions worldwide.

"The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy," Biden said. "The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities."

The Myanmar coup follows the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a subsequent Kremlin crackdown on street protests in which thousands of demonstrator were detained.

Biden condemned the treatment of Navalny during a phone call last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin but has not moved to apply sanctions.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov on Monday called the police response to Sunday's protests "harsh but lawful" and rejected White House calls for Navalny's release.

"As to the statements made by U.S. representatives on the unlawful demonstrations in our country, I repeat that we are not ready to accept and listen to such statements of the Americans and will not do so," he said.

Military coup leaders in Myanmar, in detaining Suu Kyi, used language that echoed Trump's claims of an unfair election whose results could not be trusted.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged Myanmar's military to "immediately release" the civilian leaders and said the United States should "impose costs" on those who stand in the way of democracy. The United States could reimpose sanctions on Myanmar that had been lifted over the past decade and push for the country to be expelled from international bodies.

"Reports that Burma's military has rounded up civilian leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi and key civil society figures are horrifying, completely unacceptable and obviously a saddening step backward for Burma's slow and unsteady democratic transition," McConnell said.

After the U.S. election in November, Democrats criticized McConnell for not disputing Trump's claims of election fraud quickly and forcefully.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that Washington stands with the people of Myanmar in their "aspirations for democracy, freedom, peace and development."

Biden was briefed Sunday evening by Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

"We removed sanctions, the United States I should say, removed sanctions in the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanctions laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action," Psaki said Monday.

She did not give a timeline.

Psaki was also asked whether Biden's use of the name Burma was intentionally "discourteous" to the Myanmar military, which had changed the country's name and built a new capital city before the transition to civilian rule. "I don't think that's the conclusion you should draw," she said.

One question for the Biden administration will be whether to formally label the takeover a coup, which carries legal implications that include restrictions on U.S. engagement with those accused of leading it.

The new administration will try to condemn authoritarian behavior and leave room for the military to step back, said Derek Mitchell, a former U.S. envoy for Myanmar who now leads the National Democratic Institute.

"Democracy is one of the pillars of the Biden administration's foreign policy agenda. They recognize they have to address this pretty seriously. The question is what to do," Mitchell said.

Myanmar began to emerge from years of authoritarian military rule in 2011 with the coaxing of the Obama administration. Biden, as vice president at the time, applauded the democratic gains and has rehired some of the U.S. officials who worked to promote Suu Kyi's movement.

Suu Kyi received a Nobel Peace Prize for her years-long battle against her country's authoritarian rulers. But in recent years, she has faced criticism for supporting the military's onslaught against the country's Rohingya minority.

Kurt Campbell, one of the architects of the U.S. rapprochement with Myanmar and the lifting of sanctions, is now Biden's top official for Asia policy on the National Security Council.

Campbell left the government in 2013 to start a consulting firm that joined a bid for a contract to revamp Myanmar's largest airport, a deal worth $1 billion over 30 years. The bid failed, along with broader U.S. efforts to scale back the power of Myanmar's military and solidify democratic gains after the 2015 election that ushered Suu Kyi and her party to power.

Activists said the moment calls for a strong U.S.-led response.

"It is essential the Biden administration work closely with other countries to send a strong and coordinated message," said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch.

An overly tough actions could push Myanmar further into China's arms. Such worries have factored into the State Department's considerations of whether declaring the persecution of the Rohingya a genocide, U.S. officials have said.

More than 750,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since military forces cracked down on the mostly Muslim minority group in 2017. Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been killed by state security forces, according to nongovernmental organizations.

Mike Pompeo while he was secretary of state called the military campaign "ethnic cleansing," but he stopped short of declaring it genocide. Blinken told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that the Biden administration would conduct an interagency review of whether Myanmar's actions amount to genocide.

Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., a former U.S. representative for human rights in Myanmar, said the assault on the Capitol does not diminish U.S. authority to urge better conduct elsewhere.

"We are expected to lead in these situations not because we are uniquely entitled, but because we are uniquely capable," Malinowski said in an interview. "Why would we say to anybody who is in trouble and who shares our values that were not going to help them, even though we could, because we feel embarrassed by our own shortcomings?"
"The Mint prides itself in crafting coins that pay tribute to Canada's history, culture and values. That includes celebrating our diversity and acknowledging the difficult chapters of our history," said Marie Lemay, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint. "We are proud to be issuing our third coin commemorating black history by recognizing the influential role Black Loyalists played in shaping the diverse country we know and love today."

Black Loyalists faced many hardships and the promise of a better life went unfulfilled. Those who remained in British North America despite the adversity, helped re-define Canada's history and character. Today, the descendants of Black Loyalists can lay claim to an extraordinary legacy of courage and perseverance.

"Black Loyalists and their descendants have helped shape communities from coast to coast to coast from well before this land was even called Canada, and their legacy inspires us to build an even better and consciously more inclusive country," said the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth. "As we celebrate Black History Month, we recognize the struggles and obstacles that Black communities in Canada have had to overcome and continue to face, and we acknowledge and celebrate the enormous contributions they continue to make to the growth, well-being, and prosperity of this country."

The coin's reverse features the armorial bearings of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society granted in 2006 by the Canadian Heraldic Authority and designed by Darrel E. Kennedy, Assiniboine Herald.

"As a Black Loyalist descendant, I am proud to say that my ancestors were some of the 3,500 people of African descent who came to Canada in 1783, carrying with pride their Certificate of Freedom," said Cynthia Dorrington, Site Manager of the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre. "They settled across Lower Canada, all with the hope of creating a better life for their families. Our rich history has been foundational in shaping Canada's collective history and we are delighted to share it further on a beautiful silver coin."

On the shield, three Loyalist civil coronets represent the non-combatants who fled to British North America (Canada), while the ship's wheel represents both the past (the ships landing in 1783) and the present (the Society's focus on community development). The lion supporters symbolize the pride of Africa and the courage demonstrated by those who sought a better life in Nova Scotia. Beneath the shield, the province is represented by its official floral emblem, the mayflower, while the rock symbolizes the landings near Birchtown, Nova Scotia. The anchor in the crest honours the sacrifices of the families who undertook the journey, which is represented by the footprints in the mantling. The motto "THE HEART OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE IS IN YOUR ROOTS" speaks to the Society members' interest in their heritage. The armorial bearings are also flanked by maple leaves.

The obverse features a repeating maple leaf field pattern and the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.

Limited to a mintage of 5,500, the 2021 $20 Fine Silver Coin Commemorating Black History: The Black Loyalists retails for $99.95. This new collectible may be ordered as of today by contacting the Mint at 1-800-2671871 in Canada, 1-800-2686468 in the US, or at www.mint.ca.

Images of this coin are available here.

About the Royal Canadian Mint

The Royal Canadian Mint is the Crown corporation responsible for the minting and distribution of Canada's circulation coins. The Mint is one of the largest and most versatile mints in the world, offering a wide range of specialized, high quality coinage products and related services on an international scale. For more information on the Mint, its products and services, visit www.mint.ca. Follow the Mint on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

For more information, media are asked to contact: Alex Reeves, Senior Manager, Public Affairs, Telephone: 613-884-6370, [email protected]

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SOURCE Royal Canadian Mint
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)

Victoria Moves to Extend Leaders Emergency Powers Until December

The Victorian government will move to extend its state of emergency powers until Dec. 15, as more workers will be able to return to offices within days.

With Victoria recording no locally acquired coronavirus cases for 27 days, Premier Daniel Andrews said it was safe for the public and private sector to return to 75 percent capacity from Feb. 8.

If we can get one more day (with no cases) that will be two lots of 28 that weve had over recent months, he told reporters on Feb. 2.

Thats something that no other jurisdiction in the world has done, particularly after a second wave, and should be a point of pride for every single Victorian.

Currently, the private sector is permitted to have 50 percent of staff in offices, while the public sector is restricted to 25 percent.

Andrews said the move would support jobs and stimulate economic activity for Melbournes CBD.

The premier also announced the government will introduce a bill to parliament to extend Victorias state of emergency for another nine months.

Victoria is the only state that caps the maximum length of time a state of emergency can remain in force. The current state of emergency is due to expire on March 15.

Andrews said the extension was about locking in and having legal certainty for public health measures such as hotel quarantine, mask-wearing, and the states travel permit system.

There is a clear need for us to have rules. I would very much hope that no one sought to play politics with this, he said.

This is not about new rules, this is just about keeping the current rules in place and potentially easing them off as conditions continue to get better.

The opposition will vote against the proposed extension, with their leader in the upper house David Davis describing the bid as a power grab by Andrews.

He is drunk on power. He is determined to take huge power for himself and his government, he said.

Davis said month-to-month or three-monthly extensions, accompanied by relevant public health advice, was appropriate.

In September last year, the government sought to extend its state of emergency powers by 12 months.

Instead, a six-month extension was passed with the support of Andy Meddick from the Animal Justice Party, Reason Party MP Fiona Patten, and Samantha Ratnam of the Greens, who returned early from maternity leave to cast her vote.

Andrews said he was very confident the government would come to an agreement with cross-benchers again.

Patten, however, has indicated she will not support the bill in its current form.

We understand the government needs to have powers to provide some restrictions, but to do it in a heightened state of emergency is not the answer, she said, suggesting the introduction of COVID-specific laws instead.

The Greens have also raised concerns about the policing of restrictions and the tough border restrictions that left many Victorians stranded over the new year period.

We will be entering discussions and negotiations with the Andrews Labor government about these issues before we make any decision on whether to support an extension, Ratnam said.

Victoria has 22 active COVID-19 cases, all confined to hotel quarantine.

The Health Department is also investigating a case of a woman in her 60s who flew from Victoria to the Philippines and returned a positive coronavirus result on Jan. 31.

The woman is asymptomatic and her family and close contacts in Victoria have tested negative.

Authorities believe it is a false positive result.

Meanwhile, viral fragments of coronavirus have been detected in wastewater samples in Warrnambool. Anyone in the region with symptoms is urged to get tested.

Benita Kolovos, Roger Vaughan in Melbourne
DENVER (Feb. 2, 2021) - Jongeun You, a researcher at the University of Colorado Denver, recently released a study looking at how a more global approach would have far-reaching societal benefits in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. You discovered that while many governments had a restrictive and nationalistic response to the pandemic, they also focused on international cooperation to provide new insights to the rest of the world.

COVID-19 challenged governments to rely on their own resources and pandemic policies as the world turned away from a globalist approach to fight the virus. Since the beginning, national governments have implemented border restrictions and blocked exports of medical supplies. The large number of bilateral COVID-19 vaccine deals between high-income countries and vaccine producers hindered the ability of low-income countries to access COVID-19 vaccines.

However, You argues that a more open approach and international collaboration is needed to tackle COVID-19 and future pandemics. Restrictive measures impede necessary aid and technical support against the virus and disrupt international economic activities.

You's research into South Korea's response showed that while the country focused on its own population, it shared knowledge with the international community, supplied medical resources to the rest of the world, and helped to strengthen public health systems in developing countries. South Korea held hundreds of webinars and conference calls with other nations on pandemic policy. For instance, Special webinars on COVID-19 for policy and technology sharing, also called "K-bangyeok" webinars, reached over 3,780 people from 118 countries.

South Korea was also able to continue exporting medical supplies to countries in need while avoiding business losses. Between January and September 2020, South Korea saw a 48% increase in medical exports from the previous year. With the surge in COVID-19-related exports of test kits and face masks, the country saw growth in the medical industry. In addition, South Korea was committed to assisting developing countries build up their pandemic response capacity.

"Advancing international cooperation is also critical to avoid a future pandemic crisis," said You. "Since pandemics can spread rapidly from one country to another, when one country struggles to tackle a pandemic, a wave of infection is likely to occur in any and all countries."

According to a worldwide survey by the United Nations, 95% of respondents agreed that countries need to work together to address global issues like the current pandemic.

"The COVID-19 pandemic shows how interconnected we all are," said You. "The international community must move forward by preparing in the face of complexity rather than by building walls."

###

Name: Ryan Wong

Company: Visier

Job Title: CEO and Co-founder

Location: Vancouver, BC

Ryan Wong is the President, CEO and Co-founder of Visier, a cloud-based analytics platform that helps business professionals ask the right questions, see important truths about their business, and plan for a better future. A pioneer in the Business Intelligence Industry, Wong brings more than 20 years of Business Intelligence and Enterprise Software expertise to Visier, having led and contributed to the industrys leading technologies and products.

What was the most valuable piece of career advice that you received? Learn when to say NO to many good ideas. It can be easy to take on too much at once, especially when there are a lot of good ideas on the table. Saying no, even to good ideas, can help you focus on the ideas that matter most and will help propel you, and your business, forward.

What was the worst piece of business advice that you received? Differentiate between selling and implementation. Use past tense in your pitch when you are selling, never use future tense because you need to provide the impression of been there, done that. Everything is in the past. Learn how to sell by instilling confidence in your presentation. I would consider this advice to be untruthful, boarding on lying.

What advice would you give to someone starting their career in IT/Tech? You know the childrens storybook monkey, Curious George? Be a Curious George. Be curious about everything and learn as much as you can quickly. Being curious in life and in business will help enormously.

Did you always want to work in IT/Tech? Yes. I have always been very intrigued by technology, the innovation mindset, and the impacts technology brings to the world we live in. I couldnt envision myself in any other field.

What was your first job in IT/Tech? Software developer.

What are some common misconceptions about working in IT/Tech? Its a misconception that you have to be technically savvy to work in IT/Tech. As I said before, being curious and wanting to learn can be a huge boost to someone that may not be technology savvy. There are a million different ways to learn, and always people that are willing to help. We dont all need to be naturals.

What tips would you give to someone aiming for a c-level position? Differentiate between strategy and a list of objectives. These are very different concepts that require different thinking and actions, but yet too many c-level people see them equally. Too many c-level executives still cant build a sound strategy because they often confuse strategy as objectives.

What are your career ambitions and have you reached them yet? My ambition has always been to help people see the truth in data  to give them the tools and the knowledge to empower data-driven decisions, so as to create fair, just, unbiased outcomes, whatever those outcomes may be. This is going to be an ongoing journey for me, one that I hope to reach eventually.

Do you have a good work life balance in your current role? Work life balance means different things to different people coming from a variety of backgrounds: culture, geography, age, etc. Personally, I find that it falls into two large categories: People who are passionate about their work and dont see work as work; and people who hate their job and just work out of necessity as the reality of life demands. With the former, if you are passionate about your work, the line of balance can be blurred. There can be many times where those who often talk about work life balance are people who have disconnected their passions between their work and life.

What, if anything, would you change about the route your career path has taken? I have no regrets in my career path. Having said that, there were a few missed opportunities, such as joining early startup companies that have eventually gone on to become very successful; you may have heard of a few of these little companies like Microsoft, Google or Salesforce.

Which would you recommend: A coding bootcamp or a computer science degree? While there has been a lot of discussion around whether a formal education is still relevant in the modern era, I would still advocate that four years of training with a computer science degree teaches you far more than just writing code. Coding bootcamps are great, but they are no replacement for formal education.

How important are specific certifications? Honestly, not important at all. But, the act, and desire, of learning itself is invaluable.

What are the three skills or abilities you look for in prospective candidates? Id actually say there are four key attributes that I look at in candidates. First, they have to be a self-starter, showing a willingness to put in hard work. They also should have a low ego  it makes for a better working environment. Generally, having a low ego means they are also a strong team player, as no one goes through business strictly on their own merit. Finally, they must possess a willingness to learn.

What would put you off a candidate? The exact opposite of what I would find attractive. Are they full of themselves, have a big ego, or tend to name drop in conversation? No thank you.

What are the most common mistakes made by candidates in an interview? How can those mistakes be avoided? Im always shocked when a candidate uses their time to disparage their former employer. It shows a negative attitude, regardless of the circumstances. We all need to recognise that even with the worst bosses or work environments, there is something important we can learn from it.

Do you think it is better to have technical or business skills  or a mix of both? Depending on the role, it is easy to choose a mix of both.
FP Trending

Two highschoolers from Massachusetts have helped discover four new exoplanets, according to new reports. The high school students, 12-year-old Kartik Pingle and 18-year-old Jasmine Wright are the second and third authors on the paper describing the discovery that was published on 25 January in The Astronomical Journal. According to a release by Harvard, the two participated in the research which detailed the discovery of four new exoplanets about 200-light years away from Earth through the Student Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA).

According to the report, the SRMP connects local high schoolers who are interested in research with real-world scientists at Harvard and MIT. The entire thing is directed by astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva.

Speaking about it Sousa-Silva called it a steep learning curve, adding that by the end of the programme, students can say theyve done active, state-of-the-art research in astrophysics.

Sousa-Silva added that Pingle and Wright's achievement is rare as high-schoolers barely get to publish research.

The two, under the guidance from mentor Tansu Daylan, a postdoc at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, studied and analysed data from TESS, focussing on TESS Object of Interest (TOI) 1233, a bright Sun-like star, narrowing it down to TOI-1233's light to see if any planets were rotating the star.

Pingle explained that they were looking to see changes in light over time, with the idea being that if the planet transits the star, it would cover it up and decrease the sun's brightness.

The team ended up discovering four planets rotating around TOI-1233.

Wright added that she was excited and shocked, adding that while they knew it was the goal of the research, but fining a multiplanetary system was actually very cool.

According to the release, three of the planets are 'sub-Neptunes', or gaseous planets, smaller but similar to Milky Way's Neptune. They take between six and 19.5 days to orbit around the star. The fourth is a 'super-Earth', which is large and rocky, and orbits in just under 4 days.
Microsoft is adding 200 more jobs in digital sales at its European head office in Leopardstown, Dublin, as part of the US tech giant's rapid expansion that will bring its employee count to 2,800 in Ireland. This is apparently driven by the continuing growth of cloud services around the world during the Covid-19 crisis.

It comes after Microsoft Ireland had announced in November plans to create 200 engineering jobs, also at Leopardstown.
AstraZeneca and Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC) are partnering up to distribute about 30 million doses of AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam

At the government meeting on January 29, Nguyen Thanh Long, Minister of Health, said this is the first COVID-19 vaccine licensed by the Ministry of Health (MoH) to be distributed in Vietnam.

AstraZeneca and Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC) are partnering up to distribute about 30 million doses of the former's COVID-19 vaccine in Vietnam, from the first half of 2021. This approval and vaccine supply agreement mark another important milestone in Vietnams fight against the pandemic.

The approval decision was based on a rolling submission which included results of an interim analysis of Phase III of the programme conducted by the University of Oxford and published in The Lancet on last December 8. Vietnams conditional authorisation is for the two-dose standard regimen of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca for people aged 18 years and older, which was shown in the clinical trials to be well tolerated and effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalisations more than 14 days after the second dose. The vaccine so far has been granted conditional marketing authorisation or emergency use approval in the EU, the UK, and across markets spanning four continents.

COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca can be stored, transported, and handled at normal refrigerated conditions (2-8 degrees Celsius) for at least six months, meaning that it can be distributed and administered within existing healthcare settings. In addition to the University of Oxford-led programme, AstraZeneca is conducting a large study in the US as part of a global programme. In total, the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca expect to enrol more than 60,000 participants worldwide. Additional safety and efficacy data will continue to accumulate from ongoing clinical trials.

Nitin Kapoor, chairman cum general director of AstraZeneca Vietnam, said, We are grateful for the Vietnamese government and MoH's decisive leadership in this fight against the pandemic. Patient safety of the vaccine is of the utmost importance to AstraZeneca and it is great news that it meets the stringent requirements established by the ministry. We are proud to partner with VNVC, with their extensive network and outstanding capabilities in Vietnam, to deliver our vaccine to millions of people across the country in the safest and fastest way possible. We will continue to provide broad and equitable access to our vaccine so that we can quickly combat the pandemic and accelerate economic recovery.

Ngo Chi Dung, chairman cum general director of VNVC, said, This is a historic partnership for VNVC and for Vietnam. Under this agreement, Vietnamese people will be able to access one of the world's best quality and safest COVID-19 vaccines, on par with advanced countries. We appreciate the government and the MoH's timely support and guidance to settle this agreement so that the health and lives of Vietnamese people will soon be protected against the pandemic and the economy can soon recover.

According to Dung, VNVC has fully prepared the best facilities and capacity to store large amounts of vaccines and inoculate millions of people. Nationwide, these include 50 vaccination centres; more than 50 GSP-compliant vaccine warehouses; distribution systems; 5,000 professional doctors, nurses, and staff; and a safe vaccination procedure. Following the regulations and guidelines of the Vietnamese government and the MoH, VNVC will soon announce further details about this immunisation action plan. It is expected that the price of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca in Vietnam will be affordable to ensure access to more people.

Across the world, AstraZeneca is partnering with the University of Oxford, governments, leading health organisations such as the World Health Organization, CEPI, the Vaccines Alliance (Gavi), and manufacturers to provide the vaccine to as many countries as possible.

In December 2020, AstraZeneca concluded an Advance Purchase Agreement with Gavi to supply 170 million doses of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca to the COVAX Facility, of which Vietnam is a participant, to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.
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Highest snowfall totals by state so far 1. Pennsylvania - Nazareth - 35.5 inches 2. New Jersey - Mendham 30 inches 3. New York - Spring Valley 21 inches 4. Maryland - Sabillasville 19 inches 5. Connecticut - Bridgeport 15.2 inches 6. Massachusetts - Sheffield 10.6 inches 7. Rhode Island - West Greenwich 9 inches 8. New Hampshire - New Ipswich 2.8 inches Advertisement

Winter Storm Orlena has dumped 30 inches of snow on parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania as forecasters warned that two more storms could hit the Northeast region this weekend.

Storm Orlena shut down coronavirus vaccination sites and canceled more than 2,000 flights as it battered the region on Monday.

About 16 inches of snow fell in New York City's Central Park on Monday, which would tie the record for the 16th biggest snow storm for the area. The total ties with snowfall from December 19-20, 1948, and February 12-13, 1899.

New Jersey residents spent Tuesday morning plowing and shoveling after the storm left as much as 30 inches of snow in the northern part of the state.

The National Weather Service (NWS) reported 30 inches of snow fell in parts of Sussex and Morris counties on Monday.

A couple of neighborhoods in Pennsylvania also recorded a little over 30 inches of snow.

Forecasters also revealed on Tuesday that there are two more storms that could possibly wreak havoc on the Northeast this weekend.

According to The Weather Channel, the first system is expected to bring modest snowfall and would likely impact travel from the Northern Plains and upper Midwest to the interior Northeast mid to late week.

The second storm could pose a greater threat to the East Coast with snow, rain and wind in portions of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast beginning on Sunday and into Monday.

Forecasters warned that even if a significant storm doesn't develop, there will still be a burst of at least lighter snowfall and gusty winds. As of Tuesday, forecasters are still monitoring the storm systems and cautioned that it's too early to nail down exactly what scenario will play out.

The news of the new storm seems to line up with Punxsutawney Phil's prediction of six more weeks of snow. The furry critter was woken up at 7.25am at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to see whether he would see his shadow or not, and he did.

Shortly after this year's prediction was revealed, one of the members of the inner circle shared a message he said Phil had told him earlier in the day: 'After winter, youre looking forward to one of the most beautiful and brightest springs you've ever seen.'

Governor Cuomo today updated New Yorkers on storm recovery efforts on Tuesday and also warned of the two additional storms that could hit the state on Friday and Sunday. The Friday storm is expected to produce winter weather throughout downstate New York, as well as parts of upstate.

'To all New Yorkers - continue to avoid nonessential travel throughout the duration of these weather systems so our crews can do their jobs safely and effectively,' Cuomo said Tuesday.

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BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: A New Yorker is seen removing snow from around a vehicle Tuesday morning

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: A man removes snow from a car following Winter Storm Orlena on Tuesday

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: Parts of northern New England were waiting their turn to be pummeled by a heavy winter storm Tuesday, while residents of the New York City region were digging out from under piles of snow

Forecasters also revealed on Tuesday that there are two more storms that could possibly wreak havoc on the Northeast this weekend

The first system is expected to bring modest snowfall and would likely impact travel from the Northern Plains and upper Midwest to the interior Northeast mid to late week. The second storm could pose a greater threat to the East Coast with snow, rain and wind in portions of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast beginning on Sunday and into Monday

On Friday, a mix of rain, ice and snow is expected to hit the Northeast (depicted above)

On Sunday, forecasters are predicting snow in parts of New Jersey, New York and Boston

Parts of northern New England were waiting their turn to be pummeled by the heavy winter storm Tuesday, while residents of the New York City region were digging out from under piles of snow.

Parts of Vermont saw six inches of snow by Tuesday morning, though forecasters predict more to come.

A winter storm warning was in effect for the southern part of Vermont, while Maine is also under winter warnings, with some lasting through Wednesday. According to the NWS, between eight and 13 inches of snow was expected to fall in Maine on Tuesday.

Cuomo on Tuesday said that the subway trains are 'all up and running' as of 5am. He also s said the roads are open. New York City's major airports, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy, were both reporting cancellations Tuesday morning due to the piled up snow.

JFK had 115 canceled flights and 19 delays while LaGuardia has 82 cancellations, plus 21 delays. In New Jersey, the Newark Liberty International Airport was reporting 111 cancellations and 27 delays.

The storm was still lingering in New York City and New Jersey as of Tuesday afternoon and is expected to move out of the area through the remainder of the day.

However, in the next 12 hours, the North Country could see 10 to 12 inches of snow. Central New York and the Finger Lakes could see 6 to 8 inches, and the Capital Region could see 1 to 2 inches.

Temperatures will range between mid 20s to low 30s across much of the state with winds 10 to 15mph with gusts up to 30mph in several locations.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said a foot or more could be on the ground in New England by the time the snow finally tapers off in the northernmost states by Wednesday evening.

Lara Pagano, a meteorologist with the weather service office in College Park, Maryland, noted that while several areas in the Mid-Atlantic have seen measurable snowfall for a few consecutive days, that hasn't shattered such records.

For example, she said the most consecutive days with measured snowfall for Washington is four, while the mark is five for New York City and six for Philadelphia.

'While this storm has been a prolonged event, it's not a record-setter in that sense, but it does rank up there pretty high of course,' she said.

The sprawling storm walloped the eastern US on Monday. More than 16 inches of snow dropped on Manhattan's Central Park.

The storm has been blamed for at least six deaths, including one in New York. Authorities said 56-year-old Arne Jensen was killed in a snowmobile accident on Monday when the sled he and another man were on broke through the ice on Orange County's Goshen Reservoir.

The other man managed to get out of the water and call for help. First responders pulled Jensen out of the reservoir and transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A man in Newark, New Jersey, died after being found lying in the snow on Monday, according to police officials, who said the death was not considered suspicious.

In Pennsylvania, authorities said a 67-year-old woman with Alzheimers disease who reportedly wandered away from her home was found dead of hypothermia on an Allentown street Monday morning.

Storm Orlena is still making its way up the Northeast coast, but in Massachusetts some areas were reporting between 18-24 inches of snow from the storm as of Tuesday morning

Wind gusts in Boston were around 30mph Tuesday morning as the storm made its way further north

Coastal flood warnings were issued for parts of New York, New Jersey and Delaware (depicted above)

NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS: This aerial image shows snow covering the ground in Massachusetts on Tuesday

NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS: Large chunks of ice are seen floating in the Merrimack River on Tuesday

NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS: This aerial image shows a snow-covered home in Massachusetts on Tuesday

WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS: A man uses a snow blower with a hood outside his home on Tuesday

WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS: A man clears his snow-covered driveway on Tuesday following Winter Storm Orlena

WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS: A bucket loader makes a pile from the 20 inches of snow that fell on a supermarket parking lot in Wilmington

WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS: A car sits buried in a partially cleared driveway in Wilmington on Tuesday

WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS: A woman in Wilmington clears her driveway of the 20 inches of snow that fell in the eastern Massachusetts town on Tuesday

About 60 miles north in Plains Township, three people were shot dead after an argument about shoveling snow.

A married couple were killed, and the suspected shooter was later found dead at his nearby home of a wound believed to have been self-inflicted, officials in Luzerne County said.

A preliminary investigation indicates the people involved had a long-running conflict, but 'this morning, the dispute was exacerbated by a disagreement over snow disposal,' District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said.

A state of emergency imposed by New Jersey Gov Phil Murphy remained in effect Tuesday and the states six mega sites for COVID-19 vaccines were still closed as plow operators faced snow showers and blowing snow.

The New Jersey State Police reported as of 7pm Monday, troopers had responded to 661 crashes and come to the aid of 1,050 motorists since 6pm Sunday.

There was also concern about coastal flooding in New Jersey due to the storm. In a video posted on Facebook by Union Beach Police, Keyport Police Chief Shannon Torres and Capt Michael Ferm were shown rescuing a man who was showing signs of hypothermia in his car from floodwaters.

High tide caused flooding early Tuesday in coastal areas of Massachusetts, where the storm had already disrupted the second phase of the states vaccine rollout as a Boston site that was supposed to open Monday for residents ages 75 and older did not; some other mass vaccination sites remained open.

Several areas of Massachusetts were hit with more than 18 inches of snow, including the central Massachusetts communities of Fitchburg, Lunenburg and Ashburnham.

Other isolated places with 18-plus inches were North Andover and Wilmington, the National Weather Service reported. Chepachet, a village in Glocester, took the prize in Rhode Island with 13 inches.

Footage from a dramatic rescue in Connecticut shows a pickup truck sinking as a woman yelled from the truck bed

First responders said the driver was performing doughnuts when the ice broke. FIrefighters are seen rescuing the man from inside the truck

NEW YORK, NEW YORK: Winter Storm Orlena left New Yorkers with piles of snow on their cars, driveways and homes

NEW YORK, NEW YORK: A man is seen using a snow plow outside his home on Tuesday

NEW YORK, NEW YORK: A man is seen shoveling snow in New York City on Tuesday

CONNECTICUT: Cleanup operations were underway in Connecticut on Tuesday after the state received over a foot of snow

CONNECTICUT: A police car is seen passing by large piles of snow in an area of a Connecticut town on Tuesday

CONNECTICUT: Workers were out early Tuesday morning to start the cleanup of cities in Connecticut

CONNECTICUT: An aerial image shows messy roads in Connecticut Tuesday morning

CONNECTICUT: Cars are seen on a roadway in a Connecticut city on Tuesday morning

CONNECTICUT: A car is seen surrounding by snow at a parking garage in Connecticut on Tuesday

The news of the new storm seems to line up with Punxsutawney Phil's (pictured) prediction of six more weeks of snow. The furry critter was woken up at 7.25am at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to see whether he would see his shadow or not, and he did

Power outages appeared to be minimal. About 5,000 customers in Massachusetts and about 3,000 in New York were without power Tuesday morning.

The NWS said in a tweet: 'An extensive band of moderate to heavy snow is expected to continue through the evening and overnight hours.

'Rates of up to 2 inches per hour are possible in localized areas - particularly in central/eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.'

In New England, nearly 15 inches of snow piled up in southeast New Hampshire, and the mountains were getting heavy snow as well.

Much of southern New Hampshire got about a foot of snow with Derry having gotten 13 inches. Parts of northern New Hampshire, known for ski resorts and snowmobile trails, have 9 to 10 inches on the ground.

'For the next couple of weeks, the conditions are going to be phenomenal' for winter sports, Gov Chris Sununu said Tuesday during an interview on WZID-FM.

The snow continued falling in Maine and won't exit the northern part of the state until Wednesday morning, said meteorologist Michael Clair from the National Weather Service.

Off the Maine coast, the ocean was churning with 20-foot swells, and a 73mph gust was recorded at an offshore buoy.

In Connecticut, Gov Ned Lamont said the storm forced the postponement of about 10,000 shots and delayed the states weekly resupply of vaccine, now expected Tuesday.

WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS: A crew removes snow in Wilmington early Tuesday morning

WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS: A plow clears roads in Wilmington after the snow storm dropped 20 inches on the area on Tuesday

WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS: A closed commuter rail stop in Wilmington is seen early Tuesday morning

SAUGUS, MASSACHUSETTS: Snow, ice, and slush make roads treacherous around Massachusetts during winter storm Orlena as seen here on Route US One on Tuesday morning

SAUGUS, MASSACHUSETTS: A man in a backhoe clears snow from the street after Winter Storm Orlena on Tuesday

PLAINVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS: Mario Vieira, a custodian at the Beatrice H. Wood Elementary School, struggles with a snowblower on Tuesday while clearing sidewalks and walkways after the area received a blanket of wet, heavy snow overnight

SAUGUS, MASSACHUSETTS: Snow is seen piled up along roadways in Massachusetts on Tuesday

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: A man carries a child in a stroller over snow in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Tuesday

DALLAS, PENNSYLVANIA: Brian DeLuca uses an extension scraper to remove snow from the roof of his house in Pennsylvania on Tuesday

Lamont canceled a tractor-trailer ban on state highways at 6am Tuesday and delayed the opening of state offices to 10am to allow for cleanup efforts.

'The storm appears to be winding down and our state and local road crews have been out all night to clear the roads,' Lamont said in a statement.

He urged providers that called off vaccination appointments to extend their hours if needed to reschedule the shots by the end of the week.

Also in Connecticut, footage from a dramatic rescue shows a pickup truck sinking as a woman yelled from the truck bed.

Firefighters are then seen entering the freezing water to help the woman and a man, who was stuck inside the truck, get to safety.

As moments pass, the back of the truck is barely seen as the firefighters successfully get them to land.

According to authorities, the truck plunged into the water when the the ice covering the Long Island Sound broke under the vehicle's weight. First responders said the driver was performing doughnuts when the ice broke.

Other footage came out of Michigan and showed ice waves along a near-frozen Lake Michigan. In the video, large chunks of ice are seen moving along small waves in the water as the Chicago skyline sits in the background.

Breathtaking drone footage was also recorded over Massachusetts. Ice was seen drifting along a river. Mounds of snow was seen along roadways in other portions of the clip.

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: People work to clear snow from the entrance of a subway station following a winter storm in Manhattan on Tuesday

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: A jogger runs on 5th Avenue near Rockefeller Center in New York on Tuesday

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: A New York Police Department vehicle is seen buried in the snow a day after heavy snowfall in Manhattan

QUEENS, NEW YORK: New Yorkers are seen shoveling snow outside of businesses on Tuesday

WASHINGTON, DC: Snow covers the ground at the White House on Tuesday morning

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA: A Delta Air Lines jet sits parked at a gate as light snow falls at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Tuesday

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: A person clears snow in Chinatown after heavy snowfall in Manhattan on Tuesday

CONNECTICUT: Cleanup operations began in Connecticut after the state received over a foot of snow

BRUNSWICK, MAINE: A bicyclist peddles on slick roads during a winter snow storm on Tuesday

MARLBOROR, VERMONT: Leon Knapp, a town highway worker, helps clear snow off the wheels of a tractor-trailer that got stuck on Route 9 amid the snow storm on Tuesday

WEEHAWKEN, NEW JERSEY: Cars covered by snow are pictured during a winter storm

In Virginia, four firefighters were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life threatening after their firetruck overturned Sunday on snow-covered roads in Henrico County.

Pennsylvania Gov Tom Wolf has declared a disaster emergency as that state's residents begin digging out from the storm.

Wolf's proclamation frees up millions of dollars for snow removal and other expenses associated with the massive, slow-moving storm, which dumped feet of snow on swaths of eastern Pennsylvania. It also authorizes state emergency management officials to request help from the National Guard.

Commercial vehicles remain banned on portions of interstates 80, 84 and 380, while restrictions remain in place on several other major roadways in eastern Pennsylvania.

The National Weather Service has reported huge snowfall totals throughout the central and eastern regions of the state, including 31 inches in Nazareth, 23 inches in Sterling, 22 inches in Auburn and 20 inches in Pocono Summit.

Danbury racked up 19 inches in snowfall from the multi-day storm, with other towns in the southern part of Connecticut not far behind, according to the National Weather Service.

Bridgeport and New Haven both got about 15 inches of snow, while parts of the Hartford area received about a foot or a little more.
LONE STARS

By Justin Deabler



My adopted state of Texas is diverse and nuts and despite all the stereotypes (many rooted a bit too deeply in truth to be comfortable) of men in Stetsons, women with Dallas high hairdos and barbecue geniuses roasting meat on perfectly tended fires, Texas is too big to be simple, and too complex for one story. Great Texas novels have been set everywhere from the Mexico border up through the Alamo to the Panhandle, from the piney woods of East Texas to the cactus-covered mountains of the West.

Justin Deabler (himself a native Texan, hailing from Houston) begins his debut novel, Lone Stars, during the Eisenhower era and introduces Lacy Warner, growing up in the border town of McAllen. Lacy becomes a pen pal to a soldier in Vietnam; when he returns, the two marry. They have a son, Julian. Julian heads to Harvard, finally able to live openly as a gay man and a liberal intellectual. In the interim, things fall apart.

I will admit, I worried that Lone Stars was shaping up to be a bit too much like my own first novel  cleverly titled Between a River and a Sea, because it consists of a bunch of carefully crafted scenes where not much happens between a river and a sea. The manuscript remains an unpublished pile of dot-matrix printer paper in my garage.

Great sentences, my writing professor, Bill Kittredge, said, but nothing happens. The dads a drunk, and then the dads a drunk, and then the dads a drunk. Who cares?
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 19:48:27|Editor: huaxia

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Workers operate at the finished products storage area of a workshop producing high-end automotive steel plates in a local subsidiary of the Shougang Group in Qianan City of north China's Hebei Province, May 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- While coping with heavy blows to the economy by COVID-19, China has set up a special transfer payment mechanism to ensure that fiscal funds can be directly channeled to primary-level governments and benefit businesses and the people.

The leadership has hailed the special mechanism, designed to channel increased fiscal funds in 2020 straight to the prefecture and county-level governments, an extraordinary measure in an extraordinary time and an important innovative step in macro regulation.

As the fiscal year of 2020 came to an end, what progress has China achieved? How is the mechanism defined? Will it be implemented in 2021? The following are some explanations.

-- A GREEN CHANNEL

Instead of adopting a deluge of strong stimulus policies amid disruption due to COVID-19, China has turned its focus toward improving the efficiency of funds transfer and usage.

In the 2020 government work report, the central government said it would increase the country's deficit by 1 trillion yuan (about 154 billion U.S. dollars) over the previous year and issue 1 trillion yuan of government bonds for COVID-19 control.

The aforementioned 2 trillion yuan would be transferred in full to local governments, and a special transfer payment mechanism would be established to ensure that the funds go straight to preserving jobs, people's livelihood and market entities, according to the report.

"No such funds are allowed to be withheld or diverted for non-designated uses," it said, noting that this measure must be promptly and fully implemented.

At a State Council's executive meeting on June 9, those at the meeting decided to set up the mechanism to channel the funds to prefecture and county governments at the earliest possible time and in full.

-- QUICK FUNDS TRANSFER

On June 30, China started the transfer of the funds, and its first monitoring system for directly funneled funds was put into operation the next day.

It took only 20 days for the country to channel more than 90 percent of the funds to the prefecture and county-level governments, finance minister Liu Kun told Xinhua in an interview in early January.

Provincial governments took only one week on average to transfer the funds to lower-level authorities.

In normal years, it would take more than 100 days to transfer such funds level-by-level to primary governments.

As of Dec. 29, 1.52 trillion yuan of the funds had been put into use, Liu said.

-- A REGULARIZED PRACTICE

China will explore establishing a regularized special transfer payment mechanism, a State Council's executive meeting decided on Oct. 21.

Transfer payments that can be directly distributed under fiscal responsibilities shared by central and local governments, eligible special transfer payments and general transfer payments of subsidy funding to guarantee basic fiscal capacity at the county-level can be included in the special mechanism, said a statement released after the meeting.

This year, the Ministry of Finance will summarize experience on the mechanism, improve relevant practices and turn it into a regularized institutional arrangement, Liu said.

In 2021, the amount and scope of directly distributed funds will be larger, he said, adding that efforts will be made to enhance fiscal and audit regulation, promote data sharing and incorporate the mechanism into the country's budget management procedures. 
Mr Kellys posts include a recent call on the media to start reporting the truth because the Medical Association of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil had recommended chloroquine and ivermectin. The association is not an arm of the Brazilian federal government nor the government of Rio Grande do Norte, a state in the north-east of the country with a population of about 3 million. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Weve been very clear to point out where you get your information from. You dont get it from Facebook, Mr Morrison told the National Press Club on Monday. You get it from official government websites, and thats what I encourage everybody to do and thats what were doing and thats what were investing in. Dont go to Facebook to find out about the vaccine. Go to official government websites.

Loading Asked whether people should go to Mr Kelly, the Prime Minister responded, Hes not my doctor and hes not yours. But he does a great job in Hughes. Mr Kelly stood in the Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday morning, the first gathering of Liberal and Nationals MPs this year, to argue he was right to air advice about other treatments for COVID-19. But fellow Liberal Katie Allen, a paediatrician who won the Melbourne seat of Higgins at the last election, spoke up on the need for clear communications to support the mammoth vaccination program. Dr Allens colleagues saw her remarks as a warning shot about Mr Kellys posts.

Mr Kelly told the party room of the work of an Australian immunologist, Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy of the University of Newcastle. Professor Clancy told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he had not met Mr Kelly and did not agree with everything he said but thought he was absolutely right on hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Early treatment is highly effective. Vaccines are critically important. They should not be seen as mutually exclusive. You need them both, he said. Professor Clancy said the evidence showed hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were safe and should be used. But they mustnt be used instead of a vaccine. They need to be used together, he said.

But Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said last month there was no evidence to show hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin should be rolled out to Australians. Loading He needs to decide what is the appropriate thing for a member of Parliament to be commenting on, Professor Kelly said. Im not going to talk further about this because it just gives prominence to views that I just dont agree with and are not scientifically based. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners rebuked Mr Kelly for appearing in an interview with celebrity chef Pete Evans, who was removed from Facebook last year after telling followers not to get tested for COVID-19. It is unacceptable that Craig Kelly is persisting in disseminating misinformation concerning COVID-19 and to appear on this podcast with a disgraced former celebrity chef is very unhelpful, RACGP president Dr Karen Price said.

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said last month it was disappointing to see crackpot ideas spread by people who should know better. AMA vice president Chris Moy expressed disappointment that political leaders cannot stand up very clearly for upholding science and fact against Mr Kelly. Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said he got along all right with Mr Kelly but gave voters credit for making their own judgments. In Parliament you have a right to say what you like, even though at times its completely flawed and erroneous and incorrect, Mr Joyce said. If a professor of epidemiology says something to me, I think 99.9 per cent of us are probably going to listen to the professor. Asked if Mr Morrison should do anything to silence Mr Kelly, Mr Joyce said, No, that would just be poking the bear. People are smart enough to make their own decisions, and Craig is not a doctor. Mr Kelly has not opposed COVID-19 vaccinations but Labor, the Greens and some Liberals believe his arguments on Facebook will weaken support for the vaccination program, one of the governments top priorities for the year ahead.

Labor accused Mr Morrison of weakness for claiming Mr Kelly was doing a great job when the MPs claims could undermine the $24 million federal advertising campaign to encourage people to take COVID-19 vaccines. Craig Kelly is a dangerous menace and a threat to the nations COVID response and its beyond time that the Prime Minister developed the backbone to pull him into line, Mr Butler said. Labor assistant communications spokesman Tim Watts said Mr Kellys posts had been shared 10 times as much as Department of Health posts on Facebook. A real leader would have stepped in and said that they would have nothing to do with any MP who is spreading medical misinformation during a pandemic and would have demanded that Craig Kelly be dis-endorsed by the Liberal Party, Mr Watts said. Former Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon said he supported free speech but Mr Kelly had to be more responsible when Australia faced the risk of vaccine hesitancy with COVID-19.
A popular swimming spot in New Zealand has been forced to shut down after E.coli was found in the water.

E.coli, a bacteria that lives in the intestines of humans and animals, has filled up Waitangi Falls at Waiuku in South Auckland for the last week.

Locals described the smell coming from the popular waterfall as 'absolutely horrifying'.

The Waitangi Falls have been forced to close after human and animal faeces were discovered seven days ago (pictured)

Waiuku resident Dorothy Hoskins usually takes her grandchildren to the waterfall, but said she's now heartbroken to see the swimming spot polluted.

'We need action. Seven days have gone now, seven days of literally s**t pouring into the Manukau Harbour', she told NewsHub.

Ms Hoskins said the council needs to act now, as people live and fish near the polluted waters.

Auckland Council have reassured residents that the cause for the pollution is now under investigation.

Animal and human faeces has been found at The Waitangi Falls in New Zealand (pictured), forcing the popular swimming destination to close

The polluted waters contaminated with E.coli (pictured) were first discovered by residents seven days ago, forcing the popular swimming spot to close for the summer

'Council's pollution response team is monitoring levels and will continue to do so until water quality is back to normal'.

Auckland Council confirmed with Daily Mail Australia that their pollution response team was called to Waitangi Falls last week.

'Testing was carried out on the water and results showed unusually high e-coli levels,' the spokesperson said.

'Signage has been installed to ensure locals and visitors know the water is currently unsafe to swim in.'

The discovery comes after residents were told to avoid more than 50 other beaches in Auckland for similar reasons.

E.coli is a bacteria that can cause diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach cramps usually three to four days after being exposed to contaminated water or food.

Auckland Council has reassured residents that the cause for the pollution at the popular Waitangi Falls (pictured) is now under investigation
The gave a shot in the arm to the stock market bulls as the benchmark indices rallied nearly 8 per cent in the last two days, wherein they not only wiped off the losses witnessed last week but also reclaimed the 50,000 mark on the BSE barometer Sensex.

A higher allocation towards capital expenditure with a focus on roads, infra and railways can give a significant growth impetus to the economy, according to analysts. Meanwhile, a lack of change in the taxes, both personal and corporate, along with the proposal of bad banks, disinvestment and bank recapitalisation helped market participants overlook a bloated fiscal deficit target for FY22.

Amid this backdrop, these are the stocks that brokerages believe will benefit the most from Budget announcements:

Agri-inputs | Outlook: Positive

In the Union Budget, the focus was on agriculture credit, irrigation, and marketing of agriculture produce. The government also revised fertiliser subsidy allocation to Rs 1,339 billion for FY21 as against Rs 811 billion in FY20.

"Urea companies such as Chambal Fertilisers, National Fertilizers Limited, and Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers are expected to benefit the most due to a larger share of pending subsidies," said brokerage Phillip Capital.

Meanwhile, analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher are betting on stocks of Chambal Fertiliser and Bayer Cropscience. They believe Coromandel International and Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals will be among losers.

Automobile | Outlook: Neutral

The government announced a voluntary scrapping policy in which vehicles. "This move will likely incentivize replacement growth for passenger vehicles and medium and heavy commercial vehicles, but the impact would be limited," said analysts at Elara Capital in a note.

Ashok Leyland, M&M, Maruti Suzuki among OEMs and Motherson Sumi and Endurance among auto ancillaries are some of the top bets of analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher. "We expect OEMs like Ashok Leyland, HMCL, Maruti and will also be prime beneficiaries of high government focus on rural, agriculture and infrastructure spend," they said.

Banks | Outlook: Positive

Under the Budget, the government proposed setting up of ARC to buy bad loans of state-owned banks, announced capital infusion of Rs 200 billion for state-run banks and privatisation of two state banks and one general insurance company.

According to Phillip Capital increased allocation for capital expenditure will bode well for large banks, namely ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bank and State Bank of India.

Elara Capital believe mid-sized public sector banks will be beneficiaries of divestment and recapitalisation.

Meanwhile, ICICI Bank, Bank, Axis Bank and mid-sized PSBs are the top picks of analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher.

NBFCs & HFCs | Outlook: Positive

The government announced that tax exemption of Rs 1,50,000 on purchase of an affordable house will continue for another year. Amid this backdrop, remains a top pick of the brokerages. Prabhudas Lilladher believes LIC Housing Finance and Can Fin Homes will be among other beneficiaries of the scheme.

Infrastructure | Outlook: Positive

In the Budget, the total expenditure towards road and highways construction, shipping, metro projects, smart cities and 'Jal Shakti' Abhiyan increased significantly. The government also proposed 100% railway electrification by December 2023.

PNC Infratech, KNR Construction, Dilip Buildcon, Ashoka Buildcon, Sadbhav Engineering, HG Infra Engineering and IRB Infrastructure will be key beneficiaries from measures related to the construction of roads, said analysts at Elara Capital. Meanwhile, rail infrastructure companies like Rail Vikas Nigam, IRCON International and RITES would also benefit, they said.

L&T, Kalpataru Power & Transmission, Voltamp Transformers, PNCL and HG Infrastructure are among top bets of Prabhudas Lilladher.

Cement | Outlook: Positive

Government's continued and improved thrust on infrastructure spends  specific announcements of infrastructure projects in eastern states bodes well for the entire sector, according to Phillip Capital.

UltraTech Cement, Shree Cement, Birla Corporation, JK Cement and Ambuja Cements will be key beneficiaries, according to Elara Capital. While Ultratech Cement, Dalmia Bharat and JK Lakshmi are the top picks of analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher.

FMCG | Outlook: Neutral

A reduction in basic customs duty from 12.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent will be partially offset via the imposition of 2.5 per cent agriculture infra and development cess on gold prices, said Phillip Capital in a note, adding that such a move is positive for Titan as this will lead to a net reduction of up to 2.5 per cent in gold prices and shore up demand. Meanwhile, no hike in cess on cigarette and tobacco products also bodes well for ITC.

Insurance | Outlook: Positive

The government has proposed to increase foreign direct investment limit in the insurance companies to 74 per cent from 49 per cent earlier. While it would benefit all insurance players, Life is the top pick of brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher.

Elara Capital said that this move will be positive for as needs to sell 30 per cent stake in the next 3 years.
GAITHERSBURG, Md. and SUZHOU BIOBAY, China, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirnaomics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics against cancer and fibrotic diseases, today announced that it will be presenting results from a recently completed Phase 2a clinical study of the company's lead drug candidate, STP705, for treatment of squamous cell skin cancer, at the 19th Annual South Beach Symposium Medical Dermatology Summit. The virtual conference runs from Feb. 5-7, 2021.

Title: Innovation in the Treatment of NMSC: siRNA STP705 for SCC in situ

Presented by: Mark Steven Nestor , M.D., Ph.D.; Director, Center for Cosmetic Enhancement, Center for Clinical and Cosmetic Research in Aventura, Florida

, M.D., Ph.D.; Director, Center for Cosmetic Enhancement, Center for Clinical and Cosmetic Research in The presentation will be available for viewing for one year via the conference website, starting at 2:45PM ET on Saturday, February 6, 2021

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 IND approvals from both the US FDA and Chinese NMPA, including treatments for Liver cancer, non-melanoma skin cancer, and hypertrophic scar. STP705 has also received three Orphan Drug Designations from the US FDA for treatment of cholangiocarcinoma, primary sclerosing cholangitis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Preclinical animal models, as well as recent human tissue analysis from our isSCC study using STP705, have demonstrated statistically significant gene target knockdown as well as reduction in many tumor biomarkers that are common to multiple different tumor types. We have also witnessed in both our animal and human data improvement in T-cell penetration in multiple tumor types. These effects may lead to improved tumor response via oncogenic biomarker reduction and increase in T-cell penetration, which has the potential to enhance the activity of traditional chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacies via T-cell enhancement. Based on the results of the STP705 Phase 2a trial, Sirnaomics intends to initiate a Phase 2b trial of STP705 in patients with isSCC, Bowen's disease.

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 research and development, clinical development, regulatory affairs, and financial and business management in both the USA and China. The company is supported by funding from institutional investors and corporate partnerships. 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


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OSWEGO, N.Y.  State Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte on Monday decided to delay the results of the 22nd Congressional District race for about another week to allow debate on this question:

If the wrong person gets sent to Congress, what can be done about it?

DelConte, overseeing the last undecided congressional race in the country, made the decision to prolong the race even more after a last-minute challenge from Democract Anthony Brindisi, who is fighting to keep the House seat from Republican Claudia Tenney.

At last count, Tenney led Brindisi by 122 votes of more than 316,000 cast for the two candidates. She appeared to pick up a handful more Monday morning during a court-ordered examination of several ballots that hadnt yet been reviewed.

Todays hearing was supposed to be the last in court. All eight counties that comprise the district were supposed to certify their results by the end of the day Tuesday, then send it for one final certification to the state Board of Elections.

However, Brindisis legal team at noon filed a motion asking the judge to order a temporary halt to the certification, on two grounds.

First, they argued, there has been a small but potentially impactful discrepancy between votes tabulated by voting machines and votes counted by hand. In a written motion, they said voting machines had missed nine votes of 1,127 ballots reviewed recently in Oneida County. The discrepancy appeared to affect Brindisi more than Tenney, they argued.

If that error rate  0.8%  is extrapolated to all of the votes cast in Oneida County, they argued, 800 votes might have been missed. And, because they have no indication that other counties used different voting machines, as many as 2,500 votes might have been missed, they said.

So they asked DelConte to halt the certification until there could be a hand audit of all the ballots cast in the 22nd Congressional District. They also argued that a new state law that goes into effect this year requires full recounts in any election where the margin is less than 0.5%. In this case, the margin is 0.04%, so a manual recount is a just outcome, even though the law does not apply to cases that began last year.

DelConte criticized Brindisis lawyers for bringing this claim at the 11th hour, when they knew about the issue involving the machines as early as December.

The second part of Brindisis motion pointed out that both Tenneys and Brindisis teams plan to appeal one or more of the rulings DelConte has issued over the course of the weeks-long court case affecting hundreds of votes. Because of that, it would be inefficient to let votes be cast and a winner certified when DelContes orders could be overturned by an appellate court.

It was this question that ultimately appeared to sway DelConte to issue a halt on the certification of results.

He said he fears that he could order the election to be certified, setting in motion a member of Congress, likely Tenney, heading to Washington, D.C. to be seated in Congress. But what if the appellate division then rules against Tenney?

Mrs. Tenney could go to Washington and vote on legislation and then a day later, a week later, they would say, She didnt win the election. DelConte got it wrong,  the judge said.

What would happen then? he asked attorneys.

Paul DerOhannesian, Tenneys attorney, said there are multiple ways Tenney could be removed in such a scenario, which he said was already unlikely. He also said that, a month after the new Congress has convened, the greatest harm is to have no member of Congress in the 22nd district while the case plays out.

However, Brindisis attorney, Bruce Spiva, cited the U.S. Constitution as saying that only Congress itself has the authority to remove a member, so a ruling by the appellate division would have no effect, even if it determined that Brindisi was the actual winner.

DelConte said he wanted to consider arguments from both sides about what he should do and specifically about what a state appellate courts jurisdiction would be in a situation where a member of Congress is erroneously seated.

So he decided to delay the race again. He ordered Oneida County not to certify its results, meaning the race is still undecided, until he rules on whether he should let the candidates appeals play out before certifying the results of the race.

Both candidates attorneys will file briefs by 4 p.m., Thursday, and they will argue in court Friday.

In the meantime, the more than 700,000 constituents of the Upstate New York district will continue without having a representative in Congress.

Contact reporter Patrick Lohmann at PLohmann@Syracuse.com or (315)766-6670.

More on the NY 22nd race:

In NY 22nd, judges suggests there are no great options to fix Oneida County mistake

Whats next in Brindisi-Tenney House race? Appeals, recount, could delay decision for months

700 votes were tossed in Oneida County. Officials ignored state law in latest mess up

Oneida County botched 2,400 voter signups, preventing their votes in Brindisi-Tenney race

At least 63 voters who did everything right could see votes nixed in Brindisi-Tenney race

Court case to decide winner in NY-22 House race to take at least another week

Trump refers to Brindisi-Tenney House race as he pushes baseless voter fraud claims
CHICAGO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- International law firm McDermott Will & Emery is proud to announce that the second wave of McDermott Rise members has been selected. Members and their leadership will work closely with a designated McDermott Rise advocate to receive world-class legal services to accelerate their growth and success as operational BIPOC-owned and managed businesses. This announcement follows the inaugural membership announced in November 2020.

"In just a short period of time, we are now actively engaged with entrepreneurs to help them scale, launch, fund and grow their businesses as part of our fight to combat systemic racism and knock down unfair barriers for people of color," Anthony (Tony) Upshaw, Miami-based litigation partner and member of the McDermott Rise steering committee, said. "This inaugural McDermott Rise cohort includes first-of-its-kind 'disruption' business models, cutting-edge medical technology, platforms developed for underserved populations and other impressive and worthy endeavors."

We welcome our newest McDermott Rise members:

AmginE Ink  AmginE Ink created the app U4Ea (pronounced Euphoria), which uses the technology of passive focus on audio tones, or musical notes, through binaural beats to help with mindfulness and healing. U4Ea is available for download here.

 AmginE Ink created the app U4Ea (pronounced Euphoria), which uses the technology of passive focus on audio tones, or musical notes, through binaural beats to help with mindfulness and healing. U4Ea is available for download here. Digiteyez Technologies  Dr. Brandon Zimmerman and his team pioneered the world's first digital optical prescription using patented algorithms that model a patient's eye and simulates their vision, offering vision prescription from anywhere, without a physical appointment. Visit the website here.

 Dr. and his team pioneered the world's first digital optical prescription using patented algorithms that model a patient's eye and simulates their vision, offering vision prescription from anywhere, without a physical appointment. Visit the website here. Jet It  Jet It is an aviation company with a unique, disruptive business model to deliver a private and fast travel solution, offering jet ownership sharing options. Cofounders Glenn Gonzales and Vishal Hiremath have a combined 40+ years in aviation, leadership and private business. Gonzales is also a military veteran and serves as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force Reserves.

Jet It is an aviation company with a unique, disruptive business model to deliver a private and fast travel solution, offering jet ownership sharing options. Cofounders and have a combined 40+ years in aviation, leadership and private business. Gonzales is also a military veteran and serves as a lieutenant colonel in Air Force Reserves. Match2Mentor  Match2Mentor aims to decrease the ever-widening gap in education between minority and majority students. Through tutoring services, the company increases student engagement and provides a way for college students to earn money. Learn more about Match2Mentor by watching founder Shaun Andrews' submission video or by visiting its website.

 Match2Mentor aims to decrease the ever-widening gap in education between minority and majority students. Through tutoring services, the company increases student engagement and provides a way for college students to earn money. Learn more about Match2Mentor by watching founder submission video or by visiting its website. MathTalk MathTalk is the leader in speech recognition mathematics software and provides users with the ability to voice math, without needing a keyboard. A nonprofit founded in 2015, MathTalk is delivering accessible services to students, teachers and professionals.

MathTalk is the leader in speech recognition mathematics software and provides users with the ability to voice math, without needing a keyboard. A nonprofit founded in 2015, MathTalk is delivering accessible services to students, teachers and professionals. Sanarai  Sanarai is working to improve the Hispanic community's access to high-quality mental health services through a web-based platform that allows for the scheduling of remote emotional support sessions. With a focus on the Spanish-speaking market, its website is entirely in Spanish.

 Sanarai is working to improve the Hispanic community's access to high-quality mental health services through a web-based platform that allows for the scheduling of remote emotional support sessions. With a focus on the Spanish-speaking market, its website is entirely in Spanish. Volt Energy  Volt Energy is a national, minority-owned renewable energy firm that finances and develops solar projects, electric-vehicle charging stations and energy storage solutions for commercial, government, educational and nonprofit institutions. Utilizing innovative clean technology, Volt Energy designs, engineers and implements energy storage solutions, with a mission is to uplift communities through the opportunities and benefits provided by clean technology.

 Volt Energy is a national, minority-owned renewable energy firm that finances and develops solar projects, electric-vehicle charging stations and energy storage solutions for commercial, government, educational and nonprofit institutions. Utilizing innovative clean technology, Volt Energy designs, engineers and implements energy storage solutions, with a mission is to uplift communities through the opportunities and benefits provided by clean technology. WeatherCheck  WeatherCheck is the nation's only Black-owned meteorology-focused technology company. WeatherCheck focuses on saving property owners money by monitoring mobile and immobile property for severe weather. Founder and CEO Demetrius Gray and his team work with carriers, brokers and owners to manage, assess and seek coverage for damage.

Qualified BIPOC-led businesses can learn more and apply on the McDermott Rise website. Following its launch in July 2020, the program has drawn an overwhelming amount of interest and has received four times the initial application goal.

About McDermott

McDermott Will & Emery partners with leaders around the world to fuel missions, knock down barriers and shape markets. Our team works seamlessly across practices and industries to deliver highly effectiveand often unexpectedsolutions that propel success. More than 1,200 lawyers strong, we bring our personal passion and legal prowess to bear in every matter for our clients and the people they serve.

SOURCE McDermott Will & Emery

Related Links

http://www.mwe.com


By Ritah Kemigisa

Uganda has this morning received the second brand new Airbus A330 neo which will boost tourism and travel across the continent and beyond.

Upon arrival, the new airbus called Mt Rwenzori was received by the Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda in addition to a Water salute.

The works and transport Minister Gen Katumba Wamala says with the new Airbus, Uganda will be will be able to penetrate into the new world of greater connectivity by operating non-stop intercontinental flights.

Hadi Akoum, Airbus Vice President Sales Africa has hailed the government of Uganda for choosing the latest and most advanced aircrafts which he says is flamboyant and highly computerized.

This is the new model of the A330 series, this is a new generation model, all systems are managed by computers, said Mr Akoum.

Hadi meanwhile explains how unique the new jet is.

In business class, passengers are able to have a seat and as well turn into a bed at 180 degrees, there is a small office space, they can have dinner and lunch and work at the same time, added Mr Akoum.

Mt Rwenzori will be flying to Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The first Airbus that arrived last year called Mt Elgon flies to Guangzhou and Beijing Cities in China, Heathrow Airport in the UK, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
02/01/2021

Photo (c) Ergin Yalcin - Getty Images New federal data suggests that the coronavirus vaccination distribution program has led to a drop in COVID-19 cases in nursing homes.

Nursing home residents were at a particularly high risk of catching COVID-19 due to age, underlying health conditions, and as a result of living in a building full of other people. Due to these risk factors, nursing home residents and staff were prioritized in the vaccine rollout.

Now, data is reflecting a downward trend in nursing home coronavirus cases that seems to align with the administration of vaccines. The U.S. recorded 17,584 cases in nursing homes during the week ending January 17, according to The New York Times. Four weeks earlier, more than 32,500 cases were reported.

Health experts said the decrease is partly reflective of an overall dip in new cases across the country, but the decrease in nursing home cases was especially pronounced.

Promising decline

Nursing home coronavirus infections rise and fall in response to infection rates in the rest of the community, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told the Times. Jha said the fact that nursing home residents and staff were among the first to receive the vaccines suggests a connection between the shots and the drop in infections in these facilities.

"That combination really does make me think this is not just broad national patterns, but that vaccines probably are playing a role," Dr. Jha said. "I'm optimistic, this is good."

After more shots are administered in nursing homes and more data comes in, experts will be able to get a clearer picture of how the vaccine rollout is influencing infection trends.

"Once that's in, then we should feel really confident that these declines will continue and we will not see a spike back up, even if we see one in the national picture," Jha said.
In 1967, amid public unrest, U.S. Army Gen. William P. Yarborough, assistant chief of staff for intelligence, initiated illegal domestic surveillance involving Army Intelligence and the CIA, as well as the NSA. The following decade, public exposure by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee led by Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, ended this. Nonetheless, since the 9/11 attacks, security agencies have renewed broad public surveillance, especially electronically.
Quartzs deep dives into areas like tech, consumer purchasing behaviors, and the future of finance will give our clients valuable insights. --Ted Merz, global head of news product at Bloomberg

Today Quartz Media Inc., a provider of global news and insights for a new generation of business leaders, has announced that its highly-regarded business journalism is available to users on the Bloomberg Terminal. The deal was facilitated by content licensing specialist MEI Global LLC (MEIG), a leader in helping publishers monetize their digital assets by negotiating and growing third party licensing partnerships.

Bloombergs audience of influential business decision makers will now have access to Quartzs creative and ground-breaking business journalism. Quartzs core coverage obsessions, like Fixing Capitalism, Because China, the Climate Economy, and more are the trends that will drive business investment and strategy in the global economy for the 21st century, and Bloomberg Terminal subscribers will have the benefit of the publishers deep research into those areas.

We are delighted to provide Bloomberg Terminal clients access to Quartzs journalism on topics of importance to the economy, says Ted Merz, global head of news product at Bloomberg. Quartzs deep dives into areas like tech, consumer purchasing behaviors, and the future of finance will give our clients valuable insights.

Quartz content can be accessed on the Bloomberg Terminal through NH QUA (GO).

MEIG was founded by Randall Marcinko to assist publishers in finding and developing new licensing opportunities, which can be a challenge due to the rapid evolution of licensing models and publisher resource shortages that may prevent a focus on third party distribution opportunities. Quartz and Bloomberg represent a perfect match of incisive business content with sophisticated business decision makers, and we were pleased to play a role in bringing the two organizations together. Marcinko says, We look forward to proactively supporting the success of this relationship.

About MEI Global LLC: MEIG provides a suite of services to help publishers monetize their digital assets. MEIGs expertise includes prospecting, negotiating, relationship management, and extensive knowledge of vendors and their needs, thanks to decades of industry experience within MEIGs dealmaker team. The company assists publishers with strategic decision making through a lens of revenue growth, brand extension and intellectual property protection. For additional information, please contact Vice President of Business Development Nancy Davis Kho at ndkho@marcinko.com , +1 510 336 1119.

About Quartz Media Inc.: Quartz was founded in 2012 to serve a new kind of business leader with bracingly creative and intelligent journalism thats built for users first. We help our audience see around corners, navigate disruption in their industries, build fulfilling careers, broaden their views of the world, and enjoy lives rich with culture. Our coverage of the global economy is organized around core obsessionstopics and questions of seismic importance to business professionals. These are the issues that energize our newsroom, and we invite you to obsess about them along with us. For media and broadcast inquiries, speaker requests, and press passes to Quartz events, please contact press@qz.com.

About Bloomberg L.P.: Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The companys strength  delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately  is at the core of the Bloomberg Terminal. Bloombergs enterprise solutions build on the companys core strength: leveraging technology to allow customers to access, integrate, distribute and manage data and information across organizations more efficiently and effectively. For more information, visit Bloomberg.com/company or request a demo.


Shubenacadie Sam looks around after emerging from his burrow at the wildlife park in Shubenacadie, N.S. on Feb. 2, 2019. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)

Groundhog Day Moves Online Across Canada as Precaution Against COVID-19

Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie Sam doesn't see his shadow, spring coming soon

Nova Scotias most famous groundhog, Shubenacadie Sam, emerged from his pint-sized barn this morning and apparently failed to see his shadow.

Thats good news for winter-weary Canadians.

According to folklore, if a groundhog doesnt see his shadow on Groundhog Day, spring-like weather will soon arrive. However, if the pug-nosed critter spots his shadow, winter will drag on.

At exactly 8 a.m. local time, the door to Sams enclosure was opened, but the pudgy rodent refused to come out at first.

With a winter storm descending on the Maritimes overnight, there was a steady snowfall as Sam emerged from his den and waddled a few paces from the front door.

The annual tradition at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park north of Halifax usually attracts scores of schoolchildren, but not this year. There were few onlookers today as the event was broadcast live on Facebook to comply with COVID-19 health protocols.

As usual, Shubenacadie Sam was the first groundhog in North America to make a prediction.

In Wiarton, Ont., the communitys famous albino groundhog, Wiarton Willie, was also expected to make an appearance without an in-person audience.

Folklorists say the Groundhog Day ritual may have something to do with Feb. 2 landing midway between winter solstice and spring equinox, but no one knows for sure.

In medieval Europe, farmers believed that if hedgehogs emerged from their burrows to catch insects, that was a sure sign of an early spring.

However, when Europeans settled in eastern North America, the groundhog was substituted for the hedgehog.

Janice Jackson, the mayor of Wiarton, Ont., says that the town in the South Bruce Peninsula has pivoted the celebration of its famous groundhog to a webcast this year.

Groundhog Fred La Marmotte in ValdEspoir, Que., will also be delivering his forecast online.
A crane tagged in Russia's Transbaikalia was spotted in Khinchan village in Jodhpur district on Sunday. The crane traveled about 4,368 km to reach here, the longest distance covered by the tagged migratory birds reported so far, bird experts claimed on Monday, as per Hindustan Times.

Crane tagged in Russia covers over 4300 km to reach Rajasthanhttps://t.co/vHCHGnnnFg pic.twitter.com/TPw1xZn7jd  Hindustan Times (@htTweets) February 2, 2021





About the special species

The crane has been identified to be a Demoiselle. The Demoiselle crane (Grus virgo) is a species of crane found in central Eurosiberia, ranging from the Black Sea to Mongolia and North Eastern China. There is also a small breeding population in Turkey. These cranes are migratory birds. Birds from western Eurasia will spend the winter in Africa while the birds from Asia, Mongolia and China will spend the winter in the Indian subcontinent. The bird is symbolically significant in the culture of India and Pakistan, where it is known as Koonj.

REUTERS

How was it found?

On Sunday morning, at the shelter site of migratory birds in Khinchan village, bird watcher Sewaram Mali saw the tagged crane, which he reported to bird expert Dr Dau Lal Bohra. Dr Bohra, associated with the international network engaged in the watch of migratory birds, verified that this bird was tagged on August 2, 2019 by Oleg Goroshko in Russia's Transbaikalia in Onon District near Novy Dutulgui village. Now it is the second winter in India for this crane.

The last signal from this bird was on January 17 this year. Until January 17 this crane was in Gujarat in the area south of Kachchh Bay between Arabian sea coast and Manavadar. He said that this is the second crane found this winter season that was tagged, but the crane A-5, which was spotted on Sunday, covered the most distance to reach here.



Orientalbirdimages/Gayatri N Pimple

Why was it found in India?

Under the international project of 1000 Cranes, Demoiselle cranes were tagged with color plastic rings and GPS-GSM transmitters in Russia and Mongolia in 2018 and 2019. Main objectives of the research were to identify pre-migration staging areas, migratory stopovers and wintering grounds along the flyways to India through tagging of cranes and subsequent tracking. In 2018 Demoiselle Cranes tagged in Russia and Mongolia were sighted in Rajasthan and Gujarat, where their wintering grounds are located, he added.

BCCL

According to the report, Threats to cranes at wintering grounds in India published by the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution Russian Academy of Science, in Rajasthan, power lines are also a big issue for migratory birds mortality. More than 1000 lethal electrical poles are near feeding and roosting sites, and collisions with electric wires are a major issue for Demoiselle Cranes mortality.



What are major threats to these birds?

In 2012, 19 cranes were dead due to electrocution near a feeding station. At the end of 2019, around 47 Demoiselle Cranes were found dead in a single observation caused by electrocution. The other threats are plastic and sewage water pollution, semi-wild dogs and heavy salt water which probably causes leg injuries or sarcoma. Rajasthan and Gujarat both are big states and very important for migratory and wintering cranes.

BCCL

Therefore, work on identifying and assessment of threats to cranes and other birds should be conducted with a focus on places determined through crane tagging and tracking. It is necessary to identify where the electric power lines have the greatest negative impact on birds during migration and in wintering grounds, as well as what types of pesticides cause their poisoning, Dr Bohra said.


Covid: NATO donates equipment to Montenegro Distribution to local hospitals soon

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, FEB 2 - The NATO's Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) has coordinated the donation to Montenegro of 20 sets of ventilator equipment from the so-called 'NATO Pandemic Response Stockpile', NATO said in a statement. The ventilators will be distributed to local hospitals in Montenegro.



The donation was made possible by financial contributions by the Czech Republic, Lithuania, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom and the United States. "This builds on a previous shipment of 20 ventilators to the Ministry of Health" and "additional medical equipment is expected to be delivered to Montenegro in the coming weeks," NATO said.



NATO has approved 10 assistance packages for Albania, Czech Republic, Montenegro and North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Moldova, Tunisia and Ukraine and additional assistance is approved to North Macedonia and Ukraine. (ANSA).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
Baghdad, Feb 2 : Top Iraqi officials held meetings with Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf, Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), who is on an official visit to Baghdad, aimed at means to enhance bilateral relations in all fields.

A government statement said that President Barham Salih held a meeting with Al-Hajraf in the presidential palace on Monday, where Salih "welcomed the success of the recent Gulf summit and the signing of the Al-Ula statement that achieved the Gulf reconciliation", reports Xinhua news agency.

Salih stressed that the reconciliation would enhance the vital role of the GCC and its positive impact on security and stability throughout the region, the statement said.

The crises of terrorism and economic situations that the region is going through are common challenges that require concerted efforts to address them, Salih added.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi during a meeting with Al-Hajraf confirmed that Iraq is seeking to strengthen its relations with the GCC countries in the political, cultural, economic, and commercial fields.

Al-Kadhimi stressed the need for "dialogue to be the basis for solving the outstanding problems between the countries of the region, particularly since the current regional and international developments will have repercussions on all countries of the region", according to the statement.

The Prime Minister also urged to expedite the electricity interconnections between Iraq and the GCC countries, as well as boosting commercial exchange, it said.

For his part, Al-Hajraf affirmed the GCC's support for Iraq in achieving its security, stability, and sovereignty.

"The GCC countries commend Iraq's successful experience in the field of combating terrorism," the statement said.

The visiting GCC chief also met with Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and reiterated the GCC's support for the stability of Iraq.
Vietnam has confirmed outbreak of a new coronavirus variant which is more contagious than the one detected in the UK.

The country's health minister said on Tuesday that the new COVID-19 outbreak has infected 276 people and spread to 10 provinces and cities.

Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, six days since the virus emerged in the northern province of Hai Duong, the cluster there was under control. Containing the spread in the capital, Hanoi where 20 new cases have been detected would take longer, he added.

According to Reuters, Long told in a cabinet meeting "Gene sequencing showed that 12 of 276 newly detected patients are positive with the UK variant, although the source of this outbreak remains unknown."

"We need to scrupulously follow mask-wearing regulations," he advised.

"Hanoi has to increase measures to contain the virus. The health ministry will support the city to upgrade testing capacity to 40,000 tests per day," Long said.

Vietnam approved a vaccine from AstraZeneca PLC on Saturday after Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the country must have one in the first quarter.

The government had previously said it was in talks to procure 30 million doses of the vaccine. State media reported the first batch of 50,000 doses would arrive by March, with the rest delivered by June.

Vietnam reported one new coronavirus case on Tuesday. Officials have said they will try to contain the outbreak by Feb 6.

Also read: Global vaccination drive surge; Chinese syringe makers under immense pressure
WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden told Republican senators during a two-hour meeting Monday night he's unwilling to settle on an insufficient coronavirus aid package after they pitched their slimmed down $618 billion proposal that's a fraction of the $1.9 trillion he is seeking.

FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2021 file photo, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, speaks to members of the media outside a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Portman said Monday, Jan. 25 that he won't seek reelection and plans to end a career in federal government spanning more than three decades. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden told Republican senators during a two-hour meeting Monday night he's unwilling to settle on an insufficient coronavirus aid package after they pitched their slimmed down $618 billion proposal that's a fraction of the $1.9 trillion he is seeking.

No compromise was reached in the lengthy session, Biden's first with lawmakers at the White House, and Democrats in Congress pushed ahead with groundwork for approving his COVID relief plan with or without Republican votes. Despite the Republican group's appeal for bipartisanship, as part of Biden's efforts to unify the country, the president made it clear he won't delay aid in hopes of winning GOP support.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that while there were areas of agreement, "the president also reiterated his view that Congress must respond boldly and urgently, and noted many areas which the Republican senators proposal does not address.

In this Jan. 27, 2021, photo, President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Bidens $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package presents a first political test. More than a sweeping rescue plan, it's a test of the strength of his new administration, of Democratic control of Congress and of the role of Republicans in a post-Trump political landscape. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

She said, He will not slow down work on this urgent crisis response, and will not settle for a package that fails to meet the moment.

The two sides are far apart, with the Republican group of 10 senators focused primarily on the health care crisis and smaller $1,000 direct aid to Americans, and Biden leading Democrats toward a more sweeping rescue package, three times the size, to shore up households, local governments and a partly shuttered economy.

On a fast track, the goal is to have COVID relief approved by March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid expires, testing the ability of the new administration and Congress to deliver, with political risks for all sides from failure.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called the meeting a frank and very useful conversation, noting that the president also filled in some details on his proposal.

Snow falls on the North Lawn of the White House, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

All of us are concerned about struggling families, teetering small businesses and an overwhelmed health care system, said Collins, flanked by other senators outside the White House.

Republicans are tapping into bipartisan urgency to improve the nation's vaccine distribution and vastly expand virus testing with $160 billion in aid. That is similar to what Biden has proposed. But from there, the two plans drastically diverge.

The GOP's $1,000 direct payments would go to fewer households than the $1,400 Biden has proposed, and the Republicans offer only a fraction of what he wants to reopen schools.

They also would give nothing to states, money that Democrats argue is just as important, with $350 billion in Biden's plan to keep police, fire and other workers on the job.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Gone are Democratic priorities such as a gradual lifting of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Wary Democrats pushed ahead at the Capitol, unwilling to take too much time in courting GOP support that may not materialize or in delivering too meagre a package that they believe doesn't address the scope of the nation's health crisis and economic problems.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that history is filled with the costs of small thinking.

House and Senate Democrats released a separate budget resolution Monday a step toward approving Bidens package with a reconciliation process that wouldn't depend on Republican support for passage.

President Joe Biden meets Republican lawmakers to discuss a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, in Washington. From left, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The cost of inaction is high and growing, and the time for decisive action is now," Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

The accelerating talks came as the Congressional Budget Office delivered mixed economic forecasts Monday with robust growth expected at a 4.5% annual rate but employment rates not to return to pre-pandemic levels for several years.

The overture from the coalition of 10 GOP senators, mostly centrists, was an attempt to show that at least some in the Republican ranks want to work with Bidens new administration, rather than simply operating as the opposition in the minority in Congress.

Asked if Biden had shown a willingness to reduce his $1.9 trillion top line, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, said, He didnt say that, nor did we say were willing to come up from the GOP plan. He said it's too early to say if a deal can be reached.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, speaks after meeting President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

But in echoes of the 2009 financial crisis, Democrats warn against too small a package as they believe happened during the Obama administration's attempt to pull the nation toward recovery.

Psaki said earlier Monday there is obviously a big gap between the $1.9 trillion package Biden has proposed and the $618 billion counteroffer.

An invitation to the GOP senators to meet with Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris at the White House came hours after the lawmakers sent Biden a letter on Sunday urging him to negotiate rather than try to ram through his relief package solely on Democratic votes.

The cornerstone of the GOP plan is $160 billion for the health care response  vaccine distribution, a massive expansion of testing, protective gear and funds for rural hospitals, according to a draft.

It also includes $20 billion to reopen schools compared to $170 billion in Biden's plan. The Republicans offer $40 billion for Paycheck Protection Program business aid.

Under the GOP proposal, $1,000 direct payments would go to individuals earning up to $40,000 a year, or $80,000 for couples. The proposal would begin to phase out the benefit after that, with no payments for individuals earning more than $50,000, or $100,000 for couples. Thats less than Bidens proposal of $1,400 direct payments at higher incomes levels, up to $300,000 for some households.

The meeting, though private, was Biden's most public involvement in the negotiations.

Winning the support of 10 Republicans would be significant for Biden, potentially giving him the votes needed in the 50-50 Senate where Harris is the tie-breaker. Or he can push it through the budget reconciliation process, which would allow the bill to pass with a 51-vote majority in the Senate, rather than the 60 votes typically needed to advance legislation.

The White House remains committed to exploring avenues for bipartisanship even as it prepares for Democrats to move alone on a COVID relief bill, according to a senior administration official granted anonymity to discuss the private thinking.

At the same time, the White House may be willing to adjust its ask, perhaps shifting some less virus-oriented aspects into a package that is set to go next before Congress, the official said.

Biden himself has been on the phone to some of the Republicans, the official said.

Besides Collins and Cassidy, the GOP senators meeting with Biden were Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Todd Young of Indiana, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Rob Portman of Ohio, Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota joined by phone.

Biden has leaned on his resume of decades in the Senate and as vice-president to bring the parties together, but less than two weeks into his presidency he has shown frustration with the pace of negotiations as applications for jobless benefits remain stubbornly high and the COVID death toll nears 450,000 Americans.

Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Alexandra Jaffe, Darlene Superville and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, the Presiding Archbishop and General Overseer of the Action Chapel International Ministry, has urged Christians to zealously protect and guard their relationship with God.



He noted that Satan was trying to disengage or disconnect Christians from God; saying when that happens we are in trouble.



Archbishop Duncan-Williams gave the advice in his sermon on Sunday at the Prayer Cathedral of the Action Chapel International in Accra.



Drawing lessons from life of Job in the Bible, the Archbishop said the Devil wasnt interested in Jobs children; declaring that his target was neither Jobs children nor Jobs riches or money.



Archbishop Duncan-Williams said what the Devil wanted was Jobs relationship with God.



If you look at the scriptures carefully, when he destroyed Jobs children, wiped them all out, he didnt stop there, so he went for all his wealth. He wasnt satisfied. He went for his health, he didnt stop there. Then he went for the final target, his wife.



And said to the wife, tell him to curse God and die. Then as soon as she said that, Job got a revelation and said; woman you talk like one of those silly women. I know that my redeemer liveth, the Archbishop stated.



In all of the things we are going through, and in all of the things that confronts us, in these difficult times of history of humanity; for you and I as believers, what Satan is interested in most is our relationship God.



Archbishop Duncan-Williams noted that Satan was not interested in the believers health, children, marriage or money; adding that he is interested in your relationship with God, because he knows if he can break your relationship with God, you have nothing else; you are finished.



This, he said, was because whether it was health or money, children or whatever people had, but not everybody had a relationship with God.



Archbishop Duncan-Williams said the Devil knows that if the believers relationship with God was intact, the believer could bounce back into glory.



He (the Devil) knows that with your relationship with God intact, you can bounce back, because Job bounced back and had twice as much as he had before; everything doubled because of his relationship with God, Archbishop Duncan-Williams said.



If there is anything else that you must guard and protect; it is your relationship with God. Because it doesnt matter what comes your way, as long as your relationship with God is intact, you will surely bounce back. Your latter would be greater than your past. Your come back would be greater than your setbacks. Protect and guard your relationship with God.



Speaking on the topic Being Courageous, the Archbishop said courage was the ability to confront fear and danger.



Quoting from the Bible, Archbishop Duncan-Williams said Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.



He said if there had ever been a time in the history of humanity where courage was needed than ever before, it was now; explaining that it was because the days were evil.



It (The Bible) didnt say be strong in your mind, in your emotions, in your logic, in your philosophies or in your arguments. It said be strong in him, for it is in him that we move and have our beings.



He said Christians needed to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might; declaring that let not anything come in between us and our relationship with God, because if we have ever needed him it is now.



He said Christians needed to be strong in the Lord because they live in evil times.



Archbishop Duncan-Williams, who urged Christians not to put their hope and confidence in the things of the world, also appealed to them to be vigilant and sober, because their advisory, the Devil, as a roaring lion was walking about seeking whom he might devour.

Source: GNA









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Featured Video
Girchi calls for Parliament to refuse suspension of 51 opposition seats

By Veronika Malinboym

On February 1, three MPs of the opposition Girchi party  Iago Khvichia, Aleksandre Rakviashvili, and Vakhtang Megreishvili announced that in case the Georgian Parliament satisfies the request of 51 opposition MPs and suspends their seats tomorrow, they will too suspend their own seats. The Girchi MPs also addressed the ruling Georgian Dream party to not support the decision of the opposition MPs to suspend their seats.Khvichia, Rakviashvili, and Megreishvili added that the negotiations were carried out with the help of the countrys dip corps, and neither the ruling party nor the opposition has publically expressed that desire to quit the negotiations. Thus, none of the sides can be blamed for jeopardizing negotiations, however, Georgian Dream as a ruling party is responsible for the conduct of the controversial October 2020 elections, which is why it is also responsible for deescalating the ongoing political parties.We believe that the suspension of the seats of our colleagues will both undermine the negotiations, worsen the crisis, and will, possibly, make the crisis irreversible. Thus, we call upon our colleagues from the Georgian Dream party to show that they are ready to cooperate and work together. Do not support the suspension of the mandates. Postpone this decision and give some more time for the members of the Parliament and their voters to realize the importance of reaching an agreement and the risks associated with the failure to do so.If despite our request, the Parliament votes in favor of the suspension of the mandates, we will treat it as a conscious decision of the ruling Georgian Dream party to quit the negotiations with the opposition bloc, and all of the MPs of the Girchi party will also suspend their respective seats, the party has announced.MPs of the 6 opposition parties have already requested the suspension of their seats in the Parliament in defiance of the results of the Parliamentary Elections that took place last year. As of right now, only 4 out of 60 opposition MPs have entered the Parliament.Girchi won four seats in the 10th convocation of the Georgian Parliament. One of the co-founders of the party, Zurab Japaridze quit Girchi shortly after the election results were announced and created a Girchi party of his own. On February 2, the Parliament will hold a vote on whether or not to satisfy the request for the suspension of mandates submitted by the opposition parties last year.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WLFI) - A bill at the statehouse is aiming to help small businesses by providing them with the opportunity for grant money. House Bill 1004 would establish the Hoosier Hospitality Small Business Restart Grant Program. The bill would allow small businesses that have seen a 30 percent decrease in revenue to qualify for up to $50,000 in grant assistance. Local State Representative Sharon Negele co-authored the bill. She says this bill is targeted to help small businesses that are struggling to get by.

"It is a may prevision on assisting the hospitality industry, said State Representative Sharon Negele a Republican for District 13. It is for small businesses with 100 or fewer employees so it is targeted towards the small business owner.

Companies that apply for the grant must be Hoosier owned, and the hospitality industry will be most preferred. The 30 million dollar grant program would be an appropriation from the general fund.

The Indiana Office of Tourism Development reports the tourism industry employs more than 150,000 and contributes roughly $9.3 billion to Indiana's economy. Negele said a recent National Federation of Independent Business survey revealed small-business owners are worried about their business viability in 2021. The bill passed in the House of Representatives and it's now on its way to the senate. To read the bill click here.
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for a three-day visit, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and held talks. Daniel Carmon, Israel Envoy to India, said the visit has been tremendous and warm and it is a big development.

Here are the live updates-

# Sure rest of my stay would be equally exciting. Let me take this opportunity to invite you and your family to India: PM Modi to PM Netanyahu-ANI

# We also discussed the situation in West Asia and the wider region. It is Indias hope that peace, dialogue and restraint will prevail: PM-PMO

# Prime Minister Netanyahu and I agreed to do much more together to protect our strategic interests: PM Modi-PMO

# We regard thriving two-way trade and investment flows as the bed-rock of a strong partnership: PM-PMO

# Our goal is to build a relationship that reflects our shared priorities and draws on enduring bonds between our peoples: PM Modi-PMO

# Prime Minister Netanyahu and I have had productive discussions covering an extensive menu of issues: PM Narendra Modi-PMO

# Our belief in democratic values and economic progress has been a shared pursuit: PM Modi-ANI

# Israel is among the leading nations in the field of innovation, water and agriculture: PM Modi-ANI

# We are being challenged by forces of terror. We have agreed to cooperate in this area: PM Netanyahu-ANI

# India-Israel sign seven agreements including MoU for water conservation in India,Plan of cooperation regarding cooperation in Atomic Clocks-ANI

# This is a deeply moving moment for me. We are making history: PM Netanyahu -ANI

# This is a marriage made in heaven but we are implementing it here on earth: PM Netanyahu-ANI

# India-Israel ink agreement on cleaning of River Ganga

# Agreement signed between both nations in space sector, agriculture

Earlier the Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and discussed ways to strengthen bilateral ties and how Israels cutting-edge technology could help the Make in India initiative.

Describing Israel as a real friend, Modi recalled Rivlins visit to India in November last year.

Hailing the ties between the two nations, Modi said, ...today it is I to I and I for I. When I say I for I, I dont mean the popular saying but what I mean is India with Israel, India for Israel.

I for I. Which means India for Israel and Israel for India: PM Modi pic.twitter.com/6siS2KaeBc  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2017

Modi, who arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday for a three-day visit, met Rivlin at his residence here.

The President of Israel welcomed me so warmly, he broke protocol. This is a mark of respect for the people of India, Modi tweeted.

It is a privilege to meet President Rivlin again on Wednesday. I fondly recall his visit to India last November when he charmed us with his affable manner and desire to do more with India, Modi wrote in the guest book at the Presidents residence.

President Rivlin is admired in India for his unstinting belief and common good of mankind, I thank him for his friendship and his warm hospitality, wrote Modi, who is the first India prime minister to visit Israel.

Modi said during his visit to India, Rivlin started a phrase Make with India and I feel since my arrival yesterday that has been echoed by many people and I think what you started has now percolated to all levels.

Rivlin on his part described Modi as one of the greatest leaders in the world.

We have a lot in common and doing a lot in common. We understood very well about your thought about the need to help partners who will Make in India, Rivlin said.

...we are doing a lot in order to fulfill your ideas about Make in India, the Israeli President said.

We only suggested some projects that may be we can do with India and I know that you have accepted that and appreciated that very much, he said.

Also Read | Modis Israel tour: PM checks-in suite of worlds safest hotel capable of resisting bomb explosion, chemical attack

Rivlin said there was a scope for cooperation between universities and industries of India and Israel.

The....people in Israel are trying to find ways to invest in India and to make mutual projects together, he said.

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Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a Spokesperson for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the 2020 Presidential Election Petition trial on Tuesday questioned the reasons behind Mr Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo not been used as witnessby the petitioner, John Dramani Mahama.



He said Mr Mettle-Nunoo should have mounted the witness box, take the oath and tell the court that he spoke with Mrs Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission and was instructed to leave the EC Strong room.



Earlier, Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte, the Second witness of the Petitioner, former President John Dramani Mahama, in a cross-examination told the Supreme Court that Mrs Mensa instructed him and Mettle-Nunoo to convey a message to the petitioner and then declared the results on their absence.



Mr Nkrumah said lawyers for the Respondent believe that if Mettle-Nunoo had mounted the witness box, the court would have caught him for perjury, because he could not take an oath and tell untruth.



According Mr Nkrumah this is the reason why Petitioner have resorted to use Dr Kpessa-Whyte, who now admits that he never spoke to the Chairperson and yet she was a subject to an instruction, but the one who heard the instruction was available and alive, but refuses to mount the witness box.



He said three key issues have been settled in their opinion which were the fallacy that was initially expressed and amplified through Dr Kpessa-Whyte that the Chairperson of the EC instructed them.



We are beginning to see clearly that, that fallacy at best is something that could not stand cross-examination, he said.



He said it was not just the interchange of words like instruction, but what we want the media to take particular notice of are that there is nowhere in the witness statement that instruction was used but rather it was asked that was used.



He said now in the witness box and under oath, the witness seeks to amend that and to escalate the claim that they were instructed and that was why the lead Counsel, Mr Akoto Ampaw for President Nana Akufo-Addo (Second Respondent) did not take too much time in his cross-examination.



He said they were clear in their minds that the fallacy has been settled and the court would take juridical notice, and that it could not even be true that the Chairperson of the EC would instruct a representative of a Candidate and they would obey.



He said they think that it was becoming very clear that these matters were settled and connected to the Principal issue; did anyone get more than 50 per cent, was the declaration in breach of article 63 (3), this key questions would now be answered.



Mr Nkrumah said another matter that sought attention was the FORM 13, there was a claim to suggest that, the document that was shown to the witness was done through the backdoor and was not FORM 13.



The Spokesperson said the claim that the witness has been harassed by the Bench (Judges) was a tactics being used by the lawyers for the Petitioner to poison the minds of Ghanaian against the bench, because they could begin to see through the questions and answers that they were giving gaps in their case.



The Bench has the right to ask questions for clarity and we believe that when our witnesses get to the box, they will also be ask questions and there is nothing wrong with that, he added.



Meanwhile, lawyers of the Petitioner has filed a motion at the Supreme Court seeking an order to inspect documents from the Electoral Commission.



The motion on notice was expected to be moved Tuesday, concerns some original documents regarding Presidential Results Collation Forms.



The six point-motion is asking for the originals of all Constituency Presidential Election Results Collation Forms and Summary Sheets of all constituencies in Ghana.

Source: GNA









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London, Feb 2 : The UK has launched urgent testing for the coronavirus variant initially detected in South Africa amid concerns over community transmission of the strain.

The testing will be carried out across eight areas in England, including Surrey, London and Kent, where around 80,000 people reside, Xinhua news agency reported, Those over 16 years old are asked to take tests whether they have symptoms or not, according to a BBC report.

So far, a total of 105 cases of the variant, called B.1.351, have been identified in Britain.

The latest development came after the detection of 11 cases of the variant which could not be directly traced back to people who had travelled to South Africa, prompting fears that there might be a community transmission.

At a virtual Downing Street news conference on Monday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "It is vital that we do all we can to stop transmission of this variant and I strongly urge everyone in these areas to get tested, whether you have symptoms or not.

"The best way to stop the spread of the virus, including new variants, is to stay at home and follow the restrictions in place.

"Until more people are vaccinated this is the only way we will control the spread of the virus." It is "absolutely vital" that people in these eight areas of England minimise all social contact, he noted.

The emergence of the new variant was a "stark reminder the fight against this virus is not over yet" and that now ws "no time to let things slip", the Health Secretary added.

Meanwhile, there was still no evidence that the South African variant causes more serious illness, like the B.1.1.7 strain which was originally detected late last year in Britain.

As of Tuesday morning, the UK's overall coronavirus caseload has increased to 3,846,851, the fourth highest in the world after the US, India and Brazil.

The death toll stood at 106,774, the fifth largest following the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  The 18th Wing was warned of the fire risk in a warehouse on Kadena Air Base two weeks before a blaze gutted the structure on June 22, according to an Air Force investigation.

The fire occurred as a result of improperly stored chemicals, according to the report released last week by the Air Force Ground Investigation Board.

Investigators traced the fire's origin to the southeast corner of building 3150, a hazardous materials warehouse of the 18th Logistics Readiness Squadron, according to the report. The report states that calcium hypochlorite improperly stored there at least 20 months caused the fire.

The 18th Wing was forewarned of the hazard when the base fire department responded to the warehouse two weeks before the fire to extinguish two smoking trash bags containing improperly stored calcium hypochlorite, according to the report, which was posted online on the Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps website.

"Leadership will use the results to make necessary decisions if any disciplinary actions or procedural changes are required," the wing wrote Friday in an email to Stars and Stripes. "The commanders received a copy of the report for their review and determination on appropriate individual accountability."

Calcium hypochlorite, used to treat water or as a bleaching powder, has strong oxidizing potential and can become unstable in high heat and humidity. While the chemical is not combustible, the heat it produces can ignite other materials and intensify a resulting fire, the board report said.

The high heat and humidity in the warehouse "did not meet the recommended guidance for safely storing" calcium hypochlorite, the report said.

"Over several months, the boxes and plastic packaging deteriorated to the point where boxes on the pallets toppled over, packages ruptured, and loose [calcium hypochlorite] granules accumulated on the [warehouse] floor," the report said.

The fire caused $2.6 million in damage and sent 115 U.S. military and civilian personnel to the hospital for smoke related injuries, according to the report. Five Japanese base workers also submitted injury reports to the Okinawa Defense Bureau, which represents Japan's Defense Ministry on the island.

The wing, in its statement Friday, said the board report was not meant to determine a cause of the accident but to gather and preserve facts surrounding it for "litigation, claims, disciplinary actions, administrative proceedings and for other purposes."

The fire began at 8:52 a.m. as five airmen from the 18th Civil Engineer Squadron Readiness and Emergency Management Flight repackaged calcium hypochlorite into plastic and metal barrels, the report said.

The materials were slated for disposal at a hazardous waste disposal facility.

One of the airmen felt heat radiating from a pallet of calcium hypochlorite about 90 minutes into their work, the report said. Within minutes, they saw smoke and flames and evacuated the building.

Fire crews arrived within two minutes and applied water to the fire, according to the report. A large plume of smoke led to evacuations of buildings covering nearly two square miles on base for about four hours. An airfield was also temporarily shut down for just under two hours, and three aircraft were diverted.

One airman was hospitalized overnight but was released the next day with no lasting injury, the report said.

Calcium hypochlorite can release toxic chlorine gases when heated but did not in traceable amounts in this case, the report said, citing test kit sampling by base bioenvironmental teams.

The fire burned for about 4  hours, destroying the warehouse and much of its contents, which included 785 boxes, or 33,859 pounds, of calcium hypochlorite, the report states.

No personnel or property outside of Kadena Air Base suffered damage, according to the wing.

Afterward, the wing ordered inspections of all hazardous material storage areas on the base and additional fire training with an emphasis on hazardous material storage, according to the statement Friday.

"Collectively, these efforts have postured the 18th Wing to drastically reduce the potential for another hazardous material-related fire at Kadena Air Base and to be better prepared and equipped to manage such an incident if it were to occur again," the statement said.

The Air Force by Nov. 1 removed and disposed of all remaining bulk calcium hypochlorite in Japan in accordance with governing standards, the wing said.

The investigation did not probe potential long-term health issues for anyone exposed during the fire, according to a Pacific Air Forces statement Jan. 25.

"Anyone who feels ill effects is encouraged to contact their supervisor or healthcare provider for appropriate care," the statement said.
Emirates Airline, one of the 777Xs initial customers, has signaled that it intends to swap another chunk of its 115 orders for Dreamliners, which are smaller. The Dubai-based carrier may have more leverage to do so if its contracts have provisions  standard in the industry  that allow customers to bolt if an airplanes delivery is more than a year late.
BRUSSELS - EU foreign policy spokesperson Peter Stano said Tuesday that Kosovo's decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem is "regrettable" and "moves Kosovo away from the EU position on the question of Jerusalem's status".



Stano's comments came regarding recent developments on the normalisation of relations between Israel and Kosovo.



"All embassies of EU member states and European delegations are in Tel Aviv," Stano said, highlighting that Brussels' position on the question "has not changed".



Stano said the EU has always supported a two-state solution with Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Palestine, and "a final solution on Jerusalem's status as the future capital of both states must be found through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians".



"Kosovo has indicated EU integration as its strategic priority and we expect it will act consistently," he said.
"Mindlessness and moral idiocy are not characteristically human attributes; they are symptoms of herd-poisoning" Aldous Huxley

Has there ever been a situation throughout all of American history where the Democrat party is so terrified of one man and his supporters that they set out to destroy him unrelentingly from the moment he won an election, throughout his four-year term in office, and after he has left office? No. Never. But leftists are so frightened of Donald Trump that they mean to literally erase evidence of his existence.

In short, the left has mounted a wholesale campaign to destroy him and to show his supporters they had better forget about him and never again support such a candidate, an outsider.

But that's not going to happen; leftists are foolish to the core of their beings. Because they have no sense of loyalty to anyone, they do not recognize loyalty in others.

They have impeached Trump twice now without a shred of evidence he did anything wrong. The first time, it was likely to cover up the Biden family's corruption and crimes re: Ukraine. The second time, a "snap" impeachment, was to absurdly blame him for the breach of the Capitol building on January 6th. That event was likely planned by anti-Trump activists with a few supporters who got mixed up with them. How to explain the insufficient deployment of Capitol Police on the scene?

Was that possibly part of the plan by a few anti-Trumpers in Congress? The chief of the Capitol police had begged numerous times for additional manpower to help with the massive crowd that would be attending. He was repeatedly told no. How does that make any sense?

Perhaps the Democrats wanted that feeble display of "insurrection" to happen. It set up their plan to turn D.C. into a military compound. The troops have been treated horribly, of course; the left loathes our soldiers.

This is all for show. Leftists pretend to be deathly afraid of Trump and his supporters, while it was their Antifa and BLM activists whose rioting did billions of dollars of damage over the summer with their approval and encouragement.

Now that he has been installed as president, Joe Biden has become a dictator overnight. He and his handlers have no intention of working toward unity. They intend to complete the transformation of the nation into a Marxist regime begun by Obama in which they, our self-appointed elites, rule with an iron hand over the rest of us.

They do not care one bit about the working- and middle-class Americans. How else to explain Biden putting tens of thousands of skilled men and women out of work with the stroke of his pen while at the same time opening the borders to all comers from around the world?

Trump did more for blacks, Latinos, and women than any previous president. Biden has cast them aside for the benefit of refugees from other countries. How can such an obviously destructive policy be championed by so many on the left? Could it be for the status they think they derive by demonstrating the correct beliefs? That would explain their zeal for canceling anyone who dabbles in wrongthink.

They feel no compunction about censoring the expression of any and all opinions they do not like. Conservatives are being censored everywhere. People are losing their jobs just for embracing conservative principles.

A bunch of former Bush administration groupies have announced they are leaving the party because of Trump! Do they actually think anyone cares? Good riddance. Trump has done conservatives an enormous favor by exposing all the fake Republicans. These people only know and delight in their superior status as members of the swamp. They care nothing about the American people, nor do they adhere to conservative values. They know and fight for only one thing: the preservation of their own power and position. They are amoral; Republicans will not miss them.

Gerard Vanderleun at American Digest reminds us of Aldous Huxley's prescient words from Brave New World Revisited in 1958.

There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so the people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing, enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.

It should be clear to every Constitution-loving American that this is exactly where we find ourselves today. Huxley wrote then that dictators of the future will rule their subjects with a regimented "corps of highly trained social engineers" and that "the twenty-first century will be the era of World Controllers." Read the whole thing. Both men of the left then, Huxley was as prophetic as Orwell. Joe Biden and the cabal that installed him in the Oval Office have followed Huxley's prescriptions to a tee. Here's a another fitting quote: "Opponents should never be argued with; they should be attacked, shouted down, or, if they become too much of a nuisance, liquidated." Sound familiar? It is the core of the left's playbook. Look whom they charge with crimes and who skates.

Obviously, Biden is a faux president, a front man for the Obama coterie. While the Democrats cheated their way into the White House and think they've fooled us, the opposite is true. Many of those who just lost their jobs and may have voted for Biden now know they were tricked, and they did not do their homework. Perhaps they won't make that mistake again. Trump awakened a sleeping giant. Old Joe and his overseers may have just awakened those who were still asleep at the wheel. Whether or not Nikita Khrushchev actually said this possibly apocryphal statement, like Huxley's predictions, it appears to have come true:

You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept communism outright, but we'll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you'll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won't have to fight you. We'll so weaken your economy until you'll fall like overripe fruit into our hands.

It appears now that Khrushchev and Huxley were visionaries. Now that the left has us where it's long wanted us, it is no wonder leftists fear Trump as vampires fear sunlight. They are scared to death of him and whom he represents, the American people.

Graphic credit: Pxhere (cropped), public domain.
Opinion Will China Provide Cover for Myanmars Coup Makers?

Myanmar military chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing (left) and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Naypyitaw on January 12. / Myanmar Military Information Team

The Myanmar militarys seizure of power from the elected civilian government brought swift condemnation from Washington and other Western capitals, with US President Joe Biden threatening to reimpose sanctions and calling for a concerted international response to push the generals into relinquishing power.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Bidens remark that the US was taking note of how other countries respond to the military takeover was a message to all countries in the region.

Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proposed that Washington and other countries should impose strict economic sanctions, as well as other measures against Myanmars army and the military leadership if they did not free the countrys elected leaders and remove themselves from government.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who had close ties with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, called the arrests horrifying and said the US needed to impose costs on those behind the coup. Its clear that many in Washington want the generals to feel the heat.

In stark contrast, Thai Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwonwho himself came to power in Thailands 2014 military coupsaid only that Myanmars military takeover was a domestic issue.

The response from governments in the region has been feeble; the Singapore Foreign Ministrys expression of grave concern is about the strongest language we have seen. In the Philippines, Harry Roque, a spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes office, said simply, We expect that at the soonest possible time things will go back to normal, though the situation in Myanmar is an internal matter we wont interfere with.

Indonesias Foreign Ministry said it was concerned over the political situation in Myanmar, and urged self-restraint and dialogue in order to find solutions and avoid exacerbating the situation.

Neighboring India, the worlds largest democracy, echoed the expressions of deep concern and voiced support for Myanmars process of democratic transition. We believe that the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld. We are monitoring the situation closely, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Japan, Myanmars largest donor and one of its top investors, has also been soft on the new regime so far.

Calling for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and others detained in Myanmar, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said, The Japanese government has up to now strongly supported the democratic process in Myanmar, and opposes any reversal of that process.

He added, We strongly call on the military government to restore democracy as soon as possible.

Japan recently played a constructive role in negotiating ceasefire talks between the military and the Arakan Army in Rakhine State. Before the coup, Japans special envoy Yohei Sasakawa and Yangon-based ambassador Ichiro Maruyama also made several attempts to unlock the political stalemate between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the military leaders.

A senior Myanmar military officer said the top brass are keenly aware of the international criticism, and of the response from key allies including China, Japan and India, as well as from some Myanmar-friendly governments in the region. The officer, who is now based in Naypyitaw and in his late 50s, insisted that Mondays takeover is not a total coup, as described in the media. But his comment was unconvincing and, frankly, bizarre. Myanmars citizens have seen armored vehicles and troops deployed on the streets, seizing the Presidential Palace and detaining senior government leaders. What is this if not a total coup?

He said the new regime would reach out to governments around the region, as well as to Western countries, to explain the situation. For the time being, however, conditions remain tense inside Myanmar and the new regime has ordered all of the ruling partys offices across Myanmar to be closed. The West will stick to its position and insist that the new junta hand power back to the government.

China concerned, but 

It is understood that military leaders have explained their move to Beijing and kept the leadership there updated on the unfolding situation. Just three weeks before the coup, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar, where he separately held high-level talks with President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The government touted Wangs visit, saying he was the first foreign minister to visit Myanmar after the countrys general election.

Interestingly, in his meeting with future coup maker Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the Chinese minister was stunned to learn of the militarys findingsreportedly based on its examination of voter lists from the Nov. 8 general electionof irregularities and inaccuracies with the potential to allow people to vote more than once, and voting malpractice. The Chinese left Naypyitaw with the impression that the military and the government were headed for a political confrontation.

Now, as expected, China has taken a completely different approach to the coup in Myanmar than have Western governments.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said China had taken note of the situation in Myanmar was seeking further information.

China is a friendly neighbor of Myanmar, and we hope all parties in Myanmar can properly handle differences under the constitutional and legal framework and safeguard political and social stability, Wang said.

A day after the coup, Global Times, Beijings official mouthpiece, published an editorial headlined Democracy in Myanmar faces uncertain future.

The actions taken by Myanmars military cannot break the current dilemma the country is facing. Political struggles are expected to intensify in a short period of time, and Myanmar is bound to face pressure from the international community. Suu Kyi has already urged Myanmar people to protest. Countries including the US have demanded the military release the detained political leaders. Uncertainties are looming over Myanmar, the piece reads.

In the same publication, another article headlined China hopes for a stable, peaceful Myanmar through domestic negotiations, not external interference amounted to a shocking apologia for the coup makers in Myanmar.

The paper said, The militarys actions, therefore, can be viewed as an adjustment facing Myanmars imbalance[d] power structure, citing unnamed experts in China.

The paper went on to say that Myanmar should be wary of possible external interference. Then it said the aim of US policy on Myanmar was to put pressure on China, but did not say how or why.

The paper also quoted Yin Yihang, a scholar from the Taihe Institute, a Beijing-based think tank founded in 2013, as saying that although the US had limited official exchanges with Myanmar during the Trump administration, US civil rights groups have maintained a presence in northern Myanmar, radicalizing local people, suggesting an increased US influence on Myanmars northern border with China.

Fan Hongwei, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University, told the paper, The situation in Myanmar is likely to be an opportunity for the Biden administration, which has multiple members from Team Obama, to repair relations with Myanmar, to make Myanmar problematic and use Myanmar to put pressure on China. It predicted that the US would impose sanctions on Myanmar, and added that military pressure cannot be ruled out. Military pressure? This definitely shows a degree of unease on Chinas part over the political disruption in Myanmar and potential US involvement.

Yin of the Taihe Institute said, As per the current situation, the US may also adopt a color revolution approach to Myanmar. The scholar did not elaborate further, however.

Added Fan: Myanmar is a country that does not welcome interference by big powers. China has maintained good relations with both the current government and the military, so it still hopes that the two sides can negotiate a compromise to maintain peace and stability.

The unintended irony of Fans comment is amusing. China is one of the big powers that is constantly interfering in Myanmars internal affairs.

China, US to contest in Myanmar

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Thai political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, told The Irrawaddy, Myanmars military coup is an early test for the Biden administration. It may well err on the side of not overreacting.

Its early days but the Biden team seems to have broadly taken lessons from the Obama era where they spent a lot of ammunition early and came up short in the end.

I think the US response under Biden will be more nuanced, he said.

In 2016, during Daw Aung San Suu Kyis official visit to Washington, the Obama administration lifted economic sanctions against top Myanmar generals and their croniesa decision that then-US President Barack Obama could not have taken without Daw Aung San Suu Kyis consent. In the past, Myanmars Nobel Peace Prize winner had long defended sanctions as a way to keep pressure on the powerful military.

Announcing the decision to lift sanctions, Obama said at the time, It is the right thing to do in order to ensure that the people of Burma see rewards from a new way of doing business and a new government.

Sitting next to Obama in the Oval Office, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said, We think that the time has now come to remove all the sanctions that hurt us economically, because our country is in a position to open up to those who are interested in taking part in our economic enterprises.

Now she and her leaders are under detention and the US and other Western governments are pondering what action to take.

Myanmar citizens and all democratic forces within the country and abroad, including NLD members, will ask the US and its allies to take tougher actions against the coup makers, bringing us full circle. Beijing will discourage efforts by the Biden administration to influence the political stalemate in Myanmar.

In July last year, a war of words broke out between the Chinese and US embassies in Myanmar; the tense exchange was reminiscent of the Cold War period.

Myanmar is committed to implementing Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure projects. It was the first country to welcome President Xi Jinping on an overseas visit in 2020, with the Chinese leader making his countrys southern neighbor the first item on his well-choreographed diplomatic calendar for the year. At the time, visiting Chinese officials confided that they respected Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her political stance. They also said that compared to the notoriously corrupt generals that ran the previous regime, the Chinese found the State Counselor pragmatic and believed she would keep her promises on Chinese-funded projects in Myanmar.

Nevertheless, Chinas projects in Myanmar are still on the drawing board and have yet to be implemented. This has created unease in Beijing.

As the US and other Western countries threaten to impose sanctions on Myanmars coup makers and their associates, Beijing ultimately doesnt mind who runs the government in Naypyitaw. As long as they protect Chinas geopolitical and business interests, China will back them.

We can therefore expect China to defend the coup makers, who have also expressed support for BRI projects in Myanmar.

In July last year, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing assured China that the armed forces would continue to guarantee the implementation of the BRI in the country, saying he believes it will support the peace process and national development.

The regime has appointed U Win Shein, a former finance minister, to its cabinet, in the same ministry. In addition, U Aung Naing Oo, former director general of the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) and subsequently director general of the Office of the Union Investment and Foreign Economic Relations under Daw Aung San Suu Kyis government, has been named minister for investment and foreign economic relations. The widely popular former army officer is known to be media savvy and a key architect of Myanmars economic reforms.

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is said to have anticipated the pressure; a high-ranking military officer said the new regime is prepared to weather incoming Western sanctions. But the new junta lacks legitimacy. Where are they going to seek support? The road to Beijing is clear. This is exactly how the former regime survived in the face of Western sanctions in decades gone by.

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Myanmar Military Appoints Ex-Generals, USDP Members to New Govt
Source: Reuters

A coup in Myanmar has left the military in control under a one-year state of emergency, while the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior politicians have been detained. Here's a look at what could be behind the military's actions.

WHY NOW?

Monday was supposed to be the first day of a new session of Parliament following November elections that Suu Kyi's party won in a landslide and that the military-backed party did poorly in. The military has claimed widespread irregularities on voter lists could have led to fraud in that vote, though the election commission said there was no evidence to support those claims. But the announcement on military-owned Myawaddy TV of the takeover cited the government's failure to act on the allegations as part of the reason for the move.

The military maintains its actions are legally justified, and the announcement cited an article in the constitution that allows the military to take over in times of emergency, though Suu Kyi's party's spokesman and many outsiders have said it's effectively a coup. Some experts expressed puzzlement that the military would move to upset the status quo in which the generals continue to hold tremendous power despite progress toward democracy in recent years.

But some noted the looming retirement of Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, who has been commander of the armed forces since 2011 and who was put in charge on Monday. There's internal military politics around that, which is very opaque, said Kim Jolliffe, a researcher on Myanmar civilian and military relations. This might be reflecting those dynamics and might be somewhat of a coup internally and his way of maintaining power within the military.

WHAT'S HAPPENING INSIDE MYANMAR?

Television signals were cut across the country, as was phone and internet access in Naypyitaw, the capital, while passenger flights were grounded. Phone service in other parts of the country was also reported down, though people were still able to use the internet in many areas.

Barbed wire road blocks were set up across Yangon, the largest city, and military units began to appear outside government buildings such as City Hall. Residents flocked to ATMs and food stalls, while some shops and homes removed the symbols of Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, that typically adorn the streets and walls of the city.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR SUU KYI?

Suu Kyi spent years under house arrest and received the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to bring democracy to Myanmar. But her reputation outside of the country soured after she went on the international stage to defend a crackdown on Rohingya Muslims a campaign the US and others have labeled genocide. Former US diplomat Bill Richardson questioned Suu Kyi's ability to lead given that defense.

Because of Suu Kyi's failure to promote democratic values as Myanmar's de facto leader, she should step aside and let other Myanmar democratic leaders take the reins with international backing and support, Richardson said in a statement.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Governments and international organisations condemned the takeover, saying it sets back the limited democratic reforms Myanmar has made.

This is an extremely crushing blow to efforts to present Myanmar as a democracy, said Linda Lakhdhir, a legal adviser at Human Rights Watch.

"Its creditability on the world stage has taken a massive hit. Watchdog groups fear a further crackdown on human rights defenders, journalists, and activists is coming. Even before the current military takeover critics of the military often faced legal action. The coup will also be a test for the international community, which had isolated Myanmar during the decades it was under strict military rule but then enthusiastically embraced it as it moved toward democracy in recent years.

In a statement condemning the military's actions, U.S. President Joe Biden threatened to impose new sanctions on Myanmar a possibility others have raised. Myanmar's military leaders must immediately free the democratic leaders of Myanmar and remove themselves from government, said Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If not, the United States and other countries should impose strict economic sanctions, as well as other measures against the military and its leaders, he said.
ISLAMABAD  Pakistans Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off death row and moved to a so-called government safe house.

Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years, will be under guard and will not be allowed to leave the safe house, but he will be able to have his wife and children visit him.

It is not complete freedom. It is a step toward freedom," said Sheikh's father, Ahmad Saeed Sheikh, who attended the hearing.

The Pakistan government has been scrambling to keep Sheikh in jail since a Supreme Court order last Thursday upheld his acquittal in the Wall Street Journal reporters death, triggering outrage by Pearls family and the U.S. administration.

In a final effort to overturn the acquittal, Pakistan's government as well as the Pearl family filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, asking it to review the decision to exonerate Sheikh of Pearl's murder. The family's lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi, however, said such a review had a slim chance of success because the same Supreme Court judges who ordered Sheikh's acquittal sit on the review panel.

The U.S. government has said that it would seek Sheikh's extradition if his acquittal is upheld. Sheikh has been indicted in the United States on Pearl's murder as well as in a 1994 kidnapping of an American citizen in Indian-ruled sector of the divided region of Kashmir. The American was eventually freed.

Sheikh was arrested by India after the 1994 kidnappings, but was among four terror suspects freed by India on Dec. 31, 1999, in exchange for the hostages on an Indian Airlines aircraft that was hijacked and taken from Nepal to then Taliban-controlled Afghan city of Kandahar.

The order sending Sheikh to a safe house would seem to be a concession to the federal government, as well as the government of southern Sindh province where Karachi is the capital. The Sindh government has refused successive orders to release Sheikh, even courting contempt charges from lower courts.

Sheikh's lawyer, Mehmood A. Sheikh, told The Associated Press that the order to send his client to the safe house was given to allow the Sindh government time to argue against his release under Pakistan's anti-terrorism law, in connection to Sheikh's affiliation with terrorist organizations .

They have never argued or charged them with belonging to a terrorist organization, said the lawyer. He said the next court hearing about his client's continued detention would not be for another two weeks. The lawyer and Sheikh are not related.

In the government-run safe house, Sheikh will be under a 24-hour guard  often by military personnel  and will not be allowed to leave the house. Locations of such safe houses are usually kept secret; Pakistan's security establishment has several such facilities across the country.

Pearl disappeared on Jan. 23, 2002, in the port city of Karachi where he was investigating links between Pakistani militant groups and Richard C. Reid, dubbed the shoe bomber after his attempt to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes. Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the port city of Karachi, during which he was kidnapped.

Pearls body was discovered in a shallow grave soon after a video of his beheading was delivered to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi.

The Pentagon in 2007 released a transcript in which Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, said he had killed Pearl.

I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl, the transcript quoted Mohammed as saying. Mohammad first disclosed his role while he was held in CIA custody and subjected to waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other forms of torture. He remains in the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay and has never been charged with the journalists death.

Sheikh had long denied any involvement in Pearls death, but Pakistan's Supreme Court last month heard that he acknowledged writing a letter in 2019 admitting a minor role  raising hopes for some that he might remain behind bars.

In a series of tweets over the weekend, Pearl's family urged followers to call your lawmakers in Pakistan, in the U.S., the world to support Danny's parents, to keep Sheikh behind bars.

Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer, said the original murder trial back in 2002 charged all four as one, which complicated the case and allowed the court to free all if there was doubt about the guilt of even one of the suspects. Siddiqi said at the time the prosecutor was under considerable pressure and threats from militants forced the trial to eventually be held within the prison grounds for safety reasons.

Though the U.S. has said it's ready to prosecute Sheikh, there are hurdles to his extradition. Pakistan, like the U.S., has a double jeopardy rule that prevents a person from being tried for the same offense twice. The U.S. also does not have an extradition treaty with Pakistan, although Islamabad has in the past bypassed legalities to send suspects to the U.S., including Mohammad, the alleged 9/11 mastermind.

Last weeks ruling that exonerated Sheikh also exonerated another three men accused in Pearls murder who had been serving life sentences. They too were ordered on Tuesday to be held in a safe house.

Pakistan has previously sent many suspects in high-profile cases to safe houses. In 2018, a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, who was acquitted of blasphemy charges after spending eight years on death row, was held in a safe house until her acquittal was reviewed and she eventually was able to leave Pakistan for safety in Canada in 2019.
Uzbekistan will become the latest nation to join the global race to carbon neutrality by 2050. In collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or EBRD, the central Asian republic is set to declare its intention to significantly cut its reliance on thermal energy sources. Uzbekistan will be one of the few developing Asian countries to openly pledge a fossil fuel emissions reduction target, Nikkei Asia writes.

Among the region's more developed economies, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong have said they will meet the same goal by 2050. China's target year is 2060, and Singapore's commitment is for the same year, but it is shooting at halving emissions from what they will be in 2030. Uzbekistan will lead its neighbor Kazakhstan, one of its former Soviet Central Asian peers, by 10 years. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared his country's goal in December.

The EBRD and Uzbek government on Monday are to sign a memorandum of understanding on long-term collaboration toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The MOU is to act as an open promise by both parties to push forward with the Central Asian country's strategy to convert its energy sector to gradually decarbonize its sources, Nikkei has learned. Even though no specific financial target will be spelled out, the EBRD is to help finance and provide technical support, such as by developing large-scale renewable power plants, introducing a modern electricity grid, rejuvenating gas generation capabilities and retiring old thermal electric facilities.

The Uzbek government has switched to a more open-door, market-oriented economy from a closed, centrally planned economy since the death of former President Islam Karimov, the strongman who led the country from its 1991 independence to his passing in 2016. Even though Uzbekistan has been an EBRD member since 1992, the bank, whose main mandate is to assist former eastern-bloc countries transition to market-oriented economies, by 2010 had virtually severed relations with the previous Uzbek leadership.

With the new administration of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in power, the EBRD returned in 2017 to sign a new loan and reopen representative office in Tashkent, the country's capital. With the EBRD's support, Uzbekistan's Energy Ministry last May declared a low carbon energy strategy. The country decided to emphasize the development of power sources with low-carbon emissions, including solar, hydro, wind and nuclear. Central Asia currently has no nuclear plants. The country also set a target of reducing its reliance on thermal-power electricity generation to 50% by 2030. It currently relies on thermal sources for more than 80% of its energy needs. According to a report jointly published last January by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, and by Tokyo Electric Power Services, the central Asian country relies heavily on thermal power plants, most of which were commissioned during the Soviet era and some of which have been in operation since the mid-1950s.

Jurgen Rigterink, EBRD's first vice president, told Nikkei on Thursday that the decarbonization project in Uzbekistan "is supported by the Japanese government," the bank's second largest shareholder. Tokyo has been an active donor of technical assistance for the bank's various projects.

Upon a request from the EBRD, the Japanese government has committed to drawing up a road map that would take the Central Asian nation to a low carbon future. As a stated policy, Tokyo focuses its bilateral economic assistance to Uzbekistan mainly on renewal and development of economic infrastructure, with emphasis in the area of transportation and energy.

This is in line with Japan's wider foreign aid strategy to provide "high-quality infrastructure" to developing nations. Although not clearly stated, the strategy is widely recognized as a countermeasure against the growing influence Beijing wields in Central Asia and other developing nations, where China is ahead in terms of economic and political clout, through its Belt and Road Initiative.
There was a telling moment bound up in an awkward pause during a parliamentary hearing on Friday into a climate change bill proposed by the independent MP Zali Steggall.

Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman asked a witness  Dr Angela Frimberger, a biologist turned climate activist  whether it was reasonable for a government to direct independent expert advisers to not provide them with advice that they did not want to hear and had no intention of acting upon.

Zali Steggalls proposed climate change bill has broad support, but is very unlikely to become law. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The exchange was significant because in the unlikely event Steggalls bill became law, it would legislate a net-zero emissions by 2050 target and create an independent climate change commission to provide the government with advice on how to reach that goal. Zimmermans point was, should such a commission be created, why shouldnt the government of the day order it not to provide advice over the reinstitution of a price on carbon, given neither party wanted to pursue such a policy?

I would have thought it was not an unreasonable proposition to say that a government could indicate to a commission the parameters it was prepared to consider so [the commission] did not go down the path of providing advice that would have no functional reality in policy, Zimmerman said.
The price of silver soared after it caught the attention of traders swapping ideas on Reddit.

The precious metal rocketed by as much as 12 per cent yesterday to its highest level since 2013 as anarchist investors piled in.

It gave up some of those gains later in the day but is still up more than 8 per cent this year.

Silver rocketed by as much as 12 per cent yesterday to its highest level since 2013 as anarchist investors piled in

Silver is just the latest asset to be caught up in a trading frenzy triggerd by groups of investors exchanging ideas on the social media site  and in particular the WallStreetBets thread.

Thousands of individual investors have banded together to get back at hedge funds and banks that they see as the unacceptable face of capitalism.

They initially targeted stocks in the US that hedge funds had bet against by so-called shorting. Anyone who shorts a stock gains if the price falls  but loses out if the shares climb.

By encouraging each other to buy shares in these companies and drive up their price, the Reddit traders managed to cause a swathe of hedge funds to bleed money.

Gamestop, the stock at the centre of the frenzy, tumbled more than 24 per cent yesterday as some investors who had piled in began to sell. But the stock is still up more than 1,000 per cent since the beginning of the year.

Some individual retail investors on Reddit claim to be sitting on paper profits worth millions of pounds  making selling a tempting prospect.

But now, the vigilante investors trying to take down Wall Street have turned their attention to silver.

Amid speculation that several major banks and institutions hold short positions, traders are egging each other on to drive up the precious metal's price.

Some precious metals retailers reported a shortage of physical silver bars. And the world's biggest silver-based exchange-traded fund, the iShares Silver Trust which gives investors exposure to the metal without them having to buy physical bars, saw investors pile in almost $1billion (730million) on Friday.

Silver mining companies on the London Stock Exchange also popped as investors predicted they would benefit from the soaring metals prices.

Fresnillo jumped 9 per cent, Polymetal was up 5 per cent, and Hochschild Mining climbed 10 per cent. Even market tiddlers were included in the buying frenzy with Alien Metals up 8 per cent.

Adrian Ash, director of research at physical commodities trading platform Bullion Vault, said: 'The flood of new interest in silver has emptied coin shops, but there's plenty of metal in wholesale storage, and any talk of a shortage will in truth refer more to trucking and handling capacity rather than physical stockpiles.'

But while the demand for silver was sparked by financial anarchists on Reddit trying to bring down short-sellers, some experts speculated that the very institutional investors under fire might have helped to drive prices up by jumping on the bandwagon.

Neil Wilson of Markets.com said: 'Some bigger smart money may have been front-running this trade to piggyback the rally, further fuelling the move up.'
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New Delhi, Feb 2 : LSAT--India is India's First Law Entrance Test being held for the Academic Year 2021-22. Application closes on 14 March for its first administration.

Law Aspirants can take the test from home: LSAT-India 2021 is Online Remote-Proctored & Artificial Intelligence - Enabled Law Entrance Test.

Admission process to all the academic programmes offered at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) of O.P. Jindal Global Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University (JGU) has started on February 1, 2020.

JGLS, which is ranked as the No. 1 Law School in India and South Asia as per the QS World University Rankings by Subject (Law) 2020, offers five programmes, namely BA LLB (Hons), BBA LLB (Hons) and BA (Hons) in Legal Studies available after Class XII; LLB 3-year programme for undergraduates and the LLM programme in different specialisations.

"Jindal Global Law School's decision to offer an early admissions process, which will enable the LSAT-India entrance exam to be taken in an AI-Enabled and Remote Proctored manner is a significant decision for three important reasons, said Professor (Dr) C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University and Dean, Jindal Global Law School, while announcing the admissions process for the upcoming academic year".

Professor Kumar said, "First, this is an Early Admission Process. Students writing 12th standard board examinations and also preparing for entrance exams always have a tough time every year balancing both these competing aspirations. This year students can take the LSAT-India 2021 early and can secure their admission to the law school and write their board exams in an absolute peaceful state of mind." Professor Kumar said, "second, there was no opportunity in the past to law aspirants to improve their score. Law entrance exams were always a one-time opportunity. If it was a bad day for any student, you lose your chance for the year. Now, the students get a second chance in June 2021 to better their score and seek admission in case, they don't do well in the March exam. Students had no option but to wait for the next year if they didn't qualify LSAT--India cutoff earlier." For example, in 2020, cutoff for JGLS was 60 Percentile score in LSAT-India. Anyone having received a score up to 59.99 percentile could never get an offer of admission to the 5-year BA/BBALLB programmes. This year students will get another chance to improve their score and can get a second opportunity for admission, even though the cut-off may be higher in 2021.
This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

Throughout former President Donald Trumps tenure, the White House stonewalled congressional oversight requests with impunity. Most, if not all, of these matters were clearly of legitimate interest to Congress and concerned information that Congress was entitled to receive, from troubling security clearance practices to violations of federal record-keeping laws, to Trumps efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponent. Despite a dizzying number of subpoenas and litigation in federal courts, the Trump administration successfully stymied Congress from obtaining many of the White House documents it was entitled to.

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Until now. Congressional committees working to enact reforms to prevent Trump-style abuses now have an easier path to obtain Trump White House documents to aid their investigations  and they can do so without requiring President Joe Biden to intervene.

Under the Presidential Records Act (PRA), as soon as a president leaves office, that presidents records (except those deemed to be personal records) are transferred to the control of the Archivist of the United States at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Although former presidents are permitted to restrict access to their records for up to 12 years after they leave office, the PRA creates a specific exception to these restrictions that permits release of the records to either house of Congress or to any committee or subcommittee thereof if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of its business and that is not otherwise available.

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The list of records that meet this standard is long. The Trump records previously requested by Congress  concerning pay-for-play foreign policy in Ukraine as well as serious risks related to security clearances for senior White House officials or former National Security Adviser Michael Flynns lies to the FBI  all squarely fit within the business of Congress. They not only relate to ongoing investigations, but also to potential legislative fixes for the myriad opportunities for executive abuse of power exposed by the Trump administration.

Congress could also request recent records to help examine the entirety of the violent January 6th attempted insurrection, such as by requesting White House visitor logs and the presidents phone logs from January 5th and 6th. With less than two weeks before the impeachment trial, the PRAs procedures may be Congresss best tool for obtaining primary evidence of Trumps culpability. Though the PRA and its implementing regulations generally require a months-long consultation period before releasing records, the law also says the Archivist must adjust the time period to comply with the return date of a congressional subpoena. Given Congresss urgent need for records, NARA would be required to respond promptly. For the first time, Trump isnt in charge of the evidence against him.

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Compared with the past four years of obstruction, the process available to Congress today has reassuring bureaucratic guardrails. Congress can request the Trump records directly from NARA, circumventing both the former and current occupants of the White House. One of the most recent instances in which this process was used was in the investigation leading to the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when separate sets of records were requested by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, as well as by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler. In that case, NARA made clear its view that it can only release documents to committee chairs and not to minority members, thus turning over 900,000 pages of records to Grassley, but none to Feinstein. Democrats recent Senate wins in Georgia, resulting in Democratic control of both chambers, takes yet another hurdle out of Democrats long efforts to procure Trumps presidential records that are needed to conduct congressional business.

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Though requesting the records directly from NARA presents a path forward for congressional investigators, congressional access is not unfettered. The documents are still subject to privilege assertions, which means some amount of delay is still likely.

The PRA specifies that congressional access is subject to any rights, defenses, or privileges the president may enjoy, including attorney client privilege or executive privilege. In Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, the Supreme Court held that former presidents can assert privileges over documents from their term in office. This is the hurdle Nadler faced when seeking the Kavanaugh documents: NARA made clear that Presidents George W. Bush and Trump could review the documents before they were produced to Nadler.

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Trump can  and likely will  claim that documents requested by Congress are privileged from disclosure. But the primary privileges Trump might assert, particularly variants of executive privilege, are qualified and can be overcome by a clear demonstration of need for the requested documents. In addition, any of Trumps privilege assertions must be affirmatively upheld by President Biden or the documents will be subject to release absent a court order enjoining disclosure.

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This course gives the Biden administration a middle road. On the one hand, a determination by the Biden administration that Trumps presidential privilege assertions are not valid or that Congress has demonstrated sufficient need to overcome that privilege could harm the institutional prerogatives of the presidency. But on the other hand, the documents Congress is likely to seek  those related to the Capitol insurrection, efforts to solicit Ukrainian interference in a U.S. election, and other instances of potentially egregious abuses of powerpresent such severe misconduct (in some cases, severe enough to warrant impeachment) that the Biden administration would be loath the let them go unchecked.

The PRAs statutory scheme then offers the Biden administration a tempting alternative: do nothing. The PRA requires the Archivist to release requested records if the incumbent President declines to uphold a former presidents privilege assertions or if the incumbent President fails to make any determination at all within the applicable period (a period of two to three months that the Archivist is required to shorten to comply with the return date of a congressional subpoena). 44 U.S.C.  2208. By failing to make any determination with respect to Trumps records, the Biden administration might avoid setting a troubling precedent for protecting executive privilege, rather than by affirmatively declining to uphold his privilege assertions.

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Under the PRAs statutory scheme, Trump would still be permitted to file a lawsuit to obtain an order enjoining the release based on privilege claims. But there is reason to believe that Congress is in a significantly stronger position to obtain the documents now than it was during the Trump administration.

First, during the Trump administration, the burden was on Congress to bring litigation to enforce its many subpoenas, and courts wavered (and continue to waver) on whether the House of Representatives even had a right to enforce its subpoenas in federal court. The burden of bringing suit has now shifted to Trump. Trump must now independently file a complaint and succeed in securing an injunction to stop the release of these records.

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Second, Trump  notorious for pressing the Department of Justice to act in his personal interest  will no longer be able to marshal the public resources of the federal government to defend his baseless refusals to cooperate with congressional oversight requests. Instead, Trump will have to use his own resources to defend his privilege assertions. And courts may not find aggressive privilege claims as credible when advanced by Trumps personal lawyers as when advanced by the Department of Justice. If Congress requests Trump White House records on matters of legitimate concern and follows through with resolve, it may well succeed where it did not during Trumps term.

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One last advantage to requesting the documents through NARA is that it does not require the Biden administration to be the conduit. The Biden administration may have the ability to produce White House documents from the Trump administration directly to Congress (though its authority to produce them may be contested), but, the new administration has made clear that, at least with respect to the ongoing impeachment process, it does not want to be involved in the tussles between Congress and the last administration. Under the PRA, Congress can put the onus on NARA to make Trump White House documents available. As long as the Biden White House does not act to affirmatively uphold Trumps privilege claims, the records are subject to release unless Trump independently secures an injunction.

With Trump out of office, Congress has a better chance of finally receiving responses to its legitimate document demands. After four years of Trumps unprecedented obstruction of congressional oversight, obtaining records that could shed more light on his administrations abuses of office is vital not just in holding officials accountable, but in ensuring such abuses do not occur again.

More From Just Security:

If the US Wants to Push Back on Authoritarian Agendas at the UN, Get Counterterrorism Right

The Progress Not Made on Protecting Civilians
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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AdQuick, the top out-of-home advertising marketplace in the world, today announced its partnership with rideshare giant Lyft to manage its cartop advertising on Lyft Halos in New York City and Lyft's Divvy bike share kiosk advertising inventory in Chicago.

" Lyft's Halo cartop advertising technology enables brands to increase their reach in New York City with hyper-targeted, digital cartop advertising," said Michael Hudes, Head of Growth at Lyft Media. "Whether on cartops or our bike share kiosks in Chicago, partnering with AdQuick makes it simple and easy for advertisers to plan, buy and measure space from one convenient place with real-time reporting."

The AdQuick and Lyft partnership is a boon for brands and agencies, as Lyft's targeting algorithm accounts for each vehicle's location, time of day and weather, ensuring media buyers place hyper-targeted ads that benefit the business. It also allows full-motion video content, unlimited creative swaps and is available at every cross-street in the territory.

"We manage millions of dollars of media every year, and as fiduciaries of our clients' budgets, we need to move the needle among targeted audiences in hyper competitive markets like New York City," said Elliott Hasiuk, senior marketing technologist at Part and Sum , an innovation and growth agency. "Using AdQuick to access space on Lyft's Halo toppers enables us to reach mobile customers within geofenced areas, broaden coverage in key areas on tight budgets and add a new layer to our out-of-home advertising options. As users, we directly benefit from the ease of one-stop shopping, streamlined execution and aggregated measurement tools that validate our strategies."

Additional benefits of the AdQuick/Lyft partnership include:

Real-time reporting which allows advertisers the visibility into their campaign performance anytime, from anywhere

Programmatic platform so media buyers can run agile campaigns, make targeted changes instantaneously

Local intelligence partnerships that gives estimates on reach, website traffic and app downloads, as well as users driven to physical stores after seeing an ad

"A lot of people still associate out-of-home advertising as billboards and bus benches, but Lyft's new digital cartop advertising and bike share kiosks illustrates how outdoor media is continuing to grow in new and exciting ways," said Chris Gadek, head of growth at AdQuick. "Lyft's inventory, coupled with AdQuick's programmatic capabilities, mean brands can enhance their campaigns to be more precise, more proactive and more effective, which is invaluable in key markets like New York City and Chicago."

To learn more about AdQuick, please visit www.adquick.com .

About AdQuick, Inc.

AdQuick.com is the easiest way to purchase and measure outdoor advertising and is building the operating system to bring the OOH industry online. It is the first company to allow anyone to complete the full cycle of booking outdoor ads online, and connects advertisers and agencies to OOH media owners anywhere in the U.S. and abroad.

Founded in Los Angeles in 2016 by former Instacart executives, AdQuick's mission is to empower everyone to put their message into the world. We do that by removing all barriers to out-of-home (OOH) ad buying, with a powerful platform that's a delight to use. AdQuick was named in the top ten Best Places to Work in 2020 by Los Angeles Business Journal and is currently available in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Australia and 12 other countries.

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NEW DELHI: Congress and other opposition parties on Tuesday (February 2) forced adjournment of Rajya Sabha proceedings for the third time in the pre-noon session as they insisted on taking up a discussion on the issue of farmers' protests over the three new farm bills.

The House was first adjourned for about 40 minutes till 10:30 am. As soon as the House met again, similar scenes were witnessed, leading to another adjournment till 11:30 am. As the Upper House re-assembled at 11.30 am, the uproar continued as several protesting members trooped in Well prompting Deputy Chairman Harivansh to adjourn the proceedings till 12:30 pm. The Deputy Chairman appealed to the opposition members to return their seats and follow COVID-19 protocols. However, they did not heed to his requests.

Congress, Left, TMC, DMK and RJD members first walked out from Rajya Sabha after their demand for suspension of business of the day for taking up the discussion was rejected by the Chair. Opposition members shouted slogans to disrupt the Question Hour, forcing Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to adjourn the proceedings till 10:30 am.

As the protesting members continued sloganeering, Naidu asked them to return to their seats. "Please go to your seats and allow the House to function. Some of you said the last time that not having question hour is 'murder of democracy'. This is a statement made outside," he said. "Members who have walked out and again coming to the Well is not fair," Naidu said before adjourning the House for the first time.

When the House met at 10:30 am, the sloganeering continued and the Deputy Chairman, who was in the Chair, tried to persuade members to allow the House to function.

However, as the opposition members did not yield, he adjourned the proceedings till 11:30 am. At the time of adjournment, ports, shipping and waterways minister Mansukh Mandaviya was speaking on The Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020.

Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said opposition members themselves were demanding Question Hour and the government agreed. "Question Hour is going on....Whether they (protesting members) want Question Hour or not, let them place it on record," he said, as opposition members were raising slogans.

Opposition parties including the Congress, Left, TMC and DMK had given a notice under rule 267 that calls for setting aside of business of the day to take up a discussion on the issue pressed.

Chairman Naidu had, however, disallowed the motion saying the members were free to raise the issue during the discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President's address.

When the House met for the day, Naidu said he has received notice under rule 267 from various members but the issue can be raised during the discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament.

The President, he said, had referred to the farmer's agitation in his address made at the start of the Budget session of Parliament last week. While Lok Sabha is scheduled to start a discussion on the motion on Tuesday, Rajya Sabha will do so on Wednesday.

"As we are going to start a discussion on Motion of Thanks to President's Address tomorrow, members can participate and raise their concerns," he said rejecting the 267 notice.

He said several rounds of discussions have happened between the government and the farmers' group. "I understand the concern (of members) for the need to resolve the issue at the earliest date," he said.

Naidu, however, allowed members who gave notices to make very brief mentions. Thousands of farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The protesting farmers have expressed the apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporations.

However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture. Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the farmers have been camping for more than two months and the issue needs to be discussed.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) said the House is not aware of what is going on between the government and farmers and the House should discuss the issue separately from the Motion of Thanks. "We want a discussion on a specific issue," he said.

While CPI leader Elamaram Kareem said water and electricity supply to the protests sites has been cut, DMK's Tiruchi Siva said farmers have been sitting on roads for over two months in the cold and the issue needs to be discussed separately.

Manoj Jha (RJD) said Parliament should at least discuss the issue. However, Naidu did not agree to their motion after which the members of Congress, Left, TMC, DMK and RJD staged a walkout.

"No one is stopping you from discussing the issue tomorrow. Tomorrow you will get an opportunity," he said.

Naidu said 10 hours have been allocated for discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President's address and an equivalent amount given for discussion on Budget.

"Please take the opportunity tomorrow," he said.

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This 28-year-old girl earned revenue of VND 330 bn by composing a software that was posted on Google Play and App Store. Another 30-year-old male in Cau Giay showed his income at VND 260 bn in just one year by writing and posting a software online. He has paid about VND 18 bn in taxes already. In 2020, the Cau Giay District Tax Department had 65 individuals who did online business and paid taxes upto VND 55 bn. Earlier in Da Nang, another young person called Cuong proactively declared and paid taxes upto VND 23.5 bn. All these persons have surprised everyone with their success and are currently topic of hot social discussion.

Although these young entrepeneurs have been honest citizens and have contributed to society, some people also call them foolish because no one would have known of their earnings if they had not declared to the tax authorities. However, in an interview with Tuoi Tre newspaper, Mr. Cuong, the programmer from Da Nang, said that in his opinion everyone who wants to follow the professional path and develop in stature, must fulfill all obligations to the State and be a good citizen and pay tax fully and honestly.

Mr. Le Tu Cu, at the Tax Department in Hai Chau District, was left surprised when Mr. Cuong came with this huge amount to pay his tax. From 2015 to 2019, Mr. Cuong went to the District Tax Department and then to the Da Nang Tax Department many times to pay taxes, while the tax department did not know how to collect such large tax amounts, because it was a new phenomenon for them, and there was no appropriate provision in the tax procedures to accept such amounts.

Traditionally, in order to make several hundred billion dong per year, one needs to invest huge capital, build factories and warehouses, and produce for many years, before seeing profits. Now, young innovators only require a small space, computers and technical equipment to create high value. Therefore, the old fashioned model based on land expansion, exploitation of raw resources, using old techniques, and mobilizing large human resources is completely out of date.

Now the trend is moving towards less exploiting of land in many countries. For example, Dubai produces clean fruits and vegetables in a closed environment in a high-rise building over a one-hectare area. In the Political Report of the 13th National Party Congress, the Government is looking to strengthen a new growth model in economic restructuring, industrialization and modernization of the country by supporting innovation, and developing digital economy and creating a larger digital society.

It is also important to realize from the above cases that during the growth period, we should discover and enable excellent individuals and give them the nucleus to innovate and grow. We also need to create hubs that can attract regional and international talents. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc often says that we have to create eagle nests to welcome eagles to play big international games. However, the important issue is to find out who will create these nests, how they will be created, and whether such nests will be able to catch the eagles.

The State is now creating two large eagle nests, namely, the Hoa Lac creative urban area in Hanoi and Thu Duc city in Ho Chi Minh City. The central government as well as the local governments are investing heavily in these two places, hoping to create a breakthrough in socio-economic development. The implementation has been planned to start mainly with public investment, but there is another way if the eagles create the nests themselves. We should know that Silicon Valley in California was born in 1970 by four Stanford University students. While designing computer software for the military, they came upon the idea of creating a place where young scientists could be creative under the best and most conducive conditions. From this idea came forth Silicon Valley, and big corporations pulled together such as Xerox, HP, IBM, Google, Apple, and Facebook to create a world renowned technology hub.

The story of Silicon Valley should inspire all young creators in Vietnam to not just focus on making money but also contribute to society by paying taxes. Mr. Cuong and his colleagues have big, burning dreams such as to build a complex of creative hubs where individuals and young team players can develop more and more software, pave the way for other young entrepreneurs, and raise societal value and wisdom in Vietnam.

I do not know whether the leaders in Da Nang have heard and accepted this wonderful idea of the 9X generation yet. However, I have a firm belief that if there is a good mechanism, with legal support from the government, good facilities and initial capital, one day Da Nang will surely have a Silicon Valley of its own. These are Da Nang's eagles, who are waiting for an opportunity to spread their wide wings in their homeland sky, and from them, other eagles from far away will also converge. It was Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and other such bright eagles who created Silicon Valley. Let's start from the initial nucleus, small but with high potential and leave them to grow and nurture themselves. The outcome will only be pure genius.

Without the eagles, as Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc described them, creative cities such as Hoa Lac and Thu Duc may become places to just process creative products brought in from outside. Cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang do not lack such eagles. The problem is how to discover them, support them and encourage them. These young geniuses need to be allowed to release their energies for the betterment of society. A 28-year-old girl making VND 330 bn a year in net profit, is like a corporation that has an investment of thousands of billion dong and makes the same profit amount in a year.

Asso. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Hoa
Where theres a coup, there will probably be an internet outage.

Why it matters: Internet disruptions in Myanmar early Monday morning coincided with reports that top politicians, including the countrys de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were being rounded up by the military. Thats no surprise: Internet blackouts are now common around the world when power hangs in the balance.

The big picture: At least 35 countries have restricted access to the internet or social media platforms at least once since 2019, according to NetBlocks, a group that tracks internet freedom. Authorities have used the outages to reduce or prevent unrest  or to hide it from public view.

Blockages are particularly common around elections in Africa, most recently in Uganda.

around elections in Africa, most recently in Uganda. NetBlocks also reported disruptions in Russian cities during recent protests over the detention of Alexei Navalny. Neighboring Belarus also disrupted the internet during recent protests, as have countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe.

Driving the news: Myanmars military followed the tried and true rule of coup plotters everywhere by ensuring they were in control of state TV before making their move on Monday. But they also appeared to follow the more modern playbook.

Internet disruptions began at around 3am local time, according to NetBlocks, and connectivity had by 8am dropped by 50% before being partially restored by the afternoon.

Flashback: In 2019, Myanmar imposed what Human Rights Watch has described as the worlds longest internet shutdown in the conflict-ridden Rakhine and Chin states.

Between the lines: The internet was created to democratize information, but it's now one of the most powerful weapons autocrats use to silence dissenters and maintain power.

Iran and Venezuela are particularly quick to restrict access, according to NetBlocks data.

are particularly quick to restrict access, according to NetBlocks data. Ethiopia has repeatedly done so during mass protests, and the government blocked internet and telecom access in the Tigray region ahead of a military offensive there last November  severely impacting the availability of reliable information about the conflict.

has repeatedly done so during mass protests, and the government blocked internet and telecom access in the Tigray region ahead of a military offensive there last November  severely impacting the availability of reliable information about the conflict. India has disrupted the internet both in response to protests and as a preemptive tactic. The government shut off the internet in August 2019 as it anticipated unrest in Indian-administered Kashmir once highly sensitive constitutional changes were announced. It has still not been fully restored.

Between the lines: Authorities often cite a desire to stop the spread of disinformation when implementing internet shutdowns, as in Sri Lanka in 2019 following deadly bombings.

Turkey temporarily blocked access to several social media platforms last February amid reports that dozens of Turkish troops had been killed in an airstrike in Syria.

access to several social media platforms last February amid reports that dozens of Turkish troops had been killed in an airstrike in Syria. Then there are countries like China where the internet is highly censored to begin with.

Yes, but: As with so-called fake news laws, such restrictions are often motivated by a desire to control the narrative and prevent inconvenient information from proliferating.

The bottom line: Internet censorship by government or military forces is one of the clearest signals that democracy is being tested.
'Free Baloch Movement' row: A Pakistan Army General has shockingly revealed and admitted China's role in "crushing" the Baloch freedom movement in Pakistan, saying Beijing has given him a six-month task to end the freedom struggle by Baloch people.

A Pakistan Army General has shockingly revealed and admitted Chinas role in crushing the Baloch freedom movement in Pakistan, saying Beijing has given him a six-month task to end the freedom struggle by Baloch people. As per the report of a Bangladeshi newspaper, The Daily Sun quoted the Pak General saying that China had paid him a salary and a large sum of money and officially posted him there for their regional interests. This comes as a shocking revelation as Balochistan remains Pakistans poorest and least populous province despite a number of development projects initiated by Islamabad there in the past.

Pakistani Major General Ayman Bilal had claimed in previous instances that the end of the Baloch movement and the success of CPEC is very important for Pakistan and China. Meanwhile, Baloch separatists, both militant and political groups, have been opposing Chinas increasing involvement in the province. Looking at the disparity and dire state of Baloch province several rebel groups have waged a separatist insurgency for decades. The separatists have been complaining that the Pakistani central government and the richer Punjab province unfairly exploit their resources.

In 2005, Islamabad had reacted to the insurgency by launching a deadly military operation in the province. Last month Pakistani govt had received wide criticism and condemnation over its handling of an activist funeral from the province. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) had slammed the authorities over the handling of activist Karima Balochs funeral terming their attempt to foil the ceremony held for the slain activist as disgraceful.

Also Read: Military seizes power in Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi detained; Biden threatens US sanctions in response to coup

Also Read: Biden pledge to build Quad: Will Biden administration continue Quad push?

Karima Baloch was a human rights activist from Balochistan province who died under mysterious circumstances in Canada last month. Before the corpse could be transported from Karachi to Balochistan, Pakistani authorities forcefully took Karimas body along with her family from the airport to her hometown. The funeral was carried out under the army watch.
Major Kojo Boakye-Djan (Rtd), a key architect of the June 4 uprising of 1979, has described former President Jerry John Rawlings as a radical liberal.



Major Kojo Boakye-Djan (Rtd), a key architect of the June 4 uprising of



1979, has described former President Jerry John Rawlings as a radical liberal.



He said although Ghana's former leader may have appeared tough and strong headed to many, he had a listening ear, and could be persuaded so far as he considered an argument convincing enough.



The retired Major recalled that former President Rawlings was not hard wired towards any



particular political ideology, but was basically a person who believed in doing what it took to solve a problem.



Major Boakye-Djan, spokesperson for the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) of



1979, which had former President Rawlings as its chairman, told the Ghana News Agency in an exclusive interview, that the Former President was highly drawn to wisdom and intelligence, and would listen if one struck him as worth listening to.



"He had respect for great minds," Major Boakye-Djan observed.

Major Boakye-Djan described the Former President as a man who believed in doing what needed to be done immediately to save a situation.



He said there were many interesting moments he had with former President Rawlings which



typically reflected Rawlings' quick problem-solving abilities.



"We once found ourselves in an extreme traffic jam somewhere in Accra many years ago, on our way to see a friend who was bed-ridden. No car could move because a taxi had broken down,



making any form of vehicular movement impossible," Major Boakye-Djan said.



He recalled that former President Rawlings then alighted, started calling drivers and others who were affected by the situation together, and organised them to push the taxi into a nearby drain because that offered an immediate solution, as there was none other at hand.



"Immediately the situation got rectified and drivers could drive off with ease, Rawlings had to direct motorists for some time and when the situation was completely rectified, he got back inside my car and we took off," Major Boakye-Djan said.



He touched on the June 4 uprising of 1979 which was the main event that sprung Former President Rawlings unto the country's political limelight and said the event, like all other revolutions, was spontaneous and popular at the same time.



In Major Boakye-Djan's words, the ill-effects of misrule by successive military governments,



starting with the overthrow of President Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's founding President, had



created a general feel of disgruntlement amongst the military ranks at that time.



He said a general yearn amongst a large number of the populace for some positive change towards a more purposeful national cause, was what basically earned the junta the kind of spontaneous support it enjoyed, which led to the overthrow of General Akuffo's Supreme Military Council (SMC) II.



Major Boakye-Djan cited an example where sometime before the June 4 uprising, a soldier once came to him almost in tears because a market woman had poured urine on him for daring to plead that an item's price be reduced.



He described the incident as a reflection of the extent to which the image of the army at that time had fallen, and the urgent need for some intervention to redeem that image.



Major Boakye-Djan added that this fallen image was in itself, a depiction of the general



dissatisfaction a large number of citizens held for the continuous military misrule in the country.



Touching on major lessons to be learnt from the June 4 uprising, he said there was the need for political leadership to be well attuned with the socio-economic needs of the citizenry, as well as any other needs expected to be met by the government.



Major Boakye Djan said this could best be achieved, if the educational system ensured that right from the very early stages, it was inculcated into children the need to be concerned about the well fare of others, especially the most needy and vulnerable.



He said this would help groom leaders who would only yearn to serve and be accountable to the people.



Major Boakye Djan said such leadership was not only crucial to socio-economic growth in Ghana, but the African continent as a whole.



Former President Rawlings first appeared on the Ghanaian political scene, when he got arrested, following his May 15 attempt to overthrow the then SMC II government of General Frederick Akuffo.



During his court martial or trial by a military tribunal, JJ Rawlings, as he was popularly called, showed great courage, when he boldly owned up to his actions and asked that the men accused alongside him be released in the famous phrase, "let my men go."



He explained that the men were merely under his power and command, and should not be held accountable for their actions.



An uprising on June 4 however by the junior ranks, saw JJ being rescued from his cell to lead the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which successfully overthrew the SMC II.



The AFRC upon overthrowing the SMC II, undertook a number of major actions, in their bid to set the country off towards a successful political path.



Key amongst them was an exercise they code named house cleaning", which saw the execution of eight top military officials including three former Heads of State.



People who were accused of accruing wealth through corrupt means, especially politically



orchestrated corruption, also had their assets, including buildings and businesses confiscated, got imprisoned or suffered both punishments.



After a three-month rule by the AFRC, then Chairman Rawlings handed over to the late Former President Hilla Limann, who had emerged victor in that years Presidential election, on the ticket of the Peoples National Party.



The AFRC had taken over at a time, when there was a pending election and in accordance with its vow, duly supervised the election and handed over to civilian rule in September, 1979.



On December 31, 1981, Former President Rawlings overthrew the Limann Government in a



military coup, and replaced it with the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) of which he was chairman, and through which he ruled the country till 1992 when Ghana transitioned into multi-party democracy.



Former President Rawlings then resigned from the army, formed the National Democratic



Congress, contested as its presidential candidate and won the 1992 presidential election, to



become the first President of Ghana's Fourth Republic.



After going on to win the next election in 1996 and remaining in office for another four year tenure, he handed over to Former President John Agyekum Kufuor in the year 2000, when Mr. Kufuor won that years election on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party.



Former President Rawlings took a number of International appointments such as African Union High Representative for Somalia, after stepping down as President.



He also remained active throughout his years as a former president in a number of capacities, and would often have his view on one national issue or another aired and discussed on the airwaves.



Former President Rawlings died at the age of 73 in November 2020, after a short illness.



He was interred at the Military Cemetery, Burma Camp, after being laid in state for three days, as part of his final funeral rites.

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
An 84-year-old man died two days after he was brutally knocked to the ground in a San Francisco attack where the suspect in his killing casually walked away after the assault.

Shocking surveillance footage shows the moment Vicha Ratanapadkdee, a native of Thailand, was attacked by the assailant last Thursday on the sidewalk at Anzavista and Fortuna avenues.

The suspect - identified as 19-year-old Antonie Watson - was seen charging at the victim before taking off with a woman.

Shocking surveillance footage shows the moment Vicha Ratanapadkdee, a native of Thailand, was attacked by the assailant last Thursday

LATEST: Horrific video of fatal attack Thursday on 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee. Details -> https://t.co/6Z5rqIQpcZ pic.twitter.com/PJnuuWgE3Y  Evan Sernoffsky (@EvanSernoffsky) February 1, 2021

Paramedics arrived at the scene at around 8.30am and found Ratanapadkdee laying in the street, KTVU reports.

He was rushed to a local hospital but died two days later, succumbing to his injuries.

Watson was arrested around 8.45pm Saturday at his Daly City home and booked on suspicion of murder, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.

The suspect - identified as 19-year-old Antonie Watson - was seen charging at the victim before taking off running with a woman

Also arrested was 20-year-old Maylasia Goo, who was charged with being an accessory after the fact.

A GoFundMe for Ratanapadkdee states that the senior citizen, who was nearly blind, had been out enjoying his morning walk when the attack occurred. He was described as being 'beloved by his family.'

The assault is the latest in a long string of attacks to Asian and Asian American people in the U.S. as racist sentiments towards the community have grown because of COVID-19.

Paramedics arrived at the scene at around 8.30am and found Ratanapadkdee laying in the stree

Chesa Boudin, district attorney for San Franscisco, released a statement offering his condolences to Ratanapadkdee's family as well as the entire Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) community.

'I send my deepest condolences to the Ratanapadkdee family for their loss,' Boudin said in a statement. 'This was a brutal, random, unprovoked attack.'

He continued: 'My heart is also with the entire AAPI community for the pain they're experiencing as a result of this tragedy and too many others over the past year. We will hold the person who committed this senseless act of violence accountable.'
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/01/2021



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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.

featured Yara Zaya telling Jovi Dufren that she's pregnant, Stephanie Davison confessing her affair with Ryan Carr's cousin to her fiance, Tarik Myers looking for a girlfriend for Hazel Cagalitan , and Brandon Gibbs making a compromise with his parents to stop Julia Trubkina from leaving him during Sunday night's Season 8 broadcast on TLC.'s new season stars three returning couples from the franchise: Mike Youngquist , a 35-year-old from Sequim, WA, and Natalie Mordovtseva , a 35-year-old from Ukraine; Tarik, a 46-year-old from Virginia Beach, VA, and Hazel, a 28-year-old from the Philippines; and Rebecca Parrott , a 49-year-old from Woodstock, GA, and Zied Hakimi , a 27-year-old from Tunisia.Mike and Natalie previously starred on Season 7 of , Tarik Myers and Hazel Cagalitan found fame on Season 2 of : Before the 90 Days, and Rebecca and Zied first appeared on : Before the 90 Days' third season.The four new couples starring on Season 8 of are Brandon, a 27-year-old from Dinwiddie, VA, and Julia, a 26-year-old from Russia; Jovi, a 29-year-old from New Orleans, LA, and Yara, a 25-year-old from Ukraine; Stephanie, a 52-year-old from Grand Rapids, MI, and Ryan, a 27-year-old from Belize; and Andrew Kenton, a 32-year-old from Roseville, CA, and Amira Lollysa, a 28-year-old from France.features Americans who have fallen in love with foreigners bringing their fiances to the United States on K-1 visas.However, once the couple is in America together, the American must marry their overseas partner within the 90-day period allowed by the visa or the foreigner has to return to their home country.Below is the latest on several of 's eighth-season couples based on the ninth episode.Brandon asked his parents to join him for dinner so he could talk to them. He knew he had to stand his ground because his relationship with Julia was in jeopardy.Brandon explained "some things [had] happened" and so he and Julia needed to leave the farm."She's not happy being here," Brandon noted."She's only been here a few weeks!" Betty argued.Brandon blamed the animals for Julia's unhappiness and revealed he planned to rent an apartment and some how make that work.Ron begged Brandon not to "make a stupid decision," but Brandon said he didn't have a choice because Julia either wanted to move into a place of their own or return to Russia.Ron and Betty were shocked and asked if Julia's problem had something to do with them, and Brandon admitted half the issue was the animals at the farm and the other half was Betty's neediness of Brandon and requirements of her at the farm.Betty immediately broke down into tears, saying all she had tried to do was love and be accepting of Julia.Betty hoped to be a family and eventually pass on the farm to Brandon so it could go on from generation to generation and Brandon's children would love the farm."That's a beautiful world you paint," Brandon said."But this has been our world!" Betty pointed out."But I don't think that was the world we were hoping for," Brandon explained.Betty said she had been hoping to gain a daughter and not lose her only son. Betty cried and complained that she didn't want Brandon to go, and Ron said his son needed to sit down and talk to Julia again because he didn't have the money for an apartment.Betty suggested Brandon needed to save money for his wedding, but Brandon reiterated, "Either I'm staying here alone or we're leaving together.""The fact that she's making you choose between us and her, that just makes me so sad," Betty pouted.Brandon said he hated seeing his mother so emotional but it didn't change his mind or the situation at hand.Betty asked if they could do anything to change Brandon or Julia's mind, and Brandon asked if maybe they could stay in the same room.Betty was about to change her mind, but Ron jumped in and said, "No, absolutely not. No... I'm not going to give in to her.""Why?!" Betty urged."No," Ron replied. "There's got to be some respect here, Brandon. That makes me angry, because if this is what it's going to take, you know what? You guys do need to find your own place.""I think so," Brandon agreed.Betty begged Ron to stop and said they could maybe figure that out if that's the compromise she needed to make in order to not lose her son and have the couple stay in her home.Brandon said that would be a step in the right direction and it would be nice for Betty to bring that up to her. Ron insisted that shouldn't have been a bargaining chip, but Betty was more concerned with keeping her baby boy on the farm.Ron hated the idea of relinquishing control, but he eventually gave in and let Betty take the lead.With 70 days left to wed, Brandon and Julia went to a bar and Brandon revealed the conversation with his parents went "okay."Brandon asked Julia how she'd feel about continuing to live with his parents if they could stay in the same room and she no longer had to work with the animals, and Julia appeared shocked that that was even an option. Julia agreed to stay for "a short time" in that case.Brandon assured Julia that would be a better plan for them so he could continue to save money. Julia was proud of Brandon for standing up to his parents and fixing the problem with "a little fix."Julia, however, was worried Betty was going to hate her going forward. Julia didn't want Betty to think she's "a bad girl" and try to change Brandon's mind about his fiancee.Brandon felt optimistic Julia could build a better relationship with his parents over time, but he pointed out they only needed to worry about one problem at a time.The couple then returned home a little tipsy and went to bed together.Mike said Natalie and his mother's meeting went well and he felt he and Natalie were on "a good, healthy pace" to build a strong foundation and relationship. Mike believed he and Natalie were in a good place, and he wanted to keep it that way.Mike's mom Trish asked Mike if Natalie had good intentions for moving to America such as marrying Mike and starting a family with him. Trish just wanted to make sure Mike wasn't Natalie's ticket to America.Mike, in his heart, believed that Natalie only had the best of intentions, but things were moving fast and he only had two months on Natalie's K-1 visa to figure things out.Mike said he was "working on" returning Natalie's engagement ring but he was in no rush, and Trish admitted that she didn't want to see her son get hurt because Mike and Natalie had already hurt each other."I think Natalie's sorry for [returning the ring], but I don't think you're over that. That tells me [your relationship] is a little rocky," Trish explained, before asking her son to make a decision that's best for him.When Trish left, she asked Natalie to take care of Mike, and Natalie said she was sad to see Mike's mother go.Natalie hoped to begin the wedding-planning process and fix things with Mike.With 58 days to wed, Natalie said Mike stopped planning their wedding once his mother left and seemed to be pushing things off. Natalie told the cameras she and Mike needed to talk about these things because she didn't have much time left on her K-1 visa.Mike said he wanted to get to know Natalie better before marrying her, including her interests and hobbies, and spend some quality time with her.While driving, Mike pointed out that Natalie was wearing a lot of makeup and her hands felt greasy from lotion, and Natalie said she couldn't stand it when loved ones criticize her and make her feel bad.Mike said Natalie had an "on and off switch" and she seemed to love him and then hate him. Mike was still trying to figure Natalie out, and this part of her personality was apparently a concern for him.The couple then went on a hike in the woods and Natalie gushed about loving nature and the smell of the trees."We really need to show each other that we want this and we need this, and I hope everything goes well. I really do," Mike noted.Natalie finally unpacked her clothes, but she told Mike the smell in his closet wasn't a good one. The couple therefore went shopping for a fragrance and other groceries."I feel like me and Mike are not on the same page with planning a wedding and he's not responding. I have this thought maybe he doesn't want to at all. Maybe he doesn't want it," Natalie said.Natalie told Mike that they didn't have plates or a wedding dress or anything, and so she asked him to sit down and start planning their big day together."I'm not really ready to start planning. I think we have other things to work on. I think we have to work on other things before planning a wedding 100 percent," Mike told Natalie.Mike felt a lot of pressure to tie the knot, and while he said he loved her, he just couldn't pull the trigger because marriage is a huge step. Mike didn't want to rush into anything."When I try to express my feelings, she takes offense to it," Mike said.Mike agreed to a small ceremony, but Natalie said she needed to plan the guest list and needed a budget to work with. Natalie said there were a lot of details to take care of even if they decided on a small wedding.Natalie began fearing she wasn't going to have a wedding at all and that Mike would leave her.Yara and Jovi's reunion wasn't really a happy one because Jovi had arrived in New Orleans with an alcoholic drink in his hand early in the morning.Yara accused Jovi of being drunk, but Jovi said he deserved a drink after working for a month straight and Yara shouldn't have given him a hard time about it.Yara had yet to tell Jovi that she was pregnant, but she admitted it was "really hard" for her to keep a secret, especially a secret of this magnitude.While the pair was walking around New Orleans together, Yara finally said that she needed to tell him something."Tell me," Jovi said."I'm pregnant," Yara replied."No, you're not," Jovi said in disbelief."Yes, I am, really," Yara insisted.Jovi said if Yara was pregnant, she would have told him right away and she tends to get him all riled and worked up for fun or for no reason. But Yara insisted she was serious."It's no big deal... I can be happy if it's true," Jovi said, explaining that at least Yara was in the United States now instead of the Ukraine.Jovi acted like he didn't believe Yara, which made her a little bit upset. Jovi asked to see the evidence in a pregnancy test, and she couldn't believe Jovi was treating her that way.Yara apparently once teased Jovi that she was pregnant by showing him a picture of the test she had taken from her first pregnancy, which had ended in a miscarriage. Jovi said Yara kept the act up for a whole day, but Yara insisted she had told Jovi the truth after 10 minutes.Yara wished Jovi just trusted her, but she took another test for him as proof of her pregnancy.Yara's at-home pregnancy test only showed one line instead of two, so Jovi wasn't convinced. Jovi accused Yara of lying to him, but Yara said the test was not an accurate one."I don't know what's wrong with this test, but I know that I am pregnant," Yara told the cameras.Jovi asked Yara to take another test, but Yara kept repeating how she was not lying to him. Yara agreed to take another test, and the results showed that she was pregnant!Jovi apologized to Yara for not believing her to begin with, and he gave her a kiss on the cheek."F-ck your pregnant! Alright, well this changes things a lot, I guess," Jovi said in a confessional, adding that he felt "terrible" for doubting Yara when she had just moved to a new country for him.Jovi admitted he wasn't 100 percent ready but he would be 100 percent ready for Yara, who also wasn't ready."But what can I do? Nothing. It's in my stomach," Yara told her fiance.Stephanie said it felt good to know Ryan wanted to work on their relationship but she still had a few things on her mind.Stephanie said it had been 10 months since she last saw Ryan, and so she wanted to know why they didn't have sex the previous night. Ryan explained that they were both tired and Stephanie had complained of a stomach ache, but Stephanie still thought it was strange.Stephanie confessed she would have liked "a quickie" bang for the purposes of bonding and she hadn't been expecting "a big magic show" or hour-long "session.""It's always been four times a night, so I feel like there's something else [wrong]," Stephanie said.Ryan assured Stephanie that everything was fine and there was no problem. He said Stephanie was stuck in her head."How many women have you slept with since I've been gone for 10 months?" Stephanie asked."None," Ryan replied. "Of course I'm horny as f-ck and I want to have sex, but I was just thinking about your well-being and that's it."Ryan sensed all Stephanie wanted to do was fight and she had both negative thoughts and trust issues that continued to bother him. Ryan said he had been caught texting women three or four years ago, but Stephanie recalled events differently."Ryan, you were texting a girl saying, 'Hey, let's go to Cancun!' That's when I threw your phone across the room and said, 'Get the f-ck out,'" Stephanie told Ryan.Stephanie then told the cameras, "We were done. It was the last straw. I had tolerated him and that bullsh-t for too long. So after that... [Ryan's cousin Harris] came that night and we slept together."Stephanie then confessed to Ryan that she could only handle so much when the pair had fought and Harris comforted her and told her multiple times how beautiful she is."He called me every day... Harris is very bold, and you know that," Stephanie said."I said, 'I just threw Ryan out. I've had it this time.' And he said, 'Can I come see you?' I was crying so hard. It had been so long since you made me feel special. So I had him come and he spent the night with me that night."Stephanie broke down into tears, and Ryan admitted that he had already known about that.Ryan called Harris an "assh-le" and said someone that worked at his hotel had seen Harris enter Stephanie's room. Ryan called Harris "a backstabber."Stephanie said that night never would have happened had Ryan been loyal to her, but Ryan said she took things to another level -- which is something he had allegedly never done.Ryan said he blamed both Stephanie and Harris for the mistake but it happened a long time ago and he had chosen to forgive Stephanie and stay with her."I forgive you, but I'll never forgive [Harris]... He is dead to me, and I mean that," Ryan explained.Amira was back in France and said she was supposed to be relaxing on the beach in Mexico with Andrew. She said she had barely talked to Andrew since her release from the detainment center because Andrew was "very busy" at the resort and enjoying his vacation.Amira then FaceTimed with Andrew and said she couldn't sleep at night and felt some residual stress from her detainment in Mexico City.While Andrew recognized Amira had been traumatized, he suggested they needed a new plan or else time was going to run out on Amira's K-1 visa.Andrew said their options were to wait and see what happens or try to meet in Serbia. Andrew intended for Amira to quarantine in Serbia for 14 days and then travel to the United States, but this time, Andrew couldn't join Amira because he needed to return to work in America.Andrew said Amira had to make a decision soon because she only had 30 days left on her visa.Amira had trusted Andrew that everything was going to be okay, but that turned out to not be the case. Amira therefore didn't know what to do, and she had heard Serbia had many cases of coronavirus.Amira didn't want to go through a situation like Mexico City again, but she said in a confessional, "I don't want to lose Andrew -- if I don't say what he wants to hear."Amira's friend Xavier later told Amira that her relationship wasn't good and she'd have to think about herself and make a decision that would benefit herself.Xavier said he didn't like Andrew putting pressure on Amira, but she insisted it was her dream to go to America."The number of people around me that support my relationship with Andrew is close to zero right now. I love Andrew, but right now, I don't know what to do," Amira shared in a confessional.Zied had been in the United States for a few days, and Rebecca said she needed to move their things from storage into the apartment. However, Rebecca was busy at work and wasn't sure she'd have the time to get everything done.Rebecca also had yet to tell Zied that she once lived in the same apartment building with her ex-husband from Morocco. Rebecca, however, wasn't sure whether she was going to tell Zied at all.Rebecca's good friend Melanie then showed up at the apartment to meet Zied in person. Melanie had once done a background check on Zied, so Zied was feeling uneasy about the meeting.Melanie said she was prepared to "ask the hard questions," including what Zied did while Rebecca worked all day. Melanie said Zied could work in many different businesses nearby rather than sit at home all day, but Rebecca said he couldn't work until they filed for him to be a legal immigrant.Melanie admitted there were similarities between Zied and Rebecca's ex who had crushed her heart, but Rebecca snapped that Zied is a different man and their relationship was totally different."Didn't you and your ex live right down the hall?" Melanie asked Rebecca."What?!" Zied asked in surprise.Rebecca apologized to Zied and insisted their situation was different from what she had with her ex."The same home. I hate this," Zied admitted. "She is my fiancee now. Of course that makes me jealous -- any man in the world [would be]. But I don't like to see Rebecca upset [and cry]."Zied therefore comforted Rebecca, and Melanie insisted that she just wanted to see her friend happy and in a good place after she had gone through a brutal divorce.Zied said he was tired of people talking about Rebecca's ex and comparing him to the ex. Zied told Melanie that he didn't care about Rebecca's Moroccan ex and the fact Rebecca had stayed with him in the same apartment building.Rebecca asked Melanie to trust her, saying that Zied is a wonderful man. Melanie said she trusted Rebecca but her guard was up and that was all.Rebecca said Melanie was borderline disrespectful to Zied but she was just thankful Zied had handled the situation so well.Rebecca insisted she didn't have anything to prove to anyone except for her fiance, but Melanie -- a private investigator -- said she was going to continue looking for red flags and would need the full 90 days to come to a conclusion about Zied's intentions.Rebecca said if her family and friends continued to treat Zied like her Moroccan ex, it would surely change their relationship dynamic at some point.Tarik and Hazel learned their city had been shut down due to coronavirus and so the production team had to leave and return home. Production was therefore temporarily postponed.Two weeks later, filming resumed and Tarik and Hazel were shown enjoying two glasses of wine at home while quarantining. The couple tried to make the best of the situation but appeared bored during the lockdown.Hazel said she was no longer angry at Tarik for texting their ex Minty because he had promised he wouldn't do it again. Hazel therefore determined they were ready to find her a girlfriend, and so Tarik made Hazel a dating profile for a website.Tarik and Hazel looked through women's profiles together, and Tarik just hoped Hazel still considered marrying him the No. 1 priority.Tarik said he wanted Hazel to feel like herself and live the life she wanted to, but Hazel had kept her bisexuality a secret from her parents since they allegedly wouldn't have been accepting of that. After all, Hazel said her parents disapproved of one of her sisters being bisexual."I want a sister, a best friend and a lover," Hazel shared.Hazel told the cameras that she wanted to find a sexy, brown American woman to date, but Tarik wanted to set some rules first so no jealousy would ensue. Tarik just asked Hazel to hide her relationship with a woman from his daughter Auri, which Hazel understood."I really hope we can find a perfect girl that we both agree on. Having a girlfriend is always what I wanted, but my relationship with Tarik is more important. So I just hope it feels different from the last time with Minty," Hazel explained.The couple then looked at women together and Tarik joked, "Come to mama and come to papa!"Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!

Has he ever done something that has not been the worst?

No.

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how rude

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jessica, does he have dirt on you? let us know, girl



just blink once if you need help, we're here for you

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her old restaurant's employees sued her for keeping tips. leave them together.

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She's just like him. Match made in untalented heaven.

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blech fuck them

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Someone stop this white boy

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I wish someone would kick Justin Timberlake out of the planet earth.

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Dutty no

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Do people still like him? I feel like the Super Bowl proved the general public doesn't care about him anymore.

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Im gen z and honestly I dont think people my age really care about him lol but I think most millennials and gen x do like him

I like his music (except most of man of the woods) but I feel like most people arent waiting to hear his next album because he isnt that relevant or cool anymore, especially after MOTW

I also feel like he doesnt really have a strong fanbase, he has a lot of casual fans but I feel like theres few jt stans lmao



Edited at 2021-02-02 02:50 am (UTC)

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Not sure where you heard that but Gen X never gave this foo the time of day. The main boy band of our era was NKOTB and even that was pretty divided. Gen X's alt vs mainstream divide was very stark.

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That's good to know lol I'm a millennial and I loved N'SYNC's music and FutureSex/Lovesounds was a great album, but he's always been such a little fuckhead. With what he did to Britney and Janet, his Punk'd episode, and just how he acts in general is just blegh.

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I don't know if gen x are fans but Rock Your Body is all over tiktok rn.

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i'm a millennial who was a huge fan growing up. i think he's super talented but it's clear he's a total douchebag. he was cool to me in the 2000's but if he put out a new album i would have no interest.

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Honestly, we were blessed that he tried to be an actor and released such a disappointing follow up to FS/LS because I think hed have lasted longer

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This is so ignorant. Have you even seen Trolls or Trolls World Tour or heard their MULTIPLATINUM SELLING / STREAMING soundtracks?!

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I legit hate him so much, my god.

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Sean Paul is way more talented. I fucking hate justin timberlake

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he can't seem to help but irritate

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Ofc he did. Hes an asshole, always has been one and Im glad time has not been kind to him and hes now getting his just desserts for years of shittiness.

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This story ... like i just know the 2002/fresh off nsync and his solo debut Justin was probably the biggest asshole ugh you fucking noodle haired bitch!!

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I hate this man

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Hes just the fucking worst



Sean Paul is a legend

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Ms Sitharaman has announced a huge capital expenditure outlay across sectors from health to infrastructure, and even to the financial sector, by setting up a Developmental Financial Institution with a capitalisation of Rs 20,000 crores. ((Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP)

It was a sober budget for sombre times. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered her third Union Budget without rhetorical flourishes. It was not the once in hundred years Budget the finance minister had promised. There is nothing bold or imaginative. It is the usual State-led Budget. But her quotation from Rabindranath Tagore, Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark, reflects the mood of the government. There is the feeling that the economy is at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel, and the post-pandemic turnaround is around the corner.

Ms Sitharaman has announced a huge capital expenditure outlay across sectors from health to infrastructure, and even to the financial sector, by setting up a Developmental Financial Institution with a capitalisation of Rs 20,000 crores. She wants the DFI to develop a lending portfolio of Rs 5 lakh crores. The political message is quite clear: that the State is back in the economic saddle. The Economic Survey 2020-21, placed in Parliament on January 29, had strongly recommended that in a time of crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the State should step in. The Budget has followed the advice proferred in the Survey.

But the catch lies in this. Most of the capital expenditure is directed toward projects that have a long gestation period, whether it is increasing health centres or setting up biological safety level laboratories or the national institutes of virology. It will take more than a few years for these to become functional in a meaningful sense. At the most, it would create enough jobs in the construction sector as well as through recruitment for the facilities to be set up.

The Rs. 5.54 lakh crore capital expenditure outlay for 2021-22, a 34.5 per cent increase over the Rs. 4.12 lakh crore Budget estimate of 2020-21, may look sharp, but given the economic challenge, this incremental change is indeed quite modest.

The fiscal stimulus that the industrialists and analysts were looking for was that of an immediate one through direct and indirect handouts that would help in jigging the economy. But the finance minister has refused to go the populist way, something that the Narendra Modi government has resisted through its grandstanding of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat packages through the different stages of the lockdown. The stimulus remains an indirect one. The government is willing to create financial institutions like DFI to funnel financial flows. The government itself will stick to building biological safety laboratories and virology centres.

The finance minister, who is a firm believer in economic reforms and a liberalised economy, found her hands tied, but she has held out the hope that privatisation will continue. She has announced that the government has approved the strategic disinvestment policy, though the details have not been spelt out. She seems to believe that the sale of Air India, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd et al would be completed this year, and she has set the disinvestment target of Rs.1.75 lakh crores, which may be difficult to realise.

The government has tackled the troublesome issue of the non-performing assets (NPAs) of the public sector banks by announcing the setting up of the Asset Reconstruction Company and Asset Management Company, which will serve as a bad bank, as suggested in some quarters.

The only populist gesture with a political intent is her allocation of funds for economic corridors as part of augmenting road infrastructure in election-bound states like Tamil Nadu (Rs 1.03 lakh crores investment for 3,500 km), West Bengal (Rs 25,000 crores for 675 km), Assam (Rs 34,000 crores for 1,300 km, apart from the Rs 19,000 crores earlier allocated). But she cannot be faulted for these allocations because she was indeed looking at the bigger infrastructure push. The outlay for the ministry of road transport and highways is Rs 1,18,101 lakh crores, of which, the minister said, Rs 1,08,230 lakh crores was for capital expenditure.

The government does not seem to be too afraid of the 9.5 fiscal deficit for 2021, and it is hopeful that the deficit will be gradually reduced to 4.5 per cent by 2025-26. This looks like a realistic pathway. This would be feasible if the economy recovers its growth rate and tax and other revenues improve in the next couple of years.

The vague hope entertained by the Narendra Modi government, especially by Prime Minister Modi himself, that India will become a prime player in the world economy in the post-Covid-19 situation may not work out though it is no fault of the Prime Ministers optimism. India is not yet an economic engine of growth globally as China is, and there are many things to be sorted out in the domestic market. The major issue is that of reviving competition. And that seems to be a steep climb back. There are only a few big players in the private sector, and while the government may deny all the charges of encouraging crony capitalism, the main issue is that economic vibrancy will not be restored without real competition. The Start Up India programme was supposed to create competition, but the success of Start Up India has been lukewarm.

The suspicion lingers that the government is only too keen to be helming the economy and that the private sector is equally content to play second fiddle to the government. The dreams of a free market economy have now receded that much because of Covid-19. The government can justifiably retort that it has been forced to be in the drivers seat and that it will have to do the job. Mr Modi will be only too happy to set targets for every sector in the economy!

The private sector can continue to remain passive and follow the goals set by the government, and we can abandon all our dreams of a liberalised economy! Or, the private sector can clinch the initiative, and entrepreneurs can step out and set up businesses and create jobs. India can get back to a high growth trajectory only in conditions of a market economy, and only if the private sector plays a major role.
[February 02, 2021] Swipeclock launches WorkforceHub to Deliver Mission-Critical Work Tech for Small Business

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Swipeclock, a leader in small business work tech solutions, announced the official launch of WorkforceHub, an HR management system intentionally designed for small business employers. Along with the official product launch, Swipeclock published a WorkforceHub website and visual identity. WorkforceHub addresses a gap faced by small businesses struggling to manage complex, ever-changing labor requirements. They want workforce management tools that are agile, flexible, responsive and don't get in the way. WorkforceHub answers the call  connecting workforce management, strategic HR and core HR in one hub that grows with the business. "WorkforceHub is built for scaling small businesses," said Coleman Barney, CEO of Swipeclock. "It's flexible, automated workflows keep our customers on track without distracting from the real purpose of their business. We give our customers more of what they need and less of what they don't." Designed by a team of labor optimization specialists, WorkforceHub offers a modern, crisp UI, which delivers essential tols that are easy to learn and use because small business employees and managers have important work to do. Swipeclock built its HR solution to help frontline supervisors and leaders get mission-critical tasks done  efficiently and quickly. A rapid time to value is a must have for small businesses.



The company's product launch and brand evolution include a new logo and a vibrant mark that distinguishes its hardworking, yet simple approach to HR. To learn more about Swipeclock and its WorkforceHub work tech solutions, visit www.workforcehub.com.

About Swipeclock

Swipeclock provides Work Tech solutions designed for the way small businesses work. With a "get in and get work done" friendly and clean user interface, Swipeclock solutions minimize compliance challenges, improve productivity and have the rapid time to value that small businesses need. Swipeclock's flagship product, WorkforceHub, seamlessly connects core human resources, time and labor, benefits management, and talent within one unified solution. Over 30,000 businesses and 1,000,000 employees are powered by Swipeclock solutions. They are built and supported by teams of workforce management experts, ensuring robust features and an implementation process engineered to deliver quick results and delighted clients. Learn more at www.swipeclock.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/swipeclock-launches-workforcehub-to-deliver-mission-critical-work-tech-for-small-business-301219719.html SOURCE SwipeClock

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New Delhi: India on Tuesday (February 2) registered 8,635 new coronavirus infections in a day, the lowest in eight months, while the daily deaths fell below 100 after almost nine months, according to Union health ministry data. The number of COVID-19 cases stands at 1,07,66,245 and the death toll increased to 1,54,486 with 94 new fatalities, the data said.

In the last 24 hours, India has reported 13,423 discharges and 94 deaths taking the total discharges and death toll to 1,04,48,406 and 1,54,486 respectively. The total number of active COVID-19 cases stands at 1,63,353.

According to the data, a total of 19,77,52,057 samples was tested for COVID-19 up to February 1. Out of these, 6,59,422 samples were tested on Monday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). So far, 39,50,156 people have been vaccinated.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,04,48,406 pushing the national recovery rate to 97.05 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate has dropped to 1.43 per cent. The COVID-19 active caseload remained below two lakh for the 14th consecutive day.

According to the data, there are 1,63,353 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprise 1.52 per cent of the total caseload.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed 20 lakh on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 19,77,52,057 samples have been tested up to February 1 with 6,59,422 samples being tested on Monday.

Live TV

Telangana today added 152 fresh COVID-19 Cases, taking the total infection count to over 2.94 lakh while one fatality pushed the toll to 1,602.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 29, followed by Rangareddy and Medchal Malkajgiri with 11 each, a government bulletin said on Tuesday providing details as of 8 pm on February 1.

The total number of cases stood at 2,94,739 while recoveries were at 2,91,115. As many as 2,022 patients are under treatment and36,058 samples were tested on Monday. Cumulatively, over 79.15 lakh samples have been tested.

The samples tested per million population was over 2.12 lakh, the bulletin said. The case fatality rate in the state was 0.54 per cent, while it was 1.4 per cent at the national level. The recovery rate in Telangana was 98.77 per cent, while it was 97 per cent in the country.

Meanwhile, a total of 7,893 people -- around 75 per cent of the targeted beneficiaries -- were administered the vaccine against the coronavirus in Delhi on Monday. Fifteen cases of adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) were reported during the day, authorities told PTI.

Vaccines were administered at 106 centres. Each centre has a target of 100 immunizations against COVID-19 per day, a senior Delhi government official is quoted as saying.

"The vaccination percentage was 74.46 per cent. There were 23 sites where 100 or more vaccinations (were) achieved. These included seven centres set up at Delhi government hospitals," he told PTI.

Coronavirus vaccination in Delhi is held four days a week, barring Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

On Saturday, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the world`s largest vaccination drive is going on in the country and is progressing quickly with 37 lakh plus beneficiaries vaccinated in the first 15 days.

(With Agency Inputs)
A Pennsylvania mother is warning other parents about the dangers of Bunchems, the colorful toy balls that stick together, after 150 became tangled in her daughter's hair and required 20 hours to untangle.

Churchville resident Lisa Hoelzle's six-year-old twins were playing in the basement on January 8th when 'jokester' Noah poured a box of the 'velcro'-like balls over his sister Abigail's head.

The 47-year-old mother-of-two said she had an 'out of body experience' when Abigail emerged with the toys completely matted in layers of her hair, calling the incident the 'worst Mom nightmare' she had experienced to date.

Uh-oh! Churchville, Pennsylvania resident Lisa Hoelzle, 47, says her six-year-old twins were playing when Noah poured a box of Bunchems on his sister Abigail's head

Wow! 150 Bunchems got tangled in Abigail's hair, taking Lisa and her husband Dan 20 hours (with breaks) to remove

Lisa took to Facebook to share the story on January 10, warning other parents to steer clear of the sticky toys.

She explained that her twins finished virtual school that Friday and retired to the basement to play, but their fun times only last about ten minutes before Noah ran up the stairs to say that Abigail 'had something stuck in her hair.'

'Then she came up!' said Lisa. 'I think I had an out of body experience. Apparently, Noah had poured a container of Bunchems on Abigails head being a jokester.'

'She had about 150 of these things layered and matted in her hair,' she went on. 'They made it worse trying to remove them theirselves because the connect together kinda like Velcro.

'It took me about 3 hours to get out 15. Then [my husband] Dan got home and googled it an we realized the severity of what we were up against.'

Lisa learned that Abigail was not the first child to get the Bunchems stuck in her hair, and found 'a ton of posts [that] come up of children that this had happened to.'

From their Google searches, they learned that conditioner and vegetable oil could loose the toys, but 'that made it worse and so messy'.

Yikes! Lisa called the ordeal 'traumatic' and the 'worst Mom nightmare' she had experienced to date'

What a mess! An online tip to use conditioner and vegetable oil just made Abigail's hair more messy, but mineral oil and a detangle comb helped

Her husband managed to get ten more Bunchems out of Abigail's hair.

'Before you knew it, it was 1am and Abigail could not keep her eyes open. I slept with her head on me so they wouldnt get more tangled. Not that I really could sleep,' she said.

'If we cut them out, because of how deep they were, she would have winded up with a short pixie cut. It crushed my heart and I just couldnt in my heart give up without trying my best to get them out. I am that Mom that has a bow to match each outfit!'

The next morning, they got back to working on detangling her hair.

'My mom's friend suggested mineral oil and I got a good detangle comb and started my mission,' she went on. 'There was also a lot of tears (mine). Abigail consoled me and Noah because he felt awful what he did.

'Abigail was surprisingly amazing about it!' she went on. 'When she started to whine about it, my mom brought in a lollipop and stuck it in her mouth.

The pair made the mammoth task 'fun' through TV, snacks and songs and after 20 hours of labor (with breaks), and despite Lisa's swollen fingertips, they felt elated when it was all over.

Once all the toys were out, Abigail spent an hour or more in the bath tub with conditioner to help comb out the knots.

'Abigail was surprisingly amazing about it!' Lisa said. 'When she started to whine about it, my mom brought in a lollipop and stuck it in her mouth;

Not happy: Lisa called manufacturer Spin Master to complain, but the company insisted there is a warning on the box

Lisa said it was a 'small miracle' that Abigail's locks were salvaged, adding: 'This will be something we will never forget, a very traumatic experience in the Hoelzle household this weekend.'

Lisa's post has gone viral, earning 223,000 shares and spreading her warning far and wide.

'Trash you Bunchems,' she wrote. 'If you love them, wear a shower cap when playing with a sibling!

'You better believe I am calling the company tomorrow and consumer alert but I am sure it will not make a difference.'

But according to Kennedy News and Media, toy manufacturer Spin Master said that the packaging clearly states Bunchems 'may' become entangled in hair and it is 'important for parents to understand' that they were only intended to be adhered to other Bunchems.'

Lisa, at least, is feeling a bit better about the ordeal now that it's over.

'I can laugh about it now  it's funny [her hair] did look like Cindy Lou Who,' she said.

'I have certain toys that I put away that I know would be a big mess or a hazard if I wasn't sitting there and then there's toys that I let them play freely with  the Bunchems were in that category,' she added.

What a pain! Other parents have faced similar 'nightmares' from the sticky toy

No more: Though the product is still on the market, it was discontinued in 2019

'They were probably down there 10 to 15 minutes tops and Noah came up and said "Mommy, Abigail has something stuck in her hair."

'When he realized what happened, he cried. He said, 'Why did they make them if that happens?' It was really devastating for the whole entire family.

'I was my worst mom nightmare to date that's for sure  I know there could be a lot worse things that could happen and I'm grateful for our health, but it certainly was a nightmare,' she went on.

Lisa said that there's a small label at the front of the toy's packaging warning that they may get tangled in hair  but 'may get tangled' was an 'understatement' to their 'crazy' experience.

She claims Spin Master's online guidance made the removal process 'look so easy' but it didn't work for them.

In the end, mineral oil, a detangling comb, and sheer determination were their saving grace.

Lisa said: 'I was really calm in the beginning and then when I realized, "Holy cow, mommy can usually fix everything and I don't think I can fix this." That's when I had a crying meltdown.

All better! It took the family 20 hours  with breaks  to get the balls out of the child's hair. Abigail then detangled her locks in the bath

Family bonding: Noah felt so bad about the incident, and Lisa said it 'was one of those experiences that you'd never forget'

'It was very mentally draining  like the worst job imaginable that you know you have to do and you dread doing it, but I tried to make it fun.

She even started naming the individual Bunchems.

'I was doing all this work but didn't know what the end result would be or if her hair was going to fall out from all the pulling,' she said.

'I couldn't believe that I got them out. It was the best feeling ever, like Christmas on steroids.

'We were so blessed and I feel like it was a small miracle in a lot of ways  that she sat the whole time and let me do it, because normally she doesn't like to get her hair brushed, and that we were able to get them out without any bald spots.

'This is something that we'll be talking about for our whole entire lives. I will be talking about this with my future grandchildren as it was one of those experiences that you'd never forget.

'I posted because I didn't want it to happen to anybody else  I'm hoping it might save some hair, headaches and heartache for some families.'

Following her post, Lisa was inundated with messages from those who've had similar experiences, and was even sent pictures of the little toys suck in grown men's beards and animals.

Warning: Lisa's post  along with her warning to other parents  has gone viral

In a bid to bring about change, she's also launched a formal complaint with Spin Master and urges those who've gone through the same ordeal to get in touch with them too.

Lisa said: 'I wanted to make them aware of how many people this is happening to, which was mindblowing to me as my phone was blowing up with "same thing happened to me."

'Parents said Christmas has been ruined as they got stuck in hair on Christmas eve and had to spend the next day getting them out. It's insane.

'In my heart of all hearts, this wasn't like it was just my kids playing and a freak accident with just them. There are lots of children that this has happened to, and to me that's heartbreaking and I really hope they make a change about it.

'I suggested [to Spin Master] stronger warning labels to inform parents before they open the package inside and possibly to include a shower cap, so parents would know they mean business.

A spokesperson for Spin Master said: 'When we launched Bunchems in August 2015, we received an overwhelmingly positive response from children, parents and industry partners.

'Bunchems are colorful, soft, tactile balls that make endless creations, however, they are intended only to be adhered to other Bunchems. This is particularly important for parents and caregivers to understand.

'The Bunchems packaging and directions clearly state: "Caution: Keep away from hair. May become entangled."

'Immediately after the product was released in 2015 and after hearing from a few consumers about hair entanglement, we quickly developed instructional videos for our YouTube channel and website as a way to proactively educate people on how to play with the product and how to remove Bunchems from hair if they do get tangled.

'We were also very careful to avoid depicting any creations in our marketing materials that show an end result that could be "worn" or placed on or near hair. The vast majority of calls our customer care team received were from people trying to find the product at retail.

'There is still product in market, however, the brand has since been discontinued as of 2019 as our activities category has moved on to other fun tactile products such as Kinetic Sand and Orbeez.

'We still want everyone to enjoy the endless play Bunchems has provided, and to ensure safe fun, we encourage consumers to follow the directions carefully and properly. Spin Masters Customer Care team can always be reached.'
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Earlier this month, in a piece for The Atlantic, Joshua Coleman describedan epidemic thats not COVID but thats also afflicting America: family estrangement. As a psychologist who specializes in family therapy, Coleman reports that his practice is flooded with older parents mourning the loss of contact with their grown children and with grown children angry and hurt by conflict with parents. The rules of family life have changed, he said.

The more recent changes in family structures and dynamics he described have only added to the pressure already felt by earlier stressors. For example, the Industrial Revolution, which moved work from inside the home to out, completely upended family life in all kinds of ways. The more recent forces of family estrangement, on the other hand, dont come so much from the outside as from the inside.

Coleman quotes Stephanie Coontz, the Director of Research at the Council on Contemporary Families, to clarify this point:

Never before have family relationships been seen as so interwoven with the search for personal growth, the pursuit of happiness, and the need to confront and overcome psychological obstacles.

This shift is bigger than we might suspect. Coontz continues,

For most of history family relationships were based on mutual obligations rather than on mutual understanding. Parents or children might reproach the other for failing to honor/acknowledge their duty, but the idea that a relative could be faulted for failing to honor/acknowledge ones identity would have been incomprehensible (emphasis added).

In other words, we used to understand our families in light of our duties to them. Now we are increasingly understanding our families in light of their duty to us. Whats more, we increasingly think that their primary duty is to make us happy.

Havent we seen this same sort of approach play out in other areas of our lives? My spouse and my marriage should make me happy. If not, divorce is the only answer, no matter how it impacts the children. My church should make me happy (and agree with all of my opinions). If not, Ill find another one, maybe online. My work should leave me fulfilled. If not, its my works fault.

The same pop psychology, self-care, find-your-bliss platitudes are plastered all over social media: get rid of toxic people in your life who make you feel unhappy. Surround yourself only with positivity. Dont let other people suck the energy out of you. Not only is it good to ditch the people you dont like, social media will give you the impression that it actually makes you brave and laudable and strong.

All of this is, of course, a nearly perfect inverse of biblical counsel. From Paul in Ephesians 4: Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Paul assumes that living with others requires some bearing with, which probably implies that we require some bearing with, as well.

Family members make mistakes, of course. In cases of abuse, severing a relationship may be necessary and justified. Sometimes, however, our family members are simply annoying. Maybe they merely point out where weve gone wrong, and there are times parents warn children off a dangerous path because of their own painful experiences. To automatically confuse tough love or even disagreement with being toxic is not only to serve our own pride, its foolishly to sacrifice an essential relationship.

We need the wisdom and care that only comes from those who know us best. We need what Proverbs calls the faithful wounds of a friend (Prov 27:6). In this fallen world, families will never be perfect, but God designed them to be the first and best safety net we should all have.

Over the last several years, the generation gap has clearly widened, especially over three issues: sex, technology, and Trump. Over the last year, COVID and masks have been added to that list. All of these issues matter, of course, and there arent two sides to all of them, but these relational splits in our families  not to mention our churches and friendships  are too often not born out of wisdom, and certainly not out of the biblical instructions for how we should treat our families, but out of a social media, YouTube comments-section sort of mentality.

The family is a sacred design that was gifted to us by God. We ought not squander it. We have duty to serve it. If we do, it will be another way for Christians to be counter-cultural, another way for us to live for something bigger than ourselves and our own happiness.

Originally posted at breakpoint.org
Cushman Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) advised on the forward purchase of a purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) asset in the city center of Bristol, England.

F3GROUP has agreed the sale to one of DWS' German real estate funds. The purchase price is approximately $77 million (57 million) and construction will complete ahead of the 2021-2022 academic year. The building is leased to the University of Bristol on a long-term basis.

Located in the Redcliffe area of Bristol city center, the asset is designed by award-winning architects GSS and, once complete, will provide state-of-the-art PBSA with 357 student beds in total. Total floor space is more than 92,000 square feet and amenities include a gym, study space, bike parking, cinema room and communal lounge.

"F3 has an outstanding reputation built over the past 30 years for managing and developing high quality assets across multiple sectors. This strategic exit demonstrates that even in tough economic conditions there is still strong demand from market leading investors for long term income assets," said Gavin Gleave, Chief Executive Officer at F3GROUP.

"We are extremely pleased with this investment into a thriving city and one of the UK's best student markets and we are looking forward to working together over the coming months to bring this development to fruition," said Mike Hill, Head of Real Estate Transactions, UK and Ireland, at DWS.

"We are delighted to have acted on behalf of DWS in the forward purchase of this prime PBSA asset. This aligns with the University of Bristol's business plan to develop high-caliber courses around the major growth sectors of the global economy. This, together with the challenges to develop new PBSA within central Bristol and a 15-year RPI index linked lease to the University, makes for a compelling investment acquisition," commentedNick Allan, International Partner Capital Markets, Cushman Wakefield.

On completion, the property will be connected to the Bristol City's District Heat Network as part of the overall sustainability strategy, aiming for a BREEAM Excellent rating for the building.

About Cushman Wakefield

Cushman Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) is a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners. Cushman Wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms with approximately 53,000 employees in 400 offices and 60 countries. In 2019, the firm had revenue of $8.8 billion across core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, valuation and other services. To learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com or follow @CushWake on Twitter.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005857/en/

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 20:03:26|Editor: huaxia

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A traditional dance troupe entertain guests on the occasion of receiving the second Airbus A330neo aircraft at Entebbe International Airport in Wakiso District, Central Region of Uganda, Feb. 2, 2021. Uganda on Tuesday received its second Airbus A330neo aircraft, bringing the total fleet to six as the national carrier, Uganda Airlines, continues with revival efforts. The A330neo aircraft touched down at Entebbe International Airport, 40 km south of the capital Kampala, on Tuesday as few invited guests due to COVID-19 guidelines cheered. The country received a similar aircraft last month. (Photo by Nicholas Kajoba/Xinhua)

KAMPALA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Uganda on Tuesday received its second Airbus A330neo aircraft, bringing the total fleet to six as the national carrier, Uganda Airlines, continues with revival efforts.

The A330neo aircraft touched down at Entebbe International Airport, 40 km south of the capital Kampala, on Tuesday as few invited guests due to COVID-19 guidelines cheered. The country received a similar aircraft last month.

Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda who received the aircraft thanked Ugandan pilots and aircraft engineers for playing a critical role in offering technical guidance to the government in restarting Uganda Airlines.

According to the carrier, the two new aircraft will soon start making direct flights to Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

"The successful delivery is an affirmation of Uganda Airlines' ambition to start long haul operation and this new wide-body pair will serve the carrier's international network expansion with flights from its hub at Entebbe International Airport," said the airline in a Tuesday statement.

Uganda Airlines collapsed in 2001 after it faced financial difficulties. It was liquidated after years of making losses.

Uganda began flight operations in August 2019 with the four Bombardiers CRJ900 for regional flights.

Government is optimistic that the revival of the national flag carrier will boost the country's economic growth and tourism. Ugandans spend over 400 million U.S. dollars on air travel annually. Enditem
In introducing his new attorney, Bruce L. Castor Jr., former President Donald Trump hailed his pick as a highly respected trial lawyer who brought a national profile to the team that will defend him at his Senate impeachment trial next week.

But in Castors home state of Pennsylvania on Monday, the choice left Trump allies, GOP officials, and even some of Castors closest colleagues scratching their heads in confusion and surprise.

Few said they had any idea that Castor  Montgomery Countys former limelight-loving, hard-charging district attorney, a man who harbored statewide political ambitions only to see them flame out as he burned bridges again and again within his own party  was up for such a high-profile job.

Fewer still had the any inkling of how he  a man who hasnt been involved in state Republican politics in years, has cultivated no known links to Trumps inner circle, and hasnt publicly endorsed the baseless notion, popular in his party, that the election was stolen by fraud  had found his way onto the former presidents radar.

The New York Times reported Monday that the introduction came from Castors cousin, Stephen, a lawyer for the House Oversight Committee who served as counsel for the Republicans during Trumps 2019 impeachment hearings.

 READ MORE: 5 things to know about Bruce Castor, the Montgomery County lawyer now repping Donald Trump

Castor, 59, of Lower Salford, uncharacteristically wasnt saying anything. He did not return repeated calls seeking comment. But that hasnt stopped his allies  or his political enemies  on both sides of Pennsylvanias political divide from speculating in the meantime.

Brian Miles, a longtime friend, said hes never discussed Trump with Castor beyond a passing conversation a few weeks ago in which he mentioned he was up for the job with the former president but dismissed it as a long shot. Still, the pick made sense to him.

Hes a natural choice, Miles said. Hes an unparalleled attorney. Hes always been  whats the word?  not a favorite of the political establishment. Someone whos going to take this role on has to be someone whos immune to the pressures of political influence.

In some ways, it seems inevitable that Trumps postelection impeachment drama would find its way back to Pennsylvania. The states votes were at the center of the former presidents attempts to overturn the election. And Montgomery County, where Castor served in elected office for 16 years, was key to delivering the votes that pushed President Joe Biden to victory. U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, who represents the county in Congress, will be one of the Democratic House impeachment managers against whom Castor will be facing off.

Democratic public affairs executive Larry Ceisler said he had no clue what Castors motivations were for agreeing to get involved. Castor told Ceisler in a brief communication Sunday that Trump had reached out to him.

Listen, if youve been out of the limelight and you like the limelight and youre asked to do this  even though some people say My God, how could you do this?  its being a lawyer, Ceisler surmised. A lawyer takes on the case.

Some, like former Democratic Party Chairman Marcel Groen, questioned whether Castor might be seeking to raise his profile before another run for statewide Pennsylvania office.

Hes tried running for district attorney, he was trying to become attorney general, and he burned a lot of bridges along the way, mainly on his side of the aisle, Groen said. This is an opportunity to have a high-profile case and gives him an opportunity.

However Castor landed his gig with Trump, the fact that the two Republican iconoclasts would one day find each other makes more sense than many might think on first blush.

Like Trump, Castor  known for his confident swagger around Montgomery County courthouse in his trademark pinstripe suits and cowboy boots  has a penchant for the flamboyant side of politics and what makes good TV.

Like Trumps, Castors career in the Pennsylvania Republican Party has been consistently marked by battles with more establishment figures, whom he has forced at times to begrudgingly reckon with him by the sheer force of his popularity with voters.

And just like his new client, Castor has had his own brush with feeling that an election had been stolen from him.

After deciding to leave the DAs Office in 2007 to test the waters for a seat on Montgomery Countys three-man commissioners board, Castor emerged as the candidate with the largest share of the votes by far and entered his new post feeling he had a mandate to lead.

But his Republican running mate, James R. Matthews  an acolyte of Pennsylvania GOP heavyweight Bob Asher, who was no fan of Castors  forged a power-sharing agreement with the third winning candidate, former U.S. Rep. Joseph M. Hoeffel III, that effectively iced Castor out of power.

What I am unhappy about, Castor told The Inquirer at the time, is that the will of the voters was overturned by Commissioner Matthews and his desire to deal with the Democrats.

Four years of public feuding and acrimony followed, with Matthews, the brother of former MSNBC host Chris Matthews, often referring to his fellow Republican as a man with an ego so big it could float the Titanic. Castor trashed Matthews as an abhorrence. And Hoeffel was often left looking ready to toss up his hands at the constant name-calling and caterwauling.

Nearly a decade later, those resentments still run deep. Hoeffel said Monday that he was just as surprised as anyone to hear about Castors new role at Trumps side but noted that the pairing made some sense.

These two guys are a good fit for each other  two divisive politicians who really want to hurt their perceived enemies, he said. Bruce Castor was Montgomery Countys Donald Trump when Trump was still stiffing his subcontractors in Atlantic City.

Castor, for his part, always defended his more outlandish behavior on the commissioners board, saying he was appalled to discover how much of the countys business was conducted by backroom dealing  Montgomery Countys own version of the deep state.

And once Hoeffel and Matthews left office, Castor worked amicably with their successors, Democrats Josh Shapiro and Leslie S. Richards  so much so that the man once considered an outlier on the GOP stage suddenly had detractors in his own party, most notably his eventual successor Republican Commissioner Joe Gale, calling him an establishment lapdog.

It is clear that Bruce Castor, a has-been politician from Montgomery County, is being resurrected to offset my growing popularity across the county and state, Gale said Monday of Castors selection by Trump.

Castor opted not to run for reelection in 2015, seeking instead a return to the job that made him famous  district attorney  a campaign he lost in a fiercely fought battle with one of his former assistant district attorneys, Kevin R. Steele.

In defeat, he vowed to return to private practice, declaring afterward: The Republican Party is dead in Pennsylvania, never to rise again.

But like Trump, Castor has proved to be a master of second, third and even fourth acts. Despite his declarations of being done with public life, he has resurfaced over the years with a Zelig-like frequency.

In 2016, embattled Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, appointed him to serve as her replacement as she resigned amid a scandal that resulted in criminal prosecution.

Castors stint as acting attorney general lasted two weeks before Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled Senate rushed in their own interim pick to replace him. But, despite that short tenure, he still played his moment to the hilt.

Within hours of assuming the post, he had the offices website revamped to prominently feature his photo and raised the possibility at an introductory news conference of prosecuting one of Kanes political enemies who testified against her.

Months before, he had reemerged as a star witness in Bill Cosbys defense  a role that allowed him both to publicly relive his glory days as district attorney and strike against a political enemy, Steele, who had defeated Castor, in part by campaigning against his decision not to charge the comedian when he had the chance a decade earlier.

Castors involvement centered on a deal he said he struck with Cosbys attorney in 2005, after he had declined as DA to file charges based on accuser Andrea Constands claims that she had been drugged and sexually assaulted in Cosbys Cheltenham home.

As Castor outlined it, he agreed that Cosby could never be prosecuted if he agreed to sit for a deposition in a civil suit Constand had filed against him. He insisted that the new charges Steele brought against Cosby in 2015 was therefore precluded from moving forward. Called to testify about that agreement, he sat tall in the witness stand, beginning with a 20-minute recitation of his career and the awards he had won.

There would be so many, he told the judge, it might be easier to submit a resume. And he declared himself, as district attorney, as the sovereign of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, assuring the judge that his word to Cosby was ironclad.

Ultimately, Judge Steven T. ONeill, found there was no evidence beyond Castors word to support that. The deal had never been memorialized in writing. And Castor, the judge ruled, was ultimately not a credible witness.

Since then, Castor has kept a lower profile, busying himself in private practice, most recently at the Center City firm Van der Veen, ONeill, Hatshorn and Levin.

 READ MORE: Castor looks back at 30 years in government

But with his new gig for Trump, he now has his work cut out for him.

With less than a week to prepare, he will defend the president at a historic second impeachment trial, this time on charges of inciting the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and disrupting Congress as it moved to certify President-elect Joe Bidens victory.

Last time, Trump had nationally renowned lawyers to defend him against charges related to his pressure campaign to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and the Democrats.

This time, it will be primarily Castor and another attorney Trump chose Sunday evening, Alabama criminal defense lawyer David Schoen.

But those who know him best warned against counting Castor out just yet. After all, few other could have survived so many otherwise career-ending political losses, few others could amass a list of enemies as long as his and still find his way into the spotlight, and few others have a sense of courtroom and political dynamics sharply honed after decades in both arenas, they said.

He is the eternal Cinderella, said Miles. Hes a man for whom incredible things happen. Thats one similarity he has to Trump.

Inquirer staff writers Julia Terruso, Chris Brennan and Barbara Laker contributed to this article.
Budget for economic corridors and fisheries too announced

New Delhi: The Union Budget on Monday saw the Center announcing a number of multi-crore fund allocation for infrastructure in the four poll bound states of West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam. The BJP is keen to expand its footprint in these states. Though it is in power in Assam it wants to retain power in the state while wanting to be a real challenger in the others. These states are scheduled to go to polls after April and May this year.

In Tamil Nadu, where the BJP is trying to expand its footprint, a 3,500-km long highway with an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crore was announced. Amidst cheers from her party MPs in Parliament, the finance minister announced that the allocation would include the construction of the Madurai-Kollam economic corridor. Additionally, a Kochi-Chennai-Visakhapatnam fisheries hub is to be set up along with a multipurpose seaweed park in that state.

Kerala got a Rs 65,000-crore road infrastructure project under the 2021-22 Budget. This would entail construction of 1,100 km of roads in the state. The finance minister specifically mentioned that the phase two of the Kochi metro railway, covering a length of 11.5 km at a cost of Rs 1957.05 crore, would be carried out from the allocation, besides including the 600-km section of the Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor that would pass through Kerala.

Additionally, Rs 1,957 crore will be allotted to the Chennai Metro project, addressing a public demand for better public transport options in the city.

For West Bengal, the finance minister announced Rs 25,000-crore worth of road projects. A stretch of 675 kilometres of National Highway is to be created. The FM also stressed on the redevelopment of the Kolkata-Siliguri highway. A welfare fund of 1,000 crore is also to be set up for tea estate workers in Assam and West Bengal.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. On 1 February 2021 the Government of the Republic of Armenia submitted an Inter-State Application against Azerbaijan with the European Court of Human Rights claiming Convention violations during and in the aftermath of the war waged by Azerbaijan, the Office of Armenias Representative before the ECHR told Armenpress.

In particular, the Armenian Government claims that Azerbaijan has violated the right to life, prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment, the right to liberty, the right to property, the right to personal and family life, the right to education, as well as a number of other Convention rights of the population of Artsakh and Armenia. Among other things, the Government raised the issues pertaining to the protection of the rights of prisoners of war; individual civilian captives; displaced people; deceased and wounded persons and their relatives; persons lost their property; local and international reporters, have been raised in the Application. A large amount of evidence has been submitted along with the Application.

The Inter-State Application is an essential step of triggering an international legal mechanism by Armenia. It is also noteworthy that this Application is the first Inter-State Application submitted by Armenia at the ECHR.

We inform that the Government will provide the Court with a large number of evidence regarding the claims already submitted in due course. The Office of the Government Agent before the ECHR will provide information about the further developments of the case, the statement says.
South Korean traders piled into U.S. stocks like GameStop Corp. and Tesla Inc. in January, driving their buying of overseas equities to a record high in January.

Korean individual and institutional investors bought a net $5 billion of foreign stocks in January, their most-ever monthly tally since 2011, when the Korea Securities Depository began collecting data.

Their positions now include $9.8 billion in Tesla Inc. shares -- the largest for any stock -- as well as about $557 million in GameStop Corp., KSDs data show. GameStop, an unprofitable videogame retailer, has drawn day traders globally, including from India and China.

With U.S. stocks representing some 80% of their holdings, Korean retail investors are highly exposed to U.S. market risks, Goldman Sachs senior Asia economist Goohoon Kwon said in a note on Sunday.

With their heavy buying during a global equity rally in late 2020, a 10% market correction for example could put one-third of their holdings in the red, Kwon wrote.

Koreas retail investors, having buoyed their domestic markets, turned to the U.S. and especially tech stocks like Tesla and Apple Inc. for returns last year.

The benchmark Kospi surged 31% in 2020, making the Korean bourse the worlds best performer after that of Nigerias.

Regulators in Seoul have been warning retail investors, and especially those indulging in reckless borrowing to be cautious about investing overseas.
Divide: A bus crossing the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic

People arriving in Northern Ireland airports and ports will soon be required to fill in passenger locator forms if they are travelling across the border to the Republic.

The Irish Government's Cabinet have been asked to sign off on a deal which will see passenger information shared on both sides of the border.

The move will mean people flying into Northern Ireland and travelling south will have to detail where they will be restricting their movements for two weeks after arrival.

Irish airport and port authorities will also collect passenger information on people arriving in Ireland before travelling north. This information will then be shared with Northern Ireland authorities.

In the Republic, it is an offence to provide incorrect information on a passenger locator form and can be punished by a fine of up to 2,500 (2,200 ) or six months in prison.

The has been on going tensions between the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Assembly over the sharing of passenger information. GDPR issues were cited as an issue by the Dublin officials but the problem has since been overcome and the information will now be shared.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney held a meeting last night with Northern Ireland leaders Arlene Foster and Michelle ONeill. Health Minister Robin Swann also attended the video conference call.

Mr Donnelly told Cabinet he is finalising regulations that will require people arriving in Ireland from Northern Ireland via ports or airports to complete a passenger locator form.

The minister also said legislation will be required to introduce mandatory quarantine facilities for people arriving into the country.

There is frustration within government over the slow pace of quarantine being introduced in the Republic. One Government source said: Donnelly hasnt advanced mandatory quarantine on iota.

It comes as authorities in Britain are tackling outbreaks of the potentially more infectious South African variant of the coronavirus.

There have been nine cases of the South African variant in Ireland to date and all were contained before they could spread in to the community.
Posted Monday, February 1, 2021 6:29 am

Around 4:40 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29, a caller to 911 requested the presence of a deputy at Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital in Vancouver, according to a release from the Clark County Sheriffs Office (CCSO). The release said the 911 caller reported that her mother, who had been admitted the day before for medical reasons, was being held against her will at the hospital. The caller said she had medical power of attorney over her mother and was not being allowed to see her.

According to the release, the patient had refused to submit to a COVID-19 test upon admittance to the hospital and had been placed in a 24-hour quarantine for protection while receiving medical treatment. According to hospital personnel, the daughter had refused to wear a mask upon entering the hospital and was refused access to see her mother in quarantine.

When a deputy from the sheriffs office arrived, he spoke with the patient, who he determined via basic questioning was able to make her own decisions and that she had stated to the deputy that she wished to remain in the hospital to receive treatment. Meanwhile, an estimated 15 to 20 people began arriving at the hospital's emergency department at the apparent request of the patient's daughter, demanding the release of the patient. A friend of the daughter had streamed a request online for "all hands on deck" to come to the hospital to demand the release of the patient.

Due to the large number of people congregating at the entrance to the hospitals emergency department, Legacy security personnel requested additional CCSO units to respond to the situation. Deputies were advised that the hospital was going to go into lockdown as the crowd was shouting and demanding the release of the patient. The people congregated in and outside the sheltered area just outside the entrance to the emergency department.

According to the release, the main focus of the presence of law enforcement was to prevent a rush of people entering the hospital and to ensure the safety of the patients and staff at the hospital.

The release said that as people began to arrive at the request of the daughter's friend, deputies noted that several were carrying firearms and gas masks. Additional units were called to the scene in order to protect the other entrances to the hospital. In total, 22 deputies responded.

At 7:55 p.m., a sergeant notified dispatch that the patient had requested to leave the hospital and that preparations were being made to discharge the patient.

According to the release, at one point during the confrontation, a number of people affiliated with the daughter attempted to force their way into the hospital when the doors were opened to admit an unrelated person needing medical treatment. These people were physically pushed back by deputies. One unidentified male who tried again to force the doors open and assault a deputy during the attempt to enter the hospital was advised to leave or he would be sprayed with pepper spray. The male refused and was sprayed in the face by the deputy; however, no arrests were made.

At around 8:40 p.m. the patient was released from the hospital and transported home by family. The crowd dispersed a short time thereafter.
A number of Australian farmers are celebrating following the recent decision from dairy co-operative Norco milk to increase its payments to suppliers.

The price hike will result in farmers now snaring 77 cents per litre of milk until June 30 this year, a rise of two cents.

It equates to $2million in additional revenue from Norco to over 300 of its members across northern New South Wales and southern Queensland.

Norco chief executive officer Michael Hampson said the increase would be welcome news, especially for those farmers who have endured drought conditions in recent years.

In good news for farmers across Australia Norco milk (pictured above) has increased its payments to suppliers

The development will see farmers receive more funding for their dairy products (stock image)

'Certainly for some of our members, this will be a record price for them,' he said.

'This increase going out to our farmers should be incredibly well received based on the fact that they are still carrying a lot of debt from the prior years of drought.'

The payment increase to suppliers was signed off at Norco's board meeting on January 28.

Long term supplier Nicole Nicholls, who is based on the NSW far-north coast, said the generosity of Norco presents an opportunity to consolidate and then plan for the future on her farm.

'We are all still trying to catch up and recover from the past two years of drought that have really hammered us,' she told the ABC from her Rukenvale property.

'It (price hike) will help us start putting some capital back into our business that has been lacking for so many years.

'We are also really grateful to the customers and families doing it tough... but they are still prepared to put our home-grown product in their supermarket trolley. '

Norco Co-operative Limited was established in 1895, and enjoys a national as well as global presence.

Their products include white milk, custard, ice cream, cheese and butter.
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The debate about whether it is right for Gospel artistes to collaborate with secular musicians has been reignited again.

The discussion has heated up after Gospel musician Celestine Donkor featuring secular musicians Akwaboah and Efya on her song Thank You, Yedawase.



While some Gospel artistes have expressed disapproval saying believers did not need to be yoked with unbelievers, a section of the public believes that there should be no discrimination in God since He is for everyone.



And veteran Gospel artiste Helena Rhabbles has waded into the controversy saying secular acts should not be condemned because not all of them are indecent.



According to her, there are some good Christians among the secular artistes. One thing I know is that not all secular artistes are indecent, there are some who are good Christians and love God.



"So it will be wrong for anyone to generalise that putting any secular act on your song is not good. However, it comes down to the person you are featuring. You need to ask yourself who you are and what you stand for.



"Then you check the person you are putting on the song. Who is that person? What does the person stand for? Whatever it is, does it align with yours? If you are able to answer in the affirmative then it is ok to have that person on but if not then I dont see the need to have the person.



"This is important because whether you like it or not, whoever you put on the song will affect you in one way or the other, she told Graphic Showbiz.



Helena Rhabbles also noted that the artiste must scrutinise the verse the person he/she is featuring is bringing on board. "You know what you want, you should not allow just any lyrics on your song.



"You need to know the lyrics the person is adding to yours. Let us not forget that even the bible says we have the right to everything but it is not all that is good for us.



Having lived in the United States for two decades, Aunty Helena as she is affectionately called, advised artistes to be accepted in Ghana before going abroad.



I will advise that before anyone comes to launch an album in the states or a single, the person should work on the song being well received in Ghana first.



"This is because most often, people outside call Ghana to ask if they have heard of the song or album you have launched there. So, it is easy to cross borders if your song is well received in Ghana.









Source: Graphiconline.com









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Stephanie Lipscomb joins the Bank as Vice President, Branch Manager with over 25 years of community banking experience in Washington, DC. She will lead the team at the Bank's flagship office on Capitol Hill, focusing on client relations, business development and community engagement by expanding the Company's unique brand of relationship banking to the nearby markets of Capitol Riverfront and the H Street corridor. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Lipscomb is an active member of several community organizations including historic Dupont Circle Main Street and the High Tea Society, an organization focused on offering resources and support to young girls fostering self-confidence and positive life experiences.

Mauricio Benitez-Fuentes joins NCB as Assistant Vice President, Branch Manager of the Courthouse branch in Arlington. He brings over twelve years of retail banking experience in the Arlington-Alexandria markets to his new role with particular expertise in relationship management and community engagement. As the Courthouse branch prepares to celebrate its third anniversary, Benitez and his team are poised to continue growing market share while delivering a 'customers first' approach in their business development efforts. A long-time Northern Virginia resident, Benitez is also involved with Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC), the West End of Alexandria Business Association and is active in the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

"We are pleased to welcome Stephanie and Mauricio to NCB's Retail banking team," said Randy Anderson, President and CEO of National Capital Bank. "They are outstanding bankers with in-market experience and an understanding of the business community. We are confident their focus on relationship banking and commitment to exceptional service will lead to their teams' continued success."

The National Capital Bank of Washington was founded in 1889 and is Washington's Oldest Bank. NCB is headquartered on Capitol Hill with offices in the Friendship Heights community in Northwest D.C., the Courthouse/Clarendon community in Arlington, Virginia and the Fox Hill community of Bethesda, Maryland. NCB also operates residential mortgage and commercial lending offices and a wealth management services division. NCB product and service offerings include personal and business deposit accounts, robust online and mobile banking, sophisticated treasury management solutions, remote deposit capture and merchant processing  all delivered with top-rated personal service. NCB is well-positioned to serve all the banking needs of those in our community. For more information about NCB, visit www.nationalcapitalbank.com. The Bank trades under the symbol NACB.

SOURCE The National Capital Bank of Washington

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editorial

There has been no American envoy serving in Ethiopia who has seen so much within such a short time as Michael Raynor has. To much of it, he gave his full support. A career diplomat and specialist on Africa, Ethiopia was his second assignment to serve as an Ambassador, appointed in 2017, when Ethiopia was going through its most delicate time. Popular discontent led to unrelenting protests, pushing the EPRDFites to swim or sink. They chose to swim until they were made to sink by the very person they voted for chairman.

Bidding farewell last week, he was given an audience not by the Prime Minister but by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, who is also moonlighting as a foreign minister. Ambassador Raynor leaves Ethiopia in a much more precarious situation than when it welcomed him. Ethiopia is at war with itself, forcing tens of thousands to flee, millions to be food insecure, and unknown numbers to die.

Together with his boss, Tibor Nagy, who previously served as an ambassador to Ethiopia, Raynor gave his tactful blessing to the military conflict in the Tigray Regional State when it broke out in November 2020. From the outset, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the TPLF had attacked the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, provoking the federal government to declare what Addis Abeba saw as a quick and surgical law enforcement operation. Messieurs Nagy and Raynor did not see the need for attempts to bring the warring parties to negotiate initially.

Nagy dismissed the idea of equivalency between the federal government and TPLF in charge of the Tigray Regional State. He saw the latter as a faction of the government running a region in Ethiopia that "has decided to undertake hostilities against the central government." He chose to see the military conflict in a positive light, convinced that it "has brought the Ethiopian nation together . . . because this has really stoked Ethiopian nationalism, and hopefully that - those positive forces will remain."

Both diplomats brushed aside the prospect for a negotiated settlement, seeing both sides' determination to see the military conflict through.

"Neither side felt they could articulate a basis for a negotiated or a mediated solution," Raynor said during a press briefing, held virtually.

Nor did the Ambassador seem to feel it either.

Last week, Raynor was a more worried person than the bullish demeanor he exuded a few months ago. Speaking to the local media, he was concerned about the spawning ethnic violence across the country and alarmed by "extrajudicial killings and other sporadic violence" in Tigray Regional State, long after federal authorities declared victory. Indeed, in particular, the situation in Tigray is best captured by Michelle Bachelet, chief of the UN Commission on Rights: It is "heartbreaking as it is appalling."

The Ambassador and Bachelet are now in the long and growing list of people across the world calling for the parties in the conflict to cease hostilities, ensure the protection of civilians, allow full and safe access to humanitarian work, and uphold international human rights laws. The pressure for independent international investigations on reports of atrocities, sexual violence, and human rights violations in Tigray and other places is not relenting. Neither will it be.

Raynor's public statement in showing how much Washington is "troubled by the activities of Eritrean actors in Tigray region" would be one that is the most unpleasant for Addis Abeba to hear. Ambassador Raynor's dramatic change of position only reflects the change in policy with the arrival of the Joseph Biden administration. It was ironic that the day Americans went to the polls to cast their votes and global attention was fixated on it that the war broke out in Tigray.

Not surprisingly, the recent presidential election in the United States was rocky, and one of the most consequential acid tests to democratic institutions a mature democracy has ever seen. But Biden has been inaugurated as President, following a bumpy transfer of power, unusual for American political culture, and to the disbelief of the world.

The United States has a disproportionate sway over every other country globally, even as the gap is thinning. It built the current international order; has a significant influence in multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank; its corporations mostly run the means of communications in the digital space; and has more military bases in other countries than Britain, France and Russia combined. As the presidential election went on, and now with the Senate confirmations, the world watched very closely.

Ethiopia is no different. With the international media having portrayed the federal government negatively in its military operations in the north against the Tigray forces - deserved or not - there is a great deal of interest in how the Biden administration will respond.

Times have changed. Addis Abeba may not have as aloof or even as friendly a partner in Washington as during the Trump administration. The Democrats now control both legislative houses, however narrow the margin, and the White House. Their tone is growing critical of Prime Minister Abiy's administration, as statements from the Senate confirmations show.

The newly confirmed Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, called for accountability for the "atrocities directed at people in Tigray," and reiterated deep concerns for the situation there. This contrasts with the government's assertion of an improving humanitarian and security situation in the region.

Biden's nominee for US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, was most forthcoming in her testimony on how the humanitarian situation unfolding in Tigray has her very worried. She joined a growing and every louder cry across the world that Ethiopians are, in her own words, "in the middle of a war against their own people."

If confirmed as ambassador, Greenfield wants to have a "very frank and open discussion" with Prime Minister Abiy to "stop what they are doing and stop the fighting."

But the most worrisome to Addis Abeba should be her determination to see the United Nations take this situation on.

The turnaround in rhetoric from Washington has not gone unnoticed. This would mean that the Ethiopian government would be starting in what is at least a colder climate with the new administration, complicating its foreign policy objectives and domestic priorities. Two critical factors may determine the relationship going forward.

One is the US strategic interests and how Ethiopia figures into its overall global foreign policy. The other is the situation in the Tigray region and whether or not it improves.

Boasting the second largest population and the third biggest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is reasonable to believe Ethiopia remains an important strategic partner for the US to insist on close relations. It is hard not to imagine American aversion to allowing it to be in China's sphere of influence at such a juncture. China will undoubtedly feature as prominent in the minds of those in the American foreign policy establishment during Biden's administration as has been the case with his predecessor.

Addis Abeba may have ground to build on, especially on climate policies, another priority for the new US administration. The Prime Minister has proffered environmental policies - from mass tree-planting campaigns to climate-friendly tariffs - to see eye to eye with the Biden administration. Greater integration into the world economy and policies to boost the private sector is also actively encouraged by the multilateral institutions the United States continues and will continue to influence.

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As strong a determinant of US-Ethiopia relations will be the situation in the Tigray region. The United States wants its strategic support to achieve stable and, if possible, democratic states. But a flow of refugees, continued fighting and self-induced humanitarian crises is no way of invoking confidence with partners. Ethiopia ceases to be an essential ally relied upon to keep the peace in the region.

Addis Abeba can change course to find common ground to work with the Biden administration. The issues over which the latter are insisting are what should be Ethiopia's government priorities. Allowing unfettered humanitarian access into the region remains top on the agenda. It is to the interest - not to mention the population that is caught up in the crossfire - of the government to facilitate access. It would be a tragedy for the country to slide back into mass starvation after decades of effort to change such a grim reality.

No less vexing is the presence of Eritrean soldiers on Ethiopia's soil. Ethiopia keeps denying it, but US diplomats have confirmed it, and even Raynor has called for their withdrawal. His words should be heard. Much credibility can be restored if Addis Abeba regains confidence in allowing international investigations for alleged atrocities in Tigray by all parties.

Such push by the Americans should be welcomed. The two countries may have their differences, but it is hard to claim that the United States may not wish Ethiopia well. But if Addis Abeba departs too much from the US strategic interest, and is too unstable to be reliable, it certainly will lose the most powerful hegemon history has ever known as a partner.

PUBLISHED ON Jan 30,2021 [ VOL 21 , NO 1083]
Rackspace Technology Inc. co-founder Graham Weston and his wife have each filed divorce papers to end their 26-year marriage.

The split has gotten combative, with allegations that Graham Weston sexually assaulted his wife and had several extramarital affairs with women in London  including one who may have tried to blackmail him. Elizabeth Weston is accused of recording her husband and hiring a private investigator to track him for a year and a half.

The case has the potential to be one of the biggest divorces in the San Antonio area in recent years. Graham Weston, 56, made a brief appearance on Forbes magazines annual billionaires list in 2013 before dropping off.

The divorce case centers on whether the wealth Graham Weston has amassed over his career is his own or community property that belongs to them both. He apparently intends to argue he has placed the vast majority of assets accumulated during the marriage in a trust that he controls.

The couple does not have a prenuptial agreement, according to one of Elizabeth Westons lawyers.

Both live in New Braunfels.

Graham Weston disputed his wifes allegations, calling them false and purely retaliatory.

She first asserted these fabricated accusations after I requested a divorce in the summer of 2019, he said in an email Tuesday. She quickly recanted, apologized, and  at her request  we reconciled. I am appalled that she and attorney Jason Davis revived these false claims during (a December court) hearing  in an apparent attempt to gain an advantage in the divorce she filed.

Murray Fogler, a Houston lawyer representing Elizabeth Weston, declined to comment.

Graham Westons family has made fortunes in fashion and food, at one point owning Grandmas Cookies, with a large-scale bakery not far from Rackspaces Windcrest headquarters. Frito Lay bought Grandmas in 1979.

Graham Weston graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station in 1986, around the time the savings and loan crisis sent real estate prices plunging. The Weston family bought the property at 112 E. Pecan St., christening it the Weston Centre.

Since making his fortune at Rackspace  Apollo Global Management acquired the cloud-computing company in 2016  Graham Weston has become a major downtown developer. His firm, Weston Urban, has snapped up more than 20 acres of real estate in the urban core.

Its holdings include the $142 million Frost Tower, completed in 2019, and the Rand Building  home to the co-working space Geekdom that he co-founded. Weston Urban also is planning a 351-unit apartment tower with retail space at 305 Soledad St.

Graham Weston has spearheaded various community endeavors, as well. He co-founded nonprofit Community Labs late last summer to conduct coronavirus testing and promotes entrepreneurship and education through his 80|20 Foundation.

Elizabeth Weston, 59, said in court she has exercised control over various family entities, including at least one that owns more than 200 acres in New Braunfels. Shes also managed a company called Equis Equine LLC that has owned horses.

Graham and Elizabeth Weston wed on New Years Eve in 1994. The couple have three sons, all adults, whom Elizabeth home schooled.

Court records show Graham Weston filed for divorce on Oct. 19 in Comal County District Court, but dropped the action just 25 hours later.

On Oct. 26, Elizabeth Weston petitioned for divorce. Both cases used the couples initials rather than names to hide their identities. Graham Weston filed a counterpetition Dec. 23. They each used boilerplate language  discord or conflict of personalities   as their reason for ending the marriage.

During the December court hearing, Graham Weston blamed the divorce in part on his wife tape-recording him. Asked how he knew, he said he had gotten clues of that  so that confirmed my suspicion, according to a court transcript of the proceeding held before Judge Dib Waldrip.

Graham Weston added he found out Elizabeth Weston had been working with San Antonio attorney Jason Davis to have an investigator on me for 18 months.

So to me, that just shows that I had had enough, Graham Weston said. I just  I had been lured back into the marriage in bad faith.

Elizabeth Weston took the stand after her husband, testifying that in June 2019 she had met with Davis, her longtime counsel, to discuss sexual abuse that Graham Weston has done to me. She and her lawyer talked about anticipated litigation.

The court hearing covered Graham Westons motion to disqualify Davis as Elizabeth Westons attorney in the divorce case because of alleged conflicts of interest.

Davis was called as a witness during the hearing. He addressed the litigation contemplated against Graham Weston, saying it would relate to going to New Braunfels police to seek protection and possible prosecution relating to sexual assaultive behavior.

Comal County court records show no criminal cases against Graham Weston.

Davis was then asked if going to the police was part of a scheme to enhance Elizabeth Westons divorce position.

Thats ridiculous, sir, Davis replied. Theres doctors records  contemporaneous records that would corroborate that.

Elizabeth Weston did not want a divorce, he said, adding, She wanted him to turn away from his deviant ways that were harming her family and himself.

Davis referred to communications by Graham to Elizabeth admitting meeting with multiple women in London, infidelity.  There was messages from Graham to Elizabeth admitting that he had become a potential target of extortion or threats from one of the seven or eight women that he contacted in London.

John Denton, owner of New Braunfels information technology firm Decipher I.T., subsequently testified that he was hired by Davis in June 2019. Denton said Elizabeth Weston told him that a woman was going to contact her.

And I think  she was concerned about, maybe something that Graham might have done with another woman named Charlotte, Denton said. I dont remember her last name, but there was a woman named Charlotte that was going to reach out to her and provide either some pictures or some documentation of something.

William Ford, one of Graham Westons lawyers, later told the judge that Elizabeth Weston may not have any of this information shes alleging that started with the investigation of Graham Weston in the summer of 2019.

Graham Westons lawyers moved to disqualify Davis on the grounds the lawyer previously represented the businessman and currently represents Weston entities in litigation, one of his attorneys argued.

It is particularly troubling that notwithstanding the long history of legal representation, Davis failed to disclose to G.M.W. that Davis was investigating G.M.W.s conduct on behalf of E.W., an attorney for Graham Weston said in a letter to the judge.

Graham Weston said he has paid Davis more than $2 million in legal fees over the years and acknowledged feeling a sense of betrayal.

Davis has access to Graham Westons confidential information, including the value of his assets and property held in trust for him, Westons attorney said.

Fogler, who represents Elizabeth Weston, countered there was no basis for the severe remedy of disqualification. None of the legal services Davis provided is substantially related to this divorce, Fogler said in a letter to the judge. He added Graham Weston expressly authorized Davis to share any information with Elizabeth Weston.

Waldrip, the judge, granted the motion to disqualify Davis without explanation. Elizabeth Westons counsel now want the judge to clarify his order and stay the divorce case while they appeal to a higher court. Davis did not respond to a request for comment.

Granting a stay will not cause G.M.W. any harm, her motion states. As he purports to control most of the property and wealth from the marital estate, he suffers no hardship from delay in deciding on a division.

Waldrip is slated to take up the requests Wednesday.

pdanner@express-news.net
SPRINGFIELD  A rap music promoter in a sweeping identity theft and fraud case will be released to house arrest after a hearing in U.S. District Court on Monday.

Antonio Strong of Chicago, also known as T-Glo and a litany of aliases, has been behind bars for four months since his arrest in the case  which ensnared up-and-coming rapper G Herbo, among others.

Prosecutors allege Strong was a broker in an identity theft and credit card scam ring that yielded luxury junkets to the tropics, high-end car rentals, charter jets, yachting excursions and designer puppies for his clients.

Strong has pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen counts of fraud.

G Herbo, a drill rapper, or devotee of a sub-genre of traditional rap that originated in the South Side of Chicago a decade ago, was inarguably up-and-coming when the indictment was handed up by a federal grand jury in Springfield in October. He was featured on the Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 Music List, which gauges influence and wealth.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow said in previous court hearings that G Herbo was earning more than $1 million annually, and was alleged enjoying the largesse of promoters including Strong.

Given name Herbert Randall Wright III, G Herbos role in the case drew the most attention. He has pleaded not guilty in the case and has been released on pretrial bail and conditions.

Strong, 28, is the lead defendant in the public case docket.

The case is being prosecuted in federal court in Massachusetts because one of the private jet companies allegedly defrauded by the defendants is based here. Federal prosecutors have ball-parked the fraud at more than $1.5 million and said that number may increase significantly.

Strong allegedly arranged for private charter flights and the rental of a private villa in Jamaica in 2017, and also attempted to bail a friend out of jail in Illinois the same year, according to the charges. In another instance, participants ran into trouble while trying to rent a limousine.

If he ask yo name is Stanley Smith, Strong texted a co-conspirator, according to court records.

Strong will be released from Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island when the winter weather relents, but on strict conditions. He will live with his mother and younger sister at his moms home outside Chicago. He will have no internet access in the immediate future, over his defense attorneys objections.

He seems unable to not commit fraud with his electronic devices, Breslow said.

Before Mr. Strong was arrested ... he acknowledged to the U.S. Secret Service that he knew the Secret Service was looking for him, but he continued to commit identity fraud, Breslow told U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine Robertson. Theres no other way to guarantee that hes not going to do this again.
Kuleba also emphasized the importance of the United States' engagement in the Crimean Platform.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has had a phone call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, during which he has said the U.S. Department of State is ready to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons.

"Antony Blinken assured Dmytro Kuleba of the new U.S. Administration's readiness to maintain robust economic and military assistance to Ukraine, including the provision of lethal weapons," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine said on its website on February 2.

Blinken also stressed that the sanctions imposed on Russia for its aggression in Donbas and Crimea should remain in place until Moscow fully implemented its commitments on the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

In turn, Kuleba said Ukraine welcomed the strengthening of the U.S. role in diplomatic efforts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict and end the Russian occupation of Donbas and Crimea. He also assured Ukraine is ready to continue to be a reliable European partner of the United States in the Black Sea region and Central Europe.

Read alsoUkraine's Navy, U.S. missile destroyer conduct joint drills in Black Sea (Photo)The MFA added the two officials had discussed further deepening of cooperation in defense and security, trade and investment, as well as countering the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is more, the politicians confirmed the importance of maintaining progress in economic reforms in Ukraine, ensuring the rule of law and conducting judicial reform, as well as strengthening the system of anti-corruption institutions.

Kuleba also emphasized the importance of the United States' engagement in the implementation of the Crimean Platform and received assurances of U.S. support for this initiative of Ukraine.

The diplomats also reportedly paid particular attention to joint efforts to counter hybrid threats and disinformation. Kuleba announced an initiative to create an international center in Ukraine to counter disinformation and propaganda and stressed Ukraine's readiness to share best practices in that area.

"The Minister and the Secretary of State discussed further political contacts at all levels, including the highest one, and reaffirmed mutual invitations to pay working visits as soon as the circumstances and restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic allow," the MFA said.

Anthony Blinken: His position on Ukraine

On January 26, 2021, the U.S. Senate endorsed Blinken's nomination for the post of U.S. Secretary of State.

Blinken was a long-term advisor to Biden and during the presidency of Barack Obama served as U.S. Undersecretary of State and Deputy National Security Adviser to the President. The Senate, voting 78-22, confirmed Blinken to be the nation's next secretary of State.

On January 20, at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Blinken said he supported the provision of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine. He recalled that about three years before he had called on the Donald Trump administration to arm Ukraine.

At the same time, he believes that it is not only Russian aggression that prevents Ukraine from becoming a viable democracy. In particular, Blinken considers corruption and the lack of effective institutions to govern the state pose a threat to Ukraine.

Reporting by UNIAN
News

Denver, Colorado - Epsilon Data Management LLC (Epsilon), one of the largest marketing companies in the world, has entered into a settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve a criminal charge for selling millions of Americans information to perpetrators of elder fraud schemes.

Epsilon entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the Consumer Protection Branch of the Justice Departments Civil Division and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Colorado in connection with a criminal information charging the company with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Under the terms of the DPA, which the parties submitted to the district court in Denver on Jan. 19, 2021, Epsilon agreed to pay a total of $150 million, with $127.5 million of that amount going to compensate victims of the fraudulent schemes that used consumer data sold by Epsilon. Epsilon also agreed to implement significant compliance measures designed to safeguard consumers data and prevent its sale to individuals or entities engaged in fraudulent or deceptive marketing campaigns. Further, the DPA requires Epsilon to maintain a procedure for consumers to request that it not sell their information to others.

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, with its principal sales office in Westminster, Colorado, Epsilon used sophisticated data modeling to identify consumers most likely to respond to its clients marketing solicitations. As part of the DPA, Epsilon admitted that, from July 2008 through July 2017, employees in its Direct to Consumer (DTC) Unit knowingly sold modeled lists of consumers to clients engaged in fraud. In particular, Epsilon acknowledged that the DTC Unit sold consumer lists to a number of mass-mailing fraud schemes that sent false sweepstakes and astrology solicitations to consumers. Those solicitations stated that each consumer recipient had won a large prize or individualized psychic service that they could obtain by paying a fee. In reality, the solicitations  as known to DTC Unit employees  were mass-produced mailings and victims who paid a fee received nothing of value. As reflected in the consumer lists sold by the DTC Unit to perpetrators of the fraud schemes, the schemes disproportionately affected the elderly and other vulnerable individuals.

The consumer data sold by the DTC Unit to fraudsters came both from other fraudulent clients and from legitimate Epsilon clients, including non-profit and charitable organizations. DTC Unit employees continued to sell consumer data to clients engaged in fraud despite knowing that those and similar clients had been arrested, charged with crimes, convicted, and otherwise subject to law enforcement actions for false and misleading practices. Epsilon admitted that the DTC Unit sold more than 30 million consumers data to fraudulent schemes.

By allowing clients engaged in fraudulent schemes to buy data on millions of consumers most susceptible to their schemes, Epsilon employees facilitated those schemes with staggering effect, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton of the Department of Justices Civil Division. We are encouraged by Epsilons cooperation since the misconduct was discovered, its remediation efforts, and its commitment to stringent new compliance measures.

Companies who sell consumer information have a responsibility to avoid knowingly selling it to those who will use the data to defraud or swindle consumers, said U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn for the District of Colorado. I hope other data companies will take note of this outcome and ensure that they dont likewise help fraudsters.

Postal Inspectors have always held consumer protection as a core tenet of our efforts to ensure the integrity of the U.S. Mail, said Deputy Chief Postal Inspector Craig Goldberg of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. When data firms such as Epsilon use their extraordinary access to consumers personal information to provide laser-focused marketing lists supporting deceptive practices, more American consumers are placed in harms way. Firms that amass big data assume a big responsibility to ensure this data is not used by malicious actors. If you cater to criminals who are exploiting Americans through the U.S. Mail, Postal Inspectors are coming for you.

The DPA provides that Epsilon must select, and cover the costs of, an independent claims administrator to distribute the $127.5 million to identified victims with established losses caused by fraud schemes that used Epsilon data. The claims administrator will contact identified victims directly. More information about the victim compensation amount and fund distribution will be posted at the following website: https://www.justice.gov/civil/case/united-states-v-epsilon-data-management-llc. Victims of elder fraud schemes may also contact the National Elder Fraud Hotline, which provides services to seniors who may be victims of financial fraud. The hotline is staffed by experienced case managers who provide personalized support to callers. The hotlines toll-free number is 833-FRAUD-11 (833-372-8311).

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Alistair Reader and Ehren Reynolds of the Department of Justice Civil Divisions Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hetal J. Doshi and Rebecca Weber of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Colorado are prosecuting the case.

CARLINVILLE  A pair of Carlinville men have created a study of the connections of Abraham Lincoln to Illinois State University in Normal in a work that one reviewer has called monumental.

Tom Emery and Carl Kasten teamed to produce Abraham Lincoln and the Heritage of Illinois State University, a 280-page book that covers a topic largely ignored in the 156 years since Lincolns death. The book has won rave reviews from peers.

A retired attorney, Kastens ties to Illinois State run deep. The 1966 ISU graduate chaired the universitys board of trustees 2003-08. He approached Emery about the Lincoln-Illinois State project, believing there was new ground that needed to be covered.

Emery handled all the research and writing of the book.

At first, we thought it would be around 100 pages, said Kasten. But then Tom kept uncovering more material, and it kept growing. I cannot believe how much information went into this book.

I cant tell you how much I enjoyed this project, said Emery, who has won 13 awards from the Illinois State Historical Society. It may be the most fun Ive ever had in writing and research. I think we broke a lot of new ground here, and I loved every minute of it.

Lincoln was attorney to the state board of education, which oversaw Illinois State in its earliest days, and wrote the guaranty to secure funding for the university. In doing so, he ensured the university would be located in Bloomington-Normal.

Many of the early financial backers of Illinois State were among Lincolns closest allies and friends, including David Davis, who managed Lincolns 1860 Presidential campaign, as well as Jesse Fell and Leonard Swett.

Lincoln was also close to several members of the early Boards of Education, including Ninian Edwards, Jr., the chair of the Board that founded ISU, who was his brother-in-law. In addition, Lincoln delivered his legendary Lost Speech at the first Republican State Convention in 1856 at Majors Hall, the site of the first classes at Illinois State after the universitys founding a year later.

The Illinois State Quad was designed by William Saunders, a foremost landscape architect who is also credited with Oak Ridge Cemetery, where Lincoln rests, and Gettysburg National Cemetery, the site of Lincolns Gettysburg Address.

Lincoln also had relationships with several early faculty members at Illinois State, as well as some of the donors to the initial university library.

Dr. Wayne Temple of Springfield, who has been called the greatest living Lincoln scholar, referred to the work as monumental. Kathryn Harris, the former director of library services at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, lauded Emerys attention to detail and very clear and coherent writing style.

The book is fully illustrated and documented, with a complete index. Copies are being placed in Illinois bookstores. They also are available directly through Kasten, who is directing net proceeds to the ISU Alumni Scholarship Fund and the universitys Pre-Law Fund.

To order, send $28.61 (includes tax and postage) to Kasten at 1075 West Main, Carlinville, IL 62626. For more information, call 217-854-3616 or e-mail carlkasten@frontiernet.net.
Its an honor to have been selected as a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. I strive to provide my clients with personalized service and a commitment to seeking the highest amount of compensation, says Alex Serrano

Ligori & Ligori Attorneys at Law, an established personal injury law firm based in Tampa, is pleased to announce that attorney Alex Serrano has attained membership in this prestigious group of U.S trial lawyers. Alex Serrano has been recognized as a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum by the National Trial Lawyers Top Trial Lawyers of America.

Created by the National Trial Lawyers, Top 100 Trial Lawyers in 1993, the Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Forums were founded to allow members a way to demonstrate an objective measure of their competence as an attorney to prospective clients. The Million Dollar Advocates Forum inducts members based on a strict set of criteria and ethical standards. Membership in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum requires candidates to have successfully achieved an outcome of a million dollars or more for their client as primary counsel. Fewer than 1% of U.S. lawyers are members, with only around 5000 participants recognized throughout the country. Alex Serrano received his undergraduate degree from Florida State University and went on to graduate from Barry University Law School. Over the years, Mr. Serrano has represented numerous clients regarding all personal injury matters, including automobile and motorcycle accidents, train crashes, premises liability cases and wrongful death actions. Alex Serrano has dedicated his practice to helping those who have been seriously injured due to the negligence of others, with a strong focus on compassionate representation.

Its an honor to have been selected as a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. I strive to provide my clients with personalized service and a commitment to seeking the highest amount of compensation, says Alex Serrano

More About Ligori & Ligori Attorneys at Law:

Ligori & Ligori Attorneys at Law has offices in Tampa, Lakeland and Ocala, Florida, serving clients needing legal help in acquiring compensation for their injuries. They handle a wide variety of personal injury and insurance claims, including those involving auto accidents, truck accidents, property damage, storm damage, wrongful death, negligence and more. The practice was established with a mission to provide personalized attention for your personal injury while leveraging resources and experience to help clients obtain fair loss compensation.

For more information about the legal services offered at Ligori & Ligori Attorneys at Law, please visit http://www.callmeonmycell.com, or contact the Tampa office directly at (813) 254-7119.


Panasonic AI-driven cameras empower an expanding vision of new uses

Imagine a world where video cameras are not just watching and reporting for security, but have an even wider positive impact on our lives. Imagine that cameras control street and building lights, as people come and go, that traffic jams are predicted and vehicles are automatically rerouted, and more tills are opened, just before a queue starts to form. Cameras with AI capabilities Cameras in stores can show us how we might look in the latest outfit as we browse. Thats the vision from Panasonic about current and future uses for their cameras that provide artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities at the edge. Panasonic feels that these types of intelligent camera applications are also the basis for automation and introduction of Industry 4.0, in which processes are automated, monitored and controlled by AI-driven systems. 4K network security cameras The companys i-PRO AI-capable camera line can install and run up to three AI-driven video analytic applications Panasonics 4K network security cameras have built-in AI capabilities suitable for this next generation of intelligent applications in business and society. The companys i-PRO AI-capable camera line can install and run up to three AI-driven video analytic applications. The AI engine is directly embedded into the camera, thus reducing costs and Panasonics image quality ensures the accuracy of the analytics outcome. FacePRO facial recognition technology Panasonic began advancing AI technology on the server side with FacePRO, the in-house facial recognition application, which uses AI deep learning capabilities. Moving ahead, they transitioned their knowledge of AI from the server side to the edge, introducing i-PRO security cameras with built-in AI capabilities last summer, alongside their own in-house analytics. Moreover, in line with the Panasonic approach to focus more on collaboration with specialist AI software developers, a partnership with Italian software company, A.I. Tech followed in September, with a range of intelligent applications, partially based on deep learning. Additional collaborations are already in place with more than 10 other developers, across the European Union, working on more future applications. i-PRO AI-capable security cameras Open systems are an important part of Panasonics current approach. The companys i-PRO AI-capable cameras are an open platform and designed for third-party application development, therefore, applications can be built or tailored to the needs of an individual customer. Panasonic use to be a company that developed everything in-house, including all the analytics and applications. However, now we have turned around our strategy by making our i-PRO security cameras open to integrate applications and analytics from third-party companies, says Gerard Figols, Head of Security Solutions at Panasonic Business Europe. Flexible and adapting to specific customer needs This new approach allows the company to be more flexible and adaptable to customers needs. At the same time, we can be quicker and much more tailored to the market trend, said Gerard Figols. He adds, For example, in the retail space, enabling retailers to enhance the customer experience, in smart cities for traffic monitoring and smart parking, and by event organisers and transport hubs to monitor and ensure safety. Edge-based analytics offer multiple benefits over server-based systems Edge-based analytics Edge-based analytics offer multiple benefits over server-based systems. On one hand, there are monetary benefits - a cost reduction results from the decreased amount of more powerful hardware required on the server side to process the data, on top of reduction in the infrastructure costs, as not all the full video stream needs to be sent for analysis, we can work solely with the metadata. On the other hand, there are also advantages of flexibility, as well as reliability. Each camera can have its own individual analytic setup and in case of any issue on the communication or server side, the camera can keep running the analysis at the edge, thereby making sure the CCTV system is still fully operational. Most importantly, systems can keep the same high level of accuracy. Explosion of AI camera applications We can compare the explosion of AI camera applications to the way we experienced it for smartphone applications" We can compare the explosion of AI camera applications to the way we experienced it for smartphone applications, said Gerard Figols, adding However, it doesnt mean the hardware is not important anymore, as I believe its more important than ever. Working with poor picture quality or if the hardware is not reliable, and works 24/7, software cannot run or deliver the outcome it has been designed for. As hardware specialists, Figols believes that Panasonic seeks to focus on what they do best - Building long-lasting, open network cameras, which are capable of capturing the highest quality images that are required for the latest AI applications, while software developers can concentrate on bringing specialist applications to the market. Same as for smartphones, AI applications will proliferate based on market demand and succeed or fail, based on the value that they deliver. Facial recognition, privacy protection and cross line technologies Panasonic has been in the forefront in developing essential AI applications for CCTV, such as facial recognition, privacy protection and cross line. However, with the market developing so rapidly and the potential applications of AI-driven camera systems being so varied and widespread, Panasonic quickly realised that the future of their network cameras was going to be in open systems, which allow specialist developers and their customers to use their sector expertise to develop their own applications for specific vertical market applications, while using i-PRO hardware. Metadata for detection and recognition Regarding privacy, consider that the use of AI in cameras is about generating metadata for the detection and recognition of patterns, rather than identifying individual identities. However, there are legitimate privacy concerns, but I firmly believe that attitudes will change quickly when people see the incredible benefits that this technology can deliver, said Gerard Figols, adding I hope that we will be able to redefine our view of cameras and AI, not just as insurance, but as life advancing and enhancing. i-PRO AI Privacy Guard One of the AI applications that Panasonic developed was i-PRO AI Privacy Guard Seeking to understand and appreciate privacy concerns, one of the AI applications that Panasonic developed was i-PRO AI Privacy Guard that generates data without capturing individual identities, following European privacy regulations that are among the strictest in the world. Gerard Fogils said, The combination of artificial intelligence and the latest generation open camera technology will change the worlds perceptions from Big Brother to Big Benefits. New applications will emerge as the existing generation of cameras is updated to the new open and intelligent next generation devices, and the existing role of the security camera will also continue. Future scope of AI and cameras He adds, Not just relying on the security cameras for evidence when things have gone wrong, end users will increasingly be able to use AI and the cameras with much higher accuracy to prevent false alarms and in a proactive way to prevent incidents." Gerard Figols concludes, That could be monitoring and alerting when health and safety guidelines are being breached or spotting and flagging patterns of suspicious behaviour before incidents occur.
Braslia, Feb 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2021 ) :Brazil's Congress began voting Monday for the next leaders of the Senate and lower house, a test for far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, whose political future could hang in the balance.

Bolsonaro got personally involved in the leadership battles in both houses of the legislature, looking to improve his troubled relations with Congress and stave off the 61 impeachment requests he is facing.

The speakers of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, who are elected for two-year terms by their colleagues, are key gate-keepers in Brazilian politics, with the power to decide which legislation comes up for a vote.

The lower-house speaker also has the power to accept or shelve motions to impeach the president -- no small matter for the leader dubbed the "Tropical Trump," who has racked up dozens of such requests halfway into his four-year term.

Seeking to use the leadership votes to bolster his clout with Congress, Bolsonaro struck an alliance with a coalition known as the "Centrao," or "big center," a loose coalition of parties whose priority has traditionally been gaining access to pork and government posts.

In the Senate, he got a bit of good news soon after the voting began when lawmakers elected his candidate for speaker, Rodrigo Pacheco of the Democrats (DEM).

But the real test will be in the lower house, where there has been a hard-fought battle pitting Bolsonaro's candidate, Arthur Lira of the Progressives (PP), against seven other candidates.

The main challenge comes from Baleia Rossi of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), the candidate backed by current lower-house speaker Rodrigo Maia (DEM).

Maia has a strained relationship with Bolsonaro, and reacted furiously when other lawmakers from his party defied him to back Lira.

He reportedly threatened to use his last day in the speaker's seat to open impeachment proceedings against Bolsonaro, before backtracking.

Bolsonaro faces some 20 impeachment motions over his chaotic handling of the pandemic, plus dozens more over alleged anti-democratic actions, environmental crimes and hate speech.

The voting process in the lower house could stretch into the early hours of Tuesday.
DUBLIN, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Retail E-Commerce Packaging Market Research Report 2020-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global retail e-commerce packaging market is projected to reach a value of $68,388.1 million by 2030, rising from $19.022.7 million in 2019, progressing at a 12.1% CAGR during the forecast period (2020-2030)



The market is being driven by the changing consumer preferences, surging population, and growing affordability of internet connections and mobile phones across the globe. In terms of material type, the market is bifurcated into envelopes and boxes, between which, the boxes bifurcation held the largest share of the market in 2019.



The bifurcation is further predicted to account for the largest revenue share of the retail e-commerce packaging market during the forecast period as well. Companies focus on packaging that can protect contents from different kinds of damage while it is being delivered, since delivering a product just one time costs 2-3 times less than it does for second or multiple deliveries. Since boxes offer strength and durability, along with ensuring consumer retention rate and reducing return ratio, enterprises are increasingly making their use.



On the basis of end user the retail e-commerce packaging market is categorized into furniture & home furnishing, consumer electronics, food & beverages, fashion & apparel, and cosmetics & personal care. Among these, the cosmetics & personal care industry is predicted to advance at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period, which can be owing to the increasing disposable income of people. Consumers across the globe are buying these products online, since they are provided with increased number of choices and can select products according to their specific needs.



The emergence of affordable smartphones and internet connections is a key factor resulting in the rising demand for retail e-commerce packaging. Owing to technological advancements, the number of people who can afford electronics such as smartphones has risen considerably over the past few years. Moreover, access to internet has also increased in the past few years, which is why a larger number of people are able to shop online. This is further leading to the expansion of digital industries, including e-commerce, which, in turn, is driving the demand for packaging solutions.



Geographically, the retail e-commerce packaging market was dominated by Asia-Pacific in 2019. The market is registering growth in the region due to the expanding e-commerce industry, particularly in India and China. Other than this, the surging population and growing adoption of latest technologies in APAC are also driving the growth of the market. Apart from this, Middle East & Africa is predicted to progress at the fastest pace during the forecast period, which can be attributed to changing policies of governments, majorly in the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia.



A major trend being observed in the retail e-commerce packaging market is the movement of companies towards circular economy model. These days, enterprises in the domain are increasingly investing in manufacturing facilities for increasing their productivity. Furthermore, these investments are also aimed towards decreasing the amount of waste, including those produced by corrugated sheets, by making use of it again as raw material for manufacturing packaging materials. The rising pressure from governments is compelling manufacturers to use better alternatives for producing packaging materials.



In conclusion, the market is being driven by the growing utilization of internet and smartphones and rising investment in industries for reducing the amount of waste that is generated.



Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Research Background



Chapter 2. Research Methodology



Chapter 3. Executive Summary



Chapter 4. Introduction

4.1 Definition of Market Segments

4.1.1 By Material Type

4.1.1.1 Boxes

4.1.1.2 Envelopes

4.1.1.3 Others

4.1.2 By End User

4.1.2.1 Consumer electronics

4.1.2.2 Fashion and apparel

4.1.2.3 Cosmetics and personal care

4.1.2.4 Food and beverages

4.1.2.5 Furniture and home furnishing

4.1.2.6 Others

4.2 Value Chain Analysis

4.3 Market Dynamics

4.3.1 Trends

4.3.1.1 Investment by companies to embrace circular economy

4.3.2 Drivers

4.3.2.1 Increasing population across the globe

4.3.2.2 Affordable smartphone and internet connection

4.3.2.3 Impact analysis of drivers on market forecast

4.3.3 Restraints

4.3.3.1 Stringent government regulations to control environment pollution

4.3.3.2 Impact analysis of restraints on market forecast

4.3.4 Opportunities

4.3.4.1 Innovation by packaging manufacturers to make packaging attractive and protean

4.4 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.5 Impact of COVID-19 on Retail E-Commerce Packaging Market

4.5.1 Prices of Raw Materials

4.5.2 Manufacturing

4.5.3 Consumer Sentiment & Sales



Chapter 5. Policy and Regulatory Landscape

5.1 North America

5.2 Europe

5.3 APAC

5.4 LATAM

5.5 MEA



Chapter 6. Global Market Size and Forecast

6.1 By Material Type

6.2 By End User

6.3 By Region



Chapter 7. North America Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 8. Europe Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 9. APAC Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 10. LATAM Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 11. MEA Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 12. Major Markets: Segment Analysis

12.1 China Market, by Material Type

12.2 China Market, by End User

12.3 U.S. Market, by Material Type

12.4 U.S. Market, by End User

12.5 India Market, by Material Type

12.6 India Market, by End User

12.7 U.K. Market, by Material Type

12.8 U.K. Market, by End User

12.9 Mexico Market, by Material Type

12.10 Mexico Market, by End User



Chapter 13. Competitive Landscape

13.1 List of Key Players and Their Offerings

13.2 List of Other Players

13.3 Global Strategic Developments in the Market



Chapter 14. Company Profiles

DS Smith Plc

International Paper Company

Smurfit Kappa Group Plc

Mondi Plc

Packaging Corporation of America

WestRock Company

Klabin S.A.

Sealed Air Corporation

Orora Limited

Rengo Co. Ltd.

Sonoco Products Company

Stora Enso Oyj

Georgia-Pacific LLC

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4hb1tr



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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YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan chaired today the session of the Security Council, the PMs Office told Armenpress.

A number of issues relating to the current situation around Armenia and Artsakh, the humanitarian problems and the security environment were discussed during the session.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Ford Motor Co. plans to use Googles Android operating system to power its vehicle display screens starting in 2023, the latest auto maker to tap Silicon Valley amid the accelerating digitization of the car business.

The Dearborn, Mich.-based car company said Monday it has entered into a six-year agreement with the tech giant to embed Googles suite of apps, including voice commands and navigation, in multimedia displays on all Ford models outside of China.

Ford also plans to involve Alphabet Inc.s Google for cloud services to help the auto maker develop in-car features and manage the reams of data streaming from its vehicles. The computing service will also be used to organize production.

Terms of the agreement werent disclosed.

Silicon Valley firms are pushing further into the auto business, eager to capitalize on the growth prospects of the cars evolution as a rolling personal device. Tech companies now provide core operating systems to run in-vehicle multimedia systems, while also providing cloud-based service to store and manage the proliferation of data produced by cars, many of which now are sold with broadband connections.

Fords eventual move to Googles Android system will be a hit to BlackBerry Ltd., which for years has provided its QNX operating system for Fords vehicles. BlackBerry didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other auto makers, including Volvo Cars and Ford rival General Motors Co., have in recent years chosen Googles Android system to deliver navigation, voice commands and other services in its cars.

Google, the No. 3 cloud provider in the U.S., has been stepping up its efforts to overtake its rivals.

The car industry is one of several markets where Google, Microsoft Corp, and Amazon.com Inc. are aggressively pushing their cloud-computing business, in which they rent server capacity and software tools to customers.

Microsoft has already struck deals to provide its Azure cloud service to some of the worlds largest car companies, including GM and Volkswagen AG. Amazons AWS cloud business works with Toyota Motor Corp. and other auto makers.

The increasing role of technology in cars also is becoming a source of friction between car makers and tech companies in the battle to capture the potential billions of dollars from ads and services that could flow through such systems.

Ford said it will use Googles cloud services for everything from flagging potential new service offerings to managing equipment on the factory floor and streamlining supply chains. The companies said they will jointly staff a group to work on collaborative projects.

The Google agreement comes after Ford has created its own facilities in Michigan to store and process data, including a $200 million investment disclosed in 2017. Those data centers will continue to operate, a Ford spokeswoman said.

Inside the car, both Google and Apple Inc. have for years been offering dashboard features that mimic the look and feel of their ubiquitous operating systems. Apple also has been working secretively on its own car project for many years. Amazons Alexa personal assistant is featured across many models.

While most car makers offer so-called mirroring software to replicate the Android or Apple interfaces on the cars display, those features require drivers to connect their smartphones to the vehicle. Ford, GM and others are now working with Google to offer Android as built-in software, a move that allows owners to download apps directly to their vehicles tabletlike display, said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at consultancy Guidehouse Insights.

Auto makers are mobilizing to offer in-car services to customers that would allow the companies to collect recurring revenue streams and update features on the fly, from automated-driving features to new apps. They also are using data from vehicles to develop features for future models.

Traditional car companies have struggled to offer infotainment systems and apps that car owners embrace as much as they do their smartphones. They also are grappling with how to capture, interpret and monetize the growing amount of vehicle-generated data.

David McClelland, Fords vice president of strategy and partnerships, said the Google system will allow Ford to offer customized features and services that would be different from those of its competitors.

Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com

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Britain's 'involuntary' savers squirreled away more than 150billion last year as the pandemic stopped them from splashing out on expensive holidays and nights out.

Families built up their bank deposits from 1.48trillion to 1.63trillion over the course of 2020  a rise of 151.7billion, the highest since records began in 1997, according to Bank of England figures.

Bank economist Andy Haldane is counting on this war chest to help Britain claw its way out of the pandemic slump. He hopes consumers will be desperate to spend cash when the economy begins to reopen later this year, funnelling much-needed income to struggling theatres, restaurants and bars.

Britain's 'involuntary' savers squirreled away more than 150billion last year as the pandemic stopped them from splashing out on expensive holidays and nights out

Many families who cut back on spending during the pandemic have used spare cash to pay off debts. They paid off a total of 16.6billion in 2020  another record.

A hefty 14billion of this was credit card debt, taking the total Britons owe on plastic to levels not seen since 2014.

But not all households are benefiting from the lockdown savings boom as the statistics mask a huge disparity between well-off families who have been able to work from home and employees  typically on lower incomes  who have seen jobs axed.

Josie Dent, of the Centre for Economics and Business Research, said: 'Saving and debt repayment are only possible for those who have not lost their source of income. There have been a large number of individuals who have been forced to access credit in order to fund their day-to-day expenses.'

Unemployment has risen from 3.9 per cent to 5 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic, meaning 1.7million people are now searching for work.

Meanwhile, 9.9million jobs have been covered by the furlough scheme since April at a cost of 46.6billion to the taxpayer.

Unemployment is expected to hit 7 per cent this year before beginning to fall back again, straining the wallets of thousands more households. The Bank's report showed that consumer credit borrowing shrank at the fastest rate in more than a quarter of a century in December. The annual growth rate in the borrowing, which includes credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts, stood at minus 7.5 per cent  marking a record low since the data started in 1994.

Families continued to shore up savings. The net flow of deposits was 20.9billion in December  up from 18.4billion in November.
New Delhi, Feb 2 : The government may subsume the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) with the proposed Development Infrastructure Fund (DFI) to boost financing in the infrastructure segment.

During a post-Budget interaction on Tuesday, Secretary for Department of Financial Services, Debasish Panda noted that given the domain expertise and the trained manpower of IIFCL, the the government may consider subsuming the company into the proposed DFI.

"IIFCL may be considered for a quick start. It could be subsumed in this new financial institution, as they already have domain expertise. They have some manpower who are already trained and experience in this field...so that can could be a way of looking at it," he said.

IIFCL was established in January 2006 as a wholly owned Government of India company and commenced its operations from April 2006.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced to set up a Rs 20,000 crore Development Finance Institution (DFI).

The official said that the DFI will be totally funded by the government and is expected to start a new post-Covid investment cycle in project financing.

"It will also anchor the very ambitious national infrastructure pipeline," he said. The government has also kept the window open for the establishment of private DFIs.

According to the official, the fund will give confidence to the investors, sovereign wealth funds or insurance funds among others. The institution is expected to play a key developmental role alongside its financing role, he added.

On the privatisation of banks announced in the Budget, Panda said that the two banks to be sold off will be decided only after a three-tier selection process, starting with NITI Aayog, identifying the banks, followed by a review by core group of secretaries of disinvestment, before the final approval under the alternate mechanism.

He said NITI Aayog will do the first round of selection, then the core group of secretaries of disinvestment would, then it goes to the alternate mechanism. That process has to be followed and then we will actually get to know which banks will be privatised.

The same process will be followed for the selection of the general insurance company for privatisation.

He also said that the four banks under prompt corrective action (PCA) framework would be out of the framework by the end of this fiscal. Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Central Bank of India, UCO Bank and United Bank of India are under this framework which puts several restrictions on them, including on lending, management compensation and directors' fees.

He added that if they come out of PCA, they may also be considered for privatisation.

"The banks under PCA are performing well off late. In the last two quarters they have been in profit and they are fulfilling by and large all the parameters."
Police in Nanyuki arrested a woman who pulled her children out of school claiming that education is satanic.

Esther Njeri, 36, reportedly pulled out her two children aged 13 and 8 out of school. The teenage girl is in Form Two while her younger brother is in primary school.

The area chief who was flanked by village elders during the arrest said the children had not reported to school since school resumed in-person learning in early January.

According to neighbours, Njeri, who holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree and another in Accounting, recently started warning friends and family that the end of the world is near, She has reportedly been asking them to repent before the end of the year.

Njeri said she was ready to face the law as she comparing her predicament to the Biblical Shadrack Meshack and Abednego.
[February 02, 2021] Air Force's Digital Directorate Awards Kinetica a Contract With $100M Ceiling to Provide a Streaming Data Warehouse to Fuse and Enrich Sensor Data in Real Time

Kinetica, the streaming data warehouse that combines historical and streaming data analysis with powerful location intelligence and AI, announced a five-year contract with the Air Force to deliver a streaming data warehouse for the NORAD and USNORTHCOM Pathfinder program that will tie independent systems together across air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains, creating a fused operational picture. This contract transitions and expands on capabilities demonstrated during a one-year prototyping effort with NORAD and USNORTHCOM and DIU, the Department of Defense organization that exclusively works with commercial companies to solve national security challenges. The Kinetica Streaming Data Warehouse ingests, analyzes, and visualizes massive data sets with trillions of rows in order to model possible outcomes and assess risk. By broadening and deepening data analysis capabilities, The Kinetica Streaming Data Warehouse enhances situational awareness--key to anticipating an adversary. "One leap forward to improve all domain awareness, information dominance and decision superiority, in coordination with the Defense Innovation Unit, is the NORAD and USNORTHCOM Pathfinder program. We are nine months into the development of a Homeland Defense data ecosystem prototype. This effort is a technology leap forward for Homeland Defense command and control systems," said General Glen VanHerck, Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) during a recent presentation to The Institute for Defense and Government Advancement Hypersonic Weapons Summit. By filtering and fusing multi-domain sensor feeds, The Kinetica Streaming Data Warehouse can quickly ingest and correlate airborne objects across sensors, building feature-rich entities. This will allo military operators to deepen their data analysis capabilities and increase their situational awareness across North America by combining functions currently performed by multiple isolated systems into a cloud platform producing real-time intelligence for leadership to act on.



The Kinetica Streaming Data Warehouse can process data at massive scale, powered by NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs and Intel (News - Alert) CPUs, taking on previously impossible challenges. Data streams into The Kinetica Streaming Data Warehouse from a variety of sources, including everything from legacy databases to sensors, which are analyzed in real time. "Information dominance contributes to our national security and we're proud to partner with Kinetica to help get warfighters better access to this information," said Brian Gunderson, a Booz Allen Hamilton (News - Alert) Vice President and leader in the firm's defense business. "The volume of intelligence data requires innovative approaches like the application of AI, to unearth valuable insights potentially buried in the data."

What makes this solution different from previous command-and-control systems is that it is predicated on distributed computing using massive parallelization from thousands of processing cores. The Kinetica Streaming Data Warehouse is deployed on AWS GovCloud. As an open platform, teams of data scientists can bring their machine learning models into Kinetica for entity classification and anomaly detection. Further differentiating itself from legacy platforms, Kinetica's open platform is accessible to government and third-party users building analytical tools and end-user applications, speeding innovation as well as collaboration. "Most technologies today are not equipped to handle the volume of data along with the highspeed velocity flowing in from non-stop data feeds," said Amit Vij, President and Co-Founder, Kinetica. "Usually the velocity of data breaks the latest technologies of today, and this presents a serious challenge to many organizations that require real-time actionable intelligence from multiple domains. We are excited about this partnership with NORAD/USNORTHCOM and Digital Directorate because Kinetica is purpose-built to ingest, analyze, and visualize real-time intelligence from multiple, high-velocity streaming data feeds, providing a complete operational picture on which we can act." To learn more about Kinetica and Kinetica's public sector work, visit kinetica.com/solutions/public-sector/. About Kinetica Kinetica helps many of the world's largest companies solve some of the world's most complex problems, including Citibank, MSI (News - Alert) , OVO, Softbank, and Telkomsel, among others. The Kinetica Streaming Data Warehouse combines historical and streaming data analysis with powerful location intelligence and AI in a single platform, all easily accessible via API and SQL, for instant results. Organizations across automotive, energy, telecommunications, retail, healthcare, financial services, and beyond can load and analyze their entire collection of data simultaneously, delivering instant insight. Kinetica has a rich partner ecosystem, including Dell, HP, IBM (News - Alert) , NVIDIA, and Oracle, and is privately held, backed by leading global venture capital firms Canvas Ventures, Citi Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, and Meritech Capital Partners. For more information and to try Kinetica, visit kinetica.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter (News - Alert) . View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005324/en/

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Bethany Hamilton was working in the early hours of the morning when she stumbled upon the announcement.

Registration for coronavirus vaccination appointments would open on the Publix grocery store's website at 6 a.m. She lives in Takoma Park, Md., but she'd been clicking through pages of the Georgia public health services website, hoping to secure vaccine appointments for her septuagenarian parents, who live in Gwinnett County, Ga., but every page she came upon said there were no more shots.

Her veteran father had already contacted the local Veterans Affairs hospital, which confusingly informed him that it did not yet have doses for someone his age. Things felt hopeless. "I really didn't think I had any chance of getting something through for my parents," Hamilton said. "I just wanted to give it a shot."

She checked the time. She had about three hours.

"I was getting really sleepy and needed a little nap. So I set four alarms. If I'm going to do this and really give it a shot, I'm going to do it right," she said.

Hamilton's experience has been a common one as the federal government struggles to distribute the vaccine throughout the country. People are attempting to help parents and grandparents who are not digital natives book vaccination appointments. But finding one from afar and navigating the various vaccine sites' online systems can be exasperating.

That morning Hamilton's fourth alarm went off at 5:55 a.m. The Publix website was already open on her laptop. She fired up a second page, this one in incognito mode. Then she pulled up two more browsers on her phone.

"Gwinnett County had a little over 1,500 appointments," she said. "So I'm using my thumb on my phone and flipping between pages, and clicking through on the computer."

Eventually, a message popped up that she could set an appointment. The catch: She needed her mom's Medicare ID. "I'm like, oh dear God, it's 6 in the morning. If I call her now, and the phone rings, both of my parents are going to think something terrible happened. We're in a pandemic."

Hamilton decided the call was worth it. To her surprise, her mother answered in a calm voice and gave her the ID number, and Hamilton entered it in with shaking fingers, waiting for the whole thing to crash. Then she tried to get a time for her father.

"I really don't know how someone in their 70s or 80s or otherwise isn't computer-savvy could handle all this," she said. "I typed in all the information, and now the browser is doing that stupid thing where it tries to verify you're not a robot. So I'm clicking the stupid images with the traffic lights, and I'm clicking the stupid images with the crosswalks. Meanwhile I'm watching the number of vaccines left dropping."

Hamilton added, "I just can't comprehend how this rat race is supposed to be humane."

After going through her own cycle of repeatedly refreshing a browser to get past the first page, Jennifer Sullivan of Fairfax, Va., was able to get to the booking process for her parents, who live in Vestal, N.Y. After 20 minutes of answering questions, she finally reached what should have been the confirmation page - only to reach an error page instead.

"I had no idea if it went through or not," she said. "I waited several hours. I kept asking my mom if she had gotten an email."

Her parents were able to secure appointments the next day on their own, but Sullivan still worried. Her aunt, a nurse in western New York, had her first appointment canceled when her county ran out of doses.

"I check my hometown newspaper every day. I check the New York state website for any news of cancellations," Sullivan said. "So far, so good, but you just don't know."

She also wonders whether her parents will somehow be penalized if the appointment confirmation did go through, and they do not show up on the right day. All of this confusion and anxiety has become the main topic of conversation with her friends.

"My group texts have really shifted from swapping horror stories about managing kids in virtual learning to getting vaccination appointments for our parents," she said.

Samantha Ettus knows the feeling. When she first tried getting her 86-year-old father and his 74-year-old girlfriend appointments in Los Angeles, all the browser refreshing only led to open appointments for a second shot. When she ended up on the right booking page, she needed a verification code texted to her father's phone. By the time he shared it with her, the page had timed out.

Eventually, she secured their appointments, and "they were over the moon," she said. But when they arrived at the vaccination site a few days later, they were "told it was approximately a three-hour wait, and they would need to stand the entire time. Which for my 86-year-old father is really not an option."

Crushed, they left the site and began the process all over again, securing two more appointments a week and a half later.

And all of that is just for the first dose. For some, there's a problem of securing another.

Sharon Shakked and her septuagenarian parents live in the Bay Area, where vaccine appointments have been beyond scarce. After two weeks of "figuring out the systems, reading the county site, the state site, every medical center site" and consistently running two different computers, Shakked said, she was able to secure appointments for her parents.

"It's been a full-time job to monitor each of the systems and what steps you needed to get appointments," she said.

On Thursday, she brought her mom to get her first shot. To sign up for the second one, patients are supposed to scan a QR code on the wall, which brings up a registration app.

"I watched everyone who was there. The vast majority of folks were over 75, and they were struggling. They definitely did not know how to navigate this," Shakked said. "There's this inherent challenge, especially for this first-tier of folks who are not as tech-savvy and have trouble doing things very quickly. And if you don't do it quickly, you lose the availability."

"It shouldn't be this way," Shakked said. "It shouldn't be this way at all."
Then-President Donald Trump speaks to supporters at Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One for his last time as president in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Jan. 20, 2021. (Pete Marovich/Pool/Getty Images)

Trump Lawyer: Impeachment Is Political Weaponization of a Constitutional Process

David Schoen, one of former President Donald Trumps newly appointed impeachment defense attorneys, said he believes that Democrats are using the impeachment process as a weapon to go after Trump in an attempt to bar him from running for office again.

This is the political weaponization of the impeachment process, Schoen told Fox News Sean Hannity on Monday. I think its also the most ill-advised legislative action that Ive seen in my lifetime. It is tearing the country apart at a time when we dont need anything like that.

Democrat lawmakers have been calling for Trumps impeachment since the beginning of his term, Schoen said, and the upcoming trial is their latest attempt to target him, as well as to carry out their agenda of preventing him from ever running for president again.

Thats about as undemocratic as you can get, Schoen said. Can you imagine the slap in the face that is to the 75 million or more voters?

Fair-minded people dont support using the impeachment process to then try to bar someone from running for office again, he added.

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, which was completed in a single seven-hour session, has been criticized by Republicans for its speed and lack of due process. Meanwhile, the question of whether the Senate trial, which will begin on the week of Feb. 8, is constitutional has prompted a heated public debate among legal scholars and lawmakers.

Scholars who are arguing that the trial is unconstitutional are relying on an interpretation of Article II, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution, 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.

According to their reading of the text, these scholars say impeachment is for current officeholders, and since Trump had already left office, the Senates jurisdictionor authorityto hold an impeachment trial expired on Jan. 20, when his term came to a close.

On the other hand, scholars who are arguing that the upcoming trial is constitutional say that the impeachment power and the Senates jurisdiction needs to be read in conjunction with Article I, Section 3, which 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.

These scholars also contend that the argument for impeachment is supported by historical precedents.

Schoen also signaled that he and attorney Bruce Castor Jr. will also argue that Trumps speech at the rally on Jan. 6 is protected by the First Amendment.

This is a very, very dangerous road to take with respect to the First Amendment, putting at risk any passionate political speaker, Schoen said.

The media, lawmakers, former officials, and other critics have put the blame on Trump for the Jan. 6 Capitol breach and have been calling for his impeachment. Hours earlier, the president addressed a crowd in Washington D.C. where he reiterated allegations about election irregularities and potential fraud, and his dissatisfaction with the media and several lawmakers. Before calling on his supporters to fight like hell to be well-represented in Congress, Trump urged supporters to protest peacefully and patriotically at the U.S. Capitol.

The breach at the U.S. Capitol began before Trump had finished his speech at the rally, according to a timeline compiled by The Epoch Times. As the incident escalated, Trump continued his urge for peace and respect for law enforcement throughout the afternoon.

Following the incident, Trump condemned the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem, saying that those who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy.

The Justice Department and FBI have also announced that they have charged protesters who had conspired to breach the U.S. Capitol days before the incident, a detail that challenges the argument put forward by the media that Trumps speech on Jan. 6 was the impetus for the violence.

President Trump has condemned the violence at all times. Read the words of his speech. [He] calls for peacefulness. This has nothing to do with President Trump, Schoen said.
KALAMAZOO, MI  The city of Kalamazoo held its first public Committee of the Whole meeting, preceding its regular commission meeting, allowing time for elected officials to speak about city topics.

The virtual meeting was held at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, and played live on the citys Facebook and YouTube pages.

Commissioners heard a presentation on the proposed 2021 water and wastewater utility rates. The proposed rate increases are 14% on water rates and about 10% on wastewater rates.

Commissioners also spoke briefly about housing and efforts to provide support for people in Kalamazoo including those living at an encampment.

A public comment period was held at the beginning of the Committee of the Whole, and several people thanked commissioners for approving the new format.

The new public meetings were approved on a trial basis following a series of Kalamazoo Gazette articles in November that included criticism of the private small group meetings that have been held for years.

The public was not allowed to attend the small group meetings. Because each session had fewer commissioners than the number required to pass a vote, the city argued the meetings were not subject to the Open Meetings Act.

Critics of the private small group meetings have complained about how they allow discussions about city business behind closed doors, and attorneys specializing in transparency law questioned their legality under the Open Meetings Act, which requires governments to carry out business in public.

Kalamazoo resident Jeff Messer left a message Monday and thanked the commission for finally establishing public Committee of the Whole meetings.

The closed-door meetings violated the spirit of the Michigan Open Meetings Act and deprived the public of information and discussion to which they are rightfully entitled, Messer said.

It is unfortunate that it took media attention this fall to finally motivate the commission to make this change, Messer said. He also heard Commissioner Jack Urban ask about it previously, Messer said.

Messer began asking the city commission in 2019 to commit to greater transparency and opportunities for citizen participation, in light of having a new mayor for the first time in 12 years, he said.

The sub-quorum meetings were highly questionable, Messer said, pointing to an April 2017 WOOD TV-8 report about similar meetings held in Grand Rapids. Those meetings were discontinued following the news report.

Messer said he really appreciates additional opportunities to address the commission outside of the main city commission meeting.

Another commenter thanked the officials for approving the new meeting format, as a step toward being more open and transparent.

Related: Kalamazoo commissioners meet behind closed doors regularly to discuss city issues

Urban brought up the issue for discussion in November after speaking to a Kalamazoo Gazette reporter about criticism of the small group meetings. Commissioners voted unanimously in January to institute the Committee of the Whole meetings in a trial basis.

The Committee of the Whole meetings will be held on the first and third Mondays of the month, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., from Feb. 1, to July 31.

Read more:

Kalamazoo commissioners will test out public meetings to replace closed-door sessions

West Michigan woman mourns loss of husband, daughter after two pandemics a decade apart

Report finds 25 hate groups in Michigan as extremism becomes mainstream

Kalamazoo leaders seek investigation of former public safety chiefs departure
An Garda Siochana have stepped up to the challenge issued by Swiss Federal Police last month which saw Swiss forces performing a mass, socially distant dance routine set to 'Jerusalema' by Master KG.

The dance routine was designed to lift spirits of the public during coronavirus restrictions across Europe. After publishing their video, Swiss police directly challenged gardai to respond with their own version.

There have been various sightings of gardai dance training across the country in preparation for the response. One of those was gardai in Tralee, who were spotted practicing on top of their station.

The official Garda video shows a socially-distanced dance routine featuring members and locations spanning the island of Ireland. From beaches, to castles, to rooftops - gardai made sure to use Irelands iconic scenery to their advantage.

While for the most part they stuck to the typical dance routine for the challenge, they made sure to give it an Irish twist by throwing in a bit of Irish dancing into the mix.

After seeing the Swiss police's dance challenge effort, Irish DJ Frankie Beats took to Twitter to challenge An Garda Siochana to take part in the viral dance.

He wrote: "Police officers in Switzerland decided to do something special for its people in these dark times. Just amazing! @gardainfo? Will you accept the challenge if enough people retweet this?"

Responding to a challenge from the Swiss police, who released their own version last month, gardai from stations across the country have released a slickly-choreographed performance to the tune of Jerusalema by Master KG.

Alongside the release of the hotly anticipated video, gardai wrote: Gardai across Ireland answered the call to give the public we serve a lift in these challenging times.

Now that An Garda Siochana stepped up to the challenge, the public now have the floor.

Finally, they gave a call to action to the people of Ireland to participate and help lift the nations mood: So making sure to stay home and in your bubbles. Post your challenge using #GardaJerusalema we want to see what you can do while staying safe.
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MONTREAL, Feb. 2, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - National Bank of Canada (TSX: NA) will release its first quarter 2021 results on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at approximately 6:30 a.m. EST and will hold its financial community conference call the same day at 1:00 p.m. EST.

Presentation materials referenced during the call will be posted on the Bank's website at approximately 6:30 a.m. EST. The conference call will be accessible via live Internet broadcast or by telephone in listen-only mode at 1-800-898-3989 or 416-406-0743 with access code 1995846#.

A recording will be available until March 24, 2021 at 1-800-408-3053 or 905-694-9451 with access code 1381684#.

About National Bank of Canada

With $332 billion in assets as at October 31, 2020, National Bank of Canada, together with its subsidiaries, forms one of Canada's leading integrated financial groups. It has more than 26,500 employees in knowledge-intensive positions and has been recognized numerous times as a top employer and for its commitment to diversity. Its securities are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: NA). Follow the Bank's activities at nbc.ca or via social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

SOURCE National Bank of Canada

For further information: Marie-Claude Jarry, Senior Advisor, Investor Relations, National Bank of Canada, [email protected], Tel.: 1-866-517-5455; Marie-Pierre Jodoin, Senior Manager, Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility, National Bank of Canada, [email protected], Tel.: 514-394-4209

Related Links

https://www.nbc.ca


February 02, 2021 / 11:00 PM IST

authorities and other issues. Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, are staging a sit-in protest along Delhi borders. The protest started on November 26. The farmers are demanding a complete rollback of the new farm reform laws and a guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system being retained. Multiple rounds of talks between the Centre and the farmers union leaders have ended in a stalemate. Protesting farmers fear that the new laws will dismantle the MSP system and corporatise farming. The Supreme Court had earlier ordered a stay on the implementation of these contentious laws, hoping it will end the protest. The farm union leaders have also rejected Centre's proposal to suspend implementation of the laws for the 18 months. Some protesters breached barricades and clashed with police on January 26 when the farmers were staging a tractor rally in the national capital. Some also stormed the historic Red Fort. Hundreds of individuals from both, the police and protesters, were injured during the violent incident.

The 'Delhi Chalo' farmers' protest at border points of New Delhi has entered the 69th day today. Farmer unions have announced a countrywide 'chakka jam' on February 6 when they would block national and state highways for three hours in protest against the Internet ban in areas near their agitation sites, harassment allegedly meted out to them by the
WASHINGTON, February 2, 2021 -- The "second wave" of the coronavirus pandemic has placed much blame on a lack of appropriate safety measures. However, due to the impacts of weather, research suggests two outbreaks per year during a pandemic are inevitable.

Though face masks, travel restrictions, and social distancing guidelines help slow the number of new infections in the short term, the lack of climate effects incorporated into epidemiological models presents a glaring hole that can cause long-term effects. In Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing, Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis, from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, discuss the impacts of these parameters.

Typical models for predicting the behavior of an epidemic contain only two basic parameters, transmission rate and recovery rate. These rates tend to be treated as constants, but Dbouk and Drikakis said this is not actually the case.

Temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed all play a significant role, so the researchers aimed to modify typical models to account for these climate conditions. They call their new weather-dependent variable the Airborne Infection Rate index.

When they applied the AIR index to models of Paris, New York City, and Rio de Janeiro, they found it accurately predicted the timing of the second outbreak in each city, suggesting two outbreaks per year is a natural, weather-dependent phenomenon. Further, the behavior of the virus in Rio de Janeiro was markedly different from the behavior of the virus in Paris and New York, due to seasonal variations in the northern and southern hemispheres, consistent with real data.

The authors emphasize the importance of accounting for these seasonal variations when designing safety measures.

"We propose that epidemiological models must incorporate climate effects through the AIR index," said Drikakis. "National lockdowns or large-scale lockdowns should not be based on short-term prediction models that exclude the effects of weather seasonality."

"In pandemics, where massive and effective vaccination is not available, the government planning should be longer-term by considering weather effects and design the public health and safety guidelines accordingly," said Dbouk. "This could help avoid reactive responses in terms of strict lockdowns that adversely affect all aspects of life and the global economy."

As temperatures rise and humidity falls, Drikakis and Dbouk expect another improvement in infection numbers, though they note that mask and distancing guidelines should continue to be followed with the appropriate weather-based modifications.

This research group's previous work showed that droplets of saliva can travel 18 feet in five seconds when an unmasked person coughs and extended their studies to examine the effects of face masks and weather conditions. The authors are incorporating the previous findings into their epidemiological models.

###

The article "Fluid dynamics and epidemiology: Seasonality and transmission dynamics" is authored by Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis. The article will appear in Physics of Fluids on Feb. 2, 2021 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0037640). After that date, it can be accessed at https:/ / aip. scitation. org/ doi/ 10. 1063/ 5. 0037640 .

ABOUT THE JOURNAL
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sci Find, a Los Angeles-based tech company will be launching its search engine and comprehensive database on February 8, to promote scientific innovation in the Life Sciences community.

The AI-powered platform, Sci Find, has been developed as a tool that allows scientists to network, market, innovate and commercialize their new technologies at an accelerated pace. By opening doors to new opportunities for collaboration between scientific organizations. "Sci Find helps scientific organizations outsource their internal R&D capabilities by directly connecting them to potential clients. We also assist in discovering outsourcing contracts for buying parties interested in outsourcing any of their internal experiments," says Stefani Robnett, CEO, and co-founder of Sci Find.

Co-founded by Robnett and Guy Rohkin, the company will enable start-ups, academic labs, private labs, and other organizations to outsource their internal R&D capabilities by directly connecting them to potential clients. "We also assist in an active form of marketing that can identify individuals and engage them with your service offerings or technical capabilities," says Rohkin.

About Sci Find

Sci Find is an AI-powered tool that uses Natural Language Processing to help researchers market and commercialize their innovations through a matchmaking technique. The company had secured its pre-seed round in 2020 and its lead investor is Rob Koster, a co-founder of a B2B matchmaking startup, Procam Benelux B.V,in the Netherlands which was acquired in 2018. As Rob states:

"There is a significant analogy between that startup and Sci Find's AI driven matchmaking. I am very excited to participate in Sci Find given the huge potential to shake up the Life Science industry into the network marketing area as all companies and individuals in this field can and will benefit from what Sci Find has to offer."

The funds were used to develop a search engine and comprehensive database that provides the life sciences community accessibility and visibility required for collaboration.



Stefani Robnett, is a Sarlo Foundation Sustainable Development Fellow and an ex-Facebooker who spearheaded QA in their maps division, utilizing AI to detect road maps in Open Street Maps. Guy Rohkin is a trained molecular biologist and was the first employee and scientist at an IndieBio, SOSV and True Ventures-backed immuno-repertoire sequencing company called Girihlet Inc based out of Oakland, CA.

Its team of advisors includes Erwin Estigarribia and Shawn Baker. Estigarribia is the COO of InterVenn Biosciences and a seasoned executive with over two decades of experience in Biotech operations from therapeutics, to diagnostics to medical devices. Baker, has 20+ years in the field of genomics, with an extensive and broad background in the industry. After receiving his Ph.D. from UC Davis, he joined Illumina as a research scientist when it was a 15-person startup, later transitioning into a product marketing role. Shawn served as the Co-Founder, Board Member, CSO for Allseq Inc, an online sequencing marketplace, which offered a unique and unbiased perspective on the consumer and technology trends in the genomics market. He is also the founder of SanDiegOmics, a specialty genomics business consultancy.

Baker says, "I've worked with a number of startup founders, but I'm really enjoying working with the Sci Find team because of the energy they bring and the novel solutions they're coming up with to long standing problems."

Their technical lead is David Villarama, formerly the senior engineer at Science 37the first company to jumpstart virtual clinical trials. With over 20 years of software development expertise, he spearheads Sci Find's technical development.



Contact Information

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sci_find

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scifind

Website: www.scifind.net

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Sci Find
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has been left off a list of leading Chinese entrepreneurs published by a state-controlled newspaper - the snub underscoring how just far he has fallen out of favour with Beijing.

Mr Ma had disappeared from the public eye for more than two months since early November when he was hauled in front of regulators for an October speech critical of China's outdated financial system.

Shortly afterwards, the record-breaking 27billion ($37billion) IPO of his financial group Ant was spiked at the last minute by Chinese regulators in a shock move which some saw as retaliation for Mr Ma's outspokenness.

Jack Ma was not mentioned in an article praising top Chinese businessmen on Tuesday. The picture shows Mr Ma attending a conference to commemorate the 40th anniversary of China's Reform and Opening Up policy at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on December 18, 2018

The record-breaking $37billion IPO of Mr Ma's financial group Ant was spiked at the last minute by Chinese regulators late last year in a shock move which some saw as retaliation for Ma's outspokenness. The file photo shows Ant Group's headquarters in Hangzhou, China

Late last month, the 56-year-old made his first public appearance in over two months in an online video to hail China's poverty alleviation efforts, ending weeks of speculation about his whereabouts.

Mr Ma -- one of China's richest people with a fortune estimated at around 45billion ($62billion) -- was not mentioned in a front-page article today by Shanghai Securities News, a financial outlet supervised by state news agency Xinhua.

The commentary praised seven high-profile entrepreneurs for helping China achieve 'high-quality' economic growth, but did not bring up the nation's best-known businessman, Mr Ma.

Among the applauded were Huawei's CEO Ren Zhengfei, Xiaomi's co-founder Lei Jun and Tencent's chairman Ma Huateng.

Air-conditioning giant Gree's chairman Dong Mingzhu, electric vehicle maker BYD's founder Wang Chuanfu and Fuyao Glass's founder Cao Dewang were also named for their contributions.

A screenshot of a video released by state-affiliated Tianmu News on January 20 showed Mr Ma praising China's poverty alleviation efforts and vowing to help rural teachers as he re-emerged

The article was published on Tuesday when Alibaba will also report its latest quarterly earnings.

The catalyst for Mr Ma's current woes was an October 24 speech in which he blasted China's regulatory system, leading to the suspension of his Ant Group's $37billion IPO just days before the fintech giant's listing.

Regulators have since launched an anti-trust probe into the tech sector with Alibaba taking much of the heat, while tighter regulations for Ant Group are also being considered.

Mr Ma, who is not known for shying away from the limelight, subsequently disappeared from the public eye for about three months, triggering frenzied speculation about his whereabouts. He re-emerged last month with a 50-second video appearance.

The Shanghai Securities News said that while some of the entrepreneurs it praised had once behaved like 'reckless heroes' in their efforts to break away from an old, rigid economic system, they now led 'a group of companies that respected the rules of development and abided by market rules'.

Mr Ma retired as Alibaba's chairman in 2019 but has attracted attention for his outspokenness

Mr Ma, a charismatic former-teacher-turned-internet-entrepreneur, retired as chairman of Alibaba in 2019 but has long attracted attention for his outspokenness and flamboyant antics, performing as a rockstar at company conferences.

The continued squeeze on one of China's most influential companies is the latest sign that the leadership is ready to deflate the ambitions of big tech firms in a runaway internet sector.

Beijing has a history of disappearing, investigating and imprisoning financial tycoons who do not toe the party line.

Last year, outspoken real estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang was jailed for 18 years on alleged corruption charges, months after penning an essay critical of the Communist Party.
Never before has the relationship between politics, science and the mood of the people been more evident than in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Government decisions on lockdowns to contain the virus are careful political calculations based on the scientific advice offered by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) set against the politicians assessment of the public appetite for restrictions.

On the face of it, this appears to be a credible, democratic way to make decisions, but how democratic is it? I ask this question because most politicians make big decisions based on they will affect their re-election prospects at the next election.

A classic example of this is the spike in Covid cases we experienced in January.

The NPHET advice in early December was to move to a more severe lockdown, including a ban on foreign travel. However, the Government decided to not to ruin Christmas and it deferred the severe lockdown until after the Christmas period. No politician wanted to be remembered as the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Agriculture faces a similar dilemma with the upcoming EU CAP Reform.

Our national CAP Strategic Plan for the distribution of CAP funds between 2023-2027 must be must be submitted to the European Commission by February 2022.

Stakeholders across the country are presently busy preparing submissions for government.

When the new CAP regime rolls out in 2023 we will be just two years away from a general election.

The big question is, will the good ideas in the stakeholder submissions be taken into account or will short-term political considerations trump the necessity to tackle the thorny issues around CAP funds distribution?

The European Commission has outlined nine high level objectives of the next CAP which are broadly focused on climate change, environment, animal welfare and antimicrobial resistance issues.

We already know the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) will be replaced by a Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme (BISS).

There will be a new element called Eco-Schemes which will replace the greening element of the existing CAP.

These new Eco-Scheme measures will account for somewhere between 20-30pc of a farmers annual Pillar 1 direct payment.

The Eco-Schemes will be optional so that the farmer can choose to opt out and take a reduced payment.

The EU recently published a list of potential agricultural practices that farmers could be paid to carry out under Eco-Schemes.

I am confident our government will come up with a plan to satisfy the EU Commission with suitable measures, but will they address the issues that bedevil EU CAP payments in Ireland. I have identified what I believe are the five main issues.

1 Farmer Perception of Payments

Some farmers farm subsidies not land  this practice and mentality must stop for the benefit of active farmers and the image of the industry.

CAP payments are not an income support, thats the remit of the Department of Social Protection. Todays CAP payments are driven by environmental targets, food biosecurity and to compensate European farmers for the additional cost of producing the best food on the planet.

2 Active Farmers

Many farmers will go to the ends of the earth to protect their farm payments.

This can often result is poor farming practices or paper farming units.

These include those renting hills and mountains with minimal numbers of sheep, small tillage farmers who dont even know what crops they are sowing, and the sale of grass by farmers who havent even purchased the fertiliser.

The land in these farm holdings should really be farmed in an official partnership/share-farming arrangement to draw down payments or else be leased out. The mentality of holding onto farm payments at all costs is generated out of a fear of losing or of never gaining access to the payments again.

This could be addressed by prioritising such farmers in the National Reserve.

3 End the Link with 2000-2003 CAP Payments

The basis for most of todays Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) entitlements can be traced back to how farms were run in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Thats over 20 years ago and those payments do not reflect the present-day activities on most farms.

A movement to full convergence (everybody with the same payment per hectare) combined with the proposed Eco-Scheme top-up is an opportunity to adjust payments to reflect todays farming programmes.

4 Armchair Farmers

Perhaps the most sensitive topic of all is what should happen to entitlements/ farm payments when a farmer retires from farming by leasing out or selling his farm? These farmers are commonly known as armchair farmers.

Presently, many farmers planning to retire are holding back on leasing out their holdings until they know the basis for allocating new BISS entitlements.

This should not be the case. It is preventing the farmer from retiring and it is holding back active farmers from driving on their farm businesses.

For those choosing to retire now, the legal profession are busy composing audacious clauses for insertion into land leases to ensure the payments come back at the end of the present CAP!

Others are pretending to be farming a hectare of land, even though they are retired, in the hope they will keep their payments. That approach worked after the last CAP reform.

I predict we will see court cases during the next few years over who actually owns the CAP payment on leased land. This issue must be addressed.

Farm payments in whatever guise should be paid to active farmers, not armchair farmers.

I have no issue with retiring farmers leasing out their farm payments in a long-term lease and getting 100pc paid back annually tax -free for as long as those payments last.

If the leasee knows that the first day it can be reflected that in the price offered or paid per acre for the land. It will also better inform a landlord and remove unnecessary concern.

Farmers have to accept that when they retire they will lose their farm payments at the next reform.

5 Policing and Penalties

The policing of the rules and regulations for draw-down of farm payments and the subsequent system of penalties certainly needs upgrading.

It is presently in the remit of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine to police the schemes and payments. Perhaps it is time for change.

An inspectorate independent of the Department, with clear penalties for non-compliance published for all to see, would, in my opinion, be of benefit to both farmers and the Department.

The present regime of applying a percentage penalty for non-compliance favours those with low payments, and penalises and those with larger payments.

Surely a mixture of fixed penalties and percentage penalties would be more appropriate. Bigger more complex cases would proceed via the court system.

In summary, EU CAP payments have served this country well. We are the poster child for all the new entrant countries from the former Eastern bloc.

Our Government now need to seize this opportunity and submit an ambitious CAP Strategic Plan for this reform, and others that will surely follow, and let our world class active farmers lead Europe

into a sustainable farming future.
The Hollywood Sign, a landmark and American cultural icon located in Los Angeles was reportedly vandalised on Monday to read "Hollyboob" in a bid to raise breast cancer awareness message, several reports stated.

In the photos that have gone viral on social media, the letter "W" has been replaced by a tarp reading "B" while the "D" has a tiny dash to make it seem like another "B".

The incident came to notice after LAPD security personnel observed five men and one woman on surveillance tape at around 1:15 pm following which a police helicopter was alerted and the miscreants were tracked down to a location in Mulholland Drive where they were handcuffed, Los Angeles Times reported.

The report further added that all six would be charged with misdemeanour trespassing and released before quoting LAPD Captain and the Hollywood area commander Steve Lurie saying that the act wasn't vandalism since the sign wasn't damaged.

Several Twitter users have since tweeted photos of "Hollyboob" in astonishment.

Someone changed the Hollywood sign to HollyBOOB! pic.twitter.com/G3wvS7GKBS  Americana at Brand Memes (@americanamemes) February 1, 2021

I can't believe I had to hear about Hollyboob from Vsauce pic.twitter.com/S6DmMew44U  Aubree @ Narumitsu Brainrot (@aubree_strider) February 1, 2021

Hurray for HollyBOOB pic.twitter.com/SMWDGwd4VD  Randy Havens (@MrRandyHavens) February 1, 2021

No wonder people think LA is full of idiots every time our sign gets defaced its always HOLLYWEED or HOLLYBOOB but never HOLLYBOOK  Alex Blagg (@alexblagg) February 2, 2021

NOOOOO SOMEONE CHANGED THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN TO SAY HOLLYBOOB   The Tim In Question | BLM (@Yoshirox10) February 1, 2021

This, however, isn't the first instance of "Hollywood" sign being "defaced".

Back in 2017, the iconic sign was vandalised to read "Hollyweed" to celebrate the legalisation of recreational marijuana in California.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), surveillance footage caught one person dressed in all black sneaking up to the sign around 3 a.m. and spending about an hour and a half transforming the O's to E's by two pieces of black trap with graphic of anti-nuclear war and love, Xinhua news agency reported.

Danny Finegood, who passed away in 2007, was made famous by changing the sign to 'Hollyweed' on January 1, 1976, in celebration of the state's then more relaxed marijuana laws taking effect.

In 1987, some Caltech students changed it to read the name of their University.

(With agency inputs)
A single shot of Oxford University's coronavirus vaccine is 76 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic illness and may have a 'substantial effect' on transmission, research suggests.

In a huge boost to the UK's immunisation drive, analysis of the jab trials found the first dose was extremely successful in preventing people from falling ill within the 12-week time window between getting a second dose.

When the second dose is administered after three months, the jab's efficacy is bumped up to 82.4 per cent, according to the study, which has been submitted to The Lancet for publication.

The results, from more than 17,000 trial volunteers, suggest Britain's vaccination gamble to delay its dosing regimen has paid off.

In a bid to get wider vaccine coverage quicker, regulators pivoted from their original plan to give people their second dose after 21 days when the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab was approved in late December.

They pushed back the second dose for 12 weeks in the hope that giving partial protection to as many vulnerable people as possible would drive down hospital admissions.

Boris Johnson tweeted: 'Really encouraging data from a new study today shows the Oxford/AZ vaccine provides significant protection against the virus.'

Ellen Prosser, known as Nell, who is 100 years old, receives the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Dr. Nikki Kanani at the Sunrise Care Home on January 7

Analysis of the jab trials found the first dose was extremely successful in preventing people from falling ill within the 12-week time window between getting a second dose

The strategy has helped make Britain a world-leader in vaccinations, with 9.6million people now injected with at least a single dose of either Pfizer's or AstraZeneca's jab.

Meanwhile, analysis of PCR positive swabs carried out on nearly 7,000 patients in the UK arm of Oxford's trial suggests the vaccine may reduce transmission by 67 per cent.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock described the findings as 'hugely encouraging', adding: 'It further reinforces our confidence that vaccines are capable of reducing transmission and protecting people from this awful disease.'

Dr Gillies O'Bryan-Tear, of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, said the study suggested the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine could be the 'holy grail'.

He added: 'The data support the recommendation to delay the second dose of the Oxford vaccine out to 12 weeks.

'If these vaccines reduce transmission to the extent reported, it will mean that the easing of social restrictions will be enabled sooner, than if we have to wait for herd immunity, which may never in fact be achieved because of insufficient vaccine population coverage.

'That would be the holy grail of the global vaccine rollout, and these data bring us one step closer.'

Since numerous vaccines have been shown to block symptomatic Covid, officials have turned their attention to how effective jabs are at stopping spread altogether.

Vaccines that can both prevent serious illness and make a dent in the virus' ability to spread will help drive down Britain's epidemic much quicker.

A single shot of Pfizer's Covid vaccine might NOT be enough to protect over-80s from South African variant, Cambridge study finds Delaying the second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine could leave some elderly patients vulnerable to the South African Covid variant, research suggests. Laboratory tests by Cambridge University found that a single shot of the jab might not stimulate a strong enough immune response to kill the new strain in over-80s. Antibody levels only appeared to be protective after a second dose  but the researchers admitted the jab is still likely to be 'less effective' when dealing with the E484K mutation on the South African variant's spike protein. Experts believe the mutation  which is also present in the Brazilian Covid variants  helps the strain 'hide' from the body's natural defences. The news is particularly worrying as the UK Government has this week warned that cases of the South Africa variant are cropping up in people who haven't travelled there, and the same E484K mutation is also appearing on unrelated cases caused by the Kent variant and even older versions of the virus. Top Government advisers and vaccine manufacturers insist the current crop of jabs should still work against the variant  when given in the full two doses  because the antibodies they make can still stop the disease from taking hold in the body. Antibodies  disease-fighting proteins created by vaccines and in response to previous infection  are also not the immune system's only layer of defence. Scientists reacting to the findings said now was 'a good time to switch' away from Britain's one-dose strategy, which aims to get wider vaccine coverage quicker. Regulators pivoted from their original plan to give people their second dose after 21 days when the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine was approved at the end of December. They pushed back the second dose for 12 weeks in a bid to give partial protection to as many vulnerable people as possible and drive down hospital admissions. And the strategy has been extremely successful, with 9.6million people now vaccinated with at least a single dose of either Pfizer's or AstraZeneca's jab. Advertisement

Professor Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial, and co-author of the latest analysis, said: 'These new data provide an important verification of the interim data that was used by more than 25 regulators including the MHRA [the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency] and the EMA [European Medicines Agency] to grant the vaccine emergency use authorisation.

'It also supports the policy recommendation made by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) for a 12-week prime-boost interval, as they look for the optimal approach to roll out, and reassures us that people are protected from 22 days after a single dose of the vaccine.'

As part of the latest analysis, Oxford researchers went back through their vaccine trial data - which aimed to test how well the two-dose regimen worked - to see how much protection a single shot provides, and for how long.

The research looked at 17,177 participants from three trials in the UK, Brazil and South Africa who were monitored weekly throughout the months-long studies

They found the vaccine had an efficacy of 54.9 per cent when it was administered in two doses within six weeks of each other.

This rose to 82.4 per cent when the second dose was pushed back 12 weeks or more. Scientists are still not certain as to why the longer space between doses provides more protection.

One of the prevailing theories is that giving a second dose too soon can interrupt the immune system before it's had the chance to fully process the first one.

Creating the initial antibodies and memory cells after the first vaccine can take weeks, which is also why there is a lag before protection is achieved.

The finding is significant because Government vaccine advisers have recommended that the second dose can be delayed up to 12 weeks in a bid to get more people protected quickly.

Britain came under international criticism, including from the World Health Organization (WHO), for the move because the original vaccine trials did not specifically look at this dosing regimen.

Another significant finding in the Oxford study is that the vaccine is likely to significantly reduce transmission of the virus.

PCR swabs showed there was a 67 per cent reduction in positive tests in those who had been vaccinated - in another sign the UK's inoculation gamble has paid off.

A positive PCR would signal that even someone who is vaccinated and immune to the disease is carrying fragments of the virus in their nose or throat which they could pass to others.

Reducing Covid's spread is critical for country's to achieve 'herd immunity', when so many people are immune that a disease peters out.

In the coming days, the Oxford researchers hope to also report data regarding the new variants, and expect the findings to be broadly similar to those already reported by fellow vaccine developers.

Studies of approved jabs by Pfizer and Moderna have shown that the vaccines can stimulate a strong enough immune response to neutralise the South African and Brazilian variants.

But there are still question marks about how protective a single dose of either jabs will be effective against the worrying mutant strains.

Results from laboratory tests by Cambridge University published today found that a single shot of the Pfizer jab might not stimulate a strong enough immune response to kill the South African strain in over-80s.

Antibody levels only appeared to be protective after a second dose  but the researchers admitted the jab is still likely to be 'less effective' when dealing with the E484K mutation on the South African variant's spike protein.

Experts believe the mutation  which is also present in the Brazilian Covid variants  helps the strain 'hide' from the body's natural defences.

The news is particularly worrying as the UK Government has this week warned that cases of the South Africa variant are cropping up in people who haven't travelled there, and the same E484K mutation is also appearing on unrelated cases caused by the Kent variant and even older versions of the virus.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the American Primary Aluminum Association (APAA) is praising the Biden Administration's action to maintain Section 232 aluminum tariffs on the United Arab Emirates following a last second effort by the Trump Administration to remove them during their final hours in office. The revocation by the Biden Administration will ensure that America's primary aluminum industry is protected against foreign aluminum imports while preserving America's national security interests.

"The APAA is grateful to the Biden Administration for revoking a proclamation that would have led to the removal of Section 232 aluminum tariffs on the UAE," said Mark Duffy, Chief Executive Officer of the APAA. "Keeping the Section 232 program intact and effective, will keep the playing field level for American aluminum workers. We salute the Biden Administration's efforts to protect the Section 232 program and thousands of good, family-sustaining jobs."

The APAA will continue to work with the Biden Administration to strengthen the U.S. economy, rebuild domestic supply chains, and create new aluminum jobs across the country.

About the American Primary Aluminum Association (APAA): The American Primary Aluminum Association advocates to advance the interests of America's primary aluminum industry and its workers through the Aluminum Now campaign. The APAA is registered and incorporated in Washington, DC and operates as a non-profit trade association. For more, please visit: www.aluminumnow.org.

SOURCE American Primary Aluminum Association

Related Links

http://www.aluminumnow.org


Reggaeton artist Bad Bunny was slated to perform during WWE's Royal Rumble pay-per-view extravaganza, but he ended up finding some new rivals as well.

The 26-year-old rapper (real name Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio) performed his new song Booker T, alongside the WWE legend of the same name at Sunday night's event held at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday night.

The rapper ended up getting into it with two established wrestling pros, The Miz and John Morrison, which escalated to the point where Bad Bunny executed an impressive frog splash from the top rope to take out his new rivals.

Top rope: Reggaeton artist Bad Bunny was slated to perform during WWE's Royal Rumble pay-per-view extravaganza, but he ended up finding some new rivals as well

Miz and Morrison: The rapper ended up getting into it with two established wrestling pros, The Miz and John Morrison, which escalated to the point where Bad Bunny executed an impressive frog splash from the top rope to take out his new rivals

Before the show even started, The Miz and John Morrison approached Bad Bunny backstage to pitch them a musical collaboration.

The Puerto Rican declined their offer, which angered the tag team duo to the point that they trashed Bad Bunny's DJ setup before the Rumble began.

While Bunny's performance went off without a hitch, Miz and Morrison's actions still clearly angered the rapper, to the point where he came out during the Royal Rumble match.

Bunny to the ring: While Bunny's performance went off without a hitch, Miz and Morrison's actions still clearly angered the rapper, to the point where he came out during the Royal Rumble match

Both Miz and Morrison were still alive in the Rumble match - a last man standing match where wrestlers are eliminated by being thrown out of the ring, when Bunny came down to voice his displeasure at M&M.

While WWE referees stopped the Latin trap artist short of the ring, his arrival provided the perfect distraction for another wrestler, Damian Priest, to strike.

With both Miz and Morrison's backs turned, Priest sent both of them over the top rope and out of the ring, eliminating them from the Royal Rumble, much to the delight of the crowd.

Distraction: While WWE referees stopped the Latin trap artist short of the ring, his arrival provided the perfect distraction for another wrestler, Damian Priest, to strike

As M&M were both slow to get up from the elimination, Priest encouraged Bunny to head to the top rope, which he did, much to the delight of the crowd.

The rapper climbed to the top rope and delivered an impressive frog splash, taking out both Miz and Morrison in one leap.

'I've heard of flying squirrels, but flying bunny's?' announcer Michael Cole exclaimed during the PPV broadcast.

Frog splash: The rapper climbed to the top rope and delivered an impressive frog splash, taking out both Miz and Morrison in one leap

Bad Bunny's song Booker T was featured on his new album El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo, which was released in late November.

Booker T himself revealed on his Hall of Fame podcast in December that Bad Bunny, 'admired what Id done for the business, for the sport in general.'

'From somewhere across the water, hes watching Booker T and hes digging what Im doing, it lets me know I did something right as far as going out there from a performance perspective I always wondered when somebody was going to come out with a song about Booker T, because I knew I was badass, but this is kind of the stamp of approval,' he added.

Bunny and Booker: Bad Bunny's song Booker T was featured on his new album El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo, which was released in late November
The Russian coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, was 92% effective at preventing symptomatic illness in a large clinical trial, robust protection that puts it in line with top vaccines developed in the United States and Europe, according to results published in a peer-reviewed journal Tuesday.

The Russian vaccine effort has been criticized for being too rushed, elevating nationalistic competition over scientific evidence. The publication in the Lancet, a British medical journal, marks the first large-scale, peer-reviewed results to be published showing the performance of Sputnik V - despite the fact that the vaccine has been in broad use in Russia and is being rolled out to other countries.

Outside experts said the data convincingly shows the vaccine works. But because the trial was conducted in Russia in the fall, before the spread of virus variants that have shown signs of eroding vaccine effectiveness, questions loom about how protective the vaccine will be in the face of emerging threats.

"Results are great," Hildegund C.J. Ertl, a vaccine scientist at the Wistar Institute, said in an email. "Good safety profile, more than 90% efficacy across all age groups, 100% efficacy against severe disease or death, can be stored in the fridge and low cost. What more would we want?"

Kirill Dmitriev, chief of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a state fund that had backed the vaccine, said the results proved that criticism of the vaccine was unfounded.

"All our critics are keeping quiet at the moment because they are running out of arguments. We have addressed all of their concerns. Sputnik V has proven itself to be one of the most effective and safest vaccines in the world," he said at a news conference.

The news was also a relief to foreign officials who had been relying on the Russian-made vaccine to fill gaps left in their supplies. Mexico's deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, had flown to Argentina last month to follow the country's Phase 3 testing of Sputnik V. Lopez-Gatell said Tuesday the public had felt "a concern, a worry that is totally legitimate about whether the [Russian] vaccine is effective."

He said he hoped the results published in the Lancet put those anxieties to rest.

"This gives us an enormous opportunity to accelerate the pace of vaccination against covid in Mexico," he said. Mexican authorities are expected to formally approve emergency use of the Russian vaccine Tuesday.

Almost 20,000 participants took part in the Phase 3 trial, with roughly three-quarters receiving the vaccine, while the remainder received a placebo.

The results appear to make Sputnik V the third coronavirus vaccine to have an efficacy of more than 90%, along with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. But experts have repeatedly cautioned that it can be misleading to compare performance in different vaccine trials, because of differences in how the trials are designed and when and where they were conducted.

Vaccines that have been tested more recently, in areas of the world where variants have become dominant, such as vaccine candidates from Johnson & Johnson and Novavax, appear less efficacious against a form of the virus that is rapidly becoming dominant.

Peter Jay Hotez, a vaccine scientist at Baylor College of Medicine, said he was concerned that antibody levels sparked by the Russian vaccine appeared relatively modest. While the vaccine may have offered robust protection against the form of the virus circulating in Russia in September and November, laboratory tests have demonstrated that antibodies triggered by other vaccines are less effective against the variants, particularly one that originated in South Africa and is rapidly spreading globally.

"The worry is that when you're starting out low like this . . . as the South African variant comes through, this [vaccine] may no longer protect," Hotez said. "I think that's what's probably going to happen, and the Russians are going to look at recasting this vaccine in some way."

In the trial, participants who received Sputnik V were administered two shots 21 days apart. The regimen uses two different harmless cold viruses, called adenoviruses, to infect cells with a gene that carries the blueprint for the spike protein found on the surface of the coronavirus. By using two different viruses to deliver the gene, the vaccine regimen avoids one possible problem with such an approach - that the body may build an immune response to the cold virus that delivers the gene, blocking the booster shot's ability to rev up the immune system.

The technology is similar to that used by the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which reported 66% efficacy overall at preventing moderate and severe disease four weeks after the shot, and the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which EU regulators have judged to be about 60% effective. AstraZeneca and Gamaleya, the Russian research institute that developed Sputnik V, announced in December that they are working together to explore whether combinations of their vaccines might be beneficial.

The Russian vaccine, like those others, appeared to be most effective at preventing serious cases of disease. In the Johnson & Johnson trial, there were no cases of hospitalization or death related to covid-19, the illness caused by the virus, in people receiving the vaccine. In the Russian trial, there were no cases of moderate or severe covid-19 cases among vaccinated people, while there were 20 cases among those who received placebo. In the AstraZeneca-Oxford trial, there were 10 covid-19-related hospitalizations, all among people who received placebo.

"The vaccine appears to induce decent protection, consistent with their previous press releases," said Konstantin Chumakov, a member of the Global Virus Network, an international coalition working on viral threats. "It confirms the expectations that adenovirus-based vaccines can be effective, at least in the short run. Now, it remains to be seen how long the immunity will last, and whether it will protect against the variant strains."

There were 62 confirmed cases of covid-19 in the placebo group, compared with 16 infected people found in the vaccine group, none of whom had severe symptoms.

The trial included more than 2,000 volunteers who were older than 60. Results did not differ statistically for this older group.

There were limited side effects in those who received Sputnik V, the developers said, with 94% of adverse effects described as mild, including flu-like symptoms and reactions at the injection site.

After receiving approval Aug. 11 in Russia, the vaccine's developers marketed Sputnik V aggressively, setting up a website that dubbed the vaccine the "first registered vaccine against COVID-19" and using a Twitter account to not only promote it but cast doubt upon rivals.

Sputnik V's developers say the vaccine is already registered in 12 countries. It remains the only vaccine to be used in a low-income country, after being used on a trial basis in the West African nation of Guinea.

In mid-January, Moscow said it was "open to immediate cooperation" with Egypt and could provide the Sputnik V vaccine within days, adding more supply throughout 2021, the Russian Embassy in Cairo said in a statement last month.

Russia was also "ready to transfer technology to produce this vaccine" in Egypt, which the embassy said had "an adequate production base."

The statement made clear that Moscow viewed the Sputnik V vaccine as an opportunity to solidify its burgeoning relationship with the government of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and gain influence in Africa and the Middle East.

"This will not only allow for the widest possible vaccination campaign, but it will also help develop the economic and trade capabilities of our Egyptian friends," the embassy said.

Russia would like Egypt to become an export hub for the Sputnik V vaccine in Africa, Egypt's ambassador to Moscow told Egypt's El Watan newspaper.

Last month, Egyptian health specialists performed clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine, according to El Watan, which quoted an Egyptian health ministry aide saying that "the Russian vaccine is currently a priority for research."

The Sputnik V vaccine has not been approved or registered in Egypt.

The Sissi government received its first shipment of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in December to vaccinate front-line medical workers.

This week, Egypt received its first 50,000-dose shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine, also to vaccinate health workers, the country's cabinet announced Tuesday. The government has ordered 20 million AstraZeneca doses from India, according to Al Ahram, a state-run newspaper.

On Tuesday, Algerian officials said that they will start producing the Sputnik V vaccine in coming weeks and that the first batch of 50,000 doses arrived in Algeria last Thursday. Kamel Mansouri, head of Algeria's national agency for pharmaceuticals, said on national television Tuesday that Algeria and Russia were in advanced discussions to manufacture the vaccine at a government-owned facility.

- - -

The Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan in Cairo and Mary Beth Sheridan in Mexico City contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday rebuked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's actions and defended Rep. Liz Cheney's decision to vote to impeach former president Donald Trump, weighing in for the first time on the criticism facing both lawmakers.

The statements together are an unusual venture from a Senate leader onto the other chamber's turf and an unmistakable signal to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., that, for the party's sake, he must sideline extremists such as Greene, R-Ga., and maintain a place for traditional Republicans such as Cheney, R-Wyo.

On Wednesday morning, House Republicans will hold a conferencewide meeting during which the actions of both lawmakers are expected to be discussed.

In the statement on Greene, first reported by The Hill, McConnell did not mention the freshman lawmaker by name but listed a series of actions that describe her pattern of inflammatory behavior.

"Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country," McConnell said. "Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party."

Greene responded Monday night on Twitter. "The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully," she said. "This is why we are losing our country."

In a separate statement, McConnell did name Cheney, describing the No. 3 House Republican as "a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them."

"She is an important leader in our party and in our nation," McConnell said in the statement, first reported by CNN. "I am grateful for her service and look forward to continuing to work with her on the crucial issues facing our nation."

At Wednesday's meeting, House Republicans are expected to debate whether to oust Cheney from her spot as the No. 3 member of their party's leadership in the chamber.

In the weeks since her vote to impeach Trump on the charge of incitement of insurrection, Cheney has also faced a backlash from Trump allies, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who spoke at an anti-Cheney rally in Wyoming last week.
Tripoli, Feb 2 : The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) has warned of a imminent humanitarian disaster in Libya due to the shortage of water supply in the war-ravaged country.

"Over 4 million people, including 1.5 million children, will face imminent water problems if immediate solutions are not found and implemented," the Unicef said in a statement on Monday.

The statement explained that the prolonged crisis in the country has impaired the country's water facilities.

"This is mainly attributed to the lack of required budgets for the purchase of equipment, operational materials and spare parts for regular maintenance.

"Suppliers are also struggling to open bank credits in hard currency to import equipment from outside the country," the statement said.

The Unicef calls on the Libyan government and international organisations to prioritize the water supply in order to avoid a "humanitarian disaster," the agency's Special Representative in Libya, AbdulKadir Musse, was quoted as saying in the statement.

Due to the protracted armed conflict, political and economic crises and the coronavirus pandemic, nearly 1.2 million people, including over 348,000 children, require humanitarian assistance in Libya, according to the Unicef.

The agency and its partners require $49.1 million to spearhead emergency preparedness and response interventions in Libya in 2021.

Given the major needs linked to Covid-19, the priority interventions for 2021 include health; water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); education; and child protection.
The thought of a summer holiday is one of the few aspirations keeping our pandemic-weary nation afloat.

However, people are still putting off making a booking due to fears over the current high Covid-19 numbers as they await the roll out of the vaccine to the wider population.

That's according to Catherine Myler, manager of Newbridge Travel.

She explained that back in October/November, when case numbers were low, she thought they might have people booking their summer holidays in January. However, with the rise in case numbers after Christmas, that hasnt happened.

There is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. The vaccine is being distributed and people are eager to go on holiday. We would hope that as things improve, we would have people making enquiries during the summer for holidays in September, October and November, she said.

She explained there was no confidence in the industry at present because of these factors and people were understandably cautious.

She said there were some people who were travelling abroad but they were people who could afford to stay off work to self isolate for two weeks, and fork out for the PCP Covid test. She said each country has its own regulations and the situation was extremely fluid with rules changing all the time.

If you are a family of four  two adults and two children  tests for the whole family would cost 500 before you go and another 500 when you come back. Thats 1,000 before you spend money on anything else, she said. However, Catherine is very optimistic about the future once case numbers start to drop and more people are vaccinated.

People will want to go on holiday, there is a huge pent up demand and when that happens, we are here and waiting for those enquiries.

Meanwhile, The Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) is calling on the Government to support the industry in the aftermath of the pandemic. It has been seeking to meet Ministers Hildegarde Naughton and Eamon Ryan to discuss supports needed for travel agents in the coming months. ITAA CEO Pat Dawson stated, Our number one priority has always been the health and safety of our customers, our staff and our communities. We want to be responsible, follow medical advice and work with Government to save lives, but we also need to preserve our businesses so that we can resume operations when it is safe to do so. We are calling on the Government to make a clear decision on this, so that we can begin to rebuild our industry.
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PORTAGE, MI  Caring for those who served in the military is both a personal and community responsibility, Frank Mumford said.

That belief led Mumford, owner of SIR Home Improvements in Portage, to sponsor the Baths for the Brave initiative, in which a disabled veteran is selected twice yearly, on Memorial and Veterans days, to receive a free bath makeover, designed to increase their independence, a news release from his company states.

I wanted to do something for our veterans in honor of my father who served as a Marine during World War II, Mumford said in a statement. Over the years, weve worked with a great many disabled people to help them maintain their independence at home by installing walk-in showers and walk-in tubs.

I know from personal experience what a life-changing difference this can make for someone who may otherwise be faced with moving into assisted living.

Mumfords company is one of 10 home-improvement companies from across the U.S. that have banded together to improve the lives of veterans and thank them for their service, according to the Baths for the Brave website.

On Veterans Day in 2020, Sgt. James Hurley, an Iraqi War veteran from Van Buren County, became the first area veteran selected by SIR Home Improvements as part of the program. Hurleys walk-in shower, according to the release, will be installed on Feb. 5.

As part of the Baths for the Brave program, SIR Home Improvement in Portage is one of 10 home-improvement companies from across the U.S. that have banded together to each offer two disabled veterans per year in their respective areas free walk-in showers. (Courtesy)

Hurley made national news after returning home from the Iraq War in 2005 to find his bank had illegally foreclosed on his home and resold it, resulting in a Federal lawsuit that lasted seven years.

Related: Iraq vet James Hurley loses dream home to foreclosure

In addition to making front pages locally and across the country, his court case and his struggles were documented in a book, A Soldiers Home: United States Servicemembers vs. Wall Street, written by Matthew Cooper.

SIR Home Improvements of Portage is now looking for another recipient who is challenged by getting in and out of a traditional tub safely due to either being a wheelchair user, needing a cane/walker to get around, or because they face another physical challenge that makes at-home independence difficult to maintain.

Veterans, or their friends and family, may nominate a veteran in need for this program by visiting www.baths4thebrave.com. For more information on the program, call 800-747-4633.

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Patriot Guard organizer supports Iraq War vet who lost home while overseas

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City of Kalamazoo holds first public Committee of the Whole meeting

TIRUPATI: Political parties and leaders of Andhra Pradesh have expressed deep disappointment with Union Budget 2021 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Monday.

Whether belonging to ruling or opposition parties, they have taken to micro-blogging sites to discuss, debate and react on centre's neglect in allocating any grants to the state.

Ruling YSRC, however, only shared comments made by MP Vijay Sai Reddy, along with a link to its official website, where his statements have been published. The tweet in Telugu says AP has been treated unfairly in the union budget. Budget has meted out step-motherly treatment to AP. The states going to polls have been taken care of. No Atma Nirbharta for AP.

Denouncing the union budget on his twitter wall, TD general secretary Nara Lokesh made critical remarks against Chief Minister Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy. Through his tweets, Lokesh alleged that Jaganmohan Reddy has prostrated before the centre to wriggle out of cases registered against him.

TD MP K. Ram Mohan Naidu in his twitter questioned, What is Jagan doing with 28 MPs? In #UnionBudget2021, if the Centre does not give any funds to our state, does not fulfil guarantees under AP Reorganisation Act, does not allocate funds to Railways, has he asked people to give him 25 MPs just to sit with folded hands?

Another TD MP Jayadev Galla, on his twitter wall, flayed the centre. What was supposed to be a Never Before# Budget, turned out to be Same as Before# Budget for citizens of AP, who have been left disappointed with the 9th consecutive budget in the last eight years, with no special / new allocations announced for the state, Galla stated.

The TD MP blamed YSRC for its failure in achieving special status for Andhra Pradesh. YCP, which came to power with the promise of achieving Special Category Status, & has 22 MPs, should consider this a failure. They have also been unable to get GoI to fulfil the provisions of #APRA, get funding for #Polavaram & in securing the revenue deficit amount, he added in his tweet.
The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a carnivorous plant that encloses its prey using modified leaves as a trap. During this process, electrical signals known as action potentials trigger the closure of the leaf lobes. An interdisciplinary team of scientists has now shown that these electrical signals generate measurable magnetic fields. Using atomic magnetometers, it proved possible to record this biomagnetism. "You could say the investigation is a little like performing an MRI scan in humans," said physicist Anne Fabricant. "The problem is that the magnetic signals in plants are very weak, which explains why it was extremely difficult to measure them with the help of older technologies."

Electrical activity in the Venus flytrap is associated with magnetic signals

We know that in the human brain voltage changes in certain regions result from concerted electrical activity that travels through nerve cells in the form of action potentials. Techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to record these activities and noninvasively diagnose disorders. When plants are stimulated, they also generate electrical signals, which can travel through a cellular network analogous to the human and animal nervous system.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM), the Biocenter of Julius-Maximilians-Universitat of Wurzburg (JMU), and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Berlin, Germany's national meteorology institute, has now demonstrated that electrical activity in the Venus flytrap is also associated with magnetic signals. "We have been able to demonstrate that action potentials in a multicellular plant system produce measurable magnetic fields, something that had never been confirmed before," said Anne Fabricant, a doctoral candidate in Professor Dmitry Budker's research group at JGU and HIM.

The trap of Dionaea muscipula consists of bilobed trapping leaves with sensitive hairs, which, when touched, trigger an action potential that travels through the whole trap. After two successive stimuli, the trap closes and any potential insect prey is locked inside and subsequently digested. Interestingly, the trap is electrically excitable in a variety of ways: in addition to mechanical influences such as touch or injury, osmotic energy, for example salt-water loads, and thermal energy in the form of heat or cold can also trigger action potentials. For their study, the research team used heat stimulation to induce action potentials, thereby eliminating potentially disturbing factors such as mechanical background noise in their magnetic measurements.

Biomagnetism - detection of magnetic signals from living organisms

While biomagnetism has been relatively well-researched in humans and animals, so far very little equivalent research has been done in the plant kingdom, using only superconducting-quantum-interference-device (SQUID) magnetometers, bulky instruments which must be cooled to cryogenic temperatures. For the current experiment, the research team used atomic magnetometers to measure the magnetic signals of the Venus flytrap. The sensor is a glass cell filled with a vapor of alkali atoms, which react to small changes in the local magnetic-field environment. These optically pumped magnetometers are more attractive for biological applications because they do not require cryogenic cooling and can also be miniaturized.

The researchers detected magnetic signals with an amplitude of up to 0.5 picotesla from the Venus flytrap, which is millions of times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field. "The signal magnitude recorded is similar to what is observed during surface measurements of nerve impulses in animals," explained Anne Fabricant. The JGU physicists aim to measure even smaller signals from other plant species. In the future, such noninvasive technologies could potentially be used in agriculture for crop-plant diagnostics, by detecting electromagnetic responses to sudden temperature changes, pests, or chemical influences without having to damage the plants using electrodes.

###

The results of the study have been published in Scientific Reports. The project received financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Carl Zeiss Foundation, and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Related links:

https:/ / budker. uni-mainz. de/ - Budker Group at JGU and HIM ;

https:/ / www. hi-mainz. de/ - Helmholtz Institute Mainz ;

https:/ / www. biozentrum. uni-wuerzburg. de/ en/ bot1/ research/ prof-dr-rainer-hedrich/ - Hedrich Group on Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics at Julius-Maximilians-Universitat of Wurzburg ;

https:/ / www. ptb. de/ cms/ en/ ptb/ institutes-at-ptb/ geraetezentrum-8-2. html - Metrology of Ultra-Low Magnetic Fields core facility at PTB

Read more:
Yasmin Rashid, the Health Minister of Pakistan's Punjab, on Monday warned people to get vaccinated at their own risk even as Prime Minister Imran Khan boasted of having received Coronavirus vaccines from China. According to a report by The News International, Dr Rashid advised people to inoculate at their "own risk", saying there were side effects related to the COVID-19 vaccine, which she also claimed caused "deaths in some countries."

'No one will be vaccinated by force'

"There have been deaths due to the COVID-19 vaccine in some countries as well; therefore, everyone will be vaccinated at their own risk," she said. Later, she clarified her statement saying that it was not possible as of now to say how long the vaccine will remain effective. "Research on the treatment of the coronavirus pandemic is still going on around the world," Yasmin Rashid said.

"No one, even the COVID-19 patients, will be vaccinated by force. We will make the public aware of the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine," she said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Monday received the first batch of 500,000 doses of the Coronavirus vaccine donated by its 'all-weather friend' China as the country gears up to kick start its immunisation drive later this week. The vaccines were flown in from China on a special plane of the Pakistan Air Force. The consignment was formally handed over to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi by Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong at Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi.

Alhamdulilah the first batch of Sinopharm vaccine has arrived! Grateful to China and everyone who made this happen. NCOC & provinces played an instrumental role in tackling COVID. I salute our frontline healthcare workers for their efforts & they'll be first to get vaccinated  Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) February 1, 2021

Pakistan will start its vaccination drive later this week, beginning with frontline health workers. So far, over 400,000 health professionals have applied for the jabs. Next, citizens over 65 years would be vaccinated; their registration will start in 10 to 15 days, according to Planning Minister Asad Umar.

'All-weather' allies celebrate friendship

Apart from the free vaccine doses which arrived on Monday, Pakistan will buy another 1.1 million jabs from China, while international vaccine alliance Covax has promised 17 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the first half of the year. The Covax route is Pakistan's way of circumventing the fact that the vaccine would be made in India.

At the ceremony in Nur Khan Ar Base, Qureshi said China had once again given a practical demonstration of its friendship with Pakistan. "This year is even more significant as it marks 70 years since we established diplomatic ties. We have planned to celebrate [the milestone] and open new doors of cooperation and friendship," he said.

READ | 'Doubts over three farm laws should be cleared by Budget 2021': Union Agri Minister Tomar

READ | PM Modi hails 'all-round' Budget 2021; emphasises focus on South, East & Coastal areas

The minister appreciated the top Chinese leadership and its Army for critical help in tackling the pandemic. Chinese Ambassador Rong said Pakistan is the first country to receive the COVID-19 vaccines for free from the Chinese government.

He said China sees Pakistan as its "closest friend" and "priority for cooperation". On 70 years of diplomatic ties, Rong said, "Our friendship is higher than mountains, deeper than the sea and sweeter than honey. Our hearts grow closer in the joint fight against COVID-19."

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that his government would provide anti-coronavirus vaccine to everyone without any discrimination. "Rich and poor will not matter. We will try to cover as many people as possible," he said. The government plans to administer the vaccine to the entire population during the current year, Radio Pakistan quoted Khan as saying. Khan also said that the frontline health workers would be vaccinated in the first phase followed by elderly people and those with medical conditions.

READ | Budget 2021: From 6 pillars to direct & indirect tax, everything FM Sitharaman announced

READ | NITI Aayog VC calls Budget 2021 'unprecedented'; lauds focus on public capex and health

(With agency inputs)
Chandigarh, Feb 2 : Taking serious note of the "substantial delay" by the Centre in resolving the crisis arising out of the protest by farmers for more than two months, Punjab's political parties on Tuesday demanded the repeal of the three new central farm laws.

As a result of the "undue delay" by the Centre in resolving the crisis, not only the peaceful agitators and their families are suffering but several farmers and farm workers had lost their lives, causing irreparable damage to them and anguish among the people of the country," a resolution adopted at the meeting said.

The parties urged the government of India to redress the grievances of farmers who had shown "exemplary resilience" in their continued fight in the most democratic manner.

Condemning the "sponsored violence in Delhi", the meeting decided that an all-party delegation will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and raise the issue along with other matters of concern on the farmers' agitation.

The all-party meeting, convened by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to evolve a consensus among state's parties on the issue, demanded an appropriate judicial inquiry into the "laxity and complicity" of those responsible for maintaining peace and order in the unfortunate incidents at the Red Fort on January 26.

The representatives of all political parties -- except the BJP that boycotted the meeting -- appreciated the action and position taken by the conglomeration of 40 farmer unions, including 32 from Punjab.

The resolution was passed even as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) representatives walked out over its demand for deployment of Punjab Police to protect farmers protesting on the Delhi borders, which the Chief Minister again rejected as unconstitutional.

"We talk about more federal powers for the states, then how can we do this?" asked Amarinder Singh as AAP leaders brought up the issue towards the end of the meeting.

"What will you do if Himachal Pradesh and Haryana Police come to Punjab?" he quipped.

Terming the agitation so far as "historic and unparalleled" which some miscreants though tried to sabotage through untoward incidents at the Red Fort on the Republic Day, the resolution said that these acts "are truly condemnable and need to be probed thoroughly".

It called upon the Centre "to take steps to ensure that farmers and farm workers participating in the agitation are not victimised in any manner".

The Punjab parties urged the central government "to withdraw all cases registered against farmers, farm workers, and journalists, and other peaceful agitators, and release all those detained by the police or other agencies".

The missing agitators should also be traced and restored to their respective families without any delay, the resolution said.

The Punjab parties also sought immediate resolution of the protest crisis "through dialogue in keeping with the principles of cooperative federalism, respecting the constitutional role of the states and the people as enshrined in the Constitution of India".

They asserted that "we are determined to save and protect the interests of all farmers, farm labourers and the state of Punjab." The resolution also called upon the Centre to "make the Minimum Support Price a statutory right of farmers, and continue with the procurement of foodgrains by the Centre through the Food Corporation of India and other agencies, adding that procurement by arhtiyas or commission agents may also be continued.

The meeting also demanded the withdrawal of the new Environment Protection (Amendment) Act, 2020, while urging the Centre to drop the proposed new Electricity (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The resolution lauded Uttar Pradesh farmer leader Rakesh Tikait for his contribution to the farmers' struggle, and also thanked the agriculturists from Haryana for extending support to their Punjab counterparts for the ongoing agitation.
If new, more contagious variants become dominant in the United States, a high rate of Americans who have already suffered through a case of COVID-19 will likely get re-infected.

Therefore, "you need to get vaccinated when it becomes available as quickly and as expeditiously as possible throughout the country," Fauci told CNN on Monday.

At least three coronavirus variants that appeared to originate in Britain, South Africa and Brazil have surfaced in the United States. While the average COVID-19 case rate in this country has declined in recent weeks, officials are concerned these variants could fuel another surge.

Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday that health experts in South Africa have already seen that the variant there has such a high rate of re-infection that previous infection did not appear to protect people.

Ramping up the U.S. vaccination campaign is the best way to lower the chances that these new variants will fuel yet another surge in America, he noted.

Most importantly, current vaccines can still protect against serious disease, including hospitalization and death, regardless of the variant a person is infected with, Fauci said.

At the same time, widespread vaccination could help keep the new variants from becoming more dominant.

"Viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate. And if you stop their replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures that you put on it, you will not get mutations," Fauci explained during a White House COVID-19 response team briefing on Monday.

"Right now, we are in an absolute race against time with these variants, with trying to get people vaccinated before they spread too much across our country," emergency physician Dr. Megan Ranney, director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health in Rhode Island, told CNN. "It means that just going to the grocery store, to school or to work could become more dangerous. We have an already overtaxed and exhausted health care system."

Mutation that helps virus evade vaccines showing up in British variant

As the United States grappled with trying to track down variant cases, Public Health England reported a disturbing discovery on Monday: The variant that has brought that country to its knees appears to be gaining a mutation that could help it elude vaccines, The New York Times reported.

The variant, known as B.1.1.7, first came to light in December as scientists determined that it had rapidly become more common across Britain in just a couple of months. Since B.1.1.7's discovery in Britain, the variant has been reported in 72 other countries. The United States confirmed its first case of B.1.1.7 on Dec. 29. Since then, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 467 samples of the variant in 32 states.

Public Health England said that the worrisome mutation known as E484K appears to have arisen in 11 of more than 200,000 B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant samples in the United Kingdom. Two variants in Brazil have also gained the same mutation. This repeated emergence is a powerful clue that it might provide coronaviruses with a competitive edge, the Times reported.

British health officials estimated that the variant's rate of infection is 25 percent to 40 percent higher than that of other forms of the coronavirus. Some preliminary evidence suggests that it may also cause more deaths, the Times reported.

In South Africa, where another more infectious variant is now dominant, the Novavax and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have both been less effective in trials. That variant also carries the E484K mutation, and it has been reported in 31 countries so far, the Times reported. In the United States, it has turned up in Maryland and in South Carolina, according to the CDC.

Exactly why the mutation turns up so often is a mystery. Nicholas Davies, a mathematical biologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the Times it was possible that it enabled the coronavirus to evade antibodies created by previous infections from other variants. "E484K may well convey a fitness advantage in settings where there is existing immunity," he said.

Nursing homes see drop in new cases as vaccinations take hold

As America's vaccination campaign begins to gain momentum, a promising sign has emerged: Federal data shows that coronavirus cases in nursing homes have declined over the past four weeks.

The country recorded 17,584 cases in nursing homes during the week ending Jan. 17, the Times reported. A month earlier, during the week ending Dec. 20, more than 32,500 cases were reported.

To some extent, the development reflects a downward trend in new cases across the country, health experts said. Coronavirus cases in nursing homes are driven by infections in the rest of the community, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told the Times.

But the drop in cases in nursing homes is more pronounced than it is nationally, and it also began earlier, Jha noted. Since the rollout began, nursing home residents and staff have been prioritized as among the first groups to get the vaccine.

"That combination really does make me think this is not just broad national patterns, but that vaccines probably are playing a role," Dr. Jha said. "I'm optimistic, this is good."

As of Saturday, more than 3.5 million shots have now been administered in long-term care facilities, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, a slower than hoped rollout in nursing homes has been deeply frustrating, Jha added. Efforts to efficiently give shots to all nursing home residents should be a top priority. "Once that's in, then we should feel really confident that these declines will continue and we will not see a spike back up, even if we see one in the national picture," Jha said.

Nursing homes have been devastated by the coronavirus. Although only 5 percent of the country's cases have occurred in long-term care facilities, deaths related to COVID-19 in these settings have accounted for about 36 percent of deaths from the virus in the country, the Times reported.

That makes it all the more promising that reports of new cases among residents in nursing homes run by New York's health facilities associationwhich includes 425 skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilitieshave been steadily declining since the first and second week of January, Stephen Hanse, president and CEO of the association, told the Times.

"Throughout the state, providers really saw the cases reducing, residents stabilizing," he said, adding that it's too early to tell if the drop is directly linked to the number of vaccine doses being administered. At least 80 percent of residents have now received their second dose of the vaccine, Hanse said. Nursing home administrators and directors "really see the vaccine as the light at the end of the tunnel," he told the Times.

A global scourge

By Tuesday, the U.S. coronavirus case count passed 26.3 million while the death toll passed 443,000, according to a Times tally. On Tuesday, the top five states for coronavirus infections were: California with more than 3.3 million cases; Texas with more than 2.4 million cases; Florida with over 1.7 million cases; New York with more than 1.4 million cases; and Illinois with over 1.1 million cases.

Curbing the spread of the coronavirus in the rest of the world remains challenging.

In India, the coronavirus case count was over 10.7 million by Tuesday, a Johns Hopkins University tally showed. Brazil had over 9.2 million cases and more than 225,000 deaths as of Tuesday, the Hopkins tally showed.

Worldwide, the number of reported infections passed 103.5 million on Tuesday, with nearly 2.2 million deaths recorded, according to the Hopkins tally.

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

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus

Copyright  2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has claimed in his latest note that Apple will be working closely with Hyundai on the initial Apple Car model. Eventually, Apple could end up working with European car maker PSA and General Motors on future models.

Kuo says that the first Apple Car will be based on Hyundais E-GMP electric vehicle platform. This car platform was unveiled by Hyundai in December last year. The platform consists of a five-link rear suspension, two motors, integrated drive axle, battery cells, charging system, and other chassis components.

Hyundai claims the E-GMP platform offers a range of about 310 miles and that it can charge from 0-80% in 18 minutes. The speed of the E-GMP vehicle platform is limited to 160 mph and acceleration figures of 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds.

This E-GMP platform will be used by Hyundai as well as Kia in the coming years for its electric vehicles.

The production of the car will be handled by Kia  Hyundais subsidiary  in the United States, with Hyundai Mobis leading the component design. Like it does with its smartphone production, Apple will be using multiple suppliers for manufacturing and assembly of Apple Car. However, compared to a smartphone, a vehicle has about 50-60 times more parts which could force Apple to rely on many existing component automakers if it wants to stick to its original intended production schedule for the Apple Car.

The company will also be marketing the Apple Car as a high-end premium vehicle which will also benefit all the manufacturing partners.

The analyst does not expect Foxconn, Apples long-term iPhone assembly partner, to be a part of the Apple Car supply chain. The company has just entered the electric vehicle market and Apple is unlikely to go with a new partner for Apple Car at this point.

The analyst does not expect Foxconn, Apples long-term iPhone assembly partner, to be a part of the Apple Car supply chain. The company has just entered the electric vehicle market and Apple is unlikely to go with a new partner for Apple Car at this point. By using a mature partner, Apple wants to reduce the time it takes for the company to bring Apple Car to the market.
The government has erected walls and planted spikes at all the protest borders to ward off farmer protestors from entering Delhi. Internet services have been suspended at the borders and a few parts of Haryana to ensure law and order. The Rajya Sabha session was also adjourned today due to the protesting Opposition leaders.

Since the beginning of the farmers agitation at Tikri, protesters have been on the Haryana side of the border, separated from Delhi by several rows of metal barricades. However, the violent events of January 26 and its tense wake, the Delhi side of the border has become increasingly fortified. On Monday morning, an addition to Delhis border with Haryana at Tikri was made.

It now has more than 2,000 iron nails which were embedded in rows across the breadth of Rohtak Road on the Delhi side of the border. These nails are positioned to puncture the tyres of vehicles coming in from the Haryana side. As seen yesterday, there are several layers of security- two heavy layers of metal barricading, a layer of large stone boulders, followed by the layer of nails, and a layer of concrete barricades. A few metres ahead of that was another layer of stone boulders, followed by yet another layer of concrete barricades after a few metres.

Singhu and Ghazipur protest sites are also heavily fortified by police, with steel coils and cement barriers, as more and more people continue to join the stir. The protesting farmers said that the war-like preparations were an attempt to scare protesters away and turn locals against them. A similar set of nails like at Tikri were also installed at Ghazipur border by Monday evening.

Also read: Military seizes power in Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi detained; Biden threatens US sanctions in response to coup

Internet services have been resumed in various parts of Haryana but the services will continue to be banned in seven other districts  Jhajjar, Sonipat, Kaithal, Rohtak, Panipat, Jind and Charkhi Dadri. In an order released yesterday evening, the state home department said the ban is continuing in the seven districts in view of law and order issues.

The Rajya Sabha session today has been adjourned till 12:30, as the Opposition leaders voiced out their opinions on the farmers protest it led to creating a ruckus due to which the session was adjourned. After Muzaffarnagar, Mathura and Baghpat, another kisan mahapanchayat was organized in Bijnor on Monday. Attended by over 15,000 farmers from western Uttar Pradesh, the gathering was also addressed by farm leaders from Karnataka and Maharashtra who emphasized that the protests were not confined to North India.

Balbir Singh Rajewal, Bhartiya Kisan Union announced that the protesting farmers are planning to hold a country-wide agitation on February 6, where they will block roads between noon and 3 pm.

Also read: China crushes Free Baloch Movement: Pak Army General exposes Imran-Xi Jinping
Priyanka Chopra & Diana Twin As White Tigers; Sonam Remembers When Anand Proposed To Her

Global icon Priyanka Chopra Jonas is currently busy soaring high on the success of her latest release, The White Tiger. Also starring Adarsh Gourav and Rajkummar Rao, the Netflix drama has been winning hearts and has received a great response from fans. Well to celebrate the success of her film, Priyanka took to her social media handle to share a very special snap featuring her and her pet dog Diana. In this post, the two are twinning in matching attires as white tigers. Along with this adorable picture, PeeCee wrote: A white tiger and her cub  @diariesofdiana #TheWhiteTiger.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Priyanka Chopra Jonas (@priyankachopra)

But thats not the only social media post that made fans go aww this morning. Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, who is currently in Glasgow shooting for Shome Makhijas upcoming directorial Blind, took a walk down memory lane today. The actress shared a beautiful picture with husband and then boyfriend Anand Ahuja from their 2017 trip to New York. In this snap, Anand is giving Sonam a peck on her cheek while she smiles at the camera. The caption of the post reads: Throwback to a wonderful trip where my beautiful husband @anandahuja proposed to me #august2017 #newyork #everydayphenomenal.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamkapoor)

Anand and Sonam tied the nuptial knot on May 8th 2018, in a grand Punjabi wedding, which was attended by some of the most popular stars of Bollywood. Hashtags such as #EverydayPhenomenal and #SonamKiShaadi took over our Instagram feeds and we got to witness some of the most beautiful moments of their fairytale.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A fresh wave of coronavirus infections in Vietnam was caused by a more contagious variant spotted in Britain, authorities said Tuesday, as they rushed to contain the country's most serious ever outbreak.

Schools have been shut early ahead of the Lunar New Year and hundreds of thousands of people are in lockdown after more than 300 cases were detected in less than a week.

The government said 12 cases have so far been identified as the British variant, which has swept the UK and been found in more than 60 nations.

Prior to the new cluster, Vietnampopulation 96 millionhad recorded just over 1,500 cases, with the communist country widely praised for its successful handling of the pandemic.

It has reported just 35 deaths.

But the latest outbreakwhich began in the north and has since spread to central and southern areasis proving more complicated to contain, authorities say.

"We have been very quick in quarantine and contact tracing... but whether we can eliminate the outbreaks, it depends on the whole political system, authorities and the people," warned Mai Tien Dung, chairman of the government's office.

Hundreds of thousands of people living in areas linked to cases have been ordered to stay at home for at least three weeks.

In Hanoi, where 20 cases have been recorded, authorities have shut down bars and karaoke parlours, but the health ministry has urged it to further step up containment measures.

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

 2021 AFP

Checks at Northern Irish ports have been suspended after staff were threatened by a group opposed to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Sunday World this week revealed how a shady organisation known as Loyalist Resistance may have been behind the threats.

In a coded message the group told this newspaper that they would target personnel working on sea border posts and those who they described as "implementing partition from the rest of the UK".

The caller claimed that border staff were behind a "unity project", and said that they must "desist from their actions".

It is also thought the group was linked to an arson attack on a South Belfast multicultural centre recently.

Disenfranchised and disillusioned loyalists are thought to be regrouping behind the new organisation following the fallout over Brexit and so-called 'border' in the Irish Sea.

Read More

Sea inspection post staff were sent home just hours after we reported on those believed to have connections to loyalist elements had attacked a lorry driver on the main Belfast to Larne Road after throwing a bin full of rocks from an overpass on the dual carriageway.

Lorry driver Fra McCaffrey (56) was left blind in one eye in the sick attack three weeks ago.

Expand Close Belfast lorry driver Fra McCaffery 'will not regain sight in eye' after overpass attack / Facebook

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Whatsapp Belfast lorry driver Fra McCaffery 'will not regain sight in eye' after overpass attack

Since then, graffiti has appeared around Ulster, which is thought to have been done by the new group, or those connected to their cause.

Daubings criticising the protocol and the Irish Sea border appeared on the constituency office of DUP MLA Christopher Stalford, and on walls in the Belvoir estate in Belfast targeting former Irish Taoiseach and current Tanaiste Leo Varadkar.

Speaking of the recent threats towards port staff, Minister for Agriculture, the Environment and Rural affairs, Edwin Poots, said: "In consultation with my staff I have decided to withdraw staff from Belfast and Larne ports tonight.

"Their safety remains paramount. I have spoken to HMG ministers and outlined issues of concern.

"I welcome the support of my party leader in making such a significant decision."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the department said: "The situation will be kept under review and in the meantime full documentary checks will continue to be carried out as usual."
House Clerk Cheryl Johnson, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) walk through the Capitol's Statuary Hall to deliver the article of impeachment for incitement of insurrection against former President Donald Trump to the Senate floor in Washington on Jan. 25, 2021. (Tasos Katopodis/Pool/via Reuters)

Democrat House Impeachment Managers File Trial Memo Outlining Their Case

House Democrat impeachment managers on Feb. 2 filed the trial memorandum summarizing their case for convicting former President Donald Trump.

The memo (pdf), which was due on Tuesday, alleges that Trump incited the mob which breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Democrats memo also presents an argument for why the trial is Constitutional even though Trump is now a private citizen.

Trumps Save America political action committee did not respond to an emailed request for comment. In a speech given on the day of the Capitol breach, the president urged his followers to make their voices heard peacefully. Trump was also quick to condemn the violence and to call on supporters to go home.

After months of spreading his Big Lie that he won a landslide victory in the 2020 election, leading up to and on January 6, 2021, President Trump summoned, assembled, and incited a violent mob that attacked the Capitol, cost the lives of three police officers and four other people, threatened the Vice-President and Congress, and successfully halted the counting of the Electoral College vote, the Democrat impeachment managers alleged in a joint statement (pdf) accompanying the brief.

The trial memorandum cites partial, selectively edited sentences from Trumps Jan. 6 speech in Washington as evidence that he incited an insurrection. For example, the Democrats claim that Trump exhorted followers to fight like hell [or] youre not going to have a country anymore.

Trump had actually said in reference to his teams courtroom efforts challenging the outcome of the election: We fight like hell. And if you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore.

The trial memo also selectively quotes Trump saying: Youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

The memo fails to include the previous sentence from Trumps speech, which made it clear that he was addressing senators when he spoke of having to be strong.

Were going to walk down to the Capitol and were going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and were probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, Trump said immediately prior to the statement cited by the Democrats.

The trial memo argued that trying Trump in the Senate is Constitutional because the framers of the Constitution envisioned the prospect of a former official being tried after leaving office. The Democrats cite examples from British and colonial history in which former officials were tried.

As revolutionaries who overthrew a king, the Framers obsessed over protecting their young Republic from the abuse of power. Based on the history of impeachment in England and the early American states, they would have considered it self-evident that a former official like President Trump could be impeached and tried for high crimes and demeanors he had committed in office, the trial memo states.

Forty-five Republican senators voted for a resolution calling the Senate trial unconstitutional because Trump is no longer president. Democrats would need to change the minds of 17 Republicans in order to secure Trumps conviction, which would pave the way for blocking the former president from ever holding public office.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Feb. 1 warned his Democratic colleagues against calling witnesses during the trial, threatening to call on the FBI to testify in what may become a prolonged proceeding.

If you open that can of worms, well want the FBI to come in and tell us about how people pre-planned this attack and what happened with the security footprint at the Capitol. You open up Pandoras Box if you call one witness, Graham told Fox News on Monday.

Trump replaced his lead legal counsel over the weekend. His new team, led by lawyers David Schoen and Bruce Castor, will have just over a week to get ready before the trial begins Feb. 9.

Most Republican senators now are lining up against conviction. While few defend his actions, many argue that Congress does not have the power to impeach a former president. They also have maintained that another trial will hurt efforts to unify the country in the post-Trump era.

Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will preside over the trial instead of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.

Graham had also shot down a request by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to hold a Feb. 8 confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, President Joe Bidens nominee for attorney general. In a letter to Durbin, Graham wrote that a one-day confirmation hearing a day before the impeachment trial would not be sufficient.

When the Senates focus is required to consider whether to bar a former president from being reelected, other business must stop. Proceeding with the confirmation of an attorney general and the impeachment of a former president at the same time would give neither the attention required, Graham wrote.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Natalie Portman is in Australia to film her new movie, Thor: Love and Thunder.

The Oscar-winning actress, 39, is in the country with her husband Benjamin Millepied, 43, and their children, son Aleph, nine, and daughter Amalia, three.

And it seems despite her superstar status, Natalie is just like any other mother - who at times has to try and wash her children's scribbles off the walls.

All aboard! Natalie Portman (pictured) is in Australia to film her new movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, with her husband and children. On Tuesday, she appeared on The Project via a Zoom interview - and viewers noticed something drawn on the wall

In an interview on Australia's The Project on Tuesday night, which appeared to be conducted via Zoom, viewers noticed that the wall in Natalie's accommodation was distinctly marked with scrawls that looked to have been made by young children.

A number of squiggles, including circles, the letter 'd' and what looked like a fish, were drawn on the white paint in what looked like black crayon.

Natalie seemed oblivious to the art gallery behind her, some of which appeared to have been smudged as if an attempt had been made to wipe it away.

What's that! Those watching couldn't help but notice that the wall in Natalie's accommodation was distinctly marked with scrawls that looked to have been made by young children

Artistic! A number of squiggles, including circles, the letter 'd' and what looked like a fish, were drawn on the white paint in what looked like black crayon

No worries! Natalie seemed oblivious to the art gallery behind her, some of which appeared to have been smudged as if an attempt had been made to wipe it away

During the chat, Natalie, who has already spent some months in Australia with her family, having arrived in September last year, revealed that her children have already picked up the local slang and lingo.

'Actually, it's funny, on the way to school drop off this morning and I said, "oh we're out of ketchup, I need to get it".

'And my daughter was like, "Mummy, what's ketchup?" and I was like, "tomato sauce", and she was like, "oh!"' she said with a laugh.

Slag-tastic: During the chat Natalie, who has already spent months in Australia with her family, having arrived in September last year, revealed that her children have already picked up the local lingo, such as saying 'tomato sauce' instead of 'ketchup'

Natalie and her family have been living in Sydney, and the star recently enrolled her children in an exclusive private school.

According to a report in Emerald City , she has enrolled her two children in the same school as Hollywood pals Isla Fisher and Sasha Baron Cohen.

Blending in with the locals in recent months, the Black Swan actress has managed to slip around almost unnoticed while enjoying the city's stunning beaches and picturesque harbour.
LONDON  Britain, painfully aware of the dangers posed by mutations of the coronavirus after a variant fueled a surge in deaths this winter, has sounded a full-scale alarm over the detection of another variant, this one first registered in South Africa.

In one of the largest concerted testing efforts in the country since the outbreak of the pandemic, the British authorities dispatched mobile units and began testing for 80,000 residents living in areas where the variant had been detected. Free home testing kits left in mailboxes, mobile testing teams going door to door, and new screening sites were among the measures instituted across the affected regions.

As of Monday, health officials had identified 105 cases of the variant in Britain, including in London, with 11 of them not linked to international travel.

Britain, a world leader in genomic surveillance, is well placed to find mutations.

The country has submitted nearly half of the genomes held in a global library run by the nonprofit Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data.
Mr Abdoulie Kujabi, former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), appeared before the TRRC on Monday and said he was a strong sympathizer of the former ruling party, APRC.

Born in Dobong Village in Foni Kansala, 31st July 1959, he appeared before TRRC in connection with his role as one-time DG of the NIA and subsequent victimization by the same agency he served.

The former Clerical Assistant at the Judiciary, who also served as an Accounts Clerk at the same institution, alleged that he was set-up by late Principal Magistrate Ebou Mboob, leading to his termination.

Enlisted in the NIA in August 1994, shortly after the coup and during that time, the only qualifications he had was Secondary 4 which was below the ordinary level certificate. Mr Kujabi recollected that he was at the NIA till 2003 when he was redeployed as Commissioner for West Coast Region. He added that in 2002, he served as Deputy Director General of NIA. He said his relationship with Yahya Jammeh led to his appointment as Deputy Director General.

Kujabi said there was an NIA office at Office of the President (OP) headed by the late Daba Marena and that he used to meet the former president after working hours. During the course of their discussions, he would tell Jammeh what was true and what was false based on the information he received.

Mr. Kujabi agreed with Counsel Faal that he became closed to Yahya Jammeh and eventually served as his Principal Adviser. The witness described Jammeh as someone who was very short tempered and had saved so many people from having problems. He said one day, Yahya Jammeh was so furious at the NIA and was even called by one of the orderlies to intervene and when he arrived at State House, Yahya Jammeh showed him a list and said all directors and permanent secretaries did not vote for him.

According to him, Jammeh wanted to dismiss the 21 people, but he took the paper and tore it. On whether Jammeh was an Intelligent Fool, he responded in the negative, saying he was someone with 'one ear'.

He said it is true that Jammeh is wicked and enjoys putting people in pain and sufferings, adding that Jammeh was pompous too and saw The Gambia as his personal property.

Mr. Kujabi disclosed that during the negotiations of bringing Jawara back to the country, he told Jawara's nephew and nieces for Jawara to come back in the country. In that process, he went to Kanilai and met with Yahya Jammeh. Upon arrival, he said Jammeh spoke with Jawara and after the telephone discussions, he told Jawara to send his family so that his properties could be handed over to him.

On the temperament of Jammeh, he said the former president had different moods.

"Because if he is in a bad mood, he doesn't care who is facing him or not, and within five minutes he calms down and starts laughing," he said

According to him, Yahya Jammeh used to insult him when he was in the office but not when they met in his house. The insult was 'Fool'.

"Insulting people's mothers was not Yahya's character," said Kujabi. He added that Yahya Jammeh wanted to be seen as someone who was superior to others.

"He wanted everybody who worked for him and the government to dance to his tune, not only the Government but everybody in the country," he responded.

Would you consider him a dictator?

"Yes", said Kujabi.

Why do you say he was a dictator?

"Because once Yahya gives an order, he must make sure that order is implemented without listening to anybody," he said.

"Yahya was not seeing the government as a democratically elected Government and sees the country as his personal property," he said.

He said when he was redeployed to Brikama as Commissioner, while he was resting in house, some NIA and Military Officers went to arrest him and took him to the NIA where Daba Marena told him that he was castigating the president's name in West Coast. But he told him that he would not ask him his source because they were operating on a 'Need to Know Basis', but he would be interested to know when and where he castigated Yahya Jammeh.

On whether Yahya Jammeh was aware of his detention at the NIA, he responded in the affirmative. He said Jammeh did not have regards for the law when it comes to detaining people. He said it is correct that Yahya Jammeh was aware of all the tortures at the NIA; adding he (Kujabie) heard about the disappearances when the commission was set up.

However, the witness said the tortures did not happen during their time because he left in 2003 and he was serving in a different unit.

"I was among those who fought very hard to dismantled the 22nd July Movement," he pointed out.

The July 22nd was funded by Baba Jobe at a time the NIA did not have enough money to run their Operations.

"What I did was I invited Susan Waffa Ogou and told her that we are not in a transitional government and that the 22nd July Movement was hostile to people and needed to be dismantled, because they were used by the NIA in some Operations. I even invited Alagie Banta Camara about the issue for him to support the idea," he said.

On what he did not like about the July 22nd Movement, he said some boys were sent to Libya for training and when they came back, they found Jammeh on tour and they said they would take over the security of the President, but he told Baba Jobe that the soldiers knew their responsibility. He said Baba Jobe was the head of the July 22nd Movement and frequented Yahya Jammeh's house and Office respectively.

On his conversations with Yahya Jammeh on the Movement, he said: "I told him that I want us to ban the 22nd July Movement, but he told me it was formed during the transition and I told him may be what was needed was the APRC Movement."

The witness admitted that as a civil servant he should not have supported the APRC, nor should he have participated in building it up, and that he should have lost his job for publicly supporting the party.

In 1996, UDP supporters were apprehended at the Denton Bridge by APRC militants and two people died as a result of beatings. Kujabi said he wasn't aware of that.

On whether the NIA cared to investigate, he said it was for the director general to investigate, adding that this was at night and he wasn't present. He said it is correct that the opposition were attacked and beaten which he admitted to be wrong. Kujabi said the NIA was aware of all these operations.

On the tortures of victims at the NIA, Faal told him that he knew the Chief Torturers at the NIA but Kujabi said he doesn't know that, adding that a lady was arrested for giving false information about a coup. He said as he entered the office, he heard cries and when he asked about it, he was told that the lady was facing Daba Marena, Foday Barry, Baba Saho and Salimina Drammeh.

Are you suggesting that you were at the NIA and knew that Daba Marena was responsible for Counter Espionage (CE) and you did not know whom he works with? The president did not care about the law? Faal quizzed. "Yes," Kujabi responded.

Mr. Kujabi said the channel of communication of the former president was between him and the former director general and during the briefing, Jammeh would have knowledge of people who were tortured.

Mr. Kujabi said he was surprised to hear that Lamin Darboe was appointed as a Security Guard and later became an officer, saying so many things under the First Republic and Colonial Era are not happening now.

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On the issue of his appointment as a Governor, he said he was favored as a family member. However, he said he was far better than his predecessors.

"I was arrested and detained at Mile 2 Prison for two months and 2 weeks while Jasaja Kujabi was arrested from his farm, taken to the NIA but was released from the NIA at 12 midnight. However, there were Pick-up trucks tinted glasses in waiting," he said.

As a result of that, he warned Marena about Yahya Jammeh and told him that if he was not dismissed by Jammeh, one day he would be a victim of Jammeh. Since then, he did not hear from Jasa until when the Junglers appeared before the Commission and confessed that they killed Jasa Kujabi. Mr Kujabie emotionally testified that he was held incommunicado.

"My brother was arrested the same day with Harouna. I felt very bad that Yahya Jammeh had killed 3 people from my family," said Kujabi.

On whether he would forgive Yahya Jammeh, he said he is a 'small boy' to decide that because older people in their family are there to decide on behalf of the family.

In another arrest, he was held for 5 days at Mile 2 Prison. He said one particular night, Sanna Manjang and Michael Correa took him away and in that process, Sanna Manjang kicked him on his leg and consequently handcuffed him.

He added Tumbul Tamba told him that he must disclosed all the Marabouts they went to and Musa Jammeh told him that he would break his head with a hammer. He said Sanna Manjang lit cigarettes and burned his eye lases.

He said it was at that juncture that Ismaila Jammeh told Sanna to stop maltreating him because he (witness) brought up both of them (Sanna Manjang and Ismaila Jammeh). He added Ismaila kicked their Pistols and Tumbul Tamba intervened. He added that it was at this point that Malick Jatta, Sanna Manjang and Michael Correa all began to beat him.
China Preventing Petitioners From Protesting During Recent Virus Outbreak

In all Chinese cities, local authorities consider it an important political task to intercept petitioners who appeal to the central government to address their grievances. They frequently travel to Beijing, the seat of the Communist Party government, to get their voices heard.

But amid the latest resurgence of the CCP virus, Chinese officials are getting even more fanatical about handling this task, because they may face serious punishment if any of the petitioners import the virus to Beijing.

Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, has become a virus hotspot since early January. The city is 200 miles south of Beijing.

Confidential documents obtained by The Epoch Times reveal that city authorities have tightened their social stability measures to keep track of petitioners. Every petitioner is to be monitored around the clock, and some key members are monitored by five people.

Chinese citizens who become petitioners are usually victims of forced land acquisitions, fake or faulty vaccines, investment fraud, or other types of alleged mistreatment. They often organize themselves into groups to travel together to Beijing. For their petitioning efforts, they are frequently harassed and arrested by police officers or petition office personnel.

Monitoring Petitioners

The first COVID-19 patient in the latest outbreak in Shijiazhuang was confirmed by authorities on Jan. 2. In the following days, more and more cases were reported. On Jan. 6, the Shijiazhuang petition office issued an internal document announcing new control measures directed at petitioners.

A confidential document from Shijiazhuang city requiring local officials to keep track of petitioners who may travel to Beijing. (Provided to The Epoch Times)

Key members who often go to Beijing to appeal are the priority of our social stability work. Each of them shall be monitored by five people. We must make sure they are within sight 24 hours a day, so that they have no chance to escape and go to Beijing, the document stated. Maintaining social stability is a euphemism used by authorities to mean stifling dissent.

The second priority for authorities monitoring are victims of two local class-action lawsuitsthose who lost their investment in a local crowdfunding scheme and on the Qingyidai peer-to-peer lending platform.

According to the document, each victim is to be monitored by two staff members. In case any of the target petitioners go missing, staff from the petition office are ordered to coordinate all available resources and go all out to locate them and be sure to get them back to Shijiazhuang city.

Zhuoda Crowdfunding Lawsuit

Zhuoda is a real estate developer based in Hebei. As early as 2015, Chinese state media questioned the companys high yield investment products, saying they were too good to be true.

For instance, according to Chinas news portal Sina, one of Zhuoda products, called Sun City wealth management project, was linked to a new high-rise development called Sun City. Zhuoda claimed that investment amounts between 100,000 to one million yuan ($15,500 to $155,000) could be reclaimed after four years, along with a Sun City apartment of equal value. Most other products by Zhuoda offered an annual return of 20 to 30 percent.

Although Zhuoda was a private company, it was a local real estate giant and its financial products have been endorsed by both central and local governments.

Zhuoda is the developer of many residential high-rises and business centers in Shijiazhuang. These investors in the city have seen Zhuodas real estate projects everywhere. They would think its impossible that one day this developer could suddenly disappear and breach its contract, an insider told the Beijing Times.

Many investors put their life savings into Zhuodas investment projects. According to Chinese state media, the company raised nearly 100 billion yuan ($15.5 billion) from more than 400,000 investors.

The crash came in May 2019 when Zhuodas actual controllers, Yang Zhuoshu and Yang Hanqing, a father-and-son team, surrendered themselves to the police, admitting that they were involved in illegal absorption of public deposits.

The investors first attempted to file lawsuits against Zhuoda, but none of the local courts agreed to accept the cases. When they tried to go to Beijing to appeal, they were detained and reprimanded by local authorities.

The internal document issued on Jan. 6 showed that authorities are now sending two people to monitor each Zhuoda-related petitioner, to prevent them from traveling to Beijing.

In another internal document obtained by The Epoch Times dated Dec. 29, 2020, the Shijiazhuang petition office also noted that it should punish a Zuoda investment victim surnamed Gu, for organizing a group petition. The document said staff should also carry out ideological education for Gu and forbid him from participating in group gatherings. Staff should also be able to reach Gu 24 hours a day.

Leaked document from the Shijiazhuang petition office shows that after a Zhuoda investment victim surnamed Gu organized a group petition, officials decided to tighten control measures. (Provided to The Epoch Times)

In a leaked document titled Psychological Analysis of Zhuoda Investors, authorities categorized investors based on whether they were willing to absorb the losses or whether they were determined to fight to the end.

For instance, the document identified an investor named Zhao Jinsu as a key target for stability control. Zhao invested one million yuan ($155,000) in Zhuodas wealth products. In the end, his investment had dwindled down to 277,000 yuan ($42,826). For an average Chinese middle-class family, Zhaos loss was tremendous.

According to the Jan. 6 document, Zhao would now be monitored by five people around the clock. And for Mr. Gu, who organized a group petition in December, the number of staff would be increased from two to five people.

Gu Qinger contributed to this report.
In April 2011, the BJP-JMM coalition informed the Jharkhand HC that 1.4 lakh houses of total 1.7 lakh houses in Ranchi are built without any kind of map clearance. This means that almost 90% homes were built without layout /map clearance.

In response to a clarification sought by the Ranchi Regional Development Authority (RRDA), the Jharkhand government, on 14 January, sent a letter to various government officials, re-stating the requirements for approving the layout map of plots. This letter was directed to those administrative offices that possess the distinctive power of approving maps  municipal commissioners of various urban areas or panchayats, secretaries of Regional Development Authorities, etc.

Towns of Jharkhand are moving through a grave state of city-mismanagement where the structures of prominent cities are constantly becoming ineffectual in the face of the fast-paced city growth. It is raising legible concerns of tribal rights and sustainability. Surprisingly, one important factor that is sitting at the core of this mammoth developmental issue is seemingly puny process of map clearance.

Ranchi Regional Development Authority is an associate body of Ranchi Municipal Corporation, and is concerned with maintaining town-planning standards. It had sought direction from the Jharkhand government in the matter of Layout map approval. The Jharkhand Building Bylaws of 2016 followed in the state read that in order to get a layout map approved, the concerned individual or the organisation must possess

1) The Mutation Raseed

2) The Registered Sale Deed, and;

3) The 1932 Ledger of the land (referred to as Khatiyan in Jharkhand), a primary document of ownership that was distributed among owners in the form of written documents after land survey of 1932 and here, the cause of concern.

The RRDA had asked the state government if they can approve the layout maps only on the basis of first two as they complained that Khatiyan possessed by the applicants dated back to 1932 and are almost 90 years old. It explains that in most case the physical state of these documents are very terrible, often available in torn pieces. In other cases, general category people provide untitled Khatiyan. The state government sought clarification from states attorney general, who refused the proposal of RRDA, citing the Building Bylaws of 2016 after which the Jharkhand government sent the letter to concerned government officials.

The highly discouraged idea of map clearance

In April 2011, the BJP-JMM coalition informed the Jharkhand High Court that 1.4 lakh houses out of total 1.7 lakh houses in Ranchi are built without any kind of map clearance from the state authorities. This means that almost 90 percent houses were built without layout /map clearance. This information to the court was followed by a demolition drive as ordered by Jharkhand High Court. The then deputy chief minister Hemant Soren, who also held the Urban development portfolio, said that those who are being displaced will be rehabilitated within a month. No data is available about rehabilitation.

In May 2017, The Times of India reported that the Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC), too, claimed that many houses in Dhanbad have been constructed without the approval of layout maps. In reaction to this, the Mineral Area Development Authority (MADA) announced a door to door campaign to identify such houses. Speaking to The Times of India, a former MD of MADA, Ravindra Kumar Singh said, if such a campaign takes place, more than 25000 houses would be deemed inappropriate, because they deviated from their initial plan.

What is clear from these details is that the process of getting maps approved is highly discouraged among the public because of its complex and exhaustive nature. This leads to unplanned construction of structures, compromising on safety, cleanliness and standard of living. It defeats the idea of development and planning and restricts it to a mere application of scientific advancement. And its not just the case of individual houses; builders of apartments and other residential complexes too, violate the process of map approval. Almost an year ago, two high rises on the Lalpur-Kokar road (the urban hub of Ranchi ) were summoned by the RMC for unplanned constructions after being deemed illegal by the RMC. Later, they were spared with a fine imposition and some time to get the map approved.

Understanding the negligence

The number of towns in Jharkhand grew from 13 in 1901 to 35 in 1951, and to 228 in 2011. According to the 2011 Census, urban population of the state grew to 24.05 percent from two percent in 1901. The planning of cities began to cater to the needs of this growing population, except Jamshedpur. It is imperative to note here that planning was never the basis of developing cities in Jharkhand like Ranchi, Dhanbad or Bokaro. It arose from the sudden adjustment of the ever-growing population. The master plan of Ranchi and the establishment of RRDA were part of such plannings.

The availability of enormous amounts of fallow land enabled people to construct buildings and structures in direct violation of the city plan with no proper drainage or roads.

The complexity has arisen due to provisions of various Acts made for the protection of tribal rights. By the virtue of Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT) and the Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act (SPT), the Adivasi land is non-transferable by sale, to a non-Adivasi and can only be gifted to an individual or an organisation. The state and Union governments though, can acquire these lands after providing compensations in accordance with CNT and SPT Acts.

There is a clear difference between the intent and the implication of these laws by authorities. Aashish Khakha, a Phd research scholar with the School of Development Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, in his 2019 paper titled "Adivasis, the Fifth Schedule and Urban Development: a study of Greater Ranchi", stated that such expansion cannot practically happen without the acquisition of CNT land.

This hush-hush sale and purchase of Adivasi lands is a source of profit making for many authorities, but their short sightedness disables them from contemplating how these cities will sustain the burden of increasing population in coming years. In such a scenario, any provision for the betterment of the city will fail in achieving its targets. From a pollution control system to a sewage treatment plant- everything works in accordance with the planned structure of the city, the structure that remains absent from the towns of Jharkhand (unapproved map clearance).

The case of Greater Ranchi

The case of Greater Ranchi that is constructed inside the HECL complex in Ranchi's Dhurwa tells the tale of the governments acquisition of CNT land and the muted RRDA. In 1985, Jawaharlal Nehru-led Union government gifted 7,200 acres of land to the Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd. (HECL) by displacing 23 Adivasi villages.

The HECL produced heavy machineries for production of various mineral-based products and was advertised as the face of development of new India. But HECL failed miserably in its endeavors, leaving behind a huge proportion of land vacant. Later, it stopped its functions and handed over the land to the government of the newly created state of Jharkhand. It was then that the name Greater Ranchi Project was bestowed upon it. The then chief minister Babulal Marandi proposed to acquire more 39,682 acre of land in the Namkum block.

Dr Vasavi Kiro, an RTI activist and a member of Indigenous Women India Network (IWIN) , filed an RTI which clearly showed that almost all the lands of seven villages acquired by the government in the name of CISF and the state are Adivasi settlements. Adivasis from 18 villages of the Namkum block protested against the expansionist proposals.

The concern raised by Dr Kiro was regarding violation of PESA. By the virtue of Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) (PESA )Act, 1996, Municipal Corporations cannot extend their jurisdiction to PESA areas under which 18 villages of Namkum fall. Therefore, she says, the RMCs operation in these areas is constitutionally illegal. She claims the Greater Ranchi project to be the biggest violation of CNT Act since the independence of India in 1947.

This case is indicative of the manipulative nature of RRDA and Ranchi Municipal Corporation, especially when the organisation/project is backed by the government (Union or State).

Systemic loophole

The state judiciary is filled with cases of illegal and deliberate land acquisition. This number increases all the more when additional cases of illegal constructions join the list. The judiciary keeps getting new cases of same nature and different stories. This scenario is enabled through the loopholes in the system itself. Map-approval cannot serve as an identifier of fraudulent cases as it does not bring any real change. It only fills the pockets of a few. The issue calls for a closer examination by the government, especially in its elementary judicial stages and during the sale and purchase of land. The basic tenants of the Acts, that give special measures to Adivasi population to protect their rights, must be held.

Image by Aashu Abhishek
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appeared for a 10-minute interview with CBS Minnesotas Esme Murphy over the weekend. Here if you can withstand it and if you can keep up one can observe Walzs blizzard of verbiage and question-begging along with the media support that enables it.

If you are not subject to the Walz regime of one-man rule, you may be able to watch this video with the kind of detachment that allows for amusement. If you have followed Walzs press conferences over the past year, however, you may find it sickening. Joe Isuzu has absolutely nothing on this guy and he was a work of advertising art.
Over the last three decades, the United States prison population has exploded from 300,000 to more than 2 million. More than 1.1 million are African American men - the vast number of whom have returned within one to three years of their release. In fact, according to the World Prison Brief, America boasts the highest recidivism rate at more than 50 percent.

Although African American men are more likely to participate in re-entry programs, they continue to struggle with recidivism and reunification at higher rates. The common conception of assisting individuals impacted by incarceration is to provide practical needs such as housing, food and employment. Often, these services are insufficient when the core of their issues is related to psychological factors.

For African American males, the consequences of low social status due to incarceration are compounded by racial discrimination and stereotypes. Consequently, the portrait of African American males puts them under heightened scrutiny and increases the number of adverse encounters with police and society.

This issue led researchers from Florida Atlantic University's College of Social Work and Criminal Justice and Charles E. Schmidt College of Science to examine why re-entry programs are not as effective for African American men when compared to others. Their study, published in the Journal of Prison Education and Re-entry, looked at African American men's re-entry experience, family reunification and recidivism. Participants (ages 23 to 56) were selected from a program in southeastern Florida; each had been in prison more than once and participated in at least three re-entry programs.

Results from the study demonstrate why re-entry programs need a more holistic approach that accounts for the negative associations developed in the centuries of oppression and segregation that shape African American men's current interactions with society. In addition to providing practical needs and psychological assistance, re-entry programs should serve as a mediator between the individual impacted by incarceration and the various environmental constructs encountered upon release. Improving outcomes for African American men in re-entry programs must be centered on easing their transition into the complex systems of the family, workforce and society-at-large, while also considering their mental and emotional well-being.

"Many factors contribute to the high recidivism rates of African American men, but how their environment perceives them plays a significant role. Therefore, they respond differently to the environment compared to their non-African American counterparts," said Precious Skinner-Osei, Ph.D., lead author and interim undergraduate program coordinator in FAU's Phyllis and Harvey Sandler School of Social Work. "Because they face many oppressive factors, re-entry programs must consider the indifferences they endure, particularly trauma and their environment, and how it influences their behavior. Institutions involved in the criminal justice system must be part of the solution to alter the hostile environment experienced by these men."

Skinner-Osei and co-author Peter Claudius Osei, a Ph.D. student in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, combined perspectives from social work and neuroscience to develop a new approach for re-entry programs, which offers a solution by focusing on the environmental and psychological elements influencing behavior. Their "Care" model suggests implementing four steps: collaboration; amend; reintegration; and empowerment to successfully reunite justice-involved African American men with their families, the labor market, and their communities.

Components of the Care model include cultural competency; implementing trauma-informed care strategies when working with these men; amendments to legislation and policies to include more psychological services and mental health resources, particularly post-release and in the communities where these men are returning; and empowering justice-involved African American men to perceive themselves as a valuable member of society. Empowerment is a key component of this model to reduce the stigma and emotional insecurity that perpetuate the increased recidivism rates of African American men.

On the practice side of re-entry programs, the researchers say words make a difference. They suggest that one significant improvement that professionals can make post-release is to change the language they use in their practices such as excluding terms like "felon," "offender," "convict," and "juvenile delinquent," to allow justice-involved individuals to gain a more positive self-image and shed some of the stigma associated with incarceration.

"African American men have been so severely impacted by incarceration and confinement that it is ingrained in their mentality from childhood, thereby distorting their worldview," said Peter Claudius Osei. "A more rounded approach is needed to account for the negative associations developed in the centuries of oppression and segregation that shape their current interactions with society. Only when we address their psychological and historical trauma in conjunction with the environmental factors that perpetuate the stigma they experience, can the chains of incarceration be broken."

###

About the College of Social Work and Criminal Justice:

The College of Social Work & Criminal Justice encompasses the Phyllis & Harvey Sandler School of Social Work and the School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, which collectively offer one doctoral, two master's and two undergraduate degree programs; three specialization certificate programs in child welfare, healthy aging and addiction; and four post-graduate certificate programs, including Paralegal, Legal Nurse Consultant, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The college also houses a number of research and service centers, including the Child Welfare Institute, the Healthy Aging Academy, the Office of Substance Use Disorder, Mental Health, and Recovery Research; and the Robin Rubin Center for Happiness and Life Enhancement. Additionally, more than 300 community agencies from Miami-Dade to Vero Beach have partnered with the College of Social Work & Criminal Justice to provide students with meaningful experience and job readiness skills in their chosen field. For more information, visit fau.edu/sw-cj.

About Florida Atlantic University:

Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU's world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU's existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit fau.edu.
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Oxygen premiered its new true crime factuals yesterday.

Florida Man Murders

This series from Blumhouse Television zeroes in on Americas most notorious and outrageous killers from the Sunshine State. Often referenced as Florida Man in headlines, these killers commit bizarre and outlandish crimes that captivate the nation and sometimes feel as though theyre straight out of a Hollywood movie. With the aid of Florida investigators and prosecutors, the series unravels the cases strange twists and examines what drove these killers to commit attention grabbing murders brutal enough to mistake for fiction. The premiere episode follows the case of Michael and Susan Missy MacIvor, a newlywed couple found brutally murdered in their home after a tropical storm rips through Tavernier Keys, FL.

Jane Doe Murders

Renowned crime scene investigator Yolanda McClary works alongside investigators as they work tirelessly in an active case to find the identity of a Jane Doe and put together the pieces of what happened. In September 1996, a murdered woman is discovered in the Oregon woods Polk County, Jane Doe. For 24 years, she remains unidentified until former Las Vegas PD CSI, Yolanda McClary, identifies her, prompting a detective to investigate the murder.

Bloodline Detectives

In the same way that DNA profiling fundamentally changed Forensic Science, Familial DNA testing is supercharging DNA Profiling. It is the forensic revolution that is seeing cold cases solved all over the world and Bloodline Detectives explores and tells the stories of some of the most extraordinary cases solved to date. Using witness testimony, new interviews, archive footage and dramatic reconstructions, Bloodline Detectives is a compelling and highly watchable television series which reveals a new and dynamic form of crime fighting.

Oxygen is available through Fetch TV.

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If you dont occasionally fantasise about swanning off to Bali, you probably arent working hard enough. But what many dont realise is that beyond the veil its not all Bintangs and back massages either.

Living in Bali during a pandemic is quite the surreal experience, various Australian expatriates have told DMARGE.

This comes after last week discussion exploded online around westerners living like royalty in Bali (on a shoestring budget, no less), as well as concerns around the logic of deporting digital nomads bragging about this very lifestyle (at a time when Indonesia is desperate for tourists).

she is not the reason for my struggles, she did not cause the homophobia here, but her audacity to overstay her visa, work from here and not pay the obligatory income taxes for foreigners who stayed more than 6 months, is grating my nerves.  olive (@acciolivia) January 17, 2021

To get the on-ground take on what its like to live the dream right now, as well as to answer such burning questions as: Is there Crossfit in Bali? and: How does it really feel to do timesheets by the pool, DMARGE spoke to Peter Hibberd, Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy who has become quite the WFH (work from hotel) connoisseur.

Hibberd has been living and WFH (Working From Hotel) in Bali, he told DMARGE, since March 2020 as soon as the first Covid-19 lockdown was announced.

However, Im not a tourist. Im actually a legal resident in Indonesia with full KITAS (working permit) living in Jakarta, so for me its like running the company in Sydney from Byron Bay, and instead of my apartment, my kickass boutique hotel has been the base of operations. There is currently a huge uproar about digital nomads in Bali and because I pay tax as a resident I thankfully sidestep that social stigma even though, to any passer by, local or otherwise, Im another Bule with a laptop.

I love living here and WFH but Im a legal Indonesian resident. There are very strict laws when it comes to working remotely in Indonesia and they enforce them.

The most surreal thing about being in Bali during the Covid-19 pandemic, Hibberd told DMARGE, is stark empty streets.

Just like any other major metropolitan area, the surreal reality is dead silence. The streets of Seminyak are like a ghost town still to this day most nights. Theres maybe 10% of places actually open. A usual trip from Canggu to Seminyak (6.5km) is usually an hour or more, now, 15 mins.

Hibberd also told us: there are still some wonderfully surreal things happening even though the island is under the influence of Covid. Its the Island of the Gods, only one of the 17,000 odd Indonesian Islands of the archipelago. For example, I sat and watched an international concert pianist on a white grand piano on the edge of the cliffs at Uluwatu as the sun set.

Hibberd also told us about a local construction worker who went viral for driving his scooter with up to six dogs as passengers.

Alongside this, there has been a shift in demographics, with a mass exodus of foreigners back to their local countries due to the fears of the pandemic. This has led to the oversupply of Australians on footy trips and French escaping the winter [being] fully replaced by Russians, who we can only assume get a free ticket to Bali with every second bottle of vodka purchase at the local Moscow bottle-O.

Theres more Russians than an 80s Bond third act.

The best bit about being in Bali right now, in Hibberds opinion, is the freedom. Due to strictly enforced Covid policies, as per any usual safety enforcement, it actually allows freedom. Its quiet. Ive been coming to Bali every couple of weekends for four years and its so empty its like a country town.

Hibberd also told us that, much as hed love to pop our vision of the jealousy industrial complex, living in Bali right now, for his money, is pretty damn enviable: Prepare yourself. Take a deep breath and let the envy wash over you like a peeling 5 footer at Old Mans, theres nothing you can do about it. Youve been warned 3, 2,1.

The Island is its own quarantine zone. There is minimal domestic flying inside Indonesia, so the cases have been relatively low and stable. Therefore, wear a mask and the cafes are open to sit, chat and work, the fresh rich java coffee flows freely and the beaches are a breath of fresh air to cleanse the lungs as the sun sets.

Even the surf breaks are pretty empty comparatively. I hear on a good day you can be one of five people at Uluwatu on a peeling 6ft break, one of which is Kelly Slater [when he was there, anyway]. On top of all that, there are insane deals at hotels large and small, villas are desperate for occupancy and if you thought drinking was cheap in Bali before, now its almost a steal.

Beyond the regular coastal areas, Ubud, the vegan loving, hippy yoga retreat centre of Eat Pray Love fame, is really empty. So forget booking three months in advance to eat fine dining at Locavore, a call that day and youll generally get you a seat. Even if I ran out of things to do on the main island of Bali, (which I havent), Ive jumped on a boat to Gili to finally take my deep diving license to chill out with turtles, manta and sharks at the bottom of the ocean floor then skip over to Nusa Penida and Lembongan for some of the quintessential IG location shots.

All three of the smaller islands are empty of tourists so wherever we went, we had the place to ourselves. I think a long ship diving tour of Komodo is on the cards next.

Hibberd also told us that what he has found challenging is keeping himself fit  something you might assume would be a piece of piss without the hassle of a commute. Au contraire: Working out at Wunderlust pushing PBs with Dave Driskell every day [has been the most challenging aspect to living in Bali], Hibberd said.

RELATED: I Went To Balis Most Instagram-Famous Oasis & It Was A Complete Disaster

Most people say with an air of bluster, Oh, if I had six months off, I could just go to the gym and get ripped like Chris Hemsworth, but you know, I got a job and. *insert whatever other excuse they have for not actually doing the work*. Well, its COVID, youre generally locked down, nows the freaking time! Im definitely not a big guy (a 40-year-old very skinny ectomorph) but since lockdown, Ive gained 14kgs and gone down to 16% body fat. Its a work in progress, but if not now, when?

In all seriousness, just like any other place the world over, the challenging part of being in Bali is not seeing my family and friends in Australia. Thankfully my kids are with me here but there are many that have been separated for months. I empathise with many across the world separated from the ones we love. Im not sure you could find a better place to sit the pandemic out, but family and friends are what really matters.

Hibberd also told us that even from a visitors perspective, you can really tell the locals are hurting, with 80% of the entire islands revenue [usually] derived from tourism. Thats crippling. The best we can do is support local businesses by eating and drinking and be generous to those we interact with.

Hibberd plans to stay as long as possible. He told DMARGE: I dont expect any real change in policy at the office until theres certainty of safety for all. So Im currently negotiating buying property here. Due to the drastic drop in tourists, the prices on land are very good but buying property in Bali is nothing like Australia with completely different laws and regulations for expats.

Not every Australian expat has had the same experience, however. An anonymous source told DMARGE his plans were scuppered by The Bat Kiss: My partner and I came here for a job in the tourism industry, which was great timing (not). We arrived in late January to start work and by the middle of March Balis tourism began to suffer due to COVID. This meant that we stopped work because of the rapid decline in tourism.

It has been very challenging having no work. But the most difficult thing has been to witness the devastation this pandemic has caused Bali and its local people. Very minimal tourism has meant that local businesses have been un-able to support themselves during these very tough times resulting in people being forced to travel back to their villages and/or islands to find work again.

We have been here just over 1 year and are planning to come back to Aus next month.

Regarding the job luckily we had savings and both me and my girlfriends parents helped support us any way they could while weve been here. We were unable to find another job as working here requires a KITAS visa, which requires the company you work for to sign you on and do all the logistics with Indonesian Immigration.

Theres definitely a lot of expats that have experienced the same, whether they be holidaymakers who got stuck here or big business owners that have also suffered from the lack of tourism. Everybody has definitely been affected here one way or another.

As Hibberd sums things up: The old gag would have been; There are less Australians in Australia. Not anymore.

I actually havent lived in Australia for 7 years so Im not 100% up to date with the situation on Flinders St, but Bali is still, well, Bali. If you havent visited yet, once this pandemic subsides, you really should. The people are lovely and welcoming in general if you respect their culture. They call it the Island of the Gods as it wears its religion on its sleeve and its beautiful to watch and admire.

There are plenty of tourist traps to fall into that are just disrespectful like any foreign country, but it has a mystical playfulness that allows you to enjoy the tropical weather in very affordable luxury. Get past the classic Kuta bar cliches and you can discover a rich island worth exploring.

As for your chances of joining the likes of Hibberd? Perhaps the signs are more positive than you think: The IT department has been prompting CEOs the world over to be more flexible with office space for decades, but it took a pandemic to make them change, Hibberd said. I assume every CFO (including mine) is currently doing the math on square footage at the office and costs associated with WFH on a regular basis even when this pandemic subsides.

Our office implemented WFH policy in one day and fully operational the next. Im lucky/grateful/worked bloody hard with the team to keep all 300 staff employed and not had to fire anyone at the office.

Reports from paradise, indeed.

According to Bali.com, International tourism has been put on a halt since March 2020 by stopping the visa free regulations, that allowed visitors from 160 countries to come to Indonesia without a visa. This left a little door open for the Bali lovers to come, because until 31st December it was still possible to apply for a Business or Social Visa with the help of an agent.

But due to the outbreaks of new mutations, Indonesia has now implemented a stricter lockdown until 8th of February, which will most likely be extended.

We dont expect Bali to open for normal tourism (visa free or visa on arrival) soon. We expect however, that soon it will be possible to come to Bali again by applying for a business or social visa like it has been before the 31st of December.

In any case, foreigners holding a KITAS, KITAP (work permit, residency) or with diplomatic visas, can still enter Indonesia.

Indonesia hit 1 million recorded Covid-19 cases in January, just a day after President Joko Widodo said the country had successfully handled the pandemic, the ABC reports.

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The outcomes of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)s 13th National Congress have continued to be in the spotlight of regional and international media outlets.

The 13th Party Central Committee makes its debut. Photo: VNA

The outcomes of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)s 13th National Congress have continued to be in the spotlight of regional and international media outlets.



The Malaysia-based New Straits Times on February 1 spent half a page in its World column reporting the results of the congress. The article emphasised that Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's determination to fight corruption has been supported by the majority of the Vietnamese people and CPV members. According to the article, the promotion of the campaign against corruption is one of the top task of the CPV in the next tenure.



Meanwhile, the Malaymail highlighted the next tenure will focus on post-COVID-19 economic recovery and development.



The Republic of Koreas news agency Yonhap commented that the outcomes of the congress showed that Vietnam is focusing on the stability of its State. The country will maintain its current stance and policies, open to the outside world and attract foreign investment as a driving force for economic growth.

In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency, Kyle Springer, senior analysist at the Perth USAsia Centre, Western Australia, said the outcomes of the Congress are important to Australia given that both countries are building a deeper strategic partnership and Australia wants to develop an economic partnership with Vietnam.



Australias relations with Vietnam have expanded significantly since the last Party Congress in 2016. They established a formal strategic partnership in 2018 and are now in two major, multilateral trade agreements together: CPTPP and RCEP, Springer said.



To Australia, he said, Vietnams economic direction after the congress will become ever more important as Australia seeks to diversify its trade and investment relations with reliable neighbours such as Vietnam.



Reuters also reported on the key politic event of Vietnam, saying the country aims to rev up its economy over the next five years, trusting on its custom-tooled mix of free trade deals, privatisation and tight COVID-19 curbs.



In an article, the news agency said with a raft of free trade deals envied by regional peers and increasing attraction of investor, the party formally approved goals to raise growth beyond an annual 6 percent in the pre-pandemic era to 6.5-7.0 percent for the 2021-2025 period.



According to Reuters, in an economic development blueprint, Vietnam would boost its growing role as a key manufacturing hub for global giants like Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp. At the same time, the party is targeting raising the countrys profile beyond a low-cost labour destination to a centre for science and technology.



Germanys Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper also noted that Vietnam has risen economically at an almost unprecedented rate over the past few decades and that effective prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened the partys strength. VNA

13th National Party Congress widely covered by international media The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has been a hot topic among international media outlets in recent times, with the major political event running from January 25 to February 2.
Moscow: A Russian court jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday in a ruling which the opposition politician blamed on what he called President Vladimir Putins hatred and fear of him.

The Moscow court handed Navalny a three-and-a-half-year sentence but his lawyer said the anti-corruption blogger would serve only two years and eight months in jail because of time he has already spent under house arrest.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny talks to one of his lawyers in court. Credit:AP

The widely anticipated ruling, which followed nationwide protests calling for Navalnys release, is likely to further strain relations with the West, which is likely to consider imposing sanctions on Russia over its handling of the case.

The United States, Britain and Germany urged Moscow to immediately free Navalny, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Washington would coordinate closely with allies to hold Russia accountable.
EXTON, Pa., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh USA, Inc. has extended its partnership with Columbia University and its onsite print shop, Columbia Print, to enhance the university's environmental sustainability efforts. Experts from Columbia Print and Ricoh collaborated to help right-size technology use in Columbia's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and School of Nursing to reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 34 tons, saving the equivalent of 1,617 trees. In addition to this, Columbia Print recently switched to 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper for color prints and entirely tree-free paper for black-and-white applications.

"At an institution where world-class research on, and education about, sustainability is being conducted daily, we have a responsibility to put that knowledge to practical use," said Miguel Pagan, Executive Director, Administrative Services, Columbia University. "We owe that to the many communities we touch, and Ricoh understands that sense of responsibility and of pride. They have helped us make incredible strides, including this most recent step, incorporating environmentally friendly solutions while meeting our customers' needs and maintaining costs. This has been the perfect intersection of Ricoh's digital services, our needs, and the two organizations' shared values."

As an information management company, Ricoh leverages its imaging technology innovations to make data accessible to people through print and digital media, to provide more insight than ever before. The company helped Columbia analyze data within its Irving Medical Center's School of Nursing and Department of OBGYN that ultimately led to a 70% reduction in CO2 emissions due to more efficient device usage. This included configuring an action plan that would help reduce the use of electricity by triggering features such as a low-energy consumption sleep mode after a period of inactivity. Furthermore, many of Ricoh's devices are ENERGY STAR-certified and carry an EPEAT Gold rating, which offer additional sustainability benefits and further reinforce Ricoh's support of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Established in 1754, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York State and the fifth oldest in the country. A storied institution, Columbia has frequently been at the forefront of progress and prides itself on being an early adopter of many environmental sustainability strategies, some of which have become accepted as industry best practices. In its first campus-wide sustainability plan released in 2017, Columbia committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% before 2020, a goal the University has since surpassed. Still, the university is always looking to build on that progress.

Columbia Print utilizes two RICOH Pro 8210s and RICOH Pro C7210sx Graphic Arts Edition platforms that handle sustainably sourced paper with ease, empowering operators to continue to offer high-quality, fast-turn, reliable print while living up to their ideals. The RICOH Pro 8210s platform's ability to print quickly with high accuracy and reliability on a variety of media helped the university's in-plant make the jump to tree-free paper on black-and-white jobs. Similarly, the RICOH Pro C7210sx Graphic Arts Edition's media flexibility helped smooth the change to 100% recycled PCW paper for color jobs without sacrificing speed or color quality. The in-plant's transition to sustainably sourced paper yields additional savings of 70 tons of CO2 annually.

"It is an honor to play a role in the ongoing innovation of such a historic institution as Columbia University," said Renaud Rodrigue, Partner Executive, Higher Education, Ricoh USA, Inc. "From the beginning of our working relationship, it was clear that we shared a passion for environmental sustainability and a sense of duty to use our expertise and resources to create a more sustainable world. It ties back to the bedrock founding principles of both organizations. We look forward to continuing to work with Columbia as we uncover new ways to focus on moving forward, sustainably."

For more information on Ricoh, visit www.takealookatricohproduction.com or follow along and engage on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter using #LookAtRicoh.

| About Ricoh |

Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, communications services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2020, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,008 billion yen (approx. 18.5 billion USD).

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com

 2021 Ricoh USA, Inc. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

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Encino board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Steven J. Varkony. Individuals considering any type of plastic surgery or procedure, however, need to be more careful than ever that they are working with a top-quality provider.

A January 6 article on The Guardian reports on the global rise in plastic surgery procedures during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The article credits the dramatic increase in the number of people working from home as one reason for the surge. The consensus is that this is because one very small silver-lining of the pandemic for prospective plastic surgery patients is that it allows people to heal from a procedure at home, without having to take time off from work. The article notes that another motivator for a prospective patient is that many of us are spending more time looking at computer images of themselves in online meetings, providing us with a heightened sense of our appearance. Encino-based board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Steven J. Varkony says that individuals considering any type of plastic surgery or cosmetic procedure, however, need to be more careful than ever that they are working with a top-quality plastic surgeon as the increase in patients means more doctors  not all of whom are plastic surgeons  will try to enter the cosmetic procedure market.

Dr. Varkony says that, while plastic surgery has never been safer and more effective, it is still delicate surgery, and not all plastic surgeons are the same. To be as safe as possible, the doctor insists that prospective patients should only consider doctors who are licensed plastic surgeons and who, like him, have passed the rigorous board-certification process for plastic surgeons and are members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. At the same time, patients should also explore the particular abilities of their surgeon, says Dr. Varkony.

Its important to talk with a plastic surgeon about what to expect in your specific case, says Dr. Varkony. One concern many patients have is with the scars that follow procedures. While all good plastic surgeons take pride in their ability to make scars less conspicuous, Dr. Varkony, notes that he has been a pioneer in this area, particularly when it comes to arm lifts (brachioplasty). While most procedures being done still result in a scar going down the length of the inside of the arm, Dr. Varkonys of the arm, Dr. Varkonys Hidden Scar Arm Lift places the incision across the length of the armpit and inside a natural crease, so that the scar that results is as inconspicuous as possible.

Scaring is just one area of difference between plastic surgeons, says Dr. Varkony. Plastic surgery is one of the most demanding of all medical specialties and its work that requires great skill, knowledge, and a special aesthetic touch. If theres any decision where you cant be too careful, choosing a plastic surgeon in the middle of a boom in procedures is one, says the doctor.

Readers who are interested in learning more about board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Varkony can call (818) 907-9090 or visit his clinics website at https://drvarkony.com/.


Honduras ratifies constitutional changes on abortion: 4 things to know

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Lawmakers in Honduras garnered national headlines last week when they voted to ratify a change to the national constitution that effectively bolsters the ban on abortion in the Latin American nation.

The lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of the amendment on Jan. 21, with a second ratification vote last Thursday solidifying what supporters call a Shield Against Abortion in Honduras.

The unborn shall be considered as born for all rights accorded within the limits established by law, the amendment reads. Language was added to the amendment stating that it is prohibited and illegal for the mother or a third party to practice any form of interruption of life on the unborn, whose life must be respected from conception.

Because of the ratified changes, Congress's voting threshold to change abortion law in Honduras raises from two-thirds to three-quarters.

"As a woman and a mother, I am in favor of life and against abortion, I want to speak on behalf of those who are in the mother's womb and cannot be opposed," Gloria Bonilla, a deputy for the Liberal Party who voted in favor of the change, said in a statement.

NEW CANAAN  As a preemptive action against anticipated state zoning legislation, Planning and Zoning Commissioner Chairman John Goodwin unveiled a draft of zoning rules changes he desires to share with the state.

His fear, along with a few of his fellow commissioners on the board, is the notion that New Canaans zoning laws could be changed by pressures to pass new legislation at the state level.

We feel the way we get these things solved is we get help from Hartford, but you dont get things forced down your throat from Hartford. Its just not the right way to go, Goodwin said.

The commissioners are concerned about efforts by organizations such as Desegregate Connecticut, that want to convince state legislators to change zoning laws, which in turn would affect New Canaan.

There is a strong feeling among a constituency in the state of Connecticut, that Connecticut, from a housing perspective, has a fairly high degree of segregation, Goodwin said at the Jan. 26 meeting.

Goodwin said he wants the state to create model regulations that towns can use to improve their own rules, and created a five-page Alternative Zoning Proposals document to contribute to that effort. He distributed the document to his fellow commissioners for their comments, as he expressed that he does not wish to speak for the commission without their full input.

Commissioner John Kriz raised fears that the new zoning laws would be similar to Connecticut Citing Councils rulings on cell towers, which circumvented local zoning laws.

The council approved an 85-foot monopole cell tower on a four-acre zoned residential property on Soundview Lane, in September, despite strong resident opposition.

The ruling was an example of one-size-fits-all, Hartford-driven decision. So, if you like the cell tower legislation you may really, really like Hartford-driven statewide zoning rules, Kriz said.

This whole effort seems to be a solution looking for a problem, am I wrong? Commissioner Daniel Radman said. Are they (present regulation) so deficient and so one-sided that we need to now reinvent the entire vocabulary of zoning for the state?

Commissioner Arthur Casavant told his peers that according to his research, Even though a fair amount of units are built every year, the number of units of affordable housing has actually declined in each of the last five years.

Goodwin tried to explain to the commissioners the views of those who wish to change the zoning laws. He told the group he had been researching the topic and meeting with an informal group of fellow planning and zoning chairmen in the area.

I have done a lot of listening. I have listened to multiple sides on issues that are being debated, Goodwin said.

Goodwin cited some zoning terms that impede inclusiveness.

One of them is special permits, and the argument on special permits is that it keeps affordable housing developments out of town, Goodwin explained.

Special permits can be given to a developer for projects that do not conform to a municipalitys zoning requirements. The statutes require public hearings to obtain these approvals, which allows area residents who oppose the project to voice their opposition.

Goodwin, however, is not convinced special permits prevented building in New Canaan.

I wouldnt be surprised if 95 percent of special permits in New Canaan have been approved, he said.

The term community character in zoning regulations is also considered to create exclusionary housing practices, he said.

The concept of community character is not a weapon of segregation, its simply a part of (a) long-term plan, Goodwin told his fellow commissioners.

We have historic towns, with historic downtowns like we have, which we are very proud of, that we like to preserve. These are very important issues, and that central legislation regarding transit corridors and so forth may not be very sensitive to, said Kriz.

New Canaan gets a bad rap, while most other towns are looking at our affordable housing fund as a model, Goodwin said.

The town has an affordable housing fund accumulated through housing conveyance fees and two main affordable housing developments including 113 units on Millport Ave., and 60 units at Canaan Parish.

The New Canaan Housing Authority is overseeing construction to replace Canaan Parish with 100 units in two buildings while reducing the overall building footprint at 186 Lakeview Ave.

Goodwin explained that one of the new regulations considered by state legislators involves transit-oriented development.

Some of the specific things that this legislation was looking to do is to have within a community where there is a transit station, in where multifamily units must constitute at least 50 percent of the area within a half mile radius of that transit station.

New Canaan has two train stations, one on Elm St. and the other on Talmadge Hill in the southern part of town near the Darien border.

Goodwin said he wants to reassure residents to trust that the Planning and Zoning Commission is competent.

He also wants his fellow commissioners to weigh in on his Alternative Zoning Proposals at future meetings, in which he recommends the state create a model zoning code. He agrees that they must have a model zoning code, but it should be adapted to the towns particular circumstances.

Then, municipalities can choose to adopt some or all of the model provisions as part of their zoning code. This will save municipalities from the costly process of paying consultants when they would like to update their own code, the chairman said.
Wrexham initiative donates PPE to Wales Air Ambulance

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 2nd, 2021

A Wrexham company has donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to staff and volunteers of the Wales Air Ambulance.

PPE Hwb Wrecsam, a local community interest company, has worked throughout the pandemic to make sure individuals and organisations across the county have PPE equipment.

To date, they have distributed more than 45,000 face visors to the local community.

This includes 425 face shields which have been donated to the lifesaving Wales Air Ambulance charity.





Alison Thompson, from PPE Hwb Wrecsam, said: We contacted Wales Air Ambulance to see if our face shields would be helpful.

Then we wanted to support the volunteers in carrying out their invaluable role in any way we could.

We are even more thrilled to have been able to help Wales Air Ambulance volunteers across the entirety of Wales, well beyond our local area, with over 400 face shields.

The visors produced by the volunteers are sent out all over the UK free of charge, with recipients invited to donate if they are able.

Mark Stevens, Wales Air Ambulance fundraising manager, said: This donation has been much appreciated.

Thank you very much to everyone who has given up their free time or supplied equipment to make this vital PPE.

As well as our charity, Im sure many other organisations and individuals have appreciated the PPE equipment during the pandemic.

Along with making PPE for the Wales Air Ambulance many other organisations and individuals, such as council staff, girl guides, NHS staff and school workers have benefitted from the service.

Alison added: We have been swept away by the generosity of the public, both those who have volunteered on the project and those we have donated to, and appreciation of our efforts by those we have helped.

We are very proud to have helped the deaf community stay connected, to have helped those medically exempt from wearing facemasks to stay safer, to have helped voluntary organisations to open once again enabling them to carry on their own important work supporting the community, to support small businesses to reopen in the new normal and to have supported more staff in schools, nurseries and care homes than we ever could have imagined.

Throughout the short life of our project, the volunteers of PPE Hwb Wrecsam have always tried to help as many people as we could, as best we could.

PPE Hwb Wrecsam is encouraging anyone that would benefit from their support to contact them via its Facebook group  PPE HwbWrecsam or website ppehwbwrecsam.org.uk. PPE Hwb Wrecsam also has a Go Fund Me page for those wanting to support the project.
Mumbai, Feb 2 : Taking ahead the investigation in the Bollywood-drugs mafia links angle in the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday grilled an assistant director who was a friend the late actor.

The NCB summoned Rishikesh Pawar - whose name had first figured during the investigations in September 2020 for allegedly acting as a drug conduit.

The agency sleuths raided Pawar's residence and seized some gadgets and he is now being questioned about his role in the drugs nexus.

On May 1, 2020, Showik Chakraborty - brother of actress Rhea Chakbraborty who was Sushant's girlfriend - had asked the actor's househelp Dipesh Sawant to receive a drug delivery of 50 gms of 'charas', from a person named Dwayne, which was given the next day.

The next month, Sawant received another delivery of 100 gms of 'Ganja' for which he was later among the people arrested.

Siblings Rhea and Showik were nabbed last year and they are currently out on bail.

On June 14, 2020, Sushant, 34, was found hanging at his duplex rented flat in a posh building in Bandra, triggering a massive furore in Bollywood and political circles.

While his death probe was taken over from Mumbai Police by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and NCB are investigating the financial and narcotics angles.

Top ministers and leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi - Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party, and Congress have been repeatedly demanding that the CBI should reveal the findings of the Sushant death probe in the public interest.

While there is no word from the CBI and the ED on their respective probes, the NCB has been carrying out a series of raids effecting drug seizures, and arrested more than two dozen persons, besides questioning several Bollywood personalities in the past six months.
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 2 : 'Catholicasabha', the mouthpiece of Thrissur archdiocese has lashed out at the ruling LDF and opposition UDF and said that the Christian community need not be taken for granted, and that it is not a vote bank for any of the fronts.

Thrissur archdiocese is a powerful Catholic centre in Central Kerala and is known for supporting the UDF and at times the LDF.

The mouthpiece also indirectly came out against the local body alliance which the Congress had entered into with the Jamaat-e-Islami-led Welfare Party through the good offices of Muslim League, and said that those who are entering into alliances with terror groups need not expect the support of the Christian community.

The mouthpiece also lashed out against the CPI(M) state secretary A.Vijayaraghavan for attacking the Muslim League as a communal outfit and said that such utterances would lead to a communal divide in the state which should not have come from a leader of a political party ruling the state.

The Catholicasabha also said the recent meeting of the Cardinals of the Catholic church with Prime minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi was a very positive one and that the Prime minister had listened to all the woes aired by the Church.

Bishop Geevargheese Mar Coorilos of the powerful Jacobite church has also come out against Vijayaraghavan's statement against the Indian Union Muslim League and said that it was an "irresponsible" statement. In a social media post the Bishop said, "Indian Union Muslim League is not a communal party, it has always upheld a secular stand. Taking refuge in communal tendencies for electoral gains is not appropriate for progressive political outfits." The Jacobite church has been traditional supporters of the CPI(M) and the LDF.

Vijayaraghavan had on Monday written an article in "Deshabhimani", the CPI(M) mouthpiece stating that the Muslim League has initiated communal polarisation in the state on the reservation for forward communities in the government departments. He had also said that this would fan up the Hindu communalism under the aegis of the Sangh parivar.

State BJP chief K. Surendran while speaking to IANS said, "The voting of the Christian community will be a turning point in the coming Assembly elections of 2021. The statements of various denominations of the Christian leadership is a clear message in that line. The Honourable Prime Minister had met various sections of Christian communities and gave a patient hearing to their issues and this has provided a lot of hope for the Christians."."
Denmark took a first tentative step towards reopening amid the coronavirus crisis when Minister for Health and Senior Citizens Magnus Heunicke announced at a press conference on Monday that from Feb. 8 the country's youngest students would be heading back to school.

"Our goal with the massive closure was to reduce the number of COVID-19 infections and give breathing space to our hospitals. We can now state that it has succeeded. Therefore we can reopen our schools for students in first to fourth grade," Heunicke said.

All other students will continue to be subject to the coronavirus restrictions, which have been in place since Dec. 12, 2020.

"This is the precondition for us to be able to maintain control of the epidemic," he said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced last Thursday the extension of the restrictions until Feb. 28, and said that it was important to reopen schools for the youngest children before that date.

The decision is based upon the recommendation of the Statens Serum Institut (SSI).

Meanwhile, the number of new COVID-19 infections continues to fall in Denmark but the new and more contagious coronavirus variant known as B117 is spreading fast across the country.

According to the SSI, Denmark registered 488 new COVID-19 infections and a further 20 deaths in the past 24 hours. To date, the country has reported 198,960 COVID-19 cases and 2,145 deaths.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in many European countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 237 candidate vaccines are still 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 the World Health Organization on Jan. 29.
CHICAGO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 included in this global IV and oral iron drugs market report.

The global IV and oral iron drugs market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 11.6% during the period 20202026.

Key Highlights Offered in the Report:

The demand for prescription iron drugs is relatively high in developed economies such as the US and few European countries. This high demand is one of the major reasons for the global market to grow at a CAGR of around 12% during the forecast period. Approval of few branded IV drugs such as Feraccru, Monofer, and Injectafer in newer markets will further contribute to the overall growth of the market. The IV iron drugs market value is likely to increase by 2.5 times in 2026 compared to 2020 revenue and dominate the global IV & oral iron drugs market with a share of around 67% in 2026. Ferinject/Injectafer is the major branded iron drug approved in around 85 countries generating millions of revenues worldwide both for Vifor Pharma and Daiichi Sankyo. The US is likely to witness faster incremental growth of around USD 2 billion due to high penetration of branded iron drugs over generic ones. Nephrology application segment will register an incremental growth of more than USD 3.5 billion during the forecast period. This is attributable to the availability of commercial branded iron drugs for treating iron deficiency in chronic kidney disease patients. Vendors should rely on strategic collaborations for quick product access and to penetrate new markets and expand in existing markets. For instance, Daiichi Sankyo Company acquired commercial rights of Injectafer in the US and Canada from Vifor Pharma Group. Likewise, Shield Therapeutics gave commercial rights of Feraccru to Norgine, AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals, and Ewopharma.

Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Revenue | 20202026

Market Dynamics  Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities

Market Segmentation  A detailed analysis by route of administration, application, patient group, distribution, and geography

Competitive Landscape  2 key vendors, 7 other prominent vendors, and 6 other vendors

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/iv-iron-oral-iron-drugs-market

IV and Oral Iron Drugs Market  Segmentation

Expected launches of branded IV iron drugs in new markets and expanded indication approvals for existing commercially available brands are the key factors influencing the IV iron drugs' growth. The increased uptake of branded IV drugs in the US and European countries is also expected to contribute significantly during the forecast period.

The growing prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and nephrological disorders across the world is increasing the application of iron drugs at a faster rate, and the trend is likely to continue during the forecast period. Across the globe, one in five men and one in four women have CKD among people above 65 years of age.

Adults constitute over 81% share of the global IV and oral iron drugs market. Adults dominate the market due to the high incidence and prevalence of ID and IDA in the elderly population across the globe. CKD is relatively common among adults, with a prevalence rate of up to 13%.

IV and Oral Iron Drugs Market by Route of Administration

Oral

Intravenous (IV)

IV and Oral Iron Drugs Market by Application

Nephrology

Obstetrics & Gynecology (OBGYN)

Surgery

Gastroenterology

Oncology

Heart Failure (HF)

IV and Oral Iron Drugs Market by Patient Group

Adult

Pediatric

IV and Oral Iron Drugs Market by Distribution

Hospital Pharmacies

Offline Retail Pharmacies

Online Channels

IV and Oral Iron Drugs Market  Dynamics

Vendors, especially key players, are increasingly focusing on pursuing inorganic growth strategies such as strategic collaborations & licensing opportunities to expand their presence, enhance product portfolio, and improve expertise in the market. Strategic collaboration agreements provide vendors with an opportunity to expand the market reach as well as increase the sales volume of drugs across the world. These strategic partnerships and in-licensing/out-licensing opportunities will allow players to gain a competitive advantage and vast geographical reach, which will drive their growth and profitability. These strategies will also allow vendors to reduce their R&D expenses and offer scope for easy market access of products into wider geographies by leveraging the portfolio of the acquired companies. Leading vendors in the global IV & oral iron drugs market are highly focused on strategic collaborations with counterparts in various countries to expand their global footprint.

Key Drivers and Trends fueling Market Growth:

Investigational Iron Drugs

Increasing Availability of Branded Iron Therapeutics and Expanded Indication Approvals

High Demand for Dextran-free IV Iron Therapeutics

Growing Demand Iron Replacement Therapies Among Kidney Disease Patients

IV and Oral Iron Drugs Market  Geography

North America obtains the largest position for the IV & oral iron drugs market across the world. The presence of a large proportion of the population with ID, coupled with better treatment access to ID and IDA, especially branded drugs, is the main factor for the high market share of the region. The strong presence of key vendors is another reason for high product uptake in the region. As a result, the IV & oral iron drugs market in North America is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The region is likely to witness an incremental growth of around USD 2 billion during the forecast period, which is the highest compared to other regions. It is also expected to witness the highest absolute growth of over 105% during the forecast period.

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/iv-iron-oral-iron-drugs-market

IV and Oral Iron Drugs Market by Geography

North America

US



Canada

Europe

UK



Germany



France



Italy



Spain

APAC

China



India



Japan



South Korea



Australia

Latin America

Mexico



Brazil



Argentina

Middle East & Africa

Saudi Arabia



Turkey



South Africa

Major Vendors

Vifor Pharma

Daiichi Sankyo Company

Other Prominent Vendors

AMAG Pharmaceuticals

Akebia Therapeutics

Shield Therapeutics

PHARMACOSMOS

Allergan

Sanofi

AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals

Other Vendors

AZAD Pharma

Ciron Drugs & Pharmaceuticals

Pfizer

Rockwell Medical

Salveo Lifecare

Sunny Pharmaceutical

Explore our healthcare & lifesciences profile to know more about the industry.

Read some of the top-selling reports:

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

Mail: [email protected]

Call: +1-312-235-2040

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SOURCE Arizton Advisory & Intelligence
Mark McGowan has been mocked on social media for putting a face mask over his eyes after a press conference.

The hilarious scene unfolded as the Western Australian premier finished addressing the state about Perth's five-day coronavirus lockdown on Monday.

At the end of the announcement, Mr McGowan first covered his eyes with the mask, before pulling it down to cover his nose and mouth.

Hours later, Tik Tok user Cassandra Edwards uploaded a video sarcastically thanking the state's leader for showing her how to use a face mask properly.

Pictured: Cassandra Edwards mocking Mr McGowan in a Tik Tok video on Monday evening

Perth residents are required to wear face masks at all times when they're not at home, even inside their offices and cars.

Set to the tune of Michael Bolton's How Am I Supposed To Live Without You, the video showed the Perth woman opening her front door before stopping in hesitation.

Ms Edwards put on a look of mock confusion and asked 'I'm forgetting something?'.

A thought bubble appeared above her head with a video of Mr McGowan covering his eyes with the face mask.

Ms Edwards grabbed her own mask and placed it over her eyes. 'Thank you Mark xo,' she wrote (pictured)

She nodded, grabbed her own mask and placed it over her eyes.

'Thank you Mark xo,' she wrote.

Tik Tok users flocked to the comments section to laugh along with Ms Edwards at Mr McGowan's cringeworthy mistake.

'Love Mark but that was funny poor guy must be stressed to the max,' one user wrote.

'Mad respect to Mark for his continued protection of WA but this made me lol hard,' another said.

'Oh definitely,' Ms Edwards replied. 'In Mark we trust.'

Pictured: Ms Edwards (left) imitating WA premier Mark McGowan for putting a face mask over his eyes

Tik Tok user Cassandra Edwards (pictured) uploaded a video thanking the state's leader for showing her how to use a face mask properly

On Monday, a man was jailed after refusing to wear a face mask on the first day of lockdown.

The 41-year-old man was outside a shopping centre on the Great Eastern Highway in Midland when he was approached by police officers on Monday.

Police allege the man was not wearing a face mask and asked him to do so, in accordance with the latest restrictions in the city.

He has been charged with failure to comply with a direction and failure to comply with a request to give police personal details.

The city was plunged into lockdown when a security guard was working on the same floor of the Sheraton Four Points hotel in Perth which was housing returned Australians confirmed to have the highly-infectious UK Covid strain.

The man, from Maylands, inner Perth, had worked 12-hour shifts on both January 26 and 27 while there were four active cases at the hotel, including two with the UK variant and one confirmed to have the South African strain.

The man returned negative results as part of routine testing on January 15, 17 and 23 but started to become unwell last Thursday and called in sick for his shift that day.

He was most likely infectious from January 26, Western Australia's chief health officer Andy Robertson said, with 15 venues visited by the man now listed as potential exposure sites.

Police in face masks are seen speaking to a member of the public in Perth on Monday

Perth entered lockdown at 6pm on Sunday despite going 10 months without a local case of Covid

The man had a second job as a ride share driver but authorities said he had not worked in that role since January 22.

Authorities are adamant the security guard did not 'unnecessarily expose himself' by entering any hotel rooms.

Perth, Peel and the South West were put into the five-day lockdown from 6pm on Sunday.

During the press conference, Mr McGowan urged residents to 'do your duty: stay home unless it's for one of the four approved reasons'.

'If we can all work together and do the right thing over the next few days, we will increase our chances of crushing this virus once again,' he said.

The lockdown is in effect until 6pm on Friday, with residents only allowed to leave home for the following reasons - essential shopping, medical appointments, exercise and work which cannot be done remotely.
Happy Days Are Here Againfor Beijing and Moscow

Commentary

You could almost say Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi was wasting his time whenspeaking at a virtual event hosted by the National Committee on U.S.China Relationshe warned, The United States should stop its interference in the affairs of Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang.

The ObamaBidenHarris administration (lets call it what it really is) wouldnt dream of such a thing.

As long as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Russia allow those now in control of the United States to fly their virtue-signaling LGBTQ flags over U.S. embassies, Xi and Putin have nothing to worry about.

You probably can add Ayatollah Khamenei into the bargain, although he might have a little problem with the flag.

President Joe Biden let them know how things would be straight out of the box when he shut down the Keystone XL pipeline forever.

For Putin, this was Christmas in January, letting him know that evil Trump policy of an energy independent, even exporting, United States was a thing of the past and that his most treasured commodityoilwould go up in value.

At the same time, the Chinese would reap the benefit of the excess Canadian supply, while seeing their American adversary weakened, its negotiating position diminished.

Fracking, too, is clearly an endangered species. Not surprisingly, crude just reached a one-year high.

All this for no discernible improvement in carbon levels and, in fact, likely the reverse. The oil will now be shipped via railroad cars to Louisiana refineries, a far more risky process than the underground pipeline that has been undergoing (and passing) the most stringent environmental inspections for years.

I wonder how soon before the United States will be buying oil from China and Russia.

Xi and Putin (former President Donald Trumps supposed collaboratoras if) must find this all quite amusing, especially since our new administration is now considering rejoining that most reactionary of all United Nations dumb shows, the U.N. Human Rights Council, an organization that is dominated by dictatorial regimes and could have been invented by Orwell.

But why should that be surprising? This same administration and its rabid supporters are all for censorship and for limiting free speech, not just via Big Tech, but practically across the board.

Many advocate reprogramming Trump supporters. Nothing could be more communist Chinese than that!

Imagine these same crypto-fascists complaining about the CCPs treatment of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Christians, Falun Gong, or whoever. The entire Politburo would be rolling their eyes. (Didnt I say Yangs speech was irrelevant?)

And what of Taiwan? Given the new administrations current behavior, would it offer anything beyond the mildest lip-service to defend this vibrant, democratic island nation?

You can bet the final takeover is now under consideration in the darker corridors of the Forbidden City.

Which leads me to something more personal. Almost 13 months ago, I was a member of small delegation that was invited to Taiwan to observe their presidential election. It was exciting and a great deal of fun.

While we were there, we were privileged to meet with a group of the brave democracy demonstrators from Hong Kong who had flown down. Among them was a particularly intelligent (they all were) and charismatic young manMichael CK Pangwho had just been elected to the citys legislative council.

His knowledge of global politics was impressive, and he made me feel optimistic (then anyway) about the future of Hong Kong and possibly of China. A few of us more or less bonded with him.

Less than a month ago, another member of our delegation texted me this article from the Hong Kong Free Press53 Hong Kong democrats, activists arrested under security law over 2020 legislative primaries.

Our friend was among them. Who knows if and when he will ever get out. (His Instagram post announcing his incarceration is here.)

Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were known for trying to help pro-democracy people in distress. Will Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken provide the same support for democracy activists such as our friend Michael? Perhaps if he were transgendered.

Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-founder of PJMedia, and now, editor-at-large for The Epoch Times. His most recent books are The GOAT (fiction) and I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasnt Already (nonfiction). Find him on Parler (he hopes again, soon) @rogerlsimon

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.


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- Ex Twilio and Skype executive Ott Kaukver joins as CTO to drive product performance and innovation for the cloud-based payments platform

- ExWeWork and GrubHub CRO Nick Worswick joins to lead Sales and Marketing as Checkout.com grows enterprise merchant acquisition

- New executives bring extensive experience in hyper-scale, customer-centric product innovation and public markets

- Silicon Valley Tech veteran appointments reflect continued momentum for the profitable Checkout.com, which recently announced 3X growth in 2020 processing volume and signed The Hut Group, Coinbase, Pizza Hut, Grab, Klarna & Farfetch

NEW YORK and LONDON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading connected payments provider, Checkout.com announces the key strategic hires of Ott Kaukver as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Nick Worswick as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Ott was previously CTO at Twilio and led engineering at Skype. Nick held the CRO position at both WeWork and GrubHub before joining Checkout.com. Their appointments reflect Checkout.com's business momentum and global expansion following its recent Series C funding, which tripled its valuation to $15bn, making it EMEA's most valuable venture-backed business and one of the largest fintechs globally.

Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and Founder of Checkout.com said: "Today we welcome two world-class technology leaders to the business. Collectively, they bring unrivalled experience in scaling and building functions that will unlock our next phase of product and operational growth. I've been humbled and inspired by their wealth of knowledge, earned by serving as leaders at some of the most dynamic technology companies and look forward to our partnership."

Scaling global payments infrastructure

Ott Kaukver joins the business after serving as CTO at the leading cloud communication platform powerhouse Twilio, where he led the company's engineering operations and technical architecture. There he scaled the technology organization to thousands and was a key executive growing the business for almost seven years. He brings years of experience in scaling global products with an agile microservices architecture, solving complex business challenges through developer-first technology, and building deeply integrated engineering organizations. Prior to Twilio, he was an early employee at Skype, where he launched SkypeOut and grew the business into a $1 billion product line.

Ott Kaukver, in-coming CTO of Checkout.com, said: "My passion is to build great products for the customers with modern technology on a global scale. Guillaume and the Checkout.com team share this passion. We are building a modern cloud-based infrastructure platform for global payments that enables growth for our fast growing customer base. I'm excited to be part of the journey and help our customers to scale."

Ott will be responsible for driving Checkout.com's technology strategy as the business looks to remove the complexity from global payments and create world-class customizable payment solutions.

Accelerating enterprise acquisition

As Checkout.com continues to drive globally-focused innovation within its payments platform, the business will also accelerate business growth in key markets, strengthening its footprint in North America and delivering on expansion plans in Asia Pacific. Nick Worswick joins the business to lead this growth after four years as Chief Revenue Officer of WeWork. During his time, he increased revenue by more than 450% in four years and grew the commercial function from 80 sales and marketing professionals to over 1,200.

Prior to joining WeWork, Nick also held executive positions at GrubHub leading a large team through its successful initial public offering in 2014. He also held executive leadership roles at IntraLinks prior to their IPO in 2010, and Bullhorn before the acquisition by Vista Equity Partners in 2012. He brings a wealth of experience in replicable growth and global expansion in pre-IPO technology companies.

Nick Worswick, in-coming CRO of Checkout.com, said: "Enterprise merchants are demanding more from their payments providers. They have recognized that payments can be a competitive advantage. Guillaume and the Checkout.com are building the payments platform that unlocks global growth. I've always been inspired by exceptional products that help customers grow and thrive. I look forward to supporting Checkout.com to achieve this next phase of growth."

Nick will lead Checkout.com's revenue organization, overseeing its commercial and marketing function. He will be based in Checkout.com's recently announced New York office, as the company meets the growing demand of US-based merchants for high-performance domestic, international and cross-border payments.

The new executives come amongst a recruitment drive which will see Checkout.com hire an additional 700 people in 2021, adding to its 1,000-strong global workforce. Last year alone the business added 500 people to their 17 international offices.

Checkout.com's transformative approach to payments and payouts has garnered its reputation as a trusted provider behind many of the most valuable fintechs and cutting-edge businesses, including Klarna, Revolut, Transferwise, Coinbase, and eToro. With a platform that can support both best-performing global payments and payouts, Checkout.com has become the backbone of the world-beating progressive business models, among the leading fintechs, streaming services, and marketplaces.

About Checkout.com

Checkout.com empowers businesses to adapt, innovate, and thrive with the Connected Paymentsthey deserve. The company's technology makes payments seamless. Flexible solutions, granular data, and instant insights help global enterprises launch new products in new markets and create outstanding customer experiences. They provide the fastest, most reliable payments in more than 150 currencies, with in-country acquiring, world-class fraud filters and reporting, through one API. And they can accept all major international credit and debit cards, as well as popular alternative and local payment methods. Checkout.com launched in 2012 and now has a team of 1000 people across 17 offices worldwide, offering local expertise where it's needed. Find out more at www.checkout.com
FORT MILL, S.C., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Schaeffler Vice President and Chief Technical Officer Jeff Hemphill is the new president of SAE International for 2021. Hemphill, whose one-year term officially began on January 20, was elected by the SAE International general membership.

Hemphill is a 23-year member of SAE International. In addition to serving on the SAE Clutch Standards Committee, he has authored and organized various SAE International technical papers, served on meeting panels, presented at SAE International conferences, and participated in and organized sponsorship of SAE International's North American International Powertrain Conference since its inception.

"SAE has been a constant presence throughout my career," said Hemphill. "Its mission  to advance mobility knowledge and solutions for the benefit of humanity  is of critical importance during this time of rapid innovation and industry transformation. The opportunity to serve as SAE International president is a tremendous honor for me, and I am looking forward to an exciting year."

As chief technical officer for Schaeffler in the Americas, Hemphill is responsible for research and new product development for automotive transmission, engine and chassis applications as well as industrial components and systems. To date, Hemphill has had nearly 80 patents filed or issued.

A 31-year veteran of the automotive industry, Hemphill started his career at Schaeffler as a machinist and co-op student while earning a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from The University of Akron. He also earned an Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A complete list of SAE International's Board of Directors can be found at: www.sae.org/about/leadership.

About the Schaeffler Group  We pioneer motion

As a leading global supplier to the automotive and industrial sectors, the Schaeffler Group has been driving forward groundbreaking inventions and developments in the fields of motion and mobility for over 70 years. With innovative technologies, products and services for CO-efficient drives, electric mobility, Industry 4.0, digitalization and renewable energies, Schaeffler is a reliable partner for making motion and mobility more efficient, intelligent and sustainable. The technology company manufactures high-precision components and systems for drive train and chassis applications as well as rolling and plain bearing solutions for a large number of industrial applications. The Schaeffler Group generated sales of approximately EUR 14.4 billion in 2019. With around 83,700 employees, Schaeffler is one of the world's largest family companies. Moreover, with almost 2,400 patent applications in 2019, Schaeffler is Germany's second-most innovative company according to the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA).

About Schaeffler Automotive Technologies

Schaeffler is a recognized development partner for global automakers and suppliers. To serve the North American automotive market, Schaeffler operates development centers in Troy, Mich.; Fort Mill, S.C.; Wooster, Ohio; and Puebla, Mexico. The company's 600 North American engineers and technicians, who are supported by a team of more than 6,700 global R&D engineers, drive development in the region by utilizing state-of-the-art test and measurement equipment, computational tools and CAD systems. Schaeffler Automotive has headquarters in Fort Mill and manufacturing facilities in South Carolina; Missouri; Ohio; Ontario, Canada; Puebla and Irapuato, Mexico. For more information, please visit www.schaeffler.us .

About SAE International

SAE International is a global association committed to advancing mobility knowledge and solutions for the benefit of humanity. By engaging nearly 200,000 engineers, technical experts and volunteers, we connect and educate mobility professionals to enable safe, clean, and accessible mobility solutions. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our philanthropic SAE Foundation, including award-winning programs like A World In Motion and the Collegiate Design Series. More at www.sae.org.

SOURCE Schaeffler
The Morcha leaders also demanded the formation of a medical board to examine the 115 farmers who were arrested by the police

New Delhi: A delegation of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Tuesday met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and urged him for a judicial enquiry into the alleged "conspiracy" against farmers protesting Centre's farm laws.

The Morcha leaders in a press conference said that the Delhi government informed them that 115 farmers arrested by police were in Tihar jail and they demanded formation of a medical board to examine them.

The leaders said that the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) formed a legal team on Monday and started working on Tuesday to assist those who are missing or lodged in jail.

On Tuesday, the legal team met Kejriwal and other leaders and demanded a judicial probe into the matter. The legal team has given a representation so that everything comes out before the people, the leaders said.

Farmer leader Rajinder Singh Deep Singh Wala said, "Today, we met Kejriwal and other leaders. He provided us record that 115 people are lodged in Tihar Jail. We demanded that the people lodged in jail should not face any difficulty."

Thousands of protesting farmers, who reached ITO from the Ghazipur border, clashed with the police on Republic Day. Many of them, driving tractors, reached the Red Fort and entered the monument. They hoisted flags on the domes and placed a flagstaff at the ramparts of the national monument, where the national flag is unfurled by the prime minister on Independence Day.
(Natural News) The Biden regime, faced with the fear of multiple populist uprisings, has issued an Orwellian terrorism alert suggesting pretty much everyone who is against the status quo is a potential terrorist.

(Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com)

From ABC News, DHS uses federal alert system for 1st time in a year to warn of domestic terrorist threat:

Using a federal system designed to warn all Americans about terrorist threats to the U.S. homeland, the Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning that anger fueled by false narratives, especially unfounded claims about the 2020 presidential election, could lead some inside the country to launch attacks in the coming weeks. Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence, according to a bulletin issued Wednesday through the DHS National Terrorist Advisory System  or NTAS. The system was last used to issue a public warning a year ago, when DHS issued a bulletin over potential retaliation by Iran for the U.S. assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq days earlier. A year before that, DHS issued a bulletin through the same system to highlight the threat from foreign terrorist groups like ISIS or al-Qaida. But over the past year, domestic terrorists motivated by a range of issues, including anger over COVID-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, and police use of force have plotted and on occasion carried out attacks against government facilities, and long-standing racial and ethnic tension  including opposition to immigration  has driven [domestic terrorist] attacks, the bulletin issued Wednesday said.

Note how they even included BLM protesters.

The message is clear: everyone is a potential terrorist  so be very, very afraid and do whatever the regime demands of you.

Of course, the regime terrorizing the public to get them to submit to their tyranny is just fine!

The DHS also encouraged the public to rat on their neighbors and report suspicious activity and threats of violence, including online activity, to local law enforcement, FBI Field Offices, or their local Fusion Center.

If You See Something, Say Something, the alert said (the trademark was included).

ABC News released this propaganda piece on the alert bulletin which was so over the top it would make the editors of Pravda blush:

Our corrupt ruling class are openly labeling the American people as domestic terrorists while simultaneously walling themselves off from the general public.

Pelosi says more security needed for U.S. Congress against 'enemy within' https://t.co/WkFGFP4g2v pic.twitter.com/YaJeapRNz9  Reuters (@Reuters) January 28, 2021

PERMANENT SECURITY FENCING coming to US Capitol. New statement from acting US Capitol Police chief: "Vast improvements to the physical security infrastructure must be made to include permanent fencing" pic.twitter.com/6JMPfcn1E9  Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) January 28, 2021

The New York Times on Wednesday ran an article from former top CIA officer Robert Grenier labeling dissenters as part of a terrorist insurgency and calling for them to be defeated like an enemy army.

Grenier said  without evidence  that groups such as the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, Christian national chauvinists, white supremacists and QAnon fantasists are committed to violent extremism.

Of course, we now know the Proud Boys have been led for the past two years by a prolific FBI informant.

Former DHS head Michael Chertoff also called the Capitol protest domestic terrorism and threw his support behind using sedition and hate speech laws against the American people as part of the regimes new War on Terror.

As we saw on Wednesday, the feds just indicted a Twitter troll over a meme he shared in 2016 and are threatening to throw him in prison for ten years under a rarely-if-ever-used charge of conspiracy to violate rights!

WRITE UP: Feds Indict Pro-Trump Twitter Troll 'Ricky Vaughn' Over Memes Shared During 2016 Election

https://t.co/EnYPSlSDIw  Chris Menahan  (@infolibnews) January 27, 2021

Vindictive prosecutors have already hit multiple people with ridiculous conspiracy charges and the Washington Post is reporting that theyve opened case files on at least 400 potential suspects and expect to bring sedition charges against some very soon.'

If the regime actually wanted to bring about unity and healing they would be showing leniency to these protesters, ratcheting down tensions and instituting populist reforms  instead theyre labeling everyone as domestic terrorists and criminalizing dissent!

Read more at: InformationLiberation.com
Our new Franklin Farms burger patties are delicious and healthy! Theyre 100% plant-based, non-GMO, cholesterol free and are made with tofu/soy to provide nine essential amino acid and nutrients, protein, and a great texture.

Franklin Farms, a division of Keystone Natural Holdings, is introducing a new line of functional food frozen plant-based burgers. A9TM (Alpha Nine Omega) Plant-Based Burgers are a new addition to Franklin Farms plant-based offerings and will be available in the freezer section.

Our new Franklin Farms burger patties are delicious and healthy, said Kenny Sung, CEO, Keystone Natural Holdings. Theyre 100% plant-based, non-GMO, cholesterol free and are made with tofu/soy to provide nine essential amino acid and nutrients, protein, and a great texture. Each easy-to-prepare patty provides 15-17 grams of plant-based protein per 2.5oz patty, more protein content than many other traditional frozen veggie burgers, and are available in a variety of flavor profiles to fit consumers taste while offering an around the world cuisine experience.

Franklin Farms new line of A9 Plant-Based Patties enter the market as more and more consumers are trying plant-based meat and becoming more educated label readers, considering the ingredients and nutrition panel information when making their plant-based meat brand choice. According to MarketsandMarkets, the plant-based meat market was estimated to be valued at USD 4.3 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 8.3 billion by 2025. Numerous reports indicate plant-based meat isnt just for vegetarians. In fact, Nielson research indicates 98 percent of alternative meat buyers also buy meat, and close to 40 percent of plant-based shoppers now consider themselves flexitarian.

We are excited to launch our Franklin Farms A9 Plant-Based Burger line, said Cindy Wong, Vice President of Sales, Franklin Farms. We chose a name that says it all. Named for the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet, alpha and omega, A9 Plant-Based Burgers are made with tofu and packed with the nine essential amino acids our bodies need, from beginning to end. In the past, farmers would use hot irons to brand their cattle with Roman numerals. These days, were sparing the cows and putting our mark on delicious plant-based burgers instead. A9 also represents the beginning of a new kind of plant-based burger and the end of a search, because now consumers can have a satisfying, delicious high-protein, plant-based burger at home.

These delicious plant-based burgers contain no preservatives, artificial colors or flavors and are available in a range of great-tasting global flavors including:



Mediterranean

Sriracha Thai Chili

K.C. (Kansas City) BBQ

Korean Style BBQ

Smoked Salsa Chipotle

Franklin Farms A9 Plant-Based Burger is unique, there is nothing like it in the market offering today, said Wong. Each package contains 4 patties, 2.5oz each in brilliant, colorful boxes that allows retailers to merchandise horizontally on one side, or vertically on the other side. This new product line is now available through our natural food retail partners.

Franklin Farms has more than twenty years expertise in plant-based protein foods and uses only the highest quality ingredients and packaging to provide a healthy selection of plant-based products for any meal of the day. Product offerings including veggie patties, meatless meatballs, tofu, seitan, tempeh, edamame vegan jerky, Planty Good Patties and Ground and Vegan Wraps. Franklin Farms is a proud member of healthy brands under Keystone Natural Holdings, a company devoted to developing authentic, health-conscious and innovative food.

To learn more about Franklin Farms and its plant-based product offerings or to find the nearest retail location, please visit http://www.franklinfarms.com or email for more information.

About Franklin Farms

Franklin Farms began over 20 years ago as a simple mushroom farm in Franklin, Connecticut. Since then, they have been creating exciting yet good-for-you meatless meals from field to table. Great ingredients make great foods which is why Franklin Farms starts with flavor-forward, high-quality plant proteins. They offer a range of health-conscious plant-based protein products that span day parts, meal types, and taste profiles. From end to end, Franklin Farms makes it easy and delicious for consumers to cook with and eat great-tasting plant-based proteins. From our farms to a store near you, find the nearest retail location at: https://www.franklinfarms.com/where-to-buy.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories rose 2.13% to Rs 4523 after the drug major announced the launch of vigabatrin tablets in the US markets.

Vigabatrin tablets are a therapeutic equivalent generic version of Sabril (vigabatrin) tablets approved by the U.S. Food andDrug Administration (USFDA).

Vigabatrin is a prescription medicine used with other treatments in adults and children 2 years of age and older with refractory complex partial seizures (CPS).

Commenting on the launch, Marc Kikuchi, CEO of North America Generics, Dr. Reddy's said, "We are pleased that this product has been designated as a Competitive Generic Therapy (CGT) by the FDA."

According to IQVIA, Sabril brand and generic had US sales of approximately $141 million MAT for the most recent twelve months ending in December 2020. Dr. Reddy's further said vigabatrin tablets are available in 500 mg tablets in a bottle count size of 100.

On a consolidated basis, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories posted a net profit of Rs 19.80 crore in Q3 FY21 as against a net loss of Rs 569.7 crore in Q3 FY20. The drug maker's consolidated revenue increased 12% year on year to Rs 4930 crore in Q3 FY21.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories is an integrated pharmaceutical company.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kyrgyz journalist turned politician Myktybek Arstanbek -- who is known for promoting Islamic values on social media and in public statements -- insists he is not a religious figure.

Arstanbek also points out that his newly established political party Noor (which means "light" in Arabic) has no religious agenda despite its plan to call for a "public discussion" on introducing Shari'a norms in Kyrgyzstan.

Despite his reassurances, many Kyrgyz remain unconvinced as Arstanbek's statements continue to focus on religion and its role in society.

Arstanbek has even courted controversy recently by suggesting that the predominantly Muslim Central Asian country should drop the phrase "secular state" from its constitution.

The remarks were criticized on social media by users who questioned whether Arstanbek and his party were in favor of an Islamic system of government -- an allegation Arstanbek was quick to deny.

"Nothing of the kind, we didn't suggest renaming Kyrgyzstan an 'Islamic state,'" Arstanbek told Kyrgyz media. "We just proposed removing the word "secular" from the constitutionthis won't change the state structure, it will still be a democratic and unitary state."

Arstanbek argues that calling Kyrgyzstan a "secular state" could discriminate against women who wear the Islamic hijab.

"Female students might not be allowed to enter schools with their head scarves under the pretext of secularism," Arstanbek says.

'Religious Values' Party

Arstanbek, 55, first announced his intention to start a political party on January 12, just two days after the Kyrgyz presidential election in which he ran as a candidate but didn't fare well, finishing a distant fourth.

In an Instagram video, Arstanbek said his political goals include the "spreading of Islam in the political [arena] and bringing it to people's attention."

Kyrgyzstan's constitution explicitly bans creating political parties on the "basis or religion" or the "pursuit of political goals through religious associations."

On January 14, Arstanbek called a press conference in Bishkek to announce that his new party had already been registered. He sought to clarify that his party "is based on the principles of democracy."

"We do not say that our party is based on religion," he said. "But we will definitely uphold religious principles."

Arstanbek said that Noor will be the first political movement in Kyrgyzstan to rely on "religious and traditional" values.

"We will call for open public discussions on Shari'a norms and see what happens. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work," Arstanbek said. He pointed that there was "no radicalism whatsoever" in his party's agenda.

Norms or restrictions similar to Shari'a law could be a tough sell in Kyrgyzstan, a country of 6 million that is arguably the least religious country in Central Asia, having been Islamicized much later than its neighbors.

But many believe Kyrgyz society is becoming increasingly religious, with Islamic piety being especially on the rise among young people.

Calling For Shari'a Norms

Islam and its role in society was at the center of Arstanbek's policy programs during the presidential election campaign.

In a televised debate, Arstanbek advocated for introducing Islamic Shari'a laws in Kyrgyzstan, claiming that it would make people more responsible.

He suggested that the country must introduce economic reforms based on the Islamic norms for the economy. In no uncertain terms, Arstanbek said "Kyrgyzstan cannot develop unless it becomes a Muslim state."

He also spoke of the need to "get rid of atheistic obscurantism" in Kyrgyzstan and urged Muslims to vote for him.

"If Muslims want to bring religion into their lives, then today there is an opportunity for that. Today's choices will affect both this life and the afterlife," he said.

Arstanbek received just 1.7 percent of the vote in the January 10 election won by Sadyr Japarov, who got nearly 80 percent of the vote.

Freedom Of Speech Or Recipe For Disaster?

The native of the southwestern Jalal-Abad Province, Arstanbek has been a prominent public figure in Kyrgyzstan since the 1990s when he began his career as a state television journalist.

A road engineer by profession, Arstanbek went on to study political science and taught journalism and theology at various universities in Bishkek.

Since 2011, Arstanbek has also been the head of the Halal Industry Development Committee, a body run by the state-sanctioned Spiritual Administration of Muslims.

A charismatic public speaker, Arstanbek actively uses social media to share his views on religion and other matters.

Kyrgyz experts express divided opinions on Arstanbek's statements.

Some support his views while others say he has the right to freedom of expression regardless of his opinions.

Others are quite alarmed by his religious bent.

"Law enforcement agencies should have paid attention to the [campaign] statements, and give their assessment," says Nurlan Ismailov, a leading Kyrgyz expert on law and theology.

"If religion was involved in politics, then the Central Election Commission was supposed to remove the candidate from the presidential race," Ismailov told RFE/RL.

According to Orozbek Moldaliev, a former head of the State Commission for Religious Affairs, there is a "trend" among some Kyrgyz politicians to exploit religion for political gains and popularity. He warned that mixing religion with politics could be a recipe for disaster.

"It's a dangerous trend. When religion interferes in politics it often leads to conflicts," Moldaliev said. "We must not forget how the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan turned into a terrorist organization. Initially, they also intended to just spread their religion, but over time they became extremists."

The religious affairs commission is aware of the launch of the Noor party and Arstanbek's statements, according to the body's head, Kubanychbek Abakirov.

"Since the party has been registered with the Justice Ministry it means that the party's charter doesn't contradict the constitution. The charter defines the party's goals and ways to achieve them," Abakirov said.

But Abakirov warned that if the party undermines laws by "changing its specified goals or the way of implementing those goals, then the authorities must take action."

During the press conference in Bishkek, Arstanbek and his team announced they would "work out the party's platform and program and present them to the people" at the first party meeting in late January.

The party missed that deadline.

RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service contributed to this report.
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey was chief executive of the FCA at the time of the London Capital and Finance scandal

The author of a damning report into the City watchdog's handling of the London Capital and Finance (LCF) savings scandal has blasted Andrew Bailey's apology to victims.

Dame Elizabeth Gloster, a former judge, told the Treasury select committee that the Bank of England governor's apology issued in December was 'inadequate' and 'didn't really address the problem'.

She added that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Treasury must consider what action to take against Bailey  who was then chief executive of the FCA  and two other officials named in her report.

Gloster was commissioned to complete a review into how the FCA dealt with LCF in the run-up to its collapse in January 2019.

Savers who had bought so-called mini-bonds from LCF were left facing losses of up to 237million when the firm collapsed, amid accusations that the FCA had failed to act on repeated warnings.

Her report held several senior members of the watchdog  including Bailey  responsible for a number failings. Bailey, who took up the top job at the Bank of England last year, was forced into an apology.

He said that he had initiated a reform of the FCA, and added: 'I am sorry those changes did not come in time for LCF bondholders.'

But the chairman of the Treasury select committee, Conservative MP Mel Stride, asked Gloster in a hearing yesterday: 'Shouldn't [Bailey] have been apologising that this all happened in the first place on his watch?

'Most of these mistakes should have been picked up and dealt with at the time, and under his watch he failed to do that.'

Gloster said: 'My report is clear that the issues which he inherited didn't excuse or mitigate the FCA's overall failure to regulate LCF during the period of his guardianship.'

Addressing his apology, she said: 'I don't think it really addresses the problem because the problems which were there weren't so fundamental that they couldn't, in my view, have been fixed by specific focused changes.

'It's not an adequate reason or excuse to say, 'If LCF had only happened a bit later all the changes we put in place would have stopped it from happening'. These were defects which we didn't think were being picked up.'

Gloster said it was not her place to decide what reprimands should be handed out to the executives named in her report. But she added: 'I do think it's a matter to which consideration should be given.'
There is a little more sectarianism in the air. Throughout the period since the Agreement, we have seen that politics here shifts between vicious circles and virtuous circles. For a time, political parties will recognise that their advantage lies in co-operation, magnanimity, the easing of tension. We have seen many examples of that, most starkly the relationship between Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley and the Paisley family's tributes to McGuinness after his death.

I'm thinking also of Peter Robinson's visit to the home of Michaela McAreavey, the daughter of the Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, after she had been murdered in Mauritius. Or the words he used after the murder of Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr in Omagh, about his faith in his Catholic neighbours.

One of the first things attacked when tensions rise is the presumption that people in an opposing camp are no less human than ourselves. That edge is never far away, but at times it is sharper and nastier than the routine default level of acrimony and sarcasm.

These are the times when we are back in the vicious circle, when politicians find that their advantage lies in exacerbating division. It augurs ill when we approach an election with that venom infusing the parties.

We saw in the Assembly election and General Election of 2017 that the DUP and Sinn Fein both thrived on the tension between them. Just a year earlier, the joke was that they were "Marlene", a fusion of Martin and Arlene, too close together for their followers to be at ease with. But as soon as the claws were bared, the votes went up on both sides. This is the tragic state of politics here.

Of course, parties should oppose each other, but the weird thing here is that Sinn Fein and the DUP do not compete against each other for votes. There are few - if any - floating voters in a middle ground between them. But they do compete within their factions against other parties and can lose at their flanks rather than at their frontlines. Brexit has provided the DUP's flank-biting rival, the TUV, with a cause it can capitalise on. Unionism will rally now to press for the scrapping of the Northern Ireland Protocol. It is a good, strong issue for them. Trade is damaged (does anyone know where I can buy lactose-free milk now?).

There is the potential for the DUP to take leadership of a major campaign, or equally to lose standing among the electorate for having enabled this, and cede the leadership to others.

Similarly, Sinn Fein can play this virtuously, say by acknowledging there is a problem and seeking amelioration alongside the DUP, or it can crank up the tension by blaming the DUP. They might find it harder to defend the Protocol in all its facets, given that business is suffering and might suffer more.

It could be tricky for them. Steve Aiken of the Ulster Unionist Party makes the case that, by invoking Article 16, the clause that enables a breach of the Protocol, the Government would initiate a negotiation which local parties would participate in.

But an election is coming next year and parties will be calculating whether it is in their best interests to save the economy, or damage the other side.

The best way to damage the DUP is to fragment unionism; set the parties against each other. Politics is cynical and Jim Allister's demand for a unionist revolt against the Protocol must be lifting the hearts of republicans.

They will love this, for if unionism fragments over the Protocol, Sinn Fein will likely be the biggest party and, thanks to modifications in the Good Friday Agreement at St Andrews, will appoint the next First Minister.

Indeed, the prospect of that happening might be the countervail against the fragmentation of unionism. The DUP argument will be that if you vote TUV, or even Alliance, you will get Sinn Fein.

Sinn Fein, on its flank, pulls back straying voters by reinforcing the view that the DUP is an evil sectarian force that has to be held in check. It thereby gains by every tactless remark by a party member: Arlene using the metaphor of feeding a crocodile for conceding arguments to Sinn Fein, for instance. When she was asked by a reporter to say something about Michelle O'Neill, she said she was "blonde".

When the virtuous circle is in play, remarks like these can be overlooked and are less likely to be made. When the vicious circle is in play, they are ammunition.

Ian Paisley got hammered for using the phrase "the Catholic IRA". He was speaking about sectarianism, about attacks on Protestants. The IRA was, indeed, sectarian, often deliberately killing Protestants for no other reason than that they were Protestant. And the sect implied by that word "sectarian" is the Catholic cultural context out of which the movement arose.

Academics, writers and journalists frequently refer to the "Catholic community" and don't get pounced on. The usage is not a comment on faith, or theology. It is a flawed and inadequate term for its purpose, but so are all the others: "nationalist", "republican", "fenian", "taig".

If you don't acknowledge that the IRA came out of a Catholic community, then you can't indict them of sectarianism and you would have to extend the same latitude to the loyalists.

A growing number of people here are determined to dissociate themselves from sectarianism and not to be triggered into predictable factional responses. That is a problem for the two big parties, which thrive on such tensions.

But it is also a problem for the parties like Alliance and the Greens, Ulster Unionists and SDLP, all of which grow at times when the virtuous circle is in play.

What would Alliance do, for instance, if some idiot Secretary of State (and we have had a few) was to call a border poll? How will the SDLP distinguish itself from Sinn Fein's position on the Protocol.

What will the Ulster Unionists do to carry forward the credit it has taken for managing the Covid crisis once it has passed? They can't stoke up sectarian arguments to their advantage, because the gains would only go to the big hitters anyway.

How do they put us back on a virtuous circle? I would think they can only do it by pulling together, providing better ideas for meeting the challenge of the Protocol, for that will be the major irritant in our politics in the year, perhaps years, ahead.

For showing us that they are the grown-ups in the room.
Count it as a silver lining of the coronavirus pandemic: Michigan -- and most of the United States --- is experiencing one of its lightest influenza seasons on record.

How light?

A year ago, influenza was deemed widespread in Michigan by the federal Centers of Disease Control, and a survey of 34 Michigan health-care officers found a collective 321 outpatient visits for flu-like symptoms during the third week of January.

The third week of January 2021? Twenty-four office visits for flu-link symptoms.

Hospitalizations also are down dramatically. A survey of heath-care systems in five Michigan counties has reported only six influenza-related hospitalizations total since Oct. 1. By the same time last year, the five counties had 318 hospitalizations involving confirmed flu cases, according to the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Project.

In Grand Rapids, Spectrum Health has yet to have a patient with a positive influenza test this season, said Dr. Liam Sullivan, a Spectrum physician who specializes in infectious disease.

And the number of tests were doing this year is quite a bit higher since doctors also are screening for COVID-19, Sullivan said.

Dr. Frank Rosenblat, an infectious disease specialist for McLaren Health Care in Oakland County, reports a similar situation on his side of the state.

Its really astounding how limited flu illness has been this year, Rosenblat said.

And Michigan isnt an outlier, Rosenblat said, pointing to the online flu map at the federal for Centers of Disease Control website, which tracks influenza rates across the country. Almost the whole map is green, which means theres minimal flu activity, he said.

Sullivan and Rosenblat said that health-care providers are confident this isnt a case where influenza cases are being misdiagnosed as COVID-19. Thats because health-care providers have been aggressive about testing, and to be counted as a confirmed COVID-19 case, the patient has to have a positive coronavirus test. The two doctors said that when patients present with symptoms that could be either flu or COVID, lab tests are ordered to check for both.

We are very good about testing for both of them, and and we have a panel that includes all the circulating flu viruses and coronavirus on it, Sullivan said. And were not seeing influenza right now.

As to why influenza cases are down so much this year, Sullivan and Rosenblat cite a number of reasons, all related to COVID-19 mitigation strategies.

A big factor, they say, is that most schools have been closed. Usually, small children act as a vector for flu and bring it back to their households, and thats not happening this year, Rosenblat said. Also, with so many people working at home, individuals are much less likely to catch flu at the office.

Moreover, the standard measures that many people are taking to prevent coronavirus -- masking, social distancing and washing their hands frequently -- work even better against influenza, which is a less contagious disease than COVID-19.

It also helps that more people have gotten flu shots this flu season, and Rosenblat said that its possible that this seasons vaccine could be more effective.

We assume a lot of (the decline in flu) is because of social distancing and working and going to school remotely and all of that, Rosenblat said. But we cant totally discount the possibility that maybe we just had a really good year in terms of the flu vaccine, and thats helping with everything.

In fact, Rosenblat and Sullivan still strongly urge people to get a flu vaccine, saying its still possible for flu to surge.

Influenza is weird, Sullivan said. H1N1 started in May. Flu seasons are unpredictable, and surges can start at any time. So definitely, get your flu shot.

Read more on MLive:

Restaurants reopen today for indoor dining  here are Michigans new rules

Double masking as coronavirus variants spread, where to find the right masks

9% of Michigan adults vaccinated against COVID-19 so far; see numbers in your county
ST. LOUIS  With only 20 left in the wilde, the American red wolf is getting help from the Saint Louis Zoo.

Responding to an urgent call to keep this species from going extinct, the zoo is transforming part of its land in Franklin County, Missouri, 40 miles southwest of St. Louis into a conservation habitat where 24 American red wolves will live and breed in a private, protected natural setting.

The zoo is developing about 20 acres of its 355-acre property known as the Saint Louis Zoo Sears Lehmann, Jr. Wildlife Reserve, with separately secured habitats for 12 mating pairs of wolves. The wolves will come from other conservation organizations in 2022.

The campus will not be open to visitors, as the zoo wants the wolves to learn natural survival skills without much human interaction in the secured facility.

The few remaining wild American red wolves are secretive, elusive animals active after dusk, but many cannot avoid the daytime actions of humans that are limiting their natural range. They typically have one breeding pair in each close-knit pack.

The wild population has been decimated, with the majority of American red wolf deaths caused by humans, including illegal hunting, vehicle strikes and habitat loss.

The zoo is collaborating on this critical conservation project with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which is responsible for managing the wild American red wolf population and reintroduction efforts in the eastern U.S., as well as with the Conservation Centers for Species Survival (C2S2), a science-based global initiative taking collective action to save animals from extinction.

American red wolves are key species, said Jeffrey Bonner, Ph.D., Dana Brown President and CEO, Saint Louis Zoo. Once populations are restored, they should create a balanced natural environment, fulfilling their predator-related roles to maintain stability within the ecosystem.

The St. Louis region has a rich history in wolf conservation lead by the Endangered Wolf Center located in Eureka, Missouri. After retiring as director of the Saint Louis Zoo in 1970, Marlin Perkins and his wife, Carol, turned their attention toward wolf conservation. In 1971, they joined with a group of individuals to found the Endangered Wolf Center in an effort to address the serious plight of wolves at risk of extinction. Today, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited Endangered Wolf Center is a global leader in preserving and protecting several endangered wild canid species, including the American red wolf.

As the zoo plans its entry into the effort to save American red wolves from extinction, the Endangered Wolf Center has shared its 50 years of expertise and advice related to the location and construction of the zoos new wolf habitats.

We are absolutely thrilled that the Saint Louis Zoo is joining the pack to save the American red wolf, said Virginia Busch, CEO, Endangered Wolf Center. We look forward to expanding our collaboration with the Zoo in the future.

The quick work of the Saint Louis Zoo to answer the call to action for this North American species is crucial for its survival, said Angelina Casillas, Programs Coordinator, C2S2. American red wolves are critically endangered, and this long-term commitment by the Saint Louis Zoo will be key to growing the population in zoos and restoring a sustainable, healthy population to the wild.

The Saint Louis Zoo American red wolf conservation and recovery facility is supported by private donations from Kevin Beckmann and an anonymous donor and received USFWS Recovery Challenge grant funding through C2S2.

The zoos 12 habitats will provide roughly 25 percent of the spaces needed within the American Red Wolf Species Survival Plan (SSP) of the AZA to double the population in zoos to its optimal size. This SSP manages the population of American red wolves in human care and works to protect the species in the wild. In addition to the SSP program, American red wolves are one of the species in AZAs Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE). Through SAFE, the entire AZA-accredited zoo and aquarium community focuses its conservation science, wildlife expertise, and outreach to millions of annual visitors on saving species in the wild.

The Saint Louis Zoo Sears Lehmann, Jr. Wildlife Reserve is a 355-acre natural area located 40 miles southwest of St. Louis in Franklin County. In 1993, the property was donated to the Zoo by Peggy Lehmann of St. Louis in honor of her late husband, Sears Lehmann, Jr. She envisioned the property as an area for wildlife and as a future location where the Zoo might someday expand its conservation and animal science programs.

For more information, visit stlzoo.org.
In the aftermath of Mondays coup in Myanmar, Facebook has banned the account of a prominent TV station associated with the countrys military. According to The Wall Street Journal, the page had been active since at least early 2020. During that time, it posted content promoting the countrys army and amassed a following of more than 33,000 people. Facebook removed the account after it was brought to the companys attention by The WSJ.

The social media giant first banned the Myawaddy station in 2018 when it took action against accounts and pages associated with prominent Myanmar military officials, including that of Min Aung Hlaing, the general who led Mondays coup. A spokesperson for Facebook told The WSJ the company is closely monitoring political events in Myanmar as they unfold, and working to stop misinformation and content that could incite further tensions. The company said it is also removing posts that attempt to delegitimize the November election, which the party of deposed elected leader Aung San Suu Kyis won decisively, claiming 346 out of the 476 available seats in parliament.

The ban is the latest episode in Facebooks complicated history and relationship with Myanmar. Facebook entered the country in 2010 when the previous military government started to ease internet restrictions. Before it pulled its Free Basics internet service from the country, it helped many in Myanmar access the internet for the time ever.

In fact, for many people in the country, Facebook is the internet. Of the more than 50 million people who live in the Southeast Asian country, approximately 27 million are Facebook users. At the same time, its social network played a role in spreading misinformation that has fueled violence in the country over the past few years. At one point the company was even accused of censoring information related to the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people.
Kim Kardashian West and Kanye Wests relationship has been in jeopardy for some time. For weeks, reports have been claiming that Kim has been on the verge of divorcing Kanye. But now, it seems that the mother of four may be reconsidering that decision.

Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West kiss | Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

What happened between Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West?

As Kim and Kanye are both extremely public people, the world pretty much got to watch the demise of the relationship in real time. The public drama all started when Kanye revealed that he and Kim almost aborted their oldest daughter, North. The next day, Kanye started a Twitter tirade against Kim.

Kim tried to bring a doctor to lock me up with a doctor, he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. If I get locked up like Mandela Yall will know why.

Kim was trying to fly to Wyoming with a doctor to lock me up like on the movie Get Out because I cried about saving my daughters life yesterday, he continued.

He also called out Kris Jenner and revealed that he had been trying to divorce Kim for a while.

I been trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meek at the [Waldorf] for prison reform, he wrote.

After things died down a bit, Kim took to her Instagram story to remind fans that Kanye has bipolar disorder and to ask people to be empathetic to their family.

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RELATED: Kim Kardashian West Spotted Without Her Wedding Ring Amid Divorce Rumors

Kim and Kanyes rumored divorce

Last month, news broke that Kim and Kanye were trying to salvage their relationship.

Kim and Kanye are in counseling and exploring their options, a source recently told People. They have been working on their marriage for a long time, but no decision has been made.

The counseling, unfortunately, wasnt working and sources reported that Kim was moving toward divorcing Kanye.

He knows that shes done, a source told the outlet of Kanye. She has had enough, and she told him that she wants some space to figure out her future.

Hes OK, the source continued. Hes sad, but OK. He knows the inevitable will happen, and he knows that its coming soon.

Is Kim Kardashian West changing her mind?

Though Kim and Kanye are still living apart, with Kim in California and Kanye in Wyoming, they are communicating more.

Kim and Kanye have been spending more time communicating on the phone, a source told HollywoodLife. It started about 3 or 4 weeks ago and its much better than it was between them, but Kim still needs more. Shes being patient though because she does feel Kanye is starting to try.

For Kim, keeping her family together is important.

She wants to have a family, the source continued. Her whole plan was to have children and have a family. Kim was so close to her dad and its devastating for her that her kids arent with their father which is why shes still trying.

So, for the sake of her children, Kim is reportedly trying to work on things with Kanye.

Her dad is heavily her mind when it comes to this, the source said. This is not easy for Kim to have her childrens father so far away, but shes doing everything she can do right now. Things are not good between them, but they are better.
[February 02, 2021] Thoma Bravo to Expand Presence with Launch of Miami Office

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Thoma Bravo, one of the largest private equity investment firms focused on the software and technology-enabled services sector, today announced that it will open an office in Miami, Florida in the second half of 2021. The firm's current San Francisco and Chicago offices have grown significantly in recent years, and Thoma Bravo remains committed to continuing to grow its already strong presence in these key business markets. Partner Chip Virnig and other existing members of the Thoma Bravo team will relocate to the Miami region to extend the firm's business and brand, and the firm is excited to also grow its Miami presence through recruiting new and diverse talent in the region. With its expansion into Miami, Thoma Bravo expects to build on its successful track record of partnering with the existing management teams o fast-growing, innovative software companies and tap into the region's rich and growing community of tech entrepreneurs.



"At Thoma Bravo, we are always looking forward. Building on our firm's recent success, including the largest fundraise in Thoma Bravo's history and continued growth across our portfolio, we are excited to establish a presence in Miami," said Orlando Bravo, Founder and a Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo. "The office will not only reinforce our presence in the U.S., but will also serve as the firm's first foothold on the East Coast, providing a gateway to other national and global markets." "We are thrilled to expand our business to this vibrant city as it rapidly evolves into a major financial and technology hub," said Chip Virnig, a Partner at Thoma Bravo. "We are proud to join Miami's flourishing investment community and look forward to further driving innovation and growth in the city."

About Thoma Bravo Thoma Bravo is one of the largest and most successful private equity firms focused on the software and technology-enabled services sectors. With more than $73 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2020, Thoma Bravo partners with a company's management team to implement operating best practices, invest in growth initiatives and make accretive acquisitions intended to accelerate revenue and earnings, with the goal of increasing the value of the business. The firm has offices in San Francisco and Chicago, with a planned expansion to Miami in the second half of 2021. For more information, visit thomabravo.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thoma-bravo-to-expand-presence-with-launch-of-miami-office-301219626.html SOURCE Thoma Bravo

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STATEWIDE, Miss. (WTVA) -- During the pandemic, people or school students working from home in some counties have struggled with a lack of broadband internet.

The Federal Communications Commission has opened up money to help get coverage to those areas.

A computer keyboard. 02-01-2021. A computer keyboard. 02-01-2021.

One company receiving funds is offering satellite internet service and has the attention of one public service commissioner.

Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley announced on Facebook he sent a letter to SpaceX/Starlink addressing the $499 fee the company is wanting to charge new customers.

Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX.

SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, recently won approval for $44,000,000 (million) in federal funding to bring its services to Mississippi.

The company now needs approval from state leaders before it can get that money. Presley is questioning SpaceX, saying he thinks the upfront fee is simply not feasible for people in Mississippi. He gave a quote listed below:

Starlink applied for and received $44 million from the FCC in free money to provide broadband access in Mississippi. The Public Service Commission must give final approval on these projects under both state and federal law. It has been widely publicized that Starlink may charge $499 just for equipment to even be able to receive their service. The FCC has been very clear that those who win the grants awards cannot overcharge for service. I feel that asking a rural Mississippian $499 in upfront equipment cost violates the purpose of the federal funds and creates a roadblock to internet access. Ive asked Starlink to present a plan to me that would take away this $499 upfront fee.

Silas McDowell of Columbus uses the internet regularly for work, and his son uses it for video-gaming. He said the price is too high.

Yeah, thats steep, McDowell said. I dont think a lot of folks will be willing to pay that.

However, he added if SpaceX can offer something to justify that money, he might reconsider.

Of course, the other question is whats the monthly service gonna be, or the monthly rates gonna be after that initial 500-dollar cost, McDowell said.

Crystal Moore of Houston agreed that people in Mississippi would likely not pay for the services.

I think thats extremely high, Moore said. People are working hard for their money to spend five hundred dollars for their internet service, I mean thats ridiculous.

WTVA reached out to SpaceX on Monday for comment, but has not heard back yet.
Enthiran: Filmmaker Shankar Denies Reports Of Non-Bailable Warrant Against Him For Evading Court Summons

Filmmaker Shankar on Monday clarified that claims of a non-bailable warrant issued against him are false in a case of copyright violation filed against his decade-old film Enthiran. Earlier reports claimed that the filmmaker has been paying no heed to court summons in the case and therefore a Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Chennai issued a warrant against him.

Releasing a statement on the matter Shakar said, My advocate Mr Sai Kumaran has approached the Honble court today and brought this to the Courts attention. The Learned Judge was pleased to immediately confirm that no warrant has been issued against me. The reference to any warrant has apparently occurred due to a glitch in the online court reporting, which is presently being corrected.

The copyright violation case in question had been filed by writer Arur Tamilnandan who claims that Enthiran was lifted from his story Jugiba which was first published in a magazine back in 1996 and was later republished in 2007.

Enthiran starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai released in 2010 and went on to become the highest grossing film in the country at the time. The movie was also dubbed in Hindi and Telugu and released as Robot and Robo respectively.


After a Trump appointed judge, Drew Tipton, ruled against a 100-day suspension, which was ordered by US President Joe Biden, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be preparing to begin with the deportations of asylum seekers. This comes as a shot by a Trump loyalist to hamper the agenda of Bidens administration. Terming this as a slap in the face, Guerline Jozef, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said that the deportation flight to Haiti is on the first day of Black history month, reports The Guardian.

'Slap in the face'

This further raises a question on the human rights activists who said that Ice agents who have been accused of systematic abuse of detainees might resist the administrations effort to reform the agency. As per the activists, 23 Africans will be facing deportation from an Ice holding facility in Alexandria, Louisiana. These include 11 Angolans, 7 Cameroonians, 6 Congolese. There are also 3 more people of unknown nationalities.

Read: Indian-origin Man Appointed Global Coordinator For US President's Malaria Initiative

According to the reports by The Guardian, a Human Rights Watch researcher and advocate, Lauren Seibert said that Human Rights Watch has been documenting cases of deportees facing imprisonment, abuse, criminal prosecution and threats after various Cameroonians were denied asylum in the US and then deported. She also said that the families have also been harassed and threatened. The current administration argued in court filings and said that the agreement is unenforceable because an outgoing administration cannot contract away that power for an incoming administration.

Read: US, NATO Allies 'strongly Condemn' Continued Violence By Taliban In Afghanistan

On Bidens first day, David Pekoske, the acting Homeland Security secretary, signed a memo which directed the immigration authorities to focus on national security and public safety threats. It also apprehended anyone entering the US illegally. The 100-day moratorium applied to almost anyone who entered the US without authorization before November.

Read: US Condemns Russias 'harsh Tactics' As Protesters Demand Navalny's Release

Also Read: US 'alarmed' By Military Coup In Myanmar, Says 'will Take Action If Steps Not Reversed'

(Image Credits: AP)
A Congolese painter whose art reflects how globalization and consumerism have transformed African society. A Nigerian-American filmmaker whose work focuses on cultures and experiences of Africans and the diaspora. A visual activist from Texas who forces her viewers to confront issues that are deemed difficult to tackle.

These are among the 16 artists selected for the 2021 residency at Black Rock Senegal, the seaside studio in the West African capital city of Dakar belonging to Kehinde Wiley, the painter best known for his portrait of former President Barack Obama.

The artists, who will spend several weeks at the lavish studio along a volcanic-rock-lined shore, express themselves in a variety of formats and come from across the globe. But many in this years group share Wileys passion for using art to explore social change.

His most recent works include the stained glass fresco of breakdancers in the Moynihan Train Hall and his Rumors of War statue in Richmond, Va.  a Black man with ponytailed dreadlocks on horseback in the style of monuments to Confederate war generals. Wiley is not part of the Black Rock selection committee, which aims to consider the class of artists as a whole and tries to pick a diverse group of residents, including personal identities and nationalities and the medium they work in.
We are well positioned to help save a hundred hotels while saving a few thousand jobs in the process.

Due to the effects of Covid-19, it's estimated that roughly 4,000 U.S. hotels in the United States cannot keep up with its mortgage payments, and delinquent mortgage accounts can easily pave the way to foreclosure.

A report sent to Congress in August 2020 showed that 23.4% of hotel properties were 30 days or more delinquent on their outstanding mortgages. Failure to make mortgage obligations eventually leads to hotel foreclosure and closures. Employees, syndicators, hotel owners, investors, and banks will all lose. Today, banks are alarmed and concerned about the growing loan loss reserves from their portfolio of hospitality clients due to the Covid-19 effect.

Due to this urgent situation, a private equity firm launched HotelRescueCapital.com/green as a way to help hotel owners to not lose their hotels to foreclosure.

"Doing a shortsale, or handing over the keys to the bank are not good solutions. In that scenario, the owner loses the hotel and his/her reputation with investors, syndicators, and bankers. In addition, the employees of a foreclosed hotel will also lose their jobs," says Lorentine Green, Acquisition Specialist of HotelRescueCapital.com/l-green. "But by infusing cash (or rescue capital) into struggling hotels, we are providing a way out for these hotels to survive the downturn."

The HotelRescueCapital.com's private equity firm and hotel operator have never lost a hotel in over 30 years. They have delivered higher RevPAR versus our competition through 9/11, recession, and other economic and political upheavals. Our group and partners manage nearly $2 billion worth of hotels across brands such as Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott, across the U.S. They are "turnaround" specialists, saving hotels from foreclosure and hotel owners from bankruptcy long before Covid-19. Per Lorentine, "We are well positioned to help save a hundred hotels while saving a few thousand jobs in the process."

https://hotelrescuecapital.com/l-green

Ghislaine Maxwell has griped about her prison conditions once again in a new court filing demanding she be granted access to her laptop because the computers at the jail are 'very slow.'

The suspected child sex trafficker and former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, as she awaits trial.

Currently, Maxwell is allowed to use her laptop on weekdays only to review court material, and must resort to using the computers at the prison on holidays and weekends.

In a recent letter to the federal court obtained by DailyMail.com, attorney Bobbi Sternheim pushed back against the restriction, claiming the computers at the facility have made it difficult for Maxwell to view documents and properly prepare her for her defense.

The filing also claimed prison guards have 'psychologically and physically abused' Maxwell and that her complaints had been met with 'reprisals'.

Jeffrey Epstein's alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell is demanding she be granted access to her laptop on holidays and weekends, claiming the computers inside the prison are 'very slow', according to new a court filing

The 59-year-old British socialite (pictured in a court sketch last year) was arrested last July on child sex trafficking charges and has remained jailed on grounds she might flee

Sternheim, who has represented death row inmates in the past, claimed Maxwell has been forced to use 'utterly inadequate' prison computers that allegedly can't read certain files and shut down every two hours.

'In addition, the power of the central processing unit of the MDC computer is very slow. Uploading videos can take up to a half hour, time that cannot be used to review other documents,' the letter stated.

'Hard drives provided by the government have been mishandled by MDC staff (dropped on the floor and slammed on a cart) causing them to become degraded and unstable and to randomly shut down.

'The time, resources and funds expended on problems caused by the electronic discovery and the computers is unnecessary, wasteful, and frustrating'.

Maxwell, 59, was arrested last July on sex trafficking charges and has remained jailed on grounds she might flee.

She has pleaded not guilty to recruiting three teenage girls, including a 14-year-old, for Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to 1997. The indictment alleged she sometimes joined in the abuse.

The filing is the latest complaint about Maxwell's conditions inside the Metropolitan Detention Center (pictured) where she will remain until trial

The dispute is the latest complaint about Maxwell's conditions inside the MDC, where attorneys have claimed she has been mistreated.

Sterneheim wrote that the laptop issue was far from the only problem Maxwell was having inside the prison.

'Other than calls with family or communication with counsel, Ms Maxwell has no human contact except with guards who wield power over her, overmanage her, and have psychologically and physically abused her,' the attorney wrote.

'And complaints regarding mistreatment by guards have led to reprisals against Ms Maxwell'.

No details about what the nature of the abuse or the reprisals was given, though Maxwell's lawyers have previously complained about her being searched with a flashlight every two hours.

Officials from the prison and prosecutors however have painted a very different picture and said that Maxwell is getting more access to her laptop and her lawyers than any other prisoner.

Prosecutors in a letter said that after complaints from Maxwell's attorneys, lawyers for the US government 'hand delivered' the laptop to the MDC 'for the defendant's exclusive use'.

Ghislaine was a wealthy socialite, moving in elite circles until she virtually disappeared from public view in 2016 after Virginia Roberts - Epstein's main accuser - filed a lawsuit against her (pictured, Epstein and Ghislaine in New York in 2015)

They also said the 13 hours a day Maxwell gets to review trial materials on a laptop computer is more time than any other prisoner is allotted.

The filing comes a week after Maxwell sought to have the charges against her dropped, claiming the indictment against her was obtained unjustly and doesn't allege crimes specific enough to bring before a jury.

Defense lawyers listed first among 12 separate arguments attacking the indictment that a non-prosecution deal Epstein reached with the federal government a dozen years ago should shield Maxwell from prosecution too.

The agreement sought to protect Epstein and those around him, but Maxwell was not identified by name in the document that was signed as Epstein agreed to plead guilty to state charges in Florida that forced him to register as a sex offender afterward.

Lawyers for Epstein had planned to argue that the deal with federal prosecutors in Florida in 2008 protected him against sex trafficking charges lodged against him in July 2019 in New York City.

Manhattan federal prosecutors maintained they could proceed against Epstein or those who worked for him regardless. Epstein killed himself at a Manhattan federal lockup a month after his arrest.

Maxwell's trial is scheduled for July. In a recent bail application, Maxwell revealed that she had set aside $7.67million to be spent on lawyers out of $22.5million in assets belonging to herself and her husband.

In the event Maxwell's lawyers can't force a dismissal of the charges against her, they also made requests that would reduce the number of charges she faces.

Among the more unusual filings was a claim that the indictment should be thrown out because it was obtained from a grand jury seated outside New York City in White Plains, where the lawyers said Black and Hispanic grand jurors would have been underrepresented.

They said the coronavirus outbreak was used as an excuse to seat the grand jury outside of New York City when the pandemic was killing thousands of city residents. In a footnote, they wrote: 'The fact that Ms. Maxwell herself is neither Black nor Hispanic does not deprive of her of standing to raise this challenge.'

They said the fact that a Manhattan grand jury convened as early as June 25 showed there was no reason for prosecutors not to wait 'other than a publicity-driven desire to arrest Ms. Maxwell on the anniversary of the Epstein indictment.'

The lawyers also asked that Maxwell be tried separately on charges that she committed perjury when she testified in a civil case brought by one of Epstein's accusers. They said prosecutors were using those charges improperly as a way to introduce evidence from after the 1990s.
Aung San Suu Kyi defended Myanmars generals against genocide charges at The Hague. She praised soldiers as they unleashed artillery against ethnic minority settlements. She took only modest steps toward democratic changes that would chip away at the armys political power.

It wasnt enough.

Myanmars military seized power in a coup, detaining Ms Suu Kyi, elected ministers from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and others in a predawn raid.

Though condemned internationally for defending the military and its campaign against the Rohingya minority, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who spent 15 years under house arrest until 2010 now finds herself again at the generals mercy.

The coup underscored the fragility of Myanmars decade-old, quasi-democratic transition. Many assumed that despite its imperfections, Myanmars political evolution would continue with Ms Suu Kyi as head of the civilian government and with entrenched powers for the military, led by Min Aung Hlaing. But the military was never comfortable with its enduring unpopularity and Ms Suu Kyis godlike status among ordinary Myanmar people, analysts said, despite its role in engineering the countrys opening after half a century of isolationist rule.

Read More

Speaking to reporters in Naypyidaw, the capital, NLD chairman and Ms Suu Kyi aide Win Htein called on people to resist the coup in the same nonviolent way of resistance that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been promoting her entire life, using her honorific.

The events threaten to destabilise the region, where armed ethnic conflicts plague Myanmars borders with China and Bangladesh. And they pose a challenge for President Joe Biden, whose foreign policy team includes Obama administration figures who were involved in and celebrated Myanmars once-hopeful democratic awakening. There is a lot of bad blood between the commander in chief and Aung San Suu Kyi. It is very personal between the two of them, said Derek Mitchell, former US ambassador to Myanmar and president of the National Democratic Institute. A regression like this is a terrible signal.

Residents in Naypyidaw awoke yesterday to a communications blackout, with calls failing to connect and applications that use mobile internet down. State-run Myanmar Radio and Television said in a Facebook post that it was unable to broadcast due to communication problems. Websites were also down; the internet monitoring service Netblocks said national connectivity had fallen to 75pc of normal levels. Elected NLD lawmakers were barricaded in their guesthouses, guarded by soldiers.

When communications were restored seven hours later, photos and videos showed soldiers in camouflage fatigues and armed with automatic weapons standing in the roads, turning back cars. Some of the highways that run through the capital were blocked by military trucks and barbed-wire barricades.

In Yangon, the largest city, residents rushed to buy groceries. Hundreds headed to banks to withdraw cash, reminiscent of the junta era when people would stuff wads of cash in pillowcases or under floorboards. Others removed the ubiquitous red-and-yellow flags of the NLD, which reappeared in recent years after decades as a banned symbol of resistance. Military supporters roamed the streets, cheering, some armed with knives.

A 23-year-old, who declined to give his name for safety fears, said he was disgusted by the military. When heard this news this morning, I could not believe they did it, he said. When I woke up, I cried.

The round-up of NLD figures, which party spokesman Myo Nyunt said happened at gunpoint, brought days of tensions to a head just hours before the newly elected parliament was scheduled to sit.

The party won November elections in a landslide, capturing 396 out of 476 seats in the countrys second democratic vote since the end of direct military rule. The militarys proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, won only 33 seats.

The military and its proxy have since been alleging voter fraud, claims the election commission dismissed as baseless. The military said in a broadcast that the politicians were detained in response to alleged fraud and it now wants to hold fresh elections after reconfiguring the current NLD-dominated election commission.

Regardless of the vote, the military, known as the Tatmadaw, was still guaranteed control of key ministries and a quarter of parliamentary seats under the junta-drafted constitution. But the army was enraged that Ms Suu Kyi remained beloved by voters despite her governments shortcoming, including a battered economy.

Read More

 Washington Post

Flowers and ornamental trees sourced from China are overwhelming Vietnamese flowers at traditional and online markets. Japanese orchids are selling like hotcakes despite high prices.

Orchids

Zing reported that Vietnamese flowers were losing ground to Chinese imports which are diverse in type and cheap.

Chinese flowers are available at all the largest flower markets, such as Hoang Hoa Tham, Quang An and Quang Ba, and floral shops in Hanoi. They are also offered on social networks and attract buyers thanks to the low prices.

A branch of dia lan (Cymbidium hybrid) sourced from Da Lat, Vietnam is sold at VND300,000-400,000, while a branch of Sa Pas dial an is priced at VND500,000-600,000. Meanwhile, Chinese importers are sold at just VND50,000-150,000.

Luxury products can be found at a flower shop in HCM City. The shop is selling lan ho diep (Phalaenopsis sp), imported from Japan, at VND1 million per branch. The representative of the shop said the flowers are selling well, though they are very expensive.

In addition to Japanese orchids, there are also imports from Taiwan and China, or Taiwanese flowers grown in Vietnam. They are sold at VND350,000-500,000 per branch, or 50 percent cheaper than Japanese. Vietnams land ho diep is selling at VND200,000-300,000.

lan Tran Mong (cymbidium lowianum) is surprisingly selling at low prices of VND20,000-60,000 per branch with the length of up to one meter. This is a very expensive orchid, valued from several millions of dong to tens of millions of dong for each bunch of flowers.

Peach blossom

Hundreds of types of flowers, including peach blossoms, are available at the Quang An Night Market in Hanoi.

Peach tree sellers said the market is busier this year than last year, and the selling prices are higher.

A small peach tree is priced at VND80,000-100,000, while a medium-size is VND250,000-300,000 and a large one VND2-4 million.

While the trading of planted forest peach trees is stuck because of the requirement on traceability, people are rushing to buy plum blossom for decoration. A small plum tree has the price of VND600,000, while a large one is VND1-3 million.

Australian crab price halved

Flowers and ornamental trees sourced from China are overwhelming Vietnamese flowers at traditional and online markets. Japanese orchids are selling like hotcakes despite high prices.

Tasmania crab appeared in Vietnam for the first time in 2017. It was very expensive, priced at VND6-7.5 million per kilogram, or triple Alaska crab. The smallest Tasmania crab weighed 3 kilogram, valued at VND20 million.

But the price is just 50 percent this year, at VND3-4 million per kilogram (2.5-7 kilogram per crab). In order to enjoy the specialty, wealthy people have to pay no less than VND10 million for each crab.

Dragon fruit prices fall

Farmers in Long An province, the dragon fruit metropolis of Mekong Delta, where there are 12,000 hectares of growing area, are concerned as the prices have fallen sharply compared to the year before.

Tien Phong reported that the price was VND20,000-30,000 per kilogram the same time last year, but the price is just half this year.

Fruit prices in Mekong Delta drop

Nguoi Lao Dong reported that unlike previous years, the sale of specialty fruits in Mekong Delta is unsatisfactory this Tet sale season. The supply is plentiful, but the purchasing power is very weak.

First-class Lo Ren star apple is selling at VND32,000 per kilogram, red flesh pomelo VND37,000, watermelon VND6,000-10,000 per kilogram and dragon fruit VND10,000-15,000.

Air ticket prices fall

Air tickets for flights on the backbone route of HCM City  Hanoi have decreased sharply after many Covid-19 infection cases in the community were discovered in northern provinces.

According to Zing, the return tickets on HCM City  Hanoi route with departure on February 10 and return on February 16 have become record cheap. The passengers booking tickets in late December 2020 had to pay VND2 million more per ticket than now.

Since many families in Hanoi chose to spend Tet holiday on Phu Quoc Island, air tickets from Hanoi to Phu Quoc are even more expensive than tickets from HCM City to Hanoi.

Carp-shaped floating cake for worship. of Kitchen Gods

Instead of worshipping Ong Cong Ong Tao (Kitchen Gods) with real fish or paper fish, many Hanoians have decided to worship floating cakes with carp shape with a green bean filling.

Carp-shaped floating cake is made of glutinous rice flour and natural vegetables and fruits to create colors.

We choose to worship with floating cakes or cakes made of glutinous rice. It is more convenient. We live in an apartment and it would be dangerous if burning the offering, Thuy, a woman in Hanoi, explained.

Hanh Nguyen

Sa Dec Flower Village attracts tourists before Tet Two weeks before the Lunar New Year (Tet holiday), Sa Dec flower village in Dong Thap Province has become a tourist hotspot.
Well-heeled neighbours of TV chef Jamie Oliver have called for his support in halting a controversial housing plan they fear will blight their 'chocolate-box' village.

The celebrity chef, 45, lives with his wife Jools, 46, and their five children in a 6million, six-bedroom farmhouse, in the picture-perfect village of Finchingfield, Essex.

Idyllic Finchingfield, with a population of fewer than 1,500 people, is the UK's most-photographed village, where the average house price is around 425,000.

Idyllic Finchingfield, with a population of fewer than 1,500 people, and just 300 houses, is the UK's most-photographed village, where the average house price is around 425,000

The celebrity chef, 45, lives with his wife Jools, 46, and their five children in a 6million, six-bedroom farmhouse (pictured), in the picture-perfect village of Finchingfield, Essex

Concerned residents fear the image of their quaint home could be ruined by plans to build 50 houses in a field on the main road

Residents have approached Jamie Oliver and his wife to try and get their backing on the issue and are hoping for their support

The 43-year-old, his wife Jools, 44, and their five children uprooted from their home in leafy Hampstead, north London, to move to the Spain's Hall in Braintree, Essex

But concerned residents fear the image of their quaint home could be ruined by plans to build 50 houses in a field on the main road leading in to Finchingfield.

Over 100 outraged residents have joined a campaign group called Save Finchingfield.

They are lobbying their local MP James Cleverly, as well as Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick, to revoke the plans.

Over 100 outraged residents have joined a campaign group called Save Finchingfield

But some members of the campaign group say they face a 'ticking clock'.

And residents have approached Jamie Oliver and his wife to try and get their backing on the issue and are hoping for their support.

Michelle Chipperfield, 44, one of the residents who set up the Save Finchingfield group, said: 'Myself and another lady in the village have tried to contact him online - but to no avail.

'It would be great to get his support. I've seen him and his wife a couple of times in the village, and I've always said to myself that I should approach him and ask him.

'But they're not about much. They live about two miles outside of the main village, and they don't really get involved in local activities - apart from coming to church on Christmas Eve.'

And Ms Chipperfield described the housing plan for Finchingfield as 'dreadful' - and said it is 'fiercely' rejected by residents.

She said: 'We live in this tiny chocolate-box village that is one of the most photographed places in the UK, and is so unique and full of history. It just needs to be protected.

'I do accept that the village has to grow - but I believe the national baseline is to grow by two per cent per year.

'If these 50 houses get built in our village, we're looking at a growth of 22 per cent, pretty much overnight.'

Michelle Chipperfield, 44, one of the residents who set up the Save Finchingfield group, said: 'Myself and another lady in the village have tried to contact him online - but to no avail'

The plans for the 50 houses were initially put forward approximately three years ago - but were rejected by Finchingfield Parish Council, as well as Braintree District Council and 125 Finchingfield residents.

However, a government inspector last year found that Braintree District Council did not have a five-year local plan in place for housing in Finchingfield, as required by the government.

The plan for 50 houses to be built in the village was therefore able to be pushed through in October 2020, with a report being published in November.

Ms Chipperfield added: 'It's just such a shame that Finchingfield has fallen foul of these housing plans, because of a lack of plan from Braintree District Council.

Concerned residents fear the image of their quaint home could be ruined by plans to build 50 houses in a field on the main road leading in to Finchingfield

The plans for the 50 houses were initially put forward approximately three years ago - but were rejected by Finchingfield Parish Council, as well as Braintree District Council and 125 Finchingfield residents

'People are getting kind of frustrated about it. It's also quite a desirable area, and we have tried affordable housing in the past - but it's not an area where it really works.

'The average housing price in Finchingfield as of last year was 425,000 - so what will be classed as affordable? How will it work?'

Michelle said that village residents are now lobbying their local MP James Cleverly, as well as Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick, to review the plans.

She said: 'Robert Jenrick is the only one who has the power now to get these plans reviewed.

'We have been campaigning locally to try and put the pressure on both him and James Cleverly. We are trying to reiterate that nobody is happy with these plans.

Cllr Coverdale added that, as a member of the parish council, the housing plans were 'frustrating' to him - given that both the current and the previous parish councils rejected the plans

'But it's a ticking clock - and it's disappointing that we are just getting very generic, copy-and-paste emails from James Cleverly.'

Meanwhile, Finchingfield parish councillor for housing, David Coverdale, added that village residents have been 'deprived of their democratic right' to be involved in the plans.

Mr Coverdale, 74, said: 'This is all about making a load of money, with a complete disregard for democracy. It is purley opportunistic.

'The hearing in October in which the housing plans got pushed through took place over Zoom - which, for many residents in Finchingfield, is a completely different world.

'There is a fundamental democratic deficit going on here - residents are being deprived of their democractic right to take part in the plans.

'At this point we don't have any legal recourse - all we can do is just ask the housing minister to look at these plans again.'

Cllr Coverdale added that, as a member of the parish council, the housing plans were 'frustrating' to him - given that both the current and the previous parish councils rejected the plans.

He said: 'It just doesn't make sense to build them here.

'You would struggle to find anywhere in Essex further away from a train station, or a supermarket, or a secondary school - and there are no bus services to speak of to get to those places.

'We are really in the middle of nowhere.'

The privately-owned field on which the houses are due to be built has not yet been sold off to developers.
[February 02, 2021] InvestCloud recapitalizes at $1 billion and integrates two new businesses to create a financial technology leader with a SaaS global wealth solutions platform having over $4 trillion in assets

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- InvestCloud, an award winning global FinTech firm has completed a recapitalization that values the business at $1 billion. New financial investors are led by Motive Partners ("Motive") with Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. ("Clearlake") and include other InvestCloud client shareholders. Under the terms of the agreement, Motive Partners will also contribute two portfolio businesses, Finantix and Tegra118, into InvestCloud, creating a global Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") wealth solutions platform. "The recapitalization achieves our first objective," said John Wise, InvestCloud's Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. "At a valuation of $1 billion, we can reward early investors in the business, while injecting new capital to fuel the next stage of our growth, further supporting our clients' needs. Crucial to our ultimate objective - which is to build the world's largest financial supermarket  is the partnership with Rob and the Motive team, Clearlake and the Tegra118 and Finantix businesses. Together with Cheryl, Christine and their exceptional teams, they enable us to accelerate our plans to build platforms serving the main markets in global wealth and asset management, each utilizing the proven SaaS design principles, architecture and data models of the InvestCloud platform." John Wise continues, "Tegra118 has the largest integrated platform in the US, with fund sponsors (asset managers: 9 of the top 12 in the USA) connecting to distributors (wealth managers: 7 of the top 10 Broker Dealers in the USA) for financial products. Combining this with the Digital Platform of InvestCloud provides the best-in-class digital advice to Advisor Networks and Advisors. With our existing clients, InvestCloud will now build a worldwide financial supermarket using Tegra118 as the base. Finantix adds further strength in Europe and Asia - particularly in the private banking space - to fulfill our ambition to distribute the InvestCloud platform and our collective solutions globally." "Huge forces are impacting the wealth sector," said Rob Heyvaert, Founder and Managing Partner, Motive Partners and Chairman of InvestCloud. "Whether it's demographics, democratization or disintermediation, the sector will change massively in years ahead. We believe the use of InvestCloud's cloud technology and platform with our existing assets (Tegra118 and Finantix) will determine the winners. This investment, and the commitment of two of our existing businesses and their exceptional talent, creates a global wealth platform provider that has proven technology with the ability to scale and serve the needs of our global clients and their customers through existing, new and hyper-personalized solutions." "Wealth managers are fced with several operational complexities, including increased demand for tailored, diverse investment products as a result of the shift towards open banking," said Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and James Pade, Partner, of Clearlake. "We believe InvestCloud's leading software solutions, in combination with Finantix and Tegra118, uniquely position the company to address these trends and deliver significant value to its global customer base."



In addition to their established reputations, blue chip customer base and rich functional capabilities, the addition of the Finantix and Tegra118 businesses further establishes InvestCloud as a leader in the wealth and asset management marketplace. InvestCloud will now have in excess of $4 trillion of assets on its platform and revenues over $285 million, with a team of over 900 people and a truly global footprint, by adding locations and expert knowledge of continental European and Asian markets. InvestCloud will now organize its business to serve clients through four distinct market opportunities for its unique and proven platform capability within the wealth and asset management arenas:

Wealth Advisor Platform - with over $2 trillion AUM already, the InvestCloud platform will continue to build upon its success in North America , the UK, continental Europe and Asia .





AUM already, the InvestCloud platform will continue to build upon its success in , the UK, continental and . Private Banking Platform - using the Finantix product as its core, InvestCloud will offer an international private banking platform using its proven technology.





Financial Supermarket - using the Tegra118 product (already $2 trillion AUM), and its extensive network of existing distribution relationships with asset managers, broker-dealers and custodians, InvestCloud will continue to build an international financial supermarket to connect manufacturers (asset managers) to distributors (wealth managers).





AUM), and its extensive network of existing distribution relationships with asset managers, broker-dealers and custodians, InvestCloud will continue to build an international financial supermarket to connect manufacturers (asset managers) to distributors (wealth managers). Custom Financial Platform - using the hyper-modular cloud platform, clients can truly design and build unique Intellectual Property (IP) using InvestCloud's design-first methods and AI PWP (Programs Writing Programs)TM to create cloud solutions. John Wise is Chief Executive Officer of InvestCloud, and Rob Heyvaert (Founder & Managing Partner, Motive Partners) is Chairman. Cheryl Nash of Tegra118 will become the CEO of the Financial Supermarket division and Christine Mar Ciriani of Finantix will become the CEO of the Private Banking division. Both will join the global InvestCloud management team reporting to John Wise. About InvestCloud

InvestCloud is a global company specializing in digital platforms that enable the development of financial solutions, pre-integrated into the Cloud. The company offers on-demand client experiences and intuitive operations solutions using an ever-expanding library of modular apps, resulting in powerful products. Headquartered in Los Angeles, InvestCloud has over 20 global offices including New York, London, Geneva, Singapore and Sydney, supporting trillions in assets across hundreds of diverse clients  from the largest banks in the world to wealth managers, asset managers and asset services companies. For more information, visit InvestCloud.com. About Motive Partners

Motive Partners is a specialist private equity firm with offices in New York City and London, focusing on control-oriented growth equity and buyout investments in software and information services companies based in North America and Europe and serving five primary subsectors: Banking & Payments, Capital Markets, Data & Analytics, Investment Management and Insurance. Motive Partners brings differentiated expertise, connectivity and capabilities to create long-term value in financial technology companies. More information on Motive Partners can be found at www.motivepartners.com About Clearlake

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a leading investment firm founded in 2006 operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake's operational improvement approach, O.P.S. The firm's core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has approximately $25 billion of assets under management and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 200 investments. The firm has offices in Santa Monica and Dallas. More information on Clearlake can be found at www.clearlake.com and on Twitter @ClearlakeCap. InvestCloud Media Contact: Sarah Mason

Metia Group

+44 (0) 3100 3613

Sarah@Metia.com or to InvestCloudUK@Metia.com SOURCE InvestCloud

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Johannesburg, Feb 2 : Former South African President Jacob Zuma has refused to testify before a commission established to investigate allegations of state capture, corruption and fraud, despite a court ruling compelling him to do so.

"The state capture of inquiry can expect no further cooperation from me in any of their processes going forward," Zuma said in a six-page statement on Monday.

He said his constitutional rights were being violated after the Constitutional Court forced him to testify at the state capture commission, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Recently the commission ran to the Constitutional Court on an urgent basis to get the Constitutional Court to compel me to attend at the commission and to compel me to give answers at the commission, effectively undermining a litany of my constitutional rights including the right to the presumption of innocence," Zuma said.

He further said he was always prepared to appear at the inquiry but not before the deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo whom he claimed was biased against him.

"The recent decision of the Constitutional Court also mimics the posture of the commission in that it has now also created a special and different set of circumstances specifically designed to deal with Zuma by suspending my Constitutional rights rendering me completely defence-less against the commission," the statement added.

The commission has summoned Zuma to appear before it from February 15 to 19.

His corruption trial was delayed several times in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The former leader, who was in office from May 2009 to February 2018, testified only once before the commission in July 2019.

But he withdrew after a few days considering he was treated as an "accused" and not as a witness.
/FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY/

TORONTO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Halo Collective Inc. ("Halo" or the "Company") (NEO: HALO) (OTCQX: HCANF formerly AGEEF) (Germany: A9KN) announces that further to the news release dated January 25, 2021, the Company has changed its ticker symbol on the OTCQX from AGEEF to HCANF. The Company commenced trading under HCANF effective open market on Monday, February 1, 2021.

No actions are needed from Halo's current shareholders relative to the ticker symbol change.

About Halo

Halo is a leading, vertically integrated cannabis company that cultivates, extracts, manufactures and distributes quality cannabis flower, oils and concentrates, and has sold approximately eight million grams of oils and concentrates since inception. Halo continues to evolve its business and scale efficiently, partnering with trustworthy leaders in the industry, who value the Company's operational expertise in bringing top-tier products to market. Current growth includes expansion in key U.S. markets, the United Kingdom, Africa, the Republic of Malta in partnership with MedCan Ltd., and planned expansion into the Canadian retail market.

Halo is led by a strong, diverse and innovative management team with deep industry knowledge and blue-chip experience. The company is currently operating in the U.S. in California, Oregon and Nevada. The Company sells cannabis products principally to dispensaries under its own brands Hush, Mojave, Exhale, and under partnership or license with OG DNA Genetics, Terphogz (doing business as Zkittlez), Winberry Farms and FlowerShop.

As part of continued expansion and vertical integration in the U.S., Halo boasts several grow operations throughout Oregon and California. In Oregon, the Company has a combined seven acres of outdoor cultivation, including East Evans Creek, a six-acre grow site in Jackson County, and Winberry Farms, a one-acre grow site in Lane County. In California, the Company is building out Ukiah Ventures, a planned 30,000-square-foot indoor grow, processing and manufacturing facility, including up to an additional five acres of industrial land to expand. Halo has also partnered with GMH to purchase Bar X Ranch in Lake County, California, with plans to develop up to 80 acres of cultivation, which would comprise the largest grow in Northern California.

Recently, the Company has entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Red Light Holland Corp. for the purpose of creating a joint venture to become a licensed psilocybin manufacturer to supply psilocybin products to licensed service centers in the State of Oregon.

Internationally, the Company is currently cultivating cannabis at Bophelo Bioscience & Wellness (Pty) Ltd ("Bophelo") in Lesotho, South Africa, which holds one of the largest marijuana cultivation licenses in Africa with a future capacity of up to 495 acres. To further Halo's global presence, the Company recently acquired cannabis-based product for medicinal use ("CBPM") importation and distribution licensing in the United Kingdom via cannabis suppliers Canmart Ltd. Halo expects the cultivation and manufacturing operations of Bophelo, combined with the importation and distribution capabilities of Canmart, to drive growth of a well-positioned business to serve the U.K. market.

For further information regarding Halo, see Halo's disclosure documents on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only Halo's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Halo's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein may include, but are not limited to, statements about Halo's planned expansion into the Canadian retail market, the expected size and capabilities of the final facility planned at Ukiah Ventures, the size of Halo's planned cultivation facility in Northern California and the ability of Bophelo and Canmart to serve the U.K. market.

By identifying such information and statements in this manner, Halo is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements. In addition, in connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, Halo has made certain assumptions. Although Halo believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Among others, the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information and statements are the following: unexpected costs or delays in the completion of the Company's proposed dispensaries and other operations; negative results experienced by the Company as a result of general economic conditions or the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; delays in the ability of the Company to obtain certain regulatory approvals; unforeseen delays or costs in the completion of the Company's construction projects; adverse changes to demand for cannabis products; ongoing projects by competitors that may impact the relative size of the Company's growing operation; delays or unforeseen difficulties in connection with the cultivation and harvest of Halo's raw material; adverse changes in applicable laws; adverse changes in the application or enforcement of current laws, including those related to taxation; increasing costs of compliance with extensive government regulation; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; risks related to licensing, including the ability to obtain the requisite licenses or renew existing licenses for the Company's proposed operations; dependence upon third party service providers, skilled labor and other key inputs; and the other risks disclosed in the Company's annual information form dated April 16, 2020 and other disclosure documents available on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.

The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and Halo does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to Halo or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

SOURCE Halo Collective Inc.

Related Links

https://halocanna.com/



STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  La Colmena, a community-based organization working with day laborers, domestic workers and other low-wage immigrant workers, has day laborers available for hire to help Staten Islanders recover from the noreaster that has been slamming the borough since late Sunday.

La Colmena #DayLaborers are once again in the #FrontLines and ready to help #NYC recover from this #SnowStorm, wrote the organization on Twitter. Please consider hiring them for your snow shoveling needs.

La Colmena #DayLaborers are once again in the #FrontLines and ready to help #NYC recover from this  #SnowStorm.  Please consider hiring them for your snow shoveling needs TODAY in #StatenIsland at  929-359-7315 or via our webpage https://t.co/Y30wifThBR  pic.twitter.com/J8GvZSB9Y4  La Colmena  (@LaColmenaNYC) February 1, 2021

To request a worker to clear snow, call 929-359-7315 or fill out the form at the following webpage: https://lacolmenanyc.org/need-workers.

Yesenia Mata, La Colmenas executive director, said some workers are already reserved for Tuesday. The program helps day laborers get paid while helping out other borough residents in need, she said.

Jesus a #FrontLineWorker of #StatenIsland currently helping #NYC recover from this #SnowStorm2021 



Staten Island Day Laborers are always ready to respond to any emergency, said Jesus, La Colmena #DayLaborer Leader pic.twitter.com/L0xYLjrZLE  La Colmena  (@LaColmenaNYC) February 1, 2021

WHERE TO TURN

Where to Turn, a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing New York Citys most pressing needs, also has a program specifically in place to help seniors recover from the storm.

Where to Turns program pairs volunteers and senior citizens in their immediate area, and the volunteers agree to shovel seniors sidewalks and walkways.

However, Dennis McKeon, the executive director of the organization, said, We definitely need more volunteers.

The organization is currently inundated with about 1,500 seniors requesting volunteer help with only about 150 student volunteers available to shovel, he said.

Seniors usually register before the winter and are paired with a volunteer in their area, if one is available, said McKeon. With all of its volunteers already assigned to seniors, McKeon said more help is needed.

If a student calls in, what we do is we match them up into our database and try to find a senior citizen within walking distance, he said. Id say probably 75 to 80% of the time we can find somebody.

While no volunteers are available to help seniors who are looking to be newly registered, McKeon said they can reach out to Where to Turn at 718-966-6531 beginning on Wednesday to be eligible to be paired with a volunteer moving forward.

Willing student volunteers can reach out to the same number to be paired with a resident in need.
The Romanian authorities do not dispute the sovereign right of the United Mexican States regarding the decision to grant the right of entry into their territory, but it is mandatory that these decisions are not arbitrary, but taken on the basis of individual assessments, on a case-by-case basis and do not generate offensive situations, says a release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), in the context where 50 Romanians are stranded at the airport of the Mexican city of Cancun.

In this case, the MAE adds, the Romanian side asked the Mexican side "to ensure a transparent and predictable approach to the regime of foreign tourists in Mexico, especially in the current pandemic context, otherwise there is a risk that such cases will induce the idea of a discriminatory approach".

The Romanian ministry states that 50 Romanian citizens are still in Cancun airport, waiting for return flights, and a team appointed by the honorary consul of Romania in this city has traveled to the airport to provide them with food and water. The supplies have been taken over by the officials of the airport and will be distributed to the Romanian citizens.

The MAE release comes in the context of the multiple reports in recent days regarding the refusal of entry into the United Mexican States of several Romanian nationals who were traveling for tourist purposes, a situation in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued diplomatic efforts with the Mexican authorities. Earlier on Tuesday, the MAE leadership had a video conference call with the United Mexican States Ambassador in Bucharest, Jose Guillermo Ordorica Robles.

During the dialogue, the Romanian side "expressed concern and dissatisfaction with the situations generated by the decisions of the Mexican authorities regarding the access of the Romanian tourists to Mexico and the treatment to which Romanian citizens are subjected upon entry into the territory of this state", the source says.

The ministry requested immediate clarification of the reasons for the Mexican authorities' decisions not to allow entry into Mexican territory and the necessary measures to be taken, as a matter of urgency, so that the rights of the Romanian citizens are observed, including from the perspective of the conditions ensured during the procedures carried out at the airport.

The MAE emphasizes the importance of thorough information prior to traveling abroad, including by consulting the information available on the MAE website, at the Sections Travel Tips and Alerts and Travel Alerts in the COVID-19 context.
People Speak has announced the launch of an Open.Media integration where cities can automatically stream public meetings from Open.Media into a rich and interactive meeting experience.

People Speaks Public Hearing Engagement Platform has been in use since 2017 and extends the timeline of the public hearing to allow multiple days for review of information and collection of comments. The platform has met the requirements of open meeting laws in states coast to coast and in a 2019 study by the City of Lakewood showed over 100 times the participation by 25-34 year olds on the Public Hearing Engagement Platform as in-person while each age cohort was represented online in proportion to its actual level.

The platform has been in use for years prior to COVID-19, but when lockdowns began in spring of 2020 there was a surge of interest  cities were able to quickly and easily transition to fully asynchronous and remote meetings, allowing all stakeholders to participate anytime, anywhere. Then we saw communities learn and adopt Zoom and we started getting requests to expand our platform to better serve constituents both pre-meeting and during the live meeting. said Jason Sperling, Co-founder at People Speak.

Pre-COVID-19, People Speaks software allowed citizens to access presentations and information before the meeting, issue-level participation via web and phone-in, and automation of digital staff reports and decision-maker managemen. Support for creation of minutes and voting and basic live streaming embedding was added in the summer for 2020, followed by a partnership with Open.Media.

Open.Media has been helping local and state governments broadcast live meetings since 2013. Our platform is adept at serving in-person live streaming, from a simple off-the-shelf webcam to an expansive multi-camera television setup at the state legislature, to hybrid meetings where some participants are dialing in via Zoom or other webinar software. We were excited to add an integration with People Speak to introduce the first fully hybrid, in-person or remote, pre-meeting and live meeting, public hearing experience, said Tony Shawcross, Executive Director at Open Media Foundation.

The Open.Media and People Speak integration introduces several new benefits for cities and continents.



Seamless integration: When the meeting starts, the live steam from Open.Media automatically displays on the People Speak meeting page.

Minutes faster and richer than ever before: Minutes are dynamically generated on People Speak, leveraging existing agendas and issues, one-click voting, with web and phone-in comments - and now with the Open.Media integration minutes automatically include video recordings cued up to the timestamped start of each issue.

Meetings of the future: Open.Media videoconferencing can be deployed on-site as well as combined with off-site webinar solutions such as Zoom to support hybrid live meetings.

Information at your fingertips: the live stream displays in the left panel to enable continuous play as users explore content on the meeting page. You can watch and listen to the live stream while navigating to different issues and materials.

The City of Lakewood, Colorado, was recognized in 2019 with a National Achievement Award from the American Planning Association for Online Public Hearings, and has been a driving force for the integration. Weve been working with both People Speak and Open.Media independently for the last several years. When we were forced to abandon live public meetings, it was clear we needed a solution that would work to solve the immediate challenges the city faces, but also something that would be sustainable and appropriate for the long term. This offer has transformed our ability to serve the public, said Travis Parker, Director of Planning, City of Lakewood. Cities interested in seeing the integration are encouraged to visit https://lakewoodspeaks.org/ during and prior to a live meeting.

Cities of every size can benefit from the new integration. We started looking at People Speak as a way to better engage and inform the public ahead of public hearings, but were a small city with constrained resources so we were uncertain if we could bring meaningful opportunities for citizens, said Matthew Rohrbach, AICP, City Planner, of the City of Hamilton, Montana. People Speak and Open.Media helped us get set up with a strategy and equipment scaled for our budget and staff. We needed something that could flex as the times dictate to give people the opportunity to engage on their time and remotely. The solution is configured to handle in-person, remote, or hybrid meetings  we were able to get up and running with very minimal installation or training.

Cities around the country use the online software developed People Speak (for more information, visit http://peoplespeak.net/) and Open.Media (for more information, visit https://www.open.media/).

About People Speak

People Speak was founded in Boulder, Colorado, in 2017 with a mission of increasing the participation and representation at public hearings. Created in partnership with local governments, People Speak transforms public meetings, delivering staff and applicant presentations, information, and issue-level participation for meetings in an online experience, accessed anytime, anywhere. People Speak recently expanded to support hybrid in-person and remote live meetings, to cities and counties be even more inclusive and give citizens an easy way to interact with whats relevant to them. For more information on People Speak, visit https://peoplespeak.net/.

About Open.Media

Based in Denver, CO, Open.Media (https://www.open.media) is the open-source, nonprofit alternative to expensive for-profit government meeting streaming & archiving technology. Its innovative design allows you to combine any camera and encoder with free streaming services like YouTube, giving you access to the industry's latest improvements in video streaming technology, including automated transcription, clickable agenda jump-points, and associated documents. For more information on Open Media, visit http://open.media and http://www.openmediafoundation.org.
In any case, the Senate always decides on disqualification after the offender is a private citizen, since that is what he becomes upon conviction of an impeachable offense. The Constitution does not even specify that this second vote on disqualfication must be immediate. The Senate could vote weeks later, after deliberation and debate, well into the former presidents private life.

Still more fundamental: This late impeachment argument fails to grasp the constitutional framework within which the question must be considered. The Federalist Papers made plain the framers preoccupation with protections against the demagogue, the unworthy candidate of perverted ambition who practices with success the vicious arts, by which elections are too often carried. The provision for disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit was one of many instances of constitutional checks against popular passions that could lead to the election of officeholders who would threaten to subvert the Republic.

No basis exists for claiming that the drafters of the Constitution intended to leave presidents who have demonstrated danger to the Republic to seek the position again based on a mere happenstance of timing: that a Senate trial cannot take place after the president has been voted out of office.

Mr. Trump is being tried for conduct that the Constitution expressly singles out as a basis for disqualifying someone from office. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies from federal or state office anyone who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given aid and comfort to them. Mr. Trump has been impeached for taking such actions for the express purpose of promoting opposition to the transfer of power to his duly elected successor.

The House voted this impeachment with urgency, intending to have the Senate try, convict and remove Mr. Trump to disable any further maneuvers by him to retain office. This has hardly been a generalized political witch hunt against vague offenses.

Moreover, Congress holds a similar power in its ability to police its own ranks. Under Article 1, Section 5 both the House and Senate may expel a member by a vote of two-thirds. Neither has regularly exercised this power, but of the 15 Senate expulsions, 14 involved members who had supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. The House also expelled three members for support of the secession.

Enough Republican senators may adopt this argument against late impeachment to block conviction and the ensuing vote on disqualification. But the moment should not pass without calling out in clear terms the damaging constitutional precedent that this outcome will produce.



The Republican senators are effectively seeking to establish a loophole in the critical constitutional mechanism for holding presidents accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors  in this case, a trial and decision on disqualification of a former president who, while in office and as set forth in the article of impeachment, gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government, threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government.

Bob Bauer, a former senior adviser for the Biden campaign, is a professor of practice and distinguished scholar in residence at New York University School of Law and an author, with Jack Goldsmith, of After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency.
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Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger (pictured in a CBS12 interview) and Special Agent Daniel Alfin were shot dead in Sunrise, just outside Fort Lauderdale, this morning while serving the warrant in a case involving 'violent crimes against children'.

The two FBI agents who were shot dead in Florida while trying to serve a federal search warrant on a child pornography suspect have now been identified.

Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger, 43, and Special Agent Daniel Alfin, 36, were killed in Sunrise, just outside Fort Lauderdale, this morning while serving the warrant in a case involving child porn and 'violent crimes against children'.

The shooting unfolded at an apartment complex where the man suspected of possessing child pornography lived.

The suspect was found dead after barricading himself inside the apartment and opening fire on the agents. Law enforcement sources say it appears the suspect killed himself.

In the hours after the shooting, the bodies of Schwartzenberger and Alfin were placed on stretchers and draped with American flags as they were escorted into the Broward Medical Examiner's office.

Footage from WSVN showed officers forming an honor guard as their bodies were taken inside.

FBI director Christopher Wray later praised the two slain agents for their 'heroism' and vowed to 'honor their ultimate sacrifice'.

'Tragically, the FBI lost two of our own today. Special Agent Daniel Alfin and Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger were shot and killed this morning in the line of duty while executing a federal court-ordered search warrant in a crimes against children investigation,' Wray said.

'Every day, FBI special agents put themselves in harm's way to keep the American people safe. Special Agent Alfin and Special Agent Schwartzenberger exemplified heroism today in defense of their country. The FBI will always honor their ultimate sacrifice and will be forever grateful for their bravery.'

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the incident and would likely address it later on Tuesday.

Three other agents were injured in the standoff with the suspect. Two of the injured agents are in stable conditions in hospital. The third agent did not need to be hospitalized, Wray said.

Two FBI agents were shot dead in Sunrise, Florida this morning as they served a warrant in a child exploitation case. One of the slain agents is pictured above on a flag-draped stretcher arriving at a medical examiner's officer surrounded by law enforcement

Two FBI agents have been shot dead and three others injured while serving an arrest warrant to a child pornography suspect this morning at a home in Florida this morning

Another stretcher draped in an American flag is pictured above being placed into an ambulance and escorted to the Broward Medical Examiner's office in the hours after the shooting

Broward County Sheriff escort a Coral Springs Parkland Fire Department vehicle as it leaves the Broward County Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services after the killing of two FBI agents

The two agents who were killed had a history of investigating child porn and sexual exploitation cases.

Schwartzenberger started with the bureau in 2005 and worked out of the Miami office with the violent crimes against children unit.

Schwartzenberger started with the bureau in 2005 and worked out of the Miami office with the violent crimes against children unit

Alfin, who worked with the Miami Child Exploitation task force, had been with the FBI since 2009. He was among those who helped bring down and convict Florida man Steven W. Chase, who was the creator of Playpen - the world's largest child porn site - back in 2017.

The agents had been serving a federal court-ordered search warrant at the time in connection with a case involving child pornography and violent crimes against children, according to FBI Miami Special Agent Michael D. Leverock and FBI Agents Association President Brian O'Hare.

The FBI did not release the suspect's name or provide any further details on his suspected crimes.

A law enforcement source told the Miami Herald that the FBI had been investigating the suspect alongside Fort Lauderdale federal prosecutors.

Agents were trying to serve a routine search warrant in order to seize the suspect's computer as part of the child porn investigation.

Authorities say the FBI had found an IP address for the suspect's computer on an internet service provider.

When agents arrived at his home, the suspect barricaded himself inside before opening fire.

If the agents were to have uncovered anything during the search, the suspect likely would have faced some type of child porn charge, sources said.

The confrontation marked one of the bloodiest days in FBI history in South Florida and among the deadliest nationally as well, according to the FBI website.

The shooting unfolded at an apartment complex, pictured above, where the man suspected of possessing child pornography lived

Law enforcement standing guard outside the apartment complex could be seen embracing each other in the hours after the shooting unfolded

A heavy law enforcement presence remained in the vicinity of the apartment complex during the afternoon as authorities continued to investigate

The shooting happened around 6am in a middle-class neighborhood of single family homes, duplexes and apartment buildings.

The gunfire erupted with about four shots, according to Julius McLymont, whose house borders the Water Terrace apartment complex where the suspect was barricaded.

McLymont told the Associated Press that he initially thought the gunfire was a car backfiring but heard about five more shots a few minutes later.

He went outside and looked over his fence as police cars and ambulances rushed in. He said he saw officers working on someone lying on the ground before they loaded the person into an ambulance.

A SWAT team arrived and officers in riot gear went around the building, yelling, 'Go, go, go!' McLymont said. He said he couldn't see the apartment where the shooting happened from his location.

Hours later, Sunrise Police urged residents of Water Terrace to remain inside their homes while law enforcement blocked the entrances to their community.

Police swarmed the Sunrise neighborhood just outside Fort Lauderdale after 6am following reports of the shooting involving FBI agents

The FBI said agents were serving a federal court-ordered search warrant at the time related to a 'violent crimes against children case'

Five agents in total were shot, including the two that died. Law enforcement officers are pictured blocking an area where the shooting unfolded

The FBI said the investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.

'In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under investigation by the FBI's Inspection Division,' the FBI said in a statement.

'The review process is thorough and objective and is conducted as expeditiously as possible under the circumstances. No further information will be released at this time.'

Alex Piquero, a University of Miami sociology professor who has specialized in criminology, said serving search warrants at a person's home is incredibly hazardous for law enforcement officers.

'Serving warrants, next to domestic dispute calls and high speed chases, are among the most dangerous for law enforcement - they dont know what awaits them on the inside,' Piquero said.

There have been several other shootings throughout the FBI's history in which two agents have died, according to the bureau's Wall of Honor.

In South Florida, the infamous 'Miami Shootout' in 1986 claimed the lives of Agents Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove in a gunbattle with two heavily armed robbery suspects who were also killed. Five other FBI agents were wounded in that shooting, which led the bureau to upgrade the weapons that agents carry.

Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the SWAT team, are still gathered at the scene of the shooting
New accounts have emerged from CIA officers of suspected sonic attacks by Russia which have been blamed for mysterious symptoms suffered by US operatives around the world.

After dozens of Americans became inexplicably ill in Havana beginning in 2016, similar incidents have been reported in Russia, China, Australia and elsewhere - with suspicion falling on Moscow among US intelligence agents.

One officer, Marc Polymeropoulos, told BBC News that CIA agents were 'suffering in silence' after 'several senior agency officials' were affected by headaches, dizziness or loud noises in their head.

'What happened to US diplomats in Cuba, happened to me in Moscow,' Polymeropoulos said after falling ill in Russia in 2017.

Another former agent, John Sipher, said Russian security services used to 'flood the US embassy in Moscow with concentrated microwaves and electronic pulses' and even had vans that could target individuals around the Russian capital.

CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos is pictured in Moscow where he fell ill in 2017 and says he suffered the same symptoms as US diplomats in Cuba

Polymeropoulos said he fell ill while on a trip to Moscow in 2017 and grew suspicious because of what had earlier been reported in Cuba.

Beginning in 2016, dozens of Americans stationed in Havana suffered 'attacks of unknown nature' which are feared to have been caused by a sonic device.

Their symptoms included ear complaints, hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues, and difficulty sleeping.

Many of those affected reported that the sensation of a loud sound appeared to come from a particular direction and only occur in certain locations.

The so-called 'Havana Syndrome' has never been fully explained, but a report by the National Academies of Sciences last year said that directed radio frequency energy was the 'most plausible mechanism' behind the cases.

Donald Trump initially held Cuba responsible for the attacks, while Washington expelled 15 Cuban diplomats and recalled some of its diplomatic personnel.

But Cuba denied involvement, describing the claims as 'science fiction', and suspicion has since fallen on Russia over the incidents.

Polymeropoulos, who retired due to ill health in 2019 and says he has had a 'migraine headache for three years', said he and some of those affected had been involved in a CIA 'pushback' against Russia.

Another former Moscow-based agent told the BBC he believed the Russians were responsible for so-called directed-energy attacks which fire energy in the form of microwaves, sound or electromagnetic radiation.

The agent said he did not know whether the Russians were specifically attacking US agents or whether the illnesses were a by-product of another operation.

The US embassy in Cuba where dozens of American personnel suffered unexplained illnesses beginning in 2016

Intelligence sources told NBC News in 2018 that Russia was now seen as the main suspect, months after it was also blamed for a nerve agent attack in Britain.

Further reports have also emerged around the world, including in China where some US operatives reported similar symptoms act a consulate in Guangzhou.

Another incident involved CIA agents staying in hotel rooms in Australia, while further reports have emerged in Poland, Georgia and Taiwan.

In Britain, a White House official is said to have felt pressure in their head while staying in a London hotel in 2019 in an incident that is still under investigation.

Polymeropoulos is calling on the US Congress to hold formal investigations into the issue, while the head of the scientific investigation also wants more monitoring.

'I'd rather I was shot. I'd rather there was an overt hole in my body that I knew that we could try to fix, as opposed to what's happening now,' Polymeropoulos said.

New US secretary of state Antony Blinken has promised to share more details about the Havana incidents and ensure 'accountability' if a state is found responsible.

However, the US has yet to formally accuse Moscow of being behind the attacks.

Cuban officials give a press conference about the alleged 'acoustic attacks' in Havana, where the US withdrew some of its diplomatic staff

Russia typically denies involvement in shadowy activities abroad, including its meddling attempts in the 2016 presidential election.

Moscow's Internet Research Agency was accused of spreading misinformation on social media to help Trump and undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump himself downplayed the reports, while the two-year Mueller investigation into alleged links between his campaign and Russia ended in anticlimax when the report neither accused him of collusion nor exonerated him.

Ahead of the 2020 election, US intelligence agencies accused both Russia and Iran of trying to interfere, drawing denials from both Moscow and Tehran.

Polymeropoulos said Russia had shown itself willing to push boundaries in recent years, for example with the poison attack on British soil in 2018.

The assassination attempt against former double agent Sergei Skripal sent Moscow's relations with the West to their lowest point since the Cold War.

They soured further last year when Russia was accused of using the same Soviet-era nerve agent to attack opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Siberia.

The Kremlin has denied involvement in either poisoning, but has refused to open a full investigation into the Navalny case.
More than half of the worlds population is living in cities and that number is expected to increase to almost 70 % by 2050. At the same time, the world is facing great environmental challenges and cities are a key to the transition to a sustainable future.

The platform Smart City Sweden works to increase the cooperation between Sweden and other countries in issues connected to sustainable cities. Smart City Sweden, managed by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and coordinated by the Swedish Energy Agency, welcomes delegations from all over the world that are interested in solutions within areas such as urban planning, mobility, cleantech, waste management and sustainability. The goal is to inspire other countries in the shift to a more sustainable society.

Since the start of the project in 2018, the platform has received thousands of visitors from more than 60 countries at the main office in Stockholm and the regional offices around Sweden.

 Through Smart City Sweden, cooperation between Sweden and many other countries has strengthened and we can now see results from visits that have led to further collaboration. Pre-studies in Colombia and Morocco on waste and mobility and a follow-up visit on smart grids in Germany are just some of the examples of successful visits from last year, says Tomas Andersson, Project Manager at Smart City Sweden.

Focus on digital development

In March, a digital Smart City Sweden was launched, and since then hundreds of digital visits and webinars have been held with over 2000 participants in total from all continents. China, the Netherlands and Denmark were some of the top countries in terms of participants. The areas of interest differed from energy-efficiency, transport and waste management to social sustainability and digitalisation.

 We can see that there is still a great interest around Swedish sustainable solutions from international investors. By going digital, Smart City Sweden has managed to continue to develop collaborations even during the pandemic, says Annika Nilsson, responsible administrator at the Swedish Energy Agency.

As a part of the digitalisation of the platform, a film was produced to demonstrate Swedish solutions for sustainable cities. Webinars have been arranged in all Smart City Swedens focus areas and virtual 360 tours have been created to take the viewers on a virtual journey to some of the best practice that Sweden has to offer.

In 2021, the platform will expand to be able to welcome even more visitors, digitally as well as physically.

Source: https://www.thesmartcityjournal.com/en/homen/cities/2882-smart-city-sweden-demonstrates-solutions-digitally-during-corona
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Subaru of America, Inc. today reported 46,400 vehicle sales for January 2021, a 0.25 percent increase compared to January 2020, and the best January in the history of the company.

"We are proud to report that Subaru of America, Inc. will start calendar year 2021 with an all-time January sales record, an accomplishment we could not have achieved without our dedicated retailers," said Thomas J. Doll, President and CEO. "January was particularly special for Subaru as we announced our continued commitment to helping those who are facing hunger by donating 100 million meals* to Feeding America."

January marked the ninth consecutive month of 40,000+ vehicle sales for the automaker. Crosstrek achieved its best January ever with 10,431 vehicle sales. Outback posted a 3.6 percent increase, while WRX/STI posted an 11.2 percent increase compared to January 2020. BRZ sales for January 2021 increased 45.5 percent compared to the same month in 2020. In addition, 13,207 Forester SUVs were delivered in January, making it the top carline by volume.

"We exceeded our sales target for January and look forward to continuing the momentum in the coming months," said Jeff Walters, Senior Vice President of Sales. "From our award-winning vehicle line-up, consumers were particularly drawn to the Outback, Forester and Crosstrek, three SUVs that offer safety and reliability ideal for navigating winter weather."

Carline Jan-21 Jan-20 % Chg

MTD MTD MTD Forester 13,207 13,209 -0.0% Impreza 2,771 3,978 -30.3% WRX/STI 1,555 1,399 11.2% Ascent 4,743 5,606 -15.4% Legacy 1,746 2,471 -29.3% Outback 11,784 11,379 3.6% BRZ 163 112 45.5% Crosstrek 10,431 8,131 28.3% TOTAL 46,400 46,285 0.25%

In January, Subaru of America, Inc., joined by its two regional independent distributors, Subaru of New England and Subaru Distributors Corp., announced its continued commitment to supporting people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic by helping provide an additional 100 million meals* to Feeding America. This donation is double the automaker's April 2020 donation, in which they helped provide 50 million meals to the hunger-relief organization. Furthermore, participating Subaru retailers nationwide have made supplemental donations to their local Feeding America member food banks, currently totaling an additional 5.7 million meals* to those in need, totaling 105 million meals donated from Subaru. To learn more or contribute, visit: Feeding America.

* $1 helps to provide at least ten meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local member food banks

About Subaru of America, Inc.

Subaru of America, Inc. (SOA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Subaru Corporation of Japan. Headquartered at a zero-landfill office in Camden, N.J., the company markets and distributes Subaru vehicles, parts and accessories through a network of more than 630 retailers across the United States. All Subaru products are manufactured in zero-landfill production plants and Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. is the only U.S. automobile production plant to be designated a backyard wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. SOA is guided by the Subaru Love Promise, which is the company's vision to show love and respect to everyone, and to support its communities and customers nationwide. Over the past 20 years, SOA has donated more than $190 million to causes the Subaru family cares about, and its employees have logged more than 40,000 volunteer hours. As a company, Subaru believes it is important to do its part in making a positive impact in the world because it is the right thing to do. For additional information visit media.subaru.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Dominick Infante

Director, Corporate Communications

(856) 488-8615

[email protected]

Diane Anton

Corporate Communications Manager

(856) 488-5093

[email protected]

Nicholas Saraceni

Corporate Communications Specialist

(856) 488-3330

[email protected]

SOURCE Subaru of America, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.subaru.com


Three teenagers have been charged over a high-speed crash on a major motorway after allegedly ploughing a stolen BMW into another car then fleeing the scene.

Police were called to a northbound collision on the Gold Coast's M1 motorway, near the Oxenford exit at 2.40am on Monday.

Shocking footage of the crash, captured by a security guard from Gold Coast Patrol Dogs K9, shows the BMW racing up the motorway before smashing into a Toyota Corolla hatchback.

The force of the collision flips the BMW onto its roof, sending sparks flying as the upturned vehicle slides more than 100m across the road.

Three teenagers have been charged over a high-speed crash on Gold Coast's M1 motorway during the early hours on Monday morning. Pictured: The Toyota Corolla after the collision

A 59-year-old man suffered minor injuries and was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.

The three teenagers allegedly bolted from the scene before they were found by police at 3.40am on Low Street, Upper Coomera.

A 16-year-old Molendinar girl, a 14-year-old Pimpama boy, and a 17-year-old Logan Central have been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle. The 14-year-old was also charged with possessing marijuana.

All three were denied bail to face court at a later date.

A Hyundai Tuscon, stolen along with the BMW on Monday night from a residence on Palm Ave, Surfers Paradise, is yet to be located, police said.

Security officer Wayne Heneker said his colleague was responding to a client when she saw the BMW strike the Corolla.

The teenagers allegedly fled the scene before they were arrested by police in Upper Coomera an hour later. Pictured: The BMW

'It's unbelievable that the driver survived that collision,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

'He could have been maimed and killed. It was just pure luck that he wasnt.'

Investigations into whether more people were involved in the crash are ongoing.

The crash was just days after Brisbane parents-to-be Kate Leadbetter and Matthew Field were killed when they were allegedly hit by a teenager driver in a stolen vehicle while walking their dogs in Alexandra Hills on Australia Day.

The 17-year-old allegedly behind the wheel has been remanded in custody on numerous charges including two counts of murder.

Their deaths have sparked calls for reform to Queensland's Youth Justice system after the teenager was reportedly on bail for several offences at the time of the tragedy.
Here's what you need to know this morning: Tuesday, Feb. 2
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SEOUL, South Korea  Iran has agreed to free the 19-member crew of a seized South Korea-flagged ship, both countries said Tuesday, in what appeared to be the first significant gesture by the Iranians to de-escalate the problem since impounding the vessel a month ago.

The Iranian move may also have been intended to send an indirect signal to the Biden administration, which has indicated it wants to avoid a further deterioration in relations with Iran after they worsened sharply under former President Donald J. Trump.

In return for the release of the crew, the South Korean government said it had pledged speedy action to address Irans complaints about its inability to access $7 billion in Iranian money that has been frozen in South Korean banks because of American sanctions reimposed by Mr. Trump.

It was not immediately clear from the announcement when the crew members would be released. Iran said the ship and its captain would remain in its custody, pending an investigation into what the Iranians have described as violations of maritime pollution law, the original reason they gave for having seized the vessel.
The Myanmar Constitution does not give the army chief the right to stage a coup. Article 40C grants sovereign power to the army chief during an emergency. But only the President can declare an emergency after consulting the National Defence Security Council. It also provides the military permanent representation in parliament without being elected. Clearly, General Hlaing has violated the Constitution, without scrapping it.

by Maj Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

After the militarys flip-flop on a takeover, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) and five-star Senior General Aung Hlaing declared a state of emergency for one year to restore the Union on February 1, the day the new parliament was to convene.

Rumours and speculation late last month of a threatened coup did not suddenly erupt in Myanmar, which has been under direct military rule for 49 years (1962 to 2011) and indirect rule since 2011. Tanks and armoured personnel carriers appeared on the streets in Yangon and roads to the new capital, Naypyidaw, were blocked.

The bone of contention is the alleged fraud during the elections on November 8 last year in which the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) scored a landslide victory and the military-backed Union Solidarity Democratic Party (USDP) was humbled. The NLD won 396 of the 476 elected seats in the two Houses of parliament while the USDP won just 33 seats.

As many as 25 per cent of the seats (166) are reserved for the military in both Houses. The electoral victory does not change the balance of power, weighted heavily in favour of the military.

The military put out a statement that the C-in-C is in power for the duration of the emergency and Vice-President Myint Sue has been elevated as Acting President while detaining President Win Myint and NLDs Aung San Suu Kyi. It attributed the emergency to the government and the Union Election Commission failing to clarify 10 million voting irregularities. It justified its actions under Sections 417 and 418 of the constitution. All TV channels, phone lines and internet connections were cut.

The US and other countries, besides the UN, have criticised attempts to alter the outcome of the elections and impede the democratic process. India has expressed deep concern over the coup and the detention of top political leaders, and said the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld in Myanmar. The last coup occurred in 1988 when Suu Kyi won the elections with a massive majority.

The military gave mixed hints of its intentions of a takeover. Last February, Aung San Suu Kyi attempted to change the 2008 military-drafted Constitution, but failed as she could not get the numbers.

Senior General Hlaing, whose term expires in three months, has been hobnobbing with political opposition leaders and he has even expressed political ambitions to be vice-president, making him the first General to do so openly.

A combination of these factors had led to the coup threat being taken seriously, though Suu Kyi did not react to military utterances. Charges of political misconduct have been made against President Win Myint, Aung San Suu Kyi and Union Election Commissioner U Hla Thein. The Election Commission was asked to explain before February 1 (postponed to February 2 due to the coup rumours) when parliament was to open.

Rewind to January 26. Military spokesperson Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun told the Military True News Agency that he could neither deny nor confirm that Tatmadaw (military) would seize power, adding: what we can say is we will follow existing laws and the constitution. The next day, Senior Gen Hlaing said: Revoking 2008 constitution could be necessary under certain circumstances. His remarks created a storm in dozens of countries and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterrez asked the military to adhere to democratic norms.

On January 30, the military released a statement that General Hlaing had been misunderstood: Tatmadaw will abide by the current Constitution and will perform within the law by defending it. The international community, Myanmarese and State Sangha Mahanayaka resumed breathing normally even as Suu Kyi called it a suitable explanation.

The electoral row goes back to early November when General Hlaing accused the government of unacceptable mistakes in the management of elections and as guardian of country, military was watching preparations closely. He accused UEC Thein of mishandling the elections as he had expected free and fair polling.

The Presidents office reported that the military chiefs remarks violated law under Article 26 (A) which calls for the military to be free from politics. A stinging rebuke followed when the military warned the President of impeachment which was rejected by his office. On November 8, while casting his vote though, General Hlaing declared that the military would accept the voting as it is. It is reported that on January 12, General Hlaing even complained to visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and on January 20, asked the UEC to provide proof that the elections were free. This ultimatum and proof of fairness of elections had to be provided before the parliament inauguration.

So why did the military renege on its chiefs words on January 26 and then have to eat its words again, saying: Gen Hlaing was misunderstood?

Myanmar has been under absolute military rule since General Ne Wins coup in 1962. The 1974 Constitution was scrapped in 1988 after a massive win for the NLD. Besides political reservation for the military, it enjoys ownership of internal, defence and border affairs ministries. It controls the wealth of the nation and the clergy and is the final arbiter in Myanmar despite the Army Chief figuring fifth in the warrant of precedence. The NLDs attempt to tinker with the constitution failed as the Constitution is impeccably change-proof.

Analysts in Yangon are mulling over the army chiefs flip-flop and then the coup. The comments on a military takeover made by Major General Tun were not off the cuff even though the Constitution provides the military with more powers and privileges than are guaranteed to any other military in the world. But the Constitution does not give the army chief the right to stage a coup. Article 40C grants sovereign power to the army chief during an emergency. But only the President can declare an emergency after consulting the National Defence Security Council (Chapter 11 of the Constitution). It also provides the military permanent representation in parliament without being elected.

Clearly, General Hlaing has violated the Constitution, without scrapping it. His political ambition, no doubt backed by China, has undermined Myanmars national interest and will lead to the dark unknown, but definitely sanctioning of the military.

Abrogation of the Constitution is the military signing its own death warrant. During the military uproar, Suu Kyi behaved with characteristic cool, saying on January 27 that there was no problem with the Covishield vaccine donated by India. Myanmar requires a vaccine against military rule.
Kris Gopalakrishnan at the India Economic Summit 2008. File photo.

The Union Budget, 2021, allocated Rs 50,000 crore to the National Research Foundation (NRF) for five years to give the research ecosystem in the country a boost. The foundation will aggregate funds available across ministries along with the budget allocations for research in national priority areas.

The finer details on what these priority areas are and how the funding will be used, are not available yet.

In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder, Infosys, and chairman, Axilor Ventures, shares why this budget allocation is important and what needs to be done to further the research ecosystem in the country. The industry veteran also explains why he is optimistic this time.

What does the funding mean for the research ecosystem in the country?

This is a very good allocation for the research ecosystem. It will ensure that the National Research Foundation is funded very well when it starts. It is a very good signal to the entire business community that the government is optimistic about funding research.

I strongly believe that the industry now must come forward, the private sector must come forward and increase their spending for research.

How and where should the private sector participate?

Our tendency is to do research in-house. But the knowledge is limited in-house and the number of people they can assign is also restricted. Whereas if you invest that money outside in academic research institutions, resources that can be assigned to it are significantly higher.

There are multiple ways the private sector can participate. When it comes to basic research, it is either the government or philanthropic funding that counts. This research could be on new technology for vaccines.

For example, the messenger RNA vaccine is a new technology, right? We need to either find new technologies or leverage existing technologies to find cures for other diseases, say cancer. Private sector can fund that research in biotech.

Similarly, for example, there is a lot of scope is new battery technology for electric vehicles or self-driven cars. There are so many sectors in which we need to look at accelerating our own IP creation/technology and our own research.

There are also certain sectors where nobody else is interested. India has certain unique diseases or diabetes. Our country has a higher preponderance of diabetes in the population. If India does not invest in the problems we face, nobody else will.

Currently, the total amount invested in research is about 0.7-0.8 percent of the GDP. Of this 0.6 percent comes from the government and the rest is from industry. The government is trying to increase this number to 1-1.5 percent of the GDP. Industry contribution should also increase so that the total contribution becomes 3 percent.

While the Rs 50,000 crore funding is welcome, similar investments have been done in the past, but some of them are yet to see the light of the day like the Rs 7,000 crore National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Mission. Others are progressing slowly. So, do you see this funding fructify?

That is the challenge or that is how research happens. Research is open ended. You cannot predict when the outcome would happen. Basic research is completely unknown at this point.

An amount is allocated, and it will take some time to fructify or reach these institutions. Institutions will also have to build capacity to spend this money. So, I am optimistic that this will have a significant impact on the research output of the country in the next three to next five years. And definitely over the next 10-year period.

Could you tell us what we need to do to take the research ecosystem to the next level?

We need to think big. Currently what I see is that most of the research happens in a small way. You have one professor, one or two research or PhD students. They have a budget of say Rs 5-10 lakh and publish a paper. The student is happy because he/she gets a degree, while the professor goes on to the next student and the next research programme.

So, everything is small. They are not thinking very big. Now that you have a large allocation, you can start thinking big. You can think about major programmes. I hope that you can think in terms of larger teams, ambitious goals, and programmes, which I think will change the nature of research output from the country.

There is also a requirement for assured funding. If the funding is given on a year by year basis, researchers will be worried about whether the funding will continue or not. So, they set short-term goals not long-term goals.

Why am I optimistic? When you have such ambitious goals given to the group like ISRO for example, they can produce. We are one of the four countries in the world that was able to land on the Moon or Mars. So, I feel that with larger allocation and teams being more ambitious, even bigger goals can be met.

So, will the NRF funding guarantee larger and longer funding?

If I look at other subjects such as quantum computing and AI, they have given larger allocations and for longer periods. Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is another example. They have been successful. One of the reasons why we have significant weights in the biotech area is because of the support the Department of Biotechnology has given and the private sector has also worked hard to participate in this area.

What we need is to expand the capacity to absorb this funding. It is right now limited to the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc). We need a larger ecosystem, including even private colleges that are focused on research and education.
Handcuffed and sobbing, the 9-year-old girl screams "I want my dad!" repeatedly as Rochester, N.Y., police officers try to force her into a patrol car. When the girl keeps refusing to swing her legs inside, one officer pulls out his pepper spray.

"Just spray her at this point," the unidentified male officer tells a female colleague in a video of the Friday incident.

Moments later, the male officer sprays the girl himself as she shrieks in pain.

The graphicbody-camera footage, which Rochester police released Sunday, left city leaders demanding answers for how a family disturbance call quickly escalated into a use of force against a young girl in obvious distress.

"I'm not going to stand here and tell you that for a 9-year-old to have to be pepper-sprayed is okay," said Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan at a news conference on Sunday.

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, D, added that as a mother of a 10-year-old daughter, the video "is not anything you want to see."

The footage has drawn new scrutiny onto a Rochester police force already in turmoil over its treatment of Daniel Prude, a mentally ill Black man who died in March after police put a hood over the 41-year-old's head. Video from that incident sparked nationalprotests and led to the firing of the police chief and a new emphasis on sending mental health experts rather than police to deal with similar crises.

But the video released Sunday shows that not enough has changed, activists said.

"What we saw in that video is police escalating the situation rather than de-escalating," said Ashley Gantt, a co-founder of Free the People Roc, a community activist group in Rochester.

The incident began around 3:20 p.m. Friday, when police responded to a "family trouble" call, RochesterDeputy Police Chief Andre Anderson said at Sunday's news conference. Officers were told that the 9-year-old girl, who hasn't been identified, was suicidal.

"She indicated she wanted to kill herself and she wanted to kill her mom," Anderson said.

When officers tried to "secure her," Anderson said, the distressed girl ran away. The first video released by police shows an officer running after the girl along a snowy street. Once he catches up to her, he asks, "What is going on? How can I help?"

The girl's mother then arrives and argues with her daughter, causing her to grow more upset. With two officers restraining each of the girl's hands, video shows, she slides to the street, thrashing and kicking at police as she pleads to see her dad. Officers then handcuff her and try to force her into the back of a police cruiser. According to Anderson, they were trying to transport her to a hospital.

But the girl continues to scream and resists going inside the car, the second video shows. At one point, she pleads with the officers to "stop" and says they were hurting her. She also says that she "demands" to see her father.

"I don't care what you demand," one officer says in the video.

When another officer tries to push her into the back seat complains, "You're acting like a child," she responds, "I am a child."

Minutes later, video shows an officer pepper-spraying the girl, leaving her crying in the back seat as officers finally close the door. "Unbelievable," says the officer who pepper-sprayed her.

The girl was taken to Rochester General Hospital and released later that day. Police would not comment on whether any of the officers involved have been suspended or fired.

For local activists, the video is further proof that police treat people in the midst of mental health crises as criminals.

Sara Taylor, a social worker and administrator in Rochester, said her 12-year-old daughter has been arrested 10 times while suffering mental health crises. When Taylor's daughter had an episode in November and called police, Taylor said they ignored her pleas for mental health care and handcuffed her.

"I'm screaming, 'Please you gotta take it easy she's a little girl,' " Taylor said. "They take her right out of my house like a criminal after I told them she has a psychiatric condition."

On Sunday, Rochester leaders acknowledged a need for change in how police address mental health crises. In the wake of Prude's death, the city created a Person in Crisis Team,which is meant to send mental health professionals rather than police to similar cases. Warren said the team was not dispatched because there were several events happening simultaneously that "required a police response."

"It is clear from the video we need to do more in support of our children and families," Warren said.

But Taylor, who started an organization that helps low-income parents cope with the challenges and stigma attached to having a child with mental health issues, said that need has long been evident.

"Our community has a heightened distrust right now because of Daniel Prude and now we have those impacting our babies. Are you kidding? It's not okay," Taylor said. "It's shameful that it had to come to this."
Islamic rebels kill at least 57 in attacks on civilians in DRC

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At least 57 people were killed this week in attacks carried out by an Islamic rebel group in the northeast Democratic Republic of Congo as escalating violence near the Ugandan border has displaced hundreds of thousands of people so far this year.

The Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights said in a statement that Islamic rebels attacked Samboko, Bandavilemba and Walese-Vukutu villages in Ituri province on Tuesday, killing 40, according to The Associated Press.

Attacks on villages have been attributed to members of the Allied Democratic Forces and a group known as MTM, which claims to be affiliated with the Islamic State terror faction. According to the news agency, the two groups have begun carrying out attacks together.

The latest attacks follow a separate attack on Monday that was attributed to ADF, an Islamist rebel group that was driven out of Uganda in the late 1990s but has operated in eastern DRC and resurged in recent years. A military offensive was launched against the groups bases last year.

A source told Reuters that ADF launched an early morning attack on civilians in the village of Makutano in Ituri.

They fired several shots in the air. When the population was fleeing, they captured some people and cut them up with machetes, Gili Gotabo, a civil society leader in the Irumu territory, said of the Monday attack.

The Kivu Security Tracker, a research initiative that monitors violence in the region, reported that at least 17 were killed in Monday's attack. However, Gotabo told Reuters that there are likely to be more deaths.



ADF has been blamed for killing hundreds of people since the offensive began last year.

After a sharp decline of violent deaths in March, the Kivu Security Tracker shows an uptick in attacks in the region over the last two months.

The U.N.'s Children's Fund reported last week that over a quarter-million people, most of whom are children, have been forced to flee violence in Ituri since the beginning of the year.

The agency said that 22 health facilities have been destroyed and 160 schools have been damaged or looted.

UNICEF stressed in its May 20 report that 25,000 newly displaced people have gone into IDP camps and are struggling to access safe water and sanitation. The U.N. Refugee Agency estimates that over 5 million people were displaced in-country between October 2017 and September 2019, with over 900,000 refugees and asylum seekers in host countries.

According to UNICEF, the new displacements put further pressure on already stretched humanitarian services in one of the poorest, most insecure and disease-stricken parts of the country.

Even before the new influx, displaced people could only access five liters of water per day  far below the recommended daily minimum, the report says.

From three areas  Djugu, Mahagi and Irumu  UNICEF notes that about 200,000 people are seeking shelter in host communities or at extremely overcrowded displacement sites in and around Ituris capital of Bunia since December 2019.

The humanitarian situation in Djugu area is especially precarious as 70 percent of humanitarian workers have had to suspend operations due to the worsening security context, the UNICEF report adds.

Edouard Beigbeder, a UNICEF representative in the DRC, said the security situation in Ituri is deteriorating fast.

We need to act equally quickly to avert a crisis that would forcibly uproot and endanger even more children, Beigbeder warned in a statement.

The conflict between rebels and security services come as a conflict between farming and herding communities in the region has also led the killings of 701 people between December 2017 and September 2019 in Djugu and Mahagi, according to a U.N. investigation.

Violence and mass displacement has effected millions across Central and West Africa, including those that have been displaced or killed by extremist or rebel attacks in countries such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. Escalating Islamic terrorism in the southeast African country of Mozambique has also led to the displacement of over 100,000 people.
Latest edition of ICSF's newsletter on gender and fisheries, Yemaya No.62, dated December 2020, published

February 01,2021 | Source: ICSF

The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has released the latest edition of Yemaya, its newsletter on gender and fisheries.



Yemaya No. 62, dated December 2020, features articles from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Ghana, Mexco and the conversation between Meryl Williams, Danika Klieber and Kate Bevitt.



The article from Bangladesh by Md. Mujibul Haque Munir reveals that women in Bangladeshs coastal fishing continue to remain largely unrecognized and that urgent steps are needed to rectify this situation.



The article from Myanmar by Angela Lentisco looks at the challenge of FAOs FishAdapt project in strengthening the adaptive capacity and resilience of fisheries -and aquaculture dependent livelihoods and limited opportunity to work as wage labour in the commercial fishing business.



The article from Ghana by Naana Nkansah Agyekum looks at the gradual transformation of the ahotor oven which represents an improvement on the widely used chorkor smoke. The ahotor oven is energy efficient and helps women fish processors reduce the quantity of firewood in smoking fish.



The conversation between Kate Bevitt, Danika Kleiber and Meryl Williams focuses on the collaborative study, Illuminating Hidden Harvests. The conversation highlights the under recognition and under reporting of womens work.



Ines Lopez-Ercilla, Araceli Acevedo-Rosas and Francisco Fernandez, in their article on Mexico, argue that, as in other countries, fishing communities is grappling with the challenge of maintaining sustainable practices during the pandemic.



The article on gender sensitive biodiversity framework by Vivienne Solis argues that global biodiversity goals must recognize the vital contributions made by women and girls, particularly from indigenous and local communities.



The Profile column looks at how Jharna Acharya has dedicated her life towards the social welfare of the poor and the deprived. Shilpa Nandy shows us that how Jharna is leading the movements and struggles of women fishers in West Bengal, India.



The Milestones column by Meryl Williams looks at what are the significant developments in support of gender equity and equality that took place in 2020 and opines that many fisheries standards and certification systems pay only perfunctory attention to gender equality.



The What's New, Webby? Column, Vandana Menon, presents the details of a new gender report, Gender Inequality and the COVID-19 crisis: A Human Development Perspective, which examines the gender differentiated impacts of the COVID-19 crisis through sex-disaggregated data.



Vishakha Gpta, in the Yemaya Recommends section, points out that the book, Fisherwomen by Craig Easton shows that how in Eastons portfolio we can see the support and strength that the fisherwomen share with each other across different geographies and space.



The current issue of Yemaya also carries the ever-popular cartoon strip, "Yemaya Mama"(Mamas vaccine policy!).



Yemaya No. 62, dated December 2020, can be accessed at: https://www.icsf.net/en/yemaya/article/EN/62.html?limitstart=0%20





For more, please visit www.icsf.net

 2021 ICSF
SANAA, Yemen  Yemen's Houthi group, officially known as Ansar Allah, is presently among the organizations the United States designates as terrorists. One day prior to new US President Joe Biden's inauguration, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared the Houthis a terrorist organization, unleashing conflicting sentiments in Yemen and abroad.

On the local level, Yemenis are divided. Some welcomed the news, deeming it a step in the right direction. Others reacted with fury, calling it an extension of America's war on Yemen. On Jan. 25, thousands of protesters took to the streets in the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, denouncing the former US administration's resolution listing the Houthi group as terrorists.

Over the last six years, the United Nations has led peace talks between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government in a bid to resolve the Yemen conflict. Now, with the Houthis' new designation as terrorists, peace talks may face additional stumbling blocks. Plus, military victory against the Houthis has been unattainable over the last six years, and it seems a long road before Houthis lose the war.

Houthis have showcased defiance in reaction to the US labeling, saying it will have no political or military influence. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam believes this US move will not hinder peace talks. We will not stop our efforts to reach peace in Yemen  it is our responsibility to talk, to end the war and the blockade, he said in a statement on Jan. 14.

However, the consequences of their designation as a terrorist organization will be inevitable. It is a new chapter in suffering among Yemen citizens. Abdulsalam, a 45-year-old resident in Sanaa, told Al-Monitor the US designation of the Houthis is a matter of concern because it will add to civilians' suffering. We have been under blockade since 2015. And now new restrictions will start. I feel worried about the repercussions of the US designation, he said.

Sanaa resident Abdulsalam, who asked that only his first name be published due to security concerns, runs a grocery shop as his source of income. He understands the majority of the commodities in his shop are imported from outside Yemen. Such a reality sparked questions in his mind. Will imports continue to reach Houthi-controlled provinces smoothly? Will aid and food imports be exempted from restrictions? And who can guarantee that importation of such supplies will not be hindered?

His worry does not seem to be an unfounded fear of the future. However, it is a concern of aid organizations operating across Yemen. On Jan. 24, 22 humanitarian organizations, including the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children and Oxfam, called on the new US administration to override the former administration's resolution. A joint statement by these organizations said, This designation comes at a time when famine is a very real threat to a country devastated by six years of conflict, and it must be revoked immediately. Any disruption to lifesaving aid operations and commercial imports of food, fuel, medicine and other essential goods will put millions of lives at risk."

Leila Amri, a schoolteacher in Sanaa, said the US designation of the Houthis is an additional agony to Yemen's people. Speaking to Al-Monitor, she said, The certain thing is that the warlords in the country will not suffer from this move. It is only the civilian population that will bear the brunt. We have been experiencing constant fuel shortages over the last five years, which has made life worse. And now blacklisting the Houthis will certainly affect the lives of millions of people under their rule.

She added, I neither support nor protest the US designation. I just do not want to see people drown in further misery.

Though some civilians have shown their worry about the potential consequences of designating the Houthis a terrorist organization, others have said the definition of terrorism applies to the Houthi movement.

A human rights activist residing in Sanaa told Al-Monitor the Houthis are not different from any other terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS). Declining to be named for fear of reprisal, he said, It is not hatred to say that Houthis do not differ from other terrorist groups. I live in Yemen, and I know what they have done. If their actions do not mount to terrorism, what else could terrorism be?

Telling a story of what he describes as Houthi extremism, the activist said, Lately, the Houthis have raided restaurants that employ women, claiming that the work of women in such places contradicts our religious identity. But if these women die of hunger or go begging, that would not be a sin in their eyes.

The activist also told another example of the group's radicalism. They raided women's clothing shops that display mannequins, claiming that displaying such shapes 'is not in compliance with our faith.' They not only want to rule us but also impose on us what to do, how to think and how to live.

Over the last five years, Houthis have heightened their dominance of areas under their control. They have silenced critics and shown no tolerance to dissidents. Living circumstances have been dire due to the war and the blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition. The recent US designation is a fresh dose of suffering for the people in Yemen.

Khalil al-Omary, editor-in-chief of the news website Rai Alyemen, argues that the US labeling of Houthis as a terrorist organization will not leave an enormous impact on civilians' lives in Yemen. Omari told Al-Monitor, The Houthis have been robbing humanitarian aid to fund their war effort. This is not my opinion; it is a fact substantiated by the UN report. Houthis have taken over at least $1.8 billion in 2019, and this amount was supposed to help pay salaries of public employees and provide basic services to the people.

Sanaa's Abdulsalam is not good at politics and cannot predict the future, he admits. But he cannot conceal his pessimism about the situation. We hope for peace, but we do not expect it soon. This new US designation of Houthis is not good news for Yemen and its people. Our ordeal seems to last long, he said.
The impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on the local tourism industry has left a number of artisans in Swakopmund destitute. The craft sellers, whose target market consisted predominantly of tourists, said the sale and production of their products has halted since the nationwide lockdown in April last year, which has left them appealing for food, alternative employment or income grants to pursue other business opportunities.

The artisans added that they feel neglected and abandoned by government. "The government helped different sectors during the lockdown but the craft industry was not recognised," said one of the artisans, Kawaya Kabongo. "We want to be considered as a tourism sector because our customers were tourists and our crafts formed part of the tourist attractions," Kabongo added.

He has been selling arts and handcrafted goods in Swakopmund for 10 years and is one of the 62 vendors who signed a lease agreement with the town's municipality to operate at Kavita Arts and Craft Market at Kavita Park, for a monthly rental fee of N$120.

The municipality's community development services manager, Vilho Kaulinge, said the council's ordinary meeting agreed in August last year for the vendors to be relieved of rental payment for a period of nine months, which started from April 2020 and ended in December 2020.

This, according to Kaulinge, "is one of the municipality's interventions to assist the vendors during this pandemic", adding that they also distributed food to the vendors during the lockdown.

However, the vendors said apart from the three tins of fish and the packet of maize meal they received at the beginning of the lockdown, they still require monthly intervention as they have neither food for daily consumption nor income for other crucial expenses.

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"There are no customers, but I can't stay home, I come here to beg locals to at least buy out of pity. Please support me. I want to buy bread," narrated 54-year-old Valerie Shimwooshili, one of the craftswomen who has been making a living selling handmade baskets, bracelets, and mineral stones for the last 25 years. She now survives from mahangu that her family sends from the north.

Another vendor, Ngoija Rutjindo, one of the Ovahimba traders operating at the Kavita Park, said all they want now is food as all hope has been lost. "I didn't have a customer for over a month but I walk from DRC informal settlement every morning to come to the market. I walk back in the evening, hungry and tired," Rutjindo bemoaned.

Many of the vendors have now moved from their once cosy stalls at the market to the main road opposite the Strand Hotel, in hope that increased visibility will pique interest from potential buyers

The vendors added they have reduced their prices to fit local market realities and are appealing to the public and private organisations and individuals to come to their aid.

*Uaripi Katjiukua is an Information Officer at the Ministry of Information & Communication Technology's Erongo office.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Runny nose (coryza) and other indicative symptoms should be added as possible signs of COVID-19 infection, so that more people can access NHS COVID tests, according to a Queen Mary academic writing in The BMJ, in an open letter to the Chief Medical Officer, supported by 140 east London general practitioners and health care professionals.

Dr. Alex Sohal, honorary clinical senior lecturer in primary care at Queen Mary University of London, describes her experience as a GP in Tower Hamlets, regularly reviewing patients with mild symptomsfor example, a runny/blocked nose, sore throat, hoarseness, muscle pain, fatigue, and headachewho subsequently turn out to be COVID positive.

She writes: "These patients have frequently not even considered that they may have COVID-19 and have not self-isolated in the crucial early days when they were most infectious."

Some patients have to be dishonest to access COVID-19 tests

"The national publicity campaign focuses on cough, high temperature, and loss of smell or taste as symptoms to be aware ofonly patients with these symptoms are able to access a COVID-19 test online through the NHS test booking site. GPs have to advise patients to be dishonest to get a COVID-19 test."

Dr. Sohal highlights the World Health Organization's case definition of COVID includes other symptoms such as coryza, sore throat, vomiting, and diarrhea, while NHS guidance states that patients should keep self-isolating for more than ten days if they have a runny nose or sneezing.

Coryza/cold should now be added to COVID case definition

"It is vital to now change the UK COVID-19 case definition and test criteria to include coryza and cold, making them consistent with WHO," she writes.

"Tell the public, especially those who have to go out to work and their employers, that even those with mild symptoms (not only a cough, high temperature, and a loss of smell or taste) should not go out, prioritizing the first five days of self-isolation when they are most likely to be infectious."

Dr. Sohal concludes: "This will help to getand keepus out of this indefinite lockdown, as COVID-19 becomes increasingly endemic globally. Ignoring this will be at our peril."

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

More information: Alex Sohal. Open letter to Chris Whitty and Susan Hopkins: change covid-19 case definition in line with WHO to save lives, BMJ (2021). Journal information: British Medical Journal (BMJ) Alex Sohal. Open letter to Chris Whitty and Susan Hopkins: change covid-19 case definition in line with WHO to save lives,(2021). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.n283

Prime Policy Group, the lobbying wing of WPPs BCW unit, has been hired by nonprofit the Free at Last Coalition to advocate constitutional and civil rights issues on Capitol Hill.

The Lutz, Florida-based organization was formed in response to the fact that slavery is still technically legal in the United States, due to a little-known loophole that exists in the 13th Amendment, the landmark 1865 law that officially ended the institution of slavery in the U.S.

Section One of the 13th Amendment reads: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

This Amendment abolished mostbut not allslavery, due to the fact that the clause except as a crime whereof the party shall have been convicted still provides an avenue for slavery to be legal in cases when the practice is enforced as punishment to those convicted of a crime.

Scholars and activist groups have cited that "Punishment Clause" as making permissible the practice of unpaid or underpaid labor in the U.S. prison system. Between 2000 to 2016, the number of people housed in U.S. private prisons increased five times faster than the total prison population, according to a 2018 report from the Sentencing Project. On January 25th, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that prohibits the Justice Department from signing contracts with private prisons.

Prime Policy Group has been hired to promote the adoption of a constitutional amendment to eliminate the slavery exception from the 13th Amendment, according to lobbying registration documents filed with Congress in January.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) in December similarly introduced the Abolition Amendment, which would strike the "Punishment Clause" from the 13th Amendment.

The Free at Last Coalition account will be led by PPG chairman Charles Black, who was former aide to Ronald Reagans presidential campaigns and also served as an adviser to the election campaigns of George H.W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Governors Mitt Romney and John Kasich. Black will be joined by PPG managing director Mark Disler, who was formerly a staffer to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
Many artists who have been hard hit by the impact of Covid-19 have turned to other means of generating an income - such as their own clothing lines.

One such brand is Leave The Past and Move On, which was established in November last year, and ranges from hoodies, to T-shirts, floppies and tops.

Fernandos Shikongo, known as 'Santos' from male kwaito, hip-hop and sambo trio Hugely Music, says the brand has played a major role in his financial stability.

"Sometimes I would go to the shebeen to sell my albums, but then the owner of the juke box is not around. While there, I would talk to the customers, and try to convince them to buy my [clothing] items. They would buy, and many are pleased with the message on the clothing. If no one supports my music, someone will support the brand," Shikongo says.

He says the brand was also created to provide the public with a motivational message.

"Through the brand I am telling people that sometimes it is best to move on. You have to forget about everything bad that has happened in the past. When someone has mistreated you or denied to help you in the past, don't wish them bad, just leave it and proceed with your dreams," he says.

Shikongo says his customers are mainly students, bar ladies and salon owners. He says he markets his items on social media mostly.

"I would share photos of the products I have available. I also always ask them to share it with all their contacts. I wake up in the morning to go and sell on the streets. When music does not bring money, you sell the brand. In our industry you cannot depend on one thing only," he says.

'STREAMING STILL NEW'

Soukous kwasa and Afro-pop coastal musician Msunday Ndjukuma Shuudeni, better known as 'Msunday', sells T-shirts and jerseys.

His brand, also called Msunday, was launched in August last year.

"I am self-employed and my brand has been my biggest source of income. Money comes from streaming, which is still a new thing for our people. Our music industry is also not doing well outside the country yet. Our population is so small that we can't make a living by selling music only. We need to find other ways," he says.

'PUSH YOUR PRODUCTS'

Kwaito artist BlackDice Salaam, real name Jason Andreas, went solo in 2010, found himself struggling financially, and decided to start printing T-shirts.

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The brand has since expanded and he is now selling T-shirts, car stickers and jerseys.

"Life was tough, and asking people for money was not my cup of tea. I approached the owner of Antonio's Arts at Post Street Mall, Wernhil Park, to print my first three T-shirts, which I sold to friends. Then I started printing more and the business kicked off," Andreas says.

"My brand has helped me a lot when I didn't have a full-time job. I have managed to buy things such as beats and a laptop, and I can pay for taxi fees to and from the studio to record my songs. The brand is always a financial back-up for me because I'm an upcoming artist, which means sometimes I do not get paid for shows. I now have a full-time job, but my brand still assists me financially," he says.

Andreas says the key to success is proper marketing.

He often gives T-shirts away for free at shows, and talks about his brand wherever he goes, he says.

"I regularly upload my products on my WhatsApp status. My car is branded with my brand. People must see it everywhere. I use celebrities, like models and radio personalities, to advertise for me. If you are lazy you won't make it; you need to keep talking. Push your own products, because no one will do it for you," he says.

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a gathering and conveys festive greetings to leaders from non-Communist parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, as well as public figures without party affiliation, ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on Feb 1, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, called on Monday for efforts from non-Party members to actively contribute their suggestions and opinions on improving the country's governance in order to write a new chapter of multiparty cooperation in the new era.

Xi, who is also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark at a gathering attended by representatives of non-Communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and people without party affiliation.

On behalf of the CPC Central Committee, Xi extended his sincere greetings and best wishes to non-Party members as well as those who are engaged in united front work for the upcoming Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 12.

He said 2021 marks the first year for the country to implement the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Economic and Social Development and to start the new journey of fully building China into a modernized socialist country. This year, the CPC will celebrate its centenary, he added.

Xi urged non-Party members to firm up their belief in socialism with Chinese characteristics, and uphold and improve the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation led by the CPC.

He also required them to fulfill their responsibility of pooling wisdom and building consensus in implementing the new development philosophy and building the new development paradigm of "dual circulation" in the new development stage.

Xi praised non-Party members for their contributions in the past year in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that they unswervingly stood with the CPC, helped the Party fight the virus and provided significant support to the CPC Central Committee in scientific and democratic decision-making.

He underlined the need for non-Party members to continue to help the Party and the government to build broader consensus, settle disputes and uphold social stability in order to pool greater strength for adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

Xi also expressed hope that non-Party members could provide more pragmatic approaches and suggestions to the CPC Central Committee in policymaking and decision-making.
New Delhi, Feb 2 : Pandemonium continued in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday for the withdrawal of the three farm laws following the resumption of the session after one hour's adjournment, leading to another adjournment of the House till 7 p.m.

Little business could be carried out in the House amid the ruckus created by major opposition parties as well as two of BJP's former allies.

Referring to the three farm laws enacted in September last year, more than 10 opposition party members trooped near the Speaker's podium sloganeering "Kala Kannon Wapas Lo" (take back the black laws) after the House met at 5 p.m. after the first adjournment.

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government of ruling like "British era", Congessas leader of House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury requested to hold debate on farmers' issue considering their over two-month long protest which began on Delhi borders on November 26 last year, seeking repeal of the three farm laws.

"The whole country is witnessing how the farmers are sitting on agitation against the government. Over 170 farmers have died so far during the protests. The way farmers are being tortured, it seems that we have gone back to the the British era," Chowdhury said.

"The priority of the House should be to hold debate on farmers' issue first," he said.

Chowdhury was supported by other parliamentarians from the Congress who were near the Speaker's podium along with members of BJP's former allies Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Shiv Sena, as well as members of DMK, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who were standing in the well holding placards in their hands.

Members of the YSRCP and the Bahujan Samaj Party were also raising slogans against the government from their seats.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urged the members to go back to their seats and let the House function. He also assured to give them enough time to raise their issues.

As the parliamentarians did not relent, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the government is ready to discuss all the issues raised by the opposition inside the House as well as outside, and condemned their act to disrupt the House proceedings.

"This House is holding its Budget Session under extraordinary circumstances. The opposition should waste the precious time of the House. The government is ready to debate on each and every issue raised by the opposition," Tomar said.

As the bedlam continued, the Speaker began House proceedings, but after 15 minutes of mayhem, he again adjourned the House till 7 p.m.

Earlier when the Lower House had assembled for the day at 4 p.m. for the third sitting of the ongoing Budget Session, it was adjourned till 5 p.m. on the same farmers' issue.
- The PTCL market is expected to rise due to rising incidence and the expected entry of emerging therapies that will expand the market with novel targets.

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DelveInsight's " Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma (PTCL) Market " report provides an absolute comprehension of the PTCL, historical and forecasted epidemiology and the Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma market trends in the 7MM [the United States, EU5 (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and United Kingdom) and Japan]. The Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma market report also proffers an analysis of recent Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma treatment practice/algorithm, market drivers, market barriers and unmet medical needs.

Some of the essential highlights of the Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma Market Research Report :

Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma pipeline possesses potential drugs in mid-stage developments to be launched soon. The major key players include Eisai, Celgene Corporation, HUYA Bioscience International/Quintiles, Verastem, BeiGene, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp, Solasia Pharma, Aileron Therapeutics, Incyte, Novartis, and several others that hold the potential to create a significant positive shift in Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma market size.

and several others that hold the potential to create a significant positive shift in Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma market size. Only five FDA products are approved for PTCL treatment, comprising Beleodaq (Belinostat, Acrotech Biopharma); Istodax (Romidepsin, Celgene), Folotyn (Pralatrexate, Acrotech Biopharma), Arranon (Nelarabine, GlaxoSmithKline), and Adcetris (Brentuximab vedotin, Seattle Genetics) .

. There were no approved therapies for first-line treatment in the past years, with no current standard of care for PTCL patients. However, recent authorization of Adcetris (Brentuximab vedotin) in November 2018 from the US FDA has changed the Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma market landscape. It is now the only FDA-authorised regimen in first-line therapy combined with chemotherapy for adults with formerly untreated systemic ALCL or other CD30-expressing PTCL.

in from the US FDA has changed the Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma market landscape. It is now the only FDA-authorised regimen in first-line therapy combined with chemotherapy for adults with formerly untreated systemic ALCL or other CD30-expressing PTCL. The rapid change in the PTCL market is mainly attributed to the launch of Adcetris , along with the robust clinical pipeline and the upcoming launch of emerging therapies such as Azacitidine (CC-486), COPIKTRA (Duvelisib) , and others in the forecasted period (2020-2030). Adcetris and Istodax (Romidepsin) for the first-line treatment of PTCL is projected to lead the market with the highest PTCL market share in 2030.

, along with the robust clinical pipeline and the upcoming launch of emerging therapies such as , and others in the forecasted period (2020-2030). for the first-line treatment of PTCL is projected to lead the market with the highest PTCL market share in 2030. The approved Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma treatment options in the EU are Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) and Arranon (nelarabine).

For additional information on Market Impact by Therapies, visit: Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Treatment Market

Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma (PTCL) is a diverse group of aggressive lymphomas that develop from mature T-cells and natural killer (NK) cells and account for 10-15% of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas worldwide. Most PTCL subtypes are aggressive lymphomas, including PTCL-NOS, AITL, ALCL, enteropathy-type T-cell lymphoma, and extranodal NK cell/T-cell lymphoma. The total Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma incident population in the 7MM [the United States, EU5 (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom) and Japan] was 17,057 in 2020.

Download Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Infographic for free

The Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Report provides historical as well as forecasted epidemiological analysis segmented into:

Total Incident Cases of PTCL

Stage-Specific Incident Cases of PTCL (Stage I, Stage II, Stage III, and Stage IV)

Subtype-Specific Incident Cases of PTCL (PTCL-NOS, ALCL, AITL, nasal NK/T-cell lymphoma, enteropathy-type intestinal TCL, hepatosplenic TCL, and others)

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Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Analysis

Currently, the PTCL market holds treatment options that are supportive in nature, such as conservative (nonsurgical) and surgical methods. Conservative Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma treatment further includes physical therapy, behavioural therapies, or pharmacological therapies.

There are only five FDA permitted products for the treatment of PTCL, are Beleodaq (Belinostat, Acrotech Biopharma); Istodax (Romidepsin, Celgene), Folotyn (Pralatrexate, Acrotech Biopharma), Arranon (Nelarabine, GlaxoSmithKline), and Adcetris (Brentuximab vedotin, Seattle Genetics).

There were no approved therapies for first-line treatment in the past years, with no current standard of care for PTCL patients. However, a recent sanction of Adcetris (Brentuximab vedotin) in November 2018 from the US FDA has altered the Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma market landscape. It is now the only FDA-authorised regimen in first-line therapy combined with chemotherapy for adults with formerly untreated systemic ALCL or other CD30-expressing PTCL.

The approved PTCL treatment options in the EU are Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) and Arranon (nelarabine). Adcetris is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that targets CD30. In Europe, the rejection of the approval for Folotyn (pralatrexate) and Istodax (romidepsin) by The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has affected the Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma market scenario to a large extent. As these products showed a lack of evidence in the clinical benefit, they were withdrawn from the market subsequently. Apart from these, Beleodaq (Belinostat) is not licensed in Europe, although the EMA has granted it orphan designation status.

The approved therapies for the Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma treatment in Japan includes Istodax (romidepsin), Folotyn (pralatrexate), Poteligeo (mogamulizumab), Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), Mundesine (forodesine hydrochloride), and Arranon (nelarabine). As compared to the US and EU-5, the approved drugs for PTCL and its subtype are more in Japan. However, two approved drugs (Folotyn and Istodax) in Japan are rejected by the EMA due to a lack of evidence in the clinical benefit.

Apart from the available permitted therapies, there are a few off-label therapies and other emerging therapies available for PTCL treatment. Some of the off-label therapies enumerated in the NCCN guidelines for Relapsed PTCL are MabThera (Rituxan), Bortezomib, Bendamustine, Lenalidomide, and Alemtuzumab.

Apart from these approved and off-label therapies, various emerging therapies are being evaluated in clinical trials to treat PTCL and its subtypes. The emerging therapies include Azacitidine, Denileukin diftitox, HBI-8000, COPIKTRA, Tislelizumab, Keytruda, STI-3031/IMC-001, SP-02, Tipifarnib, ALRN-6924, Ruxolitinib, and Romidepsin + Azacitidine and many others.

PTCL Emerging Drugs Along with Key Players

Denileukin diftitox: Eisai

SP-02 (Darinaparsin, ZIO-101): Solasia Pharma

Fenretinide (4-HPR): CerRx

Tipifarnib: Kura Oncology

HBI-8000: HUYA Bioscience International/Quintiles, Inc.

COPIKTRA (Duvelisib): Verastem

Genolimzumab (GB226): Genor Biopharma

Azacitidine (CC-486): Celgene Corporation

Tislelizumab: BeiGene

Lacutamab/IPH4102: Innate Pharma

AFM13: Affimed GmbH

Opdivo (nivolumab) + Cabiralizumab: Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bavencio (avelumab): Pfizer

Keytruda (pembrolizumab): Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.

STI-3031/IMC-001: Sorrento Therapeutics

ALRN 6924: Aileron Therapeutics

Masitinib: AB Science

Ruxolitinib: Incyte Corporation/Novartis

Aplidin (plitidepsin): PharmaMar

ASTX660: Otsuka Pharmaceutical/Astex Pharmaceuticals

And several others.

Final Comments on Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Growth

Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Drivers

Use of Combination Therapies- In recent years, efforts have been made to incorporate new therapies into combination strategies for PTCL treatment.

In recent years, efforts have been made to incorporate new therapies into combination strategies for PTCL treatment. Upcoming novel therapies in pipeline for the treatment of PTCL- There is an improvement in PTCL treatment options, and a large number of agents are showing promising activity in PTCL. Also, there are demands of advanced therapeutics, and the presence of a significant number of pipeline drugs will drive the PTCL market.

There is an improvement in PTCL treatment options, and a large number of agents are showing promising activity in PTCL. Also, there are demands of advanced therapeutics, and the presence of a significant number of pipeline drugs will drive the PTCL market. An upsurge in Research and Development- Increased public awareness and growing research and development create a lucrative opportunity to innovate therapeutics to drive the PTCL market.

Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Barriers

PTCL subtypes' rarity- The subtypes of PTCL have distinct clinical characteristics that make it difficult to diagnose and treat. Refractory/relapsed patients present a low-risk profile. Data lack effective and safe therapies, and no clear standard of care has been established to treat PTCL in newly diagnosed patients and those who experience relapsed/refractory cases in PTCL.

The subtypes of PTCL have distinct clinical characteristics that make it difficult to diagnose and treat. Refractory/relapsed patients present a low-risk profile. Data lack effective and safe therapies, and no clear standard of care has been established to treat PTCL in newly diagnosed patients and those who experience relapsed/refractory cases in PTCL. Less expertise in diagnosis - T-cell lymphomas are often misdiagnosed, so, recruiting patients for clinical trials can be challenging. Diagnostic and therapeutic options are much needed to improve the prognosis of PTCL and outcomes for patients.

Scope of the Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Insight

Geography Covered : 7MM - The United States , EU5 ( Germany , France , Italy , Spain , and the United Kingdom ), Japan .

: 7MM - , EU5 ( , , , , and the ), . Study Period : 3-year historical and 11-year forecasted analysis (2017-2030).

: 3-year historical and 11-year forecasted analysis (2017-2030). Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Markets Segmentation : By Geographies and By Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Therapies (Historical and Forecasted, Current and Upcoming)

: By and By (Historical and Forecasted, Current and Upcoming) Leading Companies investigating its candidates for Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma : Eisai, Celgene Corporation, HUYA Bioscience International/Quintiles, Verastem, BeiGene, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp, Solasia Pharma, Aileron Therapeutics, Incyte, Novartis, and several others.

: Eisai, Celgene Corporation, HUYA Bioscience International/Quintiles, Verastem, BeiGene, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp, Solasia Pharma, Aileron Therapeutics, Incyte, Novartis, and several others. Analysis : Comparative and conjoint analysis of emerging therapies, Attribute Analysis.

: Comparative and conjoint analysis of emerging therapies, Attribute Analysis. Case Studies

KOL's Views

Analyst's View

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Table of Contents

1 Key Insights 2 Executive Summary of Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma (PTCL) 3 Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Overview at a Glance 4 PTCL Disease Background and Overview 5 Case Reports of Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma 6 Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Epidemiology and Patient Population 6.1 United States 6.2 EU5 Countries 6.2.1 Germany 6.2.2 France 6.2.3 Italy 6.2.4 Spain 6.2.5 United Kingdom 6.3 Japan 7 Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Treatment 8 Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Unmet Needs 9 Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Marketed Drugs 9.1 Beleodaq (Belinostat): Onxeo S.A. 9.2 Istodax (Romidepsin): Celgene Corporation 9.3 Folotyn (Pralatrexate): Spectrum Pharmaceuticals 9.4 Poteligeo (Mogamulizumab): Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co, Ltd. 9.5 Adcetris (Brentuximab vedotin): Seattle Genetics 9.6 Mundesine (Forodesine Hydrochloride): Mundipharma K. K. 9.7 Rituxan (MabThera): Genentech 9.8 Arranon (nelarabine): GlaxoSmithKline 10 Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Emerging Drugs 10.1 Denileukin diftitox: Eisai 10.2 SP-02 (Darinaparsin, ZIO-101): Solasia Pharma 10.3 Fenretinide (4-HPR): CerRx 10.4 Tipifarnib: Kura Oncology 10.5 HBI-8000: HUYA Bioscience International/Quintiles, Inc. 10.6 COPIKTRA (Duvelisib): Verastem 10.7 Genolimzumab (GB226): Genor Biopharma 10.8 Azacitidine (CC-486): Celgene Corporation 10.9 Tislelizumab: BeiGene 10.10 Lacutamab/IPH4102: Innate Pharma 10.11 AFM13: Affimed GmbH 10.12 Opdivo (nivolumab) + Cabiralizumab: Bristol-Myers Squibb 10.13 Bavencio (avelumab): Pfizer 10.14 Keytruda (pembrolizumab): Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. 10.15 STI-3031/IMC-001: Sorrento Therapeutics 10.16 ALRN 6924: Aileron Therapeutics 10.17 Masitinib: AB Science 10.18 Ruxolitinib: Incyte Corporation/Novartis 10.19 Aplidin (plitidepsin): PharmaMar 10.20 ASTX660: Otsuka Pharmaceutical/Astex Pharmaceuticals 11 Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Seven Major Market Analysis 12 CD30 expression in Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma 13 Expected Launch Year of PTCL Emerging Therapies 14 Attribute Analysis Phase III 15 Attribute Analysis Phase II 16 United States PTCL Market Outlook 17 EU-5 PTCL Market Outlook 17.1 Germany PTCL Market Size 17.2 France PTCL Market Size 17.3 Italy PTCL Market Size 17.4 Spain PTCL Market Size 17.5 United Kingdom PTCL Market Size 18 Japan PTCL Market Outlook 19 Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Drivers 20 Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma Market Barriers 21 SWOT Analysis of Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma 22 Reimbursement and Market Access 23 Recognized Establishments 24 Appendix 25 DelveInsight Capabilities 26 Disclaimer 27 About DelveInsight

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The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have sent a letter to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell, EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi and the foreign ministers of the EU member states on a common strategic vision for the further development of the Eastern Partnership initiative, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service has reported.

According to the report, Foreign Ministers Dmytro Kuleba of Ukraine, David Zalkaliani of Georgia and Aureliu Ciocoi of Moldova are convinced that the Eastern Partnership should take due account of the European aspirations of the three countries and introduce an ambitious approach to deepen their integration with the EU.

"Opening new horizons of cooperation for the most interested partner countries committed to the European vector of development will contribute to their closer political, economic and sectoral rapprochement with the EU. Adapting the Eastern Partnership to the new realities and the needs of its member states is necessary to strengthen the transformational potential of this initiative and stability in the region," the ministers said in a joint letter.

Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova outlined their Eastern Partnership priorities, which include integration into the EU's internal market, rapprochement with the EU in the areas of transport, energy, digital market, green economy, healthcare, and strengthening security cooperation.

The ministers announced their intention to strengthen coordination as part of preparations for the Eastern Partnership Summit in 2021 and to form a new package of its tasks and goals.

The foreign ministers emphasized that the differentiated approach of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova does not deny their commitment to the integrity and inclusiveness of the Eastern Partnership, the recognition of the strategic importance of the initiative for all six member states and the region as a whole.

The letter reads that the achievements of the three countries on the European integration path will serve as a guide for other Eastern partners.

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In his testimony, Farid cited a study he did that found: The number of false statements believed by those with social media as their main source of news is 1.41 times greater than those who cited another main news source. The number of false statements believed by those on the right of the political spectrum is 2.15 times greater than those on the left. And, those on the right were 1.12 times less likely to believe true statements than those on the left.
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Leading telecom service providers MTN and 9Mobile plan to request regulatory permission for an agreement to let customers share their networks, an official has said.

9Mobile CEO, Alan Sinfield, made this known in an interview with The Africa Report on Monday.

Mr Sinfield said a first-of-its-kind pilot free roaming scheme that allows customers of each company to switch to the network of the other where its own has no coverage has run smoothly in Ondo State.

Both companies are seeking permission from Nigerian regulatory agencies for a full roaming agreement, Africa Report said. The telecoms sector in Nigeria is regulated by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.

The facility, provided at no extra charge, would key into a roaming provision that is gaining ground in Africa and other parts of the world.

Since January, travellers in the Economic Community of West African States have been able to roam without paying charges, an end-result of a 2020 agreement to end roaming charges.

Roaming agreements can help increase capital expenditure efficiency, as it allows saved cash to be used to provide more infrastructure.

Collaboration

Last November, the NCC said active users of telecommunications services in the country stood at 199 million as of July 2020.

Within the period under review, MTN had the highest voice subscriptions with 80.3 million subscribers, representing 40 per cent. Airtel came a distant second with 53.7 million and Globacom is third with 52.7 million. 9mobile has 12.6 million subscribers.

By implication, it would be rather problematic for individual network providers to build infrastructure and provide services all alone.

This development makes collaboration quite imperative, says Mr Sinfield, who added that the industry should be doing more to collaborate to increase access because collaboration is the way forward for a market of this size.

The need for collaboration extends to fibre-optic cables, the 9Mobile CEO says, adding that network providers should not be digging up the same hole one after another.

Mr Sinfield called for more active network-sharing in the industry.
Dr. Tolani Ajagbe is medical director of Addiction Treatment Services and chief of Psychiatry at Crouse Health, in Syracuse.

As a minority person at Crouse Health, I have been inspired by the efforts of hospital leadership to advance issues related to diversity and inclusion. Ive been particularly encouraged by efforts made to ensure all eligible Crouse employees and members of the medical staff who want the Covid-19 vaccine are able to get the vaccine.

However, from conversations I have had with some of my co-workers and friends who are persons of color, many still harbor reservations about the pandemic and vaccination. The underlying issue seems to be a lack of trust in the system. References have been made about past vaccine development efforts where minorities and less privileged people were used as human guinea pigs for vaccine trials, later developing serious complications. There are also discussions about the disparities in the basic social determinants of health (housing, income, access to affordable, quality health care, etc.), leading to the disproportionate number of Covid cases and deaths among individuals of color, especially Black Americans. A recent Associated Press article about racial disparity seen in U.S. vaccination efforts also referenced a lack of trust in who is administering the vaccine and where it is being administered. People expressed a preference to be vaccinated by their own doctors in their local clinics.

While these are deep-rooted and legitimate issues that demand ongoing conversations and solutions, this current pandemic is an emergency public health crisis that demands a concerted effort by all of us, together, irrespective of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, political affiliations or other identities. This may be the generational moment of our lifetime that requires we all come together, trust one another and do the right thing. There are legitimate issues to debate relating to equity, fairness and justice, and those important conversations should continue. However, this pandemic is a devastating, generational threat that requires time-sensitive, focused efforts by every one of us to defeat it.

Dr. Tolani Ajagbe is medical director of Addiction Treatment Services and chief of Psychiatry at Crouse Health, in Syracuse. Provided photo

For those who are worried about any immediate or future complications from this vaccine, I will report to you that it is safe. I was one of the people who wanted to wait a few weeks or months before taking it, but I changed my mind after doing a thorough review of the vaccine development and early approval process. I came to the conclusion that the immediate and future complications that can come from getting infected with the virus are much greater than any risks that can come from the vaccine. While we continue to take all the precautions and follow CDC guidelines of handwashing, wearing masks, and social distancing, they do not guarantee absolute protection. Getting vaccinated brings us much closer to 100% protection.

On a personal note, I already received both vaccines with minimal discomfort. The only symptom I had was some soreness at the injection site for both vaccines. I remain anxious about the delay in vaccine development for children below the age of 16. I am the parent of a child under 16, and I cant wait for her to get vaccinated. My elderly mother is also anxiously waiting to be vaccinated in New Jersey once allowed to do so. I will strongly encourage everyone and their loved ones to also get the vaccine as soon as it is available to them. I believe it is our duty as healthcare workers to educate ourselves about the vaccine so that we can further educate our friends and loved ones.

While I strongly believe that herd immunity should be our ultimate goal, I will encourage you to focus on the immediate personal protection the vaccine provides for you and your loved ones. The benefit of herd immunity will come later, when most of us get vaccinated so that we can return to a semblance of normalcy at some point in the future. This pandemic is not going away any time soon, especially now that there are different variants of the virus springing up all over the world and showing up in the U.S. a few days later. We all have a better chance of overcoming this pandemic if we come together to fight with every tool at our disposal, starting with the vaccine.

Related: Fewer Black hospital workers accepting Covid-19 vaccine, Cuomo says
LAKE SUPERIOR, MI - After a harsh winter storm blew out a window in the very remote Stannard Rock Lighthouse in Lake Superior, a team from the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Alder recently hitched a ride on a Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City to make the icy repair.

Teams had been worried the missing window could threaten the electronics inside - and even the working light - at the historic lighthouse that sits off the eastern shore of Michigans Keweenaw Peninsula.

Built 24 miles from the Upper Peninsula shoreline, Stannard Rock is considered the lighthouse farthest from shore in the contiguous United States. That has earned it the grim moniker as The Loneliest Place in the World.

The Coast Guard is sharing with MLive readers their photos from last weeks helicopter and repair trip.

Stannard Rock sits 24 miles from the Upper Peninsula mainland, making it the farthest from shore of any lighthouse in the contiguous United States.

Petty Officers Craig Campomizzi and John Ziemba, part of the Aids to Navigation Team aboard the Duluth-based cutter Alder, made the Jan. 26 trip out to Stannard Rock with help from the Traverse City-based chopper crew.

The weather wasnt the most conducive at single-digit temperatures and frequent snow squalls, but thanks to the keen skill and professionalism of the air crew, they were able to make five hoists using a rescue basket to get Petty Officer Ziemba, myself, and our gear safely onto the icy structure, Petty Officer Campomizzi told MLive. While Petty Officer Ziemba ensured the light was operating within specified parameters and the structure was sound, I got to work boarding up the missing window until the Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Conservancy can get out there in the spring to affect a permanent window replacement.

Built in 1883, the Stannard Rock station is well-known among Great Lakes lighthouse lore lovers. Its exposed crib - or base structure - is considered one of the Top 10 engineering feats in the U.S., according to the National Park Service. And it was built to mark a huge underwater reef that was considered one of the most dangerous obstacles to shipping in Lake Superior. The top of a large underwater mountain was found to sit just 4 feet from the surface of the water in some spots.

As such a remote lighthouse, Stannard Rock was considered one of the stag stations, where male keepers and assistants could work, but could not bring their families like they could at other assignments.

Heres a little more history to give you a feel for this place, courtesy of a recent social media post from the U.S. Coast Guard Station Marquette: The old keepers told terrible tales of life on the Rock. Violent northwest storms sent 30-foot waves smashing into the tower and spray cascading over the lantern room 110 feet above the Lake. Louis Wilks from Marquette holds the record for consecutive time spent on the Rock  99 days. No other keeper even approached this remarkable feat. The men were rotated off the Rock, three weeks on and one off. In 1939, the U.S. Coast Guard took over the lighthouse and overwhelming loneliness remained a problem.

The broken window that put the electronics inside Stannard Rock Lighthouse at risk.

The lighthouse was automated in 1962, a year after a fatal fire and explosion that left survivors stranded at Stannard Rock for days until they were noticed by a passing ship. In 1971, the lighthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It remains a working aid to navigation and can be seen by boat, airplane or - last weeks case - a winter helicopter ride.

There is a lot of interesting history that accompanies this lighthouse and its very rewarding to be able to get out to, the loneliest place on the continent to help out another agency on behalf of the U. S. Coast Guard, Campomizzi said.

Air Station Traverse City gave a shout-out to its helicopter team for making the trip possible: Our crew from Air Station Traverse City hoisted the ATON team, along with their gear, down to the lighthouse allowing them to ensure the light was in good working order and to board up the broken window. Great job on a successful mission!

A U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City pilot aboard the Jayhawk helicopter used to take an ATON team out to Stannard Rock to fix a window and check the lighthouse.

Have you ever wondered where the loneliest place in North America is? Thor and Loki never feel lonely. They receive... Posted by U.S. Coast Guard Station Marquette on Thursday, January 28, 2021

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Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Dubinsky, subject to U.S. sanctions, has been expelled from the Servant of the People faction.

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, Dubinsky announced this after a faction meeting on Monday, February 1.

"I'm interested in the fact that this is not a vote, but a pure farce. And today I am addressing both esteemed and disrespectful colleagues, because there are dear colleagues who did not vote for this manipulative story. [] We have seen the true faces of political actors in both the President's Office and the Ukrainian parliament, and we understand well that this is a manipulative result that specific people needed to receive specific political dividends and to solve their own problems," Dubinsky said.

He also added that "it is absolutely obvious to me that after these red lines [have been crossed] it makes no sense to stay in this faction and no MP with common sense needs this."

Dubinsky noted that he would continue to work in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy.

He also said he did not plan to join another faction or parliamentary group. At the same time, when asked whether he plans to create his own parliamentary group, he said he would talk about this later.

On January 11, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took additional action against seven individuals and four entities that are part of a "Russia-linked foreign influence network" associated with Andrii Derkach.

U.S. sanctions have been imposed on former Ukrainian government officials Kostiantyn Kulyk, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, Andriy Telizhenko, and current Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Dubinsky, who released the so-called "Derkach's tapes."

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A driver escaped icy waters in Massachusetts after their truck crashed into a brook Tuesday morning, authorities said.

Firefighters in Halifax responded to a report of a vehicle in the water on Franklin Street around 9 a.m., the towns fire department said in a Facebook post.

The 18-year-old man who was driving the red pickup truck slid off the icy roadway and through a cement barrier, becoming submerged in roughly 5 feet of water, according to Chief Jason Viveiros.

He was able to get out on his own, Viveiros said about the driver.

Paramedics evaluated the man, who refused to be taken to the hospital, according to the chief.

A tow truck with a crane attached to it was used to take the pickup truck out of the swampy body of water it became submerged in, he said.
Years before he went on to create The Simpsons, Matt Groening grew up in Portland, where he attended Lincoln High School. Now, the cartoonist has combined one of his most famous characters, Homer Simpson, with the real-life coronavirus pandemic, for a special picture thats being auctioned off to raise money for the Southwest Portland school.

In an image that definitely captures the times, Groening has drawn Simpsons patriarch Homer Simpson wearing a mask, the facial covering experts agree should be worn to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Written on the mask is Homers catchphrase -- Doh!

Groening signed the picture, and added some personal notes at the bottom, including Go, Lincoln High School! Safe, safe! and the detail that Groening is Class of 1972.

"The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening drew a special portrait of Homer Simpson for a Lincoln High School fundraising auction. (Photo: Courtesy Friends of Lincoln)

Groenings masked-up Homer Simpson picture is among the items that are being auctioned as part of the Lincoln High School Virtual Flock Party fundraiser, called Flock On! Reflecting more of the changes the pandemic has brought, the fundraiser isnt happening as a ticketed, in-person event. Anyone can register for the auction and bid on items, including Groenings pandemic portrait of Homer.

The virtual Flock On! is scheduled to happen online Thursday, Feb. 4. According to the website, the gala pre-show starts at 5:30 p.m. The main live show begins at 6 p.m., and is expected to run for about 45 minutes.

To register, go to the Friends of Lincoln website: https://friendsoflhs.com. Once registered, check out the catalog to bid on items. At this point, the current high bid for the Homer Simpson drawing is $1,000. As Homer might say, thatd buy a lot of doughnuts.

More of our coverage:

Matt Groening on his new Netflix show, Portland roots and Oregons independent oddness

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kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist
The Martian moon Phobos orbits through a stream of charged atoms and molecules that flow off the Red Planet's atmosphere, new research shows.



Many of these charged particles, or ions, of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and argon, have been escaping Mars for billions of years as the planet has been shedding its atmosphere. Some ions, scientists predict, have been smashing into the surface of Phobos and could be preserved in its uppermost layer, according to a paper published on Feb. 1 in the journal Nature Geoscience.

This means that if soil from Phobos were analyzed in labs on Earth, it could reveal key information about the evolution of the Martian atmosphere, researchers say. Mars once had an atmosphere thick enough to support liquid water on its surface; today, it's less than 1% as dense as Earth's.

"We knew that Mars lost its atmosphere to space, and now we know that some of it ended up on Phobos," said Quentin Nenon, a researcher at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, and the study's lead author.

Phobos is one of two moons of Mars (the other is called Deimos). It orbits intimately close to the Red Planet, about 60 times closer than the Moon orbits Earth, as measured from approximately surface to surface. Misshapen, pockmarked by craters, and 100 times smaller in diameter than Earth's moon, Phobos is the source of great controversy among scientists. The mystery is where did Phobos and Deimos come from? Are they asteroids that were captured by Martian gravity, or natural satellites of Mars that were spawned by the same cloud that created the planet? It's also possible that they formed from the debris that spewed when Mars collided with something, similar to how our Moon is thought to have formed after Earth collided with a rocky object.

In order to help settle the debate, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is preparing to send the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) probe to Phobos in 2024 to collect the first samples from its surface and deliver them to Earth. But those samples, Nenon noted, could reveal a lot more than the origin of Phobos if MMX were to land on the near side of the moon, or the side that always faces Mars.

Phobos is tidally locked to Mars, like Earth's moon is locked to Earth, thus always showing the planet only one side. As a result, the rocks on the near side of Phobos have been bathed for millennia in Martian atoms and molecules. Nenon's research shows that the uppermost surface layer of Phobos' near side has been subjected to 20 to 100 times more wayward Martian ions than its far side.

"With a sample from the near side," Nenon said, "we could see an archive of the past atmosphere of Mars in the shallow layers of grain, while deeper in the grain we could see the primitive composition of Phobos."

Nenon's team analyzed data from NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, spacecraft to reach this conclusion. MAVEN has been collecting data from the orbit of Mars for more than six years in order to help scientists figure out how Mars lost its atmosphere and to provide other important scientific insights on the evolution of the planet's climate. Since the spacecraft crossed the orbit of Phobos about five times each Earth day as it circled Mars during its primary mission, Nenon and his colleagues figured they could use MAVEN measurements to learn something about Phobos, especially since it is the target of the forthcoming MMX mission.

They relied on MAVEN's Suprathermal and Thermal Ion Composition instrument, or STATIC, to measure the Martian ions in Phobos' orbit. STATIC measures the kinetic energy and velocity of incoming particles. This allows scientists to compute their mass. Based on the different masses of ions measured, STATIC determined which particles came from Mars rather than from the Sun. The Sun also emits atmosphere-busting ions, though predominantly ones with much lower mass. Scientists then estimated how many ions could make it to the surface of Phobos and how deeply they would be implanted (no more than several hundred nanometers, which is about 250 times shallower than the width of a human hair).

"What Quentin has done is take investigations we've done at the Moon and at other moons of the solar system and applied the same methods to Phobos for the first time," said Andrew Poppe, associate research scientist at the Space Sciences Laboratory and co-author of the Phobos paper.

Indeed, studying moons to learn more about their parent planets is common practice. Earth's moon, for instance, with no atmosphere, wind, or water to strip its surface of ancient clues, is considered by scientists to be the best-preserved archive we have of the early solar system.

"What we've seen in Apollo samples is that the Moon has been patiently recording individual atoms coming from the Sun and from Earth," Poppe said. "It's a really cool historical record."

Scientists hope that more samples from the Moon's surface will inform us about Earth's ancient atmosphere or early magnetic field. Poppe, whose Berkeley colleagues designed and built the STATIC instrument, said he wondered whether the surface of Phobos would be able to reveal information about early Mars, when the planet appears to have been warm and wet.

So when he found himself, several years ago, with no internet service at the lab, "I was forced to talk to my colleagues over coffee because we had nothing better to do," Poppe said. He asked them if Phobos could be subjected to Martian ions like Earth's moon is often subjected to particles coming from Earth. "Do you guys see any evidence of this?" he asked.

Nobody had looked into this, so Poppe did some computer modeling which indicated that he was onto something. When Nenon joined Space Sciences Laboratory in 2019, he offered to pore through MAVEN data to find out if Poppe's model was right. It turns out it was. "So hopefully this finding will have an impact on the scientific activities of the MMX mission," Nenon said.

This research was partially funded by the MAVEN mission. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and NASA Goddard manages the MAVEN project.

This research was also partially funded by teams affiliated with NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, including the Lunar Environment and Dynamics for Exploration Research project, led by NASA Goddard planetary scientist Rosemary M. Killen, and the Dynamic Response of the Environments at Asteroids, the Moon, and moons of Mars, led by Goddard planetary scientist William M. Farrell.



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Only company in North America to have developed a product line of hard pills for a variety of cannabinoid and terpenoid blends

Holds a Cannabis Standard Processing & Sales for Medical Purposes License, a Cannabis Research License and an Industrial Hemp License from Health Canada.

Tablets expected to be released this year

What Canntab Therapeutics does:

( ) (OTCMKTS:CTABF) is dedicated to the research and development of oral dosage formulations of cannabis.

The company's delivery system treats a variety of ailments by delivering a uniform dosage of medicinal cannabis extract. This includes extended-release, immediate-release and bi-layered tablets.

Canntab is the first to offer medical cannabis in pill form and its suite of products continues to grow. The company's goal is to become a global leader of research in, production of and education about hard pill oral dosage therapeutic cannabis.

The tablets are intended to treat disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder and arthritis, and they can also act as a pain management and appetite loss drug for patients undergoing cancer treatments.

Compared to smoking and edibles, Canntab tablets can deliver precision dosing and more stability, all with no taste or smell, the company said.

How is it doing:

In February, Canntab received a patent covering its proprietary cannabidiol formulations in Canada. The patent, which has a priority date of January 23, 2017, expires in January 2038.

Canntab now has patent protection in Canada and the US, according to the companys legal counsel. The company won its first US patent in September 2020.

Currently, the company is designing a study looking at providing greater bioavailability through a blood level study at a third-party clinical research organization.

To help the company progress in 2021, the company raised almost C$1.6 million via a private placement of convertible debentures.

Last year, the company launched its suite of hard pill products in Australia with its partner CANN Global Limited. CANN Global, through a management partnership with Medcan Australia Pty Ltd, received an import permit and placed an initial order for Canntab products.

Looking ahead, the company has a variety of tablets slated for release this year.

Inflection points:

Instant release CBD, THC and CBD/THC tablets expected in Spring 2021

Oral dissolving CBD tablets expected in Spring 2021

Extended-release CBD, THC and CBD/THC tablets expected in late 2021

What the boss says:

Canntab CEO Larry Latowsky said in a recent press release that Canntab is well-positioned in 2021 after receiving a Canadian patent for its proprietary cannabidiol formulations.

Intellectual property is at the root of our value proposition and, having been granted our first Canadian patent and our second patent overall in less than five months, further confirms our leading position as the go-to company for precise dosage and pharmaceutical grade tablets for the medical market containing THC, CBD or any combination of THC and CBD, Latowsky said.

"We are particularly pleased with the opportunities that are being presented for us to provide solutions to the USA market with the anticipated regulatory changes contemplated by the Biden administration, which we anticipate will allow us faster access to the largest medical cannabis market in the world.

Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel
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STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. 9 more bodies of fallen servicemen have been found during the search operations in the direction of Varanda (Fizuli), official of the State Emergency Service of Artsakh Hunan Tadevosyan told Armenpress.

According to the preliminary data, they are servicemen (either volunteers or reservists). Forensic examination will be conducted to identify them.

So far, a total of 1354 bodies have been found as a result of the search operations.

Today the search operations will be carried out in Hadrut region, he said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan











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Missionaries in Papua New Guinea promote eco-sustainable development projects and activities in the spirit of Laudato si.

By Giada Aquilino

There is a close bond between the missionaries of Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), and Papua New Guinea. That faraway land in the Pacific Ocean in fact, was their first destination in 1852, with an expedition of seven people. The presence of the missionaries there came to an end in 1855, after the martyrdom of Blessed Giovanni Mazzucconi, to be resumed in 1981. Today there are 12 PIME missionaries in the country who have been joined by 28 Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate. After having carried out various development projects over the years, it is to Papua New Guinea that PIME has chosen to dedicate the 2021 Country Fund, a collection of donations that in the 2019 and 2020 campaigns had been destined to Amazonia and China.

Guided by Laudato si

The reflection that guided them stems from the Pope's encyclical Laudato si' which, in 2015, took a snapshot of the Planet, denouncing spiralling exploitation and poverty. Furthermore, today, almost six years later, new "frontiers" of exploitation of natural resources have opened up in certain countries and regions, including in Papua New Guinea, as illustrated by Giorgio Bernardelli, PIMEs Director of Communications.

Deforestation in Papua New Guinea

Land rich in resources at risk of depletion from exploitation

The environmental balance of the Pacific country has suffered "a serious degradation in the last decade due to pollution and poor governance of the territory," Bernadelli told Vatican News. It is one of the places, he said, where "our global economy most easily finds an abundance of the raw materials we need": gold, silver, copper, minerals in general. "Papua New Guinea is a very rich land from this point of view and it is a land where there are also new frontiers of this exploitation. One of the most serious problems today, he explained, is that of sand mining. There are entire areas of the Papua New Guinea coast that risk being eroded precisely because of the exploitation of this material for export. And there are also projects for seabed mining, i.e. for the exploitation of resources under the sea, on the seabed".

A fund for Papua New Guinea

Thanks to the 'S142 - Sister Papua New Guinea' Fund, the PIME missionaries aim to promote eco-sustainable development projects and activities in the local missions, such as the supply of electricity and water using instruments with a low environmental impact.
The White House and Statement Department called for the unconditional release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison Tuesday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki read a statement condemning the latest developments in Moscow from the White House podium when asked about the latest development, as state security forces continued to crack down on protests.

Following the sentence, Navalny's allies called for a protest in Moscow's Manezhnaya Square. Riot police have been photographed dragging journalists and protesters away from locations in the capital.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday called for the unconditional release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny

'We are deeply concerned by Russian authorities decision ... to send the opposition figure, Alexey Navalny, like every Russian citizen, Mr Navalny is entitled to the rights provided in the Russian constitution and Russia has international obligations to respect the equality before the law and the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

'We reiterate our call for the Russian government to immediately unconditionally release Mr. Navalny, as well as the hundreds of other Russian citizens wrongfully detained in recent weeks for exercising their rights.

Psaki did not spell out any additional steps the U.S. would take when asked, but she cited an ongoing 'review' of a series 'concerning actions.'

They include Navalny, the massive Solar Winds hack of government computers, reports of Russian bounties on U.S. troops, and interference in the 2020 election.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called for Russia to honor its constitution's rights to free assembly and expression

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, 44, lifts his cuffed hands as he speaks with his lawyers at the court in Moscow on Tuesday morning

'That's an ongoing review by the national security team when they conclude that that will launch, you know of whatever policy process to determine what steps, we will take from here,' she said.

Navalny was arrested Jan. 17 after flying to Germany to be treated for a poison attack.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued the same statement calling for Navalany's 'immediate and unconditional release.'

Allies of Navalny called for immediate protests today after the Kremlin critic was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for violating the terms of a 2014 conviction.

According to protest monitors, 500 people have been detained by Russian police today. Most were seized this morning as they tried to gather near the court to support the opposition leader during the ruling. So far, twelve have been arrested in this evening's demonstrations.

As his sentence was read, Navalny made a heart sign with his hands and smiled at his wife Yulia from behind the glass panel of his holding cell. He told Yulia, who was crying as the verdict was read out: 'Don't be sad, everything will be fine'.

The 44-year-old dissident was tried today for breaking the terms of a 2014 embezzlement conviction, for which he received a three-and-a-half year suspended sentence. The Moscow court today ordered Navalny serve his original sentence in a penal colony, minus the one year he already spent under house arrest.

As guards dragged the 44-year-old away to the cells, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab demanded the 'perverse ruling' be reversed.

'The UK calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Alexey Navalny and all of the peaceful protesters and journalists arrested over the last two weeks,' said Mr Raab.

'Today's perverse ruling, targeting the victim of a poisoning rather than those responsible, shows Russia is failing to meet the most basic commitments expected of any responsible member of the international community.'

US President Joe Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed Raab's demands, calling for his immediate release.

'We reiterate our call for the Russian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Navalny, as well as the hundreds of other Russian citizens wrongfully detained in recent weeks for exercising their rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly,' Blinken said.

French President Emmanuel Macron added to the growing condemnation of Russia's actions on Twitter.

'The conviction of Alexei Navalny is unacceptable. A political disagreement is never a crime. We call for his immediate release. The respect for human rights such as democratic freedom are not negotiable.'

The spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, told other nations to 'not interfere' with her country's internal affairs.

'For the last few weeks we have been in a state of comments and responses to similar attacks and statements. You should not interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. And we recommend that everyone deal with their own problems...There are a lot of problems in these countries, there is work to be done,' she told Russia's business broadcaster RBC.

Earlier today Navalny mocked Putin by giving him the nickname 'Vladimir the Poisoner of Underwear' and told a judge his trial is only taking place because the Russian leader had failed to kill him with Novichok.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny makes a heart sign as his prison term is handed down by a Moscow court today

Russian police drag a Navalny supporter in downtown Moscow this evening

Russian police detain a man in downtown Moscow this evening after the Kremlin critic was sent to prison earlier today

Detained people are seen inside a police vehicle in downtown Moscow this evening

Police escort a man from the scene of protests in downtown Moscow earlier this evening

Russian reinforced police units stand guard on the street in downtown of St. Petersburg, Russia today

Officers detain a man during protests after the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow today

A man draped in a Russian flag walks among protesters demonstrating the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow today

Riot police officers guard Bolshaya Morskaya Street in St Petersburg today. The city authorities tightened security measures as Moscow's court sentenced Alexei Navalny to three-and-a-half years

Russian police drag a protester away in St Petersburg, Russia today. Protesters descended on Russian cities after dissident Alexei Navalny was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in a penal colony

Navalny told the Russian courthouse that Putin is 'demanding to steal underwear from opponents and smear them with chemical weapons'.

He also said Putin wanted him imprisoned to 'scare millions' and warned the President that 'people will realise.'

The Vladimir Putin critic was arrested last month for violating the probation terms of a 2014 embezzlement conviction.

His detention has sparked weekends of demonstrations by tens of thousands of protesters across Russia.

Today, 354 Navalny supporters were hauled away by riot police as he faced down a representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) inside the Moscow courthouse.

'It's easy to lock me up,' Navalny said in his closing statement during his trial, reports The Moscow Times. 'The main thing in this process is to intimidate a huge number of people, this is how it works. They are putting one person behind bars to scare millions.

He continued: 'I really hope that this process will be perceived as a sign of weakness.'

Warning Putin about his actions, Navalny added: 'You can't put millions and hundreds of thousands in jail  and I hope people will begin to realize that. Once they do  and this moment will come  you won't be able to jail everyone.'

Navalny said the 'elephant in the room' is that his trial is only taking place because he 'offended' Putin for surviving the Novichok poisoning.

A man is detained by riot police in Russia today as protesters gathered to demand the release of jailed dissident Alexei Navalny

Navalny supporters, and their dogs, are escorted away from the scene of a protest in downtown St Petersburg tonight

Russian riot police detain a participant of an unauthorised rally in central Moscow tonight

Russian riot police detain a Navalny supporter after the dissident called for protests against his three-and-a-half year imprisonment

Russian police detain a protester in central Moscow this evening

Protesters gather in central Moscow tonight to protest the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny

'We know why this is happening,' he said. 'The reason is the hatred and fear of one man in a bunker. Because I offended him by surviving after they tried to kill me on his orders.

'No matter how much [Putin] tries to pose as a geopolitician, his main resentment toward me is that he will go down in history as a poisoner.'

Mocking the Russian President, Navalny continued: 'There was Alexander the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise. Now we'll have Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants.

'The police are guarding me and half of Moscow is cordoned off because we have shown that he is demanding to steal underwear from opponents and smear them with chemical weapons.'

Navalny faces three-and-a-half years in jail if the judge, who is now deliberating their verdict, decides to trigger the suspended sentence handed down following his 2014 money-laundering trial.

Navalny rejects the conviction as politically motivated and believes the suspended sentence has been resurrected to gag him.

Yulia Navalnaya, 44, the wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, walks into the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow on Tuesday morning

Today, 311 Navalny supporters were hauled away by riot police as he faced down a representative of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) inside the Moscow courthouse. Pictured: A Navalny supporter is hauled into a police van by heavily armoured riot police

Riot police lead a Navalny supporter towards a waiting van this morning

Alexei Navalny, 44, appears in court this morning accused of violating probation after he was handed a suspended sentence in 2014 for money laundering - a conviction we rejects as politically motivated

Navalny today said Vladimir Putin wants to imprison him to 'scare millions' and warned the President that 'people will realise you can't jail everyone'. Pictured: Navalny speaks with his lawyer Olga Mikhailova at the court in Moscow this morning

Navalny speaks with his lawyer ahead of the sentencing hearing

The verdict is expected to be returned at 8pm (5pm GMT) according to the Mediazona news website.

His defense lawyer Vadim Kobsev likened Navalny's poisoning to a 'political Chernobyl' and ended his speech with a quote from the TV series 'Chernobyl'.

He said: 'Legasov says: 'Dyatlov broke all the rules and brought the reactor to self-destruction. Nobody in that control room knew that the shutdown button would act as a detonator.' Dear judge, don't be like Dyatlov, don't push the button.'

Navalny shot down accusations he broke terms of his parole, arguing that he 'was in a coma' at the time.

His defense team argue that for much of the period which the penitentiary service says he was in breach, he was in a coma at the hospital in Berlin, telling the judge today that the 'the whole world knew where he was.' The opposition leader says he was poisoned by the Kremlin.

The FSIN official claimed that he'd failed to supply documents to provide 'serious reasons for not showing up' to parole appointments in person.

'I was in a coma!' Navalny replied. 'Comrade captain, do you respect the Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin? ... You said you don't know where I've been since August. Putin said on television that thanks to him I'd been sent to Germany for treatment.'

'I was in a coma, then I was in the ICU,' he continued. 'I sent you medical documents. You had my address and contacts. What else could I have done to tell you where I am? I have a lawyer and my lawyer has a telephone. How could I have informed you better?'

The FSIN official asked the judge to replace Navalny's suspended sentence with a real sentence, adding they are willing to count the 12 months that he had spent under house arrest toward the sentence. This would mean he would face a maximum prison sentence of two-and-a-half years.

'The court showed unprecedented lenience towards Alexei Navalny despite the gravity of his crime by giving him suspended sentences,' the official said. 'However, Navalny, despite the humanism the court expressed toward him, continued to violate the terms of his probation.'

Navalny faces three-and-a-half years in jail if the judge, who is now deliberating their verdict, decides to trigger the suspended sentence handed down following his 2014 money-laundering trial

Navalny rejects the conviction as politically motivated and believes the suspended sentence has been resurrected to gag him

One of hundreds of Navalny supporters being detained by Russian riot police today near the Moscow City Court

A Navalny supporter holds up his phone and wallet in the air as he is searched and detained by Russian riot police

Russian riot police stand guard in front of the Moscow City Court house this evening as the judge considers their verdict

The case presents one of the most serious challenges to the Kremlin in years and has led to calls for new Western sanctions against Putin's government.

The Kremlin said today it wasn't following the court proceedings, adding that it hoped the 'nonsense' would not lead the European Union to draw any 'foolish' conclusions.

Diplomats from the United States, Britain, Bulgaria, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and other European countries attended, according to local media.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this 'isn't just meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, but the self-incrimination of the West's unsightly and illegal attempts to contain Russia.'

Navalny was seen standing inside the glass-panelled dock wearing a black hoodie as he spoke with his lawyer Olga Mikhailova.

When asked by the judge to state where he lived, Navalny joked that he resided at the Matrosskaya Tishina prison.

He also demanded that journalists be allowed inside the courtroom. Reporters have only been allowed to watch a live video feed from a separate room.

Navalny's defence say that while he was recovering from the Novichok poisoning he was unable to register with Russian authorities in person as required by the terms of his probation.

But prison officials told the court he failed to make himself known to them while going about his business in Germany.

A representative for the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said: 'Since the end of September 2020, Navalny has been in outpatient treatment. Judging by media reports, he moved freely and gave interviews.

'He did not contact FSIN inspectors, although their phone number was posted on their website. He was put on the wanted list, as the service decided that he was systematically evading a suspended sentence.'

Navalny replied: 'Comrade captain, do you respect the Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin? ... You said you don't know where I've been since August. Putin said on television that thanks to him I'd been sent to Germany for treatment.'

'I was in a coma, then I was in the ICU,' he continued. 'I sent you medical documents. You had my address and contacts. What else could I have done to tell you where I am? I have a lawyer and my lawyer has a telephone. How could I have informed you better?'

Navalny's lawyer Vadim Kobzev added: 'The whole country, the whole world knew where he was.'

Law enforcement officers detain Navalny supporters close to the court building this morning

A woman is escorted away by riot police this morning

Police drag a demonstrator away by his arms outside the court

Riot police push a demonstrator towards their van

Law enforcement officers detain a man outside the Moscow City Court in Moscow on Tuesday

A Navalny supporter is dragged into a police van on Tuesday morning

Russian policemen detain a Navalny supporter near the Moscow City Court building

A woman is arrested outside the court this morning

Russian police detain a woman close to the courtroom on Tuesday

A man is led away with his hands behind his back outside the courtroom

Navalny supporters are patted down before being loaded onto a waiting police bus

Navalny supporters sit inside a police bus after they were arrested outside the court

Navalny, who in the last decade has emerged as Putin's most prominent domestic critic, believes the 2014 case was retribution by the authorities for his political activities.

They say the Kremlin is now resurrecting it to muzzle him.

His arrest on January 17 sparked massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets to demand his release, chanting slogans against Putin.

Police detained more than 5,750 people during Sunday's rallies, including more than 1,900 in Moscow, the biggest number the nation has seen since Soviet times. Some were beaten.

Most were released after being handed court summons and face fines or jail terms of between seven and 15 days.

Several people faced criminal charges over alleged violence against police.

Navalny's team has called for another demonstration Tuesday outside the Moscow court building.

Police were deployed in force near the court building and cordoned off nearby streets, making random detentions.

While he has never held elected office, Navalny has made a name for himself with anti-graft investigations exposing the wealthy lifestyles of Russia's elite.

Navalny speaks with a member of his defence team (left) and in handcuffs (right)

Navalny smiles at his lawyer inside the courtroom this morning

Riot police and mounted officers patrolling outside the court this morning

Yulia Navalny speaks to police outside the entrance to the court this morning

Yulia Navalny is surrounded by police and reporters outside the court in Moscow on Tuesday

Riot police early this morning prepare for the arrival of Navalny and his supporters

A prison truck arrives at court this morning with Navalny inside

Navalny is seen through the bars of a prison van as he arrives at the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow

Two days after he was placed in pre-trial custody last month, his team released an investigation into an opulent Black Sea residence Navalny claims was given to Putin through a billion-dollar scheme financed by close associates who head state companies.

The video has been viewed over 100 million times, fuelling discontent as ordinary Russians struggle with an economic downturn and the coronavirus pandemic.

Putin insisted last week that neither he nor his relatives own any of the properties mentioned in the video, and his long time confidant, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, claimed that he owns it.

As part of efforts to crush the protests, the authorities have targeted Navalny's associates and activists across the country.

Protesters rally in support of Navalny in Moscow on Sunday

A demonstrator in Moscow on Sunday as thousands gathered to protest against Navalny's detention

His brother Oleg, top ally Lyubov Sobol and several others were put under house arrest for two months and face criminal charges of violating coronavirus restrictions.

The United States and the European Union have called for Navalny's immediate release and denounced police violence on demonstrators.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is expected to raise the issue of Navalny during a visit this week to Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has responded by saying the case is a 'domestic affair' and that 'we will not allow anyone to interfere in it.'
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As public-health orders are loosened to allow the sale of non-essential items per "cautious" capacity limits, it appears the pandemic regulations remain muddy  or, at the very least, do not apply equally  for Manitoba retailers.

As public-health orders are loosened to allow the sale of non-essential items per "cautious" capacity limits, it appears the pandemic regulations remain muddy  or, at the very least, do not apply equally  for Manitoba retailers.

While the province says in-store occupancy has been limited to "25 per cent only or a maximum of 250 people, whichever is lower," the Free Press has learned some large malls in Winnipeg can host up to 25,000 customers and others are allowing 650 patrons at any given time.

On top of that, some shopping centres  like CF Polo Park, St. Vital and Grant Park  have outright denied sharing their maximum head count, stating that is not a figure they need to publicly disclose and one which they have internally worked out with the province.

Perhaps that explains why long lines of shoppers continue to snake around certain retailers like IKEA and hordes of cars fill up shopping centre parking lots weekend after weekend, which epidemiologists believe is a result of those discrepancies and lack of transparency.

"If this goes on, we will see more COVID-19 outbreaks within the next incubation period," said Tim Sly, occupational and public health professor at Ryerson University. "No questions about it."

"The real concern is, do we have enough knowledge about this virus to allow this the way it stands?" said Jason Kindrachuk, Canada Research Chair in emerging pathogens, based in Winnipeg. "Frankly, it's still very novel."

But on Monday, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin told reporters, he believes Manitoba has "taken the most cautious reopening approach with very, very restricted capacity" limits.

"It's early as far as numbers go," said Roussin. "We're watching this very closely. But any time we loosen the restrictions, we prepare to see an increase in cases.

"I think the people that have been waiting in lines are following the fundamentals."

"If this goes on, we will see more COVID19 outbreaks within the next incubation period." Tim Sly, occupational and public health professor at Ryerson University

According to the updated public-health orders, there are three different clauses that apply to retail businesses. While they all mandate 25 per cent occupancy with appropriate physical distancing, that looks different for a mall than it does for a store independent of a plaza  even though the order restricts retail stores to keep under 250 people.

This isn't a loophole, said Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president Loren Remillard, "it's businesses simply following what they've been told."

"My general understanding was also that it is 25 per cent or 250 people, you know, whatever's lower," he said. "But if they've been told something by the province and are complying with it, then that's just businesses doing what businesses can do during this time."

In statements to the Free Press on Monday, mall managers and administrators explained how their occupancy limits work. Almost all of them have differing limits and a varied approach about who exactly holds the onus to ensure limits are being met.

At Kildonan Place, general manager Sandra Hagenaars said their capacity of 650 shoppers at a time is "well under 25 per cent of our total gross leasable area" and something they have "worked with our local health inspector to establish."

DANIEL CRUMP / FREE PRESS FILES The line of customers snakes around the corner at IKEA after restrictions were eased.

"We do not have traffic counters to tally up overall traffic during the course of the day, but we do know that we reached our capacity a number of times over the past weekends, and that customers waited outside patiently for their opportunity to come in and shop," she said.

"Yes, the onus is on the stores themselves to enforce their own capacity limits and lineups."

Meanwhile, property manager Graham Bialek at Grant Park would not disclose their occupancy limit. Neither did Polo Park's general manager Peter Havens.

"We have been in close contact with both the local Public Health Inspector and Fire Commissioner to determine an appropriate occupancy level for Grant Park while the latest Public Health Orders are in place," said Bialek, assuring that "all counts have been well within our occupancy limits.

"Information provided to shopping centre admin is passed down to tenants and tenants are reminded to look into and understand the health orders," added Bialek.

"We do not have traffic counters to tally up overall traffic during the course of the day, but we do know that we reached our capacity a number of times over the past weekends, and that customers waited outside patiently for their opportunity to come in and shop."  Kildonan Place general manager Sandra Hagenaars

"As we navigate these challenging times, we continue to follow provincial guidelines and remain committed to supporting our retail clients while meeting the safety needs of our guests," said Havens.

Remillard said this isn't an issue of transparency from businesses. "I want to be clear, it's not like there is no openness," he said.

"That's a question for the government or the regulatory body to answer. To what extent do they share that information with the public?"

Dr. Roussin said enforcement about these orders continue and more information will be relayed "in the coming" days and weeks.

"But public health provides the recommendation on what sort of restrictions should be in place and for how long," Roussin said Monday. "Exactly how they're enforced isn't necessarily public health's area."

Twitter: @temurdur

Temur.Durrani@freepress.mb.ca
The Human Resource Department of Vodafone Ghana and the Vodafone Ghana Foundation have lent their support to the Childrens Block of the Ledzorkuku Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA) Hospital, in the ongoing battle against COVID-19, with a generous donation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical supplies.



The donation, which was led by Hannah Ashiokai Akrong, Human Resource Director at Vodafone Ghana and Amaris Nana Adjei Perbi, Vodafone Ghana Foundation Head, took place at the premises of the LEKMA Hospital in Teshie, Accra. Items provided by the joint team from Vodafone included boxes of surgical nose masks, alcohol-based hand sanitizers, rubbing alcohol, and tissue papers among others.



Speaking during the ceremony, Hannah Ashiokai Akrong, the Human Resource Director of Vodafone Ghana, said the donation forms part of Vodafones commitment to the fight against COVID-19 in Ghana.



COVID-19 infections in Ghana are skyrocketing and at this current rate our healthcare institutions will need more PPE to enable them work efficiently while protecting themselves, and their patients adequately. As part of our commitment to the fight, staff of Vodafone Ghana ranging from the Directors to senior and junior staff members joined forces with the Foundation to contribute funds towards the purchase of these much-needed equipment for the Childrens block of the LEKMA hospital. We believe that the only way we can defeat this disease is by coming together and mobilizing resources to support our front-liners while resolving with one accord to adhere to the needful protocols. 



Head of Vodafone Ghana Foundation, Amaris Nana A. Perbi also reiterated that Vodafone Ghana Foundation continues to strengthen its partnership with various health organisations through a variety of innovative and relevant initiatives.



Through thoughtful initiatives such as Homecoming and award winning project Birthday Stars, we discharged over 500 insolvent patients from hospitals last year and we keep assisting vulnerable communities. Again, our Healthfest initiative has culminated in the organisation of medical outreach programmes across the country, and these interventions have impacted thousands of Ghanaians at their point of medical need. In the same vein, we pledge our continued support to help curb the global pandemic in Ghana, he added.



Receiving the items on behalf of the hospital and the Childrens block, Dr. Mawuse Akorli, Head of the Pediatrics Department, and Madam Rejoice Arthur, Administration Manager at LEKMA Hospital expressed their appreciation to Vodafone Ghana for the kind gesture and lauded their relentless commitment to support the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.



We say thank you to the Vodafone Ghana Foundation and Vodafone Ghana for bringing these items to us. These came in the nick of time; just when we were running out of supplies. We are really grateful for the continuous connection you keep with us and for your dedicated efforts in the fight against COVID-19.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday continued an interim order passed by a lower court restraining the Mumbai civic body from taking action against alleged irregularities at actor Kangana Ranauts flats here till February 5. The high court directed her to inform by that date if she would apply to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seeking regularization of alleged unauthorized changes.

The BMC in March 2018 had issued a notice to Ranaut for alleged illegal merger of three flats owned by her at Orchid Breeze building in suburban Khar. The Dindoshi civil court dismissed her suit against the notice in December 2020, so she moved the HC.

The civil court, while dismissing the suit, had noted that there was grave violation of the sanctioned plan" while amalgamating the three flats. The actors lawyer Birendra Saraf on Tuesday told the high court that vendetta" was being pursued against her. The illegal construction had been made by the developer and not Ranaut, he contended.

Senior counsel Aspi Chinoy and advocate Joel Carlos, appearing for the BMC, argued that there were at least eight irregularities in the flat. Advocate Saraf then told the court that he would take instructions from the actor on whether she was willing to approach the BMC seeking regularization. In the meanwhile, the court should grant her protection from any coercive action, he said.

The high court asked BMC lawyers if there was any bar for regularization. Advocate Chinoy said an application for regularization is normally filed within 30 days from receiving the notice.

In this case, she is already three years late. But the court can condone the delay," the lawyer said. The court then adjourned the hearing to Friday.

the civil court order dated December 22, 2020 shall remain in abeyance until February 5 and the interim order (about not taking coercive action) shall continue till then," the court said. Ranauts petition said since she bought the flats in 2013 she had not made any structural changes. She had carried out only certain cosmetic changes", said the appeal filed through advocates Aseem Naphade, Monisha Bhangale and Prasanna Bhangale.

Last year, the BMC had initiated demolition of alleged unauthorized construction at Ranauts bungalow in Pali Hill area. The HC held the BMCs action illegal and malicious. PTI SP KRK KRK 02021741 NNNN.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Groundhogs around the world were tasked Tuesday morning with predicting if we would have a long winter or an early spring.

Tradition says that if the groundhog doesnt see its shadow, spring is right around the corner. Staten Island Chuck predicted an early spring at the Staten Island Zoo. But what about Chucks rivals? Did they call for an early spring or six additional weeks of winter weather?

At 7:25 a.m. Tuesday, Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania crawled out of his tree stump, looked around, saw his shadow and called for six more weeks of winter. Last year, Phil predicted an early spring.

Shubenacadie Sam, a famous Canadian groundhog who lives at Shubenacadie Wildlife Park in the town of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, called for an early spring at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Last year, Shubenacadie Sam predicted six more weeks of winter.

Whoa! No shadow to be seen through this storm! Cant wait for early spring! Do storm showers bring spring flowers? #EarlySpring #StormDay #GroundhogDay2021 pic.twitter.com/sO5gqEZl6V  Shubenacadie Sam (@ShubenacadieSam) February 2, 2021

In a pre-taped programming, Wiarton Willie -- a Canadian groundhog who lives in the community of Wiarton in Bruce County, Ontario -- predicted an early spring. Last year, Wiarton Willie predicted an early spring.

Fred la Marmotte, a famed groundhog from Quebec, predicted an early spring Tuesday morning. The groundhog put up a fight when leaving his hut just after 7 a.m., but he eventually appeared and predicted an early spring. Last year, Fred also predicted an early spring.

Ohios own weather prognosticator, Buckeye Chuck called for an early spring Tuesday morning. Chuck was made Ohios official state groundhog in 1979 and makes his yearly call from Marion. Last year, Buckeye Chuck called for an early spring, too.

General Beauregard Lee is a whistlepig that resides at the Dauset Trails Nature Center in Jackson, Ga. On Groundhog Day, Lee predicted an early spring as he emerged from his miniature-sized mansion. Last year, he declared six more weeks of winter.

I have spoken!  pic.twitter.com/vW2kKdZoTL  Official General Beauregard Lee (@genbeaulee) February 2, 2021

Buffalo Bert, who made his prediction a day ahead Groundhog Day, called for six more weeks of winter. The weatherhog, from the Hawk Creek Wildlife Center, and a small group wearing masks  including someone in a giant groundhog costume  gathered at the Flying Bison Brewery in Buffalo to help raise money for Hawk Creek and watch the prediction. This groundhog, which boasts a 100% accuracy rate, made the same prediction last year.
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Some staff in special schools in Northern Ireland are to be prioritised for vaccination against Covid-19.

The decision was announced in a joint statement by the Departments of Health and Education on Monday.

It's understood agreement was reached between Health Minister Robin Swann and Education Minister Peter Weir that those working with the most vulnerable children in special schools would be moved up the list to be offered the vaccination.

Mr Weir said last week that it was his intention to press for early vaccination for special needs teachers and the matter was discussed by the Executive at the end of last week.

It's not yet clear how many members of staff will now be prioritised and how soon vaccinations will be available.

"Staff who support children with the most complex needs will be offered the vaccine," a joint statement from the departments said.

Several special schools have moved to a two-day week to ease fears amongst staff and parents.

Taking questions in the Assembly yesterday, Stormont Finance Minister Conor Murphy continued to encourage bids from ministers for the reallocation of the unspent Covid funding.

He said he would be "hugely sympathetic" to any bid from the Education Minister for the reallocation of Covid funding to help narrow the digital divide, which is leaving some schoolchildren struggling to manage remote learning.

The minister added: "I have encouraged all ministerial colleagues to make bids for the unspent Covid money.

"I would be hugely sympathetic to this issue."

He said that Economy Minister Diane Dodds is pressing ahead with a bid for a "significant amount of support" for university students who have also been struggling despite spending most of their year learning remotely.

Many students still have to pay rent on accommodation they have been unable to stay in due to Covid lockdowns.

"And I am aware that Diane Dodds will make a further bid in the near future," Mr Murphy told the Assembly. Last week it was revealed that almost 300m in unspent money to tackle Covid pressures in Northern Ireland would have to be handed back to the Treasury at the end of the financial year.

The minister also warned of tough decisions ahead in education, despite an extra 41.1m being allocated to the overall budget, bringing the amount available to 2.3bn.

"Consequently the education budget can only be further increased by taking money from another department," said Mr Murphy."

Education Committee chairman Chris Lyttle MLA said that education was still left facing a funding gap of some 300m.

"This is profoundly concerning for the education sector in Northern Ireland," the Alliance MLA said.

Mr Murphy told MLAs Stormont is still awaiting Treasury confirmation on whether it can retain millions of unspent Covid funding.

He said he had expected a response last Friday on whether extra flexibility will be offered to the Executive to carry funds into the next financial year.
The wife of a pastor in Canada who was flying home from a work trip to Texas was taken to an 'undisclosed isolation center' and detained for two nights because authorities said she had the incorrect COVID test.

Nikki Mathis, 35, who founded the Summit Church movement in 2009 in Florida with her husband, Chris, landed back from Dallas on January 28, after a four-day trip.

Before boarding the plane in Texas she had, as required, been tested for COVID-19 and was able to show her negative test to fly.

However on arrival in Calgary border control officials told her that her antigen nasal swab test was not acceptable, and she needed to have a molecular test instead.

Scroll down for video

Nikki Mathis, pictured with her husband Chris, spent two nights in a quarantine hotel

Nikki, 35, produced a certificate of her negative COVID test before flying home to Canada

Molecular tests, such as RT-PCR tests, detect the virus's genetic material, while antigen tests that detect specific proteins from the virus.

She told Global News she got a COVID-19 test at a U.S. health clinic, where the doctor offered her two test options.

'I said, 'I need to have a test that shows I'm negative for COVID and can get on an airplane,' she said.

The test, it later emerged, was not sufficient.

'They rejected her results and told her she needed to go immediately to an isolation facility,' wrote Chris on Facebook.

'She was told if she resisted she would be arrested. She called me, and I immediately asked to talk with the officer.'

Chris was 'barely keeping myself together' with worry when he did not know her location

Chris said that they refused to say where she was being taken.

'They said they could NOT give me the location address as it was confidential. I asked for their names, again they would not give me any information or their names,' he wrote.

'I pushed, I questioned, I tried to fight but they said they would arrest her if she resisted. They would NOT give me any information on where they were taking my wife.'

Chris said she was 'immediately put in a white van surrounded by police escorts and taken to an unknown facility that is under full surveillance and has security at every entrance and exit.'

Chris said he was 'barely keeping myself together' with worry.

Nikki was taken to an airport hotel, The Westin, near Calgary airport, where other passengers in similar situations were being held.

She filmed a clip, which Chris posted to Facebook, showing the hallway of the smart hotel, and boxes of toilet paper outside for those in the rooms. A guard was stationed at the end of the hallway, she said.

Nikki filmed a video inside her hotel room saying she did not know when she would be released

Nikki showed the view of the airport from her hotel room window

She showed the hallways of The Westin hotel at Calgary airport, with toilet roll and supplies

Nikki was taken to this airport hotel in Calgary for two nights quarantine

Alberta Health Services issued a statement saying the issue was a federal one.

'There is a lot of information in social media today about international travel,' their statement said.

'However, these are the details on Alberta Health Services' role in international travel border pilot enforcement: AHS has no involvement in travel restrictions or enforcement measures related to mandatory quarantine.'

A day later, Chris posted that his wife was still at the hotel.

'She is not free to leave and has no idea at this point when she will be home,' he said.

On January 30, after two nights at the hotel, she was released.

'Ladies and gents, my wife is home!' Chris wrote.

'Thanks to everyone who has prayed, contacted government offices and stood with us over this unfortunate situation of Nikki being detained.'

Nikki said she hopes her experience serves as a warning.

'Now that I know there are two different tests, just make sure the test you're getting is on the molecular level,' she said.

Healthcare workers prepare to test passengers at Toronto's Pearson airport on Monday

Canada's land border with the U.S. has been shut to non-Canadians since early in the pandemic, and Canada has been spared the ravages of coronavirus that have devastated the United States.

On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced even tougher new measures to curb non-essential international travel during the pandemic.

Major Canadian airlines shut down their Mexican and Caribbean routes on Sunday, as part of an agreement with the government.

As of Wednesday, all inbound flights will land in either Montreal, Toronto, Calgary or Vancouver. After that, all incoming passengers will be tested for COVID-19, and will have to wait up to three days at a government-approved hotel for their results, with the travelers paying for the stay themselves.
The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and the Ghana Automobile Distributors Association (GADA) have held a meeting to discuss and address concerns regarding the implementation of the Automotive Vehicle Homologation and Conformity Assessment Programme.



Homologation is the process of certifying vehicles or a particular component of a vehicle that meets the established requirements of various statutory regulatory bodies.



During the meeting, representatives of GADA appealed to the Authority to reconsider the Homologation fee, taking into consideration the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on businesses and the fact that the Ghanaian market for new vehicles was significantly small.



The Director-General of the GSA, Prof. Alex Dodoo, on his part, said the Homologation fee should be discussed further for all parties to reach a satisfactory conclusion.



He called for more engagements between the GSA, GADA, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Public Procurement Authority.



These engagements will, among other things, ensure that government makes Homologation certificate a criterion in government procurement of vehicles, Prof. Dodoo noted.



The two parties came to a consensus that vehicles which were imported into the country to be transited to other countries should not go through the homologation process.



The deliberations concluded with an agreement that the GSA Mark of Conformity be placed on the vehicles that had gone through the rudiments of homologation as an endorsement that the vehicle met the health, safety and environmental specifications prescribed by the vehicle and homologation standards developed by the Authority.



In November 2019, the GSA developed and published 26 standards to regulate the growing automotive industry in Ghana.

Source: GNA









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Key benchmark indices are trading on a strong note in early trade, extending yesterday's rally as investors cheered Union Budget proposals. At 9:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 1,018.26 points or 2.1% at 49,618.87. The Nifty 50 index was up 301.45 points or 2.11% at 14,582.65.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 2.01%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.73%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, is strong. On the BSE, 1514 shares rose and 324 shares fell. A total of 77 shares were unchanged.

Stocks in news:

Hero MotoCorp fell 0.72%. Hero MotoCorp sold 485,889 units of motorcycles and scooters in January 2021, lower than 501,622 units sold in January 2020.

Axis Bank advanced 3%. Axis Bank said that credit rating agency CRISIL Ratings has reaffirmed its 'CRISIL AAA / Stable, CRISIL AA+ / Stable / CRISIL A1+' ratings on the debt instruments of the bank.

Coal India rose 1.9%. Coal India said that its coal production on a provisional basis was 60.5 million tonnes in in January 2021 as against 63.1 million tonnes in January 2020. Offtake fell to 53.3 million tonnes from 55.9 million tonnes in the same period.

Power Grid Corporation of India gained 1.43%. The company was declared as the successful bidder under Tariff based competitive bidding to establish transmission system for Transmission system strengthening scheme for evacuation of power from solar energy zones in Rajasthan (8.1 GW) under Phase II - Part C on build, own operate and maintain (BOOM) basis. The Transmission system comprises establishment of a new 765/400kV Substation, 765kVD/C and 400kV D/C Transmission lines and associated Substation extension works in the State of Rajasthan.

Eicher Motors rose 1.35%. Eicher Motors said that the company sold 68,887 units of Royal Enfield in January 2021, higher than 63,520 units in January 2020.

VST Tillers & Tractors surged 3.02%. The company said it sold 2,258 units of power tillers in January 2021 against 1,971 units in January 2020. Tractor sales increased to 647 from 516 units.

Global Markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading higher on Tuesday following an overnight jump on Wall Street. The Japanese government is set to extend the state of emergency covering Tokyo and other regions till March 7 in order to contain the coronavirus, as per media reports.

US stocks jumped on Monday, the first session of February, as Wall Street appeared to shake off concerns about a speculative retail trading mania that largely drove the market's worst weekly sell-off since October.

Meanwhile, a group of 10 Republican senators sent President Joe Biden a letter on Sunday, urging him to consider a smaller, scaled-down Covid-19 relief proposal. His current plan calls for $1.9 trillion in additional fiscal stimulus.

The Republican proposal would reduce the size of a new round of checks Biden wants to send to Americans, from $1,400 per individual to $1,000. It would also make the income limits that determine eligibility for the stimulus payments far stricter. For individual filers the checks would start to phase out for those making more than $40,000.

The alternative proposal comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber will move to pass a budget resolution, the first step toward approving legislation through reconciliation. The process would enable Senate Democrats to approve an aid measure without GOP votes.

In economic data, US manufacturing activity slowed slightly in January. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Monday its index of national factory activity fell to a reading of 58.7 last month from 60.5 in December.

Back home, domestic shares ended with robust gains on Monday as investors cheered Union Budget proposals. The S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 2,314.84 points or 5% to 48,600.61. The Nifty 50 index surged 646.60 points or 4.74% to 14,281.20.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,494.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 90.46 crore in the Indian equity market on 1 February, provisional data showed.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After two days of peaceful sittings, fireworks returned in both Houses of was adjourned for the day without transacting substantial business as Congress and other Opposition members created an uproar demanding discussion on the issue of farmers' protest over the three new farm bills.

The House was first adjourned for about 40 minutes till 10:30 am, then till 11:30 am and then to 12:30 pm.

When the House re-assembled at 12:30 pm, protesting members again trooped in the Well raising slogans, forcing Deputy Chairman Harivansh to adjourn proceedings for the day.

Before adjourning the House, the Deputy Chairman appealed to members to return to their seats and follow Covid-19 protocols. However, they did not heed to his requests.

Four bills were listed for consideration and passing in the legislative business for the day. They were: The Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020; The Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2019; The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020; and The Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2020.

Lok Sabha

The issue of ongoing farmer agitation against three farm laws rocked the Lok Sabha, resulting in repeated disruptions and forcing Speaker to adjourn the House for the day.

When the House reassembled after initial adjournments at 7 pm, Birla asked BJP member Locket Chatterjee to initiate the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the president's address amid sloganeeering by the opposition members.

Chatterjee began her speech by praising the government for deciding to celebrate the birthday of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on January 23 as 'Prakram Diwas' every year. The member from the poll-bound state of West Bengal continued her address amid the din.

After repeated appeals by the speaker and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi failed to calm the agitated members, Birla adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, the proceedings of the House were adjourned for about an hour till 7 pm after opposition members disrupted the Question Hour to press for repeal of the farm laws.

As soon as the proceedings started, opposition members from parties including the Congress, DMK and the Trinamool Congress trooped into the Well of the House, raising slogans demanding repeal of the three "black" laws.

Members from the were seen raising slogans from the aisles. Former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the was also seen holding a poster demanding repeal of the contentious agriculture legislations.

Birla urged the members to return to their seats and follow the Covid-19 protocol. He said that in the ongoing Question Hour, questions related to farmers were listed and members can raise their issues at that time.

He also said during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the president's address, members can raise these issues. But opposition members refused to relent, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings repeatedly.

Deputy procurement director in the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Blessed Ishmael Murwira Majiga, who is at the centre of a national cloud-seeding aircraft tender scam, was yesterday denied bail by a Harare regional magistrate.

Mr Ngoni Nduna refused to bail out Majiga, saying there was overwhelming evidence against him and he was likely to face a custodial sentence upon conviction.

Majiga is said to have recommended the awarding of a tender to JR Investments knowing that the firm's planes were faulty, grounded and not fit for the national programme.

The State, led by Mrs Netsai Mushayabasa, opposed bail, saying Majiga was a flight risk and was likely to interfere with witnesses since he had once tampered with some evaluation minutes.

Circumstances leading to his arrest are that on September 15 last year, the ministry called for bidders for two aircraft stationed in Harare and Bulawayo for national cloud-seeding operations.

Bidders had to provide two aircraft with twin engines with full-propeller, air frame de-icing, cloud-seeding, flare dispenser and two-way communication for the pilot and seeding officer.

The aircraft had to be suitable to fly through turbulent clouds and be available throughout the cloud-seeding operation.

An evaluation team comprising Norman Duri, Linear Gopo, someone called Matenda and Tamuka Zivurawa, was set up to evaluate the aircraft, with Majiga as team leader.

JR Investments, Nineteen Twenty (Pvt) Ltd, Cypritaf (Pvt) Limited and Central Air Transport Services (Pvt) Limited, responded to the ministry's call for bidders.

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Mr Zinyandu alleges that JR Investments submitted its bid despite knowing that their planes were grounded and that the other one was registered for private use.

On November 4 last year, the evaluation team inspected JR Investments' Baron 58, registration Z-NAB, where it noted that it did not fit the required tender specifications.

The same day, the team inspected Nineteen Twenty's aircraft and noted that it could not be modified for cloud-seeding.

They went to Cypritaf (Pvt) Limited, where two twin-engine aircraft with their documentation, were produced.

These had two flare dispenser units mounted and the cloud-seeding equipment was demonstrated in a ground test.

The firing mechanisms and the flare dispenser units were also shown during evaluation.

On November 9, 2020, a further evaluation was held at JR Investments offices in Avondale, where the firm only produced two cloud-seeding doors.

Majiga then led his team to Marondera Aerodrome to inspect another plane from JR Investments and discovered it was grounded and sitting on jacks and was branded "JR Investments HAC".

On that day, Majiga, Duri and Zivurawa, used their own vehicles to travel to Marondera for evaluations instead of using Government vehicles.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 20:10:28|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 300 Afghan civilians were killed and over 390 others wounded in conflicts and terrorist attacks in the country's western region in 2020, the country's human rights commission confirmed on Tuesday.

Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) attributed 89 percent of civilians' casualties to the Taliban outfit while 11 percent of the fatalities were attributed to security forces and other pro-government armed forces.

"Some 315 civilians have been killed and 391 others wounded during armed conflicts and terrorist attacks in Herat, Badghis, Farah, Nimruz and Ghor provinces of Afghanistan's western zone," the commission said in a statement.

The Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of armed conflicts as more than 2,958 civilians were killed and over 5,542 others wounded due to fighting in the country in 2020, according to the figures of the commission.

In an unrelated incident, personnel of Afghan law enforcement agencies had busted an 11-member terrorist gang in Herat city, capital of Herat, provincial directorate of the country's National Directorate of Security (NDS) confirmed in a statement issued in Herat earlier on Tuesday.

The NDS personnel also confiscated nine rounds of silenced guns and pistols as well as three motorcycles and an explosive-packed tricycle among other items from the group.

The group also confessed involvement in a string of targeted killings and explosions in surrounding areas of Herat. Enditem
Nguyen Phu Trong (third from left) is congratulated on being named for a third time as general secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, Jan. 31, 2021.

Vietnams Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong was named in a top leadership meeting on Sunday to a third term as the Partys general secretary, breaking Party rules that would normally have limited him to two terms in office.

Kept in his post because of his achievements in office, Trong will now serve another five-year term in the Partys top job, joining as a special case Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who was named prime minister despite having passed the customary retirement age of 65.

Speaking at a press conference at the conclusion of the 13th ruling Communist Party Congress, which began on Jan. 25 and ended a day early on Jan. 31, Trong said he would prefer to have retired, citing his age and saying, Health is an important requirement for work.

The Congress elected me, though, so I will have to continue in my mission, he said.

No details were provided by state media regarding how many candidates had run for the position of general secretary won by Trong at the Party Congress, a gathering held every five years to select Vietnams top leaders and approve economic policies, and attended this year by around 1,500 delegates from around the country.

The convening of the Congress was cited by rights activists and experts as the reason Vietnams already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply in 2020 with a sweeping round-up of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook commentators.

Speaking to RFA, Nguyen Dinh Conga close observer of the Congress and former head of the construction faculty at the Hanoi University of Civil Engineeringvoiced surprise that Trong and Phuc had been named to their posts without amendments being made to the Party charter.

I dont know how these matters were discussed at the Congress, but I found this all very strange, he said.

A mutual understanding

Chinas President Xi Jinping was the first world leader to congratulate Trong on his continued role as Party chief, with Nguyen Quang Aa civil activist based in Hanoidescribing the two men to RFA as close personal friends.

Trongs election to a third term as Party chief in violation of Party rules was similar to the removal in 2018 by Xi Jinping of a 10-year limit to his term as Chinas president, allowing him now to serve for life, Nguyen Quang A said.

That Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected to the position of Vietnams Party general secretary is absolutely good news for China, because [he and Xi Jinping] understand each other, he said.

In a Feb. 1 statement, the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights said the selection of Trong and Phuc as Vietnams top leaders cements authoritarian rule and ushers in five more years of repression and human rights abuses.

While the international community has praised the Vietnamese government over its response to the [COVID-19] pandemic, it has utterly failed to condemn it over the harshest crackdown on peaceful dissent in recent years.

The international communitys muted reaction to the repression of peaceful dissent has emboldened the Communist Party of Vietnam to reward the countrys authoritarian leaders, the Committee said.

According to rights group Defend the Defenders, Hanoi is currently detaining at least 238 prisoners of conscience.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Richard Finney.
A man who once led a faction of the Bloods gang in Trenton was shot dead by a casino security guard in Florida this past weekend after randomly firing a gun inside the gambling hall, authorities said.

Bayshine Leary, 42, died at the scene at about 3 a.m. Saturday, at the Q-Time 777 in Lake City, about an hours drive west of Jacksonville.

Leary was involved in a dispute at the casino, was asked to leave and did, but returned a short time later with a firearm and pointed it at a woman inside, the Columbia County Sheriffs Office said.

Witnesses told investigators that Leary attempted to shoot the woman point blank, but the gun malfunctioned. He then opened fire, randomly shooting multiple times. A security guard engaged him and the two exchanged gunfire. Leary was the only person struck by gunfire, the office said.

Sheriffs detectives are investigating the involvement of a second person who was with Leary at the time.

Leary had a Lake City address, the Columbias sheriffs office said, but its unclear how long hed been in the Sunshine State. The department had no prior contact with him.

In the mid 2000s, when the city was beset with factioned gang violence, Leary was a leader of the Gangster Killer Bloods, also known as G Shine, authorities said at the time.

His criminal past is considerable and violent. He was charged tangentially in the 2005 shooting aboard an NJ Transit bus in the city, which wounded a rival alleged gangster and a 12-year-old Hamilton girl.

Leon Budda McClendon, then 17, and later convicted of being the bus shooter, was arrested the day after the crime with Leary in a vehicle with the 9-millimeter gun he used. Leary claimed ownership of the gun, and later pleaded guilty to a firearm charge and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

After prison, Leary shot a man in 2012, in Trenton, and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in May 2016. Later that year, he was charged by state parole officers with having a firearm in his city home, a weapon they found during a mandated visit.

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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com
CHICAGO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened healthcare consumers' concerns about receiving care in a hospital system, according to a new survey conducted by SwipeSense , the industry's leading patient safety platform. The survey found that 73% of consumers feel concerned or extremely concerned about hospital safety, which represents a 46% increase in their level of concern since the onset of COVID-19.

Even more significantly, the survey found that healthcare consumers overwhelmingly feel that the use of technology to support patient safety initiatives would increase how safe they feel receiving care  with 83% reporting they would feel safer with contact tracing technology in place. Despite this strong patient preference, many hospitals still rely on manual contact tracing for COVID-19 and other infectious outbreaks. But these antiquated methods to determine exposure are time-consuming, often unreliable, and leave staff and patients at risk. In contrast, hospitals can leverage technology with real-time, employee-level data to automatically capture all contacts and empower faster, more accurate infection control.

Automated contact tracing enables hospitals to comply with new regulations requiring them to notify employees when they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. California employers, including hospitals, are required to provide such notice under a new law that took effect January 1. Hospitals in Minnesota and Oregon are covered by similar rules, while New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Mexico currently recommend, but do not require, that hospitals notify employees upon exposure to the virus.

In a related finding from the SwipeSense survey, 81% of healthcare respondents say they would feel safer in a hospital with electronic hand hygiene monitoring in place. Although handwashing has taken on increased importance in the public realm as a result of COVID-19, it has always been a key component of patient safety and infection prevention at hospitals to keep patients and staff safe from avoidable harm. Poor hand hygiene contributes to 1.7 million hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) annually and 100,000 of those HAIs result in patient deaths. However, hospitals that use SwipeSense technology have seen a reduction in HAIs by as much as 75% in one year.

Cliff Daniels, Chief Strategy Officer at Methodist Hospital of Southern California agrees. "COVID-19 has changed the dynamics of hospital safety. We had to identify and quickly implement additional, effective means to keep patients and staff safe. We believe that our significant investment in SwipeSense technology will enhance our ability to ensure the wellbeing of patients and staff through the use of real-time, meaningful metrics," said Daniels.

The SwipeSense survey indicates that patient safety and infection control technology, which hospitals often underinvested in as a result of constrained budgets prior to COVID-19, is now mission-critical for hospitals to instill trust in the public and get consumers back into their facilities to receive care. It also validates that fueling safe care delivery with technology is key to business growth  findings which are aligned with the results of a recent KLAS survey about vendor performance in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The KLAS survey revealed that 74% of healthcare executives plan to invest in more technology in 2021 to fuel recovery, despite 81% of those same executives reporting significant budget cuts.

"The survey is yet another data point to illustrate that safety is top-of-mind for patients and health systems must embrace this in 2021 and beyond," said Mert Iseri, CEO of SwipeSense. "The broader implication is that patient safety is no longer just about reducing harm or improving outcomes. While those are critically important goals, investing in an advanced safety infrastructure will be a key driver of revenue and growth moving forward. Healthcare executives must prioritize building a tech-driven safety strategy, or they will be left behind."

About SwipeSense

SwipeSense is a Chicago-based healthcare technology company on a mission to eliminate harm and waste in healthcare delivery networks through an advanced safety platform. The platform's sensor network collects millions of data points and delivers robust insights to hospital leadership, clinicians, and staff, which not only support a culture of safety, but also reduce the cost of care and improve operational efficiency. Hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) leverage the company's safety platform to prevent infections, optimize use of their equipment, reduce falls, protect their staff, and drive positive, lasting behavior change. To learn more, please visit www.swipesense.com .

Media Contact:

Todd Stein

510-417-0612

[email protected]

SOURCE SwipeSense, Inc.

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When Dallas County District Attorney John Cruezot took office he changed a number of policies in the county aimed at reducing the jail population including refusing to prosecute certain crimes like minor shoplifting.

That decision draws ire to this day among certain groups. Gov. Greg Abbott showed his distaste for the policies in a January forum on law enforcement and calls to defund police that followed the Black Lives Matter movement.

RELATED: No drinking beer while standing and nine other strange laws in Texas punishable by a fine or jail time

"We have a problem in Dallas where we have a district attorney who refuses to prosecute some people who knowingly commit crimes. ... that sets a standard and sends a message to people of that community," Abbott said at the forum adding that the policy encourages other people to engage in crime.

But Creuzot told Ariel Ramchandani of the The Atlantic that there has been no increase in shoplifting as a result of his policy.

RELATED: 17 strange San Antonio laws you might not know about

Small personal thefts aren't the only laws that some Texas cities are no longer enforcing. A growing number of law enforcement officials are taking progressive measures when it comes to minor possession of marijuana and other drugs.

See current crimes that won't get you prosecuted in the list below:
SPRINGFIELD  Less than a month after being sworn-in as a state senator for the Hampden district Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Springfield, has decided to step down as the citys Ward 1 city councilor to put all of his focus on his new position.

These are unprecedented times that we live in. The COVID-19 pandemic has created new, unique, and demanding challenges on both a municipal and state level for all Massachusetts residents. The residents of Springfields Ward 1 deserve someone who can serve them fully, Gomez said.

Gomez was first elected to the Springfield City Council in 2015 after running a grassroots campaign and beating incumbent Zaida Luna. He went on to serve two terms as a city councilor before defeating five-term incumbent Sen. James T. Welch for the Hampden District seat. He would be up for re-election this November.

It has been a life-changing opportunity to serve as (the Ward 1) representative on the Springfield City Council. I ran years ago with a simple goal  to ensure that our voices were heard. I am honored to have the opportunity to bring our voices to the State House, and remain completely committed to serving my constituents in Ward 1 and all residents of the Hampden District, he said.

Gomez was unopposed when he won reelection to the council seat in 2019. That means there is no runner up to take his place. Instead, the remaining members of the council will vote on any replacement, who would serve until the next election in November 2021.

He said he will continue to serve the residents of Ward 1, along with all of the residents of the Hampden District, made up of Springfield West Springfield and parts of Chicopee.

I made a commitment to ensure that everyone in my district has access to jobs with fair wages, homes in a safe and healthy community, and a world-class education. This commitment has not and will not waver as we all take this positive next step forward. I look forward to continuing to serve all three communities as a state senator, he said.

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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

With Americans now beginning their annual reconciliation with the IRS, city leaders are turning their attention to predatory practices in the tax-preparation industry.

The Albuquerque City Council on Monday voted 8-0 to pass legislation requiring a new level of transparency from paid tax preparers who are not licensed attorneys or Certified Public Accountants. Such providers will have to detail their fees up front and provide written service estimates; tell consumers about their educational attainment and tax-prep experience; and provide a copy of a consumer bill of rights created by the city in both English and Spanish. They must also alert potential clients that they may be able to file their taxes online at no cost or may qualify for free tax preparation assistance offered by nonprofit organizations.

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The ordinance  sponsored by Councilor Pat Davis at Mayor Tim Kellers request  also requires disclosures related to refund anticipation advances or loans. A preparer offering such products must tell the client applying how much of their expected refund they will ultimately receive once all fees are deducted.

Whether were in a pandemic or not, no one in Albuquerque should be worried about losing their hard-earned tax refunds to a scam, Keller said in a written statement. We worked with Council to pass this ordinance so our families can get the information they need up front to protect the money they rely on to make ends meet.

Davis said 2020s financial challenges lent the legislation even more urgency.

I think its more important than ever that people understand their basic rights and as a city we can do our part to be sure our most vulnerable get as many of their dollars back in their pocket as possible, he said prior to the vote.

Karen Meyers, who heads the citys Consumer Financial Protection Initiative, said the city has heard various community complaints about tax preparation, including that some preparers are charging high fees for even simple returns.

What this (ordinance) says is You need to be up front and tell people how much youre going to charge them, so people can make a choice,  Meyers told the council.

Councilor Klarissa Pena attempted to delay a vote on the ordinance, calling the legislation important but saying she wanted to give the industry more time for feedback.

Hearing from some people in the field, I think it would just behoove us just to be able to get some more input and ensure were doing this correctly, Pena said.

But Meyers noted that the legislation already had been posted for two months and time was of the essence given the start of tax season. She said the city has a letter about the new requirements ready to send to local tax preparers, plus educational information ready to distribute and post online.

Penas motion to delay action until Feb. 17 failed on a 1-7 vote, and she ultimately joined the rest of the councilors  except Don Harris, who was not in attendance  in voting for the bill.
People living in the eight areas of the UK hit by the South African strain of Covid said today they will ignore the governments advice to stay home if they run out of food.

Residents said they will defy Universities Minister Michelle Donelans orders to stay indoors and they would be prepared to go out to buy groceries if they had to.

It follows long queues stretching around the block at testing centres in eight postcodes this morning as 350,000 Britons rushed to get checked as quickly as possible.

In Ealing, West London, Jasbir Dhaliwal, 46, who had just had a test for the variant, questioned the guidance to eat up tins and leftovers rather than go out food shopping.

Members of the public pictured queuing to take a coronavirus test at a temporary Covid-19 testing facility set up in Ealing, West London

Mike Wallace, who is a South African living in Woking, Surrey, is helped to take the test in his front room by his wife Natasha. They were among 9,000 people in the area happy to be tested

Residents said they will defy orders from Universities Minister Michelle Donelan (pictured above) to stay indoors and they would be prepared to go out to buy groceries if they had to

She said: Ive got loads of tinned and packet things like soup, baked beans pasta and noodles and my freezer is packed with stuff for the kids, like chips sausages and fish fingers.

Ive also got loads of fresh vegetables and other ingredients to make Indian food, like lentils, chickpeas and big bags of rice. But thats not because of the pandemic, I always do a big shop as there are quite a lot of us at home.

She added: I can understand why the Government is saying this, but I cant see people sticking to it because getting a delivery is not easy, which means a lot of people will have to go out to buy food.

Ali Kelly, 50 said: I actually stopped going to the shops for food a few weeks ago and now get home deliveries.

Ive got a good selection of fresh vegetables, frozen things and plenty of drink. Im not sure how practical the Governments advice is on not going out food shopping.

People need to eat, and they will be forced to go to the shops because not everybody can get their shopping delivered.

Warehouse worker Roberto Ventura said: Im Italian so I have lots of pasta at home and am unlikely to run out soon. Ive got chicken and mincemeat in the fridge, tinned tomatoes, and some fresh vegetables and lots of fruit, apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes.

Once the fresh stuff runs out, Ill have to go out to buy some more. Most people have to shop at least once a week and I dont think thats going to change, whatever the Government wants us to do.

Michael Rees, 60, admitted that he had nipped out to local shops along a busy West Ealing high street and did not know about the Governments latest advice but he was aware of the South African strain being detected in the area.

He said: I live on my own and dont keep a lot of food at home. I mainly buy pies, sausages, chips, a few vegetables, and some pre-cooked meals. Its not the best diet but its all I can afford.

Volunteers Hanna and Sophie Taylor pictured delivering coronavirus test kits during door-to-door Covid testing in Woking, Surrey, on Tuesday

Volunteers wearing face masks hand out a Covid-19 home test kit to a resident at their front door in Goldsworth and St Johns, Woking

Carol Hall (pictured), from Ealing, West London, was up bright and early and at her testing centre at 9am. The BBC worker said the experience wasn't pleasant, but urged others to do it

Long queues formed along West Ealing's high street this morning near a pop up testing centre as people in the area were eager to get themselves tested for the mutant South African strain

I dont have the money to do a big shop. When this food runs out, Ill have to return to go out to buy more. I dont care what the Government says.

Meanwhile in Woking, Surrey, where swab tests were today delivered by volunteers to 9,000 homes, vans from Sainsburys and Tesco made frequent drop offs of online orders throughout the day.

Karen Woodward, a mother-of-two, said: Im not sure how easy it will be to stay at home completely for two weeks. Essentials like milk and eggs have to be bought at least once a week, so I will have to go out.'

David Cutlen said he isnt registered for online deliveries and so he will continue to go to his local supermarket once a week to stock up.

The comments come after online booking systems for tests were scrapped with residents in eight areas around the country encouraged to simply turn up in a desperate attempt by authorities to keep track of its spread.

Kim Taylor in Woking, Surrey, opens wide for one of 9,000 door to door swab tests today

Door to door testing was also taking place in the affected districts as health officials joined forces with local police, councillors and firefighters to visit thousands of homes.

In Ealing, West London, a BBC worker at the front of the queue at 9am winced as she plunged a swab to the back of her throat while being tested.

Carol Hall arrived at a special testing site manned by volunteers off the high street at West Ealing.

Ms Hall, a BBC researcher, arrived at the variant testing centre, located in a car park beside West Ealing's busy high street, 15 minutes before it opened at 9am.

She told MailOnline: 'I live outside the affected area but do all my shopping in it, which is why I got myself tested.

'The test caused me a bit of discomfort. You have to shove the the stick all the way back to your tonsils. It made me cough and gag but then so was everybody else. It's not pleasant but it's very minor discomfort.'

She added: 'I feel fine now and am glad that I've had the test.'

Ms Hall said that she is still going into the office twice a week, which also influenced her decision to get tested as soon as news of the South African strain in the West London suburb emerged.

An estimated 5,500 households in the W7 and W13 postcode areas of the borough have been identified as being in the affected area, after a local man tested positive for the South African strain even though he had not left the country.

A team of volunteers are briefed this morning at Woking Fire Station before collecting bags of swab tests to deliver them to homes in homes in the St Johns and Goldsworth Park areas

Following guidance from Surrey County Council's Health and Safety team, the volunteers delivered the swabs and told residents to leave them out for collection three hours later

Residents expressed concerns at news of the strain in their local community, with many revealing that they had come to get a test as soon as they heard about it.

Adil Shah, 42, a Transport for London manager, said: 'I left work so that I could come and get a test and the rest of my family are going to come later today.

'I had Covid last year and news of this strain is very worrying. I've been taking all the precautions that I can, but you just never know what or who you might have come into contact with so it's important for us all to get this test.'

Average waiting times in the queue were almost 45 minutes, with the actual test taking no longer than five minutes.

Coffee shop worker Alexandra Nagy, 28, said: 'I've just slipped away from work after finding out about this. Of course, I'm worried because I live and work locally.

'The queue is getting longer and it's going to get busier through the day so that's why I thought I'd get here early.'

Stewart Dawkins, a 58-year-old supermarket worker from Surrey, added that the rollout of Covid tests was a good thing but would be a bit of a waste of time if people went to work before receiving their results.

Officials have revealed that those who are unable to get to the testing centre will receive home testing kits, which they will start distributing from Wednesday.

Ben Chambers, 50, who had been waiting in the queue for more than 30 minutes said: 'I know some elderly people and those who are shielding. It's alright for the likes of me to come to this testing centre, but what about the others who can't get out.

'The Council need to make sure that everybody in the borough is tested not just those in the affected area. I'm sure the person who was found to have the South African strain didn't just move around in one part of the borough.'

In Woking before starting the door to door tests to 9,000 homes in the St Johns and Goldsworth Park areas, volunteers were given a detailed safety briefing from a member of Surrey County Council's Health and Safety team.

They were told to hand deliver the swab test kits and tell residents the swabs collected within three hours.

A drop box would be left on the doorstep and those tested to place the vial containing a swab into the box.

Among the first to receive a testing kit delivered to his front door was retired engineer David Woodhead, 75, seen receiving his test this morning. He said testing was 'a really good thing'

Despite the seriousness of the situation, one resident at a sheltered housing accommodation block attempted to lighten the mood by answering his front door wearing a clown mask

Volunteers were told not to handle the vials to avoid any possible infection from the mutant strain.

Among the first to receive a testing kit delivered to his front door was retired engineer David Woodhead.

The 75-year-old said he was more than happy to take part in the testing - but was worried that he lives in an area where the mutant South African strain has been found.

A volunteer dropped off the swab test kit in a sealed grey package. Inside was a swab and a mini test tube for the tips of the swab to be deposited.

David said: 'This is a really good thing, and hopefully it will help root out this South African strain.

'I've had one PCR test before when I had to go to Ashford Hospital for a MRI.

'I have only been going out once a week to Sainsbury to do my shopping and have been staying inside. I'll continue to stay indoors until this is all over.'

The streets around Mr Woodhead's terraced home were deserted as residents heeded the earlier warning of Universities Minister Michelle Donelan to stay indoors.

Volunteers were going door to door in the to hand out PCR swab tests to as many as 9,000 people.

Until the testing has been completed residents have been urged to stay indoors and even avoid going out shopping by Universities Minister Michelle Donelan.

Trevor Martin, 70, was one of the few people walking through the St Johns area having visited a local store.

People in Southport, Merseyside, queued up for an hour in the rain only to be disappointed when they were told that the South African test kits were not available until tomorrow

He said:' I'm quite happy to stay indoors. No one wants to get this virus. I've just popped out to get some essential food from a store.

'I think most people will stick to the rules. We all have to play along and do out part.'

Another resident, who popped outside of her home to smoke a cigarette, said she would happily stay indoors until the mutant strain has been wiped out.

'We have come so far it is silly to catch the virus now. I have been in a bubble with an 80 year old and all her shopping is done online by a friend.

'If I can avoid going out I will. Two weeks or so is not a long time and we are so used to being in lockdown in doesn't matter that much.'

About 30 people were in the first wave of volunteers going door to door in St Johns. Others will follow after being given a health and safety briefing.

In Sutton Place, one of the first roads to be targeted, the street was eerily quiet.

The only sound came from distant shotguns being fired at the Bisley shooting range.

Residents peered out from their windows as the volunteers in high vis jackets went door to door.
Deadly attack in Burkina Faso on a group of gold miners in the southwest of the country.

According to information released by judicial sources, it was an ambush for the purpose of robbery, which however ended with the killing of eight people, including a 15-year-old.

"They opened fire first in the air, then they aimed at people - said a police source, covered by anonymity - After the attack, there were violent clashes, because the population set fire to the site of the seekers, accused of having caused the death of some workers ".

There were also 29 injured in the shooting and clashes, medical sources pointed out.

(Unioneonline / ss)
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico is asking a federal court to reverse a decision that combined its lawsuit against the Air Force over contamination at military bases with lawsuits filed in other districts.

At issue is PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a class of toxins in the firefighting foam used for training exercises at Cannon and Holloman Air Force bases.

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The New Mexico Environment Department and the New Mexico state attorney general filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on Monday.

New Mexico argues that multidistrict litigation means the States case must now take a back seat to water providers and other private litigants seeking to recover money damages.

The state sued the Air Force in July 2019. New Mexico asked a federal court to compel the Air Force to outline contamination plumes at Cannon and Holloman, test water sources and clean up the chemicals.

In June 2020, a federal panel transferred the lawsuit into the U.S. District of South Carolina.

The matter has now been pending in the (multidistrict litigation) for more than six months, despite the ongoing injuries to human health and the environment, New Mexicos petition reads.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has linked PFAS contamination to low birth weights, high cholesterol and certain cancers.

State Attorney General Hector Balderas said returning the case to a federal court in New Mexico would give the matter the immediate and proper attention it deserves.

The Air Force first informed the state of PFAS in groundwater at Cannon in 2018. The waterproof nature of the forever chemicals makes them difficult to remove.

What is at stake is the health and livelihood of New Mexico families  families that just want the Defense Department to do the right thing, and get PFAS out of their lives and communities for good, said NMED Cabinet Secretary James Kenney.

Another demand in New Mexicos original lawsuit is that the Air Force provide alternative water and voluntary blood tests to those who may have been exposed to the toxins.

At least one Clovis-area dairy was forced to euthanize its cows because of groundwater contamination that likely migrated from Cannon Air Force Base.

Maggie Hart Stebbins, state natural resources trustee, said New Mexico has been aggressive at tackling an environmental issue that is gaining national prominence.

We do intend to pursue a natural resource damage claim (for PFAS), but theres still a few steps that need to happen before we can pursue that, Hart Stebbins told the Journal prior to Mondays court filing. We have to wait on the Environment Department and the responsible parties to characterize and evaluate the extent of PFAS contamination, and that will take some time.

Theresa Davis is a Report for America corps member covering water and the environment for the Albuquerque Journal.
 CCJ's National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice releases latest "Impact Report: COVID-19 and Crime" | Main | Another round of coverage of Prez Trump's clemency grants (and some folks left behind) 

Marc Levin has this notable new Hill commentary headlined "Build a bridge, not a wall, between administrations on justice reform," which emphasizes ground for bipartisan criminal justice reform work past and present. I recommend the full piece and here are excerpts:

Few would dispute that the First Step Act was the crown jewel of bipartisan achievements over the last four years. It contributed to the shrinking of the federal prison population through provisions such as lowering mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses and making retroactive a reduction in the crack and powder sentencing law disparity. Additionally, the CARES Act earlier this year expanded medical parole eligibility in the face of the wrenching impact of COVID-19 on incarcerated people and staff.

Other bipartisan accomplishments flew under the radar. In 2018, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act was reauthorized with provisions added to phase out the shackling of pregnant girls, require the separation of jailed youth from incarcerated adults, and ensure that racial disparities are tracked and addressed. In 2019, legislation was passed to stop abusive IRS prosecutions for structuring, which put some law-abiding small business owners through a dragnet simply because they made bank deposits of $10,000 or more.

Just two days before leaving office, Trump took action on another justice-related topic, overcriminalization. In an effort to rein in the proliferation of obscure criminal penalties that can unwittingly trip up individuals and businesses, Trump issued an executive order mandating that when federal agencies create criminal offenses through regulations, they specify the culpable mental state required for conviction.

While the Biden administration should seek continuity in these areas, there is no shortage of work to do on other aspects of criminal justice reform. In June 2020, the Council on Criminal Justice convened a bipartisan Task Force on Federal Priorities, chaired by former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, that issued numerous recommendations, including the reinstatement of Pell grants for people in prison that was adopted in December. Among the most important items deserving action by the White House and Congress are Task Force recommendations to abolish federal drug mandatory minimums, expand record sealing, and allow courts to take a second look at certain sentences after individuals have spent many years behind bars.

Fortunately, many of these priorities are already teed up for bipartisan action in Congress. For example, acquitted conduct legislation backed by lawmakers ranging from Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) to Sen. Mike Lee (R- Utah) would prohibit prosecutors from contaminating the sentencing phase of a trial with references to conduct that the jury determined the defendant was not guilty of.

Another priority is marijuana reform, which  at a minimum  should include waiving federal laws that interfere with state legalization of medicinal or recreational marijuana. All but six states have now legalized marijuana in some form, and yet federal law inexplicably continues to classify it as a Schedule 1 drug, along with heroin, LSD, and crack cocaine. This continued federal war on cannabis drives underground what should be legitimate activity going through reputable financial institutions. The new administration and Congress must not only start a new chapter on marijuana policy, but also remedy the injustices and inequities of the past by authorizing actions such as automatic record clearing of marijuana convictions....

Criminal justice policy is too important to leave to any one political party.
Two weeks removed, I am in almost no way mourning the end of the Trump administration. From life-or-death matters to more petty things like the quality of our conversations, Donald Trumps tenure in the White House made America worse by just about every conceivable metric.

Except one, maybe! As Slates sporadic fashion correspondent, I did not hate the time I spent poring over Melania Trumps outfits. The former first lady didnt do many things worth writing aboutand the ones she did were often racist, stupid, or otherwise contemptiblebut her clothes were often compelling to me, a fact I have resisted long enough. Like it or not, since first ladies have no official policymaking role, fashion is one of the few arenas in which they can shineand Melania often did, in pleasingly strange ways.

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There were some pieces of Melanias wardrobe I genuinely liked. One of the few things she and I share in common is a proclivity for pussy bows and voluminous sleeves, so I had to begrudgingly appreciate the pink Gucci blouse she wore to an otherwise horrifying presidential debate in 2016, and the two striking Delpozo ensembles she sported in the fall of 2017. I dug the disco vibes of the wide-legged jumpsuits she wore on a trip to Riyadh in 2017 and at Trumps campaign kickoff in 2020, which she paired with metallic belts that were gigantic and merely huge, respectively. I was somewhat wowed by the oversize goldenrod-and-fuchsia Valentino cape that threatened to swallow her whole during a visit with Prince Charles and Camilla in 2019. It cut a cheeky figure against the stuffy backdrop of the princes residence, and it looked rather cozy for a December trip to London.

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But mostly, when I found myself appreciating a Melania outfit, it was because her wardrobe was largely out of step with first lady tradition, and frequently straight-up weird. She eschewed both the demure, pastel-and-patriotic mien historically associated with the role and the more recent J. Crew populism of Michelle Obama in favor of bright colors, architectural silhouettes, and relentless stiletto pumps. She wore what she wanted, and what she wanted was big-name European designers, Barbie heels, signifiers of upper-crust leisure, and the sort of oversize sunglasses associated with celebrities who want to evade the paparazzi. She seemed to give no thought to what message her choice of clothing sent to the hundreds of millions of people watchingeven as it was often the only message she delivered. In one of the Trump administrations few forays into honesty, her spokeswoman told the Washington Post, She does not worry about her critics or paying tribute to specific designers. Fair enough!

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Some of Melanias choices felt more in the mode of Fox News anchor than first lady: She wore bare legs under a red Givenchy minidress in one of her first appearances in the role, and she was no stranger to visible cleavage or high-cut slits in leather skirts. Others were explicit departures from convention: What was the deal with the first couples matching tuxedos in its final White House Christmas card? Under any other president, there would have been endless analysis of that symbolism-rich image. But given the steady stream of Trump administration outrages and the knowledge that there was never any hidden meaning to anything Melania did, it barely registered.

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Many more Melania outfits were simply bizarre, revealing a total lack of understanding ofor interest inhow her presence affected and interacted with her surroundings. Why oh why, for instance, would she wear lime green on the last night of the 2020 Republican National Convention? The Valentino gown was fine on its own, but it clashed with everything else: the plenteous flags, the carpeting, the black-and-blue palette established by her family members. In photos, brightened by art directors for publication, the dress was even more garish, its blown-out color obscuring its decadent pleats. This was the dress of a woman who couldnt be bothered to think of herself as part of a team, or to consider how her clothing might look outside the context of a stylists rack, runway, or red carpet.

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Melanias stunted understanding of fashion also resulted in hilariously on-the-nose getups. She favored cargo jackets and olive drab when visiting the troops. She wore a red plaid cape for a Christmas-tree event and an autumnal brocade (a tribute to your grandmothers sofa) to help pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. A trip to Egypt called for a cream fedora and slacksIndiana Jones, but make it fashion (and dry-clean it). To play up the twin threats of heavily armed civilians and rising nationalism, Melania cosplayed in a militia-chic battle jacket for her 2020 RNC speech. The worst in this category was the pith helmet she wore in Kenya, on the same 2018 tour that included her Egypt moment, as well as several other appearances in olive drab and safari gear. Yes, it was colonialist, but it was also a sign that Melania approached her every first lady duty as a kind of themed photoshoot, a la Americas Next Top Model. While the world held its breath waiting for a volatile presidents next moves, Melania played dress-up.

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Still, even as the Trump presidency stretched over an interminable four years, I never tired of keeping up with Melanias wardrobe. My endurance owed in part to her unabashed embrace of luxuryI do not rue the minutes I spent ogling the craftsmanship on that $51,500 Dolce & Gabbana coatand to the satisfying caricature she presented of a rich lady whose entire identity is being proud of being rich. You could see it in the way she never put her arms in her coat sleeves but made sure to half-pop the collars on the button-down shirts she wore for natural disaster visits and other down-n-dirty occasions. There are plenty of smarmy would-be billionaires, like Kelly Loeffler, wholl force themselves into trucker hats and flannel on the campaign trail to approximate a working-class aesthetic. Ill always prefer the honesty of Melania.

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There are no broad takeaways from Melanias four years in the fashion spotlight. Her style just wasnt that deep. She considered the role of political spouse beneath her, and her disdain came through in her clothes. She dressed for the cameras, but not for the job. The one time she did try to make a statement with her clothingthe I really dont care do u? jacket, which she wore on a trip to visit migrant childrenit was a massive fail: Despite the fact that the inane sentence was literally written on her back, it was entirely inscrutable. Was it making a mockery of the plight of migrant families? A jab at Ivanka? An attempt at trolling the liberal media she hated?

No one ever figured it out. Did we care? Not really. In the end, the jacket news cycle was a good metaphor for the role Melanias fashion played in the administration, at least for me. In the midst of the sustained human rights abuses enacted by her husband, it was a relief to be temporarily diverted by something completely inconsequential.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  The House of Representatives committee on constitutional amendments has adopted a resolution proposing to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution.

A total of 64 lawmakers voted in favor of adopting Resolution of Both Houses No. 2 during a committee hearing on Tuesday. Three lawmakers opposed the measure while three abstained.

The resolution filed by Speaker Lord Allan Jay Velasco proposes to insert the phrase unless otherwise provided by law to specific provisions of the Constitution, namely five amendments to Article XII (National Patrimony and Economy), one amendment to Article XIV (Education, Science, and Technology), and one amendment to Article XVI (General Provisions).

However, the committee removed a provision in the earlier draft of the resolution that would have allowed foreigners to own land in the Philippines.

Committee chairman and Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin said it was time to amend the Constitution, which he noted was far from being perfect.

It is about time we correct this unintended anomaly by introducing an amendment that gives the legislature the freedom to amend those time-bound laws that have been enshrined in the Constitution to the detriment of the common good of the Filipinos now and in the future, he said.

During the hearing, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna told lawmakers that the phrase unless otherwise provided by law must be strategically located in the resolution so the permanent protective principle in the Constitution is retained.

Depende 'yan kung saan niyo 'yan (unless otherwise provided by law) ilagay. Kung ilagay ninyo sa dulo, lahat ng preceding provision will be changeable by law which is not good because that will include the permanent principle of protecting our territory. So paki review lang po ang placement ng unless otherwise provided by law in the existing proposal, said Azcuna, a member of the Constitutional Commission which drafted the 1987 Constitution.

Rev. Tim Tinsley, former pastor at First Presbyterian Church, died Saturday after a hard struggle with pancreatic cancer.

Rev. Tinsley in recent months had written updates on his painful condition under the heading "Thoughts of a Dying Man."

He had resigned as pastor of the church in January 2019 as he and his wife, Laura, joined an organization to work in evangelism and mentoring in cities in the U.S. and abroad.

Rev. Tinsley said at the time, "We are not leaving First Presbyterian, and we are not leaving Chattanooga."

He stayed on as pastor through May. The church is currently searching for his replacement.

Rev. Tinsley was just the 13th pastor of First Presbyterian Church in its long history.

He was elected pastor by the congregation just before Christmas 2009.

At the time, Judge Mickey Barker, chairman of the nine-member search committee, said. "We're excited about Rev. Tinsley. He was the senior associate at a church of about 5,000 members."

He said Park Cities is "a flagship church of the PCA."

Judge Barker said, "Rev. Tinsley is coming from one of the largest churches in America to the oldest church in Chattanooga." He noted that First Presbyterian was founded in 1840 - just after the Indian Removal.

Rev. Tinsley took the place of Dr. Mike Milton, who left in December of 2007 to become president and professor of practical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte.

The search committee interviewed a number of candidates during a year-long search in 2009.

(Natural News) The French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT) recently revealed that Essity, a Swedish global hygiene and health company, is forcing factory workers to wear dog collars to ensure social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Essity to use dog collars to discipline workers

Essity, a Swedish manufacturer in France that produces tissue paper, baby diapers and feminine care products, has been called out for treating employees like dogs after the company announced that workers must wear a social distancing device that emits a high decibel sound if employees are too close to each other.

According to the CFDT, the largest union representing workers at Essity, the device is nothing but a glorified dog collar since similar devices are used to stop dogs from barking. In an interview published in the French newspaper Le Monde, the CFDT revealed that the necklaces emit a sound of 85 decibels if the two-meter distance is not observed.

Christine Duguet, a CFDT union representative, explained that even though Essity claims that the device is intended to discipline employees and call them to order, implementing the system is an attack on individual freedoms.

Duguet said theres no need for the restrictive devices since workers have remained as vigilant as they were during the early days of the coronavirus in France, adding that Essity employees followed social distancing protocols and wore masks throughout their shifts because they are responsible people. (Related: Documents reveal meatpacking industry, USDA colluded to downplay coronavirus risks to workers.)

Employee safety or a needless attack on individual freedoms?

In response to the allegations that workers will be forced to wear dog collars, Essity clarified that the social distancing devices will only be used to strengthen employee safety.

According to the company, the system will be used to identify potential contact cases more quickly and comprehensively. Essity noted that the devices dont have a geolocation system and that they wont be tied to the personal information of employees.

The devices will also be deactivated when workers use the toilet or are in the cafeteria, added Essity.

Duguet didnt believe the companys claims, noting the company itself insisted that the devices would be anonymous and identified only by a serial number. She added that the devices will only cause anxiety among Essity employees since there were no known cases of infection in the factory.

Duguet also expressed concerns about Essity continuing to use the system security once the pandemic is over.

According to one report, the device might be configured to vibrate instead of emitting light or sound.

Essity also denied that the devices were like dog collars as the social distancing device isnt worn around the neck but around the waist or in a pocket. Necklaces are banned in the Essity factory for safety reasons.

Le Parisien reported that Essity has already deployed the system in the United Kingdom. The social distancing system is also being tested in the Netherlands. An Essity spokesman said that the devices are still in the testing phase in France.

Francois Asselineau, the president of the Popular Republican Union party in France, announced that the next stage of the social distancing devices will send an electric shock of 380 volts between the two offenders.

The pandemic is worsening but remains relatively better in France

Duguet thinks the devices will be useless and that they would just end up in the bin or stay in their boxes.

Phi Data, the gadgets Belgian manufacturers, revealed that at least 90 or 95 percent of employees must wear the devices for them to be effective. Aside from Essity, a plant in Chatellerault could also enforce the social distancing devices.

The Chatellerault plant is located in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine where at least 1,200 patients have been hospitalized because of the coronavirus. About 160 infected patients are in intensive care.

While cases fell during a November lockdown, the number of seriously ill patients has increased again across France. The country once again enforced a nationwide curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. to control the steadily increasing cases of infections.

As of writing, anyone traveling to France from outside the EU must have a negative test result and self-isolate for a week upon arrival. In a speech, Prime Minister Jean Castex advised that the measures must be followed due to the urgency of the situation.

Visit Pandemic.news for more updates on how the rest of the world is trying to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

DailyMail.co.uk
RICHMOND, Va., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hilb Group, LLC ("THG") announced today that it has completed its 100th acquisition, and its largest acquisition to date, by acquiring New York-based Rampart Brokerage Corporation & Affiliates ("RBC").

Headquartered in Lake Success, NY, with nearly 200 employees and a 55-year history of serving clients in the New York Tri-State area and across the United States, RBC is a leading broker for upper middle-market commercial lines, high net worth personal lines, individual life and group benefits.

As a part of the acquisition, RBC's leadership team, including Gary Morris, Robby Morris, Sandy Morris Marc Blatt, Evan Portnoy and Steve Jaeger, along with the company's associates, will join THG's Tri-State operations and continue to work out of their existing locations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

"This is the beginning of an exciting chapter for us at Rampart," said CEO Gary Morris. "This partnership brings us additional capabilities and resources that will allow us to offer even more services and insurance products for our clients."

"Rampart was attractive to us for many of its qualities," said Ricky Spiro, THG CEO. "They are a leading insurance broker in the Greater New York City metro region, which will expand THG's presence in the Tri-State region. The firm and its associates have long-standing client relationships and a stellar reputation in the marketplace, and we are honored to work with its strong leadership team and deep bench of talented production and service staff."

The effective date of the acquisition was December 1, 2020.

About THG: THG is a leading property and casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and advisory firm headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. THG is a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm. THG seeks to grow through strategic acquisitions and by leveraging its resources and expertise to drive organic growth in its acquired agencies. The company has completed more than 100 acquisitions and now has over 100 offices in 20 states. Please visit our website at: http://hilbgroup.com.

Media Contact:

Ally Barbour

804-533-0191

[email protected]

M&A Contact:

Ryan Havermann

804-414-6508

[email protected]

SOURCE The Hilb Group, LLC

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People should not call each other names like dog, snake or pig as it is unfair to them and to animals, an animal rights organisation has said.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants these insults to be removed from everyday use as they perpetuate the idea that animals are stupid, ugly or cowardly.

The group says companies including the likes of Collins English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster can help combat speciesism and reduce animal abuse by removing definitions that are seen to be derogatory.

"When we call people 'chicken', 'rat' or pig' as insults, it's a form of bullying that's hurtful to other humans, Jennifer White, PETA's senior media officer, told Newstalk Breakfast.

"But on the flipside, it also perpetuates this idea that animals are stupid, ugly or cowardly - which is just completely inaccurate.

"I know you might be thinking, 'well, they're only words', but we know that words matter - words shape our attitudes and our behaviours.

"And if our language perpetuates negative, untrue stereotypes about animals, then it makes easier for humans to discount them and to mistreat them as well.

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However, complimentary phrases such as referring to your son as wise as an owl are fine Ms White added, its the ones which are untrue: for example sloths - their name comes from the word slow.

"But when you say someone's a sloth, you're usually saying that they're lazy - but sloths can't be lazy, they're slow for survival.

"So, it's just all about changing our perceptions of these animals, and also just thinking about the words that we're using".

Even though animals, of course, cannot hear human insults, Ms White pointed out: We are not saying that animals are offended by the words that human's use.

"But we need to remember just because they don't hear what we're saying, doesn't mean they don't feel the pain that is inflicted on them as a result of our perceptions about animals."

"If you're constantly using words that are negative and untrue to describe these animals, then it changes how you think about them.
Syria: NGO says over 67,000 hit by flooding in northwest 'Still I Rise' distributes blankets and tarps to its students

(ANSAmed) - ROME, FEBRUARY 2 - The situation in northwest Syria is worsening further, with floods in recent days that hit over 67,000 internally displaced people in more than 196 camps, destroying over 3,762 tents and damaging more than 7,728, in addition to causing injuries and one death, said the organisation Still I Rise in a statement Tuesday.



It said that in response to the emergency it chose to support its students at Ma'an educational center in Ad Dana through the distribution of tarps, blankets and waterproof mats.



"These people live in places that are not suitable for camps to be built on, often on agricultural land, and whenever it rains their tents sink in the mud," said Abdulkafi Alhamdo, Syria Project Coordinator at Still I Rise.



"These families have been living like this for years and nothing has changed: we go through the same appeals, the same problems, the same suffering. Winter is a monster for people who live in such places".



Still I Rise said that during the winter heating is a luxury in the camps of northwestern Syria, where 2.7 million displaced people live, 80% of whom are women and children.



The extreme weather conditions push people to move from one area to another, trying to find better living conditions, but often without any success.



In this area "there wasn't sufficient preparation for winter and struggling people turn to dangerous strategies, such as burning unsafe materials to warm themselves".



This practice has caused outbreaks of fires, 17 in the past month alone, which destroyed 28 tents and caused one death and seven injured.



The health situation is also dramatic: according to an OCHA report on 26 January, authorities confirmed nearly 21,000 cases of Covid-19, while the number of deaths associated with the pandemic has significantly increased, going from 46% to 380%.



Testing capacity is very low and some programmes for Covid-19 are running out of funding.



"The international community has turned its eyes away from northwest Syria, while people continue to suffer with no end in sight. Ten-year-old children have seen nothing but war, displacement, poverty and suffering," said Giulia Cicoli, advocacy director at Still I Rise.



She said that until a solution to the conflict is found, "the international community has the duty to immediately intensify humanitarian aid in the region".(ANSAmed). (ANSA).




[February 02, 2021] Instacart Appoints Operations And Product Leader Asha Sharma As Chief Operating Officer

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart, the leading online grocery platform in North America, today announced it has appointed Asha Sharma as Chief Operating Officer. Sharma joins the company in mid-February and will report directly to Instacart Founder and Chief Executive Officer Apoorva Mehta. "Solving for the customer is at the core of everything we do at Instacart. We believe that our long-term success will be driven by creating products that exceed customer expectations at every touch point," said Apoorva Mehta, Founder and CEO of Instacart. "To help achieve that, we're welcoming an exceptional operator and entrepreneurial product leader in Asha Sharma to serve as our new Chief Operating Officer. Asha's known for building strong teams in high growth environments and creating product experiences that are beloved by people around the world. I'm excited to welcome her to the team as we focus on unlocking more value for all the communities we serve." As COO of Instacart, Sharma will oversee the Instacart Marketplace, which includes the Instacart App, Instacart Logistics, Growth and Marketing. She'll also focus on engaging new and returning customers as Instacart continues to serve as a lifeline for millions of people across North America. "Instacart has become a fixture in our homes - one of the few products that are essential every single week in the flurry of life, including my own. I'm proud to join the team during such a pivotal time as Intacart continues to change the way people connect with the retailers they trust to get the groceries and goods they need," said Asha Sharma, incoming COO, Instacart. "I'm passionate about working on products that have a real-world impact on people around the world. I believe Instacart has only scratched the surface of what's possible, and I look forward to working with Apoorva and the team as we focus on developing new experiences that deliver unparalleled value to customers."



Sharma joins Instacart from Facebook, where she was Vice President of Product for many of the company's private communications products across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. During her time at Facebook, Sharma also previously served as VP of Product for Messenger, and Head of Product for Social Impact. She was previously COO of Porch, where she was responsible for the company's operations, product, growth, and marketing efforts. Prior to joining Porch, Sharma worked in marketing and operations at Microsoft. Instacart today partners with nearly 600 national, regional and local retailers, including unique brand names, to offer delivery and pickup services from more than 45,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Instacart is available to 85% of U.S. households and 70% of Canadian households.

About Instacart

Instacart is the leading online grocery platform in North America. Instacart shoppers offer same-day delivery and pickup services to bring fresh groceries and everyday essentials to busy people and families across the U.S. and Canada. Instacart has partnered with nearly 600 beloved national, regional and local retailers, including unique brand names, to deliver from more than 45,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Instacart's delivery service is available to 85% of U.S. households and 70% of Canadian households. The company's cutting-edge enterprise technology also powers the ecommerce platforms of some of the world's biggest retail players, supporting their white-label websites, applications and delivery solutions. Instacart offers an Instacart Express membership that includes reduced service fees and unlimited free delivery on orders over $35. For more information, visit www.instacart.com . For anyone interested in becoming an Instacart shopper, visit https://shoppers.instacart.com/ . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/instacart-appoints-operations-and-product-leader-asha-sharma-as-chief-operating-officer-301219708.html SOURCE Instacart

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"The Mint prides itself in crafting coins that pay tribute to Canada's history, culture and values. That includes celebrating our diversity and acknowledging the difficult chapters of our history," said Marie Lemay, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint. "We are proud to be issuing our third coin commemorating black history by recognizing the influential role Black Loyalists played in shaping the diverse country we know and love today."

Black Loyalists faced many hardships and the promise of a better life went unfulfilled. Those who remained in British North America despite the adversity, helped re-define Canada's history and character. Today, the descendants of Black Loyalists can lay claim to an extraordinary legacy of courage and perseverance.

"Black Loyalists and their descendants have helped shape communities from coast to coast to coast from well before this land was even called Canada, and their legacy inspires us to build an even better and consciously more inclusive country," said the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth. "As we celebrate Black History Month, we recognize the struggles and obstacles that Black communities in Canada have had to overcome and continue to face, and we acknowledge and celebrate the enormous contributions they continue to make to the growth, well-being, and prosperity of this country."

The coin's reverse features the armorial bearings of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society granted in 2006 by the Canadian Heraldic Authority and designed by Darrel E. Kennedy, Assiniboine Herald.

"As a Black Loyalist descendant, I am proud to say that my ancestors were some of the 3,500 people of African descent who came to Canada in 1783, carrying with pride their Certificate of Freedom," said Cynthia Dorrington, Site Manager of the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre. "They settled across Lower Canada, all with the hope of creating a better life for their families. Our rich history has been foundational in shaping Canada's collective history and we are delighted to share it further on a beautiful silver coin."

On the shield, three Loyalist civil coronets represent the non-combatants who fled to British North America (Canada), while the ship's wheel represents both the past (the ships landing in 1783) and the present (the Society's focus on community development). The lion supporters symbolize the pride of Africa and the courage demonstrated by those who sought a better life in Nova Scotia. Beneath the shield, the province is represented by its official floral emblem, the mayflower, while the rock symbolizes the landings near Birchtown, Nova Scotia. The anchor in the crest honours the sacrifices of the families who undertook the journey, which is represented by the footprints in the mantling. The motto "THE HEART OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE IS IN YOUR ROOTS" speaks to the Society members' interest in their heritage. The armorial bearings are also flanked by maple leaves.

The obverse features a repeating maple leaf field pattern and the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.

Limited to a mintage of 5,500, the 2021 $20 Fine Silver Coin Commemorating Black History: The Black Loyalists retails for $99.95. This new collectible may be ordered as of today by contacting the Mint at 1-800-2671871 in Canada, 1-800-2686468 in the US, or at www.mint.ca.

Images of this coin are available here.

About the Royal Canadian Mint

The Royal Canadian Mint is the Crown corporation responsible for the minting and distribution of Canada's circulation coins. The Mint is one of the largest and most versatile mints in the world, offering a wide range of specialized, high quality coinage products and related services on an international scale. For more information on the Mint, its products and services, visit www.mint.ca. Follow the Mint on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

SOURCE Royal Canadian Mint

For further information: For more information, media are asked to contact: Alex Reeves, Senior Manager, Public Affairs, Telephone: 613-884-6370, [email protected]

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New Delhi, Feb 2 : With Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut meeting farmers protesting at the Ghazipur border near Delhi, the BJP said it is an attempt to "stay relevant" in Maharashtra politics and "tokenism" to show solidarity with the farmers.

Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye told IANS: "Raut's visit to Ghazipur border has nothing to do with farmers but political drama. If Raut or his Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government is really concerned for the farmers then they should have helped them by fulfilling their demands." "Raut and Shiv Sena must understand that farmers' concern cannot be addressed by tokenism," Upadhye said.

Earlier in the day, Raut reached the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh Ghazipur border to extend support to farmers and met BKU leader Rakesh Tikait. The Rajya Sabha member said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had sent him.

Taking a swipe at the Shiv Sena spokesperson, Upadhye said, "Raut and Shiv Sena has no time to meet farmers in Maharashtra, who are trying hard to tell their plight to the state government but for sake of politics he went all the way to Ghazipur border." The Maharashtra BJP leader claimed that visit to Ghazipur is an attempt to cover up absence of top leadership of Shiv Sena during the famers gathering at Mumbai's Azad Maidan on January 25 which was attended by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra and Congress president Balasaheb Thorat among others.

"If Raut is really concerned about farmers, then why were the top leadership or Raut himself missing from the Azad Maidan event which was attended by their alliance partners? The Ghazipur border visit is an attempt to cover up their absence," he added.

Meanwhile, BJP national spokesperson R.P. Singh alleged that Raut and his party are using protesting farmers at Delhi's border for their political benefits.

"Shiv Sena and Raut are least concerned about farmers. Raut visiting Ghazipur and meeting Bharatiya Kisan Union leader after failure of Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government to take welfare initiative for the farmers in the state where they have been ruling for over one year," he said.

Singh said that instead of politicising the issue and misleading farmers for their political benefits, the Shiv Sena and Raut must address the concerns of farmers in Maharashtra.

Singh said that if Raut and Shiv Sena are really concerned for the farmers then they must fulfill all the promises made to farmers along with their alliance partners -- Congress and NCP.

"The Maha Vikas Aghadi government must tell the initiatives taken to improve the condition of farmers in the state," Singh added
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 02.02.21:

They also put Azerbaijani flags on the inter-community road leading from Armenias Kapan city to Chakaten and a number of other villages; that is, connecting peaceful settlements.

Reports on these facts will be sent to international organizationsincluding the OSCE, the UN, the CoE (Council of Europe) by the human rights defender office.

Bodies of nine more Armenian soldiers have been found in Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh].

A forensic medical examination has been ordered to determine their identities.

As of Monday, a total of 1,354 bodies were retrieved.

Russian peacekeepers have mediated for a return of two Azerbaijanis detained by the Armenian National Security Service.

Meanwhile, the medical squad of the Russian peacekeeping contingent conducted the evacuation of 16 Azerbaijani ill servicemen from the Maghavuzi Vank settlement where they were transferred to Azerbaijani doctors.

European Peoples Party has called on Azerbaijan to release Armenian POWs immediately.

EPP PA members called on Azerbaijan to accelerate the exchange of prisoners of war, captives, and bodies of the dead and demand their immediate release, the statement said.

They urged the European Commission to pursue this humanitarian question in the current and future relations with Azerbaijan.

Armenia has submitted an Inter-State Application against Azerbaijan with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Armenia claimed Convention violations during and in the aftermath of the war waged by Azerbaijan in the fall of 2020.

The Armenian government claims that Azerbaijan has violated the right to life, the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment, the right to liberty, the right to property, the right to personal and family life, the right to education, as well as a number of other Convention rights of the population of Artsakh and Armenia.

The government will provide the Court with a large number of evidence regarding the claims already submitted in due course.

CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas said Syrian mercenaries should leave Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to him, their activities near the CSTO countries pose risks to security.

We proceed from the premise that any Syrian mercenaries and militants must leave this territory and stop their activities, he noted.

The trial of the criminal case against Armenias second President Robert Kocharyan and several other former senior officials has resumed Tuesday.

The defendants are accused of violating the constitutional order.

At a previous court hearing, the defense had filed several motions for the recusal of the current members of the prosecution, including of the prosecutor general, from this case.

The court has already announced its decision on these motions; presiding Judge Anna Danibekyan has denied all of them.

During the hearing, Kocharyan referred to the politicization of the criminal case.

"There can be no cases of political events without political components," he noted.

Meanwhile, the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan has allowed Kocharyan to leave Armenia from February 3 to 8.
Insurance fraud seems like it might be an easy thing to do. Insurance companies are often so huge, one wonders how they might not even notic...
Eiza Gonzalez celebrated her 31st birthday on Sunday, January 30.

Enjoying a brief break from shooting her latest film -- Michael Bay's upcoming thriller film Ambulance -- the actress headed out on Monday to take taking care of some errands, which included making a pit stop to buy a cup of ice coffee, to go.

The Mexican-born star showed off her toned midriff, and overall fab figure, in a crop top when she was seen parking her car just outside the shop in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles.

On the go: Eiza Gonzalez showed off her amazingly toned midriff in a white crop top while out taking care of some errands in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles on Monday

Gonzalez gave more then a hint of her toned-midsection when she stepped out of her car in the white top that cut just below her breasts.

She was dressed for casual comfort in aqua-blue sweatpants and white sneakers.

Her raven tresses flowed to about the middle of her back with added volume and a part in the middle.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still a danger for citizens, the Alita: Battle Angel star wore a black mask over her mouth and nose while out in the public.

Pick-me-upper: The Mexican-born actress was first seen moments after she parked her car outside just outside a coffee shoppe

The Baby Driver star was also dressed for casual comfort in aqua-blue sweatpants and white sneakers, with her raven tresses flowing to the middle of her back

Ripped: The rising star owned her abs with confidence during her errand run

The Baby Driver actress reappeared after a few minutes, with her ice coffee in hand, and crossed the street and headed back to her car.

On Sunday, Gonzalez teased her 6.4 million Instagram fans and followers by flashing a seductive look over a pair of sunglasses in a birthday post.

'All I want for my birthday is a tub with a view and a spritz,' she captioned the photo of herself sipping what appears to be a tropical drink.

Safety first: With the COVID-19 pandemic still a danger for citizens, the Alita: Battle Angel star wore a black mask over her mouth and nose while out in the public.

New role: The Mexican-born actress has been hard at work in recent days and weeks shooting the action thriller film Ambulance in Los Angeles, alongside leading man Jake Gyllenhaal

After receiving an onslaught of birthday wishes and compliments, she took back to Instagram on Monday and wrote, 'thank you for the bday love', along with a similar photo where she's holding that same drink.

The actress has been hard at work in recent days and weeks shooting Ambulance in Los Angeles, alongside leading man Jake Gyllenhaal.

Just days ago she was spotted on the set, and in action, filming an intense car chase scene for the movie which is set to premiere on February 18, 2022.

Currently, Gonzalez stars with Rosamund Pike in the dark comedy thriller I Care a Lot, that's set to debut on Netflix February 19, and she's among the cast of the highly-anticipated Godzilla vs. Kong, which premieres March 31 in theaters and on HBO Max.

Birthday girl: Gonzalez teased her 6.4 million Instagram fans and followers by flashing a seductive look over a pair of sunglasses in a birthday post on Sunday, January 30

COURTESY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

At the rate the coronavirus pandemic is heading in Texas, we're looking at another summer spent at home. Looking to get away? Guadalupe Mountains National Park has an opportunity for you.

The national park posted on its Facebook page Wednesday that it is looking for volunteers who can camp on its Pine Springs Campground throughout July, August and September. Applicants must have their own RV or trailer, work 32 hours per week and be willing to spend the entire three months at the camp, the post said.

Myanmar's military checkpoint is seen on the way to the congress compound in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Feb. 1, 2021. Reuters



Myanmar's military staged a coup Monday and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi _ a sharp reversal of the significant, if uneven, progress toward democracy the Southeast Asian nation has made following five decades of military rule.



An announcement read on military-owned Myawaddy TV said Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year. It said the seizure was necessary because the government had not acted on the military's claims of fraud in November's elections _ in which Suu Kyi's ruling party won a majority of the parliamentary seats up for grabs _ and because it allowed the election to go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic.



The takeover came the morning the country's new parliamentary session was to begin and follows days of concern that a coup was coming. The military maintains its actions are legally justified _ citing a section of the constitution it drafted that allows it to take control in times of national emergency _ though Suu Kyi's party spokesman as well as many international observers have said it amounts to a coup.





Burmese living in Thailand hold pictures of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. AP




(@FahadShabbir)

MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) The Belarusian court on Tuesday sentenced the author of the critical YouTube channel "Slutsk for Life," Vladimir Neronsky, to 3 years in jail for insulting a government official and organizing unauthorized protests, the Viasna human rights center, unregistered by the country's authorities, said.

Neronsky was detained in May 2020 after returning from the city of Mogilev, where he had allegedly organized a meeting with viewers of his YouTube channel, which was qualified by the police as a "mass unauthorized event." The Mogilev court sentenced Neronsky to 10 days of administrative arrest. In June, he was accused of organizing events that breached public order, as well as insulting a government official in his video about the chairman of the Slutsk regional executive committee.

"The Lahojsk District Court has sentenced political prisoner Uladzimir Niaronski to a three-year imprisonment in a general-security penal colony, finding him guilty of calling to breach public order. The court, presided by Judge Aliaksandr Rybakou, concluded that the blogger, who runs a critical YouTube channel called 'Sluck for Living,' acted in conspiracy with blogger Siarhei Tsikhanouski and politician Mikalai Statkevich," Viasna said in a statement.

Neronsky has previously admitted that he published videos in which he spoke out very emotionally, but did not plot anything criminal with Tikhanovsky and others. The blogger pleaded guilty to insulting the government official and expressed his readiness to publicly apologize.

Tikhanovsky planned to run in the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, but because he could not submit an application in person while under arrest, his wife Svetlana ended up registering as a candidate.

Though the election commission said that incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won the race, the opposition claimed that Tikhanovskaya was the true winner, triggering mass nationwide protests, which continue to be held every weekend.

Tikhanovskaya has since fled to Lithuania, from where she keeps rallying support from European leaders. Her husband is charged with plotting mass riots in Belarus. The period of his detention expired on November 29 but was extended until the end of February.
Joins Actimed following highly successful 20-year career at Bayer

LONDON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Actimed Therapeutics, the clinical stage company focused on bringing innovation to the treatment of muscle wasting disorders, with a focus on cachexia, today announces the appointment of Frank Misselwitz MD, PhD, as Chief Medical Officer.

Dr Misselwitz joins the Company in his new role from Bayer AG where until recently he was Corporate Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head in clinical development. With a background in academia and industry, he has over 30 years of extensive pharmaceutical industry experience. Dr Misselwitz is currently a non-executive director and member of the Board of Actimed.

Dr Misselwitz was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research for 8 years and is currently a member of the SAB for the Centre for Thrombosis and Haemostasis University of Mainz, Germany.

Robin Bhattacherjee, Actimed CEO, commented: "We are tremendously excited to appoint Frank as our Chief Medical Officer as we seek to further advance the development of our lead candidate ACM-001 (S-pindolol) for cancer cachexia. Frank brings a wealth of international expertise in clinical development and an outstanding track record for delivering successful large-scale clinical trials on time. He is a highly respected and influential leader who shares our motivation to bring new medicines to the many patients suffering from cachexia."

During his career, Frank supported the development of Humira at Knoll AG and Abbott. While at Bayer, he led the successful development of multiple cardiovascular drugs including rivaroxaban, the leading oral direct FXa inhibitor. The rivaroxaban development programme included the landmark COMPASS trial, one of the largest and most complex development programs conducted, encompassing more than 275,000 patients. Rivaroxaban was developed in its first indication in just 78 months. Frank was also responsible for the successful development of Riociguat, a stimulator of soluble guanylate cyclase, approved to treat two forms of Pulmonary Hypertension.

Frank led the Therapeutic Area engaged in developing replacement therapies in hemophilia A including Damoctocog alfa pegol which was approved by EMA and FDA in 2018.

Frank's previous academic research experience was gained in UK, USA, Germany and Russia and he is the author of over 250 publications.

Dr Misselwitz commented: "I am excited to have the opportunity to be joining Actimed to help bring ACM-001 to the many patients for whom cancer related cachexia remains a significant unmet need, as well as developing Actimed's broader pipeline for muscle wasting disorders. As a Board member at Actimed, I am already very familiar with the Company and the impressive data amassed to date on ACM-001. I look forward to working with Actimed's outstanding team to bring this and other innovative new products to this vulnerable and under-served patient population."

About Actimed Therapeutics

Actimed Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on bringing innovation to the treatment of muscle wasting disorders to transform the care of an underserved and vulnerable patient population. Actimed was founded in 2017 by Stefan Anker and Andrew Coats, two world leading physicians in muscle wasting research.

The lead area of focus for Actimed is specifically in cachexia. Cachexia is a wasting disease that accompanies cancer and other serious chronic illnesses and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite its prevalence and devastating clinical effects, there is no approved drug for the treatment or prevention of cancer-related cachexia.

It has been estimated that cachexia affects 50-80% of cancer patients and accounts for up to 20% of cancer deaths. Treating cancer cachexia successfully may increase both the length and quality of life for cancer patients.

The lead product of Actimed, ACM-001 (S-pindolol), formerly known as MT-102, targets multiple pathways that drive cachexia and has generated promising proof of concept Phase II clinical data in cachexia patients. Actimed is currently preparing for further clinical studies in cachexia in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and Colorectal Cancer (CRC).

Actimed has a second, pre-clinical product for cancer cachexia, S-oxprenolol. With the acquisition of the global rights for S-oxprenolol in ALS, Actimed now has the opportunity to expand the development focus of the Company to include this additional indication where loss of body mass and muscle wasting can impact survival.

www.actimedtherapeutics.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Actimed Therapeutics

Email: info@actimedtherapeutics.com

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Frazer Hall, Nathaniel Dahan, David Dible

Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 9571

Email: actimed@citigatedewerogerson.com

press release

On January 28, US President Biden rescinded the Mexico City policy, more commonly known as the Global Gag Rule. The policy prevents United States government funds from going to any foreign nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) that provide abortion-related information, referrals, or services, even with privately raised or non-US funds. It acts as a "gag" on health care providers worldwide, prohibiting them from even counselling women about their reproductive choices or referring them to other health providers for care.

The Trump administration took the policy much further than previous administrations, expanding the restrictions to apply to all US government funded global health assistance, not only to NGOs involved in family planning. This affected frontline health workers providing a range of services beyond sexual and reproductive healthcare, including vital nutrition programmes, lifesaving malaria treatment, and critical tuberculosis and HIV care.

Quote from Dr Manisha Kumar, head of MSF's task force on safe abortion care

"While we are relieved to see a halt to this dangerous policy, there is much more work to do to mitigate the damage we have witnessed. Rescinding the Global Gag Rule is just a first step. Millions of women still don't have access to safe abortion care because of restrictive laws, cost, stigma, a lack of trained providers, or other unnecessary barriers, such as mandatory waiting periods or misleading information.

The Global Gag Rule does not reduce the number of abortions that take place. Restricting access to abortion only pushes women to resort to unsafe abortion methods.

MSF does not accept US government funding, so our programmes are not directly affected by the Global Gag Rule. However, we see the harmful impacts these types of policies have on limiting women's access to essential health care. In 2019, MSF treated more than 25,800 women and girls with abortion-related complications, many of which resulted from unsafe attempts to end a pregnancy.

We hope the US government will start using its wealth and power to actually expand, rather than restrict, access to sexual and reproductive health services. Dr Manisha Kumar, MSF task force on safe abortion care

We've seen women who have used pens, broken glass, or sticks to try to induce an abortion. We've seen women who drank chlorine or poisons. We have treated women who received medicines from private pharmacies but weren't given the correct pills, or the right information or appropriate support they needed. These are examples of what women will turn to when they don't have access to safe abortion care.

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We can only guess how many women lost their lives over the last several years because access to this essential health care was cut off. And we know that policies such as the Global Gag Rule disproportionately affect black women and women of colour.

We hope the US government will start using its wealth and power to actually expand, rather than restrict, access to sexual and reproductive health services. Comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care is not only essential to the health of individuals, but to the overall health of families and communities everywhere. We need access to safe abortion care for everyone, everywhere. Safe abortion care is essential health care."

MSF is committed to continuing to provide safe abortion care as part of its comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care package, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, during which services such contraception and safe abortion care were deprioritised--sometimes stopped altogether--in the race to respond the pandemic.
CHICOPEE  With any one of the COVID-19 vaccines youll get increased immunity from the deadly coronavirus, maybe a little soreness and now 20% off on food orders every Monday at Rumbleseat Bar & Grille.

Rumbleseat owner Bill Stetson said this week hes offering the discount for three reasons: to thank the health care workers who are his customers, have borne the brunt of the pandemic and are likely to get the vaccine; to recognize the senior citizens who are customers who are now eligible for the vaccine; and to generally encourage people to get immunized.

I want to motivate, Stetson said. I want it known out there that we support people getting the shots.

Just show your vaccination card, he said.

He said the promotion is a good way to put the bars 11,000 Facebook followers to work in support of the vaccines.

The stakes are high, he said, not only for society but for his business at The Rumbleseat, which he describes as a sports restaurant and his banqueting business at The Collegian Court. The Collegian is barely operating due to the restrictions on gatherings.

If people dont get the vaccine, Stetson said. Then my business will never be able to open up normally. Itll be a good feeling to know that everyone in the restaurant is vaccinated.

He expressed frustration with Massachusetts slow rollout of the vaccine compared with neighboring Connecticut.

I want there to be huge demand for these shots.

Billy Stetson, owner of The Rumbleseat Bar and Grille in Chciopee, is offering a 20% discount to diners on Mondays if they have received the COVID-19 vaccine. (Don Treeger / The Republican)

With business bad , he said he simply cant afford to pay his staff to get they vaccine as employers like McDonalds plan to do.

Its a unique promotion, said George Milne, professor of marketing at the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management. He said hes never heard of anyone else doing it.

Anytime you are the first out of the gate with an interesting idea, you do get some news, Milne said.

Milne said Stetson is probably also doing a public good, letting those who might be reluctant to get a COVID vaccine know that others are getting the shot.

I think it does kind of encourage people to get vaccines, Milne said. Its a good social marketing type of tool.

Stetson isnt the only one bringing social pressure to bear. Elected officials  including President Joe Biden, got their shots publicly in order to build confidence. Saying that youve gotten your vaccine is apparently a hot topic on dating sites.

Stephen Clark, vice president of government affairs for the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, said he also was unaware of any other restaurants with similar promotions. But he knows that many restaurants are trying to do everything they can to bring in as much business as they can because things are slow with the pandemic.

It sounds like this might work for restaurants that are near the hospitals in Worcester and Boston, Clark said.

Stetson said he gets a lot of Baystate Medical Center employees who come in to eat after their shifts. These customers have been through a lot with the pandemic, many have gotten COVID and for the the shot is the only way they can safely continue doing their jobs.

Those guys in the hospitals, they dont get to have an argument on Facebook Im going to wait and see how it goes, Stetson said.

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By Lee Seong-hyon





U.S. President Joe Biden plans to deliver his most substantive foreign policy remarks since becoming president on restoring "America's place" in the world. He is likely to talk about "leadership" and "multilateralism" according to the Chinese media. In a not-so-veiled warning, it said that if Biden's multilateralism means only strengthening the U.S. alliance structure, it would be indicative of an American attempt for "baquan" of hegemony.



Baquan means "hegemony." But in Chinese it is a much more pejorative term than in English. Apparently, the Chinese warning is also indicative of Beijing's concern about whether, and how much, Biden is willing to inherit Trump's China policy legacy.



Interestingly, Yang Jiechi, the most senior foreign policy adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping, gave a speech on U.S.-China relations, only hours before Biden's speech. "For the past few years, the Trump administration adopted misguided policies, plunging the relationship into the most difficult period since the establishment of diplomatic relations," Yang said.



"Some" in the United States "attempted to seek decoupling and the so-called 'new Cold War.'" He continued, "We believe that peace and development are still the prevailing trend of the times. Peaceful co-existence and win-win cooperation remain the shared aspiration of all peoples."



The rest of Yang's speech was as expected, a mixture of warnings and appeasement. But what is notable is his characterization of the current state of U.S.-China relations as a "new Cold War," even though he added the qualifier, "so-called." In addition, he also made it clear that it was "some" in the United States, rather than the Chinese, seeking such a Cold War. These claims can be dissected by historians later.



The academic community has also not resolved its heated debate on whether or not the current state of U.S.-China relations should be defined as a "Cold War." Let them continue to do so. It's their job. In the meantime, what is pertinent for the policy community is that the U.S.-China relationship is a serious enough issue and has resemblance to many elements of the Cold War. (The problem with South Korea's policy community is that it confuses the two. Its mission is to practice real-world policy, but it is still basking itself in entertaining academic and theoretical debates.)



How will China fare from now? Yang's speech has a hint. "China calls for a New Type of International Relations." This phrase is the key. It is an "upgraded" version from the phrase, "New Type of Great Power Relations" (xinxing daguo guanxi). In the earlier phrase, the "great power" refers only to the two nations, the United States and China.



China assertively pursued this "Great Power" policy during the previous Obama administration. A signature Chinese metaphor at that time, uttered by Xi to Obama, was that the Pacific Ocean is big enough to contain both the U.S. and China. So both countries should not quarrel.



It sounded peaceful. So, it took a while for the Obama people to realize that its actual message was that the U.S. should treat China as an "equal" power and concede the Western Pacific (that is, "half" of the Pacific Ocean) to be under the Chinese sphere of influence. Some scholars at that time interpreted this as the Chinese version of the Monroe Doctrine.



The concept of "Great Power" relations is centered on the dualistic international relations paradigm, reflecting the view that as long as China (as the number two power) successfully resolves its relationship matrix with the world's number one power, the rest of the global power structure and balance will be stable for China.



However, due to intensifying conflict with the United States under the Trump administration, China rightly realized that its "Great Power" paradigm had two flaws. First, it was seen as China pursuing hegemony as a rising superpower.



Second, for sure, the United States is important, but the rest of the world is important as well, in this increasingly multilateral world.

In particular, China has noticed that the foundational strength of the U.S. and its global influence lies in having many allies and partners. China doesn't have them. So, the name change from new "Great Power" to new "International Relations" reflects this strategic realization.



Taken together, the next phase of the U.S.-China competition (which will largely continue regardless of what Biden says) will be about who, between the U.S. and China, has more friends and partners in the world. In diplomatic terms, this new situation means "multilateralism." It is about stealing allies and snatching friends. What will this new situation mean for South Korea?



Lee Seong-hyon (sunnybbsfs@gmail.com), Ph.D., is director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the Sejong Institute


Egyptian Transport Minister Kamel El-Wazir has urged for the completion of construction and development work at the Ain Sokhna Port within two years to coincide with the completion of the first phase of Egypt's first high-speed electric railway linking the city of Ain Sokhna, Alexandria and New Alamein city.

The minister said the railway, which will link Egypts eastern and northern coasts, will help transport cargo from and to ports nationwide, including the Ain Sokhna port, in addition to transporting passengers.

The $23 billion railway project - comprising four lines - will be implemented by Germanys Siemens along with other Egyptian companies. Each line is set to be implemented within two years.

El-Wazir's directives were made during an inspection tour he made on Tuesday to follow up on the construction and developmental work at the Ain Sokhna Port, an affiliate of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), according to a statement released by the transport minister.

The overall cost of construction and developmental work at the port is estimated at EGP 20 billion (around $127million), the statement added.

Head of the General Authority of the SCZone, Yehia Zaki and the presidents of 42 national contracting companies accompanied the minister on the tour.

The ports project is currently being developed in cooperation with Dubai Port Operator DP World, an Emirati multinational logistics company under an agreement signed in 2017.

In November 2017, Egypt's SCZone Authority and DP World signed a partnership agreement to develop an integrated industrial and residential zone in Egypt's Red Sea coastal area of Ain Sokhna.

The agreement will establish a joint venture between SCZone (51%) and DP World (49%), with DP World managing the zone.

The project, located 55 kilometres south of the Suez Canal entry point, will allow shipments to reserve passage through the canal directly from the port, avoiding anchorage in front of Suez.

Egypt has been pushing forward with efforts to lure investors to its SCZone in recent years, highlighting the available opportunities for foreign corporations.

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Indian farmers protesting on New Delhis outskirts are vowing to continue their two-month struggle to scrap three new farm laws, despite recent violence that has cast a shadow on what is being called one of the worlds largest protests. Led by farmers from the agricultural state of Punjab, the protest includes many educated young people, highlighting Indias growing joblessness problem. Anjana Pasricha in New Delhi spoke to some of the protesters.VOA Khmer's Chetra Chap narrates.
Ukrainians may find it easier to move to Canada post-coronavirus, as the two countries establish a new Mobility Working Group

New Canada-Ukraine deal to expand immigration Ukrainians may find it easier to move to Canada post-coronavirus, as the two countries establish a new Mobility Working Group

New Canada-Ukraine deal to expand immigration Ukrainians may find it easier to move to Canada post-coronavirus, as the two countries establish a new Mobility Working Group

New Canada-Ukraine deal to expand immigration Ukrainians may find it easier to move to Canada post-coronavirus, as the two countries establish a new Mobility Working Group Mohanad Moetaz Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canada and Ukraine have established a new Mobility Working Group, immigration minister Marco Mendicino announced Wednesday.

The new partnership will look to improve mobility opportunities for Ukrainian nationals who are looking to move to Canada. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will still ensure that Canadas visa framework and migration rules will remain intact.

This will go into effect after the COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted.

The Canada-Ukraine Mobility Working Group will also allow the respective governments to share insights and best practices on how to best manage migration. It will also allow Canada to promote its economic class immigration programs to Ukrainian nationals.

Through generations of Ukrainians who have made Canada their home, the Ukrainian-Canadian community continues to make outstanding contributions to Canadas economy, said Mendicino, The unique partnership that we are announcing today will serve to further strengthen the deep-rooted, people-to-people ties between our two countries.

Wednesday marked the 29th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between the two nations. Canada and Ukraine have enjoyed strong ties since 1992  just a few months after Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991.

Find out if youre eligible for Canadian immigration

Canada and Ukraine have had close ties since. Currently, there are over 1.3 million Canadians that are of Ukrainian descent. In addition, the two nations introduced the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement in 2017, that waived tariffs on 86 per cent of Canadas exports to Ukraine.

Canada has also committed north of $800 million to support Ukraine since 2014. This includes financial, development, security, non-lethal military and humanitarian assistance.

New Canada-Ukraine Youth Mobility Agreement

Canada and Ukraine will work together through the new Mobility Working Group to develop a new youth mobility agreement. This agreement will mean that Canadian youth and Ukrainian youth the opportunity to travel and work. This will go into effect after the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Youth mobility agreements improve labour market access for youth between 18 and 35 years old by allowing them to work abroad for 12 months. Candidates have the option to participate twice, for up to 24 months.

Canada has similar agreements with many other countries. Recently, Canada signed a new youth mobility agreement with Italy. Citizens of these countries can take advantage of the International Experience Canada (IEC) program to live and work in Canada.

Canada expecting increased immigration post-pandemic

Canada understands the importance of immigration for the countrys economic recovery and continued growth. This is illustrated in Canadas 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan, which was set out in October 2020.

The levels plan shows significant increases in the countrys immigration targets compared to previous years. Canada aims to welcome upwards of 400,000 immigrants every year between 2021 and 2023.

Find out if youre eligible for Canadian immigration

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
China's top foreign policy advisor has warned the United States not to interfere in Hong Kong and Xinjiang's affairs after the Biden administration condemned Beijing's policies in the two regions.

Yang Jiechi, director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party, is the highest-ranking Chinese leader to speak on China-US relations since US President Joe Biden took office last month.

Mr Yang's comments on Tuesday followed criticism from senior Biden administration officials against China's repression of Muslim minorities and its clampdown on Hong Kong.

Yang Jiechi, director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party, is pictured during a virtual meeting with the National Committee on US-China Relations on February 2. Mr Yang urged the US to stop meddling in Hong Kong and Xinjiang's affairs

Mr Yang made the comments after senior officials from the Biden administration denounced China over its treatment of Muslim minorities and clampdown on Hong Kong. Pictured above, President Joe Biden answers questions from reporters in Washington on January 25

Under the Trump administration, US relations with China plunged to their lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1979, as both sides clashed over issues ranging from trade and technology to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, and the South China Sea.

Mr Yang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, called for Beijing and Washington to put their relations back on a 'predictable and constructive' path.

'More than a week ago, the Biden administration officially took office. China-US relations now stand at a key moment and face new opportunities and new challenges,' he told a virtual meeting organised by the National Committee on US-China Relations, a New York-based non-profit organisation.

'People in the two countries and beyond are watching closely as to where this relationship is heading.'

The US has accused China of using forced labour and detaining more than 1million Uighurs, Kazakhs and others in prison-like centres for political indoctrination in Xinjiang, western China. The above picture is believed to show detainees in one of such re-education camps

President Joe Biden's national security adviser has said that the US must be prepared to impose costs on China for its crackdown in Hong Kong. In the file photo above, police try to disperse pro-democracy activists after a march at Sheung Shui, Hong Kong, on July 13, 2019

While reassuring the United States that China has no intention to challenge or replace the US position in the world, Mr Yang stressed that no force could hold back China's development.

He stated: 'We expect the United States to honour its commitment under the three Sino-US Joint Communiques, strictly abide by the One China principle, and respect China's position and concerns on the Taiwan question.

'The United States should stop interference in the affairs of Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, which all matter to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and stop attempts to hold back China's development by meddling in China's internal affairs.'

On Friday, President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said that the United States must be prepared to impose costs on China for its actions against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, its crackdown in Hong Kong and threats towards Taiwan.

China has increased tensions with Taiwan by stepping up military activities and declaring that 'independence means war' last week. This photo taken on January 4, 2021 shows Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers assembling during military training in Xinjiang

Mr Sullivan told an event at the United States Institute of Peace that Washington needed to speak with clarity and consistency on the issues.

He said it needed to be 'prepared to act, as well to impose costs, for what China is doing in Xinjiang, what it's doing in Hong Kong, for the bellicosity and threats it is projecting towards Taiwan.'

Mr Sullivan did not elaborate on steps Washington might take.

He said the China issue was at the top of those to be addressed between the United States and allies in Europe.

He stressed the need to agree on joint responses with Europe on China's trade and technology abuses.

'We don't have entirely aligned perspectives on every one of these issues ... I think China is right at the top of the list of things that we've got to work together on and where there is work to do to get fully aligned.'

In this file photo, Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) shakes hands with then-US Vice President Joe Biden at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on December 4, 2013

The Biden administration, which took office on January 20, has indicated it will continue the tough approach to China pursued by former President Donald Trump, but wants Beijing's cooperation on policy priorities such as climate change.

President Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken has endorsed a last-minute determination by his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, that China has committed genocide in Xinjiang. The move increases pressure for more US sanctions, which the Trump administration also imposed over Beijing's crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong.

President Biden's administration issued a strong statement in support of Taiwan amid stepped-up Chinese military activity near the island, stressing that the US commitment to Taipei is 'rock solid'.
When talk focuses on the word impeachment, most people think about presidents  but only three of the nations leaders have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and again in 2021.

They are a small number of the 63 impeachment proceedings Congress has undertaken since 1789. More common is the impeachment of those who hold federal office, particularly judges  including a Cass County man.

Mark W. Delahay, a lawyer and newspaper editor in the town of Virginia before the Civil War, is one of 20 officials impeached at the federal level.

Delahay was appointed to a federal judgeship in Kansas in 1863 by a president known for honesty  Abraham Lincoln. Critics blasted the appointment, however, based on Delahays dubious character. He was removed from office in 1873 for repeatedly being drunk on the bench.

Details of Delahays life are as sketchy as some said his character was.

Born in 1817 to a slave-holding family in Maryland, he moved to Illinois by the mid-1840s and made acquaintance with Lincoln. The future president referred to friend Delahay in a letter to Beardstown lawyer Henry Dummer on Nov. 18, 1845.

In addition, a Delahay, with no first name, is given as a defense attorney in Thayer v. Ferrell, an attachment case that originated in Cass Circuit Court in May 1844. Delahay edited a newspaper, The Observer, in Virginia from 1848 to 1849.

Delahay left for Mobile, Alabama, in 1853, where he again practiced law before settling in Leavenworth, Kansas, on March 21, 1855. At the time, Kansas was a hotbed of conflict and violently struggled with the slavery question before gaining statehood in 1861.

Not surprisingly, Delahay seemed to play all sides politically. Though some sources contend that Delahay did not approve of his familys slave holding, he was apparently a Douglas Democrat, the name given to a group of Democrats who wanted more compromise on the issue.

Other accounts indicate he became a free-soil advocate, a group that wanted slavery excluded from any new territories. One Kansas historical source asserts that Delahay was initially a believer in squatter sovereignty [but] soon changed his mind. Some researchers even claim that he still held sympathies to Douglas in the 1858 Senate race with Lincoln.

Whatever the case, Delahay practiced law and launched an anti-slavery newspaper, the Territorial Register, on July 7, 1855. He also attended free-state conventions in Kansas, earning the wrath of pro-slavery advocates, who destroyed his newspaper office in Leavenworth on Dec. 22, 1855.

Several accounts state said that Delahay fled to Alton, with one adding that he had a price on his head. Delahay spent much of 1856 in Alton, continuing to bounce between Illinois and Kansas.

By early 1857, Delahay had returned to Kansas, settling in Wyandotte. There he sold land, practiced law, and re-established the Register. The next year, he was back in Alton, ostensibly to help Lincoln campaign for the Senate against Douglas. Delahay appeared at a speaking engagement with Lincoln in Edwardsville in May 1858.

Delahay eventually went back to Leavenworth, where he formed a law partnership with Jefferson Dugger, a former Carlinville resident. A series of ads in The Chicago Tribune in 1859 trumpeted the firm, which offered a blue-ribbon list of references, starting with A. Lincoln, Springfield, Il.

Lincolns loyalty to Delahay is a source of contention among scholars, based on Delahays questionable morals. One source aptly writes that, no friend of Mr. Lincolns perhaps raised so many questions about Mr. Lincolns judgment as did his relationship with Delahay. That source summarizes Delahay best in calling him something of an opportunist whose political grasp was better than his political ability.

Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg echoed that assessment, declaring on the surface, it might seem that Lincoln miscalculated [Delahay], an instance where Lincolns judgment as a shrewd reader of men failed. Sandburg snidely adds that the dubious Delahay was in bad odor.

Delahay wanted to become one of the first U.S. senators from the newly organized state of Kansas and pressed Lincoln to help him. Delahay did not receive the seat, but as the 1860 Republican National Convention approached, he offered Lincoln plenty of advice, and not all of it was savory.

He blasted Lincolns campaign team as too honest to advance your prospects as surely as I would like to see  I know that you have no relish for such a game, wrote Delahay, but it is an old maxim that you must fight the devil with fire.

Honest Abe dismissed Delahays unscrupulous recommendations  but he did not dismiss Delahays friendship. Lincoln considered Delahay for several appointed positions, finally giving him a federal judgeship in Kansas in fall 1863.

The appointment infuriated many of Lincolns friends. One ripped Delahay as a miserable man  disgraceful  he is no lawyer, could not try a case properly even in a Justices Court, and has no character.

Seven years after Lincolns death, Delahays wayward habits finally caught up with him.

In 1872, impeachment proceedings began against him in Congress for corruption, malfeasance, and incompetency in office. There was also ample evidence that Delahay was often drunk on the bench.

Among the testimony at the proceedings were the words of Robert Crozier, himself a former Lincoln appointee as a district attorney in Kansas, who would take a seat in the U.S. Senate in late 1873. Crozier said that I am compelled to say that Judge Delahay frequently becomes inebriated. I have seen him in this condition very frequently off the bench, and several times on it.

The comptroller of the U.S. Treasury Department, R.W. Tayler, offered a written letter reading, I have to state that no money in confiscation cases, from the district of Kansas, has been paid into the Treasury of the United States since the year 1860, another critical piece of evidence against Delahay.

Delahay was impeached by the House on Feb. 28, 1873, for personal habits unfitted him for the judicial office  and that his sobriety would be the exception and not the rule.

Still, he remained on the bench for months before he finally resigned that Dec. 12, before his Senate trial began.

Delahay died on May 8, 1879, in Kansas City from injuries suffered in a fall down a stairwell. He was buried in Leavenworth.
A Board of Building Construction Appeals has been created in the city of Collegedale. This will provide an appeal process if there is a question of interpretation of the citys building codes. This board is in relation to construction principles, not design principles, said City Manager Ted Rogers. It is also different than decisions made by the Board of Zoning Appeals, which makes judgments regarding the zoning ordinance, said City Attorney Sam Elliott.

The city has previously adopted the International Building Codes and International Residential Codes which provides for public safety. Building Codes and Safety Director Andrew Morkert makes these interpretations. The board will be the one to make decisions if the director does not approve a manner of construction or of materials, if there is a claim that a provision in the code does not apply, if an equally good or more desirable method could be used or if there is a claim that the code has been wrongly interpreted.

The commissioners questioned the make up of the board members since they will be chosen from the current planning commissioners. The three members will consist of an engineer licensed by the state of Tennessee, a member at large from the building industry, and one member at large from the public. Vice Mayor Tim Johnson, and Commissioners Ethan White and Phil Garver would have preferred the members being from outside the planning commission to ensure that independent decisions are made. City Manager Rogers said this board in expected to meet only occasionally and it would be hard to get members up to speed, in order to make decisions if they were not already informed about what is going on in the city. A public hearing and second vote will be held on this ordinance at the Feb. 15 meeting.

The vice mayor is making plans for the upcoming budget to fund the creation of more greenways in Collegedale. He said that 18 greenway projects have been identified - some small and some large and more expensive. Two of these, Tallant Road and Tallant Park Boardwalk, are on the list and are both relatively expensive, he said. He will be asking the commissioners to consider designating $400,000 in the 2021-2022 budget for building greenways. He said if the money is approved by the commission, several projects can be done that will have an impact on the community. He said that he also plans to work with David Barto, executive director of the Collegedale Tomorrow Foundation, to seek donors to help with the new projects.

The commission passed an ordinance on the first reading to recite The Pledge of Allegiance to the order of business at regular commission meetings.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of emergency situations reports that some roads are closed or difficult to pass in Armenia due to weather conditions.

The roads leading to Amberd Fortress and Lake Kari are closed.

The Vardenyats Pass is difficult to pass for trailer trucks.

The roads in Kotayk and Syunik provinces are partly covered with clear ice.

The Georgian authorities inform that the Stepantsminda-Lars highway is open for all types of vehicles.

The Armenian ministry of foreign affairs reminds that the ban on entry of foreigners to Georgia is still in force, but this doesnt concern the cargo transportation.

Drivers are urged to use snow tires.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
2021: The Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) announced the datesheet for the Classes 10 and 12 on Tuesday on its official website at - nic.in.



The 2021 are scheduled to be held from May 4 to June 10. In December last year, Minister 'Nishank' had announced that the CBSE for Classes 10th and 12th students will be held from May 4 to June 10 and results for both will be declared by July 15, 2021.

CBSE practical exam dates



Dear Students, hereby announcing the much-awaited date-sheet of @cbseindia29 board exams of X & XII.Please be assured that we have done our best to ensure that these exams go smoothly for you. Wish you good luck! @SanjayDhotreMP @EduMinOfIndia @PIB_India https://t.co/P9XvyMIfNq  Dr. Nishank (@DrRPNishank) February 2, 2021

According to CBSE, the schools will be allowed to conduct practical/ Internal assesment/Project for both classes 10, 12 from March 1.

The CBSE had also announced that in 2021 will be conducted in written mode and not online, and CBSE board papers will contain 33 per cent internal choice questions. The syllabus of the 2021 has also been reduced to 30 per cent. CBSE date sheet 2021 will include the exam timings, dates, and other important instructions for the upcoming CBSE

Every year, the used to begin from the month of February/March and the results were declared by the month of May. This year, the academic year started late due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and classes were held online.





ALSO READ: CBSE restructures affiliation system; process to be completely digital

"Records of CBSE students dating back to 45 years ago will now be digitised. Students who have studied under CBSE Board since 1975 will have all records digitised. This will help all those students studying in CBSE to get their certificates easily," the Union Minister Nishank had earlier told ANI.



Steps to check CBSE Board Exam 2021 datesheet

Visit the official website of CBSE - cbse.nic.in

Log in using required credentials

Click on the link- classes 10, 12 datesheets

Class 10 and 12 schedule will appear on the screen

Download the CBSE Board Exam 2021 schedule, and take a print out for further reference





About CBSE

CBSE is a national level board of education in India for public and private schools, controlled and managed by the government of India. There are approximately 20,299 schools in India and 220 schools in 28 foreign countries affiliated to the CBSE.












DUBLIN, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Machine Vision Laser Market Forecast to 2027 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type, Application, and End User" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

According to this report the global machine vision laser market was valued at US$ 3,711.3 million in 2019 and is projected to reach US$ 7,144.4 million by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.5% from 2020 to 2027.



In 2019, APAC led the global machine vision laser market with 11.3% revenue share, followed by Europe and North America. The market in APAC is segmented into Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the Rest of APAC. APAC is well known for technological innovations happening in these countries. Stable economies and technological advancements support the growth of various markets in the region. China, Japan, India, and South Korea have a few of the largest manufacturing facilities, wherein automation of manufacturing processes has been the highest priority. Also, strong competition among manufacturers boosts the adoption of machine vision lasers in the region. Industrialization in countries such as China and India are growing at a significant pace. China is the world's largest manufacturing powerhouse, and it produces ~50% of its major industrial goods. APAC consists of the world's most esteemed vehicle manufacturers, and the automotive industry generates a huge number of automobile sales with high production levels.



In 2019, Europe stood second in the machine vision laser market with a decent market share, and it is anticipated to witness a steady CAGR from 2020 to 2027. The capital invested in technology in the region is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.3% from 2019 to 2027, to reach US$ 1410.9 billion of capital investment in 2019. The auto industry in Europe generates US$ 87 billion for the EU economy. In the automotive sector, machine vision lasers provide improved accuracy in picking and positioning parts of automobiles. Manufacturers are focusing on automating their production processes due to the shortage of skilled labor and lowering the manufacturing prices of automobiles. Machine vision laser has the potential to transform production for increased throughput, quality, and productivity. The food industry is also one of the major industries in Europe.



In this industry, automation helps reduce the contamination risks and benefits both customer and manufacturer. Automotive and electronics are among the industries driving the European market. The automotive industry requires a warehouse for storage and assembling purposes. These warehouses are equipped with robots with machine vision lasers that can perform various tasks such as inspection, verification, reading of character blocks on the engine.



Companies adopt inorganic strategies to expand their footprints across the world and meet the growing demand from end users. The well-established firms adopt the strategy of acquisition and collaboration with various companies to enhance their capabilities and expand its footprint in different geographies. For instance, in 2019, Cognex Corporation announced the acquisition of SUALAB, a Korean-based developer of vision software using deep learning for industrial applications.



Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Machine Vision Laser Market



The COVID-19 epidemic is disrupting supply chain and logistics across the world. Countries across the globe are continuing to combat the outbreak and control community spread. Companies are focusing on automating their business operations with a major goal to reduce their production costs. Due to the lockdown and social distancing norms across countries, companies are facing economic issues. These are delaying the new projects that need the implementation of machine vision laser systems in their factories. Several manufacturing companies are halting their production, which is hindering the machine vision laser market. Manufacturing companies across the countries are planning to invest more in automation post-COVID-19 pandemic. Moroever, to ensure less human intervention, the need for automated quality assurance has increased among industries amid the COVID-19 outbreak.



Reasons to Buy:

Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.

The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the machine vision laser market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long-term strategies.

Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.

Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.

Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect technology and solution type.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction

1.1 Scope of the Study

1.2 Report Guidance

1.3 Market Segmentation

1.3.1 Global Machine Vision Laser Market - By Type

1.3.2 Global Machine Vision Laser Market - By Application

1.3.3 Global Machine Vision Laser Market - By End User

1.3.4 Global Machine Vision Laser Market - By Geography



2. Key Takeaways



3. Research Methodology

3.1 Coverage

3.2 Secondary Research

3.3 Primary Research



4. Machine Vision Laser Market Landscape

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 PEST Analysis

4.2.1 North America - PEST Analysis

4.2.2 Europe - PEST Analysis

4.2.3 Asia-Pacific - PEST Analysis

4.2.4 Middle East & Africa - PEST Analysis

4.2.5 South America - PEST Analysis

4.3 Ecosystem Analysis

4.4 Expert Opinions



5. Machine Vision Laser Market - Key Industry Dynamics

5.1 Key Drivers

5.1.1 Growing Demand for Laser-Based Machine Vision Technologies

5.1.2 Increasing Demand for Smart Machine Vision Systems

5.2 Key Market Restraints

5.2.1 Varying End-User Requirements

5.3 Key Market Opportunities:

5.3.1 Growing Automation in Industrial Sector

5.4 Key Trends:

5.4.1 Growing Use of Robotics in Automation

5.5 Impact Analysis of Drivers and Restraints



6. Machine Vision Laser - Global Market Analysis

6.1 Overview

6.2 Global Machine Vision Laser Market Revenue and Forecasts To 2027 (US$ Mn)

6.3 Market Positioning - Five Key Players



7. Machine Vision Laser Market Analysis - By Type

7.1 Overview

7.2 Machine Vision Laser Market Breakdown, By Type, 2018 & 2027

7.3 Smart Machine Vision Laser

7.3.1 Overview

7.3.2 Smart Machine Vision Laser Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

7.4 3D Machine Vision Laser Market

7.4.1 Overview

7.4.2 3D Machine Vision Laser Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

7.5 PC-Based Machine Vision Laser

7.5.1 Overview

7.5.2 PC-Based Machine Vision Laser Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)



8. Machine Vision Laser Market Analysis - By Application

8.1 Overview

8.2 Global Machine Vision Laser Market Breakdown, By Application, 2018 & 2027

8.3 Process Control

8.3.1 Overview

8.3.2 Process Control Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

8.4 Automatic Inspection

8.4.1 Overview

8.4.2 Automatic Inspection Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

8.5 Industrial Inspection

8.5.1 Overview

8.5.2 Industrial Inspection Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

8.6 Others

8.6.1 Overview

8.6.2 Others Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)



9. Machine Vision Laser Market Analysis - By End User

9.1 Overview

9.2 Global Machine Vision Laser Market Breakdown, By End User, 2018 & 2027

9.3 Automotive

9.3.1 Overview

9.3.2 Automotive Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

9.4 Electronics & Semiconductor

9.4.1 Overview

9.4.2 Electronics & Semiconductor Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

9.5 Food and Beverages

9.5.1 Overview

9.5.2 Food and Beverages Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

9.6 Pharmaceuticals

9.6.1 Overview

9.6.2 Pharmaceuticals Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

9.7 Logistics

9.7.1 Overview

9.7.2 Logistics Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)

9.8 Others

9.8.1 Overview

9.8.2 Others Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027 (US$ Mn)



10. Machine Vision Laser Market - Geographic Analysis

10.1 Overview

10.2 North America: Machine Vision Laser Market

10.3 Europe: Machine Vision Laser Market

10.4 APAC: Machine Vision Laser Market

10.5 MEA: Machine Vision Laser Market

10.6 SAM: Machine Vision Laser Market



11. Machine Vision Laser Market - COVID-19 Impact Analysis

11.1 Overview

11.2 North America

11.3 Europe

11.4 Asia-Pacific

11.5 Middle East and Africa

11.6 South America



12. Industry Landscape

12.1 Market Initiative

12.2 Merger and Acquisition

12.3 New Development



13. Company Profiles

13.1 Cavitar Ltd

13.1.1 Key Facts

13.1.2 Business Description

13.1.3 Products and Services

13.1.4 Financial Overview

13.1.5 SWOT Analysis

13.1.6 Key Developments

13.2 Cognex Corporation

13.2.1 Key Facts

13.2.2 Business Description

13.2.3 Products and Services

13.2.4 Financial Overview

13.2.5 SWOT Analysis

13.2.6 Key Developments

13.3 Laserex

13.3.1 Key Facts

13.3.2 Business Description

13.3.3 Products and Services

13.3.4 Financial Overview

13.3.5 SWOT Analysis

13.3.6 Key Developments

13.4 ProPhotonix

13.4.1 Key Facts

13.4.2 Business Description

13.4.3 Products and Services

13.4.4 Financial Overview

13.4.5 SWOT Analysis

13.4.6 Key Developments

13.5 RAYLASE GMBH

13.5.1 Key Facts

13.5.2 Business Description

13.5.3 Products and Services

13.5.4 Financial Overview

13.5.5 SWOT Analysis

13.5.6 Key Developments

13.6 RPMC Lasers

13.6.1 Key Facts

13.6.2 Business Description

13.6.3 Products and Services

13.6.4 Financial Overview

13.6.5 SWOT Analysis

13.6.6 Key Developments

13.7 STEMMER IMAGING AG

13.7.1 Key Facts

13.7.2 Business Description

13.7.3 Products and Services

13.7.4 Financial Overview

13.7.5 SWOT Analysis

13.7.6 Key Developments

13.8 Z-LASER GmbH

13.8.1 Key Facts

13.8.2 Business Description

13.8.3 Products and Services

13.8.4 Financial Overview

13.8.5 SWOT Analysis

13.8.6 Key Developments

13.9 LASER COMPONENTS

13.9.1 Key Facts

13.9.2 Business Description

13.9.3 Products and Services

13.9.4 Financial Overview

13.9.5 SWOT Analysis

13.9.6 Key Developments

13.10 Keyence Corporation

13.10.1 Key Facts

13.10.2 Business Description

13.10.3 Products and Services

13.10.4 Financial Overview

13.10.5 SWOT Analysis

13.10.6 Key Developments



14. Appendix

14.1 About the Publisher

14.2 Glossary



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/sn1i6c



Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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A Fianna Fail Senator has revealed the emotional struggle of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) after she underwent five rounds of the treatment before hitting the jackpot and giving birth to twin boys.

Catherine Ardagh told the Irish Independent that she and her husband Darragh spent tens of thousands of euro on IVF over two and a half years.

She also spoke about the emotional cost of the invasive treatment, where women must inject themselves with hormones. Their eggs are then collected, fertilised and transferred to the uterus.

With the base cost per treatment starting at 4,500, extra add-ons  such as blood tests  can rack up the price tag for a single IVF cycle to between 7,000 and 10,000.

However, a single cycle may not be enough, and Ms Ardagh said she went through five costly cycles.

The emotional cost is probably harder than the financial cost," she said.

The disappointment when it doesnt work Its like youre grieving each time it doesnt work.

Its a serious process, quite tough on your body.

After trying for a baby for a long time, the Dublin senator and her husband went down the road of fertility treatments.

Before IVF, couples can try other steps, such as fertility tracking and taking Clomid, a common fertility drug.

When those steps dont work, they can go down the expensive rabbit hole of IVF.

We begged, borrowed used every penny we had over the two-and-a-half-year period, she said.

It worked out for us at a cost, an emotional and physical cost.

She said couples who are desperate for a baby will do anything.

At the end of the day, youre really desperate to make it work, she said. A lot of the time it doesnt work, some people do it 20 times and on the 20th time, it works.

Youre prepared to do anything, its unbelievable It takes over your life, takes over every thought you have.

When you have an issue and youre putting all your savings into one basket and its not working out, it can be quite stressful.

Ms Ardagh gave birth to twin boys, Darragh Og and Sean. They had their first birthday on December 29.

She and her Fianna Fail colleague Senator Fiona OLoughlin back the introduction of free IVF for Irish couples in public hospitals. This would require a change in the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill, which has not yet been enacted.

Raising the issue in the Seanad yesterday, Ms Ardagh said she was one of the lucky ones, I was able to afford cycles, and eventually hit the jackpot.

Having lived through the highs and lows of five IVF cycles, the worry, the waiting, the failures, the pain, I strongly believe the State simply does not do enough to support couples facing this challenge, she said.

Theres so many [couples] who cannot afford one cycle, let alone several.

We all know many who have remortgaged homes or indeed put off buying their own homes because they need to pay such high costs, said Ms OLoughlin.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said it was critical that couples seeking IVF are supported in the public health system.

He said that per the Programme for Government, fertility issues of the lowest level of clinical intervention necessary would be addressed through the public health system.





press release

Remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the visit to the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone

Programme Director,

Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr Ebrahim Patel,

Premier of Gauteng Mr David Makhura,

Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Cllr Randall Williams,

Vice President of Manufacturing Business Operations of the Ford Motor Company, Mr Andrea Cavallaro,

Managing Director of Ford Motor Company SA, Mr Neale Hill,

CEO of the Transnet Group, Ms Portia Derby,

Directors-General present,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning,

It gives me great pleasure to again visit the Tshwane Automotive SEZ and Ford Motor Company of South Africa.

I was last here in November 2019 to launch the infrastructure rollout for this SEZ.

It is great to see the progress that has been made since then despite the massive challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This development presents a perfect opportunity to use our country's comparative and competitive advantages to accelerate industrialisation.

These advantages include a well-developed automotive industry, with advanced manufacturing capabilities, an appropriately skilled workforce and access to growing markets.

We also have significant potential to develop a robust network of emerging suppliers.

This will help to expand and transform the country's manufacturing base, improve its export capacity, create employment and develop skills.

Experience from countries such as Malaysia, China and Singapore, which have managed to place their economies on sustainable industrial paths, has demonstrated the potential of special economic zones.

In our own experience, special economic zones have proven to be an effective tool both to enhance our productive capacity and crowd in private sector investment.

This includes foreign direct investment, which often involves technology transfer from international companies.

This enhances South Africa's position within global and regional value chains.

Since its inception in 2014, the Special Economic Zones programme has managed to attract R18.6 billion worth of private investment from 136 operational companies.

An additional 99 investment expressions of interest by companies, worth R48 billion, are currently being considered. We hope to get a large slice of this landed as viable projects, as we work with firms to turn ideas into commercial reality.

The SEZ programme is playing a very significant role in supporting the implementation of the country's Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, which was launched in October last year to respond to the economic impact of the pandemic.

The SEZ programme promotes an integrative and collaborative approach that strengthens partnership and coordination across all three spheres of government as well as between government and private sector.

This new approach is proving its worth here in Gauteng through the establishment of the Tshwane Automotive SEZ.

This SEZ has already made a significant contribution to the economy and job creation.

With construction having started in August 2020 within the limits of the COVID-19 regulations, the planning, design and construction work has to date delivered significant jobs, training and development to both the communities and SMMEs in the region.

Out of the 34 targeted infrastructure work packages reserved for local SMMEs, 22 have been successfully executed with the value of R170 million. More will be rolled out as the SEZ commences with the construction of the top structures.

Through the development of this infrastructure, which is support by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition to an estimated value of R3.15 billion over the next three years, will see the creation of an expected 2,000 direct manufacturing jobs.

The total short-term jobs to be created during the construction phase is estimated at around 8,600 jobs.

The collaboration between the three spheres of government, the DTIC, the province of Gauteng and the City of Tshwane, all working with the Ford Motor Company of South Africa, shows what can be achieved through the Development District Model, especially in delivering critical infrastructure and investment attraction.

The City of Tshwane and the Gauteng Department of Economic Development have committed R288 million and R200 million respectively towards the enabling bulk infrastructure development for this project.

The Ford Motor Company has helped with the attraction of 12 automotive component suppliers to the value of R4.33 billion.

The three spheres of government are working together to accelerate the construction of 12 factories for these investments.

The $1 billion investment announced today by the Ford Motor Company of South Africa is a clear statement of the company's confidence in this development and its ambitions for its South African business.

It is testament to the collective efforts of government, business, labour and communities in building sustainable local economies.

I am told this is the largest investment the Ford Motor Company has made since its establishment in South Africa, and one of the largest investments in the South African automotive industry as a whole.

This investment will make the Silverton Assembly Plant one of the biggest Ranger plants globally and one of the largest Ford truck plants outside the United States. The establishment of the Tshwane Automotive SEZ opens up new opportunities to stimulate the development of a high capacity rail infrastructure corridor between Gauteng and the Eastern Cape to assist with transporting finished vehicles for export through Port Elizabeth. We are now working on this logistics plan.

This corridor development is envisaged to include the deep-water port in Port Elizabeth, which will lead to job creation and stimulate more business opportunities in both provinces.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Business Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

The conclusion of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement opens up new markets for products produced on the continent.

This is an opportunity to drive our localisation plans to build and strengthen South African industry and to accompany them with regional value-chains.

I am delighted that we are already working with Namibia, Botswana, eSwatini and Lesotho on cross-border production systems to enable the AfCFTA to provide jobs here in South Africa and among our neighbours, and indeed across the continent.

Our Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan places great emphasis on investment and master plans. This investment will be a positive sign of the economic recovery.

The delivery of the first batch of vaccines yesterday is an important moment for us - to begin to drive a mass vaccination rollout that can provide further protection to workers, consumers and citizens, boost confidence and help our efforts to repair the damage of he pandemic.

This investment announcement is therefore timely. It truly sets the tone for what we are certain will be a positive year for South Africa's investment drive.

We express our sincere appreciation to the Ford Motor Company for its continued confidence in South Africa.

I also thank everyone who was instrumental in ensuring that today's site visit and briefing session was a success.

I thank you.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Barings, one of the world's leading financial services firms, today announced that it has served as Lead Arranger and sole lender of a senior secured credit facility to support the combination of Loftware and NiceLabel. Loftware, Inc., the global leader in Enterprise Labeling and Artwork Management solutions and a portfolio company of Riverside Partners, completed a strategic combination with NiceLabel, a leading developer of label management systems. The combination offers customers and partners an expanded choice of labeling and artwork management solutions, while providing enhanced capabilities and the benefits of greater investment in cloud-based solutions and technologies. Loftware and NiceLabel together bring 60 years of combined expertise in solving labeling challenges for companies of all sizes across a wide range of industries around the globe.

"We are excited about the combination of Loftware and NiceLabel and look forward to supporting the company's next chapter of growth," said David Belluck, a General Partner at Riverside Partners. "The two companies have respected each other for many years. Both management teams have built market leaders in their respective geographies and market segments and we believe the combination will significantly enhance their product and service offerings in the future." Mr. Belluck also noted that "Barings' flexible capital solutions and cross-border capabilities were ideal to quickly effect the strategic goals of Loftware, NiceLabel and Riverside Partners with this transaction."

"Barings is thrilled to continue supporting this exceptional, market leading platform," said L. Max McEwen, Managing Director at Barings. Barings became the Lead Arranger and sole lender to Loftware in March of 2018, when Loftware recapitalized its debt facilities to acquire UK-based, GAP Systems.

About Barings

Barings is a $345 billion* global investment manager sourcing differentiated opportunities and building long-term portfolios across public and private fixed income, real estate, and specialist equity markets. With investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, the firm, a subsidiary of MassMutual, aims to serve its clients, communities and employees, and is committed to sustainable practices and responsible investment. Learn more at www.barings.com.

*Assets under management as of December 31, 2020

Barings Global Private Finance is a 60+ investment team globally, with a 40-year track record of successfully financing middle-market buyouts, acquisitions, and recapitalizations. With product capabilities that range from traditional senior debt to bespoke junior capital securities, and hold sizes of 200 million+, Barings is focused on providing capital solutions that help our private equity clients complete their deal on time and as expected. Our long-term commitment to the asset class, local origination in each region, consistent team, and broad range of investment capabilities, are designed to provide investors an absolute spread premium to broadly syndicated loans as well as an attractive risk-adjusted return potential.

About Loftware

Loftware is the global market leader in Enterprise Labeling and Artwork Management solutions with more than 5,000 customers in over 100 countries. Loftware offers the industry's most comprehensive digital platform, which includes on premise and cloud-based solutions for large enterprises challenged with managing and printing complex labeling, artwork and packaging. Loftware's solutions integrate with SAP, Oracle, and other enterprise applications while leveraging content management and business rules to dynamically address complex requirements. With Loftware, global companies are uniquely able to meet regulatory mandates, mitigate risk, reduce complexity, ensure traceability, and optimize costs as they meet customer-specific, brand, regional, and regulatory requirements with unprecedented speed and agility.

About NiceLabel

Established in 1993, NiceLabel is a leading global developer of label design software and label management systems that help companies of all sizes improve the quality, speed and efficiency of their labeling, while reducing cost. With the help of its label management systems, organizations are able to digitally transform their entire labeling process, from design to printing to label management. The result is a leaner, more agile operation that enables companies to respond more quickly to changing market conditions and requirements, get products to market faster and compete more effectively in the sectors where they do business. Through its headquarters in the EU (Slovenia) and global offices in Germany, USA, Singapore and China, NiceLabel serves and supports its clients around the world with technology at the forefront of market demand.

About Riverside Partners

Founded in 1989, Riverside Partners is a middle market private equity firm with total capital commitments of $1.6 billion raised since inception. The firm focuses on growth-oriented companies in the technology and healthcare industries. Riverside Partners is particularly experienced at partnering with founders, owners and management teams and it brings substantial domain expertise and operating experience to its portfolio companies. For more information, visit www.riversidepartners.com.

Contact

Cheryl Krauss, Barings, 980.417.5858, [email protected]

21-1504399

SOURCE Barings

Related Links

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STOCKHOLM, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) released a report through the US Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) on a new thermal battery technology that is up to 90% more cost-effective than lithium batteries for large-scale energy storage. The new thermal battery technology was developed by SRNL and exclusively licensed by the Swedish cleantech company TEXEL Energy Storage.

Inexpensive renewable energy, such as wind and solar, is just the first step towards a CO2 free energy future, where cost-effective and efficient energy storage is considered the final step, or "The Holy Grail". The SRNL in cooperation with TEXEL Energy Storage is nearing the solution. In the report, SRNL performed a techno-economic analysis comparing the new thermal battery technology to Li-ion batteries to store energy when integrated with grid-scale photovoltaic installations. The SRNL team examined the impacts on the levelized cost of storage (LCOS) for several scenarios and found that the thermal battery technology should achieve a LCOS ranging from $0.019/kWh - $0.073/kWh, at higher volume production, which compares positively to the cost of storage expected today for Lithium-Ion ranging from $0.087/kWh - $0.32/kWh.

"The report from SRNL is valuable information for all our external partners and further indicates that the world will be able to move away from fossil fuels in an economical, sustainable manner. We hope that this information will help us to mobilize needed funds and support to rapidly move the technology towards commercialization", said Lars Jacobsson, CEO of TEXEL Energy Storage.

Lead author and the inventor of the SRNL thermal battery technology, Dr. Ragaiy Zidan, added: "This study has shown the tremendous potential of exploiting chemical bonds to efficiently store energy, an area that SRNL has been advancing for many years. We look forward to scaling this technology with TEXEL."

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), one of US Department of Energy's (DOE) seventeen national laboratories, is considered as one of the world's leading research labs on hydrogen-related technologies. SRNL has developed the new metal hydride materials used in the thermal battery and in combination with the Stirling Converter, exclusively owned by TEXEL and originally developed by Ford Motors, the technologies together create the new unique energy storage technology known as the thermal battery.

"Cost of new technologies is of course important, as our world is controlled by money, but more important for our future is that our new technology minimizes consumption of the planet's resources and could be 100% circular. If technologies consume our planets resources, they are not sustainable or renewable", said Lars Jacobsson.

The global energy storage business is expected to boom in the coming decades as utilities will look to batteries to backstop an increasing amount of intermittent solar and wind power. BloombergNEF forecasts that the worldwide energy storage market could attract nearly $1 trillion in investments over the next three decades.

For more information, contact

Daniel Wilke Head of PR

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +46 736 329 827

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/texel-energy-storage/r/new-report-released-by-u-s--national-laboratory-on-game-changing-grid-scale-battery-technology,c3277168

The following files are available for download:

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SOURCE TEXEL Energy Storage
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the easing of several lockdown restrictions on Monday after noting a "clear decline" in the country's coronavirus numbers. Speaking in a broadcast address to South Africa on Monday night, Ramaphosa announced the easing of several restrictions because he said the country is now seeing declining numbers.

He said the sale of alcoholic beverages will now be permitted Monday through Thursday, bars and restaurants will be permitted to sell alcohol, and the hours of the nighttime curfew will be reduced to be in effect from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. Ramaphosa said that the country's beaches, parks, lakes and swimming pools will be permitted to open.

Public gatherings will be allowed, but limited to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors. All of the changes take effect on Tuesday. Ramaphosa also announced that 1 billion vaccine doses have been secured for the African continent, with 700 million from the COVAX facility and 300 million by the African Union's vaccine acquisition task team.

He said 7 million vaccines have also been secured from a donation by the African telecommunications firm MTN, and those vaccines will be distributed to South Africas neighboring countries including Lesotho, Namibia, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Zimbabwe.

(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)
As a country, I feel we failed to understand the real enemy and the risks that we were facing over the winter, she said. But of course no countrys health system is prepared for a tsunami like this.

Whatever is driving infections in Portugal, new cases are only now starting to show signs of slowing after a national lockdown was reinstated in mid-January. Across the country, residents are required to stay home and all nonessential stores are closed. Citizens have also been barred from traveling outside the country unless for exceptional reasons.

Portugal was initially one of the laggards in Europe in terms of vaccine distribution, with the rollout also tainted by some queue-jumping scandals. But Mr. Siza Vieira insisted that the country was now on track to vaccinate about 10 percent of the population by early March. He said that 270,000 first doses of the vaccine and 70,000 second doses had been administered as of Monday.

Inside Lisbons hospitals, employees are working against the clock to prepare for an anticipated rise in patients requiring emergency treatment. More wards are being converted into space for Covid-19 patients, but, Dr. Lamas said, adding beds is not the same as adding human resources, and we are calling doctors and nurses from other specialties to help us, but who are not used to handling this kind of patients.



It is like starting from ground zero, he continued, because to teach people how to use different equipment  and in a safe way  is a gigantic work.
In the early hours of Monday morning the Myanmar military staged a coup in which they detained members of the democratically-elected government and declared a national state of emergency.

The powerful Myanmar military have announced the removal of 24 government ministers and deputies, while soldiers are currently patrolling the street in the capital of Nay Pyi Taw. One of those arrested was the countrys effective leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has helped Myanmar transition from military junta to partial democracy.

What happened in Myanmar?

Army leaders in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, have staged a coup detat on the democratically elected government just days before the first session of the new parliament was set to commence. The first sign of trouble came in the early hours of Monday morning as a military-owned TV station announced that commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing would be taking power.

This was followed by a series of raids that focused on members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the ruling party. Aung San Suu Kyi was one of those detained, as well as President Win Myint.

As the raids were carried out by Myamars feared military there was little resistance to the coup and no violence has yet been reported. However the army have imposed a number of restrictions on the country, blocking roads in the capital and main city of Yangon; disrupting phone and internet services; and restricting access to both domestic and international television channels.

Following the raids the military is enforcing a curfew between 20:00 and 06:00 local time. The state of emergency announced by military leaders is reportedly set to last for one year.

Myanmar military takes charge after election dispute

Mondays developments came after weeks of heightening tensions in the South-Asian state in the aftermath of Novembers election. Suu Kyis party, the NLD, were overwhelming victors with a massive 83% of the vote but the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party have claimed that there were voting irregularities.

In a letter written by Suu Kyi in preparation for such an event, she called for supporters to protest against the coup and warned that militarys refusal to accept the election result threatened reversing the transition to democracy.

A statement posted on the NLDs Facebook page, purportedly from Suu Kyi, read: "I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military."

The actions of the Myanmar military and detention of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Suu Kyi have been met with condemnation from many world leaders. The United States has threatened to renew sanctions on Myanmar after what it termed a "direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law.

A statement from President Joe Biden reads: "The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action."
According to a press release published on February 2021, IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries) announces the signing of three significant contracts valued at over $100 million USD, in which it will supply loitering munitions systems to several countries. The contracts include winning an international tender for the sale of the multi-purpose ROTEM system to a foreign country, sale of the naval version of the HAROP system to the navy of a country in Asia and sale of the ground version of the HAROP system to another customer in Asia.

According to a press release published on February 2021, IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries) announces the signing of three significant contracts valued at over $100 million USD, in which it will supply loitering munitions systems to several countries. The contracts include winning an international tender for the sale of the multi-purpose ROTEM system to a foreign country, sale of the naval version of the HAROP system to the navy of a country in Asia and sale of the ground version of the HAROP system to another customer in Asia.

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Artist rendering of loitering munitions Harop System (Picture source IAI)

The Maritime HAROP system provides an operational solution for a range of vessels, from off-shore vessels to fighting frigates in the naval theater. In a complex naval theater, the HAROP system gives mission commanders in a fleet of ships the capability to independently and organically collect intelligence, assess targets and strike. The intelligence gathered by the HAROP is directly integrated in the vessels control room and allows for quick, accurate and lethal decision-making. Use of the HAROP on naval platforms is an operational alternative and complementary element to using sea-sea missiles, with a wide range of uses and with optimal cost-efficiency for the navy. The maritime and land combat-proven HAROP provides an operational solution for a range of low and high-intensity conflict scenarios and for anti-terrorism activity. The HAROP is equipped with day/night cameras and has the ability to search, find and attack with maximum precision both static and moving targets, on land or at sea and at a long-range. A strike can take place from any direction and at any angle of attack.

The loitering munitions family developed by IAI includes the Harpy-NG  a third generation of the system homing against radiating targets, the HAROP, a second-generation of a precision electro-optical attack system, the Mini-Harpy, dual (Electro-optical day&night + Anti-Radiation seeker) tactical advanced munitions system and the tactical loitering Green-Dragon system, as well as the ROTEM VTOL Tactical Loitering Munition. IAI is a focal point of national and global technological know-how in the field of attack systems, air defense, radars, satellites, remotely operated aircraft, civilian aviation and cyber.

The HAROP loitering missile (LM) type platform which serves as an Electro-Optically guided attack weapon. HAROP LMs are launched from ground-based launchers and controlled via a two-way data link for full man-in-the-loop operation.

HAROP is used to attack high-value targets, including full mission capabilities, from search, through attack and up to battle damage assessment. Combining characteristics of a missile and a UAV, HAROP enables effective mission execution without relying on other external systems for targeting and mission intelligence.
CBSE Class 10, 12 2021 date sheet to be released today

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 02: The CBSE Class 10, 12 board exam date sheet 2021 will be released on February 2 (today) by Education Minister, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. The same once released will be available on the official website.

The education minister made the announced during a live interaction with the Presidents and Secretaries of CBSE Sahodaya Schools today. He also informed that the CBSE will digitalise the 45 year records of the students last month.

In December the minister had announced the CBSE board exam dates and said that the same would begin on May 4 and will continue till June 10 2021.

The board exams were deferred due to the ongoing pandemic. The exams are usually held in March, but are now being held in May.

The schools were allowed to conduct the practical exams on their own for Classes 10 and 12 from March 1 and continue till the beginning of the practical papers. The exams will be held in pen and paper mode and the students would be required to visit the designated exam centres for the exams.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 9:46 [IST]
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 2 : Lobsong Sangay, President (Sikyong) of the Tibetan government-in-exile, says that a White House invitation and subsequent meeting with senior US government officials is a clear indicator that the US government acknowledges the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).

He says that the new US government under President Joe Biden is equally supportive of the Tibetan cause. In an exclusive interview to IANS, the Tibetan leader says that the Chinese are violating human rights of the Tibetans, Uyghurs and even Hong Kong residents.

Excerpts from the interview: Q: The Tibetan movement has got a major fillip with your visit to the White House. Your comments.

A: The invitation to the White House and the State Department is the US government's acknowledgement of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). Therefore, it is significant as CTA is a democratic polity that represents the Tibetan people and their aspirations.

Q: You are heading the Tibetan government-in-exile. What are your major activities? A: The peaceful resolution of the Tibet issue and restoration of freedom in Tibet is the aspiration of all the Tibetan people. Therefore, as the democratically elected Sikyong, it is my prime duty to work towards fulfilling it while taking care of other important things.

Q: How supportive is the US government to your cause? A: As for the newly elected Biden administration, yes. I am positive that the new administration will strengthen its support for the Tibet cause. This past September, then a presidential nominee, Biden in a strong statement on the Tibet issues said that he will meet with His Holiness Dalai Lama and step up support for the Tibetan people.

Q: There have been several instances of freedom movements forming governments-in-exile. Some taste success in forming a separate country and thereby a government. How do you rate your chances? A: As I have said before, the CTA represents the Tibetan people's aspiration and with the blessings of the Dalai Lama, it is on the forefront in our struggle to resolve the Tibet issue. It will remain so until our issue is resolved.

Q: Do you get support from western countries? A: I think it's important to realise that it is not just about Tibet. Today, it is no longer only about defending the rights of six million Tibetan people; rather today, it has come down to defending the global democratic values and international laws from an aggressive China. Therefore, either it's that the world transforms China or China will transform the world.

Q: Back home in China, do you feel that autocracy is on the rise? A: Irrespective of China's attempt to influence Tibetan people's religious and cultural identity through repressive policies in the past over six decades, China has failed in its attempt to Sinicize the hearts of the Tibetan people. The CTA and the Tibetan people's stand on reincarnation, including the Dalai Lamas', is very clear. Reincarnation is a Tibetan Buddhists' traditions going back thousands of years and an atheist Chinese government definitely has no say in it. The US government has also made it an official policy to echo the Tibetan people's stand through the Tibet Support and Policy Act of 2020.

Q: China has unleashed a propaganda that the Tibetan cause has lost its steam long ago. Do you expect resurgence in your movement to take on a much powerful Chinese government? What are your chances after a new democratic government under Biden assumed office? A: Yes, the situation in Tibet is critical. As you may know, for the past five consecutive years, the Freedom House report has placed Tibet as the second least free region in the world after Syria. The issues of the Tibetans and Uyghurs and now Honk Kong residents is a stark warning to the world. We stand united with the others suffering under the Chinese regime. One thing that we know and the world knows but China fails to realise is that its repressive policies and attempt at Sinicization of the Tibetan identity has failed. Tibetans in Tibet have with infinite courage remained resilient.

Q: How is the movement sustaining? Without ground support, the chances of survival of a political movement are grim. Your comments.

We are grateful to India. The biggest settlement of Tibetans outside Tibet is in India. The continuation of the Tibetan freedom struggle and revival of the Tibetan culture and language in exile was made possible with Delhi's help. We are thankful to India for its continued support. However, India itself is facing the brunt of a militarily aggressive China on the borders. Geopolitically and environmentally, Tibet is of great significance. As the water tower of Asia, many countries, including India, are dependent on rivers that originate on the Tibetan plateau, which provide water to more than 1.35 billion people in Asia. Therefore, the Tibet issue is fundamental for Asia's security.

The world has witnessed a lot of wars and their repercussions. Violence has never brought a lasting peaceful solution. Dialogue, as the middle way suggests, is at the core of genuine peace-building. It is understanding the differences, respecting the difference and willingness to compromise from both sides that makes the 'Middle Way Policy' and dialogue effective in resolving any conflict.

Our plans for growth at Sureify follow the same path  to guide more life insurers, and to help those were already working with to see even more success.

Sureify, the leader in providing digital enablement to life insurers, has recently expanded its executive level management team, naming Dan Gordon as president of the company. Gordons new role recognizes his already-significant contribution to the organization as Chief Strategy Officer, proving him to be a strategic thinker, planner and visionary. In addition to his role as Chief Strategy Officer, Gordon has served as a board member and advisor to Sureify for the past two years.

Sureify's place as a leading InsurTech in the Life and Annuity industry has already been cemented with the creation of their Lifetime Platform, that continues to help leading Life and Annuity carriers work towards digital enablement. The addition of this new position and the elevation of Gordon to president, further emphasizes Sureifys continued rise.

Prior to his work with Sureify, Gordon led the product management organization at Guidewire for 11 years, during which time that company grew from two customers with $2M in revenue to 150 customers with $350M in revenue. He also served on Guidewires management team, participating in key strategic and operational decisions for the company and was involved in sales deals, customer relationships, M&As, and partnerships. Gordon has served at head of product at multiple other technology companies.

Sureify CEO and founder Dustin Yoder acknowledged Gordons experience in product and operations and his proven ability to manage the challenges of expansion as key factors in Sureifys success. Dan is brilliant in his ability to scale, manage and grow operations, whereas I am much more involved in strategic vision and evangelization, he explained. Because of our different ways of looking at the world, we are very much yin and yang. Our plans for growth at Sureify follow the same path  to guide more life insurers, and to help those were already working with to see even more success. We know that Dan will align us with exciting new opportunities to help insurers thrive in this remote world.

Gordon echoed Yoders thoughts on the partnership, and on Sureifys continuing role as an innovator for insurers. For many reasons, the life insurance industry is a difficult one to move. So people like Dustin, who sees the potential, but has a realistic vision of growth, are incredibly valuable, he explained. I feel like our visions for Sureify are aligned. The product-market fit is there. And industry watchers can expect our continued strong focus on customer success. Referenceable, successful customers are our most valuable business asset, and they are also what drive us to want to come to work every day. Were going to focus on bringing our customers from their early phase one projects into deeply embedded success that moves the needle for them.

Dan Gordon comes to Sureify with an MBA from Stanford and a BA in Political Science from Yale. He also gives generously of his time, serving on the board of Made in a Free World, a non-profit working to eradicate modern slavery. He lives in San Carlos, California with his wife and two children. Learn more at Sureify.com
Lisbon (Portugal) 02 February 2021 (SPS)- Various NGOs addressed a letter to the UN Secretary General, Security Council, and other international bodies, Yesterday, calling for urgent protection of the Saharawi civilians in the occupied Western Sahara after the resumption of war between Morocco and the Saharawi Republic last 13 November 2020.

Initiated by the Women's Democratic Movement (Portugal), the letter was signed by a group of organisations that participated in a video conference entitled "Discussion Table on Western Sahara and the struggle for independence and freedom", within the framwrok of the World Social Forum 2021, held between the 23rd and 30 January.

Following is the full text of the letter as received by SPS:

APPEAL

To the Secretary-General of the United Nations

To the United Nations Security Council

To the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

To the Chairman of the Committee of the International Red Cross

To the Presidency of the African Union

To the Portuguese Government and Presidency of the Council of the European Union

In the light of the worsening situation experienced by the Saharawi people in the occupied territories of Sahara, Moroccan prisons and refugee camps, since the past day of the 13 November 2020 when Morocco decided to attack civilian Saharawi demonstrators in the buffer zone of El Guergarat, leading to the end of the 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front and the outbreak of a just war for independence and selfdetermination on the part of the Saharawi people, tired of waiting and being patient, in the face of repeated non-compliance of the United Nations, we, the organizations participating in the virtual WORLD SOCIAL FORUM, call on you, in the context of your responsibilities to the common good of humanity, to decide:

1 Take urgent and practical measures to protect the Saharawi population from the occupied territories that have been the victim of Morocco's military siege like never before. We refer to the invasions of houses, houses under siege, neighborhoods transformed into ghettos, beatings, torture, arbitrary arrests, sexual assaults, intentional medical neglect and the kidnapping of children, women, men, elderly and people with physical and cognitive disabilities.

2. Take on an urgent visit to the occupied territories by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the 4th Commission for the Decolonization of the United Nations and a delegation from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

3. Ensure an urgent ICRC visit to Saharawi political prisoners, Gdeim Izik's group, which has been arbitrarily detained for 10 years, victims of constant torture, prolonged confinement, and medical negligence.

4.Strengthening food aid to refugees in refugee camps in Tindouf severely affected by successive cuts in humanitarian aid and facing the challenges of the Covid 19 pandemic.

5.Take all practical and pragmatic measures to put an end to 46 years of illegal occupation of the territory that has enabled the Kingdom of Morocco with impunity and in flagrant violation of international law, the United Nations Resolutions and the 4th Geneva Convention: Eradicate a large part of the population, force hundreds of thousands of Saharawi into exile, introduce settlers and change demographics, lead the Saharawi population to forced impoverishment, plunder natural resources, construction a 2720km long military wall put millions of antipersonnel mines in that territory.

On behalf of the organizations promoting the Discussion Table on Western Sahara and the struggle for independence and freedom. The struggle of women and the Saharawi people for independence. The war against the occupant and solidarity, we reiterate our call and our conviction that peace in that territory is possible, urgent, and necessary.

And, we reiterate that the solution is in your hands.

Regina Marques -

Women's Democratic Movement (Portugal) and The International Democratic Federation of Women (FDIM)

and endorsed by:

Maria Liege Rocha, Federacao Democratica Internacional de Mulheres (FDIM)

Maria Jose Maninha Presidente da Associacao de Solidariedade a luta pela autodeterminacao do Povo Saharaui (AASAUHARI Brasilia)

Jamil Murad - Presidente do Cebrapaz,

Maria do Socorro Gomes membro da Cebrapaz,

Isabel Lourenco, investigadora Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto

Uniao Brasileira de Mulheres (UBM)

Associacion Mexicana de Amistad con la Republica Arabe Saharaui (AMARAS)

Asociacion Chilena de Amistad con La RASD.

Asociacion Ecuatoriana de Amistad con el Pueblo Saharaui ( AEPS),

Centro de Documentacion de derechos humanos Segundo Montes Mozo-SJ (CSMM)

Asociacion Panamena Solidaria con la Causa Saharaui (APASOCASA)

Lisbon, 1 february 2021. (SPS)

090/500/60 (SPS)
Channel Seven may 'bin' upcoming episodes of The Chase, a new report claims, after domestic violence allegations were levelled against the show's host.

The network dumped host Andrew O'Keefe after he was accused of assaulting his doctor girlfriend on Sunday.

On Tuesday, The Courier Mail reported that 'network bosses are considering their options as to whether or not to bin six months worth of episodes of the quiz show' filmed last year.

Channel Seven may 'bin' upcoming episodes of The Chase, a new report claims, after domestic violence allegations were levelled against the show's host. The network dumped host Andrew O'Keefe (pictured) after he was accused of assaulting his doctor girlfriend on Sunday

For the time being, The Chase is still slated to appear on weekdays at 5pm on Channel Seven.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Seven for comment.

O'Keefe was charged with common assault relating to the alleged incident on Sunday morning at the Randwick home he shares with haematologist Dr Orly Lavee.

NSW Police will allege the TV host punched Dr Lavee in the face, punctured her lip, pulled her hair, kicked her legs and spat on her, according to the Daily Telegraph.

On Tuesday, The Courier Mail reported that 'network bosses are considering their options as to whether or not to bin six months worth of episodes of the quiz show' filmed last year.

A source close to O'Keefe told the publication that the 49-year-old was the one 'receiving medical treatment in the wake of the incident'.

'He will be defending the charge,' the source said. It is a sole count of domestic-violence related common assault.

Seven on Tuesday morning confirmed he was no longer with the network and said it was 'very concerned' about reports of the alleged assault.

Daily Mail Australia has been told that O'Keefe finished a months-long contract with Seven at the end of 2020 and it has not been renewed.

O'Keefe was charged with common assault relating to the alleged incident on Sunday morning at the Randwick home he shares with haematologist Dr Orly Lavee

'Seven has had a 17-year relationship with Andrew across a number of programs, although he is no longer with the network,' it said in a statement.

'As this is a police matter before the courts, we cannot comment further.

'The program hosted by Andrew, The Chase Australia, is not currently in production. The program is produced for Seven by ITV Studios Australia.

'Production will resume soon and a decision about who will host future series is still to be made.'

Andrew has been the host of the popular quiz show The Chase since 2015.

He has had a number of breaks in the past 18 months in order to take care of some personal health issues.
Chris O'Shea told MPs today that the package was received by his wife and teenage son with a note complaining about how employees were being treated

The boss of British Gas owner Centrica was sent a package of excrement amid a pay row at the firm.

Chris O'Shea told MPs today that the package was received by his wife and teenage son with a note complaining about how employees were being treated.

Members of the GMB union have staged 12 strikes this year and will walk out again on Friday for four days, as the union campaigns against new contracts it says cut pay and increase the working week for engineers under a so-called fire and rehire policy.

'I know this puts a lot of pressure on people,' Mr O'Shea told the Business Select Committee.

'Only yesterday my wife and teenage son had a package of excrement delivered to them with a note about fire and rehire.

'This is something that affects absolutely everybody. I'm not immune to this.'

Friday's strike could see more than 200,000 households face delays to their boiler repairs during some of the coldest weeks of winter.

In his evidence, GMB national officer Justin Bowden said that, in his 25 years as a union official, he has never seen so much pressure put on workers to accept new contracts, including an 'endless stream' of emails and telephone calls.

He told MPs that the GMB has a history of successfully agreeing changes with companies, including British Gas, but he criticised the threat of fire and rehire.

He accused the company of 'poisoning the well' by issuing formal notification of changes to contracts last summer before an agreement could be reached.

Engineers are being told to work 'harder and faster', with a longer working week, he said.

Members of the GMB union have staged 12 strikes this year and will walk out again on Friday for four days. Protesters are seen at the Centrica HQ on January 22

Mr O'Shea said his aim is to protect well-paid jobs and improve the competitiveness of the company rather than see a continuation of redundancies and a move to employing more contractors.

Basic pay rates are being protected and it is 'reasonable' to increase the working week by three hours to 40, he said.

Mr O'Shea called for a clarification of the law on issuing formal notices about changes to terms and conditions, adding that he is committed to working with the GMB to try to resolve the dispute.

Committee chairman Darren Jones, Labour MP for Bristol North West, said: 'Businesses and workers have had a very tough time over the last year.

'Over 800,000 people have lost their jobs since the pandemic took hold and there are very real fears that many more people will face the same bleak fate over the coming months.

'There is no doubt that many businesses have faced difficult trading conditions, but concerns have been raised that some employers are resorting to tactics such as 'fire and rehire' and seeking to downgrade pay and workers' terms during the pandemic.'

An Australian company has won a $300million contract to supply the US with DIY coronavirus test kits that give a result in just 15 minutes.

Brisbane medical technology provider Ellume was first given approval in December by US regulators to sell the at-home testing kits across the country.

Under the deal, Ellume will provide the Biden administration with 19 million prescription-free tests a month by the end of 2021.

The tests - which are expected to cost $39 each - can be used by both children and adults and is claimed to have a more than 95 per cent accuracy rate.

Ellume's at home coronavirus test (pictured) allows patients to collect their own samples - which are then examined via a device connected to their smartphones

Dr Parsons is seen holding a Ellume COVID-19 home test kit at a laboratory in Brisbane on Tuesday

However, the Australian Government has yet to offer any interest in the groundbreaking technology - which can also be used by medical professionals and in areas with large crowds like airports and stadiums.

Ellume chief executive and former emergency room doctor Dr Sean Parsons - who employs about 200 staff - previously designed the first at-home influenza test after noticing a gap in the market while working in a busy hospital.

'We have been working away for a long time to create the core technology to make this fly,' he told Sunrise on Tuesday morning.

He said Ellume was on track to manufacture 200,000 tests every day at its Australian plant by the end of March.

The company is also building a bigger facility in the US with the capacity to produce another 500,000 tests a day.

'Australia's testing needs are a bit different [to the US],' he said.

Ellume chief executive and former emergency room doctor Dr Sean Parsons has agreed a $300million contract with the US government to supply them with DIY coronavirus test kits

'Right now we have got pretty good control of the virus - America is in a different spot right now and they need a different kind of test.'

Dr Parsons had earlier said it was frustrating to receive no word from the Australian government about rolling out the tests locally.

'We have been having discussions with the Queensland state government, which have largely fallen on deaf ears,' Dr Parsons told The Australian in October.

Workers are pictured inside the Ellume laboratory in Brisbane after the company's landmark deal was signed with The United States Department of Defence

'I'd be lying if I said it wasn't frustrating.

'We have unique technology that has been hard-fought over a decade and it is a little bit disappointing the Australian government hasn't been interested and understood the value that could bring to Covid.'

The company's test uses devices that transmit patient samples digitally before the results appear on screen.

Australians can currently go to drive-in testing centres, like this one in Bondi Beach, but results can take up to 72 hours

The test is run on Ellume's 'Access eHub' - which is a portable, digital device that can give results back in just 15 minutes, and in strong positive cases results can appear in just three minutes.

Experts believe faster testing would encourage more people to take part as they wouldn't have to isolate for long while awaiting results.

Currently, Covid-19 test results in Australia take up to 72 hours, as they need to be posted off to specialist labs.

Orphan Designated Drug with August 2021 PDUFA date

Management to host conference call at 10:00 AM Eastern Time on February 3, 2021 and

Key Opinion Leader webinar to be held at 2:00 PM Eastern Time on February 5, 2021

TORONTO and CHICAGO and MONTREAL and WEDEL, Germany, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Medexus) (TSXV: MDP) (OTCQX: MEDXF) (Frankfurt: P731) is pleased to announce that it and its wholly-owned United States-based subsidiary, Medexus Pharma, Inc. (Medexus Pharma and together with Medexus, the Company) entered into a Commercialization and Supply Agreement with medac Gesellschaft fur klinische Spezialpraparate m.b.H. (medac), pursuant to which medac has granted Medexus Pharma an exclusive license to commercialize treosulfan, a bifunctional alkylating agent, in the United States (the License Agreement).

Treosulfan is an innovative, orphan-designated agent developed for use as part of a conditioning treatment for patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). If approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Company expects that a treosulfan-based regimen will be the first in a new conditioning treatment class, Reduced Toxicity Conditioning, resulting in a unique combination of improved survival outcomes compared to reduced-intensity regimens and decreased toxicity compared to standard myeloablative regimens. A Prescription Drug User Free Act (PDUFA) date to review the New Drug Application (NDA) in respect of treosulfan by the FDA has been scheduled for August 2021.

The Company intends to leverage its strong, existing commercial infrastructure in the United States to address the underserved allo-HSCT market through its commercialization of treosulfan. medac conducted a phase III randomized study (the Phase III Study) comparing the results of treosulfan-based therapy with busulfan-based reduced intensity conditioning in advance of allo-HSCT for adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who were considered ineligible for standard myeloablative conditioning regimens. The planned confirmatory interim analysis of the Phase III Study demonstrated that non-inferiority was achieved in the treosulfan group compared to the busulfan group in two-year event-free survival with 64.0% (95% CI 56.070.9) in the treosulfan group and 50.4% (95% CI 42.857.5) in the busulfan group (HR 0.65 [95% CI 0.470.90]); p=0.0000164 (adjusted p-value for testing non-inferiority of treosulfan compared to busulfan).1 Despite lacking indications for use in patients with AML or MDS, busulfan is the current market leading alkylating agent for allo-HSCT. Prior to genericization in 2016, busulfan reached peak annual sales of U.S. $126 million in the United States.2

The NDA in respect of treosulfan was filed by medac in August 2020 and seeks FDA approval for use of treosulfan as part of a conditioning regimen for allo-HSCT for adults with AML and MDS. The NDA is supported by the completed follow-up results from the Phase III Study covering all 570 randomized patients including superiority testing, which may result in even stronger claims than non-inferiority in a final label for treosulfan, if approved by the FDA.3

On April 8, 2015, the FDA granted medac Orphan Drug Designation for treosulfan as a conditioning treatment prior to allo-HSCT in malignant and non-malignant disease in adults and pediatric patients. In accordance with the Orphan Drug Act, seven years of exclusivity for this indication is expected upon FDA approval. According to the most recent data from the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), there were an estimated 9,028 allo-HSCT procedures in the United States in 2018, growing at about 3% year over year. Another 14,006 autologous-HSCT (auto-HSCT) procedures, which also routinely feature conditioning regimens that include alkylating agents, were completed that same year.4

Treosulfan was granted marketing authorization in combination with fludarabine by the European Commission in June 2019, indicated for use in combination with fludarabine as part of a conditioning treatment prior to allo-HSCT in (i) adult patients with both malignant and non-malignant diseases, and (ii) pediatric patients older than one month with malignant diseases. In Canada, Medexus is currently distributing treosulfan via the Special Access Program.

H. Joachim Deeg, MD, Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Professor of Clinical Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Physician at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, commented, Treosulfan has proven to be a potent drug for transplant conditioning in several phase II trials for both malignant and non-malignant disorders, conducted at our own Center and several other institutions, earning the label high intensity, low toxicity. Of note, clinically meaningful improvements in favor of the treosulfan group for event-free survival, overall survival, and transplant-related mortality were seen in medacs study, and a treosulfan-based regimen promises to be the preferred standard conditioning therapy for this study population, which represents the growing population of older and comorbid patients with AML or MDS, and beyond.

Mary Horowitz, MD, MS, Professor of Hematologic Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Scientific Director for the CIBMTR, commented, It is incredibly important for clinicians to have more options for patients undergoing allo-HSCT. I am very happy to see that medac and Medexus have teamed up to work towards bringing treosulfan to the U.S. market. The data on treosulfan thus far is highly encouraging, suggesting it could fill an important gap for higher risk patients who cannot tolerate the typical toxicity profile of currently available high-intensity conditioning regimens.

The License Agreement

Upon entering into the License Agreement, Medexus Pharma paid medac a non-refundable upfront payment of U.S. $5 million. Under the terms of the License Agreement, Medexus Pharma must also pay medac (i) up to an aggregate of U.S. $55 million in non-refundable regulatory milestone payments, contingent upon the achievement of certain regulatory events in connection with the FDAs review process (the Regulatory Milestone Payments), and (ii) up to an aggregate of U.S. $40 million in non-refundable sales milestone payments, contingent upon Medexus Pharmas achievement of certain net sales goals (the Sales Milestone Payments, and together with the Regulatory Milestone Payments, the Milestone Payments). In addition, Medexus Pharma will pay medac a low single-digit royalty on its net sales of treosulfan in the United States.

The License Agreement is effective as of today and continues until the 10th anniversary of FDA approval of the initial NDA, unless earlier terminated by either the Company or medac in accordance with their respective rights under the License Agreement. Going forward, medac will continue with primary responsibility for development and regulatory matters in respect of treosulfan, including preparing and obtaining FDA approval of the initial NDA. After such FDA approval, Medexus Pharma will maintain regulatory approval of treosulfan in the United States and leverage its significant commercial experience in leading the commercialization effort for treosulfan. medac will also be responsible for the manufacturing and supply of treosulfan to Medexus Pharma in accordance with the terms of the License Agreement. The Company and medac will work together to finalize the preparations for commercialization of treosulfan ahead of the PDUFA date and expect to launch shortly after FDA approval.

Ken dEntremont, Chief Executive Officer of Medexus, stated, We are pleased to execute another transformative transaction with medac. In 2018, when we acquired medacs U.S. affiliate, we anticipated that treosulfan could be a significant advancement in HSCT. This transaction marks another major milestone for Medexus and is indicative of our continued effort to further expand into the U.S. through what we believe will be a highly accretive transaction for the Company. Given the drugs therapeutic profile and the data generated to date, we believe that treosulfan could exceed peak sales of busulfan of U.S. $126 million from use in allo-HSCT alone. This belief is re-enforced by the fact that that busulfan is currently being used off-label for the indications for which treosulfan has Orphan Drug Designation. Importantly, we believe there is a large unmet need as the current standard of care is not suitable for numerous at-risk groups, due to the high toxicity effects. Treosulfan has demonstrated excellent event-free survival and overall survival among such groups and as a result, should be well positioned to become the new standard of care in the U.S., with more than 100 publications supporting the safety and efficacy of treosulfan. We are proud to be working towards providing patients with a new solution that could have a very meaningful impact on their lives.

Jorg Hans, Chief Executive Officer of medac, emphasizes, This licensing deal with Medexus offers us the unique opportunity of providing patients and physicians with our very promising new treatment option in the area of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation now also in the United States. The treosulfan-based conditioning regimen stands out for its combination of being highly effective - similar to the potency of the myeloablative procedure - while simultaneously exhibiting significantly reduced toxicity. We at medac are very proud of our first-in-class conditioning agent as it addresses a huge need in the area of conditioning treatments especially with regard to high-risk patients. Therefore, this product fully meets our company goals of improving patients quality of life and supporting healthcare professionals in the best possible way. As a shareholder in Medexus we see the expansion of our relationship as a true win-win.

Medexus and Medexus Pharma were represented by Munsch Hardt Kopf and Harr, P.C. and medac was represented by Baker & McKenzie LLP with respect to the License Agreement.

Conference Call Details

Medexus will host a conference call on February 3, 2021 at 10:00 AM Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada) to discuss the License Agreement and to provide an operational update.

The conference call will be available via telephone by dialing toll free 888-506-0062 for Canadian and U.S. callers or 973-528-0011 for international callers, or on the Medexus Investor Events section of the website: https://www.medexus.com/en_US/investors/news-events.

A webcast replay will be available on Medexus Investor Events section of the website (https://www.medexus.com/en_US/investors/news-events) through May 3, 2021. A telephone replay of the call will be available approximately one hour following the call, through February 10, 2021 and can be accessed by dialing 877-481-4010 for Canadian and U.S. callers or 919-882-2331 for international callers and entering conference ID: 39898

Key Opinion Leader Webinar

Medexus will be hosting a Key Opinion Leader webinar to discuss treosulfan on February 5, 2021 at 2:00 PM Eastern Time (U.S. and Canada), followed by a question-and-answer period. Ken dEntremont, CEO, will be joined by H. Joachim Deeg, MD to discuss the clinical data supporting treosulfan.

To join the webinar, please register here: Treosulfan Key Opinion Leader Webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. The webinar will also be live streamed on YouTube for those who are unable to use Zoom: YouTube Live Stream.

Questions may be asked during the webinar or can be emailed ahead of time to info@adcap.ca. A replay will be made available on the Medexus website.

H. Joachim Deeg, MD

H. Joachim Deeg, MD, is a Physician at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, a Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and a Professor of Clinical Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He currently holds the Miklos Kohary and Natalia Zimonyi Kohary Endowed Chair for Cancer Research. He is an expert in bone marrow transplantation, myelodysplastic syndromes, and myeloproliferative neoplasms. Dr. Deeg is a board-certified oncologist with more than 40 years of experience treating blood-disorders. He has a medical degree from the University of Bonn School of Medicine. Dr. Deeg completed his residency at the University of Rochester, NY and did a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/ University of Washington, Seattle.

Mary Horowitz, MD

Dr. Horowitz is the Robert A. Uihlein Professor of Hematologic Research and Deputy Cancer Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. She is also Scientific Director Emeritus of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). The CIBMTR is a research collaboration between the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)/Be The Match and the Medical College of Wisconsin. The CIBMTR collaborates with the global scientific community to advance hematopoietic cell transplantation and cellular therapy worldwide to increase survival and enrich quality of life for patients. The CIBMTR facilitates critical observational and interventional research through scientific and statistical expertise, a large network of transplant centers, and a unique and extensive clinical outcomes database. Dr. Horowitz also leads the Coordinating Center of the U.S. Blood and Marrow Clinical Trials Network, a multicenter group funded by the National Institutes of Health to test new therapies to improve the safety and effectiveness of transplantation. She has co- authored more than 400 publications addressing diverse issues in clinical BMT.

1 Beelen, DW et al., Final Results of a Prospective Randomized Multicenter Phase III Trial Comparing Treosulfan / Fludarabine to Reduced Intensity Conditioning with Busulfan / Fludarabine Prior to Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Elderly or Comorbid Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia or Myelodysplastic Syndrome. Blood. 2017;130 (Suppl 1):521

2 Symphony Health PHAST Data 2020

3 Beelen, DW et al. Final Evaluation of a Clinical Phase III Trial Comparing Treosulfan to Busulfan-Based Conditioning Therapy Prior to Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation of Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome Patients Ineligible to Standard Myeloablative Regimens. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 25 (2019) S1-S6, p. 53, Abstract No. 04.

4 D'Souza, A, Fretham C, Lee SJ, et al. Current Use of and Trends in Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in the United States. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2020 May 11: S1083-8791(20)30225-1

About medac GmbH

medac GmbH is a privately held, global pharmaceutical company with a growing pharmaceutical and diagnostics business. Since its foundation in Germany in 1970, medac has been specializing in the treatment of diseases within the indication areas oncology, hematology, urology and autoimmune disorders. medac is committed to the refinement of existing and the development of new therapeutic products  always with the focus on improving patients quality of life. medac has become known for developing innovative products also in less common indications. This dedication has resulted in a comprehensive portfolio of pharmaceutical products that help make a difference in the lives of patients. medac continually invests in its product development and manufacturing as well as logistic capacities to meet both patients needs and the demands of healthcare professionals.

About Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Medexus is a leading innovative and rare disease company with a strong North American commercial platform. From a foundation of proven best in class products we are building a highly differentiated company with a portfolio of innovative and high value orphan and rare disease products that will underpin our growth for the next decade. The Companys vision is to provide the best healthcare products to healthcare professionals and patients, through our core values of Quality, Innovation, Customer Service and Teamwork. Medexus Pharmaceuticals is focused on the therapeutic areas of auto-immune disease, hematology, and allergy. The Companys leading products are: Rasuvo and Metoject, a unique formulation of methotrexate (auto-pen and pre-filled syringe) designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other auto-immune diseases; IXINITY, an intravenous recombinant factor IX therapeutic for use in patients 12 years of age or older with Hemophilia B  a hereditary bleeding disorder characterized by a deficiency of clotting factor IX in the blood, which is necessary to control bleeding; and Rupall, an innovative prescription allergy medication with a unique mode of action.

For more information, please contact:

Ken dEntremont, Chief Executive Officer

Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Tel.: 905-676-0003

E-mail: ken.dentremont@medexus.com

Roland Boivin, Chief Financial Officer

Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Tel.: 514-334-8765

E-mail: roland.boivin@medexus.com

Investor Relations (U.S.):

Crescendo Communications, LLC

Tel: +1-212-671-1020

Email: mdp@crescendo-ir.com

Investor Relations (Canada):

Tina Byers

Investor Relations

Tel: 905-330-3275

E-mail: tina@adcap.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

READER ADVISORIES

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this press release contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (forward-looking statements). The words anticipates, believes, expects, should, will, and similar expressions are often intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Specific forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the August 2021 PDUFA date, expectations for treosulfan to be the first in a new conditioning treatment class, the Companys intention to leverage its commercial infrastructure in the United States to commercialize treosulfan, the expectation for exclusivity for treosulfan upon FDA approval, the results of the Phase III Study and the possibility of non-inferiority or stronger claims in the final label for treosulfan, the expected launch of treosulfan, the accretive nature of the transaction, the potential for treosulfan to exceed peak sales of busulfan and the anticipated growth in sales of, the market for and distribution of, treosulfan. These statements are based on factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including assumptions based on historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments. Since forward-looking statements relate to future events and conditions, by their very nature they require making assumptions and involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The Company cautions that although it is believed that the assumptions are reasonable in the circumstances, these risks and uncertainties give rise to the possibility that actual results may differ materially from the expectations set out in the forward-looking statements. Material risk factors include those set out in the Companys materials filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities from time to time, including the Companys most recent annual information form and managements discussion and analysis; future capital requirements; intellectual property protection and infringement risks; competition (including potential for generic competition); reliance on key management personnel; the Companys ability to implement its business plan; the Companys ability to leverage its United States and Canadian infrastructure to promote additional growth, including with respect to the infrastructure of Medexus Pharma, and the potential benefits the Company expects to derive therefrom; regulatory approval by the FDA; litigation risk; and government regulation. Given these risks, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date hereof. Other than as specifically required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise.
Monrovia  The Inspector General of the Liberia National Police (LNP), Col. Patrick Sudue has disclosed that after sending four LNP officers to South Sudan on United Nations peacekeeping mission, about thirty Liberian police officers are on the standby for future deployment on UN peacekeeping missions around the world.

Making the disclosure on Monday, February 1, 2021 during a courtesy visit to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Ambassador Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah, Sr.,Col. Sudue praised the Liberia's foreign minister for the pivotal role he played in New York during his service as Liberia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Col. Sudue noted that Ambassador Kemayah was very instrumental in making sure that officers of LNP are deployed on UN peacekeeping operation.
A Sinn Fein TD has defended breaches of Covid-19 regulations at Republican funerals by comparing them to the hundreds of people who attended the funeral of murdered Garda Detective Colm Horkan.

Laois-Offaly Deputy Brian Stanley said there had been a lot of large funerals on the island and that footage from the funeral of Garda Det Horkan last summer showed hundreds and hundreds of people walking in the funeral cortege.

The TD was asked by the Irish Independent for his views on the latest controversy surrounding the party, after three councillors attended the funeral last Monday of party activist and former Provisional IRA member Eamonn Peggy McCourt, who died after contracting the virus.

Read More

Footage from the funeral is being reviewed by police for potential breaches of the Covid regulations, which currently state that in Northern Ireland funerals are limited to 25 people.

Speaking this morning, Mr Stanley said that people cannot be stopped from coming to the footpath to pay their respects.

We cant stop people from turning out on to the sidewalk to pay their respects when a funeral cortege is passing by. But the rules are the rules and, you know, were striving to implement them.

There have been a lot of large funerals on this island, we had an unfortunate situation last year of the detective garda losing his life.

He said that footage from the funeral of Det Garda Horkan, who was shot while on duty in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, on June 17, showed hundreds of people.

There was some footage at that funeral as well that did show hundreds and hundreds of people in the cortege behind it. And that's because the person who died was held to a high esteem, the garda that was killed during last year in that street incident in Castlerea. So, its understandable that people want to turn out and pay their respects and thats important.

When asked if party members should lead by example and not attend these funerals, he said that the rules are the rules. I haven't seen the footage of it.

I have done my best to obey the rules and to stick with the public health advice because its really, really important at the moment because of the new variant, he added.

He said that Sinn Fein encourages people to obey those basic rules.

In doing so, we would urge people to, regardless of who it is, that we obey those basic rules, its really, really important, and Sinn Fein stick by that.

Read More




Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 15:51:50|Editor: huaxia

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Workers load the container of vaccines at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia, Feb. 2, 2021. A total of 10 million doses of raw materials for COVID-19 vaccine from the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Indonesia's city of Tangerang on Tuesday, an official said. (Photo by Demy/Xinhua)

JAKARTA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A total of 10 million doses of raw materials for COVID-19 vaccine from the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Indonesia's city of Tangerang on Tuesday, an official said.

"The government is trying hard efforts to tackle COVID-19, including through vaccination," the Health Ministry's Secretary General Oscar Primadi said.

With the arrival, there are 28 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia, Primadi noted, adding that among them, 3 million doses were ready to use, and another 25 million doses arrived in the form of raw materials.

Bambang Heriyanto, Corporate Secretary of Indonesian state-run vaccine manufacturer Bio Farma, said 15 million doses of vaccine raw materials that arrived in Indonesia on Jan. 12 are still under process for the ready-to-use vaccine, targeted to be completed on Feb. 11.

Heriyanto said the raw materials that arrived Tuesday would be processed starting from Feb. 13 and expected to be completed on March 20.

Indonesia is targeting to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to 181.5 million people until next year.

A spokesperson for the Health Ministry's COVID-19 Vaccination said more than 500,000 medical workers have so far been vaccinated.

The target is that 1.5 million medical workers would have been vaccinated before the end of February.

"After that, 17.4 million public workers will be vaccinated," the spokesperson said.
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Active military personnel and veterans are over-represented among the first 150 people to be arrested and have records released for federal offenses in the violence and insurrection at the US Capitol.

Analysis by CNN of Pentagon records and court proceedings show 21 of the 150, or 14%, are current or former members of the US military. That is more than double the proportion of servicemen and women and veterans in the adult US population, calculated from Census Bureau and Department of Defense statistics. In 2018, there were 1.3 million active-duty members of the services and 18 million veterans. Together, they comprised just 5.9% of the overall 327 million US population at the end of 2018.

Two of those arrested are in the Army, and two are National Guardsmen. Of the 17 veterans, six are former Army, eight are former Marines, two served in the Navy, and one was in the Air Force. Their service records show at least one served in Vietnam; others were deployed in the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq. At least one earned a Purple Heart. They were discharged with a variety of ranks and included officers -- a captain and a lieutenant colonel.

And on January 6, the active and former military personnel are accused of declaring a war at home -- attacking the Constitution they once swore to defend, some even equipped with military gear and weapons.

The world watched as hundreds of rioters stormed the US Capitol in what became a deadly insurrection. Five people died due to the events at the Capitol that day, including a police officer hit in the head with a fire extinguisher and a woman trampled to death.

Analysis of the charges faced by some of the veterans show prosecutors say they led the violence and lawlessness that disrupted the certification of President Joe Biden's election win.

There are also alleged links between some of the veterans and extremist groups.

Veterans and Proud Boys

CNN tracked down 9 of the accused veterans.

The most well-known of those arrested so far is Joseph Randall Biggs. The 37-year-old is an Army combat veteran. He is also one of the leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group that is known for violent clashes with anti-fascists or Antifa during protests from Portland, Oregon, to Washington, DC.

Biggs became an online personality of the far-right, spouting bombastic and sometimes violent rhetoric toward women and Antifa.

As far back as 2012, there were a plethora of tweets mentioning sexual violence on his @RamboBiggs account, which has been archived by the Media Matters For America group.

One said: "Every Kiss begins with ... Roofies." -- a reference to Rohypnol, the "date rape drug."

Biggs tweeted a rallying cry of "DEATH TO ANTIFA" and called on others to get guns and ammunition to take to a rally in Portland. His account was suspended by Twitter in 2019 for repeatedly violating the terms of service.

One of his self-titled online shows was still being featured on a right-wing subscription website a week after his arrest. It began with computer-generated explosions, and a tank firing out the letters B-I-G-G-S.

On January 6, Biggs is accused of going far beyond rhetoric.

In video CNN has reviewed from January 6, Biggs is seen commanding his Proud Boy troops and guiding them to the Capitol steps.

Federal prosecutors say he "did aid, abet, counsel, command, induce, or procure others to unlawfully enter the U.S. Capitol by means of destruction of federal property."

He is charged with unlawful entry, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and obstructing an official proceeding of Congress.

In the criminal complaint, federal agents say Biggs was among the first to enter the Capitol during the mob attack.

One of Biggs' Proud Boys, Dominic Pezzola, who has been charged with several crimes including conspiracy, is shown on video smashing a window of the Capitol with a plastic shield, which several people climb through before a door was opened.

Pezzola's lawyer said he was "denied contact" with his jailed client, which, he said, undercut his ability to mount a "meaningful legal defense."

"Hey Biggs, what do you gotta say," a voice off camera says in a video reviewed by the FBI. "This is awesome." Biggs replies on camera before walking into the Capitol building within 20 seconds of the door opening, the FBI agent alleged in court documents.

CNN visited Biggs' home in Ormond Beach, Florida, just north of the Daytona International Speedway, to hear what he had to say now that he is out on bail and on house arrest.

He peeked through a curtain on his door when we identified ourselves, but stayed mostly hidden.

When asked if he was an insurrectionist, Biggs replied, "Oh God no."

But as we pressed for why he was inside the Capitol building, he threatened to call police.

"If you don't get the f**k out of here, I'm calling the police right now," he said, pushing his phone around the curtain to take video.

Proud Boy and would-be politician

A four-hour drive south from Biggs is the Miami home of Gabriel Garcia, a former Army captain, now a Proud Boy extremist who is also accused of involvement in the insurrection.

Last year he ran for the Florida House of Representatives as a Republican, though he told CNN affiliate WPLG at the time there were questions about the election system. "There's people starting to doubt this process," he said then. Garcia lost in the Republican primary.

Now he is charged with "certain acts during civil disorder, aiding and abetting; knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds."

According to the federal complaint, Garcia was inside the Capitol when he said on a video: "We just went ahead and stormed the Capitol. It's about to get ugly."

The affidavit says he called police who were trying to stop the siege "f**king traitors."

But when we tried to get comment from him, he had no problem calling the Miami-Dade police.

He is free on $100,000 bail, WPLG reported. His lawyer told the station, "He didn't commit any violent acts up there and didn't intend to."

'Revolution' call allegedly from dog rescuer

In the Texas city of Longview, between Dallas and the Louisiana border, Ryan Nichols lives in a gated community with large homes and big lawns.

A neighbor called police to try to stop us from approaching Nichols' house. Down the street at Nichols' wholesale business, a man refused to say if he was inside and threatened to call 911.

Nichols, 30, says in an ad that he has made "millions of dollars here on the e-commerce platforms" and claims he can help others do the same.

A former Marine, Nichols was once featured on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in 2018 after video of his work rescuing dogs during Hurricane Florence was shared widely over the internet.

On January 6, federal prosecutors say Nichols was at the Capitol with a Texas buddy called Alex Harkrider, who is also a former Marine.

The FBI says Nichols can be seen on video yelling through a bullhorn towards the large crowd, "If you have a weapon, you need to get your weapon!"

The complaint says another video shows Nichols shouting, "This is the second revolution right here folks! [...] This is not a peaceful protest."

A person who recognized the men told the FBI according to court documents: "I have photo screen shots from their social media pages showing they were there and showing Alex stated they were planning a civil war."

The complaint says Nichols had a canister of OC/pepper spray and a crowbar with him and sprayed what is believed to be pepper spray toward the Capitol entrance where federal agents were trying to stop the attack.

Federal agents obtained a Snapchat photo they said was "apparently shared by Harkrider."

"We're in. 2 people killed already. We need all the patriots of this country to rally the f**k up and fight for our freedom or it's gone forever. Give us liberty, or give us death," the caption read.

He and Nichols are charged with conspiracy and unlawful entry with a dangerous weapon, violent entry or disorderly conduct, civil disorder, assaulting a federal officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon, and aiding and abetting, according to a federal complaint.

They both remain in jail.

Purple Heart recipient lives with parents

Three hours south, in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, Army veteran Joshua Lollar is staying with his parents as part of his bond requirements.

The home is part of a planned community with tree-lined streets and large brick homes at the ends of long driveways.

It's a far cry from Iraq, where Lollar was deployed, and from Washington, DC, on January 6.

A screen capture of Lollar's Facebook account shows a picture of people wearing red "Make America Great Again" hats entering the Capitol, with a caption saying "busting in."

The complaint against him said he was livestreaming on Facebook while taking part in the siege. He is also captured on police body camera video admitting to violence against officers, the affidavit says.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just got gassed and fought with cops that I never thought would happen," Lollar posted on Facebook, the affidavit said.

Lollar's father came out of his home, holding a small fluffy dog. After greeting CNN in a soft voice, he said, "I can't tell you anything."

He did confirm his son was an Iraq war veteran, awarded a Purple Heart.

Lollar told a federal court hearing he lives with his parents, is being treated for PTSD, and has been receiving disability since 2009, according to CNN affiliate KPRC, which attended the hearing. He has been charged with numerous offenses including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, obstructing or impeding law enforcement officer during civil disorder and obstructing federally protected functions.

Lollar was released on bond. The court ordered that guns, body armor and gas masks be secured by Lollar's father.

"He will have no knowledge of where they are," Grover Lollar told the judge, according to KPRC.

More veterans accused of conspiracy

The first people to be charged by federal officials with conspiracy in connection with the insurrection are all veterans. Jessica Watkins, who served in the Army under another name, is also accused of being part of the far-right Oath Keepers.

The complaint against her says she conspired with former Marine Donovan Crowl and Navy veteran Thomas Caldwell.

CNN has reached out to the arrested veterans mentioned in this story and any lawyers listed on their court documents. Most did not respond. Lollar's representative said his client had no comment at this time.

CNN is continuing to keep count of the number of military members arrested in connection to the insurrection, as well as police officers and others who have been trained or prepared for combat in the name of the United States.

"What we've seen too often is that this kind of ideological militancy is allowed to exist in the military," said former FBI agent Michael German who spent years undercover in White supremacist and domestic extremist groups and is now a fellow at the Brennan Center For Justice. "And there isn't enough effort to root it out and to actually paint it as what it is: an anti-democratic movement that's a threat to our security within our security forces."

But he added that the threat extended outside the armed forces and law agencies.

"It's not just the military veterans and the police officers who were involved in the violent and illegal activities, but the fact that these groups that have been engaged in militant violence across the country over the last four years and beyond have support among elected politicians."

WHITE CITY, Ore. -- Workers across Oregon were invited to provide comments to the OHA on what groups should be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccinations.

Amy's Kitchen, which has had a total of 137 reported coronavirus cases since July 28, 2020 by the OHA, expressed why food handlers should be among those getting shots.

The company wrote in a letter, "Amy's Medford employees identify as people of color and approximately two-thirds, as Hispanic or Latino, and many are in an aging population or live with elderly family members.

Ely-Za, a Medford grocery shopper said she does not believe food handlers should be prioritized over health care workers. We've taken lots of precautions for food systems and fast food but medical professionals really are on the front lines. They're more at risk.

Alexa Diaz, a recently vaccinated medical assistant said she agrees with Amy Kitchen.

We can help ourselves by protecting ourselves even if it's 50 percent, that's 50 percent less chance that we have infecting our family members or even our co-workers or the people we love around us.

Amy's Kitchen says it appreciates and supports the vaccine committee's commitment to equity and sensitivity to historically underrepresented populations. It adds, it is willing to help educate the food processing industry about the importance of vaccination and supports the groups that are currently prioritized for immunization.

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / The handling, shipping and transportation of dangerous goods is a highly regulated industry, with compliance regulations that are in a constant state of flux.

This January, Florida-based B2B education company,Hazmat University, along with the Bureau of Dangerous Goods, highlights a new Addendum to the 62nd Edition DGR published by IATA (International Air Transport Association).

The Addendum to 62nd Edition DGR

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) posted the first addendum to the 62nd edition of the Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR). The addendum is effective January 1, 2021. There were several edits and additions made to the IATA DGR in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To follow are some highlights of this addendum:

First, alcohol-based hand sanitizers and cleaners were added to the list of items excepted from the regulations when carried aboard the aircraft for passenger and crew hygiene.

In 3.9.2.5, IATA excepted COVID vaccines containing GMOs or GMMOs, including those in clinical trials, from being classified as UN3245, Genetically Modified Organisms or Genetically Modified Micro-organisms.

New special provision A220 was added to entries in the dangerous goods list for UN3481 Lithium Ion Batteries Contained in or Packed with Equipment and UN3091 Lithium Metal Batteries Contained in or Packed with Equipment. The special provisions stated that packages containing COVID-19 vaccines accompanied by data loggers and/or cargo tracking devices containing lithium batteries are not subject to the marking or documentation requirements of section II of Packing Instruction 967 or 970, as applicable.

Changes to the DG Statement on Air Waybills

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) updated the language used on an air waybill when dangerous goods are offered on a Shipper's Declaration for Dangerous Goods. The change was made to the 62nd edition of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations and is effective January 1, 2023.

An air waybill accompanying a dangerous goods shipment that requires a Shipper's Declaration for Dangerous Goods must include one of the following statements in the "handling information" box:

"Dangerous goods as per attached Shipper's Declaration"; or

"Dangerous goods as per attached DGD."

The language is updated to replace the word "attached" with the word "associated."

The Need for Change

As technology develops, security concerns grow more urgent and efficiencies increase, the air cargo industry recognized the need for a digital process for communicating dangerous goods information. Most shipments of dangerous goods offered for air transportation are required to be accompanied by a Shipper's Declaration for Dangerous Goods.

In 2016, IATA started an e-DGD project concept to create a data-sharing platform for dangerous goods shipments. As airlines, states, and their stakeholders join the platform, data for more and more shipments will be transmitted electronically and without the need for paper documents. Many countries, including the United States, do not allow the use of the e-DGD yet. The language on the air waybill was updated to reflect the fact that a paper document may not accompany a shipment. The new statements are shown below:

"Dangerous goods as per associated Shipper's Declaration" or

"Dangerous goods as per associated DGD".

The revision of the AWB although not effective until January 1st, 2023 is one, we need to keep a close eye on. Time flies when you are having fun and lack of compliance will get your shipments rejected. Click hereAddendum to the 62nd Edition DGR for the complete document.

About Hazmat University and the Bureau of Dangerous Goods

As organizations dedicated to educating shippers and the supply chains regarding the dangerous goods regulations, the Bureau of Dangerous Goods and Hazmat University remain committed to providing world-class hazmat and dangerous goods training, software, and consulting services necessary to ensure safety and compliance.

Hazmat University's unique online training platform enables businesses and their employees to partake in specialized dangerous goods transportation training for ground, air, and vessel.

Dangerous goods online training covers specialized shipment protocols for processing, handling, and transportation, which includes general awareness, function-specific, safety and security training, in order to ensure both public and environmental safety.

Benefits of Hazmat University

Hazmat University offers a full line of online hazmat training and dangerous goods courses designed and developed by industry professionals.

Simple online ordering process

Self-paced instruction to fit busy schedules

Affordable

Available online 24/7

Intuitive platform

Instant training record provided upon successful completion

Those interested in learning more about Hazmat University's,IATA (ICAO) Shipping by Air Online Hazmat Training, or other training courses are encouraged to contact them via their officialwebsite.

In honor of Valentine's Day, we are happy to announce February's promotion.

Media Contact:

Company Name: Hazmat University

Contact Person: Sonia Irusta

Email: Send Email

Phone: (609) 493-4971

Address:1093 A1A Beach Blvd, STE 102

City: St. Augustine

State: Florida

Country: United States

Website: www.hazmatuniversity.com/

SOURCE: Hazmat University

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627379/Hazmat-University-Announces-that-IATA-Publishes-Addendum-to-62nd-Edition-Dangerous-Good-Regulations
The government on Tuesday informed that 39 cases were registered between September and December 2020 against farmers protesting against the agri laws at Delhi's borders and said they "aggressively resorted to rioting, damage to property and used criminal force" against public servants.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy also said that the protesting farmers were not following social distancing and gathered in large numbers without face masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Insofar NCT of Delhi is concerned, the Delhi Police has informed that 39 cases have been registered against the farmers protesting the recently passed 'farm laws' between September and December, 2020 at Delhi border," he said in a written reply.

Reddy's reply implies that these 39 cases were excluding those registered after the farmers' tractor rally violence on January 26.

He said the Delhi Police has also informed that one suicide case has been reported to it during the protest against the contentious farm laws.

On police using tear gas and resorting to baton charge against protesting farmers, the minister said it has been reported that at Delhi borders, large convoys of agitating farmers in tractor trolleys tried to furiously force their way and go past police barricades to enter Delhi.

"They aggressively resorted to rioting, damage to government property and used criminal force to deter public servants from the discharge of their duty, thereby inflicting injuries to the on-duty police personnel.

"Moreover, social distancing was not followed by the farmers and protestors and they gathered in large numbers without face masks amid COVID-19 pandemic. The farmers' actions left the Delhi Police with no option but to use tear gas, water cannons and mild force to control the crowd," Reddy 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.)
Pune, India, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global nurse call systems market is anticipated to showcase notable growth owing to the reduction in the number of patient to nurse ratio. The global nurse call systems market size was valued at USD 1.18 Billion in 2018. However, the global market is projected to reach USD 2.79 Billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.5% during the forecast period. North America is expected to lead the global nurse call systems market during the forecast period. The region had acquired a revenue of USD 445.4 million in the year 2018.

INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT:

February 2019: Ascom launched Telligence Patient Response System in North America. Telligence Patient Response System is based on the Ascom Healthcare platform and enables the elevation of nurse calls for patient-centric care.

February 2015: Rauland-Borg Corporation, now a division of AMETEK.Inc, launched a new software that interfaces nurse call system with the electronic medical record of the patient. This system will facilitate the nurses to track patient medical history and record to deliver appropriate medical care.





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Increasing Incidence of Chronic Disorders to Aid in the Growth of Hospital Segment

In terms of end user, the global nurse call systems market is grouped into home care settings, assisted living and nursing centers, hospitals and clinics, and others. The report mentions that hospitals are expected to generate the highest global nurse call systems market revenue in the forthcoming years.

It would occur as the nurses in hospitals depend upon nurse call systems for workforce management, emergency management, and monitoring of patients health. Also, hospitals possess high patient pool who are in persistent need for general healthcare. Additionally, the rising prevalence of chronic diseases are leading to hospitalizations. It will contribute to the global nurse call systems market growth in the coming years.

Increasing Healthcare Infrastructure in the U.S. to Favor Growth in North America

The global nurse call systems market is geographically divided into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Amongst these regions, North America is expected to lead the global nurse call systems market during the forecast period.

The region had acquired a revenue of USD 445.4 million in the year 2018. The growth is attributed to the rapid penetration and acceptance of nurse call systems by numerous healthcare organizations, namely, nursing centers and hospitals. Moreover, a rise in geriatric population and growing healthcare expenditure in the U.S. are likely to impact the nurse call systems market growth positively in North America.





Click here to get the short-term and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on this Market.

Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/nurse-call-systems-market-100274





Ascom, a global solutions provider, headquartered in Switzerland, announced the launch of its Telligence in North America in February 2019. Telligence is considered to be the worlds first patient response system. It is a scalable and modular patient response system that upgrades nurse call service for unique patient-centric care. With the guidance of Telligence, caregivers can get access to appropriate information throughout the care process as well as at the point of care.

It is developed on the Ascom Healthcare Platform and it aids in collecting information from several sources, such as healthcare applications, patients, applications, and other medical devices. It has the ability to smoothly integrate with the facilitys current applications and devices. Doctors and clinicians can get an in-depth view of the patients health status that is much better than the traditional form of nurse call. It helps the caregivers to get to know about the patients current health condition and response to their requests accordingly.





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Fortune Business Insights has listed some of the prominent market players operating in the global nurse call systems market. They are as follows:

Hill-Rom Services Inc.

AMETEK. Inc.

Ascom

Honeywell International Inc.

Azure Healthcare

Jeron Electronic Systems, Inc.

Intercall Systems, Inc.

Siemens AG

Johnson Controls

Schrack Seconet Ag.





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Global Nurse Call Systems Market Segmentations:

By Technology

 Wired

 Wireless

By Product

 Basic Button Based Systems

 Mobile Integrated System

 IP based Systems

 Others

By End-user

 Hospitals and Clinics

 Assisted Living & Nursing Centers

 Home Care Settings

 Others

By Geography

 North America (U.S. and Canada)

 Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, and Rest of Europe)

 Asia Pacific (Japan, China, India, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Rest of Asia Pacific)

 Rest of World





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Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data.

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The Cook County Department of Public Health warns that the COVID-19 vaccine supply is extremely limited at this time. A spokesman for Walgreens said that while new appointments are being made at about 90 different Walgreens stores across the state, the initial supply of vaccine we are receiving from the state is limited and therefore a limited amount of appointments are available each day.
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"Hats off to all our franchisees and their staff for their hard work this past year and the recognition that is well deserved." - Express CEO Bill Stoller

Express Employment Professionals commitment to providing exemplary service to employees and clients has been recognized by ClearlyRated with the Best of Staffing Client and Talent Awards.

Express also received Best of Staffing Talent Diamond Award for providing superior service to candidates for at least five consecutive years.

In partnership with presenting sponsor CareerBuilder and gold sponsors Indeed and Talent.com, ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing Award winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and candidates.

On average, clients of winning agencies are two times more likely to be completely satisfied and candidates who have been placed by winning agencies are twice as likely to be completely satisfied with the services provided compared to those working with non-winning agencies.

Owning an Express franchise is more than just a day jobits a calling to servanthood, Express CEO Bill Stoller said. The Express family is on a mission to provide hope through employment and that includes holding ourselves to the highest industry standards. Hats off to all our franchisees and their staff for their hard work this past year and the recognition that is well deserved.

Express received satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 67.9% of their clients, significantly higher than the industrys average of 38%. More than 68% of placed job candidates also gave Express a satisfaction score of 9 or 10 out of 10 compared to the industry average of 40%.

After one of the most turbulent years in modern history, winners of the 2021 Best of Staffing award have proven their commitment to go above and beyond in support of their clients and placed talent," said ClearlyRated's CEO and Founder, Eric Gregg. "These service leaders have demonstrated their capacity to be agile, to be precise and to prioritize the client and talent experience above all else. It is my honor to celebrate and showcase the 2021 Best of Staffing winners alongside feedback from their actual clients and placed talent on ClearlyRated.com.

Express is committed to the vision of helping as many people as possible find good jobs by helping as many clients as possible find good people. With its international headquarters based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Express has more than 830 franchises in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

###

If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bill Stoller to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena Karami-Hollander, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966.

About Bill Stoller

William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the international staffing company has more than 830 franchises in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Since inception, Express has put more than 8 million people to work worldwide.

About Express Employment Professionals

At Express Employment Professionals, were in the business of people. From job seekers to client companies, Express helps people thrive and businesses grow. Our international network of franchises offers localized staffing solutions to the communities they serve across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, employing 552,000 people globally in 2019. For more information, visit http://www.ExpressPros.com.
It is time for Nigeria to produce a president from the South, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on INEC, Kabiru Gaya, has said.

Mr Gaya, who stated this at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum on Tuesday, said the southern part of Nigeria should produce a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 for the sake of equity.

Having produced a northern president for two terms, the nation deserves a president from the south, he said, because both regions can accommodate each other.

On the issue of presidency in 2023, I will support a president from the southern part of the country, Mr Gaya, Third Republic governor of Kano State, said.

I believe it is time we have a president from the southern part of the country while the vice president comes from the north.

I think it should be fair to rotate the presidency in such a way that people will have confidence in the system; both the north and the south will accommodate each other. Nigeria needs to be one country, one united country, he said.

His demand comes amidst agitation that the presidency be retained in the north where Mr Buhari comes from or should be zoned to the south, particularly the southeast, which has yet to produce the countrys president since the restoration of democracy in 1999.

Since 1999, Nigerias political leadership has been rotated between the southern and northern parts of the country.

The arrangement, though unwritten, has been a determining factor on who emerges as president over the years.

Many have , however, faulted the agreement basically because it was never written.

Some senior members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to which Mr Gaya belongs, have also said there was agreement to rotate the presidency between the north and the south when the party was being formed in 2013, while others say there was none.

Among those who claimed there was a gentlemans agreement are the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, former Ogun State governor, Olusegun Osoba, Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu and an estranged ally of the president, Buba Galadima.

However, a former governor of Zamfara State, Ahmad Sani, denied the existence of an agreement.

It is not exactly clear whether the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will obey the rule of zoning come 2023.

As a matter of fact, the Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, who recently defected to the APC from the PDP, said the PDP was not planning to pick its 2023 presidential candidate from the Southeast.

Already, socio-cultural groups, majorly from the Southeast, seem to be at the top of their game in ensuring the office is zoned to their region.

The debate over zoning began soon after Mamman Daura, Mr Buharis nephew, said last year that the idea of zoning presidency for 2023 be jettisoned for competence.

Regardless, many southern political players are still hoping that it will be the turn of their region to produce the president in 2023 after Mr Buhari leaves power.

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Restructuring

Reacting to calls for restructuring Nigeria, Mr Gaya, who represents Kano South Senatorial District, said the country needs to remain indivisible, while improving on its revenue generation.

God knows best why he put us together and I believe there is a reason for it. But when you say you want to restructure the country using revenue generation, that each state lives on its own or parts of the nation in terms of tribes strive on its own, I think that is the thinking of some Nigerians.

I believe that Nigeria should remain one indivisible entity.
South Africa: Premier refutes reports of family benefitting from government

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, has expressed sadness at the passing of sport broadcaster, Sandile kaNqose. The broadcaster reportedly passed away on Monday at the age of 42. A die-hard sport fan, who had an insatiable passion for broadcasting, Nqose resumed his career at eNCA in 2008 as a freelancer before joining t... See more
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Burma Myanmar Medics Prepare Civil Disobedience Against Military Rule

A government hospital in Yangon. / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Myanmars government hospital staff in several major cities are planning to organize civil disobedience against the military on Wednesday after Mondays coup.

Health-care staff said they will go on strike and peacefully protest against the coup.

A member of the campaign, Dr. Hein Wint War, said: We can save only some lives of our patients while we are on duty. But the hope of several hundred people will be lost per day under a military dictatorship if we keep silent about the coup.

On Tuesday, several health-care staff from government hospitals in Naypyitaw, Mandalay, Yangon, Pyay, Bago, Myawaddy, Kyaukse, Monywa, Sagaing, Pyin Oo Lwin, Magwe and Nyaung U issued statements condemning the coup which seized power from an elected government. The military formed a new government, neglecting the publics will, the statements said.

They said medical staff will hold a civil disobedience movement from Wednesday as they do not want to serve an unelected government formed by the military.

They also called for the release of President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other government figures who have been detained during the coup.

They have called for parliament to convene with the recently elected parliamentarians.

Campaigners urged health-care personnel across the country to cooperate with their movement in protest against the military.

Meanwhile, staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, are also planning to join the civil disobedience movement.

You may also like these stories:

Will China Provide Cover for Myanmars Coup Makers?

Military Tells Members of Myanmars Dissolved Parliament They Can Go Home

World Bank: Coup Threatens Myanmars Development Prospects

Care homes in Northern Ireland experienced supply issues with oxygen, antibiotics and paracetamol in the early days of the pandemic, it has emerged.

A report by the Stormont health committee also highlighted a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in care homes during the first few months of the crisis.

Staff caring for older people and vulnerable adults were "left feeling vulnerable" when they saw the difference in the level of PPE provided to health service workers, according to the Independent Health & Care Providers (IHCP).

One worker referred to ambulance staff coming into homes "kitted out like they were going to the moon", which the Stormont report concluded "exacerbated the feeling of exposure by care home staff".

The report has been released as deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has revealed she is self-isolating after a member of her household tested positive.

Meanwhile the Orange Order has announced it has postponed a parade planned for May to mark Northern Ireland's centenary, due to the pandemic. The order said senior representatives have unanimously agreed to extend its directive that no Orange parades should take place until June 1.

According to latest figures, 314 new cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed, while a further 11 deaths have been reported.

The health committee report was published on Monday following a committee inquiry into coronavirus in care homes here and found that care homes experienced medication supply issues due to difficulties accessing GPs.

The committee has made a series of recommendations after examining evidence from a range of stakeholders, including the Royal College of Nursing, British Medical Association, IHCP, the Health Minister and experts from independent SAGE.

Among the recommendations is a call for care homes to ensure that residents are allowed visits from family and friends.

Relatives described the devastation caused by the restrictions, with PPE making communication difficult, a ban on physical contact, and occasions where they were unable to see their loved ones as they were sleeping during an allocated visiting time.

According to the report, the Alzheimer's Society "emphasised the devastating impact of social isolation for people with dementia and highlighted concerns that this may be contributing to a premature deterioration in individuals' dementia". The inquiry also heard repeated concerns over the testing regime in care homes, particularly in the early months of the pandemic. In some cases, care homes waited between four and eight days for results to be returned to diagnose whether anyone working or living in the home had Covid-19.

It has also emerged that the Northern Ireland Hospice paid out 200,000 in Covid-related costs, while at the same time, it had experienced a "significant decrease in donations".

Staffing issues were also highlighted throughout the report. While trusts redeployed staff into care homes to provide support, they also explained that this was challenging as "there continues to be a lack of registered nurses for such duties".

"Despite best efforts, some Trusts are not able to meet demand," the report continued.

Colm Gildernew, chair of the Stormont health committee, said: "Many of the issues that we looked at - from staff terms and conditions, workforce shortages, funding and regulation - brought the wider question of adult social care reform into sharp focus.

"There was virtual consensus on a number of significant points in relation to pandemic planning, from acknowledgement of pre-existing workforce shortages to initial problems with the supply of PPE and testing capacity.

"We were also struck by the impact that visiting restrictions had on the physical and mental wellbeing of those living in care homes, the importance of ensuring meaningful contact and the limits of virtual visiting for those with sensory or cognitive impairment."
71% of young adults in US support some form of limits on abortion: poll

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A new poll conducted by a national pro-life advocacy group finds unexpectedly strong support for the pro-life movement among millennials and members of Generation Z.

Students for Life of America, a national organization with campuses at schools and colleges nationwide, released the results of a survey compiled as a project of SFLAs Institute for Pro-Life Advancement.

The project surveyed 800 registered voters nationwide between the ages of 18 and 34 from Jan. 7 to Jan. 11. The results have an error margin of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points.

Respondents were asked to provide their views on abortion policy.

About 30% of respondents identified themselves as Republicans, while 36% were Democrats and 34% were independent. The survey found that more than 7 out of 10 expressed support for limits on abortion.

Far from embracing Planned Parenthood and the Democratic Party Line, Millennials and Generation Z have a more nuanced view of abortion that embraces a number of pro-life positions, SFLA President Kristan Hawkins said in a statement.

When asked for their position on abortion, 19% of respondents said that abortion should be allowed at any time during a womans pregnancy and for any reason.

Another 19% said that abortion should be legal only in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

Meanwhile, 15% responded that abortion should be legal for any reason, but not after five months of pregnancy when the fetus is viable and can feel pain.

Another 15% of respondents asserted that abortion should be prohibited in all circumstances.

The poll found that 14% support keeping abortion legal for the first trimester of pregnancy only. Less than 1-in-10 respondents (8%) maintained that abortion should be legal only to save the life of the mother. Additionally, 9% said they were unsure.

Almost half (45%) of those surveyed expressed opposition to the idea of forcing all Americans to fund abortions through their tax dollars.

The survey came shortly before unified Democratic control of the federal government took effect last month. Members of the Democratic Party have signaled a desire to do away with the Hyde Amendment, a long-standing measure that prevents the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions.

A majority (53%) of respondents opposed the funding of abortions overseas using federal tax dollars. Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden reversed President Donald Trumps Mexico City Policy barring the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in other countries.

A plurality (47% to 38%) of young Americans polled by SFLA said they support bans on abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can be as early as around six weeks gestation. Many states have passed heartbeat bills. But they have quickly been met with resistance from the judicial branch.

When asked about 1973s Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, 41% of respondents expressed support for the decision compared to 22% who opposed it.

However, young Americans' views changed dramatically when they were given more details about the consequential Supreme Court decision.

When told Roe allows abortion to occur throughout all nine months of pregnancy, opposition to the landmark decision rose to 57% among those surveyed, while support dropped to 30%.

Respondents remained divided over whether the Supreme Court should reverse Roe and send the issue of abortion back to the states. About 44% support reversing Roe while 36% do not.

This number is extraordinary considering Planned Parenthood claims that Roe is popular and that 77% of the American people oppose reversing it, said Hawkins. Issue by issue, the perspectives of young American voters targeted for abortion are very different from the talking points of the powerful abortion lobby. And there is common ground for those who want to find it.

A plurality (44%) of respondents told SFLA that they support a policy requiring women to have an in-person exam before taking the abortion pill.

By a more than 2-1 margin (55% to 23%), young Americans surveyed support requiring abortion pills to be picked up in-person. The abortion lobby has used the coronavirus pandemic to push for making chemical abortions available by mail.

While long-standing federal regulations prohibit women from obtaining abortion-inducing drugs by mail, a federal judge suspended a Food and Drug Administration requirement that women need to see a doctor before obtaining abortion drugs. The judge claimed that the rule presented an undue burden during the pandemic. However, the Supreme Court reinstated the FDA rule last month.

The Students for Life poll results mirror the findings in another poll conducted by Marist on behalf of the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus.

That poll, released last week, found that 76% of Americans support at least some restrictions on abortion.

About 71% of young Americans told SFLA that they support abortion restrictions in some form.

Despite what you may hear, the facts prove that Millennials and Gen Zers are not looking for an extreme abortion agenda over the next four years, Hawkins wrote in an op-ed published by Real Clear Politics. Instead, like many Americans, they express a more nuanced point of view that should be taken into account by those who will be facing these voters in two years.
A 16-year-old from Elkmont has been indicted for the September 2019 murder of five family members.

Court records show Mason Wayne Sisk was indicted on capital murder charges Jan. 27. His attorney a few days earlier filed a motion in Limestone County Circuit Court for a speedy trial.

Last November authorities announced that Sisk would be tried as an adult.

Sisk is accused of putting a gun to the heads of his father, mother, and three younger siblings and pulling the trigger while they slept on Sept. 2, 2019. Mary Sisk, 35, John Sisk, 38, and their three children - Kane, 6, Rorrie, 5 and 6-month-old Colson - all died from gunshot wounds to the head. Authorities have not publicly identified a motive in the slayings.

Investigators said the then 14-year-old called 911 to report the shooting at his familys home. During questioning, he admitted to killing all of them, authorities said. The gun used in the homicides was in the Sisk home illegally and was recovered the morning after the killings when Sisk helped lead officers to the place where he dumped the weapon.

Sisk has been in the Limestone County Jail without bond since November 2020.
Sunday night brought sudden news that there had been a military coup in Myanmar, the South Asian country that for five years has been celebrated as a military dictatorship turned fledgling democracy. Early Monday the democratic leaders of the country had been detained.

Most notably, the military detained Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning icon of democracy, who spent 15 years under house arrest for advocating for democracy when a military junta was in place.

Suu Kyi has proved to be disappointing at advocating for human rights, but the last thing anyone should want to see is the military unilaterally running this country again.

It was the military and its supporters and paramilitary henchmen who went on a savage campaign of murder, rape and destruction against the Rohingya Muslims, a minority population in the largely Buddhist country and one of the most oppressed groups of people in the world, in 2016 and 2017. About 700,000 were forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The government faced a formal accusation of genocide at the International Court of Justice at the Hague.

Bizarrely, Suu Kyi defended the military, testifying that it was responding to attacks by Rohingya rebel groups. The court continues to investigate and the U.S. is considering declaring Myanmars actions genocide.

Her defenders say Suu Kyi may not have believed she could push the military on human rights without destabilizing this fragile power-sharing between civilians and the military. So she didnt push  and yet still got detained and toppled.

Her National League of Democracy party again won a landslide victory in November. Unfortunately, that landslide was one of the things that appears to have unsettled the military (at one point, they declared the election a fraud  sound familiar?) and pushed it into declaring it was taking over the country in a 12-month state of emergency.

Its unclear what the U.S. can do. The army general who has taken power, Min Aung Hlaing, is already under economic sanctions by the U.S. for his involvement in human rights abuses.

Nonetheless, world leaders should denounce this and work to put Myanmar back on a democratic course. Monday was to have been the opening day of parliament.

Carla Hall is a Los Angeles Times editorial board member.
Kabul, Feb 2 : Targeted killings across Afghanistan in the month of January claimed the lives of more than 50 people, triggering concerns among civilians of the war-torn country, according to official figures published on Tuesday.

According to the figures by Xinhua news agency, five people comprising two security forces members and three civilians were killed in three attacks in Kabul, while a praying leader and teacher of a local seminary was shot dead in Kandahar province over the weekend.

A service member of the Afghan National Directorate of Security, the country's intelligence agency, was assassinated in Kabul on January 30, while a civil society activist was mysteriously killed in Nuristan province.

On January 26, Safiullah Amiri, deputy provincial councillor in Kunduz province, and the son of a local official were killed in a bomb attack.

Abdul Raqeeb, a local religious figure, was killed by gunmen in Parwan province on January 23.

On January 21, two army officers in an army pick-up truck were shot dead in Police District (PD) 5 of Kabul near a crowded traffic circle. The attackers fled the scene.

Wali Raghi, a senior government official, was killed after gunmen opened fire on him in Chahar Dara district of Kunduz on January 19.

On January 18, two brothers, both employees of the NDS, lost their lives in a terror attack in Logar province.

The same day, gunmen attacked and killed Mohammad Zahir Haqyar, chief of Washer district of southern Helmand province, in provincial capital Lashkar Gah city.

Also on Jan. 18, the director of provincial directorate of Environmental Protection Agency lost his life in an attack in eastern Ghazni province.

Some remaining 27 people were killed and several others wounded in separate targeted attacks in Herat, Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Farah and Badghis provinces.

No one has claimed responsibility for the majority of the attacks, but Afghan officials have generally accused Taliban militants for the targeted attacks in recent months.

Militants of the Taliban and Islamic State (IS) have conducted scores of targeted attacks against civilians and military officials in recent years.

They consider anyone working for the government and NATO and US-led troops as a target.

Over 60 people were killed in targeted attacks in December 2020 across Afghanistan.
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Belkin, a global consumer electronics leader, today announces its continued partnership with the City of LA to supply essential electronic accessories to 60 Alternative Learning Centers throughout the city to help enhance the learning experience of students during this time of emergency and need.

As school shutdowns continue due to the pandemic, students, especially from low-income homes are left with little to no access to the tools they need to continue their education in an effective way. With the absence of basic infrastructure like Wi-Fi and electronics, students are turning to Alternative Learning Centers set up in neighborhood recreation centers.

"The pandemic has affected all of us, but perhaps some of the most impacted have been our underserved and low-income communities, where the infrastructure to create an efficient work and school from home station may not always be as accessible. We feel privileged to help our hometown, the City of Los Angeles, and its students, by providing the tools and accessories they need to thrive in this time of ongoing emergency," said Steven Malony, CEO, Belkin International.

"Making sure youth at our Alternative Learning Centers have the ability to keep learning is one of the most important things we can collectively do during the COVID-19 crisis," said Mike Shull, General Manager, Recreation and Parks. "We would like to thank Belkin for their support and contribution, providing every student with essential equipment that will help them stay focused and encourage learning as a rewarding, interesting and enjoyable process."

Belkin International is donating over 5,000 products from headphones to headphone splitters and chargers to cables:

In July 2020, Belkin donated 25,000 face masks to the City of LA, which were distributed among essential workers actively on the front lines to help bolster the community.

About Belkin

Belkin is an accessories market leader delivering power, protection, productivity, connectivity and audio solutions for a broad range of consumer electronics and enterprise environments. Designed in Southern California and sold in more than 50 countries around the world, Belkin creates products that empower people through technology whether at home, at work or on a new adventure. In 2018, Belkin International (Belkin, Linksys, Wemo, Phyn) merged with Foxconn Interconnect Technology to bolster its global influence and remains forever inspired by people and the planet we live on.

SOURCE Belkin International

Related Links

http://www.belkin.com


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Donald Trump's impeachment lawyer has said the former president had 'nothing' to do with the Capitol riot as he warned the trial threatened to tear the country apart and damage American democracy.

David Schoen, the Atlanta-based lawyer appointed by Trump on Sunday, will defend him next week in his historic second impeachment trial.

On Monday Schoen, who previously represented Jeffrey Epstein, insisted that the trial of a former president was 'unconstitutional'.

He argued further that Trump was not to blame for the insurrection on January 6, which killed four people including a Capitol Police officer.

David Schoen appeared on Fox News on Monday night to discuss the impeachment trial

Schoen said that the storming of the Capitol after Trump's January 6 rally was not his fault

Trump, pictured leaving Washington on January 20, urged supporters to march to the Capitol

At a 'Stop the Steal' rally on the morning of January 6, Trump told his followers: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.'

Schoen said: 'He condemned violence at all times. Read the words of his speech. It calls for peacefulness.

'This has nothing to do with President Trump and the country doesn't need to just watch videos of riots and unrest. We need to heal now. We need to move forward.'

Schoen, who will represent Trump along with Bruce Castor, the former district attorney in Pennsylvania who declined to prosecute Bill Cosby, said the impeachment case was 'the most ill-advised legislative action that I've seen in my lifetime.'

He added: 'It is tearing the country apart at a time when we don't need anything like that.'

Schoen told Hannity that the January 6 riot 'has nothing to do with President Trump'

Schoen said the the process was being made a mockery because those involved had already made up their minds, before it had even started, and strongly criticized the 'awful bias and prejudgment shown.'

He continued: 'Could you imagine any American citizen considered to be on trial, in which the judge and jury has already announced publicly the defendant must be convicted in this case?

'It undercuts democracy. How could you possibly have a fair trial? Senator Schumer promised a fair and full trial. You can't when you know that they are biased going in.'

Trump was impeached by the House on January 13.

He appears highly likely to be cleared, for a second time, by the Senate after a procedural vote showed that Republicans were unlikely to convict him.

On January 26 the Senate was asked whether they wanted impeachment to proceed.

The Senate voted 55-45, meaning that impeachment will go ahead.

But it showed that regardless of what happens in the trial, there almost certainly wont be enough Republican support to convict Trump: conviction would require 67 votes, or two-thirds of the Senate.

Schoen insisted that the trial was designed to end Trump's political future

Schoen said the trial was being held to damage Trump and bury him politically.

'This is the political weaponization of the impeachment process,' he told Sean Hannity on Fox News.

'There was a rush to judgment. Once President Trump became president, on the day he was elected, there were calls for his impeachment.'

He said the 'agenda' from the Democrats was to 'simply to bar President Trump from ever running for president again.'

Schoen added: 'And that is about as undemocratic as you could get.

'Can you imagine the slap in the face that is to the 75 million or more voters who voted for Donald Trump?'


ALTON  A love of storytelling and of Alton inspired an Ames, Iowa, native to adopt the city as her own and learn more about the community that makes up the historic destination, while sharing with other Altonians stories about their community and, especially, its people.

Stephanie Young, who graduated from Elsahs Principia College in 2006, came to the Riverbend from Iowa for school, but stayed for life in the Riverbend. In May 2018 she began building All Town, USA, a podcast about mostly Alton history but also current events and the feelings from community members who are experiencing those events.

Community is so important, Young said. And I have this amazing community helping me, and Im so grateful for that. All Town, USA episodes range in topic from Elijah Lovejoy, to the Mississippi River, to the pandemic.

Im so proud of the different stories Ive told, she said. I try to cover all kinds of different topics in Alton.

Young plans to release All Town, USAs eighth episode this week, which will discuss race. She will announce its premier at www.alltownusa.org and social media @alltownusa at Facebook and Instagram.

It covers some of the current issues surrounding race  2020 informed my episodes this year, she said. With the pandemic, I knew I had to have an episode sharing how COVID was affecting Altonians.

Then after seeing what happened with George Floyd and hearing discussions within the black community about policing and other social justice issues, I knew it was an important and timely topic. I asked my friend Faye Walker Taylor to help me. I didnt want this new episode to come just from me, because Ive never experienced these issues.

The All Town, USA podcast featured interviews with 12 people to talk about their feelings on race and how it has affected them.

It was a breath of fresh air to work with Stephanie to tell the black person side of the story, said Alton resident Lee Barham, a leader in the black community. She was very willing to listen to understand theres two sides of the story from the black community.

In an episode about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and siege, All Town, USA hosted Barham, Walker Taylor, Patricia Ingram and Robert Armstead. All of All Town, USA episodes can be found at www.alltownusa.org.

The day after the riot took place, Patricia and Lee called me up and said, Hey, we need to talk about this. They were, just, incredible, Young said. It was an honest and powerful conversation.

Young studied mass communications and now works full time at Principia as the Media Services Departments technical operations and advertising supervisor. She lived in Elsah initially, but she and her husband moved to Alton and bought a house in 2014.

The podcast is a side gig, she said. Thats why I only release two to three episodes a year, because it takes some time, but I love it.

She relies on and is grateful for help from family and friends, she noted. Brainstorming for such an endeavor started in 2017 and All Town, USAs first episode launched the following year. In the very early stages, Youngs friend and coworker, Shannon Briggs Els, helped start the podcast, connecting Young with many people who knew about what Young wanted to tell others.

She moved out East a few years ago so unfortunately shes no longer involved, but she played a major role in the beginning, Young recalled. She was already connected, very involved in the community and knew people who knew Altons history. She was a wonderful co-producer.

Young said another huge help has been Alton resident Penny Schmidt whose father, James K. Schmidt, began teaching at Principia in 1957 and later became chairman of the Department of Studio Art. After retiring, he was a full-time painter, also teaching adult summer art classes at Principia. He died in March 2013 at age 87, but his legacy lives on through his extensive body of work and the James K. Schmidt Gallery at Principia.

Penny is my go to for everything, Young said. Shes always letting me bounce episode topics off her and if I need to connect with someone about an interview, shell either have their contact information, or she knows someone who does. Her love for Alton is infectious.

Another great friend and go-to is Taylor, she said, who Young met while making an All Town, USA episode.

I met Faye through interviewing someone for a story about Elijah Lovejoy, just networking, Young said. Im so grateful for how open people have been, and how theyre, like, Oh, you have to talk to this person.

I personally have always loved podcasts. Theyre a great way to listen to stories, hear different ideas and receive information.

And I love the art of storytelling. For me, storytelling allows us to move past the surface and can really get to the core of who a community or an individual is, and why they think the way they do. And once that happens, we can start to draw connections between each other and build empathy, which is so important.

She said her husband Chris Young, a philosophy teacher at Principia, suggested she talk to Briggs Els who set her on her podcast path.

We knew Altons history is incredible. We knew there was something really unique there, Young recalled. People who grew up here, are still here. We thought we could start telling Altons story, telling history.

To become invested in a community, you have to know about it, she said. The more you know about the community you live in and the more you know about the people who make up that community, it creates a sense of pride.

Even more fascinating to Young are the details surrounding the bigger aspects of Altons history, such as Lovejoy, Abraham Lincoln and the Underground Railroad.

And the cool thing that happened is that through learning about some of the more well-known parts of Altons history I started meeting people and learning about the more human stories that revolved around those bigger aspects of Altons history, she explained.

One example was when Young did an All Town, USA episode about Rocky Fork, a refuge of the Underground Railroad, in Godfrey, for fugitive slaves who crossed the Mississippi River, but became a longstanding permanent community in and of itself.

When we went to Rocky Fork, we got the human stories you wont get in a text book, she said. It was really exciting and interesting to see All Town, USA evolve from a fact-gathering platform to a human-interest archive of stories and experiences that expose and inform that history.

She met a church family, including Rich Edwards who lived at Rocky Fork until his family moved into town in the 50s, when he was 15 years old.

His moms family grew up there. He took us down the road where their house used to be, which is no longer there, but we could see the ferns she planted, she said. We thought, Wow, there really was this life here, something we were not expecting to get.

We learned about this incredible community, slightly unique, in that it was a stopping point for some who went on to other places, but many stayed there and created a true community. A lot of those ancestors are still around here in Alton.

Young described All Town, USA as a cool community family affair with podcasts scripts proofread and edited by her husband.

Hes such a good writer, she said.

Two of their good friends, Will and Janet Buchanan, wrote All Town, USAs theme music.

They have a band, Janet Evra, and I feel really honored that they helped with the music, she said.

A coworker, Darin Pierce, has done variations and different versions of the theme song and so has her father, Miles Moore, of Ames.

He loves writing and recording music, so hes written and recorded for me, she said.

Her friend and coworker Eric Lines has done photography for her website.

All All Town, USA podcasts are at www.alltownusa.org.
(Natural News) President Joe Biden recently announced plans to set up federally supported community centers and mobile clinics for vaccination.

These vaccination sites would involve the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the Department of Homeland Security, the National Guard and state and local teams.

Biden also intends to release all government-held vials of the coronavirus vaccine instead of holding back some doses to avoid possible shortage. Both decisions are part of the Biden transition teams efforts to ensure that all Americans who need the vaccine the most can get it as soon as possible.

The president also vowed to administer 100 million vaccine shots during his first 100 days in office. It should be possible with the help of state partnerships, according to manufacturing and supply chain experts.

Bidens plans still premature

Bidens announcement set the clearest benchmark yet for front-loading vaccine shots and distributing them as they become available. This vaccination campaign is unlike that of the Trump administration, which held back second doses after initial rollouts to avoid possible shortage due to manufacturing disruptions.

Some called the decision a smart measure, stating that it was imperative to get people vaccinated at the soonest possible time. The Biden transition team also said it was confident that there would be enough vaccines for everyone because he would invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to bolster supplies if needed.

The DPA is a Korean War-era law that, when invoked, gives the president temporary powers to intervene in the national economy and expedite the production of goods that are necessary for national defense.

Bidens announcement coincided with a letter from eight governors, including New Yorks Andrew Cuomo, imploring the Biden transition team to release government-held vaccines to their states as soon as possible.

The governors said there was no ready supply of vaccines from the reserve and that the amount of vaccines that are flowing from the federal government will likely decline soon. Cuomo noted that the plan was to increase vaccine eligibility while also increasing allocation. That hasnt happened, he said.

However, both the health secretary, Alex Azar II, and officials of Operation Warp Speed, an initiative that seeks to produce and deliver vaccines to Americans, criticized Bidens decision and the governors plea.

According to a spokesman for Operation Warp Speed, the government has provided roughly 13 million doses to states. This is millions more than what was provided the previous weeks.

Meanwhile, Azar rejected the criticism by the governors and implied that they simply do not listen during press conferences when they walk through the data with the vice president and discuss available vaccine supplies. Such a refusal to listen is just willfulness and wanting to score a political point, remarked Azar.

On the other hand, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)  whose advice Biden pledged to follow  blasted the presidents decision to change the dosing schedule. The agency called the move premature, citing its lack of evidence to back it up. The FDA also fears the move will delay the rollouts of the second doses.

But a spokeswoman for Pfizer Inc. said that the federal government asked the company only recently to begin shipping second doses. She also said that Pfizer has millions of doses ready for distribution at the governments signal, adding that the company is confident it can deliver on future commitments.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Moderna Inc., which makes the only other vaccine authorized in the U.S., said the company has no insight into how the government plans to distribute its doses but that it still aims to create 100 million doses by the end of March and another 100 million by the end of June.

But even if vaccine supplies are covered, public health experts warned that getting Bidens plans into motion will take time. However, the U.S. might not have the luxury of time since the more transmissible coronavirus variant from the U.K. has already been detected in several states last week.

We didnt get into all of this overnight. And we wont get out of it overnight, either, said Biden. We remain in a very dark winter. (Related: Health officials rebut Bidens claim that Trump administration has no coronavirus vaccine plan.)

Go to JoeBiden.news to read more articles with updates on Bidens COVID-19 response plan.

Sources include:

WSJ.com

Britannica.com
Pakistans Supreme Court ordered the release from prison on Tuesday of Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, a ringleader in the kidnapping and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl by al Qaeda and Pakistani Islamist militants in 2002.

Pakistans government had appealed to the court on Friday to review its decision to free the British-born Islamist and three others convicted in the case, a day after their acquittal by a panel of three judges.

The United States also expressed concern over Sheikhs acquittal, and top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken repeated a call for accountability in his first phone call with Pakistans foreign minister on Friday.

The review panel, headed by Justice Omar Ata Bandyal, stood by the decision to acquit, and recommended that Sheikh should be moved to a rest house before being fully released.

He should be moved to a comfortable residential environment something like a rest house where he can live a normal life, the judge said.

As the government makes the arrangements in next two days, Sheikh will be kept in a comfortable environment in the jail with a permission to see his family, the court said.

It is not a complete freedom. It is a step toward freedom, the prisoners father, Saeed Sheikh, told Reuters Television.

The terms of Sheikhs release will become clearer once a written order is made public.

On assignment for the Wall Street Journal in the months after al Qaeda 9/11 attacks on the United States, Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi and later beheaded. Al Qaedas number three leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to killing Pearl, and Sheikh, a former student at the London School of Economics, had played key role in luring the journalist into a trap.

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New Delhi/Islamabad: India has invited Pakistani diplomats for its COVID-19 vaccination drive as part of the offer to the entire diplomatic community-based in the national capital Delhi. The offer to the foreign diplomats based in Delhi is in line with India's domestic vaccine rollout. Pakistan still has to take a call on if its diplomats will take part in the vaccination drive.

India has been in past reaching out to foreign diplomats on its vaccination drive and how it is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. December 2020 saw over 50 foreign envoys being taken to Hyderabad to showcase the country's vaccine production centres at two biotechnology companies--Bharat Biotech and Biological E. During the one-day visit, the foreign envoys were briefed on Indias indigenous efforts to develop COVID vaccines and clinical trials.

A release by MEA said, "Indias R&D facilities, manufacturing capacity, foreign collaborations, etc. in the fields of pharmaceuticals, including vaccine production, were highlighted...India is committed to partnering with all interested countries in vaccine-related efforts, in the service of humanity."

In November 2020, foreign envoys were briefed on the action plan to deal with the covid crisis by Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla. Around 190 heads of diplomatic missions were present in the briefing that took place in Delhi's Vigyan Bhawan.

India began its mega vaccination drive on January 16 and so far over 41 lakh healthcare workers have been vaccinated against COVID-19. This even as India has gifted India-manufactured vaccines to more than 10 countries in the region and many West Asian countries.

In the neighbourhood four countries--Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka began their vaccination drive in last two weeks using India-manufactured and India gifted vaccines. In contrast, Pakistan began its vaccination on Tuesday with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan thanking China for sending 50,000 doses of its covid vaccine-Sinopharm.
Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Metals Creek Resources Corp. (TSXV: MEK) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that the company has been advised by its option partner General Gold Resources Inc. (C-GGLD) (General Gold) that the common shares of General Gold has commenced trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) effective 01 February 2021 (see General Gold news release dated January 29 2021). General Gold has entered into an option agreement with Metals Creek whereby General Gold can acquire a 100% of the right, title and interest in and to the Clark's Brook Property in central Newfoundland.

In order to maintain the Option Agreement in good standing, General Gold must issue an aggregate of 1,500,000 common shares of General Gold (200,000 received) and make cash payments totaling $225,000 ($50,000 received) over a three year period. If General Gold does not make any or all of the cash payments or issue any or all of the common shares, it will be in default under the Option Agreement and all right and title to the Clark's Brook Property shall remain with MEK. If the option is exercised in accordance with the terms of the Option Agreement, General Gold will reserve to MEK a 2% net smelter royalty (the "NSR") on the mineral claims, provided, however, that General Gold shall have the right at any time to purchase from MEK 1% of the NSR in consideration for a one-time payment of the sum of $1,000,000.

Alexander (Sandy) Stares states "This is another example of how Metals Creek can remain focused on our flagship projects at Dona Lake and Timmins, while optimizing opportunities to advance these other properties through option agreements. The Clarks Brook property is surrounded to the North, East and South by New Found Gold and located along the same geological structure as New Found Gold's Queensway property, where significant drill intercepts are still being encountered (see New Found Golds news dated 14 January 2021).

MEK has current option agreements on a number of its projects including: Squid (Yukon) to Manning Ventures Inc., Flint Lake (Ontario) to Manning Ventures Inc, Clarks Brook (NL) to General Gold and Yellow Fox/Careless Cove (NL) to Quadro Resources.

It also retains a NSR on Quadro Resources' Staghorn Project in Newfoundland and Labrador as well as portions of Anaconda Mining Inc. Tilt Cove Project and a portion of Magna Terra Minerals Inc. Great Northern Project. MEK retains the upside to these projects thru the cash and share issuances as well as NSRs.

Wayne Reid, P. Geo., a director of MEK, is the "qualified person" as defined in NI 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the technical content in this press release.

About Metals Creek Resources Corp.

Metals Creek Resources Corp. is a junior exploration company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario, is a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, and has its common shares listed for trading on the TSX-V Exchange under the symbol "MEK". Metals Creek has earned a 50% interest in the Ogden Gold Property from Newmont Corporation, which covers an 8 km strike length of the prolific Porcupine-Destor Fault (P-DF) and includes the former Naybob Gold mine, located 6 km south of Timmins, Ontario. In addition, Metals Creek has signed an agreement with Newmont Corporation, whereby Metals Creek can earn a 100% interest in the past producing Dona Lake Gold Project in the Pickle Lake Mining District of Ontario.

Metals Creek also has multiple quality projects available for option in Ontario and Newfoundland which can be viewed on the Company's website. Parties interested in seeking more information about properties available for option can contact the Company at the number below.

Additional information concerning the Company is contained in documents filed by the Company with securities regulators, available under its profile at www.sedar.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.

Alexander (Sandy) Stares, President and CEO

Metals Creek Resources Corp

telephone: (709)-256-6060

fax: (709)-256-6061

email: astares@metalscreek.com

MetalsCreek.com

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ANN ARBOR, MI  The citizen-led group that will help Ann Arbor plan a downtown central park and civic commons is now fully formed and expected to start meeting soon.

City Council voted unanimously Monday night, Feb. 1, to confirm final appointments to the Council of the Commons, while restating its purpose and creating an additional seat on it.

The four at-large citizen appointees are former state Rep. Adam Zemke, who has a background in mechanical engineering; Camilla Lizundia, a University of Michigan urban planning graduate student; Jennifer Cornell, senior vice president of economic development group Ann Arbor SPARK; and architect Alice Ralph, one of the original proponents of a community commons on the Liberty Lot going back to 2009.

Appointments are through May 2022.

Council also confirmed the appointments of Stephen Borgsdorf as a representative from the Park Advisory Commission and Sara Hammerschmidt from the Planning Commission.

They join four other members council appointed in November: Rita Mitchell and Frank Wilhelme from the nonprofit Library Green Conservancy park advocacy group and Alan Haber and Geoff Henny from another private group known as the Community Commons Initiating Committee.

Erica Briggs, D-5th Ward, and Jeff Hayner, D-1st Ward, are the City Council representatives on the body, which has 12 voting members, plus City Administrator Tom Crawford or his designee as a non-voting member.

There has been debate about the appointments, as Briggs and Hayner initially offered competing lists of nominees, but after a meeting over the weekend they came to a compromise. Briggs got all three of the appointees she proposed, while an extra seat was created for Ralph, whom Hayner nominated.

Council members expressed confidence in the group that has been formed, saying they believe it has a balance of perspectives and theyre excited to see it get to work.

I appreciate the willingness of our residents and citizens to take time out of their busy life and commit their talents and efforts in trying to make this succeed, and I truly do believe everyone who is on this list is entering this with nothing but good intent, said Council Member Ali Ramlawi, D-5th Ward.

Council Member Kathy Griswold, D-2nd Ward, praised Zemke for his leadership skills and engineering background and said shes thrilled hes going to serve.

Hayner encouraged applicants who didnt get a seat on the Council of the Commons to stay involved in the project.

As of yet, there are no design plans or any significant funding for the Center of the City park and commons idea voters approved in November 2018, but the newly appointed group will help plan the next steps for implementing the vision.

The Council of the Commons is an advisory body to City Council and the city administrator that will build upon the work of the Center of the City Task Force by providing written recommendations annually on such subjects as funding needs, an operations and maintenance model, and the role of the Council of the Commons, reads the groups purpose statement affirmed by City Council Monday night.

Ann Arbor task force lays out possible next steps for downtown central park

City Council voted in December 2019 to direct the citys administration to start taking steps to make interim improvements to convert the Library Lot on Fifth Avenue  the central piece of the future park and commons, in addition to Liberty Plaza  from a public parking lot to a public gathering and performance space with tables and benches by July 2020, but that hasnt happened amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Crawford has not responded to requests for comment about his plan to respond to the directive at this point or whether interim improvements such as putting out tables and benches for public use could happen this year.

MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS:

Center of the City survey shows Ann Arborites want place to sit and talk

Q&A: Treeline director explains whats on the horizon for Ann Arbors urban trail initiative

Ann Arbor contract for outside legal services in Gelman case jumps to $750K

Should city be responsible for clearing snow ridges left by plows at crosswalks and driveways?

Briarwood Mall lot to be used as drive-thru COVID testing site
Joe Biden told Republicans their $600 billion COVID relief plan was 'too small' as the Senate voted to proceed with a way to muscle through the president's trillion dollar proposal without GOP support.

The motion passed 50-49 on a party line vote. Republican Senator Pat Toomey was absent, meaning Vice President Kamala Harris wasn't need to break a tie although she was on Capitol Hill during the vote in case she was needed.

Ahead of the vote, President Biden made a virtual appearance at Senate Democrats' weekly luncheon on Tuesday, where he revealed the details of his meeting with GOP senators the previous night. The ten lawmakers had proposed a compromise relief package that was one-third of the amount the president wanted.

'He said that he told Senate Republicans that the $600 billion dollars that they proposed was way too small,' Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said after the lunch.

Schumer conceded there may have to be some compromise from Biden's $1.9 trillion proposal that Republicans has protested as too costly.

'President Biden said he told Republicans he's willing to make some modifications,' Schumer said without going into detail as to what that could entail.

After his remarks, the Senate approved a procedural motion to move ahead on the budget resolution, which sets the stage for Congress to pass Biden's COVID plan without any Republican support.

'He said that he told Senate Republicans that the $600 billion dollars that they proposed was way too small,' Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer revealed about President Biden's meeting with Senate Republicans

Biden warned Senate Republicans after their meeting Monday night he would not 'settle' for their smaller COVID proposal - seen as a sign the president was willing to pass a relief package without their help.

President Biden held a two-hour meeting with the 10 Republican senators in the Oval Office but the two sides did not come together on a compromise measure.

In a statement after the meeting, the White House indicated it was willing to move forward with a plan from Democratic congressional leaders to pass coronavirus relief without Republican support through a legislative process known as 'reconciliation.'

And, the White House warned, Biden would not 'settle' for a measure that was not large enough - echoing talking points Democrats have pushed, saying more relief was needed for Americans suffered the economic fallout from the pandemic.

The president 'reiterated that while he is hopeful that the Rescue Plan can pass with bipartisan support, a reconciliation package is a path to achieve that end,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. 'The President also made clear that the American Rescue Plan was carefully designed to meet the stakes of this moment, and any changes in it cannot leave the nation short of its pressing needs.'

'He reiterated, however, that he will not slow down work on this urgent crisis response, and will not settle for a package that fails to meet the moment,' she added.

The 10 Republican senators proposed a compromise plan that is about one-third of what Biden wants to spend, clocking in at $600 billion for coronavirus relief. He wants a $1.9 trillion package.

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who has taken the lead for Republicans on the COVID relief issue, called it a 'productive cordial two-hour meeting' with the president.

But, she noted, there was no deal.

'It was a very good exchange of the views. I wouldn't say that we came together on a package tonight. No one expected that in a two-hour meeting, but what we did agree to do is to follow up and talk further at the staff level and amongst ourselves, and with the president and vice president on how we can continue to work together on this very important issue,' she told reporters after it ended.

The lack of an announcement of the deal is an indication Biden doesn't need one - and he knows it.

Shortly before his meeting with GOP senators began, Democratic Congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer gave Biden an out. They introduced their budget proposal, which included a way for the president to pass his $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan without any Republican support.

Biden didn't show his hand when reporters were let into the Oval Office for a photo spray at the start of his meeting with the Republicans.

The president didn't answer any questions but joked he felt right at home surrounded by senators.

'I feel like I'm back in the Senate,' the president quipped as he sat in the Oval Office with the Republicans seated socially distanced around him and Vice President Kamala Harris. Everyone wore face masks.

President Joe Biden (C) and Vice President Kamala Harris (L) meet with Republican Senators, lead by Senator Susan Collins (2nd R), alongside Lisa Murkowski (R), Senator Mitt Romney (bottom L) and Bill Cassidy (bottom R) to discuss a coronavirus relief plan

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who has taken the lead for Republicans on the COVID relief issue, called it a 'productive cordial two-hour meeting' with the president but noted there was no deal

Nine of the 10 Republican senators were in the Oval Office. Republican Senator Mike Rounds called into the meeting.

After the sit down, Collins noted the senators were appreciative Biden picked them for his first Oval Office meeting as president with members of Congress.

'We are very appreciative, that as his first official meeting, in the Oval Office of the president, he chose to spend so much time with us, in a frank and very useful discussion,' she said.

She expressed hope that a bipartisan deal was possible.

'Finally let me just say, that we have demonstrated, in the last year, that we can come together, on a bipartisan package, dealing with the COVID crisis. In fact we've done that not just once, or twice, we've done it 5 times,' she said. 'I am hopeful, that we can once again, pass a 6 bipartisan COVID relief package.'

The Republican senators also did not answer any questions.

When all is said and done, Biden may not need any of their votes.

Pelosi and Schumer's resolution contains a provision for a process called 'reconciliation' - a legislative procedure that allows them to prevent the use of the filibuster in the Senate and lets the legislation pass with a simply majority of 51 votes.

With an even 50-50 split in the upper chamber and Vice President Kamala Harris the tie breaker, Biden would be able to get his $1.9 trillion plan without any Republicans on board.

Republicans have protested such a move, saying it goes against Biden's call for unity.

Republican senators sat socially distanced in the Oval Office and everyone wore face masks

'I feel like I'm back in the Senate,' President Joe Biden quipped as he sat down with Republican senators in the Oval Office

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer introduced their budget proposal that also will pave the way for Joe Biden to pass his $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan without any Republican support

President Joe Biden told Republican Senator Susan Collins he was 'anxious' to talk COVID relief

At her daily press briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki downplayed expectations of the sit down.

She said of Biden's meeting with the GOP Senators: 'What this meeting is not is a forum for the president to make or accept an offer.'

She added of Biden: 'His view is that the size of the package needs to be commensurate with a crisis crises we're facing the dual crises we're facing. And why he proposed a package that's $1.9 trillion.'

Biden spoke with Schumer and Pelosi on Sunday about relief legislation.

Psaki's hardline along with the resolution from the Democratic leadership appears to leave little room for compromise to emerge from the White House meeting.

The ten Republican votes, combined with the backing of 50 Democrats and independents, would be enough to move bipartisan legislation quickly through the Senate.

'Mr. President, we recognize your calls for unity and want to work in good faith with your administration to meet the health, economic and societal challenges of the COVID crisis,' the 10 GOP senators - including Susan Collins, Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski - said in a statement on Monday.

Announcing the Democratic proposal on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, Schumer said: 'The only thing we cannot accept is a package that is too small or too narrow to pull our country out of this emergency. We cannot repeat the mistake of 2009 and we must act very soon to get this assistance to those so desperately in need.'

He noted that Republican input would be welcome.

'There is nothing in this process that will preclude it from being bipartisan. We welcome Republican input,' he said.

It's unclear when the Senate will vote on the plan. The House is posed to pass it on Wednesday.

Republican Senator Susan Collins said they had a 'cordial' two-hour meeting with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office on Monday night

Schumer will need the support of every Democratic senator, including conservative Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona

The proposal from the Democratic leadership is in line with what Biden wanted in his COVID relief measure: $1,400 per-person and per-child direct payments, an extension of Unemployment Insurance programs through September 2021, and more money for state and local governments.

The GOP offer doesn't include money for state and local governments, includes a smaller weekly unemployment benefit and a smaller stimulus check.

Schumer will need the support of every member of his caucus in order to get both through the Senate.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia refused to say last week if he would vote for the resolution.

Harris did local interviews in West Virginia and Arizona last week, which was seen as the White House putting pressure on Manchin and Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

Manchin expressed anger about Harris' interviews and a White House official reached out to him to apologize.

'There's no apologies needed,' Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday. 'It was a mistake. They made a mistake. And, and we understand. We move on, you can't dwell on those things.'
Former U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina said that China used the COVID-19 pandemic to steal American's DNA.

The U.S. Sun reported that China has used COVID to steal DNA and hack personal data from 80% of Americans through biotech firm BGI Group who offered to "provide technical expertise" to the state of Washington on the virus besides proposing to build and operate a premium testing labs.

"Current estimates are that 80 per cent of American adults have had all of their personally identifiable information stolen by the Communist Party of China," Evanina said during an interview with CBS' "60 seconds."

"The concern is that the Chinese regime is taking all that information about us--what we eat, how we live, when we exercise and sleep--and then combining it with our DNA data," he added, "With information about heredity and environment, suddenly they know more about us than we know about ourselves."

As per the U.S. Sun, China has a vast internal surveillance system that it uses to spy on its own citizens. The Chinese government recently ordered the 700 million males in its population to give DNA samples.

A week prior to his resignation from the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center last Jan. 20, Evanina revealed in an interview with Washington Post Live that the three biggest counterintelligence threats to the President Joseph Biden, Jr.'s administration "are the geopolitical aspects of why China, Russia, and Iran do what they do: big data theft and concerns about the U.S. supply chain."

CBS News clarified that what China is up to is to acquire American health care data, including the DNA of American citizens, which Evanina describes as a danger to both national and economic security.

"The quest to control our biodata--and, in turn, control health care's future--has become the new space race, with more than national pride in the balance," quipped CBS News in the introduction of its interview with Evanina.

The China-based BGI Group, as per CBS News, offered to help the State of Washington when its COVID cases spiked last March 2020. Evanina said BGI is suspicious since it is required by China to turnover whatever information it has acquired to them.

"Under a series of laws unthinkable in western democracies, Chinese companies like BGI are obligated to share data with the Chinese regime. It's as if, say, Google, Amazon and Facebook had to turn over their data to the CIA, on demand," Evanina said.

In fact in an exclusive report, Reuters revealed last Saturday that the BGI Group has actually "worked with China's military on research that ranges from mass testing for respiratory pathogens to brain science." Reuters cited that BGI has "worked on PLA projects seeking to make members of the ethnic Han Chinese majority less susceptible to altitude sickness, and genetic research that would benefit soldiers in some border areas."

"For a deep dive on the risks posed by China's collection of genomic data and other healthcare information from America, see the fact sheet released today by @NCSCgov," NCSC said on Monday via its Twitter account with a link to a PDF file containing the said information.

The spokesman for the delegation in TCG said the latest incidents should be referred to as "violations" rather than "disruption"

Oleksiy Arestovych, Information Policy Adviser to the Ukrainian Delegation in the Trilateral Contact Group, has explained why Kyiv is not calling out Russia over ceasefire disruption in Donbas.

Arestovych noted that "there are days when there's no shooting at all," but there are also days when Ukrainian soldiers get wounded and killed, RFE/RL's Donbas.Realities project reports.

"In order to declare that the ceasefire has been thwarted, it seems to me that both parties must resume hostilities for at least two weeks before it could be stated that all international mechanisms for the parties to return to compliance with the truce didn't work out  that's when the Normandy Four leaders would state that the [silence] regime has been thwarted," Arestovych explained.

Read alsoOSCE SMM UAV spots heavy weapons in Russia-occupied part of DonbasHe added that today, "we can talk about 'violation' of the regime to a greater or lesser extent."

Donbas update

Another Ukrainian soldier was killed by an enemy sniper in eastern Ukraine's warzone on Feb 2.

Throughout 2020, a total of 50 Ukrainian military were killed in action in Donbas, the country's defense ministry reported earlier.

Who is Oleksiy Arestovych

On October 28, 2020, Head of Ukraine's delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE) on Donbas settlement Leonid Kuchma appointed a Ukrainian video blogger and conflictology expert Oleksiy Arestovych his information policy adviser and spokesman for the country's delegation.

On December 1, 2020, President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Arestovych his freelance advisor on strategic communications in the field of national security and defense.

Reporting by UNIAN
The New York Times

Dalee Sullivan looked straight ahead into her computers camera and started making her case to the judge. She referred to transcripts, emails and policies she had pulled from the student handbook at Alpine High School. The school, she contended, had made errors in tabulating grade-point averages: Classes and exams that should have been included were left out, and vice versa. Sullivan had won Lincoln-Douglas debate tournaments and, in her freshman year, was a member of the mock trial team. But she is not a lawyer. She is 18, and she graduated from the lone public high school in the small West Texas town of Alpine just a week ago, which was the reason she was in court to begin with. This serves to prove that no matter the outcome of the GPA contest, and no matter how many times we had the school recalculate the GPA, Sullivan told the judge during a hearing on Friday, the Alpine Independent School District was going to make certain I could never be valedictorian, even if I earned it. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times School officials said she ranked third in her class. Sullivan disagreed. She could not find a local lawyer who would agree to take on her case. A firm in Dallas told her it would, she said, but estimated the case could cost her $75,000  far more than she could afford. Instead, she figured out how to write a request for an injunction and represented herself in the 394th District Court of Texas. She believed that her GPA could, in fact, have been higher than one or both of the students ahead of her, making her worthy of the title salutatorian or even valedictorian. She and her parents had protested her rank for the past month, and she claimed that the school intentionally did not invite her to an awards event where top students were honored. The school district has said that it calculated her grades repeatedly, and that each time Sullivan still ranked third. In a statement on Friday, school officials declined to discuss the allegations raised by Sullivan, saying the district was not at liberty to discuss the individual student. Although we respectfully disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit, the statement said, we take student and parent concerns very seriously and will continue to address the students concerns. It is not entirely unheard-of for disputes over top spots in high school graduating classes to escalate to litigation. The competition over such accolades can be an intense, even ruthless, zero-sum game. And in the fight to be valedictorian, there is more at stake than just bragging rights. In Texas, the highest-ranking high school graduates can receive free tuition for their first year at in-state public institutions. Sullivan and her parents were inspired by a case last year in Pecos, Texas, about 100 miles from Alpine, where two students claimed to be valedictorian amid confusion over a glitch in the schools tabulations. One of the students  with professional legal representation  filed for a restraining order and sought an injunction to block Pecos High School from naming its valedictorian. After Sullivan could not get a lawyer, her parents were disappointed but willing to drop the matter. But she refused. She got advice and records from the family in the case in Pecos, using the petition in that case as a guide to start writing her own. Her parents  her father, a rancher; her mother, a forensic interviewer  read it over and helped her tidy up the language. We arent even close to being lawyers, Sullivan said. In Alpine, a town of roughly 6,000 people in Texas Big Bend Country, some who know Sullivan said they were surprised she would take this on. There are other ways to spend ones last summer before college. (She plans to attend the College of Charleston in South Carolina and major in biophysics with the aim of going into medicine.) But she had always been serious about school and a bit steely in her resolve. Shes already going to college, she already has scholarships, said Teresa Todd, a local government lawyer who is a longtime friend of Sullivans mother and whose sons are close in age to Sullivan. She worked really hard for this, and I think all kids deserve to know where they fall in the pecking order. Kids have to show their work, Todd added. Why doesnt the school have to show their work? She said she offered some advice to Sullivan ahead of her hearing: Be herself. Be respectful. Dont let the other side get you off your game. Sullivan conceded some nervousness before the hearing, especially after filings from the school districts lawyers cited a slew of legal precedents and were peppered with terminology she did not know. But overall, she was confident. I have all the evidence, she said. I have all the facts. And no one knows it as well as I know it. All sorts of cases land in the 394th District Court, whose jurisdiction covers five counties roughly equivalent in size to the country's nine smallest states combined. The court hears criminal cases, divorce proceedings, and now a fight over high school grading. Judge Roy B. Ferguson has a reputation for taking the judicial medley in stride. His courtroom had a flash of viral fame in February when a video clip of a lawyer trapped behind a filter that made him appear to be a fuzzy white kitten in a Zoom hearing boomeranged around the internet. (Im not a cat, the lawyer said.) Ferguson found the humor in it. He added a reference to the unlikely episode to the courts website and accepted an invitation to discuss it at a symposium on remote judicial hearings in Poland. In a recent criminal proceeding, when a lawyer apologized for audio complications, Ferguson replied, Youre not a cat, so youre one step ahead! With Sullivan, he was patient and explained procedure in a way he would not have to with a professional. When she asked a question that was too broad, he encouraged her to narrow the scope. (He often presides over high school mock trials, among them, the State of Texas v. Luke Skywalker.) Kelley Kalchthaler, a lawyer representing the school district, argued that Sullivan had not exhausted the districts grievance process. We dont think the court has jurisdiction over this case, she said, and all parties should be dismissed. She also raised objections to much of the evidence Sullivan wanted to include, contending that it was hearsay or questioning the relevance to the case. In several instances, Ferguson agreed. All right, Ms. Sullivan, are you ready to present evidence in support of your request? Ferguson said. You bear the burden here for this temporary injunction. Sullivan laid out her case. Its not an accurate reflection of my high school career, she said of her final transcript, so its already done irreparable damage. She wanted an independent audit of honor graduates grades. She did not get that on Friday. Ferguson ruled that the dispute needed to go through the school districts grievance process. Still, the case was not closed. If she was not pleased with the outcome, the judge told her, she could come back to court. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.  2021 The New York Times Company
(Newser)  Dutch lawmakers have given the green light to plans to move sex workers away from Amsterdam's famous red light district. City councilors from several parties supported Mayor Femke Halsema's proposal to move brothels from the alleyways of the city center, where tourists often stopped to gawk at women in windows waiting for customers, to a new "erotic center" elsewhere in the city, Guardian reports. Amsterdam is currently locked down, and Halsema has been pushing to make it a more upmarket destination when tourists return. "This is about a reset of Amsterdam as a visitor city," says Dutch lawmaker Dennis Boutkan.

story continues below

The mayor also wants to ban tourists from buying cannabis in the city's coffee shops, but other lawmakers worry the move would lead to a surge in illegal drug dealing on the street and it has less support than the plan to shift sex workers out of the area. "Banning tourists is very hardcore," a fishmonger tells the BBC. "There are guys who come and say 'We want some fried cod'. We're going to sell a lot less fish to people who are stoned, I don't see a bright side." Police and prosecutors, however, support the proposal to require people to show proof of residency before buying cannabis in Amsterdam. Similar restrictions are already in place in the rest of the country. (Read more Amsterdam stories.)
The opening of northern Manitobas COVID-19 vaccination super site was hailed Monday as a sign of hope and a breath of fresh air for the region reporting the most active coronavirus cases in the province.

The opening of northern Manitobas COVID-19 vaccination "super site" was hailed Monday as a "sign of hope" and a "breath of fresh air" for the region reporting the most active coronavirus cases in the province.

"I think hope is a really good word," Helga Bryant, chief executive officer of Northern Health, said after visiting Thompson Regional Community Centre on opening day.

On Monday, Northern Health was home to 1,897 of Manitobas 3,466 active COVID-19 cases, compared to 762 in Winnipeg. Forty-two of Manitobas 89 new cases were in the North; Winnipeg reported 18.

"It does feel a bit like the beginning of the end  the light at the end of the tunnel," Bryant said in a phone interview, after nurses began administering COVID-19 vaccine to eligible health-care workers in Thompson.

"I didnt even feel it," said Victor Kitzul, one of the first to get the shot at the newest super site. In a video tour of the site provided to media, Kitzul, 74 and a part-time cast technician at The Pas health complex, chatted with Bryant and Mayor Colleen Smook.

"There is an end in site," Bryant told the Free Press, before quickly adding: "We cant let our guard down.

"Until we get that herd immunity, we have to be very cautious."

The plan is to administer 350 doses over the course of three, eight-hour days at the community centre.

The province initially planned to open its northern vaccination super site at the Thompson airport, dubbing it "Vaxport." Following local concerns, however, about the small airport being a 10-kilometre, $25 cab ride from the city and not served by public transit, the province shifted to the community centre.

Bryant said Vaxport will eventually serve residents of fly-in communities, and such planning is still under way.

On Monday, the provided video tour showed a small fridge with a box of Moderna vaccine being stored at between 2 and 8 C, and three waiting health-care workers receiving a shot in the arm.

"It was all very orderly," said Bryant. "People came in groups of three or so. There was no lineup, no crowding, and it was very, very COVID appropriate."

Pop-up clinics to vaccinate Northern Health workers are set Feb. 10-11 for The Pas, and Feb. 11-12 for Flin Flon, Bryant said.

Much of the vaccine rollout depends on supply, which manufacturers vaccines are being shipped, and when they arrive, she said. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have recently delayed global vaccine shipments.

In the North, a shot in the arm was needed in more way than one, said the Thompson Chamber of Commerce president, buoyed by the activity at the community centre.

"The super site has been going steady all day, which is a good thing," said Charlotte Larocque. "We need more vaccinations but, so far, so good."

Also Monday, public health lifted the ban on the sale of non-essential items in the North, also providing some relief, she said.

"Its a breath of fresh air for our small businesses," Larocque said.

"Thompsons population is just over 13,000, but our drawing area is 55,000. A lot of communities have to come in and get their supplies."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
The nascent Alphabet Workers Union appears in disarray after a fumbled announcement by a partner union group.

Workers at Alphabet, Googles parent company, announced a plan to sign up employees and contractors last month. Then the international Uni Global Union announced that Alphabet workers across the globe, including the AWU, had organized under the name Alpha Global alliance.

Uni Global walked that announcement back Monday, saying in a corrected announcement that the U.S. worker group had been included without authorization.

That has triggered an investigation into what happened and raised challenging questions for the union about its future less than a month after its debut.

The international union said it had mistakenly included the Alphabet Workers Union and the Communications Workers of America, its U.S. affiliate, in the original announcement. That statement included a quote from Alphabet union official and Google employee Parul Koul that was not authorized and that, according to a report in the Verge, Koul did not write.

Only a small percentage of Alphabet workers have joined the union. Employers arent required to bargain over contracts with so-called minority unions, although such unions can bargain for a members-only contract. The Alphabet union has said its focus is supporting workers who say they have been treated unfairly and publicly pressuring the company as a bloc.

The situation has raised questions about the involvement of Uni Global, a group of labor unions based in Switzerland, and the relationship between the Alphabet Workers Union and the CWA, which began an initiative to organize tech workers this year.

Some union members have raised questions about whether the CWA pushed Alphabet workers to go public with their union too quickly, while other workers have asked whether the CWAs goal was to expand its reach rather than listen to the needs of members.

CWA has been an absolute disaster, and that is so disappointing, Liz Fong-Jones, a former Google employee and organizer, wrote on Twitter.

Fong-Jones accused the CWA of sidelining longtime organizers like herself and others in the tweet, describing the situation as a power grab by the CWA.

Interactive Vaccine Tracker: Latest developments Detailed information about the coronavirus vaccines as it becomes available.

A CWA spokesperson did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Last week, there was a mistaken, preemptive launch of Alpha Global, an international alliance of Alphabet workers. In the process, a few members raised allegations about CWAs conduct over the past year, said Auni Ahsan, software engineer at Google and member of the AWUs executive council, in an emailed statement.

Ahsan said the question of disaffiliating from the CWA has not been formally raised. The union formed an independent committee to investigate the CWAs role in the mix-up.

The union has grown from more than 200 members when it was first announced last month to more than 800. Alphabet has more than 120,000 employees around the world.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
In 2019, I became the youngest-ever city councilmember in Pearland, a rapidly growing Houston suburb of 130,000. Diverse communities like mine are incubators where my fellow Republicans can embrace the future of America and revitalize our party for the next generation.

And make no mistake, if the Republican Party doesnt evolve, it will die. The GOP presidential nominee has lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections. Almost every expanding group  people of color, the religiously unaffiliated, those with a college degree  decisively favor the Democratic Party. Voters under 30 support Democrats over Republicans by a 2 to 1 margin.

While many predictions of Republicans demographic demise have proven premature, it is almost impossible to look at the generational data and not conclude the partys long-term prospects are grim.

The future of America is more racially diverse and more educated. Millennial and Generation Z voters support these trends and consider the Republican Party  which they view as standing against diversity and mocking education and expertise  to be ill-equipped to govern the emerging American future.

Im proud to represent a place that embodies that future. Pearland is majority-minority and among the most diverse places in the United States  one of the few cities where Black, white, Hispanic and Asian residents each make up over 10 percent of the population. Nearly half of all adults have at least a four-year degree, and over 75 percent have some form of postsecondary education.

Pearland is a model for the rest of the country  a preview of Americas likely future in the decades ahead. My community provides a window into the diverse, highly educated suburbs that have shifted away from the GOP in recent years. Nevertheless, I have earned support here by governing as a different kind of Republican.

On fiscal policy, thats meant supporting conservative budget practices that increased the citys credit rating and refunded bonds to save local taxpayers over four million dollars. It has also meant championing direct financial assistance to residents and small businesses grappling with the economic fallout of COVID-19.

On social policy, thats meant delegating government control and resources to private charities and nonprofits but also investing in quality public places where people can build community and connection in an increasingly isolated age.

Next-generation Republicans must commit to building bridges rather than barriers across lines of color, creed and class. After George Floyds burial in a Pearland cemetery, I worked with leaders in our police department and civil rights organizations to create a constructive dialogue and reform our use-of-force policies, which earned recognition from the Texas NAACP. We rejected the divisive defund the police dialogue and instead came together to create real solutions.

What has worked in Pearland may not work everywhere, but it can provide insights as the GOP grapples with how to win the young and college-educated voters it will increasingly need to speak for a majority of the country. Below, I humbly offer a few ideas for Republicans to begin rebuilding a competitive party for the 21st century.

The GOP must offer modern solutions to modern problems. Fighting declining economic mobility and reinvigorating the American Dream will require innovative pro-growth policies and efforts to rein in skyrocketing health care, childcare and higher education costs, not just lower marginal tax rates. An ascendant and authoritarian China calls for increasing competitive pressure and reinvesting in strained relationships with our allies. Acknowledging the reality of climate change and offering market-based solutions to cut carbon emissions are essential to counter the lefts Green New Deal and win young voters, who rank climate change as their most important issue.

Republicans need to renew our long-held commitments to limited government and constitutional order. The party sacrificed its reputation for fiscal restraint by running trillion-dollar deficits amid tremendous economic prosperity. It abandoned its dedication to constitutionalism by supporting an abusive expansion of executive authority and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Republicans must prove they believe in a constitutional and limited government  through their actions, not just their words  to reclaim the trust of the American people.

Finally, the GOP must expand beyond its base with a more inspiring and inclusive message. Too many trap themselves in an ideological echo chamber that amplifies fringe theories and angry, divisive rhetoric. Republicans must actively work to translate timeless conservative values into policies that support Americans of every race, religion and sexual orientation. We must reject the identity politics historically associated with the left. Not us versus them, but all of us.

As the battle for the future of the Republican Party rages on, we must choose a path that appeals to the next generation of voters. Republicans committed to principled, modern and inclusive solutions have won in Pearland and can win across our changing country. Now is our time to choose.

Orlando is a city councilman in Pearland.
Perth families who lost their homes to a bushfire sparked on Monday have described their devastation, with one family having moved to their dream country home just two months ago.

By Wednesday, the Wooroloo fires had claimed 71 homes with no loss of life. They had spread over more than 9200 hectares of land north-east of the city.

The fires have forced hundreds into evacuation centres and friends homes during a COVID-19 lockdown, and sent more than 250 firefighters to a fire measuring 80 kilometres around. Across Perth, ash rained from an orange-tinted sky even in coastal suburbs 50 kilometres away.

WA Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm urged people to prioritise the preservation of life, even amid Perths five-day coronavirus lockdown.
The new Marine Institutes research vessel is to be named after Kerrys acclaimed explorer Tom Crean.

The Norwegian naval architect consultancy that has designed the Marine Institute's new boat will honour and recognise the famous Kerry-born native from Annascaul, who undertook considerable polar expeditions of more than a century ago.

The 52.80 metre vessel's name breaks away from the Institute's traditional naming nomenclature using the prefix 'Celtic' as used by a pair of existing research vessels.

Charlie McConalogue, Marine Minister, ensured that 25m was earmarked to progress the construction of the vessel.

Mr McConalogue said: "The budget provision will allow the Marine Institute to progress construction on the replacement of the 21-year-old Celtic Voyager with a new modern research vessel that will provide critical national infrastructure to enable Ireland to address the considerable challenges of Brexit and the Common Fisheries Policy as well as climate-induced impacts on our oceans.

The construction of the new national research vessel will continue in 2021 with the build process expected to be completed in summer 2022.

Spanish shipyard Astilleros Armon Vigo SA were awarded the contract to build the new marine research vessel for Ireland last year, following an extensive EU tender process.

Research work

Set to be one of the most advanced marine research vessels in the world, Ireland's new marine research vessel will enable Ireland to undertake critical research work to deepen our understanding of our oceans and our natural resources.

The new vessel will be able to go to sea for at least 21 days at a time and will be designed to operate in harsh sea conditions. Based in Galway, the vessel will be used by the Marine Institute, other State agencies and universities to undertake fisheries research, oceanographic and environmental research, seabed mapping and other multidisciplinary surveys. It will also maintain and deploy weather buoys, observational infrastructure and our Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV Holland I).

The new vessel will be a sister ship to the State's largest research ship, the 65m RV Celtic Explorer and will replace the RV Celtic Voyager. The two Marine Institute research vessels currently in operation (RV Celtic Explorer and RV Celtic Voyager) are among the most intensively used research vessels in the world.

The Marine Institute's RV Celtic Voyager is Ireland's first purpose built research vessel. It has been utilised heavily since its delivery 21 years ago and has been vital in providing marine scientists, researchers and its crew members, with many years of valued experience at sea, expanding and strengthening marine science in Ireland to help inform decisions affecting our ocean.
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ore. -- A Myrtle Creek man has been arrested following a two-vehicle crash Jan. 30 that sent one person to the hospital.

A report shows officers responded to a collision in the 600 block of NE Jackson Street in Roseburg at about 6:06 p.m. Tristin Fischer, 24, allegedly failed to obey a stop sign and hit the side of a red 1999 Ford F-250 with his silver 2004 Ford Focus.

Officers said Fisher showed signs of impairment at the scene. Court documents reveal he reportedly had a blood alcohol level of .15 or more.

The driver of the truck, James Watkins-Todt, 53, of Roseburg, was transported to a hospital with neck and back pain.

Fisher faces multiple charges, including driving under the influence of intoxicants, third-degree assault and recklessly endangering another person. His bond is set at $10,000, and he is scheduled to appear back in court on Feb. 8.
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.
Twelve children were given sanitiser instead of oral polio vaccine drops in Kapsikopri village when the National Pulse Polio vaccination drive began in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, which is approximately 700 kms from Mumbai.

Yavatmal District Council Chief Executive Officer Shrikrishna Panchal said the affected children, all below five years of age, were admitted to a government hospital and their condition is stable as of now. He also said that the three healthcare workers in question will face action for this lapse.

"Twelve children, under five years of age, were given hand sanitiser drops instead of polio vaccine in Yavatmal. They were admitted to the hospital and are doing fine now. A health worker, doctor and an ASHA worker will be suspended, An investigation is underway," Panchal told news agency ANI. Panchal added one of the children complained of vomiting and uneasiness after they were given sanitiser instead of polio drops. Later, all the children who were given sanitiser drops were administered polio drops and were admitted to the Government Medical College in Yavatmal. Their condition is stable as of now and they are under observation.

According to another official, this incident came to light when village sarpanch found that the drops were that of hand sanitiser and not polio doses. After this incident, Yavatmal collector MD Singh visited the hospital and enquired about the health condition of the children.

With agency inputs

Also read: 'You didn't stop the guys': FM Nirmala Sitharaman defends woman reporter, leaves everyone in splits
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Samsung SDI office in Seoul / Courtesy of Samsung SDS homepage



By Kim Hyun-bin



Samsung SDS is reviewing strategic investment options for its capital assets worth 4 trillion won, looking at possible acquisitions and investments in startups to better enhance its future competitiveness.



Last year, Samsung SDS obtained a record high 4.19 trillion won in cash assets. The company's operating profit dropped 12 percent to 871.6 billion won with a loan of 800 million won, which industry experts consider maintaining healthy management.



Samsung SDS' capital was not highlighted much, being overshadowed by Samsung Electronics' cash assets worth 100 trillion won revealed last week in the company's 2020 fourth-quarter earnings report.



However, Samsung SDS' capital assets greatly exceed other Samsung affiliates. Samsung Electro-Mechanics holds 1.48 trillion won and Samsung SDI has 1.67 trillion won in cash assets.



Some industry insiders expected Samsung SDS capital to be used to ease the owner family's inheritance tax burden by expanding dividend allotment. Despite the speculations, the company's dividends have been set similar to the previous year's at 2,400 won.



Now all eyes are on how the capital assets will be utilized. Many companies are starting to invest more in the IT sector amid hopes of an improvement now the COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out, while some are expected to increase capital expenditures (CAPEX) including plant and equipment investments.



"The funds will be utilized for facility investments for cloud servers and data centers as well as investing to hold stakes in startups with innovative technologies, and lastly we plan to use the funds to fuel future growth via acquisitions," a Samsung SDS official said. "We are currently in search of a company to acquire."



In recent years, Samsung SDS' infrastructure has been in need of an upgrade with facility abrasion and high depreciation costs exceeding CAPEX in recent years. From 2013 to 2015, the company spent up to 500 billion won a year in CAPEX, but in recent years only spent 200 billion won annually. However, the depreciated cost of its infrastructure continues to rise after exceeding 400 billion won for the past two years.



The fastest way to fuel growth in a short period of time is to acquire new businesses. This is the reason why Samsung SDS has been for years considering acquisitions of diverse innovative companies that could create greater synergy.



Last month, rumors of the possible acquisition of a vehicle component manufacturing company as well as a merger with Samsung Electronics led company stock prices to shoot up.


ORANGE  Shopping for clothes and things for the house while basking in the glow of a belly full of barbecue soon will be among the offerings on the towns portion of the Post Road.

Mission BBQ is moving into part of the former Bertuccis restaurant located at front of the Orange Meadows Shopping Center on the Boston Post Road, according to Annemarie Sliby, executive director of the Orange Economic Development Corp. Bertuccis closed its Orange location in October 2019 and the building since has remained empty.

Sliby said the owner of the restaurant space is subdividing property, with Mission BBQ taking about half of it.

Were really excited about it, she said. We think it will draw a lot of people to the plaza.

Ty Rundle, area director of operations for Mission BBQ, a chain restaurant, said the goal is to have the eatery open by late March.

Sliby said the other new tenant in the shopping center is TJ Maxx, which is moving across Peck Lane from the Raymour & Flanigan shopping plaza. Originally, the space in the Orange Meadows Shopping Center was to have been taken by a sister company of TJ Maxx, Homesense.

Homesense is a discount home furnishings store that is one of the brands of TJX Companies, with is the Massachusetts-based parent company of TJ Maxx.

Greenwich-based Urstadt Biddle Properties, which owns the retail center, is in the midst of reconfiguring the plaza in order to accommodate the needs of TJMaxx.

Bethany Crocetti, a spokeswoman for TJX Companies, said the TJMaxx store in the Raymour & Flanigan shopping plaza will close by March 7, reopening in its new location on March 11.

We are always assessing and reviewing our real estate strategies and our decision to relocate this store reflects that thinking, Crocetti said.

The Orange restaurant will be the second Mission BBQ in the state; the other is located in Southington and has been open since July 2018. Mission BBQ had a plan to open a Shelton location, but that deal fell through, according to Rundle.

Maryland-based Mission BBQ currently just opened its 100th restaurant and serves customers in 16 states.

Rundle said the former Bertuccis location made for an attractive location because of its Boston Post Road address and its proximity to Trader Joes.

Mission BBQ does not specialize in any one type of regional barbecue, he said. Instead, it offers a variety of regional meats and sauces.

We dry rub and oak smoke everything and we have different sauces, from Texas, from Kansas City, from down South, Rundle said. Everything we make, we make from scratch at the restaurant. We keep our smokers going low and slow all day.

Nearly all of items on the menu are priced at $20 or less, depending on the size of the serving.

The restaurants in the chain are decorated with military and first-responder memorabilia. But support of the military and first responders goes well beyond the decor, according to Rundle.

Were very involved in giving back to our uniformed heroes, he said.

David Cadden, a professor emeritus at Quinnipiac Universitys School of Business, said Mission BBQ frequently donates to and holds benefits for causes affiliated with first responders and military personnel.

Some may be cynical about it, but its something a lot of people seem to like, Cadden said of Mission BBQs motif and theme. How successful it is here is going to depend a lot on their pricing and who their competition in the area is.

Many of the communities surrounding Orange have barbecue restaurants. But Mission BBQ would be the only restaurant in Orange exclusively devoted to that style of cooking.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
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CGI to lead the implementation of Oracle ERP Cloud

MONTREAL, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB) announced the signing of a renewed ten-year contract for application development, operations and support services with CAE, a high-technology global leader in training for the civil aviation, defence and security, and healthcare markets.

As a long-term strategic partner since 2014, CGI has played a key role in CAE's digital transformation, including the evolution of CAE's ERP strategy, helping drive value across its lines of business by increasing the security, compliance, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of its day-to-day IT operations.

This new agreement expands CGI's engagement by adding a range of services to further enhance CAE's business agility, innovation and operational excellence. CGI will support CAE's leading edge technology environment helping optimize the performance and evolution of the company's mission-critical business applications, including the implementation and deployment of Oracle ERP Cloud.

"CGI is a trusted, flexible partner whose expertise helps us adapt effectively to the changing needs of our business," said Pascal Grenier, CAE's Vice President, Global Operations, Technologies & Innovation. "CGI's local and global experts bring the emerging skills and technologies we need to accelerate our transformation while continuously improving our IT operations, the efficiency of our business, and reducing our risks and costs."

"Our long standing relationship and in-depth knowledge of CAE's operations help us be a better partner and support the company's strategic objectives, said Michael Godin, Senior Vice-President, Greater Montreal, CGI. "We are excited about what the future holds for both organizations and look forward to further strengthening our partnership over the next decade."

About CGI

Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 76,000 consultants and other professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. CGI Fiscal 2020 reported revenue is C$12.16 billion and CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com.

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James Lock and Yazmin Oukhellou are thought to have had a very nasty row in Dubai, leaving the brunette beauty 'desperate' to return home to the UK.

The TOWIE stars, who have been dating again since rekindling their romance last October following a split in 2019, are currently in the UAE for business.

A source told MailOnline: 'They had a very nasty row yesterday. People have been trying to get hold of them, but their phones are off.'

Oh dear: James Lock and Yazmin Oukhellou are thought to have had a very nasty row in Dubai, leaving the beauty 'desperate' to return home (pictured during their Dubai trip)

They added that Yazmin, 26, is now 'desperate to fly home' to the UK.

However, flights from Dubai to Britain were banned last Friday as the UAE was put on the UKs red list under new travel rules.

The news sparked many Britons to try and get on the final flights and return home before 1pm, when the rules kicked in.

Returning travellers have to self-isolate at home for 10 days. The government is also expected to introduce mandatory hotel quarantining.

It was also revealed on Monday that Dubai has forced all of its pubs and bars to close after a surge in Covid cases and also instituted crowd limits on cinemas and hotels.

Loved-up posts: The TOWIE star, 33, has shared several cosy snaps with Yazmin, 26, during their business trip to the UAE

Yazmin and James also sparked speculation of a split after the hunk, 34, unfollowed the beauty on Instagram, before re-following her on Tuesday.

Yazmin also shared a cryptic quote about letting go to her own Stories, which read: 'Let go of expecting people to be a certain way just because you are.

'You are a deep soul with a big heart. Not everyone will understand or respect that.

'Detach yourself from wanting to be understood & flow in your self-love. Who and what will be in your life will reveal itself.'

MailOnline has contacted James and Yazmin's representatives for a comment.

Reality star James has shared several cosy pictures during their 'work trip' to Dubai, with the couple being seen at restaurants and events together.

Unfollowed: James (left) unfollowed Yazmin on Instagram, while she still has his account (right) listed under who she's keeping up with on social media. He later re-followed her on Tuesday

Cryptic: Yaz also shared a quote to Instagram on Tuesday which said to 'let go of expecting people to be a certain way'

He last posted a snap with Yaz two weeks ago, on January 24, showing them putting on a loved-up display as they gazed into one anothers eyes while in their swimwear.

And just two days earlier he shared another sweet image of them at dinner alongside the caption as he marked TOWIE star Mick Norcross' death, penning: Days like this makes you realise what and whos is important in life!

'The greatest gift from God is life itself! Never forget that no matter how bad things seem! Life is too short! Take care people!'

Although sharing a selection of sizzling solo swimwear pictures to her own grid, Yazmin has not posted a photo alongside her on-off again beau since January 7.

Trying again: The on-off again couple rekindled their romance last October after their shock split in 2019 amid allegations he had cheated. James denied the allegations

The couple rekindled their romance last October and told MailOnline at the time they were moving in together ahead of the November lockdown.

Yazmin and James split in 2019 after two years together over claims he had cheated on her while they were on a romantic trip together in Turkey, something he denied.

The couple focused on personal development throughout 2020 in an attempt to mature as a couple and heal any cracks in their relationship.

James spoke at the time on how they have changed for the better, as he added: 'We have worked on compromise.

'Before we weren't really compromising, we had both been single for x-amount of years before we met each other, and then we carried on acting like we were single in a certain way.

Romance: Things seemed to have been going from strength to strength with the reality star couple moving in together and even having therapy on lockdown after getting back together

'When you're in a relationship, you've got to put the other person first and respect them and I don't think we did the first time.

'I was still half-living as a single man because I was out too much, and loads of others factors played into it, but I think the time apart, we realised how much we both meant to each other.'

After announcing they were giving things another go last year, Yazmin also revealed they were having weekly therapy sessions on Zoom during lockdown.

Speaking to The Sun, the brunette beauty admitted that she still didn't trust her other half completely, but that they were trying to make things work.

She said: 'We are trying to take things really slow but I know what I am like.

'I do love him and if he did propose to me I would say yes and marry him. I still don't trust him but I do trust him more this time, which is strange because he messed up. But I do believe he has changed.'

Since then, it has appeared as if their relationship is going from strength to strength with the couple even launching a venture Level Up Lifestyle together.

Wow! During her business trip to Dubai, Yazmin has been sharing regular sizzling poolside snaps to Instagram

Yazmin recently hit back at critics who questioned why they were in Dubai amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying she's launching a business in Dubai.

Taking to Instagram, she said: 'Just so you know, me and James have come to Dubai because I am launching something very exciting here in the New Year.

'I've had to come now to get everything set up and we will be keeping you posted,' she said in a video shared to her Instagram story.

'So we are here for work purposes, for business. Obviously we'll make the most of it while we're here as well. But we are here for business purposes.'
Oshakati Airport, Oshakati, Namibia [ OHI / FAOS ]

If you are planning to travel to Oshakati or any other city in Namibia, this airport locator will be a very useful tool. This page gives complete information about the Oshakati Airport along with the airport location map, Time Zone, lattitude and longitude, Current time and date, hotels near the airport etc... Oshakati Airport Map showing the location of this airport in Namibia. Oshakati Airport IATA Code, ICAO Code, exchange rate etc... is also provided.

Oshakati Airport Info:

Oshakati Airport IATA Code: OHI Oshakati Airport ICAO Code: FAOS Latitude : -17.8 Longitude : 15.7 City : Oshakati Country : Namibia World Area Code : 575 Airport Type : Small Oshakati Airport Address / Contact Details :

Oshakati Airport (OHI), Oshakati, Namibia Timezone : Africa/Windhoek Oshakati Airport Timezone : GMT +02:00 hours Current time and date at Oshakati Airport is 20:25:56 PM (CAT) on Saturday, May 29, 2021

Looking for information on Oshakati Airport, Oshakati, Namibia? Know about Oshakati Airport in detail. Find out the location of Oshakati Airport on Namibia map and also find out airports near to Oshakati. This airport locator is a very useful tool for travelers to know where is Oshakati Airport located and also provide information like hotels near Oshakati Airport, airlines operating to Oshakati Airport etc... IATA Code and ICAO Code of all airports in Namibia. Scroll down to know more about Oshakati Airport or Oshakati Airport, Namibia.

Oshakati Airport Map - Location of Oshakati Airport Load Map Namibia - General Information Country Formal Name Republic of Namibia Country Code NA Capital Windhoek Currency Dollar (NAD)

 1 NAD = 0.073 USD

 1 USD = 13.775 NAD

 1 NAD = 0.06 EUR

 1 EUR = 16.795 NAD

 More NAD convertion rates Tel Code +264 Top Level Domain .na

This page provides all the information you need to know about Oshakati Airport, Namibia. This page is created with the aim of helping travelers and tourists visiting Namibia or traveling to Oshakati Airport. Details about Oshakati Airport given here include Oshakati Airport Code - IATA Code (3 letter airport codes) and ICAO Code (4 letter airport codes)

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OHI - Oshakati Airport IATA Code and FAOS - Oshakati Airport ICAO code
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Australia will turn its attention towards clinching a trade agreement with Israel in a deal that would boost innovation, cyber security and defence.

Federal Trade Minister Dan Tehan will prioritise a deal between the two nations in the coming months as negotiations between the governments reach critical stages with the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Trade Minister Dan Tehan hopes to fast-track negotiations for an agreement with Israel by the years end. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Tehan said he was keen to work very quickly this year on finalising a scoping study for an Israel-Australia free trade agreement by July with the hope to move to something of more substance by end of the year.

A similar feasibility study to scope the benefits of beginning trade negotiations with European Free Trade Association countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland will also be undertaken this year.
In a year of disruption, OpenGov came together as one team to collectively affirm our commitment to our values : doing what we say we will do, driving for customer impact, and having a passion for the mission. This affirmation was proven out through the collaboration, tenacity, and grit we saw across our teams and in the positive feedback captured by the survey.

"We are committed to fostering an inclusive, supportive, and fun culture here at OpenGov," said Zac Bookman, CEO at OpenGov. "I am inspired every day by our employees who solve difficult challenges and further our mission to 'Power More Effective and Accountable Government.' This award reflects the incredible talent we have across teams and the impact they are having on our customers as we continue to grow our ability to serve local governments."

"Last year tested us all personally and professionally. We are proud of the way OpenGov came together and supported one another as a team. Being awarded a Top Workplace is an honor made possible by our passionate employees," expressed Frank Han, Vice President of Talent Acquisition at OpenGov. "Being a Top Workplace will allow us to drive more awareness in the market to attract top talent to add to our amazing company."

2020 was a banner year at OpenGov as we surpassed our company goals and onboarded 100+ new hires to help fuel our growth. To learn more about career opportunities at OpenGov, visit www.opengov.com/careers

About OpenGov

OpenGov is the leader in providing our nation's local and state governments with modern cloud financial software to help power more effective and accountable government. Built exclusively for the unique budgeting, financial, and community development needs of the public sector, OpenGov solutions help more than 1,000 customers plan effectively, increase efficiency, and improve engagement through better collaboration and transparency.

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PRESIDENT John Magufuli on Monday promoted High Court Judge Zephrine Galeba to be Justice of the Court of Appeal of Tanzania after becoming the first judge to deliver a judgment in Kiswahili language.

It was a fitting reward for Justice Galeba following his bold decision to use Kiswahili, instead of English language while delivering a judgment on a labour dispute in Musoma recently.

A delighted President Magufuli announced his decision to promote Justice Galeba while officiating the Law Day celebration, in Dodoma.

He described Justice Galeba, who was working at High Court, Musoma District Registry, as a hero within the Judiciary for departing from the existing rules after writing the judgment in the national language.

"Many congratulations to this Judge. He is a Kiswahili hero within the Judiciary. Since he has decided to honour Kiswahili, I am today promoting him to Justice of the Court of Appeal for his patriotism," he declared.

The president added; "Using Kiswahili in the legal system was not a sin. This one has come out in public. I know a lot was said about his decision. Thank you Chief Justice, you did not punish him. He has become the first nationalist to write a judgment in Kiswahili language."

President Magufuli pointed out that the time has come to put in place strategies that would enable Kiswahili language to be used in court and legal matters in general at all levels.

He went on explaining that the failure to use Kiswahili language in legal issues not only deprives citizens of their rights but also increases the cost for them to look for interpreters.

The president said that Kiswahili was being used everywhere, with international blocs, the African Union (AU), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC) adopting it as official language.

The decision by Justice Galeba to use Kiswahili in writing the judgment has been described as a positive response to the call by the government for Judiciary of Tanzania to switch the country's legal system and legal materials from English to Kiswahili.

Judge Galeba broke the traditional court rules after delivering in Kiswahili language when determining a labour dispute involving North Mara Gold Mine Limited and a former employee, Mr Gerald Nzumbi.

In his decision, the judge dismissed the application for revision presented in court by North Mara Company, to oppose an award given in favour of Mr Nzumbi by the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration (CMA).

North Mara Gold Mine Limited had moved the court to revise the decision of the CMA to award the ex-employee 74,510,509/99 after ruling that the termination of his employment services was unfair.

Judge Galeba explained in detail as to why he decided to draft the court decision in Kiswahili, saying doing so was not strange.

According to him, the former Labour Court, called the Industrial Court, was issuing its judgments in Kiswahili and all 960 Primary Courts since their inception provide decisions in Kiswahili.

All ward tribunals, which are more than 3,900 in Mainland Tanzania, issue their awards respected and with legally binding decisions in Kiswahili language.

Similarly, he said, the submissions of lawyers or parties before all courts in the country from the primary courts to the Court of Appeal are largely presented in Kiswahili.

The judge pointed out that recording court proceedings and drafting of judgments in all other courts, except Primary Courts, were being written in English in accordance with the law.

Speaking at the same occasion, Chief Justice, Prof Ibrahim Juma, acknowledged that language barrier could obstruct the application of laws in a specific situation.

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"We have conducted an assessment of the state records to establish what hindered the use of Kiswahili," he said.

He recalled that efforts began when Telford Philip Georges was appointed Chief Justice between 1965 and 1971 to ensure Kiswahili is applied in all stages of the court.

He said two committees were formed under the then Minister for Justice and the Minister for Education to write a Kiswahili Law Dictionary among other recommendations.

"There are no updates regarding the committee but we believe under the country's Minister for Legal Affairs and Constitution, we will be able to reach our target," he said.

Prof Juma was optimistic that a strong push by the government to translate all legislations will ease the transition.
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New Delhi, Feb 2 : Close to 88,000 small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), artisans, weavers and women entrepreneurs received orders from customers in over 5,000 pin codes across the country during the recently concluded Great Republic Day Sale, Amazon India said on Tuesday.

About 65 per cent of these sellers during the sale, hosted from January 20-23, were from non-metro cities like Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, Tinsukia in Assam, Medak in Telangana, and Rajsamand in Rajasthan.

Over 10,700 sellers received their highest-ever single day orders during the shopping event, Amazon said.

Artisans and weavers who sell their unique handmade collection through "Amazon Karigar" and women entrepreneurs from the "Saheli" programme witnessed a growth of 1.2X respectively over their average daily sales.

Start-ups and brands under the "Launchpad" programme witnessed a growth of 1.12X over average daily sales.

Some of the most bought products included orthopaedic mattresses, organic tea, DTH connections and tubular batteries, the company said.

"We are excited to witness the success of our sellers during the Great Republic Day sale and are committed to support the community of over 7 lakh sellers associated with Amazon.in," Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Amazon India, said in a statement.

"We will continue to focus our efforts to empower many more sellers across the country and enable them to accelerate their growth in 2021." Amazon India said sales during the shopping event increased by 1.6X over average daily sales.

The company said that in 2020, over 10 lakh small and medium businesses that work with Amazon in India have witnessed tremendous growth and success.
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The company is focused on progressing the commercialisation of its MotifMicro smartphone app and Connect 2.0 Customer Engagement SaaS platform for the year ahead.

( ) has set its sights on a positive year ahead on the back of improvement in business in the December quarter which saw the company record a 130 % increase in cash flow.

During the quarter R&D spend went up by 93% - the highest quarterly R&D spend of the year - with a concerted drive to make MotifMicro launch-ready and to complete Connect 2.0 including migrating customers to the new platform.

Building stronger foundations

YPB Group CEO John Houston said: It was pleasing to see cash receipts recover significantly in Q4 2020 as our customers saw some reprieve from COVID-19 impacts.

While Q4 net cash use did increase somewhat it was primarily driven by R&D investment in our flagship products MotifMicro and Connect 2.0.

Customer appreciation of the products advances has been terrific and is very encouraging for future market acceptance.

Our commercial progress has been markedly impeded by COVID-19 but there has been substantial progress in building stronger foundations to advance new business in 2021.

The relevance and commercial appeal of our products are now greater than ever, and we have channel partners keen to promote our solutions, especially MotifMicro1.

MotifMicro smartphone app

During Q2 and Q3 last year, MotifMicro achieved highly reliable recognition of the novel MM1 forensic authentication particles by both iOS and Android smartphones under real world conditions.

In Q4, YPBs in-house artificial intelligence lab expanded MotifMicros capability to a solid portfolio of the most popular iOS and Android smartphones.

The company is now focused on ensuring the MotifMicro app is highly user friendly and essentially foolproof to maximising the practical commercial appeal, and expected to have worked out the kinks by Q1 or early Q2.

Amongst other things, the app will guide a consumer authenticating a product through the scanning and confirmation process using object recognition protocols.

The purpose is to ensure a good user experience and minimise operator error and maximise the rate of successfully completed scans.

The development of the B2C app is well progressed and the company has product mock-ups of commercial samples presently being demonstrated to channel partners and clients.

Connect contact tracing capabilities

The Connect 2.0 Customer Engagement SaaS platform was completed to commercial readiness in Q3.

In Q4, the bulk of Connect clients were migrated from 1.0 to 2.0, and YPB can now host new customers at negligible incremental cost - ensuring a very high-profit contribution from the incremental revenue.

At the same time, Connect 2.0 now only uses hosting resources on demand and is much lower cost compared with an always on service.

Connect 2.0 has been well received by YPBs customers, particularly its self-serve consumer data analytics capabilities.

Connect 2.0 also added contact tracing capabilities as a target market in Q4, and these product track and trace capabilities are generating early commercial interest with existing YPB customers and channel partners.

Commercial partnerships progress

YPB has used the majority of 2020 to strengthen channel partner relationships, particularly in Australia and China, and it advanced business development programs and product innovation ideas during the quarter.

The commercial progress in China continues with the companys strategy of better account management of existing clients bearing fruit and building the recurring revenue base of YPB China.

Notably, the company added two new channel partners in Thailand who partners provide access to end customers in tobacco, tax stamps and a range of consumer goods.

Driving revenues for 2021

Houston said: Im hopeful of a somewhat more normal environment in 2021 allowing us to drive revenues while holding costs largely steady.

We remain intensely focused on making YPB self-sufficient and monetising the significant latent value in our market-leading technology suite.

The need for our authentication and engagement solutions has never been greater.
FLINT, MI -- Police found more than one dozen pit bulls in what appears to be a large dog fighting ring inside a Flint home.

The suspected ring was discovered when the Flint Area Narcotics Group (FANG) executed a search warrant Jan. 28 at a residence in the area of Saginaw Street and Stewart Avenue.

The search warrant was in relation to a controlled substance investigation, according to the Michigan State Police.

However, upon entering the suspects residence, FANG detectives uncovered what appeared to be a large dog fighting ring.

Along with seizing a large amount of cocaine and a firearm, detectives located 15 pit bulls in multiple rooms inside the residence and in the back yard.

Two dog treadmills, a weighted dog sled, a dog harnesses, animal supplements and injectable medications and syringes were also found at the residence.

Genesee County Animal Control responded to the scene and the animals were turned over to them.

Charges have not yet been filed in connection with the case, MSP Lt. Liz Rich told MLive-The Flint Journal Monday, Feb. 1.

The dogs are in a safe location and being cared for, Rich said. The investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information about the situation may contact the Flint Area Narcotics Group at 810-233-3689 or if you want to remain anonymous contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-422-JAIL(5245) or online at CrimeStoppersofFlint.com.

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Flint police believe second drive-by was retaliation for fatal shooting
Sosyalist Esitlik (Socialist Equality Group) strongly condemns the police attacks and detention of more than 150 students yesterday at the Bogazici University in Istanbul and in Izmir.

Police attacks on students around Bogazici University and in Izmir began yesterday at noon. They continued as hundreds of police armed with rifles entered Bogazici University, responding to a call by its rector, Melih Bulu. They detained students who continued peaceful sit-ins on the pretext that they were violating a 9 p.m. pandemic curfew. Snipers were placed atop buildings across the university, and helicopters flew overhead.

A woman detained by the police around Bogazici University, Istanbul, February 1, 2021. [Credit: @boundayanisma on Twitter]

According to an Istanbul Governorship statement, a total of 159 students were detained, while reportedly a group of around 20 other students who tried to deliver a press statement in Izmir were also attacked and detained.

Police state repression of student protests started on the new year, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appointed Melih Bulu, a candidate for nomination by Erdogans Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the 2015 general elections, as rector of Bogazici University. It aims to intimidate and suppress growing social opposition within the working class and among youth. The ruling class fears that its murderous response to the pandemic and vast levels of social inequality will trigger a social explosion in the working class.

Students called a protest in front of the Bogazici University for yesterday, after two students were arrested and two others placed under house arrest on Saturday. This unlawful attack on students was carried out on the grounds that LGBTI+ flags were used in a picture of the Kaaba in Mecca during an exhibition at the university that involves around 300 works of students on Friday.

After a social media campaign launched by the Bogazici University Islamic Studies Club, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Rector Melih Bulu made statements directly targeting students. Subsequently, five students were detained and two were arrested on charges of degrading or inciting the public to enmity and hatred.

In the news about the police raids on various clubs at the university, the media tried to undermine the sympathy felt by large sections of the public for the protesting students by denouncing them as supporters of a terrorist organization.

The arrest of the students sparked an outcry on social media, and a protest was called in front of the university for Monday. However, this constitutional and peaceful act was banned, based on the one-month prohibition of demonstrations and protests announced by the Istanbul Governorship on January 5. This was aimed against the initial student protests, on the pretext of pandemic measures. Dozens of police violently attacked and detained students who walked quietly towards Bogazici University yesterday afternoon.

In mass defiance of the police state repression, the hashtag We will not look down rose to the top on Twitter after the police shouted No mass walking and look down during the detention of the students. In the evening, more than 500,000 tweets were posted protesting the police attack on Bogazici University students.

The governorships statements that the pandemic is not over yet and the protest will endanger public health is hypocritical. While Bogazici University students were attacked by the police around the campus, the Islamists of the Anatolian Youth Association (AGD) were making a mass press statement in Beyazt Square, Istanbul, to slander the student protests on the pretext of insulting the Kaaba.

The hypocrisy does not end there. Shortly before the students were beaten and detained on the pretext of the pandemic, President Erdogan himself attended, via video conference, the mass provincial congresses of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in four provinces, saying: I would like to thank you very much for bringing them together in closed halls right now in Adana, Antalya, Bursa and Mugla despite this pandemic. Thank you for filling the halls.

However, it was the bourgeois opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) that opened the way for the attack that the government unleashed against the students. On Saturday, CHP spokesperson Faik Oztrak declared: We cannot accept any attack or humiliation against the holy values of humanity. We strongly condemn this vile provocation. We expect visible and invisible responsibilities to be revealed as soon as possible.

The position of the Kurdish nationalist Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), which has stated its support to the student protests, is equally hypocritical. While calling for the government to meet the students demands, the HDP officials visited the Islamist Felicity Party, which is closely related to the AGD, declaring that the meeting would make a great contribution to democratic alliance in Turkey.

The forces the HDP is set to visit before announcing its democracy program on February 8 include the CHP, the Future Party and the DEVA Party, an AKP split-off. It was announced yesterday that Oguzhan Aygoren, a founding member of the DEVA Party led by former Economy Minister Ali Babacan, has been appointed as the advisor of Melih Bulu.

This exposes the political bankruptcy of the bourgeois opposition parties, behind which the pseudo-left forces have lined up. These forces, who, like the Erdogan government, defend the interests of the ruling elite, are completely incapable of defending democratic rights.

As emphasized in the international online meeting titled The way forward for Bogazici University protests organized by the Socialist Equality Group in Turkey on January 17, for youth the turn now is to the working class, the only social force that can defend democratic rights, on the basis of an international socialist program. The defense of democratic rights is only possible within the framework of a program that aims to overthrow capitalism and build a socialist society.

The Erdogan governments violent crackdown on student protests took place as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 reached 2.5 million and official deaths exceeded 26,000, as a result of the herd immunity policy that prioritizes the profits of the ruling class.

This human cost is accompanied by a collapse in the social conditions and living standards of millions of workers. As part of an international resurgence of the class struggle against the deadly response to the pandemic, strikes and protests by workers against social attacks such as layoffs and forced unpaid leave are rising in various sectors. These are closely monitored by the Erdogan government.

The fact that the ruling class sees a mass movement of the working class approaching and is trying to suppress it with preemptive repression is reflected in the statement made by Devlet Bahceli, Erdogans ally and the leader of the fascistic Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). He declared: It is not a matter of students or the rector. The main point is to socialize and politicize a possible upheaval that would involve universities.

The Socialist Equality Group calls on workers to join the fight against the pandemic and social attacks with the struggle to defend democratic rights. Actions of solidarity should be organized for the immediate release of arrested and detained students. The police state repression of students is a rehearsal for coming attacks on the working class.

The struggle against the drive to dictatorship and authoritarianism can only be successful on the basis of the revolutionary socialist program defended and developed by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) based on the international working class. The way forward is to build the Socialist Equality Party as the Turkish section of the ICFI.
She spent the New Year in Dubai with her reality star pals.

And Sophie Kasaei revealed she was back in the UK on Tuesday, as she marked her return with a sizzling lingerie snap while lounging on her bed.

The Geordie Shore star, 31, looked incredible in the white semi-sheer lace bustier, which showcased her curves and was teamed with a skimpy thong.

Honey I'm home! Sophie Kasaei revealed she was back in the UK on Tuesday, as she marked her return with a sizzling lingerie snap while lounging on her bed

Sophie kept her look typically glamorous as she sported a full face of make-up with a dramatic smokey eye and a bouncy blown out hair style.

The media personality accessorised with a silver choker and bracelet, while lay sprawled across a huge bed with cushioned linen headboard.

She cheekily captioned the snap: 'Come back to bed baby.'

Dubai lifestyle: Sophie is among a host of reality stars and influencers who have taken 'working' trips to Dubai this month as the UK is plunged into another COVID-19 lockdown

Back again: Sophie first revealed her return to the UK by sharing a video on her Instagram Stories from her home, which was still adorned with Christmas decorations

Sophie first revealed her return to the UK by sharing a video on her Instagram Stories from her home, which was still adorned with Christmas decorations.

The TV star revealed it was her 'karma' to return to a fully-decorated house as she admitted she doesn't even like.

Sophie is among a host of reality stars and influencers who have taken 'working' trips to Dubai this month as the UK is plunged into another COVID-19 lockdown.

The reality star 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.

Sophie's return comes as bars and restaurants in Dubai were forced to close amid a spike in the infection rate in the country.

App developer Marco Soares knew exactly how to reach high school students to promote the math app he created.

App developer Marco Soares knew exactly how to reach high school students to promote the math app he created.

The 15-year-old Grade 10 student at Sturgeon Heights turned to TikTok.

Soares and his Winnipeg-based software company launched MathCrack through Apples App Store and Google Play Store last month.

MathCrack helps students learn and solve math formulas ranging from calculating volume and surface area to permutations and factorials through step-by-step instruction.

Soares said he thought TikTok would be a good platform for organic growth.

"Im a daily TikTok user so Im aware of all the new trends and songs that are going viral," he said.

Last week, he posted a video promoting MathCrack set to drivers license by Olivia Rodrigo. It has reached nearly 390,000 views, and the MathCrack TikTok account has surpassed 22,000 followers.

"Weve reached people all around the world," he said. "And we have users volunteering to translate (MathCrack) into French and Italian."

Aside from knowing how to get something to trend online, Soares also knew how he could help high school students learn more efficiently.

"(Students) want to learn the process behind formulas," he said. "Or else, when they get to a test, theyre not going to do that well. Thats what I had in mind  to make calculators with effective learning implemented into them."

Soares first started designing MathCrack in 2019 after his family moved to Winnipeg from Brazil. He said he noticed while there were a lot of math problem-solving websites, there were few formula-specific apps available.

"I combined all those websites into one (app) because thats what I think students are looking for," he said. "And something customizable and interactive makes it more enjoyable for teenagers."

Users accumulate math points, which can be used to unlock additional features and custom options on the app. By gearing it towards a younger audience, Soares said MathCrack helps create a more comfortable learning experience for students who struggle to grasp mathematical concepts.

He said hes always excelled in math and his interest in computer programming began at the age of 10, when he learned to code. MathCrack, which combines the two areas of interest, is the first app hes developed.

Sturgeon Heights computer science teacher Lawrence Wachs is impressed by Soares' work. Hes been teaching computer science for more than 21 years, and said while project development is common, its rare to see students taking it as far as this.

"MathCrack has a professional look and a lot of great features for a starting developer," he said. "It will look great on (Soares') resume in the future."

Soares credits Wachs  who consulted on some features  for pushing him to learn new concepts and to implement new features.

Wachs said while app building isnt really computer science  its more a byproduct of the learning  he encourages students to take the concepts and skills they learn and apply them to things that motivate them.

"Students today really thrive when they can see a pragmatic application of what they learn in school," he said.

As in every other high school in Manitoba, students at Sturgeon Heights have adapted to a combination of in-class and remote learning this year. Soares said he decided to invest in this project during the pandemic in order to improve the student experience.

Wachs said in the age of remote learning, technology advances such as mobile apps "provide an ease of use and convenience that bridge economic and physical barriers" but notes this generation has grown up in a digital world "without learning the the why- and how-type deeper questions."

MathCrack looks to bridge that gap by not only solving the problem, but showing students how to get there, as well.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) caucus in Parliament has accused their National Democratic Congress (NDC) colleagues of attempting to whip up public sentiment against them in the matter of the rejection of a motion, which sought to absorb fees for tertiary students.



According to the caucus, claims by the NDC members of Parliament (MPs) that the NPP was not compassionate to the plight of students in tertiary institutions were untrue.



The NPP caucus on Thursday, voted against the Private Member Motion moved by NDC MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, for the House, to resolve that the president took steps to absorb fees of students in the countrys tertiary institutions as part of governments COVIDovid-19 alleviation programme.



Following the negation of the motion, the NDC MPs have accused their NPP colleagues of not being responsive to the plight of students and their parents in an economy ravaged by COVID-19.



But addressing the press in Parliament on Friday, the NPP MPs said the impression being created that the government was not willing to help tertiary students was a political mischief intended to cause public disaffection for the NPP.





According to the caucus, the NPP throughout history has demonstrated that it has Ghanaian students at heart and same has been underscored by the implementation of the Free Senior High School Programme.



We have the track record and will be first to take action. Students and parents should know that if any relief is to be provided the government will do it in a manner they would get the real benefit, Deputy Caucus Leader and NPP MP for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo-Markin said.



In his view, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos government has demonstrated commitment in that regard and has provided support for the education sector more than any other government in Ghanas history.



He explained that their decision to vote against the motion was because same was vague, discriminatory, had no financial impact analysis on the state coffers and an invitation to an illegality and unconstitutionality.



How do you in one breath invite government to take steps to absorb fees of students in public tertiary institutions, and in another breath say the government should consider supporting accredited private tertiary institutions?, Mr Afenyo-Markin asked.



He said the ambiguity in it was just too much. All that we are saying is that if you really want to have a plan for the tertiary students in this COVID-19 era then we must sit together with the executive.



Our colleagues created the impression that we do not support the urgent need to provide some relief for our students at the tertiary level, but that is most misconceived.



He rejected the NDC caucus allegation that the NPP side of the House was not willing to build consensus as they have been admonished by the Speaker of Parliament so that the House could run smoothly.



To him, the motion was just to court public sympathy than the intention it sought to achieve.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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New Delhi, Feb 2 : After a long wait, the Central government has finally permitted movie theatres to operate with 100 per cent occupancy.

Nearly a year ago, all the movie theatres had to be closed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic which has created a catastrophic situation across the globe.

Although vaccinations against Covid-19 are now underway, still the road to normalcy seems distant. On the second day after the announcement of movie theatres allowed to operate with 100 per cent occupancy, lesser number of people visited the movie theatre at V3S Mall in east Delhi's Laxmi Nagar area.

Amit Mahajan, owner of an IT company, who had come to the theatre on the second day after the announcement, told IANS that it was the first time he had come to watch a movie since the Covid-19 pandemic had begun.

He said that everything in the markets is opening at a slow pace which points to the fact that the fear of Covid-19 still haunts the people and the hesitancy factor still persists.

Durga Prasad, who works as a waiter at a restaurant opposite the V3S Mall told IANS that, "I think that normalcy will take another two to three months. People still fear that they might catch the infection."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Barely one month after they proposed voting rights for underage girls who are married, Nigerian lawmakers may have withdrawn that proposal.

Kano lawmaker, Kabiru Gaya, who is the chairperson of the Senate committee on INEC, disclosed this at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Tuesday.

This is not unrelated to backlash that followed the news of the suggestions.

The committee had in December 2020, proposed a review of the provision in the Electoral Act which pegged the eligibility of a voter at 18 years. They made the proposal to Technical Committee on Electoral Reform  the committee charged with working on the new Electoral Act.

The lawmakers particularly proposed that that INEC should consider any married girl who is not up to 18 years as eligible to vote.

The joint committee has proposed a review of the section of the Electoral Act that pegged the eligibility age of voters at 18 years.

The joint committee has proposed that if a lady who is not up to 18 years is married, she should be considered to be mature enough and be eligible to vote, Mr Gaya had told the technical panel stating that the decision was unanimous.

Aisha Dukku, the chairperson of the House committee on INEC, backed him.

Nigerians condemned the proposal describing it as an incomprehensible and repulsive legislative intent.

The U-Turn

From Mr Gayas remarks on Tuesday, the committee may have dropped the proposal. The issue, he said, sparked outrage when it was presented in a memorandum submitted to a technical committee set up on the reforms.

He said the proposal was but a memorandum submitted by a group.

One of the people who came to the public hearing, submitted the memorandum and argued that the word underage was not his, but that any woman or man that is married should be considered as an adult. That was his reason.

Our own resolve is that if a woman is at the age of 16 and she gets married, she should not be allowed to vote. Generally, there was a lot of noise about. It was in a memorandum submitted by a group of people and they have their rights as Nigerians.

But when we came to the committee, we discussed a lot on that and at the end of the day, we felt we could not go along with that suggestion and it was dropped, he said.

NASS considering electronic voting

The lawmaker also disclosed that the National Assembly is considering the possibility of adopting electronic voting in the country  just the way card readers were introduced into the countrys electoral system.

Now we are trying to introduce electronic voting, so we are also working on that process, we have also agreed that INEC can decide to do electronic voting. We should have a designed system that should be able to work for us to do electronic voting where an ordinary woman or man in the village will know where to touch to vote for a party, he said.

While he expressed optimism that Nigerians will accept electronic voting, the lawmaker explained that INEC could not embark on such a venture initially because there was no approval.

ALSO READ: Major controversies that rocked National Assembly in 2020

On the number of political parties on the ballot paper, he said the new law will ensure that any political party that does not have a seat at the House of Assembly, Senate or Local Government will not be on the ballot paper. Such parties, he said, should be deregistered to reduce the size of the ballot paper.

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Even though the parties are not happy and have gone to court to challenge INEC. I believe that we will continue to exercise our powers in making sure that we have few political parties than this number of mushroom political parties.

The panel had earlier promised to produce a new Electoral Act for the nation before the end of the first quarter of 2021.


Warkworth Music will open its 2021 season with a concert by Trio Elan on April 17.

Warkworth Music is looking forward to a smoother season this year after Covid 19 disruptions forced the cancellation of five of its scheduled seven concerts last year.

Seven monthly concerts are scheduled again this year, starting in April with Trio Elan.

Warkworth Music president Lisa Outwin says last year was a challenging year for all, particularly performers and event organisers.

Only the concerts by Stephen de Pledge and Vesa & Friends proceeded as planned, Lisa says.

Fortunately, we were able to arrange two replacement concerts at short notice, thanks to the NZ Trio and the New Zealand String Quartet. All 2020 concerts were outstanding and received very positive audience feedback.

Lisa says that due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding Covid 19, along with restrictions on international travel, overseas performers are effectively prevented from touring New Zealand and NZ-based performers from touring overseas.

For this reason, all Warkworth Music concerts this year will feature NZ-based artists starting with Trio

Elan, an exciting new ensemble comprising three of New Zealands leading chamber musicians  violinist Donald Armstrong, saxophonist Simon Brew and pianist Sarah Watkins.

This years programme will also feature Ibell & Thomson (cello and piano) in May; Jade Quartet (string quartet) in June; Liam Wooding (piano) in July; Les Voisins (violin, cello, theorbo/guitars) in August; Sweet Chance (soprano, mezzo soprano, piano and viola) in September; and Ghost Trio (violin, cello and piano) in October. All concerts are presented in association with Chamber Music New Zealand

Season tickets, annual membership and concert tickets are available from the Warkworth Music website (warkworthmusic.org.nz) and from concert notification emails All 2020 season ticket holders will be eligible for a $60 credit when purchasing a season ticket this year.

Meanwhile, Warkworth Music will hold its annual meeting in the Old Masonic Hall, Baxter Street, Warkworth, on Tuesday, February 23, at 7.30pm. All welcome.
Ryan Murryland, 31, (left and right) was arrested in the French section of the tunnel that links Kent and the Pas de Calais on December 21

A convicted paedophile from Britain began a six-month prison sentence in France today after being caught running through the Channel Tunnel.

Ryan Murryland, 31, was caught in the undersea link on December 21, causing all trains to be stopped at a cost of some 45,000.

Appearing in court in Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France, on Monday afternoon, he said he had no memory of what happened, and said he was not guilty.

But CCTV images clearly showed Murryland, who is from Manchester, in the Channel Tunnel and being stopped by French police.

'It's not me in the pictures,' Murryland told the court. 'I was arrested by the police in the street after arriving in a car'.

But magistrates refused to believe his claims after hearing that registered sex offenders were not allowed to leave the UK without permission from the police.

The paedophile was formally arrested by French Border Police at the border post in France after he scaled four security fences and dodged 400 surveillance cameras before running in darkness through the tunnel

Murrayland was jailed in 2015 for sexual activity with a child and was on the run last year for breaching the conditions of his bail following his release from prison.

After his arrest in France by border police at Coquelles, Murrayland was held on remand, but his claims were 'full of inconsistencies,' according to a prosecuting report.

He had scaled four security fences and dodged 400 surveillance cameras before running in darkness through the tunnel.

Murrayland was found guilty of two offences  entering a railway without authorisation and refusing to comply with railway regulations - and received the maximum six month sentence.

Maxime Cottigny, his defence barrister, pleaded for his release, saying Murryland had 'not understood why he was placed in police custody.'

Eurotunnel, the Channel Tunnel operator, has warned that anyone trying to walk along the lines could be killed, with risk from both high-speed trains and potentially fatal electrical currents.

It is estimated that the disruption to traffic caused by the Myrrayland incident cost Eurotunnel some 45,000 in lost revenue.

The incident has raised serious questions about border policing following Britain's departure from the EU on January 1.

CCTV images clearly showed Murryland, who is from Manchester, in the Channel Tunnel and being stopped by French police (file photo)

A diagram of the service tunnel which lies between the two rail tunnels

Tony Smith, former head of UK Border Force, said: 'The Channel Tunnel is a critical part of our national infrastructure.

'As such the security of the tunnel and of those using it is of paramount importance to both the UK and French governments.

'It is important that both sides conduct an urgent review to determine how this incident was allowed to happen, so as to ensure that criminals and terrorists are denied any opportunity to gain access in future.'

Before Murrayland's sentencing, MP Damian Collins said: 'I'm glad that the trespasser was caught before a nasty accident could happen, although I understand not before causing considerable disruption and loss in revenue to Eurotunnel.

'This is a very rare incident, and I'd like to thank the British and French authorities for dealing with it so swiftly.'

The Channel Tunnel is composed of three tunnels each 31 miles long bored at an average 40m below the sea bed, linking Folkestone to Coquelles in Calais.

It is only the second known incident of its kind. In 2015, Abdul Haroun (pictured) walked the length of the Channel Tunnel and was eventually granted asylum in the UK

Shuttles, Eurostar and freight trains travel at up to 100mph along the Channel Tunnel line and pose an immense danger to anyone walking in the Tunnel.

A Sudanese migrant who walked the length of the Channel Tunnel from France in 2015 was eventually granted asylum in the UK a year later.

Abdul Haroun was initially charged with obstructing a railway under 19th-century legislation before also being held in custody.

But the 40-year-old was instead granted asylum, leading to Eurotunnel saying in a statement: 'He not only caused significant disruption to Eurotunnel and to the many freight and passenger customers travelling at the time, he also put his own life and that of others at risk.'
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TORONTO, Feb. 1, 2021 /CNW/ - Today, the Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corp. (CEEFC) announced a new loan under the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF). The agreement gives Sunwing Vacations Inc. and Sunwing Airlines Inc. access to $375 million of liquidity to protect jobs in Canada's airline sector.

Sunwing Airlines and Sunwing Vacations together provide almost 3,000 Canadians with full-time jobs.

Sunwing has agreed to maintain an account with money received from customers for travel that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This account will be maintained until the government's broader discussions with the airline industry conclude and a policy is established for the treatment of these prepaid amounts.

LEEFF loans provide bridge financing to Canada's largest employers whose needs during the pandemic are not being met through private market financing. It provides large Canadian employers with access to credit to preserve jobs and continue operations during this challenging period.

Other applications for LEEFF financing are currently under consideration. To protect the financial interests of taxpayers, rigorous due diligence and the collaboration of existing lenders is required.

CEEFC maintains an updated list of approved LEEFF loans, which can be found at https://www.ceefc-cfuec.ca/approved-loans/ .

Key terms of the LEEFF loan facility can be found at https://www.ceefc-cfuec.ca/leeff-factsheet/ .

Quick facts

LEEFF is open to all large, for-profit Canadian employers who have a significant impact on Canada's economy and provide millions of jobs to Canadians. Companies in the financial sector are not eligible for LEEFF. In order to qualify for LEEFF, a company must have more than $300 million of annual revenues and require a loan of at least $60 million .

economy and provide millions of jobs to Canadians. Companies in the financial sector are not eligible for LEEFF. In order to qualify for LEEFF, a company must have more than of annual revenues and require a loan of at least . Certain not-for-profit enterprises, such as airports, may also be eligible. Any company that has been found guilty of tax evasion is not eligible.

Companies that receive a loan through LEEFF are required to commit to publish annual climate-related disclosure reports consistent with the Financial Stability Board's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, including how their future operations will support environmental sustainability and national climate goals.

Companies must agree to sustain their domestic operations, make reasonable commercial efforts to minimize the loss of jobs, and demonstrate a clear plan to return to financial stability. They must also agree to place restrictions on executive compensation, dividends, and share buybacks.

As this program is intended to be a lender of last resort, applicants may be concurrently examining other financing opportunities. Applicant information is disclosed only if LEEFF loans are approved.

SOURCE Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corporation

For further information: For media inquiries please contact: Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corporation, Media Relations Team, [email protected]
A powerful provincial civil servant has been handed a different role as he transitions out of government.

A powerful provincial civil servant has been handed a different role as he transitions out of government.

Paul Beauregard's appointment as treasury board secretary was revoked last week, according to a Jan. 26 cabinet order. He will remain with the civil service as a "technical officer" at the deputy minister level.

Recently, Beauregard gave notice that he would leave his position with Treasury Board once a replacement was found. The government said he would continue to be a part of Manitoba's Vaccine Implementation Task Force "until the latter stages of the vaccine roll-out."

Brenda DeSerranno, assistant deputy minister in the Finance Department's treasury board secretariat, becomes acting treasury board secretary. She will earn $146,690 per year in the role.

Beauregard, a key adviser to Premier Brian Pallister, joined the government in 2017 after working in senior positions with Manitoba Telecom Service Inc. and BCE/Bell Canada.

He has been a senior leader in the government's pandemic response, Pallister has said.

In a brief statement to the Free Press Monday, the province did not indicate to whom Beauregard would report.

"The title, 'technical officer' at the Deputy Minister level is part of the transition from his senior role with Treasury Board, and is the same title/role that other senior civil servants (such as Deputy Ministers) have maintained as part of the transition when they are preparing to leave government," the government said.

Beauregard had developed a higher profile than some who have served in the same role because the seeming enormity of his reach within government.

The treasury board secretary is the civil servant charged with overseeing government spending decisions.

Beauregard had been given responsibility for negotiating contracts with outside suppliers, informing institutions and unions of government cuts, and created headlines last year when it was revealed he had warned senior officials at Manitoba Hydro not to bid on a lucrative provincial contract.

He also filed a workplace harassment complaint last year against an NDP MLA who had charged that Beauregard had improperly directed Hydro over the contract, which wound up being awarded without a competition to his old employer, Bell MTS.

MLA Malaya Marcelino, the NDP's legislative and public affairs critic, said Beauregard was "very obviously a political appointee" who was handed a senior position in the bureaucracy.

She said it would have been better for the premier to "call a spade a spade" and give Beauregard a purely political role, rather than have him remain in the civil service.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
Israels government declined a request last year by the Trump administration to allow the US Coast Guard to inspect the port at Haifa for Chinese surveillance capabilities.

The revelation by Haaretz on Monday marks the latest development in a three-year disagreement between Israels government and US officials over a Chinese majority state-owned company assuming management of the port this year.

Shanghai International Port Group Co. (SIPG) signed a deal with Israels Transportation Ministry in 2015 to build up and run Haifas commercial port. The deal prompted objections from the US government in 2018, as ships from the US Navys 6th Fleet frequent an adjacent Israeli navy base. The base at Haifa reportedly houses Israeli nuclear weapons-capable submarines.

The United States has cautioned that its Navy may no longer use the site if the Chinese state-owned company takes over management of the port. SIPG has committed more than $2 billion to expand and upgrade the port and is set to run it for 25 years under the agreement.

US officials are concerned that the company could enable Beijing to spy on the US Navy and its activities with Israels forces. The US government has accused Chinese companies of theft of American companies' trade secrets and of collaboration with the People's Liberation Army.

A spokesperson for the US Navys 6th Fleet did not immediately return Al-Monitors request for comment on Monday.

The Trump administration urged Israel not to collaborate with SIPG on the ports expansion, a request Israeli officials ultimately declined after an internal review of the deal.

Chinas growing infrastructure influence in Israel has drawn concern in Washington, where officials see Beijings overseas investments as key to its growing economic and soft power. The US government is currently undergoing a strategic pivot to counter Chinas seemingly inevitable rise as a regional and potentially global power.

Last year Israeli officials awarded IDE Technologies, a local company, the rights to construct a desalination plant. Hong Kong-based Hutchinson Water was passed over for the deal, reportedly after US pressure.
Labors foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said Australia should work with other countries to send a clear signal to Myanmars military leaders that their actions are a direct attack on Myanmars democratic transition and stability. The Australian government must stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and ensure the bilateral relationship wont return to business as usual until democracy is restored and political prisoners are released, she said. Following yesterdays events, the government needs to explain whether this [military] cooperation is consistent with Australias strategic interests, review other areas of bilateral cooperation and consider additional targeted sanctions as appropriate. Asked in 2018 whether the Australian government was considering suspending defence cooperation with Myanmars military, Defence secretary Greg Moriarty told a Senate estimates hearing that it was in Australias interests to continue engagement. The maintenance of a very limited defence cooperation engagement with Myanmar serves Australias interests and would potentially help with the professionalism of the armed forces in Myanmar, he said on October 24, 2018.

Michael Shoebridge, director of the defence program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the Australian government should be looking at its defence cooperation closely in the wake of the coup. From one point of view: there has been another military coup and do we want to engage with and empower militaries that conduct military coups? No, Mr Shoebridge said. But the counter argument is that militaries are often conduits for relationships when the rest of the relationship has gone bad. So keeping some form of military-to-military connection allows for some dialogues between governments. Australia currently has sanctions against six current or former members of Myanmars military, but does not have in place broad sanctions against the country. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video

World leaders are now considering sanctions and targeted responses to the escalating situation. US President Joe Biden threatened to reimpose sanctions early on Tuesday morning AEDT in a move that could trigger a diplomatic spiral in the region. The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy, he said. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action. Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel overnight. The Australian government is concerned that Myanmar could become a satellite state of China if it reduces engagement with its military. The view is echoed by other allies amid fears that imposing sanctions could push the Tatmadaw further towards shadow financing from Chinese authorities while hurting the local population. The military and its top brass are heavily intertwined with a complex web of business interests through shares in Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited. The Tatmadaw ruled Myanmar as a military junta for half-a-century prior to Suu Kyis release from house arrest and landslide victory in 2015.

Loading The MEHL has links to multinational banking, beer, manufacturing sectors. An investigation by Amnesty International in 2020 found partnerships had been established with global conglomerates including Japanese beer multinational Kirin and South Korean steel giant POSCO. Mr Shoebridge said although China has kept up its close ties with the military, it would not want to be promoting the fact that the new government prevailed in a military coup. To the extent Myanmar needs foreign currency and revenue, that will drive them towards China in an economic sense, he said. Herve Lemahieu, director of the power and diplomacy program at the Lowy Institute, said China has strong ties with the National League for Democracy and the military - and is now in a position to hedge and work with whoever is in power. The West is not in a good position as it has less good relations with the military, he said.
The conference on quantum technology, new this year, will include Peter Knight, Andrew Lord, Wilhelm Kaenders among its invited speakers

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, announces the program for its inaugural industry-focused SPIE Quantum West conference 6-11 March. Organized in partnership with the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), Quantum West will be held online during the SPIE Photonics West Digital Forum.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005101/en/

Attendance at Quantum West is free to all registered participants of SPIE Photonics West, but registration is required.

The four sessions will provide a wide range of opportunities to learn more about the role of photonics in the development of quantum technology as quantum moves from research and development to engineering products for the commercial marketplace, while building mainstream infrastructures and supply chains. Speakers' topics include "Quantum Technology as an Enabler," "Photonics' Roles in Superconducting Quantum Computing," and "Building an Industry: Lessons Learned from a Half-Century of Growth in the Photonics Industry." The four-day event, co-hosted by QED-C Deputy Director Celia Merzbacher and ColdQuanta Executive Chairman and DRS Daylight Solutions Senior Vice President Tim Day, will also include a market report from the Boston Consulting Group.

The international slate of speakers includes Imperial College London's Peter Knight, who is also a member of the UK's Quantum Technology Strategic Advisory Board; Andrew Lord, who heads British Telecom's optical core, access, and quantum research; Google Product Manager Eric Ostby; Toptica's co-founder and CTO Wilhelm G. Kaenders; Kaitlin R. Moore, a research physicist and principal investigator with SRI International; and Mercedes Gimeno-Segovia, senior director of quantum architecture at PsiQuantum.

A panel discussion on the final day featuring Toptica's Mark Tolbert, IBM's Jason Orcutt, Anchored In's Anke Lohman, and Hamamatsu's Klea Dhimitri, and moderated by Tim Day, will explore the future of photonics and quantum ("2021 and Beyond"), the challenges of developing a new market, and how photonics will support that.

"We are delighted to partner with the QED-C in launching the first annual Quantum West event," said SPIE Director of Industry Development Stephen Anderson. "As one of the few industry-oriented quantum technology events to focus on the role of optics and photonics in the emerging market for quantum-enabled devices, Quantum West will play a key role in showcasing the future of the quantum industry and the opportunities it presents for photonics technologies."

"Optics and photonics are critical enabling technologies for many quantum-based applications, including for sensing, communications and computing," noted QED-C's Merzbacher. "Quantum West will bring together the photonics and quantum communities to help build the ecosystem and supply chain for the emerging quantum industry."

To find out more about Quantum West and to register for the event, visit the SPIE Quantum West page.

About SPIE

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering, and technology. The Society serves more than 258,000 constituents from 184 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2020, SPIE provided over $5.8 million in community support including scholarships and awards, outreach and advocacy programs, travel grants, public policy, and educational resources. www.spie.org.

About Quantum Economic Development Consortium:

The Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) is an industry-driven consortium managed by SRI International and established in response to the 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act. Membership includes more than 120 US companies from across the supply chain and more than 40 academic institutions and other stakeholders. The consortium seeks to enable and grow the quantum industry and associated supply chain. For more about QED-C, visit our website or follow us on Twitter @The_QEDC.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005101/en/

Contacts:

Daneet Steffens

Public Relations Manager

daneets@spie.org

+1 360 685 5478

@SPIEtweets
New Delhi, Feb 2 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Franklin Templeton to disburse a sum of Rs 9,122 crore to the unit holders of six mutual funds that were closed by the mutual fund house in April last year.

A bench comprising S. Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna said that Rs 9,122 crore (the figures as on January 15, 2021) should be distributed among the unit holders in proportion to the respective interests in the assets of the scheme. The top court asked the SBI Mutual Fund to carry out the exercise of disbursement, after a counsel for all parties agreed to this arrangement.

Advocate Pratap Venugopal, representing the SEBI, contended before the bench that if SBI Mutual Fund are involved, then the process of disbursing the amount would be completed equitably within 12 to 18 months. The counsel representing Franklin Templeton Trusts Services Limited and Asset Management Company Limited agreed to fully cooperate with SBI Mutual Fund.

The top court added that the distribution of money to the unit holders should be completed within 20 days from Tuesday. The bench also allowed the parties to move applications in case of any difficulty in the overall process.

On January 25, the Supreme Court had said that it will first deal with the "contentious" issue of the objection to the e-voting process for winding up Franklin Templeton's six mutual fund schemes, and of distribution of money to the unit holders.

The top court had orally observed that objections around e-voting is a contentious issue. It had scheduled the matter for hearing on February 1 after one of the lawyers cited a media report, which claimed that a group of investors of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund (FTMF) have moved the top court with a plea to declare the recent e-voting conducted by the fund house as illegal.

The bench had noted: "We will first examine the question of objection to e-voting and disbursal of funds." The top court had earlier asked the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to appoint an observer to oversee the e-voting process. The voting took place in the last week of December, and it was approved by the majority of the unit holders. The court had also directed that the SEBI should file a copy of the final forensic audit report before it in a sealed cover.

On January 18, the top court had granted three days for filing objections to the e-voting on the winding up of six mutual fund schemes of the fund house. The court had also asked the fund house counsel if an order could be passed to allow distribution of money to the unit holders.
In the autumn/fall of 1932 when African-American scholar Milton Samuel J. Wright became the first and only person of African descent known to have had a face-to-face conversation with the infamous Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Wright was at the time a Ph.D. student of economics at Heidelberg University.



Some sources say the African-American academic, born in Georgia, had just completed two years of study in Germany and had been given his degree certificate when he and his German friends decided to attend a regional political rally where Hitler spoke.



At the rally, Wright would allegedly joke with his friends that he wouldnt mind assassinating the future dictator. SS guards apparently overheard the conservation and followed Wright as he went to a top hotel  Europaischer hof Hotel  in Heidelberg with his friends to have dinner. Hitler was at that same hotel. Wright, on entering the hotel, was reportedly detained by Nazi Stormtroopers and taken to Hitlers room to be questioned.



Wright, conversant with Nazi ideology, was scared and thought that would have been his end. But their interrogation turned into a 3-4 hour dinner for the two, where they discussed several topics. The conservation unsurprisingly became one-way. Hitler, who was calm throughout, would ask and then answer his own questions but with a loud voice.



Wright, fluent in German, would later give an account of his encounter with Hitler. The time with Hitler was spent almost entirely by his asking me questions about the Negroes in the United States. Of course, I had little opportunity to answer any of his questions because he would no sooner ask a question than he would immediately proceed to give his own answer, Wright wrote in the Pittsburgh Courier, a Black weekly newspaper.



When I would attempt to correct some of his versions of life in America, he would almost invariably break in with another question or comment. With that exception, he was most courteous to me. He spoke loudly, long, and with an air or authority.



Hitlers views on race during the conversation were what one would probably expect from him. Wright wrote: He [Hitler] expressed the opinion that Negroes could not have much backbone, because of the fact that they consistently allowed the whites to lynch them, beat them, segregate them, without rising up against their oppressors. They must be definitely third-class people, he said. Minority groups always get the worst of it in conflicts like race-riots. Dont you think your people are destined perpetually to be slaves of one kind or another? he asked. Hitlers answer was an enthusiastic yes! Your people are a hopeless lot. I dont hate them. I pity the poor devils.



The future German dictator however paid Wright a compliment at the end of their four-hour conversation, saying he loved the fact that the first Black person he had ever met in person could speak better German than any White American or Englishman he had ever heard.



In six months after their meeting, Hitler would rise to power as the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then as Fuhrer in 1934. During the Nazi party leaders dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, Jews and Blacks and a few other European nationalities were all victims of the Nazis racial cleansing, though anytime Nazi Germany is mentioned, the Jewish Holocaust is at the forefront of everyones mind.



In the Nazi era, from 1933 to 1945, African Germans were in their thousands. Servants, students, sailors and entertainers from present-day Rwanda, Burundi, Namibia, Cameroon, Togo, and Tanzania came to Germany, said a BBC report. In time, many African Germans were excluded from education and employment and were not allowed to have relationships with White people. Some were also sterilized while others were sent to concentration camps.



In effect, while Black Germans were not subject to mass extermination as in the cases of Jews, Romani and Slavs, they were targeted too, though not in the same systematic way, researchers say.



Wright had, before the start of the Nazi era, returned to the U.S. after having completed his dissertation, titled The Economic Development and the Natives Policy in the Former African Protected Areas of Germany from 1884 to 1918.



The academic, born in Savannah, Georgia, on June 28, 1903, had before pursuing his doctorate in economics at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, received his B.A. from Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1926 and his M.A. from Columbia University in 1928. While at Heidelberg in Germany, he was a student leader who received a lot of invitations to international student conferences at the University of Cologne in Germany and Oxford University in England, a report said.



The year before he met Hitler, he had wanted to launch student exchange programs between historically Black institutions in the U.S. and German universities. The African-American intellectual would later write a seven-page first-hand account of his meeting with Hitler in an article on Ebony magazine over 20 years after the reported encounter.



While back in the U.S., Wright became a professor and head of the Department of Economics and Political Science at his alma mater Wilberforce in 1933. In 1959, he was dean of the College.



Before his death on March 11, 1972, in Ohio, survived by his daughter, the conversation he had with Hitler was dramatically reenacted on the anti-racist radio show New World A-Coming in 1944.







Source: face2faceafrica.com









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Rose McGowan has expressed her support for the women accusing Marilyn Manson of abuse and assault.

The actor, who was engaged to Manson for two years before they separated in 2001, shared a Twitter statement and a video announcing that she stood with his accusers.

Among the women accusing Manson of abuse is Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood, who began dating the musician when she was 19 and he was 38.

In a statement published on Monday 1 February, Wood alleged that she was groomed by Manson and that he abused her for years.

Several other women came forward to accuse Manson of similar offences. He denies the allegations.

Read more: Marilyn Manson calls abuse allegations a distortion of reality

On Twitter, McGowan wrote: I stand with Evan Rachel Wood and other brave women who have come forward. It takes years to recover from abuse and I send them strength on their journey to recovery. Let the truth be revealed. Let the healing begin.

In a video posted to her Instagram account, she added that she was profoundly sad and disgusted at the allegations, but proud of Wood and the others who accused Manson of abuse.

She said that Manson, 52, was not like that during their relationship but said that had no bearing on whether he was like that with others before or after.

They steal time, she said of abusers. These are time eaters. They steal lives. They steal hopes, dreams, freedom, sexuality, love.

McGowan also called out the Hollywood cult leaders who employed Manson: You know you are accomplices. All the PR managers, agents, lawyers  the Hollywood cult must be stopped.

In the wake of the allegations, Manson has been dropped by his record label, Loma Vista, while his US publicist told The Independent they would no longer be working with him.

Manson issued a statement from his Instagram account early on Tuesday 2 February, denying that he abused his former partners.

Obviously, my art and my life have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality, he said.

My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how  and why  others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.

Wood alleged that she was brainwashed and manipulated into submission by Manson.

I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail, she said. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.

California state senator Susan Rubio has written to acting attorney general Monty Wilkinson and FBI director Christopher Wray on 21 January, urging them to investigate the claims against Manson.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, you can call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, on 0808 2000 247, or visit their website here.
The mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in alleged under-reporting by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The NY GOP's attempts to get records are hampered by NY State Democrats blocking subpoenas that indicated no transparency.

Months back, NYC was the locus of the outbreak killing many people in their homes and nursing homes. Now, the virus is back, retaking lives in the Democrat-led state.

Lack of transparency

During the affair, one incident is when NYC DEMS shut off a GOP member's microphone while speaking. The Republicans' attempt in New York to get in records from the nursing homes was frustrated by DEMS. Sources say that they were preventing a subpoena from obtaining the proof of Democrat mismanagement, reported the Blaze.

The nursing home scandal caused by the alleged handling of the pandemic was lacking based on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's performance. In the heart of the scandal is the real number of those who died from COVID in these homes.

Transparency in the exact number of deaths is what is essential to ascertain how many died. But an inaccurate reporting is not helpful to craft a better response.

Sen. Thomas O'Mara of the GOP made the motion to get the record via court orders. It would help to assess how much was allegedly mishandled by the New York governor. Concerning the deaths, accountability should be considered if fatalities were preventable.

O'Mara made the motion last Monday during a virtual meeting in the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations auspices. With Democrats blocking, a subpoena is not a proactive move.

Also read: CCP Virus: Death Toll 3,000 as US Records Biggest Single Day

The New York State Attorney general's report

The alleged "Nursing Home" scandal exposed Gov. Andrew Cuomo's misinterpretation of the pandemic's actual conditions in New York.

Last Thursday, the governor was rebuked by a report that blasts his handling and mismanagement coming from the attorney general's office of the State of New York, that had a lot to say. One of them is repeating the accusation that actual numbers were swept under the rug, not the actual deaths. Many of the victims were from nursing homes with a population very susceptible to the coronavirus.

Democrats, instead of allowing the motion to move forward, hindered the motion to subpoena the records needed. Plus, it was O'Hara who was muted by the DEMS during the virtual session.

According to Sen. James Skoufis, O'Mara ambushed him and said everything was out of the procedure.

O' Mara countered that the DEMS should stop what they are doing and act on the governors' performance.

Based on the NY attorney general and the Investigations Committee report, disapproval of the motion to send subpoenas for records is deplorable in Governor Cuomo's testimony and how his administration has failed its legislative responsibility. Democrat's not owing to their governors' error and keeping it under wraps is an injustice.

Cuomo's failure

Democrats blocking subpoena helps those responsible for the botched response, only making things worse.

Related article: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Faces Charges of Sexual Harassment from Former Development Aide

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Baghdad, Feb 2 : Authorities in Iraq's Nineveh said that 23 bodies, believed to be of Islamic State (IS) militants, were retrieved under the debris of devastated buildings in the provincial capital of Mosul.

During the past week, the municipality of Mosul has been removing the rubble of dozens of devastated buildings on the bank of the Tigris River in the Ras al-Kour neighborhood in the city's old city centre, Brigadier General Hussam Khalil from the Civil Defence told Xinhua news agency.

Khalil added that the 23 decomposed corpses werebelieved to be IS terrorists who were killed during the battles to liberate the city in mid-2017, Khalil said.

The provincial authorities have carried out campaigns to retrieve hundreds of bodies for people killed and buried under rubble.

They are either IS militants or civilians who were prevented by the extremist militants from leaving their homes during the fierce battles and heavy bombardment of the city, which is located some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

In July 2017, Iraq officially declared the liberation of Mosul, the country's second-largest city, from the IS after nearly nine months of fighting to dislodge the extremists from their last major stronghold.

The IS had taken over Mosul in 2014 after the terror group defeated the Iraqi Army.

After seizing control of the city, the IS executed some 4,000 Iraqi Security Force prisoners, and dumped their bodies in the single largest known mass grave in Iraq, at the "Khafsa Sinkhole".

This mass grave was uncovered during the Battle of Mosul (2016-17).
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Unbroken

In 1987, the book The Mayan factor raised the prospect of the world ending in December 2012. A 2001 bestseller, The Mayan Prophecy, popularised the same idea more widely, and in 2009, Roland Emmerich made it into a film, 2012  with special effects that made the catastrophe utterly believable. And yet here we are in 2012, with planet Earth apparently still unbroken. However, the word chosen to describe this year owes its inspiration less to the silver screen than to one of the great publishing successes of 2012: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Topping the New York Times bestseller list, the work tells the true story of Olympic champion and hero Louis Zamperini, who survived the horrors of the Second World War. Not everything survived in 2012, though.



The Encyclopaedia Britannica  one of the oldest books still in publication  announced that it would no longer publish printed editions, focusing instead on an online version. At the other end of the scale, Twitter was anything but an encyclopaedia, with its Tweets restricted to 140 characters. In 2012, the brand changed its logo to a little tweeting bird  and in the ultimate irony, the new definition of the word tweet entered the dictionary.

Black Bay  Tudor

Not all of this had much swag  another word trending in 2012 to mean cool. Unlike Barack Obama, described as swagalicious by his wife Michelle, and elected President of the United States for a second term in November of that year. Another buzzword of 2012 was cougar, which made its way into the Petit Robert dictionary  not as a description of the North American big cat, but of an older woman who seeks sexual relationships with much younger men. So now that its time to choose a watch for 2012, which timepiece is a bit of a cougar, unbreakable and has a drop of royal blood in its veins, along with swag? I can think of only one: the Tudor Black Bay.

Why Tudor?

The sister brand to Rolex was born in 1926, positioned as a more affordable alternative to its big brother launched by the same Hans Wilsdorf 18 years earlier. From the outset, the brand made a big thing out of reliability, testing its watches in real-life situations. Very soon it was to use Rolex cases and straps, combined with movements from other Manufactures. Its exceptional valuefor- money image grew over the years, leading it to become the supplier to many armed forces, including the French Navy, the US Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy. Today, its legendary MNs (short for Marine Nationale) are among the most sought-after vintage military watches.



During the 1990s, the brand drifted off to sleep on a bed of roses (the former Tudor logo), just like an enchanted Princess (one of the Tudor models). Almost 20 years went by before the Geneva-based Sleeping Beauty awoke. In 2012, Tudor launched the Tudor Black Bay  a modern version of its legendary diving watches. The Queen was dead; long live the Queen!

Black Bay  Tudor

The Tudor Black Bay  A Sexy Cougar

At Baselworld 2012, Tudor dared to turn the spotlight on a diving watch that drew inspiration from its 58-year-old predecessor, the 7922 Submariner. Dared is the right word here: people lost no time in pitting the piece against the invincible Rolex Submariner; but the Tudor lost nothing by the comparison. The Black Bay was indeed a delightful vintage cocktail: it included the snowflake hands from 1969 and the large crown that first made its appearance on divers watches in the Sixties, while the absence of crown protector on the case was a tribute to the brands first diving watches. The 2012 model came with a burgundy bezel and old-school roseshaped logo. Following its huge success, the collection soon expanded to include a blue-bezel version, then the ultra-rare version with a black bezel and ETA movement. When this iteration was replaced a few months later by a model with a Manufacture caliber, the Black Bay Black ETA is said to have become the rarest Tudor ever produced.

The Take from The Devils Advocate

Resurrections bring back bad memories for him, so hes going to ignore this divers watch The fact is that many hail the Tudor Black Bay as one of the greatest successes of recent years. Its difficult to find fault with it. Its somewhat imposing dimensions were revised in 2018, with the Black Bay 58. In fact, theres just one thing that puzzles me: its strange name. Perhaps its all part of the discreet, refined charm of this timepiece.

*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. This article is an extract. The Millennium Watch Book is available on www.the-watch-book.com, in French and English.

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As per the datesheet, the Class 10 exams are going to end on 7 June, while for Class 12 students, the last exam is on 11 June

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced the exam schedule for both Class 10 and Class 12 board exams on Tuesday. The final exams of secondary and higher secondary classes are going to begin from 4 May, 2021, according to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank.

Dear Students, hereby announcing the much-awaited date-sheet of @cbseindia29 board exams of X & XII.Please be assured that we have done our best to ensure that these exams go smoothly for you. Wish you good luck! @SanjayDhotreMP @EduMinOfIndia @PIB_India https://t.co/P9XvyMIfNq  Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) February 2, 2021

All the students set to appear in the CBSE board exams 2021 are advised to go to the official website of CBSE at cbse.gov.in and check their exam schedule. As per the released datesheet, the Class 10 exams are going to end on 7 June, while for Class 12 students, the last exam is on 11 June.

The education minister also shared the datesheet of both the classes on his social media handle separately.

Date-sheet of @cbseindia29 board exams of class X.

Wish you good luck!#CBSE pic.twitter.com/o4I00aONmy  Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) February 2, 2021

Date-sheet of @cbseindia29 board exams of class Xll.

Wish you good luck!#CBSE pic.twitter.com/LSJAwYpc7j  Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) February 2, 2021

As per a report by The Indian Express report, the board exams this year will be conducted in offline written mode. Although the CBSE board exams are held in the month of February, or March every year, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus resulted in a nationwide lockdown. Even after the lockdown was lifted, it was not considered safe to reopen schools.

As a means of helping the students who are going to appear in the Class and 12 exams in 2021, the board pushed back the board exams to May. Also, the syllabus was reduced by 30 per cent and 33 per cent internal choice questions were included in the papers.

The Ministry of Education also announced that Joint Entrance Examination Mains (JEE Mains), the engineering entrance exams, will be held in four cycles this year to aid students. This new system will start from 2021 and will give students a greater chance at preparing themselves and scoring a better rank.

However, no information about the conduct of the medical entrance test, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) has been given.
NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nanit , creators of the most advanced baby monitor, is once again modernizing the connected nursery category. Today, the company announced the release of its newest AI-powered solution for parents - Smart Sheets - the first textile that allows parents to measure their baby's height and track their growth using their Nanit camera's computer vision technology.

Nanit's newest AI-powered solution Smart Sheets is the first textile that allows parents to measure their baby's height and track their growth using their Nanit camera's computer vision technology. Nanit transforms the crib with the launch of Smart Sheets giving parents the ability to track baby's height and growth in real-time at home using the Nanit camera.

Many parents can attest that measuring a wiggly baby with a ruler or tape measure can be difficult, and often inaccurate. With Smart Sheets and Nanit's award-winning HD nursery cameras, parents can now easily track and monitor their baby's height and growth progress. Parents simply lay their baby or toddler down on a Smart Sheet in the crib and let Nanit do the work. Parents use the in-app tools to mark the key measurement points on the baby, then Nanit's advanced computer vision processes the baby's height based on its calibration against the proprietary pattern printed on the Smart Sheet.

"Nanit was designed to help parents learn about their baby and support their journey during the first few years of a child's development," said Nanit CEO Sarah Dorsett. "We are excited to expand our offering with the introduction of Smart Sheets and to provide an incredible, safe new way for parents to easily stay connected to their child's health and well-being."

Parents can see a real-time reading of their baby's height in the Nanit app, and can then store those measurements and track growth progress over time. Further features including a growth chart and time-lapse video compilation will be rolled out later this year.

"Tracking a baby's height is an important and helpful way to understand their development in between doctor's visits. This can help provide parents and caregivers with a complete picture of their overall well-being when combined with Nanit's ability to monitor sleep and breathing motion," added Dr. Natalie Barnett, Director of Clinical Research at Nanit.

Smart Sheets are safe and effective with no sensors or electronics on the baby's skin or in their crib. Nanit's Smart Sheets are made of 100% cotton, machine washable and fit a standard full-size crib mattress (27.5 x 52 in / 70 x 132 cm). Available at launch in Pebble Grey, additional colors options will be released later this year. Smart Sheets will sell for $34.99, and work with all models of Nanit cameras, including the Nanit Original, Nanit Plus and the new Nanit Pro . One sheet will also be bundled into the new Nanit Pro Complete Monitoring System, which includes everything you need to track your baby's sleep, breathing motion and growth in one package starting at $379.

Smart Sheets are available for presale now on Nanit.com and launching at national retailers in the U.S. and Canada including Amazon, Best Buy, buybuy BABY, Target and more beginning February 21, 2021.

To purchase Nanit Smart Sheets or learn more about Nanit's smart baby products, visit nanit.com .

About Nanit

Nanit is on a mission to support the journey of parenting. The Nanit family of award-winning products keep parents connected and informed while providing personalized insights and guidance to support their baby's sleep and well-being. From the AI-powered Nanit HD camera that tracks and analyzes a baby's sleep and growth, real-time breathing motion monitoring with Breathing Wear , to capturing amazing moments with the in-app Memories feature, Nanit helps parents see and understand everything happening in and around the crib. Since launching in 2016, Nanit has tracked over 211 million hours of sleep, 42 million parental visits, and over 21 million morning wakeups. For more information, please visit www.nanit.com and follow Nanit on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

Media Contacts:

Jaime Cassavechia

EJ Media Group

212.518.4771 x. 108

[email protected]

Jodi Lefkowitz

Nanit

[email protected]

SOURCE Nanit

Related Links

http://www.nanit.com


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Jeffrey Epstein is seen cuddling a sleeping young girl on his lap while on board his private jet after a VIP visit to Walt Disney World, in disturbing photos obtained by DailyMail.com

The haunting images of the pedophile financier at 30,000ft provide a chilling look at the billionaire's unrestricted access to young girls.

Epstein is seen slumped back in a leather seat and looks at the girl while his arm is wrapped around her back and the other over her bare leg. She sleeps soundly following a long day at the Florida theme park with his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

There is no suggestion that the unidentified girl in the photograph was a victim of Epstein and her identity has remained anonymous.

Other shocking images show the disgraced financier enjoying himself at the resort and eating lunch surrounded by unsuspecting families at The Crystal Palace buffet restaurant in the Magic Kingdom.

Never-before-seen photos show Jeffrey Epstein cuddling a sleeping young girl on his private jet in 2004, DailyMail.com can reveal. Billionaire Epstein, who is slumped back in a leather seat, appears to be looking at the girl while his arm is wrapped around her back as she sleeps soundly following a long day at the world-famous Florida theme park with his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell

Other images show how families were oblivious to the rich and powerful businessman who was dining in their midst as costume character Tigger is seen in the background greeting guests

In one photograph Epstein is seen talking to the same little girl while Disney character Piglet poses with the group for a photograph. A source who was on the trip said, 'It was a fun day. We ate in a restaurant with two of Jeffrey's friends who he met there. Jeffrey however did not eat lunch. I hardly ever saw him eat at a restaurant. Food always had to be prepared by a personal chef'

A source who was on the trip to Disney World tells DailyMail.com of their horror at finding the images of Epstein at the theme park around 2004. 'We were given a VIP tour of the park and someone was escorting us around from ride to ride,' they said. 'The group never had to be in line for a ride or a rollercoaster  we went to the front of the line each time'

In one picture, Epstein is seen talking to the same little girl while in another photo Disney character Piglet posing with the group.

Other images show how families were oblivious to the rich and powerful businessman who was dining in their midst as costume character Tigger also greeted guests.

A source who was on the trip to Disney World tells DailyMail.com of their horror at discovering the tucked away images of Epstein at the theme park around 2004.

It wasn't until 2008 that Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and served just 13 months in jail. And then in July 2019 he was arrested on sex trafficking charges, but killed himself in prison a month later while awaiting trial.

'There is no doubt that picture is absolutely chilling based upon what everyone now knows about Epstein,' they said.

'It had been a long day and the girl just fell asleep in his arms. The picture is terrifying based upon what we know now but it was entirely innocent.'

The insider told how Epstein spared no expense for the trip and flew a group of ten people for the trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida on his dime.

Other guests included Ghislaine Maxwell, his personal assistant Sarah Kellen and Slovakian model Nadia Marcinkova, the source said.

This is Jeffrey Epstein's infamous 'Lolita Express' - a private Boeing 727 airliner that carried prominent passengers and allegedly underage girls. It was just one of the airplanes he owned

The insider told how Epstein spared no expense for the trip and flew a group of ten people for an all expenses paid trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Guests included Ghislaine Maxwell, his personal assistant Sarah Kellen (both left) and Slovakian model Nadia Marcinkova (right)

'We all boarded the jet after leaving his home in Palm Beach and then we took the short plane ride to Orlando where we were picked up and taken to Disney World,' the insider revealed.

'We were given a VIP tour of the park and someone was escorting us around from ride to ride,' they said. 'The group never had to be in line for a ride  we went to the front of the line each time.

Maxwell, the suspected child sex trafficker and former girlfriend of Epstein, is currently being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, as she awaits trial

'Jeffrey wouldn't go on any though. He didn't seem to like them. Perhaps it was something to do with not being in control, something which he liked to be all the time.

'It was a fun day. We ate in a restaurant with two of Jeffrey's friends who he met there. Jeffrey however did not eat lunch. I hardly ever saw him eat at a restaurant. Food always had to be prepared by a personal chef.

'That could be to do with his obsession with cleanliness or maybe a health thing.

'The day was actually very enjoyable and we stayed until late in the evening when we watched the parade, a water show and fireworks.

'After a long day we boarded the plane in Orlando and went back to Palm Beach. That was when the little girl fell asleep on his knee.

'It is so sinister to see him there nursing the youngster when the world now knows his terrible secrets and crimes.'

Meanwhile, Epstein's alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell has griped about her prison conditions once again, in a new court filing demanding she be granted access to her laptop because the computers inside the jail are 'very slow.'

The suspected child sex trafficker and former girlfriend of Epstein is currently being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, as she awaits trial.

In a letter to the federal court obtained by DailyMail.com Tuesday, attorney Bobbi Sternheim pushed back against the decision to block Maxwell from accessing her computer outside of the working week.

The filing also claimed prison guards have 'psychologically and physically abused' Maxwell and that her complaints had been met with 'reprisals'.
(Alliance News) - The top French health authority on Tuesday cleared AstraZeneca PLC's Covid-19 vaccine for use, but advised against giving it to people over 65.

The decision echoes an earlier verdict by Swedish authorities, but is at odds with the EU which last week approved the vaccine for adults of all ages.

France's HAS health authority also said that pharmacists would be authorised to administer the jabs produced by the Anglo-Swedish firm.

Tuesday's conditional backing for the vaccine comes days after President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that the vaccine was "quasi ineffective for people over 65."

Germany and Italy have also said that other vaccines should be given priority for the elderly.

The age controversy compounds a row over a shortfall in deliveries from AstraZeneca that has forced the EU to recalibrate its vaccination strategy.

The EU Commission said the firm had been able to guarantee just 25% of the more than 100 million doses promised, but on Sunday officials said the number would be boosted to 40 million.

Unlike vaccines by Pfizer Inc-BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc, the one made by AstraZeneca can be stored long-term in ordinary refrigeration units.

However its efficacy is reported at just 60%, compared with more than 90% for the rival coronavirus vaccines introduced earlier.

source: AFP

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Every team that has held a lead in this seasons Premier League title race have struggled to maintain the pace - and now we are about to find out if Man City can take the pressure.

The title is City's to lose now, as they have a seven-point advantage over Liverpool if they win their game in hand after Jurgen Klopp's champions opened the door for them with their slump in form over the last few weeks.

Now we wait to see whether Pep Guardiola and his players have what it takes to stay on top or whether they will bottle it again when the pressure is applied, as they have done in some big occasions over the last 18 months.

At least City know they wont have it all their own way, as Liverpool confirmed their blip was over with impressive wins against the London duo of Tottenham and West Ham in their last two games.

Expand Close Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will pit his wits against Pep Guardiolas Manchester City on Sunday (Martin Rickett/PA) / Facebook

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Yet that only repaired some of the damage that was done during last months alarming run of form for Klopps players.

Defeats against Southampton and Burnley, coupled with draws against West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle kicked a hole in Liverpools title defence and they need some help to get back into the race.

That help needs to come from City, as they are the only team likely to finish ahead of Liverpool this season.

Manchester United panicked when they went to the top of the table last month and they have been shown up as little more than top-four contenders in their last two games.

Tottenham had a month at the top, but they have fallen off the rails badly in the last few weeks, while the same could be said of Chelsea.

Everton even had a burst at the top of the table and their fans were giving me all kinds of abuse on Twitter for a few weeks, but they have gone very quiet now!

Now we get a chance to see if City can take the heat and they have their first test against Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday night.

When I tell you the aggregate score in matches between these two sides over the last three seasons is 28-2 in Citys favour, with a couple of FA Cup hammerings thrown into that calculation, it would suggest this might not be the night Guardiolas men slip up.

Yet how will they handle it if Liverpool beat them at Anfield on Sunday before they face games against Tottenham, Arsenal and West Ham?

Spurs and Arsenal have decent records against City in the last year or so and West Ham are in good form, even though Liverpool dealt with them comprehensively last Sunday.

So, the next month will tell us a lot about City and whether they have the mental strength and quality to deal with the reality that the Premier League title is in their hands.

They have injury problems of their own. Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero are missing for the next few weeks and without those two, Guardiolas side has struggled for goals.

Expand Close Sergio Aguero will miss Sunday's clash with Liverpool (Alex Livesey/PA) / Facebook

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Yet they appear to have clicked into gear over the last few weeks, with Liverpools slide in fortunes giving them all the encouragement they needed to step into the opening that was there for them.

Id expect City to win comfortably against Burnley, but their big tests lie ahead and it looks like Liverpool are ready to start the long pursuit to catch them at the top after the traumas of the last few weeks.

Part of me wonders whether Liverpool would be so far behind in the title race if Klopp had been allowed to bring in a couple of central defenders on January 1, as I suggested he should have done.

Yet thats not the way Liverpools owners work, as they try to bring money into the club from player sales before they commit too much the other way.

The loan signing of Ozan Kabak from Schalke and a deal to bring in Ben Davies from Preston were hardly big financial commitments and Klopp now has to try and work his magic with the tools he has at his disposal.

At least he has some defenders to work with now and that could mean Liverpool will finally get their midfield back in full working order ahead of the City showdown.

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Jordan Henderson has been a big loss in the engine room when he was required to slip back into a defensive role and the same could be said of Fabinho, who is a class act in his natural midfield role.

Its hard to see them getting through the rest of this season without a few more slip-ups and if that happens, City may be ready to capitalise again and cement their position as title favourites.

I expect Liverpool to beat Brighton at Anfield on Wednesday night and then all eyes will fall on the big one against Manchester City next Sunday.
Congressmen Jackie Speier and Adam Schiff have called on US President Joe Biden to break the silence over Azerbaijans and Turkeys aggression against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and put an end to US military aid to Azerbaijan.

Following years of tension, sporadic violence over the regions status, and the Azerbaijani governments frequent threats of military force and ethnic cleansing, Azerbaijan, with the assistance of Turkey, launched a full-scale assault with devastating consequences. Over the course of a brutal six-week war, sophisticated drones targeted Armenian soldiers from the air, mercenaries sent by Turkey fortified Azeri ground forces, and Azerbaijan overran Armenian defenses. After violating three internationally negotiated ceasefires, Azerbaijans forces advanced to within miles of the capital city of Stepanakert before a Russian-brokered agreement ended the fighting, the Congressmens article in San Francisco Chronicle reads.

Sadly, as this devastating outcome played out, the United States made only a half-hearted and ineffectual effort to end the fighting and ceded the primary leadership role to others. Russia stepped into the void. It will now be up to the Biden administration to unwind this disastrous outcome, Speier and Schiff said.

Biden has signaled he will focus on restoring the United States as a force for democracy and human rights around the world. This conflict and its aftermath represent an opportunity to do just that. It pits a democratic Armenia and Artsakh against autocratic regimes in Baku and Ankara who abuse human rights, imprison reporters and dissidents, and crush dissent. We must lead with our values instead of perpetuating a transactional foreign policy that looks the other way as Azerbaijan invades its neighbors and commits human-rights violations at home and abroad, they added.

The two Congressmen have outlined the US governments actions in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and have referred to the urgent need for the US to make itself heard through diplomacy again.

The OSCE Minsk Group, consisting of the United States, Russia, and France, was established in 1992 as the forum for diplomatic resolution of Nagorno-Karabakhs status. We must reinvigorate and reengage with the Minsk Group process and seize the opportunity to secure the release of over 150 Armenian prisoners of war still held by Azerbaijan, demand the protection of historic Christian churches and cultural landmarks throughout Nagorno-Karabakh, and seek accountability for apparent war crimes against Armenian civilians and soldiers. We must also provide additional humanitarian assistance to the tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled for fear of their lives.

Second, we must end our silence on Azerbaijans and Turkeys regional aggression and halt military aid to Azerbaijan, which has totaled over $100 million in the past two years. A country that shatters international norms to threaten and invade its neighbor is not one that U.S. taxpayers should be aiding and abetting.

We must also reassess our relationship with Turkey, which has always been complex, but has become increasingly untenable as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has amassed autocratic powers while undermining U.S. interests. In addition to encouraging, arming, and supplying Syrian mercenaries to wage war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkeys actions in Syria have set back U.S. interests and endangered our forces. Turkey even recently tested a new Russian anti-aircraft system that could weaken NATOs military advantage over Russia, despite our strong objections and threat of sanctions, they stated.

Speier and Schiff also recalled the adoption of the Armenian Genocide Resolution by the prevailing majority of Congress and declared that President Biden can make a strong and early endorsement of human rights by recognizing the Armenian Genocide in April.

"The Armenian Genocides wounds can never heal, but they are particularly painful at a time when Armenians once again face threats of ethnic cleansing, as both Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev echo the genocidal language of a century ago. Presidential recognition of the Armenian Genocide will reverberate across the world, making clear that America stands for human rights and against denial. As the values of human rights, democracy and freedom increasingly come under assault by autocrats, Americas leadership is needed more than ever. Our allies and adversaries are watching closely, the Congressmen concluded.
18 killed, church burned by suspected Islamic extremists in Congo overnight attack

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Suspected Islamic extremists killed at least 18 people, and burned down a church and several homes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in an overnight attack Wednesday, according to reports.

Reuters reports that an attack on Baeti Village in the North Kivu province was confirmed by the Army in DRC. The village lies about 12 miles west of the city of Oicha.

While officials declined to give a death toll, Kinos Katuho, the leader of a local civil rights group, told the outlet that at least 18 deaths have been tallied in a provisional death toll. He later told AFP that at least 19 were killed  17 men and two women.

Blame for the attack has been placed on the Allied Democratic Forces, a militant group based in neighboring Uganda that has also been active in the North Kivu province and accused of killing hundreds this year alone.

Masisa Mushogoro, who heads a development committee in the villlage, told Reuters that the attack created a pain in our hearts as well as total panic in the village.

We dont know if tomorrow the ADF will come back here again, Mushogoro said.

Janvier Kasairio, a local representative for a civil society group, told AFP that between 15 to 20 people were killed and several homes were torched.

Katuho told AFP that 40 houses and a church were burned down and several people are missing.

"The army was alerted but did not intervene," he was quoted as saying.

However, a spokesperson for the armed forces told AFP when asked about Katuhos claim that it "cannot react to this nonsense.

ADF has been active in the Beni territory of North Kivu province for three decades. However, military campaigns against the militant group that began last fall have caused the faction to disperse into smaller groups that have spread out to neighboring territories, where the number of attacks has increased, according to the United Nations.

Over the last two years, the ADF has intensified and expanded its attacks on civilian communities in DRCs eastern provinces. An unofficial count cited by AFP finds that at least 600 civilians have been killed by ADF since the military crackdown began last year.

According to the U.N., ADF attacks in the last year-and-a-half have led to the death of over 1,000 people and wounded many others. The U.N. also states that the ADFs actions might amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

AFP reports that ADF has never claimed responsibility for the attacks. But some of its attacks have been claimed by the Islamic States Central African Province. However, there is no clear evidence of close collaboration between the two groups.

In May, ADF was blamed for a series of attacks on villages in the Ituri province in which 57 people were killed. In January, ADF was blamed for a series of attacks in the Beni territory in which at least 36 people were hacked to death with machetes.

According to the Kivu Security Tracker, a research initiative that monitors violence in the region, there have been over 3,771 violent deaths in the province since 2017.


Who gets the vaccine first will depend on the level of community transmission.

The Ministry of Health has outlined a general framework for the rollout of Covid-19 vaccine in New Zealand, but remains guarded about precisely how it will be accomplished in Mahurangi.

A Ministry of Health spokesperson said the Ministry was working alongside District Health Boards (DHBs) around the country to establish the workforce required for different communities.

This is likely to use a mix of different providers and a mix of existing health facilities and new locations.

Well work with each DHB to work out what the best way is for people living in their community, the spokesperson said.

For its part, the Waitemata District Health Board, whose jurisdiction covers most of the Mahurangi area, says all comment on the rollout must come from the Ministry.

Coast to Coast Health Care director Dr Tim Malloy says the lack of information is both worrying and disappointing.

Coast to Coast runs seven clinics between Warkworth and Paparoa, and tests for Covid at its Warkworth and Wellsford clinics.

Given theres a real possibility we are going to be involved, it would be nice to be advised what that involvement might look like, he says.

From our perspective, theres a lot of pre-planning that has to go into organising that service, so the more warning we get the better.

Nevertheless, he says local GPs are giving the Ministry some grace because of the logistical challenges involved.

Meanwhile, the Ministry expects vaccinations for the highest risk groups will start in April, gradually spread to lower-risk groups over time. Vaccinations will be free and not compulsory.

Deciding who gets the vaccine first will depend on the level of community transmission (if any) at the time vaccination begins.

Assuming there is little or no community transmission, the first priority will be workers at the border and managed isolation facilities, health workers with a high risk of exposure to Covid-19, and household contacts of both groups.

However, should there be widespread community transmission, the priority will switch to older people, people under 65 with underlying health conditions and people living in long-term residential care.

The Ministry of Health is planning to employ an extra 2000 to 3000 vaccinators to be deployed where needed. Training of specialist vaccinators is due to start this month and will then be extended to nurses, doctors and pharmacists throughout the country.

The Ministry is currently procuring extra freezers to store the vaccine.

A Ministry spokesperson says the Covid vaccine presents difficulties because of the ultra-low temperatures required and the short shelf life of the vaccine once it emerges from cold storage.

Meanwhile, Dr Malloy warns that the arrival of a vaccine is no cause for complacency in respect to hygiene and use of NZ Covid Tracer app, particularly with the emergence of more dangerous strains of the virus.

He says if the set of circumstances that occurred in the United Kingdom  which has already begun vaccination, yet suffered from an outbreak of a more virulent strain of the virus  had occurred in New Zealand, then our health system would have become completely overrun and non-functional.

There are all sorts of threats that remain out there that we have to be wary of  and then be ready to respond whatever that challenge is, he says.
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This year our dine and drink business locations throughout the Gorge have suffered with closures. You can help support your favorites by purchasing take out and gift cards. Many of these business will offer curb-side delivery and some will deliver to your home. Lets keep the Gorge going strong!
DUBLIN, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Vessel Monitoring System Software Market Forecast to 2027 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Vessel Type (Fishing Vessels and Others) and Application (Fisheries Management and Others)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

According to this report the global vessel monitoring software market was valued at US$ 457.29 million in 2019 and is projected to reach US$ 1168.85 million by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.8% from 2019 to 2027.



The report highlights the key factors driving the market growth, and prominent players and their developments in the market.



The increasing demand from fisheries and cargo vessel sectors to have an eye on trade to curb unauthorized dealings. Countries such as Thailand and South Korea have started using VMS software to monitor their vessels and ensuring that fisheries are carrying marine products legally. Another factor is the need for a mandatory environment to install VMS. Backed by government support, VMS is a standard system of fisheries monitoring and control globally. The European government has mandated that all European countries should have this system to transmit the data quickly and allow the commission to monitor effectively. Besides, increasing international trade of goods other than fisheries at a large scale is projected to influence the demand for advanced tracking solutions such as VMS software. Additionally, by integrating automatic identification system-based tools and other sophisticated techniques, VMS's adoption rate among the end-user industries would increase exponentially. As mentioned earlier, the integration of the systems will assist in managing critical challenges related to each mile-marker, terminal, anchorage, and buoy. Those as mentioned earlier are projected to fuel the market growth during the forecast period.



Applied Satellite Technology Ltd; Beijing Highlander Digital Technology Co., Ltd.; BlueTraker; CLS Fisheries; ORBCOMM Inc; Orolia Maritime; Satlink S.L.; ShipNet; SRT Marine Systems plc; THINKmarine Co., Ltd.; Trackwell, Visma; and Wartsila Corporation are the leading players operating in the vessel monitoring system software market. Several other players are also functioning and are contributing significant revenues in the vessel monitoring system software market.



COVID-19 Impact on Global Vessel Monitoring System Software Market



The increasing spread of virus has urged governments across the globe to impose strict restrictions on the movement of humans and vehicles. The lockdown imposition has resulted in lesser production of goods and commodities. The vessel monitoring market players also experienced a slowdown in the volumes attributing to the fact that the production units were operating with a limited workforce. This has had a negative impact on the market.



The COVID-19 has spread significantly across APAC and North America. Europe and SAM regions are also hit hard. The regions have significant numbers of market players. The ICT and transportation industries are adversely affected due to COVID-19, and since the start of 2020, these industries have been reflecting declining trend. With the imposition of lockdown across countries in North America, Europe, and Asia, the industries have been witnessing declining trend. The fisheries industry requires a significant number of human labors, and on the contrary, the COVID-19 virus is spreading through human involvement, the sector is unable to function properly. Compared to that of 2017, the vessel activities were reduced by over 69% during the lockdown, the fishing activities were reduced by 84% and the passenger traffic by 78%.



Reasons to Buy:

Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the global vessel monitoring system software market

Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies

The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the global vessel monitoring system software market, thereby allowing players across the value chain to develop effective long-term strategies

Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets

Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it

Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to client products, segmentation, pricing and distribution

Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction

1.1 Study Scope

1.2 Report Guidance

1.3 Market Segmentation



2. Key Takeaways



3. Research Methodology

3.1 Coverage

3.2 Secondary Research

3.3 Primary Research



4. Vessel Monitoring System Software Market Landscape

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 PEST Analysis

4.2.1 North America

4.2.2 Europe

4.2.3 Asia - Pacific

4.2.4 Middle East & Africa

4.2.5 South America

4.3 Ecosystem Analysis

4.4 Expert Opinion

4.5 Premium Insights - RFMOs

4.5.1 North Atlantic Ocean - NAFO, NEAFC

4.5.2 Southeast Atlantic Ocean - SEAFO

4.5.3 Southern Ocean - CCAMLR

4.5.4 South Pacific Ocean - SPRFMO

4.5.5 Southern Indian Ocean - SIOFA

4.5.6 Mediterranean & the Black Sea - GFCM

4.5.7 North Pacific - NPFC



5. Vessel Monitoring System Software Market - Key Industry Dynamics

5.1 Market Drivers

5.1.1 Rising Need for Tracking due to Unauthorized Activities

5.1.2 Escalating Growth in Fisheries Application

5.2 Market Restraint

5.2.1 High Costs Involved

5.3 Market Opportunity

5.3.1 Growing opportunities for Cargo Tracking

5.4 Future Trend

5.4.1 Integration with Advanced Technologies

5.5 Impact Analysis of Drivers and Restraints



6. Vessel Monitoring System - Global Market Analysis

6.1 Vessel Monitoring System Software Market Global Overview

6.2 Vessel Monitoring System Software Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2027 (US$ Million)

6.3 Market Positioning - Global Market Players Ranking



7. Vessel Monitoring System Software Market Revenue and Forecast to 2027 - Vessel Type

7.1 Overview

7.2 Global Vessel Monitoring System Software Market Breakdown, By Vessel Type, 2019 & 2027

7.3 Fishing Vessel

7.3.1 Overview

7.3.2 Fishing Vessel Market Forecast and Analysis

7.5 Others

7.5.1 Overview

7.5.2 Others Market Forecast and Analysis



8. Vessel Monitoring System Software Market Revenue and Forecast to 2027 - Application

8.1 Overview

8.2 Global Vessel Monitoring System Software Market Breakdown, By Application, 2019 & 2027

8.3 Fisheries Management

8.3.1 Overview

8.3.2 Fisheries Management Market Forecast and Analysis

8.4 Others

8.4.1 Overview

8.4.2 Others Market Forecast and Analysis



9. Vessel Monitoring System Software Market - Geographic Analysis

9.1 Overview

9.2 North America: Vessel Monitoring System Software Market

9.3 Europe: Vessel Monitoring System Software Market

9.4 APAC: Vessel Monitoring System Software Market

9.5 MEA: Vessel Monitoring System Software Market

9.6 SAM: Vessel Monitoring System Software Market



10. Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak

10.1 Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Vessel Monitoring System Software Market

10.1.1 North America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

10.1.2 Europe: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

10.1.3 Asia-Pacific: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

10.1.4 Middle East and Africa: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

10.1.5 South America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic



11. Industry Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Market Initiative

11.3 Contracts



12. Company Profiles

12.1 ORBCOMM Inc.

12.1.1 Key Facts

12.1.2 Business Description

12.1.3 Products and Services

12.1.4 Financial Overview

12.1.5 SWOT Analysis

12.1.6 Key Developments

12.2 Applied Satellite Technology Ltd

12.2.1 Key Facts

12.2.2 Business Description

12.2.3 Products and Services

12.2.4 Financial Overview

12.2.5 SWOT Analysis

12.2.6 Key Developments

12.3 Beijing Highlander Digital Technology Co., Ltd.

12.3.1 Key Facts

12.3.2 Business Description

12.3.3 Products and Services

12.3.4 Financial Overview

12.3.5 SWOT Analysis

12.3.6 Key Developments

12.4 BlueTraker

12.4.1 Key Facts

12.4.2 Business Description

12.4.3 Products and Services

12.4.4 Financial Overview

12.4.5 SWOT Analysis

12.4.6 Key Developments

12.5 CLS Fisheries

12.5.1 Key Facts

12.5.2 Business Description

12.5.3 Products and Services

12.5.4 Financial Overview

12.5.5 SWOT Analysis

12.5.6 Key Developments

12.6 Orolia Maritime

12.6.1 Key Facts

12.6.2 Business Description

12.6.3 Products and Services

12.6.4 Financial Overview

12.6.5 SWOT Analysis

12.6.6 Key Developments

12.7 Trackwell

12.7.1 Key Facts

12.7.2 Business Description

12.7.3 Products and Services

12.7.4 Financial Overview

12.7.5 SWOT Analysis

12.7.6 Key Developments

12.8 ShipNet

12.8.1 Key Facts

12.8.2 Business Description

12.8.3 Products and Services

12.8.4 Financial Overview

12.8.5 Financial Overview

12.8.6 SWOT Analysis

12.8.7 Key Developments

12.9 Wartsila Corporation

12.9.1 Key Facts

12.9.2 Business Description

12.9.3 Products and Services

12.9.4 Financial Overview

12.9.5 SWOT Analysis

12.9.6 Key Developments

12.10 THINKmarine Co., Ltd.

12.10.1 Key Facts

12.10.2 Business Description

12.10.3 Products and Services

12.10.4 Financial Overview

12.10.5 SWOT Analysis

12.10.6 Key Developments

12.11 Visma

12.11.1 Key Facts

12.11.2 Business Description

12.11.3 Products and Services

12.11.4 Financial Overview

12.11.5 SWOT Analysis

12.11.6 Key Developments

12.12 Satlink S.L.

12.12.1 Key Facts

12.12.2 Business Description

12.12.3 Products and Services

12.12.4 Financial Overview

12.12.5 SWOT Analysis

12.12.6 Key Developments

12.13 SRT Marine Systems plc

12.13.1 Key Facts

12.13.2 Business Description

12.13.3 Products and Services

12.13.4 Financial Overview

12.13.5 SWOT Analysis

12.13.6 Key Developments



13. Appendix

13.1 About the Publisher

13.2 Word Index



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/m9nylk

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After a long delay, finally, Nokia is rolling out the stable Android 11 update for the Nokia 8.3 5G. Apparently, this is the first Nokia devices to be served with Android 11 firmware.

The Finnish company is running behind its original schedule. Because as per the original roadmap, Nokia phones should have received the Android 11 update in Q4 of 2020. However, the update is rolling out now, i.e. almost halfway of Q1 2021.

Android 11 does not bring a bunch of aesthetic changes, and you would barely notice any changes if you are coming from Android 10. But there are several fine tunings and improvements to the already existing features that will make your day-to-day usage easier.

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For instance, it packs chat bubbles, a conversation section in the notifications area, a one-time permissions option, volume adjustment interface change, dedicated media playback widget, etc.

Nokia 8.3 5G is the same phone that is used in the Bond 007 movie. The phone is an overall decent mid-range offering from Nokia, but could not create the impact that it was meant to.

Coming back to the update, as per an official announcement, the Nokia 8.3 5G Android 11 update is live for users in limited regions in the first batch as it is rolling out in waves.

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The Nokia 8.3 5G Android 11 rollout is expected to be 100% complete by February 7

As usual, the update is rolling out via OTA in batches. So, it will take some time before reaching all the Nokia 8.3 5G units across the globe.

The regions where the update is currently rolling out includes Bahrain, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Macau, Morocco, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Tunisia, UAE, USA, Vietnam.

These markets will receive the Android 11 gradually only. Notably, 10% of Nokia 8.3 5G users will receive the Android 11 update. While 50% of the update will reach users by February 5. It is expected to be completed by 100% by February 7, 2021.

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Note that Nokia 8.3 5G runs on Android One. You can check for the update manually by heading over to Settings>>System. Then you need to go to Advanced>>System Update. Here tap the Check for update button to see if the update is available in your region or not.

If the phone detects the update, then you can follow the on-screen instructions shown on your phone and begin downloading the update.

Now that the Android 11 update has begun rolling out, Nokia has some catching up to do. As per the official roadmap, eight Nokia phones were expected to get updated with Android 11.
Sofia Kenin played only one set on her return to Melbourne as her opponent retired

Sofia Kenin admitted Tuesday she was "very nervous" ahead of her Australian Open title defence, but returning to the site of her breakout triumph had rekindled special memories.

The world number four's much-awaited return to Melbourne Park was brief after her opponent Camila Giorgi retired with a thigh injury after one set at the Yarra Valley Classic.

Kenin clinched a tight first set 7-5 but was hoping for more court action having lost in the quarter-finals of last month's season-opening WTA event in Abu Dhabi when top seed.

The 22-year-old was back at the scene of her stunning breakthrough Grand Slam title last year, where she beat Garbine Muguruza in three sets.

Kenin said the prospect of defending a major will be a new challenge when the Australian Open starts on February 8.

"Obviously very nervous. It's the first time I'm experiencing coming back to a Grand Slam where I want to try to defend my title," she said.

"Of course, there's nerves, but I'm going to do my best and we're going to see how it goes."

The American emerged as a serious force in last year's truncated circuit, continuing her momentum from Melbourne by reaching the French Open final and rising to a career-high four in the world rankings.

"I feel like with the matches I've had, the success I had last year, helps me," she said.

"I feel like it's going to be a little bit of a rollercoaster next Monday or Tuesday, whenever I play. I feel like the fans will see a little bit more emotion."

Having emerged from a mandatory 14-day quarantine, where she was allowed to practise five hours a day with former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, Moscow-born Kenin said she was excited about being back in Melbourne.

"It's really special. Super glad to be here," she said. "I'm trying to somehow handle the emotions on court.

"I'm happy with the win, the way I played ... just made a little bit too many unforced errors."

She faces Germany's Mona Barthel or Jessica Pegula of the United States next.

tl/mp/dh
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP)  Authorities say a southern Mississippi sheriffs deputy has been fatally shot while responding to a call of an attempted suicide.

Hancock County Sheriff Ricky Adam told the Sun Herald that Lt. Michael Boutte was shot as he tried to get out of his vehicle Monday near a home.

Adam says the suspect then fired at a second responding deputy who returned fire and injured the suspect.

Boutte was airlifted to a New Orleans hospital and later pronounced dead.

The unidentified suspect was also hospitalized. Boutte was an Air Force veteran who had been in law enforcement for eight years.
[February 02, 2021] ADVANCE.AI Launches 'Advance Intelligence Group' Parent Brand

SINGAPORE, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ADVANCE.AI, a homegrown AI and big data company in Asia helping to solve digital transformation, fraud prevention, and process automation for enterprise clients, is today formally announcing its corporate parent brand Advance Intelligence Group . Backed by a number of leading investors including Temasek subsidiary Pavilion Capital and several top tier venture funds the Series-C AI-driven technology company has raised over US$100 million in equity and leverages innovative technology and partnerships to build an ecosystem of products and services serving consumers, enterprises, and merchants. Headquartered in Singapore, Advance Intelligence Group operates across Southeast Asia, India and Greater China and consists of two main business lines. ENTERPRISE BUSINESS The group's enterprise business, ADVANCE.AI provides AI-based (digital identity verification, video eKYC) and risk products (alternative credit scoring, anti-fraud and anti-identity theft) to key focus sectors include banking and financial services, retail, and e-commerce industries. ADVANCE.AI's API call volume for its cloud-based software more than doubled last year to reach almost 800 million as digitalisaion across the financial services and retail sectors accelerated due to COVID19. Last year, it was also named in LinkedIn Top 10 Start-ups in Singapore, awarded "Best International Fintech" at India's Fintech Awards and listed in the "Next Global Tech 50: Artificial Intelligence" shortlist by global investment research firm Equal Ocean. In 2021, ADVANCE.AI's expansion plans include serving the UK, European and Latin American markets with growing demand for cloud-based eKYC identity verification and broader AI-based anti-fraud solutions.



Meanwhile, its cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and omni-channel management platform, Genie, has also grown to support more than 30,000 SMEs and processed nearly 30 million e-commerce orders in less than a year, integrating with all major e-commerce platforms in Indonesia. CONSUMER BUSINESS

Its consumer business, Atome Financial, provides 'buy now pay later' and digital lending services under its Atome and Kredit Pintar brands. Atome Financial works with some of the world's most respected financial institutions who provide over $200 million in funding and credit facilities to propel its mission to enhance product access and financial inclusion across the region. Since inception, it has served over 5 million users in the region and cumulatively provided more than USD 1 billion of credit to empower merchants and consumers. Atome, Asia's leading buy now pay later platform, partners with over 2,000 retail brands including Agoda, Sephora, Zara, Pull&Bear, Aldo, Furla and Marks & Spencer in six markets. Meanwhile, Kredit Pintar is one of Indonesia's top digital lending apps, having been downloaded over 10 million times with 1.5 million customer reviews on the Google Play store and has an average 4.8-star rating out of 5. Jefferson Chen, Co-Founder and Chairman of Advance Intelligence Group, said: "After four years of rapid growth, we are introducing our Advance Intelligence Group as our parent brand to better reflect the breadth and depth of products that we offer. Covid-19 was a test of our technology, adaptability and leadership strength. We are on the fast track of global expansion against the backdrop of rapid digitalisation across the industries and partners we serve. Being customer- and data-centric are key pillars of our company philosophy. We strive to continue our journey of "advance with intelligence for a better life" under this new group umbrella". A media kit is available here . About Advance Intelligence Group Advance Intelligence Group is a Series-C AI-driven technology company in Asia-Pacific. Founded in 2016, it leverages innovative technology and partnerships to build an ecosystem of products and services serving consumers, enterprises and merchants. Its enterprise business, ADVANCE.AI and Genie, provide facial recognition, OCR, credit scoring and omni-channel ERP management solutions to financial services, retail and other industries. Its consumer business, Atome Financial, provides "buy now, pay later" and digital lending products in both developed and emerging markets. The Group is headquartered in Singapore and has presence across Southeast Asia, India and Greater China. Contact: Michael de Waal-Montgomery

Ellerton & Co. Public Relations

michael@ellerton.sg SOURCE ADVANCE.AI

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"Never allow a good crisis [to] go to waste. It's an opportunity to do the things you once thought were impossible."

Thus did chief of staff Rahm Emanuel advise Barack Obama on the financial crisis he inherited in 2009.

Following the Capitol riot by a mob of pro-Donald Trump protesters, the left took Rahm's counsel, seizing upon and exploiting the episode ever since to paint the right as America's safe harbor for "domestic terrorism."

According to leftist columnists and commentators, going back to the '60s, the real threat of domestic terrorism has always come from the right.

That is not, however, how some of us remember those days.

The most destructive acts of violence in the '60s were the urban race riots that began in Harlem in July 1964, when 15-year-old black youth James Powell was shot by a police lieutenant.

In 1965, Watts blew up, followed by Newark and Detroit in 1967.

In 1968, 100 U.S. cities exploded in racial violence after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4.

Anti-war riots followed the urban riots, beginning with an attack on the Pentagon in October 1967 and the occupation of Columbia University in 1968. That August, leftists ignited a riot at the Democratic Convention that nominated Hubert Humphrey in Chicago.

After President Richard Nixon took office in 1969, a mass anti-war protest in Washington, D.C., spun off a mob that trashed the Department of Justice. A riot at Kent State in May 1970 precipitated the killing of four students by the Ohio National Guard, and follow-on riots on scores of campuses that shut down higher education for the rest of that spring semester.

That same year, terrorists in a Greenwich Village townhouse blew themselves up with a 2,000-pound bomb they were making to massacre noncommissioned officers and their wives and girlfriends at a dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. This was followed two months later by an explosion that blew up the mathematics building at the University of Wisconsin, killing a father of three.

As Nixon speechwriter Ray Price recorded in his memoir, between Jan. 1, 1969, and April 15, 1970, "More than 40,000 bombings, attempted bombings and bomb threats, were recorded in the United States.

"In the 1969-1970 school year there were 1782 demonstrations, 7561 arrests, 8 people killed, and 462 injured, [299 of those injured were police]. There were 247 cases of campus arson and 282 attacks on ROTC facilities."

The criminals responsible for this carnage were leftists.

What about 2020, the year of mass protests that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.

According to the London Daily Mail, with the riots, arson and looting that began in Minneapolis spreading to Portland, Seattle and 140 other cities, the National Guard was called out in 21 states, six people died, scores of police were injured and between $1 billion and $2 billion in property was damaged or destroyed.

According to insurance company figures, it was the costliest urban violence since the LA riot of 1992, when a Simi Valley jury acquitted the four cops involved in the beating of Rodney King.

Other forms of "domestic terrorism" are far more common but all too frequently ignored because we Americans have come to take them for granted.

As Heather Mac Donald wrote in The Wall Street Journal just days ago:

"The year 2020 likely saw the largest percentage increase in homicides in American history. Murder was up nearly 37% in a sample of 57 large and medium-sized cities. Based on preliminary estimates, at least 2,000 more Americans, most of them black, were killed in 2020 than in 2019.

"Dozens of children, overwhelmingly black, were killed in drive-by shootings. They were slain in their beds, living rooms and strollers. They were struck down at barbecues, in their yards, in malls, in their parents' cars, and at birthday parties. Fifty-five children were killed in Chicago in 2020, 17 in St. Louis, and 11 in Philadelphia."

While the riot was taking place at the Capitol, where a cop and four protesters lost their lives, less-noted lethal events were happening all over America in the first days of the new year. Writes Mac Donald:

"The anarchy of 2020 has continued into 2021. Shootings in South Los Angeles rose 742% in the first two weeks of the year. In Oakland, homicides were up 500% and shootings up 126% through Jan. 17. In New York, murders were up 42% and shooting victims up 15% through Jan. 17."

The truth: The vast majority of criminals who rob, rape, shoot and kill Americans in the tens of thousands each year, and the people who did almost all of the rioting, looting, arson and assaults on cops in 2020, never wore MAGA hats.

Pas d'ennemis a gauche. No enemies on the left. The enemy is always to be found on the right. And because reality contradicts this central tenet of liberal ideology, it cannot ever be conceded.

COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM
Mumbai, Feb 2 : Actress Kangana Ranaut, who has reportedly gifted new flats to her siblings Rangoli, Aksht and two cousins in Chandigarh, on Tuesday said she was fortunate that she could share her wealth with family.

"I want to encourage people to share their wealth with their family. Remember happiness multiplies when it's shared, they are beautiful luxury apartments under construction will be ready in 2023 but I am very fortunate that I could do this for my family," Kangana tweeted.

The four under-construction properties cost Rs 4 crore as per an E Times report.

On the work front, Kangana will next be seen in "Thalaivi", where she essays late actress-turned-politician J Jayalalithaa. The actress also has "Tejas", "Dhaakad" and "Manikarnika: The legend Of Didda" lined up.
OPEC and its allies can celebrate their success in buoying world oil markets when they gather this week. But the coalition will soon be faced with some tough choices.

Last months pledge by Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman to slash production by a further 1 million barrels a day has buttressed global markets against the latest onslaught from the pandemic. A price rebound to $57 a barrel in London is shoring up the producers revenues.

While that relieves OPEC+ of any need to adjust policy on Wednesday, itll need to start considering how long to restrain output -- a calculation clouded by the potential return of supply from fellow member Iran.

MOVING UP: Oil surges to 1-year high

At the heart of the dilemma is a fundamental tension between the Saudis and their most critical partner in the alliance, Russia. While Riyadh has sought higher prices to cover government spending, Moscow -- without the same pressures -- agitates to claw back market share.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salmans doctrine that you err on the side of caution has been vindicated, said Helima Croft, chief commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets On Wednesday, we might get the contours of the arguments that will be made next month.

Delicate cuts

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners have resolved this year to restore some of the 7.2 million barrels of daily output -- roughly 7 percent of global supplies -- they continue to idle after making vast production cuts when the pandemic erupted last spring.

The restrictions have proved effective, turning around an oil market that last April briefly saw prices plunge below zero in New York, and throwing a financial lifeline to producers around the world -- from tiny African states to corporate giants.

Restoring the halted production, however, is turning out to be a delicate process.

Although OPEC+ is scheduled to revive a total of 2 million barrels a day this year, it agreed a two-month pause after the first 500,000-barrel installment in January as new virus infections menaced fuel demand. Riyadh doubled down on the curbs by announcing an extra 1 million-barrel cutback of its own.

On Wednesday, a panel that oversees the alliances strategy -- the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee -- will convene online to assess the outlook. The JMMC is unlikely to recommend new policies, which will instead be tackled at the next full OPEC+ meeting in early March, according to delegates who asked not to be identified.

The Saudi cut has bought OPEC+ some time, said Bill Farren-Price, a director at research firm Enverus and veteran observer of the cartel.

The question of what to do next will loom over their discussions on Wednesday.

Prince Abdulazizs preference for keeping output constrained has been validated by a bumpy roll-out of vaccines, and renewed lockdowns in key consumers such as China. Major oil traders agree the market wont fully recover until air travel picks up, sometime in the third quarter.

Shale dilemma

Russia on the other hand fears that supporting prices too long will backfire, provoking investment in U.S. shale oil and a flood of new supply that will negate OPEC+s hard work. At last months meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak proposed a production increase, and tried to dissuade the Saudi Prince from his unilateral cut.

It is going to be a hell of fight at the OPEC+ March meeting, said Helge Andre Martinsen, senior oil market analyst at DNB Bank ASA. Russia will consider it a massive failure if OPEC+ cuts starts to stimulate growth in U.S. shale again, while at the same time theyre sitting on plenty of spare capacity.

Russia isnt the only member that might push for relaxing the curbs.

Iraq is in the grip of an economic crisis and desperately needs the revenues that would come from higher oil sales. The United Arab Emirates is seeking to promote a benchmark oil contract that depends on plentiful output, and last year briefly broke ranks with Riyadh to open the taps.

Then theres the complication of Iran.

President Joe Biden is seeking to reactivate a nuclear agreement that would lift U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic, allowing the return of almost 2 million barrels of daily output. With the end of the maximum pressure campaign waged by former President Donald Trump, Iranian exports have already crept higher.

Still, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says an agreement remains a long way off. As the two sides jockey for leverage -- and Tehran presses on with uranium enrichment -- they could be headed for a new rupture rather than reconciliation, according to RBCs Croft. Instead of extra barrels, markets may need to brace for a geopolitical tremor, she cautions.

But if a deal is struck, OPEC+ will need to choose between cutting output further, or seeing their efforts to drain surplus oil stockpiles founder. Its unclear how readily Saudi Arabia would make way for the comeback of its political nemesis.

Irans export hike is another emerging challenge for OPEC+, said Farren-Price. Its one they may need to factor into their plans sooner rather than later.
[February 02, 2021] Onset Financial Funds $63M in January, 2021!

Onset (News - Alert) Financial, a leading independent equipment leasing company in the U.S., achieved another unprecedented January with $63M in fundings, making it the highest funding month in company history. This accomplishment is subsequent to Onset's record-breaking 2020. For the third consecutive year, Onset has started off with a record-breaking January. Justin Nielsen, Utah Business CEO of the Year for 2020, has built a team at Onset with industry standouts in their respective fields, all who have a relentless passion to provide excellence for their customers. "We are thrilled to have achieved another record-breaking January, coming off of our best year ever," said Melinda Haynes, President, "Our priority has always been to exceed our client expectations by providing excellent execution in getting them their needed captal fast. That focus is helping to make great things happen at Onset."



"This month was our best yet, thanks to the collective effort from our tremendous team, key partnerships, and clients. Beginning 2021 with such extraordinary success is empowering and we are looking forward to continuing this momentum throughout the year," said Justin Nielsen, Founder and CEO of Onset Financial. Onset was named the nation's 12th largest Independent Equipment Leasing Company in 2020 by Monitor Daily Magazine.

About Onset Financial, Inc. - Founded in 2008, Onset Financial, Inc. is an industry leader in equipment leasing and financing. Onset's seasoned Management Team has decades of equipment leasing experience and key industry relationships that enable Onset to offer additional flexibility in lease structuring. For more information please call 801-878-0600 or visit www.onsetfinancial.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005763/en/

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[February 02, 2021] Operation HOPE Adds Ambassador Andrew Young and Harley Finkelstein to its Global Board of Advisors

Operation HOPE today announced that civil rights icon Ambassador Andrew Young and Shopify President Harley Finkelstein have joined the HOPE Global Board of Advisors. Ambassador Young, Chairman of the Andrew Young Foundation and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, U.S. Representative and Mayor of Atlanta, and Mr. Finkelstein, President of Shopify, the leading global commerce company powering more than one million entrepreneurs and businesses, join a distinguished Board that consists of some of the country's top executives in business, banking and the non-profit and NGO sector. HOPE Global Advisory Board members provide guidance and support for Operation HOPE in its commitment to provide financial literacy education and economic empowerment for individuals and small business owners living in under-served communities. Ambassador Young has been the long-time Global Spokesman for Operation HOPE as well as the Co-Chair and regular speaker at the HOPE Global Forums Annual Meeting. Mr. Finkelstein and Shopify recently partnered with Operation HOPE to launch the HOPE One Million New Black Business & New Black Entrepreneurship Initiative (1MBB) with a goal to help create one million new Black-owned businesses in the U.S. by 2030. As President of Shopify, Mr. Finkelstein oversees the company's commercial teams, growth and external affairs. He previously served as Shopify's Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining the company in 2010, he founded numerous startups and ecommerce companies. Recently, he received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year Award, Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award, and was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. Harley has also served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the C100. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Concordia University and a J.D./M.B.A. from the University of Ottawa. Ambassador Andrew Young was a key confidant and strategist to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the critical years of the civil rights movement. In 1972, he was elected to represent Georgia's 5th district, the first African-American elected from the South since Reconstruction. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the first African-American to do so. In that role, Ambassador Young established the framework for international negotiations that led to democracy in several nations in Southern Africa. Ambassador Young served as Mayor of Atlanta from 1982-1990, bringing jobs and $70 billion in private investment to the City during a recession. His leadership, vision and global reputation were instrumental in bringing the Centennial Olympic Games to Atlanta in 1996. Ambassador Young retired from GoodWorks International, LLC, in 2012 after well over a decade of facilitating sustainable economic development in the busiess sectors of the Caribbean and Africa. Ambassador Young has received honorary degrees from more than 100 universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad. His many awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the NAACP's Springarn Medal and France's Legion d'honneur, the nation's greatest honor.



"I am extremely pleased and honored to welcome Harley Finkelstein and Ambassador Andrew Young, two exceptional leaders and friends of Operation HOPE, to the Global Board of Advisors," said John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Operation HOPE. "Harley Finkelstein personifies the 'PhDo' approach I speak of regularly, and through his leadership at Shopify, has helped to supercharge our 1 Million Black Business Initiative. Harley does not see a differentiating line between heart and head, or morals vs money. He sees them, as I do, as integrated - that you can do the right thing, ignite growth for people, the private company, and country together. I love the way he thinks, and even better, how he leads.

"Like most of us, I have known 'of' Ambassador Young for most of my life, but getting to 'know' Ambassador Young as the incredible citizen of the world that he is has been one of the great gifts of my life. Ambassador Young has served as our Global Spokesperson for over a decade, and has been instrumental in the significant growth Operation HOPE has experienced. "Ambassador Young is my personal hero, and a true moral role model for all who desire to prove that we are one family, living in different home addresses. This is how Young lives his life, as a giver. He has also proven that decency and dignity, and consideration of others, when running and building an economy, works better than most any other model. This was the case during his time as mayor of Atlanta, or co-chair of the Atlanta Olympic Games, or serving on the board of Delta Airlines, convincing them to fly to Africa for the first time. Atlanta is now the biggest economy in the southeast, and the only international city in the American South, and Delta Airlines, one of the best airlines in the world. "As the last living link to the incredible journey for social and economic justice started by Dr. King so many decades ago, we are truly honored to have Ambassador Young share his wisdom, perspective and brilliance to help guide us on this unprecedented journey forward." "John Bryant and Operation HOPE have developed an approach to America that starts with the least of God's children, offering people a hand-up, not a hand-out. I see the work of Operation HOPE as picking-up where we left off in the great struggle for Civil Rights. It has been an honor to serve as Global Spokesperson for Operation HOPE, and I look forward to contributing further as a member of the Global Board of Advisors," said Ambassador Young. "I am incredibly honored to join the HOPE Global Board of Advisors," said Harley Finkelstein. "I've been a longtime admirer of the pivotal work that John and the HOPE team have been championing. I look forward to furthering my and Shopify's commitment to helping break down barriers to entrepreneurship and providing the tools for success to underrepresented small business owners." About Operation HOPE, Inc. Since 1992, Operation HOPE has been moving America from civil rights to "silver rights" with the mission of making free enterprise and capitalism work for the underserved-disrupting poverty for millions of low and moderate-income youth and adults across the nation. Through our community uplift model, HOPE Inside, which received the 2016 Innovator of the Year recognition by American Banker magazine, Operation HOPE has served more than 4 million individuals and directed more than $3.2 billion in economic activity into disenfranchised communities-turning check-cashing customers into banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers into small business owners, minimum wage workers into living wage consumers, and uncertain disaster victims into financially empowered disaster survivors. Project 5117 is our multi-year four-pronged approach to combating economic inequality that aims to improve financial literacy, increase business role models and business internships for youth in underserved communities, and stabilize the American dream by boosting FICO scores. Operation HOPE recently received its sixth consecutive 4-star charity rating for fiscal management and commitment to transparency and accountability by the prestigious non-profit evaluator, Charity Navigator. For more information: www.OperationHOPE.org. Follow the HOPE conversation on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005381/en/

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A man in China has been executed on Tuesday after he kidnapped and raped a 10-year-old girl.

Yang Guangyi, 32, abducted the young child when she was on her way home after selling her hand-picked passion fruit in southern Guangxi Province.

The girl died after Yang sexually assaulted her with 'cruel and violent means' on a hill in late 2018.

Yang Guangyi, 32, abducted and raped the young child, Yang Xiaoyan (pictured), who was on her way home after selling her hand-picked passion fruit before in southern Guangxi Province

Yang was sentenced to death in December for the crime of rape before the execution was carried out today, according to a statement by the local court in the city of Qinzhou.

The horrific incident, commonly known as the 'passion fruit girl case', shocked China and sparked a public uproar after it occurred on October 4, 2018.

The 10-year-old girl, Yang Xiaoyan, left home alone to sell passion fruit to a local vendor after hand-picking them with her sister at their family's field, reports said.

The Year 4 student came from an impoverished family with four other siblings, raised by their mother alone after their father died when Xiaoyan was aged one.

After selling the fruit for 32 yuan (3.63), the child disappeared on her way home.

Two days later, local police reported that they had arrested Yang Guangyi, who was 29 years old at the time, after he turned himself in and admitted to raping the 10-year-old child.

Yang said that he spotted Xiaoyan at the fruit vendor before approaching her while she was heading home.

Yang was sentenced to death in December (pictured) for the crime of rape before the execution was carried out today, according to a statement by the local court in Qinzhou

The man kidnapped the girl by forcing her to follow him to a hill with a knife, according to a court statement.

He then used 'cruel and violent means' to rape the child, causing her to die as a result, the authorities said.

According to media reports citing court verdict, Yang choked Xiaoyan to make her pass out. He then put her into a carrier bag before taking her to a hill where he raped her.

When she woke up, the man stabbed the child in the eyes and neck. After he raped the girl, Yang took away her money and abandoned her.

Police later found the girl's body following Yang's confession.

In July 2019, Yang was sentenced to death by the Qinzhou Intermediate People's Court for rape.

Yang appealed to the high court, claiming that he should receive a more lenient punishment.

In March last year, the high court overturned the ruling, changing Yang's death sentence to the death penalty with a two-year reprieve.

The 10-year-old girl, Yang Xiaoyan (pictured), left home alone to sell the passion fruit to a local vendor after hand-picking them with her sister at their family's field, reports said

The victim's mother disagreed with that ruling and later appealed to the Supreme People's Court, the highest level of court in China.

After reviewing the case, the top court ordered the high court to retry the case in December.

During the retrial, the court withdrew the previous ruling, adding that Yang was not eligible for lenient punishment due to the nature of his 'cruel' offence. He was sentenced to death without reprieve.

In a clip aired by state broadcaster CCTV at the time, Yang was seen appearing at the trial while donning full-body protective suit and goggles due to COVID restrictions.

On Wednesday, Yang was executed following the order by the Qinzhou Intermediate People's Court.

In the Tuesday statement, the court said the approval of Yang's death penalty showed the country's strong determination against people who sexually assault juveniles.

Yang was allowed to see his close family members before the execution, but he refused to request for the meeting, the court said.
The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has tasked Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to enforce strictly the COVID-19 safety protocols at all levels of their working places.



Mr Osei Assibey-Antwi, Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), said this must not be compromised as negligence on the part of the people could be devastating for the society.



Data from our health facilities related to the increasing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, especially among the youth, should serve as a warning to all and sundry, he noted.



Citing the governments recent directives and restrictions to mitigate the spread of the pandemic, which had so far resulted in over 400 deaths, the MCE pointed out that being law-abiding was the only remedy to save the nation from a calamity.



Mr Assibey-Antwi was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Kumasi, on the sidelines of the inauguration of a 300-bed capacity girls dormitory block at the Serwaah Nyarko SHS, funded by the Ghana Education Trust (GET) Fund.



Other projects jointly inaugurated by the MCE and Minister-designate for the Ashanti Region, Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, included a 12-unit classroom block each for the Kumasi Anglican and Asanteman SHSs, as well as a 200-bed capacity boys dormitory block for the Armed Forces SHS.



The rests are a 12-unit classroom block and 300-bed capacity girls dormitory block for the Kumasi Adventist SHS and two separate three-storey dormitory blocks for the Kumasi Senior High and Technical School.



The projects were executed under the Emergency Senior High School Projects.



Mr Assibey-Antwi said the KMA was liaising with stakeholders to ensure that the necessary measures were in place to protect pupils and students while in school.



He described as worrying the increasing rate of COVID-19 infections amongst children as confirmed by the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and advised the youth to be wary of their response to the safety protocols.



Mr Osei-Mensah advocated the mandatory wearing of nose masks and social distancing, especially at public places, saying the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) in line with the governments directives would enforce the safety protocols to the letter.



He reminded the citizenry that the pandemic was likely to spread if the people took things for granted.



While inaugurating the projects, the Minister-designate promised educational institutions of the governments resolve to provide them with the needed personal protective items in their fight against the pandemic.



The projects were executed by different contractors, including Messrs. K. Sarmad Limited, M. Gyebi Company Limited and Asumadu Constructions.

Source: GNA









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Chickens have come home to roost

Many foreign companies have moved factories from China to Myanmar in recent years to take advantage of lower wages and a pliant work-force. Total trade in goods between Myanmar and the United States amounted to nearly $1.3 billion in the first 11 months of 2020, up from $1.2 billion in all of 2019. Clothes and shoes accounted for 41% of total U.S. goods imports, followed by luggage (Samsonite), which accounted for nearly 30%. LL Bean, H&M and Adidas are among the importers. These corporations were all willing to trade with Myanmar's military who controlled prominent companies in the country.

General Min Aung Hlaing, who is accused of overseeing the military campaign against the Rohingya, reportedly profited from MEHL conglomerate alongside other army officials and personnel [File: Hein Htet/EPA]



Back in 2015, when the world's media was hailing the arrival of "democracy" in Myanmar, bestowing Aung San Suu Kyi with honours, (then later withdrawing them for her collaboration in the persecution of the Rohingya), our journal was warning that the Burmese army had not at all ceded political power but that Aung San Suu Kyi only held office as a proxy for the military.

Our assessment is supported by this comment on the current situation by Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a human rights activist based in Yangon.

The military was already in power  even the ruling NLD was covering up their [genocide] in the ICJ [International Court of Justice]. The facade of democracy in Myanmar had now crumbled, she said. Its not real, its not genuine, were not going anywhere with this framework.

The claims by the military that there was widespread fraud in the recent elections were true but not as they would like the world to believe. The Election Commission canceled voting in many areas where parties critical of the government were probably going to win seats. Marginalised ethnic minority groups in conflict-plagued regions of Myanmar, were excluded in their homelands notably in Shan, Kachin and Karen, not to mention the Rohingya in Racine, from the vote. More than one million people were estimated to have been disenfranchised in a gerrymandered election, fully approved by those now deposed and detained.

Chickens have come home to roost.

Having said all that, the World Socialist Movement cannot condone a military dictatorship of any kind and we condemn the army takeover for depriving our Myanmar fellow-workers of even the most limited liberties that they possessed. But our fellow-workers should also recognise the hypocrisy of those world politicians pretending indignation at the actions of the Myanmar military.
Haas unable to fire up 2021 Ferrari engine

Haas is currently unable to fire up its Formula 1 engines in preparation for the 2021 season that begins with testing and the opening race in Bahrain next month.

Germany's Auto Motor und Sport reports that the small American team, which will field rookie Mick Schumacher this year, has received its customer engines for the new season from supplier and partner Ferrari.

"The engine is allowed into Britain, but not the engineers you need to start it," revealed correspondent Michael Schmidt.

"As things stand at the moment, the earliest possible moment to bring the engine to life is the test in Bahrain."

Normally, Haas' cars are assembled at the Dallara facility, which like Ferrari's Maranello factory is based in Italy.

But for the first time, Haas is assembling the 2021 car at its own Banbury (UK) base.

"This year, that is easier in terms of logistics than to send our parts to Italy for assembly," confirmed team boss Gunther Steiner.

The problem is that Britain is requiring all Italian travellers to quarantine for 14 days, meaning that even Steiner himself is unable to travel to the Haas factory from the US at present.

"If I wanted to fly to England, I would have to be in quarantine for two weeks," Steiner said. "There are only exceptions for athletes."

Haas has made aerodynamic tweaks to its 2020 car in preparation for this season, but the team has decided against using any of the development 'tokens'.

"We could have built a new nose, but we were too late," said Steiner. "The wind tunnel program had been shut down too long for us to have the nose ready before the deadline at the end of September."
The impeachment of Donald Trump for his words and actions before a mob stormed the Capitol was "substantially flawed," is unconstitutional and should be dismissed, the former president's lawyers argued Tuesday in an initial response the House's single article of impeachment.

House impeachment managers, in their initial argument submitted earlier Tuesday, said there is no question that Trump incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

But the Senate has no jurisdiction to try the case now that Trump is no longer in office, Trump attorneys David Schoen and Bruce Castor responded in their filing. The speech that Trump gave on Jan. 6 before a mob of supporters stormed the Capitol is protected by the First Amendment, and Trump's due process rights were violated by the snap impeachment, they said.

"Political hatred has no place in the administration of justice anywhere in America, especially in the Congress of the United States," the lawyers said in their 14-page reply.

The nine House impeachment managers filed an 80-page brief Tuesday anticipating the arguments that Trump would use in his defense and outlining their case for the single charge of inciting an insurrection when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 as electoral college votes were being ratified. The violent siege left five people dead.

House managers said that Trump and his allies sought to overturn his Nov. 3 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, that the former president falsely alleged a massive Democratic conspiracy to steal the election and that he tried unsuccessfully to get courts and elected Republicans to intervene. When those efforts failed, he incited the attack on the Capitol, the brief said.

"President Trump's responsibility for the events of January 6 is unmistakable," the managers said in their brief. "If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a Joint Session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense, it is hard to imagine what would be."

Tuesday was the deadline for House managers to file their trial brief and for the former president's legal team to file its reply to the Jan. 13 House impeachment. Trump's Senate trial for his second impeachment is set to begin next week.

With two-thirds of the Senate needed for a conviction, at least 17 Republicans would have to vote with all 50 Democrats to find Trump guilty and potentially disqualify him from holding office again. In what amounted to a test vote, only five Republican senators voted with Democrats last week to block an effort to declare Trump's impeachment trial unconstitutional.

The former president's legal team argue that the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office and that his speech to a crowd of supporters did not incite the violence and is protected by the First Amendment.

"It is denied that President Trump incited the crowd to engage in destructive behavior," Trump's lawyers wrote. "It is denied that the phrase 'if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore' had anything to do with the action at the Capitol as it was clearly about the need to fight for election security in general, as evidenced by the recording of the speech."

The House managers rejected the notion that Trump could argue that even speech advocating illegal conduct is protected by the Constitution, saying "the First Amendment does not constrain Congress from removing an official whose expression makes him unfit to hold or ever again occupy federal office."

They also disputed that Trump cannot be convicted because he is no longer in office, saying that he was still president when the House voted to impeach him. Invoking the authors of the Constitution, they argued there can't be an impeachment exception for actions taken right before a president leaves office.

"It is unthinkable that those same Framers left us virtually defenseless against a president's treachery in his final days, allowing him to misuse power, violate his Oath, and incite insurrection against Congress and our electoral institutions simply because he is a lame duck," the managers' brief says. "There is no 'January Exception' to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution."

The managers anticipated in their brief that Trump and his lawyers will raise complaints that the former president's rights were violated because no House hearings were held or witness testimony collected before the impeachment. But Democrats argue there's nothing about the House's impeachment case that required uncovering "secretive conduct, or hidden conspiracy, requiring months or years of investigation."

The Democrats unequivocally state that the aim is not solely to convict Trump, but for the Senate to disqualify him for office "and make certain that he can never harm our country again." And they suggest constitutional backing for that.

They cite Section 3 of the 14th Amendment as barring from government services those who "having previously taken an oathto 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."

"The Senate must make clear to him and all who follow that a President who provokes armed violence against the government of the United States in an effort to overturn the results of an election will face trial and judgment," they argue.

Trump parted ways with his previous defense attorneys over disagreements about whether to argue his debunked contention that the 2020 election was "stolen." He named Schoen of Atlanta and Castor of Philadelphia as his new lead lawyers on Sunday night. Schoen told The Washington Post and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he doesn't intend to use the fraud argument.

Democratic and Republican election officials in every state audited and certified the Nov. 3 results giving Biden an overwhelming electoral college victory, and more than 60 court cases filed by Trump and his allies to challenge results were rejected - including by federal judges appointed by Trump.

The only honorable path was for Trump to accept the results and concede his electoral defeat, just like every previous losing presidential candidate, the House managers said.

"Instead, he summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue," the managers said in their brief.
Islamabad, Feb 2(UNI) Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the prime accused in the 2002 killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl, be shifted from a death cell in the Karachi Central Prison to a government rest house in the next two to three days and also provide him with proper security.

The apex court also directed that Sheikh be allowed to meet his family from 8am to 5pm, while it heard a petition filed by the accused against his detention despite high court orders in this regard, Dawn reported.

Sheikh will however, not have access to mobile and internet services while his family will be given accommodation and transport which will be borne by the government, according to the court's directives.
Companies told Reuters that they were working around the clock, raising prices and trying to expand factory lines. China and India are the world's biggest producers of syringes, industry executives said.

Zhejiang KangKang Medical Devices began receiving export contracts for 10 million to 20 million syringes each in December, compared with order sizes of about 5 million each before the pandemic, thanks to overseas vaccination programmes, Guo Chun, its general manager, told Reuters.

The company, a unit of Wanbangde Pharmaceutical Holding, was adding capacity to quadruple its production for certain types of syringes by May, but until then can only partly fulfil large orders, he said.

"We are very careful in taking in new orders now," said an office manager surnamed Yang at another manufacturer, Shandong Qiaosen, a supplier to Becton Dickinson that is based in the northern Chinese city of Shandong. He declined to give his full name.

Yang said orders received by his factory this month must now wait until May or June to be fulfilled. More than 90% of Qiaosen's orders were from China before the pandemic but foreign orders are increasing, he added. Orders are filled on a first come, first served basis with no priority by country.

Countries around the world have in the last month kicked off ambitious vaccination campaigns to control the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In the United States, the administration of new President Joe Biden aims to give 100 million vaccinations in its first 100 days. Its effort to squeeze more doses from Pfizer Inc's vaccine vials is spurring unanticipated demand for specialized syringes, which U.S. syringe supplier Becton Dickinson and Co says exceeds existing capacity, Reuters reported last week.

Prices of syringes have more than tripled from 0.1 yuan (1.55 cents) each before the outbreak to more than 0.3 yuan now, KangKang's Guo said. At Shandong Qiaosen, more than 1,000 employees are now working on three shifts and machines are being run 24 hours a day?Yang said.

Yang said ramping up production has become especially frenzied in the run-up to China's weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on Feb. 11, when companies traditionally allow workers to go on leave and shut down factory lines.

New equipment will only be ready after the holiday, he added.

"It's bound to have an impact on our output, but every year this time we give our staff a holiday," Yang said.

($1 = 6.4590 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Also Read: Third coronavirus vaccine in India? Adar Poonawalla hopes to launch COVOVAX by June
A leading bank was set to deny a couple a mortgage to buy their dream home, just as they were about to draw down the loan.

Permanent TSB had concerns that the employer of one of them was availing of the wage subsidy scheme, even though neither of the pair is on the wage subsidy scheme.

The bank later climbed down, and now says it was a mistake to deny the couple their mortgage at the last minute.

Only after the Irish Independent asked the bank questions about the case did it perform a u-turn.

The couple, who do not want to be named publicly, had sold an apartment and been living with relatives.

They were just about to move to their new north county Dublin home when the bank pulled the plug.

The family in the house they are planning to buy had also sold up.

The couple had been led to believe they were good for the mortgage and were close to moving to their new home.

The family selling the new house to them had moved out of the house in preparation for the sale which included moving out two young children and five dogs.

The couple have a combined income of 160,000.

The husband is an in-house legal counsel for an online travel agency and the wife has a senior role in a public service body.

Despite the high income they had to sell their car to clear the loan on it, to satisfy the bank.

Last November the bank asked for a letter from the mans employer confirming that he was not then in receipt of the States wage subsidy scheme.

His employer provided a letter saying that it was using the scheme, but because his salary exceeds the cap for the scheme, it would not apply to his salary.

In response to submitting this letter, PTSB sent our final mortgage approval to our solicitor the first week of December 2020 for us to execute, which we did.

He added: At no point did Permanent TSB say the wage subsidy was an issue.

And at no point from initial application to request to draw down had our financial circumstances changed in any way.

So the couple signed the mortgage documents and contract for sale for the new house, and proceeded to complete the sale of their apartment. They moved in with relatives in Westmeath.

In January PTSB came back looking for two further letters asking if their income had been, or would be, impacted by Covid prior to drawdown.

We signed both as luckily neither of our salaries were impacted.

Out the blue PTSB said that unless his employer stopped accepting the Employer Wage Subsidy Scheme it would not proceed with the loan.

This left them with no home and no mortgage to buy their new one, while the family that planned to sell to them were in limbo.

Broker Michael Dowling appealed the refusal to allow the mortgage to proceed, but to no avail.

PTSB said the issue that arose in this case should not have arisen and the error was on our side.

It said it was contacting the customers to apologise, and reviewing why its systems allowed the mistake to happen.
Reward Marketplace blends a new Amazon integration with custom awards, e-gift cards charitable giving for a powerful consumer-grade experience

Reward Gateway, a global industry leader in employee engagement, recognition and reward, today announced the launch of its Reward Marketplace, an industry-first flexible redemption experience for employees which breaks with traditional reward solutions by expanding the range and categories of rewards in one streamlined, easy-to-use hub. In addition to thousands of instant e-gift cards, users can seamlessly connect with Amazon to access its millions of products. The Reward Marketplace also provides options for one-of-a-kind company offerings or the ability to donate reward funds to a charity.

Flexible by design, the Reward Marketplace allows employers to uniquely brand and name their redemption hub and add reward categories or experiences that best suit the organizations' needs. The addition of a full Amazon integration ensures fast, global delivery of their full catalog of products and direct, hassle-free returns or exchanges. All platform rewards are provided at market pricing, allowing employees to receive the full value of their award.

This unique approach to rewards supports what employees value in their redemption experience. A recent survey of 1,500 employees across the U.S., UK and Australia found that choice (41%) and transparency (33%) meant the most when redeeming rewards from their employer.

According to Rob Boland, Reward Gateway COO:

"Employers want to deliver an end-to-end reward experience that delights their employees. Too often, however, limited, outdated gift selections, a clunky shopping experience, hidden fees that erode the reward value, and delayed delivery times all contribute to employee dissatisfaction, ultimately negating the impact of the award itself. The Reward Marketplace ensures that the redemption and fulfillment process creates memorable and meaningful reward moments, in line with employees' own preferences."

About Reward Gateway

Reward Gateway helps more than 1,900 of the world's leading companies, in 23 countries, to connect, recognize and support their best people with an employee engagement platform that brings employee benefits, discounts and perks, recognition and reward, employee well-being, employee communications, and employee surveys into one unified hub. Clients include American Express, Unilever, Samsung, IBM, and McDonald's. For more information, please visit www.rewardgateway.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005980/en/

Contacts:

Rachel Weeks

Rachel.Weeks@rewardgateway.com
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COLUMBUS, Ohio: An open Senate seat in Ohio has set off a round of jockeying among ambitious Democrats and a spirited debate over who is best poised to lead a party comeback in a one-time battleground that has been trending Republican.

At the core of the fight, triggered by the unexpected retirement of Sen. Rob Portman, is whether the party should prioritize gender or racial diversity in its nominee or again align behind a white man with the hope of winning back the white, working-class voters who have been leaving the party for years.

As the Democratic Party, we have done the same thing over and over and over again, which is to run white men, and we havent been successful, said Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, among the Democrats considering jumping in the race. I think we have to offer something different and I think thats important; whether thats people of color on the ticket in a meaningful way, and women, you know we are the base of the party, and we shouldnt be an afterthought.

The fight in Ohio is a replay of the one that consumed Democrats presidential primary last year and suggests the ultimate victory of a white man now President Joe Biden did nothing to settle it. Biden lost Ohio by 8 percentage points.

Now some influential Democrats are urging Dr. Amy Acton, a white, former state health director who emerged to prominence during the pandemic, to jump in for what would be her first bid for public office. Meanwhile, veteran Congressman Tim Ryan, a white man who represents Ohios blue-collar Steel Valley, also has said hes strongly considering a bid, encouraged by Democrats who tout his appeal to working-class voters.

While Acton and Ryan are believed to be the furthest along in their deliberations, several politicians who are Black are also eyeing the seat. They include U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, a five-term congresswoman from Columbus, former state Treasurer Kevin Boyce, Ohio House Democratic Leader Emilia Sykes and former Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman.

Ohio does need to shake it up and this race will dictate where we go in the future, said state Rep. Thomas West, chairman of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. The group is working to recruit a Black candidate for the Senate seat, he said.

Democrats have traditionally won the state on the strength of their support with voters in Ohios many cities, including Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, all places with large Black populations. That base was augmented with support from a stretch of counties along the Ohio River. But Republicans have been cutting into that support for years, leading to two victories for Republican Donald Trump and a shutout for Democrats in statewide executive offices since 2006.

Thats left Democrats looking for a new formula one that might boost turnout in the cities and build off recent momentum with suburban voters and women.

Antoinette Wilson, a Democratic consultant and recent contender for state Democratic chair, said the party began working to recruit Acton even before Portman announced his decision last week not to run for reelection. Early in the virus outbreak, Acton was a regular on television screens across the state, spawned an Amy Acton Fan Club with its own yard signs, inspired a bobblehead and had young girls dressing like her.

But she also sparked intense pushback over the restrictive health orders she was imposing on the state, at Republican Gov. Mike DeWines request, which included anti-Semitic swipes and armed protests at her suburban home. She left the administration in June.

As a political newcomer, its not clear how the physician and former college professor would do on the rough-and-tumble campaign trail, Wilson noted.

The key question is always about electability, Wilson said. Does Amy Acton have great name ID? Yeah. Do people know her name? Of course. But that versus a political candidate is a different dynamic."

Ryan, 47, is coming off a tenth win in his once-solidly Democratic district. But he received a smaller percentage of the vote 52.5% than in any of his previous elections, a reflection in part of the GOPs steady inroads with voters in the northeast part of the state. Notably, Ryan outperformed Biden, who touts his own working-class following, in the district that includes the General Motors plant in Lordstown.

That history could help Ryan shave the Republican advantage in areas where Trump heavily outperformed Biden, especially rural eastern and southeast Ohio, while also holding Democratic gains in the suburbs, said Aaron Pickrell, a veteran Ohio Democratic strategist and longtime aide to former Gov. Ted Strickland, who has encouraged Ryan to run.

To me that would be the big element of his candidacy, said Pickrell, who ran Bidens Ohio campaign last year. He should be able to tap into the sort of suburban, exurban areas where Trump didnt do as well, but then undercut the Republican gains made in areas that had traditionally been Democratic, like the Mahoning Valley and Appalachia.

Some Democrats liken Ryan to Sen. Sherrod Brown, an outspoken economic populist who won a commanding reelection victory in 2018. But any similarity has never been tested, as Ryan has explored but never pursued a statewide race.

Still, Ryan got a boost Saturday when Hillary Clinton, the partys 2016 presidential nominee, declared on Twitter that she was all in for a Ryan Senate candidacy.

Meanwhile, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author Connie Schultz, who is married to Brown, has tweeted about Actons potential candidacy: Imagine Dr. Amy Acton as Ohios next U.S. senator. I sure can.

The partys debate comes just as a new group of younger, more diverse leaders takes over the state party, led by the partys first female chair and the first Black executive director.

For some Ohio Democrats the cautionary tale is 2018, when a group of female gubernatorial candidates all ceded their ambitions to former Obama administration consumer chief Richard Cordray, who lost the race.

You look at all these women who ran for the Democratic nominee against white men and the white men got the nomination and then lost the general election, said Democratic consultant Sandy Theis. Ohio is littered with that history. Okay, well, why dont we learn from the past and why dont we give the women a try?

Theis said her favorite picks for the Senate bid are Acton and Beatty, 70, whom Theis said showed grit when she was pepper sprayed during a Black Lives Matter rally this summer while protecting another much younger demonstrator from police.

Another prospect is Sykes, 35, who holds a seat thats been in her powerful Akron political family since her father won it in 1983. Vernon Sykes, now a state senator, was succeeded by his wife, Barbara, who also made an unsuccessful run for state auditor in 2006.

Coleman, 66, was the popular mayor of Columbus, the state capital and Ohios largest city, for 16 years ending in 2016. He was on a losing statewide ticket as lieutenant governor and launched an early but short-lived bid for governor in 1995.

__

Sewell reported from Cincinnati and Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

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
For a month, Dr Weimerskirch team's only contact with the outside world was a daily one-minute sat phone call with their base in the Kerguelen Islands'capital. Credit: Henri Weimerskirch/CNRS

Albatross expert Dr. Henri Weimerskirch, of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), turned his favourite seabirds into spies two years ago by fixing them up with loggers that could detect the radar of illegal fishing vessels. The information from this project, known as OCEAN SENTINEL, has helped governments select which parts of the ocean to patrol. But Dr. Weimerskirch wanted to recruit another, possibly better, species to stealth operations. In late 2020, he returned to the remote Kerguelen Islands, in the southern Indian Ocean, to see if they would cooperate. He told Horizon about his expedition.

The work two years ago went very well but at that time we were using wandering albatrosses. Black-browed albatrosses are more attracted by fishing vessels so I thought they might give us more information.

In November last year I flew, with two other field workers, from France to the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, then spent 15 days on a supply ship to the Kerguelen Islands (an archipelago 3,400 km to the southsee map below). The capital, in the northeast, is Port-aux-Francais, which has a scientific base of about 80 people. The colony of black-browed albatrosses is 30-40 km away, so we flew there by helicopter.

It's a sub-Antarctic island so there are no trees and, above 200-300 metres, no vegetation, only rock. The explorer Captain James Cook called it Desolation Island. There's a lot of rain and wind and some snow, although it wasn't very cold. Temperatures ranged from zero to about six degrees.

I enjoyed it there. We had a nice hut in a small valley along a river.

Every day we woke at 6am and walked for three quarters of an hour to the colony.

Black-browed albatrosses nest in cliffs so we had to use a rope to get from the plateau to 200 metres down. We were then in the cliff, on a ledge about two by ten metres with about 200 nests below us. They were part of a larger colony of a thousand pairs.

At the time, they were incubating their eggs, so there was one bird on the nest and the partner was at sea hunting for fish. When the partner comes back it takes over the egg and the other one goes. We wanted to attach loggers to the birds at the time they were departing, so we had to wait for changeovers.

Each time there was a changeover we went further down with a rope to reach that nest. It took three of usone to capture and hold the bird, one to attach the logger and the third to take notes and weigh the bird.

They are very tame so you can come very close without any problem. That's the advantage of working with albatrosses.

Changeover

Sometimes we had to wait for the whole day and there was only one changeover. Other days we did about ten. It depends on the wind. Albatrosses use wind to travel to reduce flight (energy) costs, so if the wind is not favourable, it takes more time for the birds to return to the colony.

The days were uncomfortable but we had good equipment, we had a lot of nice tea. And the site is very beautifulit's a spectacular cliff, you have the very rough sea and you have all the albatrosses flying around. Sometimes when it's snowing it's a bit cold, but otherwise it's a very nice spot. It's not difficult work so long as you don't get vertigo in these steep cliffs.

After about eight days we had equipped 40 albatrosses with our new loggers. The birds are at sea for about 10 days so, after a few more days, the first ones started to return and we recovered the loggers.

It takes 15 days to travel by supply ship from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion to the Kerguelen Islands. Credit: Horizon

A wandering albatross weighs up to 12 kg and the loggers two years ago were 40-60g. Black-browed albatrosses weigh 3 kg and so we made new loggers that were half the size.

Both new and old loggers had GPS antennae so we knew where the birds were. They also had radar detectors. But the new (lighter) loggers could not transmit their data. That's why we had to retrieve them.

Each day at 6pm we had to contact our base (in Port-aux-Francais) using a satellite phone to tell them that we were safely on the way back to the hut. They were nervous about our safety. That one minute on the sat phone was our only connection to the outside world. But it was quite nice because we had no informationnothing about COVID and all the problems.

In the evening we downloaded the data from the loggers onto our computers.

When the month was finished, to get back to the base we had to walk four hours and take a small boat for four hours across the bay. From there we took the next supply ship back to Reunion.

Illegal fishing

All fishing vessels must by law have transponders which signal where they are. If they switch them off they are probably doing illegal fishing. While we were on Kerguelen I had someone downloading all the movements of declared vessels in the southwestern Indian Ocean from their AIS (Automatic Identification System) transmissions. When I return to France, we will be able to tell whether the boats that were detected by the albatrosses had an AIS signal. If they don't, then they were illegal if they were found in a national economic zone.

In our previous work we found that at a third of the boats were not using their transponders. We detected some sectors where there are a lot of illegal boats, for example around the Prince Edward Islands which are in South African waters.

This time we will have information from a different species, one that is even more attracted by fishing vessels. So we are expecting to have detected even more boats around Kerguelen. We are discussing (our findings) with the French authorities. This information will be used in the future for surveillance.

We are also interested in understanding whether the birds (that hang around) vessels gain more mass than birds foraging naturally. The question of mass gain is important when studying seabird-fisheries interactions. On the one hand there is a risk of being ensnared in on the lines, but there might be an advantage of gathering easy food.

As told to Aisling Irwin.

This article has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Explore further How we recruited albatrosses to patrol the high seas for illegal fishers

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has been delisted from "Chinese entrepreneurial leaders" list published by the country's official state media. The Shanghai Securities News has conspicuously ignored the name of Ma in its front-page commentary while it lauded other leading businessmen in bringing technology revolution in the country.

The official state media published the name of Pony Ma as "rewriting the mobile age" with Tencent Holdings Ltd. Besides, the list also includes names like Huawei Technologies' Ren Zhengfei, Xiaomi Corp's Lei Jun, and BYD's Wang Chuanfu for their contribution to the country, Bloomberg reported.

Shanghai Securities News, which is backed by the official Xinhua News Agency, ran a commentary on its front-page on the same day when Alibaba Group Holding Ltd was slated to unveil its earnings.

The newspaper wrote, "A generation of Chinese entrepreneurs emerged from the rigid structures of our old economic system with the desire to escape poverty and passion to achieve business ambitions. They have breathed new life into China's economic reforms."

Jack Ma who was away from the public eye for months in 2020, had made his first public comments in January this year. According to the Jack Ma Foundation, the billionaire participated in the online ceremony of the annual Rural Teacher Initiative event on January 20. The Foundation also released a 50-second video where Ma was seen congratulating teachers. However, Ma made no mention of his disappearance.

Ma had not made public appearance since October 24 after he criticised China's financial regulatory system in a speech. Soon after his speech, Chinese regulators began an anti-trust probe against Ant Group and Alibaba. It also led to the suspension of his Ant Group's $37 billion IPO.

Ma, a ruling Communist Party member, stepped down as Alibaba chairman in 2019. He is on Alibaba's board of directors and serves as a mentor to the company's new management.

Also read: 12 children given sanitiser instead of polio drops in Maharashtra

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What it does

Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas Ltd (LON:ECO) owns a 15% stake of the Orinduik licence offshore Guyana in the Atlantic Ocean, developed with French giant Total and Irish explorer Tullow Oil.

A farm-out with Total saw its stake reduced from 40% in return for a cash payment of US$12.5mln.

Away from Guyana, Eco owns four licences off the coast of Namibia including 57.5% of the Cooper Block

In January 2021, the company launched a new renewable energy business.

It owns a 70% stake in Eco Atlantic Renewables and has funded the new venture with a US$6mln loan  the first US$1.1mln paid for the first acquisition, a ready-to-build 10.57 MW project in Greece.

How is it doing?

Previously, Eco and its partners made two discoveries in the Guyana licence though the oil was found to be heavier than expected.

The next phase of exploration drilling is due to be decided over the coming months, with news expected in the latter part of the second quarter.

A 2020 competent persons report upgraded the amount of oil at Orinduik by 29% to 5.14bn barrels (p50) or a net 771mln barrels to Eco for its stake.

The report saw 22 prospects of which 11 are in the upper cretaceous horizon, where oil is expected to be lighter and more commercial than the heavy oil discoveries in the tertiary layer.

Leads in the tertiary horizon are estimated to contain 1.2bn barrels while the cretaceous section contains an estimated 3.94bn barrels with two targets in this section (Amaila/Kumaka and Iatuk-D) each containing 725mln barrels.

Over half of the 22 prospects have a 30% chance of success or greater, said the CPR.

In 2021, further third-party drill activity nearby can continue to bolster Guyanas emerging offshore oil industry.

Renewables opportunity

Eco has set up a new company, Eco Atlantic Renewables, which will seek to source, acquire, and develop exclusive renewable solar energy projects.

The new company is a joint venture with Nepcoe Capital Partners, a UK based renewables investment firm, which is providing exclusive access to a pipeline of opportunities with potential for up to 2 gigawatts of solar generation capacity.

Most of the projects are located in Southern Europe's high solar hours' sunbelt.

The ventures first acquisition is the Kozani project in Greece which is fully licensed, permitted and ready-to-build. The 10.57 megawatt project was acquired on Monday, with 1.1mln paid by Eco Atlantic Renewables.

Eco Atlantic Renewables envisages further deals  with the company targeting 100 MW worth of operating and grid-connected projects in its first year of operation, plus up to 800 MW of in-development assets.

What management says

"We are not a management team that likes to sit and wait for outcomes, said Gil Holzman, Eco chief executive in a statement.

Following several months of extensive strategic work and identification of multiple projects by the management team and Board of Directors, this exciting opportunity has crystalised.

Our decision to form this new majority held renewable energy company was partly driven by a lack of oil and gas acquisition opportunities that are as good and as prospective as the ones we already hold, Holzman added.

Video

What brokers say

Stockbroker Peel Hunt sees the offshore explorer as a buy, in September 2020, pointing to substantial upside to the current price. Analyst Matt Cooper initiated Peel Hunts coverage of Eco with a 100p price target, compared to a prevailing market price of 22.7p per share.

Cooper, in a note, described the companys upcoming exploration campaign as one of the most exciting slated for 2021.

In November, a note from Align Research described the prevailing share price as a good buying opportunity whilst setting a 123.54p price target, compared to a market price of 24.35p.

Previously SP Angel highlighted that Ecos success as a frontier explorer has not been reflected in its share price at all. The juniors two large discoveries at Orinduik will be followed by two further wells planned for next year while drilling offshore Namibia is also due to accelerate this year.

SP Angel says the discoveries have been misunderstood by the market.
Bandipora: Two terrorist associates of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed have been arrested in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora that also led to the recovery of arms and ammunition.

They were arrested after the Bandipora police received reliable information that there were certain anti-national elements who were indoctrinating youths and influencing them with false narratives and enticing them to take violent path besides providing them arms, ammunition and other resources for this purpose.

Acting on specific human and technical inputs, the Bandipora police along with 13 RR apprehended one suspected person Abdul Majeed Khan, resident of Kralpora Bandipora, in a joint operation at Wular Vantage Park Aragam Bpr and recovered arms and ammunition from his possession which included one pistol, three live hand grenades and 10 live rounds.

On his preliminary enquiry, the accused revealed that he is associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed and is in contact with handlers across the border from where he received instructions to identify innocent youth for joining militancy and pass on arms and ammunition to them.

On his further disclosure, he named Showkat Ahmad Malik, resident of Sangrama Sopore, as his accomplice in carrying out his nefarious designs and accordingly a search operation was launched in Sangrama Sopore with Sopore Police and 52 RR leading to the recovery of a pistol, five live hand grenades and 20 live rounds from the accused person.

An FIR under relevant sections of law has been registered and further investigation has been taken up.

Live TV
State health officials confirmed another 2,270 COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total number of cases statewide to 500,415 since the start of the pandemic.

There are currently 71,929 active infections across Massachusetts, a number which continues to decline as viral activity diminishes.

Mondays caseload is based on 88,302 new molecular tests, according to the Department of Public Health.

Health officials also announced 30 more COVID-related fatalities Monday, bringing the death toll to 14,317 statewide.

There are currently 1,676 Massachusetts patients hospitalized with COVID-19, including 373 patients in intensive care, 222 of whom are intubated.

The seven-day average of positive tests is currently 3.53%.

Health officials say there are now five cases of the COVID variant that first emerged in the United Kingdom in Massachusetts. The CDC says theres been a total of 467 confirmed cases of the variant, called B.1.1.7, in 32 U.S. states.

The mutated infection is said to spread more easily, but officials are confident that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines still offer protection.

Three cases of the South African variant, called B.1.351, have been discovered in two states across the U.S.

Total COVID cases by county:

Barnstable County: 8,739

Berkshire County: 4,533

Bristol County: 50,500

Dukes County: 777

Essex County: 77,656

Franklin County: 1,787

Hampden County: 37,397

Hampshire County: 5,722

Middlesex County: 102,399

Nantucket County: 1,086

Norfolk County: 40,650

Plymouth County: 36,207

Suffolk County: 71,869

Worcester County: 59,614

Related Content:
Farmer unions have announced a nationwide 'chakka jam' on February 6 against the internet ban on their agitation spots and alleged harassment by the authorities. Protesting farmers said they will block national and state highways between 12 PM to 3 PM on February 6, Saturday.

In a press conference at the Singhu border, union leaders seemed disgruntled by the government for "ignoring" them in the Union Budget speech. They accused the government of alleged harassment, as they said that water and power supplies to the protest sites had been curtailed and mobile toilet blocks were also removed from the venues.

Samkyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of protesting unions, alleged that the Twitter accounts of Kisan Ekta Morcha and a user named 'Tractor2Twitter' have been restricted. Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav alleged the action against the Twitter account was taken at the "request of government authorities."

Yadav also claimed that the Centre has "reduced the allocation to agriculture sector" in this year's budget, and, even percentage of allocation has gone down from "5.1 per cent last fiscal to 4.3 per cent this year."

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech on February 1, Monday, expanded the agricultural credit target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore in FY22. For the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, the FM allocated Rs 40,000 crore.

Meanwhile, the fourth 'Mahapanchayat' was held in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor on Monday against the three controversial farm laws.

A Mahapanchayat has also been held in Muzaffarnagar, Mathura, and Baghpat districts of UP since January 28.

Bharatiya Kisan Union national president Naresh Tikait, whose union is protesting at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for over two months now, has called upon all the farmers staging Mahapanchayat in western Uttar Pradesh to reach Ghazipur and give strength to the movement.

Thousands of farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders for more than two months. They are demanding a rollback of the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporations.

However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture.

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First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun, left, poses with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran, Iran, Monday. / Courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs



By Kang Seung-woo



Korea and Iran remain far apart over the release of a Korean oil tanker and its crewmembers, with First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun leaving Tehran, Tuesday, without any deal despite a series of meetings with senior Iranian officials, including the foreign minister and its central bank chief.



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday, the government plans to continue talks with Iran and will work to bring the tanker and crew back home as early as possible, based on Choi's discussions with the Iranian side during his three-day visit. The ministry also said it will actively offer consular assistance to the crewmembers.



Last week, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps seized the MT Hankuk Chemi, which was carrying 7,200 tons of ethanol, and its crew of 20, including five Koreans, in the Strait of Hormuz for causing "environmental pollution."



On the occasion of the talks, Choi protested the seizure and called for the swift release of the vessel and its crewmembers, asking the Iranian officials to provide concrete evidence to prove its marine pollution allegations. But Iran has yet to do so.






PHILIPSBURG:--- On Sunday, January 31st, 2021 at around 03.45 pm, the central dispatch received a call from an address in the Little Bay area concerning a man who had passed away after falling from a ladder while in his residence.

At the location, the patrol and ambulance personnel encountered the body of a male lying on the floor and giving no sign of life. The personnel of the Forensic Department and doctor were called to the scene.

It was later concluded that the victim had passed away from the injuries he received after falling from the ladder. The body of the deceased, who was 78 years old, was later transported to one of the local funeral homes. His identity is being withheld on the wishes of the family. On behalf of the Sint Maarten Police Force, we extend our condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

KPSM Press Release.
A military coup in Myanmar and a mass crackdown on dissidents in Russia are presenting early tests for the Biden administration as it tries to reestablish American primacy as a worldwide pro-democracy leader.

Having taken office with a pledge to restore ironclad U.S. support for human rights, freedom of speech and political openness, President Joe Biden is being confronted with two serious challenges in two disparate parts of the world that had either been neglected or the subject of inconsistent messaging during the Trump era.

After investing decades of time, energy and money into promoting democracy in both Myanmar and Russia, the U.S. now faces challenges in each that could affect the global balance of power, with the Myanmar turmoil potentially strengthening Chinas hand.

And, while neither situation can be directly tied to domestic political uncertainty in the United States, experts believe foreign governments might be taking cues from the vestiges of Americas perceived rudderlessness in the final months of President Donald Trumps term.

It is not always about us, said Dan Fried, a former senior U.S. diplomat for Europe. Each has its own dynamic, but they certainly take cues from us. What links the two is that during the campaign, the Biden team talked about support for democracy being a North Star  a guiding point for democracy.

Bidens aides have rejected suggestions that the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol fueled by Trump will hurt U.S. influence in the long run. But they have acknowledged it as a factor as Biden tries to reassert American moral leadership after four years of Trumps perceived diffidence.

The United States remains a country in the world that is looked to for  leadership, and its going to take some time, but hes certainly committed to doing that, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said of Biden on Monday.

She spoke after Biden released a statement saying he would be looking at reimposing sanctions on Myanmar, also known as Burma, that had been lifted after the countrys partial return to democracy during the Obama administration.

The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy, Biden said. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action. The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack.

In Myanmar, the army took control of the government after a brief experiment with limited democracy, detaining former opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and giving China an even bigger potential opening into a neighboring country where the West had exerted great effort to blunt Beijings significant influence.

This is a setback for Myanmar and for democratic governance across Asia, said Danny Russel, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, who is now vice president for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Its part of an unfortunate slide toward authoritarianism and its quite worrying. It sets an appalling example for other countries.

Its certainly an early crisis for the Biden administration, and its really crystalized the contrast between its support for democracy and the Chinese support for authoritarianism, he said.

Tensions in Myanmar have been building for some time but have been largely under the radar of a Washington preoccupied with the coronavirus after decades of public and private pressure on Yangon to institute democratic reforms.

In Russia, despite Trumps political machinations, the situation has been at a slow boil for some years after attempts to draw Moscow into the democratic fold beginning with the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union. Confronting the Russians will be more difficult.

There, President Vladimir Putin is using an iron fist to try to quell demonstrations in support of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, flying in the face of warnings from Washington and Europe.

Its a challenge for Biden, but theyre not challenging him directly, said Fried, who is now with the Atlantic Council. He said that sanctions might not be effective in the long run but that they will get attention. They could do more, he said. It would be appropriate, and it would send a message to Russian society that the Americans arent stupid, that they know whats going on.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview aired on Monday that new sanctions against Russia are being considered, not only for the Navalny crackdown but also for a major cyberattack, election interference and purported bounties offered to the Taliban for targeting American troops in Afghanistan.

Were looking into all of these things, Blinken told NBC News. All of them are under review. And depending on the findings of those reviews, we will take steps to stand up for our interests and stand against Russian aggressive actions.

SOURCE: AP
Will make Assam govt party to case against CAA in SC if voted Congress to power: Gaurav Gogoi

Citizenship Act rules 'under preparation', Centre gets time till July

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 01: The Central government has given itself more time to frame and implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 after Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha committee on subordinate legislation granted it extension till April 9 and July 9, respectively.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 was notified on December 12, 2019 and it came into force with effect from January 10, 2020.

'The Rules under The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 are under preparation. The Committees on Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have granted extension of time up to April 9 and July 9, respectively to frame these rules under the CAA,' he said in a written reply.

The CAA seeks to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi refugees who have come to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.

Several such persons are living in India since the time of partition and are without any legal rights. The Modi government says that this Bill is aimed at correcting a historical wrong.

After the CAA was passed by Parliament, widespread protests were witnessed in the country. Those opposing the CAA contend that it discriminates on the basis of religion and violates the Constitution. They also allege that the CAA along with the National Register of Citizens is intended to target the Muslim community in India.

Farmers 'aggressively' resorted to 'rioting', damaged govt property: Govt

However, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had dismissed the allegations and described the protests against the CAA as 'mostly political'. He had asserted that no Indian would lose citizenship due to the Act.

Clashes between pro and anti-CAA groups had spiralled into communal riots in Northeast Delhi last year which had left at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

The Manual on Parliamentary Work states that 'statutory rules, regulations and bye-laws will be framed within a period of six months from the date on which the relevant statute came into force'.

It also states that in case the ministries and departments are not able to frame the rules within the prescribed period of six months, 'they should seek extension of time from the Committee on Subordinate Legislation stating reasons for such extension', which cannot be more than for a period of three months at a time.
INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ardagh Group, Glass  North America , a business unit of Ardagh Group has renewed its contract with Waterloo Container as its preferred wine bottle distributor to service wineries in the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada.

This agreement marks 30 years of Ardagh and Waterloo Container supporting the North American wine marketplace, providing a one-stop shop for wineries to purchase high-quality, American-made glass packaging.

The strategic partnership leverages Ardagh's 125 years of wine-industry knowledge and proven track record as the largest producer of glass wine bottles made 100% in the U.S., with Waterloo Container's 40 years of experience and dedication to the growth of the wine industry in the Eastern U.S. and Canada.

"Our success in this industry is because we are different than other distributors. We are a service provider, and our goal is to share our experience, service, and expertise with our customers. Our renewed partnership with Ardagh allows us to continue to grow as an East Coast premier packaging provider and ensures our unrivaled stock of ready-to-ship, high quality glass and packaging is supported from production to customer," said Bill Lutz, President and Owner at Waterloo Container. "We are proud to offer glass made in America, and happy to be continuing our relationship with Ardagh to make that happen."

The alliance provides an extensive service offering to wineries in the Eastern U.S. and Canada, including a full range of wine bottles in a variety of colors, sizes, styles and finishes, in addition to glass printing and shrink sleeving services, corks and capsules, STELVIN closures, state-of-the art repacking capabilities, enhanced custom packaging design and engineering services, and robust customer service support.

"Waterloo Container has been a significant part of our wine strategy since 1990, and we are excited to evolve our long-time partnership," said John T Shaddox, Chief Commercial Officer for Ardagh's North American Glass business unit. "We enjoy collaborating with Waterloo Container to offer high-quality, sustainable glass packaging to wineries in the Eastern region of the U.S. and Canada."

Ardagh is dedicated to the wine market with capabilities and resources to grow with wineries every step of the way. Wineries in the Eastern U.S. and Canada that are interested in purchasing from Ardagh's glass portfolio should contact Waterloo Container at 888-539-3922 or [email protected] .

To view Ardagh's extensive wine bottle stock portfolio, which are all made in the U.S.A., visit ardaghgroup.com/wine2021.

Further information

Gina Behrman, Vice President, Marketing, Communications & NPD at Ardagh Group, Glass  North America, [email protected] , 317.558.5717

Paula Polei, Manager, Marketing & Communications at Ardagh Group, Glass  North America, [email protected] , 317.558.5732

Bobbi Stebbins, Director of Marketing at Waterloo Container, [email protected] , 315.539.3922

Dowload image here .

Ardagh Group is a global supplier of infinitely recyclable metal and glass packaging for the world's leading brands. Ardagh operates 56 metal and glass production facilities in 12 countries, employing more than 16,000 people with sales of approximately $7bn.

Waterloo Container is a family-owned wine and beverage packaging supplier with over 30 years of experience in the wine packaging industry. We provide partnership through packaging with an unrivaled ready-to-ship inventory of glass wine, spirit and craft bottles sourced both domestically and globally, helpful services like glass printing, shrink sleeve labeling and state of the art re-pack. Our alliances with the most reputable vendors in the industry means we can offer leading brands like Ardagh Glass and STELVIN brand closures, along with our unmatched selection of stock capsules and corks, all with an unmatched customer service experience. Get your package when you want it, the way you want it with Waterloo Container.

SOURCE Ardagh Group

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http://www.ardaghgroup.com


Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 18:49:38|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were the top three regions in terms of aggregate financing to the real economy in 2020, the central bank said on Tuesday.

South China's Guangdong Province saw its aggregate financing stood at 4.07 trillion yuan (about 628.7 billion U.S. dollars) last year, ranking first among the country's provincial-level regions, according to a table posted on the website of the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

The figures for eastern China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces hit 3.36 trillion yuan and 3.22 trillion yuan, respectively.

By the end of 2020, China's total outstanding social financing rose by 13.3 percent year on year to 284.83 trillion yuan. Of the total, the outstanding RMB loans to the real economy were 171.6 trillion yuan, up by 13.2 percent year on year.

Judging from the structure, the real economy has received the lion's share of loans. Outstanding yuan loans to the real economy accounted for 60.2 percent of the outstanding social financing by the end of last year.

The country will give full play to the "drip irrigation" function of monetary policy tools and step up efforts to effectively support the real economy, said Chen Yulu, vice governor of the PBOC. Enditem
A man has been arrested after reportedly throwing a Molotov cocktail near a synagogue in London.

Police shut down Golders Green Road in the north of the capital and other emergency services raced to the scene.

Officers detained the man but said no one had been injured during the incident near The Golders Green Beth Hamedrash Congregation Synagogue.

Footage shows firefighters battling a small fire as people can be heard discussing whether it was caused by a petrol bomb.

Police have shut down Golders Green Road in the north of the capital and other emergency services are on the scene

The Jewish News reported that police do not believe that the incident is related to terror or anti-Semitism.

The Community Security Trust, a charity helping UK Jews with security and antisemitism, said in a tweet: 'Incident in Golders Green this afternoon appears NOT terror related.

'We thank the emergency services for their constant vigilance and work.'

Councillor for West Hendon Alex Prager tweeted: 'Police and fire brigade on site. Appears to have involved a Molotov cocktail next to a synagogue on The Riding.'

One man said: 'Why did he wait all that time to throw that little bottle?' Dozens of police and firemen can be seen running down the road.

A witness told Jewish News: 'There were lots of police of different varieties and a chopper going overheard.

'The road has been cordoned off from Ravenscroft to Be Kosher and we have seen riot police and numerous unmarked cars.

Police officers are seen in north London after a man is said to have thrown a Molotov cocktail near a synagogue

Footage shows firefighters battling a small fire as people can be heard discussing whether it was caused by a petrol bomb

'The police have said it is a 'life and death situation' but we have not heard more information.'

And Peter Phillips told the Ham and High: 'We saw all the emergency vehicles turn up. Fire brigade, ambulance, must have been about 15 police vehicles.

'We saw the first two police cars turn up and people rushed out of an upstairs flat pointing after a car that had sped off, they went straight after him.'

Councillor for West Hendon Alex Prager tweeted: 'Police and fire brigade on site. Appears to have involved a Molotov cocktail next to a synagogue on The Riding'

Police said: 'Police were called at 12.28 to The Riding #GoldersGreen #NW11 to a report of a concern for safety.

'Officers attended and found a man with a vehicle. The man is believed to have set fire to an object before being detained.

'No members of the public or officers are believed to have been injured. Enquiries are ongoing.

'The man was arrested on suspicion of a number of offences. As a precaution, nearby roads have been closed.'
AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vilua is proud to announce the addition of Robert M. Whelan, Jr. to the Board of Directors. Whelan will serve as an independent director and brings decades of experience in the health technology sector to the company.

Vilua is a health data company helping people to predict and avoid health issues long before symptoms present. Using a mobile app, users are able to complete Vilua's Health Index, get a health value and accuracy score, and improve both the accuracy of the index value and their health over time. Vilua's app serves as a central hub for all personal health data, including self-reported information, data from wearable devices, at-home test kit results, and lab results.

While Vilua allows individuals to interact with and benefit from the Vilua+ app independently, the company also partners with employers to make employee health benefits more effective to positively impact as many people as possible.

The company's proprietary Health Index amalgamates the latest scientific research with deep insights from personal health data for a comprehensive, data-rich view of one's health. By incorporating the latest technology as well as personalized data, Vilua aims to have a direct, positive impact on millions of lives.

With Whelan serving as Director and advising on matters of growth strategy, corporate governance, and oversight in the health technology sector, Vilua aims to leverage Whelan's decades of experience to bring users a more powerful health optimization experience.

Robert M. Whelan, Jr. brings over 35 years of health technology expertise to Vilua's board of directors. Whelan received a B.A. in history from Dartmouth College and a M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Whelan's early professional years were spent serving as the Managing Director at Prudential Securities, and Managing Director and Head of Corporate Finance at Hambrecht & Quist, Inc.

Whelan then went on to become a senior executive with Volpe Brown Whelan, a private investment banking, brokerage and asset management firm for technology and healthcare companies.

From 1999 to 2001, Whelan served as Vice Chairman, Prudential Volpe Technology Group, the technology investment banking and research division of Prudential Securities, which was formed when Prudential acquired Volpe Brown Whelan & Company in 1999.

From 2002 to 2012, Whelan served on the board at SVB Leerink partners (formerly Leerink Swann), a leading investment bank, specializing in healthcare and life sciences. Since 2001, Mr. Whelan has been President of Whelan & Company, LLC, providing financial consulting, valuation, and strategic services to public and private companies in the technology, healthcare and alternative energy industries.

The company's Chief Executive Officer, Rick McCartney, states, "We're fortunate to have Whelan on board. His experience is unparalleled and the value he brings to our mission is immeasurable."

As Vilua continues to develop its Health Index, AI-empowered population data analytics, and health optimization resources, the public can expect to see early ideas elevated by input and strategy from Whelan and other prestigious members of the board.

Please visit the Vilua website to learn about the Vilua's health improvement app that is transforming how individuals engage with and take ownership of their health.

If you would like more information about Vilua, please contact Rick McCartney, CEO at 781-223-0636 or email [email protected].

SOURCE Vilua, Inc

Related Links

https://vilua.com


Byun Hee-soo, center, a former staff sergeant who was forcibly discharged after a sex change operation, holds a press conference in Seoul, in this Aug. 11, 2020 photo. Yonhap



By Bahk Eun-ji



The nation's human rights watchdog said Tuesday that it has recommended that the Army cancel its decision to discharge a staff sergeant who underwent a sex change operation, saying the forcible discharge infringed on the person's human rights.



The Army, however, said the forcible discharge was a "legitimate administrative measure."



According to the Center for Military Human Rights Korea, a civic group, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) recommended that the Army reverse its decision to discharge former sergeant Byun Hee-soo, and that the Ministry of National Defense revise related regulations in order to prevent a recurrence of such cases.



The recommendation came after the commission concluded, in a December meeting, that the Army's decision not to allow Byun to continue serving in the military as a female soldier had no legal grounds.



Byun, who underwent surgery to change sex from male to female in November 2019, expressed the intention to continue serving in the military. But the Army judged that Byun's removal of his male genitalia classified the soldier under a Level 3 physical disability under military law and then discharged Byun on Jan. 22, 2020.



The civic group filed a petition alleging the Army's forced discharge discriminated against transgender people, and the case drew widespread attention both at home and abroad as the nation's first case of an active-duty soldier undergoing sex reassignment surgery.



"A person who underwent sex reassignment surgery for the purpose of matching his or her body and gender identity cannot be considered as having a mental or physical disability," the commission said.



"We cannot recognize the correlation between the surgery and service suitability as there are already a number of female soldiers working with the rank of staff sergeant and as tank drivers just like Byun did," it said.



Despite the recommendation from the rights watchdog, the Army maintains that there was no problem with the decision to discharge Byun.



"We respect the commission's recommendation, but the discharge of former staff sergeant Byun was a legitimate administrative decision made under relevant laws," an Army official said. "We'll take necessary steps in the future according to the result of a relevant lawsuit."



After the discharge, Byun filed the suit with the Daejeon District Court in August to annul the decision and the trial is ongoing.


The lockdowns and reduced societal activity related to the COVID-19 pandemic affected emissions of pollutants in ways that slightly warmed the planet for several months last year, according to new research led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The counterintuitive finding highlights the influence of airborne particles, or aerosols, that block incoming sunlight. When emissions of aerosols dropped last spring, more of the Sun's warmth reached the planet, especially in heavily industrialized nations, such as the United States and Russia, that normally pump high amounts of aerosols into the atmosphere.

"There was a big decline in emissions from the most polluting industries, and that had immediate, short-term effects on temperatures," said NCAR scientist Andrew Gettelman, the study's lead author. "Pollution cools the planet, so it makes sense that pollution reductions would warm the planet."

Temperatures over parts of Earth's land surface last spring were about 0.2-0.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.1-0.3 degrees Celsius) warmer than would have been expected with prevailing weather conditions, the study found. The effect was most pronounced in regions that normally are associated with substantial emissions of aerosols, with the warming reaching about 0.7 degrees F (0.37 C) over much of the United States and Russia.

The new study highlights the complex and often conflicting influences of different types of emissions from power plants, motor vehicles, industrial facilities, and other sources. While aerosols tend to brighten clouds and reflect heat from the Sun back into space, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have the opposite effect, trapping heat near the planet's surface and elevating temperatures.

Despite the short-term warming effects, Gettelman emphasized that the long-term impact of the pandemic may be to slightly slow climate change because of reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, which lingers in the atmosphere for decades and has a more gradual influence on climate. In contrast, aerosols - the focus of the new study - have a more immediate impact that fades away within a few years.

The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters. It was funded in part by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor. In addition to NCAR scientists, the study was co-authored by scientists at Oxford University, Imperial College, and the University of Leeds.

Teasing out the impacts

Although scientists have long been able to quantify the warming impacts of carbon dioxide, the climatic influence of various types of aerosols - including sulfates, nitrates, black carbon, and dust - has been more difficult to pin down. One of the major challenges for projecting the extent of future climate change is estimating the extent to which society will continue to emit aerosols in the future and the influence of the different types of aerosols on clouds and temperature.

To conduct the research, Gettelman and his co-authors used two of the world's leading climate models: the NCAR-based Community Earth System Model and a model known as ECHAM-HAMMOZ, which was developed by a consortium of European nations. They ran simulations on both models, adjusting emissions of aerosols and incorporating actual meteorological conditions in 2020, such as winds.

This approach enabled them to identify the impact of reduced emissions on temperature changes that were too small to tease out in actual observations, where they could be obscured by the variability in atmospheric conditions.

The results showed that the warming effect was strongest in the mid and upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The effect was mixed in the tropics and comparatively minor in much of the Southern Hemisphere, where aerosol emissions are not as pervasive.

Gettelman said the study will help scientists better understand the influence of various types of aerosols in different atmospheric conditions, helping to inform efforts to minimize climate change. Although the research illustrates how aerosols counter the warming influence of greenhouse gases, he emphasized that emitting more of them into the lower atmosphere is not a viable strategy for slowing climate change.

"Aerosol emissions have major health ramifications," he said. "Saying we should pollute is not practical."

###

About the article

Title: "Climate Impacts of COVID-19 Induced Emission Changes"

Authors: A. Gettelman, R. Lamboll, C. G. Bardeen, P. M. Forster, D. Watson-Parris

Journal: Geophysical Research Letters

This material is based upon work supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a major facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

On the web: news.ucar.edu

On Twitter: @NCAR_Science
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There is every reason to foresee that the United States will be even more active in supporting Ukraine against the aggression of the Russian Federation, attempts to resolve the conflict both in Donbas and in the issue of the illegal occupation of Crimea, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"It will not be a secret for anyone that since 2014, the United States has been actively involved in supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression, in attempts to resolve the conflict in Donbas, and in the illegal occupation of Crimea, because I have every reason to feel and foresee that the United States will be even more active on this track, but in what format this will take place is already a matter of negotiations," he said on the air of the Freedom of Speech television program on ICTV on Monday.

At the same time, Kuleba said the issue of the U.S. participation in the Normandy format can only be resolved by consensus.

"As for the full participation of the United States in the Normandy format, let us remember that there is one person in the Normandy format who will definitely not be happy with such participation, this is the president of the Russian Federation. And the format does not expand at the request of only individual participants, it can only be changed by consensus," the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

Kuleba said there are no formal negotiations on Ukraine's obtaining the status of a special U.S. ally outside NATO.

"This topic is the subject of lively negotiations on social networks and at various expert forums. Ukraine has a clear goal, and this goal is full membership in NATO, on the way to this membership it is necessary to obtain a Membership Action Plan, therefore we need to move this way. We do not discard the possibilities of any other statuses and formats, if they really have an added value, and to engage in fetishizing different statuses, just 'give another status' is unnecessary," he said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister said Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are moving towards a triple alliance in the Black Sea region.

"As for the idea of a triple alliance in the Black Sea region, today I told the Secretary of State [U.S. Antony Blinken] that the United States can count on Ukraine as a reliable partner in the Black Sea region and Central Europe, this is our space of existence, these are the places where we can make a real contribution. And I assure you that Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are already actively moving in that direction. I will not say any more when the result will be  everyone will know," the minister said.

VANCOUVER, BC, and SAN CARLOS, Calif., Feb. 2, 2021 /CNW/ - FogChain Corp. (CSE: FOG.X) (OTCB: FOGCF) (FRA: MUU3) (the "Company" or "FogChain") is pleased to announce, further to its news release dated January 13, 2021, the Company has entered into a merger agreement and plan of reorganization (the "Definitive Agreement") with Avisa Pharma Inc. ("Avisa") and FogChain USA Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of FogChain, dated February 1, 2021, in respect of a statutory merger under the Delaware General Corporation Law pursuant to which the Company has agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of Avisa (the "Avisa Shares"), a privately held Delaware company, in exchange for the issuance of approximately 33,263,123 common shares and 14,825,786 restricted voting shares in the capital of the Company (the "FogChain Shares") on a post-Consolidation (as defined herein) basis, subject to the conditions set out in the Definitive Agreement (the "Transaction").

Established in 2010, Avisa is a private medical device company with its head office in Santa Fe, New Mexico and incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware. Avisa has developed a quantitative, pointofcare diagnostic breath test known as the Avisa BreathTest ("ABT") for rapidly detecting bacterial pneumonia and pulmonary infections in approximately 10 minutes. The ABT has the potential to be a more accessible, faster and costeffective detection method than presently used in the healthcare sector. The ABT is a validated clinical stage test with existing technology. Avisa currently has an intellectual property portfolio of 11 patents issued and registered and 3 patents pending. Avisa has raised approximately US$16 million to date.

The completion of the Transaction is subject to the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE"). Subject to the fulfillment of the conditions precedent set out in the Definitive Agreement, including receipt of approval from the CSE and shareholders of the Company, the Transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, or otherwise as the Company and Avisa may agree.

Upon successful completion of the Transaction, the resulting company (the "Resulting Issuer") will continue the business of Avisa and will change its name to "Avisa Diagnostics Inc." or such other name as is agreed to by Avisa and the Company and acceptable to the CSE upon closing of the Transaction (the "Closing").

The Transaction

The Definitive Agreement contains a number of conditions precedent to Closing, including but not limited to (i) the completion of a concurrent financing; (ii) the approval by the directors and shareholders (if required) of FogChain and Avisa; and (iii) the receipt of all requisite regulatory, stock exchange, or governmental authorizations and consents, including the CSE.

The Consolidation

Immediately prior to the completion of the Transaction, it is a condition that the Company consolidate its issued and outstanding share capital on the basis of fifteen (15) pre-consolidation FogChain Shares for one (1) post-consolidation FogChain Share (the "Consolidation"). The FogChain Shares to be issued to Avisa in connection with the Transaction will be issued on a post-Consolidation basis.

The FogChain Shares issued in connection with the Transaction may be subject to escrow conditions and/or resale restrictions as required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the CSE.

Board of Directors and Management

Effective on the Closing of the Transaction, it is anticipated that the current members of the Board of Directors of the Company (the "Board") and the current management of the Company will resign. With respect to the Board, the current members will upon Closing of the Transaction be replaced by nominees to the Board appointed by Avisa and the existing management team of Avisa will replace the current management of the Company. The management and Board of Directors of the Resulting Issuer will include the persons identified below:

David S. Joseph  President, CEO, CoFounder and Director  Santa Fe, NM

Mr. Joseph is a CoFounder of Avisa and has 40 years of healthcare and life science management experience. Mr. Joseph has been the cofounder and CEO of five companies (including Avisa) in medical technology, biomaterials and biopharmaceuticals. Mr. Joseph served as Chairman and CEO of Othera Pharmaceuticals (20032010) and cofounder of Orthovita Inc, a company where he also served as President and CEO (19992002). Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) acquired Orthovita in 2012 for US$350 million. Prior to Orthovita, Mr. Joseph cofounded two medical device companies: Surgical Laser Technologies, Inc., which went public in 1989 and was acquired in 1992 by Photo Medix, and SITE Microsurgical Systems, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson Corporation (NYSE:JNJ) in 1983. He also has over 15 years of executive healthcare management experience. Mr. Joseph received the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group's Raymond Rafferty Entrepreneurial Excellence Award in May 2005 for having founded four successful venturebacked companies and for his influence on the ophthalmic and medical technology industries.

Mr. Joseph's past and present board appointments include two successful acquisitions: Animas Corporation, a diabetes insulin pump technology acquired by Johnson & Johnson for approximately US$515 million in 2006; and Morphotek Inc., a privately held biotechnology company acquired by Eisai Pharmaceuticals for approximately US$325 million in 2007. Mr. Joseph is currently a director of Allevi Inc, a 3D Bioprinting company. Past directorships include: Aspire Bariatics Inc., an obesity technology company; Seamless Medical Systems, a patient engagement and media company; HTH Worldwide, a privately held internet travel health insurance and information company; TLC Vision, a leader in Lasik surgery centers; Managed Healthcare Services, Inc.; The Jackson Laboratory Board of Governing Trustees; and King's College Board of Directors. Mr. Joseph holds an MBA in Healthcare Administration degree from Xavier University.

Matthew Culler  Vice President, Finance - San Diego, CA

Prior to joining Avisa, Mr. Culler was Vice President, Finance & Operations at xF Technologies, a venturebacked renewable chemistry startup. Before his work at xF Technologies, Mr. Culler was a Principal at Sun Mountain Capital, one of the largest venture capital firms headquartered in the Southwest United States. Prior to Sun Mountain Capital, Mr. Culler participated in financings totaling over $2 billion as a Senior Analyst in the Private Equity Placements Group of Bank of America's investment banking business in New York City. Matt has a BBA in Finance with honors from the University of Texas at Austin.

Brian Birk  Director - Santa Fe, NM

Mr. Birk is currently Managing Partner at Sun Mountain Capital and has over 20 years of experience as an operating executive and investor. Mr. Birk cofounded Sun Mountain Capital in 2006, a private equity firm focused on the Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions in the USA. Since that time Sun Mountain has grown to be one of the largest private equity firms in the region, and currently manages direct investment funds and fund of funds vehicles. Prior to forming Sun Mountain Capital, Mr. Birk was a Vice President and Director of Private Equity at Fort Washington Capital Partners where he helped the firm establish and manage a number of private equity direct investment funds, secondary investment funds, and fund of funds programs. Mr. Birk also has previous experience at Boston Consulting Group, General Electric and GE Capital. Mr. Birk has a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

William Miller  Director - Santa Fe, NM

Mr. Miller is President of Miller Strategic Consulting, LLC, a consulting practice that invests in and actively participates in the management and development of startup companies. He has cofounded some fifteen startup companies, including Technicare Corporation where he served as Executive VP, CFO and Board Member, as well as Hitatchi Medical Systems of America where he was both on the Board of Directors and the Executive Steering Committee. He is currently a member of the board of InLight Solutions and Lumidigm Inc. in addition to SITE Santa Fe, Wasatch New Mexico Fund, Avalon Trust Company and the Santa Fe Art Institute. Mr. Miller received a BA in Philosophy from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MBA in Finance from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, where he also serves on the school's Entrepreneurial Advisory Board.

Further details and biographies of anticipated directors and management of the Company upon Closing of the Transaction to be provided in the Company's Listing Statement to be filed with the CSE.

Disclosure and Caution

Additional information in respect of the Transaction will be included in the Company's listing statement to be filed with the CSE in connection with the Transaction and which will be available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com .

About Avisa

Established in 2010 and based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Avisa Pharma Inc. is a clinical stage medical device company that is developing a drug/device novel biomarker technology platform that enables rapid pointofcare detection of virulent bacterial pathogens. The Avisa BreathTest is a quantitative diagnostic breath test for rapidly detecting bacterial pneumonia and pulmonary infections within 10 minutes after the patient inhales or ingests its proprietary drug substrates. The Avisa breath biomarker technology detects bacterial rapidly providing clinicians a tool to reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia in ventilated patients and allows quantitative monitoring of antibiotic therapies to reduce the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics; mitigates exacerbations of patients diagnosed post-COVID-19 respiratory bacterial infections; mitigates exacerbations of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis; and allows active tuberculosis diagnoses and monitoring of treatment compliance.

Avisa has sponsored investigator lead pilot clinical trials in cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis and community acquired pneumonia with positive safety and clinical efficacy results and is planning a pivotal trial in 2022 for FDA approval. Avisa has 11 patents issued and 2 patents pending. Avisa is led by an experienced management team with a proven life science track record and has raised approximately US$16 million to date.

The principal equity shareholders of Avisa are (a) NMSIC Focused LLC which owns approximately 15.9% and (b) Milagro Group LLC which owns approximately 7.4%.

Disclosure of certain financial information concerning Avisa and the Resulting Issuer will be available in the disclosure document prepared by FogChain and Avisa in connection with the Transaction.

Learn more at www.AvisaPharma.com

About FogChain Corp.

FogChain was previously seeking to be an end-to-end software development life cycle (SDLC) and quality assurance solutions provider, but the Company's business is now limited to identifying and evaluating assets or businesses for an acquisition.

Learn more at www.FogChainInc.com

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as, "anticipates", "expects", "is expected", "intends", "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements include those relating to the acquisition by FogChain of all of the outstanding Avisa Shares and the corresponding issuance of FogChain Shares, the anticipated Consolidation, the satisfaction of necessary terms and conditions of the Definitive Agreement to complete the Transaction, including: completion of a concurrent financing, the receipt of necessary approvals from the Board of Directors and shareholders of each respective company, the CSE and any other third party or regulatory approvals required, expectations relating to the timing of Closing, and the composition of the Resulting Issuer's management and Board of Directors. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management in light of management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, including assumptions related to the ability of both companies to successfully complete all the conditions precedent under the Definitive Agreement and the companies receiving all necessary future approvals and permits. Actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from that expressed in, or implied by, any forward-looking statements in this press release, and, accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements and they are not guarantees of future results. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks, assumptions, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual future results or anticipated events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, FogChain undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

The CSE nor its market regulator does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. The CSE has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

SOURCE FogChain Corp.

For further information: FogChain Media Contact: Investor Relations, [email protected], (604) 684-2181

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  An auto parts store in Lovington that state officials said allowed employees to continue to work despite having COVID-19 symptoms is being fined more than $242,000.

According to a New Mexico Environment Department news release issued Tuesday, three employees at the Lovington O'Reilly Auto Parts store ultimately tested positive for the virus, and one  a 46-year-old woman  died.

The state cited the store for violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act by letting the employees keep working despite being symptomatic as well as for failing to properly screen employees for COVID-19 and not following proper cleaning and disinfection protocols, the agency wrote.

This is a violation of state law, public health orders and COVID-Safe Practices, as well as O'Reilly's own internal policies, the release said.

A man who identified himself as the store manager at the Lovington location declined to comment on the citation. A call to the company's corporate risk management line was not returned.

The Lovington O'Reilly isn't the first New Mexico location of the store to run up against COVID-related safety measures. A store in Santa Fe was cited in the fall for unsafe workplace conditions under the same state law and for violations of the state's public health order. The store didn't admit to the violation but paid $79,200 as part of a settlement of its citations  far less than the $242,827.20 penalty assessed against the Lovington store. A spokeswoman for the Environment Department said the penalty to the Lovington store is the maximum allowed under law.

Penalties collected go into the state's general fund, the release said.

Providing employees with a false sense of protection from COVID-19 by putting policies in place to comply with state law and then not following them is unconscionable. Had O'Reilly management complied with corporate policies, it's possible this tragic situation could have been avoided, state Environment Secretary James Kenney said in the release. Every employee deserves to come home from work safe and healthy, and fortunately many New Mexico businesses are doing all they can to protect their workers.

O'Reilly has 15 business days from the date of the citations to either pay the penalties or contest them before the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Commission, the release said.

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It won an Oscar, spawned a franchise, and became one of the highest-grossing films of all time. But Disneys Frozen now has a new distinction, one that few (if any) other animated features can claim: it has played a decisive role in the investigation of a morbid adventure mystery.

The story begins in the winter of 1959, when nine experienced mountaineers  eight students and one sports coach  set off on a 200-mile hike through Russias Ural Mountains. When they failed to return, a search party went to investigate the site of their last camp. The investigators found the tent largely buried under snow and the nine corpses scattered around the area, some with gruesome injuries.

The Soviet authorities ascribed the Dyatlov Pass Incident, as it came to be known, to an unknown natural force. But the grim details of the case fired imaginations and spawned countless theories: murder, Yetis, alien abduction, and secretive military experiments were all blamed. The debate never went away, and in 2019 Russian prosecutors launched a new investigation. They concluded that an avalanche was mostly responsible for the deaths.

This weeks winter storm is part of a pattern caused by disturbances to the upper-atmosphere phenomena known as the polar vortex that can send icy blasts from the Arctic into the middle latitudes, chilling Europe, Asia and parts of North America. The disturbance and its effects have persisted for an unusually long time this year, said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, with two disruptions of the polar vortex so far this year and, potentially, a third on the way.

Research into the interplay of the complex factors that bring on blasts from the polar vortex is ongoing, but climate change appears to be part of the mix. While warming means milder winters overall, the motto for snowstorms in the era of climate change could be go big or go home! said Judah Cohen, director of seasonal forecasting at Atmospheric and Environmental Research, a company that provides information to clients about weather and climate-related risk.

The United States has already seen heavy snowfall in the Sierra Nevada and in the Great Plains in the past week. Last month, Madrid was buried under a paralyzing foot and a half of snow, and parts of Siberia suffered an unusually lengthy cold spell with temperatures of 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit  and one area recorded a temperature of nearly 73 below. (Last summer, some of the same areas experienced record heat.)

The wild weather has its origins in the warming Arctic. The region is warming faster than the rest of the planet, and research suggests that the rising temperatures are weakening the jet stream, which encircles the pole and generally holds in that frigid air. In early January, a surge of sudden warming hit the polar stratosphere, the zone five to thirty miles above the surface of the planet.
Chopt Creative Salad Co. plans on opening its first location in Alabama at The Summit in Birmingham.

The restaurant will be located at 331 Summit Blvd., the chain announced on social media. The restaurant will open Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 10:30 a.m. It will offer curbside pickup, app order or through its website, as well as contact free in-store ordering.

The location is currently hiring for all positions with pay between $10 to $14 an hour.

Founded in 2001 by college friends Tony Shure and Colin McCabe, Chopt Creative Salad Co. features a menu of premium salads and bowls, with specialty dressings, fruits, nuts and snacks.

It has expanded from its original location in New York Citys Union Square to include more than 60 locations in New York, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.

On Tuesday, Feb. 23 from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the restaurant will celebrate Chopt Gives Day, with 100 percent of digital sales donated to The Exceptional Foundation. Chopt Gives donations will only be applicable on orders placed via the Chopt App or the website.
PHOENIX, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SinglePoint Inc. (OTC: SING) ("SinglePoint" or the "Company"), a company focused on providing renewable energy solutions, announced today it has completed the acquisition of EnergyWyze, LLC, which was initially announced on January 12, 2021. With the transaction complete, SinglePoint bolsters its digital and direct marketing assets and business relationships that will streamline, optimize, and maximize its customer-centric lead generation, including an extensive database of validated leads, to form a preeminent solar lead generation engine.

"We are extremely excited to add the assets and expertise of EnergyWyze to the SinglePoint team and business. Closing this transaction further expands our lead generation capabilities, maximizes our overall online presence, and enhances the value of all our solar subsidiaries. We look forward to leveraging this next-generation lead generation platform and network that will ultimately drive significant growth and propel SinglePoint to the next level in the near term," commented Wil Ralston, President of SinglePoint.

EnergyWyze transforms the solar installation experience for both homeowners and contractors. The Company is led by a group of experts with deep history in acquiring and developing solar leads for some of the nation's largest solar companies including Vivint Solar, SunEdison, Crius Solar, Radix and more.

It is estimated that less than 4% of the residential solar addressable market in the domestic U.S. market currently has a solar system installed. Customer acquisition can account for a significant percentage of the spend in solar contractors' cost of doing business. With this newly formed premier lead generation engine, SinglePoint aims to reduce those costs and increase the conversion rate of new customers through creating a premium customer experience the solar industry is lacking at this point in time.

"We are excited to join SinglePoint early on in this endeavor to create the nation's leading solar and renewable energy platform. Our collective experiences and relationships will transform the scale at which the company can grow. We are just getting started in the energy revolution we believe we are at the forefront of a company that can propel this shift," added the EnergyWyze Team.

The EnergyWyze Team:

Joe Hupp

Joe previously served as the Director of Marketing for both SunEdison and Crius Solar, and managed all lead generation for sales teams. He ran all digital marketing efforts for the residential solar departments, and most recently has consulted for one of Vivint Solar's largest dealers and others.

Joe has managed online marketing efforts for large, publicly traded companies, celebrities, as well as mom-and-pop shops. His last job as VP of Digital Marketing, Joe helped grow digital company revenue from 12% of company revenue to 75% of company revenue. He actively managed over $1.5MM of media spend per month on multiple channels and managed a digital marketing team of 25+.

Che Oliver

Che brings over 20 years of direct marketing experience to the solar industry. Che's last position was as the CMO for one of the largest training organizations in the world. Che helped turn a break-even company with $18MM in annual revenue into a highly profitable enterprise with a monthly marketing budget of over $2MM across multiple channels while managing a team of 30+ professionals.

Prior to that, Che took the role of CMO where revenue was flat and stalled at $10MM annually. Che helped push that company past $50MM and the company went public. Fueled by direct mail and digital ads in 2004, the company did $80MM and continued growth into 2006 where it leveled off at $180MM kicking out $20MM net income and driving stock prices from $2 to $36 per share.

Brent Duskin

For the last 25+ years, Brent has specialized in new customer acquisition, re-activation, confirmation & rescission programs for companies such as: AT&T, Time Warner, Cable One, Wells Fargo, Sunset Magazine, American Express Long-Term Care, Hilton Grand Vacation, Marriott Vacation Club, Disney Vacation Club to name a few.

Brent's blend of creative direction and business intuition, along with a passion for direct marketing has led to a successful career with a wide range of responsibilities.

With its initial focus in solar energy, SinglePoint is building a foundation for future expansion opportunities including energy storage, charge points for electric vehicles and solar as a subscription.

About SinglePoint Inc.

SinglePoint Inc. is a company focused on providing renewable energy solutions to consumers and small commercial businesses. SinglePoint is committed to building the largest network of renewable energy solutions and modernizing the traditional model. For more information, visit the Company's website (www.singlepoint.com) and connect on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, the spinoff of nonenergy related assets, qualification for a national exchange, and future expansion, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

Investor Contact:

JTC Team, LLC

Jenene Thomas

833-475-8247

[email protected]

SOURCE SinglePoint Inc.

Related Links

http://www.singlepoint.com



YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. The Foreign Ministry of Artsakh has issued a statement, calling on all countries and organizations to be extremely careful and correct in their statements on the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, to avoid statements that may negatively affect the international efforts for the comprehensive settlement of the conflict.

Recently, we have witnessed an information campaign by Azerbaijan, which, in an effort to demonstrate alleged international support for the Turkish-Azerbaijani armed aggression against Artsakh, disseminates messages about congratulations by representatives of some international organizations and political circles of a number of countries on the "liberation" of the so-called "occupied" territories by Azerbaijan.

Leaving aside the question of the credibility of these statements, we nevertheless consider it necessary to note once again that the armed aggression unleashed in September 2020 by Azerbaijan with the support of Turkey and with the participation of international terrorists against the Republic of Artsakh has led to numerous sufferings: thousands of innocent citizens of Armenian nationality were killed and injured, hundreds are missing, are now in captivity, have become hostages, have been subjected to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and the Armenian cultural heritage is being destroyed.

We call on all countries and organizations to be extremely careful and correct in their statements on the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, to avoid statements that may negatively affect the international efforts for the comprehensive settlement of the conflict, maintenance of peace and stability in the region, as well as hurt the feelings of thousands of people.

Diplomatic etiquette cannot and should not serve as a basis for statements that can be considered in the context of legitimizing and consolidating the occupation of the territories of the Republic of Artsakh and justifying internationally wrongful acts, the statement says.

NPP Stalwart, Henry Kwabena Kokofu has asked Ghanaians to make the job of the Police easy with regard to the compliance with the COVID-19 safety protocols.



The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has instructed the Police and other security agencies to ensure enforcement of the protocols to curb the spread of the deadly disease.



The Police are said to have arrested hundreds of COVID-19 offenders in line with the President's directives.



Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo", Kwabena Kokofu advised Ghanaians not to wait to get arrested or punished before they mandatorily wear nose masks and practice social distancing as well as all other health protocols to avoid the disease.



"Let us not wait to be arrested by the Police because we aren't wearing nose masks," he iterated the President's call on Ghanaians.





President Nana Akufo-Addo, delivering his 23rd COVID-19 update, stated; ''As we step up public education and enforcement of the protocols on public gatherings, let me also state that regulatory agencies will undertake random checks to ensure conformity with these rules, and the security services will be tasked to enforce them. You do not have to be arrested by the Police before you wear your mask, your workplace should not be closed for non-conformity with the protocols, if there is no urgent reason for you to be outside, please stay at home.''Each one of us can help to contain the spread if we continue to practice the measures of social distancing, washing our hands with soap under running water, refraining from shaking hands, and, wearing our masks whenever we leave our homes. These measures must be respected by all.''

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.

Featured Video

When a watch becomes a work of art: The Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black blurs the lines! For its first collaboration with a Japanese contemporary artist, Hublot has pushed at the boundaries of creation by developing a new dynamic on the theme of Murakamis artistic emblem, the smiling flower.

Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black  TM/KK

Hublot loves Art! Before we know how to talk, we sing. Before we know how to write, we draw. We can barely stand up and we dance. Art is at the very foundation of human beings, a truth that has been embraced by the Hublot manufacture through its The Art of Fusion motto. The watchmaking manufacture regularly draws on great creative spirits. Our team of ambassadors is now joined for the first time by one of the most internationally renowned living artists: Takashi Murakami. His visually very modern style offers a subtle reflection between Japanese tradition and pop culture. He masterfully achieves this result by combining leading-edge multimedia tools with traditional Japanese techniques such as gold leaf. A real rock star in the contemporary art world, he coined the name Superflat for the artistic movement he began.



An initial visit to the Hublot manufacture in February 2020 enabled Takashi Murakami to familiarise himself with the work of a watchmaker and timepiece design. This triggered a creative process that resulted in the very innovative Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami, inspired by Murakamis icon, the smiling flower. Here, it is present both in and on the watch. Thanks to an ingenious ball-bearing system developed by Hublots engineers, its petals start turning. The center of the smiling flower is inserted onto the sapphire glass, creating a unique three-dimensional effect to go along with its wide prominent smile.

Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black  TM/KK

The Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black takes up one of the most evocative Hublot signatures, the All Black! Invented by Hublot in 2006, it turns out that the All Black style is also one of Murakamis artistic signatures. For an even more pronounced effect, the petals (456 brilliants) and face (107 brilliants) are here set with black diamonds.



The watchmakers in Nyon have installed their manufacture Unico calibre in the case with its Classic Fusion emblematic design, a movement offering a 72-hour power reserve. As the first collaboration between Hublot and a Japanese artist, the Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black will quickly become a real collectors item since it is limited to only 200 models.

Classic Fusion Takashi Murakami All Black  TM/KK

"Takashi Murakami is an international star, not only in contemporary art circles but also with the general public," says Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot. "He shakes up the borders between art and pop culture. It is a real privilege to see him join our team of ambassadors. We are delighted with the launch of this watch-work of art!"



"When I visited the Hublot manufacture in Switzerland for the first time, I realised to what extent the traditional know-how, precision, futuristic technology and craftsmanship were all intertwined in the creation of a watch," explained Takashi Murakami, Contemporary Artist. "Bringing my art into the creativity of these watchmakers represents a unique adventure for me."
CASS COUNTY, MI  A Michigan man was injured when his vehicle struck a concrete barrier and flew off a bridge in Cass County.

According to Cass County Sheriff Richard J. Behnke, the incident occurred when Joseph Badner, 26, of Cassopolis, was traveling near the intersection of Rudy Road and Swamp Street in Wayne Township just before midnight on Tuesday.

An investigation determined that Badner was traveling northbound on Rudy Road when he struck the concrete barrier, which caused his truck to go over the bridge.

Badner was trapped inside of the vehicle when police arrived on scene. He was extracted from the vehicle and transported to South Bend Memorial Hospital by Pride Care EMS. Seatbelts were worn at the time of the incident, Behnke said. Police did not say if drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash.

The Cass County Sheriffs Office was also assisted at the scene by Wayne Township Fire, Dowagiac Fire, Pokagon Tribal Police and Michigan State Police.
Black Lives Matter protesters overturned the barricades surrounding a Rochester, New York police station on Monday night as they demonstrated against the actions of police officers who pepper sprayed a nine-year-old girl while they arrested her.

The barricades came down as it was announced the officers involved in the incident on Friday, have been suspended.

On Monday evening, the demonstrators chanted 'Black lives matter!' as they managed to tip over the metal barriers set up outside the precinct before making their way up to the inner parking lot fence.

Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrated outside Rochester police station

Demonstrators overturned barricades as they protested the pepper-spraying of a nine-year-old girl on Monday night

A nine-year-old girl is handcuffed in police custody in a police cruiser after police used pepper spray on her as she screamed for her father

The mayor of Rochester, New York, ordered the immediate suspension of the officers involved which saw the girl sprayed while she was handcuffed, in an incident that was all caught on police body-camera video.

Mayor Lovely Warren said in a message posted on Twitter that the suspensions, announced after she met with the city's police chief, would continue 'at a minimum' until a police internal investigation of Friday's arrest is completed.

'What happened Friday was simply horrible, and has rightly outraged, all of our community,' the mayor said. 'Unfortunately, state law and union contract prevents me from taking more immediate and serious action.'

Neither the mayor nor the police department made it clear exactly how many officers would be suspended.

People protest after police handcuffed and sprayed a chemical irritant at a nine-year-old girl in Rochester, New York

Several protesters gathered outside the Rochester PD to air their grievances

Even some young children were seen at Monday afternoon's protest into the pepper-spraying

Demonstrators had been out in the streets of Rochester before heading to the police precinct

Those who made it past the barricades ended up shaking the fence in the parking lot

The fences appeared to be overturned almost in slow motion and there was no 'storming'

It took tens or protesters to overturn the interconnected metal barricades

Protesters marched through the streets of Rochester, New York after the incident last week

She added that she would 'lead the charge' in seeking changes to state law to allow municipal governments to take swifter action to discipline officers in such cases.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said Monday her office was 'looking into' what happened. She called the incident 'deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable.'

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo condemned the officers' actions in a statement issued Monday.

'As a human, this incident is disturbing and as a father, its heartbreaking-this isnt how the police should treat anyone, let alone a 9-year-old girl,' the statement said.

'Rochester needs to reckon with a real police accountability problem, and this alarming incident demands a full investigation that sends a message this behavior wont be tolerated,' he added.

Video shows the girl drop to the ground before she is handcuffed face down in the snow

The girl repeatedly cried out to see her father during the ordeal, video released on Sunday shows

The girl later asks for a female officer, who tells her she will be pepper sprayed in the face

Officers were seen trying to get the girl to sit up and pull her feet inside the car as she resisted

The New York Civil Liberties Union said Rochester police should no longer be involved in mental health crises.

'There is no conceivable justification for the Rochester police to subject a 9-year-old to pepper spray, period,' NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said Monday.

Also Monday, two Rochester state lawmakers, Sen. Samra Brouk and Assemblyman Demond Meeks, both Democrats, announced legislation to prohibit use of chemical agents against minors by police officers.

'To see such horrific footage of the mistreatment of a little girl, no less, was simply unreal. We have to remember who were talking about here,' Brouk said during a video news conference. 'This is a child. Shes in elementary school.'

Police have said the officers involved were responding to a family disturbance call.

Video footage taken during the incident showed police wrestling the girl to the ground in the snow.

'Youre acting like a child,' an officer tells her.

'I am a child,' the girl, who appears to be black, says as she screams, crying for her father.

The girl then asked for assistance in wiping her eyes after being pepper sprayed by cops

A total of nine officers and supervisors responded to the call before the girl was pepper sprayed

The police body camera video shows numerous police cars and officers on the snowy scene. After being restrained on the ground, the girl, wearing flowered leggings and a black sweatshirt, asks, 'Can you please get the snow off of me? It's cold.'

'You had your chance,' one officer tells her, while another shouts, 'Get in the car now!'

The investigation comes months after Rochester was rocked by protests over the death of a black man who was suffering a mental health crisis and was suffocated when police pulled a hood over his head last March.

In Friday's incident, Rochester Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson told reporters that the girl 'indicated she wanted to kill herself and she wanted to kill her mom.'

After the girl tried to run away, officers handcuffed her and attempted to take her to a hospital in a patrol car, Anderson said.

She repeatedly screamed 'I want my dad!' as the officers tried to pull her into the vehicle, the video showed.

'This is your last chance. Otherwise pepper spray is going into your eyeballs,' a female officer tells her, adding, 'I will call your dad.'

Eventually, another officer appears fed up and urges, 'Just spray her at this point.'

The girl then screams and is heard pleading, 'Wipe my eyes, please!'

'Unbelievable,' an officer sighs as the video ends.

At a news conference on Sunday, Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson described the girl as suicidal. She was eventually taken to Rochester General Hospital and later released to her family.

The day after the incident, the police said the girl disobeyed commands to put her feet in the car. An officer was then 'required' to spray an 'irritant' in the handcuffed girls face, the department said.

The girl's identity was not released, and the video was blurred to provide anonymity.
They have had a turbulent romance, which has been documented on TOWIE.

But Amber Turner has said both she and Dan Edgar have never been happier in their relationship and are looking forward to the future.

The reality star, 27, spoke of her hopes of having a baby with the 30-year-old and said their six month break-up in 2018 strengthened the relationship they are in today.

Smitten: Amber Turner has said both she and Dan Edgar have never been happier in their relationship and are looking forward to the future

Amber told New! Magazine: 'Us breaking up for six months was the best thing thats ever happened, Dan and I are really happy, were living together now.

'Its one little happy relationship for sure.'

Of the future, she said: 'Dan and I are going to buy a place together. We definitely want to have a baby and get married.'

When the couple split in 2018, Amber was left heartbroken to learn the TOWIE star had a fling with Chloe Sims while the two were filming in Thailand.

Broody: The reality star, 27, spoke of her hopes of having a baby with the 30-year-old and said their six month break-up in 2018 strengthened the relationship they are now in today

But Dan didn't pursue a relationship with Chloe and instead rekindled his flame with Amber.

Speaking about their time apart, Amber said: 'Sometimes relationships need that break for people to really realise whats important.'

Amber has recently returned to the UK after spending time away in Dubai on a work trip with Dan.

The couple returned before a travel corridor to the United Arab Emirates closed on January 29th.

Ministers are understood to have been increasingly concerned about social media 'influencers' and other celebrities turning up in exotic destinations while the rest of the country is in lockdown.

Past romance: When the couple split in 2018, Amber was left heartbroken to learn the TOWIE star had a fling with Chloe Sims while they were filming in Thailand (pictured 2017)

One government source told MailOnline last week people appeared to have been exploiting grey areas about what counts as 'essential' work trips.

'It is quite clear there are some high profile people getting away with it and what they are claiming as work is not,' they said.

And last week Priti Patel criticised those who have been holidaying in the sun when they have been told to stay at home.

She said going on holiday was 'not an exemption' as she unveiled a strict borders clampdown to slow the spread of the virus, telling the Commons: 'People should simply not be travelling.

'We see plenty of influencers showing off where they are  mainly sunny places.'

As the criticism intensifies, members of the public appear to be taking umbrage with their tone deaf posts from Dubai - now dubbed 'Covid Cosablanca.'
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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday held a phone conversation with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.

Mekdad congratulated the Communist Party of China (CPC) on its 100th anniversary and praised China's brilliant achievements in various fields under the CPC leadership.

He said that Syria firmly upholds the one-China policy and firmly stands with China on issues involving China's core interests such as Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

Syria strongly condemns the groundless suppression and smear by some Western countries of China's anti-pandemic efforts and will never forget that the country's first batch of foreign anti-pandemic aid came from China, Mekdad said.

The foreign minister also voiced hope that China will actively consider providing vaccine aid to Syria.

Noting that almost ten years have passed since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis, Wang said the Syrian people have paid a huge price and made great sacrifice to safeguard national dignity, independence and sovereignty.

The overall situation in Syria at present is de-escalating, but there is still a long way to go before comprehensive security and stability are restored, Wang said.

The future of Syria should be decided by the Syrian people themselves, he said, stressing that the international community should adhere to the Syrian-led and Syrian-owned principle, and support the process of reaching a solution which conforms to Syria's national conditions and accommodates the concerns of all parties through inclusive political dialogue.

The international community should also join efforts to fight against terrorism, and resolutely eradicate the terrorist forces in Syria listed by the United Nations Security Council, Wang said.

Wang said that China, as Syria's good friend and partner, will always firmly support the country to safeguard its national independence, and continue speaking for Syria's justified and lawful rights on multilateral occasions.

During the fight against the pandemic, Wang said, China and Syria have helped each other thus deepened friendship between the two peoples. China has provided Syria with much needed medical supplies within its capacity and will continue to offer vaccine and emergency food aid, so as to help the country prevail over the virus at an early date.
London: Testing and tracing teams are being deployed to doorsteps across Britain to try to squash community transmission of nearly a dozen cases of COVID-19 caused by the South African coronavirus variant.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they had discovered 11 cases of the variant, that could not be linked to travel, in five different locations across England - in the East, West Midland, South East and North West as well as in London. More than 150 cases attributed to the variant have been identified to date.

People walk past a closed brach of Topshop next to a bus stop coronavirus information sign on Oxford Street in London. Credit:AP

Britain remains in the grip of lockdown as it battles to curb the spread of a variant first discovered on its own shores, as well as trying to keep out other more transmissible variants that have emerged in countries with major outbreaks, including Brazil and South Africa.

Mobile surge testing units are being sent to the areas to carry out door-to-door testing and everyone living in the areas were urged to get tested regardless of whether they had symptoms. Every positive case will also be genomically sequenced.
It is a short bicycle ride for Cambodian migrant worker Chim Cheng to the nearest money transfer service in Thailands Saraburi province. The 26-year-old Battambang native saves up every month and sends his aging mother around $200.

Chim Cheng works at a meat processing facility in central Thailand. He would normally bump into other Cambodian migrant workers on his monthly bicycle ride. Last week, there were none to be seen.

Tens of thousands of Cambodian migrant workers have returned to Cambodia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, and more recently after an outbreak in migrant worker communities in Samut Sakhon province, which has since spread to other neighboring countries.

When I saw others going back home, I felt like going home too. But Im afraid I would be jobless at home, he said on a Facebook Messenger call.

Cambodian government officials have confirmed that more than 80,000 workers have returned to the country since last March when the border with Thailand was closed. Around 8,000 have returned after the recent outbreak, which was detected in mid-December 2020.

As of Tuesday, 87 of the returned migrant workers had tested positive for COVID-19. The Cambodian government has bolstered quarantine and testing facilities to keep up with the large number of workers returning through land border checkpoints with Thailand.

Soeum Bunrith, deputy governor of Battambang province, said workers were returning because of the recent outbreak in Thailand, but that many were also coming back because they lost their jobs or wanted to be with their families during the pandemic.

I have talked to them [some] said they have lost their jobs [in Thailand] after COVID-19 hit hard, so they didnt know what to do. They had to come back, he said.

Loeng Sophon, a Thailand-based project officer for Cambodian labor rights group Central, said workers were also returning because they had expired passports and visas or could not afford new costs imposed on workers who moved to a different factory, including paying for COVID-19 tests before they can accept a new job.

Illegal migrant workers are facing an even tougher situation, Sophon said. Sometimes, authorities and local police go for inspections to find people who do not have documentation and they are fined if found guilty.

Despite these challenges, workers like Chim Cheng and his 23-year-old wife have chosen to remain in Thailand and continue to work under economic uncertainty.

Sok Sinath is in a similar position; she fears being unemployed if she returns to Cambodia. The Pailin resident is currently working in Thailands Rayong province at a pineapple juice factory, where her monthly salary dropped in half, to around $200 a month. Her employer asked her to work only five days a week with no overtime.

After factories closed for a month or two, workers moved from one factory to another. We were asked to work only five days [a week] and with no overtime, she said during a phone call.

The reduced salary does not make it financially lucrative to remain in Thailand  Cambodias minimum wage is $198. Nor does she have money saved up to pay for travel expenses back to Pailin.

I will have to pay a lot to get back, including 3500 baht (around $116) for transportation from where I live to the border and then make a payment to cross the border," she said.

So, I told my parents that I will just send them some of my money.

Chhay Ly, who has lived in Thailand for a decade and helped recruit Cambodian workers, said the recent exodus of workers meant there were some jobs available in Thailand. He was working with 20 migrant workers currently to get them tested for COVID-19 before they can work at a new factory.

At times, up to 40 workers can contact him in a week to find new jobs, he added.

I think 40 to 50 percent [of Cambodian migrant workers] lost their jobs. They have no income; thats why [some] have to go back home. But some are staying here and doing whatever jobs they can find to earn a living, Chhay Ly said.

Despite having a job, Chim Cheng is anxious to get home. He left Cambodia three years ago when his wife was pregnant with their first child. Months after the delivery Chim Chengs wife also moved to Thailand to increase their earnings, which is used to repay the familys debt.

Chim Cheng is getting impatient and questioning whether it is worth continuing to work in Thailand. To make things worse, he is getting homesick and is yet to meet his young son.

Our family in Cambodia has convinced us not to go back home for now, Chim Cheng said.

They are afraid it will be just a waste of time, a waste of money, and having to go through 14 days of quarantine with only joblessness to follow, he said.
Nearly 80 students and teachers of Xuan Phuong Elementary School in Hanoi were sent to quarantine at the cordoned campus on Sunday after a third grader tested positive for the COVID-19 pathogen on Saturday.

Khong Minh Tuan, deputy director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday morning that 79 people at Xuan Phuong Elementary School in Nam Tu Liem District had been quarantined inside the school premises.

They include 57 students and 22 teachers and staff members who came into close contact with L.D.N.K., a student of class 3E, who was confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19 on Saturday evening.

The Hanoi Center for Disease Control collected their samples for COVID-19 testing on Saturday.

According to the family of a quarantined student, their child was taken to quarantine only 30 minutes after the notice arrived via mobile phone message, which left them little time to prepare.

K. is the son of patient No. 1,694, who previously went to a wedding party in the northern province of Hai Duong on January 16 and had close contact with a COVID-19 patient.

Five of patient No. 1,694s family members, namely his older son, wife, father, mother, and younger brother, have been confirmed to have the virus as well.

Hanoi authorities have ordered schools to close one week early for the Lunar New Year holiday, as a new COVID-19 outbreak has hit the capital recently.

Vietnam has confirmed 1,851 coronavirus cases, including 964 domestic infections, as of Tuesday morning, with 1,460 recoveries and 35 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

A student stays inside Xuan Phuong Elementary School in Hanoi with his teacher for quarantine after one of his schoolmates tested positive for COVID-19, January 31, 2021. Photo: Nguyen Khanh / Tuoi Tre

Students haul backpacks into Xuan Phuong Elementary School in Hanoi for quarantine after one of their schoolmates tested positive for COVID-19, January 31, 2021. Photo: Nguyen Khanh / Tuoi Tre

A parent sends food and necessities to the quarantine zone at Hanois Xuan Phuong Elementary School for her child, January 31, 2021. Photo: Nguyen Khanh / Tuoi Tre

Local guards carry baggage of the quarantined individuals inside Xuan Phuong Elementary School in Hanoi, January 31, 2021. Photo: Nguyen Khanh / Tuoi Tre

Staffers of the quarantine zone at Xuan Phuong Elementary School in Hanoi wear protective coveralls and masks, January 31, 2021. Photo: Nguyen Khanh / Tuoi Tre

Quarantined students are seen fetching stuff inside Xuan Phuong Elementary School in Hanoi, which was cordoned off after one of their schoolmates tested positive for COVID-19, January 31, 2021. Photo: Nguyen Khanh / Tuoi Tre

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This years Homeland Spring, an annual programme held for overseas Vietnamese to celebrate the traditional Lunar New Year (Tet), will feature only one show without audience due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to organisers.

A show of the 2020 Homeland Spring programme. Photo: VNA

The State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese (SCOV) under the Foreign Ministry said due to the pandemics complex developments, a large number of Vietnamese abroad are unable to return to the homeland to celebrate the annual most important festival.



Given this, the 2021 Homeland Spring programme will feature only one show broadcast live on VTV1 and VTV4 channels and the VTVgo and vtv.vn digital platforms of the Vietnam Television. It is scheduled to take place without audience at the Hanoi Opera House on February 4 evening.



The show will offer many special performances by famous artists both at home and aboard, praising the homeland and featuring the warm Tet atmosphere from across the country.



Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is set to deliver a speech extending Tet greetings to overseas Vietnamese at this event, the SCOV said.



Every year, the Homeland Spring programme is organised by the SCOV and relevant agencies ahead of Tet to provide Vietnamese expatriates a chance to join domestic compatriots in Tet celebrations. It also reflects the Party and States great attention to overseas Vietnamese affairs.



According to the SCOV, more than 5.3 million Vietnamese people are living in over 130 countries and territories, and their role, standing, and prestige in host countries have been increasingly improved.



In 2020, they donated 35 billion VND (1.5 million USD) in cash and medical supplies to the domestic COVID-19 fight, along with more than 40 billion VND and a large volume of goods to help people in central Vietnam address flooding consequences.



As of October last year, Vietnamese expatriates from 27 countries and territories had invested 1.6 billion USD in 362 projects in Vietnam.



Despite impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, remittances into the country in 2020 were still high, about 15.7 billion USD, giving Vietnam the ninth position among the worlds largest remittance recipients as listed by the World Bank.



Many initiatives to connect overseas Vietnamese intellectuals in contributing to the homeland have also been proposed and carried out, the SCOV noted. VNA

Homeland Spring program inspires Vietnamese spirit An art exchange program called Homeland Spring 2020 has been held recently, welcoming more than 1,500 overseas Vietnamese from all over the world, who have returned home for Tet, Vietnams traditional Lunar New Year.
After the last customer left finished off their remaining beignet this past Sunday afternoon, the staff at NOLA Brunch set in motion a plan that's been several weeks in the making.

The beloved breakfast spot, part of the same restaurant group behind Bud's Rotisserie at the Pearl and the upcoming Golden Wat Noodle House, is moving to 720 E. Mistletoe. The space on Mistletoe, formerly occupied by The Cookhouse, will help husband-and-wife team Pieter and Susan Sypesteyn add at least two dozen outdoor seats, which come in clutch during a pandemic.

The move was first announced last December, and fans of The Cookhouse were able to enjoy the New Orleans-inspired fare through New Year's Eve. The move for NOLA means Golden Wat, the Cambodian to-go concept the couple tested last year, will move into the 700-square-foot space.

RELATED: Cookhouse Restaurant team opening Cambodian noodle shop Golden Wat Noodle House in San Antonio

The staff at NOLA Brunch will also have more room to create tasty sought-after dishes.

"It's really like Restaurant Makeover in a week," laughs Susan over the phone. "The previous kitchen was as big as an apartment kitchen. It was so cramped and it really required a smoother line."

That line, made up of one flat top and one fryer to whip up all of those fluffy beignets, along with a six-burner stove, helped the restaurant stay busy for the past three years. Cosmetic changes were also made, with a new mural in the space by the one of their employees that continues NOLA's tropical theme.

The new line will lead to better efficiency  double the fryers means double the beignets  and will make way for more menu items. Barbecue shrimp, a staple at The Cookhouse, will be kept on the menu at NOLA, along with a few other "crossover" items. Lighter dishes are also in the works.

NOLA Brunch will take Wednesday to add any finishing touches to the new location, and open at their new location on Thursday morning. Hours for NOLA will remain the same at the new location.

Susan also revealed the opening date for Golden Wat Noodle House in the former NOLA location. Fans of the Cambodian bites can start ordering from and visiting the new location on Feb. 16.

READ MORE: San Antonio's best New Orleans eatery Cookhouse Restaurant will close Dec. 31, with Golden Wat Noodle House opening soon after

She also pointed to a new street-level patio that'll be available at Golden Wat through a pilot program they've joined with the city of San Antonio. The street patio will take up two parking spaces and add five tables to their dining area.

"That's 10 additional seats that are critical for us and our business," Susan said.
Last week, North Carolina ranked as the 10th slowest state in the country while administering the COVID-19 vaccine.

In Greensboro, 10,000 North Carolinians have had to reschedule their appointments after the state said it would not supply first-dose vaccines next week. Not only are vaccines being delayed, according to CBS 17 Raleigh, residents from Virginia are coming down to North Carolina to receive a vaccine ahead of North Carolina citizens.

This shows a growing problem from the Cooper Administration; the administration has failed to act and give North Carolinians a clear and concise path to becoming vaccinated.

As a state, we must work with our counties, we have never faced a vaccination plan at this scale before, and we must be able to work with our counties to find a solution that will work for all. Distributing these vaccines must be our main priority in combating the virus, but the only way we can do that is with clear communication from all officials, top to bottom.

There must be a change and, it needs to happen now.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SafeGuard Cyber, the only SaaS platform dedicated to managing the full lifecycle of digital risk protection, today announced its availability on CyberXchange, the innovative new ecommerce marketplace dedicated to cybersecurity and compliance.

For the first time on CyberXchange, CIOs, CISOs and IT professionals can find and purchase SafeGuard Cyber's digital risk protection solution mapped to the major cybersecurity frameworks such as SOC 2, PCI, CMMC, and NIST, bringing them unprecedented visibility and efficiencies in building cybersecurity programs. Built on CyberXchange's proprietary mapping engine and AI platform called Harmony, SafeGuard Cyber's platform is available at the CyberXchange Application Security Marketplace .

SafeGuard Cyber Platform

SafeGuard Cyber protects human connections that drive business in the digital world. Its cloud-based platform ensures that Digital Risk Protection is secure and compliant across third-party cloud and mobile channels. Features of its security solution on the CyberXchange Marketplace include:

A single solution to detect, defend, and prevent cybersecurity attacks and compliance risks in corporate communications on over 50 cloud-based and mobile channels.

Advanced machine learning protection against account compromise, spear-phishing, malware, and critical data loss on these channels, as well as providing information governance and compliance.

Fully searchable records, captured in their native format, including links and pictures.

"We are thrilled to be a CyberXchange partner and help IT professionals more easily evaluate and purchase SafeGuard Cyber's platform dedicated to safeguarding human connections and providing unmatched visibility on business-critical cloud and chat channels," said Jim Zuffoletti, co-founder and CEO of SafeGuard Cyber. "CyberXchange gives us tremendous national exposure and reach to buyers seeking our solution mapped to industry frameworks. This is something every IT professional will get value from."

"We're excited to welcome SafeGuard Cyber onto the CyberXchange platform to provide a completely new way for anyone searching for great cybersecurity products and services to quickly evaluate and buy SafeGuard Cyber's solutions," said Armistead Whitney, CEO of CyberXchange. "Through our unique mapping engine and AI platform, CyberXchange delivers the power of relevancy and choice for any buyer and budget  from big brands to verified emerging providers  all within a simple UI experience. SafeGuard Cyber joining CyberXchange gives B2B customers an exciting new way to find and experience their solutions."

According to a recent study by PwC, 91% of all enterprises are following at least one cybersecurity framework, which mandates hundreds of requirements to quickly satisfy by sorting through a flood of 5,000+ disjointed security products and services currently on the market. Until CyberXchange, there was no easy way to find a product or service mapped to a specific framework requirement leading to massive over-expenditures, vendor overload, and inefficiencies. CyberXchange's underlying technology maps the world's leading cybersecurity products with over 10,000+ framework requirements giving B2B buyers a new efficient way to filter and buy the products and services they need more efficiently than any other approach.

About CyberXchange

CyberXchange from Apptega is the first B2B ecommerce marketplace dedicated to cybersecurity. CyberXchange connects organizations of all sizes with verified vendors and products that map to a desired cybersecurity framework to address the ever-changing threat landscape and solve compliance challenges. Started in 2020, CyberXchange is based in Atlanta, GA and includes hundreds of solutions from top category leaders and emerging providers. For more information, visit: https://cyberxchange.apptega.com .

About SafeGuard Cyber

SafeGuard Cyber is a Charlottesville, Virginia-based company with a cloud-based platform that empowers organizations to use social media and digital channels securely, compliantly, and at the scale of global business. With coverage across more than 50 channels, SafeGuard Cyber helps security, compliance, and marketing teams work better together to drive business forward. For more information, visit www.safeguardcyber.com .

SOURCE SafeGuard Cyber

Related Links

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San Franciscos beloved Noriega Produce has gotten a major upgrade.

The family-owned and -operated grocery store is moving a block down the street from its original space at 3821 Noriega St. and getting a rebrand as Guss Community Market, which welcomed customers inside Tuesday morning.

Dimitri Vardakastanis, who co-owns Guss Community Market with his brother Bobby and his mother Georgia, shared that hes thrilled to finally open Guss Community Market in the Outer Sunset after years of planning.

It's been a long time coming, said Vardakastanis. We've been working on the project for six and a half years to bring a full-scale grocery store to the neighborhood.

At the newly expanded grocery store, customers will find many of the perks inside the other Guss Community Markets around San Francisco, which include a meat department, a deli, a cheese section and a sushi bar. Eventually, the grocery store expects to add a hot bar with soups and salads.

The store will also take the name of Vardakastanis father, Gus, who started the business back in 1981 with his very first grocery store, Haight-Ashbury Produce. Noriega Produce opened in 1985, and today, the small local chain has grown to four grocery stores around San Francisco.

Erin Ng

The family business has been an integral part of Vardakastanis' upbring. He fondly remembers the thrill he and his brother had while they joined their father as he shopped for fresh goods at the San Francisco produce terminals.

He would take us at 2 a.m. in the morning, Vardakastanis said. The night before [hed ask], Hey, are you guys interested in coming to the terminal with me? My brother and I were both really excited  and kind of running around and grabbing boxes. [We would] drink coffee with a lot of milk and sugar to make us feel like one of the big guys. We were living it because [we got to] spend time with [our] dad and see a bunch of his buddies.

Gus tragically passed away in 2017. Vardakastanis shared that the new Guss Community Market was one of the last projects that he got to work on with his father, which makes the opening that more special.

It's something that we're excited and proud of. He would be beside himself to see this happening, Vardakastanis said.

With the move, Noriega Produce will close its doors but retain all its current staff, who will transfer over to the expanded grocery store. An additional 45 team members will work onsite, too.

Vardakastanis feels grateful to be in a position where he can hire amid the ongoing pandemic and feels overjoyed with the anticipation felt by many of his customers, he said.

People have been watching [Guss Community Market] build piece by piece for a good amount of time now, Vardakastanis said. Customers are really excited to get [this] full-service store that they've been waiting for.

The latest location of Guss Community Market is at 3701 Noriega St. in San Francisco and is open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Editor: In the 2019-2020 session, a constitutional amendment to create judicial districts for Pennsylvanias highest courts flew through our Legislature without any visible evidence of public support or approval.

HB 196 passed in the state House and Senate with less than an hour of public debate, no expert testimony and no response to concerns raised by law associations and good government groups in Pennsylvania and across the country. In the current session, the bill is known as House Bill 38. If it passes, the constitutional amendment changing how appellate judges are elected will be on the ballot in May.

Appellate judges are elected statewide for 10-year terms with the option to seek retention. With the amendment, citizens would be able to vote only for judges in their districts. There would be no more retention. Judges would have to go through another campaign with all the special interest groups, corporate money and dark money that attends elections today. In other words, judges will be even more susceptible to being bought if the amendment passes.

Most other states select judges based on merit, including demonstrated maturity, responsibility, honesty and fairness, ability to take heat and their knowledge of law. In Pennsylvania politicians have blocked proposals for merit selection. Judges should be beholden only to the law and the facts presented with solid, legally (and fairly) collected evidence.

Pennsylvania is heading into uncharted waters. No other state enables gerrymandering of judicial appellate districts. Lets not be the first. Theres no reason to rush this process. Please call or write your senator and your representative and tell them to allow for public comment, at least, or to vote no on the constitutional amendment if our legislative leaders insist on driving the bill forward. Voters have made it clear already that we want less gerrymandering, not more.

MARY WOESTMAN

MONTROSE

Editor: Jan. 6 will be remembered as one of the darkest days for American democracy. Insurrectionists, directed and urged on by then-President Trump, attacked the Capitol in an effort to overturn his election defeat.

But make no mistake: Trump wasnt alone in fomenting the violent mob that left one police officer dead, dozens of others injured and faith in our elections in tatters. Pennsylvanias Republican lawmakers chose to help spread voter fraud lies as well.

When asked by the Philadelphia Inquirer what role his own unproven claims of widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania played in the Jan. 6 riots, state Senate Pro Tempore Jake Corman of Centre County absurdly said they didnt play any role. The newspaper rated that statement a pants on fire falsehood.

Pennsylvanians who traveled to Washington and stormed the Capitol did so believing the election was rigged and stolen. Our local lawmakers knew better, but refused to set them straight.

Those who participated in the coup attempt must face harsh consequences. Those who supported farcical claims of voter fraud that led to the mayhem  including eight Republican congressmen from Pennsylvania and numerous state lawmakers, including Republican House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff of Centre County  all should resign.

In what Trumps own officials declared the most secure election in history, 81 million voters decided it was time to change course.

But instead of working to unite Pennsylvanians, Corman and Benninghoff now want to gerrymander our state appellate courts and eliminate the governors emergency powers  with zero opportunity for citizen input.

For Corman and Benninghoff, its long past time to tell the truth.

MARGIE SWOBODA

JULIAN, CENTRE COUNTY

Editor: Following the events of Jan. 6, in which a violent mob incited by then-President Trump attacked the Capitol, desecrated the halls of Congress, endangered lives, and murdered a Capitol police officer, I think it is time that local governments move to demand the removal of all Trump signs and flags from the yards and houses of local residents.

Displaying support for a man who committed sedition, treason and appeared to invite felony murder is tantamount to treason itself. After Trumps aborted coup, Trump signs should disappear.

JEFFREY M. McHALE

OLYPHANT

Editor: When I was a college student, the most impressive thing that I ever learned took place in a philosophy course.

The professor told us that a philosopher by the name of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was well-known for his belief that humankind was at the emotional, mental/psychological, and spiritual developmental level of a 12-year-old child, but would eventually evolve into adulthood.

When I look around and see how we so often mistreat each other in our country, this observation really speaks to me. I say this in full realization that I, too, am one of the 12-year-olds.

With all of the heartaches, sorrows and losses that each of us experiences in life, I wish we would try to turn to each other rather than on each other.

STEWART B. EPSTEIN

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

Editor: I sure would love to see our hometown boy, President Joe Biden, turn the black silt pile off exit 6 of the Casey Highway in Mayfield and Carbondale Twp. to green as part of his environmental initiatives.

Its been dragging down the upper valley area for years.

JOSEPH WAHY

CHILDS
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) dated February 1 on the application of sectoral special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) to the Republic of Nicaragua.

Relevant decision was supported by 322 MPs at a plenary session on Tuesday.

As NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said during his speech in the parliament, on November 10, 2020, the Republic of Nicaragua took unfriendly actions towards Ukraine by opening an "honorary consulate" in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has repeatedly appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua with a demand to cancel its unlawful decision, but the official Nicaragua ignored this appeal of the Ukrainian side, deliberately disregarding the official warning of Ukraine. By the decree of the President of the Republic of Nicaragua, 'honorary consul' in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was appointed Oleg Belaventsev, who on March 18, 2019 was found guilty by Sviatoshynsky District Court of Kyiv regarding encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, incitement to the state's sake, waging an aggressive war against Ukraine, and sentenced to 13 years in prison," Danilov said.

He said such actions are gross violations of Ukrainian legislation and international law.
Shannon Romano, a molecular biologist, came down with COVID-19 late last March, about a week after she and her colleagues shut down their lab at Mount Sinai Hospital. A debilitating headache came first, followed by a fever that kept rising, and then excruciating body aches.

I couldnt sleep. I couldnt move, she said. Every one of my joints just hurt inside.

It was not an experience she wanted to repeat  ever. So when she became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine recently, she got the shot.

Two days after her injection, she developed symptoms that felt very familiar. The way my head hurt and the way my body ached was the same headache and body ache I had when I had COVID, she said. She recovered quickly, but her bodys intense response to the jab caught her by surprise.

A new study may explain why Romano and many others who have had COVID report these unexpectedly intense reactions to the first shot of a vaccine. In a study posted online Monday, researchers found that people who had previously been infected with the virus reported fatigue, headache, chills, fever, and muscle and joint pain after the first shot more frequently than those who had never been infected. COVID survivors also had far higher antibody levels after both the first and second doses of the vaccine.

Based on these results, the researchers say, people who have had COVID-19 may need only one shot.

I think one vaccination should be sufficient, said Florian Krammer, a virus expert at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and an author of the study. This would also spare individuals from unnecessary pain when getting the second dose and it would free up additional vaccine doses.

While some scientists agree with his logic, others are more cautious. E. John Wherry, director of the University of Pennsylvanias Institute for Immunology, said that before pushing for a change in policy, he would like to see data showing that those antibodies were able to stop the virus from replicating. Just because an antibody binds to a part of the virus does not mean its going to protect you from being infected, he said.

It might also be difficult to identify which people have previously been infected, he said. Documenting that becomes a really potentially messy public health issue, he said.

Side effects after vaccination are expected. They show that the immune system is mounting a response and will be better prepared to fight off an infection if the body comes into contact with the virus. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are particularly good at evoking a strong response. Most participants in the companies trials reported pain at the injection site, and more than half reported fatigue and headaches.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.)

The clinical trials of the authorized vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which included more than 30,000 participants each, suggest that most people experience the worst side effects after the second jab. And in the Moderna study, people who had previously been infected actually had fewer side effects than those who hadnt.

But anecdotally, researchers are hearing from a growing number of people like Romano who felt ill after one shot. They describe these symptoms much more vigorously, Wherry said.

That matches what Krammer and his colleagues found in their new study, which has not yet been published in a scientific journal. The researchers assessed symptoms after vaccination in 231 people, of whom 83 had previously been infected, and 148 had not. Both groups widely reported experiencing pain at the injection site after the first dose. But those who had been infected before more often reported fatigue, headache and chills.

The team also looked at how the immune system responded to the vaccine in 109 people  68 of whom had not previously been infected and 41 who had  and found a more robust antibody response in the latter group. The numbers, however, are small, and so the studys conclusions will need more research, experts said.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM.)

It is not necessarily surprising that previously infected individuals might experience more intense reactions. Both shots contain bits of genetic material that spur the body to manufacture spike proteins, the knobby protrusions on the coronaviruss surface. People who have already been infected with the virus have immune cells that are primed to recognize these proteins. So when the proteins show up after vaccination, some of those immune cells go on the attack, causing people to feel sick.

Dr. Susan Malinowski, an ophthalmologist in Michigan who had COVID-19 in March, certainly felt like her body was under attack after she received the Moderna vaccine. She got the first shot before lunch on New Years Eve. By dinner, she was starting to feel ill. She spent the next two days miserable in bed.

I had fevers. I had chills. I had night sweats. I had pain everywhere in my body, she said. I was actually more ill after the vaccine than I was with COVID.

Questions about more severe vaccine reactions in people who have already had COVID came up at a Jan. 27 meeting of an expert committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Pablo J. Sanchez, a committee member from the Research Institute at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, noted that he has heard from people who had a response to the vaccine that was worse than their previous experience with COVID-19. He suggested that a question about prior infection be added to the information that the CDC requests from vaccine recipients. Its not asked, Sanchez said. I do think that is really important.

Dr. Tom Shimabukuro of the CDC, who presented safety data to the committee, said that the agency was investigating the issue. Theres limited data on that right now but we are looking at ways to which we can get better information, he said.

People who have had COVID seem to be reacting to the first dose as if it was a second dose, said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine. So one dose is probably more than enough, she said.

A study published recently reported that surviving a natural infection provided 83% protection from getting infected again over the course of five months. Giving two doses on top of that appears to be maybe overkill, she added.

(STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.)

Shane Crotty, an immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, pointed out that a more intense vaccine response typically means better protection. If someone had a big response to the first dose, I would expect that skipping that second dose would be wise and also that the second dose probably is unnecessary, he said.

But other immunologists suggest everyone stick to two doses. Im a big proponent of the right dosing and right schedule, because thats how the studies were performed, said Maria Elena Bottazzi, an immunologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

And getting two shots doesnt seem to pose any danger to those who have had COVID.

Still, Malinowski, the ophthalmologist, wishes there were fewer questions and more answers. If vaccine side effects really are more intense in people who have already been infected, health officials could give people a heads up, she said.

It would be nice to know that, Hey, you might not be able to get out of bed for two days, Malinowski said. She has decided not to return for a second dose.

Romano of Mount Sinai Hospital is due for her second shot this month and isnt sure what she will do. My friends who are immunologists, weve all sort of been discussing this among ourselves, she said. Chances are Ill probably get it. But I want to think about it a little bit more before I do.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Politics in Myanmar are never bound by simple logic. Though the top brass had worked for years to design a system for their enduring benefit, they had also invested just one man  General Min Aung Hlaing  with the power to tear it down.

Myanmars modern history is filled with generals who have single-handedly redefined the countrys circumstances. One previous army chief was a megalomaniac whose obsession with numerology crashed the nations currency when he decided to denominate it by nine. Another was a slaughterer of student protesters and believed he was the reincarnation of an ancient king.

General Min Aung Hlaing, 64, rose unobtrusively  and largely unremarked  through the armys ranks, according to some who know him. Early in his career, some of his peers said they stuck him with a nickname that referred to cat feces  something deposited quietly but leaving a powerful stink.

After his rise to senior ranks, and more public stature, he courted the Buddhist laity in Myanmar by financing what will be the largest marble Buddha statue in the country. But the display of piety has done little to mask that the army chief has much to atone for.

Rohingya Muslims had faced decades of persecution under Tatmadaw rule, but it was General Min Aung Hlaing who masterminded a campaign of terror that forced more than three-quarters of a million Rohingya to flee the country. As Rohingya villages burned, nationalists rejoiced at the expulsion of Muslims, who were considered foreign interlopers. The army chiefs popularity soared.

Soon, General Min Aung Hlaing was coveting the position of president, which he hoped to fill after retiring from the army this summer, military insiders said. But since 2015, when Myanmars first civilian government was voted in, the presidency has gone to loyal lieutenants to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who is constitutionally barred from the post.
Estonias prime minister has resigned over a corruption scandal in his Center Party that led to key party officials resigning overnight, and talks began Wednesday among political parties about forming a new ruling coalition.

The move automatically prompts the resignation of Estonia s three-party coalition government but does not automatically mean a new election.

Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas said early Wednesday on his Facebook page that he would step down as the suspicion expressed by the Public Prosecutors Office .... does not mean that someone is definitely guilty but they will inevitably cast a serious shadow over all those involved.

In such a situation, it seems only right that, by resigning myself, I will give the opportunity to shed light on all the facts and come to clarity, Ratas wrote on Facebook.

Ratas said he personally has not done anything wrong.

Despite taking political responsibility, I can say with all my heart that, as prime minister, I have not made any malicious or deliberately wrong decisions, he wrote on Facebook.

After Ratas announcement, parties immediately started talks forming a new government. Estonias President Kersti Kaljulaid said she would propose that the main opposition party, the center-right Reform Party, have its chairwoman Kaja Kallas form the new Cabinet.

Ratas has led a majority coalition of his left-leaning Center Party, the nationalist EKRE party and the conservative Fatherland party since April 2019. He has acted as the prime minister of the Baltic country of 1.3 million since November 2016.

On Tuesday, Estonias security police it was investigating the offices of state credit agency KredEx over suspicions of corruption regarding a 39 million-euro ($48 million) loan granted to the Porto Franco real estate complex in harbor district of the capital, Tallinn.

The Public Prosecutors Office said separately it suspected the Center Party and five people of criminal involvement in the Porto Franco real estate case.

Among them is party secretary Mihhail Korb of the Center Party and real estate businessman Hillar Teder. Korb announced his resignation late Tuesday.

As head of government, I ... did not feel in the Porto Franco case that any minister or party had tried to influence the decisions taken by the government in an illegal way, Ratas said on his Facebook page.
press release

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is embracing technology in a big way and has finally launched its highly anticipated E-Compliance Certificate online system.

This will enable employers, small businesses and entrepreneurs to apply for a UIF compliance certificate (tender letter) without leaving the comfort of their homes of having to queue for manual issuance.

The new and innovative system replaces the old application process of manually completing and submitting a form, sworn statement and SARS tax clearance certificate via email.

Head of Corporate Services at UIF, Advocate Mzie Yawa, has revealed that from today, 1 February, clients can visit uifcompliance.labour.gov.za or www.labour.gov.za and click on "UIF e-Compliance Certificate" under the "Online Systems" tab to register and apply.

Yawa urges small businesses, companies and entrepreneurs to register on the system using their UIF reference number and apply for the UIF compliance certificate (tender letter).

"If you are up to date with your UIF compliance requirements, the system will issue you with a compliance certificate immediately, which you can download or print. If you are not compliant, the system will issue a non-compliance letter with reasons for the rejection," explained Yawa.

Benefits of the new system include:

Improved turnaround times (certificate is issued within minutes compared to the previous turnaround time of 10 working days);

Elimination of human errors and fraudulent activities;

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Improved employer compliance with UIF legislation regarding declarations and contribution of its employees;

Improved authenticity of the compliance certificates produced;

Improved debt collection;

Reduction of photocopying and printing costs; and

If a client loses their certificate, they can generate a duplicate of the original on the system.

"It is all systems go. As the UIF, we will continue embracing technology to improve our services to our clients. Service delivery will be enhanced with the launch of the e-Compliance Certificate system because of the faster turnaround times for applications.

"Companies and entrepreneurs will also be able to apply for potential business opportunities faster, including government tenders, as the UIF compliance certificate is often one of the requirements for doing business with the government," said Yawa.

Acting Departmental Spokesperson
NEW DELHI : The Covid-19 crisis has exposed Indias insufficient focus on core public health functions, including a lack of accountability in the service delivery model, the 15th Finance Commission (FFC) said.

Its report, tabled in Parliament on Monday, said there has been an insufficient focus on core public health functions such as disease surveillance and testing. The report found critical gaps in health infrastructure like subcentres, primary health centres (PHCs), community health centres (CHCs) and doctors, nurses and paramedics.

It highlighted shortcomings in the quality of care, despite improvement in access, and inadequate attention to urban health systems and municipalities, which have a key role to play in public health, including for air and water pollution, road traffic injuries and pandemic-related vulnerabilities.

The report pointed to the rising cases of non-communicable illnesses such as diabetes, obesity, kidney and heart disease, a major public health concern.

Government service delivery system has traditionally focused more on reproductive health and infectious diseases and less on non-communicable diseases, which are now the dominant share of the disease burden," said the report. It added that there is a fragmentation and lack of coordination between different levels and sectors, including a badly regulated private sector which dominates service provision.

The private sector, which has grown more by default than by design, needs better regulation to align it with the vision and values of universal health coverage. By providing much-needed remedial direction and augmented resources to the health sector, the Finance Commission has given the central and state governments a mandate they must deliver," said K. Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India, a public-private partnership initiative.

The commission has done well to draw attention to the neglect of urban primary healthcare, disease surveillance and neglect of non-communicable diseases which contribute immensely to death, disability and are comorbid contributors to infectious disease deaths. Major gaps in infrastructure and health workforce have greatly impeded the ability of the health system to deliver efficient and equitable services," said Reddy.

In a scathing review, the commission said that service delivery has traditionally focused on inputs and infrastructure instead of outputs, outcomes and accountability. This has led to underperformance in government health facilities and the consequent emergence of a large private sector as patients seek care elsewhere, it said. The report pointed out that almost 70% of outpatient utilization and 58% of all inpatient utilization now occurs in the private sector, which is fragmented and largely unregulated. The health system is not fully equipped to address the growing burden from non-communicable diseases, for which it will need to move from addressing episodic health issues towards the provision of people-centred chronic care," it said.

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Church Pension Group to Host Conversation on Faithful Investing - Linking Faith and Finances

The Church Pension Group (CPG), a financial services organization that serves The Episcopal Church, announced that it will host a virtual conversation on Faithful Investing - Linking Faith and Finances as part of its ongoing Insights & Ideas series of discussions on socially responsible investing ( SRI (News - Alert) ). Individuals interested in attending the event can register at cpg.org/Insights&Ideas.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005034/en/

(Photo: Business Wire)

The event will take place on Thursday, February 18 from 12:15 to 1:30PM ET, and will feature a panel of faith-based investment specialists who will explore the themes presented in Faithful Investing: The Power of Decisive Action and Incremental Change. Edited by James W. Murphy, Managing Program Director at The Episcopal Church Foundation, the book offers wisdom on socially responsible investing from leading experts across the denominational spectrum. Mary Kate Wold, CEO and President of CPG, will facilitate the discussion







"While CPG takes an intentional, strategic approach to socially responsible investing, we often hear from individual congregations and other smaller groups who may not have the expertise and resources of a pension fund yet are interested in learning about how they can make investments that support their values," said Ms. Wold. "We are excited to host this conversation with experts on faith-based investing who will discuss how congregations and individuals can manage their investments to generate positive returns while supporting the greater good. I encourage those who have an interest in learning more to join us on February 18."

The panelists will include: N. Kurt Barnes, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, The Episcopal Church; Sr. Patricia Daly, OP, consultant for corporate responsibility and impact investing, Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, NJ; Joseph M. Kinard, Past Chair, Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment, Presbyterian Church (USA); James W. Murphy, Managing Program Director, The Episcopal Church Foundation; and Christopher Rowe, Managing Director, Investments, Church Pension Group.

CPG plans to host additional Insights & Ideas conversations in 2021, details of which will be posted to its website. Videos and presentations from prior events focused on investing in economically disadvantaged communities, shareholder engagement, positive impact investing, and sustainable investing can be found at cpg.org/Insights&Ideas.

Editor's Note:

Individuals interested in learning more about CPG's SRI efforts and viewing videos related to CPG's positive impact investments can visit cpg.org/SRI.

About the Church Pension Group

The Church Pension Group (CPG) is a financial services organization that serves The Episcopal Church. It maintains three lines of business-employee benefits, property and casualty insurance, and publishing. CPG provides retirement, health, life insurance, and related benefits for clergy and lay employees of The Episcopal Church, as well as property and casualty insurance, and book and music publishing, including the official worship materials of the Church. Follow CPG on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. cpg.org

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Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, right, father of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, leaves court with his lawyer (Anjum Naveed/AP)

Pakistans Supreme Court has ordered the British-born man acquitted of the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 off death row and moved to a so-called government safe house.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years, will be under guard and will not be allowed to leave the safe house, but his wife and children will be allowed to visit him.

It is not complete freedom. It is a step towards freedom, said Mr Sheikhs father, Saeed Sheikh, who attended the hearing.

The Pakistan government has been scrambling to keep Mr Sheikh in jail since a Supreme Court order last Thursday upheld his acquittal over the death of Mr Pearl, generating expressions of outrage by Mr Pearls family and the US administration.

In a final effort to overturn Mr Sheikhs acquittal, the Pakistan government, as well as the Pearl family, have filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to review the decision to exonerate Mr Sheikh of Mr Pearls murder.

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The Pearl family lawyer, Faisal Sheikh, earlier said a review has a slim chance of success because the same Supreme Court judges who ordered Mr Sheikhs acquittal sits on the review panel.

The US government has said that it would seek Mr Sheikhs extradition if his acquittal is upheld.

Mr Sheikh has been indicted in the United States on Mr Pearls murder as well as over a 1994 kidnapping of an American citizen in Indian-ruled Kashmir. The American was eventually freed.

The order sending Mr Sheikh to a safe house would seem to be a concession to the federal government, as well as the government of southern Sindh province where Karachi is the capital. The Sindh government has refused successive orders to release Mr Sheikh, even courting contempt charges from lower courts.

In the government-run safe house, Mr Sheikh will be under a 24-hour guard  often military personnel  and will not be allowed to leave the house. Pakistans security establishment has several such facilities across the country.

Mr Pearl disappeared on January 23 2002, in the port city of Karachi where he was investigating links between Pakistani militant groups and Richard C Reid, dubbed the shoe bomber after his attempt to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.

Mr Pearls body was discovered in a shallow grave soon after a video of his beheading was delivered to the US consulate in Karachi.

The Pentagon in 2007 released a transcript in which Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, said he had killed Mr Pearl.

Mr Sheikh had long denied any involvement in Mr Pearls death, but Pakistans Supreme Court last month heard that he acknowledged writing a letter in 2019 admitting a minor role  raising hopes for some that he might remain behind bars.
Funds advised by Motive Partners and Clearlake Capital acquire a majority stake in InvestCloud, combining Finantix and Tegra118, to create a global SaaS wealth solutions financial technology leader with over $4 trillion of assets on its platform

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Motive Partners ("Motive"), a specialist private equity firm focused on growth and buyout investments in enterprise financial services software companies, and Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. ("Clearlake"), a sector-focused investor that partners with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses, today announced that they have acquired InvestCloud, a modular, enterprise-grade digital wealth & investment management software solutions platform. Motive Partners, Clearlake and funds advised by Motive Partners have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 80% of InvestCloud from early stage Investors, and have simultaneously combined InvestCloud with existing Motive Partners portfolio companies Finantix and Tegra118 to create the next generation Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") global wealth solutions platform led by InvestCloud's CEO, John Wise. The strategy and vision is shared by an esteemed group of co-investors, made up of some of the largest financial institutions in the world, including Accenture, Citi Ventures and Fiserv.

The wealth management industry is exhibiting consistent growth and investment from new and established providers, presenting opportunities for disruptive technology companies to digitize the industry and capture market share along the value chain. Today software solutions are often legacy and purpose-built, with many point solutions fragmented by geography, process and category. However, industry trends include the need to serve global clients consistently, digitize advisor and client interactions, create efficiency in front to back office processes, and provide integrated solutions which can span all wealth segments including mass affluent, high net-worth and ultra high net-worth needs.

InvestCloud's platform has been selected by many of the world's largest financial institutions, private banks and Insurers as their global digital wealth platform. Motive and Clearlake, working with InvestCloud, identified that Tegra118 would be a complementary fit as the base for future product innovations, and Finantix would be the ideal partner for private banking capabilities. In addition, Finantix's focus on private banking in Europe and Asia provides a strong base for InvestCloud's international expansion. The combined company has over 500 direct clients, including 380+ wealth managers (distributors: 7 of the top 10 Broker Dealers in the USA) and 120+ asset managers (manufacturers: 9 of the top 12 in the USA), with hundreds more indirect clients that manage over $4 trillion of assets around the world using the platform. The combined company, which will operate as InvestCloud, benefits from a blue-chip client base, superior modern technology and substantial industry tailwinds.

"We are delighted with the opportunity to combine the strengths of Tegra118 as the leading Managed Account platform in the USA, and Finantix Private Banking expertise with InvestCloud's leading digital wealth platform," said John Wise, CEO of InvestCloud. "The timing represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with fellow entrepreneur Rob Heyvaert, the broader Motive Partners team and Clearlake to seize the opportunity to transform the industry."



Rob Heyvaert, Chairman of InvestCloud and Founder & Managing Partner of Motive Partners, commented: "Our research in recent years around the macro and regional wealth-tech trends led us to acquiring Finantix, Tegra118 and ultimately to John and the InvestCloud team. Today marks both our collective intent and an important opportunity for the industry, as the newly formed InvestCloud Group unveils its combined vision for clients across multiple regions and sub-sectors of financial services. We are looking forward to capitalizing on the unique industry timing for our clients with John, Christine, Cheryl and our team of experts."

"InvestCloud has established a leading, differentiated position in the wealth management software space with a pure-play, cloud-native platform that meets the unique needs of global financial institutions and their clients," said Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, and James Pade, Partner of Clearlake. "We look forward to partnering with John, Motive Partners and the InvestCloud team as the company, in combination with Finantix and Tegra118, continues to provide best-in-class solutions to its global customer base."



As part of the transaction, Rob Heyvaert (Founder & Managing Partner, Motive Partners) will become Chairman, with John Wise as Group CEO who will lead the combined business, with Cheryl Nash (CEO, Tegra118) and Christine Ciriani (CEO, Finantix) reporting to Mr Wise.

In addition, James Pade (Partner & Managing Director, Clearlake), Vikram Abraham (Vice President, Clearlake), James Cox (Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, Fiserv), Scott Kauffman (Founding Partner, Motive Partners), Richard Lumb (Industry Partner, Motive Partners) and Doug Smith (Industry Partner, Motive Partners) will join the Board of InvestCloud to support the growth of the business.

Cheryl Nash, CEO of Tegra118 commented, "InvestCloud's platform is without doubt the most digitally advanced solution in the wealth industry. Combining InvestCloud with our network of asset managers and wealth managers will add substantial and unprecedented value to our clients and the market."

Christine Ciriani, CEO of Finantix commented, "With the democratization of wealth and digitalization of advice, there is no better time to offer the market an integrated front- and middle-office platform delivering feature-rich digital assets for the global wealth management and insurance industries. To combine Finantix's strength in Europe and Asia in private banking with InvestCloud's market leading SaaS platform in North America and Tegra118 is an exciting prospect for both our customers and people."

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the expected timing and benefits of the transaction. Statements can generally be identified as forward-looking because they include words such as "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "could," "should," or words of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are subject to assumptions, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. The factors that may adversely impact the anticipated outcomes include, among others: the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the transaction agreement; conditions to the completion of the transaction may not be satisfied on the terms expected or on the anticipated timeline; and the benefits of the transaction may be different than currently anticipated. You should consider these factors carefully in evaluating forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Motive Partners assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release.

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- North Star announced today that it has completed its first physical inspection with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). North Star intends to be the leader in pharmaceutical grade cannabis production with facilities encompassing over 140 acres of outdoor cultivation and over 500,000 square feet of indoor and greenhouse cannabis cultivation.

Cannabis

John Kaweske, CEO of North Star states, "The Company believes these applications will position North Star as one of the largest companies in terms of square footage and number of licenses submitted by a single operator for cannabis research in the United States. Our intended clients are universities, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. We intend to offer these researchers numerous cannabis genetic varieties to choose from in order to conduct research. Cannabis research may unlock new drug development for future FDA approved treatments."

The University of Mississippi is the only DEA-licensed cannabis cultivator for research purposes in the United States. North Star is hopeful that 2021 marks a new era of private entities and federal agencies working in cooperation to conduct cannabis research to help create new therapeutics.

About North Star

Since 2015, John Kaweske, CEO of North Star has been forging a path in the regulated cannabis industry in multiple states by opening new markets, locations, and introducing brands focused on providing the best products for patients and consumers at affordable prices. North Star and its affiliates own and operate multiple medical and retail marijuana centers, hundreds of thousands of square feet of cultivation facilities, extraction laboratories, under the brands Tweedleaf, Xleaf and Leaf Labs in the western United States.

For more information about North Star, contact Welby Evangelista at 801-946-2243 or via email at [email protected]. Learn more about North Star Holdings at www.northstarholdings.com

Contact: Welby Evangelista

North Star Holdings

Phone: 801-946-2243

[email protected]

SOURCE North Star Holdings, Inc.
Press Release

February 2, 2021 Protection of overseas Filipinos' welfare must be prioritized, says Bong Go as Senate panel okays committee deliberations on DOFil bill Senator Christopher "Bong" Go issued a strong appeal to the government to provide greater protection and assistance to overseas Filipinos and their families amid the struggles they face caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other crisis situations abroad. Go also raised concerns on recent unfortunate incidents, such as allegedly abused Filipinos in Syria, as well as the shocking murder of Mary Anne Daynolo in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. "I offer my deepest condolences to Mary Anne's family for her untimely passing. Their grief and pain at this time are beyond words. My thoughts and prayers are with them and everyone who loved her," said Go. Daynolo, aged 30, was officially reported missing on March 6, 2020. She was last sighted two days prior at a hotel where she worked as a receptionist. A search was quickly launched after a sibling who is also based in the U.A.E. reported her disappearance. Despite this, the authorities made little progress and the victim's family in the Philippines organized an online campaign to aid in the search. Her remains were finally recovered nine months after her disappearance and were flown to the Philippines on Saturday, January 30. Go has also expressed his grave concern over the reported trafficking of some Filipino women forcibly taken to Syria and abused by their employers. "Ayaw ko talagang makitang merong mga OFWs natin na naaabuso, lalo na nasa malalayong lugar sila. Sa mga nang-aabuso ng kapwa tao, dapat sa inyo putulan ng...!," he exclaimed. "Bagong bayani kung ituring natin sila na halos sampung porsiyento ng ating populasyon. Sana naman ay suklian natin nang mas maayos at mas mabilis na serbisyo ang kanilang sakripisyo para sa kanilang pamilya at sa bayan," Go reiterated. To improve the delivery of services to overseas Filipinos, especially OFWs in distress, the Senator filed Senate Bill No. 1949 on December 14, 2020. "Dapat mayro'n tayo na mas maayos na mekanismo para rumesponde sa mga Pilipino na may hinaharap na problema abroad. Hindi nila dapat kailangan pang manawagan sa Facebook o radyo dahil tungkulin nating protektahan at alagaan sila," continued Go. The 'Department of Overseas Filipinos Act of 2020' is the third iteration of a bill he introduced in 2019 and represents the unified position of the Executive branch of government. "Kapag usapang overseas Filipino, dapat may isang Cabinet-level secretary who will lead a department structured to work together as one team to protect the rights and welfare of Filipinos abroad," he explained. The bill has been certified as 'urgent' by President Duterte. It is also one of the twenty priority measures identified by both chambers of Congress for 2021. On February 1, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri disclosed the Senate committees are set to begin deliberations on various bills, including the proposed DOFil bill. "This is a welcome development. We will resume the committee hearings into the overseas Filipino department bills," Senator Joel Villanueva, chair of the Senate labor committee, said. "The pandemic has exposed the weakness of our policies on OFWs, particularly our reintegration program to help them transition back to the local labor force," Villanueva added. Under Senator Go's proposed measure, the department shall subsume and streamline all responsibilities pertaining to overseas employment and migration that are presently scattered among various departments and agencies. It will be primarily responsible for protecting the rights and promoting the welfare of overseas Filipinos as well as managing and monitoring their employment abroad and reintegration once they return. Notably, SBN 1949 directs the implementation of a one country-team which shall require all officials in Philippine diplomatic posts to act together as one team, per country of assignment. Go emphasized that creating DOFil will not bloat the bureaucracy and is in line with the objectives of rightsizing and streamlining government functions. "Matagal na ako sa serbisyo publiko. Mahigit dalawang dekada akong nanilbihan kay Pangulong [Rodrigo] Duterte. Alam ko na kung watak watak ang mga ahensya, hindi ganun kabilis at maayos ang serbisyo ng gobyerno," noted Go. "Mas maisasaayos ang mga programa at serbisyo ng gobyerno para matulungan ang mga apektadong Pilipino kung mayroong sariling departamento na mamamahala sa mga pangangailangan ng mga OFWs at iba pa nating kababayan abroad," he explained. The department will also be responsible for providing social and welfare services, including legal assistance and insurance, to overseas Filipinos. It shall likewise administer reintegration programs and provide Assistance to Nationals services, especially during national emergencies. "Ito po ang ating ipinaglalaban  ang kapakanan ng mga Pilipino kahit saan man sila sa mundo. Sana naman, suklian natin ang kanilang sakripisyo ng mas maayos at mabilis na serbisyo," appealed the Senator.

The head of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA's legal division, Martha Ngoye, who probably saved PRASA billions, has been fired, according to a statement by the chairman of the board of control, Leonard Ramatlakane. Two other executives have also been dismissed, on what look like spurious grounds.

On Saturday 30 January, Ramatlakane announced that three PRASA executives had overstayed the five-year terms of their contracts and had their employment terminated. The three are Ngoye, Nkosinathi Khena and Pearl Munthali. Ngoye was group head of legal, risk, and compliance. The other two were on suspension.

Ramatlakane also announced that, "PRASA has also resolved to institute legal proceedings against Ms Ngoye for unlawfully approving payment of R58 million to SA Fence & Gate when she had no authority to do so," and against Khena for, "financial loss it suffered due to unlawful conduct of Mr Khena".

Ngoye has been the central figure at the rail agency in its fight against corruption. She has helped PRASA win court victories against Swifambo, Siyangena, and Siyaya. It was Ngoye's defiance that rebuffed Judge Tintswalo Makhubele's attempt to improperly settle with Siyaya. Further, Ngoye's testimony at the State Capture Commission revealed the depths of former CEO Lucky Montana's corrupt leadership of PRASA.

Without her interventions, PRASA would have lost many billions of rands.

Ramatlakane said that during a review of executive contracts, "it transpired upon analysis of employment contracts of executives that some of them ought to have left PRASA years ago. All executives at PRASA are employed for a period not exceeding five years with no expectation for extension of the employment contract."

This policy, unannounced in the press at the time, was seemingly instituted in 2019 during the tenure of former Chair of the Interim Board, Khanyesile Kweyama. That board did not have a quorum at the time, and so any decisions that it made were subject to review. Further, the current board is not quorate either, lacking a representative from the Department of Transport, at least. This means that any decisions that this board makes are subject to review, and that Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula is in contempt of a ruling of the Western Cape High Court.

Ramatlakane also said that the executives "have been aware at all material times that their employment contracts were for a five-year period and not more".

However, he said, " it appears the executives capitalized on the instability at the Board level culminating in their extended and unlawful stay at PRASA. On 29 January 2021, PRASA has terminated the employment contracts of the following executives with immediate effect".

It is open to question that it is the responsibility of the employee, and not the employer, to ensure that they are not staying on beyond the term of their contract.

He said Ngoye had initially been employed in 2012 as CEO of Intersite, one of PRASA's subsidiaries. "Effective from 1 September 2015, she was transferred to her current position. Ordinarily, Ms. Ngoye's stay at PRASA ought to have terminated on 31 August 2020."

After a hearing in September last year, in October, PRASA, led by Ngoye's legal team, won a resounding victory in the Siyangena matter, in a judgment by a full bench of the North Gauteng High Court. Siyangena is appealing the judgment, but the appeal is unlikely to succeed. Given Ngoye's many successes as head of legal, one might reasonably expect PRASA to want to retain her services. On the contrary Ramatlakane said, "PRASA has also resolved to institute legal proceedings against Ms Ngoye for unlawfully approving payment of R58 million to SA Fence & Gate when she had no authority to do so".

GroundUp reported on the SA Fence and Gate issue, in 2018. Ngoye was not one of the key figures involved. In fact, the report from Nexus, commissioned by National Treasury following the Public Protector's Derailed report makes no mention of Ngoye.

In the Werksmans Attorneys investigation, Ngoye is mentioned in regard to the extension of the contract. But she is peripheral at best - the key player in this story is Palello Lebaka. According to Werksmans' report, in January 2015, Ngoye was acting as Group CEO while Lucky Montana was on holiday. Ngoye was presented with a recommendation report from Josephat Phungula on behalf of the Bid Advisory Committee. Lebaka had been fired after his corrupt dealings were uncovered. Nevertheless, according to the BAC, PRASA still required lights that were included in the contract, and they recommended to Ngoye that an outstanding amount of R23 million be paid to complete this transaction.

According to the internal policy of the time, Group CEOs of PRASA have the authority to sign off on contracts below the value of R100 million. The extension would have been presented to the board after Ngoye's signature was attached, and the board would have approved this transaction.

In his affidavit, SA Fence and Gate executive Chris Greyling, alleged (from page 20 of this pdf) that his company's troubles at PRASA were orchestrated by a competitor - Siyangena.

Turning to the decision to fire Khena, Ramatlakane said when Khena was acting group chief executive, he had reinstated the SA Fence and Gate contract "knowing of the company's breach" and that this breach was also "brought to his attention by National Treasury in a letter dated 21 April 2016".

"An amount of R25m was paid to the said company without requisite authority and/or approval," said Ramatlakane. "Mr. Khena was at the time Acting-Group Chief Executive Officer and his unlawful conduct caused PRASA to incur financial loss."

However the record of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) from February 2016, shows that Khena had little choice in this decision, as the company had won a court order to reinstate the contract.

Further, said Ramatlakane, "Mr. Khena reinstated Ms Ngoye, who at the time was lawfully suspended by Mr. Lucky Montana (Group CEO as the time) for unlawful approval of R58 million to SA Fence and Gate".

But in fact, Montana was forced to backtrack. As recounted before the State Capture Commission, in May 2015, Ngoye's subordinate Fani Dingiswayo had refused to sign-off on a Montana-engineered deal worth more than R80 million, with a company called Prodigy. Dingiswayo had discovered irregularities in that deal, and when he challenged Montana, Montana fired Dingiswayo on the spot - illegally.

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The next day, when Ngoye went to find out from Montana what had happened, she too was illegally fired by Montana. A week later, after the intervention by the board (chaired at the time by Popo Molefe), Montana was forced to commute the terminations of their contracts into suspensions. Then, after Montana resigned in disgrace from PRASA, Ngoye and Dingiswayo were reinstated by Khena after being cleared of misconduct.

Ramatlakane said PRASA would "institute legal proceedings against Mr. Khena for financial loss it suffered due to unlawful conduct of Mr. Khena".

As regards Munthali, the suspended CEO of the PRASA Foundation, who has also been fired, Ramatlakane said she "has been on suspension for alleged misconduct. Upon perusal of records, it transpired that Ms. Munthali's contract ought to have been terminated upon the expiry of a five-year term."

He does not mention that all charges against Munthali were dropped by PRASA.

GroundUp sent PRASA spokesperson Bane Ndlovu detailed questions, but he had not responded by the time of publication. His response will be added if/when it is received.

GroundUp is being sued after we exposed dodgy Lottery deals involving millions of rands. Please help fund our defence. You can support us via Givengain, Snapscan, EFT, PayPal or PayFast.
press release

With evidence being led at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture (Zondo Commission), the Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Mr Senzo Mchunu, has received a number of calls and expressions of thoughts, with people showing anxiety over a number of issues being revealed at the Zondo Commission; this statement is not necessarily a response to those, as the conversations are ongoing, the Minister is merely seeking to comment generally on the developments.

One of the factors people are seemingly concerned about is the attachment of allegations to the revelation of names - the citizens of the country are the ultimate recipients of all services rendered by Government in their interest, they do deserve to know - now or later! It is common cause that the principle of "Audi alteram partem" should apply and after all has been said and done, names must be revealed.

Chapter 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, provides the basic values and principles which govern public administration, characterised by amongst others, the maintenance and promotion of a high standard of professional ethics, the promotion of the efficient, economic and effective use of resources as well as accountability. The question then begs: "What does it mean to be a public servant?" It needs to be understood from the onset as to what comprises "public service". Firstly, we have the PUBLIC SERVICE itself - relating to the service rendered to the public in terms of various laws, values and principles such as fairness and transparency. Secondly, is the legitimate Government entrusted with the responsibility to make provision for the rendering of public service to the citizens and lastly, the public service comprises of the public servants who are responsible for the actual rendering of the services to the public. Taking into cognisance these three elements, it therefore stands to reason that very little can indeed be kept secret or classified as "a permanent secret" in the public service - not everything can be kept private!

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A criteria exists- in Intelligence Agencies all over the world - SERVICE, is by and large public - over and above the servants themselves! "Members of the Intelligence Services" are public servants, even though the nature of their official duties may categorise part of their work as 'secret'. It is therefore a moot point that their jobs are 'secret', but where the need arises, i.e. where 'public' competes with 'secret', 'public' will take precedence. South Africa has a plethora of legislation which provides for the furnishing of information; the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act No. 2 of 2000) is an example of such legislation. Whether a public servant's work is public or secret, the reality of the matter is, it is a public good!

By and large, public service is about the public. Government and public servants (elected or appointed) come after the service - which is always at the centre and must be in the public's interest. In order for our country to truly advance towards good governance, transparency and accountability, its servants who are entrusted to serve the public must always understand that their work is public or, it will be made public for them!
WILLEMSTAD:--- On February 1, 2021, the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with participants from the Netherlands and Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten participated in a virtual seminar on strategies to better combat human trafficking led by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The seminar followed a prior training conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

UNODC focused on tools for criminal justice practitioners, as well as challenges, and achievements in international cooperation on human trafficking cases. In particular, UNODC featured the TRACK4TIP initiative to enhance the regional criminal justice response to human trafficking among migration flows involving Venezuelans by working at regional and local levels to identify, prevent, and prosecute human trafficking cases. The participants represented criminal justice practitioners, prosecutors, police, and specialized judges from various entities of the kingdom.

Experts from UNODC alongside guest speakers from the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors (AIAMP) and the Ibero-American Network of Specialized Prosecutors against Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smuggling (REDTRAM), shared best practices to improve the prosecution of trafficking in person cases to further our cooperation on effectively combating the crime.

Officials from Aruba, the Netherlands, the U.S., and UNODC gave remarks to open and close the training. The Minister of Justice of Aruba, Andin Bikker, stressed the importance of joint cooperation between all entities of the kingdom and the United States on human trafficking investigations. Minister Bikker noted the spillover effects of Venezuelas humanitarian crisis on the Caribbean region and the important existing framework for joint law enforcement cooperation between the kingdom and the United States of America. Acting Deputy Director Laura Rundlet of the U.S. Department of States Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons closed the training, reflecting on the importance of international collaboration and of law enforcement approaches that are trauma-informed and victim-centered as we work to improve our collective efforts to fight human trafficking.

TRACK4TIP is a three-year initiative (2019-2022), implemented by UNODC, with the support of the U.S. Department of States Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The project benefits eight countries in South America and the Caribbean with national and regional actions in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Curacao, and Aruba.

This seminar supported the anti-trafficking efforts of the kingdom partners and reflects the U.S. Governments commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  Inspirational diva Jamie Rivera has lent her voice for the missionary song to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines.

Composed by Fr. Carlo Magno Marcelo, "We Give Our Yes" is the song to commemorate the beginning of Christianity in the country.

Rivera said the song will be launched at the Manila Cathedral on Feb. 6 and will be played in the whole Archdiocese of Manila after every mass starting Feb. 7.

When asked about the meaning of this new piece to her, the Catholic Mass Media Awards Hall of Fame awardee said this is the Lord's way of telling her what her mission is.

"I have been singing inspirational songs for 21 years now, so I guess it is my mission to sing and spread the word of God through my songs and to be able to glorify Him more through my voice," she told CNN Philippines' News.PH.

She said this song also serves as a challenge for everyone to proclaim the word of God, especially to those who have not yet come to know Him. This also a call to help frontliners in healing the sick, to comfort the afflicted, and to show mercy to sinners, she added.
A Kariba fisherman who tortured his teenage uncle for two consecutive days leading to his sudden death is now battling for his own life in hospital after attempting to commit suicide.

Muzondiwa Brave Baureni (38), who is employed by Alfa Rose Company, reportedly gulped battery acid after realising he had killed 17-year-old Tatenda Manyanga over US$60 that went missing.

The boy died last Friday around 5pm at Makuyu fishing camp, Mola, Siakobvu in Kariba district.

Mashonaland West provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Margaret Chitove did not respond to an inquiry made by NewZimbabwe.com over the matter.

However, according to a police memorandum seen by this publication, on 29 January 2021 at around 5pm, a report of murder was received at ZRP Siakobvu through a phone call to the effect that Manyanga had died after he was assaulted several times all over his body with sticks by Baureni who fingered him for stealing US$60, which was meant to pay the latter's workers.

"The accused person is nephew to the now deceased. On the 27th day of January 2021 at around 1500 hours, the now deceased visited the accused at Makuyu fishing camp since the two were uncle and nephew, respectively.

"After some hours at Makuyu fishing camp, the accused started accusing the now deceased of stealing US60 dollars which was in the temporary tent they use to sleep in when they are conducting their duties," reads the internal police memo.

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The boy repeatedly denied ever stealing the money, prompting his angry nephew to arm himself with sticks, which he (nephew) used to batter his youthful uncle threatening to kill him.

Further reads the memo, "He assaulted him several times on the back and buttocks. The informant (Zacharia Musiiwa) tried to refrain (sic) the accused from assaulting the now deceased but to no avail since the accused claimed that he was disciplining his uncle to stop stealing.

"The accused person took the now deceased and drove a boat to a nearby island in the Kariba lake and he tied the now deceased upside down on the supporting bars of the boat and assaulted him all over the body.

"He drove back to the harbor with the now deceased who was no longer able to walk or speak and made him to lie down in the tent."

After realising how the boy was badly injured, Musiiwa advised the accused to rush him to Manyove Clinic for treatment but the accused refused and only bought some painkillers that he gave to the now deceased.

As fate would have it, the boy died in the tent two days later as a result of the assault.

Musiiwa reported the matter to ZRP Siakobvu.

On realising that he had killed his uncle, Baureni tried to take his own life by drinking battery acid.

He is admitted at Siakobvu Hospital while the deceased's body was taken to Karoi District Hospital for postmortem.
Sydney City is set to welcome a new hotel with the signing between the City Tattersall Club and the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) to manage the accommodation at the clubs planned $200 million redevelopment.

Scheduled to open in 2025, Hotel Indigo Sydney Centre will sit atop the Clubs premises in a newly renovated, 49-storey mixed-use tower that includes new restaurants, event space, an exclusive business lounge, retail, health and wellbeing facilities, along with a 110-room hotel and 246 residential apartments.

The Indigo brand will embrace the clubs 125-year history with the NSW racing industry while offering the trappings of a high-quality hotel.

Renders of the IHG and City Tattersalls Clubs new Hotel Indigo Sydney Centre planned to open in 2025 in Sydneys CBD

The club at 198 Pitt Street is undergoing a significant $200 million redevelopment with the ground floor and newly built tower undertaken by a development consortium led by Singaporean First Sponsor Group and Melbourne developers, ICD Property.
VATICAN CITY, FEB 2 - Globalisation must not impose a new form of colonialism, Pope Francis said in a message to participants in the Fifth International Forum of Indigenous Peoples hosted by the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome Tuesday. "Globalisation cannot mean a uniformity that ignores diversity and imposes a new type of colonialism," Francis told the forum, which takes place from 2-4 February and on 15 February. The Forum will focus on the value of indigenous food systems: resilience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In his message, the pope underlines that an alternative to globalisation needs to be created "based on solidarity so that no one feels ignored, but neither does it overbearingly impose its own direction." On the contrary, he says, "when diversities are articulated and mutually enriched, communion between peoples flourishes and is enlivened." Pope Francis goes on to say that development needs to be promoted in a way that does not have "consumption as its means and end, but that truly watches over the environment, listens, learns and ennobles." "This is what integral ecology consists of, in which social justice is combined with the protection of the planet," the Pope underlines. "Only with this humility of spirit," he writes, "will we be able to see the total defeat of hunger and a society based on lasting values, which are not the fruit of passing fads and partiality, but of justice and goodness." Concluding his message, Pope Francis expresses the hope that the Forum's work will produce "abundant fruits". In order to hand over to the next generation a world that is "a treasure", says the Pope, "let us pay attention to what benefits everyone and that will be precisely what will allow us to pass through this world leaving a furrow of altruism and generosity." (ANSA).
INDIANAPOLIS  The Indiana Department of Health today announced that 1,567 additional Hoosiers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through testing at state and private laboratories. That brings to 629,903 the number of Indiana residents now known to have had the novel coronavirus following corrections to the previous days dashboard.



A total of 9,677 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, an increase of 65 from the previous day. Another 377 probable deaths have been reported based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record. Deaths are reported based on when data are received by the state and occurred over multiple days.

Indiana COVID-19 Dashboard & Map



To date, 2,968,591 unique individuals have been tested in Indiana, up from 2,963,581 on Monday. A total of 7,067,175 tests, including repeat tests for unique individuals, have been reported to the state Department of Health since Feb. 26, 2020.

To find testing sites around the state, click here.

Hoosiers age 65 and older, along with healthcare workers, long-term care residents, and first responders, are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

As of today, 586,937 Hoosiers have received a first dose of vaccine, and 155,362 are fully vaccinated.

To schedule, visit https://ourshot.in.gov or call 211.

The state and its partners are adding more locations for you to get vaccinated including select Meijer, Kroger, & Walmart pharmacies across the state.

Vigo Countys three Kroger locations are included.

All locations will show up on the state's vaccination website.

It's important to note Meijer and Kroger will have their own appointment sign-up areas on their websites.
China has called on the United States to invite WHO experts to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus there as Beijing pushes on with the theory that COVID-19 may have come from America.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Washington to 'act like China' and 'stay transparent' about the source of the virus even though President Xi's government was widely accused of covering up the truth of its outbreak in the early days.

The news comes as investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) today praised the 'excellent facilities' at an animal disease centre in Wuhan as part of their probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Wang Wenbin (pictured last July), a spokesperson from China's foreign ministry, urged the US to adopt a 'positive, scientific and cooperative attitude' towards the probe of the virus's source during a press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. He claimed Washington should 'act like China'

The news comes as WHO investigators praised the 'excellent facilities' at an animal disease centre in Wuhan (pictured) as part of their probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson from China's foreign ministry, told a press briefing on Tuesday that the United State should adopt a 'positive, scientific and cooperative attitude' towards the probe of the virus's source.

He said: 'Tracing the origins of the virus is a complex scientific issue. It involves multiple countries and multiple regions.

'Many clues, reports and studies show that the outbreak broke out in many parts of the world as early as the second half of 2019.'

Wang claimed that COVID-19 antibodies could be found in some Americans' blood in December, 2019.

'It was earlier than the time when the United States officially reported its first confirmed coronavirus case, which is January 21, 2020,' he stated.

The official added: '[We] hope the United States would act like China regarding the issue of tracing the virus, adopt an active, scientific and cooperative attitude, stay transparent and invite WHO experts to conduct research to trace the origins of the virus in the United States.'

China's state broadcaster CCTV suggested that 'something fishy' was going on at the Fort Detrick lab in the United States during a news programme on January 21 (screenshot above)

China's Central Television Station claimed that the lab was branded as 'the darkest experiment centre of the US government' by American political news sites - without mentioning specific publications. A scientist is pictured working in the lab in the above photo from March 19, 2020

Wang's comments came two weeks after Chinese authorities gave a fresh push to a conspiracy theory that links the origins of the novel coronavirus to a US army laboratory.

Beijing's state broadcaster told its millions of viewers in a January 21 report that 'something fishy' was going on at the Fort Detrick lab, reviving rumour that the contagion could have originated there.

The official report came three days after Beijing urged Washington to 'open the biological lab at Fort Detrick' and 'invite WHO experts to conduct origin-tracing in the United States' in an apparent attempt to point the source of the virus to America.

Most of the first cases recorded in Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic were associated with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, seen in a picture taken on March 20, 2020

While the virus's exact origin remains unknown, the broad scientific consensus holds that it came from bats and jumped to humans through an intermediate host.

Beijing has been rejecting the widely held assessment that Wuhan is the birthplace of the pandemic after daily infections dropped in China but soared in Europe and the United States.

A 13-strong team of international experts from WHO arrived at the Hubei Animal Disease Control and Prevention Center in Wuhan on Tuesday amid a heavy security presence, with barricades set up outside the Chinese facility.

Team member Peter Daszak told reporters later they had 'excellent facilities, very informative meeting,' and he tweeted the team met with staff in charge of the health of livestock in Hubei Province, toured laboratories and had an 'in-depth' discussion along with questions and answers.

But further details of the visit were not announced and the barricades came down as soon as the investigators had entered the animal disease centre.

The team members were wearing full protective gear during Tuesday's visit and were pictured waiting in a corridor of the Hubei Animal Disease Control and Prevention Center in Wuhan

World Health Organization investigators have praised the 'excellent facilities' at an animal disease centre in Wuhan as part of their probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: Peter Daszak (centre) speaks to other WHO team members

The lack of information comes as WHO officials in Geneva pushed back on Monday against suggestions the experts were not getting enough access or data amid concerns China is still covering up crucial data.

The team members were wearing full protective gear during Tuesday's visit and were pictured waiting in a corridor of the animal disease centre.

Intense negotiations preceded the WHO visit to Wuhan since China has maintained strict controls on access to information about the virus, possibly to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.

A day before their probe began, WHO insisted that the team will eventually visit a lab at the centre of theories that the virus was leaked, but it has not published a timetable and there is no indication of when that might take place.

Multiple countries have uncovered evidence that the virus was circulating months earlier than originally thought. While Beijing has tried to insist this proves the virus originated elsewhere, most scientists still think China was the origin - raising the prospect that communist officials simply hid evidence of the early spread

Again on Monday, WHO's Covid-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said the team has plans to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But still no timetable was published.

Dr Michael Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, said the agency was continuing to ask for more data and said anyone with information about how the pandemic started should share it with the organisation.

The data the team assembles will add to what is expected to be a years-long quest for answers involving taking animal samples, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies.

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

On Sunday, the WHO investigators visited the Huanan wet market in Wuhan where Covid-19 was first detected.

The team arrived at Huanan amid a heavy security presence, with additional barricades set up outside a high blue fence surrounding the market.

They did not respond to questions thrown at them by reporters gathered at the entrance as their convoy drove into the market.

The barricades came down as soon as the investigators had entered the market.

Public access to the market has been severely restricted since it was shut at the beginning of last year.

A worker in protective overall disinfects a vehicle from the World Health Organization convoy while they were visiting the Huanan market in Wuhan on Sunday

WHO investigator Peter Ben Embarek and his team of experts arrived at Huanan on Sunday afternoon amid a heavy security presence

A plainclothes security person uses his umbrella to block journalists from filming as the WHO team entered the market

Before its closure, it was a bustling market comprising hundreds of stalls divided into sections for meat, seafood and vegetables.

Some Chinese diplomats and state media have said they believe the market is not the origin, and have thrown support behind theories that the virus potentially originated in another country.

On December 31, 2019, after four cases of a mystery pneumonia were linked to the market, it was shuttered overnight. By the end of January, Wuhan had gone into a 76-day lockdown.

Public access to the market has been severely restricted since it was shut at the beginning of last year

Chinese scientists and officials have been keen to point the finger of blame outside their own borders - variously suggesting that the virus could have originated in Bangladesh, the US, Greece, Australia, India, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia or Serbia

Experts say the Huanan market still plays a role in tracing the origins of the virus, since the first cluster of cases was identified there.

Following a two-week quarantine in the city that ended on Thursday, the WHO team is expected to visit laboratories, markets and hospitals in Wuhan.

The WHO-led probe in Wuhan has been plagued by delays, concern over access and bickering between China and the United States, which accused China of hiding the extent of the initial outbreak and criticised the terms of the visit, under which Chinese experts conducted the first phase of research.

The team had been set to arrive in Wuhan earlier in January, and China's delay of their visit drew rare public criticism from the head of the WHO, which former U.S. President Donald Trump accused of being 'China-centric'.

On Saturday, the WHO team was given a tour of an exhibition that celebrates China's response to the pandemic.

The team from the World Health Organisation was shown around an exhibition celebrating China's response to the crisis on Saturday

The visit to a show that critics say offers little more than propaganda will not reassure those who fear WHO is too close to Beijing and that its probe into the coronavirus outbreak will be a whitewash.

The trip came after WHO experts went to a hospital in Wuhan where some of the earliest coronavirus patients were treated and took place a day after they had their first face-to-face meeting with Chinese scientists.

Amid suspicion of a Chinese cover-up, WHO insisted in a tweet: 'All hypotheses are on the table as the team follows the science in their work to understand the origins of the Covid-19 virus.'

China has largely stopped domestic transmission of the virus through sometimes draconian measures, including strict testing and electronic surveillance.

Mask wearing in public is standard and lockdowns are routinely imposed on communities and even entire cities where cases are detected.

Schools have gone online and travel has been drastically cut during this month's Lunar New Year holiday, with the government offering incentives for people to stay put in the cities rather than return to their home towns for family gatherings.

New Delhi [India], February 2 (ANI/NewsVoir): Karthikeyan Natarajan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Cyient - "Coming out of the pandemic year, the Finance Minister has laid down a well-rounded Budget. Focus on setting up of Fintech Hub at Gift City, enhancing digital payments and use of AI in governance - all provide a strong platform for Digital India. Allocation of Rs 50,000 crore towards National Research Foundation will work towards boosting India's Innovation Quotient on the global map and is a welcome move. Allocation of funds as incentives for promoting digital payments is also a step in the right direction and a significant step in ease of doing business. Lastly, increase in allocation for highways and railways will lead to employment generation and boost the economic growth of the nation."

"The budget is a major step in the right direction. It outlays a strong focus on infrastructure, healthcare, capital spending, disinvestment, monetization, job creation and digitization. These measures are not only progressive and recovery-led, if implemented correctly would ease the burden on the economy and lead India towards the projected v-shaped growth and development. The budget talks about structural reforms in banking, enhancing debt financing and credit limits for businesses and asset monetization. This will lead to an increase in government spending, which, in turn will spur demand, therefore net positive for the industry. The several initiatives around job-creation, startups, reskilling, rural development and better quality of services to people are positive as a Nation cannot progress without care for the environment and inclusive all-round transformation," said Rajiv Bhalla, MD, Barco India.

"Budget 2021 constructively impact the lives of common man with targeted proposals for extending social security benefits to gig economy, tax concessions on affordable housing and rental housing, simplified compliance regime for start-ups and exemption to senior citizens from tax filings. Stability in tax regime, simplification in compliance procedures along with consolidation of laws will provide a strong foundation to the six pillars for achieving economic growth," said Suraj Malik, Partner, BDO India (M & A).

"FM's vision for Atmanirbhar Bharat with a budget focused on six essential pillars is commendable. The government has set an ambitious target to build infrastructure in the country and increase focus on digitisation and public investments. The proposal to exempt dividend payments on REITs and InVITs from TDS will surely boost investor sentiment thus augmenting funds for infra and real estate sectors. Initiatives to boost the Indian startup ecosystem by incentivising the setting up of One Person Companies (OPCs), announcing tax holidays and an extension in capital gains exemption are welcome steps," said Neetish Sarda, Founder, Smartworks.

"Finance Minister has presented a forward looking Budget that is aimed at generating investments and reigniting the growth cycle. The government's big bet on infrastructure is bound to pay off in the long term and bring in growth for real estate and allied sectors. Giving flexibility to REITs to raise more debt capital will attract more investment in the real estate sector and will lead to faster closure of transactions. The decision to extend tax holiday for affordable housing projects is a step in the right direction and will help realise Prime Minister's dream of 'Housing For All by 2022'," said Prashant Solomon, MD, Chintels India and Treasurer- CREDAI NCR.

"The budget proposed by Finance Minister will help to boost the revival of our nation's economy following the Covid induced Economic Fallout. With its targeted proposals for extending benefits to the women in form of policies such as Mega Investments Textiles Park, Incentivising one-person companies, Implementation of the four labour codes, dedicating 3000 crore to NATS, proposal of funds for the welfare of tea workers especially the women & children in Assam & West Bengal, It will provide a strong foundation for the female strata to rise and support in building an Atmanirbhar Bharat," said Jahnabi Phookan, National President, FICCI FLO.

"This budget reinforces the focus on the fundamentals with intent to revive the economy from the unprecedented pandemic setback of last year. In a major way it focuses on Health, Infrastructure and further rationalization of our financial regulations, which is going to give the economy an impetus in revival and put the focus back on fundamentals. The startup community welcomes the attention given in Budget speech of the Finance Ministry and we thank for announcements regarding Tax Holidays and Capital Gain Exemptions," said Shammi Pant, Co-founder, myJen.ai.

"The six-pack budget proposed by the Finance Minister encompasses the true spirit of sustainable and equal growth. The push for the health sector and the skilling space with tie-ups with UAE and Japan, to begin with, will go a long way. The focus on revamping the health infrastructure, the push for aggressive disinvestment with LIC's IPOs, Tax holiday for start-up, expansion an strengthening of nameless faceless IT along with the revision of years are something to be applauded. Although tax slab revisions and further involvement of the private sector in the COVID vaccination distribution is something that could have also been looked at. Overall it was a well-balanced budget given the fiscal deficit constraints," said Romira Roy, Founder and Chairperson - SEED.

Rishi Ahuja, Founder, Klip VR Immersive Tech - "It's heartening to see the focus on Education in Finance Minister's budget speech where she rightly said youth of the country have abundant skills and it needs proper channelization. This year will be historic and motivational for our youth with events like 75th Year of Independence and Chandrayaan Mission 3. The education budget and steps announced for effective implementation of National Education Policy, increased focus on the role of technology will provide further opportunities for growth and sustained development of the sector and students. Rishi Ahuja, Klip VR Immersive Tech."

"With an expansionary Budget that focuses on growth, the Finance Minister has delivered on major counts. The Budget has announced a massive infrastructure boost with huge outlay for Railways and privatizing airports. Along with this, measures that will increase consumer spending and make India more self-reliant are a step in the right direct. Fitness testing for both PVs and CVs is a positive move that will not only generate employment opportunities but also ensure a cleaner environment. Our sector has got a favorable boost in form of FM's voluntary vehicle scrappage policy announcement," said Sharad Malhotra, President - Automotive Refinishes and Wood Coatings, Nippon Paint India.

"The Union Budget 2021-2022 laid major impetus on unlocking our nation's true potential by introducing schemes such as providing financial incentives to promote digital transactions, providing incentives to one-person companies, allocating resources for the revival of the MSME sector, setting up of Central University in Leh, allotment of 3000 cr to NATS, etc. These initiatives will help to foster the Start-up Industry, MSME sector, education sector & help in the overall development of the nation. Through this budget, the Finance Minister was able to address each & every aspect of the economy," said Arun Pandey, Chairman & MD, Rhiti Group.

"We expected a bigger change and disruptive budget, indeed the budget has Kickstarted by increasing investment in Infra, healthcare, ARC (asset management company), LIC IPO disinvestment, no change in tax structure, INR 64,180 crore to new health scheme is a big plus, with 35,000 cr for COVID vaccine," said Farhan Pettiwala, Executive Director & Head Development, India & South Asia, Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital (AJEH).

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.)
BSH Home Appliances Corporation in exclusive group of companies that meet the Top Employers Institutes strict criteria for exceptional employee offerings

BSH has received this annual certification since 2016, consistently upholding an environment of growth and success for its team members nationwide

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BSH Home Appliances Corporation has been recognized by the Top Employers Institute as a Top Employer 2021 in the United States of America. BSH has received this award for the sixth consecutive year, highlighting the companys commitment to creating a collaborative environment that inspires and supports employees while nurturing and developing talent through all levels of its organization.

The Top Employers Institute program certifies organizations based on the participation and results of their HR Best Practices Survey. This survey covers six HR domains consisting of 20 topics such as People Strategy, Work Environment, Talent Acquisition, Learning, Well-being and Diversity & Inclusion and more.

BSH Home Appliances is honored to be among an exclusive group of companies that met the Top Employers Institutes strict criteria for outstanding human resource policies and practices, said Marlies van der Horst, Head of Human Resources, BSH Home Appliances Corporation, Region North America. Earning Top Employers United States of America certification for the sixth consecutive year is a testament to our companys consistent commitment to maintaining an environment of employee engagement and a better world of work.

Top Employers Institute CEO David Plink says: Despite the challenging year we have experienced (which has certainly made an impact on organizations around the globe), BSH Home Appliances has continued to demonstrate the power of putting their people first in the workplace. We are proud to share this years announcement and congratulate the organizations who have been certified in their respective countries through the Top Employers Institute program.

To learn more about the Top Employers Institute and the Top Employers Certification, visit: www.top-employers.com. To learn more about BSH Home Appliances, please visit: https://www.bsh-group.com/us/.



About BSH Home Appliances Corporation

BSH Home Appliances Corporation produces and markets small and major home appliances that are known across North America for their high-quality and superior innovation. BSH sells its Gaggenau, Thermador and Bosch branded products throughout North America, through distributors, independent appliance dealers, national and regional retailers, builders and large buying groups. BSH Home Appliances Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of BSH Home Appliances Group, headquartered in Munich, Germany, the largest manufacturer of home appliances in Europe and one of the leading companies in the sector worldwide. Manufacturing facilities are located in New Bern, North Carolina, and LaFollette, Tennessee. BSH Technology and Development Centers are located in Oak Ridge and Caryville, Tennessee and New Bern, North Carolina. https://www.bsh-group.com/us/

About Top Employers Institute

Top Employers Institute is the global authority on recognizing excellence in People Practices. We help accelerate these practices to enrich the world of work. Through the Top Employers Institute Certification Program, participating companies can be validated, certified and recognized as an employer of choice. Established 30 years ago, Top Employers Institute has certified over 1 600 organizations in 120 countries/regions. These certified Top Employers positively impact the lives of over 7 million employees globally.

Top Employers Institute. For a better world of work.

www.top-employers.com

Contact:

Debbie Ehrman

Finn Partners

310-882-4016

deborah@finnpartners.com
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Results from the study demonstrate why re-entry programs need a more holistic approach that accounts for the negative associations developed in the centuries of oppression and segregation that shape African American men's current interactions with society. Credit: Florida Atlantic University

Over the last three decades, the United States prison population has exploded from 300,000 to more than 2 million. More than 1.1 million are African American menthe vast number of whom have returned within one to three years of their release. In fact, according to the World Prison Brief, America boasts the highest recidivism rate at more than 50 percent.

Although African American men are more likely to participate in re-entry programs, they continue to struggle with recidivism and reunification at higher rates. The common conception of assisting individuals impacted by incarceration is to provide practical needs such as housing, food and employment. Often, these services are insufficient when the core of their issues is related to psychological factors.

For African American males, the consequences of low social status due to incarceration are compounded by racial discrimination and stereotypes. Consequently, the portrait of African American males puts them under heightened scrutiny and increases the number of adverse encounters with police and society.

This issue led researchers from Florida Atlantic University's College of Social Work and Criminal Justice and Charles E. Schmidt College of Science to examine why re-entry programs are not as effective for African American men when compared to others. Their study, published in the Journal of Prison Education and Re-entry, looked at African American men's re-entry experience, family reunification and recidivism. Participants (ages 23 to 56) were selected from a program in southeastern Florida; each had been in prison more than once and participated in at least three re-entry programs.

Results from the study demonstrate why re-entry programs need a more holistic approach that accounts for the negative associations developed in the centuries of oppression and segregation that shape African American men's current interactions with society. In addition to providing practical needs and psychological assistance, re-entry programs should serve as a mediator between the individual impacted by incarceration and the various environmental constructs encountered upon release. Improving outcomes for African American men in re-entry programs must be centered on easing their transition into the complex systems of the family, workforce and society-at-large, while also considering their mental and emotional well-being.

"Many factors contribute to the high recidivism rates of African American men, but how their environment perceives them plays a significant role. Therefore, they respond differently to the environment compared to their non-African American counterparts," said Precious Skinner-Osei, Ph.D., lead author and interim undergraduate program coordinator in FAU's Phyllis and Harvey Sandler School of Social Work. "Because they face many oppressive factors, re-entry programs must consider the indifferences they endure, particularly trauma and their environment, and how it influences their behavior. Institutions involved in the criminal justice system must be part of the solution to alter the hostile environment experienced by these men."

Skinner-Osei and co-author Peter Claudius Osei, a Ph.D. student in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, combined perspectives from social work and neuroscience to develop a new approach for re-entry programs, which offers a solution by focusing on the environmental and psychological elements influencing behavior. Their 'Care' model suggests implementing four steps: collaboration; amend; reintegration; and empowerment to successfully reunite justice-involved African American men with their families, the labor market, and their communities.

Components of the Care model include cultural competency; implementing trauma-informed care strategies when working with these men; amendments to legislation and policies to include more psychological services and mental health resources, particularly post-release and in the communities where these men are returning; and empowering justice-involved African American men to perceive themselves as a valuable member of society. Empowerment is a key component of this model to reduce the stigma and emotional insecurity that perpetuate the increased recidivism rates of African American men.

On the practice side of re-entry programs, the researchers say words make a difference. They suggest that one significant improvement that professionals can make post-release is to change the language they use in their practices such as excluding terms like "felon," "offender," "convict," and "juvenile delinquent," to allow justice-involved individuals to gain a more positive self-image and shed some of the stigma associated with incarceration.

"African American men have been so severely impacted by incarceration and confinement that it is ingrained in their mentality from childhood, thereby distorting their worldview," said Peter Claudius Osei. "A more rounded approach is needed to account for the negative associations developed in the centuries of oppression and segregation that shape their current interactions with society. Only when we address their psychological and historical trauma in conjunction with the environmental factors that perpetuate the stigma they experience, can the chains of incarceration be broken."

Explore further Familial incarceration negatively impacts mental health for African American women

More information: Precious Skinner-Osei. An Ecological Approach to Improving Reentry Programs for Justice-Involved African American Men. Journal of Prison Education and Reentry Vol. 6 No. 3, 2020 Precious Skinner-Osei. An Ecological Approach to Improving Reentry Programs for Justice-Involved African American Men.Vol. 6 No. 3, 2020 doi.org/10.25771/vh5p-9a34
New Delhi, Feb 2 : India's January merchandise exports rose over 5.37 per cent on a year-on-year basis, preliminary data showed on Tuesday.

Accordingly, the country's merchandise exports during the month under review grew to $27.24 billion from $25.85 billion in January 2020.

As per the data, in January 2021, the value of non-petroleum exports rose by 11.37 per cent over January 2020 to $25.24 billion.

"The value of non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in January 2021 was $22.40 billion as compared to $19.79 billion in January 2020, registering a positive growth of 13.21 per cent," a Ministry of Commerce and Industry statement said on the basis of preliminary data.

"The cumulative value of non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in April-January 2020-21 was $188.73 billion, as compared to $197.94 billion for the corresponding period in 2019-20, exhibiting a decrease of 4.65 per cent."

VIJAYAWADA : Andhra Pradesh has got a raw deal with no allocation of funds for the multi-purpose Polavaram irrigation project, health and other sectors in union budget. Polavaram came under sharp focus as the state government is keen on completing the irrigation project by 2021 end to ensure supply of water for cultivation of crops during 2022 Kharif season and also meet drinking water needs of hundreds of villages en route.

Though the revised cost of the project is pegged at Rs 55,546 crore at the 201718 price level, union finance ministrys department of expenditure trimmed it to Rs 47,725. Even this is yet to be approved. This is quite galling as the state government has already incurred an expenditure of Rs 17,124.19 crore on implementation of the project The state had already spent Rs 12,393.48 crore on Polavaram before it was declared a national project on January 23, 2021.

Though Polavaram Project Authority has reimbursed Rs 10,741.46 crore so far to the state government, Rs 1,652.02 crore is yet to be reimbursed.

Earlier, the centre allocated funds to Polavaram project through extra budgetary resource mobilisation by issuing fully serviced government bonds. Accordingly, in 201819, Rs 1,400 crore was allocated and in 201920, Rs 1,850 crore was allocated. However, in 2020-21, an amount of Rs 2,234.29 has been allotted in the revised estimates of the budget.

State government sources maintain that AP is desperately in need of financial support from the centre, as it inherited a huge revenue deficit at the time of bifurcation of the state.

Though the centre has allotted Rs 35,000 crore in the budget for Covid-19 vaccine and assured to provide additional funds if required, it is not known how much of this will be in term of doses. It is not yet known whether the state government will receive sufficient doses for all people or will have to purchase the same from manufacture`

However, a fishing hub is to be located in Visakhapatnam and two dedicated freight corridors will pass through AP. Though MP V. Vijayasai Reddy has commented that the corridor will be of no use to AP, a senior railway official said that a dedicated corridor will enable fast movement of cargo, without affecting passenger trains. A fishing harbour will get a facelift with the announcement of making creating a fishing hub in Visakhapatnam.

Further, union budget made no mention of metro rail in the steel city. It will cost Rs 12,226 crore to develop it. The Central University of AP, located in Anantapur, has got a raw deal for the fourth consecutive year with allocation of just Rs 65 crore in the present union budget, even as the university requires Rs 900 crore for its development. In the last budget, the university got an allocation of Rs 13 crore.

Rayalaseema-based organisations have expressed displeasure over meagre allocation of funds for the university. Anantapur-based writer Dr. Harinath Reddy has gone on to call for additional allocation of funds to complete construction of the university expeditiously.

A Cornell University student is paying it forward after making a small fortune on GameStop stock.

The New York Post reports Hunter Kahn, a 20-year-old mechanical engineering student at Cornell, donated six Nintendo Switch gaming systems and a bunch of video games to the Childrens Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis.

As a beneficiary of the recent events on Wall Street I think it is important that myself and others pay forward our good fortune. These events have highlighted a lot of corruption and with this transfer of power it is important that we dont become men in suits ourselves. I am proud to announce my humble donation of 6 Nintendo Switches and games to go with them to the Childrens Minnesota Hospital. Cant Stop. Wont Stop, he wrote on Instagram Saturday.

Kahn, a Minnesota native, told the Post that he spent about $2,000 at a GameStop store to make the donation, which he hopes helps kids going through a hard time.

I know that if I were in their situation, having a Switch to play with would make that hell just a little less miserable, Kahn said.

According to the Post, Kahn joined the Reddit forum, r/wallstreetbets, during his senior year of high school to get information on investments. Investors on Reddit and other social media sites have recently banded together to buy shares of struggling companies like GameStop and AMC, creating a short squeeze on Wall Street hedge funds that had bet those stocks would fall.

Kahn said Sunday that hes already liquidated around $30,000 from $200 call options and was planning to hold his 50 original shares.

The Associated Press reports GameStop shares fell by half in afternoon trading Tuesday, to about $110 apiece, after closing out January at $325 a share  up from $17 at the beginning of the year. Despite the sudden interest on Wall Street, the video game retailers business continues to struggle as malls see less foot traffic and more people download games instead of buying from brick-and-mortar stores, on top of the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Washington, Feb 2 : NASA has named Indian-American Bhavya Lal, who oversaw the agency's transition under the administration of US President Joe Biden, as the space agency's acting chief of staff.

As the senior White House appointee at NASA, she served as a member of the Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Team for the agency, NASA said.

Lal brings extensive experience in engineering and space technology, serving as a member of the research staff at the Institute for Defence Analyses (IDA) Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) from 2005 to 2020.

Before joining STPI, she served as president of C-STPS LLC, a science and technology policy research and consulting firm in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Prior to that, she served as director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Studies at Abt Associates Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

She co-founded and is co-chair of the policy track of the American Nuclear Society's annual conference on Nuclear and Emerging Technologies in Space (NETS) and co-organizes a seminar series on space history and policy with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

For her many contributions to the space sector, she was nominated and selected to be a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

She earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in nuclear engineering, as well as a Master of Science degree in technology and policy, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and holds a doctorate in public policy and public administration from George Washington University.
And while she and other T.S.A. employees welcomed the Biden mask requirement, the fact that it came almost 10 months into the pandemic was disappointing. This virus has been raging, killing thousands of people for a year now and were only just making passengers put on masks, said Ms. Palmer.

The agents say they are also over-staffed for the current volume of passengers. The number of passengers hasnt increased enough to justify having a full work force at the airport, said Joe Shuker, the president of AFGE Local 333, Ms. Palmers union. We have overcrowded check points full of agents, with very few passengers. The numbers pose a safety hazard, but leadership is not listening. They are saying this is taxpayer money that needs to be utilized.

The agency believes there is still ample work to justify deploying a full work force. Surfaces need to be disinfected, officers need to remain engaged and the low level of passengers presents an opportunity to train employees in new technologies that both enhance security and reduce physical contact, Mr. Langston said.

But Ms. Del Valle said at Newark, there is not enough for them to do. Its a lot of officers standing around and its only natural for them to congregate when there are so little passengers and baggage loads, she said.

Three T.S.A. agents at the airport have died.

Mr. Orozco said the agencys initial contact tracing efforts in March and April was thorough and transparent and involved vigilant analysis of video footage from airports, which could show if agents were working in proximity to other employees who were infected. Since the Thanksgiving holidays, those efforts have fallen flat, Mr. Orozco and several other agents say.

The agency isnt sharing information and footage with us like they were before and officers are coming to us with concerns that were there exposed to infected colleagues, Mr. Orozco said.

Mr. Langston, the T.S.A. spokesman, said certain practices have changed since the spring, though he declined to offer details, but added that the agencys commitment to contact tracing remains very strong.
Warriors rookie big man James Wiseman will be out at least a week due to a sprained left wrist, the teams PR department tweets.

The second overall pick of the draft suffered the injury during Saturday nights win over the Pistons. Hell be re-evaluated in 7-10 days.

Wiseman is averaging 12.2 PPG, 6.1 RPG and 1.3 BPG in 21.o MPG. Hes started 16 of Golden States 20 games. He scored a season-high 25 points against Minnesota on Wednesday.

Kevon Looney was recently moved into the starting five ahead of Wiseman. Eric Paschall should also see an increase in playing time with Wiseman sidelined.
ONLY - A Mississippi truck driver faces several charges, including Introduction of Contraband, after being arrested Thursday, January 28th at Turney Center Industrial Complex (TCIX).

Antonio Warlick, out of Tupelo, Mississippi, was driving a delivery truck to the TCIX hardwood flooring plant. During a routine search of the truck, officers smelled marijuana. Following the scent, a backpack in the trucks cab and was found to contain marijuana, a white powder substance, scales, and other drug paraphernalia.

Warlick was immediately arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to resale, introduction of contraband into a penal facility, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Warlicks bond is set at $30,000.

TDOCs non-negotiable mission is to operate safe and secure prisons and provide effective community supervision in order to enhance public safety. TDOC encourages anyone with information about potential security concerns or contraband to call the departments 24-hour anonymous tip line, 1-844-TDC-FIND (1-844-832-3463).
With over 167 million users around the world, Netflix is without a doubt one of the most popular streaming services.

Now, Netflix has started testing a new feature that could be music to the ears of any users who like to watch TV programmes or films as they fall asleep.

The feature, called Watch Timer, lets you pick a period of time that Netflix will run before pausing, ensuring you don't miss any of the action as you doze off.

The feature is currently being tested with select Android users, and it remains unclear when, or even if, it will be available for all Netflix users.

Netflix has started testing a new feature that could be music to the ears of any users who like to watch TV programmes or films as they fall asleep

HOW DOES IT WORK? The feature, called Watch Timer, lets you pick a period of time that Netflix will run before pausing, ensuring you don't miss any of the action as you doze off. Users can choose to pause an episode or film after 15, 20 or 45 minutes. Alternatively, you can select the 'Finish Show' option, which will prevent the app from auto-playing another episode. Advertisement

The Watch Timer feature can be set to pause an episode or film after 15, 20 or 45 minutes.

Alternatively, you can select the 'Finish Show' option, which will prevent the app from auto-playing another episode.

This could be useful for people who like to watch something as they doze off, or for parents setting screen time limits for their children.

Speaking to MailOnline, a Netflix spokesperson explained: 'We're always looking for new ways to improve the Netflix mobile experience.

'This test is the latest example  a new timer that gives members more control over their viewing experience by simply choosing their favorite show or movie and setting a timer without having to worry about pausing it before it's over.'

The Watch Timer is currently being tested with some Android users, and unfortunatley it remains unclear when, or even if, it will be available to all users.

'We experiment with these types of tests and will only roll the feature out more broadly if we find it improves the member experience,' the Netflix spokesperson added.

With the 'Watch Timer' feature, users can choose to pause an episode or film after 15, 20 or 45 minutes

The test comes shortly after Netflix revealed that it was trialling a new 'Shuffle Play' button.

As the name suggests, the 'Shuffle Play' button that will randomly play TV programmes and films it thinks you'll enjoy.

The new button is currently being tested for certain users on the Netflix app for TV devices.
POMPANO BEACH, Fla.M.D. Science Lab, manufacturers of the Swiss Navy brand of lubricants, has announced that its newest collection, Desire by Swiss Navy, is now available and the company has begun to fulfill existing orders for it.

We are excited to get our Desire by Swiss Navy collection into the hands of our customers," said Briana Watkins, M.D. Sciences vice president of sales and marketing. We can now provide our customers with this female-created collection and its very upscale, classy appearance offering a refreshing look in the lubricant space. This has been my pride and joy project and I am overwhelmed with the support it has received thus far.

The Desire by Swiss Navy collection was developed by women, for women. This product line provides solutions for fulfilling intimate desires with key ingredients and unique formulations created with the female body in mind.

Our research found that women control 85 percent of consumer spending in the U.S. and over $36 trillion globally, said Watkins. We wanted to strategically create a complete collection that accommodated this demographic shift. Im very happy and proud to say, Desire by Swiss Navy offers what a female-driven economy is looking for.

Swiss Navys in-depth research found women, in particular, are more enthusiastic about the involvement in discussions about sexuality and do not hesitate to experiment with sexual wellness products, particularly ones created to meet their specific needs. The Swiss Navy female-led development team kept their research in mind during their concept-to-creation process in order to ensure consumer sales.

While shipping for the Desire by Swiss Navy collection is in full swing, the team is also mindfully taking every possible measure to ensure shipments are safely fulfilled given the current COVID-19 situation.

Contact a Swiss Navy representative to place an order for Desire by Swiss Navy.

To view the latest Swiss Navy product range, visit SwissNavy.com.

Nobody loves oil companies. Tesla Inc., the emblem of an emissions-free future, is worth more today than the top five Western supermajors combined.

Yet the worlds disdain for its petroleum giants could carry a sting in the tail -- a jarring price spike.

Oil may be on the way out, but it will be a long goodbye. Even if demand peaks, companies like Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell need to keep investing tens of billions of dollars every year into fossil fuels just to stand still. Right now, many investors would prefer to take that cash in dividends, or see it channeled into renewables.

We have concerns about investment, particularly in light of the pandemic, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said at a virtual conference in Iran on Jan. 26. Starving the industry of capital today could sow the seeds for extreme volatility down the road.

Oil producers have been hammered by the coronavirus. In 2020, collapsing cash flow, tens of billions of dollars in writedowns, large quarterly losses and dividend cuts became the norm for the industry.

Companies have taken dramatic steps to conserve cash. Many cut their dividends  in Shells case for the first time since the Second World War. Combined capital expenditures by the supermajors in the third quarter of 2020 were just half the level of a year earlier, and the lowest since 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Last hurrah

With demand recovering and crude back above $50 a barrel, the worst of the COVID-19 crisis appears to be over for the oil industry. But there are reasons to doubt that these companies are in a position to significantly boost spending on oil and gas.

In Europe, BP, Shell, Total and Eni have all pledged to eliminate most of their greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century and channel an increasing share of their investments into clean energy. In the U.S., Chevron and Exxon are under less pressure to go green, but face scrutiny from investors dissatisfied with their returns.

PANDEMIC'S TOLL: Global oil demand dropped 9 percent in 2020

On both sides of the Atlantic, the supermajors appear to have little financial leeway. S&P Global Ratings warned on Jan. 26 that it may cut the credit score for a plethora of oil companies due to greater industry risk and climate change. Such a move could increase their cost of capital and potentially put new projects at risk.

We dont see upstream investments by the majors returning to 2019 levels of spending, and that was already a relatively low level from a historical context, said Giacomo Romeo, an equity-research analyst at Jefferies. Much of what they are able to spend will probably go into natural gas, which could lead to a last hurrah in the oil price.

An increasing number of people might consider declining investment in fuels a good thing. There are alternatives available  from electric vehicles to wind and solar power  that dont change the climate, but it is taking time to deploy them on a global scale.

In the meantime, an oil-price spike would be a big economic headwind for a world recovering from the pandemic, especially in developing countries where the burden falls hardest.

Wrong call

Theres plenty of historical precedent for an investment drought leading to a surge in crude a few years later. It happened after oil fell below $10 a barrel in the late 1990s.

But in the most recent example, the warnings about a looming supply shortfall were wrong.

After crude slumped from above $100 a barrel in 2014 to below $30 two years later, influential voices from International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol to Total Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said the industrys huge spending cuts would lead to a supply shortfall and price spike by the end of the decade.

Instead, the 2010s ended with Brent crude hovering near $65 a barrel in London and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies deepening production cuts to support prices amid warnings of a surplus.

The predictions were confounded largely by U.S. shale explorers, who not only survived the downturn, but cut costs and found more productive places to drill, igniting a second boom that surpassed the first.

Whether the shale industry can confound expectations again is an open question.

BOLD PROMISE: Granholm pledges to leave no energy workers behind in transition

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the American oil industry harder than the previous downturn. Production is down about 2 million barrels a day from its peak, almost twice as big as the drop that followed the 2014 price slump. The companies that have survived 2020 say theyve learned from their mistakes, and investors are demanding an end to years of profligate spending.

The industry has permanently changed, at least for the next several years, Michael Cohen, chief U.S. economist at BP Plc, said at the Argus Crude Live conference. The American oil industry isnt monolithic and some companies could still try to grow, but most drillers are focused on improving returns or repairing their balance sheets.

The boom years, when daily U.S. output would clock an annual expansion of 1 million barrels a day, are over, Cohen said. Companies are not interested in growing into a large, oversupplied market, he said.

Not everyone is so convinced that shale drillers have kicked the growth habit, especially when OPEC+ may once again be offering a life raft to the industry by pushing up prices. Since Saudi Arabia announced a surprise production cut on Jan. 5, West Texas Intermediate crude has held above $50 a barrel.

A big chunk of U.S. shale is definitely profitable at that price, said the IEAs Birol. Will they be able to increase production? I think many of them will be able to do so.

On hold

Total global investment into oil and gas exploration and production fell by 34% last year to $261 billion, the lowest since 2004, according to a December report from the International Energy Forum and the Boston Consulting Group.

Annual spending at that level wont satisfy the worlds energy needs in the coming years, the report said. Even if the recovery in oil demand from the pandemic is only slight, the world would require 27 million barrels a day of new oil and gas supply by 2022 to offset production declines at existing fields.

Annual investment needs to be 25 percent higher over the next three years to stave off a supply crisis, the report estimated. Thats much faster than the pace of recovery after the 2014 to 2016 slump.

The coming year will be crucial in determining whether the industry is capable of rising to that challenge. The IEF report estimated that upstream investment would drop by another 20% in 2021, but prices have already rallied since it was published last year and capex is likely to be higher than our initial estimates, said Jamie Webster, senior director at the Boston Consulting Group.

Fourth-quarter earnings season, which started this week, had been expected to show a brighter outlook for the battered oil majors. But it got off to a shaky start after Chevron posted a surprise loss on Friday.

Its ambitious growth plans for the Permian  the most prolific U.S. shale basin  remain on hold. It could take until the second half of the year or even early 2022 before conditions are right to increase investment there, Chief Financial Officer Pierre Breber said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa  The City Council has taken another step toward a new life for the old Sunset Elementary School.

The owner of the property at 408 Mars Hill Drive has requested it be rezoned to RS-8 (Medium-Density Single-Family Residential) to allow a private Christian school to expand its operations into the building.

Clear Lake Classical is currently holding classes in the Evangelical Free Church on Highway 18 and rented space from the Clear Lake E-Free Church. The Sunset School building has been empty since 2019 after being sold to a private developer.

The Clear Lake Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the zoning change and the City Council unanimously approved the first reading of the change at Monday nights meeting. It must be approved two more times to become official.
A man who was on bail when he took part in a robbery that resulted in the death of a woman during the getaway has been jailed for four years and three months.

Jacqueline McGovern (54) was one of two women who were struck by a car occupied by three men fleeing from the robbery of a Centra shop on Barnhill rd., Dalkey on March 10 last year.

Ms McGovern died as a result of injuries sustained during the collision. One of the men who had held up the shop, Dubliner Terry Meegan Jr (27), was on bail for attacking a man in his own apartment at the time of the robbery.

Meegan of Loughlinstown Woods, Loughlinstown pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery on March 10, 2020.

He also pleaded guilty to trespass, criminal damage and assault at Ridgehall Apartments, Ballybrack, on December 26, 2019. He has 34 previous convictions, including convictions for possession of firearms, possession of drugs and road traffic offences.

Detective Garda Deirdre Finn told Ger Small BL, prosecuting, that on the date in March 2020, Meegan and Edward Andrews (26) of Bellarmine Hall, Stepaside, Dublin entered the shop in Dalkey.

Andrews made threats and the men stole over 800 from tills in the shop.

Det Gda Finn said the two men then fled the shop and got into a car driven by Darren Rowe (35) of Dunedin Terrace, Monkstown, Dublin. Rowe drove in a dangerous manner away from the shop, mounted a pavement and hit two ladies who were out walking.

Ms McGovern was thrown up onto the bonnet of the car and was carried for several metres, later dying of the injuries she sustained. Her companion Audrey Began was also injured as a consequence of the collision.

The car was abandoned in the middle of the road and the three raiders fled the scene. Meegan later called into a home and asked the people there to burn his clothes.

CCTV footage obtained by gardai showed the three men drinking in a pub prior to the robbery.

Andrews received a sentence of three years and three months imprisonment for his role in the robbery at a sentence hearing in December 2020. Rowe was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years imprisonment for the offence of dangerous driving causing death.

Det Gda Finn agreed with Seoirse O'Dunlaing BL, defending, that this was a shocking incident from start to finish. She agreed his client was sitting in the back seat of the car.

Mr O'Dunlaing said his client was granted bail to undergo residential treatment for his drug addiction which he completed. He said his client was awaiting to attend a further six months of residential treatment and asked that he be given an opportunity to finish this treatment.

Judge Martin Nolan said there was mitigation in this case by way of the guilty plea, remorse and the steps taken by the accused to reform himself.

Judge Nolan said these were two serious crimes and that in this case punishment must take priority over rehabilitation.

He sentenced Meegan to two years and three months imprisonment for the robbery. He said he took into account the time that he had already served in custody when deciding on the sentence.

Judge Nolan also sentenced him to two years imprisonment for the earlier offence and ordered that both sentences run consecutive to each other, resulting in an operating sentence of four years and three months imprisonment.
DeKalb County police said in a statement on Twitter that the 23-year-old rapper whose legal name is Ricky Hawk was arrested in that suburb of Atlanta. The police statement said he is in the county jail, charged with murder in connection with the Jan. 21 death of Frederick Rooks.

Were begrudgingly going to go to a different format until the stubbies hopefully come back, Banks said. Its unfortunate as we initially went the route of 8-ounce cans for our big stouts out of a desire to provide a format for high ABV pastry stouts where one could crack a single beer at home on a Wednesday and drink it alone. But it kind of became our calling card on the stouts. Oh well, well adapt and hopefully people like the beer for the beer itself as much as the format.
San Antonios winter coronavirus surge continued its downswing Monday, as officials reported sustained improvements to several key measures of community transmission.

Over the past week, the positivity rate, or portion of tests that came back positive for the virus, declined 4.6 percentage points, to 11.4 percent. The number of infections per 100,000 residents has dropped to 70.1, a decrease of 10.1 points.

Overall, it is looking a lot better, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said at the daily coronavirus briefing.

The surge reached a crescendo in mid-January, when a record 1,520 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, placing enormous stress on the local health care system. The case rate rose to a staggering 103.4 per 100,000 people and the seven-day average for new cases reached 2,260, its highest level at any point in the pandemic.

On ExpressNews.com: Hospitals full. Thousands infected with coronavirus each week. San Antonio pays the price for failing to flatten the curve.

Since then, those measures have consistently fallen, along with the number of people in need of medical care for COVID-19.

However, officials warned that the virus is still circulating at high levels in the community and continues to pose a risk to residents.

Its probably the worst time to sit back and relax, because we are on a downward trajectory, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said during the briefing. We do want to maintain that trajectory.

On Monday, there were 1,171 patients being treated for COVID, about 230 fewer patients than a week ago and 350 compared with two weeks ago. In the past day, hospitals admitted 99 coronavirus patients, the fewest number of pandemic-related admissions since Dec. 26.

But it will be some time before the stress of the surge lessens on area hospitals, where patients with COVID still account for 29.7 percent of all patients. Intensive care units are still caring for 399 critically ill patients, including 244 breathing with support from a ventilator.

A high number of deaths from the surge are also expected to continue for some time, even as the threat of the virus begins to recede.

On ExpressNews.com: COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to fall in San Antonio as officials report 11 new, 72 backlogged deaths

On Monday, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District reported nine deaths from the past two weeks, raising Bexar Countys death toll to 2,152. They include a woman in her 40s, a man in his 50s, three men in their 60s and four people in their 70s.

Nirenberg said a San Antonio police officer also recently died of COVID.

Since early December, when the surge was underway in earnest, San Antonio has recorded more than 430 new COVID deaths.

San Antonio recorded 2,376 new cases, a total that included cases from Sunday, when Metro Health did not receive a report from the state laboratory. The seven-day average for new cases stands at 1,447, down from 1,722 a week ago.

To date, at least 175,530 residents in Bexar County have been infected with the virus.

With the positivity rate still more than double the 5 percent threshold health officials are aiming to reach, Nirenberg discouraged residents from hosting Super Bowl parties this upcoming weekend.

Realistically, it is not a time to be having a Super Bowl party with people outside of your household, when you know that is going to very likely result in  mathematically  someone with COVID inside of your house, he said.

Vaccine update

Even as the surge has loosened its grip on San Antonio, local officials continue to contend with problems with vaccine distribution.

On Monday, city officials announced that second-dose appointments scheduled Tuesday through Thursday at the Alamodome only would be pushed to Feb. 16-18, after a shipment from the state health department was delayed. The situation will affect more than 5,000 people, said Anita Kurian, head of the communicable disease division at Metro Health.

She said the delay was the result of the Texas Department of State Health Services attempts to migrate its vaccine distribution system from paper to electronic. During the migration, orders from San Antonio and other jurisdictions across the state were not processed in time, she added.

Per guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, second doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines can both be administered up to six weeks, or 42 days, after the first shot. Even beyond six weeks, Kurian said federal guidelines do not recommend having to restart the vaccine series.

Officials also announced that San Antonio is expecting to receive 1,000 vaccines a week dedicated to the inoculation of home-bound seniors, an effort that began Monday. Nirenberg said the city was working with Meals on Wheels and the San Antonio Housing Authority to identify eligible people to be vaccinated by the San Antonio Fire Department.

lcaruba@express-news.net
Former Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Okoe Boye has assured Ghanaians of the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines yet to reach the shores of Ghana.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his 23rd update on COVID-19 on Sunday, January 31, 2021, disclosed that the first batch of the vaccines will arrive in March.



The President assured Ghanaians that only accredited, valid and certified vaccines will be imported into the country and further revealed a total of 17.6 million vaccines will be procured by the end of June 2021.



''Fellow Ghanaians, in Update No. 21, I indicated that Ghana is set to procure her first consignment of the COVID vaccines within the first half of this year. Since then, a lot of work has been done towards the realisation of this. Our aim is to vaccinate the entire population, with an initial target of twenty million people. Through bilateral and multilateral means, we are hopeful that, by the end of June, a total of seventeen million, six hundred thousand (17.6 million) vaccine doses would have been procured for the Ghanaian people. The earliest vaccine will be in the country by March'', he said.



Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Dr. Okoe Boye reaffirmed the President's commitment to procure certified vaccines which have no health risks to recipients.



According to him, the vaccines will not be given to Ghanaians until it has undergone strict evaluation by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).



Dr. Okoe Boye called on Ghanaians not to be afraid of the vaccines saying ''the vaccines will not be administered immediately. When the vaccines arrive, we will first give them to the FDA which is responsible to check the validity of food and medicine before it's given to Ghanaians. The FDA will make sure there is an established process like the President said to ensure the safety of the vaccines. They will scrutinize documents to make sure it meets the standards of the trials''.





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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An airport security personnel performs body temperature check on a flight attendant at the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Ba Do.

Hanois Noi Bai airport has requested Covid-19 tests for all 3,200 employees after 16 came into close contact with confirmed cases.

To Tu Ha, the airports acting director, said Tuesday that the request has been sent to the Ministry of Health and the Hanoi Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.

Besides the 16 employees who have come into close contact with coronavirus cases, hundreds whove had indirect contact have self-isolated themselves, he said.

The Covid-19 tests for airport employees are urgent and necessary to ensure safety of and confidence among passengers, he said. However, as of Tuesday afternoon, the higher authorities had not responded, he added.

The request comes as travel demand is expected to increase ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which peaks on February 12.

Since January 28, when the latest Covid-19 outbreak began in Vietnam, the airport has insisted that all employees wear masks at work, and allow those who'd traveled through outbreak areas to self-isolate at home. The airport has also provided protective equipment for workers who interact directly with customers.

It has also re-scheduled flights to ensure social distancing while checking in, passing through security checks and waiting at terminals. The airport regularly advises people to medically report themselves, wear masks and disinfect their hands every 30 minutes.

In HCMC, the Tan Son Nhat Airport has been performing Covid-19 tests on all its staff after the southern metropolis recorded its first coronavirus case under the new wave last Saturday. The testing is expected to last until Feb. 7.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Health Ministry has confirmed 276 local transmissions in 10 Vietnam cities and provinces. A U.K. coronavirus variant, believed to be up to 70 percent more transmissible than ordinary strains, is said to be responsible for the latest outbreak.

Hanoi has recorded 20 community cases.
Gaborone  A nation weighed down by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will this afternoon be listening intently as Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Thapelo Matsheka presents the 2021-22 budget.

With major contributors to the national treasury such as diamonds and tourism having experienced a sharp decline since Dr Matsheka delivered his maiden budget speech last February, this will be a budget of uncertainty.

Measures instituted to curb the spread of the pandemic, including lockdowns, curfews and restrictions on domestic and international travel inadvertently had an adverse effect on domestic businesses, jobs and household incomes.

The nation will therefore be hoping for relief measures and government plans to get the country out of the current economic quagmire.

Last year's budget highlighted government's transformation agenda and Vision 2036 aspirations of attaining high income status.

In his speech, the minister had noted growth in the non-mining sector with sectors such as transport and communications, trade, hotels and restaurants as well as finance and businesses having recorded the fastest growth.

But Minister Matsheka had stressed the need for more comprehensive diversification achievable through accelerated economic growth.

That 2020/21 budget identified four critical pillars as key for transformation-promotion being export-led growth; more efficient government spending and financing; building human capital and provision of appropriate infrastructure.

But just as the 2021-22 financial year was setting in, COVID-19 pandemic broke out forcing government to focus resources on fighting the public health crisis and mitigating its economic effects on individuals, households and businesses.

Interventions included P2.4 billion for combating COVID-19, a wage subsidy to assist businesses to pay employees, a loan guarantee scheme for businesses and food packages for most economically affected households.

Parliament also approved the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP) through which an Industry Support Fund (ISF) was instituted to assist businesses stay afloat and retain employees.

ISF offers soft loans to the informal sector, small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) as well as large corporations in various sectors including tourism, hospitality, the services sector, manufacturing, agriculture and retail.

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In his 2020 State-of-the-Nation Address, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi revealed that the thematic areas government would be focusing on included the economy and employment, social upliftment, sustainable environment, governance, peace and security.

As a budgetary response to the pandemic, government undertook a reprioritization process, with some of the initially budgeted for projects having to make way for high priority developments.

Dr Matsheka told Parliament last September that some of the key projects to be implemented in the remaining NDP 11 period would include upgrading strategic transport links such as the Francistown-Nata-Mohembo road, A1 to dual carriageway and Martin's Drift-Palapye Road.

Another key infrastructure development was a railway line linking Mmamabula with Lephalale in South Africa.

The expansion of agriculture covering beef, dairy production, small stock, horticulture and farming were also identified as important.

With micro and macroeconomic revenue streams having shrunk in the 2020/21 financial year, a downward trend in both the recurrent and development budget is anticipated.

The burden of dealing with an unprecedented health crisis, including the need to finance the procurement of a vaccine and further cushion businesses and households from the economic effects of COVID-19 could be significant in a budget of uncertain times.

Source: BOPA
A diverse group of eight young growers have stepped up to compete for the title of 2021 Bay of Plenty Young Grower of the year.

The competition, which also accepts participants from the Northland region, is now in its 14th year of celebrating the young and upcoming leaders of the horticulture industry.

This year's contestants span from Katikati to Opotiki and include one entrant from Pukekohe.

Despite the Te Puke A&P Show not being held this year, the competition day will still take place at the Te Puke A&P Showgrounds on Thursday, February 18.

From 9am to 1pm, competitors will be undertaking a range of horticultural related theory tests and practical modules.

Spectators are encouraged to come and support the young growers on the day.

Following the day event there will be a Gala Dinner and Awards Evening at Zespri International, Mount Manganui, where the young growers will participate in a speech competition, with the final winner announced at the end of the evenings proceedings.

Contestants will have the opportunity to compete for the title of the 2021 Bay of Plenty Young Grower and additional prizes will be up for grabs for the runners up and the winners of each module.

The 2021 winner receives a media and presentation development course in Auckland, and will travel to Wellington to represent the Bay of Plenty in the 2021 national final of the NZ Young Grower on September 22 & 23.

The 2021 Bay of Plenty Young Grower competition aims to inspire and acknowledge the talents of young people in the fruit and vegetable sectors.

Last year, Melissa van den Heuvel secured the title of the 2020 Bay of Plenty Young Grower.

"Its a great promotion of what the horticulture industry has to offer and provides the opportunity for young people to share their passion, knowledge and skills.

"It is also a great way for the younger generation to be empowered, and to promote the industry and opportunities within it to others looking for future careers."

This years young growers come from an array of backgrounds. All of them have made grand contributions to the horticulture industry.

Katherine Bell - Avocado Grower Representative, Trevelyans, Tauranga - is proud of helping run a Katikati grower group to facilitate discussion on orchard topics, with the hope that the sharing of knowledge amongst growers will improve their yield and OGR.

Yvette Jones - Technical Transfer Manager, EastPack, Te Puke - accomplishments include helping to identify unusual vine symptoms that led to kiwifruit trunk disease research.

Trevor Macdonalds - Orchard Manager, Punchbowl Packaging, Pukekohe - eye for detail and strive for perfection has helped him achieve Punchbowls most improved orchard for the 2020 harvest.

Jess Matheson - Finance Administration Co-Ordinator, Trevelyans, Te Puke - has provided crucial financial and labour knowledge to support orchard managers and is a stakeholder in a nursery that provides growers with high quality plants for the base of their orchards.

Aurora McGee-Thomas - Orchard Manager, Strathmurray Farms, Tauranga - has broken major industry stereotypes by doing a male dominated job, showing other women there is a place for them in any role in horticulture.

Bryce Morrisons - Grower Services Representatives, Opotiki Packing and Coolstorage, Opotiki - achievements include the Gold Futures and Cut it Out projects, which helped the industry better understand and manage Psa.

Quintin Swanepoel - Orchard Manager, Suthern Cross Horticulture, Pukehina - has conducted vital research on industrial hemp cultivators and continues to contribute to the hemp industry by providing support and sharing his knowledge.

Emily Woods - Organics Kiwifruit Grower Services, Apata, Katikati - determination helped her successfully co-ordinate Apatas harvest at their Turntable site in a season of uncertainty.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has welcomed the Budget proposal to impose 2 per cent extra tax on foreign e-commerce companies whether engaged in business of sale of goods or providing services, acceptance of offer for sale, placing of purchase order, acceptance of purchase order, payment of consideration or supply of goods and services partly or wholly.

As per a statement, it has also been clarified in the Budget that the tax will be applicable for consideration of sale of goods, irrespective of whether the provider owns the portal, and consideration of provisions of services irrespective of whether services are provided or facilitated by e-commerce operators.

The provision has been made in the Budget by proposing amendments to Section 163 sub clause (3), Section 164 clause (cb), Section 165 sub section (3) and clause (b) of The Finance Act, 2016.

The provision will be applicable retrospectively with effect from April 1, 2020. All such foreign companies which are engaged in sale of goods or providing services through any online mode will come under the purview of this provision and will have to pay 2 per cent extra w.e.f. from April 1, 2020.

It's a bold step taken by the government which has been heartily welcomed by the traders across the country, CAIT said.

National president of CAIT, B.C. Bhartia, and secretary general, Praveen Khandelwal, while appreciating the move, said that the proposal expands the definition of "online sale of goods" and "online provision of services", thereby eliminating all confusions regarding what could be the true definition of e-commerce in India.

CAIT has welcomed the conceptual construct of this provision even as it studies its fine print. The provision amply reflects the intent of the government to crackdown on the the unholy business practices of global e-trailers to monopolise and control Indian e-commerce and retail trade, CAIt said.

Bhartia and Khandelwal informed that the introduction of equalisation levy is meant to create a level playing field and to prevent circumvention of tax laws on the digital transactions.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations are also9 working on the issue, as there is a global consensus on bringing a mechanism to tax the digital economy adequately.

Though equalisation levy in India has undergone changes in 2020 from its introduction in 2016, certain changes have been introduced vide the Finance Bill, 2021
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The Central School Board on Monday appointed local CPA Phil Graham to replace founding board member Willard Will Easley, who recently resigned after 14 years serving on the board of the suburban Baton Rouge school district.

Also on Monday, the board called a special election for the District 4 seat to be held Oct. 8. Graham, who was the only person nominated to replace Easley, said he plans to run in the October election. Whoever wins would serve out the rest of Easleys term, which ends Dec. 31, 2022.

Monday night's special meeting was over almost as soon as it began. After the quick vote, Graham immediately stepped u[ quickly to take the oath of office, administered by Family Court Judge Charlene Charlet Day of Baton Rouge.

I certainly appreciate the confidence that you all have, and the huge responsibility you have placed in me, Graham said after the vote Monday.

Graham has long served as a citizen member of the boards Finance Committee and has kept the books for many local governments. He said hes lived in Central for 44 years. He noted that the school district is doing well  its one of the highest rated academically in Louisiana.

You know, its not broke, he said. Its a good situation to walk into.

In a terse resignation letter submitted Jan. 14, effective the following day, Easley did not explain his decision.

"It has been an honor to serve with each of you on this board," Easley wrote in the two-sentence letter.

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The board, by state law, then had 20 days appoint someone to represent District 4. If the board had waited until after a Thursday deadline, Gov. John Bel Edwards would have been authorized to appoint someone.

The Central School Board has been an unusually stable body ever since it was first formed in late 2006, soon after voters amended the state Constitution to carve the Central Community school district out of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system. Four members have remained on the board ever since, and Easleys resignation brings that down to three. All seven board members were reelected without opposition in 2018 when no one qualified to run against them.

See which incumbents for East Baton Rouge, Baker, Zachary school boards face challengers in upcoming election The wife of a former Baton Rouge police chief, a parent active in the fight against St. George, and five others working at Baton Rouge schools

I think he was just tired, said board member David Walker.

Walker, who was elected to the board not long after the original board was appointed, said Easley reached out to him a day before he resigned to explain his decision. He said that Easley, who had retired from a career in the construction business, had planned initially just to stay a few years.

Now, hes going to step back and play with his cows and his grandchildren, do what he needs to do and not have to worry about it, Walker said.

Superintendent Jason Fountain said Easley served as a mentor to him on finances and seeing school matters through a business perspective. He said Easley told him he ran for re-election this most recent term to help Fountain transition for an administrator to superintendent, starting in 2018.

Hes a great guy, Fountain said. Im going to miss him.
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London: Captain Tom Moore, the British World War II veteran who raised millions of pounds for health service workers on the frontline of the battle against COVID-19, has died aged 100, his family said on Tuesday.

Sir Tom was admitted to hospital with coronavirus on Sunday and he had been treated for pneumonia in the weeks prior to testing positive for COVID-19 last week.

Sir Tom Moore after being knighted by the Queen. Credit:AP

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our dear father, Captain Sir Tom Moore, his daughters said in a statement.

On Twitter, Sir Toms account was updated with a photograph of the war veteran with the words: Captain Sir Tom Moore, 1920-2021, to signify his passing.
Follow Thursdays rolling coronavirus coverage here: Victoria returns to harsher restrictions after Melbourne hotel quarantine worker tests positive for COVID-19; WA lockdown continues

So its farewell - again - for the day for our live coverage of the coronavirus crisis.

Given the events of this evening tomorrow morning is sure to bring important news and we will have free and live coverage for you from the early hours.

Thanks again for reading and following, stay safe.
Nature lovers, you can now take as many Instagram pictures or, you know, enjoy the view on the observation tower at Eisenhower Park.

Note: The best views are at Friedrich Wilderness Park according to hiking fans on the AllTrails app.

Physicists from the University of Nottingham and the University of Cambridge have for the first time demonstrated that the evolution of black holes resulting from the fields surrounding them can be simulated in a lab experiment. Their results are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Dr. Sam Patrick from the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Nottingham and his colleagues used a water tank simulator consisting of a draining vortex, like the one that forms when we pull the plug in the bath. This mimics a black hole since a wave which comes too close to the drain gets dragged down the plug hole, unable to escape.

Systems like these have grown increasingly popular over the past decade as a means to test gravitational phenomena in a controlled laboratory environment. In particular, Hawking radiation has been observed in an analogue black hole experiment involving quantum optics.

Using this technique, the researchers showed for the first time that when waves are sent into an analogue black hole, the properties of the black hole itself can change significantly.

The mechanism underlying this effect in their particular experiment has a remarkably simple explanation.

When waves come close to the drain, they effectively push more water down the plug hole causing the total amount of water contained in the tank to decrease.

This results in a change in the water height, which in the simulation corresponds to a change in the properties of the black hole.

For a long time, it was unclear whether the backreaction would lead to any measurable changes in analogue systems where the fluid flow is driven, for example, using a water pump, Dr. Patrick said.

We have demonstrated that analogue black holes, like their gravitational counterparts, are intrinsically backreacting systems.

We showed that waves moving in a draining bathtub push water down the plug hole, modifying significantly the drain speed and consequently changing the effective gravitational pull of the analogue black hole.

What was really striking for us is that the backreaction is large enough that it causes the water height across the entire system to drop so much that you can see it by eye! This was really unexpected, he noted.

Our study paves the way to experimentally probing interactions between waves and the spacetimes they move through. For example, this type of interaction will be crucial for investigating black hole evaporation in the laboratory.

The team now plans to use quantum simulators to mimic the extreme conditions of the early Universe and black holes.

_____

Sam Patrick et al. 2021. Backreaction in an Analogue Black Hole Experiment. Phys. Rev. Lett 126 (4): 041105; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.041105

This article is based on text provided by the University of Nottingham.

If it exploded last time, try, try again. They did, and it exploded again.

On Tuesday, a test flight of SpaceXs Starship, a huge next-generation spacecraft that Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive of the private rocket company, dreams of one day sending to Mars, came to an explosive end.

That brief flight, to an altitude of about 10 kilometres and then back to a landing pad, appeared to again demonstrate how the mammoth rocket would tip over on its side as it descended in a controlled belly flop back toward a landing.

SpaceXs second Starship test flight ends in another fireball. Credit:YouTube

But when the prototype fired its engines to right itself back to a vertical orientation, it appeared that one engine did not properly ignite, and Starship hit the ground at an angle, disintegrating in a fireball, leaving a cloud of smoke rising over the test site, which is in Boca Chica, Texas, near Brownsville.
As the de-facto ruler Myanmar - Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint and other senior officials were detained by the military, thus staging a coup, neighbouring Bangladesh on Monday has condemned the action. An official statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, "Bangladesh firmly adheres to and promotes democratic ethos. We hope that the democratic process and constitutional arrangements will be upheld in Myanmar. As an immediate and friendly neighbour, we would like to see peace and stability in Myanmar."



After detaining the leaders, Myanmar military declared a state of emergency in the country for one year, and currently, the state power has been handed over to Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Min Aung Hlaing, while Myanmar's first Vice-President Myint Swe will serve as the acting president of the country. This assumes significance as Min Aung Hlaing is accused of plotting the armys offensive against Rohingyas in 2017, with the United States even imposing sanctions on the Commander-in-Chief in 2019.

Bangladesh's statement about Rohingyas repatriation

Though, Bangladesh in its statement, has urged that the process of repatriation of the refugees to continue, it seems unlikely considering the given situation. "We have been persistent in developing mutually beneficial relations with Myanmar and have been working with Myanmar for the voluntary, safe and sustained repatriation of the Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh. We expect these processes to continue in right earnest," the statement added.

Bangladesh is currently relocating the Rohingyas in the refugee camps of Coxs Bazar to Bhasan Char, an island specifically developed to accommodate 100,000 of the 1 million Rohingya. The flood-prone island is located 21 miles (34 kilometres) from the mainland, surfaced only 20 years ago and was not previously inhabited. Bangladesh has said that ultimately it is up to Myanmar to take the refugees back and has called on the international community to put pressure on Myanmar's government to ensure their safe return.

In December 2020, Bangladeshs Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen said after a tripartite meeting between both countries, facilitated by China, said that Myanmar has agreed for repatriation in the second quarter of the year. The Myanmar foreign ministry had then said, Myanmar has made all necessary arrangements for the repatriation and reaffirmed Myanmars readiness to receive the verified displaced persons in line with the bilateral agreements."

However, in the present context, with Suu Kyi and other leaders detained, it remains to be seen what unfolds for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Who are Rohingyas?

Rohingyas are an ethnic minority in Myanmar residing in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. While most of the Rohingyas are Muslims, very few are also Hindus. The Buddhist majority nation of Myanmar claims that Rohingyas are residents of Bangladesh. The Rohingyas trace their origin to the fifteenth century the Arakan Kingdom. However, they say that many others settled in the now Rakhine state in the nineteenth and twentieth-century under the colonial regime.

The Buddhist majority government in Myanmar denied citizenship to the Rohingyas in 1962 even as they recognised 135 official ethnic groups in Myanmar. Moreover, they do not recognise the term 'Rohingya' and call them "illegal migrants" from Bangladesh. Other diplomatic affairs experts say that Rohingyas gave themselves the term for a distinct political identity during the 1950s, and the word loosely means "from Arakan."

The military in Myanmar has confined the Rohingyas in Rakhine state and nearby areas. They are stripped off fundamental rights and are allegedly persecuted by military. In revolt of military's persecution, a number of militant organisations have risen in the area, one of them being the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). In August 2017, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility of attacking police and army posts, prompting action from the Myanmar army, which declared ARSA as a terrorist organisation and started a brutal campaign in Rakhine state, burning their houses, forcing almost seven hundred thousand Rohingya to leave the country and fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, India and Malaysia. As the Rohingyas crisis unfolded in 2017, the UN had called it "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing." Later in 2020, the International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar to take all measures to prevent the genocide of Rohingya Muslims.
CORONAVIRUS vaccinations are now being given to residents in the Henley area aged between 75 and 79.

The towns Hart and Bell surgeries, off York Road, have administered the first of two jabs to almost every patient aged over 80, including those who are housebound or living in a care home.

The practices have also had an overwhelming response from frontline health and social care workers, another of the highest priority groups, and those aged over 75.

Now they are contacting patients aged over 70, who are next in the queue under the government guidelines along with the medically extremely vulnerable.

Most will get the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, which was approved for use in the UK on December 30 and, unlike the earlier Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, doesnt need to be stored at -70C.

Health authorities have enough doses of the newer treatment to cover 50 million of the nations 66 million inhabitants.

Both vaccines are given in two doses up to 12 weeks apart and the length of the wait depends on how quickly the NHS can supply it.

The first patients in Henley got the Pfizer treatment when it was trialled shortly before Christmas and received their follow-ups a few weeks later.

Those who receive it must be supervised for 15 minutes to ensure there are no side effects while those receiving the Oxford jab may leave immediately.

The Bell Surgery has vaccinated 1,294 of its 9,350 patients so far.

Dr Shellani Knight, a partner, said: Staff have been absolutely amazing and have stepped up to the challenge, working longer hours and extra days to ensure patients are offered the vaccine as quickly as possible.

We initially sent text messages to patients but more recently staff have been calling to invite them in, which has been relatively straightforward. Theyve been fantastic at following our social distancing guidance so the service has been running very smoothly with little delay.

We encourage people to be vaccinated so that everyone can return to normal as quickly as possible. We still have a long way to go but this has given a glimmer of hope.

She said the surgery had received wonderful feedback about its clinics, which are being run with the help of volunteer marshals.

One patient said the service was friendly and very efficient and smooth and trouble-free. The Hart Surgery has now given a first dose to more than 1,500 patients but is still trying to contact a small number of over-80s who may not have been answering their phones.

Dr Will Hearsey, a partner, said: The Oxford vaccine makes it easier because you dont have to wait afterwards and we can be far more quick fire. The process becomes automatic after a while and its not too different from our regular flu clinics but the one-way system and social distancing remain important.

Deliveries often happen at short notice, which is hard but thats why patients often get a phone call only a few days beforehand. Its very much a day-by-day thing, which is difficult logistically but it becomes more manageable over time.

It feels like were turning a corner even if we havent turned it completely. Were going to be doing this for the foreseeable future so weve got to get familiar with it. Theres still a long way to go and everyone should keep up the precautionary measures.

Patients left dozens of comments of praise on both practices Facebook pages.

One said: You are doing a great job in hard times and with directives changing constantly.

Sonning Common Health Centre and Nettlebed Surgery, which are part of the same practice network, can now give the Oxford vaccine on site because it is easier to transport and store.

The practice in Wood Lane has now vaccinated 1,675 people, including care home residents and staff and almost all patients aged over 75. Those aged over 70 or who are clinically vulnerable are now being contacted.

Practice manager John Lisiewicz said it was hoped to vaccinate everyone in the high-priority groups within the next two weeks or so but this would depend on supplies.

Goring and Woodcotes joint medical practice has given more than 1,275 initial doses to the highest priority groups.

The practice has also vaccinated more than half of its over-75s, who are receiving the jab under gazebos in its two car parks. It is now contacting the over-70s.

Executive partner Dr Simon Morris said: Being outside makes it so much easier and faster. Everyone stays on their feet and we just keep moving so its like a military operation.

It has been a phenomenal effort and Im really pleased. Weve had some really moving feedback from patients who havent been out all year and see this as a light at the end of the tunnel.

He said hundreds of patients got the first Pfizer jab before Christmas and were expecting another three weeks later, as happened in Henley, but this was postponed at a weeks notice because supplies were diverted to other surgeries giving their first doses.

The follow-up will be given within 12 weeks and health bosses say it will remain as effective. They say they had to cover as many people as possible and will give a new date as soon as they can.

Dr Morris said: The short notice was shambolic and frankly unfair to patients and practices which had to call hundreds of people. We had to cancel 400 visits and that takes hours and hours  youve pretty much got to stop everything else.

We were lucky to get a week as some surgeries only got two days. Its not nice to call even one person saying they cant have their next dose so to do that hundreds of times is a big ask of our reception team. He said the vaccination rate should increase as younger age groups join because they are more likely to have their phones on at all times, so can be reached more quickly.

Wargrave Surgery has also covered most over-80s and is moving to the next age groups.

Dr Jim Kennedy said the surgery in Victoria Road, which was among the first in Britain to go into nursing homes, could move some clinics to the villages old fire station to free up its premises for routine appointments.

It has vaccinated patients as old as 103 and can cover up to 150 per hour using the Oxford jab.

Dr Kennedy said: [The NHS] are ramping up deliveries at a rate of knots but its still not as predictable as wed like and its still a push model where you get what youre given.

Were finding smarter ways of doing things and have a text-based system that we will use for our younger cohorts. It should get easier over time and were putting it out as fast as we get it but supply is the issue.

The system is very familiar for anyone whos had a flu jab and is almost as quick. We limit the amount of time that people spend in the building and aim to have people in and out again in five or six minutes.

We dont want people turning up too early but I think the local population understands that.

The people of Wargrave have grabbed this with both hands. Our vaccination rate is above 95 per cent, which is phenomenal, and it looks like theres an equal appetite among the younger age groups.

The staff have been outstanding and shown a huge amount of inventiveness and adaptability.

The Boathouse surgery in Pangbourne, which serves Whitchurch, has almost vaccinated all over-75s apart from a small number who havent responded to invitations.

It is now contacting those who are clinically extremely vulnerable, the next priority group, with the over-70s to follow as soon as supplies allow.

The remaining groups are, in order of priority: over-65s, all adults with certain physical or mental conditions, over-60s, over-55s, over-50s and the general population.

There are plans for a larger vaccination hub in Oxfordshire which could speed up the process but more information has not yet been revealed.

All patients should wait to be contacted and not call their surgeries to avoid putting unnecessary pressure on staff. Even after vaccination, people should continue observing social distancing, covering their faces and regularly washing their hands.
(TNS) - San Francisco opened the first of several neighborhood coronavirus immunization sites in the Mission District on Monday, moving forward with plans to reach communities hit hardest by the pandemic even as vaccine supply remained severely limited.The new clinic was hailed as another hopeful sign of nearing an end to the pandemic, especially welcome after the state and Bay Area emerged from the single deadliest month so far. More than a third of COVID-19 deaths in the Bay Area occurred in January, with 1,677 people losing their lives last month.The staggering toll reflects state and national numbers: Nearly 15,000 Californians and more than 95,000 people in the U.S. died from the virus in January. In total, more than 441,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19.The worst surge of the pandemic appears to be waning, though. Cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 peaked in late December and early January. But public health experts say the need to quickly vaccinate people and dramatically slow down spread of the disease has never been more urgent. Several new variants that may be able to partially evade vaccines already are spreading in some parts of the world and have arrived in the United States."We just need more vaccines to get out the door and get into arms as quickly as possible," said Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco's health director, at the Mission District vaccination clinic on Monday.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday that 471 cases of three different variants have been identified in at least 32 states. Scientists in Stanford University's Clinical Virology Lab have discovered variants first identified in the United Kingdom and Brazil in the Bay Area, and the U.K. variant in particular appears to be spreading in parts of Southern California.Colfax said the variants found in California seem to be largely covered by the vaccines already approved.At the Mission District vaccination site, located in a parking lot at 24th and Capp streets, city and state officials cheered Monday morning as the leaders of two Latino nonprofits who have been serving the community throughout the pandemic received their first shots.The Mission site is the first of what city officials plan for a network of neighborhood vaccine clinics. The Department of Public Health expects to open similar sites in the Bayview, Excelsior, Visitacion Valley and other neighborhoods with the highest infection rates for the coronavirus. The city is also partnering with Safeway pharmacies to bring vaccines to various neighborhoods."I'm really excited today," Mayor London Breed said at the Mission vaccine site Monday. "We know this is the best shot we have at getting back to the lives that we all know and miss."California has administered more than 3.5 million vaccine doses so far, or about 60% of its total supply.The state on Monday released letters of intent signed late last week with Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente to hand over management of its vaccine distribution network in an effort to speed up the delivery of doses. Though the contracts have not been finalized, the letters confirmed that the two Oakland-based health providers would be working at or near cost and "will not profit from this agreement."Among other responsibilities, Blue Shield will help design a system of incentive payments to encourage vaccine providers to use their doses more quickly, at a higher volume and with a focus on communities that have been hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus, according to the letters. Kaiser will oversee at least two mass vaccination sites and other efforts to vaccinate hard-to-reach populations.San Francisco has built up the infrastructure to administer 10,000 vaccine injections a day, but is getting only around 11,000 a week, Colfax said. Breed said San Francisco has so far received 150,000 doses and issued over 90,000 of those. The rest are scheduled for second doses.Though counties are allowed to offer vaccines to all residents age 65 and older, San Francisco is still prioritizing health care workers, plus in-home support services staff and long-term care residents. So far, 104,000 out of 210,000 people in that first phase have received a dose, Colfax said."We've seen what I call a relatively steady state compared to where it was a few weeks ago, but we're still at a very low number of vaccines," Colfax said.Ramping up the new site in the Mission District depends on supply. During a soft-launch period, the health department said, the site will administer about 120 vaccinations a day. The site may increase to 400 vaccinations a day as supply increases.The Mission site currently operates on an invitation, appointment-only basis, serving community health workers and local residents over age 65 within the Unidos en Salud/United in Health network.The new location targets a community that has been disproportionately impacted by the virus. Latinos in San Francisco make up more than 42% of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city, despite accounting for just 15% of the population, according to the most recent public health data. They also account for over 20% of the deaths from the disease."It's taken the entire barrio to deal with this pandemic," said Roberto Hernandez, co-founder of the Latino Task Force. "A lot of the people we work with are the most vulnerable people, the hardest-working people, minimum wage workers who have no health insurance, they have no 401K. They have no retirement plans. This pandemic has hurt them in more ways than you can ever imagine."The site opened at 9 a.m. for the first appointment Monday. By 10 a.m., Jose Ortiz, family support specialist with nonprofit Casa Corazon, had received his first dose. The 43-year-old was eligible as a community health care worker since he works closely with impacted families. Ortiz said everyone in his community knows at least one person who has fallen ill or died from the virus."When you work with people all the time, you need to protect yourself and your family, and their family as well," he said. Placing a clinic in "the heart of the Mission is very important, so everybody can see and go."The new clinic will work in conjunction with a coronavirus testing site at the BART plaza at 24th and Mission streets, which operates four days a week. The privately funded vaccine clinic grew out of Unidos en Salud, a collaboration between UCSF and the Latino Task Force that has run testing sites in the Mission.San Francisco opened its first mass vaccination site, run by UCSF Health in partnership with the city's Department of Public Health and private health care providers, on Jan. 22 at the City College of San Francisco main campus. The city is working on creating a centralized appointment booking system, Colfax said Monday."This is a community that never stands by and lets anyone fall to the wayside," said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the Mission, at the vaccination site opening on Monday. "Hang in there, San Franciscans. We're almost out of this and we can get to the end together."San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Alexei Koseff contributed to this report.Mallory Moench and Aidin Vaziri are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com, avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench, @MusicSF___(c)2021 the San Francisco ChronicleVisit the San Francisco Chronicle at www.sfchronicle.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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To become a powerful and prosperous country by 2045, Vietnam needs to obtain a GDP growth rate of 7.5-8 percent per annum for the next 25 years. Only digital transformation can helps make this a reality.

The 13th National Party Congress identified the countrys development goals for the next period, which is to realize the aspiration of turning Vietnam into a powerful and prosperous country by 2045.

In order to do so, Vietnam needs to obtain minimum average income per capita of $20,000 each year. There are 37 countries that have average income per capita of $20,000 per annum and higher.

With the current average income per capita at $3,000 per annum, Vietnams GDP needs to grow by 7.5-8 percent per annum in the next 25 years to reach the income of $20,000 per head.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said in order to overcome current difficulties and grab opportunities, Vietnam needs to have breakthrough thinking and strong determination and take daring steps. It needs to outdistance others instead of following or going after others.

Meanwhile, according to Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, to become a developed country with high income by 2045, science and technology development, creation and innovation, the 4.0 industry revolution and digital transformation is the way Vietnam needs to go. In other words, Vietnam needs to become a country with developed technology.

Reality shows that those who master technology can grow quickly. Vietnam has successfully controlled the Covid-19 pandemic, quickly returned to the normal situation, and maintained a positive GDP growth rate. Digital platforms have made a great contribution to these achievements.

Just within a short time, nearly 60 digital platforms were created to fight Covid-19, helping control and prevent outbreaks. Vietnam did this because it has businesses which can master technology and quickly develop products.

Opportunity to rise up

Digital transformation offers the opportunity for the poor to escape poverty and for developing countries to become developed ones.

The low ratio of physicians per 1,000 people has been a problem in Vietnam. However, with remote examination platforms, people from any region can access thousands of excellent physicians. This cannot be done without digital transformation.

Thanks to digital technology, students in remote areas can also study with good teachers and use the best curricula. Digital technology allows lessons by good teachers to reach the remote villages of Vietnam. This means that the poorest people in the most remote areas can access best services.

The low ratio of physicians per 1,000 people has been a problem in Vietnam. However, with remote examination platforms, people from any region can access thousands of excellent physicians. This cannot be done without digital transformation.

With digital technology, people from all over the country can sell their products via e-commerce platforms, bypassing merchants, which allows them to increase their income.

According to Nguyen Huu Thai Hoa, a well known businessman, research and development (R&D) plays the most important role, followed by market approach (service) and outsourcing. Studies show that R&D brings 40 percent of value, service 30-35 percent, and outsourcing just 15-20 percent.

In order to become a developed country, Vietnam should not rely on doing outsourcing but needs to master technology, design and create products itself. And to do that, Vietnam has to digitize.

Vietnam has been proactively approaching digital transformation. In early June 2020, the Prime Minister signed Decision 749 approving the national digital transformation program by 2025 with the vision until 2030.

Under the program, Vietnam will pioneer in trying new technologies and models, comprehensively renovate governments management, enterprises production and business activities, peoples way of living and working, and develop a safe and humanitarian digital environment.

The national digital transformation program aims at the dual goal of both developing the digital government, digital economy and digital economy, and forming digital technology firms capable of competing globally.

According to information technology experts, Vietnam is a developing country, but this doesnt automatically mean that it will go behind in the digital transformation process.

The digital transformation in Vietnam is meeting many barriers, including unsynchronized digital infrastructure and low connection capability. The legal framework remains imperfect because of the lack of regulations covering relations in a digital society. The inappropriate attention to the development of core technologies such as AI, Blockchain and machine learning is also a problem.

However, challenges are creating new opportunities, new missions and new space. From these, new capabilities and new approaches will be created which are the resources for Vietnam to rise.

In the eyes of the international community, Vietnam is a success story in developing its economy, eliminating hunger and reducing poverty.

After 35 years of carrying out doi moi (renovation), Vietnam, which was one of the poorest countries, has become a middle-income country with the proportion of poor households falling from 60 percent to below 3 percent. The international community predicts that Vietnam will become the 20th largest economy in the world and the 10th in Asia by 2050.

Tran Thuy

Officials highlight circular economy, macro-economic stability at Party Congress Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha on January 27 emphasised the importance of a circular economy


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Law enforcement officers detained a man who set fire to a shopping center in the city of Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv region on Tuesday, according to the official website of the National Police in Mykolaiv region.

"It was established that a 37-year-old man came to the mall with a knife and an ax. In the paint and varnish department, he started to spill flammable liquids. One of the center guards tried to detain him, to which the man hit him with an ax, set the premises on fire and ran. Other guards, together with the security police, caught up and detained the intruder in the courtyards, where another of the officers was hit with an ax," the police said.

The guards called the police to the scene. Currently, the offender, who had previously been brought to justice, was taken to Pervomaisk police department. Police officers ensure the safety of citizens at the scene.

Police investigators initiated criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 194 (intentional destruction or damage of property) and Article 15, clause 1, Part 2 of Article 115 (attempted murder) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LION READS held its first Advisory Board meeting on January 19, 2021. The Advisory Board is comprised of women representing various channels of the Optometric market. LION READS was created by James Vena, interim CEO and Executive Operating Partner of LION Eye Group. "I am really excited about the LION READS Advisory Board, and with the help and support of the LION Eye Group, and its vendor partners, we hope to participate in ending systemic economic inequality. The best way to give back to the community is to help the underserved and underrepresented facing financial injustice rise above it through education. Eyes are the doorway to knowledge and our goal is to empower at risk youth. We have the ability and responsibility to help them grow socially, culturally and psychologically, and end the cycle."

LION READS

The mission of LION READS is to positively impact the lives of children facing economic injustice through literacy, by providing access to eye care and vision correction eyewear, promoting empowerment through education, and securing self-confidence for greater achievement.

The Advisory Board includes Gail Correale, Susan Brunell, Susan Fisher, and Lori Landrio of LION Eye Group. The remaining members include Robin Brush of Safilo, Kristin Calimlim of Lafont USA, Phaedra Chernoff of L'Amy USA, Julie Dunn of ABB Optical, and Heidi Orlando of WestGroupe.

For more information, please contact Angela Fischels, Interim Director of Marketing and Media. 844-288-8700 ext. 704, [email protected]

SOURCE LION Eye Group
Only 38 percent of nursing home staff accepted shots when they were offered a dose of COVID-19 vaccine despite being considered a top priority for vaccination, revealed the new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday.

Dr. Radhika Gharpure, the lead author of the study and a member of the CDC's Vaccine Task Force, said these findings showed that they have a lot of work to do to increase people's confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines and to further understands the barriers to vaccination among this particular population.

Many have expressed concerns about the vaccine's side effects, while others said they did not want to be among the first to receive the vaccines, which were first approved for authorization in December. Others also said that they did not trust the government or even cited false claims about the shots, USA Today reported.

Gharpure said it was also possible that some people did not get vaccinated as they were not working when the shots were distributed or assigned in multiple facilities and were only counted at one.

Related story: Health Care Worker Dies After Second Vaccine Dose, But Family Tells Others to Get Vaccinated

Trust Issues on COVID-19 Vaccine

According to state officials in Ohio, nursing home workers were reported to be passing on their chance of early access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Gov. Mike DeWine turned the spotlight on the issue during a televised press briefing on Wednesday, saying that around 60 percent of staffers who were offered the COVID-19 vaccine declined it, Patch reported.

Pete Van Runkle, executive director of an industry association representing Ohio's long-term care facilities, said he talks to a lot of members regularly, and they told him the pretty low uptake among staff.

Patrick Schwartz, a spokesman for Leading Age Ohio, connected the shortfalls to misinformation and fear surrounding the possibility for an adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Schwartz noted that many staff are simply not yet ready and hoped that it would change as they see more of their colleagues vaccinated without side effects.

"By contrast, an overwhelming majority of residents seem willing to accept the vaccine, with many coming from the generation that saw polio and other deadly diseases wiped out by life-saving vaccines," Schwarts said in the report.

The local Service Employees International Union (SEIU) surveyed its members on the issue. The responses suggest a trust problem between an exhausted, underpaid, underappreciated, and in many cases, already-infected staff and health authorities.

SEIU 1199 President Becky Williams said workers commented that the COVID-19 vaccine appeared rushed and unproven without enough data to show that it would be effective.

Williams added that some workers also expressed concern that the vaccine could cause fertility issues among women.

Issues on COVID-19 vaccine supply

Aside from the trust issues, there are also other issues that need to be addressed to vaccinate a huge portion of the population. For instance, the shortages in vaccine supplies in some states.

Hospitals and local officials said even the meager allocation of COVID-19 vaccine supplies has been unpredictable.

San Francisco earlier said that the supply its health department received could be gone right away, while New York City cautioned that its weekly supply might not last into the weekend, according to an NBC News report. Meanwhile, Baptist Health South Florida did not comment on what happened to its supply.

Read also: Portuguese Health Worker Dies Two Days After Receiving Pfizer Vaccine, Autopsy Results Unknown


MECCA brings together like-minded crafters in an informal setting.

Mahurangi East Creative Crafts and Arts (MECCA) is inviting anyone with an interest in crafts, conversation, fashioning and friendship to join the club.

There are group activities or people can bring in their own craft project and just have a chat, club captain Ferelyth Roffey says.

Materials for group activities are provided. Membership is just $15 a year.

Club members have tried their hands at all manner of activities, including table runners, cross stitch, quilts, painting, sewing and embroidery.

Ferelyth says that MECCA protects the art of various crafts from being lost.

If there is any style of craft somebody wants to do, there is bound to be a member who can show them, she says.

A total of 140 members have been involved with MECCA over its 30-year history. It currently has 24 members, mainly women from Snells Beach, Algies Bay, Matakana and Warkworth.

MECCA holds an annual show in the Snells Beach Community Church in November. Last year the club produced a quilt as a group project, which it raffled for funds. Paid members are able to sell or display their works at the annual show.

MECCA meets at the Snells Beach Community Church on the second Tuesday of each month at 1pm.

Info: Ferelyth on 021 960 910.
[February 02, 2021] Top pest control, lawn, and arbor software provider ServicePro joins ServiceTitan family

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ServiceTitan , the premier software solution for residential and commercial service contractors, announces a new partnership with ServicePro , the best-in-class software solution for the pest, lawn, and arbor industries, to deliver unmatched expertise and support to customers via scaled resources and innovation. ServicePro will continue to help its customers meet their goals as part of the ServiceTitan family of companies. ServiceTitan's investment ensures improved ROI for ServicePro users with a heightened focus on live support, dedicated account management, and improved product experience. "Existing ServicePro customers can expect to see benefits immediately as we take our solutions and support to a new level," said ServicePro CEO Andy Deering. "They'll enjoy enhanced engagement with the ServicePro team, with new resources targeted to continue driving their success." Andy Deering and Kim O'Connor, CIO, will still lead ServicePro as a subsidiary to ServiceTitan and ensure continuity of service and roll out future ServSuite releases for customers. Deering, O'Connor, and designated ServicePro support teams are excited to accelerate their suite of solutions for customers with this new partnership with ServieTitan.



"We're continuously looking to build partnerships that help us deliver premium, vertical-specific solutions to professionals facing evolving challenges in the field service industry," said Ara Mahdessian, co-founder and CEO of ServiceTitan. "Bringing ServicePro into the ServiceTitan family of brands will support our continued growth and help ServicePro users reach success, while also inspiring us to innovate and develop new solutions that transform the trades." About ServicePro

ServicePro is a family-owned Pest Control, Lawn Care, and Arbor Care software business with more than 25 years of experience in the industry. We created ServSuite, an enterprise, cloud-based software solution designed with the needs of the field service industry in mind. ServSuite automates everyday tasks such as scheduling, routing, reporting, and much more to help our customers manage their businesses in the most efficient way possible. Trusted by companies of all sizes, ServSuite currently has over 50,000 users worldwide. As an innovative company, we aim to meet the changing needs of Pest Control, Lawn Care, and Arbor care businesses in the USA and around the world. Visit https://www.servicepro.com/ . About ServiceTitan ServiceTitan is a software company built to accelerate the home and commercial service industries. The company's end-to-end software suite includes CRM, intelligent dispatch, custom reporting, marketing automation, a mobile solution for field techs, and accounting integrations with Sage Intacct and QuickBooks. ServiceTitan raised the largest venture round of a SaaS company in the history of Southern California ($165 million Series D) led by Index Ventures, with participation from Dragoneer and T. Rowe Price and existing investors Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and ICONIQ Capital. By bringing a fully operational modern SaaS infrastructure to an industry traditionally underserved by technology, ServiceTitan makes a direct and positive impact on the lives of thousands of entrepreneurs and their extended teams. For more information about ServiceTitan, visit https://servicetitan.com/ . MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Ripley

Ripley PR

(865) 977-1973

hripley@ripleypr.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/top-pest-control-lawn-and-arbor-software-provider-servicepro-joins-servicetitan-family-301219814.html SOURCE ServiceTitan

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[February 02, 2021] Deep Water Point Continues to Strengthen its Cyber Security Team in Support of its Clients

ANNAPOLIS, Md., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Deep Water Point, LLC (DWP), announced that William "Terry" Burruss, the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) former Deputy Director of the Center for Cyber Intelligence, joined the company as part of their Defense and Intelligence business. Burruss, a former Senior Intelligence Service (SIS) officer in the CIA's Directorate of Digital Innovation, is a highly respected and experienced executive who was a leader in the agency's Center for Cyber Intelligence. The Center is responsible for intelligence collection, analysis, and operations focused on foreign cyber threats to US interests. "Terry's presence on our team will complement a cross section of very senior expertise we have assembled to serve our clients in the Intelligence, Defense, and Federal Civilian markets," said Howard Seeger the company's Managing Partner. "The line between cyber and business has blurred overthe years, and cyber is now an integral part of the solutions and proposal development process. Our ability to help clients address this important area of national security is mandatory and that is why we now have some of the most experienced and respected cyber experts available in the market," said BG Ron Bouchard, USA, Ret. Deep Water Point's expertise includes an impressive list of indiviudals who have led or co-led some of the federal government's major cyber initiatives and operations.



"Being able to increase our clients' success with quality opportunities and winning contracts is what we do," said Rob Brunngraber, DWP's Intelligence Community Partner. "To achieve these accomplishments, our toolbox includes proven processes and methodologies, but more importantly, the intellectual capital required to achieve the kind of results our clients expect. Terry Burruss is an example of the kind of people we have on our team of nearly 300 consultants," he said. About Deep Water Point, LLC

Deep Water Point is a management consulting firm based in Annapolis, Maryland, with a presence across the National Capital Region and other parts of the US and Europe. The firm helps businesses identify and win opportunities in the Federal Civilian; Defense; Intelligence; and Health and life Sciences markets.

For more information about Deep Water Point and its cyber security practice go to: www.deepwaterpoint.com/cyber CONTACT:

John Johnson

info@deepwaterpoint.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deep-water-point-continues-to-strengthen-its-cyber-security-team-in-support-of-its-clients-301220248.html SOURCE Deep Water Point, LLC

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The Caribbean is not all about sandy beaches, its about sandy synagogues too.

As many as four synagogues in this part of the world have floors covered with sand, and a fifth one in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. These Jewish places of worship have a regular wood or brick base, but topped with a layer of sand about an inch or two in depth.

The tradition of spreading sand on the floor is thought to have originated at the time of the Spanish Inquisition, which raged across Spain and all Spanish colonies in the Americas. During this turbulent period in history, all non-Christians, including Jews, were forced to convert to Christianity. Many of these converts, however, continued to practice Judaism, but secretly. And sand provided a means to this secrecy.

The Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue in Willemstad, Curacao. Notice the sand on the floor. Photo credit: www.snoa.com

At that time going to synagogues were forbidden, and so the Jews began to meet in private homes. But soon these gatherings began to get too large raising concern that the noise might betray their clandestine congregations. So the followers began to cover the floors of their makeshift synagogues with clay and sand to muffle the sound of their footsteps as they came and went, as well as their voices and the prayers themselves.

While this is the most likely explanation, there are some who maintain that the sand is merely symbolic. They say that the sand is intended to remind congregants of the 40 years the Jews spent wandering the desert in biblical times. The sand is also said to symbolizes the promise God made to the Abraham to multiply his seed as the sands of the seashore. But many historians refute these theories.

The Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam explains that covering the floor with fine sand is an old Dutch tradition meant to absorb dust, moisture and dirt from shoes, over and above, muffling the noise.

As already mentioned, only five synagogues in the world have a sand floor. They are:

The Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue in Willemstad, Curacao  the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas.

The Shaare Shalom Synagogue in Kingston, Jamaica

The Beracha VeShalom Vegimulth Hasidim Synagogue in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

The Zedek ve Shalom Synagogue in Paramaribo, Suriname

The Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

The Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue in Willemstad, Curacao. Photo credit: www.snoa.com

Photo credit: Brennan Linsley/AP Photo

Shaare Shalom Synagogue in Jamaica. Photo credit: www.jewishpost.com

Sources: Haaretz / Colorzine
Transmission rates of the coronavirus vary in the northern and southern hemispheres depending on the time of year, pointing to a weather dependence. Credit: Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis, University of Nicosia

The 'second wave' of the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in much blame placed on a lack of appropriate safety measures. However, due to the impacts of weather, research suggests two outbreaks per year during a pandemic are inevitable.

Though face masks, travel restrictions, and social distancing guidelines help slow the number of new infections in the short term, the lack of climate effects incorporated into epidemiological models presents a glaring hole that can cause long-term effects. In Physics of Fluids,, Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis, from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, discuss the impacts of these parameters.

Typical models for predicting the behavior of an epidemic contain only two basic parameters, transmission rate and recovery rate. These rates tend to be treated as constants, but Dbouk and Drikakis said this is not actually the case.

Temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed all play a significant role, so the researchers aimed to modify typical models to account for these climate conditions. They call their new weather-dependent variable the Airborne Infection Rate index.

When they applied the AIR index to models of Paris, New York City, and Rio de Janeiro, they found it accurately predicted the timing of the second outbreak in each city, suggesting two outbreaks per year is a natural, weather-dependent phenomenon. Further, the behavior of the virus in Rio de Janeiro was markedly different from the behavior of the virus in Paris and New York, due to seasonal variations in the northern and southern hemispheres, consistent with real data.

The authors emphasize the importance of accounting for these seasonal variations when designing safety measures.

"We propose that epidemiological models must incorporate climate effects through the AIR index," said Drikakis. "National lockdowns or large-scale lockdowns should not be based on short-term prediction models that exclude the effects of weather seasonality."

"In pandemics, where massive and effective vaccination is not available, the government planning should be longer-term by considering weather effects and design the public health and safety guidelines accordingly," said Dbouk. "This could help avoid reactive responses in terms of strict lockdowns that adversely affect all aspects of life and the global economy."

As temperatures rise and humidity falls, Drikakis and Dbouk expect another improvement in infection numbers, though they note that mask and distancing guidelines should continue to be followed with the appropriate weather-based modifications.

This research group's previous work showed that droplets of saliva can travel 18 feet in five seconds when an unmasked person coughs and extended their studies to examine the effects of face masks and weather conditions. The authors are incorporating the previous findings into their epidemiological models.

Explore further Evaporation critical to coronavirus transmission as weather changes

More information: Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis. Fluid dynamics and epidemiology: Seasonality and transmission dynamics. Physics of Fluids 33, 021901 (2021); Journal information: Physics of Fluids Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis. Fluid dynamics and epidemiology: Seasonality and transmission dynamics.33, 021901 (2021); doi.org/10.1063/5.0037640
South Africa: Tshwane Automotive SEZ heralds good news for jobs

The Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has to date created numerous jobs and opened up development opportunities for the local community in its construction phase.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who paid a visit to the Tshwane Automotive SEZ on Tuesday, said the total short-term jobs expected to be created during the construction phase are estimated at around 8 600.

With construction having started in August 2020 - within the limits of COVID-19 regulations - the planning, design and construction work has to date delivered significant jobs, training and development to both the communities and SMMEs in the region, the President said.

The visit of the President -- who was accompanied by Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, Ebrahim Patel; Gauteng Premier David Makhura; Gauteng Economic Development, Agriculture and Environment MEC, Parks Tau, City of Tshwane Executive Mayor, Randall Williams, and the Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa leadership  was aimed at tracking progress made 14 months since the sod-turning of the R3.4 billion joint investment by government and Ford Motor Company.

The project has also established the first automotive incubation centre adjacent to the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone (TASEZ).

The President commended the significant role TASEZ is playing to support the implementation of the countrys Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, which was launched in October last year to respond to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SEZ programme promotes an integrative and collaborative approach that strengthens partnership and coordination across all three spheres of government, as well as between government and the private sector, President Ramaphosa said.

Collaboration between the three spheres of government, including the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), the province of Gauteng and the City of Tshwane  in conjunction with Ford  is something the President said should be emulated as an example of excellence in public-private partnership.

It shows what can be achieved through the District Development District Model, especially in delivering critical infrastructure and investment attraction.

I am told this is the largest investment the Ford Motor Company has made since its establishment in South Africa, and one of the largest investments in the South African automotive industry as a whole, the President said.

Setting up infrastructure and logistics

The City of Tshwane and the Gauteng Department of Economic Development have committed R288 million and R200 million, respectively, towards the enabling bulk infrastructure development for the TASEZ.

This investment will make the Silverton Assembly Plant one of the biggest Ranger plants globally and one of the largest Ford truck plants outside the United States.

The establishment of the Tshwane Automotive SEZ opens up new opportunities to stimulate the development of a high capacity rail infrastructure corridor between Gauteng and the Eastern Cape to assist with transporting finished vehicles for export through Port Elizabeth.

We are now working on this logistics plan, President Ramaphosa said.

President Ramaphosa said the corridor development is envisaged to include the deep-water port in Port Elizabeth, which will lead to job creation and stimulate more business opportunities in both provinces.

President Ramaphosa said the $1 billion investment announced today by Ford is a clear statement of the companys confidence in this development and its ambitions for its South African business.

The Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone fulfils the District Development Model objective of co-ordinated development and economic opportunities in local areas. It also focuses on attracting foreign direct investment and growing exports of value-added commodities.

The automotive hub is an expansion of the OR Tambo International Airport Special Economic Zone.

Special Economic Zones offer various incentives such as reduced corporate tax rates, VAT and customs relief, building allowances and an employment tax incentive.

The automotive sector has attracted close to R23 billion through the Automotive Master Development Plan 2035, which influences the industrialisation effort in other sectors to improve productivity, investment and competitiveness, and promotes localisation, particularly the development of small, medium and micro enterprises.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Admin gears up as Hisar farmers get set to protest today

Punjab MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu hoists black flag at his residence in support of protesting farmers

All-party meet demands withdrawal of new farm laws by Centre

India

oi-Deepika S

Chandigarh, Feb 02: An all-party meeting convened by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday demanded immediate withdrawal of the three farm laws while holding the BJP-led central government responsible for the "substantial delay" in resolving the crisis.

Terming the violence during the tractor rally on Republic Day in Delhi as "sponsored", the meeting also demanded a judicial probe into the "laxity and complicity" of those responsible for maintaining peace at the Red Fort.

The meeting also decided to send an an all-party delegation to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and raise the issue along with other matters relating to the farmers'' agitation.

While the BJP boycotted the meeting, the Aam Aadmi Party walked out over their demand for the deployment of the Punjab police personnel to protect farmers protesting at Delhi borders.

Farmers 'aggressively' resorted to 'rioting', damaged govt property: Govt

The Congress, SAD, Lok Insaaf Party, SAD (Democratic), BSP, CPI and CPI (M) attended the meeting, a government release said.

Amarinder Singh had called the meeting to evolve a consensus on the way forward on the issue of the farm laws and the farmers'' agitation.

Representatives of all parties appreciated the position taken by the farmers'' unions and the meeting passed a resolution to this effect

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 19:21 [IST]

press release

Faith based leaders pledge support for Western Cape Government's vaccine implementation plan

On Friday, 29 January 2021, the Western Cape Government's Inter-Ministerial Committee met with our Faith Based Organisations network to provide an update on the Covid-19 situation in the province.

Chaired by Dr. Ivan Meyer and supported by Ministers Anroux Marais and Sharna Fernandez, Dr. Keith Cloete provided a health update and presented the Western Cape Vaccine Implementation Plan which was well received and supported by our faith based leaders. There was also a general discussion on matters relating to Humanitarian Support and Fatalities Management as the Department of Local Government was also in attendance.

Minister Ivan Meyer said, "As crucial stakeholders in our provincial response to Covid-19, our consistent engagements with our religious leaders have indeed led to valuable inputs in providing innovative solutions on ground level. We have now seen a decline in the spread of COVID-19 but we are still in a serious situation and call on all the citizens to obey the protocols of safety. The Western Cape Government acknowledges the pivotal role and leadership of faith based organizations and spiritual leaders. The focus now is to roll out the vaccine and partner with faith based leaders to spread the message of the importance of developing a herd immunity to prevent the spread of the virus. The faith based leaders have pledged their support for the safe roll out and implementation of the vaccine in the Western Cape. This is the only solution to finally end this pandemic, and the vaccines are safe to be used.

Of great concern was the psycho-social support needed in our communities due to increased bereavement during this time. Minister Fernandez added, "The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated feelings of self-isolation and anxiety and may trigger individuals to have increased thoughts of wanting to commit suicide. As the pandemic is here to stay with us for some time, it is now more important than ever to not be afraid to talk about one's feelings. I would like to urge the public to be kind to those around them at all times. Let's support each other, as we never know what challenges others are currently facing."

The provincial Department of Social Development with the support of its NPO partners and its volunteers utilises various awareness programmes that are integrated with psycho-social interventions. The Department has also formed partnerships with various NPO partners, to establish support groups in vulnerable communities for individuals and families in need of support.

Psycho-social support and bereavement counselling are provided by the Department to individuals and families and have been tailored to meet the specific needs of each client. The support being provided include; debriefing, counselling, psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy. To mitigate the challenge of accessing services during this period, psycho-social services are made available via telephonic services, to prevent the further spread of the virus.

Contact numbers and further information:

Lifeline Helpline: 0861-322-322

The South African Depression and Anxiety Support Group

Helpline: 0800 21 22 23 (8am to 8pm)

Helpline: 0800 12 13 14 (8pm to 8am)

SMS: 31393

Child line: Children have this option to contact Child line if they are depressed, suicidal or need assistance with any other form of psychosocial support

Tel: 021 762 8198

Email: info@childlinewc.org

If anyone requires any form of psycho-social and bereavement support, please contact us on our hotline on 0800 220 250, to be connected to your nearest local office.

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We urge the public to access credible information on https://www.westerncape.gov.za/department-of-health/coronavirus

Minister Anroux Marais thanked the FBO network for their valued support during these trying times and said "Engaging with spiritual leaders at this level ensures that the shared information cascades down to every citizen within the Western Cape. As we safely move forward, our FBO leaders who are also champions at district level, becomes even more pivotal in establishing responsible behavioral change in the areas of higher transmissions".

We all need to work together by changing our behavior to prevent COVID-19 from spreading . The Western Cape Government calls on everyone to focus on avoiding the 3 C's: crowded spaces, close contact and confined and enclosed spaces, in addition to mask wearing and hand hygiene.
A White House statement Monday night suggests that President Joe Biden might move forward and push through his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan in an expedited procedure  but this move carries its own pitfalls that could trigger the same 60-vote threshold he is trying to avoid.

Biden met with 10 GOP senators Monday night in a two hour meeting to discuss their scaled back package, which is about a third of the size of Biden's.

But with a closing time window and a narrow 50-50 Senate, Biden and Democrats may opt to push their own plan through using 'reconciliation' rules instead.

Passing the package in the Senate isn't the only obstacle.

Under Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, increased spending would automatically trigger spending reductions in programs including Medicare  unless the Senate votes to waive it. But that, too, would require Republican support, since 60 votes would be needed to waive the provisions.

President Joe Biden (C) met with GOP senators at the White House Monday. He may need their support even if he opts for a 'reconciliation' procedure that passes on a party-line vote. Pictured are Vice President Kamala Harris (L), Senator Susan Collins (2nd R), alongside Lisa Murkowski (R), Senator Mitt Romney (bottom L) and Bill Cassidy (bottom R)

Republicans could choose to stand firm should Biden reject their offer  although it would put some of them in the position of voting in favor of potential Medicare cuts on a bill they support in principle.

'It's Medicare. It's farm subsidies. It's a bunch of programs that would be cut,' budget expert Marc Goldwein,at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told NBC News.

Biden and his new White House staff face a choice of whether to try to negotiate with the Senate Republicans  and accept an offer that is far less than what Biden and the majority of Democrats want  or go ahead with reconciliation to overcome a Republican filibuster.

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who has taken the lead for Republicans on the COVID relief issue, called it a 'productive cordial two-hour meeting' with the president but noted there was no deal

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer are preparing to act on a budget next week

The procedure was used to pass the Trump tax cuts in 2017 when Republicans controlled Congress, and was used in 2010 to make changes to Obamacare.

Biden warned Senate Republicans Monday night he would not 'settle' for their smaller COVID proposal in a sign the president was willing to pass a relief package without their help after the White House meeting with nine Republicans, with one dialing in by telephone.

The president 'reiterated that while he is hopeful that the Rescue Plan can pass with bipartisan support, a reconciliation package is a path to achieve that end,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement after the meeting.

'The President also made clear that the American Rescue Plan was carefully designed to meet the stakes of this moment, and any changes in it cannot leave the nation short of its pressing needs.'

'He reiterated, however, that he will not slow down work on this urgent crisis response, and will not settle for a package that fails to meet the moment,' she added.

There is still another potential hurdle if he goes the reconciliation route: other provisions could be subject to the 'Byrd Rule' dating to 1985. Named after the late West Virginia Democrat Robert C. Byrd, it sets up a 60-vote point of order for new discretionary spending in a budget reconciliation bill.

It could knock out proposals like a minimum wage hike or even $160 billion for vaccines.

Mission Viejo to Begin Enforcement of Blinder Rack Law After Resident Complaints

The city of Mission Viejo will begin enforcing its 20-year-old Blinder Rack Law this week after residents complained to officials that street vendors were selling vulgar merchandise.

Officials of the Southern California city said they were notified by residents that street vendors were selling items against President Joe Biden and in favor of former President Donald Trump that contained offensive slogans inappropriate for children. The law requires the bottom two-thirds of any explicit or vulgar depiction on merchandise to be covered up when in public view.

Mission Viejo City Attorney Bill Curley told The Epoch Times the city greatly respects the First Amendment but that half the community is outraged.

Some are saying, This isnt my community, this isnt my city. My kids dont have to see that, Curley said. The other half of the town seems to be embracing it, theyre buying this stuff.

If they werent buying it, these [vendors] would certainly probably go away. Theyre not going to just sit there for no reason.

Curley said vendors will be asked to cover up the graphic language or take down the items. The vendors will be given an educational and collegial warning before officials issue daily citations of up to $500 if they fail to comply.

He added that officials have created a handout to give to vendors before theyre cited, to explain what the order means and how they should cover up any merchandise.

We understand the Constitution, but we also understand sometimes theres harmful information that minors shouldnt be exposed to, he said. Whether or not theyll see it on the internet or here  regardless, minors shouldnt be exposed to this.

The city attorney said vendors have been selling their merchandise for a majority of the election cycle, and most residents understood the various political views that came during the campaign season. But when the election was over, some residents became irritated with the continued politically charged messaging.

He said the climate of the country shifted after the election, from more promotional activity to viewpoints about the outcome. We really have not experienced that after presidential elections before, he said.

Another issue that arose was the size of the merchandise. Selling T-shirts with graphic terms was difficult to see from far away, Curley said, but then vendors began selling 8-foot flag poles with explicit curse words in large, readable letters.

Now its right in your face, and it caught peoples attention, he said.

Unlike most cities in Orange County, Mission Viejo doesnt require a business license for people to conduct operations. Almost anyone is allowed to become a street vendor in the city.
IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total January sales of 25,259 vehicles, an increase of 6.9 percent compared to January 2020. With 24 selling days in January, compared to 25 the year prior, the company posted an increase of 11.4 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.

Sales Highlights

Sales of Mazda's family of crossovers, including the CX-3, CX-30, CX-5, and CX-9, totaled 20,279 in January, an increase of 6.9 percent compared to January 2020 .

. Sales of the CX-9 increased 5.7 percent in January with 2,698 vehicles sold.

Sales of the CX-5 increased 5.2 percent with 13,583 vehicles sold.

Sales of the CX-30 totaled 3,624 in January, an increase of 53 percent compared to January 2020 .

. Sales of the MX-5 Miata totaled 536 vehicles, an increase of 35.4 percent compared to January 2020 .

. Sales of the Mazda3 increased 22 percent with 3,046 vehicles sold.

CPO sales totaled 5,247 vehicles in January, an increase of 12.4 percent compared to January 2020 .

Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported January sales of 3,769 vehicles, a decrease of 21.2 percent compared to January 2020.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through approximately 620 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at InsideMazda.MazdaUSA.com/Newsroom.

Follow MNAO's social media channels through Twitter and Instagram at @MazdaUSA and Facebook at Facebook.com/MazdaUSA.

























Month-To-Date

Year-To-Date

























January January YOY % % MTD

January January YOY % % MTD



2021 2020 Change DSR

2021 2020 Change DSR























Mazda3 3,046 2,496 22.0% 27.1%

3,046 2,496 22.0% 27.1%

Mazda6 1,398 1,755 (20.3)% (17.0)%

1,398 1,755 (20.3)% (17.0)%

MX-5 Miata 536 396 35.4% 41.0%

536 396 35.4% 41.0%

CX-3 374 1,146 (67.4)% (66.0)%

374 1,146 (67.4)% (66.0)%

CX-30 3,624 2,368 53.0% 59.4%

3,624 2,368 53.0% 59.4%

CX-5 13,583 12,908 5.2% 9.6%

13,583 12,908 5.2% 9.6%

CX-9 2,698 2,552 5.7% 10.1%

2,698 2,552 5.7% 10.1%













































CARS 4,980 4,647 7.2% 11.6%

4,980 4,647 7.2% 11.6%

TRUCKS 20,279 18,974 6.9% 11.3%

20,279 18,974 6.9% 11.3%























TOTAL 25,259 23,621 6.9% 11.4%

25,259 23,621 6.9% 11.4%













































*Selling Days 24 25





24 25





























SOURCE Mazda North American Operations

Related Links

www.mazdausa.com


YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. The Representative of Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Yeghishe Kirakosyan says he expects that the court will scrutinize Armenias complaint against Azerbaijan and that the latters violations will be recorded.

In the complaint, the Armenian Government presents that Azerbaijan has violated the right to life, prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment, the right to liberty, the right to property, the right to personal and family life, the right to education, as well as a number of other Convention rights of the population of Artsakh and Armenia.

The volume of the violations is very vast and thats why the demands have been presented in much detail. The final expectation is a certain compensation for the violation of the rights of concrete persons, I am speaking about both material and non-material damages, Kirakosyan told ARMENPRESS.

Kirakosyan said theyd be able to speak about the amount of damages inflicted by Azerbaijan when the court will examine the case.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Shares of Isgec Heavy Engineering rallied 9 per cent to Rs 404, also its 52-week high, on the BSE on Tuesday, after the company said it has recently received two orders  one for a Cement Waste Heat Recovery Boiler (CWHRB), and another for conducting Remnant Life Assessment (RLA) study. The company did not disclose the size of the orders.

The order for CWHRB is from a leading cement manufacturer for their plant site in Meghalaya. The company said it is committed towards the utilization of waste energy and supporting the cement Industry to generate clean or green power.

The second order is for conducting the RLA study has been received from a steel major in Jharkhand for their 3 Boilers. Indian Boiler Regulations 1950 have set certain guidelines under rule 391A, which not only help users to ensure the health of their Boilers, but also ensure safe operation of the Plant. Isgec is certified by the Central Boiler Board to conduct RLA studies under these norms, the company said in exchange filing.

Last month, Isgec had received an order for wet flue gas desulphurisation system package for the 2x660 MW Khurja Thermal Power Project in Uttar Pradesh from L&T MHI Power Boilers Pvt. Ltd. (formerly L&T MHPS Boilers Pvt. Ltd.). The end user for this project is THDC India Ltd. and the Consultant is NTPC, the company said.

Isgecs EPC portfolio includes turnkey projects for setting up air pollution control equipment, boilers, power plants, sugar plants, distilleries, factories, industrial water treatment facilities, and bulk material handling facilities. The company has a number of joint ventures as well as strategic technology partnerships with leading global firms.
Rare move: Indian Army orders CoI into differences between two generals

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 02: The Indian Army has ordered a court of inquiry (CoI) into a case relating to the differences between a top military commander and his second-in-command.

While a CoI at this level is rare, the development comes months after the Army Chief General M M Naravane nominated a senior Lieutenant General to sort out the rift between the two senior officers in September.

The Central Army Commander Lieutenant General, I S Ghuman will conduct the CoI. Ghuman is senior to both the officers and was commissioned in 1981. The differences which are extremely rare and this case case relates to the head of the Jaipur based South Western Command and his Chief of Staff. The differences allegedly relates to the roles and responsibilities of various officers of the command headquarters.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

After receiving representations from both the officers, last year, General Naravane had nominated the Army's then vice-chief Lieutenant General S K Saini in September to look into the matter. He was asked to look into the matter and submit a report with measures to streamline the functioning of the command headquarters. General Saini retired on January 31.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 9:52 [IST]
ONIIPA mayor David Kambonde says Swapo's district executive committee at the town did not follow proper procedures when he was recalled from his position as mayor.

Kambonde was recalled from this position and suspended from Swapo last week.

He is accused of violating the party's code of conduct when he allegedly accepted a nomination for the position of mayor by an Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) councillor for Oniipa.

After accepting the mayoral position, Kambonde allegedly appointed the IPC councillor as a member of the town council's management committee.

This allegedly took place in December last year during the swearing in of political office bearers.

Kambonde, however, says he is not leaving the office, although he received a letter from Swapo's Oniipa district executive that he has been recalled as mayor.

"According to Swapo's constitution, the district executive committee does not have the power to suspend or recall a member.

"I am a member of the Oniipa district executive committee where I hold a position as treasurer. We do not have the power to recall or suspend . . . we can only make recommendations to the Oshikoto regional executives," he says.

Kambonde says despite the Oniipa district executive's letter, he regards himself as the mayor of the town.

"I believe I am still the mayor," he says.

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The letter, dated 23 January, read as follows: "We, the Swapo party district executives, hereby refer you to the letter dated 6 December 2020 on your alleged violation of the party's code of conduct, rule 16.5 and 16.7m, respectively.

"For the above-mentioned violation you are hereby recalled by Oniipa district executive committee as a councillor, and subsequently as Swapo treasurer with immediate effect."

The letter was also shared with Junias Jacob, the Oniipa Town Council's chief executive officer, Armas Amukwiyu, coordinator for the Oshikoto region, and Sophia Shaningwa, Swapo's secretary general.

Shaningwa last week refused to comment on the matter, referring The Namibian to Oniipa district executives.

Oniipa district coordinator Vilho Nuunyango said the decision to recall Kambonde was taken at a district executive meeting which Kambonde was invited to, but did not attend.

"If he feels the district does not have a mandate to recall him, he should have responded to letters written to him . . . instead of responding in the media," Nuunyango says.

IPC spokesperson for the northern regions Eino Heelu says his party's councillor appointed Kambonde because they believe he is competent.

"It's up to Swapo to recall their member, but they should not drag our name into their issues. We believe in good governance," Heelu says.


A medical worker receives an injection with a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at the Spallanzani Hospital in Rome, Italy, Dec. 27, 2020. (Photo by Andrea Sabbadini/Xinhua)

The vaccines approved so far by the EU are from U.S.-German joint venture Pfizer and BioNTech, British-Swedish multinational AstraZeneca, and Moderna from the United States.

A senior European Commission official told Xinhua that the slowdown showed the need to have access to vaccines beyond the three already in the pipeline.

ROME, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's (EU) vaccine rollout plan has been thrown into disarray after the manufacturers of all three vaccines approved for use in Europe warned countries of delivery delays over the coming weeks and months.

The announcements prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday to call an emergency meeting with regional leaders and vaccine makers. Italy is mulling a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that have failed to honor vaccine supply schedules.

Spain and France said on Friday that they would have to delay new first-dose injections for as long as two weeks to ensure that those who received their first dose can get the second, and Portugal said last week that the completion of its first-dose vaccinations could be delayed by up to two months.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said in a statement last week that he supported the use of "all legal means and enforcement measures at our disposal under the (EU) Treaties ... to ensure effective vaccine production and supply for our population."

A registration sign for the vaccination against COVID-19 is seen at the entrance of the University hospital of Essen in Essen, Germany, Jan. 18, 2021. (Photo by Tang Ying/Xinhua)

The vaccines approved so far by the EU are from U.S.-German joint venture Pfizer and BioNTech, British-Swedish multinational AstraZeneca, and Moderna from the United States.

Pfizer and BioNTech said on Monday they would deliver more than two billion doses globally this year rather than 1.3 billion as previously announced, including an extra 75 million doses for the European countries between April and June. AstraZeneca said it would supply an extra nine million doses of its vaccine by March, though this will still leave the company well below its original target. Neither increase is expected to have a big impact in the short term.

Health sector analysts said the delays create serious problems on multiple fronts.

"The most immediate impact comes from the thousands of European Union residents dying each day and the tens of thousands infected each day due to the coronavirus," Silvio Garattini, a research scientist and former director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, told Xinhua. "But even more problematic is that the longer the virus is in circulation the more variants will evolve."

Some variants that have evolved so far have earned headlines, including those detected in Brazil, the United Kingdom and South Africa. But Garattini said that more than 30,000 different variants have been recorded so far, with more emerging every day.

A medical worker is seen at a temporary vaccination center on the first day of its opening, in Clichy, France, Jan. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

A few of these variants are "weaker than the ones we have already seen," Garattini said, but others "will be more deadly or more transmissible. Therefore we have to act urgently to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible, not only in Europe but globally."

More than 3.5 million vaccine doses had been sent to Germany, of which 2.2 million were already used as of last Friday, according to German Minister of Health Jens Spahn. So far, 2.2 percent of the German population has received their first vaccination.

Italy, with nearly 1.6 million and Spain with nearly 1.4 million, were next, followed by France with 1.1 million. No other EU member state had topped one million, though Poland is expected to pass that figure this week.

On a per-capita basis, states with smaller populations led the way, with Malta, Denmark and Ireland the only member states to have distributed at least one vaccine dose to at least three percent of their populations.

The trend is similar for those who have already received two full doses of the vaccine. Belgium, with more than two percent of its population fully vaccinated (a stage that requires two doses within a fixed period), is the leader in that category by a larger margin. The Czech Republic and Denmark are the only other countries to have fully vaccinated at least 0.5 percent of their population, though Italy is also nearing this milestone.

A medical worker prepares an injection with a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at the Spallanzani Hospital in Rome, Italy, Dec. 27, 2020. (Photo by Andrea Sabbadini/Xinhua)

In an e-mailed response to questions from Xinhua, a senior European Commission official said the slowdown showed the need to have access to vaccines beyond the three already in the pipeline.

"Europe needs a broad portfolio of vaccine candidates based on different technological approaches in order to maximize the chances of quickly developing, manufacturing and deploying a vaccine for all Europeans," said the official, who preferred to remain anonymous.

In the same vein, the President of Italy's Higher Health Council Franco Locatelli and virologist Matteo Bassetti last week called for Italy to start using Sputnik V, a vaccine developed in Russia, and urged the evaluation of vaccines manufactured in China.

For now, Hungary is the only EU member state that has authorized the use of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine and the Russian vaccine.

"There are more than 60 vaccines in clinical trials and we should be studying all of them," Garattini said.

A total of 236 candidate vaccines are still 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 the World Health Organization on Jan. 26.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.  Florence Saperstein smiled underneath her bright pink face mask as she waved off her husband, who had offered to hold her hand while she got her coronavirus vaccine.

She's not a big fan of needles. Thankfully, the shot only took a second.

"Well, I lived right through it!" the 89-year-old said afterward, throwing up her hands.

Her 86-year-old husband, Rudy, had already gotten his dose. He didn't feel a thing.

The newlyweds were among many of Nashville's older residents receiving their long-awaited vaccine on Saturday. They sat apart from the bustling crowd at Metro Public Health Department headquarters in Nashville as they were monitored in case they had a bad reaction to the vaccine.

As they waited, they chatted about how their love story unfolded in the middle of a pandemic otherwise marked by isolation and loneliness.

Should pregnant women get the COVID-19 vaccine? Dr. Anthony Fauci says 'no red flags' in safety data

Rudy and Florence Saperstein rest for a few minutes in the lobby after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine at the Metro Public Health Departments Lentz Public Health Center Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn.

When Rudy met Florence

Rudy Saperstein was as nervous as a teenage boy when he dialed up his now wife for their first date. Somehow, he and a group of his friends had "come up with her phone number" after he met her in a play.

"My hands were shaking," he said.

He invited her to join him at the symphony, and she said yes. He wasn't the only one with the jitters, though.

"I must've tried on 10 outfits," Florence Saperstein said. "I felt like a kid."

Rudy Saperstein had lost his wife of about 60 years, while Florence  then Wittenstein  had been married before but single for over 30 years. She swore she'd never get married again, but something shifted for her as time went on.

"I feel safe with Rudy," she said. "Never say never."

The pair dated for a few years and got married in a small, brief ceremony at their synagogue in October. Florence Saperstein wondered what future generations would think of the masks they wore.

Story continues

"All we need is holsters and guns," she joked.

The Sapersteins agreed that navigating the pandemic with heightened risks because of their age has been no small task.

At-home testing: Biden's bet on rapid COVID-19 home testing starts with $230 million deal with Australian company

Rudy Saperstein receives a COVID-19 vaccine at the Metro Public Health Departments Lentz Public Health Center Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn.

Navigating COVID-19 has been 'a double-edged sword'

While Florence Saperstein is a people person, her husband admits he is more of a loner. They've learned to balance out and support one another, but the pandemic has taken its toll.

"COVID has been demoralizing," Florence Saperstein said. "This has not been easy. At one point, I thought, 'I feel like I'm in prison.'"

She misses driving to different places, getting lunch with friends and taking her time at the grocery store. She also misses hugging her children and grandchildren.

"It's a double-edged sword," she said. "I want to get out, and I'm scared."

Florence Saperstein asks questions before she receives a COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Christian Williams as her husband Rudy Saperstein watches at the Lentz Public Health Center Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn.

Both husband and wife agreed they felt blessed to at least have each other.

"If I'd been sitting alone in my apartment, I don't know what I would have done," Florence Saperstein said.

Once the pandemic is over, she wants to visit her old home in New York City with her husband  just one destination on her long list of travel plans. But for now, she knows she needs to stay put. These days she's better adjusted to how everything works.

Rudy Saperstein has an easier time accepting the pandemic's limitations.

"You can't change COVID, so you've got to make the best of it," he said.

He misses his family, too, and folks dropping by their place. He also looks forward to sharing a nice meal out with his wife  something they have yet to do as a married couple.

The hope brought by the vaccine is part of what keeps him going. The pair are due back on Feb. 13 for their final shots.

"Life with Florence is good, so I want to keep living," he said.

Rudy and Florence Saperstein show off their band-aids after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine at the Lentz Public Health Center Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn.

Battling loneliness and isolation

Beyond the immediate physical health risks, said Dr. William Schaffner, the psychological impact of COVID-19 has been top-of-mind for him when it comes to the elderly. He said the lack of simple human connections that come through seeing family and friends and even daily errands have been particularly difficult.

"There's been a sense of removal, loneliness and even depression because their social interactions have been so limited," said Schaffner, who is an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He also said the fear of catching COVID-19 has prevented many elderly patients from coming to the doctor for emergencies and even routine checkups and flu vaccines. There has also been an uptick in deaths from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia as those suffering had their lives upended, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

Now, with a massive national coronavirus vaccine campaign underway, the challenge is to get the elderly and high-risk populations to come in for their shots.

"They need reassurance that when they get to the vaccination site, everybody will be masked, there will be social distancing and things will be handled in a manner that's safe," Schaffner said.

Florence Saperstein had been worried the vaccine itself was unsafe. Her husband helped calm her fears, citing the research and trials behind it. She also said seeing President Joe Biden and other government officials take the vaccine made her feel more comfortable.

"If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me," she said.

Rudy Saperstein shows off his vaccine card after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine at the Lentz Public Health Center Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn.

While the vaccine will lower risks for people like the Sapersteins, it will take some time before they can get back to their normal lives, Schaffner said. He said it's important to stay vigilant with masks, social distancing and other precautions in the months ahead while vaccinations continue.

"Once you're vaccinated, you can think carefully about some activities to undertake that you wouldn't have before," he said. "Even then, continue to take care until the whistle blows or until we get scientific information that demonstrates the vaccine prevents not only disease, but infection."

Follow reporter Rachel Wegner on Twitter @rachelannwegner

New data: Only 38% of nursing home workers accepted COVID-19 vaccines

Health and wellness: Your body is trying to tell you something

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville newlyweds in their 80s receive first COVID-19 vaccine dose
Michael Gove today accused the European Union of inflaming community tensions in Northern Ireland after its ditched plans to stop vaccine exports to the UK.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office said the actions taken by the European Commission on Friday last week had 'provoked anger' and 'trust has been eroded'.

He warned that 'damage has been done' and the bloc needs to take 'urgent action' to repair the situation.

The European Commission's threat to stop vaccines being sent to the UK would have placed restrictions on jabs moving into Northern Ireland, effectively undermining the hard won free-flowing Irish border.

Mr Gove's intervention came after Brexit checks on animal and food products arriving at ports in Northern Ireland were suspended over threatening loyalist behaviour.

Import inspections at Belfast and Larne were stopped 'with immediate effect' last night as Stormont's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) assessed risk to workers at the sites.

The decision came after a local council decided to remove 12 of its staff at Larne port due to 'an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks' amid growing discontent over the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol.

Michael Gove today told the EU 'damage has been done' in Northern Ireland after its ditched threat to block vaccine exports

Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday that the EU intended to stop vaccines being moved into Northern Ireland but swiftly backtracked after a ferocious backlash

The protocol, agreed by the EU and the UK under the terms of the Brexit divorce deal, requires regulatory and customs checks to be carried out at ports to ensure Northern Ireland continues to comply with the bloc's red tape on goods.

The two sides agreed to the measures in order to avoid a return of checkpoints on the politically sensitive land border.

Many unionists and loyalists are against the protocol because they believe it has created an economic barrier between the region and the rest of the UK, undermining the constitutional integrity of the Union.

There has been growing opposition to the protocol since it was rolled-out on January 1 but it has been the subject of even greater tensions in recent days after the EU backtracked on a threat to suspend part of the agreement using Article 16 as part of a rumbling row with the UK over vaccines.

The botched move by the EU would have struck at the heart of the protocols main function  to facilitate a free-flowing Irish border  by placing restrictions on vaccines moving into Northern Ireland from the bloc.

The EU swiftly rowed back on its plans after a ferocious backlash but Mr Gove said this afternoon that the bloc's actions had 'provoked anger and concern across all parties'.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Gove said: On Friday afternoon the European Commission, without prior consultation, published a regulation to enable restrictions on the export of vaccines from the EU.

That regulation also invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, barring the free movement of medicines from Ireland into Northern Ireland.

It is important to be clear about what was proposed. Not only plans to stop vaccines being delivered through legally binding contracts at the height of a pandemic but also and critically a unilateral suspension of the painstakingly designed and carefully negotiated provisions of the protocol which the EU has always maintained was critical to safeguarding the gains of the Northern Ireland peace process.

Article 16 exists for good reasons but it is meant to be invoked only after notification, only after all other options are exhausted and in the interests of the people of Northern Ireland.

None of these conditions were met. Worse still, neither the UK Government representing the people of Northern Ireland nor the Irish Government, an EU member, were informed.

The Commissions move has provoked anger and concern across all parties and throughout civil society in Northern Ireland as well as international condemnation.

Mr Gove welcomed the fact that the plans were withdrawn but he said: Trust has been eroded, damage has been done and urgent action is therefore needed.

Animal and food product inspections at Northern Ireland's Belfast and Larne ports were stopped 'with immediate effect' last night over safety fears for staff

The decision came after a local council agreed to remove 12 of its staff at Larne port due to 'an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks'.

Peace, progress and strong community relations in Northern Ireland have been hard won and in recent days we have seen an increase in community tension and as was reported last night port staff in Belfast and Larne have been kept away from work following concerns for their safety.

He added: Fixing problems on the ground now requires us all to work calmly. The EU needs to work with us at speed and with determination to resolve a series of outstanding issues with the protocol.

Meanwhile, the EU also faced criticism from Downing Street today after Ursula von der Leyen accused Britain of compromising on coronavirus vaccine safety and claimed the bloc's slower approval process was the 'right decision'.

Number 10 hit back and said experts at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had been 'very clear that no corners were cut, no stones were left unturned' when they decided to give the green light to a number of jabs.

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said 'the public should be confident of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines'.
Bodycam footage as a Rochester police officer asks a handcuffed nine-year-old girl to get into a patrol car in Rochester, New York, on Jan. 29, 2021. (Rochester Police Department/Handout via Reuters)

Police Union Defends Officers Pepper-Spraying Handcuffed 9-Year-Old When Responding to Domestic Dispute

The head of the police union in Rochester, New York, has said that no rules were broken by officers who ended up pepper-spraying a handcuffed nine-year-old girl after being called to a domestic dispute last week. The arrest was caught on body camera, which has since been released.

The Rochester Police Department (RPD) on Sunday released two videos of the apprehension that took place last Friday afternoon. At least seven officers were called to the domestic dispute. They had been told by the girls mother that the child was going harm herself and others.

One officer was in the middle of asking the girl what had happened when the mom walked over and started arguing and cussing at her daughter.

She stabbed by dad, the girl tells the police officer.

You dont know what youre talking about  Youre lying, the mom says.

As the mother became more aggressive, the officer tells her to back off. Youre not helping, he says.

The officer then attempts to separate the pair, telling the girl they would go to the police car to talk.

Put her in your car, he tells another officer.

Lets go have a seat. Youre not gonna run off, youre gonna be fine, the officer says.

But the girl refuses to get into the car until she sees her dad. I just want to see my dad, please, for the last time.

She slides to the ground on the bonnet of the police car, attempting to kick free from the officers, knocking one officers bodycam to the ground. The officers then restrain and handcuff her as she lay on the ground in the snow.

You go help my mum, shes pregnant, the girl then pleads, before going on screaming, I want my dad.

Officers continue to try and get the girl to cooperate with them and enter the car. But they were loosing patience.

You need to get warm ok, otherwise, youre going to get hypothermia, a female officer told her.

You had your chance, a male officer tells her, while another shouts, Get in the car now!

This is your last chance. Otherwise pepper spray is going into your eyeballs, the female officer says, adding, I will call your dad.

Towards the end a the second video of the incident, police pepper-spray the girl, who had her feet still outside the vehicle while sitting on the backseat.

The nine-year-old screamed and begged the officers to wipe her eyes as officers outside the vehicles closed the doors. The officers could then be heard saying they would arrest the mom too.

The girl was taken to Rochester General Hospital for observation and later released to family members.

President of the police union the Rochester Police Locust Club said Monday that although the arrest had not been an ideal situation, there had been no violation of conduct by police during the incident.

Were dealing with a very, very difficult situation, and what police officers are confronted and faced [with], and the limited resources that are out there, union president Mike Mazzeo said.

When its determined that she needs help, and theres a mental hygiene, they have to be restrained. If thats not going to be the policy, then we need to change them. But they have to operate on what they have and what they can utilize, he said of the police officers.

[The officer] made a decision there that he thought was the best action to take. It resulted in no injury to her. Had they had to go and push further, and use more force, theres a good chance she could have been hurt worse, he added.

Im not saying theres not better ways to do things, but lets be realistic here in what were facing  Its not TV, its not Hollywood.

I think its clear that there needs to be an overhaul of city government, behavioral health, school district, and the health system. But the only changes being called for is policing. Very narrow vision for what is needed in this city! he said.

When asked by a reporter about how police were being considerate of the mental impact of their actions on the girl, Mazzeo responded, How about the traumatic situation that shes been dealing with. Did you listen to the words that her mother was saying to her? Thats whats sad. Thats whats disturbing.

Officers go home and say, How does that girl have a chance in life. Whats that officer supposed to do? he asked.

The City of Rochester said in a statement on Monday that officers involved in the incident have been suspended. The city did not specify how many officers or who they are.

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said the police handling of the girl was unjustifiable, and called on lawmakers to change the state law so that cities can take more immediate action to discipline officers in similar situations.

Unfortunately, state law and union contract prevents me from taking more immediate and serious action, Warren said. We will be asking our state legislators to join me, and make numerous changes in Civil Service Law that would allow cities to more quickly issue discipline in cases like this one.

The RPD faced criticism last May after a video showing police officers handcuffing a 10-year-old girl in a traffic stop was posted to social media by the girls mother. Following an internal review, the police department determined that there was no wrongdoing, and that the girl was handcuffed for her own safety.
The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to put off arguments over two controversial Trump administration policies that have been challenged in court now that President Joe Biden has taken steps to unwind them.

The Justice Department asked the justices Monday to cancel arguments on Feb. 22 in a case over President Donald Trump's decision to divert billions of dollars in taxpayer money to construction of portions of a wall along the border with Mexico.

The new administration made a similar request for arguments set for a week later over the Trump policy that forced asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings.

Off the agenda: Joe Biden is asking the Supreme Court to put off cases on the border wall and asylum while he changes Trump's immigration policies

Signature policy: Trump went to his border wall and signed it days before he left office

In his first days as president, Biden rescinded the national emergency Trump declared on the southern border and ordered a pause in wall construction. He also suspended the so-called remain in Mexico policy for new arrivals.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents groups that sued the Trump administration in both cases, has agreed to putting off both cases, acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court.

In a statement regarding the border wall, the ACLU also called for the administration to tear down the new construction and address environmental damage it caused.

'It's a good start that the Biden administration is not rushing to defend Trump's illegal wall in court, but just hitting the brakes isn't enough. Trump's wall devastated border communities, the environment, and tribal sites,' ACLU lawyer Dror Ladin said.
The family of the 84-year-old San Francisco man killed in a seemingly random attack believes it was a racist act.

Vicha Ratanapakdee, a Thailand native who his family says emigrated to America to live with his daughter and son-in-law, died days after the Thursday morning attack.

His daughter, Kim Ratanapakdee, told KTVU that her father was targeted because he was an elderly Asian man. She added that she has received racist harassment and verbal abuse since the beginning of the pandemic.

"For [the suspect] to come from all the way across the street," son-in-law Eric Lawson said in an interview with KTVU, "what else could have motivated him?"

Two were arrested Saturday in connection to the death, Antoine Watson, 19, and Maylasia Goo, 20, both of whom live in Daly City. Watson was arrested on suspicion of murder and elder abuse; Goo was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory.

In an alarming video, Watson can be seen running across the street in San Francisco's Anza Vista neighborhood, then shoving Ratanapakdee to the ground. Watson then flees the scene.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, in a statement to KTVU, said his officer will "hold the person who committed this senseless violence accountable."

"I send my deepest condolences to the Ratanapakdee family for their loss. This was a brutal, random, unprovoked attack," he said in the statement. "My heart is also with the entire AAPI community for the pain theyre experiencing as a result of this tragedy and too many others over the past year."

San Francisco police and Boudin's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from SFGATE.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Jan. 20, 2021. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Trumps Impeachment Defense Lawyers Expected to Argue Trial Is Unconstitutional

The two attorneys who will lead former President Donald Trumps impeachment defense legal team, David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor Jr., are expected to argue that the Senate impeachment trial of the former president is unconstitutional.

Trump on Jan. 31 announced that Alabama attorney Schoen and Castor, a former prosecutor in Pennsylvania, will represent him in next weeks Senate trial, following media reports citing anonymous sources that said a group of attorneys from South Carolina were no longer participating in the defense.

Schoen has already been working with the 45th president and other advisers to prepare for the upcoming trial, and both Schoen and Castor agree that this impeachment is unconstitutionala fact 45 senators voted in agreement with last week, a press release stated.

Schoen, a solo practitioner who has law offices in New York and Montgomery, Alabama, was personally called by Trump to head his impeachment defense legal team for the trial scheduled for the week of Feb. 8.

I was flattered he asked me and Im honored to represent him, Schoen told AJC.

He separately told The Washington Post on Jan. 31 that he plans to focus on the weaponization of the impeachment process and on how its unconstitutional to impeach a president once hes no longer in office.

According to his website, he focuses primarily on the litigation of complex civil and criminal cases before trial and appellate courts and only accepts a few cases each year.

Schoen, with over three decades in practice, is chair of the American Bar Associations Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Civil Rights Litigation Committee.

Roger Stone, former adviser and confidante to President Donald Trump, in Washington on Feb. 20, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

He was part of the legal defense team for Trump ally Roger Stone in the appeal of his conviction related to issues he took with the jury. Stones sentence was commuted by Trump, and he was then pardoned. Schoen told the Atlanta Jewish Times last year the case against Stone was very unfair and politicized.

The Atlanta-based attorney also told several media outlets that he had met disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in prison days before his death, and said he didnt believe Epstein committed suicide but rather was murdered.

I saw him a few days earlier, Schoen previously told Fox News. The reason I say I dont believe it was suicide is for my interaction with him that day. The purpose of asking me to come there that day and over the past previous couple of weeks was to ask me to take over his defense.

Castor meanwhile unsuccessfully ran for Pennsylvania attorney general in 2004, and has practiced civil litigation for more than 10 years. He served as district attorney for Montgomery County, outside of Philadelphia, from 2000 to 2008.

I consider it a privilege to represent the 45th president, Castor said in a statement on Jan. 31. The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always.

Read More Trump Names New Lead Lawyers for Impeachment Defense Team

Republicans have begun uniting behind the argument that the Senate impeachment trial of a former president is unconstitutional, a question that has sparked heated debate among legal scholars and lawmakers.

The Democrats efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country, Trump adviser Jason Miller has said.

On Jan. 26, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) raised a point of order on the Senate floor, forcing the chamber to take a stance on the constitutionality of the upcoming proceedings. The Senate ultimately voted 5545, meaning that, while the trial will go ahead, it revealed that nearly half the chamber believes the proceedings are unconstitutional.

Although Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is forging ahead with the trial, the 5545 vote on Pauls order could be an indication that a Trump conviction is unlikely, since a two-thirds majority is needed to convict.

Janita Kan contributed to this report.
A man wears a face covering on a cold winter day in Montreal, Saturday, January 30, 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada and around the world. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada most populous province on Monday reported its first case of a coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa that is believed to be more contagious than the original.

Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, said the case was found in the Peel region outside Toronto and the person does not have a known history of travel or any known contact with someone who has travelled.

British Columbia has also reported cases of the South African variant.

Viruses constantly mutate but scientists are especially concerned about the emergence of three that researchers believe may spread more easily. One first reported in the United Kingdom was previously confirmed in Canada, and Ontario has dozens of cases now.

The variant first found in South Africa was detected in October. Since then, it has been found in at least 30 other countries including the U.S.

The discovery comes as the pandemic-weary Ontario government is thinking of reopening schools in Canada's largest city of Toronto and its suburbs.

Scientists recently reported preliminary signs that some of the recent mutations may modestly curb the effectiveness of two vaccines, although they stressed that the shots still protect against the disease.

The coronavirus has killed roughly 20,000 in Canada.

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.
It was a return to mask-wearing and anxious faces for many people in and around Orewa last week, following the news that two North Aucklanders who tested positive for Covid-19 had visited several local shops and businesses.

The father and his young daughter, together with an earlier Northland case, are all thought to have contracted the more virulent South African strain of the virus after being in the same areas as an infected person at the Pullman Hotel. They were sent to quarantine at the Jet Park Hotel, while the mother was isolating at home.

After the news broke, Orewa town centre was almost deserted on Thursday, January 28 and queues for the pop-up testing station at Victor Eaves Reserve stretched right around the park, from the Florence Avenue entrance back along West Hoe Road to the Centreway Road roundabout, causing gridlock. However, apart from the odd horn beep and off-road crossing of grass median strips, most drivers were patient and accepted the situation.

The Evelyn Page retirement village had already stopped visits to its hospital care centre and nearby serviced apartments as a result of the Northland and Helensville case.

However, corporate affairs manager David King said if a person was in end of life or palliative care, visits were still allowed.

We have found in the past that we have had strong support from our residents and their families for taking a conservative approach because of the risk Covid poses, he said.

At Metlifecares Hibiscus Coast Village and Gulf Rise in Red Beach, visits were still being allowed as Hibiscus Matters went to press, though with stringent protocols in place with regard to using the Government tracer app, signing in and cleaning, and daily reviews were taking place.

Organisers of Anniversary Weekend events, such as Hibiscus Coast Rodders Sharon Morris, were left in limbo awaiting final advice from the Ministry of Health, but on Thursday afternoon, the popular two-day Beach Festival was still set to go ahead.

Unless something goes to custard on Friday, were going ahead, she said. Well be guided by the Ministry.

The two new community cases visited shops including Pak n Save in Silverdale and Caltex, Hickeys Pharmacy and New World in Orewa between January 17 and 27, plus Farmers at Westfield Albany mall and Tai Ping supermarkets in Albany and Northcote.

The Ministry of Health advised that although there was a low risk of exposure, out of an abundance of caution, individuals should stay at home and get a test if they visited these locations during the relevant times, and call Healthline on 0800 358 5453. For the list of places of interest and info: health.govt.nz

Scans a vital tool

The importance of scanning the Covid-19 tracer app  which many local businesses have described this summer as sporadic among their customers  has been highlighted by the local business association, Destination Orewa Beach, following the recent cases. Destination Orewa Beach operations manager Hellen Wilkins says it is clear that a large number of people visiting local businesses had become complacent about scanning. She says her organisation is doing whatever it can to support Orewa businesses, including suggesting they have someone actively making people scan in before they enter the premises.
Far more is now sitting in the coffers of a new political action committee, Save America, that Mr. Trump formed after the election and that provides him a fat war chest he can use to pay advisers, fund travel and maintain a political operation. Mr. Trumps new PAC had $31 million in the bank at the end of 2020 and an estimated $40 million more sitting in a shared party account waiting to be transferred into it.

Mr. Trumps extraordinary success raising money came mostly from grass-roots and online contributors drawn to his lie that the election result would soon be somehow wiped away. Only about a dozen donors gave $25,000 or more to one of Mr. Trumps committees after Nov. 24. (The lone six-figure donation came from Elaine J. Wold, a major Republican donor in Florida.)

Sophisticated donors are not dumb, said Dan Eberhart, a major Republican donor who has supported Mr. Trump in the past. They could see through what Trump was trying to do.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

One of the few five-figure checks deposited in December came from the National Fraternal Order of Police PAC. But its executive director, James Pasco, said the group had actually issued the $25,000 donation in early November. He said he did not know why it hadnt been cashed until December.

The optics of this are terrible, Mr. Pasco lamented. We in no way questioned the election at any point, or were involved in an effort to forestall the results.
A community group has sued Jersey City and the city planning board, alleging that plans for a controversial high-rise in the citys Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood violate both New Jersey law and the terms of a neighborhood development plan.

The Morris Canal Redevelopment Area Community Development Corporation and its executive director, June Jones, filed the suit Monday to halt the development of the Morris Canal Manor, a planned 17-story development at 417 Communipaw Ave., near Woodward Street and just north of Berry Lane Park.

This massive project has no home in our neighborhood, Jones said in a press release sent out Monday evening. It may make a developer millions, but it will cost our tight-knit, historic community its character  not to mention park land the city has promised it would create for two decades.

Jersey City spokeswoman Kim Wallace-Scalcione defended the citys actions around the site.

The legal process is being followed, and we look forward to moving Ward F forward after working diligently with Councilman (Jermaine) Robinson and the private sector to provide the community with a 22,000-square-foot recreation center for Jersey Citys youth, 40 public parking spots, a small business incubator space focused on women and veterans, in addition to 5% affordable housing for the site, Wallace-Scalcione said.

This will be a great addition to complement Berry Lane Park, and it is being done in a way that is responsible, without putting taxpayers on the hook for millions upon millions of dollars, especially amid the current financial strain so many people are facing as a result of the pandemic.

The Morris Canal Manor, a project designed by North Bergen-based Skyline Development, has been controversial since its inception.

Some Ward F residents have hailed its community benefits, which include 14,000 square feet of retail space, a small business incubator geared toward minority-owned businesses, and the construction of a 22,000 square-foot structure for a STEM-recreation center.

But critics pointed out that the city had previously been awarded $1 million in state Green Acres funds to convert the property into parkland as an addition to Berry Lane Park. And some Ward F residents believe that the high-rise  with only 18 units of affordable housing out of 409 units  will exacerbate gentrification in the rapidly changing neighborhood.

Despite the controversy, the Jersey City city council approved an ordinance in December amending the Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan to allow the project.

But Mondays lawsuit, filed by Jersey City law firm Matsikoudis & Fanciullo and the Newark-based New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center in Hudson County Superior Court, aims to halt those proceedings.

Mondays lawsuit alleges that the project constitutes illicit spot zoning, meaning the impermissible re-zoning of land for the benefit of an owner or developer over the community at large, and violates the terms of the citys Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan.

Under the plan, the lawsuit alleges, Jersey City had a ministerial duty to ensure that the (Morris Canal Redevelopment Area Community Development Corporation) and the stakeholders that it represents, were fully engaged in a participatory decision-making process with respect to the property.

But in this instance, the complaint alleges, officials did not properly notify the community development corporation of meetings about the site and proposed changes to zoning rules, allegedly resulting in a truncated process that was never properly completed.

Lou Mont, the owner and CEO of Skyline Development, could not immediately be reached for comment.
She gave her fans a peek at her photoshoot look on Friday via her Instagram story while at the fitting in New York City.

And days later, Gigi Hadid was spotted heading to the photoshoot for Ralph Lauren dressed in the dapper look.

The pretty model, 25, wore a face mask with her chic look as she headed inside the building with fellow models, one of them being Luka Sabbat.

Focused: She gave her fans a peek at her photoshoot look on Friday via her Instagram story while at the fitting in New York City. And days later, Gigi Hadid was spotted heading to the photoshoot for Ralph Lauren dressed in the dapper look on Sunday

The blonde beauty stayed warmed in the long black coat with matching trousers; she also wore a white button up shirt with a black bow tie.

Gigi wore a black face mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic with slippers and hair clips holding the front part of her long tresses back.

The mother of one grinned as she chatted with a crew member, before later being seen with Luka and the other male model heading to the shoot.

The beauty gave fans a peek at her look on Friday via her Instagram stories.

Busy: The pretty model, 25, wore a face mask with her chic look as she headed inside the building with fellow models, one of them being Luka Sabbat

Photoshoot time: The blonde beauty stayed warmed in the long black coat with matching trousers; she also wore a white button up shirt with a black bow tie; pictured with Luka and another model

The beauty jokingly captioned it: 'Whose dad?!

Just days prior, Gigi showcased her incredible post baby body on her Instagram after welcoming daughter Khai four months prior.

She had her long locks loose as she fluffed it on camera while sporting a cropped white top, highlighting her flat midsection.

She also posted two snaps rocking the gorgeous look; she was on set for her first Maybelline shoot for the year.

Wow: The beauty gave fans a peek at her look on Friday via her Instagram stories

Stunner: Just days prior, Gigi showcased her incredible post baby body on her Instagram after welcoming daughter Khai four months prior

Beautiful: She also posted two snaps rocking the gorgeous look; she was on set for her first Maybelline shoot for the year

On Thursday, January 20, Gigi celebrated her daughter turning four months old.

Soon after, she appeared to have changed her bio to read 'Khai's mom,' revealing their daughter's name.

She kissed her daughter's cheek in the image, without showing her face, for the mirror selfie, adding: 'my girl. 4 months & THE BEST KID.'

Too cute! On Thursday, January 20, Gigi celebrated her daughter turning four months old

In the adorable image, Gigi donned a white button up shirt with black slacks and her hair pulled back.

Only a small part of her daughter's cheek and one arm was visible in the photo.

The blonde beauty's post revealed that they welcomed their daughter on September 20, three days before they made the public announcement.

Gigi and Zayn announced their daughter's arrival in an Instagram post shared on September 23, 2020.

The duo were first seen together in November 2015 after she split from Joe Jonas; by January 2016, Gigi donned a Z necklace to Paris Fashion Week and had him as her phone background, although Zayn said they were 'good friends.'

That same month, Gigi starred in his Pillowtalk music video, which had several steamy moments between the two.

Very good looking couple: Gigi and Zayn announced their daughter's arrival in an Instagram post shared on September 23, 2020

The couple covered Vogue in April 2016 for a love filled shoot and one month later, they attend the Met Gala together.

Gigi and Zayn split in March 2018 but one month later, they were seen kissing in New York City.

By January 2019 they split again but were back together by December 2019; the couple confirmed their romance again in February 2020. She shared a throwback snap of Zayn at the Hadid family farm in December 2019.

By April 28, 2020, Gigi was rumored to be pregnant, which she confirmed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Throwback: Gigi took fans down memory lane as she uploaded a trio of never-before-seen snapshots from her pregnancy to Instagram on November 30
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Partnership Lake Houston has added new executive board members and more staff to support their work in connecting businesses with essential resources.

Humble ISD Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen and Justin Kendrick, Senior Vice President and CEO of Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital, joined the executive board while Sherneka Cagle joined the staff as the Investor Engagement Director.

BUSINESS: 'Not going to miss out on that': Houston investors cash in on GameStop stock

Cagle will be primarily responsible for internal member communications, handling the process of new member onboarding and managing investor events, according to a press release. She joined in January 2021 and supported recent events, such as Humble BizCom.

She previously worked as the Vice President of Operations with the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce in Illinois, according to the press release, and has seven years of prior chamber experience.

I look forward to building relationships with businesses in the Lake Houston area, Cagle said in the press release. I want to help facilitate an economy where all businesses thrive in 2021 and beyond.

Partnership Lake Houston and the Board of Directors approved the two new executive board members, Fagen and Kendrick, who joined in January, according to the press release. Fagen will be in the role previously occupied by Katherine Persson, the former President of Lone Star College-Kingwood, and Kendrick will be in the role last held by Noel Cardenas, Vice President of Operations for Memorial Hermann Northeast.

COVID-19: Houston plans to launch web portal for scheduling second doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Fagen has served on the board of directors for four years before this executive position in addition to her role with the Humble Area Assistance Ministries board of directors. Kendrick, who was appointed to his current role in August 2020, was the vice president of operations at both the Texas Medical Center and The Woodlands campuses of Memorial Herman during his nine years with the company.

The vision and business acumen these two leaders bring to our organization will help us as we navigate another pandemic year, Armstrong said in the press release. In times like these, having experienced leaders is essential to our success.

Cagle can be contacted at scagle@lakehouston.org or by phone at (291) 319-8907. For more information, visit www.lakehouston.org.

savannah.mehrtens@chron.com
While dismissing the plea, the division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh observed that this 'appears to be a publicity interest litigation'

The Delhi High Court Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking immediate release of protesters "illegally detained" by police during the farmers' tractor rally on Republic Day and said, "no relief without entering into merits of FIRs and investigation".

The court further directed the police to complete investigation in the FIRs registered against protesters and take action in accordance with law, Bar and Bench reported.

Court directs @DelhiPolice to complete the investigation in the FIR registered by it and take action in accordance with law. Petiton is dismissed: Court  Bar & Bench (@barandbench) February 2, 2021

"Within 24 hours, the arrested persons will have to be produced before the nearest magistrate," said the court.

While dismissing the plea, the division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh observed that this "appears to be a publicity interest litigation".

The plea was filed by law graduate Harman Preet Singh through advocates Ashima Mandla and Mandakini Singh.

The petitioner claimed that he had come to know through personal survey, news reports and social activists that "people were illegally detained from the Singhu, Ghaziabad and Tikri borders, in the absence of an FIR, thereby violating the basic fabric of liberty."

Singh, further stated in his petition that the Delhi Police on 27 January said that it has detained over 200 people in connection with the violence in the National Capital on 26 January and 22 FIRs have also been registered thus far.

"Furthermore, through personal data collection, the petitioner has the names of 15 people out of the aforementioned set of persons, who have been missing and detained since 26 and 27 January, and despite a passage of over four days, no legally tenable reason has surfaced supporting such detention," it said.

The petition contends that assuming that the FIRs have been registered against the 200 detained persons, not signing of arrest memos, or informing next of kin and not producing them before a magistrate "falls within the contours of illegal detention".

"It is the humble submission on behalf of the petitioner that assuming the Delhi Police has registered FIRs qua the aforementioned 200 persons, the failure to comply with signing of the arrest memo and/or informing the next of kin within a period of 8-12 hours, and non-production of the persons before the magistrate under section 167 CrPC, falls within the contours of 'illegal detention'," it said.

The tractor parade in Delhi on 26 January that was meant to highlight the demands of farmer unions to repeal three new agri laws witnessed violence, as thousands of protesters broke through barriers, fought with the police, overturned vehicles and hoisted a religious flag from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort.

On 12 January, the Supreme Court had 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 farmers' unions protesting at Delhi borders.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi for over two months 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.

With inputs from PTI
Protesters try to break through a police barrier on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. PHOTO:AP Photo/John Minchillo

2 KY Men Charged with Entering Capitol During Riot

By The Associated Press

LEXINGTON - Two Kentucky men have been charged with illegally entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.The FBI arrested Dalton Ray Crase and Troy Dylan Williams in Lexington.The men told investigators they went inside the Capitol building after the doors were breached but didnt participate in any violence or vandalism.The two men face charges of aiding and abetting, entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.The FBIs Louisville office has arrested seven Kentuckians in connection with the riot at the Capitol.
Amid a public outcry the department released two videos from body cameras. Especially driving public anger is the fact that the child was already handcuffed when an officer sprayed her with pepper-spray at close range. This occurred after an apparent struggle while the child was begging for her father to come, and as she was already in the backseat of the police car, but one female officer struggled to get her to put her feet into the vehicle.

The girl was later taken to Rochester General Hospital in accord with policy regarding family distress calls involving persons in crisis.

The video shows at least seven officers responding to the scene as they struggled to get the agitated girl into the car. Police said she was threatening to harm herself and her family, and they were there at the request of the family.

An officer is heard saying in the video, "Come on. Im gonna pepper spray you, and I dont want to, so sit back. Come on, this is your last chance, otherwise pepper spray is going in your eyeballs. Come on, lets go."

The sobbing girl then urges for her dad to come. "I want my dad," she screams, while another says, "just stop for a second and take a deep breath." It's as the police struggle to get her into the police car that they use pepper spray after warning her.

"Just spray her at this point!" one officer is heard telling another.

The second, longer body-cam video released by police:

"Please wipe my eyes," the girl screams, after which police quickly shut the car doors. "Wipe my eyes, please."

Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan responded in a press conference as outrage grew over the weekend:

"I'm not going to stand here and tell you that for a 9-year-old to have to be pepper-sprayed is OK. It's not," Herriott-Sullivan said. "I don't see that as who we are as a department, and we're going to do the work we have to do to ensure that these kinds of things don't happen."

The police chief further promised a "thorough investigation" while city council members also expressed their disgust at how the incident went down.

This is one of the most heartbreaking things Ive ever seen. The Rochester police pepper sprayed a 9-year-old crying girl.



The rage I feel. Our system is broken. Imagine if this was your child. Little girl, Im sorry. We all failed you. #DefundThePolicehttps://t.co/lGdUYJyTap  Nate McMurray (@Nate_McMurray) January 31, 2021

"NINE?! How afraid of a handcuffed 9 year old girl were they that they needed to pepper spray her? councilmember Mary Lupien tweeted. Having been pepper sprayed I can attest that this incident will change her life. There will be accountability for this.

Another prominent Rochester councilman demanded that the police responsible for spraying mace on the child be immediately be terminated.

Police contract be dammed, I want these police officers fired TODAY. There is no excuse to mace a 9-year-old girl, a child who was helplessly handcuffed & in your control. Enough with the platitudes & enough w/ good intentions. Action today.https://t.co/4rNgIgtqrX @RochesterPAB  Demond Meeks (@DemondLMeeks) January 31, 2021

The story is also now being featured across mainstream national media, and is likely to ignite further Black Lives Matter protests and unrest as was seen throughout early summer of last year.

(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Myanmar military released on Tuesday the majority of regional chief ministers and ruling party lawmakers detained in a recent coup, a senior military official told Xinhua news agency

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) Myanmar military released on Tuesday the majority of regional chief ministers and ruling party lawmakers detained in a recent coup, a senior military official told Xinhua news agency.

"There may be a reshuffle among chief ministers by appointing qualified ones," the source said.

On Monday morning, Myanmar's state counselor, Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as President Win Myint and other National League for Democracy (NLD) members party were detained by the military.

The military announced a one-year state of emergency in the country, vowing to "take action" against alleged voter fraud during the November 8 general election, which was won by Suu Kyi's NLD party.

The military said it was committed to the democratic system and vowed to hold new and fair elections after the state of emergency ends.

NLD leaders and officials from provincial administrations were also detained throughout the country on Monday morning. Regional experts estimate that more than 400 people have been detained in Myanmar, including most of the NLD faction in parliament, local NLD party committee leaders and party members.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 23:29:12|Editor: huaxia

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MOGADISHU, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Three al-Shabab militants were on Tuesday killed and several others injured after a fierce gun battle with the Somali National Army (SNA) near Dhusamareb town, the administrative capital of Galmudug State.

Moalim Abdirahman Geda-Qorow, mayor of Dhusamareb said that troops from SNA and Galmudug State carried an offensive against al-Shabab militants who attacked the town with mortar shells overnight to disrupt an ongoing consultative meeting between President Mohamed Farmajo and leaders of the federal member states.

"SNA and Galmudug State forces killed three al-Shabab militants, injured several others including one captured alive and recovered four guns of AK47 rifles in a swift military operation near Dhusamareb town," Geda-Qorow said.

The al-Shabab fighters claimed to have attacked the town overnight and hurled ten mortar shells to terrify senior government officials and regional leaders attending a consultative forum on forthcoming polls.

The attack came a few hours before the consultative forum between regional leaders and the federal government of Somalia began in the town. Enditem
As the officer responded near Grand Boulevard, the car sped off heading east. It jumped the curb and turned around in a parking lot, switching directions. During the chase, the car spun around and headed back east before slamming head-on into another police car, the affidavit alleges.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has said the 2023 General Elections would record significant reduction in electoral violence after the passage of the amended Electoral Act in June by the National Assembly.

Mr Lawan gave the assurance on Tuesday in Abuja, while responding to questions after delivering a lecture at the National Defence College, Course 29 Programme, in Abuja.

He said the Electoral Act under amendment by the Ninth National Assembly will provide for an Electoral Offences Commission, saddled with responsibility of prosecuting electoral offenders.

He said the Electoral Amendment Bill, when passed and signed into law, would, among other things, empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct transparent elections in Nigeria.

He said: Let me give some commendation to the National Assembly for continuously working on the Electoral Act to provide for a better Electoral environment in Nigeria.

All the improvement we have added was as a result of legislation passed by the National Assembly, and of course, supported by the Executive.

This is going to be a continuous effort because electoral violence is largely a product of either genuine misinformation or some kind of conspiracy against certain persons during elections.

But I also believe and that is the position of the National Assembly, that we should have the Electoral Offences Commission, so that people who are involved in electoral violence will be prosecuted.

I believe that it will go a long way in reducing and minimising all these tendencies of people taking the laws into their hands.

But in addition, we are currently working on the electoral act, we want to amend it and we intend to achieve the amendment before June or thereabout.

Our intention in the National Assembly with this is to further sanitise the electoral environment, and empower the election management body to conduct seamless, transparent and very open sort of election where a winner is very happy that he is a winner and a looser will be glad that he lost in a very fair contest.

So, we are working on this and we hope that the 2023 general elections will see less of electoral violence because the law itself would have been further improved.

Mr Lawan attributed challenges faced by the federal government to various conspiracies revolving around political, ethnic and religious sentiments.

He, however, advised Nigerian political leaders to deploy strategic leadership skills for the realisation of developmental plans that bordered on national interest.

For us particularly in this country, strategic political leadership is an imperative for development.

You cant but deploy it, and leaders must be strategic.

And, it is required even more in countries like ours where the challenges of development are most.

Unfortunately, almost every issue you bring in Nigeria would rather have or would be given either political, ethnic, geo-political or religious coloration.

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So, it makes governance tough. It gives leadership massive challenges because such colorations complicate issues.

Issues that could easily be relative and understood with little effort become so enmeshed in controversies that it may take you time to recover, and probably you will not even recover at all.

This is an opportunity for me to appeal to all of us in political leadership that our responsibility to the people of Nigeria must remain the one and only critical factor for taking decisions.

The national interest must override any other interest because it is the interest of the majority of the people of the country. If we do that, chances are that we will always get it right.

I think it will be unpardonable for anyone to think that you can create controversies around governments development programmes or projects.

Let there be progressive and positive criticisms. Lets allow the government a chance, Mr Lawan said.

The Senate President also urged leaders across the country to promote unity in their effort to achieve development and progress.

Nigeria is heterogenous, and theres diversity. And, as leaders we must ensure that we weave the diversity into our strength, that we are able to create and sustain unity to engender peace and progress, he said.

Assessing the relationship between the executive and legislature, Mr Lawan said: As leaders and members of the National Assembly, we have to achieve unity of purpose. We have to attain bipartisanship.

But because we are bicameral, that we have a Senate and House of Representatives, we also have to achieve harmony. We have to work in cordiality with our colleagues in the House of Representatives.

And having achieved a united and very focused National Assembly, we also need to work in harmony with other arms of government, and particularly with the Executive arm that we work with on an almost daily basis.

But the essence is that we are stronger, more productive, more effective and efficient together.

The Senate President further said: Let me also emphasise that because our constitution provides for three arms of government, there are checks and balances that we have to make  checks mostly for the legislature on the executive arm of government because the executive as we all know executes the governments agenda.

These are specified functions for the different arms. In our quest for harmony and cordiality with the executive arm of government, we also believe in the National Assembly that the Executive must be held to account.

If we pass the budget and they implement, we need to know how they have implemented the budget.

We need to know whether or not they restricted themselves to what has been provided in the budget, we need to know whether they implemented the projects and programmes with efficiency and prudence.

And, we will not compromise on this, because we are expected by the constitution and the people to undertake those very important functions in addition to our representative roles to the people we represent and the legislature itself.

So, oversight is key and important for us, but we also emphasize that unless it becomes absolutely necessary, the citizens should not be denied benefits from programmes and projects, because of fights and disharmony between the two arms of government, the executive and legislature.

The essence of any government, according to our constitution, is to provide security and welfare for the people.

The ordinary man doesnt want to know why you will fight and the fight stops the delivery of services. So, we believe that we must continue to work together, and in this effort, since we came in June 2019, we have been able to achieve so much.

On delivery of infrastructure and economic development, he said the Senate had at several times engaged the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the need to roll out an economic plan that complements the nations annual budget.
Advocates of school choice are often talking about wanting public funding for models like charter schools, but specialized programs should also be considered part of school choice debates. Credit: Shutterstock

Some commentators believe the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the need for parents to have more "school choice," while others say the pandemic shows the urgency of new schooling models developed under school choice policies.

But what is school choice?

The language of school choice supports the idea that education funding should follow students to the schools they believe best fit their learning needs. Education is then managed according to the free-market dynamics of consumer choice.

What this means is parents can choose among a variety of models that receive both state funds and financial support from personal and/or corporate sponsors. In the United States, and more recently in Canada, when people talk about "school choice" they're often talking about how parents can or should be able to access funded or semi-funded school models like charter schools, school vouchers, home schooling or private schools.

In England, academy schools, enabled under Tony Blair's New Labour government, and more traditional grammar schools are selective schools that enable school choice. Both are a source of debate in terms of how effective they are for student outcomes and students' social mobility.

School choice alternatives position parents as consumers, and in many cases divert students and funding away from comprehensive public schools. This has been a noticeable trend in virtually all western industrialized democracies for more than 25 years.

Reform agendas

We should be concerned about advocacy for school choice models, because recent cross-national research shows increased school choice is associated with increased social stratification in terms of social class. School choice and competition tend to be associated with larger gaps between high and low socio-economic status student groups and lower student achievement outcomes nationally.

The rise of school choice advocacy has coincided with and followed neo-liberal school reforms in industrialized countries since the 1980s. Margaret Thatcher's British government of the late 1980s is largely credited with the close coupling of curriculum requirements with standardized testing that popularized the adoption of market logic to the realm of public institutions and schools.

A key assumption is that choice and competition, like private sector companies, leads to a better productin this case, better student outcomes and more effective schools and systems that are in the best interests of students.

School choice options such as charter schools are not as prominent in Canada as in other countries such as the U.S. and England: Only Alberta now has charter schools.

But think tanks like the Fraser Institute in Canada continue to call for greater options for schooling outside of traditional publicly funded settings.

Beyond the neighborhood

When students can enroll in schools beyond their local neighborhood, this is a sign that school choice is increasing. French immersion, arts-based schools and other specialized schools must therefore be considered part of the school choice debate since some parents may be more adept at seeking out and securing spots in these programs.

In the vast majority of education systems in developed countries around the world, students are assigned to schools within their catchment area based on their home address. However, examples abound of how middle- and upper-class families have been able to use strategies such as choosing rare curricular options to avoid attending assigned schools thereby further contributing to social segregation between schools.

In one analysis conducted by the OECD between 2000 and 2015, the share of 15-year-old students who were admitted to school based on their home address shrank by 20 percent or more in Denmark, Hong Kong (China), Iceland, Japan, Sweden and the U.S., and by six percent on average across 28 OECD countries with comparable data. In Canada, more than 60 percent of students attend schools that use residence-based criteria. These findings reflect a global and national trend of the availability of greater school-choice options for families.

Impact of school choice

It is difficult to make general statements about the impact of school choice and increased school competition that is applicable to all provinces or countries. Nevertheless, research does suggest some general patternsmany of which have remained fairly stable over time.

One analysis of 65 countries suggested that education systems where parents chose schools, and schools competed for enrolment, are often more socially segregatedoften in relation to socio-economic differences.

The process of segregation is driven not only by parental preferences, but also by institutional factors. For example, schooling that promotes market-like dynamics are more likely to accentuate the separation of students based on socio-economic background.

Some of the factors that may aggravate socio-economic segregation in school-choice settings are the participation of for-profit providers, the use of school fees or tuition add-ons and allowing student selection.

These institutional features may be an important reason why socio-economic segregation has not significantly decreased in recent decades.

Not only has for-profit participation been shown to be related to greater segregation, but it raises concerns about equity and the use of public funding. Reports of discriminatory practices towards socio-economically disadvantaged students and those deemed "low achievers" are frequently reported in market-driven educational systems that allow academic selection.

System effectiveness and selectivity

Countries (or in Canada, provinces) that demonstrate high student achievement outcomes and smaller achievement gaps between groups of students (high- versus low-socio-economic status, boys versus girls, non-immigrants versus immigrants) are generally lauded internationally. Other regions seek to emulate their success and they become known as "reference societies."

Over the past two decades, countries such as Finland and Singapore, and education authorities in Canada (particularly Alberta), to name a few, have traditionally been viewed as effective systems for simultaneously possessing high achievement and equity when judged against their international counterparts.

These countries differ substantially based on a variety of key dimensions such as cultural context, size of their student population and homogeneity, teacher training and compensation, to name but a few. Schools in these places are also less likely to select students, which reduces the prospect of social stratification.

It remains to be seen in Alberta how recent charter school legislation will affect equitable learning opportunities and outcomes.

Education and evidence-based policy

Although collaboration and co-operation are often at odds with private sector companies competing for market share, research suggests these attributes are critically important for raising the prospects of all students within education systems.

Ultimately, policymakers need to continually interrogate research findings, free from political interference. They need to carefully consider both the positive and negative effects of a shift away from comprehensive public education systems.

Explore further Increased school choice linked to better mental health for students

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Uganda's opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, best known as Bobi Wine, filed a petition on Monday contesting the January 14 reelection of President Yoweri Museveni.

Wine's lawyers said they want the court to nullify the election but also ensure Museveni, who won a sixth term in office, can never run again.

Just a little after 1 p.m., lawyers representing Wine walked to the Supreme Court and submitted volumes of documents they said prove why the January 14 election should be nullified.

Lead lawyer Medard Segona said solders were seen invading polling stations and stuffing pre-ticked ballots into ballot boxes to inflate Musevenis vote totals.

He argues that for decades, President Museveni and his backers have used intimidation and fraud to ensure victory.

You saw how the entire electoral process turned into a situation of terror," Segona said. "You get to the inevitable conclusion that hes the commonest and only denominator in the electoral violence in our history. And therefore, you know that any election that Museveni participates in can never be a peaceful election. Can never be a free and fair election demanded by the constitution of the republic.

Official election results showed Museveni winning a sixth term with 58% of the votes. Wine came in second with 35%.

Segona said Wines National Unity Platform party encountered challenges at every step of the election process, including the beating of Wines supporters and campaign officials.

The challenges continued into their efforts to file the petition.

They were arresting, beating and torturing our coordinators, wherever they would find them with declaration forms," Segona said. "They went to where we were photocopying from. Arrested the person photocopying and took them. The same uncivilized group came and took over our offices in Kamwokya. We cannot access some of the documents. And they thought rather mischievously that way we would not be able to file this petition. I can tell you; we have filed it.

Justine Lumumba, the secretary general of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, said their lawyer is checking through the declaration forms from polling stations, which show how many votes the party's candidates received at each station.

We have our declaration forms for the presidential, from the National Electoral Commission. And when we are served, we shall respond, Lumumba said.

This will be the fourth time that Musevenis election has been challenged in court. Kiiza Besigye contested Musevenis election after the 2001 and 2006 elections. Former prime minister Amama Mbabazi challenged the 2016 election results.

The two former friends of Museveni both lost, with the court ruling that even though there were several irregularities, they were not substantial enough to nullify the election.





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White House is currently reviewing Trump's access to intel briefs, including whether he will eventually be cut off. They are concerned if it is wise to allow access to the president who made inroads in Middle Eastern diplomacy.

The plan to cut off Trump from classified intelligence is debatable since former presidents are usually given access to it. Updates will be reported as the issue develops.

Why can't Trump get briefings?

According to the new Press Secretary Jen Psaki, she stated that they are deliberating if former president Trump will continue access to reports. Many presidents have had this privilege, but Trump's own is reviewed, reported NTD.

After the question was asked, she told the press it is getting reviewed with no final decision yet.

But, contrary to the White House's course of action, former presidents have the privilege of briefings, and classified intel is part of their perks. The Biden administration has to fully back up its decision if they cut off Trump and why.

DEMS and critics prefer that Trump get no briefings

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) of the House Intelligence Committee said that ex-president Trump should be disallowed to get the intelligence briefings.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said last month that Trump should not get intelligence briefings, adding that Trump access should under no circumstance be allowed to intel reports, now or ever, he told CBS. He even raised if the information given to him can be entrusted, now or later. He raised the issue when Trump had prioritized American interests over foreign ones.

Also read: Trump Meets with Rep. McCarthy for a 'More United Conservative Movement'

Another of Trump's critics, Susan Gordon, a former principal deputy director of national intelligence, said her reasons to cut off Trump in a news piece. She added that the ex-president should cease getting any after his term on January 20.

She gave an opinion that might have an alleged bias and with no proof of what she stated. One of these is that Trump is not leaving politics and even alleges the ex-president who made relevant progress with North Korea and made the Abraham Accords possible does not know what to do with intel.

She even went far as saying he disclosed things to US adversaries. But, in the four years, he made the US relevant again in the Indo-Pacific as well.

To give assuranc that no hasty decision will be reached without bias, there will be a referencing with intelligence officials, said Ron Klain (White House Chief of Staff). He reiterated it to CNN on January 17.

There has been no comment from Trump's Save America PAC about the issue yet.

One of the move's allegations to shut off Trump from intel reports is by those opposed to him. It is part of a suspected drive to limit his movements in public and the government.

Just one of many moves to isolate Trump

Another of these developments to allegedly keep him away from politics and government is to impeach him in the Senate. Trump is accused of causing trouble during January 6, but he was always against violence.

Big tech has decided to lock the ex-president out from his supporters, but he intends to stay around. Trump's access to intel reports continue should depend on the Oval Office.

Related article: Trump Earns Nobel Peace Prize Nomination for the Israel-UAE Peace Deal

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Covid rates in County Derry have fallen sharply for the third week in a row, with the data now showing the lowest number of cases since postcode data was first recorded in late October.

A further 27.6% reduction in the number of positive cases of the virus recorded in the last seven days has contributed to a rate per 100,000 of population across the county that now stands at 125.8.

The county's figure is once again below Northern Ireland's overall figure of 194.8, while the positive case rate of 7.6% for the last week is also a new low.

Magherafelt (BT45) and Maghera (BT46) continue to hold the county's highest rates per 100,000 people, with 216.3 and 210.5 respectively, as the Mid Ulster local government area retains the second highest rate in Northern Ireland.

Just one case was recorded in Portstewart's BT55 postal area in the last seven days, leaving it with a rate per 100,000 people of just 12.2, while Derry city is next lowest at 85.4.

Portstewart's low figures resulted in a 75% decrease in cases being recorded, but the largest decrease outside of that came in BT47, which experienced a 42.2% drop in cases.

Only one postal area, BT51 (Garvagh), recorded an increase in cases over the last seven days, with the figure rising by 22.9%, representing 30 new cases in the area.

There were 25 Covid-related deaths in the county's three local government districts over the last week, with 17 coming in Mid Ulster.

The figure makes up 21% of the total deaths in Northern Ireland over the same period.

Elsewhere, three deaths were recorded in Causeway Coast and Glens, while a further five people died in the Derry and Strabane area.

Meanwhile, the latest vaccine figures for Northern Ireland show 221,809 people have received the first dose, with a further 24,612 having had their second dose.

The data means 13% of the population have now received at least the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccination.

Health Minister Robin Swann said he is 'encouraged' by the progress.

I want to thank everyone working on the vaccination programme right across Northern Ireland, he said.

This is a massive logistical exercise and I am very encouraged by the strong start we have made.

It should be remembered that the first Covid-19 vaccine approval was only announced last month, with the second approval coming some four weeks later.

We have made great strides forward since then.

There will inevitably be frustrations along the way. We will get to everyone - we are getting to thousands more each day.
Are Gut Microbes the Key to Unlocking Anxiety

A mouse study suggests the genetic contribution to anxiety is partially mediated by the gut microbiome

By Greta Lorge

The prevalence of anxiety disorders, already the most common mental illness in many countries, including the U.S., has surged during the novel coronavirus pandemic. A study led by researchers in Berkeley Lab's Biosciences Area provides evidence that taking care of our gut microbiome may help mitigate some of that anxiety.

The team used a genetically heterogeneous lineage of mice known as the Collaborative Cross (CC) to probe connections among genes, gut microbiome composition, and anxiety-like behavior. They first categorized 445 mice across 30 CC strains as high or low anxiety based on their behavior in the light/dark box assay: a box with two compartments - one transparent and illuminated, the other black and unilluminated - connected by an opening. The degree to which rodents' innate aversion to brightly lit, open spaces supersedes (or doesn't) their instinct to explore a novel environment is a rough analog for high (or low) anxiety.

The researchers then performed genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis, comparing high and low anxiety mice, and also analyzed and compared gut microbiome composition in high versus low anxiety animals. They identified specific genetic variants and families of gut microbes associated with anxiety-like behavior, including host genes that influence anxiety indirectly by modulating the abundance of specific microorganisms in the gut.

"We hope this study will inform future research to evaluate treatments for anxiety that take into account both host genome and microbiome," said co-lead author Antoine Snijders, a staff scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering Division.

The study was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Xiaoqing Jin, a visiting scholar from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.

A Detailed Look Inside Tsetse Flies

3D imaging at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source provides new insights into reproductive biology of parasite-carrying flies

To better understand the unique reproductive biology of tsetse flies, which are carriers of the parasites that cause a deadly infection known as African sleeping sickness, researchers explored the intact organs and tissues of tsetse flies using a powerful 3D X-ray imaging technique at Berkeley Lab.

The imaging technique provided new insights into how the flies' specialized biology governs mating and reproductive processes, including female flies' unique lactation and their delivery of a single fully developed larvae per birthing cycle - whereas most other insect species lay eggs. The ALS produces X-rays and other forms of light for a broad range of simultaneous scientific experiments.

Fly samples were prepared at various stages of the reproductive cycle, and researchers are ultimately aiming to couple the imaging data with gene expression and biochemical data from the same stages of this cycle.

"We want to understand what changes are happening during this process, how the process is being mediated, and if it can be manipulated to artificially repress females in the wild from mating," said Geoffrey Attardo, an assistant professor of entomology and nematology at UC Davis - which would ideally curb disease transmission. In 2015, about 3,500 people died from African sleeping sickness, and about 11,000 people are now estimated to be infected. The infection is fatal if it is left untreated by medication.

Attardo led a study, published in the journal Insects, detailing the ALS imaging work. The ALS experiments yielded better results than expected, he said.

While some other techniques require dissection and staining processes that introduce damage to the delicate samples, "This project allowed us to create a detailed 3D visualization of the reproductive tissues in their native context, with minimal experimental manipulation," he said.

The ALS experiments provided a first, detailed look at the intact structure of a sperm-delivery structure called a spermatophore that fully occupies a female fly's uterus after mating, for example, and detailed imaging of other reproductive-tract tissues relevant to lactation and birth.

"I love that as a staff member at the ALS, I can help enable science that makes a difference in the world," said Dula Parkinson, an ALS staff scientist and Diffraction and Imaging Program leader who participated in the study.

Pioneering Framework Could Reduce Energy Demand in Buildings

Researchers make the case for shifting how we think about heating and cooling needs in buildings

By Kiran Julin

Heating and cooling buildings is a large part of global energy demand and a significant source of CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions, and in the coming decades the energy demand for heating and cooling - also known as thermal energy - is expected to grow considerably. Scientists and engineers have made many advances in lowering building energy demand by improving energy efficiency in building technologies and reducing energy loss through the building walls and windows.

Now, researchers are concerned that simply tackling the problem through energy-efficient technology and design will reach its practical limits. So researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and UC Berkeley have pioneered a new framework that determines the minimum thermal energy required to keep building occupants comfortable.

In a study recently published in the journal Joule they make the case for calculating the theoretical minimum thermal load in order to dramatically lower the energy required for heating and cooling buildings.

"Our work shows that current thermal loads in buildings are more than an order-of-magnitude higher than the theoretical minimum thermal load," said Ravi Prasher Berkeley Lab's Associate Lab Director for Energy Technologies and the corresponding author of the paper. "In fact, the theoretical minimum thermal load showed that in residential buildings the energy used for heating or cooling an entire building for occupant comfort could be between 19 to 40 times lower."

The theoretical minimum thermal load does not calculate the amount of heating or cooling that would be needed to make an uncomfortable space comfortable, but rather it sets up a new baseline for occupant comfort with different building parameters. By calculating this baseline, the researchers are identifying the physical limit for reduced thermal energy use, that is, the point at which further reduction in thermal energy would cause occupant discomfort.

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AI Finds More Than 1,200 Gravitational Lensing Candidates

Berkeley Lab researchers among participants in effort, which could double the number of known lenses

A research team with participation by Berkeley Lab physicists has used artificial intelligence to identify more than 1,200 possible gravitational lenses - objects that can be powerful markers for the distribution of dark matter. The count, if all of the candidates turn out to be lenses, would more than double the number of known gravitational lenses.

Gravitational lenses result from large celestial objects, like galaxies or galaxy clusters, that bend the path of light traveling from more distant galaxies. When these chance alignments are almost perfect, this creates false images that can include rings, partial rings, multiple images, and other illusions.

The lenses can tell us about the contribution of dark matter in those distant, lensed objects, as we can only witness dark matter through its gravitational effects on visible matter. And that could help unravel one of the biggest mysteries in the universe, as dark matter accounts for an estimated 85% of the total mass of the universe.

All of the candidate lenses - discovered using a form of artificial intelligence known as deep residual neural networks - are considered to be of the strong variety, meaning they exhibit highly visible lensing effects. A study detailing the new lensing candidates has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, and a preprint is available at arXiv.org.

"I really thought it would be many years before anyone would find this many gravitational lenses," said David Schlegel, a senior physicist at Berkeley Lab who participated in this study. "It's just amazing to know that you're seeing, very clearly, space itself being warped by a massive object." Schlegel also participated in an earlier study that turned up 335 new strong lensing candidates.

Researchers used a sample of 632 observed lenses and lens candidates, and 21,000 non-lenses to train the deep neural networks used in the study. The sample set was obtained from two sky surveys: the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Dark Energy Survey (DES). About 1 in 10,000 massive galaxies was expected to be a strong gravitational lensing candidate.

The DECaLS survey was one of three surveys that was conducted in preparation for the startup of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a Berkeley Lab-led experiment that will help us to better understand dark energy, which is driving the universe apart at an accelerating rate.

Researchers used computing resources at Berkeley Lab's National Energy Research Scientific Computer Center (NERSC) for their data analysis. NERSC is a DOE Office of Science user facility.

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Benchmark indices continued cheering Union Budget 2021 for the second straight session and ended 2.5% higher on Tuesday. Sensex reclaimed the key 50,000 mark after six sessions in early trade today after FM Nirmala Sitharaman's third Budget speech enthused investors.

After a volatile trading session, Sensex ended 1,197 points higher at 49,797 and Nifty gained 366 points to 14,647, amid positive global equities. Before closing at fresh record highs today, Sensex and Nifty hit intraday highs of 50,154 and 14,731. Sensex and Nifty hit fresh lifetime highs of 50,184 and 14,753, on January 21.

Yesterday, BSE Sensex ended 2,314 points higher at 48,600 and NSE Nifty 50 index gained 646 points to 14,281.

State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Hindalco, UPL and Bharat Petroleum Corporation were among the top gainers today.

Here's a look at five factors that led to a 2.5% rise in Sensex and Nifty today:

1. Budget rally

Indian stock market gave a thumbs up to Union Budget 2021 with Nifty breaching 14,000 in the budget session and BSE benchmark Sensex breaching 50,000 in today's session.

Investors cheered the Budget proposal to raise foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in insurance from 49 per cent to 74 per cent, scrappage policy for vehicles, as well as privatisation of two nationalised banks and proposal of monetisation of assets. Absence of the much-feared COVID cess and the surcharges on Income Tax also boosted market sentiment.

Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking said,"Markets witnessed fireworks all-around as the government set the roadmap for the economic recovery in the Union Budget by focusing on growth. After the initial downtick, the benchmark traded buoyant for most of the session and gained noticeable momentum after the budget speech got over. The FM in her budget speech prioritize growth and allocated funds for sectors such as infrastructure and healthcare. Further, investor's sentiments improve as no additional taxes on LTCG, STT, COVID cess etc was imposed."

2. Global cues

Asian stocks were trading higher on Tuesday following an overnight jump on Wall Street. Chinese manufacturing activity in January came in at 51.5. Meanwhile, Japan extended the state of emergency till March to contain covid-19. Investors also awaited the Reserve Bank of Australia's rate decision today.

European markets closed higher supported by global positivity and as investors shrugged off concerns regarding recent speculative trading frenzy with IT stocks leading the pack.

US markets bounced back from last week's lows and traded higher on Monday, the first session of February. Meanwhile, a group of 10 Republican senators sent President Joe Biden a letter on Sunday, urging him to consider a smaller, scaled-down Covid-19 relief proposal. His current plan calls for $1.9 trillion in additional fiscal stimulus.

3. Foreign fund inflows

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) welcomed FM's Budget speech and bought shares worth Rs 1,494.23 crore in the Indian equity market on February 1.

FIIs had earlier sold shares worth Rs 12,731 crore in the domestic market since January 22, amid pre-budget volatility faced last week.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said,"Start of a new rally is noticed in sectors like banking, infra and auto, supported by a renewed traction provided by a growth-oriented budget. After consecutive selling by FPIs last week, the market witnessed a reversal in trend becoming net buyers post the budget. Positive global sentiments ahead a new US COVID support bill also lifted the market."

Shashi Kiran Shetty, Chairman, Allcargo Logistics, ECU Worldwide and Gati said,"At a time when the Indian economy has been scaling a fast recovery trajectory, FM Sitharaman has effectively navigated the challenge of balancing fiscal concerns and addressing economic growth. This is further strengthened by the 13 points that outline the vision for a Self-reliant' or 'Aatmanirbhar' nation. In light of the 6 pillars of this vision namely - health and wellbeing, capital and infrastructure, inclusive development, reinvigorating human capital, innovation and R&D, and minimum government and maximum governance-the initiatives to drive ahead FDI and FII inflows, infrastructure spend and facilitate legal and tax settlements are also noteworthy."

4. Rally in heavyweights

Shares of top eight companies from the 30-share S&P BSE Sensex that hit fresh 52-week highs today include State Bank of Bank (SBI), ITC, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, and Bajaj Finserv.

On NSE, Adani Total Gas, ICICI Bank, Lakshmi Machine Works, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), Raj Oil Mills, HSIL, Orchid Pharma, Modi Rubber, Ganesh Housing Corporation and Max Healthcare Institute hit fresh 52-week highs today.

S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities said," A growth and CAPEX oriented Budget has provided ammunition to the Bulls as the BSE Sensex attempts to scale 50K yet again. Several stocks notched up 52-week highs today in the broader market even as pivotal across sectors helped Indices notch up gains. The spectacular listing of the Paint company surprised the street as it recorded huge gains today on the listing."

5. Technical view

All sectoral indices closed in the positive zone today, with over 3% rise registered in media, banking, financial and realty stocks. Market breadth favoured bulls once again as 1,755 shares advanced and 1,184 scrips declined. Market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies rallied Rs 4.12 lakh crore to Rs 196.65 lakh crore.

After Budget 2021-2022, macro data, ongoing corporate earnings season and global market performance will impact stock market movement this week.

Ashis Biswas, Head of Research at CapitalVia Global Research said," Strong trends in the market and an attempt to overcome the resistance level around the Nifty 50 Index level of 14750 (high as on 21st Jan 2021). While a breakout above 14750 is the key factor from a short-term perspective, the market is likely to maintain momentum and reaches the level of 14950-15000. The momentum indicators like RSI, MACD to recover from their low made in the last week of January 2021. As such odds of a fresh breakout is significantly high."

On market closing --Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments said, "The Nifty failed to get past the 14750 level which is a crucial point. Crossing this level would cement the upside direction of the markets which should lead us to 15000. However, it is advised to enter on dips or mild corrections. The index has good support at 14100 and hence we should accumulate positions closer to that level."

Share Market News Live: Sensex nears 50,000; Nifty jumps 200 points; Airtel, ONGC, M&M top gainers

Stocks in news: PowerGrid, Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Indian Bank, Coal India
Oneida County Tourism is launching an A-to-Z Food Tour campaign, and is asking for the publics help contributing to the list of restaurants and specialty dishes that will be featured.

Sarah Foster, director of communications at Oneida County Tourism, is hoping people will get creative in choosing dishes, because they are looking to list a dish for every letter of the alphabet.

We want to learn and educate residents about food thats beyond the popular chicken riggies and Utica greens -- even though we love those too. Think more like N is for the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich from One Genny, or C is for Cambodian dumplings from Jiaozi 88. We want people to get creative, said Foster.

Ideas can be submitted online and will be reviewed by the team at Oneida County Tourism. The form requires the name of the favorite dish, as well as the restaurant's name and location.

The final list will be posted to the Oneida County Tourism website.

People who submit ideas online will be qualified to win one of two $50 gift cards to a local restaurant of their choice.

To submit an idea for the food tour, click here.

Good morning.

After four years of life in the headquarters of the Trump resistance, many Californians are adjusting to life under the Biden administration.

That means Gov. Gavin Newsom must navigate disagreement among Democrats about how to solve some of the states thorniest and most urgent problems.

And its also a moment of reckoning for the states Republicans, who must walk a fine line between the parts of their base still enamored of former President Donald Trump, who tried to subvert the election, and the parts trying to strike a path forward without him.

[Read more about how Californias relationship with Washington changed on Inauguration Day.]

Its not a perfect analogue, but a lot about this period of political transition has felt familiar to my colleague Manny Fernandez, who covered Texas for The New York Times during the Obama administration and when Mr. Trump took office. (Coincidentally, I was also covering Texas at the time.)
The foreign minister forecasts the U.S. will take a more active stand on the Ukraine issue.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says consensus is needed for the United States to join talks on Donbas in the Normandy format, which consists of Ukraine, Germany, France, and Russia.

"As for the United States' full-fledged participation in the Normandy format. Let's remember there is one person in this format who will definitely not be happy with such participation  this is the president of the Russian Federation. And the format is not expanded by the desire of individual participants. It can be changed only by consensus," he said during a Svoboda Slova ("Freedom of Speech") panel show on Ukraine's ICTV channel, as reported by the Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper.

Kuleba reiterated since 2014, the United States had been actively involved in addressing the issues of the war in Donbas and the Russian occupation of Crimea.

"It will not be a secret for anyone that since 2014, the United States has been actively involved in supporting Ukraine during Russian aggression against Ukraine, and in attempts to resolve the conflict in Donbas, and in the issue of the illegal occupation of Crimea. I have every reason to believe that the United States will be even more active on this track, but the format is a matter of negotiations," the minister added.

Normandy format: What is known

The Normandy format is a type of meetings in a quadripartite format, involving Ukraine, Germany, France, and Russia, where issues of Russian armed aggression against Ukraine are discussed.

Read alsoZelensky wants to involve Biden in Normandy format or create alternativeThe name of the format comes from a summit of four leaders, which first took place in Benouville, a commune in the Normandy region, northwestern France, on June 6, 2014.

Normandy Four advisors' meeting

The latest round of talks of political advisors to the Normandy Four leaders took place in Berlin on January 12.

Ukraine at the meeting of political advisors was represented by Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak, while Russia was represented by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmitry Kozak.

The previous meeting of advisors was held on September 11, 2020.

Reporting by UNIAN
US Unions and Environmentalists are now on the opposite sides of a dispute between Canada and the United States over significant pipeline projects.

The US is the largest oil and gas producer in the world. President Joe Biden's administration intends to maneuver the US economic structure in the direction of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. His preliminary measures in that direction included the cancellation of the Keystone XL (KXL) crude oil pipeline allowance and reduced oil and gas leasing.

Nevertheless, Biden's supporters' reaction highlights the issue of balancing the effect of the transfer of power on entirely different societies.

Although local weather activists have welcomed the demise of KXL, trade US unions have organized to prevent ongoing tasks from being disrupted, reeling from the downturn in international oil prices.

Mike Knisley, the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council's secretary, and treasurer, who supported Biden, said he relied on state officers to talk to the president about how his rapid-fire local weather bulletins impact the assistance of his union membership.

"I say them they should get again with Biden and ask if this all actually has to occur on Day Two of the brand new administration," Knisley said. "I simply get so pissed off that there is nearly no widespread floor on pipelines with the environmental neighborhood."

In convincing banks to shun support for Arctic exploration, climate teams and US unions have recently succeeded in persuading large investors to scale back holdings in fossil gasoline industries.

But Biden, along with the International Teamsters and North America's Construction Trades, was endorsed by several key labor unions working on pipelines, refineries, and various power installations. These US unions welcomed a pro-labor president's win but resisted Keystone's relocation and are lined up against threats to the opposite pipelines.

US Unions in protecting the environment

In the fight to wean the US from fossil fuels and avoid imports of carbon-intensive heavy crude from Canada's vast oil sands, environmentalists see Biden as an ally. Efforts to shut three related pipelines are intensifying: Line 3 and Line 5 of Enbridge Inc, and the Dakota Access Pipeline of Energy Transfer: (DAPL).

The Biden administration reviewed a court resolution last week that upheld orders for a prolonged DAPL environmental summary, a White House spokesman said. He refused to access the two pipelines at Enbridge.

Enbridge has more than doubled the capacity of Line 3 to 760,000 barrels per day (BPD), an undertaking sponsored by Democrat Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.

To make sure, Biden was not endorsed by all unions. Phillip Wallace, business consultant for Pipeliners Union 798 in Minnesota, discussed his coalition's presence, which backed former President Donald Trump, with the brand new administration seeking to stop the undertaking.

Environmental demonstrators stopped construction on a Line 3 job website in Minnesota on Friday by trapping each other between concrete barrels, definitely one of many disruptions so far this 12 months that have resulted in hundreds of arrests.

Unions are also ramping up assistance for Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline, which runs under the Mackinac Straits, meets Lakes Huron and Michigan, and ships 540,000 BPD of crude sunshine and propane. Activists want the 68-year-old line to be decommissioned, while Enbridge is attempting to upgrade it to protect the straits.

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
SHENZHEN, China, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As emerging technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly commercialized, the digital transformation in various industries is getting prospering. The epidemic and carbon neutrality goals further accelerate the transformation towards a smart society. What does it mean to the site power? What will happen if the energy technologies are combined with the power electronics technologies and digital technologies?

To answer these questions, Peng Jianhua, President of Huawei Site Power Facility Domain, together with industry guests, discussed the technology and industry trends and predicted the ten trends in the site power domain. The ten trends are released to provide clues of development directions and innovation for the industry and help build a better future.

Trend 1: Power Digitalization

The full power link from power generation, conversion, storage, to use will be digitalized. The entire energy network will change from the traditional watt flow to watt+bit collaboration, driving the digital transformation of site power from points, chains, and networks with the concept of Bit Manage Watt. The convergence of digital technologies and energy technologies will make energy networks visible, manageable, controllable, and optimizable.

To this end, Huawei explores a three-layer energy target network from the components, site, to network to help customers build a simple, intelligent, green, and reliable energy target network and meet the new energy development requirements in the future.

Trend 2: "Zero-Carbon" Network

Green and sustainable development is a global campaign. Clean energy application and energy saving have become the mainstream around the world. In the future, the full link of power generation, load consumption, and power conversion and storage will be green, efficient, and energy-saving. From the top-level network planning and design, construction and capacity expansion, to the reconstruction and optimization, digital O&M and energy efficiency management, and zero-carbon evaluation, a zero-carbon network will be realized through the integration of power electronics, digital, and AI technologies. The rapid development of core technologies, high-efficiency technologies, and digital technologies also makes zero-carbon networks possible. Energy-related OPEX for carrier networks will not increase after adding 5G, greatly reducing CAPEX. Carbon emissions of networks will be cleared through simplified network construction, intelligent O&M, and full-lifecycle management of energy networks.

In Green Island, Greece, Huawei helps a carrier reduce carbon emissions by 10 tons per site per year by intelligent solar access. In Pakistan, Huawei uses advanced hybrid power supply to replace diesel generators, reducing carbon emissions by 18 tons per site per year.

Trend 3: Lithium for All

Thanks to its long lifespan and continuous technology development, lithium batteries gradually replace lead-acid batteries in large-scale application in various industries around the world. Batteries that solely serve as emergency backup power can no longer meet diversified requirements in various scenarios. They are hoped to become a comprehensive energy supply. Common lithium batteries provide only a single function. After the power electronics and digital technologies are combined, the local BMS and cloud BMS will collaborate with each other. With the help of AI and big data technologies, common lithium batteries will become intelligent and cloud-based. From a single component to a cloud-based smart energy storage system, lithium batteries will be safer, applicable to more scenarios, and with more efficient O&M, maximizing the value of site energy storage.

Following the intelligent lithium battery, Huawei launched the fifth-generation CloudLi solution, which redefines the architecture of lithium batteries in the new era. The solution features full-scenario connection, simplified cloud maintenance, AI-based integrated energy storage, precise configuration, and proactive security management. This solution will sure bring more benefits to customers.

Trend 4: Telecom Site to Social Site

5G has entered different industries. As a result, a large number of digital sites are emerging. Varied scenarios require more flexible and diversified sites. Traditional sites with the single function of communication connection will evolve to social sites with comprehensive functions, maximizing the site value.

In Northern Africa, Huawei launched the innovative eMIMO solution, a unified energy platform that supports multiple input and output modes. This solution helps traditional site infrastructure with a single function transform to one with comprehensive energy services. Site power facilities also supply power to small-scale retail stores and police stations in villages.

In Iraq, Huawei power systems for communications equipment also supply power to nearby residents in exchange for free rental and security protection, helping the tower company save an average of US$3000 to 8000 per site per year and reduce site security costs.

Trend 5: Energy Supply Diversification

The diversification of energy supply is embodied in three aspects: First, the diversification of power supply sources. New energy, especially solar energy, will gradually shift from supplementary to primary. In addition, more power supply solutions with optimal configurations will be available thanks to the combination of new energy with mains and energy storage system. Second, the diversification of application scenarios. Site power is no longer just the power source of IT or CT equipment. Instead, it changes to ICT converged power supply and begins to power people's livelihood and production. Third, the diversification of deployment modes. In the future, site power can be deployed in multiple modes. For example, centralized solar power plant, campus power supply and small-sized micro-grid power supply, distributed power supply and hybrid power supply, and household PV power supply. Power facility deployment will change from centralized to centralized+distributed mode to meet different application requirements.

In Ethiopia, Huawei used the advanced solar energy, energy storage, and diesel generator hybrid solution to save 12.26 million liters of fuel for communications sites, saving US$20,000 in fuel costs and reducing carbon emissions by 26.2 tons. In Nigeria, distributed off-grid micro power plants were used to reduce the cost per kWh from US$0.5 to US$0.2. The power system provides stable power supply for the local area around the clock.

Trend 6: Full Link Intelligence

With the gradual digital transformation of the energy industry, the traditional siloed architecture and isolated management of energy subsystems will evolve towards integrated smart energy. The software-defined subsystems for power generation, conversion, storage, distribution, consumption, and temperature control will use AI algorithms to achieve full-link collaboration and optimal power supply systems.

In Zhejiang province of China, Huawei cooperates with China Tower to reduce the site power consumption by 17.1% through the AI-based peak staggering function, helping the customer reduce the electricity fee by CNY1788 per site per year.

Trend 7: Simple and Convergent

As a large number of sites will be deployed, IT and CT services are further integrated at one site and the power supply and battery will be combined. The AC and DC power modes are integrated in one power supply. Therefore, multiple power systems will become one. Sites will evolve from equipment rooms to cabinets and poles, reducing the footprint and power consumption. The site power efficiency will be further improved and the electricity fee will also decrease, achieving low carbon emission throughout the entire network and realizing simplified power supply during the lifecycle.

In Mexico, Huawei launched the iSuperSite solution, which supports ultra-high-density and large-capacity power supply and equipment housing. This solution uses cabinets to replace rooms and integrates IT and CT power supplies into one to reduce site deployment costs and shorten the deployment period. It can reduce power consumption and save rents, achieving optimal TCO.

Trend 8: Multi-mode Architecture

With the diversification of energy supply and equipment types, site power will develop towards a multi-mode coordinated architecture. The system architecture will support multiple energy input and output modes, multi-mode scheduling control and management. The system will evolve by modular overlay. One power supply system applies to multiple scenarios and realizes converged power supply for different services and devices.

With Huawei's innovative and unified eMIMO power supply architecture, one power supply system (platform) supports multiple input and output modes, meeting the power requirements of different equipment in various industries such as communications, transportation, and electric power.

Trend 9: Autonomous Driving

Autonomous driving is the development theme of site power in the future. First, the application of AI technologies will simplify energy O&M, implement remote O&M, self-learning, and automatic O&M, and improve O&M quality and efficiency. Second, the intelligent IoT connection technologies and intelligent sensing technologies will enable digital management of site power. The original management of dumb devices will be eliminated. With digital sensors and the intelligent management platform, all components and devices in the energy network can be sensed and interconnected.

In Zhejiang Province, Huawei uses the AI-powered intelligent load power-off slicing technology to ensure power supply to important services and ensure zero site breakdown during the epidemic. During the epidemic, the remote battery inspection function of Huawei intelligent sites reduces manual site visits. The battery test precision is also improved, reducing the site visit cost by US$200/year for a single site.

Trend 10: Safe and Reliable

The surge of data volumes spurs the network, digital, and intelligent transformation in the energy industry. Therefore, the reliability, security, privacy, and resilience of hardware and software become necessary requirements.

Huawei's power products feature high security and reliability design of software and hardware. In addition to high-reliability design and manufacturing, predictive maintenance is supported at the hardware side to consolidate the reliable foundation. In terms of software, layered control and defense functions are added to software, making the energy industry more safe and reliable.

Deep insights into the industry trends help enterprises to better adapt to future challenges. By releasing the ten trends, Huawei Site Power aims to provide guidance for technology and industry development as well as industry digitization, help build a greener and better connected world, and bridge the energy divide. In the future, Huawei Site Power will continue to adhere to openness and cooperation and work with industry customers, partners, and third-party organizations to promote innovations and achieve win-win outcomes in the digital power era.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1431317/image1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1431318/image2.jpg

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A day after photos of policemen armed with metal lathis and large arm guards surfaced online, the Delhi Police put out a disclaimer saying the policemen took the initiative on their own and no formal orders have been given for any new metal armoury. It also asked the police unit in question to explain their action.

The photos emerged after a policeman got injured while trying to subdue a man  reported to be a farmer  who was wielding a sword at Singhu on the Delhi-Haryana border. In an apparent attempt to defend themselves from such swords seen during the farmers protest, photos shared widely on social media showed several policemen from the Shahada unit in the metal armoury on Sunday.

"The images were from Shahdara district. A local officer asked for these metal lathis without seeking approval from any senior officers. As soon as senior officers found out, these were taken back. There is no scheme to provide policemen with steel lathis," the NDTV quoted a Delhi Police spokesman as saying.

Meanwhile, the three major farmers' protest sites -- Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur -- were turned into fortresses by Delhi Police on Monday with multi-layer barricades, iron rods and heavy security deployment blocking the roads. The move is aimed to stop the movement of agitating farmers and comes days after the clashes between protesters and police turned violent during the tractor parade on January 26.

Farmers unions agitating for repeal of central farm laws had on Monday announced national-wide road blockade on state and national highways for three hours (12-3 PM) on February 6 even as agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the Budget cleared all doubts over contentious issues relating to the legislations and appealed to farmer leaders to think about it positively.

Announcing the SKMs plan of road blockade for three hours (12-3 pm) on February 6, farmer leader Darshan Pal said the Morcha has given the call for Chakka Jam in protest against the three farm laws, the governments repressive measures against the protesters and the reduction of budgetary allocation for the farm sector.
Angry New Yorkers slammed the Staten Island Zoo after it shared a pre-recorded video of Chuck the groundhog predicting the weather.

On Tuesday, the Staten Island Zoo in West Brighton hosted its annual Groundhog Day event virtually as a live stream this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Staten Island Chuck crawled out of his burrow to look for his shadow, not finding it and guaranteeing a soon arriving spring.

On Tuesday, the Staten Island Zoo in West Brighton hosted their annual Groundhog Day event virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic

'I think I know what the answer is, we'll have an early spring!, said Investors Bank vice president and district manager Brian Gomez as he read from a scroll announcing spring

'I think I know what the answer is, we'll have an early spring!, said Investors Bank vice president and district manager Brian Gomez as he read from a scroll.

The event was a paid partnership between the zoo and the bank.

Hundreds gathered for the virtual event, broadcast on the Zoo's Facebook Live stream, but quickly noticed something wasn't right when Staten Island Chuck came to look for his shadow.

New York had just been ravaged by a brutal nor'easter that dumped several inches of snow on the ground, but the wintry flakes were noticeably absent from the video, suggesting it was pre-recorded.

'This was truly disappointing that it was not done live...,' Daria Petraglia said under the Facebook video. 'How can Chuck predict on the wrong day?!! It would have been better to cancel because of the bad weather...'

Another user added: 'I guess faking weather predictions isn't as easy in NY'

'Sunny and no snow?1 Didn't Staten Island get a bunch of snow yesterday?,' asked Amy Fuqua

Several people declared that the results weren't accurate because the event wasn't actually on Groundhog Day

The Staten Island Zoo wasn't even open on Monday or Tuesday as it battled the intense snow storm.

'This was truly disappointing that it was not done live...,' Daria Petraglia said under the Facebook video. 'How can Chuck predict on the wrong day?!! It would have been better to cancel because of the bad weather...'

Another user added: 'I guess faking weather predictions isn't as easy in NY.'

And people could not forget when in 2014, the groundhog - Charlotte - was killed when she was dropped by Mayor Bill de Blasio. Charlotte was a stand-in for Chuck

'Sunny and no snow?1 Didn't Staten Island get a bunch of snow yesterday?,' asked Amy Fuqua.

Another viewer wrote: 'I've always been a SI Chuck fan, but today he lost all credibility! No snow, people in sweaters and even SHORT SLEEVES while my entire body is sore from shoveling yesterday and dreading the rest of the shoveling left? I call bs! I get it has to be virtual between COVID and the weather, but please DO NOT insult our intelligence with a "live" event that shows weather that doesn't match up to the rest of the Island!'

Several people declared that the results weren't accurate because the event wasn't actually on Groundhog Day.

'That magic of Chuck melted the snow!' the Staten Island Zoo wrote in response to the criticism.

And people could not forget when in 2014, the groundhog - Charlotte - was dropped by Mayor Bill de Blasio. Charlotte was a stand-in for Chuck.

Charlotte fell several feet and died of 'acute internal injuries' a week later.

The death prompted zoo officials to have the groundhog make its prediction from behind a glass enclosure in ensuing years, although the barrier was dropped this year.
Multiple crew members on a seafood factory trawler in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska have tested positive for COVID-19, joining a growing list of outbreaks in seafood processors and vessels, city officials said.

The city of Unalaska said that factory trawler Araho, owned by seafood company OHara Corporation, reported 20 of its 40 crew members tested positive, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

City Manager Erin Reinders said a couple of crew members reported symptoms after the vessel arrived in Alaska from Seattle last week. Reinders said the city is developing a plan to coordinate care for infected crew members and determine what to do with the others.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

City officials said five COVID-19 cases were confirmed last week among workers on the Island Enterprise, a separate catcher owned by Trident Seafoods. The Island Enterprise left Dutch Harbor and was headed to Seward on Friday, Reinders said.

Multiple shore processors have been shut down as well, including the largest processing plant in North America, operated by Trident and located in Akutan. More than 260 employees at the plant have tested positive as of Thursday.

Reinders said there are 57 seafood industry-related cases of COVID-19 in Unalaska, including the 20 crew members who tested positive on the Araho.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics COVID-19 Alaska
In talks with Germany the United States has proposed lifting sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, according to the German daily "Handelsblatt".

Reportedly, the new administration of Joe Biden has already signalled its readiness for talks, which calmed the mood in Berlin, to which the project is of great importance.

'Handelsblatt' wrote that after several years of Donald Trump's tough course against the construction of the German-Russian gas pipeline, the first indication is that Washington wants to end the conflict with Berlin.

Citing sources close to Berlin, the daily reported that Washington has allegedly proposed for the first time to the German federal government the lifting of sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.



According to the daily, one of the American officials participating in the talks stressed that "Germany must put a package of solutions on the table" to ensure energy security in Europe and to stop the growing dependence of European countries on Russian gas.



The German newspaper noted that Angela Merkel's government reportedly "breathed a sigh of relief" at the news of the U.S. proposal, but so far no return proposal has been presented to the Joe Biden administration.



The construction of the Russian-German gas pipeline is strongly opposed by Poland, and the Baltic States. Critics of Nord Stream 2 indicate that the project would increase Europe's dependence on Russian gas and extend the Kremlin's influence over European politics. The project is supported by Germany, Austria and several other EU Member States.
On This Day The Day HG Wells Met Writers in Myanmar

The gathering on the boat club lawn.

Yangon  On this day in 1939, writers in Myanmar (then Burma) hosted a dinner party to welcome British writer HG Wells, who was visiting Yangon (then Rangoon), at the lawn of Rangoon University Boat Club where politics and literature were discussed.

Wells arrived in Rangoon shortly after the national uprising against colonial rule known as the Revolution of 1300, named after the Burmese calendar. Thousands of students blockaded the Secretariat, the seat of the British government in Rangoon, and student leader Aung Kyaw was killed and hundreds of students injured in the police crackdown.

At the tea party, female writer and journalist Khin Myo Chit, who had helped blockade the Secretariat, showed the 72-year-old writer photos of the police beating students and a bloodstained handkerchief from the uprising.

More than 40 Burmese writers, journalists and academics attended the tea party. In attendance was also the 23-year-old student leader Aung San, the future independence hero. Aung San, however, refused to pose for a photo, saying he was a politician and not a writer. He is not in the photo showing 46 attendees, including Wells.

Wells left for England after three days in Rangoon. The War of the Worlds author later wrote an article, Trouble in Burma, for the News Chronicle newspaper in London. He also featured Khin Myo Chits photos in his new book In Search of Hot Water, publicizing the colonial governments mistreatment of Burmese students to the world.

The tea party organizers were short of funds and could not pay their bill at the Sun Cafe, one of Rangoons finest restaurants, which catered for the event.

Sun Cafe owner U Tun Yin, out of his sympathy for the young organizers  who would later become bestselling authors  wrote off the bill.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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A driver who seriously injured two juveniles Saturday night in Little Egg Harbor after he crossed over into their lane and crashed into their car is facing more serious charges, officials said Monday.

Michael Pillarella, 26, of Manahawkin, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of assault by auto, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced Monday evening. He was initially only issued motor vehicle summonses for reckless driving and failure to maintain lane, authorities said.

A 2017 Hyundai Elantra driven by Pillarella was traveling north on Radio Road near Baltusrol Court around 9:30 p.m. when he failed to negotiate a curve in the road, crossed over the centerline and struck a 2006 Toyota XB driving south, according to a statement from the Ocean County Prosecutors Office.

The Toyota was driven by a juvenile who had another juvenile passenger, the office said. Both were seriously injured and airlifted to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where they remained Sunday night in critical condition.

Pillarella was airlifted to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Trauma Center in Atlantic City was treated and was released, officials said.

Investigators collected a blood sample from him via search warrant, the office said. The laboratory results were still pending Monday night.

Further investigation led to charges being filed against Pillarella who was arrested Monday by officers from the Little Egg Harbor Police Department, authorities said.

He was processed at Little Egg Harbor Police Headquarters, and taken to the Ocean County Jail, where he remained lodged pending his detention hearing, according to the statement.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
Burma World Bank: Coup Threatens Myanmars Development Prospects

Police trucks in Yangon after the military coup. / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The World Bank says Myanmars military coup threatens Myanmars development as businesses fear for reforms made under the civilian government and foreign direct investment in the country.

On Tuesday, some foreign firms, including the Suzuki Motor Corporation, ceased operations to ensure the safety of employees after the coup.

The World Bank said it is gravely concerned about the situation and the wellbeing of citizens.

The bank said it is firmly committed to Myanmars transition to democracy and its efforts to achieve sustainable growth and social inclusion.

In December, the global financial institution forecast that Myanmars economy will start a slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in March. It estimated that economic growth would recover 7 percent due to public investment, a resurgence in manufacturing and productivity gains from technological improvements.

Businesses are now saying any recovery is in jeopardy with further investment unlikely and major firms planning to cease operations due to political instability.

The Japanese media reported on Tuesday that Suzuki had halted production at its two automobile plants in Myanmar due to concerns for its nearly 400 employees.

A foreign business leader based in Yangon, who asked for anonymity, told The Irrawaddy that many investors are still in shock as the coup put billions of dollars worth of foreign investment at risk.

He said businesses are still trying to decide what to do.

On Monday, the military staged the coup and detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and declared a one-year state of emergency.

Defending its actions, the military claimed it was forced to act over what it called electoral fraud in the Nov. 8 general election and the civilian governments failure to address the issues.

You may also like these stories:

US President Joe Biden Threatens New Sanctions on Myanmar After Coup

Myanmar Military Appoints Ex-Generals, USDP Members to New Govt

Ceasefire Signatories KNU and RCSS Condemn Myanmar Coup
was conspicuously absent from a list of China's entrepreneurial greats published by state media Tuesday, underscoring how the iconic co-founder has run afoul of Beijing.

Ma, lionised at home for creating some of his country's largest corporations, didn't make the cut in a Shanghai Securities News front-page commentary lauding the leading lights of technology. Instead, the official Chinese paper held up archrival as "rewriting the mobile age" with Also on its list were BYD Co. Chairman Wang Chuanfu, Corp co-founder Lei Jun and Huawei Technologies Co.'s Ren Zhengfei.

The brief editorial  which ran the same day Group Holding Ltd. is slated to unveil earnings  may help assuage fears Tencent could get caught up in a broader industry crackdown now focused on Ma's and Ant Group Co. Beijing has launched a campaign to curtail the growing power of private technology corporations in almost every facet of Chinese life, as exemplified by the ubiquity of Tencent's messaging service. Shares in Tencent and rose more than 2 per cent Tuesday.

Jack Ma's absence is telling given the Shanghai Securities News is the most important business publication in Alibaba's backyard. The billionaire made his first public comments in January since disappearing from view late last year, after his now-infamous rebuke of Chinese regulators prompted a backlash that derailed Ant's record $35 billion initial public offering and spurred an investigation into his e-commerce giant. Much about the future of China's most recognisable and outspoken businessman remains unclear.

"A generation of Chinese entrepreneurs emerged from the rigid structures of our old economic system with the desire to escape poverty and passion to achieve business ambitions," the newspaper, which is backed by the official Xinhua News Agency, wrote. They have breathed new life into China's economic reforms.
New Delhi: In a shocking incident, 12 kids in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district were administered hand sanitiser drops instead of the oral polio vaccine drops. The kids were then admitted to a government hospital and are said to be stable now.

"The children were kept under observation for 48 hours. They are ok and will be discharged today," Yavatmal Collector MD Singh was quoted as saying by PTI news agency.

Singh added that an inquiry has been completed into the incident and a report will be submitted to the government and appropriate action will be taken at the state- level.

"The employees' concerned report to the Zilla Parishad CEO. Action is likely to be taken against two medical officers and three contractual employees. The action will be taken at the state-level," Singh said.

The incident reportedly took place at Bhanbora Primary Health Centre in Kapsikopri village on Sunday during the National Pulse Polio vaccination drive for children aged 1-5 years.

Yavatmal Zilla Parishad CEO Shrikrishna Panchal said that 12 children below 5 years of age were given two drops of sanitiser in place of polio drops, following which, one of the children complained of vomiting and uneasiness.

Live TV
The management of Benjamin & Parker announces that SXM associate Mrs. Natasha Manuela-Gumbs Director of Prudential Tax Services graduated as a Certified Internal & External Lead Auditor in the year 2020/2021. The certification was issued by a globally recognized and accredited Institution with over 70 years of existence. This is a major step for the local professional considering that Prudential Tax Services is capable of conducting Financial Audits using the highest international Audit standards.

Mrs. Manuela-Gumbs holds 2 Bachelors degrees, and 2 Audit certifications, placing her in a privileged position in the Audit field on the local market. B-Parker, consisting of former Big 4 auditors, is currently in charge of the support to Prudential Tax Services, to secure quality and assurance standards for optimal service delivery.

Prudential Tax Services counts now on 2 Financial Auditors, with expertise in Forensic Tax and Financial Auditing, positioning the company in a very unique position on the local market and igniting the ground leveling with the pace setting Dutch firms established in Sint Maarten. The firm reclassified and evolved from catering small business services to an Audit firm with international affiliations in a period less than 3 years, making the firm one the fastest growing firms in Sint Maarten.

For the year 2021, the firm is preparing to merge with another local Tax service catering firm in Sint Maarten becoming the first Audit /Tax service firm to consolidate local expertise and experience, with the objective to expand the work scope and capacity with quality management compliance as the fundamental guideline.

The staff and external consultants of Prudential Tax Services, wish to congratulate Mrs. Manuela on her achievement and the envisioned new business venture for 2021.
STOCKHOLM, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Elkem has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Vow ASA's wholly owned subsidiary Vow Industries with the aim of reducing fossil CO2-emissions from the production of silicon and ferrosilicon products for the global market.

The two companies will join competence and technology solutions to develop and manufacture biocarbon and other products for Elkem's production processes. The biocarbon will be produced at Vow Industries planned plant at Follum, outside Oslo in Norway, from a sustainable feedstock comprised of forestry wood mass, wood waste and other wood materials.

"Elkem is one of the world's leading companies in the environmentally responsible manufacturing of advanced material solutions, and we believe that sustainability is increasingly a competitive advantage. Using climate-neutral renewable biocarbon instead of fossil reduction agents is a key part of our sustainable production strategy. Through our activities in biocarbon, like this exciting cooperation with Vow Industries, we aim to secure long-term access to low-cost, high-quality renewable biocarbon to replace fossil material, and further improve our competitive position for the sustainable future. Our long-term goal is to achieve carbon-neutral production," says CEO of Elkem, Michael Koenig.

Elkem already uses close to 20 per cent biocarbon in its production in Norway and the company is working towards increasing this to 40 per cent by 2030. Elkem also sources 83 per cent of its of electricity consumption from renewable energy. The company recently received an "A" rating by CDP, ranking among the world's leading companies on climate transparency and action.

Vow Industries' planned plant will initially produce around 10.000 tonnes of biocarbon, that can easily be scaled up to more capacity when needed. Vow Industries plans to build, own and operate the plant, which will become the centre of a new circular and sustainable industrial cluster at Follum.

In addition to its efforts in Norway, Elkem is involved in a range of biocarbon projects around the world. This includes work to develop competitive and sustainable sources of biocarbon as well as longer-term R&D projects. The company is currently constructing a new biocarbon pilot plant in Canada. In 2019, Elkem's plant in Paraguay achieved 100 per cent biocarbon of the reduction materials in its production of ferrosilicon as a pioneer plant in Elkem and the advanced materials industry.

For more information:

Odd-Geir Lyngstad, VP Finance & Investor Relations

Tel: +47 976 72 806

Email: [email protected]

Fredrik Norman, VP Corporate Communications & Public Affairs

Tel: +47 918 66 567

Email: [email protected]

About Elkem

Founded in 1904, Elkem is one of the world's leading suppliers of silicon-based advanced materials with operations throughout the value chain from quartz to specialty silicones, as well as attractive market positions in specialty ferrosilicon alloys and carbon materials. Elkem is a publicly listed company on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker code: ELK) and is headquartered in Oslo. The company has more than 6,700 employees with 31 production sites and an extensive network of sales offices worldwide. In 2019 Elkem had revenues of NOK 22.7 billion. To learn more, please visit www.elkem.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/elkem/r/elkem-signs-new-agreement-for-norwegian-biocarbon,c3277572

The following files are available for download:

https://news.cision.com/elkem/i/follum-vow,c2873250 Follum Vow https://mb.cision.com/Public/16930/3277572/af386d0314783f9b.pdf Elkem signs new agreement for Norwegian biocarbon ENG https://mb.cision.com/Public/16930/3277572/a560abde70ea75d3.pdf Elkem signs new agreement for Norwegian biocarbon NOR

SOURCE Elkem
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/02/2021 -- The new market report on the global Melamine Market by Reports and Data provides estimations for global as well as regional markets during the foecast period. The Melamine Market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.9% in the forecast period, i.e., 2020-2027. The business knowledge offered in the study includes a granular analysis of all the major developments, various promising business avenues, and the overall market dynamics of the competitive landscape of the global Melamine market.



Melamine is a white crystalline substance that belongs to the heterocyclic organic compounds family. It contains 66% of nitrogen by mass and is combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine-formaldehyde resins by condensation polymerization. Melamine is used in a wide range of flame-resistant materials like firemen uniforms, thermal liners, heat resistant gloves, and aprons. The global melamine market is forecast to reach USD 10.21 Billion by 2027, according to a new report by Reports and Data.



Get a sample PDF copy of the report @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/2525



This is the latest report covering the current COVID-19 scenario. The coronavirus pandemic has greatly affected every aspect of the worldwide industry. It has brought along various changes in market conditions. The rapidly changing market scenario and initial and future assessment of the impact are covered in the research report. The report discusses all the major aspects of the market with expert opinions on the current status along with historical data.



Some of the key players mentioned in the research report are:- Borealis AG, BASF SE, East China Engineering Science & Technology Co. Ltd (ECEC), Cornerstone Chemical Company, Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd, Grupa Azoty Zaklady Azotowe Pulawy SA, Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Limited (MHTL), INEOS Group, Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc. and Mitsui Chemicals Inc.



To provide an in-depth analysis of the potential growth opportunities, the market report considers the various growth factors across the different regional segments. The geographical regions of the global Melamine market that are included in the report are as follows:

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Middle East & Africa



Market Drivers

Melamine resins are used as thermosetting and can be molded into a variety of products for our daily life. Thermoset plastic application of melamine is one of the major drivers of the global melamine market and is expected to grow continuously during the forecasted period owing to the large scale consumer demand. The wide range of applications of melamine from the textile industry to the chemical industry has been a strong factor contributing to the rapid boost in the market size of this market. Moreover, the residential construction, renovation activities, and advancement in the automotive industry all over the world is also a contributing factor to the growth of the melamine market.



Get discount on the report @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/discount-enquiry-form/2525



Regional landscape

The Asia Pacific is the leader of the global melamine market share. China is the largest and fastest-growing market in the Asia Pacific, both in terms of production and consumption. Other Asian countries like India, Japan, Indonesia, etc., are also expected to show significant growth in upcoming years. Europe is the second-largest melamine market across the globe, owing to residential construction, renovation activities, and robust automotive industry.



The market research report sheds light on both macro- as well as micro-economic factors. The report also mentions details on the regulatory framework that will play a vital role in shaping the future of the global Melamine market. Additionally, the report studies the prevailing pricing structure, new emerging areas of applications, and the prominent investment opportunities that exist in the global market. It delivers extensive analysis of how the projected growth factors will shape the overall market dynamics in the upcoming years. Moreover, it also provides meaningful and actionable insights on the latest trends that are developing in the current market scenario and which will prove to be helpful for the future of the global Melamine market.



In terms of applications, the global Melamine market can be segmented into:

Laminates

Thermoset Plastics

Wood Adhesives

Surface Coatings

Others



In terms of Forms Outlook, the global Melamine market can be segmented into:

Melamine Foam

Melamine Resin



The Melamine Market report delivers the principle locale, latest economic situations with the item value, benefits, production capacity, demand and supply, market development rate, and others. Additionally, the report also performs SWOT examination, speculation attainability investigation, and venture return investigation.



Get Complete Report detailed @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/vinyl-acetate-monomer-market



Thank you for reading our report. For further details or to inquire about customization, please let us know and we will offer you the report as per your needs.



Table Of Content:

Chapter 1. Market Synopsis

1.1. Market Definition

1.2. Research Scope & Premise

1.3. Methodology

1.4. Market Estimation Technique



Chapter 2. Executive Summary

2.1. Summary Snapshot, 2019-2027



Chapter 3. Indicative Metrics



Chapter 4. Research Antibodies Segmentation & Impact Analysis

4.1. Research Antibodies Material Segmentation Analysis

4.2. Industrial Outlook

4.2.1. Market indicators analysis

4.2.2. Market drivers analysis

4.2.2.1. Surge in research activities in the field of Neurobiology and stem cells

4.2.2.2. Growth of the biopharmaceutical industry

4.2.2.3. Increased funding for research and development activities

4.2.3. Market restraints analysis

4.2.3.1. Cost prohibitive Research Antibodies

4.3. Technological Insights

4.4. Regulatory Framework

4.5. ETOP Analysis

4.6. Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.7. Competitive Metric Space Analysis

4.8. Price trend Analysis

4.9. Customer Mapping

4.10. Covid-19 Impact Analysis

4.11. Global Recession Influence



Chapter 5. Research Antibodies Market By Product Insights & Trends



Continued.



Have a Look at Related Reports:

Cold Flow Improvers Market Outlook 2028



Refrigerants Market statistics



Composites Market Share 2021



HVAC Rental Equipment Market Segmentation



Artificial Joints Market Growth Rate
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State body attitudes toward Irelands reliance on feed imports from third countries will not be tolerated anymore by grain growers, one of the countrys largest tillage farmers has warned.

Around 3.5m tonnes of feed ingredients  from up to 60 countries  are shipped to Irish ports annually to be milled and compounded into feed rations for Irelands livestock, pig and poultry production systems. A further 1.5m tonnes are supplied by home-grown cereals.

However, for Ollie Whyte, who along with his six brothers and seven of their sons farms 3,300ac of land in the Naul, Co Dublin where they grow cereals and fatten cattle, this cannot continue.

Having been in farming for 54 years  Whyte Brothers Farm was established in 1942  and with 14 families now involved in the business, Mr Whyte (70) says he has grown tired of the unlevel playing field at the core of Irish agri-food production.

Expand Close Ollie Whyte in a 2.5MW biomass burner on his North Co Dublin tillage farm / Facebook

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Whatsapp Ollie Whyte in a 2.5MW biomass burner on his North Co Dublin tillage farm

He told Farming Independent: Irish tillage growers dont have the option of growing unregulated genetically modified maize, soya and palm kernel, so it suits millers and compounders to rely on imports because they are cheap. It drives sales and its good for business.





Banned

They can buy and use vast quantities of feed produce that is banned by legislation and EU regulation for Irish growers  and this is the primary cause for the decline in tillage in Ireland.

Mr Whyte contends that industry players dont have to worry about the carbon footprint of the produce they use, or the contribution of environmentally destructive imports to climate change.

South American maize produces 27 times more CO2 per hectare than native Irish grain, said Mr Whyte, a stakeholder representative on the recently published Teagasc Crops 2030 report, which highlighted this fact.

Such regions use active ingredients in plant protection that have been banned by EU food safety scientists on consumer health issues and some on environmental concerns.

On top of that, rainforests the size of Munster are being knocked every year in Brazil and Argentina to clear land for crop and cattle production.

And all the while Irish tillage growers are producing the safest and highest-quality grain and pulses under EU regulation of any country inside or outside EU, he said.

Department of Agriculture (DAFM) import data shows that in 2019 Ireland imported 350,427t of maize from Brazil, 469,912t from Ukraine and 417,602t from Canada.

When the tillage sector tries to shine a spotlight on this issue, Mr Whyte says their views are sidelined.

All in authority are allowing this dangerous produce into the food-chain and, worse still, they dont insist on the food label stating its inclusion at sale point for consumers, he said.

The tillage sector has been slowly strangled for years by authorities turning their back on it. It has been stated that 230,000ha of tillage land has been lost to other sectors since 1980  that should ring alarm bells for all involved in agriculture.

Bord Bia and DAFM have dismissed this issue as not worthy of a proper answer. How can our state bodies confidently declare that we operate a grass-fed system?

If Bord Bia or DAFM found banned chemicals on Irish farms they would come down severely on growers with fines, and possibly condemning the produce. Yet its okay for Brazilian producers to lorry it in.

It is unforgivable and is contrary to the Origin Green Charter and Government, DAFM, Bord Bia, IFA, ICMSA, Teagasc and EU stated aims on climate change, sustainability and environmental protection.

Is it okay for Irish tillage growers to be the sacrificial lamb to make it all work? This attitude cant be tolerated anymore by grain growers.

We need to create a green label for food produced from full Irish ingredients and let consumers make an informed choice.
Regulatory News:

MedinCell (Paris:MEDCL):

In vivo studies demonstrated the feasibility of three new long-acting injectable treatments:

mdc-GRT (organ transplant), mdc-KPT (pain animal health) and mdc-TTG (Covid-19)

The MedinCell team has selected the lead formulation and started the regulatory preclinical development of those three programs.

 With the admission of three new products into preclinical development and the achievement of this milestone for our contraceptive program last April, our team has achieved its goals" stated Christophe Douat, CEO of MedinCell. "The most advanced product of our portfolio whose pivotal Phase 3 ended with positive results is only the tip of the iceberg. On top of this product which is about to enter the final stage of the approval process, Phase 3 should start this year for two other products".

The three new programs into regulatory development are:

mdc-GRT: organ transplant molecule: Tacrolimus



This treatment is intended to prevent graft rejection in organ transplant patients. It uses Tacrolimus, an immunosuppressant already widely used, as the active ingredient. In addition, to improve compliance, a major issue in patients who have received a transplant associated with a necessary lifelong treatment, this product could reduce the risk of adverse effects. The regulatory activities that have just begun should make it possible to launch the first-in-human study in 2022.

mdc-KPT: pain in animal health molecule: confidential



MedinCell's first animal health program, mdc-KPT is a 5- to 7-day treatment targeting acute pain for pets, based on an active ingredient already widely used. The regulatory activities, which have just started, should enable the beginning of the product's clinical trials before the end of 2021.

mdc-TTG: Covid-19 molecule: Ivermectin



The objective of MedinCell's mdc-TTG program is to protect humans from Covid-19 and its variants with a long-acting injection of Ivermectin. A first formulation candidate potentially active for more than a month has entered regulatory preclinical development. The context of the pandemic could lead to approval in 2022.

In addition, in April 2020, MedinCell announced the regulatory development of the mdc-WWM program, a contraceptive administered by subcutaneous injection, fully bioresorbable and active for six months. This program is developed with the support of The Bill Melinda Gates Foundation through a grant of up to $19 million over four years to fund preclinical activities and initial clinical studies, scheduled to begin in 2023.

About MedinCell

MedinCell is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company that develops a portfolio of long-acting injectable products in various therapeutic areas by combining its proprietary BEPO technology with active ingredients already known and marketed. Through the controlled and extended release of the active pharmaceutical ingredient, MedinCell makes medical treatments more efficient, particularly thanks to improved compliance, i.e. compliance with medical prescriptions, and to a significant reduction in the quantity of medication required as part of a one-off or chronic treatment. The BEPO technology makes it possible to control and guarantee the regular delivery of a drug at the optimal therapeutic dose for several days, weeks or months starting from the subcutaneous or local injection of a simple deposit of a few millimeters, fully bioresorbable. Based in Montpellier, MedinCell currently employs more than 130 people representing over 25 different nationalities.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006015/en/

Contacts:

MedinCell

David Heuze

Communication leader

david.heuze@medincell.com

+33 (0)6 83 25 21 86

NewCap

Mathilde Bohin Louis-Victor Delouvrier

Investor relations

medincell@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 98 53

NewCap

Nicolas Merigeau

Media relations

medincell@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 94 98
A young woman was allegedly raped by a man she had met to sell a $900 mobile phone to, a court has heard.

Mitkumar Maheshbhai Patel pleaded not guilty to raping the 22-year-old woman in 2019 on the first day of his trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The court heard Patel and the woman had never met before she advertised the phone for sale through Facebook Marketplace, the Courier-Mail reported.

Crown Prosecutor Sarah Farnden told the court that when the woman arrived at Patel's home in Chermside, north Brisbane, money he transferred electronically did not immediately clear.

Patel and the woman then went to the Chermside shopping centre so he could withdraw cash from an ATM, the court heard.

A 22-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a man after advertising a mobile phone for sale online (stock image)

'Whilst they were in the car she recalls that the defendant commented that he'd recently arrived in Australia and he was looking for a girlfriend,' Ms Farnden told the court.

She said the woman described 'being uncomfortable' and had prepared a 'SOS' text message on her phone for her partner but had never sent the message after arriving at the shopping centre.

Ms Farnden told the court the woman would give evidence during the trial that when she arrived back at Patel's home, he made a comment about 'being hot' in the car.

'He then grabbed her by the neck using his hand and pulled her head towards him,' she said.

Ms Farden said Patel allegedly forced his fingers inside the woman after putting his hand inside her shorts.

The woman recalls saying no while he kept saying please, Ms Farden told the court.

The woman reported the incident to police that same day and went to hospital.

The trial continues.
Two bodycam videos were released on Sunday, showing Rochester officers restraining a nine-year-old girl who was handcuffed and pepper-sprayed when she disobeyed police commands.

The footage was released after Mayor Lovely Warren raised concerns about her child being harmed during the said incident that took place on Friday.

Warren said that she is a child, adding that as a mother, she does not want to see anything like that, according to a USA Today report.

The videos, which were released by the Rochester Police Department, showed that the girl was repeatedly screaming for her father as police officers try to restrain her after responding to a call over "family trouble" on Friday afternoon.

Police said that nine officers and RPD supervisors responded to the call.

Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson was at a news conference on Sunday and described the girl as suicidal.

"She indicated she wanted to kill herself and she wanted to kill her mom," he was quoted on a report.

Police released a statement on Saturday, on which they said that the girl's actions required an officer to take her to the ground. However, they added that for the safety of the child and at the request of the custodial parent on the scene, they handcuffed the child and placed her in the back of a police car.

A female officer appears to shake a can in front of the girl. Moments later, the girl is audibly heard asking someone to wipe her eyes, according to a Huff Post report.

The child was taken to a hospital and was later released to her family, according to authorities.

The city's Office of Crisis Intervention Services was not alerted to the scene as the initial call to police involved numerous events happening at the same time, which needed a police response, according to Warren.

Office of Crisis Intervention Services is trained to respond to mental health-related calls. The same office last week introduced a Person in Crisis Team, which is intended to take over certain responsibilities from the police, according to a Democrat and Chronicle report.

Related story: Police Brutality 'Out of Control' in Latin America

Community Outrage

Meanwhile, community outrage is growing after the bodycam was released in public. Both activists and government have described the situation as overly aggressive.

Rev. Lewis Stewart of United Christian Leadership Ministry called for the immediate suspension of the officers involved on Monday.

Steward said that minors should not be handcuffed and the practice must be banned.

"Children must not be chemically sprayed. That too must be banned," Stewart was quoted on an Inside Edition report.

The incident highlighted once again the RPD, which was criticized last year after Daniel Prude was suffocated after officers put a "spit hood" over his head. Prude was a Black man and his family reported that he was suffering a psychiatric episode.

Prude died in March but only received little public attention. Months later his family released bodycam footage of the incident showing the naked man in a road and the hood covering his ace.

This resulted in the firing of the police chief, who then claimed that he did nothing wrong.

Related story: Police Brutality Toward Latinos Is Up but Fails to Get Coverage, Undocummented Immigrants Have 'Fear' of Contacting Authorities




Restoring habitat requires much more than just the right plants

DeKalb, Ill. -- If you build it, they might not come. That's the key finding of a new study on habitat restoration practices that challenges a commonly accepted principle in ecology.

The study tested the "Field of Dreams" hypothesis, which predicts that restoring plant biodiversity will lead to recovery of animal biodiversity. The prediction, which often guides restoration practices, is infrequently tested because restoration studies typically measure plant or animal biodiversity, but rarely both, said lead author Pete Guiden, a post-doctoral researcher at Northern Illinois University.

Guiden and NIU colleagues studied 17 research plots of restored tallgrass prairie, measuring biodiversity in four animal communities--snakes, small mammals and ground and dung beetles. "We wanted to know if the most diverse animal communities were found in the most diverse plant communities, or if something else is responsible for patterns of animal biodiversity," he said.

While the scientists did find some positive connections between plant and animal biodiversity, the gains weren't nearly as strong as benefits derived from implementation of restoration management strategies.

"We found that the effects of management strategies like controlled burns and bison reintroduction on animal communities were six times stronger on average than the effects of plant biodiversity," Guiden said.

"The most important effects of restoration on animal biodiversity had little to do with plant community biodiversity," he added. "So management practices focused on restoring plants might be insufficient to also restore animals."

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Co-authors include NIU professors Holly Jones (biology, environmental studies) and Richard King (biology); NIU post-doctoral fellow John Vanek; NIU graduate student Erin Rowland; former NIU students Ryan Blackburn, Anna Farrell, Jessica Fliginger, Sheryl C. Hosler, Melissa Nelson and Kirstie Savage; and former NIU professor Nicholas Barber of San Diego State University.

This is an important study," said Jones, whose Evidence-based Restoration Laboratory at NIU carried out the research. "With Earth's biodiversity rapidly disappearing, ecological restoration has emerged as an important strategy to slow or reverse biodiversity losses. Critical tests of the Field of Dreams and other hypotheses are needed to improve restoration science and ensure we get the most bang for our buck."

The study results were a surprise to the authors, who had predicted that plant biodiversity would have stronger effects on animal biodiversity than management strategies.

"We expected plant biodiversity to be important because having more plant species allows animals to split up food resources or habitat," Guiden said. "However, the strong effects of land management on animal biodiversity highlight the important role of people in shaping the quantity or quality of habitat, especially through disturbance regimes used in restoration."

The scientists' work was conducted at Nachusa Grasslands, a 3,800-acre nature preserve in Franklin Grove, Illinois, managed by The Nature Conservancy. Since 1986, Nachusa crew members and volunteers have been reconnecting remnant prairie, woodlands and wetlands through habitat restoration to create one of the largest and most biologically diverse grasslands in Illinois. Tallgrass prairie is one of the most globally imperiled ecosystems.

"While Illinois is known as the Prairie State, 99.9 percent of its prairie has been lost to agriculture and development," Jones said. "Nachusa Grasslands is an incredible success story. What The Nature Conservancy has done is show us we can restore ecosystems. What was once rows of corn is now a really high-functioning prairie that also serves as a living laboratory for restoration scientists."

The 17 research sites studied measured 60-by-60 meters and had restoration ages spanning three to 32 years. Each site experienced a unique controlled-burn history, and bison had been reintroduced to eight of the sites between 2014 and 2015. For Nachusa Grasslands, fire and bison-grazing are key management practices that are components of healthy prairies and together can increase plant and animal biodiversity.

By simultaneously measuring plant and animal responses to restoration disturbances, the scientists were able to tease out and compare management-driven and plant-driven effects.

Guiden said each animal community studied differed considerably in its specific responses to restoration. In fact, the study found that restoration can simultaneously have positive and negative effects on biodiversity through different pathways, which may help reconcile why there can be variation in restoration outcomes.

For example, in older restorations, high diversity among plants resulted in a decrease in a specific diversity measure for dung beetles, likely because key resources became more difficult to find. On the other hand, older restorations also had soil conditions that provided high quality habitat for a wide range of other species.

Guiden also noted that the animals studied in this research project are decomposers (dung beetles), omnivores (small mammals) or carnivores (snakes, ground beetles). "Animal communities composed of herbivores, particularly species highly specialized on specific prairie plants, may show stronger relationships to plant diversity," he said.

Ecosystems are difficult to restore because they represent such highly intricate webs of species' interactions with each other and their environments, Jones said.

"Our study shows that it's critical to define restoration goals before projects get off the ground and to measure progress," she said. "This will help ensure the restoration is eliciting the desired responses.

"Perhaps more importantly, our study shows these active restoration techniques of introducing megaherbivores like bison, which were near extinction last century, and fire regimes that Indigenous people used to set to prairies, are absolutely critical components to recreating those complex webs of species and interactions. Seeding alone gets us started, but extra management super charges the animal communities that are critical to maintaining healthy prairies."

###

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Talisker Resources Ltd. ("Talisker" or the "Company") (TSX:TSK)(OTCQX:TSKFF) is pleased to announce further drilling results from its Bralorne Gold Project in British Columbia. Hole SB-02020-023 (partial results only) are part of Talisker's resource drill out program which is currently underway with four drill rigs on site. This press release focuses on results from the Charlotte Zone, where broad zones of near-surface gold mineralization sit adjacent to the high-grade gold-bearing veins that remain the primary focus of drilling in 2021. Additional information on the Charlotte Zone is included in a separate press release also issued today.

Key Points:

Drilling has intersected additional zones of broad, near-surface gold mineralization at the Charlotte Zone that could provide optionality to the high-grade gold-bearing veins at depth.

Drilling continues to demonstrate structural continuity of high-grade gold-bearing veins at depth.

Talisker commenced its 50,000m infill drilling program with four drill rigs on site last month and has completed 4,354m to date.

A total of 4,125 samples are awaiting assay at the lab.

The Charlotte Zone represents near-surface gold mineralization occurring as broad intervals of stacked, parallel structures occurring adjacent and immediately above the high-grade veins at Bralorne West (see Figure 1). The Charlotte Zone outcrops on surface and several holes drilled by Talisker have intersected the zone starting at 90m below surface. To date, drilling has defined the Charlotte Zone over a strike length of 600m and a width of 270m.

Highlights from the Charlotte Zone include:

SB-2020-023 1.16 g/t gold over 38.00m, from 80.50m to 118.50m 0.81 g/t gold over 8.50m from 212.4m to 220.90m 1.69 g/t gold over 13.35m from 407.00m to 420.35m



"Today's results further highlight the potential at the Bralorne Gold Project for broad zones of near-surface, bulk tonnage gold mineralization at Charlotte alongside the high-grade veins below that remain the primary focus of our 50,000m drill program in 2021. The discovery of the Charlotte Zone is a credit to our technical team who originally identified these shallower zones from historical drilling undertaken by the prior owner of the Bralorne Gold Project," stated Terry Harbort, President and CEO of Talisker, who added, "The Charlotte Zone not only has the potential to provide a bulk tonnage option when we begin economic evaluation of the project but could accelerate the delivery of a resource estimate given the shallower drilling and wider drill spacing required for a National Instrument 43-101 technical report. Despite this success, we stress that the primary focus for the Company is the continued delineation of high-grade veins at depth."

Bralorne Gold Project Drill Holes SB-2020-023 Diamond Drill Hole Name From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) Interpreted Structure Method Reported SB-2020-023 16.40 16.90 0.50 1.42 Charlotte HW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 16.90 17.50 0.60 0.86 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 17.50 18.50 1.00 0.09 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 18.50 19.50 1.00 0.04 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 19.50 20.20 0.70 0.07 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 20.20 20.95 0.75 2.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 20.95 21.50 0.55 0.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 21.50 22.20 0.70 0.03 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 22.20 23.00 0.80 0.07 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 23.00 24.00 1.00 0.07 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 24.00 25.05 1.05 0.03 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 25.05 26.20 1.15 0.46 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 26.20 27.00 0.80 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 27.00 28.10 1.10 2.35 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 28.10 29.45 1.35 0.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 29.45 30.50 1.05 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 30.50 32.00 1.50 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 32.00 33.25 1.25 0.54 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 33.25 33.90 0.65 0.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 33.90 34.60 0.70 0.35 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 34.60 35.10 0.50 0.11 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 35.10 36.25 1.15 0.10 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 36.25 37.30 1.05 0.12 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 37.30 38.00 0.70 0.10 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 38.00 38.60 0.60 0.95 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 38.60 39.40 0.80 0.03 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 39.40 40.20 0.80 0.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 40.20 41.20 1.00 0.29 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 41.20 42.00 0.80 0.05 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 42.00 43.00 1.00 0.05 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 43.00 44.20 1.20 0.50 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 44.20 45.00 0.80 0.42 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 45.00 46.00 1.00 0.28 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 46.00 47.00 1.00 0.51 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 47.00 48.00 1.00 0.47 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 65.00 66.00 1.00 0.18 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 66.00 67.00 1.00 0.91 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 67.00 68.50 1.50 0.31 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 68.50 70.00 1.50 0.21 Charlotte HW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 70.00 71.00 1.00 0.82 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 71.00 71.50 0.50 0.79 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 71.50 72.50 1.00 1.10 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 72.50 73.50 1.00 0.32 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 80.50 81.20 0.70 0.15 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 81.20 82.20 1.00 0.62 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 82.20 83.30 1.10 0.18 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 83.30 84.40 1.10 0.50 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 84.40 85.40 1.00 1.84 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 85.40 86.40 1.00 2.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 86.40 87.10 0.70 2.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 87.10 88.00 0.90 2.82 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 88.00 89.00 1.00 1.84 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 89.00 89.90 0.90 1.33 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 89.90 90.80 0.90 1.87 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 90.80 91.50 0.70 2.17 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 91.50 92.20 0.70 2.68 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 92.20 92.80 0.60 3.08 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 92.80 93.80 1.00 0.78 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 93.80 94.80 1.00 1.33 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 94.80 95.80 1.00 1.77 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 95.80 96.80 1.00 1.78 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 96.80 97.80 1.00 0.74 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 97.80 98.80 1.00 0.23 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 98.80 99.80 1.00 0.34 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 99.80 100.40 0.60 0.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 100.40 101.20 0.80 0.05 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 101.20 102.00 0.80 0.28 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 102.00 103.00 1.00 0.22 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 103.00 103.70 0.70 0.05 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 103.70 104.40 0.70 0.40 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 104.40 105.10 0.70 0.07 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 105.10 105.80 0.70 0.31 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 105.80 106.90 1.10 1.42 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 106.90 107.70 0.80 3.66 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 107.70 108.50 0.80 1.92 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 108.50 109.60 1.10 0.46 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 109.60 110.70 1.10 0.53 Charlotte HW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 110.70 111.80 1.10 1.04 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 111.80 112.90 1.10 0.64 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 112.90 114.00 1.10 1.22 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 114.00 115.10 1.10 1.54 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 115.10 116.10 1.00 2.60 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 116.10 116.95 0.85 0.89 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 116.95 117.90 0.95 1.25 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 117.90 118.50 0.60 0.17 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 197.70 198.80 1.10 0.40 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 198.80 200.00 1.20 0.02 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 200.00 201.20 1.20 0.32 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 201.20 202.40 1.20 0.93 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 202.40 203.60 1.20 0.73 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 203.60 205.00 1.40 0.41 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 214.40 215.30 0.90 0.14 Charlotte Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 215.30 216.10 0.80 0.76 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 216.10 217.40 1.30 1.02 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 217.40 218.50 1.10 0.38 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 218.50 219.20 0.70 0.84 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 219.20 220.20 1.00 0.19 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 220.20 221.00 0.80 0.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 221.00 221.60 0.60 2.55 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 221.60 222.40 0.80 2.19 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 222.40 222.90 0.50 0.45 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 407.00 408.00 1.00 0.17 Knight Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 408.00 408.50 0.50 1.60 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 408.50 409.00 0.50 1.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 409.00 409.55 0.55 1.72 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 409.55 410.20 0.65 0.43 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 410.20 410.70 0.50 8.96 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 410.70 412.30 1.60 4.89 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 412.30 412.80 0.50 1.77 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 412.80 413.40 0.60 1.29 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 413.40 414.00 0.60 1.49 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 414.00 414.55 0.55 1.46 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 414.55 415.05 0.50 0.72 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 415.05 415.55 0.50 1.54 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 415.55 416.10 0.55 1.71 Knight Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 416.10 416.60 0.50 0.57 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 416.60 417.20 0.60 0.18 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 417.20 417.80 0.60 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 417.80 418.40 0.60 0.11 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 418.40 419.20 0.80 0.25 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 419.20 419.80 0.60 1.52 Au-AA24 SB-2020-023 419.80 420.35 0.55 0.92 Au-AA24 Notes: Diamond drill hole SB-2020-021 has collar orientation of Azimuth 187; Dip -50. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-022 has collar orientation of Azimuth 175; Dip -65. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-023 has collar orientation of Azimuth 186; Dip -54. True widths are estimated 40 - 90% of intercept lengths and are based on oriented core measurements where available. Method reported includes the most up to date information as of this press release.

Talisker is providing an opportunity for shareholders and other interested parties to participate in a Webinar to be held at 4 pm ET on Thursday, February 4th. To register, please click on the following link - https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_86qwSGqUTLCyEBO2w2SM3w. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

About Talisker Resources Ltd.

Talisker (taliskerresources.com ) is a junior resource company involved in the exploration of gold projects in British Columbia, Canada. Talisker's projects include the Bralorne Gold Complex, an advanced stage project with significant exploration potential from a historical high-grade producing gold mine as well as its Spences Bridge Project where the Company holds ~85% of the emerging Spences Bridge Gold Belt and several other early-stage Greenfields projects. With its properties comprising 278,364 hectares over 256 claims, three leases and 198 crown grant claims, Talisker is a dominant exploration player in the south-central British Columbia. The Company is well funded to advance its aggressive systematic exploration program at its projects.

For further information, please contact:

Terry Harbort

President & CEO

Terry.harbort@talliskerresources.com

+1 416 361 2808 Mick Carew

VP, Strategic and Corporate Development

mick.carew@taliskerresources.com

+1 604 803 7711

Qualified Person

The technical information contained in this news release relating to the drill results at the Bralorne Gold Project has been approved by Leonardo de Souza (BSc, AusIMM (CP) Membership 224827), Talisker's Vice President, Exploration and Resource Development, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Sample Preparation and QAQC

Drill core at the Bralorne Gold Project is drilled in HQ to NQ size ranges (63.5mm and 47.6mm respectively). Drill core samples are minimum 50 cm and maximum 160 cm long along the core axis. Samples are focused on an interval of interest such as a vein or zone of mineralization. Shoulder samples bracket the interval of interest such that a total sampled core length of not less than 3 m both above and below the interval of interest must be assigned. Sample QAQC measures of unmarked certified reference materials (CRMs), blanks, and duplicates are inserted into the sample sequence and make up 9% of the samples submitted to the lab for holes reported in this release.

Sample preparation and analyses is carried out by ALS Global, at their laboratory in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Drill core sample preparation includes drying in an oven at a maximum temperature of 60C, fine crushing of the sample to at least 70% passing less than 2 mm, sample splitting using a riffle splitter, and pulverizing a 250 g split to at least 85% passing 75 microns (code PREP-31).

Gold and in diamond drill core is analysed by fire assay and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) of a 50g sample (code Au-AA24), while multi-element chemistry is analysed by 4-Acid digestion of a 0.25 g sample split with detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) for 48 elements (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ge, Hf, In, K, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Re, S, Sb, Sc, Se, Sn, Sr, Ta, Te, Th, Ti, Tl, U, V, W, Y, Zn, Zr).

Gold assay technique Au-AA24 has an upper detection limit of 10ppm. Any sample that produces an over-limit gold value via the Au-AA24 technique is sent for gravimetric finish via method Au-GRA22 which has an upper detection limit of 1,000 ppm Au. Samples where visible gold was observed are sent directly to screen metallics analysis and all samples that fire assay above 3 ppm Au are re-analysed with method Au-SCR24 which employs a 1kg pulp screened to 100 microns with assay of the entire oversize fraction and duplicate 50g assays on the undersize fraction. Where possible all samples initially sent to screen metallics processing will also be re-run through the fire assay with gravimetric finish provided there is enough material left for further processing.

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Talisker's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this release contains forward-looking information relating to, among other things, the operations of the Company and the timing which could be affected by the current global COVID-19 pandemic. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Talisker. Although such statements are based on reasonable assumptions of Talisker's management, there can be no assurance that any conclusions or forecasts will prove to be accurate.

While Talisker considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect. Forward looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include risks inherent in the exploration and development of mineral deposits, including risks relating to changes in project parameters as plans continue to be redefined, risks relating to variations in grade or recovery rates, risks relating to changes in mineral prices and the worldwide demand for and supply of minerals, risks related to increased competition and current global financial conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic, access and supply risks, reliance on key personnel, operational risks, and regulatory risks, including risks relating to the acquisition of the necessary licenses and permits, financing, capitalization and liquidity risks.

The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof, and Talisker is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.

Figure 1: Map of the Bralorne Gold Project showing drill traces from today's release, major high-grade vein structures projected to surface (white) and surface infrastructure.

SOURCE: Talisker Resources Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627241/Talisker-Intersects-3800m-at-116-gt-Gold-and-1335m-at-169-gt-Gold-of-Near-Surface-Bulk-Tonnage-Gold-Mineralization-at-the-Charlotte-Zone-Bralorne-Gold-Project
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BOISE, Idaho (AP)  Idaho's judicial system faces a backlog of thousands of cases because of delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the chief justice of the state's highest court said.

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Bevan described the situation in his State of the Judiciary Address to the Idaho House and Senate last week, Idaho Press reported.





. . .
Cynet - Top 100 Best Places to Work in VA, 2021 Tweet this

To be considered for participation, companies had to fulfill the following eligibility requirements:

- Be a for-profit, not-for-profit business or government entity;

- Be a publicly or privately held business;

- Have a facility in the state of Virginia;

- Have at least 15 employees working in the state of Virginia; and

- Be in business a minimum of 1 year.

Companies from across the state entered the two-part survey process to determine the Best Places to Work in Virginia. The first part consisted of evaluating each nominated company's workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 25% of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. This part of the process was worth approximately 75% of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process in Virginia and also analyzed the data and used their expertise to determine the final ranking.

For more information on the Best Places to Work in Virginia program, visit www.BestPlacesToWorkVA.com.

Cynet Systems is a certified Minority Business Enterprise and a leading consulting firm headquartered in the Washington DC area with local and regional support across North America. Cynet Systems specializes in delivering qualified talent across varied industry verticals and diversified skill sets including Information Technology, Engineering, Professional, Healthcare, Industrial, and Manufacturing roles, adding value to its customers' recruitment initiatives as a trusted and valued diversity supplier. Visit Cynetsystems.com or connect with us on LinkedIn to learn more.

SOURCE Cynet Systems Inc.

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MDC-T national chairperson Morgen Komichi yesterday warned that Zanu PF would cruise to victory during the 2023 harmonised elections if the countrys opposition parties remained divided.

Komichi, one of the candidates that lost the MDC-T presidency to Douglas Mwonzora at the partys extraordinary congress last December, said the current disunity in the opposition camp would give Zanu PF victory on a silver platter.

The current institution of opposition political parties is disintegrated, he said on his Twitter account.

They pose no threat at all to Zanu PF come 2023. Either group, there is no one with the capacity to dislodge Zanu PF if this division continues. It is like the enemy is no longer Zanu PF.

Komichi said divisions within the MDC formations would only help Zanu PF to win in 2023, adding that the resolution to the countrys economic woes could only be possible through a united opposition.

Remember, before the MDC Alliance was formed, we were getting around 1,2 million votes and the number doubled because of the unity by all forces. People must unite and there is no need for fighting.

Ironically, Komichi and Mwonzora left the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance in a huff and joined the then Thokozani Khupe-led outfit, after the Supreme Court ruled that the appointment by the late MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai of two vice-presidents  Elias Mudzuri and Chamisa in 2016 was illegal.

Mwonzora and Khupe have since recalled over 30 MPs linked to Chamisa, as well as more than 80 councillors countrywide.

The MDC Alliance immediately dismissed Komichis assertions labelling them cheap politicking coming from a man whose party had already coalesced with Zanu PF to destroy MDC Alliance.

MDC Alliance national deputy spokesperson Clifford Hlatywayo said: They are already in a unity arrangement with Zanu PF and that is why they were helped to attempt to destroy the MDC Alliance by taking our properties, recalling our councillors and MPs among other actions.

Meanwhile, Jacob Ngarivhume of Transform Zimbabwe has already warmed up to uniting with the MDC Alliance. Newsday
Previously, GFRIEND member Sowon was under fire after sharing a number of photos of her posing with a Nazi statue to her Instagram account. Since then, Source Music has released a statement concerning the manner.

What is the controversy?

On Saturday, Jan. 30, Sowon shared three photos of her posing with a statue wearing a Nazi uniform. In one photo, she is seen affectionately holding the statue's cheeks. In another one, Sowon is seen with an arm wrapped around him and resting her head on his shoulder with her eyes closed. In the third photo, she is seen puckering her lips up at him.

Following backlash from fans concerning the controversial photo, Sowon quickly took the post down but did not address the comments. People were baffled by her ignorance concerning World War II, Nazis, the Holocaust, and anti-semitism. Many Koreans have come out to say that in school, they were extensively taught about the Holocaust and Nazi Germany due to its connection to South Korea's history with Japanese Imperialism. Because of that, people believe Sowon has no excuse to not know about the controversial nature of the statue.

After some digging, it was discovered that the photo was taken at a cafe where GFRIEND filmed their VCR for "Walpurgis Night." The cafe is themed around European history and makes use of Nazi soldiers as their point decor. It is unsure why that is the cafe.

Source Music's Statement Concerning GFRIEND Sowon's Nazi Photo Issue

On Monday, Feb. 1, Source Music released a statement concerning both Sowon's Instagram photos and their VCR for the album comeback show of "Walpurgis Night." They claimed that staff members did not notice the controversial attire of the mannequin, and the behind the scenes videos of the filming went live on their YouTube channel with no one noticing. They have since been edited out.

They also stated that Sowon had recently learned about the photo's meaning and immediately deleted it upon learning it. According to Source Music, she feels deeply responsible for uploading such photos.

Their whole statement reads:

Hello, this is Source Music.

We would like to genuinely apologize for causing controversy regarding the behind the scenes VCR of GFRIENDs comeback show, as well as the photos uploaded by Sowon.

In Nov. 2020, a staff member from an external broadcast station rented out a cafe in Paju to film the VCR for GFRIENDs comeback show. Our staff members also filmed videos there for our behind the scenes clips and take pictures for the members social media.

The staff member in charge did not realize there was an issue with the mannequins attire during the on-site inspection and continued filming throughout the day. Since then, a behind the scenes video was uploaded on Dec. 12, 2020, and photos were uploaded on Jan. 31, and both had to go through internal inspection before being released. Yet, they were posted without the problem being recognized.

We would like to apologize for failing to check in advance if there were inappropriate props at the filming location, for not carefully inspecting the filming process and posting the content, and for not giving proper attention to the potential societal issues and historical facts. We would like to bow our heads in apology to everyone who may have felt discomfort with the videos and photos.

The problematic clips of the video have been deleted. Sowon was also very shocked to learn about the meaning of the photos and deleted them immediately. She feels deeply responsible for posting such pictures.

We will make sure to carefully track the content we produce and share and see how it can affect groups of people. We will pay more attention to social issues in the future.

Once more, we would like to sincerely apologize to those who may have been hurt by the photos or video.

What do you think of the situation?

For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Alexa Lewis
Madrid regional premier Isabel Diaz Ayuso said on Monday that she will consider making waiters and other people who work directly with the public a priority group for coronavirus vaccination.

We have analyzed the possibility of speeding up vaccination in highly exposed sectors such as teachers, taxi drivers, supermarket cashiers, waiters... wrote the Popular Party (PP) leader on social media. But the first priority is to obtain vaccines for the most vulnerable people.

In theory, it is the Spanish Health Ministry, not regional governments, who establishes the priority groups for inoculation. The first people to get their shots were residents and employees of care homes, followed by frontline health workers, other healthcare personnel, and people with need for daily assistance who are not living in a care facility. Other groups will come later following an as yet undefined schedule. Depending on how specific this list is, regional officials will have more or less leeway to decide who gets inoculated next.

When mass vaccination becomes available, we will analyze the order of the various groups, said a source in the Madrid government. But the first item on the agenda is having enough vaccines.

Open restaurants

Diaz Ayuso also told hospitality industry leaders that the region will return to a midnight curfew as soon as the epidemiological data allow it. For now and until February 8 at least, the curfew begins at 10pm but food and drink establishments must close at 9pm. The 14-day incidence rate in the region is 993 cases per 100,000 people.

The Madrid government says that closing down the sector only creates bankruptcies and drives up unemployment, and notes that regions that have taken that step have not managed to curb the surge in coronavirus cases.

In Madrid we are doing everything we can to keep our hospitality industry and our culture [sector] open despite the political pressure we are getting from all institutions, said the regional premier. Diaz Ayuso was in Barcelona last weekend where she stated that: It is a crime to keep everything shut in Catalonia, with the [great] weather you have! The Madrid leader argued that the Catalan governments policy of closing the hospitality sector has forced a great many people in Catalonia to watch their businesses go under.

Other regional leaders within the conservative PP do not support Madrids decision to keep bars and restaurants open during the pandemic. Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the Galician premier, on Sunday told the regional daily La Voz de Galicia: Madrid has opted for a decision that I would not feel responsible about if I had to apply it to Galicia, and so I have opted for another. Other conservative leaders in Andalusia, Castilla y Leon and Murcia have also adopted tougher measures than Madrid.

It is a crime to keep everything shut in Catalonia, with the [great] weather you have! Madrid premier Isabel Diaz Ayuso

Madrid is playing with a bit of an advantage: in the space of what would be a province, it has six million people and a lot of hospitals, which gives it more flexibility, said a source in the Castilla y Leon government. During the second wave we closed large stores, the gaming sector and hospitality, and we provided them with aid to keep their outdoor seating open. It worked really well. Those are efficient measures. We have quickly brought down our cumulative incidence [of the coronavirus].

Castilla y Leon has ordered the closure of food and drink venues in Palencia and 52 other municipalities. In Galicia, these establishments are closed across the entire region, non-essential stores have to close by 6pm and shopping centers are shut on weekends. In Andalusia, non-essential stores as well as food and drink venues have to close at 6pm, or shut entirely if the local 14-day incidence rate is higher than 1,000 per 100,000.

In Murcia, another PP-governed region, only takeout and home delivery is allowed. Sources in the regional executive said the closures are a difficult but necessary measure, and above all an efficient one.

Regional leaders affiliated with the Socialist Party (PSOE) have also been critical of Madrids more lenient approach, without mentioning the region by name. Others in Spain are boasting about being less restrictive, so that when the barrier is lifted things will get complicated for everyone again, said the premier of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano Garcia-Page.

Distressed businesses

Gerardo Cuerva, presidente of Cepyme. PABLO MONGE

Cepyme, a small- and medium-sized business association, on Monday released a study suggesting that if Spain were to adopt a new home confinement, SMEs would sustain losses of 1.1 billion for every week of inactivity. Cepyme president Gerardo Cuerva asked the government for a direct-aid program in combination with tax benefits for the sector, and said that after 10 months of pandemic and a long list of restrictions, SMEs are on their last legs.

Spains new health minister, Carolina Darias  who replaced Salvador Illa last week  on Monday called on regional governments to expand their coronavirus measures as much as possible to improve the epidemiological figures. Meanwhile, Castilla-La Mancha leader Garcia-Page is planning to request national decisions against the pandemic if the third wave is not controlled. The request would likely be made at this weeks meeting of the Inter-Territorial Council of the National Health System, a gathering of regional and central health officials.

Under the state of alarm approved by parliament in late October and due to expire in May, it is up to regional authorities to implement coronavirus measures, with an overnight curfew being the only mandatory measure on a national level. This state of emergency does not allow for a full home confinement like the one that kept Spaniards indoors from March to June of last year.

With reporting by Juan Jose Mateo, Gorka R. Perez, Isabel Valdes and Elsa Garcia de Blas.

English version by Susana Urra.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Donald Trump endangered the lives of all members of Congress when he aimed a mob of supporters like a loaded cannon at the U.S. Capitol, House Democrats said Tuesday in making their most detailed case yet for why the former president should be convicted and permanently barred from office. Trump denied the allegations through his lawyers and called the trial unconstitutional.

The Democratic legal brief forcefully linked Trump's baseless efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election to the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, saying he bears unmistakable blame for actions that threatened the foundation of American democracy. It argued that he must be found guilty when his impeachment trial opens before the Senate next week on a charge of inciting the siege. And it used evocative language to conjure the day's chaos, when terrified members were trapped in the chamber" and called loved ones for fear they would not survive.

His conduct endangered the life of every single member of Congress, jeopardized the peaceful transition of power and line of succession, and compromised our national security," the Democratic managers of the impeachment case wrote. This is precisely the sort of constitutional offence that warrants disqualification from federal office.

Trump's lawyers responded with their own filing that denied that he had incited the riot by disputing the election results or by exhorting his followers to fight like hell. In any event, they said, the trial was unconstitutional now that Trump has left the White House.

The dueling filings offer the first public glimpse of the arguments that both sides intend to present at the impeachment trial, Trump's second. They show how Democrats will look to explicitly fault Trump for his role in the riot and to also make the case that his behaviour was so egregious as to require permanent disqualification from office. On the other side will be challenges to the trial's constitutionality and claims that Trump's speech was protected by the First Amendment.

It is denied that President Trump ever endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government, defence lawyers wrote in a 14-page brief.

The Constitution specifies that disqualification from office can be a punishment for an impeachment conviction.

This is not a case where elections alone are a sufficient safeguard against future abuse; it is the electoral process itself that President Trump attacked and that must be protected from him and anyone else who would seek to mimic his behaviour, the Democrats wrote.

The Democrats drew heavily on the words of prominent Republicans who have criticized the former president. Among them are Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who voted for Trump's impeachment and said there has never been a greater betrayal by a president, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said Trump provoked the rioters.

The only honourable path at that point was for President Trump to accept the results and concede his electoral defeat. Instead, he summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue, the Democrats wrote in their 77-page brief.

Still, Republicans have signalled that acquittal is likely, with many saying they think Congress should move on and questioning the constitutionality of an impeachment trial  Trump's second  now that he has left office. In a test vote in the Senate last week, 45 Republicans, including McConnell, voted in favour of an effort to dismiss the trial over those constitutional concerns.

Though no president has been tried after departing the White House, Democrats say there is precedent, pointing to an 1876 impeachment of a secretary of war who resigned his office in a last-ditch attempt to avoid an impeachment trial. The Senate held it anyway.

The Democrats wrote that the framers of the Constitution would not have wanted to leave the country defenceless against a presidents treachery in his final days, allowing him to misuse power, violate his Oath, and incite insurrection against Congress and our electoral institutions simply because he is leaving office. Setting that precedent now would horrify the Framers, the brief said.

There is no January Exception to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution, the Democrats wrote. A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last.
Israel and Kosovo established diplomatic ties on Monday, with the Muslim-majority territory recognising Jerusalem as the Jewish state's capital, putting it at odds with the rest of the Islamic world

Jerusalem, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2021 ):Israel and Kosovo established diplomatic ties on Monday, with the Muslim-majority territory recognising Jerusalem as the Jewish state's capital, putting it at odds with the rest of the Islamic world.

In a ceremony held over Zoom in Jerusalem and Pristina, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and his counterpart from Kosovo Meliza Haradinaj Stublla signed a joint declaration establishing ties.

Ashkenazi said he had approved Kosovo's "formal request to open an embassy in Jerusalem." Israel last year inked a series of deals brokered by former US president Donald Trump to establish diplomatic relations with Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

Those agreements, known collectively as the Abraham Accords, triggered criticism in many majority-Muslim countries.

But the Arab parties to the Abraham Accords have all maintained that their diplomatic missions in Israel will be in Tel Aviv.

That position is in line with global consensus against recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital until the Palestinian conflict is resolved.

In September, Trump announced at a summit originally organised to strike a deal between Kosovo and its former war foe Serbia that Kosovo and the Jewish state would establish diplomatic ties.

But the most eye-catching part of the summit was an announcement by Kosovo that it would mutually recognise Israel, and Serbia saying it would follow Washington's lead in moving its embassy to Jerusalem.

So far, however, Serbia has failed to honour its pledge, with some officials claiming the deal was non-binding.

Kosovo also said it was ready to set up its Israel mission in Jerusalem, in exchange for Israel's recognition, as it seeks to further legitimise its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and statehood.

bur/bs/pjm
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 19:56:13|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe will be among the first three African countries to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from China.

The other African countries to receive the vaccines first are Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea.

Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun said Tuesday that in all, China will supply the first batch of vaccines to 14 developing countries, the others being Pakistan, Brunei, Nepal, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Palestine and Belarus.

"Zimbabwe will be one of the first 14 countries to receive vaccine aid from China very soon," he said on Twitter.

Zimbabwe, like many other countries, is desperate to get vaccines that will stop the spread of COVID-19 which has so far killed 1,234 people from 33,548 infections as of Feb. 1.

Guo posted a statement from Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, who said that China had been acting through concrete actions on the commitment of making COVID-19 vaccines, developed and deployed in China, a global public product.

This would ensure that there is greater accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries.

"That's what we have been saying and what we've been doing," Wang said in the statement posted on Twitter. Enditem
Its been surprising to scientists, in a good way, how safe and effective these vaccines have been, Buchanan said. Yes, you can still get COVID-19 after it, but its good at preventing severe disease. It stimulates your body to make antibodies against the COVID virus. Thats why we still have to keep masking, social distancing and quarantining after getting the vaccine. I have confidence in our scientists and I also know this is our only way out of this pandemic.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2021 / Majestic Gold Corp. ("Majestic" or the "Company") (TSXV:MJS)(FSE:A0BK1D) is pleased to report that it has completed its initial drill program at the Fair Adelaide Project, located in Western Australia. The goal of this initial program at Fair Adelaide was to confirm and expand on mineralisation in holes drilled by previous operators.

The drill program consisted of a total of 21 holes drilled with 1,144 metres of aircore of drilling being completed in testing two discrete targets. 18 holes tested gold mineralisation at the Fair Adelaide East prospect near the western boundary of the property and 3 holes tested nickel targets at Puzzle Bear prospect in the center of the property. The Company awaits assay results from Intertek's Kalgoorlie laboratory. Results from the program are to be released once all data has been received and compiled by the Company.

The Fair Adelaide property covers a highly prospective portion of ultramafic rocks on the western limb of the Goongarrie-Mt Pleasant anticline in the prolific Kalgoorlie gold district which also hosts significant base metal occurrences. The greenstone rocks that host gold mineralisation at Fair Adelaide East play host regionally to the Siberia, Mt Pleasant and Paddington gold deposits.

At the Puzzle Bear prospect, two sub-parallel nickel bearing gossans adjacent to thrust faults were discovered in 2004. The geology at Puzzle Bear is along strike with rocks that hose nickel-cobalt mineralisation at the nearby Cawse Laterite deposits (Norilsk Nickel Australia).

The Property is located approximately 60 kilometres northwest of Kalgoorlie in the Ora Banda region of Western Australia. The eight contiguous tenements owned by Plutus Resources Pty. Ltd. ("Plutus") comprise a total area of 1,322 hectares and are within the Eastern Goldfields Province of the Archaean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia which covers a portion of the Ora Banda Domain of the Kalgoorlie Terrane. The property is situated within the Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt of the Eastern Goldfields Province.

About Majestic Gold

Currently focused solely in China, Majestic Gold Corp. is a British Columbia based company engaged in commercial gold production at the Songjiagou Gold Mine in eastern Shandong Province, China. Additional information on the Company and its projects is available at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.majesticgold.com.

For further information, please contact:

Stephen Kenwood, P.Geo., President and CEO

Telephone: (604) 560-9060

Email: info@majesticgold.com

Website: www.majesticgold.com

Cautionary Notes

Certain statements contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements which relate to future events. Such statements include estimates, forecasts and statements as to management's expectations with respect to, among other things, business and financial prospects, financial multiples and accretion estimates, future trends, plans, strategies, objectives and expectations, including with respect to production, exploration drilling, reserves and resources, exploitation activities and events or future operations. Information inferred from the interpretation of drilling results and information concerning mineral resource estimates may also be deemed to be forward-looking statements, as it constitutes a prediction of what might be found to be present when, and if, a project is actually developed.

In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may", "should", "expects", "plans, "anticipates", believes", "estimates", "predicts", "potential", or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

While these forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business, actual results will almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions, projections, assumptions or other future performance suggestions herein. Except as required by applicable law, Majestic Gold does not intend to update any forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results.

SOURCE: Majestic Gold Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627233/Majestic-Provides-Update-on-Drill-Program-at-Fair-Adelaide-Project
/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES./

TORONTO, Feb. 2, 2021 /CNW/ - Halo Collective Inc. ("Halo" or the "Company") (NEO: HALO) (OTCQX: AGEEF) (Germany: A9KN) is pleased to announce the closing of its previously announced overnight marketed public offering (the "Offering") of units of the Company (the "Units") for aggregate gross proceeds of $8,227,061.

A total of 91,411,794 Units of the Company were issued pursuant to the Offering, including an aggregate of 2,505,794 Units issued as a result of the partial exercise of the over-allotment option, at a price of $0.09 per Unit.

The Offering was completed pursuant to an underwriting agreement (the "Underwriting Agreement") dated January 26, 2021 between the Company and Eight Capital, Canaccord Genuity Corp. and PI Financial Corp. (collectively, the "Underwriters").

Each Unit consists of one (1) common share of the Company (each, a "Unit Share") and one (1) common share purchase warrant of the Company (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.125 at any time up to 30 months following closing of the Offering. The Warrants were issued pursuant to, and are governed by, the terms of a warrant indenture dated February 2, 2021 (the "Warrant Indenture") between the Company and Odyssey Trust Company.

The Warrants have been conditionally approved for listing on the Neo Exchange Inc. and are expected to commence trading following the closing, subject to the satisfaction of all listing conditions.

Pursuant to the terms of the Underwriting Agreement, the Underwriters received a cash commission equal to 7.0% of the gross proceeds from the sale of the Units pursuant to the Offering. As additional consideration for the services rendered in connection with the Offering, the Underwriters also recieved 6,398,825 compensation options to purchase up to 6,398,825 Units at an exercise price of $0.09 per Unit at any time up to 30 months following closing of the Offering.

The net proceeds received by the Company from the Offering are intended to be used for raw materials and packaging supplies, capital equipment, the build-out of the Company's proposed dispensary in North Hollywood, California, an indoor cultivation facility in Ukiah, California and working capital and general corporate purposes.

The Offering was made pursuant to the Company's short form base shelf prospectus dated September 2, 2020 (the "Base Prospectus") and a prospectus supplement to the Base Prospectus dated January 28, 2021 (the "Prospectus Supplement") in each of the provinces of Canada (except Quebec), and otherwise by private placement exemption in those jurisdictions where the Offering can lawfully be made, including the United States. Neither the Units nor the Unit Shares and the Warrants comprising the Units have been or will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and such securities may therefore not be offered or sold in the United States or to or for the account or benefit of a person in the United States or a U.S. Person (as defined in Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act) absent registration or an exemption from the registration requirements.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the Units in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Copies of the Base Prospectus, the Prospectus Supplement, the Underwriting Agreement and the Warrant Indenture are or will be available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Halo

Halo is a leading, vertically integrated cannabis company that cultivates, extracts, manufactures and distributes quality cannabis flower, oils and concentrates, and has sold approximately eight million grams of oils and concentrates since inception. Halo continues to evolve its business and scale efficiently, partnering with trustworthy leaders in the industry, who value the Company's operational expertise in bringing top-tier products to market. Current growth includes expansion in key U.S. markets, the United Kingdom, Africa, the Republic of Malta in partnership with MedCan Ltd., and planned expansion into the Canadian retail market.

Halo is led by a strong, diverse and innovative management team with deep industry knowledge and blue-chip experience. The company is currently operating in the U.S. in California, Oregon and Nevada. The Company sells cannabis products principally to dispensaries under its own brands Hush, Mojave, Exhale, and under partnership or license with OG DNA Genetics, Terphogz (doing business as Zkittlez), Winberry Farms and FlowerShop.

As part of continued expansion and vertical integration in the U.S., Halo boasts several grow operations throughout Oregon and California. In Oregon, the Company has a combined seven acres of outdoor cultivation, including East Evans Creek, a six-acre grow site in Jackson County, and Winberry Farms, a one-acre grow site in Lane County. In California, the Company is building out Ukiah Ventures, a planned 30,000-square-foot indoor grow, processing and manufacturing facility, including up to an additional five acres of industrial land to expand. Halo has also partnered with GMH to purchase Bar X Ranch in Lake County, California, with plans to develop up to 80 acres of cultivation, which would comprise the largest grow in Northern California.

Recently, the Company has entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Red Light Holland Corp. for the purpose of creating a joint venture to become a licensed psilocybin manufacturer to supply psilocybin products to licensed service centers in the State of Oregon.

Internationally, the Company is currently cultivating cannabis at Bophelo Bioscience & Wellness (Pty) Ltd ("Bophelo") in Lesotho, South Africa, which holds one of the largest marijuana cultivation licenses in Africa with a future capacity of up to 495 acres. To further Halo's global presence, the Company recently acquired cannabis-based product for medicinal use ("CBPM") importation and distribution licensing in the United Kingdom via cannabis suppliers Canmart Ltd. Halo expects the cultivation and manufacturing operations of Bophelo, combined with the importation and distribution capabilities of Canmart, to drive growth of a well-positioned business to serve the U.K. market.

For further information regarding Halo, see Halo's disclosure documents on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .



Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only Halo's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Halo's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans," "expects" or "does not expect," "is expected," "budget," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates" or "does not anticipate," or "believes," or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will be taken," "will continue," "will occur" or "will be achieved". Forward-looking information may relate to anticipated events or results including, but not limited to: the intended use of proceeds from the Offering, Halo's planned expansion into the Canadian retail market, Halo's planned operations in Malta, the expected size and capabilities of the final facility planned at Ukiah Ventures, the size of Halo's planned cultivation facility in Northern California and the ability of Bophelo and Canmart to serve the U.K. market.

By identifying such information and statements in this manner, Halo is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements. In addition, in connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, Halo has made certain assumptions. Although Halo believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Among others, the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information and statements are the following: delays in obtaining required approvals from regulators, changes in general economic;, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; delays in obtaining required licenses or approvals; delays or unforeseen costs incurred in connection with construction; the ability of competitors to scale operations in Northern California; delays or unforeseen difficulties in connection with the cultivation and harvest of Halo's raw material; and the other risks disclosed in the Company's annual information form dated April 16, 2020 and available on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.

The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and Halo does not undertake to update any forward looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward looking information and statements attributable to Halo or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

SOURCE Halo Collective Inc.

For further information: Halo Collective, Investor Relations, [email protected], www.haloco.com/investors

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Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmars armed forces commander-in-chief, has emerged as the countrys new strongman following Mondays coup. He has promised to hold elections after a one-year state of emergency but many remain wary since the countrys military chief has proven reluctant to call it quits.

Myanmars military chief, a general, Min Aung Hlaing, should have been quietly preparing to retire in July when he turns 65, the official retirement age for the commander-in-chief of the countrys armed forces.

But instead of preparing to leave office and focusing on preparing a successor, the general consolidated power in a military coup.

Citing electoral fraud in the November 2020 general elections  in which Nobel laureate and de facto ruler Aung San Suu Kyis party won a landslide 83 percent of the vote  the junta imposed a one-year state of emergency that will be followed by free and fair multiparty general elections, according to a statement released by the office of Myanmars Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services.

But it is impossible to know if Min Aung Hlaing will keep his word.

The aim of the army has always been to run the country, said Nehginpao Kipgen, executive director at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Jindal School of International Affairs in India, in an interview with FRANCE 24.

Rising up the ranks

Min Aung Hlaing has long intended to exercise power alone without the burden of a civilian head of government, according to a 2017 New York Times investigation. His plan is to become president by 2020, U Win Htein, an adviser to Suu Kyi, told the US daily.

The results of the November 8 parliamentary elections, however, dented his ambitions. Suu Kyis party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), swept the polls, confirming its position as the countrys leading political power. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) got just a fraction of the vote, in contrast.

It was an electoral setback that Min Aung Hlaing could not accept. Political tensions had been rising since the election results were announced, sparking fears of a military coup that escalated over the weekend. The military first disputed the results alleging massive fraud, then, after the validation of the vote by the electoral commission, they said they had no choice but to take power by force, said Kipgen.

The coup puts Min Aung Hlaing, the embodiment of Myanmars military system, at the helm of a country that has been under military rule for nearly half a century. Born in the southern city of Tavoy, now known as Dawei, Min Aung Hlaing studied in Rangoon, the countrys former capital, now Yangon. At 18, he entered the countrys military academy after a two-year stint in law school.

Its difficult to get a clear idea of the young recruits personality or confirm various stories about his youth.

Some childhood friends described him as taciturn and reserved to Reuters, while others described him as a bully who tended to humiliate his classmates, according to testimonies collected by the New York Times. Hla Oo, a Burmese writer exiled in Australia who knew him as a child, recalled a hard-working, studious young man who hardened himself in battle in the army ranks.

But he was not an obvious candidate for a future commander-in-chief. He climbed up the ranks slowly but surely, a former military academy officer told Reuters. Noted Kipgen: He was not someone who stood out in the Burmese army.

His luck began to turn when he joined the armys 88th Light Infantry Division, which was commanded at that time by a certain Colonel Than Shwe.

Min Aung Hlaing made Than Shwe his mentor and continued his career in the shadow of the man who, in 1992, rose to become head of the countrys military junta.

Cultivating an image on social media

In 2011, Than Shwe made Min Aung Hlaing his successor and the first armed forces commander-in-chief in Myanmars post-military junta era. His selection over other more experienced generals was likely due to the fact that Than Shwe thought he would be in the best position to perpetuate his vision for the army and the country, explained Kipgen.

As Than Shwes heir and faithful to the vision of an all-powerful military, Min Aung Hlaing negotiated with Suu Kyi, charting the course of Myanmars democratic transition. But as military chief, he played both sides. On the one hand, he was very careful in his dealings with the head of government, avoiding open confrontation as much as possible, Kipgen said.

But he also did everything possible to show that the army remains the real master of the political game.

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He went on several official trips, particularly to China and Japan, and received foreign dignitaries, such as Pope Francis in 2017. The trips and meetings were carefully recorded and shared on social media.

He is very good at cultivating an image of statesmanship, paying attention to the smallest detail, said Min Zin, director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy  Myanmar, a think tank in Yangon, in an interview with the New York Times.

But his public relations efforts failed to work outside Myanmar. For the international community, Min Aung Hlaing is regarded, above all, as the man behind the persecution of the countrys Rohingya Muslim minority starting in 2016.

Even if he is not directly and personally involved, militarily  as head of the army  he approved this campaign, noted Kipgen.

While several countries have adopted the term genocide to describe the militarys violations against the Rohingyas, Min Aung Hlaing openly defended the armys actions on Facebook and Twitter.

The military chief only uses the term Bengali to refer to the Rohingya, suggesting that they are foreigners who have no business being on Burmese soil. He also justified the armys actions by repeatedly stating that our regions must be controlled by the national races.

He was banned from travel to the United States and also banned from Twitter and Facebook in 2019.

With Min Aung Hlaings rise to power, the hardline faction within the military has put an end  for now  to Myanmars fragile democratic process. And for those who may have been looking forward to the military chiefs retirement, they will have to wait a little longer.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

France 24 is PREMIUM TIMES syndication partner. We have permission to republish
Longtime industry executive Sheryl Alberico will steer the company's strategy in Atlanta as regional sales director. With two decades of experience in the furniture industry, Alberico spent seven years at Steelcase, one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the world. She has worked in New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles and holds a B.A. in both interior design and architecture.

Vari CEO and Co-founder Jason McCann said, "Atlanta remains a top market in the U.S. with its expanding tech presence and impressive job growth, making it an obvious place to invest and grow. Sheryl, with her vast knowledge of the industry and tremendous sales experience is a major asset to our team."

Atlanta is the ninth largest metro area in the U.S. and is growing rapidly. With a strong economy on the upswing, the city is expected to add 46,500 jobs this year. Atlanta is home to the Centers for Disease Control and 16 Fortune 500 company headquarters. Key industries include technology, bioscience, manufacturing, and logistics.

"By design, Vari workspace solutions offer the flexibility to change the office layout quickly  which is more important than ever," said Alberico. "I look forward to working with Atlanta's business community to bring modern, adaptable workspaces to fast-growing companies."

The workspace company plans to open a Vari office furniture showroom and sales office in Buckhead in the near future.

Based in Dallas, Vari is known for taking sit-stand desks mainstream around the world. Vari is looking for local talent in corporate sales, as the company plans to continue to grow and expand its presence.

Vari opened showrooms in Austin, Baltimore, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, and Washington D.C. in 2020. The company is expanding into Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, and Tampa and is currently hiring in those markets.

About Vari

A workspace innovation company, Vari helps growing organizations unlock the potential of their space and their people. From a collection of office furniture to workspaces offering space-as-a-service, the company makes it easy for high-growth businesses to scale and flex their office space. Organizations all over the world  including over 98% of the Fortune 500  use Vari products, which are tested and certified to the highest industry standards.

Metro Atlanta Chamber, https://www.metroatlantachamber.com

Media Contact

Katie Norwood Satarino

Phone: 512-773-7002

[email protected]

SOURCE Vari

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 03:59:01|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The number of Turks that have received the first dose of the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine exceeded 2,137,000 on Monday. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority decided to extend the state of emergency for 30 days to curb the spread of the virus.

Turkey started mass vaccination of health workers for COVID-19 on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine.

As more and more people being inoculated, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the schools will gradually start face-to-face education as of March 1 in line with the number of COVID-19 cases.

Turkey on Monday reported 7,719 new COVID-19 cases, including 636 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 2,485,182, the country's health ministry announced.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 124 to 26,117, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,370,431 after 8,016 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

Also on Monday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas extended the state of emergency for 30 more days to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the Palestinian territories.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said in a press statement the extension will start from Tuesday.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye told the weekly meeting of the Palestinian cabinet in Ramallah that his government expects to receive 50,000 coronavirus vaccines within two weeks.

"The government will receive the first batch of 50,000 vaccines from several sources, the most important of which is through the International COVAX Facility," Ishtaye said.

COVAX is a WHO-backed global scheme for distributing the COVID-19 vaccines.

The prime minister said vaccination will start "in the middle of February in all the Palestinian territories" and the government "will provide a share of the vaccines to the Gaza Strip."

Earlier this week, Israel transferred a batch of vaccines to the Palestinian Authority, which will be used to inoculate Palestinian health workers. The move came after United Nations officials and human rights groups urged Israel to provide vaccines to the Palestinians.

On Monday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health added 586 new infections and 11 deaths in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

In Iran, which has the second-largest infection number in the Middle East after Turkey, health authorities announced on Monday the expansion of traffic restrictions implemented in cities on red and orange alert to cities on yellow alert.

"To preserve the great achievements in the control of COVID-19, the traffic restrictions that were effective in controlling the disease have been extended from orange alert areas to yellow ones," the Iranian Deputy Minister of Health and Medical Education Alireza Raisi said, as quoted by official news agency IRNA.

Raisi said there are currently 18 cities on an orange alert, some 124 others on yellow alert, and 306 cities on blue alert, the lowest alert level in the COVID-19 governmental evaluation system.

Earlier in the day, Iran's health ministry announced 6,597 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the country's overall count to 1,424,596 confirmed infections.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi said on Monday that Iraq would receive 3 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine late this month, while the Ministry of Health reported 984 new COVID-19 cases.

The efforts made by the Ministry of Health with the World Health Organization and companies producing vaccines, especially the companies approved by the Iraqi National Board for Selection of Drugs (NBSD), resulted in setting the end of this month as the date for delivery of vaccines to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, al-Tamimi said in a televised news conference.

"Iraq will get 2.5 to 3 million doses, which will arrive at the end of this month," al-Tamimi said without giving further details about the kind of vaccine.

He said that the vaccines will first be distributed to health personnel, security personnel, medical workers, elderly over 50 years old, and people with chronic diseases.

On Jan. 19, the ministry said that the NBSD had approved the emergency use of China's Sinopharm and Britain's AstraZeneca vaccines to contain the spread of the COVID-19 in the country.

Previously, the NBSD already approved the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to combat the pandemic.

Also in the day, a statement by the Ministry of Health reported 984 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total nationwide number of cases to 620,620.

The ministry also reported 10 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,057.

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 8,399 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the tally in the country to 651,405.

The death toll from the COVID-19 in Israel reached 4,813 after 27 new fatalities were added, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 1,165 to 1,139, out of 1,807 hospitalized patients.

The total recoveries rose to 573,205, with 795 newly recovered cases, while the active cases increased to 73,387.

The number of people vaccinated against the COVID-19 in Israel has surpassed 3.14 million, or 33.8 percent of its total population, since the vaccination campaign began on Dec. 20, 2020.

The Omani health ministry on Monday announced 198 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 134,524, while three deaths were reported, pushing the tally up in the Gulf country to 1,532.

The Qatari health ministry added 385 new COVID-19 infections for the past 24 hours, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 151,720.

Meanwhile, 147 more recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 145,953, while one reportedly died, pushing the fatalities up to 249. Enditem

A fresh row over virus border controls erupted last night as Labour called for watertight quarantine measures.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said the move was necessary after the South African coronavirus variant was detected in eight areas of England.

Describing the development as deeply worrying, he said: It shows the UK Governments quarantine system is not working with the country being exposed to dangerous strains of the virus and new cases now appearing.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, (pictured) said the move was necessary after the South African coronavirus variant was detected in eight areas of England

The idea to quarantine all arrivals in hotels was being considered in the Commons last night.

A vote during the Opposition day debate will not be binding on the Government and Tory MPs have reportedly been told to abstain by their whips.

Ministers announced compulsory quarantine for arrivals from 30 countries last month, mainly in South American and southern Africa. It is due to come into force next week.

But the Government has stopped short of requiring all arrivals to pay for ten days of self-isolation.

It is understood that Home Secretary Priti Patel had pushed for quarantine for all, but was overruled by Boris Johnson.

Mr Thomas-Symonds welcomed yesterdays decision to carry out enhanced testing for the South African variant but said: How can the Home Secretary justify keeping our borders open to Covid, allowing around 21,000 people to arrive every day?

It is understood that Home Secretary Priti Patel (pictured) had pushed for quarantine for all, but was overruled by Boris Johnson

Conservative MPs must vote with Labour to secure our borders against Covid and help to prevent progress on the vaccine being undermined.

The Government must also ensure that adequate support is put in place for those required to self-isolate.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: Throughout the pandemic we have taken firm action to protect our border and save lives.

Everyone arriving in the UK is required to isolate, but as we face a threat from new strains of the virus, it is right that we have taken more action... to protect our NHS and roll-out of the vaccine programme.

Labours plan to put around 20,000 people a day in hotels is implausible. Thats why our new measures are designed to reduce flow across the border.
All Brexit checks on animal and food products arriving at ports in Northern Ireland have been suspended over threatening loyalist behaviour.

Import inspections at Belfast and Larne were stopped 'with immediate effect' last night as Stormont's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) assessed risk to workers at the sites.

The decision came after a local council decided to remove 12 of its staff at Larne port due to 'an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks'.

A Daera spokesman said: 'On the basis of information received today and pending further discussions with the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland), Daera has decided in the interests of the wellbeing of staff to temporarily suspend physical inspections of products of animal origin at Larne and Belfast.

'The situation will be kept under review and in the meantime full documentary checks will continue to be carried out as usual.'

The implementation of the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, a system of Irish Sea regulatory and customs checks required under the terms of the Brexit divorce deal, has inflamed community tensions.

Politicians on both sides have appealed for calm, with the DUP warning that 'all threats must be condemned'.

Animal and food product inspections at Northern Ireland's Belfast and Larne ports were stopped 'with immediate effect' last night over safety fears for staff

The decision came after a local council agreed to remove 12 of its staff at Larne port due to 'an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks'.

Last month graffiti appeared near to the ports, with one message saying 'No Irish sea border' and another 'Ulster sold out!'.

Another also referenced tensions about the impact of the Northern Ireland Protocol and describing all port staff as 'targets'.

There have also been a number of daubings in Belfast amid anger at the protocol, with a raft of new checks on goods arriving at ports from Great Britain introduced at the start of the year.

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council said the situation had caused 'extreme distress and worry to staff' and it had 'no option but to withdraw them from their duties in order to fulfil its duty of care and carry out a full risk assessment with the PSNI, Food Standards Agency and Daera'.

It apologised for any disruption but said 'the safety and wellbeing of staff is of paramount importance'.

In addition to fears over graffiti, it is understood staff expressed concerns that individuals had been spotted taking down number plate details.

Outgoing Stormont minister Edwin Poots said 'it is a time for calm heads and a time for wise behaviour' as he warned the protocol had 'certainly created a lot of tension in the community'.

The senior Democratic Unionist, who stepped down at midnight ahead of undergoing cancer treatment, said: 'Ultimately the people who are doing their jobs, who are going to their work, are not their enemies.

'They are people who are simply carrying out a job, whether it is the Department of Agriculture, the local council or Food Standards Agency.'

The former agriculture minister added: 'Those people should be allowed to do their jobs in peace. Any threat against them should be withdrawn and allow people to carry on their duties.'

Loyalists are angry at the imposition of a new economic border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The suspension of checks came as focus on the protocol intensified following last week's ill-fated move by the EU to suspend aspects of its operation amid the furore over vaccine supply in the bloc.

The European Commission swiftly backtracked after facing intense criticism for attempting to hinder the free flow of movement across the Irish border in respect of vaccines.

Police last month warned that discontent in loyalist communities was 'growing' over the protocol, which is designed to make sure Northern Ireland follows EU customs rules but has caused delays at ports because of new declarations and checks.

The PSNI are to hold talks with border agencies and the Northern Irish government later today about the physical Brexit checks that have been in place since January 1.

'The safety of staff working at points of entry is of the utmost importance to us,' said PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan. 'Where we have any credible information we will share that with our partners and take appropriate action.

'We have increased patrols at Larne Port and other points of entry in order to reassure staff and the local community.'

Peter Johnston, the Mayor of Mid and East Antrim where the port of Larne is located said: 'We have seen what I would describe as deeply troubling graffiti and a very notable upping of community tensions towards the NI Protocol, particularly in recent days.

A police investigation was launched after the words 'all border post staff are targets' (pictured) appeared spray painted on a wall in Larne, County Antrim, on Thursday

'The health and wellbeing of our staff is always this council's number one priority and that is why the decision has been taken to withdraw them from their work at the port with immediate effect until we have very real assurances and full confidence that they can go about their duties without fear, threat or concern for their wellbeing.'

Sinn Fein councillor James McKeown said: 'Our staff will step away from this work and will only return when we are totally satisfied it is safe and right for them to do so.

'There are simmering tensions within the local community at present and we will not stand by and let our staff be targeted when they are just doing their jobs.'

The DUP has been vociferous in its opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol's operation.

The party's North Antrim MP Ian Paisley condemned the threats to staff but said the protocol was 'bound to cause these problems'.

'Such tactics have no place in a democracy,' he said.

'This is the sad reality of those who imposed terms on Northern Ireland without the consent of the delicate community balance which exists here. The protocol was bound to end in tears and here we have society's structure falling apart.

'When (former Irish premier) Leo Varadkar shamefully distributed copies of border posts being blown up in Newry 30 years ago around EU Commission members, he demonstrated that violence and the threat of violence has a seat at the table.

Last month graffiti appeared near to the ports, with one message saying 'No Irish sea border' and another 'Ulster sold out!'

'At the heart of progress in Northern Ireland has been cross-community consent.

'Those who thought they could impose something against the will of every unionist are now reaping the seeds of division they have sown.

'The protocol was bound to cause these problems given the triumphant approach by republicans and nationalists and the wilful ignorance that 50 per cent of the population was opposed to the protocol.'

Fellow DUP MP Sammy Wilson echoed a similar sentiment as he tweeted: 'The safety of all staff - Council & otherwise - must be paramount.

'All threats must be condemned and cross party support for withdrawal is welcome.

'Those parties who talked up the threat of violence during the negotiations need to reflect. The NIP must go but politics is the way.'
Boston Dynamics is expanding its lineup of robotic dogs with a model that can self-charge. Spot Enterprise comes with a charging dock that allows the robot to replenish its batteries without the help of humans. As such, it can operate in remote or dangerous areas for longer.

Spot Enterprise has upgraded hardware that bolsters safety and communications, according to the company. The robot can carry out actions autonomously across a wider area than the previous model and operators can quickly retrieve large data sets from it. Boston Dynamics says it expanded Spot Enterprise's WiFi support and increased the flexibility of the robot's payload ports.

Along with Spot Enterprise, Boston Dynamics announced a browser-based system called Scout that allows users to operate Spot remotely. It allows people to control the robot manually or run pre-programmed autonomous actions with a simple user interface.

The company also announced Spot Arm, a robotic arm that can grasp, lift, carry, place and drag a range of objects manually or semi-autonomously. The arm can help Spot to open and shut valves, turn handles and knobs and pull levers, which will allow it to open doors. The robot can also be equipped with a thermal imaging payload that has 30x optical zoom.

Boston Dynamics says it has sold more than 400 Spot Explorers since it opened commercial sales in June. While its only selling the robots to companies for now, it plans to make Spot available for home use someday.
Tumors can be damaging to surrounding blood vessels and tissues even if they're benign. If they're malignant, they're aggressive and sneaky, and often irrevocably damaging. In the latter case, early detection is key to treatment and recovery. But such detection can sometimes require advanced imaging technology, beyond what is available commercially today.

For instance, some tumors occur deep inside organs and tissues, covered by a mucosal layer, which makes it difficult for scientists to directly observe them with standard methods like endoscopy (which inserts a small camera into a patient's body via a thin tube) or reach them during biopsies. In particular, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs)--typically found in the stomach and the small intestines--require demanding techniques that are very time-consuming and prolong the diagnosis. Now, to improve GIST diagnosis, Drs. Daiki Sato, Hiroaki Ikematsu, and Takeshi Kuwata from the National Cancer Center Hospital East in Japan, Dr. Hideo Yokota from the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, Japan, and Drs. Toshihiro Takamatsu and Kohei Soga from Tokyo University of Science, Japan, led by Dr. Hiroshi Takemura, have developed a technology that uses near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI) along with machine learning. Their findings are published in Nature's Scientific Reports.

"This technique is a bit like X-rays, the idea is that you use electromagnetic radiation that can pass through the body to generate images of structures inside," Dr. Takemura explains, "The difference is that X-rays are at 0.01-10 nm, but near-infrared is at around 800-2500 nm. At that wavelength, near-infrared radiation makes tissues seem transparent in images. And these wavelengths are less harmful to the patient than even visible rays."

This should mean that scientists can safely investigate something that is hidden inside tissues, but until the study by Dr. Takemura and his colleagues, no one had attempted to use NIR-HSI on deep tumors like GISTs. Speaking of what got them to go down this line of investigation, Dr. Takemura pays homage to the late professor who began their journey: "This project has been possible only because of late Prof. Kazuhiro Kaneko, who broke the barriers between doctors and engineers and established this collaboration. We are following his wishes."

Dr. Takemura's team performed imaging experiments on 12 patients with confirmed cases of GISTs, who had their tumors removed through surgery. The scientists imaged the excised tissues using NIR-HSI, and then had a pathologist examine the images to determine the border between normal and tumor tissue. These images were then used as training data for a machine-learning algorithm, essentially teaching a computer program to distinguish between the pixels in the images that represent normal tissue versus those that represent tumor tissue.

The scientists found that even though 10 out of the 12 test tumors were completely or partly covered by a mucosal layer, the machine-learning analysis was effective in identifying GISTs, correctly color-coding tumor and non-tumor sections at 86% accuracy. "This is a very exciting development," Dr. Takemura explains, "Being able to accurately, quickly, and non-invasively diagnose different types of submucosal tumors without biopsies, a procedure that requires surgery, is much easier on both the patient and the physicians."

Dr. Takemura acknowledges that there are still challenges ahead, but feels they are prepared to solve them. The researchers identified several areas that would improve on their results, such as making their training dataset much larger, adding information about how deep the tumor is for the machine-learning algorithm, and including other types of tumors in the analysis. Work is also underway to develop an NIR-HSI system that builds on top of existing endoscopy technology.

"We've already built a device that attaches an NIR-HSI camera to the end of an endoscope and hope to perform NIR-HSI analysis directly on a patient soon, instead of just on tissues that had been surgically removed," Dr. Takemura says, "In the future, this will help us separate GISTs from other types of submucosal tumors that could be even more malignant and dangerous. This study is the first step towards much more groundbreaking research in the future, enabled by this interdisciplinary collaboration."

For now, a means of accurately and non-invasively detecting GISTs early on could be clinically available widely, soon!

###

Reference

Authors: Daiki Sato (1), Toshihiro Takamatsu (2,3), Masakazu Umezawa (4), Yuichi Kitagawa (4), Kosuke Maeda (5), Naoki Hosokawa (4), Kyohei Okubo (4,6), Masao Kamimura (4,6), Tomohiro Kadota (1), Tetsuo Akimoto (7,8), Takahiro Kinoshita (9), Tomonori Yano (1), Takeshi Kuwata (10), Hiroaki Ikematsu (1,2), Hiroshi Takemura (3,5), Hideo Yokota (11) & Kohei Soga (3,4,6)

Title of original paper: Distinction of surgically resected gastrointestinal stromal tumor by near-infrared hyperspectral imaging

Journal: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79021-7

Affiliations:

(1) Department of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Japan.

(2) Exploratory Oncology Research & Clinical Trial Center, National Cancer Center, Japan.

(3) Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, Japan.

(4) Department of Materials Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Japan.

(5) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, Japan.

(6) Imaging Frontier Center, Tokyo University of Science, Japan.

(7) Division of Radiation Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Japan.

(8) Course of Advanced Clinical Research of Cancer, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.

(9) Department of Gastric Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Japan.

(10) Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratories, National Cancer Center Hospital, East Japan.

(11) RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, Japan.

Further Information

Professor Hiroshi Takemura

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Tokyo University of Science

Email: takemura@rs.tus.ac.jp

Hiroaki Ikematsu, MD, PhD

Department of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy

National Cancer Center Hospital East

Email: hikemats@east.ncc.go.jp

Team Leader: Hideo Yokota (D.Eng.)

Image Processing Research Team

RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics

Email: hyokota@riken.jp

Funding information

This study was partially funded by The National Cancer Center Research and Development Fund.
MANISTEE, MI  A well-known Muskegon-area restauranteur is taking the famous Fricano family pizza recipe north to Manistee with the purchase of a defunct restaurant property overlooking the Manistee River.

Fricanos Manistee River is expected to open this fall, after a major interior and exterior renovation, said Ted Fricano, the new owner of 440 River St. in Manistee.

It was three years ago that Fricano first became interested in setting up shop in Manistee, a once-bustling Victorian-era lumber town thats working to establish itself as a tourism destination. At the time, he looked at two properties downtown properties. The former Boathouse Grill, 440 River St., was one of them, but it didnt work out.

However, the hospitality of the small town, sandwiched between Lake Michigan and Manistee Lake, made a lasting impression, Fricano told MLive.

The city of Manistee, three years ago, welcomed me with open arms, he said. I never forgot their hospitality.

Fricano has no long-standing connections in the area, but there was this warm attraction that kept bringing me back to Manistee, he said.

And the city didnt forget his interest either. In March 2020, Fricano received a call from the Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce. The Boathouse Grill property had come available in foreclosure, and they wanted to know if Fricano was still interested in purchasing it.

Its very flattering when the city calls and wants you to set up shop, Fricano said. I was just touched by that.

As the COVID-19 pandemic raged throughout the state that spring, Fricano consulted with financial advisors. He expected the advice to be against purchasing property. To his surprise, it was the opposite.

In June, he toured the property. By July, he had a purchase agreement. The deal closed on Thursday, Jan. 25. Fricano declined to share the purchase price but did say hes investing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Theres a long road ahead before opening, Fricano said. He has plans for significant cosmetic renovations of the dining area, kitchen, facade and the deck overlooking Manistee River. He expects the work to take about four months but isnt sure when it will begin.

No one will walk into 440 River and remember what it used to be after Im done with it, he said. It has to be perfect. The city of Manistee deserves a fantastic gateway from the river into their beautiful city.

The pandemic is not a factor in the decision to wait until the fall to open, Fricano said.

I will not be stopped by COVID or our government or anything else, he said. We are keeping our head down and we are laser focused for success. That is how we get through COVID  not by whining and being miserable. We know that better days are ahead.

When Fricanos Manistee River opens, the original pizza recipe by Phyllis Fricano  Ted Fricanos grandmother  will be the star of the show. Other entrees and sides will also be on the menu.

The original Fricanos in Grand Haven opened in 1949. It was owned by Gus, Phyllis and Tom Fricano, Teds dad, grandma and uncle, respectively. The Fricano family still owns that location and one in Holland. Teds brother Doug owns the Fricanos on Alpine Avenue. His brother Phil owns Fricanos locations in Kalamazoo and Caledonia. All Fricanos locations use grandma Phyllis recipe.

Ted Fricano owns Fricano Place in downtown Muskegon, which includes Fricanos Muskegon Lake, Fricanos Sweet Shoppe and The Event Center at Fricano Place. He also owns TEDs in Spring Lake, which does not serve the family pizza.

Fricanos investment in the Northern Michigan town comes within months of a proposal to build a five-story Hampton Inn and Suites overlooking Lake Michigan near Manistees First Street Beach. The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians also has plans to invest in the city with a total overhaul of the first block of downtown Manistee; dubbed The Gateway Project, it also features a hotel.

READ MORE:

Restaurants reopen today for indoor dining  here are Michigans new rules

This Northern Michigan town has transformed into an outdoor dining village

Tribes project featuring hotel to reinvent entry to downtown Manistee

House of Flavors, known for its ice cream, closes in Manistee

Hampton Inn could rise 5 stories on Up North Lake Michigan beach
Being recognized by Entrepreneur as one of the top 500 franchises is a real honor, says MassageLuXe CEO Mark Otter. Everyone on our team works hard, and it's great to see that hard work pay off. We are excited to be on this journey and cant wait to watch MassageLuXe continue to grow.

MassageLuXe, a leading massage franchise, recently ranked in Entrepreneur magazines Franchise 500, the worlds first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking. Placement in the Franchise 500 is a highly sought-after honor in the franchise industry, making it one of the companys most competitive rankings ever. Recognized as an invaluable resource for potential franchisees, the Franchise 500 ranks MassageLuXe as #270, from #297 in 2019, for its outstanding performance in areas including unit growth, financial strength and stability and brand power.

2020 was a challenging year for everyone, but it was also a year of unusual opportunity, says Jason Feifer, Entrepreneur editor-in-chief. Franchises were able to be nimble and innovative, serving the needs of franchisees and customers in ways that will resonate for many years to come. We believe that, when we eventually look back on this time, well see it as a moment when many brands defined themselves for the future.

In Entrepreneurs continuing effort to best understand and evaluate the ever-changing franchise marketplace, the companys 42-year-old ranking formula continues to evolve as well. The key factors that go into the evaluation include costs and fees, size and growth, support, brand strength, and financial strength and stability. Each franchise is given a cumulative score based on an analysis of more than 150 data points, and the 500 franchises with the highest cumulative scores become the Franchise 500 in ranking order. The Franchise 500 has become both a dominant competitive measure for franchisors and a primary research tool for potential franchisees. The brands position on the ranking is a testament to its strength as a franchise opportunity.

Being recognized by Entrepreneur as one of the top 500 franchises is a real honor, says MassageLuXe CEO Mark Otter. Everyone on our team works hard, and it is great to see that hard work pay off. We are excited to be on this journey and cant wait to watch MassageLuXe continue to grow in the coming years.

MassageLuXe is a fast-growing massage and spa franchise that provides luxurious treatments to clients across the country. The demand for massage services is growing rapidly as more people seek out the health benefits of this time-honored practice. MassageLuXe offers services to help clients relax, remove pain and restore health.

To view MassageLuXe in the full ranking, visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchise500. Results can also be seen in the January/February 2021 issue of Entrepreneur, available on newsstands January 26.

About MassageLuXe

Founded in 2008 in St. Louis, Missouri, MassageLuXe is a fast-growing franchise-based spa company with a mission to provide an unparalleled experience that supports and encourages health, wellbeing, and quality of life. MassageLuXe delivers the highest quality massage, facial, and waxing services in a comfortable, relaxing, and luxurious environment.

Massage is a service that improves health, promotes relaxation and overall wellbeing for the consumer, and has been practiced throughout the world for thousands of years. MassageLuXe currently has 69 locations across 16 states and is planning to expand to 250 locations in the next five years.

For more information about MassageLuXe, please go to https://massageluxe.com/.

For franchising information about MassageLuXe, please go to https://franchise.massageluxe.com/.

About Entrepreneur Magazine

Entrepreneur magazine is a national business publication based in Irvine, California. For nearly 40 years, Entrepreneur has been the definitive guide to all the diverse challenges of business ownership.

Published 12 times a year, the magazine is available by subscription and on newsstands in the United States and Canada, both in print and now a mobile app.
[February 02, 2021] HomeServe Cares Foundation Awards $132,000 in Grants in 2020

In 2020, HomeServe USA, a leading provider of home repair solutions, awarded seven grants totaling more than $92,000 through its HomeServe Cares Foundation (HSCF) "Caring for Community" grant program. The grants are awarded to non-profits and municipalities to support community-based programs. In a year dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of the grants supported initiatives to help restock food pantries, purchase Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and install new safety measures. With communities continuing to struggle to ensure at-risk residents are taken care of during the pandemic, HSCF also made four significant contributions totaling $40,000 to food banks in late December 2020 and in early January 2021. The recipients were the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama in Birmingham; Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans in Louisiana; the Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee; and America's Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia located in Savannah. In addition to the "Caring for Community" grant program, another pillar of the HomeServe Cares Foundation is "Caring for People." Through this initiative, HomeServe completes pro bono home repair jobs for eligible homeowners who find themselves facing a home emergency they are unable to handle financially. In 2020, HomeServe completed 113 pro bono jobs with a total value of $284,000. "The grants awarded and the pro bono jobs completed in 2020 are just a sampling of the great work being done every day by the HomeServe Cares Foundation to support the Foundation's mission to spread hope and support communities one home at a time," said Tom Rusin, Global CEO of HomeServe Membership. "As we look ahead to what 2021 has n store and the sad reality that the pandemic will continue to impact communities across the country, we will work tirelessly to find ways to help those in need and to get Americans through this difficult time."



Working with its municipal and utility partners, HomeServe also supported charitable initiatives across the country in 2020. In Texas, in coordination with funding from CenterPoint Energy, HomeServe donated in-kind services to the non-profit Rebuilding Together Houston to complete crucial home renovations for five residents impacted by storm damage. As part of a partnership with Dominion Energy, HomeServe provided funding to the United Way of Midlands in South Carolina and the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. Additionally, in December, HomeServe employees in Chattanooga, Tenn. donated more than 300 toys to the Chambliss Center for Children. More about the HomeServe Cares Foundation and the Foundation's FY20 Annual Report are available on www.HomeServeCaresFoundation.com. Also, click here for a new interactive map with details of the completed HomeServe Cares repair jobs.

About HomeServe HomeServe USA Corp. (HomeServe) is a leading provider of home repair solutions serving more than 4.5 million customers across the US and Canada under the HomeServe, Home Emergency Insurance Solutions, Service Line Warranties of America (SLWA), Service Line Warranties of Canada (SLWC) names, and through locally branded HVAC companies located in major metro areas. Since 2003, HomeServe has been protecting homeowners against the expense and inconvenience of water, sewer, electrical, HVAC and other home repair emergencies by providing affordable repair coverage, installations and quality local service. As an A+ rated Better Business Bureau Accredited Business, HomeServe is dedicated to being a customer-focused company supplying best-in-class repair plans and other services to consumers directly and through over 1,000 leading municipal and utility partners. HomeServe has teamed up with executive producer, host, and best-selling author Mike Rowe, best known as the creator and host of the hit TV series Dirty Jobs, to work together to provide homeowners expert advice on maintaining, enhancing and protecting their homes. For more information about HomeServe, a Great Place To Work certified winner and recipient of thirty 2020 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, or to learn more about HomeServe's affordable repair plans, please go to www.homeserve.com. Connect with HomeServe on Facebook and Twitter (News - Alert) @HomeServeUSA. For news and information follow on Twitter @HomeServeUSNews. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005676/en/

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GREENVILLE, S.C., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin, one of the largest plaintiffs' firms in North Carolina, is now also fighting for victims who need justice in South Carolina. The firm recently opened a new office in Greenville. South Carolinians who have been hurt or have lost a loved one due to a car wreck, an accident at work, medical malpractice, a defective product, or other forms of personal injury are urged to contact the new Greenville office for a free case evaluation.

Heading the office is attorney and Shareholder Walter McBrayer Wood , a Greenville County native. "I've spent half of my career serving South Carolinians," says Wood, who is returning to South Carolina after working from the firm's headquarters in Durham, N.C. "It's an honor to be back home, helping folks through trying times." Wood was born in Greer and previously worked in Columbia, Barnwell, and Georgetown.

Veteran attorney Michael B. Eller is also staffing the new Greenville office. Eller has been advocating for South Carolinians for over 15 years. He draws on his experience as both a solo practitioner and large firm attorney to lead personal injury and workers' compensation clients throughout the complex process.

President James S. Farrin is excited to bring the firm into South Carolina. "Our greatest satisfaction comes from making a difference in clients' lives," says Farrin. "Now, we are proud to fight for those who need a voice in South Carolina, too."

About The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin

The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is one of the largest personal injury firms in North Carolina and has served over 50,000 injured people since 1997. Operating from 16 offices in NC and one in SC, many of the firm's 50+ accomplished attorneys are recognized professionals in their fields. The firm focuses on providing quality legal services to as many people as possible in the following practice areas: personal injury, car accidents, workers' compensation, nursing home abuse, whistleblowing, defective products, eminent domain, mass torts, class actions, and Social Security Disability.

Offices in Durham (main), Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, NC and Greenville, SC. Attorney J. Gabe Talton: 280 South Mangum St., Suite 400, Durham, NC.

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David Chamberlin

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Here what to do in Ocean City on rainy days
Delhi Police have fixed nails on the ground near barricades at Ghazipur (Delhi-Uttar Pradesh) border. (Image: ANI)

With parked DTC buses sealing the main entry points, multi-layer barricades and checkpoints, Ghazipur, the new focal point of the farmers' agitation, appeared to be turning into a fortress on February 1.

Security arrangements continue to be strengthened at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border site, which is galvanising farmers from Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand days after an emotional appeal by Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait.

No major road is now open for the movement of vehicles and people, which is proving to be a growing problem for many passing the stretch.

A portion of the road is studded with nails. Concertina wire is a new addition, also mentioned by Tikait while addressing a packed crowd from the main stage.

"They have put these barbed wires, not us. They are not allowing people to come to Delhi. We are not the one blocking the roads. If we block roads, they ask us to vacate, but no action is taken when the same is done by these security forces," he said.

Drones have also been deployed to monitor the protesters.

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the farmers' protest

Police are beefing up security at the other protest sites on Delhi's borders as well, after the Republic Day clashes between police and protesters taking part in a tractor parade.

On January 27, after the Republic Day violence, the atmosphere was tense at Ghazipur.

The Ghaziabad administration had issued an "ultimatum" to the protesters to vacate a stretch of the Delhi-Meerut expressway they have been occupying for two months, protesting against the new farm laws enacted at the Centre.

As security at the Ghazipur site increased, fears grew that the protesters would be forcibly evicted. But an emotional outburst by Rakesh Tikait led to more farmers converging there.

Commuters, facing problems since December 2020 on the stretch occupied by the protesters, say the situation has worsened after the new restrictions.

Like the security personnel, farmers too have set up checkpoints.

"We don't allow the locals to enter without any rhyme or reason. Even if you are the media, you have to show your id-card for entry. The drill is applied round the clock," said a volunteer, standing next to a makeshift checkpoint.

An elderly farmer said the protesters will not be deterred by the new measures.

"These barricades, nails and barbed wires are put to deter the farmers but we are not going to quit the movement because of the show of force. We appeal to the prime minister with folded hands to repeal the new laws so that we can go back to our villages and take care of our families, farms and cattle," he said.

Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been camping at Delhi's borders for two months, seeking a repeal of the three central laws. They claim that the new laws will weaken the minimum support price (MSP) system. But the Centre says the laws will only give farmers more options to sell their produce.
Scientists have revealed an incredibly detailed image of the moon's surface showing objects as small as five metres in diameter, captured with reflected radar signals.

The image, released by the US's National Radio Astronomy Observatory, shows the landing site of NASA's Apollo 15 mission in 1971 and the surrounding grooves and jagged craters.

To obtain the image, researchers used satellites that shoot a powerful radar signal towards the moon, which was then reflected back to a system of 10 radio telescopes in North America, called the Very Long Baseline Array.

The final result marks a successful preliminary test of the highly complex radio telescope system.

Now, scientists want to develop it further to capture more detailed images from much deeper into our Solar System, including the surfaces of Neptune and Uranus.

New radar image of the Apollo 15 landing site, located with respect to prominent lunar features. Apollo 15 landed at HadleyApennine, a region on the near side of the moon, on July 30, 1971

'The planned system will be a leap forward in radar science, allowing access to never-before-seen features of the solar system from right here on Earth,' said Karen O'Neil, site director of the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia.

The project combines the efforts of the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Observatory (GBO), National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and Raytheon Intelligence & Space.

GBO's Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia  the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope  was outfitted with a new transmitter developed by Raytheon Intelligence & Space, allowing it to transmit the radar signal into space.

The NRAO's continent-wide Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) received the signal once reflected from the lunar surface and produced the image.

The image was captured in November last year but has only just been released by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

GBT-VLBA radar image of the region where Apollo 15 landed in 1971. The snake-like feature is Hadley Rille, a remnant of ancient volcanic activity, probably a collapsed lava tube

Apollo 15 - NASA, 1971. Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin uses a scoop to dig in the lunar soil in front of Mount Hadley, 1971

Apollo 15 Commander Dave Scott salutes the American flag at the the Hadley-Apennine lunar landing site. The Lunar Module 'Falcon' is partially visible on the right, 1971

The new image shows the Apollo 15 landing site right next to a snake-like indentation called Hadley Rille, a remnant of ancient volcanic activity, probably a collapsed lava tube.

The crater at top, alongside the rille, is called Hadley C and is about 3.7 miles (6 kilometres) in diameter.

Apollo 15 landed at Hadley-Apennine, a region on the near side of the lunar surface, on July 30, 1971.

It was the ninth crewed mission in NASA's Apollo program and the fourth to land on the moon.

The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the world's largest fully-steerable radio telescope. This telescope is being equipped with a new planetary radar transmitter for studying objects in the Solar System.

Antenna locations of the continent-wide Very Long Baseline Array. These antennas serve as the receiving sites for the reflected radar signal from the Green Bank Telescope

Using the information collected with this latest test, scientists will finalise a plan to develop a 500-kilowatt, high-power radar system that can image objects in the Solar System 'with unprecedented detail and sensitivity'.

This will allow astronomers to use radar signals as far away as the orbits of Uranus and Neptune  the two outermost planets in our Solar System, residing around 1.6 billion and 2.7 billion miles away from our home planet, respectively.

'The proof-of-concept test, culminating a two-year effort, paves the way for designing a more powerful transmitter for the telescope,' NRAO said in a statement.

'More power will allow enhanced detection and imaging of small objects passing by the Earth, moons orbiting around other planets and other debris in the Solar System.'
(Natural News) Some Asian officials and health experts remained anxious about COVID-19 vaccines that use mRNA technology, which instructs the human body to produce proteins that then develop protective antibodies. Its the first time to use that technology in a global vaccination effort.

While the technology sped up the process of developing vaccines to combat the pandemic, it also prompted major Asian countries to proceed with caution and take their time before granting regulatory approvals for vaccines.

There have been some reports of allergic reactions from the COVID-19 vaccine, including anaphylactic shock and incidents like the death of a health worker 16 days after receiving the Pfizer shot, but a link has not been established and millions of people have already been vaccinated without incident.

Its not a bad thing to sit back a bit and see how others are doing, said Lam Ching-Choi, a medical doctor and a member of the Executive Council that advises Hong Kongs leader.

Hong Kong has yet to approve a single vaccine as it awaits more detailed clinical trial data ahead of a planned vaccination drive to start in February. It only has a total 161 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began, thanks to its strict social distancing measures and efficient contact-tracing systems.

Leaders of Asian countries like Japan and South Korea also dont want a botched rollout to undermine public confidence in the vaccines, which is already low to begin with.

Japan, which is now posting record numbers of new cases, is slated to start inoculations in late February. South Korea also plans to administer shots next month.

Oceania countries Australia and New Zealand, which are also parts of Asia, are also taking it slow.

Australia expects to approve the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE by the end of January and the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine next month.

This extra time will allow those countries to learn from the experience of countries that have commenced distribution, said Adam Taylor, a virologist at Griffith University in Australia. The more information you have on the process of distribution and the safety of the vaccines, the more confidence you have in your own rollout. The technology used for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines has never been used before in humans and although safety looks good, the more data the better.

New Zealand, which tops Bloombergs COVID Resilience Ranking of major economies that have best fought the pandemic, will only begin its rollout in the second half of 2021.

US, UK top early list of countries with most vaccines administered

The United States and the United Kingdom have already administered nearly 14 million shots combined after expediting approvals in December 2020. Israel, on the other hand, has already delivered two million doses, or 22 shots for every 100 people in the country.

Those countries seem to be racing to achieve what they call herd immunity, which they say happens when most of the population is immune to an infectious disease, thus providing indirect protection even to those who are not immune.

Some public health experts suggest around 80 percent of the population should be vaccinated before anything resembling herd immunity is achieved. (Related: Vaccine herd immunity theory dismantled and debunked.)

The apparent wait-and-see approach of some Asian nations irked some of their citizens.

An editorial in South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh took an apparent jab at the government for its slow timeline for vaccination. It said: We cannot forever ask people to stop their daily lives and endure the economic pain.

Meanwhile, the main opposition party in New Zealand asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to explain why the country has fallen behind the rest of the world with its vaccine program.

But their approach is maybe the right one to take.

Governments charging in too early when they buy vaccines at great cost and find they cannot use them meaningfully or they are expired  that could be a disaster, said Jeremy Lim, associate professor at the National University of Singapores Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.

Some officials also argued that rollouts will not immediately allow restrictions to be lifted since it will take the better part of a year for enough people to be vaccinated for conditions to become safe again.

Lim said theres no point rushing to get to 65 percent of the population, but stumbling along the way and being unable to vaccinate the remaining 15 percent needed to achieve herd immunity.

It doesnt matter how fast you are, he said. Its how strong you finish.

Sources include:

Bloomberg.com

JHsph.edu
STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Urban Development of the Republic of Artsakh has ordered new projects for creating a new housing stock in Stepanakert City and elsewhere in the country and providing apartments to displaced citizens.

The ministry already has a blueprint for the construction of a 100-home residential district in the village of Varanda in Martuni, the ministry said, adding that they are already working on the digital terrain model for another 150-home construction project in Astghashen, Askeran.

The government plans to build a housing stock in Askeran with 246 apartments and in Martuni with 130.

Another 100 homes will be built in the village of Aknaberd in Shahumyan for displaced citizens of Artsakh.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
More than 6,000 people in East Cork have been hit with their fourth boil water notice in as many years.

Irish Water says its working to resolve the latest issue to affect the Whitegate regional public water supply system which supplies water to homes and businesses in the Whitegate, Aghada, Churchtown, Ballycotton, Cloyne, Saleen, Shanagarry and Ballinacurra areas.

It also said it had already begun exploring a "long-term robust solution" to ensure greater reliability in the system after a string of issues in recent years affecting the Kilva water treatment plant, which draws its water from the Dower underground spring.

The utility said it introduced the latest boil water notice in consultation with the HSE and Cork County Council as a precautionary measure following issues with the treatment process at the water treatment plant which may have compromised the disinfection process which makes the water safe to drink.

But it's understood that this latest boil water notice will be in place for a matter of weeks, rather than months as had previously been the case.

Irish Waters drinking water compliance and operational experts are working with colleagues in Cork County Council to resolve the issue as soon as possible, a spokesman said.

In the meantime, all customers of this supply are advised to boil water before use until further notice.

Irish Water acknowledges the impact and inconvenience caused by the imposition of a boil water notice to homes and businesses.

We wish to thank the community for their patience and cooperation while we work to resolve this issue."

The utility also said it is contacting registered vulnerable customers who are affected by the boil water notice to advise them.

In the meantime, water must be boiled for drinking, for drinks made with water, in the preparation of salads and similar foods, which are not cooked prior to eating, for the brushing of teeth and for the making of ice.

People have been advised to dump filtered water from their fridges and to dump ice cubes from their freezers. It is however safe to use the water for showering and bathing, and for flushing the toilet.

It is the fourth boil water notice affecting people in this area since early 2016.

A boil water notice introduced in February 2016 lasted almost eight months and wasnt lifted until October of that year after a new filtration unit was installed.

In November 2019, some 9,500 people in the same area were affected after another boil water notice was introduced following a string of rainfall events which affected the Dower spring's turbidity - a measure of the concentration of particles in the water. Increased levels detected in the water at the treatment plant led to automatic shutdown of the plant.

That boil water notice was lifted five days before Christmas 2019.

But it was introduced again just weeks later, in February 2020 after a pipe burst at the treatment plant affected the filtration process.

Burma Many Myanmar Govt Ministers, NLD Leaders Still Detained After Coup

Senior NLD members attend the second party congress in Yangon in June 2018. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

YANGONAround 100 government ministers at both the Union and state/regional levels, leading members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and political activists were arrested on Monday morning during the military coup. Many were still being held in military custody as of Tuesday evening.

Some detained chief ministers from the NLD have been taken from where they were being held back to their government houses and put under house arrest.

Meanwhile, in Naypyitaw, newly elected and re-elected lawmakers from both the NLD and ethnic political parties who were preparing to attend the first session of the new national Parliament when the coup occurred on Monday were still being confined at the municipal guesthouse. MPs reported that they were told to leave Naypyitaw by the military on Tuesday evening. But the representatives said they will wait for the parties decisions.

Karen State Chief Minister Daw Nan Khin Htwe Myint told The Irrawaddy that the military had taken her from a detention facility back to the chief ministers house at around 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Now under house arrest, she said she wanted to move from the chief ministers house, which is guarded by security officers, but the military wouldnt allow her to leave.

Among other chief ministers who were taken back to the government houses are Mandalay Region Chief Minister Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, Magway Region Chief Minister Dr. Aung Moe Nyo, Mon State Chief Minister Dr. Aye Zan, Tanintharyi Region Chief Minister U Myint Maung and Bago Region Chief Minister U Win Thein.

Daw Nan Khin Htwe Myint said that when she was in custody, military officers read her the first announcement issued by the Commander-in-Chiefs Office after the coup stating that the military would hold a new election. She was told nothing else.

Regarding the statements claim that the November vote was rigged, the chief minister, who is also a member of the NLDs Central Executive Committee, said she responded to the division commander, If the vote was rigged, I dare to compete at any time in public, not in secret vote, but in an open vote.

We are only worried for the public. I want to say here what our leader once told me. Once, when I mentioned that [I wanted] to rally the public to take part in street demonstrations, as I was impatient, Ama [Daw Aung San Suu Kyi] said she would never drag her people down to the streets.

Under successive military regimes, Myanmar experienced bloody crackdowns on protesters against dictatorship.

I would like to urge people not to take to the streets. We will try one way or another. There are many ways to express our [resistance] peacefully, Daw Nan Khin Htwe Myint added.

Many leading NLD members and state and regional ministers are among those who remain under arrest. Party spokesperson Dr. Myo Nyunt has not yet been released. The Yangon regional government ministers and parliament speakers also remain in military custody.

Daw Nan Khin Htwe Myint also said three of her cabinet ministersthe planning and finance minister, social affairs minister and immigration ministerremained in custody.

Meanwhile, the military has purged the Union cabinet of ministers and deputy ministers of the NLD government and replaced them with a new administration. The expelled ministers were told to leave their government housing within three days.

You may also like these stories:

Ceasefire Signatories KNU and RCSS Condemn Myanmar Coup

Myanmar Military Appoints Ex-Generals, USDP Members to New Govt

US President Joe Biden Threatens New Sanctions on Myanmar After Coup
A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a mural bearing the logo of the Islamic State (ISIS) group in the village of Albu Sayf, Iraqi, on March 1, 2017. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

Florida Citizen Charged for Allegedly Trying to Join and Support ISIS: FBI

Authorities have charged a U.S. citizen for allegedly attempting to join and support the ISIS terrorist group after traveling to Turkey, according to court documents.

Mohamed Fathy Suliman, a 33-year-old former University of Florida student, has been returned to the United States and charged with attempting to provide material support for a designated foreign terrorist organization, FBI Special Agent R. David Collins wrote in a criminal complaint (pdf) released by the U.S. Attorneys Office in Gainesville, Florida on Monday.

If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in federal prison and pay an additional $250,000 fine.

Suliman has been accused of knowingly seeking to support violent jihad between February 2009 and June 2014 by traveling to areas of conflict in an effort to provide material supportincluding himselfto organizations designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government, according to the affidavit.

At all times relevant to the current charge, there was a conflict in Syria, with multiple groups engaged in violent armed fighting, Collins wrote.

According to the complaint, Suliman booked a one-way ticket via a New York travel agency in June 2014 to travel from Orlando, Florida to Alexandria, Egypt, with two stops that include Istanbul, Turkey.

Former Gainesville resident, 33-year-old Mohamed Fathy Suliman. (Courtesy of Alachua County Jail)

Once he arrived in Turkey, he never transferred to his flights final destination, Egypt, but rather paid cashallegedly eliminating his credit card trailfor another one-way airline ticket to the Turkish/Syrian border.

He was arrested by Turkish authorities two days after his arrival in Istanbul and accused of illegally crossing into Syria. Authorities released him again about one week later.

Suliman stated that his intent for traveling to Syria was to meet with members of ISIS, Al-Nusrah Front, Jaish al-Islam, and Jabhah Shamiyah and he claimed that he wanted to find the truth from each of these groups so he could determine who to support, the special agent wrote in the affidavit.

He has since signed a written statement that documents his actions and intent to support these groups while also admitting he purchased the ticket from Florida to Egypt and then paid cash for a one-way ticket to the Syrian border, adding that he did not support the beheadings and torture that ISIS engaged in, but he was willing to assist and support them in their media section.

Suliman also claimed he has bipolar disorder, a mental health issue, and stopped taking his medication in July 2009, leading to a change in his beliefs and support in terrorist groups.

Besides these accusations, a search warrant authorized by U.S. officials found about 36 emails on a Gmail account belonging to Suliman that contained various audio files consisting of messages calling for jihad and encouraging fighting against non-muslims, officials said.

FBI officials also found a Facebook account belonging to Suliman that displayed an ISIS profile picture featuring a black flag with the terrorist groups symbol. The account was created around the same period of his travel to the Turkish/Syrian border on June 30.

Suliman is being held at the Alachua County Jail and had his initial court appearance on Monday in Gainesville.
Twelve children under five years of age were admitted to a hospital after they were administered sanitiser drops instead of polio vaccine in Maharashtra's Yavatmal on Monday, informed Yavatmal District Council Chief Executive Officer Shrikrishna Panchal.

The official stated that the children are now doing fine and three officials including a health worker, doctor, and ASHA worker will be suspended in connection with the incident.

"Twelve children, under five years of age, were given hand sanitiser drops instead of polio vaccine in Yavatmal. They were admitted to the hospital and are doing fine now. A health worker, doctor and an ASHA worker will be suspended. An investigation is underway," Panchal told ANI on Monday.

This comes after President Ram Nath Kovind launched the National Polio Immunisation Drive for 2021 by administering polio drops to children less than five years old at Rashtrapati Bhawan on January 30.

According to the Union Ministry of Health, India has been free of polio for a decade, with the last case of wild poliovirus reported on 13 January 2011. The country, however, continues to remain vigilant to prevent re-entry of the poliovirus into the country from neighbouring countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where wild poliovirus continues to cause disease. (ANI)

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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Swedish health officials on Tuesday recommended that the newly approved AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine primarily be used for those under the age of 65, citing a lack of evidence for its efficacy among the elderly.

The country's Public Health Agency (FHM) said the British-Swedish pharma giant's vaccine should "firstly" be offered to people between 18 and 65 years old.

Conversely, previously approved vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna should primarily be offered to people 65 and over.

The move follows other countries, such as Germany and Italy, which have also advised that other vaccines be prioritised for the elderly, even though the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for all ages last week.

FHM noted that the EMA had signalled a lack of evidence to document efficacy of the vaccine among elderly.

"However, there is nothing that says that it doesn't have a protective effect or that it would have any negative effects in those age groups," Soren Andersson, head of the unit for vaccination programmes at FHM, told a press conference.

Andersson said the change in priorities would mean a temporary delay in the rollout of Sweden's COVID-19 vaccination programme, but also noted there were more vaccine candidates coming up and large volumes being shipped to Sweden.

"It's a partial shortage, but there are vaccines and we'll have to make sure they are used in the most effective way," Andersson said.

Sweden, a country of 10.3 million, began vaccinations on December 27 and so far 256,978 people have received the first dose.

The country also announced that randomised testing had shown that the mutated variant first discovered in the UK, believed to be more infectious, seemed to have become more prevalent.

Out of 2,220 positive COVID-19 tests screened, the UK variant had been discovered in 250 samples.

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

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Suzuki Motor has suspended operations at its two vehicle assembly plants in Myanmar due to safety concerns following the military coup

Suzuki Motor has suspended operations at its two vehicle assembly plants in Myanmar since Monday due to safety concerns following the military coup that took place over the weekend.

Reports emerged on Monday morning Myanmar's military had seized power from the democratically elected government led by the hugely popular Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been arrested along with other leaders of the governing National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

The automaker said it had halted production at its facilities in the country to ensure the safety of its employees.

Other Japanese automotive companies including components maker Denso are reviewing the situation.

Toyota Motor, which was scheduled to begin operations later this month at a newly built plant in the country, said it was currently "assessing" the situation.

A company spokesperson in Japan yesterday said "we haven't been able to establish contact with our staff there, so we don't know what the situation is like".

Internet and other telecommunication networks in the country have been taken offline, making it difficult for companies to assess conditions on the ground.

Suzuki is the oldest and largest vehicle producer in the country, employing around 400 people. Recent data shows it sold 13,200 new vehicles in the country in 2019  accounting for some 60% of the country's new light vehicle market.

Nissan Motor also assembles vehicles in the country through its Malaysian distributor Tan Chong.
The warning from the EUs law enforcement agency that the Rathkeale Rovers gang is forging and selling Covid-19 test results across Europe is just the latest time the Co Limerick-based crime group has been the subject of an international police alert.

The Rathkeale Rovers are a gang of very wealthy organised criminals from Rathkeale, Co Limerick, who had traditionally spent most of their time in the UK and continental Europe but returned home to Ireland for a number of weeks every Christmas.

However over the past decade, the gang expanded its operations and became a major player on a global scale with tentacles stretching into the United States, Australia and Asia.

The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has issued tax demands against over a dozen members of the gang, with the total bill well over 10m.

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In recent years in Ireland, alleged links between a small number of gardai in the south of the country and associates of the crime group have formed part of a massive corruption investigation being led by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI).

This weeks alert from Europol was not based on specific intelligence from gardai who have been investigating their activities for at least 30 years but was based on information compiled from a number of European police forces.

On Monday, the agency warned that the Rathkeale Rovers are involved in using a mobile application which allows them to manually falsify test results.

The Rathkeale Rovers are involved in labour exploitation, counterfeiting, tarmac scams, tobacco smuggling and the theft of rhino horn and rare Chinese cultural artefacts, Europol has previously said.

The massively wealthy gang was previously the prime target of one of Europols largest ever investigations involving other international agencies.

In total, 31 members of the gang were arrested, with 69 cases linked to the theft of rhino horns being identified under Operation Oakleaf.

In 2016, several members of the gang were also jailed in the UK over the theft of 73m worth of jade and rhino horn artefacts in England.

They are the chief suspects in the theft of rhino horns from a National Museum storage facility in Swords, north Co Dublin, in April 2013 in which eight horns, with a black-market street value of 500,000, were stolen.

Their activities also include drugs trafficking and violent extortion offences in Ireland.

In relation to a different scam, in December 2018 gardai from the NBCI, backed up by local units, struck properties in Rathkeale.

Gardai said the scam involved 360,000 worth of vintage cars and targeted mainly elderly people.

Expand Close Some of the vintage cars seized during garda raid into scam / Facebook

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On that occasion, buyers were told they would be receiving top-of-the-range motors advertised online but these vehicles never existed.

Gardai moved in on the gang and arrested four men suspected of involvement in the operation.

They also seized 20 vehicles in the swoop.

That scam consists of fraud around the purchase and sale of vintage and classic cars aged in excess of 50 years.

They are into everything, that crew, from drugs to burglaries to tarmac scams, a Garda source told Independent.ie today.

However, before this weeks announcement by Europol, it was the gangs involvement in the multi-million-euro theft of rhino horns that made it a prime target for international police forces.

Expand Close John Slattery (31) was jailed in Texas after being extradited from Ireland to the United States / Facebook

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Whatsapp John Slattery (31) was jailed in Texas after being extradited from Ireland to the United States

Last May gang member John Slattery (31) was jailed in Texas after being extradited from Ireland to the United States following his arrest in Rathkeale by around 20 armed gardai.

US authorities said that he and two others travelled to a taxidermy shop in Austin, Texas, to buy the horns. They said that the men bought the horns for $18,000 and then travelled to New York and sold them for $50,000.

They said that between April 2010 and November 2010, Slattery bought two further horns from an individual for $10,000.

And that in 2010, Slattery and his co-accused travelled to an auction house in Macon, Missouri, where they allegedly obtained a consignment of horns from endangered white and black rhinos.

Expand Close Photo provided by the US Attorney's office in Brooklyn shows horns from endangered black rhinos taken from Rathkeale Rovers gang member Michael Slattery who was jailed in 2015. Photo: AP / Facebook

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Whatsapp Photo provided by the US Attorney's office in Brooklyn shows horns from endangered black rhinos taken from Rathkeale Rovers gang member Michael Slattery who was jailed in 2015. Photo: AP

He had been initially been identified as a suspect in 2010 but later fled the States, moved to France and changed his name to John Flynn.

He was later tracked down by investigators and arrested in Paris but then fled France before he was tracked down by gardai last year.

His brother Michael (30) served a 14-month sentence in the US for the same offence in 2015, as well as fellow Rathkeale Rovers gang member Patrick Crying Dan Sheridan who received a year in jail for trafficking rhino horns in the United States.

In May 2016, 13 members of the gang were sentenced in England after they were convicted of plotting to steal up to 73m worth of rhino horn and Chinese artefacts in a series of museum raids in 2012.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that the conspiracy had spanned England, Scotland and Ireland, and said members of the O'Brien family, based in Rathkeale, had been at the heart of that conspiracy.

Among the ringleaders given significant sentences were Richard Kerry O'Brien, John Cash O'Brien, Daniel 'Turkey O'Brien and Daniel Flynn.

Alongside the men in the dock was 56-year-old Donald Wong, described by the judge as a buyer, seller and valuer.

In December of the same year, gardai seized a Chinese rhino cup and 100,000 in cash during a raid in Rathkeale.

In November 2017, gang member Michael Hegarty was jailed for 18 months by a federal court in Miami, for smuggling a libation cup carved from a rhino horn from the US to London, after he was extradited to the United States from Belgium.

Police forces in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the US are involved in the ongoing investigations and are liaising with Garda colleagues.

Members of the gang move across the world throughout the year and only return to Rathkeale each Christmas when the population of the town trebles.

According to a report commissioned by the World Wildlife Federation, by 2012 the black-market price of rhino horn had risen to as much as 55,000 per kilogram  valued at more than gold, platinum, diamonds, or cocaine at that time.

This is because of the huge demand for it in Asia where some communities believe that it has far-reaching medicinal qualities, with some believing its ingestion can even cure terminal injuries.

While the Rathkeale Rovers were not the first criminal organisation to take advantage of this situation, they became one of the most dominant on a global scale, primarily targeting museums across Europe where horns were stolen in late-night raids.

One of the first times that law enforcement agencies became aware of the gangs involvement in this type of crime was almost 11 years ago when Rathkeale brothers Michael and Jeremiah O'Brien were caught with eight horns in their luggage at an airport in Portugal.

While the Rathkeale Rovers were one of the first crime organisations to see the value in trading in rhino horn, it now seems they are one of the first to jump on a Europe-wide Covid scam which has the potential to cause chaos as countries desperately attempt to fight the deadly pandemic.
Top advisers for Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on the phone on Tuesday, marking the first official contact between the two countries since Biden took office.

Erdogan's Chief Foreign Policy Adviser Ibrahim Kalin and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan discussed issues regarding Syria, Libya, the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus, and Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey's official news agency Anadolu reported.

Kalin told Sullivan that joint efforts were needed to find a solution to present disagreements between the countries such as Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 defence systems, and the United States' support for Kurdish militia groups in northern Syria, Anadolu said.

In December, Washington imposed long-anticipated sanctions on Ankara over its acquisition of the Russian-made S-400 defence systems, a move Turkey called a "grave mistake". It also removed Turkey, a NATO ally, from its F-35 fighter jet programme as a result.

Washington says the S-400s pose a threat to its F-35 fighter jets and to NATO's broader defence systems. Turkey rejects this, saying S-400s will not be integrated into NATO, and has offered to form a joint working group to examine the conflicting claims.

Ankara says its purchase of the S-400s was not a choice, but rather a necessity as it was unable to procure missile defences from other NATO allies with satisfactory conditions.

Short link:


New Delhi, Feb 2 : In the wake of a Ministry of Home Affairs' notification for an NIA probe into a bomb blast near Israel Embassy here on January 29, the central agency will register a case and start investigation soon.

A National Investigation Agency (NIA) source told IANS: "We have received the government orders and will file a case soon." Delhi Police's Special Cell was till now handling the case.

A low-intensity bomb blast had occurred near the Embassy on the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road, less than 2 km from Vijay Chowk, where the Beating Retreat ceremony was on, sending security establishment into a tizzy.

The Beating Retreat was attended by President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries.

A NIA team had visited the blast site on Friday evening along with forensic experts and collected samples.

The development followed Modi's telephonic conversation with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

The blast had shattered windscreens of three parked cars and coincided with the 29th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between India and Israel.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar later spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi and assured him of "fullest protection" to Israel's mission and its diplomats in India.
Winding through northwestern Pennsylvania, connecting Pymatuning and Shenango lakes with the Beaver River via 82 miles of scenic, peaceful river, the Shenango River has been voted the states 2021 River of the Year.

The Pennsylvania Organization for Waterways and Rivers and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources invited the public to vote online to choose from among 5 waterways across the state.

Other waterways nominated were Buffalo Creek in Allegheny, Armstrong and Butler counties; Lehigh River in Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton and Wayne counties; Loyalhanna Creek in Westmoreland County; and Tunkhannock Creek in Susquehanna and Wyoming counties.

A total of 16,494 votes were cast, with the Shenango River receiving 5,436; Buffalo Creek, 3,079; Lehigh River, 5,287; Loyalhanna Creek, 1,703; and Tunkhannock Creek, 989.

The River of the Year selection does much more than focus on attributes of the most deserving Shenango, it recognizes the Shenango River Watchers and other supporters who rallied behind it, said DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn. This annual honor recognizes not only our states wealth of rivers and streams, but also the dedicated folks who fight to protect them.

DCNR and POWR will work with the Shenango River Watchers to create a free, commemorative poster celebrating the Shenango River as the 2021 Pennsylvania River of the Year.

The Shenango River Watchers will receive a $10,000 Leadership Grant to help fund a slate of year-long 2021 River of the Year activities.

Shenango River Watchers was founded in 2001 by a small group of interested and dedicated citizens.

The organization began by hosting trash and litter cleanups. Since 2001, it has removed over 1.5 million pounds of trash from the watershed and attracted more than 50 volunteers at each cleanup event.

They also conduct water quality monitoring and aquatic life surveying.

Shenango River Watchers host over 20 annual events including two successful sojourns attracting up to 400 paddlers per event; an outdoor environmental education day with over 250 local students; and a 5k race that attracts over 1,200 runners plus spectators.

They also partner with other groups to host free recreational workshops such as a fly-casting clinics and introduction to kayaking courses, as well as community hikes, volunteer workdays and cleanups.

Shenango River Watchers President Brandi Baros noted, Thank you to our volunteers, who have cleaned up 1.5 million pounds of garbage from the river and its watershed and turned a neglected waterway into a paddlers paradise.

Every year we see more and more people come out to enjoy the wondrous recreation opportunities the Shenango has to offer, including kayaking, fishing, hiking, and birdwatching.
Snow is coming down right now in the Southern Valleys and is expected to become heavier overnight. This is a good time to pass along some important information. If you live in the Southern Valleys in places like Cooperstown and Oneonta, don't park in the roads so the plows can do their job. There are now stricter rules in place.

Just over a month ago, the Southern Valleys saw around 2 feet of snow. It fell so quickly that it was hard for the plows to keep up. But it didn't help that many cars were parked in the street. The Cooperstown DPW Superintendent, Mitch Hotaling, said "November 1st to April 1st there's no overnight parking on any village street. And the last snowstorm, there will several cars that were left for days that we had to plow around. So the cops will be out and they will be towing cars that are parked illegally."

This time around, they will start towing cars. And this is your warning for those who live in Cooperstown. The Cooperstown Police Chief, Frank Cavalieri, said "We will be towing, correct. Last time, like you said, there were a lot of vehicles parked in the street. And at that time we didn't tow. We made notifications to people who had their vehicles in the street, but this time I gave everybody enough fair warning, that I feel. We made notifications, it was put in the paper so we will be towing for this storm."

Cooperstown DPW is preparing for this winter storm and is ready for the heaviest snow to arrive tonight. Mr. Hotaling said "Right now, we're just getting ready for the weather to get worse later on. The guys are making sure all the plows and sanders are ready to go." It's just a waiting game for the snow to start piling on so the plows can get started.>

And the snow will continue to move northward into the Mohawk Valley and North Country tonight. And it will stay widespread and steady throughout Tuesday, with the heaviest accumulation here in the Southern Valleys. Drive safe tomorrow.
Thousands in Perths north east have been forced to evacuate their homes in the middle of the night as a bushfire rips through Wooroloo, so far destroying 7000 hectares of land and multiple houses.

An emergency warning is in place for parts of The Vines, Bailup, Ellenbrook, Gidgegannup, Millendon, Walyunga Natoinal Park, Upper Swan, Aveley, Avon Valley National Park, Wundowie, Redi Hill, Belhus, Baskerville, Hernie Hill, Bullsbrook, Wooroloo and Brigadoon.

For residents within the marked incident area, the Department of Fire and Emergency said it was too late to leave.

You need to shelter in your home in a room away from the fire front and make sure you can easily escape, a DFES alert read.
[February 02, 2021] Paramount Defenses Releases Gold Finger Mini, the World's Most Capable Privileged Access Audit Tool, for Microsoft Active Directory

Paramount Defenses, one of the world's top cyber security companies, and the world's only cyber security company that possesses the paramount capability to accurately assess privileged access (the "Keys to the Kingdom") in Microsoft (News - Alert) Active Directory environments, today announced the availability of Gold Finger Mini, the world's most capable privileged access audit tool for Microsoft Active Directory. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006181/en/ Gold Finger Mini is the world's most capable and powerful Active Directory Privileged Access Audit Tool. It can instantly find out exactly who has the most powerful privileged access, including the "Keys to the Kingdom" within the foundational Active Directory deployments of 85% of all organizations worldwide. (Graphic: Business Wire) ADDRESSING A PARAMOUNT GLOBAL CYBER SECURITY NEED Today over 85% of all business and government organizations worldwide operate on Microsoft Active Directory (on-premises), and at the very foundation of their IT, cyber security and privileged access lie their mission-critical Active Directory deployments. The unique, innovative and unrivaled Gold Finger Mini privileged access audit tool will democratize the ability to find out exactly who has what privileged access in Active Directory deployments worldwide. It can uniquely determine exactly who possesses the "Keys to the Kingdom" i.e. the most powerful and critical privileged access in foundational Active Directory deployments, and do so at a button's touch. Gold Finger Mini was conceived and architected by former Microsoft Program Manager for Active Directory Security, and is intended to empower millions of IT professionals, employees, managers, cyber security auditors, penetration testers and ethical hackers instantly and accurately audit privileged access in Active Directory. It can instantly an uniquely make high-value cyber security determinations such as identifying who can change the membership of the all-powerful Domain Admins group, or who can reset the passwords of an organization's privileged user accounts or executives accounts (e.g. the CEO's, CFO's or CISO's account etc.) or who can replicate secrets (i.e. the password hashes of all of any organization's users accounts), or who can modify privileged access within Active Directory etc.



ACTIVE DIRECTORY PRIVILEGED ACCESS - CARDINAL TO THE SUCCESS OF THE SOLARWINDS HACK Privileged access in Active Directory is the new holy-grail for cyber criminals, APTs and perpetrators today, and over the last decade, the vast majority of all major cyber security breaches have involved the compromise and misuse of a single Active Directory privileged user account.

In fact, it has now been established that it was the compromise and misuse of a single Active Directory privileged user account that was instrumental in and cardinal to the success of the SolarWinds (News - Alert) Hack. Notably, the perpetrators in the SolarWinds hack specifically targeted Active Directory environments, and once inside corporate networks, they engaged in privilege escalation to compromise an Active Directory Privileged User account, which was then used to gain access to the server(s) that gated access to everything in the Cloud. INSTANT, HIGH-VALUE, PRIVILEGED ACCESS INSIGHT Gold Finger Mini is unique in its ability to be able to instantly and accurately audit privileged access in Active Directory environments, and is rivaled only by Gold Finger, the company's flagship, Microsoft-endorsed Privileged Access Audit Solution that is powered by its unique, patented technology. Thus far, the company's unique technology was only available to organizations. Gold Finger Mini will open the use of the company's unique technology to millions of individual IT professionals worldwide. "Gold Finger Mini will revolutionize and democratize the ability to gain accurate, mission-critical privileged access insight in Active Directory environments by enabling millions of IT professionals and thousands of organizations to instantly identify and lockdown all-powerful excessive or unauthorized privileged access before perpetrators can exploit them to inflict colossal damage," said Sanjay Tandon, CEO of Paramount Defenses. Gold Finger Mini will be available in three licensable editions, and one free edition. It is licensed on a subscription model and pricing will range from under $ 1,000 per year for individual IT professionals, cyber security auditors, ethical hackers and penetration testers to upwards of $ 10,000 per year for organizations. "With Gold Finger Mini we hope to empower millions of IT professionals and thousands of organizations worldwide to be able to instantly, effortlessly and efficiently identify and lockdown privileged access in foundational Active Directory environments, thereby helping fulfill a paramount cyber security need," added Tandon. For more information, please visit - https://www.paramountdefenses.com/products/goldfinger-mini.html ABOUT PARAMOUNT DEFENSES Paramount Defenses is the world's only cyber security company that possesses the paramount capability to accurately assess privileged access (the "Keys to the Kingdom") in Microsoft Active Directory environments. The company was established by and is led by former Microsoft Program Manager for Active Directory Security. Its innovative, patented, Microsoft-endorsed privileged access audit technology is unique in its ability to audit privileged access and is embodied in its flagship Gold Finger cyber security solution. Over the years its cyber security solutions have helped secure and defend some of the world's most prominent government and business organizations worldwide, including the United Nations, the U.S. Government (DoD, DoT, others), British, Canadian and other governments, Microsoft, IBM (News - Alert) , British Petroleum, Nestle, as well as prominent defense contractors, insurance companies, banks, hospitals, several Fortune 100 companies and many other organizations worldwide. Paramount Defenses is privately held and based in Southern California. Paramount Defenses is a registered trademark and Gold Finger is a trademark of Paramount Defenses Inc. Microsoft, Windows and Active Directory are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006181/en/

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Ramallah, Feb 2 : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has extended the state of emergency for 30 more days aimed at combating the spread of Covid-19 in the state territories.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said in a statement issued on Monday that the extension will start from Tuesday.

Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye told the weekly meeting of the cabinet in Ramallah that his government expects to receive 50,000 coronavirus vaccines within two weeks, reports Xinhua news agency.

"The government will receive the first batch of 50,000 vaccines from several sources, the most important of which is through the International COVAX Facility," Ishtaye said.

COVAX is a WHO-backed global scheme for distributing the coronavirus vaccines.

The Prime Ministersaid vaccination will start "in the middle of February in all the Palestinian territories" and the government "will provide a share of the vaccines to the Gaza Strip".

Earlier this week, Israel transferred a batch of vaccines to the Palestinian Authority, which will be used to inoculate health workers.

The move came after UN officials and human rights groups urged Israel to provide vaccines to the Palestinians.

On Monday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health added 586 new infections and 11 deaths in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.
Jack Palladino, the flamboyant private investigator whose clients ranged from presidents and corporate whistleblowers to scandal-plagued celebrities, Hollywood moguls and sometimes suspected drug traffickers, died on Monday at age 76.

Palladino suffered a devastating brain injury last Thursday after a pair of would-be robbers tried to grab his camera outside his home in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.

He held on to the camera but fell and struck his head. The photos he took before his attackers fled were used by police to track down two suspects: Tyjone Flournoy, 23, and Lawrence Thomas, 24.

They were both charged with assault with a deadly weapon and other crimes.

'He would have loved knowing that,' his wife, Sandra Sutherland said.

She added that she had told her husband while he lay unconscious in the hospital: 'Guess what, Jack, they got the bastards, and it was all your doing.'

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Palladino worked for a who's who of the famous and the sometimes infamous, alternately hailed as a hero or denounced as a villain, depending on who his client was at the time.

Jack Palladino, the flamboyant private investigator whose clients ranged from presidents and corporate whistleblowers to scandal-plagued celebrities, Hollywood moguls and sometimes suspected drug traffickers, died on Monday at age 76

He was hired by Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign to put a lid on women who were coming forward to claim they had had sex with the future president.

Palladino was also hired by Harvey Weinstein in 2017 to stop his victims from speaking out.

He was also the investigator for the family of a 14-year-old boy who won a multimillion-dollar settlement from Michael Jackson after accusing the entertainer of molesting him. Jackson was never charged with a crime in that case.

Two of his most prominent clients were former tobacco company executive and whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and former automotive executive John DeLorean.

In the Wigand case, Palladino uncovered a deliberate campaign by Big Tobacco to smear the former executive for Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. after his allegations became public that tobacco products were spiked with chemicals to make them more addictive.

Palladino also went on to play himself in 'The Insider,' the 1999 film about the case.

For DeLorean, he discovered that the former General Motors executive had been set up by authorities, who had charged him with trafficking millions of dollars in cocaine in what they said was a failed effort to prop up his failing DeLorean Motor Co. DeLorean was acquitted.

He was hired by Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign to put a lid on women who were coming forward to claim they had had sex with the future president. Palladino was also hired by Harvey Weinstein in 2017 to stop his victims from speaking out

Palladino suffered a devastating brain injury last Thursday after a pair of would-be robbers tried to grab his camera outside his home in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district

Jack Palladino's most famous cases Palladino is famous for taking on a slew of celebrity and political cases. Since the 1980s, he and his wife Sandra Sutherland conducted investigations out of their Victorian home in San Francisco on behalf of the famous and powerful as well as the underdogs. 1978: Palladino spent seven years investigating the 1978 mass suicide of more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple religious cult, otherwise known as the Jonestown massacre 1992: He was hired by Bill Clinton to quell rumors of his extramarital affairs 1994: Courtney Love hired Palladino to talk to journalists investigating whether she played a role in the 1994 death of her rock star husband Kurt Cobain The 90's: He worked in the defense of whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigan, who was fighting against Big Tobacco in a lawsuit accusing them of manipulations designed to increase smoker addiction. The case resulted in a $200billion settlement and was the first successful courtroom win against the industry. 2002: R .Kelly was acquitted on charges of videotaping himself having sex with an underage teenage girl after Palladino's testimony at trial in which he challenged the main prosecution witness 2017: He was hired by Harvey Weinstein in 2017 to stop his victims from speaking out Advertisement

'Jack was a pillar of the legal and professional community. He was a firm believer in due process, First Amendment rights, particularly freedom of speech and freedom of the press,' Palladino's lawyer, Mel Honowitz, said in an emotional statement confirming Palladino's death.

Although he still took the occasional case, Palladino had largely retired a year ago, his wife said, adding that the two were looking forward to traveling and pursuing photography, which was a passion for both of them.

The couple married in 1977, the same year they founded Palladino & Sutherland Investigations.

While many in their business keep a low profile, they did anything but. They publicly took on high-profile cases while the media sometimes compared them to Nick and Nora Charles, the fictional, wisecracking, high-society husband-and-wife detective team in the Dashiell Hammett potboiler, 'The Thin Man.'

Their clients included everyone from the Black Panthers and Hells Angels to celebrities like Courtney Love, Robin Williams and Kevin Costner.

They once recovered a truckload of stolen equipment for the Grateful Dead, and Palladino spent years investigating the mass suicide of the Jonestown cult in Guyana.

Some celebrity clients, like Williams and Costner, were the targets of fan or tabloid abuse. In Love's case, she was being linked to unfounded allegations that she played a role in the suicide of her husband, Kurt Cobain.

'I am somebody you call in when the house is on fire, not when theres smoke in the kitchen,' Palladino told the San Francisco Examiner in 1999. 'You ask me to deal with that fire, to save you, to do whatever has to be done to the fire - where did it come from, where is it going, is it ever going to happen again?'

Over the years, some people, including the women who brought accusations against Clinton, complained that Palladino sometimes threatened and harassed them, their families and friends.

Although he would acknowledge he wasn't afraid to ask tough questions, Palladino denied ever crossing the line either ethically or legally.

All he was ever after was the truth, he said, adding that he was better at getting it than most other private eyes.

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Palladino worked for a who's who of the famous and the sometimes infamous, alternately hailed as a hero or denounced as a villain, depending on who his client was at the time. He is pictured in 2007

Palladino pictured left in March 2009 with Richard Perrillo

'Im not a self-effacing individual,' he told the Examiner. 'I am a driven, arrogant person who holds himself and everyone around him to incredibly high standards.'

John Arthur Palladino was born in Boston on July 9, 1944, the son of a pipe fitter.

After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in English, he studied law at the University of California, Berkeley, passing the state Bar exam in 1978. But by then, he had already found that his true passion was investigations.

While still a student in 1971, he had himself incarcerated in New York's Nassau County as part of an undercover operation exposing rampant crime in the county's jails. In 1974, the family of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst hired him to help investigate members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the ragtag band of young revolutionaries that had kidnapped her.

'I was planning to be a lawyer,' he once told People magazine of his law school years. 'I didn't know in those days that investigations would make everything else seem dull, unchallenging and uninvolving.'
Australias ostensibly free press is regulated by a complex and controversial set of rules  none more so than our defamation laws, which are arguably more rigorous than in any comparable democracy. Nine, the owner of The Age, has just fallen foul of those laws in relation to a joint investigation into Chinese-Australian billionaire and enthusiastic political donor Chau Chak Wing.

The Federal Court ordered the ABC and Nine to pay $590,000 for defaming Mr Chau by suggesting he paid bribes in the form of donations and carried out the work of a secret lobbying arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

The media outlets say they are deeply disappointed by the judgment and have urged state and territory MPs to speed up defamation law reforms already agreed upon by a national working group. Without in any way questioning the courts application of defamation law, the case is a reminder of some areas where the law needs to be improved.

Defamation law is crucial to regulating a free press. Citizens must have access to the courts to demand compensation from the media for malicious damage to their reputations. Media companies should not hide behind legal arguments when genuine mistakes are made.
Polls released by the Students For Life Of America and the Knights of Columbus reveal overwhelming similarity that a majority of Americans, including those of Millennials and Genz Z, actually favor restrictions on abortions.

The Christian Post reported in succession the results of the said polls that provided a clearer stand of the public in so far as limiting abortions are concerned and using taxpayer money to fund them.

The Marist Poll, which is funded and sponsored by The Knights of Columbus, is a survey conducted last January 11-13, 2021 to a total of 1,173 adults, who are aged 18 years of age and older and who are residing in the United States, on their opinion on abortion.

The results released last Friday show most Americans favoring restrictions on abortion with an increasing proportion of respondents against tax dollars funding abortions abroad.

"While the number of people who identify as 'pro-life' and 'pro-choice' tends to fluctuate with the public debate, when given a broader choice of policy options, there is a strong consensus among Americans on abortion," Marist Poll Director Dr. Barbara Carvalho said in the Knights of Columbus website in overview of the poll results.

Key findings of the Marist Poll show that 76% of Americans, including a majority of pro-choice respondents, expressed their desire to have significant restrictions on abortion. While 77% expressed opposition in using tax dollars to support abortion internationally--of which 64% are pro-choice--up by 2% over the past two years; 19% support it and 4% are unsure.

Interestingly, 58% of Americans oppose using taxpayer money to support abortions within the country.

"Amidst the harsh political divides in our country, clear bipartisan majorities support abortion restrictions and do not want their tax dollars paying for abortion abroad," Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus Carl Anderson said in their website.

"Our polling has shown consistently over the past decade that policies that promote abortion on demand paid for by taxpayers are divisive and out of step with American public opinion," he added, "The American people show consensus and restraint on this issue, and we hope that our elected officials and policy makers will heed this call for unity when there is far too much that divides us in our politics today."

The Students For Life America poll, which was conducted last January 4-11, 2021 to 800 registered voters aged 18 to 34 across the country, revealed that "more than 7 out of 10 support limits on abortion."

Other key findings of the SFLA poll show that "7 out of 10 Millennials and Gen Z want to vote on abortion related policy," with "7 out of 10 expressing support for limits on abortion," while "less than 2 out of 10 want unlimited abortion through all 9 months" that the ruling Roe V. Wade actually allow.

The poll also showed that "almost 5 in 10 do not support forcing all Americans, regardless of their beliefs, to pay for abortions" while "fewer supported that coercion."

"Looking at the big picture of Supreme Court-legalized abortion, almost 6 out of 10 oppose Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton when they learn they allow for abortion through all 9 months," the report read, "In fact, more millennials and Gen Z directly supported reversing Roe and sending abortion policy to the states and voters than opposed it."

"Educating this generation on Roe pays off. The number of respondents opposing Roe and Doe nearly doubled after learning more about what the law allows," the report stressed.

This is contrary to what has been announced by pro-choice groups. In the SFLA report's overview, it raised that "much of the debate over abortion policy involves people making a case for what this generation wants or needs when it comes to abortion. As a national organization with more than 1,250 groups in all 50 states, SFLA wanted to dig deeper into the views of Millennials and Generation Z who are directly targed for abortion whose views are routinely described as an all in for abortion as Roe allows--through all nine months, for any reason at all and sometimes with taxpayer funding."

The Christian Post highlighted that SFLA's survey came before the Democrats came out with a unified control of the federal government to get rid of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents taxpayer money to fund abortions locally; and after Joe Biden got rid of the Mexico City Policy, which uses taxpayer money to fund abortions internationally.
Albumedix Ltd. (Albumedix), the world leader in recombinant human albumin (rHA), announced today the submission of Drug Master Files (DMFs) to the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Agency (PMDA) in Japan.

Albumedix has submitted DMFs for two of their products in order to further support customers in Japan. The DMF system allows manufacturers, such as Albumedix, to submit detailed confidential manufacturing, chemistry and controls information of their product to PMDA to provide assurance to the regulator that the product is safe, effective and of an appropriate quality for customers to use in their final products. The registered information is necessary for inclusion in applications for pharmaceutical products in which Albumedix products are used.

With these DMF submissions, alongside the enhanced regulatory customer support that Albumedix is able to offer customers, the review process for the customers end product is made considerably less onerous and assures both the customer and regulators that Albumedix can provide robust and comprehensive documentation, helping customers to alleviate the regulatory burden of product development.

As a non-Japanese company, Albumedix are also required to apply to be accredited by the regulator as approved foreign manufacturers, a process which has also been progressing ahead of the DMF submissions.

Commenting on the DMF submissions in Japan, Albumedix Director of Global Regulatory Affairs Harriet Edwards says:

These submissions are a continuation of Albumedix strategy and ethos; we are dedicated to supporting our customers in all aspects of their product development and beyond when using our products in order to become the partner of choice for advanced therapies worldwide.

"We are extremely happy to add to the support we currently provide our customers in Japan and believe the submissions further confirm our intent to fully serve the Japanese market. This is a market we have had a presence in for many years and which is currently expanding, especially due to the advance of cell and gene therapies in this territory. The submission of the DMFs in Japan allows Albumedix to provide an enhanced level of regulatory support to these customers as well as an increased assurance of our product safety and quality, particularly for those in clinical development and heading towards commercialisation

Albumedix has already full DMFs submitted in United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and China.

About Albumedix  Dedicated to Better Health

Albumedix is a science-driven, life-science company focused on enabling the creation of superior biopharmaceuticals utilizing our recombinant human albumin products. We believe in empowering excellence to enable advanced therapies and facilitate otherwise unstable drug candidates reach patients worldwide. We are proud to be recognized as the world leader in recombinant human albumin with products and technologies used in clinical and marketed drugs by pharmaceutical and medical device companies worldwide. Headquartered in Nottingham, England with more than 100 people all committed to improving patient quality of life. We are just as passionate about albumin and albumin-enabled therapies today as we were when we started more than 35 years ago.

For further information, please contact us here.
Scotland's top medic today said that Scotland's slow vaccine rollout had been hindered by GPs whose surgeries are closed on Sundays.

National clinical director Professor Jason Leitch said 'Sundays are a little bit tricky' and that the vaccination team has been asked to 'have a look at that'.

Holyrood ministers have been accused of being too slow over the vaccination rollout in recent days, with opposition politicians saying the rest of the UK is moving faster.

On Sunday, just 9,628 vaccinations were completed in Scotland, out of a UK-wide total of 322,000.

Prof Leitch added that the reason for the drop on Sunday was because of where the jabs are being administered, with most being delivered in GP practices which 'didn't all work (on) Sunday'.

'We decided to do the over-80s in their own practices, where they would know their nurses, where they would know their GPs, where they would be close to home,' he said.

The situation is believed to be different in England where, under an agreement between the British Medical Association and NHS England 'practices will need to be prepared to offer vaccinations seven days a week so that the vaccine is delivered within its short shelf-life and so patients receive it as soon as possible'.

National clinical director Professor Jason Leitch said 'Sundays are a little bit tricky' and that the vaccination team has been asked to 'have a look at that'

Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of being too slow over the vaccination rollout in recent days, with just 9,628 vaccinations completed on Sunday

Just 9,628 patients received their first vaccine dose yesterday, the fewest since the Scottish Government began publishing figures on January 11.

Scotland currently has the lowest rate of vaccine coverage of any of the four UK nations, with 575,987 doses administered to date - around six per cent of the 9.3million first doses handed out across Britain.

Ms Sturgeon was also dragged into a bitter internal SNP row after MP Joanna Cherry, a close associate of former party leader Alex Salmond, was sacked from its frontbench team in Westminster.

Ruth Davidson, the Conservative leader at Holyrood, said: 'As yesterday saw a new low for vaccinations and Scotland officially having the lowest rate of any of the nations and regions of the UK, the dead cat strategy is enacted.

'Watch all columnist rush to dissect the Joanna Cherry sacking, rather than SNP vaccine failure.'

Widely tipped as a future SNP leadership challenger to Nicola Sturgeon and an ally of previous leader Alex Salmond, the barrister said she had been removed from her role despite 'hard work, results & a strong reputation'.

The QC, who has been involved in an internal party row over gender recognition and trans rights, delivered a parting shot as she said the SNP needs to 'radically rethink our strategy'.

Facing questions about why Scotland appeared to be rolling out its vaccination programme at a slower pace than across the rest of the UK, Ms Sturgeon yesterday said: 'There's a long way to go in this programme and it's really important we do it methodically, sustainably - concentrating on the most vulnerable first.

'That's what we have been doing and I think as we go through this week we will see further evidence that is what is happening.'

She also claimed the Government had 'adapted our estimates' since the Health Secretary said a million people could be vaccinated by the end of January, but it was 'firmly on track' with the revised targets for over-70s and the most clinically vulnerable.

Scotland has entered the second phase of its plan to give the population a vaccine to combat coronavirus with two new mass vaccination centres opening on Monday.

The facilities at Aberdeen's P&J Live venue and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) will be able to inoculate an extra 27,000 people per week.

NHS staff spent last week vaccinating each other as part of their inductions at the centres.
Yesterdayafter a decade of democratic transition, five years of elected government, and several days of threats, apparent walkbacks, and rumorsMyanmars military executed a coup and returned to power. Myawaddy TV, a station owned by the military, announced that Min Aung Hlaingthe armys commander in chief, who faces war-crimes allegations linked to the persecution of the countrys Muslim Rohingya populationwould take power. (The announcement couched the coup as a constitutional state of emergency, justified by terrible fraud in November elections that returned the civilian National League for Democracy to power and handed a heavy defeat to the militarys proxy party, that will last for one year ahead of new elections.) Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmars elected leader, has been detained and her whereabouts remain unclear; hundreds of elected lawmakers, meanwhile, have been placed under house arrest. The United Nations fears that the coup will lead to yet more devastating consequences for the Rohingya; more than three-quarters of a million Rohingya have already fled for neighboring Bangladesh, while around six hundred thousand remain in Myanmars Rakhine state, around one fifth of whom are effectively detained in camps.

As the military set the coup in motion, internet and telephone access became patchy; NetBlocks, a company that monitors web access globally, reported that connectivity dropped to half its normal level in the early hours of yesterday morning in a manner consistent with a centrally ordered mechanism of disruption progressing over time as operators comply. Some regions were hit worse than others; as the day progressed, overall connectivity levels picked up. The state broadcaster MRTV went off air, citing communication difficulties, and international outlets including the BBC reportedly went dark, too. (The top story in yesterdays Global New Light of Myanmar, a print newspaper owned by the government, was about agri-tourism and tidal irrigation; state media in neighboring China, meanwhile, referred to the coup as a major cabinet reshuffle.) According to the New York Times, some local journalists went into hiding, fearing reprisals for their past reporting. Earlier today, Cape Diamond, a journalist in Myanmar who has recently written for outlets including the Washington Post and Vice, reported via Twitter that journalists in Naypyidaw, Myanmars capital, had not yet been picked up by military officers and are safe for now, though they may be under surveillance.

New from CJR: The Courts Beat

Myanmar has a poor climate for press freedom. (Last year, it ranked one-hundred-and-thirty-ninth, out of one-hundred-and-eighty countries worldwide, on Reporters Without Borderss press-freedom index.) In 2017, that climate came under a harsh global spotlight after Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters journalists who unearthed shocking details of state complicity in a massacre of Rohingya villagers in Rakhine state, were arrested on bogus charges. They were finally freed, in May 2019, as part of a broader prisoner amnesty; international media-watchers heralded their release as a positive development, which it wasbut, as E. Tammy Kim pointed out a few months later in a piece for CJR, dozens more journalists in Myanmar continued to face arrests and prosecutions, including for coverage of the Rohingya. One highly visible victory, she wrote, may have served to mask dozens of defeats.

Kim told the story of Swe Win, a journalist who was charged with criminal defamation for sharing an accurate news story about a nationalist extremist on Facebook. Also in 2019, the military filed a similar complaint against Ye Ni, an editor at The Irrawaddy newspaper, after it reported that soldiers opened fire on a Rakhine township. In early 2020, the military went after Reuters again, in connection with fresh reporting on deaths in Rakhine; meanwhile, Ko Nay Lin, the editor of the Voice of Myanmar, and Khaing Mrat Kyaw, the editor of Narinjara News, were both hit with terrorism charges after publishing interviews with representatives of a proscribed group. In April last year, Myanmars communications ministry ordered internet providers to block hundreds of websites; sixty-seven of them, including the Voice of Myanmar, were accused of spreading fake news. In May, Zaw Ye Htet, editor of the Dae Pyaw news agency, was sentenced to two years in prison for reporting a coronavirus death in Karen state. Just last month, the military filed libel cases against Ne Win San and Ma Hnin Nwe, of the Development Media Group, for reporting on the disappearance of rice supplies from a Rakhine village.

While the military bears great responsibility for Myanmars press climate, so, too, does Suu Kyi, the deposed civilian leader. Local journalists and observers told Kim that press freedom has gotten substantially worse since Suu Kyi was voted into office in 2016, replacing an interim government, established in 2010, that was not democratic but did allow for growth in the independent media sector. It wasnt clear, Kim wrote, whether it was the military or Suu Kyi who drove the prosecutions of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, in particular, and the persecution of the Rohingya, in generala pair of chilling unknowns that spooked everyone in Myanmars press. Swe Win told Kim that, in his view, the army drove the prosecutions and Suu Kyi went along with them, part of her broader, tricky obligation to balance civilian and military power within the governmentbut the Times reported that Suu Kyi was actually the biggest obstacle to the Reuters journalists release, and many observers have accused her of relishing, and not merely tolerating, the Rohingya crackdown. Suu Kyi remains popular domestically, but her once-saintly international reputation has cratered. As Hannah Beech, of the Times, wrote yesterday following Suu Kyis deposition, she has come to represent two entirely different archetypes to two different audiences, domestic and foreign. She rebuffed international critics by claiming she was not a human-rights activist but rather a politician, Phil Robertson, of Human Rights Watch, told Beech. But the sad part is she hasnt been very good at either.

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Myanmars politics defy the easy, Manichean categorizations that have marked so much Western coverage of foreign dictatorships and backsliding democraciesnot least in the pre-2016 case of Suu Kyi and Myanmar. The coup, clearly, is an immensely troubling development, and theres still a lot we dont know about how it will play out. Everyone here is in a state of perpetual uncertainty, Aye Min Thant, formerly of Reuters, tweeted earlier. No one knows anything for sure, and there are intentional efforts to foster this environment. Yesterday, a friend of Kims in Yangon messaged her with an update. Were okay, the friend said, but its back to life under the junta.

Below, more on Myanmar and press freedom:



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: The debate about fixing Americas information ecosystem

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

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
Currently, 109 Ukrainian political prisoners are jailed in Russia and the temporarily occupied Crimea.

"Currently, 109 people stay in the places of detention (in the occupied Crimea and the Russian Federation), and 33 of them are held in the occupied Crimea," Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova said on the air of the Crimea.Realities portal, Ukrinform reports.

Out of 33 Ukrainian political prisoners behind the bars in Crimea, two people serve sentences, 30 people stay in pre-trial detention centers, and one person is on trial.

Denisova also informed that another 76 people are held in the Russian Federation, some of them serve sentences and some stay in pre-trial detention centers.

When asked which categories of citizens are most often subjected to political persecution, the Ukrainian ombudsperson answered that 75 out of 109 Ukrainian political prisoners are Crimean Tatars.

Earlier, Denisova stated that since the beginning of January, the number of illegally detained citizens of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions had increased, now accounting for 267 people.

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[February 01, 2021] Perihelion Capital Ltd. Provides Update to Qualifying Transaction with Think Technologies Corp.

/THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF SECURITIES FOR SALE IN THE UNITED STATES. THE SECURITIES BEING OFFERED HAVE NOT BEEN, NOR WILL THEY BE, REGISTERED UNDER THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED, AND SUCH SECURITIES MAY NOT BE OFFERED OR SOLD WITHIN THE UNITED STATES ABSENT U.S. REGISTRATION OR AN APPLICABLE EXEMPTION FROM U.S. REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS./ Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. TSX Venture Exchange: PCL.P VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 1, 2021 /CNW/ - Perihelion Capital Ltd. (TSXV: PCL.P) (the "Company") announces that further to its news release dated October 28, 2020, the Company has entered into an amending agreement dated January 29, 2021 (the "Amending Agreement") to its merger agreement dated October 26, 2020 (the "Merger Agreement") with Think Technologies Corp. ("Think") and 1203500 B.C. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, in connection with a proposed combination of the business of Think with the Company (the "Proposed Transaction"). Pursuant to the Amending Agreement, Perihelion and Think have agreed to extend the outside date for the completion of the Proposed Transaction to March 31, 2021. Think Technologies Corp. Think is an emerging leader in artificial intelligence software solutions. Think's cloud-native AI platform utilizes natural language processing (NLP), computer vision and neural networks to ingest and process large volumes of data, learn from this data, and find patterns to assist businesses with planning and management. For more information, visit www.thinktech.ai. Perihelion Capital Ltd. The Company is a capital pool company created pursuant to the policies of the Exchange. It does not own any assets, other than cash or cash equivalents and its rights under the Merger Agreement in respect of the Proposed Transaction. The principal business ofthe Company is to identify and evaluate opportunities for the acquisition of an interest in assets or businesses and, once identified and evaluated, to negotiate an acquisition or participation subject to acceptance by the Exchange so as to complete a Qualifying Transaction (as defined in the policies of the Exchange) in accordance with the policies of the Exchange.



Completion of the Proposed Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to the Exchange acceptance and, if applicable pursuant to the Exchange requirements, majority of the minority shareholder approval. Where applicable, the Proposed Transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the Proposed Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the Filing Statement to be prepared in connection with the Proposed Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Proposed Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative.

The Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the Proposed Transaction and has not approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company and Think with respect to future business activities and operating performance. Forward-looking information is often identified by the words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar expressions and includes information regarding: (i) expectations regarding whether the Proposed Transaction will be consummated, including whether conditions to the consummation of the Proposed Transaction will be satisfied, or the timing for completing the Proposed Transaction and (ii) expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is not based on historical facts but instead reflect the Company and Think's respective management's expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although the Company and Think believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, such information involves risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of the combined company. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information are the following: the ability to consummate the Proposed Transaction; the ability to obtain requisite regulatory and other approvals and the satisfaction of other conditions to the consummation of the Proposed Transaction on the proposed terms and schedule; the potential impact of the announcement or consummation of the Proposed Transaction on relationships, including with regulatory bodies, employees, suppliers, customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; compliance with extensive government regulation; and the diversion of management time on the Proposed Transaction. This forward- looking information may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of the Company and Think and market conditions. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward- looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company and Think have attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company and Think do not intend, and do not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law. SOURCE Perihelion Capital Ltd.

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Parked taxis are covered with snow in New York (Wong Maye-E/AP)

A sprawling, lumbering winter storm has hit areas on the eastern side of the US.

The storm shut down coronavirus vaccination sites, closed schools and halted public transportation as snow piled up from the Appalachians to New England, with the heaviest accumulations yet to come in some places.

Parts of northern New England were waiting their turn to be pummelled by the storm, while residents of the New York City region were digging out from under piles of snow.

The National Weather Service said a foot (31cm) or more could be on the ground in New England by the time the snow finally tapers off in the northern-most states on Wednesday evening.

Expand Close Two young sisters help their mother dig out her car in Pennsylvania (Jacqueline Dormer/Republican-Herald via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Two young sisters help their mother dig out her car in Pennsylvania (Jacqueline Dormer/Republican-Herald via AP)

The storm has already disrupted the second phase of Massachusetts vaccine rollout as a Boston site that was supposed to open on Monday for residents aged 75 and older did not. Some other mass vaccination sites remained open.

The state was expected to get 12 to 18 inches (31-61cm) of heavy, wet snow and wind up to 55mph along the coast, according to governor Charlie Baker.

In Connecticut, governor Ned Lamont said the storm forced the postponement of about 10,000 shots and delayed the states weekly resupply of vaccine. He urged providers that called off vaccination appointments to extend their hours if needed to reschedule the shots by the end of the week.

Expand Close A food delivery worker rides his bike through a snow-covered Manhattan (Robert Bumsted/AP) / Facebook

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Along with vaccination delays, the lumbering storm caused other problems all along the eastern United States.

More than 13 inches (33cm) of snow dropped on Manhattans Central Park, and as much as 16 inches (41cm) was reported in northern New Jersey.

In Virginia, four firefighters were taken to hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening after their fire engine overturned on snow-covered roads.
Aldar Properties, a leading developer in the UAE, has announced the launch of its corporate innovation programme, Aldar Scale Up, in partnership with startAD, the Abu Dhabi-based global accelerator at NYU Abu Dhabi and powered by its partner Tamkeen.

The virtual market access will provide a gateway to tangible growth opportunities, build strong networks, and validate global PropTech startups providing the latest cutting-edge real estate technology to enter and grow in the the UAE market through pilot projects with Aldar and other leading industry players in the region.

The inaugural edition of the programme will run virtually over a four-month period, at the end of which ten startups will have the opportunity to pitch to a selection committee and up to five startups will be awarded pilot projects with Aldar.

Startups will provide innovative and sustainable solutions in the real estate sector such as effective energy management, the development of smart cities, and the protection of biodiverse ecosystems. Opportunities to secure pilot projects with other UAE companies will be available for entrepreneurial ventures during the pitching process.

Hub71, Abu Dhabis global tech ecosystem, will also be joining the programme selection committee.

PropTech startups selected for Aldar Scale Up will automatically be shortlisted for Hub71s Incentive Program, which offers more than $400,000 worth of equity-free subsidies including up to 100 per cent free housing, health insurance and WeWork x Hub71 office space for up to three years.

By joining Hub71, startups will become part of a growing community of entrepreneurs which include more than 75 startups and over 30 partners, further enabling better access to market capital, talent, and the business and regulatory environment.

On the programme, Maan Al Awlaqi, Executive Director, Strategy and Transformation, said: "Fostering a culture of innovation internally at every level of our business helps us create intellectual and practical progress at Aldar towards a better customer experience and lifestyle. This encompasses both product ideation and enhancements and further leads to improvement in processes and UX experiences."

"The Mena region is gaining significant strides in cultivating a startup culture and harnessing homegrown talent, with a record $1 billion dollars invested in startups in 2020. Total funding is up 13% from 2019 while later stage deals increased by 52%, according to Magnitts 2021 Venture Investment Report," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
U.S. President Joe Biden signs a series of executive orders on climate change, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Jan. 27. AFP

A military coup in Myanmar and a mass crackdown on dissidents in Russia are presenting early tests for the Biden administration as it tries to reestablish American primacy as a worldwide pro-democracy leader.



Having taken office with a pledge to restore ironclad U.S. support for human rights, freedom of speech and political openness, President Joe Biden is being confronted with two serious challenges in two disparate parts of the world that had either been neglected or the subject of inconsistent messaging during the Trump era.



After investing decades of time, energy and money into promoting democracy in both Myanmar and Russia, the U.S. now faces challenges in each that could affect the global balance of power, with the Myanmar turmoil potentially strengthening China's hand.



And, while neither situation can be directly tied to domestic political uncertainty in the United States, experts believe foreign governments might be taking cues from the vestiges of America's perceived rudderlessness in the final months of President Donald Trump's term.



''It is not always about us," said Dan Fried, a former senior U.S. diplomat for Europe. ''Each has its own dynamic, but they certainly take cues from us. What links the two is that during the campaign, the Biden team talked about support for democracy being a North Star - a guiding point for democracy.''



Biden's aides have rejected suggestions that the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol fueled by Trump will hurt U.S. influence in the long run. But they have acknowledged it as a factor as Biden tries to reassert American moral leadership after four years of Trump's perceived diffidence.



"The United States remains a country in the world that is looked to for ... leadership, and it's going to take some time, but he's certainly committed to doing that," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said of Biden on Monday.



She spoke after Biden released a statement saying he would be looking at reimposing sanctions on Myanmar, also known as Burma, that had been lifted after the country's partial return to democracy during the Obama administration.



"The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy," Biden said. "The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action. The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack."



In Myanmar, the army took control of the government after a brief experiment with limited democracy, detaining former opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and giving China an even bigger potential opening into a neighboring country where the West had exerted great effort to blunt Beijing's significant influence.



"This is a setback for Myanmar and for democratic governance across Asia," said Danny Russel, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, who is now vice president for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute. "It's part of an unfortunate slide toward authoritarianism and it's quite worrying. It sets an appalling example for other countries."



"It's certainly an early crisis for the Biden administration, and it's really crystalized the contrast between its support for democracy and the Chinese support for authoritarianism," he said.



Tensions in Myanmar have been building for some time but have been largely under the radar of a Washington preoccupied with the coronavirus after decades of public and private pressure on Yangon to institute democratic reforms.



In Russia, despite Trump's political machinations, the situation has been at a slow boil for some years after attempts to draw Moscow into the democratic fold beginning with the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union. Confronting the Russians will be more difficult.



There, President Vladimir Putin is using an iron fist to try to quell demonstrations in support of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, flying in the face of warnings from Washington and Europe.



"It's a challenge for Biden, but they're not challenging him directly," said Fried, who is now with the Atlantic Council. He said that sanctions might not be effective in the long run but that they will get attention. ''They could do more," he said. "It would be appropriate, and it would send a message to Russian society that the Americans aren't stupid, that they know what's going on."



Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview aired on Monday that new sanctions against Russia are being considered, not only for the Navalny crackdown but also for a major cyberattack, election interference and purported bounties offered to the Taliban for targeting American troops in Afghanistan.



"We're looking into all of these things," Blinken told NBC News. "All of them are under review. And depending on the findings of those reviews, we will take steps to stand up for our interests and stand against Russian aggressive actions." (AP)




High Court extends relief to Kangana Ranaut in illegal merger of flats till Feb 5

India

oi-Deepika S

Mumbai, Feb 02: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday continued an interim order passed by a lower court restraining the Mumbai civic body from taking action against alleged irregularities at actor Kangana Ranaut's Mumbai flats till February 5.

The high court directed her to inform by that date if she would apply to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seeking regularisation of alleged unauthorised changes.

The BMC in March 2018 had issued a notice to Ranaut for alleged illegal merger of three flats owned by her at Orchid Breeze building in suburban Khar.

The civil court dismissed her suit against the notice in December 2020, so she moved the high court.

The civil court, while dismissing the suit, had noted that there was "grave violation of the sanctioned plan" while amalgamating the three flats.

The actor's lawyer Birendra Saraf on Tuesday told the high court that "vendetta" was being pursued against her. The illegal construction had been made by the developer and not Ranaut, he contended.

Senior counsel Aspi Chinoy and advocate Joel Carlos, appearing for the BMC, argued that there were at least eight irregularities in the flat.

Advocate Saraf then told the court that he would take instructions from the actor on whether she was willing to approach the BMC seeking regularization. Meanwhile, the court should grant her protection from any coercive action, he said.

The high court asked the BMC lawyers if there was any bar for regularisation.

Advocate Chinoy said an application for regularisation is normally filed within 30 days of receiving the notice.

"In this case, she is already three years late. But the court can condone the delay," the lawyer said.

The court then adjourned the hearing to Friday.

"...the civil court order dated December 22, 2020 shall remain in abeyance until February 5 and the interim order (about not taking coercive action) shall continue till then," the court said.

Kangana Ranaut's petition said since she bought the flats in 2013, she did not made any structural changes. She had carried out only "certain cosmetic changes", said the appeal filed through advocates Aseem Naphade, Monisha Bhangale and Prasanna Bhangale.

Last year, the BMC had initiated the demolition of alleged unauthorized construction at Ranaut's bungalow in Mumbai's Pali Hill area. The high court held the BMC's action illegal and malicious.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 20:01 [IST]
Amanda Holden was pictured leaving her Heart FM breakfast show on Tuesday a day after marking what would have been her son Theo's 10th birthday.

The TV and radio host, 49, stepped out wearing a cream jacket and cropped blue knit cardigan in central London after exiting Global Radio studios.

The previous day, Amanda had paid a poignant tribute to her late son Theo on what would have been his birthday.

Stepping out: Amanda Holden was pictured leaving her Heart FM breakfast show on Tuesday a day after marking what would have been her son Theo's 10th birthday

The media personality acknowledged the milestone with an Instagram post on showing an inking of her late son's footprints.

Alongside the picture she wrote: '#Theo ..our gorgeous little boy ...You would have been 10 years old today...not a day goes by without thinking of you.'

Theo was tragically stillborn at seven months in 2011, and Amanda has spoken out about her experience in a bid to help other parents who may be struggling.

Style: The TV and radio host, 49, stepped out wearing a cream jacket and cropped blue knit cardigan in central London after exiting Global Radio studios

Heartbreaking: The previous day, Amanda had paid a poignant tribute to her late son Theo on what would have been his birthday

Amanda received comments of support and love from several friends, including co-host Ashley Roberts, Vicky Pattison, Mario Falcone, and Myleene Klass - who recently spoke out about her own experiences losing children.

Amanda was seven months pregnant with Theo when a routine scan revealed his heart had stopped.

The Britain's Got Talent judge and her husband Chris Hughes then made the devastating decision to have a caesarean following Theo's passing.

Heartbreaking: The media personality acknowledged the milestone with an Instagram post on Monday showing an inking of his footprints

Support: Amanda received comments of support and love from several friends, including co-host Ashley Roberts, Vicky Pattison, Mario Falcone, and Myleene Klass

During an appearance on Loose Women last year, Amanda spoke about how she came to terms with her loss and the advice she would give people in a similar situation to her.

Amanda said: 'It's so difficult because everyone reacts in different ways - because my loss was a baby that never made it to earth I had to find a spiritual way around it.'

'I had to create a scenario in my head that my baby chose me in my head but he was never meant to come down.

Cute family: Amanda married Chris Hughes in 2008 and they are also parents to daughters Alexa, 15, and Hollie, nine (pictured in January 2021)

She continued: 'I was blessed with my daughter Hollie who came soon after.

'It's a cliche but you can only take one day at a time - it's what you can learn from it, gather everyone around you. I hung on very tight to Chris and my family.'

Amanda married Chris in 2008 and they are also parents to daughters Alexa, 15, and Hollie, nine.

For help with related issues, contact Tommy's, a miscarriage, premature birth and stillbirth charity, at mailbox@tommys.org or call 0800 0147 800
President Biden is preparing for his own crisis at the U.S. border, with 5,000 migrant children and counting: The number of unaccompanied minors trying to cross is rising while coronavirus distancing requirements have cut by half the number of useable beds in government shelters.

Driving the news: Two administration officials tell Axios plans are underway to open an overflow shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas, which could house another 700 children in its main building under COVID-19 precautions.



This comes as Biden is set to unveil his own immigration and border policies this week, beginning Tuesday, and undo much of his predecessor's hardline approach.

Why it matters: The Trump administration was lambasted for its extended use of the temporary shelters and so-called "tent cities" when holding facilities were overwhelmed during the migrant crisis in 2019. Biden's rhetoric and intentions differ, but that doesn't change his challenge: when apprehensions rise and space runs out, the options are limited.

Temporary shelters are controversial because they aren't subject to the same state licensing and monitoring of the long-term facilities, experts say.

The Texas site can accommodate tent-like facilities in case of a surge. The senior official said children at the influx shelter will receive education, medical and mental health care and all of the other services that they would in other shelters.

Details: By law, border officials have only 72 hours to transfer migrant children to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shelters, which can be difficult when numbers surge. One official said in anticipation of that scenario, HHS will notify Congress it intends to use Carrizo Springs.

There are currently about 5,000 children in HHS' care.

The number is still safely below normal capacity  and far below the 2019 crisis levels when the monthly, average shelter population reached 14,000. But it's about twice the number compared to late November.

Meanwhile, coronavirus precautions have cut the available beds by about half.

Sunday, there were 260 referrals of children to shelters, according to one internal report reviewed by Axios. Thats not far off the 294 average at the peak of the child migrant crisis in June 2019, according to public agency data.

Biden's team may face added scrutiny because of the Trump administration's handling of child immigration issues. One administration source told Axios, "The new leadership is so afraid of making any decision because of optics."

Flashback: In November, a court order blocked border officials under the Trump administration from using an order by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to quickly expel migrant kids who cross the border.

The uptick in child migrants is at least partly due to the impact that order had.

What's next: Despite a Friday court ruling that would allow the Biden administration to revert to fast-track expulsions of migrant children begun under Trump, a senior administration official said there are no plans to do so.
Vietnam has developed COVID-19 vaccine since last year. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - Vietnam reported another COVID-19 infection in the community, and detected no imported cases within the past 12 hours as of 6am on February 2, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The latest case, Patient 1,851, is a 44-year-old man who lived in Lai Cach town, Cam Giang district, the northern province of Hai Duong.

He tested positive with the SARS-CoV-2 on February 1 after having symptoms of fever, coughing and sore throat and getting medical examination at Hai Duong General Hospital on January 31.

The patient is under treatment at the hospital. Competent authorities are examining his travel history.

The country has so far recorded 1,851 SARS-CoV-2 infections so far. Of the total, 964 were locally-transmitted cases, including 271 linked with Hai Duong since the latest coronavirus outbreak hit the province on January 27.

According to a report from the Treatment Sub-committee under National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, 1,460 COVID-19 patients have recovered.

Among the patients still under treatment, eight have tested negative for the virus one, five twice, and three thrice. Thirty five died from complications related to the disease.

There are 27,714 people who had close contact with confirmed cases or coming from the pandemic-hit regions under quarantine at present, including 227 at hospitals, 20,917 in other quarantine sites, and 6,570 at home.
This acquisition fits into Wurth Industry's strategy to provide expert supply chain solutions of structural fasteners, safety, and MRO products and complements Wurth Industry's strength in the construction market as the premier distributor of structural products for fabricators, erectors, and the metal building industry. The acquisition of Atlantic Fasteners Inc. supplies Wurth with new manufacturing capabilities that increase their ability to serve customers and offer competitive lead times on a range of end to end structural products. Atlantic Fasteners, together with Wurth House of Threads, Weinstock Bros., and Wurth Action Bolt and Tool, as Wurth Construction Services, will provide expanded services to our structural customers across the US, Mexico, Canada, and Brazil.

"Through this acquisition, we gain not only new product and service offerings for our customers, but also the amazing personnel and talent of Atlantic Fasteners," said Dan Hill, Chief Executive Officer for Wurth Industry North America, "Wurth Industry has strong growth targets, both organically and through key acquisitions, and we continue to grow with businesses and teams who can support and enhance the expansion of our construction services to offer better supply chain solutions and cost savings for erectors and fabricators across North America."

"Atlantic Fastener adds to our capacity and geographic presence to better service our customers, said Eric Wilk, Vice President, East Region, Wurth Industry North America. "Adding the capability to manufacture anchor bolts to our service offerings increases the capacity in which we can support our structural and construction customers. Serving projects end to end and offering competitive lead times make us a powerhouse for our partners."

"We are excited to partner with Wurth because it not only maintains Atlantic Fasteners' history of outstanding quality and successful partnerships, but also enhances available offerings to our customers. Customers will continue to receive the same high-quality products and support that they are used to. With the support of a global company, they will have greater resources and inventory expansion. The acquisition is the best choice for both our customers and employees, as joining the Wurth family will equate to business growth", said Bill Davis, Owner and CEO, Atlantic Fasteners.

Wurth's new business division, Wurth Construction Services, comprised of Wurth companies Weinstock Bros., Wurth House of Threads, Wurth Action Bolt and Tool, and Atlantic Fasteners, is backed by nearly 230 years of service to the construction industry. The division's companies will operate on a shared system platform for optimal inventory visibility across multiple locations, which will offer improved service to regional and national customers. The new division will provide structural fastener components, inventory management, engineering support, kitting solutions, quality assurance, MRO and tooling, and PPE solutions for erectors, fabricators, contractors, and beyond to increase efficiency and lower cost. The new division will utilize its multiple locations across the US to be the premier supply chain solutions provider to the construction industry. To learn more about Wurth Construction Services, go to wurthindustry.com/construction .

About Wurth Industry North America

Wurth Industry North America (WINA) is a $1 Billion division of the Wurth Group, the world's largest fastener distribution company. WINA is a strategically aligned collective of companies: Wurth Adams, Wurth Des Moines Bolt, Wurth House of Threads, Wurth Industry Canada, Wurth Industry de Mexico, Wurth Revcar, Wurth Service Supply, Wurth Snider, Wurth SW Industry (Wurth Brazil), Wurth Timberline, Marine Fasteners, Northern Safety & Industrial, Oliver H. Van Horn, and Weinstock Bros., consisting of more than 110 locations across North America. Through the pairing of more than 420,000 parts with a myriad of services, WINA provides custom solutions for almost every industry. Wurth products and services include engineering assistance, quality control, inventory management, vending, safety supplies, kitting and assembly, structural fasteners and MRO/industrial supplies. In addition, WINA systems ensure security and quality control through superior supply chain management. For more information on Wurth Industry North America, go to wurthindustry.com.

For news updates from Wurth Industry North America visit:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/wurth-industry-north-america

Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/WurthIndustry

Twitter  @WurthIndustryNA

Wurth Industry North America Key facts:

110 locations across North America , Mexico , and Brazil

, , and More than 2,000 employees

More than 420,000 standard parts

Part of the Wurth Group, $15B+, which operates 400 companies in more than 80 countries and has more than 78,000 employees

SOURCE Wurth Industry North America
Representatives from NASA recently had their eye on a remote school in Far North Queensland amid claims of a fallen meteorite on Monday.

However, the astronomy experts were left red-faced after the truth about the shock 'space landing' soon emerged.

Rather than a potential meteorite from beyond Earth's atmosphere, it turns out the object was in fact a primary school assignment.

'We have had all sorts of inquiries from all around the world,' Malanda State School principal Mark Allen told 7NEWS.

The meteorite (pictured above) managed to get the attention of NASA before its true identity was revealed

Local police (pictured above) joined in on the fun, making it a day to remember for the students

'Including (one) from NASA who asked us to make a report to the Kennedy Space Centre.'

A photo of the suspicious looking charred rock on the school grass spread rapidly on social media, with comments flying in via Facebook.

Once the suspicious object was confirmed as a school experiment interest soon diminished, with Mr Allen stating the exercise was 'a bit of fun' and it was 'great to see so much excitement in the air.'

Students had been tasked with 'reporting' on a 'meteorite landing' as part of the assignement, with many 'interviewing witnesses' and emergency services 'at the scene'.

Malanda State School later released a synopsis of the historic event on its Facebook page.

Local Daniel Moss, who was at the school for the unveiling of the 'meteorite', said police on site added to the memorable occasion.

'The local police loved to get involved for the school and the kids to make it more realistic,' he said.

'This is a small town, they didn't expect it (school project) to go viral.'
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For Colleen Lords son, a struggle with correction officers put the accused parole violator in solitary confinement, where, she tearfully recalled, he died in March 2019.

Joining lawmakers and advocates Monday, Lord shared her sons story as she and two other mothers, whose sons were put in similar confinement, showed their support for legislation hoping to end the controversial practice of isolating inmates.

If we locked up animals the way we lock up people, we would all go to jail, state Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, said during a virtual news conference held with Stop Solitary CT discussing the new legislation.

The PROTECT Act, proposed this legislative session, would end the use of solitary confinement in the states prisons, create an avenue for greater Department of Correction oversight and shutter Connecticuts maximum security facility, Northern Correctional Institution.

Barbara Fair, a founding member of Stop Solitary CT, recalled Monday when she watched her 17-year-old son brought out for a visit in shackles while he was being held in Northern.

They brought him out all shackled, Fair said. It was like a scene from Roots.

Stop Solidarity CT forLorded a petition with more than 1,000 signatures to Gov. Ned Lamont, DOC Commissioner Angel Quiros and legislative leaders Monday, supporting the end of solitary confinement, designating the practice as an issue that will affect how they vote in the future.

The commissioner is committed to being at the table during the legislative session, said Karen Martucci, director of external affairs for the DOC. When the time comes to announce facility closures, Quiros will communicate any changes to those who are impacted in a sensitive manner, she said.

"Commissioner Quiros has also shared with this group that he intends to focus on a variety of important topics, including restrictive status," Martucci said.

The legislation is being drafted for consideration by the legislatures Judiciary Committee. The bill would prohibit inmates from being kept in their cells for more than 16 hours a day unless there was a facility-wide lockdown or emergency, and sets a minimum standards for the use of isolation while prohibiting all isolated confinement for more than 72 consecutive or cumulative hours in a 14-day period.

Lords son, Carl Robby Talbot, was being held in the medical unit at the New Haven Correctional Center on March 21, 2019 when he became agitated and smeared feces on himself and his cell, according to an investigation by the States Attorney for the Ansonia and Milford Judicial District.

He was compliant with correction officers when he took a shower, but then he became agitated again and was repeatedly sprayed with a chemical agent, the report said. At one point during the encounter, a correction officer kicked him in the leg while Talbot was on his back on the floor of the shower after just being pepper-sprayed, the report said.

Talbot, who had been arrested two days earlier for violating parole, died while restrained to his cot in administrative segregation.

The correction officer who was accused of kicking Talbot was later charged with third-degree assault. But the states attorney determined that no other correction officers were negligent in their duties that could have caused Talbots death.

The privilege I was born with prevented me from ever in a billion years imaging my own gentle and harmless childs last words would be cant breathe  gulped out under the heavy weight of multiple correction officers brutally attaching ultra-tight five-point restraints after mercilessly overdosing him with a chemical agent and then leaving him to die along in solitary confinement, chained to a metal cot, Lord said. The PROTECT Act would have saved him from this homicide.

The proposed legislation would also shutter Northern by Dec. 31, and create an Office of Corrections Ombudsman to be chosen by a Correction Accountability Commission. The ombudsman would investigate inmate complaints and have the power to advocate for inmates while recommending changes to the prison system.

Other facets of the bill would end the use of abusive restraints and protect social bonds by requiring the DOC to provide inmates with a minimum number of social and legal letters, free social and legal phone calls and 60 minutes of social contact visits per week.

Calling Northern a relic and a barbaric temple to capital punishment, state Rep. Steven Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, said the bill is the right thing to do.

Its past time to close it, Stafstrom said.

Quiros indicated as recently as last week that he is considering closing Northern and at least one other facility due to a reduction of inmates to around 9,000  a 30-year low. But Quiros said he wouldnt make a decision until after the pandemic had passed in case more room was needed to socially distance the incarcerated population, which has tested positive for COVID-19 at a higher rate than the general population.

Fair said the prisons closure needs to happen this year, as she shared her feelings when she saw her son being led out for their first visit while he was at Northern.

Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, a co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, said it costs the DOC about $17 million a year to operate, but the facility only houses 80 inmates, 90 percent of whom are Black or Hispanic.

As DOC officials grappled with the early impacts of the pandemic, Northern served as a place to medically isolate sick inmates.

The men were not allowed to shower during their 14-day stay, and the isolated conditions led inmates to hide symptoms to avoid a transfer to the facility, an issue Quiros recently acknowledged. Not long after the departure of his predecessor, Quiros moved the medical isolation unit to MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.

Karen Colt, another mother challenging the solitary confinement practice, argued that her son, Lee, who is slated for release in the next few months after she said he committed robberies to feed his addiction, has been held at the states maximum security prison since April because he complained that correction officers werent wearing masks and the DOC wasnt doing enough to protect inmates during the pandemic.

Lee Colt was part of an organized disruption at Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in the spring that resulted in his placement in administrative segregation on May 22, Martucci said, and was later found with a makeshift restraint key out of metal and hid it in his cell.

At Northern, Colt said her son is being treated as a death row inmate with no social interaction and showers every three days.

Its incomprehensible to me that in the United States of America men can be placed in extended solitary confinement for asking an authority figure difficult questions, Colt said. No violence, no threats, just a request for a viable safety plan. My son got COVID-19 just weeks before his final release date and could have died not seeing the sky again in almost a year, just because he expected DOC to provide a safe environment.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct Colleen Lords last name.
Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2021) - TrustBIX Inc. (TSXV: TBIX) ("TrustBIX" or the "Company") is very pleased to announce the final acceptance from the TSX Venture Exchange and closing of its over-subscribed, non-brokered private placement financing ("Private Placement") for gross proceeds of $2,100,000 or 10,500,000 units ("Units") at a price of $0.20 per Unit.

"TrustBIX is strategically building depth and scale in some of the largest growth markets in the agri-tech industry including USA and China," said Hubert Lau, CEO. "This financing provides us with cash to both accelerate existing expansion plans and further develop the capabilities of our technology. In light of the overwhelming demand for this private placement, we believe the public is beginning to understand the value TrustBIX brings to food traceability and sustainability."

The Private Placement was first announced on January 14th, 2021 for up to $1,500,000, upsized to $2,000,000 on January 15th, 2021, and further increased to $2,100,000 or up to 10,500,000 units ("Units"), at a price of $0.20 per Unit. On January 26, 2021, TrustBIX closed on the initial tranche of subscriptions of 6,632,343 Units for gross proceeds of $1,326,468 that included 2,382,343 Units issued to certain insiders of the Company.

Each Unit is comprised of one (1) common share in the capital of TrustBIX ("Common Share") and one (1) Common Share purchase warrant ("Warrant"), whereby each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one (1) Common Share at a price of $0.30 for a period of one (1) year from the date of closing. If after four (4) months and one (1) day from the date of closing, the trading price of the Common Shares on the principal market on which such shares trade closes at a price that is equal to or exceeds $0.50 per Common Share for twenty (20) consecutive trading days, the Company will have the right to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants. In the event of acceleration, the expiry date will be accelerated to a date that is thirty (30) days after the date that written notice has been given to the warrant holder or the date that TrustBIX has issued a press release announcing the exercise of the acceleration right; and thereafter, no further notification will be provided by the Company to the subscribers.

The issuance of Units to insiders pursuant to the Private Placement will constitute a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101, Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Offering will be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101. In particular, TrustBIX anticipates that the exemptions set out in paragraphs (a) and (b) in section 5.5 of MI 61-101 are applicable since the aggregate consideration to be paid by the related parties will not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of TrustBIX and TrustBIX is not listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but only on the TSX Venture Exchange. In addition, regarding the minority shareholder approval exemptions, the independent directors have determined that the exemptions set out in paragraphs (1)(a) and (b) in section 5.7 of MI 61-101 are applicable in that the aggregate consideration to be paid by the related parties will not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of TrustBIX, the distribution of the securities to the related parties will have a fair market value of not more than $2,500,000 and TrustBIX is not listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but only on the TSX Venture Exchange.

The securities issued under the Private Placement are subject to a four-month hold period from the time of closing of the Private Placement.

In addition, the Company has paid a finder's fee, in the total amount of $124,500 cash, in connection with the entire Private Placement.

TrustBIX will use the net proceeds from the Private Placement for general working capital and growing its business.

About TrustBIX (TSXV: TBIX)

As an innovative leader, TrustBIX provides agri-food traceability. By addressing consumer and agri-food business demands, the Company has a goal to become the most trusted and largest source of third-party food traceability and sustainability information globally - Gate to Plate. TrustBIX Inc.'s focus is to create a world where we trust more, waste less and reward sustainable behaviour. The Company's proprietary platform, BIX (Business infoXchange System), is designed to create trust without compromising privacy through innovative use of data and technology. Extensive R&D has allowed TrustBIX to create a new blockchain-derived technology to complement its mature and proven traceability systems. By leveraging BIX and its unique use of incentive solutions, the Company can deliver independent validation of food provenance and sustainable production practices within the supply chain. ViewTrak Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, provides a suite of hardware and software solutions to the livestock industry in Canada, United States, Mexico and China, such as Auction Master Pro, Market Master, Feedlot Solutions and pork grading probes. For more information, visit www.trustbix.com, or follow us on Twitter twitter.com/@TrustBIX_Inc, Facebook at www.facebook.com/BIXSco, or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bixsco-inc-/.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mr. Hubert Lau

President and CEO

Telephone: (780) 456-2207

Email: info@trustbix.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 of accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73369
oxford-astrazenca coronavirus vaccine

About 1,500 of the initial volunteers in a late-stage clinical trial of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were given the wrong dose but were not informed that a mistake had been made after the blunder was discovered, documents obtained by Reuters show.

Instead, the dosing mishap was presented to the trial participants in a letter dated June 8 as an opportunity for University of Oxford researchers to learn how well the vaccine works at different doses. The letter was signed by the trials chief investigator, Oxford professor Andrew J Pollard, and sent to the trial subjects.

As Reuters reported on December 24, participants were given about a half dose due to a measuring mistake by Oxford researchers. The Pollard letter did not acknowledge any error. Nor did it disclose that researchers had reported the issue to British medical regulators, who then told Oxford to add another test group to receive the full dose, in line with the trials original plan.

There is no suggestion there was any risk to the health of trial participants.

Much is riding on the British-developed vaccine, which is being rolled out across the UK and has been touted as a low-cost weapon against the pandemic. The jab has come under scrutiny because of the dosing error in the Oxford trial and a paucity of data about its efficacy in older people who are most vulnerable to the virus.

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

Reuters shared the letter  which it obtained from the university through a Freedom of Information request  with three different experts in medical ethics. The ethicists all said it indicates the researchers may not have been transparent with trial participants. Volunteers in clinical trials are supposed to be kept fully informed about any changes.

They are not clear at all about what they need to be clear about  whats going on, what they knew, the rationale for undertaking further research, said Arthur L. Caplan, founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. It is lost in a snowstorm of verbiage.

Steve Pritchard, a spokesman for Oxford, told Reuters: The half-dose group was unplanned, but we did know in advance that there was a discrepancy in the dose measurements and discussed this with the regulators before dosing and when the dosing was revised.

Pritchard also said, We have not stated that a dosing error occurred.

Pollard did not respond to a request for comment.

The spokesmans suggestion that no error was made is contradicted by documents produced last year by Oxford and its vaccine partner, drugs giant AstraZeneca PLC. In December, Reuters reported that a Global Statistical Analysis Plan by Oxford/AstraZeneca, dated Nov. 17 and later published in the scientific journal The Lancet, called the dosing discrepancy a potency miscalculation.

A spokesman for AstraZeneca declined to comment.

The Health Research Authority, a British government agency responsible for approving medical research and ensuring it is ethical, said in a statement that changes to the study design and the letter sent to participants were approved by one of its ethics committees.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine recently has received authorization for use in a growing number of countries, including the United Kingdom, the European Union and India. The UK became the first country to approve it and began rolling out the vaccine on January 4.

But questions surrounding the clinical trials continue to plague the vaccine. Last week, Germanys vaccine committee recommended it should only be given to people aged under 65, while the EU, which authorized it on Friday for people aged 18 and over, lowered its reported efficacy rate from 70.4 percent to 60 percent. In both cases, authorities cited a lack of sufficient data from the clinical trials. The EU also has sharply criticized AstraZeneca for cutting back its planned vaccine deliveries to the continent over the next few months. The company has said it is doing its best to boost supplies.

The mistaken half-dose  which prompted the letter in June to trial participants  continues to be a factor in the reported efficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

Oxford had reported interim results in November that showed the efficacy rate for trial subjects who mistakenly received a half dose, and a subsequent full-dose booster shot was 90 percent, and that the rate for those who received two full doses was 62 percent. Combining data from the two dosing regimens resulted in an efficacy of 70.4 percent.

In authorizing the vaccine, UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), accepted the pooled results, but did not approve administering the half-dose/full-dose regimen. There is not persuasive evidence of a real difference in vaccine efficacy between the two different dosing regimens, it said.

RECENT CHANGES

The vaccines late-stage clinical trial began on May 28. Within days, Oxford researchers realized trial participants had been given lower doses than planned after they displayed milder than expected side effects, such as fever and fatigue. They alerted British medical regulators.

On June 5, the researchers amended the trial protocol at the request of regulators to add a new group that would receive the correct full dose of the vaccine. Three days later, they alerted trial subjects to what they called recent changes in the study in a two-page letter attached to an updated 13-page Participant Information Sheet.

The letter, signed by chief investigator Pollard, stated that researchers are not sure what dose of vaccine is most likely to be protective against COVID disease and explained that doses are measured using standard scientific test methods. It said the late-stage trial participants received a dose measured using one method and that another group will receive a dose measured using a different test to match the dose given in another clinical trial of the vaccine.

It said the lower dose is still in the normal range of doses that are used in clinical trials and if it can provide protection, it might be better for use in vaccine programmes.

Caplan said the explanation would be of no interest whatsoever to the subject because its too technical. To me, that qualifies as gobbledygook. What you want to know is, why are they doing this, we made an error, it involved dosing, were not worried about it.

He and other ethicists interviewed by Reuters said researchers are obligated to be forthcoming with test subjects when things go wrong.

As a letter purporting to explain a) an error and b) a change of protocol I find this entirely inadequate, said Simon Woods, a professor of bioethics at Newcastle University, in an email. It reads like a routine update (and a complex one at that).

Emma Cave, a professor of healthcare law at Durham Universitys law school, said: Presenting the dosing variation as a planned change in the study is potentially a breach of trust if in fact the dosing resulted from an error. The letter makes clear the dosing change but not the reason for the change.

David M. Shribman is the former executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. His email is dshribman@post-gazette.com.
The Jasper County, Missouri Sheriffs Office indicated Monday that the apparent weekend suicide of Justin Stevens is expected to bring an investigation of the slaying of a Sarcoxie woman to a close sometime this week.

Capt. Derek Walrod of the Jasper County Sheriffs Department said the investigation in the death of Becci D. Sanders, 46, remains open at this time, with investigators still working leads.

But we arent looking for any other suspects, Walrod said. He was our only suspect.

The 34-year-old Stevens was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound about 4 p.m. Saturday inside the garage of a residence in Cullman County. Walrod said somebody who knew Stevens was hiding at a residence there called the tip into the local sheriffs office and that deputies surrounded the location and tried to call Stevens out.

When he did not respond, they entered the garage and found his body.

Walrod said the sheriffs office here does not know if deputies there heard a gunshot while they were at the location or if Stevens is believed to have shot himself before their arrival. He said the Jasper County Sheriffs Office had yet to receive any detailed reports from Alabama. Walrod said it was his understanding that an autopsy was ordered there and was likely to be conducted Monday.

The Jasper County Sheriffs Office has released few details about Sanders death, which was reported the night of Jan. 13 when her husband found her body inside her home at 2755 High St. in Sarcoxie. The cause of her death has not been released in the wake of an autopsy performed more than two weeks ago.

The sheriffs office identified Stevens as a person of interest early on, declaring him to be armed and dangerous and his whereabouts unknown.

Investigators believed that Stevens arrived in the Sarcoxie area as early as Jan. 1 after he and his sister were involved in a crash on Interstate 44 near mile marker 33. The sheriffs office said they were given a ride to the Kum & Go convenience store in Sarcoxie, where he is believed to have run off into some woods. He had an active warrant for felony theft at the time, the sheriffs office said.

Investigators reported that he may have been on the convenience store parking lot again the afternoon of the day that Sanders body was discovered. They have not said what interaction he may have had with the victim or what links him to her death. Sanders car was reported stolen the night her body was found. It was located abandoned several days later in Kentucky.

Walrod declined to answer questions about the case Monday due to the ongoing investigation. He said he expected more information to be released before the end of the week.

___

(c)2021 The Joplin Globe (Joplin, Mo.)

Visit The Joplin Globe (Joplin, Mo.) at www.joplinglobe.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-01 19:16:30|Editor: huaxia

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A medical worker wearing protective suit checks medical equipment at a COVID-19 vaccination center at a local hospital on the outskirts of Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, Feb. 1, 2021. A batch of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines has been officially handed over to Pakistan on Monday at Noor Khan Air Base near the country's capital Islamabad. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- A batch of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines has been officially handed over to Pakistan on Monday at Noor Khan Air Base near the country's capital Islamabad, making Pakistan the first country to receive the Chinese government donated COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier on Sunday, the donated Sinopharm vaccines were loaded onto a plane in Beijing.

Addressing the handover ceremony at the air base, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi expressed his gratitude to the people and the government of China for helping Pakistan in the hour of need and making Pakistan the first country in the world to receive the COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Chinese government.

China kept on showing support to Pakistan since the outbreak of the pandemic including sending medical teams while providing the vaccines is another testament to the traditional friendship between the two countries, he said.

"Our friendship is not limited to governments. Our public have the same sentiments of friendship," the foreign minister added.

On the occasion, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong said that sending the vaccines is a new manifestation to the "iron brotherhood" between the two countries, adding that China has honored its commitment to making Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, once developed and put into use, global public goods.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan, the Chinese envoy said, adding that "we are proud of the friendship between China and Pakistan, that is higher than the mountain, deeper than the sea, and sweeter than the honey."

"Our hearts grow closer in the joint fight against COVID-19 with the great solidarity and support we have for each other, and the steady progress in bilateral cooperation including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. China is ready to contribute to Pakistan's pandemic prevention drive, economic recovery and social development," Nong added.

Pakistan has so far confirmed 546,428 cases and lost 11,683 lives to the disease since the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, according to the latest government data. Enditem
Major road projects in the States national development plan will have to address vulnerable road users following a jump in the number of fatalities, a committee has been told.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), told the Oireachtas transport committee that deaths among vulnerable road users has risen during the pandemic.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people using alternative transport methods across Ireland because of Covid-19 restrictions on public transport.

Mr Walsh said it will need to be addressed in a number of projects as part of the Governments National Development Plan (NDP).

The NDP, which is due to run until 2030, has pledged almost 116 billion euro on transport projects across the country, water treatment and energy for the future.

Mr Walsh told the committee that it has recently concluded the latest road safety strategy.

He said that while fatalities on the transport network are down, deaths among vulnerable road users have gone up during the last period.

Mr Walsh did not provide these figures to the committee.

We are now heading into a period where active travel is being very much encouraged, he added.

People around my age and probably younger are getting on electric bikes. We are going to have to address that in a very proactive way in our projects.

That may not change the specific nominated projects, but the manner in which we develop the designs, I think we will have to address vulnerable road users in way that we hadnt really addressed previously.

He also told the committee that progression of projects through the planning approval process has become slower in recent years.

The time spent in the planning process and the judicial review process has extended the delivery timeline for some projects by several years, he added.

The restrictions required to combat the spread of Covid-19 have further interrupted the planning and judicial processes.

The committee heard that in 2018, the NDP mandated the progression of 43 major projects which would address deficiencies in the national road network across 29 local authorities.

Since then, three have been completed.

Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer said there has never been a greater need to provide investment for areas outside of Dublin.

Anne Graham, chief executive officer at the National Transport Authority, said there is a need to counterbalance investments in cities, towns and villages outside Dublin.

Mr Walsh also said that there has been a very significant emphasis on improving regional accessibility in all of its projects.

The emphasis within the current NDP is very much one that produces enhanced regional accessibility and identifies the areas that didnt get the benefit of connectivity in previous development plans, Mr Walsh added.

We would see a continued need to support development of urban areas outside of Dublin by enhancing the connectivity between them and largest market in the country, being Dublin.

We dont chose any one of them above the other.
Allegheny Health Network (AHN) and Johns Hopkins Medicine announced today the first successful lung transplantation as part of a unique collaboration launched last year between the two organizations.

A 65-year-old woman from Pittsburgh with level D chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) underwent a bilateral lung transplant at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in September 2020 as part of the program. According to body-mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea, and exercise capacity (BODE) rating, level D is the most severe form of COPD, often leading to lung transplantation being considered. After a week in the hospital and six weeks of post-operative care in Baltimore, the patient returned home to Pittsburgh where she is continuing her care at AHN, with regular follow up by the Johns Hopkins team as well.

In 2020, AHN and Johns Hopkins Medicine announced plans to collaborate on the study and treatment of COPD, utilizing the Johns Hopkins Precision Medicine Analytics Platform. As part of this effort, the two organizations formed a partnership so that AHN patients with advanced lung disease could receive streamlined access to the Johns Hopkins Medicine lung transplant program, a pioneering leader in the field for nearly 25 years.

Pre- and post-lung transplant care programs aligned with the Johns Hopkins lung transplant team have been established at AHNs Allegheny General Hospital, providing patients with convenient, local access to care needed prior to and after surgery. Anil Singh, MD, an AHN pulmonary and critical care specialist and Executive Medical Director of Clinical Solutions, Design and Implementation, leads AHNs collaboration with Johns Hopkins Medicine and oversees patient care in Pittsburgh. Dr. Singh and his team refer patients into the program, and then co-manage their care and progress with the Hopkins Lung Transplant Team when they return to Pittsburgh.

We are excited to be working with one of the worlds preeminent lung transplant programs to make this lifesaving care more readily accessible to our patients with complex, end-stage lung diseases like COPD, Singh says. Our first patient spent a relatively short time on the waiting list for transplant and is doing extremely well in her recovery.

AHN patients choosing The Johns Hopkins Hospital for their lung transplant are guided through every step of the process by a personal patient navigator. Additionally, Highmark-insured patients requiring lung transplantation can utilize specific in-network benefits to better accommodate them and their families during their time at Johns Hopkins.

The shared care model with AHN, allows us to provide the comprehensive transplant care for our patients while reducing travel disruptions from frequent health care visits to Baltimore, per Pali Shah, M.D., Medical Director of Hopkins Lung Transplantation. Our teams communicate on a weekly basis to provide seamless care.

Johns Hopkins median time from waitlist to transplant is 2.8 months, compared to a national average of 3.1 months. AHNs first lung transplant patient as part of the collaborative was on the waitlist for just one month. The Hopkins program is committed to the highest quality and at the leading edge of technology, with programs for ex vivo lung perfusion to expand the donor pool, novel techniques for monitoring rejection, and participating as a member of national scientific consortiums to advance the science of lung transplantation.

An estimated 30 million people in the United States have COPD, with as many as half unaware that they have the disease. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COPD is known to increase the risk of severe illness from COVID-19. While treatments such as medications and oxygen therapy can improve quality of life for patients, there is no cure for COPD.

For more information about the AHN Breathing Disorders Center and pulmonology services, visit AHN.org or call 412-DOCTORS to schedule an appointment.

###

About the Allegheny Health Network

Allegheny Health Network (AHN.org), a Highmark Health company, is an integrated healthcare delivery system serving the greater Western Pennsylvania region. The Network is composed of 13 hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, Health + Wellness Pavilions, multiple employed physician organizations, home and community-based health services, a research institute, and a group purchasing organization. The Network provides patients with access to a complete spectrum of advanced medical services, including nationally recognized programs for primary and emergency care, trauma care, cardiovascular disease, organ transplantation, cancer care, orthopedic surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, womens health, diabetes, autoimmune disease and more. AHN employs approximately 21,000 people, has more than 2,500 physicians on its medical staff and serves as a clinical campus for Drexel University College of Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, and the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.
LONDON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

February 2, 2021

Mr. Peter Cohen, Chairman of the Board

Dr. Jessica Shen, Director

Ms. Minnie Baylor-Henry, Director

Mr. Willie Bogan, Director

Dr. Jeff Dyer, Director

Mr. Chris Nolet, Director

PolarityTE, Inc.

123 North Wright Brothers Drive

Salt Lake City, UT 84116

Dear Members of the Board,

As you are aware, Gatemore Capital Management LLP ("Gatemore" or "we") manages the Gatemore Special Opportunities Fund, which today controls 3.7% of the common stock of PolarityTE, Inc. ("Polarity" or the "Company") on a fully diluted basis.

We are writing to follow up on our letter to Mr. Cohen and the members of the Board of Directors (the "Board"), dated December 28, 2020, in which we requested that the Board take the following three actions:

1. De-classify the Board;

2. Provide Gatemore access to books and records relating to the dilutive equity financings completed in February and December of 2020; and

3. Form a strategic alternatives committee to evaluate new financing and other strategic opportunities.

While we were pleased to see the Board announce the formation of a strategic alternatives committee on January 11, we were disappointed that you did not take any action to de-classify the Board and eliminate your staggered elections. Furthermore, in response to our request for access to books and records, you flatly denied our request, writing to us, "Polarity will not produce any documents in response to the Demand."

This stunning lack of transparency or reasonable accommodation to your stockholders is, unfortunately, part of a broader pattern of poor corporate governance at Polarity. Below is a list of, in our view, completely unnecessary defensive entrenchment provisions in the governing documents that, taken together, portrays a Board which ignores best practices and suppresses basic stockholder rights, particularly at a time of significant stockholder value deterioration.

PolarityTE Best Practice Maintains a classified board with only a subset of directors up for re-election each year, with each director serving three (3) year terms. Declassified board with all directors serving one-year terms. Bars stockholders from acting by written consent. Stockholders may act by written consent to approve all actions which may be approved by stockholders at a stockholder meeting. Requires 25% of outstanding shares to call a special meeting of the stockholders. Any stockholder may call a special meeting. Permits the removal of directors only "for cause", and only by a 67% supermajority of the stockholders. Any director may be removed with or without cause by holders of a simple majority of the outstanding shares. Stockholders may not fill vacancies on the Board. Both the Board and stockholders may fill vacancies on the Board, whether caused by director removal or a newly created director set. Requires a 67% supermajority of the stockholders to amend the Company's charter or bylaws. Permits stockholders to approve amendments to the Company's charter and bylaws by holders of a simple majority of the outstanding shares.

Further to the significant flaws in the governing documents of the Company that must be rectified, at the very least, to come into line with appropriate practice for public companies in the market, the Company has abused its nearly unfettered right to issue dilutive equity without any stockholder consent. We, therefore, call for appropriate curbs on the Board's right to approve equity issuances without the consent of the stockholders.

But perhaps the most egregious corporate governance issue is the seeming free pass that the Board has granted to the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, who has overseen the protracted and precipitous decline of stockholder value. As you all know, David Seaburg and Peter Cohen are close, long-time friends, having worked together for nine years at Cowen Group. Mr. Seaburg has no experience whatsoever in running a healthcare enterprise or guiding a company through a bet-the-company regulatory approval process. It is past time for this Board to hold the Company's senior executive management to account for the direction of the Company. Instead of meeting its fiduciary duty to oversee the executive team and an unqualified CEO, the Board has rewarded Mr. Seaburg with large share grants.

In addition to Gatemore, a significant number of your largest stockholders are similarly appalled by the corporate governance practices at Polarity. If the Board continues to show disregard for stockholders through inappropriate entrenchment policies, dilutive issuances and inadequate oversight of its senior executive management team, then we will be forced to take further action.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Liad Meidar

Managing Partner

Rob White, James Williams and Patrick Corcoran - +44 (0) 20 7952 2000 / gatemore@greenbrookpr.com
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
DUBLIN, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Research Report of the Tire Export Industry in China 2020-2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

China's annual production of pneumatic tires was more than 800 million in 2015-2019, the highest output was 1.04 billion in 2018. Due to the upstream rubber industry and the downstream automobile industry, the tire production in 2019 had declined, only 842.26 million.

According to the analyst, the tires exported by China are new pneumatic tires, which are mainly used for passenger cars and commercial vehicles (buses and lorries). According to the analyst, from 2017 to 2019, the export volume increased from 289.59 million to 315.58 million. Affected by COVID-19 from January to April 2020, the number of tire exports is relatively small, only 84.71 million, down by 13.45 million, or 13.70% compared to the same period in 2019.

Although the volume of passenger car tire exports is more than that of commercial car tires, the amount of commercial car tire exports is higher. In 2019, the export volume of passenger car tires was 223.23 million, the value being USD 5,569.82 million, while the volume of commercial vehicle tires was 92.36 million, which was worth USD 7,350.04 million.

The export destinations of passenger car tires are always relatively scattered, with only the UK ranking the first, accounting for 8-10% of the total volume. While commercial vehicle tires were mainly exported to the United States. Even in the face of the Sino-U.S. trade war and epidemic situation, the United States was still the first export destination, accounting for 14-26% of the total volume.

China's government encourages enterprises to export tires, while lots of other countries have raised tariffs on Chinese tires. Considering the pandemic and other factors, exports have estimated to be relatively low in 2020 and should gradually recover after 2021.

According to the analyst, the USA, the UK and Mexico are expected to be the top three export destinations in the next five years, followed by Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Readers may obtain the following information from this report:

Economic Environment of the Tire Industry in China

Policies for Exported Tires in China

Analysis on the Supply of Tires in China

Analysis of Exported Tires in China

Analysis of Major Destinations of Exported Tires in China

Price Trends of Exported Tires in China

Driving Forces and Opportunities for Exported Tires in China

Forecasts on Exported Tires in China 2020-2024

Key Topics Covered:

1 China's Tire Production, 2015-2019

1.1 Passenger Car Tires

1.2 Commercial Vehicle Tires



2 Related Policies of China's Tire Exports



3 China's Tire Export Scale, 2017-Apr. 2020

3.1 Types of Exported Tires from China

3.1.1 Passenger Car Tires

3.1.2 Commercial Vehicle Tires

3.2 Export Volume of Tires

3.1.1 Passenger Car Tires

3.2.2 Commercial Vehicle Tires

3.3 Export Value of Tires

3.3.1 Passenger Car Tires

3.3.2 Commercial Vehicle Tires



4 Major Destinations of Tire Exports from China, 2017-Apr.2020

4.1 Major Destinations of Tire Exports from China, 2017

4.2 Destinations of Tire Exports from China, 2018

4.3 Major Destinations of Tire Exports from China, 2019

4.4 Major Destinations of Tire Exports from China, 2020

4.5 Analysis of Exported Tires from China to USA, 2017 -2020



5 Factors Influencing China's Tire Exports, 2020-2024

5.1 Drivers and Opportunities of China's Tire Exports

5.2 Unfavorable Factors of China's Tire Exports

6 Forecast on China's Tire Exports, 2020-2024

6.1 Forecast on Tire Exports from China, 2020-2024

6.2 Forecast on Export Destinations

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9m3rf8

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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Around 100 people queued for more than an hour in the rain while waiting for a Covid test - only to be told the kits to check for the South African variant had not arrived.

Staff told residents that only the standard lateral flow testing kits were available which are less accurate than the PCR testing kits and cannot identify the South African variant.

One member of staff at the testing centre in Splashworld said: 'We haven't got the tests for the South African strain yet but we are hoping to start testing tomorrow.'

Southport is one of several areas in the UK where the new strain of coronavirus has been found, along with Bristol, Liverpool and parts of London.

The Government has launched an effort to swab 80,000 people in the eight areas of England where cases of the variant have been discovered, to stop it from spreading further.

People living in the PR9 postcode are being urged to get tested as soon as possible, with door to door testing set to place.

Following that advice, long queues of people rushed to get tested at Splashworld, which is offering SMART testing.

Pictured: Around 100 people queued in bad weather to be tested for the South African variant in Southport only to be told the correct kits had not yet been delivered to the testing centre

But the mix-up left dozens of people who had arrived to be tested for the South African strain today feeling confused and frustrated.

Barry Harper, 72, a retired engineer, said: 'I saw it on the news telling everyone to come and get tested so that's what I did.

'I thought the new tests would be here but now we've been told it's going to be tomorrow.

'It's annoying because I feel like I've wasted my time.'

Aarron Williams, 39, a builder, said: 'I'm still working on sites and doing work at people's houses, so I want make sure I've not got Covid-19.

'This new strain is worrying but hopefully the jab will work against it.'

Southport was identified as one of several places in UK where the new strain has been found

A long line snaked around the perimeter of Splash World, in Southport, at the walk-in centre. People of all ages braved the wintery conditions while waiting for the test.

Lesley Arthur, 55, a health care worker, said: 'I was hoping to be tested for the new strain but have been told the kits are not here.

'It's busier than I expected it to be. I've been waiting just over an hour now and the weather is not great.

'I just want piece of mind that I'm Covid-free so I can continue working and not pass it on to anyone else.'

Jacob Masson, 24, a floor fitter, said: 'My boss rang me last night to say I needed to get a negative test before being able to work.

'We are in and out of customers' houses so it's the right thing to do.

Sefton Council, responsible for organising testing in Southport, says new kits are due to be delivered today and a team to carry out door-to-door testing should be mobilised by tomorrow

'I did come here today thinking I'd be tested for the new strain, but if it comes back negative, that's the most important thing.

'I'll have to get tested for South African variant later on.'

Experts fear the strain may be able to evade immunity given by vaccines or increase the risk of people getting Covid for a second time.

Residents in the affected areas were urged to be strict with the stay home rules as the government scrambles to suppress the emergence of variant versions of the deadly disease.

Sefton Council, which is responsible for testing in Southport, said the PCR test kits are due to be delivered today with the aim to carry out door-to-door testing from tomorrow.

Sefton's Director of Public Health, Margaret Jones said: 'Finding cases of the new South African COVID-19 variant and reducing the number of people who could be exposed to it is vital, which is why we are focusing testing facilities on the area and trying to make it as easy as possible for people to get tested.

In a desperate attempt to keep track of the South African variant that experts fear could effect the current crop of vaccines, health officials will carry out swabs in Woking in Surrey, Walsall in the West Midlands, as well as parts of London, Kent, Hertfordshire and Lancashire

'Anyone over 16 within the area can go along and get tested without an appointment and I would urge them to do so as soon as possible so we can nip any spread of the new variant in the bud.'

The council said details of where a Mobile Testing Unit can be sited are being finalised and should be ready for tomorrow.

It added that a team of people to knock on doors to provide and collect home testing kits for local residents is being mobilised.

Mobile Test Units have been operating in Sefton since April with Southport's walk-in test centre being located at Splash World.

The council encouraged key workers and people with caring commitments to visit regularly for testing.

It was announced last night that 11 patients infected with the South African variant had no travel links, suggesting the strain could already be spreading in the community.

People who take the routine test cannot be told whether they are carrying the South African variant, but the plan intends to find positive cases among people without symptoms in a bid to isolate them before they can infect others.
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The coup followed a landslide win for Suu Kyis NLD in an election on November 8, a result the military has refused to accept citing unsubstantiated allegations of fraud. The army handed power to its commander, General Min Aung Hlaing, and imposed a state of emergency for a year. Myanmar army soldiers at a barricaded road leading to the Parliament building. Credit:AP Min Aung Hlaing told the first meeting of his new government on Tuesday that it was inevitable the army would have to take power after its protests over alleged election fraud last year. Despite the Tatmadaws (army) repeated requests, this path was chosen inevitably for the country. Until the next government is formed after the upcoming election, we need to steer the country, Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying by army information service.

The election and fighting COVID-19 were the juntas priorities, he said. He had earlier promised a free and fair election and a handover of power to the winner, but without giving a timeframe. The electoral commission has dismissed the fraud claims. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The NLDs executive committee demanded the release of all detainees as soon as possible. In a post on the Facebook page of senior party official May Win Myint, the committee also called for the military to acknowledge the election results and for the new parliament to be allowed to sit. It had been due to meet on Monday for the first time since the election.

Various activist groups on Tuesday issued a flurry of messages on social media urging civil disobedience. Loading Suu Kyi endured about 15 years of house arrest between 1989 and 2010 as she led a democracy movement against the military, which had seized power in a 1962 coup and stamped out all dissent until her party came to power in 2015. Her international standing as a human rights icon was badly damaged after she failed to stop the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims in 2017 and defended the military against accusations of genocide. She remains hugely popular at home and is revered as the daughter of Myanmars independence hero, Aung San. International condemnation

US President Joe Biden called the crisis a direct assault on Myanmars transition to democracy. We will work with our partners throughout the region and the world to support the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, as well as to hold accountable those responsible for overturning Burmas democratic transition, Biden said in a statement. A man reads at a newspaper, which reports on the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar on Tuesday. Credit:AP The United Nations also condemned the coup and called for the release of detainees, in comments echoed by Australia, the European Union, India and Japan as well as former colonial ruler Britain. China did not join the condemnation, saying only that it noted the events and called on all sides to respect the constitution. The streets of Myanmar were quiet on Tuesday as they have been for weeks because of the coronavirus. Troops and riot police took up positions in Naypyitaw and the main commercial centre Yangon.

Phone and internet connections had been restored and banks in Yangon reopened after halting services on Monday due to poor internet connections and amid a rush to withdraw cash. Myanmars international airport in Yangon will stay closed until April or even May, its manager, Phone Myint, said. He did not say why. Immediate response One of the first calls for specific action to oppose the coup came from the Yangon Youth Network, one of Myanmars biggest activist groups. Any street protests will raise alarm in a country with a grim record of military crackdowns.

Chinas state Xinhua news agency quoted a military official as saying most regional and state leaders who were detained during the takeover were released on Tuesday. Loading The chief minister of the Sagaing region, Myint Naing, told the BBC after his release that he had been treated well. I worry for the future of the nation. We hoped for the best but the worst is happening, he said. The coup marks the second time the military has refused to recognise a landslide election win for the NLD, having also rejected the result of 1990 polls that were meant to pave the way for multi-party government.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  The pandemic-stricken property sector is exhibiting early signs of a rebound, a consulting firm said.

In a statement, Leechiu Property Consultants chief executive officer David Leechiu said while this year would not be all smooth sailing for the industry, it will recover faster than expected due to a confluence of factors, like the sustained expansion of the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines.

BPOs are projected to flourish further in business districts within and outside of Metro Manila, noted associate director Mikko Barranda.

With many markets in the United States and Europe currently going through their third and fourth waves of COVID-19 transmission, western firms are likely to have outsourced some tasks to countries like India and the Philippines by the second quarter of 2021 in a bid to cut costs.

This is how they behaved in 2008 and likely to behave in the next few months, said Barranda. The world plunged into one of its worst financial crises during the said year.

Leechiu said an indication that the worst is over for the sector was a recent property sale in Bonifacio Global City at a record value for the country, along with a continued rise in overall capital values in main business districts, and in prime residential and industrial areas.

The lot sale was 12% higher than the last transaction recorded in 2019, he added.

The 2020 pre-sales of residential developers and a 2021 pipeline demand of 300,000 sqm for office space further confirmed that things are looking up once again across the industry segments, the statement read.

The firm also cited the recent order of the Supreme Court barring the imposition of new taxes on Philippine Online Gaming Operators (POGO), saying it had slowed down their exit. The gaming firms are likely to resume operations once they reach a solution with government agencies, it added.

Land prices are likewise projected to exhibit growth in post-pandemic years similar to what was observed after the 2008 financial crisis. Land prices fell in 2009, but grew by 20% in 2010, 30% in 2011 and 50% in 2012 in core markets like the BGC, noted LPC associate director Tam Angel.

Leechiu likewise expressed optimism that vaccine-driven consumer confidence will also be felt in the residential segment. He cited the surge in residential activity in key U.S. markets, with consumers anticipating doses following the start of the countrys vaccine rollout. The same would occur in the Philippines once vaccine doses start being administered to the general public, he predicted.

Millions of doses of Pfizer and AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccines are set to arrive in the Philippines in the first quarter of 2021, with initial vaccine shipments expected to enter the country in February. The Philippine government hopes to purchase 148 million vaccine doses this year, hoping to inoculate at least 50 million Filipinos.

The firm added that state borrowings of 10-year and 25-year money are at record low rates, leading to a mortgage market decreasing interest fees over 10 years from the 9-11% range at present.

This would be a game-changer for the Philippine residential sector as it would make housing more affordable for the lower- and middle-income sectors and likewise create a housing boom for many years to come, LPC explained.

The LPC also expects the upcoming rollout of 146.7 kilometers in national infrastructure to give business productivity a boost, along with tourism and the economy in general. For instance, the opening of Skyway Stage 3 would strengthen business confidence and increase land values in places now accessible to the metros key districts.

The firm also cited the opening of Clark International Airport's new terminal in July, which will eventually allow global travelers to bypass the capital region and directly visit tourist spots like La Union, Pagudpud and other areas in Luzon. This will improve activity and land values in these places, it added.

Airport projects currently in the pipeline, such as the New Manila International Airport, will allow the same opportunities for other destinations after the pandemic, LPC said.

Last weeks revelation that the Jamaican Government will be passing laws to grant immunity to vaccine producers from liability if Jamaicans suffer harm after taking the COVID-19 vaccine, has not gone down well with Buju Banton and some of his fellow Dancehall artists.

For the umpteenth time, the Gargamel took to social media to make his disgust about how he felt about the COVID-19 containment measures known.

This time it followed the publication of an article in the Jamaica Star last week, which quoted Health Ministry representatives as saying during a Special Select Committee of Parliament, that the country would be required to put laws and regulations in place to indemnify the manufacturer for product liability claims associated with the use and administration of that vaccine.

For Buju Banton and his colleagues, which include Spragga Benz, Mr. Lexx, Kabaka Pyramid and Billboard songwriter Koolface, the indemnification of vaccine producers is tantamount to betrayal of the nation by those put in positions of trust.

So the love for this nation and its people soooo great. They will allow there friends to kill you and its perfectly ok#honest # Jamaica land they love # not the people, Buju wrote on his Instagram page under his repost of the Star article.

His fans also joined him in lashing out at the Andrew Holness administration, some saying that Jamaicans had been double-crossed.

Among the skeptics were Spragga Benz who wrote: Any how dem make it mandatory then we know what fi gwaan.

Kabaka Pyramid also joined in stating that the behavior of the Government signaled the end of times.

And watch dem ramp up di false numbers fi mek sure seh di false vaccine necessary #endofdays, the wrote.

Over on The Stars page where the original post was made, Mr. Lexx also poured scorn on the Government, stating that he could not understand why they should be getting involved in such shenanigans.

This has to be a joke. Wait lemme make sure me understand. Ok so our government is gonna make it mandatory to take the vaccine and and at the same time make mandatory that we cant sue the ppl who make the vaccine theyre about to force us to take!!?? Um like I said, This must be a joke, the Full Hundred artiste stated, while Koolface stated categorically: If this isnt an eye opener then Jcans are blind deaf and dumb, this shows how much the Gov truly cares about us.

This though, is not the first time that Buju has sparked controversy surrounding COVID. In April, last year during an interview with Level Medium, he said he had disregarded physical distancing and statistical reports and questioned why fake television reporters were not wearing masks. He also expressed consternation about the confusing advice being disseminated by the media.

Then in May, he set off a firestorm on Instagram after he posted a video in which he told Jamaicans to shun the testing program, and expressed displeasure about the Governments protracted lockdown in the country.

In the 80 second clip, Buju had cited Tanzanian president John Magufuli as a black leader who was looking out for his nations interest and not taking the side of multi-national companies, a statement which some followers claimed was an indirect comparison with Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Things came to a head in October when Buju in another online rant expressed his frustration with the face mask-wearing protocols put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19 and implicitly called on Jamaicans to stop wearing face masks. This time there was as much national outrage as there was support of the 47-year-olds highly controversial comments, with some people classifying him as mad, while others made a slew of derogatory comments about him.

We waan done wid dis mask wearing bullsh-t inna Jamaica. Who fi dead ago dead and who nah go dead, haffi jus live. We tired of you intellectual fools trying to tell us how to live our lives, you are so smart why you havent found the cure for cancer, he had declared.

At the time Buju also blamed the State for the economic fallout and the rising poverty levels brought on by the containment measures. He said the authorities had failed to help the plethora of people who have been laid off or the businesses which had been forced to close.

Jamaican people need fi wake up. Mi nah wear no mask cause mask nuh mek fi man, he said. Free my people! he had declared.
Republicans made much ado last fall when they regained four of the seven congressional seats Democrats flipped away from them two years earlier, in 2018.

They gloated in ways they could not over the last 25 years, since Democrats turned this state into a sea of blue.

We were the ones who wanted to get something done, crowed Hanfords David Valadao, who took back the 21st District seat he had lost by 900 votes to Democrat T.J. Cox two years earlier.

But are they gloating too soon? Valadaos margin of 1,522 votes out of about 170,000 that were cast only slightly topped Coxs earlier edge. Fewer than 2,000 voters switching from one candidate to another, one party to another, made the difference.

This could portend a Democratic comeback in the district next year  but no one can be certain, because California is likely to lose a seat or two in the House when Census results are finalized, assuring that district lines will change. Its even possible Valadao could find himself in a primary fight with neighboring GOP Rep. Devin Nunes if new districts feature overlap between their two current ones.

Even more threatening to some Republicans was their performance in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 mob invasion of the U.S. Capitol, incited in part by Trump.
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David Littleproud speaks during a press conference at Parliament House on January 05, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. (Rohan Thomson/Getty Images)

Progress on Implementing Bushfire Recommendations Will Be Tracked in Public Updates

The Morrison governments progress on implementing the bushfire royal commission recommendations will be tracked in public monthly updates.

A new federal government tracking document will detail progress on the 80 recommendations stemming from the inquiry, which was launched after the Black Summer blazes.

Federal Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said state governments would also have progress tracked through the document.

We owe it to those 34 people who paid the ultimate sacrifice in our black summer last year to act on the recommendations of the royal commission, he said on Feb. 2.

Every Australian rightly deserves transparency around how all levels of government and industry are responding to the royal commission, otherwise itll all be nothing.

There have been more than 240 reports into natural disasters since 1920 with most unaddressed.

The federal government has committed to implementing the commissions recommendations.

This royal commission has presented Australias federation, not for profits and the private sector with a road map to better equip communities adapting to and bouncing back from disasters, Littleproud said.

The document will be available on the Department of Home Affairs website.

The royal commission recommended introducing a national emergency declaration to help states and territories with response and recovery efforts.

It found states should remain primarily responsible for managing the on-the-ground response to disasters, while a national cabinet-style body should take charge of high-level, strategic decisions.

Matt Coughlan in Canberra
Canadas parliament unanimously adopted a non-binding motion Jan. 25 that calls on the Liberal government to declare the far-right Proud Boys a terrorist group. The initiative was spearheaded by the New Democratic Party, which is promoting the dangerous illusion that right-wing extremism can be fought through the Canadian capitalist statethe very same state that covers up the activities of far-right members of the military and collaborated with the fascistic ex-president Donald Trump throughout his term in office.

The motion presented by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was intended as a recommendation to the Liberal governments Minister for Public Safety, the former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, and touted as a response to the violent storming of the US Capitol building on Jan. 6 by Trumps far-right supporters. The Proud Boys, which was founded by a Canadian and is part of a growing cross-border network of far-right organizations, was prominent among the insurrectionists.

Masked Proud Boys at a protest in Raleigh, North Carolina [Wikimedia Commons]

Like the entire political and media establishment in Canada, NDP leader Singh presented the assault on the Capitol as merely the action of far-right white supremacists whom Trump had, or so the story goes, incited with inflammatory rhetoric.

In reality, the storming of the Capitol building was part of a conspiracy led by Donald Trump and facilitated by the Republican Party leadership to illegally nullify the result of the 2020 presidential election. It was timed to coincide with the Republicans challenging of the Electoral College result on fabricated claims of electoral improprieties, and was aimed at taking congressmen and senators hostage so as to prevent the inauguration of Joe Biden as president.

Leading Democrats have revealed that they only narrowly escaped being captured, and trembled for their lives. Yet rather than expose this political conspiracy, they are seeking to cover up the pivotal role the Republican Party leadership played in preparing Trumps coup attempt and the support it received from sections of the state apparatus. Biden has personally gone out of his way to praise former Vice President Mike Pence and Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who promoted Trumps spurious claims of electoral fraud, and has proclaimed his support for a strong Republican Party. In so doing, the Democrats are creating the best political conditions for the further strengthening of the far right and their integration into the structures of American politics.

The World Socialist Web Site has demanded that all those involved in Trumps coup attempt be exposed and held to account. This must include criminal prosecution of those like the Proud Boys who led the storming of the Capitol building. However, what is above all required is a full and open public investigation to lay bare all aspects of the conspiracy before the American people, including the complicity of Republican leaders like McConnell and Ted Cruz.

The NDPs motion will do nothing to accomplish any of these urgent tasks, nor to heighten awareness of the social processes and political forces that lie behind the international resurgence of far-right politics. Anyone who thinks otherwise should consider the fact that it won unanimous support from the Conservatives, many of whose leading personnel were open Trump supporters and have close ties to right-wing extremist outfits like Rebel Media. The latter, it should be recalled, favourably covered many of the Trump-backed fascist mobilizations throughout his presidency, including the neo-Nazi rampage in Charlottesville in 2017. The NDP motion was also endorsed by the separatist Bloc Quebecois, which for over a decade has indulged in Islamophobic tirades and anti-immigrant agitation.

More fundamentally, the motions appeal for the Trudeau Liberal government to use all available tools to address the proliferation of white supremacists and hate groups intentionally ignores how the capitalist state and its institutions, including the military and police, are emerging ever more openly as incubators for these very far-right and fascistic forces.

With its call for the Proud Boys to be labelled a terrorist organization, the NDP, which represents the left faction of the Canadian bourgeoisie, was trying to superficially distance the ruling class from the most visible far-right actors in the Jan. 6 coup, while preparing the groundwork for closer collaboration with the Biden administration.

As a mid-sized imperialist power dependent on its alliance with Washington to pursue its predatory global ambitions, Canadas ruling elite virtually unanimously supports this orientation. This is why the NDPs motion received cross-party backing.

In this regard, it is noteworthy that the NDP was even more enthusiastic than Trudeau and his Liberals at the prospect of a Biden administration. In mid-November, an NDP-sponsored motion congratulating Biden on his electoral victory and inviting him to visit Canada gained unanimous support in the House of Commons. The motion also urged that Biden be granted the honour of addressing a joint session of the House of Commons and Senate, Canadas upper house, as a first step to further deepening the decades-long Canada-US military-strategic partnership. As the World Socialist Web Site wrote at the time, With its invitation to Biden to address Canadas parliament as soon as possible, the NDP is giving its stamp of approval for US imperialist aggression, above all its war drive against Russia and China. This is politically revealing, but not surprising. For over two decades, the NDP has been a cheerleader for every US-led war in which Canadian imperialism has participated, from Serbia/Kosovo and Afghanistan to Libya and, since 2014, Iraq-Syria.

The motion calling on the Canadian government to ban the Proud Boys aims to bolster the political-ideological propaganda used to justify the Canada-US alliance, which mounts provocations and military interventions, imposes trade war measures, and has dramatically ratcheted up tensions with China and Russia under the phony pretext of defending democracy and human rights.

The reality covered up by the NDP is that Canadas ruling elite, no less than its US counterpart, is rapidly breaking with democratic forms of rule.

While Singh and the NDP laud the unity of the five parliamentary parties in condemning the Proud Boys, the fact is that the entire political establishment is engaged in concealing the extent of far-right activity in Canada itself. Just over six months ago, a far-right military reservist inspired by the right-wing extremist QAnon movement crashed his truck laden with firearms through the gates of Rideau Hall, Trudeaus current official residence, in what was an attempted assassination. The entire political establishment has sought to trivialize the incident, even as ever more information emerges that demonstrates that Corry Hurren, Trudeaus would-be assassin, was not a lone wolf in Canadas military.

Months after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police completed two investigations into the attempted assassination, their results are still being kept under lock and key, and no establishment political party, the NDP included, is calling for the information to be published. Only the Socialist Equality Party has raised this urgent demand. (See: Stop the cover-up of Trudeaus attempted assassination! Release all internal investigations into last Julys Rideau Hall attack!)

The reason for this is clear. The NDP and its allies in the political elite have absolutely no interest in exposing the true extent of far-right activity in Canadas security apparatus, for fear this would discredit the military and intelligence agencies. On the contrary, their primary concern is to rally a sceptical population behind a further intensification of an aggressive imperialist foreign policy in alliance with the United States by vouching for the democratic credentials of the armed forces and the capitalist state.

The NDP has long made the case for a dramatic expansion of defence spending. During the 2019 federal election campaign, it assailed Trudeaus Liberals from the right, declaring that the governments decision to hike military spending by over 70 percent within a decade was inadequate. Tens of billions of additional dollars to purchase warships, fighter jets, and armed drones were necessary, insisted Canadas social democrats in their election platform. Unfortunately, after decades of Liberal and Conservative cuts and mismanagement, our military has been left with outdated equipment, inadequate support, and an unclear strategic mandate, the party wrote.

This record underscores that, its public declamations against the far-right notwithstanding, the NDP supports a further shift of bourgeois politics to the right, i.e., a course that will create the best conditions for the growth of far-right forces and their integration into official politics.

This is true not only on the question of military spending. During the pandemic, the New Democrats united with the Liberals, Conservatives, Bloc Quebecois and Greens to hand over hundreds of billions of dollars to the financial oligarchy, while workers were left to make do with makeshift rations-style emergency financial support. The NDPs parliamentary votes have played a critical role in keeping the Trudeau Liberals in power, including last September when Singh and his fellow NDP MPs supported the Liberals throne speech, the central thrust of which was to keep the economy open so big business could rake in profits as COVID-19 infections skyrocketed. The exacerbation of social inequality created by these policies is less and less compatible with democratic forms of rule.

With working-class opposition to its class war and outright homicidal policies growing, ruling circles are building up the forces of state repression. The NDPs Proud Boys motion is significant in this connection, since it makes clear that the social democrats fully endorse the use of reactionary anti-terrorist legislation for explicitly political purposes. The demand that the Proud Boys be designated a terrorist group amounts to an acceptance of the entire framework of anti-democratic measures adopted in the wake of 9/11, including the comprehensive surveillance of the population, the undermining of core democratic rights like the right to remain silent and the presumption of innocence, and the creation of a new category of political crimes based on a vague and elastic catch-all definition of terrorism.

While this latter weapon is currently being turned against a violent far-right group, the precedent it sets is a dangerous one. Under conditions of growing working class struggles, these authoritarian powers will invariably be deployed to smother opposition from the left.

Long historical experience testifies to the fact that legislation adopted by the bourgeoisie ostensibly to curb fascism and the far right is ultimately turned, and generally sooner than later, against the working class. As Leon Trotsky wrote in 1938:

Theory, as well as historic experience, testify that any restriction to democracy in bourgeois society, is eventually directed against the proletariat, just as taxes eventually fall on the shoulders of the proletariat. Bourgeois democracy is usable by the proletariat only insofar as it opens the way for the development of the class struggle. Consequently, any workers leader who arms the bourgeois state with special means to control public opinion in general, and the press in particular, is a traitor. In the last analysis, the accentuation of class struggle will force the bourgeoisie of all shades, to conclude a pact: to accept special legislation, and every kind of restrictive measures, and measures of democratic censorship against the working class. Those who have not yet realised this, should leave the ranks of the working class.

Socialists fully endorse the prosecution of members of the Proud Boys and other fascist groups for their violent and criminal activities. But the struggle against the threat posed by the far right cannot be contracted out to the capitalist state apparatus or conducted in alliance with the bourgeoisie, which fosters the far-right forces, and under conditions of capitalist crisis and intensified class struggle, deploys them as its shock troops. The experience of the rise of fascism during the 20th century demonstrates that only the independent political mobilization of the working class on a socialist program can defeat the far right, their enablers in the political establishment and state, and prevent the supplanting of a putrefied bourgeois democracy by authoritarianism and fascist dictatorship.

During the 1930s, Germanys Social Democrats claimed that the rise of Hitler could be blocked by appealing to capitalist state institutions, the Weimar Constitution, and the judiciarythe very forces that facilitated the fascists rise. Later in the decade, the Soviet Stalinist bureaucracy and its satellite Communist parties adopted the program of the Popular Front, which insisted that to defend democracy the working class must subordinate itself to the bourgeoisie, including avowedly right-wing parties. So as not to endanger the unity with the bourgeoisie in the struggle against fascism, the Stalinists insisted that workers social aspirations and independent political activity had to be ruthlessly suppressed. Both policies had catastrophic results. While the SPD leadership refused to organize any working class opposition to Hitlers coming to power, which was arranged in a conspiracy behind the backs of the population by the highest levels of the state and big business, the Stalinist-led Popular Front line sabotaged revolutionary working class movements in Spain and France, clearing the way for the conquest of power by the fascist Franco and Vichy regimes.

As in the 1930s, bourgeois democracy is breaking down, as ruling elites turn to authoritarian methods of rule and employ far-right forces to intimidate and crush mounting working class struggles. In Germany, the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been built up as the official opposition in parliament by the ruling elite, whose parties have all adapted to the AfDs right-wing extremist agenda. In France, President Macron, who deployed security forces to viciously suppress Yellow Vest protests, hails Marshal Philippe Petain, who headed the Nazi collaborationist Vichy regime, as a national hero. Right-wing extremist, viciously anti-worker regimes are also in power in India under Modi, in the Philippines under Duterte, and in Brazil under the fascistic president and Trump-acolyte Bolsonaro.

The capitalist crisis is not only driving the bourgeoisie toward the far right and fascism, however. The working class, which is objectively more unified internationally than at any time in history, is being propelled into revolutionary class battles by the disastrous social and economic conditions produced by world capitalism. The decisive task in opposing the fascist threat is the building of a revolutionary party of the working class to lead the fight for a socialist program and workers power in Canada, the United States, and internationally.
By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The coup in Myanmar is expected to dampen the interest of U.S. and Western companies in investing in Myanmar, and may prompt some big U.S. companies to pull out, trade experts and analysts said on Monday. Total trade in goods between Myanmar and the United States amounted to nearly $1.3 billion in the first 11 months of 2020, up from $1.2 billion in all of 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Apparel and footwear accounted for some 41% of total U.S. goods imports, followed by luggage, which accounted for nearly 30%, and fish, which ...
IQALUIT, Nunavut - A Nunavut judge who acquitted a woman of murder for killing her abusive spouse in self-defence is warning that the territory's cycle of domestic violence will continue unless victims get adequate support.

The courthouse in Iqaluit, Nunavut, is shown on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Emma Tranter

IQALUIT, Nunavut - A Nunavut judge who acquitted a woman of murder for killing her abusive spouse in self-defence is warning that the territory's cycle of domestic violence will continue unless victims get adequate support.

Sandra Ameralik of Gjoa Haven was charged with second-degree murder after she stabbed her spouse and father of her six children, Howie Aaluk, once in the chest with a large kitchen knife during an argument in their home in June 2017.

Ameralik was 29-years old and 29 weeks pregnant at the time.

She testified at a trial held last October that her husband had physically abused her for years. She told court she was not trying to kill Aaluk that day, but was trying to stop him from hurting her and her baby, and had been aiming for his arm.

A foot shorter than her husband, she told court that they had been yelling at each other in the kitchen and he went toward her and told her to stab him.

In a decision released Wednesday, Justice Susan Charlesworth ruled that Ameralik was not guilty of second-degree murder or the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Ameralik's defence lawyer, Alison Crowe, said the acquittal is the first in Nunavut in a case using battered woman syndrome as a defence. A 1990 Supreme Court of Canada decision ruled that the syndrome is a legitimate explanation for self-defence in the courts.

Gary Magee, the Crown prosecutor in Ameralik's case, said his office has not yet decided whether to appeal.

The judge said in her ruling that Ameralik had suffered years of violence at the hands of Aaluk which, "led to Ms. Ameralik justifiably taking physical action against the deceased as she perceived him to be a threat to her and her unborn child."

"It is clear to me that there were no other means available to Ms. Ameralik to respond to the threat posed by Mr. Aaluk," Charlesworth wrote.

The trial heard that there were several times, going back to 2010, when Aaluk was charged with assaulting Ameralik. Most times, the charges were dropped because she did not attend court.

"Ms. Ameralik also said that she usually did not go to court because Mr. Aaluk would tell her to stay home and say she could not find a babysitter, or her children were sick. She said she was afraid if she went to court 'that he was going to either fight me or hurt me,'" Charlesworth wrote.

The judge said there are "systemic shortcomings" in Nunavut's justice system.

"We will not know how the course of this familys history might have changed had Ms. Ameralik had the support to follow through with testifying against Mr. Aaluk in any of the trials for charges of intimate partner violence that were brought against him," she said.

Statistics Canada figures show police-reported family violence in Nunavut is 10 times the Canadian average.

Rebecca Kudloo, president of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, said Nunavut's high rates of domestic violence are not new, but "part of the horrific legacy of colonization, relocation of Inuit, and the effects of residential schooling."

Kudloo pointed out that when Ameralik killed her husband, there was no shelter or safe house in Gjoa Haven.

Across Inuit Nunangat, which represents regions of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik and Newfoundland and Labrador, 70 per cent of communities do not have shelters for women and children fleeing violence.

"Women have no place to go if theres no shelter. And up North in an isolated community, you cant just move to another house because all the houses are overcrowded," Kudloo said.

A recent federal government announcement to build five new Inuit-specific shelters is good news, said Kudloo, but more funding for shelters is needed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2021.
A farmer during the ongoing protest against the new farm laws at Singhu border, in New Delhi on January 31, 2021. (PTI/Ravi Choudhary)

New Delhi: Farmer unions Monday announced a countrywide 'chakka jam' on February 6 when they would block national and state highways for three hours in protest against the Internet ban in areas near their agitation sites, harassment allegedly meted out to them by authorities, and other issues.

Union leaders told a press conference at the Singhu Border, on the Haryana side, that they will block the roads between 12 pm to 3 pm on February 6.

They also alleged that farmers have been "ignored" in the Union Budget 2021-22, and water and power supply have been curtailed, and mobile toilet blocks being removed, at their protest venues.

The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of protesting unions, also alleged that the Twitter accounts of Kisan Ekta Morcha and a user named 'Tractor2Twitter' have been restricted.

Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav alleged the action against the Twitter account was taken on the "request of government authorities", adding accounts of some private individuals, who have been very vocal against the movement, have also been restricted.

He also claimed that the Union government has "reduced the allocation to agriculture sector" in this budget.

Balbir Singh Rajewal, a farmer leader from Punjab, and part of the SKM, told reporters that the modalities of the 'Chakka Jam' on February 6 will be decided after discussing it with various unions unanimously, including those protesting at Ghazipur border site, the new focal point of the farmers movement against the new farm laws.

Rajewal claimed during the press conference that scores of people have been "detained by the police" besides FIRs filed against many, including a journalist.

"Our February 6 protest would also be against this harassment faced by journalists who are trying to report the truth from the ground, and the Twitter restrictions," he said.

Swaraj Abhiyan's Yadav alleged that the Union government has "reduced the allocation to agriculture sector" in this year's budget. And, even percentage of allocation has gone down from "5.1 pc last fiscal to 4.3 pc this year".

He asserted that mahapanchayats are happening in the country, while the government is trying to "have its way".

These mahapanchayats will "dismantle the arrogance" of the government and the agitation will destroy the "shrewdness of the central government," Yadav said.

Asserting that the government is committed towards farmers'' welfare, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday proposed 10 per cent hike in the farm loan disbursal target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore, and introduced an agri infra and development cess of up to 100 per cent to create post-harvest infrastructure for improving farmers' income.

The minister also proposed higher allocation for Rural Infrastructure Development Fund and Micro Irrigation Fund, and extended Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to APMCs for augmenting infrastructure facilities.
Two paths have emerged for the next round of potential coronavirus relief - testing President Joe Biden's stated desire to reach across the aisle to get legislation passed and setting up Democrats to find out how united their slim Senate majority is.

Major bills require 60 votes to pass in the Senate; that's why Biden on Monday met with a group of 10 GOP senators who have a $618 billion counterproposal, a package less than a third the size he is seeking. The two sides remain far apart in their proposals, but there are signals that they might be willing to negotiate.

"It was a very good exchange of views," Collins told reporters Monday. "I wouldn't say we came together on a package tonight. No one expected that in a two-hour meeting. But what we did agree to do is follow up and talk further."

Getting 10 Republicans onboard would deliver on his campaign promise to reach across the aisle and give Biden a reason to push back against opponents who say his early agenda has been divisive.

But some Senate Democrats do not want to negotiate, saying the Republican plan is too limited. Democrats say they have the votes to pass a larger package through a process called reconciliation, which would require 50 votes - every Democrat - plus Vice President Kamala Harris's tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate.

And while Biden has talked about reaching across the aisle, he's also said getting a bill passed is more important than cooperating with Republicans.

Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford

"I support passing covid relief with support from Republicans if we can get it," Biden told reporters Jan. 29. "But the covid relief has to pass. There's no ifs, ands or buts."

Some Senate Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with them, say bipartisanship should be saved for later - after the coronavirus pandemic and the economy are further on the path to recovery.

"We all want bipartisanship, and I think you're going to see more of it as we move down the pike," Sanders told ABC's Martha Raddatz on Sunday. "We all look forward to working with Republicans, but right now, this country faces an unprecedented set of crises."

Sanders, who is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said he is confident that Democrats could get 50 votes - but it remains unclear whether several moderate Democrats who have called for a bipartisan process are truly onboard with a partisan approach.

- - -

Biden's sprawling $1.9 trillion proposal starts with a new round of stimulus checks for individuals. It would send out the largest checks to date during the pandemic: up to $1,400 for individuals. It would extend through September increased unemployment payments and a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures.

It also budgets $440 billion for communities, including $350 billion for first responders and other essential workers, plus grants for small businesses. It includes $400 billion for vaccine programs and school reopenings and would be the second-largest aid bill passed during the pandemic, after the $3 trillion package passed in May.

But the part Republicans really object to - beyond the cost - is a set of liberal priorities that are also part of Biden's plan, most notably his proposal to increase the national minimum wage to $15 an hour, a move Republicans say would hurt small businesses. He also wants to raise tax credits for families with children and expand paid leave for workers.

None of those three items are in the counterproposal the group of 10 GOP senators discussed with Biden on Monday.

Instead, their package is significantly smaller; it would give $1,000 payments to individuals and have lower income limits to determine eligibility. Previous stimulus checks went to individuals who made $75,000 or less, with smaller checks going to individuals who made up to $99,000 in the May stimulus, and $87,000 in the December stimulus, on a sliding scale.

It also would keep unemployment benefits at the $300 weekly payments, rather than Biden's proposed raise to $400, and would extend the program through June instead of Biden's proposal to extend them through September. The GOP plan would give significantly less money to schools - Biden's would give $130 billion, and the Republicans' would give $20 billion - and to small businesses. It appears to leave out funding for states and localities entirely.

- - -

Democrats are confident that they could use a process called reconciliation to pass a relief bill without getting any Republicans to vote with them.

It's a process that has been around since the 1970s and was meant to make it easier for the House and the Senate to reconcile differences in budget and tax bills. There's no filibustering of a reconciliation bill; it does not take 60 votes to end debate, and no individual senator can speak on the Senate floor endlessly to delay a vote. Debate on reconciliation bills is limited to 20 hours.

It's been used to get key pieces of legislation passed over the years, including the Bush tax cuts of 2001, a bill that amended the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) in 2010, and President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts.

But it's not clear that Biden's entire plan could be passed using reconciliation; the process can only be used for budget bills, and provisions that do not directly relate to government spending (for example, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour) probably are not permitted to go through the process. Democrats could try to squeeze those provisions in - and Sanders has said raising the minimum wage should be permissible under reconciliation rules - but it's ultimately up to the Senate parliamentarian which parts of the bill are allowed in the reconciliation process.

One of the most effective information-operation weapons during the 2016 presidential election was to smear political targets as Russian bots working on behalf of the Kremlin. Journalists were de-platformed, presidential candidates were smeared, and lives were immeasurably damaged.

The art of attacking political targets by using open-sourced guilt-by-association is not new  nor is using Russians as foils: Joseph McCarthy and his ilk did it in the 1950s with red-baiting and the FBI tried to do it to Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King Jr. and others. Today that disgraceful tactic has reemerged. The smear du jour is to accuse someone of supporting the insane QAnon conspiracy  even if they dont.

Assassinating the character of political opponents for supporting Q has migrated from dubious online provocateurs to television news programming. Suddenly, it seems as if every other word out of certain hosts and pundits on cable news shows begins with Q, and that a majority of Democrats sit around the dinner table every night discussing the conspiracy and how it is impacting Timmys fourth-grade class.

Ironically, according to the most recent Pew Research Center poll, while close to half the country has heard of QAnon, the majority of them are Democrats. Awareness of Q increased dramatically from 23% in March to 47% in September.

One reason for this is that the effort to hype the fringe conspiracy group has grown quickly. Increasingly, money flows to digital mercenaries to shame and cyberstalk not only individual targets but entire voting blocs.

QAnon is an idea with no structure, no chain of command, and no rules. Anybody can pick up a YouTube channel or another social media account and claim to be an anonymous insider  and exploit and project whatever insane claim they want to make. With the rise of social media and recruitment of virtual reality and gaming technologists, these consultants have provided new mediums and taken the art of smearing to a new level. From slanderous TED Talks to inaccurate documentaries that defame individuals who have nothing to do with QAnon, the damage to the target can be severe. Often, those making the allegations are reliant on discredited sources.

But we cannot outlaw people who say crazy things. Whether it's antifa in Portland, outrageous conspiracies from Q, or the Westboro Baptist Church protesting at funerals, the First Amendment protects problematic speech.

Increasingly, and regardless of your political affiliation, if you're not echoing the establishment narrative, you are vulnerable to attack. Q character assassination has also been used in an attempt to discredit some of Americas most well-respected former members of the intelligence community, including Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. The targeting of VIPS members is strategic. One of them is former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief for Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. Another is former NSA technologist Bill Binney, who has also been targeted as part of the top leadership of Q.

For a refresher, VIPS is the group that correctly debunked from the outset the bogus Russiagate narrative that permeated the Trump presidency. VIPS' report was spotlighted in The Nation with a story headlined "A New Report Raises Big Questions About Last Year's DNC Hack." For that criticism, these leaders were accused of working with Russia. Fast-forward to 2021 and the exact same leaders are accused of being members of the Q brain trust.

Another troubling trend is the use of foreign operatives to drive the defamation of Americans. For example, one defamer lives in Mexico while another, who lives in Scandinavia, is a self-described former member of a fringe group known as Anonymous. It begs the question, Who pays them?

And whats the potential risk in all of this as a society? Those targeted in this way can potentially lose their business, their home, their friends. All because some misguided or politically motivated cyber-mercenary on contract from Washington, D.C., or a foreign country decides to do it.

Many of the same powerful forces who drove Russiagate are the same operatives now driving the Q smears, colluding with YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to do their bidding. I've spoken out publicly and repeatedly against Q because I believe it is a dangerous psychological operation that harms those brainwashed by it and the innocent affected by it.

But for the past few months on social media and cable TV, there has been a dramatic uptick of pundits and shady online operatives turning Q accusations into modern-day Salem witch trials. Q is now a talking point, and painting someone with that brush can completely discredit them  even those who are innocent of the allegation.

On some days, it seems that America has entered the sort of dystopia Aldous Huxley described in his classic novel Brave New World. If this doesn't give you pause, it should.


you are here:
After the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directed HDFC Bank to stop all launches of digital business generating activities after a series of outage incidents, the apex bank has appointed an IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of India's biggest private lender. The name of the 'IT firm' has not been disclosed so far.

"RBI has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the Bank under Section 30 (1-B) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 ("the Act"), at the cost of the Bank under Section 30 (1-C) of the Act," HDFC Bank said in a stock exchange filing today.

The bank said it will extend its cooperation to the external professional IT company appointed by the RBI.

The RBI's recent order comes after it advised HDFC Bank to temporarily stop all new launches of digital business generating activities planned under its program Digital 2.0 on December 3, 2020.

Also read: HDFC Bank 'on war footing' to curb outages after RBI bans digital launches

The bank was working on many new technologies like robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), Blockchain and the use of cloud technology to take banking to the next level. The RBI also said the bank's Board should examine lapses and fix accountability.

HDFC Bank was also barred from issuing any new credit cards on December 12 after a series of technical glitches.

The bank had recently submitted a plan to stop repeated glitches in its technology platform. It includes both short and long-term solutions, which may take up to three months to implement. Apologising to customers for disruptions, HDFC Bank new CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan last month had said the bank was working on war footing to strengthen its systems.

Also read: RBI tells HDFC Bank board to fix 'accountability', examine lapses

Though the RBI decision may not hurt the bank in the near-term -- since customer spending matures only after two years -- it'll surely hit its credit card business growth, which in December quarter had grown 32 per cent on Q-o-Q basis. The bank holds a 40 per cent share in the digital payments business, while 26 per cent in the credit card business. Its share in the loans market stands at 10 per cent.

The RBI's decision to issue a halt notice was taken based on recent incidents of outages in internet banking, mobile banking and payment services over a two-year period. The most recent outage took place in November 2020 due to a power failure in the primary data centre.

On November 21, HDFC Bank's entire payment stack had gone down due to a technical glitch. The unexplained outage of the Bank's data centres halted internet banking, UPI, IMPS, and ATM operations. Before that, the private bank had two outages, one in November 2018 and second one in December 2019.

Meanwhile, the shares of HDFC Bank were trading up 4.94 per cent or Rs 74.75 at Rs 1,552 on the BSE today.

ALSO READ: Meet Sashidhar Jagdishan, the banker who takes over as CEO of HDFC bank

ALSO READ: HDFC Bank 'in good hands': Aditya Puri on successor Sashidhar Jagdishan

ALSO READ: 5 big challenges for new HDFC Bank CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan
A thief with expensive taste has stolen an estimated $100,000 worth of designer handbags during a ram raid.

The heist took place at the luxury goods store Berluti Melbourne on Collins street in Melbourne's CBD early Tuesday morning.

A crime scene has been set up but no arrests have been made.

A thief with expensive taste has stolen an estimated $100,000 worth of designer handbags during a ram raid in Melbourne's CBD on Tuesday morning from luxury Italian store 'Berluti' (stock image)

'It is believed a vehicle was used to hit the front of the business,' Victoria Police spokeswoman Anita Brens said.

'The offender then entered the store before leaving again in the vehicle.

'It is unknown what has been stolen at this stage and the investigation is ongoing.'

Berluti is an exclusive Italian brand known for their leather goods, made with in-house Venezia leather as well as ostrich, alligator, shark and lizard.

The brand is best known for selling high-end leather boots and shoes for men, but also manufactures clothing, bags and accessories.
With the noreaster hitting New England on Monday bringing mostly rain to the Massachusetts coast and Cape Cod, much of the state still faces a foot of snowfall between Monday and Tuesday, the National Weather Service Boston said late Monday afternoon.

Areas from the northern Mid-Atlantic to southern New England are feeling the escalating impacts from this intensifying coastal storm, the National Weather Service said around 3 p.m. Heavy snow, increasingly strong and gusty northeasterly winds together with increasing wave actions along the coast are expected to culminate tonight as the storm is forecast to reach peak intensity.

Officials noted that portions of New Jersey saw about 20 inches of snow sweep over the state; not as much is expected to fall in Massachusetts but National Weather Service Boston forecasted that several communities would see between 8 and 12 inches or more.

A winter storm warning remains in effect until 5 a.m. Tuesday in several sections of Massachusetts, with officials still expecting at least 7 to 15 inches of snow to blanket much of the state, NWS Boston said after 4 p.m.

As of 4:30 p.m., at least 4 inches have already fallen in Springfield and nearly 3 inches in Worcester, according to the National Weather Service.

On Sunday, the National Weather Service warned that travel could be very difficult to impossible on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, noting that gusts up to 50 mph could bring down tree branches.

Gov. Charlie Baker and other officials are urging residents to stay off roadways and avoid travel if possible. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has roughly 3,900 pieces of state and vendor equipment available to clear the roads, the governor noted in a tweet.

Anyone who must drive during the storm should keep an extra flashlight, food and water in their vehicle in case of an emergency, NWS Boston advised Sunday.

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Sydneys porn king has told a court his former employee stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his business while he was preoccupied with various personal matters, including being assaulted, fire-bombed, and diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

Con Ange, 61, owns the Everything Adult brand which runs about 10 adult stores in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, but he said it would be wrong to describe this as a large retail pornography business.

Con Ange leaves court on Tuesday. Credit:Kate Geraghty

In 2014, Mr Ange hired Neva Lozzi, 45, to help with the financial side of his business. The pair parted ways in 2020, and Mr Ange soon accused Ms Lozzi of taking money she was not entitled to over several years, including to pay her rent.

Ms Lozzi argues Mr Ange gave his permission for the transactions, including offering rent as part of her remuneration. However, the pair had a falling-out and Mr Ange now claims he had no idea.
( ) continued to expand mineralisation at the Pian Bracca corridor within the Gorno Zinc Project in Lombardy, northern Italy with the focus on the new Pian Bracca South exploration corridor.

Recent results have confirmed new thick, high-grade extensions to the south of the central Pian Bracca zone, confirming the discovery of a Pian Bracca South exploration corridor.

Drill hole PBD27 intersected a previously unknown multi-layered zone of Pian Bracca-style mineralisation to the south of the southern-most fault which defines the east-west Pian Bracca Central corridor.

This Pian Bracca South area is interpreted to be a repeat zone of the same highly mineralised strata seen in the rest of Pian Bracca.

The discovery was predicted by structural analysis and demonstrates the benefit of the recent work done by Alta in better understanding and defining the structural controls in this area.

It also emphasises the capacity for further discoveries of highly mineralised pockets beyond the known mineralised boundaries, despite the complexity caused by faulting in this zone.

Drilling to start in March

In parallel with the drilling activities, the contractor and owners team worked to establish access, drilling platforms and services in the Ponente area, located 800 metres to the north west of Pian Bracca.

Alta has identified this area as the next drilling priority of the current campaign and expects that drilling in both Ponente and Pian Bracca South will be able to run in parallel from early March once a further smaller (Diamec 230) drill rig arrives on site.

Gorno Project exploration footprint

The latest structural model of the greater Gorno Project area extends the current exploration target to include the Fontanone area, with a demonstrated extension of 2.5 kilometres strike length and 750 metres down-dip from Pian Bracca.

Once the Ponente drilling is underway, Alta will continue to expand its exploration footprint to explore the mineralisation potential of this drill ready Fontanone target horizon.

Additionally, latest structural modelling includes the areas identified by recent sampling at Arera, the mineralised extensions at Fontanone and the Zorzone resource area and confirms the presence of high-grade sulphide mineralisation throughout the greater Gorno Project area.

Gorno permitting

The exploration licence (Cime EL) area at Gorno covers approximately 1,200 hectares centred over the Gorno mine encompassing the historical underground workings and areas of near-mine prospectivity.

This Cime EL is valid until 5 July 2023 with the right to extend for three years to expiry in 2026 and authorises both the drilling and associated underground works for the Gorno exploration program.

In addition, a mining licence (ML) renewal application lodged in December 2019 is currently being assessed by the various regulatory stakeholders.

The EL and the ML footprints are similar, and once the ML has been approved it will also allow Alta to continue exploration for the life of the ML which is expected to be 20+ years.

As a result of ongoing consultation with the Regione Lombardia an expanded mine ventilation plan has been prepared and a geotechnical assessment is in progress to supplement the documentation submitted in support of the ML application.

Punta Corna Cobalt Project (Piedmont, Northern Italy)

Alta has announced the discovery of new high-grade cobalt-nickel and copper-silver veins at Punta Corna and also the sampling of veins which were historically bulk sampled in the late 1930s.

A series of closely spaced mineralised veins were mapped and sampled by Altas geologists, who have only recently become aware of their existence through examination of historical archives and reports.

Mineralisation is hosted in a series of parallel well-defined hydrothermal veins of extensive strike length (multiple kilometres).

In several areas these veins show outcropping cobalt/nickel/copper mineralisation that was historically mined from surface.

The historic mining was of a limited extent determined by the primitive technology available at the time and the complete lack of any systematic exploration ahead of the working face.

As a result, there is significant untested exploration potential at Punta Corna.

Punta Corna permitting

A comprehensive 3-year EL renewal application and plan of work, including a detailed diamond drilling program, has been prepared and was submitted to authorities in December 2020.

Alta anticipates that approval of the application could be received in time for commencement of the high altitude 2021 drilling season (June/July).

The company is confident that the planned program will significantly increase the knowledge of the mineralisation at depth and along strike from historical mining areas.

This is with the intention of potentially defining a significant new mineral deposit containing the raw materials which are now critically important for the European EV supply-chain.

Punta Corna is considered as both a geologically and commercially exciting organic growth project for the company.

This project potential, allied with the current and future macro prospects for global cobalt demand and particularly the development of an extensive battery manufacturing industry domestically in Europe, serves to underscore the as yet unrealised value potential of this asset.
The bill states that those who engage in tumultuous conduct commits rioting and will be charged with a level 6 felony if there is serious bodily injury and a level 5 felony if there is catastrophic injury or death. For those who are near a gathering that turns violent, the bill requires that those people leave the location or report the violent act, and if that doesnt happen the bystanders would be charged with a misdemeanor for enabling rioting.
"Kate's expansive knowledge of our firm's IP clients, partners, and processes makes her ideally situated to lead our Intellectual Property Practice Group. She understands that, at Lathrop GPM, we consider our IP practice a boutique within a full-service law firm. Kate brings a client-first focus to the many and varied skills necessary to run an IP group. In addition to supporting the group's strategic business and professional development initiatives, Kate has implemented scalable systems, processes, and technology for docketing and billing, and directs internal and client teams, all of which strengthen our client relationships and our IP group," said managing partner Cameron Garrison. He previously worked directly with Tompkins on IP issues as Assistant Chair of the firm's IP Division. "Lathrop GPM's relentless focus on client service and innovation, as well as career development for all our professionals, is a big part of our firm's continuing success, including an extraordinary 2020."

With more than 15 years of professional services experience, Tompkins leads a complex IP practice and its operational infrastructure. She served as a Director of Practice Management since 2019 and, prior to that, as a senior administrative leader with the IP Practice Group. In her role, Tompkins works in tandem with the firm's IP sector leaders including:



Jennifer Debrow , Trademark and Copyright out of Minneapolis

, Trademark and Copyright out of Minneapolis Brian Trinque, Chemical Arts and Partner in Charge of the Boston Office

James Velema, Biotechnology out of Boston

Curtis Vock, High-Tech/Electrical Arts and Partner in Charge of the Boulder Office

"I am proud of this group and all that we have accomplished and will achieve as we further expand our practice in the life sciences, mechanical, chemical, and electrical engineering arts. Our team of IP professionals throughout the country supports an ever-evolving platform for our clients. We are well-positioned to continue our exciting growth trajectory," said Tompkins.

Lathrop GPM's IP Practice Group provides patent, trademark and copyright support to multinational biotech and pharmaceutical companies, universities, hospitals, investment entities, startups, and serial entrepreneurs including chemical, mechanical and consumer products matters.

Tompkins received her bachelor's degree from Quinnipiac University and is a certified White Belt in Legal Lean Sigma and Project Management.

About Lathrop GPM LLP

Lathrop GPM is a full-service, Am Law 200 law firm with offices in Boston, Boulder, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Jefferson City, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Overland Park, St. Cloud, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. Our attorneys help businesses, organizations and individuals grow and succeed, anticipate trends, plan for challenges and bring their visions to life. For more information, visit www.lathropgpm.com.

Media Contacts:

Gina Rubel

[email protected]

Cell: 215.704.6090

Jasmine Trillos-Decarie

Chief Client Officer

Lathrop GPM

[email protected]

Cell: 617.875.0364

SOURCE Lathrop GPM

Related Links

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It did not take long for Keith Reed, a deputy health commissioner in Oklahoma, to spot a big logistical problem with the states vaccination rollout. Week after week, Oklahoma was allocating thousands of precious doses to a federal program for nursing home patients that was not using them all. In fact, tens of thousands of doses were sitting untouched in freezers.

So his department called an audible. It decided to stop allocating any more of Oklahomas vaccine supply to the federal program, a partnership with private pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens that is meant to immunize residents of long-term care facilities. Instead, they would go to distribution channels that would get them into peoples arms faster.

A number of states have made similar moves to shift supplies away from the federal effort, known as the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program, a telling example of how chaotic the inoculation effort in the U.S. has been so far. Some of the other states include Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio.

Mr. Reed said the Oklahoma move would do no harm: Walgreens and CVS have assured him, he said, that all nursing home residents in the state who needed  and wanted  to be vaccinated would have the first of their two shots by the end of the week.
AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Texas Business Immigration Coalition (a member of the American Business Immigration Coalition) and the Texas Business Leadership Council, along with more than thirty Texas leaders in business and higher education launched the Texas Opportunity Coalition, a new initiative that promotes and supports targeted immigration reform. The Texas Opportunity Coalition is dedicated to securing passage of a federal Dream Act, which would provide young undocumented immigrants (Dreamers) in Texas and across the country the right to work, pursue higher education, contribute to their local economies, and obtain permanent legal status.

U.S Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), who has pushed for a permanent legislative solution for DACA recipients, stated the following in a recorded message during the event:

"Despite all the ways Dreamers strengthen our country and our communities, they're living in a constant state of uncertainty about their futures. We must take action that will give them the certainty they deserve, and the only way to do that is through legislation. We need to learn from the lessons of the past, and begin working on smaller packages that can gain broad support, and hopefully build trust in the process. This approach provides an opening to build goodwill and finally take action on DACA, which is something folks on both sides of the aisle support."

In Texas alone, Dreamers contribute more than $400 million in state and local taxes on top of the $440 million they pay in federal taxes. Their purchasing power injects close to $2.9 billion annually into the state's economy. The Texas Opportunity Coalition is calling for Congress to enact laws that recognize Dreamers' economic contributions, and provide them an opportunity to legally work, start businesses, and continue paying taxes in Texas.

"Texas is in a unique position to lead the country in economic growth, especially with the passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement," said Eddie Aldrete, Senior Vice President of IBC Bank. "A vital piece to ensuring our successful transition into a 21st Century economy is by protecting Texas Dreamers. Our businesses are able to grow and thrive when they have access to the human capital they need. By filling high-skilled jobs, serving in our military, and starting businesses, these Dreamers have proven that they are an integral part of our state's economy. Not only is providing these hard-working individuals with a permanent legal status the right thing to do, it is also in the state's and the nation's best economic interest to allow these dedicated workers, entrepreneurs, and neighbors to continue to work, live, and create jobs in Texas."

"We hope that by launching and building this coalition, we can speed the passage of bipartisan federal legislation that will create permanent legal status for our Dreamers, and allow Texas's economy to rebuild after the devastating impact of COVID-19," said Justin Yancy, president of the Texas Business Leadership Council. "A federal Dream Act will help ensure that Texas leads in job creation and economic growth in the post-pandemic recovery. Texas Dreamers fill critical workforce needs in fields such as healthcare, high-tech, manufacturing, hospitality, and construction, and many served as frontline workers during this pandemic."

Texas leaders representing businesses, chambers of commerce, and higher education institutions across the state have signed on to support the Coalition's efforts, including:

Austin Chamber of Commerce

of Commerce Center for the United States and Mexico - Baker Institute at Rice University

and - Baker Institute at El Paso Chamber of Commerce

of Commerce El Paso Community College

El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce

Chamber of Commerce Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Grayson College

Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce

Chamber of Commerce Greater Dallas Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce

HMS

IBC Bank

Irving Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

North Texas Commission

Commission San Antonio Chamber of Commerce

Chamber of Commerce SWBC

Tarleton State University

Texans for Economic Growth

Texas Association of Business

Texas Association of Manufacturers

Texas Business Immigration Coalition

Texas Business Leadership Council

Texas Lutheran University

Texas Restaurant Association

Texas State University

Texas Woman's University

The Borderplex Alliance

United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce

Chamber of Commerce University of North Texas

University of North Texas at Dallas

at University of Texas at Dallas

University of Texas at San Antonio

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Rio Grande Valley University of the Incarnate Word

Over the next 100 days, members of the Texas Opportunity Coalition will meet with Texas congressional representatives on both sides of the aisle to make the economic case for a federal Dream Act and build broad-based and bipartisan support for federal legislation that protects Dreamers. As the state with the second largest number of Dreamers, Texas will be disproportionately affected by any Dream Act negotiations.

"I am an immigrant and DACA Recipient. Since moving to the U.S more than twenty years ago, I have graduated high school in Texas, obtained a degree from Yale University, and returned to the state to teach elementary school. I continue to give back to my community through my taxes, my investment in our children's education, and my professional leadership positions," said Juan Carlos Cerda, DFW business outreach manager at the Texas Business Immigration Coalition. "Unfortunately, DACA is only a temporary solution for Dreamers like me, and we need permanent legal solutions that allow us to continue contributing to our local communities."

"Poll after poll shows that Texans, like all Americans, overwhelmingly support permanent legal status for Dreamers, but politics continues to get in the way of sensible policies like the Dream Act," said Rebecca Shi, Executive Director of the Texas Business Immigration Coalition. "This effort is about moving past politics and showing members the economic and financial benefits they are leaving on the table every time they decide not to pass a federal Dream Act. Texas is among the states that stand to lose the most, and the Coalition wants to make sure Texas's business community has a seat at the table and, we hope, the chance to positively influence negotiations."

"To continue to grow our economy, Texas must retain its existing workforce and talent. With 96% of DACA recipients working or in school, they are some of our state's highest achieving and most talented assets. They fill critical positions in industries that keep our state competitive, such as manufacturing, construction, technology, and hospitality. Nationwide, more than half a million Dreamers are essential workers. During the pandemic, Texas Dreamers have helped keep our state safe," said Woody L. Hunt, Senior Chairman of the Board, Hunt Companies, Inc.

The Texas Opportunity Coalition's efforts are structured around five core principles that legislators should recognize and that should inform any legislative effort to enact comprehensive immigration reform. These principles can be viewed at http://txopportunity.org/policy .

To learn more about the Texas Opportunity Coalition, please visit https://www.txopportunity.org/ .

SOURCE Texas Opportunity Coalition

Related Links

http://www.txopportunity.org



Millions of trees will be dumped and destroyed in 2021 as the Government looks set to miss its annual planting target for a second year, the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture has heard.

Last week, the committee rounded on Department of Agriculture efforts to tackle the ongoing forestry crisis with claims that a serious bias has emerged in its treatment of semi-state company Coilltes licence logjam in comparison to the private sector.

During robust exchanges with senior Department figures Colm Hayes (assistant secretary general) and Seamus Dunne (chief forestry inspector), committee members also contended that farmers have deserted forestry in Ireland due to handling of the fiasco.

It emerged that the total number of forestry licences issued by the Department in 2020 was 2,593.

However, while this means that 4,300ha were approved for planting last year, just 2,433 new hectares were planted  a long distance from the states annual 8,000ha target.

Although Mr Hayes said the Department will drive up planting levels in 2021, the Agriculture Committee members largely dismissed such ambition based on the Departments latest figures and projections.

Currently, around 4,500 licences need to be processed  down slightly from 4,700 in October. Of these, 1,090 are afforestation applications, 730 are roads applications and 2,700 are felling applications.

The committee warned that forest nurseries nationwide are being forced to dispose of young planting stock (saplings) because customers cant access licences to plant them.

Deputy Paul Keogh said: Of all the licences issued by the Department for November, December and January only 15pc were for afforestation  this strategy is absolutely killing off the private sector; we are going to see the loss of more jobs.

We are going to have millions of trees dumped and destroyed that are ready to be planted in the private sector.

They were planted to meet afforestation targets but, through no fault of their own, they will be dumped if 2021 is a repeat of 2020 and 2019.

Coillte bias

The Department highlighted that Coillte, as the largest supplier of material to Irish sawmills, has seen its 2021 licencing programme significantly improved  85pc of its 2021 programme is now licenced, while final applications will be processed over the next few weeks.

A further 16 full-time ecologists and four new inspectors have been appointed by the Department too.

On this, deputy Jackie Cahill said: The private sector feel there is a serious bias in the issuing of felling licences for Coillte. The ratio is 7:1 in favour of Coillte and that is not sustainable.

The private sector is being negatively discriminated against and that balance has to be re-examined.

Were a long, long way off hitting the targets and farmers are deserting deforestation.

Mr Hayes pushed back, saying there is no prioritisation of Coillte licences.

There is a prioritisation around volume to try and drive out the biggest licences in order to stabilise the sector.

"A lot of jobs depended on us getting out a lot of volume and, rightly or wrongly, that is the strategy we adopted.

We have set targets to clear the backlog by the end of the year. We would be hopeful to achieve in the region of 4,500 licences this year which would be an 80pc increase on licences issued last year.
Nine glorious Muses have appeared on the facade of a three-story St. Charles Avenue mansion, surrounded by garlands of giant pearls and glittering stars. The Muses are demigoddesses of Greek mythology, who symbolize the arts. They long ago lent their names to a series of unpronounceable Uptown streets.

The nine demigoddesses are also the inspiration for the Krewe of Muses, the popular all-female Carnival organization that would be hitting the streets on Feb. 11 for their 21st annual parade, if the coronavirus hadnt made parading impossible this year.

Instead of producing a convoy of floats as usual, the krewe joined the house float craze that has rescued Carnival from oblivion this year, producing a glowing art nouveau temple along the usual parade route.

New Orleans artist Susan Gisleson led the design of the Muses house float, with the help of artist Kellie Talbot. In past years, Gisleson has designed and co-designed two of the krewes most splendid signature floats, the alluring Sirens float and the spectacular Goddessey float.

Gisleson began the Muses house float project by selecting nine lush images of women rendered by renowned turn-of-the-20th-century Czech artist Alphonse Mucha, which she blew up to larger-than-life-size plastic. Gisleson changed the skin color of several of Muchas women to reflect New Orleans multiculturalism.

I think its really important that people see themselves in the house, she said.

Gisleson views her art nouveau Muses as celestial bodies, suspended in the heavens, like phases of the moon. The concept was born when she learned the original meaning of the word cosmos, she said.

Cosmos is the opposite of chaos, she said. It means, there is order in the universe.

Reminding viewers that despite the challenges of 2020, the world will eventually return to order is the big idea behind the Muses house float, which is titled, not surprisingly, Cosmos.

Beneath the hovering Muses, the houses fence rail is coated with a hedge of imitation ivy that was hand-glittered by teams of volunteers. The ivy has a backstory, Gisleson said. It was originally fake foliage from the New Orleans-shot movie Planet of the Apes, a prop that was subsequently donated to the krewe.

Muses captain and founder Staci Rosenberg said she knew the krewe should create a house float as soon as the idea crossed her radar.

"Of course we were all pretty sad when the parade was canceled, although it was not unexpected, and safety is paramount," she said. "And we of course saw the Krewe of House Floats developing, and how exciting it was going to be."

The house, which belongs to a family Rosenberg identified as "friends of the Muses," was chosen for its location on the parade route, its setback and its fence, among other attributes.

The group turned its attention to the house float right after New Year. Members of the Krewe of Muses are usually busy this time of year finishing the coveted, hand-made womens shoes that are their signature parade throw. Gisleson said that, in the absence of a parade, she decided to produce the chandelier made from glittered shoes that stands on the porch of the krewes house float.

To help identify the individual Muses, Gisleson provided this guidance. Thalia, the Muse of comedy is at the top of the house. Urania, the Muse of astronomy; Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred songs, and Terpsichore, the Muse of dance are arrayed left to right on the second floor. And Melpomene, the Muse of tragic theater; Euterpe, the Muse of music; Clio, the Muse of history; Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry, and Erato, the Muse of love poetry occupy the ground floor.

Carefully lit and shimmering with glitter, the house stands out.

"We are a night parade  we made a night house," Rosenberg said. "We hope its beautiful during the day, but its spectacular at night. It's really best seen at night, and really best seen on foot."

The Muses Cosmos house is at 4026 St. Charles Ave. It was publicly unveiled at 7 p.m. Monday.

+10 What do Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and 3 possums have in common? They share a float house Emily Schoenbaum said she chose a political theme for her 1009 Montegut St. float house because the Marigny neighborhood is Krewe du Vieux and
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 14:32:09|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The United States and China must work together to ensure that politicization and security concerns do not impede international cooperation in response to pandemics like COVID-19, said an analyst recently.

Politicalization and securitization of the pandemic have exacerbated the impact of and response to the pandemic, Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for Global Health at the U.S. think tank Council on Foreign Relations, said in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine last week.

Stressing the importance of partnership and cooperation among major countries like China and the United States, Huang described the current international response to the COVID-19 pandemic as "uncoordinated, chaotic, and state-centric."

He blasted former U.S. President Donald Trump's mud-slinging campaign against China and the World Health Organization (WHO), saying that Trump was just "eager to find a scapegoat for his own mishandling of the pandemic."

"Instead of working together to contain the outbreak, major powers quarreled over who should be deemed responsible," he said. "Scientific research became subsumed by national interests, and the development and distribution of vaccines -- a process experts once hoped would offer a global solution to a global crisis -- expanded health disparities."

"Driven by the principle of self-help, countries rushed to institute travel restrictions and protectionist measures while bidding against each other for ventilators and surgical masks," Huang noted, adding that "international health cooperation, to the extent that it still existed, became a matter of narrow national interest."

To turn the tide against the pandemic, Huang said the United States and China must enhance cooperation, take steps to defuse political and military tensions, and reopen avenues for greater communication.

"There is much to be gained from cooperation and much to be lost from conflict in containing a virus that knows neither political divides nor territorial borders," he concluded. Enditem
TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the nation's largest independent kidney patient organization and a global champion for patient care choice and treatment innovation, released the results of a patient membership survey, Kidney Patients and the COVID-19 Vaccine. AAKP Flash Surveys are conducted under AAKP's Center for Patient Research and Education, which provides key kidney community insights to elected and appointed federal and state policymakers through patient survey and polling data. The Center also coordinates kidney patient engagement in medical research, clinical trials, and patient inclusion on key federal agency policy panels.

Kidney patients, many of whom depend upon life-sustaining dialysis care or are living with an organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive medications, manage multiple chronic conditions and multiple comorbidities and are listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as being at high-risk for COVID-19. Since kidney disease impacts minorities disproportionately, COVID-19 has had an increased impact among both minority and kidney patient communities.

The survey provided top patient questions about the COVID-19 vaccine as well as key insights. Results showed that 85 percent of responding kidney patients had not received the COVID-19 vaccine and that nearly 75 percent indicated they planned to get it when it was available because the benefits outweigh the risks. Patients indicating they did not plan to get the vaccine raised a wide range of concerns and questions, but the primary reason cited was a concern about safety. However, among those indicating they did not plan to take the vaccine, over half would take it if their healthcare team proactively engaged them and communicated it as a recommendation.

"AAKP is fully committed to addressing kidney patient concerns related to COVID-19 including their risk of infection and the safety of vaccines," stated Richard Knight, AAKP President. "As AAKP demonstrated throughout 2020, we are committed to arming patients with the information they need to make intelligent decisions about their own care, in full coordination and with the advice of their respective medical providers. AAKP will continue to monitor patient concerns during 2021 to assess patient reactions to the constantly changing vaccination decisions and choices facing kidney patients."

AAKP utilized survey insights to launch their inaugural 2021 COVID-19 national medical expert Healthline Webinar (Watch Now OnDemand) featuring kidney care and kidney transplant experts from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) as well as the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS). The webinar provided answers to key patient concerns about vaccine safety, armed patients with questions to ask their medical providers, and included information on recent COVID-19 virus mutations and the ongoing health and economic impacts of the virus. Speakers included Dr. Deidra Crews, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and Associate Vice Chair for Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a member of the ABIM Nephrology Specialty Board; Dr. Michael Alan Rees, ASTS, transplant surgeon and professor at the University of Toledo Health Science Campus, Departments of Urology and Pathology, and 2021 AAKP Medal of Excellence awardee; Richard Knight, AAKP President, Advisory Council member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and a current transplant recipient; Paul T. Conway, AAKP Chair of Policy and Global Affairs, member of the ABIM Nephrology Specialty Board, and a current transplant recipient; and Dale Rogers, AAKP National Board of Directors Member, AAKP National Ambassador, and a current transplant recipient. Patient participants in the webinar each received the 2020 President's Volunteer Service Award (PVSA), a national non-partisan program created in 2003 for community-based volunteers working on some of the nation's toughest problems. AAKP's 2020 PVSA awardees were recognized for their efforts to educate the kidney patient community on the personal and public health risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

"AAKP's educational programming has a massive level of engagement throughout the kidney patient community because of its unique blend of medical expert opinions and peer-to-peer viewpoints," stated Edward V. Hickey, III, USMC, AAKP Vice President and Chair of the AAKP Veterans Health Initiative. "A central tenet of AAKP's Decade of the Kidney initiative is the principle that kidney patients must be equal partners in all decisions that impact their own healthcare and economic security. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the importance of this principle to the immediate forefront of kidney care and AAKP will continue to be aggressive advocates for patient inclusion and legal rights in all care decisions."

The recent AAKP Flash Survey, conducted between January 12 and 17, 2021, involved over 700 patients and revealed the following patient insights:

85 percent of respondents had not received a COVID-19 vaccination at time of survey completion.

74 percent of respondents who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine indicated they did plan to get the vaccine when available.

78 percent of individuals who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine shared what makes them comfortable receiving the vaccine, when available to them, is their belief that the benefits outweighed any potential risk/side effect.

70 percent of individuals who do not plan to get the COVID-19 vaccine cite being unsure how safe and effective the vaccine was for them (kidney patient) as their main reason for not wanting the vaccination. Of these individuals, they equally indicated the following would make them more comfortable receiving the vaccine:

57 percent - If their physician/healthcare team recommended the vaccine.



53 percent - If they were provided with more information/education on the risks/benefits.



46 percent - If they knew of other individuals with kidney disease who already had or planned to receive the vaccine.

The top kidney patient questions identified in the AAKP Flash Survey were:

Are the current vaccinations safe for chronic kidney disease and dialysis patients, what are the side effects, and how common are allergic reactions? Is one type of vaccine recommended for one group of patients versus others? I am scheduled to receive a living donor transplant soon. Should I go ahead and get the first dose of the vaccine or wait until after my surgery? Also, what are the short-term and long-term impacts of the vaccine on transplanted kidneys or kidney transplants with impaired function? What is the safest location for kidney patients to access vaccines - their doctor's office, other medical facilities, or their local pharmacy? Will dialysis centers provide vaccines? Are kidney patients who are 65 and older and have comorbidities also recommended to get the vaccination? Have there been any issues or concerns discovered? Will vaccinations change current protective measures recommended by the CDC, i.e., the use of masks, social distancing, and isolation?

"In an era when truth and fact about COVID-19 and related vaccines are often overshadowed by misleading rhetoric and inaccuracy, it is critical that high-risk patients and their caregivers have timely access to accurate and factual information," stated Paul T. Conway, AAKP Chair of Policy and Global Affairs. "AAKP is grateful to the credentialed and board certified frontline medical experts who understand COVID-19 and vaccines and who selflessly educate patients on how to protect their own lives as well as the lives of those they love and interact with on a regular basis." Conway also serves as the AAKP liaison to the Health Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) of the CDC.

A previous AAKP Flash Survey, conducted between November 4 and 10, 2020, involved nearly 800 patients and indicated the following key insights:

79 percent of respondents did receive a seasonal flu vaccine.

78 percent of respondents are more concerned about the risks of COVID-19 now than compared to March 2020 .

. 73 percent of respondents indicated they would be more willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine if they knew kidney patients were involved in clinical trials and a vaccine was declared safe for kidney patients.

65 percent of respondents indicated that they are very concerned that over the next 3 to 4 months, the flu and COVID-19 will pose a great risk to the most vulnerable, including those with underlying chronic conditions such as kidney diseases, heart disease, and diabetes.

44 percent of respondents shared that a member of their family or close circle of friends has been infected by the COVID-19 virus.

39 percent of respondents share that a member of their immediate family has experienced a job layoff or job loss due to the economic impact of COVID-19.

Nearly a third of respondents indicated they are interested in participating in COVID-19 clinical trialsif asked.

For more information or to view all AAKP HealthLine COVID-19 webinars, click here. To visit the AAKP Coronavirus Resource page, visit bit.ly/AAKPCOVID19Resources.

About the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP): Established in 1969, AAKP maintains a national and global network of patient advocates, kidney researchers, medical innovation leaders, and policy influencers. From 1969-1973, AAKP patients led the effort in the U.S. Congress, alongside senior White House officials, to establish the End Stage Renal Disease Program (ESRD), which has saved over a million lives through modern dialysis coverage as administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Assistance. For more information, visit www.aakp.org. Follow AAKP on social media: @kidneypatient on Facebook, and @kidneypatients on Twitter.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jennifer Duplessie

Marketing & Communications Manager

[email protected]

(813) 400-2394

SOURCE American Association of Kidney Patients

Related Links

http://www.aakp.org


Tucked away in a Sunday newspaper, it was a story just a few paragraphs long that told how the Duchess of Sussexs Christian names  Rachel Meghan  had mysteriously disappeared from her son Archies birth certificate some three weeks after it was registered in May 2019.

This left only Meghans title, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex, on the document. A small difference, surely?

But the rumblings, accusations and counter-accusations that followed this revelation are unprecedented.

Carefully worded volleys about whose decision it was to make the amendment, and why, have been ping-ponging across the Atlantic in recent days.

So what exactly happened?

The Duchess of Sussexs Christian names, Rachel Meghan, had mysteriously disappeared from her son Archies birth certificate some three weeks after it was registered in May 2019. Pictured: Meghan and Harry show Archie for the first time

This left only Meghans title, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex, on the document. A small difference, surely?

Last weekend, the Sun on Sunday revealed that Meghans Christian names had been secretly erased from Archies birth certificate. It went on to quote royal observers who, rather absurdly, suggested the change had been a deliberate move to distance the Sussexes from the Cambridges, amid rumours of a rift between the royal couples.

The birth certificates of Prince George and his siblings feature their mother Kates first and second names as well as her title, the Duchess of Cambridge.

Following the report, Meghan issued a furiously worded statement through her U.S. PR advisers insisting that the removal of her Christian names had been dictated by the Palace, as confirmed by documents from senior Palace officials.

It went on: This was not requested by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex nor by The Duke of Sussex. To see this UK tabloid and their carnival of so-called experts choose to deceptively whip this into a calculated family snub and suggest that she would oddly want to be nameless on her childs birth certificate, or any other legal document, would be laughable were it not offensive.

Theres a lot going on in the world; lets focus on that rather than creating clickbait.

Buckingham Palace, meanwhile, suggested on Sunday  in comments clearly discussed in advance with the Sussexes  that a clerical error had precipitated the need formally to change the birth certificate.

For Royal-watchers, this was interesting. Immediately after Archies birth on May 6, 2019  itself shrouded in much secrecy, as many will remember  Royal aides followed the template set by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their children when it came to Archies birth certificate.

In this, they were led by the Queens highly experienced former deputy private secretary, Samantha Cohen.

Mrs Cohen, who worked for the Queen for more than 17 years before moving to Kensington Palace as a personal favour to the monarch to steer Harry and Meghan in the crucial first months of their royal lives together, knows the intricacies of royal protocol inside out. None so capable as Sam, as one insider put it to me.

The Sun on Sunday revealed that Meghans Christian names had been secretly erased from Archies birth certificate

Mrs Cohen is not someone given to making significant errors, clerical or otherwise. And nor, for that matter, are the team at Westminster Register Office, who are well-versed in recording royal births.

But if Harry and Meghan thought this would put a swift end to the matter, they were mistaken. Their thinly veiled criticism of the Palace seems only to have escalated the situation.

By the Palace they presumably meant Buckingham Palace, to which their Kensington Palace-based staff then reported.

The Sussexes clearly believe they have hard evidence to support the suggestion that the Palace dictated to them  although this remains confidential, as it would involve internal communications. Much of what we have seen unfold this week has its origins in Archies birth, which Harry became almost morbidly obsessed with keeping as secret as possible, even including where and when his son was born.

Behind the scenes, matters were so fraught that more than one official  as I know from personal experience  was reduced to tears of frustration and despair.

At the moment, Buckingham Palace is clearly reluctant to be dragged into another public row with the Sussexes  not least when, as Meghans PR person rightly says, theres a lot going on in the world.

Meghan issued a furiously worded statement through her U.S. PR advisers insisting that the removal of her Christian names had been dictated by the Palace. Pictured: Harry and Meghan take Archie along to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter, Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe in Cape Town in 2019

But sources have also made it clear they could not leave unchallenged the suggestion that the Sussexes were dictated to.

Many, in fact, have rather different recollections.

In what was clearly designed to be the most tactful rejoinder possible, insiders gently insisted that no one dictated anything.

One source told the Mail that the use of the word dictated was an unfortunate choice that might, they politely continued, have been lost in translation from the U.S. Perhaps, they suggested, there could have been a misunderstanding about what royal protocol required in this situation.

Which, in truth, was nothing. There is no special form of words needed, as birth records are a civil matter and royal babies have been recorded in various ways.

Instead, it was suggested  clearly after consultation with the Sussexes office  that the changes were made by staff to bring Archies birth certificate in line with other private documents such as Meghans passport.

A source told the Mail: The certificate was changed by the former office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. It was changed to ensure consistency of the name and title of the Duchess with other private documents.

Which prompts two questions: why wasnt the birth certificate completed in that way in the first place, and who requested the subsequent decision for the wording to be changed?

A rather inconsequential story has ended up being picked over worldwide, thanks to a tailwind from across the pond, and in doing so, it has laid bare the worryingly fractious relationship between the Sussexes, with their advisers in a California mansion, and the Royal Family. Pictured: Meghan with Archie in a video shared on his first birthday

The New York Post, seemingly guided by the Sussexes representatives, suggested yesterday that the changes were required by the Garter Principal King of Arms and Senior Herald, Thomas Woodcock, a member of the Royal Household and chief adviser to the Queen on ceremonial matters and heraldry.

But when I spoke to the genial Mr Woodcock at the College of Arms yesterday, he was bemused by the suggestion. This doesnt ring a bell with me, he said. I may have said some time that if you are the Duchess of Sussex then that is your name. Rachel Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex rather implies that you are a dowager, or widowed. Thats a bit old-fashioned.

I havent had any part in it but am very happy to take the blame, if that is whats required.

It is undoubtedly my role to advise, and maybe I offered some thoughts in one context but they are being used in another. Whenever I am asked a question, I do try to answer it as honestly as possible. I just have no recollection particularly of being asked for any advice on how things should be entered on a birth certificate.

His sense of bemusement is echoed by the Palace.

There is no set protocol with these things, one source told me. The birth certificate is a civic document, so there are options on how it is filled out.

The language used  suggesting it was the Palace who dictated [the wording] is somewhat unfortunate. The decision to issue a statement and the wording of it poses more questions than it answers, unfortunately.

Indeed.

So an intriguing but, in the scheme of things, rather inconsequential story has ended up being picked over worldwide, thanks to a tailwind from across the pond.

In doing so, it has laid bare the worryingly fractious relationship between the Sussexes, ensconced with their advisers in a California mansion, and the Royal Family.
Walker dramatizes key scenes, such as an early dust-up between an Oakland police officer and a car packed with four gun-toting Panthers. When the officer asks for Newtons phone number, he tersely answers, Five, referring to the Fifth Amendment. When firearms are discovered in the car, the tension ratchets up. A stickler for gun laws, Newton cites his constitutional right to bear arms, explaining that his piece is unloaded because it is illegal to carry a loaded rifle in a car; stepping out of the vehicle, he loads it. Not a single shot was fired, and no one was injured, Walker writes. But war had been declared.

When the text boxes start piling up, though, the tone can dry out: Having made a name for themselves in Oakland, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was asked by Eldridge Cleaver and the RAM-affiliated Black Panther Party of Northern California to help provide security for Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X. Fortunately, as an artist Anderson is just as good at rendering static shots as he is at depicting action, and his gift for warm, uncluttered portraiture lionizes familiar figures. In an early sequence, he depicts 31 slain civil rights activists, their names largely lost to us. Most of them are smiling, yet all are shaded, heartbreakingly, in a ghostly blue. Though each panel is just 1.5 inches by 2.25 inches, the depth of emotion could fill an entire page.

A mixture of bravery and dread hangs over much of the book. For all the partys talk of guns, they are only shown being discharged toward the end. Fred Hampton, who had joined the Chicago branch of the Panthers at the end of 1968, found himself the national spokesman the following year, fixing him on the F.B.I.s radar. Walker and Anderson depict his murder by plainclothes policemen without showing any gore. Their machine guns fire 31 times across 19 orderly, crimson-tinged panels, the sound of each shot (BLAM) obscuring the terrified dialogue of the eight other Panthers in the house at the time. Its a turning point in the groups history, chillingly rendered.

The only scene of political resistance in Jim Terrys memoir, COME HOME, INDIO (Street Noise, 234 pp., $16.99), appears at the end, as the cartoonist travels with his sister and a friend to join the Standing Rock protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The son of a Native (Ho-Chunk) mother and an Irish-American jazz musician father, who divorced when he was young, Terry grew up in the Midwest, bouncing between two worlds. His devotion to Standing Rock is sincere, but he doesnt have the instant moment of connection that he was hoping for. He worries that it isnt his place  that hell somehow be seen as an impostor.
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'We respect right of privacy, has no intention to violate it': Govt responds to Whatsapp

No violation of data privacy of citizens under National Digital Health Mission, Rajya Sabha told

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 2: There is no violation of data privacy of citizens under the National Digital Health Mission as it enables appropriate use of health data with the consent of an individual, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

The ambitious National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) programme was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech last year. According to a draft proposal, everyone enrolled for the mission will get a Health ID free of cost and will have complete control over his or her data.

Providing the current status of roll out of health id under NDHM, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey said the pilot phase of the mission is active in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

As on January 21, as many as 6,30,478 Health IDs have been generated. The selection of vendors for NDHM is compliant with various applicable rules and policies of the government, he said.

On whether there is a violation of the privacy of Indian citizens if the data is stored with an external company, Choubey, in a written reply, said the data is stored in a federated architecture as described in the National Digital Health Blueprint released by the Government of India in 2019.

"There is no centralized database of medical records. However, NDHM enables appropriate use of the health data of each individual for his/her own healthcare with his/her consent only. Therefore, there is no violation of privacy of Indian citizens."

The government gives highest priority to data security and privacy, the minister of state for health said.

Citizenship data is latest rollback of Donald Trump census efforts

Elaborating on the steps taken to protect data privacy, he said it is inbuilt in the design of NDHM.

All applicable laws, rules and judgments of the Supreme Court are being followed. Health Data Management Policy has also been approved. Apart from various legal provisions, all technical solutions possible to ensure data privacy and security are being put in place, Choubey said.

As mentioned in the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB), the guiding document for NDHM implementation, use of secure health networks and government community cloud infrastructure is being used for hosting of data, he said.

"All events on this cloud infrastructure would be under 24x7 surveillance to ensure highly secure environment. One of the key aspects of information security framework under NDHM highlights privacy by design as one of the key guiding principles.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

"It aims to ensure that health data and its transfer are always compliant and adhere to all privacy requirements. All the building blocks that require handling personal health records are being designed to comply with such policy ab initio. Further, medical records are made available to anyone only with the consent of the individual or his/her nominee," the minister said.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 15:51 [IST]
In November, the previously unknown Marjorie Taylor Greene was elected to Georgias open 14th Congressional District seat in a landslide. Now, after being in office less than a month, she is the object of a hate campaign by the Democrats, who are demanding that she be stripped of all committee assignments, and preferably kicked out of the House. It is reported that the Democrats press arm is trying to make Greene the face of the Republican Party.

What exactly has she done? Greenes Facebook page apparently is a disaster. Even before the election, Politico investigated Greene on behalf of the Democratic Party and found Facebook videos that expressed racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views. That was Kevin McCarthys characterization, not Nancy Pelosis, and Greene was denounced last June by the Republicans House leadership. But Georgias voters apparently were unimpressed.

More offenses have come to light. Six days ago, CNN reported breathlessly:

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress, a CNN KFile review of hundreds of posts and comments from Greenes Facebook page shows.

This is based on Greenes having liked comments on her Facebook page that accused Democrats like Nancy Pelosi of treason, and contemplated the penalties therefor. So she is in the same category with a great many Democrats, who baselessly accused President Trump of treason for four years. While some of what Greene did is obviously indefensible, CNNs perspective is quite different from ours. Thus:

In one Facebook post from April 2018, Greene wrote conspiratorially about the Iran Deal, one of former President Barack Obamas signature foreign policy achievements.

Heh. I am on Greenes side on this one. She gave this quote to CNN:

Over the years, Ive had teams of people manage my pages. Many posts have been liked. Many posts have been shared. Some did not represent my views. Especially the ones that CNN is about to spread across the internet.

It is hard to take that response seriously. Still, I suspect that Greenes main offense is her stalwart defense of President Trump, and her vote, along with many other House members, to reject the Electoral College ballots of two states. It is her unabashed Trumpism that the Democrats are most eager to discredit.

Greene is already facing calls to leave the House for her role in fanning the flames of the Capitol insurrection earlier this month after she objected to the election certification process and falsely insisted that Trump would remain president. After Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez called on Greene to be expelled from the House for her role in the insurrection, Greene condemned the violence at the Capitol and falsely accused Antifa/BLM terrorism and Democratic politicians of stoking the insurrection.

Insurrection. Right. Led by the leftist with the fur hat and the horns.

As far as I know, because it wasnt just a like but rather her own postat least, this is what has been reportedGreenes worst offense was when she attributed Californias wildfires to a space ray controlled by the Rothschilds. Or something like that. It could be a joke, except that it isnt funny. So I assume she more or less meant it.

So, to put it mildly, Marjorie Greene is not our sort of Republican. Still, what to make of the Democrats campaign against her? A few observations:

1) The Democrats want Greene expelled (or, at a minimum, barred from serving on any committees) because of things she said before she took officestatements or likes that were indisputably protected speech. I dont know whether there is any precedent for such a sanction. I doubt it. It seems to me that such extreme measures should be reserved for actions taken while serving in the House, not previously as a private citizen. The grounds for expelling Greene were mostly known before the election, and yet the voters in Georgias 14th District elected her, overwhelmingly. I dont think it is up to the Democratic majority in the House to determine that the voters were wrong.

2) The worst of Greenes statements suggest that she may be anti-Semitic. If true, that is a terrible thing. But if we are going to expel anti-Semites from the House, Greene is hardly first on the list. Democrats like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, and no doubt others if we assiduously study their Facebook pages, are way ahead of her in line. Again, the question of when anti-Semitic statements have been made is relevant. Greene has been spotless since taking her seat in the House, while Omar and Tlaib have used their pulpit as representatives to spew hate. So, if the House is willing to expel Omar and Tlaib or bar them from committees, next we can take up the question of Marjorie Greene. Not before.

3) The Democrats case against Marjorie Greene largely consists of the claim that she is a conspiracy theorist. Fine. If we are going to expel representatives who promoted conspiracy theories, lets start with the Democrats who propounded the insane conspiracy theory that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the 2016 presidential election. Once all of those Democrats have been expelled or deprived of their committee assignmentsthat covers pretty much all Democrats, including the House leadershipwe can take up the question of whether Marjorie Greene promoted unfounded conspiracy theories.

4) The Democrats suggest that Marjorie Greene has somehow been a proponent of violence. That claim is doubtful at best, but it is true of quite a few Congressional Democrats. How many have accused President Trump of treason, the penalty for which is death? How many have condoned, and even encouraged, violent Black Lives Matter/Antifa riots that have killed somewhere between 25 and 30 people?

I would be curious to know, too, how many Congressional Democrats have liked others violent social media poststhe standard that is being applied to Greene. How many liked one or more of the tens of thousands of tweets by Democrats that included the hashtag #Rape Melania? That hashtag trended with more than 32,000 tweets. How many Democratic members of Congress liked or retweeted one or more of those 32,000? Any chance Politico will look into that?

5) The question of committee assignments is a good one. Nothing in Greenes past suggests that she is unfit to serve on the Education and Labor or Budget Committee. On the other hand, we have the grotesque example of Eric Swalwell, who carried on an affair with a Chinese spy while serving on the House Intelligence Committee. And, not only that, he lied to the American people about secret documents to which he had privileged access. Once Swalwell has been expelled from the Intelligence Committee, on which, astonishingly, he still serves, I am willing to take up other cases. Until then, forget it.

The case of Marjorie Greene is an interesting one. On one hand, we obviously wish that Georgians had elected someone else. On the other hand, the Democrats campaign against her is cynical and hypocritical, and offers an opportunity to expose the Democrats own corruption of the House. Which I have tried to do in this post.
DENVER, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cordant Health Solutions, a national leader in providing innovative tools for providers and patients in addiction treatment programs, in a recently published study in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, demonstrates that patients using Cordant's managed medication-assisted treatment (MAT) pharmacy program had a 52% higher retention in treatment, 46% fewer opiate-positive lab tests, and 41% fewer drug-related emergency department visits than those who previously received their buprenorphine from traditional retail pharmacies. Also noted in the study, 100% of the respondents reported they would recommend Cordant's pharmacy program.

A patient receiving medication in a stigma-free environment

The study examined data from patients within their first 90 days of treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) at Northwest Integrated Health (NWIH) in Tacoma, Washington, before and after implementation of Cordant's pharmacy program. The objective of this study was to determine if there was a difference in treatment retention, medication adherence, return to illicit drug use, and health outcomes for 154 patients who used Cordant's pharmacy program compared with a randomly selected, equally sized subset of patients who did not.

"Historically, the concept of access to treatment for OUD primarily focused on a patient's access to a provider who can treat and prescribe without considering obstacles to receiving the medication itself from retail pharmacies," said Dr. Asif Khan, CEO and chairman of NWIH and co-author of the study. "Barriers like transportation can be challenging for this patient group, so to ask them to go to another location after their clinic visit adds an additional hurdle they have to overcome. Then they need to find a pharmacy that regularly stocks addiction treatment medication and doesn't treat them like a drug addict. Unfortunately, this poses a real threat to their sobriety, and that's why I believe these study outcomes are so meaningful."

Despite the strong evidence for the efficacy of medications like buprenorphine for OUD in reducing mortality, retaining patients in care can be challenging, with many patients discontinuing treatment prematurely, sometimes within a few days or weeks after initiation. However, the study findings show that using Cordant's pharmacy program may significantly improve patient retention in treatment as well as medication adherence.

"It's easy to see the difference Cordant's pharmacy program has on your patients when you experience it firsthand," said Khan. "But to put it through a test, as we did with this study, and to see numbers like 52% higher retention in treatment and 41% fewer drug-related emergency department visits during a very vulnerable stage of treatment, the first 90 days, means we are saving lives, just by removing a big barrier  the barrier to receiving medication in a stigma-free and convenient way."

Key features of Cordant's program include:

Pharmacists experienced in caring for patients with OUD

Cordant pharmacy delivers OUD medications on-site and can serve as a liaison between a partner clinic, patients, and the pharmacy

State prescription drug monitoring program review by the pharmacist on each patient, raising any irregularities before filling the medication

For clients using Cordant's integrated program, a review of drug testing results, ensuring medication for OUD is present and identifying any unexpected substances

All patients offered life-saving naloxone

The study also included a patient experience survey to provide critical insights into how removing the need to find pharmacies to fill buprenorphine prescriptions directly impacted participating patients. The study highlighted some patients' experience in Cordant's pharmacy program. Below are a couple of quotes from the study:

"I love the privacy of it. Not having a long line of people hearing or judging."

"I like how quick and easy it is. At times there is a long wait to see the doctor, so by the end of my appointment, I am just ready to leave. My meds are already here and ready for me to sign and go."

To date, over 8,000 patients across nine states have participated in Cordant's managed MAT pharmacy program, with continued national expansion. Cordant plans to open seven more pharmacies by the end of 2021.

"This study provides further validation of the impact Cordant's pharmacy program has on patient lives and serves as important information for clinicians and treatment organizations when evaluating how to improve patient care," said Sue Sommer, CEO and president of Cordant. "Being able to show a meaningful decrease in both drug-related emergency department utilization and opiate use with our program means patients are more adherent to their treatment plan, and with improved adherence comes decreased risk for relapse and reduced cost of care."

About Cordant Health Solutions

Cordant Health Solutions (cordantsolutions.com) provides innovative tools for monitoring behavioral health, chronic pain, and criminal justice cases. Cordant's unique pharmacy and drug testing programs provide accurate, actionable results to protect prescribers, hold patients accountable, and optimize quality of life.

A leader in quality standards, Cordant provides solutions for payers, clinicians, and organizations involved with substance use disorder, pain management, and criminal justice agencies. Cordant is one of the only healthcare companies that offers monitoring and risk assessment tools through its innovative drug testing options and full-service, high-touch pharmacies, which specialize in the management and dispensing of addiction treatment medications. Cordant's testing protocols and digital case-management tools help clients become more efficient and effective in using drug testing programs to monitor patient adherence, reduce risk and improve patient outcomes.

MEDIA CONTACT

Tiffany Tuetken

303-570-4585

[email protected]

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Cordant's Managed MAT Pharmacy Program

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Cordant Health Solutions

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Two former students filed a lawsuit against Millbrae School District and one of its middle schools Monday, alleging that a former teacher sexually assaulted and abused them and school officials failed to intervene.

The suit, filed in San Mateo County Superior Court, alleges that in 2013-2014 the teacher isolated the then-seventh grade girls in her classroom at Taylor Middle School to inappropriately touch and grope intimate parts of their bodies.

The victims told the middle schools principal, vice principal school counselor and secretary of the teachers abusive behavior, according to the suit, which claims that the administrators did not remove the teacher from her position and failed to notify child welfare services.

Instead, they allowed (the teacher) to remain employed at Taylor Middle School for the remainder of the school year  further victimizing and traumatizing Plaintiffs and the other victims  because, as the school told plaintiffs, She was not coming back next year anyway, according to the plaintiffs attorneys Robert Thompson and Kristen Vierhaus.

Superintendent Debra French said Monday evening that the district had not been served with the lawsuit and would investigate the allegations when served.

With that said, French added, Millbrae Elementary School District is deeply committed to fostering positive learning environments, preparing our students for success and ensuring the safety, security and well-being of all students entrusted to our care. We do not tolerate any behavior that undermines those values.

The Chronicle could not reach the teacher for comment. She is no longer employed by the Millbrae School District.

The suit comes three years after another former Taylor Middle School teacher, Heather Butts, was arrested and accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage ex-student. Butts was sentenced to four months in jail.

The suit claims that in fall of 2013, the Spanish teacher began grooming the girls with the intent of manipulating their emotions and taking advantage of their young age so that she could ultimately sexually abuse them, according to the plaintiffs attorneys.

Throughout the school year, the teacher allegedly asked the plantiffs and other young girls to visit her classroom alone on multiple occasions. There, the victims claim, she inappropriately touched and groped them, sometimes after having them bend down to pick items up off the classroom floor.

In spring of 2014, the two plaintiffs and several other victims went to the middle school office to report the abuse, according to the suit. They detailed the teachers behavior to the school secretary, the suit claims, who then convened a meeting between the victims, the school principal and vice principal. The administrators also met with each victim individually.

After detailing the alleged abuse, the victims say they were told to choose between telling their parents or having administrators telephone the victims parents. One student opted to have administrators phone her parents, who were allegedly given a vague description of the incidents and told the school would handle the reports appropriately, according to the suit.

None of the other victims told their parents what happened, due to fear, shame, and embarrassment, and the school did not reach out, according to the suit. The alleged abuse was also not reported to child welfare services, the suit claims.

By failing to report the abuse to a local law enforcement agency, sheriffs department, child welfare agency and/or the victims parents, (administrators) made a concerted effort to hide evidence and information relating to the childhood sexual assaults, the plaintiffs attorneys wrote in the suit.

The Chronicle is not naming the teacher because she has not been criminally charged in connection with the allegations.

Nora Mishanec is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nora.mishanec@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NMishanec
Myanmar's military seized power on Monday and detained government officials including de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi just hours before a newly elected parliament was due to convene.



Amid the coup and the military's unproven claims of voter fraud, the UN and others called on the army to respect the country's November election result.



The United States expressed "grave concern and alarm" in a statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.



"We call on Burmese military leaders to release all government officials and civil society leaders and respect the will of the people of Burma as expressed in democratic elections on November 8."



"The United States stands with the people of Burma in their aspirations for democracy, freedom, peace, and development. The military must reverse these actions immediately."



Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Canberra was "deeply concerned."



"Australia is a long-standing supporter of Myanmar and its democratic transition. We call on the military to respect the rule of law, to resolve disputes through lawful mechanisms and to release immediately all civilian leaders and others who have been detained unlawfully.



"We strongly support the peaceful reconvening of the National Assembly, consistent with the results of the November 2020 general election," Payne said.



United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the detention of Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other political leaders and expressed "grave concern" at the transfer of powers to the military.



"These developments represent a serious blow to democratic reforms in Myanmar," a statement from Guterres' spokesman read.



The November elections provided a strong mandate to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, the statement added.



"The Secretary-General urges the military leadership to respect the will of the people of Myanmar and adhere to democratic norms, with any differences to be resolved through peaceful dialogue.



"All leaders must act in the greater interest of Myanmars democratic reform, engaging in meaningful dialogue, refraining from violence and fully respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Source: dpa/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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TOKYO - Years before the first covid-19 case, a team of Japanese health ministry advisers issued a warning: Japan's vaccine industry was seriously uncompetitive, public awareness about vaccine safety was low, and the country faced serious risks if a pandemic broke out.

"Vaccines are an essential part of national security," the report warned in 2016, urging a series of reforms to ramp up research and production capacity - while there was still time.

The report, like others issued by scientists around the world warning about a lack of pandemic preparedness, was shelved.

The predictions proved prophetic. Japan now struggles to source coronavirus vaccines from abroad and lags far behind in the quest to develop its own.

Japan is the only nation in the Group of Seven economic powers still waiting to start vaccinations, but it is not alone among wealthy nations. Australia and South Korea are among nations still waiting to start vaccine programs.

Nor is Japan the only country to have its lack of pandemic preparedness exposed by the global crisis.

But Japan - often ranked as the third-largest pharmaceutical market after the United States and China - stands as a vivid example of how the pandemic has forced nations to reexamine public health priorities, global cooperation and readiness.

Out of 63 vaccines undergoing clinical trials around the world, just one is from Japan, according to the World Health Organization. And even that one, from start-up AnGes in Osaka, will not enter Phase III trials until much later this year, Japan's Health Ministry said.

Meanwhile, Japan's failure to swiftly obtain vaccines from abroad points to other problems: deeply ingrained bureaucratic caution and a distrust of foreign pharmaceuticals. Japan requires vaccine trials to be inside the country, a demand that has significantly slowed down the approval process for the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines it wants.

It is not expected to begin giving Pfizer jabs to health workers for at least another month.

Japanese trials for the Moderna vaccine only began on Jan. 21, on 200 people. Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Japan's biggest drugmaker which is handling the trials, says it hopes the vaccine could be approved in May "at the latest," according to a spokesman, with 50 million doses promised.

AstraZeneca started tests inside Japan in September, but the company is not expected to apply for approval to use the vaccine in Japan until late February. Still, officials told local media on Thursday that 90 million doses would be made inside Japan, with another 30 million imported.

"Strategically, Japan has not put vaccines high on the agenda in terms of national security," said Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute of Population Health at King's College, London and one of the authors of the 2016 report. "It has been pointed out repeatedly that securing vaccines proves really challenging in a time of crisis."

Shibuya compares the situation in the vaccine industry with Japan's financial industry before a crash in 1991. "So many companies, a lack of competitiveness, obviously heavily subsidized, a lack of global scale," he said.

In August, shortly before retiring on health grounds, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Japan was working to secure enough vaccine doses to cover the entire population in the first half of this year. The pledge underscored official confidence that the Olympics could go ahead this July - even if the two issues were not explicitly linked.

The government said last year it would get 290 million doses from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, as the country hedged its bets.

But the optimism about the vaccination timetable - and about the Olympics - has largely evaporated, thanks to a combination of Japan's testing requirements and predictable bottlenecks in global supplies.

This month, the government was forced to declare a second state of emergency in Tokyo amid a surge in infections. Negotiations with vaccine makers were accelerated, and senior cabinet minister, Taro Kono, was appointed to oversee the vaccination process on Jan. 18.

On Thursday, Kono said he hoped to begin vaccinations for those over 65 years old on April 1 at the earliest, and hoped to finish by the third week of June. But he said he did not know when vaccines would be available for the rest of the general public.

But Japan also has to contend with a population widely skeptical about vaccine safety, and a bureaucratic culture that is deeply cautious.

That is partly because of complications that arose during compulsory vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella in 1993 and a series of lawsuits that followed. The government reacted by abandoning the idea of making vaccines compulsory but also virtually stopped educating people about vaccine safety, giving the country a reputation as a "vaccine backwater."

In 2013, it controversially withdrew an HPV vaccine after relatively minor side effects were reported, a decision that may have cost thousands of lives.

"In Japan, the atmosphere is very important. And we have an atmosphere that the vaccines are very dangerous, risky, and you don't want to touch them," said Kentaro Iwata, an infectious-disease expert at Kobe University.

"Unless you change this atmosphere into a positive atmosphere that the vaccine is good for your health, people will be very hesitant to come to the clinic," he added.

Rochelle Kopp, a management consultant based in Japan, says the overall caution is also rooted in Japanese culture, an expectation of "perfection," combined with an intolerance for mistakes and a tendency to apportion blame when things don't turn out perfectly.

In an emergency, it is a dangerous brew that often paralyzes the bureaucracy.

At the start of the pandemic, Japan's Health Ministry was very slow to ramp up coronavirus testing and reluctant to introduce private sector or foreign test kits on concerns about accuracy.

Nearby, South Korea was much faster in introducing coronavirus testing last year but it, too, has yet to start vaccinating people, prompting criticism of the government.

"South Korea's virus situation was relatively stable compared to other countries, but it can't be an excuse for complacency," said Kim Yoon, professor of health policy and management at Seoul National University. "Risk-averse bureaucrats were hesitant about procuring the newly developed vaccines, even though the unprecedented health crisis called for out-of-the-box thinking."

- - -

The Washington Post's Julia Mio Inuma in Tokyo and Min Joo Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
The next election in Pennsylvania is already less than four months away. The people who run it have barely caught their breath from the last one.

It wont draw the same crowds to downtown Philadelphia. TV networks wont livestream votes being counted around the clock. Many wont even realize its happening.

But the May 18 primary is when we really start to see what Pennsylvania elections will look like from now on, after the biggest state election law reforms in decades.

Thats because the 2020 election was, in some ways, too big to fail. With a massive expansion of mail voting during a pandemic and a presidential race in the glare of a national spotlight, badly needed resources poured in. When elections officials needed still more money after increases in government funding, philanthropy helped fill some of the gap. As older poll workers opted out, advocacy groups rallied huge numbers of younger ones.

Now, as attention recedes, elections officials are doing the hard, behind-the-scenes work they didnt get to do last year of building a sustainable electoral system.

Weve brought on a whole new operation to voters, but I think a lot of people dont realize that wasnt just for that election, now this is here to stay, said Bill Turner, acting elections director for Chester County.

Officials are back to working with extremely tight budgets, with little prospect of the kind of grants that supplemented operations last year. Theres less help from outside groups on things like voter education campaigns. Public interest has dimmed, meaning fewer volunteers.

Its a natural swing of the pendulum as the public moves on from an all-consuming presidential election  and it shows that long-term challenges remain.

We could do a lot of things last year because we had the resources.  We just didnt know exactly how to create a system for it and were doing it on the fly, said Bob Harvie, the Bucks County commissioner who chairs the board of elections. This time, we kind of know what we need, but it comes back to: Do we have the resources for it?

Making it all more difficult, counties have to grapple with the potential for voter confusion as Republicans mount a push in Harrisburg to scale back mail ballots in the wake of former President Donald Trumps false claims of a stolen election.

 READ MORE: Fact-checking false claims about Pennsylvanias presidential election by Trump and his allies

Bucks County, like others across the state, is significantly increasing its elections budget and staffing. But that growth may only be enough to meet the minimal demands of Act 77, the state law enacted in late 2019. It could leave optional services voters came to appreciate like mail ballot drop boxes out of the picture.

We used to just do in-person elections, right? said Lisa Deeley, chair of the Philadelphia city commissioners, the office that runs elections. We train our [poll workers], and we put our voting machines out on the street, we take our voting machines back, and we count our ballots at the end of the night.

That all changed last year, the first time any Pennsylvania voter could cast a ballot by mail, and the pandemic fueled massive demand for mail ballots. Deeley hopes the citys upcoming spending plan will provide relief, but she acknowledged the difficulties of asking for money with a budget crisis looming.

You need to have the money to do the things youre required by law to do, she said.

That reality leaves counties making hard decisions about what level of service to provide to voters. When money flowed in 2020, counties were able to open satellite elections offices where people could vote early using mail ballots in person, install drop boxes for hand delivery to bypass the Postal Service, and provide prepaid postage for voters to turn in their mail ballots.

Those options are likely to be scaled back in many cases.

 READ MORE: Harrisburg wants to change Pennsylvania election law again, but mistrust is high

There were things we were able to do in 2020 that were probably not going to be able to do in 2021, said Delaware County Council member Christine Reuther. Unless theres funding for it from the state or federal government, I dont believe we have the funding in this years budget to pay the return postage on mail-in ballots.

Thats one of the most common rollbacks across counties, since the state provided prepaid postage last fall for mail ballots.

Counties that installed drop boxes found them to be a popular option with voters who feared ballots being delayed in the mail. But in addition to the logistical challenges  like finding the right locations and emptying the boxes regularly  there are funding challenges in keeping them secure. Some counties want to monitor the boxes by assigning staff or by setting up cameras.

We own them. We have the boxes, theyre ready to be deployed, said Turner, of Chester County. But the big question there is we made the commitment to staff them with two people, but is that going to be something that now we set the precedent, something were always going to do? On the flip side we had people use them  is that going to be an expectation now?

Similarly, counties that opened satellite elections offices for in-person early voting using mail ballots have to figure out whether they can afford to do so again. Philadelphia had 17 such offices last fall. The city may have just one for the primary: the main office in City Hall as required by state law, said Nick Custodio, Deeleys deputy.

Even if money is made available, theres the additional challenge of finding locations. Last year, Philadelphias offices were primarily located in public school buildings that were empty due to the pandemic. Those buildings wont be available in the future.

Bucks County will reopen its two satellite offices, which is relatively simple because theyre located in county government buildings. Delaware County isnt planning on having satellite offices for the primary.

Montgomery County will have satellite offices, but the details havent been worked out and there may be fewer locations or operating hours, said Lee Soltysiak, the countys chief operating officer and clerk of its elections board.

The reasons we opened them up to begin with in 2020 still stand, in that we give people the most access and ability to vote as possible  but thats not an every-four-years thing, thats a two-times-a-year thing, he said.

 READ MORE: It didnt need to take that long: What Pennsylvanias election could have looked like with earlier counting

Some service reductions may make sense as turnout falls. But several elections officials are wary of ballot access decisions being driven by money. In-person voting, after all, doesnt change between elections: Counties open the same number of polling places whether its a low-turnout local primary or a high-turnout presidential general election. They dont want to see availability of services such as satellite offices and drop boxes swing back and forth.

Nor do they want to confuse voters.

So as they prepare for an election coming in just a few months, county elections officials are trying to set expectations for the public. Theyre figuring out how to run elections moving forward and build a new system. And theyre doing it without the attention and resources they had just a few months ago.

How do we build a sustainable, repetitive process that we can continue to scale to whatever the election is? Reuther said. That is still a question that we are seeking clarity on.
More than 5,000 people have been detained at demonstrations across Russia in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, rights activists said on Sunday.



The number of people taken into custody during this second weekend of mass pro-Navalny protests was about 1,000 higher than a week ago, an indication of both the resolve of demonstrators and the determination of Russian authorities to crack down on them.



Over 1,500 people were detained on Sunday in Moscow alone, according to OVD-Info portal, which monitors law enforcement in Russia.



In Saint Petersburg, the second-biggest city in Russia and President Vladimir Putin's home town, the tally stood at over 860 people. More than 50 other cities saw protesters apprehended, said the monitor.



Human rights activists condemned the heavy-handed police tactics against the demonstrators, including the use of stun guns, tear gas and physical violence.



In Kazan, about 700 kilometres east of Moscow, detained students reportedly had to take off their underwear and hand over cell phones and their belongings. Images from the city of Kazan also showed several demonstrators forced to lie down in the snow by police.



Navalny's wife, Yulia, was among those detained in the capital, after posting a picture on Instagram of herself on the street.



She was released on Sunday night after being held for several hours.



According to media reports, she is to go on trial on Monday for taking part in the unauthorized action and faces a prison sentence of several days.



Earlier in the day she had railed against the house arrest imposed on her husband's brother, Oleg Navalny, referring to him as a "hostage."



Yulia Navalnaya was also held a week ago at similar mass protests in Moscow.



Police in riot gear in the capital used fencing to block protesters from reaching a planned meeting place near the headquarters of the FSB security agency, according to a dpa reporter at the scene.



The police action led organizers to point supporters to new meeting points. A procession of thousands moved to the Moscow remand prison where Navalny is being held, shouting "Let him go." According to the dissident leader's team, Navalny could hear the shouting in his cell.



Police had warned that Sunday's rallies were unauthorized and that participants would face legal consequences. In an effort to dampen the protests in Moscow, authorities had closed seven metro stations, and shops, cafes and restaurants will not be allowed to open.



US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized Russian authorities for their heavy-handed treatment of anti-government protesters.



"The US condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight," tweeted Blinken, who has been in the post for less than a week as part of President Joe Biden's new administration.



The Russian Foreign Ministry fired back, accusing the US of "gross interference" in its domestic affairs.



The Bulgarian and Czech foreign ministries also condemned the harsh measures taken against protesters.



Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek said that his country would plead within the European Union to impose sanctions on certain responsible parties, according to the CTK agency.



Czech President Milos Zeman, on the other hand, said in a radio interview that from his point of view, Navalny was a Russian nationalist who was primarily against Russian President Vladimir Putin because he wanted to take his place.



Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to call for Navalny's immediate release and to protest against Putin.



Rights activists estimate that 4,000 people were arrested and many were injured at the unprecedented protests.



They also took aim at Navalny's associates in recent days, with his brother Oleg, his associate Lyubov Sobol and other supporters being sentenced to two months of house arrest.



Navalny returned to Russia earlier this month after receiving treatment in Germany following a near-fatal assassination attempt with the nerve agent Novichok. He was immediately detained upon his arrival in Moscow and sentenced to pretrial detention.



A Russian court on Thursday confirmed his 30-day pretrial sentence, rejecting an appeal by the dissident's lawyers to set him free.



At a trial scheduled for Tuesday, a court is to decide whether his earlier sentence will be commuted into real imprisonment. Navalny's team announced new protests if he is sentenced to prison on Tuesday.







Source: dpa/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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Kooheji Development, one of the largest real estate developers in Bahrain, has selected Villeroy & Bochs top range lifestyle brand, Dawn, for bathroom and wellness products to be installed in its iconic project Onyx Bahrain Bay.

The selection of the Dawn line from Villeroy & Boch came for its uniqueness in design and form, with its minimalistic designs that achieves diverse interior design options that adds fresh touch to the modern bathrooms and its smart water saving technology that limits flow rates to 5 litre per minute without losing pressure.

The new lifestyle brand from Villeroy & Boch provides exclusive finishes, stylistic versatility with its smart and comfortable features, said the statement from Kooheji Development.

This selection is aligned with Kooheji Development commitment in providing the highest quality of interiors and attention to detail, with continues efforts to deliver world-class projects where forms meet functionality, while keeping safety and wellbeing of Onyx s residents as its top priority through the interiors stage.

Kooheji Interiors team considers compliance with the international codes and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) requirements for low water consumptions giving its luxurious and premium finish, with the state-of-the-art bespoke pieces.

For the first time in a residential project in Bahrain, Villeroy & Boch toilet accessories' top range is being installed, said a top official.

"We always strive to achieve superior quality while delivering design for life. We recognise craftsmanship in the attention to the little details and we value luxury designs," remarked Engineer Mohamed Abdulghaffar Al Kooheji, General Manager of Kooheji Development.

"Villeroy & Boch is a premium German brand with Innovative strength and design expertise that are aligned with our requirements for Onyx Bahrain Bay project finishing. We are proud to partner in this project with a global leader in ceramic production for over 270 Years," he stated.

According to him, Villeroy & Boch is a trusted international lifestyle luxury brand that showcases European design and expertise.

"Moreover, this selection is done through one of Bahrains leading trading company, Sayyar Trading. Our partnership as Kooheji Contractors with Sayyar goes back a long way when we collaborated in delivering landmark projects in Bahrain," stated Al Kooheji.

Villeroy & Boch Country Manager (GCC) Johannes Muller said: "Its an honour for both partners that the unique Kooheji 's Onyx project will be equipped with high-quality bathrooms from Villeroy & Boch top range bathroom and wellbeing products."

Really notable as well that Kooheji personally is strongly involved in this unique project collaboration with Sayyar Trading Agencies and Villeroy & Boch, he noted.

"Its those special moments that life is all about. Reflecting this philosophy, Villeroy & Boch adds a decorative touch to living environments and meets the most discerning standards," observed Muller.

"Villeroy & Boch combines a sense of tradition with an innovative outlook and stands for class and sophistication. Since its foundation in 1748, the company has developed into one of the worlds leading ceramic producers and a distinctive lifestyle brand," he added.

Sayyar, one of Bahrains top trading groups, has over 40 years of experience in supplying key landmark projects in the kingdom, remarked Ali Wael Sayyar.

"Kooheji is a leader in providing luxury living spaces with exceptional quality to its clients and we are proud to be supplying luxury bathroom fitting from Villeroy & Boch for such an iconic project within the breath-taking Bahrain Bay Area," he stated.

The top-of-the-line wellness products and accessories being supplied include washbasins and bathroom sinks, toilets and WCs, bathroom taps mixers and toilets accessories including towel rail, towel hook, and bath rim hand shower holder, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
The new U.S. Administration has signaled for the first time that it could be willing to discuss with Germany the lifting of the American sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project if Germany offers solutions to ensure Europes energy security, German business daily Handelsblatt reports, citing a U.S. official involved in the talks.

According to Handelsblatt, the U.S. has signaled readiness to talk about the easing of the sanctions against the controversial pipeline project from Russia to Germany, led by Russias gas giant Gazprom. In exchange, the U.S. expects Germany to propose ways to protect Europes energy security as well as Ukraines interests.

The Germans have to propose a package of solutions, otherwise the U.S. may not be able to get the issue with Nord Stream 2 out of the way, the U.S. official involved in the talks told Handelsblatt.

Germany has always looked at the project from an economic standpoint, while the United States, several European countries, including the Baltic states, Poland, and the European Union (EU), have expressed concern about Russia using gas sales and its gas monopoly Gazprom as a political tool.

Related Video: Weaponized Gas or Bridge to Cleaner Fuel? The Nord Stream Game

In recent months, the U.S. has been broadening the sanctions against service providers and those funding vessels involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2 in a fresh attempt to prevent the project from completing. There is still a stretch of the pipeline route to be laid in the sea, but the U.S. is now targeting anyone helping the projects completion in any way.

Even Russian gas giant Gazprom has warned investors that the Nord Stream 2 project could be suspended or entirely discontinued due to extraordinary circumstances, including political pressure.

Meanwhile, France has urged Germany to scrap the Nord Stream 2 project altogether over the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the Russian authorities crackdown on Navalnys supporters.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Capri Holdings Limited (NYSE:CPRI), is proud to announce the formation of The Capri Holdings Foundation for the Advancement of Diversity in Fashion. The company has pledged $20 million to further the foundation's mission of supporting diversity, inclusion and equality throughout the fashion industry.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005690/en/

VERSACE (Photo: Business Wire)

Capri Holdings has long believed in the power of an inclusive workplace and is committed to furthering workforce diversity. The formation of the foundation enables the company to expand its efforts to advance equality and promote long-term change in the fashion industry.

The foundation will work collaboratively with colleges and high schools to create meaningful opportunities in fashion for underrepresented communities. Through the development of on-campus recruitment, mentorship and scholarship programs, the foundation looks to underpin the next generation of talent and to prepare students for successful careers in the fashion industry.

"We are pleased to announce the creation of The Capri Holdings Foundation for the Advancement of Diversity in Fashion," said John D. Idol, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Capri Holdings. "Diversity and inclusion are embedded in the DNA of each of our fashion luxury brands Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors. Capri's role as a leading global fashion company is to set trends, inspire creativity and represent the world around us. We are doing our part to promote a more inclusive fashion industry with our investment in the foundation."

For more information on Capri Holdings' commitment to diversity and inclusion, visit "Diversity Inclusion" at www.capriholdings.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005690/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations:

Jennifer Davis

+1 (201) 514-8234

Jennifer.Davis@CapriHoldings.com

Media:

Francesca Leoni

Press@CapriHoldings.com
Here what to do in Ocean City on rainy days
InVeris Training Solutions, the leading provider of integrated live-fire and virtual weapons training products and services for armed forces and law enforcement, will display a broad range of innovative solutions on two stands during the biennial International Defence Exhibition and Conference at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) in the UAE, Feb. 21-25, 2021. IDEX will be InVeris' first major international trade show following its rebranding in October 2020 from Meggitt Training Systems.

"Thanks to new, dynamic ownership, InVeris Training Solutions is now better positioned than ever to deliver superior in-house military and law enforcement expertise, combined with local support across our portfolio," said Andrea Czop, vice president of strategy, sales and marketing. "Our advanced virtual, live-fire and integrated solutions can help Middle Eastern and other military forces better prepare to act at a moment's notice to counter emerging and evolving threats."

The company will have a dual presence at IDEX again for 2021. At stand #02-A01, InVeris will showcase its extensive live-fire portfolio, including models of three key products: The GranTrap granulated rubber bullet trap, Shoot House Optimized for Tactical Training (SHOTT) tactical environment for critical skills training, and Road Range self-contained, transportable weapons training facility. Targeting systems will also feature prominently, including the XWT, the industry's first wireless, 360-degree turning target retrieval system, as well as the Multi-Function Stationary Infantry Target (MF-SIT) that can respond to hits or a pre-programmed scenario, ensuring trainees do not anticipate target actions. Finally, the LOMAH (location of miss and hit) system provides the information needed to accurately display shot grouping and zeroing of weapons more effectively, resulting in improved marksmanship skills. Combined with a variety of shooting lanes and control systems, no other company can provide a comparable total firing range solution.

On the International Golden Group stand (#04-C20), InVeris will display the FATS 180MIL simulation training system that puts users in the action, facing realistic pressures while maintaining situational awareness. The system utilizes the same high-fidelity ballistic engine validated by the US Army, Marine Corps and other military customers. The FATS 180MIL at IDEX will be complemented by a selection of simulated weapons, including the wireless M249 BlueFire, M24 Sniper Rifle (Remington 700), M4 BlueFire, Glock 17 BlueFire and AK-47. For more than three decades, FATS has been the leader in virtual training, serving as the system of record for NATO military forces and other allies, along with law enforcement departments around the world. The FATS 180MIL and 300MIL are InVeris' latest offerings in this market.

To speak with an InVeris representative during IDEX 2021, visit one of the stands above or schedule an appointment at https://inveristraining.com/about-inveris-training-solutions/request-a-meeting-with-inveris/.

About InVeris Training Solutions

InVeris Training Solutions combines an agile approach with an unmatched expertise in training technology to design and deliver customized, cutting-edge, first-rate training solutions that keep military, law enforcement, private and commercial range clients safe, prepared and ready to serve Because Seconds Matter. With a portfolio of technology-enabled training solutions, and a team of 400 employees driven to innovate, InVeris Training Solutions is the global leader in integrated live-fire and virtual weapons training solutions. With its legacy companies, FATS and Caswell, InVeris Training Solutions has fielded over 15,000 live-fire ranges and 7,500 virtual systems globally during its 90-year history. The company is headquartered in Suwanee, Georgia and partners with clients in the US and around the world from facilities on five continents.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005940/en/

Contacts:

Michelle Henderson

Director of Marketing

InVeris Training Solutions

+1-678-288-1090

michelle.henderson@inveristraining.com
Public health experts say their fears about pandemic-related testing supply shortages are coming true as tests for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) decline even as risky sex behavior may be more prevalent.

Last summer, sexual health centers sounded the alarm that the pandemic was affecting their ability to screen patients for STDs. The issue is particularly concerning in Philadelphia, where rates of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia have for years far exceeded national averages. Many centers had to temporarily suspend their walk-in testing services  some of which serve patients who dont have health insurance  and saw a drop in the number of people getting tested.

Even through the fall, STD kits at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia had to be conserved for patients who qualified under new recommendations released by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in September, said Sarah Wood, a physician working in the hospitals division of adolescent medicine. The new guidelines recommend testing asymptomatic women under age 25 and asymptomatic men who have sex with men.

To conserve test kits, physicians at CHOP have stopped testing symptomatic patients or patients whose partners tested positive. They just presume they have an STD and give them antibiotics, something physicians would rather not do given antibiotic overuse and resulting resistance.

COVID testing led to substantially fewer [STD] tests for us as we had some problems along our supply line, Wood said. We dont know the long term effects of that yet.

Wood noted that untreated STDs can have long-term repercussions such as impaired fertility.

In North Philadelphia, staff at Bebashi, a full-service HIV/AIDS organization that serves people of color, devised an unconventional solution to the shortage of testing swabs for chlamydia and gonorrhea, said Alvin Kingcade, practice manager at the clinic.

 READ MORE: COVID-19 has interrupted STD screenings in Philadelphia (from June 2020)

We sent urine cups to the lab we use and they have been able to process them, he said, because the bacteria also show up in urine and can be detected through DNA amplification techniques. Because weve stayed open this whole time, we actually saw a higher number of patients treated. There was actually an increase between September and November.

Another factor is staffing. On Jan. 28, the National Coalition of STD Directors released a survey that showed 40% of workers at STD programs have been deployed for COVID-19 efforts largely because of their experience in contact tracing for infectious diseases. This has resulted in a decline of STD screening and treatment  program directors across the country have reported a 28% decrease in chlamydia intervention services, a 23% cut in syphilis intervention services, and an 18% decline in gonorrhea intervention services.

While Center Citys Mazzoni Center hasnt lost staff to COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, social distancing measures have decreased the number of patients the staff can treat in a day, said Eric Paulukonis, prevention services director. Typically, the center, which focuses on the LGBTQ community, conducts 200 tests a week, he said, but that number has dropped to a maximum of 60 a week during the pandemic. Theyve also had to stop services a few times during the pandemic due to test kit shortages.

Weve been providing just a fraction of the screenings we normally do, Paulukonis said. We cant see as many patients so we need to focus on those who are at risk for STIs or HIV. Thats all figured out on the phone, and if a person is at risk for an STI, they come in for in-person testing.

Paulukonis said he is concerned by the high positivity rate the center has seen for gonorrhea and chlamydia.

We do know from clients that people are still having sex, Paulukonis said. Theyre still exhibiting the same behaviors, but theres a reduced amount of screening happening. When you look at chlamydia, it doesnt always have the obvious symptoms and could be circulating pretty widely. Thats the scary part.

Wood, at CHOP, said she is particularly concerned about how testing interruptions will affect data public health experts have been gathering on the rising numbers of STDs. Without that data, it becomes very difficult to know not only case rates, but also where and for what groups STD occurrence is highest.

Were going to have what I think of as a big black hole in a lot of surveillance data for the last few months, Wood said. We need good data to get funding and the resources we need, and that data has been compromised.

Wood also emphasized the importance of having conversations with teenagers to make sure theyre aware STDs are increasing. She said half of the infections are happening in teens.

For everyone, theres no better time to use condoms, Wood said. That is a supply that is still going well.
A frightening photo that proves it is vital for children to wear brightly coloured swimwear has gripped social media and made parents sick to their stomachs.

The picture uploaded to the Australian Facebook group CPR Kids, which is run by registered nurses, shows a backyard swimming pool that appears to be empty at first glance.

But on closer inspection, a faint shadow can be seen along the righthand side.

The patch is a child wearing pale blue shorts swimming at the bottom of the pool, which has become murky from sunscreen after hours of use.

The stark warning, which has been shared 89 times since it was uploaded early Tuesday morning, has sparked dozens of horrified responses.

Scroll down for video

This photo uploaded to the Australian Facebook group CPR Kids shows a backyard swimming pool that appears to be empty at first glance

But on closer inspection, a faint shadow can be seen along the righthand side which is actually a child swimming at the bottom of the pool in pale blue shorts

'That is so scary! I couldn't see the child at all,' one woman replied.

'Oh my god, how terrifying,' added a second, while a third wrote: 'This makes me feel sick.'

A fourth tagged her friend, saying: 'You wouldn't know where [the child is], this is so frightening.'

Others vowed to dress their children exclusively in neon or fluorescent swimwear after seeing the photo.

'All future swimwear is going to be hideous and fluoro,' one mum tagged her husband and wrote.

Nurse and director of CPR Kids Sarah Hunstead told Daily Mail Australia it is imperative that parents 'actively supervise' their children whenever they are poolside this summer.

'When it comes to supervision, you always need to remember that even though there may be lots of people around, they're not necessarily looking at the kids,' Ms Hunstead said.

'The "active" is what's important. That means you're not reading, you're not on your phone, you're not chatting to anyone else.'

Five steps for pool safety Australian swimming coach Laurie Lawrence in 1988 created the Kids Alive  Do the Five water safety programme to prevent childhood drowning. The Kids Alive community service programme educates the Australian public on five important steps to reduce the risk of preschool drowning. They are as follows: 1. Fence the pool 2. Shut the gate 3. Teach your kids to swim  its great 4. Supervise  watch your mate and 5. Learn how to resuscitate Source: Laurie Lawrence Australia Advertisement

One mother highlighted the silent nature of childhood drowning by sharing the sobering incident she experienced at a swimming pool over the weekend in the comments section of the confronting photo.

The woman said she had been sitting at the edge of the pool watching her little one play, when a man sitting nearby suddenly jumped in the water.

'He grabbed my child before I had even realised he was struggling,' she wrote.

'My child never made a sound. I was within arms reach and was distracted in thought.'

Photos highlight how blue swimwear (top) is infinitely more difficult to spot in water than neon colours like yellow, green or pink (bottom)

Official advice from Royal Life Saving Australia recommends groups of adults to allocate a designated 'pool watcher' whose sole job is to supervise children in the water.

But even with designated supervisors, Ms Hunstead warns that accidents still happen.

Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death in children under five in Australia.

Despite this, just five percent of Australians are trained in CPR.

Tips for preventing infant drowning * Always supervise children while they are in and around water * Eliminate hazards - tip water out of containers * Restrict access by ensuring there is a barrier between your child and any body of water * Teach your children how to swim and to be wary of drains * Learn CPR - just five percent of Australians are qualified in the life-saving technique Source: Tiny Hearts Education Advertisement

Ms Hunstead urged adults to enroll in courses, insisting: 'Every parent should know CPR.'

CPR Kids is headquartered in Sydney but runs training courses across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT.

Online courses are also available in WA, Tasmania, SA and the Northern Territory.

For more information on pool safety and childhood drowning prevention, please visit CPR Kids or the Laurie Lawrence website.
LANE COUNTY, Ore. -- Seniors over the age of 80 are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine beginning the week of Feb. 7.

However, Lane County Public Health officials told KEZI 9 News that theyre still awaiting details about how many doses theyll be receiving specifically for seniors. Their allocation for this week is 3,600 doses, but those are reserved for educators and school staff. Thats a decision that lies at the state level.

RELATED: GOV. BROWN DEFENDS PRIORITIZING EDUCATORS OVER 65+ FOR VACCINES

Spokesman Jason Davis said a mass vaccination clinic will be in the works, but that can only take place if the county secures at least 1,500 doses. For seniors who cannot drive or need extra assistance, they will have the chance to get vaccinated by mobile health teams or through doctors' offices.

Oakridge resident Patty Lee is one of many community members who have reached out for clarification.

In the beginning, I kind of heard that you could go to the pharmacies and get it, Lee said. Then, I heard you have to go to the hospital to get it. Then I also heard theyre going into the nursing homes and giving it and some kind of drive-through. I dont know. That's the problem.

Heres how you will be notified when your turn is here.

Seniors will have the chance to register through a link that the county will be creating. There will also be an option to register over the phone. As of right now, appointments are not being made and theres no waiting list to get on.

Below is the current timeline:

Those over the age of 80 are eligible the week of Feb. 7.

Those over the age of 75 are eligible the week of Feb. 14.

Those over the age of 70 are eligible the week of Feb. 21.

Those over the age of 65 are eligible the week of Feb. 28.

Lane County Public Health officials said there are about 15,000 seniors in Lane County who are 80 and over. Thats about the same number as public and private educators.

KEZI 9 News talked to Dr. James McGovern, the Vice President of Medical Affairs for PeaceHealth.

The hope is to get vaccines out as quickly as possible to as many people as possible, McGovern said. Certainly I hope that people get the vaccine. It is not going to do us as much good if 50% of the population gets vaccinated versus 75 to 80 or 90%.

The county is waiting on further details from the state about how many doses they will be receiving next week.

More information about the vaccination process in Lane County can be found HERE. To sign up for COVID-19 email updates, click HERE.
Burma Ceasefire Signatories KNU and RCSS Condemn Myanmar Coup

Restoration Council of Shan State chairman General Yawd Serk. / Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy

The Karen National Union (KNU), Myanmars oldest ethnic armed group, and a powerful ethnic Shan rebel army have expressed concerns over the military coup and detention of government leaders.

The Tatmadaw (military) seized power in a coup on Monday and detained President U Win Myint and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, claiming the November general election that brought a landslide victory to the National League for Democracy had been marred by fraud.

The Tatmadaw declared a state of emergency for a year and said a new election would follow, with the military handing power to the winner.

The KNU, which has considerable military and political influence among the other National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signatories, stated on Tuesday that it seriously requests that the Tatmadaw, as a gesture of national reconciliation, unconditionally releases all the people it has detained, including government leaders and democracy activists, and peacefully resolves all the political problems through dialogue.

The armed group said it will stand by the people in establishing a federal union and protecting the democratic transition.

The Tatmadaws seizure of power severely hampers the democratic transition and shows a lack of solemnity in the process of solving political problems through political means and profoundly affects the future of the country which is already faced with mountains of challenges, the KNU statement said.

The powerful Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) earlier said it opposes the military coup and the detention of the democratically elected government.

Based in Loi Tai Leng on the Thai border in southern Shan State, the RCSS says it is a revolutionary organization working for the equality and self-determination of Shan people, democracy and federalization. It is also a signatory to the NCA.

We oppose the coup. The RCSS wants federalism and democratic norms and the overthrowing of a democratically elected government goes against democratic norms. We oppose it, RCSS spokesman Major Kham San told The Irrawaddy.

The coup undermines mutual trust and harms the peace process, he said.

Under the NCA, signatories agreed to engage in political dialogue and work to shape a federal, democratic union based on agreements reached through talks.

The RCSS spokesman said the Tatmadaws seizure of power dashed hopes for democracy and federalism.

The Tatmadaw has said since the coup that it will abide by the NCA and the peace process.

We ceased fire with the Tatmadaw but talks must be held with the government. It is a political path to approve the Union Accord in the parliament. It is the government with which the talks are held. How can we hold talks now the government was brought down? said Major Kham San.

The RCSS urged the Tatmadaw to back down and solve the crisis peacefully.

The Irrawaddy was unable to contact other ethnic armed organizations for a comment.

Kachin Independence Army information officer Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy that his commanders had not ordered him to issue a statement and were monitoring the situation.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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ANN ARBOR, MI  As the Gelman plume legal case continues to play out in Washtenaw County Circuit Court, Ann Arbors costs for outside legal services are growing larger.

City Council voted unanimously Monday night, Feb. 1, to approve a sixth amendment to its 2016 contract with Bodman PLC, adding another $157,500 for representation of the citys interests in litigation against polluter Gelman Sciences.

That brings the contract up to $750,000. The total cost of the firms legal services through 2020 was about $666,500, according to a memo to council from Abigail Elias, another contract attorney working on the Gelman case.

The city has approved temporary employment agreements with Elias totaling $79,000 over the last two years.

Some council members have expressed concerns about ongoing legal costs as the city has spent several years fighting in court for a better cleanup of Gelmans dioxane pollution. The toxic chemical plume has been slowly spreading through the areas groundwater for several decades, posing threats to drinking water supplies, among other concerns.

At Monday nights meeting, Council Member Kathy Griswold, D-2nd Ward, suggested reassessing the citys legal strategy and finding ways to work more collaboratively with attorneys for other parties in the litigation, such as Scio Township and Washtenaw County, to save on legal costs.

Thats already being done, City Attorney Stephen Postema told Griswold.

Postema, who was a partner at Bodman before joining the city attorneys office nearly 18 years ago, said the case has really ramped up in recent weeks and attorneys are working together on a very big process that is ongoing and almost done, with court hearings coming up in March.

The process is accelerated and more documents need to be filed with the court soon, Postema said, adding attorneys are working collaboratively but the citys legal team has taken the lead in some areas because of its expertise.

Ann Arbor dioxane polluter wants to hit pause on court case while Superfund process plays out

The amount of time spent on the negotiations, including the exchanges of drafts, court conferences and providing advice as needed, ended up being more time consuming than anticipated, Elias wrote in a recent memo to council.

Because the proposed amended consent judgment was rejected by all the intervening parties, there has been additional and ongoing work, and will be considerable remaining work in January, February and March to prepare for the March 2021 court hearing now set in this matter.

Additional work will be required to address motions and possible appeals from Gelman, Elias said.

Though the amount of time and costs going forward cannot be predicted with certainty, costs for recent and foreseeable efforts through March would be about $150,000, she said. Another $7,500 is included in the latest contract change for expert witness fees, bringing those costs up to $27,500.

Court hearings in the Gelman plume case are now scheduled for March 22-23. Before then, Judge Tim Connors plans to hear Gelmans arguments for hitting pause on the litigation during a separate motion hearing Thursday, Feb. 4.

City Council recently urged County Water Resources Commissioner Evan Pratt to send a violation notice to Gelman for increasing levels of dioxane seeping into the Allen Creek storm drain pipes under West Park in Ann Arbor.

Ann Arbor presses water resources commissioner to send violation notice to polluter

Pratt followed through Jan. 29, sending a two-page letter to Gelmans attorney, Michael Caldwell.

This letter serves as notice to Gelman that seepage/infiltration of 1,4-dioxane contaminated groundwater has occurred/is occurring and is entering Washtenaw Countys Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4). We write seeking a remedy to address this illicit discharge consistent with relevant statutes, Pratt wrote, calling for immediate attention and a plan from Gelman with reasonable timelines.

On Jan. 25, ahead of the notice, Caldwell sent a half-page letter to Pratt, saying Gelman was aware of resolutions passed by the City Council and Coalition for Action on Remediation of Dioxane that urged Pratt to issue a violation notice.

While we disagree with the factual and legal bases for these resolutions, we would be happy to meet with you to identify practical steps for addressing this situation, Caldwell wrote.

Ideally, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy representatives would participate because EGLE is the primary regulator with regard to both the countys stormwater discharge permit and Gelmans implementation of a consent judgment governing the plume, Caldwell said.

The evidence of dioxane in shallow groundwater and the storm drain system is a concern to some residents and officials because it means dioxane could potentially seep into leaky basements in the area, and some fear dioxane could volatilize to indoor air, becoming vapor residents breathe.

Pratt pointed out tests done by EGLE in the Allen Creek drain under the southwest part of West Park have shown dioxane levels rise from 4.4 parts per billion to 49 ppb since 2017, above a 29-ppb vapor-intrusion screening level.

Unless there is a contrary determination from EGLE or the attorney generals office, we understand this and other statutory threshold levels to be promulgated to protect public health, Pratt wrote in his violation notice, arguing exceeding allowable levels can be considered injurious to public health and also triggers our request action based on this risk.

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A bushfire raging near Perth has destroyed more than 30 homes as hot and windy conditions fan the out-of-control blaze towards the city's north eastern suburbs.

More than 250 firefighters have been battling the blaze since Monday after it flared up at Wooroloo near the Perth Hills.

An emergency warning is in place for more than a dozen suburbs on the Western Australian capital's outer fringe as the flames are fanned westwards.

Residents living in those areas were told they are in danger and must act immediately to save their lives.

Scroll down for video

A bushfire raging near Perth has destroyed more than 30 homes as hot and windy conditions fan the out-of-control blaze after sparking at Wooroloo near the Perth Hills on Monday

Pictured is a destroyed home at Wooroloo. More than 250 firefighters are now battling the blaze

Pictured is the fire at Wooroloo last night. An emergency warning is now in place for more than a dozen suburbs on the Western Australian capital's outer fringe

Those areas are The Vines, Bailup, Ellenbrook, Gidgegannup, Milledon, Walyunga National Park, Upper Swan, Aveley, Avon Valley National Park, Red Hill, Belhus, Baskerville, Herne Hill, Bullsbrook, Wooroloo, and Brigadoon.

Those living along the firefront - which has a perimeter of roughly 60km between Ellenbrook and Wooroloo - have been told it is too late to leave.

The blaze has already burned through more than 6,600ha of bushland as of Tuesday afternoon.

Residents in all others areas covered under the emergency warning have been told to evacuate now if the roads heading into the city are clear.

The fire is so big that ash is falling on suburbs at least 30km from the fire front, covering up to a third of Perth.

The mayor of the City of Swan said more than 30 homes appear to have been lost to the fire.

Residents living in far-western areas of Perth have been told they are in danger and must act immediately to save their lives. Map of fire area is pictured

Western Australia fire brigade Superintendent Peter Sutton said the flames could soon start moving further south-westwards into Perth's outer suburbs including Parkerville and West Swan.

'The conditions have been very testing with erratic fire behaviour,' he told PerthNow.

'We have a number of properties lost. Our rapid damage assessment team is working on that. But there is no known loss of life.'

Temperatures are expected to reach 37C on Tuesday with hot easterly winds with gusts up to 65 km/h forecast for the hills area until the afternoon.

Residents as far away as 40km in the coastal suburb of Sorrento were reporting ash landing at their homes.

Pictured: The fire at Wooroloo - where the fire began on Monday. The blaze there is still burning at an Emergency Warning level

Pictured: A woman takes a panoramic image of the bush fire and Perth CBD on her phone from Kings Park on February 2

Pictured: Smoke from bush fires blankets the Perth CBD from the Kings Park lookout on February 2

'I reckon I'm at least 20-30km from the bushfires and there is ash raining down outside,' one resident near Dianella said.

Jenni Stanton, 59, received a text about 2am telling her to evacuate from her home at The Vines, west of Walyunga National Park.

But she and her husband decided to stay put - saying the roads out of the semi-rural suburb in Perth's north were bumper-to-bumper with traffic.

WA bushfires - what you need to know EMERGENCY WARNING areas are: The Vines, Bailup, Ellenbrook, Gidgegannup, Milledon, Walyunga National Park, Upper Swan, Aveley, Avon Valley National Park, Red Hill, Belhus, Baskerville, Herne Hill, Bullsbrook, Wooroloo and Brigadoon ROAD CLOSURES: Railway Parade between Neaves Road and Maralla Road Great Northern Highway closed from West Swan Road to Rutland Road Toodyay Road in both directions between Bunning Road to Bailup Road Weribee Road from Cheddaring Road to Linley Valley Road Government Road from Linley Valley Road to Jason Street Bailup Road from Burma Road EVACUATION CENTRES: Swan Active Midland - 16 Gray Dr, Midvale WA 6056 Brown Park Recreation Complex, Salisbury Road, Swan View Advertisement

'The fire has jumped the Great Northern Highway west of Walyunga, so it's closer to us now but there's isn't as much smoke as last night,' she said.

'The yard is covered in ash though, and we can hear the water bombers.'

Neighbour Melissa Stahl, 49, received the same text.

'I could smell the fire and went out the back and the whole yard was filled with smoke,' she said.

Pictured: The view of the bushfire on Monday night from Perth's outer suburbs. Residents as far away as 40km in the coastal suburb of Sorrento were reporting ash landing at their homes on Tuesday

Emergency fire vehicles are seen heading towards the firefront in Perth on Tuesday

'My husband Michael said we better go. We grabbed bedding, photos, the two kids and the dog and got out of there.'

They fled to a friend's home where they're now waiting for a text giving them the all-clear to return to their home.

Meanwhile, surrounding areas including Parkerville, Ellenbrook, Chidlow and Jane Brook have been told to leave if they are not prepared to fight the blaze.

The bushfire is unpredictable and weather conditions are rapidly changing, the warning said, urging people to stay vigilant.

Police talk to residents trying to return to their properties at a road block on the Great Northern Highway on Tuesday

A road block on the Great Northern Highway. Authorities have warned weather conditions are rapidly changing in the Perth Hills region on Tuesday

The cause of the blaze is unknown.

'It has made it very hard, near on impossible... to suppress this fire,' Superintendent Sutton told the ABC.

An evacuation centre set up at Brown Park Recreation Complex on Amherst Road in Swan View has already filled up and another opened at the Swan Active pool complex on Gray Drive in Midvale.

DFES said anyone forced to leave their homes should wear a mask and continue to follow social distancing precautions to comply with Western Australia's current COVID-19 health regulations.
[February 02, 2021] PSG Closes Debut European Fund at 1.25 billion Hard Cap

PSG, a leading growth equity firm partnering with lower middle-market software and technology-enabled service companies, today announced that it closed PSG Europe, the firm's debut Europe-focused fund, with 1.25 billion in limited third-party partner commitments. The fund, which was oversubscribed, received commitments from existing and new PSG investors, including state pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and high net worth individuals. The final close of PSG Europe brings PSG's aggregate capital commitments across the U.S. and Europe to more than $5 billion. The London-based PSG Europe team consists of 22 investment professionals advising on fund investments in European growth-stage and lower middle-market software and B2B services companies. PSG's European investment strategy mirrors the firm's buy and build strategy in the U.S., which has a track record of partnering with management teams to scale businesses through organic and inorganic growth. "The final close of PSG Europe represents a significant milestone for PSG and firmly establishes our firm as one of Europe's leading growth equity investors," said Mark Hastings, Chief Executive Officer of PSG. "We've carefully built an exceptional investment team with deep industry expertise to capitalise on theopportunity we see across Europe."



Peter Wilde, Chairman of PSG, added, "We are thrilled that our inaugural European fund has been met with such strong demand from a high-calibre and diversified group of limited partners. We are grateful for the support the fund has received from both new and returning investors, as it is a testament to the strength of the PSG platform and our investment approach." Dany Rammal, Managing Director and Head of the PSG Europe team, said, "The highly fragmented European market presents a significant opportunity for a firm like ours. The strength of our deal sourcing and operational capabilities mean we are well positioned to partner with founders and entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses into leading pan-European software champions."

To date, PSG Europe has made seven platform investments in Europe with the acquisitions of Hornetsecurity, Imaweb, MAPAL Group, Nomentia, Signaturit Solutions, SKEEPERS and Sympa, as well as 12 closed add-on acquisitions. Today, PSG's European portfolio consists of companies with operations across 14 countries, enabling the acceleration of digital software solution adoption across large sectors of the economy. Notes to Editors PSG PSG is a growth equity firm that partners with lower middle-market software and technology-enabled services companies to help them navigate transformational growth, capitalize on strategic opportunities and build strong teams. Having backed more than 65 companies and facilitated over 275 add-on acquisitions, PSG brings extensive investment experience, deep expertise in software and technology, and a firm commitment to collaborating with management teams. Founded in 2014, PSG's team operates out of offices in Boston, Kansas City and London. To learn more about PSG, visit www.psgequity.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005476/en/

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Sydneysiders have been fleeing for regional parts of NSW, Queensland and even Canberra, using the coronavirus pandemic to look for work and affordable housing outside the nations most expensive city.

During the September quarter a net 7782 people left the Greater Sydney region, three in five of them moving to a regional part of NSW, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.

Sydney CBD was relatively empty during lockdowns. Credit:James Brickwood

Melbourne lost a net 7445 residents, which along with Sydneys figures resulted in capital cities nationally losing 11,200 people to regional areas, the biggest quarterly movement out of metropolitan Australia on record.

Migration out of the nations two largest cities has almost doubled since the September quarter in 2019, before the advent of the pandemic. The pandemic has also slowed the natural movement of Australians around the country, with total internal migration down almost 8 per cent over the past year.
Sirius Energy, a major provider of smart and clean energy solutions for businesses, has announced the launch of Sirius Analytics, a new subscription-based energy management platform available to commercial and industrial facilities in regional heavyweights UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Powered by comprehensive on-site data streams, the innovative, cloud-based platform helps companies monitor energy usage at the granular level and discover data-driven efficiency insights.

Sirius Analytics enables commercial and industrial consumers to take control of their energy with continuous, comprehensive monitoring across facility operations.

The online platform provides immediate and actionable insights that help to eliminate unnecessary usage, reduce overall expenditure, and support long-term strategic decisions through intuitive dashboards and reporting systems, said the statement from Sirius Energy.

"It has always been our philosophy that, when we partner with customers, we want to go beyond a transactional relationship and towards a symbiotic one. We will continue to strive towards creating solutions that solve our customers problems," noted Tariq Said, Co-Founder of Sirius Energy.

Sirius Analytics, he stated, was being offered as a monthly subscription. The platform collects on-site data through a plug-and-play smart box that can be installed in any commercial or industrial facility in UAE or Saudi Arabia.

We want to continue to innovate solutions that save our customers invaluable time and effort while promoting more sustainable energy practices, he added.

Daniel Domingues, the Co-Founder of Sirius Energy, said: "Energy-as-a-Service related products have the potential to revolutionise the way companies interact with energy. We believe that access to energy data is one of the most efficient ways for companies to reduce their electricity usage and work towards more sustainable consumption levels."

"Along with our solar energy subscription models, Sirius Analytics reinforces our commitment to be our customers energy partner of the 21st century," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
TORONTO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AI/ML Innovations Inc. (CSE: AIML), a company focused on acquiring and furthering Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technologies that address urgent societal needs, is pleased to introduce the following members of the Advisory Board for its subsidiary, Health Gauge:

Dr. Pierre Boulanger, P.Eng , PhD, University of Alberta

Dr. Boulanger is a Professor and Cisco Chair in Healthcare, at the University of Alberta. He holds a double appointment of Professor at the University of Alberta's Department of Computing Science (where he is the Director of the Advanced Man-Machine Interface Laboratory) and the Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging. He is also on the editorial board of two major academic journals and sits on several international academic committees. His scientific research topics include new techniques for tele-medicine; patient specific modeling using sensor fusion; the application of tele-presence technologies applied to aged care facilities and remote regions; the application of AR/VR technologies to medical training, simulation, and collaborative diagnostics; and patient-specific modeling in surgery. Dr. Boulanger has accumulated more than 38 years of experience in 3D computer vision, rapid product development, and the applications of virtual reality systems in medical and industrial manufacturing.

Dr. Jacques Kpodonu, MD, FACC

Dr. Kpodonu is a triple US boarded cardiac and endovascular surgeon based at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and surgical faculty at Harvard Medical School. Additionally, he is a visionary clinician, medical scientist, and the lead author and editor of four medical textbooks as well as having regularly published work on topics including digital health, biomedical innovation, design of hybrid operating rooms and recently addressing health equity during the COVID19 pandemic. Dr. Kpodonu holds leadership roles with the Society of Thoracic Surgery, American College of Cardiology, REACH program and is frequently quoted in national and international journals and media like the Orange County Register and CTSNET. Dr. Kpodonu's areas of professional expertise and interest include digital health technology, biomedical innovation, innovations in cardiac surgery, global health innovation, and precision medicine.

"The fact that Health Gauge has been able to attract internationally renowned medical and technology experts, such as Dr. Boulanger and Dr. Kpodonu, to its Advisory Board is a testament to both Health Gauge's best-in-class, wearable health solution, as well as to its visionary founders" said Tim Daniels, Chairman of AI/ML Innovations Inc. "Undoubtedly Drs. Boulanger and Kpodonu have much to contribute to the future successes of Health Gauge as they are uniquely qualified, with vast expertise in both the field of medicine and the application of leading technologies towards enhancing the quality of life by improving healthcare outcomes."

On behalf of the Board of Directors, Tim Daniels

For more information about AI/ML Innovations:

For detailed information please see AI/ML's website at https://aiml-innovations.com/ or the Company's filed documents at www.sedar.com.

Presentations:

Investor slidedeck: https://aiml-innovations.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AIML-mini-1-21.pdf

Corporate video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2QSjo7clXc&feature=youtu.be

About AI/ML Innovations Inc.

AI/ML Innovations Inc. has realigned its business operations to capitalize on the burgeoning areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), with an initial focus on emerging companies in the digital healthcare space. AI/ML's shares are traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol "AIML".

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contact:

For further information, contact Blake Fallis at (250) 384-1999 or [email protected].

SOURCE AI/ML Innovations Inc.

Related Links

https://aiml-innovations.com/


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Prosecutors can charge both the triggerman and his accomplices with first-degree murder, regardless of premeditation or intent to kill.

States have wide variance in what their felony murder laws require. Some say that the death must have been foreseeable or committed in furtherance of the crime. In a robbery using guns, for example, objective people would most likely agree that death was a foreseeable outcome.

Federal law lists 11 crimes that can serve as a basis for felony murder: arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, child abuse, burglary, or robbery.

Legal experts say the one most likely to apply in the Capitol riot is burglary, defined as entering a building with the intent to commit an additional crime. Simply having entered the Capitol unlawfully would not be enough, and intent is difficult to prove.

Beyond that, there are other significant hurdles, said Guyora Binder, an expert on felony murder at the University at Buffalo School of Law. One is the question of who qualifies as an accomplice.

Lets say you enter with the intent to commit one crime, and half an hour later I enter with the intent to commit another crime and we never see each other, and Ive never heard of you, he said. So were both committing burglaries, but were not committing the same burglary. Im not your accomplice. Youre not my accomplice.

Another wrinkle: Whether the death must be foreseeable or in furtherance of the underlying felony is an open question in federal law, Mr. Binder said, because courts have ruled different ways.
Charleston County schools aren't planning to end the school year early despite some parents' requests, the district announced Monday night.

The district said the decision came after discussions with teachers, parents and principals last week.

"Input from those stakeholder meetings led district leaders to conclude that creating an earlier end date for the current school year would not be worth the disruption caused by the changes," read a release from the district.

Students' last day of class is scheduled for June 18.

Last Monday, Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait told board members that some parents had requested that the school year end earlier. Before the pandemic, a typical school year began in mid-August and ended in early June.

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The high number of coronavirus cases in the Charleston area during the summer meant the district delayed the first day of classes until after Labor Day. That shifted the entire academic calendar back two weeks. Some teachers have suggested a need for more instructional days, not less, Postlewait said.

One possibility for ending the school year early raised during last Monday's meeting was converting teacher workdays, when students aren't usually required to do work, into "student review" days. Postlewait estimated there were five possible days that the district could have converted, creating an earlier end to the school year.

That plan would have needed approval from teachers and other stakeholders before implementation, she said. Per Monday's announcement, no such changes will be made to the academic calendar.

The school year will proceed as originally planned and end in the third week of June.
Astonishing video has emerged from Myanmar showing the moment the military staged a coup against the government - captured in the background of an aerobics workout video.

Khing Hnin Wai, a PE teacher from the capital Naypyidaw, recorded the footage outside the country's parliament building on Monday - without realising that the government was being overthrown right behind her.

The video shows Wai performing a workout routine to upbeat music, while armoured trucks and soldiers blockade the road behind her and before a convoy of police and military vehicles arrive.

Wai continues her routine even as the vehicles pass through the roadblock and then turn down a side-street towards the parliament, as the military seized full control of the government.

Khing Hnin Wai, a PE teacher from Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw, was recording a workout video in front of the country's parliament on Monday when a coup took place behind her

While some internet users called out the footage as faked, it does appear genuine.

Wai uploaded it to her Facebook page, where she routinely posts videos of herself dancing to share with her followers.

As her latest video went viral, Wai posted a collection of other videos that were recorded in the same spot, explaining that she has been using the parliament building as a backdrop for her fitness videos for the last 11 months.

In the post, Wai suggested that she knew something was going on behind her as she filmed on Monday - but the significance only became clear later.

Some pointed out that the song she is dancing to is called called Ampun Bang Jago, an Indonesian phrase that is often used to mock arrogant military leaders.

Users suggested that Wai may have suspected what was going on, and been making a joke with her choice of track.

The footage shows Wai dancing to upbeat music even as the road behind her is blocked by soldiers and military vehicles arrive, handing generals full control of the government

Wai promotes herself on social media as a PE teacher from the capital Naypyidaw, and routinely films herself exercising with the parliament building as a backdrop

Wai confirmed the footage is genuine on Facebook, but insisted that she did not know what was going on behind her and was not trying to play a 'joke' on authorities

But she firmly denied that on Facebook, saying that she didn't post the video 'as a joke' or 'to become a celebrity'.

'I posted the video because I was relaxing myself and minding my own business,' she added.

Myanmar's military previously ruled the country with an iron first, brutally repressing dissent and those who mocked the regime.

The country had begun to transition to democracy in 2010 with its first partial elections, with more votes held in 2015 and again in November last year.

But on Monday, just hours before the new government was sworn in, military leaders used a clause in the constitution - which they drafted - to oust the government and seize power.

Generals say the move was necessary due to 'voter fraud', which defacto leader Aung San Suu Kyi won with 83 per cent of votes - leading to fears she could try to reform the constitution and remove the military's stranglehold on power.

Analysts added that internal politics within the military - whose workings are obscure even to experts - could also have played a role.

Myanmar's military is now in full control of the government, having arrested politicians amid baseless accusations of voter fraud during the election last year

Soldiers stand guard outside the country's parliament building, where military leaders have declared a year-long state of emergency, promising that elections will be held afterwards

A soldier with a rifle slung across his chest stands guard outside Myanmar's parliament building after the military seized control

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who is thought to harbour political ambitions, was due to enter forced retirement from the military this year at the age of 65 - and may have realised there was no way to stay in power by relying on the ballot box.

Following the coup, he has been named leader and all government powers have been transferred to him.

Meanwhile Ms Suu Kyi, who has spent a total of 15 years under house arrest, found herself back under armed guard on Monday.

Also placed under house arrest was president Win Myint, with vice president Myint Swe - himself a former general - promoted in his place.

Many influential MPs from Ms Suu Kyi's NLD party were also rounded up and arrested, while others were placed under armed guard at a parliamentary dormitory in Naypyidaw - which one described as 'an open-air detention centre'.

General Hlaing has declared a year-long state of emergency, pledging that free elections will be held afterwards and the winner handed power.

But Suu Kyi has called for protests and warned her countrymen that military leaders are trying to reimpose dictatorship.

World leaders have condemned the coup, with US President Joe Biden pledging to reimpose sanctions and take further 'actions' against the plotters.

However, neighbouring China has pointedly refused to condemn the military - with state media referring to the coup as a 'cabinet reshuffle'.
BRIAN VINER: Cinemas are back. The way motion pictures were meant to be seen when they were invented in the 19th century and the way they have been best enjoyed and cherished ever since.
Construction work continues on the Bennington Recreational Center in this photo from November. Workers compensation rates in Vermont are decreasing this year, Gov. Phil Scott's administration said Monday.
Islamabad, Feb 2(UNI) Pakistan has received a consignment of half a million doses of Covid-19 vaccine grants from China and the vaccination drive is set to begin across the country from Wednesday onwards.

The first batch of the vaccines reached Islamabad on Monday from Beijing on a special Pakistan Air Force plane.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi received the consignment of the Sinopharm vaccine grant from Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong at a ceremony held at Nur Khan Airbase on Monday.

Mr Qureshi expressed his gratitude to the Chinese leadership for gifting the vaccine to Pakistan.

Qureshi said the vaccine had arrived at a time when the country is grappling with the second wave of coronavirus, and added that its delivery also coincided with the 70th anniversary celebrations of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong said: I am proud to announce that Pakistan is the first country to receive the Chinese government-donated vaccine.

The Covid-19 jabs will be used to inoculate frontline health workers and will play an important role in saving precious lives, the foreign minister added.

UNI XC RKM
Cyber threats across commercial and government enterprises appear to be so common that seldom do we see major stories on the topic. The past couple of weeks were an exception, as gas stations along the East Coast ran out of fuel supplies, thanks to the paralyzing cyberattack on null
Algiers  The first batch, composed of 50,000 doses of the Anglo-Swedish vaccine AstraZeneca, arrived in the early afternoon of Monday in the Houari-Boumediene International Airport (Algiers).

This batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine follows the batch of Russian vaccine Sputnik V, received Friday and ordered as part of Algeria strategy aimed at fighting the Covid-19 epidemic.

The vaccination campaign, to last throughout 2021 was symbolically kicked off Blida (50km west of Algiers), the first national cluster of the pandemic, which appeared over a year ago.
A BITTER row has erupted over the proposed headquarters for the new Technical University of the South East (TUSEI) as Waterford dismissed proposals for a Kilkenny base as "mischievous."

The row erupted as the south east saw Cork secure its second university and Kerry secure its first with the creation of the Munster Technology University (MTU) last month  despite a decade long campaign for a south east university.

Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and the Institute of Technology Carlow (CIT) are proposing to merge to create TUSEI.

However, Waterford officials have reacted strongly to suggestions Kilkenny should provide the headquarters of the new university as it is located midway between the other two south east counties and would enhance its overall regional credentials.

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The university row erupted after a long-running boundary dispute between Kilkenny and Waterford continues to fester.

Junior Health Minister Mary Butler, a Waterford-based TD, said Higher Education Minister Simon Harris had assured her that proposals of a Kilkenny base for TUSEI were "mischievous" and nothing more than "kite-flying."

She said an application for the merger of WIT and ITC must be tabled by the end of April.

"Huge work is being done on the TUSEI project at the moment in terms of engagement with unions, advisory groups and politicians with a shared objective of having a university of international standing in the southeast, she told WLRFM.

An international panel will assess the university proposal after the April deadline and, if approved, the new TUSEI university will be created by March 2022.

"On this day, WIT and ITC would cease to exist in place of a new university and new governance."

She insisted that Waterford met all the criteria in terms of the headquarters for the new university - and pointed out that WIT has for years been ranked as one of the best institutes of its kind in Ireland.

Waterford TD Matt Shanahan said it was important that key decisions such as the headquarters for the new university be made at the start rather than the conclusion of the process.

"These hard issues need to be dealt with at the start," the Independent TD said.

He echoed the view that proposals for a Kilkenny headquarters was mere "kite-flying" in favour of other political hubs within the southeast.

However, a former Kilkenny mayor accused some Waterford interests of engaging in inter-county rivalry.

Paul Cuddihy said the region should not be divided over the new university headquarters and warned that inter-county rivalry was best kept for the GAA pitch and Croke Park.

He argued Waterford had a tendency to portray itself as theCinderella of Irish cities - often overlooked for investment.

This was despite the fact Waterford was the focus of massive infrastructural investment ranging from the high-span Suir bridge to Waterford Airport and now the proposed North Quays development.

"Always the bridesmaid and never the bride" is a storyline that is simply not helpful, he warned. He insisted Kilkenny would be an excellent option as a headquarters for the new university, located midway between Waterford and Carlow and further underlining the fact TUSEI was for the benefit of the entire region.

We all need to work together. There are some people in Waterford who feel every regional thing should go to Waterford. I remember people from the regional airport came to Kilkenny looking for funding. We asked to put south east in the title. But they didnt. They took the money and went, he said.

Councillor Peter Cleere said it was critical for TUSEI that its regional credentials, status and appeal be enhanced.

We need to build on the strengths of the two facilities and we need to get the benefits for the region, he said.

Once the region has secured this university, we will have to look at all options regarding existing campuses and new structures.
The District of Columbia is a federal district under the direct jurisdiction of the United States Congress. Statehood would grant the District voting representation in Congress and full control over local affairs. The proposed name would be State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth. Statehood can be achieved by an act of Congress by the United States Constitution to admit new states to the Union under Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. Based on 2018 figures it would rank 51st by area, first by GDP per capita, first by median household income, and 34th by total GDP. It would be 49th in population ahead of Wyoming and Vermont.

Due to lack of control of dissatisfied protests the national capital separate from any state was adopted. The District Clause  in Article 1, Section 6, Clause 17 of the United States Constitution states: [The Congress shall have power] To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases, whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States.

In 1801 Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act which incorporated the new Federal District under its sole authority as permitted by the District Clause. Since the District of Columbia was no longer part of any state, the Districts residents lost voting representation in Congress and the Electoral College as well as a voice in Constitutional Amendments and home rule.

In the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s, many hearings and resolutions were heard but no action occurred. As part of the Civil rights movement, in 1961 the 23rd Amendment passed which granted the District votes in the Electoral College in proportion to their size as if they were a state, but no more than the least populous state. The 1964 presidential election was the first time for D.C. residents to vote for a president.

Supporters continued to work for full voting rights and in 1978 were successful with the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, which expired in 1985 short of the necessary votes for ratification. Activists turned to statehood to try to obtain voting rights and self-rule. D.C. voters in 1982 voted for a state constitution calling for a new state. In 1993 the House of Representatives, for the first time, had a floor debate and vote on statehood. It was defeated by a vote of 277 to 153.

In spite of many hearings and committee meetings, no further action occurred until 2017 when the Washington D.C. Admission Act to propose D.C. was introduced in the House and Senate. No floor debate was taken until June 26, 2020, when the House passed it with a vote of 232-180 largely along party lines. The Admission Act would carve out a smaller federal district which would consist of the White House, U.S. Capitol, other federal buildings, the National Mall and monuments. The Senate did not take the issue to the floor for a vote.

Who are supporters of D.C. statehood? The League of Women Voters has supported voting rights and statehood since the 1970s. Other civic groups include the American Federation of Teachers, NAACP, National Treasury Employees Union, National Urban League. Several religious groups including the American Jewish Committee, the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church and the Unitarian Universalist Association. Former Presidents Clinton and Obama have publicly supported it including license plates for presidential limousines which included the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles plates that had the slogan: Taxation without representation on them. President Bush had them removed, but President Trump left them on, however, he was quoted as saying the Senate would never approve it. Political parties in support of statehood include the Democratic party, the local D.C. Republican party, but not the national Republican Party, the Libertarian Party of D.C. or the D.C. Statehood Green Party.

The license plate motto sums it up  taxation without representation

JoAnn Nabe is currently the Co-President of the League of Women Voters of the Edwardsville branch. She has been in the league for 40 plus years. She resides in Edwardsville.
INDIANA, (WTHI0 -- A bill at The Indiana Statehouse would prohibit employers from requiring employees to get certain vaccinations. News 10 spoke with the co-author of House bill 1488, Indiana State Representative Cindy Ledbetter, about what her bill means.

Under the bill, employers would not be able to fire people who don't want to get a vaccine that the FDA hasn't fully approved.

The bill states an employer can't fire an employee if they choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine or any vaccine that has been approved for emergency use.

Representative Ledbetter told News 10 because the COVID-19 vaccine wasn't fully approved by the FDA, many people are skeptical about getting it.

She said that's one reason she wrote this bill, to help those who don't want to get the vaccine.

Representative Ledbetter said, "I think it's important for those who want to get vaccinated to be vaccinated, but it's also important right now in these uncertain times to support the people that have concerns about not being vaccinated."

If this bill would pass that would mean all employers in the state would have to follow the rules of the bill.

This includes both corporations and privately owned businesses. Representative Ledbetter told News 10 all Hoosiers deserve protection.

She said, "The bill is important to me for two reasons. The first reason is that it was important to my constituents. The second reason is that protecting public health and retaining public trust is dependent upon the integrity of the science on which it relies."
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 22:07:06|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Foreign tourists will be requested to visit Iran in limited and controlled numbers while abiding by new health protocols, Deputy Head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Vali Teymouri, said on Tuesday.

The outlines of the new plan on the arrival of foreign tourists have been discussed and approved in the security committee of the National Task Force to Combat COVID-19, Teymouri told official IRNA news agency.

According to the new directive, issued by the deputy minister of health for the incoming tourists, all the passengers arriving in Iran by air are required to hold a valid health certificate, issued by the health authorities of the country of departure, said Teymouri.

The health certificate must contain a COVID-19 negative test result performed by an approved center of the departure country, carried out within 96 hours before entry into Iran.

Meanwhile, Head of the Executive Office of Imam Khomeini Directives, Mohammad Mokhber, said on Tuesday that the first Iran-made COVID-19 vaccine COV-Iran Barekat, which is in the phase of human trial, is predicted to be available by late April.

Mokhber expressed his hope that Iran will produce some 12 to 14 million doses a month by early May, 2021.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that vaccination against the COVID-19 in Iran will hopefully begin in the coming weeks, Press TV reported.

As soon as vaccination starts in Iran, "the situation will definitely become better," Rouhani said.

Iran has purchased 16.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, a WHO-backed global scheme for distributing the COVID-19 vaccines. Besides, the first batch of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine is expected to arrive in Iran later this week.

On Tuesday, Iran's health ministry reported 6,820 daily COVID-19 cases, raising the total nationwide infections to 1,431,416.

The pandemic has so far claimed 58,110 lives in Iran, up by 72 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.

A total of 1,223,197 people have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospitals, while 3,865 remain in intensive care units, she added.

Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19, 2020. Enditem
A lazy and unlicensed P-plater who smashed his car into a road guard rail phoned his mum to come pick him up and told her to go back and redirect traffic by herself.

Selfish son Thomas Cope, 23, smashed his car in Clematis, in Melbourne's south-east at 4.50am on June 1, 2019.

Cope, who was 21 at the time, asked his mum drop him 39km back to their home in Skye before telling her to go back to the scene and direct other cars before the police arrived.

The young man pleaded guilty Monday to several traffic offences as well as unlawful assault while appearing online at the Frankston Magistrates' Court, the Herald Sun reported.

Thomas Cope, decided to walk away from the crash and phone his mum after he smashed his car in Clematis, in Melbourne's south-east around 4.50am on June 1, 2019

Cope said he had gone for a drive so early in the morning because he was 'p***ed off' with his brother and wanted to calm down.

His excuse for leaving the scene was simply because he 'freaked out' knowing he was driving on a suspended license.

'He lost control and just walked away, which is pretty bad,' Magistrate Vicky Prapas said.

'Parents had to come and help, they must have been beside themselves.'

Cope's defence lawyer said he had struggled during 2019 after the death of close friends.

He had a history for driving offences and was once busted speeding while high on ice.

His license was eventually taken away because he failed to complete a drug course imposed on him.

The now 23-year-old on Monday plead guilty to several traffic offences as well as unlawful assault while appearing online at the Frankston Magistrates' Court

Cope had also assaulted his brother at their family home and when he was due to front court he never showed up.

The court heard that within the last year, the 23-year-old had worked to turn his life around and had stopped using ice.

'Because of your behaviours you have dug yourself into a hole. But you are making an effort to dig yourself out,' Magistrate Prapas said.

The 23-year-old was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond and instructed to keep up treatment for his drug habit.

He must also complete a road trauma course as well as a behaviour change program.

A conviction was recorded and Cope has been disqualified from driving for another year-and-a-half.
[MUSIC PLAYING]

ezra klein

Im Ezra Klein, and this is The Ezra Klein Show. [MUSIC PLAYING] So as a million media theorists before me have argued, in a few short decades, or depending on how you want to rate it, a few centuries, weve moved from the defining problem of human civilization being information scarcity  we didnt know enough  to the defining problem being information abundance  we know too much, and its paralyzing. The people were following right now are the ones who dont just seem to have a lot of knowledge, but who seem to actually know what to do with all that knowledge, who seem able to find the signal in the noise. And few have a better track record on this in the last couple of years than Zeynep Tufekci. As my colleague, Ben Smith, wrote in an August profile of Tufekci, Tufekci has made a habit of being right on the big things. She saw the threat of coronavirus early, and she raised the alarm. She saw that the public health community was ignoring the evidence on masking, and she wrote about that persuasively enough that she actually tipped the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention towards a new life-saving guidance. But  and I think this is really important  some people are just right in a pessimistic direction. They always think things are going to go wrong. And so, theyre right whenever they do. But thats not true for Tufekci. Recently, shes been pushing the media on the fact that its become too pessimistic in everything it reports on coronavirus. And in particular, it is overreporting what we dont know about vaccines and underreporting how good they actually are. But before Tufekci was being prescient about coronavirus, I knew her because she was prescient about disinformation online, about the way social media was changing political organizing, about the way the YouTube algorithm was radicalizing, about the rising threat of authoritarianism in America. She is unusual in being able to say important, ahead-of-the-curve things in a lot of different areas and spheres. So I asked Tufekci, whos a sociologist at the University of North Carolina, and a columnist at The Atlantic, and a contributor at The New York Times Opinion Section to come on the show for a conversation about metacognition. How does she think about what she knows, and how can the rest of us learn to think a little bit more like her? As always, my email, if you want to tell me what you think, is ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. Heres Zeynep Tufekci. So I want to begin where you begin, which is in the systems thinking. What does it mean to think in systems? Whats even the alternative?

zeynep tufekci

When I say systems thinking, Im saying looking at the whole and its interactions as much as possible to understand both each part of it, but also how it all comes together. For example, you have something called the case fatality rate in epidemiology, right? Like this virus. What percent of the people who are infected go on to have severe disease, and what percent of them have terrible outcomes, like death? Now, thats not like a fixed number that occurs the same way everywhere. Because hows your hospital capacity? Hows your I.C.U. capacity? How many nurses do you have for people? How is your clinical understanding? I mean, even if you have the same set of medical tools, which in the beginning, thats what we had. We had the same set of medical tools, which was not a lot. If you have an overloaded hospital, that means that people are getting oxygen too late because theyre not admitted, because theyre just overloaded, that theyre not being checked up as often  all these other things that happen that increase the fatality rate.

ezra klein

The difficulty of thinking in systems is that you need to learn about systems. And in particular, you need to learn about many different systems. So how do you do that? Youre a sociologist. I follow your work on politics. Its very good. Thats my system that I know pretty well. Youve been way ahead on coronavirus. Youre very good at moving into new disciplines and understanding how those systems work. And Im curious what your approach to that is. How do you learn about new systems when you identify one you need to understand?

zeynep tufekci

So I try not to move into completely new stuff, of course, because thats how you get into epistemological trouble, where you try to think about things you dont really understand well. And I did kind of move into pandemic writing, partly because there was an emergency. There needed to be more writing on certain aspects. And I was in a position with a platform to do so. So I ended up doing that. And I dont really have a formula, but one of the things I do, do is, I read a lot of things directly. I mean, I dont just read newspaper articles or press releases about a paper. I go read the paper. And I have enough of a background to at least understand some of the statistics or methods, especially if its a field like epidemiology, which has a lot of relationship to sociology. And plus, it was something I taught a lot as part of teaching people sociology. I used to teach pandemics. I wasnt completely unfamiliar with it. And then I go out of my way to try to find experts in the field to keep asking questions, too. To give you an example, before January 20, 2020, the news coming out of China, which was repeated to us by the World Health Organization, was that there is no human-to-human transmission, or that theres no evidence for it, which I thought was not true at the time. Because we were seeing all these news coming out of Wuhan. It was clearly spreading. Taiwan, which took action very early, had some experts on the ground. They were saying that it probably had human-to-human transmission. We had a case in Thailand, I think, on January 14th. And she had never been to the Wuhan seafood market. So it was clear she had gotten some place. So till then, I didnt really believe the pronouncements. When China announced that they were closing Wuhan, my conclusion was that this was very real. It was a big deal because I understand authoritarian systems. And one rule for what they do is, you want to look at what they do, and not what they say. So if a country like China is closing down a city of 11 million, this is a big deal. It is spreading. It is deadly. And were going to get hit. So from that moment on, we started getting these papers coming out of China, saying  and Chinese officials telling us and Chinese scientists telling us that not only was there human-to-human transmission, that they were seeing asymptomatic transmission, that they were seeing incubation periods be infectious. And that was met in the U.S. with great skepticism. I have quotes from some of the top public health officials in this country, who say, that doesnt sound right. We dont think China can back this up. Now, I mean, obviously, they are medical people. Obviously, they know the medical part better. But at that point, I thought theres a principle called the principle of embarrassment when trying to understand the historical accuracy of stories, is that if a story is really embarrassing to the teller, you kind of think they might be telling the truth. Because otherwise, its the kind of thing that people dont usually admit about themselves, or institutions. So, when China was telling us after January 20th that it was spreading during the incubation period from people that didnt have symptoms, that was actually making it look very bad because they had told us until then it wasnt happening at all. And all of a sudden, theyre telling us something. And I thought, you know what? Theyre telling us the truth. Because right now, they just really want to prevent the pandemic because they covered it up for too long. They kind of got caught. Now its going to spread to the world. And theyre going to get blamed for it. And now, theyre telling the truth. So I had a completely different sense of what they said before January 20th when they lied and covered it up. And it was kind of not treated with the correct suspicion compared to what they said afterwards. Now the reason Im telling you all this is, theres these ways in which even if you dont necessarily have direct evidence on the medical side, if you kind of understand how institutions and authoritarians work, theres a way in which you get more information about their claims.

ezra klein

This is a very useful framework, and it helps me contextualize something youve been arguing recently. So, the media is an institution. Public health in America is an institution. And both institutions regret not raising the alarm on this and being more pessimistic or realistic in their outlook right at the outset. But something youve been arguing recently is that these institutions have become too pessimistic now. Theyre downplaying optimistic findings. Theyre downplaying things that are actually getting better. Can you talk a bit about that, what you see that is getting better, and then how you think of that as interacting with some of the incentives for these players and institutions now?

zeynep tufekci

So I think theres a lot of what we would call herding effects or versions of groupthink effects. These are like sociological concepts where the players in the institution kind of look at each other to decide what the norm is. And then they kind of reflect that. And by the norm, I mean, just, theres the mood, how you feel about it. They have a framework through which they interpret stuff. And very often, they dont move fast enough because such frameworks, such heuristics, such ways of looking at the world have a lot of inertia to them. When the sort of news out of Wuhan came out on January 20th and I thought, thats it, if theyre closing this, and we had millions of people travel around the world since the beginning of January. And then on January  the next week or so, I saw a paper. There was a paper in Lancet, and there was a New England Journal of Medicine report that were saying, yeah, transmission without symptoms. We started seeing cases pop up. And I thought, OK, were going to get hit with a pandemic. This is serious. Its a novel coronavirus. And then I spent a lot of February kind of living in an out of body experience because a lot of journalists, friends of mine, were talking about the harms of the panic, rather than talking about the pandemic, the thing that was about to hit us. So they were conflating alarmism with misinformation. And sometimes, alarmism is misinformation, right? If its unwarranted, but accurate alarm isnt misinformation. If theres a tsunami about to hit you, then its not misinformation or alarmism to get worried and say, weve got to get to high water. We got to get to high water. It hasnt hit you, but you know its going to hit you. So I was seeing articles that were saying things like travel was fine. I saw an op-ed by travel industry person in The New York Times saying, dont try to create fear around travel, when in a pandemic, its not fear. Its completely realistic to say, all right, how are we going to adjust to this? Because travel is going to carry the virus. There was a lot of conflating of the fact that Trumps racism against China meant that we couldnt discuss anything about this virus as a threat originating in Wuhan. It was really weird. It was sort of seen as a racist thing sometimes because Trump is racist, right? Theres just no doubt the way hes talked about the virus. And all the ways hes gone about it isnt healthy at all. But the opposite of that isnt acting like there is no pandemic coming our way that originated in one part of the world, which is Wuhan, China. And thats where, initially, at least, where a lot of sort of the cases were coming out from. And then, of course, since then, its just caught in lots of places. I even got told this was just an elite panic. There were articles in The New York Times saying its the pandemic panic thats the real problem. Were going to overreact and do more harm. And Im like, no, were underreacting. Its a pandemic. Pandemics are a regular feature of human societies. And were about to get hit with one. So I spent February completely separated mentally and psychologically from the people that I am normally friends with and normally the people I read and I hang out with because they were just acting like this was just a panicky thing, and what about the flu? Now, if you want to fast forward to January of 2021, its a complicated, different thing. Because on the one hand, its certainly true the winter is grim. The case numbers are finally going down a little, but theyre still very high. The United States has very high levels of community transmission, which changes the calculus because the odds that youre going to interact with someone whos infected is directly related to how many people are there getting infected. And we also have these new variants that are more transmissible. And theyre not exactly sure why theyre more transmissible. But basically, it means that theyre evading something better, right? Whatever that is, until we figure out, it just kind of means you have to be even more careful because youre not going to get away with things you got away with before the same way. So we have a grim winter coming ahead of us and all the things. But on the vaccine front, we have hit home runs that were so unlikely if you look at the history of this, that once the history of this is written, they are going to be referred to as some of the greatest achievements of science. To sort of give a context to this, in May of 2020, when people like Dr. Fauci were saying, maybe well have vaccines in about 18 months, meaning September or something, like eight months into the future, people thought, no, thats too optimistic because usually, it takes longer. And when the Food and Drug Administration was deciding the threshold for sort of clearing vaccines for emergency use authorization, they thought 50 percent efficacy would be good. Now what did we get with Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna? We have 95 percent efficacy against any symptomatic disease, meaning 95 percent of the people develop nothing if theyre vaccinated, no symptoms. And I went and read  this is the thing that I really think helps inform how I think, is that I go read all the documents, which is pretty time consuming. But its really amazing how much more you learn if you go read the whole thing, appendixes and all. What I found was that even in the 5 percent  so if you combine  on the Moderna trial, theres not a single severe case. On the Pfizer trial, theres one. That is one out of 30,000, 30,000 something. And that one, the details in the appendix says, is a woman who developed a 93 percent oxygen saturation. So if that had been 94 percent, it wouldnt even count as severe. She was right at the cutoff, and she needed no medical care. She needed no hospitalization. So when you hear severe, youre thinking I.C.U., ventilator. None of that was necessary. So a doctor described it as a clinical nothing burger. She just had a low reading on our [INAUDIBLE], and then it passed. She got better. So thats just amazing. By vaccine standards, to have something that amazing is wonderful. And its the kind of thing you would have national celebration and fireworks and church bells ringing and all of that. And then I spent the last couple of months reading a lot of doom and gloom about the vaccines, that Im just like, I wake up every day, and I think this is amazing. This is so exciting. And instead, were flooded with articles about, you cant do this, you cant do that. You cant take off your mask. We dont know if they prevent transmission. We dont know this. We dont know that. Which theyre not technically wrong, but to put the emphasis on some temporary limits and some temporary limits to our knowledge, rather than emphasizing how amazing they are, and then when the variants came, of course, the obvious question was, how will this affect vaccine efficacy? And people just went to looked at it clearly because its an important thing, and the news was great. There was some drop in neutralizing antibody titers, but vaccines arent drugs, right? So they dont work the same way. But they still cleared the bar required for them to be effective, so to the degree their efficacy might be affected, like people think its not going to be a lot. But I saw these scary, doomy, grim headlines talking about neutralizing antibody titers dropping as if thats what the public should care about, rather than saying, good news, theyre expected to be effective. And its great, and theyre already working on the booster of full  so this is kind of like, Im now having this other outer body experience.

ezra klein

And I think thats one of those herd dynamics. Nobody wants to be in the position of underselling how wrong you can go again. Right? Thats something that the media, say, learned, right? And now it becomes hard to say, well, maybe we could actually be surprised to the upside. But one way Ive been thinking about this period  I just wrote an op-ed about this  is, the picture for six months from now, because of how good the vaccines are, is significantly brighter than we had any reason to expect. But the picture for six weeks or three months from now could be much grimmer than we expected. And that gets to another way that is hard to think in this, which is trying to think in terms of exponential time. The virus grows exponentially. We know these new strains are here. It seems reasonable to say that the U.K. strain, the B.1.1.7, is something around 50 percent more transmissible. And if thats true, then for a little while, it doesnt seem like anything is happening. And then, all of a sudden, everything is happening. And I think weve had a lot of trouble, the media, policymakers, human beings, operating in that way, right? Feeling that the times when things are quiet does not necessarily mean theyre quiet. Can you talk a little bit about that, the question of how the world changes when you begin looking at things through exponential growth and decay?

zeynep tufekci

Thats a very good point. Just flattening the curve is just trying to explain exponential growth, basically. And so, Ive been writing about the power of exponential growth for a long time now on the pandemic side. But of course, you know, my original area of study, social media, public sphere, there are other exponential growth phenomena, like Facebook network effects, all of those things. So its concepts I was familiar with. But its very hard to think like that. Because in February, when I was really worried, I think the U.S. had a single death in all of February from the coronavirus. But again, that was misleading because thats kind of like the waters that are receding because were going to get hit with a tsunami. So thats not really your indicator, but its very hard for normal people to think about exponential growth. Because its ordinarily not a part of our everyday experience. I wrote about the transmissible variant for an article for The Atlantic on December 31st. I spent New Years Eve writing it out because I was worried. I was seeing health departments tweet things like, theres a new variant, but its not more deadly. Its just more transmissible. And I was like, wait, thats worse, right? More deadly only affects the people infected. And thats a tragedy for them. But more transmissible is an exponential process. And its going to end up with a lot more people dead. If you just do the math, you would prefer more deadly for the infected, which, again, is an individual tragedy. But at the population level, more transmissible is going to result in much more deaths. And interestingly, some of the early examples in warning came from the tech industry. They think in exponentials because network effects, like Facebooks growth and things that are exponential processes. And a lot of venture capitalists in sort of the VC world and the software people, theyre looking for that next exponential effect. So I think they might have had a natural affinity to thinking in exponentials because its a very lucrative way to get paid. So they were in a position almost they had some intuition because of the field they were in. The Western pandemic playbook was very flu-based because we are used to flu epidemics, and we were expecting a flu pandemic. Whereas Southeast Asia and East Asia, their pandemic playbook was more SARS, MERS kind of playbook, the overdispersed pathogen and all of that. Because thats what they lived through in 2003 in Hong Kong and Japan. So they had a much more SARS-y playbook. And I kind of say this because sometimes theres a tendency to think everything that went wrong in the United States is the fault of Donald Trump. And clearly, the administration has been terrible in managing this pandemic. But if you look at Western Europe, theyre not doing that great either. Their vaccine performance is terrible. I dont understand whats going on with Europe at the moment. And U.K.s vaccine performance is not terrible at all, but in summer, not only did they lift the restrictions, they gave everybody coupons. Like the government encouraged everybody coupons so they could go eat in restaurants, take-out not allowed. That is not what you do if you understand how exponentials work. Its just insane. Because we know this transmits indoors. You dont sort of lift the lid early. So a lot of Europe and Western Europe, in different ways, kind of failed. And I think theres a bunch of things going on here. And one reason is, really, the flu pandemic playbook in our head, rather than the SARS pandemic playbook, like understanding the virology and epidemiology of this pathogen. You fight the war you got, not the one that you have the playbook for. And we werent, I think, good at that. And partly, you get what you get. So everybody gets surprised, but we didnt adjust fast enough. So here we are. [MUSIC PLAYING]

ezra klein

These next six weeks, 10 weeks, with these variants circulating will become really, really important. And there are things that we could do that we havent done yet. You made a really important point, which is, I think Donald Trumps failures, they were so visible and so profound and, in many ways, so offensive, that they can really distract from other things other institutions, other players, that are failing. And I want to talk about the F.D.A.. And I dont want to be too hard on them. But there are a bunch of things where it seems to me that given the costs, they are being way too cautious and conservative. And one that Dr. Mina talks about a lot is rapid at-home antigen testing, where we could have these little strips. They dont cost very much. We could constantly test ourselves. Then if we got a positive, we could double check it. And if we were positive, then begin to self-isolate. Can you talk a bit about that and why, in your view, the F.D.A. has been so recalcitrant on approving those?

zeynep tufekci

Ill say a yes and no. I think, for example, the vaccine approval process in the United States has been pretty healthy. So F.D.A. did a lot of things right, moved fast, and intervened early with making sure underrepresented groups were in the trial. The hearings were really transparent and great. Right now, theres all these questions about AstraZeneca approval in Germany and U.K. And I cant really find detailed data, and I dont know what on Earth is going on. And the U.S. F.D.A. was like, no, we dont really do it that way, which is great for that, because vaccines are serious things. And you do not want to sort of appear to have rushed or not have full data. Now, on the rapid tests, I think thats an example of not being able to shift thinking properly. Because as far as I can tell, they keep comparing it to PCR tests, which are the ones where you look at an individual to try to find if they have any of the virus, right? Let me put it this way. Youre trying to find if you can find the fingerprints of the virus. Now, if I am about to operate on someone, right, and I need to know, is that person infected with it, do they have Covid, that test is really appropriate. I want that kind of accuracy. But at the population level, if you are using it as a population screening tool, speed is much more important than, does it miss a few cases? Because if you dont have speed, youre missing all the cases, right? If you dont have rapid return to your test, if its like what Dr. Minas thinking, is like, you have almost pregnancy tests, right? Immediately tells you something. And the reason F.D.A. doesnt seem to be approving it is that its not going to catch every last case like that, which is fine. Whatever it catches is something that its catching. And the fact that its not as accurate as the individual test is not a problem because we can then tell people, well, do it again. Theres all these ways of combining it with other versions of these tests to get better and better in the accuracy. Because its something if you do it every day at the population level, then you can kind of say, all right, let me reduce my risk. So if, lets say, you have a scenario in which these rapid tests allow us to warn 50 percent of the people when theyre at their most infectious stage, which is another important thing, because the PCR test will catch that fingerprint long after youre infectious, right? Because you just have some remnants of the virus thats still kind of working its way out of your body. Whereas these tests are better at catching you exactly when youre symptomatic and infectious. But even if you caught half the time, thats more than zero. Thats a lot more than zero. And you could rapidly  and I think Dr. Minas right about this. You could rapidly get this under control. But the way we had it has just been wrong because theres a couple of them that are approved. But theyre approved in the worst possible way. They require prescription, and they come in this expensive $25 setup. I mean, the real thing you want is the strip, right? You dont really need the fancy casing for it. And youre paying for it. Plus needing a prescription means you have to go to a doctor. And thats exactly what we dont want. We want people to be able to buy 100 of these strips and use one every day. And if its giving you a warning signal, depending on the type of test, you can tell people, hmm, looks like theres something here. And now the next step is, you do another one, and you do this and you do that. So I think its kind of this way of thinking that we saw this with masks, too. There was all this discussion about, should we recommend it or not? And I was like, whats the downside? Even if youre not convinced theyre going to be perfect, now everybodys pretty convinced that theyre going to be somewhat helpful. Theres no big downside, especially early on, when we didnt understand things very well, to start sort of thinking about this. So the way you think about drugs is, you want to have them be accurate, and you want them to be safe. You want them to be effective because theres a lot of harm you can do. With something like rapid tests, you want them to work for what you need them to do, which is help us at the population level, even if its not as accurate as a PCR at the individual level. So its kind of the sort of mixing and matching of tools that I think F.D.A. has been good on one kind, and not so good on being more flexible on another kind of tool, which is the population health approach, which kind of goes back to thinking about maybe its the sort of individualistic mindset in clinical medicine. Clinical medicine, especially in Western countries, we tend to really think about individual outcomes, rather than public health, and what we need at the population level, something that helps society in general, versus what you need to do when you have a patient in front of you, are not always identical ways of thinking. And the trick is sort of matching them at each level. And I dont think weve done a really good job of it in the United States.

ezra klein

One of the things that the Trump administration doesnt get enough credit for here is Warp Speed, which, really, compared to what were seeing in the E.U. right now, did accelerate vaccines. It did get us a bunch of doses that we needed. They did a bad job of distribution, but I do want to call out that Warp Speed seems like it was actually an important advance on what other countries did and how this has played out in the past. But given that and given what you said about the F.D.A. being pretty good on vaccines, youve been pushing the F.D.A. and public health authorities to make some different decisions there to go with first doses very, very rapidly and a lot of second doses to push farther back on the calendar in order to increase supply. Others or maybe you as well have talked about half dosing Moderna for young people in particular. And what you hear is pushback from regulators and others is, well, we dont have the evidence on that. Can you talk a little bit about that distinction?

zeynep tufekci

Sure, let me clarify first. I did write an op-ed with Dr. Mina, and we called for the evidence. We called for the trial. So Im not in a position to advocate for the timing of the second dose, but when we saw the data that came out of Pfizer and Moderna, it was pretty clear that there was protection from clinical disease after the first shot. And the question was, how long does this last? How far can we push the booster, right? Because if you look at history of vaccination, delaying the booster or fractional dosing in the face of shortages is commonly done. So we werent really proposing something really unusual, right? Because this is what we have done with yellow fever vaccines, facing shortages. And lots of vaccines, the four weeks is a minimum, right? Its not necessarily the maximum. So we wrote an op-ed saying, you know what? Lets go get this data as soon as possible. Because if we get the data, and if we find that, we can push the booster to eight weeks or 12 weeks or six months, whatever we kind of find, especially for younger populations. Because from the phase one and phase two trials, the elderly, who are more susceptible to severe disease, werent having as good a response to the vaccine. So you might want to not do that on them because they need the maximal protection. But for young people, that might be a valuable thing. So we wrote a thing saying, this is really important to get data for so we can have the grounding to make the decision. And you would have thought we had proposed something outrageous because then were just sort of calling for a proper randomized trial of a practice thats not even uncommon in the world of vaccines. And there was all this, you cant even propose this, kind of pushback because its dangerous, or its this or that. And we were really scratching our heads, thinking, how is it dangerous to propose a trial for a practice that is not uncommon? And then, after sort of it was met with, this is outrageous, how can you think about it, shortly afterwards, what happened was a lot of leading immunologists and sort of pretty important people in the field started proposing, forget the trial. Lets just go ahead and do it. And we had proposed a trial and get the data. But there are a lot of experts who thought we had enough data to proceed, given what we know about how the immune system works. And there were others who disagreed. So it was this contentious thing in that there were reasons to think and complicated things. But it was the kind of thing that clearly, there was a merit to all the arguments, right? Because you have an unhappy situation, which is shortages. So youre doing something less than ideal, and theres merit to both of the ideas. Because if you cover more people quickly, you can get the deaths down really quickly, as opposed to, like, if you had two kids, would you give a prime and a booster to one and leave the second one unvaccinated, right? Thats kind of the question that were facing.

ezra klein

Whew, that is a really clarifying way to put that.

zeynep tufekci

Well, that is exactly the question, though. Like, if you have two kids, are you going to leave one completely unvaccinated if you can give one of them 95 percent efficacy? Or if you think the vaccine efficacy goes down to 80 percent, are you going to vaccinate both? Thats the question were facing. Are there other dangers like [INAUDIBLE] and other things? So I mean, its simplifying somewhat, but that is essentially the question. And there were arguments on both sides. So Im not going to sort of pretend to have the answer myself, especially since this is not my field. But we had proposed the trial. So after we proposed the trial, I saw lots of leading people kind of say, yeah, you dont even need the trial. We have efficacy data from the existing trials. And youre facing that question of two kids, and youre going to leave one unvaccinated. We wouldnt do that for our kids. Why are we doing this for the population? So people were saying things like that. The metaphor is mine, but they were essentially saying, yeah, go ahead. And others were disagreeing strongly. There was a lot of back and forth. And then, lo and behold, the United Kingdom said, all right, were going to allow 12 weeks. And then the C.D.C., after the new administration came, said, OK, delay up to six weeks is fine. So, here, another interesting thing happened. All these people that were so mad at us for suggesting even a trial kind of stopped discussing some of this after the World Health Organization said six weeks OK, too. And the C.D.C. said OK. So it wasnt actually that controversial. And right after, just last week, the person from Oxford who runs the U.K. recovery trial, he was saying, yeah, lets randomize this sort of delaying booster thing to see what happens, which is exactly our original position. So, to me, that was kind of an interesting turn of events in the epistemology sense in that things that sometimes appear really controversial at the time actually arent.

ezra klein

Ooh, this is, I think, such a good and important space and also so tricky to talk about well, so Ill try to do it carefully. One of, I think, the more poisonous lines in this whole conversation is, we need to listen to the science. It is almost always said on things where the science cannot give you a full answer, where there are values that play differing equities, things that we dont fully know. But I think the idea of science operates on an undue level. There are things where the science really can tell us things, right? Do these vaccines work? The science has an answer. The science cannot tell us exactly how to structure who gets them first and who gets them next and which direction we go in. I have to think, though, theres a difference between this idea of listen to the science, and then listen to the scientists. And particularly on Twitter, I think that public health authorities who have been, in many ways, phenomenal and are doing incredibly, incredibly difficult work, but you can sometimes see a group dynamic of, its important that people listen to us. So if you question us, youre creating a bigger problem, and you need to stop. And I got the sense that sometimes that op-ed and some other things are taken as questioning, right? Like, theres this bigger issue of keeping the science credible. But in the long run, I dont think its good for Science, capital S, to react too badly when challenged. And then, on the other hand, of course, in a world of anti-vaxxers and rampant disinformation, you can understand  and for that matter, by the way, harassment  you can understand why people get defensive.

zeynep tufekci

Yeah, its very challenging. So let me put it this way. I am completely 100 percent wholly body and soul on the side of science, right? Thats how you understand these things. Thats how you think about it. Thats how we get out of this. But thats not really saying much. That doesnt tell you how to go about it. Because if its listen to the scientists, Ill find you a scientist saying anything. In this topic, there are scientists with the credentials making any claim you want, including anti-vaxxers. There are medical doctors who are anti-vaxxers. Its terrible, but they exist. So when you say, listen to the science and listen to the scientists, you have to say, well, what does it mean? Ideally, it means that we have a process in which we earn that trust, where the science is, as you say, for example, it can tell us the efficacy of these vaccines. Epidemiology can tell us sort of the distribution of risk. After that, when you have a shortage, you have these really tough questions on prioritization, and what are the goals youre looking at, and how do you deal with the shortage and all of that. And those things absolutely require a scientifically informed debate. And the science itself should explain why and how we think something. Because just say listen to the scientist doesnt work because, as I said, there are scientists who hold really terrible and wrong views. And the fact that they have the medical degree or the PhD doesnt exempt them from basically promoting snake oil. It happens. So you have to say, what is the process through which we earn that trust and say, this thing were injecting into your body, it is going to help protect you from this disease. Its going to help protect you from the severe disease. Weve gone to great amount of effort to make sure its safe. And were doing it in a medical clinic or setting with nurses standing by because there are these very, very rare side effects with allergies. But we know how to deal with them, too, and heres what happens so far  that kind of sort of earning the trust in the institutions that I think is the key process here. And I understand the defensiveness. The public health people, theyre getting death threats sometimes, and theyre dealing with the quackery and things like that. But how dare you question us is not a way to earn trust.

ezra klein

Yeah, and I would say  and this is in politics, too, particularly in progressive politics. Because sometimes I think there is an aesthetic of scientism that is using the performance of science as a way of developing authority that you can use to end the debate. And that almost never works, in fact.

zeynep tufekci

The thing is that is not even necessary. Science is amazing. And while medicine is not perfect by any means  it suffers from not listening to the people occasionally. There have been missteps. A lot of especially underrepresented minority groups have been mistrusted and not listened to. And you go back in, and its experimented on. So theres all these things. But on the other hand, it is also a spectacularly successful endeavor, right? We dont need to play performing games here. We have the real thing. We just have to kind of, I think, defend it the right way. The way I try to explain it is, if my son gets the strep throat, I mean, I just go get antibiotics from the pharmacy. And before the pandemic, it would be like, oh, OK, he cant go to school for a day. If you go back to 70, 80 years ago, Id be thinking about his funeral. And thats the reality. Thats where science has taken us. Things that used to be devastating are now minor inconveniences. If you read any history from the 19th century or early 20th century, people lost their kids all the time. It was a routine thing. It was terrible, and it was routine. If you walk in a cemetery, which I like doing things like that, you will see a lot of children and babies who died very young. And if you look at sort of what we have achieved with vaccination, with antibiotics, it is spectacular. And it doesnt require that we call blind obedience. It requires that we kind of explain it and we fix whats wrong with it. We fix the parts that are wrong. The statistics about just something like the amount of infant mortality among Black people is the shame of this country. And it is clearly just the structural inequality and the racism and the lack of health services, and plus, the way health providers treat Black people, right? Thats whats going on. That is terrible, and we should call it out. But on the other hand, we can defend the good things, the antibiotics, the vaccinations, and all the things, and just work to earn that trust. And so, thats kind of what I mean. What you call scientism, I completely agree. I listen to science as a way to shut people up. It doesnt work and isnt necessary and doesnt make science better, right? We need to make the practice of science and its benefits be more equitable. So that doesnt help with that. Just telling people, just shut up, never works. I mean, its not even effective. If it was effective, maybe I would say, OK, this is terrible messaging, but it doesnt even work. [MUSIC PLAYING]

ezra klein

Youve done a lot of work on social media, on social media algorithms. How in the end did you feel about Twitter and Facebooks decision to ban Donald Trump?

zeynep tufekci

Well, let me say that to give an answer would be starting the story very late. So thats the problem, is, by the time we got to the point of needing to deplatform the President of the United States, its almost too late to be talking about it. So whether or not one thinks its justified or not, the real question is, how on Earth did we get here? And what role did our information ecology from Facebook to Fox News play in this to the past decades of everything from the financial crisis to the Iraq War? So I almost feel like were focusing on the period at the end of a sentence, rather than trying to understand how we got to that point. Because I mean, this is a man that travels with the nuclear football, the power to end life on Earth, basically. And by the time youre discussing, should he be allowed to tweet, Im kind of like, I think we lost the plot here. How did we get here, is the more important question. Its almost more important than what did he do in the last two weeks, can he tweet or not. But if I were running that place, as an emergency measure, I would, too, right? I would have said, I am pulling this megaphone. But that is not how it should be, obviously, right? Because it is an emergency that is partly of those companies making. It is a failing of our own society that we got to that point. And as I keep writing about, there is 66 percent of the House G.O.P. voted to overturn the election right after the storming of the mob happened. We have these problems with minority rule, the structural minority rule in the Senate, the opportunistic minority rule through gerrymandering, all those things, kind of Democratic backsliding combining. So even though I studied the social media part of it, the question of what do you do on that day in an emergency, every answer is wrong at that point, right? Because deplatforming the President of the United States is clearly wrong. But at that point, not deplatforming is also wrong, right? There is no good answer once you get to that point. So the question should be, how on Earth did we let things get to this point? Which is important because thats how you can start thinking how on Earth do we get out of that point? And thats kind of where  thats why Im kind of hesitant to say it was a good choice or a bad choice because at that point, every choice is a terrible choice.

ezra klein

I very much agree on this. Its a very hard cases make bad law kind of moment. But Trump is interesting from the worldviews perspective weve been talking about here in that he is a place where systems thinking and individualistic analysis collide. So I wrote a book about polarization and radicalization in politics. And its framed entirely at the beginning around systems thinking and seeing American politics as interlocking systems. And at the same time that I think Donald Trump is a product of those, certainly a product of, say, the electoral college and its preference for Republican-leaning areas  without that, he never wins the election  hes also distinctive. Youve written some really, really great stuff that I agree with on the ways in which Trump could be succeeded by a much more effective kind of authoritarian. But the pushback I always get on that idea, which I hold as well, is that Trumps celebrity, his particular personality made him capable of doing this in a way that just somebody else whos a more normal, capable politician would not be able to, that you cant separate what made him win from what made him, in certain ways, ineffective. And Im curious how you think about that, how you think about balancing, clearly, individual qualities of leaders from the systemic things that create them.

zeynep tufekci

I love this question because this is exactly the kind of thing I like thinking about. And what Id like to say is that history creates its personalities in that there is a tendency to highlight heroic efforts to do something good, especially in poorer countries  the teacher whos going out of their way to sort of walk for miles to go to that village school and do their best and the sort of above and beyond the call of duty kind of thing. And Im from a third world country myself and have spent a lot of time here and there. And usually, what I think is, in a lot of those places, you have a lot of heroes, but what you dont have is sort of the opportunities, like the routine opportunities that people in better off countries have. And thats what needs fixing. You dont want to send more heroes to that place. You just want to make them unnecessary. Theres a Bertolt Brecht play, The Life of Galileo, where one of the sort of secondary characters talks about Galileos heroism and his response from Brechts phrasing of it is that pity the one that needs the heroes because it means somethings wrong, and you need the heroism, right? Ideally, things work. So flip that thinking around. And if you have what we had, which is a bunch of things  the elite disconnect, the divergence of trajectories of this country, where the stock market can be doing great, even as the bottom 20 percent, 40 percent of the country is not increasing their wealth, the way that the Republican Party can keep sort of losing the popular vote and have a good shot at the presidency nonetheless, the Iraq War that we just dont ever talk about anymore as if it never happened. And theres all these things that have led to the moment in which you got Donald Trump. If you dont have all of those things, you dont have Donald Trump having a shot at this. So, instead of trying to figure out who the next Donald Trump might be, Im kind of like, I dont care who it might be. I just want to make sure theres no circumstances under which that person, he or she  and if I had to bet, I would bet it would be a woman. I dont want them to have a shot. Its not some sort of casting call where were trying to find the next star, or anti-star in this case. Its youre kind of looking at the world and thinking, how do we make sure nobody has a chance at this? Because if the ground is amenable to it, somebody will rise to the occasion, unfortunately, or go sink to the occasion, whatever you want to call it. And that, I thought, was more important. And when people point out to me all the things that are unique about Donald Trump, I point to them all the things that are extremely common in history about elite failure, right? Donald Trump might have been unique. But having elite failure have catastrophic consequences for your country or your civilization is very common in history. And so thats the part you need to worry about, rather than thinking, will the next one you have a show in NBC or not? Fine, thats specific. But the pattern, its kind of like pandemics. You dont know what the next pandemic will necessarily be. But you know youre going to have pandemics. If you look at human history, theyre there all the time. They happen all the time. So while you might not be able to exactly predict what the next pathogen thats going to threaten us will be, the flu or a coronavirus or something else, you know that you need the infrastructure to whack it as fast as it tries to appear. Otherwise, youre going to get hit. Its the same thing. So the place we were at in 2016 was conducive to this specific threat. If that hadnt happened, I think we would have had a version of it in 2020.

ezra klein

I think thats right. And one thing that strikes me as very underplayed in the analysis here is the way in which the systems here were changing. And we knew some of them, but I dont think people have taken them seriously enough. And in particular, what was changing was that for a variety of different reasons, the base of the two parties, but in this case, particularly the Republican Party, was developing more power to demand and get what it wanted. It was developing more power all over information because social media and other things have taken apart the monopoly of information that a few media companies and parties had. Small donor fundraising was changing who could be a viable candidate. Social media was changing what kinds of things work. The more competitive media environment through Fox News and Breitbart was changing the ways in which different political actors saw what the conservative base wanted. That was much more of a market in giving conservative voters the kinds of media and information theyre looking for. And Donald Trump just went out and market tested. I mean, he market tested with birtherism, with immigration. He saw that the things that were motivating base Republicans were really different than what Paul Ryan wanted them to be, were really different than what Mitt Romney wanted them to be. And he was summoned, right? Donald Trump, in his own ways, was a response to the market. And something that is scary about that then is, if you take that seriously and you listen to what Republicans are saying and doing now, you get somewhere very concerning. You wrote a really chilling line in a recent piece that Im going to read here. What people believe they should do is how they will eventually act. This is especially important because institutions, the courts, the political parties, the elections offices, the legislatures are merely people collectively deciding to act in a particular matter. When people change their mind about the rules, those will be the new rules. The Republican Party has very clearly changed its mind about the rules of how elections should work. And it was the case that key people in the Republican Party who are in positions of authority were operating by the old rules. But the G.O.P. is trying to replace them right now. They are trying to get the people in those positions for next time to be in alignment with where the party has moved with the sort of post-Donald Trump idea that elections are legitimate only when we win them, rather than the pre-Donald Trump idea that elections are legitimate if they were done according to the rules set in advance. So how do you see this playing out, looking at the G.O.P. as a system?

zeynep tufekci

Right, so the problem we have here is that this sort of overturning of the election attempt, which was kind of incompetent and ridiculous, but also deadly and very serious, came at the heels of increasing and persistent minority rule in this country. And thats the problem. We have multiple things coming together. One of them is the Senate is structurally a minority rule. And traditionally, that didnt correspond to an exact political line, right? The Democrats had some rural states. And the Republicans had some rural states. But it has since solidified into Republicans have the small white states, which means that they basically have enormous control over the Senate without a majority. They have used that to affirm their control over another branch of the government, which is the judiciary. We saw this when Obama tried to appoint a Supreme Court justice. He couldnt even get a hearing. He didnt even get downvoted. He couldnt even get a hearing. But the same Senate could get another Supreme Court justice they liked in a couple of weeks right before the election. So they have used their Senate control through the minority  they dont have numbers, but they just have the senators  to extend their control over another branch of government. And through gerrymandering, they are getting disproportionate control of the Congress. Plus, the gerrymandering means that since the seats arent competitive, the real competition is in the primary, right? Its not like which party is going to get it. Its which partys candidate. And that means a small group of mobilized extremists can take over a primary much more easily. On top of that, you have cases in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and other places where when they do lose statewide office, which they cant gerrymander, like the governors office, the lame duck state legislature, which they have gerrymandered, will go in and take away powers the previous Republican governor had, right? So even when you win elections, they go in using the gerrymander. Its just this way the Senate has been used to take over the Judiciary. You see these gerrymandered state legislatures kneecap statewide offices that they cant gerrymander and they lose. So youve seen this in a lot of places. Its not one place. Its not two. They end right after they lost the presidency. This time, youre seeing, I believe, in Wisconsin and a bunch of other states, they now want to gerrymander their electoral college votes to try to give advantage. So these are not  this is like what we call democratic backsliding. In any other country, we would recognize this as a grave threat to the idea of free and fair elections and representation. But thats how weve been doing it. And I didnt even get into voter suppression, right? So this is at every level, we have non-representative rules entrenching itself as an idea and as an ideal and as sort of legitimate. We almost need the political scientists to study our eroded democracy the way they would have done it if it were any other place. So for the Democrats, it creates its own kinds of dysfunctions  difficulty holding their own coalition, the frustration, the detachment of parts of the wings of the party because youre not allowed to govern. And theyre like, it becomes harder to mobilize people when theres no outcome to all the efforts that you put in, and theres despair. So I know I painted a difficult picture, but I think its really important to be realistic about how terrible things are, so that we can kind of go back to the crucial idea here in that people should be represented in government. And government should be accountable to the people that the governments supposed to represent. Not to the wealthy, not to the minority that just happens to have structural advantage, not to this, not to that. So theres this fundamental idea that is being undermined. And you dont have rest of liberal democracy. I mean, liberal democracy isnt just that. But if you dont have that part, you cant even start fixing all the other things that one is supposed to have to make a liberal democracy healthy.

ezra klein

Yeah, I always think about this in terms of threshold questions. Theres so much we debate in terms of this policy or that policy or this messaging decision or that strategic decision. But then there are threshold questions. And if the system simply doesnt work, if it doesnt work to create the conditions under which those other questions can be handled well, then it almost doesnt matter what answers you come to. Because youll fail at that threshold. I think its a good place to actually to come to the final section here, which we call Recommendation Engine, which I ask you for a couple book, movie, in one case here, recipe recommendations on things that I think youll be able to guide us a bit. Are you ready?

zeynep tufekci

OK, go for it.

ezra klein

All right, what is the best book, in your opinion, about systems thinking?

zeynep tufekci

One of my favorite books I think is Normal Accidents by Charles Perrow, which is living with high risk technologies. And its about sort of accidents like Three Mile Island. But its really a nice sort of example of how things interact with each other. Theres a lot of concepts there about how things interact with each other in complex systems. And its looking specifically at systems that have potential catastrophic outcomes, but you dont have to apply it just to that. You can apply that kind of thinking to a lot of things. And in fact, ideally, youd have a field called systems thinking and how you think about these big systems, but you dont.

ezra klein

Dont some people say theyre in systems thinking, the field, right? Arent there people who teach that? I like Sidney Dekker, who comes out of safety work. He has a good book called Drift into Failure. But dont some people say theyre complex systems thinkers and have a whole subfield about that?

zeynep tufekci

Right, but theres no academic departments about it. Complex systems thinking is another term for it. I learned a lot, for example, from ecology and biology. So what Im saying, I get the concepts from across many fields because ecological systems have a lot of complex systems examples. Ive always read about epidemics and pandemics, so it wasnt like I was completely new to it. But I had read about them the way I read about ecology in that its very good for thinking and teaching systems thinking, right? I would use them as examples in my own classes to try to get my students to think about systems and complex systems. So its like distributed across many fields. Its almost like the scientific method kind of thing, I think, but for the world.

ezra klein

Whats your favorite work of science fiction?

zeynep tufekci

Now that one is easy because Im an Ursula Le Guin fan. And hands down, The Dispossessed has always been my favorite work of science fiction, partly because I read it as one of the first books I read after learning English, learning to read in English. So I just love that kind of ambivalent utopia, as I believe thats the subtitle for it. But its really interesting and about how do you try to change things, and how does it not work, and how does it work, and all those sort of complicated, fun things that I like thinking about.

ezra klein

Its such a good book. If Ive never read much sociology, which thinker shall I start with?

zeynep tufekci

Oh, thats a hard one. So sociology is traditionally described to have three founders, which is Weber, Durkheim, Marx. But theyre not the best writers, and theyre not all correct. So but they are really foundational thinkers there. But since then, weve had a lot of sort of important contributions. We have a very rich American tradition, so W.E.B. Dubois is an American sociologist and very important civil rights leader activist as well for understanding this country, I think. So you kind of have to  this is part of the problem, is, I think one of the things that sometimes I try to communicate is that I do what I do, I think, best partly because I dont have too many favorites. Rather, I read across the board a lot, so its very hard for me to say, heres the good one, because Im going to read 100 and try to get what I can out of each one of them. So I cant give a single current one, but I think even just reading some of the introduction to sociological theory kind of books, which kind of try to bring that together, a lot of them are very good and kind of way of thinking about the world that I think is useful because its not just about humans as individuals, but humans in social groups and institutions, which is how we live.

ezra klein

Final question here, which is, whats your favorite vegetarian Turkish food?

zeynep tufekci

Ha. So OK, Ill give you a couple of things because it depends on if people want to cook them. So the Turkish cuisine has a whole range of chilled olive oil dishes that are all vegetarian. And you can do them with green beans. You can do them with eggplants. Theres all these versions of them that are not hard to do and that are completely outside of the Western experience because its a vegetable dish that is cold and cooked in olive oil. So you cook it, it will have green beans and tomato and tomato paste. And then you chill it, and you eat the cold version very often with bread. And its absolutely doable. Its not something you need to kind of be very good at to cook. Another thing we have is lentil meatballs, which are vegetarian and that are really easy to make. Now, if you are really good at it, you would make the stuffed grapevine leaves, the dolmas. Those are also in Turkish cuisine, as they are in many other cuisines, like Greeks and Armenians. And sort of Middle Eastern cuisines have versions of it. Its usually fairly similar. Those are difficult. So I love those, too, but I dont try to make them because theyre a challenge to find the right grapevine leaf and do it and very time consuming. So thats why I said a couple because if you want to cook, theres a whole range of amazing, easy to make Turkish vegetarian food that is great. And then theres the difficult ones, which I try to buy.

ezra klein

Thats probably always good advice. This has been wonderful. Zeynep Tufekci, thank you very much.

zeynep tufekci

Thank you for the conversation. [MUSIC PLAYING]

ezra klein
...It is an honor to continue my commitment to empowering our young people by serving as the Inaugural Visiting Social Justice and Civics Fellow. At this critical moment in history, Monroe will train these students to be the next generation of civic and social justice leaders. -- Michael Blake

Monroe College, a recognized leader in education and social mobility for first-generation students, today announced the launch of the Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Justice. Bronx community leader and former New York State Assembly member Michael Blake will help lead the Institute as Monroes inaugural Visiting Social Justice and Civics Fellow.

Residing within the Colleges School of Criminal and Social Justice, the Institute will serve as an education and empowerment center to give Black and Latino students valuable knowledge, resources, and mentorship to serve their communities through civic engagement. Its mission is to increase political literacy and engagement among New York City high school and college students and help them find their voices. More than 90% of Monroes enrollment is Black or Latino; the College is among the top three colleges in New York State graduating Black and Latino students.

The Institute will serve as a home for students seeking to learn about our political process and their role in advocating for social change, said Marc Jerome, President of Monroe College. They will learn the fundamentals of civics, hear from visiting lecturers on matters of social injustice, and perhaps be inspired to enter public service and become community leaders themselves.

The Institutes first program for high school students is set to start this week, with more than 200 students from 29 high schools across the Bronx taking part in a virtual dual enrollment course titled, Social Justice, Government, and Civic Engagement. The class will be held remotely on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm. Students passing the free course will earn three college credits transferrable to the higher educational institution of their choice. Jerome and Blake will co-teach the class. Guest lecturers will include social justice advocates and those in public service.

Blake, an ardent advocate and respected champion for communities of color, is exceptionally suited for the role as Visiting Fellow. Prior to his tenure as New York State Assemblymember, he served in the Obama-Biden administration as the White House Associate Director of Public Engagement and Deputy Associate Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, where he coordinated outreach to the African-American, Minority and Women Business Enterprises and state and county elected official communities. Blake has also served as Vice Chair at Large of the Democratic National Committee. He was the first Black man elected to DNC leadership since Ron Brown, helping lead efforts to mobilize millennials, communities of color, among other work.

Blake noted: Being born and raised in The Bronx and a lifelong witness of the continual excellence of Monroe College, it is an honor to continue my commitment to empowering our young people by serving as the Inaugural Visiting Social Justice and Civics Fellow. At this critical moment in history, Monroe will train these students to be the next generation of civic and social justice leaders.

The Institutes programming will be strengthened by the impressive roster of civil rights advocates and elected officials who will serve on an Advisory Board currently being empaneled. Interested individuals may contact Dean Guylaine Harrison at gharrison@monroecollege.edu.

Among the Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Justices programs and initiatives:

-- Expanded Academic Offerings at Monroe: The College now offers a minor in Civic Studies for majors such as criminal justice, human services, public health, and business. Monroe plans to offer a certificate in Civic Engagement and Leadership, which would be obtained by taking an additional six credits beyond the 18 credits required by the minor.

-- The Civic Scholars program: Academically gifted students will be invited to participate in rewarding internships with local elected representatives or pursue meaningful, hands-on service experiences by committing 250 service hours across the academic year to assist local government agencies and nonprofit organizations as they work to address pressing community needs.

-- Voter Education and Registration Drives: Improving Black and Latino voter education, registration, and mobilization is a key goal of the Institute. Opportunities to meet candidates and discuss important issues at the local and national levels will be created.

-- Speakers Series: The Institute will organize and host several events throughout the year. Guest speakers will be invited to speak and engage in conversation with their peers, with students, and with the public on pressing issues of the day.

-- Leadership Mentoring: The Institute will also provide students with a keen interest in public service the opportunity to partner with appropriate civic and political leaders willing to serve as mentors to the students. Such one-on-one work would help activate students interest in civic engagement and observe public service leadership skills in action.

ABOUT MONROE COLLEGE

Founded in 1933, Monroe College is a recognized leader in urban and international education. The College is proud of its innovative programs to increase college access, affordability, and completion outcomes, especially among first-generation students.

Monroe educates close to 7,000 students each year, offering Certificate, Associate, Bachelors, and Masters degree programs from New York campuses in the Bronx and New Rochelle, as well as in the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia. Students may also pursue degree programs through Monroe Online.

Programs are offered through Schools of Allied Health Professions, Business & Accounting, Criminal and Social Justice, Education, Hospitality Management, Information Technology, and Nursing, as well as through its King Graduate School. Liberal arts and continuing education programs are also available. For more information and admissions criteria, please visit http://www.monroecollege.edu.
The man installed by army leaders as Myanmar's president after Monday's military is best known abroad for his role in the crackdown on 2007 pro-democracy protests and for his ties to still-powerful military leaders.

Myint Swe was the army-appointed vice president when he was named on Monday to take over after the military arrested civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her party.

Immediately after he was named president, Myint Swe handed power to the country's top military commander, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

Under Myanmar's 2008 constitution, the president can hand power to the military commander in cases of emergency. That is one of many ways the military is assured of keeping ultimate control of the country.

Min Aung Hlaing, 64, has been commander of the armed forces since 2011 and is due to retire soon. That would clear the way for him to take a civilian leadership role if the junta holds elections in a year's time as promised. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party's humiliating loss in last November's elections would likely have precluded that. The military justified the by saying the government failed to address claims of election fraud.

"It seems there has been the realisation that Min Aung Hlaing's retirement is coming and he is expected to move into a senior role," said Gerard McCarthy, a postdoctoral fellow at the Asia Research Institute. "The fact that the USDP could not deliver that sparked a realisation that the system itself is not designed to create the outcomes that they expected." The US government in 2019 put Min Aung Hlaing on a blacklist on grounds of engaging in "serious human rights abuse" for leading army troops in security operations in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine region.

human rights investigators say the military conducted what amounted to ethnic cleansing operations that prompted some 700,000 members of the Rohingya minority to flee, burning people out of their homes and committing other atrocities.

In 2017, Myint Swe led an investigation that denied such allegations, saying the military acted "lawfully". In 2019, the US Treasury Department froze Min Aung Hlaing's US-based assets and banned doing business with him and three other military leaders. Earlier, it banned him from visiting the United States. Min Aung Hlaing also was among more than a dozen officials removed from Facebook in 2018. His Twitter account also was closed.

Myint Swe, now elevated to president, formerly was among military leaders included in an earlier Treasury Department list of sanctioned officials and business figures. That designation was removed in 2016 as the US government sought to support the country's economic development after nearly a half decade of reforms.

Myint Swe, 69, is a close ally of former junta leader Than Shwe, who stepped down to allow the transition to a quasi-civilian government beginning in 2011.

That transition eventually allowed Myanmar to escape the sanctions that had isolated the regime for years, hindering foreign investment. It also enabled Myanmar's leaders to counterbalance Chinese influence with support from other governments. But with the coup, Beijing may well end up with still more sway over the country's economy.

Myint Swe is a former chief minister of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, and for years headed its regional military command. During the 2007 monk-led popular protests known internationally as the Saffron Revolution, he took charge of restoring order in Yangon after weeks of unrest in a crackdown that killed dozens of people. Hundreds were arrested.

Though he has not had a very high profile, Myint Swe has played a key role in the military and In 2002, he participated in the arrest of family members of former dictator Ne Win, Myanmar media reports say.

Myint Swe arrested former Gen. Khin Nyunt at Yangon Airport during the 2004 purge of the former prime minister and his supporters. Soon afterward, Myint Swe assumed command of the former military regime's sprawling military intelligence apparatus.
Most Reverend Joseph Osei-Bonsu, Catholic Bishop of Konongo-Mampong, Ashanti Region, has called on Christians to serve the country by complying with the Coronavirus safety protocols.



He said despite the high incidence of the disease, there were some Ghanaians who continued to disregard the health protocols.



Some people dont care. They think that there is no virus because they dont see it with their naked eyes. But people are dying daily, and now the numbers have gone very high, he said.



He made the call during the 70th anniversary celebration of the St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church at the University of Ghana, Legon.



Bishop Osei-Bonsu said if people wore their masks, washed and sanitized their hands, and observed social distancing, the nation would be able to overcome the virus.



He emphasised that Ghanaians who did not observe the protocols were doing a great disservice to the nation.



The best service that we can render to the nation now is to observe the COVID-19 health protocols, so that we can protect ourselves, our families, and other people, Bishop Osei-Bonsu said.



He commended the Church for the tremendous progress made over the years and encouraged the congregants to hold on firmly to the Catholic faith and demonstrate that by engaging in good works.



Most Reverend John Bonaventure Kwofie, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, extoled the church for the significant role it had played in nurturing students who enrolled in the University.



He entreated the Church to remain committed to its mission of impacting the lives of students and advised it to find innovative ways to bring the Gospel to them.



Dr Stephen Duah-Yentumi, former Parish Pastoral Council Chairman, St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, said the Churchs achievements included growth in students population and groups and completion of a permanent place of worship.



Our focus now is to further increase the Catholic population on campus and to help more students to imbibe the Catholic faith.



The University of Ghana received recognition for its contribution to the progress of the Church.



Most Rev Joseph Osei-Bonsu, Most Rev Matthew Gyamfi, Fr Yvon Yangyuoru, Mrs Margaret Mary Kissi, Mr J.S. Nudanu, Professor George Benneh, and Sir Professor Kofi Kumado were awarded for their exceptional service to the Church.





Source: GNA









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More than one-third of the US population is made up of individuals with recent ancestors from multiple continents; a new genetics tool helps uncover disease-associated gene variants in more diverse individuals

BOSTON -- Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have typically excluded diverse and minority individuals in the search for gene variants that confer risk of disease. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and other institutions around the world have now developed a free-access software package called Tractor that increases the discovery power of genomics in understudied populations. A study of Tractor's performance and accuracy was published in Nature Genetics.

Researchers perform GWAS to identify where genetic variants responsible for causing disease are located in the genome. Recently, geneticists have begun creating models from published GWAS data to predict risks of disease in individuals. But the clinical utility of these models is currently limited, since most are based on genomic studies of people with European ancestry.

"If you build disease-risk models on available data and attempt to extrapolate them to diverse populations, the accuracy of predicting who will get sick is reduced," says Elizabeth Atkinson, PhD, lead author of the paper and an investigator in the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit (ATGU) at MGH. "These errors exacerbate existing health disparities, in part because we aren't finding specific gene variants that may contribute to higher risk of a particular disease in diverse populations."

Another significant shortcoming of current GWAS is that "they leave many opportunities for genetic discovery on the table for all populations," says Atkinson. People of African descent, for example, have a million more genetic variations on average than someone who doesn't have African ancestry due to human migration patterns over the ages. Conducting a GWAS with diverse populations allows geneticists to pinpoint genetic associations to disease at many more spots across the genome, says Atkinson.

"Within these genomic regions identified in a GWAS, the genetic mutation that actually causes disease is shared across ancestries most of the time," she adds. By studying admixed populations -- people with recent ancestry from two or more previously isolated population groups, such as Africa and Europe -- "we can get more powerful and precise genetic association signals and do a better job at pinpointing where the causal mutation is, which improves our understanding of disease for everyone."

Until now, there was no fine-scale way to control for ancestry composition in mixed groups being studied in a GWAS. "Different ancestry groups have gene variants that occur at different frequencies due to the populations' demographic history," explains Atkinson. "Not taking ancestry into account in a GWAS can lead to false-positive hits or to gene variants cancelling themselves out and dismissed as not important. So, until now, it's been easier to exclude people with multiple ancestries from GWAS to avoid being confounded by different patterns of gene variants."

Tractor, however, allows researchers to account for ancestry in a precise manner so admixed individuals can be included in large-scale gene discovery efforts. The software colors pieces of each person's chromosomes according to its ancestry origin, which researchers can infer from reference genome sequences, and uses this information in a new GWAS model. "Tractor takes into account the ancestry backbone of each genetic variant so we can correctly calibrate the GWAS results to find causal variants in specific population groups," says Atkinson.

Tractor also provides estimates of ancestry-specific effect sizes, which isn't possible in a standard GWAS. "Instead of getting a weighted average of the disease-risk effect size for a particular gene variant, Tractor can determine how large or small the effect of a variant is in various ancestry groups," says Atkinson. "This will be informative for building genetic risk scores in diverse populations." Another advantage of Tractor is its ability to improve the power of GWAS by detecting risk gene variants across multiple ancestries. "With Tractor, we can get stronger disease-association signals by leveraging ancestral genomic differences," says Atkinson.

"Tractor advances the existing methodologies for studying the genetics of complex disorders in diverse and minority populations," she adds. "We hope that this method increases the inclusion of admixed participants in large-scale association studies going forward."

###

Major funding for this study was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Co-authors include Mark Daly, PhD, founding chief of the ATGU and associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS); and Benjamin Neale, PhD, also of the ATGU, is associate professor of Medicine at HMS and director of Population Genetics, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, at the Broad Institute.

About the Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. In August 2020, Mass General was named #6 in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."
[February 02, 2021] Qualified.com Welcomes Longtime Salesforce Executive Dan Darcy as Chief Customer Officer

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Qualified, the conversational sales and marketing platform for revenue teams that use Salesforce, today announced it has hired industry luminary and longtime Salesforce executive Dan Darcy as Chief Customer Officer. Darcy brings over 13 years of leadership at Salesforce to help enterprise B2B brands such as Adobe, Bitly, SurveyMonkey, ThoughtSpot and VMWare succeed on the Qualified platform. Darcy is joining Qualified amidst the backdrop of incredible company growth and momentum. Over the past year, the company announced $12 million in Series A financing with investment from Salesforce Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures, achieved 800% YoY revenue growth and tripled its team. The company plans to quadruple revenue in 2021 and more than double the size of its workforce. As the latest Salesforce executive to join Qualified, Darcy will lead Qualified's groundbreaking customer program, a new technology and services model with an obsession over guaranteed customer success and value creation. Darcy will also serve on the company's executive leadership team. Before Qualified, Darcy was most recently Salesforce SVP of sales and partner enablement. Previously, he served as Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff's Head of Customer Visions, where he championed the voice of Salesforce customers and took center stage at their we-inspiring events, including Dreamforce.



"Our #1 value at Qualified is trusted customer success, and we prioritize the needs of our customers above everything else," said Kraig Swensrud, co-founder and CEO of Qualified. "After knowing Dan for more than a decade and working alongside him at Salesforce, it's clear that there is no better executive to bring the value of Qualified to Salesforce customers, Salesforce partners and the entire Salesforce Ohana." B2B marketers spend more than $6B driving qualified buyers to their website, but their sales teams have no way of knowing when a buyer arrives, and no way of meeting with them in that pivotal moment. And in 2020, B2B sales and marketing changed forever, with a new dependence on virtual selling.

"I'm incredibly excited to join the Qualified team in leading a transformation in the way B2B companies meet with their buyers," said Dan Darcy, Chief Customer Officer at Qualified. "The world has gone digital, and the corporate website is no longer just for marketing. It's now the place for inside sales teams to meet with target buyers at the exact moment that they're ready to engage in a sales conversation. This is the future of B2B selling." To learn more, visit Qualified.com. About Qualified.com Qualified is the conversational sales and marketing platform for revenue teams that use Salesforce. Leading B2B brands such as Adobe, Bitly, SurveyMonkey, ThoughtSpot and VMWare trust Qualified to grow their pipeline by tapping into their greatest sales & marketing asset  their corporate website  to identify their most valuable buyers, understand their intent and instantly start a sales conversation. Customers that use Qualified report a 10X increase in sales meetings, a 4X increase in lead conversion, and a 6X increase in pipeline. Qualified runs natively on Salesforce to give companies a 360-degree view of their website visitors, and is ranked #1 in its category on the Salesforce AppExchange. Headquartered in San Francisco, Qualified is led by former Salesforce CMO Kraig Swensrud and former Salesforce product SVP Sean Whiteley, and funded by Norwest Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. To learn more, visit qualified.com. Contact

Mission North for Qualified

qualified@missionnorth.com

619-609-3919 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/qualifiedcom-welcomes-longtime-salesforce-executive-dan-darcy-as-chief-customer-officer-301220379.html SOURCE Qualified.com

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Daniel Andrews is planning to extend Victoria's state of emergency until December to keep coronavirus restrictions in place.

The government will introduce a bill on Tuesday to push the emergency powers past its 12 month limit.

The state of emergency which was introduced last March is due to end on March 15 but Mr Andrews is hoping to extend it until December 15.

The state of emergency allows the government to enforce rules such as hotel quarantine, laws around masks as well as restrictions on indoor and outdoor gatherings.

Daniel Andrews is planning to extend Victoria's state of emergency until December to ensure coronavirus restrictions are kept in place

The state of emergency allows the government to enforce rules such as hotel quarantine, laws around masks as well as restrictions on indoor and outdoor gatherings (staff in PPE outside View Hotel in Melbourne)

The state of emergency is due to end on March 15 but Mr Andrews has introduced a bill to extend this by nine months

'This is not about new rules. This is just about keeping the current rules in place and potentially loosening them off as conditions continue to get better,' Mr Andrews said.

'We can't go to a situation where there are no rules we have to continue to acknowledge and embrace the fact that what we built is precious and has to be defended.'

The Victorian premier said even with the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine, strong restrictions would need to remain in place.

'It's very heartening to think that we'll be able to protect people from really significant illness, but the notion that people could still have the virus and pass it on will mean that things like hotel quarantine will for quite some time, be a feature of our COVID normal,' he said.

It comes as Victoria recorded its 27th day with no new locally acquired cases.

Mr Andrews also announced on Tuesday both public and private sector offices would increase to 75 per cent capacity.

Private sector workplaces had been capped at 50 per cent while public offices were capped at 25 per cent.

Police officers are seen outside a hotel quarantine facility in Melbourne

The new changes will come in a bid to boost business for hospitality and retail venues hit hard by the pandemic in Melbourne's CBD.

With the influx of commuters returning to work from Monday, Mr Andrews reminded Victorians masks would still need to be worn on public transport.

Under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, state of emergency powers were only enforceable for a maximum of six months.

This was extended by the Andrews government to one year after negotiating a coronavirus clause.

If the bill is passed to extend the state of emergency it will be in place for a total of 21 months.
A Woolworths shopper was horrified to realise her 'scotch fillet' was actually just scraps of meat stuck together.

When Bianca opened her tray of scotch fillet thin sliced steaks over the weekend, she expected two whole pieces of meat inside.

Instead, the Australian woman's steaks were shredded with gaping holes in the middle, according to photos she posted on Facebook.

Pictured: The 'scotch fillet' Bianca bought from Woolworths. It was falling apart and full of holes

'Not sure if this steak scraps is... acceptable to you,' Bianca wrote.

She shared a photo to show how the meat barely held together when lifted with tongs, and expressed her concern about 'scraps being sold as scotch fillet'.

Woolworths told Daily Mail Australia the meat was 'well below' acceptable standards.

'Its not our practice to place smaller pieces of meat together to form the appearance of a larger piece. Its a packing error well follow up with our processing partners,' it said.

'We pride ourselves on providing high quality meat cuts to our customers and we're disappointed to see this customer received one well below our usual standards.

'We have apologised to the customer and have offered them a refund.'

Bianca shared a photo to show how the meat barely held together when lifted with tongs, and expressed her concern about 'scraps being sold as 'scotch fillet'

The retailed pledged to follow up with its meat production partners and urged others with the same issue to contact their local store.

'If a customer is able to return a fresh produce they are not happy with, we'll refund and replace it,' he said.

This is not the first time Woolworths customers complained about meat appearing to be stuck together.

Another woman recently took to social media to complain that her Woolworths 'eye fillets' were falling apart.

'So when did Woolworths start using meat glue to make this atrocity of an 'eye fillet' steak?' she wrote in a Facebook group on January 8.

The shopper shared a photo of the steaks sitting in a fry pan, riddled with holes.

The shopper shared a photo of the steaks sitting in a fry pan, riddled with holes (pictured)

A woolworths spokesperson replied and apologised for the condition of the product (pictured: the meat packet)

Woolworths replied and apologised for the condition of the product.

'We understand your disappointment, so we've gone ahead and passed your feedback onto our teams for their immediate attention and review,' it said.

'Please know that with our satisfaction guarantee, if you're ever unsatisfied you can take your receipt back to our service desk and our lovely team will cheerfully provide you with a full refund or replacement.'

The supermarket giant denied using 'meat glue' in its products - designed to stick scraps of steak together to form the appearance of a large piece.
President Moon Jae-in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the border truce village of Panmunjeom during their summit on April 27, 2018. / Korea Times file

'Seoul, Washington shared info on Moon's economic project proposal for North Korea'



By Kang Seung-woo



Allegations that the government planned to assist North Korea build a nuclear power plant are expected to raise concerns with the new U.S. administration over inter-Korean projects sought by South Korea, according to diplomatic observers, Tuesday, although they said they do not buy into the claims.



President Moon Jae-in faces allegations that he offered to build the plant in North Korea as part of cross-border reconciliation projects during his April 2018 summit with the North's leader Kim Jong-un. The opposition parties are denouncing the alleged offer as an "act benefitting the enemy."



The government flatly denies the claims, with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy unveiling an internal document to reaffirm that it had merely reviewed some ideas for possible inter-Korean economic cooperation projects after the summit. The government said Moon only offered economic projects the two Koreas could cooperate on if denuclearization talks progressed.



The U.S. government has yet to comment on the allegations. But President Joe Biden and his team could be concerned about the Moon administration's push to engage the North through means Washington may find unpalatable.



"In the past the U.S. has put energy assistance for North Korea on the table to try to convince Pyongyang to move ahead with denuclearization. But I think that the Biden administration will want to consult more closely with South Korea than the Donald Trump administration ever did regarding potential inter-Korean economic cooperation," Ramon Pacheco Pardo, an associate professor of international relations at King's College London, told The Korea Times.



"Thus, the South Korean government will have to openly discuss with the Biden administration this and other potential projects, even if they are only at the planning stage."



If the nuclear power plant proposal was part of an extensive list of economic and infrastructure projects that the Moon administration considered offering Pyongyang, Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst and senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation, said the proposals would have violated international sanctions had they been implemented.



"The U.S. government became so concerned with Seoul's efforts that it directly contacted South Korean government agencies, banks, and businesses to remind them of existing laws," Klingner told The Korea Times.



In response to the allegations, Foreign Minister nominee Chung Eui-yong said, Tuesday, there were no discussions about building a nuclear power plant during inter-Korean talks.





KBS seeks to open Pyongyang Bureau: report North Korea beefs up missile units, special forces over past years: defense ministry Energy ministry unveils document to calm dispute over North Korea reactor plan "In the current circumstances, no country can offer to build a nuclear power plant, so we had no internal review on the issue and no discussions with North Korea about it," Chung told reporters. Chung was the chief of the National Security Office at the time and participated in the summit.



He also said that the government told the U.S. multiple times about the inter-Korean projects that were detailed and stored on a USB stick that President Moon gave to the North Korean leader.



"It was a plan to implement if North Korea moved ahead with denuclearization and the U.S. fully agreed with the idea and showed a positive response to it," Chung said, adding he showed the content of the USB to his then-U.S. counterpart John Bolton.



He added the U.S. also offered a similar idea to the North during a summit between former President Donald Trump and Kim in Singapore in 2018.



Nuclear plant accusation 'unrealistic'



The opposition camp also claims that the Moon administration was proceeding with the plan surreptitiously, without informing the U.S. or the United Nations.



However, experts said it would have been impossible to build a large-scale nuclear plant without commercial satellite imagery detecting it  let alone without consent from the U.S. and the international community.



"A nuclear reactor is visible to overhead satellites, thus it would be hard concealing such a program," Joseph DeTrani, a former U.S. special envoy to the six-party talks, told The Korea Times.



"Personally, I believe the ROK would discuss any such program with the U.S., given our allied relationship and partnership in pursuing a peaceful resolution to the nuclear issue with North Korea." The ROK refers to the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.



In the past, the Korea Energy Development Organization was building two light water reactors in the North Korean city of Kumho, although the project was suspended in late 2002 when North Korea was found to be processing highly-enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. In addition, the joint statement from the six-party talks in September 2005 also talked about energy assistance to the North, DeTrani added.



Pardo also said, "There have been multiple discussions about potential inter-Korean economic projects over the years and certainly under the Moon administration. In this context, I'm not particularly surprised that there could have been discussions about potentially building a nuclear reactor in North Korea to supply energy to South Korea.



"But I think that claiming that South Korea could build a nuclear reactor in North Korea without the international community, or South Korean civil society, realizing it is far-fetched," he said.





In the early 1900s, a set of progressive thinking artists began to settle in Westport, buying or renting antique abodes and mixing freely with longtime farmers, shopkeepers and laborers alike.

In 1911, local headlines championed: Art has struck Westport with a definite and emphatic and beneficent force. Later, columnist O. O. McIntyre reported that New Yorks real Latin Quarter is now in Connecticut where in Westport the art invasion began quietly about six years ago and came from the Village.

George Hand Wright, a well-connected and well-liked illustrator, was credited by the press in 1911 as starting the immigration of painters here. That same year, a Philadelphia reporter quipped, just who is the dean of the Westport artists it is not necessary to decide.

Marine painter Neil Mitchill, of New York City, arrived upon marrying Agnes Lewis in 1888. Among the first cohort were: illustrators J. N. Marchand, in town by 1904, and Edmund M. Ashe, by 1905; sculptor H. Daniel Webster, in 1906; Wright and landscape painter Lawrence Mazzanovich, in 1907; and illustrator-turned-modernist Arthur Dove in 1909.

When Ossip P. Linde joined the circle in 1911 from Chicago, a Bridgeport reporter said, there seems to be something in the air and scenery of this town which induces artists to settle within its limits.

Some of the earliest arrivals, like Dove and Laura Gardin and James Earle Fraser remain well-known, yet others  such as Karl Anderson, Hugo Ballin, Robert Leftwich Dodge, Silas S. Dustin, Joseph Mortimer Lichtenauer, Angus P. MacDonall, Henry Raleigh, Tillie Neville Spanger and Ralph T. Willis  held high regard then but are lesser known now.

Unlike the painters of Old Lyme and Cos Cob, Westports artists were a heterogeneous body, or a coterie of artists doing missionary work in a village that hitherto has slept rather quietly on the wooded banks of the Saugatuck, to quote a 1911 review. Still, they exhibited together at Silvermine, the Westport Library, and later, the Bedford YMCA. Their exhibits attracted press and buyers among residents and summer visitors motoring along the Post Road.

Collectively, they represented artists who belong to New York, to Paris, to Munich and Rome[and] of the wider art world, the Christian Science Monitor reported in 1913.

Fast forward to 1926, when a Hartford reporter recorded that over 80 artists, bringing their books and easels with them, now found Westport an ideal place for working and living, and numbering among them National Academicians, gold medal sculptors, mural decorators, portrait painters and the highest paid advertising writers in the world. This post-WWI wave joined magazine publishers, authors, playwrights, actors, producers, and musicians to help secure Westports growing reputation as a thriving creative community.

Wouldnt it be wonderful today to have a central Westport museum to help celebrate and promote the founding years of Westports artistic community and where we could once again view works by these artists side by side?

Kathleen Motes Bennewitz is Westports town curator and an independent art historian. She is a guest columnist.
ATLANTA, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. (the "Company") (NYSE: IVR) announced today the upsizing and pricing of its public offering of 24 million shares of its common stock at a price of $3.83 per share, resulting in gross proceeds of approximately $91.9 million, before deducting estimated offering expenses. In connection with the offering, the Company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3.6 million shares of the Company's common stock. The offering is expected to close on February 4, 2021.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to purchase assets within its target asset classes, subject to its investment guidelines, and to the extent consistent with maintaining its REIT qualification, and for other general corporate purposes.

BofA Securities and JMP Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

The Company is conducting the offering pursuant to an effective registration statement on Form S-3ASR dated February 27, 2019 (Commission File No. 333-229917). The offering is being made pursuant to the prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus that has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Before you invest, you should read the prospectus supplement, prospectus and other documents the Company has filed with the SEC for more complete information about the Company and this offering. These documents are available for free on EDGAR on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement, when available, and the accompanying prospectus may also be obtained by contacting:

BofA Securities NC1-004-03-43 200 North College Street, 3rd floor Charlotte, North Carolina 28255 Attn: Prospectus Department By e-mail: [email protected] JMP Securities 600 Montgomery Street, Suite 1100 San Francisco, California 94111 Attn: Prospectus Department By phone: 415-835-8985 By e-mail: [email protected]

This announcement shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of the Company, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc.

Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. is a real estate investment trust that focuses on investing in, financing and managing mortgage-backed securities and other mortgage-related assets. Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. is externally managed and advised by Invesco Advisers, Inc., a subsidiary of Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ), a leading independent global investment management firm. Additional information is available at www.invescomortgagecapital.com.

Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may include statements and information that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. securities laws as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, and such statements are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provided by the same. Forward-looking statements are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond the Company's control. These forward-looking statements include information about the size of the offering described above, the Company's ability to complete such offering on desirable terms, or at all, and the use of the net proceeds therefrom, as well as any other statements other than statements of historical fact. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "continue," "intend," "project," "forecast" or similar expressions and future or conditional verbs such as "will," "may," "could," "should," and "would," and any other statement that necessarily depends on future events, are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements may contain such words.

The forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, assumptions and expectations of the Company's future performance, taking into account all information currently available. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These beliefs, assumptions and expectations can change as a result of many possible events or factors, not all of which are known to the Company. For example, the closing of the offering described above is subject to closing conditions customary in transactions of this type and may be delayed or may not occur at all. In addition, the net proceeds of the offering may not be used as indicated. Some of the other factors are described in the Company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings, including the Company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed on November 9, 2020, which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov, under the headings "Risk Factors," "Forward-Looking Statements," "Business" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations."

Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made. New risks and uncertainties arise over time, and it is not possible to predict those events or how they may affect the Company. Except as required by law, the Company is not obligated to, and does not intend to, update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor Relations Contact: Jack Bateman, 404-439-3323

SOURCE Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc.

Related Links

https://www.invescomortgagecapital.com


A health worker carries out a COVID-19 testing at the Merrylands drive-through clinic in Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 7, 2021. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

Rutgers Researcher Who Created First CCP Virus Saliva Test Dies at 51

A research professor at Rutgers University who developed the first saliva test for the CCP virus died unexpectedly, according to the university.

Andrew Brooks, 51, died on Jan. 23, the university said, adding that he led the creation of the first coronavirus saliva-based test, which received FDA emergency approval last spring and has played a significant role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, said Rutgers, which is located in New Jersey.

More than four million rapid response tests, which were the first approved for home use, have been performed since March, earning Brooks and his labs pioneering work recognition by legacy media outlets, said the college.

Last week, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy honored Brooks and called him one of our states unsung heroes.

We cannot thank Andy enough for all he did across his career, Murphy said, reported the New York Post. He will be sorely missed by many.

Jay Tischfield, the head of Rutgers RUCDR division, said in a statement that Brooks will be fondly remembered by the large cohort of scientists whose research he facilitated across many years.

Last year, Brooks made reference to the saliva test, which serves as an alternative to the nasal PCR tests.

It means we no longer have to put health care professionals at risk for infection by performing nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal collections, he said in a statement at the time. We can preserve precious personal protective equipment for use in patient care instead of testing. We can significantly increase the number of people tested each and every day as self-collection of saliva is more quick and scalable than swab collections. All of this combined will have a tremendous impact on testing in New Jersey and across the United States.

Rutgers did not elaborate on his cause of death.
BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Sunday that the bilateral relations between China and Saudi Arabia have made new progress while facing the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wang made the remarks during a phone conversation with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

Noting that the year 2020 has been a very extraordinary year, Wang said China and Saudi Arabia have been working hand in hand to help each other fight the pandemic, and their relations have made new progress.

The two countries' heads of state talked over phone three times, in which they firmly supported each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, pledged to join hands to fight the pandemic and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, which has demonstrated what comprehensive strategic partnership was meant to be, he said.

China and Saudi Arabia should earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and constantly enrich the connotation of the bilateral ties, he said.

China will continue to support Saudi Arabia to follow the path of development suited to its national conditions and to promote economic diversification as well as social reform, Wang said.

The two sides should make good preparations for the China-Arab summit to ensure its full success, work together to build a China-Arab community with a shared future, he said, adding that the two countries also need to work together to advance practical cooperation in various fields and press ahead with the early completion of the China-Gulf Cooperation Council free trade zone, he said.

Wang said that China attaches great importance to Saudi Arabia's important influence in the region and understands Saudi Arabia's reasonable concerns in safeguarding the security of its own and that of the Gulf.

China condemns attacks on civilians and civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia, supports Saudi Arabia's efforts to maintain security and stability, and opposes external interference, unilateral bullying and terrorism, Wang said.

He noted that China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with Saudi Arabia on the situations of the Middle East and the Gulf, as will as on regional hot topics, so as to jointly promote regional peace and stability.

Faisal, for his part, thanked China for supporting the measures taken by Saudi Arabia to maintain its security and stability, and agreed with Wang's views on promoting cooperation between the two countries.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Saudi Arabia have overcome difficulties and joined hands to move forward, with great progress being made in their cooperation in various fields, he said, adding that it reflects the deep and robust friendship between the two countries and reveals the essence of their comprehensive strategic partnership.

Faisal said that Saudi Arabia attaches great importance to its relations with China, and continues to give priority to the Saudi-China relationship.

Saudi Arabia is willing to work with China to firmly support each other politically, strengthen mutual benefit, win-win and interconnectivity in the economic field, and jointly prepare for the China-Arab summit, so as to make every effort to push the strategic relations between the two countries to a higher level, Faisal said.
Pangilinan: Price cap ineffective, go after food price manipulators

PUTTING a cap on prices of food during a lack of supply is ineffective, Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan said Tuesday, pushing government to go after the food price manipulators that Agriculture Secretary William Dar exposed at the Senate hearing.

"Dapat sampulan ang nagsasamantala. Sa ilalim ng Price Act, hanggang 1 milyong piso ang maaring multa sa mga lumalabag sa batas na ito," said the former Presidential Assistant on Food Security and Agricultural Modernization.

"Dapat i-deputize ang NBI at PNP-CIDG at habulin yung mga nabanggit ni Secretary Dar na nagsasamantala," he added, referring to the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Pangilinan, whose Senate Resolution 618 and privilege speech were the basis for Monday's Senate hearing, noted that the price freeze during the emergency situation of the pandemic failed.

"Tumataas 'yong presyo kahit na may price freeze. Paano ngayon ipapatupad itong price ceiling? Kung yung price freeze hindi napatupad, ano ang assurance na 'yung price ceiling maipapatupad?" he asked.

Malacanang on Monday issued Executive Order No. 124 ordering a 60-day price ceiling that pegs the prices of some food items as follows: P270 for a kilo of kasim and pigue, P300 for a kilo of liempo, and P160 for a kilo of dressed chicken.

Prior to EO 124, a kilo of pigue sold at P380, liempo at P425, and dressed chicken at P200, according to the DA's Bantay Presyo Monitoring for February 1, 2021.

"Kung milyon-milyong kilo ng karne ang na-import, nasaan ang mga ito? Buksan ang mga cold storage facilities at alamin kung may hoarding ba nito," Pangilinan said.

At Monday's Senate hearing on rising food prices, Pangilinan called for immediate action of the appropriate government bodies to justify the price rise of basic commodities and to rectify the irregularities behind it.

"Sa gitna ng pandemya na walang trabaho at kulang ang kita, hindi pwede itong price cap lang ang isasagot natin sa hirap at gutom na nararamdaman ng ating mga kababayan," he said.

Pangilinan recalled that as food security czar when rice prices were rising in 2014, he created an inter-agency task force composed of the National Food Authority (NFA), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the NBI, and the PNP-CIDG.

He said that based on the Price Act and NFA's Presidential Decree No. 4, he went after profiteers, unscrupulous traders, and even a number of NFA managers.

"May mga permit na na-revoke o na-suspend, meron pang mga kasong isinampa sa mga profiteers at hoarders, at maging ilang NFA personnel na involved sa diversion at re-bagging," Pangilinan said.

"Hindi natin pinalampas ang mga mapagsamantala. Ganyan din dapat ngayon," he added.
More insight into a worsening metro crime scene . . .



Check another gunfire report amid the new normal . . .



Read more:



Police lights - file photo. The Raytown Police Department is searching for a suspect after a Sunday afternoon shooting left two people with injuries. Officers were called to investigate a shooting in the parking lot of a business in the 6600 block of Raytown Road just after 1 p.m. Sunday.
analysis

Most of the opposition to President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK) has hailed the August 18, 2020 coup d'etat. They were hoping that the National Council for People Salvation (CNSP) would spare Mali from violent terrorists' attacks and inter community killings as well as preventing a disastrous economic, social and political crisis. The return to civilians rule after a short Transition was also part of their expectations. The rampant occupation of the political space by the military has disseminated doubts.

The premises for militarization began with the installation of a former defense minister, retired Colonel Ba Ndaw, as Head of State, on September 25. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had demanded a civilian. A daring makeup, which was accepted, encouraged the junta to pick, two days later, as Prime Minister, former Minister of Foreign Affairs (2004 - 2009), the experienced Moctar Ouane. In the government appointed on October 5, the military holds the strategic positions of Defense and Veterans Affairs; Territorial Administration and Decentralization; Security and Civilian Protection; National Reconciliation.

On November 25, 2020, the Council of Ministers has appointed 13 military governors of regions, out of a total of 20. All are said to be close to the vice-president of the government, Colonel Assimi Goita.

The only figure of the CNSP until then still "free", Colonel Malick Diaw, number two of the junta, was brought on December 5 as the Chair of the National Transitional Council (CNT). The Transition legislative body is called upon to lead the reforms: restoration and strengthening of defense and security, promotion of good governance, overhaul of the education system, political and institutional reforms, adoption of a social stability pact and and finally, the organization of general elections.

To compose the CNT, the junta made its political purchases, everywhere on the national scene: soldiers, but also personalities of the former parliamentary majority and opposition, members of the Movement of June 5-Rassemblement des Forces Patriotiques (M5-RFP), personalities from former rebel armed groups, representatives of civil society and a music star, Salif Keita. The recruitment criterion escapes the political parties and even some lucky elected officials. It also has 22 soldiers as members.

IBK's frustrated adversaries.

Members of the M5-RFP, a politico-religious strike force, under the leadership of Imam Mahmoud Dicko, who fought former President IBK until his fall, stepped up to denounce the Transition Charter and the installation of a military regime. In the name of the role it played in  the struggle , the M5-RFP claimed not only the presidency of the CNT, but also a quarter of the seats in the legislative body. In fact, eight seats have been granted to it. Faced with this double failure, the Movement threatens to resume its "protest activities". For its leaders, the CNSP is struck by a certain illegitimacy, for having marginalized them. The Movement is signaling to the military that it is doing well and is ready to fight again until its ultimate goal of changing the country governance system is achieved. In the eyes of the Movement, the junta personalities co-opted would rather form part of the "hostile forces". Old and, perhaps, new walkers intend to be fully involved in managing the transition. The frustration of the Movement is all the greater since, to lull its vigilance, the junta has allegedly promised it the prime ministerial office and three quarters of the ministerial portfolios. Members of the M5-RFP risk practicing a form of political guerrilla warfare, throughout the Transition, to save its assets: support for measures aimed at improving governance and contesting those aimed at maintaining or strengthening of practices fought under IBK.

The M5-RFP has found an objective ally in the National Union of Mali Workers (UNTM), a union that called a strike from Monday 14 December to Friday 18 December. Its demands relate to the harmonization of salary scales and bonuses and allowances in the civil service, or to the fate of dismissed workers in privatized State enterprises. The President of the Transition, who suspects a  political scheme , had provoked the ire of its members by declaring:  In Mali current state, how someone who enjoys all his abilities can speak of strike?" A symptomatic nervousness of the relations between the Transition and Civil Society Organizations.

The slowness in operationalizing the organs of the Transition, i.e., three months and three weeks after the coup, rumors of the threats of the Prime Minister and the President resignations as well as the appearance of the vice-president grabbing power seem to indicate the degree of this interim power fragility. Confidence between the Transition main players remains to be built, that between the junta and the political parties, too. Witness this week arrest of seven prominent personalities including two senior executives from the Public Treasury, the director of the Malian Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU), a private radio columnist and activist. These various arrests, made by state security, and yet to be explained to the public, are said to be linked to a  project to destabilize the Transition .

In defense or remembering the military

Parties from the former presidential majority, as well as the political opposition under IBK, are making similar grievances against the junta. But personalities also plead for tolerance with regard to the Transition, due to the fact that it is an exceptional regime, which cannot survive without legal and political tinkering in the face of a political class accustomed to "having their soup" under all regimes since 1992

The misunderstandings are likely to worsen as the Transition roadmap unfolds and especially as the elections dates get closer. Having secured strategic positions, the military is giving itself the means to influence future elections, in a decisive manner. They have the choice of weapons. The new strongman can resign to retire from the military, then run for office. A scenario more perfected and more mastered than that concocted by President Amadou Toumani Toure, between 1992 and 2001. The junta can also encourage a personality, favorable to its views on governance, to run and then, without firing a shot, make him Mali future president. Adversaries of the militarization have these fears in their sights.

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Since the start of ATT's second term in 2007, part of the military hierarchy has criticized its own superiors and the civilian authorities for not listening enough to soldiers' complaints and to being insensitive to their living and fighting conditions. The governance of the two entities has often been criticized. Under IBK, these blames flourished, with colossal embezzlement at the Ministry of Defense, the chairmanship of the Defense Commission in the National Assembly then chaired by his son. Images circulating on social media, of generals feasting with billions and trips to Spain of the heir, while soldiers died on the front, accelerated IBK's downfall. The return to business of this politico-military class could create further trouble for the officers of the Transition. By controlling these strategic governmental positions, they secure themselves. Meanwhile, the country's security has hardly improved.

Since early October, the town of Farabougou, center of the country, has been subject to a jihadist blockade. However, good news has come from two neighboring countries. Burkina Faso was able to hold its presidential and legislative elections in relative peace except for one attack, 14 soldiers killed, bringing sorrow on an election campaign that lasted three weeks. Algeria has just amended its constitution by allowing the President to deploy troops abroad.

Finally, with the implementation of the Transition roadmap, there is hope - to be encouraged - that Mali will be able to organize its elections in a peaceful environment in eighteen months.
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New Delhi: Actress Disha Patani has left fans stunned once again with a throwback picture from her vacation in the Maldives. The actress took to social media on Tuesday to share a new picture and expressed how much she missed the beach.

The Maldives islands have become a popular destination among celebrities who escaped the city hustle to enjoy some peace, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The internet has enjoyed some of the best sights of the vacation spot and was also treated to the most stunning pictures of celebrities as they posed in front of the deep blue sea.

In the picture, Disha flaunts her perfect hourglass figure in a white bikini and looks absolutely gorgeous as she soaks in the sun. She got nostalgic and wrote in the caption: Missing the (beach emoji).

The actress enjoys a huge fan following on social media and knows how to steal the spotlight by uploading the most stunning pictures of herself on Instagram. She is a fitness enthusiast and keeps fans updated with regular posts.

On the work front, Disha will next be seen in the upcoming film Radhe: Your most wanted Bhai, along with Bollywood star Salman Khan. She was last seen in Malang alongside Aditya Roy Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Kunal Kemmu and Elli AvrRam.
Nanoscience - Blowing the whistle on COVID-19

Collaborators at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center are developing a breath-sampling whistle that could make COVID-19 screening easy to do at home.

The technology incorporates a unique hydrogel material to capture aerosols from exhaled breath and preserve the samples, which could either be sent to a lab for analysis or, for a fully at-home approach, transferred to an accompanying test kit that could detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

"Our motivation is to put actionable information in the hands of users to help them make timely decisions, such as whether to go to work or school, quarantine, or seek medical care," said UTHSC's Dr. Scott Strome.

The user-friendly testing format is suitable for a broad range of users, including children and the elderly. The prototype was 3D printed at ORNL's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and designed for low-cost mass production.

Media contact:

Ashley Huff,

865.241.6451,

huffac@ornl.gov

Image: https:/ / www. ornl. gov/ sites/ default/ files/ 2021-01/ covid_whistle_tag_no_logo. png

Caption: Researchers at ORNL's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center partnered to design a COVID-19 screening whistle for convenient home testing.

Credit: Michelle Lehman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Isotopes - Welding advances

A better way of welding targets for Oak Ridge National Laboratory's plutonium-238 production has sped up the process and improved consistency and efficiency. This advancement will ultimately benefit the lab's goal to make enough Pu-238 - the isotope that powers NASA's deep space missions - to yield 1.5 kilograms of plutonium oxide annually by 2026.

ORNL began using an orbital welder inside a protective glovebox for the weld that closes the hollow tube containing neptunium feedstock - the last step before these targets are irradiated in ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor to produce Pu-238.

The new computer-controlled orbital welder produces welds that do not require hand finishing, thereby shortening the time to complete welding jobs from a week to about a day.

"The time saved really adds up as we work toward our production goals," said ORNL's Robert Wham. Plutonium oxide is the power source for Perseverance, NASA's Mars rover.

Media contact:

Kristi Nelson Bumpus,

865.253.1381,

bumpuskl@ornl.gov

Image: https:/ / www. ornl. gov/ sites/ default/ files/ 2021-01/ 2021-P00361. jpg

Caption: The orbital welder makes a clean seam on hollow targets, eliminating the need for hand-finishing and reducing the amount of time staff spend in the glovebox.

Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Video: https:/ / youtu. be/ I1fiLKrH9JY

Caption: ORNL welder Devin Johnson uses a new orbital welder to seal a hollow target in a glovebox in the lab's Radiochemical Engineering Development Center. The new welder makes a clean seam on the metal target, eliminating the need for hand-finishing afterward.

Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Hydropower - More than megawatts

A new Department of Energy report produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory details national and international trends in hydropower, including the role waterpower plays in enhancing the flexibility and resilience of the power grid.

Much of this flexibility stems from pumped storage hydropower, or PSH, where reservoirs store water at higher elevations for on-demand electricity generation. PSH contributes 93% of grid-scale energy storage - more than batteries and all other technologies combined.

Interest has grown in PSH as a least-cost option for energy storage applications requiring long discharge cycles of four to 16 hours, with the project pipeline doubling over the last five years and new projects being explored in 21 states.

"Our analysis found that hydropower punches above its weight in terms of providing ancillary services like frequency regulation and reserves compared to its percentage of installed capacity," said ORNL's Rocio Uria-Martinez. "Hydropower's dispatchable nature provides critical benefits in filling gaps in power supply and addressing peak demand."

Media contact:

Kim Askey,

865.576.2841,

askeyka@ornl.gov

Image: https:/ / www. ornl. gov/ sites/ default/ files/ 2021-01/ WMMPA%20Pella%20Marion%20790. JPG

Caption: The latest data show hydropower represents 6.6% of all electricity generated and 38% of electricity from renewables produced in the United States. Pictured is the Red Rock Hydroelectric Project in Marion County, Iowa.

Credit: Missouri River Energy Services

###

Artificial intelligence (AI) is seen as a key technology with fields of application in a wide variety of areas in society. However, researching, developing and, in particular, using AI systems presents enormous challenges for the computing power and storage capacity needed to process large data volumes. These are generated for example in internet applications such as the Internet of Things and broadband services such as HD video on demand and social media. Traditional electronic hardware is no longer able to meet this challenge. A new research alliance headed by Dr. Wolfram Pernice, a professor at the Institute of Physics at the University of Munster (Germany), is developing fast, energy-efficient optical hardware alternatives. The alliance is now to receive almost six million euros for this research, over four years, from the European Commission, as part of the FET Proactive (Horizon 2020) funding line. The research teams involved include those from the University of Exeter (UK) and Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland).

"Our modern electronic technologies are fast approaching their limit, from a physics point of view," says Wolfram Pernice. "We need completely new methods for processing the enormous data volumes which are necessary for AI applications."

More computing power and energy efficiency

The PHOENICS project (the acronym stands for "Photonic enabled petascale in-memory computing with femtojoule energy consumption") aims to give a boost to the development of new computing resources. The researchers involved plan to create so-called photonic neuromorphic processors with unprecedented computing power and energy efficiency. In this case, "neuromorphic" means that the processors take inspiration from the human brain and that the information is processed and stored in one and the same place. In the case of traditional computers, the computing and data storage units are separate from each other. "Photonic" means that data are transported by means of light instead of electrons (as in traditional computers).

In the project, the PHOENICS consortium plans to use new types of materials to create the photonic neuromorphic processors. Another aim is to develop new methods of significantly increasing computing power.

The project is based on previous work done by Wolfram Pernice's group. A few weeks ago, for example, the team published a study in Nature in which it presented a hardware accelerator for so-called matrix multiplications. These multipliers handle the main processing load within neuromorphic networks. The researchers had combined the photonic structures with phase change materials (PCMs) to create very fast and energy-efficient photonic processors. PCMs are normally used in optical data storage with DVDs or Blu-Ray discs. In the processor which the team described, this enables the matrix elements to be stored and preserved without any energy input being needed. The light source which the physicists used was a chip-based frequency comb. Such a light source provides different optical wavelengths which, independently of one another, are processed in the same system. This enables parallel data processing to be carried out.

###

Project title:

Photonic enabled petascale in-memory computing with femtojoule energy consumption (PHOENICS)

Institutes involved:

University of Munster (Germany), University of Exeter (UK), Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland), Nanoscribe GmbH (Germany), University of Oxford (UK), Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Heinrich Hertz Institute (Germany), University of Ghent (Belgium), IBM Research GmbH (Switzerland), MicroR Systems Sarl (Switzerland)

EU Commission's "FET Proactive" funding line

FET Proactive provides funding - thematically focused - for revolutionary, multidisciplinary technological research as a response to social and industrial challenges. The aim is to mature novel research themes in technology and to open up and develop the research landscapes necessary for this. The idea is to enable ambitious topics to be included when the relevant research communities are structured and set up - as well as when industrial research agendas are developed. FET Proactive is part of the EU's "Horizon 2020" Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
[February 02, 2021] Predictive Dialer Software Market Size Worth $12.19 Billion By 2028: Grand View Research, Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global predictive dialer software market size is expected to reach USD 12.19 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 37.0% from 2021 to 2028. Predictive dialer software uses statistical algorithms to predict the availability of contact center agents and estimates the normal time for phone calls to be answered. The dialing rate is then adjusted accordingly considering these two factors. Key suggestions from the report: By component, the software segment is expected to continue dominating the market over the forecast period. The capability of the software to help agents in handling blended calls and deal with both outbound and inbound calls prompts businesses to adopt the software to deliver higher customer satisfaction

On the basis of deployment, cloud-based predictive dialer software assists businesses with the processes related to voice broadcasting and live call transfer. Its key features include voicemail detection, concurrent calling, campaign analytics, and text-to-speech conversion

In terms of enterprise size, small and medium enterprises need efficient communication systems, which can potentially boost their business. Predictive dialer systems are suitable for small and medium enterprises as they can autodial call efficiently as per the business needs

Based on end use, government agencies are widely adopting predictive dialer systems as they are affordable, can be easily installed on a desktop, and require no additional hardware. As a result, even smaller government organizations are adopting these systems to effectively communicate with citizens and staff

Continued adoption of the latest technologies in emerging economies, such as China and India , is expected to create growth opportunities for the market in Asia Pacific . Read 150 page research report with ToC on "Predictive Dialer Software Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Component (Software, Services), By Deployment, By Enterprise Size, By End Use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/predictive-dialer-software-market Businesses are widely adopting predictive dialer systems to reach out to a large number of customers automatically. Furthermore, predictive dialer dials from a list of phone numbers and can detect disconnected phone numbers, voicemail messages, busy signals, and unanswered numbers. Such a system potentially allows companies to kee their customers updated about a service issue or emergency.



Numerous businesses across the globe are adopting predictive dialer software to leverage automated dialer technology to connect with their customers in real-time. The software allows contact center agents to adjust the calling rate efficiently according to the sales benchmarks and quotas. The software also allows agents to access valuable customer information related to the next call in the lineup. Predictive dialer software can allow contact center agents to effectively handle high call volumes. The software can also help businesses in improving agent efficiency and productivity with a lesser workforce. The outbreak of COVID-19 is anticipated to drive the demand for predictive dialer software as companies prefer working with a limited workforce amid the pandemic.

Grand View Research has segmented the global predictive dialer software market on the basis of component, deployment, enterprise size, end use, and region: Predictive Dialer Software Component Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

Software



Services



Integration & Deployment



Support & Maintenance



Training & Consulting



Managed Services

Predictive Dialer Software Deployment Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

Cloud



On-premise

Predictive Dialer Software Enterprise Size Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

Large Enterprises



Small & Medium Enterprises

Predictive Dialer Software End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

BFSI



Government



Healthcare



IT & Telecom



Others

Predictive Dialer Software Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

North America



U.S.





Canada



Europe



Germany





U.K.



Asia Pacific



China





India





Japan



Latin America



Brazil



Middle East & Africa List of Key Players of Predictive Dialer Software Market Agile CRM

ChaseData Corporation

Convoso

Five9, Inc.

NICE inContact

PhoneBurner

RingCentral, Inc.

Star2Billing S.L.

VanillaSoft

Ytel Inc. Find more research reports on Next Generation Technologies Industry, by Grand View Research: Managed Services Market  The global managed services market size was valued at USD 174.98 billion in 2018 and is expected to register a CAGR of 11.7% from 2019 to 2025. Advancements in cloud-based technologies and technological proliferation, in general, is anticipated to fuel the growth.

The global managed services market size was valued at in 2018 and is expected to register a CAGR of 11.7% from 2019 to 2025. Advancements in cloud-based technologies and technological proliferation, in general, is anticipated to fuel the growth. Telecom API Market  The global telecom API market size was valued at USD 126.8 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9% from 2020 to 2027.

The global telecom API market size was valued at in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9% from 2020 to 2027. Customer Relationship Management Market  The global customer relationship management market size was valued at USD 40.2 billion in 2019 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 14.2% from 2020 to 2027. The industry is driven by growing demand for Software as a Service (SaaS) in the deployment of customer relationship management (CRM) suites and solutions. Gain access to Grand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports About Grand View Research Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead. Contact: Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell have held a phone call to coordinate their positions ahead of Borrell's visit to Russia, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service has reported.

"Josep Borrell assured Dmytro Kuleba that the EU's policy towards Russia will not change until the full fulfillment of Russia's obligations under the Minsk agreements," the report said.

Both parties discussed the situation in Russia and strongly condemned the violence against peaceful protesters, the brutal suppression of democratic protests by the Russian authorities, and systemic human rights violations in Russia in general.

Kuleba raised the issue of the EU imposing new restrictive measures against Russia in the field of human rights, which, among other things, should also apply to those guilty of persecuting Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied Crimea.

The sides paid special attention to the upcoming launch of the Crimean Platform and the EU's support for this initiative.

Kuleba thanked Borrell for his personal role in providing Ukraine with rapid access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Kuleba briefed Borrell on the current situation with the peaceful settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict in Donbas as part of the Normandy format and the Trilateral Contact Group.

Kuleba also briefed Borrell on the situation in the conflict zone in Donbas and the situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea. Borrell reaffirmed that he would inform the Russian side about a clear unchanging EU position on non-recognition of Russia's illegal attempted annexation of Crimea.

"Our conversation sends a clear signal that Ukraine's and the EU's policy towards Russia is coordinated, and Kyiv and Brussels share a common vision of their strategic approaches to Russia," Kuleba said.

A separate topic of the conversation concerned current issues on the agenda of Ukraine-EU relations, in particular preparations for a meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Council in Brussels on February 11 and the Eastern Partnership summit scheduled for 2021.

Borrell said he expected the successful holding of the Association Council meeting.

Borrell confirmed his intention to pay a visit to Ukraine, including a visit to the contact line in Donbas, as soon as COVID-19 restrictions allow doing so.

Borrell will pay his first visit to Moscow on February 4-6.

op


Houston officials this week plan to send survey links to allow people who received first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the city to schedule appointments for their second doses.

Health Director Stephen Williams on Monday said officials plan to send that link to people who got their first shot from the city later this week, and maybe even as soon as tomorrow.

The reach-out could make it easier for people to get their second appointments. Currently, city health workers call vaccinees to schedule their shots in the week before the 28-day window when the second dose is recommended.

The city has cited new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that the second Moderna dose should be given as close to 28 days as possible after the first, but can be given as far out as 42 days. The Health Department has said it anticipates everyone who gets a shot from the city should be able to get their second one within 28 days. The city has asked residents to avoid calling the city unless they are less than 48 hours from their 28-day window.

Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city has given out more than 2,300 second shots already and has scheduled another 11,971. He said the city has received 18,600 doses for second shots. That is in addition to 41,950 doses for first shots, of which the city has administered 33,839  about 80 percent of its supply.

The city closed its senior wait list  operated by the Harris County Area Agency on Aging  on Friday after more than 70,000 people called to enroll. Williams said it is hard to discern when the city will reopen that portal. It is separate from Harris Countys wait list, which launched last week, and has grown to more than 165,000 people.

The reason for that is to not really frustrate people, Williams said, noting that even if the city concentrated its entire weekly supply of about 9,000 shots on those 70,000 people, it would take weeks to get to everyone.

County health officials did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

The city did not open new appointments for this week, concentrating doses instead on the wait list, previously booked slots and vulnerable communities.

Turner hailed the citys efforts at the Hope Clinic and the Vietnamese Doctors Association in Alief on Saturday, where some 500 patients were able to get their shots. The city is hoping to do something similar on the northeast side of town this weekend, according to the mayor.

Williams said the supply has not yet picked up after President Joe Bidens administration announced last week it was close to securing more doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

The health director said Texas expects to receive an additional 50,000 doses in the near future, an amount he said is not a whole lot considering the size of the state.

The president has said the increased supply  about 200 million doses  would be available through the summer.

Editors note: This article has been updated to clarify that the city is sending a web survey to vaccine recipients. It is not launching a website.

dylan.mcguinness@chron.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - In Lily Tomlin's classic SNL comedy sketch, her telephone operator "Ernestine" famously delivers the punchline, "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company." But new research finds that satisfied customers mean increased profits even for public utilities that don't face competition.

Little is known about effect of customer satisfaction at utilities. As a result, utility managers are often unsure how much to invest in customer service - if anything at all. The issue also is of interest to regulators responsible for protecting consumers.

The study, in the Journal of Marketing Research, has important implications for both managers and regulators. Customer satisfaction predicts profits at utilities -- in spite of the fact that customers don't have an option to switch if they are unhappy. It shows how keeping customers happy lowers operating costs and ultimately saves utilities money.

"As with other companies, providing good customer service has efficiency-enhancing benefits for utility firms, such as lower direct and employee engagement costs of dealing with dissatisfied customers and it generates greater customer trust and cooperation from customers," said Neil Morgan, PETsMART, Inc. Distinguished Professor of Marketing at Kelley. "Our results indicate that -- at least as currently regulated -- greater satisfaction of utility customers not only ensures consumer welfare by improving utility provider efficiency but also increases the future profitability of the utility."

Using data from U.S. public utility firms from 2001 to 2017, researchers found utilities - as currently regulated - have a cost-based incentive to deliver and improve their customers' satisfaction.

Their findings run counter to prevailing assumptions that providing higher service quality raises utility system costs. They found "robust evidence" that customer satisfaction did not affect rates (prices per unit) or demand (unit sales volume). But they did find unambiguous evidence that it leads to profits only by reducing utility operating costs.

"Our study clearly indicates that if they aren't doing so already, utility managers need to track their customers' satisfaction," said Lopo Rego, associate professor of marketing and a Fettig/Whirlpool Fellow at Kelley. "They should set targets for customer satisfaction improvement and invest in strategies designed to accomplish this goal."

For the average utility in their sample, a one-unit (on the 1 to 100 point ACSI index) improvement in customer satisfaction decreases operating costs by $29 million overall, through lowering customer service, distribution, and selling and general administrative costs to lowered costs of $3, $8, and $13 million per year respectively.

Efficiency gains coming from improved customer satisfaction, trust and goodwill could lead to greater acceptance of costly, new technology initiatives that utilities want to introduce, researchers said.

"If greater customer satisfaction enhances both consumer willingness to allow utilities to introduce such technologies and subsequent consumer use of these innovations, then utility satisfaction improvement programs should be managed and aligned with their technology initiatives as well as their efficiency programs," they said.

"For policymakers, our findings that customer satisfaction does not lead to increased profits via higher rates or greater demand suggests current regulatory controls are effective." They added. "Our findings suggest regulators should view investments in customer satisfaction as recoverable costs."

###

The other author of the paper, "Customer Satisfaction and Firm Profits in Monopolies: A Study of Utilities," is Abhi Bhattacharya, who earned his Ph.D. from Kelley and currently is assistant professor of marketing at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.
Manx National Heritage welcomes back visitors

Manx National Heritage has confirmed plans for a phased re-opening of the Manx Museum and House of Manannan following the recent completion of the circuit-breaker lockdown.

The House of Manannan partially re-opened today with the shop, cafe and temporary exhibition gallery opeen to the public again.

The full re-opening of the Manx Museum and the House of Manannan will be on Saturday 13 February, the start of the Half Term break.

Edmund Southworth, Director of Manx National Heritage said: We are very grateful to the Manx public, key workers and our staff team for responding so positively to recent restrictions, helping our Island recover and quickly return to a relatively normal way of life."
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 21:08:54|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday expressed the hope that the U.S. government will invite World Health Organization (WHO) experts to carry out novel coronavirus source tracing research in the United States.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview that China's arrangements for WHO experts were not transparent.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, China has always maintained close communication and cooperation with WHO on the source tracing issue in an open and transparent manner, Wang noted, adding that the visit of WHO experts to China is part of the global scientific research cooperation on source tracing. The Chinese government has provided strong support and assistance to this end.

"Chinese experts have shared a large amount of information and research results with their counterparts and conducted several rounds of in-depth exchanges on scientific issues of common concern. WHO and international experts made positive comments on this," said the spokesperson.

Virus source tracing is a complex scientific issue involving many countries and places. Many clues, reports and studies indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic had already broken out in many parts of the world as early as the second half of 2019, Wang added.

He cited the example of a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which says COVID-19 antibodies were found in blood samples from routine blood donations collected in December 2019 in the United States.

This means COVID-19 infections may have occurred in the U.S. at that time, earlier than the country's first official case on Jan. 21, 2020, he said.

"It is hoped that the U.S. side will adopt a positive, scientific and cooperative attitude and maintain transparency on the virus source tracing issue, as China has done, and invite WHO experts to carry out source tracing research in the United States, so as to make positive contributions to international anti-epidemic cooperation and scientific source tracing," he said. Enditem
The father of a young Australian woman who died suspiciously in Africa four years ago has welcomed a decision to hold an inquest into his daughter's death.

Melbourne woman Elly Warren was found dead outside a toilet block in the Mozambique beach town of Tofo in November 2016 after a night out.

The 20-year-old was just two days from returning to Australia after a volunteer marine conservation trip when she was killed.

Her father Paul Warren requested an inquest into her unsolved death two years ago.

Victoria coroner Darren Bracken on Tuesday said he hoped it would go ahead in the middle of this year.

Paul Warren has welcomed a decision to hold an inquest into his daughter Elly's (pictured together) unsolved death in Mozambique in November 2016

Elly (pictured), from Melbourne, was found dead outside a toilet block in Mozambique in November 2016

Mr Warren described the development as 'amazing' news, the Herald Sun reported.

'The whole family is delighted because the coroner has basically said he wants the AFP to go in, with a joint investigation with the Mozambique government and find out exactly what it knows and what happened, because the court requires that information  this is what we've been wanting all this time,' Mr Warren said.

He has spent at least $50,000 and made two trips to Mozambique over the last four years after taking the investigation into his own hands.

But Ms Warren's stepfather Dave Cafarella is worried the middle of the year might be too soon given delays in information coming from Mozambique.

Australian Federal Police officers have not formally been part of the investigation into Ms Warren's death.

There is a formal process where they can apply to Mozambique to join the investigation and the southern African nation's authorities have now revealed they're open to it.

Mr Bracken said it would be useful if that were to occur.

He hoped an inquest, taking about a week, could happen mid-year. But he noted it could be pushed back if investigations are ongoing.

Ms Warren (pictured), 20, was on a diving and volunteering program when she was killed during a night out with friends in Tofo in November 2016

An alternative would be that the inquest goes ahead without additional information the court and AFP investigators requested from Mozambique in December.

Mr Cafarella said the middle of this year wasn't long for Mozambique to respond.

'Our biggest concern with this is that the coronial inquest could end without a finding,' he said.

'And if that were the case then the AFP would stop investigating, Mozambique would more than likely stop investigating and we'd be back to square one. If that happened I think we'd all feel pretty let down.'

Mozambique authorities have made an official finding that Ms Warren was murdered, but Mr Cafarella and Ms Warren's mother Nicole Cafarella fear they will be quick to go back on that ruling.

Mr Warren had been requesting an Australia inquest into Elly's (pictured) death for the past two years

They believe if an Australian court records an undetermined finding, or one other than homicide, that the Mozambique authorities will follow suit and end their investigation.

That would leave private investigators hired by Ms Warren's family as their only hope for answers.

Mr Bracken said he was very conscious of their concerns. A date is yet to be formally set for the inquest.

The AFP was also granted permission to redact certain information from the inquest brief on Tuesday.

Andrew Yuile, for the AFP, said there was a chance the release of information could prejudice ongoing investigations or damage international relations with Mozambique.

'It would have, or could have, a further impact on the future conduct of this investigation - if that relationship breaks down even less material may be obtained by this court, given the need for co-operation in their provision of information to Australia,' he said.


February is the new January.

I just dont think that is realistic, Dr Tony Holohan has said, pouring cold water over the prospect of sun holidays and overseas travel this summer.

Many of us feared as much; we just didn't want it said out loud. So far 2021 has been a gruelling Groundhog Day, after all, and the prospect of flopping on a beach, or of American accents returning to deserted resort towns like Killarney and Cong, was something to look forward to.

In truth, whatever Michael OLeary and Ryanair might say about a jab and go summer, Irelands inbound and outbound holiday industries have all but written off travel for at least the first half of 2021.

Read More

Given the vaccine delays and virus variants, and quarantine hotels in the works, Q3 (business-speak for July to September) is seen as the optimistic scenario for any reopening.

So where do those of us craving a holiday go from here?

On the plus side, another summer of staycations may be a match made in heaven for Irish people who have fallen back in love with this island, and a tourism industry starved of international visitors.

Theres a new buzzword in town  revenge travel, referring to a hoped-for holiday boom once pent-up demand, cabin fever and household savings are uncorked.

Failte Ireland has a 6m 'Keep Discovering' campaign ready to go, grants for outdoor dining are in the works, and businesses are beavering away behind the scenes to be ready when the time is right.

Summer bookings are heating up, too  particularly for the peak months of July and August, and for self-catering, camping and hotels with pools and activities.

Yesterday, an email from my wife popped into my inbox: Do you think we should try and book a summer holiday in Ireland? X says lots of places already booked up.

Summer holiday chats like ours are kicking off around kitchen tables all over the country. Having learned from 2020, and not wanting to be disappointed by a lack of availability, people are taking a punt.

Demand for camping is phenomenal, according to the Irish Caravan and Camping Council. Self-catering in coastal areas is 85pc booked for July and August, says Jacinta Doolin of the Irish Self-Catering Federation.

Due to the uncertainty around reopening, however, demand remains low from April through June, and there is far more availability away from hotspots like Kerry and Wexford, or popular resorts like Kilkee and Clifden.

The rest of the country is wide open, Ms Doolin adds.

Once the holiday rush starts, the rip-off debates follow. Of course, there will be bad apples and opportunists. Tourism and hospitality businesses have been through the wringer, but they need to explain why Ireland is pricier than Portugal, and to keep value front and centre in their offerings. That means lots of off-peak deals and packages with add-ons like extra nights, activities, or resort credit like food and drink discounts.

But punters have a role to play too. Remember how expensive it is to run a business in this country, what our hospitality industry has been through, and dont judge a house, or a holiday, solely on the price.

Where is it? When is it? How many does it sleep? Is it luxury or basic?

If you see bad value, by all means call it out. But we owe it to ourselves to avoid the Rip-off Ireland reflex, too.

Instead of the cobalt and titanium ball-and-socket joint of Thursdays first surgery, said to be the first of its kind on a tiger in North America, the FHNA removed the arthritic head and neck of the femur, or thigh bone, to allow the leg muscles to form a functional, fibrous joint in place of the deteriorated original.

The Kogi State Government has reacted to the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 labelling the state a high-risk zone to be avoided over the disease.

The National Incident Manager (NIM) of the PTF, Mukhtar Muhammad, on Monday, said the state government had failed to report testing and refused to establish isolation centres.

The PTF, in its analysis of the pandemic in Nigeria, identified 22 high-burdened local government areas in 13 states.

Mr Muhammad said In addition to these, we have states where data is not coming forth. If we dont test, your data will not be analysed and if your data is not analysed, we wont know the level of the pandemic in your state.

Notable among the states are Yobe, Jigawa, Zamfara and Kebbi and of course Kogi that has not been reporting at all.

States that are not testing are probably at much higher risk than the states that are currently known as high-burdened states.

A state that is not testing at all is an absolute high risk for Nigerians to visit because, there is no testing facility and even if you fall sick, there is no isolation centre and they dont even acknowledge that the disease exists. So for that reason, we put that state at the top of high-risk states.

According to Mr Mohammed, the 22 high-burdened local government areas, mostly in state capitals, contributed over 95 per cent of new cases recorded in the last six weeks.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how Kogi governor, Yahaya Bello, spread misinformation about the virus as his government constantly discouraged testing.

The controversial state has only recorded five cases of the virus since the pandemic broke out February last year. In fact, it last recorded a COVID-19 infection in July 2020.

Also, Kogi, a state of almost 3.5 million people, had tested only 425 samples by December 11, the national situational report published December 12 by the NCDC showed.

Reacting to the PTF warning, Mr Bellos chief press secretary, Onogwu Muhammed, described the position of the Taskforce as political.

Mr Muhammed, who spoke via a recorded phone-in interview granted on Tuesday, said: We think of how to make our people live healthy as a state. The governor has made his position known as far as the Coronavirus is concerned. We believe in the existence of coronavirus and we are taking the necessary precautions as advised by the NCDC and other health institutions across the world.

We are not arguing or debating with the PTF or whatever body or whatever group of people who come in based on sentiment or political interest in order to say whatever they want to say. Our major and fundamental objective as a state is to protect the lives of the people.

Mr Muhammad said the government was committed to the health of its citizenry , citing its response to the Lassa Fever outbreak in 2017.

In 2017, when there was an outbreak of Lassa feverit was devastating and much more deadly than coronavirus and what did the government do? We went to the NCDC and said this is the problem we are having in Kogi State and what are we going to do?

Based on their advice, Kogi State set up a bio-safety laboratory and by that, we nibbed the outbreak quickly and forestalled other problems. In the case of coronavirus, the state government quickly set up four isolation centres. Well equipped and they are there.

He further stated that every action and response of the state to the pandemic had been met with criticisms but later adopted by other states.

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The governors spokesperson advised the federal government to focus on solving the problem of insecurity, which he said has claimed more lived than COVID-19.

PREMIUM TIMES reached out to Mr Muhammad to know the number of COVID-19 tests carried out in the state so far.

But he failed to respond to telephone calls and text messages put across on Tuesday.
ROME, FEB 2 - Carabinieri police on Tuesday detained 22 people in a big operation targetting Sicily's Stidda mafia clans, sources said. The operation was linked to an investigation which revealed that fugitive Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro is still recognised as the leader who decides who is promoted or demoted in the Sicilian Mafia, despite having been on the run since 1993. It also showed that relations between the American and Sicilian mafias were never broken off, A criminal lawyer whose offices were allegedly used for meetings of mafia bosses was among the people arrested. According to the probe, two lifers who had obtained semi-libety were in charge of reorganizing the Stidda; Italy's fifth mafia after 'Ndrangheta from Calabria, Cosa Nostra from Sicily, the Camorra from Naples and the Sacra Corona Unita from Puglia. The lifers also allegedly exchanged messages with bosses being held under the tough 41 bis jail regime. (ANSA).
Tonnes of toilet roll were left strewn across a busy motorway after a lorry crashed in icy conditions.

The HGV rolled over on the A50 near East Midlands Airport last night, spilling its load and causing lengthy tailbacks.

Police, firefighters and an air ambulance raced to the scene at Lockington to cut the driver from the cab as the vehicle straddled both lanes of the busy road.

The HGV rolled over on the A50 near East Midlands Airport last night, spilling its load

The driver was unharmed in the crash - and a tractor was sent to collect hundreds of packs of toilet roll left on the carriageway

Police, firefighters and an air ambulance raced to the scene at Lockington to free the driver from the cab

The driver was unharmed in the crash, and a tractor was sent to collect hundreds of packs of toilet roll left on the carriageway before the road reopened some six hours later.

A guest at the nearby Hilton hotel said: 'I heard a loud screech and then a massive bang...I don't know how you crash on a straight section of road.'

The incident comes amid the Met Office issuing a warning for snow and ice.

Lorries jack-knifed, vehicles became stuck and gritters were out in force on Britain's roads today as parts of the country were battered by blizzards and villages were left at risk of becoming cut off.

The wintry weather, which also led to beautiful picture postcard scenes and dogs excited to play in the snow, came amid concerns Scotland faces a new 'Beast from the East' as freezing air sweeps in from Siberia this week.

Forecasters say a 'sudden stratospheric warming' event over the North Pole last month could herald a repeat of the white-out conditions seen three years ago as bands of rain from England meet winds from Russia.

Areas of Scotland face snow up to 16in (40cm) deep over higher ground, with the country under five consecutive days of snow warnings that also extend down to northern England today and tomorrow along with an ice alert.

Hundreds of packets of toilet roll spilled out of the lorry as it crashed on the icy road

A JCB was sent to the scene last night to clear up before the road reopened some six hours later

East Midlands Ambulance Service and Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service were also called to the scene

Further south heavy rain threatens more flooding in already deluged areas of England, with the Environment Agency issuing 154 flood alerts and 53 warnings today, while Natural Resources Wales put out three alerts.

Parts of northern England have already seen heavy snowfall overnight into this morning, with the Met Office warning rural communities are at risk of becoming cut off and widespread travel disruption is likely.

A handful of schools in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, were closed this morning to children of key workers who were still allowed to attend during the pandemic, while there were major problems on the M62 in West Yorkshire.

There is a mixture of temperatures across the UK today, with 6C (43F) forecast in Manchester, 5C (41F) in Belfast and 3C (37F) in Edinburgh, but 13C (55F) in London and 12C (54F) in Cardiff on the other side of a weather front.


Judge dismisses Virginia churchs lawsuit against governor over COVID-19 restrictions

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A judge has dismissed a lawsuit leveled by a church against Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam over previous coronavirus pandemic restrictions on in-person worship attendance.

In an order issued last week, U.S. District Court Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen ruled against the lawsuit brought by Lighthouse Fellowship Church of Chincoteague Island.

At issue were executive orders passed by Northam last year that greatly limited in-person gatherings, including worship services at houses of worship. Lighthouse was cited for violating the orders.

Allen concluded in part that the lawsuit was moot since the earlier executive orders had been replaced by new orders that allowed for larger in-person worship gatherings in Virginia.

Allen also concluded that Northam was immune from being sued due to the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which reads: The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

Last April, Lighthouse Pastor Kevin Wilson was cited by local authorities for holding an in-person worship service on Palm Sunday that had 16 people in attendance.

At the time, Virginia restricted in-person worship services to no more than 10 people, with any violators facing a punishment of up to a year in jail and a fine of as much as $2,500.

In response, Wilson sued the state last April, arguing that the measure violated his religious freedom and that the service adhered to various public health guidelines like social distancing.

Absent emergency relief from this Court, Lighthouse, its pastor, and all members and/or attendees will suffer immediate and irreparable injury from the threat of criminal prosecution for the mere act of engaging in the free exercise of religion and going to church, read the suit.

Indeed, if Lighthouse, its pastor, or its members do not subscribe to what Governor Northam has prescribed as orthodox in a worship service, they risk becoming criminals in the Commonwealth.

In May 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest in support of the church, contending the congregation had a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim under the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Last July, an order was issued in the General District Court for the County of Accomack, officially dropping the charges against the pastor over the April service.

We are pleased these charges have now been dropped as we continue to uphold the churchs First Amendment right to exist and freely assemble, Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel, which represented Wilson, said in a statement at the time.

Governor Ralph Northam has clearly discriminated against Lighthouse Fellowship Church and these criminal charges reflect his blatant unconstitutional actions against Pastor Wilson.
Russia jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny for about 2 years and 8 months, ignoring Western calls to free him as President Vladimir Putin seeks to crush a resurgence in protests against his rule.

A Moscow court backed demands by penal authorities and prosecutors that Navalny, 44, serve time in prison instead of the suspended sentence he received for a 2014 fraud conviction, for alleged violations of his probation. The term of 3 1/2 years was reduced by the period of about 10 months that Navalny spent under house arrest for the sentence.

"The main point of this trial isn't how it turns out for me -- putting me in jail isn't hard," Navalny told the court earlier Tuesday from the glass defendant's cage. "The main reason this is happening is to intimidate a huge number of people."

Tens of thousands have joined protests nationwide since Navalny was detained in mid-January as he returned to Russia from Germany, where he recovered from a near-fatal nerve-agent attack that he and Western governments blamed on Putin's security service. The Kremlin denies responsibility.

Navalny's imprisonment looks set to escalate the confrontation between the authorities and opposition protesters that has already resulted in more than 9,000 detentions at rallies in dozens of cities in the last two weekends. The U.S. and the European Union have called on Russia to release Navalny and condemned the police crackdowns.

The hearing took place under heavy security with riot police positioned around the court as Navalny's supporters gathered outside. Police detained at least 358 people, according to the OVD-Info monitoring group.

While the Kremlin's move to jail Putin's most prominent critic aims to put a stop to his political activities, Navalny's backers say he'll become a powerful symbol of resistance behind bars. A major test will come when Russia holds parliamentary elections in September.

The opposition leader received the suspended sentence in a fraud trial involving the Russian branch of French cosmetics company Yves Rocher that also led to a 3 1/2 year jail term for his younger brother, Oleg. Both men denied wrongdoing, and the European Court of Human Rights has called the case politically motivated.
This is the second part of a two-part article rebutting a commentary published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Viewpoint, which claims school reopenings are safe. Part One can be read here.

The authors of the JAMA article could have also referenced recent news reports from Austin, Texas, that found positivity rates in schools had climbed over 20 percent. A study conducted by researchers in Michigan and Washington state found that when community infections were low, reopening schools did not seem to make the outbreaks worse. However, when infection rates climbed, schools did contribute to community spread.

A physician and public health professor at George Washington University, Dr. Leana Wen, offered a candid assessment, So, there are two issues: One is that we dont have enough contact tracers all across the country. The second problem is that the community prevalence is just so high that its going to be very difficult to sort out where the infections are originating from.

Study of Marine recruits during quarantine

The CDC has acknowledged that most COVID-19 cases are caused by people who are either presymptomatic or asymptomatic but has deliberately failed to connect these findings to the dangers posed by such transmissions in schools.

Part of the answer to this important question was found in a study funded by the US military and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December involving Marine recruits during quarantine .

A total of 1,848 recruits volunteered to participate in the study. The average age of these recruits was between 18 and 21, which is just older than high school students, making the results relevant to the question of the pandemics course in schools.

Before entering boot camp, the recruits quarantined for two weeks at home and then two additional weeks on a closed college campus. This involved wearing masks, socially distancing and undergoing daily monitoring of symptoms that included temperature checks.

The volunteers had SARS-Cov-2 PCR testing conducted within two days of their arrival, and again on day 7 and day 14, their last day of supervised quarantine. In the first two days, 16 recruits tested positive, but only one had developed symptoms. By the end of the second week, 35 more participants were found to be infected. Of the 51 volunteers that tested positive, only five had symptoms in the week before their test. That means that less than 10 percent of young adults in this well-controlled study presented with any symptoms.

Additionally, no SARS-CoV-2 infections were identified as a result of daily symptom monitoring. These findings have significant relevance to school openings and highlight that even under the best circumstances, identifying cases among young people will be challenging.

Mitigation studies revisited

One essential factor that the Democrats, the CDC and the bourgeois press keep silent on is that school closures are a crucial mitigating measure to aid in curtailing community transmission. Teachers and students must have safe environments to conduct classes without fear of becoming infected. But the principal reason for school closures is to suppress the transmission of the virus to protect health systems and avoid further loss of life and spread of disease among the population as a whole.

Childen going tp school in Murray, Utah, last August. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

President Biden and his nominee for education secretary, Miguel Cardona, have gone on record to say that school closures would not help mitigate the pandemic. But it is precisely here that the CDC and proponents of school reopening have avoided referencing the following studies delineating the public health benefit of closing educational institutions:

 In a JAMA study published last July 29, the authors had found that statewide school closures in the first wave of the pandemic led to a decline in the incidence of COVID-19 of 62 percent per week. Similarly, mortality saw a 58 percent decrease per week. States that closed earlier saw the most significant relative change per week.

 According to a study published in Science , looking at various government interventions used against COVID-19, the combination of the closure of schools and universities, limiting gatherings to 10 people or less, and closing most nonessential businesses reduced the reproductive number, R0, to below one. In other words, it led to an overall reduction in the number of infections in the community. Among the interventions listed, school closures and limiting gatherings to 10 people had the highest impact on mitigating the pandemic.

 In a Nature study published in November that ranked the effectiveness of worldwide COVID-19 interventions, the cancellation of small gatherings, closure of educational institutions, border restrictions, increased availability of PPE and individual restrictions were statistically significant in reducing the reproductive number, R0.

 A German discussion paper published last July that evaluated the effectiveness of school closures and other pre-lockdown COVID-19 mitigations across three countries, Argentina, Italy and South Korea, found that early interventions that included school closures reduced the total number of COVID-19 deaths and helped flatten the epidemic curve. The authors write, Our preferred estimatesthose that in the main analysis are obtained with the smallest root mean squared prediction errorindicate that the interventions prevented 84%, 29%, and 91% COVID-19 deaths in Argentina, Italy and South Korea, respectively, in comparison to a counterfactual projection. These results are robust across different specifications and show that the effectiveness increases the earlier interventions are enacted. ... The later schools were closed nationwide during the course of the pandemic, the lower the effectiveness of this measure.

The argument being put forth by the Biden administration and the Democrats is a deliberately misleading one. When they assert that school closures do little to halt the pandemic, they mean that without all other aspects of non-pharmaceutical interventions in place, school closures will do little to control community spread of the virus. The study published in Science corroborates that by itself, schools are insufficient to bring the reproductive number under one.

That is not an argument for reopening schools, but for making the closure of schools part of a whole-society effort to control the coronaviruss spread. The fight to prevent school reopenings must be conducted with the struggle to implement a lockdown of nonessential businesses, with full income support for all the workers and small business owners affected.

Concerns over SARS-CoV-2 variants

The rapid developments of new variants of the coronavirus, such as the B.1.1.7 (also known as the UK variant), circulating widely in the US and many other nations, raises significant new problems for fighting the pandemic. The N501Y mutation in the spike protein of the variants has not only made them more contagious, but it also seems it makes the virus more lethal. There is some evidence that they may also be impacting younger people more severely.

Dr. David Strain, a British physician treating COVID-19 patients and an instructor at the University of Exeters medical school, has seen a rise in admissions to hospitals among younger people and women. He found that the average age of admission to the ICUs has declined from December to January.

After many months of genomic stability in the virus, suddenly, three distinct versions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on three separate continents have independently acquired similar mutations involving their spike protein. According to a new report published in Wired, that pattern is what scientists refer to as convergent evolution, and its a sign of trouble ahead. This means that separate SARS-CoV-2 viruses have acquired similar mutations that help them evade the human immune response. Examples of convergent evolution in nature include such concurrent and independent phenomena as the evolution of flight by bats, birds and insects.

Dr. Stephen Goldstein, an evolutionary virologist, explained that the variants becoming more infectious is a real benefit to them, from the standpoint of their survivability. They have arrived at the same solution to their dilemma at the same time. If random chance created these mutations, it would improve their odds to acquire the ability to invade as many people as possible. However, it appears that there are selective pressures to these mutations which aid the virus to evade a persons immune system. Vaccines could create these selective pressures as well, but they have been introduced too recently in the course of the pandemic to be the dominant factor presently. (See the link to the study: mRNA vaccine-elicited antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and circulating variants .)

According to Dr. Goldstein, The convergent evolution of wilier versions of the virus might just be a consequence of so many poorly managed government pandemic responses, which didnt marshal sufficient resources or inspire the kind of collective action required to not just crush the initial curve, but keep it crushed.

However, as the virus runs rampant and governments attempt to vaccinate the population quickly in ways that violate protocols without containing the epidemic and looking to force schools open, the consequences could well be additional convergent evolutions that produce an extremely virulent strain of the coronavirus.

This danger was stated most succinctly last week by Dr. Katherine OBrien, director for Immunizations, Vaccines and Biologicals at the World Health Organization:

Risk of variants relative to the vaccines is ever greater when the transmission is very high in the communities. Not only because of variants that have occurred but because of the possibility of additional variants emerging under the pressure of vaccines.  We have these amazing tools, and the urgency is to deploy them. But we risk something about those tools if we are also not suppressing transmission to the maximum degree possible where those tools can be effective is setting when there is limited transmission.  We have to emphasize about the importance of really crushing transmission now while we are rolling out these new vaccines.

The ruling classes see school openings as necessary to maximize surplus value extraction out of the population. As Bidens top economic aide Brian Deese told a Reuters conference last month, We need to get the schools open so that parents  can get back to work. The Biden administration and the Democratic Party, backed by the teachers unions and the Republicans, are playing with fire.

The well-being of the community cannot be left in the hands of any government that places the enrichment of the financial oligarchs over its populations well-being. The concerns being raised by teachers and workers worldwide are validated by the science that must guide humanitys struggle to rid itself of an economic system that not only is a dead weight on social progress, but threatens mass extermination on an unprecedented scale. The pandemic is such a scourge, with the contradictions of capitalism blocking a serious, science-driven response that prioritizes saving lives, not corporate profit.

Sloan Digital Sky Survey image of blazar Markarian 421. Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Astronomers from Switzerland and Germany have performed multiwavelength observations of a high-synchrotron-peaked blazar known as Mrk 421. Results of this observational campaign provide more insights into the variability of gamma-ray emission from this source. The study was published January 26 on arXiv.org.

Blazars are very compact quasars associated with supermassive black holes at the centers of active, giant elliptical galaxies. In general, blazars belong to a larger group of active galaxies that host active galactic nuclei (AGN), and their characteristic features are relativistic jets pointed almost exactly toward the Earth. Based on their optical emission properties, astronomers divide blazars into two classes: flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) that feature broad, prominent optical emission lines, and BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs), which do not.

Some FSRQs are high-synchrotron-peaked (HSP) sources as their synchrotron peak is above 1,000 THz in the rest frame. Observations show that particles are efficiently accelerated up to very high energies (VHEs) in the jets of HSPs, which makes such sources very interesting for astronomers studying extreme blazars.

At a redshift of about 0.031, Mrk 421 is a HSP blazar with a low-energy synchrotron component peaking above 100,000 THz. It showcases bright and persistent GeV and TeV emission with frequent aring activities. Previous observations have shown that gamma-ray emission from Mrk 421 is rapidly variable and its origin is still debated.

In order to shed more light on the origin of this emission, a team of astronomers led by Axel Arbet-Engels of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, decided to analyze observational data obtained between December 2012 and April 2018, using nine different instruments spanning from radio to gamma-ray band.

"We used 5.5 years of unbiased observing campaign data, obtained using the FACT telescope and the Fermi LAT detector at TeV and GeV energies, the longest and densest so far, together with contemporaneous multi-wavelength observations, to characterize the variability of Mrk 421 and to constrain the underlying physical mechanisms," the researchers wrote in the paper.

The study found that the strongest variations of Mrk 421 occur in the hard X-rays and in the TeV energy band. It turned out that X-ray and flares in the TeV energy band are very well correlated. The TeV and X-ray fluxes measured simultaneously were also found to be correlated.

According to the paper, the average lag between the TeV and X-ray variations is at a level of less than 0.6 days. The variations in the GeV energy band appear to be strongly and widely correlated with optical and radio variability. It was found that the radio variations are lagging these in the GeV band by 30 to 100 days.

Summing up the results, the astronomers concluded that X-ray and TeV emissions are driven by the same population of high-energy particles. They added that such variability could be caused by variations of the electron maximal energy, or by, for instance, the magnetic field affecting electrons and protons.

More information: The relentless variability of Mrk 421 from the TeV to the radio, arXiv:2101.10651 [astro-ph.HE] The relentless variability of Mrk 421 from the TeV to the radio, arXiv:2101.10651 [astro-ph.HE] arxiv.org/abs/2101.10651

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General Motors has just delivered an electric shock to the automotive world. America's biggest automaker says that it wants its entire vehicle lineup to be electric by 2035. That's a mere 14 years from now.

This shouldn't be a shock. Electric cars are coming at us fast.

But recall that less than two years ago, then-President Donald Trump tried to slow this necessary transition. He demanded that carmakers reject California's tighter carbon-emissions standards -- rules that would have helped Detroit move more quickly toward the clean energy vehicles the world was demanding.

GM sided with him, while Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW were happy to work with California. Trump then retaliated against America's No. 2 carmaker, accusing Ford of wanting to build "a much more expensive car, that is far less safe and doesn't work as well." None of those charges are true, in case you're wondering.

Cynics say that GM CEO Mary Barra was playing up to Trump then and is now playing up to President Joe Biden, who is going big on clean energy. In any case, the move to an all-electric fleet is a business decision.

Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands say they will ban the sale of new gasoline cars by 2030. China announced that most vehicles sold there by 2035 must be electric. (GM sells more cars in China, through joint ventures, than in the United States.)

For an idea of how Wall Street views the electric vehicle future, consider that investors put a value on Tesla -- an electric car and clean energy company founded in 2003 -- 10 times that of GM.

Oh, and while Washington was trying to hold domestic carmakers back, China was building dominance. China leads the world in making battery packs for electric vehicles, by far. It's grabbed control of much of Earth's raw materials needed for electric cars. And it is offering princely subsidies for the vehicles' purchase.

Biden wants to extend the $7,500 tax incentive to buy EVs and says he will build 500,000 charging stations coast to coast. Both moves would further boost domestic demand for electric vehicles. That would lower the automakers' per-vehicle costs in a global market, raising the companies' profits.

But how strong is current domestic demand for electric vehicles? Let's put it this way: One day after GM started taking orders for a zero-emission Hummer, the first year's production was sold out.

Back in the days of oil supremacy, the Hummer had become the epitome of polluting excess. Some owners seemed to like it for that reason. But power is no longer the province of fossil fuels. The electric Hummer has 1,000 horsepower and can go zero to 60 miles per hour in three seconds.

Meanwhile, the Ford Mustang Mach-E sport utility vehicle was a star at the recent Beijing Auto Show. The Mach-E is a complicated concept. Not your pony car of yore, it is an electrified SUV cosmetically altered to look a bit Mustang-like. It has four doors! Whatever. Edmunds just made it its top-rated luxury EV, beating out Audi, Porsche, Jaguar, Polestar and Tesla.

Funny to read that Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and former GM executive, said she told carmakers: "When Joe Biden gets elected, your world will turn upside down. You've got to be at the table or else this thing gets jammed down your throat."

By contrast, Bloomberg News reports that "Biden's position has been met with a collective sigh of relief in some quarters of Detroit." Finally, an administration is interested in easing the necessary transition.

GM plans to build an electric-vehicle battery factory in the Lordstown, Ohio, area. Here we go.

COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM

Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said on Tuesday that farmers' agitation may continue till October as the protesters are not going to return home until the three contentious farm laws are withdrawn.

"Our slogan is - 'kanoon wapsi nahi, to ghar wapsi nahi' (Will not go back home until the laws are taken back). This agitation will not conclude before October, it will not end anytime soon," said Tikait.

Speaking about the violence that broke out during their tractor rally on Republic Day, the farmer leader said the youth who hoisted the flag at Red Fort was given way by the authorities themselves. "All this was done to malign the image of Punjabi community and paint the image of farmers as anti-national," he added.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella organisation of over 40 Indian farmers unions leading the agitation, said earlier on Tuesday that there can be no "formal" talks with the government until "harassment" by police and administration stops and detained farmers are released.

The organisation alleged that increased barricading, including digging trenches, fixing nails on roads, setting up barbed-wire fences, closing internal roads, stopping internet services and "orchestrating protests through BJP-RSS workers" are part of "attacks" being organised by the government, its police and administration against the farmers.

Thousands of farmers been protesting on various points of Delhi border since 26 November last year against the three farm laws passed by the BJP-led central government in September 2020.

Here are the key updates from the protest sites today:

Sanjay Raut meets Tikait at Ghazipur

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday reached the farmers' protest site at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border where he met Tikait.

The way vandalism unfolded here after 26 January and an attempt made to suppress the movement and Tikait, we felt it is our responsibility to stand by the farmers' and extend support of the whole of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray saahab," Raut told reporters.

A major Hindutva ally of the BJP-led NDA till 2019, Shiv Sena was one of the 19 opposition parties which boycotted the President's address ahead of the Budget Session on 29 January and extended support to the farmers' agitation.

'Protest is apolitical'

After Raut's visit, Tikait said that the farmers' protest is apolitical and no politician has been given the mic or space on the stage.

"There is no problem if opposition is coming to support us but it should not be politicised. We cannot do anything if leaders come. The traffic movement has not been blocked by farmers, it is because of the police barricading," he said.

Tikait on 31 January had said the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) had not allowed political parties in the movement against new central farm laws but took political support only after the democracy was mocked" at protest sites.

Haryana govt extends suspension of mobile internet

Haryana Government on Monday extended the suspension of mobile internet services, SMS services and all dongle services in seven districts till 5 pm today to prevent any disturbance to peace and public order amid a protest by farmers against three farm laws.

The voice calls, however, are exempted from the suspension.

According to an official statement, the government has extended the suspension of mobile internet services in the districts of Kaithal, Panipat, Jind, Rohtak, Charkhi Dadri, Sonipat and Jhajjar till 5 pm on February 2

View Full Image Security personnel stand guard next to police barricades along a blocked highway (AFP)

Cement nails, barricades at Ghazipur, Tikri

Security remained tightened at the Ghazipur and Tikri borders of the national capital in view of the protests. The Delhi Police has cemented nails near barricades at Ghazipur (Delhi-Uttar Pradesh) and Tikri (Delhi-Haryana) borders.

Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava had visited the Ghazipur border on Monday to inspect the security arrangements.

RS proceedings adjourned twice

Congress and other opposition parties on Tuesday forced adjournments of Rajya Sabha proceedings twice in the pre-noon session as they insisted on taking up a discussion on the issue of farmers' protest over the three new farm bills.

The House was first adjourned for about 40 minutes till 10.30. As soon as the House met again, similar scenes were witnessed leading to another adjournment till 11.30 am.

Congress, Left, TMC, DMK and RJD members first walked out from Rajya Sabha after their demand for suspension of business of the day for taking up the discussion was rejected by the Chair.

Countrywide agitation on 6 February

The protesting farmers are planning to block all national and state highways between 12 pm and 3 pm on 6 February as they conduct a countrywide agitation, farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said on Monday.

"There will be a country-wide agitation on 6 February; we will block roads between 12 pm and 3 pm," Singh said.

The farmers said that agitation is a response to internet shutdowns in areas around the protest sites and farmers being ignored in the Union Budget that was announced on Monday.

Representatives of the protesting farmers' unions expressed their anger and said that the budget fails to address their concerns, with no mention of raising incomes or generating jobs.





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Queensland tourism operators are losing sleep as they brace for the end of the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme and months of lacklustre domestic travel, the states acting Premier says.

The Sunshine States tourism industry has been bleeding tens of millions of dollars every day, with state and international borders locked down for most of the past 12 months.

Acting Premier Steven Miles said it was up to the federal government to stump up the cash to help businesses keep staff on past the planned end of JobKeeper in March.

Many of them are suffering from sleepless nights right now, worrying about how they are going to sustain their businesses, how they are going to keep their workers in the face of the end of JobKeeper, he said.


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(Newser)  If there's one thing fans of high-profile fitness instructor Stacey Griffith can take solace in these days, it's that she is the rare celebrity who knows how to deliver an unqualified apology. "I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart for my recent action in receiving the vaccine," wrote the SoulCycle instructor on Instagram. "I made a terrible error in judgment and for that I am truly sorry." As her apology references, Griffith got into hot water over her COVID vaccinationspecifically how she cut in line to get it. Coverage:

The shot: On Friday, the 52-year-old boasted in a since-deleted Instagram post that she had received the first dose of "Moderna magic" in Staten Island, reports the Washington Post. She also thanked a few people for helping her navigate the paperwork involved. The backlash was fast and furious, with critics wondering how and why a SoulCycle instructor jumped ahead of health care workers, seniors, teachers, etc., who are still waiting for their shots, per People. Fitness instructors are not supposed to be among those currently receiving shots in New York.

story continues below

Her defense: Griffith initially defended herself, telling the Daily Beast she was an "educator" in her own way. "Its my priority daily to keep my community and their respiratory systems operating at full capacity so they can beat this virus if they are infected by it," she said. "I can only teach to them if I am healthy myself.

Griffith initially defended herself, telling the Daily Beast she was an "educator" in her own way. "Its my priority daily to keep my community and their respiratory systems operating at full capacity so they can beat this virus if they are infected by it," she said. "I can only teach to them if I am healthy myself. Company responds: That justification did nothing to appease critics, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. I dont think someone who shows up and says, Hey, Im a SoulCycle instructor should have qualified unless theres some other factor there," he says. "That should have been caught in the application process. SoulCycle itself has responded to the controversy by declaring that its instructors are not "educators" and should not do what Griffith did, reports Vox. It also took pains to point out that Griffith acted on her own.

That justification did nothing to appease critics, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. I dont think someone who shows up and says, Hey, Im a SoulCycle instructor should have qualified unless theres some other factor there," he says. "That should have been caught in the application process. SoulCycle itself has responded to the controversy by declaring that its instructors are not "educators" and should not do what Griffith did, reports Vox. It also took pains to point out that Griffith acted on her own. Bigger picture: The Vox post by Alex Abad-Santos sees the controversy as part of a larger problem. "Even though there are rules about who is able to get the vaccine, being affluent and well-connected may help someone jump the line." Not helping is that SoulCycle is generally seen as a luxury product for affluent people. "That Griffith can get the vaccine symbolizes how easy it can be for rich people to get whatever they want, ahead of everyone else, especially those who qualify under NYCs guidelines and havent yet been able to schedule an appointment."

(Read more SoulCycle stories.)
OPEC has been the most important actor in global oil markets with the ability to influence prices for decades. The shale revolution in the U.S. has brought much uncertainty for traditional producers due to the vast amounts of oil and gas that are flowing from the American energy heartland in a short period. The looming threat is so big, that erstwhile competitor Russia agreed to align its policies with the cartel's. Moscow, however, is eager to squeeze all it can from the agreement, leaving little for Saudi Arabia in particular who risks losing much more due to the particular phase of the countrys economic development.

OPECs changing balance of power

Over the years, (geo)political and economic developments have transformed the power balance between the organizations members. One factor, however, that determines influence more than any other is production capacity. In this context, Saudi Arabia has been the undisputed king for decades.

The level of professionalization of national oil company Saudi Aramco has made it into a formidable energy behemoth that controls the worlds second-largest conventional oil reserves. While Venezuela's reserves are bigger, Aramco's low production costs, continued Western (and in particular U.S.) political support, and relative political stability have gradually increased and maintained OPECs largest production capacity.

Influence, however, is not only derived from how much one can produce but more specifically from how much one chooses not to produce. Spare capacity is the defining factor behind leverage over price development. In this area, none is bigger than Saudi Arabia's. The geography and type of wells make it possible for Aramco to ramp up and bring down production relatively quickly. On average, the Arab country has usually kept 1.5 - 2 million barrels per day (mbpd) of spare capacity on hand, which is 1.5  2 percent of global oil demand before the Covid-19 pandemic. Related: Will U.S. Shale Finally Reward Shareholders?

OPEC is dead, long live OPEC+

The unprecedented threat of the U.S. shale industry drove Moscow and Riyadh into each others arms in 2016. The first time an agreement was struck, the participants agreed to cut production by 1.8 mbpd (1.2 from OPEC and 600,000 from non-OPEC). Despite some friction and disagreements, the OPEC+ format has survived for years. Related: Will France Abandon Nuclear Power?

However, the disparity in interests and share of dependence on oil revenues is a continuous source of instability. According to Ronald Smith, a Moscow-based analyst at BCS GM, as long as oil is $45/bl or below, it is pretty easy to get everyone in OPEC+ on the same page and cut production. And when it is $65-70/bl, everyone agrees it is time to put oil back on the market. But between $50/bl and $60/bl, that is where the interests diverge.

The price of oil currently is hovering around $55, which means that Riyadh finds the alliance with Russia more important than the other way around. The IMF estimated that Saudi Arabia's fiscal breakeven oil price for 2021 is at $68/bl. Russia, in contrast, is $46/bl. Furthermore, a larger share of the Saudi production is exported while Russians consume more of their produce domestically. Also, the economy of the latter is more diversified which gives it another trump in its negotiations with Riyadh.

Another advantage in the hands of Russian producers and the Kremlin is the weak ruble while the riyal in Saudi Arabia is fixed against the U.S. dollar. Oil is traded internationally in dollars meaning the export from Russia earns producers a handsome fee when exchanged into roubles. Saudi Arabia does not enjoy the same benefit and wont any time soon either.

The low production costs in the Arab country give it an advantage over competitors such as shale producers in the U.S. Riyadh expects demand for oil to return later this year when vaccination against Covid-19 kicks-in. Therefore, policymakers in the Kingdom think they'll claw back customers when oil becomes more scarce.

Recently, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that Aramco may offer additional shares to the market in the next dew few years. This shows the necessity for Riyadh to voluntarily lower production by 1 mbpd while Russia will increase by 130,000 bpd. Saudi Arabia is in a rush to modernize and diversify the economy by earning much-needed petrodollars while it still can.

By Vanand Meliksetian for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
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OTTAWA - Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada is in "a very delicate period" as case counts for fast-spreading COVID-19 variants tick upward across the country, even while overall numbers of new coronavirus cases fall.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021., to provide an update on the COVID-19 pandemic.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada is in "a very delicate period" as case counts for fast-spreading COVID-19 variants tick upward across the country, even while overall numbers of new coronavirus cases fall.

At least 148 cases of the variants that first emerged in the United Kingdom (known scientifically as B.1.1.7) and South Africa (known as B.1.351) have been confirmed across the country, Tam said Tuesday.

Health authorities in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have identified both mutations, with 135 of the B.1.1.7 strain and 13 of the B.1.351 strain reported from coast to coast.

New Brunswick and Saskatchewan also announced Tuesday variants there have been identified for the first time.

The four cases of the B.1.351 variant that were confirmed in B.C., one case reported in Ontario's Peel Region andeight in Alberta have no known link to international travel, raising fears of community spread.

I think there are definitely signs that the variants are at least transmitted to a certain extent in communities  and we probably are not detecting them all," Tam said.

"This is the initial signal that we need to be very vigilant and very cautious about relaxation of those public health measures."

Canada needs to ramp up testing for variants through the labour-intensive process of whole-genome sequencing, though the country compares well against most others, Tam said.

"Without escalating the capacity for the sequencing to a greater extent, you wont know if you have the variant."

Health officials sequence between five and 10 per cent of positive COVID-19 samples across Canada, said Natalie Prystajecky, head of the environmental microbiology program at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control's public health lab and a member of the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network.

Maintaining sufficient public health restrictions to limit viral spread, regardless of the variant, is even more critical than sequencing, added Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor in the department of medicine at the University of Toronto who studies infectious diseases.

Public officials need to "double down" on their response to the pandemic and "not be lulled" into a belief that declining numbers mean safeguards can be drastically loosened, he said.

"Thats my biggest fear. And weve already heard the premiers of Alberta and Quebec making strong moves to open up their economy," he said, adding that some easing could be reasonable.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced Friday that one-on-one training in gyms can reopen and restaurants can resume in-person dining starting Feb. 8.

In Quebec City, Premier Francois Legault said Tuesday that starting next week stores, salons and museums can reopen. He credited a steady drop in infections and hospitalizations for his decision.

But Legault said hospitals in big cities remain under too much pressure for him to lift more restrictions. A curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. remains in effect in Montreal and Quebec City.

Legault said that in six, less-populated regions of the province, the curfew's start will be delayed until 9:30 p.m. and restaurants, gyms and indoor sports facilities will be able to reopen Monday.

As the more contagious strains of COVID-19 take hold, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said "rare exceptions" to new travel restrictions will be made on compassionate grounds, but tough rules must be implemented in the next few weeks.

"Since the beginning of this pandemic there have been stories of funerals that havent been able to be held, weddings had to (be) put off or done by Zoom, families not being able to get together," Trudeau said at a press conference.

"But at the same time our responsibility is to make sure were keeping Canadians as safe as possible. These new variants out there are of real concern."

Trudeau announced last week that passengers returning from abroad will have to quarantine at hotels for up to three days after taking PCR tests upon arrival, but no date has been set for when this will take effect.

More details are expected as soon as Thursday.

The move is one of several measures meant to choke off entry of the virus into Canada, particularly its mutations.

Not everyone is delighted with Canada's new requirement to self-isolate in a hotel, which costs upwards of $2,000 at the traveller's expense.

Kelly Ranta, a Canadian who teaches kindergarten in South Korea, is planning to return home after her contract ends at the end of February. She's been abroad for four years.

"I think that if Canadians can prove they did not depart Canada during the travel advisory and recommendations period, they should be exempt from this new requirement," she said in an email.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said foreigners can still apply to enter the country for non-essential reasons that include supporting a critically ill person, attending a funeral or being with a loved one who is dying.

Total daily case counts of COVID-19 have been falling for several weeks.

Over the past seven days, an average of 4,368 new cases have been reported daily across the country, a nearly 50 per cent drop from three weeks ago, Tam said.

Hospitalizations are also on the decline, falling 12 per cent over the past week to fewer than 3,900 patients in care. Fatal cases have fallen by 20 per cent to 128 deaths per day on average.

The federal public health agency said that as of Monday evening, 783,589 Canadians had contracted COVID-19 since the pandemic began in Canada, and 20,136 had died.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2021.

 With files from Jacob Serebrin

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said Legault's announcement was made Monday.
Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 3 mesi fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Rise in new technologies and rapid innovations in healthcare market will create opportunities for companies that are striving to plunge into sinusitis treatment market. Sinusitis can be acute and if not treated can lead to chronic condition wherein different germs like bacteria and viruses can block the nasal cavities or are filled with fluid.

There are common symptoms like common cold, fever, headache, sore throat, cough and others. If sinusitis is not treated or diagnosed it can lead to complications like brain abscess and meningitis. Primary treatment for sinusitis is antibiotics and at severe stage by decongestants.

Get Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/9998

There are blood test, ciliary function test, CT scan of the sinuses, nasal cytology and allergy testing and MRI of the sinuses. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 11.7 million people in the US visits to physician offices for diagnosis of chronic sinusitis.

Factors contributing for growth of sinusitis treatment market are demand for diagnostic test and antibiotics, patient education programs by companies and hospitals for increasing awareness among the public.

Advancement in technology, myriad of people suffering from common cold and no age specific are additional factors that will drive the market over the forecasted period. Though the sinusitis treatment market is expected to generate significant revenue throughout the forecast period, the availability of the test and high cost of diagnostic test for sinusitis is a major challenge for overall growth of the sinusitis treatment market.

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Major challenge for the pharmaceutical companies is clinical trial for drugs.

With increasing base of sinusitis sufferers, the sinusitis treatment market is expected to have tremendous growth during the forecast period (2016-2026). Companies are focusing on developing of novel drug products for sinusitis. Due to rapid innovations and advance technology there is huge potential in sinusitis treatment market.

Currently, North America dominates the global market for sinusitis treatment due to high prevalence rate of sinusitis, followed by Europe. According to CDC, 29.4 million people diagnosed sinusitis in North American.

However factors such as lack of knowledge of diagnostic test and lack of awareness among people about sinusitis will hamper the market growth in regions like Asia-pacific and RoW.

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Some of the key market players in the manufacturing of the treatment products (antibiotics) for sinusitis includes Sanofi, Abbott Laboratories, Bayer AG, Eli Lilly And Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck & Co, Inc., AstraZeneca Plc, Reddys Lab, and Novartis AG.

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Russia peacekeepers climb to Armenia Gegharkunik Province village positions

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Iran intensifies its diplomacy amid Armenia-Azerbaijan border tensions

Armenia acting PM on forthcoming snap parliamentary elections: We hope to get 60% of votes

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Armenias Pashinyan is met by Yerevan district residents chanting against him

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Armenia ex-President Kocharyan gives interview to Russia TV channel

Armenia acting premier: We are ready to start withdrawing troops at any moment

Canada MFA expresses concern over 6 Armenian soldiers capture by Azerbaijan troops

There are omissions in registration documents of political forces that applied to Armenia Central Electoral Commission

Armenia Central Electoral Commission chief: There is activeness in Yerevan for the past day or two

Three new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

Group of US Congress members threaten Azerbaijans Aliyev regime with sanctions

Chicago mayor is sued for allegedly refusing interview with white reporter

Iran exports oil to US for first time after long interval

"Armenia" bloc top 50 MP candidates are announced

42 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Sri Lanka public beach is covered in charred plastic pellets due to fire in container ship

US preparing list of targeted sanctions on Belarus authorities

China believes it will own America by 2035, Biden says

15 al-Shabab militants killed in Somalia

Newspaper: Armenia political forces that applied for running in election impatiently await CEC decision

Newspaper: Changes are expected in Artsakh

California prisoner who considers himself Satanist beheads cellmate, dismembers his body

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Armenia National Security Service Reserve Officers' Union members meet with His Holiness Karekin II

EU is ready to help Armenia and Azerbaijan with border delimitation and demarcation

ARF-D member on Nikol Pashinyan: 103 years ago Armenia's founding fathers would have executed him for treason

Iran President hails brotherly ties with Azerbaijan

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Situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border is still tense, more on COVID-19 in Armenia, May 28 digest

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OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs release statement on detention of 6 Armenian servicemen by Azerbaijan

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Alphabet Inc's Google will spend $3.8 million, including $2.6 million in back pay, to settle allegations that it underpaid women and unfairly passed over women and Asians for job openings, the U.S. Department of Labor said on Monday.

The allegations stemmed from a routine compliance audit several years ago required by Google's status as a supplier of technology to the federal government.

Google said it was pleased to have resolved the matter.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs had found "preliminary indicators" that Google from 2014 to 2017 at times underpaid 2,783 women in its software engineering group in Mountain View, California, and the Seattle area.

Investigators also found hiring rate differences that disadvantaged women and Asian candidates during the year ended Aug. 31, 2017, for software engineering roles in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, California, and Kirkland, Washington.

The settlement includes $2.6 million in back pay to 5,500 employees and job candidates and calls on Google to review hiring and salary practices.

Google also will set aside $1.25 million for pay adjustments for engineers in Mountain View, Kirkland, Seattle and New York over the next five years, according to the settlement. Any unused funds will be spent on diversity efforts at Google.

The company already conducts annual pay audits, but like other big tech companies, it remains under public scrutiny for a workforce that does not reflect the country's makeup in terms of race and gender.

The company said in a statement, "We believe everyone should be paid based upon the work they do, not who they are, and invest heavily to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and unbiased."

Also read: Budget 2021: India Inc welcomes tax relief, infra spend fillip

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The Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT-SA) has blasted government for alleged lack of genuine interest, commitment and political will to pursue high profile corruption cases to their logical conclusion.

In statement, ACT-SA said cases of graft involving high profile individuals, especially Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) were taking too long to go through the courts under the current Emmerson Mnangagwa led administration.

The anti-graft body has been at the forefront of exposing corruption at Gokwe Town Council, leading to the suspension of Town Secretary Melania Mandeya.

"In 2020, Melania Mandeya and Jokonia Nyoni were arrested in Gokwe but the case appears to have been forgotten," ACT-SA said.

The organisation noted there were similarities with a case involving legislator Goden Chanda and a local authority councillor who were also arrested months ago for allegedly diverting food aid, but their cases appear to have been swept under the carpet.

"The Gokwe Magistrates' Court has also neglected trying Councillor Chigaba who was accused of printing fake receipt books and collecting money from the people in Gokwe.

"More than 3 years have long since passed without Chigaba being tried regardless of the presence of a critical mass of witnesses," the anti-graft body said.

ACT-SA further said the pending cases speak volumes about "lack of preparedness or genuine interest by the Gokwe Magistrates Court, officials under the National Prosecuting Authority in Gokwe as well as the Zimbabwe Republic Police".

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"These institutions appear to be letting down the new dispensation's efforts to fight corruption," said the organisation.

It further said the cited Gokwe cases were a reflection of what was happening across the country.

"The above clearly shows the inertia of prosecution of the cases where evidence is available but hoping that people will forget and no trial will ever take place.

"In such instances, evidence is likely to be tampered with or get lost.

"The same will happen to the witnesses who might relocate or die thereby resulting in the miscarriage of the trials leading to the acquittal of the accused persons over time.

"To this end, efforts should be made to investigate why the prosecution of corruption in Gokwe is problematical," ACT-SA said.
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CORVALLIS, Ore. - One of birdwatching's most commonly held and colorfully named beliefs, the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect, is more a fun myth than a true phenomenon, Oregon State University research suggests.

Owing its moniker to an Arizona rest area, the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect, often shortened to PPTE, has for decades been cited as a key driver of behavior, and rare-species-finding success, among participants in the multibillion-dollar recreational birding business - an industry that has gotten even stronger during a pandemic that's shut down so many other activities.

But a study led by an OSU College of Science graduate student shows that the PPTE - which says that after a rare bird is spotted somewhere, birders flock to the area and then find additional rare species at an accelerated rate - is not borne out by the data.

Findings were published in PeerJ.

"Birdwatching is one of the fastest growing recreational activities in the world," said OSU integrative biology Ph.D. student Jesse Laney. "The lure of finding very rare birds adds a level of excitement that draws birders even from distant locations."

The specifics of the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect's origin story have grown slightly murky over time, but its basic gist is engrained in birder lore.

Patagonia is a tiny town near the Arizona-Mexico border, and a nearby rest area gave rise to the picnic table part of the name. Sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, birders saw a rare black-capped gnatcatcher, or possibly a nesting pair of rose-throated becards, at the rest area.

Whichever it was, or whether it was something else entirely, word began to spread and birders began descending on Patagonia, which led to other interesting sightings, among them the thick-billed kingbird, five-striped sparrow and yellow grosbeak. The rest area remains a pilgrimage location for birdwatchers.

"It is anecdotal that when rare species are reported, increased activity by birders attempting to add rarities to their personal lists leads to the discovery of additional rare birds," Laney said. "The U.S. birdwatching community has been a big subscriber to the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect - it's something they really believe in."

Laney and collaborators in the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences and at Cornell University examined the PPTE's veracity by analyzing a decade's worth of information in eBird, an online, public bird observation database maintained by Cornell.

"We wanted to know how often a discovery of one rare bird draws so many birders to a place that even more rarities are discovered?" Laney said. "We found that birders had no better chance of finding additional rarities at locations where a rare species had been discovered than they did when searching elsewhere for rare species. In a nutshell we found little support for the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect and therefore have to consider it a myth - while acknowledging that it is a really fun myth."

Laney and collaborators Tyler Hallman and W. Douglas Robinson of the College of Agricultural Sciences and OSU alumna Jenna Curtis, now a staff member at Cornell, focused on sightings of North American "mega-rarities," 81 of the hardest-to-spot bird species on the continent - all were rated as 4 or 5 on the American Birding Association's five-point rarity scale.

The scientists looked at 273 mega-rarity discoveries involving those 81 birds over 10 years starting in 2008, and the ensuing "draw and decay" - birders descending on an area following a sighting, and then the tapering off of birding activity after the draw peaks. The mega-rarity events included a northern lapwing in Maine in 2013, a Eurasian hobby on Washington's Olympic Peninsula in 2014, and a streak-backed oriole at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in 2015.

"Across those 273 mega-rarity events, eBird data show that birder effort increased above the pre-event baseline level," Laney said. "The power of rare species to draw attention of birders was influenced by locational factors such as latitude and proximity to an airport, and by the year in which events took place."

The speed with which birders lost interest in seeking each rarity - the decay rate - was influenced by how long those rare birds continued to be detected, he added.

"Still, the decay rate was pretty variable among those events," Laney said. "We found no indication that draw was influenced by species identity or rarity level. To us, this suggests that mega-rarities have a profound influence on the behavior of birders simply by virtue of being very rare."

###

Supporting this research were the ARCS Foundation (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) and the Bob and Phyllis Mace Watchable Wildlife Professorship.
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Heathrow passengers have been left fuming as they continue to face hour-long queues at border control.

One passenger from Northampton called the situation a 'joke' as he posted a video showing crowds waiting at the border last night. He said: 'Stop the spread they said. Can't say this is helping at Heathrow T2.'

Others blasted the absence of social distancing on planes where passengers filled all the available seats.

Stacey Nelson, 31, from Wiltshire, shared a video taken by her husband, who did not want to be named, on a packed Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Heathrow yesterday.

Seats were completely full on the flight, which is in line with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) guidelines, but shocked passengers who found themselves shoulder to shoulder with strangers.

One man from Northampton called the situation a 'joke' as he posted a video (pictured) showing crowds waiting at the border last night. He said: 'Stop the spread they said. Can't say this is helping at Heathrow T2'

One man's footage showed hundreds of passengers queuing to get across the border, with most standing together despite social distancing. He said there were only five manned desks and it took 30 minutes for the e-gates to open.

Passengers have been facing significant delays since measures that required them to have a negative Covid test before getting on a plane were introduced. Anyone travelling by air also need to complete a locator form, or face a fine of up to 500.

The man added: 'I arrived at T2 yesterday on Swiss air LX326 from Zurich via Holland.'

Speaking to MailOnline he said: 'We got off the plane, walked in and there was this huge queue in front of us. Our flight was fairly full. There was one queue to the left for non EU passengers and the queue I was in for British and it was stationary.

'I heard a gentleman say "what's going on" and an official said the gates weren't open at the moment. He didn't seem to know why. All the e-gates were shut and four desks were manned.'

When approached for comment by MailOnline, the Home Office said e-gates close to allow border force officials to stringently check for the necessary PCR results and locator documents.

The passenger added: 'There was only one desk in other section that was manned. I was there for half an hour before they opened the e-gates and then they were checking PCRs and locator forms. But they had all already been checked in Switzerland for our flight. We couldn't get on the plane otherwise.

'You'd think they would rush people through because you can't social distance in that space. It's too small. It's not the passengers' fault, it's a lack of organisation. Being a British person I found it embarrassing.

'I was stood there thinking this is a joke. Before the PCR stuff came in there was no queuing at all. You're stood in a fairly small area surrounded by a couple of hundred people. You'd think they'd have everything set up.'

Mrs Nelson said her husband was shocked when he was surrounded by other passengers because his flight to Heathrow was too full to allow for social distancing.

Stacey Nelson, 31, from Wiltshire, shared a video taken by her husband, who did not want to be named, on a packed Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Heathrow yesterday

She said: 'My husband has a mask for his work and they said he had to wear a surgical mask. He was next to random people. It was like before covid, people on top of people.

'He travels away a lot and the flight he went into Germany with was fine he was on his own but on the way back with that airline they were full.

'Every seat was full. He wondered why he wasnt on his own. You're trying to stop it spreading and then you're sat next to others.'

She said his plane landed at 4.45pm but he didn't make it out of the airport until 5.30pm as queues built up to get through border force.

'When he was on the plane they made the passengers queue up section by section to be taken out. There were social distancing signs in the airport but no one was abiding by them and it wasnt enforced.

Mrs Nelson said her husband was shocked to find he was surrounded by other passengers as the flight was too full to allow for social distancing

'He was waiting quite a while. He landed at 16.45 and wasnt travelling back until half 5 so it was quite a while.'

A spokesman for Lufthansa said: 'Wearing a medical protective mask is obligatory during your stay on board. It is not always possible to maintain a distance of 1.5 meters during a flight, for example on board or at certain points in the airport.

'However, wearing the protective masks does provide adequate health protection. If the flight has a lower occupancy rate, seats will nevertheless be allocated as far as possible throughout the cabin, with the middle seat usually kept free.

'With our processes described we are thus ICAO compliant. Actually it is today standard at almost all airlines.'

A Boeing 747 pilot yesterday, with the Twitter username @DeePro, claimed it took an hour and 15 minutes to get through Border Control at Heathrow.

He blasted slow officers and said at one point 15 minutes went by with no officer at the UK border. 'Terrible procedures at @HeathrowAirportT2 from Passport control @HMRCgovuk - huge queue, no urgency from officers and no officers on duty for British passport holders for over 15 minutes. Are we trying to spread herd immunity on entry?'

Passengers have been facing significant delays since measures were introduced that required them to have a negative Covid test before getting on the plane. Passengers also need to complete a locator form, or face a fine of up to 500. Pictured, Boris Johnson yesterday

He even claimed it was quicker to get through the UK border with a foreign passport, saying: 'It was an hour quicker to get through passport control with a non UK passport. Minimal queuing, 7 officers at their posts. UK passport, 1 hour 15 minutes and a queue out of the passport hall with 2 agents (at best). As far as risk mitigation is concerned - non existent!'

Emma Moore, Chief Operating Officer at Border Force, said: 'We are in a global health pandemic which is why every traveller is subject to enhanced monitoring at UK airports in line with the public health measures at the border.

'Every essential check from pre-departure testing, to the Passenger Locator Form and the suspension of travel routes is to strengthen our borders and prevent the spread of coronavirus into the UK.

'People should not be travelling unless necessary. Every airport across the UK has a responsibility to comply with social distancing and Covid compliant measures on site.'

It comes after the Government launched new measures to quarantine travellers from a number of countries deemed high-risk for Covid.

Home Secretary Priti Patel declared that Britons returning from around 30 'red list' Covid countries will be forced to quarantine in hotels for 10 days at their own expense.

MailOnline understands that hundreds of arrivals each day are expected to be escorted directly from airports to rooms, where they will have to stay for the duration of their isolation and pay a bill estimated at 1,500 - although ministers hope the numbers will 'fall through the floor' as people avoid coming to the UK.

One man's footage showed hundreds of passengers queuing to get through border force, with most standing close together despite social distancing. He said there were only five manned desks and it took 30 minutes for the e-gates to open

It will only affect British travellers, as foreign citizens who have been in the countries are already banned from entering altogether.

Ms Patel herself is believed to have been pushing for a much tougher regime alongside Matt Hancock and Michael Gove, but was overruled after resistance from Rishi Sunak, Dominic Raab and Grant Shapps, and warnings it would 'kill' the aviation industry.

Meanwhile, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office have launched adverts warning 'going on holiday is currently illegal' amid a clampdown on illicit trips.

A Boeing 747 pilot yesterday, with the Twitter username @DeePro, claimed it took an hour and 15 minutes to get through Border Control at Heathrow (pictured)

Foreign Office officials said the ads, which feature flip-flops and suitcases, are intended to 'remind people that travelling abroad is against the law'.

Under lockdown rules in place since the start of last month Britons 'going on a foreign holiday is not a valid reason to leave home,' one official said, adding that it 'increases the risk of spreading the virus and puts people in danger'.

Due to border closures caused by Covid-19, Dubai to London was the world's busiest international route in January with 190,365 scheduled seats this month. In normal times the busiest route to and from London is New York City.

Under the new measures, anyone wanting to leave the UK will also have to complete and present a declaration form at the border stating why their reason for travel is essential.

Border Force and police numbers will be boosted at ports and airports to question outbound passengers.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office launched adverts warning 'going on holiday is currently illegal' - amid a clampdown on illicit trips.

Carriers will also be responsible for barring any passengers who don't have the declaration form or whose reason for travel does not meet Government requirements.

Due to border closures caused by Covid-19, Dubai to London was the world's busiest international route in January with 190,365 scheduled seats over the month, according to airline data provider OAG.

Asked last week what will constitute 'essential' travel under the new rules, senior minister Michael Gove told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think if it's an essential humanitarian reason, if there is a powerful business reason, we can look at specific case by case reasons why people should travel.

'But we're very clear that people should not be travelling abroad to go on holiday, to boost their Instagram profile... [or] for anything other than essential reasons.'

He was asked several times when the new measures will come into force, but failed to answer.
In the view of rising global demand for a 'safe and effective' vaccine, BioNTech has decided to produce two billion doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine in 2021, company said in a statement.

"In order to respond to an increased global demand, we plan to manufacture two billion doses of our COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 by expanding the previously expected output of 1.3 billion doses by more than 50 per cent," the German biotechnology firm said. "We are on track to scale-up our manufacturing capacities," the statement said.

BioNTech has partnered with US pharma giant Pfizer Inc to develop a mRNA vaccine against novel coronavirus. Dubbed as BNT162b, the COVID-19 vaccine shot relies on messenger RNA technology. Using mRNA, which essentially teaches the bodys cells to become vaccine factories, allowed it to be developed much faster than a traditional vaccine.

The clinical trials with tens of thousands of participants showed the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 95%, the companies earlier said. The success rate in particularly vulnerable older age groups was more than 94%, they said.

On the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine, BioNTech chief executive officer Ugur Sahin told, "We should be more optimistic that the immunisation effect can last for at least a year."

While it was not yet known how long the protection would last, he said research on recovered patients had shown that those with high antibodies levels to begin with have not experienced a sharp drop in those levels, and the same would likely go for vaccinated people.

The partners have signed deals to deliver hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine, including an agreement with the European Union for 200 million doses, with an option for an additional 100 million.

"The modification of production processes at Pfizer's facility in Puurs, Belgium, has been successfully completed. Now, we are back to the original schedule of vaccine dose deliveries to the European Union," it said.

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NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hip, the mobility start-up that pioneered tech-first transportation for daily commuters, today announced a game-changing enterprise platform, that gives companies turn-key commuter shuttle & employee transportation programs that are resilient and flexible for the post-pandemic workplace taking shape.

In addition to the highly-rated Hip commuter app, the full-service platform includes route planning & management tools, contact tracing and a robust analytics dashboard, along with five-star transportation service with the highest health & safety standards. The company secured $12 million in funding led by NFX and Magenta Venture Partners, with participation by AltaIR Capital, and former Uber, Booking.com, and Google executives to grow engineering, global sales and operations.

"The way corporate America 'works' is changing; the future of the workplace will look very different than it does now," says Gigi Levy Weiss, General Partner at NFX. "We invested in Hip because we saw the impact that their technology will have on commuters and employers bringing their workforce back to the office in this new post-pandemic environment, creating opportunities for corporations to keep employees safe and keep their businesses operating optimally."

The innovative new platform gives companies a flexible employee transportation option, and uses dynamic route optimization algorithms to ensure the most efficient set of shuttle routes and vehicles are used every day, minimizing employee time commuting, and controlling company spend. With the highly-rated Hip app, employees book tickets, reserve seats, and track their transportation in real time. The enterprise platform offers tools like contact tracing and vehicle capacity controls, plus customizable features like an in-app health & safety consent flow, to make returning to the office safe and smooth.

"Creating a comfortable, convenient, and safe transportation option for employees will encourage them to return to the workplace," says Ran Levitzky, General Partner at Magenta Venture Partners. "Hip is leveraging technology to give companies & employees flexibility that the post-pandemic workplace requires for them to thrive."

With the change in the work environment, companies around the world are planning a hybrid approach with employees working partially from home and partially in the office. In a recent survey, 73% of companies said they plan to support a hybrid work model of both in-office and remote work. Hip's technology and managed-service platform lets companies solve their employees' new commute challenges, with key employee experience and safety features, while also maintaining the flexibility to accommodate the future commute.

A Hip commute is relaxed and pleasant, a key benefit to attracting employees back to the office. Hip offers a full-service commuter platform with its game-changing technology on clean, spacious vehicles with productivity enhancements like wifi and power outlets, or Hip can integrate its commute mobility-as-a-service software platform with companies' existing ground transportation providers.

About Hip

Hip is a pioneering mobility technology company based in New York City and Tel Aviv, with a mission to transform the daily commute. Hip's commute-as-a-service platform is available for organizations throughout the US, and major cities worldwide. For more information, visit https://ridehip.com .

Contact:

DeeDee Rudenstein

267-521-9654

[email protected]

SOURCE Hip

Related Links

https://ridehip.com




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The Delhi High Court sought to know whether US-based e-commerce giant Amazon and Kishore Biyani led Future Retail Ltd (FRL) were open to resolving the issue arising out of Rs 24,713 crore deal between FRL and Reliance Retail on February 1.

The counsel for both, Amazon and Future Group, submitted that they would seek instructions and inform the court on February 2. The court was hearing a plea by Amazon seeking direction to order enforcement of the award by Singapores Emergency Arbitrator (EA) restraining FRL from going ahead with its Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail.

Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC, in its plea, also sought detention of the Biyanis, directors of Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL) and FRL and other related parties in civil prison and attaching of their properties for alleged "wilful disobedience" of the emergency arbitrators order.

Justice JR Midha asked the parties to inform it on February 1 if any such endeavour could be made and clarified that this should not be taken as deferring the proceedings and it would continue as scheduled.

The court, which asked if any attempt has been made to resolve the issue, suggested that if parties would be willing, it can refer the matter to two retired judges of the Supreme Court. The court also said it will consider whatever protective order can be passed.

In commercial matters, it is always helpful to find a solution, it said. To this, senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, representing Amazon, said he will take instructions on it as nothing tangible has happened.

Senior advocate Darius Khambata, representing FRL, also said he will take instructions and inform the court.

Amazon has approached the high court seeking to restrain Kishore Biyani-led Future Group from taking any steps to complete the transaction with entities that are a part of the Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (MDA) Group. It also sought to restrain Future Group from taking any steps to transfer or dispose of FRLs retail assets or the shares held in FRL by the Biyanis in any manner without prior written consent of Amazon

The Future Group and Amazon have been locked in a battle after the US-based company took FRL into the emergency arbitration over alleged breach of a contract between them.

The three domestic firms  FRL, FCPL and Reliance  have however contended before the high court that if Amazons claim  that it indirectly invested in FRL by investing in FCL  was accepted then it would amount to a violation of Indian foreign direct investment laws which permit only 10 percent investment by a foreign entity in the multi-brand retail sector.

According to Amazon, the EA award passed under the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Rules is enforceable under Section 17(2) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

It referred to an order passed by the high court on December 21, 2020, prima facie holding that the EAs award was valid under the Indian law.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, also representing FRL, had earlier submitted that Amazon had a deal with FCPL and signed an agreement with Biyani. FCPL has a shareholding agreement with FRL which has no agreement with Amazon.

Subramanium had urged that FRL shall not further precipitate the situation as the matter is being heard by the court.

In the petition, Amazon has alleged that Future Group, Kishore Biyani and other promoters and directors have deliberately and maliciously disobeyed the EA award despite it being binding on them and not having challenged it in accordance with the law.

The majority respondents action of simply ignoring the order (of EA) and continuing with the impugned transaction (deal) is not only contumacious but calls into serious question their respect for enforceability of contracts, the rule of law and the administration of justice.., it said. It sought to injunct Future Group and its officials from taking any steps in furtherance of the deal with Reliance.

In August 2020, Future had reached an agreement to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units to Reliance. The SIAC on October 25 2020, had passed an interim order in favour of Amazon barring FRL from taking any step to dispose of or encumber its assets or issuing any securities to secure any funding from a restricted party.

Subsequently, Amazon wrote to market regulator SEBI, stock exchanges and Competition Commission of India (CCI), urging them to take into consideration the Singapore arbitrators interim decision as it is a binding order, FRL had earlier told the high court.

As per the SIAC interim order, a three-member arbitration panel needs to be set up within 90 days (from the date of the judgement) with one judge each being appointed by Future and Amazon, along with a third neutral judge.

On November 10, 2020, Amazon had told the court that it and FCL have appointed their respective arbitrators.

: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd
Then, when quarantine orders were handed down in mid-March, Betty worried about Peters safety. She decided it was time to tell him how she felt. She had little expectation her admission would lead anywhere. They were both in the high-risk age group for covid-19, after all, and they each had active lives on opposite coasts. But she just had to say something. The subject line of her email: The Teen-Age Betty in Me Confesses. I wasnt planning on really liking you - but I do. I am trying not to like you too much, but that is harder than I thought it would be. And when you like someone, you worry about their safety. Please, please take this quarantining seriously. I know how laid back you are and you are not a worrier like I am. Just be more careful. In the meantime, I will work on liking you less, so you wont think I am a pest, a pain, crazy, weird, etc.!!! Betty ended her note by saying shes a realist, so she wasnt harbouring grand dreams of either of them uprooting their lives to be together. (She also asked Peter not to mention any of this to a particular mutual friend: her high school boyfriend.)

Peter didnt think she was a pest, a pain, crazy or weird. Just the opposite. I had been becoming closer to her through our conversations on the phone, and my love and affection was building through those, Peter recalled recently. Those talks prompted both of them to ponder: Where am I going the rest of my life? Where are we going the rest of our lives? How can we make the best of it for each of us? The answer they landed on was that Peter would leave his boat in Mexico, fly out to Virginia and stay with Betty for a bit. Im gonna just come there, he told her. I can see us being together for the rest of our lives. Reconnecting in your 70s is different from bonding in your teenage years in one big way: Theres no sense in being coy or playing games, especially in a pandemic where it becomes clear you may not get another chance in a year, or two or 10. Peter took precautions before and during his flights to Richmond, and if the in-person connection with Betty proved flimsy, he figured he could always decamp to his mothers place. But when Betty retrieved Peter from the Richmond airport in late July, they immediately felt that they were starting a new chapter together. I think it really helped that we were friends - and knew each other that way - and then that this just slowly developed and we discovered the things that we had in common, about how we look at life, Betty said.
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King Richard III likely did have King Edward V and Richard, Duke of York murdered when they were just children, an expert believes.

The princes were the sons of King Edward IV and when their father died, their uncle, King Richard III, locked them up in the Tower of London while he acted as regent.

Their disappearance and believed murder in 1483 led to the long-standing 'Princes in the Tower' mystery, the greatest cold case in English history, which rumbles on to this day.

Many believe Richard III had Edward, 12, and Richard, 9, killed in order to take the throne for himself. He went on to become one of the most controversial monarchs in English history.

However, evidence to support this theory has long been debated by experts.

Now, Professor Tim Thornton of the University of Huddersfield has published a study which he claims could prove the 'Princes in the Tower' were indeed murdered by King Richard III.

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King Richard III likely did have his nephews, King Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, murdered when they were just children, an expert believes. A new finding backs up the claims the 'princes in the Tower' were murdered by their uncle

The princes were the sons of King Edward IV and when their father died, their uncle Richard (pictured)  then the Duke of Gloucester  locked them up in the Tower of London while he acted a regent. Their disappearance and believed murder in 1483 led to the long-standing 'Princes in the Tower' enigma, the greatest cold case in English history, which rumbles on to this day

A new finding by Professor Tim Thornton adds credence to the book penned by Sir Thomas More in the 16th-century, called 'The HIstory of Richard III'

Sir Thomas More, a trusted courtier of King Henry VIII in the early 16th century, wrote a book detailing the dark saga before he joined Henry VIII's Privy Council, in 1518.

His is the earliest detailed account of the deaths and it unmasks two men as the murderers  Miles Forest and John Dighton  who were acting on direct orders from Richard III.

The book and its findings have been taken with skepticism by historians due to the fact Sir Thomas was five years old when the 'Princes in the Tower' scandal occurred.

It was believed his book and its theory may have been royal propaganda and published as a Tudor scheme to besmirch the name of the former king and boost public support for the new House.

However, Professor Thornton has found evidence the alleged killer Miles Forest had two sons who became courtiers for King Henry VIII and worked alongside Sir Thomas.

Professor Thornton speculates the two sons spoke with Sir Thomas about their father's role in the infamous regicide and told him about the role Richard III played in having the princes slaughtered.

These inside sources allowed Sir Thomas to publish his accusations against King Richard III, who has been portrayed for centuries as a hideous, hunchbacked and disfigured man, in part due to William Shakespeare's depiction of him as a monstrous tyrant in his play, named after the infamous ruler.

'This has been the greatest murder mystery in British history, because we couldn't really rely on More as an account of what happened - until now,' says Professor Thornton.

'But I have shown that the sons of the chief alleged murderer were at court in Henry VIII's England, and that they were living and working alongside Sir Thomas More.

'He wasn't writing about imaginary people. We now have substantial grounds for believing that the detail of More's account of a murder is credible.'

The murder of the two children, one of whom became the monarch when his father died, has captivated public attention for more than 500 years.

They were 'stifled with pillows by the order of their perfidious uncle Richard the Usurper', according to the inscription on the urn their believed remains are kept in.

Their death ranks atop the list of royal misdeeds and scandals due to the rippling side-effects it had on the royal family.

Richard III's demise in battle brought about the end of the War of the Roses and the centuries-long feuding between Yorkists and Lancastrians and ushered in the era of the House of Tudor, led by Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Their son, Henry VIII, would become one of England's most famous monarchs

WHO WERE THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER? The mystery of what happened to the Princes in the Tower is one of the most enduring in English history. Richard III's brother Edward IV, died unexpectedly in 1483. Richard was made Lord Protector with charge of his two nephews: The young Edward V, aged 12, and his nine-year old brother, Richard, Duke of York. The boys were locked up in the Tower of London and never seen again. The suggestion is that Richard had had both boys murdered, just in case anyone tried to dispute his rights and sought to put young Edward back on the throne. In 1674, almost 200 years after their death, the two skeletons were discovered under the stairs in the tower and reburied in Westminster Abbey. The skeletons in the Abbey were last examined in 1933, but scientists were then unable to determine their sex, let alone find any clues to their identities. Advertisement

Edward IV, father of the 'Princes in the Tower', became king of England because he was a direct descendent of Edward III, who ruled between 1312 and 1377, via both his mother and father's heritage.

Following the convoluted and bloody period of Plantagenet and Lancaster rulers, Edward IV became the Yorkist challenger to the throne when his father and brother were killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460.

Edward then took up the Yorkist claim against Lancastrian incumbent Henry VI, leading to a successful deposition in 1461.

The 19-year-old king went on to rule as monarch until his sudden death in 1483.

He had many children, including Edward V; Richard, duke of York; and Elizabeth, who would go on to marry Henry Tudor.

Edward's brother Richard murdered his sons shortly after his death and claimed the throne for himself.

He died just two years later at the Battle of Bosworth, bested by Henry Tudor, the husband of the sister of the murdered princes.

Richard's demise in battle brought about the end of the War of the Roses and the centuries-long feuding between Yorkists and Lancastrians and ushered in the era of the House of Tudor, led by Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

Their son, Henry VIII, would become one of England's most famous monarchs.

Richard had the children of his brother murdered and claimed the throne for himself, but died just two years later at the Battle of Bosworth, bested by Henry Tudor, the husband of his niece and sister of the murdered princes. Richard III died in what became a car park in Leicestershire and was only recently discovered, with his body being reinterred at Leicester Cathedral in 2015

Richard III's battlefield injuries included a metal arrowhead embedded in his back, and a severe blow to the head. He also had a severely curved spine; Richard was famously nicknamed Crookback.

His skeleton was found to have suffered ten injuries at the time of death, but only two skull wounds were potentially fatal and were most likely inflicted by a sword or a halberd  a spiked axe on a pole.

The corpse was also subjected to 'humiliation injuries'  including a sword through the right buttock  likely to have been inflicted after death.

Richard III was buried at a local friary which later became a car park in Leicestershire and was only recently discovered. His body was reinterred at Leicester Cathedral in 2015.

The mystery surrounding the princes deepened in the 1670s when the bones of two children were discovered in the Tower of London, and again in the 1930s when the remains, which had been reburied in Westminster Abbey, were scientifically reexamined.

However, the findings at the time failed to conclusively determine the gender of the skeletons, let alone their royal credentials.

There have been repeated calls to use modern genetic and archaeological techniques, similar to those employed to confirm Richard III's remains, on these skeletons of the two children.

However, it emerged in 2013 that the Church of England, backed by the Queen, has for decades refused requests by experts to test the skeletons.

Their argument is that it could set a precedent for testing any number of historical theories linked to the many famous people buried at the church.
India recorded 8,635 new Covid-19 cases in a span of 24 hours, taking the tally to 1,07,66,245, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Tuesday.

The country also registered 13,423 discharges, while 94 people have succumbed to the killer virus, the health ministry said. The death toll has climbed to 1,54,486.

Out of the 1,07,66,245 Covid-19 cases, 1,04,48,406 people have recovered and the active cases of the infection currently stand at 1,63,353.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Sunday said that a total of 19,77,52,057 lakh samples have been tested so far for coronavirus. Out of this, 6,59,422, were tested on Monday.

No COVID-19 death has been reported in Odisha for a week now, even as 79 fresh cases pushed the tally to 3,35,151, a health department official said on Monday.

The coastal state's coronavirus death toll remained unchanged at 1,906. The last fatality was reported from Sundergarh district on January 25, he said.





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Tuolumne County Administration Building View Photo

Sonora, CA  There were both positives, and concerns, voiced about the local response to COVID-19 at todays Tuolumne County Supervisors meeting.

First, the positives. Health and Human Services Director Rebecca Espino opened by stating, We are excited to report that the trend of COVID-19 cases, and hospitalizations, continue to decline. We are also excited to report that it has been 45 short days since receiving our first batch of vaccine, and already over 10-percent of our community has been vaccinated.

She continued, Vaccine clinics are occurring every week and we are confident, if we receive a steady flow of vaccine, this percentage could substantially increase in the upcoming 45 days.

Interim Health Officer Dr. Eric Sergienko noted that cases have been falling over the past couple of weeks after seeing a surge around the holidays that resulted in 10 county deaths. He did say, however, there is still a way to go before dropping from the current purple tier to the less severe red tier.

Dr. Sergienko also indicated he is pleased that the vaccine seems to be successful in fending off the more contagious variants discovered out of South Africa and the United Kingdom, but he is more concerned about a Brazilian variant because there seems to be less immunity. He reiterated that mass vaccination will help knock down the virus across the community.

Related to COVID response, Dr. Alexander Heard, Operations Chief at Adventist Health Sonora, said that things are currently in fairly good shape. There are three active COVID-19 patients in the hospital today, and three additional who have exited the active stage. He stated there is capacity in the ICU, and staffing, to meet the needs.

While vaccine distribution is progressing, Dr. Sergienko says a big concern is a proposed contract between the Governor and Blue Shield of California to facilitate the administration and allocation of vaccines. It would represent a big shift in the current vaccine distribution plan.

Dr. Sergienko added, The concern with this is the role of local health jurisdictions in directing the allocations of those vaccines.

He fears that local public health departments could be cut out of the distribution system. A third party at the state level does not know the local communities or have the partnerships in place, and this could slow the delivery of the vaccines, especially in the more rural areas of the state.

Supervisor Anaiah Kirk was notably upset about it, adding, This is basically Gavin Newsom micromanaging the hell out this and looking at you and saying your opinion doesnt matter and your region doesnt matter.

Many of the surrounding counties are banding together to raise concerns about this issue, and the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors are planning to draft a letter requesting continued local control of vaccine distribution.
MBABANE - The worst is over when it comes to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eswatini has gone past its peak with the second wave, meaning the nation could expect a decline in cases associated with the virus though this does not mean we are out of the woods.

The second wave of the pandemic has claimed well over 500 lives, with cases soaring to about 16 000.

Unlike, the first wave, the second one seemed to have had devastating effects in terms of the fatality rate.

Also, a new strain of the virus, which is highly infectious, was found in neighbouring South Africa and local health officials did not dismiss suggestions that the virus may have been spread to Eswatini due to the proximity between the two countries and the ease of travel.

Many emaSwati travel to SA for various reasons, including highly specialised medical check-ups and importing essential goods.

Decline

The decline of COVID-19 daily infections and the death rate have been lauded as a clear indicator that the country might have reached and passed the peak of the second wave of the virus and the Ministry of Health with the World Health Organisation (WHO) testifying to this.

For the first time in over a month, the country recorded a two digit number, 45, on its daily confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, according to the updates provided by the Ministry of Health.

This update was met with warmth and optimism that the second wave was wearing down.

Since mid-December, the country has been recording over 100 confirmed positive cases a day, multiplying the number to a total of 15 711 confirmed cases in a short space of time.

Prediction

On December 11, 2020 a prediction was published by this publication about a looming second wave and barely a week thereafter, the country saw multiple deaths and a high number of infections, confirming the prediction.

Since then, the different sectors of the country have been overwhelmed, trying to mitigate the harsh effects on the health system which was falling apart due to the high number of recorded positive cases and deaths.

Some of the prominent figures that the country lost between December and last month due to COVID-19 include Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, Minister of Public Service Christian Ntshangase and Minister of Labour and Social Security Makhosi Vilakati.

Others include Bishop Steven Masilela, former Minister Winnie Magagula and businessman Dan Zikalala.

A close study of the daily updates on COVID-19 also revealed that there was a great decline in COVID-19 positive cases, regardless of the high numbers that were still testing for the disease.

In the past week, from January 25 to January 31, the total number of recorded positive cases was 1 227, totalling the average daily infections to 175 cases.

In the week of January 18 to January 24, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was 1 540, bringing the average daily infection rate to 220 cases.

The average daily confirmed positive cases declined in the past week by 45 cases.

Also, the average deaths recorded daily for the past week was 12.2 whereas during the week of January 18 to January 24 it was 14.7.

The highest recorded numbers of deaths per day, during the second wave, was 24 which was recorded on January 20 and January 26.

In January, the highest daily infection rate was 346 cases which was recorded in December 20, the same day which recorded the highest recorded deaths.

Minister of Health Nkosi said the declining numbers were evidence that the country had reached the second wave peak, stating that a contributing factor to the declining numbers were the newly-introduced stringent lockdown rules.

Interesting

There are interesting trends that we watch closely daily, weekly, bi-weekly, moving averages that show the flattening of the curve, said Nkosi.

However, Nkosi highlighted that there was a tendency of a dip on Sundays and she said this was the trend not only in the country but internationally.

The dip was mainly attributed to the fact that there was fewer movement of people on Sundays, meaning people test less.

However, last Sunday 1 245 people tested, with only 45 testing positive.

It is mainly mid-week when the country records a high number of people who test for the virus.

The minister said they were still closely watching the trend in results for the next two weeks, hoping that the situation would improve even more.

In the meantime, Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said they were aware that the numbers were communicating that the wave was going down, however, stating that it was a bit too early to conclude that the country was safe from the second wave.

A combination of many factors have contributed to the decrease in the COVID-19 infections and deaths, said Dr Magagula.

Dr Magagula said people should not be too excited as these were the early stages of the calming down of the storm.

World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Promotion Officer Dr Kevin Makadzange said the numbers from the recent statements from the Ministry of Health were an indicator that the country had reached the last stage of the COVID-19 second wave.

Contributing to this is obviously the lockdown, which introduced the closure of shops by 6pm. The early closure of businesses means there is less movement of people and this results in the controlled spread of the virus, said Dr Makadzange.

He said it took about a week or more to see the implications of decisions taken by government.

We are yet to see the results of the ban of alcohol, he said.

He attributed the spike of cases of COVID-19 cases and deaths to the festive season, which brought about a lot of movement among people.

There was no social distancing during the festive season. Families met, people were celebrating and there was basically a lot of movement. We are yet to see a great regress in cases now that there is less movement, said the health promotion officer.


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The global Foot Care Products Market report offers a comprehensive analysis of current trends and future opportunities. This report is responsible for quantitative estimation and foreseen future for upcoming years based on the recent companies strategic moves and historical data. Further, the market report is categorized into different segments, regions, and countries level. This report also provides competitor analysis with its market share and developments.

The final report will cover the impact of COVID-19 on this industry.

The global Foot Care Products market report presents a complete research-based study of the industry including details such as company shares, forecast data, in-depth analysis and an outlook of the market on a worldwide platform. The report further highlights the market drivers, restraints, and the top manufacturers at the global and regional levels. For a thorough understanding, the report also offers market segmentation and regional analysis for the forecast period from 2021 to 2026.

Click here to get a Sample PDF Copy of the Foot Care Products Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-31752

According to this latest study, the 2020 growth of Foot Care Products will have significant changes from the previous year. By the most conservative estimates of global Foot Care Products market size (a most likely outcome) will be a year-over-year revenue growth rate of xx% in 2020, from US$ xx million in 2019. Over the next five years, the Foot Care Products market will register an xx% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ xx million by 2025.

This Foot Care Products market report also splits the market by regions: Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), APAC (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain), Middle East & Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, GCC Countries).

This report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of the Foot Care Products market by type, application, key manufacturers, key regions, and countries.

The key manufacturers covered in this report: Breakdown data in Chapter 3.

Reckitt Benckiser

GlaxoSmithKline

Johnson & Johnson

Bayer

Implus

Superfeet

Lush

Baby Foot

RG Barry Corporation

Aetrex Worldwide

Blistex

Sanofi

McPherson

ProFoot

Alva-Amco Pharmacals

PediFix

Tony Moly

Others

To inquire about report customization, feel free to reach out to our team of expert analysts @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/ask-questions-31752

This study considers the Foot Care Products value and volume generated from the sales of the following segments:

Segmentation by type: breakdown data from 2016 to 2021, in Section 2.3; and forecast to 2026 in section 11.7.

Antifungal Drugs

Inserts & Insoles

Creams

Sleeves and Braces

Grooming Implements

Other

Segmentation by application: breakdown data from 2016 to 2021, in Section 2.4; and forecast to 2026 in section 11.8.

Medical Treatment

Foot Beauty

In addition, this report discusses the key drivers influencing market growth, opportunities, challenges, and the risks faced by key manufacturers and the market as a whole. It also analyzes key emerging trends and their impact on present and future development.

Purchase the Complete Global Foot Care Products Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-31752

Research Objectives

To study and analyze the global Foot Care Products consumption (value & volume) by key regions/countries, type and application, history data from 2016 to 2020, and forecast to 2026.

To understand the structure of the Foot Care Products market by identifying its various subsegments.

Focuses on the key global Foot Care Products manufacturers, to define, describe, and analyze the sales volume, value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in the next few years.

To analyze the Foot Care Products with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market.

To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).

To project the consumption of Foot Care Products submarkets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries).

To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.

About Us:

DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research report provider, enriching decision-makers, and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research reports, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.

Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed.

For more details:

DecisionDatabases.com

E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com

Phone: +91 90 28 057900

Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/

Reference Source:

https://www.topnewscorner.com/foot-care-products-market-analysis-by-material-product-key-players-and-industry-analysis-by-2026/
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has called out Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque about his controversial remarks on matters of foreign affairs, such as China's new law allowing its coast guard to fire at foreign vessels in contested waters and the coup in Myanmar.

Reacting to several news articles, Locsin hurled strongly-worded tweets against President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman.

He said Roque is "not competent" to comment on the Beijing law that authorizes Chinese coast guard to shoot foreign vessels spotted in China-claimed reefs. Locsin previously filed a diplomatic protest with China over its new law.

"HARRY, just lay off foreign affairs," he wrote on Monday. "I AM NOT LISTENING TO HARRY ROQUE. LOVE THE GUY BUT HE'S NOT COMPETENT IN THIS FIELD. WE DO NOT GO BACK TO The Hague. WE MIGHT LOSE WHAT WE WON. HARRY, LAY OFF."

Roque on Monday also claimed that he is qualified to discuss international law after teaching it for 15 years. He even offered to school opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros on the issue.

In the same briefing, Malacanang remained confident that the code of conduct currently being negotiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China continues to thrive despite the new law.

Retired Associate Justice Antonio Carpio previously said the code of conduct, which will determine the only allowable actions parties can take in the South China Sea, was rendered "dead on arrival" with the recent passage of the Coast Guard law.

RELATED: PH, other ASEAN countries must unite against China's Coast Guard law, expert says

Locsin also refuted Roque's statement that the Philippine Embassy in Myanmar is currently mobilizing, saying defense units are ready to transport Filipinos back home amid the coup.

"Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque does not express foreign policy. That was his personal opinion," he said in a tweet on Tuesday. "And the last thing we will do is assemble our armed forces to evacuate our nationals."

The foreign affairs chief said he is in touch with Philippine Ambassador to Myanmar Eduardo Kapunan to strategize well-thought-out positions that only Duterte can override.

Myanmar's military seized power of the Southeast Asian country in a coup on Monday, after detaining the country's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and numerous other top government figures. The army announced that power had been handed to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and that it was declaring a national state of emergency for one year.

In his briefing in Malacanang on Tuesday, Roque said he did not intend to meddle with those international issues. He also claimed he was only trying to speak for the President.

"I love him (Secretary Locsin) back, even more so. Tisoy kasi ano? Pero iyong sa akin naman (but to me), the President is the chief architect of our foreign policy," he said.

"I think I was very clear that I was not intruding. Pasensya na po (My apologies), but as chief of our foreign policy, napakahirap naman po kung tayo'y tikom sa mga bagay na ito (it is difficult to keep mum about these things)," he added. "But we always defer to the line agency as far as actual policies to be implemented are concerned."
The Kremlin expects that the European Union wont link the future of its relations with Russia to Alexey Navalnys case, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"We hope that the future of Russia-EU relations wont be linked to the remand prisoners case, which would be a stupid thing to do," he said, commenting on EU top diplomat Josep Borrells upcoming visit to Russia.

The Kremlin spokesman pointed out that the Russian authorities were looking forward to meeting with the EU top diplomat "because relations between Russia and the European Union are suspended for no reason."

"Moscow certainly would like relations to return to normal and progress in the interests of both EU countries and Russia. We are ready to do everything for that," TASS cited him as saying.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell will pay a visit to Moscow between February 4 and 6. The chief diplomat is planning to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss the bilateral relations, measures to fight the pandemic, the Iranian nuclear deal, the conflict in Ukraine as well as Navalnys arrest.
A last-ditch effort to allow a riverboat casino to move to Tangipahoa Parish failed Wednesday (April 25), making it even less likely that the North Shore will get a full-fledged casino anytime soon.

Rep. Steve Pugh, R-Ponchatoula, couldn't get House Bill 438 -- calling for a local voter referendum in Tangipahoa Parish to allow a casino -- through the Louisiana House Criminal Justice Committee Wednesday. Pugh only brought up the legislation after the Senate voted down the same proposal, contained in a different bill, Tuesday night.

The Senate and House bills would have allowed -- with voters' approval -- for one of the 15 existing riverboat casino licenses, associated with DiamondJacks Casino & Resort, to be moved from Bossier City to Tangipahoa.

The rejections -- which took place within 24 hours of each other -- make it very unlikely that the proposal to move a casino to Tangipahoa Parish will be able to move forward, though both Pugh and Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, have reserved the right to bring up their proposals for consideration again.

The fact that the Senate had voted against allowing a casino to move to Tangipahoa swayed some House committee members to oppose the proposal when it came before them Wednesday.

"To me, the Senate voted on it yesterday," said Rep. Stephen Dwight, R-Lake Charles. "I did support your bill yesterday up until about 5:30."

Tangipahoa Parish President Robby Miller appeared irritated about the Senate's rejection when he came before the House Criminal Justice committee to advocate for the bill.

His parish council had voted to support having a parish referendum on allowing the casino to relocate to his community. He said most mayors, Sheriff Daniel Edwards, Gov. John Bel Edwards' brother, and many other elected officials in his parish support the project.

The governor, who is a resident of Tangipahoa, said he would sign the legislation if it came to his desk and he would vote in favor of the measure if it appears on his Tangipahoa ballot in November.

Miller argued that the casino project is essentially a local matter for Tangipahoa, and the local voters should be able to decide whether the project moves forward. He told House members that a vote in favor of the legislation wouldn't necessarily be construed as a vote in favor of gambling.

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That didn't seem to convince lawmakers to support the legislation though, particularly because three of the four senators who represent Tangipahoa voted against the proposal Tuesday. Pugh said those senators also represent St. Tammany Parish.

"St. Tammany is very much against it," he said.

If allowed to move forward, the riverboat be located along the Tangipahoa River southwest of the intersection of Interstate 12 and Highway 445, just a few miles west of St. Tammany Parish. It was expected to be a $100 million complex with resort amenities.

It would have included a 27,000-square-foot gambling floor with about 800 slot machines and 25 card tables. Initial plans called for one 200-room hotel as well.

Other opponents to the legislation included a coalition of Baptist pastors from the North Shore, the video poker industry and the owners of the Treasure Chest Casino in Kenner.

The pastors argued against the proposal on moral grounds, saying they deal with gambling addicts in their congregations already. The Treasure Chest owner and video poker operators are concerned about competition for their own facilities. There are no video poker outlets -- found at truck stops, restaurants and bars -- in Tangipahoa Parish, but they are in nearby St. Helena Parish.

Supporters of the casino project said Rep. Sherman Mack, R-Albany, was instrumental in killing both the Senate and House bills to move the riverboat. Mack is the head of the House Criminal Justice committee.

Penninsula Pacific was interested in moving the riverboat casino to Tangipahoa from Bossier City because the company considers the North Shore to be "an underserved area," according to Brent Stevens, the head of the gambling group.

Stevens said about $260 million from Louisiana is spent in Mississippi casinos every year, and a large chunk of the people who go to Mississippi for gambling go through Tangipahoa Parish to get there. "We could probably get 40 percent of that traffic to stay local," he said during a committee hearing last month.

In 1996, Tangipahoa Parish voted to accept riverboat gaming, though not video poker. Most of Tangipahoa's surrounding parishes have no gambling, though. Livingston, Washington and St. Tammany parishes do not accept either form of gambling within their borders.
Domestic indices were hovering in a narrow range with robust gains in mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded above the crucial 14,500 mark. The Bank Nifty index hit a record high in morning trade today. Shares rallied for the second day as investors cheered Union Budget announcements. Positive global cues also lifted the sentiment.

At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 1021.63 points or 2.1% at 49,622.27. The Nifty 50 index was up 304.65 points or 2.13% at 14,585.65.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.55% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.24%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1642 shares rose and 961 shares fell. A total of 183 shares were unchanged.

The Union Budget 2021 unveiled on 1 February 2021 supported all the essential aspects of growth by an increase in government spending without an increase in indirect taxes. The Budget offered huge stimulus to infrastructure, capex, healthcare and boosted the credit flow by taking out the toxic assets of the banking system. Increased FDI limit in insurance improved the overall outlook of the sector.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 103,395,781 with 2,237,294 deaths. India reported 163,353 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 154,486 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

New Listing:

Shares of Indigo Paints were trading 4.12% lower at Rs 2500 at 11:28 IST on the BSE, at a premium of 67.79% over the initial public offer price of Rs 1490. The stock was listed at Rs 2607.50, at a premium of 75% or 1117.5 points to the initial public offer (IPO) price. So far the stock hit a high of Rs 2756.30 and low of Rs 2475.20. On the BSE, 4.13 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far. The initial public offer (IPO) of Indigo Paints was subscribed 117.02 times. The issue received bids for 64.57 crore shares as against 55.18 lakh shares on offer, according to the stock exchange data. The issue opened for subscription on 20 January 2021 and closed on 22 January 2021. The price band for the IPO was set at Rs 1488-1490 per share.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index surged 3.51% to 10,587.35, rising for second trading session. The Auto index has rallied 8% in two trading sessions.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Union Budget 2021 speech that the government intends to go ahead with a 'Vehicle Scrappage Policy'. The new vehicle scrappage policy and its details will be shared with the public within the next 15 days. The policy will allow owners to scrap their 20-year old vehicles and avail incentives on the purchase of new personal vehicles. For commercial vehicles, the scrappage policy will be applicable for 15-year old commercial vehicles without a fitness certificate.

Tata Motors (up 8.15%), Ashok Leyland (up 5.89%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 3.6%), Escorts (up 3.5%), TVS Motor Company (up 3.28%), Amara Raja Batteries (up 3.05%), MRF (up 2.82%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 2.78%), Exide Industries (up 2.75%) and Bosch (up 1.31%) were top gainers in auto segment.

Bajaj Auto rose 2.30% to Rs 4,208.75 after the two-wheeler maker's total sales rose 8% to 4,25,199 units in January 2021 from 3,94,473 units in January 2020. While total domestic sales declined 11% to 1,70,757 units, total exports improved 26% to 2,54,442 units in January 2021 over January 2020. During the month, the company's total two-wheeler sales jumped 16% year-on-year (YoY) to 3,84,936 units. Total commercial vehicles sales declined 35% year-on-year to 40,263 units in December 2020.

VST Tillers & Tractors rose 2.16% to Rs 1,869.80 after the company's total sales jumped 16.80% to 2,905 units in January 2021 from 2,487 units in January 2020. While the company's power tiller sales jumped 14.56% to 2,258 units, tractor sales increased by 25.38% to 647 units in January 2021 over January 2020

Stocks in Spotlight:

Coal India rose 1.78%. The state-run company's coal production, on a provisional basis, fell 4.1% to 60.5 million tonnes (MT) in January 2021 from 63.1 MT in January 2020. Coal India's coal offtake in January 2021 stood at 53.3 MT, down 4.6% from 55.9 MT in January 2020.

Coromandel International lost 0.45%. On a consolidated basis, the company reported 26.2% jump in net profit to Rs 333.80 crore on a 7.8% increase in net sales to Rs 3533.01 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20. While the company's total expenditure rose 6.6% to Rs 3033.75 crore, interest payments declined by 55.3% to Rs 20.54 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019. Profit before tax in the third quarter was at Rs 446.87 crore, up by 26.1% from Rs 354.42 crore reported in the same period last year. EBITDA for the quarter ended Dec 2020 has grown by 16% to Rs. 501 crore as compared to Rs 432 crore during corresponding quarter of last year.

Global Markets:

Asian markets advanced on Tuesday following an overnight jump on Wall Street. The Japanese government is set to extend the state of emergency covering Tokyo and other regions till March 7 in order to contain the coronavirus, as per media reports.

US stocks jumped on Monday, the first session of February, as Wall Street appeared to shake off concerns about a speculative retail trading mania that largely drove the market's worst weekly sell-off since October.

Meanwhile, a group of 10 Republican senators sent President Joe Biden a letter on Sunday, urging him to consider a smaller, scaled-down Covid-19 relief proposal. His current plan calls for $1.9 trillion in additional fiscal stimulus.

The Republican proposal would reduce the size of a new round of checks Biden wants to send to Americans, from $1,400 per individual to $1,000. It would also make the income limits that determine eligibility for the stimulus payments far stricter. For individual filers the checks would start to phase out for those making more than $40,000.

The alternative proposal comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber will move to pass a budget resolution, the first step toward approving legislation through reconciliation. The process would enable Senate Democrats to approve an aid measure without GOP votes.

In economic data, US manufacturing activity slowed slightly in January. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Monday its index of national factory activity fell to a reading of 58.7 last month from 60.5 in December.

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In a Veterans Day opinion column, I criticized the Defense Departments slide toward opaqueness over the past few years.

When the piece appeared, a general I had worked for in Air Force public relations said he wanted to remind me of the DODs Principles of Information and the doctrine of maximum disclosure, minimum delay.

His comment showed he believed the institution is doing all it can do to be transparent.

Unfortunately, the doctrine of max disclosure, min delay has eroded as the bureaucratic momentum toward silence accelerated and slow rolling became easier for government agencies under President Donald Trump.

Trumps disdain for journalists percolated across the country, even reaching some of my friends and family, whod say things like the media is the enemy.

Then came the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, where rioters assaulted photojournalists, scrawled murder the media on the walls, wore T-shirts with the same message and destroyed a pile of journalists gear.

Related: Accelerator: Ready to dig into South Texas' tech, startup X-factor

While thats one extreme, another is developing in the business world, especially among tech companies  the silent treatment.

Increasingly, some firms are shrinking away from talking to reporters; most notably among those companies is Elon Musks Tesla and SpaceX.

Tesla disbanded its public relations department in October. But even when the office was open, the electric vehicle maker was rarely forthcoming with the news media.

Nevertheless, the Public Relations Society of America called Teslas move alarming and noted it sets an extraordinarily dangerous precedent for blocking the continued free flow of information from one of the worlds most innovative and influential companies.

It added, Disengagement is not a path to success.

Some critics have noted that not maintaining relationships with the media can be dangerous, especially during crises.

On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: Transparency, listening would unite military, civilians

But despite moving away from answering journalists questions, Musks cult of personality, combined with success after success, has given Tesla and SpaceX a massive following of rabid fans whore quick to attack naysayers on social media.

SpaceX has hit that sweet spot of posting just enough content to generate buzz and cultivate cult followers, said Pete Wall of Rochester, Minn., while standing on the shoreline of South Padre Islands Isla Blanca Park awaiting SpaceXs Starship SN8 launch in December.

Wall nailed the point that SpaceX isnt completely silent. In some ways, its more open about its testing than other aerospace companies, and Musks tweets are basically cryptic, odd and often funny news releases for his companies.

Many of his followers take the messages as gospel.

In months of covering SpaceXs Texas operations, Ive reached out to the company dozens of times and only received one response, a mass email that just regurgitated some information that was already public.

My colleagues havent had any better luck with Tesla.

Apparently, radio silence is trending in San Antonio, too.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio cybersecurity firm expanding

Cloud-computing giant Rackspace Technology has responded to about 75 percent of my queries, which isnt bad considering Ive never actually spoken with its public relations person. Our relationship, apparently, is still in the email-only stage.

A couple weeks ago I approached local cybersecurity firm Silotech Group with questions about its business and some expansion plans we came across in public records.

The company, which launched in 2008, is consistently ranked in Inc. magazines list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies. In its 2020 listing, the firm showed 133 percent growth over three years.

Silotechs LinkedIn profile lists 104 employees, and according to the companys website, 58 percent of them are veterans.

I reached out multiple times to CEO Tiffany Tremont, Executive Vice President Kelly Tremont and Chief Operating Officer James Roy.

Needless to say, we never connected, and the article ran without their perspective.

The company works with many military units and the National Security Agency, an organization not known for transparency. Several of its job postings require applicants to have, or be able to get, a top secret security clearance with a polygraph test and be cleared for Sensitive Compartmented Information.

Related: SpaceX to convert offshore oil platforms into spaceports

Maybe Silotech stays quiet because of the nature of its work. Maybe theres a compelling business case to remain out of the spotlight. Maybe it just missed my calls and messages.

Or maybe its karma. There were times in my military public relations career when we werent as responsive to media requests as we couldve or shouldve been.

As a journalist, I have a better grasp of how the news cycle wont wait for the bureaucracy to craft the most neutral and risk-free answers.

One good sign, at least with the military, is that its open to ideas that will improve its information-sharing. In one example, the Air Force embeds several public affairs officers in corporate communications departments at companies around the country for career-broadening experience.

This year, one captain is working with SpaceX media relations.

However, when I reached out to see how its going, I heard only silence.

Brandon Lingle writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. brandon.lingle@express-news.net

EAM has completed planning and received government approval for C$2.7M, Phase 1 exploration program that will include 8,000m of diamond drilling, 115 line kilometers of geophysical surveys, environmental, metallurgical studies and resource calculations/updates. The exploration program is set to commence as soon as travel restrictions for the Tigray region are lifted.

Based on the recently completed sale of the 70% interest of EAM's Ethiopian subsidiary, Tigray Resources Inc. ("TRI") to Tibet Huayu Mining Co. Ltd (news release dated February 8, 2019), EAM retains the mineral rights and all exploration obligations for the prospective targets not incorporated in the current resources defined within the Terakimti, Mato Bula and Da Tambuk mining licenses ("EAM Mineral Resources"). EAM will advance the exploration agenda with the objective to expand and upgrade the current resource base and drill untested, high priority exploration prospects.

Listed below are the exploration targets that host potential to improve current resources and potentially increase the total resource base (news release dated May 7, 2018). Highest priority exploration targets that have potential to increase the resource base will be the focus of Phase 1 drilling;

Adyabo Property

The undrilled Halima Hill I.P. anomaly that is an extension of the geophysical signature of the Mato Bula resource, and the exploration of the Mato Bula Trend, the continuation of prospective geology between the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk mining licenses, represent first priority exploration targets on the Adyabo property.

Halima Hill I.P .  Represents a compelling target as a large, open (to depth and southward) I.P. chargeability anomaly extending laterally 500 metres south beyond the established Mato Bula mineralization. The currently defined copper/gold mineralization increases in silver and zinc content locally in the south region of the resource. Being an open I.P. target, the feature requires drill qualification and has potential, with mineralization identification, to represent a significant spatial increase to the known mineralized footprint. A key intersection in this area includes 24.50 metres grading 0.61 grams per tonne gold, 1.67% copper, 8.0 grams per tonne silver, and 0.96% zinc, from 204.30 metres (WMD027- news release dated January 15, 2015 ). Halima Hill is considered a high priority target.

 Represents a compelling target as a large, open (to depth and southward) I.P. chargeability anomaly extending laterally 500 metres south beyond the established Mato Bula mineralization. The currently defined copper/gold mineralization increases in silver and zinc content locally in the south region of the resource. Being an open I.P. target, the feature requires drill qualification and has potential, with mineralization identification, to represent a significant spatial increase to the known mineralized footprint. A key intersection in this area includes 24.50 metres grading 0.61 grams per tonne gold, 1.67% copper, 8.0 grams per tonne silver, and 0.96% zinc, from 204.30 metres (WMD027- news release dated ). is considered a high priority target. Mato Bula Central  Results from the 2017 infill drilling program identified areas of potential high grade mineralization for step out drilling to depth in the central area of Mato Bula.

 Results from the 2017 infill drilling program identified areas of potential high grade mineralization for step out drilling to depth in the central area of Mato Bula. Silica Hill  Resource mineralization remains open to depth.

 Resource mineralization remains open to depth. Silica Hill North  Interpretation of geology and mineralization has been revised and additional drill targets have been identified with the objective to build upon an initial intersection of 22.91 metres at 14.34 grams per tonne gold including 8.50 metres at 36.92 grams per tonne gold, from 101.09 metres drill depth (WMD032- news release dated January 15, 2015 ).

 Interpretation of geology and mineralization has been revised and additional drill targets have been identified with the objective to build upon an initial intersection of 22.91 metres at 14.34 grams per tonne gold including 8.50 metres at 36.92 grams per tonne gold, from 101.09 metres drill depth (WMD032- news release dated ). Mato Bula North - A separate copper enriched area of the existing resource remains open laterally and to depth, and requires further delineation drilling.

- A separate copper enriched area of the existing resource remains open laterally and to depth, and requires further delineation drilling. Da Tambuk Silica Ridge  Two target areas of artisanal workings, silica alteration and anomalous multi-element soil geochemistry remains to be trenched and drill tested.

 Two target areas of artisanal workings, silica alteration and anomalous multi-element soil geochemistry remains to be trenched and drill tested. Da Tambuk deposit  Infill and extension drilling required (deposit currently open to depth and south).

Harvest Property

Terakimti

The Company has identified a corridor of anomalous surface geochemistry between the Terakimti deposit and the VTEM09 prospect (a six kilometre separation). The VTEM09 prospect has yielded a number of precious metal-rich VMS related intersections, including 24.06 metres grading 1.88% copper, 3.08 grams per tonne gold, 66.4 grams per tonne silver, and 2.54% zinc, from 35.84 metres drill depth (diamond drill hole TVD009 - news release dated March 27, 2017). Additional drill work warranted in the Terakimti area includes;

Supergene - High grade copper mineralization delineation drilling.

- High grade copper mineralization delineation drilling. Primary - VMS mineralization delineation drilling.

- VMS mineralization delineation drilling. VTEM09  Following qualifying metallurgical work and potential resource work, additional diamond drilling would be warranted.

 Following qualifying metallurgical work and potential resource work, additional diamond drilling would be warranted. Mayshehagne VMS trend - A separate VMS trend centres on the Mayshehagne prospect, located three kilometres south of Terakimti. Precious metal enriched copper-zinc mineralization has been identified at this prospect, including 21.19 metres grading 4.32% copper, 1.04 grams per tonne gold, 35.9 grams per tonne silver, and 6.98% zinc, from 36.58 metres drill depth (diamond drill hole HD011  news release dated March 27, 2017 ).

A separate VMS trend centres on the Mayshehagne prospect, located three kilometres south of Terakimti. Precious metal enriched copper-zinc mineralization has been identified at this prospect, including 21.19 metres grading 4.32% copper, 1.04 grams per tonne gold, 35.9 grams per tonne silver, and 6.98% zinc, from 36.58 metres drill depth (diamond drill hole HD011  news release dated ). Mayshehagne  Following qualifying metallurgical work and potential resource work, additional diamond drilling would be warranted.

Furthermore, additional target generation is recommended through deep and downhole EM programs over prospective terrains at Harvest and I.P surveying along the untested Mato Bula Trend terrain at Adyabo.

Management Discussion

The Company believes the work and advancement on the projects completed to date indicate both the commercial production potential of the defined deposits and the significant exploration potential of this area within the Arabian Nubian Shield. Management continues to believe there is excellent potential for resource expansion within the Harvest and Adyabo properties, as described in the EAM's news release dated May 17, 2018.

Government approval for the extension of exploration licenses and the proposed 2020 drill program has been received. The initiation of the Phase 1 diamond drilling program is expected in the first quarter of 2021.

EAM currently has three approved Mining Agreements with Ethiopia's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum; the Terakimti Oxide deposit Mining license has been issued (news release dated December 7, 2017) and Mining Agreements for the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk deposits have been approved and licences issued. For the additional prospective targets of interest that are located on ground outside of existing mining licences, the Company has received Extension/Inclusion agreements from the Ministry to allow additional time to qualify targets as they may complement existing Licence resources.

Andrew Lee Smith, P.Geo., C.E.O., a Qualified Person under the definitions of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this news release.

About East Africa:

The Company's principal assets include 30% Net Profits Interest in the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk mines (collectively "Adyabo Property") and a 70% project interest in the Harvest polymetallic VMS exploration Project in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. In addition, the Company has a 30% Net Streaming Interest ("SRI") in the Magambazi Mine in the Tanga region of Tanzania.

The Mato Bula and Da Tambuk mines are four kilometres apart and will be developed simultaneously. The development of the mining operations is scheduled to begin during the first quarter of 2021.

East Africa retains exploration rights on areas of the properties outside the Mato Bula, Da Tambuk and Terakimti mining licenses in all Ethiopian projects and anticipates the commencement of exploration drilling to test priority targets during the first quarter of calendar 2021.

EAM has invested USD$66.8M in African exploration since 2005 and identified a total of 2.8 million ounces of gold and gold-equivalent resources representing an average discovery cost per ounce of US$24.

The current Global Project Resources discovered by EAM include:

Project Resources (Au + Aueqv Metal ounces) Project Category Au

+Aueqvounces Adyabo Project, Ethiopia (EAM 30% Net Profit Interest) Indicated 446,000 Inferred 551,000 Harvest Project, Ethiopia (EAM = 70% Project Interest) Indicated 469,000 Inferred 426,000 Handeni Project, Tanzania (EAM = 30% Streaming Royalty Interest) Indicated 721,000 Inferred 292,000 *See East Africa Metals Project Resource Table attached for additional detail

More information on the Company can be viewed at the Company's website: www.eastafricametals.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Andrew Lee Smith, P.Geo., CEO

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "forecast", "project", "budget", "schedule", "may", "will", "could", "might", "should", "indicate", "confident" or variations of such words or similar words or expressions. Forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by the Company as at the date of such information and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: the negotiation of a definitive agreement reflecting the anticipated structure and timing outlined herein; delays with respect to required payments and regulatory approvals; results of the due diligence review; the ability of Tibet Huayu to develop and operate the Ethiopia Adyabo Project within the required laws and agreements recoverability of the Ethiopian and Tanzanian VAT receivable; early exploration; the ability of East Africa to identify any other corporate opportunities for the Company; the possibility that the Company may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service its planned operations and may be force to take other options; the risk the Company may not be able to continue as a going concern; the possibility the Company will require additional financing to develop the Ethiopian Projects into a mining operation; the risks associated with obtaining necessary licenses or permits including and not limited to Ethiopian Government approval of EAM Mineral Resources extensions for the Company's Ethiopian Properties and Projects; risks associated with mineral exploration and development; metal and mineral prices; the demand for precious and base metals; availability of capital; accuracy of the Company's Projections and estimates, including the initial and any updates to the mineral resource for the Adyabo, Harvest and Handeni Projects; realization of mineral resource estimates; interest and exchange rates; competition; stock price fluctuations; the ability to carry on exploration and development activities; actual results of exploration activities; availability of drilling equipment and access; the ability to obtain qualified personnel, equipment and services in a timely and cost-efficient manner; the regulatory framework including and not limited to license approvals, social and environmental matters; the ability to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner government regulation; political or economic developments; foreign taxation risks; environmental risks; insurance risks; capital expenditures; operating or technical difficulties in connection with development activities; personnel relations; the speculative nature of strategic metal exploration and development including the risks of contests over title to properties; and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, as well as those risk factors set out in the Company's filings with securities regulators. Mineral Resources, which are not Mineral Reserves, do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, or other relevant issues. The quantity and grade of reported inferred mineral resources as the estimation is uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define any inferred mineral resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading inferred mineral resources to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. The contained gold, copper and silver figures shown are in situ. No assurance can be given that the estimated quantities will be produced. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. The Company does not update or revise forward looking information even if new information becomes available unless legislation requires the Company to do so. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information contained herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE East Africa Metals Inc.

For further information: Nick Watters, Business Development, Telephone +1 (604) 488-0822, Email [email protected], Website www.eastafricametals.com

Related Links

https://eastafricametals.com/


Almost 200,000 Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in Ireland by the end of January (Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland/PA)

Almost 200,000 Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in Ireland, the latest figures show.

Figures from the HSE show that 150,500 people have received their first dose of the vaccine as of Sunday, while a further 49,300 have received their second dose.

It puts the total number of vaccines administered in Ireland by the end of January at 199,800.

Thanks to the on-going efforts of our brilliant vaccination teams, the Ambulance Service, the Defence Forces and many others right across the HSE, by yesterday we had administered almost 200k vaccines. 



Here are some other facts & figures for the past week. pic.twitter.com/tx8NIJVGA2  Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) February 1, 2021

On Monday, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly tweeted: Thanks to the on-going efforts of our brilliant vaccination teams, the Ambulance Service, the Defence Forces and many others right across the HSE, by yesterday we had administered almost 200k vaccines.

Meanwhile, Ryanair boss Michael OLeary has claimed the airline industry will bounce back this summer, with people taking holidays abroad in July, August and September.

He said: I expect it to be a dramatic recovery this summer on the back of the successful vaccine rollout programme in the UK. 50% of their population will be vaccinated by the end of March.

Europe and Ireland needs to get its act together and catch up.

But, if 50% of our population is vaccinated by the end of June, which is what we now expect, we will see a strong recovery of travel and summer holidays during the school holidays in July August and September.

Mr OLearys comments came as it was revealed that Ryanair expects to post a full-year loss of nearly one billion euro.

On Monday the airline announced it anticipates a net loss of 850 million euro to 950 million euro for its 2021 financial year, which ends on March 31.

Mr OLeary said that once the majority of the population of people over 50 have been vaccinated, he expects international travel will pick up this summer.

He told RTEs Morning Ireland: Summer 21, we will still see millions of people travelling to the beaches of Europe in July, August and September, when everybody over 50 will have been vaccinated, and the risk of sickness, hospitalisations and deaths from Covid will have significantly receded.

The Government will take their public health advice from the chief medical officer and Nphet, not from Ryanair or Michael O'Leary. Simon Coveney

But Mr OLeary was rebuked for his comments by the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Simon Coveney said: I listened to that interview, Michael OLeary was his usual bullish self.

But to be perfectly honest with you, the Government will take their public health advice from the chief medical officer and Nphet, not from Ryanair or Michael OLeary.

We need to have consistent and cautious messages now, in terms of protecting the public from the spread of this virus.

That will be our focus, not any pressure points linked to international travel or commercial interests.

Michael OLeary has a job to do, to protect Ryanairs interests, and to get people travelling again.

But we have a job to do to prioritise public health first, and thats what well do.
Housing activists gather in front of Gov. Charlie Bakers house in Swampscott in October. While a federal moratorium protects some tenants, Massachusetts courts issued hundreds of legal actions related to eviction in December. Federal funding now is fueling state coffers to provide longer-term relief for tenants and landlords in financial crisis because of the pandemic.
The Loeries Official Rankings offer a comprehensive overview of the annual performance across the brand communications industry throughout Africa and the Middle East. The rankings list the top brands and agencies, as well as specialist focus areas and individual performance in key areas.

About Loeries Africa Middle East



The Loeries, a non-profit company, is Africa and the Middle Easts premiere initiative that recognises, rewards, inspires and fosters creative excellence in the brand communication industry. As the highest accolade for creativity and innovation across our region, the Loeries promotes and supports creativity by helping marketers, agencies and consumers appreciate the value of ideas and fresh thinking.



Culminating in the biggest creative gathering across the region, Loeries Creative Week brings together the best innovative minds from our industry for a festival of networking, inspiring minds and recognising great work.



The Loeries is the only award across Africa and the Middle East that informs the global Warc Creative 100, a showcase for the best creative work in the world. Successor to the prestigious Gunn Report, Warc collates the most important advertising awards from around the world to produce a global list that ranks the most creative companies and campaigns.



Partners of the Loeries



Sanlam, AB InBev, Barron, Brand South Africa, DStv Media Sales, Facebook, Red & Yellow Creative School of Business, Tractor, Vodacom, Woolworths



Additional Partners and Official Suppliers



AAA School of Advertising, Aon South Africa, Backsberg, BEE Online, First Source, Fresh RSVP Guest Logistics, Funk Productions, Howler, Gallo Images, Ludus Post Productions, Mama Creative, Newsclip, Paygate, Rocketseed, Shared Value Africa Initiative, Shift, Unstereotype Alliance, Vega School, VQI Communications Nigeria, Xneelo



Endorsed by



Association of Communication and Design, Brand Council South Africa, Commercial Producers Association, Creative Circle, EXCA, IAB, South African Institute of Architects, IID



Official Media Partners



Between 10and5, Bizcommunity.com, Book of Swag, Brand Communicator Nigeria, Business Insider by Pulse, Campaign Middle East, Film & Event Media, IDIDTHAT.co, Mark Lives, Modern Marketing, The Redzone

The Loeries Official Rankings are a useful and independent measure of whos doing what across the region and provides an objective and credible representation of performance across the whole of Africa and the Middle East. The Loeries is also the only award across Africa and the Middle East that informs the global Warc Creative 100, a showcase for the best creative work in the world.Loeries CEO Preetesh Sewraj adds: The Loeries Official Rankings are unquestionably the definitive measure of excellence for brands, agencies, production companies and individuals working across the advertising and design industries. The rankings are highly valued across Africa and the Middle East as they remain the only comprehensive index for the industry. The rankings are also more than a mere listing of achievement  it is used by the industry to ensure that they are able to unlock more quality work which ultimately further strengthens the industry across the region.Joe Public United was once again ranked as the number one agency in the Overall Ranking by Agency  Africa and the Middle East. This marks the third year in the row that Joe Public United has achieved this rank. Joe Public United also emerged as the number one ranked agency in the Regional Agency Group category followed by BBDO and FP7McCann.The Overall Ranking by Brand saw Chicken Licken retain the top spot for the second year in the row. Chicken Licken was followed by newcomers BBC Studios and Mastercard. In the Design category, Impact BBDO Dubai improved from fourth in 2019 to emerge as the number one ranked Design agency in 2020. They were followed by FP7McCann and Joe Public Shift.The Loeries Official Rankings 2020 also now include the results for 2018 and 2019 allowing a comprehensive view of sustained performance in the various categories. Monadic data is useful but adding past year data will ensure that readers can now get a clear view of who creates work that consistently emerges to the top, says Sewraj.Full information on the Loeries Official Rankings can be found on loeries.com

KALAMAZOO, MI  It was a bittersweet day for restaurants and bars as establishments began welcoming back a limited number of dine-in patrons on Monday, Feb. 1.

At Studio Grill in downtown Kalamazoo, Mondays reopening came the same day the restaurant was celebrating its 11th year in business. Owner Craig Dotson said the down home little restaurant lost 48% of its revenue in 2020 due to all of the shutdowns the restaurant industry in Michigan faced.

Despite the challenges the restaurant has faced, Dotson is optimistic as he looks forward into their 12th year.

Weve had a very loyal following throughout the 11 years, which really kept us in business in 2020 with carryout, he said. 2021 is going to be a great year for us.

RELATED: Return of indoor dining greeted with enthusiastic customers, cautious owners in West Michigan

Dotson said he was not real thrilled with operating at a 25% capacity restriction, but said its better than nothing. At 25% capacity, Dotson can have a total of 12 patrons inside his establishment at a time. Three weeks ago, Dotson said the business welcomed state inspectors as part of the COVID-19 workplace safety ambassador program.

Across town, Kalamazoos oldest bar, Louies Trophy House, also reopened to patrons Monday.

Louies owner Joe Wolf called Monday a bittersweet day.

We would love to welcome back all our customers, Wolf said. But we know that were going to have to bring them in shifts.

Louies recently opened a second location, Louies Corner Bar in Texas Corners. The new establishment, which has been in the remodeling process over the last year, replaces Fletchers Pub at the location. Wolf said it has been a struggle to find staff for both.

Staffing has been a major concern for everyone in this industry right now, Wolf said. There is just not a lot of people applying for jobs right now.

On top of that is balancing hours, with some of his staff working six/seven days a week.

Wolf said their business has been down 80 to 85%, which makes it hard to have a normal payroll when you arent getting the sales to support it.

I hope customers realize how hard our staff is working to be able to have dine-in service, as well as staying on top of COVID safety guidelines, he said, also pointing out the natural adjustment for staff who hasnt worked for months.

We hope people are patient, understanding, Wolf said. We havent served since November.

Since our very first shutdown in March, we have been shut down for 160-plus days. That is a tough go with any type of business, but on top of that our servers are a little rusty.

Both Dotson and Wolf made clear their number one priority is the health and safety of all customers and staff inside their establishments.

46 Restaurants in West Michigan return to in-person dining

Also on MLive:

Air hugs, old friends and fewer pairs of socks: Indoor dining restart brings Michigan closer to regular life

Local Eats: Full City Cafe has been dishing out ultimate comfort foods in Portage since 1993

COVID-19 numbers alone shouldnt trigger Michigan reopenings, Whitmer says. Critics want a plan.

Michigan urges restaurants to beef up ventilation to protect against COVID-19
Microsoft Ireland is expanding its digital sales workforce with the addition of 200 new employees between now and May, the company said today.

It is the second major jobs announcement from Microsoft in just three months and follows the software giant's November investment of 27m in its Dublin engineering hub with the addition of 200 jobs.

The new hires will bring Microsoft's Irish workforce to nearly 3,000. Recruitment for the new positions is under way with the company planning to fill all roles by May.

Microsoft confirmed to the Irish Independent that the new recruits would be working from home, in line with Government guidelines. However, once restrictions ease the new staff will join their colleagues at the company's campus in Leopardstown, Co Dublin.

Roles available in the new recruitment drive cover a range of digital sales positions as well as cloud solution architects. Microsoft is seeking candidates with fluency in European languages to serve its Europe, Middle East and Africa sales region.

We are delighted to be in a position to announce the further deepening of our footprint in Ireland," said Microsoft Ireland Managing Director Cathriona Hallahan.

"Following so soon after our engineering investment, it highlights the importance of our Irish-based operations to Microsoft globally. Our existing digital sales team has been working hard to provide organisations in Ireland and across Europe, the Middle East and Africa with digital technologies they need to transform their business model and achieve success."

Technology companies such as Microsoft, whose popular Teams app has become a mainstay of business communications during the pandemic, have been one of the few bright sparks in an otherwise challenged Irish economy in the last year.

The company also announced its new Microsoft Sales Academy, which will recruit 25 people from a variety of backgrounds and with little or no digital skills to establish a career in digital sales.

The Academy is a digital education and training programme meant to encourage diverse participation in the digital economy. Microsoft said it will have four intake waves per year. Recruits will undergo a six-month sales training programme after which they will transition into a digital sales role at the company.
Full adherence to public safety measures will keep Bahrain safe against COVID-19: HRH Prince Salman

Full adherence to public safety measures will keep Bahrain safe against COVID-19: HRH Prince Salman

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrains success in its fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) relies on everyones commitment to strictly follow precautionary procedures and preventative measures.

This was emphasised by the Cabinet yesterday during its remote weekly meeting chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

The Cabinet reviewed COVID-19 developments and affirmed that national duty and social responsibility requires Team Bahrain, made up of citizens and residents, to protect the Kingdom by adhering to these safety measures with greater commitment.

Among the public precautionary measures and health guidelines to keep everyone and the community safe and prevent the spread of the virus is to wear face masks, observe social distancing, limit family gatherings, avoid large crowds, wash hands regularly, and maintain personal hygiene such as washing hands regularly, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, and avoid touching our face.

The Cabinet also urged the citizens and residents to register for vaccination in the interests of themselves, their families and the community.

The Kingdom continues to intensify mass vaccination efforts against the virus. Vaccine is available to citizens and residents at 27 health centres across the Kingdom.

The Cabinet also conveyed its sincere congratulations to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister on the occasion of the 53rd anniversary of the establishment of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF).

The Cabinet congratulated the members of the defence establishment, all of whom stand ready and committed to defending the Kingdom and ensuring its security.
on Tuesday informed the stock exchanges that the (RBI) appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of its entire IT infrastructure.

The bank had been penalised by the RBI for repeated service outages in the internet banking, mobile banking and payment utilities space.

In a notification to the exchanges, the bank said, RBI has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the bank under Section 30 (1-B) of the banking regulation Act, 1949 (the Act), at the cost of the bank under Section 30 (1-C) of the Act.

It added, The bank shall, accordingly, extend its cooperation to the external professional IT firm so appointed by the RBI for conducting the special IT audit.

In December last year, irked by the repeated service outages, the RBI asked to temporarily halt all its digital launches as well as new sourcing of credit card customers.

ALSO READ: Nifty Bank index buoyant as long-standing demands are met in Budget

After this action by the RBI, the private lenders management issued a statement to its customers, apologising for not being able to live up to their expectations at times. But it told customers that it had already taken help from external experts and understood what needs to be done. It also substantially implemented the inputs to strengthen IT infrastructure and systems.

The bank then submitted an action plan last month to the RBI, detailing the steps it is taking to address the issue. said it was hopeful of improving its technology platform in three months. The plan is supposed to get implemented in 10-12 weeks, the management had said last month during an analysts meet.

The measures taken by the RBI against the bank will be lifted once it is satisfied that the bank is in compliance with major critical observations the RBI has made.

In the last monetary policy meet (December), RBI governor Shaktikanta Das had said, We cannot put thousands or lakhs of customers, who are using digital banking, into any kind of difficulty for hours together. This is especially when we are ourselves giving so much of emphasis to digital banking.

He further went on to add that HDFC Bank has an overwhelming presence in the internet banking segment. We have some concerns about certain deficiencies (in the bank). Therefore, it is necessary that HDFC Bank strengthens its safety and IT systems before expanding further.
Former director general at Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) Godfrey Itaye has been slapped with a charge of abuse of office alongside Macra director of finance Ben Chitsonga and procurement specialist Joseph Ngalawa.

Itaye was arrested at the end October 2020 on allegations of fraud when he served as director general at Macra. He was released on bail days later.

The abuse of office charge was formally slapped on the trio on Monday when they appeared before Blantyre Magistrate Court.

They are accused of authorising payment of about K8 million for the printing of party cloths for former governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

However they could not take plea to the charge, as their lawyer Clement Mwala said he needed to check the disclosures from the State prosecutors a to study the charge sheet first to be in a position to advise his clients on how to take plea.

Mwala asked for an adjournment " so that we can get the disclosures and peruse through."

State advocate Dzikondianthu Malunda did not object to the adjournment request and said he would serve the disclosures in the interest of a fair trial as provided by the law.

Malunda, however, said the State is ready to prosecute the case.

Acting chief resident magistrate Godfrey Balaka adjourned the case to Monday next week.

Itaye, Chitsonga and Ngalawa will be expected to take plea on that day.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Ombudsman is also investigating Itaye on allegations that he changed his name from Godfrey Masina to Godfrey Itaye and also scrutinising his recruitment process at Macra during the administration of DPP.

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Shares of infrastructure and construction-related companies are trading higher after the government gave a boost to infrastructure projects in the Union Budget 2021.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2021 speech announced a National Bank for Financing Development (NaBFID) to help in the process of infrastructure financing in the country.

As much as Rs 5 lakh crore will be lent by DFI in 3 years' time, the FM said.

"We will also introduce a bill to set up DFI providing Rs 20,000 crore to launch the National Asset Monetisation Pipeline to fund new infra projects. This developmental financial institution will play a key role as an enabler for infrastructure financing in the country," the FM said.

The FM said the National Infrastructure Pipeline has been expanded to 7,400 projects. Further, projects worth Rs 1.1 lakh crore have been completed under the National Infra Pipeline.

The FM announced the FY22 CAPEX target at Rs 5.54 lakh crore against FY21's Rs 4.39 lakh crore.

Shares of KNR Constructions Kakatiya Cement and HG Infra Engg are trading with a gain of 5-8 percent on the BSE.
WOMEN engineers watch out, because soon, and very soon, a new, fierce member is likely to join your circle.

Talking to Justina Pius Gerald, the 15 year old gives confidence that her dream of becoming an engineer has no option but to come true, because her determination is etched on her face... .practically.

This confidence comes from the fact that the slender, dark skinned girl has been proving to all her detractors that indeed hard work pays off, and that is why in 2016 she was among the ten top performers in that year's Primary School Leaving Examination.

Your confidence grows further when you realise that in that slot of the ten best performers, she was the only girl among nine boys.

Women engineers in the country have all the reasons to look behind their shoulders because Justina has done it again, and this is because in her Certificate of Secondary Education Examination last year, she proved that four years ago was not a fluke, by becoming the second best student.

In the results announced by the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) in January this year, Justina scooped the second slot in a list once again dominated by boys.

"The main secret I believe was to first and foremost put God first in everything that I do, but apart from that hard work comes into play, putting effort in everything I do," says Justina.

She says that working closely with her teachers and parents played a big role in her school endeavors, and believes that this is a major component in school life.

This statement is supported by Mr Mark Nagolipa Massangya, the Head Master at Mwalimu JK Nyerere School in Mbezi Beach in Dar es Salaam, where Justina attended until standard six before moving to Tusiime.

He says that in class, Justina displayed outstanding discipline and hard work, which endeared her to most of the teachers in the school.

It is for this reason that recently the school organised a brief ceremony to honour Justina, which gave her an opportunity to talk to standard seven pupils and encourage them as they wait to sit for their examinations this year.

"With all the achievements that Justina has accomplished so far, it is because of the good foundation she received from our school, which helped to shape her path in her education career," he says.

Addressing the pupils after a brief tour of the school, Justina told the attentive faces that in life, knowing what one wants is the first step towards success, and that believing in God can be assuring.

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She assured them that indeed hard work often pays off, and encouraged them to put all their efforts in their studies and believe that God will work on the rest.

"Working closely with your teachers can add to your advantage, because they know more than you do, but in everything you do, you must have trust in yourself, and this comes through hard work, and you must always go the extra mile," she told them.

Revealing her future plans, Justina says that for years she has been attracted to engineering, and believes that it is a sector which will fit perfectly in her future endeavors.

She says that she was attracted to engineering after realising that it is a field which is dominated by men, and that is why she wants to consider it as her main challenge, and prove to the society that determination can propel you to expected targets.

"I am still exploring my options, but I am really interested in petroleum and gas engineering, because I believe it has great potential in the country's economic strides," she says with a twinkle.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, will be on an official visit on Wednesday in Bucharest.

The visit will take place in the context of celebrating in 2021, 140 years of diplomatic relations between Romania and Spain. Furthermore, the visit will prepare the first joint reunion of the two governments, planned this year, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) specifies.

Arancha Gonzalez Laya will first meet with the head of the Government in Bucharest, Florin Citu. Then, the head of the Madrid diplomacy will have a meeting with her Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Aurescu, at the end of which the two officials will hold a joint press conference. Later, the head of the Spanish diplomacy will be received by president Klaus Iohannis, at the Cotroceni Palace.

According to MAE, this will mark the Spanish dignitary's first visit to Romania and is taking place at the invitation of her Romanian counterpart. In this context, the two ministers will tackle a series of current topics of common interest on the bilateral, European and international agenda.
The WHO investigators visited hospitals and a seafood market in China even as Beijing continued to avoid blame for missteps in early response to the outbreak

Wuhan: A World Health Organisation team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited two disease control centers on Monday that had an early hand in managing the outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

The WHO investigators arrived in Wuhan, the provincial capital, last month to look for clues and have visited hospitals and a seafood market where early cases were detected.

The team on Monday visited both the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and its Wuhan city office, amid tight Chinese controls on access to information about the virus.

China has sought to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak, while promoting alternative theories that the virus originated elsewhere and may even have been brought to Wuhan from outside the country.

Following the visit to the provincial center, team member Peter Daszak told reporters it had been a really good meeting, really important. No other details were given.

The evidence the team assembles will add to what is expected to be a years-long quest for answers. Pinning down an outbreaks animal sources requires massive amounts of research, including taking animal samples, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies.

In Geneva, WHO officials pushed back Monday against suggestions China is being less than forthcoming about how the pandemic started.

At a press briefing, WHOs COVID-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said the team has plans to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, among other sites.

The more detail you have on the ground, the more questions you have, she said. "The team will follow the information. They will follow the science and continue to ask questions and analyse data. Van Kerkhove said it would be up to team members to decide what other field visits were necessary, although China must approve the mission's ultimate agenda.

Dr Michael Ryan, WHOs emergencies chief, said WHO was continuing to ask for more data and said anyone with information about how the pandemic started should share it with the organisation.

We are in the field with experts from 10 countries looking to find the answers. If you have the answers, if you think you have some answers, please let us know, he said. He dismissed critics who said any report from the mission would be incomplete and said the team deserves the support of the international community.

China has largely curbed domestic transmission through strict testing and contact tracing. Mask wearing in public is observed almost universally and lockdowns are routinely imposed on communities and even entire cities where cases are detected. The latest outbreaks have been mostly in the frigid northeast, with 33 new cases reported nationally Monday in three provinces.

Despite that, China recorded more than 2,000 new domestic cases of COVID-19 in January, the highest monthly total since the final phase of the initial outbreak in Wuhan last March. Two people died of the disease in January, the first reported COVID-19 deaths in China in several months.

Schools have gone online and travel has been drastically cut during this months Lunar New Year holiday, with the government offering incentives for people to stay put during the most important time for family gatherings across the vast nation.

Trade union leaders gear up for tripartite with govt, CDC CIN

The Minister of Labour and Social Security has invited the National Executive Committee of the Cameroon Agricultural and Allied Workers Trade Union (CAAWOTU) to a concertation meeting Tuesday, 02 February 2021.

The meeting to take place at the conference room of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security follows threats of strike action in the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC.

On January 30, 2021, Madam Galega nee Njiwam Anyangwe, Technical Adviser No. 2 in the Ministry of Labor and Social Security addressed a letter to Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, National President of CAAWOTU, informing him about the concertation meeting convened by the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Gregoire Owona.

CAAWOTU had declared a Collective Labor Dispute from Tuesday the 2nd of February to Friday the 5th of February 2021 in all CDC Estates, Factories, Mills, and Establishments to voice out the grievances of CDC workers.

CAAWOTU suspends planned strike

Meeting at an extraordinary National Council meeting in Tiko Sunday, January 31, 2021, CAAWOTU suspended the planned strike action.

CAAWOTU President Mbene Vefonge said the suspension is to allow for dialogue in view of finding solutions to the expressed grievances of CDC workers.

Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, CAAWOTU National President (c) CIN

The CAAWOTU National Executive Council, standing committee, delegates, and other partner trade unions were part of Sunday's meeting.

Mbene Vefonge said the meeting reviewed Ministerial Correspondence No. 00000139 / n / MINTSS / SG / ADRP / SSCS of 28 January, which is a response to the Union's January 12 th letter addressed to the Minister, calling for industrial action by workers of the corporation from February 2 to February 5, 2021.

According to Ministerial Correspondence, the State reaffirmed its commitment to revamp the ailing corporation that has been hard hit by the armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions.

The State renewed its readiness to maintain the working staff, continuously pay workers' monthly salary, as well as provide forces of law and order to protect the corporation, its goods, and personnel from attacks.

"Since the start of 2018, some 20 workers have been murdered in their line of duty while others have had their hands or fingers chopped off with machetes. Workers have not received their monthly salaries for close to 30 months and over 10,000 workers have been placed on technical leave, not leaving out retired workers who are yet to receive their retirement benefits, "Mbene said.

During Sunday's extraordinary session, CAAWOTU resolved to empower the leadership and the entire committee members to go into negotiations with the state in respect to the CDC workers' grievances and for the CAAWOTU National Council to suspend the industrial action that was earlier scheduled to begin today.

At the tripartite meeting in Yaounde today, the trade union leaders believe that they will be able to trash out the sticky issues between the management of CDC and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. It is hoped that the tripartite will bring tangible solutions to the financial and emotional hardship that most of the workers are going through or and save the corporation.

It should be recalled that the Fako Divisional Delegate of Delegation of Labor and Social Security had earlier scheduled another tripartite meeting in Limbe on Wednesday, January 27. CAAWOTU boycotted the meeting, stating that the Delegate was not competent to convene such a meeting.

CDC GM appeals for calm

In a press release dated January 21, 2021, the General Manager of the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, called on workers to remain calm.

He wrote: The General Manager of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), Mr. Franklin Ngoni Njie, informs the general public that workers of the CDC have not declared any intention to organize an indefinite strike action over unpaid salaries.

A communique from the National Executive Committee of the Cameroon Agricultural and Allied Workers Trade union known by its acronym CAAWOTU declared a collective labor dispute in respect of the CDC workers and also announced the organization of industrial action in the first four days of February in case the competent state authorities fail to organize a Tripartite Meeting.

While the management of the CDC recognizes the pivotal role of CAAWOTU in improving the terms and conditions of workers and giving workers a voice on national and policy debates via collective bargaining, it also believes in social dialogue in arriving at lasting solutions.

CDC has involuntarily entered into Force Majeure situation instigated by the ongoing crisis rocking the South West and North West Regions which has negatively affected the activities of the Corporation. So far, Government is assisting the CDC to pay salaries/wages.

General management calls on the entire workforce to remain calm and continue to work collaboratively towards CDC's common goal, which is resuming work.
President Johnson told Russia: Your accomplishment is one that can benefit all of mankind and all mankind applauds it.

Graphic of Lunar-9 landing from front page of Sydney Morning Herald on February 5, 1966 Credit:Staff

First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on February 5, 1966

President Johnson said Soviet scientists had made a major contribution to mans knowledge of the moon and of space.

The British Prime Minister, Mr Harold Wilson, said in a message to the Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Kosygin: This historic step forward in mans exploration of space has justly earned the admiration of us all and I send you my heartiest congratulations.

The President of the British Interplanetary Society, Dr L. R. Shepherd, said Russia s achievement was far more difficult than the American space rendezvous.

I think it is a very great leap forward  probably so far the outstanding event of the year. he said.

Professor Pierre Tardy, a member of the French Academy of Science, said the soft landing did not necessarily mean that Russia had laken the lead in the race to put a man on the moon.
The Tunisian government will sell its shares in some public companies and banks as part of reforms to salvage the sluggish economy of the North African country, Finance and Economy minister has said.

Ali Kooli, Webdo Tunis reports, did not name the companies and the banks but the move is in line with plans to carry out a set of reforms expected to revive the economy batted by the pandemic.

The North African country last year forecasted a 4.3 percent economic recession due to the pandemic that significantly hit the tourism industry; the second biggest GDP contributor, which will lose 400,000 jobs.

The Tunisian economy is also facing the specter of foreign debt, which grew by June to 60% of GDP, representing 30 billion euros.

As part of the reforms, Kooli also indicated that the government will review the salary mass and subsidy scheme. As of subsidies, it will launch a targeted subsidy that will be based on the distribution of digital cards to low income people, in addition to other measures, in view of helping the underprivileged.

On the review of the salary mass, the finance minister slightly ruled out possibilities of salary increase noting that the state will devise strategies to contain them.

The means of controlling the salary mass may be different, and this will be the subject of discussion and reflection, Kooli is quoted as saying in an interview with Reuters.
Mixing history with Hollywood, the artworks provenance could hardly be more impressive.

Sir Winston Churchills only painting during the Second World War, which he gave to US president Franklin D Roosevelt, has been put up for sale by its current owner Angelina Jolie.

The Moroccan landscape, called Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque, is expected to fetch 1.5million to 2.5million at a Christies auction next month  and could set a new record for a work by the former prime minister.

Sir Winston Churchills only painting during the Second World War was given to US president Franklin D Roosevelt

Churchill painted it in Marrakech after the Casablanca conference in 1943, where it was agreed by the Allied forces that only complete surrender by the Axis powers would be acceptable.

He invited Roosevelt to join him in Marrakech the day after the conference to show him the views of the city and the light at sunset, which he was particularly passionate about.

Churchill, a keen amateur artist who created more than 500 paintings, captured the scene for the US president as a memento of their excursion.

It is now up for sale by current owner Angelina Jolie and expected to fetch between 1.5 to 2.5million

It depicts the 12th century mosque in Marrakech at sunset with the Atlas mountains in the background.

The artwork was sold by Roosevelts son Elliot after his death in 1945 and had several owners before Miss Jolie and her then partner Brad Pitt bought it in 2011.

Nick Orchard, head of Christies modern British art department in London, said: It is arguably the best painting by Winston Churchill due to the significance of the subject matter to him.
Downing Street plans to provide more cash to those faced with the cost of fixing unsafe cladding in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.

It comes as Tory MPs accused ministers of 'incompetence' in their response to the crisis, with politicians from all parties warning more leaseholders will go bankrupt if urgent action is not taken.

Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders face average costs of 40,000 each  and some of up to 115,000  to replace dangerous cladding, similar to that found on the Grenfell Tower in Kensington, west London, where an inferno killed 72 people in June 2017.

Conservative MPs have urged the Government to act quickly to stop flat owners from being forced to pay for the removal of this material from their homes.

Housing Minister Chris Pincher has now confirmed the Government will announce 'very shortly' a financial solution to protect leaseholders from high costs to deal with unsafe cladding.

It is expected that this will be confirmed within weeks, the BBC reported.

Pictured: The Grenfell Tower inferno in the Lancaster West Estate in North Kensington - the disaster was the worst residential fire since WWII

Extra funding allocated to remove unsafe cladding from high-rise buildings could amount to billions, it was said.

The Government has already set up a 1,6billion safety fund to pay for the removal of cladding similar to that used on Grenfell, but MPs claim this is insufficient.

It comes as a Labour motion calling on ministers to provide immediate funding to fix unsafe homes and spare leaseholders the crippling financial burden passed by 263 votes to zero in a landmark Commons debate.

The vote is not binding and Tory MPs were told to abstain, but campaigners hailed it as 'encouraging' and called on Boris Johnson to heed the demands of his own backbenchers.

More than 70 MPs spoke out during the debate while Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick was slammed for skipping the vote.

Just 216 out of a possible 11,760 dangerous buildings have been fixed since the fire, which broke out in a fourth-floor kitchen in Grenfell Tower almost four years ago.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was 'unimaginable' that the Government could not meet the deadline of fixing all unsafe homes by June next year.

He added: 'What I want to see is some real energy from the Government, to front some of the money themselves, identify the highest risk blocks and get on with it. But we must also go after the developers and builders.'

Labour is also calling on the Government to establish a taskforce to examine the extent of dangerous cladding in England.

Housing Minister Chris Pincher (pictured) said the Government will announce 'very shortly' a financial solution to protect leaseholders from high costs to deal with unsafe cladding

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was 'unimaginable' that the Government could not meet the deadline of fixing all unsafe homes by June next year

The Government avoided a rebellion during the vote on Monday by ordering Tory MPs to abstain.

But it did not escape fierce criticism from Conservative backbenchers, who said its attempts to fix the crisis had made matters worse for leaseholders.

Stephen McPartland, Tory MP for Stevenage, said the Government 'had been incompetent throughout this saga'.

Several Conservatives offered their support for the amendments, signalling the Government faces a strong challenge when the Bill returns to the Commons.

Dame Margaret Hodge, Labour MP for Barking in east London, accused ministers of abandoning leaseholders who had been left to 'live on the edge from one pay cheque to the next'.

Emma Byrne, of the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign, said: 'It was encouraging to hear that so many MPs from all political parties understand the awful circumstances in which so many of us are living.

'The fact that Robert Jenrick could not even be bothered to attend shows, tragically, that this issue still does not have the priority it deserves within Government.

'Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak must now listen to the rising level of concern within their own party. If they do not act to protect leaseholders they will be making a colossal political mistake which will not be forgotten by millions of voters.'

The Government has set aside 1.6billion to fund repairs but MPs estimate the total cost could be closer to 15billion.
If she'd waited to get vaccinated until it was her 'tier's' turn, Isabela Medina wouldn't have gotten the Covid-19 vaccine until late summer.

She wasn't willing to wait.

Medina, a healthy 25-year-old, moved across the country to live with her parents on the East Coast after her work in the film industry dried up. Anxious to return to work safely, Medina decided in mid-January to go 'vaccine dumpster diving.'

Though a dumpster, this was not. Rather than dig through a hospital's garbage for vials, Medina staked out a grocery store pharmacy. She wanted to score a leftover vaccine.

She and a friend arrived in the early afternoon, prepared to wait. A line formed behind them. Hours later, when the day's appointments were done, pharmacy staff offered up eight leftover vaccines. Medina and her friend gleefully claimed two of them.

'I felt good about it -- and better that it didn't go to waste,' she told CNN.

Medina is what has been described by many on the internet as a 'vaccine hunter,' or someone who stalks a pharmacy or vaccination site for leftovers.

These vaccine seekers, spurred by reports of doses being dumped and feeling antsy for the country's vaccine rollout to pick up the pace, say they want to prevent waste -- by getting their shot early.

They see it as a win-win: They get vaccinated and a precious dose of the Covid-19 vaccine doesn't end up in the trash. But their gain is also a symptom of a lack of coordination in the US vaccination plan -- the initial rollout was much slower than expected, delaying President Joe Biden's plan for '100 million vaccinations in 100 days.'

The lucky -- and privileged -- few who get vaccinated early assure what they're doing isn't wrong, although it certainly feels unfair to those who don't have the time or resources to 'hunt' for their own.

Unsurprisingly, the hunters have been criticized for 'jumping the line.' But the hunters argue what they do is more ethical than letting the vaccines expire.

'This might be a good way for people who haven't been able to get around the logistical nightmare of signing up to just show up and get it,' Medina said.

Vaccine hunting is a 'fix' for slow vaccine rollout

By all accounts, the US vaccine rollout so far has been disappointing.

CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen explained, in sobering terms, just how disappointing in a January interview, before Biden was inaugurated.

The current pace is 1.3 million doses per day. At this pace, the US will have reached about 75% of population for herd immunity by summer 2021.

And despite the incredibly high demand for vaccines, vaccination sites across the country have reportedly discarded precious doses after they weren't administered in time. (Both Pfizer and Moderna's Covid-19 vaccines only last a few hours unrefrigerated -- Pfizer's will expire within two hours, and Moderna's within 12, after the vials are removed from the fridge.)

To vaccine hunt is to devote hours, possibly days, of your life waiting for a dose of a vaccine that may or may not be available. It's a crapshoot. You need time, money, connections and luck to succeed. But some say it's worth the effort involved.

Brad Johnson, a medical student at Tulane University, wanted to make tracking down vaccines a bit easier.

Johnson is the admin of a Facebook group called 'NOLA Vaccine Hunters,' where New Orleans residents trade tips and share leads on leftovers.

He said he got the idea after a friend living in Israel told him about Facebook groups in the country where residents inform each other about the pharmacies that had extra doses.

'When there's a surplus of doses about to expire, they ignored the vaccination schema and just offered it to anyone,' he told CNN.

So, about three weeks ago, Johnson made a tool like that for New Orleans. The group now has close to 600 members.

Johnson said he's heard of a few members successfully tracking down leftover vaccines for themselves or their parents.

The Facebook group is Johnson's attempt at correcting what he called a 'patchwork of chaos' in the US vaccine distribution plan.

The US is projected to reach 514,000 Covid-19 deaths by February 20 -- and as of last Sunday, over 20 million vaccines have been administered.

Biden has an ambitious goal of administering '100 million vaccines in 100 days.' Whether he'll succeed has yet to be seen, considering he's been in office for less than a month. Some health officials believe his goal is too modest as Covid-19 cases continue to climb unimpeded.

The ethical conundrum of vaccine hunting

Because the vaccine is in such high demand and so difficult to actually get -- including for people who are eligible to receive their vaccine -- there's a feeling of injustice when otherwise healthy people get it, even if they aren't technically stealing doses from people who need them, said Melissa Goldstein, an associate professor at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health.

'There's this sense of unfairness, although we can't necessarily explain why,' Goldstein, who studies bioethics, told CNN.

There's no one answer to the question of ethics of early vaccinations, except in a few situations. Take the Hollywood physician who told Variety some of his rich and famous patients attempted to bribe him for an early Covid-19 vaccine, or the Washington state hospital that invited 100 benefactors to sign up for the vaccine regardless of their place in 'line.'

However, what people in those situations did isn't comparable to what happened last week at a Seattle hospital, where a freezer malfunction meant up to 800 Covid-19 vaccines would be wasted within hours. To keep the doses from expiring, they recruited recipients on social media.

And that situation is different still than that of the 'entrepreneurial' vaccine searchers, like Medina and Johnson, who seek out the leftover doses.

'Can we say that entrepreneurialism is an absolute wrong?' Goldstein said. 'It's difficult, because we do have a capitalist and merit-based system. We encourage people to network, be scrappy, persistent, determined in getting what they want.'

There's privilege, too, in having the time and resources to spend hours scouring for leftover doses, Goldstein said. If only the people who can afford it are able to get vaccinated early, disparities in the rate of who's getting vaccinated will only become more severe.

Johnson said some members of the Facebook group have even crossed state lines to get vaccinated.

A few traveled to rural towns in Mississippi, where health departments have had trouble disseminating all of their allotted doses because residents are hesitant to take the vaccine, he said.

It's not an ideal solution, he said. But when 'motivated people' are willing to get vaccinated, even if it's not at the time they were designated by their state, Johnson said he thinks they should do it.

'I am all for getting vaccines into arms and not letting them sit,' he said.

How to make early vaccination equitable

Medina's vaccine quest played out over three days. She asked CNN not to disclose her location or the pharmacy where she received the vaccine so as not to bombard them with would-be 'vaccine hunters.'

There were others like her, spending the better part of the afternoon waiting.

In a TikTok from that day that has since been viewed more than 1.4 million times, she is seen dancing with a clipboard and joyfully calling someone holding her vaccination card, quoting Kamala Harris -- 'We did it, Joe!'

Her second dose is scheduled for late February.

Medina doesn't have qualms about her decision -- she's working freelance gigs rather than a full-time job, so she was able to spend the time it took to get her shot.

'I'm really in a privileged position like, socioeconomically, in that I can wait all day for this vaccine,' she said. 'Those vaccination centers need to do better job and figure out a way to vaccinate the communities they're meant to be vaccinating.'

There are some methods, Goldstein said, that could make early vaccinations slightly more equitable.

Grocery store pharmacies could offer leftover vaccine doses to grocery store workers, nearly 40% of whom are Black, Latino or Asian, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Black and Latino Americans, specifically, are being vaccinated at a lower rate than White Americans. And as essential workers who come face-to-face with customers, they need to protect themselves to continue their work.

Some vaccination sites with extra doses about to expire took them to long-term care facilities to vaccinate senior residents and staff there, both populations considered especially vulnerable to Covid-19.

And Biden has already unveiled a detailed Covid-19 strategy to replace the slipshod response under the Trump administration. His plan includes creating vaccination sites in low-income communities.

Johnson's doing his part, too. After weeks of trying to reach the Louisiana Department of Health, he said he finally got through to them. Now, he said, he's working with state health officials to better coordinate who receives leftover vaccines in the state.

He's hoping they can create an official vaccine waiting list that prioritizes health care workers, seniors and essential workers.

For now, though, he supports whoever wants to get a vaccine -- as long as they don't actually jump the line.

CORRECTION: This piece has been updated to correct the current vaccination pace. It is 1.3 million doses per day.
The International Space Station is expected to offer a prime naked-eye viewing opportunity as it passes over central Pennsylvania 3 times this week.

The ISS is expected to appear in our sky at 7:10 p.m. Wednesday, February 3, a bit less than the width of a fist at the end of an outstretched arms (13 degrees) above the northwestern horizon. Over the next 3 minutes it will move toward the south-southwest, rising to a maximum height of 80 degrees before disappearing.

It will appear at 6:22 p.m. Thursday, February 4, about 10 degrees above northwest. Over the next 6 minutes it will move toward the east-southeast, rising to a maximum height of 59 degrees before disappearing about 14 degrees above east-southeast.

The shuttles third appearance this week, at 6:27 p.m. Saturday, February 6, about 44 degrees above the western horizon. Over 4 minutes it will move toward the south-southeast, rising to a maximum height of 44 degrees before disappearing about 10 degrees above the south-southeast horizon.

NASA explains, The horizon is at zero degrees, and directly overhead is 90 degrees. If you hold your fist at arms length and place your fist resting on the horizon, the top will be about 10 degrees. Each additional fist-width above the horizon is roughly another 10 degrees of elevation.

NASA doesnt issue one of its Spot the Station alerts for anything less than 40 degrees, and the space station is not expected to meet or top that point again this week.

According to NASA, the space station looks like an airplane or a very bright star moving across the sky, except it doesnt have flashing lights or change direction. It will also be moving considerably faster than a typical airplane (airplanes generally fly at about 600 miles per hour; the space station flies at 17,500 miles per hour).

Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.
It is well documented that higher prices for alcohol, tobacco and sugar products result in lower consumption. Credit: NTB / Shutterstock

Norway's budget settlement between the government and the Progress Party resulted in getting rid of the sugar tax for chocolate and sweets, halving the tax on soft drinks, cutting the taxes on snuff by 25 percent and on beer and wine by 10 percent.

Steinar Krokstad, who has headed HUNTthe Trndelag Health Studyfor many years, knows most everything about Trndelag county residents' health and living habits. The professor is very disappointed with the state budget settlement.

Sad, says Krokstad

"This is just sad. So much time and effort has been put into preparing the ground for a good health policy. Then we watch as important measures are removed with the stroke of a pen to get the state budget passed. The entire scientific basis is ignored," says Krokstad.

"It's a well-documented fact that high taxes on these products are beneficial for public health. Higher prices mean less consumption. The public health field is about influencing behavior, making it easy for people to make good choices and harder to make bad choices," he says.

Price is higher than the gain

"The boundary between individual freedom and government regulation is an important balancing act, but I can't believe that the possible positive effects we think we'll get from more jobs in Norway and less trade leakage to Sweden will outweigh the benefits of lower sugar intake and lower alcohol consumption," Krokstad says.

"I don't see higher taxes on these harmful goods as a threat to individual freedom. For future generations, this matter is also about freedom from experiencing insecurity related to alcohol in the home and weight problems," he says.

Science and politics

As a researcher, Krokstad finds that sticking your neck out on such a politicized topic poses a dilemma.

"As public health physicians, it's easy to be regarded as being too political. But we can't get away from the fact that politics is the most important driver in public health work. So we have to get involved, at the same time as we depend on trust among politicians and on their help to get things done in public health work," he says.

"If this is about considering cross-border trade and jobs, politicians have other effective tools in their toolbox. Cross-border trade can easily be regulated by adjusting quotas. The issue has been presented as if reduced taxes are the only solution," says Krokstad.

Obesity and intoxication

Krokstad points out that in general, economic growth has been beneficial for public health. But when prosperity reaches a certain level, it also creates public health problems.

"Not all economic growth and increased consumption are good for public health. We need to stimulate the growth we want, and not what's undesirable and harmful to our health. Obesity and intoxication are perhaps the most critical threats to public health," he says.

"During this corona pandemic, we've observed particularly great concern for children in difficult home situations. We know that child welfare cases are strongly associated with drug use. The costs to society of health damage and reduced ability to work due to alcohol are huge," says Krokstad.

Getting heavier

The HUNT studies show that men in Trndelag county were on average 10 kilos heavier in 2018 than in the 1980s, and women 7 kilos heavier. In the 80s, eight percent of men were within the obese range, compared to 23 percent in 2018. For women, the obesity level increased from 13 percent to 23 percent in the same period.

Among young people, the proportion within the overweight and obese range increased from 16 percent to 24 percent between 1996 and 2017, and from 16 percent to 25 percent among girls. Obesity is most prevalent in rural areas and in groups with low socioeconomic status. Even though the curve has flattened out a bit, people in Trndelag are still gaining weight.

In violation of the WHO

The social health physician believes that the government is acting in violation of clear advice from the WHO and Norway's obligations to help reduce non-communicable diseases. The World Health Organization calls obesity the fastest growing health threat, and it is becoming a bigger problem than malnutrition and infectious diseases as the main cause of poor health.

Obesity is associated with heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, some types of cancer, diabetes and a number of other diseases. In addition, people with obesity face prejudice and discriminationincluding from health professionals.

Explore further Low socioeconomic status usually associated with more health problems
Bengaluru, Feb 2 : Many countries have shown interest in India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday while inaugurating the third production line for the fighter jet in Bengaluru.

The LCA unit was inaugurated a day before the mega Aero India show.

During his inaugural speech, Singh said that under the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan', the country looks forward to increase its defence manufacturing capabilities. "India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence needs," the Minister said.

Image Source: IANS News

"Tejas is not only indigenous, but also better than its foreign equivalents on several parameters and also comparatively cheaper. Many countries have shown interest in Tejas. India will achieve the target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore in defence manufacturing in a few years," he said in a tweet.

Last month, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the highest decision-making body for security-related issues and headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the purchase of 83 Tejas fighter jets at a cost of Rs 48,000 crore, including infrastructure, for the Indian Air Force.

Image Source: IANS News

The CCS approved the largest indigenous defence procurement deal to strengthen the IAF fleet of home-grown LCA.

Of the 83, HAL is all set to manufacture 73 Mark 1-A, the new variant of the Tejas which will be more potent and effective than the previous Mark-1. Ten others will be Mark-1 trainers.

Giving details about the Cabinet decision, the Defence Ministry had said in a statement: "The Cabinet has approved procurement of 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircraft and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 trainer aircraft at the cost of Rs. 45,696 crore along with design and development of infrastructure sanctions worth Rs 1,202 crore." Light Combat Aircraft Mk-1A variant is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern 4+ generation fighter aircraft. It is equipped with critical operational capabilities of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile, Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite and Air to Air Refuelling (AAR), a potent platform to meet the operational requirements of Indian Air Force.

Image Source: IANS News

The LCA will be the backbone of the IAF fighters in the years to come. LCA Tejas incorporates a large number of new technologies many of which were never attempted in India. The indigenous content of LCA Tejas is 50 per cent in the Mk-1A variant which will be enhanced to 60 per cent.

The Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is indigenously designed by the Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

HAL follows a system integrator model in the LCA Mk-1A programme and acts as an umbrella organisation, fostering manufacturing and design capabilities in private industry.

The 83 LCA are in addition to 40 LCA Mark-1, for which the IAF placed an order in 2016 with HAL so as to set up two squadrons of the fighter jets at its Sulur air base in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore. The first LCA squadron was raised in 2016.

The HAL has since delivered 20 Tejas and is in the process of delivering the remaining 20.

"The phase-1 of the facility getting ready on 35 acres of land will enable us to enhance its production capacity to 16 from 8 aircraft every year," said HAL Chairman R Madhavan.

Defence Production Secretary Raj Kumar, Karnataka Minister Arvind Limbavali, Deputy Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sandeep Singh and Director General (Aero) Tessy Thomas were present at the inaugural event.

"We will deliver the 83 aircraft to the IAF over a decade, commencing 36 months from contract signing, with 16 fighters in a year," said the company in a statement here.

The LCA production programme will catalyse the aerospace ecosystem in the country and enable us to fulfil the Prime Minister's vision for 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', the statement added.

-- Syndicated from IANS
Residents in parts of Perth have been warned they are in immediate danger as an out of control bushfire continues to spread after destroying 7,500 hectares.

The massive blaze with an 80km perimeter raged through the night near the hills town of Wooroloo before moving west onto the city's coastal plain where it is threatening homes in northern suburbs.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services said 80 per cent of all properties in the rural area of Tilden Park in Gidgegannup have been lost.

'You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive. There is a threat to lives and homes,' the department warned on Tuesday afternoon.

So far 56 homes had been wiped out in a bushfire at Wooloroo  around a 15 minute drive from Tilden Park.

Fire crews control bush fires as they approach properties on Copley Road in Upper Swan

Weather conditions are expected to worsen overnight with wind gusts of up to 75km/h possible, with a smoke alert issued for the entire Perth metropolitan area. Pictured: Brigadoon

Fire crews control bush fires as they approach properties on Copley Road in Upper Swan on Tuesday

So far 56 homes had been wiped out in a bushfire at Wooloroo  around a 15 minute drive from Tilden Park

The massive blaze with an 80km perimeter raged through the night near the hills town of Wooroloo before moving west onto the city's coastal plain

There have been no reported deaths from the fires, although six firefighters have received minor injuries. Pictured is a destroyed home at Wooroloo

'Our rapid damage assessment teams have been through a large part of the incident with still some more to go, but at this time I can tell you that 56 homes have been lost. It is terrible news for the owners of those homes, and our thoughts are with them all,' DFES Commissioner Darren Klemm said.

There have been no reported deaths from the fires, although six firefighters have suffered minor injuries.

Mr Klemm says it's likely the number of homes lost will climb.

He said crews had faced 'a difficult and incredibly fast-moving' blaze that was spotting 3.5km ahead of the fire front at its height last night.

'Firefighters were just going from one house to the next trying to save them,' he said.

'We are still in really difficult conditions. There is a lot of work to be done on the fire to make it safe and we are a long way from that point.'

Weather conditions are expected to worsen overnight with wind gusts of up to 75km/h possible, with a smoke alert issued for the entire Perth metropolitan area.

Earlier, Premier Mark McGowan said firefighters would continue to check destroyed homes in the rural suburb of Tilden Park to check if any lives had been lost.

He said a large aerial tanker was en route from NSW to help battle the blaze and the prime minister had been briefed on the situation.

Pictured is the fire at Wooroloo last night. An emergency warning is now in place for more than a dozen suburbs on the Western Australian capital's outer fringe

Residents living in far-western areas of Perth have been told they are in danger and must act immediately to save their lives. Map of fire area is pictured

'This is an extremely dangerous fire and a serious situation. Weather conditions are extremely volatile,' the premier said.

'Please do everything you can to keep you and your family safe and look after each other.'

Meanwhile, people in Perth's CBD and coastal suburbs have reported ash landing at their homes, up to 35km from the blaze.

Operations at RAAF Base Pearce - which is in the path of the fire - have been suspended and preparations are being made to evacuate.

DFES Deputy Commissioner Craig Waters said the fire had doubled in size overnight and burned through 7366 hectares.

'Strong winds are hampering us getting in and containing the fire and bringing it under control,' he said.

Six firefighters have received minor injuries.

People in a 25km stretch west from Wooroloo to the Walyunga National Park northeast of Perth have been told it is too late to leave.

'You must shelter before the fire arrives, as the extreme heat will kill you well before the flames reach you,' the latest DFES warning said.

Pictured: The fire at Wooroloo - where the fire began on Monday. The blaze there is still burning at an Emergency Warning level

Residents as far away as 40km in the coastal suburb of Sorrento were reporting ash landing at their homes.

Jenni Stanton, 59, received a text about 2am telling her to evacuate from her home at The Vines, about a kilometre from the blaze.

'I reckon I'm at least 20-30km from the bushfires and there is ash raining down outside,' one resident near Dianella said.

'The fire has jumped the Great Northern Highway west of Walyunga, so it's closer to us now but there's isn't as much smoke as last night,' she said.

'The yard is covered in ash though, and we can hear the water bombers.'

Neighbour Melissa Stahl, 49, received the same text.

'I could smell the fire and went out the back and the whole yard was filled with smoke,' she said.

'My husband Michael said we better go. We grabbed bedding, photos, the two kids and the dog and got out of there.'

Pictured: The view of the bushfire on Monday night from Perth's outer suburbs. Residents as far away as 40km in the coastal suburb of Sorrento were reporting ash landing at their homes on Tuesday

Emergency fire vehicles are seen heading towards the firefront in Perth on Tuesday

Police talk to residents trying to return to their properties at a road block on the Great Northern Highway on Tuesday

A road block on the Great Northern Highway. Authorities have warned weather conditions are rapidly changing in the Perth Hills region on Tuesday

They fled to a friend's home where they're now waiting for a text giving them the all-clear to return to their home.

Meanwhile, surrounding areas including Parkerville, Ellenbrook, Chidlow and Jane Brook have been told to leave if they are not prepared to fight the blaze.

The bushfire is unpredictable and weather conditions are rapidly changing, the warning said, urging people to stay vigilant.

The cause of the blaze is unknown.

'It has made it very hard, near on impossible... to suppress this fire,' Superintendent Sutton told the ABC.

An evacuation centre set up at Brown Park Recreation Complex on Amherst Road in Swan View has already filled up and another opened at the Swan Active pool complex on Gray Drive in Midvale.

DFES said anyone forced to leave their homes should wear a mask and continue to follow social distancing precautions to comply with Western Australia's current COVID-19 health regulations.
KARAGWE and Kyerwa residents have been urged to utilise the newly opened prosecutions office in Kayanga Township to speed up the hearing of pending cases and decongest inmates in prisons.

Kagera Regional Prosecutions Officer (RPO) Basilius Namkambe told 'Daily News' in an interview at his office that the opening of the prosecutions office in Kayanga Township in Karagwe District was part of the implementation of President John Magufuli's directive to open offices in all districts countrywide.

The responsible authorities would, among other things, closely scrutinise cases with ample evidence and coordinate investigation by investigative organs, including the Police Force and the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB).

"We have already posted a state attorney, Mr Haruna Shomari, to Karagwe. Karagwe and Kyerwa residents should not hesitate to utilise the office to speed up the hearing of their cases. The main objective is to bring prosecutions services closer to people," he said.

He noted that for quite a long time, Kyerwa residents had to travel long distances to Karagwe due to lack of the magistrates' or district court in Kyerwa, adding that during a recent visit they found 281 inmates at Karagwe Prison, while the prison's capacity was 150 inmates.

Following the visit, Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP) Biswalo Mganga directed the immediate release of 185 inmates with pending criminal cases in court in Kagera Region.

He issued the directive after visiting the prisons in Karagwe, Biharamulo, Bukoba and Muleba districts, where he addressed inmates and heard of their grievances. Out of the total number, 57 inmates were from Karagwe, Bukoba (54), Biharamulo (48) and Muleba (26).

Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs Amon Mpanju, who accompanied the DPP, said the visit aimed at speeding up timely access to justice for inmates with pending criminal cases in court.

Meanwhile, Bukoba High Court Judge in-charge Lucia Kairo said about 35 per cent of the cases pending in court involved land disputes and murder.
Mr Richard A. Quayson, Deputy Commissioner Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), on Monday called for the private sector and Civil Societies participation in the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP).



The control of corruption in Ghana should be the responsibility of each citizen. Through NACAP citizens are allowed to join hands and tackle corruption in the country to secure and sustain the nations development, Mr Quayson told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra.



He noted that since the inception of NACAP in 2015 the Commission had seen more public sector participation in its implementation plan to fight corruption in the country than the private sector and civil societies.



He said the Private Sector was mostly classified as the engine of economic growth in the country and the largest, its involvement would reduce corruption and add to the success story of NACAP.



Mr Quayson explained that Civil Society including the Chieftaincy Institutions, Academic Institutions, Religious groups and other identifiable groups that would help balance the fight against corruption in the country from only the public sector.



He said progress made in the implementation of NACAP from 2015 to 2019 indicated that all 24 short term activities captured under the Action Plan were at various stages with two of them fully completed.



Also with the medium-term activities, 41 out of 47 activities were at various stages of implementation with two activities completed, he said.



Mr Quayson, who was assessing the outcome of the implementation of NACAP, said for long-term activities, 50 out of 64 activities were at various stages of implementation with four activities completed.



Thus for the five years, a total of eleven activities out of 135 were awaiting implementation.



We want to see more institutions and stakeholders come on board. Corruption did not affect institutions alone but its implications affect all, in that if the health sector was corrupt the citizens would experience its ripple effect in the quality of service provided and same with all sectors of the economy, he said.



The CHRAJ Deputy Commissioner explained that corruption was an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies.



It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organised crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish.



It hampers efforts to alleviate poverty, undermines political stability and economic growth and diminishes the countrys attractiveness for investment, he said.



The CHRAJ Deputy Commissioner said the war against corruption cannot be won in a day but required the collective effort of all citizens.



He, however, commended the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources for efforts made to ensure that all their staff were trained by CHRAJ in the fight against corruption and their coordinators for putting in much effort to implement the NACAP in their work places.



He further commended Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Star Ghana Foundation and Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) for their partnership in the implementation of the NACAP.



Mr Quayson also commended the Ghana News Agency who had partnered CHRAJ on NACAP since its inception.



GNA has played a pivotal role in the fight against corruption as the agency consistently participated and played actively in public education as well as providing in-depth reportage.



On the impact of NACAP, Mr Quayson noted that the Ghanaian society, recognising the negative impacts of corruption has, over the years, undertaken various policies and measures to control it.



He said NACAP established the legal and institutional mechanisms, pursued sound economic and public sector reforms and strengthened the countrys financial management systems.



He recounted that, in 1998, the country organised the first National Integrity Conference that made significant proposals to tackle corruption and build integrity.



Significant developments have taken place since that Conference. The country has since continued to strengthen the legal and institutional framework for fighting corruption and lifted her economic and public sector reforms to a higher pedestal and begun rationalising the remuneration structure of the public service, he said.



Mr Quayson explained that the Second National Conference on Integrity was organised in October 2011, which enabled anti-corruption practitioners, government, parliamentarians, civil society, the private sector and development partners to take stock of efforts to combat corruption and build a robust ethics infrastructure for the country.



He said an overview of developments in the countrys legal and institutional anti-corruption framework was given and the challenges that lie ahead carefully analysed.



He said the country had made significant progress with the introduction and implementation of the various anti-corruption measures but there were still challenges.



He described NACAP as a strategy that transcended political boundaries and tackled corruption holistically through prevention, education and enforcement.



NACAP is an unqualified contribution to the fight against corruption and the promotion of national development. It contains strategic action plans identified and agreed upon by stakeholders, including the private sector, during nationwide consultations, he said.



Mr Quayson noted that the greatest strength of the NACAP is that it is to be directly integrated into national development planning, making the plan an integral part of the regular annual activities of public institutions, including the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Source: GNA









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An Australian Instagram model was left fuming after being forced to cover up on a Jetstar flight, saying she felt 'humiliated' by an attendant who looked at her with 'disgust'.

Isabelle Eleanore took to social media to vent after being forced to wear a high-vis vest over her crop top by a flight attendant, before taking her seat on the Jetstar flight from Gold Coast to Melbourne on Monday.

The OnlyFans model pointed out she had not been stopped and asked to cover up by any other airport staff until she tried to board the flight to Melbourne.

Ms Eleanore claimed the female flight attendant had said: 'You can't fly with what you're wearing, you can't wear a bikini.'

Instagram model Isabelle Eleanore fumed after being forced to cover up her crop top on a Jetstar flight, saying she felt 'humiliated' by an attendant who looked at her with 'disgust'

'So they made a huge scene when I stepped on the plane and made me wait in front of everyone while they searched for something to cover me up with,' Ms Eleanore posted to Instagram and Twitter.

Poll Should Isabelle Elanore have been allowed to wear her choice of clothing on the Jetstar flight? Yes No Should Isabelle Elanore have been allowed to wear her choice of clothing on the Jetstar flight? Yes 381 votes

No 1571 votes Now share your opinion





'Then I had to walk all the way to my seat wearing this vest . This is discrimination and humiliation Jet Star Australia.'

'Apparently my top is too small and I couldn't fly without covering up. If I had small breasts I guarantee they wouldn't have said anything.'

'They have forced me to put on a hi-vis vest. I am lost.... is it 1921 not 2021?'

When the attendant found her a high-vis vest, Ms Eleanore commented: 'Thank the lord she found something to cover my dirty sinful skin.'

She also posted to her 49,000 Instagram followers: 'This is actually f***ed.'

Speaking to Nine News about the incident, Ms Eleanore said: '[The flight attendant] looked at the ticket and then looked up and said "Oh, do you have a jumper you can wear?" and then here's me thinking she must be concerned I'm going to get cold on the flight, it's going to be cold in Melbourne or something.'

'She kept going and she was like "well, you can't fly with what you're wearing, you can't wear a bikini". And I said "look - it's not a bikini, it's a top".'

On Tuesday Ms Eleanore posted a follow-up to her Instagram account framing the incident as a breach of freedom.

Isabelle Eleanore models the same crop top she was censored for wearing on a Jetstar flight on Monday

A Jetstar attendant made Isabelle Eleanore wear someone's 'filthy' high-vis vest before taking her seat. The company later apologised

'The reason this is striking a chord with so many people isn't a reflection on me, but a reflection on society, and the belief that society should be able to dictate what is acceptable for people (more so women) to wear and do.'

'To be publicly shamed and humiliated over a clothing item and/or the exposure of skin is archaic and discriminatory behaviour.'

On Monday, Ms Eleanore's husband Jeremy Szwarcbord posted: 'Apparently [her top] looked like a bikini and nobody told her so she has to ... cover some skin.'

'They didn't tell us anywhere before the flight. Now she looks like a COVID hazard.'

'Jetstar Australia this is pathetic. Your staff need to be on the same page.'

Ms Eleanore was also upset at the different interpretation of rules for clothing on Jetstar flights by different staff.

'The lady said I can't believe they didn't say something when you checked in and looked at me like she was disgusted,' she said.

'PS: Should I really be wearing someone else's filthy uniform in the middle of a pandemic? Get me the f*** off this plane.'

Ms Eleanore later defiantly told 9News she she have been allowed to wear what she wanted.

'I didn't think I'd have to deal with something like that - it's 2021, I should be able to wear what I want to wear,' Ms Eleanore said.

Ms Eleanore found her sense of humour when she snapped a photo of her face in the now-famous Bernie Sanders-jacket-and-mittens outfit

Ms Eleanore said she felt 'victimised and degraded' with the flight attendant calling the rest of the crew in search of more attire for her to wear.

She agreed to wear the hi-vis vest out of fear she would be kicked off the plane if she refused.

'I was in shock at the time,' she said.

'I didn't know how to deal with it and I didn't want to get kicked off the flight so I was like I'm just going to do what she says.'

Jetstar later apologised: 'We've contacted Isabelle about her recent experience and have apologised for the way the situation was handled,' Jetstar said.

'There was a misunderstanding of what our policy was, and we have reminded our crew of our dress requirements.'

'While we do have basic dress requirements on our flights (ie. shoes), we do not have any policy regarding crop tops.'
Please, people of Trinidad and Tobago, I beg you to take Covid-19 very seriously. I dont want anyone of you to feel the pain I feel.

The weight of that tearful plea from Indian restaurateur Gautam Khanna ripped the heartstrings from the body in one forceful pull, on a quiet Wednesday morning in Arima.
Dutch court says Shell responsible for Nigeria spills

by Ivana Sekularac, Anthony Deutsch

February 02,2021 | Source: Reuters

A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that Royal Dutch Shells Nigerian subsidiary was responsible for a case of oil pollution in the Niger Delta and ordered it to pay damages in a decision that could open the door to further litigation. The district court in The Hague said Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. (SPDC), a wholly-owned subsidiary, must compensate one farmer, but dismissed four other claims filed against the Dutch parent company.



Four Nigerians and campaign group Friends of the Earth filed suits in 2008 in The Hague, where Shell has its global headquarters, seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and waterways in the Niger Delta region, the heart of the Nigerian oil industry. The case was seen by environmental activists as a test for holding multinationals responsible for offences at foreign subsidiaries, and legal experts said other Nigerians affected by pollution might now be able to sue in the Netherlands. Shell said the case would not set a precedent because its parent company was not held responsible. The farmer who won compensation, 52-year-old father of 12 Friday Akpan, said he was very happy with the judgment because it would allow him to repay his debts.



I am not surprised at the decision because there was divine intervention in the court. The spill damaged 47 fishing ponds, killed all the fish and rendered the ponds useless, he told Reuters in the Niger Delta city of Port Harcourt. Since then I have been living by Gods grace and on the help of good Samaritans. I think this will be a lesson for Shell and they will know not to damage peoples livelihoods.



New Avenues



A legal expert said the ruling could make it possible for other Nigerians who say they also suffered losses due to Shells activities to file lawsuits in the Netherlands. The fact that a subsidiary has been held responsible by a Dutch court is new and opens new avenues, said Menno Kamminga, professor of international law at Maastricht University.



The court did not just examine the role of the parent company, but also looked at abuses committed by Shell Nigeria, where the link with the Netherlands is extremely limited, he said. Thats a real breakthrough. Friends of the Earth spokesman Geert Ritsema said they would appeal against the acquittals because there is still a lot of oil lying around. These sites need to be cleaned. Ritsema said hundreds of other Nigerians in the village of Icot Ada Udo, where farmer Friday Akpan lives, can now take similar legal action. The court backed Shells argument that the spills were caused by sabotage and not poor maintenance of its facilities, as had been argued by the Nigerians. Ritsema said it was also new that an oil company was being held responsible for failing to prevent sabotage.



There were 198 oil spills at Shell facilities in the Niger Delta last year, releasing around 26,000 barrels of oil, according to data from the company. The firm says 161 of these spills were caused by sabotage or theft, while 37 incidents were caused by operational failure. Local communities say Shell under reports the amount of barrels spilled. People who live in the Niger Delta say their land, water and fisheries have been blighted for years by oil pollution and activists have called for oil companies in Nigeria to be held to the same standard as elsewhere in the world. Shell is facing ongoing legal action brought in a UK court on behalf of 11,000 members of the Niger Delta Bodo community, who say the company is responsible for spilling 500,000 barrels in 2008. Shell has admitted liability for two spills in the Bodo region but estimates the amount spilled is far lower. Bodos case could be heard in the High Court in London next year.



A United Nations report in 2011 on the Ogoniland region in the Niger Delta criticized Shell and other multinationals, and the Nigerian government, for 50 years of oil pollution. It said Ogoniland, where Shell no longer operates, needed the worlds biggest-ever oil clean-up, which would take 25 years and cost an initial $1 billion. A decade of militancy by armed groups in the Niger Delta, which had its origins in local anger over oil pollution, shut down nearly half of Nigerias oil output until an amnesty in 2009. The Niger Delta is home to about 31 million people.



Compensation to be negotiated



We will pay compensation. We didnt lose the case. It was not operational failure. The leak was the consequence of sabotage, Royal Dutch Shells vice president for environment, Allard Castelein, said in comments after the verdict was read. Shell Nigeria should and could have prevented this sabotage in an easy way, the court ruling said. This is why the district court has sentenced Shell Nigeria to pay damages to the Nigerian plaintiff. Castelein said Shell would negotiate the amount of damages with the farmer, but that an appeal could postpone the outcome of those talks. The Nigerians - fishermen and farmers - said they could no longer feed their families because the region had been polluted by oil from Shells pipelines and production facilities. The pollution is a result of oil spills in 2004, 2005 and 2007, they said. It is the first time a Dutch-registered company has been sued in a domestic court for offences alleged to have been carried out by a foreign subsidiary.



The suit targeted Shells parent company in the Netherlands and its Nigerian subsidiary, which operates a joint venture between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Shell, Total E&P Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited. Shell Nigeria is the largest oil and gas company in Nigeria, Africas top energy producer, with an output of more than 1 million barrels of oil or equivalent per day. In October, Shell lawyers said the company has played its part in cleaning up the Delta, which accounts for more than 50 percent of Nigerias oil exports.

Theme(s): Fisheries Resources, Landing Centres, Others, Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods, Communities and Organisations, Fisheries Development and Aquaculture, Coastal Ecosystems and Threats, Freshwater ecosystems and threats, Post Harvest Technology and Trade.
State Sen. Troy Carter began the new year having outraised his competitors in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond in a House district that includes most of New Orleans and extends through Jefferson Parish and the River Parishes to Baton Rouge.

Carter collected $405,000, compared with $301,000 for state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, through the end of Dec. 31. Both are Democrats from New Orleans.

Weve got a full range of donors supporting Troy as someone who has been in the community working for his constituents for years, said Victoria Coulon, his campaign manager.

Gary Chambers, a community activist in Baton Rouge, raised $106,000 through Dec. 31.

Folks who have been in politics for 20 to 30 years should be able to raise $300,000, Chambers, who is also a Democrat, said in an interview, adding that the amount he raised is impressive for someone who has just gotten into this.

Through Dec. 31, Carter also had the most cash on hand, $378,000 to $274,000 for Peterson and $79,000 for Chambers.

Carter received the welcome news that he won a key endorsement from the AFL-CIO, which on Thursday heard pitches from him, Peterson and two other candidates.

Hes always been there for working families, said Tiger Hammond, the president of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO, noting that Carter has sponsored legislation to raise Louisianas minimum wage.

In all, 15 candidates filed to run for the 2nd Congressional District seat to replace Richmond, who resigned to become a senior adviser to President Joe Biden. The primary is March 20, and the runoff is April 24. The Legislature designed the district a decade ago to boost the chances it would elect a Black candidate. Biden won 75% of the vote in the district on Nov. 3.

Carter, who served in the state House and on New Orleans City Council before winning the state Senate seat in 2015, has perhaps the most important endorsement in the race, from Richmond.

Richmonds Who Dat political action committee contributed $5,000 to Carters campaign, and Richmond for Congress gave another $2,000.

Troy Henry, a New Orleans businessman who ran for mayor in 2010 and 2018, gave Carter three separate $2,800 contributions under different entities.

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I believe hes the person to get things done in Washington for New Orleans, said Henry, who noted that Carter has worked for him as a consultant. A lot of politicians say one thing and do something else. Whenever he has made a promise, he has followed through on it, for me, my business or the community.

Other notable contributors to Carter include Tony Clayton, the district attorney for West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Pointe Coupee parishes ($2,800); former state Sen. Francis Heitmeier, of Algiers ($,2800); Donald Cravins Sr., a former state senator and mayor from Opelousas ($2,800); former Republican House Speaker Jim Tucker, of Algiers ($1,000); New Orleans attorney Jim Garner ($2,800); New Orleans attorney John Litchfield ($2,800); former New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass ($2,800); former New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley ($500); video poker lobbyist Alton Ashy ($2,800); New Orleans trial attorney Gladstone Jones ($2,800); state Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma ($1,000); and Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson, a political independent ($2,800).

Peterson, who served in the state House for 11 years before winning election to the state Senate in 2010, has the backing of Stacey Abrams, who has been credited with powering Georgias Democratic Party to victories in the 2020 presidential election and the 2021 Senate elections. While serving in the Senate, Peterson also chaired the Louisiana Democratic Party from 2012-20.

Sen. Peterson has crossed the district to speak with voters about the issues that matter most to families, like providing comprehensive COVID relief to workers and small businesses, ensuring every student has access to a great education, and Medicare for All, Jessica Montgomery, her campaign manager, said in a statement.

Petersons notable contributors include Emilys List ($5,000); Baton Rouge trial attorney Gordon McKernan ($2,800); Rebekah Gee, who served as secretary of the Department of Health under Gov. John Bel Edwards ($250); best-selling author and journalist Walter Isaacson ($500); state Sen. Fred Mills, R-Park ($500); Jimmie Woods Sr., co-founder and CEO of Metro Service Group ($2,800); Donna Brazile, a Kenner native who served as chair of the Democratic National Committee ($500); Stephen Handwerk, who served as executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party while Peterson chaired the party ($500); Tom Perez, who just stepped down as chair of the Democratic National Committee ($500); Andy Kopplin, who served as chief of staff to two governors and to Mayor Mitch Landrieu ($1,000); and New Orleans trial attorney Russ Herman ($2,800).

Chambers is running to the left of both Carter and Peterson. He favors Medicare for All, the plan by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, to give health insurance to everyone. Chambers also favors legalizing marijuana and supports the Green New Deal, which is a congressional resolution to create a grand plan to combat climate change whose best-known champion is U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, of New York.

Desiree Ontiveros, a Democrat who owns Badass Balloon Co. in New Orleans, has raised money but all of it came in after the Dec. 31 reporting deadline, said her campaign manager, Kara Maggiore.

Three lobbyists covered their bets by giving the same amount to Carter and Peterson: $1,000 from Ryan Haynie, $1,000 from Rodney Braxton and $2,800 from Randall Womack.
Mary Coustas is set to return to stage with her new show, 'Hello Good Thanks - Better Out Than In'.

And on Tuesday, the 56-year-old comedian portrayed her character Effie Stephanidis as she discussed life with her new husband, Dr Shane Bradley Cooper.

During a hilarious interview on Channel Seven's Sunrise, Effie said: 'There have been benefits [in lockdown] for some, and certainly for a freshly married couple.'

'I loved it!' Comedian Effie Stephanidis (pictured) discussed life with her new husband and said 'lockdown was beneficial for the freshly married couple' on Tuesday

'I loved it, but Shane has unfortunately got quite the limp as a result,' she joked.

'As you know and the country knows, I was very reluctant to commit physically to anything - I am talking intimately - until my honeymoon.'

Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage, who recently tied the knot with Richard Lavender, then asked: 'Are you enjoying being a Mrs? I'm enjoying it.'

During a hilarious interview on Channel Seven's Sunrise, Effie joked: 'There have been benefits [in lockdown] for some, and certainly for a freshly married couple. I loved it, but Shane has unfortunately got quite the limp as a result'

'There are so many pluses. No offence to Sam or me, but we waited, we didn't rush. We didn't go with the first offer, you know what I mean? We waited and we did it well,' Effie said.

The comedian is set to perform her new show 'Hello Good Thanks - Better Out Than In' at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in March.

The exciting stage show is about life in lockdown with her husband Dr Shane Bradley Cooper.

Married life: Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage, who recently tied the knot with Richard Lavender, then asked: 'Are you enjoying being a Mrs? I'm enjoying it'

Meanwhile, Mary played Effie on popular television sitcom Acropolis Now from 1989 to 1992.

Since then, she has starred as Effie in commercials and other shows including Just Quietly in 2001 and Greeks on the Roof in 2003.

Mary married husband George Betsis in 2005, and the couple welcomed a daughter named Jamie in 2013.
She recently jetted back to the UK, after joining a multitude of influencers who embarked on 'working' trips to Dubai during lockdown.

And Arabella Chi showed she's settling back into lockdown life at home, when she took to Instagram to share snaps of herself posing in lingerie on Monday.

The Love Island star, 29, wowed as she showed off her incredible frame while posing in the lacy white two-piece as she stood before her 'very empty' fridge.

Hot and cold: Arabella Chi showed she's settling back into lockdown life at home, when she took to Instagram to share snaps of herself posing in lingerie by her fridge on Monday

Looking deeply tanned after basking in the UAE sunshine, the TV personality accessorised with gold pendant necklaces, bracelets and rings.

With her golden brown locks styled in a high ponytail with a white bow, Arabella highlighted her good looks with a palette of impeccably-applied makeup.

Captioning the scintillating pair of images, in which she also showed off her pert posterior, she wrote: 'Yes I have a very empty fridge.'

The reality star has arrived back in the UK after two luxurious vacations for modelling work, while staying at the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza in Egypt and The Westin in Dubai.

Running on empty: The Love Island star, 29, wowed as she showed off her incredible frame while posing in the lacy white two-piece as she stood before her 'very empty' fridge

Arabella recently celebrated the end of her quarantine after jetting home as she explained she signed up for England's Test to Release scheme which allows travellers entering from certain countries to reduce their mandatory 10-day isolation.

Travellers are allowed to stop isolating upon receipt of a negative Covid test taken after at least five days of isolating.

A slew of reality TV stars and influencers have been trolled online after being slammed by Home Secretary Priti Patel for jetting abroad under the ruse of a 'work trip' despite strict COVID-19 travel rules.

Ministers are understood to have been increasingly concerned about social media 'influencers' and other celebrities turning up in exotic destinations while the rest of the country is in lockdown.

One government source told MailOnline last week people appeared to have been exploiting grey areas about what counts as 'essential' work trips.

'Dreaming of warmer climates': Arabella posted wistful throwback snaps from her trip to her Instagram on Sunday

'It is quite clear there are some high profile people getting away with it and what they are claiming as work is not,' they said.

And last week Priti Patel criticised those who have been holidaying in the sun when they have been told to stay at home.

She said going on holiday was 'not an exemption' as she unveiled a strict borders clampdown to slow the spread of the virus, telling the Commons: 'People should simply not be travelling.

'We see plenty of influencers showing off where they are  mainly sunny places.'

As the criticism intensifies, members of the public appear to be taking umbrage with their tone deaf posts from Dubai - now dubbed 'Covid Cosablanca'.

Angry: A slew of reality TV stars and influencers have been trolled online after being slammed by Home Secretary Priti Patel for jetting abroad under the ruse of a 'work trip'
A Massachusetts State Police sergeant who is accused of strangling his girlfriend in New Hampshire as she tried to break up with him and fleeing from authorities afterward was taken into custody over the weekend and relieved of duty, authorities said.

Sgt. Bryan Erickson was arrested at his home early Sunday on charges out of Exeter, New Hampshire. He was immediately relieved of duty, according to a state police spokesperson. The trooper was taken to Exeter for his booking and arraignment.

All of Ericksons state police equipment was taken from him when he was relieved of his duties. The agency has scheduled a departmental hearing for him later this week, at which time his duty status will be addressed. An internal affairs case has been opened as well, the spokesperson noted.

We condemn, and have zero tolerance for, the actions as alleged. We will take appropriate administrative action as warranted by the outcome of the criminal case in New Hampshire and our own internal investigation, the spokesperson said.

The 38-year-old Groveland, Massachusetts man faces seven charges, among them a felony count of domestic violence by means of strangulation, according to an affidavit filed in Rockingham County Superior Court in New Hampshire.

Erickson was assigned to Troop A and earned $186,400 last year, the Boston Herald reported.

Around 2:50 a.m. Sunday, police were sent to a home on Cypress Way in Exeter after a 911 call hang up, authorities wrote in the affidavit. When dispatch tried to call the phone number back, it went straight to voicemail.

The officer who filed the affidavit reported seeing a man close the garage door when she arrived. Police knocked on the front door of the home, and a woman answered, claiming her boyfriend, who has since been identified as Erickson, assaulted her and took off, court records said.

The woman who Erickson is accused of assaulting, invited him over to talk about ending their relationship of roughly one year.

Erickson - who is married to another woman, police noted in the affidavit - is accused of grabbing his girlfriends phone, because she would not sit down. Authorities claimed he then grabbed her, bent her wrist and threw her onto a bed.

She tried to walk away, at which point, the affidavit stated, the state trooper grew mad and aggressive, grabbed her face, held her mouth and threw her to the ground.

The Groveland man is accused of pinning the woman down and holding her throat in his hands so that she could barely breathe and could not move, court records said. Police allege he later head-butted her twice.

The woman then tried to hide in the bathroom and called 911 three times. However, Erickson is accused of hanging up the phone. The victim suffered minor bruises and scratches during the alleged altercation, the affidavit said.

Erickson, who the victim claimed was drunk and carries a gun in his Ford F-150 truck, is accused of driving into town and speeding away from police at 80 mph after they activated the emergency lights on their marked cruisers, according to affidavit.

All units were advised that Erickson may potentially be armed, the affidavit said. A 12-hour domestic stop and arrest BOLO was issued for Erickson.

Officers stopped chasing Erickson at the Exeter-Kensington border after not being able to pull him over before he left the town. The victim was able to find a picture from her phone of Ericksons license plate, though, which she gave to police, according to court records.
Graham Rejects Request for Feb. 8 Confirmation Hearing for Bidens Attorney General Pick

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) on Feb. 1 denied a request from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to hold a Feb. 8 confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, President Joe Bidens nominee for attorney general.

Durbin had requested the Feb. 8 hearing in a letter and Graham responded with a missive of his own. Graham told his Democratic colleague that holding a hearing for Garland would not make sense on Feb. 8 since the Senate is preparing to hold the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump the next day on Feb. 9.

The Senate is about to conduct its first-ever impeachment trial of a former president, and only its fourth trial of a president, incumbent or not. Under the procedure the Senate has adopted, Donald Trumps trial is set to start on February 9. But you want us to rush through Judge Garlands hearing on February 8, Graham wrote.

An impeachment is no small thing. It requires the Senates complete focus. This is why I didnt consider any judicial nominees during last years impeachment trial. Democrats do not get to score political points in an unprecedented act of political theater on one hand while also trying to claim the mantle of good government on the other.

Democrats have the slimmest possible majority in the Senate but Graham is still the chairman of the Judiciary Committee because the two sides have not worked out a power-sharing deal. The leaders of the two parties appeared close to a deal last week after Sen. Mitch McConnell indicated that an impasse over preserving the legislative filibuster had been overcome.

In his letter to Graham, Durbin indicated that the two sides have not been able to reach a deal about the date for Garlands confirmation hearing and argued that there is simply no justification for delaying Judge Garlands hearing any further.

Republican and Democratic staff have had conversations about the date of the confirmation hearing since at least Jan. 14, according to Durbins letter.

First, a February 8 hearing accommodates your desire not to hold a hearing on Judge Garlands nomination during a day when the Senate will be conducting the impeachment trial of former President Trump, Durbin wrote.

Second, a February 8 hearing affords ample time to review Judge Garlands record. In fact, the Committee has had access to the bulk of Judge Garlands record since 2016, when he provided a Questionnaire and thousands of pages of materials in connection with his Supreme Court nomination.

In response, Graham noted that the last five attorney general nominees had two-day hearings, not the one-day Durnin requested for Garland.

Governing requires trade-offs. When the Senates focus is required to consider whether to bar a former president from being reelected, other business must stop. Proceeding with the confirmation of an attorney general and the impeachment of a former president at the same time would give neither the attention required, Graham wrote.
(@FahadShabbir)

The United States will review its foreign aid contributions to Myanmar and its sanctions regime against the country's military leaders involved in the overthrow of the government on Monday, a senior State Department official said

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) The United States will review its foreign aid contributions to Myanmar and its sanctions regime against the country's military leaders involved in the overthrow of the government on Monday, a senior State Department official said.

The US government on Tuesday assessed the events in Myanmar as having constituted a military coup d'etat.

"This assessment triggers certain restrictions in foreign assistance to the government of [Myanmar]... and in addition we will undertake a broader review of our assistance program to ensure they align with recent events," the State Department official told reporters. "We're going to start the review immediately."

The official also said that the United States will similarly conduct a review of its sanctions posture with respect to Myanmar's military leaders.

Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 00:43:58|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Iranian health authorities announced on Monday the expansion of traffic restrictions implemented in cities on red and orange alert to cities on yellow alert, in order to avoid a new wave of COVID-19.

"To preserve the great achievements in the control of COVID-19, the traffic restrictions that were effective in controlling the disease have been extended from orange alert areas to yellow ones," the Iranian Deputy Minister of Health and Medical Education Alireza Raisi said, as quoted by official news agency IRNA.

The prohibition for private vehicles to enter a city on orange alert different than that of the vehicle's numberplate has therefore been expanded to cities on lower-risk yellow alert.

Raisi said there are currently in Iran 18 cities on orange alert, some 124 others on yellow alert, and 306 cities on blue alert, the lowest alert level in the COVID-19 governmental evaluation system.

Earlier in the day, the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health announced 6,597 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the country's overall count to 1,424,596 confirmed infections.

Of the new cases registered in the past 24 hours, 817 patients had to be hospitalized, Sima Sadat Lari said at her daily briefing, according to the ministry's official website.

Between Sunday and Monday, 79 new deaths related to the coronavirus were registered, she added, making for a total death toll of 58,038 in the country.

The number of patients having recovered or been released from Iranian hospitals has reached 1,216,305 so far, while 3,896 others are currently in critical condition, according to Sadat Lari. Enditem
Photo: The Canadian Press

A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning, a ruling certain to ignite more protests across the country.

Just before the ruling, Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission. His team called on Russians to rally immediately in central Moscow in protest.

The ruling came despite massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends and Western calls to free the 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner.

The prison sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and politically motivated.

Navalny was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from his five-month convalescence in Germany from the attack, which he has blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny any involvement. Despite tests by several European labs, Russian authorities said they have no proof he was poisoned.

As the order was read, Navalny smiled and pointed to his wife Yulia in the courtroom and traced the outline of a heart on the glass cage where he was being held. Everything will be fine, he told her as guards led him away.

Earlier in the proceedings, Navalny attributed his arrest to Putins fear and hatred," saying the Russian leader will go down in history as a poisoner.

I have deeply offended him simply by surviving the assassination attempt that he ordered, he said.

The aim of that hearing is to scare a great number of people, Navalny added. You can't jail the entire country."

Russias penitentiary service alleges Navalny violated the probation conditions of his suspended sentence from the 2014 conviction. It asked the Simonovsky District Court to turn his 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into one that he must serve in prison, although he has spent about a year of it under house arrest that will now be counted as time served.

Navalny emphasized that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that his 2014 conviction was unlawful and Russia paid him compensation in line with the ruling.

Navalny and his lawyers have argued that while he was recovering in Germany from the poisoning, he couldn't register with Russian authorities in person as required by his probation. Navalny also insisted that his due process rights were crudely violated during his arrest and described his jailing as a travesty of justice.

I came back to Moscow after I completed the course of treatment, Navalny said at Tuesday's hearing. What else could I have done?

Navalny's jailing has triggered massive protests across Russia for the past two weekends, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to demand his release and chant slogans against Putin. Police detained over 5,750 people Sunday, including more than 1,900 in Moscow, the biggest number the nation has seen since Soviet times. Most were released after being handed a court summons, and they face fines or jail terms of seven to 15 days. Several people faced criminal charges over alleged violence against police.

I am fighting and will keep doing it even though I am now in the hands of people who love to put chemical weapons everywhere and no one would give three kopecks for my life, Navalny said.

Navalny's team called for a demonstration Tuesday outside the Moscow courthouse, but police were out in force, cordoning off nearby streets and making random arrests. More than 320 people were detained, according to the OVD-Info group that monitors arrests.

Some Navalny supporters still managed to approach the building. A young woman climbed a large pile of snow across the street from the courthouse and held up a poster saying Freedom to Navalny. Less than a minute later, a police officer took her away.

Hours before the ruling, authorities also cordoned off Red Square and other parts of central Moscow, as well as Palace Square in St. Petersburg in anticipation of protests. Police flooded the centres of both cities.

In court, Navalny thanked protesters for their courage and urged other Russians not to fear repression.

Millions can't be jailed, he said. You have stolen people's future and you are now trying to scare them. I'm urging all not to be afraid."
Farmers renting out entitlements could end up in legal battles with their tenants over the ownership of entitlements, farm business experts have warned.

The warnings come amid ongoing uncertainty over the future of entitlement leasing and the impact of the EUs proposal that only genuine farmers benefit from CAP payments after the current CAP programme ends in 2022.

Farm leaders maintain that the entitlement system must be restructured or adjusted in favour of the land user over the landowner before the next CAP begins in 2023.

Figures obtained by the Farming Independent shows that over 150m worth of entitlements were leased by farmers over the past five years, with almost 40m worth leased last year compared to 12.7m in 2015. The number of farmers leasing entitlements has increased from 2,870 in 2015 to 14,348 last year.

Cork-based agricultural consultant Mike Brady said court actions are now likely over who actually owns the CAP payment particularly in relation to long-term leases of land.

If you are doing a five, 10 or 15-year lease today it goes beyond the current CAP regime. Guys leasing their entitlements will get paid back in 2021 and 2022, but whats going to happen in 2023? Nobody knows, he said.

New system

The big question is will the guy letting the land get any entitlements under the new system in 2023?

He described the issue of what should happen to entitlements/farm payments when a farmer retires from farming by leasing out or selling his farm as perhaps the most sensitive (CAP) topic of all.

Mr Brady added the uncertainty about entitlements is affecting the land market as many farmers planning to retire are holding back on leasing out their holdings until they know the basis for allocating new entitlements.

For those choosing to retire now, the legal profession is busy composing audacious clauses for insertion into land leases to ensure the payments come back at the end of the present CAP.

Others, he said, are pretending to be farming a hectare or two of land, even though they are retired, in the hope they will keep their payments.

Galway-based auctioneer Joseph Naughton, who has extensive experience in leasing out and selling land and entitlements nationwide, agreed with Mr Bradys analysis.

With any new leases that I am doing for farmers that might be retiring and looking to lease out all the land and entitlements, we lease the land and the entitlements separately.

I also lease the entitlements one year at a time only. This gives greater flexibility to the owner of the entitlements, he said.

There should be more information as to what the owner of the entitlements should do in the spring of 2022.

In the old CAP, some farmers were advised to sell their entitlements in the last year of the old system in 2014 or they would be lost.

Contracts

Issues might now arise where the owners of entitlements are tied into long-term written contracts, and he advised anyone who owns entitlements not to lease them beyond 2021.

Mr Naughton also strongly advised those that are not going to go back farming to seriously consider selling their entitlements as they may not be able to hold onto them after the next CAP reform.

Concerns over armchair farmers and entitlements were raised at several regional IFA meetings in recent weeks.

Carlow farmer and former IFA deputy president, Derek Deane, has called on IFA at the south Leinster meeting to look very seriously at no more leasing of entitlements.

If people go out of farming, they either sell them (entitlements) or they go back into the reserve, he said.

The whole leasing (market) is gone like the quota system and thats an issue that will have to be dealt with, to try and guide that funding into the people that are actively farming.

Addressing the same meeting, IFA President Tim Cullinan said armchair farmers are a concern.

CAP money needs to be going to the people that are doing the work.

If people are not working the land then their are questions about where the entitlements are going. We are definitely looking at that and we will be coming with some proposals on that, he said

And ICMSA deputy president Lorcan McCabe has said the entitlement system will have to be restructured or adjusted to ensure that the person farming the land become the principal beneficiary of the payment.

The weight of payment must move from the owner to the farmer and by that we mean the individual taking on all the risks associated with farming, from weather to prices.

Under the present system the people who lease the land and entitlements are getting little or no benefit from the entitlements which  we must remember  were originally designed to support the people actually farming the land, he said.

"We believe that a new regime needs to be put in place and that system will have to favour the person farming the land as opposed to the owner.

Genuine farmer

While overall EU agreement on the new CAP proposals is some time away, it is understood that a genuine farmer definition will be finalised by June this year.

This definition has yet to be agreed at Member State level, but the EU Commission has already stated that it does not want supports provided to those whose agricultural activity forms only an insignificant part of their overall economic activities, or whose principal business activity is not agricultural.

The Department of Agriculture said that during the transition period between now and the implementation of the next CAP, there will no changes in how payment entitlements may be transferred.

The statement added that as negotiations are not yet complete on the new CAP programme, it is not possible at this point to state with certainty how transfers of entitlements may be affected.

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"Mandy has a track record of shaking up established industries with technology to create sweeping behavioral change," said James Reinhart, CEO of thredUP. "At Match, she had a hand in reshaping how people meet, and she's also demonstrated her commitment to working with disruptive technologies through her board role at Uber. We're thrilled she's joining thredUP and taking on fashion next as we continue our journey to make used clothing the new normal."

Ginsberg previously spent 14 years at Match Group in a number of executive roles, including CEO for the Match brand, CEO for all North American businesses, and ultimately Match Group Chief Executive from 2018 to 2020. She also played an instrumental role in taking the company public in 2015. Under her leadership, Match Group expanded its portfolio of brands to include Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge and Plenty of Fish. During this time, Match Group led a cultural shift around dating apps through its technology platform, with more than half (54%) of Americans saying relationships that begin on a dating site or app are just as successful as those that begin in person. In addition to her roles at Match, Ginsberg has held executive leadership roles at The Princeton Review, Edelman, and i2 Technologies.

"With extensive experience at both public and private sector technology companies and marketplace businesses, Mandy brings invaluable experience to thredUP's Board," said Patricia Nakache, Chairperson of the Board of Directors at thredUP. "We are excited to benefit from her experience building, growing, and overseeing massively disruptive consumer technology brands."

"thredUP has built a technology platform that has the power to transform the fashion industry while driving towards its mission to positively impact not just the ecosystem of buyers and sellers but also the environment," said Ginsberg. "This is an incredible time to join the company as the category - that was previously stigmatized - is quickly being normalized by new generations of users who are passionate and excited about discovering and selling products on thredUP."

Ginsberg currently serves on the Board of Directors at Uber and previously served on the Board of Directors at JCPenney and Care.com. She joins Patricia Nakache (Chair), Greg Bettinelli, Ian Friedman, Tim Haley, Jack Lazar, Norman Matthews, Dan Nova, Paula Sutter, and CEO James Reinhart on thredUP's Board of Directors.

She holds a B.A. in English Literature and Spanish Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

SOURCE thredUP

Related Links

http://www.thredup.com


A: They seemed normal. It took me until I was about 10 years old to realize that I was in the circus family in the neighborhood. My dad was super hard-working. And my mother [Jane Henson] created the Muppets with my father, so a lot of their discussion was around the Muppets. So I had a ton of respect and reverence for the puppetry. It was his work, it was his art, and he took it very seriously. There were five of us siblings growing up, and if [my father] had to work a weekend he would always bring one or two of us with him, and wed hang out on the shooting stages and do homework or play around in the workshop where the drawers full of eyeballs were and goof around and make stuff. All of that seemed kind of normal. Did I have a relationship with the characters as if they were my brothers and sisters? No, I certainly didnt. Did I love and appreciate when my dad would put on Kermit the Frog and perform? Absolutely. But to me, it was my dad.
Jutta is new Community Dean at Ditchingham Jutta is new Community Dean at Ditchingham

The With youth network, which has taken over the Ditchingham convent from the sisters, has appointed Rev Jutta Brueck to lead the work there.

Jutta is a Church of England priest with a longstanding passion for monasticism. She is leaving her role as a parish priest in an urban context in Ipswich where she developed a new monastic community within her parish. She has lived within community and supported a range of communities at various stages of her ministry and was an enabler in the National Monasticism Network.



I love the vision of With where were creating a space for prayer and retreat for young people, said Jutta. Holding together contemplation and action is fundamental for the flourishing of the church, and this place facilitates that.



Im drawn to the possibility of discovering what a place of prayer and retreat for young people will look like, the rule of a community that has 'being with' as its central charism and the transformative potential this has for young people and everyone involved. The opportunity to create something new, but drawing on ancient traditions is immensely exciting, and I cant wait to partner with the team, and more importantly, with the Holy Spirit, on that journey."



Jamie Cutteridge, one of the founders of With, explained that the purpose of the initiative was to create a religious communitywith prayer and a rule of life focussed on the young people of the UK.



He said that the first time he came to Ditchingham, it felt like a thin place, a place tangible with the presence of Jesus. We believe that an encounter with Jesus in a place like this can be unbelievably transformative for young people and equally for youth workers.



Pictured above is Jutta Brueck and, below, Jamie Cutteridge









Eldred Willey, 02/02/2021
Khloe Kardashian recently got away for a tropical vacation with her famous sisters.

And the Keeping Up with the Kardashians appears to still be feeling the island vibes, as she continues to share some memories from the trip.

She sizzled under the sun in a throwback she posted Monday to Instagram, showing off her taut bod in a sparkling silver bikini, while lying out by the pool in Turks and Caicos.

Sizzling display: Khloe Kardashian sizzled under the sun in a throwback she posted Monday to Instagram, showing off her taut bod in a sparkling silver bikini, while lying out by the pool in Turks and Caicos

The 36-year-old complemented the look with a sheer white coverup and gold hoop earrings, while holding her pink manicured hand to her forehead.

She captioned the melodramatic pose: 'I have been looking everywhere and literally I can't find ONE f*** to give! I AM EXHAUSTED!'

Khloe previously posted another image to Instagram that included sister Kourtney, 41, lying on the lounge next to her in an orange bikini, captioned: 'Stay hydrated. We heard there's a drought. Sincerely Jane and Suzanne.'

She returned home Saturday to Los Angeles, where she was greeted with a sweet surprise from partner Tristan Thompson, 29.

Sibling bonding: The 36-year-old previously posted another image to Instagram that included sister Kourtney, 41, lying on the lounge next to her in an orange bikini

Home sweet home: She returned home Saturday to Los Angeles, where she was greeted with a sweet surprise from partner Tristan Thompson, 29

Flower power: She also shared some photos of pink floral arrangements awaiting her arrival. A layer of balloons floated above her head, covering the ceiling

The Revenge Body host posted a video to her Instagram Story of her living room filled with metallic rose gold balloons, including some mylar letters that spelled: 'Welcome home.'

She also shared some photos of pink floral arrangements awaiting her arrival, writing to the father of her child: 'Thank you TT.'

It was a particularly sweet gesture, as Tristan has been living in Boston, where he signed a two-year contract with the Celtics, reportedly worth $19million, following nine seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

A source recently told E! News that he and Khloe 'are on the same page and both want another baby. Khloe knows the value of siblings and growing up in a house full of kids and she wants that for True. It's something they have been working on for a while.'

New addition: A source recently told E! News that he and Khloe 'are on the same page and both want another baby'

Baby fever: The couple seemed to confirm the news in a teaser for the upcoming final season of KUWTK, as she told Tristan: 'I just feel like it's now time to have another kid'

The insider added: 'Tristan is very supportive of Khloe and making this happen. He goes with her to doctor's appointments and listens to her feelings. He's very involved and invested in the future of their family together.'

The couple seemed to confirm the news in a teaser for the upcoming final season of KUWTK, as she told Tristan: 'I just feel like it's now time to have another kid.'

Khloe previously returned home to Los Angeles from Massachusetts, where she spent the holidays with Tristan and their daughter True, two.

A source told People: 'Khloe and True had a fun week in Boston. They played in the snow, shopped and enjoyed holiday outings. They also celebrated an early Christmas with Tristan since they couldnt all be together on Christmas Day.'

The insider added of recent engagement rumors, after Khloe was spotted with a massive rock on her ring finger: 'Khloe and Tristan are good. He gifted her a diamond ring, but it's not an engagement ring.'

Christmas vacation: Khloe previously returned home to Los Angeles from Massachusetts, where she spent the holidays with Tristan and their daughter True, two

Snow days: A source told People: 'Khloe and True had a fun week in Boston. They played in the snow, shopped and enjoyed holiday outings. They also celebrated an early Christmas with Tristan since they couldnt all be together on Christmas Day'

Biggest cheerleaders: The proud parents have been making their new arrangement work, as Khloe and True have been watching daddy's games together

New team: It comes after he signed a two-year contract with the Boston Celtics, reportedly worth $19million, following nine seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers

The proud parents have been making their new arrangement work, as Khloe and True have been watching daddy's games together.

A source told ET Online in December: 'Tristan in Boston is a difficult pill to swallow for Khloe especially since she and Tristan have been doing so much better as a couple and as a family lately. Khloe is especially going through it, but is doing her best to keep her head up and stay positive.'

The insider added: 'She's not excited for the move for her family's sake, but she is for Tristan and his career. At this point they're planning to split their time between LA and Boston, but it's still up in the air and there's no definite answer since they are still working on rebuilding their relationship and trust.'

Khloe and Tristan have worked toward mending their relationship over the past year in quarantine, after splitting in February of 2019, amid his alleged cheating scandal with former family friend Jordyn Woods, 23.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Lots of sunshine. High near 65F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 41F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. and SHANGHAI, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inmagene Biopharmaceuticals ("Inmagene"), a leading biotech company focused on immunology-related therapeutic areas, today announced the launch of its wholly-owned subsidiary in San Diego. Jean-Louis Saillot, MD has joined the company as Chief Development Officer (CDO) to oversee its global product development and clinical trial activities.

"Inmagene U.S. is integral to our global innovation platform," said Dr. Jonathan Wang, Inmagene's Chairman and CEO. "Dr.'s Saillot has brought us over three decades of clinical research and development experience from multinational pharmaceutical companies, such as BMS/Celgene, Merck/Schering-Plough, and SmithKline Beecham. His experience in leading multiple successful NDAs/MMAs will greatly boost Inmagene's global drug development capabilities, and enable us to introduce well-needed medicines to the large patient populations in Asia."

"I am excited to join Inmagene, a truly innovative company developing novel drug candidates for patients suffering from immune diseases," said Dr. Saillot. "We will integrate world-class drug development knowledge and global market intelligence to guide cost-efficient innovation in Asia, and deliver drug candidates with first-in-class or best-in-class potential to treat patients worldwide."

About Inmagene Biopharmaceuticals

Inmagene, with wholly owned subsidiaries in San Diego, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, is a leading biotech company focused on immunology-related therapeutic areas. Believing in borderless medicine, the Inmagene team integrates the most efficient resources in the U.S. and Asia to develop drug candidates with first-in-class or best-in-class potentials for worldwide patients. It also in-licenses products for Asia markets and, together with its partners, carries out global development activities, including multi-regional clinical trials.

Inmagene is building a strong pipeline with over 10 drug candidates for immunological diseases. IMG-020, Inmagene's most advanced drug candidate, is about to enter global clinical trials for registration in multiple indications. The company has formed strategic partnerships with Chi-Med and Affibody AB to develop and commercialize highly innovative drug candidates.

About Jean-Louis Saillot, M.D.

Dr. Jean-Louis Saillot has over 30 years of experience as a global biopharmaceutical executive and industry leader. Over his career at BMS/Celgene, Merck/Schering-Plough, and SmithKline Beecham, he led or made important contributions to over 20 successful NDAs/MAAs submissions.

He has played leadership roles across multiple functions, including Clinical Research, Clinical Operations, Regulatory Affairs, Quality & Compliance, Pharmacovigilance, and Portfolio & Project Leadership. His experience spans all drug developmental stages in multiple therapeutic areas, such as Immunology/Respiratory, CNS, Oncology, Cardiovascular, Infectious diseases and Gastroenterology. He has worked with various treatment modalities, including both small molecules and biologics and led the Immunology and Inflammation pipeline at the Schering-Plough Research Institute.

Dr. Saillot has also held leadership positions in industry organizations, such as Advisory Board member of the Pharmaceutical Education & Research Institute, Vice Chairperson of the PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) Clinical Leadership Committee and Chairperson of the PhRMA Clinical Research Technical Group. He also contributed as an industry representative to the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH), including being a member of the ICH E7 expert working group.

Dr. Saillot received his bachelor's degree from the Lycee Charles de Gaulle in London and his M.D. from Universite Paris Sud (Paris XI) Medical School.

SOURCE Inmagene Biopharmaceuticals
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2) The government is looking into the possibility of converting some COVID-19 testing centers and quarantine facilities into vaccination sites, an official said Tuesday.

Not only the testing sites, but also other quarantine facilities that may not be needed anymore at this point, we are also looking at converting them into vaccination sites, testing czar Vince Dizon said in an interview with CNN Philippines The Source.

Among the facilities being eyed by authorities, according to Dizon, are the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila and the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. However, he clarified that these are still in the identification phase.

Dizon explained the government will be using the same formula that helped ramped up the countrys testing  having a decentralized program.

That set-up will be also followed for the vaccination program, he pointed out. We wont be reinventing the wheel, we will build on the success of how we were able to ramp up testing, and use that formula as well."

He said there will be a combination of local LGU sites, there will be national sites, and there will also be vaccination programs in hospitals.

Dizon added that officials wanted to first review the vaccination plans of local government units to ensure that all facilities all come together into one master plan.

LGUs prepared

Meanwhile, the testing czar also lauded the inoculation programs of LGUs in Metro Manila, saying they have shown the preparedness and capability to roll out the vaccines once they arrive in the country.

For example in Pasig and in Makati, the plan was very clear clear areas of vaccination throughout the city. Taguig, very very impressive vaccination facility that they showed us, Dizon recounted.

He added that Manila City also had a very impressive storage facility, which he said could store even the most delicate of vaccines, as it boasts of a -80 degree Celsius capacity.

Officials have expressed confidence that vaccination in the country will begin this month, with doses from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility set to arrive.
DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Feb, 2021) The UAE Government has launched a programme to attract elite graduates from distinguished educational institutions in the UAE and the world, and involve them in creating innovative solutions for the UAE's future.

The "Moonshot 2071" Apprenticeship Programme, will seek to develop pioneering ideas for the UAE's next 50 years, and design the future of governments.

Organised by Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation, the programme will support the contribution of graduates in finding answers to pressing challenges, through developing skills, building their capabilities and empowering them to develop and implement their initiatives under the supervision of a selected group of ministers, government officials, and renowned international experts and practitioners.

Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, affirmed that the new initiative would further promote UAE position as a global innovation hub that attracts talent to implement innovative ideas that will shape the future.

He said, "Moonshot 2071 embodies the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai in embracing and empowering young talents in the UAE and the world, and transforming their ideas into projects and initiatives that will support shaping future governments."

Over a period of three months, the apprenticeship programme will offer an interactive digital platform that will enable associates to collaborate and work together on developing innovative initiatives, as well as designing experimental models, that include break-through ideas to address long-term challenges, which will then be adopted by the UAE Government.
3 1 of 3 Empire Continental Land Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Empire Continental Land Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Empire Continental Land, the U.S. land division for Toronto-based Empire Communities, purchased 221 acres in Magnolia for its sixth development in the Houston area.

The land, along FM 1488 and Iron Ore Road about 48 miles northwest of downtown Houston, was purchased from Hydie McAllister and Kareem Gamal of MAG Partners LLC. Jeff Lokey of NewQuest Properties represented the seller.

 Flash

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent reached 3,567,552 as of Monday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

According to the continental disease control and prevention agency's COVID-19 dashboard, the death toll related to the pandemic in Africa stood at 91,006 as of Monday.

A total of 3,052,143 people infected with COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far, the African Union (AU) Commission's healthcare agency disclosed.

The Southern Africa region is the most affected area in Africa in terms of the number of confirmed positive cases, followed by the Northern Africa region, according to the agency.

The most affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Ethiopia, said the Africa CDC.

On Saturday, the Africa CDC had disclosed that the ongoing second wave COVID-19 infections could be associated with the emergence of variants that are more transmissible.

"Africa is currently experiencing an increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases," the African Union (AU) Commission's specialized healthcare agency said in its latest publication on Saturday.

At least 40 countries have experienced a second wave of the pandemic as of January 27, including all countries in the Southern Africa region, the Africa CDC said.

"This new wave of infections is thought to be associated with the emergence of variants that are more transmissible," the Africa CDC said.
The finance minister was at pains to emphasise that the Narendra Modi government had doubled the spending on wheat procurement and nearly tripled that on rice procurement since it assumed office in 2014

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said her Budget rested on six pillars and one of the goals was to double farmers income. But there was little in her Budget speech to change the direction of agriculture, which not only needs to be market-oriented and competitive but also environmentally benign and resilient to climate stresses.

The agriculture ministrys outlay for the next year is 5 percent more than the revised estimate for this year. But the revised estimate is itself 13 percent less than the Budget estimate for 2020-21. The allocation for the department of research and education is Rs 8,500 crore which is about the same as was provided for this year. The actual spending this year will be less than the Budget outlay by 7 percent.

There has been acute under-spending in some of the centrally-sponsored schemes. The micro-irrigation programme utilised only 65 percent of the budget allocation. The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, which promotes horticulture, has used up 69 percent of funds. Its possible that the lockdown and the slow opening up thereafter disrupted the implementation of the schemes.

The Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy gets 34 percent more than this years revised estimate at Rs 1,220 cr. There is a much-needed emphasis on the development of fisheries including harbours and landing points.

Innovation in the Budget is the imposition of a cess on select imports to create an agriculture infrastructure fund. It will be of Rs 900 crore. The cess will be imposed on gold and silver (2.5 percent), apples (35 percent), liquor (100 percent), crude palm oil (17.5 percent), crude soy and sunflower oils (20 percent), gold and silver (2.5 percent) and petrol and diesel. This will be in addition to basic customs duty. Some of the money will be used to improve infrastructure in the regulated mandis, which will be impacted by one of the three central laws that prohibits the mandis from charging a market fee on agri-trade outside their physical limits. The mandis cess was levied by states.

The agri-infrastructure is a central levy. Being a cess it will not be shared with the states. Isnt it better to charge a fee from the users of mandis than impose a tax on imports? The finance minister said consumers will not be hurt because basic customs duties on these items will be lowered. But cesses have a habit of creeping on more items.

The ongoing farmers protests on the borders of Delhi cast a shadow on the Budget. The finance minister was at pains to emphasise that the Narendra Modi government had doubled the spending on wheat procurement and nearly tripled that on rice procurement since it assumed office in 2014. She said there was a big increase in the number of beneficiaries but did not provide comparable figures for beneficiaries under the UPA government.

The reports of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices-which fixes the support prices at which procurement is done-do not show a big increase in the share of the procurement of rice (to take one commodity) as a percentage of production. Between the three years ending in 2013-14 and the three years ending in 2018-19 the share has increased by two percentage points. The spending on procurement however has vastly increased because cereal production itself has grown and so have the support prices.

The finance ministers claims on procurement contradict the stated intention of enacting the three central laws, which is to make agriculture demand-driven and market-oriented. Farmers sell to the government when support prices are higher than market prices. This is the reason why the protesting farmers of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh want procurement of wheat and rice at support prices to be legally guaranteed. They dont want to face market uncertainties. But this will make the cultivation of rice and wheat unsustainable. The finance minister should have announced a crop diversification fund for these states. It is an important miss.

The Finance Minister must be complimented for transparency. The true extent of the food and fertiliser subsidy has been acknowledged. For this year, the revised food subsidy estimate is Rs 4,22,618 crore. This is Rs 3,07,048 more than the budget estimate and was sitting in the books of the Food Corporation of India. The fertiliser subsidy outlay has also been revised upwards to Rs 1,33,947 crore from Rs 71,309 crore. For the coming year the food and fertiliser subsidy outlays respectively are Rs 2,42,836 cr oreand Rs 79,530 crore.

The writer is a senior journalist


A Goose Creek company that manages temporary workers and on-demand employment needs is acquiring a long-time Texas-based staffing firm in a $17.3 million deal that further expands its footprint throughout the country.

HireQuest, which is the newest publicly traded business headquartered in South Carolina, announced this week that it is buying Snelling Staffing, which was started in 1951.

The acquisition is expected to close at the end of the month.

The deal gives HireQuest, which is valued at more than $170 million on Wall Street, an additional 48 locations in 19 states.

The Snelling offices, which helped other businesses hire temporary workers and contract employees, generated $95 million last year, or about $1.98 million each, on average, according to a written statement.

For more than 60 years, the Snelling name has been synonymous with staffing excellence," HireQuest CEO Rick Hermanns said in Monday's announcement. "We believe this acquisition will build on the strong foundation laid by both companies by allowing us not only to expand more fully into commercial staffing, but also to broaden our geographic reach to new states.

He added that the plan is to "maintain and advance" the established Snelling trade name.

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HireQuest already had built a large business after its $26.7 million merger with Command Center in mid-2019. The deal made the combined business a Nasdaq-listed public company.

The stock jumped 22 percent after the Snelling deal was announced. HireQuest closed at $12.79 on Tuesday, giving it a nearly 28 percent gain for the year.

In an investor presentation last month, HireQuest said it had 138 U.S. offices in 30 states and Washington D.C.

Most of the locations are owned and operated by franchisees who work with more than 6,000 customers in industries ranging from construction to manufacturing to waste management

Hermann told The Post and Courier on Tuesday that the demand from some sectors, such as hospitality, has been reduced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding downturn in the economy. On the flip side, requests for the company's services is strong among logistics companies and warehouse operators, he said.

This year celebrates the tricentennial of a turning point in North American colonial history. Three centuries ago, British soldiers established their first fort on land that was to become the colony of Georgia. Called Fort King George, it protected a low bluff on the mighty Altamaha River from French and Spanish explorers, as well as Guale Indians.

From 1721 until 1727, Fort King George  now a state historic site -- served as the southern boundary of the British Empire in North America. After a fire damaged buildings, General James Oglethorpe brought Scottish Highlanders to the site in 1736. Their settlement was called Darien, eventually becoming a bustling seaport that rivaled Savannah for shipping lumber. After a fire damaged buildings, General James Oglethorpe brought Scottish Highlanders to the site in 1736. Their settlement was called Darien, eventually becoming a bustling seaport that rivaled Savannah for shipping lumber.

Today, this 18th-century frontier settlement is open for tours where visitors can explore numerous reconstructed buildings. Overlooking a scenic tidal river are officers' quarters, barracks, a guard house, moat and palisades. Guests are welcome to climb ladders inside the blockhouse, lay on soldiers bunks, peek out musket holes and even ring the dinner bell. Actively exploring the fort helps guests, especially children, imagine life 300 years ago. A museum highlights the Guale Indians, 1580s Santo Domingo de Talaje mission, British colonists, the Scots of Darien and the 19th century timber industry. The remains of three sawmills, soldier graves and tabby ruins are still visible today.

To celebrate the tricentennial, rangers will host a series of presentations and celebrations throughout 2021. The next virtual speaker presentations will be Feb. 28, spotlighting Gullah Geechee heritage, and March 28, covering the Scots of Darien. Plans for future presentations include local historian Buddy Sullivan, archaeologist Dr. Richard Jefferies and former site managers.

Fort King George Historic Site is open Tuesday through Sunday, and admission is $4.50 for children and $7.50 for adults. To learn more, visit GaStateParks.org/ fortkinggeorge or call 912

-437-4770.
The "Korea in Fashion" project designed by Kim Young-jin takes inspiration from the princesses of the Joseon Kingdom. / Courtesy of Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation



By Kwon Mee-yoo





Fashion designer Kim Young-jin

Fashion designer Kim Young-jin of Tchai Kim reinterprets the life of princesses in traditional Korean court dresses with a modern twist in the "Korea in Fashion" project.



"Korea in Fashion" is a contact-free project promoting the beauty of hanbok and royal palaces of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom, co-organized by the Cultural Heritage Administration and the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation (KCHF).



Kim offers a range of traditional and modernized hanbok via her brands Tchai Kimyoungjin for custom-tailored pieces and Tchai Kim for ready-to-wear items. Kim is also the costume designer behind the hit drama "Mr. Sunshine" (2018) and film "Love, Lies" (2016) as well as stage productions of the play "Hamlet" (2016) and opera "La Traviata" (2017).



"When the foundation approached me for a fashion shoot featuring hanbok, I immediately thought of shooting at royal palaces in Seoul, which can represent our tradition," Kim said.



"Most existing royal dresses of Joseon are jeokui (formal robe) or daeryebok (ceremonial robe) of queens and crown princesses. However, few garments of regular princesses are left, except for 'wonsam,' which a royal tailor made when princesses got married. So I wanted to explore the lesser-known clothing of the princesses of Joseon."



Kim said "princess" is an eternal theme representing a precious person and she wanted to convey respect through hanbok.



"Young girls make-believe that they're princesses and they want to be treated as such. So I related the idea of deference toward princesses to royal palaces," the designer explained. "While crown princesses (of Korea) are born in private houses and join the royal family through marriage, regular princesses are born in the palace and I wanted to capture their innocent yet lovely mood."





The "Korea in Fashion" project designed by Kim Young-jin takes inspiration from the princesses of the Joseon Kingdom. / Courtesy of Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation



Kim designed 21 hanbok for the shoots at Gyeongbok Palace and Deoksu Palace, inspired by hwarot (ceremonial or wedding dress) and wonsam worn by Princess Bokon (1818-32) and Princess Deokon (1822-44).



"These are the very few remaining costumes of Joseon's princesses and I remember reconstructing them when I first learned how to make hanbok. However, I designed a whole new line of costumes, inspired by tradition but reinterpreted by me," Kim said.



Kim exercised her imagination in various characters of princesses.



"They can be sweet and lovely or grotesque. This is the first in the series of my interpretations of princesses and I hope to continue the series with diverse interpretations of the image of a princess," she said.



"For instance, Princess Bokon's hwarot has a unique baeja (traditional Korean vest), so I used the item. The embroidery on it was designed by the royal tailors for the princess, but I redesigned them for this project."



Kim also has a knack for matching different types of textiles for hanbok, which typically are made from cotton and silk.



"Korea is a peninsular state and actively traded with other countries, especially China. Koreans imported fabric from China, which differed over time. Fashion is about trends and I believe they used diverse fabrics, keeping up with the times," Kim said.



"Nowadays, fashion is more about individuality and taste than which material is en vogue. However, I love to use unlikely fabrics for hanbok. The check fabric used for this project is taffeta silk, which can be very dressy. I often order custom-made fabrics from Italian silk screen companies for exclusive use for my brand. I think that is fashion in this global era."





The "Korea in Fashion" project designed by Kim Young-jin takes inspiration from the princesses of the Joseon Kingdom. / Courtesy of Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation

Jagan asked officials to try their best to get more funds from the Centre.  DC Image

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has held a meeting with officials on the Union Budget 2021-22 and examined the financial allocations offered to various sectors. The officials informed the CM that there were no major or special allocations to the state.

Although there were high hopes and expectations for special allocations to AP still facing odds due to the 2014 bifurcation, the Union Budget proved to be a disappointment, they told the CM.

Neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka received good shares of allocations. The allocations to various sectors and programmes of AP were general in nature and on par with what were given to other states, they said.

There, they said, was a slump in allocations for the PM Kisan, PM Awas Yojana and NREGS as compared to the previous year, besides a cut in the subsidy on foodgrains, petrol and fertilizers.

Jagan asked officials to try their best to get more funds from the Centre. Liaise with the Union Government and ensure a timely inflow of funds, he told officials of the finance department and CMO.

Earlier in the day, the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry hailed the Union Budget, saying it focused on health care and infrastructure to revive the economy by giving a boost to spending, job-creation and the agriculture sector.

FAPCCI president C.V. Atchut Rao said a welcome feature of the budget was that there are no changes in direct taxes in addition to measures such as exemption to senior citizens aged over 75 from filing the Income Tax returns. The dispute and resolution scheme for small taxpayers through a special committee and doubling of the exemption limit for tax audit for companies doing most of their business through digital modes were welcome.

Atchut Rao said the equity market will be enthused with changes in the capital gains taxes or STT. He welcomed the move for a Single Securities Market Code. With the introduction of agriculture infrastructure cess on fuel, the price of petrol will increase by Rs 2.5 per litre while diesel will be costlier by Rs 4 per litre. This will have a cascading effect on the prices of agriculture and agro-based products.

Referring to the specific proposals for Andhra Pradesh, he said that except for the railway freight corridor projects  the East Coast Corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, the North-South Corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada, and the fishing harbour hub for Visakhapatnam, the budget has no mention of any new project for this state.

Achut Rao welcomed the proposals for extending the tax holiday for startups as well as the capital gains exemption by one more year to March 31, 2022, to amend the definition of small companies by increasing their threshold for capitalization from a maximum of Rs 50 lakh now to a maximum of Rs 2 crore and turnover from a maximum of Rs 2 crore to a maximum of Rs 20 crore.
BEIJING: Three weeks before Myanmar's military commander took power in a coup, he met the Chinese government's top diplomat in an exchange that pointed to potential support as Myanmar faces the prospect of renewed Western sanctions.

China's foreign ministry noted the "fraternal" relationship as State Councillor Wang Yi met last month in Myanmar's capital with the military chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, making him one of the last foreign dignitaries to visit before the coup.

"China appreciates that the Myanmar military takes national revitalisation as its mission," the Chinese ministry said at the time.

Myanmar's own readout of the meeting proved more portentous.

It noted that the military raised complaints to Wang about Myanmar's Nov. 8 election, saying it was marred by fraud, including "discrepancies with the voter lists", and told him what the army was doing about it, without giving specifics.

Since the early Monday coup and the arrest of elected-leader Aung San Suu Kyi, China has stayed largely quiet, saying only it hoped for stability in a country where it ranks as the dominant trading partner, a major investor and a counterweight over years of pressure on Myanmar from the West over its suppression of democracy.

"China will be all too happy to recalibrate its engagement to recognise the new facts on the ground," wrote analysts at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That will likely soften the blow of any U.S. sanctions, which Min Aung Hlaing has doubtless already anticipated and dismissed."

In Japan, a major donor with longstanding ties to Myanmar, State Minister of Defence Yasuhide Nakayama told Reuters that the world's democracies risk pushing Myanmar into China's arms if their response to the coup closes channels for communication with the generals.

Chinese state media has largely held off commenting on what the coup means for China, or even using that word, with state news agency Xinhua referring to Monday's events as a "major Cabinet reshuffle".

STABILITY FIRST

Stability-obsessed China has deep ties to a military that ruled Myanmar for decades.

China has declined to say whether it was given warning that a coup was coming, but analysts played down the notion that last month's meeting had a bearing on events, or that Myanmar gave notice of the takeover.

"Myanmar's tumultuous transition to democracy in the past decade has greatly impacted China's economic interests in the country," said Li Mingjiang, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

"More than anything, China would've wanted stability in Myanmar, not a coup," he said.

China is well-connected in Myanmar following years of backing the old military government when it was subject to sweeping Western sanctions after Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in 1989 following pro-democracy protests.

China later worked hard to build ties with Suu Kyi as political change swept the country, and she tried to reassure China that she did not consider it an enemy, visiting China several times and backing President Xi Jinping's extensive Belt and Road Initiative of energy and infrastructure projects.

Fighting along the border between Myanmar's army and ethnic minority guerrilla groups has on occasion over the last decade led to refugees pouring into China's Yunnan province, angering the Chinese government.

"As a neighbour on China's southern border, a split Myanmar in turmoil is obviously not what China wants to see," the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily said in its overseas edition's WeChat account.

For its part, Myanmar has lingering suspicion of China's links with some militia forces that operate on the Myanmar side of their common border, and historically, Myanmar nationalists have viewed their huge neighbour with wariness.

Maw Htun Aung, a mining expert turned politician from Myanmar's Kachin State bordering China, who is aligned with neither the army nor Suu Kyi's ousted government, distrusted China's motives.

"It will take advantage of the crisis and will mainly focus on its political gain and regional influence," 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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The Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission (ZACC) yesterday recovered about 40 boxes of Covid-19 testing kits worth more than US$12 000 whose origin was traced to Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo, as the anti graft body intensifies investigations into abuse of Personal Protective Equipment.

Investigations are now zeroing in on Mpilo Hospital, with a view to arrest officials from that hospital who might be implicated in the scam.

ZACC spokesperson Commissioner John Makamure confirmed the recovery and vowed that the Commission will leave no stone unturned in its fight against corruption.

"On 18 January 2021, we received information alleging that suspected stolen Standard Q Covid-19 test kits were being sold on the black market in Harare," he said.

"A follow up was then made which led to the recovery of 40 boxes of Standard Q Covid-19 test kits at Bard House offices opposite Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe with a street value of USD12 500.

"Investigations established that the kits were a donation from Unicef to the Government of Zimbabwe through National Pharmaceutical Company (NatPharm).

"The recovered consignment was traced back to Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo where they were stolen from. Investigations are in progress with a view to arrest officials from Mpilo Hospital."

Comm Makamure warned people involved in abuse of PPEs, saying the long arm of the law will inevitably catch up with them.

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"These people are obviously working against the Government of Zimbabwe in its resolve to fight the Covid-19 pandemic so that ordinary citizens can live a normal and disease free life," he said.

"Some people are seeing the Covid-19 disease and attendant measures being taken to combat it as a way to make money.

"They think it is an opportunity for rich pickings and line their pockets at the expense of the health of ordinary persons. This must stop. As Zacc, we will not fold our arms, but we will use every effort to weed them out. So, we would like to send a strong warning to unscrupulous and would be offenders."

Comm Makamure has said ZACC has opened investigations on pharmacies that were diverting Covid-19 drugs on the black market despite the fact that they would have accessed the foreign currency to import them on the central bank facilitated auction rate.

The antigraft body said preliminary investigations have also indicated that some pharmacies were insisting on payment in foreign currency.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Canada will eventually be able to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday, as his government faces concerns about getting doses from Europe.

Canada does not have domestic production but Trudeau expects to use doses made in Europe to vaccinate all Canadians who want to be vaccinated by September. Trudeau reiterated Tuesday the leadership of the European Union including its president reassured him that it will respect Canada's contracts with Pfizer and Moderna. The EU has talked about tightening rules on exports of vaccines.

"Europe will continue to protect Canada's supply," Trudeau said.

Canada wanted shipments from Europe instead of the U.S., its neighbor and closest ally, because Europe was deemed more reliable than the Trump administration.

The prime minister said Canada needs as much domestic capacity for vaccine production as soon as possible because with new variants they don't know what the future will look like a year or two from now.

Trudeau said two companiesPrecision NanoSystems and Novavaxwill eventually manufacture vaccines in Canada.

He said they have signed a memorandum of understanding with Maryland-based Novavax and pending Health Canada approval, tens of millions of Novavax COVID-19 doses will be made in Canada.

Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne later said Canada will be in a position by the end of the year to start production and could produce 2 million vaccines a month if the vaccine and plant are approved by the country's health regulator.

Trudeau said Vancouver-based Precision NanoSystems will also build a manufacturing facility capable of manufacturing up to 240 million doses of vaccine per year.

"I'm glad that we're finally starting to do this," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said.

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.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Spain announced Tuesday that it would restrict arrivals from Brazil and South Africa by air to try to reduce the spread of new coronavirus variants.

Only legal residents or nationals of Spain and the neighbouring microstate of Andorra will be allowed in from Brazil and South Africa, government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero told a news conference.

Passengers stopping in Spain while on their way to another country will be allowed to enter as long as they will remain for less than 24 hours and do not leave the airport, she added.

The new rules will take effect on Wednesday and will remain in force for two weeks although it could be extended depending how the pandemic evolves, the minister said.

Madrid has since the end of December banned arrivals by sea and air from Britain except for residents or nationals of Spain and Andorra because of the discovery of a new more contagious virus strain there last year.

This strain, which has led to a surge in infections in Britain in recent months, is one of several virus variants have been identified since the pandemic began last year.

Another strain, known as E484K, detected initially in South Africa and on subsequent variants in Brazil and Japan, has raised greater alarm among researchers over its possible impact on immunity.

Spain has been hard-hit by the pandemic, recording nearly 60,000 deaths from over 2.8 million cases so far, including 350 of the strain detected in Britain.

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

 2021 AFP

Ebooks

Racism and 'Dog Man' Dominate Top New Downloads in K12

While Diary of a Wimpy Kid books may dominate in downloads when students are looking for digital books to read, Harry Potter books top the list when they want to listen to stories. That's the latest report from OverDrive Education, which provides a platform used by schools for delivering ebooks and audiobooks to their students.

According to the usage data from 38,000 schools around the world, the number of digital books accessed by students in 2020 through the company's Sora reading app was almost triple what it was the year before.

To use the program, students locate their school in an online list and log in using school credentials. They can scan through the collection, filtering by various categories, and choose what they'd like to read or what has been assigned to them. Functions include a dyslexic font setting, large text and read-along features for the ebooks; and students can add bookmarks, highlights and notes as they read or listen.

According to OverDrive Ed, the most popular five ebooks for 2020 across all K-12 schools in ranked order were:

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney;

2. Smile series by Raina Telgemeir;

3. Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce;

4. Forgotten Bones by Lois Miner Huey; and

5. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.

The biggest audiobook downloads were:

1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling;

2. Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling;

3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney;

4. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan; and

5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

The five titles for young adults across both categories were:

1. A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park;

2. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas;

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins;

4. The Maze Runner by James Dashner; and

5. One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus.

The company noted that during the year, social justice and civil rights issues showed up front and center for students. They checked out ebooks about slavery, civil rights, gay rights and inequality, including titles from collections donated by OverDrive and their publishing partners. The company noted that books by black authors saw a doubling of circulation across all of the Overdrive platforms in 2020. The most-read titles from the education programs included The Hate U Give by Thomas and Forgotten Bones by Lois Miner Huey.

Among the newest books published, the top five nonfiction ebooks and audiobooks in K-12 that appeared in 2020 were:

1. Stamped  Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds;

2. Coronavirus by Axel Scheffler;

3. A Promised Land by Barack Obama;

4. Almost American Girl by Robin Ha; and

5. Guide to Survival by Mojang Ab.

The top five fiction ebooks and audiobooks published in 2020 were:

1. Dog Man: Grime and Punishment by Dav Pilkey;

2. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins;

3. The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate;

4. Blow the Roof Off! by Lincoln Peirce; and

5. One of Us Is Next by Karen McManus.

More complete lists of popular titles in K-12 downloads are openly available on the Overdrive website.
Photo: file photo

The union representing Canada Line employees has reached an agreement with Protrans BC--operator of the Canada Line-- and will not proceed with job action.

After 13 months without a contract and more than 40 bargaining sessionsincluding close to 40 hours since Sunday morningmembers of the B.C. Government & Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) have reached a tentative deal with their employer, Protrans BC.



Our members goal has always been to get a fair contract at the bargaining table, says BCGEU president Stephanie Smith in a news release. Bargaining isnt easy at the best of times and bargaining during a pandemic is definitely not the best of times. Our members showed incredible solidarity under extremely challenging circumstances and they got it done.



Details of the tentative agreement will not be released until members of the bargaining unit have reviewed and voted to ratify the terms.



In a previous interview, Smith told Vancouver Is Awesome that members were prepared to strike if a fair agreement wasn't reached. However, it is not something they wanted to do.

"Our goal has always been and always is to get a negotiated settlement," explains Smith. "The decision to take job action - particularly in the case where it is a disruption - is never one that's made easily."

Union members have been without a contract since December 2019 and have been bargaining since February 2020 for a fair agreement. In November, Canada Line workers voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action.

Wage parity with SkyTrain Workers and improvements to sick time

The BCGEU says that over the past year Canada Line employees have made extraordinary efforts on the front lines to keep transit running during the COVID-19 pandemic. These members were asking for their hard work to be recognized through wage parity with other SkyTrain workers and improvements to sick leave because as the pandemic has boldly highlighted, everyone's health and well-being depend on workers being able to stay home when they are sick.

"We started bargaining before the pandemic, and the collective agreement is about fairness. So this was about parity with TransLink SkyTrain workers. On average, they earn three per cent more than our members on the Canada Line under this private contractor. That was an issue that our members decided had to be addressed in this round," Smith explained.

"The other issue is around sick time. If the pandemic has shown us anything it's that people need to be able to stay home, not go to work sick, and, in the case of the Canada Line, potentially put the travelling public in danger."

The BCGEU represents about 180 workers at the Canada Line which is privately operated by Protrans BC Operations Ltd. and owned by the multinational SNC-Lavalin.

On Feb. 1, TransLink cautioned public transit users in Metro Vancouver that a service disruption was possible Monday afternoon on the Canada Line. The BCGEU was in a legal strike position as of 4 p.m. Monday.

TransLink adds that it is "pleased to learn Canada Line operator Protrans and its unionized employees have reached a tentative agreement. Job action has been avoided and Canada Line will continue operating normally."



I want to thank both parties for working hard to reach this deal. The Canada Line is a vital service that supports thousands of people who rely on our services for essential travel. Im happy to see an agreement reached without any impact on our customers during this critical time," said TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond in a news release.



TransLink would also like to thank its customers for their patience through this matter.
[February 02, 2021] Rescale Raises $50 Million in Series C Funding

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rescale, the leading hybrid HPC cloud platform enabling intelligent computing for digital R&D, today announced it has closed $50 million in Series C funding from Hitachi Ventures, Microsofts M12, Nautilus Venture Partners, NVIDIA, Republic Labs and Samsung Catalyst Fund, bringing the companys total funding to over $100 million. Rescale is accelerating cloud adoption for the science and engineering community that is still largely on-premises in private datacenters. Massive markets and more than 80% of the verticals served by Fortune 500 are powered by HPC (total annual spend expected to reach $55 billion by 20241) and computer simulation (total spend estimated to reach $21 billion by 20252). Many workloads in the overall scientific research and development category, estimated at $185 billion in 20203, benefit from the advantages of hybrid public cloud and on-premises computing made possible by Rescale. Rescale is the first intelligent HPC cloud platform created specifically for digital R&D empowering the research scientists and engineers who are building the future, said Joris Poort, CEO and co-founder at Rescale. In the legacy on-prem HPC cluster world, engineers wait in queues for access to capacity so they can run their jobs, they wrestle with complex software and hardware configurations, and they are generally constrained by IT. Rescale gives engineers simple access to thousands of preconfigured software and hardware profiles, the on-demand capacity of the public cloud provider of their choice, and the ability to focus on R&D outcomes and speeding delivery of new innovation, instead of managing HPC infrastructure. Today, only 20 percent of HPC workloads run in the cloud4. The industry dramatically lags Global 2000 enterprise cloud adoption for many reasons. Rescale was founded to bring HPC workloads to the cloud to lower costs, accelerate R&D innovation, power faster computer simulations, and allow the science and research community to take advantage of the latest specialized architectures for machine learning and artificial intelligence without massive capital investments in bespoke new data centers. Rescale was born out of experiences at Boeing, where co-founders Joris Poort and Adam McKenzie (now CEO and CTO, respectively) were aerospace engineers leveraging machine learning techniques to optimize the 787 wing structure. Their experience building a high performance computing simulation environment led to an epiphany that engineers and scientists around the world had similar requirements and were needlessly constrained by computing capability. Why not find a way to run complex workloads in the cloud, and accelerate their performance with specialized architectures? They founded Rescale to give the R&D and IT community the first hybrid cloud infrastructure platform optimized for HPC. Rescale Backed by Leading Investors SAMSUNG

Computer simulation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are accelerating product design cycles in R&D domains across all industries, said Shankar Chandran, Senior Vice President, and Managing Director, Samsung Catalyst Fund. The ability to run the latest applications on state-of-the-art Cloud hardware, which take advantage of new specialized architectures, along with the ability to tap into unlimited Cloud capacity with on-demand burst capabilities, has a significant impact on the time-to-market. Rescale is a key enabler for those Enterprises wishing to accelerate R&D through use of a multitude of applications that are run on top of finely tuned compute and storage resources in the Cloud. M12 - MICROSOFTS VENTURE FUND

"Theres a massive opportunity for enterprises to de-risk computing investments. In the move from on-prem HPC clusters to public clouds, capital expenses become operating expenses," said Nagraj Kashyap, Global Head of M12. Rescale is a key enabler of enterprise digital transformation, bridging specialized HPC hardware and intelligent computing on modern cloud infrastructure." Today the Rescale platform is the scientific communitys first cloud platform optimized for algorithmically-complex workloads, including simulation and artificial intelligence, plus integrations with more than 600 of the worlds most-popular HPC software applications and more than 80 specialized hardware architectures. Rescale allows any science engineer to run any workload, on any major public cloud, including AWS, Google Coud, IBM, Microsoft Azure, Oracle and more. Today more than 300 customers already use the Rescale platform, including Aerion Supersonic, Amgen, AGC, Arrival, AZothBio, Bionano Genomics, Boom Supersonic, Denso, Dinex, Doosan, Gaon Chips, ISAR Aerospace, LS Industrial Systems, McCormick Stevenson, Modine, Optisys, Nissan, pSemi, Quadric.io, RWDI, Samsung, Sensatek, Specialized Bicycle Components, SSE Renewables, Toyo, Uniandes, and the University of Pennsylvania.



Customers Accelerating Simulations Building the Next Big Thing in HPC and AI SAMSUNG (EDA)

"SAFE-Cloud Design Platform (SAFE-CDP) by Samsung Foundry and Rescale is an exciting new paradigm for the semiconductor industry, said Sangyun Kim, Vice President of Foundry Design Platform Development at Samsung Electronics. We believe that enhancing customers' convenience by preparing an integrated system and pre-installing design tools from major EDA partners will be an essential step forward expanding cloud-based design infrastructure.

SENSATEK (AEROSPACE)

Sensatek is a Daytona Beach, Florida- based company whose founder and CEO, Reamonn Soto, is a United States Marine Corps Veteran who won a National Science Foundation grant to launch his jet propulsion sensor startup. The companys success in sensor technology for propulsion led to a rapidly- evolving new product portfolio that has extended into auto glass manufacturing, foundries, chemical and pharmaceutical use cases. By using the Rescale platform, Sensatek slashed in half the time it took (and eliminated huge up-front capex investment requirements) to run its product prototyping and design process -- which relies on computationally-heavy simulations across heat transfer, electromagnetic properties of materials, and other parameters. Reducing product development time by fifty percent by speeding up simulations has allowed us to expand into new markets and generate five new product roadmaps, said Soto. We dont want to be in the business of becoming HPC hardware architecture specialists - we just want to leverage a platform that allows us to use the latest advances that speed up our simulations and get us the results we need to keep creating new IP, which is exactly what Rescale has done for our business. AERION (AI)

Early in his career, Alex Egeler designed systems that launch missiles from submarines. Today, as Executive Vice President, Aerion Technologies, hes bringing together the best people and technology to enable sustainable supersonic flight at Aerion Supersonic , the company building the worlds first supersonic business jet  the 1000MPH AS2. Aerion leverages a Digital Twin model as a virtual representation for its aircraft design, and trains machine learning models and artificial intelligence to surface simulation scenarios (structural dynamics, airplane angles, rudder deflections, weather, wind aerodynamics, etc.). Rescale gives Aerion instant access to the most popular AI / ML libraries (Tensorflow, Keras, Caffe2, PyTorch, Chainer, etc.), pre-configured to run on the latest HPC hardware (NVIDIA Tesla P100 and Tesla V100 GPUs, Intel Skylake Processors, InfiniBand Interconnect, 1TB+ RAM. We initially built our own cloud capabilities on AWS directly. But with all the one-off simulation jobs we needed to run for design, each would require going to AWS, spinning up instances, writing environments to specific job schedulers, and configuring the software and hardware, said Egeler. Then we discovered Rescale, which already has all these AI and ML architectures built for HPC which allowed us to run more simulations, far more efficiently and ultimately, accelerate our aircraft program to the final stages of validation. BIONANO GENOMICS

Recent events have placed a spotlight on the life sciences industry like never before, and genome analysis company Bionano Genomics has stepped up to provide the world with answers. Through their Saphyr system, Bionano Genomics makes it possible to identify previously undetectable variations in genome structure to accelerate the promise of personalized medicine relating to everything from COVID-19 to cancer. Bionanos Saphyr system for genome analysis is becoming an important tool in clinical and research settings worldwide, said Mark Oldakowski, COO of Bionano Genomics. The deep analysis of structural variants for genetic disorders and cancers requires fast and inexpensive HPC. Through Rescale, Bionano is able to utilize mutli-cloud and regionalized HPC nodes that are secure and optimized for speed and cost. This provides Bionano's customers with on-demand computing capacity to help them scale while giving me the confidence that I'm offering the best available cloud solution." About Rescale

Rescale ( @rescaleinc ) is the leading hybrid HPC cloud platform delivering intelligent computing for digital R&D, and enabling more than 300 customers from startups to Fortune 50 enterprises to accelerate design cycles and time to market. Founded by former Boeing aerospace engineers, Rescale gives research scientists and engineers the ability to run their simulation and artificial intelligence workloads on the cloud provider of their choice, using specialized hardware architectures and software templates optimized for their use cases, without any set-up or maintenance. Rescale's HPC cloud infrastructure is the engine accelerating product research and development cycles across many of today's most exciting scientific use cases. Editorial Contact

Lonn Johnston

+1 650.219.7764

lonn@flak42.com 1 Intersect360, Worldwide HPC 2019 Total Market Model and 2020-2024 Forecast

2 Grand View Research, Simulation Software Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis

3 IBISWorld, Scientific Research & Development in the US

4 Hyperion Research, Bringing HPC Expertise to Cloud Computing



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Impeachment Brings Trumps Struggle With Political Class to Intense Climax

Commentary

Next week, the political center-stage will be occupied by the ill-fated charade of the impeachment trial. This must be the last gasp of the notorious Democratic inability to focus for long on any political activity except hatred of the ex-president.

For five years, it has been their substitute for policy and for politics itself, and it motivated the Democrats to jam through an impeachment vote with no due process, no witnesses, or evidence, with only 10 of 207 Republicans joining them.

The former president is charged with inciting an insurrection. He urged peaceful and patriotic representations to the Congress, no violence, and certainly no violent overthrow of the government (which is what insurrection means).

Its for this colossal, petulant farce that the Senate is called to remove someone from an office he doesnt hold for an exhortation he didnt make to commit an act which no one intended, even the professional hooligans who premeditatedly led the assault on the scandalously under-defended Capitol.

Main Issue

The most interesting aspect of this case is that the ex-president has apparently fired counsel who wished to win the case just as formulatednot guilty as charged, rather than also making the case that Trump was cheated out of his election.

This is the real, main issue of contemporary American politics: The Democrats and all the Republicans who arent unambiguous Trump supporters (clearly, a considerable majority of Republicans do support him), cant accept any serious question of the legitimacy of the election result. That would be too great an impeachment of the system itself.

The facts that Trump was caught flat-footed on election night, and that his legal challenge was helter-skelter and wildly oversold, dont erase the dubious lopsided vote drops in the middle of the night in Pennsylvania, the infamous consent to the reduction of voter verifiability conceded in the Stacey Abrams action in Georgia, and a great weight of affidavit evidence of systematic fraud, none of which was ever legally addressed.

The state courts were unrigorous in the several states where they were tested, and the Supreme Court ducked the issue, abdicated.

The implications of conceding that it was a rigged election have caused the entire political establishment and almost all of the media (who were nearly unanimous in opposing Trump anyway) to lock arms in support of the integrity of the election.

This is precarious, because it is quite likely that more than the 45,000 votes that were required to flip to deliver Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to Trump could have been found if the post-election inquiries had been conducted and adjudicated thoroughly. Even if Biden won the popular vote, the winning candidate has lost the popular vote on six previous occasions, including 2016.

Winning, but Losing Popular Vote

Samuel Tilden was probably cheated of the election in 1876, but he conceded to Rutherford Hayes on conditions of withdrawal of remaining Union Army forces from the South, the nomination of a Southerner to the cabinet, and increased funding for reparation of war damage in the South. Hayes fulfilled his promises.

Richard Nixon was quite possibly cheated in 1960, but traditionalist patriotic American as he was, he declined to immobilize the nation with a full election challenge, despite President Eisenhowers recommendation that he do so.

Hillary Clinton wasnt cheated in 2016, but responded to defeat with the egregious and corrupt actions of politicized intelligence and FBI officials to an extent that remains to be clarified by the Durham special counsel investigation.

The precedent for what seems to be developing is the election of 1824; Andrew Jackson led in the popular vote but didnt have a majority in the Electoral College, and runner-up John Quincy Adams, and House Speaker Henry Clay, who was the fourth candidate, allegedly worked together to install Adams ahead of Jackson. Jackson campaigned on what he called the corrupt bargain for four years and was elected in 1828.

While Trump is no authority on that period of American history, he is an admirer of Jackson. Thats the model he is following.

Moment of Truth

Its clear that on the issue of Trumps guilt or innocence of the charge that has been leveled against him of inciting an insurrection, the great majority of Republican senators will vote to acquit him. If he pushes his defense to the point where those who vote to acquit are deemed to agree that the election result was a dishonest one, it will be a moment of truth for the Republican Party.

In those circumstances, which Trump seems to wish to bring about, I suspect that many Republican senators will vote to acquit, but attempt to express something less than confidence in the election result, without declaring that they believe it to have been fraudulent. Trump is gambling, because if he is convicted, the Democrats could then bar him from seeking public office again. But in such a case, most of the Republicans who would have voted against him would be signing their own political death warrants.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her claque may have been tempted into this initiative by pique, hatred, or a tactical belief that smearing Trump all over again made an improved launch for the Biden administration. Or they may simply have become addicted to Trump-baiting.

But their attempt to asphyxiate any serious question that the votes were fairly and justly counted in the presidential election will have failed. If Trump is, in fact, convicted, it will fill him and the majority of Republicans with a spirit of terrible vengeance that will be more easily translated into victory in midterm voting and the next presidential election.

If Trump is barred as a candidate, he will effectively choose the nominee.

Intense Climax

Ironically, such a development would deliver the otherwise implausible concept that a large number of Republicans have effectively endorsed: Trumpism without Trump. The congressional and state elections ratified Trumps policies, even as the presidential election popular vote was won by those who oppose Trump personally, dislike his personality, or simply required an abatement of the strain and drama of the Trump era.

Because the national political media are committed to affirmation of the fairness of the election result and those who question it are thrown off Twitter and threatened with motions to remove them from their present employmentincluding incumbent U.S. senatorsthe medias credibility, which all polls indicate is severely eroded, also is at stake in this impeachment case.

The public appears to be completely unprepared for the sudden meteoric return of Trump drama at its most spectacular and absorbing. The former president will be back sooner than anyone, even his greatest supporters, and certainly, his many detractors could have imagined.

If Pelosi had just let Trump leave quietly, even with a censure vote if she insisted, Biden would be able to get on with his term. As it is, next week, as in all but two weeks in the last five years, the attention of the nation and the world will be on Donald Trump.

His struggle with the Washington political class is not only far from over; it is determinedly approaching an intense climax.

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.
Actor Sam Neill and political journalist Laura Tingle have reportedly split.

According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald's Private Sydney, the Hollywood star, 73, and the ABC 7.30 presenter, 59, have quietly gone their separate ways after three years together.

They managed to keep their romance relatively private over the years, but appeared together in public at the 2018 Mid Winter Ball at Parliament House and the 2019 AACTA Awards in Sydney.

Over: Hollywood actor Sam Neill and ABC presenter Laura Tingle have reportedly 'split' after three years together. Pictured together at the 2019 AACTA Awards in Sydney

Their reported split comes after the Kiwi actor praised Laura's Quarterly Essay called The High Road: What Australia can learn from New Zealand, in an Instagram post last month.

He shared a photo of the publication and gushed over her work, writing in the caption: 'This is a MASTERPIECE, reads like a thriller. A must read.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Sam, his management and Laura for comment.

Private: They managed to keep their romance relatively private over the years, but appeared together in public at the 2018 Mid Winter Ball at Parliament House (pictured) and the 2019 AACTA Awards in Sydney

'A must read': Their split comes after the Kiwi actor praised Laura's Quarterly Essay called The High Road: What Australia can learn from New Zealand, in an Instagram post last month: He shared a photo of the publication, saying 'This is a MASTERPIECE, reads like a thriller'

Flirty exchanges over Twitter between Laura and Neill began in March 2017.

They met through friends in late 2017, and began dating publicly in January 2018, Daily Mail Australia reported at the time.

Neill tagged her in a post where he claimed he was not allowed into Malcolm Turnbull's victory party after the election.

'Perhaps the Libs have a thing about beards', he lamented, as he shared a photo of himself with actor pals Hugo Weaving, Mel Gibson and Joel Edgerton.

Where it began: Flirty exchanges over Twitter between Laura and Neill began in March 2017. They met through friends in late 2017, and began dating publicly in January 2018, Daily Mail Australia reported at the time

'Evidence suggests they have a thing about talent,' she cheekily responded.

In 2018, a friend of the couple told The Australian the relationship was 'serious', and that the pair had met through mutual friends.

However, The Brisbane Times reported the pair had met after Neill reached out to the Insiders regular after he saw her on television.
Light snow will continue to fall in the Capital Region Tuesday evening as the nor'easter winds down. Though not as snow-heavy as initially feared, the storm still managed to drop 6 inches of snow at Albany International Airport, the region's go-to spot for comparative snowfall measures.

Meteorologist Jason Gough said that amounts across the area varied a ton, with most spots averaging 8 to 10 inches. Heavier snow fell to our south, from the Helderbergs into the Schoharie Hills as well as the Berkshires, with 18 to 20 inches. The Catskills did very well, with 2 feet plus in spots in both Greene and Ulster counties, Gough said.
Ahead of Hurricane Marco, crews with the East Levee Protection Authority close a flood gate on France Road in New Orleans, Aug. 23.
Stimulus plan heading for reconciliation

Democrats are moving now to fast-track a coronavirus relief package and if Republicans want to come along, great. Nothing will stop GOP Senators from voting on the plan even if the Democrats use reconciliation.

If Republicans don't like the plan, they can keep talking to the White House, but the underlying takeaway from the meeting on Monday night is the President is only willing to negotiate so much. The Republicans proposal which lacked state and local funding is not going to cut it.

The Democrats are calculating that they aren't doing anything Republicans haven't done. They pushed their Tax Reform through with reconciliation and tried to repeal Obamacare with the same procedural process. Biden now has a chance to pass a $1.9 trillion relief package with just Democratic votes now that Joe Manchin has signaled that he is a Yes.

They also feel that their plan is going to be popular with voters and no one is going to care how they got there. Unlike when the Republicans tried to repeal Obamacare the Democrats will be providing the American public with something, not trying to take something away.

Democrats in the Senate will consult with the Senate parliamentarian to make sure their plans are actually allowed under the rules that govern reconciliation while drafting the legislation.
Most children in the greater Bridgeport region and the Valley enjoyed a traditional snow day Monday, sledding down hills and making snow balls.

Having given children a break from virtual learning for a day, some school districts  like Bridgeport, Ansonia and Fairfield  decided to return to remote learning on Tuesday. Others, like Stratford, Trumbull, Shelton and Seymour, went with a second snow day.

Adults, meanwhile, on Monday grappled with constant shoveling to keep up with the rapidly falling snowfall and trying to find parking despite municipal snow parking bans. In Bridgeport, 10 inches had been reported by 1 p.m., with snow continuing to fall into the afternoon and evening hours. By the end of the storm Tuesday anywhere from 12 to 18 inches was expected in the region.

With snowplows out in force, municipalities were warning residents that they needed to move their cars or face having them towed. Stratford instituted a parking ban from 8 a.m. Monday to 8 a.m. Tuesday, with residents advised to park on the odd-numbered side of the street.

Bridgeport Director of Emergency Management Scott Appleby reported 28 vehicles had been ticketed and towed by 10 a.m. Monday morning  18 hours after Mayor Joe Ganim declared a snow emergency requiring residents move their cars completely from emergency routes and park on the odd side of all other streets.

That 28 is a small amount compared with Decembers pre-Christmas week snowfall. City Hall said 194 cars were fined and 142 of them towed, with the latter groups owners facing minimum $130 penalties to get their vehicles back.

The city also set aside all school parking lots and the health department lot at 752 East Main St. for individuals who need a place to park.

Bridgeport has taken a firm stand against cars parked along streets during blizzard conditions dating back to when then-Mayor Bill Finchs administration was criticized for a poor response to the 2013 blizzard that dumped 30 inches of snow onto the city. Finch blamed in part the yahoos whose stranded cars blocked municipal plows.

In the years since, Bridgeport, both under Finch and Ganim, has made the fining and towing of vehicles a key component of storm preparation.

The city early on Monday experienced some power outages although United Illuminating got the power back up fairly quickly.

In Ansonia, there was no parking ban, but winter parking rules were in effect calling for vehicles to be parked on the even-numbered side of the street.

We have not had to tow any vehicles so far but our officers have been notifying people in violation to move their cars, tickets are issued at the officers discretion, Ansonia Police Lt. Patrick Lynch said around midday Monday.

During the last storm, Ansonia had a full parking ban and the city towed around 30 cars, Lynch said.

Fairfield Fire Chief Denis McCarthy, who is also the towns emergency management director, said Fairfield had been fortunate because residents have heeded warnings and stayed off the roads.

I think the fact that the storm started overnight convinced people earlier this morning to stay indoors, he said on Monday. Many are working virtually anyways  from home  that made the decision a little bit easier.

McCarthy said the emergency management team and first selectwoman have been working since Sunday to prepare for the storm, and mentioned that there is a parking ban enforced on roads in the beach area. He noted that alternate parking is available at Veterans Park.

That has certainly made it an easy process to deal with the storm, he said, adding the police and fire departments have had a low call volume day.

First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said she called for a delayed opening of town offices on Tuesday in order to allow employees time to safely get to work, noting offices will open at 10:30 a.m. She said residents should have full faith in the ability of public works crew to get the roads cleared and first responders to keep them safe.

Stay home and stay safe, she said.

Staff writers Brian Lockhart, Josh LaBella and Ethan Fry contributed to this report.
The figures from the first wave of the coronavirus in Spain will never be fully known. The system was so overwhelmed, and the capacity to carry out tests so limited, that only approximate statistics covering what happened between the end of the winter and the start of the spring in 2020 will ever be available. The situation was probably worse than the current one, but what has just been seen in January 2021 is reminiscent of the darkest months of the health crisis so far. By a long way, the first month of this year is the worst since the summer  since we have had reliable, homogeneous data  with practically double the number of cases diagnosed compared to October and November, and hospitalizations around 40% above the latter month, which was when the highest number of admissions was registered since there has been reliable data.

January saw 900,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, which is a third of the total recorded since the pandemic began. (It should be noted that the Health Ministry calculates that it is detecting nearly 80% of infections, while at the start of the pandemic it was only recording one in every 10.)

Simon warned that even with falling cases, it will still take weeks for the situation to normalize in the countrys hospitals

The positive news from the latest Health Ministry report, which was released on Monday night, is that the 14-day cumulative number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants is now falling, coming in at 866  down 25 compared to a week ago.

In the words of Fernando Simon, the director of the Health Ministrys Coordination Center for Health Alerts (CCAES), this is still incredibly high, but, he explained, it is starting to fall. And this is good, but we need for it to happen fast so that the activity in hospitals does not have to be reorganized.

This disruption to normal hospital treatment, however, is already happening in many of Spains regions. Five territories  Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Catalonia and Madrid, and the North African city of Ceuta  have more than 50% of their intensive care unit (ICU) beds occupied by Covid patients, while Valencia, La Rioja and the North African city of Melilla are above 60%. These figures are not compatible with normal functioning [of a hospital], said Simon on Monday, warning that even with falling cases, it will still take weeks for the situation to normalize in the countrys hospitals. The average occupation of ICU beds by Covid patients (45.3%) as well as that of acute-care beds (24.6%) continues to rise across Spain.

Whats more, the Health Ministry yesterday added 762 new Covid victims to the overall death toll. This figure was down by five compared to last Monday. It should be noted that Mondays figures account for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and the victims added to the overall total did not necessarily pass away over the weekend. There are still considerable delays in the reporting process, which involves the regions collating their data before sending it to the central Health Ministry for inclusion on their official reports. The number of deaths will not start to fall significantly until hospital and ICU admissions are no longer rising.

Simon warned that the figures will not be considered acceptable until the 14-day cumulative number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants falls below 200. Last night, journalists questioned the CCAES chief about a suggestion by the countrys tourism minister, Reyes Maroto, that trips in Spain could be permitted once more in time for the Easter holiday. Simon responded by saying that it would depend on the incidence. This is not about going from 800 to 500, but rather much further, he said. He described a level of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants as utopian, even though Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had previously set a target of just 25.

Vaccines

With regard to Spains vaccination program, Simon stated that with every week that passes there are fewer people at risk of infection thanks to the vaccines, and he reiterated the objective of vaccinating 70% of the Spanish population by the beginning of the summer, between June and July. This is an earlier date than had been floated previously by current Health Minister Carolina Darias and her predecessor, Salvador Illa, who had spoken about reaching this target during the summer, which would mean as late as September.

A health worker vaccinating a resident of a care home in Toledo. olmo calvo

Before then, the next target will be the vaccination of 80% of the over-80s in Spain, between March and April. To do this, it is likely that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines will not be used. Although the European Commission has approved the inoculations, and clinical trials have shown that they are safe for this age group, the sample was not statistically significant to determine efficacy among the over-80s.

Countries such as Germany, Italy and Holland have already stated that they will use this vaccine for young people. Spain, however, is yet to take such a decision. Health officials will be meeting today to consider the issue and will make a recommendation to the Inter-Territorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS), which brings together the central Health Ministry and the regional health systems, who are in charge of their own vaccination programs as well as the local handling of the pandemic. Its possible that in the EU, we will follow the recommendation that Germany has made, said Simon, in reference to the German authorities decision not to use the AstraZeneca vaccine among the elderly population. This is prudent, he continued, adding that to make the decision in Spain, health officials will have to analyze the technical details of the vaccine.

If such a decision is taken, changes will have to be made to the vaccination plan, including a different group in phase 2 along with the over-80s. One option could be younger people who have preexisting conditions that make them more vulnerable. In the Netherlands, for example, they are planning to vaccinate adults aged between 18 and 60 who have some kind of condition, such as diabetes, heart problems or lung conditions, Isabel Ferrer reports.

Another option could be to vaccinate essential workers, such as police officers and teachers. This would not necessarily mean a delay to the vaccination of seniors, provided that enough Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines arrive, thus allowing for both groups to be inoculated.

English version by Simon Hunter.
PORT HURON TWP., MI -- A St. Clair County Drug Task Force investigation into the sales of crystal methamphetamine in the Port Huron area has led to a womans arrest.

Dawn Archibald, 47, of Port Huron Township, was arraigned Friday, Jan. 29 in 72nd District Court in Port Huron on charges of delivery/manufacture of methamphetamine, 2nd offense, and maintaining a drug house, 2nd offense.

She was arrested after police executed a search warrant of a residence in the 2900 block of Sturges Street in Port Huron Township at approximately 6:30 p.m. Jan. 26, according to Sheriff Mat King.

The Drug Task Force found approximately $8,300 worth of crystal meth. Archibald was arrested without incident and transported to the St. Clair County Intervention and Detention Center.

She is being held at the facility on a $30,000 cash or surety bond. Her next court date is a probable cause hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16 before District Judge Mona Armstrong.

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$2,500 reward offered for info in Huron County fathers unsolved killing

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Flint police believe second drive-by was retaliation for fatal shooting
MUMBAI : Indias largest private lender HDFC Bank on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed an external firm to conduct a special audit of its entire information technology (IT) infrastructure.

In December, RBI ordered HDFC Bank to halt its digital banking initiatives and freeze issuance of credit cards until it addressed the lapses that led to a series of glitches. This comes in the wake of the lenders e-banking service facing three outages since 2018, inconveniencing customers.

Kindly note that RBI has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the bank under Section 30 (1-B) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, at the cost of the bank under Section 30 (1-C) of the Act," it said.

The bank said it will extend cooperation to the IT firm. HDFC Bank said last month it has provided a remedial plan on its e-banking outages to the regulator and expects its strategies to take shape in 10-12 weeks, following which it will request an inspection by the regulator.

Srinivasan Vaidyanathan, chief financial officer of the bank had told analysts on 16 January that it is also making some long-term upgrades in technology that will take 12-18 months.

We have several action plans from strengthening of the disaster recovery or the recovery point and the recovery time and automating the orchestration tool to get onto the disaster recovery side or architectural efficiencies, cloud strategy," said Vaidyanathan, according to a transcript of the call available on Bloomberg.

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Polarcus Limited (Polarcus or the Company) (OSE: PLCS) refers to the announcements issued on 26 January 2021 concerning the enforcement of share pledges over the Former Subsidiaries. Capitalized terms in this announcement have the same meaning as given in those announcements.

Since the earlier announcements, the Company has been in continuous dialogue with the Lenders and the new managers of the Former Subsidiaries (New Managers). The Companys objective of those discussions has been to ensure the safety of current vessel operations and the stability for the Company and its subsidiaries for the benefit of all Polarcus stakeholders. The Company has sought to negotiate a standstill agreement relating to the Lenders security rights against the Company and its subsidiaries (Group) which have not been enforced as well as to execute a collaboration agreement with the New Managers. Such an agreement would have permitted the continuation of current and awarded seismic projects for which the operating A-Class and N-Class vessels (Vessels) have been long committed to various E&P companies globally.

The Company has received notice from the Lenders that they no longer support the continuance of the Companys business relating to the Vessels and the New Managers have instructed Polarcus to sail the Vessels to safe locations in order to initiate a sales process.

Polarcus will continue to co-operate with the Lenders and the New Managers on their instructions to bring current operations safely to an end. The Company is also communicating with its clients in relation to upcoming awards for which the Vessels are now no longer available and to seek alternative solutions for them.

In light of these circumstances and given their impact on the Groups financial position, notice of termination of employment will shortly be issued to all Group employees.

The Lenders have made clear that they remain open to discuss a standstill period in relation to their remaining claims and collateral with the view of finding a solution which would allow the continued operation of Vyacheslav Tikhonov, owed by Polarcus Selma Limited, a subsidiary of the Company. The Lenders do not hold any security in either this vessel or this subsidiary. Polarcus will continue to pursue such a standstill agreement in order to bring stability to the remainder of its business.

Contacts

Duncan Eley, CEO

+971 4 43 60 915

duncan.eley@polarcus.com

Hans-Peter Burlid, CFO

+971 50 559 8175

hp.burlid@polarcus.com



About Polarcus

Polarcus (OSE: PLCS) is a focused geophysical service provider of safe and environmentally responsible marine acquisition services globally. Our geophysical offering is driven by innovation and collaboration to provide clients with better seismic data faster. Polarcus operates a fleet of high performance seismic vessels with 3D and 4D imaging capabilities, which incorporate leading-edge technologies for improved environmental performance and operational efficiency. Polarcus offers contract seismic surveys and multi-client projects with advanced priority processing solutions including Cirrus, a suite of cloud-based applications and services designed to bring clients closer to acquired seismic data, enabling faster and better informed exploration decisions. The Company services its clients globally from its head office in Dubai and regional offices located in Houston, London, Singapore and delivers Group asset management services from Oslo. For more information, visit www.polarcus.com







Disclaimer

The information included herein may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts, including but not limited to statements expressing or implying the Company's intent, belief or current expectations with respect to, among other things, forecasts, estimates, and predictions. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve risks and uncertainties and are dependent on assumptions, information, data or methods that may be incorrect or imprecise. Actual results could differ materially from expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements if one or more of the underlying assumptions or expectations proves to be inaccurate or is unrealized. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, developments in the oil and gas industry, the demand for seismic services, the demand for data from the Company's multi-client library, currency risks, political risks, regulatory risks, and unexpected operational setbacks. For a further description of other relevant risk factors we refer to our 2019 Annual Report. The reservation is also made that inaccuracies or mistakes may occur in the information given above concerning the current status of the Company or its business. Any reliance on the information given above is at the risk of the reader, and Polarcus disclaims any and all liability in this respect.





This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act
State Track: Arrows' Mack and Heesch among six area event winners on opening day

Watertown seniors Cooper Mack and Maggie Heesch and four other area athletes notched event wins Friday during the opening day of the 2021 State High School Track and Field Meet.
Maya Jama has urged her fans to book their smear tests after suffering complications through delaying her own.

Addressing her Instagram followers on Monday, the 26-year-old presenter revealed that she has suspected cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) as a result of putting off her test for a year.

CIN is an abnormal changes of the cells that line the cervix and does not cause any symptoms, so is unlikely to be discovered without a smear test.

Spoke out: Maya Jama has urged her fans to book their smear tests after suffering complications through delaying her own

Discussing the news with her followers, Maya announced: 'It's very rare I get serious but I don't see it talked about enough. Girls, if you haven't done already, go and get your smear test.

'I know it seems butters and uncomfortable and awkward but it's not that bad and it's so important.

'I've just had to get my second one because I left it a year for my second check-up. You've just got to check on these things.'

After being inundated with messages from fans, the Don't Hate the Playaz star elaborated on her experience.

Candid: Addressing her Instagram followers on Monday, the 26-year-old presenter revealed that she has suspected cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) as a result of putting off her test

She continued: 'As some of you know I find it hard to be serious about anything but I might as well tell you what's going on because I'm getting so many messages from loads of people saying, "I've been putting it off"...

'There's these things  I'm not a doctor, probably not the right terminology  but I think they're called "CINs", and he thinks I have CINtwo.

'So the first one is fine, [with] CIN two you have cells that you need to monitor and then the third is cancerous stuff or will become cancerous.

'So when I went today, he took a biopsy, so like a little bit inside of me, and that'll get sent off and I'll find out.'

What is a smear test and why have there been delays in lockdown? A smear test detects abnormal cells on the cervix, which is the entrance to the uterus from the vagina. Removing these cells can prevent cervical cancer. Most test results come back clear, however, one in 20 women show abnormal changes to the cells of their cervix. In some cases, these need to be removed or can become cancerous. Cervical cancer most commonly affects sexually-active women aged between 30 and 45. In the UK, the NHS Cervical Screening Programme invites women aged 25-to-49 for a smear every three years, those aged 50 to 64 every five years, and women over 65 if they have not been screened since 50 or have previously had abnormal results. Women must be registered with a GP to be invited for a test. Smear-test delays during lockdown have prompted calls for home-screening kits for HPV. During the first national lockdown, smear test services were paused in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as in some practices in England. While services have resumed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - it was revealed last week that women in England are having difficulty accessing smear tests, with patients experiencing cancellations and long wait times. Last week Tory MP Caroline Nokes, who chairs the Women and Equalities Select Committee, said that check-up cancellations and women's fears of attending GP clinics during the pandemic could mean up to 600,000 women miss out on getting a smear test. Advertisement

She added: 'You basically have to monitor these things and it's better you catch it sooner rather than later so it doesn't go into something else.

'Just get checked, don't put it off, it's minor. They're professional doctors, they've seen a million fannies, they're not going to be shocked by any.

I know that's a weird thought because I always thought like, "Oh my God, they're gonna see my noon", but it's just minor.'

Later in the day, Maya revealed she was overwhelmed with the impact her message had on her followers.

Maya - who recently replaced Stacey Dooley as host of BBC Threes Glow Up: Britains Next Make Up Star - spoke out about the response while getting to work on her new show.

She wrote: 'Thank you for your messages, can't reply to all but seeing how many of you have now booked to get the smear because of my stories is so good!'

Getting serious: Maya announced, 'It's very rare I get serious but I don't see it talked about enough. Girls, if you haven't done already, go and get your smear test'

Earlier this month, a senior MP and charity warned that cancellation of cervical cancer checks because of Covid pressures is putting women's lives at risk,

Tory MP Caroline Nokes, who chairs the Women and Equalities Select Committee, said that check-up cancellations and women's fears of attending GP clinics during the pandemic could mean up to 600,000 women miss out on getting a smear test.

She warned against women's medical issues being 'pushed to the back of the proverbial queue'.

During the first national lockdown, smear test services were paused in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as in some practices in England. The Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust charity estimated 600,000 fewer tests than normal were carried out last April and May.

Women are invited to have smear tests every three years between the ages of 25 and 49, and then every five years until they reach 65.

Wow: Later in the day, Maya revealed she was overwhelmed with the impact her message had on her followers

Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust said: 'While it is not ideal if you can't get a test, and you may be feeling worried, cervical cancer takes many years, not months, to develop and remains rare.

'It's unlikely that it would develop in the time that your appointment is delayed. If you think you're experiencing symptoms of cervical cancer, whether you are waiting for a test, up to date, or have never been, contact your GP.'

A spokesman for the NHS said: 'The NHS guidance that cervical screening should continue has not changed and this has been communicated to GP practices.'
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

New research reveals that the COVID-19 intensive care (ICU) mortality rate in Sweden was lower during the first wave of the pandemic than in many studies from other countries. And while analysis of individual underlying conditions found they were linked to mortality, an analysis looking at all these variables together found COVID-19 mortality in intensive care was not associated with underlying conditions, except for chronic lung disease. This new study did, however, find that, like previous research, mortality was driven by age, severity of COVID-19 disease and the presence and extent of organ failure.

The study is published in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology and is by Dr. Michelle Chew, Linkoping University Hospital, Linkoping, Sweden, and colleagues.

"Coupled with what is widely perceived to be a 'relaxed' national pandemic strategy, results for ICU care in Sweden are understandably under scrutiny," explain the authors.

They analysed 1563 adult admissions to Swedish ICUs from 6 March-6 May, 2020 with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 disease, and complete 30-day follow up, and found 30-day all-cause mortality was 27%, while mortality actually within ICU was 23%, indicating the most patients who died after requiring ICU treatment actually died within ICU.

Various factors including age were associated with mortality. Being male raised the risk of death by 50%, while having severe respiratory failure (more advanced disease -present in three quarters of patients) trebled the risk of death. However, except for chronic lung disease (a 50% increased risk of death), the presence of comorbidities was not independently associated with mortality. Also of note that was that the degree of hypoxia (insufficient oxygen) was much higher in this Swedish cohort than those from other countries. Put another way, these Swedish patients were generally sicker upon entering ICU.

The ICU mortality of 23% in this Swedish study is between that found in two nationwide studies with small cohorts from Iceland and Denmark, at 15% and 37% respectively. It is lower than the mortality rate reported from a North American study (35%) and a French-Belgian-Swiss study (26-30%). These studies had nearly complete discharge data, meaning that most patients had survived and left ICU or sadly died there, with few patients still being treated at the time of the study.

In one report from Lombardy, Italy, ICU mortality was initially reported to be 26%; however this did not contain complete data as many patients were still being treated. A later study consisting of mostly the same patients and with almost complete ICU follow-up, mortality was 49%. These results are comparable to a recent meta-analysis of 20 studies worldwide (TM Cook and colleagues, Anaesthesia, 2020) that reported an ICU mortality of 42% for patients with completed ICU admissions and discharge data. Another study by Cook and colleagues, being published in Anaesthesia at the same time as this Swedish study (see separate press release) shows global ICU mortality up to October 2020 has since dropped further to 36%.

This new study from Sweden confirms previous findings that mortality rates are significantly higher among those aged 65 years and older. Patients over 80 years of age were seven times more likely to die than those aged 50 years and under, although the authors make clear that their data "demonstrate that provision of intensive care should not be restricted on the basis of age alone". They add: "Not all over 80 year olds die in ICU, which is one reason why we cannot exclude this group of patients from ICU care based on age alone. All decisions on care must be taken on a patient-by-patient basis".

As in other studies, a majority of patients suffered from underlying conditions (comorbidities), most commonly high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. Whilst most comorbidities were associated with death when analysed separately, their effects were not statistically significant after adjustment for other variables. Severe obesity (BMI>40) was not associated with increased mortality as suggested by other studies. The only underlying condition that was found to have an effect in Swedish patients was chronic lung disease, which was associated with a 50% increased risk of death.

The authors discuss the various aspects of the Swedish ICU policy that could be connected with the lower ICU mortality rate. They say: "We believe that process and organisational factors have likely contributed to the relatively good outcomes seen in Swedish ICUs as staffing, protective equipment, availability of drugs, medical and technical equipment were considered at an early stage at hospital and regional levels."

In the first quarter of 2020 Sweden had 5.1 ICU beds per 100,000 population, compared to 27/100,000 in the U.S.. The COVID-19 pandemic unleashed a coordinated response in Swedish ICUs doubling the number of beds from around 500 to more than 1100 at its peak. The proportion of occupied ICU beds in the country during the study period (the peak months of the first wave of the pandemic) never reached maximum capacity. Other factors potentially connected to lower COVID-19 ICU mortality are that anaesthesiology and intensive care are combined specialities in Sweden, and this dual competency enabled rapid diversion of resources from perioperative care to intensive care management.

However, Sweden's strategy has faced harsh criticism at home and abroad for being too relaxed and dependent on individual responsibility of citizens rather than enforced lockdowns. Sweden's King also, in late 2020, publicly criticised the country's COVID-19 strategy as a failure. New laws on public transport and gatherings were enacted in autumn 2020 to limit the rising spread of SARS-CoV-2, and in late 2020, the Swedish Government passed new laws in order to be able to enforce restrictions such as venue closures to prevent cases raging out of control. Future staffing shortages, the looming possibility of burn-out and numerous organisational challenges also remain.

The authors conclude: "Mortality rates in COVID-19 patients admitted to Swedish intensive care units are generally lower than previously reported in other countries despite more severe illness on admission among Swedish patients. Mortality appears to be driven by age, baseline disease severity, and the presence and degree of organ failure, rather than pre-existing comorbidities."

Professor Chew, who is also the deputy editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Anaesthesiology, adds: "Although Sweden chose a different pandemic strategy to its European neighbours, its population has not been immune to rising infection rates this winter. Only time will tell if the Swedish health care system can sustain the long-term burden of COVID-19 disease."

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

More information: National outcomes and characteristics of patients admitted to Swedish intensive care units for COVID-19, European Journal of Anaesthesiology, DOI: 10.1097/EJA.0000000000001459 , journals.lww.com/ejanaesthesio  _patients.98244.aspx National outcomes and characteristics of patients admitted to Swedish intensive care units for COVID-19,

Provided by The European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC)
MADISON, Wis., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wisconsin Department of Tourism is pleased to announce Anne Sayers, the department's Acting Secretary, has been named one of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International's (HSMAI) Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales, Marketing and Revenue Optimization. In recent years, Sayers has helped change the face of Wisconsin tourism, resulting in record-breaking tourism numbers for the state followed by relentless advocacy for tourism recovery.

The HSMAI Top 25 Americas awards recognize leaders in sales, marketing, and revenue optimization of hospitality, travel, and tourism organizations for their accomplishments in the preceding 18 months. Selected by a panel of senior industry executives, "Top 25" awardees are high achievers who stand out through their creativity and innovation, cutting-edge campaigns and programs, triumph in challenging situations and efforts that resulted in dramatic gains.

"Anne's leadership and fresh ideas have been integral to the reshaping of Wisconsin tourism since she joined the Department of Tourism as Deputy Secretary in 2019," said Ben Popp, American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation Executive Director and Wisconsin Council on Tourism Chair. "Her dedication to her partners and team members is unparalleled, as is her passion for promoting and supporting tourism to the state of Wisconsin. This recognition from HSMAI is well-deserved."

As Deputy Secretary, Sayers helped pivot Travel Wisconsin from having their best year on record in 2019, to leading the industry through the global public health pandemic, which include managing $1.5 million in mandatory departmental budget lapses. In addition, Sayers successfully advocated for nearly $12 million in grant support for the tourism industry to help industry partners survive the pandemic.

Sayers' unwavering support for the tourism industry in Wisconsin is exemplified by the creation of the Office of Outdoor Recreation, one of only two states in the nation to house this office within the Department of Tourism. Sayers established an industry-engaged strategic plan; restructured the Department's advisory committees, including the creation of two new committees prioritizing diversity and inclusion and the advancement of the outdoor recreation industry; and restructured the operational processes and organization of the Department to enable talent attraction, production excellence, and goal attainment. Sayers was named Acting Secretary for the Department of Tourism in December 2020.

An Alaskan by way of Oklahoma and Oregon, Sayers came to Wisconsin to attend UW-Madison. After earning degrees in International Relations, Geography, and Environmental Studies, Sayers chose to make Wisconsin her permanent home. Over the past two decades, Sayers has served in executive roles with a variety of nonprofit organizations at the state, national and international level.

About the Wisconsin Department of Tourism

The mission of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism is to inspire travelers to visit Wisconsin. Because we believe in the power of exploration and travel, we work to market the state as a premier travel destination. By executing industry-leading marketing programs and establishing strategic partnerships, the Department plays a significant role in generating greater economic impact for Wisconsin through tourism. Learn more at industry.travelwisconsin.com.

Contact:

Caitlin Martz

[email protected]

SOURCE Wisconsin Department of Tourism

Related Links

http://www.travelwisconsin.com


BENGALURU, India, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NYSE: INFY), the global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, has been selected by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE), a global leader in the renewable energy industry, as a strategic partner for SAP S/4HANA implementation to deliver a globally harmonized ERP system. The implementation will enable Siemens Gamesa to become an agile, global organization driving digitalization, while enhancing its digital capabilities, offering, and competitive positioning.

Infosys successfully implemented a Greenfield SAP S/4HANA solution across 7 countries, replacing 2 legacy ERP systems. Infosys and Siemens Gamesa teams co-engineered and built a solution template that helped reduce redundancy across business processes and technology landscapes in record time. The solution is designed to enhance business efficiency across the value chain and reduce time-to-market. This transformation will enable real-time reporting, a digitally enabled workforce, reduced go-to-market time and is the core of Siemens Gamesa's next-generation applications landscape. Siemens Gamesa has further engaged Infosys for an industrialized rollout across 50+ countries, 22 manufacturing plants covering all business units (including onshore, offshore, services and corporate functions), leveraging Infosys Cobalt.

Alan Feeley, CIO of Siemens Gamesa, said, "Implementing a single S/4HANA system across all business units and regions is a core component of our company-wide strategy towards process efficiency, standardization and industrialization. These first go live steps across 7 countries, supporting all business types, have proven the value of the greenfield approach chosen, achieving a stable productive environment around Hybrid Azure cloud by Infosys. This single and global setup provides an almost Zero "change the standard" approach giving confidence towards sustainable cost management & upgrade proofing for the future. Infosys has demonstrated admirable 'staying power' and has delivered a solid product whilst fulfilling our expectations of being a partner in full."

Jasmeet Singh, EVP and Global Manufacturing Head, Infosys, said, "An efficient ERP system is critical for business continuity, especially today. Our strategic partnership with Siemens Gamesa will take their digital transformation journey to its next phase as we work towards delivering innovation via business process harmonization and technology leadership, leveraging Infosys Cobalt. We believe, this collaboration will enable SGRE to achieve stronger market positioning in the post-pandemic world."

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.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg
An outgoing Stormont minister has appealed for calm heads after Brexit port checks were suspended over threatening loyalist behaviour (David Young/PA)

An outgoing Stormont minister has appealed for calm heads after Brexit port checks were suspended over threatening loyalist behaviour.

Edwin Poots said there is anger in the unionist community over new disproportionate Irish Sea regulatory and customs checks required under the terms of the divorce deals Northern Ireland Protocol.

Inspections at Larne and Belfast ports were suspended on Monday after sinister graffiti and reports of intelligence-gathering on inspectors carrying out the checks.

Trucks arriving at an inspection facility in Belfast Port are being redirected. Three in the last 20 mins.



Inspections required as part of NI Protocol have been suspended amid concerns for safety of staff. pic.twitter.com/ppgu2bc2OG  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) February 2, 2021

Lorries arriving at new inspection facilities at Belfast Port on Tuesday morning were turned around and redirected by Border Force officials.

Police in Northern Ireland will hold talks with inspection agencies later.

Former agriculture minister Mr Poots said: It is difficult for politicians to (control) the level of anger that is in the community in respect of this and it is a time for calm heads and a time for wise behaviour, but these things have certainly created a lot of tension in the community.

His officials are among those to be withdrawn.

There is no indication at this stage whether the threat is coming from an organised paramilitary source, rather than an individual or individuals.

The senior Democratic Unionist, who stepped down at midnight ahead of undergoing cancer surgery, added: Ultimately the people who are doing their jobs, who are going to their work, are not their enemies.

They are people who are simply carrying out a job, whether it is the Department of Agriculture, the local council or Food Standards Agency.

In consultation with my staff I have decided to withdraw staff from Belfast and Larne ports tonight.

There safety remains paramount.

I have spoke to HMG Ministers and outlined the issues of concern.

I welcome the support of my party leader in making such a significant decision  Edwin Poots MLA (@edwinpootsmla) February 1, 2021

He added: Those people should be allowed to do their jobs in peace. Any threat against them should be withdrawn and allow people to carry on their duties.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme the tensions are linked to potential curbs on British Army movements across the Irish Sea and follow withdrawn EU threats to restrict vaccine supplies.

Loyalists are angry at the imposition of a new economic border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The suspension move came as focus on the protocol intensified following Fridays ill-fated move by the EU to suspend aspects of its operation amid the furore over vaccine supply in the bloc.

The European Commission swiftly backtracked after facing intense criticism for attempting to hinder the free flow of movement across the Irish border in respect of vaccines.

Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin told RTE the ports safety concern is a sinister development.

He said: I would condemn the intimidatory tactics against workers who should of course be allowed and facilitated in going about their daily work.

Its a very sinister and ugly development.

Obviously, we will be doing everything we possibly can to assist and to defuse the situation.

Mr Poots Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) said on Monday that it had decided in the interests of the wellbeing of staff to temporarily suspend physical inspections of products of animal origin at Larne and Belfast pending further discussions with the PSNI.

Full documentary checks will continue to be carried out as usual.

Mr Poots said: The Protocol, as has been established, has made Great Britain a third country to Northern Ireland when we are all part of the sovereign UK.

The EU laws that have been established to deal with materials coming in from third countries such as Brazil and Argentina is a totally disproportionate application to have that applied to Great Britain whenever Northern Ireland is part of the UK, remains part of the UK, but over 50% of our trade in foodstuffs is coming from Great Britain and the impact upon the people of Northern Ireland is immense.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said his officers have increased patrols at Larne Port and other points of entry in order to reassure staff and the local community.

Twelve Mid and East Antrim Borough Council staff assisting officials from Daera and UK Border Force with checks at Larne Port were withdrawn from their duties with immediate effect on Monday.

The council said it followed an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks.

Graffiti appeared in the area last month, referring to tensions about the Northern Ireland Protocol and describing port staff as targets.

There have also been a number of daubings in Belfast amid anger at the protocol, with a raft of new checks on goods arriving at ports from Great Britain introduced at the start of the year.

Expand Close Graffiti on a wall in east Belfast (Rebecca Black/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Graffiti on a wall in east Belfast (Rebecca Black/PA)

In addition to fears over graffiti, it is understood staff expressed concerns that individuals had been spotted taking down number plate details.

Police last month warned that discontent in loyalist communities was growing over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is designed to allow the country to follow the EUs customs rules and has caused delays at ports because of new declarations and checks, but said their feedback was not causing significant concern.
DELPHI, Ind. (WTHI)  Its been nearly four years since the deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German, and police say they are working diligently to bring this case to a close.

The bodies of Williams and German were discovered in Delphi, Indiana on February 14, 2017. They had disappeared the day before while walking on a trail near the Monon High Bridge.

Anyone with information about this crime is encouraged to contact law enforcement by utilizing the TIP HOTLINE: abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com or 844-459-5786.

STORY | App gives new perspective in Delphi murders, aims to bring in new information to find killer

Local, state, and federal resources are being used to investigate every tip that is received. There is still a dedicated, multi-jurisdictional team working on this case every day, which includes two Carroll County detectives, two Indiana State Police detectives and other law enforcement officers.

Indiana State Police say This type of violent crime cannot and will not go unanswered.

Anyone with information about this crime is encouraged to contact law enforcement by utilizing the TIP HOTLINE: abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com or 844-459-5786.

Provide as much information as you possibly can. For example, the name of the person of interest, their date of birth or approximate age, physical description, address, vehicle information, why they could be involved, and if they have a connection to Delphi.
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New Delhi, Feb 2 : Farmers' ire reverberated in the Lok Sabha during the third sitting of the Budget Session on Tuesday, crippling its proceedings as major opposition parties along with ruling party's two former allies -- Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Shiv Sena -- playing a key role in creating ruckus in the House on the three contentious farm laws.

Despite multiple requests by the government and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, the opposition continued its protest seeking withdrawal of the three farm laws that were enacted in September last year during the Monsoon Session of Parliament terming these "black laws" and "anti-farmer".

From the SAD, Harsimrat Kaur Badal rallied her party even as Arvind Sawant from the Shiv Sena led its members in the House to raise objections against the government. Kaur had resigned from the post of Cabinet Minister in the current government last year leading to a crack in the SAD-BJP alliance after the farm Acts were enacted in Parliament.

It all began with the beginning of proceedings of the House which assembled for the day at 4 p.m. The Lower House later saw three adjournments: first for an hour till 5 p.m., second till 7 p.m. and the final one concluded the day's proceedings.

These adjournments were announced by the Speaker quickly after the House met on three different timings as the mayhem continued by almost 10 political parties on the three farm laws.

Only reports of Standing Committees and the Motion on President's speech could be moved amid the din.

Referring to the three farm laws, the opposition party members trooped near the Speaker's podium sloganeering in Hindi "Kisan Virodhi Bill Wapas Lo" (Take back anti-farmer law), and "Kisano Par Tanasahi Nahi Chalegi" (No more dictatorship on farmers).

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government of governing like the "British era", Congress leader of House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury requested a debate on farmers' issue considering their over two month long protest which began on Delhi's borders on November 26 last year, seeking repeal of the three farm laws.

"The whole country is witnessing how the farmers are sitting on agitation against the government. Over 170 farmers have died so far during the protests. The way farmers are being tortured, it seems that we have gone back to the the British era," Chowdhury said.

"The priority of the House should be to hold debate on farmers' issue first," he said.

Chowdhury was supported by other parliamentarians from the Congress who were near the Speaker's podium along with members of BJP's former allies Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Shiv Sena, as well as members of DMK, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who were standing in the well holding placards in their hands.

Members of the YSRCP and the Bahujan Samaj Party were also raising slogans against the government from their seats. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urged the members to go back to their seats and let the House function.

He also assured to give them enough time to raise their issues. As the parliamentarians did not relent, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the government is ready to discuss all the issues raised by the opposition inside the House as well as outside, and condemned the disruption of House proceedings.

"This House is holding its Budget Session under extraordinary circumstances. The opposition should waste the precious time of the House. The government is ready to debate on each and every issue raised by the opposition," Tomar said.

The Speaker tried to convince the MPs that all of their queries will be taken seriously by the House and they will be given enough chance to express their issues whatever they want to raise. But, the members from opposition ignored his request and continued sloganeering.

"All of your questions will be taken. Please go back to their seats. I will give you enough time to discuss on all of your issues," Birla said.

Amid the din, Birla started the Question Hour when House assembled at 4 p.m. but failed to control the opposition. The Speaker later adjourned the House till 5 p.m.

As the bedlam continued when House met for the second time, the Speaker began House proceedings, but after 15 minutes of mayhem, he again adjourned the House till 7 p.m.

Minutes after its third sitting, when BJP MP Locket Chatterjee moved the motion on the President's speech and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi condemned the opposition for disrupting the House proceedings, the House was finally adjourned for the day by the Speaker.

(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@ians.in)
ROME, N.Y.  Rome police found two stolen handguns inside a convenience store Friday after responding to a report of suspicious activity at 300 E. Bloomfield St.

Officers arrived just before 5 p.m. to find that two loaded 9mm handguns were being displayed while someone was filming a music video inside the store.

Police seized both guns, one with an extended magazine containing 28 rounds of ammunition, and the other with seven rounds. A third magazine was also found at the scene.

According to Rome police, one of the guns was reported stolen out of Georgia, and the other out of Onondaga County.

Police say charges are pending further investigation and results from forensic testing.
Joe Meyer, a prolific, cigar-chomping criminal litigator known for colorful presentations to jurors and training generations of trial attorneys in New Orleans, died of stomach cancer on Jan. 3. He was 81.

Meyer spent decades plying his craft in the Orleans Parish Criminal District courtrooms at Tulane Avenue and South Broad Street, serving as chief of trials under District Attorneys Harry Connick Sr. and Leon Cannizzaro, and he thrived on the rapid pace of justice before Hurricane Katrina.

He was also a blunt-spoken iconoclast, in the words of defense attorney John Fuller, who wore baby-blue robes during a stint as a temporary judge. Meyer claimed that was because the black dye of other judges robes seemed to affect their judgment.

New Orleans' new DA warns staff of hard work JENNIFER ZDON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Although several bids for elective office fizzled out, attorneys who trained under him went on to prominent careers, including Cannizzaro, Fuller and Magistrate Judge Juana Lombard.

Its a blow to Criminal District Court, said Judge Kimya Holmes, who prosecuted cases against Meyer when he was a defense lawyer. He was a legend in that building.

Born in the Irish Channel in 1939, Meyers father was a taciturn truck driver and veteran of the invasion of Okinawa, Japan, during World War II. His mother was a homemaker.

After graduating from John McDonogh High School, Meyer attended Tulane University on a Navy scholarship.

He graduated from Tulane law school in 1969, worked for the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corp. and then the Orleans Parish District Attorneys Office, where he rose quickly through the ranks under former District Attorney Harry Connick Sr. to become chief of trials by the late 1970s.

It was a different era in criminal justice. Jury trials were often measured in hours instead of days. Judges competed to see how many cases they could dispose of in a week. After verdicts came in, prosecutors retired to the Ruths Chris Steakhouse on North Broad Street.

Meyer preferred martinis. The prosecutor crowd sometimes got so raucous that proprietor Ruth Fertel would tell them to stop scaring off other customers, said his son.

New Orleans juries aren't voting 'guilty' too often, analysis shows Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro makes no bones about it.

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Connick handed Meyer several high-profile cases, including the prosecution of downtown spree shooter Carlos Poree. But there were also tensions. The younger Meyer recalled his father coming home on the verge of tears one night because he secured a death sentence. Meyer was also skeptical of the need to prosecute crimes like marijuana possession, prostitution and pornography, his son said.

The latter belief didnt stop Meyer from delivering one memorable argument. Prosecuting a convenience store manager for selling a pornographic magazine called National Screw, Meyer asked the jurors if they wanted its language to influence their children.

Will it come to a point where you will be sitting at your dinner table with your family, eating, and your son turns to you and says, Pass the f----- potatoes!? Meyer asked. Guilty was the verdict.

By the 1980s, Meyer crossed the aisle to work as a defense attorney. He ran for Criminal District Court Judge in 1982, one of several bids for office that fell short.

Meyer also trained cohorts of attorneys at what was then known as the Orleans Indigent Defender Program, the forerunner of the Orleans Public Defenders.

In a courtroom, he was one of the most brilliant litigators you had ever seen. He could do a cross-examination like no one else, said attorney Kendall Green.

Having learned the law when justice was delivered quickly, Meyer instilled in young lawyers the ability to try a case at a moments notice, Fuller said.

Defense attorneys have become increasingly critical of the old pace of business at Tulane and Broad, charging that judges too often steamrolled through cases to boast about how many they had disposed.

It definitely had its pitfalls, said Fuller. But there are still judges around this state who will tell you that this hearing is going in an hour.  There were skills that were derived from that era for me that can still be utilized today.

After Cannizzaro won election as district attorney in 2008, Meyer crossed the aisle again to resume his former title as chief of trials at the start of Cannizzaro's first term.

His survivors include his wife, Mary Beth; sons Joseph C. Meyer, of Houston, and John Meyer, of Slidell; step-sons Michael Chepolis and John Chepolis, of New Orleans; sisters Patricia Smith, of Houston, and Martha Ann Rovira, of Metairie; and 10 grandchildren.

He is also survived by his former wife, Gayle Lockhart.

A private burial service was held earlier this month, with limited attendance due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Paducah Begins Search for New Planning Director

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - The City of Paducah is searching for a new Director of Planning.According to city Communications Manager Pam Spencer, Tammara Tracy resigned from her role over the Planning Department on January 19. She had been with the city since 2017.Paducah Mayor George Bray told West Kentucky Star Tracy did good work for the city and he wishes her the very best going forward. He also shared the importance of the role and said they hope to find a replacement by April."The city planning director is a critical role, so we're going to move quickly to try to find somebody." Bray continued, "We're going to make sure we get the right person, so we're going to take our time. But, we're moving forward now."According to the City's website, the position has an annual salary between $80,906.00 and $103,155.00.You can learn more about the role of the planning director at the link below.On the Net:


Cabana X Cabana X by StruXure will offer free shipping and assembly to those who set up an account during the pre-order period on the new website. The product is targeted to ship in April 2021.

Starting on February 2nd, 2021 on the new CabanaX.com website, consumers can learn more about Cabana X features, use the interactive configurator to customize their own cabana, and sign up for more payment and shipping alerts. Cabana X by StruXure will offer free shipping and assembly to those who set up an account during the pre-order period on the new website. The product is targeted to ship in April 2021.

Cabana X was developed as an alternative to a permanent shade structure. Made of robust extruded aluminum, with a durable powder coat finish, Cabana X is a 4-post, 4-beam, 17-louver structure that can withstand most weather conditions. Controlled by a Somfy system, the pivoting louvers can be adjusted using a hand-held device. Classified as outdoor furniture, Cabana X can be quickly assembled and doesnt require permits.

Everyone can use more protected outdoor space these days, says Scott Selzer, Founder and CEO of StruXure, so we designed a louvered-roof cabana, similar to our Pergola X, that is smaller, easy to assemble, and can be set up wherever its needed most.

Cabana X can turn any outdoor space into a private oasis. Whether assembling a single, stand-alone unit, or configuring multiple cabanas together, the imaginative kit-of-parts design enables home and business owners to achieve the precise shelter solution they desire.

Two modelsCore and Techwill give consumers the option to keep it simple or to add the technology for strip lighting. Both models are enhancement ready, meaning prefabricated decorative wall panels, curtain rods and curtains, and even a fold-out couch, can be added to multiple sides of Cabana X. Pre-cut architectural corbels can be easily added, taking the design from modern to traditional to fit seamlessly into any environment.

Both the Core and Tech models come in the following color combinations: all black; all white; black frame with white louvers; white frame with black louvers; South Beach, which is a white frame with louvers in a teak woodgrain powder coat finish; and Aspen, which is a black frame with louvers in a walnut woodgrain powder coat finish.

###

About StruXure:

Founded in 2011 by CEO and Chief Product Architect Scott Selzer, StruXure has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America for six years in a row. Steady growth attracted top talent and led the company to open a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters just north of Atlanta, GA in 2016. A West Coast Fulfillment Center and Showroom, located just outside of Las Vegas, NV, was added in the Fall of 2017. With StruXure dealers from Canada to the Caribbean, the company is poised and ready to lead the way to more innovative outdoor living across North America and beyond.

For more information about Cabana X by StruXure, please visit: https://cabanax.com
House impeachment managers are preparing a case for next week's Senate impeachment trial to argue former President Donald Trump acted intentionally in a months-long efforts to subvert the will of the voters that incited the US Capitol riot, as well as why it's constitutional for convicting Trump after he's left office, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

The House's pre-trial impeachment brief on Tuesday will lay the legal groundwork for a case in which the managers plan to illustrate the horrors of the January 6 attack on the Capitol in visceral detail and to tie the carnage back to the Trump's words and actions, sources say.

The House impeachment team plans to argue the riot was the result of an intentional effort months in the making. They intend to show how Trump repeatedly claimed that the election would be stolen from him before November 3, then unleashed a flurry of disinformation as part of his "stop the steal" campaign to try to overturn the election result and question the validity of President Joe Biden's win, which culminated in Trump's actions on January 6 inciting the rioters that attacked the Capitol.

The House managers are expected provide a detailed legal analysis in their pre-trial legal brief, due at 10 a.m. ET Tuesday, about the constitutionality of charging Trump with incitement of insurrection, why he should be disqualified from holding future office and why it's constitutional to convict Trump as a former President, in an effort to rebut what's emerged as the primary reason Senate Republicans have cited to acquit Trump.

Trump's legal team is also scheduled to file its response to the impeachment trial summons on Tuesday at noon ET after five of Trump's lawyers left his team on Saturday amid a dispute about legal strategy and whether to argue baseless claims of widespread election fraud. Trump hired two new lawyers, David Schoen and Bruce Castor, on Sunday, and his team is expected to argue that trying a former president is unconstitutional.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of Senate GOP leadership, said it would be a "disservice" to the former President's defense to focus on baseless claims that the election was "stolen."

"It's really not material," Cornyn said. "The articles of impeachment are like an indictment in a criminal case, so that would be the issue before the Senate. As much as there might be a temptation to bring in other matters, I think it would be a disservice to the President's own defense to get bogged down in things that really aren't before the Senate."

The House impeachment managers are still considering whether to call witnesses as part of their case, one of the key looming questions that will dictate how long the trial will last. That effort is bumping up against a desire from both Democratic and Republican senators to quickly conclude the trial within a matter of days to keep the Senate's focus on taking up Covid relief legislation and confirming Biden's nominees.

The question of witnesses could ultimately be determined by whether there are any willing to step forward voluntarily -- avoiding any delays over executive privilege -- who can speak to Trump's mindset in the hours leading up to the riot and as they were unfolding, when there were urgent requests coming from Capitol Hill to call in the National Guard to the Capitol.

The briefs due Tuesday are the first of several pre-trial responses that the House managers and Trump lawyers will file with the Senate ahead of the impeachment trial's arguments, which are scheduled to begin on February 9.

House case will draw on video evidence

The path to conviction for the House managers has all but evaporated in the Senate, where 45 Senate Republicans voted with a procedural effort to dismiss the trial on constitutional grounds, leaving Democrats well short of the two-thirds required for conviction. But that won't stop the House impeachment team from making the emotional case to the senators -- and the broader public -- during the trial to argue Trump inspired a deadly riot that was a direct attempt to overturn the election result.

House impeachment managers plan to draw on material from the hours of videos that have been posted to social media sites to show how the Capitol was attacked, how the rioters were targeting Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- and how they were motivated by Trump's words and actions on January 6.

The case they make is shaping up to be starkly different than what the House presented in its 2020 impeachment trial of Trump, which drew on hours of complicated House testimony about how Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and withheld security aide from Kiev.

This time, the case against Trump played out before lawmakers' eyes, when they were forced to flee the House and Senate chambers while rioters encircled them.

There's plenty of material for the House managers to draw on to show the destruction the caused by the deadly riot. That includes video from social media websites like the alternative conservative platform Parler illustrating both how the rioters were motivated by Trump and how they attacked US Capitol Police officers and threatened officials including Pelosi and Pence.

Since Trump's impeachment last month for a single article of "incitement of insurrection," the House impeachment managers have gained new evidence from the rioters themselves -- who have told federal investigators in court filings they were inspired by Trump to storm the Capitol as they sought to disrupt the certification of Biden's win in November.

The House's argument is expected to focus on Trump's speech at the Ellipse on January 6 before the crowd marched to the Capitol and quickly overwhelmed an outmatched police force, arguing Trump incited the riot. But the House managers plan to go beyond just the events of that day, showing how Trump's lies about election fraud while he sought to subvert the will of the voters fed the lies that fueled the insurrectionists.

In the impeachment article, the House specifically cited Trump's January call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger before Congress certified Biden's win, in which Trump pushed him to "find" enough votes to make Trump the winner.

A constitutional argument

When the House impeached Trump on January 13, he was still president. But now that he's left office, most of the Senate Republicans have argued that trying an ex-president is unconstitutional. But the House will have its first chance to push back on the constitutional claims in its brief on Tuesday, and that's expected to be a focus of the written brief, sources say.

The House team is expected to draw on the precedent of a Senate impeachment trial for a former official -- the Senate tried Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 after he resigned ahead of the House's impeachment -- as well as argue that presidents cannot get away with crimes in their final days in office to avoid punishment and then run again.

The legal argument is also expected to explain the House's legal case for charging Trump with incitement of insurrection, as well as a discussion about why he should be disqualified from holding office again, which the Senate could do if it convicts Trump.

During the last impeachment trial, Trump's team filed a seven-page rebuttal to the two articles of impeachment, arguing Trump's impeachment was a "brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election."

Trump's new legal team is likely to argue in its filing due Tuesday that trying an ex-president is unconstitutional. The trial of an ex-president has never been done before -- this will only be the fourth Senate impeachment trial of a president in US history -- and several GOP senators have argued that Chief Justice John Roberts' absence from the trial casts doubts on its constitutionality, when the Constitution says the chief justice shall preside when the president is on trial.

But the Trump response to the trial summons could also shed light on whether his team will wade into conspiracy theories about election fraud during the trial. A person familiar with the departures of Trump's initial impeachment lawyers told CNN Saturday that Trump wanted the attorneys to argue there was mass election fraud and that the election was stolen from him, rather than focus on the legality of convicting a president after he's left office.
Pictured left: Bodelle Brass, 35, has been taken to hospital to be treated for shock after her eight-week-old baby girl drowned in the bathtub of a suburban home

An eight-week-old baby girl who drowned in the bathtub of a suburban home may have been there for two hours before her father found her lifeless body.

The newborn was taken to Westmead Children's Hospital from a home in Shalvey, in Sydney's west, about midday on Tuesday but could not be revived.

The child's father is believed to have arrived home and found the baby before discovering her mother, Bodelle Brass, 35, in a distressed state outside.

She was taken to hospital for shock and to undergo a mental health assessment.

Police believe the child may have been in the bathtub for as long as two hours before being discovered, 7News reported.

Homicide detectives are now preparing to interview the mother and a crime scene was established at the property.

Devastated family members were seen hugging and crying in the street outside the home.

A family friend said the baby girl was 'bubbly, adorable' and always smiling.

Initial police investigations have shown the newborn may have been in the bathtub for as long as two hours before being discovered
BJP senior leader has asked the to direct an investigation by CBI or any other competent authority, into the illegalities committed by officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in discharge of their official functions, which has resulted in various banking/financial scams in India.

Two advocates M R Venkatesh and Satyapaul Sabharwal have assisted him in filing a PIL today at the

In the petition, they alleged that officials of the RBI have been in demonstrable active connivance and in grave violations of their statutory duties.

"...no officer of RBI has ever been held accountable for any dereliction of duty in case of any fraud reported by any bank. This is in sharp contrast to the number of frauds exploding in the banking sector in India aggregating to in excess of over Rs 3 lakh crore (Rs three trillion)," PIL stated.

It was further stated that in the last couple of years, various banks have reported scams after scams wherein the role of bank officials were clearly made out but surprisingly not even a single RBI official has been brought to justice despite RBI retaining the power to monitor, regulate, supervise, audit and direct the functioning of all banking companies in India.

"Put pithily, the scheme of the Banking Regulation Act makes the Reserve Bank of India the alter ego of Bank Management, more so in case of public sector banks. Yet, in none of the high-profile banking scams the Central Bureau of Investigation investigating these scams has not even sought to examine at a cursory level, the role of officials of RBI," Swamy stated in the PIL.

The petitioner has pointed out various scams including Kingfisher, Bank of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh- private sugar organisation, Nirav Modi/ Punjab Bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, ILFS, PMC Bank, Yes Bank, First Leasing among others.

"These scams have been caused due to the active connivance of the RBI officials which has failed to prevent these scams despite being vested with substantial powers under various legislations," he said in the petition.

It was further stated the RBI has failed to protect the interest of various stakeholders which includes interest of depositors, investors and shareholders. This failure to protect the interest of stakeholders, has led to the loss of faith in the entire banking system in India with the Regulator being supinely indifferent to the series of bank frauds with questions now being raised about it.

The petition, through an RTI, has asked the RBI for the list of cases and banks involved in frauds aggregating to Rs 100 crore or more and entered in the RBI Central Fraud Registry from January 1, 2015 till date. The list of cases referred to CBI for frauds amount of Rs. 100 Crore or more by the respective banks from 01.01.2015 till date. The details of the persons against whom such action has been initiated by the RBI in respect of frauds aggregating to Rs 100 crore or more in each case from 01.01.2015 till date. However, the RBI response to the RTI filed was not satisfactory, the PIL noted.
After becoming well-known businesspeople with big fortunes worth trillions of dong, many Vietnamese have left their posts to live a secluded life.

Huynh Uy Dung, known as Dung Lo Voi

Hoa Sen leader practices Buddhism

Actually, I wanted to become a Buddhist monk when I turned 30. I am planning to transfer everything to a deserving person by 2026. By that time, I will have sold all of my shares to other investors, said Le Phuoc Vu, president of Hoa Sen Group, at Hoa Sens shareholders meeting.

I will leave with responsibility, not with a bunch of money. Even on the mountain, I will still direct the enterprises operation, he said.

The head of Hoa Sen Group said Hoa Sens revenue may reach $5 billion in the next five years if it is well managed.

The board of directors and I will choose the successor, he told shareholders, adding that he had bought a land plot in 1996 and built a pagoda in Bao Loc City in Lam Dong province in preparation for the plan.

Vegetarian restaurant

Ten years ago, Pham Minh Huong, chair of VnDirect, a securities company, handed over the management of the company to her son. At that moment, Nguyen Hoang Giang became CEO at the age of 24, the youngest CEO in the history of the Vietnams stock market.

Huong said in a local newspaper: I feel regret that only at the age of nearly 50 could I have time to learn more about myself, the meaning of life and the mission of each person since their birth."

Huong has become a vegetarian. She has a shop that sells organic and vegetarian food to spread this way of living as a good choice.

Leaving market, leader hands over power to wife

Huynh Uy Dung, known as Dung Lo Voi (Dung Lime Kiln), has recently stated that he has stopped doing business to gather strength for charities by selling his assets accumulated over the last 40 years to help the needy.

A Huynh Uy Dung will be absent in the business world, but the community of donors will have one more kind person, who considers helping people his joy and happiness, Dung said.

Dung has handed over his power to his wife, Nguyen Phuong Hang, who is now CEO of Dai Nam JSC.

Dung Lo Voi is known as a Buddhist-oriented person. He is a vegetarian and does charity work. He doesnt attach much importance to money, though he owns huge assets.

Bamboo grows old, young shoots spring up

Alphanam JSC has approved the decision to dissolve the company. In 2014, nearly 193 million ALP shares were delisted after seven years on the bourse.

This is the company of Nguyen Tuan Hai, a well known businessman. Recently, local newspapers have written stories about Nguyen Minh Nhat, Hais son, and Nguyen Ngoc My, his daughter.

Bao Anh

Mystery businessmen pours VND150 billion into ITA, Dang Thi Hoang Yen makes surprise move The ITA shares of the Tan Tao Group unexpectedly witnessed an impressive trading session with a record high trading volume.
Cambodian scientists have found "close relatives" of the pathogen, SARS-CoV-2, the one that is responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in horseshoe bats.

Viruses found in the samples stored in a freezer in 2010 have shared a 92.6 percent similarity to the SARS-CoV-2, which adds more information to origin theories, according to a pre-printed study on Tuesday.

The discovery of these viruses in a bat species not found in China indicates that SARS-CoV-2 related viruses have a much wider geographic distribution than previously understood, researchers said.

The study came as the World Health Organization (WHO) experts started their scientific research with their Chinese counterparts in Wuhan this month as part of the global efforts for tracing the origins of the coronavirus.

Although the COVID-19 infection was first reported in China, how the outbreak started is still unknown. Information on the origin, reservoir diversity and extent of circulation of ancestors to SARS-CoV-2 remains scarce, according to the study.

However, there is a wide consensus among scientists that the virus may have originated in bats before spreading to humans.

Horseshoe bats are believed to be the main natural hotbed of SARS-related coronaviruses. A study published in May last year found some close relative pathogens in two different horseshoe bat species that have been sampled in 2013 and 2019.

This time, researchers from Sorbonne University and Pasteur Institute in France and the University of California, Davis in the U.S. have uncovered two much closer relatives in samples from Shamel's horseshoe bats which were collected in December 2010 in the Stung Treng province in northeastern Cambodia.

Among the 430 samples they've researched, 16 tested positive for coronaviruses, while of the 16 positive samples, two of them exhibited a 92.6 percent genetic similarity to the SARS-CoV-2, the paper said.

These bats were first used by researchers to compare species diversity on two sides of the Mekong River in northern Cambodia, and were then transported to the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh while stored in a freezer at minus 80 degrees Celsius, according to the study.

Southeast Asia hosts a high diversity of wildlife that host SARS-like coronaviruses. Researchers believe the region may represent a key area to consider in the ongoing search for the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and certainly in broader coronavirus surveillance efforts in the future.

Earlier, the WHO announced that their research in China will start in Wuhan but will also expand to other Chinese cities and beyond the border.

"Where an epidemic is first detected does not necessarily reflect where it started," its report states.

A spokesperson stressed the mission will be guided by science, and "will be open-minded, iterative, not excluding any hypothesis that could contribute to generating evidence and narrowing the focus of research."
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.
Australian universities axed at least 17,300 jobs last year and more losses are expected this year, as the sector braces for a further $2 billion revenue shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peak body Universities Australia, which has calculated the financial hit to the sector over the past year, will use the new figures to urge the Morrison government to develop a long-term plan for research funding ahead of the May budget.

Chief executive Catriona Jackson said the scale of job and revenue losses varied between universities but no institution was spared financial pain, with the decline in international student revenue the major cause of budget pressures.

Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said the sector shed at least 17,300 jobs in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit:Eamon Gallagher

As a sector, universities have gone from being $2.3 billion in surplus in 2019 to being $369 million in deficit in 2020, Ms Jackson said.
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Fiscal soundness concerns deepen due to lack of financing plan



By Lee Kyung-min



A legislative move to set up the legal groundwork to protect small- and medium-sized enterprises hit by the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming politicized ahead of April mayoral by-elections, with the issue emerging as a major source of discord among top policymakers.



Presidential hopefuls as well as many other politicians are arguing for the highly populist policy in an apparent vote-seeking attempt, whereas the issue has become more of a short-lived power struggle defined by the prime minister overpowering the finance and vice finance ministers.



Experts say clearly targeted support for those companies that have experienced a drop in sales would be far better than across-the-board financial assistance, adding the expected budget shortfall can be filled by drastically removing spending plans allocated for repetitive, ineffective state-run projects.





Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun Yonhap

The government is seeking to legally establish the measures within the category of state support, not compensation, since stricter social distancing rules despite infringing on individual property rights were necessary to prevent the further spread of the virus amid the public health crisis.



The move gained momentum quickly after Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun publicly ordered the Ministry of Economy and Finance to draw up measures to legislate compensation for many small business owners during a Jan. 21 ministerial-level meeting.



The much-rushed drive was in response to implicit opposition from First Vice Minister of Economy and Finance Kim Yong-beom who expressed caution against the plan, which he essentially described as inappropriate and lacking foresight given snowballing debt brought on by four extra budgets drafted to fight the pandemic.



In a Jan. 22 radio interview, Kim said what Korea seeks to legislate has no precedent to look to, saying state support is set up prompted by needs, not by principles set in law.



"We will review related ongoing discussions and overseas cases, but it is not easy to find examples in other countries," Kim said. "As I understand it, the government and lawmakers draw up emergency packages in a coordinated, timely fashion to best allocate state resources to help those most in need."





First Vice Minister of Economy and Finance Kim Yong-beom Yonhap
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The Bauchi State Hisbah Board has confiscated 260 crates of alcoholic drinks from hotels and nightclubs as part of its effort to enforce Sharia Islamic code.

The permanent commissioner in charge of Hisbah and Sharia implementation, Aminu Balarabe, made this known while displaying the commodity in Bauchi on Tuesday.

He said 216 crates were confiscated in Misau Local Government Area and 44 in Bauchi Club and some beer parlours located in Dass Park in Bauchi metropolis.

We will continue to beam our searchlight to unravel perpetrators of such misdemeanors, he said.

He said the department would soon seek a court order to destroy the items as the subsisting Sharia law which was implemented in 2003 prohibits sales and consumption of alcoholic drinks.

Mr Balarabe, who displayed the confiscated drinks at the premises of the state Sharia commission, said no fewer than six operators of beer parlours were arrested during the patrol and they would soon be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others.

The only places where sales and consumption of alcoholic drinks are allowed are military and police barracks, national parks. We are fully committed to implementing our mandate, he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Hisbah department in Bauchi recently arrested some young men in Tafawa Balewa LGA for allegedly organising sex parties and committing other criminal tendencies.

A Hisbah official, Aminu Idris, told NAN the suspects were organising disco parties, locally called Gwaidu, during which they allegedly lured young girls into illicit sexual relationships, adding that at times the suspects used force to intimidate innocent people.

The official said the state Hisbah office summoned the parents of the culprits, counselled them and made them sign an undertaking against repeating the offence.

Mr Idris said the Hisbah department would not hesitate to prosecute such culprits.

As a lawyer, I will do everything possible to ensure that our existing laws are not flagrantly violated, he said.

He appealed to the state government to hasten the appointment of the state Hisbah Board, as well as provide additional financial and logistics support to the department to enable it perform optimally.

(NAN)
Stantec is committed to providing diverse and inclusive scholarships to help give all the communities we serve, and our firm, the benefit of these sharp minds.

To empower the next generation of industry leaders and provide people in historically underrepresented groups with financial aid, global design firm Stantec has launched the Stantec Equity & Diversity Scholarship Fund. With the first round of applications due in March 2021, the program is a joint effort organized both the organization's Community Engagement and Diversity & Inclusion programs.

Through the program, Stantec will award $200,000 in global scholarships for the annual academic year as well as 10 paid internships to students.

The Equity & Diversity Scholarship is part of Stantecs broader commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion within the company and an example of their community engagement initiatives aimed at breaking through barriers.

Stantec is dedicating scholarship resources to help unlock academic brilliance sitting in the minds of underrepresented communities. We see these scholarships as serving an important part in our broad and critical strategy to achieve racial equality. This equality is a target that is right; it is a target to which we must be dedicated to in order to achieve it in our lifetime, said Adam Carnegie, Stantec Urban Planner and Senior Associate in the firms Community Development practice. Stantec is committed to providing diverse and inclusive scholarships to help give all the communities we serve, and our firm, the benefit of these sharp minds.

To be eligible for this award, applicants must be enrolled in a college, university or post-secondary institution in the 2021-22 academic year in pursuit of a bachelor's degree; pursue a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) major; and belong to a historically underrepresented population/group such as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), members of the LGBTQ2+ community, people with disabilities, veterans, and/or first-generation college students.

To empower employees and their families worldwide, the company also offers a dependent of employee scholarship program open to students enrolled in a college, university or post-secondary institution as a second year/sophomore or above. Both scholarship programs are administered by International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc. (ISTS), an independent company that specializes in managing sponsored educational assistance programs. For each, ISTS hosts the online application processes in English and French Canadian, responds to applicant inquiries, selects recipients and disburses awards.

For more information about the Stantec Equity & Diversity Scholarship and to begin the application process, visit stantec.com/equityanddiversityscholarship. The deadline to apply is March 15, 2021.

About Stantec

Communities are fundamental. Whether around the corner or across the globe, they provide a foundation, a sense of place and of belonging. Thats why at Stantec, we always design with community in mind. We care about the communities we servebecause theyre our communities too. This allows us to assess whats needed and connect our expertise, to appreciate nuances and envision what's never been considered, to bring together diverse perspectives so we can collaborate toward a shared success. Were designers, engineers, scientists, and project managers, innovating together at the intersection of community, creativity, and client relationships. Balancing these priorities results in projects that advance the quality of life in communities across the globe.

Stantec trades on the TSX and the NYSE under the symbol STN.

Media Contact

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The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has called for applications in a prescribed format from qualified and experienced personnel for filling vacancies to the post of Chief Engineers in BMRLC on deputation to posted at Bengaluru in Karnataka, India on a fulltime basis. The offline application process towards the same started on closes February 1, 2021 and closes on February 28, 2021 by 5:00 pm.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Chief Engineers in BMRLC Organisation Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) Educational Qualification Degree in Civil Engineering Experience Seventeen years in concerned area Job Responsibilities null Skills Required null Job Location Bengaluru Salary Scale As per the BMRCL norms Industry Metro Rail Corporation Limited Application Start Date February 1, 2021 Application End Date February 28, 2021

BMRCL Recruitment 2021: Age Criteria And Fees

Candidates interested in applying for BMRCL Chief Engineer Jobs 2021 through BMRCL Recruitment 2021 must not have exceeded 55 years of age as on February 1, 2021 with relaxation (upper age limit) for reserved categories as specified in the BMRCL Notification 2021.

For details regarding application fee for BMRCL Chief Engineer Jobs 2021 through BMRCL Recruitment 2021, refer to the official BMRCL Notification 2021 given at the end of the article.

Also Read: Oil India Limited Recruitment 2021 For Geophysicist Posts, E-mail Applications Before February 16

BMRCL Recruitment 2021: Education And Experience

Desirous candidates applying for BMRCL Chief Engineer Jobs 2021 through BMRCL Recruitment 2021 must possess a Degree in Civil Engineering from a recognised University/Institute with seventeen years of work experience in concerned area as detailed in the BMRCL Notification 2021.

BMRCL Recruitment 2021: Selection And Pay Scale

The selection of candidates to BMRCL Chief Engineer Jobs 2021 through BMRCL Recruitment 2021 will be done on deputation as notified in the BMRCL Notification 2021.

Candidates selected to BMRCL Chief Engineer Jobs 2021 through BMRCL Recruitment 2021 will be paid emolument as per the BMRCL norms.

Also Read: Chandigarh Police Recruitment 2021 For 25 Home Guard Posts, Apply Before February 14

BMRCL Recruitment 2021: How To Apply

Candidates applying for BMRCL Chief Engineer Jobs 2021 through BMRCL Recruitment 2021 must fill the application form in a prescribed format attached with the BMRCL Notification 2021 and send the same to the "General Manager (HR) Corporation Limited, 3rd Floor, BMTC Complex, Shanthinagar, K.H. Road, Bangalore - 560027" on or before February 28, 2021 by 5:00 pm.

Download BMRCL Recruitment 2021 Notification PDF for Chief Engineers posts here
(Natural News) The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has asked the Department of Defense (DoD) to help enforce Wuhan coronavirus vaccination efforts. The top Pentagon spokesman announced Jan. 24 that it had received a request from FEMA to assist in administering COVID-19 vaccine doses. FEMAs request for backup came in line with President Joe Bidens goal to administer 1.5 million coronavirus vaccine shots daily.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Jan. 24 that the DoD has received the FEMA request. He added that the Pentagon is evaluating the request and what kind of support can be provided. Given the significance of the request, it will be reviewed urgently but carefully, Kirby remarked. He added that DoD is committed to do as much as it possibly can to assist the whole-of-government effort against COVID-19, a sentiment previously expressed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The Pentagon did not elaborate on what the military efforts would look like and how many troops could be deployed. But in a later press conference, Kirby said it will likely involve drafting both active and reserve National Guard troopers. The guardsmen will help perform a variety of coronavirus-related tasks, including  getting more shots into peoples arms, according to the spokesman.

Meanwhile, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said the Pentagon aimed to provide 10,000 troops and help open up 100 vaccination centers around the country. However, he told CBS Evening News that FEMA might have to work with limited vaccine doses produced by factories. The production of the factories where the vaccine is made  is a limiting factor that were just [going to] have to continue to work through each week, Klain said.

FEMAs request for assistance came amid the agencys deployment of more than 200 million ground staff to support mass immunization in eight states.

During a Jan. 25 press conference, COVID-19 Response Coordinator Andy Slavitt said the emergency response agency was taking steps to speed the vaccine administration process. He told reporters: At the presidents direction, FEMA has increased its support to states, tribes and territories for vaccination sites.

Slavitt elaborated the steps FEMA took to facilitate the Biden administrations mass vaccination program. These included providing almost $1 billion to support vaccination sites across states, deploying more vaccinators  to escalate the pace of vaccinations and sending more than 200 staff to provide logistical support in eight states. He added that FEMA also provided federal equipment and supplies to support various states in their vaccination efforts. The coordinator did not go into detail regarding these actions.

The CDC previously hinted at deploying the military to aid in coronavirus vaccination efforts

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced it will offer additional vaccination support in South Carolina. The CDCs announcement came as the first cases of the more infectious South African variant of the Wuhan coronavirus were found in the state.

A week earlier, the public health body announced its plans to bring in the military and medical students to help with vaccination. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a Jan. 19 appearance in Good Morning America that it will bring on board nursing and medical students, military doctors and retirees. She also mentioned that the COVID-19 vaccines will be made accessible by deploying mobile vaccination vans and giving pharmacies additional doses.

Walensky remarked that Biden administration is also focused on increasing the number of places where people can get vaccinated. Under the administrations plan, Americans can simply head over to community vaccination centers, mobile vans and federally qualified health centers and pharmacies to get their COVID-19 jab.

Before he started his term, President Joe Biden announced his goal to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office. He then upped this goal on Jan. 25 by increasing daily COVID-19 vaccinations to 1.5 million doses daily. This equated to 150 million Americans vaccinated during Bidens first 100 days as president.

The president said the next day that his administration had purchased another 200 million doses of Wuhan coronavirus vaccine. This subsequent purchase gives the U.S. enough doses to inoculate 300 million Americans by the end of summer or early fall. (Related: Moderna says US to procure extra 100 million doses of its mRNA coronavirus vaccine.)

Referring to the vaccinations to combat the pandemic, Biden commented: This will be one of the most difficult operational challenges weve ever undertaken as a nation.

Visit Vaccines.news to read more about the U.S.s vaccination program to combat the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

GoodMorningAmerica.com

USAToday.com






Belgium's decree permits restocking of pig farms following ASF outbreaks





A Belgian Ministerial Decree has last month permitted the restocking of Belgium's pig farms in areas affected by African swine fever.

Pig farmers in the Gaumais area, who had to slaughter their pigs as a precautionary measure in 2018, will be able to resume their activities.

With ad hoc biosecurity rules and measures in place, the decree also allows the loading of pigs from different origins onto the same vehicle. This applies to both pigs intended for slaughter and breeding stock.

Additionally, it will be possible to unload breeding pigs onto different farms.

- AFSCA (Belgium)
In a horrifying incident, a 35-year-old man from Jharkhand burned his mother's body in the courtyard and then roasted chicken on her funeral pyre.

The shocking incident took place in the State's West Singhbhum district following a quarrel between the mother and son. Sumi Soy was fed up with her son's, Pradhan Soy, drinking addiction. In no time, the heated exchange turned violent, where the 60-year-old mother was batted to death with a wooden stick by the inebriated man.

Sumi had asked Pradhan, a resident of Jogogutu Namveer Tola area, not come home in an intoxicated state. Soon after killing Sumi, Pradhan set her pyre in the courtyard in their house and allegedly 'roasted a chicken' on it, later consuming it, according to Times of India.

The following morning, Pradhan tried to burn the remains of the charred body on the stove, when his sister spotted him doing the heinous act. Immediately the neighbors were alerted, who barged into the house, tied him and informed the police.

According to the statement by Manoharpur Police Station's officer-in-charge, Pradhan had killed is mother "in a fit of rage" after he was admonished of his addiction. However, the matter is still under "interrogation" following allegations of a 'chicken roast' by the neighbors.

It was further revealed that four years back, Pradhan had also murdered his 60-year-old father, Gopal Roy.

ALSO READ: Occult Killing of Daughters in AP Brings Back Memories of Burari: 5 Times Mysterious Deaths Rocked India

In another recent incident in Jharkhand, a drunk father had killed his one and a half year old daughter for crying in the state capital Ranchi in December.

According to Police, Gautam, 40, a resident of Mukchundtoli locality in the Chutia police station area of Ranchi, became angry when the child would not stop crying. He threw his daughter on the ground and when she still went on crying he strangulated her.

The mother of the baby started wailing after the incident and people gathered and caught Gautam. He was thrashed by the crowd and handed over to the police.

According to police, Gautam was a habitual drinker. He was admitted to a Nasha Mukti Kendra but did not give up drinking.

The child's body has been sent for post-mortem and Gautam has been taken into custody.

"My husband loved both our children. I cannot explain the reason why he took such a step" said Babita, the wife of the accused.
Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong held phone talks with Party General Secretary and Prime Minister of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith on February 2.

Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong talks on the phone with General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Thongloun Sisoulith on February 2 (Photo: VNA)

Trong thanked the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee, ministries, agencies, the Lao Front for National Construction and political organisations of Laos for sending letters of congratulations to Vietnam on the success of the 13th National Party Congress, vividly reflecting Vietnam  Laos special solidarity.

Informing the Lao leader about outstanding results of the 13th National Party Congress, Trong affirmed that the Congress has been a success, marking an important milestone in the development of the Party and country.

He also congratulated Laos' achievements in recent times, and expressed his belief that under the sound leadership of the LPRP led by Thongloun Sisoulith, the Lao people will continue reaping greater successes in the cause of national defence and construction, as well as successfully realising the Resolution adopted at its 11th National Party Congress.

Vietnam strongly and fully supports the cause of national renewal, defence and construction in Laos, he affirmed.

Speaking highly of Party chief Trongs role and contributions to Vietnam's national construction and defence and Laos  Vietnam special solidarity, Thongloun Sisoulith believed that under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) headed by Trong, the Vietnamese people will continue gaining greater achievements in the national construction and defence, building a strong and prosperous country by the mid-21st century.

On the occasion, the Lao Party chief extended his best wishes to Party chief Trong and the CPV Central Committee on the occasion of the 91st anniversary of the CPV.

He expressed his profound thanks to the Vietnamese Party, State and people for providing valuable and effective support for the Lao counterparts.

The two leaders stressed that as 2021 is the first year to carry out Resolutions adopted at their Party congresses, both countries should stay determined to overcome challenges and effectively realise the agreements set by the two Parties and countries leaders.

They affirmed that under any circumstance, the two sides will do their best to foster and hand down Vietnam - Laos special solidarity to next generations.

The Vietnamese and Lao leaders invited each other to their countries at convenient time./.VNA

The fight against corruption is still long, arduous and fierce, says General Secretary The fight against corruption will be long, arduous and drastic, Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong has declared.
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has eased some restrictions imposed due to coronavirus, including lifting an unpopular ban on alcohol sales.



Beaches will reopen and limited religious gatherings will be allowed.



The announcement came as Mr Ramaphosa hailed the arrival of the first shipment of vaccines - one million AstraZeneca doses - as a chance to "turn the tide" on Covid-19.



South Africa has had the most Covid infections and deaths on the continent.



More than 1.4 million people have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, and 44,164 are known to have lost their lives, according to Johns Hopkins University research.



Many countries have banned travel from South Africa in an effort to stop the spread of the highly infectious 501Y.V2 variant, which is believed to have originated there and which is suspected to be more resistant to vaccines.



How have restrictions eased?



The country will remain in what is termed a level 3 lockdown, but a number of restrictions that had been in place will end.



Retail outlets can now sell alcohol between 10:00 and 18:00 from Monday to Thursday, and licensed outlets can serve drinks on-site from 10:00 to 22:00, when they must close.



Curfew hours will now be 23:00 to 04:00.



South Africans have faced three alcohol bans since the pandemic hit last March, the last was imposed on 28 December.



The government argues it was necessary to alleviate the pressure on the healthcare system.



The bans have not been popular among many in the public and the liquor industry said millions of jobs were at risk.



Announcing the latest changes, Mr Ramaphosa said: "I want to call on all of us to drink responsibly so that we do not experience a spike in trauma cases or an increase in infections due to reckless behaviour."



In additional relaxations of rules, 50 people can now worship indoors and 100 outdoors.



Beaches, rivers, parks and swimming pools will reopen.

Source: BBC









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New Delhi, Feb 2 : Twitter has restored several accounts of high-profile celebrities and organisations, including actor Sushant Singh, Caravan magazine, Kisan Ekta Morcha, Tractor2twitr and several other politicians, farmer leaders, writers and activists, that were blocked for several hours at the behest of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for spreading misinformation during the farmers' protests.

Twitter said that during the meeting with the concerned officials, the company conveyed that the content is free speech and newsworthy.

"Protecting public conversation and Transparency is fundamental to the work we do at Twitter, the content has been unblocked," the company said late on Monday.

"Is this tweet visible to Indian accounts?" tweeted Kisan Ekta Morcha, to understand if the account was unblocked.

The IT ministry and law enforcement agencies had last week ordered Twitter to block these tweets and accounts under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

According to Twitter, the company blocked these accounts in the interim in response to a valid legal request from MeitY.

A Twitter spokesperson said that many countries have laws that may apply to Tweets and/or Twitter account content.

"In our continuing effort to make our services available to people everywhere, if we receive a properly scoped request from an authorised entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time," the micro-blogging platform said in a statement.

Transparency is vital to protecting freedom of expression, so we have a notice policy for withheld content. Upon receipt of requests to withhold content, we will promptly notify the affected account holders (unless we are prohibited from doing so e.g. if we receive a court order under seal)," the company informed.

Twitter last week said it suspended more than 300 accounts engaged in spam and platform manipulation as the farmers' tractor rally went violent in the national capital on the 72nd Republic Day.

The Delhi Police had warned that 308 Twitter handles have been generated to create confusion over the tractor rally proposed by protesting farmers on Republic Day.
BOSTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Immersion Analytics, the leader in immersive data and content visualization, proudly releases v2021.1 of its VisualizerTM software and Runtime offerings. This release unlocks faster and more complete data analysis, easier data storytelling, and works on more devices you already have.

Gain faster data understanding and improved data communication with Immersion Analytics' visualization (right) as compared to a wall of charts showing the same data (left). Experience Visualizer yourself - Download our free demo on the Apple App Store

Immersion Analytics products expand your capacity to understand data and gain insight at a level once requiring AI or machine learning. Our patented technology makes it easy to communicate otherwise complex topics. Your newly expanded perspective on data, unlocked by Visualizer, impacts a wide variety of markets and use cases, including business intelligence, financial markets, cybersecurity, AI governance and customer 360. Each segment benefits from Visualizer to gain insight beyond the reach of business intelligence, AI or machine learning offerings alone.

Enhance Your Data Analysis, Storytelling and Collaboration

See Modern Datasets Like Never Before

Everyday businesspeople use v2021.1 to holistically see up to 18 dimensions about each data point in their visualizations -- a feat never before possible. Visualizer renders multiple data dimensions using special effects as additional axes about each data point. Varying the intensity of each effect conveys additional fields about each record of data.

Visualize Multivariate Time Series Data

v2021.1 adds novel animations and data visualization types designed specifically to improve understanding and ease communicating complex time series topics.

Rapidly Understand Complex Network Data

By adding dimensional visualizations of multivariate graph data, Visualizer helps you better understand complex topics such as artificial neural networks and cybersecurity.

Collaborate with Your Team

Lead a real-time immersive presentation where your participants can experience data using their preferred device.

Tell Impactful Data Stories using Stepwise Storyboarding

After gaining new insights, you need to share them with others. v2021.1 adds Stepwise Storyboarding to reveal data dimensions as layers, one at a time. Introducing each dimension incrementally along your narrative arc gently expands your audience's understanding of your data.

v2021.1 also adds a recording mode for creating immersive data experiences easily shared with others. Recordings created using an immersive headset can incorporate your pointer and verbal commentary.

Incorporate Immersion Analytics into Existing Hardware, Software and Workflows

Use a Variety of Devices you already have

Use Immersion Analytics on flat screen devices, including PC, smart screen, Apple Mac, iPad and iPhone. Immersive experiences on flat screens are enhanced using touchscreen interactions. Flat screens complement our robust support for mixed, augmented and virtual reality, including Microsoft HoloLens 2, Magic Leap 1, Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest.

Integrate with Qlik Sense Data Analytics Platform

This release adds native workflow integration for business users and data analysts using Qlik's leading data analytics platform, Qlik Sense.

Incorporate Immersive Technology in Existing Software and Workflows

The Immersion Analytics Runtime enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to integrate immersive visualization, presentation, and collaboration natively into their existing enterprise offerings & workflows, accomplished using familiar API technologies. Enterprise developers and ISVs no longer need to learn unfamiliar tools and technologies intended for the video game industry to leverage immersive technology.

About Immersion Analytics

Immersion Analytics is the leading developer of immersive data and content visualization software. Our flagship product, Visualizer, enables companies of any size to more completely understand and communicate their data as a competitive and operational advantage.

The Immersion Analytics Runtime offering enables enterprise ISVs to differentiate existing enterprise offerings and workflows by including valuable immersive visualization, presentation and collaboration capabilities. Developers accomplish this using familiar technologies in concert with our runtime.

For more information, please visit www.immersionanalytics.com or email us at [email protected].

Experience Visualizer yourself - Download our free demo on the Apple App Store

The following trademarks are owned by the respective companies listed and are registered in the U.S. and other countries: Apple, Mac, iPad and iPhone are trademarks of Apple, Inc.; Microsoft and HoloLens are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; Magic Leap and Magic Leap 1 are trademarks of Magic Leap, Inc.; Oculus, Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest are trademarks of Facebook Technologies, LLC; Qlik Sense is a trademark of QlikTech International AB.

Media Contact:

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(508) 318-8508

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SOURCE Immersion Analytics

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  The Chinese embassy in Manila brushed aside claims that Chinas new law, which authorizes its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels entering contested waters, is a threat of war.

The embassy on Monday said the measure is a normal domestic legislative activity of China and conforms to international conventions and practices. It added that the law "doesn't specifically target any certain country and bears no change in Chinas maritime policy.

The statement came days after the government filed a diplomatic protest against China, saying its new law is a verbal threat of war to any country that defies it. Malacanang also previously asked China to refrain from any use of force that could spark tension, and instead adhere to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Enacting such a coast guard law is not unique to China, but a sovereign right to all, the embassy said. Many countries have enacted similar legislation. It is the Philippine Coast Guard Law of 2009 that established the PCG as an armed and uniformed service. None of these laws have been seen as a threat of war.

China maintained it is committed to upholding peace in the South China Sea. The East Asian giant is negotiating with other claimant Southeast Asian nations for a Code of Conduct, which will determine actions parties can take in disputed waters.

The embassy said the criticisms were born out of misinterpretation of the legislation, as it also denounced what it called as false accusations against China.

Some forces in the Philippines, either for their own political interests or out of prejudice toward China, have not only misinterpreted China's normal legislation, but also fabricated and spread relentlessly fake news, it said.

It pointed out recent reports of the China Coast Guard allegedly harassing Filipino fishermen, which it claimed as untrue.

READ: Filipino fisherman recalls being blocked by China Coast Guard ship

They have also gone as far as to sensationalize the entry of a Chinese scientific survey ship into Philippine waters as an intrusion, it added.

According to reports, a Chinese survey ship was spotted off the coast of Bato, Catanduanes since Jan. 28 and was said to be operating without permit. The embassy, however, explained that the vessel is only seeking humanitarian shelter in Philippine waters due to unfavorable weather and sea conditions in the Pacific, where they are scheduled to conduct research mission.

A maritime law expert earlier warned of a possibility of China's increased pace in asserting its sweeping claims over the South China Sea. Despite the 2016 arbitral ruling which recognized Manila's sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone that Beijing contests, the expert said China continued to carry out law enforcement patrols in the West Philippine Sea. He also urged the national government to join forces with allies in pushing back against the new Coast Guard Law, which he said could possibly make way for acts of aggression.

NEW DELHI : Days after US aerospace giant Boeing said that it had received the go-ahead from the US government to offer its F-15EX fighter jet to the Indian air force, a senior American official Tuesday said the government to government Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route offered a unique opportunity to India to acquire cutting edge US technology unmatched by any other procurement mode.

Speaking at a press conference in Bengaluru on the eve of the Aero-India show, Kelli Seybolt Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force, International Affairs, said that Washington was looking forward to the formal government communication from India to begin talks on the subject.

FMS provides an opportunity to procure the most advanced fighting capabilities in the world and technologies with the level of transparency that is really unmatched by any other procurement path. We look forward to the formal government to government request from the government of India so that we can start the conversation about what the US fighters have to offer India as they look to choose their next fighter aircraft," Seybolt said.

India is looking to replace its ageing fighter fleet comprised mainly of Russian origin aircraft. It floated a tender in 2018 for the 114 aircraft which is to be built under the Make in India plan" by a joint venture between an Indian company and a foreign original equipment manufacturer with technology sharing. Boeing and Lockheed Martin from the US are competing with Sweden's SAAB and France's Dassault Aviation among others for the contract valued at about $15 billion. According to reports, Dassault Aviation which manufactures the Rafale that India is buying 36 of under a government to government deal, was a strong contender for the 114 aircraft deal.

Last month the Indian government gave its nod for 83 Light Combat Aircraft for the Indian Air Force that is to be made by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

Also speaking at the press conference, Donald L. Heflin, Charge dAffaires in the US embassy in New Delhi said Washington was urging all its allies and partners against buying defence equipment from Russia as it risks triggering sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Heflins comments came within days of the Biden administration taking office in Washington. It was mainly the Democrats who pushed through CAATSA in 2017 aiming to penalize Russia for its war against Ukraine, aiding the Syrian government and its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.

We urge all our allies and partners to forego transactions with Russia," Heflin said adding that such moves would risk triggering sanctions under CAATSA passed by the Congress.

There was no blanket waiver from sanctions for any country, he said adding that the Congress would have to consider waiver on a case by case basis. We have not made any waiver determinations with respect to Indian transactions with Russia," he added.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, Heflin pitched the US as a reliable defence partner of India which offered  the worlds best defence equipment."

India plays a key role in the Indo Pacific region and our cooperation advances our shared vision of a rules based international order that promotes the prosperity and security of all countries," he said.

The US designating India as a major defence partner in 216 marked a milestone in India-US defence cooperation expanding the range and depth of our defence ties."

Once seen as on opposite sides of the Cold War, with the US close to Pakistan and India seen as closer to the former Soviet Union, ties between the two countries have undergone rapid changes in the past two decades. The US is one of Indias foremost defence partners with New Delhi increasingly looking at American defence equipment to meet its needs. Indian defence purchases that were almost zero in the year 2000, currently stand between $18-20 billion.

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MOSCOW, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

In an interim analysis of a Phase III clinical trial, Sputnik V showed strong efficacy, immunogenicity and safety results .

. Efficacy of Sputnik V against COVID-19 was reported at 91.6%.

- Analysis included data on 19,866 volunteers, who received both the first and second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine or placebo at the final control point of 78 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

- Efficacy in the elderly group of 2,144 volunteers over 60 years old was 91.8% and did not differ statistically from the 18-60 group.

- Analysis included data on 19,866 volunteers, who received both the first and second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine or placebo at the final control point of 78 confirmed COVID-19 cases. - Efficacy in the elderly group of 2,144 volunteers over 60 years old was 91.8% and did not differ statistically from the 18-60 group. Sputnik V provides full protection against severe cases of COVID-19.

Among the cases analyzed, over 98% of volunteers developed humoral immune response and 100% - cellular immune response.

The level of virus neutralizing antibodies of volunteers vaccinated with Sputnik V is 1.3-1.5 times higher than the level of antibodies of patients who recovered from COVID-19.

than the level of antibodies of patients who recovered from COVID-19. Excellent safety profile. Most adverse events (94%) were mild and included flu-like syndromes, injection site reactions, headache and asthenia.

- No serious adverse events associated with vaccination, as confirmed by Independent Data Monitoring Committee.

- No strong allergies, no anaphylactic shock.

and included flu-like syndromes, injection site reactions, headache and asthenia. - - Sputnik V is one of the three vaccines in the world with efficacy of over 90%. Furthermore, Sputnik V stands out among these vaccines thanks to a number of key advantages:

- Based on a platform of human adenoviral vectors proven to be safe over decades of use.

- Easy distribution worldwide: storage temperature of between two and eight degrees Celsius.

- One of the most affordable vaccines in the world with a price of less than $10 per shot.

Sputnik V is already registered in 16 countries: Russia , Belarus , Serbia, Argentina , Bolivia , Algeria , Palestine, Venezuela , Paraguay , Turkmenistan , Hungary , UAE, Iran , Republic of Guinea , Tunisia and Armenia .

, , Serbia, , , , Palestine, , , , , UAE, , Republic of , and . In the first week of February, vaccination with Sputnik V will start in the following 12 countries: Bolivia , Kazakhstan , Turkmenistan , Palestine, UAE, Paraguay, Hungary , Armenia , Algeria , Bosnian Serb Republic, Venezuela and Iran .

- In 10 countries out of 12, Sputnik V will be the first coronavirus vaccine approved for civil circulation.

The Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund) announce that the Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most respected medical journals, has published interim results of a Phase III clinical trial of Sputnik V, confirming the vaccine's high efficacy and safety. Sputnik V, which is based on a well-studied human adenoviral vectors platform, is the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus.

In the interim efficacy analysis of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, where data on 19,866 volunteers were included in the efficacy analysis (14,964 of whom received the vaccine and 4,902 the placebo), the two-dose treatment of Sputnik V administered 21 days apart demonstrated efficacy of 91.6% against COVID-19. The calculation is based on the analysis of 78 confirmed cases of COVID-19 identified in the placebo group (62 cases) and in the vaccine group (16 cases). Sputnik V generated a robust humoral and cell mediated immune response.

Alexander Gintsburg, Director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, said:

"The publication of internationally peer reviewed data on Sputnik V's clinical trial results is a great success in the global battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. The Russian vaccine's safety and high efficacy are shown by the hard scientific data presented and I congratulate the entire team of Gamaleya National Research Center for this monumental achievement. Several vaccines have already been created based on human adenoviruses and this tool is one of the most promising for development of new vaccines in the future."

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, commented:

"This is a great day in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The data published by The Lancet proves that not only Sputnik V is the world's first registered vaccine, but also one of the best. It fully protects against severe COVID-19 according to data which has been independently compiled and reviewed by peers and then published in The Lancet. Sputnik V is one of only three vaccines in the world with efficacy of over 90% but outperforms them in terms of safety, ease of transportation due to storage requirements of +2 to +8 degrees and a more affordable price. Sputnik V is a vaccine for all mankind."

Hildegund C.J. Ertl, M.D., Professor, Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center, The Wistar Institute, USA, said:

"The vaccine is 100% effective in preventing serious disease or death, which in the end is the most crucial parameter; we can all deal with the sniffles as long as we stay out of the hospital or the graveyard. Even after a single dose of this prime-boost regimen protection against disease was at 87.6%. Sputnik V is thus more effective than the AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson. Sputnik V, which, unlike the equally efficacious RNA vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna, can be stored in the fridge, will be of tremendous value to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic."

Cecil Czerkinsky, PhD, M.D., Research Director, National Institute of Health and Medical research (Inserm), France, said:

"The interim results of the phase 3 clinical trial of Sputnik V COVID adenovirus vector vaccine are fairly impressive. This vaccine appears to be highly efficacious and immunogenic across age groups. This is clearly good news as this dual formulation vaccine is comparatively easy to manufacture and to deploy amid the anticipated global shortage of vaccines and logistical problems in vaccination roll-out of temperature-sensitive vaccines recently authorized for emergency use."

Omar Sued, President of the society of infectologists, Argentina, said:

"The paper, published in The Lancet, confirms successful results and provides additional information about the efficacy and the safety of this vaccine in different subgroups. From the public health's point of view, the efficacy of the vaccine was very high. The safety profile was very good. The dissemination of this information is vital for informing the scaling up and rollout of this vaccine worldwide."

David Livermore, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia, UK, said:

"Presently the world needs all the good vaccines that it can get against COVID-19. And these are impressive results: Sputnik V is the first adenovirus vector vaccine to achieve the 90% efficacy seen with the two mRNA vaccines."

Len Seymour, Professor of Gene Therapies in the Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford, UK, commented:

"The data indicate that the Sputnik V vaccine shows encouraging activity, including in a cohort of participants aged 60 and above. This is one of the first studies to use two different vectors for the two vaccination steps, a strategy designed to maximize the immune response against the COVID-19 antigen. It represents an impressive development and important contribution to the worldwide fight against COVID-19."

According to the peer-reviewed study results, the vaccine provides full protection against severe cases of the novel coronavirus infection. Among the confirmed severe cases of COVID-19, 20 were recorded in the placebo group, while none were recorded in the vaccine group. Due to the time needed for the immune response to develop, in the first week after vaccination there was no significant difference in protection against severe cases of COVID-19 between the vaccine and placebo groups, while in the period from 7 to 14 days the vaccine's efficacy rose to 50%, in the period from 14 to 21 days to 74.1%, and to 100% from the 21st day, giving full protection against severe cases of the coronavirus.

Importantly, the study included 2,144 volunteers over 60 years old with the maximum ages of 87 years (vaccine group) and 84 years (placebo group), showing great safety results for the elder age strata. The vaccine's efficacy for the elderly was shown at 91.8% and did not differ statistically from the group of 18-60 years old, also demonstrating great safety and immunogenicity results.

Sputnik V has demonstrated an excellent safety profile: 70 episodes of serious adverse events (SAE) not related to COVID-19 were recorded in 68 study participants: in 45 volunteers from the vaccine group and 23 volunteers from the placebo group. None of these events were associated with the vaccination as confirmed by Independent Data Monitoring Committee. Most adverse events (94%) were mild and were limited to flu-like syndromes, injection site reactions, headache and asthenia.

Sputnik V is one of only three vaccines in the world to have demonstrated efficacy of over 90%. Sputnik V stands out among these vaccines thanks to a number of key advantages, namely: a well-studied and highly efficient human adenoviral vector mechanism proven safe over decades; the vaccine's low cost in comparison to other approaches; and fewer logistics requirements with a storage temperature of between two to eight degrees Celsius allowing for easier distribution worldwide.

The safety of vaccines based on human adenoviruses has been confirmed in more than 75 international publications and more than 250 clinical trials conducted during the past two decades - while the history of use of human adenoviruses in vaccine development started in 1953. Adenovirus vectors are genetically modified viruses of the regular flu that cannot reproduce in a human body. When the Sputnik V vaccine is used, the coronavirus itself does not enter the body as the vaccine only contains genetic information about part of its outer protein coat, the so called "spikes" forming its crown. This completely eliminates the possibility of getting infected as a result of vaccination while also causing the body to generate a stable immune response.

In addition, Sputnik V uses two different vectors - based on human adenovirus serotypes Ad5 and Ad26 - in two separate shots, allowing for a more effective defense against the coronavirus than vaccines using the same vector for both shots. By deploying two different vectors, Sputnik V avoids a possible neutralizing effect and generates a durable and longer-lasting immune response.

The Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation is one of the oldest research centers in Russia, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1991. The main focus of the center's research is the fundamental problems in epidemiology, medical and molecular microbiology, and infectious immunology. More information can be found at www.gamaleya.org.

Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is Russia's sovereign wealth fund established in 2011 to make equity co-investments, primarily in Russia, alongside reputable international financial and strategic investors. RDIF acts as a catalyst for direct investment in the Russian economy. RDIF's management company is based in Moscow. Currently, RDIF has experience of the successful joint implementation of more than 80 projects with foreign partners totaling more than RUB2 tn and covering 95% of the regions of the Russian Federation. RDIF portfolio companies employ more than 800,000 people and generate revenues which equate to more than 6% of Russia's GDP. RDIF has established joint strategic partnerships with leading international co-investors from more than 18 countries that total more than $40 bn. Further information can be found at www.rdif.ru.

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Laurie credits past experience for her connection to the mental health field, "Personally, I have lived with family members who have struggled with mental health challenges; this is where my passion to support those who suffer with mental illness started. I have experienced the negative impact it can have on a family, and I want to do everything in my power to help others from experiencing the same."

Laurie plans to work into her role by developing the department as she raises funds. Laurie is most looking forward to connecting with alumni, alumni families, and even past employees to launch an Ambassador Program at CooperRiis. Laurie says, "I want to hear your story! I want to know how CooperRiis has touched your life and what is most special to you about their Healing Community?" Laurie's goal is to connect and engage with people she names as "influencers;" anyone who has a passion to support those who suffer from mental health illness and who believe that recovery is possible.

About CooperRiis Healing Community

Founded by Donald R. Cooper and Lisbeth Riis Cooper, CooperRiis is a non-profit, CARF accredited residential healing community in Western North Carolina, with a rural campus on a 94-acre farm and an urban campus in the heart of Asheville. Since 2003, CooperRiis has been helping adults living with mental health challenges, including anxiety, major depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, and co-occurring condition related to addiction, achieve their highest levels of functioning and fulfillment. CooperRiis offers a full continuum of care (four levels) through a personalized recovery approach that combines clinical therapies, community work & service, education, and integrative wellness practices.

Visit http://www.cooperriis.org or call 828.894.7140 for more about CooperRiis Healing Community and its approach to mental health treatment. To reach Laurie directly to share your CooperRiis story, email her at [email protected].

CONTACT: Kimberly Nelson, M.A., CooperRiis National Outreach Coordinator

828.817.3783 or [email protected]

SOURCE CooperRiis A Healing Farm Community

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The chairman of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority board of directors is vacating his post  a week after it was revealed he went to Arizona, despite pleas from government to avoid international travel.

The chairman of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority board of directors is vacating his post  a week after it was revealed he went to Arizona, despite pleas from government to avoid international travel.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister made the announcement Monday night.

Former WRHA Board Chair Wayne McWhirter.

Last week, the Free Press reported Wayne McWhirter had travelled south in January, against the advice of public health officials.

"After discussion with my office, Wayne McWhirter will be stepping down as chair (of the WRHA)," Pallister said in a news release.

"Due to concerns about COVID-19 variants now emerging, and in order to provide additional clarity regarding public health orders, all Manitoba government order-in-council appointees  including those serving on agencies, boards and commissions  may not travel for leisure purposes outside permitted travel areas, effective immediately," the premier said.

"Should they do so, their appointment will be terminated."

Last week, McWhirter refused to explain any reason for travelling to Arizona. A call Monday night went unanswered.

The news of his resignation came as little shock to one WRHA board member.

"It was the right thing for him to do. If were expecting all Manitobans to follow the rules, we should be held to the same standard, if not higher," the individual, who requested anonymity, said Monday.

"I do feel badly for him. I dont believe there was any malice on his part. But were all in the same boat and we all have to follow the same rules. It was very poor judgment. I dont see any justification (for travelling)."

Pallister was far more excusing on Jan. 28, when discussing McWhirters decision to travel amidst a global pandemic. The premier said he was "disappointed," but suggested McWhirter should be cut some slack because of his largely "volunteer" role.

"Ive said it repeatedly and Ill say it again: dont travel now. This is not the time to do it," the premier said when asked specifically about McWhirters trip south.

"Ill also remind people, too  this is a volunteer youre talking about. This isnt a political staffer... this isnt a person in our bureaucracy. So, I would make that distinction."

Apart from earning a per diem, McWhirter "is one of the over 1,000 people that have volunteered to serve on a board in our province," the premier said at the time.

A day earlier, Health Minister Heather Stefanson said the Progressive Conservatives had no plans to remove him from the board post.

Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew said the premiers reluctance to immediately force McWhirter from his post speaks volumes.

"The premier should have acted more quickly. It just highlights another double standard. The premier has had no problem naming and shaming everyone else, but when it comes to one of his appointees, of course, he gives that person a chance to save face by resigning," Kinew told the Free Press on Monday.

"Everyone knew that it was wrong for the head of the Winnipeg health regions board to travel. The fact it took the premier so long to come to his senses is another example of poor decision-making related to the pandemic," Kinew said.

"We need health-care leaders to lead by example... You cant steer the Winnipeg health region through a crisis from Arizona."

The WRHA had insisted McWhirter fulfilled his duties with the board by working remotely. Meetings have been held virtually for many months, said the unnamed board member.

The president of the Manitoba Nurses Union said it was important the now-former WRHA chairman be held accountable.

"At a time when nurses have sacrificed so much already, whats most important is that we continue to look to the future. Unfortunately, when those entrusted with positions of significant authority in the health system make personal exceptions to the rules, it is not only disrespectful to front-line health-care personnel, but undermines our pandemic recovery efforts," Darlene Jackson said in a statement.

"Now more than ever, we need to be diligent in holding everyone  bureaucrats included  accountable for their actions," she said.

"Its already difficult enough to retain and recruit nurses into Manitoba without further degradation of morale by the application of double standards."

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell
A court in Nairobi has warned Kenyas Spy Queen Jane Mugo against missing her next court date after she skipped the hearing of a case in which she is charged with threatening to kill a man.

The infamous private detective is facing one count for allegedly threatening to kill Deepa Shahat at Kyuna Close, Spring valley Nairobi on February 4, in 2019.

Jane Mugo is alleged to have brandished a pistol and threatened to kill Mr. Deepa, accusations she denied and was consequently released on bond.

Mugos lawyer, Danstan Omari, told the court that his client skipped the hearing because she was unwell. He requested the magistrate to adjourn the matter.

But State prosecutor Anderson Gikunda contested an adjournment saying Mugo had no documentation to prove that she was sick. The prosecutor asked the court to issue a warrant of arrest against Jane Mugo.

Nairobi Chief Magistrate Martha gave Mugo a last warning noting that it was difficult to allow an application for adjournment without documentation.

Also Read: Jane Mugo Warns Kenyans Mocking Her, I am Monitoring You
Photo: The Canadian Press Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon and turned into an online shopping behemoth, is stepping down as the company's CEO, a role he's had for nearly 30 years.

He'll be replaced in the fall by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon's cloud-computing business. Bezos, 57, will then become the company's executive chair.

In a blog post to employees, Bezos said he plans to focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon. And he said he'll have more time for side projects: his space exploration company Blue Origin; the newspaper he owns, The Washington Post; and his charities.

Amazon is one of the last of the biggest tech giants to have a founder as CEO. Googles co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin relinquished their executive positions in parent company Alphabet in 2019. Oracles Larry Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014. Bill Gates was Microsofts CEO until 2000, kept a day-to-day role at the company until 2008 and served as its chairman until 2014. Gates left the board entirely last year to focus on philanthropy.

Launched in 1995, Amazon was a pioneer of fast and free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything. Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a more common sight in many living rooms.

As a child, Bezos was intrigued by computers and interested in building things, such as alarms he rigged in his parents home. He got a degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, and then worked at several Wall Street companies.

He quit his job at D.E. Shaw to start an online retail business  though at first he wasnt sure what to sell. Bezos quickly determined that an online bookstore would resonate with consumers. He and his wife, MacKenzie, whom he met at D.E. Shaw and married in 1993, set out on a road trip to Seattle  a city chosen for its abundance of tech talent and proximity to a large book distributor in Roseburg, Oregon.

While MacKenzie drove, Bezos wrote up the business plan for what would become Amazon.com. Bezos convinced his parents and some friends to invest in the idea, and Amazon began operating out of the Bezos Seattle garage on July 16, 1995.
KABUL  Deputy and Acting Foreign Minister Mirwais Nab received the Ambassador of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to Kabul Mr. Huseyin Avni Botsali to discuss OIC support to the Afghan peace process.

At the outset, the Deputy and Acting foreign Minister praised OIC position and assistance on ceasefire and peace in Afghanistan.

Touching on the role of OIC as an essential Islamic organization in the world, Mr. Nab asserted that OIC can play an influential role in achieving Islamic worlds consensus towards delegitimizing and condemning the war and violence in Afghanistan.

Ambassador Botsali pointed out that killing and violence are contrary to Islam's essence. Though he assured the Acting and Deputy Foreign Minister of OIC continued support in the Afghan peace process.

The two sides went on to exchange views on establishing Islamic International University in Nangarhar province, which was recently discussed between Foreign Minister Atmar and OIC Secretary-General in Jeddah.
Periodontist, Dr. Keith Chertok, Treats Gum Recession and Gum Disease in Berkeley, CA Chronic infection and inflammation from advanced periodontal disease (gum disease) puts additional stress on the immune system and harms oral health.

Dr. Keith Chertok, experienced periodontist, welcomes individuals with gum recession in Berkeley, CA to receive personalized treatment, with or without a referral. He raises awareness of the benefits of treating receding gums, especially when connected to gum disease, to improve oral health and immunity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gum recession is often a symptom of gum disease, a common yet dangerous condition affecting the health and function of the gums, bone, and teeth. During the beginning stage of gum disease, plaque and tartar buildup on the teeth release bacterial toxins that infect the gums and cause them to pull away from the teeth. This gum recession creates plaque retention areas around teeth that harbor more bacterial plaque that can no longer be removed with everyday brushing and flossing. Later stages of gum disease are characterized by extensive gum recession, damaged bone, loose teeth, and chronic tissue inflammation. The persistent bacteria also move from the mouth to the rest of the body via the bloodstream.

Chronic infection and inflammation from advanced periodontal disease (gum disease) puts additional stress on the immune system and harms oral health. It has also been linked to systemic health complications like diabetes, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and stroke.

Gum recession treatment as part of gum disease therapy is generally gum grafting using the patients own tissue or donor tissue. Other treatments include the minimally invasive tunneling technique and the Pinhole Surgical Technique (PST). Gum grafting involves taking a sample of tissue from the patients palate or a donor and using it to cover the exposed tooth surfaces. Grafting techniques often result in stronger, healthier tissue that helps minimize the risk of gum disease developing or returning in the future. The non-surgical tunneling technique involves using a special tool to tunnel underneath the gums where the tissue graft will then be inserted. Another non-surgical approach, PST, involves creating a tiny pinhole in the gums so the tissues can be manipulated into the proper position over the tooth roots. In most cases, Dr. Chertok recommends traditional gum grafting with the patients own tissue to provide the healthiest and longest-lasting results.

Regaining proper oral health with periodontal treatments like gum grafting helps improve overall health as well. Without chronic low-grade infection from gum disease, restored soft tissues can remain healthy and create a tight seal around teeth to block bacteria from entering the bloodstream. A healthy mouth helps ensure that systemic health and the bodys immune system are not negatively affected by infection. Individuals who receive gum grafting and related treatments can experience better oral and overall health. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, maintaining a healthy body and immune system helps individuals reduce their risk for dangerous diseases and viruses and can help lessen their severity if contracted.

Dr. Chertok has over 30 years of periodontal experience and as a periodontist, is considered the expert in soft tissue treatments like gum grafting for receding gums. Experienced in providing innovative and life-changing periodontal care, he has helped thousands of patients regain their health and beautiful smiles through personalized, long-lasting treatment. He encourages individuals with gum recession, loose teeth, and other signs of gum disease to not put off seeking expert treatment at his practice. Adhering to CDC, OSHA, and ADA guidelines, he and his team continue to take advanced safety and sanitization measures to keep their office safe, clean, and sanitized as possible for the health of their staff and patients.

Individuals with symptoms of gum disease in Berkeley, CA, such as gum recession, are invited for a consultation with Dr. Chertok. Appointments can be made by visiting http://www.berkeleyperiodontist.com or calling 510-548-0150.

About the Periodontist

Dr. Keith Chertok offers specialized periodontal care and dental implants to the Berkeley, CA area and beyond. For the last 30 years, hes offered minimally invasive techniques always implementing the most cutting-edge technology. He started his career graduating in the top five percent of his class from the New York University College of Dentistry before completing his specialty training in Periodontics and Implantology through University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). A leader in periodontics, he has taught at UCSF, the Dugoni School of Dentistry, and lectures across the country. For ten years he was also the attending periodontist in charge of periodontal education for new dental residents at the Veterans Hospital Healthcare System of Northern California at Mare Island. Among numerous other services, he offers single to full mouth dental implant transformations, revolutionary LANAP laser gum disease treatment, and minimally invasive gum recession solutions. To learn more about Dr. Chertok or the services he and his specialized team offers, visit their website at http://www.berkeleyperiodontist.com or call 510-548-0150 to schedule a personalized consultation.
Amid her recollection of the events that transpired in the Capitol Hill Riot, New York's 14th Congressional District Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed that she was a survivor of sexual assault.

AOC shared her experience while her voice was shaking with emotion. She stated that she has not told many people about the fact that she was a sexual assault survivor, however, with the recent traumatic events it came back to her.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 31, shared her traumatic experience during the Capitol Hill siege in a live-streamed video via Instagram.

The congresswoman also said that she feared for her life when the mob forced their way into the Capitol on January 6. She described how she and the others were forced to hide and take shelter when the rioters stormed Capitol Hill.

She also narrated that there was a particular time during the siege that she was hiding inside the bathroom of her office while rioters banged on the door and kept yelling, looking for her.

During that time, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that she thought everything was over and that she was going to die at that point.

Still teary-eyed, the congresswoman said that despite the fear for her life, she felt that things will turn out okay if this was truly meant to be her journey. She also said that if that was the end she has already fulfilled her purpose, ABC News reported.

AOC also added that after some time she realized that the man who was banging at her door was a Capitol police officer. She also described that the man was looking at her with hostility.

Read also: NY State Democrats Block Subpoena for Records of Nursing Home Deaths, Republicans Say

Moreover, AOC said that later that day, the fear for her life came back as she was barricaded inside California Rep. Katie Porter's office, Fox News reported.

In addition, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also said that they felt completely unsafe during the incident and that they felt that they were losing all sense of time.

The Capitol Hill Riot

The riot on Capitol Hill happened after supporters of President Donald Trump gathered in Washington DC in order to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 Presidential election.

It can be recalled that Trump pledged to never concede despite the electoral college voting, for now-President Joe Biden. Some reports also noted that Trump's continuous claims of election fraud pushed his supporters to storm the Capitol and stop the certification.

During the attack, it took hours for authorities to secure the area from the rioters, even losing one police officer amid the rampage.

Meanwhile, according to BBC, AOC stated that people who encourage others to move on from the events of January 6 are using the tactics that are used by abusers.

According to her, these people are trying to tell those who experienced the trauma to forget about it and insist that it is no big deal.

However, she stressed that people cannot heal as long as those who caused the trauma would be held accountable. She also called out those who are telling people to move on, saying that they are only doing so at their own convenience.

"Those are the same tactics of that man who touched you inappropriately at work, telling you to move on," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said.

Related article: Joe Biden's Stimulus Checks: Controversial in Fulfilling Pledge to Americans

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[February 02, 2021] Blue J and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Introduce Innovative Transfer Pricing Search Tool

Blue J, the leading provider of analytics for tax positions, and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, a leader in Canadian business law, announced today an innovative collaboration that has led to an advanced search tool for resources related to international transfer pricing. The tool is the latest addition to the Canadian version of Blue J Tax and is available for immediate use by subscribers to the platform across the country. Transfer pricing has become increasingly relevant in today's globalized economy, where tax authorities around the world are taking an enhanced interest in scrutinizing tax arbitrage and transfer pricing strategies. The solution announced today is unique in that the module provides a comprehensive database of transfer pricing decisions and documentation across multiple OECD jurisdictions that can be filtered by topics and factors of interest to practitioners. In addition to monitoring weekly updates of the latest transfer pricing decisions, Blue J will continue its expansion of coverage and scope to additional jurisdictions on an ongoing basis. The internaional transfer pricing solution addresses the application of the arm's length standard to complex transactions between related entities that are subject to the transfer pricing rules. The new tool enables tax professionals to quickly and easily identify the most relevant cases, OECD guidance, and government documents that directly relate to a client's situation. "We're excited to provide this solution for expert tax professionals on our updated Blue J Tax platform," says Benjamin Alarie, Co-founder and CEO of Blue J. "Osler's Tax Practice is consistently recognized as a leading provider of tax law services in Canada with significant transfer pricing expertise and we are proud to have the chance to work with them. Our new transfer pricing solution is an important step forward, and we look forward to helping streamline the analysis of this complex area for tax professionals across Canada."



"Collaborating on this feature with Blue J supports our joint goal of making transfer pricing decisions and other resources more accessible for Canadian business," said Peter Macdonald, a transfer pricing partner in the Tax Group at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. "We worked together, over this past year, to create a cutting-edge solution that streamlines advice regarding international transfer pricing. The result is a powerful tool that the leading tax practitioners across the country can leverage to provide the highest quality tax advice to clients." The new tools are a critical investment for Blue J as the company continues to expand its Canadian operations with new platform updates.

About Blue J Blue J uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to make the law more transparent and accessible. The company's technology saves users hours of time and offers confident answers in challenging circumstances. While the company's initial focus is on tax and employment law, the technology is versatile and is being extended to cover other areas of law in the U.S., Canada, and around the world. For more information, visit www.bluej.com. About Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Osler is a leading law firm with a singular focus - our clients' business. From Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver and New York, we advise our Canadian, U.S. and international clients on an array of domestic and cross-border legal issues. Our one-firm collaborative approach draws on the expertise of over 450 lawyers to provide practical legal solutions driven by our clients' business needs. It's law that works. For more information, visit www.osler.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005304/en/

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Pramanik has decades of experience in technology and software. He was most recently Chairman of Microsoft India where he oversaw the company's overall operations in India including sales, marketing, and channels across business groups, in India. Before Microsoft, he was the managing director for Oracle India. Prior to that, he spent more than 14 years at Sun Microsystems first as VP and MD for Sun Microsystems India and then as VP Commercial Systems at Sun's Corporate HQ at Menlo Park.

Pramanik is currently an Independent board member and advisor to different companies. He mentors and invests in startups and has also made investments in a few. He is on the Advisory Board of Schulich University in Toronto, Canada and Bennett University in Noida, India. He regularly speaks at industry and leadership forums.



His primary interests are in areas of Culture and Strategy; Leadership and Organization Excellence; Corporate Governance; Innovation and Transformation; as well as Advanced Technologies and their future social and economic impact.

"I'm excited to put my experience and insights to work for alliantgroup and its clients," said Pramanik. "I've been incredibly impressed with the firm's drive to help businesses grow their market share and create the best return on their investment. I am excited to work with this talented team and build on that very inspiring mission."

Pramanik will play a key advisory role in the areas of digital transformation, innovation, and culture which form key drivers of sustained growth.

"Bhaskar hit the ground running and has already been a valuable asset to alliantgroup," said alliantgroup CEO Dhaval Jadav. "His prominent career within the world's top technology companies will build on bringing world-class consulting to mid-sized businesses so that they can innovate and grow for exponential success."

alliantgroup is a management consulting company with a mission to strengthen American businesses through reinvestment in innovation and job growth. We educate businesses, the industry groups that serve them, and the accounting firms that advise them on federal and state credits and incentives that are legislated by our government to keep the U.S. competitive in the global landscape. We are proud to have helped over 16,000 businesses claim more than $8 billion in credits and incentives. alliantgroup is headquartered in Houston, Texas with additional offices located in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, New York, Irvine, Sacramento, Washington, D.C.; and Bristol and London in the U.K. For more information, visit alliantgroup and engage with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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Tony- and Emmy-winning actor Hal Holbrook, best known for his decades-long portrayal of Mark Twain on stage and screen, died January 23 at the age of 95.

Mark Twain Tonight! is Holbrook's legendary solo show, the seeds for which were first planted when he was a college student in 1947 at Denison University. Holbrook and his then-wife, Ruby, were creating a stage show called Great Personalities, where they would portray historic figures. Holbrook's mentor at the college, Edward Wright, suggested he add Mark Twain to the roster, and the character was first tried out in front of an audience of psychiatric patients at an Ohio veterans hospital.

Holbrook began developing the solo show in 1952, and first performed the show in 1954. Ed Sullivan saw it at a nightclub and gave Holbrook national television exposure. Holbrook first performed Mark Twain Tonight! off-Broadway in 1959, and the show made its Broadway debut in 1966 at the Longacre Theatre. He won a Drama Desk Award for the off-Broadway run, and the Tony for Best Actor in a Play for the Broadway engagement. In 1967, the show was presented on television, and Holbrook received an Emmy for his performance.

All told, Holbrook portrayed Twain more than 2,000 times over the course of his career, bringing the show back to Broadway in 1977 and 2005 and taking it all over the world. He was 29 when he first started playing the 70-year-old character; by the time Holbrook retired at 92 in 2017, he was older than the real Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, ever lived to be.

And that's not just the only facet of Holbrook's career on stage and screen. He appeared in a dozen Broadway shows including the Twain piece, ranging from the original productions of Arthur Miller's After the Fall and Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter to replacing Alan Alda in The Apple Tree and Richard Kiley in Man of La Mancha. He won five Emmy Awards, for work in The Bold Ones: The Senator, Pueblo, Lincoln, and Portrait of America.

Holbrook made his debut in Sidney Lumet's The Group, and gained recognition for playing Deep Throat in All the President's Men. Holbrook had a recurring role on Designing Women, opposite wife Dixie Carter, and directed several episodes of the series. He'd been seen on The Sopranos, Sons of Anarchy, Bones, and Grey's Anatomy, among other shows.

Holbrook was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1999 and was honored with a National Humanities Medal in 2003. Married three times, he was partnered with Carter until her death in 2010, and is survived by three children, two stepdaughters, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida lawmakers, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, intensified their battle with Facebook, Twitter and Silicon Valley when they announced new proposals Tuesday aimed at reigning in platforms they accuse of squelching the free speech of conservatives.

FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Georgetown University, in Washington. Florida lawmakers, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, intensified their battle with Facebook, Twitter and Silicon Valley when they announced new proposals Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, aimed at reigning in platforms they accuse of squelching the free speech of conservatives. On a call with analysts the week before, Zuckerberg said the social media giant was attempting to turn down the temperature and discourage divisive conversations and communities." (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida lawmakers, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, intensified their battle with Facebook, Twitter and Silicon Valley when they announced new proposals Tuesday aimed at reigning in platforms they accuse of squelching the free speech of conservatives.

Over the years, these platforms have changed from neutral platforms that provide Americans with the freedom to speak to enforcers of preferred narratives, the governor said Tuesday during a news conference at the Florida Capitol.

Social media companies have been simultaneously praised and condemned in recent weeks as they cracked down on inciteful posts they said could foment further violence after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Conservatives have long accused social media companies and other tech giants of harbouring bias against them. Republicans in other states are considering similar bills that push back against social media giants they deem unfriendly.

"Florida is taking back the virtual public square as a place where information and ideas can flow freely. Were demanding transparency from the big tech giants, state House Speaker Chris Sprowls said.

About four in every five Americans  some 250 million people  have profiles on social media. Th ose with substantial followings, including elected officials, celebrities and other public figures, have platforms they can readily deploy to amplify their messaging.

On a call with analysts last week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the social media giant was attempting to turn down the temperature and discourage divisive conversations and communities." He added that "people dont want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services.

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 31, 2020, file photo, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute in Tampa, Fla. Florida lawmakers, including DeSantis, intensified their battle with Facebook, Twitter and Silicon Valley when they announced new proposals Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, aimed at reigning in platforms they accuse of squelching the free speech of conservatives. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

Amazon booted Parler off its web-hosting service five days after the Capitol insurrection. It said in court filings that it did so as a last resort to keep Parler from being used as a venue to disseminate plans for disrupting government and last months inauguration of President Joe Biden.

A federal judge in Seattle later ruled Amazon would not be required to restore web service to Parler, an online social media platform that mostly attracts conservatives and supporters of former President Donald Trump.

The moves by Florida lawmakers may end up being mere political theatre because it's uncertain if the state would have the authority to act on companies with such national and global reach. In fact, the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 shields internet companies from many legal challenges.

Legal experts say states and other local jurisdictions have a high bar in justifying regulations that might infringe on free speech issues  but the matter could be ripe for a national discussion on how to regulate Internet companies, according to Clay Calvert, a first amendment expert at the University of Florida's law school.

Besides, he said, do we want a crazy quilt of state regulations or do we want uniform rules adopted on the federal level?

State Senate President Wilton Simpson suggested that the federal arena may be the proper venue for regulating tech companies.

Theres not much we can do as a state. But we need Congress to act on a nationwide basis, he said.

The big tech companies have the duty to allow differing views on their public platforms. No one should be excluded," Simpson said. But lets be clear: They are targeting conservatives.

He said it amounts to political censorship.

One proposal in the state Senate would force Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to give users a month's notice before their accounts are disabled or suspended. The bill was filed after Twitter suspended Trump's account after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Another proposal that was to be filed Tuesday would prohibit companies from suspending the account of a political candidate and be subject to a fine of $100,000 for each day the account of a statewide candidate is blocked, or $10,000 a day for other office seekers.

The proposal also would allow consumers to the sue if they've been treated unfairly and would authorize the state attorney general to take on the country's largest tech companies for anti-competitive practices. Social media companies would be required to reveal how they became aware of any content they censor.

Were definitely at a boiling point," said Darrell West, the vice-president of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. Most of these issues have come up just in the last year, as social media platforms have become more aggressive about regulating their own space.

While Republicans lawmakers assert bias against conservative thought, a New York University study released Monday concludes that is a baseless claim.

Conservatives are drawn to the established platforms for the same reason liberals are: Thats where you can reach the largest audiences and enjoy the benefits of the network effect, said the study's authors.

And as much as they condemn supposed social media favouritism," the authors continued, conservatives appear to relish wielding the bias-claim cudgel, even though its based on distortions and falsehoods.

Follow Bobby Caina Calvan on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BobbyCalvan.
PARIS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- One year after the launch of its strategic plan 2020-2025, SKEMA is pleased to announce several concrete advances especially in artificial intelligence:

With SKEMA AI Institute, AI is being rolled out across all programmes and campuses.

A forerunner in 2019 with the opening of an AI research centre in Montreal, SKEMA is gaining momentum with the creation of the SKEMA AI Institute, a global system that brings together some twenty professors and experts around AI and deploys the school's AI strategy - from research to concrete applications in all the school's programmes - while drawing on the territories and ecosystems of its various campuses in France and abroad.

In this context, the school's historical cooperation with the UCA (University Cote d'Azur), and more particularly, the Institut 3IA Cote d'Azur, is worth mentioning.

For Alice Guilhon, Dean of SKEMA Business School: "It was essential to introduce AI into all of SKEMA's academic programmes. It even constitutes one of the pillars of SKY25: it's what we call hybridisation. This hybridisation is one of the levers of our ambition to become an 'Avant-Garde' school by proposing the hybridisation of 100% of our programmes: AI at the service of the business world."

Among the advances in the field of AI, we can note the following:

Constitution of a SKEMA "AI Faculty", composed of more than 20 professors and researchers divided into 4 interdisciplinary fields: AI Fundamentals; IA, Economics & Finance; IA, Marketing & Management; IA, Operations, Supply Chain & Information Systems.

Integration of an "AI" specialisation within the Global BBA programme.

Launch of a new Specialised Master programme for "AI project managers" in autumn 2021, currently in the process of being approved by the "Conference des Grandes Ecoles" organisation.

Asma Hanafi, a student in the Master in Management programme (Grande Ecole Programme) who has chosen the "IA for managers" programme, says: "The added value of such an AI training programme lies, above all, in its technical nature. Being a business school student and applying for an internship while having skills in machine learning and programming make us attractive profiles with an edge. I felt this advantage during the interviews for my internship search because it aroused the curiosity of several recruiters. Today, AI is an integral part of all sectors of activities. It contributes to research, innovation, and decision-making, whether it be for marketing, human resources, finance, etc. Data management and analysis are issues that all companies face. It is therefore essential for the manager of tomorrow to know how to master such central subjects."

To date, more than 70% of SKEMA's programmes include the AI dimension in their teaching. With the SKEMA AI Institute and its new programmes, the school prefigures what will eventually become a specific entity under the name "SKEMA AI School for Business".

For more details on these initiatives, take a look at the SKEMA AI for Business brochure: http://bit.ly/2YnnLGL.

Contact: Christine Cassabois, Christine.cassabois@skema.edu

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1430593/SKEMA_AI_visual.jpg
The Mexican authorities are making an abuse on the Cancun airport, blocking Romanian tourists, and ANAT sent a protest to the embassy of the United Mexican States in this sense, declared on Tuesday, the deputy chairman of the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT), Alin Burcea.

"From my point of view and my colleagues, this is an abuse. It is a mockery that Mexico is putting us through every two years. We start from the premise that it is a civilized country, but, through what it is doing and the abusive measures that it is taking at its borders, it demonstrates that it is not. Because this is not for the first time when this happens. Today there are approximately 80 tourists, both from organized groups, as well as individual tourists, in Cancun, who are simply seized, placed in a room. The Romanian tourists are taken away their phones and passports so that they cannot communicate and are placed in a room, after which, after several criteria, some are released and allowed to enter the country, others are sent back. I understand that there is a case where a family was separated, the wife and child were sent home and the husband was allowed entry, it's just rubbish. This is about an order regarding the Romanians, because all of the Romanians from the Lufthansa flight were taken aside, so it is a matter strictly tied to the Romanians," Burcea declared.

According to Alin Burcea, the Mexican embassy in Romania refused to offer any explanations regarding the incident.

He says that apart from the abusive measures to which Romanian tourists are subjected to in Mexico, there is also a financial problem.

"Apart from the rude element, because I can't call it otherwise, there is also the issue of material damage. To which the Mexicans shrug their shoulders and we are looking at each other. Who will be responsible for these damages? Who will be responsible for the cost of the flight tickets, for the lodging? They are not offered any explanations, they are simply stopped by the border control. There are huge damages. We paid to Paralela 45 (tourist agency, ed. n.) the deposit for Lufthansa and today it was frozen and we need to argue with the representatives of the company. There are hundreds of people who were turned around because of this," Alin Burcea specified.
VODACOM Tanzania PLC has announced that it will dish out 3.92bn/- dividends to its M-Pesa customers who have used the service over the past year.

The dividend payment covers the first quarter of the company's fiscal year.

Speaking on this, Vodacom Tanzania PLC M-Commerce Director Epimack Mbeteni said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the profit would be paid to all customers, retail agents and other M-Pesa business partners who would receive payment based on transactions made via their mobile wallets.

"Our mobile money service, M-Pesa, continues being a remarkable success story, delivering significant social and financial value to Tanzanians. We have seen substantial growth on the M-Pesa platform with more customers, agents, merchants and institutions transacting around 100bn/- each day. In line with regulations of BoT, interest earned from the deposit is periodically shared with the customers. Today, we are happy to share a dividend of 3.9bn/- (equivalent to $1.6m) with our over 11 million customers across the country," he said.

Vodacom Tanzania PLC has over 11 million customers on its M-Pesa platform, commanding a market share of 40 per cent, according to recent Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) figures.

The company has so far paid out a total of 143.5bn/- (over 62 Million US dollars) as interest pay out since July 2015 when Bank of Tanzania enacted the regulation.

Mr Mbeteni added that the profit share per customer was calculated as per BoT circular and would depend on, among other things, the level of activity they would have had on M-Pesa for the period under review.

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In 2018, Vodacom M-Pesa was awarded GSMA Mobile Money Certification (MMC) after passed by 100 per cent in the following categories: safeguarding of customer funds, service security, safeguarding of customer data and privacy, and mitigation against money laundering, terrorist financing, and fraud risks.

In Tanzania, M-Pesa is one of the very first mobile money products to enter the market in 2008. Today, the innovation has helped the country attain its over 70 per cent financial inclusion index up from 15 per cent in 2008.

The Vodacom M-Pesa platform is the most advanced in the country offering tailor-made products suited for the Tanzanian market which has increased financial inclusion and stimulated economic activity across the country.

Such products include Songesha - an overdraft facility, M-Kopa - a group savings account, Lipa Kwa M-Pesa - allowing C2B transactions, M-Pawa - a savings and loans platform and many more.

"We will continue leading in innovation, bringing more Tanzanians into an inclusive digital economy, increasing the number of customers using our mobile money offerings and expanding our enterprise services, focusing on strategic partnerships and maintaining a widest range of services that make payments faster, easier and more convenient and safer for businesses and individuals alike," Mr Mbeteni concluded.
Berger said when he read the findings of the first probe, "it was pretty clear to me we needed to do a follow-on...
Centre considering revising 'creamy layer' criteria for backward classes

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 02: A proposal for revision of the income criteria for determining the creamy layer amongst other backward classes (OBCs) is under consideration of the government, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Pal Gurjar said the proposal was made after due consultation with the National Commission for the Backward Classes.

"A proposal for revision of the income criteria for determining the creamy layer amongst OBCs is under consideration of the government," he said.

Farmers 'aggressively' resorted to 'rioting', damaged govt property: Govt

Responding to another question, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Rattan Lal Kataria said a committee was constituted to make in-depth analysis of the reasons for non-filling up of reserved vacancies/less employability of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in government sector and suggest remedial measures.

Some of the reasons for non-filling of seats include unavailability of adequately qualified candidates for Group A and Group B posts and technical and scientific posts, need of special attention for people with disabilities and low utilisation of funds for the benefit of persons with disabilities under various poverty alleviation schemes.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 21:16 [IST]
With Nolan Arenado now officially on his way to the Cardinals, questions have inevitably turned to the future of another star Rockies infielder in Trevor Story. The shortstop is entering the final year of his contract, but the team expects that Story will begin 2021 in a Colorado uniform, as GM Jeff Bridich told MLB.coms Mark Feinsand (Twitter links) and other reporters today.

Bridich stopped short of saying that Story wouldnt be traded whatsoever, as its very difficult to predict what the coming months will look like. Beyond just Story, however, Bridich more firmly stated that the Arenado trade wasnt the first of many for his team. This certainly is not a total tear-down and rebuild.If that was the case, certain players already would have been traded, the general manager said.

That comment could be a more pointed reference to Story, considering how Story can be a free agent next winter. The shortstop has been cited as a logical trade candidate for months, though while reports in December suggested the Rox were at least considering the possibility, there hasnt been much in the way of concrete news about specific teams pursuing Story. That said, its probably safe to assume that every team in need of a shortstop this offseason at least placed a call to Bridich to check in on Storys availability.

While that list of possible suitors has narrowed as several notable shortstops have come off the board in free agency and in the trade market, there would certainly still be plenty of interest in Story if the Rockies changed course and shopped him now, or even in midseason as a pure trade deadline rental. A case could certainly be made that Colorado is better off moving him now in order to maximize Storys trade return, since waiting until closer to the trade deadline creates added risk of an injury, or Story struggling, or teams being less willing to give up multiple prospects since theyd only have Story for a portion of a season rather than all of 2021.

However, the Rockies seem intent on not throwing in the towel on the coming season. At todays press conference, owner Dick Monfort told The Denver Posts Patrick Saunders and other media that I truly believe this is a very talented team that underperformed the last two years. Monfort has been notably over-optimistic about his team in the past (most notably his prediction almost exactly one year ago that the 2020 Rockies would win 94 games), and even if the Rockies were better than their 2019-20 records indicate, that certainly isnt a promise of future success. Colorado has done little this offseason besides trade Arenado, while the Dodgers and Padres now seem prepared to dominate the NL West for years to come.
Press Release

February 2, 2021 SENATOR RISA HONTIVEROS ON CHINESE EMBASSY'S STATEMENT REGARDING COAST GUARD LAW We should not be lulled into complacency by the Chinese Embassy trying to pass off China's new Coast Guard law as harmless. It is not; particularly for countries with competing claims in the South China Sea. While China can pass any law it wants, these laws cannot be used in ways that violate UNCLOS and international law. This is an unfortunate provocation, considering that China is militarizing its Coast Guard, which is supposed to be a civilian institution, while making implied claims through its baseless nine-dash line that its sovereignty and jurisdiction extends to the West Philippine Sea. Walang basehan ang nine-dash line ng Tsina kaya walang basehan din ang pag-angkin nila ng mga teritoryo. This unfounded claim of sovereignty over the entire South China Sea is illegal. China's Coast Guard, deemed the largest in the world, can take military action disguised as enforcement of their maritime laws anywhere within this nine-dash line that has long been invalidated by international law. Again, this violates the Philippines' rights under the UNCLOS. The refusal of Chinese vessel Jia Geng to submit to search within our territorial sea is also a violation of our rights under the UNCLOS. Wala na ngang pahintulot ang Jia Geng sa gobyerno natin, hindi pa pinayagan ang Philippine Coast Guard mag-inspect dahil umano sa COVID-19 protocols. Inside our territorial sea, we have an unambiguous right to board and inspect. Kung COVID-19 protocols ang pag-uusapan, our law applies, not China's. If the Chinese Embassy sincerely wants to reassure us that it is not violating international law, China should, once and for all, waive its belief of the nine-dash line, a historical claim with no legal basis. China should also cease all provocations in the WPS and in Philippine territorial waters, such as by allowing Chinese vessels to be boarded for inspection by our own Coast Guard. We should already be preparing for a more aggressive Beijing. Wala pa nga ang Coast Guard Law, todo na ang panghihimasok ng Tsina. Paano pa lalo ngayon? This law, and the posturing that comes with it, is injurious to the interest of Filipinos. Nasa tama tayong mga Pilipino, kaya nasa panig natin ang katotohanang atin at atin lang ang WPS. Nakasalalay sa katotohanang ito ang kapayapaan at seguridad hindi lang ng Pilipinas, pati na rin ng ating mga karatig bansa.

Ina Garten turned 73 on Tuesday. Here's a look back at her incredible life in photos. Ina Garten/Instagram

Ina Garten turned 73 years old on Tuesday.

The "Barefoot Contessa" star has built an incredible career that started at the White House.

With the support of husband Jeffrey, she then ran a grocery store that launched her cooking journey.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Ina Garten was born on February 2, 1948.

Garten posted this sweet throwback of her and Jeffrey as kids in 1953, 12 years before they first met. Ina Garten/Instagram

Garten was raised in Stamford, Connecticut, where her father worked as a surgeon.

The future Food Network star didn't spend much time in the kitchen during her youth. Her mother wanted her to focus on school instead, according to the Washington Post.

Garten's life would change in 1963 when she went to visit her brother at Dartmouth College, where she first met Jeffrey.

Garten and Jeffrey started dating in 1963. @inagarten/Instagram

It was love at first sight for Jeffrey, who spotted Garten from the library window.

As it turned out, Jeffrey's roommate knew Garten's brother. Jeffrey sent her a letter with his photo inside, and Garten's interest was instantly piqued.

"I just remember running through the house and going, 'Mom, Mom, you've got to see this picture of this guy. He's so cute!'" Garten told People in 2018.

They had their first date just months later in New York, and Garten felt an instant connection as well.

Read more: A timeline of Ina Garten and her husband Jeffrey's relationship, a love story that has lasted for over 50 years

"I have to say, I just knew he was the one," she told Today Food in 2018. "He's kind, he's smart, he's funny, and he takes very good care of me. It's wonderful."

Garten was 20 years old when she tied the knot with Jeffrey in 1968, five years after they first met.

Garten and Jeffrey on their wedding day in 1968. Ina Garten/Instagram

The couple wed at Garten's parents' house in Stamford.

In 2016, Garten told Vanity Fair that her greatest regret in life was "not marrying Jeffrey sooner."

Read more: Ina Garten jokes about the time her husband Jeffrey sent a romantic text to another woman by mistake

While celebrating the couple's 50th wedding anniversary in 2018, Garten said the secret to a happy marriage was quite simple.

Story continues

"I think you marry someone who thinks you're just the most important thing in the world, and you think he's the most important thing in the world," she told Today Food.

But the couple had to spend their first year as husband and wife apart while Jeffrey served in the Army.

Jeffrey served in the Army in 1969. @inagarten/Instagram

Jeffrey was only able to call Garten once during that entire year he was stationed in Thailand, but he wrote to her every day, he told People in 2018.

Garten kept every single letter, including one in which Jeffrey said he'd love to take his new wife to Paris, where "we won't have enough money for a hotel, but maybe we'll go camping," she added.

The couple went on a four-month camping trip to Paris in 1971, according to the Washington Post. Now, they celebrate every anniversary in the City of Lights.

Garten and Jeffrey moved to Washington, DC, in 1972, where she earned her degree and worked her way up to the White House.

Garten and Jeffrey during their Washington, DC, days. @inagarten/Instagram

Garten helped write the nuclear energy budget during Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter's presidencies. At the same time, she was making her way through Julia Child's books  teaching herself how to cook and throwing weekly dinner parties.

Read more: Ina Garten says she quit her White House job to buy a grocery shop at the age of 30 thanks to advice from her husband

Although she had a prestigious career, Garten didn't feel at home in the upper echelons of DC.

''My job in Washington was intellectually exciting and stimulating, but it wasn't me at all,'' Garten told The New York Times in 1981.

In 1978, shortly after she turned 30, Garten gave up her DC life and decided to buy a small specialty food shop called Barefoot Contessa.

The Barefoot Contessa storefront in East Hampton, New York. Matthew Peyton/Getty Images

''I was sitting at my desk in Washington trying to figure out what I was going to do when I grew up and I came across an ad for this business for sale in Westhampton,'' she told the Times. ''I drove up that weekend, looked it over, and said I'd take it.''

Garten's parents couldn't believe their daughter had given up the White House for a grocery store. But Jeffrey gave her his full support.

"Jeffrey said, 'If you love it, you'll be really good at it,'" Garten told the New York Times' Sam Sifton during a virtual chat for the release of her cookbook "Modern Comfort Food" in October. "And that's the best advice anybody ever gave me."

It was a huge learning curve for Garten, who had little experience in the world of food.

Garten didn't have a food background. Ina Garten/Instagram

"Honestly, the first month I was there I thought, 'This is the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life,'" Garten told Sifton. "I'd never been in the food business, I didn't know how to do anything. But Jeffrey said, 'If you could do it in the first week, you'd be bored in the second week."'

Garten began working 18 hours a day to turn Barefoot Contessa into a success, bringing on a chef named Anna Pump to help.

"Mom was hired to cook, but the beginning of a beautiful friendship began," Sybille van Kempen, Pump's daughter, told Insider. "Mom and Ina motivated each other. They shared ideas and supported each other's growth."

Garten credits Pump  who went on to run the popular Loaves & Fishes Foodstore in Sagaponack, New York, and died in 2015  with teaching her "so much about cooking."

Barefoot Contessa became such a success that Garten moved it to a bigger location in East Hampton.

The interior of Barefoot Contessa, as seen in 2002. Matthew Peyton/Getty Images

Garten told Sifton she got lucky that she found the store just as the specialty food business was starting to take off.

"It was really the beginning of when women were going back to work and they had jobs and families and they had enough on their plate and didn't have time to make dinner," she said. "So they were starting to buy dinner to make at home."

Garten ran the store for 18 years before she sold it to two of her employees in 1996. The store officially closed in 2003.

In 1999, Garten published her first cookbook - "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook" - with recipes from her store.

Ina Garten signs "The Barefoot Contessa" cookbooks in 1999. Robert Lachman/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

It was those first Barefoot Contessa customers who taught Garten that "people eat differently at home than they do in restaurants," she told Sifton.

"I would put out chickens with fresh herbs and it didn't work," Garten told Sifton. "I thought, okay, I'm going to take this huge platter and put the chicken in little red cups and do it really simply  and it sold like crazy. I really learned that people want simple food."

Read more: I lived like Ina Garten in lockdown for a day and it was the most fun I've had in quarantine

"The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook" was a huge hit. Garten has since released a new cookbook every two years.

Garten has written 11 cookbooks. Ina Garten/Instagram

Garten told Sifton it takes her two years to develop the recipes and design for each book, and that she's "involved in every detail of it."

Read more: 13 things you probably didn't know about Ina Garten

The "Barefoot Contessa" star has become beloved for her foolproof dishes that are accessible to home chefs at any skill level. And Garten credits this with the fact that she always tests out her dishes with an inexperienced cook.

"Every time I make a recipe, I watch someone else make it," she told Sifton. "And I learn so much about how someone uses the recipe. At least one person makes it, sometimes three."

Food Network soon came calling, and Garten launched the "Barefoot Contessa" show in 2001.

Garten and Emily Blunt on an episode of "Barefoot Contessa." Barefoot Contessa/Food Network

Garten told the Washington Post that she actually turned down the Food Network multiple times before she decided to give the show a go.

While the series has been a hit  thanks in part to Garten's famous catchphrases  she still finds it "terrifying" to be in front of the camera and only films for six weeks out of the year.

Garten was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2015, and her tribute was penned by none other than Taylor Swift.

Ina Garten and Jeffrey Garten attend the 2015 Time 100 Gala on April 21, 2015 in New York City. Taylor Hill/Getty Images

"As soon as I started watching Ina's show, I realized why so many people adore her," Swift wrote. "Her goal is to make things easier for us. Fans love her warmth and generosity."

"She shows us how to create memories that we'll treasure for years to come. For that, we will always cherish the merry and magnificent Ina Garten," she continued.

And in 2016, Garten returned to the White House - this time as Michelle Obama's guest.

Garten sat down with Michelle Obama for her "Barefoot In Washington" special in 2016. Ina Garten/Instagram

Garten and Obama had tea together for her "Barefoot in Washington" special. And Garten told the Washington Post that it was "one of the greatest days of my life."

"When Mrs. Obama said she liked my work, that was, like, 'Really?,'" Garten recalled. "She's just somebody I admire enormously. She took on a role she never expected to, and she did it brilliantly."

Garten has since found a whole new legion of fans after she became a quarantine hero with the help of a massive cosmopolitan.

Ina Garten went viral for making an enormous cosmopolitan one morning. Ina Garten/Instagram

The "Barefoot Contessa" star became an internet sensation in April when she filmed herself making a huge drink at 9 a.m., telling her fans that it's "always cocktail hour in a crisis!"

Read more: I tried Ina Garten's famous cosmopolitan, and now I understand why she makes it at 9 a.m.

Garten told Sifton that she was "adding like 100,000 people a week on Instagram" after the clip took off.

"It was insane!" she said. "It was completely insane!"

Garten pivoted her Instagram content to share easy pantry-friendly recipes that her fans could make while they were stuck in various lockdowns. Now, she has three million followers.

Garten released her newest cookbook, "Modern Comfort Food," in October.

Garten released her newest cookbook, "Modern Comfort Food," in October. Ina Garten/Instagram

Garten decided to make comfort food the theme of her newest cookbook because she knew it'd be coming out during an election year.

"Two years ago I thought, there's going to be an election a month after this book comes out," Garten told Sifton. "And everyone, no matter who you're voting for, is going to be stressed out."

"I had no idea the layers of stress we would be dealing with now," she added, referring to the pandemic. "Either I'm a genius or I'm really lucky, and I'm sure it's the latter. It was the right thing for the right time."

Read the original article on Insider
A 'sexist' real estate article offering tips for 'single ladies' who are trying to get on the property ladder has sparked outrage online.

Bathurst Real Estate in rural New South Wales posted the 'Buying as a single lady' guide to Facebook in an attempt to help women snap up their first home - but the article was labelled 'disgusting and backwards'.

The independent agency who were forced to delete the viral post later revealed the outsourced blog post was actually written by a woman.

The article titled Buying as a single woman has sparked outrage online for 'sexism'

Bathurst Real Estate in rural New South Wales posted the Buying as a Single Lady guide to Facebook in an attempt to help women snap up their first home, but the article was labelled 'disgusting and backwards'

The article starts off by saying that being content to 'not have a ring on your finger' means you won't have the 'emotional and financial back-up of a spouse' when it comes to buying a home.

It also suggests that purchasing property can be more difficult when there is 'no man beside you to offer logic to the situation'.

'Both single and married women are well known for reasoning with their hearts, not their heads,' the article said.

The blog post also stresses that women can 'go wild' when hunting for a home so it urges potential buyers to not spend over 30 per cent of their after-tax income on a mortgage.

'Whatever you do, stand by this number (rather than a man),' the article said.

Commenters savaged the independent agency calling the post 'offensive'.

'Obviously Bathurst Real Estate think that women are complete idiots and can't function without a man!' one female Facebook user wrote.

'Whoever wrote it and whoever agreed to it, need to lose their jobs and join the 20th Century.'

Others wrote: 'this is the most offensive piece of s**t I have ever read' and 'this is so misogynistic it's almost comical.'

Bathurst Real Estate said the article was not written by anyone at the local office.

'This article was actually written by a woman, who Bathurst Real Estate outsource our blog posts to and we were unaware that this post had gone live on our website,' the real estate posted on their Facebook page.

'We had it removed from our website as soon as it was brought to our attention.'

They offered an apology and said the post is in no way reflective of the team's personal views.

But for many the apology was not enough.

A 'sexist' real estate article offering tips to 'single ladies' who are trying to get on the property ladder has sparked outrage online (stock image)

Bathurst Real Estate offered an apology and said the post is in no way reflective of the team's personal views

'We did have a lot of people say apology accepted, we'll move on,'' the director of Bathurst Real Estate, Stacey Whitake, told 2bs radio.

'But then came all these trolls - people that have never had any dealing with our office and no nothing about our office what-so-ever - attacking the people who were accepting our apology.'

Bathurst Real Estate has now taken their entire Facebook page down in light of the controversy.

The agency behind the article have also broken their silence and offered an apology.

'The post, written by a freelance contributor, represented her personal experience and does not reflect the views of our business or that of our business partners,' The Real Estate Voice said on their company Facebook page.

'We particularly apologise for any offence and distress caused to business partners who have been singled out, in particular Bathurst Real Estate.'
Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam has assigned relevant agencies to take necessary steps in submitting dossiers seeking UNESCOs recognition of Ha Long Bay-Cat Ba Archipelago as a World Heritage site.

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Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh province has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site twice due to its aesthetic values, geology and caves.

Meanwhile, a dossier seeking a world heritage title for Cat Ba Archipelago was sent to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in September 2013.

After the evaluation process, the International Union for Conservation of Nature submitted a decision to the centre at its 38th meeting in Qatar in 2014, recommending Vietnam to consider the extension of Ha Long Bays status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site to Cat Ba Archipelago in nearby Hai Phong city.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature in Vietnam also issued an official dispatch affirming the necessity of the extension.

Cat Ba Archipelago includes over 360 islands, including Cat Ba island in the south of Ha Long Bay. It was previously recognized as a world biosphere by UNESCO./.VNA
Bengaluru, Feb 2 : Aero India will showcase the nation's accomplishments in defence manufacturing, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday, emphasising that the global business community has responded enthusiastically to the Indian economy's revivalist fervour.

Speaking a day ahead of official launch of Aero India, Singh said that India has accomplished at lot in terms of investment, innovation and becoming a defence manufacturing hub. "The world has now started to recognise India as a trusted defence investment destination," he said.

The minister said the decision to organise Aero india in these testing times posed by the twin challenges of the Covid pandemic and also the security challenges thrust along northern borders, wasn't easy.

"I have no hesitation in saying that our robust stance, immediate and calibrated response and the unrelenting spirit of the soldiers on the borders led to stabilisation of the situation and we showed our resolve to defend the sovereignty and integrity of our country," he said.

The minister pointed that the resolve of the government to put the country back on the path of revival, combined with the hard work of officers, all stakeholders of Aero India and support of Karnataka government has made it possible to organise Aero India 21.

He is said that Aero India would offer unprecedented access, insights and opportunities to connect and collaborate with India and global industry leaders, visionaries, academicians, central and state administrations.

Bringing together the defence ministers of various countries, service chiefs, policymakers, foreign OEMs, industry, entrepreneurs and academia to showcase, connect and collaborate, as well as highlighting the policy reforms and partnerships, driving India's new defence manufacturing revolution, Aero India would spark a renewed sense of pride in India's defence manufacturing and take defence cooperation to the next level, the minister pointed out.

Over 540 exhibitors including 80 foreign companies, would showcase their defence manufacturing prowess.

Aero India 2021, will help forge enormous global engagement with Indian defence industry, in the form of partnerships and investments, paving the path for a transformation of the world's largest democracy into the world's most powerful defence economy.
OPEC and its allies can celebrate their success in buoying world oil markets when they gather this week. But the coalition will soon be faced with some tough choices.

Last months pledge by Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman to slash production by a further 1 million barrels a day has buttressed global markets against the latest onslaught from the pandemic. A price rebound to $57 a barrel in London is shoring up the producers revenues.

While that relieves OPEC+ of any need to adjust policy on Wednesday, itll need to start considering how long to restrain output -- a calculation clouded by the potential return of supply from fellow member Iran.

MOVING UP: Oil surges to 1-year high

At the heart of the dilemma is a fundamental tension between the Saudis and their most critical partner in the alliance, Russia. While Riyadh has sought higher prices to cover government spending, Moscow -- without the same pressures -- agitates to claw back market share.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salmans doctrine that you err on the side of caution has been vindicated, said Helima Croft, chief commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets On Wednesday, we might get the contours of the arguments that will be made next month.

Delicate cuts

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners have resolved this year to restore some of the 7.2 million barrels of daily output -- roughly 7 percent of global supplies -- they continue to idle after making vast production cuts when the pandemic erupted last spring.

The restrictions have proved effective, turning around an oil market that last April briefly saw prices plunge below zero in New York, and throwing a financial lifeline to producers around the world -- from tiny African states to corporate giants.

Restoring the halted production, however, is turning out to be a delicate process.

Although OPEC+ is scheduled to revive a total of 2 million barrels a day this year, it agreed a two-month pause after the first 500,000-barrel installment in January as new virus infections menaced fuel demand. Riyadh doubled down on the curbs by announcing an extra 1 million-barrel cutback of its own.

On Wednesday, a panel that oversees the alliances strategy -- the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee -- will convene online to assess the outlook. The JMMC is unlikely to recommend new policies, which will instead be tackled at the next full OPEC+ meeting in early March, according to delegates who asked not to be identified.

The Saudi cut has bought OPEC+ some time, said Bill Farren-Price, a director at research firm Enverus and veteran observer of the cartel.

The question of what to do next will loom over their discussions on Wednesday.

Prince Abdulazizs preference for keeping output constrained has been validated by a bumpy roll-out of vaccines, and renewed lockdowns in key consumers such as China. Major oil traders agree the market wont fully recover until air travel picks up, sometime in the third quarter.

Shale dilemma

Russia on the other hand fears that supporting prices too long will backfire, provoking investment in U.S. shale oil and a flood of new supply that will negate OPEC+s hard work. At last months meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak proposed a production increase, and tried to dissuade the Saudi Prince from his unilateral cut.

It is going to be a hell of fight at the OPEC+ March meeting, said Helge Andre Martinsen, senior oil market analyst at DNB Bank ASA. Russia will consider it a massive failure if OPEC+ cuts starts to stimulate growth in U.S. shale again, while at the same time theyre sitting on plenty of spare capacity.

Russia isnt the only member that might push for relaxing the curbs.

Iraq is in the grip of an economic crisis and desperately needs the revenues that would come from higher oil sales. The United Arab Emirates is seeking to promote a benchmark oil contract that depends on plentiful output, and last year briefly broke ranks with Riyadh to open the taps.

Then theres the complication of Iran.

President Joe Biden is seeking to reactivate a nuclear agreement that would lift U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic, allowing the return of almost 2 million barrels of daily output. With the end of the maximum pressure campaign waged by former President Donald Trump, Iranian exports have already crept higher.

Still, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says an agreement remains a long way off. As the two sides jockey for leverage -- and Tehran presses on with uranium enrichment -- they could be headed for a new rupture rather than reconciliation, according to RBCs Croft. Instead of extra barrels, markets may need to brace for a geopolitical tremor, she cautions.

But if a deal is struck, OPEC+ will need to choose between cutting output further, or seeing their efforts to drain surplus oil stockpiles founder. Its unclear how readily Saudi Arabia would make way for the comeback of its political nemesis.

Irans export hike is another emerging challenge for OPEC+, said Farren-Price. Its one they may need to factor into their plans sooner rather than later.

[February 02, 2021] Flosonics Medical Closes US$14M Financing Round and Expands Board of Directors

Flosonics Medical, a Canadian medical device company focused on non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring, announced the close of a $14 million USD funding round led by Arboretum Ventures. The financing also included participation from existing investors iGan Partners and Genesys (News - Alert) Capital. Dan Kidle, Partner at Arboretum Ventures, will join the board of directors. Flosonics Medical is developing non-invasive wireless sensors to improve the management of critically ill patients. The company's core technology, FloPatch, is a low cost, easy-to-use, wearable Doppler ultrasound sensor that adheres to a patient's neck. FloPatch provides hands-free blood flow assessments during clinical interventions by sending data wirelessly to mobile devices using low energy Bluetooth. "This financing is an important milestone which coincides with our technology's transition to the clinical setting," said Dr. Joe Eibl, CEO and Co-Founder of Flosonics Medical. "Our team has developed the world's first wireless Doppler ultrasound patch. This breakthrough technology will, for the first time, enable non-invasive on-demand Doppler measurement of blood flow, which we believe will be an essential tool for the medical community." FloPatch blood flow assessments can provide important clinical insight for patients in the emergency department, operating room, general medical floor and intensive care unit. The company's first product, the FloPatch FP 120, recently received regulatory clearances from FDA and Health Canada.Financing proceeds will be used for commercial launch in North America and new product development.



"FloPatch is a new paradigm in patient monitoring," said Dr. Jon-Emile Kenny, Flosonics' Chief Medical Officer. "Blood flow has been a missing vital sign, and we're proud to have re-imagined Doppler ultrasound as a simple, wireless, low-cost, single-use wearable." Arboretum Ventures is a healthcare-focused venture capital firm with a history of investing in impactful medical innovation. "Our fund is focused on supporting emerging technologies that have potential to transform clinical care. FloPatch is a truly differentiated monitor, and we're excited to partner with Flosonics' team of world-class ultrasound engineers, physiologists, and clinicians," said Dan Kidle, Partner at the firm.

For more information, please visit www.flosonicsmedical.com or contact info@flosonicsmedical.com. About Flosonics Medical

Flosonics Medical is a venture-backed medical device company headquartered in Sudbury, ON (News - Alert) . Flosonics Medical is focused on the intersection of wearable sensors, ultrasound, and connected devices. Founded in 2015, the company employs over 20 employees engaged in the research and development of its current technology, which has achieved regulatory clearance by the FDA and Health Canada. About Arboretum Ventures

Arboretum Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in the healthcare sector. Founded in 2002, the firm has raised $700 million in capital to support a portfolio diverse in stage and geography. The investment team targets capital-efficient companies that improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare system costs across medical devices, life science tools & diagnostics, and tech-enabled care delivery. Arboretum is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. More information is available at www.arboretumvc.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005337/en/

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International Trade Secretary of the UK Liz Truss (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Hanoi - The UK made a formal request on February 1 to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the first accession application by a member outside the 11 participating Pacific countries since the trade deal came into force in 2018.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss voiced the request in a videoconference with New Zealands Trade Minister Damien O'Connor and Japan's minister in charge of CPTPP negotiations Nishimura Yasutoshi.

Japan and other signatories have welcomed the new development, seeing it as an impetus to expanding free trade based on high-standard investment and trade rules. The UK is expected to enter talks with CPTPP members in the spring.

Japan assumes the presidency of the CPTPP's decision-making body this year, while New Zealand is responsible for receiving accession requests as the depositary for the trade pact.

Once the decision-making body approves the start of the process for the UK's entry, a working-level group will be set up to proceed with accession talks.

In the negotiations, the UK will need to show that it can comply with CPTPP rules, while entering tariff negotiations on a bilateral basis with the current 11 members.

Its accession will ultimately need to be approved by consensus at the decision-making body.

China, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China) and Thailand have also expressed interest in joining the CPTPP.

The trade agreement covers 13 percent of global gross domestic product and groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
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FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Civitas Senior Living, an industry-leading senior living owner/operator and management company, has been certified as a COVID-19 Vaccine Provider by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Civitas is authorized to directly vaccinate all residents, employees, and essential caregivers (if the essential caregiver meets the 1b criteria as determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) at its 36 Texas-based communities.

With this authorization, Civitas will be able to vaccinate its residents and staff without relying on the federal government COVID vaccination program involving on-site community clinics provided by area pharmacies.

"Much like the rest of the senior living industry, we relied on the federal government program to provide COVID-19 vaccinations," said Misty Miller, Chief Operating Offer of Civitas Senior Living. "With this new State of Texas certification, we won't have to wait for local pharmacies to set up vaccination clinics at our communities. Civitas' nurses will administer the vaccinations themselves and be able to respond to our communities' needs swiftly and efficiently, providing necessary vaccines to our residents, employees, and families while keeping them safe and protected. It's a game-changer in our ongoing fight to eradicate COVID-19 and keep our loved ones healthy."

Civitas is partnering with Austin Geriatric Specialists to provide medical oversight and prescribing authority for the ongoing vaccination effort. Civitas had to meet the state's strict regulations and protocols concerning vaccination storage, handling, and monitoring, as well as complete training required by the CDC.

"Since the beginning of this pandemic, our mission has been to protect our residents and staff," said Bobby Lane, Chief Wellness Officer of Civitas Senior Living. "Becoming a COVID-19 Vaccine Provider is a testament not only to this mission but also our commitment to the vaccination effort and stopping COVID-19."

Civitas will complete its current federally supported vaccination program. The company has submitted its request for its first allotment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Upon receiving it, Civitas will begin administering the vaccine as part of its ongoing role as a COVID-19 Vaccine Provider.

About Civitas Senior Living, LLC

Civitas Senior Living is a senior living owner/operator, property management, and consulting company based in Fort Worth that specializes in the development, acquisition, and operational management of senior housing properties. These properties include assisted living and memory care residences and independent senior living facilities. Civitas is known for its signature Passion Program, which ensures a high-quality, comprehensive continuum of care through a unique integration of all the factors that affect community management. For more information about Civitas, please visit www.civitasseniorliving.com .

Media inquiries can be sent to

[email protected]

817-784-7591

SOURCE Civitas Senior Living
The Alabama Legislature began its annual session at noon today with COVID-19 precautions and limited public access to the State House.

Lawmakers do not have the option of postponing the start to a safer time because the date is set in the state Constitution. Their plan is to meet this week and next week, then take the third week off to see if senators, representatives, and legislative employees are getting sick. They could resume business the third week or later. The legislative session can last up to 15 weeks and must end by mid-May.

House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said representatives took rapid COVID tests today and one member tested positive. McCutcheon said that representative and a clerk who worked with him would be quarantined. The speaker declined to name the representative.

McCutcheon said the tests were voluntary. He said the plan was to repeat them when legislators return from the one-week break the last week of February.

Gov. Kay Ivey will deliver her annual State of the State address at 6:30 p.m. tonight but will do so via television and livestream, not to the usual joint session of the Legislature, other public officials, and press at the Capitol.

State Finance Director Kelly Butler told legislators this morning that the governor would propose 2% cost of living increases for education employees and state employees for next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

Gina Maiola, press secretary for Ivey, said in an email, Governor Ivey has been working with legislative leadership and the budget chairs as we near the legislative session. The general consensus is that a 2% pay raise for our educators and state employees is both doable financially and the right thing to do after what has been a challenging year.

The Legislature last approved a cost of living increase for educators for the 2019-20 school year, a 4% raise. That brought the Alabamas starting salary for teachers above $40,000 for the first time. Educators got a 2.5% increase in the 2018-19 school year. The average teacher salary, according to the states 2021 Budget Fact Book is $53,378 for the current fiscal year.

Butler and legislative budget analyst Kirk Fulford gave presentations to legislators on the outlook for state budgets.

Both said the General Fund and education budgets for the rest of this fiscal year are sound because it appears that tax revenues will be more than enough to cover the planned expenditures. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

But Fulford said revenues that support the General Fund are flat and that long-term concerns remain about revenues. Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, chairman of the Senates General Fund budget committee, said it would be a mistake to be overconfident about the states financial outlook.

I dont want to folks to go away thinking were out of the woods and everything is rosy, Albritton said.

Here is a link to Fulfords presentation.

Tonight, the Democratic Party will offer a response to the governors State of the State via livestream at 7:30 p.m.

The House and Senate will offer video livestream of their meetings and of committee meetings to help make up for the limited public access.

House Speaker McCutcheon and Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed have said the goal for the first two weeks of the session is to pass legislation to renew the economic incentive laws Alabama uses to recruit industry, exempt COVID-19 relief payments to households and businesses from state income taxes, and immunize businesses, hospitals, schools, colleges, churches, and others from lawsuits blaming them for sickness from COVID-19 unless there is reckless or intentional misconduct.

Related: Lottery, medical marijuana, Confederate monuments: Alabama lawmakers face decisions

The Senate spent much of its first day changing some leadership positions, decisions that were announced before.

Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, resigned as president pro tem of the Senate, a decision he announced in November. Marsh had been pro tem, the top-ranking member of the Senate, since Republicans won control of the chamber in 2010. Marsh said it had been an honor to hold the position. Senators from both parties praised his work.

Thank you Del Marsh for befriending me and befriending our side of the aisle, Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said.

Marsh said he wanted more time to spend with his family. He will not seek reelection in 2022.

The Senate elected Reed to replace Marsh by a vote of 31-0. Reed thanked Marsh, calling him his friend and mentor.

The Senate Republican Caucus, which holds 27 of 35 Senate seats, picked Sen. Clay Scofield, R-Guntersville, to replace Reed as majority leader.

AL.coms Trisha Powell Crain contributed to this report.

Northern Irish farmers have been told to act with extra caution after the open slurry period commenced on 1 February.

The open period for spreading slurry started on Monday, and the Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) has warned farmers to ensure they are abiding by all guidelines.

After snow and heavy rainfall last week, many areas across the region will not be suitable for slurry spreading, the union said.

The introduction of the new Nutrients Action Programme (NAP) in 2020 brought with it various changes to spreading.

For the month of February, buffer zones will increase and the maximum amount of slurry that can be applied at any one time is reduced to lower the risk of contamination to waterways.

Buffer zones will increase to 30m from lakes and 15m from any other waterways, but they can be reduced to 5m if low emission slurry spreading equipment (LESSE) is used and certain conditions are met.

The maximum slurry rate is reduced to 30m3 per hectare for each application (2700 gallons/acre).

The UFU has issued guidance: "From 1 February, slurry contractors must use LESSE. A slurry contractor is defined as a person who receives payment for spreading slurry where they do not claim Basic Payment Scheme on the land

"It is now a legal offence for a slurry contractor to use a slurry tanker with splash plates for spreading slurry on most land after this date.

The UFU is also reminding farmers that the deadline to submit records of slurry and all other organic manures exported from farms during 2020 is now 1 March 2021.

"Any farm exporting slurry, chicken litter or manure to another farm must submit this information online to the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

"The NAP rules are part of cross compliance and failure to comply could result in penalties being applied to a farmers area payment," the union said.
A lucky Australian man found out he won $1.6milllion after finding a winning lotto ticket in his drawer three months after buying it.



The Canberra local was one of four division one winners from last year's October Saturday draw to take home the $1,614,571.042 prize.

The man said he couldn't believe $1.6 million had been sitting in his drawer for months.

A lucky Canberra resident made the shocking discovery he'd won $1.6million after leaving his lotto ticket in a drawer for three months (pictured: stock image of lotto ticket)

'I don't check my tickets all the time. I only check them every three months or so,' he said.

'I finally got around to checking my ticket and I couldn't believe it had been in a drawer at home this whole time.'

He said he couldn't wait to enjoy his new financial freedom, but would 'definitely continue working'.

'I am going to take care of my family and pay off the mortgage,' he said.

The winning entry was purchased at Euro Garages Australia on Shepherd Street in Hume.

The winning numbers in the Saturday Lotto draw on October 24, 2020 were 31, 38, 3, 30, 23 and 45, while the supplementary numbers were 19 and 40.

Two of the other four winning entries were from Queensland and one from Tasmania and the ACT.
The world can breathe a small sigh of relief this week. The last remaining arms control treaty between the US and Russia, called New Start, will not expire on 5 February after all, as recently feared.

In the nick of time, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his new American counterpart an extension of the treaty for five years, an option stipulated in its text. Joe Biden agreedafter giving Putin the requisite talking to about Russias massive cyberattack on the US, its jailing of the activist Alexey Navalny, and other outrages.

In the short term, a new nuclear arms race between the two biggies has thus been avoided. Not reallyand theres the rub. A wider glance at the worlds nuclear landscape reveals that the danger of cataclysm, by design or accident, keeps growing.

New Start only covers the stockpiles of Russian and American strategic weapons. This refers to those warheads the two adversaries point at each others homeland. The treaty says nothing about tactical nukes, the more flexible and usually smaller warheads built for potential use in a conventional conflict.

But in that tactical category an arms race is already underway. Both the US and Russia, in the name of upgrading their arsenals, have been designing new tactical nukes and deployment technologies. These include things that were science-fiction during the Cold War, such as nukes delivered by drones from submarines.

This race is thus fundamentally different from the one between the US and the Soviet Union. Back then, the contest ultimately came down to a count of each sides warheads. What ultimately stabilized that competition was the macabre but compelling logic of deterrence through mutual assured destruction (MAD).

Todays competition is instead between newfangled technologies and, crucially, the military strategies thus made possible. This multiplication of scenarios and permutations undermines traditional calculations of strategy, which were largely based on the tools of game theory developed during the Cold War.

One upshot is that its becoming even more important for all nine of the worlds nuclear powers to signal their postures, in the jargon. They should explain their intentions and make themselves as predictable as possible to others.

And yet the most recent such signalling was hardly reassuring. In Article 4 of its Basic Principles issued last summer, Russia asserts that one purpose of its nuclear arsenal is the prevention of an escalation of military actions and their termination on conditions that are acceptable for the Russian Federation." Translated, this wording suggests that Russia could respond to a conventional conflict with a tactical nuclear strike, as opposed to reserving nukes purely for retaliation in kind. But that makes any altercation potentially explosive in the fissile sense.

A conflict could, for instance, start with hybrid warfare (of the sort Russia used in its 2014 annexation of Crimea), or with cyberwar (as waged during last years Russian hack of some 18,000 US computer systems), or with a strike in space against an adversarys satellites. If the conflagration escalates and becomes unacceptable, the next step could be nukes. And then?

To make the global matrix even more complex, there are also the other seven nuclear powers to consider, and perhaps additional ones in future. Of these, North Korea may appear to be the most unhinged. But China is the most ambitious. It could have 350 warheads already, according to some estimates. The Pentagon assumes China will double its arsenal in the coming decade.

China is the main reason why the US and Russia couldnt agree on properly renegotiating New Start. Donald Trump, Bidens predecessor, insisted on bringing Beijing into the talks. The Chinese refused. Sarcastically, they wondered aloud whether the Americans and Russians would prefer to let China raise its arsenal to their size or to cut their own down to Chinas. That makes for a good press-conference zinger in Beijing. But it wont help humanity get to grips with its conundrum: More actors are getting more weapons with more technological and tactical applications. The risk that somebody, somewhere pulls a trigger, intentionally or inadvertently, is rising.

In a gesture of global protest against this insanity, 86 non-nuclear countries have signed a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. But these states dont hold the future in their hands. The big nuclear powers do. They must put their daunting other differences aside and begin comprehensive talks to prevent the worst. And the best placed to extend the invitation is the leader who is newest in office, and yet has the most experience with disarmament: Biden.

Andreas Kluth is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion

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The master composite metallurgical test work is underway with the resource model and JORC mineral resource estimate targeted in the first half of 2021.

Moho has been in discussions on parameters for phase 2 test work using diamond drill core or current high-grade RC samples

( ) has reported encouraging results for the first nine holes of the Phase 2 reverse circulation (RC) drilling program as part of its resource definition studies, to infill and extend gold mineralisation, at the East Sampson Dam (ESD) prospect.

The master composite metallurgical test work is underway with the resource model and JORC mineral resource estimate targeted in the first half of 2021.

Excellent progress

Moho Managing Director Shane Sadleir said: Mohos exploration team continue to make excellent progress at East Sampson Dam.

The initial phase 2 RC drill results extend gold mineralisation down plunge at the southern end of the prospect and highlight the potential to discover additional gold mineralisation at the prospect

Phase 2 drilling results

Phase 2 of the current resource infill drilling program finished in early January 2021 and totalled 45 holes for 3,850 metres of drilling.

The drilling highlighted a number of significant gold intersections. They included:

SSMH0102: 2 metres at 4.48 g/t from 100 metres including 1 metre at 8.31 g/t from 100 metres;

SSMH0103: 3 metre at 1.13 g/t from 115 metres;

SSMH0105: 6 metres at 2.3 g/t from 105 metres including 1 metres at 3.63 g/t from 105 metres, including 1 metres at 6.80 g/t from 110 metres;

SSMH0109: 2 metres at 2.98 g/t from 58 metres including 1 metres at 5.26 g/t from 58 metres; and

SSMH0110: 2 metres at 2.61 g/t from 61 metres including 1 metre at 4.27 g/t from 62 metres.

Moho continues to experience long delays of up to eight weeks in receiving assay results from Perth assay laboratories.

Additional ESD RC assay results will be reported as they become available.

Geophysical logging of RC holes

Following the completion of drilling at the East Sampson Dam in January 2021, Moho contracted Wireline Services Ltd from Perth to undertake downhole logging with geophysical probes of the seven diamond holes and 10 RC holes.

The output from this work was magnetic susceptibility, density and calliper, as well as televiewer (optical and acoustic) data for each hole.

These data will be used to elucidate structural information and rock density to aid resource modelling and planning of further drill holes.

Phase 2 test work

JT Metallurgical Services of Perth have been commissioned to finalise sighter test work started in 2020 and prepare a master composite of likely mill feed from the ESD prospect and complete test work as soon as possible.

Moho has also been in discussions on parameters for phase 2 test work using diamond drill core or current high-grade RC samples.

Next steps

Going forward, the company plans to undertake the following:
New Delhi, Feb 2 : The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act are acts against the society, as it set aside a Gujarat High Court judgment acquitting an accused in a corruption case.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and comprising Justices R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah said: "The high court ought to have appreciated that it was dealing with offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, which are against the society. And therefore, the high court ought to have been more careful and ought to have gone into details. We do not approve the manner in which the high court has dealt with the appeal." The accused in the case was an assistant director in ITI, Gandhinagar, who was convicted for offences punishable under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The accused was held guilty by a trial court in 2003, which imposed a sentence of five years. The accused challenged this in the high court, which acquitted him in 2015.

The state government moved the top court challenging the high court judgement. Reacting on order acquitting the accused, the top court said the high court's decision is based on totally erroneous view of law, ignoring the settled legal position.

The top court has remanded the matter back to the high court. The appeal before the high court has been restored to its original file. "The high court to decide and dispose of the appeal in accordance with law and on its own merits, bearing in mind the observations made," noted the bench.

"Therefore, we are of the firm opinion that the impugned judgment and order passed by the high court acquitting the respondent - accused without adverting to the reasons given by the learned trial court while convicting the accused and without reappreciating the entire evidence on record in detail - cannot be sustained and the same deserves to be quashed and set aside," the top court said.
02/01/2021

By Ed Brennen

Photo by Ed Brennen Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who spoke to UML students in 2017, has been named the first White House National Climate Advisor by President Biden.

Now that the new Biden administration has made tackling climate change a top priority, researchers from UMass Lowell are helping policymakers better understand why the issue is so urgent.The universitys Climate Change Initiative ( CCI ) has partnered with the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative and Climate Interactive on the Climate Pathways Project , which uses interactive computer simulations and role-playing exercises to show how policy decisions on energy and greenhouse gas emissions can affect the future of the planet.CCI Director Juliette Rooney-Varga , a professor of environmental science in the Kennedy College of Sciences, helped develop theand accompanyingcomputer model that have already been used by thousands of people around the world. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, whom President Biden recently named as his special presidential envoy for climate, calls En-ROADS a climate crisis game-changer.Next month, the Climate Pathways Project will introduce the simulation to a new wave of deeply divided U.S. policymakers at the national and state levels.Our goal is to really engage moderate and conservative policymakers, says Rooney-Varga, whosethat participation in the simulation leads to greater feelings of urgency and hope about climate change.Given Bidens flurry of executive actions since taking office  from rejoining the Paris climate accord and halting the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to imposing new limits on oil and gas production and mandating climate change as a priority across every federal agency  we asked Rooney-Varga to share her thoughts on the state of climate change education and policy.In addition to helping facilitate the simulations, were going to research their impact on policymakers. Whats their emotional response? How engaged are they? How much personal involvement do they have? And do they actually make decisions or communicate about what theyve learned with others? Well be using surveys and interviews, and well also look at their public sphere of communications. Well be collaborating with (Criminal Justice Prof.) Arie Perliger , using his approaches with software and artificial intelligence to look at social media posts, press coverage, voting records, policy proposals, resolutions  all of that information before and after the simulation.Depolarizing climate change and other politically charged issues is really important right now. We need to come together to solve problems in a way thats grounded in reality and facts. And we are really excited that we have evidence that this simulation-based experience, this way of learning about climate change and energy transition, appears to not only reach people who are politically conservative, but it actually shifts their set of values a little bit towards a more communitarian and egalitarian mindset. So were really hopeful about that.Im relieved. I feel like were finally at a place where climate change is not a niche issue anymore. This is what weve been imagining and hoping and working towards for more than 10 years now. Climate change is so clearly connected to so many other problems, and people are seeing those connections. We need to be aware of all of these connections and address them together. I think thats where we have the most hope for action.Thats what Biden is showing and understanding with cabinet-level appointees whose job is not to address climate change, per se. We have Pete Buttigieg, his nominee for Transportation Secretary. Hes talking about how we have an opportunity to invigorate the economy and recover from this pandemic  build back better  while addressing climate change, while creating more sustainable transportation systems. And we have climate change front and center in terms of thinking about national security.The climate benefits are only going to come later from these actions. But when we have climate change policy that has immediate benefits to the economy, public health and our experience in the natural world, it makes sense to a lot more people.I personally dont like to refer to silver linings  because theres been so much grief and suffering and awful things that people have had to go through with the pandemic, and it seems disrespectful to call it a silver lining  but it does seem like the pandemic has laid bare how inequity and public health are collective-action problems. And climate change intersects with those. Weve also raised some questions about whether were able to cope with disasters. How many disasters can you throw at us at one time and still expect us to get through without really causing disruptions to human systems?One of the critical things that we need to address with any of these collective-action problems is trust in government. Theres a real crisis in this country right now where people dont trust the government, and for understandable reasons in many cases. But on the other hand, we need policy solutions, and I think trust in government is a big way to get there. We need to rebuild that.Its just a relief, and not just as a climate scientist. You heard from Dr. Anthony Fauci, just the sense of, OK, I dont need to be afraid about speaking up anymore. Ultimately, reality is going to come back to haunt us if we ignore it. Its important not to shy away from reality. And its a relief to not have to.There definitely are ramifications of our withdrawal. Clearly, as with all of the things that have happened recently, including the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, thats going to be front and center in so many of our allies minds when they think about whats happening in the United States. We cant erase that. We cant pretend that none of that happened. We cant pretend that we didnt pull out of the Paris Agreement.But its also critically important because our rejoining and working toward reclaiming a leadership position in the international climate negotiations can build momentum and lend more credibility to other nations and blocs that are trying to lead, and shift the momentum away from inaction. Its so easy to make a case for inaction or continued growth in fossil fuel use if you can point to the United States and say, The biggest polluter out there, historically, is not willing to do anything. Just the fact that weve already changed that narrative is a huge win.
Rabat  The president of the National Museum Foundation (FNM), Mehdi Qotbi, held talks with the Japanese ambassador to Morocco, Shinozuka Takashi, which focused on the means to develop museum cooperation between Japan and the Kingdom.

The two sides discussed the possibility of organizing exhibitions in Morocco and Japan, support for the digitization of museum devices and future celebrations between the two countries, the FNM said Monday in a press release.

Discussions also touched on the project to build a center for initiation and training in museum trades, the release read.

"The two countries enjoy strong relations in several fields as reflected by a long history of friendship between the two reigning families and a common history", Takashi pointed out on this occasion.

These talks take place in the context of exchanges undertaken over the past months with the ambassadors of countries accredited to Rabat, according to the same source.
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For the last four years, those of us who voted for Donald Trump and who identify as committed followers of Jesus have been asked incessantly, How could you vote for him? If you truly believe in what is written in Scripture, how could you vote for a man like Trump? Now, the tables are turned, and that same question must be asked of those who identify as committed followers of Jesus and who voted for Joe Biden. How could you do it? Did you not see the radical, destructive, anti-Christian policy decisions he would make?

As for the justification of our vote for Trump, our argument has been simple: We agreed that Trumps character and personality could be negative and destructive. But we hoped that the good policy decisions he would make, decisions of massive, life and death proportions, would outweigh his character flaws.

And so, when it came to fighting against the slaughter of the unborn, numbering more than 60 million to date in America since 1973, Trump was our clear choice over Hillary Clinton or Biden. Jesus cares about the least of these, which most certainly includes the defenseless babies in the womb.

When it came to preserving our religious liberties and our freedoms of conscience and speech, Trump was our clear, hands-down choice.

When it came to standing up to radical Islam or facing down tyrannical China, Trump was our definite preference.

One of my colleagues in the Middle East recently told me how the bloodbath which took more than 650,000 lives during the Obama administration virtually stopped with Donald Trump.

My friend recounted to me the horrific torture and abuse of women in his region at the hands of Islamic extremists, including their repeated gang rapes (and worse). In his mind, Trump was a champion who helped put a stop to such horrors.

A Chinese emigre to Australia told me early last year that he was terribly afraid of President Xi and saw Trump as a hero, especially as Trump stood with the Hong Kong protesters.

These are spiritual, moral, and humanitarian issues of great importance to us as evangelicals, and so we appreciated Trumps courageous stands.

Needless to say, the same Israelis who felt betrayed by the Obama administration were profoundly grateful to Trump for canceling the Iranian nuclear accords, knowing the real dangers of that terrible deal.

Were all these gains worth the negative effects of the Trump presidency? In the end, did he do more harm than good? Did he help evangelical causes while damaging the evangelical cause? Did he advance the things we stood for while degrading and defiling us in the process?

Those are fair questions to ask, and I respect those who answer in the negative. Thats also why I always respected those Christians who could not vote for either candidate in conscience before God.

But for those Christians who voted for Biden, were you not aware that he would be the most aggressively pro-abortion president in our history (with an even more radical vice president by his side)?

Are you surprised that he not only invalidated the Mexico City Policy but has also revoked the Hyde Amendment, all by executive fiat? If you consider yourself pro-life, can you look me in the eye and say, Im glad I helped empower President Biden make these life-destroying decisions? Can you say, Im glad every American taxpayer will be forced to fund abortion with the help of my vote?

Are you surprised that Biden signed into law a radical transgender bill that has even caused consternation among gay, feminist, and transgender leaders and individuals? Do you feel good about the fact that by voting for him, you have negatively impacted women and girls throughout the country, as well as strengthened Big Techs crack down on our freedoms?

Are you surprised that there is already great concern within Israel that Biden might derail the amazing peace progress made by the Trump administration? Were you unaware that he might well give back to terroristic Iran a potential path to nuclear armament?

And can you really applaud his powerful call to unity in his inauguration speech when his executive actions on his first day in office were so highly divisive and even destructive?

We all have to vote our own consciences, and I have no problem at all with those who questioned how a conservative Christian could vote for Trump. As a two-time Trump voter, I too have asked if our relationship with him would prove to be a match made in heaven or a marriage with hell. Did we make the right choice, or did we strike a bargain with devil?

But just as I welcomed those who questioned my vote for Trump, I urge every Christian who voted for Biden to welcome my questions now.

Did you not hear us when we warned about his radical, leftist agenda, only a portion of which was highlighted here? And if you did know these were his plans, can you really justify your vote?

So, heres my totally unsolicited (and perhaps unwanted) advice.

If you voted for Biden, how about a little less self-righteous posturing towards those of us who voted for Trump?

How about all of us acknowledge that the hope for America will not be found in our elected officials but in the gospel, not just preached but lived out?

And how about we all agree to meet at the foot of the cross in humility and repentance, determined to make a fresh start there?
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has launched its 15th European National Council in Denmark. Jesper Bo Hansen, Head of Corporate Finance, Catella, will be the new Chair serving a two-year term on a voluntary basis, and will be joined by an executive committee made up of local industry leaders.

ULI i...

[]
HDFC Bank: RBI Appoints External Firm for Special Audit of the Bank's IT Infrastructure

Following incidents of outages in HDFC Bank Ltd 's internet, mobile and payment banking facilities, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed an external information technology (IT) company to conduct special audit of the Bank.

HDFC Bank, in a regulatory filing says, "(the) RBI has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the Bank under Section 30 (1-B) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, at the cost of the Bank under Section 30 (1-C) of the Act. The Bank shall accordingly extend its cooperation to the external professional IT firm so appointed by RBI for conducting the special IT audit as above."

In December last year, the central bank had asked HDFC Bank to halt launch of its new digital programme and on-boarding new customers for its credit card business until further orders.

At that time, in a regulatory filing, HDFC Bank said, "...the RBI has issued an order dated 2 December 2020 to HDFC Bank with regard to certain incidents of outages in the internet banking, mobile banking, payment utilities of the Bank over the past two years, including the recent outages in the Banks internet banking and payment system on 21 November 2020 due to a power failure in the primary data centre."

"The RBI vide said order has advised the Bank to temporarily stop, all launches of the digital business generating activities planned under its program - Digital 2.0 (to be launched) and other proposed business generating IT applications and sourcing of new credit card customers," the lender says.

In addition, the order states that the Banks board examines the lapses and fixes accountability.

In a message to customers, Sashi Jagdishan, managing director (MD) and chief executive (CEO) of HDFC Bank, has apologised for not living up to customers' expectations. He says, "We realize that as our valued customer, you expect us to maintain a very high standard of service quality and experience. And sometimes, we have not been able to live up to your expectations. For that, please accept our sincere apologies."

As per Mr Jagdishan, HDFC Bank had two outages, one in November 2018 followed by another in December last year. "We have taken help of external expertise, understood what needs to be done further and have substantially implemented the inputs to strengthen our IT infrastructure and systems. Unexpectedly another incident happened on 21 November 2020 and the primary reason for the same is the power outage in our primary data centre. We are working on war footing to strengthen this area also now," he said.

Earlier in November 2020, HDFC Bank's digital payment services were down over the weekend with netbanking, debit card payments, UPI, IMPS, and NEFT remaining inoperative. Many customers discovered the problem when they failed to receive one-time passwords (OTPs) to complete online transactions. People were also unable to withdraw money from ATMs.

A similar incident had happened in December 2019, when HFDC customers complained that they were unable to pay their loan EMIs and clear their bills on time.

On 5 December 2019, RBI had said a team of experts was examining the breakdown of HDFC Banks digital banking channels that occurred in early December, causing its customers to be locked out of their net and mobile banking accounts for over 48 hours. The Bank had faced a similar outage on its mobile application in 2018, while launching a new version of the app.

HDFC Bank claimed that the problem was due to a power outage at one of its major data centres. But questions are being asked about why Indias largest private bank does not have a backup power source?

HDFC Bank had also faced queries from analysts and investors about the repeated outages. In January 2020, the Banks then executive director and now chief executive Mr Jagdishan had said the Bank had become victim[s] of its [our] own success. He said What we did not realise is with the kind of increase in businesses across liability, across assets, across payment products; and within payment products, multiple channels that we have been patronising, whether it is the cards, whether its the UPI volumes, I think we underestimated the growth in these volumes.

According to HDFC Bank, over the past two years, it has taken several measures to fortify its IT systems and will continue to work swiftly to close out the balance and would continue to engage with the regulator in this regard.

"The Bank has always endeavoured to provide seamless digital banking services to its customers. The Bank has been taking conscious, concrete steps to remedy the recent outages on its digital banking channels and assures its customers that it expects the current supervisory actions will have no impact on its existing credit cards, digital banking channels and existing operations. The Bank believes that these measures will not materially impact its overall business," HDFC Bank says.
Three new eServices allowing the public to update their residence address information have been launched on Bahrains National Portal, bahrain.bh, the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) has announced.

The Update ID Card Residential Address, Residential Address Statement, and Verify Residential Address Statement eServices are in line with directives by Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, calling for continuous improvements to ID card services. They add to the services previously announced by the minister to the ID eServices bundle.

iGA Director of Identity and Population Registry, Shaikh Sabah bin Hamad Al Khalifa said this brings the total number of ID card and population register eServices to 38, all of which are available via the National Portal, smartphones, and other eGovernment digital channels.

To avail of the new eServices, users can visit bahrain.bh, access the ID card services page, select the required service, and then fill in the requested information and submit required documents. -TradeArabia News Service
(Natural News) Scientists are sounding the alarm regarding an urgent biodiversity crisis called insect apocalypse as humanitys environmental footprint is taking a huge toll on the worlds insect populations.

In a volume of new papers published in the journal PNAS, experts from around the world said that insect populations are suffering a death by a thousand cuts due to several human stressors including pesticide use, deforestation, intensive agriculture, light pollution and urbanization.

The scientists recommended several measures like banning pesticides and planting native plants to create more and better insect-friendly habitats. They noted that though most insect populations worldwide are dropping, some have been able to thrive due to conservation efforts.

Insect declines tearing apart the tapestry of life

David Wagner, a University of Connecticut entomologist and co-author of the volumes introduction, emphasized the consequences of the declines and said that insects are absolutely the fabric by which Mother Nature and the tree of life are built.

Wagner stated that several insect populations are falling by around one to two percent. At that rate, according to Wagner, Youre losing 10 to 20 percent of your animals over a single decade and that is just absolutely frightening. Youre tearing apart the tapestry of life.

The declines are principally caused by agriculture, the introduction of invasive species, nitrification, pollution and land-use change especially deforestation. These are compounded by additional stressors at the local and regional level, such as insecticide and herbicide use, urbanization and light pollution.

In areas of high human activity, where insect declines are most conspicuous, multiple stressors occur simultaneously, the authors wrote in the introduction to the volume.

Roel van Klink, a researcher at the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research who was not involved in the studies, told the Guardian: The most important thing we learn [from these new studies] is the complexity behind insect declines. No single quick fix is going to solve this problem. (Related: While everybody panics about coronavirus, insects are heading for extinction in both the U.S. and Europe  No insects means no food.)

Van Klink is optimistic that insect populations can still bounce back. There are certainly places where insect abundances are dropping strongly, but not everywhere, van Klink said.

In fact, four papers in the volume showed that some insect lineages remained stable or even increased in abundance. Several moth species in the U.K., for instance, demonstrably expanded in range or population size.

While such increases were likely caused by winter temperatures, conservation efforts remain important in mitigating insect declines. Wagner and his colleagues noted that the populations of freshwater insects in Europe and North America grew thanks to clean water legislation. In addition, pollinators like the western honey bee in North America may well thrive due to their associations with humans, according to the experts.

Actions to save insects from global declines

In the final piece of the volume, a team of biologists endorsed eight simple actions that people can take to save insects. Five of these are intended to create more and better insect-friendly habitats, the loss of which is likely a leading cause of insect declines.

The biologists recommended stopping pesticide use; growing native plants; converting lawns into diverse natural habitats; limiting light pollution; and reducing soap runoff from washing vehicles, building exteriors, and using driveway sealants and de-icing salts.

To boost awareness and appreciation of insects, the team further suggested pushing for conservation efforts, getting involved in local political advocacy and countering negative perceptions of insects.

The remaining three are aimed at adjusting public attitudes toward insects to increase support for conservation actions, the team wrote.

The biologists concluded that adopting or avoiding certain behaviors will contribute directly and indirectly to insect conservation and the combined impact of these contributions is necessary to address the issues related to insect declines.

Read more articles about humanitys harmful impact on the environment at Ecology.news.

Sources include:

EcoWatch.com

PNAS.org 1

PNAS.org 2
PHILIPPINE SEA (Jan. 30, 2021) A UH-60L Blackhawk helicopter, with the U.S. Army Aviation Battalion Japan, prepares to land on the flight deck aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) during deck landing qualifications(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Markus Castaneda)

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The gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organisations hire independent workers for short-term commitments

Presenting the Union Budget for 2021-22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government also proposed setting up of a portal to collect information on gig-workers, building and construction workers, among others. The government said social security benefits will be extended to platform and gig workers. The gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organisations hire independent workers for short-term commitments.

Experts shared their view with Firstpost on the benefit of the Budget 2021 announcements.

Gayathri Vasudevan Chairperson and Co-Founder, Labournet Services India

Social security benefits to gig workers and migrants, in the long run, will nurture risk appetite in workers for gig work, reduce precarity. Mandated social security will mean financial and social inclusion. Implementation will mean planning human capacity building and skilling in parallel to infrastructure building. The infrastructure itself will enable livelihoods. Clean India mission could be channelled for skilling and improving working conditions of sanitation workers. Budget can be utilised for skilling frameworks in Indian contexts and professionalising this cadre.

Neha Bagaria, Founder, CEO, JobsForHer

The governments emphasis on creating an Atmanirbhar Bharat is synonymous with ensuring that our women are also Atmanirbhar, which can only come with their financial independence. It is thus a welcome change that women will be allowed to work in all categories with adequate protection, a move which will open up further job opportunities for women, thus enabling higher financial security. Additionally, we had highlighted the need to ensure that gig workers, a huge proportion of whom are women, need to be provided with adequate benefits. It is thus heartening to see that social security benefits will now be extended to gig and platform workers for the first time.

Sahil Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO, GigIndia

Budget 2021 will provide a shot in the arm for gig and platform workers, given the decision to extend social security benefits to this cohort. Moreover, they would be now covered under the ESIC (Employee State Insurance Corporation) scheme since minimum wages will apply to all such workers. The other highlights are a new portal for collecting data of gig employees, migrant labourers and construction workers. This information will be useful in providing gig workers with health and insurance facilities. Finally, the decision to allow women to work in all these categories as well as in night shifts, backed by suitable safeguards, is most welcome too. Taken together, such measures will streamline the gig economy, transforming it into a more organised sector. Consequently, this should help attract more talent in the coming days.
Kylie Jenner has played coy about their relationship status over the last year, after separating back in September of 2019.

But the Keeping Up with the Karadashians star has been spending lots of time with the father of her daughter, as they've quarantined as a family during the pandemic.

She was joined by Travis on Monday, as they sang Happy Birthday to their daughter Stormi on her Instagram Story, after they downsized this year's Stormi World for her third birthday.

Stormi's famous aunties were also in attendance as Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe all posted photos and videos from the 'cousin party' on their Instagram Stories.

Co-parenting goals: Kylie Jenner was joined by Travis Scott on Monday, as they sang Happy Birthday to their daughter Stormi on her Instagram Story, after they downsized this year's Stormi World for her third birthday

The 23-year-old carried the birthday girl on her hip, as Travis, 28, stood behind her, along with some of their family.

They all sang along, before Kylie leaned in with Stormi to let her blow out the candles atop her extravagant castle cake.

Despite the sweet family moment, Kylie and Travis are still strictly co-parents, after they recently spent the holidays together with her family in Aspen.

A source told Hollywood Life: 'They're enjoying a lot of family time before getting back to work in the new year. Neither one of them appear to be looking to date anyone else [right now], but they're still not back together.

Gang's all here: The 23-year-old carried the birthday girl on her hip, as Travis, 28, stood behind her, along with some of their family

Family quarantine: The Keeping Up with the Karadashians star has been spending lots of time with the father of her daughter, as they've quarantined as a family during the pandemic

Make a wish: They all sang along, before Kylie leaned in with Stormi to let her blow out the candles atop her extravagant castle cake. Despite the sweet family moment, Kylie and Travis are still strictly co-parents, after they recently spent the holidays together with her family in Aspen

Not together: A source recently told Hollywood Life: 'They always come together for Stormi, and spending the holidays and various milestones together with her is very important to the both of them' (pictured in August, 2019)

'Travis always planned on spending the holidays and New Year's with Kylie and Stormi and he probably always will. They always come together for Stormi, and spending the holidays and various milestones together with her is very important to the both of them.'

Although they had to scale back this year's Stormi World, they provided a Raising Cane's truck and an inflatable slide for the exclusive guest list.

Kylie took to her Instagram Story on Monday with an update for her 213million followers, which she gave with an angel of death face filter.

She said: 'I am just waiting for my three-year-old to wake up. But Stormi World 3 is cancelled... for obvious reasons.

'But I still went all out for Stormi at my house, and we are just doing a cousin party, with all her cousins and my family, which will be still just as amazing. But yea, I can't wait to show you guys.'

Angel of death: Kylie took to her Instagram Story on Monday with an update for her 213million followers, which she gave with an angel of death face filter

Family gathering: She said: 'I am just waiting for my three-year-old to wake up. But Stormi World 3 is cancelled... for obvious reasons. But I still went all out for Stormi at my house, and we are just doing a cousin party, with all her cousins and my family, which will be still just as amazing. But yea, I can't wait to show you guys'

Keeping it casual: The Kylie Cosmetics mogul kept it casual for the big day, posting a mirror selfie in her oversized orange puffer coat with black sweatpants and a black and white pair of Nike Dunk High Ambush

Princess Stormi: The birthday girl dressed as a princess in an adorable blush dress with a thick layered tulle skirt and feathered sleeves, complete with a sparkling tiara

Two scoops: Stormi and her famous mom picked watermelon as their flavor, as they placed their order at an at-home ice cream bar, which featured Stormi World branding

Scaling back: Although they had to scale back this year's Stormi World, they provided a Raising Cane's truck and an inflatable slide for the exclusive guest list

The Kylie Cosmetics mogul kept it casual for the big day, posting a mirror selfie in her oversized orange puffer coat with black sweatpants and a black and white pair of Nike Dunk High Ambush.

She also shared a glimpse at the birthday girl, who dressed as a princess in an adorable blush dress with a thick layered tulle skirt and feathered sleeves, complete with a sparkling tiara.

Stormi and her famous mom picked watermelon as their flavor, as they placed their order at an at-home ice cream bar, which featured Stormi World branding.

They also got their sugar fix with a wall of delectably curated sweets, adorned with a pink sign that read 'Stormi's Candy Shop.'

Chicken fingers were on the menu for lunch, which was catered by a Raising Cane's truck in their driveway, where dad Travis Scott, 28, made an appearance.

Sweet tooth: They also got their sugar fix with a wall of delectably curated sweets, adorned with a pink sign that read 'Stormi's Candy Shop'

Sugar coma: The wall was fully stocked with cupcakes and cake pops, which were all decorated in pastel icing and sprinkles

Catered lunch: Chicken fingers were on the menu for lunch, which was catered by a Raising Cane's truck in their driveway, where dad Travis Scott, 28, made an appearance

Grand entrance: They decorated the entrance to their home with gold mylar balloons, which spelled out: '3rd time's a charm'

Birthday merch: The phrase was also printed on some Stormi World 3 merch, featuring the brand's storm cloud imagery

Fit for a queen: A child-sized dining table was arranged against a huge pink castle cutout, under a layer of rainbow balloons on the ceiling. The entrance of the castle cutout was scribed with '3rd time's a charm' in a child's handwriting

Sweet ride: Princess Stormi was met with a life-sized pumpkin carriage by their pool, which was constructed out of balloons

They decorated the entrance to their home with gold mylar balloons, which spelled out: '3rd time's a charm.'

The phrase was also printed on some Stormi World 3 merch, featuring the brand's storm cloud imagery.

A child-sized dining table was arranged against a huge pink castle cutout, under a layer of rainbow balloons on the ceiling.

Princess Stormi was met with a life-sized pumpkin carriage by their pool, which was constructed out of balloons.

They also set up an inflatable rainbow slide outside, topped with the huge inflatable Stormi head, which has appeared at previous years' Stormi World festivities.

Mama's girl: The Life of Kylie star took to Instagram with a sweet tribute for the birthday girl

Happy tears: She wrote: 'thank you God for sending this little soul to me. crying today because i can't stop the time'

Proud dad: Travis also wished his daughter a happy birthday on Instagram: '3 more TIMES I LOVE UUUUUU. Happy bday to my Lil storm storm'

Kylie and Travis usually spare no expense for their annual Stormi World, which usually features carnival rides, games and some celebrity guests.

The Life of Kylie star took to Instagram with a sweet tribute for the birthday girl, writing: 'thank you God for sending this little soul to me. crying today because i can't stop the time. it's all the little things i'll miss like your cute voice and our long talks on the potty.

'watching you experience everything for the very first time has been the best part of these last few years. but on the other side i'm excited to watch you grow into the most special girl i know you will be and all the amazing things i know you will do. happy birthday to my baby forever!!!!'

Travis also wished his daughter a happy birthday on Instagram: '3 is bigger than 2. 3 more years of love that's true. 3 more inches u might have grew. 3 more years a lot to dooo!!! 3 more TIMES I LOVE UUUUUU. Happy bday to my Lil storm storm.'
UGI International to hold exclusive rights to Ekobenz' bioLPG supply, providing strong platform for growth across the European region

Partnership boosts UGI International's sustainable fuels portfolio in Europe and supports customer's need to reduce carbon footprint and achieve decarbonisation targets

A significant milestone in UGI International's decarbonisation strategy that underpins the Company's commitment to support the goals of the Paris agreement to achieve a net zero global economy

UGI International ("the Company"), European subsidiary of UGI Corporation (NYSE:UGI), one of the world's largest LPG distributors, today announced a new supply and development partnership with Ekobenz, a Polish technology specialist in catalytic conversion of bioethanol to bio-gasoline and bioLPG. Per the terms of the agreement, UGI International has secured the exclusive rights to Ekobenz' supply of bioLPG, a renewable form of propane-butane produced from advanced bioethanol. The primary raw material to produce bioLPG is the conversion of organic material derived from industrial waste, unsuitable for use in human and animal food chain. The product can be used by all of UGI International's existing LPG entities operating across Europe, and significantly boosts the company's portfolio of sustainable fuels.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006067/en/

Ekobenz' state of the art research facility in Bogumilow, Poland (Photo: Business Wire)

As well as providing a platform for the growth and wider uptake of bioLPG through UGI International's strong market presence in Europe, the company is also committed to playing a crucial role in enabling its customers to decarbonise their operations to support the goals of the Paris agreement to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The move also signifies UGI International's leadership in supporting emerging technologies that have the potential to transform and decarbonise a sector that has been traditionally heavily reliant on fossil fuels. The unique properties of bioLPG mean that it can be easily combined with traditional conventional LPG and used across the same applications, diluting the carbon footprint per litre and offering a greener alternative that can be used in exactly the same way by customers.

Ekobenz is the first and currently only company in Europe that has succeeded in commercialising bioLPG production based on advanced bioethanol produced from waste. The first shipment of bioLPG from Ekobenz' state of the art research facility in Bogumilow, Poland, is expected to arrive in Sweden in the spring of this year.

The partnership with Ekobenz is one of several initiatives which support UGI International's ambition of aligning and, where possible, surpassing those sustainable targets as set in the EU's Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II) guidance protocol.

What is bioLPG?

Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) is most commonly used for industrial processes, off grid heating and as a transport fuel. In general, conventional LPG contains less sulphur than other fossil fuels resulting in cleaner combustion, higher efficiency, and less required maintenance. BioLPG's sustainable properties compared to its non-bio counterpart is further strengthened by the fact that Ekobenz uses advanced bioethanol, produced from waste and residues as feedstock in its production.

Roger Perrault, Executive Vice President Global LPG

"Ekobenz is an excellent opportunity for us to benefit from one of the emerging pathways to a more sustainable future. This initiative is one of many options we are currently pursuing on the path to securing the production of renewable fuels. It is complementary to other business activities in UGI International, which also include renewable wind power and existing bioLPG currently supplied in the Nordic region of Europe. We will continue to ask our Business Development Group to cast the net far and wide to ensure we partner up with the most advanced and appropriate technical initiatives emerging in the market."

Neil Murphy, Vice President for Business Development for UGI International

As highlighted by Roger, our increased focus in the bioethanol space represents a major step forward in our relentless search for new and innovative technologies to support our customers on the path towards a more sustainable future.

"As one of the world's largest suppliers of LPG, we consider it our mission to be an innovator in offering customers greener and cleaner LPG fuels. The proprietary technology employed by Ekobenz produces very high-quality products at a moderate cost, paving the way for large scale, commercial production which can be easily expanded in Europe. Together it's our ambition to pioneer affordable bioLPG for the foreseeable future."

Stanislaw Jablonski, President of Ekobenz ltd.

Biomass products produced by Ekobenz can be added to crude oil products without restriction, making them an ideal way to achieve zero emissions in liquid and gaseous fuels by 2050. In addition, all 2020-2050 milestones aimed at zero emissions for liquid and gaseous fuels can be met using the existing distribution system, equipment and people.

Therefore, Ekobenz as a producer of renewable fuels and UGI as a leading LPG distributor meet the conditions for a highly successful partnership which can protect the climate and achieve zero emissions in 2050.

About UGI International and Ekobenz

UGI International is one of the leading LPG distributors and a UGI Corporation subsidiary which operates in 17 European countries servicing a customer base of 615.000 end-users. UGI International employs several brands such as AmeriGas, Antargaz, AvantiGas, DVEP Energie, Flaga, Kosan Gas and UniverGas. In 2020 UGI International serviced customers across broad markets such as commercial industrial, residential, agriculture, Autogas and aerosol, with 1.7 million tons of LPG. UGI International is committed to aligning its business operations with REDII and you can read more about the companies ESG strategy by clicking here.

Ekobenz is a Polish-based start-up established in 2006, which specialises in ETG (ethanol to gas) technology. Their production facility is based in Bogumilow in Poland where the company transforms second generation bioethanol to advanced biofuels suppling a global energy company with bio gasoline and now UGI International with bioLPG. The ETG technology is patented and the main objective of Ekobenz' research is to create a liquid bio-hydrocarbon, which can be added to fossil fuels without any limitations, thus increasing the share of renewable energy in transportation fuels Ekobenz' total workforce currently stands at 50.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006067/en/

Contacts:

For media enquiries please contact:

FTI Consulting

Caroline Cutler Genevieve Ryan ugi@fticonsulting.com

UGI Investor Relations

Tameka Morris, 610-456-6297

Arnab Mukherjee, 610-768-7498

Shelly Oates, 610-992-3202
Francisco Vera, well-known in Colombia for his environmental campaigns and defence of childrens rights, plays with his toys at home in Villeta, Colombia (Fernando Vergara/AP)

A social media death threat aimed at an 11-year-old environmental activist has roused outrage in Colombia, a nation where attacks on social leaders are common and threats are taken seriously.

Colombian officials said they are investigating the death threat against Francisco Vera and President Ivan Duque recently promised in a television appearance that his government would find the bandits behind the Twitter message.

For his part, the boy says he will continue to lead environmental campaigns and urged other young people to use social media to support causes they believe in.

Francisco, who has drawn comparisons to teenage Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, got together with six friends from school about two years ago and marched to the main park in his hometown of Villeta carrying cardboard signs and chanting slogans about climate change, under the supervision of his grandmother.

His Guardians For Life group now has at least 11 chapters and more than 200 members across Colombia.

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It planted hundreds of trees last year and petitioned Colombias government to ban single-use plastics.

He spoke before the countrys congress last year.

On January 15, the boy received a gruesome, profanely worded death threat from a Twitter account using a false name in response to a video he posted urging Mr Duque to improve internet access for children studying from home during the pandemic.

Such threats have weight in Colombia.

The United Nations says that at least 53 community leaders were murdered in the South American country last year and it is examining reports of an additional 80 such deaths.

The nation is struggling to achieve peace following decades of guerrilla conflict and clashes involving drug gangs and paramilitary groups.

Twitter suspended the threatening account and the boy received hundreds of messages of support, including a letter that was hand-delivered by United Nations officials.

Signed by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, it congratulated Francisco for his work on behalf of the environment.

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At home in Villeta, a small town surrounded by mountains, Francisco said he welcomes constructive criticism and is trying to ignore the threat as well as messages in which critics accuse him of being an instrument of leftist politicians.

He said his group of young activists will campaign against the introduction of oil fracking technology in Colombia and will also keep up pressure on politicians to ban single-use plastics.

Last year, the group collected 24,000 signatures in an online petition for such a ban.

His mother, Ana Maria Manzanares, said she hopes the threat is nothing more than a cruel joke.

She said a town official suggested shutting down her sons social media account, but she prefers to let him decide whether to stop campaigning.

I want him to be aware that he is doing something that is very valuable, Ms Manzanares said.

And that it is possible for him and thousands of children around the world to change things.

Francisco agrees.

Expand Close Francisco, his mother Ana Maria Manzanares, left, and grandmother Maria del Pilar Mendez (Fernando Vergara/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Adults should not be the only ones who discuss big topics he said.

Children need to have a voice, too, because people who are making choices today will be gone soon and we will have to deal with the consequences.

While he said he enjoys watching congressional debates on television, he has also got more typical interests: playing video games, taking his dog Pinky for walks and swimming in a neighbourhood pool.

In his room, Francisco keeps a box full of Lego bricks, taekwondo belts of different colours and a collection of Nerf guns that he shows off to visitors with a grin.

Im a pacifist, he said as he reloaded one one of the toy guns.

But Im also a boy.
According to those in the know, Arlene Foster's leadership of the DUP is coming to an end.

The no nonsense Fermanagh woman has survived RHI, the collapse of the Assembly, Brexit and Covid - but the Irish Sea border may prove a bridge too far.

Graffiti has already appeared in Belfast spelling out the message 'Foster must go', and according to sources within her own party some agree.

Foster could yet retain her position, but the results of a recent LucidTalk poll will have done nothing to help her cause.

If she does go, the question remains who will succeed her?

It seemed obvious that Peter Robinson would succeed Ian Paisley, while Foster was clearly primed to succeed Robinson. The matter of her successor is not as clear cut.

For a time it seemed likely Simon Hamilton would be the next DUP leader, but he has walked away from politics altogether.

Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has been suggested, while Nigel Dodds' prospects looked over even before his election defeat last year.

Gavin Robinson's name has also entered the fray, but might another MP prove a more likely candidate?

Much like Foster, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson began his political career as part of an exciting crop of young Ulster Unionists.

He worked as a constituency agent for controversial South Down MP Enoch Powell in the early 1980s and was first elected to Stormont in 1985.

By the time of his election to Westminster representing Lagan Valley in 1997 he was already being tipped as a future leader of party and country.

Despite playing a key role in the UUP's negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement, he quit the talks as the deal was finalised, and spent years locked in a bitter power struggle with party leader David Trimble over the agreement.

He finally quit in late 2004 and defected to the DUP, alongside Arlene Foster.

Their departure hastened the downfall of Trimble and the party's electoral fortunes have never recovered.

After joining the DUP, Donaldson held the position of Junior Minister in the Executive, but somewhat blended into the background of the party, amongst the big personalities and veterans of the Paisley era.

He returned to greater prominence after the party's confidence and supply agreement with Theresa May's government in 2017. If he was chosen as leader, it is likely he would command the respect of the DUP's controversial brand of MPs who have long proved a thorn in Foster's side.

When the likes of Ian Paisley and Sammy Wilson grab headlines for all the wrong reasons, there is little more the current DUP leader can do but shrug.

The fact these same MPs elected Donaldson as their Westminster leader indicates a level of respect.

As a former senior UUP figure he would also likely appeal to those in Foster's camp.

The 58-year-old could be the right figure to bridge the gap between the party in Stormont and at Westminster.

When double-jobbing ended, many of the DUP's veterans remained in Westminster, but the notion that the old guard was being put out to pasture was smashed when Brexit gave them greater prominence than ever before.

While the party has many talented young representatives, its current Assembly team lacks those with the personality of a Gregory Campbell or Sammy Wilson.

Donaldson has certainly had his moments, but he has proved himself more level headed and uncontroversial than some party colleagues in recent years, and could prove a uniting figure within the party.

If Foster does go, the man once dubbed the "crown prince" of unionism could finally ascend to the throne.
[February 02, 2021] Voyager Digital Announces Upcoming Events Calendar

CSE: VYGR

OTCQB: VYGVF

Borse Frankfurt: UCD2

NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 CNW/ - 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 participation in the following upcoming events. Voyager Upcoming Events Calendar Feb 3rd - Adelaide Capital's Crypto Day info

Feb 4th - A.G.P. Emerging Growth Technology Conference info

Feb 8th - KBW Virtual Panel - The Rise of Retail Crypto Investing & Trading info

Feb 24th - Diamond Equity Emerging Growth Invitational info

Feb 25th - Singular Research Alpha Leaders Conference info

Mar 3rd  LD Micro - March 30 for 30 info

Mar 2425th - Sidoti Spring 2021 Virtual Conference info

Mar 30th - Lytham Partners Spring 2021 Investor Conference info For more information on Voyager Digital, please viit 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. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/voyager-digital-announces-upcoming-events-calendar-301219957.html SOURCE Voyager Digital (Canada) Ltd.

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January was a fierce month for the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Over 6 million cases of COVID-19 were reported, and more than 95,000 people succumbed to their infections. In a recent interview on Meet the Press, Dr. Michael Osterholm, a member of Joe Bidens coronavirus transition team, warned that the United States had to prepare for a potentially massive surge that could hit the country in the next few weeks.

In this Jan. 9, 2021, file photo, transporters Miguel Lopez, right, Noe Meza prepare to move a body of a COVID-19 victim to a morgue at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Currently, there have been 26.8 million cases of COVID-19 reported and 453,000 deaths directly attributed to the virus. Since their peak in early January, cases have been declining to reach early December levels, with the seven-day moving average registering at 150,000 cases per day, a 32 percent decline over two weeks. Deaths are at their peak with over 3,300 per day on a seven-day moving average. It is expected that these will follow the decline in cases as they lag behind new infection numbers by two to three weeks. Cell phone data has shown a slowdown in the populations movement since the holidays contributing to these trends.

As hospitals and health care workers have seen a break in the punishing number of cases that have left them exhausted and shaken, governors and state officials are seizing on these trends to begin relaxing mitigation measures. For example, Michigan and Illinois have opened up indoor dining. Illinois will allow parties of 10 people to sit inside restaurants and bars.

Foremost on the minds of politicians is seeing schools return to in-person education. However, attempts at bringing teachers back into schools are meeting with fierce opposition in Chicago.

Speaking Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press, former Biden adviser Dr. Michael Osterholm said, Were all loosening up right now. We all want to end our pandemic fatigue and our pandemic anger that dont believe the pandemics even real. But we have got to turn that ship around, too.  As fast as we are opening restaurants, were likely to be closing them in the near term. Having previously recommended keeping vaccinations on track with two-dose regimens per their schedule, Dr. Osterholm is now calling for giving as many people, especially the most vulnerable, one dose of the vaccine before the next surge that he said is surely coming.

Dr. Osterholm voiced genuine concern that the spring wave will have a catastrophic impact on health care systems, worse than the winter surge, with peaks in hospitalizations reaching over 130,000 admissions. Recognizing that a lockdown is not forthcoming from this administration, he explained that even with the single doses reduced efficacy, it would help avert death and severe illness for those at the highest risk. The urgency to administer these vaccines immediately is paramount, he emphasized.

The surge that is likely to occur with this new variant from England is going to happen in the next six to 14 weeks. If we see that happen, we are going to see something that we have not seen yet in this country. Imagine, he said, you and I are sitting on a beach with blue skies and its 70 degrees. But I see a category five hurricane or higher 450 miles offshore. Telling people to evacuate on that nice blue-sky day is going to be hard. But I can also tell you that hurricane is coming.

Despite Osterholms urgent warning, only 25.5 million people have received one or both doses of the vaccine in the United States, according to the Washington Posts vaccination tracker. Close to 6 million people have received both doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Last weeks average of 1.32 million doses per day was 3 percent down from the prior week. Johnson & Johnsons vaccine has yet to receive emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.

Supply issues continue to plague vaccine allocation to the states, creating chaos in the appointment systems. According to the New York Times, in Erie County, New York, seven days of appointments were canceled, affecting over 8,000 people because the state had sent fewer vaccines than the county had ordered. Beaufort Memorial Hospital in South Carolina had to cancel thousands of appointments through March 30 when they received notification that the vaccines they had anticipated were not delivered. The Los Angeles Times reported that San Franciscos public health department would run out of vaccines on Thursday.

Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University, told the Financial Times, The Biden administration said it inherited no national distribution strategy, but if that is the case, how did we get to 1 million vaccinations a day, and why are we still targeting that number? We should be aiming for at least 2 million doses a day, if not 3 million.

It is always easier to blame the previous administration. A senior administration official said, We inherited 57 different distribution strategies, some which were working and some of which werent, and thats what we had to work with. Regardless, the Biden administration has chosen to avoid a national lockdown, which could avert the aforementioned impending crisis. Preparations must be made to protect the population rather than continuing with an ad hoc approach to distributing vaccines while pushing to open schools and businesses throughout the country.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, the number of reported cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK variant) has climbed to 467 after first being detected in Colorado on December 30. The numbers are rising fastest in Florida, which now has had 147 detected cases. Yet, as Dr. Osterholm indicated, the US is flying blind, as it lacks a robust tracking system for detecting these variants. Still, the CDC and many other epidemiologists have indicated that by March the B.1.1.7 variant, which is 50 percent more contagious and 30 percent more lethal than the wild type, will be the dominant mutation in the country.

Two other states, Maryland and South Carolina, have also reported the South African variant, while Minnesota has detected the Brazilian variant. The concern raised with these two variants is their ability to possibly evade immune detection. Manaus, Brazil, which scientists assumed had reached herd immunity over the summer, is suffering a catastrophic resurgence of COVID-19 infections that has seen their hospitals inundated and medicinal oxygen exhausted. Despite early warnings portending a second crisis, authorities chose to let their guard down and return to business as usual.
A former Tullamore based priest will be installed as the new Archbishop of Dublin this morning.

The installation of Dermot Farrell as the new Archbishop of Dublin will take place todauy (Tuesday, February 2) in St Marys Pro Cathedral at 10.30am.

A Westmeath native, he was appointed Curate in Tullamore Parish in the late 1980s after returning from studying in Rome.

The Principal Celebrant will be Archbishop Farrell. He will be joined by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and His Excellency Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland.

Since my appointment by Pope Francis on December 29, I have been overwhelmed by the good wishes and support extended to me as I embark upon my new ministry as Archbishop of Dublin," said Archbishop Farrell ahead of the Mass of Thanksgiving.

"I am acutely conscious that, to be effective, my broad pastoral role will require collaboration with many people and will involve difficult decisions. I will continue to keep you all in my prayers and I ask that you please pray that the Holy Spirit will help guide and strengthen me in my new role as Archbishop.

Due to public health restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, this will not be a public Mass. However, people are invited to participate in the Mass which will be livestreamed on the cathedral webcam Watch and Listen Live | Archdiocese of Dublin (dublindiocese.ie) as well as on the Facebook page of the Archdiocese of Dublin.

Born in 1954, he began his studies for the priesthood at Saint Patricks College, Maynooth in 1972, obtaining a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1976, as part of his philosophical studies.

During his theological studies he was awarded a Bachelor in Divinity Degree in 1979 and a licence is Theology in 1981, both by the Pontifical University, Maynooth.

He was ordained to the priesthood in Saint Michaels Church, Castletown-Geoghegan on 7 June 1980.

Upon the completion of his studies he was appointed as Curate in the Cathedral Parish of Christ the King, Mullingar. In 1985 he began doctoral studies in the Gregorian University and, in 1988, was awarded a Doctoral Degree in Theology , for a dissertation entitled: The Dogmatic Foundations of Bernard Harings Thought on Christian Morality as a Sacramental Way of Life.

His final year in Rome also saw him serving as a Director of Formation in the Pontifical Irish College.

Following his return from Rome he was appointed Curate in Tullamore Parish and in 1989-90 he began lecturing in Moral Theology at Saint Patricks College, Maynooth. In 1990 the Maynooth College Trustees appointed him Executive Assistant to the President of College and to membership of the Faculty of Theology, holding the post of Director of the one-year Religious Studies Programme.

In 1993 he was appointed Vice-President of Saint Patricks College, Maynooth, and in 1996 was appointed President of the College, a position he held until his retirement in 2007.

In 1997 he was named as an Honorary Prelate of his Holiness. From September 2007 until 2018 he served as Parish Priest of Dunboyne and Kilbride Parish, Co Meath, and was appointed Vicar General of the Diocese of Meath in 2009.

Bishop Farrell has extensive administrative experience: he has served on various boards and committees, among them, the Board of Allianz plc; the Governing Body of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth; the Theological Department Irish Inter-Church Committee, and as National Director of the Permanent Diaconate, and he is currently Chairman of Veritas Communications.

His appointment as Bishop of Ossory by Pope Francis was announced on January 3, 2018, and he was ordained bishop in Saint Marys Cathedral, Kilkenny, on 11 March 2018.

He was elected Finance Secretary of the Irish Bishops Conference in March 2019.
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on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)has appointed an external IT firm for carrying out a special audit of its IT infrastructure in the aftermath of repeated service outages at the country's largest private sector lender over the past two years.

" has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the bank under Section 30 (1-B) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949..., at the cost of the Bank under Section 30 (1-C) of the Act. The bank shall accordingly extend its cooperation to the external professional IT firm so appointed by for conducting the special IT audit as above," said in a regulatory filing.

Last month, had submitted a detailed plan of action to the to address repeated service disruption issues due to outage, saying it was hopeful of improving its technology platform in three months.

Progress is being made on the plan of action provided to the RBI and the bank has taken this positively as it will raise the standard, according to a senior official of HDFC Bank.

The action plan will take 10-12 weeks for implementation, and further time-frame will depend on the RBI's inspection. Based on the satisfaction level, the regulator will lift the ban, the official said at an analysts' meet.

In December, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) temporarily barred HDFC Bank from launching new digital banking initiatives and issuing new credit cards after taking a serious view of service outages at the lender over the last two years.

"RBI has issued an order dated December 2, 2020, to HDFC Bank Ltd with regard to certain incidents of outages in the internet banking/ mobile banking/ payment utilities of the bank over the past two years, including the recent outages in the bank's internet banking and payment system on November 21, 2020, due to a power failure in the primary data centre," HDFC Bank had said in a regulatory filing.

The bank has been penalised for two major outages, one in November 2018 and the other in December 2019.

Taking a stern view of the repeated outages, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said in December the regulator had some concerns about certain deficiencies and it was necessary that HDFC Bank strengthens its IT system before expanding further.

"... we cannot have thousands and lakhs of customers who are using digital banking to be in any kind of difficulty for hours together and especially when we are ourselves giving so much emphasis on digital banking. Public confidence in digital banking has to be maintained," Das had said.

HDFC Bank, the largest lender by assets in the private sector, has been classified as a systemically important entity by the RBI in the past. It is also the largest issuer of credit cards and has a significant share in the payment processing segment.

The bank is the largest issuer of credit cards and had 1.49 crore customers as of September 2020 while on the debit cards front, it had 3.38 crore customers.

Earlier, HDFC Bank's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Shashidhar Jagdishan had apologised to customers and promised to work on the deficiencies.

(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 South Korean-flagged tanker is escorted by Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats on the Persian Gulf, Jan. 4, 2021. AFP



Iran said Tuesday it has allowed the crew of a South Korean oil tanker it seized last month to leave the country, according to news reports.



The MT Hankuk Chemi had 20 sailors, including five Koreans, aboard when it was seized by Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps for alleged oil pollution on Jan. 4.



The release comes in a "humanitarian move" by Tehran following a request from the South Korean government, Reuters quoted a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry as telling state media.






LONDON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2021 QEPrize is awarded for the creation and development of LED lighting, which forms the basis of all solid state lighting technology. Isamu Akasaki, Shuji Nakamura, Nick Holonyak Jr, M. George Craford and Russell Dupuis are recognised not only for the global impact of LED and solid state lighting but also for the tremendous contribution the technology has made, and will continue to make, to reducing energy consumption and addressing climate change.

First awarded in 2013 in the name of Her Majesty The Queen, the QEPrize exists to celebrate ground-breaking innovation in engineering. The 2021 winners are announced today by Lord Browne of Madingley, Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation. HRH The Princess Royal shared a message of congratulation for the winners.

Solid state lighting technology has changed how we illuminate our world. It can be found everywhere from digital displays and computer screens to handheld laser pointers, automobile headlights and traffic lights. Today's high-performance LEDs are used in efficient solid state lighting products across the world and are contributing to the sustainable development of world economies by reducing energy consumption.

Visible LEDs are now a global industry predicted to be worth over $108 billion by 2025 through low cost, high efficiency lighting. LED lighting is 75% more energy efficient than traditional incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs, and is playing a crucial role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. LED bulbs last 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs and their large-scale use reduces the energy demand required to cool buildings. For this, they are often referred to as the 'green revolution' within lighting.

"Engineering is imperative to solving human problems. All over the world, everyone knows the QEPrize. Most importantly, this is a team prize. I was able to do what I did in the 1980s, because of what had come before. When I was modifying reactors every morning and every afternoon continuously for a year and a half, I never thought it would be so successful." - Professor Shuji Nakamura

"This is a really special moment for me. The QEPrize is so prestigious and it is spectacular to receive recognition from The Royal Family. It is a career highlight that is impossible to beat. Engineering is incredible, and I am proud to part of something that has made such a big impact on the world." - Dr George Craford

"It is really something to share in this award win among my friends and colleagues  all five of us each played an important role, and this recognition means an awful lot. In those early days, when it was long days and nights hand-building reactors, Nick Holonyak mentored us. He really drew us in and inspired us to be part of the adventure that is engineering." - Professor Russell Dupuis

"This year's Prize winners have not only helped humanity to achieve a greater degree of mastery over the environment, they have enabled us to do so in a sustainable way. They have created a product which we now take for granted, but which will play a major role in ensuring that humanity can live in harmony with nature for many more centuries to come." - Lord Browne of Madingley, Chairman, Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation

"The impact of this innovation is not to be understated. It makes lighting a lot cheaper and more accessible for emerging economies. For example, LEDs are being used on fishing boats where previously the only option would have been paraffin lamps. They are much cheaper and safer. It is not only an extreme engineering achievement, but a societal impact that has a significant impact on the environment." - Professor Sir Christopher Snowden, Chair of the QEPrize Judging Panel

The winners will be formally honoured at a ceremony later this year; they will receive the 1 million prize and an iconic trophy, designed by the 2021 Create the Trophy winner Hannah Goldsmith, a 20-year-old design student from the United Kingdom.

Lord Browne also announced a change in the QEPrize cycle to reflect the fact that just as engineering is continually evolving so too is the QEPrize, which will now be awarded on an annual basis. The increase in the frequency of the prize cycle will offer greater opportunities to recognise engineering excellence.

Regarding this change Lord Browne said, "At the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, we recognise that a new age of innovation demands a new approach. As engineering and its place in society keep evolving, so too must the Prize. We want to expand our horizons, and do more to recognise the diversity of contemporary engineering.

"I cannot think of a better way to honour what has been an extraordinary year for engineering, and to celebrate the centrality of engineers to the story of human progress."

Fine out more: qeprize.org

Additional Quotes:

From QEPrize's Judging Panel:

Dr Jean-Lou Chameau: "This innovation has had an impact worldwide, and has evolved over the 50 years it has been in existence. The science has been transformed into so many applications  especially in the last 10 years, and there is more to come. Specifically, its energy saving capabilities are incredible  perhaps without realising it, everyone using this technology is opting for a greener option."

Professor Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz: "The QEPrize itself is extremely important. Not only does it highlight fantastic creations, but it also captures the interest of young people and creates role models for young engineers across the globe to aspire to. Engineering is a challenging and stimulating career. If you're an engineer, you can do anything. Engineering allows you to create solutions and solve complex problems that no one has solved before."

Professor Dame Lynn Gladden DBE: "Our 2021 winners are all part of the green revolution. We're looking at approximately 80% less energy for LEDs than traditional light bulbs. In the next 10 years, potentially most of the lighting will be LED. Saving approximately 10% of electricity globally. The contribution of our winners' collaboration cannot be overstated. Giving people more robust, reliable, affordable and more environmentally friendly light sources is the way forward. The wider impact on people's lives is enormous  it means they have more time in the day to study, work and live."

Professor Dr Dr h.c. Reinhard Huettl: "The environmental aspect is this innovation's greatest contribution to saving our climate. It's given us a completely new approach to lighting. You find them anywhere and everywhere."

Professor Jim Al-Khalili OBE: ""Each one of the five winners has contributed, in unique ways  from the initial creation, development of the technology, to its applications. What's more, it is incredibly efficient compared to incandescent lighting, which requires the heating of a filament. This means it has exciting implications for reducing energy consumption on a mass scale and brings light to parts of the world where electricity supplies are limited."

Professor Jinghai Li: "Science gives knowledge for the basis of human beings. Engineering gives us the solutions. Without this engineering achievement, there would be so much we would not be able to do. LED lighting is everywhere  from cars to computer screens, from streetlights to its use in hospitals to kill viruses."

Dr Raghunath Anant Mashelkar: "This technology is a gamechanger. It helps us deal with one of the biggest challenges facing the world today  decarbonising to mitigate against climate change and help create a greener future. Not only is it an incredible innovation, but because it is affordable and easy to produce, its impacts are amplified. In India, for example, LED, means people are not exposed to the toxicity of other lighting solutions such as kerosene lamps, as is often the case."

Ilya Marotta: "QEPrize is all about showing to the world how, through engineering innovation and creativity, we can solve the world's problems. Our 2021 winners are from different countries, but they came together to create something incredible. It goes to show the incredible things that can happen when engineers work together. You might think the story of creating lightbulbs belongs in the history book, but it's still happening today, and we can learn from the people behind it."

Dr Dan Mote Jr: "This impressive, decorated group of scientists have created an innovation that is undeniably paramount to our planet, especially as we face the continual challenge of reducing our consumption of fossil fuels worldwide. LEDs require no fuel yet produce an extremely high-quality light source, without contaminating the greater environment, across a broad spectrum of lighting needs. Hundreds of millions of LEDs are created every year and you wouldn't be able to stick a pin on our planet without finding them being used  they're ubiquitous."

Professor Dr Dr h.c. Viola Vogel: "The impact of this innovation on the world is enormous and has a huge effect on our planet. The QEPrize demonstrates how important it is that that young people follow their talents and identify the key challenges that lie ahead. There are so many challenges that we need to address today, and younger generations should continually ask themselves how they can use their talents wisely to make this a better world."

Dr Henry Yang: "Engineers are problem solvers. Society needs engineers to help us to solve the problems; to create the technologies we haven't had before and to continuously improve our quality and health of life, especially when the population continues to grow."

From Create the Trophy's Judging Panel:

Sir Ian Blatchford: "Judging the Create the Trophy competition was an exceptionally difficult task this year  though it is always so stimulating and enjoyable. The winning design combines elegance and interest  it draws inspiration from the circuit boards on which much science and engineering is done. We were particularly struck by Hannah's design as it had the audacity of design, it was something our winners can be proud to have on their mantlepiece."

Roma Agrawal: "This year was particularly challenging for us as judges, there were so many brilliant designs! In the end, we loved Hannah's approach to translating the circuitry of engineering into a beautiful organic form. I particularly like how she used the third dimension to add depth to her design. I was also hugely impressed with Atharva's piece, it reminds me of ancient Japanese joinery techniques and I enjoy how turning it around gives you a new view of the design, with a focus on the empty space inside the shape."

Zoe Laughlin: "The winning Create the Trophy entry was beautifully designed. It is abstract but you could read meaning into it. We saw a great range of ages in the shortlist, and entrants from all far flung corners of the world, from India to Italy. There were very powerful themes  very much looking at universality and what unites us, and the endeavour that engineering represents. If you're interested in making stuff and problem solving, then you're interested in engineering".

Rebeca Ramos: "The winning Create the Trophy entry was a fully-formed, considered design. It was clear to us how this would look, and how it would be made. Design and engineering are tied together. One of the missions I have in life is to make it clear these are not mutually exclusive. It's really great when a designer understands the physics of material and from that can let their creativity flow."

Notes to Editors:

About the 2021 QEPrize

QEPrize celebrates engineering's visionaries, encouraging engineers to help extend the boundaries of what is possible across all disciplines and applications. It also inspires young minds to consider engineering as a career choice and to help to solve the challenges of the future.

The QEPrize is administered by the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation and funded by generous support from the following corporate donors: BAE Systems plc, BP plc, GlaxoSmithKline, Hitachi, Ltd., Jaguar Land Rover, National Grid plc, Nissan Motor Corporation, Shell UK Ltd, Siemens UK, Sony, Tata Steel Europe, Tata Consultancy Services, and Toshiba.

The 2021 winners are awarded a total cash prize of 1 million.

The 2021 prize was open to:

up to five living individuals;

of any nationality;

who are personally responsible for a ground-breaking innovation in engineering which has been of global benefit to humanity. Self-nomination was not permitted.

The trustees reserved the right to reject any nomination where, in their reasonable opinion, there was or was likely to be a conflict of interest between the nominees, nominators, or any referees and any other nomination or the prize more generally.

The judges use these criteria to select the winner, or winners, of the QEPrize:

What is it that they have done that is a ground-breaking innovation in engineering?

In what way has this innovation been of global benefit to humanity?

Are there any other individuals who might claim to have had a pivotal role in this development?

About the QEPrize cycle transition from 2022

The QEPrize is increasing the frequency of its prize cycle from 2022 in order to offer greater opportunities to recognise engineering excellence.

Those awarded the QEPrize before 2021 received a total cash prize 1million  winners from 2022 onwards will receive 500,000. The entry and judging criteria remain the same.

About the Create the Trophy Competition

The QEPrize trophy is found through the Create the Trophy competition. The winning design is selected by a panel of expert judges from across the fields of engineering and design. The competition gives young people worldwide (aged 14-24) the opportunity to get involved, testing their design skills using the latest in 3D-design technology.

SOURCE QEPrize
The Ministry of Health has organised 64,000 visits to coronavirus patients who are self-isolating at homes and provided medication to 17,000 cases during the month of January.

In a virtual cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Tuesday, Minister of Health Hala Zayed said the ministry also provided 604 pulse oximetre devices  which measure blood oxygen levels  to patients quarantining at home.

The ministry launched the home visitation initiative early in January to follow up on coronavirus patients who self-isolated at home with mild symptoms.

The initiative includes a service provided to patients through 5,400 health units and medical centres nationwide to measure oxygen saturation in blood and temperatures.

During the cabinet meeting, Zayed also affirmed the availability of sufficient liquefied oxygen at hospitals nationwide, as well as a reserve stock of oxygen cylinders.

Egypt has started its vaccination campaign against coronavirus using the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine last week by inoculating hundreds of medical workers at quarantine hospitals.

In December, the country received the first batch of doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, consisting of 50,000 doses.

On 31 January, Egypt also received the 50,000 doses as first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the British-Swedish companys branch in India.

Zayed has announced that people over 60 years of age and people suffering from chronic diseases are expected to receive the vaccine starting mid-February.

On Monday, Egypt reported 541 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total infections nationwide since the outbreak of the pandemic to 166,492, according to a statement by the Egyptian health ministry.

The ministry also reported 44 new fatalities, bringing the death toll from the pandemic to 9,360.

The statement said that 471 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 130,107.

Last week, Egyptian officials said the country passed the second wave of the virus, which battered the country in December.

Short link:


A Baptist minister who supports reproductive freedom of choice, or simply the liberty to choose abortion, gave thanks to Joe Biden for forcing Americans to fund abortions, a report says.

In a report by Life News, the CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Rev. Katey Zeh thanked Biden for forcing U.S. taxpayers to fund abortion groups, especially Planned Parenthood.

The Baptist minister who also works as an activist for pro-choice and abortion campaigns praised Biden for rescinding the Mexico City Policy and protecting the "sanctity of choice" calling the act of pro-life groups to restrict or interfere with reproductive freedom as "reproductive oppression."

According to Zeh, "As people of faith who support reproductive freedom, we believe that everyone has the capacity to make sacred decisions about their bodies, lives, families and futures. Any attempt to control, restrict or interfere with that decision is reproductive oppression."

On Thursday, Biden ordered the restoration of international aid funding to abortion using American taxpayers' dollars. Two of the largest abortion organizations in the U.S., Planned Parenthood and MSI Reproductive Choices, will be a recipient of the federal fund making the billion-dollar industry of abortion alive again by killing millions of unborn babies every year.

Like it's not enough, Zeh expressed even more hope that Biden will do more to remove "harmful barriers" to legalized abortion referring to the Hyde Amendment which prohibits taxpayers from paying for elective abortions included in federal programs like Medicaid. Zeh called the amendment "unjust" for those who are "already struggling to survive" despite the fact that about 2.4 million Americans have survived because of the pro-life amendment she criticized.

In April, the Democrat president considered abortion as "an essential medical service that cannot be delayed" in light of the coronavirus pandemic that hit the whole world. Biden's healthcare plan will not only force insurance companies to consider abortions as "essential," he will also expand the abortion clause under Obamacare and promised abortion activists that he will get rid of the Hyde Amendment as he had said during his campaign.

Despite the showing of strong support from the president himself and faith groups like Zeh, a new poll this week revealed that 77 percent of Americans oppose to Biden's plan of using taxpayers' money to fund abortions, including abortions in foreign countries. Another poll from Politico and Harvard University also revealed that 58 percent of Americans oppose funding abortions using tax dollars.

Before Biden was inaugurated, Trump's reinstatement of the pro-life Mexico City Policy defunded the biggest abortion groups in the U.S. preventing them to use federal funds to pay for abortions in and out of the country.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation, the biggest abortion organization in the States lost over $100 million in state funds under the Mexico City Policy. MSI Reproductive Choices, the British-based abortion chain, lost $73 million in American tax dollars under the same policy of the Trump administration.

Until now, abortion remains to be the no. 1 leading cause of babies getting killed around the world each year.
Early build ID.4s await shipping

Volkswagen said Tuesday that, following presales of the launch edition ID.4 1ST SUV which have already taken place, presales of additional ID.4 models will now also start by mid-February in 30 European countries, including Germany, as well as in the US. Deliveries will begin in March in Europe and China and, from the middle of the year, in the US.

"The ID.4 plays an important role. With this model, Volkswagen is expanding its range to include an electric vehicle in the world's largest growth segment, the compact SUV class. The market launch of our world car is therefore an important strategic milestone for the brand," said VW Passenger Cars CEO, Ralf Brandstaetter. In 2020 the company tripled deliveries of BEVs and, thanks to its ID. family, is now already a market leader in a number of countries.

"We hope to deliver well over 100,000 ID.4s to customers this year alone," said sales and marketing head Klaus Zellmer. "We have already received 17,000 incoming orders for the vehicle."

Of the deliveries planned for 2021, around two thirds will go to Europe, the other third to China and the US [which is not getting the ID.3]. In China, the ID.4 will be sold in two variants - Crozz and X.

ID.4 is the second VW model based on the Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB), a platform specially tailored to the requirements of electric vehicles.

The ID.4 marks the beginning of the global rollout of the platform. "The car will be made and sold in Europe and China in future, and later in the US. In doing so, we are scaling the MEB platform around the world and creating the economic basis for the success of our ID. family," added Brandstaetter.

Production has begun in Zwickau (Germany) plus Anting and Foshan (China) while Chattanooga (US) and Emden (Germany) will start in 2022.

The top models - Tech5 and Max5 feature a claimed world first: An augmented reality head-up display projects its display into the driver's field of view, shows selected symbols dynamically and fuses them with reality. The navigation's turn arrows, for example, will appear in the driver's field of vision seeming 10 metres apart, matching the route of the road.
India's Bigger Budget is a Shot in the Arm for the Economy but Fiscal Consolidation Takes a Backseat, says Report

India's budget for fiscal 2022, ending 31 March 2022, represents a comprehensive effort by the central government to shore up the country's nascent economic recovery. But the brawny spending program also entails higher-than-expected general government deficits--at more than 14% of gross domestic product (GDP) this fiscal year and 11.6% in fiscal 2022, says S&P Global Ratings.

In a report, the ratings agency says, "While we currently see no material effect from the budget on India's key credit factors, the economy's brightening growth prospects will be critical to maintaining the sustainability of India's public finances, with general government debt likely to hover at more than 90% of GDP over the next few years."

Recently S&P has revised upward its forecast for India's real GDP growth to negative 7.7% for fiscal 2021, from negative 9.0% previously. However, it says it will take a long time for India's economy to heal from the pandemic.

"We estimate that GDP per capita will fall below $2,000 in fiscal 2021, and that the broader economy will only recover to its pre-COVID output level in the next fiscal year. Nevertheless, India's economy is clearly building momentum, and we forecast real GDP growth of 10% in fiscal 2022 as activity resumes and the country continues to reopen," it added.

According to the ratings agency, amid uncertainty over enduring pandemic-related risks, the government's fiscal 2022 budget includes a variety of measures that should aid the economy in getting back on track. These include a much higher expenditure allocation to healthcare, up 137% compared with fiscal 2021, as well as productivity enhancing investments in transportation infrastructure, powering a 26% rise in capital expenditure.

The budget's emphasis on capital expenditure marks a noteworthy shift, and higher investment in India's physical infrastructure should help to raise investment potential and competitiveness in the economy over time, the ratings agency added.

India's consistently strong real GDP growth is an important support to the sovereign ratings, and the government's efforts to fortify growth prospects should help to maintain the economy's healthy long-term prospects. Should economic growth materially underperform, weaker financial savings generation in the economy could imperil the government's ability to continue to finance itself at relatively affordable rates, the ratings agency says adding, sustained high deficits could also distort capital allocation, pressuring private sector investment.

Fiscal Consolidation Takes A Backseat

S&P feels aggressive provisioning would help heal the economy but it will be costly. It says, "The Indian government's reported shortfall of 9.5% of GDP in fiscal 2021 was bigger than we expected, and the general government shortfall is highly likely to exceed our previous forecast of 12.5% of GDP this year."

The prospect of consolidation from these heights, while maintaining a significant degree of support for the economy, poses a stout challenge to India's policymakers, the ratings agency says, adding, "The government will seek to balance its spending imperative against its limited fiscal headroom by consolidating its finances at a much slower pace than it planned prior to the pandemic."

Against a pre-pandemic deficit target of 3.5% of GDP, the central government is likely to seek a relaxation of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, enacted to ensure fiscal discipline, to allow deficits higher than 4.5% of GDP up to fiscal 2026.

Because of India's exceptionally high fiscal deficit this fiscal year, in combination with the economy's record contraction, S&P estimates that the general government's net stock of debt will surge by about 18% to 92% of GDP by the end of fiscal 2021.

It says, "With the deficit set to remain higher than 10% of GDP in fiscal 2022, and likely to recede only gradually thereafter, strong nominal GDP growth will be critical in the government's plans to grow its revenues at a clip of 23% next year, and in keeping the debt stock stable at just above 90% of GDP through 2023."

The government's disinvestment campaign will also be crucial to its revenue prospects, with Rs1.75 trillion in related revenues planned for fiscal 2022.

The central government fell well short of its ambitious Rs2.1 trillion disinvestment revenue target amid the pandemic in fiscal 2021. Prospects for disinvestment should be much stronger next year, and the government's second attempt at listing state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will likely be pivotal to its success, the ratings agency added.

Capital Allocation to Banks Sufficient, For Now

The Indian government's Rs200 billion capital allocation for public sector banks is in line with S&P's expectations, and it believes it is sufficient for now. "While this sum will be supportive to public sector banks, in our view, we believe that there is a very high likelihood of further capital support from the government if necessary," it says.

The government also announced in its budget that it will look to establish a 'bad bank' to manage lenders' troubled assets. "This, alongside a strengthening of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) framework, could in principle benefit banks by ensuring that management bandwidth is not spent on recoveries from weak credits," S&P says, adding, "we believe that the resolution of troubled assets could be faster with weak assets consolidated in a single entity, rather than multiple banks negotiating resolution terms."

The government also mooted in the budget the privatisation of two public sector banks. "We expect that this process would require legislative changes, though it is well within the government's stated plans for the sector.

Nevertheless, the planned stake sale could affect our view of government support for the participating banks," the ratings agency concludes.
Starting Feb. 8, additional frontline workers and people 65 and older will be able to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Some of the eligible frontline workers include teachers, grocery store workers and mailmen.

WAAY 31 learned how the state plans to verify if you are a frontline worker.

Dr. Karen Landers with the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) said they're expecting people to follow an honor code and only sign up if they fit into the eligible categories. Some health care providers, like Happi Health, will make you either send a picture of your work badge or bring in proof of your occupation.

Were not in the business of completely policing that," said Happi Health's operations manager, Ann Kepner. "We do want to use the honor system, but if somebody does not bring a badge along and they havent uploaded a photo, then we will turn them away.

Kepner said they've received an overwhelming amount of interest in people getting the vaccine, and they don't have enough supply. Happi Health isn't alone.

Dr. Landers said the state does not have enough vaccines for the amount of people eligible.

I am very concerned that, you know, obviously we do want to open up to additional categories, but that the vaccine supply is not going to be enough because when adding this on, were really adding almost another million people," said Dr. Landers.

She said the state wouldn't be able to give the vaccine as quickly if they required people to show proof of their eligibility besides their age.

We have to be aware that should we need to go through a laborious documentation process, that, that would slow down our ability to provide the vaccine in any given date," said Dr. Landers.

Happi Health will require you to either upload on the interest form your proof of eligibility, or bring it in when you have a scheduled appointment.

Please dont jump the line. It will be everybodys turn eventually. Just help us stay compliant and follow the guidelines. We dont want to have to police you," said Kepner.

Dr. Landers said she hopes people will focus on their individual risk factors and decide whether they should wait a little longer to get the vaccine, even if they're eligible for it.
LA JOLLA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Since Tonogold's Nov. 17, 2020 update, it has pushed forward the early stages of its $7 million drill exploration program aimed at proving the existence of significant gold and silver mineralization in the Comstock District located in the vicinity of Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nevada, approximately 40 kilometers southeast of Reno. Tonogold recently secured 100% control of 3 kilometers of the Comstock Lode's 5 kilometer strike length from Comstock Mining, Inc.

DRILL PROGRAM SUMMARY :

Drilling began on Sept. 8, 2020. Tonogold has two drill rigs on site, one reverse circulation (RC) and one core. To date, the drillers have completed six holes: four on the Gold Hill section of the Comstock Lode and two on the Occidental/Brunswick Lode.

Figure 1. Known mineral systems and drill collar locations:

Figure 2. Longitudinal Section showing Drill targets in the Gold Hill section of the Comstock Lode:

Gold Hill drilling encountered mineralization, verifying the geologic model and supporting documentation compiled by Tonogold. However, as predicted by its historical research, ground conditions have proven very difficult, slowing drilling and negatively impacting sample recovery.

Drilling on the Occidental/Brunswick Lode is very encouraging, verifying previous drilling and expanding known mineralization. The Occidental/Brunswick exploration program will now begin infill and expansion drilling of the mineralization.

Description of holes completed or in progress :

Drill Hole Target Area Hole Type Azimuth Inclination Total Length (m) TC-001 Comstock (Overman) RC 330 -50 396.2 TC-002 Comstock (Overman) RC 0 -90 446.5 TC-003* Comstock (Belcher, Deep) RC precollar 312 -65 304.8 TC-004* Comstock (YellowJacket, Deep) RC precollar 280 -63 443.5 TC-001D Comstock (Overman) Core 0 -90 221.9 TC-002D Comstock (Kentuck, Deep) Core 280 -67 615.1 TC-003D Occidental/Brunswick Core 0 -90 67.1 TC-004D Occidental/Brunswick Core 0 -90 45.7 TC-003-D1* Comstock (Belcher, Deep) Core tail 312 -65 118.6

* in progress or pending completion with core

Summary of results received from completed drill holes :

Hole No. From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) TC-001 368.81 370.34 1.52 0.424 1.4 TC-001 373.38 374.91 1.52 0.651 1.9 TC-002 333.76 336.81 3.05 1.134 19.15 TC-001D 22.86 24.38 1.52 0.531 12.2 TC-001D 27.43 28.96 1.52 0.482 3.9 TC-001D 181.36 182.88 1.52 0.355 32.5 TC-002D 579.13 580.65 1.52 0.303 4.3 TC-002D 596.20 597.72 1.52 3.43 2.1 TC-003D 7.92 32.92 25* 13.49 48.4 including 13.41 18.59 5.18* 57.9 77.2 and 51.21 57.3 6.09 0.367 2.5

* no recovery 14.63 - 15.09 m, 18.59 - 18.9 m, and 29.26 - 30.48 m.

Assays pending for intervals above the primary mineralized zones in holes TC-001, TC-002, and TC-002D; see body of press release for detailed descriptions.

DETAILS OF TONOGOLD'S DRILLING PROGRAM

GOLD HILL - Tonogold's primary exploration target is the Gold Hill section of the Comstock Lode.

To date, Tonogold has completed three holes on the old Overman ground (one core hole (TC-001D), and two RC holes (TC-001 and TC-002)) and one core hole on the old Kentuck Mine (TC-002D). It has also pre-collared two other holes targeting zones of suspected mineralization in the old Belcher and Yellow Jacket mines (TC-003 and TC-004).

On the Overman ground, hole TC-001 was drilled as an angle hole but shallowed over its length and was terminated (as discussed in the news release dated Nov. 17, 2020). Hole TC-002 was completed from the same pad as a vertical hole. Both TC-001D and TC-002 encountered zones of quartz veining that showed the presence of weak gold and silver mineralization. Tonogold interprets both holes as representing the Silver City and Comstock lodes just south of their intersection. (See results table above.)

On the Kentuck ground, difficult drilling conditions greatly slowed progress with core hole TC-002D. The hole intersected the quartz veining associated with the Comstock Lode's hanging wall at a depth of 575 meters. From that point, the hole passed through the Comstock structure for 30.8 meters, from a depth of 575 meters to 605.8 meters. Tonogold expects the structure's true width to be between 85% and 90% of the downhole intersection. Assay results returned values ranging to 3.43 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold ("Au") over 1.52 meters against what Tonogold believes to be the lode's footwall. (See results table above.)

South of TC-002D, the drillers pre-collared hole TC-003 (cross-section below). Significant groundwater was encountered and resulted in the premature termination of the pre-collar at a depth of 305 meters. A core rig is currently advancing the hole (as TC-003-D1) in order to test a zone of suspected gold and silver mineralization in the old Belcher Mine. This is Tonogold's first hole targeting a specific, high-probability target identified by its historical research. This level hasn't been prospected or mined since the deep levels of the Gold Hill mines were lost to an underground flood in the early 1880s. Among other relevant evidence, Tonogold's research uncovered a Belcher Mine report published in the Mining & Scientific Press in 1886 that states, "exploration on the 1,750 [foot] level shows the ore to continue into the submerged depths below." Hole TC-003/TC-003-D1 aims to test the mineralization described in that report (see Figure 3 below).

Figure 3. Cross Section of Hole TC-003/TC-003-D1:

North of hole TC-002D, Tonogold has pre-collared hole TC-004 to a depth of 444 meters (see Figure 4 below). This hole targets another specific location of suspected gold and silver mineralization identified by Tonogold's historical research in the old Yellow Jacket Mine about 600 meters below the surface. The core rig will continue this hole through its intersection with the Comstock Lode once it has completed hole TC-003-D1.

Figure 4. Cross Section of Hole TC-004:

Tonogold has received additional permits for further drill locations that will allow it to test other high-priority targets identified by its historical research in the Gold Hill section of the Comstock Lode above the Sutro Tunnel. The Sutro Tunnel is the long adit built in the 19th century to drain the Comstock Lode to a depth of approximately 500 meters below the surface. Tonogold is also currently filing additional permits.

OCCIDENTAL/BRUNSWICK LODE

In addition to the Comstock Lode, Tonogold has a second exploration target on the Occidental/Brunswick Lode, where prior drilling showed the presence of gold and silver mineralization.

The Occidental/Brunswick Lode is a parallel structure lying about 1.0 to 1.5 kilometers east of the main Comstock. During the 19th century, approximately 34,000 tonnes of mineralized material was extracted from the Occidental Mine at an average head grade of approximately 40 g/t gold equivalent.

Accordingly, Tonogold added to its control of the Occidental/Brunswick Lode in 2020 by securing an option on a group of claims covering the lode's southern extensions. Tonogold now controls nearly 4 kilometers of the Occidental/Brunswick Lode's strike length.

The owner of the claims on which Tonogold recently secured an option conducted a small-scale reverse circulation drill program in 2018. Those holes demonstrated the presence of significant near-surface oxide gold and silver mineralization (see results table below). Consequently, Tonogold has developed a second exploration program to confirm and expand on those results.

Summary of results from the 2018 RC exploration of the Occidental/Brunswick Lode :

Hole No. From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) I18-05 30.48 33.53 3.05 3.73 19.97 and 39.62 44.20 4.57 0.51 NSI and 65.53 91.44 25.91 1.18 14.07 including 65.53 80.77 15.24 1.59 20.25 I18-06 28.96 30.48 1.52 4.06 9.4 and 39.62 48.77 9.14 0.41 4.08 and 54.86 60.96 6.10 0.84 NSI I18-07 33.53 35.05 1.52 1.18 9.31 and 44.20 70.10 25.91 1.01 NSI including 51.82 65.53 13.72 1.48 NSI I18-08 42.67 53.34 10.67 0.84 11.16 including 48.77 51.82 3.05 1.48 11.65 and 60.96 70.10 9.14 1.55 7.42 including 60.96 62.48 1.52 5.9 27.34 also 73.15 76.20 3.05 0.59 NSI I18-09 6.10 10.67 4.57 1.13 7.013 and 36.58 74.68 38.10** 1.79 11.186 including 47.24 48.77 1.52 6.09 29.55 and 50.29 51.82 1.52 16.53 17.05 I18-10 57.91 62.48 4.57 0.67 5.63 and 64.01 68.58 4.57 0.39 NSI and 85.35 88.39 3.05 0.71 NSI and 108.21 109.73 1.52 0.5 NSI and 114.30 120.40 6.10 0.45 NSI I18-11 54.86 59.44 4.57 0.91 NSI including 56.39 57.91 1.52 2.16 NSI and 99.06 124.97 25.91 0.85 NSI which includes 100.59 102.11 1.52 4.38 NSI I18-12* 7.62 39.62 32.00 6.9 27 including 7.62 21.34 13.72 15.06 54.5 which includes 9.14 15.24 6.10 31.06 93.85 and 51.82 57.91 6.10 5.7 6.5 including 53.34 54.86 1.52 20.89 15.72 I18-13 1.52 4.57 3.05 1.13 NSI

*I18-12 is the hole twinned by TC-003D

** No recovery 60.96-62.48 m

NSI = No significant interval

True thickness of mineralization estimated to vary from 20% to 100% of the interval length, with an average of about 77%.

The first phase of Tonogold's Occidental/Brunswick Lode exploration encompasses 22 holes with an initial budget of approximately $600,000. The first two holes of this program were completed in December 2020.

The first of those holes (TC-003D) confirmed known existing high-grade mineralization by drilling within 2 meters of 2018 hole I18-12.

The distribution of grades in reverse circulation drill hole I18-12 indicated the possibility of down hole contamination in portions of the mineralized interval. While Tonogold's recent results did not completely eliminate that possibility, TC-003D did confirm the presence of a wide near-surface, high-grade mineralized zone and a narrower low-grade zone at depth. The most significant interval averaged 57.9 g/t Au and 77.2 g/t silver ("Ag") over 5.18 meters. Details of the mineralized intervals encountered in TC-003D are summarized in the following table:

Hole No. From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) TC-003D 7.92 32.92 25* 13.49 48.4 including 13.41 18.59 5.18* 57.9 77.2 and 51.21 57.3 6.09 0.367 2.5

* no recovery 14.63 - 15.09 m, 18.59 - 18.9 m, and 29.26 - 30.48 m.

True thickness was estimated at approximately 80% to 85% of interval length.

After completing hole TC-003D, Tonogold stepped 23 meters to the northwest and completed a second core hole (TC-004D). Preliminary results indicate the near-surface mineralized zone encountered in TC-003D was intersected in TC-004D. Final assay results for hole TC-004D are pending.

Should results of Occidental/Brunswick exploration warrant, Tonogold plans to expand exploration of the structure with an eye toward defining resources. If successful, Tonogold anticipates that those resources could be processed at the existing processing facility in American Flat, which Tonogold has exclusive rights to operate under a long-term lease arrangement.

Tonogold's QA/QC procedures :

Drill core is logged for geology, photographed, and marked for sampling on breaks averaging 1.52 meters in length. Following logging, the core is sawn in half with one half placed in labeled sample bags and sealed for delivery to the assay lab. RC samples are collected on 1.52-meter intervals in labeled sample bags and generally contain a 1/4 split. Representative chips from the intervals are logged for geology. Both core and RC samples are stored at a secure facility prior to transport to the assay lab.

Certified standards, blanks and duplicate samples are inserted in the sample series at the rate of one each per every 20 samples. Samples are delivered to ALS Minerals' lab in Reno, Nevada where they are dried, crushed and pulverized. Gold analysis is performed at the Reno facility utilizing a 30-gram fire assay with an AA finish (Au-AA23). Samples containing greater than 10 g/t Au are reanalyzed utilizing fire assay with a gravimetric finish (Au-GRA21). Silver analyses are completed at ALS Minerals' Lab in Vancouver, Canada using a four-acid digestion with an AAS finish (Ag-AA61). Samples containing greater than 100 g/t Ag are reanalyzed utilizing a four-acid digestion with an ICP-AES finish (Ag-OG62). Results for standards, blanks and duplicates are monitored for precision, accuracy, and contamination upon receipt of assays.

Qualified persons :

Brian Metzenheim, (MMSA-QP), VP of Exploration for Tonogold Resources and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 has designed and supervised the work completed for Tonogold Resources outlined in this news release. The technical content disclosed in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Metzenheim. Mr. Metzenheim is not independent of Tonogold as he is in the position of VP and holds incentive warrants.

Steve Ristorcelli and Steve Weiss of Mine Development Associates, Inc. (MDA), a division of RESPEC, are qualified persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The technical content disclosed in this press release and derived from the 2018 Technical Report titled 2018 Updated Technical Report on Gold-Silver Mineralization at the Ida Claim Group, Silver City Mining District, Storey and Lyon Counties, Nevada: History, Geology and Exploration and dated Sept. 4, 2018 has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Ristorcelli and Weiss. Both Mr. Ristorcelli and Mr. Weiss are independent of Tonogold.

SOURCE: Tonogold

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627437/Tonogold-Drilling-Update
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on February 1 said that Tehran is ready for a new relationship with the US, but the clock is ticking. In an interview with CNN, Zarif said that the Biden administration has a limited window of opportunity to re-enter the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The 2015 nuclear deal has been largely in tatter since Donald Trump withdrew from it unilaterally in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions as part of a policy of maximum pressure on Iran.

Zarif said, The time for the United States to come back to the nuclear agreement is not unlimited. The United States has a limited window of opportunity because President Biden does not want to portray himself as trying to take advantage of the failed policies of the former Trump administration.

The nuclear agreement offered sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear ambitions and guarantees it would not seek an atomic bomb. Iran has maintained that it has only pursued a civilian nuclear energy programme. However, Trump withdrew from the deal and bolstered sanctions on Tehran in a bid to force them into talks on a broader agreement that also addressed its ballistic missile programs and support for proxies around the Middle East.

READ: Rouhani Leads Tributes On Iran Revolution Anniversary

Now, Tehran has made clear that any agreement with the Biden administration will be contingent on a reversal of the harsh economic sanctions imposed by the former Trump administration. Back in December, the Iranian Parliament had also passed legislation obligating the government to further ramp up uranium enrichment, if American sanctions are not eased within two months of the laws adaption. When asked how swiftly Iran could scale back its uranium enrichment program to comply with the nuclear deal if the US lifts sanctions, the Iranian Foreign Minister said that 8,000 pounds of enriched uranium can go back to the previous amount in less than a day.

While reiterating that Tehran does not seek a nuclear weapon, Zarif even said, If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon we could have done it some time ago. But we decided that nuclear weapons are not, would not augment our security and are in contradiction to our, eh, ideological views. And that is why we never pursued nuclear weapons.

READ: Iran Says 'one Signature' Cannot Fix Nuclear Deal, Calls For Relief From US Sanctions

EUs Borrell could choreograph actions

A key criticism related to the original nuclear deal was that it did not protect neighbouring countries from non-nuclear threats by Iran. The deal did not even deter Tehran from funding militias in countries like Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been locked in a bloody war against a Saudi and UAE-led coalition. However, Zarif negated the allegations and said that Tehran has acted in accordance with dispute mechanisms written into the JCPOA, since the US withdrawal.

Zarif said, "Iran used the mechanisms in the nuclear agreement in order to limit its cooperation. If you read paragraph 36, we acted in strict accordance with the nuclear agreement.

Further, Zarif called on the Biden administration to stick to the original conditions of the nuclear deal. He said that the US has to accept what was agreed previously. Zarif also added that the question over who must take the first step in returning to the JCPOA could be resolved by EUs foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Borrell could put his hat on as coordinator for the Joint Commission of the JCPOA and sort of choreograph the actions that are needed to be taken by the United States and the actions that are needed to be taken by Iran," he said.

(With inputs from ANI)

READ: Joe Biden's Presidency May Put An End To Years Long Enmity Between Saudi Arabia And Iran

READ: Threat Letter Found At Israel Embassy Blast Mentions Iran's Leaders Killed By US, Revenge
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leader and Rajya Sabha MP will visit Singhu and Ghazipur borders on Tuesday to meet the farmers protesting central farm laws.

This comes a week after the farmers' tractor rally on Republic Day turned violent in the capital.

"The Maha Vikas Aghadi has taken many decisions in the interest of the farmers. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray always stood behind farmers in their tough times. The anguish and tears of the farmers are disturbing. On the instructions of party president Uddhav Thackeray, today I am going to meet agitating farmers at Singhu Border," Raut tweeted in Marathi.

''Kisan andolan zindabad! will visit protesting farmers at Ghazipur today at 1 pm. Jai jawan, jai kisan,'' he said in another tweet.

On Republic Day, protestors did not follow the prearranged route and broke barricades to enter Delhi, clashed with police and vandalised property in several parts of the capital during the farmers' tractor rally. They also entered the Red Fort and unfurled their flags from its ramparts.

Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

(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.)
Edwin Poots has stepped down as Minister for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) to facilitate surgery and recuperation.

The announcement on Monday evening was made by the DUP.

The Lagan Valley MLA was diagnosed with kidney cancer while in hospital at the start of last December for emergency surgery after developing appendicitis.

His diagnosis was revealed last month.

DUP Leader and First Minister Arlene Foster has now written to the Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker and nominated Gordon Lyons MLA to fill in for Mr Poots as DAERA minister.

Mrs Foster has also informed the Speaker that Foyle MLA Gary Middleton will take on the responsibilities of Junior Minister in the Office of the First Minister.

She said: We give Edwin our best wishes and assure him and his family of our prayers.

"This is a temporary change, and we look forward to having Edwin back at work, having made a full recovery.

Mr Poots is one of 400 cancer patients in Northern Ireland whose potentially life-saving operations have been postponed since January as a result of the crisis currently facing the health service.

He has said he had not ruled out turning to the private sector for surgery that may ultimately save his life, adding that while he believes the NHS should be free to everyone at the point of contact, he was not prepared to die for a political ideology.
by Nirmala Carvalho

The Day of Consecrated Life as seen by a nun who dedicates her life to sacred art. In our Prarthnalaya Chapel, I realised that the image of Saint Paul was not present, Sister Vimala said. I was inspired to create an image of Saint Paul, something permanent and so I took up working in mosaic.

Mumbai (AsiaNews)  Consecrated life is Beauty, the beauty of Jesus. We adore the Lord in beauty, said Sister Vimala Joseph PDDM (Pious Disciples of the Divine Master), speaking to AsiaNews about today's Day of Consecrated Life.

Beauty attracts people and helps them seek divine good, she explains. Through my sacred art, I hope to bring the Kingdom of God to earth and restore the beauty that is present in creation. Even non-Christians are attracted to it, the beauty of sacred art.

Sacred Art nurtures the ability to imagine a future and therefore transcends the present moment and instils hope.

Sister Vimala joined the Sisters Disciples of the Divine Master as a young woman, at the age of 17, and she has been making sacred art for 35 years.

In 1982 she studied architecture at the Boccioni Art School in Milan, Italy. I completed a four-year course in three years, learning the basics of sculpture, painting and architecture.

After the course, I worked with our Italian sister, Michael Angela, an architect who redesigned and renovated churches in Italy. Working with her for a year helped me hone my skills and take new jobs. After returning to Mumbai, I took a postgraduate course in architecture.

Sister Vimala is a member of the Prarthnalaya (House of Prayer), Bandra (Mumbai), where she has a workshop. With her team, she does paintings, mosaics and stained glass works, interior design and statues.

She spoke to AsiaNews about the process of making the beautiful mosaic of St Paul located in the Prarthnalaya chapel in Bandra, Mumbai.

I realised we had such a big chapel, but nothing in it about our spirituality. Our spirituality is mainly about Jesus Master, Mary Queen of the Apostles and Saint Paul. These are the three pillars of our spirituality.

Our founder, Blessed Giacomo Alberione stressed that the Apostle Paul was the founder of the 'house', the Pauline Family. The house where the light of the Gospel must shine is the house where each of us lives and also a house open to the world. We are all called to the Christian apostolate.

In our Prarthnalaya Chapel, I realised that the image of Saint Paul was not present. We had Mary Queen of the Apostles and Jesus Master in the Blessed Sacrament and a beautiful crucifix of Christ Crucified, but not Saint Paul.

I was inspired to create an image of Saint Paul (pictured), something permanent and so I took up working in mosaic. With mosaic there is no need for maintenance and the artwork looks beautiful.

During the lockdown I was able to make many such artwork in mosaic. For the Delhi chapel I made a mosaic of both Saint Paul and Mary Queen of the Apostles.

The lockdown was a very productive moment. In the artwork of Saint Paul, I depicted him with the Bible in one hand and the sword in the other. This prompts many to ask themselves the meaning and creates the opportunity to evangelise. It is therefore an active mode of preaching.

When I receive a request for a drawing, I find out the churchs patron saint and look for the appropriate symbols. If it is for the chapel of a convent, I study the spirituality of that particular congregation and pray over it. Praying and fasting are very important for divine inspiration.

God continues to bless me with new ideas to design innovative churches across India. In fact, I feel spiritually fulfilled when designing churches. I strongly believe that it is a mandate given me to preach the Good News through the medium of Sacred Art.

I have done so many artworks all over. Every artwork of mine proclaims bellezza, the beauty of Jesus. We worship the Lord in beauty.
President Joe Biden threatened to reimpose sanctions on Myanmar on Monday as his administration debates whether to call the military takeover a 'coup.'

Insiders familiar with the back-and-forth described the discussions as 'chaos' as officials fear that the White House calling the military takeover a coup could anger China and force the United States to withdraw foreign aid, Politico reported.

Myanmar's army took power of the country early on Monday and declared a state of emergency after detaining de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with members of her party.

Myanmar's army has taken control of the country and detained members of its pro-democracy party

President Joe Biden has condemned the takeover but has so far refrained from calling it a coup

The military, known as the Tatmadaw, has had escalating tensions with the country's civilian government over alleged election irregularities in November when Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party won in a landslide against the party backed by the military.

Min Aung Hlaing, the country's commander-in-chief, has been appointed as acting president and said the country will hold elections in one year.

'Recent events in Burma obviously have the makings of a coup, but the State Department is doing the required legal and factual analysis. We will await the outcome before making an assessment,' a senior State Department official told ABC News.

The administration has so far refrained from calling the takeover a coup -- a term the term would require the U.S. to cut off aid to Myanmar's government under the Foreign Assistance Act.

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained by the military

The law states that the U.S. must 'restrict assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree.'

A congressional aide noted to CNN that the US is generous with its humanitarian aid to the nation's governmental groups and civil society organizations.

However, the country's government receives little direct assistance from the American government and the the U.S. has previously had sanctions against the country which have been pulled back in recent years.

'The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy,' Biden said in a statement on Monday, using another name for Myanmar.

'The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action.'

The Trump administration imposed sanctions against Min Aung Hlaing and blocked him from entering the United States for his role in alleged human rights abuses, CNN reported.

'The military's seizure of power in Burma, the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian officials, and the declaration of a national state of emergency are a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law,' Biden said in his statement.

Aung San Suu Kyi casts an advance vote in November's election which has sparked unrest in Myanmar

A demonstrator chants as the Burmese community stage a protest rally in front of The Parliament of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia

Myanmar Army armored vehicles drive past a street after they seized power in a coup

Hundreds of members of Myanmar's Parliament remained confined inside their government housing in the country's capital

Myanmar's (pictured) army took power of the country early on Monday and declared a state of emergency after detaining de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with members of her party.

'In a democracy, force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election. For almost a decade, the people of Burma have been steadily working to establish elections, civilian governance, and the peaceful transfer of power. That progress should be respected.'

Greg Poling and Simon Hudes at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies told Al Jazeera that the Biden administration would almost certainly impose new sanctions against those involved in the coup.

'But that is unlikely to have much immediate impact on the generals,' they said.

The U.S. is coordinating a response to the takeover with senior European officials, a source told Politico. The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss Myanmar in a session Tuesday.

Experts expect China to hinder any serious actions other countries may want to take in the wake of the coup and coordination between the U.S. and its allies in Europe and Asia could pressure Myanmar's generals into a peaceful transition if China stands by the military leadership.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the arrests 'horrifying' and 'a step backwards' for Myanmar, the South China Morning Post reported.

'The Biden administration must take a strong stand and our partners and all democracies around the world should follow suit in condemning this authoritarian assault on democracy,' McConnell said.

'We need to support the people of Burma in their journey toward democracy and impose costs on those who stand in their way.'
The top prison official at Fort Dix federal prison  where more than half the inmate population has tested positive for COVID-19 and one inmate has died from the virus  is no longer overseeing the facility, NJ Advance Media has learned.

David Ortiz, the prisons former warden, has been temporarily reassigned to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) northeast regional office, which is an administrative office in Philadelphia, a BOP spokesman said Monday.

While we do not comment on specific personnel matters, we can tell you that a number of decisions have been made during the pandemic based on the BOPs correctional needs as well as other factors such as family, medical, and other concerns, Justin Long said when confirming Ortizs absence from the prison.

Long said Ortiz started his new role Monday. He did not comment on if Ortiz is expected to return to his role as warden at Fort Dix in the future. Ortiz could not be reached for comment.

There has been increased scrutiny on Ortiz and the BOP from New Jerseys Democratic congressional delegation after the number of cases spiked significantly at the Burlington County prison in recent months. Nearly 1,500 inmates have tested positive for the virus, the most of any other facility in the federal system, according to the BOP.

The conditions at facilities in New Jersey, specifically your facility, have grown increasingly worrisome, U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez wrote to Ortiz on Jan. 12. We are still very concerned for the safety and well-being of individuals behind bars in New Jersey and across our country.

Inmates and their families have also expressed concern to NJ Advance Media, and federal judges, over the handling of the virus at the prison, alleging there is inadequate testing, a lack of medical care and officials are not properly isolating positive inmates.

The Bureau of Prisons is committed to ensuring the safety of all inmates in our population, our staff, and the public, said Long, the BOP spokesman. Over the past year, the BOP has worked hard to prevent, contain, and mitigate the spread of the global pandemic.

However, Ortiz told inmates in April that social distancing would be near impossible at the prison.

Wear your surgical face masks! Warden wrote to inmates on April 11, according to court documents. Since social distancing is not possible in this environment, masks will help keep you and others from spreading viruses.

There were not many cases of COVID-19 at the federal prison in the early months of the pandemic, but cases have soared over the last couple months.

Lawmakers, advocates and attorneys have noted that the rise in cases coincides with the transfer to inmates into the prison last fall, including more than a dozen of them positive with virus. Hundreds of inmates have tested positive for the virus since inmates were transferred in October to Fort Dix from Elkton, a federal prison in Ohio that was devastated by the coronavirus pandemic during the spring.

The BOP has said there was no evidence the transferring the inmates led to the outbreak.

Ortiz has not publicly addressed the handling of the coronavirus pandemic at Fort Dix. The BOP did not specify what his duties will be under his new role.

This story has been updated with additional comment from the Bureau of Prisons.

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Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com.

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British Lithium estimates that it could be in production within three-to-five years

A 13-tonne bulk sample of hard rock being analysed by British Lithiums team at its Cornwall-based metallurgical laboratory is showing better than expected results.

The company aims to extract lithium carbonate from the mica in granite, and analysis of the sample represents the latest stage in progressing towards full-scale production in three-to-five years time.

The sample was excavated by British Lithium Limited geologists at the location near St Austell where the company has been drilling over the last two years.

Initial testing was undertaken by locally-based mining consultancy Wardell Armstrong and more detailed work is now taking place in the companys laboratory.

The results are indicating a higher grade of lithium than anticipated which is very exciting, said British Lithiums chief executive Andrew Smith.

No other company in the world is currently producing lithium from mica and, given the increasing demand for batteries as the UK moves towards more sustainable technology, the work we are doing promises to have a significant impact on the local and national economy.

British Lithium has recently been awarded an Innovate UK Smart Grant to help fund the analysis.

Our tests are suggesting a potential yield of 21,000 tonnes of battery-quality lithium carbonate a year, which represents about one third of what the UK would need for its electric revolution by 2030, said British Lithium chairman Roderick Smith.

Our preference is to use the strategic advantage of a UK supply of lithium to attract a battery plant to Britain as a customer, however fast-growing demand from Europe could also be met from the UK. The ultimate aim is to set up a lithium refinery that would supply lithium carbonate to the local automotive industry.

Exawatt, a UK-based strategic and research consultancy, predicts that fully electric vehicles powered solely by batteries will dominate UK vehicle sales by the end of the decade.

At the end of 2020, the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that sales of new cars and vans powered wholly by petrol or diesel vehicles would be phased out by 2030 in the UK, said Exawatt CEO Simon Price.
Virgin Money has revealed its final PPI payments in its latest results (Rui Vieira / PA)

Virgin Money has added a further charge of 49 million to the cost of compensation over the PPI scandal following a higher level of internal reviews into complaints leading to payouts.

The bank added it finished the final processing of all complaints by January 25, with a total of 740,000 received and a processing cost of 3.1 billion.

It comes as the high street lender revealed cautious customers were avoiding taking out personal loans and instead turning to depositing their cash.

Expand Close Virgin Money boss David Duffy said he remains cautious despite the bank returning to profit (Virgin Money / PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Virgin Money boss David Duffy said he remains cautious despite the bank returning to profit (Virgin Money / PA)

In the three months to the end of 2020, customer deposits rose 0.9% to 68.1 billion as customers spent less and businesses maintained healthy balance sheets to get through the pandemic.

Mortgages reduced 0.2% to 58.2 billion and personal lending fell 2% to 5.1 billion compared to the previous quarter.

Business lending rose slightly by 0.1% to 8.9 billion, although the Government-backed lending schemes remained popular as the second national lockdown in England saw businesses take on more debt to see through the winter.

Bounceback loans increased by 14% and bigger Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) facilities rose 19%, the bank added.

David Duffy, the banks chief executive, said the quarter was positive, including returning to a statutory profit in the period.

He added: Given the current UK-wide restrictions and ongoing uncertainty, we maintain the cautious economic outlook we outlined in November and our full year guidance remains broadly unchanged.

Looking ahead, the vaccine rollout and EU trade deal are encouraging for the UKs economic recovery and we remain focused on disrupting the market through a variety of innovative new products and propositions with a customer and brand experience that is the best in the market.

The bank said it had seen higher customer spending prior to stricter Covid-19 restrictions introduced in November and December, but this fell back as tiering and lockdowns were introduced.

Virgin Money UK continues to adopt a cautious view on economic assumptions and this is reflected in coverage levels, underwriting standards and liquidity levels

Virgin Money added it is continuing to support customers with payment holidays, although it revealed the number of active holidays has fallen.

It added: The proportion of customers requiring further support upon exiting their payment holiday has increased modestly, as anticipated, and remains within the level assumed in our provision.

A total of 12.1 billion in mortgage payment holidays had been granted  or 21% of balances, with 600 million currently active. Around 98% of previous payment holidays have now been repaid, it added.

Around 265 million of credit card payment holidays were granted  or 6% of balances, with 35 million currently active. Around 88% of previous credit card payment holidays have been returned.

Personal loans of 119 million had holidays  or 14% of balances, with 8 million still active. Around 92% of previous holidays have been repaid.

Looking forward, the bank said: The economic outlook remains highly uncertain and given the extension of Government support measures it will be further into (2021) before greater clarity emerges.

The recent UK-EU trade agreement and accelerating delivery of the UKs Covid-19 vaccination programme are both supportive to the longer-term economic recovery.

However, recent further restrictions across the UK as a result of record infection levels are likely to delay the pace of normalised economic and transaction activity.

As a consequence, Virgin Money UK continues to adopt a cautious view on economic assumptions and this is reflected in coverage levels, underwriting standards and liquidity levels.

Tunis/Tunisia  Tension reigned in Tuesday's plenary session at the House of People's Representatives (HPR) dedicated to examine bills of economic and financial nature, when Free Destourian group President Abir Moussi started shouting anti-government slogans.

HPR First Deputy Speaker Samira Chaouachi described Moussi's behaviour as "irresponsible."

Moussi also attacked parliamentary committee of finance, planning and development rapporteur Faycel Derbel as well as Minister of Economy, Finance and Investment Support Ali Kooli, during the presentation of the committee's report on the first bill.

She also interrupted the swearing in of MP Toumi Hamrouni, who replaces late deputy Mehrzia Laabidi.

In the absence of requests to take the floor by MPs, the bill approving the loan contract concluded in Tunis on June 3, 2020 between the Tunisian Republic and the German Bank for Reconstruction (KfW) for funding the support programme for reforms in the banking and financial sector - Phase II, was directly submitted to vote.

The plenary's agenda also includes the examination of the bill No. 106/2020 approving the framework credit line agreement and the loan agreement concluded on October 22, 2020 between the Tunisian Republic and the French Development Agency to contribute to the financing of the reform support programme to foster the resilience of the Tunisian economy and the bill No. 114/2020 approving the loan agreement concluded on July 13, 2020, between the Republic of Tunisia and the German Credit Institute for Reconstruction to fund the public sector reform support programme - phase I-.
HOLYOKE  The Board of Health is continuing to explore ways to set up a COVID-19 vaccination site, though logistics, trained staff, and access to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines remain obstacles.

Board of Health Director Sean Gonsalves said at a meeting on Monday the Lincoln and Northampton Streets Stop and Shops plan to open a public vaccination site. He added an announcement from the supermarket chain is pending.

A vaccination center opened at Baystate Health on Whitney Avenue. The Holyoke Health Center is running into a supply problem in accessing the vaccines, according to Gonsalves.

Theres not a strong enough supply to give everybody what they want, Gonsalves said, especially for smaller clinics.

Gonsalves noted a Northampton clinic could vaccinate 1,100 patients weekly if given the correct number of doses. The state notified new distribution applicants to expect delays in getting the initial vials.

The Board of Health partnered with the Holyoke Senior Center to create a database of persons 65 and older interested in receiving the vaccines and assisting with the online registration process. The senior center is also trying to determine transportation needs.

Phase II of the vaccine rollout began this week for recipients 75 and older.

Gonsalves said a majority of callers prefer the Holyoke Senior Center as a future vaccination site. Staffing and administrative challenges exist in converting the building into an injection center.

Gonsalves regularly meets with Action Ambulance, Holyoke Medical Center, Holyoke Health Center, the City of Holyoke, and Veterans Services to increase vaccination distribution rates. Vaccine shortages and a state-imposed limit of 100 doses a week for clinics run by local boards of health, however, have hindered the possible partnerships.

No concrete plans are in place at the moment for a site run by the Board of Health.

Gonsalves said the Pfizer vaccine requires special storage and handling, limiting the number of clinics or hospitals able to handle the sensitive material. The Moderna vaccine requires less drastic storage.

Deborah Schaier, the boards public nurse, underwent training to access the Massachusetts Immunization Information System. The system acts as the immunization registry for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, including tracking individuals who received the COVID-19 vaccines.

I feel theres a number of people who must be logistically involved in this and trained, Schaier said. I dont think its a two-person operation.

While the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine offers hope, Schaier estimated the vaccine would not be available until summer. The Food and Drug Administration was expected to take up Johnson & Johnsons emergency use application in the coming weeks.

According to Gonsalves, the initial vaccination rates for Holyoke police and firefighters exceeded 80%, moving in the right direction.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described a weekly limit of vaccine doses for clinics. Those limits are for clinics run by local boards of health only, Gonsalves said.

Demand for COVID-19 vaccines is far greater than the worlds supplies. Everyone from world leaders to policymakers to the general public wants to know: How and when can we get more?

The answer is not easy. Makers of COVID-19 vaccines need everything to go right as they increase production to hundreds of millions of injections. Any problem could cause a delay. Some of the ingredients used in the vaccines have never been produced in such huge amounts before.

In the words of vaccine specialist Maria Elena Bottazzi, Its not like adding more water to the soup. Bottazzi works at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.

The many different kinds of COVID-19 vaccines being used in different countries all train the body to recognize the new coronavirus -- mostly the spike protein that covers the virus. But they all require different technologies, raw materials, equipment and expertise to do so.



The two vaccines currently approved for use in the United States, from Pfizer and Moderna, are made by putting a piece of genetic material called mRNA inside a small amount of fat.

Making small amounts of mRNA in a research lab is easy. But, nobody made a billion doses or 100 million or even a million doses of mRNA before the health crisis said Dr. Drew Weissman. He is with the University of Pennsylvania and helped develop mRNA technology.

Increasing production does not just mean getting more ingredients. Creating mRNA involves a chemical reaction between genetic materials and chemicals called enzymes. Weissman notes that the enzymes do not work as well in larger amounts.

The vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and another one expected soon from Johnson & Johnson are made with a cold virus that sneaks the spike protein gene into the body. This requires a very different form of manufacturing. For these vaccines, living cells in huge bioreactor devices grow the cold virus. The virus is then removed and purified.

If the cells get old or tired or start changing, you might get less, Weissman said of the process. Theres a lot more variability and a lot more things you have to check.

More traditional vaccines, such as the one made by Chinas Sinovac, require even more steps and greater biosecurity. That is because they are made with killed coronavirus.

However, all COVID-19 vaccines must all be made using strict rules that require specially inspected facilities. Manufacturers also must test each step in the process often.



What about supplies?

Production depends on having enough raw materials. Pfizer and Moderna have promised they have dependable suppliers.

Even so, a U.S. government spokesman said planning experts are working directly with vaccine makers to help solve any problems that come up.

Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel admits that difficulties remain. Bancel said if theres one raw material missing, we cannot start making products and that capacity will be lost forever because we cannot make it up.

Pfizer has temporarily slowed deliveries in Europe for several weeks so that it could improve its factory in Belgium to deal with increased production.

AstraZeneca has also informed European Union leaders that it, too, will deliver fewer doses than promised. The company said it has seen lower than expected production at some European manufacturing centers.



How much is on the way?

Many countries want to know how many vaccine doses they can expect -- and by when.

Moderna and Pfizer each plan to deliver 100 million doses to the United States by the end of March and another 100 million within the next three months. President Joe Biden has announced plans to buy more supplies over the summer. The goal is to have enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans.

Pfizer chief Albert Bourla said at a conference recently that his company will actually be able to provide 120 million doses by the end of March. The reason is not because of faster production. It is because health workers are now permitted to get an extra dose out of every container of vaccine.

But getting six doses instead of five requires using specialized syringes -- the devices used to give shots of vaccine. There are questions about the worldwide supply of such syringes.

Moderna also recently announced it will be able to supply 600 million doses of vaccine in 2021. That is up from an earlier estimate of 500 million.

The easiest way to get more doses, however, is through the approval of other vaccines in development. U.S. data on the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnsons one-dose injection is expected soon. Another company, Novavax, also is in its final period of testing.



Other options

The Serum Institute of India has a contract to manufacture a billion doses of AstraZenecas vaccine. It is the worlds largest vaccine maker and is expected to be an important supplier for developing countries.

But some other efforts to increase supplies appear to be facing problems. Two Brazilian research institutes have plans to make millions of doses of the AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines. But those have been set back by unexplained delays in shipments of ingredients from China.

Im Jonathan Evans.

And Im Jill Robbins.

Ashley Thompson adapted this story from the Associated Press. Mario Ritter was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

ingredient n. one of the materials used to make something like food or medicine

soup n. food made by cooking vegetables or meat in liquid

spike n. a long thin structure that sticks out from a surface

dose n. the amount of medicine needed to treat a sickness

sneak v. to take or bring in a secret or hidden way

variability n. somethings ability to change or be changed

facility n. a center including buildings or equipment that are built for a specific purpose

capacity n. the ability to do something such as produce a product or medicine

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The Inspector General of the Liberia National Police (LNP), Col. Patrick Sudue has disclosed that after sending four LNP officers to South Sudan on United Nations peacekeeping mission, about thirty Liberian police officers are on the standby for future deployment on UN peacekeeping missions around the world.

Making the disclosure on Monday, February 1, 2021 during a courtesy visit to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Dee-Maxwell SaahKemayah, Sr.,Col. Sudue praised the Liberia's foreign minister for the pivotal role he played in New York during his service as Liberia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Col. Sudue noted that Ambassador Kemayah was very instrumental in making sure that officers of LNP are deployed on UN peacekeeping operation.

"The UN certified 34 LNP officers and 4 officers were selected to be deployed in South Sudan and 30 officers on the standby for future peacekeeping missions, anytime they can be called upon; this is why we taught it wise to gown him because he was the one who made sure we met the UN deputy for peacekeeping head, and we had a fruitful discussion... this is the first of its kind in the history of Liberia for our police to be deployed on UN peacekeeping mission... if LNP is to get on the global map, it has to be done through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs", Col. Sudue intoned.

Col. Sudue further disclosed that the UN peacekeeping office had requested the LNP to send in a Liaison Officer, who will serve between the UN and LNP, and is to be based in New York.

It can be recalled on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 the Liberia National Police conferred its highest honor on Ambassador as Honorary Chief of Police and gowned him in recognition of his immense contributions to the police force when he served as Ambassador at Liberia's Permanent Mission at the UN in New York.
More shares in flagship oil and gas company, Saudi Aramco (Aramco), may be released for sale to the public if conditions are right, said the Governor of Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) last week. This idea was later confirmed by Saudi Arabias de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). Given how badly the first initial public offering (IPO) was received by international investors in the run-up to its eventual listing on 11 December 2019 and the draconian lengths that Saudi Arabias various authorities had to go to sell even the 1.5 per cent stake (cut down from the initially mooted minimum 5 per cent stake) finally offered, it might reasonably be conjectured that the conditions will not be right for a very long time. If the views of new U.S. President, Joe Biden, were factored into the conditions equation then the offering would probably never occur. Taking into account the tenuous grasp on reality that apparently exists at the centre of the Saudi Arabian regime, though, such an offering may well take place this year.

In terms of a reality check, the Aramco offering came to be regarded as so toxic on so many levels by so many investor communities in so many countries during the lead up to the final decision being made by the Saudis on which major international stock exchanges it would be offered on that it wound up being offered on absolutely none of them. Some of the more technical concerns of international investors about Aramco were to do with the operational deficiencies of the company itself. For a start it was made clear by then-Aramco chief executive officer, Amin Nasser, that Aramco did not actually own any of its oil and gas concessions or the wells from which it produced all of its oil and gas and did not make the decisions as to how much oil and gas it produced at any given time. Nasser then stated that after the IPO the wells will still be owned by the government . . . this is the same as before, and there are no changes to that and added that Aramcos oil and gas production decisions were sovereign matters that would remain with the government. In practical terms this meant that if and when Saudi Arabia decided that it was going to try again to destroy the shale oil industry as it did in 2014-2016 - and yet again only three months after the IPO - by crashing the oil price through over-producing then Aramco shareholders would see huge losses both in dividend payout terms and in the value of the shares. In order to quell the fear over dividend losses, the Saudis were forced into guaranteeing a minimum dividend payout that has since then effectively crippled all new Aramco projects. Related: This Year Will Define The Next Decade In The Energy Industry

Then there was the matter of Aramcos actual level of crude oil reserves and its spare capacity. In the case of the reserves, scepticism had been growing about Saudis stated numbers for some time before the 2019 Aramco IPO. According to Saudi Arabia, at the beginning of 1989, it had proven oil reserves of 170 billion barrels but only a year later, and without the discovery of any major new oil fields, the official reserves estimate somehow grew by 51.2 per cent, to 257 billion barrels. Shortly thereafter, it increased again to 266 billion+ barrels, and then increased again in 2017 to 268.5 billion barrels. This overall increase from 170 billion barrels in 1990 to 268.5 billion barrels in 2017 occurred whilst it had made absolutely no major new oil field finds and was drilling an average of 8.163 million barrels per day. In other words, Saudi stated that its oil reserves had actually gone up - by 98.5 billion barrels - during a period when it had drilled at least 80.43 billion barrels and had made no new oil field finds.

This scepticism from international investors fed into further scepticism over Saudi Arabias much-vaunted (by itself) spare capacity. The EIA defines spare capacity as production that can be brought online within 30 days and sustained for at least 90 days. Saudi Arabia had stated for decades that it had a spare capacity of between 2.0-2.5 million bpd. This implied - given the widely-accepted (but also wrong, as highlighted above) belief that Saudi had pumped an average of around 10 million bpd for many years  that it had the capability to ramp up its production to about 12.5 million bpd in the event of unexpected disruptions elsewhere. However, even as the 2014-2016 Oil Price War dragged on the Kingdom could on average produce no more than just about 10 million bpd. The same pattern was evident in the 2020 Oil Price War but the discrepancy between what Saudi claimed was its spare capacity and what it could actually produce became so obvious that senior Saudi officials attempted to obfuscate this spare capacity lie by semantic trickery, talking of supply to the market rather than of output or production. The supply to the market (sometimes referred to even more misleadingly as capacity) when used by the Saudis actually meant the utilisation of crude oil supplies held in storage at any given time in the Kingdom. It also meant the supplies that could be withheld from contracts and re-directed into those stored supplies. Conversely, production and output is the oil that actually comes out of the ground through drilling and production at the wellheads and is sold on with no undue delays in storage facilities. Related: A Glimmer Of Hope For Oil Markets

All of this scepticism was compounded by even more negative publicity connected to Saudi Arabias alleged role as a funding source in international terrorism. On 28 September 2017 the U.S. Congress overrode former President Barack Obamas veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, making it possible for the families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. to sue the government of Saudi Arabia. Within weeks of this, there were seven major lawsuits in federal courts alleging Saudi government support and funding for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Although Saudi Arabia has denied longstanding suspicions of involvement in the attack, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Before this, in 2010 various news media  including the BBC  reported documents made available on Wikileaks showing a leaked classified memo from then-U.S. Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, in which she warned that donors in Saudi Arabia were: The most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide. She added that these Sunni groups included al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Added to this general unsavoury picture was the murder of dissident Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in August 2018 that even the CIA concluded was personally ordered by Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

These two factors were sufficient to cause New York and London investors to avoid becoming associated with the initial Aramco IPO, over and above wider negative publicity connected to the Saudi-led war in Yemen, the cosying up of Saudi to Russia in the OPEC+ grouping, Lebanese President Michel Aouns allegation in 2017 that then-Prime Minister Saad al Hariri had been kidnapped by the Saudis and forced to resign. This meant that in order to sell even the 1.5 percent stake in Aramco offered on 11 December 2019, Saudi banks were encouraged to offer to lend money to retail customers at a 2-to-1 ratio for every riyal they would invest in Saudi Aramco (compared to average leverage ratio limit for loans of 1-to-1). Additionally, the IPOs international adviser banks were there to take up any slack in the offering left after the sovereign wealth funds of neighbouring states were equally encouraged to participate on the offering, as were various senior Saudis fearful of a re-run of their treatment in the Ritz Carlton in 2017.

This backdrop  and the launching of a second oil price war by the Saudis against the U.S. shale oil sector in less than five years  was so toxic that even the generally pro-MbS former U.S. President Donald Trump telephoned the Saudi prince on 2 April 2020 and told him that unless OPEC started cutting oil production  and effectively end the oil price war  then Trump would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia, so ending a foundation-stone agreement between the U.S. and Saudi that had been in place since 1945. The new U.S. President, Joe Biden, though, has no such fondness for MbS or indeed for Saudi Arabia as a whole, and this, combined with the ongoing view of senior Democrats and Republicans that were not going to put up with any more crap from the Saudis means that in order to sell any Aramco shares on a truly international basis, MbS and Saudi Arabia will have to tread very lightly for many months beforehand.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The Nigerian government on Monday declared 22 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 13 states as those recording high cases of COVID-19 infection.

Nigeria has a total of 774 local governments in its 36 states.

The National Incident Manager (NIM) of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mukhtar Muhammad, while speaking at a PTF briefing, said the 22 LGAs were identified after critical analysis of the pandemic.

He said the LGAs, mostly in the state capitals, contributed over 95 per cent of new cases recorded in the last six weeks.

Ngeria has recorded an average of over 1,000 daily cases in the last six weeks as the country experiences the second wave of the virus.

The 22 LGAs are: Nkanu West (Enugu); Abuja Municipal (FCT); Gwagwalada (FCT); Gombe (Gombe); Chikun (Kaduna); Kaduna North; Kaduna South; Nassarawa (Kano); Katsina (Katsina); Ilorin South (Kwara); Ilorin West (Kwara); Eti-Osa (Lagos); Ikeja (Lagos); Kosofe (Lagos); Lagos Mainland (Lagos); Keffi (Nasarawa); Lafia (Nasarawa); Ibadan North (Oyo); Jos North (Plateau); Jos South (Plateau); Port-Harcourt (Rivers); and Wamako (Sokoto).

Low testing

Mr Muhammed explained that some states are not producing data of people infected with the virus due to low or zero testing of suspected cases.

He said such states are probably at much higher risk than the states that are currently known as high-burdened states.

In addition to these, we have states where data is not coming forth. If we dont test, your data will not be analysed and if your data is not analysed, we wont know the level of the pandemic in your state, Mr Muhammed said.

Notable among the states are Yobe, Jigawa, Zamfara and Kebbi and of course Kogi that has not been reporting at all.

Controversial Kogi

Mr Muhammed also said Kogi has been declared a high-risk state for refusing to acknowledge the existence of the disease.

He noted that the Kogi government had failed to report testing, lacked isolation centres and therefore warned Nigerians to be weary of visiting the state.

A state that is not testing at all is an absolute high risk for Nigerians to visit because, there is no testing facility and even if you fall sick, there is no isolation center and they dont even acknowledge that the disease exists. So for that reason, we put that state at the top of high risk states, he said.

Testing to detect, trace and isolate has been the technique for managing the pandemic.

But Kogi, a state of almost 3.5 million people, had tested only 425 samples as of December 11, the national situational report published December 12 by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) showed.

The state governor, Yahaya Bello, has repeatedly made controversial and false statements about the coronavirus pandemic, 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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

Since the pandemic broke out in February 2020, Nigeria has carried out 1,302,410 tests of which over 131,000 cases have been found and a total of 104,989 patients have recovered across the country.

The fatalities in the country rose to 1,607 according to data released by the NCDC on Monday night.
analysis

Fatima Hassan, founder of the non-governmental organisation sounding the alarm bells over vaccine procurement issues, speaks about pricing, transparency and rollout strategies.

At last, a million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca arrived in South Africa on 1 February 2021. These first doses were manufactured by the Serum Institute of India through a sublicensing agreement. The doses will be held in cold storage and tested before they are given to healthcare workers on the frontline of the pandemic.

In the past few months the government has made a strenuous effort to procure the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines. Fatima Hassan is the head and founder of the rights protection group the Health Justice Initiative. She discusses the government's rollout strategy, the lack of transparency, vaccine scarcity and how this affects the Global South, pricing and profit margins, and how rights groups warned the government about potential supply problems.

Tebadi Mmotla (TM): What is your take on the government's rollout strategy for the first of the Covid-19 vaccines?

Fatima Hassan (FH): The little ... we know ... is that the first batch of vaccines are for healthcare workers ... But when you speak to doctors and other workers on the frontline in healthcare, I think the one part that is confusing is whether [the government is] going to administer the 1.5 million doses first [500 000 of which will be received later this month] and then wait for supplies for the second dose or whether [they are] going to do this as a two-dose batch for up to 750 000 workers. [To be effective, two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine must be administered.]

There's also some concerns about whether the number of healthcare workers and workers in healthcare settings across public and private sectors have been accurately collated. In the next week, you will see a lot of issues emerging potentially around the vaccines actually being administered in multiple parts of the country simultaneously, because the idea - from what we've been told by government and the private sector who are involved in this acquisition - is that all healthcare workers will be able to get the vaccine at the same time.

There's also issues around each different vaccine that may be approved here having different efficacy levels. Obviously, it's like a moving set of goalposts because, while vaccines are being administered, there's also new results and data coming in. And we also have a new variant in South Africa [and] in the United Kingdom ... There's still a lot that I think clinicians and doctors are really urgently looking at and working on.

It's important for our frontline to be protected. And we have to hope that the first phase goes off in a way [that] really prioritises the principle of equity ... All healthcare workers - whether in the public or private sector, in hospitals [or] clinics - that are providing health services and ... doing all this important work [at] this time. [They should all] be able to get vaccinated.

TM: Is the government doing enough to address the issue of vaccine scarcity?

FH: I think the issue of scarcity is a bit more complex because scarcity is also self-created by the global pharmaceutical industry, because they are refusing, in many cases, to share the vaccine know-how and technology. So scarcity and limited supplies became an issue for the European Union [EU] now in the last week to the point where the EU ... just passed a ban on exports of supplies to certain countries. Some countries are exempt.

So scarcity is now an issue that is gripping ... the entire world. And that's because of what happened in the last few months, even though places like the EU had signed these advance market commitments (AMCs) and were guaranteed a certain initial amount of base volumes of dosages, they have not yet received all of it. And they are asking like, 'Why? What's going on?' And part of the reason for that is ... [companies] thought that they ... alone [were] going to meet all of the demand and [so they did] not sublicense other companies [to help manage the load and] scale up the manufacturing for them and for [other companies]. That is now the situation ...

And so it's a real reckoning moment, and it is what we've been saying for months. If you don't share the technology and the vaccine know-how, then nobody else can help you to make it. [When] you ... rely on one or two suppliers ... you will have limited supplies and scarcity ... [which] means that it takes you longer to vaccinate the whole world. That's when you then also have to deal with variants and mutations. The longer it takes to scale up manufacturing by multiple suppliers, [the more intractable] this problem [becomes].

The EU has now realised that they have to address scarcity, because they have certain agreements. They've published a redacted version of the AstraZeneca contract with the EU. It also maybe puts things [into] perspective ... [for] why [in] some middle-income [and] low-income countries, AstraZeneca through Oxford University too, has segmented the global market. They were supposed to supply Europe and the United States of America - ... and other rich nations - and have Serum [Institute of India]... supply the Global South. They have given this one licence to Serum, [and there] may be one other licence [available].

But ... there is no transparency. You don't really know what the terms and conditions are.

TM: Does the lack of transparency leave room for people to feel hesitant about taking the Covid-19 vaccine?

FH: Yes. In any part of the world, [when] a government or those responsible for researching, acquiring or distributing vaccines are [not] transparent [in] sharing information, that's when it's fertile ground for disinformation and conspiracy theories.

So should the South African government do more right now? Yes. It can actually start asserting its authority and consider using state licensing measures. We now have results from Johnson & Johnson [an American multinational corporation involved in vaccine development], and some of the results from the Novavax [an American vaccine development company] trial too.

So you're in a much different situation than you were in December 2020. ... Now you can also see that there are major supply bottlenecks in the rest of the world as well. That means it's going to potentially take longer for those supplies that were ... promised to us to come here. So what do you do? What measures can you take to ramp up manufacturing, to demand scale-up of supplies for the whole of Africa and the rest of the Global South? Because even if we got 40 million [full vaccine doses] tomorrow and you vaccinated everyone that needs to be vaccinated [to achieve population immunity], you are [on] a continent where [there is little] coverage.

Covax is saying we can only maybe help up to 27% of people in low-income countries. They're [talking] about Africa, right?

Yes, governments all around the world have to do more. Last week, we saw the EU, which was very surprising, really taking on the pharmaceutical industry in such a public way [and], in some cases, a punitive way. That may be [showing] other governments in the Global South [that], well, if the EU can take on AstraZeneca and others in this way, then why are we so scared of taking on AstraZeneca, Pfizer [an American pharmaceutical corporation] or Johnson & Johnson?

The other thing linked to supply is that in South Africa you can't supply something that's a vaccine unless it is registered for you. You have to ... give your data to the regulator. So just because somebody wants to sell me a vaccine from Russia or China, I can't buy it or procure it unless ... the data [is] confirmed to be safe and effective. If the Chinese are refusing to share the data, or if Moderna [an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company] is refusing to submit its dossier, then what do you do then? You have an international crisis moment.

Why are companies picking and choosing where they want to go in a pandemic? They should go everywhere. Everybody should share the technology.

The question about the government is why is the procurement - which is such a multisectoral, complex thing residually, you know, the negotiations, the dealings which also include vested political interests and powers - why is it still residing in the Department of Health? It is not just [a] Department of Health issue. Yes, they have a vaccine acquisition task team with the private sector for medical schemes, business, National Treasury representatives, etc. But ... I think it's shortsighted on government support that this is still being driven and located in the Department of Health. They should be giving medical and clinical advice around what they need [and] why they need it.

TM: Pricing has become an important issue for the Covid-19 vaccine. Why is it that countries like South Africa are paying more than other nations?

FH: We don't know a lot. What we do know is ... based on a mistaken tweet by a Belgian minister [about] the EU prices. The EU [has] not confirmed all of its prices either, nor have the other ones.

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It's all speculation because there's no price transparency. Covax has not told us what its prices are. So we know that something is wrong, but we don't know the extent because nobody will share the data.

The first problem is that we don't know what the real no-profit prices are. We also don't know what the markups are for the delivery - or are we being charged a premium because of this weird theory that we were not part of the research and development, yet we were part of a clinical trial?

That's what happens normally with the industry, because there's never been price transparency in the pharmaceutical industry and our medicine system in South Africa especially. And in South Africa, we've always had two different prices for the same medicine, the public- and the private-sector price. And there's very little price transparency and scrutiny. We don't even have a global benchmarking system. And so the concern is that we now sign a contract with Covax, which is an unelected structure [and thus does not serve the South African population but rather benefits the supply company]. I have nothing to do with it as a South African citizen. So how do I hold [both the supply company and the South African government] to account for its three different price systems? But my money goes into it, and your money too.

TM: What has been the role of non-governmental organisations throughout the vaccine procurement process, especially your organisation, the Health Justice Initiative?

FH: We have been raising the alarm bells for a very long period ... For four months, we've been warning that we needed more time and more planning around the fact that you're likely to have a global supply problem. And that you are likely not to have cooperation from the pharmaceutical industry.

My organisation already from October and November 2020 had been raising this explicitly and also started engaging in correspondence with the department, and in the different ministries, [which] did not respond... until the reports emerged then indicating that we [were] threatening litigation. So we are still engaged in that process because we don't believe that there's been sufficient sharing of information and transparency around various aspects of the plan. Just yesterday our legal representatives sent a detailed letter requesting information.

She's devoted to her rescue dog Grandma.

And on Monday, Scout Willis enjoyed a walk around her LA neighborhood with the tiny brown and white Chihuahua mix by her side.

The 29-year-old daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis dangled a large face mask from one ear as she strode out.

Fresh air and exercise: Scout Willis enjoyed a walk around her LA neighborhood with her beloved Chihuahua mix Grandma by her side on Monday

Scout had on an eye-catching red hoodie which she paired with skintight black leggings.

She left her long hair loose and knotted a blue bandana as a headband to keep her locks back from her face.

She appeared to be makeup-free and donned a pair of large headphones.

Stroll: The 29-year-old daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis had on a red hoodie which she paired with black leggings, and dangled a large face mask from one ear as she strode out

Last summer, during an extended stay at the family compound in Hailey, Idaho, Scout posted a sweet tribute to Grandma.

Alongside a photo of the pup lying in the shallow water of a stream, she wrote: 'I cannot even begin to put words together to accurately describe my devotion to this magical, mystical creature that I have the sacred privilege of caring for.'

She went on: 'I consider Grandma one of my closest friends and despite the fact that I when I found her I wasnt even interested in having a dog, she is the absolute dog love of my life! GRANDMAAAAAAAA I just love her so much.'

Love" Last summer, during an extended stay at the family compound in Hailey, Idaho, Scout posted a sweet tribute to her rescue dog

Recording an album: In November, Scout posted a photo to Instagram in which she's seen holding Grandma as she works with musician and producer Greg Papania in a home studio

Scout has been working recently on an album with musician and producer Greg Papania.

Last month, she posted a photo to Instagram in which she's seen holding Grandma as she works with Papania in a home studio.

In the caption, she shared: 'Grandma, @gregpapania and I havent disappeared, we just spend all our days here , getting this album mixed to sweet, supple readiness to share with your ears and hearts!'

Scout has an older sister Rumer, 32, and a younger sister Tallulah, 26.

The siblings were born during their famous parents' marriage which lasted from 1987 to 2007.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going big these days for the sympathy play in the name of Getting Her Political Opponents.

See, she's a victim of sexual assault. And she's mad at people who say she "should move on" from the utterly unrelated Capitol riot instead of dwell on it. She'd like you to know she couldn't possibly move on, at least not until the last Republican is jailed. And with fresh makeup on, she giggled, laughed, waved, and smiled merrily as she explained it.

Now, although she hasn't made any political hay in the past about her claims to sexual assault, it's possible that it did happen.

What's strange here is that she brings up the totally unrelated Capitol riot of Jan. 6, and since she has these therapeutic needs she's oversharing with us, Congress should apparently shut down (to enable Joe Biden to govern exclusively by executive order, perhaps), and, as she says, she wants to "hold accountable" every Republican, particularly Sen. Ted Cruz, whose reasoned arguments and popular base of his own seem to bother her mightily.

It's amazing how she's obsessing over Cruz. It's almost as if she has a secret crush. Earlier, she argued that Cruz, who had absolutely nothing to do with the assault on the Capitol, tried to "murder" her. Out of all the Republicans out there, she's really nuts in some strange way about Cruz.

It's politics, for sure, this selective outrage cloaked in her claimed need for therapy.

After all, while Republicans are her target in this treacly, weepy moral wreck she's claiming of herself (smiling and giggling on Instagram), she gets kind of selective when her political allies of varying stripes turn out to have had some truck with real sexual harassment.

Where are her outrage and trauma when the subject of Tara Reade and her allegations of sexual assault, from Joe Biden, no less, come up? Reade, incidentally, like Ocasio-Cortez, was a Bernie Sanderssupporter. Nothing. Zip. Nada. But while it's hard to prove a negative, I've checked around and don't see any defense of Reade or demand to punish Groper Joe based on the PTSD trauma he should have caused her.

I couldn't find anything, either, from her on the topic of Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver, who allegedly solicited 21 young men and boys. That's some real sexual harassment. But the only thing she's on record for faulting the Lincoln Project for is being "scam territory," by taking in $67 million in mostly Democrat donations and not producing a single Republican voter for the Dems. That's what got her to speak out. As for Weaver, as of this writing, so far, silence.

Here's another one on sexual trauma and moving on that we don't hear a thing about from the much-traumatized Ocasio-Cortez: Vice President Kamala Harris had a top aide working for her while doing sex harassment on the office assistant, demanding that she crawl under his desk to fix his computer so he could see her underwear, triggering a lawsuit that led the state of California to make a $400,000 payout. After that, he landed on his feet in Contra Costa County, showing the extent to which sexual harassment is rewarded by powerful Democrats somewhere. Funny how that didn't apparently traumatize Ocasio-Cortez. Perhaps that's because Harris is a Democrat. Seems it was easy for all of them to move on.

What we have here is an amazing amount of narcissism, a lot of selective outrage, and someone who overshares to demonstrate to us she's actually a mess. Above all, this is about using personal problems for political gain. Does this sound like someone up to the job of being in Congress?

Image: Screen shot from shareable Instagram video.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said she does not see any credible evidence that there will be a change of leadership in her party following the findings of a Belfast Telegraph poll.

The LucidTalk poll indicated that Michelle ONell could be the next First Minister, after the DUPs support fell to 19% - the lowest in two decades.

Sinn Fein were out in front on 24%, while one in 10 respondents said they would vote for Jim Allisters TUV.

In party leaders ratings, both First Minister Mrs Foster and deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill polled poorly with less than one in four people saying they were doing a good or great job and more than half describing their performance as bad or awful.

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Speaking on View From Stormont on Monday, Mrs Foster stressed that she had spoken to her DUP colleagues over the weekend regarding a leadership change and said there was no credible evidence.

This is never about Arlene Foster, its about the DUP and its about leading the country to a better place and thats what Im focusing on, she stated.

Commenting on the possibility that Sinn Feins northern leader Ms ONeill could be the next First Minister after the 2022 Assembly elections, Mrs Foster said there is always that potential.

Of course, theres always that potential but the poll that matters is the election and we look forward to the next election - going out to talk to our people about what weve been able to do for the people of Northern Ireland and our vision for Northern Ireland beyond 2021, she continued.

Mr Allisters TUV was the biggest winner in the Belfast Telegraphs online poll of 2,295 people.

Support for his party quadrupled since the last Assembly elections. On 10%, it could win up to six seats if the pattern was replicated in the May 2022 election but Mrs Foster said it was her job to win the trust of the people.

Its not the first time weve seen those sorts of movements, especially when unionism is in a tough place, she stated.

But its now my job and the job of the Democratic Unionist Party to make sure that we deal with all of the issues that are there and make sure we win the trust of the people when the real poll comes and that of course is next year during the election.

Read More

She added that she recognised that the Belfast Telegraphs poll was an internet poll and it was important to put that into perspective.

But people are angry in relation to whats happening in Northern Ireland, she added. Unionists are very angry about the protocol.

I absolutely recognise that and therefore there is a need to deal with that and to deal with it in a meaningful way.

Meanwhile, the Alliance Party was breathing down the neck to become Northern Irelands second largest political party with an 18% support rating.

The SDLP (13%) and the Ulster Unionist Party (12%) both remained unchanged as Colum Eastwood and Steve Aiken were unable to capitalise despite extensive criticism of how Stormonts big two have handled the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hillsong Church faces property lawsuits seeking more than $20M

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Hillsong Church has taken additional hits to its brand from two recent property-related lawsuits in the U.S. and Australia that accuses church leaders of immoral, oppressive and unscrupulous conduct and seeks to recover more than $20 million in collective damages.

Already reeling under the specter of a sexual misconduct scandal, one lawsuit filed stateside on Jan. 20, by the Wall Street Theater Company, Inc., accuses Hillsong Connecticut of failing to pay more than $100,000 in rent and removing electronic equipment from the companys property located at 71 Wall Street in Norwalk.

The complaint against Hillsong Connecticut shows that the church entered into an agreement to rent the Wall Street premises starting Sept. 20, 2019, every Sunday from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. for $7,937 each Sunday.

On Feb. 21, 2020, the agreement was amended to reflect a reduction in the rent for each Sunday to $5,935.25. Just over three weeks later, however, the coronavirus pandemic hit and restrictions were placed on religious gatherings. Hillsong Connecticut emailed the Wall Street Theater Company in May, seeking to cancel to agreement through a 120-day termination clause.

The Wall Street Theater Company alleges that since invoking the termination clause, Hillsong Connecticut has not paid the $100,899.25 billed for the period May 11, 2020 through September 8, 2020.

Despite due demand the Defendant has failed and refused to pay the balance due of $100,899.25, the company alleges in the lawsuit.

The acts of the Defendant constitute violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practice Act,  in that said actions were immoral, oppressive and unscrupulous and caused substantial injury to Plaintiff, the lawsuit adds.

The Christian Post reached out to Hillsong Church about the lawsuit on Monday and was told it did not yet have a response to the Connecticut lawsuit.

A source told the New York Post that the church is claiming that they cannot afford to pay the rent because they are a small nonprofit organization.

Hillsong just ghosted the theater, the source told the NY Post. When the theater sent them a bill, they responded saying they were a small not-for-profit and couldnt pay it, and that they didnt owe it anyways because of the pandemic.

It appears however that Connecticut does not have a pandemic-related moratorium on commercial rent payment.

Dale Smith, whose company provided security for Hillsong, argued that while the church might claim to be a nonprofit, he thinks they operated more like a corporation.

It just seemed like a business, real robotic, he told the NY Post. Even the ones on the payroll seemed to be fighting, positioning in order to climb that ladder which, in my opinion, is not what a church is supposed to be.

Early last month, Desiree Noel Robertson, 39, and Blaze C. Robertson, 41, were reportedly looking for new jobs at another local church after quietly leaving the church they helped found in 2016. Blaze previously worked as a creative pastor at Hillsong Church New York City. The church is now under internal investigation in the wake of former lead Pastor Carl Lentzs firing over leadership issues and moral failures.

Hillsong Church is also facing a $20 million lawsuit in Australia through their connection with Sydney Christian Life Centre, a developer and part of the churchs property arm. Owners of nearly 300 Sydney apartments allege Hillsong and the construction firm the denomination hired to build their housing complex made their homes structurally unsound.

Were worried we will find it difficult to sell our apartments, one owner, who requested anonymity, told the Daily Telegraph of the units that were sold for between $440,000 and $945,000.

The SCLC, according to the Australian lawsuit, breached their duties of care in causing or permitting the defective work. It is also alleged that residents were prevented from inspecting the common property before buying their units. Structural engineers allegedly found windows and balconies in the units were not up to code in 2019.

Hillsong argues in a counterclaim, however, that it is the construction firm, Icon Construction Australia, who are the real wrongdoers.

In 2018, Brian Houston, global senior pastor of Hillsong Church, announced a split from Australia's largest Pentecostal denomination to become a denomination of its own, citing the growing global nature of the church.

Since its inception, Hillsong Church has been a part of the Australian Christian Churches, a branch of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, which is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world.

"As Hillsong Church has continued to grow, we no longer see ourselves as an Australian Church with a global footprint, but rather a Global church with an Australian base our global office now resides in the USA. Two thirds of the people attending Hillsong Church each weekend live in countries beyond Australia. We have pastoral staff in twenty-four nations around the world, representing 123 campuses and locations, with 263 different church services on any given weekend. We consider it to be 'One House, with many rooms,'" Houston explained in a letter to the Australia Christian Churches.
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What was it about those mittens? | Northeast Notes
Im very concerned about unscrupulous actors coming in and making phone calls to people, setting up websites, knocking on doors, and saying, Oh for $50 or $100 I can give you the vaccine, and its water and sugar that theyre giving you, Hagerty said. Sadly, that will occur. Were not aware of any instances here, but people need to be on their toes for any scams.
The Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday made an order joining the Muslim Rights Concern Association (MURIC) in a suit challenging the Arabic inscription on the Naira note and the logo of the Nigerian Army flag.

The judge, Mohammed Liman, ordered MURIC and its Director, Ishaq Akintola, to be joined as defendants in the suit.

The lawyer to Mr Akintola, Adewale Alabi, and MURCs lawyer, Emmanuel Ogunlowo, had moved their clients joinder applications.

The plaintiff, Malcom Omirhobo, a lawyer who represents himself in the case, did not oppose the joinder applications.

The lawyer to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olumuyiwa Aduroja, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, also did not oppose the application.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the judge adjourned till March 16 for hearing after granting the applications.

MURIC and Mr Akintola are now part of the defendants list which originally comprised CBN, Nigeria Army, Ministry of Defence and the Attorney General of the Federation.

The suit

Mr Omirhobo had filed his suit in January 2020 to challenge the Arabic inscriptions on the Naira notes and the flag of the Nigerian Army.

The plaintiff had argued that the inscriptions violated the status of Nigeria as a secular nation.

He asked the court to interpret the provisions of Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in determining if it is lawful and constitutional for the defendants to permit the Naira notes to be adorned with Arabic inscriptions.

In the same vein, he urged the court to determine whether by a community reading of sections 1(1)(3), 10 and 55 of the 1999 Constitution, it is proper for the defendants to permit the Nigerian Army logo to be inscribed with same insignia.

He also asked the court to determine whether by the true letter and spirit of Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution, Nigeria is a secular state without any official religion.

ALSO READ: MURIC cautions Nigerians against new protest

He urged the court to declare that it is unconstitutional to allow the Nigerian Army logo to be adorned with Arabic language, instead of the official English, Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo languages.

Akintola wants Arabic inscriptions retained

Mr Akintola had in his affidavit filed in support of his joinder application, argued that the claims contained in the plaintiffs suit were falsehoods and deliberate misrepresentation in respect of Islamic faith and the Arabic language.

He noted that the inscription on the Nigerian Armys logo reads as Nasiruminallah and translates in English to mean victory comes from God alone.

He said neither the Nigerian Constitution nor any statue made English the official language of the Army.

Mr Akintola added that there was also no provision, which states that Nigeria is a secular state and that Arabic inscriptions do not render her a secular or non-secular state.

According to him, the said inscription on Naira notes does not represent in anyway, the religion of Islam but rather constitutes part of the rich historical heritage of Nigeria.

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He argued that the inscription dated back to the colonial era and had aided many illiterate Nigerians to know the value of the currency notes in Hausa.

Besides, Mr Akintola argued that the Holy Bible, which is the scripture for Christians all over the world, is printed in Arabic in countries like Israel, Egypt, Palestine, Lybia and Syria.

He added that church services were also conducted in Arabic in those places.

He added that Arabic language was, in fact, an indigenous language of the Shuwa Arab ethnic group of Nigeria, and not synonymous with Islam. (NAN)
Representative image (PC- MoneyControl.Com)

The Union Budget 2021 presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is really a big game changer in terms of economic revival in India, especially post the COVID-19 damage, experts feel.

The government has estimated fiscal deficit at 6.8 percent of GDP in FY22 and 9.5 percent in FY21. The Budget increased the capital expenditure by 35 percent for FY22 over FY21 to revive the economy, and largely focussed on infrastructure (including roads, railways, National Infrastructure Pipeline, ports, power etc).

"Budget 2021 was a Dream Budget which brought with itself a remarkable rise in Nifty50, the highest in the past 10 years. Such buoyancy in the market might be momentary but this Budget truly caters to revive the Indian economy which plunged to nadir amidst the pandemic," Umesh Mehta, Head Of Research at Samco Securities told Moneycontrol.

"This Budget primarily revolved around capex and infra themes which stand to accelerate the much-needed growth revival. With this as a central theme, government insinuated to put money back in the hands of people through real asset creation rather than simply doling out free monies to the citizens as done by the developed economies to support their slouching economies," he said.

The Budget has created lot of opportunities for investors in terms of stocks that will benefit from the announcements.

"Overall, the Budget truly hit the mark since there wasn't anything negative from a consumer or industrial perspective. Infact, PSUs, insurance, heavy industrials, private sector banks will be beneficiaries of budget proposals," Umesh Mehta said.

Infrastructure is expected to be the biggest beneficiary after the government proposed setting up of Development Financial Institution (DFI) along with construction of new highway connectivity projects (nearly 7700 km) and higher capital expenditure (up 35 percent YoY to Rs 5.54 lakh crore). The government is also going to provide more than Rs 2 lakh crore to states and autonomous bodies for their capital expenditure. Infrastructure (including L&T), cement and road developers will get benefitted.

"Increased consumption and infrastructure spend would have a positive impact on collateral sectors like tourism and hospitality. Better connectivity would be of great help to logistic service providers also," Rohit Gadia, CIO at CapitalVia Global Research said.

The government has set divestment target (of Rs 1.75 lakh crore) in two PSU banks and one general insurance company, which is expected to provide enough capital to the government.

"Overall if the economy does well every sector does well. Some of the sectors that could do well are banks, consumer discretionary, capital goods and infrastructure. Even insurance sector have got a huge boost with FDI increased from 49 percent to 74 percent," Harshad Chetanwala, Co-Founder of MyWealthGrowth said.

The government provided support to the commercial vehicle space through allocation of Rs 18,000 crore for procurement of over 20,000 buses for urban transport. It is aimed to be implemented deploying PPP model. The announcement of voluntary scrappage policy for commercial vehicles more than 15 years of age and private vehicles over 20 years of age. This is positive for Ashok Leyland Tata Motors, JK Tyre and Apollo Tyres, ICICI Securities feels.

In Jal Jeeval Mission for Urban households, the government would be setting up 2.86 crore water tap connection at an outlay of Rs 2.87 lakh crore over the next five years. "This would benefit plastic pipe companies with incremental demand of PVC pipes," said ICICI Securities.

Mehta Equities feels the setting up of mega investment textile parks (seven textile parks) over 3 years to make sector export competitive is positive for KPR Mills, Arvind, Aarnav Fashion and Welspun India.

The formation of bad loans bank could help PSBs to offload more than Rs 3 lakh crore from their balance sheets amd plans further recapitalization of Rs 20,000 crore into banks, is a big positive for PSU Banks, said the brokerage.

The allocation of Rs 3,768 crore for first Digital Census in the History of India is expected to be positive for Vakrangee, Mehta Equities feels.

In the next three years, 100 districts will be added to existing city gas distribution (CGD) network. Addition of new areas will provide incremental opportunity of volume growth for CGD companies, said ICICI Securities. It is positive for Indraprastha Gas, Mahanagar Gas, Gujarat Gas, Adani Total Gas and GAIL.

Finance Minister amended to increase in railways spending with FY22 allocation for railways at Rs 1,10,055 crore, which is positive for RITES, IRFC and IRCON, said Mehta Equities. The Eastern Freight Corridor is to be taken up this year via PPP mode. Further, three future dedicated freight corridors -- East Coast, East-west, North-south are in works.

Highway infrastructure work proposed includes building 8,500-km of highways by March 2022 is poositive for IRB Infrastructure, Dilip Buildcon, Ashoka Buildcon.

The proposed additional deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh for loans taken upto March 31, 2022 for purchase of affordable housing, and the tax holiday extended by 1 year till March 2022 for developers of affordable housing is positive for LIC Housing Finance, HUDCO, Repco Home Finance, Can Fin Homes etc.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the importance of healthcare sector into limelight. This space was allocated an amount of Rs 2,23,846 crore, increasing sharply by 137 percent from Rs 94,452 crore in 2020. The need for infrastructure development has also been addressed and an outlay of Rs 64,180 crore has been provided over 6 years.

"The diversification in the funds allocated would augment major branches under this space like pharmaceuticals, hospitals and laboratories. It will strengthen and develop primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities even in the last miles of our nation," said Rohit Gadia, CIO at CapitalVia Global Research.

In the agriculture space, the government has reassured farmers that minimum support price (MSP) system will continue and will be further strengthened.

"Reassuring it's commitment to develop APMCs, the government has announced to allow utilization of Rs 1 lakh crore infrastructure fund for the infrastructure development of state-controlled mandis. This may allay fears of protesting farmers that centre is planning to destroy mandi system through new farm laws," Gadia said.

In addition to this, "the outlay for agri - credit has increased to Rs 16.5 lakh crore against Rs 2.83 lakh crore in the previous budget. These measures will boost farm income, which in turn will help demand which the economy badly needs. It is also a signal to the farmers that government is working towards their well-being," he added.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
South Africa: Vaccine arrival testament to "good international relations"

The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation, Tandi Mahambehlala, says the arrival of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from India signifies the success of South Africas approach to bilateral and multilateral relations.

We congratulate the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, through its missions abroad, for their candid vaccine diplomacy. This has been demonstrated through its successful initiation of negotiations, which secured the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines for South Africa, Mahambehlala said on Tuesday.

Mahambehlala said the arrival of the vaccines is significant and testament to the success of South Africas diplomatic relations.

The importance of diplomacy has once again been proved and is apparent for all to see during this era of the pandemic. The country, under the capable stewardship of President Cyril Ramaphosa, should work hard to enhance bilateral and multilateral relations with countries and multinational pharmaceutical companies that have shown capability in manufacturing vaccines.

On Monday, President Ramaphosa led a government delegation to welcome the arrival of the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines from the Serum Institute of India. The vaccine has undergone successfully trials at Oxford University, with South Africas scientists making valuable contributions.

Mahambehlala extended gratitude to the friendly government of India, calling the country a true friend in need and a trusted partner in the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa] formation.

Mahambehlala said South Africa will continue to play a role in making the vaccine available to neighbouring countries. The African Union, which was chaired by South Africa when the pandemic struck, has worked to ensure that the continent gets its fair share of the vaccine, working with the COVAX Facility and led by the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team.

Mahambehlala expressed her appreciation to President Ramaphosas successful chairing of the African Union. SAs chairship of the AU comes to an end this week.

Cuba commended for immense sacrifice



Mahambehlala applauded the Cabinet decision to endorse and nominate the Cuban Medical Brigade, which is deployed throughout the world, for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

We thank these gallant heroes and heroines of Cuba for their selfless and unwavering sacrifice to assist the world in the fight against Coronavirus, Mahambehlala said.

About 200 Cuban doctors are deployed in South Africa to help in the fight against COVID-19.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Seven weeks into its COVID-19 vaccination program, Michigan has passed the million mark on number of doses administered.

The total as of Sunday, Jan. 31: 1,001,873.

That includes 801,691 people who have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, and 200,182 second shots.

That means about 10% of Michigan adults are at least partially immunized against COVID-19 and 2.5% are fully immunized.

To date, 356,150 Michiganders age 65 and older have gotten at least one vaccine dose. Thats about 20% of the states 1.8 million residents in that age group.

It appears the majority of vaccines have gone to younger adults, most of whom are essential workers.

In the past week, Michigan administered an average of 31,413 doses a day, well below the 50,000 daily target set by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The states highest daily total ever was on Thursday, Jan. 28, when 52,766 shots were administered -- 40,419 first doses and 12,347 second doses.

Whitmer and others have said they could do many more vaccinations a day if the state had more vaccine supplies.

To date, Michigan has received 1,735,525 doses from the federal government. Of that, 430,200 have been allotted to the program vaccinating residents and staff of long-term care facilities. So far, 104,209 have been immunized through the LTC program.

57% of Michigan nursing home staff, residents decline COVID-19 vaccine so far

Of the remaining 1,305,325 doses, 897,684 -- of 69% -- of the doses have been administered.

However, official say that reporting lags mean the number of doses administered is understated. Moreover, about 200,000 of those doses were shipped in the past few days and are expected to be administered this week.

Currently, those eligible for vaccines include those age 65 and older, as well as health-care workers, teachers, first responders and correctional officers.

Read more on MLive:

Restaurants reopen today for indoor dining  here are Michigans new rules

Double masking as coronavirus variants spread, where to find the right masks

9% of Michigan adults vaccinated against COVID-19 so far; see numbers in your county





Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  The Anti-Terrorism Act, a law that sparked debate and controversy in the pandemic-stricken Philippines, will finally be discussed at the Supreme Court on February 2, seven months after its enactment.

Thirty-seven sets of petitioners have chosen 13 representatives to argue why the law should be junked for constitutional violations. The petitions were filed by framers of the Constitution, law experts, and human rights advocates, as well as individuals who claim to have been victims of authorities terrorist-tagging.

Solicitor General Jose Calida and three other lawyers will defend the measure President Rodrigo Duterte signed in July 2020.

For orderly proceedings, the high court gave each side 45 minutes to present their case and ordered them to limit the discussion to six preliminary issues and 15 substantive issues. This will be subject to interpellation by the justices.

All in all, the law has 56 sections. At least 23 will be specifically challenged during the oral arguments, while other matters can be argued through written memoranda.

CNN Philippines breaks down some of the key issues against the most challenged law in Supreme Courts recent history.

Void for vagueness, overbreadth?

In repealing the Human Security Act of 2007, the Anti-Terrorism Act expanded the definition of terrorism. Under the previous law, an act of terrorism is committed when crimes such as piracy, rebellion, and murder are done to sow widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand.

The Anti-Terrorism Act makes no mention of any predicate crime. Instead, under Section 4, a person commits terrorism when engaging in acts that intend to endanger someone or to damage public or private property, and certain other actions when the purpose is any of the following:

 intimidate the public, the government, or any international organization

 create an atmosphere of or spread a message of fear

 seriously destabilize or destroy the fundamental political economic or social structures of society

 create a public emergency or seriously undermine public safety

Without standards to limit their boundaries, these phrases suffer from serious ambiguity and overbreadth that enables malicious criminal prosecution of innocent rights-holders, according to a group of petitioners led by former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio. Citizens may now second-guess whether their actions could be considered by the state as terrorism, producing a chilling effect that violates constitutional rights to due process, free speech, and expression, Carpio and other petitioners agreed.

READ: Aetas tortured by soldiers also seek scrapping of Anti-Terrorism Act

Sections 5 to 14 also penalize individuals or groups that threaten to commit terrorism; plan, train, prepare, or facilitate the commission of terrorism; conspire, propose, and incite to commit terrorism, as well as those who provide material support to terrorists. These are all too vague, the petitions say.

Officials have repeatedly dismissed allegations the law would be used to run after government critics, even saying that activism is not terrorism. However, the implementing rules and regulations explain that advocacy, protest, dissent, and similar exercises of civil and political rights will not be considered terrorism only when these are not intended to endanger a person or create a serious risk to public safety. This shifts the burden of proof to the accused, the petitioners argued.

READ: IRR explains: When can protests be considered terrorism?

The petitioners will also discuss whether the law should be struck down as unconstitutional in its entirety for its ambiguous definition of terrorism as well as the expansion of powers of the Anti-Terrorism Council, an office under the executive department.

Too much executive power?

The Anti-Terrorism Council, currently headed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, can now designate individuals and organizations as terrorists without any hearing, as long as it sees probable cause that they commit, attempt to commit, or are part of a conspiracy to commit acts defined and penalized as terrorism under Sections 4 to 12 of the law.

While authorities stressed that designation does not automatically warrant an arrest, the lists of designated terrorists are published, giving those tagged 15 days to file an appeal.

Petitioners say this encroaches on judicial power, particularly the Supreme Courts rule-making power. It also violates due process due to lack of parameters for designation.

The designation allows the Anti-Money Laundering Council to freeze the assets of the individuals or organizations, violating a persons right against unreasonable searches and seizures, according to the petitions.

In December, the AMLC said it has issued a freeze order on accounts related to the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing New Peoples Amy, following their designation as terrorist organizations. Duterte and his men have been calling the communist rebels terrorists ever since the peace talks broke down in 2017.

The CPP, which has waged a five-decade insurgency, maintained it has a legitimate national cause.

Meanwhile, applications for an individual or groups proscription are filed with the Court of Appeals, upon the authorization of the Anti-Terrorism Council. Another contested provision is Section 27, which allows the appellate court to issue a preliminary order of proscription within three days if it finds probable cause to declare a suspect as terrorist or an organization as outlawed. It has six months to conduct hearings and decide whether to lift the order or make it permanent.

Arbitrary detention?

Section 29 allows the warrantless arrest and detention without charges of suspected terrorists for up to 24 days  as long as the law enforcement agent or military personnel are authorized in writing by the Anti-Terrorism Council. The Human Security Act previously allowed a pre-trial detention of up to three days only.

Petitioners will discuss if extending this period contravenes the Constitution, the Revised Penal Code, the Rules of Court, and international obligations against arbitrary detention. Under Article 7, Section 18 of the Constitution, even if martial law is declared and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is suspended, detention without trial should only last for three days. This is further cut to only 36 hours under the Revised Penal Code.

Law enforcement officials earlier said extending the detention period would allow them to build up the case against the suspected terrorists, but petitioners warned it would lead to abuses and rights violations.

In the deliberations of the Constitutional Commission, the Commissioners emphasized the dangers of leaving detained persons in the custody of arresting officers for extended periods of time, said one of the petitions led by Christian Monsod and Felicitas Arroyo, members of the commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution.

Pretrial punishment?

Surveillance of proscribed, designated, and suspected terrorists could last up to 90 days under the new law, compared to the 60 day-period in the previous legislation. The Court of Appeals shall allow the surveillance upon the application of a law enforcement agent or military personnel authorized by the Anti-Terrorism Council.

The petitions argue that the sections on surveillance violate the peoples rights to due process and to privacy of communication and correspondence, rights to freedom of speech, expression, and religion, right against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the accuseds right to presumption of innocence. The authorization from the Court of Appeals also blocks remedies available to the accused, petitioners said.

Petitioners said this is tantamount to an ex post facto law, which penalizes an act that was not considered a crime when it was committed, and also punishes the detained without trial.

Meanwhile, Section 34, which retains the old provision allowing house arrest and limiting the accuseds movement within the city or municipality he resides upon the order of a regional trial court, is also being questioned for violating the persons right to travel, right against incommunicado detention, and right to bail. This could be considered torture, according to petitioners.

Despite dozens of petitions urging the high court to stop the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Act due to the grave and irreparable injury red-tagged groups and individuals stand to suffer, no temporary restraining order or status quo ante order was issued by the high court. This will be part of the preliminary discussion during the much-anticipated oral arguments.
Access to healthcare, especially in rural communities, is important for so many reasons... at Phelps Health, technology and research play a key role in ensuring our patients receive the healthcare they need at the right time and in the right place.

An upcoming episode of the award-winning series, Advancements with Ted Danson, will focus on recent improvements in access to care. Check local listings for more info.

This segment of Advancements will educate about current issues surrounding access to healthcare in rural communities. Viewers will learn how the sector is working to ensure that all individuals have access to affordable and equitable health, including behavioral and social services.

Traveling to Rolla, Missouri, producers will explore how advances in technology and research are helping to close the gap on healthcare patient access. The show will uncover how rural hospitals, like Phelps Health, are using research to innovate healthcare and improve the health and wellness of local communities.

Spectators will also see how Phelps Health is using technology and research to provide better access to the educational tools and best practices required to make informed decisions.

Access to healthcare, especially in rural communities, is important for so many reasons, said Ed Clayton, president and CEO of Phelps Health. At Phelps Health, technology and research play a key role in ensuring our patients receive the healthcare they need at the right time and in the right place.

The show will also explore how investing in innovation helps Phelps Health provide high-quality care, increase patient safety and improve the quality of life for individuals.

Phelps Health has become a community resource, offering programs and activities to the public in an effort to improve care, said Richard Lubin, senior producer for Advancements. We look forward to showcasing what Phelps Health is doing and how its technology is improving the lives of patients.

About Phelps Health:

Phelps Health is one of Missouris leading regional referral centers, serving over 200,000 residents in south-central Missouri. Phelps Health is county-owned, non-tax supported and is overseen by a five-member elected board. Phelps Health employs more than 1,900 people, including 100-plus providers. Phelps Health, which includes a hospital licensed for 242 patient beds, serves a six-county area, with its main campus and several clinics located in Rolla, Missouri. Phelps Health also has clinics in Salem, St. James, Vienna and Waynesville, Missouri.

For more information, visit: http://www.phelpshealth.org

About Advancements and DMG Productions:

The Advancements series is an information-based educational show targeting recent advances across a number of industries and economies. Featuring state-of-the-art solutions and important issues facing todays consumers and business professionals, Advancements focuses on cutting-edge developments, and brings this information to the public with the vision to enlighten about how technology and innovation continue to transform our world.

Backed by experts in various fields, DMG Productions is dedicated to education and advancement, and to consistently producing commercial-free, educational programming on which both viewers and networks depend.

For more information, please visit http://www.AdvancementsTV.com or call Richard Lubin at 866-496-4065.

WASHINGTON  A San Francisco Democrat is speaker of the House, a New York Democrat is running the Senate and a Democrat is in the White House  and that could spell a windfall for residents of high-tax areas such as California.

Politicians in predominantly Democratic cities and states bristled at a cap that Republicans imposed in 2017 on state and local tax deductions, which has meant many of their constituents are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars more in taxes per year.

Democrats have an ambitious agenda for one-party control of Washington over the next two years, but repealing that deduction cap on state and local taxes  known by the shorthand SALT  could be an under-the-radar piece of it this spring.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has made a priority of rolling back the SALT deduction cap, which was included in the Republican-passed tax bill that former President Donald Trump signed in late 2017. That legislation capped federal deductions for state and local taxes to $10,000, or $5,000 each for married couples filing separately. Pelosi has cited repealing the cap as a possible way to provide relief to Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has also sought to restore SALT deductions.

The cap has disproportionately affected blue states like California. An analysis by the states tax board in 2018 estimated that loss of the full deduction may have cost California taxpayers $12 billion.

The Republican-run Senate and Trump blocked efforts to do away with the cap through last year. But Democrats are eyeing a budget procedural move called reconciliation that would allow them to pass legislation with a simple majority in the 100-member Senate, instead of a filibuster-proof 60 votes, to get rid of the cap as early as this spring.

St. Helena Rep. Mike Thompson chairs the tax policy subcommittee in the House that would handle any SALT cap repeal. His spokesperson said he will try to get the rollback into law through any package he can.

Chairman Thompson will work to utilize any appropriate legislative vehicle to enact this change, spokesperson Alex Macfarlane said. State and local governments will continue to need our help more than ever as they work with their citizens to recover from the public health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

Some Republicans are also on board. GOP Rep. Mike Garcia of Santa Clarita, a swing-seat Los Angeles County lawmaker, introduced a bill to repeal the SALT deduction cap as his first act after a controversial vote to support efforts that would have overturned Novembers presidential election results. Rep. Young Kim of Fullerton (Orange County), another swing district Republican who voted to confirm the election results, joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers last week in introducing a separate bill to repeal the cap.

But the effort puts Democrats in the unusual position of effectively supporting a tax cut for the wealthy  typically anathema to progressive policymakers. The liberal Brookings Institution think tank called the SALT deduction a handout to the rich and urged that it be eliminated entirely. The Brookings-affiliated Tax Policy Center estimated that the top fifth of the country in terms of wealth would get 96% of the benefit of repealing the cap.

In a test vote last week during the Senates consideration of a measure to allow coronavirus relief to proceed, all 50 Senate Democrats opposed a proposed amendment that would have prevented them from repealing the deduction cap. Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnells office then highlighted it as a vote in favor of a tax break for the wealthy.

The House narrowly passed a bill co-sponsored by Thompson in 2019 to repeal the cap, but 16 Democrats voted against it, including progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Senate never took it up.

Left-leaning Democrats signal that they could support a repeal, however, as long as it is paired with measures that would increase taxes for the wealthy, though that could jeopardize Republican support. After her 2019 vote, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that she would consider ways to restructure SALT deductions to provide relief to middle class families and suggested another pass ... can get this done right.

Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, a progressive who chairs the Senate Finance Committee that will handle any tax reform legislation, signaled an openness to the idea as well.

Republicans intentionally targeted middle-class homeowners in Democratic states, and I will be lifting the SALT cap as part of my broader tax agenda, Wyden said in a statement to The Chronicle.

But Democratic aides and lawmakers cautioned that a controversial effort like tax reform is unlikely to be included in Democrats first coronavirus relief efforts this year. With the expiration of jobless benefits just six weeks away, Congress needs to move quickly on the most urgent items, Wyden said. That leaves a second package as a more likely scenario for repealing the cap.

President Biden embraced a SALT deduction cap repeal during the 2020 campaign as part of a broader tax package, but hasnt made clear where he stands on the issue as part of coronavirus relief. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
AG Nessel, Gov. Whitmer, Secretary Benson Seek Disbarment of Attorneys for Pushing Election Fraud Narrative

AG Nessel, Gov. Whitmer, Secretary Benson Seek Disbarment of Attorneys for Pushing Election Fraud Narrative

Ryan Jarvi 517-599-2746 Attorney General

February 1, 2021

LANSING  Michigans top three elected officials are asking for the disbarment of four attorneys who pushed a false narrative of widespread election fraud in legal proceedings before multiple judges and courts  including the nations highest judicial body, the U.S. Supreme Court  in their frivolous lawsuit, King v. Whitmer.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessels office on Thursday filed motions for sanctions in federal court against the same four lawyers, Michigan attorneys Greg Rohl, Scott Hagerstrom and Stefanie Junttila, along with Texas attorney Sidney Powell.

Today, Nessel joined with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson  all three licensed attorneys themselves  in filing complaints with the Attorney Grievance Commission of the State of Michigan and the State Bar of Texas, asking that the attorneys be disbarred and lose their privilege to practice law in those states.

These attorneys filed a complaint based on falsehoods, used their law license in an attempt to disenfranchise Michigan voters and undermine the faith of the public in the legitimacy of the recent presidential election, and lent credence to untruths that led to violence and unrest, Nessel said. In doing so, they violated their oath and the ethical rules to which they are bound, abused the court system, and compromised the administration of justice  an important foundation of our civil society and the very bulwark of our democratic institutions. Anything short of disbarment would be an injustice to the American people.

The 2020 general election was the most secure in our nations history, and these lawyers abused their authority by filing meritless, frivolous lawsuits for the sole purpose of undermining public faith in the election, said Benson. They must be held accountable for this unprecedented attack on our democracy and prevented from replicating such harm in the future.

Court filings in King v. Whitmer, which sought to overturn President Joe Bidens electoral victory in Michigan, were legally frivolous and supported by false evidence. The court swiftly denied the plaintiffs any relief on numerous grounds. Similar lawsuits were filed in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona, and all failed. Attorneys Powell and Junttila went so far as to brazenly misrepresent facts in a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming that the Michigan Legislature had endorsed competing slates of Republican and Democratic electors, when in reality, the Legislatures leaders stood by the slate of electors chosen by Michigans voters.

Due to the State Bar of Texass filing requirements, complaints against Powell were filed separately. Click here to view all three complaints.
Photo: (Photo : Screenshot from Instagram)

A designer dad makes Disney princess costumes for his kids. The videos of his magical costumes have been gaining attention online.

In a compiled set of videos uploaded on Facebook, the designer dad, Nephi Garcia, was featured. Some of his designs were not even for his kids but adults as well.

He also features all of the Disney princess costumes that he created on his Instagram account, @designerdaddy.

ALSO READ: Viral Video: Dad Reads a Book to His Baby in Different Voices





The Disney princess costumes

According to Trending World by Epoch Times, the designer dad started creating the Disney princess costumes after visiting Disneyland with his family. He made a Cinderella dress for his four-year-old daughter.

From simple dresses, the designs of Garcia magically become Disney princess costumes. Although not with a wand, the designer dad can transform the dresses into elegant ones through craftsmanship. In the videos he uploaded, everyone who sees the transformations was always in awe of what he could make. The little girls and even the adults enjoy seeing the shifts in the Disney princess costumes they are wearing.

For his kids, then for other girls.

At first, Garcia created the Disney princess costumes for his kids. However, when others were able to see his designs, they also wanted the designer daddy to make one for them or their kids. Soon enough, Garcia became a retailer of Disney princess costumes. His interest in creating the gorgeous dresses transformed into an enterprise that his wife fully-supported.

ALSO READ: Dad Tricks Baby to Say "Dada" by Changing Nursery Rhyme Lyrics





The designer daddy



When Garcia did the first dress for his four-year-old daughter, he only used scraps of blue and pink cloth. However, it still turned out to be gorgeous.

When other parents asked the designer daddy to create dresses for their kids, his wife supported this hobby. It was not long until the photos and videos of his creations became viral.

According to Trending World by Epoch Times, Garcia aims to make his kids see the magic in life. He also wanted to be an instrument in helping children's dream of becoming princes and princesses.

ALSO READ: Toronto Dad Creates a Swimwear Line for Transgender Teens





Netizens' reactions

On his Instagram account, the designer daddy keeps his followers updated on his designs.

Some of his followers express their admiration for his creations through the comments section. One netizen said, "This is quite possibly the most AMAZING thing that I have ever seen! You are an artist, magician, and most importantly, a wonderful father!"

Another netizen said, "Seriously though, the dress is awesome!"

Whenever the designer daddy posted a video showcasing amazing transformations in the dress, netizens are clamoring to buy the dress. One netizen even joked, "I need to marry with this dress."

ALSO READ: Father and Son Artists from Denver Open an Exhibit of Their Quarantine Artworks
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - PharmaDrug Inc. (CSE: BUZZ) (OTC: LMLLF) ("PharmaDrug" or the "Company"), a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of controlled-substances and natural medicines such as psychedelics, cannabis and naturally-derived approved drugs, today announced that it has completed the previously announced (see press releases dated January 12, 2021 and January 25, 2021) acquisition of Sairiyo Therapeutics Inc. ("Sairiyo") on February 2, 2021.

Sairiyo is a biotechnology company focused on repurposing and developing improved formulations of naturally derived compounds for serious, rare, and life-threatening diseases with the aim to obtain European Medicines Evaluation Agency and U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") approval. Sairiyo is advancing the clinical development of its lead drug candidate, Cepharanthine, a repurposed and reformulated naturally-derived compound for the potential treatment of cancer, neurological, inflammatory and infectious diseases.

Cepharanthine is a natural product and an approved drug used for more than 70 years in Japan to treat a variety of acute and chronic diseases. In clinical research, Cepharanthine exhibits multiple pharmacological properties including anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, immuno-regulatory, anti-cancer, anti-viral and anti-parasitic properties1. Sairiyo has an exclusive license from a research and development organization to develop and commercialize reformulated Cepharanthine for all diseases and exclusive rights to the patent, method of manufacturing, clinical supply, pre-clinical data and know-how to support FDA clinical trials.

Sairiyo is currently focused on advancing the clinical development of Cepharanthine to treat rare cancer diseases. Sairiyo recently received FDA orphan drug designation for Cepharanthine in the treatment of esophageal cancer.

Chairman and CEO Daniel Cohen commented, "We are extremely excited to close the acquisition of Sairiyo and enter into a new phase for PharmaDrug. The acquisition helps complete PharmaDrug's business model by adding a vertical in research and development."

Management will immediately move to integrate Sairiyo into the Company with a goal to refine its Cepharanthine strategy including, but not exclusively, advancing the drug into FDA clinical trials for esophageal cancer. Management will also actively seek other avenues for the drug's diverse opportunities. PharmaDrug and Sairiyo have also already begun to develop a strategy to commence unique and value adding research in the psychedelic space.

Under the terms of the agreement, PharmaDrug acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Sairiyo in consideration for the issuance of an aggregate of 75,000,000 units of PharmaDrug ("Units"). Each Unit is comprised of one common share of Pharmadrug and one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant") of Pharmadrug. Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share in the capital of Pharmadrug at any time on or before the August 2, 2022 at an exercise price of $0.10 per share.

About PharmaDrug Inc.

PharmaDrug is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of controlled-substances and natural medicines such as psychedelics, cannabis and naturally-derived approved drugs. The Company owns 80% of Pharmadrug Production GmbH, a German medical cannabis distributor, with a Schedule I European Union narcotics license and German EuGMP certification allowing for the importation and distribution of medical cannabis to pharmacies in Germany and throughout the EU. The Company also owns 100% of Super Smart, a Dutch company building a modern adult use psychedelic retail business with an elevated and educational focus. PharmaDrug recently acquired Sairiyo Therapeutics, a biotech company that specializes in researching and reformulating established natural medicines with a goal of bringing them through regulatory and research driven clinical trials.

For further information, please contact:

Daniel Cohen, Chairman and CEO

dcohen@pharmadrug.co

(647) 202-1824

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED NOR DOES IT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein is forward-looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budgets", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. In particular, this press release contains forward-looking information in relation to: advancing the clinical development of Cepharanthine; advancing into FDA clinical trials for esophageal cancer; finding other avenues for Cepharanthine's diverse opportunities; developing a strategy to commence unique and value adding research in the psychedelic space. This forward-looking information reflects the Company's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions the Company believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to the ability of the Company to successfully execute on its plans for the Company and Sairiyo; and the Company's continued response and ability to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic being consistent with, or better than, its ability and response to date.



Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; the actual results of the Company's future operations; competition; changes in legislation affecting the Company; the ability to obtain and maintain required permits and approvals, the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals; risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, service disruptions, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; and a deterioration of financial markets that could limit the Company's ability to obtain external financing.



A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the Company's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.



The Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulations under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.



Forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this press release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this press release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. However, the Company 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 as expressly required by applicable securities law.





References:



Bailly, C., 2019. Cepharanthine: An update of its mode of action, pharmacological properties and medical applications. Phytomedicine 62, 152956.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73430
YouTube CPAC

The vast majority of Canadians support tighter restrictions on international travel imposed by the federal government, a new poll suggests.

Eighty-six per cent of respondents agree with stricter measures that suspend flights to most sun destinations and require quarantining at a hotel at the passenger's expense upon arrival in Canada, according to an online survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies.

The poll also found that 87 per cent of respondents think the government should go further by banning international travel until there are several consecutive days of reduced COVID-19 numbers.

The wariness of foreign trips stems in part from more transmissible  and possibly more lethal  variants of the virus emerging abroad as well as homegrown politicians jetting off to far-flung beaches during the holidays, says Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque.

We probably would not have gotten such high numbers before the whole talk about the South African variant, the Brazil variant," Bourque said in an interview. "I think this probably jolted Canadians in a way.

"And then when you see people coming back with a very nice tan, youre thinking, 'Why am I making the effort and you're not?' And in certain cases it was MLAs and even (provincial) cabinet ministers," senators and MPs, he noted.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last Friday that Canadian airlines have suspended flights to Mexico and the Caribbean until April 30 and that returning passengers will soon have to self-isolate at a federal facility for up to three days after taking a PCR test at the airport.

The reaction differed depending on geography, with 91 per cent of respondents from Quebec and Atlantic Canada in favour of the new restrictions but just three out of four Albertans backing the clampdown, the poll found.

The possibility of even stricter rules such as an outright ban on international travel raises questions around the flow of essential goods, many of which enter the country in the bellies of passenger planes, and around freedom of movement as guaranteed in the Canadian Constitution.

Section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that "every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada," though all rights are subject to reasonable limits.

The urge for tougher travel rules comes as Canadians find their mental health on the wane, with just 29 per cent of survey respondents rating it as very good or excellent, the lowest since the pandemic began.

"Were getting into the doldrums of February, and things are not improving. If you look from November to today, its a steady decline in self-perception of the state of your mental health," Bourque said.
Over 4 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses to be given to states, UTs: Centre

No data generated with Covishield, Covaxin on 'European' strain of coronavirus, Rajya Sabha told

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 02: No data has been generated with Covishield and Covaxin vaccines specifically on the new "European" COVID-19 virus strain, Union Minister Ashwini Choubey said on Tuesday.

Two strains of the coronavirus that originated in the United Kingdom and South Africa have already spread in several countries around the globe.

To a question on whether the Covishield and Covaxin are able to provide protection from the new coronavirus variant that was traced in the UK, Choubey told Rajya Sabha, "At present, there is no data generated with the above vaccines specifically on new European COVID-19 virus strain."

The Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Covishield is being produced in this country by Serum Institute of India while Covaxin has been developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech.

"However, in the case of the proposal of Bharat Biotech International Limited, during consultation, the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the CDSCO noted that the Inactivated Whole Virion Coronavirus vaccine has potential to target mutated coronavirus strains," the Union minister of state for health said in a written reply.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) under the Ministry of Health has given approval to Serum Institute of India for manufacture of its COVID-19 vaccine for restricted use in emergency situation with various conditions and restrictions.

It has also granted permission to Bharat Biotech for manufacturing its COVID-19 vaccine for restricted use in emergency situations in public interest as an abundant precaution in clinical trial mode with various conditions and restrictions.

Capt Tom Moore, UK war veteran fundraiser who served in India dies of coronavirus

Choubey said many countries in Europe and the Americas are witnessing a resurgence in the number of COVID-19 cases.

The United Kingdom reported a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 to the World Health Organization on December 14. Currently in the UK this new variant has become the dominant circulating virus, he said.

As on January 29, about 61 countries (including the United Kingdom) have reported this variant of the virus, Choubey said. According to the health ministry, India till January 29 reported 166 cases of the UK strain.

Elaborating on the steps taken by the government to prevent spread of coronavirus in the country, Choubey said all flights to the UK were banned from December 23 to January 7.

Resumption of limited international flight services to and from the UK has been allowed with effect from January 8 in a calibrated manner by initially allowing flight movement to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai only.

"All passengers arriving from the UK should carry negative RT-PCR test report for which the test should have been conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey," he said, adding all international passengers who arrived in India from UK or transit through UK are again mandatorily tested for COVID-19 by RT-PCR at the airport.

"All passengers and their contacts who tested positive for RT-PCR are isolated, their samples are sent for whole genome sequencing to detect UK variant. All international passengers who test negative at airports are quarantined for 14 days," Choubey said.
Supporters Protest as Huntington Beach Council Mulls Removing Tito Ortizs Title

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.Supporters of Mayor Pro Tem Tito Ortiz gathered at the citys civic center Feb. 1 as council prepared to discuss stripping him of his title.

Councilmembers were set to respond to a motion of no confidenceauthored by Mayor Kim Carr and councilmembers Dan Kalmick and Michael Poseywhich, if passed, would result in Ortizs removal from the mayor pro tem role.

Not everyone was on board with the move.

Casey McKeon, a city council candidate during the most recent election, told The Epoch Times that council has focused on Ortizs mistakes to the neglect of his achievements.

Ever since the beginning, they have been tearing him down and attacking him instead of really reaching out to help him grow in his new role, McKeon told The Epoch Times prior to the city hall rally.

McKeon said the reason council has been tough on Ortiz was due to his strong conservative values. He called on council to instead focus on more constructive issues, such as solving the citys homelessness crisis.

Its just always a constant negative, he said. No one focuses on the positive; unfortunately the negative stuff gets the most noise.

Ortiz garnered the most votes for a city council seat in Huntington Beach history with 42,246 votes. Before the vote, Huntington Beach residents rallied in front of the citys civic center to show their support for Ortiz.

However, some of his fellow council members have said hes unfit for the role.

This is a serious job and it should be taken seriously, Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr previously told The Epoch Times. Our community expects nothing less.

If the agenda item passes with a majority vote, Ortiz will remain a councilmember for the remainder of his term, but council will chose a new mayor pro tem.

If it doesnt pass, Ortiz will become the mayor next year, as the mayor pro tem position transfers to the mayor seat each year.

Gracey Van Der Mark, who finished fourth in the last city council race, told The Epoch Times that she wasnt in favor of the vote of no confidence and was concerned that the council motion was a partisan issue.

She said she was confused as to why Poseywho is a Republicancoauthored the item. Without him, council would not have moved forward with a vote, she said.

Had the one Republican not agreed [to coauthor the item], they would not have done this, because then it would have looked exactly like what it isan attack on a very strong conservative Republican, Van Der Mark said.

Ortiz appointed Van Der Mark as his planning commissioner. She said that removing his position as mayor pro tem seems premature, as hes only had three council meetings.

If theres a problem, they should have talked to him  but they havent said anything. To us this is completely new, she said.

Ortiz was not available to comment on the issue, but previously told The Epoch Times he felt he was being unfairly targeted, particularly for his refusal to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its been a nonstop attack toward me, Ortiz recently told The Epoch Times. There are other city council members that dont wear masks, and they dont get as much heat as me. Why try to attack my name and attack me as a person because I feel Im healthy enough that I dont need to wear a mask?
A US Army Special Forces veteran who is accused with his son of smuggling former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn out of Japan in a daring heist is imploring officials to block their extradition.

Michael Taylor, who was allegedly paid $1.3million to help stash Ghosn in a box and transport him from Japan where the businessman was under house arrest, says he feels betrayed by the US government after his years of service.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, days after a judge cleared the way for the pair to be handed over to Japan, Taylor said he fears he and his son will be treated unfairly in the Japanese legal system.

Michael Taylor, who is accused with his son of smuggling former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn out of Japan in a daring heist is imploring officials to block their extradition

Ghosn escaped from his house arrest in Osaka by boarding a flight in a black box and is now living in Beirut

The former Green Beret and private security specialist from Massachusetts has been locked up in a suburban jail with his son Peter Taylor since May.

He said: 'You dedicate your time in the military and you serve in combat and you do a whole bunch of other things.

'And now they volunteer to extradite me and my son to Japan for something like this? Yeah, you feel a great sense of betrayal.'

The US Department of State agreed in October to hand the pair over to Japan, but a court judge put the extradition on hold after their lawyers filed an emergency petition.

The judge rejected the petition last week, clearing the way for the extradition, but the men's lawyers are now appealing to the Boston-based federal appeals court.

Paul Kelly, one of their attorneys, said the US has assured them it will not seek to surrender the Taylors to Japan before February 12.

An image from security camera video shows Taylor, center, and George-Antoine Zayek at passport control at Istanbul Airport in Turkey

The White House didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment about the case. The State Department referred questions to the Department of Justice.

A DOJ spokesperson said anyone extradited to Japan to be tried for alleged crimes committed there 'will be afforded all due process and other rights typically available to all defendants facing criminal charges in Japan.'

Lawyers for the Taylors have not denied the allegations but say the men cannot be extradited because 'bail jumping' is not a crime in Japan and, therefore, helping someone evade their bail conditions isn't a crime either.

They say the men will be subjected to 'mental and physical torture' in Japan, describing its criminal justice system as 'akin to that of an authoritarian regime.'

The metal instrument cases, allegedly to be used for escaping of ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon through Turkey

The Taylors' defense team had been lobbying the Trump White House to step in.

The father and son hired two high-powered attorneys with connections to former President Donald Trump - Abbe Lowell, who has represented Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Ty Cobb, a former Trump White House attorney - in the hopes the case would catch Trump's attention before he left office.

Now, Taylor said he's hopeful President Joe Biden's administration will take a fresh look at the case.

'My father is in his mid 80s now. We're going to get over there and we're going to get tortured. I'm not going to be here for my father's last days, which I'd like to be obviously. His grandson would like to be as well,' Taylor said. 'Don't you think we've been punished enough already?'

Taylor refused to discuss the details of the case because of the possibility he will be tried in Japan. But he insisted that his son 'wasn't involved' and was not in Japan when Ghosn left.

Prosecutors have described it as one of the most 'brazen and well-orchestrated escape acts in recent history.'

Authorities say the Taylors were paid at least $1.3million for their help. Ghosn wired more than $860,000 to a company linked to Peter Taylor shortly before the escape and Ghosn's son later made $500,000 in cryptocurrency payments, authorities said.

On the day of the escape, Michael Taylor flew into Osaka on a chartered jet with another man, George-Antoine Zayek, carrying two large black boxes and pretending to be musicians with audio equipment, authorities said.

Former Green Beret Taylor, pictured, and his son were arrested in May over their purported involvement in Ghosn's December 2019 escape and are being held in a Massachusetts prison

Former Green Beret Michael Taylor of Harvard, Massachusetts is seen with his wife and sons in a Facebook photo posted by his wife, Lamia Abboud Taylor, on July 4, 2015

Meanwhile, Ghosn, free on bail, headed to the Grand Hyatt in Tokyo and met up with Peter Taylor, who was already in Japan, authorities say.

The elder Taylor and Zayek met up with the two others at the Grand Hyatt and shortly after, they split up. Peter Taylor hopped on a flight to China while the others got on a bullet train and went back to another hotel near the airport, where Taylor and Zayek had booked a room. They all went in; only Ghosn's rescuers were seen walking out.

Authorities say Ghosn was inside one of the big black boxes. At the airport, the boxes passed through a security checkpoint without being checked and were loaded onto a private jet headed for Turkey, officials said.

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn and his wife Carole Ghosn talk during an interview with Reuters in Beirut, Lebanon January 14, 2020

Ghosn is now living in Beirut, where he grew up. The former auto executive, who was charged in 2018 with misusing company assets for personal gains, has denied any wrongdoing and said he fled to avoid a 'rigged Japanese justice system.'

Over the years, the elder Taylor has been hired by parents to rescue abducted children, gone undercover for the FBI in a sting on a Massachusetts drug gang and worked as a contractor for the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. And this isn't the first time he has found himself in legal trouble.

In 2012, federal prosecutors alleged Taylor had won a US military contract to train Afghan soldiers by using secret information passed along from an American officer.

When Taylor learned the contract was being investigated, he asked an FBI agent and friend to intervene, prosecutors charged. Taylor spent 14 months in jail before agreeing to plead guilty to two counts.
analysis

Touws River, a small town along the N1 in the Western Cape, has been devastated by the economic effects of Covid-19, with more and more residents relying on soup kitchens to survive.

"A ghost town" is how soup kitchen co-founder Rashaad Baker described his hometown of Touws River (Touwsrivier), an old railway town along the N1 highway in the Western Cape.

With the prolonged Covid-19 lockdown, many of the town's residents have become unemployed and dependant on soup kitchens for food.

Touws River is an old railway town about 180km from Cape Town, a two-hour journey by car.

Ali Sablay, project manager at humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers Foundation, told Daily Maverick he had been receiving calls for assistance from Baker and soup kitchen co-founder Daphne van der Merwe, since October 2020.

Touws River residents line up to receive food parcels on January 27, 2021. (Photo by Gallo Images/Brenton Geach)

Desperate situation

Employers in and around the town have been cutting back on jobs, while some businesses have been forced to close operations altogether. In July 2020, Aquila Game Reserve, one of the area's biggest employers, offered a "Save Now, Safari Later" promotion special -- this in an effort...

The Associated Press

Google will pay $2.6 million to more than 5,500 employees and past job applicants to resolve allegations that the internet giant discriminated against female engineers and Asians in California and Washington state. The settlement announced Monday closes a 4-year-old case that the Labor Department brought as part its periodic reviews of the pay practices at federal government contractors such as Google.

That inquiry resulted in accusations that during a period spanning from 2014 to 2017, Google paid female engineers less than men in similar positions. The pay discrepancies were cited in several Google offices in its home state of California, as well as at locations in Seattle and Kirkland, Washington.

Google had fiercely contested the allegations as unfounded before reaching the settlement without acknowledging any wrongdoing.

We believe everyone should be paid based upon the work they do, not who they are, and invest heavily to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and unbiased, Google said Monday. The Mountain View, California, company also said it has conducted internal audits during the past years to address any inequities in the pay of its male and female employees.

Nevertheless, the settlement will require Google to pay $1.35 million to more than 2,500 of its female engineers to compensate them for past discrimination alleged by the Labor Department. Another $1.23 million is earmarked for more than 1,700 women and Asians who unsuccessfully applied for engineering jobs at Google.

The settlement also requires Google to contribute $250,000 annually for five years to create a reserve to cover any necessary adjustments still needed in the future.

Regardless of how complex or the size of the workforce, we remain committed to enforcing equal opportunity laws to ensure non-discrimination and equity in the workforce, said Jane Suhr, who oversees the Labor Departments federal contract compliance programs in San Francisco.

The settlement will barely put at dent in Google or its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., which generates more than $130 billion in annual revenue.

But news of settlement may further blemish Googles once-cherished reputation as an employer that pampers its workers to the point of spoiling them with cushy paychecks, free food and other plush perks.

In recent years, more of Googles own employees have been openly blasting managements practices, including allegations of coddling powerful male executives who harassed female employees. More recently, thousands of Google employees have protested the December departure of an artificial intelligence researcher who says she was fired over a research paper that didnt sit well with the company.
Map of Licences Held by Trigon Metals in Namibia

From a geological perspective, EPL 3540 is situated on the Kombat trend, a mineralized structure, which also hosts the Kombat project.

From a geological perspective, EPL 3540 is situated on the Kombat trend, a mineralized structure, which also hosts the Kombat project.

TORONTO, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trigon Metals Inc. (TSX-V: TM) (Trigon or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has entered into definitive agreements to expand its land holding in Namibia, through the acquisition (the Acquisition) of exclusive prospecting licence (EPL 3540 or the Licence). This licence surrounds Trigons Kombat and Gross Otavi projects in the Otavi Mountainland, a region associated with high grade copper mineralization, in addition to a substantial lead and silver content.



EPL 3540 covers an area of 5,614 hectares in the Grootfontein District of the Otjozondjupa Region, between the towns of Otavi to the west and Grootfontein to the east. From a geological perspective, it is situated on the Kombat trend, a mineralized structure, which also hosts the Kombat project. The area therefore represents a potential strike extension of the Kombat project, with various known mineral occurrences on the property.

To view the Map associated with this release visit https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2bbcf232-bda3-4473-8c9b-6e88e9cd31eb

By way of comparison, the three permits that contain the Kombat mine host a 7 Mt Indicated Resource with an additional 31 Mt in Inferred Resources (see Table 1 and 2) and produced 12.5 million tonnes of copper over a 45-year history, encompass only 692.1 hectares or 4.2 kilometres of strikelength. Upon completion the acquisition would increase Trigons presence in the Otavi Valley from 2,011 hectares to 7,625 hectares, a 280% increase. Trigons prospective strikelength grows to over 30 kilometres. Trigon management has extensive knowledge of the area in which EPL 3540 is situated and plans to implement an exploration program in conjunction with its exploration plans for the Kombat project areas.

Story continues

Table 1  Kombat Mineral Resource Estimate as at September 1, 2020  Open Pit (0.6% copper equivalent cut-off)

Resource Classification Cu % Pb % Ag (g/t) Cu (t) Pb (t) Ag (kg) Indicated 0.91 0.88 0.58 66 793 65 026 4 255 Inferred 1.07 1.46 0.46 121 844 166 178 5 269

Table 2  Kombat Mineral Resource Estimate as at September 1, 2020  Underground (1.8% copper equivalent cut-off)

Resource Classification Cu % Pb % Ag (g/t) Cu (t) Pb (t) Ag (kg) Total Inferred 2.84 1.26 6.64 578 765 255 617 135 255

EPL 3540 is currently held by Namibian company, Gazania Investments Nine (Pty) Ltd (Gazania), which is 80% owned by Sabre Resources Limited (Sabre), through Sabres wholly owned subsidiary, Starloop Holdings Pty Ltd (Starloop), and 20% owned by Coniston Pty Ltd (Coniston). The Licence was first granted on October 30, 2006 and has been renewed several times, with a current expiry date of May 7, 2021. Gazania will be submitting a renewal application for the licence following the signature of the Sabre and Coniston Agreements (as defined below).

The Acquisition will be implemented by way of the acquisition by Trigon of 100% of the shares in Starloop from Sabre (the Starloop Shares) and 20% of the shares in Gazania from Coniston (the Gazania Shares).

Trigon, through its wholly owned subsidiary, PNT Financeco Corp., has signed sale and purchase agreements with each of Sabre and Coniston dated February 2, 2021 (the Sabre Agreement and the Coniston Agreement respectively), and on fulfilment of the conditions precedent to each agreement will acquire the Starloop Shares and the Gazania Shares for the following purchase considerations.

Trigon will acquire the Starloop Shares for a cash purchase consideration of C$200,000 payable on fulfilment of the conditions precedent to the Sabre Agreement. A second tranche cash payment of C$100,000 is payable to Sabre on the renewal of EPL 3540 by the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy, subject to such renewal being granted within 12 months of signature of the Sabre Agreement.

Trigon will acquire the Gazania Shares for a cash purchase consideration of C$1,000 on fulfilment of the conditions precedent to the Coniston Agreement. A second tranche cash payment of C$100,000 is payable to Coniston on the renewal of EPL 3540 by the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy, subject to such renewal being granted within 12 months of signature of the Coniston Agreement.

The Sabre and Coniston Agreements are each subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Acquisition is an arms length transaction.

Jed Richardson, President & CEO of Trigon Metals, commented, We have long held the belief that the copper, silver and lead resource potential of Kombat and the Otavi Valley have never been properly explored. Encouraged by the significant resource expansion announced September 28, 2020, the acquisition of EPL 3540 represents an attractive regional consolidation opportunity for us, and given our extensive existing knowledge of the region, we believe holds upside potential for the long term future of the Kombat project.

Qualified Person

The technical information presented in this press release has been reviewed and approved for disclosure by Fanie Muller, P.Eng, VP Operations of Trigon, who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

Trigon Metals Inc.

Trigon is a publicly traded Canadian exploration and development company with its core business focused on copper and silver holdings in mine-friendly African jurisdictions. Currently the company has operations in Namibia and Morocco. In Namibia, the Company holds an 80% interest in five mining licences in the Otavi Mountainlands, an area of Namibia widely recognized for its high-grade copper deposits, where the Company is focused on exploration and re-development of the previously producing Kombat mine. In Morocco, the Company is the holder of the Silver Hill project, a highly prospective copper and silver exploration project.

Cautionary Notes

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements include statements regarding EPL 3540 and the Sabre and Coniston Agreements, the Companys ability to close the Acquisition, the prospectivity of EPL 3540, the planned exploration program for Kombat and EPL 3540, the Companys strategies and the Companys abilities to execute such strategies, the Companys expectations for the Kombat project and EPL 3540, and the Companys future plans and objectives. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statements or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

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.

CONTACT: For further information, contact: Jed Richardson +1 416 566 8134 jed.richardson@trigonmetals.com Website: www.trigonmetals.com




[February 02, 2021] Integrated Partners, Massachusetts Society of CPAs Join Forces to Bring Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) to MA CPA Firms

Integrated Partners, a national financial planning and registered investment advisory firm, with advisory and brokerage assets of approximately $9 billion, announced today that it has teamed with the Massachusetts Society of CPAs (MSCPA) to bring Pooled Employer Plans (PEP) to their members, in an effort to bring access to lower cost employer-sponsored retirement plans to more Americans. Recent Congressional legislation passed via the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act has enabled small and medium businesses to offer these PEPs in an easier, cheaper and more efficient way, greatly increasing their appeal. Lack of access to a quality retirement plan option isn't fair for employees, as it affects their long-term quality of life, and failure to offer an appealing solution hurts employers as well, by way of poor team retention. And yet many business owners view traditional retirement plans to be cost-prohibitive and an administrative burden. "Congress and the IRS noticed this 55 million coverage gap out there and recognized that this is a big deal. We as an industry have said for years that we needed to remove these hurdles for business owners," said William D. Hackler, Integrated Partners' Retirement Plan Specialist and the founder of the Integrated 401(k). "Those hurdles have now been removed by this legislation, paving the way for Pooled Employer Plans - it is vital that business owners be made aware."



A Pooled Employer Plan provides significant benefits and cost savings for business owners: Tax benefits for your business and your employees

Outside administration support via a Third-Party Administrator (TPA)

Objective advice and support from a local financial advisor

Reduced overall implementation costs and annual administrative expenses

Benefits can be accessed by employers with existing retirement plans "We wanted to add value to our member firms in a way that helped them retain talent and be able to focus more on growing their businesses," said Amy Pitter, President and CEO, MSCPA. "Integrated and their advisors have been a longtime trusted partner to our CPAs. So, when we heard they were launching a PEP it was a no brainer to bring this to our members as a benefit."

"We are always looking for ways to help our financial advisors, CPAs and business owner clients to more closely align," said Andree Peterson, Chief Implementation Officer. "To have the resources and talent available with which to build out our own PEP and then to partner with an excellent organization like MSCPA, to make this available to even more business owners in Massachusetts, is truly an honor." In today's competitive environment, retaining key employees is critical. If a business does not already have a pre-tax program in place, chances are it is because they are known to be too expensive, the owners simply do not have time to be burdened with the plan administration or they thought their company was too small to have one. Pooled Employer Plans render all of these barriers to establishing a high-quality retirement plan for small to mid-sized businesses, obsolete. About Integrated Partners Since 1996, Integrated Partners has been helping financial advisors to achieve their entrepreneurial vision. We offer comprehensive business building services, designed with the truly independent advisor in mind. With one hundred and fifty advisors, one hundred and twenty-seven CPAs and forty-five regional offices across the United States, and approximately $9 billion in brokerage and advisory assets, Integrated has built our reputation advisor by advisor, client by client. Constructed and grown upon a foundation of empowerment, integrity, and trust, we believe in the incredible power that financial advisors have to make a positive impact on people's lives. Integrated supports advisors by offering a completely customizable open architecture business environment: technology, investment management, advanced planning, CPA partner program, family office platform, custody, marketing, public relations, M&A, succession planning and comprehensive business counsel. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through Integrated Financial Partners, a registered investment advisor. MSCPA, Integrated Partners and Integrated Financial Partners separate entity from LPL Financial. We believe in advisors. Let us prove it to you. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005460/en/

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Simon Says On-Prem: The Most Secure Transcription Platform in the World Simon Says is able to crank through an hour's worth of interviews in minutes. More importantly, it gives team members outside of the video production circle easy access to searchable content without the need to share terabytes of data.

Simon Says, the leading timecode-based AI transcription and video assembly platform for video professionals, released Simon Says On-Prem v2, its self-contained video transcription platform. The offline software is built for organizations and enterprises seeking to increase productivity with speech recognition, while maintaining compliance to the strictest of security protocols in order to protect their sensitive content.

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Chris Walton, an executive producer on behalf of Microsoft, HBO, Google, and Tesla creating transformative experiences using world-class video, code, and design said: Simon Says has been a huge part of our success on both large and small projects, particularly as confidentiality requirements mean that both manual transcription and cloud-based transcription are not options for us. Some of our more challenging projects have involved 100+ hours of footage, as well as many hours of audio-only interviews. Simon Says is able to crank through an hour's worth of interviews in minutes. More importantly, it gives team members outside of the video production circle easy access to searchable content without the need to share terabytes of data.

Simon Says On-Prem significantly increases productivity, enabling video teams to transcribe interviews, identify the meaningful parts of their recordings, create accessible captioned videos, and subtitle their edits.

Simon Says On-Prem was developed in response to enterprises and organizations who are precluded from sending audio, video, interviews, dailies, and edits to the cloud, and to comply with their workplace security policies, explained Simon Says CTO Roderick Hodgson, a cybersecurity and AI engineer who was instrumental in developing secure interoperable standards for communication and cryptographic video fingerprinting. They want the productivity gains from advanced AI transcription, the security of on-prem, with the ease of use and price point of prosumer software. Simon Says On-Prem delivers on all fronts.

Roderick added: Installation is easy and the UI is straightforward: non-tech team members can set up and go. The intention is that it needs to be IT-compliant without adding to ITs workload.

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Features:



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Export to: text, SRT subtitles/captions, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, and Adobe Audition

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Download the Simon Says On-Prem White Paper for more information.

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About Simon Says

Simon Says is the leading AI transcription, subtitling, and video editing platform for video professionals, helping you find the meaningful soundbites, assemble your video, and collaboratively lock story from the web. Simon Says integrates with all the major video editing applications - Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro X, and DaVinci Resolve - and seamlessly fits within post production workflows.

Transcribing used to be frustrating. Simon Says solved it.

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To learn more please visit: https://www.simonsays.ai and watch: https://youtu.be/EcEi26XbVHw

The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has said with the receipt of certificate of compliance, the federal government is now set to officially commence the procurement process for concessioning of 12 roads under the Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI).

The roads are Benin-Asaba (125km), Abuja-Lokoja (193km), Kano-Katsina (150km), Onitsha-Owerri-Aba (161km), Shagamu-Benin (258km), Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga (122km), Kano-Shuari (100km), Potiskum-Damaturu (96.24km), Lokoja-Benin (270km), Enugu-Port Harcourt (200km), Ilorin-Jebba (129km), Lagos-Otta-Abeokuta (80km), and Lagos-Badagry-Seme (79km).

Fashola noted that the initiative would facilitate further development of Nigeria's federal highway network by attracting investment to improve efficiency and accountability in the maintenance of all assets within the Right of Way (RoW) on the highways.

Speaking at the official handover of the certificate of compliance by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission's (ICRC), the minister noted that the HDMI was a home-grown idea that would deliver a safer and enjoyable travel experience, shorten travel time, reduce cost and stimulate commercial activities.

He noted that the government's infrastructure development plan was being driven by the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme Order of 2018, the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) being managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the SUKUK Fund.

According to him, the HDMI is an indigenous land value capture scheme conceived by the ministry to develop Nigeria's network of federal highway corridors and boost economic development along the right of way.

He added that it would be executed in two parts comprising Value Added Concession (VAC) and Unbundled Assets Approval (UAA).

"Apart from infrastructure and assets development, thousands of jobs will be created for Nigerians as the initiative will open up the highway economy with opportunities in various economic activities.

"These include fabrication of gantries and directional signage with advertising opportunities, towing van operations and auto repair stations, operation of rest areas and emergency services, among others.

"When fully operational, road users will now enjoy first-class facilities on federal highways with directional signage, well-equipped rest areas, round-the-clock security patrol, and ambulance services for emergencies," he stated.

He commended the ICRC for the diligent appraisal of the initiative and for validating the programme with the issuance of the certificate.

In his welcome address the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Babangida Hussaini, said the development, expansion and maintenance of federal highways have increasingly become a herculean task to government due to dwindling revenues and other compelling public service obligations.

"It is to mitigate this challenge that the ministry has adopted the option of exploring the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, which seeks to employ the private sector's technical competencies, managerial capabilities and financial resources to salvage the federal roads networks.

"The PPP arrangement in the management of our highways will bring order, efficiency, accountability and profitable entrepreneurship to the operation, management and maintenance of all assets within the nation's right of way," he stated.

Director-General of the ICRC, Mr. Chidi Izuwah, who was represented by Mr. Joel Ohiani, presented the certificate to the minister, saying the initiative would enable private sector participation in the management and maintenance of road assets.

"The ICRC is charged with the responsibility of developing guidelines for monitoring contract compliance during construction, operation, and contract termination and supporting MDAs like the ministry of works and housing in achieving such compliance.

"Over time, the ICRC had collaborated with the ministry to implement a cohesive national legal, policy, and regulatory environment that is conducive to private sector investment in Nigeria's roads and housing projects," he stated.

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Izuwah commended the initiative, saying it would create jobs, boost the government's revenue, and speed up Nigeria's economic recovery.

Fashola, recently stated that the ongoing 43 road projects in various universities in the country would provide the right environment for quality learning in the benefitting institutions.

Fashola, who spoke while handing over a two kilometre internal road project which the ministry rehabilitated and reconstructed at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, had noted that the infrastructure gap in the country was steadily being bridged by ongoing repairs, renewal and construction of major highways.

The minister, had added that the road intervention project had not only impacted on the condition of learning in the schools but had also created jobs and generated employment for Nigerians.
BP has reported its first annual loss in a decade, just as the oil major is attempting to cut its debt mountain while simultaneously investing in green energy.

The FTSE 100 oil giant made a loss of $5.7billion (4.2billion) last year after the pandemic caused a collapse in global oil demand, compared to a profit of $10billion (7.3billion) for 2019.

The substantial loss largely reflected a write down in the value of its oil and gas assets by billion of pounds, as prices tumbled in the wake of the pandemic.

Mammoth losses: BP made a loss of $5.7billion (4.2billion) last year after the pandemic caused a collapse in global oil demand

The company's boss Bernard Looney said BP had been 'hit hard' by the pandemic in 2020, a year when it slashed jobs and dividends.

'Road and air travel are down, as are oil demand, prices and margin,' he said.

Brent crude prices went from around $61 a barrel at the start of 2020 to as low as $19 in April as demand dropped when most of the world went into lockdown. Prices then began to climb back as restrictions were eased and are sitting at around $57 a barrel today.

In the last three months of 2020, BP's replacement cost profits - the preferred measure by the industry - came in at $115million (84.1million). That's sharply down on last year's $2.6billion and well below analysts expectations of $440.3million.

'This is a miss that highlights how large the challenge of turning this company round is likely to be, over the next five to ten years,' said Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK.

BP, a key stock for investment and pension funds, saw shares dip by around 4.5 per cent to 255p towards market close on Tuesday.

BP shares have lost over 40 per cent of their value over the past year and remain near 25-year lows.

They have been battered by concerns over oil demand due to the pandemic, but also by investor doubts over BP's ability to successfully carry out its ambitious plan to shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

BP has been selling off some of its oil and gas fields to both reduce its debts and transition away from fossil fuels to hit its 2050 net zero carbon emission target.

The company's boss Bernard Looney said BP had been 'hit hard' by the pandemic in 2020, a year when it slashed jobs and dividends in the wake of the pandemic

But the company is stuck in a conundrum, according to Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, as in spite of plans to become greener, 'oil and gas production pays the bills and, crucially, the dividend'.

'Having already slashed the payout significantly in August 2020, shareholders would not take kindly to another dividend cut in the near-term,' he said.

'And yet production is at a four-year low, the company is not replacing the resources it is bringing to the surface and 2021 is off to a poor start.'

Mark Nelson, an analyst at Killik & Co, said: 'It was another challenging quarter for BP, particularly in the Downstream division with volumes remaining under pressure due to Covid-19 and the continuing pressure on refining margins and utilisation.

'The result was also impacted by a significantly weaker result in gas marketing and trading. Adjusted operating profit and net income were both below consensus expectations and while net debt has fallen during the quarter it is expected to increase in the first half before declining towards the company's $35bn target, the level at which it needs to reach before share buybacks are triggered.'

'On the more positive side, BP continues to make progress on its divestment programme and is now more than half way towards its $25bn by 2025 target. There are also signs of progress in the company's low carbon business with 3.3GW of net renewable capacity developed by the end of 2020, while in January 2021 it completed the formation of its strategic US offshore wind partnership with Equinor.'

Mr Looney said BP expects 'much better days' in 2021, but pandemic restrictions would continue to knock demand throughout the first quarter, with oil refining margins remaining under pressure.

BP has a debt pile of $39billion, which is expected to rise in the first half of this year as it continues to struggle with a weak business environment - although the company said it remained on track to reduce it to $35billion by early 2022.
The Nicaraguan government decided to open the so-called "honorary consulate" in Russian-annexed Crimea in the summer of 2019.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has approved National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Resolution No. 4689 dated February 1, 2021, on special sectoral economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) against the Republic of Nicaragua.

Read alsoUkraine's foreign ministry initiates entry ban for Russian propagandistSome 322 lawmakers backed the resolution with the required minimum being 226 votes, an UNIAN correspondent reported on February 2.

Speaking from the rostrum in parliament, NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov noted that in the summer of 2019, the Nicaraguan government decided to open the so-called "honorary consulate" in Russian-annexed Crimea.

"Since 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has repeatedly sent letters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, demanding the cancellation of this unlawful decision, but official Managua ignored the Ukrainian side's requests," he said.

What is more, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in August 2020 appointed Oleg Belaventsev as "honorary consul" in Crimea. In November 2017, a Kyiv-based court sentenced Belaventsev to 13 years in prison by the court for encroaching on Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Background

In November 2020, it became known that Ukraine had launch the process of sanction application on Nicaragua over the illegal appointment of their "honorary consul" in occupied Crimea.

Reporting by UNIAN
The Biden administration will start shipping COVID-19 vaccines directly to U.S. pharmacies next week, ramping up immunizations as new and potentially more serious variants are appearing, the White House said on Tuesday.

Jeff Zients, coordinator of the president's COVID-19 task force, said some 6,500 retail pharmacies around the country will receive a total of one million doses.

The pharmacy program will be administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and includes major outlets such as CVS Health. Walgreens Co, Walmart Inc, Rite Aid Co and Costco Wholesale, as well as supermarket pharmacies.

The number of participating pharmacies is expected to grow as drugmakers increase production, allowing more doses to be allocated - and the program is separate from the one using pharmacies to vaccinate nursing home residents.

Drug stores have become a mainstay for flu shots and shingles vaccines, and the industry is capable of vaccinating tens of millions of people monthly.

This will provide more sites for people to get vaccinated in their communities,' Zients told reporters, underscoring that due to supply constraints the initial availability will be limited.

Zients also announced a five percent increase in doses the government is shipping to states, territories and some major metropolitan areas.

Those will now total 10.5 million doses across all jurisdictions, up from 10 million announced last week.

On February 11, the Biden administration will begin shipping one million coronavirus vaccinations to 6,500 pharmacies across the country. Pictured: Pharmacist John Forbes gives the Moderna GOVID-19 vaccine to Meghan Bohlander, a physician's assistant, at the Medicap Pharmacy in Urbandale, Iowa, January 2021

White House announced a 5% increase in doses shipped to states, on top of the 16% announced last week for a total of 10.5 million doses across all jurisdictions yo increase the rate of daily vaccinations

So far, 26 million Americans have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and more than 6 million at least two doses

So far, the federal government has shipped more than 52 million vaccines with 46 receiving at least one dose and more than six million at least two doses.

A priority will be to get the vaccine to minority communities that have suffered a disproportionately high toll of disease and deaths from the virus, Zeints said.

The partnership with drug stores was originally announced by the Trump administration last November although no vaccines had been approved at the time.

CVS plans to begin offering vaccinations from doses that arrive on the first day, February 11

The pharmacy is expecting 250,000 doses arriving at 330 stores across 11 states such as California and New York, reported Politico.

Meanwhile, Walgreens said it will begin administering doses the day after shipments arrive, February 12.

'Eventually, as we're able to increase supply, up to 40,000 pharmacies nationwide could provide Covid-19 vaccinations,' Zients said.

The one million doses being shipped to pharmacies will be on top of the 10.5 million doses being allocated to states by the week.

The White House also took action to help states pay for their pandemic response efforts.

Zients said the federal government will make $3 billion to $5 billion available to states to retroactively cover certain costs eligible for reimbursement through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Those can range from protective gear for health care workers, to deploying their National Guards, to setting up community food programs. State expenses from last January will now be eligible for reimbursement.

But Zients said states need much more financial help from Washington, pointing out that Biden's American Rescue Plan legislation requests $350 billion for states. The counter-offer a group of Republican senators advanced over the weekend omits that line item.

Data from the CDC shows that so far, 52 million doses, ahve seen shipped

Jeff Zients, coordinator of the president's COVID-19 task force, also said states will also receive $3 billion to $5 billion to retroactively cover costs such as protective gear for healthcare workers. Pictured: Zients addresses a news conference, December 2020

Some local jurisdictions have started to offer vaccination at drug stores, but in most places that's not the case. Signs on pharmacy front doors say no vaccine is yet available.

The two currently approved vaccines, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, require special cold storage.

And, since the rollout began in December, chains like CVS and Walgreens have gained experience with the special handling requirements.

Soon the Food and Drug Administration will be weighing approval of a vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, a one-shot regimen that requires only standard refrigeration.

The world at large is in a race with the virus to vaccinate as many people as possible. Worrisome mutations have been identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil.

Officials say the race to ramp up vaccinations is vital with variants from the UK, South Africa and Brazil spreading across the county

The UK variant spreads more easily and carries a higher likelihood of fatal disease. The South Africa variant may reduce somewhat the effectiveness of vaccines. All three mutations have been identified in the U.S. with a total of at least 482 cases.

The vaccine is free to Americans, thanks to legislation passed by Congress.

More than 60 percent of the distributed doses have been administered so far, a marked improvement from just a few weeks ago.

Even with the massive snowstorm that has hit the Northeast, Zients said 'all vaccine does have been available to the states on schedule.'

But he acknowledged some vaccination centers have had to temporarily close due to the weather.




The decision was taken unanimously by members of the National Justice Board (JNJ) , after hearing the report of the rapporteur assigned to the case, Maria Zavala, who presented the conclusions that recommended imposing a sanction on Chavarry, who was facing four charges in both cases.





"He is unanimously absolved of charge A and sanctioned with dismissal from office as charges B, C and D were proved true, in which his conduct constitutes a very serious offense," National Justice Board Chair Ines Tello expressed.

"This brings the disciplinary process to an end, and the notification will be processed within the stipulated time frame," she added.





Disciplinary process

Zavala's report concludes that Chavarry's dismissal from office is a suitable, necessary, and proportionate measure as it was proved that he had lied about the conversations with Cesar Hinostroza, for having participated in the opening of a sealed office at the Public Ministry, and for having summoned an advisor to Congress on this case to his office.

He was absolved of guilt for a conversation he had with Cesar Hinostroza to coordinate a meeting with journalists in order to support his election as attorney general.

"The dismissal is not only suitable and/or adequate to help strengthen the Public Ministry because a supreme prosecutor is no longer able to build up confidence in citizens due to the arbitrary way in which he acted," Zavala stated.





According to the rapporteur, it (the dismissal) is "absolutely necessary" because of a series of acts of interference and a "blameworthy conduct" of the person under investigation, which would not be acceptable to the society as a whole.





(END) FHG/RMB





The National Justice Board (JNJ) dismissed Pedro Gonzalo Chavarry from the position of Supreme Prosecutor after having determined that he committed a very serious offense when a sealed office intervened by Prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez was opened and for having lied about his conversation with former Supreme Judge Cesar Hinostroza.Published: 2/1/2021
Her multi-millionaire fiance Patrick Whitesell touched down in Sydney on Sunday.

But on Monday, Pia Miller, 37, was spending some quality time with her sons - Isaiah Loyola, 17, and Lenny Miller, 13 - as her partner completes his mandatory 14 days in hotel quarantine.

On Monday, the former Home and Away actress proved she is a domestic goddess in the kitchen by making a mouthwatering lasagna for her boys.

'They love a lasagna': Actress Pia Miller proved she is a domestic goddess in the kitchen as she made the perfect lasagna for her two sons -Loyola, 17, and Lenny Miller, 13 - on Monday after her new fiance Patrick Whitesell landed back in Sydney

'They love a lasagna,' the beauty captioned the first picture of the savory dish.

She then proceeded to showcase her culinary craftsmanship by smothering bare lasagne sheets with Bechamel sauce, which traditionally goes on the dish, along with a mouthwatering bolognese sauce.

'Gotta have that Bechamel,' Pia wrote, before sharing another picture of the half-finished product.

She also etched the letters 'I' and 'L' in the bolognese sauce for her sons.

Talented in the kitchen! Pia showcased her culinary craftsmanship by smothering bare lasagne sheets with a Bechamel sauce, which traditionally goes on the dish, along with a bolognese sauce

For her boys! She also wrote the letters 'I' and 'L' in the bolognese sauce for her sons

What about Patrick? There was, however, no letter 'P' for her soon-to-be husband

There was, however, no letter 'P' for her soon-to-be husband.

Considering he touched down on a private jet in Sydney on Sunday, Patrick is no doubt completing his mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine before being reunited with his beloved.

In January, Pia pined for her long-distance lover by taking to Instagram with a throwback photo from their June 2019 holiday to Paris, France.

Almost there! Considering he touched down on a private jet in Sydney on Sunday, Patrick is no doubt completing his mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine before being reunited with his beloved

She uploaded a romantic photo of herself and Patrick cosying up beneath the Eiffel Tower.

'Miss you,' the glamazon wrote next to the image, which was taken two months before the couple officially confirmed their romance.

Pia announced her engagement on November 28, showing off her huge diamond ring on Instagram, alongside the simple caption: 'PW'.
Hal Holbrook, the actor best known for portraying Mark Twain and other historic American figures on television and onstage during a career that spanned six decades, has died. He was 95.

He died on Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., according to the New York Times, citing Mr. Holbrooks assistant, Joyce Cohen, who confirmed the news Monday night.

Mr. Holbrook won a Tony Award for his 1966 one-man show as Twain on Broadway and Emmy Awards for television performances including one as Abraham Lincoln.

He was weeks shy of his 83rd birthday when he finally snagged an Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actor in Into the Wild, the real-life story of a young adventurer who starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness. Mr. Holbrook played a widower befriended by the protagonist before his departure. He lost the award to Javier Bardem, honored for his role in No Country for Old Men.

His best-known film role may have been as the mysterious, cigarette-smoking tipster known as Deep Throat in 1976s All the Presidents Men, the true account of how Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward unraveled the Watergate political scandal. In a key moment in the film, at one of their furtive meetings, Mr. Holbrook instructs Robert Redford, playing Woodward, to follow the money.

Mr. Holbrook initially turned down the Deep Throat role, thinking it was too small, he said in a 2009 interview with National Public Radios Fresh Air program. He said Redford, a close friend, came over to the house and said, Hal, Im going to promise you that this role will be remembered more than anything in the film. And I said, Come on, you got to be kidding. "

Mr. Holbrook said the Deep Throat character he envisioned and created was, in the end, different from W. Mark Felt, the former FBI associate director who, in 2005, finally confirmed that he was the famous Watergate source. Mr. Holbrook said he had imagined Deep Throat to be an elder statesman who had served several presidents of either party, both parties, one now faced with an extraordinary choice between his allegiance to his president and his allegiance to his country.

In the Oliver Stone-directed Wall Street (1987), Mr. Holbrook played an old-school stockbroker, Lou Mannheim, aware that booms dont last forever. Youre on a roll, kid  enjoy it while it lasts, cause it never does, he admonishes the brash young trader Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen.

And when Fox's insider dealing finally catches up with him, Mannheim offers this consolation: "Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss."

Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. was born on Feb. 17, 1925, in Cleveland, the middle child of three. His shoe-salesman father, Harold, abandoned the family, and his mother, Aileen, a vaudeville dancer, left home to continue her career when Mr. Holbrook was 2. He and his two sisters were raised mainly by their paternal grandparents in South Weymouth, Massachusetts.

He attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana, served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in World War II and studied theater at Denison University in Ohio, graduating in 1948.

It was at Denison that, for his senior-year honors project, he created a show with his first wife, actress Ruby Johnston, based on his characterization of Mark Twain, the author and satirist who created Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and skewered what he saw as absurdity and corruption in 19th-century American politics.

They took their production to schools and clubs across the country over the next five years  a tiny speck racing across America in a Ford station wagon, Mr. Holbrook recalled in his 2011 memoir, Harold: The Boy Who Became Mark Twain.

Mr. Holbrook turned his Twain into a one-man show, performing off-Broadway in New York before taking it on tour. When he brought Mark Twain Tonight! to Broadway in 1966, he won his Tony. A television version for CBS was nominated for an Emmy.

Mr. Holbrook continued his Twain performances every year for the rest of his career. The U.S. State Department sent Mr. Holbrooks Twain on a tour of Europe in the late 1950s and of Europe and Asia in the 1980s.

Twain never has ceased to astound me, Mr. Holbrook told NPR in 2009. He had a bead on the corruption that went on late in his lifetime, in his country. I mean, the corruption is so similar to whats going on today.

Mr. Holbrooks other films included Magnum Force (1973), Midway (1976), The Firm (1993) and Men of Honor (2000).

On television, his Emmys were for "The Bold Ones: The Senator," "Pueblo, " "Sandburg's Lincoln" and as host of "Portrait of America: Alaska."

His first marriage, to Johnston, produced two children, Victoria and David, before ending in divorce. He had a daughter, Eve, with his second wife, actress Carol Rossen. His 1984 marriage to actress Dixie Carter was the third for each. Carter died in 2010.
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The canned food market is expected to grow by USD 19.52 billion, progressing at a CAGR of almost 4% during the forecast period.

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Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Canned Food Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

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The new product launches is one of the major factors propelling market growth. However, factors such as product recalls will hamper the market growth.

More details: https://www.technavio.com/report/canned-food-market-industry-analysis

Canned Food Market: Product Landscape

Factors such as the increased demand for canned fish and seafood products in countries such as China, India, and Brazil and a substantial rise in the population will contribute to the growth of this industry segment. Market growth in this segment will be faster than the growth of the market in the canned vegetables, canned meat, and canned ready meals segment.

Canned Food Market: Geographic Landscape

North America was the largest canned food market in 2019, and the region will offer several growth opportunities to market vendors during the forecast period. Factors such as the presence of a wide range of products will significantly drive canned food market growth in this region over the forecast period. 32% of the market's growth will originate from North America during the forecast period. The US is the key market for canned food in North America. Market growth in this region will be slower than the growth of the market in APAC and MEA.

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Frozen Fish and Seafood Market by Distribution Channel and Geography Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024: The frozen fish and seafood market size has the potential to grow by USD 31.76 billion during 2020-2024, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate during the forecast period because of the steady increase in year-over-year growth. To get extensive research insights: Click and Get FREE Sample Report in Minutes!

Companies Covered:

Bolton Group Srl

Campbell Soup Co.

Conagra Brands Inc.

Del Monte Pacific Ltd.

General Mills Inc.

Nestle SA

Princes Ltd.

The Hain Celestial Group Inc.

The J.M. Smucker Co.

The Kraft Heinz Co.

What our reports offer:

Market share assessments for the regional and country-level segments

Strategic recommendations for the new entrants

Covers market data for 2019, 2020, until 2024

Market trends (drivers, 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

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Technavio's in-depth research has direct and indirect COVID-19 impacted market research reports.

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Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2019

Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024

Five Forces Analysis

Five forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

Canned fish and seafood Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Canned vegetables Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Canned meat Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Canned ready meals Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Product

Market Segmentation by Distribution channel

Market segments

Comparison by Distribution channel

Offline Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Online Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Distribution channel

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Overview

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Bolton Group Srl

Campbell Soup Co.

Conagra Brands Inc.

Del Monte Pacific Ltd.

General Mills Inc.

Nestle SA

Princes Ltd.

The Hain Celestial Group Inc.

The J.M. Smucker Co.

The Kraft Heinz Co.

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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Story Highlights 16% of Massachusetts students aged 14-18 prefer full-time remote learning

Low-income students most likely to be learning remotely full-time

Low-income students also less likely to have reliable high-speed internet

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new Barr Foundation and Gallup study of Massachusetts high school students finds that, while many are currently learning remotely full-time, relatively few -- 16% -- say this is their preference. Half of Massachusetts students (50%) say they prefer to learn in person full-time, while about a third (34%) say they prefer a hybrid in-person/remote arrangement.

Horizontal bar graph. Massachusetts students' current learning preferences (aged 14 to 18). 50% would prefer to attend school in person, full-time. 34% would prefer a hybrid in-person/remote arrangement and 16% would prefer to attend school remotely, full-time.

These findings are based on telephone surveys with 1,000 Massachusetts students, aged 14 to 18, conducted by Gallup for The Barr Foundation Nov. 18-Dec. 9, 2020. The study was conducted in English or Spanish, depending on respondent comfort level, and includes students in private, public district and charter schools.

Though attending school full-time in person is students' most common preference, only a small fraction have been able to do that this winter amid record-high coronavirus cases in Massachusetts, as in the U.S. nationwide. The study finds that overall, 39% of Massachusetts students are learning full-time from home, while 55% are in hybrid in-school/at-home learning arrangements and 6% are learning in person full-time. Students from lower-income households in the state are far more likely than those in middle- and upper-income households to be learning remotely full-time.

Horizontal bar graph. Massachusetts students' current learning arrangements, by household income (aged 14-18). Among households earning less than $60,000 per year, 57% are in full-time remote learning, 37% are in hybrid in-person/remote learning and 6% are enrolled in full-time in-person learning. For households earning between $60,000 and $119,999 per year, 37% are in full-time remote learning, 54% are in hybrid in-person/remote learning and 7% are enrolled in full-time in-person learning. In households with incomes of $120,000 or more per year, 31% are in full-time remote learning, 63% are in hybrid in-person/remote learning and 6% are enrolled in full-time in-person learning.

These findings come in the context of widespread concerns that the pandemic is exacerbating existing disparities in educational outcomes between disadvantaged students and others. Though recent analyses of testing data indicate that the transition to remote learning has resulted in significant learning loss among U.S. students, those losses are particularly severe among low-income and minority students.

Low-Income and Minority Students Less Likely to Have Online Access

Though they are more likely to be learning remotely full-time, low-income and minority students in Massachusetts are less likely to live in households with reliable high-speed internet connections, according to reports from their parents. Though almost all students in households making less than $60,000 have internet access at home, about one in seven (14%) do not have broadband service and about four in 10 (41%) do not have reliable connectivity.

Horizontal bar graph. Massachusetts' students' access to online classes and services, by their household income. 59% of households earning less than $60,000 a year have a reliable internet connection, compared with 75% of those with incomes between $60,000 and $119,999, while 84% of those with incomes of $120,000 or more say the same.

Differences by income group are also reflected in discrepancies between racial and ethnic groups. For example, 77% of White students in Massachusetts live in households with broadband internet connections that their parents describe as reliable. This figure falls to 59% for Black students and 58% for Hispanic students.

Horizontal bar graph. Massachusetts students' access to broadband service and reliable internet connections, by their race/ethnicity. 77% of White students have both broadband service and reliable internet, compared with 59% of Black students and 58% of Hispanic students.

Students' responses also reflect the challenges facing lower-income parents, who may have less experience with computing devices and online platforms than those from more affluent backgrounds. Overall, 85% of Massachusetts high school students say there is someone at home they can ask for help if they have trouble accessing schoolwork or using technology -- but that figure is 71% among those in households earning under $60,000 a year.

Horizontal bar graph. Massachusetts students with someone at home to help with technology, by household income. 71% of households earning less than $60,000 a year have someone at home to help students with technology issues, compared with 89% of those with incomes between $60,000 and $119,999 and 90% of those with incomes of $120,000 or more.

Implications

The coronavirus pandemic's disruption of K-12 education is likely to be one of its most enduring effects. A survey of Massachusetts parents conducted in October and November 2020 found significant gaps by income and racial group in access to in-person schooling, and parents of children in distance-learning situations were more likely to feel their child was falling behind grade level.

The Barr Foundation-Gallup student study further adds to educators' understanding of the transfer to distance learning by exploring students' preferences and their reported access to the resources they need to do well in a remote learning situation. Such perceptions are a crucial link that sheds light on the specific challenges educators are contending with as they help distance-learning students succeed through the pandemic.

To learn more about this study, read the full report.
A staff member shows a dose of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine during vaccination program as second injection for health workers as the main priority group in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, Jan. 28, 2021. (Photo by Septianjar/Xinhua)

Chinese President Xi Jinping's pledges and proposals, ranging from promoting global vaccine cooperation and jointly building the Belt and Road, to practicing multilateralism, have charted the course for a world that has arrived at a historic crossroads.

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- As the world heads into the second month of 2021, it is still struggling to handle a ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, a deep economic recession, as well as a turbulent and shifting global order.

Against the backdrop of growing risks and uncertainties, Chinese President Xi Jinping has, on an array of bilateral and multilateral diplomatic occasions, offered China's solutions to those daunting challenges.

His pledges and proposals, ranging from promoting global vaccine cooperation and jointly building the Belt and Road, to practicing multilateralism, have charted the course for a world that has arrived at a historic crossroads.

A worker drives a vehicle to carry containers loaded with vaccines developed by Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech at Santiago international airport in Santiago, Chile, Jan. 28, 2021. (Photo by Jorge Villegas/Xinhua)

PROMOTING VACCINE COOPERATION

Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 100 million on Jan. 26, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Amid surging infections, a fair distribution of effective vaccines is believed to be the best way to guide the world out of the tunnel.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi has been engaged in intensive "cloud diplomacy," including attending or chairing virtual meetings and having phone calls with foreign leaders and heads of international organizations, during which he repeatedly called for solidarity against the pandemic, as well as global cooperation on the research, development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

During his phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in November 2020, Xi said China stands ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Germany on COVID-19 vaccines and push for the vaccines to be fairly distributed as a global public good, especially for the benefit of developing countries.

In a telephone conversation on Jan. 21 with Thongloun Sisoulith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, Xi said China will continue to support Laos' efforts to fight the pandemic, and stands ready to actively consider aiding Laos with a batch of COVID-19 vaccines.

China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Bolivia on COVID-19 vaccines, Xi said Thursday in a phone conversation with his Bolivian counterpart, Luis Arce.

Addressing the World Economic Forum (WEF) Virtual Event of the Davos Agenda on Jan. 25, Xi said that "China will continue to share its experience with other countries, do its best to assist countries and regions that are less prepared for the pandemic, and work for greater accessibility and affordability of COVID-19 vaccines in developing countries," adding he hopes those efforts "will contribute to an early and complete victory over the coronavirus throughout the world."

"There is no doubt that humanity will prevail over the virus and emerge even stronger from this disaster," Xi said.

Photo taken on July 29, 2020 shows the construction site of the China-Laos Railway in northern Laos. (Photo by Pan Longzhu/Xinhua)

JOINTLY BUILDING BELT AND ROAD

The global economic recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic has turned out to be the severest ever since the end of the Second World War in 1945 -- all major economic sectors have been devastated simultaneously for the first time in history, global supply chains have been disrupted, and trade and investment remain weak.

Still, China's proposals and commitments expounded by Xi in his Davos speech have injected fresh momentum into the flagging global economy.

"China will continue to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, help keep the global industrial and supply chains smooth and stable, and advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation," he said.

Belt and Road cooperation, a key term in Xi's phone calls with foreign leaders in January, has been warmly welcomed by the international community.

Thongloun said in the telephone conversation with Xi on Jan. 21 that Laos will strengthen bilateral cooperation in such areas as building the Belt and Road, and promote friendly exchanges at all levels.

Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in a telephone conversation with Xi on Jan. 25 that Dominica will actively participate in the joint construction of the Belt and Road to promote the continuous development of Dominica-China relations and the relations between Caribbean countries and China.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in a telephone conversation with Xi on Jan. 26 that his country is willing to join China in actively promoting bilateral Belt and Road cooperation and the construction of the Belarus-China industrial park, and strengthening cooperation in various fields such as economy, trade and exchanges at local levels.

China's development is an opportunity for the world, Xi said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 47th WEF annual meeting in Davos four years ago.

Now, in his latest Davos speech, Xi said that "as China enters a new development stage, we will follow a new development philosophy and foster a new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other."

"China will work with other countries to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity," Xi added.

Indeed, with a new development paradigm, China will further deepen its reform and opening up, which will certainly provide more opportunities for global development and cooperation.

Chinese medical team experts and Italian doctors pose for a photo during the COVID-19 pandemic in Padua, Italy, March 18, 2020. (Xinhua)

PRACTICING MULTILATERALISM

"The problems facing the world are intricate and complex. The way out of them is through upholding multilateralism and building a community with a shared future for mankind," Xi said in his latest Davos speech.

In fact, the 25-minute special address was brimming with Xi's call for multilateralism, which has resonated internationally. Xi said that "multilateralism is about having international affairs addressed through consultation and the future of the world decided by everyone working together."

"'Selective multilateralism' should not be our option," Xi said later in his speech, adding that "to uphold multilateralism in the 21st century, we should promote its fine tradition, take on new perspectives and look to the future."

Besides, Xi has also elaborated in his speech on five initiatives China will take to practice multilateralism, by continuing to take an active part in global cooperation on COVID-19, implement a win-win strategy of opening up, promote sustainable development, advance science, technology and innovation, as well as promote a new type of international relations.

"We believe that when the interests of the entire humanity are at stake, China must step forward, take action, and get the job done," Xi said, adding "let us all join hands and let multilateralism light our way toward a community with a shared future for mankind."

[ Editor: WXY ]
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.

By William J. McNichol

The people of New Jersey have voted to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana. This new venture requires new levels of skill from the police and courts, which will have to deal with persons who use marijuana irresponsibly when driving.

New Jersey police rely on drug recognition expert (DRE) police officers to identify marijuana-impaired drivers and New Jersey courts have allowed DUI defendants to be convicted on the testimony of DRE police officers. However, there is no scientific validity to the DRE procedure and no one should be convicted of a DUI offense on the basis of a DRE police officers testimony. The legalization of adult recreational use of marijuana should be a catalyst for New Jersey to end the use of DRE police officer testimony and to begin a search for a science-based means for identifying marijuana-impaired drivers.

DRE police officers use a 12-step protocol that they claim allows them to identify drug impairment. Yet, attempts to validate the DRE protocol as a means of identifying impairment have failed miserably, especially when the drug in question is marijuana.

The DRE protocol calls for the DRE officer to make roadside or police station diagnosis of various medical, or psychiatric conditions. These include a diagnosis of the possible paranoia that DREs say is characteristic of marijuana use, even though police officers are not trained to make psychiatric diagnoses. Not even a psychiatrist would want to diagnose paranoia in a few minutes at the roadside or at a police station.

DRE officers also take the subjects pulse three times and are even trained that they can do so by placing their hands on the subjects throat to obtain a carotid pulse. An elevated pulse is said, by DRE police officers, to indicate marijuana intoxication but does anyone seriously think that a persons pulse rate wont jump when a police officer takes that pulse three times at the roadside or police station, possibly with his hand on the persons throat?

According to DRE police officers, elevated blood pressure is another indicator of marijuana use and impairment, but about half of all Americans suffer from high blood pressure and even perfectly sober persons who dont suffer from high blood pressure will surely see their blood pressure jump during a roadside police stop or when they are taken to a police station.

Another indicator of marijuana impairment that DRE officers use is increased appetite. Yes, the stereotype of potheads having the munchies is part of the basis for DRE police officers supposedly expert opinions concerning a defendants marijuana impairment. How this is evaluated at the roadside or police station is unclear, but if a DRE officer slyly offers some Doritos to a person accused of impairment they should probably say: No, thanks.

These components of the DRE procedure may sound bizarre or even funny. But all of them (and more) can be found in the written materials used in the NJ State Police DRE training program.

It isnt surprising that the DRE procedure has not stood up to scientific scrutiny. DRE officers sometimes point to studies that were financed and conducted for the purpose of proving the validity of their training as a means of detecting marijuana impairment, but most of these studies concede that they were unable to show that DRE officers could correctly identify impaired drivers.

Courts in Rhode Island and Maryland forbid DRE police officers to testify as experts. The Minnesota Supreme Court has concluded that the DRE procedure dresses up in scientific garb that which is not particularly scientific. Now, it is New Jerseys turn. The New Jersey Supreme Court has before it the case of State v. Olenowski, where the admissibility of DRE police officers expert opinions will be decided. The New Jersey Supreme Court should reject this unreliable, pseudo-scientific testimony.

Rejection of DRE officer testimony is only the first step in finding a practical, and scientifically valid way to enforce DUI laws in the era of legalized marijuana. Blood THC level has been proposed as a marker for impairment, analogous to blood alcohol levels. Unfortunately, blood THC level has proven to be a failure as an indicator of impairment.

The American Automobile Association, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and many others have conducted extensive studies and concluded that blood THC cannot be correlated with impairment. Other biochemical indicators of marijuana use remain positive for days after the subject has used marijuana, making them useless as indicators of impairment. This does not mean that science cannot find a valid biochemical indicator of marijuana impairment, only that the leadership and funding to do so has been lacking.

New Jersey can use the occasion of its legalization of recreational marijuana to supply this funding and leadership. Tax revenue from sales of recreational marijuana are to be directed to a Cannabis Regulatory Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization (CREAMM) fund. A portion of the CREAMM fund, perhaps 5%, should be directed toward research to find a valid and practical biochemical marker for marijuana impairment. New Jersey is blessed with excellent private and state-supported research universities, and they will be able to effectively tackle this project. In doing this, New Jersey will do more than simply ensure that its citizens get the benefit of accurate and just administration of its DUI laws. It will provide leadership in this area of growing national importance.

William J. McNichol is an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School, where he teaches a course on Current Issues in Marijuana Regulation. He has written on the reliability of DRE police testimony and other issues relating to legalized marijuana. The views expressed here are his own.

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press release

The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat commends the United Nations-facilitated Libyan Dialogue Forum (LPDF) and the Libyan people as LPDF delegates begin to vote on 1-5 February 2021 in Geneva, for candidates to serve in a new interim government.

The Chairperson commends the transparent process of nomination for candidates to serve in a new unified interim government, which includes posts for the presidential council and the post of prime minister, expected to oversea national elections scheduled for 24 December 2021.

The Chairperson reiterates the continued commitment of the African Union to support and accompany the brotherly people of Libya in their road towards peace, reconciliation and reconstruction.
Credit: Shutterstock

The day a muddled mob stormed the US Capitol building, a team of American researchers published a paper in Nature that signified a landmark in gene therapy.

The head of the US National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins had joined forces with Harvard University professor David Liu and others to tackle progeria, a genetic disorder that causes children to age rapidly.

The achievement, successfully tested in mice, was made possible by Liu's invention of a second-generation CRISPR gene-editing technology called "base editing." With this, researchers may eventually be able to correct lifelong genetic diseases, including progeria, in humans.

A rare but devastating disease

Francis Collins, former leader of the Human Genome Project, had worked on progeria for many years before the breakthrough.

Children carrying the mutation for progeria have normal intelligence but show early signs of general aging, including hair loss and hearing loss. By their teenage years they appear very old. Few live past the age of 13.

In 2003, Collins's lab discovered progeria is caused by a mutation (which you can think of as a "misspelling") in a gene that encodes a protein called Lamin A. Lamin A has a structural role in the cell's nucleus.

Many of us carry mutations in various genes. But as we typically have two copies of genes (one from our mother and one from our father), we tend to have at least one good copy and that's usually enough.

The double helix shape of DNA is supported by an alternating sugar-phsophate backbone (the sides). Attached to each sugar on the backbone is one of four chemical bases: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). The order of these bases is what determines an organisms genetic code. Credit: Shutterstock

But the progeria mutation in Lamin A is different. While there may be a good copy present, the mutant copy generates a poisonous product that messes things up, like a spanner in the works. This type of mutation is called a "dominant negative mutation."

The solution, ideally, would be to specifically correct the mutant copy using CRISPR. With this gene-editing tool, scientists can direct a pair of molecular "scissors" to any part of the genome (DNA). Unfortunately, first-generation CRISPR technologieswhile good at cutting genesdo not have the level of surgical precision or efficiency needed to correct the Lamin A mutation.

Complications with mass cell editing

CRISPR scissors are good at finding their target and cutting, but the reconstructive surgery that comes after is left to the celland isn't guaranteed to happen in every cell.

In the lab, researchers can usually manage by just correcting a few cells before growing them in a petri dish for further research.

But in humans we need to accurately correct most, if not all, cells. It would be pointless to correct the progeria mutation in five cells in a patient's finger, while leaving the rest of the body unrepaired.

This is where David Liu's work on "base editors" is critical. Liu identified the limitations of CRISPR technology very early and began developing molecular machines that could do more than operate only as targeted molecular scissors.

He started with naturally occurring enzymes, which can change one type of chemical base of the genetic code into another; for example, enzymes that can convert an A (adenine) to a G (guanine), or a C (cytosine) to a T (thymine).

In this video, Collins and Lui discuss their work involving treating progeria in mice.

Liu then modified the enzymes to make them more precise and fused them to CRISPR to create fusion proteins called "base editors." Since CRISPR technology is good at reading DNA and finding a target, it can effectively deliver the editors to the gene that needs to be changed.

It's important to highlight Liu deliberately developed base editors so that they change letters, but no longer sever DNA like CRISPR scissors. This is crucial, as cutting DNA increases the risk of larger chromosomal deletions, which can potentially damage cells.

The differences of mice and men

Collins, Liu and their colleagues knew they would have to get base editors into all (or at least most) of the cells of a mouse with progeria to cure it. For this, they relied on using hollowed-out viruses as delivery vectors.

They used a vector based on the Adeno Associated Virus, or AAV. As students, we joked AAV stood for "almost a virus," as it's one of the smallest viruses and doesn't cause any known disease.

Collins and Liu packaged the AAV virus particles with genes encoding the relevant base-editing enzyme and delivered them into the mice. The treated mice essentially avoided the disease and became indistinguishable from healthy mice.

But, of course, this all happened in miceand humans are bigger. We don't know how difficult it will be to upscale this gene-editing machinery to work reliably in humans. But in any case, Collins and Liu have taken an inspiring first step by showing it's possible in mice.

Base-editing CRISPR tools are a dream come true for experts committed to gene therapy and for families afflicted by conditions such as progeria. Work on this front is just beginning. But in these dark pandemic times, it provides much-needed new hope.

Explore further DNA-editing method shows promise to treat mouse model of progeria

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
As inches of snow pile up during Washingtons biggest winter storm in two years, there is one place that wont be seeing any snowball fights.

The Capitol grounds, one of the best spots in the city for sledding, are now off limits, another reverberation of the rampage there on Jan. 6. The citys schools are all virtual on Monday; schools had been slated to reopen to some students in person but closed because of the weather.

Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbias nonvoting House delegate, has urged the Capitol Police to allow the tradition to continue this week. The activity could be done safely, Ms. Norton said in a statement on Saturday, by allowing only children and adults accompanied by children into the area.

But a Capitol Police spokeswoman, Eva Malecki, citing the current security concerns and the citys coronavirus restrictions, said it could not be permitted.
ICE

EV

VCU

For decades, AEM has been providing gearheads with performance upgrades ranging from custom ECUs, high-flow fuel pumps, boost controllers, and many other software and hardware solutions to increase the power of their-based vehicles.With the rapid shift towards electrification, the company created the AEMdivision, which offers EV owners a similar range of upgrades developed to safely increase performance.Their latest creation is a new completely programable control system for Tesla LDUs comprised of an inverter control board and a VCU200 vehicle control unit.Developed through a collaboration with Cascadia Motion, a leading manufacturer of EV drive components, this system offers OEM-level safety, vehicle control, and an increase in power.Using the LDU inverter control board and the VCU200 eliminates factory limitations, delivering more power and full control through a system thats been rigorously tested.Built specifically for Tesla LDU base drives, these upgrades will increase overall horsepower by 26%, compared to the standard settings, as measured on a chassis dynamometer. The company states that further gains in output power are possible before the systems official release, which will take place this spring.To reach this power gain and use the added features provided by the system, the inverter control board and the VCU200 must be used together.These features include electric motor torque management with programable torque curves dependent on the vehicles operating and/or driver-selectable modes, dynamic torque limitation for enhanced launch control efficiency, input customization that includes accelerator pedal, brake switch, and PRND switches. Other driver/vehicle inputs or full customizable controls of auxiliaries like cooling pumps, cooling fans, and lights are also part of the features.The AEM EV inverter control board, which connects to the VCU200 via CAN bus, can easily replace Teslas OEM board within the LDU inverter. Included in the package is an adapter harness with near plug and play connectivity, excluding 12-volt power and ground connections.For simplified power customization and integration of the, the company provides its AEMcal software for free, being available to download as a full version on their official website.This in-house developed software puts an end to the need for stacking multiple controllers to manage an EV's propulsion and ancillary systems using a simple and intuitive interface. It blends tables and graphs for customizing torque delivery, stationary and dynamic launch control, traction control, regenerative braking, speed limiting, map switching, and more.Although many Tesla owners would love to use these upgrades to boost the power of their already capable Model S or X, AEM EV states that the control system is designed exclusively for motorsport-oriented EVs or conversions and will not work with Tesla vehicles equipped with a factory LDU.The company will release the two products in the following months, with the inverter control board (part number: 30-8402) priced at $999 and the VCU200 control unit (part number: 30-8000) at $1,583.
"This year, we are proud to deliver expeditions that pay honor to our heritage. As our Destination of the Year 2021 selection, Norway is the perfect choice for travelers to discover not only the world-famous Fjords and landscape, but also the hidden gems our experts have hand-selected," says John Downey, President of the Americas for Hurtigruten. "Our team of locals have drawn from traditional Norwegian heritage to design seasonal experiences specifically for 2021 travel."

Norway offers travelers an unparalleled experience and Hurtigruten has chosen the majestic landscape as the Destination of the Year 2021 for these top reasons:

The Happiest Place on Earth: Norway is truly "The Happiest Place on Earth," thanks to its warm culture, community, generosity and "Higge" mentality. While travelers may go for the famous sights, Norway's naturally welcoming people are eager and proud to share their heritage and traditions with visitors.

is truly "The Happiest Place on Earth," thanks to its warm culture, community, generosity and "Higge" mentality. While travelers may go for the famous sights, naturally welcoming people are eager and proud to share their heritage and traditions with visitors. Seasonal Sunlight: Norway days are either extremely long or short and pending traveler preference, is perfect for a visit any time of year. During the summer months, the sun hardly sets, creating a backdrop for late-night hikes, outdoor concerts and more. In the winter months, there is little natural daylight. This means long evenings indoors embracing the Norwegian lifestyle of cooking and spending quality time together.

days are either extremely long or short and pending traveler preference, is perfect for a visit any time of year. During the summer months, the sun hardly sets, creating a backdrop for late-night hikes, outdoor concerts and more. In the winter months, there is little natural daylight. This means long evenings indoors embracing the Norwegian lifestyle of cooking and spending quality time together. The Northern Lights: It's no secret Norway is one of the best places to witness this amazing phenomenon. Home to a number of small towns in the north, it's easy to spot the dancing lights in the sky between September and late March.

It's no secret is one of the best places to witness this amazing phenomenon. Home to a number of small towns in the north, it's easy to spot the dancing lights in the sky between September and late March. Majestic Fjords: Thanks to the last ice age, there are Fjords-a-plenty in Norway . Exploring these natural wonders can be done by hiking, kayaking, sailing, diving or camping, providing an opportunity to stay active and get up, close and personal with nature.

Explorers can choose between two Norway options to experience the coastline, an expedition cruise or the original coastal voyage dating back to 1893. With expedition teams that enrich every part of the journey, a local viewpoint of ports, fjords, scenic coastline and a Norwegian approach to travel in winter or summer, travelers can immerse themselves in the culture and charm of Norway. Sample itineraries to celebrate Destination of the Year with up to $4,000 off in 2021 include the Fjords and Artic Summer Expedition, Northern Lights and Fjords and Norwegian Fjords, North Cape and the Arctic Sunshine.

To learn more or to book a future trip to Norway, contact your local travel agent, visit https://www.hurtigruten.com/destinations/norway or call Hurtigruten directly at 1-866-679-8305. Travelers can always feel confident booking thanks to Hurtigruten's Book With Confidence cancellation policy.

About Hurtigruten

Hurtigruten is the world leader in exploration travel. As the largest cruise operator in polar waters, and with 126 years of know-how, they offer immersive experiences to some of the world's most pristine and remote destinations, including Antarctica, Alaska, Arctic Canada and the Northwest Passage, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Svalbard, and more. Hurtigruten's fleet consists of 14 expedition ships, custom built for adventure travel, including two of the world's first hybrid electric-powered ships, MS Roald Amundsen and MS Fridtjof Nansen. These ships are two of the most advanced and environmentally friendly expedition vessels at sea. Hurtigruten is an industry leader in sustainability, with a deep commitment to improving the marine environments they call home.

SOURCE Hurtigruten

Related Links

www.hurtigruten.com


Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a gathering and conveys festive greetings to leaders from non-Communist parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, as well as public figures without party affiliation, ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 1, 2021. Monday's gathering was also attended by Wang Yang, who is the chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, and Vice Premier Han Zheng. They are both members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. [Xinhua/Ju Peng]

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua)  Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday met leaders from non-Communist parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), as well as public figures without party affiliation, ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conveyed his festive greetings on behalf of the CPC Central Committee to those non-CPC personages and the vast number of members of the united front.

The year 2020 has been an extraordinary year in the history of New China, Xi said, adding that the country faced situations and tasks that were grave and complicated, and challenges and risks that were unprecedented.

However, led by the CPC Central Committee, the Party and the Chinese people stayed united and overcame the difficulties together, Xi said, noting that China has achieved major strategic achievements in containing COVID-19, taken the lead in achieving positive economic growth, and accomplished the poverty eradication tasks on time.

The country also saw the successful conclusion of the 13th Five-Year Plan, drew up the blueprint for the 14th Five-Year Plan, and made historic achievements in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, Xi said.

"We owe the achievements to the Party's strong leadership, as well as the strong unity and hard work of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, including members of other political parties, the ACFIC and public figures without party affiliation," Xi added.

He emphasized that the year 2021 marks the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, with the country embarking on a new journey of fully building a modern socialist country. Also, grand celebrations will be held to mark the CPC's centenary.

Xi expressed the hope that non-CPC personages will contribute their suggestions on the new development stage, philosophy and paradigm.

He also called upon them to preserve the political character of pursuing the common goal with unity and working together with the CPC.

Xi announced that a campaign will be launched this year within the CPC on studying the Party's history.

He urged people from other political parties and public figures with no party affiliation to view the CPC's centenary as an opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to cooperation with the Party and enhance their self-improvement.

Monday's gathering was also attended by Wang Yang, who is the chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, and Vice Premier Han Zheng. They are both members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a gathering and conveys festive greetings to leaders from non-Communist parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, as well as public figures without party affiliation, ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 1, 2021. Monday's gathering was also attended by Wang Yang, who is the chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, and Vice Premier Han Zheng. They are both members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. [Xinhua/Shen Hong]

(Source: Xinhua)
As rioters threatened to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6, a staffer rushed into Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's office and told her to hide. Soon after she ran into a bathroom, she heard a thunderous banging noise outside.

"Where is she? Where is she?" someone yelled, Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said in an Instagram Live chat on Monday night. "And this was the moment where I thought everything was over."

The person thumping on the doors turned out to be a police officer trying to move her to a secure location, Ocasio-Cortez said, but the harrowing moment was just the first of many as a mob of Trump supporters breached the Capitol.

With around 150,000 viewers watching live, Ocasio-Cortez for the first time recounted in detail what she had earlier described as a near-death experience during the attempted insurrection. The New York Democrat also revealed during the 90-minute discussion that she is a survivor of sexual assault. She compared lawmakers like Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), whom she accused of trying to play down the seriousness of the riot, to abusers who attempt to silence and undermine victims.

"These folks who tell us to move on, that it's not a big deal, that we should forget what's happened, or even telling us to apologize. These are the same tactics of abusers. And I'm a survivor of sexual assault," she said.

Ocasio-Cortez added, "I haven't told many people that in my life. But when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other."

Representatives for Cruz and Hawley did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Monday.

Ocasio-Cortez said demanding accountability for the Capitol riot wasn't about politics.

"This is at a point where it's not about a difference of political opinion," Ocasio-Cortez said. "This is about just basic humanity."

Ocasio-Cortez's comments on Monday come almost three weeks after she said that she didn't feel safe going to an extraction point with Republican lawmakers and feared that GOP colleagues would lead rioters to her. Federal prosecutors have charged one alleged Capitol rioter with threatening in a tweet to "Assassinate AOC."

About a week before the Capitol riot, Ocasio-Cortez said she began receiving text messages from members of Congress warning her that she needed to make plans to ensure her safety and "that in particular, I needed to be careful about the 6th," she said in her Instagram Live chat on Monday.

Over the next few days, Ocasio-Cortez said she felt increasingly unsafe. On Jan. 4, after driving to the Capitol for a vote, she returned to find Trump supporters standing behind her car, heckling her. The following day, the crowds outside the Capitol grew.

"It felt actively volatile and dangerous," she said.

Capitol Police leadership assured Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues that they were prepared, but declined to give details for fear that the security plans could be leaked, she said.

But the threats came thundering down on Jan. 6, as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying President Biden's victory. Ocasio-Cortez found herself hiding in her office's bathroom, she said, staying quiet and reflecting on the possibility of being killed.

"I really just felt like, if this is the plan for me, then people will be able to take it from here," she said, wiping away tears in the Instagram video. "I had fulfilled my purpose."

The Capitol Police officer did not announce himself as he banged on doors and yelled out for her, she said. And when she emerged from her hiding spot, she said the officer greeted her and one of her staffers with "a tremendous amount of anger and hostility."

"We couldn't even tell or read if this was a good situation or bad situation," she said, adding that "it didn't feel okay."

The officer instructed her and her staffer to go to a different building, which Ocasio-Cortez would not identify in the live stream. But once they arrived at the building that they realized the officer never told them where to go. As they ran through hallways and knocked on office doors, Ocasio-Cortez said she could hear yells outside the building growing louder as rioters threatened to break inside.

"I hear the hinges cracking," she said.

She soon saw Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., walking into her office and asked if they could join her. Ocasio-Cortez started roaming the office and opening doors as staffers barricaded the front door with furniture.

"I was like, 'Can I help you? What are you looking for?' and she said, 'I'm looking for where I'm going to hide,'" Porter told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Monday night. "I said, 'Well don't worry, I'm a mom, I'm calm' . . . and she said, 'I just hope I get to be a mom.'"

The New York lawmaker shut off the lights, closed the blinds and rummaged under staffers' desks, trying to find a gym bag that may have sneakers or a change of clothes. She told Porter that her dress and heals were not conducive for running, blending in with a crowd or even jumping out a window to escape.

"I'm like at a 10 because I've probably [experienced] two timestoday that I already thought I was going to die," Ocasio-Cortez said of how she felt at the moment.

The group was in Porter's office for about five hours, Ocasio-Cortez said, during which they learned that police had found two bombs nearby, outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees, and then discussed what they would do if one went off in their building.

It was only after the House resumed the vote later that day to certify the election that Ocasio-Cortez said she processed what had happened. Sitting for dinner with Porter and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) in Pressley's office, Ocasio-Cortez recounted her experience.

"Rep. Pressley told me right away, 'What you experienced was traumatizing and you need to take care of yourself,'" Ocasio-Cortez said. "It was like - having her, as a friend and sister, hear what I was saying and tell me that - mentally, it forced me to pump my breaks."

Telling her story, which she added was just one of 435 stories among House members from that day, has been healing, she said. But in the case of the events at the Capitol, it is not enough, the Democrat said.

She argued that there needs to be accountability for Republicans in Congress who made false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election and who have not condemned the events or apologized for their alleged role in inciting the attempted insurrection.

"The accountability is not about revenge," Ocasio-Cortez said. "It's about creating safety. And we are not safe with people who hold positions of power who are willing to endanger the lives of others if they think it will score them a political point."
Press Trust of India

Auto stocks jumped up to 10.5 percent on Monday as investors cheered sales growth numbers of companies like Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Tata Motors and also the announcement of voluntary vehicle scrapping policy. Ashok Leyland zoomed 10.48 percent, Tata Motors gained 6.53 percent, Mahindra & Mahindra 6.06 percent, TVS Motor Company 3.09 percent, Bajaj Auto 2.67 percent and Maruti Suzuki India 2.66 percent. Reflecting a seemingly sustainable market recovery amid concerns of oversupply of certain parts, auto majors Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor, M&M, Tata Motors, Honda and MG Motor on Monday reported growth in their domestic passenger vehicle sales in January.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) reported a 2.6 percent rise in domestic sales to 1,48,307 units last month as against 1,44,499 units in January 2020.

Homegrown auto major Tata Motors said its passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market in January stood at 26,978 units as against 13,894 units in the same month previous year, up 94 percent.

Utility vehicles major Mahindra & Mahindra's domestic passenger vehicle sales were up 4 percent to 20,634 units last month as compared to 19,797 units in January 2020.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced the much-awaited voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and polluting vehicles.

Presenting the Budget for 2021-22 in Parliament, Sitharaman said that under voluntary vehicle scrapping policy, personal vehicles would undergo fitness test after 20 years while commercial vehicles would require it after completion of 15 years.

Tata Motors CEO and MD Guenter Butschek said voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and unfit vehicles, augmenting public transport system in urban areas, continuing focus on adoption of cleaner fuels, and enhancing outlays for developing road infrastructure are positive steps for the auto industry.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Vice Chairman Vikram Kirloskar said the long-awaited scrapping policy could contribute to lower fuel consumption, lessen pollution while also generating additional demand for cleaner new vehicles.

"Automobile sector will have much to cheer from the union government''s decision to introduce a voluntary vehicle scrapping policy," said Vishal Wagh, Research Head, Bonanza Portfolio on Budget 2021.
Bernas, 55, tells AARP that since data breaches are so common it's not a matter of if your identity will be stolen, but when. He himself got a call from suburban Chicago police a few years back and learned his name and credit card information had been stolen and were being used to buy electronics at Best Buy. It was at another firm, not Best Buy, that an employee had filched the info, Bernas says.



Talking about protecting your vaccine card, he remarks: You don't want to give scammers any more information because they constantly build a profile on you. It could be 10 years before they act on what they've discovered, he notes.

As for your date of birth, a scammer considers that one of the treasures, Bernas says. So if you must tell friends on social media the month and day you were born, consider misstating the year  even by decades  to keep scammers unaware.

Fake vaccine cards already a scourge

Another danger in being too showy with your vaccine card: If it's viewed online that potentially can help scammers create phony vaccine cards, the Better Business Bureau says.

Scammers in England were caught selling fake vaccination cards on eBay for the equivalent of about $2 in U.S. dollars, so the Better Business Bureau believes it's only a matter of time before something similar occurs in the U.S.
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Students at regional schools will have more choice in subjects, high performing teachers will be encouraged to teach in the country and a dedicated education team will be based in the bush to drive better results.

A new regional education plan will be a key element of the NSW governments revised 20-year economic strategy as it rebuilds after drought, bushfires, floods and COVID-19.

Students will have access to a greater range of subjects and resources. Credit:Louise Kennerley

An independent review into regional, rural and remote education in 2018 found 78 per cent of students in major cities completed year 12, compared with 43 per cent in very remote areas.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro will launch the education plan as part of the updated 20-year economic vision for regional NSW in the Clarence Valley on Wednesday.
Posted Monday, February 1, 2021 4:48 pm

The middle school years are a complex time in a young persons life. It can be a time of self-discovery as they try to navigate the world and work to find their place in it. We often turn to the experts  doctors, psychologists and counselors  to tell us how kids are doing amid the pandemic, but we dont often hear from the young teens directly.

The importance of listening to students and giving them a voice helps us understand their world and it allows us to be able to address their needs in a quality manner, Centralia Middle School Principal Kristeen Johnson said.

In Centralia Middle School teacher Holly Abbarnos homeroom class, they focus on social-emotional support, career readiness and relationship building each week. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the students watched the I Have a Dream speech, which was followed by a call to action asking students to answer some questions. One of the questions posed by the Association of the Washington Student Leaders asked the middle schoolers: What do you wish the world knew about kids these days?

Abbarno said the students were inspired to make their voices heard and to help adults understand how they are feeling in the midst of a pandemic and a politically turbulent time.

The next day, I opened (their responses) up and I started reading them and I actually started crying  they were so thoughtful and heartbreaking and so important. It was really powerful, Abbarno said.

The middle schoolers answers shared common themes of feeling misunderstood, feeling the pressures to act a certain way in todays society and the feeling of not being good enough.

Another thing I picked up on is that they feel like as adults, we are letting them down  that were not setting good examples for them. There were a couple of responses that said hey were watching you, were the future and were going to model what we see  adults need to step up their game, Abbarno said.

Johnson said she was excited that the middle school staff is allowing students to grow and open up at school.

Abbarno chose a few of the middle schoolers responses that she felt represented the voice of many to share with The Chronicles readers.



Whether anyone likes it or not, myself included, the future belongs to us. Well run this place when youre gone, so youll have to make sure that we dont mess it up when the time comes. We will most likely hold the beliefs our role models hold, and right now, there are a lot of bad role models to take influence from. Make sure you set a good example. The worlds on fire right now, so its hard to see eye-to-eye with a lot of people. Just dont go around peddling hate and breaking into government buildings. People are selfish and mean, and they only care about themselves. Nothing will fix that. Just make sure that those character traits arent inhabited by the president in 2050. Make sure we are the responsible adults a lot of you couldnt be.



Were human too, the way we look, speak, dress, does not change who we are inside. The world scares us, it laughs in our face, it tells us we aren't good enough; were not smart or pretty enough, we dont have enough muscle or are not skinny enough. So much is expected of us but when we ask for help or tell somebody, we aren't believed. We are called attention-seeking or dramatic or to suck it up. We are told how easy we have it and how bad it was growing up in other generations, but life is hard right now too. The world we are almost powerless in is in a pandemic and full of hate. But our voices count too, we are people too. Some of us know what were talking about when we say we aren't OK. Being a teenager is hard. You all did it too. You know what its like and you know what its like to live in this world  We have to do both, balance being a child in an adult's place, but never treated like an adult until we need to be a child. Yes, our world is at home right now, but thats not fun. It means we can't focus, we fail, were alone. Take us seriously when we ask for help. Trouble makers are the exception, not the rule. The world will be passed on to us. Please treat us and the world like it.



Something I wish the world knew about kids these days is when you guys say just go outside and walk to your friends house. We did it when we were kids. Todays world is a lot more dangerous than it was when you were kids. When you were kids, did you worry about possibly getting beat up for stuff? Did you have to take pepper spray with you when you went for walks because you worried that you were going to be kidnapped? So when we ask you to drive us to our friends house, it's not because we are being lazy. Its because we are scared somethings going to happen to us. So when we call our friends rather than go to their house, its because we are scared. Please learn to understand that we arent perfect.



Taking kids phones or technology away when theyre stressed, anxious or depressed does not help. You basically just cut off our link to our friends who help us through the stuff we cant talk to our parents about. Other people our age will understand what were going through right now the best. We know our parents went through middle school once too, but did they do it online? We live in a world where everything happens on social media or the internet, and if you take away our access to those things, youre depriving us of knowing whats going on in our world. We cant just go hang out with our friends, so if we need to talk to someone, we have to text or call them. We cant do that if you wont let us have access to our devices.



What I wish people knew about kids these days is that we are the future whether you like it or not. And with the situation the world is in right now, the future may seem dark, out of reach, or not possible, but kids these days are what is going to make it possible. The future is bright and so are kids these days.



We aren't all the same. Some of us do good things. Help out. Do good for themselves. Some of us do bad things. Mistakes. Decisions not thought through. Some adults think all this generation is just a bunch of phone-glued vapers or something, but thats not true. Different people like doing different things. Ill admit, I like going on my phone every once in a while, but if I could, I would be outside ripping on my quad. Other people, well, a lot of people like being on their phones, TikToking or something, so it would make sense that adults would assume that, but thats not true. There are so many kids, so many different personalities, so many different things they like to do. What if kids were going around always saying all adults just like sitting around and watching TV or something. That is not cool. Adults wouldnt like it, but most likely, theyre doing the same thing to the kids. Stereotyping. Stereotyping isnt something cool to do. Its like seeing a sleeping dog and saying all dogs just sit there and sleep. Thats obviously not true. Thats like seeing one adult sit there and watch TV, and say all adults just sit there and watch TV. Not true, obviously. Thats like seeing or hearing about one kid being glued to their phone and vaping, then saying all kids do that. That, well, is obviously not true.



I wish that people would understand and accept mental disorders. Everyone thinks people fake it for attention and that it's popular now. But it's not. No one wants those disorders, so that's what I wish people would understand. That they understand if we get mad, upset or angry, there isnt always a reason or problem. We just dont want to be happy as if right there. It doesn't give you a reason to yell at us or be mad at us. Sometimes we have bad or sad days too. Sometimes we dont meet the general expectations of the previous generations because we lack hardships and that can be mentally challenging knowing that we might not perceive what others want us to perceive.



Something I want people to know about us is that we have a lot going on mentally in our heads, were scared that were not enough, that we wont ever be enough. Our emotions drive us crazy, and having so much responsibility on our plate can get so stressful, and I dont think parents, teachers and siblings really understand what we go through in one day. Im not saying we dont deserve responsibility, but sometimes you guys expect the wrong responsibility from us. Not everyone goes through this, but I know for sure a lot more younger people go through this than older people. Sometimes we just need someone there or us, but then when we go to people they expect us to be all happy and okay. When really, we are all stressed, angry at ourselves and sad. I know some people who dont even try to do anything. This is all because no one is helping them or being there for them. Sometimes we need a reminder that you love us and that were good enough.



That we can have hard and tough times too.



Something I would like people to know about kids these days is that it is not all that easy  we have struggles too. One day I am up and about getting things done and the next I will be in bed all day and wont get out until I have to.

In this time especially, it is much harder. Everything is online, we dont get to see our friends, and we have so many expectations that just seem impossible when they should be very simple.



Kids these days have problems too.



Sometimes we may get caught up in the action and make a decision that is not like us, and it may be a poor decision that others dont like. That doesnt make us bad, it means we are kids and still learning right from wrong.



We don't want to be treated like a child. We are teenagers and should start being treated like young adults.



Stop yelling at us for everything we do and dont do. If we dont do our chores right away, trust us to get them done, we have school work too.



Kids these days have to do homework for seven classes all online and help around the house too. Adults don't know how to help us and sometimes its too much for us.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vectrus, Inc., (NYSE: VEC), a leading global government services company, announced that company management will address the Cowen 42nd Annual Aerospace/Defense & Industrials Conference, on Tuesday, February 9, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.

A live audio webcast of the briefing will be available at https://wsw.com/webcast/cowen80/vec/1782456 and be available for replay for 90 days afterward.

About Vectrus:

Vectrus is a leading provider of global service solutions with a history in the services market that dates back more than 70 years. The company provides facility and base operations; supply chain and logistics services; information technology mission support; and engineering and digital technology services primarily to U.S. government customers around the world. Vectrus is differentiated by operational excellence, superior program performance, a history of long-term customer relationships and a strong commitment to its clients' mission success. Vectrus is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., and includes about 7,100 employees spanning 148 locations in 26 countries and territories. In 2019, Vectrus generated sales of $1.4 billion. For more information, visit the company's website at www.vectrus.com or connect with Vectrus on Facebook , Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Contact Information

Mike Smith, CFA

[email protected]

(719) 637-5773

SOURCE Vectrus, Inc.

Related Links

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Representatives for Jewel-Osco, Walmart and Marianos either did not respond to requests for details or had no information Tuesday about how many vaccines they expect to receive. CVS Health will also receive additional doses next week, but not for its stores in Illinois, at least initially. CVS is not currently vaccinating residents at its Illinois stores.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee today outlined her concerns about the recent spate of violent, attacks stabbing incidents, in the capital in a meeting with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

The meeting lasted for around an hour and comes as the situation is so serious gardai set up a special plan in Dublin to deal with the increase in knife crime in recent weeks.

A 14-year-old boy has been charged in connection with a knife attack that led to an office cleaner needing life-saving surgery after she was stabbed in the neck on January 20 at the IFSC between Georges Dock and Custom House Quay.

Read More

Then on Tuesday of last week, a youth was stabbed on East Wall Road and died from his injuries.

In another attack last Thursday, a person was stabbed in an attack at Seville Place.

And on Sunday night another man was brutally beaten with a bicycle.

In a statement after her meeting with Commissioner Harris, a spokesman for Minister McEntee said: Following a number of initial discussions on their shared concern about recent serious crime incidents, particularly in Dublin, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris further discussed the issue at a meeting in the Department of Justice today.

The spokesman said the Commissioner confirmed to the Minister that An Garda Siochana has a comprehensive policing plan in place in Dublins north inner city.

The Minister and the Commissioner also discussed what more can be done to tackle knife crime.

They agreed that strong community engagement, increased community safety and youth services are a key element in preventing and reducing crime.

They also discussed outreach and information programmes, run in a number of different languages, for all communities, as well as youth justice and other interventions.

The Minister and Commissioner also agreed that further analysis is needed to provide greater insights into the level of violent incidents in society.

The Minister and the Commissioner will remain in ongoing contact on the issue, he said.

Four Dublin councillors have this week called on Ms McEntee to act on previously suggested changes to the law which would double the sentence for knife crime to 10 years.

The councillors have also called on the minister to immediately set up a task force to address, research and analyse the causes of the increase in knife crime.
The selfless acts of a Chick-fil-A employee from Wisconsin garnered national attention when she gave away a car prize to her co-worker.

A 17-year old native of Appleton, Wisconsin who works at the local Chick-Fil-A was the winner of the company Christmas raffle during their holiday party. Hailey Bridges was awarded a 2008 Hyundai Elantra after her name was drawn in the raffle, but she decided to give it away to her friend and co-worker instead. The recipient of the car was Hokule'a Taniguchi, an employee who did not own a car and was traveling to and from work on a bike.

According to WKRV, Taniguchi hails from Hawaii and is not used to the harsh winters in the Wisconsin area. The young Chick-Fil-A employee wasted no time in deciding to give her the company Christmas raffle prize, as Bridges explained, "[Taniguchi]'s one of the people here that has made me be myself more, and I just feel so happy being around her and it was just an immediate decision to give her a car because she probably needs it more than anyone I know."

"Shocked" Taniguchi recalled the moment when the young Chick-Fil-A employee gave her the

company Christmas raffle prize, saying that she "screamed" in delight. She said, "My heart felt so full and I was so excited. I was so happy I just started crying my eyes out. Being able to have a car and that freedom and giving someone else a ride, helping someone else out that just warms my soul and I'm just so excited and happy."

Both Chick-Fil-A employees earned recognition from the food chain's Appleton Director of Hospitality and Quality Sami Hansen. According to Christian Headlines, Hansen mused about how Bridges was "super fun to be around" and applauded her ability "to plug in with everyone." She also admired the way Taniguchi "serves everyone with excellence" and her ability to build "strong friendships and memories with everyone."

This is not the first time the unselfish deeds of a Chick-Fil-A employee caught national attention. In fact, a Columbus Chick-Fil-A employee by the name of Zack "Cowboy" Kokenzie made headlines in October 2020 after he saved a choking child.

ABC10 reported that cries were heard from an SUV that was at the drive-thru window. Upon hearing the commotion, Kokenzie rushed over to find a man and another customer trying to detach their child from the car seat as the seat belt got entangled around the child's windpipe. Another Chick-Fil-A employee, Zachary Bullock immediately arrived with scissors that Kokenzie used to cut the child free.

The store owner for which the Chick Fil-A employees worked praised them for their "quick thinking and quick responses." He said that his team was "in the right place, with the right training and the right attitude to potentially save the life of one of our customers."

Chick-Fil-A is the third largest food chain in the United States by sales. There are about 5,000 Chick-Fil-A employees across the nation to date.
The area was saddened when news broke of the death of Mrs May Mc Caughey, Farrangarve, Arva, which occurred on Wednesday, December 23, 2020 at Cavan General Hospital.

May was born on May 12, 1938, the first child of Michael and Annie Denning, Billis, Virginia, Co Cavan. She received her primary education at Correagh National School and her secondary education at St Louis Secondary School, Carrickmacross, where she achieved the Intermediate Certificate in June 1955.

In the same year she enrolled for a one year course in Business Skills at Rosses Commercial College, Stephens Green, Dublin. In 1956 she took up a job with the Shamrock Fruit Company in the Dublin Fruit & Vegetable Market where she continued to work for 14 years.

She met the love of her life Frank McCaughey in 1971 and they married the same year. She moved to live in Arva and shortly afterwards took up a post with Gerry Ellis & Sons, Fruit and Vegetable Company, where she worked for 45 years and was involved in the development of the company from a two person operation to the current successful enterprise that is Fresh Today Supermarkets.

May loved children and in her early days her favourite pastime was baby-sitting for her friends and neighbours. She acted as Baptismal sponsor for many of them and could remember all of their birthdays. She was a devoted family person and so it was no wonder she was so happy when Fidelma and Francis came into her life.

Her remains were removed from Lakelands Funeral Home, Cavan to the Church of the Sacred Heart, Arva on Saturday, December 26 for concelebrated Requiem Mass. Her cousin Fr Patrick Farrelly was the main celebrant assisted by Fr Donald Hannon C.C. Arva. Burial followed in Coronea Cemetery.

Mays friends and neighbours paid tribute to her by standing along the route as her remains passed by. A Guard of Honour by staff from Gerry Ellis & Sons, Fresh Today accompanied the remains from their stores to the church as a mark of respect for her many years of unstinting service to the company.

Due to Covid-19 Government restrictions the attendance at the funeral Mass was limited to ten people. The Mass was live streamed on the internet and was viewed by family members in the US and Australia.

May was predeceased by her husband Francis J Mc Caughey, her parents Michael and Annie Denning, brother Dessie and sister-in-law Maura. She is survived by her daughter Mrs Fidelma Leech in Dublin, son Francis in Dublin, grandson Alan, brothers Michael in Enaghan, Sean and Brendan in Billis, son in law Graeme, sisters in law Ann and Kathleen, nephews and nieces Fiona, Ronan, Dara and Claire. Bernadette, John, Damien and Paul, Raymond and Garry, relatives and many friends, to all of whom we extend sincere sympathy.
Failures not an option, is the mantra Davy Fitzgerald barks out as RTE promotes its new series Davys Toughest Team.

Not only is this a dangerous message to be pushing into our homes, I think it is also wrong. If failure is not an option then neither is success  and where does that leave us? An option, by its very definition, suggests something that is or may be chosen.

Its my hunch that most people set out in life with some end goal in mind; some get there while others fall short, dust themselves down and re-set their targets. Its perhaps why we are such a successful species.

Beckett wrote: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Id suggest to Davy and his team that failure is the best and most enduring teacher in the long run.

K McEvoy

Drumcondra, Dublin

Timely reminder for Ireland of who its real friends are

Twenty eight days. Thats all it took for Ireland to discover the hard way that some are less equal than others in an EU emergency  thrown under the bus regarding Covid-19 vaccines by its friends who expect Britain to make up the shortfall without a hint of irony  ergo Britain will be to blame if it doesnt happen.

To those of an older generation who wondered why Eamon De Valera of all people helped Britain with numerous sleights of hand during The Emergency in World War II against Hitler, now you know why.

We may not be the best of neighbours at times in the Atlantic archipelago, but it still makes for a better neighbourhood to be in than those outside of it.

Mark Boyle

Renfrewshire, Scotland

Brussels has played right into the hands of Brexiteers

The key defence about having a nuclear weapon is that your enemies never know under what circumstances you will press the nuclear button.

Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol on the Withdrawal Agreement is such a nuclear button. It is only to be pressed when all other options have been tried and failed.

For the European Commission to eagerly press the button after only 30 days was idiotic. It was reminiscent of Fr Dougal Maguire being told not to press the red button.

The European Commission pressed the button not because the UK breached the Withdrawal Agreement and Article 16 was the only option left, but because it made a mess of its own Covid vaccine approval and procurement process.

Last year the UK government was heavily criticised for a breach of trust for threatening to repeal the Northern Ireland protocol.

How ironic, in invoking Article 16, the European Commission actually breached trust by doing so.

It has validated the claims of the Brexiteers and unionists and given them lots of ammunition, which I am sure they will happily fire back at the EU.

Lets hope we are not hit in the cross-fire.

Jason Fitzharris

Swords, Co Dublin

Von der Leyens blunder has been seized upon at home too

John Downing writes that Brussels own goal on Covid-19 vaccine exports has been seized on in England to promote vaccine nationalism.

Far from it: there have been calls for supplies to Ireland to be given priority and the derision heaped on Ursula von der Leyen has come from Bild, Der Spiegel, Der Tagesspiegel and Die Zeit.

Dr John Doherty

Gaoth Dobhair, Co. Dhun na nGall

Money seems to talk loudest in race for vaccine roll-out

The five countries that lead in the number of citizens they have vaccinated against Covid-19, to date, are in descending order: UAE, Israel, UK, Bahrain and the USA, according to Our World in Data. Am I being cynical in thinking money is the root cause of this?

Joseph Mackey,

Athlone, Co. Westmeath

Vulnerable childrens parents should be prioritised for jab

I agree that the mother caring for her 15-year-old son should be a priority to receive a Covid vaccine (Letters, January 30).

My son is 10 and requires 24-hour nursing. He has chronic lung disease, he requires constant oxygen and oxygen monitoring, he struggles every day with chronic seizures and medically hes extremely complex.

To protect my son, I need to be vaccinated as soon as possible. Sadly, if my son were to get Covid he would not survive.

I strongly believe our most vulnerable children need to be protected as their life with us is short and precious.

I worry that if we dont get the Covid vaccine soon it could be too late.

Sarah Gibson

Newcastle, Co Wicklow
South Africa: Mining sector urged to create opportunities for SA communities

The mining industry must step up efforts to provide employment, business and training opportunities to people in communities in which mining companies operate, says President Cyril Ramaphosa.

It is important that our commitment to transformation extends beyond compliance, but is understood as creating shared value and prosperity for the people of South Africa.

Addressing the annual Investing in African Mining Indaba, held virtually on Tuesday, the President said the mining sector should strive for greater sustainability, competitiveness and transformation.

Mining companies should foster an inclusive approach to all aspects of mining, from ownership to participation in management and also to procurement. There should be greater inclusion of women and women-owned businesses in all these areas, President Ramaphosa said.

He said mining companies should strive to incorporate and actively implement environmental, social and governance standards into all aspects of business decisions and operations.

The social and labour plans are critical to ensuring that mining communities benefit from mining activities in their areas, so that no-one is left behind.

South Africa wants to promote greater exploration and beneficiation in minerals and upstream petroleum activities, especially in developing the domestic and regional gas market.

To grow existing mining activity we are working with industry to formalise small scale and artisanal mining, revitalise sterile mines and discover new minerals, especially those that are critical for the economy of the future, the President said.

Health and safety

The President emphasised the importance of a safe working environment for workers in the industry.

We must continue to ensure that the health and safety of mineworkers remains a priority, but this must also apply to mineworkers families.

The mining sector, like every other sector in the economy, must continue to ensure that workplace observation of public health protocols like handwashing, wearing masks and social distancing becomes the norm.

He said all workers should have access to personal protective equipment.

As we embark on a COVID vaccination programme that is unprecedented in its scale and reach, we must work together to ensure that workers who need the vaccine receive it. I am immensely encouraged by the positive sentiment from the mining industry, as expressed by the Minerals Council, towards the vaccine rollout, the President said.

He said mining companies are well-placed to support the vaccine programme given their experience with managing Tuberculosis and HIV among their employees.

Mining leaders must confront and take decisive action to help the industry reduce fatalities, injuries and occupational diseases,  President Ramaphosa said. SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
According to the Barker hypothesis (Hales and Barker 1992) (also referred to as "small baby syndrome"), infants with too low body weight have an increased risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic kidney diseases in adulthood. According to this hypothesis, fetal protective mechanisms enable adaptation to unfavorable intrauterine conditions (chronic oxygen or nutrient deficiency) and allow for fetal survival. At the same time, however, they lead to permanent structural and functional strains and changes into adulthood. The comprehensive study recently published in Nature Communications now clarifies central mechanisms of this phenomenon.

Fetuin-A plays a key role

Under the program of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Kidney Control of Homeostasis (Kidney.CH) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the research team has developed a mouse model of reduced growth attributable to fetal oxygen deprivation (fetal hypoxia). First of all, they demonstrated that fetal hypoxia causes local inflammation and microcalcifications with tissue damage in the kidney, resulting in a more rapid decline in renal function in adulthood. The experimental findings thus confirmed the Barker hypothesis. Concomitantly, the lack of oxygen activates the gene for the serum protein fetuin-A ectopically in the kidney, beyond the previously known site of expression in the liver. This is in line with the known function of Fetuin-A to protect the vascular system from calcification.

Furthermore, the study demonstrates a considerable number of previously unknown functions of fetuin-A in the kidney. These include preventing calcification and fibrotic changes of the kidney soft tissue, as well as inhibiting inflammatory processes. In addition, the research team was able to show that fetuin-A not only carries out these functions during development, but also protects against fibrotic remodeling of kidney tissue after acute oxygen deprivation in fully developed kidneys.

Fetuin-A with significant, pharmacological potential

The versatility of the effects of fetuin-A was initially just as surprising as the fact that kidneys are particularly affected by it. The study provides strong evidence that fetuin-A could play an important role in treating kidney damage caused by oxygen deficiency as well as after reperfusion of an ischemic circulatory disorder. First author Stefan Rudloff explains: "The discovery that fetuin-A is produced ectopically outside the liver under oxygen deprivation in the fetal kidney was a surprising initial finding for us. The further we extended the research the clearer became the significance of fetuin-A not only in coping with the damage caused by oxygen deprivation in the fetal phase, but also in adulthood."

Translational research and development facilitated by sitem-insel

The research team of Prof. Uyen Huynh-Do and Stefan Rudloff at the Department of Nephrology and at the Department for Biomedical Research at the University of Bern can rely on very favorable conditions in terms of environment. The follow-up project will be funded by the "Research Acceleration Initiative 2020" (RAI 2020) of the research department of CSL Behring as one of the three winners of the RAI 2020 funding. Prof. Uyen Huynh-Do, who heads the study, emphasizes: "Without the funding and the network of NCCR Kidney.CH this study would not have been possible. The future, close collaboration with the research department of CSL Behring as an industrial partner is facilitated by sitem-insel (Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine), where translational research and development is taken very seriously and is actively supported. Thanks to the proximity of the department of Nephrology, the university's research facilities at DBMR and CSL Behring as the industry partner, it was now possible to launch a subsequent translational project that builds on the newly published research data."

###

Experts:
The speakers will discuss what is currently known about genomic drivers of heart failure and opportunities for novel therapeutics being explored in their own research programs.

Heart failure is a significant global health issue. More than half of the people who develop heart failure die within five years. Current treatments do not help the largest group of these patients  those with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)  and have limited effectiveness for those with reduced injection fraction (HFrEF).

HFpEF has been called the greatest unmet need in cardiovascular disease given the number of heart failure deaths per year and the proportion of patients with HFpEF. Despite significant research into the drivers of heart failure, many patients remain undiagnosed or poorly managed and new therapies are needed.

This webinar will cover recent advances in heart failure genomics with a focus on translating findings into improved therapeutics and diagnosis. Genuity Science and their colleagues are building large-scale real-world datasets combining whole-genome sequencing and detailed longitudinal clinical data from thousands of participants. For heart failure, these datasets help scientists discover and validate new drug targets for heart failure and are enriched with participants with HFpEF. Additionally, the speakers will discuss what is currently known about genomic drivers of heart failure and opportunities for novel therapeutics being explored in their own research programs.

Join guest speakers Benoit Tyl, MD, FESC, Medical and Scientific Director, Cardiology, Servier; Marc Semigran, MD, Senior Vice President, Medical Sciences, Myokardia; Irene Blat, PhD, Senior Director of Data Products and Analytics, Genuity Science; and webinar host Ellen Gordon, PhD, Vice President, Business Development, Genuity Science for the live webinar on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 at 10am EST (3pm GMT/UK).

For more information, or to register for this event, visit Genomic Advances in Heart Failure.

ABOUT XTALKS

Xtalks, powered by Honeycomb Worldwide Inc., is a leading provider of educational webinars to the global life science, food and medical device community. Every year, thousands of industry practitioners (from life science, food and medical device companies, private & academic research institutions, healthcare centers, etc.) turn to Xtalks for access to quality content. Xtalks helps Life Science professionals stay current with industry developments, trends and regulations. Xtalks webinars also provide perspectives on key issues from top industry thought leaders and service providers.

To learn more about Xtalks visit http://xtalks.com

For information about hosting a webinar visit http://xtalks.com/why-host-a-webinar/



Tunisia expects to receive four million free doses of COVID-19 vaccine through the Geneva-based GAVI vaccine alliance from mid-February, Health Minister Fouzi Mehdi said on Tuesday.

The doses will be enough to immunise 2 million of Tunisia's 11.5 million population.

Tunisia become the third country in Africa to approve use of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said on Saturday.

Short link:



NEW DELHI,Feb 02: The Ministry of Home Affairs provided details over a question in Parliament on ceasefire violations, terrorist attacks and security force personnel martyred in ceasefire violations & terrorist attacks in last three years in J&K, in Parliament.

5133 Ceasefire Violation took place in J&K in year 2020.

Wheras 244 Terror Attacks happend and 86 Security Personnel martyred in J&K in 2020.
Democrats control the U.S. Senate by a single vote. President Biden has placed bipartisanship near the top of his agenda. Republican senators are pushing for deals, including on Covid-19 during a meeting on Monday with the president. On the economy, on immigration, on health care  the Biden administration will need votes from every senator it can get.

Which is where Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly come in.

Arizonas two Democratic senators, both moderates, have assumed unusual stature amid all the talk about bipartisanship. Ms. Sinema made waves and frustrated progressives last month when she aligned with Republicans to maintain the filibuster, which empowers the minority party. Mr. Kelly was part of a bipartisan group of 16 senators who recently met with White House officials to discuss Covid relief. The pair represent a state that Mr. Biden narrowly flipped in November; pleasing Arizona is a new Democratic priority.

But if Ms. Sinema and Mr. Kelly are emerging as players in Washington, the politics back home are more complicated. Arizona Democratic Party officials and activists threw themselves into the two senators races, despite the fact that many of these Democrats are more progressive than either Ms. Sinema or Mr. Kelly. Now they are eager for their senators not just to embrace the middle, but also to adopt the policies the left is pressing for as well. Many view the senators openness to Republicans with skepticism.

A combination of genetic mutations may explain the higher incidence of and poorer outcomes from pediatric leukemia in Hispanic and Latino children, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. They said a novel therapeutic drug combination - as well as testing for these mutations - may help address the disparity.

Hispanic and Latino children are between 1.2 and 1.75 times more likely to develop B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common childhood cancer, than non-Hispanic and Latino children. They also have a 40% higher death rate than their counterparts after correcting for socioeconomic factors. Dr. Sinisa Dovat, a researcher and pediatric oncologist at Penn State Children's Hospital and Penn State Cancer Institute, partnered with Dr. Gordana Raca of Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Kimberly J. Payne of Loma Linda University to understand the biology behind this health disparity after prior research suggested that there may be an increased frequency of a type of genetic mutation in Hispanic and Latino children with B-ALL.

The researchers studied 239 pediatric patients with B-ALL at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and found two types of genetic mutations - a deletion of the IKZF1 gene (IKZF1) which holds instructions for cells to make the IKAROS protein and a rearrangement, or translocation, of the gene with instructions for producing the CRLF2 protein - occurred more frequently in Hispanic and Latino children. IKZF1 deletion occurred two times more frequently in those children - making it the most frequent genetic alteration that signals poor prognosis of B-ALL. There was a four-fold increased incidence of CRLF2 translocations in Hispanic and Latino children, as compared to non-Hispanic and Latino children.

"These mutations offer an explanation for the poor prognosis and increased incidence of B-ALL in Hispanic and Latino children and offer us insight into this pediatric cancer health disparity," Dovat said.

The researchers found that 11% of Hispanic and Latino children had both mutations compared to 0% of their counterparts. Almost all of the Hispanic and Latino children with B-ALL who had a specific type of CRLF2 translocation also had an IKZF1 deletion, while a large number of them had an IKZF1 deletion without that specific type of CRLF2 translocation. According to Dovat, these results suggest that IKZF1 deletion precedes or predisposes the CRLF2 gene to mutation. The findings were published today, Feb. 2, in Leukemia.

Dovat said that further research is needed to understand the biological mechanisms for why these gene mutations happen more frequently in Hispanic and Latino children.

"Sequencing these genes in Hispanic and Latino children with B-ALL is essential to help pediatric oncologists determine a prognosis for these patients and develop appropriate treatment plans," Dovat said. "Treatments that can restore the function of the IKAROS protein could be an efficient treatment for leukemia."

In a companion study, also published today in Leukemia, Dovat and colleagues outlined a treatment strategy that may be beneficial to patients suffering from this health disparity. It involves targeting a protein, mTOR, that when over produced, can lead to resistance to chemotherapy and poor prognosis.

"The CRLF2 mutation, often found in Hispanic and Latino children with B-ALL, leads to increased activity of mTOR, which has been associated with poor outcomes," Dovat said. "We proposed that an effective treatment regimen would hinder the activity of the mTOR protein, but also target the gene that carries the instructions for making mTOR by restoring the function of the IKAROS protein."

The researchers developed a combination therapy, starting with a drug that restores the function of IKAROS by inhibiting another protein called casein kinase 2 (CK2). When CK2 is prevented from carrying out its function, the IKAROS protein can keep mTOR from being produced. The team also used a second drug called rapamycin to inactivate mTOR proteins already present in cancer cells.

Dovat and his colleagues evaluated this approach in the lab by using the combination, and each drug individually, on cancer cells from Hispanic and Latino patients. They also later tested the approach against each drug individually and in combination in an animal model of leukemia using cancer cells from Hispanic and Latino pediatric B-ALL patients. They found that in both instances, the combination of two drugs proved more effective against leukemia than either drug individually. These studies laid the groundwork for a Phase I clinical trial with this treatment and provided a new paradigm for similar approaches to treat cancer using dual targeted treatments.

"We've identified a new approach for treating high-risk B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia," Dovat said. "Our work established the foundation for clinical testing of a new combination therapy that may address health disparities and benefit patients who suffer from pediatric leukemia."

###

Feng Yue, James Broach, Chandrika Gowda, Joseph Schramm, Dhimant Desai, Elanora Dovat, Tommy Hu, Arthur Berg, Zheng Ge, Chunhua Song, Yali Ding, Bi-Hua Tan, Arati Sharma, Raghavendra Gowda, Suming Huang, Vladimir Spiegelman, Soumya Iyer, Pavan Kumar Dhanyamraju, Yuka Imamura, Daniel Bogush, Yevgeniya Bamme, Mario Soliman, Shriya Kane, Mary McGrath, and Zissis Chroneos of Penn State College of Medicine; Hisham Abdel-Azim and Deepa Bhojwani of Children's Hospital Los Angeles; Jonathon Payne and Mark Reeves of Loma Linda University College of Medicine; and Yiping Yang of Ohio State University College of Medicine also contributed to this research. Penn State authors declare no conflicts of interest.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01CA209829, R01CA213912, F30CA221109, R01DK110108, R01CA204044, R35GM124820, R01HG009906,) National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 81770172), Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute through the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (KL2TR002015), Four Diamonds, Hyundai hope on Wheels Scholar Grants, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, St. Baldrick's Foundation Career Development Award, the Rally Foundation and Children's Miracle Network. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or other funders.
The executive director of Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum is resigning from the state-owned visitor attraction for another opportunity, effective this spring.

Larry Murray shared with his staff early on Feb. 2 that he plans to step down in a few months, spokesman Chris Hauff said.

In a statement, Murray said he will be leaving "to pursue another professional endeavor" but did not elaborate.

"Im thankful to the Patriots Point Development Authority Board for giving me the privilege to serve as their executive director, Murray said.

The Patriots Point Development Authority, the board that oversees the Mount Pleasant military museum, said it will immediately begin a search for a new director.

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By the time his resignation is effective on April 2, Murray will have been in the role for about two years. Prior to starting work at Patriots Point in May 2019, Murray was with the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles as deputy director for legislative affairs.

Murray was hired to lead the museum after Mac Burdette, who was at the helm of Patriots Point for about nine years, retired.

"We appreciate Larrys work at Patriots Point and wish him well in the future, Wayne Adams, the authority's vice chair, said in a statement.

It's been a difficult period for Patriots Point and most other visitor attractions for much of the past year. The COVID-19 pandemic shut many museums down for a few months in the spring. Murray predicted last summer that revenue for the current fiscal year would be roughly halved because of the drop in visitation, prompting major budget cuts.

The waterfront museum has been open to the public since Memorial Day weekend, when Gov. Henry McMaster lifted restrictions on attractions. Some changes have been made to protect visitors and employees from COVID-19.
Footage has captured the moment Ryanair passengers erupted into cheers when a drunken man was arrested after he head-butted an air steward on a flight to Manchester.

Daniel Hendry, 24, was onboard a flight to the UK from Tenerife when he told staff: 'F*** off, I'm going to punch you, going to smash your head in' after refusing to wear a mask.

Hendry, who had drunk three-quarters of a bottle of vodka, then headbutted a member of staff before 'stroking' a women's arm and attempting to hug her, a court heard.

Air traffic controllers were called in an attempt to divert the flight amid Hendry's disruption, but the captain was unable to do so as many airports are closed amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Instead, the aircraft was 'accelerated' and arrived 25 minutes early.

Daniel Hendry, 24, was onboard a flight to the UK from Tenerife when he told staff: 'F*** off, I'm going to punch you, going to smash your head in' after refusing to wear a mask. Pictured: The scene

Hendry was arrested on arrival in Manchester and pleaded guilty to entering an aircraft when drunk, criminal damage and assault at Manchester Magistrates Court.

Footage captured by another passenger shows the mid-flight chaos, before a second clip shows Hendry being escorted from the flight by police officers.

As he leaves the aircraft with his hands in the air, other passengers on board the flight begin to clap and cheer.

The court was told how Hendry began his drunken tirade around one hour into the flight on January 29.

Prosecutor Janice Vallancee said Hendry had repeatedly refused to wear a mask at the request of staff, before he became aggressive towards one of the cabin crew.

It was later confirmed he had consumed three-quarters of a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka.

Hendry, who had drunk three-quarters of a bottle of vodka, then headbutted a member of staff before 'stroking' a women's arm and attempting to hug her, Manchester Magistrates Court heard

Footage captured by another passenger shows the mid-flight chaos, before a second clip (pictured) shows Hendry being escorted from the flight by police officers

'He became aggressive with one of the cabin crew, Samuel Proietti, who was unable to hear some of the comments he was making due to his strong accent,' she said.

'He then headbutted Mr Proiretti, not making full contact though as he moved his head out of the way but Hendry connected with the right side of his face, but caused no visible injury.'

The court heard how the plane's captain had discussed with air traffic controllers whether to divert the flight, but he was unable to do so due to airport closures.

Instead he 'reluctantly' continued with the flight but 'deliberately accelerated the plane to Manchester Airport, arriving 25 minutes ahead of schedule at the airport.'

As he leaves the aircraft with his hands in the air, other passengers on board the flight begin to clap and cheer

Hendry, who had lived in Tenerife and was travelling to stay with his girlfriend in Liverpool, was arrested on arrival in Manchester.

He caused damage to the police van by banging his head against the door and windows, the court heard.

Defending, Rebecca Wrack said he 'fully accepts the prosecution case and doesn't seek to undermine what has been said.'

The court was told that Hendry was due to appear through custody, but due to the fact he had travelled from abroad he was taken back to the police station where he appeared over a video link.

Hendry, of no fixed abode, will now have to quarantine for two weeks as per the current Government guidelines.

The case was adjourned until March 1 when Hendry will be sentenced at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court.

Hendry was granted bail with a condition to attend Wavertree Police station in Liverpool twice a week.
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The Lowe's logo is displayed on shopping baskets during the grand opening of the Lowe's store in San Francisco, California, on Nov. 4, 2010. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Lowes Hiring More Than 50,000 Workers This Spring

The home improvement retailer Lowes is planning to hire more than 50,000 workers this spring to fill seasonal, part-time, and full-time roles at its stores across the country.

Lowes is also going to issue some $80 million in discretionary bonuses to its current employees, making it the seventh bonus the retailer has provided employees since the start of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

Full-time hourly workers at Lowes U.S. stores, distribution centers, and call centers will get $300 and part-time and seasonal workers will get $150 on Feb. 5 in recognition of their continued dedication.

Were committed to investing in our front-line associates and thats why were awarding an additional $80 million in discretionary bonuses and hiring more than 50,000 across U.S. stores this spring. Learn more here: https://t.co/1OlfAcoLCo pic.twitter.com/tEOVy6sxgG  Lowes (@Lowes) January 28, 2021

The latest bonus will bring the companys total commitment to associates, communities, and store safety during the pandemic to nearly $1.3 billion, the company announced in a news release.

More than 90,000 people were hired into permanent roles in the company over the past year.

As we approach spring, I am enormously proud of the way our associates have served customers and supported each other this past year through an unprecedented health crisis, Marvin R. Ellison, Lowes president and CEO, said in a statement.

We are honored to be an essential business to help our customers keep their homes safe and functional during these very challenging times. Were pleased to provide this additional bonus to support our current associates and excited to welcome these new associates so we can better serve customers across the country.

The company describes itself as a military friendly and equal opportunity employer, adding that it was named one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality by the Human Rights Campaign for the third year in a row. It also said that for the second year in a row, it was recognized as a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion by Disability:IN.
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Public health officials continue to study and monitor variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that originated from the U.K., South Africa and Brazil. All three COVID-19 variants have been documented in the U.S.

Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants are expected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These three variants appear to spread COVID-19 more easily, but there is no evidence that they cause more severe illness or increase risk of death.

"The CDC is continuing to do surveillance across the United States to pick up the emergence of these variants here," says Dr. Melanie Swift, co-chair of Mayo Clinic's COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation and Distribution Work Group. "The variant that's in the U.K.that has become the predominant strain therehas been detected in the United States. That variant has several mutations, and they all have more than one mutation. But the important thing is exactly where the mutations happen."

Scientists are working quickly to learn more about these variants, as they are seeking to control their spread. Research suggests that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines still protect people from these COVID-19 variants. However, scientists are studying the possibility of adding booster doses after finding that the COVID-19 vaccines may be less potent against the South African variant.

"It has to do with the spike protein, which is what the messenger RNA vaccines make our bodies create. As long as the spike protein we create after vaccination is very similar to what's circulating in the community, then we'll be protected from those circulating strains," says Dr. Swift. "So we're watching the spike protein carefully. The variant that we've seen in South Africa has more mutations in the spike protein. And that means we're more concerned that vaccine might be less effective for that strain."

Even if variants affect the strength of the vaccines, experts say you still should get vaccinated for COVID-19. While it might not fight the variant virus as well, it's still fighting it.

Meanwhile, continue following precautions for avoiding infection with the COVID-19 virus, such as wearing a mask, social distancing, avoiding large gatherings and washing your hands frequently.

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

2021 Mayo Clinic News Network

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
Ironbark Zinc (ASX:IBG) is focused on base metal exploration and development in Greenland and Australia. The company's project portfolio includes the Citronen Zinc Project, one of the world's largest undeveloped zinc resources, in Greenland and four base metal and gold exploration licences in New South Wales.

Ironbark Zinc executes buyback of life-of-mine production royalty at Citronen Project in northern Greenland

Ironbark Zinc Ltd (ASX:IBG) has executed the buyback of the Citronen Project's life of mine production royalty, which is now extinguished in full.

The project's life of mine and 2.5% net smelter return (NSR) royalty is now extinguished in full to Pearyland Royalties Co.

Ironbark has agreed to pay Pearyland Royalties Co Ltd the following consideration in exchange for the extinguishment of the royalty:

$316,000 in cash ($50,000 of which will be paid as a non-refundable deposit); and

122 million shares from its existing 7.1 placement capacity.



"Transformational step forward"

Managing director Michael Jardine said: "This represents another transformational step forward in converting Citronen from opportunity to reality, and an extremely positive outcome for all IBG shareholders.

"With the royalty cashflows now available to support project development, the updated 2021 BFS will for the first time, reflect the genuine underlying value of this highly strategic asset.

"This is a very constructive development during a time of generally rising commodity prices.

"The potential for Citronen to become the next major greenfield zinc mine development is clearly demonstrated by the high quality of Ironbark's shareholder base, the recent support of UK-based Bacchus Capital, and the encouraging dialogue established with the US Government-backed EXIM Bank, culminating in the recently announced EXIM financing MOU.

"The board, in place since late 2019, is very focused on rewarding shareholders for their long-term commitment to this highly strategic asset and I look forward to further updating the market with positive progress over 2021."



Commercial terms

A due diligence period of 14 days from the signing of the terms sheet has been agreed, with a final settlement date of no later than 30 days after signing.

In the event the royalty buyback is successfully completed, the numbers of shares on issue in IBG will increase from 940,552,114 to 1,062,552,114, with the shares being issued for the royalty buyback comprising 11.5% of the issued capital in IBG.


The Government has announced a resolution to speed up the removal of hazardous ouvea premix from Mataura.

The aluminum dross by-product is stored in an old paper mill site next to the river.

Environment Minister David Parker says he hopes the resolution gives Mataura residents greater peace of mind as they will no longer need to worry about the risk from the material. It gives off hazardous ammonia gas if it gets wet. By removing the material from beside the river, the primary risk is eliminated.

This resolution will protect the wellbeing of Southland's people and its waterways.

The agreement is the outcome of negotiations between the parties, overseen by Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook, following legal action brought by the Environmental Defence Society to determine ownership and responsibility for removing the ouvea premix.

The Minister for the Environment joined the proceedings to facilitate a solution for removing the material.

The Ministry for the Environment will share equally with New Zealand Aluminium Smelters the additional costs of accelerating the removal of the material from the Mataura site. Both parties will contribute up to an estimated $500,000 each for these additional costs.

Its disappointing more public money needs to be spent on the remediation, but it reflects the history of the dross and the need to move it quickly for the benefit of our environment and Mataura residents, says Parker.

After months of negotiating and exploring of options by all parties, I would like to acknowledge New Zealand Aluminium Smelters for agreeing to the material being sent to its Tiwai Point site where it will be stored in containers.

I would also like to thank Inalco, which is processing the material, for their cooperation in reaching this agreement.

Staff will be diverted from Inalcos Tiwai Point operations to increase capacity and another loading site at Mataura will allow more trucks to be used.

The accelerated removal process is underway and is expected to be completed within a few months.

Parker stressed this is a separate agreement to resolve the current situation and is not related to any agreement on the smelter's future or environmental remediation.
Nairobi County Assembly leadership has indicated that it will rally its members to pass the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) bill.

Led by Deputy Majority Whip Waithera Chege, the ward reps maintained that their decision has not been influenced by President Uhurus pledge to offer them car grants.

We have resolved to pass BBI with or without car grants for we believe it has many benefits for devolution. Likewise, I am asking my counterparts countrywide not to vote for the bill because of the car grant but for the benefits it has for the future generation, said Chege.

President Kenyatta offered the car grants to the MCAs during a meeting at Sagana State Lodge on Friday.

Since 2017, the MCAs have been demanding Sh2 million car grants for each one of them. They have also been demanding salary increments and a Ward Development Fund.

The car grant offer has received criticism from some sections, with observes accusing the president of bribery. Among them was former presidential aspirant Martha Karua.

The presidents acceptance to grant MCAs demand for car grants is nothing short of a quid pro quo. It is bribery in return for the assemblies pledge to close their eyes on contentious issues and pass an unnecessary document. The infamous BBI must no longer be made a preserve for a few in state-driven meetings. The people must be provided with copies of the document, Karua said.

But Nairobi MCAs insist that the BBI will ensure an increase in allocation of funds to counties from the current 15 percent to the proposed 35 percent.

Ms Chege, who also doubles as South B MCA, explained that the Bill also proposes a ward development fund which shall be funded by at least five percent of all the county governments revenue in each financial year.

This will ensure that development in wards is not at the mercy of a governor as money will be made available to the wards whether the MCA is in good or bad books with a governor. It will also give power to ward residents to identify projects they want implemented, said Minority Leader Michael Ogada.

Majority Whip Paul Kados added: I can tell you without any doubt that all our MCAs will support the bill. I am going to be in charge of mobilising members to vote for the document in the assembly and it will pass by over 90 percent support.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a tentative deal Tuesday with U.S. vaccine-maker Novavax to produce its product in Canada if the COVID-19 vaccine gets approved for use here.

A health-care worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a UHN COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Toronto on Thursday, January 7, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a tentative deal Tuesday with U.S. vaccine-maker Novavax to produce its product in Canada if the COVID-19 vaccine gets approved for use here.

"This is a major step forward to get vaccines made in Canada, for Canadians," Trudeau said.

But the agreement won't ease pressure on the government to get vaccines into Canada because it won't start delivering until late next fall.

Novavax applied Friday for regulatory approval for its vaccine candidate in Canada but is still finishing its clinical trials and doesn't expect to have the final data available for a month at least. The NRC facility is going up at lightning speed, said Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, but it won't be finished until late summer.

And then it will take a month or two, said Champagne, for the facility to be certified.

"At the end of the year we will be a position to be producing vaccine," said Champagne.

The new facility in Montreal was announced last August, and Champagne's department has been in talks with most of the leading vaccine makers trying to lure them into making their vaccine there when it is finished.

None of those talks bore fruit until now.

Currently Canada relies on Europe for its COVID-19 vaccine supply, a situation that's becoming treacherous because the European Union has new export controls on COVID-19 vaccines to try to protect its own deliveries.

Trudeau said the oral promises he received from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Canada's deliveries won't be stopped by the new controls, "were enough" to reassure him.

This week's shipments of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are both starting to arrive in provincial receiving locations already, said Procurement Minister Anita Anand.

Canada's shipments have been delayed or reduced by production slowdowns, but Trudeau said the promised four million doses from Pfizer and two million from Moderna are still expected to arrive by the end of March, and 40 million from each by the fall.

If Canada's deliveries aren't interrupted, Canada's plan is to have most Canadians vaccinated by the end of September, before the new Canadian production of Novavax's product even starts.

Trudeau said Canada has to look beyond the current vaccine plan.

"We don't know what the future looks like for a year from now, two years from now, three years from now," he said. "What we're very clear on is Canada will be developing domestic manufacturing."

Both NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said the Novavax deal is welcome but too late.

"This is something that should have been secured a long time ago," said Singh. "It would have addressed a lot of the insecurity people are feeling about not getting the vaccine and seem delays in the rollout, because of production delays."

O"Toole said the fact the deal won't help Canada for months underscores the glacial pace the Trudeau government has set in expanding Canada's domestic biomanufacturing industry.

"We need vaccines to turn the corner on COVID-19," he said.

O'Toole said Canada should have learned the lessons last spring, when not having places to make face masks and respirators and surgical gowns left Canada to compete in a wild global marketplace to get them.

Now we're in the same position with vaccines, he said.

Canada used to have a strong domestic vaccine industry. Federal records show in 1973, Canada relied on imports for only about one-fifth of its domestic pharmaceutical requirements including both vaccines and therapeutic drugs.

But the industry began to dry up in the 1980s, with multiple firms closing their Canadian operations, including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers and Johnson and Johnson.

Today, Canada relies on imports for at least 85 per cent of the vaccines and other pharmaceuticals it uses.

Novavax would be the first COVID-19 vaccine to be made in Canada. Medicago, the only potential Canadian supplier of the seven COVID-19 vaccines the federal government has pre-purchased, is building a new facility in Quebec to eventually make vaccines but if its COVID-19 vaccine safely finishes clinical trials and is approved, the initial doses will be made in North Carolina.

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline are partnering on a vaccine though it is delayed until at least the fall because of disappointing early results. GSK, which is supplying the adjuvant for the vaccine  an additive to increase its effects  may fill vials with the adjuvant in Canada but the vaccine itself will be produced by Sanofi elsewhere.

Trudeau announced two other new facilities will be capable of producing COVID-19 vaccines, but neither will be ready to do so this year.

The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan will be able to produce 40 million doses annually but won't be finished until the end of 2021.

A new facility at Precision NanoSystems in Vancouver will be the first in Canada capable of producing mRNA vaccines, the technology involved in both vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

But that facility won't be ready until 2023, said Champagne.

Canada has a contract to buy 52 million doses from Novavax. Last week the company said a Phase 3 trial  typically the last before a product is approved for wide use  in the United Kingdom showed the vaccine to be 89 per cent effective against COVID-19, including the new variant known as B.1.17 that was first identified there. A smaller Phase 2 trial in South Africa showed the vaccine was also effective against a variant that first emerged there, known as B.1.351.

If it is approved by Health Canada, some doses will still have to be imported, because the new facility in Montreal is equipped to make only about two million doses a month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2021.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the federal government was spending $123 million to build a new vaccine production facility in Montreal.
UPDATE: Missing woman found dead in Flint Township

FLINT TOWNSHIP, MI -- The Flint Township Police Department is asking for the publics help in locating a missing woman.

Angella Angie Meeks was last seen at a residence in the 1100 block of Trotwood Lane in Flint Township in the early morning of Sunday, January 24, according to a Flint Township Police Department news release.

Trotwood Lane is south of West Bristol Road, between Fenton Road and Van Slyke Road, north of West Maple Avenue.

Meeks resides in California and was staying with a friend on Trotwood Lane.

She does not have acquaintances in the area and does not have a vehicle. She is considered endangered, according to police.

Meeks has a mental health history and left the residence without weather appropriate clothing or her personal effects, according to the release.

She has previously used aliases of Angel and Jenny.

Local businesses and residents in this area are asked to contact investigators if they have surveillance footage capturing any subjects walking or vehicles driving after 3 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan 24. They are also asked to check their property and outbuildings.

Anyone that may have information on the whereabouts of Meeks is urged to contact Detective Lacey Lopez or Detective Alex Minto with the Flint Township Police Department at 810-600-3250.

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Abraham Lincoln Statue in Idaho Vandalized, No Permanent Damage

A statue of former President Abraham Lincoln was hit by vandals in Idaho.

Boise police officers responded on Monday to a report of vandalism at the bronze statue in Julia Davis Park. They found the statue defaced with paint, feces, and signs.

City crews arrived and cleaned up the mess.

Officers are investigating and trying to identify those responsible.

Defacing a venerated object to provoke an emotional response will not help us rise to our better selves, Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee said in a statement.

Vandalism is a crime, never appropriate, and those committing these crimes will be held accountable, added Mayor Lauren McLean, a Democrat. At a time when our democracy is fragile, this is particularly disturbing as President Lincoln sought to keep our fractured nation together and to address the scourge of slaverylosing his life for it. On the first day of Black History month, its essential to honor those in our community, reflect on our past, and work together for a better future. This terrible act detracts from progress and is an affront to those who toil daily for civil rights.

The statue was placed in the park in June 2010.

Located in a grassy area east of the Idaho Black History Museum, the statue is an enlarged replica of the most famous image of Lincoln seated on a bench created by Idaho born sculptor Gutzon Berglum, the city says on its website.

According to legend, early Boise pioneer Tom Davis was familiar with Lincoln in Illinois before migrating west. David donated land to the city in 1907. That land later became Julia Davis Park.

Some activists have been campaigning against Lincoln statues in various U.S. cities in recent years, alleging he was racist against Native Americans. Boston removed a Lincoln statue in late 2020 and San Francisco officials are renaming a school named after him.

Supporters note that Lincoln ended slavery, among other achievements.

Former Idaho Attorney General and Lincoln historian Dave Leroy told KTVB that Lincoln created Idaho territory in part to assure during the throes of the Civil War that all of the people in this territory remain forever free.

This bronze historic statue takes no position on modern day political issues. Instead Lincoln in Idaho is ever emblematic that freedom and equality and liberty for all people shall always prevail in this state, he added.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistans Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off death row and moved to a so-called government safe house."

Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, center, father of British-born Pakistani Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and his lawyer Rauf A. Sheikh, right, talk to a journalists following a hearing of the Daniel Pearl case in the Supreme Court, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off 'death row' and moved to a so-called government 'safe-house'. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

ISLAMABAD - Pakistans Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off death row and moved to a so-called government safe house."

Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years, will be under guard and will not be allowed to leave the safe house, but he will be able to have his wife and children visit him.

It is not complete freedom. It is a step toward freedom," said Sheikh's father, Ahmad Saeed Sheikh, who attended the hearing.

The Pakistan government has been scrambling to keep Sheikh in jail since a Supreme Court order last Thursday upheld his acquittal in the Wall Street Journal reporters death, triggering outrage by Pearl's family and the U.S. administration.

In a final effort to overturn the acquittal, Pakistan's government as well as the Pearl family filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, asking it to review the decision to exonerate Sheikh of Pearl's murder. The family's lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi, however, said such a review had a slim chance of success because the same Supreme Court judges who ordered Sheikh's acquittal sit on the review panel.

The U.S. government has said that it would seek Sheikh's extradition if his acquittal is upheld. Sheikh has been indicted in the United States on Pearl's murder as well as in a 1994 kidnapping of an American citizen in Indian-ruled sector of the divided region of Kashmir. The American was eventually freed.

Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, left, father of British-born Pakistani Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, leaves following Daniel Pearl case hearing in the Supreme Court, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off 'death row' and moved to a so-called government 'safe-house'. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Sheikh was arrested by India after the 1994 kidnappings, but was among four terror suspects freed by India on Dec. 31, 1999, in exchange for the hostages on an Indian Airlines aircraft that was hijacked and taken from Nepal to then Taliban-controlled Afghan city of Kandahar.

The order sending Sheikh to a safe house would seem to be a concession to the federal government, as well as the government of southern Sindh province where Karachi is the capital. The Sindh government has refused successive orders to release Sheikh, even courting contempt charges from lower courts.

Sheikh's lawyer, Mehmood A. Sheikh, told The Associated Press that the order to send his client to the safe house was given to allow the Sindh government time to argue against his release under Pakistan's anti-terrorism law, in connection to Sheikh's affiliation with terrorist organizations .

They have never argued or charged them with belonging to a terrorist organization, said the lawyer. He said the next court hearing about his client's continued detention would not be for another two weeks. The lawyer and Sheikh are not related.

In the government-run safe house, Sheikh will be under a 24-hour guard  often by military personnel  and will not be allowed to leave the house. Locations of such safe houses are usually kept secret; Pakistan's security establishment has several such facilities across the country.

Pearl disappeared on Jan. 23, 2002, in the port city of Karachi where he was investigating links between Pakistani militant groups and Richard C. Reid, dubbed the shoe bomber after his attempt to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes. Sheikh was convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the port city of Karachi, during which he was kidnapped.

Pearls body was discovered in a shallow grave soon after a video of his beheading was delivered to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi.

The Pentagon in 2007 released a transcript in which Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9-11 attacks on the United States, said he had killed Pearl.

I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl, the transcript quoted Mohammed as saying. Mohammad first disclosed his role while he was held in CIA custody and subjected to waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other forms of torture. He remains in the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay and has never been charged with the journalists death.

Sheikh had long denied any involvement in Pearls death, but Pakistan's Supreme Court last month heard that he acknowledged writing a letter in 2019 admitting a minor role  raising hopes for some that he might remain behind bars.

In a series of tweets over the weekend, Pearl's family urged followers to call your lawmakers in Pakistan, in the U.S., the world to support Danny's parents, to keep Sheikh behind bars.

Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer, said the original murder trial back in 2002 charged all four as one, which complicated the case and allowed the court to free all if there was doubt about the guilt of even one of the suspects. Siddiqi said at the time the prosecutor was under considerable pressure and threats from militants forced the trial to eventually be held within the prison grounds for safety reasons.

Though the U.S. has said it's ready to prosecute Sheikh, there are hurdles to his extradition. Pakistan, like the U.S., has a double jeopardy rule that prevents a person from being tried for the same offence twice. The U.S. also does not have an extradition treaty with Pakistan, although Islamabad has in the past bypassed legalities to send suspects to the U.S., including Mohammad, the alleged 9-11 mastermind.

Last weeks ruling that exonerated Sheikh also exonerated another three men accused in Pearls murder who had been serving life sentences. They too were ordered on Tuesday to be held in a safe house.

Pakistan has previously sent many suspects in high-profile cases to safe houses. In 2018, a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, who was acquitted of blasphemy charges after spending eight years on death row ,was held in a safe house until her acquittal was reviewed and she eventually was able to leave Pakistan for safety in Canada in 2019.
People hand in tests at a drive-in testing station as local authorities prepare to deploy COVID-19 testing in an effort to track down a South African CCP virus variant found in the area in Walsall, United Kingdom, Feb. 2, 2021. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Scientists Find Spin-Off of UK Variant With Vaccine-Hindering Feature of SA Strain

Only 11 cases of the variant spin-off have been detected

A spin-off mutation of the UK variant of the CCP virus has emerged with the same potentially vaccine-hindering protein structure as the South African and Brazilian variants, according to English health officials.

Studies show that while vaccines are effective against the South African variant, it is with less potency than with the standard variants or the UK variant.

Public Health England on Feb. 1 reported (pdf) that sample testing has revealed that a key mutation in the South African and Brazilian variants, called E484K, was found in a limited number of cases in England.

Out of a total sample of 214,159, analysed on Jan. 26, only 11 were identified as UK variant cases with the E484K change.

Despite the low numbers, scientists say that the development is concerning.

The UK has been a world-leader in genomic sequencing of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, meaning that it may be picking up on changes occurring globally rather than revealing phenomena unique to the UK.

The detection of the E484K mutation in the Kent variant of the Covid-19 coronavirus is of concern, but ultimately no surprise, Dr. Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said.

It is the mutation causing the most concern in the South African and Brazilian variants. While to date only one case has been identified, it seems highly likely that there will be more in the coming weeks and months. It does not mean that this mutation is present in all versions of this variant, he said in a statement.

Clinical trials by Novavax and Johnson & Johnson showed that their new vaccines were less effective in South Africa, compared to the UK or USA, and it is presumed that it was because of the high level of virus carrying this E484K mutation.

According to Dr. Julian Tang, an honorary associate professor and clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, the UK could become something of a melting pot for different emerging SARS-COV-2/COVID-19 variants.

Closing borders/restricting travel may help a little with this, but there is now probably already a sufficient critical mass of virus-infected people within the endemic UK population to allow this natural selection/evolution to proceedas this report suggests, he said.

Yesterday, health officials announced they had identified the first cases of community spread of the South African variant in different parts of the country.

The discovery sparked door-to-door testing of what is estimated to be 80,000 people in specific postcodes including those in London, Kent, the West Midlands, and Lancashire.

A woman cleans up after a CCP virus test at a temporary testing facility in West Ealing, London, on Feb. 2, 2021. (Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

The so-called surge testing is blanket testing of people regardless of whether they have symptoms. People in those areas are being advised to avoid leaving the house if they can, although they are not required to self-isolate.

Health officials have emphasised that there is no evidence that the South African variant is more deadly or harmful. They also note that vaccines are still effective against it.

Novavax recently announced that initial trials showed its vaccine was 89 percent effective in the UK, where the more transmissible strain originating in Kent is now predominant. A less extensive trial in South Africawhere the VOC-202012/02 variant is dominantsuggested effectiveness of around 60 percent.

Vaccine manufacturers have previously said that they believe they can tweak the design of their products to combat emerging variants with a turnaround of around six weeks.

Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, said, There is also concern that the South African variant might be able to more efficiently re-infect individuals who have previously been infected with the original form of the virus. This is likely to be due, in part, to the E484K mutation which may weaken the immune response and also impact the longevity of the neutralising antibody response.
She was met with criticism for uploading braless images of herself during the heavy snowfall last month.

But Elizabeth Hurley brushed aside the recent drama as she shared images from her 'pretend holiday' to Instagram on Tuesday.

The model, 55, showcased her sensational figure in a blue Freya bikini from her swimsuit brand as she enjoyed a pool session in a throwback clip.

'Wish you were here': Elizabeth Hurley brushed aside the recent drama surrounding her racy images as she shared images from her 'pretend holiday' to Instagram on Tuesday

Sending temperatures soaring, the actress caught the eye in a two-piece, which featured a triangle bralet and matching briefs.

The former Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery star injected beachwear chic to her appearance as she styled her look with circular-framed shades.

The media personality captioned the video: 'Just floating in a magical pool in my aqua Freya Bikini on Day 6 of my #pretendvacation #wishyouwerehere.' (sic)

In the zone: The model, 55, showcased her sensational figure in a blue Freya bikini from her swimsuit brand as she enjoyed a pool session in a throwback clip

All in the details: Sending temperatures soaring, the actress caught the eye in a two-piece, which featured a triangle bralet and matching briefs

Working it: The media personality injected beachwear chic to her appearance as she styled her look with circular-framed shades

Drama: The former Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery star was met with criticism for uploading braless images of herself during the heavy snowfall last month (pictured)

Shocker: Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan (pictured) recently apologised to the TV star for branding her latest topless shoot 'creepy' amid confusion over who took the pictures

The brunette returned to Instagram with the throwback snaps after sparking a furore with her snowy topless photos last month.

Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan recently apologised to the TV star for branding her latest topless shoot 'creepy' amid confusion over who took the pictures.

The presenter, 55, expressed his regret towards the actress in the wake of her clarification that her 80-year-old mother was the photographer, rather than her son Damian, 18, as Piers first thought.

Despite his apology, the outspoken star backtracked and claimed he did not believe her claims that her mother was behind the lens, based on previous comments from the star in 2018 that confirmed Damian often takes her sexy snaps.

The journalist said on Good Morning Britain last week: 'Apparently, it was her mum... how long did you keep your 80-year-old mother out in the snow to take these pictures?

'I'm not buying a word of this, I reckon it was Damian... it is creepy if your teenage son took these photos.'

Close bond: The Royals actress later clarified her mum Angela was the photographer for her latest sizzling shoot after she moved into her Herefordshire mansion (pictured last year)

Following up on her comments the next day, Piers responded defiantly, saying: 'I would like to apologise to Elizabeth Hurley. I called her thirsty... the point is, I inadvertently followed the newspaper lead that it was her son.'

When Susanna asked why it would be creepy for Damian to take the pictures, he said: 'That would be creepy... you don't believe anything you're saying...

'Apparently, it was her mum. How long did you keep your 80-year-old mother out in the snow? Susanna, you wouldn't do that... I'm not buying a word of this, I reckon it was Damien. It is creepy if your teenage son took these photos.'

Elizabeth revealed last year her mother Angela had moved into her Herefordshire mansion so they could spend the lockdown together.
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Biden Meets GOP on Virus Aid, But No Quick Deal

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden has told Republican senators he's unwilling to settle on too small a coronavirus aid package after meeting for two hours over their slimmed down proposal.Their $618 billion plan is about a third of what he's seeking.The Republicans are looking at fewer and smaller benefits, including $1,000 in direct payments to individuals earning up to $40,000 a year, or $80,000 for couples.Maine Sen. Susan Collins says the meeting at the White House on Monday resulted in no compromise on differences.But she and the other Republicans say there was agreement to keep discussions going.On Capitol Hill, Democrats pushed ahead to lay the groundwork for passage of their full package without relying on Republican support.
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has adopted Bill No. 3633 "On the introduction of amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine to tighten liability for criminal offenses committed against journalists."

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, 341 MPs voted for a respective decision at a parliament meeting on Tuesday, February 2.

The law amends Article 171 of the Criminal Code, proposing to increase fines for these offenses. In particular, the illegal seizure of materials collected, processed and prepared by journalist and technical means they use in their professional activity, the illegal denial of access to information, an illegal ban on coverage of certain topics, showing certain individuals, criticizing officials, as well as any other intentional obstruction of a journalist's legitimate professional activity, will be punishable by a fine of 500 to 1,000 non-taxable minimum incomes or arrest for up to six months, or restriction of liberty for up to three years.

Similarly, lawmakers doubled fines for influencing journalists in any way in order to obstruct their professional duties or to prosecute journalists in connection with their lawful activities.

If the above actions were committed by an official using his official position or by prior agreement with a group of persons, the perpetrators face a fine of up to 3,000 non-taxable minimum incomes, which is four to six times higher than the current figure.

The law also updates the wording of Part 4 of Article 345-1 of the Criminal Code, which provides criminal liability, in the form of imprisonment for a term of 7 to 14 years, for the threat of murder, violence, destruction or damage to the property of journalists, their close relatives or family members, intentional infliction of light, moderate or serious bodily injuries to such persons in connection with journalists' legal professional activity, committed repeatedly or by prior conspiracy by a group of persons or an organized group.

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ChampionX (formerly Nalco Champion and Apergy Corporation) has announced the appointment of Mohammed Al Khalifa as the new general manager for Saudi Arabia, a newly created post for the region.

A global leader in chemistry solutions and highly engineered equipment and technologies, ChampionX has been operating in Saudi Arabia for almost 30 years. It helps companies drill for and produce oil and gas safely and efficiently around the world.

In his new position, Al Khalifa will play a central role in implementing the business long-term strategy and streamlining its current operations to support ongoing demand for its services.

He brings with him more than 18 years oil and gas experience to the business, most recently holding the title of director business development and commercial at Wood.

Prior to this, he held several senior roles across operations, engineering and project management disciplines at the state-owned national oil company Saudi Aramco.

As the most senior person in-Kingdom he will also work closely with ChampionXs global leadership team as well as overseeing all operations in Saudi Arabia.

ChampionX said Al Khalifa will be based at the companys chemical plant in Dammam and will oversee around 80 employees.

On the new role, Al Khalifa said: "ChampionX has an enviable reputation in the kingdom, and Im thrilled to be joining at this exciting juncture as we implement strategic plans to increase our local manufacturing capabilities and world-class standard of products the organisation is globally renowned for."

"Our forward plans align with Saudi localization program as well as with Saudi Aramcos In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) programme and we look forward to supporting increased localisation in Saudi Arabia," he stated.

In 2021, the industry has a renewed vitality and focus to extend asset lifecycles and enhance oil recovery as it heads closer towards Saudi Arabias Vision 2030 ambitions. ChampionXs chemical technologies and digital supply chain solutions are ideally suited to support these areas and Im looking forward to strengthening the business and building an even stronger foothold in the region, he added.

General Manager (Europe and Mena) Susan Hart said: "As we continue to accelerate our business growth plans in Saudi Arabia, we understood the benefit of appointing a dedicated general manger to lead our operations in the kingdom."

"As a Saudi national, Al Khalifas experience and knowledge of the local market will be invaluable in expanding our footprint and producing even greater results for our customers with our innovative solutions," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Admin gears up as Hisar farmers get set to protest today

Punjab MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu hoists black flag at his residence in support of protesting farmers

No compensation for families of farmers who died during protest: Centre

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 02: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday replied in the negative when asked in the Lok Sabha if the government proposes to give compensation to the families of farmers who have died during the ongoing agitation against new farm laws.

The minister was replying to a written question by several Lok Sabha MPs related to dialogue with farmer organisations.

Tomar said some of the farmers'' unions and their members have been agitating against the newly-enacted farm laws.

When asked specifically if the government was aware that a "number of farmer protesters have died or fallen ill" while agitating, Tomar said the government during discussion with these farmers'' unions "appealed many times that children and elders including women should be requested to go home in view of the cold and COVID situation and other hardships."

Farmers 'aggressively' resorted to 'rioting', damaged govt property: Govt

On whether the government proposes to give compensation to the families of the farmers who have died during the agitation, the minister replied: "No Sir".

Tomar informed the Lower House that the government is negotiating with the farmer unions.

"So far, 11 rounds of meetings have been held between the government and agitating farmers' unions to resolve the issues. Government had put forth one proposal after another to amend the farm laws," he said.

Tomar said the demands of agitating farmer unions were related to the three farm Acts -- The Farmers'' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement On Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The recent farm reform laws'' implementation has been stayed at present by the Supreme Court, he added.

Tomar also shared the dates of the 11 rounds of meetings.

The first round was held on October 14, followed by November 13, December 1, December 3, December 5, December 30, January 4, 2021, January 8, January 15, January 20 and the eleventh round was held on January 22 this year.

Tomar also said the government does not have any proposal to end the minimum support price (MSP) system.

Separately, similar questions related to deaths of farmers during the protest were asked by Lok Sabha MPs to the Home Ministry.

In his written reply, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said police and public order are state subjects as per the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution.

"The responsibilities of maintaining law and order, including investigation, registration / prosecution of crimes, conviction of accused, protection of life and property etc. rests primarily with the respective State Governments.

"Central Government keeps a constant watch on activities of individuals and organisations having bearing on national security and public order through its security and law enforcement agencies. Requisite action is taken as per law, whenever necessary," Rai said.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 21:28 [IST]
Indians seem to be prospering internationally as well as domestically, as far as the Space technology sector is concerned. Bhavya Lal was appointed as the Acting Chief of Staff of NASA, and ISRO also plans on launching PSLV-C51 on Feb 28. ISRO Chairman K Sivan recently encouraged crazy ideas for scientific breakthroughs like Elon Musk.

Indians are thriving in Space-Tech sector internationally as well as domestically. Recently, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has named Bhavya Lal as acting chief of staff for the agency. As the senior White House appointee at NASA, Lal has served as a member of the Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Team for the agency and oversaw the agencys transition under the Joe Biden-led administration.

NASA said that Lal brings extensive experience in engineering and space technology, serving as a member of the research staff at the Institute for Defence Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) from 2005 to 2020. At STPI, she led the analysis of space technology, strategy, and policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and National Space Council, as well as federal space-oriented organisations, including NASA, the Department of Defence, and the intelligence community.

She has co-founded and is co-chair of the policy track of the American Nuclear Societys annual conference on Nuclear and Emerging Technologies in Space (NETS) and co-organises a seminar series on space history and policy with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. For her many contributions to the space sector, she was nominated and selected to be a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Also read: Farmers stir enters 69th day: Ruckus in Rajya Sabha over farm laws

Even domestically, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch a rocket that will solely carry private satellites, including three satellites made by Indian startups, from Sriharikota on February 28. The PSLV-C51, whose primary payload will be Brazil-developed Amazonia-1 satellite, will be launched from the first launchpad.

ISRO chairman K Sivan has called the upcoming PSLV launch, dedicated to private satellites, as part of space reforms, which are aimed at increasing participation of private companies in the space sector. The other three privately built domestic satellites are ANAND from startup Pixel India, SATISH SAT from Space Kids India and UNIT-SAT by a consortium of universities.

Recently, the ISRO Chairman K Sivan spoke at the 55th annual convocation ceremony of Bangalore University, where he said, I can say with great confidence that Indias (space) programme is built on spectacular failures. Each failure has resulted in improvements in our system. He also encouraged students to aim for the stars and that scientific breakthroughs come from crazy ideas. Using Elon Musks example, he said, How did Elon Musk become famous? Because of his crazy ideas. Please dont bother about failures, think crazy.

Also read: Military seizes power in Myanmar: Indian Embassy releases statement; Biden threatens US sanctions in response to coup
Written for Fethiye Times and with photos by Mike Vickers

Feature photo above: Sunshine on a plate! A colourful and delicious Turkish breakfast.

Anyone whos visited Turkey will tell you the cuisine is fabulous. This is one of the primary reasons Jan and I decided to retire to Fethiye. The Turks have a long and distinguished gastronomic history and as such will just not tolerate dodgy food. In all our years here, weve never had a bad meal, but if we occasionally do find ourselves straying into unfamiliar territory weve always applied one fundamental rule  search out where the locals eat. You cant go wrong. Weve stuck forks into some amazing dishes over the years and plan to continue doing so for as long as possible.

Although photography is a predominantly visual medium, the culinary arts engage an entirely different range of senses  taste, smell and texture. That said, it is generally acknowledged that we do eat with our eyes before picking up our cutlery, but an album comprising photos of a series of plates of food, however colourful or enticing, would be repetitious to say the least. Yes, Im fully aware cook books are stuffed full of such photos but Im pretty sure theyre only included to demonstrate just how far us amateurs have deviated from their recipes!

So, in an effort to mitigate that conundrum, Ive expanded my parameters to include absolutely anything to do with food, from crops in the field to those who sell produce, and anything and everything in between, plus the weird and wonderful which appeals to me personally but only has the most tenuous connections to gastronomy. Be warned!

Some years ago, Jan and I went a road trip to Cappadocia and one of our party took a picture of every meal she ate. This quickly became a running joke with us all, but she so loved the food that she wanted to capture the delight and variety of Turkish cuisine to show all her family and friends back home in the UK. Even now, years later, if I pull out my camera at the table, Jans response is always the same: Who do you think you are  Julie?

So, Julie, my lovely, these are all for you.

Afiyet Olsun.

Lets start with one of the many local produce markets. Weve always found this one up at Elmali very welcoming. These two lovely gentlemen were very happy to pause from their shopping for a moment and pose with big smiles.

Not to be outdone, were always made most welcome at Fethiye market as well. Thats a fine display of olives and cheese. Ive a suspicion that sword sticking out of the butter came straight from Game Of Thrones.

A lovely display of Red Mullet seen in Migros, imaginatively choreographed by Busby Berkleys great-great-great nephew. He would have been so proud.

Has anyone else discovered kunefe yet? It looks like Shredded Wheat, but it most certainly is not. This is shredded filo pastry layered with baked cheese, drenched in sweet syrup and liberally dusted with pistachios. If anything on this good planet of ours can be described as a heart attack on a plate, it is kunefe. We both absolutely adore it! In the time it took me to get my camera out, Jan had already mounted a determined attack on this portion.

Screens of dried chillies hanging in a spice shop in Fethiyes paspatur. Not only will they contribute mightily to a wicked, no-hold-barred, bum-burning curry, but also keep flies at bay if draped across a doorway.

Coronavirus has shut virtually all theatres and cinemas, throwing many performers out of work. With too much time on his hands, Mickey now drinks to forget those heady bygone days, holding court from his own table at this lonely beachfront restaurant. His gesture indicates exactly what he thinks of the pandemic to anyone whos interested.

We love living in a country where a lemon can be substantially bigger than an apple. This monster came from Sherlock (A lemon tree, my dear Watson) who guards our front door.

By no stretch of the imagination can I ever be described as a fisherman, but I actually caught this big blue-armed bad boy. The crabs of the Dalyan delta are a real delicacy and their meat is the sweetest Ive ever tasted. Sorry, mate

And while were on a maritime theme, this enterprising couple row from gulet to gulet offering freshly cooked gozleme and ice cream from their freezers. This is how Amazon started.

Not a blacksmiths furnace, but the flames are roaring up at Cin Bal in Kaya. The primary feature of a mangal restaurant is that you get to cook the meat youve ordered on a charcoal grill wheeled to your table. Here, a big old blower out back is used to get the charcoal all hot and bothered and ready to receive whatever youve decided to eat.

Heres the reason why any pastanesi worth its salt employs a specialist cleaner to wipe the dribble marks from its front window on an hourly basis. Turkey is a country that greatly enjoys an exuberant dessert or two.

Big fat winter cabbages. This was taken only last week on the way to Karaculha. Get away from the main roads leading out of Fethiye and you soon find yourself surrounded by fields full of amazing vegetables. I also saw strawberries still growing outdoors nearby. In January!

Heres one from the archive. Our chefs at Yakamoz delighted in creating the most amazingly decorative and delicious mezes. They never disappointed.

This stoical lady braved some horribly rainy weather to sell her home-produced olives and pickled vegetables up at the Uzumlu Mushroom Festival some years ago. Stalls just like this can pop up just about anywhere  we have one around the corner from our house which sells freshly-picked local strawberries.

And when youve finally gorged yourself into immobility on all these wonderful dishes, keep your teeth in tip-top condition with Splat Special Stress Off Toothpaste. Its SPECIALLY for inner harmony, so thats alright, then.

And finally, menus in Fethiye now often include English translations. Please understand Im not criticizing as their English is better than my rudimentary Turkish by a country mile, but there can be some lovely linguistic idiosyncrasies and this particular one did make me smile. Yes, for those who have had the pleasure to experience it, Turkish cuisine is most certainly Memorably Tastys.
It hasnt been an especially snowy winter, but when storms have hit, theyve been big ones.

Schuylkill County and the rest of central and northeastern Pennsylvania are digging out from a storm that began Sunday afternoon and wont let up completely until later Tuesday. It will be the second storm this season that dumped about a foot of snow on the region, the other taking place Dec. 16 and 17.

John Matz, Schuylkill County Emergency Management Agency coordinator, called this latest snowstorm one of the weirdest he has seen.

Snow began out of the southwest on Sunday, but a low pressure system in the Atlantic Ocean then began delivering heavy snow to Schuylkill County from the east. As of 7 p.m. Sunday, about 2 inches was recorded in parts of the county, with another 5 to 5 1/2 falling throughout Monday morning.

As the storm intensified off the coast Monday, the National Weather Service was predicting another 7 to 8 inches throughout Monday evening into Tuesday morning.

Now were back to that heavy snow again, Matz said Monday afternoon.

{span}The storm developed as a low pressure system in the Atlantic Ocean that pumped moisture into the atmosphere and collided with cold Canadian air, is how the NWS described it. {/span}

When its all said and done, Schuylkill County could see between 11 and 15 inches.

The grade shut down

State police at Frackville did report that northbound lanes of Route 61 between Saint Clair and Interstate 81 in Blythe and Ryan townships were closed for a time Monday due to several commercial vehicles being stuck. The road reopened about 4 p.m.

Meanwhile, in Berks County, fire police were called to assist in shutting down an area of Interstate 78 near mile marker 35.

Otherwise as of Monday afternoon, Matz said the county EMA office and the Schuylkill County 911 Center had few major incidents.

I think a lot of people listened and stayed off of the road, Matz said. Its been kind of quiet.

Matz commended not only PennDOT road crews but municipal workers.

They (PennDOT) have been fully deployed since yesterday and will stay that way until this is over, he said.

Matz said that due to the impending storm, it was decided over the weekend to close the Schuylkill County Courthouse and other county offices Monday. The decision was made by President Judge William E. Baldwin and county Administrator Gary Bender.

Well look at it and see how it is, Matz said about reopening Tuesday.

Wind a worry

With steady winds of up to 14 mph predicted throughout Monday night, Tuesday and Wednesday, Matz said theyll be keeping an eye on it.

Matz said the EMA office is checking regularly with PPL for power outages, as well as 511PA for traffic problems, the county 911 center and weather maps provided by the National Weather Service.

Were on top of it and will stay on top of it until the storm is over, Matz said.

County government offices were not the only places closed due to the storm.

A number of area businesses closed Monday but planned to open for normal hours Tuesday, weather permitting.

Tuesdays high temperature is expected to hover around freezing and stay the same for Wednesday. Temperatures will then jump into the high 30s on Thursday and Friday before falling again over the weekend.

Beginning Sunday night and continuing through this morning, the City of Pottsville as well as communities throughout the county instituted emergency no parking orders.

Effective at 6 p.m. Sunday, the city instituted a Snow Emergency Level 2 Parking Ban. The ban remains in effect until 6 a.m. Tuesday, with other communities such as Mahanoy City and Saint Clair doing the same.

Fire police were called to assist with traffic control due to the deteriorating road conditions Monday in the area of Hegins Township and West Penn Township.

Fire watch in effect

While most people took shelter inside their homes, many firefighters and concerned residents did their part shoveling snow and making sure fire hydrants were accessible in the event of an emergency.

Mahanoy City Fire Chief Dan Markiewicz said making sure fire hydrants are visible and free of snow is of utmost importance.

This is vital, especially with the row home construction we have in the county, he said. The three or four minutes it would take to shovel a hydrant out could mean the difference between losing a house or half block since fire can double in size in less than a minute.

The Mahanoy City Fire Department instituted a fire watch from 11 p.m. Sunday until 7 a.m. Monday and will do the same Monday night into Tuesday morning. It ensures each of the boroughs five fire stations are manned with qualified firefighters who could respond immediately in the event of an emergency and not have to drive from their homes to their respective stations.

This storm is overwhelming and a delayed response is not an option, the chief said. Were already behind the eight ball with the weather and want to be as ready as possible.

Markiewicz said that during the fire watches, firefighters were out throughout the community shoveling fire hydrants and that any help from residents is appreciated.

On behalf of the Mahanoy City Fire Department I want the people of Mahanoy City and Mahanoy Township to know that we appreciate the help they give us, he said.


A 6-kilometre line of trucks has formed, on Tuesday, at the Nadlac II border crossing point (PTF), on the emergency lane of the A1 motorway, with the waiting time for control being of at least two and a half hours, according to authorities, as reported by AGERPRES.

The representatives of the Arad Border Police told AGERPRES that the heavy traffic exit lanes at the border with Hungary were jammed, with the waiting time for formalities at the Nadlac II PTF was of approximately 150 minutes.

"Due to the large number of trucks at the border, but also against the background of thorough checks carried out jointly with the Hungarian police to detect migrants trying to cross the border illegally, waiting times for transit are higher than usual," said the spokesperson of the Arad Border Police, Claudia Ardelean.At Nadlac II, five exit lanes for trucks were opened, and at Varsand PTF, where the waiting time is 90 minutes, three lanes were opened. The drivers need to wait approximately one hour to be able to do the control at the Nadlac I crossing point, where there is only one lane open for heavy traffic.
WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris has spent her first two weeks in office working with the president on coronavirus relief, consulting with the head of the World Health Organization and talking with the prime minister of Canada.

Its her interview with a local news station in West Virginia, though, thats getting more attention and not in a good way.

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate whose support is critical to the success of President Joe Bidens agenda in Congress, didnt take kindly to the vice presidents effort to put public pressure on him in his home state by urging passage of a $1.9 trillion virus relief package, especially when he had no warning it was coming.

I couldnt believe it. No one called me, Manchin said later on the same TV station. Were going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward, I think we need to. But we need to work together. Thats not a way of working together.

Manchins critique has come up in the White House briefing room and even made it into chatter on the daytime talk show The View on ABC and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS.

The flap was an early signal of some of the issues Harris faces as she settles in and seeks to define her position within the White House.

Harris has a challenge in figuring out what is her role, whats her specialty in this White House, said longtime Democratic strategist Joel Payne.

Harris also misspoke on some details in her West Virginia interview, referring to abandoned land mines instead of abandoned mine lands in coal country.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Harris and her West Virginia remarks twice during Mondays briefing, and offered little insight into how the interview came about, saying only that our focus is communicating with the American people about the coronavirus aid bill.

And by Tuesday, Manchin himself was looking to move past the controversy, telling reporters that it was just a mistake and there were no apologies needed."

In addition to the West Virginia television appearance, Harris also did interviews with the editorial board of the states biggest newspaper, as well as with a newspaper and local television station in Arizona, putting pressure on that states Democratic senators two moderates whose support Biden will also need to pass his COVID-19 package.

While Harris overall role remains undefined, she and Biden both often said during the transition that she would be the last voice in the room on big decisions, much like Biden was for President Barack Obama. Indeed, Harris is said to view Bidens vice presidency as a model for her own.

Harris spokeswoman Symone Sanders noted that Harris has been working closely with Biden and has attended nearly every briefing, meeting, and event" with him.

Harris has been reaching out to members of both parties on Capitol Hill, and has called mayors and governors to pitch the COVID-19 package. Shes also spoken to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the World Health Organizations director-general, and held a roundtable with small business owners to discuss coronavirus aid.

Twelve years ago, Biden and Obama entered office representing vastly different generations and different approaches to politics and policy. They eventually became good friends and Obama entrusted Biden with the implementation of the 2009 Recovery Act to revive the economy and with withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Harris chief of staff during her time as California attorney general, Nathan Barankin, predicted her ability to connect with others would make her a compelling surrogate for Biden if shes able to engage with the public.

This is a constant, in every briefing or interaction you have with Kamala Harris about policy decisions. And that is, how does this affect real people? he said.

Payne, who is Black, said that while Harris history-making position as the first Black and South Asian woman to serve as vice president offers her new opportunities, it may also present complications.

There are challenges seen and unseen for the first Black woman in this position to quarrel with. She will constantly have to ask herself the question: Would a previous vice president be critiqued in this way? he said.

Even as Harris aides say shell be a central player in the administrations efforts to sell its COVID-19 package to the public and on Capitol Hill, where she served as a first-term senator until earlier this month, Biden himself has longer and deeper relationships with many senators key to the bills passage. And he may be a more popular figure in some of those senators states than Harris, who was seen as more progressive than Biden during the primary.

In an evenly divided Senate, if Democrats decide to pursue passage of their COVID-19 bill through a budgetary maneuver that would need only majority support to pass, Manchin is key to Democrats chances of success.

Indeed, the White House reached out to Manchin after word got back to them that he was displeased. And prior to the interview, Biden had done his own outreach to Manchin by phone, as the two remain friendly from their time in the Senate.

Even after the interview, Harris aides said she was calling lawmakers to advocate for the bill and hear their concerns. She is expected to continue to push for the legislation in public interviews and other events.

They also say she will be particularly engaged in outreach to the Black community on both the bill and the COVID-19 vaccine, aiming to overcome the skepticism around vaccinations within communities of color.

While Manchins vote will be needed to get to a tie on the relief package, Harris, as the president of the Senate, would deliver the tie-breaking vote in case of a 50-50 split on the bill, or other major pieces of legislation in the future. The responsibility is certain to keep Harris close to the Capitol when major bills are nearing a vote.

For now, the White House has said its avoiding travel anyway, in line with the recommendations of the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is instead looking for creative ways to sell the aid package, like town halls and targeted interviews.

Historian Joel Goldstein noted that the ability to cast that tie-breaking vote is a significant opportunity, one that could define Harris vice presidency long beyond the end of her first term or any early gaffes she might make on TV.

To the extent that she has to break tie votes, she will be able to claim credit for taking actions that are important to democratic constituencies, he said.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
In Crimea alone, there are 33 such held persons, some serving their sentence and some  awaiting or undergoing trial.

A total of 109 Ukrainian political prisoners are being illegally held in the occupied Crimea and the Russian Federation, says Ukraine's Ombudsperson Liudmyla Denisova.

"As of today, 109 people are being held in penitentiary facilities," Denisova has told RFE/RL's Crimea.Realities project.

"Of these, 33 people remain in the occupied Crimea: two are serving their sentences, 30 are being held in a pre-trial detention center, and one is undergoing trial. The rest are in Russia. Some are also serving their sentences, and some are being held in pre-trial detention centers," said Denisova.

When asked by the host, which categories of citizens are most often subjected to political persecution, the Ukrainian Ombudsperson clarified that 75 of these 109 illegally detained persons are Crimean Tatars.

Read alsoKravchuk: Ukraine not to transfer hostages through MP MedvedchukShe recalled that in September 2019, a total of 35 people were handed over to Ukraine.

Reporting by UNIAN
New Delhi:

The Border Security Force on Wednesday sent 400 security personnel to West Bengal to control the situation after communal violence in North 24 Parganas. The internet services has also been disrupted in Baduria.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has also sought report from WB government on communal violence in the state.

The communal violence started over an objectionable post on Facebook. Two communities started fighting with each other late on Tuesday night over the FB post. A youngster has been arrested in the matter.

The hostile crowd had disrupted many roads and started attacking people from other community. The police had come into action to control the situation. The district is said to be tense after the incident and shops in the area have been closed.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi of threatening her and said that he was acting like a "BJP block president".

Also read: 'The way Guv spoke to me, I once thought of quitting, says Mamata Banerjee

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
No participant shall be able to participate or vote at any township or multitownship caucus if the person was, during the 12 months before the caucus, a voter who voted in the primary election of another statewide established political party different from the party holding the caucus, according to the Illinois Election Code that Anderson cited in his Jan. 25 ruling.
While a large part of the state was covered in snow by Monday morning, many of the southern shore towns faced a different concern: coastal flooding brought on by a powerful noreaster.

The first high tide Monday, which occurred around 9:30 a.m. in Atlantic City and around 11 a.m. in Tuckerton, brought moderate flooding to these and many other Jersey Shore communities. Numerous roads were flooded and impassable, prompting road closures.

Phil Keeney & Sons Boat Storage, Hauling, Sales and Service on South Green Street in Tuckerton, is flooded during high tide due to the winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. The owners said this flooding is typical of what they would see during a nor'easter.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

At Phil Keeney & Sons Boat Storage, Hauling, Sales and Service on South Green Street in Tuckerton, the boatyard was flooded late Monday morning. Upon arrival for a quick look at the property, the owners stated this was typical flooding for a noreaster.

The National Weather Service is warning of the potential for moderate flooding during the two remaining high tides Monday night and mid-day Tuesday along the Atlantic coastline and lower Delaware Bay.

Radio Road, between Maryland Road and Ohio Drive, on Osborn Island in Little Egg Harbor Township, is flooded during high tide due to the winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

High tide Monday night at Cape Island Creek in Cape May is at 10:59 p.m.; Wildwood Crest at 11:11 p.m.; Ocean City at 11:14 p.m.; Atlantic City at 10:19 p.m.; Graveling Point, Osborn Island in Little Egg Harbor Township at 11:33 p.m.; Manahawkin Creek at 8:30 p.m.; and Barnegat Inlet at 10:36 p.m.

A winter storm warning remains in effect until Tuesday at 1 p.m. in Ocean, eastern Monmouth and southeastern Burlington counties, with heavy snow possible at times. Additional snow accumulations of 2 to 5 inches is possible, with winds gusting as high as 55 mph.

Ocean water washes over the seawall in North Brigantine during high tide due to the winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A coastal flood warning remains in effect until Tuesday at 5 p.m. for tidal areas in Monmouth, Ocean, southeastern Burlington, Atlantic and Cape May counties. Minor flooding is expected to linger into Wednesday according to the National Weather Service. Do not drive your vehicle through flood waters.

For more photos, scroll below.

Flooding along South Green Street at the Dockside Cafe in Tuckerton during high tide due to the winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Flooding along South Green Street in Tuckerton during high tide due to the winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A Car drives through flood waters, due to a winter storm, on Melrose Avenue in Atlantic City during high tide, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Joe Martucci, meteorologist at the Press of Atlantic City, walks through flood waters, due to a winter storm, at the intersection of Delaware and Melrose Avenue in Atlantic City during high tide, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Flooding along South Green Street in Tuckerton during high tide due to the winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Radio Road, between Maryland Road and Ohio Drive, on Osborn Island in Little Egg Harbor Township, is flooded during high tide due to the winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Phil Keeney & Sons Boat Storage, Hauling, Sales and Service on South Green Street in Tuckerton, is flooded during high tide due to the winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. The owners said this flooding is typical of what they would see during a nor'easter.Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Police block Park Boulevard in Wildwood as it floods due to a winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Water rises during a winter storm at The Village of Grassy Sound in Middle Township during high tide Monday, Feb. 1, 2021Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Ocean water washes over a beach entrance in North Brigantine during high tide due to the winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Erika Liliedahl and Matt Kwasiborski, of Brigantine, watch the ocean from the seawall in North Brigantine during high tide during a winter storm, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Lori M. Nichols may be reached at lnichols@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Lori on Instagram at @photog_lori.

Tim Hawk may be reached at thawk@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Tim on Instagram @photog_hawk.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Draft legislation which will allow for the regulation of e-scooters on Irish roads has been approved by the Government.

A new vehicle category, known as Powered Personal Transporters (PPTs), will be devised to legislate for e-scooters and similar devices.

The proposed legislation will allow e-scooters to be used legally in a public place within a new safety framework, with new regulations to decide how and where they may be used.

Tax, insurance and driving licenses will not be required.

Commenting on the announcement, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said e-scooters have become an increasingly popular form of personal mobility in a short period of time.

I am implementing the commitment in the Programme for Government to regulate their use by including amendments in the upcoming Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill so that they can be used in a safe manner.

The draft legislation has been welcomed by Dublin-based e-scooter startup, Zipp Mobility.

Zipp Mobility, which was founded in 2019 by Charlie Gleeson, currently operates a fleet of 450 e-scooters in the UK which it expects to increase to 600 units in the coming months.

Mr Gleeson said he looks forward to seeing more specific details about how e-scooters and e-bikes will be regulated.

Zipp are currently operating scooter-sharing services in several locations across the UK and were looking forward to bringing our service back home once this legislation is approved into law.

We are already talking to a number of local authorities about shared schemes and we look forward to progressing these conversations in the weeks and months ahead.

Last month Zipp Mobility announced that it plans to create at least 30 jobs when it launches its e-scooter services across Ireland, pending new legislation.

Taxi app, FREE NOW, have also welcomed the proposed legislation.

Niall Carson, Country Manager Ireland at FREE NOW said e-scooters and e-bikes will form a key part of FREE NOWs overall mobility offering in Ireland once the legislation is in place.

We have seen first-hand the huge success of these forms of micro-mobility across other European markets we operate in such as France, Poland and Portugal.

Mr Carson said they see excellent potential for the use of such vehicles in towns and cities across Ireland and look forward to working with key stakeholders in the coming years to help make this vision a reality.
"Solving for the customer is at the core of everything we do at Instacart. We believe that our long-term success will be driven by creating products that exceed customer expectations at every touch point," said Apoorva Mehta, Founder and CEO of Instacart. "To help achieve that, we're welcoming an exceptional operator and entrepreneurial product leader in Asha Sharma to serve as our new Chief Operating Officer. Asha's known for building strong teams in high growth environments and creating product experiences that are beloved by people around the world. I'm excited to welcome her to the team as we focus on unlocking more value for all the communities we serve."

As COO of Instacart, Sharma will oversee the Instacart Marketplace, which includes the Instacart App, Instacart Logistics, Growth and Marketing. She'll also focus on engaging new and returning customers as Instacart continues to serve as a lifeline for millions of people across North America.

"Instacart has become a fixture in our homes - one of the few products that are essential every single week in the flurry of life, including my own. I'm proud to join the team during such a pivotal time as Instacart continues to change the way people connect with the retailers they trust to get the groceries and goods they need," said Asha Sharma, incoming COO, Instacart. "I'm passionate about working on products that have a real-world impact on people around the world. I believe Instacart has only scratched the surface of what's possible, and I look forward to working with Apoorva and the team as we focus on developing new experiences that deliver unparalleled value to customers."

Sharma joins Instacart from Facebook, where she was Vice President of Product for many of the company's private communications products across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. During her time at Facebook, Sharma also previously served as VP of Product for Messenger, and Head of Product for Social Impact. She was previously COO of Porch, where she was responsible for the company's operations, product, growth, and marketing efforts. Prior to joining Porch, Sharma worked in marketing and operations at Microsoft.

Instacart today partners with nearly 600 national, regional and local retailers, including unique brand names, to offer delivery and pickup services from more than 45,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Instacart is available to 85% of U.S. households and 70% of Canadian households.

About Instacart

Instacart is the leading online grocery platform in North America. Instacart shoppers offer same-day delivery and pickup services to bring fresh groceries and everyday essentials to busy people and families across the U.S. and Canada. Instacart has partnered with nearly 600 beloved national, regional and local retailers, including unique brand names, to deliver from more than 45,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Instacart's delivery service is available to 85% of U.S. households and 70% of Canadian households. The company's cutting-edge enterprise technology also powers the ecommerce platforms of some of the world's biggest retail players, supporting their white-label websites, applications and delivery solutions. Instacart offers an Instacart Express membership that includes reduced service fees and unlimited free delivery on orders over $35. For more information, visit www.instacart.com . For anyone interested in becoming an Instacart shopper, visit https://shoppers.instacart.com/ .

SOURCE Instacart

Related Links

http://www.instacart.com


Syracuse, N.Y.  The last time Kaylee Gabak saw her baby girl, Charlotte, the newborn was just three days old.

Charlotte turned one month old on Jan. 26, but her 24-year-old mother remains in a bed at University Upstate Hospital, fighting to beat complications from her battle with Covid-19.

Gabak tested positive for the coronavirus the day before she delivered Charlotte, and was rushed back to the hospital with breathing difficulties several days later.

Gabak, of Auburn, was sedated and placed on an ECMO machine Jan. 3, which uses a pump to circulate blood to bypass the heart and lungs. She remained on that machine until Jan. 25, when doctors switched her to a ventilator, said her mother, Cortney Haberlau.

Shes improving, but shes not out of the woods yet,' Gabaks mother said. Shes opening her eyes now, and thats a really good sign.

On Saturday, Haberlau was told she could be with her daughter at the hospital for four hours in the afternoon every day. It was incredibly special, her mom said. Gabak opened her eyes when she touched her and spoke to her.

Her lip quivered, and tears spilled out,' Haberlau said.

Haberlau said she isnt sure her daughter can see her, but shes convinced she can hear her voice.

Gabak has had some setbacks. On Jan. 10, Haberlau rushed to the hospital when she was told her daughter had internal bleeding. By the time she arrived, Gabak was stabilized but needed surgery to repair the vein that was bleeding. Haberlau said she was allowed to stay with her for two days, and then remained nearby while doctors monitored her daughter.

Gabak developed a hematoma - blood that collects outside of a larger blood vessel - in her belly. She is on the ventilator and is still sedated, her mom said, but the ventilator is on a low setting.

Unfortunately, an MRI showed the young mom has an abscess in her brain which is being treated with antibiotics, Haberlau said. Doctors told her thats a small pocket of infection at the back of her brain, she said.

At one point, Gabaks oxygen levels dipped to a dangerously low level, but that has returned to a safe level, her mom said.

We are very optimistic,' Haberlau said. Shes come so far and shes very young, so she has that going for her.

We just want her back home,' she said.

Charlotte turned one month old on Jan. 26. She is the newborn daughter of Kaylee Gabak and Cody Clink.

Gabaks fiance, Cody Clink, has taken a leave of absence from his job to care full-time for Charlotte, and Haberlau said she visits frequently to help out and see her granddaughter.

Clink and Haberlau talk to Gabak on an iPad, and show her Charlotte and play videos of her daughter for her to see. Occasionally, Gabak opens her eyes but shes still sedated.

We know she needs to hear us and we think she can, so we Facetime with her every day,' Haberlau said.

Gabaks mom and Cody talk to her about Charlottes personality and her progress.

Kaylee Gabak's fiance, Cody Clink, with their newborn baby girl, Charlotte.

She is a very happy little girl, and she isnt one to scream,' Haberlau said.

Haberlau said doctors told her they have to reduce Gabaks level of sedation before they can begin to think of taking her off the ventilator. She now has a tracheotomy, as the tubes had started to make her gag.

The nurses have been drawing her posters encouraging Gabak to get better, her mom said.

Were going to get there,' Haberlau said.

Gabak always loved the book Looking for Alaska' by John Green, and one of her favorite lines in the book is I go to seek a great perhaps.

I keep telling her Charlotte is her great perhaps,' Haberlau said. I cant wait until she can talk to us all again.

Elizabeth Doran covers education, suburban government and development, breaking news and more. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact her anytime at 315-470-3012 or email edoran@syracuse.com

There is a fundraising campaign to help the family with expenses.

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Two Massachusetts women purchased a Maserati as well as five properties after a yearslong $100 million home health care fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

Faith Newton, 52 of Westford, and Winnie Waruru, 41 of Lowell, were arrested on Sunday and were indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of health care fraud  aiding and abetting, and one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks.

Newton was also indicted on one count of money laundering conspiracy and seven counts of money laundering. Waruru was also indicted on two counts of making false statements and one count of making a false statement in a health care matter.

Authorities claim that from January 2013 to January 2017, that duo used Arbor Homecare Services, which Newton was part owner and where Waruru was employed as a home health nurse, to defraud MassHealth and Medicare of at least $100 million. Newton then laundered the money, authorities said.

The U.S. Attorneys Office claims that Newton and others billed for home health services that were never provided, not medically necessary and that were not authorized.

Authorities also said Arbor Homecare Services used employment relationships to pay kickbacks for patient referrals. The U.S. Attorneys office said they entered relationships with patients family members to provide services that were not medically necessary and routinely billed for fictitious visits that Newton knew did not occur.

Newton targeted particularly vulnerable patients who were low-income, on disability and/or suffering from depression and/or addiction, authorities said.

Waruru, authorities said, billed MassHealth for skilled nursing visits, many of which she did not perform. Waruru also passed cash payments from Newton to an Arbor patient to retain that patient.

Newton, authorities said, used the laundered money to purchase multiple homes and a Maserati.

The government is seeking forfeiture of five properties in Westford, North Andover, Chelmsford and Dracut and to forfeit the contents of 40 bank accounts and/or investments.

The charges of health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering each provide for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the amount of the money involved in the laundering.

The conspiracy to pay kickbacks, make false statements and make false statement in health care matter each provide for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

More:

2 FBI agents shot to death, 3 wounded serving warrant to child-porn suspect in Florida

Police pursuit of driver ends in dramatic rescue of infant: video
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lifeway Mobility is pleased to announce that it has invested in the assets of Accessible Home Automations, LLC, doing business as StairBusters.com, which has been a leading provider of accessibility solutions for people with mobility challenges throughout Western Pennsylvania for over 20 years.

StairBusters is a certified dealer of stairlifts, wheelchair lifts, residential elevators, ramps, overhead lifts and bath safety equipment that improves their clients' wellbeing and independence. In addition to offering affordable consumer financing and rental programs, they are a participating provider in various Veterans Administration, state, county and agency funding programs. To learn more about StairBusters, visit www.stairbusters.com.

Andrew McKowan Sr., the company founder, together with his son Andy Jr. and their experienced team, will continue in their current roles with StairBusters.

Andy Sr. said, "For over 20 years the StairBusters family has helped our community members stay in the homes they love by offering safe, effective and low-cost accessibility options. Whether injury, illness, or the natural aging process, we assist in finding the best equipment and solutions tailored to each of our customer's needs. Our mission has always been, and will continue to be, providing extraordinary customer care with dignity. As a family operation, we look forward to Lifeway's marketing programs, operating systems, and capital resources to build quickly on our combined goals."

Lifeway Mobility President Paul Bergantino is excited to welcome StairBusters to the Lifeway team. "Andy Sr. is truly an accomplished veteranof both the military and the accessibility industry," said Bergantino. "Their success in building a leading lift business through tireless customer service fits nicely with the Lifeway model. It will be exciting to support their growth!"

StairBusters will continue to serve customers throughout Pennsylvania and bordering areas of Ohio, New York and West Virginia from its locations:

SW PA, Ohio, W.VA

1046 Ekastown, Road

Saxonburg, PA [16001]

724-353-3360

NW PA, Upstate NY

2022 Filmore Ave. #26

Erie, PA 16506

814-520-5421



Lifeway Mobility is an accessibility solutions provider serving California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, southern New Hampshire, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Lifeway Mobility offers a full selection of accessibility and safety equipment for people with mobility limitations, including stairlifts, wheelchair lifts, elevators, ramps, transfer lifts, and bath safety solutions. To learn more about Lifeway Mobility, visit: www.lifewaymobility.com.

SOURCE Lifeway Mobility

Related Links

http://www.lifewaymobility.com


Assad has made efforts to cool tensions in Suweida after a spat involving the head of the Unitarian Druze Community, reports Alsouria Net.

President Bashar al-Assad has made a phone call to the head of the Unitarian Druze Community, Hikmat al-Hijri, in an attempt to dispel recent tension in the city of Suweida.

The tension was first ignited by the head of the Military Security branch, Luay al-Ali, who insulted and cursed at Hijri, after the latter requested the release of an arrested person from Suweida.

As a result, the presidency of the Monotheistic Muslims in Suweida attacked the regimes officials, while several local authorities said that an official apology from the ruling authority in Damascus was in order.

A media source from the city of Suweida said in statements to Alsouria Net on Monday that Assad called Hijri on Sunday, praising his prominence in Suweida and emphasized the importance of national unity.

The same source added that the communication was confirmed by those close to Hijri and indicated that the presidency will be issuing a statement including the details of the contact.

Suweida 24 said that the Monotheistic Presidency, represented by His Eminence Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, will issue a statement in the coming hours, in which it will announce turning the page on the recent dispute, which was sparked by Ali.

Assad communicated with his eminence and told him that he does not accept that religious symbols be offended, bringing up the issue of patriotic cohesion, according to Suweida 24, quoting sources close to Hijri.

The regime had not confirmed the call at the time of this writing. The only information about it is through circles close to Hijri.

Many visited Hijris house in Qanawat in the past few days, in attempts to calm the tension. However, none of them yielded any results, while local circles insisted on an official apology from Assad since the insult offends the peoples of Mount Druze as a whole.

Hijri had contacted Ali with the aim of inquiring about one of the detainees from Suweida, named Siraj al-Sahnawi. Ali showed arrogance and insulted his eminence, according to a local source.

Anger prevailed among the youth and sheikhs of Suweida following the incident, and delegations of dignitaries and residents went to Qanawat, where Hijri lives, as an expression of solidarity.

Some residents tore up pictures of Assad, on the Qanawat  Museum Intersection road, as a sign of resentment.

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.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez on Tuesday said he supports the plan of the Finance Department to procure more vaccines to inoculate "more than 100%" of adults in the country.

Finance chief Carlos Dominguez III on Monday said they are going beyond the target of buying vaccines for 70 million Filipinos aged 18 years old and above. He revealed that the government is instead negotiating for vaccines good for 92 million peopleFinance chief Carlos Dominguez III on Monday said they are going beyond the target of buying vaccines for 70 million Filipinos aged 18 years old and above. He revealed that the government is instead negotiating for vaccines good for 92 million people, or equivalent to 184 million vaccine doses for the required two shots for each person.

Galvez said this will ensure that the Philippines has back-up doses in case of possible complications, citing delays in vaccine deliveries in the United Kingdom.

"Ang kaniyang projection, bilang financial planner, nakikita niya ang possible variables na pwede mangyari. At least meron tayong contingent na 40 million doses," he said in a media briefing.

[Translation: In his projection as a financial planner, he sees the possible variables that might come up. At least we have 40 million doses for contingency.]

Dominguez assured that the government has funds for the vaccines, with multilateral funding from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank worth P66.2 billion that can pay for 106 million doses. He said the 40 million doses that can be accessed through the COVAX facility will only cost over P4 billion pesos.
The pages of newspapers in low-income countries often look more like promotional material for development groups than reportage of the major issues impacting society. A group of experts met, a hospital is planned, new wells are installed. Press release copy-and-paste, no context, no second source, no new perspective. And no insight for citizens hoping to understand what is really going on.

This sounds like sloppy and uninteresting journalism, and it is.

But the journalists are not the only ones to blame. In many emerging democracies, journalism in the public interest has struggled to find a financial footing.

Even more so, as the current pandemic recession threatens to cut a swathe through independent media, donors are scrambling to try to shore up media businesses. Public interest journalism is the last dyke holding back the tsunami of disinformation threatening to swallow democracies everywhere.

But even the most financially robust media businesses will struggle to thrive in marketplaces beset by unfair competition from international players. And, ironically, in most emerging democracies, those international players are development groups.

This needs to change. Aid spending has the potential to be a lifeblood for independent media in besieged emerging markets. And independent media could do a far better job of helping development actors spread the vital information that will drive change.

Detrimental effects

There has never been a more urgent moment for development actors to reassess their interactions with local news media, and to find a smarter way forward.

To understand the damaging effects development money has had on media in low-income countries, it helps to look at the difference between newsmaker-journalist interactions in developed and less developed countries.

In a healthy democracy, an organization seeking media coverage of an issuefor instance an aid organizationwill reach out to journalists directly, send a press release or hold a press conference. Journalists then use their reporting skills to assess the storys truth and its value for their audience. Journalists will add the context the audience needs to understand it. The aid organization may also choose to bypass the journalists filter and pay for its content to run as advertising. These two mechanisms protect journalistic independence and make it clear to the audience who created the content.

In many low-income countries, things work differently. Most media outlets pay the journalists little or nothing at all. Instead, journalists make their income in payments from the people they write about. The practice is so entrenched that many people, including aid staff, dont recognize it is a bribe. No-one uses the word bribe, of course. The payments are called expenses for travel to a press conference or per diems for sitting in a workshop.

Development groups also tap local journalists for international travel opportunities, fat with expenses and awarded in opaque processes designed to reward favourable coverage. Everyone involved understands the payments will result in positive coverage without journalistic scrutiny. In most cases, the resulting story is a rewritten press release: dull, single-sourced, with no fact-checking, no opposing views and no real-life case study that will help audiences relate to the story.

A wiser way

No one wins in this scenario. The journalist is not given the funding and freedom to choose the story she thinks is most important to her audience. The story is so dull the development group does not get any audience engagement in its issue. The news organization doesnt get revenue to invest in innovation or good journalism. The audience does not get a balanced take on real issues impacting their society.

The knock-on effects of this broken system are profound: Journalism becomes a tool for vested interests to spread disinformation. Journalists and their work are not regarded as trustworthy or as useful tools of democracy holding leadership to account. There is no incentive for journalists to do quality independent journalism. The journalism profession is seen as a stepping-stone to better paying and more respected jobsoften, frustratingly, in the development sector. Local media markets lose most of their top journalists to development jobs. Top graduates dont enter journalism, and few stay long enough to learn the skills to do the reporting that has impact. Its a vicious cycle that will never deliver the journalism a vibrant democracy needs.

Fixing this broken dynamic is crucial for everyone. The good news is that a rethink in approach could be game changing for local media outlets. There is already a vast pool of potential media revenue, that has not been tapped, in aid spending. Official aid spending reached 150 billion US Dollars in 2019 according to the OECD. Aid makes up the equivalent of more than 10 per cent of the GDP of a dozen sub-Saharan African countries, for instance. In post-war settings such as Liberia and Afghanistan, aid spending has been even equal to the size of the entire local economy.

A sector of that size would be a major source of advertising and sponsorship clients for news media in a healthy economy. Sadly, development spending in low-income countries rarely goes to advertising. Instead, it feeds a corrupt business model that discourages good journalism and undermines the market. (By contrast, media development fundingwhich aims to strengthen free, inclusive, and pluralistic media systems that yield high-quality journalismmakes up just 0.3 per cent of total aid).

The way ahead

Step one will be for development groups to adopt policies that stop undermining the forces that incentivize good journalism. Step two would see aid organizations direct media budgets to advertising, grants and collaborations that use media as a key tool in achieving their goals and in boosting overall economic and democratic development.

Some development organizations have already started in the right direction. They have been careful in choosing the media outlets they support, prioritizing those that have built business models based on independent revenue. Newsrooms such as Premium Times in Nigeria, JoyFM in Ghana and Front Page Africa in Liberia, have rejected the pay-for-play model. They pay journalists decent wages and forbid them from taking payments from newsmakers. The outcome has been the same as it would be in any healthy media market: impactful public interest journalism that holds leaders to account, informs the public and sets a higher standard for journalism.

A new group of non-profit organizations has become a critical link between donors and newsrooms. Commercial newsrooms rarely have the expertise to manage grants and donors often require grantees to be non-profit. One of the pioneers was Bhekesisa, the non-profit newsroom covering health issues established as an affiliate of South Africas Mail and Guardian with support from GIZ, the German development agency. Since 2015 it has been funded primarily by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the health focused development behemoth. Now an independent entity, Bhekesisa partners with all of South Africas key independent media. The Gates Foundation has also been among the funders of health reporting at a non-profit investigative center attached to Premium Times in Nigeria.

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Development actors have also funded the work of New Narratives (NN), the non-profit newsroom I founded in 2010 with Liberian editor Rodney Sieh. New Narratives is not a publisher. It does not compete with local media. Instead, we manage the donor grants and collaborate with independent local media to help them do excellent, independent journalism. NN funding has come from organizations focusing on a wide range of issues that are central to the regions development  women and childrens rights, mining and oil, forestry, land rights, environment and justice. We have rules about who we accept money from, like any good news organization, and donors have no say in our editorial process. For transparency with the audience we identify the funders in a tagline on each story but also say they had no say in the content. Together with our media partners, we decide which stories to pursue and how to cover them.

New Narratives pays the reporting and editing expenses and in that way, contributes to the bottom line of the media outlet. It gets great independent journalism that increases its credibility, audience share and revenue. NN has worked with a corps of journalists who have had the chance to do independent journalism exclusively for their own people for as long as ten years. They have not had to leave the profession to make a reliable income. They are independent, rigorous, brave and lauded by audiences for their work. They have set a new high standard for journalism. And helped build trust in journalism among the population.

The funders get compelling, credible coverage of their issues that has impact. When our coverage upsets the government, the donor may come under fire. To date, NN has never pulled a story because of concern for funders. Funders understand that our independence is what gives our reporting the credibility that is key to the impact we all want to have.

A win-win-win

There are valid critiques of donor-funded reporting: it can skew the countrys news agenda to donors priorities and deter coverage of donors that badly need scrutiny. But these compromises have always been part of the news business. Until that magical day when independent revenue for journalism is so abundant that we dont need to make compromises, we must not let perfect be the enemy of good. Donor funded journalism with strong boundaries to prevent interference is a vast improvement from the toxic ecosystem that development actors currently fund.

Two steps urgently needed

1. A code of conduct should be developed for development actors engaging with media in developing democracies. The code should:

Discourage development agencies from paying for media coverage including through inflated per-diems and transport costs.

Discourage agencies from paying media organizations to run press releases unless they are clearly labelled as paid-for content or sponsored content.

Encourage agencies to identify local media that are trying to develop independent business models and prioritize working with them over others. Indicators of independent businesses include: original reporting, reporting that uses and refers to several sources and that includes the views of multiple parties on a given subject, reporting that uses real people to illustrate a story, an editor with a strong journalism pedigree, innovation in technology and reporting, audience-based revenue.

Encourage agencies to pay for honest advertising with independent media.

Encourage agencies to have rigorous and transparent application processes for overseas trips and other opportunities offered to journalists.

Encourage agencies to give reporting grants to intermediary non-profit newsrooms or direct to newsrooms where appropriate. Agencies and grantees should agree to a set of rules that protect the independence of the editorial process.

Encourage agencies to think twice when hiring top local journalists. Is the country served best with her in your public relations role or as a leading independent journalist?

2. A sponsored content agency (SCA) should be established to support development actors who want to advertise in news media in low-income countries. The SCA could work with independent media outlets to create compelling, high quality content that is right for the audience. The actors would pay for the costs of creation and for running the content. The content would be labelled as sponsored or advertorial with full transparency to the audience. One example might be a Unicef-sponsored vaccination campaign. The SCA would work with Unicef to create generic content that is then adapted for each market with local languages and influencers in collaboration with the local media outlet. That way the media outlet would get an independent revenue stream.

The development agency would get impactful, truthful messages out through trusted local sources with large audiences. The agency would need start-up funds but would be self-sustaining over time.

The threat to information ecosystems in fragile countries is acute. But supporting media business building in a toxic marketplace is futile. By fixing the destructive dynamic between development actors and local media, we could go a long way to boosting the forces that will help quality journalism and democracy thrive.

Prue Clarke is a journalist and media development innovator whose reporting and commentary have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy and the BBC. Prue co-founded New Narratives, a non-profit supporting independent journalism and media innovation in Africa. She created and led BBC Media Action programming during the Ebola crisis in West Africa, was a founding executive of the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Director of International Reporting at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. Prue started her career with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Financial Times.

This article has first been published on #mediadev, DW Akademies web resource for global perspectives on media freedom and freedom of expression.
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Chinese Christian fined nearly $25K for holding Christmas celebration

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Authorities with the Chinese Communist Party fined a Christian man nearly $25,000 after he hosted a Christmas celebration, accusing the believer of violating multiple anti-religion laws.

Over the Christmas holiday, Niu Guobao, who lives in Huang Zhang Liang village in the province of Henan, hosted more than 40 Christians, including 20 children, to pray and sing hymns in honor of Christs birth.

Bitter Winter, a religious liberty watchdog, reported that Chinese officials raided Nius home and subsequently fined him 160,000 yuan ($24,693 USD) for hosting the party  an amount the persecution watchdog says is astronomical for a villager.

Authorities accused Niu of violating three laws: hosting an unauthorized religious gathering under Article 71 of the Regulation of Religious Affairs; hosting minors at a religious gathering; and owning Christian calendars and unauthorized religious books.

The money will reportedly remain with the local Religious Affairs Bureau, a kind of governmental agency that is often in need of cash, according to Bitter Winter, which notes that heavy fines are used to both terrorize religious dissidents and finance the bureaucrats.

Chinese authorities have cracked down on non-Chinese celebrations since 2017 after President Xi Jinping told a Communist Party Congress that the leadership should persist in advancing the Sinicisation of our countrys religions.

That same year, the CPPs central committee and state council issued an official document, titled "prevented Christians from entering Catholic and Protestant churches, placing signs on the doors reading: Due to the pandemic, all religious activities have been halted.

In Fujian province, Christians were prevented from singing Christmas songs in a shopping mall, even though the believers had been invited to perform.

Chinese schools even told children that Christmas should not be celebrated, and gifts should not be exchanged, Bitter Winter said.



In 2018, just before Christmas, authorities in some cities such as Langfang, in Hebei province, ordered shops to remove Christmas decorations on the streets and in window displays.

Authorities across China also warned members of Christian churches not to try holding public gatherings to celebrate Christmas, and the disciplinary arm of the CCP banned its members and government officials from celebrating Christmas, comparing the practice to "spiritual opium" for members of the atheist party.

China is ranked 17th on Open Door USAs World Watch List of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian  up six spots from last year. According to Open Doors, the CCP has cracked down on Christians by using surveillance technology, integrating its social credit and video security system within the last year to track its people and punish them for attending church.

Despite increasing persecution, the Christian population in China is projected to reach 300 million by 2030.

"We think the evidence as to why the Chinese Church is so targeted, is that the leaders are scared of the size of the Church and the growth of the Church, Open Doors' Ron Boyd-MacMillan said.

"And if it grows at the rate that it has done since 1980, and that's about between 7 and 8 percent a year, then you're looking at a group of people that will be 300 million strong, nearly by 2030. And the Chinese leadership, they really do long-term planning. Their economic plan goes to 2049, so this bothers them. Because I think if the Church continues to grow like that, then they'll have to share power."
Democrats are to start the process of kicking Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene off House committees, a report says.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is expected to give GOP leader Kevin McCarthy an ultimatum to strip the QAnon-supporting lawmaker of her committee assignments.

But the House Rules Committee is also expected to meet on Wednesday to approve a rule for a resolution to remove Ms Greene from the House Education and Labor committee and the Budget committee, according to CNN.

The meeting would set out the debate procedures used in a full House debate on the resolution to strip Ms Greene of her assignments, and is the first official move made against her.

The pro-Trump congresswoman from Georgia has sparked controversy in her first month in the job after her past social media posts suggested she supported the execution of leading Democrats.

Ms Taylor Greene also launched an unsuccessful stunt bid to impeach Joe Biden the day after his inauguration as president, and the White House now refuses to discuss her.

She was also caught on video harassing David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting in Florida that killed 17 people, and stated on social media that she thought it was a false flag event.

And Ms Greene announced on Saturday that she had had a great phone call with Mr Trump amid calls for her to be expelled from Congress.

Mr Trump, who called her a future star of the Republican party, is expected to meet with Ms Taylor Greene at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

"I'm excited to go visit him soon, and continue to give him a call and talk to him frequently," Ms Greene told One America News.

"Great news is, he supports me 100 per cent, and I've always supported him."

Mr McCarthy has said that he will sit down and talk with Ms Greene before deciding what action, if any, to take against her.

"They need to have a person-to-person conversation," said a spokesman for Mr McCarthy, who has called her comments deeply disturbing.
FLINT, MI  A shooting Monday afternoon in Flint has left one person dead and another in jail.

Flint police officers responded about 5:03 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1 to a reported shooting at the intersection of Ballenger Highway and Sunset Drive.

Officers subsequently determined at least one occupant of one vehicle fired several gunshots at another vehicle.

The fired-upon vehicles 21-year-old driver, Landon Varner, and a lone passenger were both hit by bullets, police said.

Varner was taken to Hurley Medical Center where he died of his wounds.

Varners passenger was treated for minor injuries, police said.

Police arrested one suspect, whose name is not being released pending arraignment in Genesee County District Court.

Flint police did not release additional details.

The incident remains under investigation.

Read more on MLive:

Flint police believe second drive-by was retaliation for fatal shooting

Police break up suspected dog fighting ring in Flint while executing drug warrant

One-vehicle crash in Flint leaves one woman dead
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modis three-day visit to Israel, the first ever by an Indian Prime Minister to the Middle East nation has been dubbed as a historic trip by strategic affairs pundits to bolster the diplomatic ties between the two nations.



At the red carpet welcome at Tel Aviv airport, Isreal's Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu started off the diplomatic accord on a high by announcing cooperation in the space domain, likely to be an MoU between ISRO and Israel Space Agency (ISA) to launch satellites together. The sky is not the limit for our relationship, given our plans in space together, he said.



PM Modi was equal in his response by providing an apt acronym to the India-Israel relationship, describing it as I-square T-square (Indian Talent and Israeli Technology; India-Israel ties for ). PM Modi then in his characteristic fashion played a master stroke by making a personal reference to terrorism, recalling that marked the 41st anniversary of Operation Entebbe, the valiant military rescue of Israeli hostages from a plane held hostage by Palestinian militants in Uganda that was led by Mr. Netanyahus brother Jonathan, who was killed during the operation.



The gesture of PM Modi to remember the PMs brother was thoughtful, and touched a chord, Michael Oren, Deputy Minister in Mr. Netanyahus office told The Hindu . Later on , after a visit to the Israel Holocaust memorial, Mr Modi said, Yad Vashem is a reminder of the unspeakable evil inflicted generations ago.



It is notable that Lt Col Yonatan Netanyahu, elder brother of Isreal's PM Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu laid his life at the prime age of 30 during Israel's tactically brilliant overnight raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda to release 100 hostages held for a week by German and Arab terrorists. Around 102 out of 106 people, who were held hostage, were rescued by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) but Yonatan was the one defence personnel who lost his life.



The 99-minute operation had become a classic case study for military bravado, the storyline for three hit movies, taught and studied by armies around the world. Uganda, which had touched a diplomatic nadir with Israel, turned their former embassy building in Uganda into a Palestine Liberation Organisation office, was quick to give the hijackers affiliated to the Palestinian group permission to land the plane at Entebbe. Uganda went ahead to take part in negotiations for the hijacker's demands.



The eight-day ordeal started on , when Air France flight 139 Airbus A300B4-2013, left the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv for Paris. Planning for the rescue took a week and while there was a political and a military solution, in the end, the military rescue operation seized the day.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
While Seattle is known for large corporate giants like Amazon, Boeing and Starbucks, it's the diverse local SMBs that make Seattle's SEO a unique opportunity. This diverse local industry is where skilled and hardworking SEO service companies can build a future with quality solutions.

SEOblog.com, a fast-growing website providing the latest SEO news, tips and resources and helping business owners connect with leading SEO agencies, has released its exclusive 2021 ratings naming the best SEO companies in Seattle.

SEOblog analysts determined the 15 best SEO companies in Seattle based on dozens of key quantitative and qualitative factors. SEOblog industry experts examined each Seattle digital marketing agencys website, industry experience, market presence, client list, portfolio, expert certifications and authorship, among other factors in its ranking system.

SEOblog has provided an in-depth view of companies in a particular city or focus area on various directory pages to help business owners find the expert help they need to grow. This was a new, free offer added by SEOblog in 2019.

Seattle has several of the nations top SEO agencies that provide a very competitive digital marketing landscape.

With Seattle being one of the nation's leading tech hubs, it's no surprise that the SEO landscape is competitive. There is a lot of talent in Seattle and it takes extra effort to help clients achieve the results they are looking for, said Leo Speaks, business development manager at Integrity Marketing Services. We are constantly staying up to date with the latest best practices and algorithm changes.

David Cuff, president of Local View Digital Marketing, added:

While Seattle is known for large corporate giants like Amazon, Boeing and Starbucks, it's the diverse local SMBs that make Seattle's SEO a unique opportunity. This diverse local industry is where skilled and hardworking SEO service companies can build a future with quality solutions and customer experience.

Alec Allshouse, founder of Allshouse Designs, also added:

Given the Washington state order to stay home and stay safe, most Seattle business owners are turning to SEO to gain a foothold within their industry.

SEOblog.com rankings are updated regularly as the market shifts and new players emerge. SEOblog.com has published more than 2,300 agency listings, with more added every day. There is no fee to participate, and the website welcomes all qualified agencies to apply.

SEOblog.coms 15 Best SEO Companies in Seattle in 2021:

iLocal, Local View Digital Marketing, Over the Top SEO, iM4U Digital Marketing Agency, Allshouse Designs, Seattle Web Search, Top Marketing Agency, Logic Inbound, Odd Dog Media, Pronto Marketing, Bonsai Media Group, Integrity Marketing Services, Intellitonic, Blockbeta Marketing and Tatiana Designs.

Link: https://www.seoblog.com/best-seo-companies/seattle/

About SEOblog.com

SEOblog.com is a leading thought leadership site with a rich history of publishing educational and informative articles about SEO and digital marketing topics. In early 2019, SEOblog.com answered the call from buyers of digital marketing services that lacked unbiased, informative online resources and launched a comprehensive directory to highlight the best SEO companies in the United States -- https://www.seoblog.com/best-seo-companies/. SEOblogs mission is to connect businesses with qualified digital marketing agencies while also offering further SEO education, best practices and industry trends.

SEOblog.com is a one-stop shop for educational SEO and digital marketing content, research, ratings and reviews for the best agencies in each local market across the United States. The website will be increasing its coverage of U.S. SEO agencies and accepting more guest blog posts in the coming months. Contact SEOblog if youre interested in getting involved.
Last year was jam-packed with superannuation funds making bold statements on climate change.

AustralianSuper, Aware Super, Cbus, HESTA and UniSuper all made commitments to invest only in net zero emissions companies and rolled out beefed-up climate plans.

Super funds announced grand climate plans last year. Now its time to walk the talk. Credit:Bloomberg

These funds collectively manage more than half a billion dollars of our retirement savings. So while there is reason for applause, now is not the time for complacency.

The average Australian chief executive stays in the job for just five years, so somewhat vague commitments in the distant future means accountability for these climate targets is slim.
The head of the State Health Incident Coordination Centre  responsible for overseeing hotel quarantine in Western Australia  has defended the timeline of releasing the latest COVID-19 test results to the public.

Dr Robin Lawrence told 6PR Mornings host Liam Bartlett the numbers were made available to her department by 8am, but wouldnt be released to the public until Premier Mark McGowan took to the podium at a press briefing at Dumas House later in the morning.

Head of the State Health Incident Coordination Centre Dr Robin Lawrence. Credit:ABC

Dr Lawrence baulked at revealing the numbers ahead of the scheduled press conference with the Premier, saying she was not at liberty to provide that information.

I need to tell the Premier so he is well aware, she replied to repeated questions by Bartlett, who accused Mr McGowan of grandstanding.
GULF OF ADEN, Feb. 2 -- The 36th and the 37th Chinese naval escort taskforces held a mission-handover ceremony in the Gulf of Aden on January 31, local time. After the ceremony, the 37th taskforce officially replaced the 36th taskforce in carrying out escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somali.

At the handover ceremony, the command post of the 36th Chinese naval escort taskforce handed over relevant papers and equipment to its successor. Sailors of the two taskforces also exchanged views on escort tasks and training, political work and logistic support.
It is hard to say for sure, but you would think there is the potential they would also be reduced, said Associate Professor Corey Smith, head of translational and human immunology at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. He said the results suggested the virus could mutate in ways that made antibodies and vaccines less effective. But I dont think thats a real surprise, he said. Viruses always mutate. The South African variant, known as N501Y.V2, has several mutations that in lab tests appear to change the shape of the virus spike in a way that reduces the ability of some antibodies generated from infection with the original Wuhan variant of COVID-19 from binding. That raises concerns about reinfection, and about how well COVID-19 vaccines based on the original variant will protect against the South African variant.

Professor David Tscharke, head of the department of immunology and infectious diseases at the Australian National University, said it was always likely that we will have to chase variants by changing our vaccines. However, he said it was not clear cut that AstraZeneca and Pfizers vaccines faced the same problems as Novavax and Johnson & Johnson. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video You might guess that but the extent of that is going to be varied, he said. Although they have the same antigens, they are presented in a different way. Virus-killing T-cells also played a role in immunity, he said, and they might allow Pfizer and AstraZenecas jabs to still offer strong protection against the variant.

Early lab evidence suggested Pfizers vaccine would be less effective against the South African variant, but would still cover the virus. But those studies were carried out using pseudoviruses  viruses manipulated to look like N501Y.V2  and were done on cells in a lab. Such studies do not always translate to humans. Examine newsletter Science and health explained and analysed with a rigorous focus on the evidence. Examine is a weekly newsletter by science reporter Liam Mannix. Sign up to receive it every Tuesday. Novavax and Johnson & Johnson are the first vaccine developers to report human data on the variants. Novavaxs trial of more than 4400 patients in South Africa reported efficacy of 49.4 per cent (excluding HIV-positive patients, efficacy rose to 60 per cent). Nearly all the cases of infection among vaccinated subjects were from the South African variant.

Loading Johnson & Johnsons trial of 6576 people in South Africa reported efficacy of 57 per cent; 95 per cent of infections in people vaccinated were from the South African variant. These trials were small and the results were preliminary, experts said. South Africa also presents a unique environment to test vaccines: a runaway epidemic means people may be exposed to unusually high levels of virus. But even with all that in mind, said Associate Professor Stuart Turville, a virologist at the Kirby Institute, the data early on, looks like the edge has been taken off by the South African variant. What were seeing in the real world is this thing has the potential to take the edge off vaccines. Which may mean we need to update the formulation.

It is anticipated that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines will have significant efficacy against the newer strains of COVID-19, a spokesman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration said. The vaccines work by inducing what is known as a polyclonal response  a collection of immunological responses to many different parts of the COVID spike protein. In the new variants, only a limited part of the spike protein is changed, and much is unchanged. So the vaccines should still work against the main, unchanged parts to the COVID-19 spike protein. The results from the Novavax and Johnson & Johnson vaccines cannot be directly extrapolated to the other COVID-19 vaccines, such as the Pfizer BioNTech or Oxford AZ vaccine as each vaccine produces differing immune responses in vaccinated individuals. The experts emphasised it was important to wait for real-world data from Pfizer and AstraZeneca. It may be the vaccines different designs work better against the variant.
Tarkwa-Nsuaem Member of Parliament (MP), George Mireku Duker, George Mireku Duker has described former President John Mahama's Presidential election petition as a "waste of time".



According to Hon. Mireku Duker, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wants to arouse sympathy for Mr. Mahama, so he will be accepted as the party's Presidential candidate for 2024.



Petitioner's Court Case



The Petitioner, John Dramani Mahama is challenging the 2020 Presidential election verdict at the Supreme Court.



The court hearing has begun with the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia mounting the witness box on Friday, January 29, 2021 for cross examination from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Madam Jean Mensa's lawyers.



President Nana Akufo-Addo and Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensa are the first and second respondents cited in the case.



Preliminary proceedings at the Supreme Court saw lawyers of the petitioner filing an application to serve the Electoral Commissioner some interrogatories but a seven-member Supreme Court Panel dismissed the application.



The lawyers further requested a review of their application at the court but a nine-member panel also dismissed it.



Early on, the petitioner had filed for a stay of proceedings but also later withdrew his application.



Time Wasters



Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Hon. Mireku Duker says the petitioner is deliberately trying to delay his case in court to give his supporters false hope.



''It means they're doing it deliberately. They're intentionally delay it and make former President Mahama relevant, so the NDC will accept him to come back again in 2024. That is what they're doing. It saddens me that they're deceiving their supporters that they have hope that the court will rule in their favor and that they have won'', he said.



The MP called on Ghanaians not to be swayed by Mr. Mahama's case but rather focus on the good works of President Nana Akufo-Addo.



"I think we need to get focused and leave some of these things ou and look at ways to build individuals. I was so impressed and so happy to hear that Juspong Group of Companies has been able to secure about 50 million Euro contract with Hungarian government. These are some of the things I want us to focus on and look at how best we can build this nation. The NDC court case is just a waste of time; they're wasting our time."







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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Federal politicians are being encouraged to celebrate the Lunar New Year with the Chinese community in a bid to prevent tensions with Beijing fuelling anger or racism.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison asked Liberal and Nationals colleagues to observe the new year so the political issues between governments did not damage friendships with Chinese people.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for vigilance in defending liberal democracy against authoritarian regimes. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Labor welcomed the idea but renewed its call for a national anti-racism strategy on the grounds that Chinese Australians had faced attacks over the coronavirus pandemic and questions over their loyalty.

Mr Morrison called for vigilance on Monday night in defending liberal democracy against authoritarian regimes, amid strained ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping on issues ranging from the countrys trade bans to its military expansion in the South China Sea.
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While Nigerias daily COVID-19 infections seem to be slowing this week, the death toll from the disease is increasingly picking pace.

At least 21 people died from COVID-19 Monday in Nigeria, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced Monday night.

The latest death toll which indicated a sharp rise from the eight deaths reported on Sunday raised the fatality in the country to 1,607.

Nigeria recorded its highest daily death tally of 27 deaths on Friday, toppling the previous record of 23 deaths reported on January 15.

About 76 lives were lost to COVID-19 complications last week, a seven per cent reduction when compared to the previous weeks record of 82 fatalities, official records showed.

Meanwhile, the country reported its lowest daily infection tally since last December on Monday with 676 infections.

The figure is slightly lower than the 685 new cases recorded on Sunday.

According to the NCDC update on its microsite, 131,918 cases have been reported in Nigeria.

Specifics

Meanwhile, the 676 new cases were reported from these 19 states: Lagos (227), Rivers (73), Niger (69), Plateau (56), FCT (50), Kano (44), Oyo (43), Ogun (27), Gombe (18), Ondo (15), Enugu (10), Osun (10), Cross River (8), Edo (8), Nasarawa (7), Bauchi (4), Kaduna (3), Ekiti (2), and Zamfara (2).

Lagos led in Mondays tally with 227 new cases, followed by Rivers with 73.

Of the over 131,000 new cases, 106,275 patients have recovered across the country.

Meanwhile, there are nearly 25,000 patients still receiving treatment in isolation centres.

Since the pandemic broke out in February last year, the country has carried out 1,302,410 tests.

As Nigeria continues to record relatively high cases of infection, the presidency has warned against violations of safety guidelines issued to curtail the spread of the virus.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has also called on the Nigerian government to strictly enforce compliance with all COVID-19 safety protocols put in place to limit the spread of the virus.

The Nigerian government on Monday said it may suspend flights from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and The Netherlands due to the new COVID-19 protocols introduced by both countries for incoming travellers.

Meanwhile, Nigeria is expected to receive 16 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines before the end of February, according to authorities.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he planned to pay a three-hour visit next week to the United Arab Emirates and perhaps to Bahrain, two countries that established formal ties with Israel last year.

Asked in a news briefing whether he would go ahead with a UAE visit next week despite the health crisis in Israel, Netanyahu said in remarks streamed live on his Twitter page: "We postponed the visit ... twice because of (coronavirus) lockdowns.

"It has great security, national and international importance, but it has been shortened, at my request, from three days to three hours."

Netanyahu said he would travel to Abu Dhabi and would also "possibly make a lightning visit to Bahrain" during the brief trip.

He did not give a specific date but Israeli media reports said he would make the trip on Feb. 9.

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Leaseweb USA, a leading hosting and cloud services company, today announced its recognition as one of the Top 10 places to work in 2021 Best Places to Work in Virginia - marking its third year in a row on the list. Leaseweb USAs continued demonstration of dedication to its team and commitment to providing job opportunities landed the company number six among Virginias best places to work.

The annual list is compiled by Virginia Business Journal and Best Companies Group. Both organizations started the list in order to identify, recognize and celebrate the best of the best in all industries across the state. Each of the 100 companies on the list have been shown to benefit the states economy, workforce and other businesses in the area.

We are honored to be recognized as a best place to work for the third year in a row. In a year where technology companies were forced to get creative with business operations, we are honored to be recognized as one of the Top 10 Best Places to Work in Virginia, said Lex Boost, CEO of Leaseweb USA. Being named alongside other prominent Virginia-based companies reaffirms that our company culture continues to be aligned with the community and industry. We take pride in having a team full of diverse backgrounds, nationalities, ideas and life experiences that foster a multicultural environment that encourages independence, entrepreneurship and creativity. This recognition is about our team persevering through uncertain times and coming to work each day embodying the idea that Leaseweb USA is in the business of development for ourselves and our clients. Our team maintains a level of positivity and collaboration throughout any challenge. We look forward to continuing to see our team grow in 2021 and beyond.

Businesses from all around the state participated in a two-part survey process to determine their place on the list. The first half, accounting for 25 percent of the entire evaluation, examined companies based on workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The remaining 75 percent was evaluated through a survey administered directly to Leaseweb USA employees in order to measure employee experience and satisfaction.

About Leaseweb USA

Leaseweb is a leading Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider serving a worldwide portfolio of 18,000 customers ranging from SMBs to Enterprises. Services include Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Dedicated Servers, Colocation, Content Delivery Network, and Cyber Security Services supported by exceptional customer service and technical support. With more than 80,000 servers under management, Leaseweb has provided infrastructure for mission-critical websites, Internet applications, email servers, security, and storage services since 1997. The company operates 20 data centers in locations across Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America, all of which are backed by a superior worldwide network with a total capacity of more than 10 Tbps. Leaseweb offers services through its various subsidiaries, which are Leaseweb Netherlands B.V. (Leaseweb Netherlands), Leaseweb USA, Inc. (Leaseweb USA), Leaseweb Asia Pacific PTE. LTD (Leaseweb Asia), Leaseweb CDN B.V. (Leaseweb CDN), Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH (Leaseweb Germany), Leaseweb Australia Ltd. (Leaseweb Australia) and Leaseweb UK Ltd (Leaseweb UK).

For more information visit: http://www.leaseweb.com
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| 2021-02-02 22:36:15|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A UN agency revealed on Tuesday that Lebanon's formal private sector sales declined by some 45 percent in 2020 compared with 2019, and 23 percent of full-time employees in key sectors were laid off due to economic slowdown and COVID-19 outbreak.

"The pandemic has decreased demand for full-time employment in small and micro enterprises, which hire the majority of poor and vulnerable groups, with women being affected the most," according to a new policy brief issued by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

Dubbed "Lebanon's Formal Private Sector: the Bitter Reality of 2020," the report noted that the sectors most affected are construction, hotels and restaurants, and manufacturing.

ESCWA Executive Secretary Rola Dashti called for developing a national rescue plan for micro, small and medium enterprises to limit unemployment caused by the pandemic, and for investing in the survival of formal private sector firms through tax deferral and relief.

"Concessional loans are needed to meet urgent cash flow requirements in times of emergency in order to avoid mass bankruptcies and more job losses," she added.

Dashti also urged the government to roll out protection schemes to reduce the impact of the pandemic on employment.

She further highlighted the need to provide incentives to exporting firms in order to boost output and employment growth, and secure inflow of foreign currencies. Enditem
UPDATE: Punxsutawney Phil has made his prediction.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Its Groundhog Day!

While Staten Islanders traditionally turn to Chuck for his prediction, much of the country will be focused on Punxsutawney Phil to see if we are in for six more weeks of winter or an early spring.

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Groundhog Day festivities in Pennsylvania -- and Staten Island -- will be streamed virtually this year. The Pennsylvania event, set to stream live on social media, begins at 6:30 a.m. with a Groundhog Special, followed by Phils live prognostication.

As the tradition goes, if the groundhog sees its shadow, we are in for a longer winter. No shadow? An early spring is on its way. Last year, Phil predicted an early spring.

How did Phil become so famous? It all began with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, founded in 1887 by a group of groundhog hunters. The editor of the Punxsutawney newspaper was a member of the club, and he claimed that Punxsutawney Phil was the only true weather-predicting groundhog.

However, Staten Islanders disagree, as they turn their attention each year to the boroughs famous Staten Island Chuck. The Staten Island Zoo, located in West Brighton, will stream its Groundhog Day event on Facebook Live beginning at 7:45 a.m.

HOW IT BEGAN

The Groundhog Day tradition can be traced to Candlemas, an early Christian holiday where candles were blessed and distributed. Those who celebrated Candlemas decided that clear skies on the holiday meant a longer winter.

The Germans eventually began to believe that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, a hedgehog would cast a shadow  predicting six more weeks of harsh winter weather. And it was the Germans who brought this belief to the United States.

When German immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania, they found a large number of groundhogs. And they tasked the groundhog, which resembles a European hedgehog, with the job of predicting the weather.

Chuck has been making his prediction since 1981  and some years have been more eventful than others. In 2009, Chuck bit then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And, in 2014, Chuck was dropped by Mayor Bill de Blasio. That groundhog, which was actually a female stand-in named Charlotte, died several days later.

Chuck has proved a particularly prolific prognosticator in recent years, having made an incorrect prediction only once since 2010.

WATCH PHILS PREDICTION

Those interested in seeing Punxsutawney Phil make his prediction can view it here.
Even after Chadwick Boseman's death, the creator of "Black Panther" successfully scored a deal to tell more stories about Wakanda.

Amid the ongoing creation of "Black Panther 2," director Ryan Coogler landed a dead to also develop a series for Disney+.

Per ScreenRant, Coogler's company, Proximity Media, struck a five-year television deal with Disney.

The partnership will allow the director to create new shows in any of Disney's divisions.

Soon after they signed the deal, it has been confirmed that the first series will be about the kingdom of Wakanda.

Both parties refused to give more details. However, Coogler's work with the first "Black Panther" film is already a reason for fans to be excited about the deal.

Meanwhile, Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ludwig Goransson, Peter Nicks and Archie Davis are also involved in the deal.

Disney's executive chairman Bob Iger approved the "Wakanda" TV series already. He also applauded Coogler's vision in creating the series.

"With Black Panther, Ryan brought a groundbreaking story and iconic characters to life in a real, meaningful and memorable way, creating a watershed cultural moment," Iger said in a statement.

He also took his time to applaud the director and call him one of the best filmmakers of his generation.

In the end, Iger expressed his excitement in working with Coogler and his team in more series and films soon.

Dream Come True for Ryan Coogler

After Boseman's death, "Black Panther" seemed to have lost its way for a moment. Marvel also needed to make significant reshuffling to make the next standalone film possible.

For now, it is clear that the late actor will not appear using CGI, nor Marvel will find another actor to replace him.

Despite these circumstances, the upcoming series only proved that the company and director have more stories to tell.

After scoring the deal, Coogler freely showed his excitement toward working with The Walt Disney Company. He even claimed that working with the company for a "Black Panther" flick was a dream come true.

"As avid consumers of television, we couldn't be happier to be launching our television business with Bob Iger, Dana Walden and all the amazing studios under the Disney umbrella," he said, as quoted by ScreenRant.

He also mentioned Marvel executives Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito and Victoria Alonso and thanked them for choosing to work closely with him.

While the plot is yet to be finalized, it is safe to say that the series might focus on how Wakanda developed their technological advancements that eventually made the kingdom.

See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles
PHOENIX, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freestar , the leading monetization partner for content publishers, e-commerce sites, and app developers, today announced it partnered with Feeding America, the nations largest domestic hunger-relief and food rescue organization, in the 2nd half of 2020 to spread awareness about the millions of Americans facing hunger during the Covid-19 pandemic. Freestar, with the support of hundreds of its publisher partners, donated unsold ad inventory to serve Feeding Americas campaign creative which resulted in 600 million ad impressions and over $3 million in donated media value.



We know that these are challenging times for everyone, so we are so thankful to be able to do our part and give back to underserved and high risk communities during this pandemic, said Kurt Donnell , CEO and President of Freestar.

According to a Feeding America survey of food banks, from March 1 through December 31, 2020, the Feeding America network distributed an estimated 5.3 billion meals to people facing hunger in the United States. As the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States, The Feeding America network of food banks provides food to millions of families each year, especially during times of disasters and national emergencies.

The last year has been incredibly difficult and for households facing hunger, the coronavirus fallout presents an even greater threat. We are thankful to Freestar for driving awareness towards this campaign to help families in this time of urgent need to encourage audiences to donate to our Covid-19 Response Fund, said Catherine Davis, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Feeding America.

This partnership is part of Freestars initiative to take its We Not Me core value into the community. Freestar is constantly finding new ways to give back through partnerships with organizations like Feeding America and is partnering with AdTechCares to combat misinformation on Covid-19 and mask wearing.

For more information on working with Freestar, please visit Freestar.com or email pubdev@freestar.com.

About Feeding America

Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, we provide meals to more than 40 million people each year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

About Freestar

In an ever-changing industry full of buzzwords and empty promises, Freestar was founded to simplify the challenges of monetizing websites and apps. Leveraging the ideal mix of programmatic header bidding, private marketplace deals, and a unified analytics platform, Freestars team of monetization experts help publishers, e-commerce sites and apps unleash their true revenue potential. Freestars ever expanding family of publisher and app developer partners reach over 50% of all U.S. internet users each month and provide unique opportunities for advertisers to reach their target audiences efficiently at scale. For more information, visit www.freestar.com.

Media Contact

Lauren Goveo

Director, PR Freestar

lauren.goveo@freestar.com

602.320.5613
Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow speaks to the media at the White House in Washington on Sept. 6, 2019. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Kudlow: Trump Was a Brilliant, Consequential President

Larry Kudlow, one of former President Donald Trumps top economic advisers, told Fox News on Monday that Trump was a brilliant, consequential president.

While I may disagree with President Trumps behavior in the last couple of months, I think in policy terms he was a brilliant, consequential president, Kudlow said.

Our tax cuts helped those who needed it the most, Kudlow added, talking about the great progress Trump made on deregulation and 5G.

Kudlow was named director of the National Economic Council in 2018. Last week Fox News Media announced that he would join Fox Business Network as a contributor and host of his own weekday program.

Elaborating on his disagreement with Trump in the last two months, Kudlow indicated that Trump would have been better advised to talk about his great policy achievements in foreign policy and economic policy, at the time when electoral votes were confirmed.

Kudlow also criticized the Biden administrations plans to raise the national minimum wage and implement a $1.9 trillion stimulus package.

Kudlow said raising the national minimum wage will hurt the poorest part of the workforce.

Once you get outside of, lets say, New York and California, maybe Illinois, the cost of living is much lower in all these states, Kudlow said. And these small businesses that are desperately trying to reopen, they cant afford it. And therefore, theyre going to lay off workers.

I love a maximum wage. I think you have to grow the economy with low taxes and regulations and so forth. And that will get everybody a job, and thatll get them up to a maximum minimum wage.

But federal legislation never works, Kudlow stressed. It costs jobs. It damages those who need them the most. And its a terrible idea.

President Joe Biden signed two executive orders on Jan. 22, one of which will establish a $15 minimum wage for federal employees and contractors.

No one in America should work 40 hours a week making below the poverty line, Biden said at the time.

Biden also proposed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package last month to support families and small businesses during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

We dont even know how much money has been spent or not spent from the prior packages, Kudlow pointed out. Thats the odd thing about this. There is no accounting. Ive seen no numbers.

We should be assessing the economy before we dive into another $2 trillion [package], which I must say is something of a Democratic wish list.
Mogadishu, Feb 2 : The UN has condemned a terror attack on a hotel frequented by government officials in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu, which left nine people dead and more than 10 others injured.

In a statement on Monday, James Swan, UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Somalia, also expressed condolences to the families of the victims, and wished for a speedy recovery of the injured, reports Xinhua news agency.

"We are appalled by this reprehensible and senseless attack on a venue frequented by innocent civilians, and condemn it in the strongest terms," Swan said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.

The attack started on Sunday evening when a car packed with explosives exploded outside the Afrik Hotel near a busy security checkpoint near Aden Adde International Airport.

According to the police, al-Shabab terrorists stormed the hotel after the first blast went off.

While claiming responsibility for the attack, the Al-Shahab said that its fighters were targeting government officials who were meeting at the facility.

Unconfirmed reports said the former State Minister of Defence is among the survivors of the attack and most of the occupants at the hotel have been rescued.

On February 8, Somalia is scheduled to hold a presidential election.
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Set sail from Goolwa to the Murray Mouth and back again

On this round-trip, 90-minute cruise, you'll sail down the Murray River from Goolwa's historic wharf to the Murray Mouth, the point at which Australia's longest river meets the Southern Ocean.

Along the way, you'll pass through the Goolwa Barrage, a man-made lock and barrage system and the waterways of the Coorong, home to saltwater lagoons, fur seals and rare species of birds. Live commentary will be provided throughout the duration of the cruise.
opinion

Introduction

This Exercise takes a comparative look at the power relationships of the three Branches of government - the Legislative, Executive and Judiciary - of the Republic of Liberia and some of the other governments of the African Continent.

Although the Republic of Liberia had been historical and a diligent participant of the African Continental Politics - Corruption(massive theft of public resources with public display of ostentatious lifestyles by government officials); ConstantVotes-rigging; Constitutional manipulations for illegal third Term; and numerous, other non-democratic activities since political independence on July 26, 1847, but the Republic of Liberia is, apparently, alone, in implementing and maintaining power superiority over and control of the other two Branches - Legislative and Judiciary - by the Executive Branch.

Thus in Liberia, the Executive Branch has become superior with its Head, the President of the Republic, a Presidential-Emperor who controls all "co-equal" branches of government with other tworeduced to rubber stamps, unlike the Federal Republic of Nigeria and others in which the Legislatures and Judiciaries are diligently aggressive in exercising their powers and action of expression consistent with constitutional provisions. For examples:

The Uganda High Courtordered the Military and Police (of the Executive Branch) to leave the home of a leading opposition politician, Bobi Wine, held under house arrest. The Court "ruled that Bobi Wine's detention was unlawful, with Justice Michael Elubu telling the Court (and Executive Branch) it was also an infringement of his (Bobi Wine's) personal liberties".

Bobi Wine

Also, the Malawi High Court refused to allow former President Peter Mutharikaaccess to his bank accounts frozen by the country's Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) pending trial.

Malawi Blocks Ex-President Peter Mutharika access to his bank accounts

Based on past, resent past and prevailing activities, it is reasonable to conclude that these legal, courageous actions could not and would not have been taken here in Liberia. For example, Mr. NdubuisiNwabudike, proven citizen of a foreign country, an illegal act, but still serves as Chair of Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) in flagrant violation of law and, even, after Mr.Nwabudike was removed from membership of the Liberia National Bar Association (LNBA).

Deeply Troubled and Disappointed

Indeed, we are deeply troubled and disappointed by President Weah's recentAnnual Messagebecause of several missed opportunities.Major examples are that President Weah'sCabinet and general administration are dominated by the former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's loyalists - rebels, civil war fighters, generals, NPP mass murderer, civil and human rights violators, criminals, thieves, and corrupt officials.

Moreover, it is reported that the former President is now king-makerbehind the George Weah Presidential Throne, although she was booted out as Standard Bearer of the UNITY Party for, reportedly, financing opposition political party campaign for protection from prosecution for alleged economic and war crimes.

For, we had hoped that young George Weah,experienced victim of Monrovia's ghetto slum, indigenous citizen and now President of the Republic, will not and must not fail for obvious reasons. But now, all of these difficult, protracted conditions!!

The Liberian Supreme Court

Now, the Liberia High Court "slams US Department of Treasury allegations of bribery within Liberian Judiciary" with the statement of "zero tolerance for corruption".

But just recently, the Liberian Senate mustered the courage to try, convict and removed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court upon validated evidence that he (the Associate Justice) then in Chambers:

a) Advised his business partners-petroleum importers (who collected some $30 million US from Liberians as tax for roads/highway construction/repairs but failed and refused payment to Government) to submit request to the High court for prohibition to stop government from demanding payment and he, the Associate Justice in Chambers issued the Prohibition that stopped the government. He, the Associate Justice, was and is paid continuous bribes;

b) All other Associate Justices approved the unlawful action of the Chamber Justice, including the Chief Justice who presided the Senate trial and the recently-retired Associate Justice who appeared as defense witness; and

c) That we, Liberians, at the receiving end know that theJudiciary is a Denfor the highest bidder - corruptionpayments, jury tampering and bail manipulations with corrupt "insurance" companies. We are sure that the US Government knows that the Liberian Judiciary's statement of "zero tolerance" is a blatant lie and falsehood.

The Recurring problem of Cllr. Charles Gibson

The man is a trained professional, a lawyer, who should and must be treated just like any other, not on the flimsy, corrupt excuse of "mercy" that exposes the nation to the absence of collective security. Cllr. Charles Gibson has been appointed and submitted for Senate confirmation twice but rejected each time. Something must be wrong with Lawyer Gibson in terms of character and behavior.

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According to Front Page Africa, "Cllr. Charles Gibson is back in the spotlight for allegedly tampering with the bidding process that could see Liberia's residence and work permit data land in the hands of a Dubai company which has no experience in handling national security documents and data. Documents obtained by Front Page Africa show that the Ministry of Labor (with Cllr. Gibson as Minister) in collaboration with Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) crafted the tender in a manner that sought to suppress local companies' ability to ably compete the bid".

Moreover, "the UAE delegation, according to Executive Mansion, was invited to the country by the Minister of State W/O Portfolio, Mr. TrokonKpui and Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Mr. Nathaniel McGill". These reported activities are classic examples for Liberian corruption payments. The icing on the cake is the personal reasoning by Senator Milton Teahjay of "mercy" for corrupt action (FrontPageAfrica, January 21, 2021).

Editor's note: The views expressed in this article are that of the author and not of this paper.
The European Union (EU), through the French Development Agency- Agence Francaise Development (AFD) has approved a 9.



7 million Euros grant to Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) to boost infrastructure works on its Kumasi-Bolgatanga Transmission Project.



The aim of the project is to enhance and upgrade electricity supply and access to the Northern Regions of Ghana. It will also boost export of power to the sub-region under the West African Power Pool (WAPP), commencing with Burkina Faso.



The grant was co-signed by both Ms Diana Acconcia, EU Ambassador to Ghana and Ms Anne-Sophie Ave, French Ambassador to Ghana and Mr Christophe Cottet, Country Director of AFD and Mr Jonathan Amoako-Baah, Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo, both signing on behalf of their respective institutions.



The project is considered a key link and priority in the West African Power Pool. It was initially financed with 174 million dollars from AFD to GRIDCo and 4.8 million Euros technical assistance grant from the EU.



The grant, would facilitate the early completion of the project which is behind schedule, to ensure sustainable and reliable electricity supply in Ghana and the sub-region.



The approval of the grant is also a recognition of the several strategic measures and prudent fiscal policies undertaken by the last Board of GRIDCo.



For a greater part of the last three years, work on the 330 kV transmission line project from Kumasi to Bolgatanga slowed down as AFD was compelled to stop paying contractors working on the project.



This was due to severe liquidity challenges resulting in GRIDCo inability to service the initial AFD US$174 million loan and other similar obligations.

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 Department of Health has a reported a further 17 deaths in Northern Ireland (Andrew Matthews/PA).

A further 17 people have died in Northern Ireland after testing positive for Covid-19, the Department of Health has reported.

Nine of those deaths occurred in the 24 hours up to 10am on Tuesday and eight happened previously.

The death toll has now risen to 1,878.

Another 447 new Covid cases were also identified in testing.

There have been 3,517 positive cases in the past week, down from 4,631 in the previous seven days.

Hospital occupancy is at 92% with 2,800 people in beds. A total of 66 patients with Covid-19 are in intensive care - 58 of those are ventilated.

And 105 care homes are dealing with an outbreak of the virus.

It comes after Education Minister Peter Weir announced that grades for this year's cancelled exams will be based on teacher judgment.

In an update to the Assembly on Tuesday, the DUP MLA said an algorithm system - which caused controversy last year - would not be used.

Read More

Expand Close Education Minister Peter Weir Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Ey / Facebook

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Whatsapp Education Minister Peter Weir

Last month, the minister cancelled GCSE, AS and A Level examinations in Northern Ireland due to the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Weir said lessons had to be learned from the summer.

He outlined that grades will be based on school professional judgments and there will be an appeals process with indemnity in place for schools.

"Fairness to pupils is my priority, and will continue to be at the forefront of every decision I take," he said.

"I have taken exceptional and unprecedented steps to ensure our young people are supported to progress in education, training or employment.

He said a robust process would be established, training and support put in place for students and principals as well as assessment resources and no pupil would be penalised for missing an element of their examination.

In order to ensure fairness and consistency across centres there will be a process undertaken by CCEA to review the process used by centres to determine grades, he added.

Qualifications will be issued to students in August as per usual, Mr Weir said, in line with the rest of the UK.

Read More

Education Minister Peter Weir to make grades announcement Education Minister Peter Weir is to tell pupils taking GCSE, AS and A-levels how they will be awarded their grades this year Full details - https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/coronavirus-northern-ireland-education-minister-outlines-exam-grading-after-test-cancellation-40040979.html Posted by Belfast Telegraph on Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Follow how Tuesday's events unfolded:
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It's a strange situation for a politician: announcing a campaign for an election that may not materialize.

Pledging to usher in a "California comeback," Republican and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer has jumped headlong into that unknown, officially declaring his long-expected candidacy for governor of California -- either for a recall election targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom, which has yet to qualify but could come as soon as August, or the regularly scheduled 2022 gubernatorial primary.

Faulconer rolled up in a school bus to a Tuesday morning press conference outside a public school in San Pedro, saying: "Our problem isn't with our people. Our problem is with our government." He added that "public schools should begin safely opening now. It just goes to show Gavin Newsom has botched the basics ... and he must be replaced."

The announcement came on the same morning that a new poll indicates declining approval of Newsom's performance.

California has so much promise. But Gavin Newsom's broken promises have become our problems. His leadership is failing our state.



It's time for the California Comeback.



I'm excited to officially launch my campaign for Governor. Join me.https://t.co/p8kWz9J1bA  Kevin Faulconer (@Kevin_Faulconer) February 2, 2021

Faulconer also defended his record on fighting homelessness in San Diego. The former mayor has said the crisis was a turning point that spurred city leaders to action, including opening bridge shelters and safe parking lots. Last year, he was praised for temporarily converting part of the massive downtown convention center into a homeless shelter.

But critics who spoke to the Times of San Diego said Faulconer's tenure was marked by police cracking down on homeless people and criminalizing camping on the street. Homeless advocates argued that muddied the waters of data indicating the number of unsheltered people in San Diego dropped by double digits between 2019 and 2020, because those people may have been driven into hiding by aggressive enforcement.

At his press conference, Faulconer said he was proud of his actions: "I did not allow tents on the sidewalk in San Diego, because I believe that if you allow someone to live in a tent on your sidewalk, you're comdemning them to die in that tent."

It's a message that echoed his campaign video, in which Faulconer is seen driving past homeless encampments, saying: "Governor, letting people live on the streets isn't compassion. Sending billions in unemployment checks to criminals isn't prosperity. Partying with lobbyists during your lockdown isn't leadership."

The last point took a dig at Newsom's broadly panned dinner at the Michelin-starred French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley, which appeared to violate the state's safety guidelines.

The Governor has since apologized, and said the dinner was a "bad mistake" -- but it's one many voters won't easily forget, says Carl Luna, political science professor at San Diego Mesa College.

"Short of drop-kicking a baby seal, it'd be hard to turn people against you more than to take advantage of high class things you have access to while most people are stuck at home during a quarantine crisis," Luna says.

Faulconer joins another Republican, John Cox, who ran unsuccessfully against Newsom in 2018 and has said he plans to wage another campaign. Cox, a businessman who lost to Newsom by more than 23 points, has also pumped $50,000 into the recall campaign.

CAN A REPUBLICAN WIN IN CALIFORNIA...EVER AGAIN?

On paper, a GOP candidate has a snowball's chance in Death Valley of becoming Governor of California, where Republicans make up less than a quarter of registered voters. But there is a recent precedent here.

Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was recalled in 2003 and replaced by a Republican. According to political consultant Dan Schnur, the recall qualified "because of the fervor of grassroots conservative activists, but ultimately, it was a much more centrist candidate, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who prevailed."

"Faulkner's positioning himself the same way that Schwarzenegger did 17 years ago, but on a much more challenging political landscape," says Schnur, who has worked for Republican campaigns and now teaches political communication at USC's Annenberg School. "This California is a much deeper shade of blue now than it was [in 2003]."

GOP supporters hope there is a viable game plan to follow, one carved out by Schwarzenegger, the last Republican to win statewide office in California, who took advantage of a longshot recall effort and dissatisfaction over Davis' handling of an economic crisis.

Newsom's approval rating is declining among voters. According to poll results released today by UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, just 46% approve of Newsom's performance as governor, while 48% disapprove, 31% of whom disapprove strongly. The poll, conducted last week, questioned 10,000 registered voters. It's a big shift from last year when large majorities approved of the job Newsom was doing.

"Kevin Faulconer's only route to the governorship would be precisely [the recall] scenario, because in a regular cycle, he would be a sacrificial lamb," says political science professor Luna. "But if there is a split field in the recall, and there's several Democrats running -- and he manages to be the lone Republican voice -- he has a chance of winning."

That's a lot of "ifs." And add another challenge to the list: To consolidate conservative support, Faulconer must head off challengers to his right, such as conservative talk show host Carl DeMaio, a longtime rival in San Diego politics who bashed Faulconer as a "go along to get along" RINO -- Republican In Name Only.

"[Faulconer] is generally too moderate for the conservative wing of the Republican Party," Luna says.

Faulconer recently reversed course on the biggest name in Republican politics: former President Donald Trump. In 2016, the San Diego mayor said he could never back Trump, but four years later, told KPBS that he voted for the president in 2020 because he believed "that was the best [decision] for our economic recovery."

WILL THIS RECALL ACTUALLY HAPPEN?



Is announcing a campaign before the recall petition gathers enough signatures to go before voters tantamount to putting the cart before the horse? Maybe.

Recall sponsors face a March 17 deadline to gather nearly 1.5 million verified signatures. County registrars then have until April 29 to verify them. Two groups -- California Patriot Coalition and Rescue California -- are gathering signatures for the effort.

The most recent report and summary show the statewide total of valid signatures was 410,087 as of Jan. 6. The signatures were verified at a rate of more than 84%.

On Sunday, the campaign announced that its total number of raw signatures gathered is 1.3 million. To safely clear the bar, factoring in the verification rate, recall sponsors will have to hit a target of submitting around 1.8 million signatures, a campaign spokesperson told LAist.

A potential special election ballot would have two questions:

1. Do you want to recall Governor Newsom, yes or no?

If yes, who should replace him? (This question only comes into play if more than 50% of voters approve the recall.)

Importantly, if Newsom is removed by voters, the winner of the recall election only needs to win a plurality of votes cast, not a majority.

WHO IS KEVIN FAULCONER?

After serving two terms on the San Diego city council, Faulconer was elected in a 2014 special election to replace disgraced Mayor Bob Filner, who resigned amidst sexual assault allegations and later pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and battery.

During Faulconer's nearly seven years leading San Diego, the city faced a devastating Hepatitis A outbreak centered in homeless encampments downtown that killed at least 20 people and sickened hundreds. The city ended up more than doubling spending on homeless services between 2017 and 2019.

As a rare Republican leading a solidly blue city, Faulconer inspired talk about his potential for higher office. He resisted pressure from his party to challenge Newsom in the 2018 gubernatorial election, announcing in June of 2017 that he would finish his second term as mayor. "My commitment first and foremost is to San Diego," he said on Twitter.

Last month, Faulconer endorsed the recall effort and launched a campaign exploratory committee, allowing him to begin fundraising.

Voters will have to weigh Faulconer's record, especially during the pandemic's initial surges in 2020, against a widening field of recall candidates -- and Newsom himself.

"Gavin Newsom's biggest opponent in the recall is not another politician. His biggest opponent is the coronavirus," Schnur says. "Faulconer and any other potential candidates need to position themselves as an alternative who can confront this crisis more effectively than Newsom. It's not an easy task, but it's probably a better place for Republican candidates to be starting than any other."
BrettCharlton/Getty Images

Getting out of Houston for a sun-soaked Cancun weekend just got a lot easier.

Budget-friendly Sun Country airlines just announced that that the company is adding 16 new nonstop routes in 9 cities, and Houston landed two of those new routes. Travelers will now get to head out from Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport to Cancun starting May 27, according to Sun Country Airlines. For those who love a strictly Vegas adventure, Sun Country plans to launch a route from Houston to Las Vegas beginning September 2.
Senate Bill 71 would limit who is allowed to vote absentee by mail, a method currently available to any Georgian without needing an excuse. The bill would only allow absentee voting under particular circumstances, including for voters who are 75 or older, have a physical disability or will be absent from their precinct on the date of the election. The bill doesnt mention global pandemics as a blanket excuse.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 2)  COVID-19 vaccines will be fully rolled out to the public beginning the third quarter of 2021, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said.

For the quarter three or Q3, iyong [in the] third quarter, we will start our massive nationwide rollout, said the official during a virtual briefing. During this period, major deliveries of 30 to 50 million doses procured by the government are expected to arrive along with the rest of allocated doses from the COVAX facility.

Galvez, meanwhile, said the government hopes to finish vaccinating its target of 50 to 70 million Filipinos within the last three months of 2021.

Authorities earlier announced millions of vaccine doses from United States-based company Pfizer and British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca are set to arrive in the first quarter of the year. During this period, members of vulnerable sectors and frontliners will be rolling up their sleeves for the shots.

With limited available doses, ini-intend po natin ma-prioritize po natin ang ating [we intend to prioritize our] healthcare workers which is 1.7 million (in number) to preserve our healthcare system and the government essential services and institution, including the uniformed personnel, said the vaccine czar.

Galvez noted healthcare workers include those working in public and health facilities and temporary quarantine facilities, along with public health workers. Frontline workers also include those working in the frontlines of agencies such as the Social Welfare Department, Education Department, Interior Department, along with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and Bureau of Corrections.

Healthcare workers are at the top of the governments list of priority groups for its vaccination program, followed by indigent senior citizens, remaining senior citizens, and the indigent population. Uniformed personnel, meanwhile, come in fifth.

The government hopes to acquire 148 million doses of coronavirus vaccines for 2021. Galvez said they are already preparing for supply agreements and finalizing all necessary contracts by mid-February.
The Andrews governments push to extend its state of emergency powers for nine months is doomed in its current form after key crossbencher Fiona Patten said she would vote against it.

The state of emergency is due to expire next month but Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Tuesday morning his government would introduce a bill to extend it to December.

Reason Party MP Fiona Patten in Parliament on Tuesday. Credit:Eddie Jim

We cant go to a situation where there are no rules, Mr Andrews said.

Ms Patten, the Reason Party upper house MP who voted with two other crossbenchers in favour of extending the powers in September, said she was firmly against the latest proposal and called instead for coronavirus-specific laws.
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Website indianbureaucracy.com uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 476920 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 75466 bytes (73.70 kb uncompressed) and 12495 bytes (12.20 kb compressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-03-15, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
New Delhi, Feb 2 : The Special Cell of Delhi police has arrested Delhi and Haryana's most wanted gangster 36-year-old Ashok Pradhan alias Shoki, a resident of Nilothi village in Jhajjhar district of Haryana, who was wanted in seven cases including four cases of murder, robbery. He was carrying a reward of Rs 5,00,000 on his head in Haryana and Rs 25,000 in Delhi and was on the run since 2014 after jumping parole, police said on Tuesday.

His close aide Arun, from Matindu village in Haryana, who was wanted in three criminal cases including 2 cases of murder and one case of attempt to murder and was carrying a reward of Rs 1,00,000 on his head in Haryana has also been arrested. A Maruti car, being driven by the accused and stolen from Rohtak, Haryana has also been recovered along with two sophisticated firearms. Both were arrested from Millennium Park, Outer Ring Road.

Ashok Pradhan has an ongoing rivalry with Neeraj Bawana (in jail) and his gang. In this feud, over a dozen persons have been killed in the last 10 years.

"Ashok Pradhan's current obsession was eliminating Neeraj Bawana and his associate Naveen Bali, both of whom are presently in jail, on one of their upcoming court appearances. Since after implementation of the Covid-19 protocols, physical appearances of undertrial prisoners have been stopped, the accused were waiting for its resumption which has just begun. The timely apprehension of these dreaded criminals has scuttled their plans and saved many lives," said Manishi Chandra, DCP Special Cell.

Ashok Pradhan joined neutralized gangsters Neetu Daboda and Kismat in 2001. He marked his arrival on the big crime stage with the murder of a village head in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, closely followed by the murder of a doctor in Bahadurgarh city. Both these murders were executed on the orders of Neetu Daboda and were contract killings. Thereafter he went on a crime spree with Neetu Daboda, Kismat and others and was named in a number of criminal cases including contract killings, murders and kidnapping for ransom.

In 2004, while he was behind bars, his brother was murdered by his rival Rajeev, a resident of Ashoda in Haryana. After obtaining bail, Ashok Pradhan eliminated Rajeev and many of his associates one by one. He was again arrested, tried and sentenced for life.

In 2009, he got out on parole. After the neutralization of his mentor Neetu Daboda by the Special Cell in 2013, he took over the reigns of Neetu's gang and transformed it into the infamous 'Pradhan gang'.

In 2016, he murdered Krishan, a resident of Barahi village of Haryana, who had murdered his second mentor Kismat.

After obtaining bail again he went off the police radar and owing to his continued criminal activities a reward of Rs 5,00,000 was put on his head in Haryana and of Rs 25,000 in Delhi.

In the last four months of the previous year, he had masterminded the murder of Neeraj Bawana's gang member Shakti in October 2020. He also plotted the murder of Rohit, an associate of gangster Kala Jhathedi, in Katewra village in Bawana, Delhi in December 2020.
A reminder about the danger on local streets during the pandemic as more people drink behind the wheel and driving skill overall seem to have diminished.

Read more . . .
CHERRY HILL, N.J., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today TD Bank released the results of its sixth annual Love and Money survey. According to the survey, 1 in 10 American couples were furloughed, lost their job, or had their hours decreased as a result of COVID-19, forcing them to put off certain financial milestones. Despite a sharp decrease in large purchases due to economic uncertainty, the findings revealed that more couples are having conversations about money while they are at home. The survey polled 1,709 U.S. individuals who are married, in a committed relationship or divorced to better understand how they approach finances in their relationships.

Of the couples surveyed, 67% said they are finding it difficult to achieve certain milestones as a result of the pandemic. In fact, despite the booming real estate market, nearly 1 in 4 couples whose jobs were impacted by COVID-19 said that they had to delay purchasing a home until they feel financially ready. The proportion of millennials who are putting off their house purchase is seven times that of baby boomers (30% vs. 4%).

Financial hardships and delays are particularly high among millennial couples, who, according to the survey, also worry about repaying their current debt 1.5 times more than other generations. Millennials also claim that a lack of time to research (19%) and not knowing the appropriate next steps to take as they weather their newfound financial hardship (17%) are additional barriers to reaching financial goals, uncovering a gap when it comes financial understanding and awareness among younger generations.

Despite financial issues presented by the pandemic, the survey revealed that more than two-thirds (68%) of Americans are very or extremely happy in their relationships, with 52% saying they have found it easier to talk about money with their partner. This could explain why Americans are keeping slightly fewer financial secrets from their partners than previous years, with only 11% currently keeping a secret versus 13% in 2019.

"Even with the clear financial setbacks imposed upon Americans by COVID-19, we're seeing money conversations increasing among couples and the stigma around discussing finances diminishing," said Mike Kinane, Head of Consumer Deposits, Products and Payments at TD Bank. "This silver lining creates a unique opportunity to educate couples about managing their money in the short-term and how they can maintain an open dialogue about finances, better positioning them to revisit their longer-term financial goals when life returns to normal."

Trouble in Paradise?

While COVID-19 has prompted American couples to engage in conversations about money with more ease, 86% say they talk about money at least monthly and the discussions aren't always positive. Among those discussing their finances every month, 30% of those couples admit to having financial arguments.

Prioritizing costs seems to be a particular point of tension, as 44% of couples admit to having disagreements about what expenses constitute "needs" vs. "wants," with baby boomers more likely to agree (62%) and millennials (50%) least likely to find middle ground.

Another sensitive topic among couples is the perception of financial ownership within relationships. While 62% of men claim their household's everyday financial decision-making is shared between them and their partner, 61% of women claim they are the sole decision-makers, indicating a lack of alignment on who's "in charge."

Cautiously Optimistic

Most Americans are staying optimistic about the future, with 75% of those who have had their job impacted in 2020 saying their financial confidence has not declined. In fact, 39% of respondents expect to bounce back from financial disruption within a year.

When asked about financial fears as a couple, 19% say they do not have any fears  another sign that Americans seem to remain financially confident. Among other fears, 17% identified not being able to retire (significantly higher among baby boomers at 28%) and 11% were concerned about not being able to provide for their family.

While many remain confident in their financial situations, it's likely because they acted quickly to curb spending. More than half of American couples across generations admit to having quickly adjusted their budgets and spending habits to offset the impact of the pandemic, with 58% reducing spend on nonessential items, 43% cancelling travel plans and 36% delaying larger purchases. Unless you're a millennial, that is. Twenty-five percent of millennial couples surveyed admit to engaging in excessive or frivolous spending behavior over the course of the year, further contributing to their financial setbacks.

"Aligning on a set of goalsespecially around sensitive subjects like money can be challenging when people have differing priorities and perceptions, but the pandemic has made many of these conversations unavoidable for couples and families who have been impacted with job loss or reduced earnings," said Kinane. "Couples can use today's financial challenges as a catalyst to discuss near- and long-term financial goals. While debt and bills may have been hard to talk about before, the pandemic has made it easier  and necessary  to have an open conversation on these topics."

To learn more about the survey data and managing money with a partner, please visit www.TDLoveandMoney.com.

Survey Methodology

The study was conducted among a representative group of 1,709 consumers across the United States from December 2-8, 2020. The survey was hosted by global research company MARU/Matchbox.

About MARU/Matchbox

MARU/Matchbox, formerly the Research & Consulting division of Vision Critical, is a professional services firm dedicated to improving its clients' business outcomes. It delivers its services through teams of sector-specific research consultants that have technology in their DNA, specializing in the use of Insight Community and Voice of Market technology. MARU/ Matchbox's research drives decision-making across all aspects of customer experience, including innovation, product, branding, commercialization and communications.

About TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing more than 9.5 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,220 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. To learn more, visit www.td.com/us. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDBank and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US and www.twitter.com/TDNews_US.

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "TD". To learn more, visit www.td.com/us.

SOURCE TD Bank

Related Links

https://www.td.com/


BEIJING, Feb. 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2021 ) ::Research and technologies on biomass energy and circular agriculture developed by Lanzhou University are being introduced in Pakistan, helping the country cope with insufficient energy supply and promote agricultural modernization.

Biomass energy is the energy stored in biomass, which is non-fossil organic materials such as wood, straw, vegetable oils and wastes from forestry, agriculture and industry, as well as municipal solid waste. As an important renewable source of energy, it contains stored energy from the sun. When biomass is burned, the chemical energy in biomass is released as heat.

Lanzhou University, located in Gansu Province in western China where there is drought with little rain, has focused on the development of circular agriculture and made innovations in the fields of planting, animal husbandry and biomass energy over the years.

The fragile ecology in Gansu is quite similar to many areas of Pakistan, which lays a ground for applying related Chinese technologies to Pakistan, according to China Economic Net on Tuesday.

In September, 2015, Lanzhou University and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) established China-Pakistan Biomass Energy Technology R&D and Demonstration Center. In October, 2016, Lanzhou University provided technological training to 20 Pakistani experts from PARC to share the university research achievements.

Data from Lanzhou University official website shows that the university provided experimental equipment worth RMB 1 million, and PARC provided a 2000-cubic-meter experimental building with Rs. 920 million.

Pakistan is a traditional agricultural country, and its huge agricultural base has provided abundant biomass materials. However, the country has suffered from energy shortage for a long period. Our technologies can help solve the problems faced by Pakistan and improve the lives of local people, said Prof Li Xiangkai, school of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, whose team has initiated cooperation with Pakistan since 2011.

Biomass energy, such as biogas, has become increasingly popular in developing countries because of its low cost and high efficiency. Up to now, agricultural biogas system and biomass energy conversion technology specifically applicable to Pakistan are under research. Four biogas demonstration bases including 50 biogas digesters have been built in Pakistan.

Latest information shows that the Chinese and Pakistani researchers have developed a technology of utilizing vegetable wastes for bioenergy generation, which is suitable for Pakistan with great potential to be gradually popularized.
Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2021) - Manganese X Energy Corp. (TSXV: MN) (OTC Pink: MNXXF) (FSE: 9SC2) ("Manganese" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its intention to complete non-brokered private placement offering (the "Offering") to raise up to $1,650,000 through the issuance of up to 5,000,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.33 per Unit.

Each Unit of the Offering will be comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Common Share") and one common share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant") being exercisable into one Common Share at a price of $0.44 per share for a period of two (2) years from closing.

In connection with the Offering, the Company may pay finder's fees to certain registered brokerage firms, which fees would be a cash payment equal to 6% of the gross proceeds raised by purchasers introduced by such brokers, and the issuance of non-transferable compensation warrants equal to 6% of the number of Units purchased by purchasers introduced by such brokers. Such compensation warrants will be issued on substantially the same terms and conditions as the Warrants.

The net proceeds received by the Company from the Offering are expected to be used for general working capital purposes.

All securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day after closing of the Offering. Completion of the Offering is subject to a number of conditions, including, without limitation, receipt of all regulatory approvals, including approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"). None of the securities issued in the Offering will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"), and none of them may be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the 1933 Act. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state where such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful.

Subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of the Exchange, the Offering is expected to close on or about February 5, 2021. However, there is no assurance that the Company will complete the Offering upon the terms set out above, or at all.

Resignation of Anthony Viele

Separately, the Company announces that Anthony Viele has resigned from its Board of Directors given growing business commitments outside of the Company, effective immediately.

Martin Kepman, CEO of the Company, said, "The Board is grateful for the valuable contribution that Mr. Viele has made to the Board of Directors, and wish him all the best in his future endeavours."

Option Grant

The Company is also pleased to announce that it has granted an aggregate of 2,600,000 stock options (the "Options") to certain directors, officers and consultants of the Company pursuant to the provisions of the Company's stock option plan. The Options are exercisable for a period of 5 years at a price of $0.63 per share and vest according to the following vesting schedule: one third (1/3) of the Options vest on the date of grant; and one third (1/3) of the Options will vest on each of the 12 and 24 month anniversary of the date of grant. The grant of the Options remains subject to the approval of the Exchange.

Aout Manganese X Energy

The Company's mission is to acquire and advance high potential manganese mining prospects located in North America with the intent of supplying value added materials to the lithium ion battery and other alternative energy industries. In addition, Manganese X Energy is striving to achieve new methodologies emanating from technologies for environmentally geographically ethical and friendly green/zero emissions, while processing manganese at a lower competitive cost.

For more information, visit the website at www.manganesexenergycorp.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Martin Kepman

CEO and Director

martin@kepman.com

1-514-802-1814

Cautionary Notes: General and Forward-Looking Statements

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release is not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, any securities of the Company and may not be relied upon in connection with the purchase or sale of any such security.

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Forward-looking information includes information including statements with respect to the future exploration performance of the Company. Forward-looking information is based on, among other things, opinions, assumptions, estimates and analyses that, while considered reasonable by the Company at the date the forward-looking information is provided, are inherently subject to significant risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors that may cause actual results and events to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. The risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information may include, but are not limited to (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) risks inherent in the mining industry in general; (iii) the inability of the Company to complete the Offering; (iv) the Exchange not approving the Offering or the grant of Options; or (v) risks generally associated with the Company's business, as described in the Company's public filings on SEDAR, which readers are encouraged to review in detail prior to any transaction involving the securities of the Company. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73375
For gospel musician Purity Gitonga, this is set to be year of marking the 20th anniversary since she ventured into the gospel music ministry.

Despite the challenges that have been compounded by Covid-19 pandemic since early last year, the musician has not relented in her quest to both preach and foster he career in gospel music.

Speaking to Saturday Nation earlier this week, Purity expressed optimism as she enters another milestone of her gospel musical career.

"The best things that I have continued to hold on to are faith, confidence and hope in God. These are the words of encouragement I would want to share with all my fans," she said.

Purity (Nyatana Kamutu) has seven albums to her credit which is part of what she will be celebrating in her 20th anniversary event later in the year.

Newly-released track

She is currently working on her next track which will be a follow up to Wi Mwega (You are good) which was released last year.

The video for the newly-released Wi Mwega was filmed by Remnant Media and directed by Sir Edward. It's Skiza code is 5356287.

Some of her earlier popular hits include Bigger Than All My Problems, Iguru Giikaro Kiega, Ni Mutugi, Hari Kirigiriro, Passion Ya Wendo, Subiri and Ungihakikisha.

Purity, who was born in Gachika village in Kerichu, Nyeri County, grew up fellowshipping at Full Gospel Churches of Kenya (FGCK) Kerichu.

Later she joined Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA). She fellowships at PCEA Kahawa Sukari on the outskirts of Nairobi.

20th anniversary

She said the PCEA Kahawa Sukari Church will be the venue of the forthcoming 20th anniversary celebrations which will also be engaged online.

The gospel artiste also revealed that she is looking forward to incorporating other artistes during the shows.

Her fans can also interact with her on Facebook through Friends and Fans of Purity Gitonga's Ministry.

Her illustrious musical journey has also seen her perform at various other churches both within and outside Nairobi.

Meanwhile, earlier this week Purity was among the artistes who eulogized online one-man guitarist Mighty Salim who died last Sunday at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Burma US President Joe Biden Threatens New Sanctions on Myanmar After Coup

US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington / President Joe Biden / Facebook

YANGONUS President Joe Biden on Monday threatened to impose new sanctions on Myanmar and called on the international community to press the countrys military to relinquish power, in response to its coup and detention of national civilian leaders.

Biden said the military coup, the detention of Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian detainees, and the declaration of a national state of emergency are a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy and the rule of law.

The president said the US had removed earlier sanctions on Myanmar over the past decade based on its progress toward democracy.

The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action, he said.

Just a few hours before Myanmars new Parliament was set to convene on Monday, the military (or Tatmadaw) seized power and declared a one-year state of emergency. Defending its action, the military claimed it was forced to act over what it called electoral fraud in the Nov. 8 election and the National League for Democracy-led governments failure to address the issue.

Biden said that in a democracy, force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election.

He called for the countrys democratic progress to be respected, pointing to the fact that Myanmar people had been working steadily for almost a decade to establish elections, civilian governance and the peaceful transfer of power.

The US promised to work with partners in the region and across the globe to support the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar, and to hold accountable those responsible for reversing the countrys democratic transition.

World leaders from countries including the UK, India, Australia and Germany, as well as the EU and the UN, have also condemned the coup in Myanmar. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the coup and the arrest of Myanmars democratically elected leaders represented a serious blow to democratic reforms in Myanmar.

Moreover, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was set to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Myanmar and a potential international response to the militarys power seizure.
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Employers have asked the national industrial umpire to let retail and hospitality workers trade their penalty rates for higher wages in a move they say will fix pay problems that new data suggests affects a third of businesses in the sectors.

The Fair Work Commission is working to simplify the awards that contain minimum pay rates and employment conditions for the sectors 1.3 million workers at the urging of Attorney-General Christian Porter.

The Restaurant and Catering Association wants rules to allow chefs to be paid a flat rate. Credit:Jim Rice

Retail and hospitality employer groups say their proposal would encourage businesses to hire more workers as it would simplify pay calculations and reduce fears of being hit with underpayment claims, but Labor and unions view it as a scheme to cut pay.

In question time on Tuesday, the Opposition argued workers who traded their penalty rates for higher base wages could be up to $10,179 a year worse off under an exemption rate proposal advanced by retail associations.
press release

Mpumalanga Premier condemns false reports alleging the involvement of a family member in a company called Jova Vaccines Supply

The Premier of Mpumalanga notes with concern, the dissemination of fake news alleging the involvement of a member of her family in a company alleged to be the distributing agent for the COVID 19 vaccine.

No member of the Premier's family is involved in an enterprise called "JOVA Vaccines Supply".

Such unfounded and disparaging allegations are part of the attempts by individuals or a group of individuals to tarnish the image of the Premier.

The peddling of fake news is not only irresponsible, it undermines the efforts of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) led by the Deputy President to successfully manage the roll out of the vaccines and save lives.

The Premier re-iterated the message of the President that the distribution of the vaccine and all ancillary logistics will be coordinated by the IMC.

The Premier has urged the people of Mpumalanga to afford the IMC sufficient time to outline the distribution of the vaccines to Provinces.

The Premier urges the people of Mpumalanga to be vigilant and guard against the dissemination of fake news.
Raising kids can be tough, and sometimes you need all the help you can get. Biologists at the University of Bristol argue that some animals might be able to blackmail reluctant relatives into assisting with the rearing of young. The study is published today [2 February] in The American Naturalist.

In a Darwinian sense, family members are valuable as vehicles for shared genes. Whether helping evolves depends on a simple cost-benefit calculation known as 'Hamilton's rule': help if it will lead to a net increase in copies of your genes in the population.

Dr Patrick Kennedy, lead author and research associate in the School of Biological Sciences, said: "We explored a devious form of manipulation. An individual can threaten to harm its own survival or reproductive success if relatives withhold help."

Andy Radford, Professor of Behavioural Ecology and co-author, explained: "We considered an overlooked aspect of Hamilton's rule. Animals might increase their value to kin by acting in a way that puts shared genes in jeopardy if relatives fail to help."

The authors used simple kin-selection models to extend the theory of 'blackmail' -first suggested four decades ago by Israeli biologist Amotz Zahavi in relation to parental care - to the evolution of altruism between any relatives.

"The logic is similar to the 'Doomsday device' satirised in the film 'Dr Strangelove', added Dr Kennedy. A Doomsday device is a mechanism that will trigger a disastrous nuclear strike if a rival makes an unwelcome move. "If animals can tie more of their own survival or reproductive success to a partner's behaviour, they can make a threat of self-sabotage credible."

Professor Radford suggested: "Shrewd use of resources may be a promising focus to uncover blackmail among animals. For instance, a mother wasp could lay a large clutch and all but exhaust her energy reserves; unless relatives' step in to help, the babies may not leave the nest alive."

Dr Kennedy added: "Our paper looked at whether blackmail between kin is theoretically possible. We showed that, under the right conditions, it can indeed evolve. Underlying the illusion of harmonious co-operation, some animals could be making their families an offer you can't refuse."

###
The Biomarkers Market is poised to experience spend growth of more than USD 46.04 billion between 2021-2025 at a CAGR of over 14.50%. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Request free sample pages

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005478/en/

SpendEdge has announced the release of its Global Biomarkers Market Procurement Intelligence Report (Graphic: Business Wire)

Read the 120-page research report with TOC and LOE on "Biomarkers Market Procurement Intelligence Report, Pricing Outlook in Geographies that include APAC, North America, South America, and MEA, and insights into best practices to optimize procurement spend."

SpendEdge's reports now include an in-depth complimentary analysis of the COVID-19 impact on procurement and the latest market data to help your company overcome sourcing challenges. Our Biomarkers Market procurement intelligence report offers actionable procurement intelligence insights, sourcing strategies, and action plans to mitigate risks arising out of the current pandemic situation. The insights offered by our reports will help procurement professionals streamline supply chain operations and gain insights into the best procurement practices to mitigate losses.

Information on Latest Trends and Supply Chain Market Information Knowledge centre on COVID-19 impact assessment

Insights into the Market Price Trends

Suppliers in this market have moderate bargaining power owing to moderate pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants.

Buyers can benchmark their preferred pricing models for biomarkers Market, Procurement, Management with the wider industry information and identify the cost-saving potential.

Insights to help buyers identify and shortlist the most suitable suppliers for their Biomarkers Market requirements. This procurement report answers the 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 Biomarkers Market category essentials in terms of SLAs and RFx?

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Insights into strategies that will help buyers optimize their category management practices. The report answers the following questions:

What should be my strategic procurement objectives, activities, and enablers for the Biomarkers Market category?

What negotiation levers can I pull for cost-saving?

What are Biomarkers Market procurement best practices I should be promoting in my supply chain?

Some of the top Biomarkers Market suppliers enlisted in this report

This Biomarkers Market procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

General Electric Co.

Merck KGaA

Abbott Laboratories

PerkinElmer Inc.

Siemens AG

Becton Dickinson and Co.

Agilent Technologies Inc.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc.

QIAGEN NV

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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

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The top diplomat has thanked the Secretary of State for "unfaltering support" of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has spoken over the phone with the newly-appointed U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

"In our first call today @SecBlinken and I affirmed the importance of the Ukraine-U.S. strategic partnership," Kuleba tweeted on Monday, February 1.

The minister added that the paties "agreed to raise the level of ambition" and "begin a new day in our relations".

The top diplomat has expressed gratitude for the "unfaltering U.S. support" of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In our first call today @SecBlinken and I affirmed the importance of the Ukraine-U.S. strategic partnership. We agreed to raise the level of ambition and begin a new day in our relations. Grateful for the unfaltering U.S. support of Ukraines sovereignty & territorial integrity.  Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 1, 2021

On January 27, Dmytro Kuleba has taken to Twitter to congratulate Anthony Blinken on assuming the post of United States Secretary of State.

Background

On January 26, the U.S. Senate endorsed Blinken's nomination for the post of U.S. Secretary of State.

Blinken was a long-term advisor to Biden and during the presidency of Barack Obama served as the U.S. Undersecretary of State and Deputy National Security Adviser to the President. Blinken's statement was supported by the majority of senators - 78. 22 voted against.

On January 20, at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Blinken said he supported the provision of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine.

He recalled that about three years ago he had called on the Donald Trump administration to arm Ukraine.

Read alsoBiden administration in search of nominee for top embassy post in Ukraine  Kuleba

It is also known that the nominee's grandfather in the early 20th century immigrated to the U.S. from Kyiv, now the capital of Ukraine.

Reporting by UNIAN
February 02, 2021 " Information Clearing House " - The death spiral of the American Empire will not be halted with civility. It will not be halted with the 42 executive orders signed by Joe Biden, however welcome many are, especially since they can, with a new chief executive, be immediately revoked. It will not be halted by removing Donald Trump, and the crackpot conspiracy theorists, Christian fascists and racists who support him, from social media. It will not be halted by locking up the Proud Boys and the clueless protestors who stormed the Congress on January 6 and took selfies in Mike Pences Senate chair. It will not be halted by restoring the frayed alliances with our European allies or rejoining the World Health Organization or the Paris Climate Agreement. All of these measures are window dressing, masking the root cause of the demise of America  unchecked oligarchic power and greed. The longer wealth is funneled upwards into the hands of a tiny, oligarchic cabal, who put Biden into office and whose interests he assiduously serves, we are doomed.

Once an oligarchy seizes power, deforming governing institutions to exclusively serve their narrow interests and turning the citizenry into serfs, there are only two options, as Aristotle pointed out  tyranny or revolution. The staggering concentration of wealth and obscene avarice of the very rich now dwarfs the hedonism and excesses of the worlds most heinous despots and wealthiest capitalists of the past. In 2015, shortly before he died, Forbes estimated David Rockefellers net worth was $3 billion. The Shah of Iran looted an estimated $1 billion from his country. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos amassed between $5 and $10 billion. And the former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was worth about a billion. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are each at $180 billion.

The new wealth comes from a cartel capitalism far more concentrated and far more criminal than any of the cartels built by the old robber barons of the 19th century. It was made possible by Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton who, in exchange for corporate money to fund their campaigns and later Clintons foundation and post-presidency opulent lifestyle, abolished the regulations that once protected the citizenry from the worst forms of monopoly exploitation. The demolishing of regulations made possible the largest upwards transference of wealth in American history. Whatever you say about Trump, he at least initiated moves to break up Facebook, Google, Amazon and the other Silicon Valley monopolists, none of which will happen under Biden, whose campaign these corporations bankrolled. And that has to be one of the reasons these digital platforms disappeared Trump from social media.

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The new robber barons peddle the classless identity politics of the Democratic Party to deflect attention from their stranglehold on wealth and power, as well as their exploitation of workers, especially those that make their products overseas. Corporations such as Walmart have 80 percent of their suppliers in China. These corporations are full partners in Chinas state-controlled capitalism and suppression of basic labor rights and wages, where most Chinese workers make less than $350 a month and toil in Dickensian conditions.

There is no political will among the ruling elites to defend the rights of Amazon workers who are aggressively blocked by the company, the countrys second largest employer, from forming unions, work all night in drafty, COVID-19-infested warehouses or deliver packages for $15 an hour, which leaves thousands of Amazon workers dependent on food stamps. Likewise, this is no political will among the elites to defend the rights of workers in China, often forced to work 100 hours of overtime a month in sweatshops for as little as $2 or $3 an hour.

History has repeatedly illustrated the dire consequences of extreme social inequality. It foments revolutionary ferment, which can come from the left or the right. Either a leftwing populism that smashes oligarchic power takes control or its counterfeit, a rightwing populism, built on the poisoned solidarity of hate, racism, vengeance and violence  and bankrolled by the hated oligarchs that use it as a front to solidify tyranny. We are barreling towards the latter.

The soaring levels of social inequality are laid out in stark statistics that are reflected back to us in the pain, despair and suffering afflicting perhaps 70 percent of the US public. The wealth of US billionaires has increased to over $1.1 trillion since mid-March 2020, when the pandemic began to ravage the country, a nearly 40 percent leap during the past 10 months. The total wealth of Americas 660 billionaires, $4.1 trillion, is two-thirds higher than the $2.4 trillion in total wealth held by the bottom half of the population, 165 million Americans. An additional eight million Americans were recently classified as newly poor as the poverty rate increased 2.4 percentage points from June to December 2020. It is now at 11.8 percent, although many economists argue that the official poverty rate of $26,500 for a family of four masks the fact that perhaps half the country lives in real poverty.

The official poverty rate for Blacks has climbed 5.4 percent to 23.6 percent just between June and December, but again is probably at least twice that number. Blacks, along with Hispanic and Native American people, are also dying from COVID-19 at almost three times the rate of white people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, despite the fact that many Blacks work in the health care industry they are being inoculated at percentages far below those of whites. In Maryland, for example, Black people make up 30 percent of the population and 40 percent of the health care industry yet account for just 16 percent of those who have been vaccinated. Since the beginning of the pandemic, landlords have filed more than 227,000 evictions in just the 27 cities in five states that the Princeton Eviction Lab tracks  and that is with a national eviction moratorium. Twelve million renters, who owe an average of $5,600 in back rent and utilities, now face being thrown out of their homes. By the end of 2020 there were an estimated 50 million food-insecure Americans, up from 35 million in 2019. One in four households with children, according to a report from Feeding America, experienced food insecurity in 2020.

The response by the ruling oligarchs is the equivalent of tossing coins from their gilded carriages to the despised masses. The Democrats have proposed raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15, but not until 2025. Biden has actually called for reducing the proposed third stimulus check  a $1,200 check for eligible adults was issued last spring and a $600 per person check was issued earlier this month  from $2,000 to $1,400. The oligarchs have bristled at even these meager responses. Larry Summers, Clintons treasury secretary who orchestrated the Wall Street bailout in 2008, called the $2,000 checks  crumbs compared to the trillions handed to Wall Street speculators - a serious mistake. Elon Musk, now one of the two richest humans, said that a second government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people.

The response by a morally bankrupt ruling class are symbolic, given that we are enduring the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and an estimated one-third of all Americans are struggling to pay their bills. It illustrates how woefully disconnected the elites are from the lives of those they dominate.

Unless families receive regular monthly payments of at least $2,000 until the pandemic ends; unless the country has access to universal health care, especially during a national health crisis; unless the nation radically pivots from fossil fuels to halt the looming ecocide; unless the crippling debts that are draining the bank accounts of American families are reduced or forgiven; unless there is an unassailable moratorium on evictions and foreclosures; and unless manufacturers at home and overseas are forced through stringent trade agreements and labor laws to pay decent wages, abide by strict labor regulations and permit independent unions, the oligarchs will only accelerate their pillage.

The class warfare is global. Not until workers in sweatshops in China, Mexico, Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh are lifted out of poverty will the American working class be lifted out of poverty. This class war is the real fight, which corporate-owned media platforms and bankrupt liberals refuse to discuss.

In a real sense all life is inter-related, Martin Luther King wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.

Liberalism, which Rosa Luxemburg called by its more appropriate name  opportunism  is an integral component of capitalism. When the citizens grow restive, or when capitalism goes into crisis as it did in the 1930s, liberals ameliorate capitalisms cruel excesses. Franklin Delano Roosevelt correctly said his greatest achievement was that he saved capitalism.

But capitalism, Luxemburg argued, is an enemy that can never be appeased. Liberal reforms, such as the New Deal legislation, are used to temporarily stymie organized resistance and then later, when things grow quiet, dismantled to reinstitute capitalist slavery. The history of capitalism illustrates this constant seesaw between liberal reforms and unregulated, capitalist exploitation. The last century of labor struggles in the United States, which has seen unions largely obliterated, and the advent of neoliberalism, austerity, rampant militarism and deindustrialization amply prove Luxemburgs thesis.

Fascism is the result of a failed liberalism. With liberalism corrupted, as it has been in the hands of the Democratic Party since Bill Clinton, all self-identified liberals have left to peddle is cloying appeals for tolerance and civility, shorn of economic justice. This politesse, which epitomizes the Biden White House, fuels an animus towards the ruling elites, along with the feckless liberals and the liberal values they purport to defend.

The elevation of women, people of color and those with different sexual orientations to managerial positions in the oligarchic state is not an advance. It is a species of corporate colonialism. It is branding. It is the substitution of cultural politics for real politics.

When the Belgian colonizers could no longer openly exploit the Congo, they installed the corrupt and compliant puppet Joseph-Desire Mobutu, after, of course, assassinating the courageous independence leader and first prime minister Patrice Lumumba. Mobuto, who embezzled between $4 and $15 billion during his bloody dictatorial reign, served his colonial masters until the end. Expect the same prostrations before corporate power from the diverse appointments in Bidens cabinet and, should it be required, the same state repression.

The political, cultural and judicial systems in any capitalist state are centered around the sanctity of private property. Laws and legislation are instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or, as Luxemburg writes, those who have some property against those who have none at all. This inherent bias in capitalist societies, however, becomes criminal once monopolies, from Wall Street Banks to Silicon Valley, seize the organs of power. These monopolists create, by abolishing regulation and oversight, as political economist Karl Polanyi writes, first a mafia economy and then, inevitably, a mafia state.

The Democrats and Republicans have legalized a level of greed and fraud that even heirs of the robber barons thought unsustainable. David Rockefellers enlightened capitalism, however self-serving, along with his call for a nation of stakeholders and his formation of the Trilateral Commission, have been pushed aside to license unchecked corporate pillage.

Bill Clinton and his two treasury secretary enablers, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, instituted a system of unregulated capitalism that has resulted in financial anarchy. This anarchic form of capitalism, where everything, including human beings and the natural world, is a commodity to exploit until exhaustion or collapse, is justified by identity politics. It is sold as enlightened liberalism as opposed to the old pro-union class politics that saw the Democrats heed the voices of the working class. Financial anarchy and short-term plunder have destroyed long-term financial and political stability. It has also pushed the human species, along with most other species, closer and closer towards extinction.

The more workers are dehumanized, as Polanyi notes, the more the ruling elites are morally degraded. Unheard-of wealth creates unheard-of poverty. Scholars proclaimed in unison that a science had been discovered which put the laws governing mans world beyond any doubt, Polanyi writes of laissez-faire capitalists. It was at the behest of these laws that compassion was removed from the hearts, and a stoic determination to renounce human solidarity in the name of the greatest happiness of the greatest number gained the dignity of a secular religion. Workers, abandoned by the state, reach a point where they resemble more spectators that might haunt a nightmare than human beings.

The shipping of jobs overseas, where workers toil in conditions that replicate the worst abuses of the early industrial revolution, leaves those in the industrialized world unable to compete. A living wage, job security and benefits are replaced by the insecurity of the gig economy. This global market forces workers, whether in the Rust Belt or in China, to surrender before the dictates of their corporate masters. The bondage of the working class, at home and abroad, cannot be corrected by legal or legislative reform when the political system is hostage to corporate money and political office is defined by legalized bribery.

Global capitalism relentlessly searches the globe to exploit cheap, unorganized labor and plunder natural resources. This is its nature, as Karl Marx understood. It buys off or overthrows local elites. It blocks the ability of the developing world to become self-sufficient. At the same time, it strips workers in the industrialized world of good paying jobs, benefits and legal protections, pushing them into crippling debt peonage, which further swells the bank accounts of these global speculators. Its two unrelenting goals are the maximization of profit and the reduction of the cost of production, which demands that workers be disempowered and treated like prisoners. This global assault on the working class is fueling a global rage. And its visage, as we see among the white, dispossessed working class in America, can often be very ugly.

Apple, one of the most profitable companies in the world, is the epitome of enlightened global capitalism. WIRED reported that employees at Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Oracle have contributed nearly 20 times as much money to Biden as to Trump since the beginning of 2019. According to data released by the Federal Election Commission, which requires individuals who contribute $200 or more to a presidential campaign to report their employer, employees at these six companies have contributed $4,787,752 to Biden and just $239,527 to Trump.

Employees at Alphabet, Googles parent company, WIRED reported, are Bidens biggest financial backers in Silicon Valley. They donated nearly $1.8 million, more than one-third of the money raised from employees of the six companies. Open Secrets, a campaign finance watchdog, found that contributions from Alphabets employees and political action committee to the Biden campaign collectively exceed those from any other company. Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, Open Secrets found, account for five of the seven largest donors to the Biden campaign on that basis.

Apple in China, however, treats its workers little better than 19th-century serfs. Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai in Dying for an iPhone, chronicle the endemic labor abuses, including substandard wages and wage theft, long hours, union busting, a refusal to pay sick leave, unsafe labor conditions, a harsh work environment and pressure to meet quotas, that contribute to a high rate of worker suicides in factories that make Apple products. Workers are crammed into overcrowded dormitories next to factories to facilitate high-speed, round-the-clock production and are forced to put in as much as 130 overtime hours a month.

The disenfranchised white working class embraced Trump because he taunted and belittled the globalists and monopoly capitalists who destroyed their communities and their lives. For them, Trumps vulgarity was a welcome respite from the cloying language of inclusivity and political correctness used by the oligarchs to mask the crimes of monopoly capitalism. The connecting tissue, in the United States, between these disparate, disenfranchised groups of white workers is Christian fascism.

Biden, a tool of global oligarchy, who naively intends to resurrect the ancien regime, is paving the way for a frightening despotism, one where voices of dissent, from the left and the right, are censored and all who refuse to accept the new global order are labeled as domestic terrorists and pounded into submission. Societal breakdown, which is looming, brings with it grotesque political distortions. Trump was a symptom of this breakdown. He was not the disease. This dystopian future, one that will probably end in the United States in a form of Christian fascism, has been bequeathed to us by the ruling global elites, who in another era would have been found promenading through the halls of Versailles or the Forbidden City.
A judge with a history of belittling women has been yanked from a sex discrimination case by an appellate panel that said he suffocated a female plaintiffs access to fundamental fairness.

The case began going downhill when U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes quipped he would get credit for closing two cases when I crush you.

Finding he had prejudged and been arbitrary and unreasonable, the 5th U.S. Circuit ruled on Friday that Hughes should be removed from ruling on a psychology professors challenges against two universities and another judge must start from scratch. The cases have been reassigned to Judge Andrew S. Hanen.

A trio of male judges from the conservative circuit ruled that Hughes lumped in the womans complaints about her employer with other unrelated cases, he repeatedly failed to give her a chance to request documents through the discovery process and he did not allow the professor, Audrey K. Miller, to respond before dismissing her requests on the spot. The judge also made off-key remarks about how much Miller complained, and suggested the defense lawyers pursue a dismissal, they said.

Judges E. Grady Jolly, Leslie H. Southwick and Cory T. Wilson said in a opinion penned by Wilson that, Although we are never quick to second-guess a district courts management of discovery, we must do so here.

To put it simply, they said. the courts discovery restrictions suffocated any chance for Miller fairly to present her claims.

Miller should be entitled to a full and fair opportunity to make her case in a fair and impartial forum, the judges said, adding that, Fundamental to the judiciary is the publics confidence in the impartiality of our judges and the proceedings over which they preside.

Hughes did not respond to a request for comment. Lawyers on both sides did not respond to requests for comment.

Hughes, 79, a Houston native, has served since his appointment by President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

He has drawn attention and criticism for his remarks and rulings. He issued a rare order of ineptitude to a terrorism prosecutor from Washington, D.C., who showed up to his courtroom in a track suit. In 2013, the circuit criticized Hughes for dismissing comments allegedly made by a Fort Bend ISD official that if Barack Obama were to be elected president, the Statue of Liberty would have its torch replaced by a piece of fried chicken.

Lawyers responding to a 2019 Houston Bar Association poll found he needed the most improvement in being impartial, following the law, using lawyers time efficiently and being courteous to attorneys and witnesses.

The 5th Circuit admonished Hughes in 2018 after remarks to a female prosecutor about women that the court found demeaning, inappropriate and beneath the dignity of a federal judge.

The sanction in the criminal case came after Hughes said of a female prosecutor, It was a lot simpler when you guys wore dark suits, white shirts and navy ties We didnt let girls do it in the old days. Hughes previously explained to the Houston Chronicle he was speaking about an FBI agent and referring to the exclusion of women historically. He did not see his 2017 remarks as derogatory, he said.

The following year Hughes banished the female prosecutor in that case from his courtroom and told U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick, who stood up on her behalf, that he wouldnt budge on the matter.

In the current civil matter before Hughes, Miller claimed Sam Houston State University and University of Houston-Downtown discriminated against her in job opportunities because she was a woman. The circuit found Hughes moved quickly through the court proceedings not giving Miller a chance to fully make her case. The court failed to give the Huntsville professor adequate opportunity to respond to his plans to dismiss her claims.

The judge then dismissed both cases sua sponte, without prompting by the parties.

Tom Berg, a criminal attorney who has appeared in Hughes courtroom many times, noted that while he wasnt involved in the case, A fair reading of Miller suggests that Judge Hughes stepped in it again, as the court cites a previous Hughes case critical of his penchant to be preemptive.

Berg said that such rulings are rare and he suspects that the outcome of Millers case would have been the same if shed been given the full range of rights. Nonetheless, due process entitles a litigant a fair chance to present her case, he said. This is not about winning the cases but presenting them.

gabrielle.banks@chron.com
Bosch Rexthon South Africa announces new group marketing manager

Gillian Allin has been announced as the new group marketing manager for Bosch Rexthon South Africa, replacing Willem Gijzelaar who recently retired from the position. Allin joined Bosch Rexroth South Africa Group in February 2011 and has worked her way up within the marketing department. Working for the group marketing department for ten years, she has gained massive experience in its products, solutions, services and its relevant target market.
Several new areas identified for follow up that demonstrate potential to host additional high-grade mineralization

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Silver Dollar Resources Inc. (CSE: SLV) (OTCQB: SLVDF) ("Silver Dollar" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an overview of the results from the compilation and reinterpretation of all historical exploration data on the La Joya Silver property (the "Property") located in Durango, Mexico (click here to see a video on the Property).

Highlights from database studies performed by technical advisors Tetra Tech Inc. include:

Newly identified areas demonstrate the potential to host additional high-grade mineralization.

Skarn hosted mineralization has similarities to a recent discovery in the area.

Fault kinematic study highlights additional targets.

Additional untested geophysical targets identified.

Geochemical assessment of historical drilling data expands mineralization understanding.

New 3D geological and mineralization model generation.

In advance of restarting drilling and exploration activities on the Property, Silver Dollar requested that Tetra Tech conduct comprehensive desktop studies of La Joya's extensive historical database to identify additional areas of opportunity that exist on the Property. These studies included a detailed review of historical geophysical, geochemical, and regional exploration data, and detailed comparisons to nearby properties. Silver Dollar is pleased to report these studies have successfully identified several new highly prospective regions with the potential to host additional high-grade mineralization at La Joya. Findings of the various studies are summarized below:

La Joya Mineralization

The skarn hosted mineralization at La Joya has geological and mineralization similarities to a major discovery Pan American Silver Corp. reported last year that is located east of the current La Colorada mine workings (see their news release of August 4, 2020).

The geological similarities between the recent discovery at La Colorada and the La Joya property include:

La Joya is comprised of epithermal veins and mantos style (flat-lying layers) mineralization, which progresses into a garnet-pyroxene skarn, magmatic-hydrothermal breccia, proximal skarn, and an apparent overprinted Cu-Mo porphyry signature, which is nearly identical to the geology, alteration, and mineralization observed at La Colorada.

Mineralization at La Joya is hosted in an extensive network of structural veins, similar to those discovered at La Colorada.

La Joya may represent a stratigraphic analogue of La Colorada.

Figure 1: La Joya Silver Property location and area mines.

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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7232/73388_fc288d48a4ae3b89_001full.jpg

Fault Kinematic Study Highlights Additional Targets

An in-depth review of historical geophysics allowed for a more detailed interpretation of regional faults. These regional faults were not considered during the previous modelling in 2012 and have provided more in-depth insights into where the La Joya deposit sits in a regional structural geology sense. This study has allowed the deposit's structural corridors to be better constrained and has identified a NE-SW trending controlling fault system that is a new target for mineralization. The analysis further highlighted the extensive local scale faulting that served as the conduit for the observed mineralization at the site. Additional structures have been identified onsite, which remain untested and represent additional high priority exploration targets.

Figure 2: Faults are coloured based on projection from the magnetic and gravity datasets.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7232/73388_fc288d48a4ae3b89_002full.jpg

Additional Untested Geophysical Targets Identified

A detailed review of the historical geophysical database discovered high-quality electromagnetic (EM) and induced polarization (IP) data. When the data was compared against the historical drilling database, multiple EM conductors were identified which have not been historically tested and represent significant exploration targets. A substantial gravity anomaly has also been identified to the south of the current extent of drilling the La Joya property. The source of this gravity anomaly remains unexplained and it will be the focus of additional work moving forward.

Geochemical Assessment of Historical Drilling Data Expands Mineralization Understanding

Tetra Tech undertook a detailed review of the historical drilling and assay database using Reflex's ioGASTM software, an advanced software that utilizes a wide range of quantitative tools to gain additional insight into the database. The ioGAS study identified the subtle geochemical signatures of the numerous geological units onsite to allow for more accurate modelling and spatial relationships. The geochemical modelling also successfully defined a unique "chemical signature" of the mineralization hosting mantos units. These unique mantos signatures were then used in Seequent Leapfrog Geo 3D software to re-constrain and model the sub-horizontal mantos previously identified and modelled.

The historical 2013 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) completed by previous operators did not utilize this advanced geochemical signature analysis technique during previous modeling efforts. As such, the assessment of the drill data in ioGAS provided Tetra Tech a secondary, and updated check on the interpretations and models developed for the historical PEA.

New 3D Geological and Mineralization Model Generation

An updated geological and mineralization model was generated using Leapfrog Geo 3D to create a detailed geologic model that can be used in supporting future resource studies and developing high priority drill targets for exploration campaigns. This work synthesized the extensive geochemical, structural, and geophysical studies into a more comprehensive model. Additionally, through the aid of the ioGAS studies, the geological database underwent re-interpretation allowing for more accurate modelling of the geological units present on site and the remodeling of mineralization. As a result, the updated model was able to identify the following:

Mineralized mantos units appear to be more continuous than previously modelled.

Higher grade mineralization appears to correlate to where the mantos intersects specific structures.

High-grade structural oreshoot potential identified, which have yet to be drill tested and represent a high priority target.

High-grade mineralization within the skarn also appears to be associated with local inflections (possible fault offsets) of the underlying intrusion. These inflections have not entirely been drill tested and represent additional high-grade mineralization potential.

Figure 3: Mantos grade models in plan view. Zones remain open in all directions.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7232/73388_fc288d48a4ae3b89_003full.jpg

Figure 4: Mantos grade models in cross-sectional view. Zones remain open in all directions.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7232/73388_fc288d48a4ae3b89_004full.jpg

"We believe La Joya is a sleeping giant as this comprehensive geological exercise has given us a fresh perspective on the exploration potential of the Property," said Mike Romanik, president of Silver Dollar. "The desktop studies using the latest exploration software have identified several new untested targets that we are in the process of prioritizing for follow up this year."

About the La Joya Project:

Silver Dollar has an exclusive right to acquire up to a 100% interest in the La Joya property (the "Property"). Under the terms of the definitive agreement between Silver Dollar and First Majestic (see news release of August 10, 2020), Silver Dollar has been granted an exclusive option to acquire an initial 80-per-cent interest and, if exercised, a second option to acquire an additional 20-per-cent interest for an aggregate 100-per-cent interest in the Property. Located in the southeastern portion of Durango State in the Mexican Silver Belt, the Property consists of 15 mineral concessions totalling 4,646 hectares and hosts the main mineralized trend (MMT), Santo Nino and Coloradito deposits.

First Majestic acquired the Property as part of its acquisition of SilverCrest Mines Inc. (SilverCrest) in 2015. A total of 182 historical drill holes, totalling ~51,600 metres (m), have been completed on the property to date. This includes 125 holes, totalling ~36,041 m, drilled by SilverCrest between 2010 and 2014. In 2012, a historical inferred mineral resource estimate for silver-copper-gold (Ag-Cu-Au) and for tungsten-molybdenum (W-Mo) mineralization was calculated from 78 SilverCrest drill holes (25,812.65 m) and 11 validated historical drill holes (4,272.63 m). Silver Dollar has not completed the necessary data verification and work required to update the historical mineral resource estimate and does not rely upon it as being current.

The Property is situated approximately 75 kilometres directly southeast of the state capital city of Durango in a prolific mineralized region with past-producing and operating mines including Grupo Mexico's San Martin Mine, Industrias Penoles's Sabinas Mine, Pan American Silver's La Colorada Mine, and First Majestic's La Parrilla and Del Toro Silver Mines. Access and infrastructure near the property are considered excellent with a highway and power lines nearby.

Cam Norton, P.Geo., of Tetra Tech Canada Inc., is the independent "Qualified Person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the technical content in this press release.

About Silver Dollar Resources Inc.

Silver Dollar Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company focused on creating shareholder value by finding and developing economic precious and base metal deposits. Having completed its initial public offering in May 2020, the Company trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol "SLV" and on the OTCQB under "SLVDF". Silver Dollar's projects are located in two of the prolific mining jurisdictions in the world and include the advanced exploration and development stage La Joya Silver Project in Durango, Mexico, and the discovery-stage Pakwash Lake and the Longlegged Lake properties in the Red Lake Mining District of Ontario, Canada. The Company has an aggressive growth strategy and is actively reviewing projects in mining-friendly jurisdictions internationally for potential acquisition.

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 18:41:33|Editor: huaxia

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Xixi National Wetland Park, located on the outskirts of Hangzhou, is the first national wetland park in China. With a total area of 11.5 square kilometers, it has helped to restore the local ecology. During an inspection tour in Zhejiang Province, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the park and stressed the importance of protecting wetland ecology and the aquatic environment. Xixi Wetland was once under threat from overdevelopment in early 2000. In 2003, with the advocacy and support of Xi Jinping, then secretary of the Zhejiang provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the protection project of Xixi Wetland was launched. In 2004, staff of the former State Forestry Administration came to Xixi Wetland and proposed to establish a wetland park here. It's the first of its kind in China to protect the wetland and allow citizens to get closer to nature. In 2005, Xixi National Wetland Park was opened to the public. Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter, urging the wetland park to improve its work on protection, management, operation and research areas, making Xixi and Hangzhou more beautiful. In November 2009, Xixi Wetland was listed as a Wetland of International Importance according to the Convention of Wetlands. It has seen increased varieties of vascular plants from 221 to 700, and birds from 79 to 186 over the years. Starting from Xixi, China has established 899 national wetland parks over the past decade, forging harmony between human beings and nature.
Russian e-newspaper Rusvesna has run an article by Dr. Alexander Korolev from the Higher School of Economics saying that Vietnam has gained high prestige in the region and the world with success in many areas in 2020.

The 13th National Party Congress is an important political event of Vietnam (Photo: VNA)

The article noted that Vietnams activities as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council received positive feedback from the international community. Another important achievement of the country was the adoption of a resolution initiated by Vietnam on cooperation between the ASEAN and the UN, it said.

The author also highlighted Vietnams strong performance as the ASEAN Chair in 2020, during which the association reached important agreements in socio-economic areas, particularly the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with the involvement of 15 countries.

Last year, for the first time, the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM ) approved a joint statement and a three-year plan of actions, it said.

Particularly, the article underlined that Vietnams multilateral and responsible external policies contributed to the countrys success with balanced external policies and external economic activities. So far, Vietnam has joined 14 free trade agreements with many world powers, including Japan, the UK, the Republic of Korea, the European Union, and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Dr. Korolev highlighted the role of ASEAN and Vietnam in combating COVID-19 with the foundation of a COVID-19 response fund, an ASEAN Regional Reserve of Medical Supplies, a Center On Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases, and new standards on dealing with emergency situations in health care. At the same time, dozens of online meeting were held within the ASEAN framework and between the association and its partners.

The author also called attention to Vietnams economic success despite impacts of the pandemic, becoming one of the countries with highest economic growth.

Dr. Korolev attributed the success to the strong leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and effective governance of the government as well as the consensus of the entire political system and people.

At the same time, many Russian experts have expressed their belief in the success of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Associate Prof. Dr. Artyom Lutkin from the Far Eastern Federal University of Russia held that the congress is an important event of not only Vietnam but the international community.

He showed belief that Vietnams geo-political and geo-economic position of Vietnam will continue to rise.

According to Lutkin, Russia pays great attention to Vietnams stable and dynamic development as the country is a long-lasting friend and the most important strategic partner of Russia in Southeast Asia, and Vietnam has increasing role and contributions to the political and economic situation in the world.

For his part, Ivan Pisarev, another expert from the DVFU, noted that Vietnam was among few countries enjoying economic growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The enhanced position of the 100-million-strong country means Vietnamese products will be available in more markets and in Russia, he said.

Earlier, Alexander Sokolovsky, an expert from the DVFU and President of the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association in Primorsky lauded the leadership capacity of the Communist Party of Vietnam, stressing that the maintenance of economic growth amid COVID-19 pandemic was an evidence of the stability of Vietnam./.VNA
WASHINGTON - House Democrats made their case to convict former president Donald Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in a sweeping impeachment brief filed with the Senate on Tuesday, accusing Trump of jeopardizing the foundations of American democracy by whipping his supporters into a "frenzy" for the sole purpose of retaining his hold on the presidency.

In the brief, the House's nine impeachment managers made a case that Trump was "singularly responsible" for the mayhem, accusing him of "a betrayal of historic proportions." They argued that he is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, the threshold for conviction laid out in the Constitution, primarily because he used the powers of his office to advance his personal political interests at the expense of the nation.

To bolster their case, the managers turned to the words and actions of the country's founders, citing passages from the Federalist Papers and contrasting Trump's efforts to stay in office despite his electoral loss with George Washington's insistence upon relinquishing the presidency after two terms in the interest of preserving democracy.

"The Framers of the Constitution feared a President who would corrupt his office by sparing 'no efforts or means whatever to get himself re-elected,' " the House Democrats wrote, adding: "They were well aware of the danger posed by opportunists who incited mobs to violence for political gain. They drafted the Constitution to avoid such thuggery, which they associated with 'the threat of civil disorder and the early assumption of power by a dictator.' "

"If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a Joint Session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense," they wrote, "it is hard to imagine what would be."

Washington Post photo by Bill O'Leary.

Hours later, Trump's new defense attorneys filed a 14-page response to the House article of impeachment, denying that Trump incited the crowd at his Jan. 6 rally to storm the Capitol and "engage in destructive behavior."

While the former president's attorneys stopped short of embracing his baseless claims that the election was rigged, they defended his right to argue that massive fraud led to his defeat, a false claim echoed by his supporters as they ransacked the Capitol that day.

Democrats drew a direct line between Trump's rhetoric and the violence. But Trump's defense team argued that free-speech protections allowed him to make such allegations without penalty.

"The 45th President exercised his First Amendment right under the Constitution to express his belief that the election results were suspect," the brief states.

"Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th President's statements were accurate or not, and he therefore denies they were false," his attorneys added.

The twin filings offer a preview of how the two sides will present their cases when the Senate trial begins Feb. 9. A majority of GOP senators have signaled their plans to acquit Trump. But House Democrats made clear that they intend to force Republicans to contemplate the terror of the Jan. 6 attack, which led to the deaths of one Capitol Police officer and four rioters. In addition, two officers, one with District of Columbia police, have since died by suicide.

The impeachment managers argued that Trump laid the groundwork for the insurrection in the preceding weeks with his relentless attacks on the integrity of the election and attempts to subvert the results through pressure on state officials.

Trump's defense team rejected that claim, addressing an episode cited in the House impeachment article in which he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, early this year to discuss that state's election results.

They argued that Trump's exhortation during the Jan. 2 phone call that Raffensperger "find" the votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory was simply an expression of the president's belief that a careful examination of the evidence would produce a more accurate vote count that favored Trump.

David Schoen, one of Trump's new attorneys, told The Washington Post in interviews this week that he did not plan to put forward a defense based on allegations of election fraud, a strategy Trump was said to be pushing his previous legal team to embrace.

On Tuesday, Democrats seized on the defense filing's references to Trump's fraud claims, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saying that by citing baseless allegations Trump's attorneys proved that "they have no argument against the charges."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., meanwhile, said he plans to listen to the arguments next week. Although McConnell voted last week with most Republicans on an unsuccessful motion to declare an impeachment of a former president unconstitutional, on Tuesday he said, "I think that is an interesting constitutional question."

In their brief, the Democratic managers cited Trump's behavior during the insurrection, when he initially did nothing to quell the rioters. They cited Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who said senior White House aides told him Trump was "delighted" at the mayhem he was watching on television.

There is no evidence, the brief added, that Trump called Vice President Mike Pence or any legislative leaders "to check on their safety during the attack."

In fact, lawmakers and other allies called, texted or tweeted at Trump to implore him to step in and help restore order, the Democrats noted - evidence that they believed Trump was responsible for the violence and had the power to stop it.

In their response, Trump's attorneys insisted that he never attempted to interfere with the counting of the electoral college votes in a joint session of Congress that day.

When Trump encouraged the rallygoers to go to the Capitol and "fight like hell," the attorneys wrote, it had nothing to do with "the action at the Capitol" but "was clearly about the need to fight for election security in general."

As Trump concluded his speech that day, he told the crowd, "We're going to the Capitol," adding: "We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country."

Democrats noted in their brief that one call Trump did make to the Capitol during the unrest was intended for a close ally, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. - not to check on his well-being but to "try to persuade him to delay and further obstruct" the count.

Trump's attorneys did not dwell on the mayhem itself, whereas the Democratic managers used dramatic imagery captured by cellphone footage and media reports of "terrified" lawmakers trapped inside the building who "prayed and tried to build makeshift defenses while rioters smashed the entryway.' "

In their brief, managers compiled what had unfolded inside the Capitol that day: members donning gas masks and calling loved ones for fear that they would not survive the assault; Capitol Police officers dragging furniture to barricade the House chamber; the staff of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hiding under a table with the lights out for hours as they listened to the rioters just outside the door.

"One Member asked his chief of staff to protect his visiting daughter and son-in-law 'with her life' - which she did by standing guard at the door clutching a fire iron while his family hid under a table," the brief stated, in a reference to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the lead impeachment manager.

House managers are hoping to call witnesses in next week's trial, including possibly police officers who fought to fend off the attackers. The prospect of injured police officers describing the brutality of pro-Trump rioters to Republicans who regularly present themselves as advocates of law enforcement could make for an extraordinary nationally televised scene. The mob injured more than 140 police officers, many seriously.

However, Senate Democrats and Republicans alike are reluctant to allow witnesses because it would extend the trial's length, possibly by weeks. Democrats have said they are eager to focus their attention on President Biden's agenda, while Republicans are ready to change the subject from Trump's role in the Jan. 6 riot, which has divided the GOP ranks.

Tuesday's brief methodically laid out the Democrats' legal argument for conviction. In addition to asserting that Trump is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, the impeachment managers argued that Trump is not protected by the First Amendment's freedom-of-speech provision, which was never intended, they wrote, to allow a president to "provoke lawless action if he loses at the polls."

Democrats also rejected the claim embraced by many Republicans that it is unconstitutional to convict a president after he has left office - an argument that Trump's attorneys made reference to multiple times in their brief.

"There is no 'January Exception' to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution," the House Democrats wrote. "A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last."

To bolster their case, the managers cited examples in which the Senate had tried officials who had already left office - albeit none of them presidents - and a lineup of conservative officials and scholars to make the point that departing or resigning is not a way of escaping culpability.

Plus, they argued, "because President Trump was in office at the time he was impeached," the Senate has no choice but to proceed.

The managers pointed to Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which reads that "the Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments."

They quoted Michael McConnell, a former appeals court judge appointed by President George W. Bush: "The key word is 'all.' . . . It does not say 'the Senate has power to try impeachment against sitting officers.' "

The argument probably will be a pivotal one after 45 of the 50 Republican senators voted last week to support a resolution from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that sought to declare that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office.

Trump's attorneys and his supporters in the Senate are expected to further drill at the argument that the trial is invalid. Such an argument is expected to be embraced by many GOP senators who are loath to weigh in on the question of whether Trump incited the riot.

The managers' brief warns that the consequences of taking such a procedural exception to the case before them would be dire.

"If the Senate does not try President Trump (and convict him) it risks declaring to all future Presidents that there will be no consequences, no accountability, indeed no Congressional response at all if they violate their Oath to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution' in their final weeks," the managers wrote.

House Democrats said Trump's embrace of baseless accusations that the 2020 election was stolen from him helped foment his supporters' attack on the Capitol. When those false assertions failed to overturn the election, the Democrats wrote, Trump "summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue."

They added, "The Framers themselves would not have hesitated to convict on these facts."

The House impeachment managers urged senators to bar Trump from serving again in elected office: "This is not a case where elections alone are a sufficient safeguard against future abuse; it is the electoral process itself that President Trump attacked and that must be protected from him and anyone else who would seek to mimic his behavior. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a case that more clearly evokes the reasons why the Framers wrote a disqualification power into the Constitution."

- - -

The Washington Post's Tom Hamburger and Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.
STAMFORD  Fotis Dulos longtime friend and former attorney plans to testify against his ex-girlfriend in the Jennifer Dulos case, a prosecutor confirmed Tuesday.

During a virtual court hearing, Assistant States Attorney Daniel Cummings said Kent Mawhinney will be among the states witnesses if Michelle Troconis case heads to trial.

Obviously, that could change, Cummings added.

Mawhinney and Troconis have each been released on bond after pleading not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder charges in the death and disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.

After 10 months in jail, Mawhinney was released on a reduced bond in October. The release occurred about six weeks after he met with state police investigators, according to Troconis attorney, Jon Schoenhorn.

During Tuesdays hearing, Schoenhorn questioned the validity of Mawhinneys statements made during the videotaped interview in August. Schoenhorn, who received the video in November as part of the discovery process in the case, called Mawhinney a jailhouse informant who was trying to exonerate himself from any misconduct.

In the video, Schoenhorn said Mawhinney claimed that Troconis and Fotis Dulos tried to solicit him in a conspiracy to do away with Jennifer Dulos.

Through court motions, Schoenhorn has sought to determine whether Mawhinney has received any preferential treatment or consideration from the state following the meeting with investigators.

Schoenhorn filed a motion in December, seeking information pertaining to consideration, rewards or understanding regarding favorable treatment, compensation or reward of any kind in exchange for Mawhinneys cooperation with the state, the investigation or prosecution of this case.

Mawhinney, 55, was released from jail last October after posting a $246,000 bond after months of incarceration. Chief States Attorney Richard Colangelo Jr. did not object to the release and no bond hearing was held.

"Mawhinney is now the star witness," Schoenhorn said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. "I had assumed that since he was released, he had to give them something because he was released without any pushback from prosecutors."

Cummings said Mawhinney was not considered the states primary witness, but is one piece out of many pieces that point to the defendants guilt in this case.

But Schoenhorn still objected to the circumstances surrounding Mawhinneys release.

I have no discovery whatsoever about the circumstances that led your honor to release Mr. Mawhinney essentially without putting up a penny that he wont get back, he said.

Colangelo said Mawhinneys father was dealing with a substantial illness, which was a factor in the decision to release him. Mawhinney also had proven financial hardship, Colangelo said.

Judge John F. Blawie agreed it would have been preferable to have made the decision during a hearing, but challenged Schoenhorns suggestion that he had done so in a backdoor, wink-wink deal.

I still believe my actions at the time were correct, Blawie said.

During Tuesdays hearing, Blawie denied Schoenhorns request to have his clients GPS monitor removed. Schoenhorn had complained the ankle bracelet prevented Troconis from wearing a ski boot and spending time with her daughter, who is a competitive skier.

Im not hearing that its a substantial interference with her ability to make a living, Blawie said. Its recreational activities  granted its important for her daughter  but Im not hearing valid reasons to revisit the non-financial terms of her release.

However, Colangelo said the state would be willing to accommodate Troconis with a wrist monitor  instead of the ankle bracelet  if the technology was available.

Blawie said the court would be willing to revisit the matter in the future.

The court also heard the states arguments in favor of combining the three cases against Troconis, who was arrested three times and is also facing tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges.

The charges across these three cases are part and parcel of one another, Cummings said.

Colangelo filed a motion in November, seeking to consolidate the cases considering the cross-admissible evidence. Schoenhorn opposed the motion, saying it is still too early in the pretrial phase of the cases.

In a motion filed last week, Cummings detailed the states reason to merge the cases. He said the evidence is cross-admissible for many reasons: to prove identity, motive, an element of charged crimes and to show consciousness of guilt and complete the tragic story of Jennifers murder.

Doing otherwise would require the state to put on the same trial three times, disrupting the lives of the same witnesses over and over, and needlessly tying up courthouse staff, all for the benefit of nothing, Cummings wrote in last weeks motion.

Schoenhorn in court Tuesday again opposed the merger, calling the states efforts premature. He claimed the state would first need to show what cross-admissible evidence it has to warrant such a move.

Cummings, however, argued the state does not need to go into more detail than is required.

The state does not need to hold (Schoenhorns) hand and explain our case to him, Cummings argued. He needs to do his own legwork and build his own case.

Blawie did not make a ruling on the motion.

Blawie is still weighing Schoenhorns request to change the venue of the hearings to the Judicial District in Hartford. Schoenhorn has argued the accusations against his client are alleged to have happened in the Hartford area. Prosecutors contend the Norwalk/Stamford Judicial District remains the appropriate venue for a trial.

Still under review are Schoenhorns motion requesting Blawie to dismiss evidence tampering charges based on what he believes are inaccuracies in the arrest warrant affidavit filed by state police, as well as another motion in which he claims the state has not provided him with evidence key to his clients defense. In the latter motion, Schoenhorn also seeks sanctions against Colangelo.

Since Fotis Dulos died from a suicide last January, Troconis and Mawhinney have become the focus of a case that has garnered international attention.

Police said Fotis Dulos was lying in wait for his estranged wife to return from dropping off their five children at school on May 24, 2019. Police said Jennifer Dulos was the victim of a serious physical assault in the garage of her home, according to arrest warrants. She would not have survived the attack without immediate medical attention, the warrants state.

Jennifer Dulos has been presumed dead although her body has never been recovered.

State police, who have spent months searching for Jennifer Dulos, returned to a Farmington home previously owned by Fotis Dulos real estate development company, the Fore Group, last month to follow up on old leads in the case.

Authorities have not said if anything was discovered on the property, but an expert with a ground-penetrating radar and a crew with an excavator were brought in to aid in the search.

A grieving widow has revealed her husband died of coronavirus just three weeks after beating cancer.

Eugene Courtney, 63, fell ill just two days after celebrating getting the all-clear from prostrate cancer. Just 18 days later he died at Royal Lancashire Infirmary.

His wife of 13 years, Kim, said 'I will spend my entire life missing him' as she described feeling 'totally empty' after his death last week.

The couple celebrated Mr Courtney beating prostate cancer on January 4, but he suddenly fell ill just two days later and was rushed to hospital by ambulance.

Doctors initially thought he had suffered from a heart attack but he later tested positive for coronavirus.

As his condition rapidly deteriorated - he struggled to breathe on his own and his kidneys were failing - he was put on a ventilator.

Kim Courtney (left), 61, said she felt 'totally empty' after her husband of 13 years Eugene (right), 63, died three weeks after his Covid-19 diagnosis.

The couple celebrated Mr Courtney beating prostate cancer on January 4, but he suddenly fell ill just two days later and was rushed to hospital by ambulance. Pictured, on their wedding day in 2008

Mrs Courtney said she was left feeling 'totally devastated' after hearing her husband's final words, 'don't worry wee woman, I love you'.

She said after he beat cancer they thought 'nothing bad' could happen to them, as the worst had already passed.

Mrs Courtney, from Morecambe, Lancs., said: 'When he got prostate cancer I thought that was the most devastating thing in the world, but he was so positive.

'He told me as long as we were together, we would be fine. I was his wee woman, and he was my wee man.

'When he beat the cancer I was so overjoyed, it was the best news I'd ever heard. I thought nothing bad could happen to us now.'

Doctors at Royal Lancaster Infirmary initially thought he had suffered from a heart attack but he later tested positive for coronavirus. Pictured, Mr Courtney after he was cleared of cancer

Mr Courtney died on Jan 25 after 18 days in hospital. His wife was by his side in his final moments and held his hand for nearly two hours after he passed because she 'didn't want to let him go'.

She said: 'He was so ill. I've never seen anyone like that before. It was the most difficult thing I've ever had to go through.

'I kept telling myself he was going to make it but when I walked into the ICU for the first time and I saw all the patients I was terrified.

'I saw him laid on the bed. All I could see was his body which was going up and down on his bed which was the only thing keeping him alive - but he wasn't alive really.

'I gave him lots of kisses and told him he was wonderful and told him I'd always love him.

Mr Courtney was clapped out of hospital and rang the bell to celebrate the end of his cancer treatment at the start of last month

'I told him he'd always be my wee man and I would always be his wee woman, and thanked him for everything he'd done. I will spend my entire life missing him.'

Mr Courtney was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April 2020, but had kept spirits up and told Kim as long as they were together they could 'fight anything head on'.

While he was going through radiotherapy treatment at Royal Preston Hospital, they made an offer on a bungalow where they planned to retire and live out their 'golden years'.

They had also planned to buy a motorhome and wanted to travel around Europe together during the warm summer months.

But the widow said she had to rescind the offer and the only plans she was making were for his funeral.

The grandmother-of-ten said: 'When you get bad news like that, you just try to forget. I remember one day he just held me and started crying.

While he was going through radiotherapy treatment at Royal Preston Hospital, they had made an offer on a bungalow where they planned to retire and live out their 'golden years'

'But he put on a brave face and said he was going to beat it. He told me he would have at least 20 of our best years still together.

'He got prostate cancer but said I shouldn't worry and that as long as we were together, we'd fight anything head on.

'He was going through treatment and said we would get through it all and we'd plan the rest of our lives.

'We'd get a motorhome and travel around the country. We made a bid on a bungalow. We were going to move into this new house.

'He said he wanted to just plan our future and live the rest of our lives together. I'm so hurt for him because he worked so hard all his life, and he had all these plans. He'd beaten the cancer, we had so much to look forward to.

'He worked his whole life, and we were just preparing for the next stage of our lives. Our golden years. To have it all whipped away. He deserved so much more. Now all I'm left to plan is his funeral.'

The couple met on Valentine's Day in 2004 when Mr Courtney surprised his future wife at the Shell garage where she worked as a cashier with flowers, a teddy bear and some sparkly shoes.

Taxi driver Mr Courtney would see Kim every so often but his advances were unsuccessful until November that year when they shared a kiss on a night out.

They married in 2008 which Mrs Courtney said was the 'happiest day' of her life.

She said: 'He was the kindest, most lovely soul in the world. The love of my life. Marrying him was the happiest day of my life.

'He was generous, and never thought about himself and only ever about what I wanted and what he thought would make me happy.

'I still expect him to walk through the doors each day, I don't know what life is without him.'

Mr Courtney, originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, is survived by six children, 14 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
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Its hard to imagine a business sector hit harder by COVID-19 than restaurants.

Many hands prepare and serve food. Diners sit in enclosed spaces, talking with masks off. If ever there was a vector for transmission, its eating out.

Yet Westport restaurant owners adapted. They ramped up takeout and delivery options. They moved tables apart, installed partitions and set up outdoor spaces - some with heating. They took lemons and made not just lemonade, but lemon meringue pie.

Not all survived. But kudos to the restaurateurs who persevered, providing as much normalcy - and great food  as possible, in a time of tremendous doubt and fear.

A special tip of the hat (plus big, well-deserved tips) to an especially enterprising group: the folks who took a great leap of faith, and opened up new restaurants while a pandemic raged.

By my count, Westport has welcomed 10 new dining spots since the lockdown last March. They offer a variety of cuisines in a variety of spaces, but the bottom line is the same: The took a chance on us. Now lets take a chance on them.

The newest is Capuli. Armando Brito, with 20 years of experience in the Bay Area, and his wife Andrea searched all over this area for the right spot. They found what they wanted in a former Post Road pizzeria (Westport, Joes, S&M). The interior was redesigned; its now a legit restaurant. The very creative California-Mediterranean cuisine is fresh, healthy and fantastic. (Pro tip: the salmon roulade, stuffed with crab meat and green onions and served with risotto cake and sauteed spinach.)

Just as new, around the corner is Basso. It was a popular Norwalk restaurant, but chef/owner Renato Donzelli relocated to a larger, more exciting yet still intimate space in the former Matsu Sushi. The two-story interior offers views of the river; jazz plays in the background while the Venezuela-born chef prepares flavorful, intriguing meals with Mediterranean/South American flair. An intriguing tapas menu complements the entrees. Along with the new Westport (used) Book Shop next door, Basso makes this formerly quiet stretch of Jesup Road exciting and fun.

In between Basso and Capuli, Don Memo and Walrus Alley share the original Town Hall building previously home to two other restaurants.

Noted restaurateur Bill Taibe (The Whelk, Kawa Ni) re-imagined Jesup Hall as Don Memo, with fun, creative takes on Mexican fare. Tortillas, tostadas and quesadillas are far from what youre used to; other dishes highlight flavorful combinations you never thought of. The interior is handsome; theres ample outdoor (heated) space in front. As with any Bill Taibe restaurant, you will be entertained and inspired.

Walrus Alley (formerly Rothbard Ale + Larder) is a first for Westport: Southern-inspired cuisine. With dishes like baby back ribs, pork shoulder, brisket and smoked turkey, and sides like collard greens, baked beans and cornbread, its a different - and welcome - dining experience. Walrus Alley began as Walrus + Carpenter in Black Rock eight years ago. Now, not far from Don Memo, Capuli, Basso, Jeera Thai, Finalmente, Amis, Wa-Fu, Spotted Horse and Manna Toast (see below), it makes this stretch of downtown a true destination.

Don Memo is not the only new Mexican restaurant in town. Across the river, Mexica opened in the space previously occupied by Senor Salsa (before that, Connollys and Artists Pub, among others). But where Senor Salsa offered typical, fast Mexican fare, Mexica is a true slow-down, admire-the-decor, enjoy-your-meal spot. The Osorio family - beloved for their Elm Street restaurant Villa del Sol (torn down for a parking lot) - has come up with another winner. The menu features traditional Mexican dishes with a twist, plus new items highlighting true Mexican food and culture. In just two months, its drawn raves from diners far and wide.

Hudson Malone took over the Main Street/Canal Street space most recently filled by 323 (and before that Bogeys, and a host of other restaurants). This one will stick around. With a large bar, classic cocktails, upscale pub grub and walls filled with Westport-themed decor, Hudson Malone has become a quick favorite. Owner Doug Quinn - formerly of PJ Clarkes - is your bow-tied, always-welcoming host.

Across the street is Outpost Pizza. Over on Church Lane, Manna Toast serves unique sourdough sandwiches and original salads. And though not classic restaurants, Organic Krush (Compo Acres Shopping Center) is a great addition to the fast-organic (duh) niche, while GG & Joes (the back of Parker Harding Plaza) was an instant smash with acai bowls, smoothies and other goodies.

To the surprise of many, Westports dining scene kicked up a notch during corona. Just imagine what will happen once the masks come off, the tables get closer and the good times roll.

Dan Woog is a Westport writer, and his Woog's World appears each Friday. He can be reached at dwoog@optonline.net. His personal blog is danwoog06880.com.

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Police have launched a manhunt for the self-appointed acting Harare town clerk Engineer Zvenyika Chawatama who evaded police arrest last week in a dramatic high speed chase along Simon Mazorodze and Chitungwiza roads in the capital.

Eng Chawatama is said to have appointed himself acting town clerk illegally and without authority and was making executive decisions with a bearing on council operations.

According to a letter dated December 8 last year, he was indeed appointed to act as town clerk, but for just three days while then acting town clerk Dr Prosper Chonzi was away on council business.

After the three days, Eng Chawatama refused to relinquish his acting position and continued to act as the town clerk, making the executive decisions.

This prompted the then acting mayor Councillor Luckson Mukunguma to write to Eng Chawatama on January 15, 2021 telling him that he was no longer the acting town clerk but the latter ignored the letter.

On January 18, Eng Chawatama, in total defiance of the letter he had received three days earlier, wrote to all heads of departments advising on the restructuring of council operations.

He signed the letter as the acting town clerk.

Clr Mukunguma then reported Eng Chawatama to the Special Anti-Corruption Unit for his illegal actions.

Clr Mukunguma said Eng Chawatama was also nullifying lawful decisions made by Eng Hosiah Chisango as the town clerk.

Police last week wanted to arrest Eng Chawatama at Town House but he eluded them after a high speed chase. Eng Chawatama, who is the city's director of works, is now on the police wanted list, amid reports that he yesterday made an appearance at Town House. National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said the net was closing in on him.

"Police are still searching for Engineer Chawatama," he said. "He is on the run. We want him to know that the net is closing in on him."

Sources told The Herald that the police arrived at Town House on Friday to arrest Eng Chawatama who had tried to extend a three-day acting appointment early last month to a permanent posting to the Town Clerk's Office. But he heard word of the police arrival and raced into the car park, jumped into a Nissan NP300 vehicle with a council logo and sped off. He sped off towards Mbudzi roundabout and escaped.
ANN ARBOR  Ann Arbors restaurants welcomed back customers as the state returned to in-person dining at limited capacity across the state Monday, Feb. 1.

Dan Sutter, the general manager of Knights Steakhouse on Dexter Road, said customers were excited for the opportunity to return to in-person dining. The restaurant operated 16 tables in a heated outdoor tent through the indoor closure, but all of the customers who visited Monday opted to eat inside, pushing the lunch service towards their 50-person capacity under the new rules.

Sutter said the restaurant received a number of calls over the weekend about their dine-in service, and the socially distant crowd at noon was a mix of regulars and new faces.

Jim Herter, Arthur Talbot and John Brent sat together at the bar Monday afternoon, saying theyd come together on their day off to support the business.

Were happy to be here to support them and show them some love, Herter said.

We came when they had the tent too, but its cold out there, Talbot added.

Husband and wife Remi and Melissa Bruyninga shared a bottle of wine in a booth - the pair also frequented the outdoor tent, but were happy for a slightly more normal experience Monday.

You had to bundle up if you were eating outdoors, Remi Bruyninga said. Id wear two pair of pants... looked like I was going snowmobiling.

Sava Farah, owner of Savas, said shed been looking forward to the reopening as much as the customers that flowed through the door of the State Street restaurant, which, under the new restrictions, seats about 90.

So many people need this kind of social connection, she said.

Wayne State students Asha Shah and Halie Johnson happily took the opportunity to dine in to avoid the hassle of cleaning up after takeout or braving the Michigan winter.

When it was outdoors, I just didnt go out, Johnson said.

Brian Hill, the general manager at Real Seafood Co. on Main Street, said even operating at limited capacity allowed the restaurant some relief.

At least the 25 percent capacity gets us open and were ready for people with the precautions in place, Hill said. Its been tough having a whole staff not able to work, but at least this gets some people into work.

Michigan restaurants were allowed to return to in-person dining starting Monday under a new order issued by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Jan. 22. Restaurants are allowed to seat customers at 25 percent capacity with the following limitations:

Eating and drinking is only allowed in designated seated areas

Groups must be separated by at least 6 feet

Groups are limited to six people per table

Gatherings in common areas (like dance floors) are not allowed

If an employee tests positive or shows coronavirus symptoms at work, the restaurant must close until it has been deep cleaned to CDC standards

Capacity is limited to 25% of the normal seating capacity or 100 people, whichever is lower

Indoor dining is prohibited between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Customers must wear masks at all times, except when eating or drinking

Restaurants must maintain records of customers for contact tracing, including name, date, time and phone number

Read more here:

Ann Arbor Restaurant Week is near. Heres what to expect in 2021

Marcus Lemonis gives Zingermans $50k to feed the community

Blue LLama Jazz Club to host livestream shows

Updates continue along non-motorized Border-to-Border trail in Washtenaw County
Ramallah, Feb 2 : The Palestinian Authority has resumed contacts with the US government after a three-year hiatus following former American President Donald Trump's decision to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel leading to the severing of ties, a top official confirmed here.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Hussein al-Sheikh, the Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs, said: "Today, I had a telephone conversation with Hadya Amr, a US official, who is in charge of the Palestinian and Israeli affairs in the American State Department." He added that the conversation with Amr "was positive, and we discussed the bilateral relationships, the latest developments, and the political situation".

"At the end of the conversation, we agreed to keep in contact," al-Sheikh said, adding that it was the first official contact between a Palestinian official and an official from the new US administration since Joe Biden took office on January 20.

On January 26, the Biden administration had announced of restoring relations with Palestine, a move welcomed by the latter.

Richard Mills, the new US ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council that the administration is intending to abolish all Trump's policies toward the Palestinians.

Biden's Middle East policy "will be to support a mutually agreed, two-state solution, in which Israel lives in peace and security, alongside a viable Palestinian state".

The Ambassador added that the administration intends to restore Palestinian aid and take steps to reopen diplomatic missions closed by Trump administration.

Before Trump's decision on Jerusalem on December 6, 2017, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbad had visited the White House that same year in May.

The following year, Trump ordered the closure of the Palestinian office in Washington D.C., citing the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) lack of progress in the Middle East peace process, leading to further escalation of tensions between the US and Palestine.

In March 2019, the US Consulate-General in Jerusalem ceased operating as an independent mission and had been revamped as the Palestinian Affairs Unit, which would report to the American Embassy in Jerusalem.

In response, PLO Secretary-General Saab Erekat termed the development a "downgrade" and "assault" on the peace process and urged the international community to boycott the Unit.

Later that year, the former President also dismissed a request by Israel to allow the transfer of $12 million to the security forces of Palestine Authority (PA).
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-01 02:24:35|Editor: huaxia

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DAMASCUS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Three explosions rocked rebel-held areas in northern Syria over the past 24 hours as protests erupted against the Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria on Sunday.

Both civilians and militants were killed in the explosions that hit the areas controlled by the Turkey-backed rebels in the northern and eastern countryside of Aleppo Province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In Afrin city, eight people including four children were killed when a car bomb exploded in the Sinaa neighborhood on Saturday.

On Sunday, six people, including two women and a child, died in a second car bombing near the cultural center in the city of Azaz in northern Aleppo.

Also on Sunday, five rebels were killed when an explosion targeted their checkpoint in the Sukaraiyeh area in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, according to the Observatory.

About 64 people were wounded in the three explosions and the death toll could likely rise because of the number of critically wounded people.

Activists and official reports indicate that lawlessness and chaos have plagued the three areas hit by explosions for months.

Meanwhile in the northeastern province of Hasakah, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) opened fire to disperse protesters on Sunday, killing one and wounding three others, state news agency SANA reported.

Crowds of people took to the streets in Hasakah to protest against the siege laid by the SDF to government-controlled zones in the province.

SANA said the SDF set up more checkpoints in Hasakah and arrested a number of civilians.

The SDF has been laying a siege to government zones in Hasakah since Jan. 19, preventing the entry of food and other necessary items.

Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the SDF, said on Sunday that the Syrian government "threatened a military operation" in Kurdish-controlled areas in Hasakah.

He revealed that an SDF delegation visited Damascus for talks with the government officials but the visit "wasn't successful."

The Syrian government has for long slammed the SDF for their alliance with the U.S. forces in northeastern Syria.

In the eastern province of Deir al-Zour where the SDF controls a few areas in the countryside, protests also erupted on Sunday after the SDF arrested 20 young men for compulsory military service. Enditem
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The Lab-Leak Hypothesis

The Lab-Leak Hypothesis For decades, scientists have been hot-wiring viruses in hopes of preventing a pandemic, not causing one. But what if ?

Illustration: Illustration by Robert Beatty for New York Magazine

This article was featured in One Great Story, New Yorks reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. I. F l a s k M o n s t e r s What happened was fairly simple, Ive come to believe. It was an accident. A virus spent some time in a laboratory, and eventually it got out. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, began its existence inside a bat, then it learned how to infect people in a claustrophobic mine shaft, and then it was made more infectious in one or more laboratories, perhaps as part of a scientists well-intentioned but risky effort to create a broad-spectrum vaccine. SARS-2 was not designed as a biological weapon. But it was, I think, designed. Many thoughtful people dismiss this notion, and they may be right. They sincerely believe that the coronavirus arose naturally, zoonotically, from animals, without having been previously studied, or hybridized, or sluiced through cell cultures, or otherwise worked on by trained professionals. They hold that a bat, carrying a coronavirus, infected some other creature, perhaps a pangolin, and that the pangolin may have already been sick with a different coronavirus disease, and out of the conjunction and commingling of those two diseases within the pangolin, a new disease, highly infectious to humans, evolved. Or they hypothesize that two coronaviruses recombined in a bat, and this new virus spread to other bats, and then the bats infected a person directly  in a rural setting, perhaps  and that this person caused a simmering undetected outbreak of respiratory disease, which over a period of months or years evolved to become virulent and highly transmissible but was not noticed until it appeared in Wuhan. There is no direct evidence for these zoonotic possibilities, just as there is no direct evidence for an experimental mishap  no written confession, no incriminating notebook, no official accident report. Certainty craves detail, and detail requires an investigation. It has been a full year, 80 million people have been infected, and, surprisingly, no public investigation has taken place. We still know very little about the origins of this disease. Nevertheless, I think its worth offering some historical context for our yearlong medical nightmare. We need to hear from the people who for years have contended that certain types of virus experimentation might lead to a disastrous pandemic like this one. And we need to stop hunting for new exotic diseases in the wild, shipping them back to laboratories, and hot-wiring their genomes to prove how dangerous to human life they might become. Over the past few decades, scientists have developed ingenious methods of evolutionary acceleration and recombination, and theyve learned how to trick viruses, coronaviruses in particular, those spiky hairballs of protein we now know so well, into moving quickly from one species of animal to another or from one type of cell culture to another. Theyve made machines that mix and mingle the viral code for bat diseases with the code for human diseases  diseases like SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, for example, which arose in China in 2003,While the first documented case of SARS was in November 2002, it became a pandemic in 2003, and the WHO issued its first alert about the virus in March of that year. and MERS, Middle East respiratory syndrome, which broke out a decade later and has to do with bats and camels. Some of the experiments  gain of function experiments  aimed to create new, more virulent, or more infectious strains of diseases in an effort to predict and therefore defend against threats that might conceivably arise in nature. The term gain of function is itself a euphemism; the Obama White House more accurately described this work as experiments that may be reasonably anticipated to confer attributes to influenza, MERS, or SARS viruses such that the virus would have enhanced pathogenicity and/or transmissibility in mammals via the respiratory route. The virologists who carried out these experiments have accomplished amazing feats of genetic transmutation, no question, and there have been very few publicized accidents over the years. But there have been some. And we were warned, repeatedly. The intentional creation of new microbes that combine virulence with heightened transmissibility poses extraordinary risks to the public, wrote infectious-disease experts Marc Lipsitch and Thomas Inglesby in 2014. A rigorous and transparent risk-assessment process for this work has not yet been established. Thats still true today. In 2012, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Lynn Klotz warned that there was an 80 percent chance, given how many laboratories were then handling virulent viro-varietals, that a leak of a potential pandemic pathogen would occur sometime in the next 12 years. A lab accident  a dropped flask, a needle prick, a mouse bite, an illegibly labeled bottle  is apolitical. Proposing that something unfortunate happened during a scientific experiment in Wuhan  where COVID-19 was first diagnosed and where there are three high-security virology labs, one of which held in its freezers the most comprehensive inventory of sampled bat viruses in the world  isnt a conspiracy theory. Its just a theory. It merits attention, I believe, alongside other reasoned attempts to explain the source of our current catastrophe. II.  A R e a s o n a b l e C h a n c e  Seeking Ebola strains in Sierra Leones wild-animal population for USAIDs Predict project in 2018. Photo: Simon Townsley From early 2020, the world was brooding over the origins of COVID-19. People were reading research papers, talking about what kinds of live animals were or were not sold at the Wuhan seafood market  wondering where the new virus had come from. Meanwhile, things got strange all over the world. The Chinese government shut down transportation and built hospitals at high speed. There were video clips of people whod suddenly dropped unconscious in the street. A doctor on YouTube told us how we were supposed to scrub down our produce when we got back from the supermarket. A scientist named Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology published a paper saying that the novel coronavirus was 96 percent identical to a bat virus, RaTG13, found in Yunnan province in southern China. On March 13, I wrote in my journal that there seemed to be something oddly artificial about the disease: Its too airborne  too catching  its something that has been selected for infectivity. Thats what I suspect. No way to know so no reason to waste time thinking about it. This was just a note to self  at the time, I hadnt interviewed scientists about SARS-2 or read their research papers. But I did know something about pathogens and laboratory accidents; I published a book last year, Baseless, that talks about some of them. The book is named after a Pentagon program, Project Baseless, whose goal, as of 1951, was to achieve an Air Forcewide combat capability in biological and chemical warfare at the earliest possible date. A vast treasure was spent by the U.S. on the amplification and aerial delivery of diseases  some well known, others obscure and stealthy. Americas biological-weapons program in the 50s had A1-priority status, as high as nuclear weapons. In preparation for a total war with a numerically superior communist foe, scientists bred germs to be resistant to antibiotics and other drug therapies, and they infected lab animals with them, using a technique called serial passaging, in order to make the germs more virulent and more catching. And along the way, there were laboratory accidents. By 1960, hundreds of American scientists and technicians had been hospitalized, victims of the diseases they were trying to weaponize. Charles Armstrong, of the National Institutes of Health, one of the consulting founders of the American germ-warfare program, investigated Q fever three times, and all three times, scientists and staffers got sick. In the anthrax pilot plant at Camp Detrick, Maryland, in 1951, a microbiologist, attempting to perfect the foaming process of high-volume production, developed a fever and died. In 1964, veterinary worker Albert Nickel fell ill after being bitten by a lab animal.

His wife wasnt told that he had Machupo virus, or Bolivian hemorrhagic fever. I watched him die through a little window to his quarantine room at the Detrick infirmary, she said. In 1977, a worldwide epidemic of influenza A began in Russia and China; it was eventually traced to a sample of an American strain of flu preserved in a laboratory freezer since 1950. In 1978, a hybrid strain of smallpox killed a medical photographer at a lab in Birmingham, England; in 2007, live foot-and-mouth disease leaked from a faulty drainpipe at the Institute for Animal Health in Surrey. In the U.S., more than 1,100 laboratory incidents involving bacteria, viruses and toxins that pose significant or bioterror risks to people and agriculture were reported to federal regulators during 2008 through 2012, reported USA Today in an expose published in 2014.

In 2015, the Department of Defense discovered that workers at a germ-warfare testing center in Utah had mistakenly sent close to 200 shipments of live anthrax to laboratories throughout the United States and also to Australia, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and several other countries over the past 12 years. In 2019, laboratories at Fort Detrick  where defensive research involves the creation of potential pathogens to defend against  were shut down for several months by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for breaches of containment. They reopened in December 2019. High-containment laboratories have a whispered history of near misses. Scientists are people, and people have clumsy moments and poke themselves and get bitten by the enraged animals they are trying to nasally inoculate. Machines can create invisible aerosols, and cell solutions can become contaminated. Waste systems dont always work properly. Things can go wrong in a hundred different ways. Hold that human fallibility in your mind. And then consider the cautious words of Alina Chan, a scientist who works at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. There is a reasonable chance that what we are dealing with is the result of a lab accident, Chan told me in July of last year. There was also, she added, a reasonable chance that the disease had evolved naturally  both were scientific possibilities. I dont know if we will ever find a smoking gun, especially if it was a lab accident. The stakes are so high now. It would be terrifying to be blamed for millions of cases of COVID-19 and possibly up to a million deaths by year end, if the pandemic continues to grow out of control. The Chinese government has also restricted their own scholars and scientists from looking into the origins of SARS-CoV-2. At this rate, the origin of SARS-CoV-2 may just be buried by the passage of time. I asked Jonathan A. King, a molecular biologist and biosafety advocate from MIT, whether hed thought lab accident when he first heard about the epidemic. Absolutely, absolutely, King answered. Other scientists he knew were concerned as well. But scientists, he said, in general were cautious about speaking out. There were very intense, very subtle pressures on them not to push on issues of laboratory biohazards. Collecting lots of bat viruses, and passaging those viruses repeatedly through cell cultures, and making bat-human viral hybrids, King believes, generates new threats and desperately needs to be reined in. All possibilities should be on the table, including a lab leak, a scientist from the NIH, Philip Murphy  chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology  wrote me recently. Nikolai Petrovsky, a professor of endocrinology at Flinders University College of Medicine in Adelaide, Australia, said in an email, There are indeed many unexplained features of this virus that are hard if not impossible to explain based on a completely natural origin. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, wrote that hed been concerned for some years about the Wuhan laboratory and about the work being done there to create chimeric (i.e., hybrid) SARS-related bat coronaviruses with enhanced human infectivity. Ebright said, In this context, the news of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan ***screamed*** lab release. III.  N o C r e d i b l e E v i d e n c e  The new disease, as soon as it appeared, was intercepted  stolen and politicized by people with ulterior motives. The basic and extremely interesting scientific question of what happened was sucked up into an ideological sharknado. Some Americans boycotted Chinese restaurants; others bullied and harassed Asian Americans. Steve Bannon, broadcasting from his living room, in a YouTube series called War Room, said that the Chinese Communist Party had made a biological weapon and intentionally released it. He called it the CCP virus. And his billionaire friend and backer, Miles Guo, a devoted Trump supporter, told a right-wing website that the communists goal was to use the virus to infect selective people in Hong Kong, so that the Chinese Communist Party could use it as an excuse to impose martial law there and ultimately crush the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement. But it backfired terribly. In The Lancet, in February, a powerful counterstatement appeared, signed by 27 scientists. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin, the statement said. Scientists from multiple countries have published and analyzed genomes of the causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and they overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife, as have so many other emerging pathogens. The behind-the-scenes organizer of this Lancet statement, Peter Daszak, is a zoologist and bat-virus sample collector and the head of a New York nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance  a group that (as veteran science journalist Fred Guterl explained later in Newsweek) has channeled money from the National Institutes of Health to Shi Zhenglis laboratory in Wuhan, allowing the lab to carry on recombinant research into diseases of bats and humans. We have a choice whether to stand up and support colleagues who are being attacked and threatened daily by conspiracy theorists or to just turn a blind eye, Daszak said in February in Science magazine.

How Did It Get Out? 1. The Tongguan Mine Shaft in Mojiang, Yunnan, where, in 2013, fragments of RaTG13, the closest known relative of SARSCoV-2, were recovered and transported to the Wuhan Institute of Virology; 2. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, where Shi Zhenglis team brought the RaTG13 sample, sequenced its genome, then took it out of the freezer several times in recent years; 3. The Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which first reported signs of the novel coronavirus in hospital patients; 4. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, an early suspected origin of the pandemic, where the first major outbreak occurred. Illustration: Map by Jason Lee

Vincent Racaniello, a professor at Columbia and a co-host of a podcast called This Week in Virology, said on February 9 that the idea of an accident in Wuhan was complete bunk. The coronavirus was 96 percent similar to a bat virus found in 2013, Racaniello said. Its not a man-made virus. It wasnt released from a lab.

Racaniellos dismissal was seconded by a group of scientists from Ohio State, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of North Carolina, who put out a paper in Emerging Microbes and Infections to quiet the speculations, rumors, and conspiracy theories that SARS-CoV-2 is of laboratory origin. There was currently no credible evidence that SARS-2 leaked from a lab, these scientists said, using a somewhat different argument from Racaniellos. Some people have alleged that the human SARS-CoV-2 was leaked directly from a laboratory in Wuhan where a bat CoV (RaTG13) was recently reported, they said. But RaTG13 could not be the source because it differed from the human SARS-2 virus by more than a thousand nucleotides. One of the papers authors, Susan Weiss, told the Raleigh News & Observer, The conspiracy theory is ridiculous.

The most influential natural-origin paper, The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2, by a group of biologists that included Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research, appeared online in a preliminary version in mid-February.

We do not believe any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible, the scientists said. Why? Because molecular-modeling software predicted that if you wanted to optimize an existing bat virus so that it would replicate well in human cells, you would arrange things a different way than how the SARS-2 virus actually does it  even though the SARS-2 virus does an extraordinarily good job of replicating in human cells. The laboratory-based scenario was implausible, the paper said, because, although it was true that the virus could conceivably have developed its unusual genetic features in a laboratory, a stronger and more parsimonious explanation was that the features came about through some kind of natural mutation or recombination. What we think, explained one of the authors, Robert F. Garry of Tulane University, on YouTube, is that this virus is a recombinant. It probably came from a bat virus, plus perhaps one of these viruses from the pangolin. Journalists, for the most part, echoed the authoritative pronouncements of Daszak, Racaniello, Weiss, Andersen, and other prominent natural-originists. The balance of the scientific evidence strongly supports the conclusion that the new coronavirus emerged from nature  be it the Wuhan market or somewhere else, said the Washington Posts Fact Checker column. Dr. Fauci Again Dismisses Wuhan Lab As Source of Coronavirus, said CBS News, posting a video interview of Anthony Fauci by National Geographic. If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats, and whats out there now, Fauci said, its very, very strongly leaning toward This could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated  the way the mutations have naturally evolved.

Everyone took sides; everyone thought of the new disease as one more episode in an ongoing partisan struggle. Think of Mike Pompeo, that landmass of Cold War truculence; think of Donald Trump himself. They stood at their microphones saying, in a winking, I-know-something-you-dont-know sort of way, that this disease escaped from a Chinese laboratory. Whatever they were saying must be wrong. It became impermissible, almost taboo, to admit that, of course, SARS-2 could have come from a lab accident. The administrations claim that the virus spread from a Wuhan lab has made the notion politically toxic, even among scientists who say it could have happened, wrote science journalist Mara Hvistendahl in the Intercept.

IV.  I s I t a C o m p l e t e C o i n c i d e n c e ?  Even so, in January and February of 2020, there were thoughtful people who were speaking up, formulating their perplexities. One person was Sam Husseini, an independent journalist. He went to a CDC press conference at the National Press Club on February 11, 2020. By then, 42,000 people had gotten sick in China and more than a thousand had died. But there were only 13 confirmed cases in the U.S. Halfway through the Q&A period, Husseini went to the microphone and asked the CDCs representative, Anne Schuchat, where the virus had come from. His head was spinning, he told me later. Obviously the main concern is how to stop the virus, Husseini said; nonetheless, he wanted to know more about its source. Is it the CDCs contention, he asked, that theres absolutely no relation to the BSL-4 lab in Wuhan? Its my understanding that this is the only place in China with a BSL-4 lab. We in the United States have, I?think, two dozen or so, and there have been problems and incidents. (A BSL-4 laboratory is a maximum-security biosafety-level-four facility, used to house research on the most dangerous known pathogens. New York has confirmed there are at least 11 BSL-4 facilities currently operating in the U.S.) Husseini hastened to say that he wasnt implying that what happened in Wuhan was in any way intentional. Im just asking, Is it a complete coincidence that this outbreak happened in the one city in China with a BSL-4 lab? Schuchat thanked Husseini for his questions and comments. Everything shed seen was quite consistent with a natural, zoonotic origin for the disease, she said. That same month, a group of French scientists from Aix-Marseille University posted a paper describing their investigation of a small insertion in the genome of the new SARS-2 virus. The viruss spike protein contained a sequence of amino acids that formed what Etienne Decroly and colleagues called a peculiar furin-like cleavage site  a chemically sensitive region on the lobster claw of the spike protein that would react in the presence of an enzyme called furin, which is a type of protein found everywhere within the human body, but especially in the lungs. When the spike senses human furin, it shudders, chemically speaking, and the enzyme opens the protein, commencing the tiny morbid ballet whereby the virus burns a hole in a host cells outer membrane and finds its way inside. The code for this particular molecular feature  not found in SARS or any SARS-like bat viruses, but present in a slightly different form in the more lethal MERS virus  is easy to remember because its a roar: R-R-A-R. The letter code stands for amino acids: arginine, arginine, alanine, and arginine. Its presence, so Decroly and his colleagues observed, may heighten the pathogenicity  that is, the god-awfulness  of a disease. Botao Xiao, a professor at the South China University of Technology, posted a short paper on a preprint server titled The Possible Origins of 2019-nCoV Coronavirus. Two laboratories, the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (WHCDC) and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, were not far from the seafood market, which was where the disease was said to have originated, Xiao wrote  in fact, the WHCDC was only a few hundred yards away from the market  whereas the horseshoe bats that hosted the disease were hundreds of miles to the south. (No bats were sold in the market, he pointed out.) It was unlikely, he wrote, that a bat would have flown to a densely populated metropolitan area of 15 million people. The killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, Xiao believed. He urged the relocation of biohazardous laboratories away from densely populated places. His article disappeared from the server. And late in the month, a professor at National Taiwan University, Fang Chi-tai, gave a lecture on the coronavirus in which he described the anomalous R-R-A-R furin cleavage site. The virus was unlikely to have four amino acids added all at once, Fang said  natural mutations were smaller and more haphazard, he argued. From an academic point of view, it is indeed possible that the amino acids were added to COVID-19 in the lab by humans. When the Taiwan News published an article about Fangs talk, Fang disavowed his own comments, and the video copy of the talk disappeared from the website of the Taiwan Public Health Association. It has been taken down for a certain reason, the association explained. Thank you for your understanding.

V.  A S e r i o u s S h o r t a g e o f A p p r o p r i a t e l y T r a i n e d T e c h n i c i a n s  In the spring, I did some reading on coronavirus history. Beginning in the 1970s, dogs, cows, and pigs were diagnosed with coronavirus infections; dog shows were canceled in 1978 after 25 collies died in Louisville, Kentucky. New varieties of coronaviruses didnt start killing humans, though, until 2003  thats when restaurant chefs, food handlers, and people who lived near a live-animal market got sick in Guangzhou, in southern China, where the shredded meat of a short-legged raccoonlike creature, the palm civet, was served in a regional dish called dragon-tiger-phoenix soup. The new disease, SARS, spread alarmingly in hospitals, and it reached 30 countries and territories. More than 800 people died; the civet-borne virus was eventually traced to horseshoe bats. Later, smaller outbreaks of SARS in Taiwan, Singapore, and Chinas National Institute of Virology in Beijing were all caused by laboratory accidents. Of the Beijing Virology Institute, the World Health Organizations safety investigators wrote, in May 2004, that they had serious concerns about biosafety procedures. By one account, a SARS storage room in the Beijing lab was so crowded that the refrigerator holding live virus was moved out to the hallway. Scientists still do not fully understand exactly where or how SARS emerged 18 months ago, wrote Washington Post reporter David Brown in June 2004. But it is clear now that the most threatening source of the deadly virus today may be places they know intimately  their own laboratories. Im just asking, Is it a complete coincidence that this outbreak happened in the one city in China with a BSL-4 lab? MERS arose in 2012, possibly spread by camelsthat had contracted the disease from bats or bat guano, then passed it to human drinkers of raw camel milk and butchers of camel meat. It was an acute sickness, with a high fatality rate, mostly confined to Saudi Arabia. Like SARS, MERS ebbed quickly  it all but disappeared outside the Middle East, except for an outbreak in 2015 at the Samsung Medical Center in South Korea, where a single case of MERS led to more than 180 infections, many involving hospital workers. In January 2015, the brand-new BSL-4 lab in Wuhan, built by a French contractor, celebrated its opening, but full safety certification came slowly. According to State Department cables from 2018 leaked to the Washington Post, the new BSL-4 lab had some start-up problems, including a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory. The staff had gotten some training at a BSL-4 lab in Galveston, Texas, but they were doing potentially dangerous work with SARS-like viruses, the memo said, and they needed more help from the U.S. In November or December of 2019, the novel coronavirus began to spread. Chinese scientists initially named it Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus, but soon that idea went away. The market, closed and decontaminated by Chinese officials on January 1, 2020, was an amplifying hub, not the source of the outbreak, according to several studies by Chinese scientists. Forty-five percent of the earliest SARS-2 patients had no link with the market.

VI. E m e r g e n c e Now lets take a step back. AIDS, fatal and terrifying and politically charged, brought on a new era in government-guided vaccine research, under the guidance of Anthony Fauci. A virologist at Rockefeller University, Stephen S. Morse, began giving talks on emerging viruses  other plagues that might be in the process of coming out of natures woodwork. In 1992, Richard Preston wrote a horrific account of one emergent virus, Ebola, in The New Yorker, which became a best-selling book in 1994; Laurie Garretts The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance appeared that same year and was also a best seller. The idea seemed to be everywhere: We were on the verge of a wave of zoonotic, emergent plagues. This new, useful term, emerging, began to glow in the research papers of some coronavirologists, who were out of the spotlight, working on common colds and livestock diseases. The term was useful because it was fluid. An emerging disease could be real and terrifying, as AIDS was  something that had just arrived on the medical scene and was confounding our efforts to combat it  or it could be a disease that hadnt arrived, and might never arrive, but could be shown in a laboratory to be waiting in the wings, just a few mutations away from a human epidemic. It was real and unreal at the same time  a quality that was helpful when applying for research grants.

Where Did It Come From? This chart measures the genetic similarity of known viruses to the novel coronavirus (which appears in yellow). By far the closest is the bat virus RaTG13, which appears in blue, and which was recovered in 2013 and brought to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The first SARS, marked in red, is a much more distant relative. Graphic: Zhou, P., Yang, XL., Wang, XG. et al. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature 579, 270273 (2020)

Take, for instance, this paper from 1995: High Recombination and Mutation Rates in Mouse Hepatitis Viruses Suggest That Coronaviruses May Be Potentially Important Emerging Viruses. It was written by Dr. Ralph Baric and his bench scientist, Boyd Yount, at the University of North Carolina. Baric, a gravelly voiced former swim champion, described in this early paper how his lab was able to train a coronavirus, MHV, which causes hepatitis in mice, to jump species, so that it could reliably infect BHK (baby-hamster kidney) cell cultures. They did it using serial passaging: repeatedly dosing a mixed solution of mouse cells and hamster cells with mouse-hepatitis virus, while each time decreasing the number of mouse cells and upping the concentration of hamster cells. At first, predictably, the mouse-hepatitis virus couldnt do much with the hamster cells, which were left almost free of infection, floating in their world of fetal-calf serum. But by the end of the experiment, after dozens of passages through cell cultures, the virus had mutated: It had mastered the trick of parasitizing an unfamiliar rodent. A scourge of mice was transformed into a scourge of hamsters. And there was more: It is clear that MHV can rapidly alter its species specificity and infect rats and primates, Baric said. The resulting virus variants are associated with demyelinating diseases in these alternative species. (A demyelinating disease is a disease that damages nerve sheaths.) With steady prodding from laboratory science, along with some rhetorical exaggeration, a lowly mouse ailment was morphed into an emergent threat that might potentially cause nerve damage in primates. That is, nerve damage in us.

A few years later, in a further round of interspecies transfer experimentation, Barics scientists introduced their mouse coronavirus into flasks that held a suspension of African-green-monkey cells, human cells, and pig-testicle cells. Then, in 2002, they announced something even more impressive: Theyd found a way to create a full-length infectious clone of the entire mouse-hepatitis genome. Their infectious construct replicated itself just like the real thing, they wrote.

Not only that, but theyd figured out how to perform their assembly seamlessly, without any signs of human handiwork. Nobody would know if the virus had been fabricated in a laboratory or grown in nature. Baric called this the no-seem method, and he asserted that it had broad and largely unappreciated molecular biology applications. The method was named, he wrote, after a very small biting insect that is occasionally found on North Carolina beaches.

In 2006, Baric, Yount, and two other scientists were granted a patent for their invisible method of fabricating a full-length infectious clone using the seamless, no-seem method. But this time, it wasnt a clone of the mouse-hepatitis virus  it was a clone of the entire deadly human SARS virus, the one that had emerged from Chinese bats, via civets, in 2002. The Baric Lab came to be known by some scientists as the Wild Wild West. In 2007, Baric said that we had entered the golden age of coronavirus genetics.

I would be afraid to look in their freezers, one virologist told me.

Baric and Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the two top experts on the genetic interplay between bat and human coronaviruses, began collaborating in 2015.

VII.  I H a d N o t S l e p t a W i n k  Virologist Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2017. Photo: Feature China / Barcroft Studios / Future Publishing / Getty Images Early in the pandemic, Scientific American profiled Shi Zhengli, known in China as the bat woman. Shi trapped hundreds of bats in nets at the mouths of caves in southern China, sampled their saliva and their blood, swabbed their anuses, and gathered up their fecal pellets. Several times, she visited and sampled bats in a mine in Mojiang, in southern China, where, in 2012, six men set to work shoveling bat guano were sickened by a severe lung disease, three of them fatally. Shis team took the samples back to Wuhan and analyzed whatever fragments of bat virus she could find. In some cases, when she found a sequence that seemed particularly significant, she experimented with it in order to understand how it might potentially infect humans. Some of her work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and some of it by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency of the Department of Defense via Peter Daszaks EcoHealth Alliance. As Shi explained to Scientific American, late in December 2019, she heard from the director of the Wuhan Institute that there was an outbreak of a new disease in the city. Medical samples taken from hospital patients arrived at her lab for analysis. Shi determined that the new virus was related to SARS but even more closely related to a bat disease that her own team had found on a virus-hunting trip: the now-famous RaTG13. Shi was surprised that the outbreak was local, she said: I had never expected this kind of thing to happen in Wuhan, in central China. The bat hiding places that shed been visiting were, after all, as far away as Orlando, Florida, is from New York City. Could this new virus, she wondered, have come from her own laboratory? She checked her records and found no exact matches. That really took a load off my mind, she said. I had not slept a wink for days. If one of the first thoughts that goes through the head of a lab director at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is that the new coronavirus could have come from her lab, then we are obliged to entertain the scientific possibility that it could indeed have come from her lab. Right then, there should have been a comprehensive, pockets-inside-out, fully public investigation of the Virology Institute, along with the other important virus labs in Wuhan, including the one close by the seafood market, headquarters of the Wuhan CDC. There should have been interviews with scientists, interviews with biosafety teams, close parsings of laboratory notebooks, freezer and plumbing and decontamination systems checks  everything. It didnt happen. The Wuhan Institute of Virology closed down its databases of viral genomes, and the Chinese Ministry of Education sent out a directive: Any paper that traces the origin of the virus must be strictly and tightly managed. Shi made some WeChat posts early in 2020. The novel 2019 coronavirus is nature punishing the human race for keeping uncivilized living habits, she wrote. I, Shi Zhengli, swear on my life that it has nothing to do with our laboratory. She advised those who believed rumors, and gave credence to unreliable scientific papers, to shut their stinking mouths.

VIII.   B u g t o D r u g  i n 2 4 H o u r s  It wasnt only AIDS that changed the way the NIH funded research. The War on Terror also influenced which diseases got the most attention. In the late 90s, under Bill Clinton and then George W. Bush, biodefense specialists became interested  again  in anthrax. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency built a small anthrax factory in Nevada, using simulants, to demonstrate how easy it would be for a terrorist to build a small anthrax factory. And in the first year of the Bush presidency, the Defense Intelligence Agency wrote up plans to create a vaccine-resistant form of anthrax using state-of-the-art gene-splicery. A front-page article describing these initiatives, U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits, appeared in the New York Times on September 4, 2001, one week before 9/11. Pentagon Says Projects Are Defense, Is Pressing Ahead, was the subtitle. After the 9/11 attacks, and the mysterious anthrax mailings that began a week later (which said, TAKE PENACILIN [sic] NOW / DEATH TO AMERICA / DEATH TO ISRAEL / ALLAH IS GREAT), the desire for biopreparedness became all consuming. Now there were emerging biothreats from humans as well as from the evolving natural world. Faucis anti-terror budget went from $53 million in 2001 to $1.7 billion in 2003. Setting aside his work toward an AIDS vaccine, which was taking longer than hed foreseen, Fauci said he would be going all out to defend against a suite of known Cold War agents, all of which had been bred and perfected in American weapons programs many years before  brucellosis, anthrax, tularemia, and plague, for instance. We are making this the highest priority, Fauci said. We are really marshaling all available resources. I would be afraid to look in their freezers. Vaccine development had to progress much faster, Fauci believed; he wanted to set up vaccine systems and vaccine platforms, which could be quickly tailored to defend against a particular emergent strain some terrorist with an advanced biochemistry degree might have thrown together in a laboratory. Our goal within the next 20 years is bug to drug in 24 hours, Fauci said. This would specifically meet the challenge of genetically engineered bioagents. The first Project BioShield contract Fauci awarded was to VaxGen, a California pharmaceutical company, for $878 million worth of shots of anthrax vaccine. By 2005, so much money was going toward biothreat reduction and preparedness that more than 750 scientists sent a protest letter to the NIH. Their claim was that grants to study canonical biowar diseases  anthrax, plague, brucellosis, and tularemia, all exceptionally rare in the U.S.  had increased by a factor of 15 since 2001, whereas funds for the study of widespread normal diseases, of high public-health importance, had decreased. Fauci was firm in his reply: The United States through its leaders made the decision that this money was going to be spent on biodefense, he said. We disagree with the notion that biodefense concerns are of low public-health significance.  In 2010, by one count, there were 249 BSL-3 laboratories and seven BSL-4 laboratories in the U.S., and more than 11,000 scientists and staffers were authorized to handle the ultralethal germs on the governments select pathogen list. And yet the sole bioterrorist in living memory who actually killed American citizens, according to the FBI  the man who sent the anthrax letters  turned out to be one of the governments own researchers. Bruce Ivins, an eccentric, suicidal laboratory scientist from Ohio who worked in vaccine development at Fort Detrick, allegedly wanted to boost the fear level so as to persuade the government to buy more of the patented, genetically engineered anthrax VaxGen vaccine, of which he was a co-inventor. (See David Willmans fascinating biography of Ivins, Mirage Man.) Faucis staff at NIH funded Ivinss vaccine laboratory and gave $100 million to VaxGen to accelerate vaccine production. (The NIHs $878 million contract with VaxGen, however, was quietly canceled in 2006; Ivins, who was never charged, killed himself in 2008.) The whole incident amounted to a snake eating its own tail, wrote Wendy Orent in an August 2008 piece titled Our Own Worst Bioenemy in the Los Angeles Times. No ingenious biowarrior from Al Qaeda sent the lethal envelopes through the U.S. postal system. An American scientist did. What confirmed Ivinss guilt, according to the FBI, was that there was a genetic match between the anthrax used in the killings and the strain held at Fort Detrick.

IX.  W e a p o n s o f M a s s D i s r u p t i o n  After SARS appeared in 2003, Ralph Barics laboratory moved up the NIH funding ladder. SARS was a dual use organism  a security threat and a zoonotic threat at the same time. In 2006, Baric wrote a long, fairly creepy paper on the threat of weaponizable viruses. Synthetic biology had made possible new kinds of viral weapons of mass disruption, he wrote, involving, for example, rapid production of numerous candidate bioweapons that can be simultaneously released, a scattershot terror tactic Baric called the  survival of the fittest approach. Baric hoped to find a SARS vaccine, but he couldnt; he kept looking for it, year after year, supported by the NIH, long after the disease itself had been contained. It wasnt really gone, Baric believed. Like other epidemics that pop up and then disappear, as he told a university audience some years later, they dont go extinct. They are waiting to return. What do you do if you run a well-funded laboratory, an NIH center of excellence, and your emergent virus is no longer actually making people sick? You start squeezing it and twisting it into different shapes. Making it stand on its hind legs and quack like a duck, or a bat. Or breathe like a person. Barics safety record is good  although there was a minor mouse-bite incident in 2016, uncovered by ProPublica  and his motives are beyond reproach: Safe, universal, vaccine platforms are needed that can be tailored to new pathogens as they emerge, quickly tested for safety, and then strategically used to control new disease outbreaks in human populations, he wrote in a paper on public health. But the pioneering work he did over the past 15 years  generating tiny eager single-stranded flask monsters and pitting them against human cells, or bat cells, or gene-spliced somewhat-human cells, or monkey cells, or humanized mice  was not without risk, and it may have led others astray. In 2006, for instance, Baric and his colleagues, hoping to come up with a vaccine strategy for SARS, produced noninfectious virus replicon particles (or VRPs) using the Venezuelan-equine-encephalitis virus (another American germ-warfare agent), which they fitted with various SARS spike proteins. Then, wearing Tyvek suits and two pairs of gloves each, and working in a biological safety cabinet in a BSL-3-certified laboratory, they cloned and grew recombinant versions of the original SARS virus in an incubator in a medium that held African-green-monkey cells. When they had grown enough virus, the scientists swapped out one kind of spike protein for a carefully chosen mutant, and they challenged their prototype vaccine with it in mice. The scientists also tried their infectious SARS clones in something called an air-liquid interface, using a relatively new type of cell culture developed by Raymond Pickles of the University of North Carolinas Cystic Fibrosis Center. Pickles had perfected a method of emulating the traits of human airway tissue by cultivating cells taken from lung-disease patients  nurturing the culture over four to six weeks in such a way that the cells differentiated and developed a crop of tiny moving hairs, or cilia, on top and goblet cells within that produced real human mucus. In fact, before infecting these HAE (human airway epithelial) cells with a virus, the lab worker must sometimes rinse off some of the accumulated mucus, as if helping the lab-grown tissue to clear its throat. So Baric was exposing and adapting his engineered viruses to an extraordinarily true-to-life environment  the juicy, sticky, hairy inner surface of our breathing apparatus. SARS-2 seems almost perfectly calibrated to grab and ransack our breathing cells and choke the life out of them. By the time SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in late 2019, it was already pre-adapted to human transmission, Alina Chan and her co-authors have written, whereas SARS, when it first appeared in 2003, underwent numerous adaptive mutations before settling down. Perhaps viral nature hit a bulls-eye of airborne infectivity, with almost no mutational drift, no period of accommodation and adjustment, or perhaps some lab worker somewhere, inspired by Barics work with human airway tissue, took a spike protein that was specially groomed to colonize and thrive deep in the ciliated, mucosal tunnels of our inner core and cloned it onto some existing viral bat backbone. It could have happened in Wuhan, but  because anyone can now print out a fully infectious clone of any sequenced disease  it could also have happened at Fort Detrick, or in Texas, or in Italy, or in Rotterdam, or in Wisconsin, or in some other citadel of coronaviral inquiry. No conspiracy  just scientific ambition, and the urge to take exciting risks and make new things, and the fear of terrorism, and the fear of getting sick. Plus a whole lot of government money.

X.  R i s k y A r e a s f o r S p i l l o v e r  Project Bioshield began to fade by the end of the Bush administration, although the expensive high-containment laboratories, controversial preservers and incubators of past and future epidemics, remain. By 2010, some BioShield projects had dissolved into Obamas Predict program, which paid for laboratories and staff in 60 risky areas for spillover around the world. Jonna Mazet, a veterinary scientist from the University of California, Davis, was in charge of Predict, which was a component of USAIDs Emerging Pandemic Threats program. Her far-flung teams collected samples from 164,000 animals and humans and claimed to have found almost 1,200 potentially zoonotic viruses, among them 160 novel coronaviruses, including multiple SARS- and MERS-like coronaviruses. The fruits of Predicts exotic harvest were studied and circulated in laboratories worldwide, and their genetic sequences became part of GenBank, the NIHs genome database, where any curious RNA wrangler anywhere could quickly synthesize snippets of code and test out a new disease on human cells. Baric, Jonna Mazet, and Peter Daszak of EcoHealth worked together for years  and Daszak also routed Predict money to Shi Zhenglis bat-surveillance team in Wuhan through his nonprofit, mingling it with NIH money and money from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. In 2013, Mazet announced that Shi Zhenglis virus hunters, with Predicts support, had, for the first time, isolated and cultured a live SARS-like virus from bats and demonstrated that this virus could bind to the human ACE2, or angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, receptor, which Barics laboratory had determined to be the sine qua non of human infectivity. This work shows that these viruses can directly infect humans and validates our assumption that we should be searching for viruses of pandemic potential before they spill over to people, Mazet said. Daszak, for his part, seems to have viewed his bat quests as part of an epic, quasi-religious death match. In a paper from 2008, Daszak and a co-author described Bruegels painting The Fall of the Rebel Angels and compared it to the contemporary human biological condition. The fallen angels could be seen as pathogenic organisms that had descended through an evolutionary (not spiritual) pathway that takes them to a netherworld where they can feed only on our genes, our cells, our flesh, Daszak wrote. Will we succumb to the multitudinous horde? Are we to be cast downward into chthonic chaos represented here by the heaped up gibbering phantasmagory against which we rail and struggle?

XI.  L a b - M a d e ?  There are, in fact, some helpful points of agreement between zoonoticists  those who believe in a natural origin of the SARS-2 virus  and those who believe that it probably came from a laboratory. Both sides agree, when pressed, that a lab origin cant be conclusively ruled out and a natural origin cant be ruled out either  because nature, after all, is capable of improbable, teleological-seeming achievements. Both sides also agree, for the most part, that the spillover event that began the human outbreak probably happened only once, or a few times, quite recently, and not many times over a longer period. They agree that bat virus RaTG13 (named for the Rinolophus affinus bat, from Tongguan, in 2013) is the closest match to the human virus that has yet been found, and that although the two viruses are very similar, the spike protein of the bat virus lacks the features the human spike protein possesses that enable it to work efficiently with human tissue. Zoonoticists hold that SARS-2s crucial features  the furin cleavage site and the ACE2 receptor  are the result of a recombinant event involving a bat coronavirus (perhaps RaTG13 or a virus closely related to it) and another, unknown virus. Early on, researchers proposed that it could be a snake sold at the seafood market  a Chinese cobra or a banded krait but no: Snakes dont typically carry coronaviruses. Then there was a thought that the disease came from sick smuggled pangolins, because there existed a certain pangolin coronavirus that was, inexplicably, almost identical in its spike protein to the human coronavirus  but then, no: There turned out to be questions about the reliability of the genetic information in that diseased-pangolin data set, on top of which there were no pangolins for sale at the Wuhan market. Then a group from Chinas government veterinary laboratory at Harbin tried infecting beagles, pigs, chickens, ducks, ferrets, and cats with SARS-2 to see if they could be carriers. (Cats and ferrets got sick; pigs, ducks, and most dogs did not.) In September, some scientists at the University of Michigan, led by Yang Zhang, reported that they had created a computational pipeline to screen nearly a hundred possible intermediate hosts, including the Sumatran orangutan, the Western gorilla, the Olive baboon, the crab-eating macaque, and the bonobo. All these primates were permissive to the SARS-2 coronavirus and should undergo further experimentational investigation, the scientists proposed. Despite this wide-ranging effort, there is at the moment no animal host that zoonoticists can point to as the missing link. Theres also no single, agreed-upon hypothesis to explain how the disease may have traveled from the bat reservoirs of Yunnan all the way to Wuhan, seven hours by train, without leaving any sick people behind and without infecting anyone along the way. The zoonoticists say that we shouldnt find it troubling that virologists have been inserting and deleting furin cleavage sites and ACE2-receptor-binding domains in experimental viral spike proteins for years: The fact that virologists have been doing these things in laboratories, in advance of the pandemic, is to be taken as a sign of their prescience, not of their folly. But I keep returning to the basic, puzzling fact: This patchwork pathogen, which allegedly has evolved without human meddling, first came to notice in the only city in the world with a laboratory that was paid for years by the U.S. government to perform experiments on certain obscure and heretofore unpublicized strains of bat viruses  which bat viruses then turned out to be, out of all the organisms on the planet, the ones that are most closely related to the disease. What are the odds? In July, I discovered a number of volunteer analysts who were doing a new kind of forensic, samizdat science, hunched over the letter code of the SARS-2 genome like scholars deciphering the cuneiform impressions in Linear B tablets. There were the anonymous authors of Project Evidence, on GitHub, who disavow all racism and violent attacks, including those which are aimed at Asian or Chinese people, and there was Yuri Deigin, a biotech entrepreneur from Canada, who wrote a massive, lucid paper on Medium, Lab-Made?, which illumined the mysteries of the spike protein. Jonathan Latham of the Bioscience Resource Project, with his co-author Allison Wilson, wrote two important papers: one a calm, unsparing overview of laboratory accidents and rash research and the other a close look at the small outbreak of an unexplained viral pneumonia in a bat-infested copper mine in 2012. I corresponded with Alina Chan (now the subject of a nicely turned piece in Boston magazine by Rowan Jacobsen) and with the pseudonymous Billy Bostickson, a tireless researcher whose Twitter photo is a cartoon of an injured experimental monkey, and Monali Rahalkar, of the Agharkar Research Institute in Pune, India, who wrote a paper with her husband, Rahul Bahulikar, that also sheds light on the story of the bat-guano-shoveling men whose virus was remarkably like SARS-2, except that it was not nearly as catching. I talked to Rossana Segreto, a molecular biologist at the University of Innsbruck, whose paper, Is Considering a Genetic-Manipulation Origin for SARS-CoV-2 a Conspiracy Theory That Must Be Censored?, co-authored with Yuri Deigin, was finally published in November under a milder title; it argued that SARS-2s most notable features, the furin site and the human ACE2-binding domain, were unlikely to have arisen simultaneously and might be the result of lab manipulation techniques such as site directed mutagenesis. Segreto is also the person who first established that a bat-virus fragment named BtCoV/4991, identified in 2013, was 100 percent identical to the closest known cousin to SARS-CoV-2, the bat virus RaTG13, thereby proving that the virus closest to the SARS-2-pandemic virus was linked back not to a bat cave but to a mine shaft, and that this same virus had been stored and worked on in the Wuhan Institute for years. This made possible the first big investigative piece on SARS-2s origins, in the Times of London, in July: Nobody can deny the bravery of scientists who risked their lives harvesting the highly infectious virus, the Times authors write. But did their courageous detective work lead inadvertently to a global disaster?

XII.  A N e w , N o n - N a t u r a l R i s k  In 2011, a tall, confident Dutch scientist, Ron Fouchier, using grant money from Faucis group at NIH, created a mutant form of highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1, and passaged it ten times through ferrets in order to prove that he could force (his word) this potentially fatal disease to infect mammals, including humans, via aerosols or respiratory droplets. Fouchier said his findings indicated that these avian influenza viruses, thus forced, pose a risk of becoming pandemic in humans. This experiment was too much for some scientists: Why, out of a desire to prove that something extremely infectious could happen, would you make it happen? And why would the U.S. government feel compelled to pay for it to happen? Late in 2011, Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard School of Public Health got together with several other dismayed onlookers to ring the gong for caution. On January 8, 2012, the New York Times published a scorcher of an editorial, An Engineered Doomsday. We cannot say there would be no benefits at all from studying the virus, the Times said. But the consequences, should the virus escape, are too devastating to risk. These gain-of-function experiments were an important part of the NIHs approach to vaccine development, and Anthony Fauci was reluctant to stop funding them. He and Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, along with Gary Nabel, NIAID director of vaccine research, published an opinion piece in the Washington Post in which they contended that the ferret flu experiments, and others like them, were a risk worth taking. Important information and insights can come from generating a potentially dangerous virus in the laboratory, they wrote; the work can help delineate the principles of virus transmission between species. The work was safe because the viruses were stored in a high-security lab, they believed, and the work was necessary because nature was always coming up with new threats. Nature is the worst bioterrorist, Fauci told a reporter. We know that through history. Soon afterward, there followed some distressing screwups in secure federal laboratories involving live anthrax, live smallpox, and live avian influenza. These got attention in the science press. Then Lipsitchs activists (calling themselves the Cambridge Working Group) sent around a strong statement on the perils of research with Potential Pandemic Pathogens, signed by more than a hundred scientists. The work might trigger outbreaks that would be difficult or impossible to control, the signers said. Fauci reconsidered, and the White House in 2014 announced that there would be a pause in the funding of new influenza, SARS, and MERS gain-of-function research. Baric, in North Carolina, was not happy. He had a number of gain-of-function experiments with pathogenic viruses in progress. It took me ten seconds to realize that most of them were going to be affected, he told NPR. Baric and a former colleague from Vanderbilt University wrote a long letterto an NIH review board expressing their profound concerns. This decision will significantly inhibit our capacity to respond quickly and effectively to future outbreaks of SARS-like or MERS-like coronaviruses, which continue to circulate in bat populations and camels, they wrote. The funding ban was itself dangerous, they argued. Emerging coronaviruses in nature do not observe a mandated pause. Hoping to smooth over controversy by showing due diligence, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, founded in the BioShield era under President Bush, paid a consulting firm, Gryphon Scientific, to write a report on gain-of-function research, which by now was simply referred to as GoF. In chapter six of this thousand-page dissertation, published in April 2016, the consultants take up the question of coronaviruses. Increasing the transmissibility of the coronaviruses could significantly increase the chance of a global pandemic due to a laboratory accident, they wrote. The Cambridge Working Group continued to write letters of protest and plead for restraint and sanity. Steven Salzberg, a professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins, said, We have enough problems simply keeping up with the current flu outbreaks  and now with Ebola  without scientists creating incredibly deadly new viruses that might accidentally escape their labs. David Relman of Stanford Medical School said, It is unethical to place so many members of the public at risk and then consult only scientists  or, even worse, just a small subset of scientists  and exclude others from the decision-making and oversight process. Richard Ebright wrote that creating and evaluating new threats very seldom increases security: Doing so in biology  where the number of potential threats is nearly infinite, and where the asymmetry between the ease of creating threats and the difficulty of addressing threats is nearly absolute  is especially counterproductive. Lynn Klotz wrote, Awful as a pandemic brought on by the escape of a variant H5N1 virus might be, it is SARS that now presents the greatest risk. The worry is less about recurrence of a natural SARS outbreak than of yet another escape from a laboratory researching it to help protect against a natural outbreak. Marc Lipsitch argued that gain-of-function experiments can mislead, resulting in worse not better decisions, and that the entire gain-of-function debate as overseen by the NIH was heavily weighted in favor of scientific insiders and distinctly unwelcoming of public participation. Nariyoshi Shinomiya, a professor of physiology and nano-medicine at the National Defense Medical College in Japan, offered this warning: Similar to nuclear or chemical weapons there is no going back once we get a thing in our hands. But in the end, Baric was allowed to proceed with his experiments, and the research papers that resulted, showered with money, became a sort of Anarchists Cookbook for the rest of the scientific world. In November 2015, Baric and colleagues published a collaboration paper with Shi Zhengli titled A SARS-like Cluster of Circulating Bat Coronaviruses Shows Potential for Human Emergence. Into a human SARS virus that they had adapted so that it would work in mice, Baric and Shi et al. inserted the spike protein of a bat virus, SHC014, discovered by Shi in southern China. They dabbed the mice nasally with virus and waited, looking for signs of sickness: hunching, ruffled fur. They also infected human airway cells with the mouse-adapted bat-spike-in-a-human-virus backbone. In both mice and human airway cells, the chimeric virus caused a robust infection. This proved, Baric and Shi believed, that you did not need civets or other intermediate hosts in order for bats to cause an epidemic in humans and that therefore all the SARS-like viruses circulating in bat populations may pose a future threat. Peter Daszak, who had used Predict funds to pay Shi for her work on the paper, was impressed by this conclusion; the findings, he said, move this virus from a candidate emerging pathogen to a clear and present danger. Richard Ebright was trenchantly unenthusiastic. The only impact of this work, he said, is the creation, in a lab, of a new, non-natural risk. Early in 2016, Baric and Shi again collaborated. Shi sent Baric a fresh bat virus spike protein, and Baric inserted it into the backbone of a human SARS virus and then used that infectious clone to attack human airway cells. The virus readily and efficiently replicated in cultured human airway tissues, suggesting an ability to potentially jump directly to humans, reported the UNCs website. This time, they also used the bat-human hybrid virus to infect transgenic humanized mice that grew human ACE2 protein. The mice, young and old, lost weight and died, proving, again, that this particular bat virus was potentially poised to emerge in human populations. It was an ongoing threat, Baric wrote. But was it? Civets and camels that are exposed to a lot of bat-guano dust may be an ongoing threat and a manageable one. But the bats themselves just want to hang in their caves and not be bothered by frowning sightseers in spacesuits who want to poke Q-tips in their bottoms. This 2016 poised for human emergence paper was supported by eight different NIH grants. In 2015, Barics lab received $8.3 million from the NIH; in 2016, it received $10.5 million. Gain-of-function research came roaring back under Trump and Fauci. The National Institutes of Health will again fund research that makes viruses more dangerous, said an article in Nature in December 2017. Carrie Wolinetz of the NIHs office of science policy defended the decision. These experiments will help us get ahead of viruses that are already out there and pose a real and present danger to human health, she told The Lancet. The NIH, Wolinetz said, was committed to a leadership role with gain-of-function research internationally. If we are pursuing this research in an active way, we will be much better positioned to develop protection and countermeasures should something bad happen in another country. A reporter asked Marc Lipsitch what he thought of the resumption of NIH funding. Gain-of-function experiments have done almost nothing to improve our preparedness for pandemics, he said, yet they risked creating an accidental pandemic.

XIII.  P r o x i m i t y I s a P r o b l e m  In April, four months into the coronavirus emergency, a deputy director at the NIH wrote an email to EcoHealth Alliance. You are instructed to cease providing any funds to Wuhan Institute of Virology, it said. In response, Daszak and the chief scientific officer of New England Biolabs (a company that sells seamless gene-splicing products to laboratories, among other things) got 77 Nobel Prize winners to sign a statement saying that the cancellation deprived the nation and the world of highly regarded science that could help control one of the greatest health crises in modern history and those that may arise in the future. Later, as a condition of further funding, the NIH wrote to say it wanted Daszak to arrange an outside inspection of the Wuhan lab and to procure from Wuhans scientists a sample of whatever theyd used to sequence the SARS-2 virus. Daszak was outraged (I am not trained as a private detective), and again he fought back. He was reluctant to give up his own secrets, too. Conspiracy-theory outlets and politically motivated organizations have made Freedom of Information Act requests on our grants and all of our letters and emails to the NIH, he told Nature. We dont think its fair that we should have to reveal everything we do. But Daszak has survived  even prospered. Recently, The Lancet made him the lead investigator in its inquiry into the origins of the pandemic, and the World Health Organization named him to its ten-person origins investigation. (Were still close enough to the origin to really find out more details about where it has come from, Daszak told Nature.) The NIH has also set up an ambitious new international program, called CREID, which stands for Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases, and it has put Daszaks EcoHealth in charge of trapping animals and looking for obscure bat viruses in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Baric is one of Daszaks partners in CREID. The virus hunting and collecting, which Richard Ebright likens to looking for a gas leak with a lighted match, will continue and widen with U.S. funding. Were going to work in remote parts of Malaysia and Thailand to get to the front line of where the next pandemic is going to start, Daszak told NPR. In May, an interviewer from the Peoples Pharmacy website asked Baric if he had any thoughts on whether the coronavirus began with a natural bat-to-human transfer. Or was there something a little bit more, perhaps, insidious involved? Well, of course the answers to those questions are in China, Baric replied. Exactly how they work in that facility is something that would be very difficult for a Westerner to know, he said. The main problems that the Institute of Virology has is that the outbreak occurred in close proximity to that Institute. That Institute has in essence the best collection of virologists in the world that have gone out and sought out, and isolated, and sampled bat species throughout Southeast Asia. So they have a very large collection of viruses in their laboratory. And so its  you know  proximity is a problem. Its a problem. Over the course of the fall, and especially after the election muffled Donald Trumps influence over the countrys public-health apparatus, that proximity problem  and the uncomfortable questions of origins it raised  began to grow somewhat more discussable. The BBC, Le Monde, and Italys RAI have all recently taken seriously the scientific possibility of a lab leak. In late October, the World Health Organization convened the first meeting of its second inquiry into the origins of the disease. The WHOs effort is perhaps the worlds best chance to satisfy its curiosity about goings-on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and at the Wuhan CDCs virus lab near the Wuhan seafood market. But, as the New York Times has reported, the WHOs information gathering has been hindered by Chinese secretiveness since February, when an initial investigative team sent to Beijing was told its members access to scientists would be restricted and that it couldnt visit the seafood market, then considered a hub of the pandemic. When a BBC video team tried to inspect the Yunnan mine shaft, they found the road to the mine blocked by a strategically parked truck that had broken down shortly before they arrived. Reporter John Sudworth asked Daszak, one of the ten members of the second WHO investigative team, whether he would push for access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Thats not my job to do that, Daszak replied. In November, David Relman, the Stanford microbiologist, one of the most thoughtful of the voices warning against gain-of-function research, published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the urgent need to unravel the origins of COVID-19. If SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab to cause the pandemic, he wrote, it will become critical to understand the chain of events and prevent this from happening again. Conflicts of interest by researchers and administrators will need to be addressed, Relman wrote; to reach the truth, the investigation must be transparent, international, and, as much as possible, unpolitical. A more complete understanding of the origins of COVID-19 clearly serves the interests of every person in every country on this planet. The world is sitting on a precedent-setting decision right now, wrote Alina Chan on December 8. It is unclear if SARS2 is 100 percent natural or emerged due to lab/research activities. If we walk away from this, demonstrating that we cannot effectively investigate its origins, it will pave the way for future COVIDS. Just before this issue of New York went to press, I reached Ralph Baric by phone and asked him where he now believed SARS-2 came from. (Anthony Fauci, Shi Zhengli, and Peter Daszak didnt respond to emails, and Kristian Andersen said he was busy with other things.) Baric said he still thought the virus came from bats in southern China, perhaps directly, or possibly via an intermediate host, although the smuggled pangolins, in his view, were a red herring. The disease evolved in humans over time without being noticed, he suspected, becoming gradually more infectious, and eventually a person carried it to Wuhan and the pandemic took off. Then he said, Can you rule out a laboratory escape? The answer in this case is probably not.

XIV. T r a n s m i s s i o n So how did we actually get this disease? Heres what I think happened. In April 2012, in a copper mine in Mojiang, China, three men were given an awful job  they were told to shovel bat guano out of a mine shaft. They went to work and shoveled guano for seven hours a day in the confined, insufficiently ventilated space of the mine shaft, and by the end of the week, they were sick with a viral pneumonia of unknown etiology. Three more, younger shovelers were hired to replace the ones who were out sick. The viral load in their lungs was so huge, because of all the guano dust, that their lungs became a kind of accelerated laboratory passaging experiment, as Jonathan Latham and Allison Wilson have written, forcing the virus to switch its allegiance from bats to humans. SARS experts were consulted, and the disease was judged to be SARS-like but not SARS. It was something new. (Shi Zhengli told Scientific American that the guano shovelers had died of a fungal disease, but, as Monali Rahalkar pointed out, they were treated with antivirals, and their symptoms were consistent with viral pneumonia with attendant secondary fungal infections.) Although it was a severe disease, and in the end three of the shovelers died, there was no resultant epidemic. It was actually a case of industrial overexposure to an infectious substance  what we might call a massive OSHA violation. The bat disease that the men encountered wasnt necessarily all that dangerous except in an environment of immunosuppressive overload. Peter Daszak and Shi Zhengli were interested, of course, because this unidentified coronavirus disease involved bats and people. Of the fragmentary bits of virus Shi retrieved from the mine shaft, one was SARS-like, and Shi sequenced it and called it BtCoV/4991 and published a paper about it. Several times  in 2016 and 2018 and 2019  this most interesting sample, a portion of what we now know as RaTG13, was taken out of the freezers in Shis lab and worked on in undisclosed ways. (Peter Daszak claims that these samples have disintegrated and cant be validated or studied.) Samples of the nameless human disease also traveled back to the Wuhan Institute of Virology  few specifics about these valuable specimens have been released by Chinese sources, however. This is the period in the story that demands a very close investigation, when chimeric assemblages may have been created and serially passaged, using BtCoV/4991, a.k.a. RaTG13, and other bat viruses, perhaps along with forms of the human virus. Its when Shi and Baric both published papers that were about what happened when you hot-swapped mutant spike proteins between bat viruses and human viruses. The link, via the renamed sample BtCoV/4991, to the copper mine is of exceptional importance because of the one huge difference between the unnamed guano shovelers virus and the SARS-2 virus that is now ravaging, for example, California: transmissibility. Airborne human-to-human transmissibility  the kind of thing that gain-of-functioneers like Ron Fouchier and Ralph Baric were aiming at, in order to demonstrate what Baric called lurking threats  is COVID-19s crucial distinguishing feature. If six men had gotten extremely sick with COVID-19 back in 2012 in southern China, doctors and nurses in the hospital where they lay dying would likely have gotten sick as well. There might have been hundreds or thousands of cases. Instead, only the shovelers themselves, who had breathed a heavy concentration of guano dust for days, got it. The existence of bat virus RaTG13 is therefore not necessarily evidence of a natural bat origin. In fact, it seems to me to imply the opposite: New functional components may have been overlaid onto or inserted into the RaTG13 genome, new Tinkertoy intermolecular manipulations, especially to its spike protein, which have the effect of making it unprecedentedly infectious in human airways. This is where the uniquely peculiar furin insert and/or the human-tuned ACE2-receptor-binding domain may come in  although its also possible that either of these elements could have evolved as part of some multistep zoonotic process. But in the climate of gonzo laboratory experimentation, at a time when all sorts of tweaked variants and amped-up substitutions were being tested on cell cultures and in the lungs of humanized mice and other experimental animals, isnt it possible that somebody in Wuhan took the virus that had been isolated from human samples, or the RaTG13 bat virus sequence, or both (or other viruses from that same mine shaft that Shi Zhengli has recently mentioned in passing), and used them to create a challenge disease for vaccine research  a chopped-and-channeled version of RaTG13 or the miners virus that included elements that would make it thrive and even rampage in people? And then what if, during an experiment one afternoon, this new, virulent, human-infecting, furin-ready virus got out? For more than 15 years, coronavirologists strove to prove that the threat of SARS was ever present and must be defended against, and they proved it by showing how they could doctor the viruses they stored in order to force them to jump species and go directly from bats to humans. More and more bat viruses came in from the field teams, and they were sequenced and synthesized and rewired, to use a term that Baric likes. In this international potluck supper of genetic cookery, hundreds of new variant diseases were invented and stored. And then one day, perhaps, somebody messed up. Its at least a reasonable, parsimonious explanation of what might have happened. This may be the great scientific meta-experiment of the 21st century. Could a world full of scientists do all kinds of reckless recombinant things with viral diseases for many years and successfully avoid a serious outbreak? The hypothesis was that, yes, it was doable. The risk was worth taking. There would be no pandemic. I hope the vaccine works.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/coronavirus-lab-escape-theory.html
(Newser)  Two FBI agents were shot to death and three agents were wounded while serving a search warrant in a child pornography case in Florida on Tuesday, reports the AP. Police described an incident in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Sunrise that began shortly after 6am, noting a suspect was barricaded inside a home, per NBC News. They described the scene as safe just after 9am. The gunman also is dead, and he's believed to have shot himself, the Miami Herald reports. Police said the agents were planning to seize the computer of a man suspected of possessing child pornography.

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Two of the hospitalized agents were reported to be in stable condition, with no details available on the third. "In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under investigation by the FBI's Inspection Division," says an agency statement, per NBC. "Because this is an ongoing investigation, no further information will be released at this time." The FBI first obtained the suspect's Internet Protocol address from an internet service provider, then determined his physical address from there, per the Herald. (Read more shooting stories.)
Bengaluru, Feb 3 : Karnataka Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths carried out simultaneous raids across 30 places in the state belonging to seven government officials since wee hours of the Tuesday morning and recovered huge cash, gold and solver articles.

According to KACB note, simultaneous raids were carried out in Bengaluru, Kolar, Dharwad Ballari, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga and Kalaburgi on receiving complaints about amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Raids were conducted at the residence of Jayaraj K.V., joint director at Mangaluru City Municipal Corporation and the ACB recovered Rs 11 lakh cash, Rs 10 lakh insurance bonds, Rs 97 lakh fixed deposits in various banks, 191 gm of gold ornaments and one gm silver articles.

In Dharwad, the ACB conducted raids were conducted at the residence of Devraj Kamlesh Shiggavi, executive engineer at minor irrigation department executive engineer and recovered Rs 59.84 lakh cash and Rs 30 lakh deposits in various banks, 500 gm gold ornaments, 4 kg silver articles, besides several documents pertaining sites and flats were recovered.

In Bengaluru, the ACB sleuths raided the Vijayanagara residence, Jayanagar, Malleshwaram office and Chitradugra houses of D. Panduranga Garag, joint director, Cooperative Societies D. Panduranga Garag and recovered 31 kg silver articles and Rs 4.44 lakh cash.

Raids were conducted at the houses of WIMS former Director and Koppal District Hospital Chief Srinivas in Ballari and Koppal offices.

The raids are also underway at the residence of a Mangaluru Corporation official. Minor Irrigation Executive Engineer Devaraj Shivangi and his father-in-law's house in Kotilingeshwara, Balaji Nagara by three ACB officials.

The ACB teams conducted raids at Dharwad Forest Officer Srinivas at his house in Chitradurga and Basaveshwara Medical College house and his farm houses, on BBMP Engineer Anjenappa and four places across the state.

While raids were also conducted at Kolar DHO Vijyakumar's house and office and other six places including hospital premises. During the raids, the officials have seized cash, jewellery and documents of properties at various places.

The ACB was yet to assess the exact values of recoveries and raid was still going on.

Asos shares soared as investors toasted the 295million purchase of the Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands from Arcadia following the collapse of Sir Philip Greens empire.

The online retailer has not bought any of the stores, forcing administrators Deloitte to announce another 70 closures and 2,500 redundancies.

A further 10,000 job losses and 324 store closures are expected at Arcadia if Boohoos exclusive talks for Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis result in a deal.

Asos shares soared seven per cent soared after the online retailer announced it had bought the Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands from Arcadia in a 265m deal

The Asos takeover hands its top investor Anders Holch Povlsen, who owns a 26 per cent stake through his retail empire Bestseller, a share in more major European brands.

The Danish billionaire already owns part of the German Asos Zalando, consumer credit giant Klarna and eight fashion brands including Jack & Jones, which is sold via Asos.

The 48-year-old, who owns a series of Scottish estates making him the UKs largest private landowner, has been the most significant beneficiary from Asoss growth in the pandemic.

The Asos takeover hands its top investor Anders Holch Povlsen (pictured), who owns a 26 per cent stake through his retail empire Bestseller, a share in more major European brands

News of the deal pushed the share price up 7 per cent, or 310p, to 4784p, up from 1,030p in April 2020, putting the value of Povlsens stake to 1.2billion.

Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge have a combined 3.3m customers and received more than 200m visits to their websites in the last year.

Bosses said the deal is expected to deliver a double-digit return on capital in the first year, and is part of their strategy for the Asos website to become a one-stop shop for consumers aged 16 to 34.
Hoang Van Binh, a 23-year-old from the north-central Thanh Hoa Province, said he went to Quang Ninh's Dong Trieu District on Jan. 27 to buy more than 100 peach blossoms for about VND100 million (over $4,300) and brought them to Van Don for sale. But the next day, Covid-19 resurfaced with a record single-day tally of 93. Only a few customers have been coming to look at and buy his trees.

"A few days into lockdown, my friends helped me set up a temporary tent. All daily activities are very inconvenient. Sometimes it is difficult to even buy rice. I don't think I will be able to return to my hometown for Tet."
Battery maker Octillion Power Systems will supply advanced lithium-ion batteries to Brazilian manufacturer FNM (Fabrica Nacional de Mobilidades) for the production of 1,000 electric trucks for beverage maker Ambev. Octillion and FNM announced their partnership in October 2020. (Earlier post.)

Ambev will use the electric trucks to deliver beverages throughout South America. A subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Ambev announced that it will deploy the 1,000 electric delivery vehicles by the end of 2021.

FNM recently entered into a contract of technical and industrial cooperation with Agrale, the only 100% Brazilian vehicle manufacturer. Agrale has been on the Brazilian and international market for nearly 60 years. As a part of this launch, they are partnering with FNM and Ambev to invest in clean technologies for fleet vehicles.

FNM was formed in late 2019 and has its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. FNM opened its EV factory inside Agrales manufacturing facility in Caxias do Sul city in southeast Brazil. This joint effort leverages Agrales existing fully integrated, mass-production line for commercial vehicles, with a capacity to produce 150 to 200 trucks per day.

FNMs electric drivetrain integration line is being woven seamlessly inside of Agrales production line to ensure a fast ramp up. The collaborative effort will produce the FNM model 832, a Class 6 truck with up to 14-ton capacity, and the FNM model 833, a Class 8 truck with an 18-ton payload capacity. Future plans include electric buses, vans and tractors.





The FNM 833 is being deployed by Ambev. It features Octillions 650-volt battery and and Danfoss Editrons drivetrains. The new truck will be able to travel up to 700 kilometers between charges.

Octillions modular, high-energy density batteries are cooled by chilled water. At the end of their 10-year service life in the trucks, the battery modules do not need to be recycled, since they can be repurposed for other uses, such as for storage for large solar arrays.

Using a Wallbox charger with a CCS2 outlet the trucks can be fully recharged in up to four hours. The Wallbox is connected to 380-volt charger inside Ambevs distribution centers, which are located all over Brazil and already operate with solar power.

The Danfoss Editron drivetrain systems feature a 250-kW motor with an Eaton multi-speed transmission. They are also fitted with a digital avionics controller and inverter to enable the intelligent management of all the vehicles operations.

FNM was one of the finalists in the first edition of the Ambev Aceleratora 100+ program, in 2019, with this electric truck project. Since then, the companies have been working together on innovations and technologies that aim to deliver sustainable and efficient solutions both for Ambevs own logistics program and also for other local and international clients.
Standsome Worklifestyle on Unsplash

Could women be paid $2,400 a month to take care of their children? The answer  maybe.

There is currently a push by women, including celebrity moms like Eva Longoria, to have the Biden Administration implement a 'Marshall Plan for Moms' in the first 100 days.
ON Thursday, the world is commemorating Human Fraternity Day for peace and cooperation with a strong call to avoid all acts that advocate religious hatred and promote a spirit of tolerance and respect for diversity.

It is a day that calls for the need to underline the importance of raising awareness about different cultures and religions, or beliefs, and the promotion of tolerance, which involves societal acceptance and respect for religious and cultural diversity, including religious expression.

Tanzania is a classic example when it comes to peaceful coexistence, where despite their religious and cultural differences they are able to live as a cohesive family.

There have been various initiatives bringing together religious leaders to discuss various issues pertaining to what unites them in their differences.

It is these platforms that have helped Tanzania to remain the haven of peace in the world where its people continue worshiping freely without interference.

In some other parts of the world we witness continued conflict and intolerance with rising a number of refugees and internally displaced in a hostile and unwelcoming world around them.

According to the UN, in these times where the world grapples with Covid-19, we need perhaps more than ever before to recognise the valuable contribution of people of all religions or beliefs, to humanity and the contribution that dialogue among all religious groups can make towards an improved awareness and understanding of common values shared by all humankind.

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Education, in particular at school, should contribute in a meaningful way to the promotion of tolerance and the elimination of discrimination based on belief systems.

Furthermore, we must acknowledge that tolerance, pluralistic tradition, mutual respect and the diversity of religions and beliefs promote human fraternity.

Thus, it is imperative that we encourage activities aimed at promoting interreligious and intercultural dialogue to enhance peace and social stability, respect for diversity and mutual respect and to create, at global level, and also at regional, national and local levels, an environment conducive to peace and mutual understanding.

Religion has provided followers with justification for fighting against real and perceived evils, including unjust socio-political systems. It has been used as a tool for mobilising social action against domination and exploitation and has given voice to the socially marginalised people.

At the core of all belief systems and traditions is the recognition that we are all in this world together and that we need to love and support one another to live in harmony and peace in an environmentally-sustainable world.
At a time when the government is planning to formally begin the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, with specific emphasis on upskilling and digital learning, the education sector was expecting a big increase in budgetary allocation this year, as compared to the previous budget.

Instead, what has come is a dampener. There is visible disappointment in the sector since the 6.1 percent drop in total allocation for the Ministry of Education at Rs 93,224 crore compared to Budget 2020, was announced. In the revised estimate of 2020-21, this stood at 9.5 percent higher.

The Ministry of Education had expected close to 15-20 percent hike in the budgetary allocations for the sector, given the priority that the government has put on NEP. But no big-bang reforms were announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on this front.

Narayanan Ramaswamy, Partner and Sector Head-Education and Skill Development, KPMG in India, said that while the NEP was announced earlier, this Budget had not seized the opportunity to use this momentum to drive transformation.

NEP implementation required huge financial support and the Budget has completely ignored it--save some bright spots, which are few and far in between, he added, candidly.

Funds have been allotted to flagship schemes like the National Education Mission (literacy improvement), Mid-Day Meals in Schools and for autonomous bodies (like IGNOU) and IITs.

In a year where fund allocation to education should have been increased and many initiatives regarding supporting NEP should have been taken, the slashed allocation by 6.1 percent is disappointing. This could well be a great opportunity missed to give the much-needed impetus to the forward-looking NEP and accelerate the relevance of Indian talent in the global arena, stated Ramaswamy.

India's education sector is estimated to be worth US$ 103 billion. Countries such as Brazil spend close to 5.8 percent of the country's GDP for education. India spends nearly 4.4 percent. China spends 4.1 percent of its GDP on education but has higher enrolments and research expenditure than India.

How has the allocation trend been?

Since 2019-20, allocations for the education sector have ranged between Rs 90,000 crore to Rs 99,000 crore.

It was Rs 89,437 crore in FY20. This rose substantially to Rs 99,311 crore in the Budget Estimate (BE) of 2020-21. However, it was significantly decreased to Rs 85,089 crore in the Revised Estimate (RE), 2020-21.

In Budget 2021, it was expected that close to Rs 7,000 crore would be exclusively set aside for the implementation of NEP 2020.

NEP 2020 replaces a 34-year-old education policy with its stated objective to promote holistic education. It is aimed at bringing out the unique capabilities of each student. This involves policy changes in school education and higher education to weed out rote-based learning and introduce practical training and analytical thinking.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman did make a mention of NEP in her Budget speech. She explained that a National Professional Standards for Teachers will be set up as part of this policy. Further, she also said that National Digital Educational Architecture (NDEAR) will be put in place to build digital infrastructure.

However, the expenditure Budget did not provide any allocation for these schemes or specifically for NEP 2020.

Manish Mohta, MD of online examination provider, Learning Spiral, said that the stagnant education Budget is a concern, as it is already far lower than most countries in terms of a percentage of GDP.

While on the one hand, allocations for older schemes have stayed constant, new entrants have been given funds. For instance, under the Higher Education Department, there is Rs 50 crore allocation for a Bharat Bhasha University and Institute of Translation.

These funds are likely to be used to aid translation of literary and academic material in various Indian languages.

Technology education has been a key focus for the government. Here, setting up Indian Institutes of Information Technology in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode has been on the agenda for the past two years. However, the allocation for it has stood still at Rs 167 crore, like BE 2020-21.

Neeti Sharma, Senior Vice President, TeamLease Services, said that she was expecting the Budget to focus on up-skilling and re-skilling of workforce across sectors.

While the Budget has spoken about increasing skilled workforce for new technology competencies, it has not looked at any impetus or reforms to augment the skilling ecosystem, she added.

According to her, some key aspects that have been overlooked include enabling technology adoption for blended learning/skilling and fast track policy implementation for areas like NEP.

Projects like Operation Digital Board (ODB) saw no rise in allocations for BE 2021-22. Launched in February 2019, ODB is a scheme that aims to provide smartboards in all government-aided schools and higher education institutions. The outlay for this ODB scheme has stood at Rs 1 crore, like the revised estimate, 2020-21.

But a new allocation of Rs 10 crore has been set aside for a segment called 'Indian Knowledge Systems'. This segment will examine elements of knowledge from ancient India, its contribution to modern India and its successes and challenges.

Among the biggest disappointments for the teaching community, by far, has been the small allocation for improvement in salary scales.

BE 2021-22 has set Rs 10 crore as allocation for improvement in the salary scale of university and college teachers. This outlay stood at Rs 1,900 crore in Budget 2020 and Rs 348.5 crore in RE 2020-21.

It is very concerning that the government hasnt paid adequate attention to compensation for college teachers. If we want to attract high-quality educators, shouldnt there be significantly higher funds allocated for them questioned Mumbai-based education consultant, Rasika Pastakhia.

Some bright spots

Amidst concerns of a decrease in allocation, however, the industry did notice some bright spots.

KPMGs Ramaswamy said, I have been questioning the wisdom of having parallel research labs and this Budget, for the first time, attempts to correct a 60-year-old legacy by introducing glue grants for an umbrella structure that will bring synergies.

In the Budget speech, the finance minister said that many cities have various research institutions, universities, and colleges supported by the central government. To enable better synergy, she added that there will be formal umbrella structures created in nine such cities.

Similarly, the allocation of Rs 50,000 crore for National Research Foundation is being seen a bright spot. Sharma of TeamLease Services said that this allocation will improve the research ecosystem and lead to a more methodical and scientific approach in learning.
Months after John Dobbin's elderly parents contracted COVID-19 and nearly died, the couple is finally out of hospital and living together in a personal care home.

Months after John Dobbin's elderly parents contracted COVID-19 and nearly died, the couple is finally out of hospital and living together in a personal care home.

They aren't the only Manitoba seniors moving from hospitals into personal care homes during the pandemic.

Mike and Gail Dobbin, both 82, share a room at the downtown Beacon Hill Lodge. The couple, married for 57 years, moved in two weeks ago from the Victoria General Hospital.

"They spent 100 days in the COVID unit," their son, John, said Monday. "They didn't want them to get sick again and Beacon Hill was ready to take them in. They had to quarantine for two weeks after they got there and they have now been cleared. This keeps them together."

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS John Dobbin, whose parents had COVID-19 and have just been admitted to Beacon Hill Lodge long term care home.

The bulk of new transfers to personal care homes was put on hold during the worst of the second wave of the pandemic.

But Jan Legeros, executive director of the Long Term and Continuing Care Association of Manitoba, said there is movement again as seniors fill vacant beds.

"It has just been in the last several weeks the personal care homes have started admissions again," Legeros said. "When 30 of the homes were in outbreak in Winnipeg, there was no move by the nine others to start. But now with 26 outbreaks in the province, down quite a bit from what it once was, they can."

"This keeps them together."  John Dobbin on his elderly parents both moving into Beacon Hill Lodge care home

Legeros said 100 personal care home beds were open Friday, and Monday there were 40 new admissions.

Larry Roberts, a spokesman for Revera, a company that owns Beacon Hill and other personal care homes in Winnipeg (including Parkview Place and Maples Long Term Care Home), said the admission of new residents is easing pressure on the hospital system.

"Code red doesn't apply to admissions to a personal care home, just the visits of general visitors," Roberts said, noting Beacon Hill's outbreak status still hasn't been lifted.

"The residents (Beacon Hill is) accepting are people from hospitals who have already had COVID. There's no risk of them contracting COVID because they have already had it. They are trying to reduce pressure at the hospitals. They still have to do 14 days of isolation.

"It is only people coming in from the hospitals, not the community," Roberts added.

JOHN DOBBIN PHOTO John Dobbin's mother sits in her new residence at Beacon Hill Lodge shortly after arriving in January.

He said the province is still reviewing Parkview and Maples so they aren't allowed to accept new residents, yet. The operating licences of both came under review after inspections found various problems with staffing levels and renovations that needed to be done.

A spokesman for Shared Health said people can't be admitted to personal care homes with an outbreak unless they have been confirmed as COVID-19 positive or recovered from it during the past three months.

It didn't look positive for Mike and Gail Dobbin in October. The day after Thanksgiving, both were admitted into Victoria General Hospital for non-COVID-19 health reasons.

A few days later, there was an outbreak in their ward  the family medicine unit  and soon they were sick and testing positive for COVID-19. That began 100 days in hospital COVID wards where both fought the virus while being transferred to different hospitals. John Dobbin's dad was in a total of four hospitals, while his mom was in three.

"My dad was in rough shape and my mom wasn't much better, but she recovered first," John said.

He said getting his parents into Beacon Hill isn't like it would have been before the pandemic.

"I had to be in goggles, mask, face shield, gloves and gown while filling out 60 pages of documents. But they are there now," he said. "And I'm so happy they can be together. I don't think my mother would survive if she wasn't with him."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
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The Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, on Tuesday, struck out the suit challenging the demolition of Ile Arugbo and the acquisition of the disputed land from the family of a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

The Nation reports that the judge, Abiodun Adewara, struck out the suit on the grounds of lack of diligent prosecution by the claimant, Asa Investment Limited, acting for the Sarakis.

The claimant had sued the state government and its relevant agencies.

Argument

Earlier on Tuesday, the claimants lawyer, AbdulAzeez Ibrahim, told the court that he had filed an application to substitute the late second claimant, Baba Eleku, with one Abubakar Oluwatoyin.

Mr Ibrahim also sought an adjournment of the case to enable him file the statement on oath of the newly proposed second defendant.

He added that he was unable to continue the hearing due to the absence of the claimants lead counsel, Akin Onigbinde, whom he said was bereaved.

Responding, defence lawyer, Salman Jawondo, opposed the application for adjournment.

Mr Jawondo said the claimants conduct showed they are not interested in expeditious prosecution of the case.

The judge rejected the application for adjournment and asked the claimants lawyer to call their first witness.

When the claimants counsel could not call his witness, the defence lawyer urged the court to strike out the case and adjourn for the hearing of the state governments counter-claim.

Ruling

The judge in a ruling held that the claimants are not prosecuting the case diligently.

He struck out the suit and adjourned till to March 17 for the hearing of the defenants counter-claim.

Not the end of the case

Mr Ibrahim told journalists after the proceedings, That is not the end of the case. We have options of either to appeal against the judgment or to come back again for relisting of the matter.

Background

The Saraki family was using Ile Arugho to host their political followers until state government took over the land in January 2020.

The government alleged that the land was illegally acquired.

It stated that it sought to take over the land for building of another state secretariat.

The Central Bank awarded an IT contract that could be worth 58m without putting the work to tender, the bank has admitted.

In September, minutes released of a Central Bank Commission meeting confirmed the Commissions approval of a large new IT contract to an Irish subsidiary of DXC Technology, Global Entserv Solutions Ireland Ltd.

The Irish Independent first reported that the contract had been awarded without being put to tender.

Now, new documents released by the Central Bank show that the maximum value of the contract with Global Entserv Solutions Ireland Ltd is 58m.

Global Entserv Solutions Irelands parent firm, DXC Technology is a global IT firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

A spokeswoman for the Central Bank said yesterday that the potential 58m cost represents the total estimated potential spend under the contract including all options and potential extensions.

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She stated that the contract with Global Entserv Solutions Ireland is for a two-year period with the option to extend the term by two one-year periods if required.

The total projected value of the contract over two years is 29.73m. It is envisaged that a competitive tender procedure for future services will be issued in 2021 and completed within the 2-year timeframe, she said.

The spokeswoman stated that the new contract came into effect upon termination of the previous contract on November 17.

She stated: On a like-for-like basis, the annual costs are reduced by 13pc under the new contractual terms.

Last year, Global Entserv Solutions Ireland received 15.72m in payments from the Central Bank. It received 15.66m from the Central Bank in 2019.

The spokeswoman said the contract had not been tendered due to the pandemic and that it had been awarded without a competitive procedure on grounds of extreme urgency.

She stated: A competitive tender for services of this nature requires significant effort and time to complete and also requires stable market conditions to ensure receipt of qualifying responses.

She explained: "While the Central Bank had commenced preparation for a competitive process, the onset and impacts of Covid-19, both on the organisation and the market, meant that completion of this process was unachievable in the time available."

She stated that the services to be provided by Global Entserv Solutions underpin and support all aspects of critical IT operations, IT delivery, and IT security at the bank and are delivered to industry standards on a 24/7 basis across multiple locations.

The services incorporate the provision and management of two Data Centre facilities including the uplift of the current secondary Data Centre to a highly resilient tier-3 facility.

Global Entserv Solutions Ireland more than doubled its pre-tax profits to March 2019 to 8.8m on revenues for the 12 months of 92.93m.

MPs from both main parties have argued for the extension of the stamp duty holiday, to allow people who are already in the process of buying a home to benefit from tax savings of up to 15,000.

The issue was debated in a virtual House of Commons session yesterday, which saw the majority of the MPs in the debate call for the holiday to be extended.

Homebuyers anxious to know whether they stood to benefit from the tax break, which is currently set to end on 31 March, did not get any concrete answers - and may have to wait until the Budget in early March to find out.

MPs argued for an extension to the stamp duty holiday, which saves buyers up to 15,000

Financial secretary to the Treasury, Jesse Norman MP, spoke on behalf of the Government during the debate.

He said it was 'aware of the strength of feeling on this issue,' but that he was not allowed to comment on tax policy outside of a fiscal event.

This, he said, meant he could not say whether or not the Government was considering extending the holiday.

This means that anxious home buyers might not hear about any changes to the stamp duty holiday - if any were being planned - until the budget on 3 March.

Norman did say, however, that the Government would 'Continue, as it always does, to listen to representations from the industry and of people who are themselves looking to buy a property.'

The stamp duty holiday was introduced by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in July in a bid to kick-start the housing market after it was closed for eight weeks during the first national lockdown.

It means that no stamp duty needs to be paid on properties costing 500,000 or less until 31 March. For more expensive homes, stamp duty is only paid on the portion above 500,000. This could save home buyers up to 15,000.

The debate was triggered by an online petition which called for the holiday to be extended by six months, and had nearly 140,000 signatures.

Tapered end would avoid 'overnight shocks'

Most of the MPs in the debate argued that the stamp duty holiday should be extended in a phased system, which would allow those who had reached a certain point in their transaction to complete and still benefit from the tax deduction post-31 March.

Elliot Colburn, the Conservative MP for Carshalton and Wallington, called for a 'phased and tapered' end to the stamp duty holiday, which he said would 'Help the market not suffer overnight shocks like it could on 31 March.'

He said that mortgage lender Paragon Bank had shown him figures which suggested that almost two thirds of its customers were dependent, or had another buyer in their chain who was dependent, on completing their transaction by 31 March.

In the Paragon survey, 24 per cent of respondents said they were unlikely to proceed with a transaction if they were unable to complete before the stamp duty deadline, while 27 per cent were unsure or couldnt say.

House prices in the UK continued to grow in 2020, despite the effects of the pandemic

Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton, said that setting another fixed date would create another 'cliff edge' where people would still be disappointed at missing the deadline.

Instead, he suggested that those who had a mortgage offer by the end of February might be allowed to complete their sale and still benefit from the tax cut.

'We've got around 490,000 properties in this pipeline hoping to complete by the end of March, and a lot of people will be disappointed,' he said.

However, he admitted that extending the holiday for too long would risk creating a property price bubble.

Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake warned against creating a property bubble

'If went on too much longer you could create a bubble effect which wouldn't be helpful, people too desperate to buy would push up prices and then prices would fall afterwards. Nobody wants that,' he added.

While figures are not available on how many people have taken advantage of the tax break so far, it is generally accepted that it played a big part in in the housing market boom in the second half of 2020.

According to the latest ONS statistics, house prices across Britain reached a record average high of 250,000 in the year to November 2020.

The average cost of a home increased by 7.6 per cent over the same period.

However, the increase in activity has led to delays in getting homes sold as solicitors, lenders and local authorities struggled to cope with the extra work.

This led to mortgage lenders pulling some of their products from the market in the spring in order to make their workload more manageable.

It is estimated that the stamp duty holiday cost the Treasury 3.8bn in foregone revenue - although some of this may be recouped through other taxes from extra economic activity.

Home sales have been taking longer to complete as the stamp duty holiday increased demand

Abena Oppong-Asare, the Labour shadow exchequer secretary to the Treasury, also expressed concern about the impact that a sudden end to the stamp duty holiday would have on home buyers.

'The overheating now looks set to be followed by a crash of many people's sales,' she said.

'For many people will suddenly make their plans unaffordable. This scheme has left hundreds of thousands of homeowners potentially in the position of either going forward with a purchase they cannot afford, or abandoning it and foregoing all the money they have spent in fees so far - not to mention the emotional stress of watching their purchase slip through their fingers.'

The fifth round of the Syrian Constitutional Committee negotiations remain at a standstill, writes Baladi News.

The co-chair of the Constitutional Committee of the Syrian Negotiations Commission, Hadi al-Bahra, said that the regimes positions and behaviors have proven that it has neither intention nor seriousness towards any political solution that would lead to the implementation of key decisions, which, as everyone knows, should be fully implemented for a sustainable political solution to be possible.

He said in a statement obtained by Baladi News that the representatives of the negotiating body in the Constitutional Committee affirmed their commitment to continuing the work with all effort and seriousness, a commitment that has been unwavering since its formation, in accordance with its mandate and terms of reference, which it applied to the fifth round of the meetings that ended on Jan. 29, 2020. The meetings had a pre-approved agenda, which the representatives of the regime did not adhere to, which impeded the work of the committee and resulted in achieving zero progress.

Bahra explained that the regime rejected a proposal submitted by the representatives of the negotiating body regarding a methodology for managing the discussions and ensuring they are more fruitful. The regime delegation also refused to submit its own proposal for the methodology, and rejected the proposal made by the UN special envoy in this regard. The proposal to set a time frame for the process was also rejected, although we are of the opinion that the committee must work continuously in order to accomplish its mission. We suggested that the sessions take place over three weeks, with one week of break in-between one session and the other.

What is more, they refused to submit a draft of basic constitutional principles, insisting that their proposals should be limited to principles that lie outside the framework of constitutional formulations, while representatives of the commission and a part of civil society representatives presented approximately 35 constitutional drafts of basic principles, in accordance with the agenda, and the regime showed no willingness to cooperate or produce any outcomes, he continued.

He added that representatives of the regime presented a paper during the last session of the meetings, entitled Basic Elements in the Context of Preparing the Constitutional Principles, which included political positions that are neither constitutional principles nor components. The paper was previously presented during the fourth round, under the title National Foundations and Principles, which sends a clear message that the regimes delegation is not committed to the fifth rounds agenda and continues to linger on the third and fourth sessions.

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.
upGrad, the edtech firm promoted by media entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, is in advanced talks to raise as much as $100 million in a funding round led by Singapores Temasek and International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Temasek, a sovereign wealth fund, is preparing to invest about $50 million in the round, valuing upGrad at $450-500 million, said two people aware of the matter. IFC, a financial institution and member of the World Bank, said it is committed to invest $45 million in upGrad earlier this week but negotiations are ongoing, they said, requesting anonymity.

Online Education Boom

Founded by Screwvala in 2015 along with Phalgun Kompalli and Mayank Kumar, upGrad focusses on executive education, providing MBAs and other Masters degrees in fields such as data science, machine learning, marketing, law, public relations, and psychology, among others. It has partnered universities such as the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies-Mumbai and Deakin University in Australia.

Screwvala has been looking to raise funds for upGrad independently for the past two years. If he is successful in raising money, he could join a bunch of Indian online education startups such as Byjus, Vendatu and Unacdemy that are riding a wave of unprecedented investor and customer interest after the COVID-19 pandemics shuttered schools and boosted online education in India.

upGrad and Temasek declined to comment for this article.

upGrad expects to end FY21 with a revenue of Rs 1,200 crore, according to multiple media reports. That would be a nearly ten-fold jump in revenue from the Rs 164 crore operating revenue the company posted in FY20 on a total loss of Rs 79 crore, according to regulatory filings.

A deal would give upGrad ammunition to expand globally like its online education counterparts Coursera and Udacity. Given that many professional courses teach the same things globally, if a company can have global tie-ups, then theres no reason it cant have customers globally as well. It boils down to sales and marketing if your course tie-ups are in order, said a person tracking the space, requesting anonymity.

Eruditus, another Indian edtech firm that also operates in the same space, was valued at $800 million in September 2020, when it raised funds from Sequoia Capital, Prosus Ventures (Naspers), and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, among others.

For Screwala, raising a round at this valuation from external and well-known investors gives the business more legitimacy and credibility, the person who tracks online education said.

Temasek is looking to increase its investment in internet startups. Over the past 18 months, it has invested in health and fitness startup Cure.fit and online pharmacy PharmEasy.
The team behind ecumenical Christian charity Celebrate Norwich and Norfolk wants to hear your thoughts about its future role.

The team behind ecumenical Christian charity Celebrate Norwich and Norfolk wants to hear your thoughts about its future role.

Quiet Waters has summer offer for keyworkers The Quiet Waters Christian retreat house in Bungay would like to give a big thank you to those who have been Essential Workers during the past year. Read more

Breakfast fellowship in Cromer for forces veterans An Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast Club (AFVBC) has started meeting again in North Norfolk, ending the recent social isolation of veterans during pandemic restrictions. Read more

Two Recovery Workers needed by Matthew Project The Matthew Project is advertising two exciting full time opportunities as Recovery Workers, to support people in the community delivering 1:1 and group work. The roles will be centred in either Great Yarmouth or Kings Lynn and Thetford. Read more

Call to Prayer finds a new home in Heartsease The Call to Prayer ministry is moving this summer to a new base in Heartsease. Read more

YMCA opens cafe and soft play in Norwich A brand-new cafe and soft play area is set to open in Norwich on May 28 run by YMCA Norfolk in its new community hub on Aylsham Road near the city centre. Read more

A record-breaking year for Mid-Norfolk Foodbank Wellspring Church in Dereham, Swaffham Baptist Church, and Fakenham Salvation Army centre have provided the bases for a record-breaking year at Mid-Norfolk Foodbank. Read more

Transforming Norwich offers chance to meet Transforming Norwich will hold its next ministers and Christian leaders meeting on Zoom on Wednesday June 30. Read more

How can our weakness be a strength? Andrew Frere-Smith explains why there can be some positive outcomes from the trials of the last fourteen months. Read more

Norfolk science-faith lecture on 'dying well' Professor John Wyatt will give the next Norfolk Science-Faith lecture on the ethical guidelines for palliative care, based on issues raised by the coronavirus pandemic. The lecture and discussion will be online on June 7. Read more

Walsingham Way provides a new route for pilgrims A new waymarked walking route between Norwich and Walsingham is being launched to celebrate the tradition of pilgrimage. Read more

Reedham Gospel Hall goes up for sale The Gospel Hall in the Broadland village of Reedham has closed, and will be going under the auction hammer, because of a decline in attendance. Read more

Christian artists host art trail in North Norfolk Three faith-filled artists in the Fakenham area are opening their studios to the public at the end of this week as part of a new initiative called North Norfolk Studios. Read more

Barbara begins leadership in Wymondham with baptism of fire At a hugely challenging time, the Alive network appointed Barbara McLellan as the new pastor for their church in Wymondham. Read more

Hub garden revamped by Norwich church A Norwich church has given the garden area of its community hub a makeover just in time for the reopening of the cafe at the weekend. Read more

Acle prayer walk led by local churches Acle Churches Together (ACT) held its traditional annual prayer walk last Sunday, stopping at various venues in the community to recognise and pray for the work done by the staff employed by them. Read more

Norfolk Healing Rooms has faith for our times Norfolk Healing Rooms, which offers free ministry for the sick in body, mind and spirit, is continuing its service through Zoom and offering free taster prophetic evenings. Read more

Norwich charity for homeless ex-offenders comes of age A Norwich charity which offers supported accommodation to homeless men, many of whom are ex-offenders, has come of age and is marking its 21st anniversary. Read more
Ongwediva  The junior council at Ongwediva on Friday donated sanitary pads, masks and sanitiser valued at over N$21 000 to five schools in the north.

Junior mayor Natasha Iipumbu said the sanitary pads will be distributed to underprivileged girls at Hashiyana, Ekwafo, Oupumako and Kandjengedi combined schools as well as the Joseph Mbangula and Omusheshe primary schools.

Iipumbu said with the donation, no girl child will miss school because they cannot afford sanitary pads.

"It is our duty to help one another. These girls are the future generation. We need to help our future doctors, nurses, pilots, leaders and engineers to attend lessons by donating sanitary towels," said Iipumbu.

She called on stakeholders and good Samaritans to donate sanitary pads to schools and communities to ensure that every girl child has access to sanitary pads.

On the covid-19 front, the junior mayor called on the nation to continue practising social distancing, wearing of masks and sanitising in order to prevent the further curb of the virus.

Last year, the junior council donated uniforms; however, this year they saw it befitting to donate items geared towards ensuring that every child attends lessons comfortably and safely.

"Because when they attend lessons they contribute to the socio-economy of the country as more learners attend their lessons, the more educated our future generation is most likely to be. This will equal to more employment, less crime, improved living standards and a better Namibia," said Iipumbu.

Jerusalem:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gifted his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu replicas of two sets of relics from Kerala, regarded as key artifacts of the long Jewish history in India.

They comprise two different sets of copper plates that are believed to have been inscribed in 9-10th Century, the Prime Minister's Office said. The first set of copper plates is a cherished relic for the Cochin Jews in India.

It is regarded as a charter describing the grant of hereditary royal privileges and prerogatives by the Hindu King, Cheraman Perumal (often identified as Bhaskara Ravi Varma) to the Jewish leader Joseph Rabban.

According to traditional Jewish accounts, Joseph Rabbanwas later crowned as the Prince of Shingli, a place in or equated with Cranganore. Cranganore is where Jews enjoyed religious and cultural autonomy for centuries, before they moved to Cochin and otherplaces in Malabar.

Local Jews once placed in each coffin a handful of earthfrom Shingli/Cranganore that was remembered as a holy placeand a "second Jerusalem". The replica of these plates was made possible with the cooperation of the Paradesi Synagogue in Mattancherry, Kochi.

The second set of copper plates is believed to be the earliest documentation of the history of Jewish trade withIndia. These plates describe the grant of land and tax privileges by the local Hindu ruler to a church.

Also Read: PM Modi meets 26/11 survivor Baby Moshe in Jerusalem, asks him to visit India with family

And oversight of trade in Kollam to West Asiang associations. Westn and Indian tradi Asian association included Muslims, Christians,Zoroastrians, as also a group of Jews, who signed in Judeo-Persian and possibly also in Arabic and Pahlavi (MiddlePersian).

The plates bear their signatures that appear to have beencut into the plates by a local workman unfamiliar with the script, the PMO tweeted. The replica of these plates was made with the cooperation of Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church in Thiruvalla, Kerala.

Also Read: PM Modi-PM Netanyahu joint statement: India, Israel sign agreement in space sector, cleaning of River Ganga in UP

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Samsung introduced the Galaxy M02s earlier last month, and today it followed it up with a cheaper version, dubbed Galaxy M02.

The Samsung Galaxy M02 is built around a 6.5" Infinity-V display with HD+ resolution and a waterdrop notch for the 5MP selfie camera.

The phone's rear panel, which has a textured design for a comfortable grip, is home to a dual camera setup aligned vertically in the upper-left corner. It consists of 13MP primary and 2MP macro cameras, below which is the LED flash.

Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy M02 has MediaTek's MT6739W SoC paired with 2GB or 3GB RAM. The smartphone boots Android 10-based One UI and comes with 32GB of storage on board, with the option to further expand the storage up to 1TB with a microSD card.

The Galaxy M02 is 9.1mm thick, weighs 206 grams, and packs a 5,000 mAh battery charged through a microUSB port.

The Samsung Galaxy M02 is offered in four colors - Black, Grey, Blue, and Red. It will go on sale in India starting February 9 through Amazon.in and Samsung's official Indian site.

The M02's base variant with 2GB RAM and 32GB storage is priced at INR6,999 ($96/80) but will be available at INR6,799 ($93/77) for a limited time. The price of the 3GB/32GB variant is unknown.

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Rebel Wilson is using her fame for a good cause!

On Tuesday, the actress proudly shared the achievements of the students she has sponsored since 2016, which have gone on to graduate from school and qualify for university in Tanzania.

Posting to her Instagram, the 40-year-old was thrilled to share a video which included the students who have all faced adversity.

Money well spent! Rebel Wilson [pictured] has proudly shared the achievements of the students she sponsored since 2016, which have gone on to graduate from school and qualify for university in Tanzania

'School of St Jude in Tanzania graduates... who are now going to University,' she began her caption.

'I am so proud of the 20 graduates who now are funded to go to university using the $250, 000 prize money I just won on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? last month,' she added.

Rebel went on to wish the students well, particularly those who she remembers meeting in the USA.

In the footage, a number of students thanked the Pitch Perfect actress for her support during their academic years, including Anna who once flew out to US.

Glorious: 'School of St Jude in Tanzania graduates... who are now going to University,' she began her caption.

'Hi Rebel, it is Anna here, it is one of the students you took to the US back in 2016. I just saw your episode on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and I cant believe you won $250,000 for this school youre so incredible!

'Your sponsoring of tertiary scholarships of more 20 students for the entirely of their degree and in less than five years well have more doctors, engineers, accountants and scientists in Tanzania because of you!'

In December, the giving star also announced another charitable initiative she is working on - as she opened a scholarship program in her name at the Australian Theatre for Young People.

Feeling charitable: Rebel Wilson is giving back to students in Tanzania. The actress appeared on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?, won 250,000 and donated all funds to the School of St Jude in Tanzania

Applications for the 2021 Rebel Wilson Comedy Commission are open now.

The Pitch Perfect star said: 'I'm so proud of all the winners of this scholarship - they're spectacularly talented and I'm so happy I can give back in this small way.

'Expressing yourself and expressing positive messages through the creative arts is so important.'
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As the second Catholic to hold the highest office in the greatest democracy, the Church expects President Biden to do more than quoting Saint Augustine. Unless Biden transmutes his pro-choice mantra for pro-life policies, which is unlikely, his administration would suffer deficits in faith, morals, integral development and national security.

A few days into his administration, the new President of the United States of America, Joe Biden overturned Trumps transgender military ban. According to the White House, Transgender service members will no longer be subject to the possibility of discharge or separation on the basis of gender identity. Data from the Department of Defence indicates that there were 8,980 active duty transgender troops in 2019. The White House statement added that: President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service, and that Americas strength is found in its diversity. Both Americans and their friends abroad are processing this differently.

With a Biden Presidency, reproductive health and abortion rights are top priorities. He is poised to reverse Trumps perceived attacks on abortion rights. Trumps global gag rule, which restricted health organisations around the world from receiving U.S. support if they perform abortions or provide information about the procedure as a form of family planning, would be thrown into the trash bin.

Although a Catholic, Bidens plan for healthcare would cover access to preventive care and contraceptives. It would ensure that the public option will cover contraception and a womans constitutional right to choose. He hopes to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which has been in place since 1977. The amendment blocked public funding of abortion under Medicaid, except for cases of incest and rape or if the pregnancy would endanger the mothers life.

For instance, during an interview with CNN in 2006, Biden said: I voted against partial birth abortion  to limit it  and I vote for no restrictions on a womans right to be able to have an abortion under Roe v. Wade. Biden is determined to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, as he has recently done.

Hecredited his mother with instilling in him a sense of equality, and a belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. The question that readily comes to mind is  why has President Biden suddenly thrown his pro-life pedigree by sticking with pro-choice, which eliminates dignity and respect for the unborn?

According to Keaton Browder, an opinion writer, A Joe Biden presidency would eliminate the growth of the pro-life movement because he is no longer pro-life  if he ever was  and his running mate has shown that she does not see all human life as valuable. The pro-life movement, which staunchly believes that abortion is the murder of an unborn human, flourished under the Trump administration. Incidentally, Trump was the first sitting U.S. president to attend the prominent annual March for Life, which was attended by thousands of people.

There, he delivered a powerful speech in support of defending the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfil their God-given potential. Many would recall that while Republicans lean towards the pro-life movement, Democrats are known for their pro-choice stance. Browder surmised that: A Biden presidency would be a disaster for the pro-life movement, not because of what Biden as president himself would do, but because of what those around him would do.

Another crucial point in this discuss is President Bidens Irish roots. In an interview with the Irish Times newspaper in 2016, he revealed that: I grew up in a household where my grandfather and grandmother, Finnegan, all my mothers brothers and my father told us about the courage and commitment it took for our relatives to emigrate from Ireland  in the midst of tragedy  to distant shores where they didnt know what awaited them. He added that: Those values  their passion and principle, their faith and fortitude  shaped the way my siblings and I were raised. He also credited his mother with instilling in him a sense of equality, and a belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. The question that readily comes to mind is  why has President Biden suddenly thrown his pro-life pedigree by sticking with pro-choice, which eliminates dignity and respect for the unborn?

Although he is the second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy, the churchs hierarchy, including many lay Catholics, frown at his un-Catholic policies. As far as the Catholic faith is concerned, Biden appears as a child whose parents are not proud of him because of delinquent behaviour.

There is no doubt that Americas 46th president comes across as a calm and calculated politician whose party pitches tent with liberty, civil rights and gender parity. However, by way of extrapolation, under his watch, China might romance the U.S. with the intent of buying it over with communist policies, so as to finally take over as world power. What is more, by repealing the travel ban on some countries, it is likely that some wolf in sheep clothing might take the U.S. by surprise in the near future.

Comparatively, while President Trump was seen as a ruthless, no-nonsense man, Biden is loved for his calm demeanour. No doubt, Trump had his flaws. He appeared as one who is anti-establishment because of his unguarded utterances and seeming talking down on the opposition, plus Africans and Arabs. He was also a TV freak who enjoyed being seen as a celebrity and courted by the paparazzi. Besides, he did not handle the issue of COVID-19 well and that is what the Democrats used against him. The final straw that broke the camels back was the violent attack of the United States Capitol against the 117th United States Congress on January 6, which led to the death of four Americans.

There are indications that since Biden hopes for an inclusive and all comers administration, investigations as to the origin of the coronavirus would be swept under the carpet. Will America enjoy economic prosperity under Biden? Well, time shall tell. Although he is the second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy, the churchs hierarchy, including many lay Catholics, frown at his un-Catholic policies. As far as the Catholic faith is concerned, Biden appears as a child whose parents are not proud of him because of delinquent behaviour. As the second Catholic to hold the highest office in the greatest democracy, the Church expects President Biden to do more than quoting Saint Augustine. Unless Biden transmutes his pro-choice mantra for pro-life policies, which is unlikely, his administration would suffer deficits in faith, morals, integral development and national security.

Justine Dyikuk is a lecturer in Mass Communication, University of Jos, editor of Caritas newspaper and Convener of the Media Team Network Initiative (MTNI), Nigeria.
The last remnant of the Royal Appliance Manufacturing Co.  maker of Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners  will leave Ohio in April.

Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd., based in Hong Kong, will close its distribution center at 7005 Cochran Rd. in Glenwillow, Ohio, and permanently lay off 56 workers, beginning April 2, the company told the state in a WARN letter.

Companies are required to file WARN letters with the state under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) when they expect a mass layoff.

Read the full story on cleveland.coms sister site, Cleveland Business Journal.

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NASA has named the next Northrop Grumman NG-15 Cygnus cargo ship after its legendary and exemplary mathematician, Katherine Johnson, who broke the barriers of gender and race in the space agency. The tradition of commemorating exemplary members of NASA is done via naming new Cygnus cargo ships, soon looking at a launch later in the month.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), would soon be debuting the world to Katherine Johnson, immortalized in the form of a Cygnus cargo ship that would bring researches to an orbiting laboratory. The former NASA mathematician is one of the most celebrated employees, after her historical contributions to help in space advancements.

The Northrop Grumman-made Cygnus cargo ship would be issuing the 15th spacecraft to help NASA advance in scientific research that is done overhead, as part of an orbiting facility in the International Space Station. The NG-15 that would launch near the end of February also goes alongside Black Heritage Month, commemorating Katherine Johnson who is part of the African-American community.

Read Also: Snowstorm Mount 'WoW' Arrives with BlizzCon 2021 Celebration Packs

NASA Northrop Grumman Cygnus Cargo Ship Launch Date

According to Northrop Grumman, the NG-15 Cygnus Cargo Ship would launch on Saturday, February 20, 2021, on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad 0A that is located on Wallops Island, Virginia. The launch would limit the members of the media from attending the event but would live stream the event on Northrop Grumman or NASA's live.

The Cygnus Cargo Ship would be strapped above an Antares rocket, also made by Northrop Grumman, and would be arriving at the ISS' orbiting lab two days after its launch from the planet. Research materials include testing the muscle strength in worms, microgravity's effect in artificial retina production, and Hewlett Packard's (HP) SpaceBorne Computer-2.

Northrop Grumman Names NG-15 Cygnus Cargo Ship to Katherine Johnson

As part of the Black Heritage Month, Northrop Grumman took the opportunity to use its Cygnus naming tradition to commemorate one of the most influential black women in NASA's history, Katherine Johnson. The NASA mathematician has contributed massive data and information with regards to space advancements, particularly in the early 1960s.

Who is Katherine Johnson?

According to NASA, Katherine Johnson graduated from West Virginia University at the age of 18, pursuing a career in Mathematics, where she is exemplary and an expert. She began working for NASA in the early 1960s, in which her equations were used for revolutionizing the Moon missions of the era.

Johnson's geometry was used to determine the path and orbit towards the Moon, and it was soon used to bring humans to and from the lunar surface. The mathematician has worked for NASA for an extensive career of 30 years, retiring in 1986, and spending her days until February 24, 2020, where she died at 101 years old.

She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama for her works and contributions in NASA, and now, Northrop Grumman's NG-15 Cygnus Cargo ship.

Related Article: New Exoplanets? TESS Data Help Two High School Students to Discover Them!

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Written by Isaiah Alonzo

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Etunda  Vast tracts of land zoned for agricultural use by small-scale farmers at the Etunda irrigation scheme in the Omusati region remain underutilised as producers struggle to make ends meet.

According to Berfine Antindi, the acting managing director of Agribusdev, which is the government entity running the green scheme, the underproduction was as a result of farmers not honouring their revolving loans with Agribank.

The loans offered by Agribank are funded through the ministry of agriculture. As a result of the default in payments, the farmers have no further money to fully utilise their three hectares and therefore only work on a small portion of their crop fields.

"Agribusdev has no role in the money. Ours is to provide services such as ploughing and harvesting, but we don't give money," said Antindi in an interview with New Era.

Antindi said only two small-scale farmers have serviced their loans, adding they were doing well thus far.

According to Antindi, some of the unproductive farmers have already been issued with eviction orders, but they are refusing to leave the green scheme.

Speaking on behalf of the farmers, Ferdinand Vakola said he has only worked on half of his three-hectare land, as he does not have the financial means to utilise the entire field.

He said little income has been coming in since 2013, causing a lot of underproduction on his allocated land.

He said many farmers are not able to work on all three hectares, while others have stopped with production completely.

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Vakola said with a lack of market, their produce sometimes get rotten and thereby do not make a profit.

He equally charged the money they make yearly is only enough to pay for the revolving loan and their basic services.

"For as long as there is no market, we will continue to farm to put food on the table and not necessarily to become financially independent," said Vakola. The farmers further claimed it is disheartening that produce from the project continues to be rejected in government institutions such as schools and hospitals. They alleged that those catering in government institutions continue to source for products beyond the red line even for facilities in the Omusati region. Vakola said the only time that their product is considered is when the big farms have run out of produce. "And that is like selling 10 bags which does not make much of a difference.

But how should we feel if our own children are eating from elsewhere whilst we are producing the same food," said Vakola. The farmers are thus pleading with the ministry of agriculture to look into issues of the market. In 2019, then finance minister Calle Schlettwein issued an economy-wide procurement directive on the reservation of procurement of goods, services and works to local suppliers in terms of Section 73 of the Public Procurement Act. The measure by Schlettwein, who is now heading the agriculture portfolio, directed public entities to source specific categories of goods, services and works produced or manufactured locally and to the extent such goods, services and works are available locally, before procuring these from somewhere else.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

In the summer of 2019, 50 New Mexico State Police officers were deployed to patrol certain neighborhoods in Albuquerque, making more than 700 arrests in two months.

The surge operation was criticized early on after officers shot at suspects in vehicles in back-to-back incidents  a practice Albuquerque Police Department officers are prohibited from doing except in very specific circumstances.

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Leon Howard, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, said that if a proposed police reform bill passes, all officers in the state will be held to the same standard regarding when they can use deadly force.

It creates the same playbook and prioritizes de-escalation for all law enforcement across our state, Howard said. The expectation would be the same, no matter which department or state agency youre dealing with.

If the bill passes, agencies throughout the state will be required to create comprehensive reports on each shooting, and officers who witness another using excessive force would have to intervene. The bill would change the standard for use of force from reasonable to necessary, so that officers could not use force unless they had exhausted de-escalation tactics. In addition, it would ban chokeholds, the use of rubber bullets, tear gas, and tactics such as no-knock warrants.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales said he and his command staff are familiarizing themselves with the legislation and have concerns about the limitations on less-than-lethal force.

Taking away many valuable tools and less than lethal force options available to our deputies only increases and limits them to the use of deadly force, which is problematic in keeping citizens safe, Gonzales wrote in a statement. As always, the office will follow the rule of law regardless of the overreaching politics that continue to chip away at our public safety.

APD, which spent years developing its use-of-force policies as part of the reform effort with the Department of Justice, should already be in compliance, Howard said.

In a news conference Monday morning, Howard joined Elaine Maestas  a woman whose sister was shot and killed by Bernalillo County sheriffs deputies in 2019  and Senate Majority Whip Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerquet, who is sponsoring the bill.

All three mentioned that New Mexico is routinely among the states with the highest rate of fatal police shootings. A database kept by The Washington Post has had the state at either No. 1 or No. 2 for the past several years.

We must implement the transformational changes that are outlined in the bill, Lopez said. In doing so, we will not only prevent this tragic epidemic of police killings from continuing, but we will also build public trust and create the foundation for humane, equitable and constitutional policing across our state.

Paige Fernandez, the policing policy adviser for the ACLUs National Political Advocacy Department, said although California passed a similar bill in 2019, if this bill passes the Legislature it will be the strongest in the nation.

The standard we are pushing in New Mexico goes above and beyond the standards that have been pushed elsewhere, Fernandez said. It is far more robust and holistic than some of the other bills weve seen.
Millie Mackintosh marked nine months with her daughter Sienna on Tuesday.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 30, celebrated the milestone by posing for a stunning new photo with her baby girl and sharing a nude snap taken during the final stages of her pregnancy.

Millie stripped down to her underwear for the new photo, lovingly cradling Sienna in her arms as she gushed about the magical bond the two share.

Milestone: Millie Mackintosh marked nine months with her daughter Sienna on Tuesday, celebrating the milestone by posing for a stunning new photo with her baby girl

Millie's focus was on her sweet daughter in the new snap, with the mother and daughter cuddling up close.

The throwback saw Millie showing off her baby bump, posing in the same room just days before she gave birth to Sienna in June.

The doting mum included a loving message to her daughter with the pair of photos, writing: 'For nine months you grew inside of me and now for nine months Ive been watching you navigate the outside world.'

'Yet somehow it feels like Ive always known you Every smile now begins with you and life seems to always grow beautifully wherever you are.'

'For nine months you grew inside me': Alongside the new photo Millie shared a throwback showing off her baby bump just days before she gave birth to Sienna in June

Doting mum: Millie included a loving message to her daughter with the pair of photos, writing: 'For nine months you grew inside of me

Last week Millie proudly showed off her post-partum figure on Instagram.

The star looked incredible as she showed off her toned abs in a white crop top and black gym leggings.

Reflecting on how her physique has changed since pregnancy, Millie said her stomach isn't flat and her hips are wider but is in awe of how quickly her body has adapted to motherhood.

Wow! Last week Millie proudly showed off her post-partum figure on Instagram. The star looked incredible as she showed off her toned abs in a white crop top and black gym leggings

Millie wrote: 'I can't believe it's been nearly 9 months since I gave birth to Sienna, I wanted to take the time to reflect on how my body has changed. I'm in awe of how incredible our bodies are, for 9 months they work their magic, becoming the perfect home for our growing babies.

'Once our child comes into the world, it's as though your body knows it needs to get strong again so that it can take care of the beautiful miracle it's produced.

'It's amazing how quickly your body can adapt and change when it knows that It needs to have the strength to provide food for your baby to grow, run around after them for hours and be able to function whatever the time of day or night!

Looking great: Reflecting on how her physique has changed since pregnancy, Millie said her stomach isn't flat and her hips are wider but is in awe of how quickly her body has adapted

Changes;:Millie wrote: 'I can't believe it's been nearly 9 months since I gave birth to Sienna, I wanted to take the time to reflect on how my body has changed

'Today my hips and waist are wider, my lower stomach isn't flat and sometimes it still looks like I'm 3 months pregnant. My body composition is very different, I'm holding on to body fat in places I've never had it before, and the skin on my tummy and boobs looks and feels a lot less firm and is slightly crinkled.'

Millie continued that 'each mark is a memory of the miracle that is making a baby'.

The reality said she plans to keep eating nutritiously and allowing herself to rest.

She concluded the lengthy post by telling her followers: 'I didn't know the power of my body until I had a baby, I'm way more forgiving with myself, and I'm grateful every single day for what it has given me.'

Millie welcomed daughter Sienna last year with husband Hugo Taylor by her side.

Millie and Hugo dated in 2011 while on Made In Chelsea, but split up when it emerged he had cheated on Millie with her friend Rosie Fortescue.

They reunited in the second half of 2016 and Taylor proposed during a holiday in Mykonos, Greece.

She was previously married to musician Professor Green, real name Stephen Manderson, in September 2013.
An Uber delivery driver who raped a drunk student after posing as a Good Samaritan has been jailed for nine-and-a-half years.

Naiem Suleman, 52, infected his victim with an STD after he brutally attacked her when she became separated from her friends on a night out.

He picked the 22-year-old woman up in the early hours of January 19, 2019 and offered to drive her home.

But Suleman, who was working as an Uber delivery driver, drove the woman to a secluded spot where he raped her before dumping her outside her flat.

The woman's housemates found her in a distressed state and she was wearing Suleman's work jacket bearing the logo of the company he worked for. He denied rape but was found guilty following a trial at Warwick Crown Court.

Yesterday Suleman, of Coventry, was jailed for nine-and-a-half years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

Speaking at the sentencing hearing, his brave victim said: 'I needed help to get home, not to be violated by a stranger.

Naiem Suleman, 52, infected his victim with an STD after he brutally attacked her when she became separated from her friends on a night out

'Before the incident I would happily go out with my friends and be happy dancing and drinking. I would not be paranoid like I am now. When I go out now, I have one alcoholic drink and then water, but I rarely go out.'

She said her ordeal affected her studies, and she eventually decided to leave university as a result of her ordeal.

'I want to turn this round from one of the worst days of my life into something positive,' she added. 'I want to show this man that that night in January 2019 I was helpless and vulnerable. I'm not now.'

The court heard the woman suffered bruising round her neck and scrapes and scratches on her knees. He was arrested after forensic evidence linked him to the crime.

Sentencing Suleman, Judge Anthony Potter said: 'In the early hours of the morning you were working as an Uber delivery driver and you came across a young woman who was alone and distressed.

'She was clearly drunk and unable to take proper care of herself and was disorientated and could not remember where she lived.

'She was only a short distance from her home, but it must have been clear to you she was disorientated and in need of help.

'But you did not seek to help her or summon the emergency services, your thoughts moved almost immediately to exploitation. You got her into your car and you drove her to a secluded spot and you callously raped her.

'What you did after this distressing incident is far from clear, but what obviously occurred is that by some means she was deposited at the house she shared.

When the woman later arrived at home she had a jacket with the logo of the delivery firm Suleman worked for on, Warwick Crown Court (pictured) heard

'She found herself on the doorstep unable to remember what had happened, but in such a distressed state that her housemates felt they could not leave her alone.

'I treat you as a man who lured her into your vehicle, probably with a promise to take her home. She was particularly vulnerable. She was not just very drunk, she was alone at night.

'She was physically unable to help herself, let alone protect herself from someone like you.

'You passed a sexually transmitted disease on to her, and it has had a significant impact on her, no matter what her efforts are to put this behind her.

'Students are the very lifeblood of the city, and they are entitled to feel safe to go out at night and to get home safely, not matter how much they have had to drink.

'There has been no expression of remorse from you, and you continue to deny the offence in the face of the overwhelming evidence against you.'

Speaking to the victim who attended court to watch Suleman jailed, Judge Potter said: 'You have spoken bravely of seeking to put this behind you, and I very much hope you can.'

The court heard a pre-sentence report found Suleman was a 'high risk of harm to female adults.'

Detective Constable Becci Jones, from West Midlands Police Public Protection Unit, said: 'It saddens us that throughout this case Suleman denied raping the woman - meaning she also had to endure a court trial.

'But with the support of our specially trained officers she remained strong and resilient and with her help we have now secured his conviction.

'We hope that this will bring her some comfort and wish her well for the future.'
Just how much is tuition from former prime minister Tony Abbott worth? Quite a bit, according to the Warringah Liberals. A fundraiser headlined Winning Back Warringah  after Abbott lost the former safe seat to independent Zali Steggall, remember  is offering tickets for $50 apiece, or 12 at a discounted price of $200. But the nominated value of some of the prizes is prompting some head scratching among members.

A surf lesson and breakfast with the former PM and the Liberals last Warringah MP gets top billing with an estimated value of $2500. Just how great do they think the guy is?

Former prime minister Tony Abbott after a surf at a charity event at Queenscliff in 2015. Credit:Dallas Kilponen

A tour of Taronga Zoo with the NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean has a Liberal Party market value of $1500, while an afternoon beer-tasting with Manly MP James Griffin for four is worth $1000. A morning tea for two people with broadcaster Alan Jones at the winners choice of location  Jones Sydney or Fitzroy Falls piles  is $3000. Which is all enough to make another item  dinner for eight with plucky NSW Senator Andrew Bragg around the lazy Susan at Chinese eatery XOPP  seems like good value at an estimated rack rate of $2000.

Other items include a silver pendant necklace from Mosman jeweller Peter Dracakis and two tickets to watch the Australian Wallabies donated by lobbyist David Begg. But CBDs pick of the bunch is the All Inclusive Day on Sydney Harbour with art collector and philanthropist Lisa Paulsen and her retired shipping executive husband Egil Paulsen. The outing for six on the couples luxe Palm Beach 38 cruiser with a gourmet lunch and fine wines is a steal at $1500. Now thats value.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  The petitioners against the Anti-Terrorism Act have so far failed to present an actual case that would warrant the Supreme Courts abolition of the controversial measure, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said during the much-anticipated oral arguments on Tuesday.

In a searing debate with law professor Alfredo Molo III, a counsel for the petitioners, Leonen said it might be too early for the high court to step in considering that none of the 37 sets of petitioners have directly suffered from the implementation of the law.

Personally, I truly understand the kinds of fears that you are undergoing, having undergone those fears myself when I was a public interest lawyer, Leonen said. But with the hat now of the Justice of this Court, and with this judiciary, I think it is correct for us to assume that we should be careful not to become a political department.

Leonen, a usual dissenter in the Supreme Court, told Molo, his former student on constitutional law, that the petitioners should have waited for their allegations to ripen into actual cases before filing a legal challenge.

Molo answered that the people can invoke expanded judicial review "when the law itself is clearly against the Bill of Rights."

My humble submission is that Deference, judicial restraint ends where the Bill of Rights begins," Molo said.

If you want to read it, looking at government as evil or demonic, or with no intention at all except to do what is wrong, then youre probably right, Leonen said. The justices, however, should prevent their political convictions from getting in the way and give the executive department a chance to resolve issues any legislation seeks to address, he added.

In the absence of clear and convincing demonstration that the Constitution has been violated, voiding the law would be an advisory opinion, Leonen said.

The erroneous Facebook post that red-tagged alumni of the University of the Philippines, one of the incidents mentioned by petitioners, is now under investigation, Leonen said.

READ: AFP apologizes for red-tagging UP alumni

There could be a case in the detention of two Aetas who claimed to have been tortured by the military and falsely charged with violating the Anti-Terrorism Act, Leonen said, but they sought to intervene in the petitions only recently.

He added that petitions may be better filed with the Regional Trial Courts, which can scrutinize facts based on evidence, dismissing petitioners' argument they headed to the court of last resort as they stand to suffer grave and irreparable injury.

We act as a third chamber of the legislature, over and above the approval power of the President when we act upon a law without the facts, Leonen stressed. You want us to exercise our power to jump the gun and simply say the law is unconstitutional.

No chilling effect?

The magistrate also questioned the petitioners sentiment that the vague and overly broad definition of terrorism would chill the public into silence.

In repealing the Human Security Act of 2007, the Anti-Terrorism Act expanded the definition of terrorism. Under the previous law, an act of terrorism is committed when crimes such as piracy, rebellion, and murder are done to sow widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand.

The Anti-Terrorism Act makes no mention of any predicate crime. Instead, under Section 4, a person commits terrorism when engaging in acts that intend to endanger someone or to damage public or private property, and certain other actions when the purpose is any of the following: intimidate the public, the government, or any international organization; create an atmosphere of or spread a message of fear; seriously destabilize or destroy the fundamental political economic or social structures of society; and create a public emergency or seriously undermine public safety.

READ: Here are the major issues raised against the Anti-Terrorism Act

Leonen cited that there has been an inciting to sedition provision in the Revised Penal Code, but this was not enough to chill the millions of Filipinos who gathered in the 1986 People Power Revolution to overthrow the Marcos regime.

"Should there now be a sort of a limitation on what is meant by chill in terms of freedom of expression?" Leonen asked.

He went on to say that the Anti-Terrorism Act is even better as it clarifies that advocacy, protest, dissent, and similar exercises of civil and political rights will not be considered terrorism as long as they are not intended to endanger a person or create a serious risk to public safety.

Molo disagreed. It actually makes it worse. We have this definition of terrorism covering the exercise of civil and political rights, he said, adding that acts that endanger people's lives are punishable under existing laws.

READ: Diokno tells SC: Only the Anti-Terrorism Act punishes based on persons state of mind

Other issues

Meanwhile, one of the counsels for petitioners and former congressman Neri Colmenares said there is nothing wrong for the government to conduct surveillance, but not through a law like the Anti-Terrorism Act which is unnecessarily sweeping as to infringe on protected rights.

Even if it is important to catch a criminal, whether terrorist or not, and a surveillance must be done, the Constitution requires that basic rights must be followed, that basic steps must be followed, said Colmenares.

The new law provides that the surveillance of suspected terrorists could last up to 90 days and the Court of Appeals can allow any law enforcers authorized by the Anti-Terrorism Council to conduct the surveillance.

Colmenares pointed out that the courts have no standards to follow in authorizing surveillance under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

In terms of search, the probable cause would be an offense has been committed and then of course the effects of that offense can be found in the place to be searched,  he said. In this case, it penalizes intentions. How would the court know that an offense has been committed?

Moreover, lawyer Evelyn Ursua said a person could be arrested, detained, prosecuted, and his assets frozen under the law. She noted that these should be considered judicial actions.

Ursua is also wary that the Anti-Terrorism Council could just simply ignore the implementing rules and regulations on delisting tagged terrorists.

The process of delisting is only found in the implementing rules and regulations. Its an invalid delegation. The IRR (Implementing Rules and Regulations) can be ignored by the ATC (Anti-Terrorism Council), she said.

The list of designated terrorists will be published in a national broadsheet or online, giving tagged individuals only 15 days to file a request for delisting.

Grounds for delisting include mistaken identity, relevant and significant change of facts or circumstance, newly discovered evidence, and death of designee.

Resolutions on delisting shall also be published in print and online.

Only the petitioners' counsel were able to present their case during the first day of the oral arguments, which lasted for three hours. Solicitor General Jose Calida and the government's lawyers are expected to defend the measure when the discussion resumes on Feb. 9.
Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who styles himself as a moderate Republican, will announce his 2022 campaign for governor Tuesday, saying Gov. Gavin Newsom is failing the state through mismanagement of the pandemic.

Weve all had the same goal during COVID-19  that we have to protect lives. And we also have to protect livelihoods, Faulconer told The Chronicles Its All Political podcast Monday.

He criticized the changing metrics constantly coming out of the governors office, the fact that weve had businesses that have been open and shut five different times, and the fact that the data and the so-called reasoning behind that wasnt made public and wasnt made transparent.

Faulconer, 54, is unlike many Republicans in that he supports the right to same-sex marriage, acknowledges the science showing that human activity is driving climate change, and backs a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He was elected twice as mayor of San Diego, a city with more registered Democrats than Republicans, before being termed out last year.

California, however, has not elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won a second term and Steve Poizner was elected insurance commissioner. The party has steadily lost membership and now trails Democrats in voter registration, 46% to 24%.

Faulconer at least has a higher profile than the past two Republicans who made it into the general election for governor and were drubbed by huge margins, John Cox in 2018 (lost by 23 points) and Neel Kashkari in 2014 (lost by 20). That, and his more-moderate-than-the-average-Republican reputation, could prompt middle-of-the-road voters to give him a look.

He clearly has the best shot of any candidate that Republicans have fielded (for governor) since Meg Whitman in 2010, said Thad Kousser, a professor of political science at UC San Diego. Whitman, a billionaire former eBay CEO who held a hard-line position on immigration, lost by 12 points to Democrat Jerry Brown despite spending $144 million of her own money.

Hes held office. He has a record, Kousser said of Faulconer. And he has a lot of positions that, if they dont necessarily make him more in line with where California voters are than Gavin Newsom, they make him a palatable alternative if the public comes to reject Gavin Newsom.

California voters may get a chance to reject Newsom before the 2022 campaign, as Republicans leading a recall effort say they are gaining momentum. They have until March 17 to gather 1.5 million valid signatures of registered voters to put the issue on the ballot this year. As of Jan. 6, they had submitted 410,087 valid signatures, according to the secretary of states office.

Faulconer said he will run in the recall election if it makes the ballot. The process is twofold: Voters would be asked separately if they want to oust Newsom and, if so, who should replace him.

Faulconer said he has a solid record of getting things done. He pointed out that the homeless population in San Diego County has dropped over the past few years as officials have taken a right-to-shelter approach, similar to what New York has used for decades. Under it, a local government commits to creating enough shelter space to house everyone living outside, and homeless people in turn are required to accept a shelter spot if one is offered.

I think what people want is common sense, Faulconer said. I dont think people really are focused on partisanship. They dont care if youre Republican or Democrat  they want leadership.

Faulconer will have to contend with another familiar Republican in the 2022 field: Cox, a businessperson who ran unsuccessfully for office four times in his native Illinois before moving to San Diego County a decade ago and losing to Newsom in 2018.

Career politicians like Faulconer and Gavin Newsom have kept California in constant crisis mode, from shady insider deals to failing on vaccine preparation, Cox said.

Looming over both Republicans is the specter of Donald Trump. The former president is still popular in the handful of Californias GOP strongholds. But he is poison statewide, and Coxs embrace of Trumps southern border wall and opposition to abortion rights, among other issues, puts him to the right of most California voters.

No matter how badly people think of Gavin Newsom, a majority of Californians wont turn to John Cox, Kousser said.

But Faulconer is in a tough spot, too, Kousser said. Hes too liberal for most Republicans, and Californians as a whole may see only the R next to his name, read it as a T and disqualify him on that alone.

It will be tough for him to get out of the primary, Kousser said.

That is why running in a recall could be a good move for him, Kousser said. In the large field of politicians and publicity seekers likely to run in a recall, Faulconers party affiliation wont be as a prominent as it will be in the 2022 primary, where the top two finishers, regardless of party, will advance to the general election. In that primary, Faulconer will be competing against Cox and probably other Republicans for a small number of GOP voters, Kousser said.

He wont have to deal with the primary (in a recall election), and he is catching Newsom at a time when he is vulnerable, Kousser said.

Faulconer says he did not vote for Trump in 2016, instead writing in Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryans name for president. But he adds that he backed the former president last year because of his economic policy positions. I think that was incredibly important, not just for us and in California, but for the nation.

He added, Donald Trump is no longer president. And hes certainly not the governor of California. Gavin Newsom is, and hes failing the state. And thats why Im running.

Newsoms camp will be only too happy to link Faulconer to Trump at every opportunity.

There will be a time and place for campaigning, said Newsom adviser Dan Newman. But while Faulconer battles other Trump supporters in the Republican primary, well stay laser focused on distributing vaccines and providing relief and recovery to families and small businesses harmed by the virus.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
WEST TERRE HAUTE, Ind (WTHI) - Friday a semi fell into the ditch at the intersection of U.S. Highway 40 and Darwin road.

The intersection is at the bottom of a hill and has a steep ditch.

This is not the first time that a semi has crashed at this intersection, but Indiana State Police are working to make sure it is the last.

"We have reached out to the Indiana Department of Transportation in an effort to get signs that warn drivers about the sharp turn," said Indiana State Police Sergeant Matt Ames.

Indiana State Police recommend people follow their social media to keep up to date on any traffic issues that may happen.
(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 2 - Italy will get a brief taste of spring next weekend thanks to warmer air from Africa coming in over the next few days, forecasters said Tuesday.

But it will be abruptly ended by wintry weather blowing in from Russia from Monday onwards, they said.

"Over the next few days, and into the coming weekend, the advance of a sub-tropical anticyclone will cause a gradual, but constant increase in temperatures," said Ilmeteo.it.

"The top temps will reach peaks above 22 degrees, thus anticipating the coming of spring.

"But after Monday February 8 the weather scenario will change radically, with the opening of a new, decidedly wintry phase which could engulf the whole country". (ANSA).


A suburban Atlanta nursing home where 22 people died from COVID-19 has been faulted by state inspectors for failing to control infections, but relatives of people who died say they cant sue because Georgia lawmakers last year blocked lawsuits unless plaintiffs can prove the difficult-to-meet standard of gross negligence.

WXIA-TV reports that multiple state reports faulted infection control at Westbury Nursing Home in Conyers, where at least 85 residents have been infected. That includes an October inspection where Georgia Department of Community Health inspectors found Westbury put residents in immediate jeopardy by keeping COVID-19 positive and negative residents in the same rooms, improperly performing COVID-19 tests, and failing to notify state officials.

Previous inspections in June and August also found Westbury wasnt following infectious disease protocols.

Among patients who died was 77-year-old Bessie Burden. Lashieka Mitchell, one of Burdens daughters, said she trusted the nursing home wholeheartedly, and I wish I hadnt.

In early October, Burden told Mitchell that her roommate had started showing COVID-19 symptoms. Mitchell said she could hear her moms roommate coughing in the background on the phone.

The two remained inside the same room until Burden woke up one morning to find her roommate missing.

On Oct. 12, Burden started falling ill herself. While daughter Theresa Burrough was on the phone with her mom, she could hear her struggling to breathe. Mitchell went to the nursing home and called an ambulance.

So, once the fire department came  the fire chief had actually come  he went in, he came right back out and told my sister, `Im glad Im getting your mom out because this place is covered in COVID, Burrough said.

Mitchell said the fire chief told her a crew transported her moms roommate to the emergency room more than a week earlier, after she tested positive for COVID-19.

Hours after arriving at Emory University Hospital, their mom tested positive for COVID-19. Burden died about a week later. The last time she spoke to her daughters was over a video call.

Burdens daughters said the nursing home administrator admitted to them the facility dropped the ball. They said that they failed us, `We know we failed you, Mitchell recalled. Thats all they had said, is that they failed.

The nursing home said its center submitted a correction plan to the state to address the violations cited in the October inspection.

We believe it is important for our residents, their families, and the public to know that we have made good faith efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus based on rapidly evolving guidance and resident specific circumstances, administrator Ron Westbury said in a statement.

Burdens daughters would like to sue the nursing home, but cant find a lawyer to take the case.

Atlanta attorney Moses Kim said the state has made it nearly impossible for families to file lawsuits against nursing home providers, even if there is evidence of neglect.

In April, Governor Brian Kemp signed an executive order limiting the liability of employees, staff and contractors of healthcare institutions and medical facilities during the pandemic, even if they admitted to making a mistake.

About five months later, the state legislature passed a temporary law preventing many lawsuits against healthcare facilities and other businesses, as long as owners post signs outside facilities alerting the public they assume the risk if they enter.

Before the governors order, attorneys typically needed to only prove negligence based on reasonable care a hospital, doctor or nurse would provide. Now, attorneys must prove gross negligence, which is a much higher burden.

The publics rights are being robbed, Kim said. And, whats at stake is the wellbeing of our family members. When no one is kept accountable, what happens? People misbehave.

According to the Georgia Department of Public Heath, at least 23,820 nursing home and long-term care residents in Georgia have contracted the virus since March. About 3,700 have died.

There is nothing that will bring her back, Burrough said. There is no amount of money that will make it better, but I would like for them to be held accountable.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics COVID-19 Lawsuits Georgia Senior Care
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 1)  Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the national government has already inked term sheets with five vaccine companies it is negotiating with, which will assure the country of up to 108 million doses this year.

"Out of seven companies, we have already signed term sheets with five and we have already locked the supply of 106 to 108 [million] doses," Galvez said Monday in a televised meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte and other government officials.

"By this coming February second week, we are trying to come up with the supply agreements with vaccine manufacturers, and we will also include the two remaining contracts we are negotiating," he added.

Galvez did not specify which companies the government has signed term sheets with. However, he said last month that they are already in "advanced stages of negotiations" with American pharmaceutical companies Novavax, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson, Chinese drugmaker Sinovac, and Russian medical research institute Gamaleya.

In total, the national government is targeting to purchase around 146 to 148 million doses from seven manufacturers within 2021, Galvez said. If this goes as planned, some 70 million Filipinos would stand to benefit.

He added that this is still on top of the 44 million doses that the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility has assured the country. Of the doses to be delivered through COVAX, 5.6 million doses are expected to be delivered within the first quarter of the year. The earliest to arrive is a batch of 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which is expected by mid-February.

The Philippines may also be able to access 5.5 million to up to 9.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines made in South Korea by late February or early March if it soon receives the emergency use listing from the WHO.

RELATED: WHO wants medical workers vaccinated with first COVID-19 doses from COVAX in February

Gardai have confirmed that they have initiated a policing operation in Dublins North Inner city in response to a number of recent incidents in the area.

This follows an emergency motion at last nights Dublin City Council meeting where local councillors called for prison sentences to be doubled for knife possession.

Councillors in Dublin's north inner city made the call following a spate of stabbing incidents in the area in recent weeks.

One motion called for the prison sentence for possession of a knife to be increased from five years to ten as had been proposed in a private members bill from Fianna Fail's Jim O'Callaghan TD.

The motion was put forward by independent North city councillors Nial Ring, Anthony Flynn, Cieran Perry and Christy Burke and also called for a Ministerial task force to be set up.

Another cross party motion called for a meeting between the Lord Mayor and the Minister for Justice and Garda Commissioner.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, one of the councillors, Nial Ring, said the impact of recent knife attacks on the streets cannot be underestimated.

Read More

People are literally living in fear and looking to the authorities for action, he claimed.

The four independent councillors in the Central Area are now, through this motion, calling for this action and the Minister must answer this call.

Jim O'Callaghan's proposed legislation, if enacted, will send out a powerful signal that knife crime will not be tolerated " he added.

Another councillor, Cllr Cieran Perry, added: "Legislation is one part of the jigsaw in tackling this scourge but ultimately we need buy-in from the affected communities and in particular, the young people in the areas. The four Independent councillors intend to spearhead a ground-up initiative to highlight the knife risk to our youth".

Cllr Christy Burke has requested an immediate meeting with senior Gardai as well as senior officials from the Department of Justice to discuss the issue.

"A meeting with Senior Gardai is essential as we need to know what policing response is in place and what additional resources are needed to equip the Gardai to effectively deal with this problem, he said

If there are any barriers to tackling this problem we need to know what they are and what is needed to remove them.

Also, Cllr Anthony Flynn pointed out that there has been an alarming increase in knife crime within the North Inner City over the last number of months.

What is required is an increase in visual police presence, active community policing and engagement with young people, he said.

"The reintroduction of Jim O'Callaghan's private member's bill will be the first step in reassuring the city that knife crime will be taken seriously".
Mr. Obama, whose policies were more moderate than his lofty campaign rhetoric, sought to reassure the establishment and reconcile with the Clinton wing. He oozed reasonableness, assuring bankers that he was all that stood between them and the pitchforks.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the S.E.C. chair, Mary Jo White, his marquee financial markets regulators, were veteran establishment figures. Mr. Geithner famously scoffed at the cries for Old Testament justice after the calamity of 2008. Ms. Whites career has swung between government jobs regulating big corporations and employment at a white-shoe law firm representing them. She frequently had to recuse herself from enforcement cases to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

Today, many liberals view the Obama administration as having broadly betrayed its promises in two ways. It failed both to help people get back on their feet quickly enough after the financial crisis and to hold the powerful accountable for causing it. A debate still rages about whether Mr. Obama could have gotten Congress to agree to more stimulus spending; his own advisers, like Rahm Emanuel and Mr. Summers, were pushing against going too big. And Mr. Obamas housing policy did little to help desperate soon-to-be home losers. Unlike Mr. Biden, Mr. Obama did not speedily purge recalcitrant Bush holdovers like the housing regulator Edward DeMarco, who thwarted mortgage relief.

A team that gets it

Mr. Biden has entered office with a shift in political power. He needs to placate progressives and the Elizabeth Warren-Bernie Sanders wing while many centrist elites of both parties  after four years of seeing Mr. Trump up close  have realized they have no common cause with the right. Early on, his appointments reflect a decade of dashed illusions among the Democratic governing coalition, about its turn away from New Deal Keynesianism, its embrace of a neoliberal project to make government more efficient (read: smaller), about the beneficence of the internet and Big Tech, the stability of the financial system, the gig economy, about the Republican Party itself.

The president faces many dire challenges, but in one way, he has it easier than Mr. Obama did. He aspires to give people money (yes, its popular) to fight the ravages of a silent, faceless killer. Mr. Obama had to confront an enemy from inside the house: human bankers whose reckless behavior and frauds caved in the global financial system, products of the same elite schools and rarefied social milieus as Mr. Obamas inner circle.

In his inaugural speech, Mr. Biden mentioned six crises: Covid-19, climate change, inequality, racism, Americas standing in the world and the assault on truth and democracy. But he did not mention, or even perhaps grasp, another: the crisis of elite impunity.

Mr. Gensler and Mr. Chopra have shown they understand it. When Mr. Gensler took his position as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the Obama administration, observers were skeptical  he had, after all, been a partner at Goldman Sachs. But he turned out to fit one model of what makes a good regulator: the industry refugee, capable of deftly explaining financial regulatory overhaul and dismantling falling-sky claims from the banks for lawmakers.
The State of North Carolina is no longer issuing license plates with the Confederate flag on them, the states motor vehicle agency said on Monday, the latest turning point in a nationwide reckoning over symbols of the Old South and their meaning.

In a statement on Monday, the Division of Motor Vehicles said that the specialty plates could send the wrong message and that the state had discontinued them as of Jan. 1.

North Carolina was one of several Southern states that offered the plates with the Confederate battle flag on them to members of the group Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The state said it would continue to recognize the Sons of Confederate Veterans as a civic organization, which entitles the group to a specialty plate. But the state said that did not give the group the right to dictate the contents of the government speech on that plate.
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The global Microreactor Technology Market report offers a comprehensive analysis of current trends and future opportunities. This report is responsible for quantitative estimation and foreseen future for upcoming years based on the recent companies strategic moves and historical data. Further, the market report is categorized into different segments, regions, and countries level. This report also provides competitor analysis with its market share and developments.

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The global Microreactor Technology market report presents a complete research-based study of the industry including details such as company shares, forecast data, in-depth analysis and an outlook of the market on a worldwide platform. The report further highlights the market drivers, restraints, and the top manufacturers at the global and regional levels. For a thorough understanding, the report also offers market segmentation and regional analysis for the forecast period from 2021 to 2026.

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According to this latest study, the 2020 growth of Microreactor Technology will have significant changes from the previous year. By the most conservative estimates of global Microreactor Technology market size (a most likely outcome) will be a year-over-year revenue growth rate of xx% in 2020, from US$ xx million in 2019. Over the next five years, the Microreactor Technology market will register an xx% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ xx million by 2025.

This Microreactor Technology market report also splits the market by regions: Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), APAC (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain), Middle East & Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, GCC Countries).

This report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of the Microreactor Technology market by type, application, key manufacturers, key regions, and countries.

The key manufacturers covered in this report: Breakdown data in Chapter 3.

Corning

Chemtrix

Little Things Factory

AM Technology

Soken Chemical & Engineering

Ehrfeld Mikrotechnik BTS

Microinnova Engineering

Nakamura Choukou

Uniqsis

YMC

Future Chemistry

Syrris

Vapourtec

Suzhou Wenhao

Others

To inquire about report customization, feel free to reach out to our team of expert analysts @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/ask-questions-31768

This study considers the Microreactor Technology value and volume generated from the sales of the following segments:

Segmentation by type: breakdown data from 2016 to 2021, in Section 2.3; and forecast to 2026 in section 11.7.

Lab Use

Production Use

Segmentation by application: breakdown data from 2016 to 2021, in Section 2.4; and forecast to 2026 in section 11.8.

Specialty Chemicals

Pharmaceuticals

Commodity Chemicals

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Research Objectives

To study and analyze the global Microreactor Technology consumption (value & volume) by key regions/countries, type and application, history data from 2016 to 2021, and forecast to 2026.

To understand the structure of the Microreactor Technology market by identifying its various subsegments.

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Steve King, the Republican former congressman from Iowa, must feel robbed. Two years ago, he was stripped of all his committee assignments after asking, in an interview with The New York Times, White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization  how did that language become offensive? The Republican Party threw its weight behind Kings primary challenger, and he was whisked off the national stage, no longer to embarrass colleagues who prefer that racist demagogy be performed with enough finesse to allow for plausible deniability.

Since then, standards have changed. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, is every bit as bigoted as King, and 10 times as unhinged. By now, youve surely heard her theory that California wildfires might have been caused by a space laser controlled by Jewish bankers. That wasnt Greenes first foray into anti-Semitism; in 2018 she shared a notorious white nationalist video in which a Holocaust denier claimed that Zionist supremacists have schemed to promote immigration and miscegenation.

Recently, Greene met with a far-right British commentator, Katie Hopkins, who has described migrants as cockroaches and said she doesnt care if they die. Greene told her, I would love to trade you for some of our white people here that have no appreciation for our country. She described the results of the 2018 midterms as an Islamic invasion of our government. Greene endorsed calls for the execution of prominent Democrats and agreed with Facebook posts claiming that the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings were hoaxes. She harassed one of the Parkland massacres young survivors.

As it happens, this week House Republicans are seeking to punish a prominent woman in their ranks  but its not Greene. A big chunk of the House Republican caucus is reportedly trying to oust Liz Cheney of Wyoming from leadership because she voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

The San Antonio Fire Department is urging residents to not call 911 to schedule their vaccine appointment.

The warning comes after local officials announced in Monday's coronavirus news briefing that they are expecting to receive 1,000 vaccines a week dedicated to the insulation of home-bound seniors. However, this option is already pre-scheduled, SAFD said in a news release Monday.
Gov. Phil Murphy will hold another winter weather press conference on Tuesday morning as a storm that has dropped more than 2 feet of snow on parts of New Jersey since Sunday nears its conclusion.

The 11 a.m. gathering at the states traffic management center in the Fords section of Woodbridge will again be streamed live on the governors YouTube.com channel.

Murphy will be joined by the same four officials as Tuesday: Department of Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, State Police Superintendent Colonel Pat Callahan, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities President Joseph Fiordaliso and Jared Maples, the states homeland security director.

Murphy will likely also provide an update on the coronavirus outbreak, as he did during Mondays storm briefing.

New Jersey remains under a state of emergency with hundreds of school districts are either closed or offering only remote instruction and the U.S. Postal Service suspending service in parts of North Jersey. State offices are also closed.

New Jersey Transit trains and buses are set to resume Tuesday on a scattered schedule.

Another 1 to 3 inches of snow is expected Tuesday before the storm ends from west to east this afternoon.

Meanwhile, all six state coronavirus mega-vaccine sites will stay closed Tuesday. There have been 796,075 people vaccinated in the state. At least 126,833 have received their second dose and are fully vaccinated.

Hospitalizations ticked up slightly on Monday, according to the states coronavirus dashboard. As of 10 p.m. Monday, there were 2,892 patients in the states 71 hospitals with the coronavirus or a suspected case, 25 more than in the previous 24 hour period. Officials said 516 patients are receiving intensive care with 366 on ventilators.

There were 17% fewer patients in hospitals Monday night than on New Years Day when there were 3,497.

Murphy on Monday disclosed 34 more COVID-19 related deaths and 3,114 additional cases.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JGoldmanNJ.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
The Children's Commissioner today insisted teachers should receive Covid-19 vaccinations after the first on the priority list as calls grow for schools to reopen.

Anne Longfield said about 500,000 teachers and 500,000 support staff could all be given the jab 'in a couple of days' given recent data on UK vaccination capacity.

She added that this would only mean the under-70s would have to wait an extra 48 hours while teachers got their vaccinations in order to get schools reopened.

Mrs Longfield added that headteachers have told her it is vital to carry out rapid lateral flow tests on pupils to 'help ensure schools stay open for good this time'.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to have asked ministers to ramp up preparations for the reopening of schools after almost a year of disruption.

Children's Commissioner Anne Longfieldwants teachers to be prioritised for Covid-19 jabs as most pupils across Britain continue to carry out their schoolwork at home

Prime Minister Boris Johnson demonstrates the two metre social distancing rule during a visit to St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Upminster, East London, in August last year

Writing in The Sun today, 60-year-old Mrs Longfield said: 'There are about a million school employees, half of whom are teachers and the others support staff.

'Given that we vaccinated nearly 600,000 people in one day at the weekend, there is the capacity to do this at pace.'

Pupils could get catch-up classes this summer Children could be invited to take part in summer schools under plans to help them catch up on months of missed education. Ministers are looking at whether to provide funding for catch-up classes over the summer holidays aimed at those children who have fallen furthest behind. Most catch-up funding so far has gone to pay for one-to-one or small group tutoring. But Whitehall sources said officials were examining whether a model used by some Harris Academy schools to offer half-day classes last summer could be deployed more widely. The Harris Federation is a trust of 48 schools in London. Any move to require teachers to work during the summer is likely to meet resistance from unions. The proposal emerged as it was revealed that the Department for Education now expects all schools to close completely during half-term, with even most children of key workers asked to stay at home. Advertisement

She added: 'We must get children back to school to prevent our kids becoming part of a lost generation.'

Schools are set to be shut until at least March 8 for all but vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers.

This date was last week pushed back by the Prime Minister from after February half-term - but there are fears schools could be closed until after Easter.

However Mrs Longfield said she wanted primaries to reopen by late February with unions and councils telling her it was 'very doable to get younger pupils back'.

Given reasons for this, she claimed primary-age children are less able to work online and are less likely to be ill from the virus, and pointed to evidence that they are also less likely to transmit it.

Mrs Longfield wrote in the Sun: 'Children who are aged three have spent a third of their life in lockdown and parents of very young children say they are very worried.

'We have reports of little ones being tearful and clingy, and they are losing the ability to play with friends in the playground.'

In Scotland, parents will find out today if their children will be able to return to school by the middle of February, as Nicola Sturgeon gives the latest update on Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

It comes as Mr Johnson is said to be pushing for schools to be reopened by March 8 after Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty told him that the current wave of the pandemic peaked last week, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The Prime Minister has ordered preparations for the return of schools to be ramped up and is also expected to introduce a slew of new measures to help children catch up with their work.

Oscar Mumby, 10, and Harriet Mumby, 8, are helped with their online schoolwork by their mother Jo Mumby in the West Sussex village of Cuckfield as schools continue to be closed

The fresh optimism comes amid the continuing success of Britain's vaccine drive, with plans for over-65s to be invited to book appointments for jabs from next week.

One in SIX children are now struggling with their mental health because of school closures and lockdown One in six children are suffering difficulties with mental health as a result of the lockdowns and school closures, a report found. It said teenagers and children are losing their way in the pandemic as parents attempt to help with online learning while doing their own jobs. The report issued last Thursday by Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield urged the Government to set out a roadmap to help schools reopen. It said: 'A staggering one in six children now have a probable mental health condition... it is highly likely that the level of underlying mental health problems will remain significantly higher as a result of the pandemic.' Mrs Longfield said there had already been a spike in referrals to NHS services in the autumn and called for a rapid re-opening of schools. Advertisement

Around three million people aged between 65 and 69 will start to be sent letters, meaning that some areas may be able to offer vaccines to those below the age of 70 before February 15.

The news suggests that the UK is well on track to meet an even surpass its target of offering jabs to all over-70s by mid-February.

New data shows the virus has fallen to pre-New Year levels in all regions of England and yesterday the UK recorded the fewest daily Covid-19 deaths since December, with officials posting just 406 more victims as the second wave continues to decline.

Department of Health figures also show cases are continuing to fall, hitting a seven-week low of 18,607 positive tests.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said almost nine in 10 of all those aged over 80 had been vaccinated, with over half of those in their 70s receiving a jab.

Data up to January 31 shows 9,296,367 first doses of the vaccine have been given, a rise of 319,038 in 24 hours.

The latest figures show that an average of 407,402 first doses of vaccine are needed each day in order to meet the Government's target of 15 million first doses by February 15.

Meanwhile a door-to-door testing blitz of 80,000 people in England is aiming to find 'every single case' of the South Africa coronavirus variant in a bid to stop the spread of the more infectious strain.

Eleven cases of the variant identified over the past week were in people who had no links to travel, prompting concerns the mutation may be spreading in communities.

Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty (pictured at Downing Street last week) is said to have Boris Johnson that the current wave of the coronavirus had peaked last week

Mobile testing units and home testing kits will be deployed to areas where the variant has been discovered as the UK Government looks to prevent it getting a foothold.

Public Health England is studying whether those who have already had the vaccine could need a booster shot 'a bit like the annual flu vaccine' to help protect them against Covid-19 mutations, such as the South Africa, Brazil and Kent variants.

The South African variant is thought to be as transmissible as the variant that was first identified in Kent but there is no evidence yet that it causes more severe disease.

Dr Susan Hopkins from Public Health England said three different vaccines trialled so far had shown effectiveness against the South African variant at a level higher than the minimum standard set by the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharamans budget has vastly increased spending for healthcare in the next financial year, but a closer look at the budget document shows that some of it has been achieved by clubbing the outlay for health ministry with that of schemes from other ministries.

In light of the pandemic that put immense pressure on the healthcare system, all eyes were on the Union Budget 2021 with hopes for a bigger allocation for the Health Ministry.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday allocated a budget of Rs 2,23,846 crore in budget estimate of 2021-22, as against the 2020-2021 budget estimate of Rs 94,452 crore  a whopping overall increase of 137 per cent. It included Rs 35,000 crore for immunisation with Covid-19 vaccines.

Sitharaman underlined that the government will take a holistic approach this time by strengthening three critical areas - preventive health, curative health and well-being.

Out of the sum of Rs 2.23 lakh crore, the budget for the health ministry stands at Rs 71,269 crores, a sum higher than the budget estimate of last year, but lower than the revised estimates of 2020-21, mainly because of the increased spending due to Covid-19. The budget allocation for the health ministry last year was Rs 67,112 crore, but the ministry ended up spending Rs 78,866 crore.

Also read: The Budget Bottomline for Your Pocket: Will It Leave You Richer or Poorer Decoded

The Rs 2.23 lakh crore outlay for health and well-being will include expenditure on six components in varying proportions  Department of Health & Family Welfare (31.83 per cent) with finance commission grant (5.89 per cent), Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation (26.81 per cent) with finance commission grant (16.09 per cent), vaccination (15.63 per cent), health research (1.89 per cent), Ministry of AYUSH (1.32 per cent), and, nutrition (1.20 per cent).

Sitharaman said that Rs 64,180 crore would be allocated to the new scheme PM Atma Nirbhar Swastha Bharat Yojna with an outlay of six years. This implied that each year an additional Rs 10,000 crores will be pumped in the health sector. It will be implemented in addition to the National Health Mission and will provide support for 17,788 rural and 11,024 urban health and wellness centres  developing the capacities of primary, secondary, and tertiary care health systems.

It will strengthen existing national institutions, and create new institutions to cater to detection and cure of new and emerging diseases, Sitharaman said in her speech.

The government added that the allocation will also be utilised in supporting health and wellness centres, setting up of integrated public health laboratories, establishing critical care hospitals and for strengthening the National Centre for Disease Control.

Also read: Take-Home Salary, Retirement Savings May be Hit Once Wage Code and Budget 2021 Come into Effect

The departments which received an enormous boost of 179 per cent is the drinking water and sanitation, while the allocation for health and family welfare increased by 9.62 percent. However, nutrition witnessed a drop of 27 per cent.

Dr Sakthivel Selvaraj, director of the Health Economics, Financing and Policy, Public Health Foundation of India said, The major intervention which happened and which was well-needed is Rs 35,000 crore for Covid-19 vaccination and we welcome it. Leaving this aside, the allocations have been modest. The only silver lining in addition to vaccination is allocation of additional around Rs 12-13,000 crore as the Finance Commission Grant.

Welcoming the governments allocation, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said, The experiences of the countrys yearlong fight with Covid have shaped the Union Budget. This will give a tremendous boost to Indias health infrastructure. Investment on Health Infrastructure in Budget 2021 has increased 2.37 times or 137 per cent.

Meanwhile, the allocation for the health research department which includes ICMR has also been increased from Rs 2,100 crore last year to Rs 2,663 crores for 2021-22. As compared to 2020-21, the allocation to PMJAY, which includes Ayushman Bharat and health and wellness centres was worth Rs 6,400 crore and the budget has remained unchanged for this financial year.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/PoolBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News

(WASHINGTON) -- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., revealed on Monday night that she is a sexual assault survivor while recounting her experiences during last month's insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.



"I'm a survivor of sexual assault," Ocasio-Cortez said, her voice quivering with emotion. "And I haven't told many people that in my life. But when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other."



In a 90-minute video live-streamed on Instagram that has since garnered over one million views, the 31-year-old congresswoman recalled fearing for her life as she and others were forced to take shelter when a violent mob stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C, on Jan. 6. At one point, when she was hiding in the bathroom of her office, she said someone banged on the door and entered the room, repeatedly yelling, "Where is she?"



"This was the moment I thought everything was over," Ocasio-Cortez said. "I mean, I thought I was going to die."



"I felt that if this was the journey that my life was taking, that, I felt that things were going to be OK and that, you know, I had fulfiled my purpose," she said, wiping away tears from her eyes.



She ultimately realized that the man was a Capitol police officer who she said looked at her "with a tremendous amount of anger and hostility."



Ocasio-Cortez said she feared for her life again later that day when she was barricaded in the office of Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif.



"The weird thing about moments like these is you lose all sense of time," she said. "We felt completely unsafe."



The events occurred on Jan. 6 after President Donald Trump and his allies held a rally earlier that day in Washington, D.C., urging Congress not to certify the results of the November presidential election, in which Trump lost to Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Trump vowed to "never concede" and urged his supporters "to fight," as he continued to push baseless claims of election fraud.



Crowds of people then made their way to the Capitol steps, pushing through barricades, officers in riot gear and other security measures that were put in place in anticipation of the protest. An angry mob breached the Capitol building, forcing a lockdown with members of Congress holed up inside. It took hours for law enforcement to clear the building and establish a perimeter around the area. Five people, including a police officer, died during the rampage.



Ocasio-Cortez said those who argue it is time to move on from what transpired that day are using "the same tactics of abusers."



"They're trying to tell us to forget about what happened. They're trying to tell us it wasn't a big deal," she said. "They're trying to tell us to move on without any accountability, without any truth telling or without actually confronting the extreme damage, physical harm, loss of life and trauma that was inflicted on not just me as a person, not just other people as individuals, but on all of us as a collective and on many other people. We cannot move on without accountability. We cannot heal without accountability. And so, all of these people who are telling us to move on are doing so at their own convenience."



It's the same tactics, she said, "of that man who touched you inappropriately at work, telling you to move on."



"Are they going to believe you?" she continued. "Or the adult who, you know, if they hurt you when you were a child and you grow up and you confront them about it, and they try to tell you that what happened never happened."



Ocasio-Cortez said holding those responsible for what happened on Jan. 6 "is not about the difference of political opinion" or "getting revenge."



"This is about just, like, basic humanity," she said. "We are not safe with people who hold positions of power who are willing to endanger the lives of others if they think it will score them a political point."



She called out Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Miss., who joined Trump in baselessly challenging Biden's victories in some states.



"We knew that violence was expected," she added. "We knew that that violence was predicated on someone telling the lie -- the big lie -- about our elections."

Copyright  2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
The arts scene is agog. The latest funding round in the federal governments COVID rescue package, the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE), contains a big surprise.

Street artist Rone scooped a grant worth $1.86 million. Credit:Illustration: John Shakespeare

Tyrone Wright, the Melbourne street artist better known as Rone, scooped a grant worth $1.86 million.

That is more than the grants set aside for big arts entities such as Byron Bay Bluesfest ($1.1 million). The musicals of promoter Michael Cassel did well, with the launch of the musical Hamilton in Sydney ($1.03 million) and the reactivation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in Melbourne ($1.1 million).

But cultural institutions such as the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra ($700,000) and the Australian Ballet ($469,000) will just have to make do.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  A U.S. billionaire who made a fortune in tech and fighter jets is buying an entire SpaceX flight and plans to take three people with him to circle the globe this year.

Besides fulfilling his dream of flying in space, Jared Isaacman announced Monday that he aims to use the private trip to raise $200 million for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, half coming from his own pockets.

A health care worker for St. Jude already has been selected for the mission. Anyone donating to St. Jude in February will be entered into a random drawing for seat No. 3. The fourth seat will go to a business owner who uses Shift4 Payments, Isaacmans credit card processing company in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

I truly want us to live in a world 50 or 100 years from now where people are jumping in their rockets like the Jetsons and there are families bouncing around on the moon with their kid in a spacesuit, Isaacman, who turns 38 next week, told The Associated Press.

I also think if we are going to live in that world, we better conquer childhood cancer along the way.

Hes bought a Super Bowl ad to publicize the mission, dubbed Inspiration4 and targeted for October. Details of the ride in a SpaceX Dragon capsule are still being worked out, including the number of days the four will be in orbit after blasting off from Florida. The other passengers will be announced next month.

Isaacman's trip is the latest private space travel announcement. Three businessmen are paying $55 million apiece to fly to the International Space Station next January aboard a SpaceX Dragon. And a Japanese businessman has a deal with SpaceX to fly to the moon in a few years.

Isaacman would not divulge how much hes paying SpaceX, except to say that the anticipated donation to St. Jude vastly exceeds the cost of the mission.

While a former NASA astronaut will accompany the three businessmen, Isaacman will serve as his own spacecraft commander. The appeal, he said, is learning all about about SpaceXs Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket. While the capsules are designed to fly autonomously, a pilot can override the system in an emergency.

A space geek since kindergarten, Isaacman dropped out of high school when he was 16, got a GED certificate and started a business in his parents basement that became the genesis for Shift4. He set a speed record flying around the world in 2009 while raising money for the Make-A-Wish program, and later established Draken International, the worlds largest private fleet of fighter jets.

Isaacmans $100 million commitment to St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee, is the largest ever by a single individual and one of the largest overall.

Were pinching ourselves every single day, said Rick Shadyac, president of St. Judes fundraising organization.

Besides SpaceX training, Isaacman intends to take his crew on a mountain expedition to mimic his most uncomfortable experience so far  tenting on the side of a mountain in bitter winter conditions.

Were all going to get to know each other ... really well before launch," he said.

Hes acutely aware of the need for things to go well.

If something does go wrong, it will set back every other persons ambition to go and become a commercial astronaut, he said from his home in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Isaacman said he signed with Elon Musks company because its the clear leader in commercial spaceflight, with two astronaut flights already completed. Boeing has yet to fly astronauts to the space station for NASA. While Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos Blue Origin expect to start flying customers later this year, their craft will just briefly skim the surface of space.

Isaacman had put out spaceflight feelers for years. He traveled to Kazakhstan in 2008 to see a Russian Soyuz blast off with a tourist on board, then a few years later attended one of NASAs last space shuttle launches. SpaceX invited him to the companys second astronaut launch for NASA in November.

While Isaacman and wife, Monica, managed to keep his space trip hush-hush over the months, their daughters couldnt. The girls, ages 7 and 4, overheard their parents discussing the flight last year and told their teachers, who called to ask if it was true dad was an astronaut.

My wife said, No, of course not, you know how these kids make things up. But I mean the reality is my kids werent that far off with that one.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Energy suppliers will be able to charge customers an extra 23.69 a year to help them cover for coronavirus-related costs.

Ofgem has agreed to allow providers to make the extra charge via its energy price cap, which is due to be reviewed this Friday, to help providers recover funds lost due to households in debt.

Known as the Adjustment Allowance, from 1 April 2021, standard variable tariff customers can expect to see their bills rise to account for the impact of the pandemic on the costs of supplying domestic default tariff customers.

The move has frustrated suppliers in the industry with Octopus Energy calling the price rise 'absolutely outrageous'.

Debt recovery: Energy suppliers will soon be able to charge customers an extra 23.69 a year

In winter 2020 a one-off 'wholesale energy adjustment' was introduced by Ofgem which increased the cap level by 15 in annualised terms.

However, after consultation, Ofgem has decided to include an Adjustment Allowance to reflect the effects of Covid-19 on the cap in the form of an additional debt-related cost.

The aim is to help suppliers recover some of the funds they could have lost due to helping customers through the pandemic.

This includes suppliers providing emergency credit to customers struggling to top up their pre-payment meters, putting those who are behind on their bills on affordable repayment plans and not disconnecting their customers.

The watchdog said it believes it is in customers' interests to allow suppliers to start to recover some of these additional costs to ensure that consumers continue to benefit from a properly functioning energy market.

This has not been met well by some of those in the industry.

The aim is to help suppliers recover some funds they could have lost during the pandemic

Greg Jackson, chief executive and founder of Octopus Energy, said: 'We haven't seen a significant increase in people not paying their bills as a consequence of Covid so this price rise is absolutely outrageous.

'The price cap will already go up significantly at the end of this week because of wholesale costs.

'Adding unnecessarily to costs for those on the highest tariffs will hurt customers at a time when many are struggling.

'The best companies in the world work hard to charge customers less. If the dinosaur companies who lobbied for a hike in the price cap really cared about their customers, they would improve their efficiency to keep prices down instead of charging long-standing customers more.'

What is the energy price cap?

The energy price cap was launched in January 2019 by watchdog, Ofgem, as a way of keeping down the cost for households across the UK.

It is reviewed twice a year, and the next change is due this April.

The energy price cap is predicted to rise by at least 66 this year, according to data from Cornwall Insight.

The default tariff price cap is now expected to increase from its current level of 1,042 to 1,108 per year for a typical dual fuel direct debit customer from April 2021.

Households are expected to pay more in 2021 as a result of higher wholesale costs.

An Ofgem spokesperson said: 'Wholesale prices dropped early in the pandemic mainly because of a fall in energy demand, which allowed for a 84 decrease in the price cap level for the colder winter months.

'As demand has picked up, we have seen global wholesale prices increase too.

'The observation window for the next price cap level is still open, but we anticipate that wholesale prices will lead to the cap being set at a similar level to previous summers.'

[February 02, 2021] Online assessments enable more than 30,000 global workers to maintain the skills to keep working

TUV Rheinland, a leading quality and safety standards certifier, has formed a critical new partnership with Questionmark, the online assessment provider. Together they will ensure that over 30,000 global workers have the skills and knowledge to do their jobs, despite the challenges of Covid-19. To do their jobs effectively, people working in a wide variety of sectors including healthcare, food safety, industrial plants and management systems, must be able to demonstrate that their skills and competencies are up to date. To do this, each year 30,000 people complete one of TUV Rheinlands' 750 certification programs. The introduction of stringent social-distancing measures earlier in the year created huge challenges to how training could be delivered and knowledge could be assessed. TUV Rheinland created an online "certification hub" which enables participants to complete training in a virtual classroom. Thanks to the partnership with Questionmark, candidates can sit their assessments in a secure online exam environment. Conducting assessments online can save employers and individuals both time and money because it eliminates the need to travel to test centers. As such, TUV will continue to assess certifications online when the crisis is over, increasing the scale and scope of its global certification offer. TUV Rheinland currently offers assessments in 38 different languages. Working with Questionmark has enabled TUV Rheinland to increase the scale of its offer by: Translating content into a variety of languages - the assessment platform offers a possibility to translate assessment content into different languages. This makes it possible to deliver the same assessment around the world without having to create bespoke content for each country. Compare and analyze results - it is easy to compare results from all over the word because all the results are stored and compiled on one platform, regardless of what language the assessment is in. Protect tests from cheating - through a range of anti-cheating measures, the results of an assessment conducted through Questionmark can be trusted. Offer test-takers greater flexibility - with Questionmark Proctoring Online, test-takers can book an appointment with a proctor or invigilator at a time that suits them. The proctor will supervise the test taking place via a webcam built into the participant's computer. This is fully GDPR compliant. Author content quickly - new quality and safety standards are constantly released. Each of these requires new assessments before awarding certifications. However, given similarities, much of the content can be transferred from one assessment to another. Because of Questionmark's question bank feature, new assessments can quickly be created from previous content. Save time and money - by eliminating the need to book test centers and require candidates to travel to them.



"Because we are working with Questionmark, our test-takers from anywhere in the world can participate at a time that suits them. Invigilation or proctoring measures mean that everyone can be confident in the result."

Lars Pedersen, CEO of Questionmark said: "To take advantage of new business opportunities across the world, credentialing organizations must move quickly. Our platform provides a one-stop-shop solution. Content is easily authored and can be quickly translated. E-commerce and badging can be managed through the platform. Tests are instantly marked and results are easy to analyze." www.tuv.com www.questionmark.com Ends Notes to editors For more information: US: Kristin Bernor, external relations: Kristin.bernor@questionmark.com 203.349.6438 UK: James Boyd-Wallis: james.boyd-wallis@fourteenforty.uk 07793 021 607 AU/NZ: Oliver Scott: oliver.scott@questionmark.com +61 2 8073 0527 About Questionmark Questionmark provides a secure enterprise-grade assessment platform and professional services to leading organizations around the world, delivered with care and unequalled expertise. Its full-service online assessment tool and professional services help customers to improve their performance and meet their compliance requirements. Questionmark enables organizations to unlock their potential by delivering assessments which are valid, reliable, fair and defensible. Questionmark offers secure powerful integration with other LMS, LRS and proctoring services making it easy to bring everything together in one place. Questionmark's cloud-based assessment management platform offers rapid deployment, scalability for high-volume test delivery, 24/7 support, and the peace-of-mind of secure, audited U.S., Australian and European-based data centers. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005347/en/

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If youre a fan of raunchy comedies, chances are, youve seen the 2008 rom-com Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The film is centered around Peter Bretter (Jason Segel), a struggling musician who gets dumped by his girlfriend of five years, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), unexpectedly. Though he tries to move on from his ex by vacationing in Hawaii, trouble ensues when he discovers Sarah on the island with her new boyfriend.

Though the film is a fictional narrative, there have been rumors that a scene in the movie (the one when Sarah breaks up with Peter while hes stark naked) was inspired by Segels real-life split from Freak and Geeks co-star Linda Cardellini.

So, does the scene in question actually stem from a real-life incident? Read on below to find out.

Linda Cardellini and Jason Segel | NBCU Photo Bank

Linda Cardellini and Jason Segel were on-and-off-screen lovers

From 1999 to 2000, Cardellini and Segel starred together in the short-lived teen comedy-drama Freaks and Geeks. The two played freaks Lindsay Weir and Nick Andopolis, whose relationship starts out platonic but eventually turns romantic.

Though Nick and Lindsey had a short, awkward relationship on the show, Segel and Cardellini dated in real life after the series abruptly ended.

Freaks and Geeks cast | NBCU Photo Bank

RELATED: Does the Cast of Freaks and Geeks Keep in Touch?

During that time, the pair hit major red carpets and posed for press photos together. Though it seemed like they were a match made in heaven, the couple, unfortunately, ended their relationship after five solid years.

Jason Segel borrowed details from his and Linda Cardellinis split for the breakup scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall

While its unclear why the pair decided to go their separate ways, rumors spread that Cardellini was the one who pulled the plug on their relationship.

Though neither actor confirmed or denied these rumors, Segel seemingly revealed that he was the dumpee while speaking with Time Out in 2008.

I was unemployed for quite a while, and I did not handle it well, he told the outlet.

Its also been speculated that the pairs real-life breakup inspired Segels characters naked meltdown in the opening scene of the celebrated film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Segel even revealed to The New York Times that he might have borrowed details from his breakup with Cardellini to pen the hilarious scene of the famous comedy.

RELATED: Seth Rogen Confronted the Executive who Canceled Freaks and Geeks

I was trying to experience [the breakup] viscerally, as a person, Segel told the publication. But all I could think was: This is hilarious. I cannot wait for her to leave so I can write this down.'

Although Segal didnt note Cardellini by name during the interview, fans were clever enough to connect the dots.

I cant control what people think, Segel told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. I was still very much a child [then], and this was more an amalgamation of a lot of different relationships and breakups Ive had. People are bound to talk, but she was a great girlfriend.
Although it agreed the case is tragic, a federal appeals court has refused to revive a lawsuit filed against the Milton Hershey School over the suicide of a 14-year-old former student.

The decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit seems likely to end the legal battle over the death of Abrielle Bartels, who hanged herself in a closet at her legal guardians home in June 2013, days after being barred from attending the graduation ceremony and after party for her eighth-grade class.

Bartels family appealed to the circuit court after U.S. Middle District Chief Judge John E. Jones III dismissed its suit against the school last March. Like Jones, the circuit judges concluded the family lacked legal grounds to hold the school responsible for Bartels death.

A death by suicide is tragic. But not every tragedy leads to legal liability, Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in the circuit courts opinion.

Bartels family contended the charitable schools decision to exclude her from the graduation and party  she had attended the school since kindergarten  was a major factor prompting her suicide. The ban came after repeated counseling and voluntary hospitalizations for mental health issues, including suicidal urges. School officials, who had been trying to treat the girl and had helped arrange her voluntary mental health commitments, told Bartels family that it was unable to provide adequate care for her emotional issues, Jones noted in his ruling on the case.

Her family, from Steelton Newport, contended her ouster from the school violated federal housing laws and plunged Bartels into an assertedly unstable environment very different from the structured one she was used to at Milton Hershey. They insisted school administrators violated their own policies and had not provided a coordinated educational/health plan for Bartels.

Bibas found that school officials did what they could to address Bartels issues, but the school was not equipped to deal with them fully.

It is not a licensed mental-health or residential-treatment center. Nor do its psychologists have admitting privileges at any in- patient psychiatric hospital. Instead, the school leaves high-level care to outside experts, he wrote. He noted Bartels was discharged from a psychiatric institute two days before the eighth-grade graduation.

Milton Hershey officials decided to bar Bartels from the graduation rites because the school had decided that it could not support the level of care that Abbie needed right then, Bibas wrote. Though that was disappointing, her fathers girlfriend reported that Abbie seemed to understand the decision.

Bartels killed herself just over a week later.

Bibas found that Bartels case didnt fall under federal housing law because her accommodations at the school were free. Nor was she in the care of the school after she was admitted to the psychiatric center, he concluded. When she died over the summer break, she was in her parents custody, not the schools, Bibas added.

Once the child is out of a schools control, the school no longer stands in the shoes of the parents, the circuit judge wrote. When a student returns to her parents, it is typically the parents who are responsible for her, not the school.

He also rejected the familys claim that school officials had inflicted emotional distress on the girl.

No such conduct happened here, Bibas concluded. On the contrary, the school acted reasonably: it put Abbie in the care of licensed mental-health professionals. None of its actions was reprehensible. There is nothing intolerable about making sure a suicidal student gets professional treatment before returning to campus.
The Alabama Department of Corrections is investigating a Saturday altercation at a Bessemer prison where two corrections officers were stabbed and two inmates were injured, the agency said Monday.

The two corrections officers at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer who were stabbed are on leave as the department reviews the incident. The agency also requested help from the FBIs Birmingham Field Office in probing the clash between the officers and two inmates.

Robert Council and Ephan Moore, the two inmates involved in the altercation, were injured and treated and released from a local hospital. The department said the inmates will be housed in a manner consistent with their security needs and recommended medical care.

The officers who sustained stab wounds were first treated at the prison and then taken to a local hospital for treatment.

The [department] condemns all violence in its institutions, and any actions taken by inmates or correctional staff are being thoroughly investigated, the agency said in a statement Monday night.

Corrections Department Commissioner Jeff Dunn required supervisors at Donaldson to wear body cameras in light of the altercation. He also initiated a review of all supervisors at Level 5 prisons -- where the most dangerous state inmates are housed -- to determine if staffing adjustments are warranted.

The agency did not release any other details on the incident, citing the investigation.
The customer displayed a handgun and ordered the driver out of the car, police said. The driver exited the car and the customer fled in the vehicle, which was last seen driving east on Lake Street, police said.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chances are that if you trade the order book of major digital spot or derivatives digital assets centralized or decentralized exchanges, you have filled orders placed by HedgeTech's algorithms on behalf of their clients. The company is one of the top digital assets designated market maker, the not-so-well-known industry players that all markets need.

Broadly speaking, anyone placing maker orders  these orders that let you decide both the execution amount and price but do not usually get filled immediately  can be considered a market maker. Still oversimplifying, professional market makers can either aim at maximizing their profits  known as profits driven market making - or at optimizing markets' efficiency  called designated market making. Big names on Wall Street such as Jane Street fall under the former, while HedgeTech is part of the latter.

No more New York trading floor with hundreds of traders shouting across the room or on the phone, market making is now fully automated. From an office located in a tower only steps away from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a small group of people work quietly on solving current market problematics, designing new strategies and improving server configurations.

The company's latest achievement is a newly designed script that can build an order book on any order book based exchange out of a community based liquidity pool such as Uniswap, along with the arbitrage algorithm to run across these platforms for those who would see fit. In combination with a liquidity reward program that provides an extra incentive for investors to participate in such liquidity pools, it adds to a lengthy strategy catalog geared towards providing liquidity to trading venues so that traders can trade whenever we want, whatever we want, at a lower cost of trading.

Aside from strategy design, what really sets HedgeTech apart is its back-end infrastructure, built for extreme stability and scalability. The firm states that a single trader can monitor thousands of scripts running on hundreds of markets at one glance and perfectly manage execution. The speed at which the company builds its own exchange connectors  a few hours  and its remarkable scalability have sparked the interest of high-profile institutions such as prominent global exchanges, broker dealers and even other market makers. Considered a true FinTech company, HedgeTech definitely stands on the technical side of things.

Despite a one-of-a-kind combination of trading strategies and technology, founders Laurent and Tom are cautious when it comes to media exposure and social media presence. They would rather remain close to academia, giving guest lectures on algorithmic trading to graduate students at Cornell University for example.

The trading firm, that is minimally and privately funded, was processing upwards of 900 outbound server requests per second by the end of 2020. HedgeTech also states that it has been approached for deeper collaborations. This comes after the company had already attained some recognition within the industry. In 2019, CNblogs/Cryptomorrow listed HedgeTech as "best market makers" on a top referenced market maker list. In 2020, it received the most promising billion dollar+ SaaS startup award from Hacker Noon. Finally, just a weeks ago, Hummingbot, perceived as one of its competitors, added HedgeTech to their market makers directory, describing the company as a "leading marker maker".

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE HedgeTech

Related Links

https://www.hedgetech.io


This summer there is no doubt we all deserved a good break after what has been a tough year, but at least here in NZ we got to enjoy the kind of festive season many other countries can only dream of.

Recent mass gatherings like the Puhoi woodchopping carnival and Orewas Big Dig were able to go ahead. There was also Love Soups free Christmas meal. Julie King and her team of volunteers are doing an amazing job from Whangaparaoa Hall  I was pleased that I could support their application for a new warehouse and seeing it open up a couple of months ago in Redvale was great news.

It is also great to see steady progress on Penlink. It has been a pleasure to support the staunch community advocates in their decades-long fight for this road and, after many years of unfunded promises, it was a proud moment when our Government, for the first time ever, committed $411 million to fully fund the project as part of our NZ Upgrade Programme. There is a lot of preparation work for a project of this magnitude, and significant progress has been made to allow construction to start this year.

Its a real privilege to be back at Parliament, starting my second term as part of one of the most diverse governments in NZ history. Im privileged to be able to spend my days mixing and mingling with people, but Im also thinking of everyone less fortunate than we are, in countries where the pandemic is still in full force.

The Netherlands, where my elderly parents are, is back in full lockdown. In a country the size of Northland, theyve seen more than 13,000 people die and still the country reports thousands of new Covid-19 cases every day. And all that time the elderly, the vulnerable, and many others dont feel safe to leave their homes.

Here in NZ we must remember to slip, slop, slap, scan, and stay home and get tested if we have any cold or flu symptoms. But the recent cases are a good reminder that this is a tricky virus and we need to do everything we can to stay on top of it. Continue your scanning/keeping a record of everywhere you go, and stay home if sick. Contact your GP or Healthline (0800 358 5453) if you have any questions about the need to get tested.

At the start of 2021, I want to thank everyone who is working hard to keep us safe and able to enjoy summer  our essential workers who might not get a break these holidays, and everyone working in and around our borders, ports and MIQ facilities. Your dedication serves as an example to all of us.

Editors note: Last years election saw Marja Lubeck confirmed as the Labour List MP with responsibility for both the Kaipara ki Mahurangi and Whangaparaoa electorates.
"The Appellate panel in this case recognized that a builder such as Challenger Homes owes a duty to provide habitable, properly constructed homes and common areas." --Heidi Storz

The law firm of Kerrane Storz received a major win in a Colorado appellate court case relating regarding a Challenger Homes neighborhood. The case could mark a major expansion of warranty protections for homeowners throughout the State of Colorado. The appellate court case contained several major holdings that are beneficial for Colorado homeowners, including:

1. Builders provide implied warranties of habitability and workmanlike construction, even if the home seller is a different entity;

2. A builder that takes over construction of a community from another builder is responsible for delivery of properly constructed common areas for the entire community;

3. A community association may recover damages for repair of all the construction defects in the common areas, even if not all owners in the association are original purchasers;

4. A verdict entered against a builder on a warranty claim cannot be reduced by a community association's negligence; and

5. A community association has standing to bring claims for damages to the common areas, regardless of whether the common areas are owned by the Association or the individual owners.

This landmark ruling in Brooktree Village Homeowners Ass'n v. Brooktree Village, LLC, 2020 WL 6789033 (Colo.App., 2020), followed a verdict of $1,850,000 to the Association on its warranty claims against the builder. The case presented a matter of first impression regarding a builders responsibility to deliver common areas in a good and workmanlike manner, even when the builder took over development of the neighborhood after the departure of another builder.

In issuing its landmark ruling the three-judge panel held that "a homeowner's association may recover from a successor developer or builder the entire cost of remediating construction defects in common areas where (1) the defects are attributable to the successor developer or builder; (2) two or more of the association's members purchased their homes directly from the successor developer or builder; and (3) those members have rights to use the common areas  even if the successor developer or builder never owned the common areas."

"The Appellate panel in this case recognized that a builder such as Challenger Homes owes a duty to provide habitable, properly constructed homes and common areas to the owners and to the Community Association, regardless of whether owners sell their units or whether the builder is taking over development of the community after another builder leaves," said the trial counsel for the Association, Heidi Storz. "This appellate court decision rightly adds a new level of fairness to Colorado homeowners. When a builder or developer sells homes in a community, the developer has a responsibility for all of the community and can't blame problems on a prior builder."

The case resulted in a confidential, post-verdict settlement between the Association and the builder entities, including Challenger Homes.

The law firm of Kerrane Storz, P.C. represents property owners and community associations in construction defect matters.

Contact:

Heidi Storz

hstorz@kerranestorz.com

720-898-9680

SOURCE Kerrane Storz, P.C
including the Congress, Left, TMC and DMK on Tuesday walked out from Rajya Sabha after their demand for suspension of business of the day to take up a discussion on the farmers' agitation was rejected by the Chairman.

The had given notice under rule 267 calling for the suspension of business of the day to take up discussion on the ongoing agitation by farmers on Delhi borders against three new farm laws.

When the House met for the day, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said he has received notice under rule 267 from various members but the issue can be raised during the discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament.

The President, he said, had referred to the farmer's agitation in his address made at the start of the of Parliament.

While Lok Sabha is scheduled to start a discussion on the motion on Tuesday, Rajya Sabha will do so on Wednesday.

"As we are going to start a discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address tomorrow, members can participate and raise their concerns," he said rejecting the notice.

He said several rounds of discussions have happened between the government and the farmers' group.

"I understand the concern (of members) for the need to resolve the issue at the earliest date," he said.

Naidu, however, allowed members who gave notices to make very brief mentions.

Thousands of farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The protesting farmers have expressed the apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporations.

However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture.

Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the farmers have been camping at Delhi's borders for more than two months and the issue needs to be discussed.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) said the House is not aware of what is going on between the government and farmers and the House should discuss the issue separately from the Motion of Thanks.

"We want a discussion on a specific issue," he said.

While CPI leader Elamaram Kareem said water and electricity supply to the protest sites has been cut, DMK's Tiruchi Siva said farmers have been sitting on roads for over two months in the cold and the issue needs to be discussed separately.

Manoj Jha said Parliament should at least discuss the issue.

However, Naidu did not agree to their demand after which the members of Congress, Left, TMC, DMK and RJD staged a walkout.

"No one is stopping you from discussing the issue tomorrow. Tomorrow you will get an opportunity," he said.

Naidu said 10 hours have been allocated for discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President's address and an equivalent amount given for discussion on Budget.

"Please take the opportunity tomorrow," he said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, Feb 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Chauri Chaura centenary celebrations on Thursday. The event will be celebrated at 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh till February 4, 2022.

The Prime Minister will take part in the event at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur at 11 a.m. via video conferencing.

The day marks 100 years of the 'Chauri Chaura' incident, a landmark event in the country's fight for independence. The Prime Minister will also release a postal stamp dedicated to the centenary during the event.

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh will also be present on the occasion.

The centenary celebrations and various events planned by the Uttar Pradesh government will begin in all 75 districts of the state from February 4 (Thursday) and will continue till next year.
As in the past, the common man had expectations from the budget that it would provide tax relief in terms of reduction in tax rates or in widening of tax slabs. However, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not tinkered with either of these while presenting the Budget proposals.

While no sops have been provided to the common man, it has been proposed that senior citizens of 75 years age and above, with only pension and interest income (from the bank in which pension income is received) are not required to file tax returns.

In order to avail this benefit, the bank is required to be a "specified bank", which shall be notified by the government.

Further, eligible senior citizens are required to furnish a declaration to the specified bank, enabling them to deduct taxes on the total income.

Also Read: Budget 2021: DFI, FPI investment in REITs; Infrastructure push a welcome step to spur economy

The deduction towards interest on loan taken for purchasing affordable housing has been proposed to be extended by a year, that is, till March 31, 2022. Such deduction is available for interest up to Rs 150,000 on loan taken to purchase any house with stamp value not exceeding Rs 45 lakh and is available only to first-time home buyers.

Last year, the government had abolished Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) and hence, dividend was made taxable in the hands of shareholders/unit holders from the financial year (FY) 2020-21. However, with a view to easing the advance tax payment requirement on dividend income, it is proposed that the liability to pay advance tax on such dividend income will arise only after the dividend has been declared/paid. This is in line with the advance tax requirement on capital gains.

Similarly, last year, the government covered employer's contributions to retirals such as provident fund (PF), superannuation fund, National Pension Scheme, and interest accrued on the same under the tax net.

Such contributions in total, exceeding Rs 750,000 were included in the taxable income in the year of contribution themselves. As a step forward, in the Budget 2021, it has been proposed that interest accrued on employee's contribution to PF exceeding Rs 250,000 will be taxable in the hands of the employees in the year of accrual.

Also Read: Budget 2021: How no new taxes, COVID cess will ensure stability in system

This will act as a deterrent for individuals, especially high net worth individuals, who have been contributing higher amounts as their share of contribution to PF, primarily with the purpose of earning higher interest. The computation mechanism in this respect is to be notified by the revenue authorities.

With the objective to ease/streamline the processes and bring about more transparency, the FM Sitharaman has proposed various measures such as faceless proceedings at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and reduction in timelines for assessment/re-opening of assessment.

As expected, the Budget 2021 proposals are heavily focused on the benefits to be provided to various sectors severely affected by COVID-19 pandemic. While the expectations of the common man of tax relief are not met, the budget outlines measures to rationalise the tax structure and bring out changes in the tax processes.

Also Read: Budget 2021: No restriction on 1-person co's paid up capital, turnover

(The author is Partner, Deloitte India. With inputs from Preeti Gupta, Senior Manager with Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP.)
The Prosecutor's Section of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) decided on Tuesday to delegate Robert Fleckhammer as chief prosecutor of the Section for Combating Crimes of Terrorism and Cybercrime of the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), although several NGOs sent a letter to the Council expressing their concern about this appointment.

Robert Fleckhammer, who currently serves as deputy chief prosecutor of the DIICOT Section for Combating Crimes of Terrorism and Cybercrime, will be delegated as head of the same section from 8 February, for a maximum period of six months, the decision being taken in the CSM by four votes 'for' and three 'against'.

Several NGOs have asked the Supreme Council of Magistrates, in an open letter, not to appoint Fleckhammer as chief prosecutor of the DIICOT Section for Combating Crimes of Terrorism and Cybercrime, the signatories being unhappy with the way he handled two files involving journalists.

These NGOs, including the Advocacy and Human Rights Centre Association, the Association of the European Centre for Education and Legal Research, the Initiative for Justice Association and the Freedom House Romania Foundation, have expressed concern about the way in which the appointments of prosecutors to senior positions at DIICOT take place.

"Consequently, they call on the CSM to consider with maximum responsibility the discussions on the 'Proposed delegation of Mr Fleckhammer Robert to the position of Chief Prosecutor of the Section for Combating Crimes of Terrorism and Cybercrime', which is on the CSM's agenda tomorrow, 2 February 2021. NGOs believe that any leadership position in a prosecutor's office, especially in a specialized one such as DIICOT, should be occupied by prosecutors with solid and undisputed professional activity. Unfortunately, the public opinion criticized the way in which some files were handled by the prosecutor for whom the delegation to the office of chief prosecutor is requested, in particular the file of the magistrates and journalists, as well as the Radio Romania file," the letter sent to the CSM said.
A day after the military staged a coup, Myanmar lawmakers continue to be under arrest as the incident has drawn criticism from around the world.

The incident came 10 years after Myanmar got democratic rule. Before that, the country had been under 50 long years of military rule. Monday morning was supposed to be the first session of Parliament in the country after the Aug Saan Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) came back to power in elections in November 2020.

It was the NLD that had won earlier elections in 2015 as well, that brought back democratic rule to the country.

A day after members of Parliament of the country were taken into custody by the military, here's a look at what's happening there:

Lawmakers still under arrest

While the military held hundreds of lawmakers, they are still being held in what Al-Jazeera reported as an "open-air detention centre."

Associated Press reported that the lawmakers were confined to their government housing complex and guarded by soldiers. One of the detained lawmakers told the news agency that he and about 400 others spent a sleepless night, worried they might be taken away, but were otherwise "OK". They were able to speak with one another inside the compound and communicate to the outside by phone, but were not allowed to leave the housing complex in Naypyitaw, the capital. He said Suu Kyi was not being held with them.

We had to stay awake and be alert, the lawmaker told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety. He said police were inside the complex, where members of Suu Kyis party and various smaller parties were being held, and soldiers were outside it.

Also read: Woman Does Aerobics as Myanmar Coup Unfolds Behind, Goes Viral For 'Revolutionary Workout'

Suu Kyi's party calls for her release

BBC reported that Suu Kyi's party NLD said that they wanted her to be released right away and called on the military to accept the results of the November 2020 elections.

The coup comes after the opposition party, which is backed by the military, had claimed that the the elections were rigged.

On Monday, it was announced on the military-owned Myawaddy TV that Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year. Later in the day, his office announced a new Cabinet composed of current and former generals and former advisers to a previous government headed by former Gen. Thein Sein.

Citizens download offline app

Meanwhile, even as television signals, phone and internet access was cut off across the country's capital Naypyitaw, reports said phone services in other parts of the country was also down.

Reuters reported offline messaging app Bridgefy as saying it was downloaded more than 600,000 times in a few hours in Myanmar, after the countrys military seized power on Monday and temporarily disrupted internet traffic.

The Mexico-based startup, which gained popularity during Hong Kongs pro-democracy protests in 2020, tweeted that it hoped people in Myanmar would find its app useful during tough times.

Yangon Airport Shut

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the coup, Reuters reported that Myanmar has closed its international airport in Yangon, its main gateway.

Yangon airport manager Phone Myint told Reuters the airport had closed until May but gave no exact date. The Myanmar Times newspaper reported permission to land and take off had been revoked for all flights, including relief flights, until 23:59 of May 31.

India alerts citizens in Myanmar

The Indian embassy in Yangon asked citizens to take due precautions and avoid unnecessary travel, in an advisory issued following the military coup and subsequent political developments in the country. "In view of the recent developments in Myanmar, all Indian citizens are required to take due precautions and avoid unnecessary travel," the embassy said.

Biden threatens sanctions

US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, threatened new sanctions on Myanmar. He said, "The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy, Biden said in a statement. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action. The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack.
'Too early' to reveal Indycar news - Grosjean

It is "too early" to reveal whether Romain Grosjean will race in Indycar in 2021.

Indycar team owner Dale Coyne last week admitted his interest in signing up the former Formula 1 driver, whose burnt hands from the fiery Bahrain crash are now almost fully recovered.

"I posted pictures when I decided that my hands were almost presentable," the 34-year-old Frenchman told RMC.

"I had times that were not much fun and I saw parts of my anatomy that I didn't necessarily want to see. But I'm recovering well," the former Haas driver said.

"It's still painful and I will keep some scars, but honestly I'm not going to complain. Actually, if I had sat in flames for 28 seconds and didn't have a single scar, I would have been disappointed," Grosjean laughed.

As for the Indycar link, he insisted: "It's still too early to say, but what is certain is that I feel ready to start racing again.

"I am tempted by many projects - Le Mans, what's going on in the United States, the Paris-Dakar," Grosjean added.
A drug dealer's request to be placed on probation instead of being sent to prison was rejected Tuesday in Cayuga County Court.

Charles Leavens, 31, was sentenced by Judge Mark Fandrich for fourth-degree sale of a controlled substance, a class F felony. The proceeding was partially held remotely, but Leavens and his attorney, John Price, were in court for the sentencing.

Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann said Leavens previously appeared in court Sept. 15 and pleaded guilty to the sale charge in satisfaction of three other charges  another sale charge and two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child  but sentencing had been adjourned.

Budelmann also noted that Leavens was previously convicted of selling drugs illegally. Budelmann said Tuesday that Leavens said in his presentence investigation report that he was selling to help his children, but Budelmann said it was determined one of his children was present during the sales.

"Judge, this defendant was selling prescription drugs given out to try to help people who are addicted to drugs get over their addiction," Budelmann said. "The defendant's sale of them indicates either he didn't need as much as he was getting or didn't need it at all."
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I liked to just run around in Tomb Raider 2 doing random stuff like locking the butler in the freezer, I don't even remember if the game had any plot lmao

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i spent a lot of my childhood doing shit like this



and running from the t-rex in the first tomb raider, and those flying mummy's with the fireballs almost made me sh*t myself as a kid haha

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Even though Lara Croft was basically created to look like the most reductive of all male fantasies, I grew up playing these games and they're a huge part of my childhood.

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I love the Angelina movies idc. They're fun and she was without a doubt part of my awakening~ lol



I tried playing one of the new ones and there's a part with some wolves. Can't get past it and stopped playing. It's so hard 

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The scene with the sexy hair flip in the shower remains one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen.



But the films were fun, I even enjoyed Alicia's version.

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Crazy timing bc I downloaded Shadow of Tomb Raider for free the other day! It was a bit tough since I got stuck after jumping from those hanging bells 

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Me too! I almost forgot it was one of the free January games on PS, but remembered, and snagged a download a couple days ago. The new Tomb Raiders are actually pretty fun

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Me too, I used to play Tomb Raider as a kid and thought it was extra difficult. Shadow is fun and very Uncharted-y, but I had to set the puzzles as easy cause I was stuck in one of those tombs lmao

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I remember playing one of the Tomb Raider games when I was a kid. Every time I was at the mansion and playing through her training obstacle I had the hardest time trying to go over the pool and every time I always drowned and the butler would just stood there and did nothing to help.

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Lol this just gave me flashbacks, fuck that pool

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I fucking LOVE Tomb Raider

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I had a blast playing this game as a kid.

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Tomb Raider 3, no contest. I have so many fond memories of playing this game with my dad, he would print out the walk-through and I would read it to him while he played, we had such a blast. Also exploring the mansion and locking the butler in the freezer was so fun.

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I only ever played the new game and it was awesome! I kinda wish they were a bit longer? But otherwise super fun.

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I love those stupid Angelina movies lol Just the right amount of "bad" for me



I remember playing TR 3 and constantly getting mauled by tigers lol I have Underworld and also the first of the new reboot but I don't know why I thought I would enjoy them cause I hate constantly dying so ????

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It's crazy how much Angelina Jolie's life changed after doing Tomb Raider.

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I feel like I have, oddly enough, said this a lot on ONTD, but Gerard Butler was so. damn. hot in the Tomb Raider 2 movie. Just...damn.

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I loved these games but ngl, I mostly just watched my brother do the actual story gameplay and stuck to playing in Lara's Mansion when I played it.



We came up with a game for the mansion training level: we would have the butler follow us to a certain point in the house, then run outside into the maze, stop, and wait until we could hear him and his little tinkling tray and creepy groans. Then you had to run around the maze and hope you didn't bump into him. Made for good jump scares.

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Lara's mansion was so underrated with the mazes and obstacle courses and secret rooms. I love that we all collectively would lock that butler in the freezer lol

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I never really got very far in the only game I had. Too busy locking the butler in the freezer



I remember forcing myself to like the Tomb Raider movie (I saw it twice in theaters for some reason) and getting offended when other kids in my class dunked on it for being boring when they weren't really wrong, lol.I never really got very far in the only game I had. Too busy locking the butler in the freezer

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This seems like a rite of passage everyone who played this game did. Like when you played the early Sims, built a pool and watched your Sims drown.

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A Taiwanese Air Force F-16, in foreground, shadows a Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) H-6 bomber as it passes near Taiwan on Feb. 10, 2020. (Republic of China (ROC) Ministry of National Defense via AP)

Bidens Smarter Approach to China Collides With Reality of Chinese Aggression

Commentary

In a Nov. 16, 2020, article for The New York Times, Ana Swanson used numerous interviews with unidentified sources who are advising President Joe Biden to sum up his smarter approach to China:

He [Biden] and his advisers view many of Mr. Trumps measures, which were aimed at severing ties between the Chinese and American economies, as clumsy, costly and unstrategic. They say they want to take a smarter approach that combines working with the Chinese on some issues like global warming and the pandemic, while competing with them on technological leadership and confronting them on other issues like military expansionism 

More specifically, some Democratic Asia experts have called out former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for lifting on Jan. 15 the U.S. State Departments onerous Contact Guidelines, which for decades stigmatized officials from democratic Taiwan, as just the kind of clumsy, even dangerous, provoking of China they believe Biden will avoid. For example, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) China expert Bonnie Glaser was cited in a Jan. 24 Foreign Policy web magazine article saying:

My guess is the Biden administration just decides to go back to the practice of being less public. And that is because there is no perceived need to use Taiwan as a weapon against Chinathats harmful to Taiwans interests.  I think that using Taiwan as a card or weapon to poke Beijing in the eye  that practice will disappear.

However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictatorship has wasted no time demonstrating to the Biden administration that its quite willing to use its expanding military power to turn Taiwan into a weapon against U.S. interests. Furthermore, by doing so, it wont allow Biden to compartmentalize economic, or even COVID-19-related issues separately from the CCPs most important goal of conquering democratic Taiwan, en route to achieving global hegemony.

Starting three days after Biden took office, over the two days of Jan. 23 and 24, the CCPs Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) sent 29 bomber, fighter, and surveillance aircraft into the Taiwan Strait, violating Taiwans southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

On Jan. 23, the PLAAF dispatched eight H-6K bombers into the Taiwan Strait, while the two-day total for fighter aircraft was 16: six J-10s, eight twin-seat J-16s, and two Su-30MKKs. In addition, five surveillance aircraft were deployed over the two days, including three Y-8Q anti-submarine warfare (ASW), one Y-8 electronic surveillance, and one KJ500 airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft.

A group of Taiwan Air Force technicians run behind a U.S.-made F-16V fighter jet during an exercise at a military base in Chiayi, Taiwan, on Jan. 15, 2020. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

These deployments are part of a nearly two-month intensified PLA political warfare/military intimidation campaign of almost daily PLAAF aerial incursions into the Taiwan ADIZ.

Its likely that for Jan. 23 and 24, the PLAAF was deploying smaller formations that would be part of a larger aerial blockade campaign. The eight H-6K bombers could carry at least 32 YJ-12 400-kilometer (about 249 miles) range air-launched supersonic anti-ship missiles. Sink one ship or shoot down one civilian airliner, and increases in insurance premium would quickly shut down civilian sea and air transport to Taiwan. Large air battles would ensue between PLAAF and Taiwan Air Force aircraft. There is a great chance that U.S. Navy or Air Force combat aircraft would join such battles.

In the decades that followed the diplomatic de-recognition of Taiwan in 1979, Democratic and Republican administrations have been careful to convey to Beijing on multiple levels that a Chinese attack against Taiwan could result in direct U.S. military support for the island democracy, an implication also stated in the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

In March 1995, the Clinton administration signaled its willingness to support Taiwan when it sent two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers in response to Chinese military exercises intended to intimidate Taiwanese voters on the eve of elections. American military naval and air signaling has become more intense over the past five years as the Chinese regime has embarked on a campaign of increasing military intimidation of the island.

To its credit, on Jan. 23, the Biden administration allowed the U.S. Navy to send the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and an escorting destroyer into the Taiwan Strait region, between Taiwan and the Philippines, close to the area where the PLAAF is flying most of its recent sorties to intimidate Taiwan.

Then, it was disclosed by the Financial Times on Jan. 29 that the H-6 bomber sorties on Jan. 23 were for a simulated attack on the aircraft carrier. While the F/A-18E/F fighters on the carrier could take out the Chinese bombers and fighters if needed. But the reality is that the PLAN could have overwhelmed the carriers defenses with simultaneous attacks by air and ground-launched YJ-12s, ground-launched DF-21D and DF-26B anti-ship ballistic missiles, and then ship and submarine-launched YJ-12 anti-ship missiles.

Also, on Jan. 23, the U.S. State Department called on China to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwans democratically elected representatives.

It further noted: We will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability. Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region.

In fact, its fair to say that there has been a low-boil U.S.-China war on the Taiwan Strait for most of this decade, with ever-increasing PLA weapons upgrades, exercises, and now, military constriction-intimidation of Taiwan, receiving U.S. responses in the form of increasing deployments of surveillance aircraft, bombers, and naval formations into the region around Taiwan and into the South China Sea. Its now a daily feature of the Western Pacific, but you will just not see it covered on CNN.

Its the Chinese regime, however, that has increased the boil since its late 2015 PLA reorganization that intended to facilitate surprise military operations. Its concentration on new more effective Joint Force strategies and operations, which have been validated with increased exercises, is also designed to pressure the self-ruled Taiwan into surrendering its freedom to the CCP. Should CCP leader-for-life Xi Jinping in the next year to five years decide that the PLA can win a war over Taiwan, that its when it might start.

So, when U.S. forces in Asia are in a constant state of high alert, when the balance of power on the Taiwan Strait is dynamic and could quickly become dangerous, is that the time to make U.S. support for Taiwan less public? Should Xi actually come to believe he can win a Taiwan war, might his perception of diminished U.S. support for Taiwan assist his final decision to start a war?

The Chinese regimes potential to kill millions in Taiwan in the course of an invasion surely overwhelms any consideration of embarrassment, or reluctance to poke Beijing in the eye. It would be much preferred to prevent war on the Taiwan Strait by building on the Trump administrations record of increased military arms sales and public political support for Taiwan.

There should be consideration of selling Taiwan new SM-6 anti-aircraft missile which, when fired ballistically with airborne sensor support, could intercept PLAAF aircraft to nearly 1,000 kilometers (about 621 miles). Washington should also consider Lend-Lease style payment arrangements to build a weapons and spare parts stockpile on Taiwan to better sustain defense operations through a PLA blockade.

It would be better to exploit the end of the Contact Guidelines for Taiwan by establishing a vigorous virtual training regime between the U.S. and Taiwan military forces. This should be backed by appropriate but constant contact between military leaders and planners.

Rick Fisher is a senior fellow with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

The project is now positioned with the environmental approvals to develop and 100% of its forecast output is now under binding take-or-pay agreements.

Flora, fauna and water management plans proposed by the company were all accepted by the EPA

( ) has received a Ministerial Statement from the Minister for Environment, the Honourable Stephen Dawson, which has conveyed that a proposal may be implemented for the Lake Wells Sulphate of Potash (SOP) Project.

Consistent with s45(1) of the Environment Protection Act 1986, the Minister has consulted with other decision-making authorities and reached agreement that the development proposal for the LSOP may be implemented.

All decision-making authorities have been advised that they may now proceed to the issuing of the requisite, standard licenses and permits to commence development.

Significant milestone for project development

APC managing director and CEO Matt Shackleton said: We are very pleased to announce the achievement of another significant milestone in the development of the Lake Wells SOP Project.

Receiving this full environmental approval allows us to now secure the operating licenses and permits to develop the Project and proceed to development on making a final investment decision.

Conditions agreed with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and contained in the Statement allow APC to develop an environmentally sustainable Project with effectively no impact on social surrounds.

Flora, fauna and water management plans proposed by the company were all accepted by the EPA.

Offtake finalised

In November 2020, a binding 10-year take-or-pay term sheet was signed with HELM AG (HELM) for 20,000 tonnes per annum of K-Brite sulphate of potash from Lake Wells for distribution into the US.

Pricing is based on a Net Realised Price basis, incentivising HELM to achieve the highest sales price in the market jurisdictions covered by the agreement.

All of the companys DFS projected output of 150,000 tonnes per annum is now under offtake. During the FEED program, opportunities have been considered to optimise the SOP output profile, with the company continuing to aim for 100% of output under offtake agreement.

The companys existing marketing program

Financing nears completion

Shackleton said: The LSOP is now positioned with environmental approval to develop, and 100% of forecast output under binding take-or-pay agreements.

Due diligence by lenders, including the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, Export Finance Australia and commercial lenders are either complete or nearing completion.

We expect to update shareholders on the financing program over the balance of the quarter.
Rival Syrian Kurdish parties are expected to resume US-backed unity talks this week, but prospects of a deal seem more elusive than ever despite initial progress, sources with knowledge of the negotiations say.

Mazlum Kobane, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who together with the State Department is moderating the talks, urged the sides to come together in a Jan. 31 tweet. Kobane said, Our goal is the success of the dialogue. The agreements we reached are important and protect our peoples interests. It is everyones duty to prepare for the new stage of unity."

The talks between the Democratic Unity Party (PYD), which shares power in the Syrian Kurds autonomous administration, and opposition parties assembled under the umbrella of the Kurdish National Council (KNC), some with links to Turkey, have been frozen since October.

There are multiple explanations for the pause amid persistent rumors that they had collapsed altogether. Some say its because the US diplomat who moderated the talks left northeast Syria and that ambassador Jim Jeffrey, the former Syria envoy under the Donald Trump administration, and his deputy William Roebuck both retired. Now that Roebucks replacement David Brownstein is on the ground, however, the talks can restart  in theory.

The State Department said it remains committed to promoting intra-Kurdish dialogue in English, Kurdish and Arabic in a Jan. 15 tweet. But its position will grow clearer when a new Syria envoy is appointed and a new Syria policy is calibrated. NSC Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk, who helped craft the anti-Islamic State alliance with the Syrian Kurds, will likely have a biggish say.

To be sure, the change in administration in Washington and the ensuing transition of power is one reason the talks ran out of steam. However, there are far greater and potentially insuperable obstacles in the way. They raise the risk of the United States growing frustrated and eventually disinterested in a diplomatic role in the Kurdish-controlled region, given the fallout its generated with Turkey, a NATO ally.

The administration of President Joe Biden has made it clear that it will not pull out of US forces from Syria anytime soon, if only for ethical reasons. But in due course Washington may weigh the benefits and costs of its military presence in the area and determine that it's best to hand over the job of containing IS to Russia, Turkey and however unsavory, the Syrian regime, as advocated by the former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford.

Might Turkey in return give up its Russian S-400 missiles, which are the biggest source of discord between it and Washington? The Russians may not object if the result is the withdrawal of US forces from the region.

Perhaps with an eye on such potential scenarios, it was Kobane who initiated the dialogue with the KNC after Turkey invaded substantial chunks of Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria in October 2019. Kobane saw the talks as a vehicle for the Syrian Kurdish leadership to expand engagement with the United States beyond what has largely remained a strictly military alliance to combat IS and in doing so bolster its international legitimacy. This in turn would offset critics claims that Kobanes faith in the United States  Trump greenlit the Turkish assault  had proved to be baseless and that the Kurds were making all the concessions and getting battered and betrayed in return.

Dialogue with the opposition parties was also meant to ease relations with the Iraqi Kurds, who are the principal mentors of the Kurdish National Council, and to eventually melt Turkish hostility, which is one of the main reasons Washington signed on. Turkey continues to block the PYDs participation in UN-facilitated talks in Geneva between the Syrian opposition and regime representatives to model a new constitution on the same grounds that Turkish forces keep attacking Syrian Kurdish forces in the northeast: that they are all linked to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels fighting the Turkish state. The fact is that they are, and this is one of the reasons that the talks have hit a wall.

On paper, the parties have made quite a bit of progress since the negotiations formally kicked off in April 2020 and began in earnest in June. They agreed on the composition of a Shura Council that would have political decision-making power for the Kurdish-majority areas of Syria. A so-called political vision document put the PYD and the KNC, under the auspices of the United States, firmly in the anti-President Bashar al-Assad camp. This aspect of the agreement may prove problematic with the Biden administration, particularly if McGurks Obama-era thinking  that the Syrian Kurds will eventually need to cut a deal with the regime  endures and prevails.

But even before such potential wrinkles arise there is plenty to sink the talks. Chief among them is the KNCs insistence that PKK militants and other cadres within the autonomous administration and its affiliates be purged and those who are from third countries  Turkey, Iran and Iraq, in particular  leave the country. In other words, as one of the sources speaking not for attribution told Al-Monitor, The demand is that you dismantle what Turkey calls the PKK statelet. Moreover, the KNC insists that this be put in writing in any final agreement to be signed between the two sides. Kobane has refused to name any parties in the text.

From the PKKs vantage point the talks have evolved into a project targeting its very existence, with the KNC serving as a Trojan horse for Ankaras ambition to weaken and destroy the autonomous administration. The perception has been reinforced by Ankaras increasingly deadly campaign against the rebels in Iraqi Kurdistan, where the PKKs top commanders are based. The PKK insists that Ankara is acting in cahoots with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP), which controls the mountainous areas along the Turkish border where the PKK is entrenched. It also controls the Fish Khabur border crossing with northeast Syria, a critical supply hub for US forces in Syria.

To be sure, there are emerging signs that the PKK is no longer prepared to sustain the mutually agreed charade that it has no ties to the SDF and its main component, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG). Neither is on the State Departments list of terrorist organizations, whereas the PKK is, an argument Washington has wielded when arming and training the Syrian Kurds. It did not pass unnoticed that when Kobane lost his mother last month, the PKK issued a condolence message in which it referred to Kobane by the codename he used during the long years he served within the rebels ranks: Sahin Cilo.

Like it or not, even critics concede that the PKK is the most cohesive and powerful force in Syrian Kurdistan, or "Rojava," and as such best equipped to defend the Syrian Kurds against their multiple foes.

Tensions have been steadily rising between the PKK and the KDP and what began as a war of words has erupted into deadly clashes. Alarmingly for Kobane and Washington, the YPG was drawn in when KDP Peshmerga and PKK fighters exchanged fire in a Dec. 16 skirmish around Fish Khabur.

PKK sources insist that the KDP is bent on sabotaging the talks and is deploying KNC-linked Syrian Kurdish forces against them inside Iraqi Kurdistan to create further bad blood.

The KDP and the KNC deny the claims and say its the PKK that is seeking to derail the talks. They blame a recent spate of attacks against KNC offices inside northeast Syria on the PKK. The muscle flexing is meant to remind the Americans, the PYD and the KNC alike that the talks cannot proceed at their expense.

Several sources with close knowledge of the talks, however, tend to blame the KNC, saying they went far better than the KNC had ever anticipated. They got cold feet in October, when Mazlum [Kobane] offered them a package on removing [PKK] cadres [from the civilian administration], PKK posters, flags and the like and committing to a resolution on education, conscription and detainees, one of the sources noted.

The KNC also succeeded in bagging 50% representation on the proposed Shura Council even though it's far weaker than the PYD. Yet the KNC went on to demand 50% control over the autonomous administration itself, with little to offer in exchange.

They didnt actually need the PKK mentioned [in the text of the final agreement] but they needed a stalling mechanism because Turkey was getting increasingly agitated with the progress in the dialogue. There was an opportunity for a deal in October and the KNC wasnt ready, the source said. KNC officials refute this version of events, saying wrangling over whether to mention the PKK by name in a final text were on the verge of being resolved.
The Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday alleged that the vehicle of its chief Sukhbir Singh Badal was pelted with stones when party workers were attacked by Congress members in Punjabs Jalalabad. Four persons were injured in the incident at Jalalabad Tehsil complex. However, Badal was unhurt, they said.

Badal was accompanying Akali candidates for filing of nomination papers for the February 14 civic polls. His media advisor Jangveer Singh alleged that Akali workers were attacked by the Congress workers led by son of ruling party MLA Raminder Singh Awla.

Congress goons stoned SAD presidents vehicle, fired and injured two Akali workers, alleged Jangveer Singh. He claimed the police remained mute-spectator during the whole incident. SAD leader Parambans Singh Romana alleged that Congress workers also fired from their guns.

Elections to eight municipal corporations and 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab will be held on February 14.

Union Agriculture Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal condemned the incident, saying that any "act of violence was not acceptable."
An Accra Circuit Court has adjourned to February 23, the case of Lawrence Nana Asiamah Hanson, aka Bulldog, who is accused of threatening President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in a video recording.



Hanson, an artiste manager, on a United Television (UTV) programme was quoted as saying, the President will not finish his tenure and that he will run away if he failed to pay customers of Menzgold their deposits.



Charged with offensive conduct conducive to breach of peace, Hanson pleaded not guilty and is on GH70, 000.00 bail.



At Thursdays sittings, the court ordered the prosecution to serve Bulldog with disclosures to facilitate a case management conference. Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Simon Apiorsornu said on January 11, this year, the police intercepted a video recording on United Television.



He said in the video, the accused was seen and heard saying, The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will not finish his term in office and that he will run away if he failed to pay the deposits of Menzgold customers.



Prosecution said on January 12, this year, accused was handed over to the police by the National Intelligence Bureau for further investigations.



According to prosecution, during interrogation, Hanson admitted to have made such comments in the said video when same was played to him. Prosecution said Hanson further explained that during the show, an argument ensued between the guests on the programme and that he made that statement in jest and had no ill motive behind same. The prosecution said investigations were ongoing.

Source: GNA









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On Friday, a viral Twitter thread announced the unexpected rollout of Blue Check Homes  a new service allowing Bay Area residents to apply to have a Verified Badge crest (read: blue check mark) installed on the facade of their homes to essentially identify themselves as an authentic public figure in real life.

In a matter of hours, the thread garnered international attention, swiftly amassing thousands of retweets and likes, and over 40 million impressions. The reactions from the public were wide-ranging. Some were, understandably, annoyed by the concept. Others caught onto the joke rather quickly.

But Danielle Baskin, the SF-based artist behind the prank, had no idea the website she crafted to back up the fake service would receive 495 applicants, all hoping for a crest of their own.

I will say a percentage of them are not from a real person. People added, like, Kim Kardashian, and that was clearly a joke, said Baskin, who in 2019 attempted to remove a series of controversial "anti-homeless boulders" from a city sidewalk by listing them on the Craigslist free section.

But everyone else thought the website was real. I did what I thought was a mediocre Photoshop job  I thought, This is all very clickbait-y. All of the copy, I thought, was so obviously satire.

Courtesy of Danielle Baskin/@djbaskin

The idea stemmed from a simple question: Where did the plaster shields adorning some of San Franciscos Victorian homes come from?

Recently, when Baskin was out on a walk through her neighborhood, she noticed several houses had them, but she was intrigued by one design in particular  a blue shield with a diagonal purple stripe slashed through it.

Was it decorative? Or did it indicate some sort of historical significance about the house and the family that once lived there? She decided to consult the internet for answers.

I learned that in heraldry, this particular symbol is called a bend sinister and used to mean that there was an illegitimate child born there, said Baskin. I dont believe people living in San Francisco many years ago would have actually marked their homes with this, but it was more of a decorative thing; a way for wealthy people to dignify their homes.

She shared her findings on Twitter, and was struck by a response from one of her followers, Adam Scheuring.

This was the blue check before Twitter, he joked.

A light bulb went off in Baskins mind. She thought it was dumb, and hilarious  what if modern day homes actually carried on this tradition?

The artist, who is also the co-creator of voice chat app DialUp, said she had the website for Blue Check Homes up within two hours of the initial idea.

More for you Culture The best Etsy gifts to remind a Bay Area native of home

At the top of the landing page, interested applicants are prompted to submit their name, social media account and email address for review. They are then informed that they will need to wait to be considered for an interview with the board of the company, and, upon approval, all they need to do is pay a $3,000 fee in order to have one of the coveted crests installed on their home.

Scrolling down the page, the qualifications to obtain one of these crests seem to grow increasingly absurd. You must be a homeowner who is also a thought leader, for instance, or identify yourself as an athlete or member of a professional esports league who has been featured in gaming publications like Kotaku, Polygon or IGN. Are you a famous actor desiring to own one of these crests? Well, unless you have at least five production credits on your IMDB profile, too bad.

Courtesy of Danielle Baskin/@djbaskin

Personally, I wanted to know how Baskin came up with all of these made-up credentials. But to my surprise, she pointed out these are all the same qualifications the actual Twitter app requires of its users requesting verified status. And thats kind of the point of the prank.

The verification thing is meaningless, she said. The blue check does not mean youre wealthy or good at Twitter or are a notable figure, but people still have these assumptions about it. I wanted to make my whole process seem ridiculous to make fun of the verification process.

She noted the first line of text on the Blue Check Homes website, which says that the badge will prove to people outside of your home that youre an authentic public figure.

What does that even mean? she said, laughing. Of course you are. Youre alive.

Still, Baskin admits, not everyone was in on the joke, as was made apparent by the large number of applicants. Even the popular website Snopes conducted an official fact check on the company, labeling it as satire. But she noticed the thread started to take on a life its own, with people bashing San Francisco as a whole.

I think the idea hit a lot of the boxes that anger people: San Franciscos housing crisis, homeowners, blue checks, the city having dumb startups, she said. That triggered everyones assumptions about the city and it hit their version of reality that made it seem believable. I think its so fascinating that it was taken seriously. Three years ago, maybe it would have been a joke. But ideas are so wacky now, and news is so outlandish, that something like this just seems like another awful thing thats happening in our world.

Shortly after she began to investigate the origin of the crests, Baskin found herself in a conversation with her landlord, who told her that the garage she's been working out of for the past four years used to be the workshop of a plaster maker who created those crests in the 1900s and distributed them throughout the Mission, Castro and Bernal Heights neighborhoods.

Baskin said she pored over old newspaper articles and was unable to verify this claim, but because of the unique layout of the space, she believes it to be true. At any rate, it served as inspiration for the artist, who now plans to sculpt a verified badge crest for at least one of the applicants.

Of course, theyll need to go through the interview process, and Baskin plans to rope in a few of her friends to serve as mock board members and ask questions. (She doesnt, however, plan to charge $3,000 for the finished product.)

I generally enjoy the whole theatrical production of an internet joke, she said with a chuckle. I will give it to someone who appreciates the joke and is not afraid of the mobs coming.

As for everyone else? They might get a rejection letter, said Baskin, or she might go to the length of creating another satirical website for a competing company to direct them toward, complete with a misspelled name and an off-centered logo.

But regardless of the outcome of this bizarre social experiment  and an exercise in not believing everything you read  a disclaimer now exists at the bottom of the Blue Check Homes website.

If you thought this was a full-fledged service, please investigate the things you read on the internet! it reads. And if you're an artist making jokes on the internet, we should consider adding disclaimers like this, because not everyone understands your commentary and will share your jokes as fact.
DUBAI: With the live music industry shut down by the pandemic, celebrated French DJ David Guetta said it would be fair for festivals in the future to restrict entry to those vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Guetta, 53, who said he has received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, has urged fans to get vaccinated but says he understands and respects that it is a personal decision.

I think it is absolutely fair. People have the right not to get vaccinated but they cannot impose on other people the risk of making them sick," he told Reuters on Tuesday.

He also said it would be fair for cities and countries to do so too.

Globally, there have been at least 103,371,000 reported COVID-19 cases and 2,235,000 deaths caused by the disease so far.

In Guettas native France, one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe and in the world, people are among the most sceptical about vaccines, with opinion polls showing less than half the population of intends to get a COVID shot.

Known for collaborations over nearly two decades with artists such as Snoop Dogg and Kid Cudi, Guetta said he was hoping for an end to the pandemic this year, which has been terrible for our industry", and for 2022 to be the biggest party year" ever.

People have been frustrated for so long. When they are able to meet and party together, its going to be incredible."

As soon as concerts and festivals return, he said he would be on tour non-stop."

I have been missing my shows so much."

This Saturday, Guetta will stream a concert - without fans in attendance - from Dubais iconic sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel in support of UNICEF and local charity Dubai Cares as part of his United at Home" charity initiative.

Metro Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2) Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who earlier offered to step down as the government's contact tracing czar, said he will keep the post if President Rodrigo Duterte asks him to.

"Who can refuse the president? The president is just so persuasive, and I don't think anybody can simply resist the president," Magalong, who had said his resignation tendered last week was irrevocable, told CNN Philippines' Front and Center on Tuesday.

He added he would also be talking to Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, regarding the matter.

While Duterte has yet to make an official pronouncement, his spokesperson Harry Roque said the chief executive would surely want Magalong to stay put.

"I have heard with my own two ears, nothing but words of praises for Mayor Magalong from the President," Roque said in his media briefing in the same day. "I am sure, 100% sure that the President would want Mayor Magalong to stay on as contact tracing czar."

Fellow czars express support for Magalong

Galvez and testing czar Vince Dizon meanwhile both expressed hope their colleague in the COVID-19 response will continue with the job, citing Magalong's "invaluable" work.

During the Laging Handa briefing on Tuesday, Galvez said a possible replacement for Magalong will have big shoes to fill.

"Wala siyang katulad," Galvez said. "Nakikita namin ang paghihirap niya bilang contact tracing czar. Nakita namin mahihirapan kung sino man ang ide-designate po namin."

[Translation: He is incomparable. We saw how he worked hard as Contact Tracing czar. We think whoever will be designated to the post will have a hard time.]

Dizon, in an interview with CNN Philippines' The Source, also urged Magalong to reconsider the resignation, especially with the country nearing the "end of the tunnel" in this pandemic.

"Actually malapit na tayo sa dulo. Nakikita na natin 'yung proverbial light at the end of the tunnel ika nga (We are nearing the finish line. We are already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, as they say)," Dizon said separately.

In his resignation letter, Magalong cited a recent event where "several lapses in protocol were committed." He said he should have done an "immediate spot correction" of the violations he saw, and noted that he was committed to hold himself accountable following the issue.

The mayor made headlines after photos of him attending events organizer Tim Yap's birthday party in a Baguio City hotel circulated online. Parts of the celebration caught on camera showed Yap and other personalities, including Magalong's wife, not wearing face masks and face shields.

RELATED: Groups condemn 'small fine' imposed on Tim Yap and company from Baguio party

Cybersecurity

Does Einstein need a post-SolarWinds makeover?

On day one of Alejandro Mayorkas' tenure as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, if he's confirmed as expected, he'll be under pressure from Congress to deliver answers about why the federal government's cybersecurity measures failed to detect or defend against the SolarWinds Orion hack.

Mayorkas promised at his confirmation hearing to review the agency's high profile cybersecurity programs, including the network protection program Einstein that's a key component of the National Cybersecurity Protection System.

Lawmakers, prior to the discovery of the breach in December, were already signaling for changes to those programs. In recent spending legislation, Congress suggested DHS consider layering other capabilities into Einstein, which is run by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at DHS.

Einstein observes traffic flowing in and out of federal networks, allowing the government to target threats using a database of known malware. It's unlikely Einstein ever could have detected the malware implanted into SolarWinds Orion, analysts told FCW. But replacing the system wholesale to address the problem of unknown or zero-day threats would be far too costly. The most viable path forward, these cybersecurity experts said, would be to install new capabilities, necessarily bolstered by private industry.

Kiersten Todt, formerly executive director of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity was blunt about Einstein's record. "There are no real strong success stories of Einstein," she said. "When you look at what happened with SolarWinds, they essentially outsmarted Einstein."

Philip Reitinger, president and CEO of the Global Cyber Alliance, said, "The challenge with detecting activity like the SolarWinds hack is that the hack is accomplished through 'authorized' malware."

To detect that malware, a defensive system would either have to deny all communications that are not explicitly whitelisted or establish a user activity baseline capable of singling out abnormalities for investigators to pursue. "That can be difficult to do and resource intensive," he added.

Michael Hamilton, a former vice chair for a government coordinating council focused on critical infrastructure protection, described a similar method as the most likely way forward for DHS to improve Einstein. Although its precise capabilities are classified, Hamilton speculated the program's age -- Einstein was originally developed in 2003 -- is a sign it may not be baselining user activity in the way he and Reitinger described.

Hamilton said that "it's not likely they throw it out and start over," noting the program's cost. "My understanding is that it cost $6 billion to develop."

A CISA official declined to comment specifically on the program's methods when asked about the analysts' suggestion.

"Einstein intrusion detection and prevention capabilities primarily rely on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) intrusion-detection capabilities, which utilize CISA's access to cyber threat intelligence to detect, and block where appropriate, suspected malicious cyber activity," the official said.

Whatever new capability or program DHS establishes, Todt said it must be predicated on industry playing a larger role than it does with Einstein.

"Government cannot do this by itself nor should it," she said. "I think Einstein was predicated on government doing it by itself."

Mike McNerney, co-founder and chair of the Institute for Security and Technology, said another fundamental challenge Einstein faces is the government's ongoing transition to the cloud.

"While it [Einstein] may continue to be a part of the government's security approach, there are other products and technologies better suited for the cloud," he said. "Combined with greater access control initiatives, the more networked-based Einstein is arguably less useful."

In addition to any review Mayorkas begins, the White House has also started accounting for the damage done in the wake of SolarWinds Orion. Within days of being sworn in, Biden ordered the new director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, to provide a sweeping intelligence review of the hack.

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H), a member of the Senate committee responsible for overseeing DHS, said Biden must "engage in a top-to-bottom review of how this was able to happen and go undetected for so long, and what needs to be done to strengthen the federal government's cybersecurity."
Wrexhams local vaccination centre now operating six days a week  with those over 75 being contacted from this week

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 2nd, 2021

Wrexhams Local Vaccination Centre (LVC) will now operate six days a week as the Covid-19 vaccine rollout gathers pace.

The facility, based at the Catrin Finch Centre on the Wrexham Glyndwr University campus, opened on Tuesday 26 January.

Initially open for three days a week, over 300 people were vaccinated last Thursday at the LVC.

However, with supplies becoming more readily available, the workforce will increase and the centre will now be open for six days.





The centre, which is currently administering the Pfizer vaccine, is complementing the work being done by every GP surgery in the town who are continuing to contact and vaccinate patients who fall within the top 4 priority groups.

So far 32,990 over 80s across the region have been vaccinated, along with over 4,000 care home residents, 8,755 care home workers and 20,414 healthcare workers.

From this week focus is shifting more towards the 75-79 cohort. Many from the 70-74 cohort will be undertaken at the Catrin Finch Centre.

Wrexhams MS Lesley Griffiths visited the LVC last week with Mark Polin, Chair of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

Lesley Griffiths MS said: It was a pleasure to visit North Wales first Local Vaccination Centre at Glyndwr University and I thank Betsi Cadwaladr for arranging the visit at short notice.

The Centre was busy, with a steady flow of people attending throughout the time I was there.

It is important to stress people will be invited to the Local Vaccination Centre and no one should just turn up unannounced.

I understand those waiting to hear about their vaccination will be anxious but the message from the Health Board is clear. If you are in the top 4 priority groups, you will be invited for vaccination by mid-February.

The rollout is a monumental task and I am extremely grateful to all the NHS staff working incredibly hard to deliver the programme as swiftly and safely as possible.

Vaccinations are by appointment only, with invitations to attend being sent using a range of mechanisms.

Appointments at the Vaccination Centres are posted out  with GP surgeries generally using telephone calls and text message to their patients.

The North Wales Health Board has built up capacity to deliver more vaccine and the Welsh Government has made it clear if it receives more vaccine from the UK Government, it has the capability to deliver more to the population.
The Ministry of Commerce, through its local office in Nimba is warning scratch cards dealers in the county against what he terms as 'profiteering.'

Profiteering is the process whereby an individual makes unreasonable profit not justified by the corresponding assumption of risk, or by doing so unethically.

Speaking to The New Republic Newspaper's Nimba correspondent on Thursday, 28 January, the senior Commerce Inspector, Mr. Alphonso K.S. Miamen, said it is unfortunate that Liberians who are doing business will be so 'unethical.'

He has vowed to descend on those involved in activity of such through punitive actions.

Mr. Miamen made specific reference to scratch cards dealers who he said are maximizing profits at the detriment of ordinary Liberians in Nimba County.

"It has come to our attention that the exchange rate in the country, the highest is LRD170; so now we are seeing them selling scratch cards to people publicly at the rate of LRD200." The Commerce Inspector noted.

According to him, hike in prices of basic commodities across Liberia is not only unique to the country's staple food, rice but it also goes down to scratch cards, which he says should not be so.

He disclosed that this time around the Ministry of Commerce inspection will not only be limited to commodities such as petroleum and rice, but scratch cards dealers will also be captured for inspection.

He asserted: "it is not only rice price that we will be embarking on; it is not only gas price."

Inspector Miamen wants those involved with unnecessary increase of scratch cards prices to desist or risk their wrath.

The senior Commerce officer further indicated that he and his team of inspectors are prepared to go after anyone who is unauthorized and unethically increases the price of GSM scratch cards in the county.

He likened the behavior of scratch cards dealers throughout Liberia, with specific emphasis on Nimba where he controls as an act of 'corruption.'

Due to the prevailing economic situation the country currently faces, which was created by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Miamen said he expects that scratch cards be sold for nothing more than LRD180.

"If people are changing for LRD170, and you sell one scratch card for at least LRD180, to look for LRD10 profit, it would be much better than selling LRD200 looking for LRD30 profit in people it will not be good," he stressed.

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This means that those making scratch cards business in the county have up to Friday, January 29 to properly adjust themselves as violator's goods will be confiscated, and further charged for profiteering at the detriment of citizens in accordance with law.

According to him, the arbitrary increase in the price of GSM recharge cards has the proclivity to cause the death of an individual.

"Why if somebody is struggling that supposed to call his/her mother or father for certain things that happened and the person only have LRD185 for scratch card and you selling LRD200; at the particular minute the person is supposed to donate blood and within that period the balance LRD15 is not available, then the person dies," he added.

Mr. Miamen seized the opportunity to announce about their upcoming quarterly inspections that will shortly commence in February.

He revealed that the inspections will allow them weed out unwholesome goods being sold on the Liberian market.

The Commerce Ministry local office in the county has been faced with series of challenges, but Miamen said he's happy that there has been some progress made since he took over.

He succeeded the current Superintendent, Nelson Korquoi.

In spite of the constraints which he says they are gradually overcoming, Mr.Miamen assured Nimbaians that they will be rigorous in their operations this year.

He spoke on the campus of the Liberia International Christian College (LICC) when he had gone to identify with his religious institutions, United Liberia Inland Church.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 01:53:23|Editor: huaxia

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VILNIUS, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania has joined the Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund after completing all the necessary procedures, with an aim to increase funding opportunities for national infrastructure projects, said a foreign ministry press release on Monday.

The Three Seas Initiative, also known as the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Sea Initiative, is a forum of 12 states in the European Union, which are located in Central and Eastern Europe. The first Three Seas Initiative summit was held in Croatia in 2016.

"The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences have highlighted the growing importance of regional cooperation, well-developed infrastructure, and its interconnections," said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis in the release.

"Therefore, it is very important to deepen political and economic cooperation among the 3SI (The Three Seas Initiative) countries, enabling the format to contribute to the economic recovery of the region and the EU after the COVID-19 outbreak."

The Fund's main objective is said to invest in transport, energy and digital infrastructure in the Three Seas countries and to offset the regional development differences in the European Union. Enditem
The three-day snowstorm that began on Sunday is at the moment the second worst on record in the Lehigh Valley in figures that date to the early 20th century.

At 1 p.m. Tuesday, the National Weather Service reported 27.3 inches at Lehigh Valley International Airport, besting the 26-inch snowfall from the Jan. 7-8, 1996, blizzard, which had been ranked No. 2 in recent years after a 20-year run at No. 1.

The Jan. 22-23, 2016, storm still holds the top spot at 31.9 inches.

WeatherWorks meteorologist Michael Priante said about 4:30 Tuesday morning that the record is probably safe. There was likely only an inch or so of snow since midnight, with only 1 to 2 more inches expected as light to moderate snow falls throughout the day.

The blocking forces from high pressure to the north that limited a low pressure area from moving in that direction or out to sea were still in place Tuesday morning and the low was 100 to 150 miles off the New Jersey coast before dawn, Priante said.

Its not really gaining momentum, he said. It was flattening and weakening as the Lehigh Valley and northwest New Jersey are pretty close to the end of accumulating snow, he said.

Well we are going to be closed awhile! Posted by Hampton Lanes on Tuesday, February 2, 2021

There are still some pockets of moderate snow hanging around, he said as the low still has a lot of energy.

The shoveling task ahead is being made a little tougher as temperatures approach freezing and the snow gets wetter. Its a normal, snowball-making mix, he said.

Its not 25 inches of light fluff, he said.

There was a partial roof collapse overnight at Hampton Lanes, 326 Main St. in Northampton, a Northampton County emergency dispatch shift supervisor said.

The business said on its Facebook page, Well we are going to be closed awhile!

But, overall, the supervisor said, while many roads are inaccessible, people were pretty much staying home. ... Wee thankful for that.

A trooper at the Perryville barracks off Interstate 78 in Hunterdon County said the highway was wet and a bit slick as temperatures flirt with freezing. Drivers stayed away, for the most part, overnight, he said. But a new rush hour has arrived.

I hope more people stay off the roads than yesterday, he said, adding that Monday was pretty busy.

Many area highways remained snow covered, according to traffic cameras.

No matter if people stay home or venture out, winter isnt over.

Thursday might be the pick of the week, Priante said when asked to look forward in search of a break, but more snow as well.

While he expects melting to start to get underway by Wednesday and pick up with a sunny Thursday with its high expected to hit 40, unsettled weather returns on Friday and then theres Sunday into Monday. Again.

Theres no certainty yet about the late weekend forecast, but there are two disconnected pieces of weather energy -- one near the Great Lakes and the other in the Gulf of Mexico, he said.

Theres some guidance indicating it could be a decent storm, he said. Others show that its a disconnect without much impact. There are a lot of solutions for this storm -- both a miss and a hit.

There are just too many things that could impact the two pieces of energy, he said. One could get stronger, the other weaker. The jet stream could play a role.

But its way too early.

They have to interact in the right way for us to get a decent storm, he said.

Priante can say there is definitely a stormy pattern over the next week, but it likely wont be until Friday that forecasts have any really confidence as to whats expected Sunday into Monday.

A snowman checks in Feb. 2, 2021, at about 10 feet tall at Seventh and Hamilton streets in Allentown.Mike Nester | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

At this point, the 40.9 inches this season is well above the full winter average of about 32 inches and soars over the average by this the date of 16.7 inches, but still far away from the 1993-94 annual record of 75.2 inches.

But its only Feb. 2.

For now we can hope for some help from the sun over the next few days before we get back to worrying.

The melting will be gradual, because we have a lot of snow to melt Priante said. But there definitely will be melting.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting lehighvalleylive.com with a subscription.

Tony Rhodin can be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com.
Sonora, CA  The Tuolumne Utilities District (TUD) Board of Directors is hosting a virtual information meeting to update local board members and agencies about the proposed purchase of water infrastructure and water rights contracts.

As reported here in March last year, TUD and PG&E announced they were in exclusive negotiations about the potential transfer of the Phoenix Hydroelectric Project. The proposed agreement includes the Phoenix Powerhouse, the Main Tuolumne Canal, the pre and post 1914 water rights, the Lyons Dam and Reservoir, Strawberry Dam and Pinecrest Reservoir. TUD is also working with the US Bureau of Reclamation regarding New Melones Reservoir water to acquire water rights. To limit the spread of COVID-19 meetings were delayed last April.

The public is welcome to attend this virtual information meeting. TUD extended the invitation to attend to the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors, the Sonora City Council, the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians and the Chicken Ranch Rancheria Band of Me-Wuk Indians of California.

The Phoenix Project dates back to the Gold Rush and is located on the South Fork of the Stanislaus River. It provides the majority of TUDs water supply via the Main Tuolumne Canal, which was built in 1851 to support mining and irrigation needs. It generates 2 megawatts with water storage and supply rights that are pre-1914 water rights, the oldest water rights in California. Lyons Dam was built in 1929. Strawberry Dam was built in 1916, creating Pinecrest Lake. The Phoenix Powerhouse was constructed in 1898 and later rebuilt in 1940. PG&E says the Phoenix Project is not a cost-effective source of electric generation and calls TUD the natural owner of the powerhouse, water storage, and conveyance systems. TUD would become responsible for the future costs to operate and maintain the facilities. Under the proposal, PG&E would continue to own and operate other features of its Spring Gap-Stanislaus Project and would utilize water from Pinecrest to generate water at its Spring Gap Powerhouse.

The transfer is anticipated to take several years to complete and ultimately would require approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, California Public Utilities Commission and the TUD Board of Directors.

Residents are encouraged to visit tuocoourwater.com, a website developed to provide updates on the potential acquisition, and detail the history of water in Tuolumne County.

The meeting will be held online on February 18, 2021 at 10 AM. Instructions for logging into the Zoom meeting will be posted here.

The Human Resources/External Relations Committee TUD meeting will be held via Zoom this Thursday, February 4, 2021 at 1:30 p.m.
Former Birmingham Mayor William Bell said this morning in an interview that he plans to run for mayor again, four years after losing the office to current Mayor Randall Woodfin.

Im running, Bell said. Im trying not to get ahead of myself.

Bell said he plans a formal event and announcement for Feb. 26.

He said he has filed paperwork with the Jefferson County Probate Office and the Alabama Secretary of State as he works out the plan for his campaign.

Im in the exploratory phase right now, Bell said.

Bell said hed be more forthcoming at his formal announcement next month.

I want to really save all my ammunition for that, Bell said.

Bell served as mayor of Birmingham from 2010 to 2017. Before that, he was on the City Council and was appointed as interim mayor in 1999 to succeed Mayor Richard Arrington, but he lost the 1999 mayors race to Bernard Kincaid, who served two terms as mayor before losing to Larry Langford in 2007. Bell won a special election after the 2009 conviction of Langford on federal bribery and conspiracy charges. Bell filled out Langfords term. He was last elected mayor in 2013.

In 2017, Woodfin defeated Bell in a runoff, 59 percent to 41 percent.

Bell is the fourth candidate to announce a 2021 campaign for mayor.

Woodfin plans to run for re-election.

Chris Woods, who finished third behind Woodfin and Bell in 2017, plans to run.

Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales also announced shes running for mayor.

The filing deadline for candidates to run for mayor is July 10. The election is Aug. 24, with a runoff on Oct. 5 if needed.
After several speculations about the leading lady of Salaar, talented actress Shruti Haasan's inclusion was recently confirmed by the team. The lead actor Prabhas and director of the film Prashanth Neel welcomed the versatile diva on board on the occasion of her 35th birthday (January 28, 2021).

Now, Shruti has joined the sets of the film and has reportedly started shooting along with the Rebel Star. Notably, a few pictures of Prabhas had also made it to the headlines recently.

Well, during her interaction with Times of India, the Krack actress opened up about starting 2021 with a bang and bagging the highly envied role in Salaar. She was quoted by the daily as saying, "2021 is a very jam packed year for me already and my plan is to work hard and be as creative as I can be in all endeavours. I can't say much about my role in Salaar, but it's unique in comparison to what I've done before and I'm excited to play the character the director has etched out."

Sharing her joy of sharing screen space with the Baahubali actor, Shruti said, "I'm really glad to be working with Prabhas as I haven't before! He's really warm and dedicated person and it's a lot of good energy." Well, countless fans and followers of the actress are now super excited and are eagerly waiting for the release of the film.

Salaar, touted to be an out and out action thriller, is backed by KGF producer Vijay Kiragandur under his production banner Hombale Films.

On a related note, Shruti has a slew of interesting projects in her kitty including Telugu anthology film Pitta Kathalu, Power Star Pawan Kalyan's Vakeel Saab and Tamil film Laabam starring Vijay Sethupathi. Notably, Shruti was last seen in Gopichand Malineni's Krack that also starred Mass Maharaja Ravi Teja in the lead role.

Also Read: Salaar: Shruti Haasan To Star Opposite Prabhas In The Prashanth Neel Directorial!

Also Read: Salaar: John Abraham To Lock Horns With Prabhas In Prashanth Neel's Film?
The condemns the recent vandalism of a statue in California's Davis, said Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday (local time).

"We would certainly have concerns about the desecration of monuments of (Mahatma) Gandhi. We would condemn the desecration and watch it closely," Psaki said during a briefing on Monday.

Earlier this week, a statue of in Central Park of California's Davis city was vandalised and desecrated by unknown miscreants.

In a statement by Deputy Chief Paul Doroshov of the Davis Police Department, the statue, broken off at the ankles and the top half of its head broken off, was found by a park worker around 9 am (local time) on Wednesday.

In protest against the vandalism of a statue in California's Davis, Indian Americans on Sunday held a vigil and demanded reinstallation of the statue.

On Sunday afternoon, the vigil was also met with protests and outrage from some, who accused Gandhi of genocide, racism, and molestation.

"Pro-Khalistan radical groups from neighbouring towns outside of Davis tried to intimidate the attendees in an attempt to stop the event and tried to assault a lady speaker at the event," Bhaskar Vempati, President of the Indian Association of Sacramento, one of the cohosts of the event told ANI.

The Consulate General of India in San Francisco has separately taken up the matter with the City of Davis and local law enforcement authorities.

The 6-foot-3, 650-pound bronze Gandhi Statue of Peace has stood in the park since 2016. It was a gift from the Government of India.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Natural News) Residents of Colorados Weld County have launched an effort to re-assign it as a part of Wyoming. According to an advocate of the secession, Weld Countys jurisdiction will be moved to the state located above Colorado. He explained that this would involve re-drawing state lines to exclude the county from Colorado and include it within Wyomings borders. The countys proposal to secede arose from the states opposition to three major economic drivers  small businesses, agriculture and oil and gas.

Denver television station KDVR-TV reported that political committee Weld County Wyoming has pushed for the countys secession from Colorado. A campaign finance disclosure website indicated that Christopher Todd Richards registered the political committee in February 2020. The political committee aimed to put the matter of Weld Countys secession on the ballot. It would subsequently instruct  county commissioners to engage and explore the [countys] annexation with the state of Wyomings legislature.

Richards said during a November 2020 meeting that he got the idea to secede back in 2019, after reading an op-ed piece in The Denver Post. He subsequently pursued the idea by means of a Facebook page.

In the meeting, which was posted on YouTube, Richards said: Were going to move [the] county to a different state. Were not really moving. Were just moving a line.

This would involve re-drawing state lines to exclude Weld County from Colorado borders, he explained. The county with a population of more than 324,000 would then be included as a part of Wyoming  just above its former state. He remarked: Can this be done? Yes, it can be done. Is it going to be easy? No.

A pastor who joined the November 2020 meeting explained why Weld County ought to secede from Colorado and join Wyoming. We live in a state [that] is no longer a minister to us for good. The state of Colorado is at war with three major economic drivers for Weld County: small businesses, agriculture and oil and gas.

Weld Countys decision to break away faces some opposition

Not everyone agrees with the move to secede from Colorado. A number of officials expressed their opposition to Weld County breaking away and joining its northern neighbor.

Greeley City Council Member Tommy Butler told KDVR-TV that he absolutely loved living in the state. He continued: For those that dont love living here, there are certainly less ridiculous ways of moving to Wyoming.

Mayor Jennifer Carroll of Erie, Colorado said in a statement that she respected the process of putting the secession question to a vote. But she noted that if Weld County residents do wish to join Wyoming, a lot of considerations would have to be kept in mind  such as different kinds of taxes and water rights. Carroll nevertheless promised to help residents discover the risks and benefits of such a measure in her capacity as mayor.

Wyomings current population is about 579,000 individuals. If in case Weld County did join Wyoming, the states population would increase by more than half.

Weld County also led an earlier move to break away from Colorado. The Longmont Daily Times-Call reported back in June 2013 that the countys commissioners aimed to form a new state with 10 other counties in the states north. At least six counties  including Yuma, Morgan, Kit Carson, Sedgwick, Phillips and Washington  had expressed their interest to be part of the proposed North Colorado state. Weve had counties in Kansas and Nebraska say theyre interested too. This could become a multi-state initiative, then County Commissioner Doug Rademacher said at that time.

Rademacher and other county commissioners claimed the Colorado state legislature had repeatedly ignored the northeastern portion. This left the counties with three choices: Keep working in a system that ignored them, join a neighboring state or have northeastern Colorado forge its own path. However, the effort failed after it passed in only five of 11 Colorado counties where it appeared on the ballot.

Just like Weld County breaking away from Colorado, Texas is also considering secession from the Union

Prior to Weld County proposing a break from Colorado, Texas expressed its intent to secede from the union in early December 2020. State Rep. Kyle Biedermann told supporters that he intends to file a bill that allowed for a referendum on secession. According to the lawmaker, the federal government is out of control and does not represent the values of Texans.

According to local television station KSAT 12, Biedermann said his proposed bill aligns with the Texas Constitution, which states that Texans have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government.

The state legislator representing Fredericksburg made good on his promise in late January, filing HB 1359 or the Texas Independence Referendum Act. According to the bill, residents of the Lone Star State would vote whether Texas should leave the U.S. and establish an independent republic in a November 2021 referendum. Biedermann said in a statement: This act simply lets Texans vote. This decision is too big to be monopolized solely by the power brokers in [the] Capitol. We need to let Texans voices be heard.

CivilWar.news has more news about secession in different states such as Texas and Colorado.

Sources include:

ColoradoSun.com

KDVR.com

TimesCall.com

TrendingPolitics.com

KSAT.com

TheEpochTimes.com
Russian state prosecutors said yesterday they would back an effort to jail opposition politician Alexei Navalny for up to three-and-a-half years at a court hearing taking place today, despite international condemnation.

After a second weekend of nationwide protests in support of Mr Navalny, a court is expected to rule on whether to convert a previous suspended sentence on fraud charges into a custodial one.

On Sunday, thousands of people took to the streets for the second weekend, with police estimated to have detained more than 5,300 people nationwide. The protests are seen as a growing problem for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

Mr Navalny faces a prison term for alleged probation violations from a 2014 money-laundering conviction which is widely seen as politically motivated.

The US has condemned Russias treatment of Mr Navalny, who was detained on January 17 after arriving back home from Germany, where he was recovering from an assassination attempt after being poisoned with Novichok.

Read More

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said yesterday he was deeply disturbed by the violent crackdown on Russian protesters. The Russian government makes a big mistake if it believes that this is about us, he said.

Its about them. Its about the government. Its about the frustration that the Russian people have with corruption, with autocracy, and I think they need to look inward, not outward.

One of the protesters held on Sunday was Yulia Navalnaya, Mr Navalnys wife, who was detained near the prison in which her husband is being held.

In a number of cases, the detainees have not been allowed to contact their lawyers, human rights activists said, and some being detained at a police station in St Petersburg have claimed that they were refused food, water and mattresses. Authorities are said to have so far opened 40 criminal cases in 18 regions.

Read More

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
A man has been charged with attempted murder over the alleged assault of a 70-year-old man.

The 30-year-old man allegedly attacked the elderly man at his family home on The Parade street in Telopea, Greater Western Sydney at about 3.40pm on Sunday.

Police say the man dragged the older man onto the nature strip and kicked him in the face before leaving the scene in a car.

A man has allegedly assaulted a 70-year-old man at his family home on The Parade in Telopea, Greater Western Sydney (pictured) on Sunday

He allegedly returned and drove at the older man before the victim was thrown about four metres.

The man was knocked unconscious and suffered multiple injuries.

He was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital where he is undergoing treatment.

Police say the 30-year-old fled the scene on foot before a home was broke into and up to $50,000 worth of damage was caused.

Officers from Cumberland Police Area Command arrived on the scene, where one of the officers was allegedly assaulted during the man's arrest.

The man was released from police custody at midday on Monday and taken to Chatswood Police Station.

He was charged with attempted murder, break and enter to commit malicious damage, and assaulting police.

The man was refused bail and will appear before Central Local Court on Tuesday.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharamans pandemic budget promised increased spending for healthcare in the next financial year, but the fine print of the budget text shows that the outlay for the healthcare is actually reduced if compared to the revised estimates of 2021.

In her budget speech, the finance minister said the government expected to spend 2.23 lakh crore in the coming year on health and well-being. This would translate to a 135 per cent increase from last year.

However, the figure also includes Rs 60,030 crore allocation made towards drinking water and sanitation, a Rs 2,700 crore outlay on nutrition, and both of these are handled by separate ministries than health. It also includes Rs 49,000 crore as Finance Commission grants and Rs 35,000 crore toward vaccination programme against Covid-19.

ALSO READ | What The 137% Hike in Health Budget Means: From a Doctor Petitioning for Healthy India

All these have been clubbed together in the health and well-being budget to arrive at the more than doubled spending on healthcare. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, giving a thumbs-up to the budget speech, also said it was aimed at creating "wealth and wellness" in the country that has the world's second highest coronavirus caseload after the United States.

However, public health experts have pointed out that while the budgetary allocation for healthcare sector is an 11 per cent increase if it is compared to the budget estimates for 2021, it translates into a 10 per cent drop in the allocation, if compared to the revised estimated 2021.

Despite the much-touted emphasis on health, health ministrys budget has increased only by 7000 crore from Budget Estimates of 2020-21 and declined by 9.8 per cent from Revised Estimates of 2020-21," Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India, told Mint.

ALSO READ | With Bold Position on Fiscal Deficit, This is Not a One-off, Flash-in-the-Pan Budget

The allocation towards governments flagship health insurance scheme - Ayushman Bharat-PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)  has remained unchanged at Rs. 6,400 crores this year in Nirmala Sitharamans union budget 2021-22. The scheme aims to reduce the out-of-pocket private expenditure on health that has been pushing several people into poverty, especially during and after covid-19 pandemic.

The budget allocation for the Department of Health and Family Welfare is Rs. 71,269 crores, which is an increase of 9.6 per cent over the budget allocation of Rs. 65,012 crores last year. However, this too is lower than the revised estimates for financial year 2020-21 at Rs. 78,866 crores.
There is a widely held view that the GameStop megarally has been bad news for Wall Street. But that depends on ones definition of Wall Street.

Certainly last week was challenging for many in places like Greenwich, Conn., or Midtown Manhattan, where many hedge funds are set up. Funds betting against shares of GameStop and other heavily shorted companies have logged big losses. But many others employed in finance and trading may not have had such a bad week.

For example, JPMorgan Chase analysts said in a note last week that a daily index they track measuring performance of hedge funds that go long and short equities experienced a decline of about 2% over Tuesday and Wednesday, which the analysts noted wasnt unusually large and suggested that any heavy losses in this space would most likely be confined to a few hedge funds."

Individual investors also arent alone in the ability to trade beyond fundamentals: Many quantitative funds trade on data signals and price movements. Justin Zhen, co-founder of Thinknum Alternative Data, said he started getting calls from quant firms last week seeking to generate sentiment measures from Reddits WallStreetBets forum, where much of the discussion among individual investors surrounding shares like GameStop has originated. His data firm began monitoring the forum and providing hourly updates. Ive never seen so much inbound for one data set in my life," he said.

View Full Image Stock performance

What kind of week will it prove to have been in Chicagos Loop, New Jersey or lower Manhattan, where electronic market-making trading firms have traditionally clustered? The wider spreads, higher volatility and big volume sparked by the Reddit-fueled trades are typically ripe conditions for market makers, which aim to facilitate trading by rapidly buying and selling. At some point trading can become too wild, and technology has strained to keep up with the volume. The attention on Robinhood Markets relationships with wholesale market makers that pay for its order flow, such as Citadel Securities, also has been intense. But by at least one measure, it wasnt a bad week for market makers: Shares of publicly listed electronic market maker Virtu Financial rose 12%, its best weekly gain since last March.

As for the geographic vicinity of Wall Street itself, there is the New York Stock Exchange, owned by Intercontinental Exchange. U.S. equity markets have logged huge volume, with a record 24.5 billion shares trading hands on Wednesday, according to figures tracked by Piper Sandler analysts. That is roughly 10 billion more than the daily average in 2021.

If Wall Street means investment banks, they, too, can do well when volumes and volatility are high. A rush of new stock or convertible issuance also would further boost banks capital markets units. But sometimes the kind of volatility that sees a lot of clientslike short-selling fundsclosing up shop or pulling in bets can depress trading revenue. By some measures, hedge funds have broadly cut their overall borrowing to trade, which could hurt some brokers. However, stock loans across the market appear to remain in demand: The percentage of available share value that was on loan in the Americas was higher week over week on Thursday, according to DataLend.

Investors in financial companies erred on the side of caution, perhaps because of the intense anger and political attention now focused on the sector, which might herald regulatory or behavioral changes. Shares of investment banks, exchanges and online brokers widely tumbled last week.

Clearly something big and uncertain is happening, and investors are right to be wary. But it would be premature to conclude that Wall Street" writ large has been beaten at its own game.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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(Newser)  Saying that it's displaying at least 20 fakes, an art dealer has called on Russia's Hermitage to close its Faberge exhibit. "I want this show to be closed and forgotten, and thats it," Andre Ruzhnikov wrote to the museum. "You cannot subject the Hermitage to such shame." The items displayed are on loan from a billionaire's collection, the Guardian reports. "Faberge: Jeweller to the Imperial Court" is scheduled to run at the St. Petersburg museum through March 14. Ruzhnikov blames Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage. Piotrovsky and the items' owner, Alexander Ivanov, insist the items are genuine. Ivanov sent documents to artnet that he said prove the authenticity of four of them but do not appear to. Answering reporters, the director pointed out the preface in the exhibit's catalog, which says, "The authenticity of each fresh item that appears on the market can always be challenged and disputed  the consensus of the expert community is not easy to obtain and is often lacking."

story continues below

The Wedding Anniversary Egg, supposedly given by Czar Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra on their 10th wedding anniversary in 1904, is one of the disputed items. Doubts about it were raised last year by a researcher. Portraits on it may have been taken after 1904, and the one of the czar appears to have been based on an outdated photo, experts said. Ivanov is a middleman who supplies collectors. "There's always a queue of people who want to buy things for me," he said in 2010. "If Ive bought it, people know it's worth something." Peter Carl Faberge was a St. Petersburg jeweler who served the Russian imperial court from 1885 to 1917. "There's always been a lot of Fauxberge on the market," Ruzhnikov said, per artnet. "But the fight against it is picking up speed." Christie's, for example, withdrew a silver desk clock from sale after Ruzhnikov called it a "piece of garbage" on his website. (A Faberge has been found at a flea market.)
The statement made by US President Joe Biden about the military coup in Myanmar is directed at all countries in the region, said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. On Monday, Psaki replied when asked if the statement on Myanmar was directed at China.

On January 31 (Sunday), the White House put out a statement saying the United States opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede Myanmar's democratic transition and will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed. Biden also released a separate statement on Myanmar on Monday.

Western leaders condemned the coup by Myanmar's military against Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government and hundreds of thousands of her supporters took to the social media to voice their anger at the takeover.

The sudden turn of events in the early hours of Monday derailed years of efforts to establish democracy in the poverty-stricken country and raised more questions over the prospect of returning a million Rohingya refugees.

The UN Security Council will meet on Tuesday, diplomats said, amid calls for a strong response to the detention of Suu Kyi and dozens of her political allies, although Myanmar's close ties with council member China will play into any decision. Biden said the coup was a direct assault on Myanmar's transition to democracy and the rule of law.

The army handed power to military chief General Min Aung Hlaing and imposed a state of emergency for a year in the country, saying it had responded to what it called election fraud.

US President Joe Biden called the crisis a direct assault on Myanmar`s transition to democracy. "We will work with our partners throughout the region and the world to support the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, as well as to hold accountable those responsible for overturning Burma`s democratic transition," Biden said in a statement.

Strongly condemning the military coup in Myanmar, Biden said the United States is taking note of those who stand with the people of Myanmar in this difficult hour.
UK Monitoring Vaccine Efficacy Against CCP Virus Variants: Health Secretary

The British government is monitoring the efficacy of existing CCP virus vaccines to see if the jabs need to be modified for new variants of the virus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday.

We are doing a huge amount of work with the scientists and the pharmaceutical industry to develop modified vaccines, should they be necessary. Were also monitoring the results of work to understand the efficacy of the existing vaccines against the variants of concern, Hancock told the House of Commons.

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus variants first identified in South Africa and Brazil both contain a key mutation called E484K, which is thought to be impacting vaccine efficacy.

A resident receives a dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca CCP virus vaccine at the Belong Wigan care home in Wigan, northwest England, on Jan. 21, 2021. (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)

Clinical trials by Novavax and Johnson & Johnson showed that their new vaccines were less effective in South Africa, compared to the UK or USA, and it is presumed that it was because of the high level of virus carrying this E484K mutation, Dr. Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said in a statement.

On Monday, Public Health England reported that the E484K mutation had been found in a limited number of cases of the UK variant.

Dr. Julian Tang, a clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, called it a worrying development, though not entirely unexpected.

The UK government is already working with scientists and pharmaceutical firms on potential modifications of vaccines, Hancock said.

Were working with pharmaceutical companies and with the scientists to understand both whether such modifications are needed, where they are needed, and how they can be brought to use on the front line as quickly as is safely possible, he said.

We have confidence that modifications to vaccines, should they be necessary in large scale, will be available more quickly than the original vaccines.

The UK has now identified 105 cases of the South African variant, 11 of which do not appear to have any links to international travel.

Those cases are the first in the UK of community transmission of the variant, which is more transmissible and more resistant to antibodies, raising fears that the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines could be reduced.

Health authorities have started door-to-door surge testing for the variant in eight local areas in England.

Hancock said the programme will be extended to Bristol and Liverpool, where 43 cases of mutations of concern had been identified.

Simon Veazey contributed to this report.
This photo released Jan. 30, 2021, by the Vacaville Police Department shows Raymond Michael Weber. California police arrested Weber for investigation of two killings after a caller reported seeing a social media livestream showing him armed inside an apartment and two women lying on the floor. The Vacaville Police Department said officers went to the Rocky Hill Veterans Apartments at 12:42 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021, in response to the call from a woman about the livestream. Raymond Michael Weber, 29, of Sacramento was booked into the Solano County Jail. (Vacaville Police Department via AP)

Police in California have arrested a man suspected of two killings after someone reported seeing a livestream on social media that showed him with a gun and two women lying motionless on the floor of an apartment.

Vacaville Police Department said officers went to an apartment complex for formerly homeless veterans and low-income families early on Saturday after getting a call from a woman about the livestream.

The video showed the man carrying a handgun and two women lying on the floor  not moving, the department said on Facebook.

Officers found the man had barricaded himself in the apartment, and a Swat team and negotiators were called in, police said.

UPDATE: Raymond Michael Weber (29, Sacramento) was arrested and booked into the Solano County Jail on two charges of... Posted by Vacaville Police Department on Saturday, January 30, 2021

Negotiations did not work, so the building was evacuated and officers got inside the apartment with distraction devices and chemical agents, the department said.

There was a brief struggle and a Taser was used before police took the man into custody.

Officers additionally found two women deceased inside of the apartment, the department said in the post.

How they died is under investigation, and their identities are not being released until their families are notified.

Raymond Michael Weber, 29, of Sacramento, was being held without bail on two counts of first-degree murder and was scheduled for a court appearance on Tuesday, according to Solano County jail records.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (TSX.V:HIVE)(OTCQX:HVBTF)(FSE:HBF) (the "Company" or "HIVE") is pleased to announce that during calendar 2020 it was the most liquid stock trading over 1.7 billion shares combined on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX.V") and Canadian alternative trading systems ("ATS") in Canada, was ranked 4th on the OTCQX Best 50, a ranking of top performing companies traded on the OTCQX Best Market last year and that it has entered into an equity distribution agreement (the "Equity Distribution Agreement") with Canaccord Genuity Corp.

2020 Most Liquid TSX.V Listed Stock

During the calendar year 2020, based on Bloomberg data, the Company was the most liquid stock trading over 1.76 billion shares on the combined TSX.V and ATS exchanges more than tripling their previous annual highest volume of 580 million shares in 2018. Mr. Frank Holmes, Interim Executive Chairman of HIVE commented, "This strong liquidity is what separates HIVE from its competitors and makes HIVE by far the most liquid Canadian stock in our sector in 2020."

OTCQX Best 50

The Company is honored to be named to the OTCQX Best 50, and ranking as #4 on that prestigious list. The OTCQX Best 50 is an annual ranking of the top 50 U.S. and international companies traded on the OTCQX market. The ranking is calculated based on an equal weighting of one-year total return and average daily dollar volume growth in the previous calendar year. Companies in the 2021 OTCQX Best 50 were ranked based on their performance in 2020.

For the complete 2021 OTCQX Best 50 ranking, visit: https://www.otcmarkets.com/files/2021_OTCQX_Best_50.pdf

The OTCQX Best Market offers transparent and efficient trading of established, investor-focused U.S. and global companies. To qualify for the OTCQX market, companies must meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance, and demonstrate compliance with applicable securities laws.

At-the Market Offering

Pursuant to the Equity Distribution Agreement, the Company may, from time to time, sell up to US$100 million of common shares ("Common Shares") in the capital of the Company (the "ATM Equity Program"). The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the ATM Equity Program, if any, principally for general corporate and working capital requirements, funding ongoing operations, to repay indebtedness outstanding from time to time, to complete future acquisitions, or for other corporate purposes.

Mr. Holmes remarked, "We have chosen the ATM Equity Program for several compelling reasons including a much less cost of capital, flexibility to quickly capture opportunities while building our Bitcoin and Ethereum inventory of coins."

Since the Common Shares will be distributed at trading prices prevailing at the time of the sale, prices may vary between purchasers and during the period of distribution. The volume and timing of sales, if any, will be determined at the sole discretion of the Company's management and in accordance with the terms of the Equity Distribution Agreement. To date, no Common Shares have been distributed by the Company pursuant to the Equity Distribution Agreement.

Sales of Common Shares, if any, under the ATM Equity Program are anticipated to be made in transactions that are deemed to be "at-the-market distributions" as defined in National Instrument 44-102 Shelf Distributions, as sales made directly on the TSX.V or any other recognized Canadian "marketplace" within the meaning of National Instrument 21-101 Marketplace Operation. The ATM Equity Program is being made pursuant to a prospectus supplement dated February 2, 2021 (the "Prospectus Supplement") to the Company's short form base shelf prospectus dated January 27, 2021 (the "Base Shelf Prospectus"), filed with the securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces and territories of Canada.

The Prospectus Supplement (as well as the related Base Shelf Prospectus) is available at the Company's profile on the SEDAR website maintained by the Canadian Securities Administrators at www.sedar.com.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States or in any jurisdiction where the offer, sale or solicitation would be unlawful. The Common Shares referred to in this news release may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration.

About HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.

HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. is a growth oriented, TSX.V-listed company building a bridge from the blockchain sector to traditional capital markets. HIVE owns state-of-the-art green energy-powered data centre facilities in Canada, Sweden, and Iceland which produce newly minted digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum continuously on the cloud. Our deployments provide shareholders with exposure to the operating margins of digital currency mining as well as a portfolio of crypto-coins.

For more information and to register to HIVE's mailing list, please visit www.HIVEblockchain.com . Follow @HIVEblockchain on Twitter and subscribe to HIVE's YouTube channel .

On Behalf of HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd.

"Frank Holmes"

Interim Executive Chairman

For further information please contact:

Frank Holmes

Tel: (604) 664-1078

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "outlook", "forecasts", "projection", "prospects", "strategy", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or, "will", "occur" or "be achieved", and similar words or the negative of these terms and similar terminology. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances.

This forward-looking information is based on the Company's opinions, estimates and assumptions that, while considered by the Company to be appropriate and reasonable as of the date of this press release, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to, risks related to the offering or sale of securities pursuant to the Prospectus Supplement, the completion of the transactions contemplated in this news release in the manner anticipated and those factors discussed in greater detail under the "Risk Factors" section in the Company's preliminary base shelf prospectus and its annual information form, both of which are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and should be considered carefully by prospective investors.

The forward-looking statements and information in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the potential issuance of securities of the Company, the amount of securities that may be issued and the use of proceeds under the Prospectus Supplement filed in connection therewith.

This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: the COVID 19 crisis; the transaction described in this news release may not occur on the terms as proposed and described herein or at all and, if such transaction is completed; the Company's cryptocurrency operation may not meet expected performance levels for one or more reasons; the proposed transaction may not have a positive impact on HIVE's revenues, or gross mining margin; the impact of new electrical power rates which could impair profitability and operating performance; expansion may not materialize as currently anticipated, or at all; operating risks caused by social unrest; the digital currency market; the ability to successfully mine digital currency; revenue may not increase as currently anticipated, or at all; it may not be possible to profitably liquidate the current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; the Company may never realize more efficient operations, a lower cost structure, or greater flexibility in operation; risks relating to the global economic climate; dilution; and other related risks as more fully set out in the Base Shelf Prospectus and Prospectus Supplement, and other documents disclosed under the Company's filings at www.sedar.com. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward -looking information other than as required by law.

SOURCE: Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627430/HIVE-Blockchain-Most-Liquid-TSXV-Stock-Trading-over-17-Billion-Shares-in-2020-and-Named-4th-on-The-2021-OTCQX-Best-50-has-Established-an-At-the-Market-Equity-Program-to-Accelerate-Growth
CVS says it will start providing vaccines at some CVS locations in New Jersey beginning on Feb. 11.

The vaccines will be administered at 27 CVS locations across the state, the company said, and you will be able to start booking appointments next week. But not all 27 locations will be up and running next week, the company said.

For CVS Pharmacy locations that will begin to offer COVID-19 vaccinations on Feb. 11, appointments will become available for booking as early as Feb. 9 as stores receive shipments of vaccine, CVS said in a statement.

There is no pre-registration, but when the appointment bookings become available, you will need to register at CVS.com or through the CVS Pharmacy app, the company said.

For those without online access, CVS has set up a customer service line at (800) 746-7287, it said. No walk-in vaccines will be provided.

The list of specific stores will be available on CVS.com as stores receive shipments of vaccine and appointments become available, spokeswoman Tara Burke said, noting they wont all come online at the same time. The locations and towns will all be listed once appointments are available.

The company did not list all of the designated stores in N.J, but said the vaccines will be available at pharmacies throughout the state, including Brigantine, Edison, Elizabeth, Flemington, Green Brook, Hoboken, North Bergen, North Plainfield, Princeton, Seaside Heights, Stanhope, Union, Voorhees, and West Orange.

As more supply becomes available, the company will expand to more locations and offer additional appointments, it said.

The vaccines will only be available to people who meet the states eligibility criteria, which the company said will be confirmed by the state in advance of the rollout. The company didnt say whether you have to be enrolled in the states registration system to be eligible.

Tell us your COVID-19 vaccination stories, send us a news tip or questions about the vaccination process on our tip form.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
Islamabad, Feb 2 : The Pakistan Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the key accused in the 2002 kidnap and murder case of American journalist Daniel Pearl, from his death cell and be shifted to a government rest house.

On Tuesday, a three-judge bench of the apex court resumed the hearing of an appeal filed by the Sindh government against the Sindh High Court's (SHC) December 24, 2020, order to release Sheikh, The Express Tribune reported.

The bench further directed to keep Sheikh at a better location in the jail in an open room for the two days before he is to be transferred to the rest house, where security will be provided.

The British-born Sheikh will however, not be allowed to use a smartphone or the internet.

The bench also allowed his family to stay and visit at the rest house from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Before the apex court rejected the provincial government's appeal, the Sindh Advocate General (AG) told the bench that Sheikh's accomplices could attack the rest house and help him escape.

Tuesday's development comes after the Supreme Court on January 28 decided to acquit and release the four accused persons in the case, including Sheikh.

The US has heavily criticised the decision, saying that it was prepared to prosecute Sheikh in Washington.

The 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal was doing research on religious extremism in Karachi when he was abducted in January 2002.

A graphic video showing his beheading was delivered to the US consulate a month later.

Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 20:08:55|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The global fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has marked the beginning of a struggle that changed "everything globally," a senior African Union (AU) Commission official has said.

The statement was made by Amira Elfadil, AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, as she emphasized that the declaration of COVID-19 as an outbreak early on followed by a public health emergency of international concern and later a pandemic "marked the beginning of a struggle that changed everything globally."

"The year 2020 was significant for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the AU Commission, AU member states, the world, and every human," Elfadil said in the Africa CDC's comprehensive Annual Progress Report for 2020, which was published over the weekend.

The AU Social Affairs Commissioner stressed that the pandemic forced "almost all AU Commission activities to a standstill," with priority attention on how to get the continent out of the COVID-19 pandemic and get the nations and economies back on track.

According to Elfadil, since the declaration of the COVID-19 outbreak in December 2019, the AU Commission, through the Africa CDC, implemented several strategic initiatives to support Member States in their preparedness and response.

Strategic actions began with the development of the Africa Joint Continental Strategy for Coronavirus Outbreak and the formation of a multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral Africa Task Force for Coronavirus Response, according to her.

The strategy and task force, which were endorsed by Africa Ministers of Health in February 2020 and approved by the Bureau of the AU Heads of State and Government in March 2020, "provided direction for all other initiatives of the AU."

She also emphasized that support to member states "was priority and has been in the form of provision of test kits and other medical supplies, and training in several technical areas, including laboratory, case management, infection prevention and control, risk communication and community engagement, and supply chain management."

Elfadil also stressed that strategic partnership has been a crucial success factor in the response to the pandemic across the continent, as many partners responded to the challenge with their resources.

The Africa CDC's Annual Progress Report for 2020, among other things, highlights key actions taken by the AU, through the Africa CDC, in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic across the continent and other activities undertaken by Africa CDC in 2020.

According to the latest figures from the Africa CDC, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent reached 3,567,552 as of Tuesday morning, as the death toll due to the pandemic stood at 91,006.

A total of 3,052,143 people infected with COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far, the AU Commission's healthcare agency disclosed. Enditem
Spain has announced restrictions on inbound flights from Brazil and South Africa in a bid to stop the spread of new strains of the coronavirus detected in those countries.

The measure goes into effect at 9am on Wednesday and will last at least two weeks. Government spokesperson Maria Jesus Montero said that the only flights to Spain allowed from those countries will be those carrying passengers who are either citizens or residents of Spain or Andorra, or passengers in transit with stopovers of under 24 hours who will not be able to leave the airport transit area.

The announcement comes as the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic continues to produce new epidemiological records across the Spanish territory.

On Tuesday, the northeastern region of Galicia reported 40 single-day fatalities, the highest figure since the pandemic began. In the southern region of Andalusia, that figure was 107, also a new peak since the beginning of the pandemic.

In the Mediterranean province of Alicante, the 14-day incidence rate has soared to 2,597 cases per 100,000 people, twice the average for the whole of the Valencia region (1,352), according to the regional daily Diario Informacion citing Valencian health department figures. This is three times the national average of 865 cases per 100,000, which is already far higher than the threshold for what is considered an extreme risk scenario.

We cant be in a rush with the deescalation. I am not addressing any region in particular Maria Jesus Montero, government spokesperson

In seven regions of Spain, Covid-19 patients now occupy over 50% of intensive care beds, with that figure rising to over 60% in La Rioja, the Valencia region and the North Africa exclave city of Melilla.

On Tuesday, Maria Jesus Montero insisted on the need to keep up the restrictions. The epidemiological situation will have to be assessed regularly to adjust schedules and mobility, she said after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. We cant be in a rush with the deescalation. I am not addressing any region in particular.

In Madrid, regional premier Isabel Diaz Ayuso defended her strategy of keeping food and drink establishments open, a decision that other regional leaders have questioned in recent days, including some from her own Popular Party (PP). I cannot engage in confrontation with other regional leaders, she said. The Madrid economy works in a certain way, and those of other regions have other peculiarities.

Also in the Spanish capital, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has tested positive for coronavirus, said the club in a statement, adding that Perez has no symptoms.

Health Minister Carolina Darias on Monday urged regional governments to expand their coronavirus measures in order to bring down the numbers faster. Under the current state of alarm approved by parliament in October, regions are in charge of introducing their own restrictions, and each one has adopted different systems, with an overnight curfew being the only nationwide measure in place.

Fiestas cancelled

The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona in 2019. ANDER GILLENEA / AFP

Pamplona will not be holding its Running of the Bulls this year. The regional premier of Navarre, Maria Chivite, said on Tuesday that the July event will not be possible.

It wouldnt be a responsible attitude on my part to fuel hopes of something that I think is not going to be possible, she said. The world-famous fiesta, which attracts large crowds each year, was cancelled in 2020 as well due to coronavirus restrictions.

Meanwhile the mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribo, said that the citys renowned Fallas festival, which involves pyrotechnics and giant burning sculptures, will not be held in the first half of the year, but that I cannot assert that there wont be any Fallas at all in 2021. And the regional premier Ximo Puig ruled out the possibility of travel for the Easter holidays because we are still in an extremely serious situation and we cannot send out a message of relaxation.

Vaccination campaign

Vaccination at the Torrijos care home in Toledo. olmo calvo

Despite shipment delays, the vaccination campaign is still underway. Around 91% of doses that were delivered to regional governments have been administered, according to Health Ministry data. Some regional leaders on Tuesday reiterated their wish to immunize a majority of the population by summer, but said this will depend on timely deliveries.

We could vaccinate 70% of the population, but we need for the vaccines to arrive, said Patricia Gomez, the chief of the health department of the Balearic Islands, inside the regional parliament.

The Spanish Health Ministry is considering whether to administer the coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca to people 65 and over. Fernando Simon, the head of the Health Ministrys Coordination Center for Health Alerts (CCAES), said it is highly likely that Spain will not recommend this medication for this age group, citing insufficient available data and mirroring a similar decision by Germany.

English version by Susana Urra.
Classes in the Wilkes County Schools will start on Aug. 23 and end on May 25 in 2021-22 as a result of a calendar approved by the Wilkes Board of Education on Feb. 1.
As the 2021 spring semester begins in the United States, the corporate press, spearheaded by the New York Times, is seeking to justify the criminal policy of school reopenings on the grounds that school closures are leading to an increase in student suicides. In so doing, the media is deliberately obscuring the true origins of the mental health crisis affecting young people, while at the same time providing a pseudo-moral justification for homicidal policies that have led and will continue to lead to countless infections and deaths from the coronavirus.

Teachers and staff protest outside Franklin D. Roosevelt High School as they call for more and better COVID-19 testing and precautions, Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

On January 24, the Times published an article highlighting the spike in youth suicides since the start of the pandemic. The article focused on Clark County, Nevada, the fifth largest school district in the US, encompassing Las Vegas, which saw 18 student suicides between March and December. By comparison, there were nine suicides in the district during the whole of 2019.

In one instance, 18-year-old Anthony Orr drove to a parking lot in August and shot himself in his car, just months after graduating. His mother, seeking to provide an explanation, told the Times, Our kids are feeling hopeless. Theyre feeling like theres no future for them. I cant see how theres any other explanation. The youngest suicide victim in the county was just nine years old.

The tragic experience of Clark County is mirrored throughout the country, in what has become an alarming trend. Baltimore County teen Michael Myronuk, Jr. was just 14 when he ended his life in October. His mother told WBFF Fox45 News: He didnt have any hope. He just gave up. In another case, an 11-year-old Sacramento boy shot himself in December during his Zoom class.

The devastating increase in youth suicides and mental health issues is being utilized by the Times and other media outlets to serve as a justification for reopening the schools in the midst of the surging pandemic. Jesus Jara, the Clark County superintendent, told the Times: When we started to see the uptick in children taking their lives, we knew it wasnt just the COVID numbers we need to look at anymore.  We have to find a way to put our hands on our kids, to see them, to look at them. Theyve got to start seeing some movement, some hope. Jara subsequently took to Twitter to proclaim that schools must reopen to help all students.

There can be no doubt that the mental health crisis in the US has worsened dramatically since the eruption of the pandemic, particularly among adolescents and youth, whose underdeveloped psyches are especially vulnerable to psychological stress. An August 2020 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that rates of depression and anxiety had tripled since the previous year. According to the same report, 26 percent of young adults ages 1824 had thought about suicide during the previous month.

A November report based on data collected throughout the year in nationwide surveys found that October was even more devastating, with 47.7 percent of young adults reporting symptoms of depression, and 36.9 percent reporting thoughts of suicide or death. It is clear that the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic include an epidemic of despair among young people.

There is a close connection between the Times s cynical attempt to utilize the suicides of young people to justify the reopening of schools and the Biden administrations repeated statements of support for the financial oligarchys back-to-school drive. The article was published just four days after Biden declared theres nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.

Biden was signaling his intention to pursue the full reopening of the economy and de-facto continuation of Trumps herd immunity policy, which has already resulted in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths. The efforts of the Times and other bourgeois outlets to shore up support for this criminal policy now assumes the form of feigned concern for the youth, in this case by utilizing the suicides of youths to proclaim that reopening the schools is an urgent necessity.

However, the establishment mouthpieces that proclaim such concern for the mental well-being of youths fail to explain how students mental health will be improved by herding them into unsafe classrooms to witness their teachers, their peers and possibly themselves falling ill to a deadly pathogen, not to mention the risk that they might pass the virus on to their parents, grandparents or other loved ones.

Moreover, they ignore the fact that the refusal of the government and both big business parties to implement policies that would contain the virus and save lives, because these policiesincluding the shutdown of non-essential productionwould cut into the profits of the corporations and banks, is responsible for the uncontrolled spread of the pandemic, which makes the safe reopening of the schools impossible. It is the ruling class and its political servants that are responsible for the increasing mental anguish of young people, not teachers.

Now, under conditions where the pandemic has been allowed to spread exponentially, where serious scientific studies show that youth are susceptible to developing long-term complications from the virus, and where a deadlier and more contagious variant of the virus is known to be spreading, it is most certainly not in the best interests of students to be sent into schools with hundreds of other students, teachers and staff.

There is little doubt that the isolation imposed by the pandemic has had a negative impact on mental health, but it is far too simplistic to assert that the crisis is merely the result of loneliness caused by school closures. More to the point, this argument deliberately obscures the true causes of the epidemic of mental distress, which are deeply rooted and systemic in character.

Mental health in the US, especially among young people, has been steadily worsening for at least the past two decades. According to a 2019 report by the National Center for Health Statistics and the CDC, suicide rates among youth aged 10 to 24which had been relatively stable between 2000 and 2007 at 6.8 deaths per 100,000began steadily rising after 2007 to reach a rate of 10.6 deaths per 100,000 by 2017, an increase of 56 percent in just one decade. Suicide has been the second leading cause of death within that age bracket at least since 2017.

In this context, it is deeply misleading to state that the pandemic shutdowns are the cause of the spike in mental illnesses. Rather, the pandemic has accelerated a mental health catastrophe that has been long developing.

Mental health is a social phenomenon that cannot be considered apart from the broader political, economic and social structure of society.

The youth of the new millennium have come of age in an era of staggering social inequality. Theyve grown up in a nation that has been continuously at war for nearly three decades, with the youngest unable to remember a time when the United States was not engaged in armed conflict.

They have come to age in a society where school shootings and other outbreaks of homicidal violence are regular occurrences and are treated with indifference by the ruling class; a society in which suicide, drug overdoses, and other deaths of despair are tragically common; a country where the threat of brutal violence by the armed enforcers of the capitalist statethe policealways lies just beneath the surface; a culture that promotes the most backward values, such as greed and self-centeredness, as virtues.

Add to this the devastating impact of the pandemic, during which the most vulnerable members of societythe elderly, the infirm and the poorhave been ruthlessly sacrificed to satisfy the insatiable greed of the financial oligarchy. Countless youth have undoubtedly seen loved ones die of the virus. Theyve witnessed their parents struggling to cope with the economic difficulties caused by the pandemic depression. Many are either facing or have already been evicted due to a cutoff or decline in family income.

The pandemic has revealed more sharply than ever the brutality, incompetence and moral depravity of modern capitalist society. Under these conditions, the growing despair and anguish of the youth comes as a surprise only to the bourgeois writers of the New York Times et al., who are both blind and deaf to the realities that face the working-class majority.

The bourgeois press presents workers and youth with a Catch-22: either reopen the schools for in-person learning in classrooms that are clearly unsafe, or have the youth stay home to wallow in loneliness and despair.

Meanwhile, the mega-fortunes of the Elon Musks and the Jeff Bezoses continue to soar, driven by a stock market fueled by endless supplies of free money from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.

Socialists reject with contempt this false dichotomy. Under socialism, the resources of society would be rationally and scientifically organized to meet the social needs of the population.

Guided by humanity and reason, a socialist society would provide resources for the spiritual and cultural nourishment of the youth, along with the mobilization of all available technology to provide education and communication during the pandemic.

Mental health treatment and therapy would be available to all workers and their children to help them cope with isolation until the pandemic was brought under control. In the meantime, workers and their families would receive full compensation.

This is far from a utopian dream. The material resources exist to build a just and humane society. However, only the conscious struggle of the whole working class can bring about this transformation. We urge all workers and youth who agree with this perspective to contact us and take up the fight for socialism.
It was in stark contrast to the health professionals who had conducted our swabs the previous day  they had donned gowns, face shields, masks and gloves.

I had noticed the guards posted outside my hotel room 24 hours a day hadnt been wearing masks, but this was the first time I had interacted with them closely .

A few days into my 14-day stay in mandatory hotel quarantine in Perth I heard a knock on the door. Excuse me? a voice outside said. I opened the door and standing roughly a metre away was a security guard, no face mask, no gloves, no PPE of any description. Your meal has been sitting there for a while. Do you want it? he asked.

From the moment I landed at Perth Airport on December 20 I noticed the cracks.

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After two planes and 19 hours of flying with a mask and plastic face shield sitting on my head, we were all told to take them off as we went through customs. Most people tossed their face shields in the bin, but my partner and I kept them for the bus journey.

After we went through immigration and customs, we were allocated our hotel and told to sit on plastic chairs placed 1 metres apart. We were among the first off the plane, which meant we were on the first bus. As we were guided out of the baggage area, a group of about 20 of us were ushered onto the tarmac by police and airport security. Move closer, they yelled. All social distancing efforts up until that point had gone out the window, as we were forced to stand next to fellow passengers to allow for airport traffic to flow. We waited for two hours before moving, with people seated directly in front of and behind us.

As we arrived at the hotel, we were all ushered out and told to get our luggage, the army and police standing close by. Again we couldnt keep our distance from the others. I was thankful I still had my face shield on. We were given a piece of cardboard with our room number written on it, no key card.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Today the judges decide the fate of the blogger, in prison on contradictory charges. Almost 10 thousand arrested in demonstrations in 18 regions across the country. The cruel violence of the police, portrayed as the "victims". For Kirill, young people are under "negative influences" from the internet. Ilarion: Naval'nyj like Lenin: sick with ideology, he comes from Germany, supported by the West.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - At 10 am today the Simonovsky court in Moscow is meeting to decide the fate of Alexei Navalny. His supporters have decided to gather in front of the court to support their leader, as communicated by the Navalnyj headquarters via social media.

The message sent was: Are you ready to surrender? Are you ready to give in and let Putin do whatever he wants? The gatherings of 23 and 31 January tell us no. Because you are the bravest people in our country. on February 2 they will issue the sentence on Alexei Navalnyj, to lock him in prison for several years on an artfully fabricated charge, that of Yves Rocher. We all know that it is only a revenge, because Navalnyj dared not to die, and he returned to fight against Putin.

Navalnyj is accused of not having submitted to the checks requested by the investigators during 2020, and the fact that he had been poisoned and subjected to rehabilitation, for the court, "is not a sufficient reason not to appear for the appeal".

Meanwhile, the criminal cases filed against the demonstrators on January 23 and 31 combined 40 different charges under various articles of the code, to avoid recognizing the arrested as part of a single movement. Those arrested are in prisons in 18 regions throughout Russia; 4000 people on the 23rd and over 5000 on the 31st, of which 1600 in Moscow alone.

The many videos of the January 31 parades released on the web recall the similar testimonies of the Belarusian rallies last year. Absolutely peaceful people dragged across the asphalt, beaten on the limbs with truncheons, hit with tazors until complete loss of consciousness, randomly snatched from the group and thrown onto the ground face down into the mud. The state media spoke of aggressive "provocateurs" among the demonstrators, who launched themselves against the "defenceless" Omon, provoking with these statements an increasingly evident "Lukashenko effect" on the figure of Putin himself.

From his isolation dacha in Peredelkino Moscow, Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev) issued a statement to Tas on January 31. In his opinion, there is a problem of negative external influence on our youth Not infrequently our young people literally lose their minds, losing all direction in life. We must counter this influence with correct thoughts, with right convictions, which can act as an effective brake to any destructive influence.

The negative influences, according to Kirill, come from television and the internet: "If we want to ensure a bright future for our homeland, it is necessary to control the flow of information, which today overwhelms contemporary man, and to verify what ideals are carried by this flow".

Metropolitan Ilarion (Alfeev) also complained about the "involvement of children and adolescents in political actions, what constitutes an inadmissible violation of the civil legislative order, and I think that the guilty will have to take responsibility" - said Ilarion in a 'interview on Rossija-24 channel. The metropolitan however admitted that there are serious social problems, starting from the high level of corruption in "some" state structures, and compared the current situation to the riots of 1917, before the October revolution, when it appeared continuously " all kinds of propagandists, some inside the country, others were abroad, in quiet Switzerland, from which they organized the riots in Russia, and from there Lenin returned home to make the revolution, which we know what it led to . According to Ilarion, Naval'nyj would be the new Lenin who returns from Germany to destroy Russia, supported by Western sponsors. The Metropolitan of Pskov, Tikhon (Shevkunov), also recalled the times of the Bolshevik revolution, warning of the consequences that could come from the escalation of protests.

Many wonder if the unrest will continue to escalate, in the manner of Belarus in 2020 (the effects of which are still ongoing), and if the Navalnyi movement will be able to form a real political coalition that in the September elections contests the parliament to the Putinian party "United Russia" and its allies, who in turn could change direction.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada has a new agreement with airlines suspending travel to Mexico and the Caribbean due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada will mandate new COVID-19 travel restrictions

Canada's leading airlines WestJet and Air Canada will immediately impose and organize travel restrictions for those currently abroad. The government will also mandate new COVID-19 testing and three-day quarantine periods upon the arrival of travelers in Canada.

According to BBC News via Yahoo, the travel restrictions come after reports that many Canadians travel internationally this winter. On Friday, PM Trudeau said that new variants of the coronavirus pose a real challenge to the country. That's why they are taking extra measures.

Trudeau announced that WestJet, Air Canada, Sunwing, and Air Transat all agreed to suspend their flights to those famous "sun destinations" until April 30. All visitors will take a mandatory COVID-19 PCR test upon arrival at the airport. Aside from the required pre-boarding test, they also need to stay at government-approved hotels for up to three days at their own cost while waiting for the results.

Read also: Japan Discovers New UK COVID-19 Strains to Patients With No Travel History

The Prime Minister added that travelers could cost more than C$2,000 ($1,560) for the hotel stay. Those with negative COVID-19 results can continue their two week quarantine period at home. However, those who will be positive with the virus will be immediately required to extend quarantine in the designated government facilities to ensure that they do not carry potential COVID-19 variants, PM Trudeau explained.

The prime minister clarified the new travel restrictions aim to discourage all unnecessary and vacation travel, not just to the Caribbean and Mexico. "With the challenges we currently face with Covid-19, both here at home and abroad, we all agree that now is just not the time to be flying," he said.

Trudeau believes that by putting these strict measures, they can look forward to a better time when we can all plan those vacations."

Read also: Pregnant Women With COVID-19 Can Provide Their Babies With Antibodies, Study Reveals

Travelers will pay CA $2,000 for mandatory hotel quarantine

The stricter travel restrictions on travelers include a mandatory cost of $2,000 for multiple tests and hotel quarantine that will increase the 'surveillance' and ban all flights to the Caribbean and Mexico. Trudeau reiterates that the new measures are in response to the more contagious COVID-19 variants.

According to Daily Mail, all international passenger flights to Canada must land at any of four airports: Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, and Montreal, starting next week. The hotel stays that coils cost 2,000 Canadian dollars or around $1,576 US dollars for food, added security, and safety measures to protect staff.

Canada's chief public health officer Dr.Theresa Tam said, the cost is ballparking and is not like any other facilities. The government's provided facilities have to have infection prevention control measures, security, and additional charges. "It's not just a regular stay at a hotel." Dr.Tam explained that a test would also be required on the 10th day after people return.

As of midnight of February 3, 2021, Forbes reported that flights from the US, Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America would be funneled into only four Canadian airports, aside from proof of negative pre-departure COVID-19 test.

Read also: Trudeau: Canada's COVID-19 Vaccines are Safe from EU, Limiting Exports

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To evaluate the chemical composition of food from a physiological point of view, it is important to know the functions of the receptors that interact with food ingredients. These include receptors for bitter compounds, which first evolved during evolution in bony fishes such as the coelacanth. What 400 million years of evolutionary history reveal about the function of both fish and human bitter receptors was recently published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution by a team of researchers led by the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich and the University of Cologne.

Evolutionarily, bitter receptors are a relatively recent invention of nature compared to other chemoreceptors, such as olfactory receptors. Their function of protecting vertebrates from consuming potentially toxic substances has long been scientifically recognized. More recent are observations that bitter receptors have other functions beyond taste perception. These include roles in defense against pathogenic bacteria, in metabolic regulation, and possibly also functions as sensors for endogenous metabolites and hormones.

Coelacanth and zebrafish in comparison

The team of scientists led by biologists Sigrun Korsching of the University of Cologne and Maik Behrens of the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology now provides further evidence to support this hypothesis. In their current study, the team compared two original bitter receptor types from the coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) with four others from the zebrafish (Danio rerio) phylogenetically, functionally and structurally. To this end, the research team conducted, among other experiments, extensive functional studies using an established cell-based test system as well as a computer-based modeling approach. The goal was to gain a deep insight into the evolutionary history of bitter receptors in order to learn more about their functions.

As the study results show, both fish species possess, amongst others, a pair of homologous bitter receptor genes that presumably arose from a primordial gene. In this regard, the bitter recognition spectra of these fish receptors were largely identical despite 400 million years of separate evolution, according to the results of the functional studies. "What is particularly exciting about our results is that the original fish receptors recognized substances in the cellular test system which are still detected by human bitter receptors to date. These include bile acids," says co-author Antonella Di Pizio of the Leibniz Institute.

Over 400 million years of selection pressure

"So there must have been selective pressure at least until humans evolved, that means human bitter receptors can still detect the same bitter substances as a bony fish did over 400 million years ago," concludes taste researcher Maik Behrens. Sigrun Korsching adds, "This speaks for one or more important functions of bitter receptors, even during human evolution."

"Coelacanths are carnivores. Therefore, one could speculate that the existence of a bitter receptor variant that mainly recognizes steroid hormones and bile acids protects against the consumption of poisonous fish, which can contain not only bile acids but also highly potent neurotoxins in their liver and gallbladder. For example, the poisonous puffer fish Arothron hispidus lives in the same waters as the coelacanth," says Maik Behrens. "In humans and also in zebrafish, however, it is questionable whether such a receptor variant would have been preserved from an evolutionary point of view if it did not have other functions inside the body. Another argument in favor of such extraoral functions is that bitter receptors are also found on human organs such as the heart, brain or thyroid gland," Behrens added. One goal of his research is to help understand the effects of bitter substances on a systems biological level, regardless of whether they entered the body through food or whether they belong to the body's own substances.

###

Publication:

Contact:

Behrens M, Di Pizio A, Redel U, Meyerhof W, Korsching SI (2020) Genome Biol Evol, evaa264, DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evaa264. At the root of T2R gene evolution: Recognition profiles of coelacanth and zebrafish bitter receptors https:/ / academic. oup. com/ gbe/ advance-article/ doi/ 10. 1093/ gbe/ evaa264/ 6045956

Dr. habil. Maik Behrens

Section II, Unit Head Odor and Taste Systems Reception & Biosignals

Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the

Technical University of Munich (Leibniz-LSB@TUM)

Email: m.behrens.leibniz-lsb@tum.de

Dr. Antonella Di Pizio

Section III, Unit Head Molecular Modeling

Leibniz-LSB@TUM

Tel.: +49 816171 2904

Email: a.dipizio.leibniz-lsb@tum.de

Prof. Dr. Sigrun Korsching

Institute for Genetics

Department of Biology

University of Cologne (UzK)

Email: sigrun.korsching@uni-koeln.de

Press Contact:

leibniz-lsb. de

Information about the Institute

Dr. Gisela OliasKnowledge transfer, Press & Public RelationsLeibniz-LSB@TUMTel.: +49 8161 71-2980Email: g.olias.leibniz-lsb@tum.de

The Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (Leibniz-LSB@TUM) has a unique research profile. Its researchers combine methods of basic biomolecular research with analytical methods of bioinformatics and analytical high-performance technologies. Their goal is to decode the complex ingredient profiles from raw materials to the final food products and to elucidate their function as biological active molecules on humans. Based on their studies, the scientists develop products, which are as healthy as they are tasty. These foods will help to provide a sustainable and sufficient stream of food for future generations. In addition, the new scientific findings will be used to develop personalized nutritional concepts that, for example, help people with food intolerance without compromising quality of life and endangering their health.

The Leibniz LSB@TUM is a member of the Leibniz Association, which connects 96 independent research institutions. Their orientation ranges from the natural sciences, engineering and environmental sciences through economics, spatial and social sciences to the humanities. Leibniz Institutes devote themselves to social, economic and ecological issues. They conduct knowledge-oriented and application-oriented research, also in the overlapping Leibniz research networks, are or maintain scientific infrastructures and offer research-based services. The Leibniz Association focuses on knowledge transfer, especially with the Leibniz Research Museums. It advises and informs politics, science, business and the public. Leibniz institutions maintain close cooperation with universities - among others, in the form of the Leibniz Science Campuses, industry and other partners in Germany and abroad. They are subject to a transparent and independent review process. Due to their national significance, the federal government and the federal states jointly fund the institutes of the Leibniz Association. The Leibniz Institutes employ around 20,000 people, including 10,000 scientists. The entire budget of all the institutes is more than 1.9 billion euros.
RALEIGH, N.C., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Community Bank Services (CBS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the North Carolina Bankers Association (NCBA), has announced its recent endorsement of evolv, Inc. DBA Approval Payment Solutions (APS).

Community Bank Services

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evolv has helped brick-and-mortar businesses introduce online shopping and click-to-order solutions with cost-neutral credit card payment acceptance. evolv safeguards customer information with in-house Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards. A partnership with a reliable merchant services provider solidifies community merchants to their financial institution.

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About North Carolina Bankers Association (NCBA):

The North Carolina Bankers Association (NCBA) brings together all categories of banking institutions that best represent the interests of our rapidly changing state. Proudly serving North Carolina's banking industry since 1897, the NCBA is the professional trade organization providing advocacy, leadership, and support for its dynamic membership base.

The NCBA actively promotes the professional and educational development of its members and affiliate members and hosts countless annual events, conferences, and professional development programming. Through its government relations activities, the Association communicates with the North Carolina General Assembly, the U.S. Congress, and banking regulators on behalf of its member banks, savings institutions, and trust companies. The NCBA also provides media relations support and regulatory and compliance assistance.

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Vu The Binh, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, talked about what may be in store for the sector this year.

Vu The Binh, deputy chairman of Vietnam Tourism Association.

Vietnams tourism sector posted historically-low figures last year in almost all indicators. What are your notes of the last 12 months?

The number of foreign visitors in 2020 was down by nearly 80 per cent and domestic tourists by half. Vietnamese heading overseas tumbled 90 per cent. Some 40-60 per cent of workers in the sector lost their jobs.

Of all the tourism enterprises hit hard by the pandemic, I think travel agents suffered the most, as they are the go-betweens providing services to visitors.

Many travel agents closed and those that didnt have to let go of many of their staff.

There were 338 travel agents forced out of business -- three times higher than the number in 2019. Two hundred new enterprises, meanwhile, applied for business permits, a third more than in 2019.

Total revenue from tourism in 2020 was VND312,200 billion (US$14 million), or nearly 60 per cent of the figure in 2019.

Vietnam now has 3,339 travel agents, 2,519 of which are international and 820 domestic.

What does the Vietnam Tourism Association believe is needed to spark the sectors recovery?

Travel agents need to change and adapt to the new normal.

They must change their management and business methods to recover and protect their guests against any further outbreaks of the pandemic.

While the return of international tourists is still a long way off, they should review their tourism offerings and look to the domestic market.

Tourists have also changed their attitudes towards tourism and what they seek from a holiday.

So the tourism sector needs to almost start again from scratch, conducting research and changing offerings where appropriate. I think the sector can improve and change to meet shifting demand.

A lot has been said about digital transformation, but its not easy to determine where it should be applied.

Success and recovery from pan-pandemic wont come without thorough preparations by all involved.

DESERTED STREETS: Hoi An ancient town on July 28 last year - the middle of the tourist season. VNA/VNS Photo Trinh Bang Nhiem

What do you think should be the focus in the recovery efforts of travel agents?

The attitude and requirements of guests have changed a great deal over the last year, and careful study is needed to create suitable tourism products. This is the domain of travel agents, who will be the pioneers in a new tourism business.

All travel companies, though, must look at management re-structuring and gaining a thorough understanding of tourists needs.

They should focus on the domestic market, identifying different categories of tourists, such as high-end, medium-income, and budget, and then create different tourism products for each.

Travel agents need to create better products in tandem with other travel companies, targeting quality products rather than mass numbers of tourists.

What do you expect 2021 will hold for Vietnams tourism sector?

I think tourism will be among the first sectors to recover post-pandemic. Provided that we can control any new outbreak, tourism has the means to survive. The entire sector is waiting impatiently for the conditions to fall into place for it to rebound. New vaccines will also drive recovery.

But no one knows just yet when the pandemic will be fully brought under control around the world. We need to be well prepared for any eventuality. Travel agents should come together and maintain the human resources pool so they can recover when the opportunity presents itself. VNS

Restructuring the Vietnamese tourist market US$23 billion is the figure forecasted by experts on the level of damage to Vietnam's tourism industry in 2020. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism was one of the most affected industries.
Jaipur, Feb 2 : The infighting in the Rajasthan unit of BJP is out in open as a clear-cut fight is on between former CM Vasundhara Raje, who represents erstwhile royalty, and state BJP chief Satish Poonia, who represents the grass roots and is a known loyalist of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

Raje has been camping in Delhi for the last one week, meeting all top central BJP leaders while Poonia has been meeting the grass-roots workers in Rajasthan and chalking out strategies to win the Assembly polls in 2023.

Raje is anguished with the central and state leadership for denial of decent positions at any level to her camp followers while Poonia and his team are engaged in forming maximum number of boards after springing a surprise on the ruling Congress by winning 25 of the 90 boards and leaving the Congress with mere 19.

If sources are to be believed, Raje has been allotted a well-defined room with her name plate in the new BJP office in Delhi. However, she has not visited this office even once.

However, she is quite active on Twitter these days, offering comments on state politics.

Also, her followers recently floated a parallel platform called 'Team Vasundhara Raje 2023' wherein they are portraying her as the next CM face. However, Raje is all silence, neither accepting this group nor offering any denial.

Meanwhile, the central leadership, as per the BJP officials, are aware of all these developments, but are giving Raje respect by putting her on the BJP's high-powered core committee for the state unit, which accommodates both central and state unit teams.

BJP national General Secretary Arun Singh had instructed that the core group meetings must be held once a month. However, Raje was absent in the first meeting held on January 24.

While Raje is a topic of discussion for her absence in Rajasthan BJP office, her meetings with senior central leaders in Delhi is another talked-about subject.

Raje had an hour-long meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah late Monday evening which did led to another round of political buzz in the desert state.

In last one week, she has met BJP chief JP Nadda, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Rajasthan incharge Arun Singh.

Meanwhile, a BJP spokesperson told IANS: "She is a respected leader of our party and we want her to attend meetings and events and be a regular part of the state unit." However, in her absence, the work has not seen full stops. Rather, the party is busy strengthening its grass-roots leadership and chalked a strategy to reach each household ahead of the Assembly polls.

"We shall reach out to each person mentioned in the voters lists and will strengthen the personal bond with each voter. His challenges and his problems will be resolved by our leaders who will be assigned the task to look after each voter mentioned in the lists." This way, we shall strengthen our grass-roots leadership and make strong bonds with our people, said Poonia.

Meanwhile, an MLA from the Raje camp said: "She needs to do aggressive politics to ensure smooth sailing in this battle of one-upmanship. She basically follows an aristocratic style of politics and it is quite weak when it competes with grass-roots politics."
(Newser)  No one going to a coronavirus vaccination site has to worry about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal government announced Monday. All agencies "fully support equal access to the COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine distribution sites for undocumented immigrants," the Department of Homeland Security said. "It is a moral and public health imperative to ensure that all individuals residing in the United States have access to the vaccine." Immigration advocates had raised the possibility that immigrants in the US illegally would not want to provide personal information that could be used against them or put them at risk of arrest, per US News & World Report. DHS policy generally prohibits arrests at sensitive locations, a category that has included churches, hospitals, health clinics, and doctor's offices.

story continues below

The agency said everyone, "regardless of immigration status should receive a vaccination when they're eligible, per the AP. ICE hasn't said when immigrants in its custody will be vaccinated; several ICE detention centers have had coronavirus outbreaks. Immigrants are disproportionately represented among front-line workers, and public health officials have said immigration status shouldn't be a concern. "Vaccines are one of those things we make available no matter if youre a winter visitor or if youre visiting from another country, an Arizona official said, per USA Today. "We want to make sure we're protecting everybody." A researcher in Los Angeles said, "Imagine restaurants reopening when you havent also included the entire staff in your vaccination efforts." If undocumented people don't receive vaccine, he said, "It will put all of us at risk." (Read more coronavirus vaccine stories.)


'No questions raised on R-Day violence': Delhi top cop defends barricading at protest sites

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 02: Delhi Police Commissioner SN Srivastava on Tuesday defended multi-layered barricading at farmers protest sites saying that no one raised questions when police were attacked during the January 26 clashes in the city.

"I am surprised that when tractors were used, police were attacked, barricades were broken on January 26, no questions were raised. What did we do now? We have just strengthened barricading so that it's not broken again", Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava said when asked about the security arrangements at farmers protest site.

Earlier today, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the government over barricades and road blocks set up at farmer agitation sites at Delhi''s borders, and asked the Centre to "build bridges and not walls".

Farmers' protest sites at Delhi's borders have turned into fortresses with police beefing up security and strengthening barricades.

Iron rods have been hooked between two rows of cement barriers on a flank of the main highway at the Singhu border to further restrict the movement of protesters, agitating against the new farm laws.

Another portion of the highway at the Delhi-Haryana border is practically blocked as a makeshift cement wall has come up there.

At Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, there are multi-layer barricades to stop the movement of vehicles. Barbed wire has also been put up to keep off people on foot.

"Politics you are awesome, with wall raised on the way and spiked wire, you say lets talk)," Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi with hashtag #farmer #nahi-chahiye-BJP (no more BJP).

Farmer unions protesting against the three farm laws on Monday announced a countrywide ''chakka jam'' on February 6 when they would block national and state highways for three hours in protest against the Internet ban in areas near their agitation sites, harassment allegedly meted out to them by authorities, and other issues.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 18:18 [IST]
27 church leaders sue Scottish govt for criminalizing in-person worship

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More than two dozen church leaders in Scotland have joined legal proceedings against the Scottish government, demanding a judicial review of tighter pandemic lockdown measures that have closed churches for in-person services and criminalize[ed] public worship.

The church leaders argue in a claim for judicial review that the coronavirus regulations imposed by the Scottish government this month are in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights [Articles 9 and 11] and the Scottish Constitution, according to a statement issued by the London-based Christian Legal Centre.

The claim is filed by 27 church leaders, including those from the Free Church of Scotland, the Church of Scotland and independent churches.

Scotlands First Minister Nicola Sturgeon issued the regulation that took effect on Jan. 8. According to the legal group, the regulation makes it a criminal offense in the highest tiers for churches to hold services in-person and, for example, to conduct baptisms.

On Jan. 15, a pre-action letter was sent to Scottish Ministers on behalf of the church leaders.

The Scottish Ministers have failed to appreciate that the closure of places of worship is a disproportionate step, and one which has serious implications for freedom of religion, they wrote. Scotland is the only nation in the United Kingdom that has closed places of worship at this present time and this action is also out of step with the restrictions that have been put in place in other countries.

The pastors also warned that the restrictions prohibit them from supporting the material, emotional and spiritual needs in their congregations and communities.

However, The Scottish Ministers rejected the claim in a response letter dated Dec. 22 from the Scottish Government Legal Directorate. The letter contends that the state can regulate the secular activities of Churches  for the purposes of protecting public health.

But the Christian Legal Centre argues that there had been no attempt to close churches in Scotland since the persecution of the Presbyterian church, instituted by the Stuart kings, in the 17th century.

In the legal filing, the church leaders hold that public, corporate worship, involving the physical gathering together of Christians, is a fundamental and indispensable aspect of their religion. The leaders stressed that in the absence of the gathered people of God, there is effectively no church.

The Rev. Nathan Owens from Maxwell Church in Kilmaurs said in a statement that he serves several people in the vulnerable population. He said he had seen the dire consequences that have resulted from the shutdown of churches.

We think churches being open is not only a human right or a Scottish constitutional matter, but is one of the most vitally important ways our society can respond to this pandemic, Owens asserted.

Rev. William Philip, who leads the 500-member Tron Church in Glasgow City Centre, warned that the poorest, the oldest, and those most vulnerable do not have access to his churchs remote broadcasts.

They are excluded completely from the possibility of Christian worship, and the comfort and encouragement in life and death only this can give, Philip said in a statement.

Pastor John William-Noble of Grace Baptist Church in Aberdeen points out that churches recognize the pandemic as a very serious matter and have followed a number of guidelines given by the government in order to protect health and safety.

Churches have demonstrated that they are one of the most COVID-secure parts of society, he said.

The Christian Legal Centre quoted microbiologist Ian Blenkharn, who described the lockdown strategy as illogical.

It is illogical to propose that church premises can be used for blood donor sessions, food banks, and other social support activities, and if required for COVID-19 testing and vaccination activities, but not for public worship, Blenkharn was quoted as saying.

There are no barriers to the safe opening of churches for worship, he added.

Indeed, there is an overwhelming and unavoidable comparator that church services present no additional risk of COVID-19 coronavirus infection than would the many different commercial activities in the manufacturing, supply, and retail sectors, etc. that are now permitted to operate, Blenkharn said.
Digital shift: Asos doesnt plan to keep any of the brands physical stores. Photo: REUTERS/Toby Melville

Thousands of Topshop store staff were only officially informed that their jobs were likely to go two hours after Asos announced their 295 million takeover of the brand, the PA news agency understands.

Angry workers flooded social media complaining that they found out the online giant would not be buying stores  and saving their jobs  via Twitter and through media reports.

Asos announced the deal to save the Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands at 7am, and by 7.45am the online retailer sent out a tweet welcoming Topshop and Topman to the Asos family.

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But it took Deloitte until 9am to inform around 2,500 staff at 70 remaining Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge stores that they would not be part of the acquisition, the PA news agency understands.

Administrators later confirmed that only about 300 jobs would be saved as part of the deal.

The rumours are true... @Topshop & @Topman are now part of the ASOS family   ASOS (@ASOS) February 1, 2021

It is understood that these staff are highly likely to be made redundant, although some workers could be retained for a short period to process remaining stock, which has been bought by Asos, and send from stores.

About 13,000 jobs were put at risk when Arcadia first tumbled into administration at the start of December.

Online retailer Boohoo is also in exclusive talks to buy Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton brands, in a move which will also not include stores.
WASHINGTON - House Democrats made their case to convict former president Donald Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in a sweeping impeachment brief filed with the Senate on Tuesday, accusing Trump of jeopardizing the foundations of American democracy by whipping his supporters into a "frenzy" for the sole purpose of retaining his hold on the presidency.

In the brief, the House's nine impeachment managers made a case that Trump was "singularly responsible" for the mayhem, accusing him of "a betrayal of historic proportions." They argued that he is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, the threshold for conviction laid out in the Constitution, primarily because he used the powers of his office to advance his personal political interests at the expense of the nation.

To bolster their case, the managers turned to the words and actions of the country's founders, citing passages from the Federalist Papers and contrasting Trump's efforts to stay in office despite his electoral loss with George Washington's insistence upon relinquishing the presidency after two terms in the interest of preserving democracy.

"The Framers of the Constitution feared a President who would corrupt his office by sparing 'no efforts or means whatever to get himself re-elected,' " the House Democrats wrote, adding: "They were well aware of the danger posed by opportunists who incited mobs to violence for political gain. They drafted the Constitution to avoid such thuggery, which they associated with 'the threat of civil disorder and the early assumption of power by a dictator.' "

"If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a Joint Session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense," they wrote, "it is hard to imagine what would be."

Washington Post photo by Bill O'Leary.

Hours later, Trump's new defense attorneys filed a 14-page response to the House article of impeachment, denying that Trump incited the crowd at his Jan. 6 rally to storm the Capitol and "engage in destructive behavior."

While the former president's attorneys stopped short of embracing his baseless claims that the election was rigged, they defended his right to argue that massive fraud led to his defeat, a false claim echoed by his supporters as they ransacked the Capitol that day.

Democrats drew a direct line between Trump's rhetoric and the violence. But Trump's defense team argued that free-speech protections allowed him to make such allegations without penalty.

"The 45th President exercised his First Amendment right under the Constitution to express his belief that the election results were suspect," the brief states.

"Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th President's statements were accurate or not, and he therefore denies they were false," his attorneys added.

The twin filings offer a preview of how the two sides will present their cases when the Senate trial begins Feb. 9. A majority of GOP senators have signaled their plans to acquit Trump. But House Democrats made clear that they intend to force Republicans to contemplate the terror of the Jan. 6 attack, which led to the deaths of one Capitol Police officer and four rioters. In addition, two officers, one with District of Columbia police, have since died by suicide.

The impeachment managers argued that Trump laid the groundwork for the insurrection in the preceding weeks with his relentless attacks on the integrity of the election and attempts to subvert the results through pressure on state officials.

Trump's defense team rejected that claim, addressing an episode cited in the House impeachment article in which he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, early this year to discuss that state's election results.

They argued that Trump's exhortation during the Jan. 2 phone call that Raffensperger "find" the votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory was simply an expression of the president's belief that a careful examination of the evidence would produce a more accurate vote count that favored Trump.

David Schoen, one of Trump's new attorneys, told The Washington Post in interviews this week that he did not plan to put forward a defense based on allegations of election fraud, a strategy Trump was said to be pushing his previous legal team to embrace.

On Tuesday, Democrats seized on the defense filing's references to Trump's fraud claims, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saying that by citing baseless allegations Trump's attorneys proved that "they have no argument against the charges."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., meanwhile, said he plans to listen to the arguments next week. Although McConnell voted last week with most Republicans on an unsuccessful motion to declare an impeachment of a former president unconstitutional, on Tuesday he said, "I think that is an interesting constitutional question."

In their brief, the Democratic managers cited Trump's behavior during the insurrection, when he initially did nothing to quell the rioters. They cited Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who said senior White House aides told him Trump was "delighted" at the mayhem he was watching on television.

There is no evidence, the brief added, that Trump called Vice President Mike Pence or any legislative leaders "to check on their safety during the attack."

In fact, lawmakers and other allies called, texted or tweeted at Trump to implore him to step in and help restore order, the Democrats noted - evidence that they believed Trump was responsible for the violence and had the power to stop it.

In their response, Trump's attorneys insisted that he never attempted to interfere with the counting of the electoral college votes in a joint session of Congress that day.

When Trump encouraged the rallygoers to go to the Capitol and "fight like hell," the attorneys wrote, it had nothing to do with "the action at the Capitol" but "was clearly about the need to fight for election security in general."

As Trump concluded his speech that day, he told the crowd, "We're going to the Capitol," adding: "We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country."

Democrats noted in their brief that one call Trump did make to the Capitol during the unrest was intended for a close ally, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. - not to check on his well-being but to "try to persuade him to delay and further obstruct" the count.

Trump's attorneys did not dwell on the mayhem itself, whereas the Democratic managers used dramatic imagery captured by cellphone footage and media reports of "terrified" lawmakers trapped inside the building who "prayed and tried to build makeshift defenses while rioters smashed the entryway.' "

In their brief, managers compiled what had unfolded inside the Capitol that day: members donning gas masks and calling loved ones for fear that they would not survive the assault; Capitol Police officers dragging furniture to barricade the House chamber; the staff of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hiding under a table with the lights out for hours as they listened to the rioters just outside the door.

"One Member asked his chief of staff to protect his visiting daughter and son-in-law 'with her life' - which she did by standing guard at the door clutching a fire iron while his family hid under a table," the brief stated, in a reference to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the lead impeachment manager.

House managers are hoping to call witnesses in next week's trial, including possibly police officers who fought to fend off the attackers. The prospect of injured police officers describing the brutality of pro-Trump rioters to Republicans who regularly present themselves as advocates of law enforcement could make for an extraordinary nationally televised scene. The mob injured more than 140 police officers, many seriously.

However, Senate Democrats and Republicans alike are reluctant to allow witnesses because it would extend the trial's length, possibly by weeks. Democrats have said they are eager to focus their attention on President Biden's agenda, while Republicans are ready to change the subject from Trump's role in the Jan. 6 riot, which has divided the GOP ranks.

Tuesday's brief methodically laid out the Democrats' legal argument for conviction. In addition to asserting that Trump is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, the impeachment managers argued that Trump is not protected by the First Amendment's freedom-of-speech provision, which was never intended, they wrote, to allow a president to "provoke lawless action if he loses at the polls."

Democrats also rejected the claim embraced by many Republicans that it is unconstitutional to convict a president after he has left office - an argument that Trump's attorneys made reference to multiple times in their brief.

"There is no 'January Exception' to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution," the House Democrats wrote. "A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last."

To bolster their case, the managers cited examples in which the Senate had tried officials who had already left office - albeit none of them presidents - and a lineup of conservative officials and scholars to make the point that departing or resigning is not a way of escaping culpability.

Plus, they argued, "because President Trump was in office at the time he was impeached," the Senate has no choice but to proceed.

The managers pointed to Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which reads that "the Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments."

They quoted Michael McConnell, a former appeals court judge appointed by President George W. Bush: "The key word is 'all.' . . . It does not say 'the Senate has power to try impeachment against sitting officers.' "

The argument probably will be a pivotal one after 45 of the 50 Republican senators voted last week to support a resolution from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that sought to declare that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office.

Trump's attorneys and his supporters in the Senate are expected to further drill at the argument that the trial is invalid. Such an argument is expected to be embraced by many GOP senators who are loath to weigh in on the question of whether Trump incited the riot.

The managers' brief warns that the consequences of taking such a procedural exception to the case before them would be dire.

"If the Senate does not try President Trump (and convict him) it risks declaring to all future Presidents that there will be no consequences, no accountability, indeed no Congressional response at all if they violate their Oath to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution' in their final weeks," the managers wrote.

House Democrats said Trump's embrace of baseless accusations that the 2020 election was stolen from him helped foment his supporters' attack on the Capitol. When those false assertions failed to overturn the election, the Democrats wrote, Trump "summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue."

They added, "The Framers themselves would not have hesitated to convict on these facts."

The House impeachment managers urged senators to bar Trump from serving again in elected office: "This is not a case where elections alone are a sufficient safeguard against future abuse; it is the electoral process itself that President Trump attacked and that must be protected from him and anyone else who would seek to mimic his behavior. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a case that more clearly evokes the reasons why the Framers wrote a disqualification power into the Constitution."

- - -

The Washington Post's Tom Hamburger and Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.
The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) announces the holding of a National Agricultural Fair from February 12-14, 2021 at the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) in Suakoko, Bong County, Liberia after 12 years of dormancy.

The MoA is planning and executing the Fair in collaboration with the Ministries of Internal Affairs, State for Presidential Affairs, Gender, Children and Social Protection along with the Cooperative Development Agency.

Agriculture Minister Jeanine Milly Cooper has named Deputy Agriculture Minister for Administration, Honourable Precious Tetteh, to lead the coordination and planning of the Fair.

"Investing in Agriculture for Prosperity & Development" is the theme for this year's Fair as agricultural development is an essential component in current five-year Liberia's national development agenda, the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD).

His Excellency, President George M. Weah, places enormous importance on driving Liberia's agriculture sector as a major engine of growth and he will interact with farmers and stakeholders at the Fair to work out means of moving the sector forward.

"Taking Stock of What We Have", is one of the goals of Minister Jeanine Milly Cooper to transform the agriculture sector since as appointment as Minister of Agriculture a year ago.

The Fair will be an excellent forum to assess the food and tree crops grown in Liberia; there will be competition among counties on their locally grown products and prizes awarded.

Additionally, Liberian agribusinesses will also showcase their plant-based products -food, drinks and cosmetics -locally produced and are being exported. Farmers, agro-processors, agriculture concessionaires, development partners, financial institutions and agro value chain producers will also attend the fair.

Entirely planned and executed by United Nations agencies and international partners, the last Fair was held in 2008 in the Tubmanburg, Bomi County, 70 km west of the Liberian capital, Monrovia.

Liberia's Agriculture Law, enacted in the 1970s, mandates the MoA to hold an annual National Agricultural Fair to showcase agriculture produce grown in the country.-
Minister of Health Paulette Lenert stated that she wants to create a major national health plan, without a hierarchy of diseases.

The care of patients with mental illnesses needs to be greatly improved in Luxembourg, according to an external analysis of the National Suicide Prevention Plan presented on Tuesday.

People suffering from mental health problems often have to wait too long to receive treatment. The emergency room is not really adapted to the needs of those struggling with dark thoughts, and particularly also for elderly people with mental health problems.

According to figures published by the Ministry of Health, the suicide mortality rate was 11.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017. In 2018, 58 people committed suicide in Luxembourg.

Minister of Health Paulette Lenert had to concede that she had little time last year to deal with this issue because of the coronavirus pandemic. The report will also be discussed in the Chamber of Deputies.



Panaji, Feb 2 : The Rs 300 crore announced on Monday by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech to Goa for celebration of the 60th anniversary of Goa's liberation is mere compensation for compromising on the Mhadei water dispute with Karnataka, the Aam Aadmi Party in Goa alleged on Tuesday.

"The Rs 300 crore announced by the Centre for Goa is nothing but a compensation for the compromise on the Mhadei issue," Goa AAP convenor Rahul Mahambre told reporters after a party delegation met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant at the latter's official residence in Panaji.

"The Chief Minister had announced that he would lead an all-party delegation to New Delhi to discuss the Mhadei issue with the central government. We have demanded that as AAP is an active political party in Goa with mass support, we should be allowed to participate in the delegation too," Mahambre said.

The Mhadei dispute controversy has spurted once again this week, after a former state government counsel in the Supreme Court said that he had been directed by the government to not object to Karnataka's plea in the apex court in 2019 seeking notification of the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal.

The subsequent gazette notification formalised the terms of the Tribunal's award, which have already been challenged by the Goa government through a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.

"This government has compromised on the Mhadei issue. The river is regarded as mother in Goa because of its water that flows through most of North Goa," Mahambre said.

The Opposition has already demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, accusing him of compromising Goa's interests in the river water dispute with Karnataka.

Mhadei, also known as the Mandovi river in Goa and Mahadayi in Karnataka, is considered as a lifeline in the northern parts of Goa. It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through Maharashtra.

While the river runs 28.8 km in Karnataka, it is over 50 km in length in Goa. Goa and Karnataka are battling out a two decade-long dispute over the sharing of the Mhadei waters.
For silver-focused mineral companies, the excitement surrounding prices puts the metal sharply into focus in a way that has more often been associated with gold

Silver is taking over the mantle from GameStop Corp ( ) to become the latest Wall Street darling.

Following last weeks market frenzy surrounding GameStop and other heavily-shorted stocks, retail traders are turning their focus to the precious metal. Silver futures soared close to 13% on Monday, hitting eight-year highs to reach around US$28 an ounce. Unlike GameStop and its ilk, however, the surging silver price could have strong fundamentals to back it up.

In many ways, silvers a good one to choose, Mining Capitals Alastair Ford wrote on Monday. How exactly it is priced is open to question. Theres the gold-silver ratio, which argues that silver should always be priced relative to gold. So far so good, except silver often lags, as gold is the go-to metal for safe-haven seekers who only turn to silver once the price action in gold is beginning to peter out.

Whats more, Ford wrote, silver also has an industrial application. Industrial buyers of silver eventually and effectively put a stop to the last major attempt to manipulate the silver market in 1980.

Its a different kettle of fish this time around, as silver roars up to an eight-year high, given that its lots of little fish driving the price, rather than a small cabal of big ones, Ford wrote.

Silver in focus

For silver-focused mineral companies, the excitement surrounding prices puts the metal sharply into focus in a way that has more often been associated with gold.

Overall, I think the current market attention is positive for silver and silver companies as it raises awareness of the commodity and its markets, particularly amongst an entirely new group of investors who clearly have significant influence, s (NYSE:SVM) ( ) vice president Lon Shaver told Proactive.

Silver is unique in that it performs like gold, a precious metal, but it also has industrial roles, including in the electrification of our economy and the more people that understand that the better.

The China-focused silver miner saw its shares surge 25.7% on Monday to hit C$10.37 in Toronto and 25.4% in New York to close at US$8.10. In a wider market trend, shares cooled slightly on Tuesday to close at C$8.58 in Toronto and US$6.69 in New York.

Stability not volatility

Its not just the producers that are seeing a lift in share prices. Investors are clearly excited about development companies as well, which could be a sign that they believe the longer-term fundamentals are strong.

Vancouver-based junior Ltd ( ) (OTCMKTS:GRSLF) was up 12.2% on Monday in Toronto at C$0.83, in part due to a fortuitous announcement that saw the company ink a deal to acquire Ltd from Mako Mining Corp ( ). Shares eased on Tuesday to close at C$0.78 in Toronto.

Commenting on the silver price movement, CEO Marcio Fonseca told Proactive that the price movement was very positive.

(Im) happy to see current market reactions based not only on the expected re-rating on silver price, but on how this is driving the interest (in) a broad range of investors to silver mining stocks, Fonseca said.

While the publicity is certainly bringing more interest and investors to the space, Fonseca cautioned that it could be a double-edged sword and bring more volatility in the coming weeks.

What we see in the silver mining stocks at the moment could be a short term blip in pricing versus changes in market fundamentals, Fonseca added. But I think it is positive to increase the awareness and interest in the sector.

Ralph Rushton, CEO at South America-focused Ltd ( ) (OTCMKTS:AAGFF), also offered a more tempered opinion on the metals surging prices. Aftermath is another beneficiary, seeing a 21.6% rise in its share price on Monday to close at C$1.52 in Toronto, and closed at C$1.33 on Tuesday.

From the silver junior perspective, volatility is great for the traders and in the short term, for our shareholders, nobody can be upset with a 15-20% gain on their favourite silver stock in a single trading session, Rushton said.

However, longer-term, once a company is beginning to think about the engineering side of the projects, moving to feasibility studies for example, you need to be able to take an educated guess at the long term equilibrium price for your commodity.

Rushton said he would prefer price stability, or a slow and steady increase in prices in order to successfully gauge the projects economics. Financial modelling of projects becomes a sensitivity nightmare if youre seeing wild swings in silver price.

The jury is still out on whether investors are willing to go long on silver, but for a commodity that has often been overshadowed by gold  the yellow metal  silver companies are relishing their turn in the spotlight.

It may or may not be the Reddit craze of the week, said Mining Capitals Alastair Ford. But actually, silver represents a sound investment in its own right anyway. Sounder than fiat currencies, sounder than GameStop, and certainly sounder than Robinhood IPO stock.

--Updates share prices--

Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas
(Newser)  Deborah Archer, a professor at New York University School of Law with expertise in civil rights and racial justice, has become the first Black person in the 101-year history of the American Civil Liberties Union to be elected its president. The ACLU announced Monday that Archer was elected over the weekend in a virtual meeting of the organizations 69-member board of directors, the AP reports. She succeeds Susan Herman, a professor at Brooklyn Law School who had served as president since 2008. As the ACLUs eighth president since 1920, Archer will act as chair of its board of directors, overseeing organizational matters and the setting of civil liberties policies. The fight against racial injustice is expected to be a top priority.

story continues below

During former President Trumps four years in office, the ACLU filed an unprecedented 413 lawsuits and other legal actions against his administration, challenging policies related to immigrant rights, voting rights, LGBT rights, racial justice and other issues. "The ACLU has proven itself as an invaluable voice in the fight for civil rights in the last four years ... and we are better positioned than ever to face the work ahead," Archer said. The ACLUs day-to-day operations are managed by its executive directora post currently held by Anthony Romero. "There is no one better equipped, who best personifies or is more capable to helm the future battles for civil rights, civil liberties, and systemic equality than Deborah Archer," Romero says.

(Read more ACLU stories.)

Perth families who lost their homes to a bushfire sparked on Monday have described their devastation, with one family having moved to their dream country home just two months ago.

By Wednesday, the Wooroloo fires had claimed 71 homes with no loss of life. They had spread over more than 9200 hectares of land north-east of the city.

The fires have forced hundreds into evacuation centres and friends homes during a COVID-19 lockdown, and sent more than 250 firefighters to a fire measuring 80 kilometres around. Across Perth, ash rained from an orange-tinted sky even in coastal suburbs 50 kilometres away.

WA Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm urged people to prioritise the preservation of life, even amid Perths five-day coronavirus lockdown.
The order came days after the Sindh government filed a review petition in the apex court against the acquittal of Sheikh and his three accomplices in the murder of the WSJ South Asia bureau chief

Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered to shift British-born Al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the main accused in the sensational kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, from the death row cell to a rest house run by the government.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial ordered Sheikh, 46, to be transferred to the general barracks for two days following which he should be shifted to a government rest house by Friday under tight security, where his family will be able to visit from 8am to 5 pm, officials said.

However, he will not have access to a mobile phone or internet. The government will pay for his family's accommodation and transport.

The court said that Sheikh would be under guard and not allowed to leave the place where he would be kept.

However, the court again rejected the government's appeal to suspend the Sindh High Courts verdict on the acquittal of the accused and asked it to file an appeal against the high court's decision.

Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story in 2002 on the links between the country's powerful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda.

In April 2020, a two-judge Sindh High Court bench commuted the death sentence of Sheikh to seven years imprisonment. The court also acquitted his three aides who were serving life terms in the case: almost two decades after they were found guilty and jailed.

The Sindh government and the family of Pearl filed petitions in the apex court, challenging the high court verdict.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court dismissed their appeals against the acquittal of Sheikh and ordered his release, a judgment denounced by the American journalist's family as "a complete travesty of justice."

The US government has asked Pakistan government to ensure that those involved in murdering Pearl should be punished.

The Sindh government on Friday filed a review petition in the apex court against the acquittal of Sheikh and his three accomplices.

Voicing outrage over the acquittal of Sheikh and his aides, the White House asked Pakistan to expeditiously review its legal options, including allowing the US to prosecute them to secure justice for Pearls family.

Amid mounting pressure from the US and the UN, a spokesman of the Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) on Saturday announced that the federal government will file an appropriate application before the apex court to be allowed to join as a party in the proceedings and further seek review and recall of the court's 28 January judgjudment.

The apex court on Monday rejected the government's request to suspend the order to release Sheikh and his three aides, Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saqib, in the case but extended their interim detention order by one day to hear the government's position on the case.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the Attorney General of Pakistan told the court that Sheikh is not an ordinary accused, but a mastermind of terrorists and that he will disappear if released to which Justice Bandial asked him if it has been proved that Sheikh was involved in terrorist activities.

The attorney-general said that the federation has the power to detain dangerous criminals but bench member Justice Sajjad Ali Shah said that Sheikh had already been illegally detained.

"The court cannot legalise your illegal actions," Justice Shah told the attorney-general.

Justice Munib Akhtar said it was not the dark ages that an accused should remain in jail even after 18 years.

The court then ordered immediate removal of Sheikh from the death row cell. The court adjourned the case indefinitely.

The Pakistan government is scrambling to keep Sheikh in custody after the top court had ordered to release him if he was not wanted in any other case.

The pressure mounted on Pakistan after US secretary of state Antony Blinken called foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to demand justice for Pearl.

Pearl's murder took place three years after Sheikh, along with Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, was released by India in 1999 and given safe passage to Afghanistan in exchange for the nearly 150 passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814.

He was serving a prison term in India for kidnappings of Western tourists in the country.
The Rev. Randolph Simmons and his nonprofit see potential in a home nobody wants.

Its a chance to restore what is broken, to hire the unemployed, to give shelter to those who have none.

The veterans nonprofit group, We Agape You Inc., where he serves as president, finds such potential each time they renovate a home, Simmons said Thursday while checking out a tax sale listing in Hazleton. In the process, they remove blight from neighborhoods that may lure crime, he said.

After nine years of renovations, he wants to add Greater Hazleton to the list of communities where Agape does its work, and hes eager to work with existing community groups and local government, too.

You have a great town here, he said.

One of his veteran workers, Richard Trexler, said the area has a lot to offer, and removing blight will only make it better.

This town has a lot of heart in it yet, Trexler said.

The group purchases homes at tax sale or accepts donations of unwanted homes and then hires unemployed military veterans to do the work. Each project can employ up to 20 people.

The finished homes are sold, donated or rented to veterans or others in need, and Simmons tries to set up the renovation workers with permanent employment.

Agapes most recent home rehabilitation project was dedicated Tuesday in Pottsville, and it will be rented to veterans in need. A family donated the home of their late father, who was an Air Force veteran, to the cause.

The IRS allows donors tax credit for fair market value when they give to a nonprofit, Simmons said.

We Agape You workers toiled in the house for more than a month behind the belief that no veteran should be subject to unemployment, homelessness and hunger. Agape hopes fulfilling those basic needs will decrease the veteran suicide rate in the country.

The word Agape is Greek, Simmons said, and means the fatherly love of God for humanity and humanitys love for God.

Properties have also come their way through tax sales after people learn that donating the home will allow them the possibility to remove judgements and liens, Simmons said. By donating the property, the owner is removing themselves from dealing with more financial problems and violations, he said.

Businesses and churches of all denominations donate, too. They send gift cards and materials, even slightly damaged major appliances.

Were a pure nonprofit, he said proudly. That includes having no administrative costs associated with the group, which is based in Schuylkill Haven and Reading.

Were just working people

Simmons is passionate about his work with veterans. It became his mission after becoming an ordained Baptist minister in Reading about 10 years ago.

He listens intently when someone speaks and waits for the moment when he can ask them to pitch in on the next project. The veterans on his job sites are treated the same. He lets them talk while at the same time handing out a broom or tool.

Veterans may have witnessed a traumatic event and, added to that stress, their benefits may take a while to come through upon their return home, Simmons said. He watched his father and brother struggle to get theirs and has seen how therapeutic it is for veterans to be with their peers, and to talk.

Hes met people carrying around so much despair in his mission theyve planned take their own lives, but after a days work, something changes in them and they can be found joking with their coworkers, Simmons said.

Were just working people, he said.

Everyone has a place on his job sites, whether or not they have a certain skill set. There are people painting and hanging dry wall and people in charge of taking out the trash. During their shifts, veterans are fed.

Simmons gets thanks from the veterans and neighbors.

There are good people who care. When they see you every day doing your job and then that eyesore is no longer an eyesore, he said smiling.

Simmons got into veterans outreach with his wife, Liz, about 10 years ago when they started food banks in Reading, where he grew up.

They did it  to give a hand up, he said.

But, it took one Marine to show him they could approach veterans issues in a different way. We need jobs, the Marine told Simmons in a crowded room of local dignitaries and the press.

I took him seriously, Simmons said.

He shut down the food banks and began working to get veterans jobs and houses through We Agape You. They went to job fairs, businesses and places like CareerLink to spread their message and set up veterans who worked on their projects with permanent work, Simmons said.

Saviors need saving

Trexler grew up in Tamaqua and found his way to military life. He served with the Army military police and conducted investigations on violent crimes, including child abuse and rape, for about nine years. He thought he was tougher than the scenarios he was forced to witness.

I always thought I was the guy who could handle it, he said. Then, the nightmares started.

His routine was gone when military life ended. He was no longer in charge of so many people and millions of dollars worth of equipment. He turned to alcohol as a sleep aid and he was taking prescription pills. He found it in himself to quit cold turkey, and saw his way out.

Trexler, now of Frackville, admittedly is still a work in progress, but things began to look brighter a little over a year ago when he met Simmons.

Simmons, of course, asked him if hed like some work and Trexler decided to give it a shot for the day. Trexler was honest with Simmons that hed need guidance. All Simmons told him was to stick with him, Trexler said.

Trexler again had purpose.

He returns the kindness by helping other veterans, and waking up every morning ready to take on the day.

So far, hes overseen projects in Schuylkill Haven, Port Carbon, Reading and Pottsville.

For more information on We Agape You, email weagapeyou@gmail.com or check out their website at www.weagapeyou.org.
The fast-tracked effort to fully immunize personal care home residents against COVID-19 by the end of February will have little effect on hospitalization rates in Manitoba  a key indicator for easing public health restrictions  as the pandemic slows in some parts of the province.

The fast-tracked effort to fully immunize personal care home residents against COVID-19 by the end of February will have little effect on hospitalization rates in Manitoba  a key indicator for easing public health restrictions  as the pandemic slows in some parts of the province.

Acting deputy chief provincial public health officer Dr. Jazz Atwal said of the more than 1,900 people admitted to hospital with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, fewer than 10 per cent were personal care home residents.

"I think that theres this misconception that (care home) residents occupy, or have occupied, a lot of our hospital beds," Atwal said on Tuesday.

"The majority of our hospitalized cases were community cases, people living on their own, the vast majority of them."

The doctor said patients of all ages have been admitted to hospital for treatment, with those 50 or older making up most of the hospitalizations so far. Many people who require hospital treatment also have underlying conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, Atwal said.

As of Saturday, immunizations had been offered at all 125 licensed personal care homes in Manitoba and an estimated 8,112 doses had been distributed. Residents will receive their second dose by Feb. 28.

While care home residents make up a small proportion of the provinces COVID-19 hospitalizations, they represent nearly half of the 832 reported deaths.

The difference may be influenced by residents and families choosing not to go to hospital for treatment, Atwal said.

"So the vaccine protects (care home) residents from getting the infection, obviously it will also prevent hospitalizations, but the greatest impact there is preventing deaths in that population," he said.

On Tuesday, the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital decreased slightly to 254 admissions, including 36 in intensive care. Of those, 99 had active infections.

Meanwhile, the province reported 83 new cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, 53 of which were in the Northern health region. Just 18 infections were identified in Winnipeg, with five each in the Interlake-Eastern and Prairie Mountain regions and two in the Southern Health region, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the province to 29,733.

The provincewide five-day test positivity rate was 7.6 per cent and 4.1 per cent in Winnipeg. An additional 1,410 tests were done Monday. As of Tuesday, no SARS-CoV-2 variants had been detected in the province.

The province did not report any death statistics Tuesday due to a data reset meant to improve accuracy in reporting.

So far, Atwal said the province has not noted "much of an increase" in infections that could be attributed to the easing of restrictions on Jan. 23.

"It still might be a little bit early because there is always some hesitancy right off the bat for people to partake in some activities," Atwal said. "But obviously, people are partaking in activities whether they're outdoors skating or skiing, or going to retail, etc."

"Things have improved, for sure. We still need that trend to continue. We still want to keep our hospitalization numbers down."

Should case counts remain low and acute-care capacity continue to improve, public health will look at further easing restrictions, Atwal said. However, he reinforced the public health message to follow COVID-19 prevention orders and to stay home except for essential reasons, adding that just because a shopping centre or salon is open, "doesnt mean you should go or you have to go."

"It is nice to see our numbers come down. It is nice to see Manitobans uniting and working together to come to a point where were able to reverse course a little bit and start opening things up," Atwal said.

"Its incumbent again upon all of us to almost look at ourselves, look at our families, look at our friends, look at our neighbours and hold each other in check here, if we want to continue to look at opening things up and ensuring that we arent having excess deaths related to COVID-19," he said.

The province has declared a new outbreak at St. Boniface Hospital unit B5, and the unit has been moved to critical on Manitobas pandemic response system.

Outbreaks at Oakview Personal Care Home in Winnipeg and Rest Haven Personal Care Home in Steinbach have been declared over. In Winnipeg, 16 care homes reported active outbreaks with 24 active infections in residents and 13 in staff, as of Tuesday. Winnipeg Regional Health Authority clinical staff is providing oversight at Southeast Personal Care Home and Concordia Place care home.

 with files from Julia-Simone Rutgers

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
The Louisiana Department of Health reported 1,654 more confirmed coronavirus cases and 35 more confirmed deaths in its noon update Tuesday.

There have been 90,334 more vaccine doses administered in Louisiana since the last update on Thursday. The total number of administered doses is nearing 500,000.

Since Dec. 14, the state has administered a total of 487,705 vaccine doses.

The state releases data on vaccinations twice a week, as part of its regular updates on coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The initial doses are the first of two -- spaced three weeks apart -- required for immunity.

Here's where coronavirus vaccines will be available in Louisiana this week Doses of coronavirus vaccine will be available to eligible individuals in every Louisiana parish this week.

The number of hospitalizations increased by 35, and the number of patients in need of ventilators increased by two.

There are also 51,917 total "probable" coronavirus cases in Louisiana, according to the agency's dashboard.

These are another few key statewide statistics as of Tuesday:

Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Total confirmed cases: 352,277

Total "probable" cases: 51,917

Total confirmed deaths: 8,375

Currently hospitalized: 1,440

Currently on ventilators: 189

Vaccine series initiated: 384,047 (updated twice weekly)

Vaccine series completed: 487,705

Presumed recovered: 344,321 as of Jan. 25 (updated weekly)

Note: The Advocate and The Times-Picayune staff calculates daily case count and confirmed death increases based on the difference between today's total and yesterday's total of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths. The Louisiana Department of Health releases a daily case count on its dashboard that includes probable cases as indicated by a positive antigen test. That case count can be different than the one listed here.

Here are some of the parishes with the highest single-day increase in confirmed coronavirus cases, based on the Tuesday report:

Jefferson: 206

East Baton Rouge: 198

Orleans: 198

Tangipahoa: 104

St. Tammany: 100

You can view more graphs and charts breaking down the data by clicking here.

Louisiana began reopening for Phase 1 on May 15-16 then moved to Phase 2 on June 5. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards extended Louisiana's Phase 2 restrictions twice in August before moving the state to Phase 3 on Sept. 11. The governor then moved the state back to a modified Phase 2 near the end of November.

This is a developing story. More details and analysis to come.
VERONA - Juliet's House in Verona, a popular destination for tourists and couples in love, reopened on Tuesday along with the reopening of civic museums.



The public can once again visit the famous balcony of Shakespeare's heroine, from 11 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday.



Juliet's House will remain closed on weekends in compliance with the Italian government's decree establishing measures for yellow zones.



Thanks to the contribution of Verona businessman Giuseppe Manni, former president of the Friends of Civic Museums, the Pietro Roi work titled "Giulietta" is now part of the civic collection, and with the reopening of museums the public can admire it in the permanent exhibition at Juliet's House.



While awaiting the return of tourists to Verona, new works are on display at the Museum of Castelvecchio, including the Polyptych of San Luca, a Renaissance masterpiece by a Veronese carver purchased in summer 2020 by the Italian culture ministry and assigned to the Verona Civic Museums for exhibition.



Meanwhile, the Verona Arena amphitheatre, the Roman Theatre Archaeological Museum and the Maffeiano Museum all remain temporarily closed to the public due to renovation.
Review at a glance









D aniel Kaluuya gives a career-best performance (which rightly won a Golden Globe, and this week garnered a Bafta nomination) in this sly genre movie that director Shaka King likens to a Trojan horse. Kings using the language of war, but dont be scared.

The Black Messiah of the title is real-life Sixties revolutionary Fred Hampton (Kaluuya), who was assassinated by the police in 1969. Judas is William ONeal (LaKeith Stanfield), the apolitical grifter used by the FBI to aid and abet that killing.

The film begins with Hampton organising free breakfast programs and urging ordinary people, of all colours, to resist capitalism. His energy and eloquence alarms J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen), who arranges, via agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons), for ONeal to infiltrate the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.

Kaluuyas performance as Fred Hampton is electric / Warner Bros

As in so many undercover movies, ONeal lives in fear of having his cover blown, and the script, along with Stanfields crestfallen eyes and cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof good looks, encourages us empathise with a man who is patently doing the wrong thing. Hampton uses the word pig to describe individuals who collude in the oppression of the masses - by this definition, ONeal is a pig. Yet the character is so much more.

Kaluuya and Stanfield were both in Get Out, but only had one scene together. Here, they share oodles of screen time and every edgy, semi-bromantic interaction is riveting. The same goes for Kaluuyas set-pieces with Dominique Fishback, as Deborah Johnson, the young poet who discovers Freds shy side and becomes his soulmate.

Most astounding, though, is the chemistry between Kaluuya and Alysia Joy Powell, as the mother of a 19 year-old Black Panther member, Jake Winters (Algee Smith). When Hampton visits her after Jake is killed in a shoot-out, they discuss what the young mans legacy will be. Both Kaluuya and Powell have a way of going from nought to fraught, and in a film crammed with unspeakable pain, the quiet agony expressed in this scene stands out.

LaKeith Stanfields ONeil elicits our sympathy even while patently doing the wrong thing / Warner Bros

Kaluuya joins a list of Brits whove been cast as Black American icons (including David Oyelowo as MLK, Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman, and, most recently, Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X). A few Black American actors have expressed frustration with this trend, yet it feels perfect that Hampton, who despised nationalism, is being played by a man from Kentish Town.

Though filming took place in Cleveland, DP Sean Bobbitt (who did such a great job of capturing modern-day Chicago, in Steve McQueens Widows) pulls the wool over our eyes beautifully. He also brings out the grimy textures of the Black Panthers clothes. Unlike last years Seberg, this never feels like a fashion parade.

Jesse Plemons agent Roy Mitchell is the ultimate groomer / Warner Bros

All the supporting cast are sharp. Sheen resembles a lethal ferret, while Plemons, as the ultimate groomer, manages the neat trick of seeming both wash-basin clean and irredeemably soiled.

The only thing missing is a stronger sense of a key figure in Hamptons life: his mum. Iberia Hampton was a factory worker and proud union steward, who Hampton spoke to on the phone the night he was killed (a detail the film omits). All we learn about Iberia here is that she was a baby-sitter for Emmett Till, the 14 year-old Black boy lynched in Mississippi in 1955. Fourteen years after Tills death, Iberia lost Fred in whats been described as nothing but a northern lynching. Giving this woman more prominence would have been a cool move.

Still, you cant have everything. Youngsters whove been galvanised by the social activism of Marcus Rashford or the poetry of Amanda Gorman will be especially touched by this story. When he died, Hampton was still only 21. This film is a triumphant and searing elegy.
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Dean of the School of Performing Arts of the University of Ghana, Professor Kofi Agyekum, popularly known as Opanyin Agyekum has lambasted Ghanaians for disobeying the COVID-19 health protocols.



Opanyin Agyekum bemoaned the recalcitrant character of some Ghanaians, stressing the pandemic disease in no joke.



He wondered why people have decided to throw caution to the wind.



Discussing the COVID-19 situation in Ghana, Opanyin Agyekum advised the citizenry to note that it is better for one to protect himself or herself and live than die of COVID-19.



"The person has been starved due to the COVID situation is more honorable than the person who is dead because of COVID. Even today, there is no laying-in-state for the person who dies of COVID. So, the lean person has much honor than the one who is dead because of COVID. So, it is better to be emaciated than to die of COVID," he said.



He called on the citizens to immediately stop their disobedience and avoid being infected or spreading the disease to reduce the number of cases in the country which is currently on the surge.





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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People wearing face masks and shields to protect against COVID-19 line up at a bus station in Manila, Feb. 1, 2021.

The Asian Development Bank said on Monday that it had allocated U.S. $25 million to help the Philippines purchase COVID-19 vaccines this year.

The funds will come from a $125 million loan package the ADB approved in August 2020 to help the Philippines improve its capacity to combat the pandemic, which has infected more than 500,000 people, the Manila-based bank said in a statement.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has allocated $25 million to help the Philippine government purchase vaccines for the coronavirus disease in 2021, ADB said.

The financing will come from the $125 million Health System Enhancement to Address and Limit COVID-19 project, which ADB approved on Aug. 24, 2020. It will allow the Philippine government to pay vaccine manufacturers in advance to secure the delivery of vaccines to its citizens.

The Philippines trails only Indonesia in Southeast Asia for cases of COVID-19. The country recorded 1,658 new coronavirus infections on Monday, taking the cumulative caseload to 527,272, the health department said. With 58 deaths, the total virus-related death toll rose to 10,807, the department said.

As of Jan. 22, the Philippines had reported a total of 17 cases of the highly contagious U.K.-variant of the coronavirus.

Globally, more than 103 million COVID-19 cases and more than 2.2 million deaths have been recorded as of Monday, according to disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

Next critical step

The Philippines had significantly improved its capacity in testing, tracing, isolating, and treating COVID-19 cases in the last 10 months, ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa said in a statement.

Vaccination is the next critical step to protect lives and promote livelihood opportunities, Asakawa said.

We stand ready to support the government in these unprecedented times and help the economy navigate back to its pre-pandemic growth path.

The government is looking to immunize up to 70 million of its about 110 million people and is negotiating with several vaccine developers.

The ADB said the funding for vaccines would follow the requirements under its $9 billion Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX) launched in December, and will include direct payments to vaccine manufacturers.

To supplement the $25 million financing, ADB is preparing a follow-on project under APVAX for consideration by ADBs Board of Directors to support the governments efforts to procure vaccines, ADB said.

Separately, President Rodrigo Duterte accused the European Union on Monday of slowing distribution of Anglo-Swedish drug maker AstraZenecas coronavirus vaccines, Reuters news agency reported.

He said countries that are not as rich as those in the EU do not have the power to purchase as many vaccines as they need.

AstraZeneca was held hostage by the European Union, Duterte said about the drug maker which last week said it would fall short of delivering vaccines promised to the EU.

The European bloc is looking to monitor the export of vaccines and could block them if its own supply falls short, Reuters said.

This is a fight among the highest bidders, who can pay first, Duterte said in a televised address.

Vaccines by mid-February

Retired Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., head of the governments anti-COVID-19 task force, said on Sunday that at least 5.6 million vaccine doses produced by U.S. drug maker Pfizer with its German partner BioNTech, and from AstraZeneca were expected to arrive in the first quarter of the year to to jumpstart the countrys national vaccination program.

These are expected to be delivered in mid-February and will cover the first quarter supply commitment, Galvez said in a statement.

The Philippine Food and Drug Administration has approved emergency-use authorization of vaccines from these two drug makers.

Moving forward, 9.4 million doses of vaccines are expected from these two companies in the first and second quarter, Galvez said.

Delivery confirmation of the supplies for the succeeding quarters will be announced later.  I would like to emphasize that according to COVAX the number of doses and the projected arrival of the vaccines are all indicative since it all depends on the global supply, he said, referring to the World Health Organization-backed vaccine sharing platform.

Last month, Chinas foreign minister promised to donate half a million vaccine doses to the Philippines, but it wasnt clear which vaccine Beijing would donate.

In addition, the government had secured a deal to buy 25 million doses of vaccines from Sinovac and that these would be arriving in batches, beginning this month, Harry Roque, the spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte, had said.

Galvez did not say when the first Sinovac batch would arrive.

He said that the governments target to inoculate about 70 million people by year-end would realize our nations goal of achieving herd immunity this year.

We would therefore like to urge all Filipinos to set their fears aside and have themselves inoculated once these vaccines are available, he said.
Appointment

2 February 2021

CapitaLand's wholly owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), has appointed Mr David Mansfield as Ascott's Managing Director for Australia with effect from today.

Mr Mansfield joined Quest Apartment Hotels (Quest) as Chief Operations Officer in July 2019, following Ascott's investment in an 80% stake in Quest in July 2017. The redesignation as Ascott's Managing Director for Australia is in alignment with Ascott taking on the role of running the Quest business with the completion of the integration of Quest as part of Ascott.

Mr Mansfield will be responsible for overseeing Ascott's managed operations throughout Australia, in addition to ongoing global operations for business format franchise brand, Quest Apartment Hotels. Quest has over 170+ hotels throughout Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the United Kingdom.
The Bay Area is finally exiting a coronavirus surge that smashed records and overwhelmed hospitals  but January data shows the brutal extent of the toll.

Cases and hospitalizations fell across the Bay Area as a whole last month, but deaths soared in all nine counties in the region.

In December, 608 deaths were reported in the Bay Areas nine counties. In January, that number shot up to 1,677, an increase of 175.8%. Across the state, one-third of all COVID-19 deaths for the entire pandemic were reported in January alone.

San Francisco experienced the biggest jump in deaths in the Bay Area, with 26 reported in December and 138 last month, an increase of 430.8%.

City health officials said that the totals for December and January do not reflect a true month-over-month increase because of the way they report them. However, according to the citys COVID Command Center, the numbers do reflect a high number of deaths over the two-month period, which correlates with observing our highest case and hospitalization rates during this third surge time period.

Data shows that even with the increase, San Francisco still had the lowest death rate nationwide among major cities.

In late September, The Chronicle reported that San Franciscos death rate from confirmed coronavirus cases was 9.7 per 100,000, the lowest among 10 major cities in an analysis by the city and UCSF experts. Today, out of the counties where the 15 most populous U.S. cities are located, San Francisco still has the lowest death rate  37 per population of 100,000  compared with the next highest of 54 in Columbus. New York City has the highest of all at 222.

In the Bay Area, Marin County had the second-highest increase in monthly deaths, up 230% from December to January, as well as the biggest uptick in cases at 36.2%. According to county spokesperson Laine Hendricks, the increase in deaths was tied to cases at long-term care facilities, where 80% of the countys deaths occurred in December and 82% of deaths happened in January.

A snapshot of the countys data from November to the end of January shows that a majority of new daily cases in Marin County are in the 19-to-49 age range, and like most other counties, are largely tied to private indoor gatherings, particularly around the holidays. Cases, particularly in the last month, have been higher in the Latino community.

Santa Clara County, which was one of the hardest-hit Bay Area counties during the surge, saw deaths rise 203% from December to January, but saw a decline of 7.8% in cases. Napa County had the biggest decline in monthly cases, going down 8.1%.

The county with the smallest increase in deaths was Solano, at 41.2% from December to January. Jayleen Richards, the countys public health administrator, said data is still being compiled and additional deaths are likely to be reported. However, she said the countys emphasis on investigating outbreaks at congregate living facilities and skilled nursing homes has resulted in low death rates there and thus helped keep the rate lower countywide.

Chronicle staff writer Susie Neilson contributed to this report.

Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com

In addition to the significant progress made with respect to engineering studies underway at Paradox, it is accelerating the production of lithium chemicals to Stage 1, following a strategic review and recognition of improving market conditions for lithium.

President Biden also pledged to build 500,000 EV charging stations in the US during his presidential election campaign

Anson Resources Ltd (ASX:ASN) (FRA:9MY) has accelerated its work on the Paradox Brine Project in Utah, US, following the recent policy developments from the Biden Administration, which are expected to directly benefit Anson and provide multiple opportunities for its extensive suite of battery metals projects.

In addition to the significant progress made with respect to engineering studies underway at Paradox, Anson has decided to accelerate the production of lithium chemicals to Stage 1, following a strategic review and recognition of improving market conditions for lithium.

Well-positioned to capitalise on demand for EVs

Anson executive chairman and chief executive officer Bruce Richardson said: We are encouraged by the recent policy changes in the US supporting the growing global shift towards electric vehicles (EVs).

A large volume of US Government purchase orders for EVs would drive further significant investment in battery technology and key commodities such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, graphite and vanadium.

Our portfolio is strongly geared towards the battery metals sector, and we believe we are very well positioned, from both a geographical and commodity perspective, to capitalise on the uptick in demand for EVs globally.

Initial lithium carbonate testing

Initial results from its commercial battery cell test work with Novonix, indicate that the lithium carbonate produced from Paradox matches closely to that of current lithium carbonate products that are in use in the market.

The test work, which will take four-five months to complete, will assess how Ansons lithium products perform in a commercial battery cell compared to the performance of other lithium products used by battery manufacturers.

These results will be used as a reference in off-take discussions with potential end-users.

Anson has also appointed Millcreek Mining Group to conduct a revised preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the Paradox project which will include a lithium production plant based upon the lithium contained in the raw brine feed for the proposed 15,000tpa sodium bromide plant.

Biden Administrations pledge

Notable recent developments include the Biden Administrations pledge to transition the US Federal Governments 645,000-strong vehicle fleet to EVs, combined with his "Buy American" executive order aimed at steering the government to purchase US-made products.

Biden also pledged to build 500,000 EV charging stations in the US during his presidential election campaign.

These landmark pledges effectively signal a paradigm shift to EVs.

Set to become a global trend

The EV policy is expected to quickly filter through to the corporate sector, and set to become a global trend, driving a significant and long-term increase in demand for battery metals.

Following Bidens pledge, calls have already been made in the Australian Parliament to follow suit and replace the Australian governments 10,000 vehicles with EVs by 2030.

The UK, Japan, France and Germany have all pledged to ban sales of combustion engine vehicles between 2025 and 2030, providing an immediate boost in demand for battery metal suppliers.

Further, major automotive brands such as Mercedes, Porsche, Audi and Toyota all have electric and hybrid vehicles in production due to tightening global emissions standards.

Reviewing entire project suite

While the US EV policy is set to have a major impact on the battery metals industry, US-based assets are strategically placed to benefit from the Buy American executive order which ensures the US government spends taxpayers' money on US-made goods.

Considering the rising demand for the entire suite of battery metals, Anson is thoroughly reviewing its entire project suite and planned work programs to maximise potential opportunities from each project.

It remains well-funded to complete current work programs at both Paradox Brine and The Bull Project in Western Australia.

The company raised a total of $3.75 million since November 2020, following a successful $2.4 million placement in November 2020, and an additional $1.35 million received in January from the exercise of options.

Paradox Brine Project

Paradox Brine Project is located in strategic proximity to Teslas Gigafactory facilities in both Nevada (680 miles) and Texas (1000 miles) provides a geographical advantage to meet growing US demand for battery-grade lithium
February 02 : Kangana Ranaut is an avid social media user and knows how to keep her fans glued to her posts. The actress often entertains them with her childhood picture, along with interesting notes.

Taking to her Twitter handle, the Panga actress shared a throwback picture from her childhood, wherein the actress is seen posing for the camera along with her friend. She revealed that the picture has been taken from a camera, which she bought when she was a kid with the money she saved. A local photographer used to send her reel to Chandigarh for washing as she waited anxiously for weeks to see the photos. As a kid I collected money and bought a still camera, one of those photo sessions my friend is visibly embarrassed, Sharma uncle the local photographer used to send the reel of my camera to Chandigarh for washing and I remember waiting anxiously for weeks, Kangana wrote.

As a kid I collected money and bought a still camera, one of those photo sessions my friend is visibly embarrassed, Sharma uncle the local photographer used to send the reel of my camera to Chandigarh for washing and I remember waiting anxiously for weeks  pic.twitter.com/VK2n8ZtkyG  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) February 2, 2021

Meanwhile, Kangana has been summoned in a defamation case filed by poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar. A metropolitan magistrates court issued summons to the actress based on the complaint by Javed Akhtar alleging defamation. The Andheri court, after hearing arguments made by Akhtars lawyer, issued summon against Ranaut for offences under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to defamation. Javed Akhtar was also present in the court.

On the work front, Kangana has confirmed that she will play the role of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in an upcoming political drama. The film will be backed by the actress production house and directed by Sai Kabir. The untitled film is not a biopic of late India Gandhi, but a period film that will help the young generation to understand the current socio-political scenario of India. The flick will feature Emergency and Operation Blue Star.
San Francisco, Feb 2 : The US smartphone market saw a six per cent year-on-year decline in sales in Q4 2020, despite a record high iPhone sales, as Covid-19 continued to impact the economy, said a new report.

Apple and Samsung were the only original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to see positive growth in the quarter, thanks to new launches and a strong demand for premium devices during the holiday season, industry tracker Counterpoint Research said on Monday.

"Q4 2020 was a particularly challenging quarter for many OEMs, especially those who manufacture devices for the prepaid and lower price band markets," Jeff Fieldhack, US Mobile Devices and Carrier Strategies Director at Counterpoint, said in a statement.

"With COVID-19 still showing record number of US cases, there were over 10.7 million unemployed people at the end of 2020. The economic effect of this can be seen in the negative growth of many OEMs in the quarter," Fieldhack said.

Apple grew 14 per cent year-on-year in Q4 despite a delayed iPhone 12 launch while Samsung gained five per cent year-on-year.

"Given this strong demand for new iPhones and supply shortages in Q4 2020, we expect sales to spill over into Q1 2021," Research Analyst Maurice Klaehne added.

Samsung had a strong quarter as well, mainly due to the success of the Samsung S20 FE 5G, according to Senior Research Analyst Hanish Bhatia.

"The OEM even launched a 256GB variant in the quarter to meet further demand from customers looking to buy a sub-$1,000 device," Bhatia said.

"However, January and February tend to be a lull in the market, and with Apple's current momentum, there will be less opportunities for Samsung to capitalise on."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Health official: 'I am hopeful for the brighter days ahead'
In December, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) temporarily barred HDFC Bank from launching new digital banking initiatives and issuing new credit cards after taking a serious view of service outages at the lender over the last two years. (PTI)

New Delhi: HDFC Bank on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed an external IT firm for carrying out a special audit of its IT infrastructure in the aftermath of repeated service outages at the country's largest private sector lender over the past two years.

"RBI has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the bank under Section 30 (1-B) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949..., at the cost of the Bank under Section 30 (1-C) of the Act. The bank shall accordingly extend its cooperation to the external professional IT firm so appointed by RBI for conducting the special IT audit as above," HDFC Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Last month, HDFC Bank had submitted a detailed plan of action to the RBI to address repeated service disruption issues due to outage, saying it was hopeful of improving its technology platform in three months.

Progress is being made on the plan of action provided to the RBI and the bank has taken this positively as it will raise the standard, according to a senior official of HDFC Bank.

The action plan will take 10-12 weeks for implementation, and further time-frame will depend on the RBI's inspection. Based on the satisfaction level, the regulator will lift the ban, the official said at an analysts' meet.

In December, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) temporarily barred HDFC Bank from launching new digital banking initiatives and issuing new credit cards after taking a serious view of service outages at the lender over the last two years.

"RBI has issued an order dated December 2, 2020, to HDFC Bank Ltd with regard to certain incidents of outages in the internet banking/ mobile banking/ payment utilities of the bank over the past two years, including the recent outages in the bank's internet banking and payment system on November 21, 2020, due to a power failure in the primary data centre," HDFC Bank had said in a regulatory filing.

The bank has been penalised for two major outages, one in November 2018 and the other in December 2019.

Taking a stern view of the repeated outages, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said in December the regulator had some concerns about certain deficiencies and it was necessary that HDFC Bank strengthens its IT system before expanding further.

"... we cannot have thousands and lakhs of customers who are using digital banking to be in any kind of difficulty for hours together and especially when we are ourselves giving so much emphasis on digital banking. Public confidence in digital banking has to be maintained," Das had said.

HDFC Bank, the largest lender by assets in the private sector, has been classified as a systemically important entity by the RBI in the past. It is also the largest issuer of credit cards and has a significant share in the payment processing segment.

The bank is the largest issuer of credit cards and had 1.49 crore customers as of September 2020 while on the debit cards front, it had 3.38 crore customers.

Earlier, HDFC Bank's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Shashidhar Jagdishan had apologised to customers and promised to work on the deficiencies.
David Hallberg has had a simple, confronting message for his dancers since he officially took the helm of The Australian Ballet late last year.

I dont want them to be afraid of the word ambition, he says, as he announces six rising stars nominated for the companys Telstra Ballet Dancer Awards.

Telstra Ballet Dancers Awards nominees (left to right) Imogen Chapman, Nathan Brook, Serena Graham, Jasmin Durham, Corey Herbert and Cameron Holmes. Credit:Simon Schluter

The newly-imported international dance superstar, intimately familiar with assertive American and ruthless Russian dance corps, says Australians have an inbuilt sense of egalitarianism, a tendency to avoid being tall poppies. Thats nice. But it might not take you to the top.

I dont want them to feel like, Oh, I cant push myself forward, I cant be hungry for roles and for opportunities. I think a healthy sense of ambition goes a long way. Here in Australia, I think ambition is actually a really good word to use and a mentality to have.
Love Island star Eden Dally has jumped to his girlfriend Cyrell Paule's defence after she clashed with Jessika Power at the Married At First Sight Grand Reunion.

Eden, 27, who had a one-night stand with Jessika a month before he started dating Cyrell in March 2019, blasted the blonde for refusing to 'own up' to her behaviour.

The two women had argued at the reunion - which was filmed in December - over the fact Jessika had accused Cyrell and Eden of 'faking' their romance for publicity.

'Own up to your lie!' Love Island star Eden Dally has jumped to his girlfriend Cyrell Paule's defence after she clashed with Jessika Power at the Married At First Sight Grand Reunion

However, Jessika strongly denied ever saying the couple's son, Boston Dally, was conceived as a publicity stunt.

Watching Monday's episode from his home in Sydney, Eden slammed Jessika and claimed to have screenshots that prove she's a liar.

'I'll give you the chance to own up to your lie before I show any of that... So you own up to your lie,' he said.

Cyrell added: 'And if you're all wondering why I walked out [of the reunion], it wasn't for no particular reason. Let me just say this: I will always know a sincere apology and I will always know if it's from Jess it's never going to be it.'

Cosy: Eden (right), who had a one-night stand with Jessika (left) a month before he started dating Cyrell in March 2019, blasted the blonde for refusing to 'own up' to her behaviour

War: Watching Monday's episode from his home in Sydney, Eden slammed Jessika and claimed to have screenshots that prove she's a liar. Cyrell (pictured) also blasted Jess for not offering her a 'sincere apology' at the Grand Reunion

The mother of one had been discussing her feud with Jessika during Monday's episode when she decided enough was enough.

'I'm ready to leave. Bye! That's me bouncing,' Cyrell said, interrupting the experts and leaving her co-stars shocked as she stood up and walked off set.

Moments earlier, Jessika, 29, had tried to apologise for her hurtful words, and Cyrell had expressed regret over throwing white wine at her the night before.

Feud: The two women had argued at the reunion - which was filmed in December - over the fact Jessika had accused Cyrell and Eden of 'faking' their romance for publicity. However, Jessika strongly denied ever saying the couple's son, Boston Dally, was conceived as a publicity stunt

Cyrell later claimed on Instagram there was more to the story, telling fans she had walked out because several cast members were ganging up on her and calling her a bad mother.

'What they didn't show is there was a lot more of the contestants telling me I shouldn't be raising Boston like I am,' she said.

Just one participant, season five groom Dean Wells, was shown on screen criticising Cyrell's parenting - but Cyrell insisted he wasn't the only one.

Tom Girardi, the estranged husband of RHOBH star Erika Jayne, has been placed under a temporary conservatorship in wake of a medical emergency he suffered this past weekend.

Los Angeles court Judge Daniel Juarez ruled Monday that the Colorado native's brother Robert was in charge of his estate and day-to-day care, as Tom's lawyer Rudy Cosio said that he was unable to appear after the medical incident, US Weekly reported.

The temporary conservatorship, which extends thru March 30, was previously requested by Robert Girardi amid what he told the court was his brother's deteriorating condition.

The latest: Tom Girardi, 81, the estranged husband of RHOBH star Erika Jayne, has been placed under a temporary conservatorship in wake of a medical emergency he suffered this past weekend. He was snapped in 2018 in LA

Tom Girardi has 'deteriorated to the point where he cannot care for himself without assistance,' Robert Girardi said in court docs obtained by People. 'His short-term memory is severely compromised and, on information and belief, he is often not oriented as to date, time or place.

'Left to his own devices, it is highly doubtful that Tom could manage most of the activities of daily living for any significant period of time without assistance.'

The case heads back to court for a March 15 hearing where Robert Girardi's other asks will be taken into consideration, including the legal say whether he can place his brother into a facility that deals with problems such as dementia.

Last month, US Weekly cited court docs in reporting that his brother - who is also in the midst of a divorce and embezzlement case - 'is incapable of realizing and understanding the repercussions of the bankruptcy filings pending against him and the Debtor.'

Details: Erika Jayne filed for divorce last November after 21 years of marriage

The case heads back to court for a March 15 hearing where Robert Girardi's other asks are granted, including the legal say whether he can place his brother into a facility that deals with problems such as dementia

Erika Jayne filed for divorce last November after 21 years of marriage.

A class action firm, Edelson PC, in December said the divorce was orchestrated to 'fraudulently protect Tom and Erika's money' as they're 'on the verge of financial collapse' amid a suit accusing the pair of embezzling settlement funds for the families of the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash, in which all 189 people onboard died.

The Abia State Government has accused herders of being responsible for kidnapping in the South-east state.

The Commissioner for Information in the state, John Kalu, said in a statement on Monday that the Abia State Government condemned without reservations, the activities of criminal herdsmen suspected to have masterminded recent brazen kidnap of innocent citizens around Abia North Senatorial Zone of the State.

Mr Kalu said the herdsmen have also destroyed farmlands in the state, with their cows grazing openly in violation of extant laws of the state and Nigeria.

Government also frowns seriously at the wanton destruction of cows by yet to be identified individuals whose aim is to exacerbate already existing tensions.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has directed security agents in the state to bring to justice all those involved in the criminal activities, the commissioner added. He urged residents not to be afraid to go out for their legitimate businesses.

The state government, he said, was on top of the situation and would spare nothing in protecting Abians.

The IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, recently warned that the IPOB security arm, the Eastern Security Network, would soon enforce the ban on open grazing in all the states in the South-east, apparently to check the activities of criminal herdsmen in the region.

In less than two weeks, #ESN will commence the full enforcement of Nigerias Anti-Grazing Law in the East, The Punch newspaper, Tuesday, quoted Mr Kanu as saying. Turn into a cow then and see what shall become of you.

Tension in Oyo, Ogun, other states

Criminal herders have also been accused of destruction of farmlands and other criminal activities in the South-west states of Oyo and Ogun and other states in Nigeria recently.

A self-styled Yoruba freedom fighter, Sunday Igboho, made headlines when he travelled to Ogun State on Monday, with the claim that he was in the state to expel problematic herdsmen.

We are here in solidarity with our brothers and sisters. Fulani herders are killing us in various South-west states, and thats why we, the youths, came out to demand our rights, Mr Igboho told reporters.

That is why I am saying all Fulani herdsmen should vacate Yoruba land. There is peace now in Igangan and thats not the only place I want peace to reign. We are going to all Yoruba land. I appreciate Ogun governor, he loves his people and thats why we are in Ogun State today.

We are going to Yewa now where Fulani kidnappers are terrorising Yorubas in Ogun State, Mr Igboho said.

Also, the Benue State Government, about three days ago said there was an influx of heavily-armed herdsmen at its border withNasarawa State, Nigerias North-central region.

We have been able to ascertain the fact that there appears to be a massive deployment of herdsmen with their cattle on the brink of River Benue but on the Nasarawa State bank.

And we also observed that a good number of these herdsmen are heavily armed; many of them with Ak-47 rifles, the Deputy Governor of Benue State, Benson Abounu, said, according to a Channels TV report.

As if this was not enough, we have been able to apprehend a good number of them in a village called Kaseyo, Guma local government of Benue State.

On the 23rd of January, 150 cows belonging to these herdsmen were apprehended.

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Seventy-one people were killed in Benue State in one week in 2018 during clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

Carnage

Dispute over ownership and usage of land has remained the major cause of the violence conflict between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria.

Herdsmen in 2018 killed more Nigerians than the terrorist organisation, Boko Haram, according to a global report on the impact of terrorism.

In 2018, Fulani extremists were responsible for the majority of terror-related deaths in Nigeria at 1,158 fatalities. Terror-related deaths and incidents attributed to Fulani extremists increased by 261 and 308 per cent respectively from the prior year. Of 297 attacks by Fulani extremists, over 200 were armed assaults.

Over 84 per cent of these armed assaults targeted civilians, the report said.

An association of cattle breeders in Nigeria, otherwise known as Miyetti Allah, said providing a settlement for herdsmen in different parts of the country is the best solution to the perennial conflict.

We are already agitating for a solution to this problem  settlement, let the Federal Government come with the settlement model.

The pastoralists cannot continue moving, looking for pasture; that era is coming to an end considering the increase in population against the land that does not increase.

There has to be planning on the part of the government for both pastoralists and farmers to coexist. Part of this is to create a model that will settle pastoralists in one place, Miyetti Allah leader, Baba Usman said, according to a report by Sahara Reporters.
Let's take a quick look at all the problems we currently face, shall we?

Well, we have a certain pandemic which has done its best to destroy our economy  the latest government estimates now suggest that we're looking at a whopping 219bn of national debt. To put that eye-watering figure into a perspective most of us can understand, that means every Irish person is looking at being 44 grand in the hole by the time we get out of this mess.

But wait, there's more.

It's also reckoned that by the time we do emerge from this mess, blinking and bruised, that figure may have risen to an individual debt of 47,000. That's enough to make any of us want to go back to bed and pull the duvet over our heads until we're told we can come out.

Then there's the not-so-small matter of Brexit and the shockwaves which ran through the nation when the EU tried to unilaterally set a hard border on this island as regards to the Covid vaccine.

That attempted stunt, which resulted in the EU Commission performing a quick reverse-ferret when they realised that such a move was seen as an act of diplomatic war, should be a reminder to all of us that the EU are, at best, fair weather friends and not the people we should rely on when the going gets tough.

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Well, the going has got very tough indeed and we're currently in the middle of what seems like a pincer movement against us  Covid on the one side, Brexit on the other and poor little old Ireland stuck in the middle.

So in such times, it's fairly obvious that we need all the help we can get. Well, it's obvious to most of us, but it seems some people have still to receive the memo.

The fact that Micheal Martin's traditional Taoiseach trip to Washington on St Patrick's Day has been condemned is another example of the curiously Irish trait of cutting off our nose to spite our face.

Today, as it happens, is Groundhog Day, and once again we see Irish political history repeating itself. In this instance, it involves the likes of Mattie McGrath furiously fulminating against any government official heading over to America to engage in the annual plamasing.

According to the Independent TD from Tipperary, any visit would be "completely irresponsible as a global pandemic runs riot It is essentially a case of do as I say, not as I do".

Then, warming even further to his case, McGrath added that this government was wilfully restricting the movements of Irish citizens while "planning a lavish and contradictory trip themselves".

Even better, he also suggested that any jaunt to Washington would be sending the completely wrong message and 'risk undermining the hard work of frontline and health care workers here at home.

It's almost hard to decide where to start with how wrong his notions are, but let's give it a go.

For starters, I doubt many frontline and health care workers really care where the Taoiseach spends St Patrick's Day. They are rather busy, after all. Frankly, even by the standards the loose-lipped TD has set for himself, that seems both a bit of a reach and a piece of moral blackmail rather than a coherent argument.

Of course, in typical Groundhog Day fashion, the usual lunatics on social media have been frothing themselves into a lather as they complain about Martin's 'lavish junket' while the rest of us are stuck within the 5km boundaries. But here's the thing  Martin isn't heading off to Lanzarote with a bunch of mates for a lads' holiday. Frankly, it would be hard to imagine him engaging in such frivolity even if he wasn't a politician. He's not, like some of the eejits we have seen on the RTE news, going to Abu Dhabi to watch Conor McGregor getting battered. It almost goes without saying that he's not pretending to be one of this vapid 'influencers' flying to Dubai to post pictures of himself in a bikini beside a turquoise swimming pool (now there's an image to ruin everyone's day).

No, he is this country's Taoiseach and he is going to Washington to meet the most important politician on the planet; a politician who has made much mileage out of his Irish heritage.

The idea that Martin would skip this trip, which stretches back to 1952 when the Irish ambassador, John Hearne, presented Harry Truman with a box of shamrocks is both ludicrous and politically suicidal. As Indo readers will have seen yesterday, the two most influential countries on Capitol Hill are Ireland and Israel.

Two small countries who fight well above their weight, the fact that diplomats from the UK have been urged to be 'more like the Irish' is a telling example of the soft power a small country can wield  but even the Israelis don't have a special day put aside in the calendar for a ceremonial event. In fact, no other country in the world can bask in that level of access and that's a tribute to remarkable, unseen work conducted by Irish diplomats and politicians.

Why on earth, at this time of all times, would we walk away from the one privilege that every other country would kill for? This is a case of use it or lose it. Once we break that long-running link, which has promoted this country around the world for decades and which has been one of the main reasons we enjoy so much American investment in this country, we run the risk of never getting it back. The ties that bond America and Ireland are deep, but not as deep as they used to be.

Quite frankly, we need our Taoiseach to make this trip more than ever. It has served us well for decades and we need all the friends we can get. No friend comes bigger than an America with an Irish-American president.

Objecting to the Taoiseach's visit to Washington isn't just Irish begrudgery, it's plain, old-fashioned idiocy.

Make the trip.

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Irish people have been warned that going on foreign holidays is not realistic this summer.

Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said people should not be heading to European or worldwide destinations over the summer months.

His remarks come after Ryanair boss Michael OLeary claimed the airline industry will bounce back this summer, with people taking holidays abroad in July, August and September.

Dr Holohan said: I dont think were headed for a summer where millions of people from this part of the world, from Europe, can expect to be heading to beaches that are other than in their own localities.

Our lives are not going to return to normal - they're going to get better, but they're not going to return to normal for some considerable time Professor Philip Nolan

I dont think its realistic for us to foresee a situation that would be characterised by things we would all like to do where we fly off to other parts of Europe and the world for our summer holidays.

Professor Philip Nolan told the National Public Health Emergency Team briefing on Monday that it would not be practical to return to life like it was before Covid until there are very high levels of vaccine-induced immunity in the population.

Given that we cannot reduce risk of importation to zero we individually are always going to be the first line of defence for this, and until such time that we have appropriate levels of immunity in the population we will be required to make sacrifices, he said.

Our lives are not going to return to normal  theyre going to get better, but theyre not going to return to normal for some considerable time.

Monday saw 10 further deaths from Covid-19 confirmed in Ireland as well as 1,062 new cases.

The median age of those who died is 79 years and the age range is 45-101 years.



There has been a total of 3,317 #COVID19 related deaths in Ireland.@hpscireland  Department of Health (@roinnslainte) February 1, 2021

The national 14-day incidence rate is now 479 cases per 100,000 population.

The five-day moving average is 1,288 cases per day.

At 2pm on Monday, there were 1,436 people with coronavirus in hospital, including 207 people in intensive care.

There were 38 additional hospital admissions in a 24-hour period.

Prof Nolan said there were some concerns that case numbers  in particular the five-day moving average  had plateaued somewhat over the last week.

After a very rapid decline day on day and week on week in case numbers, over the last seven or eight days case numbers have been relatively constant at around 1,300 cases a day, he said.

Prof Nolan said it was not yet clear why cases were plateauing when there was no evidence that people had started to increase their level of social contact.

It looks like the population is still maintaining a very strong effort to minimise mobility and keep contacts to a very low level, he said.

Some of it may be explained by increased testing of close contacts. On the other hand, equal concern we might be seeing increased transmissibility in particular settings (and) we may be getting a little less careful in each of those contacts and giving the virus the opportunity to transmit.

He said people needed to continue to adhere to public health measures, and in particular to work from home if possible.

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said there were 29 outbreaks of Covid-19 in workplaces last week, including in construction, manufacturing and food processing sites.

Dr Glynn said: Now is not the time to be going into your workplace unless you really have to.

Every time we now drop our guard, its likely to have graver consequences now than it wouldve a few months ago.

Dr Siobhain Ni Bhriain told the briefing: Were seeing a lot more sinusitis and a lot more people with sinusitis being diagnosed with Covid often in the absence of a temperature.

As a result she said GPs threshold for testing for the virus was not anything respiratory or a temperature and cough.

Rome: Talks aimed at reviving Italys collapsed ruling coalition were blocked on Monday over policy issues even before any discussion was held on who the prime minister should be, political sources said.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was forced to resign last week when a junior partner, Italia Viva, quit the 17-month-old coalition in a row over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic meltdown.

Matteo Renzis Italy Viva party is tiny, but without it the government doesnt have a parliamentary majority. Credit:Bloomberg

The speaker of the lower house of parliament, Roberto Fico, has been leading mediation efforts since Friday between the coalition parties.

He was due to report back to Italian President Sergio Mattarella on his progress on Tuesday, but with time running out little progress has been made, sources familiar with the discussions said.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On behalf of Airlines for America (A4A) and the leading U.S. airlines, I want to congratulate Alejandro Mayorkas on his confirmation to be Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Secretary Mayorkas has distinguished himself through an exemplary career, including serving in several leadership roles at the DHS. A4A has had the opportunity to work with Secretary Mayorkas during his previous service at DHS and witnessed firsthand his commitment to risk-based security. His depth of knowledge and experience in key areas such as counterterrorism, aviation and cybersecurity uniquely qualify him to address today's critical challenges.

Additionally, Secretary Mayorkas is a consensus builder with a track record of working collaboratively to bring diverse interests together. He understands the significant role that travel and tourism have in our nation's economy. We look forward to working with him as our country works to begin recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. He is exactly the kind of leader needed at this time in our nation's history.

ABOUT A4A

Airlines for America (A4A) members are Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, FedEx, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and UPS. Air Canada is an associate member.

A4A advocates on behalf of the leading U.S. airlines, both passenger and cargo carriers. A4A works collaboratively with industry stakeholders, federal agencies, the Administration, Congress, labor and other groups to improve aviation for the traveling and shipping public.

For more information about the airline industry, visit our website airlines.org and our blog, A Better Flight Plan, at airlines.org/blog.

Follow us on Twitter: @airlinesdotorg.

Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/AirlinesforAmerica.

Join us on Instagram: instagram.com/AirlinesforAmerica.

SOURCE Airlines for America

Related Links

www.airlines.org


Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 10:03:28|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The opposition Labor Party has called for action to implement a cap on political donations.

Senator Don Farrell, Labor's election law spokesperson, on Tuesday called for the government to act urgently on limiting political payments.

The call comes after former Member of Parliament (MP) Clive Palmer's mining company Mineralogy donated 75,000 Australian dollars (57,174.13 U.S. dollars) to the National Party, which forms the governing coalition with the Liberal Party.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday, Mineralogy has donated 90 million Australian dollars to political parties over the last two years, most of which went to Palmer's United Australia Party (UAP), which failed to win any seats at the 2019 federal election despite a record advertising spend.

"What I think is pretty essential given how much money Clive Palmer is putting into the electoral process are caps on donations," Farrell told the ABC.

"You cannot have a situation where Clive Palmer is funding both his own political party and the coalition, it's just unacceptable."

"We want to see public disclosure about donations and to set a limit on how much organisations and individuals can donate."

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on Monday disclosed political donations for the financial year 2019-20.

It revealed that the coalition received 69 million Australian dollars (52.5 million USD) from organizations and individuals and Labor 55 million Australian dollars (41.9 million USD).

David Littleproud, deputy leader of the National Party and minister for agriculture, defended Palmer's donation to the party, saying that he had not broken any laws.

"There are individuals of all walks of life that donate to all political parties," he said.

"What he chooses to do with his money is his business so long as it's a lawful thing." Enditem
The Spencer Companies, a nearly century old Huntsville gasoline and convenience store business, has sold its operating assets to the Dutch Oil Company and Sprint Mart chain, according to an announcement today. No financial details of the sale were released.

Founded in 1923, the Spencer Companies owned and operated 31 MinitMan retail convenience stores in seven north Alabama counties including the Huntsville and Birmingham metro markets. The company also distributed gasoline and diesel products across north Alabama through fueling stations. Its large customers have included the City of Huntsville and Huntsville Utilities.

The company is also well-known in Huntsville because former Mayor Loretta Spencer is the mother of the current third-generation company president, J Spencer, and because of second-generation president Guy Spencer Jr.s involvement with numerous local organizations.

We want to say a big thank you to our 200-plus loyal employees who spend every day focused on taking care of our customers, J Spencer said in a statement today. We are especially honored to have supported the City of Huntsville and Huntsville Utilities for the past 15 years through many natural disasters and emergency situations.

Sprint Marts mission is to be the best convenience and foodservice retailer in the markets we serve, said Charles Morris, managing partner of Sprint Mart. For the past few years, we have worked hard to create a unique and personal customer experience in our stores; building customer loyalty that strengthens our business and funds future growth. Adding MinitMan to the Sprint Mart family is a leap forward in achieving our vision of setting the standard by which other convenience stores are measured.

Rex Gillis, president of Dutch Oil Company, said the MinitMan and Sprint Mart organizations are similar. The Spencer family has done a tremendous job of building a business that operates with consistently high standards and values its customers and employees, Gillis said in a statement. The cultural similarities between our companies cannot be ignored - both reflect a family heritage and strong people culture - and should allow for an easy transition for employees and customers alike. This is an exciting time for Sprint Mart, and we are thrilled to welcome the MinitMan team into the Sprint Mart family.

Dutch Oil Company was founded in 1972 in Columbus, Miss., and it has 70 company operated and dealer locations in Mississippi and Alabama.
ASHLAND, Ore.  With many local districts already pushing forward into a return to in-person learning, Ashland Public Schools announced on Monday that it will do the same beginning in early March.

School administrators said that there has been strong interest from Kindergarten through 5th grade parents in expanding in-person learning, prompting the coming transition to a hybrid model. The preliminary plan is for grades K-2 to begin on March 1, followed by grades 3-5 on March 8 "as capacity allows."

"Our initial review of early family feedback indicates a range of interests," Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove said in a message to families last week. "A number of parents indicated an interest in increased time on site. We heard you! We are reviewing all of the family input and may adjust the hybrid option based on that interest."

The Ashland School Board also passed a resolution on January 25, resolving to reopen schools "as soon as possible as safely as possible."

Ashland Public Schools plans to hold two community Zoom sessions scheduled for Wednesday, February 3, to go over the revised hybrid model. The first, English language session is scheduled from 5 to 5:45 p.m., followed by a Spanish language session from 6 to 6:45 p.m.

Ashland's hybrid model will alternate online learning with on-site classes based on a weekly schedule.

"Administrators at the middle school and high school are moving forward with plans to resumt in-person instruction with a hybrid model after spring break," the District said. "Surveys will be going out to families this week and feedback sessions will be scheduled as plans are finalized."

The target date for higher grades to return is roughly March 29, though it remains subject to change.
Highlights The new update is available for developer beta users.

Apple can be expected to roll out the iOS 14.5 update to the general public in the coming weeks.

Unlock your iPhone with a face mask will only work for users with an Apple Watch on their wrist.

Apple has released its latest iOS 14.5 beta 1 update that adds support for unlocking your iPhone while wearing a face mask. This assures us that Apple developers were as frustrated as all of us in 2020 when unlocking the iPhone with the mask was a challenge. However, the feature will require an Apple Watch to work. The update changelog lists the new feature as unlock iPhone with Apple Watch while wearing a mask.

This means that if you are wearing a face mask and have an unlocked Apple Watch on your wrist, you can unlock your iPhone with Face ID without removing the mask. iPhone users will also need to update their Apple Watch to watchOS 7.4 to ensure that the unlock iPhone with Apple Watch while wearing mask works. Apple describes the feature as "iPhone can use your Apple Watch to unlock when Face ID detects a face with a mask. Your Apple Watch must be nearby, on your wrist, unlocked, and protected by a passcode."

Notably, this is an improvement over the iOS 13.5 feature that Apple rolled out in April last year, and it allowed to skip Face ID prompt when wearing a face mask automatically and offered the passcode screen.

Here's a video that will give you an idea of how fast is the new Unlock your iPhone with Apple Watch feature available on the iOS 14.5 beta update.

#iOS14.5 beta 1, iPhone unlock process with #AppleWatch wearing a facemask



Easy and super smooth! pic.twitter.com/ADkE0dVS0I  Luca Ansevini (@Anse1987) February 1, 2021

The iOS 14.5 developer beta 1 update started rolling out late on Monday and is about 4.5GB in size. However, the update size may vary depending on the iPhone model. The new beta version of iOS 14.5 contains bug fixes and improvements. Apple points out that the beta version of iOS should only be deployed on devices dedicated for iOS 14.5 beta software development.

The iOS 14.5 beta 1 update is available to developers and users who signed up for receiving developer beta. It can be downloaded via an over-the-air update.

Apart from the Face ID upgrade, the new iOS 14.5 update also adds support for the Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 controllers to iPhones. The latest update expands compatibility for Apple's Fitness+ workouts.

The new beta update is also the first from Apple to start implementing the company's App Tracking Transparency measures. This will require app developers to seek consent before collecting specific user data. Apple has hugely promoted this feature, while rivals like Facebook have called against it. The new iOS 14.5 beta update also enables worldwide dual-SIM 5G support.
Vaccine plan for F1's Imola spectators

A push is on to ensure that spectators are able to attend Imola's Formula 1 race in April.

The fabled Italian circuit was drafted onto the 23-race schedule following the removal for now of Shanghai's round.

Emilia Romagna president Stefano Bonaccini said he hoped the coronavirus situation would allow spectators to attend at Imola, "even if it is in a limited way".

Municipal councillor Daniele Marchetti is now quoted as saying by Corriere dello Sport newspaper: "The presence of the public is not an insignificant aspect.

"In fact, this can lead to a change in the costs. If the public is not allowed to attend, all costs will be on the Imola consortium amounting to about 2 million euros," he added.

"We learned from the words of president Bonaccini that they are thinking of letting only vaccinated citizens in, while rapid tests are no longer mentioned.

"However, the need for refreshments to be provided, so as not to put all the costs for the organisation on the Imola consortium, remains out of the question," said Marchetti.
Silento, the Atlanta rapper known for his hit song Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae), was arrested Monday and charged with murder in the shooting death of his 34-year-old cousin, authorities said.

DeKalb County, Ga. police said in a statement on Twitter that the 23-year-old rapper whose legal name is Ricky Hawk was arrested in that suburb of Atlanta. The police statement said he is in the county jail, charged with murder in connection with the Jan. 21 death of Frederick Rooks.

The statement didnt elaborate on the circumstances of the death or Hawks arrest.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Hawk was being held without bond late Monday.

The newspaper had reported previously that police responded to a call of shots fired on Jan. 21 about 3:30 a.m. in the community of Panthersville in DeKalb County. The newspaper cited police as saying officers found Rooks dead with multiple gunshot wounds that night.

It wasnt immediately known if Hawk had an attorney who could comment for him. His manager did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Monday night.
The government on Tuesday asserted in Lok Sabha that it was ready to discuss issues related to farmers both inside and outside amid vociferous protests by the Opposition which forced the House to adjourn twice, first for almost an hour and then for nearly two hours.

Agriculture Minister said during Zero Hour, which began at 5 pm, that the Modi government is always committed to discuss the farmer's issues.

"Government is ready to discuss issues related to farmers inside and outside Parliament," he said amid sloganeering by opposition members.

Tomar's reply came after Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that 170 farmers have died during the ongoing agitation against the three contentious farm laws.

"Atrocities are being committed on farmers. Situation is similar to British rule," he alleged.

As opposition members, including from Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, SP and BSP, trooped near the well, Speaker Om Birla appealed to them to go back to their seats so that House can taken up normal business.

"This House is for debate and discussions. Please go back to your seats," he said.

However, the unrelenting opposition continued their protests, leading to the Speaking announcing the second adjournment till 7 pm.

Earlier, as soon as the House met at 4 pm, opposition members disrupted the Question Hour to press for repeal of the three "black" laws and raised slogans.

Members from the Shiv Sena were seen raising slogans from the aisles. Former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal was also seen holding a poster demanding repeal of the contentious agriculture legislations.

The Speaker urged the members to return to their seats and follow the COVID-19 protocol. He said in the ongoing Question Hour, questions related to farmers were listed and members can raise their issues at that time.

He also said during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's address, members can raise these issues. But opposition members refused to relent forcing him to adjourn the proceedings around 4.10 pm.

Several farmers unions have been staging protests at various border points of Delhi demanding repeal of the farm laws.

(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.)
Tips for moving pets  to the White House or yours
In September last year, an unlikely viral star rose after redditors tried to shame it and its owner. Its was a rat rod 1996 Toyota Camry that had been rusted out on purpose, had smashed windows and a cut off roof, large aftermarket wheels and fenders carved out of license plates, and the exhaust peaked right through a hole in the hood.Looking at it, you could not decide whether to hate it, love it or hate yourself for loving it. It was stupid, alright, but it was also decidedly cool, and, regardless of the first impression it made, it had clearly been built with a certain amount of attention to detail, if not actual skill.That Toyota Camry is now for sale, in case you want to make sure to get all eyes on you. The owner, one Austin Lee Ingram from Georgetown, Indiana, is selling it on Facebook Marketplace for a measly $3,500 or best offer - a steal if you consider its celebrity status and artistic aspirations. He says parting ways with his widebody Camry will be difficult, but he will do it because hes found one of his old cars, and he wants it back.For $3,500, you will get a viral star thats the perfect car to enjoy in nice weather. Thats because its missing windows (it has only the windshield and front windows) and no roof. Now on its second engine (a 2.2-liter 4-cylinder), it comes with 303,000 miles (487,631 km) on the clock and air conditioning/heating, aftermarket coilovers, Aero Racing wheels shod in Toyo Proxies, and what could be described as license plate artwork. The fenders and the rear spoiler are made from license plates, and they were also used in customizing the interior.I don't really know how to go into detail on this thing but pictures kind of speak for themselves, Ingram writes in the listing. Gonna be hard to let it go but money talk.Picturesspeak volumes, indeed. The gallery offers you a good look at the kind of insanity $3,500 will buy you.

The Morgan County Health Departments plan to administer vaccines on an accelerated timetable to educators and others scheduled to become eligible next week had to be reversed Monday after the vaccine supply ran short.

Decatur Morgan Hospital is also out of first-dose vaccines. Both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the only two that have received federal authorization, require two doses.

Alabama Department of Public Health Northern District Administrator Judy Smith said she had planned for the Morgan County Health Department to begin giving some shots to people beyond the currently eligible group, which is limited to those who are 75 or older, health care workers and long-term care residents.

Were going to have to back out of easing into it, Smith said of expanding the pool of people who can receive the vaccine this week. I hate that. I thought it would be wonderful for this community.

She said the department got notice from the ADPH late Friday afternoon of a redistribution of vaccines, and that meant we werent going to have as much.

In a release Monday, the ADPH said that the current assessment of vaccine supply and expectations for shipments indicate many public health clinics will have to focus heavily on providing second doses for the month of February.

The change in the distribution plan had an immediate impact on Decatur City Schools, which had already begun scheduling vaccine appointments for some of its staff this week at the Morgan County Health Department.

In a letter to staff Monday, Decatur City Schools Deputy Superintendent of Operations Dwight Satterfield said that in a meeting with Smith and her staff on Friday afternoon, the district was asked to begin easing into vaccinating DCS personnel at a rate of about 100 per day for the first dose distribution.

At this point, I do not know when ADPH will be able to provide us a time frame for vaccinations, Satterfield said. He said in the letter that hes still in discussions with local pharmacies about securing a percentage of their first-round distributions for educators.

Having to share this information is disheartening, but I can assure you that Ms. Smith and her staff at ADPH and our team at central office are doing all we can to secure as many vaccinations from whatever source is made available to us, he wrote.

For those scheduled for their second dose of the vaccine, we will continue as scheduled, he said. We have a proven vaccination system ready to utilize as soon as we are afforded the opportunity.

Satterfield did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Gov. Kay Ivey and the ADPH announced Friday that starting next Monday the eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations would be extended to include people 65 or older, and additional groups of front-line workers: educators, first responders, corrections officers, food and agriculture workers, U.S. Postal Service workers, manufacturing workers, grocery store workers, public transit workers, child care workers and members of the judicial system.

People who are 75 years and older and first responders are still the priority for vaccines, according to Smith, but the plan that had to be scrapped was to split the vaccines in a fair distribution of one-third each among three other groups  those in the education sector like teachers and support staff; people 65 or older; and others eligible in this next wave of vaccinations.

Eligibility does not equate to availability, Smith said at a news conference. We do intend to beg for more vaccines.

She said some vaccines were administered to the expanded group Monday morning. Those attending the clinic for first doses later in the day did not receive vaccines.

This has been an extremely, extremely challenging time, she said. We need more vaccine. Smith noted that requests for the vaccines for those people 75 years and older had gone down a little bit since theyve been available, prompting her plan to distribute the vaccine more widely.

Decatur Morgan Hospitals Chief Nursing Officer Anita Walden reported there were 46 confirmed or presumed COVID-19 inpatients at the hospital Monday. All 10 patients in the intensive care unit were on ventilators, she said.

The hospital had expected to receive a shipment of Pfizer vaccines Monday, which would have allowed it to reopen its vaccine clinic for first doses.

We do not have a shipment of vaccines yet, and had received no confirmation that it was on the way to the hospital, she said. We do have second doses in reserve.

Walden noted that there had been two deaths at the hospital over the weekend.

To date, 175 Morgan County residents have been reported as dying of COVID-19.

 marian.accardi@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438. Twitter @DD_MAccardi.

___

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[February 02, 2021] AdAmp Launches To Help Small Businesses Get Into Television Advertising

MIAMI, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AdAmp , the company revolutionizing access to TV advertising for small to mid-sized businesses and agencies, has officially come online and is bringing its full suite of capabilities to a segment of the market that has traditionally been left out of the opportunity to experience the power of television advertising. AdAmp was created recognizing the challenge and the opportunity local businesses have in the upcoming recovery period. There are nearly 30 million SMB businesses in the U.S. and most of those do not have access to, nor the ability to navigate the complex market of television and video advertising. The current amount of TV advertising inventory is not accessible to SMBs and when there is an opportunity for them to take advantage, it is fragmented, provides limited reach and comes with high friction and poor production quality. AdAmp will help these local businesses secure brand quality placements within their local markets across traditional television, digital and streaming platforms. "All of us have witnessed the struggle local businesses experienced over the last year as a result of the pandemic and I am excite about the opportunity AdAmp has to help the local businesses accelerate recovery by leveraging the power of TV advertising. 90% of US adults watch television at least once per week. This is more than all of digital combined" said Stephen Saper, founder and CEO of AdAmp. "SMBs spend today an average of 1.5 days per week managing their marketing activities. AdAmp's ability to consolidate and simplify TV media buying at scale for SMBs will be an important arsenal in SMBs marketing tool chest."



AdAmp's one-stop advertising platform was created for SMBs and agencies so they can place ads on leading U.S. television platforms. AdAmp makes it possible for these brands to have their business featured on leading streaming and cable networks for as little as $25 per day, while amplifying its reach within their community and ultimately democratizing access to TV inventory by making these resources and reach available to SMBs and smaller agencies. Key offerings from AdAmp's self-service platform for SMBs include:

Audience campaign planning

Creative services

Portfolio of premium, brand-safe inventory from leading TV streaming, cable, and broadcast providers

Built-in reporting with full delivery transparency, attribution and ROI

Through AdAmp, advertisers will:

Have the ability to set flexible budgets

Have confidence in connecting with their target audiences via local zip-code targeting

Experience simple campaign management

Have real-time measurement and reporting About AdAmp

AdAmp is revolutionizing access to TV advertising. Businesses of all sizes can now run their own ads on TV, regardless of budget and size that provides increased reach within the communities that matter to them. AdAmp provides access to more than 200 leading TV services including cable, streaming TV, and local broadcast outlets. For more information visit www.adamp.tv . Media Contact

Escalate PR

AudienceTV@EscalatePR.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adamp-launches-to-help-small-businesses-get-into-television-advertising-301220218.html SOURCE AdAmp

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Presidential Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci retracts his statement to wear two masks for protection since there's "no data" that actually proves it works.

Breitbart reported that Fauci said in a recent interview with NBC News Today that no data showing double masking works.

"So, if you have a physical covering with one layer, you put another layer on, it just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective. That's the reason why you see people either double masking or doing a version of an N95," Fauci told NBC.

However, he pointed out that although "there's nothing wrong with that but there's no data that indicates that that is going to make a difference."

Fauci originally remarked about double masking, Breitbart said, during his guesting with the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association that delved on vaccines while it was livestreamed at YouTube last Jan. 28.

Fauci said, as per Breitbart, that wearing two masks would likely made it safer as "common sense" measure of having another layer of protection but stressed the importance of wearing masks even they have undergone vaccination. He said those already vaccinated can become carriers of the virus and, as such, wearing masks is still important.

"Then you could inadvertently or innocently transmit the infection by not wearing a mask," Fauci said.

"I believe we'll see that the level of virus in people who have been vaccinated but are infected without symptoms likely will be very low," he revealed, "Until we know that, wear the mask."

Breitbart added that Fauci hoped that in the next few months there will be scientific studies on the amount of virus found in individuals who were vaccinated versus those who were not.

Fauci's inconsistent remarks is not new. Media companies, such as the Boston Herald and CNBC, have cited his inconsistencies in the past. The Boston Herald said his expert advise on the COVID-19 virus is inconsistent and often wrong.

Fauci, being the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director, was also the medical advisor to former President Donald Trump. He actually initially advised, in his interview with Newsmax last Jan. 21, 2020, that COVID-19 was "not a major threat" -- after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic.

"Well, you know, obviously, you need to take it seriously and do the kinds of things that the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security are doing. But this is not a major threat (emphasis added) for the people of the United States, and this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about," he said.

Only to say a few weeks later--on Feb. 3, 2020--through CNBC that "it's still an evolving situation. We don't know exactly where it's going to go, what the pattern is. But clearly right now at least the number of cases are accelerating."

The Boston Herald cited several occasions Fauci was inconsistent in the wearing of them mask itself. He said on Feb. 3 last year that "nonmedical personnel with no symptoms should wear face masks in public."

While CNBC even created a video in YouTube that tracks Fauci's comments on the coronavirus that was uploaded on March 27, 2020.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated nearly every aspect of life since it arrived in Ohio. It also exacerbated another public health crisis that has plagued the state for the past decade: the opioid epidemic.

Opioid overdose deaths soared to record levels in Ohio during the second quarter of 2020, according to data released by Attorney General Dave Yosts office. The state reported a higher death rate from April 1 to June 30 than any other quarter in the past 10 years. The spike was particularly troubling because the opioid overdose death rate had been declining over the 24 months that preceded the pandemic.

Other states experienced similar surges. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported at least 81,000 drug overdose deaths during a 12-month period that ended in May 2020, an all-time high for a one-year stretch. By the fall, at least 40 states were on pace to see drug overdose deaths rise in 2020.

As frontline health care workers scrambled to prepare for an influx of coronavirus patients, the government officials, treatment centers, sober living facilities and non-profit organizations whove been at the forefront of combatting the opioid crisis faced a separate dilemma: How could they fight an epidemic in the middle of a pandemic?

A lot of people are consumed with the pandemic, but the opioid epidemic never went away, said Scott Osiecki, the CEO of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County. People may not be focused on that, but there is still a need for treatment.

Experts have suggested overdoses and deaths rose in the early months of the pandemic for several reasons. Public health efforts to keep the virus from spreading, such as Ohios stay-at-home order, left many feeling isolated. Drug use and alcohol use have increased during the pandemic as many try to cope with feeling lonely, anxious and depressed.

Cuyahoga County reported 602 drug overdose deaths in 2020, a small increase over the 582 reported in 2019, according to preliminary data from the medical examiners office. The powerful opioid fentanyl, which is often mixed with heroin and cocaine, continued to be responsible for the lions share of death.

Cuyahoga County also reported a dramatic increase in homicide deaths in 2020, which many local officials attributed to the pandemic. Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson said the pandemic likely played a role in the rise in homicides and overdose deaths.

Those are certainly two trends that headed in the wrong direction, and its hard not to think the pandemic had at least some bearing on that, he said.

Substance use treatment and other services were also harder to come by early in the pandemic. Many group meetings were forced to shut down, and it took a few weeks for them to move online. Treatment centers like Stella Maris in Cleveland were forced to reduce the number of residents they could care for at one time to maintain social distance requirements. Even if someone with substance use disorder could get services, many were too scared to leave home because of the virus, Stella Maris nursing director Carole Negus said.

I think what happened initially was there was such a panic in the community, even the addicts didnt want to come out and go to treatment, Negus said. They basically hid out wherever they were.

First a decline, then a surge

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a slight decrease in opioid overdoses in Cuyahoga County, Osiecki said. The medical examiner reported 47 overdose deaths in March 2020, but that dipped to 40 in April.

The early drop in fatal overdoses could be due to several factors, experts said. People with substance use disorder may have been more focused on other things like stocking up on food and toilet paper. They also may have been afraid to leave home due to the virus, said Beth Zietlow-DeJesus, the Cuyahoga County ADAMHS Boards director of external affairs.

Even if they have substance use disorder, they usually dont use in front of family members, Zietlow-DeJesus said. Its a lot harder to use in secret when youre smushed all together in the same house.

Others noticed a similar decline. The waiting list for substance use treatment at Stella Maris also dwindled early in the pandemic, Negus said.

That didnt last, though. The demand for treatment returned by the end of the first month of isolation. But getting help had become more complicated due to social distancing measures that forced treatment centers like Stella Maris to reduce the number of residents they could care for at one time.

By fall, Stella Maris had 200 names on its waiting list. The treatment center usually has 70 or 80 names on the list, and its previous peak was near 150 names during the worst years of the opioid epidemic.

It was far more difficult to get into treatment, so they either died out there or really hit the bottom, Negus said.

The Edna House for Women, a sober living home on Cleveland's West Side, was forced to stop accepting new residents for a three-week period early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adapting to the pandemic

Complicating the situation was the fact that many services needed to either shut down or reduce the number of people they could help at one time.

Stella Maris was forced to cut its detox census from 20 to 12. They increased to 16 when they opened a new expansion in the fall, and hovered between 12 and 16 as coronavirus infections spiked near Thanksgiving and Christmas, Negus said.

The Edna House for Women, a sober living home on Clevelands West Side, was forced to stop accepting new residents for a three-week period at the beginning of the pandemic. That left the Edna House with roughly 25 residents, well short of its full capacity of 47, executive director Jenn Lasky said.

The Edna House needed that time to adopt some protective measures to keep residents safe, but it was difficult to say no to so many women looking for help, Lasky said.

Those three weeks I was struggling to answer the phone because I would get these parents and I would get these women begging me [for help], Lasky said. To not be able to offer our services, it was the first time that had ever happened.

Stella Maris also took other steps to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. All 41 of the 12-step meetings that took place in the campus coffee shop were halted. Administrative staff and those involved in outpatient care began working from home. Within one week, Stella Maris transitioned its intensive outpatient treatment to telehealth.

At the Edna House, residents were instructed to stop hugging and holding hands during prayer. They cleaned the entire home each day, and often cleaned multiple times per day.

Residents could no longer leave to attend support group meetings, and any meetings at the Edna House were moved to Zoom. The Edna House used grants from the Cleveland Foundation ($15,000) and Murphy Family Foundation ($5,000) to upgrade IT and buy 20 tablet computers for residents.

Sunday visits with family members were also halted for more than two months, Lasky said.

Taking away their family visits was difficult, but Im trying to keep the families safe and Im trying to keep the residents safe, she said.

Impact of an ongoing crisis

As the months went on, those in the recovery community started to recognize some troubling signs.

Calls to crisis hotlines and referrals to mental health and addiction treatment services have gone up over the past year, the ADAMHS Board said. Some are concerned the fallout could be greater the longer the pandemic goes on.

When we remain in a constant state of stress, our brain continues to give us stress reactions. And thats when mental health and physical health can be impacted, Zietlow-DeJesus said.

Telehealth has been an invaluable resource during the pandemic, but its not a perfect substitute for in-person treatment. Some providers have told the ADAMHS Board that its harder to pick up on physical cues that suggest someone is struggling, such as busy hands.

At Stella Maris, detox is typically followed by two weeks of partial hospitalization on Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. That service was forced to move to telehealth when everything shut down, and the results were troubling, Negus said.

When that went to telehealth, people started dropping out like flies, she said. We were losing people left and right, because they were way too vulnerable for a telehealth service.

Lasky started to recognize the pandemics impact on stress and mental health as soon as the Edna House was able to safely resume accepting new residents. It was as if their fear and desperation had been alleviated, she said.

I feel like they were even more grateful to be given a bed somewhere, because they were calling around when there were no beds, she said.

Dealing with the fallout

Those in the recovery community said the true impact of COVID-19 may not be apparent until the pandemic is over, so its imperative to be prepared for the fallout.

Some of the services that are already in place  especially those aimed at reducing the risk of death -- will continue to be invaluable moving forward. MetroHealths Project DAWN has long been critical to the effort to expand the use of naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug. And the ADAMHS Board led an effort to offer fentanyl test strips, which can be used to detect the opioid when it is mixed with cocaine, heroin and other substances, at health centers and businesses throughout Cuyahoga County.

Risk reduction isnt treatment per se. But its keeping them alive long enough to get them into treatment, Gilson said.

One major concern moving forward is money. Many providers operate on tight budgets that are supported by grants and fundraisers. The economic fallout from the pandemic could threaten their funding sources.

The Edna House and Stella Maris were each in the middle of fundraising efforts when the pandemic struck. The Edna House was forced to cancel its annual St. Patricks Day fundraiser, while Stella Maris was working to raise capital for its new expansion.

In both cases, community members and other supporters stepped in to help. Negus said shes worried other services wont be so fortunate.

Itll be interesting to see, at the end of this, whos still here doing this this, Negus said. Because I dont think that all the programs will still be here.

There are some encouraging signs amid the long-term fight against the opioid epidemic, though. Northeast Ohio communities have more money to invest in addiction treatment services thanks to large hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements from lawsuits against drug companies. Cuyahoga County is using some of the money to bolster treatment and prevention efforts.

Ohio doctors have also slashed the number of painkillers theyre prescribing; the Ohio Board of Pharmacy reported 48% fewer opioid prescriptions in 2019 than in 2012. Experts say those painkillers often serve as gateways to more powerful opioids like heroin and fentanyl, so limiting their use could have serious long-term impacts on the epidemic.

Maybe were at a point in the opioid crisis where were not going to have these rapid results-type interventions. Its a longer game now, Gilson said Seeing the number of prescriptions going down, and the number of prescription drug fatalities going down, might be a harbinger that were shrinking the addicted population. Thats long game, but the impact of that would be tremendous.
Georgia's ruling Georgian Dream party said at this stage they will not vote for the suspension of status for 51 opposition MPs per their request.

The opposition MPs from six of eight opposition parties and election blocs have requested the suspension of their status.

They say that the October 31 parliamentary elections were fabricated and are demanding repeat elections. Six of 60 opposition MPs have entered parliament so far.

According to head of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze, 20 other opposition MPs also wish to take up their mandates.

"However, as we know, due to the bullying and blackmail they are unable to take the step. Our refusal to vote for the suspension of MP status for opposition will be another chance for the opposition legislators to enter parliament," Agenda.ge cited him as saying.

He said that the opposition, with the use of procedural instruments, are trying to sabotage the state legislature.

"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has given even more severe assessment to the Georgian oppositions actions and stated that it is an attempt to undermine democracy," Kobakhidze stated.

However, he said that Georgia has a well-written constitution which has genuine levers against the procedural instruments which may contradict democracy.

Kobakhidze said that the Georgian Dream has taken the view of international partners into account when they decided not to vote for the cancellation of the MP status for opposition MPs.
First Nations people across Manitoba can expect to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at a much younger age than the general population, as the virus continues to wreak havoc on Indigenous communities across the province.

First Nations people across Manitoba can expect to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at a much younger age than the general population, as the virus continues to wreak havoc on Indigenous communities across the province.

"When the province is doing, for example, 60 year olds, we would anticipate First Nations people over age 40 being eligible," said Dr. Marcia Anderson, a medical officer of health.

"Some will look at that, and at face value say that seems unfair."

Anderson, who sits on the provinces vaccine implementation task force, was among provincial health officials who unveiled the priority groups selected by First Nations leaders.

"What we want to do is close the gaps. We want First Nations to not be hospitalized at five times the rate we would expect, based on the population proportions," Anderson said.

The median age for both hospitalization and deaths is 17 years younger among First Nations members, compared with the rest of Manitoba's population, she said.

"Our data shows us that its very clearly First Nations people who are experiencing greater harms at early ages," said Dr. Joss Reimer, the medical lead for Manitobas vaccine rollout.

Overcrowded homes in First Nations communities mean people living on a reserve exposed to someone with COVID-19 are at a greater risk of getting infected than the general population, says Dr. Marcia Anderson. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)

She said the plan will help shore up overall hospital capacity, because so many First Nations patients with COVID-19 are currently in critical care.

"Any of us could, at any time, need that hospital bed, for a COVID- or a non-COVID-related outcome," Reimer said.

First Nations leaders have decided to prioritize reserves accessible only by air and winter roads, as they tend to have the least medical support.

However, they will still focus on First Nations people elsewhere. Anderson noted that cases have been quite high in the North, but until recently it was First Nations people living in Winnipeg who had the highest share of cases.

Anderson said bands will be able to choose prioritization for "traditional healers/knowledge keepers" based on their own cultural practice, and that many have roles in medicine such as praying, administering medicines and touching people who are ill.

She also said the groups being prioritized could shift with medical outcomes, for example, if youths or people from southern reserves suddenly make up a large number of hospitalizations.

Both doctors said the province intends to take First Nations representation into account when it prioritizes congregate living facilities for shots, such as jails, homeless shelters and some care homes.

Anderson noted that overcrowded homes in First Nations communities mean that people living on a reserve who are exposed to someone with COVID-19 are roughly four times as likely to get infected compared with someone in the general population who is exposed to a COVID carrier.

Dr. Marcia Anderson (right), vice dean, Indigenous Health and public health lead for the Manitoba First Nation Pandemic Response and Co-ordination Team and Dr. Joss Reimer (left), medical lead, Manitobas Vaccination Implementation Task Force at Monday's press conference. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)

First Nations communities tend to have limited health-care services and a higher instance of diseases that make COVID-19 worse, such as diabetes and asthma.

The youngest Manitoban to die of COVID-19 to date was a First Nations boy under the age of 10.

"We know that there are many factors related to colonization and systemic racism that have led to this heightened risk," Anderson said.

No vaccine exodus to reserves: doctors Premier Brian Pallisters worst fears of First Nations storming their home reserves to get vaccinated have not come to pass, doctors said Monday. We have actually not seen a rush of people going back to their First Nations communities, Dr. Marcia Anderson, a medical officer of health, said Monday. On Dec. 1, 2020, Pallister said he had concerns that people in cities with band membership in remote communities would fly home to get a jab earlier, thus possibly exposing relatives to COVID-19. click to read more Premier Brian Pallisters worst fears of First Nations storming their home reserves to get vaccinated have not come to pass, doctors said Monday. We have actually not seen a rush of people going back to their First Nations communities, Dr. Marcia Anderson, a medical officer of health, said Monday. On Dec. 1, 2020, Pallister said he had concerns that people in cities with band membership in remote communities would fly home to get a jab earlier, thus possibly exposing relatives to COVID-19. His comments riled First Nations chiefs. Two months later, vaccine medical head Dr. Joss Reimer said Monday she hadnt heard of individuals going into reserves to get shots. Anderson noted that First Nations people are highly mobile, often having a residence both on the reserve and in cities like Winnipeg or Thompson, so some may have gotten the jab and returned to their other home. But have not heard about mass movement from urban areas to First Nations communities for these purposes. Dylan Robertson Close

Mondays announcement did not pertain to Metis or Inuit people. The doctors mentioned possibly rolling out vaccination sites in First Nations communities, but there is no plan to do so in locations with large Metis populations.

The Trudeau government has asked Manitoba to put Metis people on the vaccine task force, where First Nations leaders sit. Instead, the Manitoba Metis Federation has been invited only to look at communications around hesitancy, and how to get people to large immunization sites.

The Pallister government insists it wants to include all Indigenous people, and the premier said hes pushed to have Ottawa deliver doses earlier so vulnerable Metis people get immunized.

Yet NDP MLA Ian Bushie, the critic for indigenous issues, said the premier had focused too much on "dog-whistle politics."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Appointment

2 February 2021

The award-winning Deer Path Inn proudly announces the appointment of Patrick Lacassagne as general manager/innkeeper. In his new role, Lacassagne will lead the historic 57-room boutique property, known for marrying the traditions of English innkeeping with exceptional service. Lacassagne will continue Deer Path Inn's legacy as an unforgettable luxury escape on Chicago's North Shore.

Lacassagne brings more than a decade of hospitality experience to Deer Path Inn from hotels all over the world. He's held many roles during his career, including hotel manager and director of food and beverage. At Deer Path Inn, Lacassagne will blend his culinary and hotel management background to evolve the hotel's acclaimed food and beverage program, which includes the distinguished English Room, White Hart Pub, The Bar, Afternoon Tea service and in-room dining. He'll also take the lead on communicating major news and travel updates with transparency, and a touch of Deer Path Inn's signature cheek. He will use his platform as innkeeper to build on the inn's hallmark "home-away-from-home" experience that has resulted in the hotel's unmatched guest satisfaction ratings.

No stranger to historic properties, Lacassagne managed the century-old Knickerbocker Hotel in Times Square, which was awarded the Forbes 4-Star rating in 2020 in large part for its commitment to excellence and service standards - a touchstone of the Deer Path Inn guest experience. Prior to joining The Knickerbocker, Lacassagne was instrumental in the renovation of the Sofitel Legend Old Cataract in Egypt, where he introduced elevated French cuisine to the Middle Eastern-inspired menus and established the hotel as a destination recognized for its innovative gastronomic experiences.
Riding the train, bus or plane? Make sure youre masked up by midnight.

If you havent been wearing a facial covering on public transit, airliners or in federal buildings, the federal government is officially telling you to mask-up or else.

An executive order mandating the wearing of masks on transportation vehicles and stations or airport and in federal buildings takes effect at 11:59 p.m., Feb. 1 to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The executive order by President Joe Biden, follows what has been a factor of regular life in New Jersey and New York since the pandemic picked up steam last Spring. A Jan. 29 order by the Centers for Disease Control spelled it out what it means for passengers  if it moves, flies or floats and the public rides it, face coverings must be worn.

The same goes for going to the post office or any other federal office building. It also includes airports, train and bus stations, ferry terminals and seaports. Mask-on or go home.

Jersey drivers and commuters might say so what, since Gov. Phil Murphy has mandated masks be worn on NJ Transit and other mass transit since April 11.

Individual ride share companies such as Uber and Lyft have made mask wearing a condition of transportation, requiring riders using their app to agree to wear a mask before they are picked up. The CDC order also covers taxicabs.

The new security directive for surface transit mirrors what we do  require a face covering, said Christopher Trucillo, NJ Transit police chief.

Transportation Security Administration officers will be among those enforcing the requirement in transportation facilities and on vehicles across the county, said Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman. Other federal authorities also will enforcing the requirement.

Passengers who dont comply with the face covering requirement face being kicked off whatever theyre riding at the earliest opportunity, the CDC said. They also could face federal civil charges and fines.

While people in other parts of the country might have some difficulty getting in the swing of wearing a mask, Jersey passengers seem to be getting the hang of it.

Total scofflaws who refuse to even wear a free mask handed to them by authorities on the PATH rail system and NYC Transit have been issued a summons that carries a $50 fine. NJ Transit police also have sparingly citied passengers who refuse to comply, even after being offered a free mask.

NJ Transit police conducted 138 mask check details in stations and on vehicles and responded to 11 calls about mask non-compliance, Trucillo said on Friday. They were all resolved and we issued no summons during the week of (Jan.) 17 to 22, he said.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has handed out more than 1 million free masks to passengers at airports, bus terminals and PATH rail systems since July, said Scott Ladd, spokesman.

Both the bi-state airports and major NJ Transit stations have Personal Protective Equipment Vending Machines.

What doesnt qualify as a CDC approved face covering? Face shields or goggles, they can be worn to supplement a mask, but not instead of a face covering. Scarves, ski masks, balaclavas, or bandannas or pulling a shirt or sweater over your nose also doesnt count.

A mask your mom or daughter kitted you also isnt acceptable, as pretty as it might be. The CDC wont accept masks made from loosely woven fabric or that are knitted. If light can pass through it, its no good. There are some medical exceptions and the 11-page rule spelled them out on the CDC website. The medical rationale is also in the order.

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

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.
Elliott calls upon Sampo to fully exit its Nordea stake by Q4 2021 and create EUR 8 billion of value for Sampo shareholders

February 24 CMD is Sampo's chance to reset its equity story and restore investor confidence

Materials available at new website www.SimplifyingSampo.com

Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited ("Elliott" or "we"), which advises funds that as at the date of this release collectively hold investments equivalent to more than 3% of the share capital of Sampo Oyj ("Sampo" or the "Company"), today published a new presentation outlining a clear pathway to transform Sampo into a pure-play insurer and create in excess of EUR 8 billion of value.

Whilst Sampo's announcement of 10 November 2020 was a positive first step towards making the structural simplifications necessary to re-establish the Company's reputation among investors, Sampo's shares have continued to underperform. Today, Sampo's high quality core insurance business trades at an unmerited ~5x P/E discount to its peers; this sits in stark contrast to the ~4x P/E premium the business used to trade at several years ago.

Elliott believes that Sampo's upcoming Capital Markets Day ("CMD") on 24 February 2021 is the opportune moment for the Company to reverse this historical underperformance and value destruction, highlight its strengths and restore investor confidence. As such, Elliott encourages Sampo to:

Simplify the Portfolio: Sampo should announce that it plans to become a pure-play insurer by Q4 2021. The Company's Nordea stake is widely acknowledged to have become a significant distraction and a sustained drag on valuation for Sampo. In a survey of investors commissioned by Elliott, the vast majority of respondents indicated they would like to see a full exit from the Nordea stake within the next twelve months. Sampo is positioned to satisfy investor demands by distributing half of Sampo's Nordea shares directly to shareholders an act that over two-thirds of investors surveyed are supportive of in Q2 2021 and selling the remainder to maintain a healthy balance sheet. Clarify the Strategy: Importantly, Sampo should assert that without the overhang of the Nordea stake, the Company will commit to being a dividend-focused P&C insurer, with no material M&A ambitions outside the Nordics until the Hastings deal proves successful. We believe that there is widespread confusion amongst investors about the Sampo equity story, including scepticism on the rationale for the Hastings transaction and Sampo's future M&A appetite. What is clear is that investors are seeking greater focus on stable dividends, viewed as the lifeblood of a highly rated insurance company, and a commitment by Sampo to become a focused P&C insurer. The stability and growth prospects of IF P&C ideally position Sampo to become the stable dividend payer that investors seek; however, concerns about Sampo's capital allocation strategy must be resolved before the market can give Sampo the credit it deserves. Enhance the Communications: IF P&C is Sampo's crown jewel. Sampo should clearly and confidently articulate IF P&C's strong fundamentals and provide the market with relevant, timely and specific targets and KPIs. Shining a spotlight on IF P&C will enable Sampo to recover its premium valuation.

Elliott believes that these measures and the transformation of Sampo into a pure-play insurer would collectively restore investor confidence and unlock in excess of EUR 8 billion in value for Sampo's shareholders.

Elliott today launched a new website www.SimplifyingSampo.com, where Elliott's presentation is available to view and download in full. Interested parties are encouraged to visit the website to receive additional information and to sign up for future updates.

About Elliott

Elliott Investment Management L.P. manages approximately $41 billion of assets. Its flagship fund, Elliott Associates, L.P., was founded in 1977, making it one of the oldest funds under continuous management. The Elliott funds' investors include pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, funds-of-funds, high net worth individuals and families, and employees of the firm. Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited is an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management L.P.

Disclaimer

Elliott intends to reviews its investments in the company on a continuing basis and depending upon various factors, including without limitation, the company's financial position and strategic direction, the outcome of any discussions with the company, overall market conditions, other investment opportunities available to Elliott Management, and the availability of company securities at prices that would make the purchase or sale of company securities desirable, Elliott may from time to time (in the open market or in private transactions, including since the inception of Elliott position) buy, sell, cover, hedge or otherwise change the form or substance of any of its investments (including company securities) to any degree in any manner permitted by law and expressly disclaims any obligation to notify others of any such changes. Elliott also reserves the right to take any actions with respect to its investments in the company as it may deem appropriate.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201006050/en/

Contacts:

London

Sarah Rajani CFA

Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited

T: +44 (0)20 3009 1475

srajani@elliottadvisors.co.uk

Finland

Mikael Jungner

Kreab

T: +35 850 554 1615

mikael.jungner@kreab.com

Sweden

Christina Rinman

Diplomat Communications

M: +46 709 711 213

christina.rinman@diplomatcom.com
Defence attorneys in the corruption trial are still hopeful that the presiding judge, Jamaican jurist Paul Harrison, will return to the Turks and Caicos Islands.





Despite several failed attempts over the past few months, last week, many of the lawyers made a case for the 83-year-old judges return.





This time they said that should he return, Harrison would have quicker access to the Covid-19 vaccine, than in Jamaica.





First to make this proposal was Adrian Kayne, attorney for ex-premier Michael Misick.





Kaynes suggestion was endorsed by Jerome Lynch QC, who represents McAllister Hanchell, James Shepherd QC who represents Melbourne Wilson and Oliver Smith who represents Lisa Hall.





"If my lord is able to return to this island safely in circumstances which are safe, then we are confident based on what we have experienced that your lordship would receive the vaccination very shortly after arriving in this country.





"Practically everyone in this courtroom has already received the first vaccination, Kayne said.





Other lawyers suggested that a private aircraft could be chartered to bring the judge to the TCI, with special accommodation being made available from where he could conduct the trial.





However, one defence attorney, Malcolm Bishop who represents Thomas Chalmers Misick, rubbished the idea, stating that it is not sensible to give the judge medical advice.





Bishop said the suggestion makes no sense for the judge as he would still be sitting remotely even if he travels to the Turks and Caicos Islands.





Responding to the suggestions, Justice Harrison pointed out that the Covid-19 situation has not alleviated in any way in the TCI or Jamaica, in fact the level of classification is the same for both countries.





"I am well aware of the risks involved I see no radical improvement in either place to cause me to take a view other than seeking to deal with this matter as I am dealing with it now.





"If and when the situation improves well then we will have an obligation to review it and then make an adjustment as to a return or otherwise.





As such the trial will continue to be conducted virtually, with Judge Harrison presiding from his seat in Jamaica, and defendants and lawyers attending virtually for the most part.





Meanwhile, Justice Harrison extended his sincere condolences to the family and friends of police constable Cydric Balanag.





Balanag was the driver and orderly for the judge when he was stationed in the TCI. He died on January 16, making him the territorys seventh Covid-19 related death.





"I dont imagine that it gave me any assurance when I saw that, but certainly it is something that does remind me that the risks are still there and that we need to take a continuing examination of our safety when it comes to dealing with this maddening virus, the judge observed.
Several articles were published on Pasaxon, the official organ of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party, including Vietnams outstanding socio-economic achievements gain international recognition and The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam wraps up successfully.

The articles highlight impressive figures in Vietnams socio-economic development, stating that after 35 years of Doi Moi (Renewal) process, Vietnam has advanced from a poor nation with backward agriculture into a country with a growing economy.

Vietnams role and position in the region and world has been kept increasing as in 2020 Vietnam was honoured to take on the ASEAN Chairmanship and the non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council for the term 2020-2021.

They reported that delegates to the National Party Congress promoted a high sense of responsibly to the Party and people, and reached consensus in electing the 13th-tenure Party Central Committee.

Meanwhile, the online newspaper of Laos News Agency said the congress delegates believed that the excellent delegates who were elected to the 13th-tenure Party Central Committee will unite together to lead the countrys further development.

In another news, the newspaper covered major activities at the Congress and the first plenum of the 13th CPV Central Committee to elect the Politburo, the Party General Secretary, the PCCs Secretariat, and the PCCs Inspection Commission as well as its chairman. At the plenum, Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected as Party General Secretary.
Conference of Directors of Private Pre-Tertiary Schools-Ghana has advised its members to allocate resources and ensure full implementation of the COVID-19 protocols in the school environment.



The Conference urged private school operators to strictly enforce the proper wearing of nose masks to contain the spread of the virus.



This was in a statement signed by Mr Philip Boateng Mensah, the President of the Conference and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, following President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos update number 23 on measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19.



The President, in his address on Sunday, appealed to school authorities and teachers to enforce the guidelines by the Ghana Education Service (GES) on surveillance to contain the spread.



A message as Mask your Nose and Mouth can be on every person's lip in the school environment to prompt one another on the proper use of the mask. We must ensure that appropriate hand washing with soap and use of sanitizer become part of the daily routine within the school community, it said.



The statement said it was important for the private education sector to respect and religiously follow the protocols to avoid a second shutdown of schools.



It called on the GES to expedite action on the distribution of the Personal Protective Equipment to all schools.



We call on the GES to empower school health coordinators at the district levels with resources to conduct regular monitoring visits to the schools as a backup measure to enforce the protocols, the statement said.



It bemoaned the non-adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols at market centres and other social gatherings and appealed to government to deploy the military to support the police in enforcing the protocols.



The statement said private schools were severely affected by the closure and could not afford another shut-down, hence the determination to support government to reverse the upward trend of infection.

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

By Steven Ariong

The Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) soldiers have recovered 214 herds of cattle that the Kotido Jie warriors had raided in Moroto district on Monday.

An unspecified number of Kotido armed cattle rustlers attacked Kobebe grazing area which has thousands of livestock for Matheniko of Moroto and Turkana.

According to the eye witness, the warriors drove away with over 700 herds of cattle belonging the Turkana and the Matheniko pastoralists.

Upon receiving the information about the raid, UPDF soldiers were dispatched and the fight erupted with the warriors.

One UPDF soldier, who was rushed to Matany hospital was hit and injured by the warriors.

Major Peter Mugisa, the UPDF 3rd division spokesperson told the media on Tuesday morning that the warrior was shot dead in Toro hills where they had driven cows to hide.

Our forces stopped them from entering with the cows to Kotido and were found around Toro hills where they drove animals to hide, he said.

Major Mugisa said there was no gun recovered adding that those who were armed managed to run away with guns.

He adds that the forces are still following them until the guns are recovered.

The suspect will be produced before the courts of law to answer charges of illegal possession of firearms ones they are arrested.
Japanese brokerage said the positives in the Budget from the rating agencies perspective include creation of a to house dud debt, increased infrastructure spending, realistic assumptions and greater fiscal transparency, while there are a few negatives as well like weak medium-term fiscal commitment and larger size of the government.

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Connect Financial Software Solutions ("Connect"), a CUSO providing advanced enterprise digital banking services to credit unions, announces an investment from Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union. KTVA is a $2.9 billion asset credit union, and a long-time client of Connect.

The investment from KTVA comes on the heels of the credit unions recent contract extension for digital banking services with Connect. KTVA joins Altra Credit Union, City & County Credit Union, Summit Credit Union, and Wescom Credit Union (via Wescom Resources Group) as investors in the CUSO. Additionally, KTVA now has a seat on the Board of Directors.

With over 75 credit union clients using Connects digital banking and new account opening software platforms, the additional capital investment is an ideal way to accelerate product development so the company can continue to stay ahead of the evolving needs of its current and future credit union clients. The funds will be used to support expansion of Connects team, bringing on additional talented resources to escalate the pace at which the company brings new technology innovations to market.

Product innovation is a key area of focus for Connect, says Grant Parry, President & CEO. The additional capital will position the company to accelerate our product development efforts and deliver product advancements faster for our credit union clients, so they can more rapidly expand digital banking services and capabilities for their members.

Denise ODell, VP of Automated Services, at KTVA, adds, We love the Connect business model. Their team is easy to work with and very focused on our needs. Being an owner in the business provides added certainty to KTVAs long-term strategic plan. We are excited to help Connect accelerate its product development, and we also see this as an opportunity to help the credit union industry overall.

About Connect Financial Software Solutions

Connect is a technology Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) focused on the benefit of credit unions and their members. Connect's customizable enterprise digital banking solutions support credit unions' unique individual needs by offering online and mobile banking, bill pay, programming services, and digital account opening and lending applications. Connect has complete user interface design flexibility and provides parity across all digital channels, creating a better user experience. By partnering with more than 150 third-party providers, many of which are selected by clients, Connect offers a wealth of evolving functionality to better meet members' current and future needs. Connect with them at connectfss.com to learn more.

About Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union

Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union is a federally insured, not-for-profit financial institution serving over 228,000 members across 24 locations throughout East Tennessee. Membership is available to anyone who lives, works, worships, owns a business, or attends school in the following counties: Blount, Hamblen, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon, Roane, Sevier, Sullivan, or Johnson City. Family members related to any member of Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union are also eligible to join. For more information about Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union and their dedication to helping members grow financially, visit tvacreditunion.com.
A delegate casts her vote in the electoral process to choose members of parliament into Somalia's House of the People in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 6 December 2016.

The President of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo last night chaired a preliminary meeting of the Federal and State Consultative Meetings on Accelerating the Electoral Process in the Country and Moving on to September 17, 2020, Agreement Approved by the Federal Parliament of Somalia.

The meeting was attended by the Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia Mohamed Hussein Roble, the President of Galmudug State, Ahmed Abdi Kariye, South West Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed, and Hirshabelle Ali Abdullahi Hussein.

The leaders discussed efforts at the federal and state levels to implement the elections, ensure political stability and security in the country.

The President of the Republic commended the Heads of State at the Federal and State levels who took part in the meeting tonight for their efforts in advancing governance and strengthening the unity of the Somali people.
Victor Creatini says he was taking a bike ride with his dog on a leash beside him when a pit bull ran into the street and attacked his dog, causing him to fall from his bike and suffer injuries.

Although Creatini argued the owner of the property where the dog was unleashed and unfenced breached a legal duty to protect him from the pit bull, a Massachusetts Appeals court says that isnt the case, as the dog was kept on the property by the landowners tenant.

Mark McHugh owned a multifamily dwelling where he lived on the second floor and had known for more than a year that Sean Mills, his first-floor tenant, kept a dog at his apartment, according to the appeals court decision document. McHugh says he had previously asked Mills to get rid of the dog, describing it as a mixed breed and speculating that pit bull could have been one of the breeds.

At the time of the accident, Creatini and McHugh had never met. Although Creatini suffered injuries when he fell off of his bike, he was not attacked or bitten by the pit bull. Still, he claimed that his injuries were a foreseeable consequence because McHugh did not properly store the pit bull on his property.

A Superior Court judge initially disagreed and allowed summary judgment for McHugh, and Creatini appealed.

The Massachusetts appeals court explained in its decision that in order for a negligence claim to be successful, Creatini would have to prove that McHugh owed him a duty of reasonable care and breached that duty, which resulted in damage.

Typically, landowners in Massachusetts do not have a duty to take steps to protect against dangerous or unlawful acts by third parties, according to the appeals court decision. However, there is an exception when a special relationship exists between a landowner and a plaintiff.

For example, a landlord could be expected to take steps to protect a tenant from harm by another tenants pit bull on the property, the appeals court decision explained.

However, no Massachusetts appellate court has extended such a duty to a passers-by injured by a tenants dog after the dog leaves the landlords property, the appeals court decision said. We decline to do so here.

In this case, the appeals court found that McHugh and Creatini did not have a special relationship, as they had never even met, and Creatinis injury occurred on a public street rather than on McHughs property.

Because nothing in the summary judgment record indicated that McHugh was aware Mills dog was aggressive or prone to attack passersby, the appeals court found that in these circumstances, the attack and resulting injuries were not a foreseeable event.

Creatini argued, however, that there should be a rule declaring pit bulls to be dangerous and imposing a duty of reasonable care on all owners of land where pit bulls are kept.

While we acknowledge that some pit bulls can be aggressivewe see no reason to treat them as dangerous instrumentalities like firearms, explosives, poisonous drugs, or high tension electricity, which require the landowners closest attention and most careful precautions, the appeals court decision stated, adding that legislative enactments in Massachusetts reflect a strong public policy to prevent damage by uncontrolled dogs.

These statutes place responsibility for dogs, including pit bulls, on the owners of those dogs, however, rather than on third-party landowners.

With this in mind, the appeals court found that while the risk of harm to passersby from a tenants dog might be a foreseeable event for a landlord in some circumstances, that was not the case in this situation. The appeals court agreed with the Superior Courts decision and ruled in favor of McHugh.

The case is Victor Creatini vs. Mark McHugh.

Topics Massachusetts
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Two bills seeking to add New Mexico to the ranks of Western states that have legalized recreational cannabis for adult users were introduced in the state Senate on Monday, and additional proposals could be filed in the coming days.

The two proposals filed Monday offer different road maps for marijuana legalization, which backers say is likely to happen this year after last years election cycle led to shake-ups in the Legislature.

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One of the two measures, Senate Bill 288, filed by Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, would require at least a one-mile buffer between licensed cannabis dispensaries.

It would also impose a 2% excise tax on top of local gross receipts taxes, while funneling much of the generated revenue into the coffers of cities and counties.

A new state agency, the Cannabis Control Commission, would be created to regulate marijuana production, manage distribution and protect employers authority to impose drug-free workplace policies.

Legalization is coming, and as a state, we must get ahead of the issue and pass legislation that does not harm our communities, Pirtle said in a statement.

In contrast, the other bill filed Monday, Senate Bill 13, would put oversight control for legalization duties within the Regulation and Licensing Department, an existing state agency.

It would set a 20% sales tax on retail sales of recreational cannabis, which would then be exempt from the gross receipts tax.

The state would get 65% of the revenue generated by the bill, which is backed by the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, with local governments receiving the rest.

Unlike other cannabis legalization bills introduced in recent years, the revenue would not be earmarked for any specific state programs, meaning it would be up to lawmakers and the governor to decide how to spend it.

Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, the measures sponsor, said his focus is on freeing up law enforcement agencies to focus on violent crime  not cannabis enforcement  and responding to prevailing public sentiment in favor of cannabis legalization, not on generating a new revenue stream for the state.

I am optimistic and hopeful theres sufficient bipartisan will to get a responsible adult use bill this year, Ivey-Soto said in a Monday interview.

New Mexico already has a marijuana decriminalization law on its books, as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last year signed into law a bill that made possession of up to a half-ounce of cannabis a civil offense punishable with a $50 fine.

But the governor and other supporters say legalization is still necessary, arguing it would generate tax dollars that could be used on public safety programs.

Currently, 15 states have legalized recreational cannabis sales to adult users, or are in the process of doing so. Arizona and three other states approved legalization referendums last year.
This is an opinion cartoon.

Can yall smell that $3 billion rats secrecy-soaked stench?

I dont always agree with Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeiglers rants and raves, but when he makes sense to me Im happy to share. Zeigler calls for transparency and an independent management audit of the 30-year prison lease contract. Alabama taxpayers should all be on board with that.

Here are some excerpts from his AL.com guest opinion piece:

As it stands, the prison lease plan  one of the largest public expenditures in state history  will be pushed through with little opportunity for legislative or public scrutiny unless we halt it now.

Despite ADOC efforts to conduct the entire process in secrecy, anyone whos paying attention knows enough to see what a terribly wasteful and irreversible deal this is for Alabama.

Our elected legislators have never laid eyes on the ADOC plan, and they wont be given an opportunity to do so until Alabama is already locked in. The checks and balances by the legislative branch have been eliminated in the prison lease plan.

We would shell out billions of dollars but own nothing in the end. We Alabamians cannot let this happen.

That is why I am calling for an independent management audit of Alabamas Department of Corrections. I invite my fellow state leaders to join me in this call for transparency.

Other states know better than to let their prisons run unchecked. Many conduct needed audits to catch problems before they balloon out of control.

Take Mississippi, a state that recently conducted a thorough audit of its prison system. Like in Alabama, Mississippis prisons were under investigation by the DOJ for alleged unconstitutional treatment of inmates. In response, their commissioner called for an independent management audit to root out wastefulness or corruption.

Without the [audit], it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to uncover some of the misspending here, Mississippi State Auditor Shad White said. It is encouraging to see [the DOCs] proactive approach to fixing the problems.

So far, Mississippi has avoided a DOJ lawsuit.

Alabama has not been so blessed. In December 2020, the DOJ officially sued Alabama following findings of unsafe conditions, rampant violence, and excessive use of force on inmates. What ADOC conveniently ignores is that buildings will not address the failed ADOC leadership, from Commissioner Jeff Dunn on down.

Before suing, the DOJ tried to negotiate with Gov. Ivey, Dunn, and Attorney General Steve Marshall. That went nowhere. In fact, prison conditions have worsened since the DOJ released its initial investigative report in April 2019. Like moving into a new house to save a broken marriage, new buildings will do nothing to address the real problem: failed leadership.

Perhaps the only way to avoid a statewide takeover is to convince the DOJ that Alabama is actually trying to address its prison problems like Mississippi did. And that starts with a transparent and honest conversation about resource allocation.

If Gov Ivey really wants to find an Alabama solution to this Alabama problem, she will encourage a management audit of ADOC.

Amen.

Read all of Zeiglers opinion piece here: Prison lease may be an expensive, long-term mistake

R E L A T E D: I refuse to pay for Gov. Iveys lies until I retire

What we know about Alabamas plans for 2 new prisons

Ivey signs leases for 2 new prisons; costs not released

Alabama prison horror story

Check out more cartoons and stuff by JD Crowe

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JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com and 2020 RFK Human Rights Award winner for Editorial Cartoons. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix.
Zoo Digital Group PLC - London-based provider of cloud-based localisation and digital distribution services - Announces three new hires as part of its talent management programme to enhance its dubbing capabilities and bring in new talent across European and other markets.

Head of Sound will be David Concurs, whose mixing work includes projects for Walt Disney Co and Disney's Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm arms. Concurs will further develop the dubbing services offered by Zoo to Hollywood clients and streaming service providers. Former Disney executive Mariusz Jaworowski will be creative director for central and eastern European dubbing and will oversee the quality for all dubbing titles within Poland, Russia, the Balkans, the Baltics, Czech Republic, Hungary and Greece. Andreas Kaj, former SDI Media international senior production manager, will be dubbing territory manager for the Nordic region, where he will deliver dubbed projects to clients in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark and develop a larger dedicated territory management team for the region.

"These significant additions to our expanding international team are a clear demonstration of our rapid growth plan for our dubbing services as we seek to attract exceptional talent to Zoo," says Chief Executive Stuart Green.

Current stock price: 97.40 pence

Year-to-date change: up 56%

By Zoe Wickens; zoewickens@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
A top U.N. official urged the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to "collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar" as the 15-member body considered a possible statement condemning Monday's coup.

U.N. Myanmar envoy Christine Schraner Burgener briefed the council in a private meeting after the Myanmar army detained Suu Kyi and others in response to "election fraud", handed power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing, imposed a state of emergency for one year and pledged to hold new elections.

"I strongly condemn the recent steps taken by the military and urge all of you to collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar," Schraner Burgener told the council, according to her prepared remarks.

"Let us be clear, the recent outcome of the election was a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD)," she said. "The military's proposal to hold elections again should be discouraged."

The Security Council is negotiating a possible statement, drafted by Britain, that would condemn the coup, call for the military to respect the rule of law and human rights, and immediately release those unlawfully detained, diplomats said. Such statements have to be agreed by consensus.

"I certainly hope that we'll be able to speak with one voice," British U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, president of the council for February, told reporters after the meeting.

China, backed by Russia, shielded Myanmar from any significant council action after a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State sent more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing into Bangladesh, where they are still stranded. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Western states accused the Myanmar military of ethnic cleansing, which it denied.

A diplomat with China's U.N. mission said after a council meeting on Tuesday that they were "shocked" that reporters had already seen the draft council statement, adding that "this will make the process of seeking consensus even more difficult."

"We are of the view that any action by the Council should contribute to political and social stability of Myanmar and its peace and reconciliation, avoiding escalating the tension or further complicating the situation," the diplomat said.

Russia's U.N. mission is seeking instructions from Moscow on the draft statement, said deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy, adding that the situation in Myanmar was "complex and volatile."

The United Nations also raised fears on Monday that the coup in Myanmar will worsen the plight of some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in the country.

"At this point in time, we must ensure the protection of people of Myanmar and their fundamental rights. We must do everything to prevent violence from breaking out," Schraner Burgener said.

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BRIDGEWATER, N.J., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Illinois legislation originally proposed the implementation of Panic Buttons for Hotels across the state to be completed by the summer of 2020. Now because of the pandemic, the deadline for the Panic Button law has been pushed back for hotels until March 1st, 2021. With this new deadline, many hotels are looking for affordable Panic Button solutions that will fit their current / post-pandemic budgets.

Among other states, Illinois is set to become one of the leaders in the country who has taken on the initiative to protect their employees through open communication and cutting-edge technology. The problem is that as hotels purchase Panic Buttons, many systems will go unused for an extended period of time. Investing a couple thousand dollars for a system limited to one function may not provide Hotels with the best return on their investment.

REVLAB Technology LLC has developed more than just a simple Panic Button solution. Their product features smartphones that provide much more functionality than basic Panic Button Systems. For example, this extendible solution can help employees communicate through voice/text chat or alert the front desk of cleaned rooms by utilizing the automated room-based location accuracy. By providing hotel employees with workplace smartphone devices, hotels can help increase productivity/efficiency while also maintaining safety!

Solution - Hotel Panic Button System

The Hotel Panic Button solution by REVLAB is compatible with iOS / Android Smartphones. Being a mobile application allows the lightweight designed solution to be highly cost-effective at as low as $1/room/month of coverage. The Company provides your hotel employees with workplace smartphones to be used for the Panic Button Solution. The fully compliant system can be installed within a few hours by the hotel staff. The panic button system works through three simple processes...

Open mobile application and press the "Panic Button" to request help The request for help is stored in a secure Google-hosted database for record-keeping The system contacts the security guard through push notifications and/or sends SMS text messages to all relevant parties to provide assistance.

Pros: No added installation / setup fees, extendible solution, very low-cost recurring fee.

As similar legislation waits to be approved in other states across the nation. REVLAB remains ready to accommodate a growing market of Panic Button users to ensure safety nationwide!

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A traveling ICU nurse has revealed the heartbreaking conversation she has with COVID-19 patients before they are intubated and put on a ventilator - a terrifying scenario from which some people never wake up.

Savanna, who lives in Tennessee but is currently stationed at a hospital in New York City, shared a TikTok video of herself re-enacting how she tells patients with advanced coronavirus cases that they need to be intubated.

'Every single day, I help someone's body fight off death with a huge team of others in the hospital,' the 28-year-old told BuzzFeed. 'I hope people take away that healthcare workers are here to help them.'

Heartbreaking: Savanna, 28, from Tennessee, shared a TikTok video of herself re-enacting the difficult conversation she has with COVID-19 patients before they're intubated

'But at the same time, they need to understand that what may seem like a simple choice to not wear a mask on the subway could end a life and devastate a family,' she added. 'Small choices right now have big consequences.'

Savannah, who is known as @thatICUnurse on TikTok, said she has seen people in their twenties, thirties, and forties die from the virus.

Patients are intubated when they can't breathe on their own. During the medical procedure, a tube is inserted through the mouth and into the airway, so the person can be placed on a ventilator to assist with breathing.

In the early days of the pandemic, it was reported that more than 80 per cent of COVID patients who required a ventilator died, however by May 26, a study published by Critical Care Medicine stated that the number had fallen to 35.7 per cent.

A doctor from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center estimated in July that the mortality rate among ventilated COVID patients was between 30 and 50 per cent, the Washington Post reported.

What it's like: In the video, she is wearing full PPE, including a respirator mask and a face shield, as she leans over the camera as she would a patient in a hospital bed

Compassionate: When telling patients they have to be intubated and put on a ventilator, the nurse assures them that she will be by their side and won't feel any pain

Savannah's video makes clear the terrifying prospect of being put on a ventilator, as the ICU re-enacts the process of explaining the treatment to a patient.

In the video, Savannah is wearing full PPE, including a respirator mask and a face shield, as she leans over the camera as she would a patient in a hospital bed.

Location: Savannah is currently stationed in New York City, where she is treating COVID-19 patients

'Hey, Miss Smith? Hey, sweetie, it's your nurse. So you know the labs I've been drawing all night? Well, the last one didn't look very good, sweetie. The doctor wants to put you on a ventilator,' she says empathetically.

After breaking the upsetting news, she quickly assures the patient that they are in good hands and won't feel any pain.

'It's going to be OK. It's going to be alright. Do you want me to get your family on the phone so you can FaceTime them?' she asks.

'OK, OK, we can do that. You want to know what it's going to be like? Well, I'm going to give you some nice medication, so that you can go to sleep, OK?'

'You're not going to feel any of it, and the doctor is going to put a tube down your throat to help you breathe. But you're going to be asleep. You won't feel any of it, OK?' she continues.

'Don't worry I'm going to be right here with you the entire time, alright? I will be holding your hand. I'll be right here with you by your side.'

In the caption, Savannah wrote: 'Unfortunately I have this conversation way too often.'

Life or death situations: Savannah admitted that she has had 'this conversation way too often' with her patients

Important message: Savannah said she was inspired to share the video to educate people who still refuse to wear a mask or practice social distancing

The video has been viewed more than 575,000 times and received thousands of comments, a number of which were from TikTok users who have lost loved ones to COVID-19.

'I spoke to my dad right before they put him on a ventilator,' one woman shared. 'He said, "Hey Tia, not feeling too good, see you later, I love you." He never woke up.'

'I will be forever grateful to the nurse who let me FaceTime my mama before she was ventilated, someone else wrote. 'Last time I got to hear her voice. Nurses are angels.'

Another added: 'This. THIS is a nurse. THIS is the compassion and care that a nurse provides.'

Savannah told BuzzFeed that she was inspired to share the video to educate both families whose loved ones have been put on a ventilator and people who still refuse to wear a mask or practice social distancing.

'I also filmed it to let people know that we are still here, and still really care for their loved ones while they are in the hospital,' she explained.

'We spend our whole day with this one life, trying to save them, forming bonds with them, and it breaks our heart for them to have to go through this alone.'
Coun. John LoRegio (Meadows-Waverly) has resigned from Brandon City Council effective Jan. 31, saying in a statement that health issues are preventing him from putting his full attention on council matters.

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Coun. John LoRegio (Meadows-Waverly) has resigned from Brandon City Council effective Jan. 31, saying in a statement that health issues are preventing him from putting his full attention on council matters.

Reached by phone on Monday, LoRegio told the Sun he has been battling multiple myeloma cancer and has been at the Brandon Regional Health Centre since August last year.

Meadows-Waverly councillor John LoRegio has resigned from Brandon City Council, citing health reasons. (File)

He said his treatment has been going well and he wanted to get through this year's city budget process before stepping down. When COVID-19 is over, he said he'd like to spend more time with his family and visit his grandchildren on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

LoRegio has represented Meadows-Waverly since 2013 when the former city hall reporter for CKLQ came out on top in a byelection to replace Jim McCrae, who had departed Brandon to take a job in Winnipeg.

Mayor Rick Chrest praised LoRegio's tenure on council, calling him an "ardent voice" for the people of his ward.

Because more than 12 months are left before the next set of municipal elections, the city will be required by law to call a byelection to fill the vacancy left by LoRegio's departure.

The city did not provide a timetable for this process on Monday, but the mayor recommended that those interested in running start thinking about their candidacy.

Read more in Tuesday's edition of the Sun.

 The Brandon Sun
BAY CITY, MI  A Bay City man is facing a life offense for allegedly robbing a pharmacy in broad daylight.

Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly on Tuesday, Feb. 2, arraigned 62-year-old Brian L. Bleicher on single counts of armed robbery, carrying a weapon with unlawful intent, and carrying a concealed weapon. The most serious charge, armed robbery, is punishable by up to life in prison.

The charges stem from a holdup of Anderson Pharmacy, 1108 Marquette Ave. in the citys Banks District.

About 11:20 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 1, police responded to the pharmacy for an armed-robbery-in-progress. The robber told staff he had a weapon on him, though he did not brandish one, said Bay City Public Safety Capt. Nathan Webster.

The robber demanded prescription medication and fled in a vehicle. He did not steal any cash, Webster added.

No pharmacy employees were physically harmed in the incident.

As officers were en route, Bay County Central Dispatch provided them with descriptions of the suspect and the sedan he fled in.

Within minutes, an officer saw the sedan and followed it until it pulled into a West Side residential driveway. Police then arrested the driver, identified as Bleicher.

Officers searched Bleichers vehicle and found a large knife and the stolen medication in Bleichers car, Webster said. Bleicher told police he had a dependency on prescription drugs, which was a factor in the holdup, Webster said.

Bleichers criminal history includes five felony and 15 misdemeanor convictions, according to Chris Gautz, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. Most recently, Bleicher was on probation from June 28, 2001, through Feb. 17, 2004, on a conviction of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police, Gautz said.

Judge Kelly set Bleichers bond at $250,000 cash and scheduled his case for a preliminary examination at 2 p.m. on Feb. 18.

Read more:

Man arrested after armed robbery of a Bay City pharmacy

Saginaw man who fled to North Carolina told half-sister he killed his best friend

Police respond to gunshots fired in Bay Citys South End
CASS COUNTY, MI  One week after the Allegan County Republican Party chapter voted to censure Congressman Fred Upton over his support of Donald Trumps impeachment, Cass County GOP leadership voted to do the same.

The Cass County Republican Party, by a majority voice vote at a Jan. 28 special meeting, voted to censure Upton, Cass County GOP secretary Wally Berndt said in a news release.

In a proclamation released to the media by Berndt, the Cass Republicans uniformly stated they believe Uptons vote to impeach the former President on Jan. 13 was a betrayal of his oath of office and core values of the Cass County Republican Party.

The vote, the proclamation stated, ignored the voice of the voters of Cass County and was against our interest.

When reached for comment, Uptons office reissued the statement it sent out after Allegan County Republican leadership voted to censure the Congressman for the same reasons on Jan. 21.

Related: Allegan County Republicans censure Congressman Fred Upton for Trump impeachment vote

I always said Id support President Trump when I agreed with him and disagree when I thought he was wrong, Upton said. Congress should not tolerate any effort to impede the peaceful transfer of power.

Ive gone to bat for southwest Michigan every day Ive been in Congress, bringing jobs, economic growth, and opportunities to our region of the state. And that is exactly what Im going to keep doing.

Josh Paciorek, Uptons communications director, added the congressman has continued making calls and reaching out to local party folks to listen to them and hear them, knowing they might disagree with his stance, but to move forward, this should be a party that can include a lot of different opinions, ideas and viewpoints.

In condemning Uptons vote to impeach Trump, the Cass County GOP said the Democratic Party, liberal media and self-serving Republicans continue to seek personal and political gain by misleading the American people into believing President Trump incited the violence that took place at the Capitol.

Upton was one of 10 House Republicans to vote in favor of impeaching Trump. Another Michigan Republican  U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Grand Rapids  also voted to impeach the former president.

Related: U.S. Capitol attack, Trump impeachment vote was worst week of my life, says Congressman Peter Meijer

The Cass County proclamation claimed there has been no investigation of the facts, and that the former president had been denied his Constitutional right to due process with no witnesses offering testimony to the House.

Many Cass County Republican delegates and residents of Cass County attended Trumps Jan. 6 rally in Washington D.C., according to the proclamation. They did so to peacefully petition our government for redress of grievances regarding the 2020 Presidential election, the proclamation states.

The Cass County Republican Party stated it strongly condemned politically-motivated violence experienced throughout the country and on the U.S. Capitol.

The violence that occurred at the Capitol is what led directly to Uptons vote.

Congress must hold President Trump to account and send a clear message that our country cannot and will not tolerate any effort by any president to impede the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next, Upton said in a statement issued Jan. 12. Thus, I will vote to impeach.

Related: Rep. Fred Upton shell-shocked after rioters breach U.S. Capitol

Upton was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and tweeted during the attempted insurrection that he was horrified and shell-shocked by the violence of rioters trying to undo the constitutional transfer of power.

He concluded his tweet, by calling out the former president and stating, @RealDonaldTrump, for the sake of our nation and safety of our people, tell your supporters to stand down and leave town.

Trumps impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate is to begin the week of Feb. 8.

Also on MLive:

Michigan Republicans join House Democrats to impeach Trump for inciting Capitol riots

Report finds 25 hate groups in Michigan as extremism becomes mainstream

Congressman Upton will vote to impeach Trump for inciting Capitol riots

Who are Michigans militias? Armed patriot groups resurface during anti-government climate
According to information published by the US Navy The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78), participated in Interoperability Exercises with Ukrainian Naval Forces in the Black Sea on Jan. 30, 2021. Off the coast of Ukraine, in the Black Sea, Porter, along with the Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oiler USNS Laramie (T-AO-203), operated with three Ukrainian Navy vessels; the Gurza-M-class UKRS Kostopol (P 180) and UKRS Nikopol (P 176), and the Island-class patrol boat UKRS Starobilsk (P 191), as well as a Ukrainian Navy MI-14 helicopter.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78), participated in Interoperability Exercises with Ukrainian Naval Forces in the Black Sea on Jan. 30, 2021. Off the coast of Ukraine, in the Black Sea, Porter, along with the Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oiler USNS Laramie (T-AO-203), operated with three Ukrainian Navy vessels; the Gurza-M-class UKRS Kostopol (P 180) and UKRS Nikopol (P 176), and the Island-class patrol boat UKRS Starobilsk (P 191), as well as a Ukrainian Navy MI-14 helicopter.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer DDG 78 USS Porter (Picture source: Wikipedia)

Porter is on her 9th patrol of the U.S. Sixth Fleet area of responsibility in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa. The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea consistent with international law, including the Montreux Convention.

U.S. Sixth Fleet has provided over $40 million via Section 333 funding to establish Ukraines baseline Maritime Domain Awareness capability in the development, integration, and linkage of permanently-based and mobile coastal radar sites. These bases and sites are regularly working together with ships like USS Porter to help Ukraine maintain situational awareness of its territorial waters.

The USS Porter (DDG 78) is an Arleigh Burke-class Flight II guided missile destroyer in service with the United States Navy. She was laid down on 2 December 1996, launched and christened on 12 November 1997, and commissioned 20 March 1999, in Port Canaveral, Florida.

The USS Porter Arleigh Burke-class has a full load displacement of 8,300 tons, is 154m (506 feet) in overall length, and has a 20 m (66 foot) beam. The ship is driven by two shafts powered by four General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines. Their maximum speed is in excess of 30 knots (56 km/h) and they have a cruising range of 4,400 n. miles at 20 knots (8,100 km at 37 km/h). The ship complement is about 33 officers, 38 chief petty officers, and 210 enlisted personnel.

The USS Porter has the AEGIS air defense system with the SPY-1D phased array radar. She is armed with a 90-cell Vertical Launching System capable of storing and rapidly firing a mix of Standard, Tomahawk, and Vertically Launched ASROC (VLA) missiles for either Air Defense, Strike Warfare, or Anti-Submarine Warfare missions. Other armament includes the Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile, the 5"/54 naval gun with improvements that integrate it with the AEGIS weapon system, and the Phalanx Close-in Weapon System for self-defense.
By Dennis McLellan, the Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Hal Holbrook, the actor best known for his amazingly accurate portrayal of Mark Twain in the renowned one-man show he performed on stages for more than five decades, has died. He was 95.

Holbrooks former wife Carol Rossen confirmed his death. The New York Times said he died Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, California.

Holbrooks Tony Award-winning Twain re-creation on Broadway in 1966 was part of an acting career that spanned stage, movies and television. He first encountered Twain when he portrayed the legendary author and humorist in a two-person sketch that was part of a multicharacter revue Holbrook and his first wife took on a high school assembly tour of the Southwest in the late 1940s.

By the time Holbrook turned Twain into a one-man show in 1954, he had performed the brief Twain sketch, An Encounter With an Interviewer, some 800 times in front of high school, university and womens club audiences.

After developing and performing his one-man Twain show in New York nightclubs and in regional performances  as well as performing pieces of his act on The Ed Sullivan Show and other TV programs  Holbrook opened Mark Twain Tonight! off-Broadway in 1959.

Reviewers were uniformly ecstatic in their praise, calling Holbrooks Twain re-creation brilliant and the show extraordinary. Life magazine called it the greatest theatrical surprise of the year.

Holbrook went on to tour the United States, Canada and Europe with his one-man show before bringing Mark Twain Tonight! to Broadway in 1966 to rave reviews.

The 41-year-old actors Broadway triumph was the culmination of more than a decade of research into the life, literature and idiosyncrasies of one of Americas best-known literary icons.

Holbrook had honed Twains speech: his drawl, his slow, casual delivery on the lecture platform and his way of dropping comic nuggets with what Holbrook called the innocent air of a man who does not realize he has said anything funny.

He had perfected the look: the shock of white hair and drooping mustache, along with the age lines, nose and jowls  make-up that took more than three hours to apply.

He also had refined the costume: a white, three-piece linen suit and black shoes, a maroon cravat with a diamond stickpin, a vintage gold pocket watch with a heavy gold chain, and a small silver penknife that Holbrook used to cut off the ends of the three cigars he smoked during each performance.

Most important, Holbrook had made Twains words, taken directly from the authors lectures and other writings, his own.

As he ambled on stage, the transformation of Hal Holbrook into Mark Twain was complete.

Ladies and gentlemen, he would begin, I wish to present to you a man whose great learning and veneration for truth are only exceeded by his high moral character and majestic presence. I refer in these vague, general terms to myself.

A New York Times critic praised the theatrical magic of Hal Holbrook. He brought Mark Twain back to life to stir the laughter and stab the conscience of a public yearning for such a voice as that of the nations one true comic genius.

In 1967, a national audience of 30 million watched Holbrooks Emmy-nominated performance in a televised version of Mark Twain Tonight! on CBS.

Not wanting to be trapped in the legendary character that made him famous, Holbrook made a point of shaping a varied career as an actor, which included one of his most famous film roles: the mysterious Deep Throat in the 1976 film All the Presidents Men.

On stage, he played everything from Shakespeares King Lear to Shylock to Willy Loman.

On television, he won Emmy Awards for his 1970-71 dramatic series, The Senator, the 1973 TV movie Pueblo (for which he won Emmys for actor of the year  special, and best lead actor in a drama) and the 1974 miniseries Sandburgs Lincoln.

He also earned an Emmy nomination for his role in That Certain Summer, a landmark 1972 TV movie about a divorced homosexual father; he had a recurring role as Julia Sugarbakers love interest on the sitcom Designing Women, which starred his third wife, Dixie Carter, as Sugarbaker; and he played Burt Reynolds cantankerous father-in-law on Evening Shade.

Among his film credits are The Group, Magnum Force, Julia, Wall Street, The Firm and The Majestic.

In 2008, at age 82, Holbrook was nominated for an Academy Award, earning a best supporting actor nomination for the role of a lonely widower in Into the Wild.

But Holbrook could never shake his image as Mark Twain reincarnated. Nor did he want to stop doing something that was so enduringly successful and so much fun to do.

Holbrook was 29 when he began playing the 70ish Twain in his one-man show, and he stuck with Twain for so many years he eventually became older than the age of the historic character he was playing.

To keep fresh, he added new Twain material to the act and, depending on his mood, he often would shift material while on stage.

Ive just become more and more impressed with him, Holbrook told the Boston Globe in 1997. The same truths that captured me when I started in 1954 are even more apparent today.

Playing Twain, he said, is a genuine pleasure, and its a way of getting things off my chest. Its a catharsis. Lets face it, one of Twains favorite subjects was hypocrisy, and that happens on different levels all the time. Its never out of fashion.

As of 2009, he continued to portray Twain on stages 20 to 30 times a year.

Born Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. in Cleveland on Feb. 17, 1925, he was the middle child between sisters. (A brother died in infancy.) When he was 2, his mother abandoned the family and, Holbrook later learned, moved to New York City, where she worked as a chorus girl.

Holbrooks father, a shoe salesman, disappeared a few days after their mother, and Holbrook and his sisters were sent to live with their paternal grandparents in South Weymouth, Mass.

At 7, Holbrook was sent to Suffield Academy in Suffield, Connecticut, where, he later said, he and the other students were routinely beaten by the sadistic headmaster. Holbrook developed an interest in theater at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Ohio, where he graduated in 1942.

Drawn by the drama department at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, Holbrook studied there for a year before being called up for military service in 1943.

While serving with the Army Corps of Engineers in Newfoundland, he joined an amateur theater group, where he met actress Ruby Johnston. They were married in 1945. After his discharge, Holbrook returned to Denison University, where both he and his wife majored in drama.

In 1947, during the fall of their senior year, Holbrook received a late-night phone call that would alter the course of his life.

The call was from Edward Wright, head of the universitys theater department, who said he had been asked by a school assembly booker from Dallas if he had any students who could tour high schools in the Southwest with a show for 30 weeks the next season.

As Holbrook recounted in the prologue of his 1959 book Mark Twain Tonight! An Actors Portrait, Wright told the booker he had a young married couple at the university who had a two-person show in which they performed scenes from the lives of famous personalities: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Alden and Priscilla, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Mark Twain and a few Shakespearean characters as well.

Wright told Holbrook the job paid $210 for 12 shows a week, plus $15 for gas and oil. Holbrook told Wright theyd do it, although he and his wife really didnt have such a show.

Before the Holbrooks began putting their show together, Wright gave them a copy of Twains An Encounter With an Interviewer, a humorous piece in which Twain pulls the leg of a reporter with no sense of humor.

Holbrook recalled that he and his wife began doing the Interviewer sketch for clubs and school groups, and then began adding scenes from Shakespeares As You Like It and other selections.

With a $3,000 loan from the president of a bank in Newark, Ohio, who had seen the Holbrooks in college productions, the couple bought material for costumes, stage lights, an amplifying system for musical bridges and a station wagon to transport both them and their cargo.

In September 1948, they set out on their school assembly tour of the Southwest.

Their audiences improved dramatically over the next three years, Holbrook recalled. They performed their show at womens clubs and small colleges about nine months out of the year and acted in summer stock for part of the summer.

In 1954, after moving to New York City, Holbrook landed a continuing role as the reformed alcoholic son of a minister on the TV soap opera The Brighter Day. The job lasted more than five years, during which he developed and performed his solo Twain show.

In 2001, while working on his autobiography, Holbrook discovered why he became an actor.

I realized there was an imp in me that wanted to say, Here I am. Here I am, he told The Hartford Courant. The little boy who had been abandoned by his parents, he said, was frightened, but he wanted to be noticed.

The twice-divorced Holbrook, who married Carter in 1984, had two children, Victoria and David, with his first wife; and a daughter, Eve, with his second wife, Carol Rossen.

Carter died of complications from cancer in 2010. Less than four weeks later, Holbrook returned to the stage, performing Mark Twain Tonight! at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza in Southern California.

Look, he told the Los Angeles Times shortly thereafter, I need to work. If I dont work, I could sit down and contemplate suicide. My wife was no quitter  she would be telling me to get out there to do my work, and thats what Im doing. So thats the main thing  to keep working, to keep trying to figure out how to do this job right.
ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Neil deGrasse Tyson, head of the Hayden Planetarium and research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History, will participate in the Air Force Association's 2021 virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium, Feb. 24  26, by hosting a fireside chat with Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond, Chief of Space Operations.

"We are delighted to welcome Dr. Tyson, a brilliant astrophysicist, space advocate, and author to speak at one of the premier events for Airmen, Guardians, defense industry members, and aerospace professionals," said AFA President, retired Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright. "Dr. Tyson's passion for space and the universe is unrivaled and we look forward to his fireside chat with Gen. Raymond, our first U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations. AFA remains committed to further strengthening our support for the Department of the Air Force, including our growing focus on the Space Force and all things 'space.' Dr. Tyson's presence will certainly amplify that commitment and what our Air Force Association is all about."

This year's symposium theme, "Accelerate and Innovate: Actualizing the Nation's Need for Dominant Air and Space Forces" will feature 40 sessions, ranging from workshops to major addresses from Air and Space Forces leaders, industry experts, and aerospace professionals. More than half of the sessions will be live streamed each day, including Fireside chats from Gen Charles Q. Brown Jr., Air Force Chief of Staff and The Honorable John Roth, Acting Secretary of the Air Force.

Learn more and register for the 2021 virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium.

About AFA: The Air Force Association is a non-profit, independent, professional military and aerospace education association. Our mission is to promote dominant U.S. Air and Space Forces as the foundation of a strong National Defense; to honor and support our Airmen, Guardians, and their Families; and to remember and respect our enduring Heritage.

Contact:

Bridget Dongu

Director, Communications

[email protected]

703-389-1905

SOURCE Air Force Association

Related Links

http://www.afa.org


With the COVID vaccine in short supply nationwide, and states rushing to ramp up their ability to deliver doses, not all vaccine-eligible residents in Massachusetts may be able to secure an appointment in the coming weeks.

If youve received your first dose of the Moderna vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends getting your second dose roughly one month after the first injection. For the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, federal health officials suggest getting the second shot at about the three-week mark.

So, given the ongoing delay in supply, and its impact on administration, how important is it that you get your second dose on time?

Experts say they are reasonably confident that the first dose offers sufficient protection. But how long it lasts is still not known.

A week or two after first dose, there seems to be very high level of protection, said Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University. We know a second dose of vaccine gives a booster effect. Theres a more substantial immune response after the second dose.

The CDC currently recommends that the second dose be administered as close to each of the Moderna and Pfizer intervals as possible. If this isnt possible, federal experts say second dose appointments can be scheduled up to six weeks, or 42 days, after the first injection. Officials stress that delaying the second shot is only okay if adhering to the recommended interval isnt feasible.

There are currently limited data on efficacy of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines administered beyond this window, the CDC states. If the second dose is administered beyond these intervals, there is no need to restart the series.

The CDC also notes that people should not look to get the second dose earlier than recommended.

But Rubin says the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have only been tested at their respective dosage intervals. He says some experts believe having a smaller number of people who are fully vaccinated  meaning theyve received both shots  is preferred to having twice as many people with only partial protection, adding that a more complete protection offers better assurance against emerging COVID variants. So far, health experts have stated that they feel confident the current versions of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines protect against the new strains; but more data is needed.

Amid nationwide frustrations over the vaccine rollout, Rubin says the supply issues affecting the race to inoculate the public are less political than they appear. Even if the U.S. government found a way to be more efficient in distributing the shots, its likely wed run out of vaccines even faster, he says.

People have never made these vaccines before, and learning how to make them at scale is something theyre doing at the same time as theyre being rolled out, Rubin said.

But experts also acknowledge that, despite the highly specific timing of the two COVID vaccines, immunizations for other infectious diseases dont always happen exactly as planned.

We still give those vaccines, said Dr. Brian D. W. Chow, attending physician and director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Tufts Medical Center. We just dont know what that immune response will look like if its spaced out further.

Moderna and Pfizer are on pace to deliver 100 million doses to the U.S. by the end of March, and another 100 million by the second quarter of 2021. And with news of Johnson & Johnsons single-dose vaccine coming online, progress is expected to continue, even amid concerns about the new COVID strains beginning to take root across the country and other parts of the globe.

In Massachusetts, appointments for residents aged 75 and older, who top the priority list in Phase 2 of the states vaccination rollout, were allowed to begin. After residents and lawmakers expressed frustration over difficulties in booking appointments, state officials promised to set up a hotline to help those looking to navigate the online portal for scheduling shots.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Related Content:
2022 Honda engine plan still alive - Marko

Red Bull remains confident rival Formula 1 teams will agree to an engine development 'freeze' from 2022.

Top official Dr Helmut Marko insists the measure is the only way Red Bull's plan to take over the works Honda operation can go ahead following the Japanese manufacturer's departure at the end of the year.

Last week, F1 managing director Ross Brawn denied that teams voted down the plan, but Marko told motorsport-magazin.com: "The agreement that still existed on Friday was no longer available on Monday."

Nonetheless, ahead of a rumoured vote by the World Motor Sport Council on February 21, Marko remains confident agreement will eventually be reached.

"We need six of the ten votes from the teams - only a simple majority," he told f1-insider.com.

"I assume that, in addition to Red Bull and Toro Rosso, the three Ferrari teams Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Haas as well as Renault will agree," Marko added.

Moreover, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has told the RTL and n-tv broadcasters: "If the freeze is necessary to keep Red Bull-Honda in business, we will support it."
By Keith Burbank

Bay City News Service

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Famed San Francisco private investigator Jack Palladino has died, police said Monday evening.

The 76-year-old died following a robbery attempt late Thursday afternoon in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood where he reportedly lived.

Two suspects have been arrested in the attempted robbery and police said Monday that they have opened a homicide investigation.

Police identified the suspects as 24-year-old Pittsburg resident Lawrence Thomas and 23-year-old San Francisco resident Tyjone Flournoy.

The attempted robbery occurred near the intersection of Page Street and Masonic Avenue. Officers responded to that location at 4:51 p.m. Thursday and found Palladino injured and lying in the street.

Police said witnesses told them that one of the suspects was struggling with Palladino over a camera in the passenger side of a vehicle. When the driver sped away, Palladino fell to the ground.

Thomas was taken into custody Friday in San Francisco while Flournoy was arrested in Reno, Nevada, on Saturday, according to police.

Copyright  2021 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
In the case of Mexico, criminal gangs are taking full advantage of the medical oxygen shortage, with deadly consequences.

[Warning to readers: the first two paragraphs of this post include spoilers for one of the greatest movies of all time, The Third Man, the screenplay for which was written by Graham Greene. If youve never seen it before, you might want to skip to the third paragraph]

In Graham Greenes classic The Third Man the antagonist Harry Lime makes a killing  literally  in post-WW2 Vienna by stealing penicillin from military hospitals, diluting it, and selling it on the black market, resulting in the preventable deaths of countless people. That doesnt seem to trouble Limes conscience. During the famous Ferris Wheel scene Lime (played by Orson Welles) is asked by his friend Holly Martins (played by Joseph Cotton) whether he has ever seen any of his victims, to which Limes responds:

You know, I never feel comfortable on these sort of things. Victims? Dont be melodramatic. Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax  the only way you can save money nowadays.

All countries, unfortunately, produce their share of sociopathic opportunists like Harry Lime. Some of the most accomplished end up occupying the C-suites of global corporations and banks, heading up hedge funds or scaling the ranks of political parties. Others make a fortune in the grey or black economy, running arms, selling fentanyl-laced opiates, trafficking children or stealing oxygen.

From Oil to Avocados, to Oxygen

In Mexico, where the second wave of Covid-19 is proving to be a lot worse than the first, criminal gangs have taken to stealing tanks of medical oxygen. Given Mexicos recent history, this is not really surprising. In the last 20 years the narco gangs have diversified so successfully from their original line of business that their reach extends to just about every corner of the national economy. They have taken over the avocado trade in Michoacan, inserted themselves in Quintana Roos tourism industry and made billions pilfering oil from the Pemex-owned pipelines that crisscross the country. Now they are hijacking lorry loads of oxygen tanks.

Websites offering to sell the tanks, at hugely marked-up prices, are sprouting up all over the Internet. Sometimes the tanks never arrive. Some are not even suitable for medical use since they contain acetylene, which is used for welding.

One of the main reasons why narco gangs have suddenly developed an interest in medical oxygen is the acute scarcity of the resource due to the pandemic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in five Covid-19 patients ends up requiring oxygen. In severe cases, this rises to three in five. Some hospitals have seen demand for oxygen increase between five and seven times above normal levels. This is putting huge pressure on many countries supplies of medical oxygen.

Some of the less well-funded public hospitals in Mexico, as in most other Latin American economies, do not have the infrastructure to pipe liquid oxygen directly to the patients bedside. As a result, they depend on Oxygen cylinders for their supply. The cylinders are more expensive and harder to transport but a lot easier to steal and sell on to people in desperate straits, as El Pais reports:

We have already pulled down more than 100 websites for fraudulent pricing and abuse and removed more than 700 (social networking) profiles. There will be another 1,000 by the end of this week, said [Ricardo] Sheffield, [the director of the governments consumer protection agency Profeco]. Of those profiles [that are fraudulently selling Oxygen on social networks], around 100 will face prosecution Sheffield acknowledged that oxygen tanks are also being stolen, forcing the National Guard to escort vehicles transporting oxygen tanks.

For the Love of Life, Return the Tanks

The resulting shortages risk undermining a vital health program in Mexicos Valle region. The program aims to relieve the pressure on hospital beds by bringing forward, by two or three days, the medical discharge of patients recovering from covid-19 or other respiratory ailments. But the only way of doing that is to provide those patients with oxygen tanks so they can complete their treatment at home.

With many hospitals already at bursting point, the success of the program is a matter of life or death. But for it to work, the hospitals need sufficient oxygen tanks.

Sheffield and Claudia Sheinbaum, the head of Mexico Citys local government, have repeatedly urged former patients to return any oxygen tanks they no longer need. If patients have bought oxygen tanks with their own money and are covered by medical insurance, the costs will be refunded, they say, adding: For the love of life, return the tanks.

Unfortunately, some recovering patients dont want to part with their tanks, just in case they might need them later on. Others are selling them via social media.

To compound matters, Mexicos sole producer of medical oxgygen, Grupo Infra, has been accused of exacerbating the shortage by cutting out small-scale vendors and forcing consumers to buy exclusively from its own outlets. The result, predictably, has been higher prices, bigger queues and longer waits. The government has responded by importing additional supplies from the U.S., according to El Pais,

A Global Trend

The oxygen shortage is not limited to Mexico. Global demand for medical oxygen has increased by more than a fifth in the past three months, with many countries experiencing larger rises, says The FT.

Supplies are super tight everywhere. In Africa, Europe and North America, needs have gone through the roof with this second wave. The issue is not so much the availability of molecules as the people, logistics [and] connecting to hospital networks and facilities, Jean-Marc de Royere, a senior vice-president at Frances Air Liquide, one of the worlds largest producers, said.

In Peru, some hospitals have been unable to meet the demand. As a result, patients relatives have had to track down oxygen on the black market, sometimes without success. In Manaus, Brazil, the Amazon rainforests largest city and the epicenter of the Brazilian variants outbreak, oxygen supplies have been running low for weeks, with harrowing consequences, reports the BBC:

Before the clinic ran out of oxygen, Maria Auxiliadora da Cruz had been showing encouraging signs of progress against Covid-19. On 14 January, her oxygen levels had been above the normal level of 95% but, within hours of being deprived of that vital resource, her stats plummeted to 35%. At this point, patients would normally be given intubation and oxygen by machine. Instead, the 67-year-old retired nurse died. It was horrible, her grieving daughter-in-law Thalita Rocha told the BBC. It was a catastrophe. Many elderly patients began to deteriorate and turn blue. In an emotional video that went viral on social media, she described what was happening at Policlinica Redencao in the northern Brazilian city of Manaus. Were in a desperate situation. An entire emergency unit has simply run out of oxygen A lot of people are dying. Brazil has the worlds second-highest Covid death toll with more than 221,000 fatalities. In Manaus, the health system has collapsed twice during the pandemic and deaths doubled between December and January.

The Capital of Covid-19

So bad is the situation in Manaus that local authorities have even accepted help from neighbouring Venezuela. But its not nearly enough. The local healthcare infrastructure is just not up to the challenge, says epidemiologist Jesem Orellano, from the Fiocruz Institute in Manaus. Orellano also laid part of the blame for the latest outbreak on the local population:

If you go to the poorer neighborhoods of Manaus, people continue to live as if there were no pandemic. They do not respect social distance, disinfect their hands or even wear a mask.

This is hardly surprising given that Brazils proto-fascist President Jair Bolsonaro has consistently played down the risks posed by the pandemic, calling it a little flu and minimising the importance of mask-wearing and social distancing. Theres also the fact that poorer communities in Brazil cannot stop their day-to-day activities, even if they wanted to; otherwise people would have nothing with which to feed their families.

The local governor last week decreed a one-week total lockdown. But with many local people living hand to mouth, they can hardly afford to take a day off, let alone a week.

The same goes for countless towns and cities across Latin America, including Mexico. As I feared at the beginning of this pandemic, locking down entire cities or countries and paying millions of non-essential workers not to work while healthcare workers battle to contain the virus is a luxury only afforded to countries with first-world economies, huge public debt capacities, relatively stable currencies and big central banks. And even in many of those countries the pandemic continues to rage.

Meanwhile, in some of the worlds low- and middle-income economies basic medicines and other resources grow increasingly scarce. That means that business opportunities for the Harry Limes of this world are growing. Just four days ago, a clinic in Ecuador was busted for injecting 70,000 people with fake vaccines. At US$15 a jab and with patients instructed to receive a total of three, it was easy money. Free of income tax, no doubt. Lime himself would have been impressed, until they got caught of course.
Missing McCracken County Man Located

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - The McCracken County Sheriff's Department says 61-year-old James Chandler was found in good health Tuesday afternoon.Previous story:The McCracken County Sheriff's Department is seeking assistance from the public in locating a missing McCracken County man.Deputies say 61-year-old James Chandler was last seen or contacted on or about Jan. 6.Chandler is white, 5'1" tall, and weighs about 120 pounds. He has grey/brown hair and a grey/brown beard.He was last seen in the area of the River City Mission at 1466 Bechtold Road in Paducah.Anyone who sees Chandler or knows of his whereabouts is asked to contact the McCracken County Sheriff's Department at 270-444-4719 or their local law enforcement agency.

An immunotourism bandwagon may have started rolling across eastern Europe.

Estonia has become the latest nation to offer quarantine exemption for travellers who have recovered from Covid-19 or who have been vaccinated against the virus.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs currently imposes 10 days of quarantine on arrivals from abroad, with exceptions made only for low-risk European countries  Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Iceland and Norway.

Arrivals from the UK are required to spend two weeks in self-isolation  though this can be halved by taking a free Covid test after seven days.

The government in the capital, Tallinn, has now eased its rules for people who are presumed to have acquired some immunity to coronavirus either through infection or vaccination.

The ministry says: Starting from 1 February, the 10-day self-isolation and Covid-19 testing are not mandatory for individuals, including those arriving from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or a third country, who: (1) have suffered from Covid-19 and no more than six months have passed since they have been declared cured; (2) have undergone Covid-19 vaccination and no more than six months have passed since its completion.

According to the Foreign Office, proof of recovering from Covid-19 should be a doctors certificate that includes the time, location, methodology and result of the analysis, as well as the details of "the institution that conducted the analysis.

Vaccinated travellers will need to provide an immunisation passport, even though there is no international agreement on such a document, or a vaccination certificate with a similar level of detail to the doctors certificate.

The move emulates a similar policy adopted last month by Romania  though the Balkan nation allows only those who have recovered from Covid-19 in the past 14 to 90 days to avoid quarantine.

Travellers allowed to enter Poland can avoid the need for a Covid-19 test if they can produce a certificate of vaccination.

In December, the transport minister of Cyprus, Yiannis Karousos, said that from 1 March 2021 vaccinated travellers will be able to enter the island without restrictions.

Within Estonia, the picturesque and historic port of Tallinn is the main attraction  and a very popular stop on Baltic cruises.

The guidebook writer and historian Neil Taylor, who divides his time between London and Tallinn, said: It is excellent news that Estonia is publicly looking ahead to reopening for tourism.

All destinations will have to work out what level of Covid they are willing to accept before opening their borders. Countries that idly wait for the virus to disappear will find that their tourism has disappeared well before that.

Hopefully other countries will follow the Estonian lead, but by being first, it will benefit from travellers who cannot wait to escape as soon as it is legal to do so.

The Seychelles has said that once its adult population is mostly vaccinated in mid-March, it will cease to ask arrivals to quarantine.

Saga, the holiday group for 50-plus travellers, is allowing only those who have completed a course of vaccination to join its trips.

At present British citizens are not allowed to travel abroad on holidays.


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An international group of scientists is demanding scientific journals demand more transparency from researchers in computer-related areas when accepting their reports for publication.

They also want computational researchers to include information about their code, models and computational environments in published reports.

Their call, published in Nature Magazine in October, was in response to the results of research conducted by Google Health that was published in Nature last January.

The research claimed an artificial intelligence system was faster and more accurate at screening for breast cancer than human radiologists.

Google funded the study, which was led by Google Scholar Scott McKinney and other Google employees.

Criticisms of the Google Study

"In their study, McKinney et al. showed the high potential of artificial intelligence for breast cancer screening," the international group of scientists, led by Benjamin Haibe-Kains, of the University of Toronto, stated.

"However, the lack of detailed methods and computer code undermines its scientific value. This shortcoming limits the evidence required for others to prospectively validate and clinically implement such technologies."

Scientific progress depends on the ability of independent researchers to scrutinize the results of a research study, reproduce its main results using its materials, and build upon them in future studies, the scientists said, citing Nature Magazine's policies.

McKinney and his co-authors stated that it was not feasible to release the code used for training the models because it has a large number of dependencies on internal tooling, infrastructure and hardware, Haibe-Kains' group noted.

However, many frameworks and platforms are available to make AI research more transparent and reproducible, the group said. These include Bitbucket and Github ; package managers including Conda; and container and virtualization systems such as Code Ocean and Gigantum.

Al shows great promise for use in the field of medicine, but "Unfortunately, the biomedical literature is littered with studies that have failed the test of reproducibility, and many of these can be tied to methodologies and experimental practices that could not be investigated due to failure to fully disclose software and data," Haibe-Kains' group said.

Google did not respond to our request to provide comment for this story.

Patents Pending?

There might be good business reasons for companies not to disclose full details about their AI research studies.

"This research is also considered confidential in the development of technology," Jim McGregor, a principal analyst at Tirias Research, told TechNewsWorld. "Should technology companies be forced to give away technology they've spend billions of dollars in developing?"

What researchers are doing with AI "is phenomenal and is leading to technological breakthroughs, some of which are going to be covered by patent protection," McGregor said. "So not all of the information is going to be available for testing, but just because you can't test it doesn't mean it isn't correct or true."

Haibe-Kains' group recommended that, if data cannot be shared with the entire scientific community because of licensing or other insurmountable issues, "at a minimum a mechanism should be set so that some highly-trained, independent investigators can access the data and verify the analyses."

Driven by Hype

Verifiability and reproducibility plague AI research study results on the whole. Only 15 percent of AI research papers publish their code, according to the State of AI Report 2020, produced by AI investors Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth.

They particularly single out Google's AI subsidiary and laboratory DeepMind and AI research and development company OpenAI as culprits.

"Many of the problems in scientific research are driven by the rising hype about it, [which] is needed to generate funding," Dr. Jeffrey Funk, a technology economics and business consultant based in Singapore, told TechNewsWorld.

"This hype, and its exaggerated claims, fuel a need for results that match those claims, and thus a tolerance for research that is not reproducible."

Scientists and funding agencies will have to "dial back on the hype" to achieve more reproducibility, Funk observed. However, that "may reduce the amount of funding for AI and other technologies, funding that has exploded because lawmakers have been convinced that AI will generate $15 trillion in economic gains by 2030."

Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology. Email Richard.


A man has been charged with assault after he allegedly slapped and kicked a woman at a bubble tea store.

The 39-year-old man, believed to be a customer, was arrested on Tuesday evening after footage of the alleged assault went viral and sparked outrage online.

He allegedly assaulted the 20-year-old female inside the store on Gouger Street, Adelaide, last Friday night.

A man has been charged with assault after he allegedly slapped and kicked a woman at an Adelaide bubble tea store

The alleged incident occurred at a Gouger Street, Adelaide business last Friday night

South Australia police said in a statement they will allege the man assaulted the woman by striking her in the face and kicking her in the stomach.

The man was bailed to appear before Adelaide Magistrates Court on May 7.

The woman was treated at the scene by paramedics, before being taken to Royal Adelaide Hospital for treatment.

The video of the alleged incident showed a young female speaking in Mandarin to a man in a grey shirt before a second man wearing a black shirt walked into frame.

A translation posted by viewers of the clip claimed the young woman accused the man of using free labour.

Police investigations remain ongoing.
General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has disclosed that the opposition party is unable to provide his partys calculated valid votes in the Presidential Election in favour of his Presidential Candidate, John Dramani Mahama.



At the end of the cross-examination by the Counsel of the 1st respondent, Akoto Ampaw over the witness statement given by Asiedu Nketia, the Bench of the Supreme Court sought to find out three things from the witness but he could not provide.



One of the judges from the Bench in an attempt to get a clear understanding of the witness statement filed by the NDC Chief Scribe asked for the calculation done by Asiedu Nketia as coordinator of the election for his party on the total valid vote cast in the Presidential Election on 7th December 2020 but he told the Supreme Court that his party has reserved the calculation for a meeting to recognise with the figures of the 1st respondent.



those calculations are reserved for a meeting for us to reconcile with the figures because the 1st respondent herself keep changing the figuresI have not brought that figure to court, Asiedu Nketia told the Supreme Court judges.



General Mosquito, as affectionately called in politics, in answer said that to the best of his knowledge, it was difficult to know which figures of the 1st respondent are correct and for that matter, he does not have the figures in the court.



When we discovered this discrepancy, it was difficult to even know which figures are correctI dont have them here, he told the Bench of the Supreme Court.



The NDC Chief Scribe again told the Bench of the Supreme Court he does not have in court the total valid vote cast for the 2nd respondent, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when the Bench sought to know from the witness if he personally calculated the total valid vote of the 2nd respondent.



I dont have those figures in court the total valid votes cast for the 2nd respondent, NDC General Secretary told the Supreme Court.



Touching on the witness statement on the pen drive as part of his exhibition, Asiedu Nketia told the Bench that he did not know what was on the pen drive as at the time he filed his witness statement until he appeared in the witness box on Monday, February 1, 2021.



As I said, honestly I havent seen the pen drive and its contents till today and I was relying on the hard copies. The evidence is gathered by our elections directorate and the legal directorate. I didnt exhibit any pen drive as evidence on the witness statement, he told the Supreme Court.



I have all the hard copies of the document and because of time pressure, I was discovering the pen drive today and that is why I indicated that I have not seen it, he explained to the Bench of the Supreme Court.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Government's R&D support crucial to securing technology



The semiconductor industry, the nation's largest export engine, is drawing greater attention these days. In this non face-to-face era, when storing and analyzing data have become more critical than ever, demand for chips is rising steeply. Many system semiconductors, or non-memory chips, are being mounted on new machinery and equipment, including self-driving cars. Amid soaring demand, competition is becoming fiercer among foundries, which manufacture computer chips designed by others on a consignment basis.



The boom-and-bust cycles of the industry determine not only individual company's share prices but also the nation's overall export performance. Korea is a global powerhouse in the memory chip sector. To maintain the country's status in the semiconductor industry, however, it is imperative to upgrade the non-memory chip sector, too. If Korea manages to turn out logic chips as efficiently as memory chips, it will become an absolute power in the global industry.



On Monday, the government unveiled the "K-fabless" plan to foster companies that design semiconductors. It will provide 250 billion won ($223 million) to support research and development of logic chips. The plan aims to secure technology that dominates rival countries and write "another DRAM legend" in the system semiconductor sector. The policy is a move in the right direction. The government should prime the pump to create a favorable environment; and then the private sector should follow with massive investment to secure advanced technology and enlarge its global market share.



Samsung Electronics and SK hynix should challenge the global market in new promising areas, such as power chips, next-generation sensors and automobile semiconductors. No less important is how to promote small- and mid-size "fabless" startups. To keep up with system semiconductors' characteristics, summed up as "multi-type, small-quantity production," Korea needs to nurture many small but strong fabless players. The government should provide various policy supports for young venture enterprises armed with creative ideas. Korea is a latecomer in the logic chip sector, and the latest plan may not produce results soon. However, the country has no other choice but to invest more to meet constant challenges.







Fellowship artists are selected by panels of artists and experts in architecture and design, dance, film, music, theater, visual art, writing and other disciplines, with the panelists contributing from around the country, Miranda said. Maybe theres someone from West Virginia on our film panel, for example; others are from Florida and Alaska. Moving the USA headquarters to Chicago in 2014 had a changing effect on the organization, she said, turning its focus away from New York and Los Angeles and the usual coastal centers of art making.
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vets Pets, a North Carolina cooperative network of veterinary hospitals, broke ground on Points East Veterinary Emergency Hospital, a sister facility to its emergency and specialty hospital in Wilson.

Located at 1611 Convoy Lane in Fayetteville, the 7,045-square-foot emergency and critical care facility will open in late summer of 2021. Vets Pets owns and operates Animal Urgent Care of Fayetteville, located at 3635 Sycamore Dairy Road, and will move its team and operations to the new facility. As part of the transition, the hospital will change its name to represent the progress and goals towards becoming an advanced emergency and critical care hospital further connected with its sister emergency and specialty hospital in Wilson, Points East Veterinary Specialty Hospital.

"This is an exciting step for our teams and a reflection of countless hours of work and dedication to veterinary emergency and critical care," said Steve Thomas, CEO of Vets Pets. "Our new facility will help us accomplish the medical advancement and client experience the Fayetteville community and our local team deserves."

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Steve Thomas, please contact Matt Mumpower by email at [email protected] or by phone at 252.237.1375.

About Vets Pets

Vets Pets is a cooperative group of small-animal veterinary hospitals located in the Triangle and Eastern North Carolina. Based in Wilson, North Carolina, Vets Pets was created to address the changing needs in the veterinary industry. By providing hands-on operations management, HR support, continued education, advanced technology and resources, it enables veterinarians to focus on medical excellence in a supportive and healthy hospital culture.

Whether veterinarians are looking to join one of their existing practices, launch a new practice, acquire an existing practice or transition out of practice ownership, Vets Pets' role in the business is flexible. It invests in people, equipment and facilities with the long-term in mind, and works with veterinary partners to match strengths and interests with the right business opportunity. For entrepreneurial veterinary leaders, Vets Pets forms partnerships where it co-owns practices with veterinarians. For more information, visit the Vets Pets website and our Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

SOURCE Vets Pets

Related Links

https://thevetspets.com


Clinical Care Solutions "CCSs focus is to apply our decades of experience in providing education to deliver the best-in-class learner experience through an engaging platform." - Robin Murray, Chief Operations Officer of CEA

Clinical Education Alliance (CEA) announced today the launch of Clinical Care Solutions (CCS), a new learning platform designed to support organizations that want to connect their educational content and programs to relevant healthcare professionals.

CEA, which includes the premier educational brands of Clinical Care Options (CCO), Practicing Clinicians Exchange (PCE), and ProCE, has been a pioneer in accredited continuing education for the past 2 decades and is a global market leader in endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology/oncology, immunology, infectious disease, neurology, and psychiatry education.

Reaching busy healthcare professionals is what we do. CCSs focus is to apply our decades of experience in providing education to deliver the best-in-class learner experience through an engaging platform. In addition, we provide event services and access to our learner network for our partnerships and sponsored programs, said Robin Murray, Chief Operations Officer of CEA.

CCS provides live healthcare updates and resources from top healthcare experts and multiple providersa new confluence of medical education resources. The solutions include new innovative 30-minute weekly updates by practice area on same day and time each week. Online presentation theaters connect learners with pharmaceutical representatives on their own schedule, and articles from frontline clinicians are available daily.

This new organization is a departure from our accredited continuing education focus but still aligns perfectly to our mission of improving patient care, says Dan Cox, Chief Executive Officer of CEA. Whether we are building accredited content or supporting others to benefit all healthcare professionals, our education programs and solutions enable improvements in healthcare professionals ability to provide superior care and a positive impact on patient health outcomes.

About Clinical Education Alliance

CEA is the global leader in the development of innovative enduring, virtual, and live education. Integrating personalization and moderated social media, CEA provides medical and healthcare education and information for the entire healthcare team with the goal of improving patient outcomes. The leadership of CEA has pioneered the creation of healthcare education and decision support resources for healthcare professionals both in the United States and around the globe for more than 2 decades. For more information, visit ClinicalEducationAlliance.com.

About Clinical Care Solutions

CCS is a global services organization providing turnkey solutions for healthcare organizations to deliver best-in-class programs and promotions for their products and services. CCS utilizes decades of expertise in the medical education field to improve patient lives through education, advocacy, and the promotion of medical advances and insight. For more information, visit clinical-care.org.


This weeks winter storm lived up to the forecasts, covering the northern part of New Jersey in up to 30 inches of snow, and causing costal flooding and fierce winds in the southern and costal areas of the state.

Images from all 21 counties show roads and cars buried, and quiet towns as it snowed for more than a full day with some still to come.

For those not tasked with shoveling out their driveways, the snow was a chance to get outside with their children, dogs, and even catch a few waves.

Heres what the noreaster looked like across all 21 of New Jerseys counties:

Atlantic

A Car is stranded in flood waters, due to a winter storm, on Delaware Avenue in Atlantic City during high tide, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Bergen

A commuter waits for transportation toward New York City at a bus stop in Fort Lee, N.J., Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. Snowfall is picking up in the Northeast as the region braced for a whopper of a storm that could dump well over a foot of snow in many areas, create blizzard-like conditions and cause travel problems for the next few days. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)AP

Burlington

Still snowing here in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. #njwx pic.twitter.com/yBpk6Wx2Ju  Anthony Quintano (@AnthonyQuintano) February 2, 2021

Camden

A woman shovels the sidewalk outside Salon Voi-la in Audubon as the heavy snow returns at about four o'clock Monday afternoon, Feb. 1, 2021.Al Amrhein | For NJ Advance Media

Cape May

Cumberland

Essex

A woman digs out her car which is stuck in the snow as a major snowstorm hits Maplewood on Monday, February 1, 2021John Jones | For NJ Advance Media

Gloucester

Hudson

Trying to find my car this morning. Lots of snow here in Hoboken NJ. Be safe! #SnowStorm2021 #hoboken pic.twitter.com/XJbJy9AQSZ  Sherry Amos (@sherry08080) February 2, 2021

Hunterdon

In north Hunterdon County, NJ it started snowing at lunchtime Sunday and hasnt stopped since!@nynjpaweather @AccuRayno pic.twitter.com/5JmrZe8SXt  simon morton (@simonmorton2) February 2, 2021

Mercer

Monday, February 1, 2021 - Workers clear snow at the World War II Memorial in Trenton across from the Statehouse.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Middlesex

My two and four legged grandbabies enjoying the snow in Colonia NJ #News12weather #n12weather pic.twitter.com/3xJ6LupcCo  Marisol Dennis (@MarisolDennis) February 2, 2021

Monmouth

Water quickly filling the streets ahead of high tide in Manasquan, New Jersey #njwx #noreaster pic.twitter.com/sfwmelOeJF  Nicholas Isabella (@NycStormChaser) February 2, 2021

Morris

Hot coffee helps to soothe the effects of the storm as a major snowstorm hits Morristown on Monday, February 1, 2021John Jones | For NJ Advance Media

Ocean

A seagull rests on snow-dusted ground at the South Green Street Park in Tuckerton, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Passaic

What does 30+ inches of snow look like? Well. Taken last night near Wayne, NJ #NJwx pic.twitter.com/IVpEOfaiBA  Aaron Rigsby (@AaronRigsbyOSC) February 2, 2021

Salem

Somerset

Crossing Main Street after snow fell overnight with more on the way, in Somerville, N.J. February, 1, 2021Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Sussex

26 at my aunt and uncles in Byram, NJ. Their puppy is loving it! @breakingweather #NJwx pic.twitter.com/N3w68pJBIZ  Krissy Pydynowski (@KBakesWx) February 2, 2021

Union

A maintenance vehicle spreads salt along a stretch of Route 78 in Union as a major snowstorm hits New Jersey on Monday, February 1, 2021John Jones | For NJ Advance Media

Warren

Snow begins to fall over Hunterdon and Warren Counties on Sunday January 31, 2021 Snow Geese begin to flock and find a place to land as the snow starts, off Edison Rd in Franklin Twp Warren County.Rich Maxwell | for NJ Advance Media

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.
A 29-year-old man who stabbed a stranger in the head and "destroyed his life" by leaving him with a "horrific" brain injury and a lifelong disability, has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

The Central Criminal Court heard that the knife penetrated up to the hilt and travelled across the victim's brain to the other side of his skull, leaving the tip of the weapon inside.

Passing sentence today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that the attack was a "shocking and horrific act", which had devastating consequences for the victim Eoin Casey and left him with an "appalling life-threatening injury". The judge said that the knife blow was "violent and vicious behaviour".

Referring to the victim's recovery, the judge described it as "arduous and requires an enormous amount of resilience"." It is a daily struggle and his enjoyment of life has been compromised," he added.

Mr Justice McDermott highlighted that offences involving the use of knives need to be discouraged.

In a letter of apology to the victim, defendant Thomas Power said he did not expect his apology to be accepted by Mr Casey but said what he had done was "utterly inexcusable".

Power of Alderwood Avenue, Caherdavin in Limerick pleaded guilty last November to assaulting Mr Casey (25), causing him serious harm in the early hours of August 20, 2018 at Woodbine Avenue in Caherdavin.

Power had also pleaded guilty to assaulting Aaron Grant, causing him harm, on the same occasion.

Before delivering the sentence today, Mr Justice McDermott said Mr Casey had been returning home to his brother's house on the night as he was working in a "responsible position in steel fabrication" at the time. "He had a good social life and circle of friends and was living life to the full," he added.

The two groups of men had been out celebrating separately that day after Limerick's victory in the 2018 All-Ireland hurling final. Both groups encountered each other through a "chance meeting" when their "paths crossed" in the Caherdavin area of Limerick city as they made their way home for the night and there was "no history between them".

There was an exchange of words between the two groups, which led to a scuffle between Power and Mr Casey. Power "received a blow" from Mr Casey, which was not of a significant nature but caused him to stumble and fall. The defendant quickly left to retrieve a knife from his pregnant girlfriend's house, which was less than 200 metres away, before returning to Woodbine Avenue to attack the two men.

Power stabbed Mr Casey once in the head with the knife, which penetrated his skull and travelled internally across his brain to the other side of his skull. The judge called it a "shocking and horrific act", which he said had devastating consequences.

Mr Casey spent two weeks on a ventilator and five months in a rehabilitation centre in Dun Laoghaire in Dublin and has been receiving "ongoing" medical treatment since the incident. The judge said Mr Casey has not been able to re-engage in sport, suffers epileptic fits, and has difficulty finding and retrieving the appropriate words, which created difficulty in his communication. He also has dyspraxia of speech and his reading and writing skills are affected.

Mr Justice McDermott said the victim's recovery is "arduous" and "enormous amounts of resilience are required". "It is a daily struggle and his enjoyment of life and ambitions for the future have been compromised and he now depends on others," said the judge. Making progress in "small normal tasks" is enormously difficult for him and his prospects have diminished significantly, he continued.

Responsibility for Mr Casey's care is now shared between his parents and brother, who have "selflessly" supported him in his recovery, said the judge. "This involves huge commitment to him and enormous efforts on their part," he indicated, adding that it is understandable how Mr Casey is frustrated at times and anxious for the future.

Referring to the emotional victim impact statement given by the brother of Mr Casey, Martin Casey, Mr Justice McDermott said he had "eloquently and movingly" described his brother's suffering and "catastrophic injuries". "He states the accused took away his brother's ability to work and stole his sense of purpose in life," he said.

Martin Casey said in his victim impact statement that he will never be able to erase the image of his brother from his mind and he never knew a human's head could swell so much and be so disfigured. "We know a part of him died that night and it would never be like it used to be. He will never tie his own laces again or text a girl, never be able to remember his mobile number, simple everyday things we think nothing of. Eoin needs help with simple, everyday things now," he said.

The judge said that Power also attacked Mr Grant, who is also greatly affected by the assault on him. The court heard the second victim suffered concussion at the scene and now experiences difficulties in his daily life.

Having regard to the gravity of the offence, Mr Justice McDermott said there were a number of significant aggravating circumstances in the case including that Power deliberately went home after the scuffle and obtained a knife, which he said was deliberately done to avenge the assault on him. "He fully intended to use the knife and had done so," he added.

Furthermore, the judge said stabbing someone in the head with a knife of such length was a further aggravating factor. "The nature of the blow struck on Mr Casey was violent and vicious behaviour which had penetrable capacity and went in up to the hilt," he continued.

The judge also pointed out that Power had attacked and stabbed the two young men without any hesitation and did not obtain help for them, which was another aggravating factor. "The decision was taken deliberately and executed with purpose," he continued. Also, Power had disposed of the evidence by throwing the knife into a domestic bin and it was never found.

The court heard that the main mitigating factors were Power's early guilty pleas on the two counts and his sincere remorse and regret for the damage inflicted. "He has destroyed a man's life and undermined his normal enjoyment of things," said the judge.

Power has six previous convictions, which are mainly public order matters and he has one minor conviction for possession of cannabis.

Mr Justice McDermott said his alcohol and drug use was a long-standing issue and clearly a factor on the night.

Power was sentenced to nine years in prison with the last 18 months suspended for assault causing serious harm and two years for assault causing harm. The mans sentences are to run concurrently and were backdated to January 20, 2021.

Prosecution counsel Conor Devally SC said the State wished to enter a "nolle prosequi" - a decision not to proceed with the case - on a charge of attempted murder.

At Power's sentence hearing last Thursday, two victim impact statements were read to the court by prosecuting counsel Conor Devally SC.

In an emotional victim impact statement, the brother of Mr Casey, Martin Casey, said it has been two-and-a-half years since Eoin was stabbed in the head and everyday he wakes up wishing it was a "terrible nightmare". He said his brother was given a 50/50 chance of staying alive at the time and all they could do as a family "was hold each other and cry".

"I will never be able to erase the image of Eoin. I never knew a human's head could swell so much and be so disfigured. We know a part of him died that night and it would never be like it used to be. He will never tie his own laces again or text a girl, never be able to remember his mobile number, simple everyday things we think nothing of. Eoin needs help with simple, everyday things now," he said.

Martin Casey said there have been "more bad days than good with Eoin" and when he has a good day then the family has a good day. "Caring for someone with a brain injury is a full time job. I wish I could see bright things ahead," he said.

He said his brother was stabbed 500 metres from their home and that whilst Power had not taken Eoin's life, he had taken his brother's livelihood. "He has taken his ability to work and his purpose in life. He has given our family a life sentence of fear and taken away all of our freedom," he said.

Mr Devally read a second victim impact statement from Mr Grant who was also stabbed twice on the night in the back and shoulder. Mr Grant said: "What should have been an enjoyable night turned into a nightmare. I have never seen so much blood. I kept telling Eoin that he would be ok but I could hardly get the words out. I felt helpless and vulnerable and what I saw that night will live with me forever. Since that night my life has changed drastically. I've become very uncomfortable with groups of people. The trauma of that night will live with me forever."

Dan Kastner, USA, has described an entirely new group of rare autoinflammatory diseases. His discoveries have brought new knowledge and led to the development of effective treatments. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is awarding him this year's Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis, worth six million Swedish kronor (approx. USD 700,000).

The Crafoord Prize is one of the major international science prizes, with subject areas that complement the Nobel Prizes and rotate from year to year. The Prize in Polyarthritis was instituted because the donor, Holger Crafoord, suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis towards the end of his life.

Daniel (Dan) L. Kastner, receives this year's Prize in Polyarthritis "for establishing the concept of autoinflammatory diseases". He has identified the mechanisms responsible for familial Mediterranean fever, TRAPS and other diagnoses within this group. They are genetic diseases that are unusual in most of the world, but may have a higher incidence in some areas. One or two of every thousand people in the eastern Mediterranean have familial Mediterranean fever, while TRAPS was initially discovered among families in Ireland and Scotland.

Even just 20 years ago, researchers could not explain why those afflicted had recurring fevers, abdominal pain, joint inflammation, troublesome rashes and muscle aches. Dan Kastner started by studying patients with familial Mediterranean fever, and discovered that it was caused by a mutation in a single gene. He then identified the cause of TRAPS and established the concept of autoinflammatory diseases.

In autoimmune diseases and autoinflammatory diseases, the body's tissues are attacked by the immune system. However, in autoinflammatory disease the problem is within the immune system itself. Recently, research has broadened the understanding of rare (monogenic) and more common (polygenic) autoinflammatory diseases such as Crohn's disease and gout.

Dan Kastner is often called the father of autoinflammatory diseases, a title that he thoroughly deserves. His discoveries have taught us a great deal about the immune system and its functions, contributing to effective treatments that reduce the symptoms of diseases from which patients previously suffered enormously, sometimes leading to premature death." Olle Kampe, Chair of the Prize Committee

Dan Kastner is currently working on Behcet's disease, which is often found along the old Silk Road and is caused by inflammation in the blood vessels. He is delighted to receive this award.

"The phone call from the Academy took me totally by surprise, and I must confess to having been almost speechless when I was told the wonderful news. I can't begin to express how much of an honor it is to be the recipient of this year's Crafoord Prize. I owe so much to my patients, to my colleagues in the clinic and in the laboratory, and of course to my family, all of whom did so much to make this possible," says Dan Kastner.
She's currently away in Tulum, Mexico, along with her cousin and TOWIE co-star Chloe Sims for 'work purposes.'

And Frankie Essex was seen beaming as she ran along the beach at the sunny hotspot wearing a pink floral swimsuit under a white skirt.

With the sun beating down on her, Frankie looked as though she didn't have a care in the world as she topped up her tan.

Working: Frankie Essex modelled a pink swimsuit on the beach in Mexico on Monday as Tulum was branded 'the new Duba' for influencers' following the UAE's travel ban

Sunshine day: Frankie was seen beaming as she ran along the water's edge in the sunshine

The outing comes after the cousins were both seen partying up a storm in local hotspot Bagatelle on Saturday.

Chloe told her followers had jetted to Mexico but because she had been presented with a work trip she 'couldn't turn down'.

The mother-of-one took to Instagram and shared a series of bikini photos of herself after landing in celebrity hot spot Tulum.

Worlds apart: Stars have been continuing to flaunt their 'essential work' trips while millions of Brits languish in never-ending lockdown

Insisting the trip was for work she wrote, in all-caps: '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 she would be quarantining at her home in Essex as soon as she returns from the trip.

Loopholes? Celebrities and influencers have been flocking to Mexico's bars and beaches as it establishes itself as the latest COVID getaway destination

The trip comes as Tulum has been branded 'the new Dubai' after influencers' face Middle East haunt was slapped with a travel ban.

Stars have been continuing to flaunt their 'essential work' trips while millions of Brits languish in never-ending lockdown

Celebrities and influencers have been flocking to Mexico's bars and beaches as it establishes itself as the latest COVID getaway destination.

The country, which is not yet on the UK's travel red-list, appears to be the new destination of choice for global jet-setters and could rocket in popularity after travel from influencer magnet Dubai was banned on Friday.

Popstar Dua Lipa, and model Lottie Moss are among those that have been pictured in the Central American country in recent weeks.

The show must go on: She is away with her cousin Chloe Sims, left, who shared footage of herself partying up a storm with Frankie, right, on Saturday night

Travel abroad is now banned from the UK without a legally permitted reason, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced on Wednesday, as she criticised influencers for 'showing off in sunny parts of the world'.

While not on the UK's travel red-list, Mexico has been one of world's counties hardest hit by the coronavirus, with Tuesday seeing a total of 159,564 deaths.

Travelling abroad has been banned from the UK unless an individual has been legally permitted to do so, with the Government explicitly saying that 'travel abroad for holidays and other leisure purposes' is illegal.

In addition, people coming from countries on the UK's 'red-list' have been banned from entry, except for British and Irish nationals who are required to self-isolate in government-provided accommodation for 10 days upon their return.

From 13:00 on Friday, the United Arab Emirates was added to the list, meaning anyone in Dubai would have to quarantine on their return to the UK, with Home Secretary Priti Patel criticised those who have been holidaying in the sun when they have been told to stay at home.
People walk on the south bank of the Thames backdropped by the City of London, in London, Britain, on Feb. 1, 2021. The United Kingdom is formally applying to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), with formal negotiations set to start this year, the British government said on Saturday. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

LONDON, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The United Kingdom is formally applying to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), with formal negotiations set to start this year, the British government said on Saturday.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss will speak to her counterparts in Japan and New Zealand on Monday morning to request joining the CPTPP, according to a statement released by the Department for International Trade.

The announcement came on the first anniversary of Britain's formal exit from the European Union, and the trade department said joining the CPTPP would deepen the UK's access to fast-growing markets and major economies.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "One year after our departure from the EU we are forging new partnerships that will bring enormous economic benefits for the people of Britain."

"Applying to be the first new country to join the CPTPP demonstrates our ambition to do business on the best terms with our friends and partners all over the world and be an enthusiastic champion of global free trade," he said.

British businesses welcomed the plan, with Karan Bilimoria, president of the Confederation of British Industry, saying, "This ambition marks a new chapter for our independent trade policy. As one of the largest free trade agreements in the world, these 11 countries contribute over 100 billion pounds (137 billion U.S. dollars) to our economy."

UK trade with the group was worth 111 billion pounds in 2019, trade data showed.

Effective since Dec. 30, 2018, the CPTPP is a trade pact among 11 countries, including Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Chile, and Mexico, whose aggregate gross domestic product accounts for 13 percent of the world economy. (1 British pound = 1.37 U.S. dollars)

5

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[ Editor: WXY ]
The "Regulatory Report: North Macedonia CBD" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Hemp cannot currently be cultivated or processed for any purpose in North Macedonia. The use of non-viable hemp seeds is not restricted.

In December 2019, the Ministry of Health presented the draft of the new Law on Control of Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. If the bill is adopted, as it is expected to be in the first quarter of 2021, it will legally permit and create a regulatory framework for industrial hemp cultivation.

Uniquely, North Macedonia legalised the growth of cannabis for medical or research purposes before legalising the growth of industrial hemp when it passed Amendment n.37 to the Law on the Control of Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in 2016.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Executive Summary

2 Outlook

3 Hemp Plant

4 Extracts As Finished Products

5 Finished Products Containing CBD and Extracts

6 Import and Export Requirements

7 Medical Cannabis

8 Recreational Cannabis

9 Relevant Laws

10 Relevant Bodies

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/n9sts5

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005631/en/

Contacts:

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Myanmar's military checkpoint is seen on the way to the congress compound in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Feb. 1, 2021. Reuters



South Korea voiced "deep concern" Tuesday after Myanmar's military detained its top civilian leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, in an apparent coup and declared a one-year state of emergency the previous day.



"Our government expresses deep concern over the recent political situation in Myanmar," Choi Young-sam, spokesman of the foreign ministry, said, stressing Seoul respects Myanmarese people's aspirations toward democracy witnessed in last year's general elections.






Myanmar's coup leader Min Aung Hlaing told the first meeting of his new government on Tuesday that it was inevitable the army would have to take power after its protests over alleged election fraud last year - which the electoral commission had dismissed, the army information service said. The army, known as the Tatmadaw, took power on Monday and overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"Despite the Tatmadaw's repeated requests, this path was chosen inevitably for the country. Until the next government is formed after the upcoming election, we need to steer the country," Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying. "During the state of emergency, the election and fighting Covid-19 are set priorities."

The party of Myanmar's detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi called for her immediate release and for the miitary junta that seized power a day earlier to recognise her victory in an election in November.

The Nobel Peace laureate's whereabouts remained unknown more than 24 hours after her arrest in a military takeover that derailed Myanmar's tentative progress towards full democracy. While no protests have been reported, there have been acts of defiance, including a strike by medical staff. The military is back in power in after a coup less than a decade after it launched a transition to democracy to end nearly half a century of direct army rule and isolation. The military pledged to stick to its 2008 constitution and return power via a free and fair election but set no clear timeframe and the junta detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and purged her allies from the administration.

Phone and internet connections in the capital, Naypyitaw, and the commercial centre Yangon were disrupted and state television went off air. Yangon airport manager Phone Myint told Reuters the airport had closed until May but gave no exact date. The Times newspaper reported permission to land and take off had been revoked for all flights, including relief flights, until 23:59 of May 31.

Ahead of the meet on the coup, China, which shares close ties both with the Myanmar military and de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, on Tuesday said that all actions of the community should contribute to political stability, peace and reconciliation in that country. The UN Security Council on Tuesday will discuss the situation in Myanmar and look at a "range of measures" with an idea of respecting the people's will expressed in the November election. The United States threatened to reimpose sanctions on the generals who seized power.

The World Bank on Tuesday said it was gravely concerned about events in Myanmar, calling the militarys actions a major setback to the countrys transition and its development prospects. The institution has funded projects ranging from electrification to education to Covid-19 relief.
A team of investigators led by the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived on Tuesday at an animal health facility in Chinas central city of Wuhan in the search for clues about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The independent team has already visited key hospitals, the regional disease control centre and the citys Huanan seafood market, where the first cluster of infections was believed to have originated late in 2019.

The trip was going really well, excellent, one of its members, Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, told news agency Reuters on Tuesday, responding to a query just before entering the animal health centre.

The centre in the province of Hubei, which fights epidemic diseases in animals, could provide information on how a coronavirus endemic in horseshoe bats in southwest China might have crossed into humans, possibly via an intermediary species. Peter Ben Embarek, the WHOs top expert on zoonotic diseases that originate in animals, was among the team members clad in white suits of personal protective equipment spotted within the centres premises.

A worker, also wearing protective gear, disinfected the road outside after the team had entered. On Monday, the WHOs top emergency official, Mike Ryan, said the investigation might not find all the answers to the origins of COVID-19, describing the mission as a "detective story" that continued to raise new questions.

He also criticised those who have said they would not accept the teams findings.

It deserves the support of the international community and it deserves to be able to finish its work, he added.

Last week, after meeting with Chinese scientists earlier in the day, the team went to the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine.

Zhang Jixian, director of the hospital`s department of respiratory and critical care, has been cited by state media as the first to report the novel coronavirus, after treating an elderly couple in late 2019 whose CT scans showed differences from typical pneumonia.

Extremely important 1st site visit. We are in the hospital that treated some of the first known cases of COVID-19, meeting with the actual clinicians & staff who did this work, having open discussion about the details of their work, Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO-led team, wrote on Twitter.
Commenting on the Union Budget 2021, Vijay Thadani, VC and MD, NIIT Ltd and co-founder NIIT University said, "The Union budget 2021 carries a positive message for the Education sector. It gives an active effect to National Education Policy 2020 (NEP)".

The formation of the National Research Foundation (NRF), with an outlay of Rs 50,000 crores in five years to boost the quality and quantity of research in India, is a big push towards promoting innovation and research in the education sector. We are optimistic that research funding will be made available to Higher Educational institutions.

The Government's initiative to set up an HEC responsible for the accreditation and regular funding of the Colleges and Universities will go a long way, in creating better synergy between higher education institutions across the country.

The education sector is hopeful that the research funding both from HEC and NRF will be made available as a level playing field between public and private higher educational institutions.

This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


DEARBORN (dpa-AFX) - Ford Motor Co. (F) said Tuesday that it will invest $1.05 billion in its South African manufacturing operations. It will be the biggest investment by the company in the country. The investment will further modernize and expand manufacturing operations in the country for Ranger pickup truck. It will create 1,200 jobs in the country.



The company said it will hire an additional 1,200 employees to support expanded production, bringing its workforce in South Africa to 5,500 employees. The investment also will create an estimated 10,000 new jobs across Ford's local supplier network.



The overall investment includes $686 million for extensive upgrades to the Silverton Assembly Plant that will increase production volume and drive significant improvements in production efficiency and vehicle quality.



Ford's Silverton Assembly Plant is expected to generate revenues exceeding 1.1 percent of South Africa's gross domestic product.



The annual installed capacity at the Silverton plant will increase to 200,000 vehicles from 168,000, supporting production of the all-new Ford Ranger pickup truck for the domestic market and export to over 100 global markets. The plant also will manufacture Volkswagen pickups trucks as part of the Ford-VW strategic alliance.



Ford also will build new vehicle modification and training centres - the latter developed to ensure all Ford employees are equipped with the knowledge and skills required to maximize the efficiencies of the enhanced Silverton facilities.



Ford also will invest $365 million to upgrade tooling at the company's major supplier factories.



Silverton will become one of the first Ford plants globally to achieve 'Island Mode' status, becoming entirely energy self-sufficient and carbon neutral by 2024.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

FORD-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has cautioned the world against creating a situation whereby there would be Vaccine Haves and Have Nots as the world fights the COVID-19 pandemic.



Below is his video message to the high-level webinar on the African COVID-19 Vaccine Financing and Deployment Strategy a few days ago:



I welcome your invitation to join you as you come together to focus on COVID-19 vaccines for the people of Africa. I have been consistently issuing a loud and strong call to the international community: we must ensure that vaccines are seen as a global public good  peoples vaccines  accessible and affordable to all.



We must work together to prioritise those most at risk in all countries and close the financing gap. That means all health-care workers around the world and others on the front line, including humanitarian workers and high-risk populations.



I commend the African Unions efforts through the COVID-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Force to secure an additional 270 million vaccine doses for African countries, complementing the cooperation with [the COVAX Facility of the Access to COVID?19 Tools Accelerator].



We applaud the African Export-Import Bank initiative to avail financing for countries to access the new vaccines and the recent efforts by the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) to meeting your ambition of reaching at least 60percent of the population as quickly as possible.



Your initiative sends a strong message of your leadership and determination for equitable, timely access. It is grounded in a core understanding: vaccine equity is in every countrys self-interest. It is also the fastest way to re-open the global economy and start a sustainable recovery.



Unfortunately, inequities are growing in COVID-19 vaccine access and use. We cannot have a world divided between vaccine haves and have-nots. I want to utilise this vital platform today to once again urge all countries, economies and manufacturers to work with  and through  the COVAX facility to realise the commitments of equitable access, especially for the most vulnerable.



This includes sharing new excess doses with COVAX to vaccinate immediately all health-care and front?line workers. The World Health Organization(WHO) and the United Nations Childrens Fund(UNICEF)  with the World Bank, Gavi and partners  are urgently working to support the readiness of all countries.



National actions now, on the cusp of vaccine deliveries from COVAX, are essential for rapid vaccine deployment. As additional vaccines come through the development pipeline, I call on manufacturers to prioritise the review of data by WHO, so they can be deployed by COVAX as quickly as possible. This will be a strong signal of their intent to meet international standards and to put global access first.



Finally, while we all know that COVID-19 vaccines bring a much-needed source of hope, we must not neglect existing interventions and services. We need to continue strengthening essential health services and systems and routine immunisation programmes.



You can count on my full support and solidarity on all these challenges. COVID-19 will never be defeated one country, or one continent, at a time. It will take a global response to reach everyone, everywhere.



Thank you for your leadership and commitment to solidarity on the continent.

Source: class fm









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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Tests: Dr Lorraine Nolan of the Health Products Regulatory Authority said a large clinical study into the effectiveness of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was under way. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

A starting date for the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to the over-85s is still unclear despite advertisements telling them they will be contacted by their GP.

It also emerged that it will take until the end of March before the results of a trial are available showing how well the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine works on older people.

It is expected the vaccine will be offered to people over the age of 70 by GPs at some stage this month.

Lorraine Nolan, chief executive of the Health Products Regulatory Authority, said she could not say at this point what the level of efficacy was in older people although the European Medicines Agency said it had a good immune response in previous trials.

Read More

She said a large clinical study is under way in the United States where 20pc of participants are older people and the results will come through at the end of March.

The National Immunisation Advisory Committee is due to report this week on how the vaccine, which has an efficacy level of 60pc in under 55s, will be rolled out.

GPs are to be involved, beginning with the over-85s but they are still waiting for guidelines and are concerned that supplies will not meet demand.

Around 400,000 doses are due over February and March  200,000 doses less than expected.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said yesterday the supply line from vaccine manufacturers is extremely dynamic and constantly subject to change.

We have been engaged with Astra Zeneca to establish the available supply forecast. Based on best available supply chain information, we anticipate the first shipment of Astra Zeneca vaccine to be delivered on the week commencing February 8.

While we can plan for different scenarios with regard to vaccine volumes and deliveries, we cannot provide certainty at this time. We remain engaged with the manufacturer to understand the exact delivery dates and quantities we will be receiving.

She said the HSE is working closely with the Irish Medical Organisation and general practice to proceed with the vaccination of the next priority cohort of over-70s, commencing with the over-85s as soon as the vaccine is available.

However, vaccine rollout plans must be flexible to accommodate unforeseen events and to operate in what is an evolving situation internationally.

We have committed volumes under the EUs Advanced Purchase Agreement but the schedule of delivery remains fluid. We are not currently providing the sequencing for vaccine rollout in each of the various cohorts as schedules of delivery are confirmed on a rolling basis.

The HSE said yesterday that so far nearly 200,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered.

Of these 150,000 are first doses and 49,300 people have been given a second dose.

So far the HSE has received 207,330 vaccines.

Meanwhile, Pfizer BionNTech said it plans to increase its deliveries to the EU and it will send up to 75m additional dose in the spring.

Pfizer and BioNTech continue to work toward increased deliveries beginning the week of February15, ensuring we will supply the full quantity of vaccine doses in the first quarter we contractually committed to and up to an additional 75 million doses to the European Union in the second quarter, they said in a statement.

It came in advance of a national conference called by German Chancellor Angela Merkel who sought discussions with vaccine manufacturers over concerns about supply of vaccines.
The Bay Areas worst coronavirus surge yet is finally starting to ease, but in its wake, pandemic risks are higher than before.

And as the region starts to reopen, experts say its time to double down on safety measures  which may include upgrading or even doubling your mask for maximum protection.

Such measures are important, they say, because case levels remain high, Californias vaccine rollout has been rocky, and a number of new variants are popping up in the state and around the country. One from the United Kingdom is more infectious and could become the dominant strain by March. One found and being studied in the Bay Area, and others from Brazil and South Africa, could possibly evade antibodies created by the new coronavirus vaccines or maybe even reinfect people a second time, experts say.

We are at an urgent period of transmission because ... we are in our third and worst surge of the pandemic, and our vaccine rollout is still not rapid enough, said Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF. It is an incredibly important time to do everything we can to tamp down transmission.

Experts are urging the public to ramp up the familiar safety measures of social distancing, hand washing and wearing masks. With more virus transmission everywhere and the new variants possibly leading to higher rates of infection, vigilance is more important than ever.

In particular, experts are offering new recommendations on whether your masking is up to snuff.

Several European countries, including Germany and Austria, are now requiring everyone to wear surgical or N95 grade masks. Some Asian countries are mailing high-quality masks to their residents.

Gandhi worked with Linsey Marr, an expert on airborne transmission of viruses and a professor of civil engineering at Virginia Tech, on a scientific article about the importance of and science behind face masks. They offer advice on what types of face masks offer the best protection.

Whats the best face mask out there?

Gandhi said N95 masks are the gold standard, but its still challenging for the general population to obtain them because they are in shorter supply, they have to be fit-tested, and can be uncomfortable because they are so snug.

Mark Moran / Associated Press

Can I get close to an N95 mask? What about cloth and surgical masks?

The article by Gandhi and Marr cites a study conducted by Marr and some graduate students that tested the effectiveness of 10 different masks. Based on the findings, they recommend a high-quality surgical mask or cloth mask with at least two layers with high thread count for basic protection.

Who should be double-masking?

During an appearance this week on NBCs Today Show, top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said that wearing two masks just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective at preventing droplets from getting through.

But Gandhi said she doesnt think its necessary for everyone to wear two masks all the time, and that buy-in of masks in this country is still uneven and complicated. Instead, her recommendations focus on certain individuals and situations:

 Medically vulnerable and older individuals.

 Individuals who work in crowded indoor conditions such as meat processing plants and restaurant kitchens.

 Those in indoor environments with others not in their household, in an area of high transmission. Most of California is in a period of high transmission right now, including the Bay Area.

When looking at the trio of masking, distancing and ventilation, one can diminish the other, Gandhi said. So if you are wearing a single mask but are outdoors, that makes up for the mask. If you are inside and double-mask, that makes up for lack of ventilation.

But if youre particularly concerned, she said, do what makes you feel most comfortable.

Anyone who feels more worried about the virus, its a great thing to do, she said.

How can I get the best protection?

According to the study cited by Gandhi, those with concerns have several options for maximum protection:

A tight-fitting cloth mask over a surgical mask, which acts like a filter. Surgical masks tend to fit looser than other masks, so this would improve fit and add protection.

A three-layer, tightly woven cloth mask with a filter pocket. Vacuum or HEPA filters can be used, and many companies now sell affordable, precut filter inserts for masks.

The study found that if the masks fit well, these combinations should produce an overall efficiency of >90% for particles 1 mm and larger, which corresponds to the size of respiratory aerosols that we think are most important in mediating transmission of COVID-19, according to the article.

According to the CDC, studies have shown that multilayer cloth masks can block 50% to 70% of large and fine droplets. Masks with multiple layers of tightly woven cloth performed better than single layer masks, filtering almost 50% of fine particles. Surgical masks are 60% to 70% effective at protecting others, and 50% effective at protecting the wearer, according to studies.

Gandhi stressed that users should pair a surgical mask with a cloth mask because a surgical mask blocks viruses electrostatically, while a cloth mask blocks them physically, so layering them uses two different mechanisms. The same goes with the filters and the cloth masks. And when looking for surgical masks, make sure they are made of polypropylene.

Is layering more than two masks even better?

Theres no need to go overboard. Layering more than two masks has zero utility, Gandhi said, and the more you pile on, the harder it is to breathe.

What about KN95 masks?

Other N95 versions are offered, including the KN95 from China and the KF94 from South Korea. Gandhi said they are not exactly the same as N95 masks and dont fit as tightly, so people who want more protection should put a cloth mask over them.

Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com
Eben Ngula (29) grew up in the town of Ondangwa in the north of Namibia. The villages in this part of the country are characterised by the waving heads of mahangu before it is harvested in May or June of every year.

Mahangu is a hardy and drought-resistant pearl millet (a cereal grain that belongs to the grass family) indigenous to the region.

Ngula knew the majority of the people living in the rural villages around Ondangwa always have excess mahangu that they look to sell to local millers to make flour.

"After harvest, they always have grain stored throughout the year. I realised availability would not be a problem for a milling business," Ngula explains.

It was while he was a production manager for Namibia Grape Company in the south of the country near the Orange River, that Ngula conceptualised and planned his venture.

In June 2020, African Grain Millers was founded.

"I'd always wanted to venture into food production, specifically a product the majority of the population consumes.

Initially, I thought about eggs but they perish quickly so I decided on mahangu flour," he says.

Ngula studied agriculture at the University of Namibia but admits his four years at Namibia Grape Company is where he mastered the ins and outs of food production.

"I never knew exactly where to start. At Namibia Grape Company, I learnt about food safety, food protocols, everything about packaging, even export and logistics."

He wanted to move back north because he missed his home and he was ready for a new challenge. Before resigning, he put the branding of his new company in place and finalised the registration. This took longer in a year when regulatory officials needed to social distance and stay home under various Covid-19 lockdowns in the country.

Using money he had saved up over four years of receiving production bonuses from Namibia Grape Company and supplementing these funds with a personal loan from the bank, Ngula procured the required machines, packed up everything and moved back home.

Early challenges

Ngula never wants to relive those first couple of weeks after his company manufactured and packaged its first products.

He reached out to retailers, delivered sample packages, and contacted them constantly to try and get his product to the end-customer, but often not hearing back from them at all.

Vowing not to become disheartened, Ngula approached smaller retailers near the company's base in Ondangwa.

These shopkeepers were eager to stock his product but did not have the cash flow to pay upfront. "I had to adapt my strategy and provide the stock on credit," Ngula says.

He also added another distribution channel to boost sales.

"We have this initiative where individuals act as our agents. I send them the products at wholesale price and they provide it to tuck shop owners in the community."

Since those first couple of weeks, things have picked up and now, six months later, African Grain Millers has had to boost production by adding a second shift. "The orders that have come in have surpassed my production capacity, currently just short of two tonnes per week.

We have divided the current team into two shifts and are producing almost 24 hours a day," Ngula reveals.

An early lesson he learnt is not to overpromise in the quest to win over customers.

The company received an order close to the capital city, Windhoek, and agreed on a delivery date. It started raining and Ngula discovered the one delivery vehicle had a leak, which would compromise the mahangu during the transportation process.

African Grain Millers could not deliver on time. The company now factors in additional time for larger orders to protect the integrity of the brand.

African Grain Millers produces flour from millet grown in northern Namibia.

Processing a product in demand

African Grain Millers receives its supply of mahangu from the local farmers in the community. These growers approach the company, which then sends someone to evaluate the size and quality of the grain before agreeing on a price for the purchase.

Some of the growers bring their grain to the warehouse facility where the processing takes place and African Grain Millers also uses its own vehicles to collect the procured product.

It cleans, grinds and mills the mahangu and packages it for delivery to the retailers and agents.

While there are other mahangu millers in Namibia, Ngula believes his company has a distinct advantage to become the brand of choice.

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Firstly, he says, the company produces mahangu flour of higher quality because its milling process is slower. "We take our time to process and this makes for a finer bag of mahangu."

He also believes the company has an edge over the competition due to its extra emphasis on marketing through various social media platforms.

Ngula says mahangu is in demand thanks to its historic prevalence in the community. "More than half of the population prefer mahangu over the alternatives."

Growth and expansion

While agents are currently bringing in orders, established retail is where growth lies and takes up the majority of African Grain Millers' production capacity.

The company has managed to secure some shelf space in the local stores of major retailer Spar, as well as independent outlets in the northern towns of Tsumeb and Otjiwarongo.

Ngula is already planning to procure more machinery and appoint new employees (currently the company has a team of seven) in the next quarter to support the growing demand.

- This story was first published on www.howwemadeitinafrica.com
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is ready to display its state-of-the-art products and systems during upcoming Aero India .

"The products and systems are clustered as airborne and space application, satellite and space application, products and systems for self-reliance (Aatmanirbhar Bharat), high-performance computing and artificial intelligence systems, land and naval products and systems, communication and laser-based products, non-defence/diversification and outdoor display products," said the ministry of defence in a statement on Tuesday.

In addition, the defence PSU will also showcase its R&D capabilities by demonstrating some of its new products and technologies.

"The technologies are in the area of airborne and space/satellite application, and include self-protection suite with DIRCM (with foreign ToT), handheld field signal generator, airborne and ground spread spectrum modem, backpack anti-drone system, BE NAVIC 705, compact time reference server (airborne), VPX architecture based SDR for airborne platforms and airborne sonar," the statement added.

"In total, about 30 products and systems developed as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative will be on display, including airborne missile electronics, receivers for EW systems, 2KW fuel cell, FO Gyro based sensor packaged unit, Athremal laser transmitter, IR jammer, call manager and media gateway, C-band tropo power amplifier and IR seekers missiles," it added.

Other innovative solutions and artificial intelligence systems on display in the area of high-performance computing will include RRO (software-based solution), secure video conferencing solution, generic networking system, imagery solution for defence and civilian application, automatic train supervision system for DMRC and maritime rescue coordination centre besides others.

BEL will present its land and naval products and systems, comprising QRSAM radars (BFMR and BSR), BFSR-XR AESA, DDR (FMCW), coastal surveillance system, GBMES, single combat vehicle (QRSAM), weapon control system, etc.

The PSU will also display communication and laser-based products, including MODEM for a troposcatter communication system, encryptors, frequency modulated continuous- wave (FMCW) radar for fog vision and drone guard systems for railways, 4G secure phone and 5G tablet PC, high power fibre laser, Li-Fi high-speed communication system and software-defined radio under communication and electro-optics segments.

Besides, products for non-application like ventilators and dialysis machine, smart city platforms with IoT components, etc. will also be showcased. The highlight of BELs outdoor display will be mini shelter-based Mini C4I system, Atulya (ADFCR), CTFCR (X-APAR on 4 x 4), WLR (mountain version) and anti-drone System.

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SpaceX announced plans to send everyday civilians to space as part of its Inspiration4 mission commanded by tech entrepreneur and pilot Jared Isaacman.

Isaacman, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shrft4 Payments, is donating three seats on the Inspiration4 to travel along with him on a mission designed to raise awareness and support for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, according to a press release.

PRIVATE ASTRONAUTS PAY TO VISIT ISS: Crew of private astronauts pay $55 million each to visit Space Station

Isaacman said in the media release that the mission inspires the possibility that anyone can go to space.

Inspiration4 is the realization of a lifelong dream and a step towards a future in which anyone can venture out and explore the stars. I appreciate the tremendous responsibility that comes with commanding this mission and I want to use this historic moment to inspire humanity while helping to tackle childhood cancer here on Earth.

The mission is named for the four-person crew who symbolize "Leadership, Hope, Generosity, and Prosperity," according to the Inspiration4 website.

Isaacman, an accomplished pilot who represents the leadership role, will lead the crew on the milestone journey aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that will orbit Earth every 90 minutes according to a customized flight plan.

Two seats on the Inspriation4 mission are reserved. One is for a St. Jude ambassador who "exemplifies the pillar of Hope as well as the courageous vision upon which St. Jude was founded," according to the press release.

The second seat represents the mission's "pillar of Generosity." Throughout February, the public can enter for a chance to secure a seat on the historic flight by donating $10 or more to support St. Jude's research efforts.

According to the Inspiration4 website, donations are encouraged but not required to enter for your opportunity to win.

Isaacman will partner with Shift4 Payments to provide the fourth seat representing the mission's prosperity pillar to an entrepreneur who has used the new Shift4Shop eCommerce platform to launch their business through an online competition.

Entrepreneurs have until Feb. 28 to submit their entry. The winner will be selected by a panel of celebrity judges.

Todays announcement is the first step of a very exciting journey. In the lead-up to launch, well share new ways to support and follow our mission preparation and execution with a focus on inspiring and helping others," Isaacman said.
The Delhi High Court has asked both US e-commerce giant Amazon and Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Ltd (FRL) if they are open to resolving their issues with regard to the Rs 24,713 crore deal between Reliance Retail and Future Retail. Both companies, via their counsel, have said they will inform the court on February 2.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Amazon seeking directions to order the enforcement of the award by Singapore's Emergency Arbitrator, which restrained Future Group from signing a deal with Reliance Retail.

The plea filed by Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC says Biyanis, directors of Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL), FRL, and other related parties should be detained for not following the emergency arbitrator's order.

Justice JR Midha asked both parties if they were ready to resolve issues and said the proceedings in the case would continue as scheduled. The court said if both parties agree to this, the matter can be referred to two retired judges of the Supreme Court. The court has assured to pass protective orders.

Counsels representing both companies said they will inform the court after seeking instructions. Amazon had recently moved the high court seeking a restraining order against Future Group to complete the transaction with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail. The court has also sought orders against any future sale of retail assets by Future Retail Group without its permission.

Both Amazon and Future group have been locked in a legal battle over the Rs 24,730 crore deal signed between RIL and FRL. Amazon had earlier moved the emergency arbitration court in Singapore over an alleged breach of contract between Amazon and the Future group.

In their defence, both Future Group and Reliance have said if Amazon's claim on investment in Future Retail via Future Coupons Ltd would be accepted, it would amount to a violation of India's foreign direct laws, as per which a company is not allowed to invest more than 10 per cent in the multi-brand sector.

Amazon had signed a Rs 1,500 crore deal to buy a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons Ltd (FCL), a Future Retail promoter group company, in 2019. Future Coupons currently does not own a stake in Future Retail but has subscribed to convertible warrants for Rs 2,000 crore.

Biyani, in a recent internal staff memo, termed Amazon Inc's bid to stall Future Group's retail assets sale similar to Alexander the Great's "ruthless ambition to scorch the earth," Reuters reported. He said the "vexatious litigation and harassment makes one wonder about the similarity in ruthless ambition to scorch the earth akin to the Greek Alexander - after all, they are inspired to name their product Alexa."

"History tells us that Alexander conquered large parts of the world but failed in India," he added.

Also read: Amazon vs Future: Kishore Biyani likens US giant to Alexander the Great
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Murder charges against a man suspected in the deaths of two people were dismissed after a Multnomah County judge found he was unfit to stand trial, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Demetrius Brown, 26, is at the Oregon State Hospital undergoing treatment for mental illness and would likely stay there, according to Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidts office.

On January 14, 2021, a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge issued an opinion and order finding Brown unfit to proceed to trial, prosecutors said in a statement. The court further determined that there is not a substantial probability that Brown, in the foreseeable future, will regain the capacity to stand trial.

Brown was the suspect in two murders, an attempted murder, an assault and witness tampering, and prosecutors said he was involved in another shooting that resulted in the death of a pregnant woman, 21-year-old Ervaeua Herring. On Jan. 22, 2018, he was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial and sent to the state hospital.

Under Oregon law, a person can only be held for a maximum of three years while receiving treatment and waiting for trial. That term was up last month, and the charges against Brown were dismissed.

Brown is being held at the state hospital under Oregons extremely dangerous person with mental illness law, and a review board would hold a hearing in six months to determine the best placement for him and whether he might be eligible for early release. A spokesman for the district attorneys office said the board could move Brown to a different secure location or a community living treatment facility.

In the future, if Brown is discharged from the (Oregon State Hospital) and he has regained competency to stand trial, the state can and may reconvene the grand jury and re-indict Brown on the murder charges, prosecutors said in a statement.

Prosecutors also said they had been in contact with the families of the victims to keep them apprised of developments in the case and to offer support.

-- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale
NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Brighton Health Plan Solutions executives Michelle Zettergren and Brian Murray were presented with Stevie Awards in the 15th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Zettergren, who is Brighton's chief sales and marketing officer and president, labor, was honored with a Silver award in the Senior Sales Executive of the Year category. Murray, Brighton's chief operating officer, received a Bronze award in the Customer Service Leader of the Year category.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals. The Stevie Awards organizes eight of the world's leading business awards programs, also including the prestigious American Business Awards and International Business Awards.

Winners will be recognized during a virtual awards ceremony on April 14.

Judges honored Zettergren for her work driving innovation, growth and national expansion at Brighton while leading clients through the challenges of the pandemic. Murray was recognized for his accomplishments integrating technology into Brighton's customer service strategy, as well as his hands-on pandemic response that allowed Brighton to maintain customer service commitments as the company rapidly shifted to remote work.

"Michelle and Brian are innovative leaders who set the bar for excellence and achieving measurable results for our organization and our clients' businesses. These honors are well deserved," said Jim Cusumano, president and chief financial officer of Brighton.

More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry, in 51 nations, were considered in this year's competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 160 professionals worldwide on nine specialized judging committees. Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

About Brighton Health Plan Solutions

Brighton Health Plan Solutions (Brighton) is an innovative healthcare enablement company based in New York City on a mission to improve how healthcare is accessed and delivered in the self-funded health plan market. We believe extraordinary things happen when everyone works together  health systems, providers, carriers and TPAs, self-insured plan sponsors, and members alike. Brighton goes beyond other TPAs to offer unprecedented flexibility and customization in our proprietary networks, administrative services, casualty solutions, and integrated digital tools. Together with our trusted partners, we are transforming the health plan experience with the promise of turning today's challenges into tomorrow's solutions. For more information on Brighton, visit BrightonHPS.com.

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

Sponsors of the 15th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include Sales Partnerships, Inc., and ValueSelling Associates, Inc.

Media Contact:

Erin George

[email protected]

SOURCE Brighton Health Plan Solutions

Related Links

https://brightonhps.com



When Earth is not enough to satisfy their creative curiosity and an ever-present desire to push boundaries, watchmakers reach for the stars. Whether sky charts, spaceships, mankinds first steps on the Moon or the signs of the zodiac, opportunities abound to embark us on a journey into space.

Jaeger-LeCoultre : Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication

With its minute repeater and orbital flying tourbillon, the Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication is a lesson in the technical expertise required by striking mechanisms and astronomical complications. This exceptional command of complex horological engineering comes packaged in a meticulously thought-out design that places us at the heart of the cosmos, gazing up at a celestial vault and the constellations of the Northern Hemisphere. A mere 0.6 gram, the brass lattice supporting this vault connects macro and micro with its atom-like structure that also echoes the pattern formed by the lines that join the constellations on the star chart.

Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication  Jaeger-LeCoultre

Louis Moinet : Space Revolution

Blasting off towards the final frontier, the Space Revolution is sci-fi movie material as two spaceships wage battle 18 times an hour, one completing a clockwise revolution every five minutes and the other an anticlockwise revolution every ten minutes. Louis Moinets space object is also a technical tour de force. Two flying satellite tourbillons double up as space stations, thanks to which the spaceships (a tiny 0.5 gram each) can continue to orbit the dial  in other words, counter the effects of gravity. You may already know that the tourbillons original purpose was to compensate for the influence of gravity and thereby ensure that a watch continues to keep good time.

Space Revolution  Louis Moinet

Omega : Speedmaster Moonwatch Master Chronometer Professional Chronograph

Inspired by the fourth generation of Speedmaster, as worn by Apollo 11 astronauts for the 1969 Moon landing, this latest generation Moonwatch is now Master Chronometer-rated. Like that giant leap for mankind, Omega has propelled the collection into the modern age by fitting it with the Calibre 3861 Master Chronometer movement. Thus certified to the highest standard of timekeeping precision, performance and magnetic resistance - up to 15,000 gauss  in the industry, the Moonwatch is engineered for space and beyond.

Speedmaster Moonwatch Master Chronometer Professional Chronograph  Omega

Trilobe : Les Matinaux Secret

Following on from the successful launch of Les Matinaux, up-and-coming French brand Trilobe ventures into new terrain  personalisation  courtesy of Les Matinaux Secret. Simply indicate a place, a time and a date, and Trilobe will transpose the corresponding position of the stars onto the dial. What more unique way to capture a treasured moment than to have it written in the stars on a custom-made watch?

Les Matinaux Secret  Trilobe

Van Cleef & Arpels : Lady Arpels Zodiac Lumineux

Well-known for its cosmic whimsy, Van Cleef & Arpels turns to astrology with watches inspired by the zodiac, including the Lady Arpels Zodiac Lumineux collection. The diamond-set bezel, crown and case twinkle like the stars while the dial depicts a sign of the zodiac in stones whose colour is that of the element  water, fire, air or earth  associated with the sign. Aries, for example, is a fire sign hence the gems on the Lady Arpels Zodiac Lumineux Aries display yellow-orange tones. The rest of the dial offers an expanse of glittering blue, like the depths of space. There are even translucent enamel beads forming a constellation that magically light up using the principle of piezoelectricity.
An 11-year-old boy who was forced by his father and stepmother to live inside a barrel where he ate his own feces was rescued by authorities in the southern Brazilian city of Campinas.

The Sao Paulo Military Police said the cops were responding to an anonymous report at a two-story residence in the Jardim Itatiaia on Saturday.

Video shows the moment law enforcement agents entered and found the malnourished, naked child chained inside the small metal container that was stored away in a corner of the balcony.

Brazilian law enforcement responded to an anonymous tip and rescued an 11-year-old boy from a home where his father, stepmother and stepsister allegedly abused him and forced him to live inside a barrel where he was chained for almost a month. The boy, who was malnourished, reportedly ate his own feces and was only fed banana peels and cornmeal

The boy weighed only 59 pounds and remains hospitalized at Ouro Verde Municipal Hospital, pending a full examination

Brazilian news outlet Acidade On reported that the boy had been living inside the metal container for almost a month and that it was covered in feces and urine.

He allegedly was only fed meals of banana peels and cornmeal and was forced to eat his own feces to survive, police said.

'Military officers found the boy in an unbelievable and utter helpless situation, treated inhumanely and with cruelty,' the Sao Paulo Military Police said in a statement.

'Military police officers, family, parents ... with their hearts in their hands gathered enough forces to rescue that boy, who was very thirsty, tied and constantly exposed to the sun.

The boy's father, stepmother and his 22-year-old stepsister, who reportedly played a role in abusing him, were placed under arrest. Their identities were not released.

The 39-year-old stepmother was known in the neighborhood for rescuing abandoned dogs and providing them shelter at her home.

The Sao Paulo Military Police said 'officers found the boy in an unbelievable and utter helpless situation, treated inhumanely and with cruelty'

Residents told authorities that the boy had been abused by his family for several years. The Guardian Council, which is the state child services agency, said the family had been under watch for a year

The boy weighed only 59 pounds at the time of his rescue and was rushed to Ouro Verde Municipal Hospital, where he remains hospitalized pending a full examination

According to the police report, the father and the stepmother said that they had chained the boy to the barrel because he suffered from a psychiatric problem and 'gave them a lot of work.'

The father initially denied he was the boy's biological father before he confessed he was and claimed the child's mother had abandoned them.

The boy weighed only 59 pounds at the time of his rescue and was rushed to Ouro Verde Municipal Hospital, where he remains hospitalized pending a full examination.

The father and stepmother said that they had chained the boy to the barrel because he suffered from a psychiatric problem and 'gave them a lot of work'

Residents told authorities that the boy had been abused by his family for several years.

According to the state child services agency, the family had been under watch for a year.

'We were aware of the family's vulnerability, and that is why there was a support network accompanying [social work and health],' said Moises Sesion da Costa, a counselor with Guardian Council.

'At no time in the reports was such violence reported.'
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 19:20:49|Editor: huaxia

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KATHMANDU, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- With the Durbar High School building in Nepal rebuilt by the Chinese government, spending Rs 850 million (7.24 million U.S. dollars) in place, the student's enrollment has increased like never before.

The multi-facility building which is shared by two schools, Bhanu School and Sanskrit School, had 438 students combined last year. However, there has been a huge surge in their numbers after the Chinese government handed over the property to the school management committee.

According to the record at school administration, Bhanu School and Sanskrit School now have 626 students combined, up by over 40 percent.

Bhanu School now has 314 students, more than a double compared to 150 prior to the reconstruction, and Sanskrit School has 312 students, increasing from 280.

"The attractive building with well-equipped science and computer labs and auditorium hall is the primary factor for encouraging enrolment of the students," Akhilesh Azad, principal of Bhanu School, told Xinhua on Monday.

"A majority of the new students have come from private schools and we are receiving enquiries for new admission on a daily basis."

Though the building was ready to come into operation last year, the teaching-learning in the physical presence of students started only last Sunday.

Constructed in 1891, the building was in a dilapidated condition which was ransacked by the devastating earthquake in 2015. The school had to be relocated to Balmiki College premise in Bhrikutimandap, some 500-meter east from the original location of the school.

The foundation stone for the building was laid in August 2018 and it was handed over to the school management by the Chinese government in September 2020.

Students say they are excited to be studying at the new building which is probably among the most equipped public schools in the country and better than most of private schools.

"I cannot tell how excited I am to study at a sophisticated building," Balram Dulal from Bhanu School, told Xinhua. "After years in a dilapidated and makeshift structure we are finally in the classrooms that are unbeatable in any regards."

The new infrastructure has attracted dozens of students from private schools as well, which is a rare trend in Nepal.

Aayush Devkota, a sixth grader, is among those students who have left private schools. Devkota left a private school in Nayabazar Kathmandu, to join Sanskrit School.

"The day I saw this building, I had decided this is going to be my new school," he told Xinhua. "Not just in its outer looks, the building has everything a proper school needs to have. It is better than the private school I had been studying all these years."

The separate desk and bench for each student, well ventilated classrooms and labs for practical education are all attractions for the students.

Teachers from both the schools housed in the building are elated to see their increasing attraction to students.

"The new building has come as an opportunity to revive the lost glory of Durbar High School," Shiva Raj Adhikari, principal at Sanskrit High School, told Xinhua. "We have a sound infrastructure. Now the challenge is to deliver quality education."

The 42-room modern building has a capacity to accommodate around 1,000 students. Enditem
Actor Hal Holbrook arrives for the closing night Gala Screening of "Lincoln" at the AFI Fest in Hollywood, California November 8, 2012.
An Irish satirical site has poked fun at a poor Laois town minding its own business, but the locals are taking it in good spirits.

'Man actually lives in Portarlington of his Own Free Will' is a story on the www.irelandoncraic.com website.

"A 36 year-old man who doesnt seem mental or anything has said that he actually lives in the town of Portarlington of his own free will. Brian Delaney swears he has not been relocated there as part of a witness protection programme or anything like that and claims that he actually likes the place.

"'I know everybody else lives here because they grew up here and dont have the money to leave but I think the place has a certain charm to it. I particularly love how all the buildings look like theyre about to collapse.'

"Records show that in the last year alone 27 people died of boredom in Portarlington and those numbers continue to rise. Local councillor Barney Fitzmaurice told us the deaths have nothing to do with the current lockdown.

"Mr. Fitzmaurice said the local council are currently waiting on a decision from An Bord Pleanala to approve plans to have Portarlington demolished and rebuilt."

Read the full story here.

The community Facebook page Love Portarlington shared the link, and said "something we had to share, best laugh we had in ages".
[February 02, 2021] Don't Get Scammed in the Payment Protection Program: Breadcrumb Cybersecurity Offers Tips to Help Small Businesses

FRESNO, Calif., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) rolls out its second round of funding, small business are readyand so are hackers. That's why Breadcrumb Cybersecurity is sounding the alarm to small businesses that might be prey for accelerated fraud activity surrounding these loans. Unfortunately, business disruption and reduced sales weren't the only COVID-related issues small business owners dealt with in 2020. "We saw increased activity as threat groups leveraged the COVID-19 situation to defraud businesses from their funding, and the PPP program has created an entirely new playbook with a lucrative opportunity," says Brian Horton, CEO of Breadcrumb Cybersecurity, which helps companies navigate a wide range of advanced cybercrime, including ransomware, financial crime, intellectual property theft, destructive attacks and employee and insider fraud. Throughout the first round of the PPP and disbursement of Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), the Breadcrumb Incident Response team investigated numerous wire fraud scams where small businesses were victimized and had their funds stolen, resulting in a loss of millions of dollars for local organizations. Most commonly, thieves would hack into email systems to reroute ACH eposits and have the funds deposited into their own accounts.



"Threat groups are intentional and calculative regarding the timing of their strikes. They are keenly aware of when businesses are typically sending or receiving large amount of funds," Horton said, citing one instance where COVID-19 related "work from home delays" were used as a pretext to defraud an organization out of $2 million. Typically businesses call the Breadcrumb Incident Response team when they have already been victimized or while fraudulent activity is in process, Horton notes. "We encourage small businesses to reach out to establish a relationship now so we can jump in immediately if warranted. Emergencies can happen to anyone, and every second matters."

Wondering how to protect yourself? Breadcrumb Cybersecurity offers the following tips for small businesses to increase their security as the second round of PPP funds begin to arrive: Whenever possible, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for e-mail and banking services. By requiring multiple forms of verification, it increases your account security as passwords can be easily comprised. Fraudsters are improving their techniques, but malicious emails still typically contain broken English or improper use of grammar. If anything feels out of place, call and verify with the other party before clicking on a link. Always call to verify any requested banking/ACH updates. Even if the email looks legitimate, it's wise to make a proactive call, using a number you find independently, rather than the one provided in the email. Be wary of an unsolicited email that implies a sense of urgency or threat; i.e. "we need funds now or we will turn off your account." This is often a red flag for malicious activity. Have contact information at the ready so you can reach out to a cybersecurity company in response to a potential data breach. Immediate expert assistance is available worldwide 24/7 via the Breadcrumb Cyber Emergency Hotline at (866) 486-0070 or at 911@breadcrumbcyber.com. About Breadcrumb Cybersecurity

Breadcrumb Cybersecurity helps organizations protect their infrastructure, critical data, and reputation from today's advanced cyber threats. Located in California, Breadcrumb offers comprehensive cybersecurity services for organizations throughout the U.S. and globe. Services include penetration testing, regulatory compliance, risk assessments, digital forensics, 24/7 incident response, hosted security operations, and on-going advisory services. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dont-get-scammed-in-the-payment-protection-program-breadcrumb-cybersecurity-offers-tips-to-help-small-businesses-301220582.html SOURCE Breadcrumb Cybersecurity

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 10:27:54|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations worldwide and the International Monetary Fund's positive prediction for 5.5 percent global growth in 2021 -- signs of emerging from the pandemic, the globe is still striving to secure an effective exit from the crisis.

As mankind is at a critical juncture in the public health battle, the U.S.-China relationship has also reached a new crossroads, with emerging opportunities to open a new window of hope.

Experts worldwide, underscoring the weights of the United States and China, urged the two countries to bring their ties back on track and renew cooperation.

Noting China and the United States are both major global economies, Kiyoyuki Seguchi, research director at Japan's Canon Institute for Global Studies, said confrontation between the two powers will not only affect the economic and even political stability of all countries, but also disrupt global stability and development.

The researcher said he hopes Washington would actively cooperate with China in epidemic prevention and control, economic recovery and climate change, which are all important not only to the two countries but also to the whole world as well.

Last week, global COVID-19 cases surpassed 100 million, data from Johns Hopkins University showed, while the United States reported the most cases and deaths around the world.

Tom Watkins, an advisor to the Michigan-China Innovation Center, told Xinhua that the world needs China and the United States to come together to defeat the pandemic and reignite the global economy.

He elaborated that China and the United States can collaborate in global health, economy and climate action, as well as other mutually beneficial areas.

"We need to cooperate, communicate, and collaborate," Watkins said. "We need a new step that begins with caring about the world we are going to leave to future generations."

Humphrey Moshi, a professor of economics at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and director of the Centre for Chinese Studies, said "with today's globalized world, the world needs to embrace multilateralism which is the way forward. For example, (U.S.) President Joe Biden's decision to reverse (former) President Donald Trump's move to withdraw from the World Health Organization is good news."

Moshi also said he expects the Biden administration to "improve thorny relations that existed between the two countries."

"The preservation and stabilization of this relationship is an issue both for the well-being of the Chinese and American peoples and for that of all the peoples of the world, and also an imperative for peace, stability and development in the world," said Sonia Bressler, French writer and sinologist.

"Their cooperation achieves great things for the benefit of both countries and the world, and their confrontation will be a disaster for both countries and the world," she added, a viewpoint echoed by Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club.

The world would undergo dramatic changes in the next century, and "we can build the future together, or conflict and disease can take too big a place," Perry said. Enditem
Organisers for the Star FM Listeners' Choice Awards 2021 have said for this year's edition, all winners will be by public voting on various platforms.

The awards are all about appreciating Zimbabwean artistes' works and how they are deserving of the extra appreciation, especially during this difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The awards will be held virtually on March 13 because of the global pandemic, which does not allow public gatherings.

Star FM head of programming, Steve Vickers, confirmed the latest developments and said the awards will be hosted virtually.

"Our hashtag is "RespectTheHustle" -- it was a tough year, but so much good music was released, and we saw artistes embracing the new normal through online shows and continuing to record music," he said.

"We are thankful to our musicians for what they have done and continue to do in uplifting the nation in these challenging times."

Vickers said for this year, there were 16 categories.

"All the winners will be decided by a public vote on our platforms," he said. "Artistes are allowed to enter their music from now up to February 18 on our website www.starfmmusicawards.co.zw.

"The shortlisted entries will be published this month."

"The awards are all about inspiring musicians, the business community and the fans to take music as a serious business. Entries are open now, and we look out to the public vote from the 22nd of February 2021. The Star FM Listeners' Choice Awards# RespectTheHustle."

Good rains have instilled a sense of hope for farmers in the areas of Grootfontein in the Otjozondjupa region.

The widespread showers in the region have seemingly restored the farmers confidence of a bumper harvest.

Some farmers are already planning on the first harvest of green mealies as early as next month and immediately start with the second phase to be harvested in May. Other crops and vegetables being ploughed include yellow mealies, cabbage, tomatoes as well as grass to preserve for the dry seasons.

David Namwandi, an academic turned full-time farmer, said he cultivated a sizable portion of land and that a good harvest is evident. He, however, remains apprehensive of possible floods if it continues raining.

"I had a reasonable harvest last year, and this time I am confident the produce will double, hence my hope it doesn't rain beyond, thus causing destruction. However, I am happy there is sufficient water and grass that can possibly last us until next year," he briefly stated.

Another farmer, Peter Kawana, said the rain has brought so much financial relief as his electricity bill has drastically gone down. Kawana uses an irrigation system, but since the rain started, he has stopped using it saving him thousands of dollars.

"I therefore also appeal to the government to at least subsidise some irrigation system farmers using electricity because the distributor charges are too high, thus making it difficult for one to progress well," he appealed.

Meanwhile, Kawana says the soil is well saturated that anything placed in the ground grows without hesitation.

"I have planted grass, tomatoes, cabbage, green maize and yellow mealies. The yellow mealies are for animal feed including chicken. It's crushed then mixed with other licks," he stressed.

Although Kawana expressed satisfaction with this cultivation season, he also complained of pests attacking crops.

"We are trying our best to control, but it sometimes gets too much as it requires frequent spraying and purchase of pesticide which comes with a high price tag," he said.
MIAMI, Fla., Feb. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Cansortium Inc. (CSE: TIUM.U) (OTCQB: CNTMF) ("Cansortium" or the "Company"), a vertically integrated cannabis company with operations in Florida, Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania, announces the completion of the amendment to its convertible notes (the "Notes") which were previously issued in February of 2019. At that time, the Company completed a convertible note private placement financing (the "Convertible Note Financing") through the issuance of the Notes in the aggregate principal amount of U.S.$10,000,021.50 at 12% interest per annum with a maturity date of eighteen (18) months. The Company completed the Convertible Note Financing in four (4) tranches, on February 13, 14, 15 and 25, 2019.

The Company had previously reached an agreement with the holders of the Notes (the "Noteholders") to extend the maturity date of the Notes to February 28, 2021.

Further to the Company's press release dated December 17, 2020, pursuant to a recent meeting of Noteholders, the Company has reached an agreement with the Noteholders to further amend the terms of the Notes and to extend the maturity date of the Notes until December 1, 2022.

The Company issued common shares of the Company at a deemed value of U.S.$0.45 per common share, in satisfaction of all unpaid interest on the Notes accrued up to January 31, 2021, being U.S.$568,540.

The Company also agreed to pay an extension fee equivalent to 1% of the total principal amount and accrued interest outstanding on the Notes as at January 31, 2021 (the "Extension Fee"), being U.S.$105,685.62. The Extension Fee was satisfied by the Company through the issuance of common shares of the Company at U.S.$0.45 per share and 5,000,000 warrants (the "Warrants") to the Noteholders on a pro-rata basis. Each Warrant is exercisable at U.S.$0.60 until December 1, 2022.

Other significant amendments to the Notes include the following:

Payment of Interest post-closing. Interest on the Notes shall be paid quarterly commencing at the end of the first quarter of 2021, 100% in cash or 50% cash and 50% in the common shares of the Company at the volume weighted average price of a common share for the ten trading days preceding the end of each quarterly period, with such option to either pay in cash or a mix of cash and shares to be at the discretion of the Company.

Conversion Price of Notes. The conversion price of the Notes was amended from U.S. $2.00 to U.S. $0.60 . The Company may force conversion if the Company's common shares trade at U.S. $0.96 or higher for 30 consecutive trading days and the average daily trading volume equals or exceeds 100,000 shares during such period.

to U.S. . The Company may force conversion if the Company's common shares trade at U.S. or higher for 30 consecutive trading days and the average daily trading volume equals or exceeds 100,000 shares during such period. Conversion. The Notes were previously convertible into notes units (" Note Units "), with each Note Unit comprised of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant, where each whole warrant was exercisable at U.S. $2.60 until March 21, 2021 (for a total of approximately 2,500,000 warrants). The Notes were amended to be convertible into common shares of the Company only (at U.S. $0.60 ).

"), with each Note Unit comprised of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant, where each whole warrant was exercisable at U.S. until (for a total of approximately 2,500,000 warrants). The Notes were amended to be convertible into common shares of the Company only (at U.S. ). Prepayment Right. The Notes may be redeemed at the option of the Company provided that the Company delivers a redemption notice to the Noteholder on or before May 10, 2021 . The Company shall have the right to redeem a principal amount of the Notes from each Noteholder such that the aggregate principal amount of Notes being redeemed from all Noteholders, in the aggregate, shall be up to a maximum of U.S. $5,000,000 , subject to adjustment pursuant to the terms of the Note.

. The Company shall have the right to redeem a principal amount of the Notes from each Noteholder such that the aggregate principal amount of Notes being redeemed from all Noteholders, in the aggregate, shall be up to a maximum of U.S. , subject to adjustment pursuant to the terms of the Note. Most Favored Nation. If the Company renegotiates the terms of its convertible debentures previously issued pursuant to the secured trust indenture dated May 23, 2019 , entered into among, inter alios , the Company and Capital Transfer Agency, ULC, as trustee, and such renegotiated terms have a more favorable conversion price or warrant exercise price than the Notes, then the conversion price of the Notes and the exercise price of the extension warrants shall be adjusted to the same conversion price and warrant exercise price as the renegotiated convertible debentures.

, entered into among, , the Company and Capital Transfer Agency, ULC, as trustee, and such renegotiated terms have a more favorable conversion price or warrant exercise price than the Notes, then the conversion price of the Notes and the exercise price of the extension warrants shall be adjusted to the same conversion price and warrant exercise price as the renegotiated convertible debentures. Security. Each Noteholder remaining following any prepayment contemplated above shall share the rights to the existing collateral under the Notes on a pari passu basis with any new financing, provided that the aggregate principal amount of remaining Notes and any new financing shall not exceed U.S. $10,000,021.50 .

The Company's indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Cansortium Holdings LLC, provided a guarantee and a pledge agreement for its membership interests held in Cansortium Texas, LLC in favour of the Noteholders.

About Cansortium Inc.

Headquartered in Miami, Florida, and operating under the Fluent brand, Cansortium is focused on being the highest quality cannabis company in the State of Florida driven by unrelenting commitment to operational excellence from seed to sale. Cansortium has developed strong proficiencies in each of cultivation, processing, retail, and distribution activities, the result of successfully operating in the highly regulated cannabis industry. In addition to Florida, Cansortium is seeking to create significant shareholder value in the attractive markets of Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where the Company has secured licenses and established operations.

Cansortium Inc.'s common shares and warrants trade on the CSE under the symbol "TIUM.U" and "TIUM.WT.U", respectively, and on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol (OTCQB: CNTMF). Investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the Company on www.otcmarkets.com.

Forward-Looking Information

Certain information in this news release, may constitute forward-looking information. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events.

Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this news release, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to the factors described in the public documents of the Company available at www.sedar.com. These factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect the Company; however, these factors should be considered carefully. There can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements containing any forward-looking information, or the factors or assumptions underlying them, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE Cansortium Inc

Related Links

www.cansortium.com


The Alabama Department of Public Health has launched an online portal for individuals to check their eligibility for vaccination and make appointments for coronavirus vaccinations at county health departments.

Click HERE to check it

The portal also provides up-to-date information about additional drive-through and walk-in clinics.

More from the states news release:

By entering information in the portal, individuals can confirm their eligibility, select a county where they intend to schedule their vaccination, and indicate if they want to be notified if interested in receiving an e-mail when the vaccine becomes available for additional priority groups. Information about the vaccine product itself and what to expect is also provided.

There are links to click to view a complete list of vaccine providers in the state and other information on the Alabama COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Dashboard. The portal also provides practical information for the people scheduled, such as what they should bring, mask requirements, and a vaccine fact sheet.

The demand for vaccine continues to greatly exceed supply as Alabama has more than 326,000 healthcare workers and nearly 350,000 people who now qualify for a vaccine because they are 75 years of age or older. On February 8, the addition of people 65 or older and frontline critical workers will add over 1 million more people that are eligible to receive a vaccine.

Sites listed in the portal have limited supply of vaccine available. Current assessment of vaccine supply and expectations for shipments over the next month indicate that many public health clinics will have to focus heavily on providing second doses for the month of February. As appointments may not be available immediately, the limitation of appointments is directly related to the amount of vaccine provided by the federal government. If supply of vaccine products from the federal government increases, ADPH expects that access to appointments for priority groups will increase as well. Individuals are encouraged to visit drive-through and walk-in clinics, or other vaccine providers, if appointments are not currently available at a county health department location.

Alabamas COVID-19 Vaccination Allocation Plan, which can be viewed by clicking a box on the portal, was developed by working with stakeholders and following guidance provided by the federal government. For general information about COVID-19, the COVID-19 Information Hotline number is 1-800-270-7268.
While Peru has been proactive against the pandemic, the economic cost has been high.

The countrys GDP declined by 40% in April 2020 due to lockdown measures and the state of emergency has had an economic impact on the telecommunications sector through the significant increase in delinquency in payment of services, affecting operators sustainability and continuity.

According to August indicators, GDP growth continues on a downward trend, far from the levels of 2019. The unemployment situation and the fall in household income are reflected in high levels of non-payment for telecommunication services. However, despite widespread non-payment, the demand for telecommunication services has increased significantly during quarantine, with some operators witnessing a 60% increase in data traffic since lockdown.

Perus fixed-line teledensity remains among the lowest in South America, with obstacles to fixed-line growth including widespread poverty, fixed-to-mobile substitution, expensive telephone services, and geographical inaccessibility in the rugged Andean mountains and lowland Amazon jungles. The government is addressing these shortcomings via ambitious investment plans to deploy telecom infrastructure and services in underserved areas. Most of the work was complete by the end of 2017, when eight regional fibre-based networks were connected to the National Fibre-Optic Backbone.

Broadband penetration in Peru is considerably lower than the Latin American average, despite government efforts to encourage the development of the sector.

Mobile penetration is on a par with the regional average, though high penetration is attributed to the popular use (especially among urban dwellers) of multiple mobile subscriptions. This phenomenon is becoming less pronounced as network operators respond to market competition by providing generous data and voice bundles (so obviating the need for SIM cards from different networks) and as the regulator endeavours to remove illegal devices and unregistered SIM cards from the market.

Telefonica Peru (trading as Movistar Peru) is the leading player in the mobile market, followed by Claro Peru, Entel Peru and Viettel (trading as Bitel). The market still has considerable potential to expand, especially given the countrys low fixed broadband penetration which has encouraged the uptake of mobile data services. By late 2020, the mobile broadband penetration rate reached 69% of the population.

This report provides an overview of Perus telecom infrastructure, together with profiles of the major fixed-line operators and a wide range of relevant statistics and analyses. The report also reviews the mobile market, including data on the key operators and their strategies in a highly competitive environment in addition the report covers the fixed and fixed-wireless broadband segments, including subscriber forecasts.

BuddeComm notes that the outbreak of the Coronavirus is having a significant impact on production and supply chains globally. During the coming year the telecoms sector to various degrees is likely to experience a downturn in mobile device production, while it may also be difficult for network operators to manage workflows when maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. Overall progress towards 5G may be postponed or slowed down in some countries.

On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services and devices is under pressure from the financial effect of large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes. However, the crucial nature of telecom services, both for general communication as well as a tool for home-working, will offset such pressures. In many markets the net effect should be a steady though reduced increased in subscriber growth.

Although it is challenging to predict and interpret the long-term impacts of the crisis as it develops, these have been acknowledged in the industry forecasts contained in this report.

The report also 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.

Key developments:

Osiptel prohibits telcos from terminating services for non-payment to guarantee service continuity during pandemic;

MTC grants temporary spectrum concessions to operators;

Government facilitates virtual learning during the lockdown by purchasing

840,000 tablets with internet connectivity to be distributed to low-income students lacking internet access internet;

MTC amends 2012 law on the promotion of broadband services, which also set out the guidelines for the construction and management of the RDNFO;

Azteca Communications, operating the RDFNO, proposes terminating the RDNFO concession;

Committee on Transport and Communications submits bill to guarantee customers internet access speeds are at least 90% of the contracted rate;

Microlink announces partnership to deliver LoRaWAN networks across Colombia and Peru;

MTC asserts that 18 of 21 regional fibre optic projects will be operational by end-2021;

IHS Holding acquires telecom infrastructure provider Cell Site Solutions CSS;

Alphabet subsidiary Loon signs deal with Telefonica to provide wireless internet connectivity to remote areas;

Report update includes the regulator's market data to June 2020, telcos' financial and operating data to Q3 2020, 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: Peru - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Edition: November 2020

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

Number of pages: 163

Companies mentioned in this report: Telefonica del Peru (Movistar), America Movil Peru (Claro Peru), Entel Peru, Americatel Peru, Terra Peru, EMax, Olo del Peru (Olo), VelaTel/Perusat, Star Global Com, Best Cable Peru, DirecTV, Entel Peru, Viettel Peru (Bitel), Virgin Mobile, Gamacon, IDT, Convergia, Gilat To Home Peru, Rural Telecom, Valtron

Single User PDF Licence Price: US$1150

For more information or to purchase a copy of the full report please use the following link: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Peru-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?r=83
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The Republican Party has lost its way, said Kinzinger in a six-minute video posted Sunday to coincide with the launch of Country First, an initiative to reclaim the lost soul of the party. If we are to lead again, we need to muster the courage to remember who we are. We need to remember what we believe and why we believe it. Looking in the mirror can be hard, but the time has come to choose what kind of party we will be, and what kind of future well fight to bring about.
Rainfall is expected to diminish to showers Friday morning and taper away by Friday night after an atmospheric river that stalled over San Lui
Galveston, TX (77553)

Today

Thunderstorms, accompanied by locally heavy rainfall at times. High 83F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 74F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
New Delhi: The Haryana government on Tuesday (February 2, 2021) further extended the suspension of mobile internet services amid the ongoing farmers' protests against the new farm laws. The mobile internet services have been snapped in seven districts till Wednesday evening.

The step, according to the state government, has been taken to 'prevent any disturbance of peace and public order' in the jurisdiction of these districts of Haryana.

The following districts will be affected due to the suspension: Kaithal, Panipat, Jind, Rohtak, Charkhi Dadri, Sonipat and Jhajjar.

"The Haryana government has extended the suspension of mobile Internet services (2G/3G/4G/CDMA/GPRS), SMS services (only bulk SMS) and all dongle services etc provided on mobile networks except the voice calls in seven districts -- Kaithal, Panipat, Jind, Rohtak, Charkhi Dadri, Sonipat and Jhajjar -- till 5 pm on February 3," said the official statement.

It added that any person found guilty of the violation of the aforesaid order will be liable for legal action under relevant provisions.

Earlier on January 26 when the farmers' tractor rally had turned violent in the national capital, Haryana had snapped mobile internet services in three districts namely Sonipat, Jhajjar and Palwal.

Subsequently, the suspension was extended to several other districts.

Notably, violent clashes took place between the police and farmers during the tractor rally in Delhi on January 26, following which the internet services were also suspended temporarily in some parts of the national capital.

Meanwhile, the farmer unions have announced a nationwide 'chakka jam' on February 6 when they would block national and state highways for three hours.

Thousands of farmers who have camped at Delhi's borders are demanding a rollback of these three laws -- Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

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Lil Wayne attends an event in Miami, Fla., on Feb. 1, 2020. (Jeff Schear/Getty Images for Young Money/Republic Records)

Lil Waynes Official Pardon Letter, Signed by Trump, Published

The official pardon letter for rapper Lil Wayne has been released. It bears the signature of former President Donald Trump.

The Jan. 19 letter states that Trump, still the president at the time, gave Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, a full and unconditional pardon.

The letter was recently filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in the case against Lil Wayne.

According to court documents, Carter knowingly possessed a firearm and ammunition despite being a convict.

The rapper pled guilty to the charge in December 2020 and a sentencing hearing was set for March.

The pardon means Lil Wayne wont be sentenced. He was facing up to five years in prison. He was released on bond in mid-December.

Trump pardoned 73 people just before leaving office and commuted the sentences of 70 others.

A White House statement acknowledged Carters guilty plea but cited supporters who spoke for the rapper.

Brett Berish of Sovereign Brands, who supports a pardon for Mr. Carter, describes him as trustworthy, kind-hearted and generous. Mr. Carter has exhibited this generosity through commitment to a variety of charities, including donations to research hospitals and a host of foodbanks. Deion Sanders, who also wrote in support of this pardon, calls Mr. Wayne a provider for his family, a friend to many, a man of faith, a natural giver to the less fortunate, a waymaker, [and] a game changer,' the statement said.

After receiving the pardon, Carter thanked Trump for recognizing that I have so much more to give to my family, my art, and my community.

Lil Wayne met with Trump in person in October 2020. The rapper said that they spoke about Trumps criminal justice reform efforts and a Platinum Plan the Republican released.

The plan was aimed at boosting the presidents support among blacks, outlining what he would do in a second term for the community. Trump lost the November 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Physical checks on animal products at two ports in Northern Ireland have been suspended over concerns for the safety of staff.

The Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture (DAERA) confirmed today that it had suspended Brexit checks on food and animal products at Larne and Belfast. Mid-Antrim Council has withdrawn its staff from Larne port.

A DAERA Spokesperson said: On the basis of information received on Mon, February 1 and, pending further discussions with the PSNI, DAERA has decided in the interests of the wellbeing of staff to temporarily suspend physical inspections of Products of Animal Origin at Larne and Belfast. The situation will be kept under review and in the meantime full documentary checks will continue to be carried out as usual.

Safety concerns

A statement from Mid and East Antrim Borough Council said it is "immediately withdrawing its staff from inspection duties at Larne Port" over concerns for their safety and welfare as graffiti has been seen in the area threatening staff and calling for the end of the Northern Protocol.

"It follows an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks, including the appearance of graffiti within the local area referencing increasing tensions around the Northern Ireland Protocol and describing Port staff as targets.

"Trade unions on behalf of Council members of staff assisting with checks at the Port have raised serious concerns around the safety of staff and have sought reassurance on what measures are in place to keep staff safe."

Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Councillor Peter Johnston, said: We have seen what I would describe as deeply troubling graffiti and a very notable upping of community tensions towards the NI Protocol, particularly in recent days.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is always this Councils number one priority and that is why the decision has been taken to withdraw them from their work at the Port with immediate effect until we have very real assurances and full confidence that they can go about their duties without fear, threat or concern for their wellbeing

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly condemned the graffiti and said that the protocol prevented a hard border on the island of Ireland.

"The checks are important and this kind of intimidation is completely unacceptable."

Over the weekend, there was condemnation of threatening graffiti in Belfast targeting Tanaiste Leo Varadkar. The message scrawled on a wall in the Belvoir area of south Belfast has since been painted over.

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Scrunchies and other products made from upcycled traditional fabrics / Courtesy of Hues



By Emma Juno Sparkes



The online store Hues , one of the latest additions to the sustainable fashion scene in Korea, is giving new life to old items, selling a combination of vintage clothing and fashion accessories created using upcycled fabrics. As Erin Hughes, the creator behind the store, described it in an email interview with The Korea Times, she aims to deliver items that are "colorful, joyful and unique."



Offering select vintage clothing items such as an angora wool cardigan with embroidered strawberries and retro graphic print culottes, the items that set Hues apart from other vintage outlets are the upcycled accessories created by Hughes herself, such as her selection of colorful silk scrunchies made from upcycled hanbok (traditional Korean clothes) and other fashion garments. Her latest handbags made using vintage Japanese kimono fabric have already sold out.



The motivation to pursue both avenues stems from a desire to minimize fabric waste. Explaining her process, Hughes said, "When I buy an item of used clothing, the first decision is whether I want to resell it as it is, or upcycle it into something else. If something is wearable and in good condition, I think it's wasteful to cut it up. Sometimes I just need to do minor repairs or cleaning. On the other hand, if something has damage, or if it's simply an item that is unlikely to sell, then I'll think about what else I can do with it. Perhaps I'll dye it or alter it in some other way, or perhaps I'll cut it up to make something completely new."



This push for sustainability means that the textiles used to create the items sold on Hues come from a variety of sources, including fabric remnants and offcuts donated from other makers. "I'm always looking out for other sources of textile waste that I can get creative with," she said.





Scrunchies made from upcycled hanbok fabric / Courtesy of Hues



The scrunchies came from an unfinished personal project and Hughes opted to use the materials from Japan when she discovered a lot of old, discarded kimonos and kimono fabrics in a pile of imported secondhand clothing. Regarding the find, she said, "It's unlikely that many people here would want to wear those garments, but they are too beautiful and intricate to be thrown away. A lot of traditional Japanese textiles are made with lavish ornamentation such as gold threads and hand painting, so they are really special."



Despite her appreciation for the textiles themselves, she is conscious of her use of such materials. "I worry about the cultural sensitivities of using traditional Japanese fabrics in Korea, or working with Korean fabrics as a non-Korean. My goals are to reduce waste, and also to showcase the beauty of these traditional textiles, and I hope I'm able to do that in a respectful way," she said.



Though the store itself only opened last year, it is something Hughes has been building towards indirectly over the last 10 years, most of which she has spent living in Korea. With a background in fashion and textile design, her experience working as an intern with sustainable fashion companies in the U.K., and her long-term dedication to vintage clothing and sustainable living, the pieces were already there.





A purse made from upcycled kimono fabric / Courtesy of Hues
Washington: Suspected Chinese hackers exploited a flaw in software made by SolarWinds Corp to help break into US government computers last year, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters, marking a new twist in a sprawling cyber security breach that US lawmakers have labelled a national security emergency.

Two people briefed on the case said FBI investigators had found that the National Finance Centre, a federal payroll agency inside the US Department of Agriculture, was among the affected organisations, raising fears that data on thousands of government employees might have been compromised.

Chinas hackers have also exploited a bug linked to the Solar Winds hack. Credit:AP

The software flaw exploited by the suspected Chinese group is separate from the one the US has accused Russian government operatives of using to compromise up to 18,000 SolarWinds customers, including sensitive federal agencies, by hijacking the companys Orion network monitoring software.

Security researchers have previously said a second group of hackers was abusing SolarWinds software at the same time as the alleged Russian hack, but the suspected connection to China and ensuing US government breach have not been previously reported.
Airtel Malawi on Monday said it has give government an additional K100 million to mitigate the current challenges in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

This additional K100 million supplements an earlier donation of K104 million, which Airtel Malawi made in June last year, which was used to purchase ventilators and oxygen concentrators by the Presidential Covid-19 Task force.

Combined with last year's support, Airtel's total contribution to Covid-19 fight has now reached K204m.

Airtel Malawi managing director Charles Kamoto said in liaison with the Presidential Covid-19 task force, the donation of K100 million will go towards the purchase of Test kits, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers and oxygen concentrators, to address some gaps that are currently crippling our healthcare facilities across the country.

"As our communities continue to face enormous challenges in responding to the virus effectively, it has, however, been humbling to witness the spirit of togetherness prevail in the people of Malawi and in diaspora in fundraising and supporting government's efforts, "said Kamoto.

Kamoto, however, appealed to more companies and organisations to donate equipment so that all hospitals get the capacity to keep both health personnel and patients safe.
The first haemophiliac to contract Aids in Britain died in 1985 without realising he had caught the virus, an inquiry has heard.

Kevin Slater, from Cwmbran, south Wales, was treated with imported blood products in the 1980s and later tested positive for HIV, the Infected Blood Inquiry was told.

He was not told he had been diagnosed with Aids in 1983 and died 18 months later, with his sister-law insisting he died without ever realising he had the condition.

Mr Slater died of Aids in 1985, and records show it was recommended that the diagnosis be kept from him.

Thousands of Britons were infected with HIV and hepatitis in the 1970s and 1980s after being treated with blood products imported from America.

Kevin Slater, from Cwmbran, south Wales, died of Aids in 1985. Sir Brian Langstaff is leading the inquiry

The inquiry is looking into what has been described as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

The contaminated blood scandal has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS amid claims of a government cover-up.

The current inquiry comes after two previous ones were branded whitewashes.

Haemophilia is a condition which affects the clotting of blood in those affected.

It is usually treated with blood products, however the ones used to treat patients in the 1980s were in infected with HIV.

Mr Slater's sister-in-law Linda Maule told the inquiry: 'He was treated disgustingly. There was no care, nothing.

'The way he was treated - put in a separate room, meals being passed through the door.

'This guy towards the end was being fed by his parents because he couldn't get out of bed, he couldn't physically get out of bed.

'I don't think he was ever told, that's my honest opinion. I don't remember ever hearing Kevin say ''Oh you know this is the score then mum'' or his Mum actually looking up and saying ''we've found out what's up''.'

Mr Slater's brother Paul was also a haemophiliac who died of Aids in 1991 after also being given infected blood.

His sister-in-law said the inquiry had been difficult to listen to and added: 'Hearing it all again today brought it all back,' she said. 'I can see this guy there, crying out for help and not getting it.'

The inquiry also heard that consultant Prof Arthur Bloom did not immediately inform the haemophiliac community that he was treating a patient with a confirmed case of Aids.

For several months Prof Bloom described the case to haemophiliac groups and officials in terms such as 'possible' and 'suspected'.

This was despite Aids being marked as probable on Mr Slater's medical records.

Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff described the descriptions as 'difficult to reconcile'.
The number of hospital patients with coronavirus may fall to levels seen at the start of November by March 8  the day Boris Johnson hopes schools will be able to re-open.

Patients in hospital with coronavirus across England have been falling at an average of 479 per day over the last 13 days, according to statistics analysed by the Health Service Journal (HSJ).

The latest Department of Health figures shows there were 28,112 patients with Covid in hospital in England as of January 31.

Figures show that on January 31 there were 5,654 Covid-19 patients in London which had fallen by 29 per cent from 7,917 on January 18. Pictured: London

Meanwhile on January 31 the South East (pictured) had 4,213 patients with Covid and the East of England had 3,393

The North East and Yorkshire had 3,506 patients with coronavirus on January 31 which was a 10 per cent decrease from its peak in January on 25 of 3,891

The HSJ analysis revealed that the number of Covid inpatients in England had fallen by an average of 479 over the past fortnight.

The trade publication claimed that if the current speed continues, then there would be around 11,000 infected patients in hospitals on March 8.

Data from the Department of Health shows that in the first seven days of December  just after England's second national lockdown finished  there was an average of 13,200 patients in hospital with Covid.

The equivalent figure from the start of November  before the second lockdown  stood at around 10,000.

Figures show on January 31 there were 5,654 Covid-19 patients in London, which had fallen by 29 per cent from 7,917 on January 18.

Patients in hospital with the virus in the North West (pictured) peaked at 4,346 during January which has fallen by 12 per cent to 3,834 on January 31

The current rate of decline would mean that the South East would have 1,477 patients with Covid while East of England (pictured) would see 1,557 on March 8

The Midlands (pictured) has seen an increase of 29 per cent in hospital patients with Covid since the third lockdown measures were introduced on January 5

Figures for the South West (pictured) revealed there were 1,926 Covid-19 inpatients as of January 31 which had seen a week-on-week increase of six per cent, according to the HSJ

London is currently the only region were Covid admission rates in hospitals have been below the first wave peak for as long as 12 days.

However the capital saw a nine per cent increase of patients in hospital with Covid-19 from the peak on April 4 during the first wave.

Meanwhile, on January 31 the South East had 4,213 patients with Covid and the East of England had 3,393.

The Midlands had 5,586 patients with coronavirus in hospital as of January 31 which has seen a decline of 12 per cent since January 21 with 6,380.

The North East and Yorkshire had 3,506 patients with coronavirus on January 31 which was a 10 per cent decrease from its peak in January on 25 of 3,891.

It comes as patients in hospital with the virus in the North West peaked at 4,346 during January which has fallen by 12 per cent to 3,834 on January 31.

Figures for the South West revealed there were 1,926 Covid-19 inpatients as of January 31 which had seen a week-on-week increase of six per cent, according to the HSJ.

The region, which saw a peak of 2,366 hospital inpatients on January 18, would have 702 in hospital with the virus by March 8 which resembles that of November.

It comes as Britain today recorded another 16,840 Covid cases in the lowest daily rise in eight weeks.

Department of Health figures also showed deaths are continuing to fall, with another 1,449 victims.

The country is currently pressing ahead with the biggest vaccine rollout in its history and by Monday over 9.3million people had received their first doses.

Care home residents, the over-80s, extremely vulnerable people and frontline health staff are the first in line and have been receiving shots of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.

Mr Johnson is aiming to have vaccinated the nation's most at-risk people by mid-February.
Jeffrey Epstein's estate has paid out nearly $50million to victims of the disgraced pedophile financier, according to a new filing.

More than 100 accusers have applied for compensation from a fund set up last year in the US Virgin Islands where Epstein owned two private islands and where some of his sexual abuse and trafficking allegedly took place.

The document also reveals that tens of millions of dollars of Epstein's money are being spent on lawyers, with a number of Epstein-related proceedings still ongoing.

Meanwhile a private jet belonging to Epstein was sold for $10.5million late last year, while the sex offender's art collection was valued at nearly $339,000, according to the quarterly filing seen by the Miami Herald.

Victims of Jeffrey Epstein, pictured, have received nearly $50million in compensation from a fund based in the US Virgin Islands

WHAT THE NEW EPSTEIN FILING REVEALS Total value of Epstein's estate assets: $241million, including $49million cash SPENDING Compensation paid to Epstein victims: $49.8million Legal costs: Tens of millions of dollars every three months Money distributed by entities owned by Epstein: $18.8million Tax payments: $162,000 in France, $2,65million in US Virgin Islands ASSETS Art collection: Valued at $339,000 Proceeds from sale of Gulfstream G550 jet: $10.5million Southern Trust data mining firm: Worth $61million Stake in American Yacht Harbor marina in US Virgin Islands: Worth $5.4million Advertisement

The compensation fund was approved by a Virgin Islands judge last June after Epstein's estate was hit by a barrage of lawsuits from his victims.

Survivors of Epstein's abuse can apply for a cut of his multi-million dollar estate, with the fund's administrator promising to liquidate his assets if needed.

Fund managers advertised the program as a way for victims to get compensation without having to air their allegations in public.

However, women who claim compensation via the fund must agree to waive their rights to file lawsuits against Epstein's estate.

Up to the end of 2020, the estate paid out around $49.8million to an unspecified number of victims, according to the new filing.

The report also showed that at least 20 women who had filed lawsuits have had their cases dismissed.

According to the filing, the total assets belonging to Epstein's estate were worth only $241million at the end of 2020 compared to $446million at the end of September.

While there was $11million of new income, millions of dollars more were spent on legal fees in the last three months.

The sale of the Gulfstream G550 jet brought in $10.5million - while the fate of Epstein's notorious 'Lolita Express' Boeing 727 jet is not yet clear.

The plan was seen last September lying abandoned at a Georgia airport, with a maintenance firm owner saying he was owed $11,000 in storage fees.

The new filing suggests Epstein's estate may face a lawsuit from a firm called Aviation Development Group, apparently based in Georgia, but it was not clear what the claim would relate to.

Epstein's estate paid millions in tax to the US Virgin Islands, where the disgraced financier owned two private islands including Little St James (pictured)

Also disclosed in the new document was a $162,000 tax payment to French authorities relating to a luxury property that Epstein owned in Paris.

The estate also paid millions in tax to the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein benefited from low taxes after buying the islands of Little St James and Great St James.

A lawsuit filed by the Virgin Islands government last year said Epstein had flown girls to the Caribbean and then had them moved to his property by boat or helicopter.

Epstein bought Little St James in the 1990s and later purchased the neighbouring island to protect his illegal activity from being seen, the lawsuit claims.

Although he was required to register as a sex offender following his Florida conviction in 2008, he managed to avoid US Marshals or Virgin Islands officials from getting beyond the dock which he regarded as his front door.

Instead, he met the law enforcement officials at his office on another island, the lawsuit says.

Many underage girls were lured with the promise of modelling opportunities, the lawsuit said, with some victims as young as 13 years old

Epstein accusers Annie Farmer (left) and Courtney Wild (right) outside federal court in 2019. Victims can apply to a fund based in the Virgin Islands for compensation, but must waive their rights to file lawsuits. It is not publicly known which victims have received payouts

The lawsuit described one incident where Epstein and others organised a search party to track down a 15-year-old victim trying to swim away.

'The complaint speaks for itself and lays out allegations of a pattern and practice of human trafficking, sexual abuse and forced labour,' the islands' attorney general said.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution charges in Florida under a plea deal which is now widely regarded as too lenient.

He served 13 months in prison, and the conviction ended his relationships with rich and powerful elites including Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.

In 2019 he was charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with sexual abuse and trafficking of underage girls.

Facing 45 years in prison if convicted, he took his own life in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019.

His ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was dramatically arrested last year and faces federal charges of assisting Epstein in procuring underage girls.

The British socialite, who denies the charges, is in custody ahead of an expected July 2021 trial.
Nicholas Kristof is a seven-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and has won the award twice  in 1990 for International Reporting and in 2006 for commentary. Kristof grew up in Yamhill, the son of two Portland State professors, and graduated from Yamill Carlton High School. Contact Kristof at Facebook.com/Kristof, Twitter.com/NickKristof or by mail at The New York Times, 620 Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10018.
Some of Americas biggest retailers are preparing to take a central role in administering Covid-19 shots, hoping to avoid logjams and other complications that have slowed the vaccine rollouts early days.

The U.S. fell far short of its initial goal of inoculating 20 million people by the end of 2020, with health departments, hospital systems and long-term-care facilities beset by supply-chain bottlenecks, vaccine hesitancy and confusing, scattershot systems for making appointments.

Not all Americans are eligible for the vaccines, and shots remain in short supply. But vaccines are becoming more broadly available in some states, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aims to make them available in local pharmacies beginning next month. There is no cost to receive the vaccine.

(Check the WSJs state-by-state guide.)

The job of vaccinating large swaths of the population will fall largely on retail pharmacies, with companies such as CVS Health Corp., Walgreens-Boots Alliance Inc., Walmart Inc. and Kroger Co. saying they are prepared to give tens of millions of shots a month.

Were going to have to look at ways to increase our access points. Weve got to be able to step up the pace to vaccinate people across the country if we want to make a dent in this," said Bart Buxton, co-chair of the Covid-19 vaccine taskforce for McLaren Health Care Corp. The Flint, Mich.-based hospital system teamed with Walgreens to administer doses to its 26,000 employees as part of the first phase of vaccinations.

Hospitals and health systems, already overwhelmed by treating coronavirus patients, cant also bear the brunt of vaccinations, Mr. Buxton said. Health systems like McLaren cant do this by themselves."

Pharmacies are well-positioned to play a major role in Covid-19 vaccination efforts, industry executives say, because they are among the most-accessible health-care providers for many Americans, including people 65 and older who often pick up medication from local supermarkets or drugstores. These businesses say they also can draw from their experience in providing shots for flu, shingles and other illnesses.

CVS and Walgreens combined have 19,000 U.S. stores, while Walmart, Rite Aid Corp., Kroger and Publix Super Markets Inc., together have another 11,000 locations. Add to that dozens of regional grocers with pharmacy counters.

CVS says it can vaccinate 20 million to 25 million people a month once supplies are available. Walmart said in January that it would be able to vaccinate 10 million to 13 million a month.

President Biden said last Monday that his target of administering 100 million Covid-19 vaccines in his first 100 days in office might rise to 150 million. As of Friday, 27.9 million shots had been administered, out of 49.2 million distributed since mid-December, according to CDC data.

Drugstore chains and retailers with pharmacies say they have the manpower and physical space to handle mass vaccinations and, in some areas, have already stepped in to help local and state officials. Big chains say they have online scheduling tools capable of handling an influx of appointments.

Walgreens has said it plans to hire about 25,000 people across the U.S. to administer the vaccine. It employs 75,000 pharmacists and technicians. CVS, which employs 34,000 pharmacists and 65,000 technicians, declined to say how many workers it is hiring.

Among the biggest challenges now for retailers is dealing with customers eager to know when its their turn.

Were doing everything in our power to avoid confusion about how to get vaccinated," a CVS spokesman said. In addition to long-term care facilities, the drugstore chain is offering shots to select groups in Indiana, Massachusetts, New York and Puerto Rico. People eligible for a vaccine must make an appointment.

We answer that question dozens, hundreds of times a day," Charlie Hartig, chief executive of Hartig Drug Stores, a small Midwestern chain, said of the question of vaccine availability. Education is taking up time."

Associated Food Stores, a cooperative of more than 400 supermarkets and nearly 40 pharmacies, is working through how its staff will report vaccinations and quickly process claims.

For Associated Food, scheduling has been an area of focus, said Chris Sheard, who oversees pharmacy operations at the company. Its pharmacies have largely operated on a walk-in basis and now are asking customers to schedule appointments for Covid-19 vaccines so it can ensure distancing and cleaning.

People would walk up during their lunch break. We cant do that now," Mr. Sheard said. The company is trying to get the word out by increasing marketing and social-media efforts, and by providing wait lists where people can sign up.

Others are hunting for space to give out inoculations and partnering with organizations to set up mass vaccination events. Iowa-based grocer Hy-Vee Inc. is working with a local university to set up vaccination stations in a 16,000-square-foot facility, Aaron Wiese, chief health officer at the company, said.

Youre looking at a significantly greater number when youre saying 65 and up and people with underlying conditions," Mr. Wiese said. Add on other essential workers, youre going to need more capacity."

Hy-Vee plans to use greenhouses, which are temperature controlled and suitable for larger groups. The retailer also started testing so-called waiting pods, where customers can wait after receiving vaccinations, and RVs with exam rooms. Hy-Vee plans to deploy RVs when it goes to manufacturing plants to immunize staff there, Mr. Wiese said.

Mass vaccinations will require a robust online-booking system, said America Davis, communications coordinator for Immunize Nevada, a nonprofit that has set up a website to schedule appointments in the state. It has been scrambling to keep the site working amid crushing demand.

Health and local officials are literally working around the clock to be sure were doing this right," she said. I dont think anyone anticipated just what the uptake of this vaccine would be."

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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Financial advice fees have rocketed 28 per cent in the past two years as planners leave the industry in droves and more onerous professional standards come into effect.

The median fee per client at the end of 2018 was about $2500, rising to about $2800 a year later, a rise of 12 per cent, according to a survey conducted by Adviser Ratings. Fees rose by a further 16 per cent in 2020 to about $3240.

Financial advice fees have increased by 28 per cent in the past two years Credit:Fairfax Media

Advisers are charging more because their costs are going up rapidly, there is growing demand for advice as baby boomers move into retirement and there are fewer planners, says Mark Hoven, chief executive at Adviser Ratings.

There were about 25,500 planners in the first half of 2018  the high water mark for numbers. By the middle of last year their numbers had dwindled to about 21,600.
The Ministry of National Defense in central Seoul / Korea Times file



By Lee Hyo-jin



Korea referred to Japan as its "neighboring country" in its newly published defense white paper, instead of the term "partner," which it used in the last policy publication in 2018.



The biennial white paper released by the Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday described Korea and Japan as, "Neighboring countries that need to work together not only for bilateral relations but also for peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia and the world."



In 2018, it had stated, "Korea and Japan are geographically and culturally close neighbors and partners that need to work together for world peace and prosperity.



The change in tone reflects the strained ties between Seoul and Tokyo amidst a series of disputes over historical issues in recent years. The paper stated that Japanese political leaders' territorial claims to the Dokdo islets, as well as Japan's export restrictions imposed in July 2019, have hindered the development of a future-oriented relationship.



In addition, a January court ruling that ordered the Japanese government to compensate Korean victims of wartime sexual slavery, has weakened relations between the two sides.



"We will continue to respond with stern measures to Japan's distortion of history, unreasonable sovereignty claims to the Dokdo islets, and their unilateral and arbitrary actions regarding pending issues. Meanwhile, we will consistently cooperate on bilateral security issues for peace and stability in Northeast Asia," the paper read.



In this year's white paper, the military reiterated its 2018 stance on North Korea as a non-enemy state. The defense ministry defines an "enemy" in general as "forces threatening South Korea's sovereignty, territory, people and property."



Despite not labelling the North Korean regime as an "enemy," the paper did state that Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) are a threat to the stability of the Korean Peninsula.



The defense ministry publishes the white paper every two years to outline Korea's security threats and provide information on the country's military policies.



The latest policy book, which consists of a total of 362 pages, will be distributed to governmental agencies and libraries this month. Summarized versions in English, Japanese, Russian, and Chinese will be published within the first half of the year.


"We are saddened to confirm of Dustin Diamond's passing on Monday, February 1st, 2021 due to carcinoma," his official social media page read.

"He was diagnosed with this brutal, relentless form of malignant cancer only three weeks ago."

"In that time, it managed to spread rapidly throughout his system; the only mercy it exhibited was its sharp and swift execution. Dustin did not suffer. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. For that, we are grateful."

Dustin is most famous for playing Samuel "Screech" Powers on four seasons of 'Saved By The Bell', as well as reviving his role for the predecessor 'Good Morning, Miss Bliss' and other spinoff shows.

Fellow co-stars and others in the Hollywood community paid tribute to the actor on social media. "Dustin, you will be missed my man," Mario Lopez wrote on Twitter. "The fragility of this life is something never to be taken for granted. Prayers for your family will continue on."

Actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar called Dustin a "true comedic genius," adding "Looking back at our time working together, I will miss those raw, brilliant sparks that only he was able to produce. A pie in your face, my comrade."

Tiffani Thiessen wrote "I am deeply saddened by the news of my old co-star @realdustindiamond passing. Life is extremely fragile and it's something we should never take for granted. God speed Dustin."
Poco M3 price in India and specifications have been announced. The company hosted the Poco M3 launch in India via an online event on February 2. Poco M3 India price starts at Rs 10,999. It will go on sale starting February 9 via Flipkart.

Poco M3 price in India

Poco has launched two variants of the Poco M3 in India. The Poco M3 6GB + 64GB storage variant is priced at Rs 10,999. The 6GB + 128GB model has been launched for Rs 11,999.

It comes in three colours - Cool Blue, Power Black, and flashy Poco Yellow.

Poco M3 sale in India

Poco M3 sale starts on February 9 at 12 pm via Flipkart.

Poco M3 specifications

Poco M3 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC paired with up to 6GB of RAM. The phone packs a 6,000 mAh battery with 18W fast charging support. Poco M3 also sports a 6.5-inch FHD+ IPS LCD panel with a 60Hz refresh rate and Gorilla Glass 3. The waterdrop notch on the screen houses an 8 MP selfie camera.

On the back, the Poco M3 gets a triple camera setup with a large island-shaped camera layout. The setup comprises a 48 MP primary sensor, a 2 MP depth sensor, as well as a 2 MP dedicate macro camera.

The Poco M3 runs on Android 10 with the MIUI 12 skin and Poco launcher. The Poco M3 will receive the Android 11 update soon. The phone features stereo speakers, an IR blaster, and a side-mounted fingerprint reader. The rear panel with a textured anti-fingerprint finish and comes in three colours, including Cool Blue, Power Black, and flashy Poco Yellow.
Lil Wayne was under fire in 2020 after deciding to pose next to Donald Trump. At the time, he faced much criticism for his decision to endorse Donald Trump for re-election, especially when there was a lot of uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the next election. Of course, the immediate response from many of Wayne's fans was that he simply took a picture to benefit himself somehow.

Wayne's lawyer insisted the rapper's endorsement of Trump had nothing to do with his pardon. Apparently, Wayne was simply a fan of the Platinum Plan. He was ultimately granted a pardon just as Trump made his departure from the White House. Rumblings of Trump granting the rapper clemency surfaced in the days leading up to Biden's inauguration and on his final day in office, Trump actually pulled through. The 45th president of the United States of America granted the rapper clemency who pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge in December. If it weren't for Trump, Wayne would still be looking at a 10-year sentence. The Presidential pardon was officially filed in a federal court in South Florida last week.

A copy of the letter with Trump's signature and a seal from the Justice Department surfaced online earlier today, thanks to TMZ. "Be It Known, That This Day, I, Donald J. Trump, President Of The United States, Pursuant To My Powers Under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, Of The Constitution Have Granted Unto Dwayne Michael Carter A Full And Unconditional Pardon," the letter reads.

Shortly after his pardon was announced, Weezy hit Twitter to offer Trump a public thank you for his efforts. "I want to thank President Trump for recognizing that I have so much more to give to my family, my art, and my community," he wrote. "I also want to thank @bradfordcohen for working so diligently to secure another chance for me. Love!"

Check it out below.

The group pointed out that these exclusive patents and technologies, developed at Purdue University, are specific to the processing of separated and pure rare earth metals and critical elements from coal byproducts, recycled permanent magnets and lithium-ion batteries

The agreement will enable American Rare Earth LLC (ARE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the corporation, to further develop and construct a much-needed environmentally safer domestic supply chain of critical materials

( ) has announced that, with the addition of Hasler Ventures LLC, the company has licensed ligand assisted displacement (LAD) chromatography patents and knowhow to further expanded its capability in environmentally friendly separation and purification of rare earth elements.

The group pointed out that these exclusive patents and technologies, developed at Purdue University, are specific to the processing of separated and pure rare earth metals and critical elements from coal byproducts, recycled permanent magnets and lithium-ion batteries.

The agreement will enable American Rare Earth LLC (ARE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the corporation, to further develop and construct a much-needed environmentally safer domestic supply chain of critical materials.

Rare earth elements (REEs) include the 15 elements in the lanthanide series plus scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y). They are essential ingredients for magnets, metal alloys, polishing powders, catalysts, ceramics, and phosphors, which are important for high-technology and clean energy applications. The global REE market is estimated at approximately $4 billion dollars and growing at 8% per year.

American Rare Earth's agreements with Hasler Ventures comes in the form of two exclusive licenses: (1) technologies for the separation and purification of rare earth elements from coal, coal byproducts, coal waste and acid mine drainage, utilizing LAD chromatography, and (2) technologies for the extraction and purification of rare earth and critical elements from used or waste permanent magnets and batteries. Both technologies will be used by ARE to further develop its proprietary process chain for domestic commercialization and production of rare earth and critical elements.

In a statement, Mark Jensen, CEO of American Resources said, "Working with Purdue and Hasler Ventures to commercialize such an impressive suite of technologies that are of major importance to national security and the growth of the electrification marketplace is an honor for our company. Their teams have been nothing short of amazing, as they have fully embraced the need to rapidly scale to a commercial process to produce rare-earth and critical elements from available domestic sources.

"It is our shared belief that to compete in the world markets and to establish a robust domestic source of rare-earth metals, the United States cannot solely rely on the current costly and environmentally harming methods of solvent-based extraction. Linda Wang's method represents this path."

Dr Linda Wang, the Maxine Spencer Nichols Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, commented: "We're excited about partnering with American Rare Earth and American Resources on the implementation of our research. We look forward to working with their team on the design of a pilot production facility and an eventual full-scale production plant."

Hasler Ventures was formed by Dan Hasler who retired from Purdue University in March 2020. At that time, Hasler Ventures optioned the technology. Hasler served Purdue as executive vice president for communications and previously served five years as president of Purdue Research Foundation where he became familiar with Wang's work.

"Linda has dedicated more than 10 years of research to developing this process and her innovation is one of the most promising and environmentally safer methods to separate and purify rare-earth metals," Hasler said. "There is a lot of interest in this technology because it could support the US domestic supply chain to safely purify this critical resource currently done almost exclusively in China which makes us dependent on them even though we have the raw materials available in the US."

Purdue University President Mitch Daniels commented, "We've long been proud of Professor Wang and her research. If this comes to fruition, it could be a very vital new asset in protecting our country's national security and manufacturing competitiveness."

In connection with the exclusive patent licenses for its fields of use, American Resources has committed to a three-year sponsored research program with Purdue University and Dr Wang to further advance the technologies and critical processes. In addition, Dan Hasler will represent American Resources in subsequent sub-licensing and partnership opportunities and as an advisor to the company.

American Resources is a next-generation, environmentally and socially responsible supplier of high-quality raw materials to the new infrastructure market. The company is focused on the extraction and processing of metallurgical carbon, an essential ingredient used in steelmaking, critical and rare earth minerals for the electrification market, and reprocessed metal to be recycled.

It has a growing portfolio of operations located in the Central Appalachian basin of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia where premium quality metallurgical carbon and rare earth mineral deposits are concentrated.

The Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the US. In fiscal year 2019, the office reported 136 deals finalized with 231 technologies signed, 380 disclosures received and 141 issued US patents.

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com
The Cassation Administrative Court within the Supreme Court has received a claim in which the plaintiff challenges the President of Ukraine decree No. 607/2020 dated December 29, 2020 on the dismissal of a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine from the moment of its adoption.

According to the press service of the Supreme Court on the Facebook page, the registration number of the case is No. 9901/20/21.

"The status of consideration of the case can be monitored in the section 'Status of Case Consideration' on the official website of the Supreme Court," the court said in a statement.

As it became known to Interfax-Ukraine, the plaintiff is head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Tupytsky.

As reported, on October 27, 2020, the Constitutional Court recognized as unconstitutional a number of provisions of the law on the prevention of corruption and criminal liability for declaring inaccurate information. This decision drew criticism from Ukraine's international partners and creditors.
NEW DELHI : Public sector banks (PSBs) are planning to raise about 10,000 crore through a mix of equity and debt in the remaining two months of the current fiscal ending March to support credit pick up and meet regulatory requirements.

In the last few months, lenders including State Bank of India, Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have raised about 50,000 crore from the market.

"Banks have raised about 50,700 crore from the market and we expect another 8,000-10,000 crore to be raised in the remaining part of the year," Financial Services Secretary Debasish Panda told PTI.

With regard to COVID-stress, he said banks have made good enough provisions anticipating slippages.

The government's allocation of 20,000 crore for 2021-22 would act as a buffer and used as and when required, he added.

In December 2020, Canara Bank raised 2,000 crore while Punjab National Bank (PNB) raised 3,788.04 crore through qualified institutional placement (QIP).

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has been advising banks to proactively raise capital and not wait for a difficult situation to arise due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Besides, the government has allocated 20,000 crore for capital infusion into PSBs in the current fiscal. Of this, the Finance Ministry has granted 5,500 crore to Punjab & Sind Bank to meet the regulatory requirement. The government approved capital infusion through preferential allotment of equity shares in Punjab & Sind Bank last month.

During 2019-20, the government made 70,000 crore capital infusion into the PSBs to boost credit for a strong impetus to the economy.

Punjab National Bank got 16,091 crore, Union Bank of India received 11,768 crore while Canara Bank and Indian Bank got 6,571 crore and 2,534 crore, respectively. PTI DP MR

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(TNS)  Hundreds of cars wrapped around the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation's health clinic, where tribal employees and their families lined up Sunday to receive their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination. Music by Lauryn Hill played over a speaker as volunteers in white tents registered patients in their cars.Lawrence Foulkes, a 32-year-old computer technician and enrolled Muckleshoot Tribal member, received his first dose from the comfort of his car that morning. Though he was nervous, Foulkes got vaccinated to protect his multigenerational household, which has members ranging from 3 to 65 years old.Native Americans are more willing than the general population to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, primarily out of responsibility to their communities, according to a new report by the Seattle-based Urban Indian Health Institute.A survey of 1,435 Native Americans across 46 states found that 75% of participants would be willing to receive a vaccine. The findings could help inform public-health campaigns geared toward Native Americans in rural and urban settings, said Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the institute, which is the research division of the Seattle Indian Health Board.Still, typical campaigns on coronavirus precautions and vaccination have focused on individual decisions  messaging that does not resonate with Native American communities, even though they often have worse outcomes from the disease, Echo-Hawk said."The rest of the nation should be looking at the Native community, the messaging, and community cohesiveness that we have about making these decisions on behalf of an entire community," Echo-Hawk said.Indigenous people continue to be disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Native Americans are 3.5 times more likely to contract COVID-19 and 1.8 times more likely to die from it than white people.Contributing factors, including asthma and diabetes, are direct results of systemic racism within the health care system, which has led to a high rate of COVID-19 cases within the nation's Indigenous population, Echo-Hawk said."We're more at risk because we are Native people living in the United States, where we have been experiencing this kind of oppression for the past 500 years," she said.She helped spearhead the survey at the end of November after noticing public-health campaigns on the coronavirus vaccine did not include information relevant to Native Americans. The survey was promoted through social media, email lists and tribal organizations throughout the nation.To help overcome hesitancy, the study recommended public-health officials acknowledge medical harm that has led to skepticism toward vaccines among Native Americans. The forced sterilization of thousands of Indigenous women in the 1960s and 1970s by the Indian Health Service, for example, has stayed with many, said Derrick Belgarde, deputy director of the Chief Seattle Club, an organization that serves Indigenous people experiencing homelessness.Distrust of the medical system was reflected in the study's findings, which found nearly 90% of participants wanted evidence about the vaccine's safety.Belgarde shares his own journey of overcoming skepticism of the vaccine in an effort to address people's concerns. On Thursday, he received a second dose at Eagle Village, a Chief Seattle Club-run program that provides transitional housing in Sodo for formerly homeless Native Americans.Foulkes, from the Muckleshoot Tribe, was hesitant to receive the vaccine because of its potential risks. He waited a month after the Muckleshoot Tribe's first vaccine drive in mid-December to see if anyone complained of adverse reactions, and he concluded that the potential benefit outweighed the risks.His family cited biological warfare against Indigenous people throughout history as their reason for distrusting the vaccine. He quelled his family's concerns by reminding them of the supply shortage."There's a lot of people that want this vaccine. There's a lot of people that can't get it, and that says something about the vaccine itself," Foulkes said.After receiving a vaccination, Foulkes put on a reflective vest and volunteered to direct people through the drive-thru clinic for the remainder of the afternoon.Nearly 3,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were administered over the weekend at the Muckleshoot Health and Wellness Center. It followed a similar drive on the reservation from Dec. 18-20 for elders and enrolled members. Second doses were administered throughout January. Since Jan. 13, the tribe has offered the Moderna vaccine to enrolled Muckleshoot Tribal members and federally recognized Native Americans in King County on Wednesday afternoons.The tribe needed to be creative in education and outreach to ensure that all members were aware of coronavirus precautions and the benefit of being vaccinated, said Donny Stevenson, vice chairman of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. Digital newsletters were emailed to members, and elders were given paper copies during free-lunch deliveries. A video made by high-school students posted on Facebook encouraged people to wear masks, and Zoom meetings by Tribal members and health professionals informed the community about the vaccine."We look to take care of people," Stevenson said. "Generosity is a very important attribute in terms of who we are as a traditional people. That's how we measured wealth."Because of the Tribe's mask mandates and stay-at-home orders early on, Stevenson said the Muckleshoot Tribe did not experience high rates of infection and death.Seattle Indian Health Board was the first organization in Washington to receive doses of the Moderna vaccine for distribution, CEO Esther Lucero said.Starting in December, the board's staff and health care providers were vaccinated, followed by those in partner organizations that serve the local Native American community, such as the Chief Seattle Club. Then vaccinations were rolled out to Native Americans over 55 who were in the health board's database.In Indigenous communities where fewer than 10 fluent language speakers remain, the loss of an elder would have a widespread impact for an entire tribe, Echo-Hawk said."Our elders are our culture keepers, they're our language speakers," Lucero said. "We really have to preserve our cultural epistemologies and our Indigenous ways of knowing and being."The Seattle Indian Health Board also vaccinated influential Native American leaders to help encourage widespread vaccination. Lucero, for instance, was the first person to be vaccinated within the local Indigenous community. Native American staff and health care providers were encouraged to share the effects of the first and second dose to address concerns about the vaccine.Other barriers to accessing the vaccine within the Native American community includes organizational resources. The Seattle Indian Health Board has hired additional staff to field up to 3,000 phone calls a day, which increased from about 6,000 phone calls a week before the vaccine rollout. Another challenge is the ability to vaccinate entire families, particularly ones with non-Native members or those in multigenerational households.As a result, the health board will announce Monday that the vaccine will be available to anyone 55 and older, regardless of ethnicity. The organization had vaccinated 1,400 people as of Wednesday.The organization's survey and vaccination rollout is a model for a community-centered approach to vaccine distribution, Lucero said. She hopes the information gathered for the report influences the way health care agencies distribute vaccines to marginalized communities.In Belgarde's eyes, the report shows the significance of the Native American tradition of protecting loved ones."We don't take the vaccine for ourselves," Belgarde said. "We take it for our community."
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Feb. 2, 2021) -- What does bile acid production in the digestive tract have to do with Parkinson's disease?

Quite a lot, according to a sweeping new analysis published in the journal Metabolites. The findings reveal that changes in the gut microbiome -- the rich population of helpful microbes that call the digestive tract home -- may in turn alter bile acid production by favoring synthesis of toxic forms of the acids.

These shifts were seen only in people with Parkinson's and not in healthy controls, a critical difference that suggests bile acids may be a viable biomarker for diagnosing Parkinson's early and tracking its progression. The insights also may provide new avenues for developing therapies that impede Parkinson's-related changes in the gut, thereby potentially slowing or stopping disease onset and progression.

The research was led by the late Viviane Labrie, Ph.D., of Van Andel Institute, in collaboration with colleagues at VAI, Beaumont Health, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that gut health is tightly linked to brain health," said Peipei Li, Ph.D., the study's first author and former postdoctoral fellow in the Labrie Lab. "Our findings provide exciting new opportunities for better understanding this relationship and possibly for developing new ways to diagnose -- and even treat -- Parkinson's."

To investigate differences in the microbiome, the team turned to the appendix, a frequently maligned bit of tissue that actually plays an important role in regulating gut microbes. Using a "multi-omics" approach, the team comprehensively analyzed and compared the microbiome composition of appendix samples from people with Parkinson's and healthy controls. They found significant differences, with the changes in microbial composition of the Parkinson's samples correlating with higher levels of toxic bile acids.

The findings track with a 2020 study led by scientists in Spain that suggest changes in bile acids in the plasma are associated with Parkinson's disease.

"My lab has grown increasingly interested in bile acids and Parkinson's disease following a study completed in collaboration with Dr. Patrik Brundin's group a few years ago," said Stewart Graham, Ph.D., director of Metabolomics Research at Beaumont Health. "We demonstrated that not only was there a significant shift in the bile acid metabolism due to changes we induced in the brain, but that these compounds have the potential to be used as early blood-based biomarkers of the disease. This is extremely important as this is when treatments are believed to be most effective."

In recent years, research has revealed a growing number of links between the gut and Parkinson's. For example, chronic constipation often is one of the earliest signs of Parkinson's disease and can occur years or even decades before the onset of the disease's hallmark motor symptoms. Other studies have shown that hepatitis C, which impacts the liver, increases the risk of developing Parkinson's.

Importantly, a 2018 study by Labrie and colleagues demonstrated that removal of the appendix is associated with a 19-25% reduction in Parkinson's risk when the surgery occurs early in life, before the start of the disease process. They also found that the appendix acts as a storehouse for Parkinson's-related proteins called alpha-synuclein, clumps of which are a key pathological sign of Parkinson's. However, alpha-synuclein was found in the appendixes of healthy controls as well as people with Parkinson's, implying that the presence of the protein alone isn't enough to trigger the disease.

###

Authors include Elizabeth Ensink, Ian Beddows, Ph.D., Noah Lubben, Meghan Schilthuis, J. Andrew Pospisilik, Ph.D., Patrik Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., and Lena Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., of VAI; Bryan Killinger, Ph.D., of Rush University Medical Center; Ali Yilmaz, Ph.D., of Beaumont Health; Jared Lamp, Ph.D., and Irving Vega, Ph.D., of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine; and Randy Woltjer, M.D., Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University. VAI's Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core and Michigan State University's Genomics Core contributed to this work. Tissue was provided by the Oregon Brain Bank.

Research reported in this publication was supported by Van Andel Institute and the Farmer Family Foundation (P. Brundin, with L. Brundin, Pospisilik and Labrie as co-investigators).

Labrie also held awards from the Department of Defense, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health and Michigan State University through the Gibby & Friends vs. Parky Parkinson's Disease Research Award. Graham holds awards from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer's Association and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

The content of this release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the granting organizations.

ABOUT VAN ANDEL INSTITUTE

Van Andel Institute (VAI) is committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations through cutting edge biomedical research and innovative educational offerings. Established in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1996 by the Van Andel family, VAI is now home to more than 400 scientists, educators and support staff, who work with a growing number of national and international collaborators to foster discovery. The Institute's scientists study the origins of cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases and translate their findings into breakthrough prevention and treatment strategies. Our educators develop inquiry-based approaches for K-12 education to help students and teachers prepare the next generation of problem-solvers, while our Graduate School offers a rigorous, research-intensive Ph.D. program in molecular and cellular biology. Learn more at vai.org.
China on Tuesday vowed to take measures to "strictly prosecute any counterfeits, fake sales and illegal business, and other related actions that involve vaccines" after Chinese police have reportedly arrested over 80 suspects involved in manufacturing and selling fake COVID-19 vaccines.

Police in Beijing and in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces broke up the group led by a suspect surnamed Kong that was producing the fake vaccines, which consisted of a simple saline solution, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The vaccines were sold in China and to other countries, although it was unclear which ones.

At a daily news briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin declared that China gives high importance to vaccines' safety and will strengthen cross-border cooperation to "prevent the spread of this type of illegal and criminal action."

"China has already reported the situation to the relevant countries, "said Wang, without giving further details of the countries.

China has a long history of vaccine scandals resulting from manufacturing issues as well as business practices.

Wang also commented on the report that a staff from the Canadian Embassy in China ordered a customized T-shirt in July with the word "Wuhan" and a stylized "W," which was widely considered by Chinese citizens as an image of a bat, the possible source of the virus.

Wang demanded Canada gives China "a clear explanation" after a thorough investigation.

The incident was first raised by the T-shirt store's manager on Chinese social media WeChat, Chinese media reported.

The Canadian Embassy in China later clarified that it was a "misunderstanding" and the stylized "W" is the emblem of a hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
FORT EDWARD - Recent overdoses and one death are being linked to a batch of fentanyl-laced cocaine and heroin that is circulating in Washington County, the Washington County Sheriff's Office said.

Sheriff Jeffrey J. Murphy warned that the deadly mixture may have a bluish or purplish tint and that it is referred to as "blue heroin."

"Fentanyl is dangerous and very potent which greatly increases the risk of overdose and death," Murphy's statement read. "In the suspected overdoses in the area in recent days, a mix of cocaine and fentanyl is suspected however not yet confirmed."

Murphy said that deputies have administered Narcan in several cases. However, he said, Narcan does not work as well with an overdose induced by a cocaine-laced mixture.

"The sheriffs office is urging family, friends and support groups of those in a high-risk category for overdoses to be made aware of the possibility of the fentanyl-laced mixtures in the area," the statement read. "If you suspect someone has overdosed, please do not hesitate to call 911 as time will be of the essence in these type of cases."

Last Wednesday, Rotterdam police said a woman in its community died after she used a suspected lethal batch of crack cocaine. Rotterdam Lt. William Male said Thursday that police found the dead woman with an unconscious male, both apparent drug overdoses, after answering an emergency call for a reported drug overdose. At the time, police did not know what the crack cocaine was tainted with.

In May 2020, in a 12-hour period, the Washington County town of Greenwich saw four deaths, all overdoses from a lethal combination of fentanyl and cocaine.

Then last August, Rensselaer County saw three fatal drug overdoses from fentanyl-laced cocaine and heroin. Those three fatalities were among eight overdoses in a 48-hour period in East Greenbush, Sand Lake and Troy.

Education dominated Mondays meeting of the Midland Development Corp. board of directors as it received updates on educational projects it agreed to support.

Christina Robohm, regional dean and physical assistant program director at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, provided board members with a presentation on the expansion of Techs PA program at Midland College.

She told board members almost all of the $30 million for the expansion and renovation of existing space has been raised, including $20 million in appropriations secured by State Rep. Tom Craddick and $5 million from the MDC. Additional funding is coming from the Scharbauer Foundation and the Permian Strategic Partnership.

Robohm said the expansion will expand Techs Physician Assistant program from 60 to 72 students and the expansion and renovations have been designed with a goal of accommodating 100 students at a future date.

Logistics at the site have begun with actual construction expected next month with the addition expected to be complete in December and renovation of existing space by next April. Tech expects to admit its expanded class next May pending accreditation approval, she reported.

The expanded space will house a new anatomy lab, collaborative classroom, a new student lunge and additional faculty workspace. All should accommodate a growing program, she said.

We surpassed 2,000 applications for 50 positions, she said, crediting the pandemic for generating increased interest in the health care field.

Damon Kennedy, vice president of instructional services at Midland College, provided an update on the colleges dual-credit and Career and Technical Credit programs. When the MDC and college began negotiating support for the programs in 2017, enrollment has jumped from 300 to a total of 816. Those 816 are enrolled in the Petroleum Academy, Health Sciences Academy, the Business/IT Academy and Public Services Academy, which incorporates law enforcement and the fire academy. The Petroleum and Health Sciences academies are at capacity, but Kennedy said there is tremendous room for growth in the Business/IT and Public Service academies.

Kennedy said he was pleased to switch the focus of the conversation from enrollment to program completers. The programs have also hired three new full-time employees and is looking to expand its work with Greenwood Independent School District and Stanton Independent School District alongside Midland Independent School District.

The program is also looking to partner with Coleman High School to expand its fire academy, noting that the schools proximity would allow for a short commute to Midland Fire Departments Harris Field training site. The program is already looking to secure funding for modular buildings at Harris Field and the Fire Department is looking to expand that site to accommodate the expanded Public Service Academy.

In other business:

-- Board members approved a $126,915 contract with Lydick-Hooks Roofing for a temporary roof at the Western United Life Building.

-- Approved a consultant services agreement with InterFlight Global Corp. for up to $120,975 for services in procuring new tenants for facilities at the Spaceport Business Park.
The covid-19 pandemic has disrupted economies and communities around the world. Varying from basic social customs and working arrangements to how people currently live.

Like other sectors, the insurance industry is no exception. Experts predict that the impact will be significant although no official figure has been put to it.

In an exclusive interview with Doing Business, Jean Paul Nkusi, Technical Director at the Rwanda Insurers Association, (ASSAR) said that insurers are now confronting a new environment, describing it as an era of 'short and long' term disruption.

For an industry that is still nascent compared to the rest of the region, Nkusi noted that Covid-19 is likely to act as an accelerant to significant trends including digitization

According to him, insurers are affected proportionally to the businesses that are halted.

"Key sectors like transport have been halted. This largely affects the companies because participation will definitely decrease. You cannot get a new client in such times, and we have seen that. In other words, the more a certain business is affected, the same will happen for the insurer," he said.

Nkusi also revealed that majority of the clients have consistently declined to pay their premiums, "They attribute that to Covid-19," he said.

"This doesn't remove the fact that some clients have resumed working, but you will find a company insuring two taxis, from a previous ten taxis," he said.

Official data from the Access to Finance Rwanda indicates that insurers' faced difficulties with working remotely during last year's lockdown.

A total of 41 per cent of insurer and 43 per cent of brokers said they had difficulty working remotely. Insurers were unable to conduct aspects of the insurance product cycle remotely at the start of the lockdown and a substantial proportion were still struggling to process and pay claims remotely at the time of the survey.

"The Covid-19 pandemic, therefore, has had impacts on insurers' ability to launch new products, conclude sales, collect premiums, service customer and process and pay claims. At the same time, the pandemic is impacting insurers' balance sheets as investment returns are negatively affected by the ensuing economic crisis triggered by Covid-19,"the survey noted.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Coronavirus Rwanda By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

Better outlook for 2021

According to Access to Finance Rwanda, 70 per cent of insurers expect premium income to recover by 2021, although brokers are less 'optimistic'.

"The economic crisis and ensuing widespread reduction in the income of clients, however, makes the recovery time uncertain and likely longer than insurers are expecting," reads part of the study.

According to Nkusi, the pandemic has certainly highlighted weaknesses in the sector, bringing with it certain challenges.

However, he also observed that the pandemic also provides opportunities for the insurance sector and regulator to drive insurance market development.

"Insurers should be optimistic and not lose sight of long-term (durable) imperatives, much as they concentrate on dealing with current customer needs, maintaining solvency and ensuring operational resilience. The pandemic has also shown us that this is a sector that can be digitized," Nkusi said.
Free Press

Michigan State Police

James Fett

Jim Runestad

White Lake

Senate

Michigan State Police

Gretchen Whitmer

Free Press

Jan. 22

Caleb Buhs

Department of Technology, Management and Budget

Joseph Gasper

R. Michael Hahn

Michael Caldwell

Pinckney

Lori Hinkley

Kyle Bowman

Emmitt McGowan

Beth Clark

Brody Boucher

Jason Nemecek

Jan. 21

Free Press

Aug. 12

Chris Kelenske

Mike Krumm

Matt Bolger

Tom Deasy

Dave Sosinski

James Grady

Phil Menna

Nancy Becker-Bennett

Mike Johnson

Scott McManus

Free Press

Aug. 12

FOIA

Tom Barrett

Charlotte

Senate

Adam Hollier

Detroit

Kwame Kilpatrick

Free Press

Jeremy Moss

Southfield

FOIA

Capitol

FOIA

Dana Nessel

FOIA

Ryan Jarvi

(TNS)  Lawmakers from both parties are calling for changes to state law and/or policy after therevealed that topofficials have downloaded an app onto their state-issued phones that can put their text messages out of reach of the Michigan Freedom of Information Act and discovery requests in civil lawsuits.And attorneysays he has screenshots from August showing at least 18 active and high-ranking MSP officers and civilians had the Signal encryption application installed on their state-issued phones  not just the five identified as a result of his lawsuit against the state."I think it's outrageous," said state Sen., R-, a member of theappropriations subcommittee on military affairs and state police."This is something that causes the public to lose faith in thebecause there are so many conversations that they can have to the detriment of individuals," Runestad said.If text messages exchanged by high-ranking police officials can all be "scrubbed clean," then "all kinds of mischief can go on, and the public is never going to know about it."It's a controversy in which new and inexpensive technology designed to ensure user privacy is colliding with the public's right to scrutinize government communications. Democratic Gov., who was elected in 2018, has said government transparency is one of her priorities.Signal, which is a free-to-the-user app funded by grants and donations, says on its website: "We can't read your messages or listen to your calls, and no one else can either." Signal features "end-to-end" encryption, meaning texts sent on state phones using Signal bypass the state server and, once deleted, leave no record on either the phone or the state server.Though state employee use of the Signal app came to light through a lawsuit against the MSP, there is no way of knowing whether employees in other state agencies are also using it. The state has made no effort since thebroke the storyto determine whether employees at MSP or any other state agency are using it, said, a spokesman for theThough "we are reviewing our policies ... we do not block the download of apps right now," Buhs said. "As of right now, I don't have an answer for you as to what is legitimate use. We just don't know what other agencies need all the time. (The MSP's) legitimate use may not be the same for another agency."Fett is suing the MSP and its director, Col., on behalf of, an MSP inspector who was fired last year, and Inspector, who was demoted from the rank of captain, purportedly for the way they handled a personnel matter. Hahn and Caldwell allege they were retaliated against for speaking out against what they say are unlawful racial and gender hiring and promotion preferences the department has adopted as it seeks to increase its diversity. The state defendants deny the allegations.Fett, of, said he was suspicious after he requested through legal discovery copies of text messages exchanged among the MSP top brass related to the firing and demotion, and the defendants turned over very little.Through the court, Fett asked the MSP to admit that Gasper, MSP records section manager, Lt. Col., Maj., Maj., 1st Lt.and 1st Lt.had each downloaded and used an instant messaging application with end-to-end encryption on their state-issued cellphones.The state initially admitted all seven officials had used such an app on their state phones, but in an amended response, after theraised questions about the app use, it denied that Gasper or Hinkley had used the app.The requests and responses did not name the encryption application, but Hahn said he knows top MSP officials have been using Signal.Fett said that when someone downloads the Signal application on to a cellphone, there is an immediate request for access to the persons contact list. If access is granted, Signal generates a list of contacts who also have the Signal app installed. He said the names of 18 MSP officials popped upwhen someone with connections to the MSP, whom Fett would not identify, downloaded Signal onto their phone. In each case, the contact number listed for the MSP officials was their state-issued cellphone, he said.In addition to Gasper, Hinkley, and the five officials the state has admitted have used the encryption app, the names of still-active MSP officials that appeared were: Lt. Col., who is an MSP deputy director, Maj., Capt., Capt., who heads the transparency and accountability division, Capt., Capt., Capt., Capt. Stephen ONeill,, who heads the grants and community services division, Inspector, and F/Lt., who heads the executive protection section responsible for the governor's security detail, Fett said.Fett, who provided copies of the screenshots to the, said he also has a date-stamped video of Signal being downloadedand the names of the MSP officials appearing once the contact list was accessed.On Monday, Banner again denied that Gasper or Hinkley had downloaded or used the Signal app on their state phones. She did not comment on the other names put forward by Fett."For your background, I would note that the screenshots are based on the individuals contact list in their phone," Banner said. "Therefore, it would only be as accurate as their contact list."She otherwise declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.Runestad said it is his understanding that protocols and technology are already in place for the MSP to use encryption when necessary for sensitive investigations, without bypassing the state server and potentially evading"I'm on appropriations for the state police," he said. "I am going to be asking them a lot of questions about this. A lot of questions about their hiring and promoting practices. There's a lot that they're going to have to address in the next appropriations subcommittee hearing."State Sen., R-, chairman of theappropriations subcommittee on military affairs and state police, said he too is concerned."I have concerns about any state agency, especially our top law enforcement agency in the state, circumventing the laws about open, transparent record-keeping," Barrett said.The Democrat on the subcommittee, Sen.of, said it appears to be a case in which state law and policy have not kept pace with technology."Are text messages on the record?" Hollier asked. "(Former Detroit Mayor)(whose downfall and criminal convictions were closely related to publication by theof text messages he sent and received) might have thought they were not. The line, I think, needs to be clarified, and I don't think that has been effectively done over the last 10 years."The MSP has a right to communications that are protected from detection by those under investigation and the public also has a right to know about government business, Hollier said."If we want to hold people accountable, we have to put them in a position where they can be successful, and we have not done this," Hollier said. "We need to modernize our laws."State Sen., D-, a strong proponent of state government transparency who has sponsored a package of bills to expandto the governor's office and the Legislature, said the key issues for him are retention and disclosure, not necessarily which technology is being used.Moss said he can envision many circumstances  including recent armed demonstrations at the where the MSP would need to use encrypted messages in real time to ensure security.That is OK "as long as those messages are subject to retention and disclosure" at a later date, he said.Since technology is ever-evolving, state law and policy must be constantly refined to "make sure someone can't go aroundbecause an app allows them to," Moss said.Attorney General, who is charged with enforcing the statelaw, had no comment Monday, spokesmansaid.A spokeswoman for Whitmer, who was initially a defendant in the MSP lawsuits brought by Fett but was dismissed from the cases in August, did not respond to a request for comment."This is the kind of stuff that the governor ought to be ripping the can wide open and looking inside and saying, 'How did this happen. Why is this happening? Let's not have this lack of transparency,' " Runestad said."Unless you can tell me different, I haven't heard anything out of her."
Controversy has long surrounded Mr Chaus connection to the United Nations bribery scandal given his role as a major political donor to both major parties in Australia. Mr Chau has denied any wrongdoing and successfully sued journalists who reported on the FBI probe into the payment from his firm Kingold to Mr Ashes personal bank account. Liberal MP Tim Wilson. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Chau was never charged by the FBI. In 2018 Liberal MP Andrew Hastie named Mr Chau in Parliament as the source of the alleged bribe funds and claimed Australias defamation laws were being used to suppress information in the national interest.

Mr Hastie said at the time that Mr Chau had given more than $4 million since 2004 to the Liberal and Labor parties and also donated $45 million to universities in Australia. Mr Wilson said in Parliament on Tuesday that: Mr Chaus role in providing funds [to Mr Ashe] has been obscured by defamation cases. He also repeated the allegations aired by Mr Hastie that security agencies regarded Mr Chau to be part of Beijings efforts to influence overseas governments. These documents reveal Mr Chaus private company made payments to Mr Ashe via one of Mr Ashes bank accounts, Mr Wilson said. It reveals the FBI regarded this payment as a quid quo pro in an arrangement to get Mr Ashe to speak at Mr Chaus 2013 conference. It reveals that in February 2016, FBI agents questioned Mr Chau about these payments. It reveals he told the FBI it was in his mind merely a donation to alleviate poverty. Meanwhile, the US authorities charged Mr Chaus contact Sheri Yan with bribery over the same payment.

Mr Wilson said his intention in tabling the documents was to let the light in, adding the best antidote against those who seek to influence our political system or our universities ... is sunshine. Mr Chau previously won a large pay-out in a defamation case involving former Walkley Award-winning Age and Sydney Morning Herald journalist John Garnaut for a story he wrote about the bribery scandal. On Tuesday, Mr Chau had another legal victory in a Federal Court defamation case he lodged in connection to a 2017 Four Corners story detailing the payment to Mr Ashe and the FBI case. The ABC and Nine were ordered to pay Mr Chau $590,000 in damages after a Federal Court judge found the media outlets defamed him by suggesting he bribed John Ashe and that he bribed Australian politicians in the form of political donations. However, Federal Court judge Steven Rares found the program did not convey two of the more serious allegations that Mr Chau had claimed.

The media outlets said they were deeply disappointed by the judgment and urged state and territory legislators to take urgent steps to pass reforms to defamation laws that have been agreed upon by a national working group. The tabling of the FBI case file in Parliament is significant because it provides fresh information about the law enforcement agencys investigations into Mr Chau. Mr Chau has never been charged with any criminal offence and there is no suggestion that he has engaged in any criminal conduct. Both Mr Chau and Yan maintain that the $200,000 payment from Mr Chaus company to Mr Ashe was not a bribe. The tabled FBI files include a summary of information gathered by investigators and which states: Ultimately, CCW [Chau Chak Wing] paid a bank account controlled by UN general assembly president ASHE $200,000, and in return, ASHE travelled to and spoke at an event being hosted at CCWs Imperial Springs property. The FBI files detail emails and conversations between Ashe, Yan and Yans offsider Heidi Park, in which Ashe said he would attend the 2013 conference but only if he was paid money into an account he had set up to finance his campaign to remain president of the UN General Assembly. The FBI documents refer to Mr Chau using his mandarin name Zhou Zerong.

Loading ASHE had told YAN and PARK to keep their promise to help his PGA fund, and they asked ZHOU [Chau Chak Wing] to donate money to ASHE. ZHOU [Chau Chak Wing] made a $200,000 payment to ASHE directly into his PGA account in November 2013, states one of the FBI documents tabled in parliament. The FBI case file also summarises a record of a February 2016 interview Mr Chau gave to FBI agents. Mr Chau told investigators he had known Yan for five or six years. He also told the FBI that he only got involved in transactions of more than $10 million and therefore didnt pay much attention to the $200,000 payment from Kingold to Ashe beyond telling an associate to go ahead and do it. Mr Chau said in the interview he was told the $200,000 was a donation to fight poverty but he never received a donation report or any receipt. The FBI account of its interview states: Chau reiterated that the order of events was he spoke with Yan and she mentioned the United Nations wanted to send Ashe to the summit, he referred Yan to [redacted] and shortly after he approved a donation to Ashe in the amount of $200,000 for the alleviation of poverty.

(From L), Front row: Vietjet CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Vingroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong, Techcombank chairman Ho Hung Anh; Second row: Thaco Group chairman Tran Ba Duong, Hoa Phat Group chairman Tran Dinh Long; Back: Masan Group chairman Nguyen Dang Quang. Photos compiled by VnExpress/Dat Nguyen.

The sharp fall in the stock markets in 2021 has erased $1.4 billion from the combined net worth of four of Vietnams six billionaires.

As of January 30, Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of Vietnams largest private conglomerate, Vingroup, had a net worth of $6.3 billion, down $500 million from the beginning of 2021, according to Forbes magazine.

Vingroups VIC shares had surged to over VND111,000 ($4.78) in mid-January before dropping to VND99,400 on January 29.

The net worth of Tran Dinh Long, chairman of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, fell by $100 million in January to $1.9 billion. He is 1,583rd in Forbess global list of billionaires. In 2020, his net worth rose by more than $1 billion after his companys stock gained 75 percent to rise to VND41,450.

Ho Hung Anh, chairman of the private lender with the highest profits, Techcombank, has a net worth of $1.4 billion after it reduced by $400 million in January. He is 1,951st in the list.

As of January 29, Techcombanks share was trading at VND32,000.

The shares of conglomerate Masan Group lost 5 percent in January and fell to VND85,000, representing a $400 million decline in the net worth of its chairman Nguyen Dang Quang to $1.1 billion.

Masan is a major producer of fish sauce and packaged foods.

Tran Ba Duong, chairman of automaker Thaco Group, continued to be worth $1.5 billion.

The only one whose net worth increased is Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of budget airline Vietjet and the richest woman in Vietnam. It increased by $100 million to $2.6 billion, placing her 1,168 in the Forbes list.

The VN-Index tumbled 2 percent to 1,035.51 points on Monday, down to its lowest level since December 10 last year.
BP has agreed to sell a 20% participating interest in Omans Block 61 to PTT Exploration and Production Public Company (PTTEP) of Thailand for a total consideration of $2.6 billion.



Following completion of the sale, BP will remain operator of the block, holding a 40% interest. The deal is expected to complete during 2021, reported Oman News Agency (ONA).



The agreed total consideration of $2.590 billion comprises $2.450 billion payable on completion (subject to final adjustments) and $140 million payable contingent on pre-agreed future conditions.



Following completion, participating interests in Block 61 will be: BP, 40%; OQ, 30%; PTTEP, 20%; and Petronas, 10%.



Block 61, covering around 3,950km2 in central Oman, contains the largest tight gas development in the Middle East. The block has already had two phases of development  Khazzan, which began production in 2017, followed by Ghazeer in October 2020.



These two developments, targeted at developing a total of 10.5 trillion cubic feet of gas resources, have a combined daily production capacity of 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas and more than 65,000 barrels of condensate. Gas from Block 61 is exported for domestic consumption into Omans national gas grid while also boosting availability of feedstock supply for Oman LNG.



BP chief executive officer Bernard Looney said: We are pleased to welcome PTTEP to the successful Block 61 partnership. Block 61 is a pioneering development that has applied leading techniques and technologies to maximise efficiency and minimise emissions. We are committed to BPs business in Oman  this agreement allows us to remain at the heart of this world-class development while also making important progress in our global divestment programme.



He added: "Confidential BP is targeting divestment proceeds of $25 billion by 2025. Most recently, the $5 billion sale of BPs petrochemicals business to INEOS completed at the end of 2020.



BP Oman Vice President Yousuf al-Ojaili commented: We look forward to working with PTTEP, our other partners, and the Government of Oman on the continued success of Khazzan and Ghazeer, and to explore further opportunities in Block 61.

We remain very much committed to our strategic partnership with Oman. We will continue to support critical national energy infrastructure for the Sultanate through Block 61, invest significantly in local companies and Omani talent, and deliver an ambitious social investment programme.



He pointed out that in 2020, Omanisation in BP Oman reached around 85% and Block 61 spend with Omani registered companies exceeded $610 million.



BP has had an upstream presence in Oman since 2007 when the original production sharing agreement (PSA) for Block 61 was signed. Beyond Block 61, BP and Eni signed a PSA for Block 77 in 2019. BP Trading & Shipping also purchases LNG from Oman LNG under a seven-year deal that started in 2018.
London: The UK variant of the coronavirus has developed a new, concerning mutation in a small number of cases, which scientists said makes it similar to the South African and Brazilian variants and could reduce the efficacy of vaccines.

The emergence of the mutation to the variant first discovered in Britain highlights how complicated exiting COVID-19 lockdown will be even once vaccines are rolled out.

Public Health England said there had been 11 reports of the UK variant which feature the E484K mutation, mostly in south-west England.

The E484K mutation, which occurs on the spike protein of the virus, is the same change as has been seen in the South African and Brazilian variants that have caused international concern.

"PHE is monitoring the situation closely and all necessary public health interventions are being undertaken, including enhanced contact tracing and control measures," a PHE spokesman said.

Several laboratory studies have found that vaccines and antibody therapy are less effective against the South African variant.

By contrast, early evidence showed that vaccines worked just as well against the UK variant, which originally did not have the E484K mutation.

Health minister Matt Hancock said it was too early to tell the impact of variants on vaccines, but mutations of concern had been reported in Bristol and Liverpool.

"We must continue to act with caution, not least because of the renewed challenges posed by new variants of the coronavirus," he told lawmakers.

Calum Semple, who is part of a panel that advises the British government, told BBC radio that E484K was the "mutation of most concern", and had "occurred spontaneously" in the UK variant.

The name E484K, in layman's terms, is like map coordinates. The number 484 is the exact location of the mutation, the letter E is the amino acid that it was originally and the letter K is the amino acid that it has mutated to.

Concern over the South African variant, with its E484K mutation, has already prompted authorities in England to begin a door-to-door mass testing drive in areas where cases of the variant have been found in people with no link to South Africa, while mandatory quarantine in hotels for arrivals from South Africa is yet to come into force.

Though the number of reported cases of the UK variant with the concerning mutation are small, scientists said that it demonstrated how Britain's high prevalence of cases meant that it was not enough simply to prevent new variants being imported.

"This report would seem to suggest that under conditions of very high levels of virus replication even the most stringent of border controls, although they may delay spread, are unlikely to prevent the appearance of new variants," said Jonathan Stoye, virologist at The Francis Crick Institute.

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 Junta de Andalucia has once again demanded "legal mechanisms" from the central government in Madrid to order home lockdowns, wherever the experts recommend it, to try and beat the spread of the coronavirus in the region.

The Junta minister and spokesman, Elias Bendodo, has said, "How many deaths must there be for the Government of Spain to let us make decisions?"

The spokesman for the regional government has said again that this third wave presents "an explosive spread" and has reported that in Andalusian hospitals there are 4,980 patients, of whom 705 are in intensive care.

Bendodo has also reported 106 deaths on a black day for the region in the midst of the worldwide health crisis.

Two Andalusian capitals, Malaga and Almeria, have already exceeded the 14-day rate of one thousand infections per one hundred thousand inhabitants and must close all non-essential activities, including commerce and hospitality, for at least two weeks.

Bendodo has assured that the Junta "understands" the criticism of these sectors that have been hit for months, and has accused the government of Pedro Sanchez of not helping businesses affected by the coronavirus: "We ask that, if you do not give direct aid, you lower the IVA sales tax to four per cent.

Bendodo also asked the Ministry of Health in Madrid to "fight in Europe" to get more vaccines: "We have had two consecutive weekends without vaccinations because there are not enough doses. Yesterday we received 85,000 doses, only 25 per cent of the required. We need more doses.

Nairobi  The recently announced Sh1.2 Billion takeover offer of BOC Kenya Plc by Carbacid Investments Limited in collaboration with Aksaya Investments LLP is set to further deepen the industrial sector development in Kenya.

Carbacid Investments Limited Chairperson Dennis Awori said the proposed transaction will result in Kenyan control of the firm, which currently features a majority multinational shareholder.

"As a wholly-owned local entity, BOC, will benefit from swifter Board and Shareholder attention that is necessary to kick start its growth and promote capital investments and more effective corporate decision making," said Awori.

"The bid underlines the commitment of local investors in expanding manufacturing capacity," he added.

According to Awori, the transaction team is now set to advance the non-conditional offer closure subject to regulatory conditions.

Currently, CIL serves a particular section of the market through its main operating subsidiary Carbacid (CO2) Limited which is the region's leading producer of food-grade carbon dioxide, which is extracted from natural underground reservoirs in Kenya and processed to very levels of purity in highly technical plants at Carbacid's facilities.

Awori emphasized that Carbacid is not involved in the manufacture or sale of oxygen, BOC's main product, and the proposed acquisition is a diversification strategy as opposed to one that will increase market share in any product.

"As a truly Kenyan investment vehicle, CIL's offer to BOC Kenya is aligned to the national development goals and we remain optimistic that the company will be locally controlled," said Awori.

BOC Kenya's United Kingdom-based majority shareholder, BOC Holdings supports the offer made by CIL and has issued an irrevocable undertaking to sell its 65.38percent stake in BOC Kenya.

At the recently concluded AGM of CIL, over 90percent of CIL shareholders present voted in favour of CIL completing the takeover of BOC, emphasizing the overwhelming support by CIL's shareholders for the takeover of BOC.
Poland implemented on Thursday, Jan. 28, its ban all abortions in the country, a day after announcing the effectivity of its October 2020 decision to do so.

The Cut reported that the Poland Constitutional Tribunal decided last October to have a total ban on abortion but was delayed due to an announcement come November for its indefinite implementation after a spur of protests from pro-choice or pro-abortion groups hit their streets. The government suddenly announced just last Jan. 27 that it will be implemented the next day.

Being a Catholic country, Poland is said to have the strictest laws against abortion in Europe. It, nevertheless, previously allows abortion for cases of incest, rape, fetal abnormalities, and threats to a mother's life, The Cut said.

The Deutsche Welle added that the total ban now disallows abortion due to fetal abnormalities, referred to as "eugenic abortions," that actually refer to babies aborted due to Down Syndrome. The conservative Law and Justice Party have been accused of exerting influence on the court for he said law to come into effect. However, the party denied such allegations.

As per Deutsche Welle, Poland registers less than 2,000 legal abortions annually and mostly these are done on fetal malformation. While 200,000 illegal abortions are done annually at home or abroad.

On the other hand, The Cut cited the Guttmacher Institute of reporting more than 30,000 women die from unsafe abortions, which women reproductive rights activists say will rise due to the total ban on abortion now in effect in Poland.

Deutsche Welle cited in its report last December that Poland's total abortion ban was welcomed by pro-life activists even in Croatia such as Zeljka Markic who said it is a "recognition of the scientific realization that life begins with conception" that made Poland a "beacon" on children and human rights for all other European member states.

"For me, it is a decision by women and men. Every child has a father and a mother. And the men should be allowed to play a part in the decision." She does not believe the surveys showing that a majority of Croats are against an abortion ban and believes that every person is obliged to protect human life "from conception to death," Markic told Deutsche Welle in an interview.

Still, thousands of Poland's pro-abortion groups have been protesting against the total ban since it was first decided on in October. On Dec.13, the Nationwide Women's Strike group led the hundreds to protest in Warsaw.

"Governing party PiS is conducting a war with the entire world: with the youth, with teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs, public sector employees, with Europe. Without introducing a state of emergency, they have in fact introduced martial law," Deutsche Welle quoted organizers who posted in social media.

The Cut said October's protests amounted to 430,000 people in attendance of 400 demonstrations, the largest recorded since the collapse of communism in the country in 1989.

Now that it has become into full swing, the pro-abortion activities have been holding protests for three straight nights that has led to the use of tear gas and arrests by local police as demonstrators called for the resignation of the government.
MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aptitude Research has published a new paper https://www.predictivehire.com/recruitment-automation-humanity/ showing that when you shift the focus in automated Talent Acquisition from an employer-driven view to a candidate-first then it is possible to reduce bias in hiring, and improve the overall human element of recruitment.



The research, sponsored by PredictiveHire https://www.predictivehire.com/, an Australian technology company that has pioneered transparent Ai-assisted hiring solutions, shows that humanistic automation creates personal connection at scale, and works to reduce bias, something no other technology or even human-centred solution can deliver.

Madeline Laurano, CEO of Aptitude comments "The misperception that candidates do not want automation and prefer to keep the current talent acquisition is one of the most significant misperceptions in talent acquisition. Candidates want a fair recruitment process, and consistency in communication. Automation can support all of these initiatives and enhance the humanity of the experience.

There are four main ways that talent acquisition is made more human with automation when the candidate is the focus, rather than simply moving candidates through the process:

Automation can understand what candidates want: Ai considers the unique expectations and experiences of candidates and adapts to them as it learns. Collecting feedback about the recruitment experience and continually improving the candidate journey can help candidates feel connected and heard. The correct data can interrupt bias early in the process: By creating a consistent and fair experience for candidates early in the process, and not relying on CV data as the determinate of job suitability, companies are more successful at reducing bias and increasing inclusivity. Trust can be built through transparent data: Both employers and candidates need to trust the data and methodologies for the technology that they are using, something that can be achieved through transparency. Companies looking at automation should consider providers that will partner with them and provide transparency. Provide feedback to every candidate: Though natural language processing every candidate receives personalized feedback and messaging. Leaving unsuccessful candidates feedback they can use for future job searches is empowering and a big leap from 'ghosting' or a standard rejection email.

The research can be downloaded here https://www.predictivehire.com/recruitment-automation-humanity/

About Aptitude Research



Aptitude Research Partners is a research-based analyst and advisory firm focused on HCM technology. We conduct quantitative and qualitative research on all aspects of Human Capital Management to better understand the skills, capabilities, technology, and underlying strategies required to deliver business results in today's complex work environment.

About Predictive Hire



Predictive Hire has become one of the most trusted mobile-first Ai recruitment platforms, used by companies across Australia, India, South Africa, UK and the US, with a candidate every two minutes engaging with their unique Ai chat bot Phai.



What makes their approach unique it it's disruption of three paradigms in recruitment -candidates being ghosted, biased hiring and the false notion that automation diminishes the human experience.



The end result for companies  bias is interrupted at the top of the funnel, your hiring managers make more objective decisions empowered by Phai their co-pilot, inclusivity is enhanced, and your hired profile starts to look more like your applicant profile.





SOURCE PredictiveHire

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Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has raised serious concerns at Cabinet over the lack of progress on introducing mandatory quarantine for passengers arriving form overseas.

Mr Varadkar warned the Government will be vulnerable to public criticism if it does not move quicker on plans to legislative for quarantining.

The Fine Gael leader outlined the major logistical challenges in involved in introducing a quarantining and said more detail was needed on where people will be held, who will police the facilities and how they will be transferred to these centres from airports.

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According to sources at the meeting, Mr Varadkar warned the public already believe the Governments quarantining plans are not ambitious enough and said the Coalition will face further backlash if they do not move quickly to fulfil their commitments on international travel rules.

He asked how the public will feel if they get the case numbers down substantially and we dont fulfil our side of the bargain, a source said.

Another source said: he was very concerned about the logistics involved in quarantining and said the Government could be vulnerable if more wasnt done.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly brought a memo to Cabinet which gave a brief update on plans for quarantining.

Further work is under way to deliver a scheme of mandatory quarantine at designated facilities for certain categories of traveller which will primary legislation, the memo said. The minister will bring this matter back to Government when the Bill has been finalised, it added.

Mr Donnelly also updated the Cabinet on plans to require people arriving in Northern Ireland airports and ports to fill in passenger locator forms if they are travelling across the border to Ireland. He also noted that the fine for breaching Covid-19 restrictions to travel overseas had been increased to 500.

At the meeting, Mr Varadkar sought details on how passengers will be transferred from airports and ports to quarantine hotels. He also asked for detail of how the quarantining in hotels and homes will be policed.

He highlighted mandatory home quarantine systems that have been introduced in Taiwan, Finland and Iceland.

Mr Varadkar estimated around 140 cases of Covid-19 may be coming into the country from overseas every week. His calculation was based on 2pc of 1,000 passengers arriving in Ireland on a daily basis.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney supported the Tanaistes calls for more action on quarantining.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin told the meeting mandatory quarantining is government policy and said he also wants the issue progressed quickly. Mr Martin told the meeting Department of the Taoiseach second secretary general John Callinan will be overseeing quarantining plans. Mr Callinan was previously central to Irelands negotiating team during Brexit negotiations.

There is some disquiet in the Department of Health over being given responsibility for quarantining. A Government source have said the Department already has enough work in controlling the virus and vaccinating the country and suggested the quarantining programme should be handled by another minister.
Hyderabad, Feb 2 : Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Bowenpally agriculture market for its innovative initiative of turning vegetable waste into energy, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Tuesday visited the market.

She went around the plant converting the waste into electricity and bio-fuel.

The Governor appreciated the CSIR-IICT scientists for the innovative idea. She lauded the initiative of agriculture and marketing officials for translating the idea into a reality thus setting an example for others to follow.

The Prime Minister during his monthly radio programme 'Mann ki baat' on Sunday had mentioned about the plant and praised the market for the innovative effort.

The Governor termed the plant as a true role model for other agriculture markets across the state and country. She said this deserves replication for effective disposal and utilization of vegetable waste generated in the markets.

The plant, which is developed using indigenous technology, was funded by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India as part of the CSIR-IICT project. The TS agriculture and marketing department too supported the plant by funding and allocation of the land.

The electricity generated through the plant is being used to meet the requirements of the market yard while bio-fuel is being used at the market yard canteen to save the LPG.

"Renewable energy is environmental friendly and need to be promoted in a big way. It is like creation of wealth from waste," she added.

This is one genuine example of the 'Vocal for Local' concept and Atmanirbhar Bharat vision of the Prime Minister, she said.

Soundararajan felicitated Principal Secretary, Agriculture, B. Janardhan Reddy, Marketing department director Lakshmi Bai, scientists, and other technical staff members on the occasion.

Earlier, the Governor went round the market and interacted with the enthusiastic vegetable sellers and the farmers, who were visibly overjoyed to interact with the first citizen of the state.

Governor's husband and eminent nephrologist Dr. P. Soundararajan, Secretary to Governor K. Surendra Mohan were among others who were present.
There is a search for new methods to fight air targets triggered by a rapid development of drones, which pose a major danger to the warring parties and numerous economic, infrastructure objects and mass events in peacetime, Colonel PhD Military Science V. Tikshaev and Retired Lieutenant-General PhD Military Science V. Barvinenko write in the Military Thought magazine.

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Current large UAS platforms like this General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle provide important capabilities but need a runway to take off. These systems also have lower airspeeds and depend on data links and GPS signals. Future systems will need to be more independent to operate in a complex battlespace (Picture source: courtesy of AMRDEC)

Further drone development will change the role of the vehicles in modern armed conflicts. They will develop from support means into a major component of hostilities. The growing strength of drones in potential Russian adversaries and the development of long-range precision weapons provide a possibility for them to engage only unmanned vehicles against Russia. Manned aviation will be likely used to fire dummy targets, cruise and hypersonic missiles from outside the operational area of fighter jets, antiaircraft missiles, and radars. It will change the general methods of air strikes and offensive air operations and campaigns.

In air operations, massive missile strikes will be replaced by strikes of hypersonic missiles, non-strategic ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. The first echelon of the strikes against air defense is likely to engage numerous dummy targets and swarms of mini- and macro-drones instead of airplanes. After the first surprise (preemptive) strike, massive missile strikes are likely to be replaced by single, group and concentrated strikes with ballistic, cruise missiles and drones. They will be delivered, as adversary targets are exposed by netcentric actions.

Drones are likely to constantly stay in the hostile airspace for reconnaissance and strikes. Major losses of drones will not restrict planning and delivery of strikes at adversary targets.

The growing number of air weapons (due to unmanned vehicles), which potential Russian adversaries can engage against it, the character of their actions and the possibility to engage drones in peacetime demand revising numerous existing provisions for the composition of forces, organization of air defense and groups of troops both in war and peacetime. The reasons for the revision are as follows: mini- and macro-drones will comprise most of the air weapons, the cross section will decrease, altitudes will descend and speed accelerate, traditional reconnaissance and strike weapons (radars, long- and medium-range missiles, fighter jets) are incapable of destroying and detecting them.

Besides, the number of the complexes and systems is set for the main mission to defend specific objects and groups of troops against traditional air weapons and is limited by economic factors. Although some antiaircraft weapons of the ground forces (Tor-M1/M2/M2U, Osa-AKM, Tunguska, Sosna, Strela-10M3, Verba manpad, Shilka, Derivatsia-PVO) and antiaircraft weapons of warships can down mini- and micro-drones, they are engaged in combat formations of their units and warships and can be used for fragmented counterdrone missions in the limits of their responsibility zone.

The use of a large number of dummy targets and swarms of mini and micro drones to break through the air defense will trigger fire and a rapid consumption of missiles, which are more expensive than drones. It will create conditions for further unimpeded fire by powerful precision weapons, guided swarms of drones that simultaneously strike at the air defense system from various directions and are difficult to destroy. A large number of attack drones demands to provide defense of a bigger number of objects as hostilities begin, as well as of government, industrial, fuel and energy facilities, environmentally hazardous objects, infrastructure and mass events in peacetime.

The mentioned factors and the inability of traditional air defense to detect and destroy mini and micro drones called for the design of counterdrone methods by the existing air defense and requirements for their upgrade, as well as revise the composition of forces in the general air defense system of the country.

 Copyright 2021 TASS / Army Recognition Group SPRL . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
FM says four Indians are in Russia undergoing astronaut training as part of the joint partnership between ISRO and Roscosmos.

In yesterday 2021-22 Budget meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman touched on various topics from agriculture, defence, economics, infrastructure, healthcare, science and even space during her speech. COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the timelines set out for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and several missions were postponed. Some of Sitharaman's announcements left the science community hoping for progress in some of India's ambitious space missions, like Chandrayaan 3 and India's first human space flight mission Gaganyaan.

The Department of Space (DoS) has been allocated Rs 13,949 crores in the annual budget, Rs 8,228 crores of which is earmarked for capital expenditure. This is almost Rs 900 crores more than what was allocated in 2019-20 (Rs 13,017.61 crores) and Rs 4,449 crores more than what was allotted in fiscal 2020-21 (Rs 9,500 crores), PTI reported.

ISRO comes under the DoS and has outlined its plan for the next decade where it plans to work on developing a heavy-lift launch vehicle, semi-cryogenic stage, reusable launch vehicle, advance propulsion, next-generation avionics, advance materials, dynamic space applications and efficient integration of space-based services as well as advanced space science missions. It will also be focusing on three main missions - Gaganyaan, Mangalyaan-2, and Shukrayaan.

PSLV-CS51

The New Space India Limited (NSIL), a newly-formed public sector undertaking under DoS, is being given a budget of Rs 700 crore. It will execute the upcoming 53rd mission of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV-CS51) launch. The mission will carry Brazil's primary payload Amazonia-1 and the secondary payloads will be Indian satellites including Anand, SatishSat and UnitySat.

"The New Space India Limited, a PSU under the Department of Space, will execute the PSLV-CS51, carrying the Amazonia Satellite from Brazil, along with a few smaller Indian satellites," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech.

Also read: Budget 2021 highlights for healthcare sector: Funds for COVID-19 vaccines, new health initiatives

Gaganyaan mission

At the Budget meeting, Sitharaman gave an update about the Gaganyaan mission, saying four Indian astronauts have been sent to Russia to train as part of the joint partnership between ISRO and the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The candidate astronauts began training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) from February last year. She said that the first uncrewed mission will take place in December 2021.

Along with the training of the astronauts, even ISRO surgeons will be trained in space-related medical situations. Support will also come from France's speciality space clinic MEDES (French Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology), where most space surgeons in the world undergo training. Last year an ISRO official said, "The Indian space surgeons will also go to France next year once the coronavirus situation eases."

According to a PTI report, the Gaganyaan mandate states that two uncrewed missions need to be undertaken prior to a manned mission. ISRO wanted to send Indian to space before the country would complete its 75th year of independence. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic bringing things to a halt and then slowing down the progress, the timelines had to change.

Earlier, the unmanned missions were slated for launch first in December 2020 and then in July 2021 with the first manned mission being scheduled for launch in December 2021. However, now the first uncrewed launch will take place in December 2021 moving back the timelines. Now the crewed mission is expected to take place well into 2022.

The Gaganyaan mission is India's first human spaceflight mission to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and will have three male astronauts being sent to space for a period of five to seven days. The Rs 10,000 crore will use the GSLV MkIII rocket to launch them into space, and it is currently being modified to sustain human beings in space.

Chandrayaan 3

The finance minister also made a brief mention of the third moon mission  Chandrayaan-3. She said, "2021 will be the year of Chandrayaan-3." This will be the successor to the Chandrayaan-2 mission that launched in July 2019 and was supposed to land on the far side of the moon, but the lander lost communication and crashed instead.

Chandrayaan 2 comprised of a lander-rover module and an orbiter which is currently performing its science duties. This mission is also supposed to launch this year but the Indian space agency has provided no actual timeline has. Chandrayaan 3 will have similar components  a lander and a rover  excluding the orbiter as it is working fine. This also means that the mission will cost a lot less  an estimated Rs 6.15 billion, compared to Chandrayaan 2 which set ISRO back by Rs 9.7 billion.

The third moon mission will touch down in the Aitken basin, on the Earth's natural satellite, which is an important location for any future sustainable lunar habitation.

In order to ensure that the lander reaches safely and the rover has a fighting chance, ISRO is leaving no stone unturned. It has built a dummy moon crater basin in a village in Bangalore to allow the lander to practice its descent. This project is thought to have cost them at least Rs 24.2 lakhs, as per sources, but no official word has come from ISRO on the project cost.

Deep ocean mission

The government has allocated Rs 4,000 crore to conduct deep-ocean survey projects which means they will study the oceans from space and help in marine and oceanic biodiversity conservation for the next five years.

Sitharaman said, "Our oceans are a storehouse of living and non-living resources, to understand this realm we will launch deep ocean mission with a budget outlay of over Rs 4,000 crore over five years."

Also Read

Budget 2021 Highlights: Mission Poshan 2.0 focuses on health-wellbeing, nutrition to fight malnutrition

Budget 2021 highlights: Science ministries are allocated funds over Rs 15,000 crore

Budget 2021 for disability rights NGOs: Differently-abled, people with disabilities neglected 'again'
A Moscow court has ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning.

Mr Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had earlier denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission.

The prison sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that he has rejected as fabricated.

The 44-year-old Mr Navalny was arrested on January 17 upon returning from his five-month convalescence in Germany from the attack, which he has blamed on the Kremlin.

Russian authorities deny any involvement despite tests by several European labs, that they have no proof he was poisoned.

Foreign Minister @HeikoMaas: aTodayas verdict against Alexey @Navalny is a bitter blow against fundamental freedoms & the rule of law in #Russia. Already in 2017, the #ECHR criticized criminal prosecution in this case as arbitrary. Alexey #Navalny must be released immediately.a  GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) February 2, 2021

As the order was read, Mr Navalny pointed to his wife Yulia in the courtroom and traced the outline of a heart on the glass cage where he was being held.

Earlier, Mr Navalny attributed his arrest to Mr Putins fear and hatred saying the Russian leader will go down in history as a poisoner.

He said: I have deeply offended him simply by surviving the assassination attempt that he ordered. The aim of that hearing is to scare a great number of people. You cant jail the entire country.

Russias penitentiary service alleges that Mr Navalny violated the probation conditions of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money laundering conviction that he has rejected as politically motivated. It asked the Simonovsky District Court to turn his three-and-a-half year suspended sentence into one that he must serve in prison, although he has spent some of that sentence under house arrest.

Mr Navalny emphasised that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that his 2014 conviction was unlawful and Russia paid him compensation in line with the ruling.

Expand Close Alexei Navalny stands in a cage at a Moscow courthouse (Moscow City Court via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Alexei Navalny stands in a cage at a Moscow courthouse (Moscow City Court via AP)

Mr Navalny and his lawyers have argued that while he was recovering in Germany from the poisoning, he could not register with Russian authorities in person as required by his probation. Mr Navalny also insisted that his due process rights were crudely violated during his arrest and described his jailing as a travesty of justice.

He said at Tuesdays hearing: I came back to Moscow after I completed the course of treatment. What else could I have done?

Mr Navalnys jailing has triggered massive protests across Russia for the past two weekends, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to demand his release and chant slogans against Mr Putin.

Police detained more than 5,750 people on Sunday, including more than 1,900 in Moscow, the biggest number the nation has seen since Soviet times. Most were released after being handed a court summons, and they face fines or jail terms of seven to 15 days. Several people faced criminal charges over alleged violence against police.

Mr Navalny said: I am fighting and will keep doing it even though I am now in the hands of people who love to put chemical weapons everywhere and no-one would give three kopecks for my life.

Mr Navalnys team called for another demonstration outside the Moscow courthouse, but police were out in force, cordoning off the nearby streets and making random arrests. More than 320 people were detained, according to the OVD-Info group that monitors arrests.

Expand Close Police officers arrest a protester protesting against Mr Navalnys detention (AP/Denis Kaminev) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police officers arrest a protester protesting against Mr Navalnys detention (AP/Denis Kaminev)

Some of Mr Navalnys supporters still managed to approach the building. A young woman climbed a large pile of snow across the street from the courthouse and held up a poster saying Freedom to Navalny. Less than a minute later, a police officer took her away.

In court, Mr Navalny thanked protesters for their courage and urged other Russians not to fear repression.

He said: Millions cant be jailed. You have stolen peoples future and you are now trying to scare them. Im urging all not to be afraid.

After his arrest, Mr Navalnys team released a two-hour YouTube video featuring an opulent Black Sea residence allegedly built for Mr Putin. The video has been viewed over 100 million times, fuelling discontent as ordinary Russians struggle with an economic downturn, the coronavirus pandemic and widespread corruption during Mr Putins years in office.

Mr Putin insisted last week that neither he nor his relatives own any of the properties mentioned in the video, and his long-time confidant, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, claimed that he owns it.
The long-awaited details on the Citroen C5 Aircross are finally out, and it looks like those whore in the market for a swanky new SUV have a compelling choice on their hands. Heres everything you need to know about the incoming French SUV.

Its the first car to be launched by Citroen in India and it will be locally assembled

With word about the PSA groups return to India public knowledge, its Citroen thats taking the first step with the C5 Aircross. As a brand Citroen prides itself on the comfort-first orientation of its products; an attribute it has maintained since the days of the Citroen DS. The C5 is going to be assembled locally, at the brands plant in Thiruvallur, Tamil Nadu. This is a result of the PSA Groupe signing two joint ventures with companies belonging to the CK Birla Group for vehicle assembly, distribution and powertrain manufacturing in the country. As part of this joint venture, the brand also has a manufacturing facility based out of Hosur, Tamil Nadu which has already begun manufacturing gearboxes which are to be exported, with engine building targeted at local usage, scheduled to start soon.

It will come with a diesel engine

Bucking the trend thats been recently established by manufacturers bringing-in only petrol-powered cars, Citroen has realised the gap in the market, and is offering a diesel engine only. The 2.0-litre, four-cylinder oil burner is good for 174 bhp and develops peak torque of 400Nm. Solid enough numbers to begin with. While the C5 is available in two trims, the motor, along with an 8-speed automatic come as standard.

Its rather plush

Apart from its distinct appearance, the C5 packs a rather handsome interior featuring a slick gear knob, an 8-inch touchscreen display featuring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and a 6-speaker stereo system. In addition to that, the car also comes with an on-board air-quality system. It also gets 6 airbags, park-assist, electronic parking brake, parking sensors and a front and rear parking camera.

With its price estimated to be around the Rs30 lakh mark, the Citroen C5 is on the expensive side and its cost-to-size analysis may not bear results that would suit most sensibilities. Its a five seater, larger than the VW Tiguan (It also offers 72 litres of boot space). What it has over its competition, is its exceptional ride quality, something the Citroen specialises in. The suspension is softly sprung  equipped with a Progressive Hydraulic Cushion  and the car has been lauded for its cloud-like ride quality  an attribute that will find many takers in India.

Its got a novelty factor like no other SUV

Whats likely to work in the C5s favour is the fact that its a focussed, well-designed product that doesnt try to do everything, and so excels at being a very plush and comfortable urban vehicle. Its got a relatively big motor that should lend itself to long-distance driving, which coupled with the soft seats (something missing in German vehicles), would make this quirky looking car, the one to have in your garage.
I was just completely caught off guard. Thats not true, and everyone back at home knows thats not true. It sucks because this is on national TV, like my mom watches this show, Galvin told James on Mondays episode. This could ruin my entire life. I didnt sign up to be bullied and harassed. I signed up to find love and to meet you finally. I was so excited when I first came here. Ive never dealt with bullying before. It hurts a lot. It really hurts.
UTICA N.Y.-- The results of New York's 22nd District Congressional race will have to wait a little longer.

New York Supreme Court Judge Scott DelConte granted a temporary restraining order blocking Oneida County from certifying its election results pending further hearings. The stay is due to concerns that, if results were certified and a winner was seated in Congress, the New York Appellate Courts would be unable to rule on a winner if they found irregularities.

This came hours after Congressman Anthony Brindisi requested that Judge DelConte block certification of all the counties that make up the 22nd Congressional Distrtict, and order a hand recount of all ballots. He alleged "substantial errors and irregularities" in the counting of votes by voting machines compared to hand counts. DelConte's ruling today had nothing to do with Brindisi's challenge, which will continue to be argued in court Friday. The remaining counties were not stayed, meaning they can certify their results by tomorrow.

Brindisi lawyers say they will appeal the rulings of Judge DelConte pertaining to ballots to the Appellate Court. Former Congresswoman Claudia Tenney led by 122 votes coming into today, and claimed a net gain of four votes after several more ballots were canvassed today.
Randy Parker Promoted to Senior Vice President, National Sales, Hyundai Motor America

 Hyundai Motor America has promoted Randy Parker to senior vice president of National Sales. Parker continues to be responsible for all aspects of Hyundai vehicle sales in the U.S., including sales strategies, fleet sales, dealer relations, and market representation. Parker also oversees Hyundais seven regions that work directly with Hyundai retailers on sales and service.

Randy has led the sales team to meet or exceed our monthly sales targets every month since he joined Hyundai, said Jose Munoz, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor North America. He is a great leader and team player who partners with other divisions and our affiliates to find opportunities for Hyundai to excel. We are poised for significant growth in the years ahead as we transform Hyundai into a Smart Mobility Solution Provider and Randys leadership will be critical to that endeavor.

On behalf of the 821 hard-working Hyundai dealers across the U.S., I want to congratulate Randy Parker on his promotion, said Kevin Reilly, chairman, Hyundai National Dealer Council and owner and president, Alexandria Hyundai. Randy's energy, enthusiasm and passion for the Hyundai brand led us to strong sales and share gains in a very challenging year. We look forward to partnering with Randy to continue this momentum and make Hyundai the envy of the U.S. auto industry.

Prior to joining Hyundai in May 2019 as vice president of National Sales, Parker had more than three decades of automotive industry experience and leadership roles at both Nissan and General Motors.
Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren has apologized for a childrens Sunday school curriculum video that used Asian culture stereotypes to teach kids about the Bible.

The video has been removed, but Michelle Ami Reyes, vice president for the Asian American Christian Collaborative, on Twitter described it as using Asian culture as a prop for slapstick humor. The video, she said, blurs and dishonors distinctions and categories of Asian culture.

In it, she said, a pastor wears a Chinese shirt, makes Kung Fu sounds and pretends to make sushi that he then spits out.

There are layers to the problematic appropriation and use of Asian culture elements for slapstick humor here. This kind of humor only works because its deprecating. But you cannot appropriate and deprecate on someone elses culture for your own personal comedy, she tweeted.

Warren, in a statement issued Sunday, apologized and said he was upset and embarrassed by the racially offensive content of the video. It was immediately taken down, he said.

My instant fear was that the thousands of Asian American children who are a part of our church family would feel made fun of and that their families and so many others would rightfully be offended, Warren said in the statement.

Warren said the video showed a former Saddleback Church kids pastor dressed as an Asian martial arts sensei in an attempt to teach Bible truth.

Although the video was posted this weekend, Warren said it was created four years ago.

This is the very kind of cultural and racial insensitivity that were trying to eradicate in our church family, he said. Its unchristlike, demeaning, and its never appropriate to use a stereotype to teach.

Some have responded well to Warrens apology on Twitter, saying his words were genuine and thoughtful. Others were reminded of a photo he posted on Facebook in 2013 that depicted a Red Guard during Chinas Cultural Revolution.

The typical attitude of Saddleback Staff as they start work each day, the caption read. Several Asian American Christians found that post distasteful, including writer Sam Tsang who took the issue to his blog.

Warren initially said people missed the irony, saying in a Facebook comment: Its a joke people! If you take this seriously, you really shouldnt be following me! He later took the photo down and apologized on the comments section of Tsangs blog.

This also isnt the first time childrens ministry material has been called out for its use of cultural stereotypes.

Vacation Bible school curricula have often used themes based in foreign countries, but these programs have been facing heavier scrutiny as awareness and sensitivity around cultural appropriation increases.

In 2013, former president of Lifeway Christian Resources Thom Rainer apologized for a 10-year-old Asian-themed vacation Bible school curriculum, dubbed Far Out Rickshaw Rally  Racing Towards the Son, that was criticized for promoting racial stereotypes, according to the Baptist Standard.

The curriculum package, the Baptist Standard detailed, came in a tin shaped like a Chinese-food take-out box, and the chorus to its theme song alluded to a scene in the 1984 movie The Karate Kid.

In 2019, Christian publisher Group Publishing faced pushback for its Africa-themed childrens Bible school curriculum that, according to Faithfully Magazine, had children pretending to be Israelite slaves and mimicking an African dialect with clicking sounds. Group Publishing revised and apologized for the curriculum.

Warren, in his statement, said the church has put a process in place to ensure that any curriculum that might be insensitive, hurtful, or demeaning never sees the light of day.

Meanwhile, Reyes advised churches to hire sensitivity readers and consultants for church resources.

Better yet, dont include segments that make fun of other peoples cultures at all in your teaching materials. Its disrespectful and dishonoring, she said.
Santa Clara County Deputy Sukhdeep Singh Gill, 27, was arrested on Friday and has been charged with felony vandalism and falsely reporting a crime, according to Santa Clara officials

A California sheriff's deputy has been charged with staging a drive-by shooting that led to him being heralded for his bravery.

Santa Clara County Deputy Sukhdeep Singh Gill, 27, was arrested on Friday and has been charged with felony vandalism and falsely reporting a crime, according to Santa Clara officials.

Fox 13 Memphis reported that Gill was quickly released due to Covid-19 restrictions. He could face incarceration if found guilty of the charges.

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen called the case 'bewildering and deeply disappointing' in a statement.

'Deputy Gill's actions abused the trust of his fellow officers and diverted public safety resources away from protecting the community to investigate a made-up crime,' he said.

That 'crime' took place on the night of January 31, when Gill, who has been with the sheriff's office since 2016, hit the emergency broadcast button on his police radio.

He shouted that shots had been fired, prompting an immediate response from his colleagues as well as police officers from San Jose, Morgan Hill and Gilroy.

Gill told investigators that the passenger of a passing silver sedan fired four shots at him while he was urinating by the side of the road during a patrol around 10:30pm. He said that three of the shots had hit his patrol car (right) while the fourth had struck his body cam (left). Gill said he had fired two shots back at the vehicle before it drove off

Gill told investigators that the passenger of a passing silver sedan fired four shots at him while he was urinating by the side of the road during a patrol around 10:30pm.

He said that three of the shots had hit his patrol car while the fourth had struck his body cam. Gill said he had fired two shots back at the vehicle before it drove off.

'It appeared that he had been shot only once, and in a miraculous spot - his body-worn camera, which was destroyed,' Rosen's office said.

'The incident triggered a manhunt for the shooter.'

Following the incident, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said the body cam and body armor had saved Gill's life and heralded his bravery.

'There were multiple shots. With the one striking him, he was very lucky,' Smith said, according to KTVU. 'But any one of those rounds could have hit him anywhere. He was very lucky. He was very brave under fire.'

A search involving officers from several agencies began for the suspects' vehicle, which Gill said may have been a 2000 Honda.

Difficulties finding the car were among the obstacles investigators faced as the evidence began to point in another direction.

'They couldn't find anybody, but he was a law enforcement officer so they gave him the benefit of the doubt and they aggressively and intensively investigated this case trying to find who had shot at an officer,' Deputy District Attorney Jason Malinsky said, according to ABC 7 in San Francisco.

Nicole Pifari, Gill's attorney, told Mercury News that she is looking forward to obtaining the investigation and evidence in order 'to understand why these charges are being pursued.' Gill (pictured) will not be able to enter a plea until he is arraigned next month. If convicted, Gill faces up to four years in prison

No potential motive has been suggested publicly, nor has it been explained how Gill might have faked the encounter which took place on the night of January 31 when Gill was out patrolling. Pictured: Gill's patrol vehicle

'The evidence, when we looked at it closely over the past year, really didn't line up with his story,' Malinsky told Mercury News on Friday. 'That includes ballistic evidence.'

Malinsky did not provide a potential motive nor explain how Gill might have staged the shooting. The deputy's body cam was too damaged to recover any footage.

Smith said that investigators had determined that Gill had fabricated the incident.

'If the allegations hold true, Deputy Gill's actions are not representative of the upstanding men and women of the sheriff's office, who risk their lives every day to serve and protect our community with honesty and integrity,' Smith said.

He has been placed on administrative leave until the criminal and internal investigations have concluded, Fox 13 Memphis reported.

Nicole Pifari, Gill's attorney, told Mercury News that she is looking forward to obtaining the investigation and evidence in order 'to understand why these charges are being pursued.'

Gill will not be able to enter a plea until he is arraigned next month.

If convicted, Gill faces up to four years in prison.
Luanda  Angolan Foreign Minister Tete Antonio delivered a message from the President of the Republic, Joao Lourenco, to King Salman Bin AbdulAziz Al-Saud in Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on Sunday.

The information was confirmed, in a note, by the Directorate of Information Technology, Institutional Communication and Press of the Angolan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The document underlines that the delivery of the message took place in a meeting held with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faizal Bin Farhan Bin Abdullah Al-Saud.

During the meeting, the heads of the diplomacies of Angola and Saudi Arabia addressed issues of bilateral interest, with emphasis on strengthening cooperation, as well as issues in the international, continental and regional arena.

In December last year, Saudi Arabia's Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ahmed Tittan, made a two-day working visit to Angola, during which he held a working meeting with Minister Tete Antonio.

At the time the two entities addressed various issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

During the same visit, the Saudi politician and diplomat was received in audience by President Joao Lourenco.

The information was confirmed, in a note, by the Directorate of Information Technology, Institutional Communication and Press of the Angolan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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The document underlines that the delivery of the message took place in a meeting held with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faizal Bin Farhan Bin Abdullah Al-Saud.

During the meeting, the heads of the diplomacies of Angola and Saudi Arabia addressed issues of bilateral interest, with emphasis on strengthening cooperation, as well as issues in the international, continental and regional arena.

In December last year, Saudi Arabia's Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ahmed Tittan, made a two-day working visit to Angola, during which he held a working meeting with Minister Tete Antonio.

At the time the two entities addressed various issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

During the same visit, the Saudi politician and diplomat was received in audience by President Joao Lourenco.
Imperial Valley News Center

Emotet Botnet Disrupted in International Cyber Operation

Charlotte, North Carolina - The Justice Department Thursday announced its participation in a multinational operation involving actions in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom to disrupt and take down the infrastructure of the malware and botnet known as Emotet. Additionally, officials in Lithuania, Sweden, and Ukraine assisted in this major cyber investigative action.

The Emotet malware and botnet infected hundreds of thousands of computers throughout the United States, including our critical infrastructure, and caused millions of dollars in damage to victims worldwide, said Acting Deputy Attorney General John Carlin. Cyber criminals will not escape justice regardless of where they operate. Working with public and private partners around the world we will relentlessly pursue them while using the full arsenal of tools at our disposal to disrupt their threats and prosecute those responsible.

According to an unsealed search warrant affidavit, Emotet is a family of malware that targets critical industries worldwide, including banking, ecommerce, healthcare, academia, government, and technology. Emotet malware primarily infects victim computers through spam email messages containing malicious attachments or hyperlinks. Emails were designed to appear to come from a legitimate source or someone in the recipients contact list. Once it has infected a victim computer, Emotet can deliver additional malware to the infected computer, such as ransomware or malware that steals financial credentials. Ransomware, in particular, has increased in scope and severity in the past year, harming businesses, healthcare providers, and government agencies even as the country has struggled to respond to the pandemic.

The coordinated disruption of Emotet was a great success for the FBI and our international partners, said FBI Director Christopher Wray. The FBI utilized sophisticated techniques, our unique legal authorities, and most importantly, our worldwide partnerships to significantly disrupt the malware. The operation is an example of how much we can achieve when we work with our international law enforcement partners to combat the cyber threat. The FBI remains committed, now more than ever, to imposing risk and consequences on cyber criminals to put an end to this type of criminal activity.

The computers infected with Emotet malware are part of a botnet (i.e., a network of compromised computers), meaning the perpetrators can remotely control all the infected computers in a coordinated manner. The owners and operators of the victim computers are typically unaware of the infection.

Cybercrime transcends physical and political boundaries and costs U.S. citizens and businesses billions each year, said U.S. Attorney Matt Martin of the Middle District of North Carolina. That was certainly true with Emotet. Now, more than ever, international collaboration is an imperative as we employ a technically and legally sophisticated approach to thwart cybercriminals in whatever corner of the globe they are found. This investigation will be a paradigm for effective international law enforcement cooperation directed at global cybercrime, and we applaud the FBI and the international law enforcement partners who contributed to the effort to take down this global threat.

According to the affidavit, in 2017, for example, the computer network of a school district in the Middle District of North Carolina was infected with the Emotet malware. The Emotet infection caused damage to the schools computers, including but not limited to the schools network, which was disabled for approximately two weeks. In addition, the infection caused more than $1.4 million in losses, including but not limited to the cost of virus mitigation services and replacement computers. From 2017 to the present, there have been numerous other victims throughout North Carolina and the United States, to include computer networks of local, state, tribal, and federal governmental units, corporations, and networks related to critical infrastructure.

The Emotet malware quickly elevated to one of the top cyber threats in the world, said Special Agent in Charge Robert R. Wells of the FBI Charlotte Field Office. The strong relationships with international law enforcement partners were critical to the success of this FBI investigation which began with a small North Carolina school system that did the right thing and quickly contacted their local FBI office for help.

According to the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Emotet infections have cost local, state, tribal, and territorial governments up to $1 million per incident to remediate. More information about the malware, including technical information for organizations about how to mitigate its effects, is available from CISA here: https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/alerts/TA18-201A.

According to the affidavit, foreign law enforcement agents, working in coordination with the FBI, gained lawful access to Emotet servers located overseas and identified the Internet Protocol addresses of approximately 1.6 million computers worldwide that appear to have been infected with Emotet malware between April 1, 2020, and Jan. 17, 2021. Of those, over 45,000 infected computers appear to have been located in the United States.

Foreign law enforcement, working in collaboration with the FBI, replaced Emotet malware on servers located in their jurisdiction with a file created by law enforcement, according to the affidavit. This was done with the intent that computers in the United States and elsewhere that were infected by the Emotet malware would download the law enforcement file during an already-programmed Emotet update. The law enforcement file prevents the administrators of the Emotet botnet from further communicating with infected computers. The law enforcement file does not remediate other malware that was already installed on the infected computer through Emotet; instead, it is designed to prevent additional malware from being installed on the infected computer by untethering the victim computer from the botnet.

The scope of this law enforcement action was limited to the information installed on infected computers by the Emotet operators and did not extend to the information of the owners and users of the computers.

According to the affidavit, in coordination with foreign law enforcement officials, FBI personnel also gained lawful access to an Emotet distribution server located overseas and identified several servers worldwide that were used to distribute the Emotet malware. These servers were typically compromised web servers belonging to what appear to be unknowing third parties. The perpetrators uploaded the Emotet malware to the servers through unauthorized software applications. Victims who clicked on spam email messages containing malicious attachments or hyperlinks would then download the initial Emotet malware file from a distribution server.

In addition, according to the affidavit, FBI personnel notified more than 20 U.S.-based hosting providers that they hosted more than 45 IP addresses that had been compromised by the perpetrators associated with the Emotet malware and botnet. FBI Legal Attaches further notified authorities in more than 50 countries that hosting providers in their respective jurisdictions hosted hundreds of IP addresses that were compromised by Emotet.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of North Carolina, the FBI Charlotte Division, and the Criminal Divisions Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) conducted the operation in close cooperation with Europol and Eurojust who were an integral part of coordination and messaging, and investigators and prosecutors from several jurisdictions, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Frances National Police and Judicial Court of Paris, Germanys Federal Criminal Police and General Public Prosecutors Office Frankfurt/Main, Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, Netherlands National Police and National Public Prosecution Office, Swedish Police Authority, National Police of Ukraine and Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, and the United Kingdoms National Crime Agency and Crown Prosecution Service. The Justice Departments Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) also provided significant assistance. CCIPS Senior Counsel Ryan K.J. Dickey and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric Iverson and Anand Ramaswamy of the Middle District of North Carolina led the U.S. efforts.

More information about the operation is available by clicking: Eurojust/Europo. In addition, the Dutch National Police have created the following website to check whether your email address has been compromised by the administrators of Emotet: https://www.politie.nl/emocheck.

In September 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray announced the FBIs new strategy for countering cyber threats. The strategy focuses on imposing risk and consequences on cyber adversaries through the FBIs unique authorities, world-class capabilities, and enduring partnerships.
The federal government has opened the door to a 'targeted' JobKeeper extension that would support Australia's struggling tourism and hospitality industries.

The government is paying employers a reduced $1,000-a-fortnight wage subsidy until March 28 to keep staff on their books who would otherwise be out of work.

Beyond that date, Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned industry leaders not to expect another large stimulus package - announcing on Monday the 'blank cheque' of endless taxpayer money could go on no longer.

However, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said on Tuesday the government was considering targeted support for industries still hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Staff clear the tables at a pub at Scarborough Beach in Perth on Sunday. The government is still considering targeted support for industries beyond March 28, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said on Tuesday

'The comeback has been enormous across our economy with some 800,000 jobs being generated,' he told Sky News.

'More than 90 per cent of those who have lost their work are back in a job.

'Looking forward, there are going to be lasting changes as a result from Covid. Some businesses wont find that their business models from before are as viable in the future as they might have to be so theyll have to make structural changes.'

The Morrison Government has already confirmed more than $400million in targeted support for the tourism sector - including $308million to help revive regional airlines.

The hospitality sector is also in discussions with the federal government in the hope of securing more financial assistance when the wage subsidy ends.

On Sunday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said 'targeted support' could be on the way for industries like tourism that have yet to re-open fully.

The prime minister told the National Press Club on Monday the government would make a decision on the JobSeeker rate before the end of March.

'We're waiting on the data,' he said.

Virgin Australia flight crew in Melbourne in January. The federal government has already earmarked more than $400million in additional targeted support for the tourism sector

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday, where he warned industry leaders not to expect another large stimulus package when JobKeeper ends

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has said continuing support beyond March is justified.

'It's easier to keep jobs and businesses going than is to see them collapse and then try and restart again,' he said.

Australian Council of Social Service chief Cassandra Goldie said there needed to be a permanent and adequate rise in the rate of JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and other payments of at least $25 a day more than the old Newstart rate of $40 a day.

'With only one job for every nine people searching, the insecurity is wreaking havoc on people's mental health and leaving them to face the heart-breaking decision of whether they'll be able to afford to continue living in their home,' she said.
Vaccines will be one of our most important tools in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and early indicators give us reason for hope.

Two vaccines were authorized for use in the United States in 2020, each with about a 95% effective rate, which is exceptionally high.

This is the light at the end of the tunnel that we have all been waiting for. If a significant number of people in our community get vaccinated, it really offers the opportunity to slow the spread of the disease, decrease how sick people get with it and lower the death rate from COVID-19, said Dr. Stephen Hippler, chief clinical officer of OSF HealthCare.

But giving vaccines to huge numbers of people presents a new set of challenges. Demand for vaccines against the virus that causes COVID-19 far outweighs the supply. Public health agencies and health systems face an enormous task in accomplishing this goal.

We expect that most Americans will have the opportunity to get the vaccine this year, but many of us will have to wait weeks or months for a chance to be vaccinated. Until then, Hippler and others urge people to be patient and continue following public health guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19.

In distributing COVID-19 vaccines, different levels of government have different responsibilities.

The federal government purchased the vaccines from the manufacturers, Pfizer and Moderna. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued nationwide guidance for who is most at risk and should be prioritized in vaccination plans.

The federal government sends a certain amount of vaccine to each state, which is responsible for deciding where, how and to whom vaccines should go. The state then gives vaccines to local health departments for use in individual counties and communities.

Because of this system, vaccine availability varies state by state and county by county.

Even with a detailed plan each phase includes tens of thousands of people in each state. Because of storage requirements for the vaccine, hospitals and health departments cant keep large stockpiles on hand.

The amount of vaccine were getting is very small compared to the number of patients in our communities. The supplies weve gotten arent enough to vaccinate even 3-4% of our eligible patients, Hippler said. This is a huge group of patients, for which there is just not enough vaccine available today.

While the goal is to offer a COVID-19 vaccine to everyone who is eligible as soon as possible, this will require patience.

All states have begun vaccinating their residents. OSF HealthCare began vaccinating its workforce in December 2020 and offering vaccines to patients in January 2021.

We have heard consistently, all along, that this is going to take time and that the national strategy is to give it to those at highest risk first, Hippler said.

That includes those who are at highest risk of being exposed while at work  such as health care workers and other essential workers  as well as those at highest risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19. One of the greatest risk factors is age, which is why people 65 and older are among the first to be offered the vaccine.

But that limited age group includes almost 50 million Americans. All cant be offered the vaccine right away. Some will have to wait longer than others.

If you think about how the vaccine has been rolled out, its all been to avoid deaths and overwhelming our health care systems, Hippler said.

In the early phases of vaccination, local health departments and select health systems, such as OSF, are offering vaccines to those in the priority groups. Eventually, vaccines will be available to more people and in more locations, including retail pharmacies.

Hippler urges those interested in getting a vaccine to pay attention to what their local health department is doing.

The hope is that as more people get vaccinated, the COVID-19 cases in our communities will start to decrease, Hippler said.
The international TV manufacturer KIVI, headquartered in Ukraine, has signed an agreement on strategic partnership and deep integration with one of the largest electronics manufacturers, Shenzhen MTC (China, Shenzhen).

"In 2021, within the framework of the signed agreement, the Chinese manufacturing giant will invest more than $13 million only in the development of a new line of smart TVs KIVI 2021. Investments will be directed to the development of new hardware and software solutions for a significant increase in productivity and the implementation of a number of innovative technologies, new design solutions, as well as improved picture and sound quality," the Ukrainian company said.

The document also provides for the implementation of a number of innovative projects aimed at developing products under the KIVI brand over the next five years.

KIVI is an international company, developer and manufacturer of smart TVs and TV services. Products under the eponymous brand are sold in the European and Asian markets, and the KIVI TV service is available on all TV sets with the Android system in Ukraine.

The head office of KIVI is located in Kyiv, the development of TV sets and TV services is carried out by an international team of KIVI specialists, and production is carried out at high-tech factories in Europe and Asia.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Landed, which provides the first mobile app connecting hourly food and retail workers with local employers, announced today the official launch of its platform which uses engaging video profiles to help candidates stand out, leverages AI technology for matching candidates to jobs, and automates much of the hiring process for employers. The company also announced the close of a seed funding round: $1.4M led by Javelin Venture Partners, which has backed the likes of MasterClass and Thumbtack, with participation from Y Combinator, Palm Drive Capital, and key angels.

Vivian Wang founded Landed after working in the retail industry where she saw firsthand the extremely high employee turnover of 130 percent on average. That meant managers had to be constantly recruiting. Landed - which is designed for retail and food businesses - automates much of the hiring process by matching candidates, scheduling interviews, and following up with candidates. It also provides hiring accountability, by tracking each hiring manager's activity and progress towards hiring goals. For candidates, Landed helps them stand out through engaging video profiles that are much more compelling than paper applications and resumes.

Landed launched its beta solution just as COVID-19 hit the U.S. Fortunately, its strong base of restaurant customers are faring well, increasing their takeout and delivery businesses to offset a decline in in-restaurant dining, and its grocery customers are thriving. The pandemic fueled the need to do more hiring virtually, and Landed's focus on mobile/video has been a big advantage, enabling the company to continue growing throughout 2020.

"Vivian and the team at Landed have developed a sophisticated AI platform to help the food, retail, and hospitality industries find and hire high quality candidates with less effort," said Vivian Cheng of Javelin Venture Partners. "Landed is also well positioned to help businesses tackle their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts by sourcing a larger number of diverse candidates, helping more people land the right job during these difficult times. Vivian is exactly the type of founder we like to back - she has incredible drive and a far-reaching mission of improving the lives of the 90+ million hourly workers across the US."

As an Asian-American female founder who grew up in Ohio, Wang's background ranging from financial markets at BlackRock to strategy at multinational retailer Gap Inc. enables her to develop discerning business strategies with deep industry knowledge and a people-first approach.

How Landed works

Job seekers download the Landed Jobs mobile app, and are guided through setting up their Landed candidate profile, which includes short videos plus details on their work experience, location, and shift availability. Candidates can then browse jobs available near them. Landed's AI-based intelligent matching technology matches candidates with employers for whom they might be a fit.

Hiring managers download the Landed Employer mobile app, and input hiring goals such as role titles, headcount, pay rate and locations. Landed then presents the employer with candidates who are the best matches for their open positions based on its intelligent matching algorithm, driven by AI tech. Hiring managers can see matched candidates, organize their candidate pipeline into different folders, and communicate with candidates all from within the app. Employers pay Landed a monthly subscription to access candidates to meet their hiring goals.

Landed matches candidates with employers using a proprietary, intelligent matching system driven by AI, machine learning, and natural language processing. The system evaluates each candidate on 50+ data points, such as communication skills, body language, work longevity, etc. to determine fit for specific jobs. Landed can then prioritize different attributes in candidates depending on each employer's focus.

Grocery Outlet Ventura is an early customer of the Landed app. Eric Sawyer, Owner/Operator, said, "My time spent on scheduling and performing interviews has been cut in half by utilizing the Landed app for most of my communications. I receive a continual flow of new potential candidates and stay up to date with notifications on the app, which seamlessly integrates with how I am already using my phone with emails, text, and social media. I'm at a ratio of 1 hire for every 3 interviews versus 1 hire for every 10 interviews before Landed. I am saving dozens of hours while finding more qualified hires for my business."

The typical food employer using Landed is a multi-unit franchise holding group with a few dozen quick-service or fast casual restaurant locations, actively hiring for all roles from entry-level to leadership like district managers. Landed customers include franchisees for Wendy's, Chick-fil-A, and Grocery Outlet and the company has thousands of candidates on the platform in the markets we serve.

"We are very excited to officially roll out the Landed platform to food and retail business owners to help them make smarter, faster hiring decisions and help them use their time more effectively," said Vivian Wang, Founder and CEO of Landed. "Helping candidates find the right jobs, and helping businesses hire a qualified, more diverse staff is our passion at Landed and by using AI and ML technology and leveraging video we can make the whole process much more efficient. Landed is proud to have helped hundreds of people find jobs in the last year during such a bleak economy and are planning to use our funding to continue rolling out our solution in more cities across the U.S."

Currently Landed serves seven major metro areas: Northern California, Southern California, Virginia Beach/Chesapeake VA, Phoenix/Scottsdale AZ, Atlanta GA, Reno NV, and Dallas-Ft. Worth TX. That number will likely triple by the end of 2021.

About Landed

Landed provides the first mobile app connecting hourly food and retail workers with local employers, to help them find and hire better quality candidates, faster. Guided by the app, candidates create video profiles, and are then matched with employers instantly using proprietary AI-based technology. Landed automates much of the process for employers, helping them quickly fill positions. Landed has helped clients such as Wendy's, Chick-fil-A, and Grocery Outlet fill thousands of positions since its launch in 2020. Learn more at https://www.gotlanded.com.

Kerry Metzdorf

Big Swing Communications

978-463-2575

[email protected]

Related Links

www.gotlanded.com

SOURCE Landed
India-based Laffaz Media, an entrepreneurship platform has recently launched Indo-Mena Corridor (IMC), an initiative focused on Indian and Mena startup ecosystems - aiming to connect tech startups with potential investors and advisors.



It plans to accomplish this through a seamless application process accompanied with knowledge-sharing delivered through a series of virtual events.



The Indo-Mena Corridor came into implementation during the early-Covid period and it took six months to bring it into existence. The news startup approached various ecosystem enablers to join forces as Ecosystem Partners and received positive responses from Microsoft for Startups Middle East, a dedicated program for Mena-based B2B startups to help them successfully scale their companies; and StartupScale360, UAE-based startup ecosystem builder that connects all key stakeholders, founded by Swethal Kumar, former VP of Mubadala and ex-Hub71.



The first episode of IMC virtual events Introducing Indo-Mena Corridor will take place on February 3.



IMC arises as an extension of the ever-booming bilateral trade partnership between India and the Gulf Cooperation Council which stood at $121.34 billion for the financial year ending 2019. Bilateral trade between India and the UAE alone stood at $57 billion by late 2018.



According to the Embassy of India Bahrain, Indian nationals constitute 30 percent of the total population of Bahrain. The country in recent past years has been incubating tech startups from India and other countries, and continuously rolling out liberal policies and initiatives to support the tech startup ecosystem in the kingdom. On top of that, some prominent Indian corporates expanded to Bahrain include Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, SBI Life Insurance, ICICI Bank, and SBI, among others.



When it comes to other nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, these too have not left any stone unturned. A big example of which is Indias edtech startup BYJUs, notably the worlds highest-valued edtech startup that raised a $150 million investment round led by Qatar Investment Authority back in 2019. Indias hospitality unicorn OYO, in February 2019 expanded to the Middle East by signing an MoU with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia to start its operations in the Kingdom - notably becoming the largest hotel chain in the country. In July 2019, the hospitality giant launched its premium segment Capital O in the UAE for business travellers.



Numerous Indian startups including Ola, Zomato, and BigBasket have also raised investments from the Middle East-based venture capital firms and institutions such as Vy Capital, Mubadala, Jabbar Internet, Investcorp of Bahrain and many more.



This present connection between the startup ecosystems of India and the Mena region that involves remarkable cross-border investments, the establishment of VC funds, government policies, and free-zones is laying the foundation of an ever-evolving integrated Indo-Mena startup ecosystem.



Speaking of the launch of the Indo-Mena Corridor, Mohammed Haseeb, CEO & Co-founder of Laffaz Media, said: Our core-cognition for IMC is wise and clear, forming an integrated ecosystem where joint-enablement across India and the Mena region can take place considering the similar goals that both startup ecosystems share. Unlike the traditional accelerators, IMCs door is always open for startups throughout the year.



We are immensely delighted to have startup ecosystem leaders like Microsoft for Startups Middle East, and StartupScale360 as the ecosystem partners for the Indo-Mena Corridor as they are committed to empower the initiative and scale it further. And aiming to keep extending our partner canvas throughout the year.



Pradeep Singh, CTO & Co-founder, added: Ever since we started Laffaz, we always had this thought of creating a corridor between India and the Mena region to match innovation with right enablement. The synergy helps both startups and investors to connect regionally as well as internationally.



Fatema Ebrahim, CEO of Andra Public Relations; a Bahrain-based FinTech PR firm commented: Initiatives such as the Indo-Mena Corridor are crucial to create a solid bridge between two large startup ecosystems; which is India; the 3rd largest startup and home to 21 unicorns ecosystem and the Mena region which just witnessed its first unicorn exit and had the highest number of investments to date according to MAGNiTT. We are happy to support a platform to take startups to the next level both regionally and cross-border.  TradeArabia News Service

Nairobi  The High Court has issued orders barring Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu from occupying the seat and acting as Chief Justice.

The orders issued Friday also bars her from sitting on the Supreme Court bench as well as serving as a member of the Judicial Service Commission.

The orders were issued by Justice P.J Otieno sitting at the High Court in Meru, following an application by a petitioner Isaiah Mwongela who argues that she can't continue holding office because she is facing abuse of office charges.

"That a conservatory order be and is hereby issued against the 1st respondent restraining her continued occupation of the office of Deputy Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya, Judge of the Supreme Court of Kenya, Member of the Judicial Service Commission and Ombudsman of the Judiciary pending the hearing and determination of this application," reads the orders.

Mwilu was accused of improperly obtaining the execution of a security belonging to Imperial Bank, abuse of office, unlawful failure to pay taxes and conducting herself in disregard of the law.

She was accused of receiving an unsecured facility at zero interest from Imperial bank, when the loan facilities were charged at 14 per cent.

Mwilu had defended herself that the transactions were normal banking relations between her and the Imperial Bank of Kenya.

She argues that her arrest and prosecution was in bad faith and an abuse of her rights and has challenged previous attempts to have her barred from holding office on account of the charges she is facing in court saying it is within her constitutional right to continue discharging her mandate as the case continues in court.
Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) Virtual Event of the Davos Agenda and delivers a special address via video link in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

We believe that when the interests of the entire humanity are at stake, China must step forward, take action, and get the job done, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his special address delivered at the World Economic Forum Virtual Event of the Davos Agenda that lasted from Jan. 25 to 29.

China will continue to take an active part in international cooperation on COVID-19, implement a win-win strategy of opening-up, promote sustainable development, advance science, technology and innovation, and promote a new type of international relations, Xi promised solemnly at the virtual event via video link in Beijing.

China has embarked on a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country. Xis remarks represented the countrys sincere aspiration in its new development stage to safeguard and practice multilateralism with concrete actions and its sense of responsibility as a major country to join hands with various countries and build a community with a shared future for mankind.

During the five-day online event, which brought together more than 1,500 political and business leaders as well as leaders of social organizations from over 70 countries and regions around the world, Chinas ideas and actions gained full recognition for their significance for the world.

Attendees at the virtual event expressed firm support for and actively echoed Chinas proposals expounded by Xi, acknowledged Chinas achievements in economic development and its important role in boosting global economic recovery, and praised the countrys sense of responsibility and efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and tackling global challenges including climate change.

President Xi Jinpings Speech at Davos Agenda is Historic Opportunity for Collaboration, read the headline of a news release on the website of the World Economic Forum.

Containing the coronavirus is considered as the most pressing task for the international community. In the global response to the pandemic, China has shown the world its spirit, strength, and sense of responsibility.

It has joined hands with various countries around the world to tide over this difficult period and contributed its wisdom and strength to the global fight against the epidemic.

So far, China has provided assistance to over 150 countries and 13 international organizations, sent 36 medical expert teams to countries in need, joined the COVAX, an international initiative aimed at ensuring equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, and promised to make its COVID-19 vaccines a global public good accessible and affordable to people around the world.

Recently, COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese companies has been delivered to many countries, including Peru, Turkey, Thailand, and Azerbaijan.

Faced with global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world needs better global governance more than ever.

International observers have pointed out that global multilateral cooperation mechanisms are in a very fragile state, and that one of the major challenges confronting humanity in the year 2021 is fixing the structural flaws in global governance.

Such issues as state-to-state relations, human-nature relationship, and how mankind can pursue long-term and sustainable development are all important matters countries need to think about for reforming and improving the global governance system, as well as questions the international community need to answer together through right choices and moves.

China has been committed to following through on its fundamental policy of opening-up, continuously infusing positive energy to the globe.

As Xi said at the opening session of the 2017 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Whether you like it or not, the global economy is the big ocean that you cannot escape from.

China has always made full use of all opportunities possible and tackled all challenges through cooperation to steer economic globalization in the right direction, and pushed for an economic globalization that is more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.

As a staunch follower of an independent foreign policy of peace, the country is working hard to bridge differences through dialogue and resolve disputes through negotiation and to pursue friendly and cooperative relations with other countries on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.

As a steadfast member of developing countries, China has constantly deepened South-South cooperation, and contributed to the endeavor of developing countries to eradicate poverty, ease debt burden, and achieve more growth.

The times call for responsive and responsible leadership. Countries that can seize the crucial year of 2021 to engage in endeavors that are beneficial to the interests of the entire humanity demonstrate a precious sense of responsibility.

Standing firmly on the right side of history, China unswervingly safeguards and practices multilateralism and tries its best to promote global solidarity and cooperation.

It is going to honor its commitment to working with other countries to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity.

As the early February noreaster bore down on New Jersey Monday with blizzard-like conditions, people across the state shared dispatches from their snow day.

Locals monitored the conditions outside, whether from the comfort of heated homes, where they whiled away the hours working, baking and sipping cocoa, or in the thick of the snowstorm.

The storm, known on The Weather Channel as Winter Storm Orlena (a name not recognized by the National Weather Service), had people posting videos and photos of their dogs, kids and themselves frolicking in the powdery white.

Some measured the accumulation throughout the day in inches and feet (and children).

In Short Hills, Sadie and Terry, a goldendoodle and sheepadoodle, kicked up some of the wintry precipitation in their yard.

In Hoboken, councilwoman Tiffanie Fishers shorkie, Brownie, was not having this snow.

Jersey City artist Katie Duffy McGeehin used a park bench to make this Frosty snowman  which is similar to one she made in December  and invited locals to take selfies with the natural sculpture.

Some shared live video of the snow piling up in their front yards, like Chris Quintano in Bloomfield.

BLIZZARD CONDITIONS Massive heavy band Live from Bloomfield NJ #njwx #orlena https://t.co/wJkSAUoi6j  Chris Quintano (@chrisquintano) February 1, 2021

#Orlena did not come to play, said Brooke Sellas, sharing a scene from her Flemington backyard. 22-24 expected and I bet we get that and more.

Because of the constant accumulation, efforts to clear snow didnt always yield the best results.

I give up, said Tara, shortly before noon. Ive been shoveling for 12 hrs on and off for my dog. Where did my path go?

I give up. I've been shoveling for 12 hrs on and off for my dog. Where did my path go?! #Noreaster2021 #Weather #NJwx pic.twitter.com/9n002dTvd0  Tara (@tarag76) February 1, 2021

Ryan Graney watched as the snow heaped on her car and in her yard from six inches to shoulder height ... for her dog.

But as Marzio Ombra (and his cat) learned, the storm would not halt nature  specifically a goshawk making a meal of a sparrow.

Misidentified (not a birdwatcher). Turns out it is a Goshawk!  Marzio Ombra (@Marzombra) February 1, 2021

Jess Epstein was among those who got to shoveling this afternoon as their kids enjoyed snow days from school.

Milestones Pediatric Dentistry in Roselle Park shared images of children playing happily in the blanket of white.

In Annandale, one child demonstrated proper snow measurement.

Elsewhere in Annandale, pediatric nurse Suzanne Nice-Bauer used the snow day to get in the kitchen.

When you are in the throws of a snowstorm... theres only one thing you have to do.... bake, she posted on Instagram, sharing a photo of her homemade chocolate chip banana bread. There is nothing better than the smell of something warm and delicious on a cold snowy day.

In Lake Hopatcong, Lisa Giannotti was grateful for her childrens day off from remote learning.

In a time of virtual learning, I am so happy that both of the school districts my kids attend called for a real snow day and not a virtual day, she said on Instagram. The excitement a snow day brings is palpable.

Meteorology student Tommy Cerra measured the storms progress inch by inch in Lebanon.

Laura Jo got in on another time-honored snow day activity: hot cocoa, lovingly prepared with steamed milk.

In Metuchen, Kenneth Price preferred coffee and apple cider.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.
Nearly 136,000 people flew into Ireland during December and arrivals into the country jumped by almost 60% on November, as the third wave of the Covid-19 virus took off in Ireland.

New Central Statistics Office figures show that flights into Ireland represented the bulk of travel into Ireland during the last month of 2016. The remainder of the 164,400 arrived by sea into the country.

The figures show that arrivals were 89% down on December 2019 when more than 1.3 million entered the country.

The figures also show that more people left Ireland than arrived in the country around Christmas. Nearly 179,000 went abroad as the third wave of infections began to emerge. Of these, 156,000 left by plane.

As restrictions eased with the lifting of the Level 5 October to December restrictions, the CSO says overseas travel to and from Ireland increased in December 2020.

The figures show that over 65,000 people arrived from Britain in December as the UK variant had been shown to be more infectious than the original strain. MORE BELOW TABLE

The CSO says December's figures compare with 103,900 arrivals and 96,800 departures in November 2020, increases of 58.3% and 84.7% respectively.

Apart from the UK, the CSO says that of those arriving in Ireland, 79,100 (48.1%) by continental routes, 11,700 (7.1%) by transatlantic routes and 8,500 (5.1%) by other overseas routes. The corresponding figures for those departing Ireland were 54,800 (30.6%), 107,100 (59.9%), 7,900 (4.4%) and 9,100 (5.1%) respectively.

The CSO says the most important staging countries for persons travelling overseas to Ireland were Great Britain (65,100), the Netherlands (14,700) and Spain (13,100). The most important staging countries for persons travelling overseas from Ireland were Great Britain (54,800), Spain (19,200) and Poland (17,200).

In the year 2020, 4,460,200 persons arrived in Ireland from overseas and 4,452,600 persons departed. These represent decreases of 77.9% and 78.0% respectively compared to 2019.

The Government has introduced new restrictions on travel in 2021.
KATAVI Regional Commissioner (RC) Juma Homera has issued 18-day ultimatum to five council directors in the region to pay allowances and salaries of teachers, who have reported to their work stations.

Katavi Region has five councils, including Mpanda Municipal Council, Tanganyika, Mpanda and Mlele district councils as well as Nsimbo Council.

Equally, the RC urged Tanganyika District Council Executive Director (DED) Romuli Rojas and his team of experts to evaluate themselves over poor performance recorded almost in each sector.

"I'm directing directors from five councils in the region to ensure by February 15, this year, all new teachers, who have already reported to their appointed centres are paid their allowances and salaries. Accord them with proper support and an enabling working environment so that they may discharge their duties more efficiently," directed the RC.

He also directed Tanganyika District Executive Council Director Rojas to evaluate himself thoroughly over poor performance recorded in several sectors.

The RC issued such directives during a meeting, which attracted more than 300 education stakeholders from all five councils. The meeting was held in the municipal council recently.

For his part, Katavi Regional Acting Education Officer Florence Ngua told participants that the 2020/21 regional strategic plan would ensure all five councils did away with unnecessary accumulation of teachers' arrears.
Bodies of a man and a woman found at a property in Ponciau, police confirm

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 2nd, 2021

A man and a woman have been found dead at a property in Ponciau, North Wales Police have confirmed in a short statement.

Police say they were called to the address in the Brynydd area shortly before 2:20pm yesterday afternoon where the bodies of a woman in her 70s and a man in his 50s were sadly found.

A spokesperson for North Wales Police said: The deaths are not being treated as suspicious and the coroner has been informed.
Business leaders and researchers provide insights on their sense-making processes amid the pandemic and how they envision the way forward

There is an expression in English that says, "May you live in interesting times." To some, this is a blessing, while to others it is more of a curse. The Covid-19 pandemic has engendered a very interesting time--a time of extraordinary and unprecedented challenges that have thrown individuals and organizations headlong into battles for survival. Politicians, policy-makers, business leaders, and all professionals must dig deeper and come up with solutions to ensure that human civilization continues to survive and thrive in a post-pandemic world. Under these circumstances, the Frontiers of Business Research in China in China recently published six unique perspectives on the challenges that businesses--especially small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs)--are facing, and the way forward.

The first article, by Prof. Hai Guo from Business School, Renmin University of China (Renmin Business School) and his research associates, argues that digitalization helps organizations to tap into their dynamic capabilities--their abilities to quickly build, integrate, and reorganize internal and external resources to adapt and promote organizational changes in the wake of crises. Prof. Guo opines, "(It) can help SMEs employ emergency responses as well as respond strategically to public crises in the long run, thus contributing to the improvement in SMEs' performance." Moreover, the researchers provide a definite framework that SMEs can use in their digitalization efforts during the pandemic.

In the second article, Prof. Jose C. Alves from the City University of Macao and his colleagues discuss a framework that combines insights on the sense-making processes of business leaders of six firms in Macao at the various crisis stages: how they dealt with internal and external stakeholders and responded to various challenges. The researchers found that most business leaders dealt with the pandemic situation as the "new normal". They adopted strategies that ensured flexibility in human resources management, cost reduction, enhanced customer relations, and capitalizing on government schemes. The researchers recommend that effective handling of the pandemic would require small firms to expand stakeholder engagement and develop new learning.

In the third article, Associate Prof. Ding Ding from the Singapore University of Social Sciences and her colleagues investigated the effects of the negative market sentiments stemming from the pandemic on the stock market. After comparing the closing stock prices of 1,567 firms from 37 sectors they found that some sectors--the ones with a greater degree of digital transformation--were more resilient to the negative market sentiment than others. Dr. Ding explains, "Even as (such) shutdowns have brought many corporeal economic activities to a near-complete standstill, consumer purchases and even trade continue to thrive online."

The fourth article, by Prof. Fengjun Liu of the Renmin Business School and his associates, investigates the impact of internal corporate social responsibility (ICSR) disclosures on consumer brand attitudes. They reveal that the perception of companies fulfilling their social responsibilities positively affects consumer attitudes. Prof. Liu says, "SMEs need to protect employee interests first and actively fulfill their ICSR to establish a good enterprise brand image. This in turn can help enterprises survive the epidemic and usher in greater development opportunities after the epidemic."

The fifth article, by Prof. Hua Song of the Renmin Business School, presents a closer look at the support that SMEs are receiving from financial service providers (FSPs). Their study compares and provides insights into the roles played by three types of FSPs: commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions, and credit-enhanced FSPs. They provide insights into how SMEs can raise capital in these trying times but call for greater collaboration between various stakeholders.

Lastly, in the sixth article, Prof. Fengbin Wang from the Renmin University of China and her colleague discuss the microstructures and dynamic processes within the five-phase system to offer a better understanding of Covid-19 as a complex system. Their study offers insight on possible dialogue between the Western process theory and the Chinese five-phase system that could help policymakers predict system evolution and guide policy decisions.

These perspectives throw light on the precarious situation that the world of business is in due to the pandemic. Nonetheless, they also provide hope and inspiration. We definitely live in interesting times, and the way our business leaders respond will ultimately decide the future of the world.

###

Reference

Authors: (1) Hai Guo, (2) Jose C. Alves, (3) Ding Ding, (4) Fengjun Liu, (5) Hua Song, (6) Fengbin Wang

Title of original paper:

(A) The digitalization and public crisis responses of small and medium enterprises: Implications from a COVID-19 survey

(B) Crisis challenges of small firms in Macao during the COVID-19 pandemic

(C) Building stock market resilience through digital transformation: using Google trends to analyze the impact of COVID-19 pandemic

(D) The influence of the corporate social responsibility disclosures on consumer brand attitudes under the impact of COVID-19

(E) How different types of financial service providers support small- and medium-enterprises under the impact of COVID-19 pandemic: from the perspective of expectancy theory

(F) Microstructures and dynamic processes within the five-phase system: regarding COVID-19 as a complex system

Journal:

Frontiers of Business Research in China

DOI:

(A) https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1186/ s11782-020-00087-1

(B) https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1186/ s11782-020-00094-2

(C) https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1186/ s11782-020-00089-z

(D) https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1186/ s11782-020-00096-0

(E) https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1186/ s11782-020-00095-1

(F) https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1186/ s11782-020-00090-6

Affiliations:

(1) Business School, Renmin University of China

(2) City University of Macao

(3) School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences

(4) Business School, Renmin University of China

(5) Business School, Renmin University of China

(6) Business School, Renmin University of China

About Frontiers of Business Research in China

Frontiers of Business Research in China (FBR) is a quarterly journal that encourages interdisciplinary studies and interactions between Chinese and international researchers on topics pertaining to business administration. FBR publishes original academic and practical research articles that extend, test, or build management theories. It contributes to business administration practices in the Greater China region and beyond. The journal publishes commentaries and case studies in all areas of business administration, without limitations on research methods. FBR was awarded "The Highest International Impact Academic Journal of China (Humanities and Social Sciences)" in 2019 and 2020.

About the authors

Hai Guo

Prof. Hai Guo is a Professor at Renmin Business School in China. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Information and Computing Science from Xi'an Jiaotong University, where he also completed his Master's and PhD in Business Administration. Since 2009, Prof. Guo has been at Renmin Business School, where he is now a Professor.

Jose C. Alve

Prof. Jose C. Alves is Professor of Management and Dean of the Faculty of Business of the City University of Macau. His research presently focuses on Cross-border Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Sustainability in the Great Bay Area. Prof. Alves holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts.

Ding Ding

Associate Prof. Ding Ding is the Vice Dean of the School of Business at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Nanyang Technological University and is interested in researching on Financial Technology and Digital Inclusion, the Chinese Economy, International Economics, and Education Pedagogy for Lifelong Learners.

Fengjun Liu

Prof. Fengjun Liu is a Professor of Marketing at Renmin Business School. He is the recipient of several notable awards such as the "New Century Excellent Talents" from the Ministry of Education in China and is a valuable member of the Enterprise Committee, China University Marketing Research Society.

Hua Song

Prof. Hua Song is the Associate Dean of Renmin Business School. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from Zhongnan University of Finance and Economics. He was also a Research Scholar (Post PhD) in the Department of Economics at Kyoto University in Japan. Prof. Song is an adviser for the Ministry of Commerce Market Regulation Think Tank and the Director of China Logistics Association.

Fengbin Wang

Prof. Fengbin Wang is a Professor of Management at Renmin Business School. She is the recipient of several awards such as the "Top 100 National Excellent Teaching Cases" and the "High-Quality Textbook for Management" awarded by the Ministry of Education of the PRC. She is also the author of two books: "Business Organization and Managerial Systems" and "Management and Control Systems of Business Groups".
Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi said on Tuesday that China is ready to work with the U.S. to move the relationship forward along the track of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks when he joined the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations for a conversation on bilateral ties and future prospects.

"China and the United States are the two largest economies and permanent members of the UN Security Council," Yang said. "Effective cooperation between the two has a direct bearing on the well-being of all people as well as peace, development and prosperity of the world."

The task for both sides is to put the relationship back on a predictable and constructive track of development, as well as build a model of interaction between China and the U.S. that focuses on peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, said Yang.

"This, I believe, also answers to the expectation of countries in the global community," said Yang.

'Key moment' for China-U.S. relations

China hopes the new U.S. administration will respond to the will of both peoples and follow the trend of history, Yang said, pointing out that bilateral relations now stand at "a key moment and face new opportunities and new challenges" as the Biden administration took office.

He stressed that the Chinese government takes a stable and consistent policy toward the U.S. "China is prepared to work with the United States to move the relationship forward along the track of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation for the well-being of both countries and peoples," Yang said.

He proposed several aspects that China and the U.S. could work together to bring the bilateral ties to the normal track of development.

At the government level, the embassies of the two countries and other channels should serve as bridges, Yang said. At the same time, other players including think tanks, universities, media organizations, and businesses as well as exchanges at the sub-national level can also contribute in their own ways to bolstering the overall relations.

Yang also expressed hope that the new administration will remove the blocks to people-to-people exchanges, such as harassing Chinese students, restricting Chinese media outlets, shutting down Confucius Institutes and suppressing Chinese companies.

For China's part, Yang also restated that the country is committed to opening up as it has been a key driving force behind China's rapid development. "We remain fully committed to this fundamental policy and there will be no wavering in our commitment," said Yang.

No lack of support despite difficulties

Yang said that for the past few years, the Trump administration adopted misguided policies against China, plunging the relationship into its most difficult period since the establishment of diplomatic ties.

However, the communication and friendship between the two countries' people can never be stopped, Yang said, noting the efforts made by a number of institutions, groups and individuals in the U.S., including the National Committee.

The China-U.S. economic cooperation and trade have also continued to grow against the headwinds, Yang said while listing statistics.

According to the Member Survey conducted by the U.S.-China Business Council last year, 91 percent of U.S. companies surveyed showed that their China operations were profitable and 87 percent of the companies reported no plans to shift production out of China, he said.

In 2020, two-way trade in goods grew by more than eight percent to over $580 billion including over $130 billion of Chinese imports from the U.S., up by nearly ten percent, Yang added.
Laika, Phil Knights Hillsboro movie production house, said Monday that it will fund construction of a stop-motion animation studio at a historically Black college in Maryland.

Bowie State University will upgrade its existing green screen studio to accommodate stop-motion, an old-fashioned form of animation that involves manipulating puppets one frame at a time to simulate motion. Laika said its relationship with Bowie State started as a pathway toward student internships, then expanded to provide a facility for students to do their own work.

We are looking at this partnership to be an internship and career pipeline that can help diversify the animation industry, which has been a traditionally underrepresented sector when it comes to the voices of people of color, women, LGBTQ and other communities, Tewodross Melchishua Williams, chair of BSUs Department of Fine & Performing Arts, said in a statement.

Laika is run by Knights son, Travis Knight, a veteran Oregon animator. The studio has made five stop-motion films, all of them nominated for an Oscar for best animated feature. Laikas most recent movie, 2019s Missing Link, won the Golden Globe award in that category.

Laika did not say how much it will donate to fund the new facility in Maryland. The studio laid off 56 employees last summer, citing the risks inherent in working indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Oregon company hasnt said what its next production will be or when it plans to release the film. Last month, Laika hired longtime animation industry executive Ian Sheppard as its new development head.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699
Two Chinese fishing vessels were seized by authorities in Vanuatu in late January for allegedly fishing illegally in the south west Pacific island nations territorial waters.

Authorities claimed the Dong Gang Xing 13 and Dong Gang Xing 16 were fishing in Vanuatus northern waters near the remote Torres islands. Vanuatus department of fisheries, the police maritime wing, and a French naval reconnaissance plane from New Caledonia had monitored the ships before they were detained by a Vanuatu patrol boat. The crew is facing investigation after undergoing quarantine in Port Vila.

US Coast Guard cutter participating in Operation Kurukuru in October 2019, an annual operation targeting "illegal" and unregulated fishing, in waters off Palau. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

New Zealand journalist Michael Field described the incident as murky, chiefly because of the nature and origin of the vessels. There are currently 200-300 Chinese longliners and purse seine tuna fishers legitimately operating in Vanuatus 663,251 square kilometre exclusive economic zone, from their base in Fiji.

The arrested boats, owned by Zhuhai Dong Gang Xing Long Distance Fishing, were operating closer in-shore for grouper and sea cucumber. Beijing had given the company permission to fish in Mauritania, Africa, and Vanuatu under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Vanuatu currently maintains diplomatic relations with China and, along with Tonga, signed up to the BRI in 2018.

According to Field, the company says it has permission under the BRI to build a base in Vanuatu, a claim that has not been acknowledged by Vanuatu. Field speculated the boats may have believed they were operating under a deal between Port Vila and Beijing and asked: Is Vanuatu heading for a diplomatic row with China?

Pacific island nations have in recent years sought to clamp down on illegal and unregulated fishing. In 2015 Palau burned four Vietnamese fishing boats caught off its coast and arrested the captains. During coordinated maritime sweeps in 2017, several Vietnamese boats were detained in the territorial waters of the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia.

However, driven by the US diplomatic, economic and strategic offensive against Beijing, Pacific states are now being drawn into fierce geo-strategic rivalries. Washington has seized on claims of illegal fishing to boost its military presence across the region. Armed US Coast Guard cutters are currently being deployed to American Samoa and Guam to counter Chinese activity.

The incident in Vanuatu came just a month after Palau, a former US Pacific territory, detained a Chinese-flagged vessel and its 28 crew, also for allegedly harvesting sea cucumber in its waters. In December, Palaus president-elect Surangel Whipps Jr announced he would oppose Chinese bullying, declaring the small archipelago nation would stand by its true friends, the US and Taiwan. Palau is one of only four of Taiwans remaining diplomatic allies in the region after the Solomon Islands and Kiribati switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 2019.

The Chinese fishing vessel and six auxiliary boats were intercepted at Helen Reef, in Palaus northern waters, and escorted to the main island of Koror by a naval patrol boat donated by Australia, as part of its own anti-China Defence Cooperation Program. The ships and crew were ultimately released after being detained for several weeks, accompanied by official complaints from Palau to the Chinese government over its intransigence on illegal fishing by their people.

Beijing has not commented on either of the recent incidents. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying had earlier declared China was a responsible fishing country, with zero tolerance for violations of relevant laws and regulations committed by distant fishing vessels.

Palaus actions were hailed by US Ambassador John Hennessey-Niland, who said Washington steadfastly support Palaus efforts to protect its territorial sovereignty and prevent Peoples Republic of China (PRC)-flagged vessels from engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

Last October, US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien accused China of encouraging fishing violations, building illegal military outposts, dumping garbage and harassing commercial vessels. OBrien told Radio NZ that China was threatening the rules-based order thats kept the peace since World War II. Coast Guard vessels would enforce US laws, while partnering with other Pacific nations, O'Brien declared.

Last year, Palaus outgoing President Tommy Remengesau Jr wrote to US Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite saying Washington should look at setting up military facilities in Palau as a bulwark against destabilizing actors. Palaus demands included port facilities, secondary airfields, law enforcement training grounds and maritime enforcement and surveillance facilities.

China has the worlds largest distant-water fishing fleet, with nearly 17,000 vessels. Its expansion into the Pacific is raising the ire not only of the US, but also its close ally and regional imperialist power Australia. A Papua New Guinean (PNG) regional governor, Toboi Awi Yoto, last month sharply criticised Australias hostile response to a plan to establish a $200 million Chinese fisheries park on Daru Island in PNG.

Canberra raised concerns late last year about national security and potential overfishing and dispatched officials to Daru for discussions. Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne told the Australian parliament that the government had contacted the PNG government to ensure Australian interests are fully safeguarded. She warned the Australian Border Force would patrol the Torres Strait to ensure that traditional-only fishing rules were enforced. Commercial-scale fisheries would not be considered a traditional activity under the Torres Strait Treaty and would not be permitted, Payne declared.

Yoto hit back on Facebook at the overt bullying, saying Australia had no counter-offer to the Chinese plan and he was not satisfied with their intentions for my people to remain the same, i.e. living in poverty. Its regrettable that all they want is for us to be subsistence farmers and fishermen and maintain our current status quo, he added.

Regional geo-strategic and political tensions have further escalated due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has decimated the Pacifics tourism industry. Many Pacific island nations have reached out to Chinese-led agencies to prop up their budgets after exhausting financing options from traditional sources.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 16:56:45|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- China and Japan will hold the 12th round of high-level consultations on maritime affairs via video link on Wednesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a press briefing that officials from foreign ministries, defense ministries, maritime law enforcement and ocean management departments from both countries will attend the talks.

According to Wang, the two sides held a meeting between delegation heads under the consultation mechanism on Jan. 20.

The high-level consultations are a comprehensive mechanism for bilateral communication and coordination, said the spokesperson, adding that in this round, China looks forward to a full exchange of views with the Japanese side on maritime issues of mutual concern to boost mutual understanding and trust, and continuously expand pragmatic cooperation. Enditem
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) -Edison Cobalt Corp (TSXV: "EDDY") ("Edison Cobalt" or the "Company") is pleased to annouce Jay Richardson, CA, CPA, has been appointed chief financial officer and director of the Company, effective immediately.

Mr. Richardson is a chartered accountant with 40 years of experience in financial management. From 1974 to 1989, Mr. Richardson was first employed by, and then a partner of, Clarkson Gordon and its international affiliate, Arthur Young (both now E&Y), in Toronto, London, Vancouver and Singapore. From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Richardson was a partner of KPMG in London and was responsible for establishing its corporate recovery practice in Europe. Since 1993, Mr. Richardson has been practising as a company doctor, assisting distressed corporations, both public and private, and has been a partner of James A. Richardson & Partner, company doctors. From 1999 to 2003, Mr. Richardson served as a director of Plaintree Systems Inc., a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Internet technology company, and as interim chief executive officer in 1999 oversaw successful reorganization leading to refinancing of the company. Mr. Richardson served as interim chief financial officer of Hollinger Inc. following its chief financial officer's sudden disability in June, 2004, and subsequently for many years as a director of Argus Corp. and its chair.

Mr. Richardson is currently a director and officer of Enerspar Corp., a TSX Venture Exchange-listed exploration and development company in the new energy area of potassic feldspar. He serves as a director and officer of Manganese X Energy Corp., a TSX Venture Exchange-listed exploration and development company in the new energy area of manganese mining prospects and technologies. Mr. Richardson is also a director of Water Ways Technologies Inc. and BacTech Environmental. Mr. Richardson received a bachelor of arts from the University of Toronto in 1967 and is a fellow of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of the United Kingdom (retired).

Mr. Richardson is replacing Mr. Christopher Hobbs as chief financial officer of the Company. Edison thanks Mr. Hobbs for his contributions as its CFO and he will continue to serve as a director of the Company.

Finally, Mr. Eric Falardeau has resigned as an Director of the Company. Edison thanks Mr. Falardeau for his contributions to the Company and wishes him well in future endeavours.

About Edison Cobalt Corp.

Edison Cobalt Corp. is a Canadian-based junior mining exploration company focused on the procurement, exploration and development of cobalt, lithium and other energy metals. Edison Cobalt Corp.'s acquisition strategy focuses on acquiring affordable, cost-effective and highly regarded mineral properties in areas with proven geological potential. The Company is looking to build a portfolio of quality assets capable of supplying critical materials to the battery industry. The Company intends to capitalize on and have its shareholders benefit from the renewed interest in the battery metals space.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

"Neil Pettigrew"

Neil Pettigrew

Chief Executive Officer, Director



For more information please contact:

Tel: (416) 276-6689

Email: info@edisoncobalt.com

Website: www.edisoncobalt.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73364
Credit: Shutterstock

The day a muddled mob stormed the US Capitol building, a team of American researchers published a paper in Nature that signified a landmark in gene therapy.

The head of the US National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins had joined forces with Harvard University professor David Liu and others to tackle progeria, a genetic disorder that causes children to age rapidly.

The achievement, successfully tested in mice, was made possible by Liu's invention of a second-generation CRISPR gene-editing technology called "base editing." With this, researchers may eventually be able to correct lifelong genetic diseases, including progeria, in humans.

A rare but devastating disease

Francis Collins, former leader of the Human Genome Project, had worked on progeria for many years before the breakthrough.

Children carrying the mutation for progeria have normal intelligence but show early signs of general aging, including hair loss and hearing loss. By their teenage years they appear very old. Few live past the age of 13.

In 2003, Collins's lab discovered progeria is caused by a mutation (which you can think of as a "misspelling") in a gene that encodes a protein called Lamin A. Lamin A has a structural role in the cell's nucleus.

Many of us carry mutations in various genes. But as we typically have two copies of genes (one from our mother and one from our father), we tend to have at least one good copy and that's usually enough.

The double helix shape of DNA is supported by an alternating sugar-phsophate backbone (the sides). Attached to each sugar on the backbone is one of four chemical bases: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). The order of these bases is what determines an organisms genetic code. Credit: Shutterstock

But the progeria mutation in Lamin A is different. While there may be a good copy present, the mutant copy generates a poisonous product that messes things up, like a spanner in the works. This type of mutation is called a "dominant negative mutation."

The solution, ideally, would be to specifically correct the mutant copy using CRISPR. With this gene-editing tool, scientists can direct a pair of molecular "scissors" to any part of the genome (DNA). Unfortunately, first-generation CRISPR technologieswhile good at cutting genesdo not have the level of surgical precision or efficiency needed to correct the Lamin A mutation.

Complications with mass cell editing

CRISPR scissors are good at finding their target and cutting, but the reconstructive surgery that comes after is left to the celland isn't guaranteed to happen in every cell.

In the lab, researchers can usually manage by just correcting a few cells before growing them in a petri dish for further research.

But in humans we need to accurately correct most, if not all, cells. It would be pointless to correct the progeria mutation in five cells in a patient's finger, while leaving the rest of the body unrepaired.

This is where David Liu's work on "base editors" is critical. Liu identified the limitations of CRISPR technology very early and began developing molecular machines that could do more than operate only as targeted molecular scissors.

He started with naturally occurring enzymes, which can change one type of chemical base of the genetic code into another; for example, enzymes that can convert an A (adenine) to a G (guanine), or a C (cytosine) to a T (thymine).

In this video, Collins and Lui discuss their work involving treating progeria in mice.

Liu then modified the enzymes to make them more precise and fused them to CRISPR to create fusion proteins called "base editors." Since CRISPR technology is good at reading DNA and finding a target, it can effectively deliver the editors to the gene that needs to be changed.

It's important to highlight Liu deliberately developed base editors so that they change letters, but no longer sever DNA like CRISPR scissors. This is crucial, as cutting DNA increases the risk of larger chromosomal deletions, which can potentially damage cells.

The differences of mice and men

Collins, Liu and their colleagues knew they would have to get base editors into all (or at least most) of the cells of a mouse with progeria to cure it. For this, they relied on using hollowed-out viruses as delivery vectors.

They used a vector based on the Adeno Associated Virus, or AAV. As students, we joked AAV stood for "almost a virus," as it's one of the smallest viruses and doesn't cause any known disease.

Collins and Liu packaged the AAV virus particles with genes encoding the relevant base-editing enzyme and delivered them into the mice. The treated mice essentially avoided the disease and became indistinguishable from healthy mice.

But, of course, this all happened in miceand humans are bigger. We don't know how difficult it will be to upscale this gene-editing machinery to work reliably in humans. But in any case, Collins and Liu have taken an inspiring first step by showing it's possible in mice.

Base-editing CRISPR tools are a dream come true for experts committed to gene therapy and for families afflicted by conditions such as progeria. Work on this front is just beginning. But in these dark pandemic times, it provides much-needed new hope.

Explore further DNA-editing method shows promise to treat mouse model of progeria

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Dublin, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Molecular Diagnostics for Infectious Disease - Market Forecasts, Strategies and Trends - By Syndrome and by Country - With Multiplex and Point of Care Market Analysis, Executive Guides and Customization 2020 to 2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Multiplex testing threatens existing infectious disease practice. The microbiology lab may disappear.



The Molecular Diagnostics - Infectious Disease sector of the clinical diagnostics industry is poised for record growth.



A market that just keeps on growing. In spite of the steady decline of disease prevalence, the diagnostic sector keeps growing. Find out why in the informative report. And find out about the exciting developments in multiplex assays which threaten to change diagnosis and treatment while limiting the threat of anti microbial drug resistance.

Infectious disease testing directly benefits from the explosion in biotechnology, especially genomics.

Exciting technical developments especially in the seesaw between sequencing and immunoassay, hold the promise of a dynamic, growing and evolving world market that holds the promise of diagnostics taking the lead in infectious disease eradication.

The report includes detailed breakouts for 15 Countries and 4 Regions. A detailed breakout for any country in the world is available to purchasers of the report.

Learn all about it in this new report. A range of dynamic trends are pushing market growth and company valuations.

Trends like:

Multiplex testing

Emerging economies and global prosperity

Biotechnology advances in genetics

Pathogen evolution

Climate change

Globalization

The rise of rapid testing

Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction and Market Definition

1.1 What is Molecular Diagnostics

1.2 The Diagnostics Revolution

1.3 Market Definition

1.3.1 Volumes

1.3.2 Prices

1.3.3 Revenue Market Size

1.4 Methodology

1.4.1 Authors

1.4.2 Sources

1.5 U.S. Medical Market and Clinical Laboratory Testing - Perspective

1.5.1 U.S. Medicare Expenditures for Clinical Testing



2. The Infectious Diseases - Market Analysis by Disease

2.1 HIV - Human Immunodeficiency Virus (AIDS)

2.1.1 Virology

2.1.1.1 Classification

2.1.1.2 Structure and genome

2.1.1.3 Tropism

2.1.1.4 Replication cycle

2.1.1.5 Genetic variability

2.1.2 Diagnosis

2.1.3 Testing

2.1.3.1 Antibody tests

2.1.3.2 Point of Care Tests (POCT)

2.1.3.3 Antigen Tests

2.1.3.4 Nucleic acid-based tests (NAT)

2.1.3.5 Other tests used in HIV treatment

2.1.4 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.2 HBV - Hepatitis B

2.2.1 Virology

2.2.1.1 Genome

2.2.1.2 Pathogenesis

2.2.1.3 Hepatitis B virus replication

2.2.1.4 Serotypes and genotypes

2.2.2 Mechanisms

2.2.3 Diagnosis

2.2.4 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.3 HCV - Hepatitis C

2.3.1 Taxonomy

2.3.2 Structure

2.3.2.2 Genome

2.3.3 Molecular biology

2.3.4 Replication

2.3.5 Genotypes

2.3.5.1 Clinical importance

2.3.6 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.4 HPV - Human papillomavirus

2.4.1 Virology

2.4.1.1 E6/E7 proteins

2.4.1.2 Role in cancer

2.4.1.3 E2 research

2.4.1.4 Latency period

2.4.1.5 Clearance

2.4.2 Diagnosis

2.4.2.1 Cervical testing

2.4.2.2 Oral testing

2.4.2.3 Testing men

2.4.2.4 Other testing

2.4.3 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.5 Influenza

2.5.1 Virology

2.5.1.1 Types of virus

2.5.1.2 Influenzavirus A

2.5.1.3 Influenzavirus B

2.5.1.4 Influenzavirus C

2.5.1.5 Structure, properties, and subtype nomenclature

2.5.1.6 Replication

2.5.2 Testing

2.5.2.1 Advantages/Disadvantages of Molecular Assays

2.5.3 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.6 CTGC - Chlamydia/Gonorhea

2.6.1 Gonorrhea

2.6.1.1 Diagnosis

2.6.1.2 Screening

2.6.2 Chlamydia

2.6.2.1 Diagnosis

2.6.2.2 Screening

2.6.3 Testing

2.6.3.1 Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs).

2.6.3.2 Performance of NAAT Tests

2.6.4 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.7 Tuberculosis

2.7.1 Mycobacteria

2.7.2 Diagnosis

2.7.2.1 Active tuberculosis

2.7.2.2 Latent tuberculosis

2.7.3 Epidemiology

2.7.4 Molecular Diagnostic Tests

2.7.5 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.8 MRSA - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

2.8.1 Diagnosis

2.8.2 FDA Approved Molecular Tests

2.8.3 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.9 VRE - Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus

2.9.1 FDA Approved MDx Tests for VRE

2.9.2 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.10 Blood Screening

2.10.1 Collection and Testing

2.10.2 FDA Approved Multiplex Assays

2.10.3 Market Opportunity Analysis



3. Industry Overview

3.1 Industry Participants

3.1.1 IVD Supplier

3.1.2 Independent lab specialized/esoteric

3.1.3 Independent lab national/regional

3.1.4 Independent lab analytical

3.1.5 Public National/regional lab

3.1.6 Hospital lab

3.1.7 Physician lab

3.1.8 Audit body

3.2 The Clinical Laboratory Market Segments

3.2.1 Traditional Market Segmentation

3.2.2 Laboratory Focus and Segmentation

3.3 Industry Structure

3.3.1 Hospital Testing Share

3.3.2 Economies of Scale

3.3.2.1 Hospital vs. Central Lab

3.3.3 Physician Office Lab's

3.3.4 Physician's and POCT

3.4 Profiles of Key MDx Companies

Abbott Diagnostics

Accelerate Diagnostics

Ador Diagnostics

Akonni Biosystems

Alveo Technologies

Applied BioCode

Atlas Genetics

Aus Diagnostics

BD Diagnostics

Beckman Coulter

Biocartis

bioMerieux

Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH

Cepheid

Chembio

Curetis

DiagenodeDiagnostics

DiaSorin

Eiken Chemical

Fusion Genomics

Genedrive

GenePOC Diagnostics

GenMark Dx

Grifols

Hologic

Illumina

Inflammatix

Janssen Diagnostics

Karius

Lexagene

Luminex

Mbio Diagnostics

Meridian Bioscience

Mesa Biotech

Mobidiag

Nanomix

Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Panagene

Primerdesign

Prominex

Qiagen

Quantumdx

Quidel

Roche Molecular Diagnostics

Seegene

Siemens Healthineers

T2 Biosystems

Thermo Fisher

Veramarx

XCR Diagnostics

4. Market Trends

4.1 Factors Driving Growth

4.1.1 New Genotypes Creating New Markets

4.1.2 Aging Population a Boon for All Diagnostics

4.1.3 Developing World Driving ID Dx Growth

4.1.4 Point of Care - Why Centralization is Losing Steam

4.1.5 Self Testing

4.1.6 The Need for Speed

4.2 Factors Limiting Growth

4.2.1 Lower Costs

4.2.2 Infectious Disease is Declining

4.2.3 Wellness Hurts

4.2.4 Economic Growth improves Living Standards

4.3 Instrumentation and Automation

4.3.1 Instruments Key to Market Share

4.3.2 The Shrinking Machine.

4.3.2 Multiplex, Point of Care and The Speed Factor

4.4 Diagnostic Technology Development

4.4.1 The Sepsis Testing Market - A New Direction?

4.4.2 POCT/Self Testing as a Disruptive Force

4.4.3 The Genetics Play - One Test for All Known Infections

4.4.4 Antibiotic Resistance Genes - Simplifying Diagnostics



5. Molecular Dx - Infectious Disease Recent Developments

Recent Developments- Importance and How to Use This Section

Importance of These Developments

How to Use This Section

Fusion Genomics to Assess NGS-Based Respiratory Tract Infection Assay

New Genomic Tests Diagnose Deadly Infections Faster

Biotia Raises $2.4M Seed Round

STDs resurge in US

Ares Genetics signs R&D agreement with leading global IVD corporation

Cell-Free DNA Used for Infectious Disease Testing

One BioMed Raises $5M

FDA grants Qiagen clearance for syndromic testing system

iCubate, Wondfo Biotech Form Chinese JV to Develop MDx Assays

Researchers Launch CRISPR Dx Firm Sherlock Biosciences

Israel's BATM to Invest up to $30M in Ador Diagnostics

Superbug Test from Mobidiag Gets CE Mark

Akonni Biosystems Submits Multiplex Diagnostics System to FDA

Mesa Biotech RSV Test Wins CE Mark

Karius Test to Be Available in Brazil

Panagene's STD kit gains Approval

Startup Prominex Raises $4M in Series A

GenePOC's Investment Validated by Medicare Decision

GenePOC launches its GenePOC CDiff test in Canada

NYU researchers adapt HIV test to Zika virus

GA-EMS receives diagnostic device contract

Biocartis & Immunexpress Sign Partnership for Sepsis

PerkinElmer to Acquire Euroimmun for $1.3B

Alveo Closes Financing to Create Accessible Diagnostics Devices

Siemens Healthineers completes takeover of Fast Track Diagnostics

Sekisui Diagnostics Enters Strategic Alliance with Mesa Biotech Inc

Chembio and FIND to Develop Point-of-Care Multiplex Test

Locus Biosciences and IDbyDNA Partner to Develop Companion Diagnostic Test

Alere bags FDA nod for rapid flu diagnostic

FDA approves tests of tick-borne disease to protect blood supply

Qiagen Trichomonas Assay Gets CE Mark

Vela Diagnostics HSV Test Gets FDA Clearance

QIAGEN enters into an agreement to acquire STAT-Dx

Bruker to Acquire Majority Stake in Infectious Disease MDx Firm Hain

Applied BioCode's Syndromic Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel Approved by the FDA

Ares Genetics to develop AI diagnostic test for infectious diseases

FDA Considers Guidelines for NGS-Based Infectious Disease Diagnostics

6. The Global Market for Molecular Diagnostics Infectious Disease

6.1 Global Market Overview by Country

6.2 Global Market by Syndrome-Overview



7. Global Molecular Diagnostics Infectious Disease Markets-By Syndrome

7.1 Respiratory

7.2 Gastrointestinal

7.3 Blood

7.4 Meningitis/Encephalitis

7.5 Sexually Transmitted Disease

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/jsiamy

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

"We partnered with Synchrony for its financial expertise and quality customer experience. Our dealers can count on Synchrony to provide their customers with access to excellent, simplified consumer financing options and service," said George Macia, president of Doosan Bobcat Financial Services. "Synchrony's solutions align with our commitment to providing Bobcat dealers with flexible financing and leading technology to help them run their business more efficiently."

The new program will provide attractive promotional financing to the growing number of retail customers interested in purchasing Bobcat compact equipment for personal and small business use. The retail customers who purchase Bobcat equipment using a Synchrony Installment Loan will benefit from convenient, flexible fixed monthly payments that fit their budget. This gives customers more purchasing power and allows them to purchase the variety of Bobcat equipment they need for landscaping, grounds maintenance and construction projects.

"Synchrony is thrilled to add Bobcat as a new partner. We look forward to helping enable more consumers to purchase Bobcat equipment with affordable monthly payments," said Keith Mait, senior vice president and general manager of payment solutions at Synchrony. "Our flexible financing solutions and innovative turnkey business tools are ideal offerings for Bobcat's independent dealers to help manage and grow their businesses."

Enrolled Bobcat dealers will have round-the-clock access to Synchrony's innovative, mobile-responsive Business Center technology for enhanced consumer credit decision, loan contract preparation and expedited loan funding process. The Business Center also features a detailed business dashboard with insights to help dealers manage their installment loan applications, as well as other advantages, which include:

Learning Center: Provides training on how to offer consumer financing, as well as practical training videos, informative handouts and self-paced online courses covering key topics, such as handling customer questions and tips for successful finance sales.

Provides training on how to offer consumer financing, as well as practical training videos, informative handouts and self-paced online courses covering key topics, such as handling customer questions and tips for successful finance sales. Advertising Center: Provides materials to help dealers create personalized in-store materials and online assets, including signage and banners to help drive more traffic online and in-store.

"We look forward to this financing partnership with the Synchrony team to support our dealers with comprehensive, simplified financial options to help them build sales and deliver value and convenience for Bobcat customers," said Macia.

About Doosan Bobcat

Doosan Bobcat North America, headquartered in West Fargo, North Dakota, is a leading global manufacturer of construction, agriculture, landscaping and grounds maintenance equipment, attachments and services. The company is committed to empowering people to accomplish more. Doosan Bobcat North America is home to world-renowned brands, including Bobcat compact equipment, Doosan portable power products, BOB-CAT mowers, Ryan and Steiner grounds maintenance equipment and Geith attachments. Doosan Bobcat North America is a tradename of Clark Equipment Company.

About Doosan Financial Services

Doosan Financial Solutions is the financing arm of the Doosan Bobcat North America business. We provide Doosan and Bobcat equipment dealers financial expertise, tailor-made to their business. Doosan Bobcat North America is the U.S. and Canadian subsidiary of Doosan Bobcat Inc., representing the world-renowned brands of Bobcat compact equipment, Doosan portable power products and Geith attachments. These companies are industry leaders in the engineering, manufacturing and marketing of compact construction equipment, landscaping, agriculture and homeowner related-equipment, generators, air compressors, lighting systems, light compaction equipment, and attachments.



About Synchrony

Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) is a premier consumer financial services company. We deliver a wide range of specialized financing programs, as well as innovative consumer banking products, across key industries including digital, retail, home, auto, travel, health and pet. Synchrony enables our partners to grow sales and loyalty with consumers. We are one of the largest issuers of private label credit cards in the United States; we also offer co-branded products, installment loans and consumer financing products for small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as healthcare providers.

Synchrony is changing what's possible through our digital capabilities, deep industry expertise, actionable data insights, frictionless customer experience and customized financing solutions.

For more information, visit www.synchrony.com and Twitter: @Synchrony

Media Contacts:



Doosan Bobcat North America

Lanelle Vasichek

Director of Brand and Public Relations

Email: [email protected]

Synchrony

Farrah Aper

VP, Business Communications

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Synchrony

Related Links

www.synchrony.com


Kaz Crossley revealed she was spending the afternoon on the beach after bars and restaurants in Dubai were force to shut amid a spike in coronavirus cases.

The Love Island star, 27, posed up a storm in a tie-dye blue bikini as she shared a new post to Instagram on Tuesday, hours after the new rules were introduced.

The reality personality styled her beach look with a matching sarong and wore her blonde locks in bouncy curls while posing for the fun boomerang clip.

Still living it up! Kaz Crossley revealed she was spending the afternoon on the beach after bars and restaurants in Dubai were force to shut amid a spike in coronavirus cases

Kaz appeared to be going make-up free in the clip as she showcased her naturally radiant complexion, while accessorising with delicate jewellery.

Earlier in the day, Kaz revealed she had been keeping busy with a training session at the gym, which have remained opened amid the changes to the hospitality sector.

While listening to house music in the gym, Kaz wrote: 'Work out done. Now I'm just gonna lie here, close my eyes and pretend I'm in DC10', in reference to a club.

Dubai has forced all of its pubs and bars to close after a surge in Covid-19 cases at the influencer-packed destination since the start of the New Year.

The sheikhdom also ordered restaurants and cafes to close by 1am, as well as instituted crowd limits on cinemas, hotels, shopping centres and other destinations.

Beach babe: The Love Island star, 27, posed up a storm in a tie-dye blue bikini as she shared a new post to Instagram on Tuesday, hours after the new rules were introduced

The move will come as a blow for British influencers such as Kaz, who remained in the country after a travel ban was introduced last Friday.

Since Britain's third national lockdown began last month, reality stars have been pictured sunning themselves in the Gulf state, but insist they are out there to work.

Laura Anderson, Molly-Mae Hague, Maura Higgins, Amber Davies, Georgia Harrison and Kady McDermott were among those to jet off before the third national lockdown.

Chilled: The reality personality styled her beach look with a matching sarong and wore her blonde locks in bouncy curls while posing for the fun boomerang clip

Celebrities who have uploaded photos which appear to show them in Dubai in recent weeks include The Only Way Is Essex's James Lock and Yazmin Oukhellou.

The decision comes after Dubai insisted as recently as last week that 'we can confidently say the current situation is under control'.

While the restrictions likely will affect Dubai's vital tourism sector, countries already have taken a hard line on travel to the emirate.

The United Kingdom, a major tourism source for the UAE, already has stopped flights to the country over concerns about coronavirus variants there.

Dubai also urged the public to report those violating coronavirus rules to the police.
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles decorated by gold absorb about 96% of the solar spectrum and turn it into heat. The material can accelerate the evaporation in desalination plants up to 2.5 times and can track hazardous molecules and compounds.

An international research team with representatives from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), ITMO University, and the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, published a related article in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Access to safe water is included in the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Children's Fund (UNICEF) addressed the problem in 2019 report, noting that 2.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water.

One of the ways to provide clean drinking water is to desalinate seawater by evaporation and subsequent concentration of steam. To achieve greater production, new materials to accelerate evaporation are wanted. Over the past five years, this has become a rapidly growing research field globally.

Such innovative materials were designed by FEFU, FEB RAS, and ITMO University scientists teamed up with colleagues from Spain, Japan, Bulgaria, and Belarus. Researchers claim it can be used as a nano-heater for water evaporation and as an optical detector in sensor systems tracking the smallest traces of various substances in a liquid.

Later properties can be relevant for micro-fluid biomedical systems, lab-on-chips, and environmental monitoring of pollutants, antibiotics, or viruses in water.

Upon laser irradiation, the initially crystalline titanium dioxide became completely amorphous acquiring strong and broadband light absorption properties. Decoration and doping of the material by gold nanoclusters additionally facilitated visible light absorption. Initially, we intended to use the feature in the context of solar energy but quickly realized that due to the new amorphous structure nanoparticles in the active layer of solar cells will convert the absorbed solar energy into heat rather than electricity. But the idea came to use it as a kind of nano heater in a desalination tank, which was successfully done in laboratory conditions." Alexander Kuchmizhak, Study Author and Senior Researcher, Institute of Automation and Control Processes, Far Eastern Federal University

The material was obtained through a simple and environmentally friendly technology of laser ablation in a liquid.

We added titanium dioxide nanopowders to a liquid containing gold ions and irradiated the mixture with laser pulses of the visible spectrum. The method does not require expensive equipment, hazardous chemicals and can be easily optimized to synthesize unique nanomaterial at gram per hour rate", said research participant Stanislav Gurbatov, junior researcher at FEFU Polytechnic Institute (School).

Noteworthy, the initial nanoparticles of titanium dioxide do not absorb visible laser radiation. However, they catalyze the formation of nanosized gold clusters on their surface stimulating further melting of titanium dioxide. Several hybrid nanoparticles fuse forming unique nanomorphology, in which gold nanoclusters are located both inside and on the surface of titanium dioxide.

Au-decorated amorphous titanium dioxide nanopowder appears completely black to the human eye since it efficiently absorbs within the entire visible light spectrum like a black hole in space does and converts it into heat. In sharp contrast, the commercial titanium dioxide powder used as a starting material, one sees as white.

The development of new materials, including those supporting new manageable physical principles for a wide range of applications, consists within priority areas of FEFU which scientists are working on in close partnership with the Russian Academy of Sciences, domestic and foreign colleagues.
South Africa: Gauteng ready for 2021 academic year

The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education says it is satisfied with the overall preparedness of the Gauteng Department of Education to begin the 2021 academic year.

The committee made the remarks following an oversight visit to the province on Monday to assess school readiness for the academic year.

The chairperson of the committee, Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba, said the briefing received from Gauteng Education Department has assured the committee members that schooling will commence in earnest come 15 February.

At the centre of commencement of the academic year is the need to ensure safety for both teachers and leaners. The department has assured the committee that personal protective equipment will be delivered from 3 February, and will be completed before teaching and learning commences, Mbinqo-Gigaba said.

While the committee is generally satisfied with the provinces preparedness, it raised its concerns about learners who have applied but have not been placed to date.

The chairperson warned that this will have a negative impact on the lives of the 3 283 learners, who have not yet been placed.

Although the committee is cognisant that Gauteng faces in-migration, with 222 275 applications for placement, placing unprecedented pressure on its systems and resources, it has requested that the department expedite processes to place these learners, Mbinqo-Gigaba said.

Delivery of learning material almost complete

The committee also welcomed information that delivery of learner and teacher support material is almost complete, with 99.8% of textbooks already delivered to the schools that participate in the central procurement system.

The remaining schools have requested the department to deliver when schools open due to fear of burglaries.

Mbinqo-Gigaba said the continued vandalism of schools is a major concern because resources are then diverted away from building additional schools, which are necessary to meet demand, and are ploughed into repairing and replacing vandalised schools.

The committee urged the department to engage the security cluster and communities in the province to create stakeholder compacts that are critical to resolving this challenge.

We have to urgently address the vandalism of schools, as it robs our children of the opportunity to improve their lives through education. Society in general must also take ownership of the schools, as they are critical in the development of their communities, Mbinqo-Gigaba said.

Over one million benefit from School Nutrition Programme

The committee further welcomed the report on the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), which continues to make an impact on the lives of vulnerable children.

The 1 546 187 learners from quintile 1 to 5 schools, the 16 493 learners who are being fed, even though they have not returned to school, and the 667 learners who are receiving food parcels, attest to the positive impact this programme has on the lives of the poor.

"The committee welcomes the employment of 32 monitors in the 2020/21 financial year to further strengthen the monitoring of the programme, Mbinqo-Gigaba said.

Regarding catch-up plans, the committee welcomed the intention to hold extracurricular classes to ensure that learners are adequately prepared for examinations.

The committee also welcomed plans for additional support to teachers in relation to learning and assessment guidelines to support teachers in the implementation of the recovery plan.

The committee called on the department to ensure that schools have replacement teachers, so that teaching and learning continues in those cases where teachers are unavailable due to increased risk caused by comorbidities.

The committee also emphasised the need to strengthen psycho-social support to teachers and learners during this difficult time.

Investigation into R431 million school project

Meanwhile, Mbinqo-Gigaba said the committee will await the conclusion of the investigation into the R431 million paid for decontamination, disinfection and cleaning of schools.

Despite this, the principle of transparency, good governance and prudent spending of taxpayers resources should remain an integral pillar of processes for government, Mbinqo-Gigaba said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
(CNN)  Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr. conducted a spacewalk Monday to finish battery upgrades and install high-definition cameras outside of the International Space Station.

Although the astronauts began the spacewalk later than expected at 7:56 a.m. ET, they worked through their list of tasks quickly and even accomplished some "get-ahead" items that were planned for future spacewalks.

The spacewalk ended at 1:16 p.m. ET and lasted for five hours and 20 minutes.

This is the second spacewalk for the duo in just a matter of days.

It was the second spacewalk experience for Glover, who is a few months into his first spaceflight on the station.

This was the fourth spacewalk for Hopkins, who previously completed two spacewalks during his first six-month stay on the space station from September 2013 to March 2014.

This was the 234th spacewalk in support of the space station's assembly, maintenance and upgrades.

Hopkins wore the spacesuit bearing red stripes as crew member 1 and Glover was in the spacesuit with no stripes as crew member 2.

The astronauts installed the final lithium-ion battery adapter plate and connected it to the battery, which was installed robotically ahead of the spacewalk. This installation wraps up work to complete the replacement of aging nickel-hydrogen batteries outside the station that began in January 2017.

The new batteries are more efficient and provide the space station with an improved power capacity.

Glover and Hopkins then moved to the opposite side of the station to focus on other upgrades. Their work included replacing an external standard camera with a new high-definition camera on the Destiny laboratory, and replacing camera and light assembly components needed for the Japanese robotic arm's camera system, located outside of the Japanese Kibo module. They also routed some ethernet cables.

Hopkins, Glover, NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi flew to the station in November aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft in mid-November. They joined NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who were already on the station after launching in October.

Rubins and Noguchi had the task of operating the robotic arm from inside the space station to assist the astronauts as they worked outside.

There are more spacewalks planned for the crew near the end of February and beginning of March.

Glover and Rubins will pair up for the third spacewalk to prepare the station's power system for installing new solar arrays, which will increase the station's power supply.

Rubins and Noguchi will conduct the fourth spacewalk to continue upgrades for the space station.

During these long spacewalks, the astronauts go through alternating cycles of day and night every 45 minutes, operating against the hot, bright light of the sun as well as the cold darkness of space. This happens because the space station is orbiting the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour.

While the astronauts don't feel the direct impacts of extreme cold and heat, there is the potential for a chill, so there are heaters installed in the astronauts' gloves to keep their hands warm, said Vincent LaCourt, spacewalk flight director at NASA for the February 1 spacewalk.

This story was first published on CNN.com NASA astronauts conduct the second spacewalk of the year
In an interview for The New York Times, Microsoft's head of investor relations, Mike Spencer, says that the company expects to continue to struggle with the supply for Xbox Series X at least until June this year.

Earlier reports said that the shortage issues will continue until April but it's now clear that the situation won't improve in the first half of this year. In addition to the COVID-19 outbreak last year, scalpers majorly contribute to the problem too. Retailers and consumers can't get their hands on GPUs and current-gen consoles driving the prices insanely high.

Industry analysts and even Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, say that this will be the norm throughout most of 2021. So you will either have to wait to upgrade your PC or console, or you will have to dig deep into your pockets and get what you need way above MSRP.

Source
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Glympse Bio, a biotechnology company evolving the way diseases are understood, tracked, and treated, today announced Jessica Atkinson as Senior Vice President of Business Development. Ms. Atkinson will lead business and corporate development activities, partnership opportunities, and will play a critical strategic role in the leadership team, as well as coordinating cross-functional activities within the organization.

"Jessica is an experienced business development strategist that will be a valued addition to our team," said Caroline Loew, Ph.D., President and CEO of Glympse. "Her knowledge and expertise in the field of diagnostics will be critical to Glympse as we advance new opportunities to collaborate across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, advancing utilization of Glympse's technology for protease-mediated diseases like NASH and other fibrotic diseases."

Ms. Atkinson added, "Glympse's unique and innovative technology is well-positioned to be used throughout the biopharmaceutical industry as a tool to advance and accelerate drug development by transforming disease detection and monitoring. I look forward to the opportunity to support Glympse's mission through my leadership of its business development strategy."

Atkinson joins Glympse with more than 14 years of business development and commercialization experience in the diagnostics and pharmaceutical industries, specializing in structuring complex partnerships, negotiating transactions, and partnering strategy. Most recently, Atkinson served as the Vice President of BioPharma Business Development at Foundation Medicine and prior to that was Senior Director, Corporate and Business Development. In those roles, Ms. Atkinson led the development and execution of Foundation Medicine's companion diagnostics business development strategy and also led the biopharma business development team. Prior to Foundation Medicine, she held a business development role at Asuragen, Inc. where she was responsible for leading transactions with biopharma partners, and before that, she spent 8 years at Schering-Plough/Merck & Co. in roles of increasing responsibility in the US commercial organization. Ms. Atkinson earned her degree in Molecular Biology from The University of Texas at Austin.

About Glympse Bio

Glympse Bio is focused on better understanding diseases to transform disease detection and predict treatment response. Glympse is transforming the measurement of disease progression in vivo using bioengineered, tunable sensors that are designed for each protease-mediated disease. In October 2019, Glympse announced a strategic collaboration with Gilead Sciences to evaluate Glympse's technology as both a diagnostic and prognostic tool. Founded in 2015, Glympse Bio is an MIT spin-out from the laboratory of renowned bioengineer, Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia. Glympse is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.glympsebio.com .

Media Contact

Maggie Beller

Russo Partners, LLC

[email protected]

646-942-5631

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ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Feb. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Laguna Treatment Hospital, an American Addiction Centers facility and leading provider of substance use treatment services, has named veteran healthcare executive Barbara Kennedy as its new CEO. Kennedy has decades of leadership experience and is looking forward to building upon Lagunas reputation for clinical excellence.



The Orange County facility is one of a few chemical dependency recovery hospitals in the state of California. To learn more about Laguna Treatment Hospital, visit https://lagunatreatment.com/detox-hospital-california/facility/ .

For more than 25 years, Kennedy has been at the helm of a number of healthcare entities focused on various areas of care, including mental health. Prior to Laguna Treatment Hospital, Kennedy was the president and CEO of North County Health Services where she oversaw 13 locations throughout southern California with nearly 800 employees. She also successfully expanded clinical services to serve more people. In addition to North County Health Services, she has held the position of president and CEO at two other healthcare organizations; Kennedy Health Strategies Group and Northern Arizona Healthcare.

From day one, Ive been impressed with the skill and compassion of the staff here at Laguna, and Im eager to work closely with them to make a difference in the lives of our patients, said Kennedy. The devotion to patient care exhibited by the entire team is readily apparent and this is something I am proud to be a part of.

Kennedy already has a number of new directives that she plans to put into action, including expanding the levels of care offered at the hospital and adding new programs.

The pandemic has really shed a light on how urgent the need is for the treatment of alcohol and substance use disorders, and we want to continue to be a lifeline for this community and beyond, said Kennedy. We want our patients to have the best chance at long-term recovery. People struggling with the disease of addiction need the best care that they can get, said Kennedy, which is exactly what they will receive at Laguna Treatment Hospital.

About Laguna Treatment Hospital

Laguna Treatment Hospital treats patients who are struggling with drug addiction, alcohol addiction and co-occurring mental/behavioral health issues. For more information, please find us at LagunaTreatment.com .

Contact:

Maz Rodriguez

Sr. Public Relations Specialist

615-335-0893

MRodriguez@ContactAAC.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8c88d14a-c6ed-4213-95d3-e488a904f5a7
New Delhi:

According to latest media report, Snapdeal board is believed to have rejected a take over offer of USD 800-850 million (around Rs 5,500 crore) from larger e-commerce rival Flipkart.

According to sources privy to the development, Flipkart has completed the due diligence process and has made an offer of USD 800-850 million to buy Snapdeal.

However, the offer was rejected by the Snapdeals board which felt the amount undervalues the company as the due diligence report is clean.

"The first offer has been rejected but talks are still on. It is an ongoing discussion," said one of the sources. When contacted, Snapdeal, Soft Bank and Flipkart declined to comment.

Soft Bank, the Snapdeal's largest investor, has been proactively mediating the sale for the past few months.

The board also has representation from Snapdeal founders (Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal), NVP and Kalaari Capital.

Also Read: Flipkart's acquisition of eBay gets approval from CCI

Sources said Ernst & Young, which was roped in by Flipkart to conduct a due diligence on Snapdeal, submitted its report a few days ago, following which the offer was made.

The deal between Snapdeal and Flipkart, if completed, would mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space.

One of the leading contenders in the Indian e-commerce space, Snapdeal has seen its fortunes failing amid strong competition from Amazon and Flipkart.

Compared to a valuation of about USD 6.5 billion in February 2016, the sale to Flipkart could see Snapdeal being valued at about USD 1 billion.

SoftBank has already written off over USD 1 billion on valuation of its investment in Snapdeal.

Also Read: Paytm in discussions with Softbank to raise over USD 1 billion

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Shiv Sena MP thanks Centre for opening COVID-19 vaccination for every adult

Shiv Sena says BJP's focus is UP polls instead of tackling COVID-19

Shiv Sena slams Centre over 'vote bank politics' after announcing special packages for poll-bound states

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Feb 02: The Shiv Sena on Tuesday slammed the Centre for announcing special packages for states where the Assembly election is due this year.

In its mouthpiece, Saamana, the Shiv Sena said the Centre is making "fake promises" to the people of this country and also alleged that the government is resorting to vote-bank politics by allocating special packages to poll-bound states.

Farmers' Protest: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut to reach Ghazipur border at 1 pm today

On Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced mega infrastructure projects for Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu in Union Budget 2021-22.

Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi yesterday tweeted, "Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala... most remembered states in the Union Budget. No marks for guessing why."

Coronavirus outbreak: Rashtrapati Bhawan to reopen for public from February 6

Delivering her third budget speech in Parliament, Sitharaman announced Rs 25,000 crore road projects in West Bengal that will go to polls in April-May this year.

She also allocated Rs 65,000 crore for road and highway projects in Kerala and Rs 3,400 crore for Assam where Assembly elections are likely to be held in the next three to four months.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

Sitharamn also announced 3500 kms of a national highway project in poll-bound Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crore. Elections in these four states are crucial for the BJP which is seeking to gain a foothold and expand its geographical reach across the country.

Congress and other political parties slammed Sitharaman for announcing road infrastructure projects only in for states going to elections and asked if the budget is "economy revival document or voter wooing ticket"

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  China's offer to donate 500,000 vaccine doses to the Philippines remains on the table, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.

He said on Tuesday half a million free doses of CoronaVac manufactured by Chinese firm Sinovac can be shipped as soon as it receives emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration.

"Sinovac ang donation nila na 500,000. Once na nagkaroon na ng EUA at naapruban na ng FDA ang kanilang emergency use, pwede nang ma-transport dito anytime," he said in a media briefing.

[Translation: They will donate 500,000 doses of Sinovac. Once it receives EUA from the FDA, it can be transported anytime.]

China in January promised to donate 500,000 doses to the country as part of the earlier commitment made by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who said the Philippines will be prioritized once a vaccine developed by Beijing becomes available. FDA previously said this goodwill will not affect their EUA application review.

Aside from the donation, the first batch of 50,000 Sinovac doses is set to arrive in the country on the last week of February or first week of March.

Sinovac vaccine is being rolled out in some countries including Indonesia and Turkey. Late-stage trials in Brazil showed that the efficacy rate of Sinovacs CoronaVac shot was 50.38%, lower than that of the other frontrunners. Vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, for example, have an efficacy rate of about 95%.

Meanwhile, Galvez said the Philippines is in advanced negotiations with five vaccine manufacturers, adding the deals may be sealed by the end of February. The supply agreement will contain details when the Philippines should pay for the drugs and when it is slated to arrive in the country.

The official refused to name the five companies due to non-disclosure agreements, but he hinted that they are sought-after brands.

"I can assure you ang mga vaccine pong iyon is one of the most sought vaccine at maganda ang naging result ng mga vaccine na iyon. Isa ito sa top 3 vaccines sa market ngayon," he said.

[Translation: The vaccines are sought after and it showed good results. It's included in the top 3 vaccines in the market.]
Roger Grant Williams November 24, 1943-December 13, 2020

Roger Williams was a superb counsellor, encourager and leader of youth throughout his service as school chaplain. He had a width of experience in government and independent schools, co-educational and single-sex, day and boarding, not to mention international schools and churches, some in Third World situations.

Wherever he served he ministered to the spiritual and emotional needs of his students and in each school he involved students in practical and effective charitable work, not just through sponsorship and fund-raising schemes but through hands-on experiences of what it meant to be a good Samaritan.

While strong in his own robust Christian faith and traditional in his conduct of religious services, whether in chapel or open-air situations, he engaged the young with relevant narratives and ethical and moral lessons without resorting to pious platitudes. I have seen the positive effects of this approach on questioning youth and staff colleagues  whether enthusiastic or, at times, jaded.

Rogers faith and his personal example challenged both young and old, yet never in an unmannerly, intrusive or ungracious way. The warmth of his personality and his obvious sincerity, coupled with a pleasant and refreshing out-of-church informality, endeared him to generations of students. He has been the most outstanding chaplain I have worked with in my professional life as schoolmaster, housemaster and headmaster.

Imperial Valley News Center

Former Media Producer Indicted on Charges of Extortion and Obstruction of Justice

San Juan, Puerto Rico - A federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned an indictment Tuesday charging a former media producer with extortion and obstruction of justice during a federal investigation in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Sixto Jorge Diaz Colon, 52, of San Juan, was charged with three counts of extortion and obstruction of justice related to his involvement in a scheme linked to the disclosure of Telegram chat messages during the summer of 2019, and his subsequent actions during the investigation of the allegations by the FBI.

According to the indictment, Diaz Colon attempted to extort a public official in the Government of Puerto Rico on June 20, 2019. Diaz Colon attempted to secure a $300,000 payment and other things of value from the official in exchange for the assurance that certain Telegram messages containing damaging information about various public officials in the government would not be disclosed publicly. When approached by the FBI on July 26, 2019, Diaz Colon is alleged to have deleted Telegram messages containing information about his involvement in the scheme, before surrendering his cellular telephone to the authorities.

As alleged in the indictment, the defendant sought to extort a public official of the government of Puerto Rico for his own financial gain, and then compounded his crime by allegedly destroying evidence of his involvement in the scheme when approached by the FBI, said Nicholas L. McQuaid, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. The Criminal Division is committed to preserving the publics confidence in our government and protecting public and private citizens alike from the types of criminal exploitation posed by the defendant.

Defendant Sixto Jorge Diaz Colon threatened and attempted to extort government officials for $300,000 and the awarding of government contracts, said Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. He threatened to use his influence as a member of the media and on behalf of two public relations firms to destroy the reputations of public officials if they didnt comply with his requests. Make no mistake, the U.S. Attorneys Office and our partner agencies will prosecute those who attempt to extort others and obstruct justice to the fullest extent of the law.

Public corruption has many faces Most often the subject will be a public official who has used his/her position for personl gain, said Rafael Riviere Vazquez, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI San Juan Field Office. Sometimes, however, criminals will try to exploit the weaknesses of those who hold public office. This is also a form of public corruption and as any other form of corruption, it will not be tolerated. We have said this before and it merits repeating. If you are a victim or a witness to, or if you find yourself somehow involved in, a public corruption scheme, it will never be too late to do the right thing. We are here, we are doing our job and we want to hear from you.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Criminal Chief Timothy Henwood and Division Chief Myriam Fernandez-Gonzalez of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Puerto Rico and Trial Attorney Michael N. Lang of the Criminal Divisions Public Integrity Section (PIN). Former PIN Trial Attorney James Pearce also assisted in the investigation.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

A COVID-19 testing laboratory will soon be established at the State House Clinic, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) Chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, said on Tuesday in Abuja.

Speaking at the commissioning of State House Clinic Special Care Centre (COVID-19 Isolation Centre), Mr Mustapha said the Buhari administration is using the challenges posed by the pandemic as an opportunity to change Nigerias health infrastructure.

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for approving resources for new health infrastructure, noting that through the PTF, the 2021 budget made provision for the establishment of at least one oxygen production plant in all the States of the Federation, as well as a 10-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facility.

From just two molecular laboratories for the testing of COVID-19 in Nigeria, we now have over 100 molecular laboratories, public and private, across the 36 States of the Federation

I want to commend the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, the Permanent Secretary, Mr Tijjani Umar and the State House management under whose leadership this beautiful edifice is being commissioned.

I am confident that when the Minister of Health visits, whatever he decides, I can give you my word that we will put a laboratory for testing or a PCR facility in State House Clinic. This is supposed to be our priority.

I will also speak to the Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, who has the primary responsibility of resourcing, setting up and accrediting laboratories because we need it here, he said.

On the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines to be procured for Nigeria, Mr Mustapha said the federal government will continue to encourage Nigerians to get vaccinated, when the time comes, because the vaccines are safe, effective and for our benefit.

According to him, We will appeal and explain to our people that if you do not take the vaccine, the danger of falling terribly sick and eventually dying is there.

We will be blunt to them that if you dont take the COVID-19 vaccine, you may not be able to go anywhere in the world, very soon. Even when you want to go and perform your spiritual obligation, that will be subjected to your COVID-19 status.

The PTF chairman also dismissed conspiracy theories concerning the vaccines, saying I dont believe anyone will spend billions of dollars in manufacturing vaccines in order to kill us in Africa.

In his remarks, Mr Gambari, who described the Permanent Secretary, State House as indefatigable, noted that the idea for the special centre was conceived and completed within 10 weeks.

This is the State House Clinic and in many ways it should be the Centre of Excellence and people should be able to get the best from this facility, he said.

Mr Gambari appealed to Nigerians to comply with COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions, including the wearing of face masks, washing of hands, social distancing, avoidance of large congregations and non-essential travels.

It may interest you to know that since my appointment into this position in May 2020, I have not been to Ilorin, Kwara State, my hometown.

Unfortunately, the non-pharmaceutical intervention is not being taken seriously there. The people in Ilorin and upwards think COVID-19 is a rich-man and powerful-people disease.

But as Mr President often says, COVID-19 is a respecter of nobody. Rich and poor, powerful or weak, all of us must respond to this very effectively.

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For me who sees the President many times in a day, I have to take responsibility and if that involves giving up going to the town of my birth, so be it.

The Chief of Staff also urged Nigerians to embrace the COVID-19 vaccine, adding that Nigerians must do whatever it takes to protect themselves.

The Latin says mens sana in corpore sano, a healthy mind in a healthy body. To keep your body healthy, you have to have a healthy mind and a healthy mind is what is necessary to keep you and your family safe, he said.

In his remarks, the permanent secretary thanked the SGF and the chief of staff for the support towards upgrading the standard of the clinic.

The first responsibility of the State House Clinic is to give medical service to our number one principal, the President and Commander-in-Chief and his family, the Vice President and his family and this we have been striving to do, he said.

He added that since the outbreak of the second wave of the pandemic, the State House has ensured regular testing of all staff including, media, protocol, security and other civil servants.

Making a case for a testing centre in the State House Clinic, Mr Umar said: I understand how our staff has been running from pillar to post, going to Gwagwalada and Asokoro trying to get tested. If we do it here, it will be more convenient, confidential and a lot easier for all of us.
Ellume employees in Brisbane, Australia, work on the production line of a COVID-19 coronavirus home test. Photo: Patrick Hamilton/AFP /AFP via Getty Images

The Biden administration on Monday struck a deal to secure 8.5 million rapid at-home COVID-19 tests, which will provide results within minutes. The test, manufactured by Australian company Ellume, is the first Food and Drug Administrationapproved antigen test that can be used at home without a prescription and represents a significant development in the countrys broader pandemic response. For months, public-health experts have called for fast, accessible home testing, which would empower people to regularly screen themselves  regardless of whether they have symptoms  and isolate after a positive test.

Heres what we know about this kind of testing and when you might be able to use it, as well as whether rapid at-home testing is expected to make a difference in curbing the pandemic.

What makes this test different?

While dozens of home-collection kits are currently on the market, they dont provide immediate results: Users self-administering a swab must send their sample to a lab for processing, and results can take days. Those tests also havent been particularly accessible, CNN notes, costing about $100 or more. However, in December, Ellume became one of three fully at-home rapid COVID-19 tests authorized by the FDA, and the only one cleared for over-the-counter use (the other two tests, from BinaxNow and Lucira, require a prescription). Ellumes test, which is expected to cost about $30, is similar to a home pregnancy test, if somewhat more high-tech: The user collects a sample with a nasal swab and then puts it into a digital analyzer linked to a smartphone app, through which results are delivered 15 minutes later, NPR reports. The test was granted emergency authorization after it showed 96 percent accuracy in a U.S. clinical study, the FDA said, and has been authorized for use on children as young as 2 years old.

One notable difference in Ellumes technology is that the data can be made available to public-health officials. While other home-test developers were uncertain how capturing and reporting results would work if a lab wasnt involved, Ellumes smartphone app automatically sends data by ZIP code to the cloud  ensuring that regional health officials can learn about positive results while keeping the data confidential, according to the Washington Post.

What exactly did Biden order, and how many tests will be made available in the U.S. as a result?

Officials from the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday announced a $231.8 million agreement with Ellume to ramp up production of its at-home rapid test and create a manufacturing facility in the United States, the Post reports. According to Andy Slavitt, the White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response, Ellume is expected to produce 19 million tests per month by the end of the year, and 8.5 million of those tests have been guaranteed to the U.S. government under the new contract. The purpose of todays announcement is to move to mass production and scale, Slavitt said Monday.

Starting this month, the U.S. will begin receiving batches of 100,000 tests. Thats good but obviously not where we need to be, Slavitt said. According to the Post, the deal struck with Ellume wont increase the scale of expected manufacturing until the companys U.S. production plant opens, and that isnt set to happen until the fall. Until then, the availability of Ellumes tests will be highly limited. Still, Slavitt noted that the agreement is an initial step toward lowering the cost of the test, which is currently too expensive for widespread use. We know there are efforts to create even lower cost and more innovative approaches and we welcome those, he said. The move is part of the presidents broader pandemic plan to step up rapid, accessible testing by scaling up testing capacity and investing in the development and production of at-home tests.

Will this make a difference?

Once cheap, quick test results are widely available, they could be a significant tool in combatting the pandemic. These tests can be our backup. If we get people socialized to using these tests, we dont have to find ourselves in this position again, Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina previously told Intelligencer. More test kits like Ellumes are expected to be approved in the coming weeks, a development that could help curb viral transmission by giving people more options to confirm they have COVID-19 early on. Almost all the infections happen from people who dont know that theyre positive, and so what you need is a widespread testing program that helps people identify when they are infectious so they can stop infecting other people, according to Brown Universitys Ashish Jha.

However, rapid at-home testing presents its own set of issues, among them the potential for incorrect results. The tradeoff for this simplicity is that these antigen tests have lower sensitivity than the nucleic acid tests, meaning there are more false negatives, PBS points out. Still, cheap at-home antigen tests could be used as a daily supplement for the general public in addition to diagnostic testing for symptomatic people. This would be something that you do on a day-to-day basis, infectious disease expert Amesh Adalja told PBS. You brush your teeth, test yourself, and then you go out the door.
The row between the pharma giant and the bloc has culminated in a promise for more supplies, while the UK is on track to meet its mid-February vaccination target

( ) said the EU should speed up its vaccine rollout after guiding to an eye-watering net loss of 850mln-950mln in the financial year to next March.

"We take some comfort from the success of the UK vaccine programme which is on target to vaccinate almost 50% of the UK population (30mln) by the end of March," the budget airline commented.

"The EU now needs to step up the slow pace of its rollout programme to match the UK's performance."

agrees for more doses to EU after row

Following a row of over a week, PLC ( ) has agreed to deliver an extra 9mln COVID-19 vaccine doses to the EU to make up for a massive shortfall in promised supplies.

This means the bloc will receive a total of 40mln doses in the first quarter, which is well below the 100mln initially agreed.

Step forward on vaccines.@AstraZeneca will deliver 9 million additional doses in the first quarter (40 million in total) compared to last weeks offer & will start deliveries one week earlier than scheduled.



The company will also expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe.  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 31, 2021

The pharma giant said last month it would be able to deliver only a quarter of the agreed volumes because of teething problems at its manufacturing plants.

The news caused friction between the two parties, with the EU demanding supplies that were destined to the UK and investigating a Belgian factory to understand whether jabs had been diverted to non-member states.

The Commission was criticised for threatening to put checks on the Northern Ireland border  one of the most difficult points in the Brexit agreement  to prevent EU-made vaccines from entering the UK.

Also on Monday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced /BioNTech have agreed to supply an extra 75mln doses in the second quarter of the year and up to 600mln in total in 2021.

Care home residents: check

February started on a positive note in the UK as the NHS has announced that all care home residents in England have been offered the jab.

Official figures to be released on Monday revealed the national health service has reached 10,000 care homes while over half a million people received the injection on Saturday, the highest number yet.

It means the country is on track for its mid-February target of covering the first four priority groups.

So far, 12% of Britains population have received at least the first dose, including nearly nine out of ten people aged 80 and above and over three-quarters of over-75s.

--Adds Ryanair update--
Officials blocked off an East Downtown intersection where a water main break occurred Tuesday morning.

Water was shooting up from the ground at Polk and Hutchins Streets, according to the Houston Police Department.

Now Playing: Video: OnScene TV, Laura Duclos

Police warned people to avoid the area because the water "may cause road flooding."

It was unclear what caused the issue, which began around 3 a.m.

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By Sonya Headlam and Rebecca Cypess

In his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. If we are not vigilant in safeguarding justice for all people, no ones justice is secure. We write as two women from different backgrounds who are united in our conviction that Dr. Kings words must continue to be a guiding principle for all of us today.

Dr. King wrote this letter from prison after being victimized by unjust policing and an unjust legal system, problems that still plague our society today. While no single piece of legislation can fully realize Dr. Kings vision, New Jerseys elected officials have the opportunity to take one small but essential step toward greater justice for all by voting Senate Bill 2656, sponsored by Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) and Senator Nia H. Gill (D-Essex), out of committee and into law.

Why is this bill so important? It would instill greater transparency and accountability in policing by making police disciplinary records subject to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). It would also bring New Jersey into line with states that already grant much more public access to police disciplinary records, including Florida, Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, New York, Washington, and Oklahoma. While Senate Bill 2656 was introduced into the New Jersey Senate in June 2020, it still has not been scheduled for a single committee hearing or vote.

It is no secret that residents of New Jersey have a wide range of perspectives on policing, and these perspectives often seem irreconcilable. Some Black parents, for example, have the talk with their young children as they become more independent, cautioning them about interactions with police. These parents do not trust the police with their childrens lives. Others in our state praise the police for their service to our communities and trust the police implicitly. It is that implicit trust that points to the larger problem: without requiring the police to operate transparently, the legal system fails us all. Trust is only possible with transparency.

Let us start with the basic understanding that the role of the police should be to promote public safety. Public safety can only come from trust between the police and the communities they serve. Trusting the police without requiring accountability and transparency amounts to unquestioning acceptance including acceptance of police misconduct and complicity in the suffering it causes. The cycle of police misconduct and secrecy has led to broken trust. We can only begin to repair that trust if we commit to transparency. Senate Bill 2656 offers us a path forward by requiring the transparency and accountability that are in all our best interests.

On a basic level, this bill offers us an opportunity to unite around the common purpose articulated by Dr. King: to continually strive for justice for all. Do our children not proclaim the words with liberty and justice for all each morning in the Pledge of Allegiance?

The passage of Senate Bill 2656 will not end the quest for justice. But failure to pass this bill would be an abdication of our duty to our children. We must demonstrate to our children that democracy depends on transparency and an ongoing commitment to maintaining it. We must show our children that, without justice for all, even those who feel comfortable and safe at one moment risk becoming victims of injustice in the next moment. We, therefore, call on New Jerseys residents to urgently take the following steps:

Contact Senate President Steven Sweeney ( SenSweeney@njleg.org ) and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Beach ( SenBeach@njleg.org ) and urge them to take action on S2656 so that it is adopted as law in 2021. Contact your state legislators ( https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp ) and Governor Murphy ( constituent.relations@nj.gov ) to inform them that you support S2656 and tell them why. Contact your municipal leaders, including your mayors and council members, and ask them to adopt resolutions in favor of S2656.

Organizations in support of S2656 have launched a letter-writing campaign on this bill that includes a letter template.

Let us come together to support this basic, common-sense legislation. Let 2021 be a year when all residents of New Jersey unite in advancing greater justice for all.

Sonya Headlam and Rebecca Cypess are members of the Middlesex Black-Jewish Coalition.

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

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WESTPORT  While the impact of the pandemic continues to redefine various elements of life in Westport, officials highlighted positive aspects of current events and things to come at the annual State of the Town address Sunday afternoon.

Hosted by The Westport Library, in cooperation with both the Sunrise and Westport Rotary Clubs, the fourth annual event included overviews from First Selectman Jim Marpe and Board of Education chairwoman Candice Savin.

Unlike past years, it was done virtually, though the two spoke from the stage at the library, with Eileen Lavigne Flug, town attorney and past president of Westport Rotary Club, moderating.

Westport finds itself in a very difficult place  but miraculously, and in many ways, I feel the state of the town is even better, Marpe said.

With budget season on the horizon, he noted the town remains financially healthy.

So far weve fared very well, he said.

There are still a lot of vacant storefronts and offices around downtown (but) the town finances are in a good place. Our tax collections are at or ahead of prior years and our pension and investment funds are doing very well, even without investments in GameStop, he joked.

Marpe said that while the Board of Finance has asked for a budget as if life was back to normaland that his departments have been prudentthere are still additional reserves being set aside for COVID-related costs should they be needed.

Savin, meanwhile, said the district hired seven new elementary school teachers this year to accommodate the largest single-year influx of elementary-age students the town has ever seen.

Were keeping a close eye on it, she said.

There are 217 new-to-district students entering K-5, nearly double from last year. Its largely due to families moving to town from New York City because of the pandemic.

Certainly the board would not want to employ more people than needed, she said, but cited the overriding need for human capital.

We must continue to invest in that talent, Savin said.

She said there are several clear budget priorities this year, including as-yet-unknown healthcare costs for employees and the 10-year school facility improvement plan.

We must not take our foot off the gas on facilities investment, she said, also sharing about the long-awaited reopening of Coleytown Middle School this month following its prolonged closure due to mold and water-damage issues.

Both officials spoke about the impact of Black Lives Matter protests this summer and how both school and town are striving to improve things as they relate to various minority groups.

We are committed to focus more assertively on hiring and mentoring a more diverse workforce for the town, Marpe said.

I think our recruiting has to become a little more sophisticated, he said, noting the importance of the mentoring process to retain people and help them feel theyre part of the community. Its not just enough to try to find more people, its also about making sure that once on board, their career development is as strong as possible.

Marpe also pointed out the new formation of a Civilian Review Panel aimed at responding to complaints involving the towns EMS, fire and police departments.

Savin said the school districts will hire a consultant to oversee a full equity study of the district.

She said they were motivated to take action because of national events, along with privateand very painful personal testimonyfrom students about issues they have faced involving bias.

The study will look at how the district is doing in terms of student experience, curriculum, as well as policy and procedures, Savin said.

Im looking forward to the results of the study because that will help us be more directed and focused in our work going forward, she said.

Both Marpe and Savin paid homage to various people in their respective departments, particularly as their jobs have morphed with the pandemic.

Our new superintendent Tom Scarice came on board this past summer, and what a time to start as a new leader, Savin said. He quickly gained the trust of our parent community by communicating effectively and transparently about his decisions  Im really looking forward to seeing what he can do when theres not a pandemic.

Along with praising the town workers, residents and business owners for their creativity in coping with the crisis, Marpe also acknowledged the loss of 26 residents to COVID.

When asked about the vaccine roll out, he pointed out that Connecticut is only receiving 46,000 doses a week, but has a total population of 3.5 million.

You do the math, he said, acknowledging the logjam at the national and state levels making it a challenge.

Marpe said in addition to his worries about health and economic issues related to COVID, he also said concerns about cyber attacks on the town were very real and ominous.

We see evidence of that every day  of attempts to hack into the towns information systems, he said. Its a never-ending battle thats become more sophisticated every year.
A report into Brisbanes hotel quarantine outbreak in January, which triggered a national health emergency, is set to be made public this week and could hold clues into how the latest coronavirus outbreak in Western Australia spread.

A breach at Brisbanes Hotel Grand Chancellor forced the city into a snap three-day lockdown on January 8, after six cases of the highly contagious UK strain were traced back to the same level of the CBD hotel.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette DAth was expected to release the quarantine investigation report this week.

Police and health authorities have been scouring the limited CCTV footage, interviewing hundreds of staff and guests as well as swabbing elevator buttons and walls of the hotel rooms.

Queensland authorities initially speculated the virus might have spread through the airconditioning system, although that was yet to be confirmed.
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/02/2021 -- HTF MI Analyst have added a new research study on Title Global Weapons Carriage & Release Systems Market Report 2020 by Key Players, Types, Applications, Countries, Market Size, Forecast to 2026 (Based on 2020 COVID-19 Worldwide Spread) with detailed information of Product Types [, Air-to-Ground Weapons Carriage & Release Systems & Air-to-Air Weapons Carriage & Release Systems], Applications [Air Force, Navy & Other] & Key Players Such as Ultra Electronics, Cobham, Harris Corporation, Raytheon, Circor Aerospace & Defense, AVIC, AEREA S.p.A, Systima Technologies, Moog & Marotta Controls etc. The Study provides in-depth comprehensive analysis for regional segments that covers North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Rest of World with Global Outlook and includes Clear Market definitions, classifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, development policies and plans. The facts and data are well presented in the report using diagrams, graphs, pie charts, and other pictorial representations with respect to its Current Trends, Dynamics, and Business Scope & Key Statistics.



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Covid-19 Impact Update  Global Weapons Carriage & Release Systems Market Research

Analysts at HTF MI constantly monitor the industry impacts of current events in real-time  here is an update of how this industry is likely to be impacted as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic:



Demand from top notch companies and government agencies is expected to rise as they seek more information on COVID-19. Check Demand Determinants section for more information.



Key Highlights from Weapons Carriage & Release Systems Market Study.



Revenue and Sales Estimation  Historical Revenue and sales volume is presented and further data is triangulated with top-down and bottom-up approaches to forecast complete market size and to estimate forecast numbers for key regions covered in the report along with classified and well recognized Types and end-use industry. Additionally macroeconomic factor and regulatory policies are ascertained in Weapons Carriage & Release Systems industry evolution and predictive analysis.



Manufacturing Analysis the report is currently analyzed concerning various product type and application. The Weapons Carriage & Release Systems market provides a chapter highlighting manufacturing process analysis validated via primary information collected through Industry experts and Key officials of profiled companies.



FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS: In order to better understand Market condition five forces analysis is conducted that includes Bargaining power of buyers, Bargaining power of suppliers, Threat of new entrants, Threat of substitutes, Threat of rivalry.



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Geographically, the following regions together with the listed national/local markets are fully investigated:

- APAC (Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, India, and Rest of APAC; Rest of APAC is further segmented into Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka)

- Europe (Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Rest of Europe; Rest of Europe is further segmented into Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania)

- North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico)

- South America (Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Rest of South America)

- MEA (Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa)



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Market Growth by Applications: Air Force, Navy & Other



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Global Weapons Carriage & Release Systems Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) [, Air-to-Ground Weapons Carriage & Release Systems & Air-to-Air Weapons Carriage & Release Systems] in 2018

Weapons Carriage & Release Systems Market by Application/End Users [Air Force, Navy & Other]

Global Weapons Carriage & Release Systems Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications

Global Global Weapons Carriage & Release Systems Sales and Growth Rate (2014-2025)

Weapons Carriage & Release Systems Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application

Weapons Carriage & Release Systems (Volume, Value and Sales Price) table defined for each geographic region defined.

Global Weapons Carriage & Release Systems Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data

Key Raw Materials Analysis & Price Trends

Supply Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Industrial Chain Analysis

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Workers at Larne Port and in Belfast have been removed from Brexit inspection duties over serious concerns for their safety.

Tweeting just before he stood down temporarily as Agriculture Minister, Edwin Poots said staff safety was paramount.

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council also removed staff after an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour.

Mr Poots , said: In consultation with my staff I have decided to withdraw staff from Belfast and Larne ports tonight. Their safety remains paramount.

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I have spoke to HMG ministers and outlined the issues of concern. I welcome the support of my party leader in making such a significant decision.

Minutes earlier, Mrs Foster had announced Mr Poots was standing aside last night to undergo surgery.

She condemned the threats.

"It is utterly reprehensible that anyone should be threatened in this way," she told UTV's View from Stormont.

"My thoughts are with those people tonight."

She she said she had told the UK Government of community tensions over the protocol. She called on those involved to desist and that political means was the way to handle the matter.

Police are to hold talks on Tuesday with partner agencies after physical Brexit checks at Belfast and Larne ports were suspended amid safety concerns.

Graffiti has appeared in recent weeks in relation to the NI Protocol at Larne Port, describing staff as targets. Staff also expressed concerns that individuals had been spotted taking down their vehicle number plate details.

The protocol, part of the Brexit deal, is designed to allow the free movement of goods from the EU into Northern Ireland, preventing the need for a hard border in Ireland. But it has led to a de facto border in the Irish Sea, angering unionists and loyalists.

Twelve council staff assisting officials from the Department of Agriculture and UK Border Force with checks at Larne were withdrawn from their duties with immediate effect on Monday.

The council said the situation has caused extreme distress and worry to staff, and it has no option but to withdraw them from their duties in order to fulfil its duty of care and carry out a full risk assessment.

The DAERA staff were also removed. A spokesman said: On the basis of information received today and, pending further discussions with the PSNI, DAERA has decided in the interest of the wellbeing of staff to temporarily suspend physical inspections of Products of Animal Origin at Larne and Belfast.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said patrols had been increased at the port to reassure staff and the local community, adding: The safety of staff working at points of entry is of the utmost importance to us.

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In December, DUP MP Ian Paisley voiced concerns about potential threats to EU inspectors. Condemning the threats on Monday night, he said such tactics have no place in a democracy.

Mr Paisley added: This is the sad reality of those who imposed terms on Northern Ireland without the consent of the delicate community balance which exists here.

The protocol was bound to end in tears and here we have societys structure falling apart.

PUP leader Billy Hutchinson, who has appealed for loyalist calm over the Protocol, added: It doesnt take much for any council to decide to remove people in fear because while you dont know how serious that fear is, you have to withdraw your staff to protect them.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union also condemned the threats.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "It is an outrage that our members doing critical work at the border in Northern Ireland are being subject to death threats and intimidation.

"Sectarian violence has no place in Northern Ireland and we are calling on employers and the police to work closely together to ensure port and border staff safety.

"PCS will do all it can to support members during this difficult period."

Meanwhile, the Royal Black Institution last night called for the removal of the protocol, saying it does not have the consent of the people who live in Northern Ireland and breaches the Good Friday Agreement and the Act of Union.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  All coronavirus vaccines can be used in all ages except those under 16, but there are specific types of jabs that are more suitable for certain age groups, a health expert said Tuesday.

Dr. Leo Olarte, former President of the Philippine Medical Association said mRNA or messenger ribonucleic acid vaccines like those made by Pfizer and Moderna are suited for the 16-to-65 age group.

Olarte explained that the mRNA vaccine -- a new type of jab -- is recommended for the younger population since it requires healthy cells to make antibodies against SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. He said mRNA molecules would serve as a messenger by giving cells a copy of instructions on how to make spike proteins which will induce the body to produce antibodies.

Pfizer and Moderna use mRNA or messenger ribonucleic acid molecules to send signals to the cells, so the cells must be healthy. They must be in good condition. It is better if the cell is from a younger age group like 16 or 18 to 65 years old where the cells are in good shape, Olarte told CNN Philippines New Day.

The anti-coronavirus shots of Pfizer and Moderna -- have shown high efficacy -- around 95% -- in clinical trials on thousands of participants, with limited side effects. The World Health Organization earlier said both vaccines should not be given to people who have suffered severe allergic reactions to any ingredient of Pfizer or Moderna's jab. This was after some people experienced life-threatening allergies after being inoculated with their anti-coronavirus shots. However, these serious allergic reactions are said to be rare. Side effects are usually mild similar to common vaccine reactions.

Meanwhile, traditional jabs or those that use a dead or weakened form of virus that prompts antibody response are recommended for people above 65, Olarte said. Vaccines manufactured by British firm AstraZeneca, US-based Novavax and Johnson & Johnson, and Chinese companies Sinopharm and Sinovac are made of either killed or attenuated virus, the health expert noted.

These kinds of vaccines do not use mRNA. They use viruses and the virus stimulates antibody formation bypassing the cell. We know that the cells in senior citizens are already old; they [have] degenerated. The responses are not as good as the body cells in a younger age group, the doctor explained.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III previously said that the shots made by Sinovac, as well as AstraZeneca and Moderna, had shown 100% efficacy against severe disease occurrence in clinical studies.
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ANN ARBOR, MI  Coronavirus cases at the University of Michigan now represent 34% of cases in Washtenaw County, according to the universitys COVID-19 dashboard.

The university identified 277 COVID-19 cases for the week of Jan. 24, according to the dashboard. On Jan. 27, the Washtenaw County Health Department recommended that all UM students stay in their campus-area residences to reduce the spread of COVID-19, including the more easily transmitted B.1.1.7. variant.

University of Michigan students told to stay home as virus variant cases climb

The dashboard does not identify if cases are related to the variant, and UM spokesman Rick Fitzgerald previously said there are no plans to make that change.

UM has identified 11 off-campus group living residences with positive cases or in-person gatherings during the stay-in-place recommendation, according to the dashboard. Those residences are under house-wide quarantine and pop-up testing is being arranged for those in quarantine to test on day five of their 14-day quarantine period, according to the dashboard.

The stay-in-place recommendation ends at 11:59 p.m. Feb. 7, but more stringent actions may be necessary if the outbreak continues to grow and additional variant clusters are identified, health department officials said.

Since Jan. 1, the university has identified 738 positive COVID-19 cases and administered 50,686 COVID-19 tests. More than half of those cases  438  have been recorded in the last 14 days, dashboard data shows.

There are currently seven individuals in quarantine, meaning they were potentially exposed or are awaiting test results. No students are in isolation, according to the dashboard.

READ MORE:

Michigan athletics to shut down for 2 weeks after COVID-19 outbreak

What you should know about the University of Michigans latest stay-in-place recommendation

It was bound to happen at some point: University of Michigan students react to COVID variant
- Bioprocess analyzers market is projected to show growth at a prodigious CAGR of 10% during 2019 to 2027; This growth can be attributed to increased research and development activities in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries

- On regional front, the North America bioprocess analyzers market will gather promising avenues in upcoming years

ALBANY, N.Y., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bioprocess is a method employed for the manufacturing of various biological products including commercially useful chemicals and genetically produced microbial strain. The technique of bioprocessing utilizes living material such as enzymes, chloroplasts, and bacteria. The process needs lower pressure & pH and lower temperature. It utilizes renewable resources as raw material. Thus, bioprocess offers more benefits in comparison to the traditional chemical production techniques.

Analysts at Transparency Market Research state that the global bioprocess analyzers market is foreseen to gain the valuation of US$ 600 Mn by the end of 2027. In 2018, the market for bioprocess analyzers was accounted for US$ 250 Mn.

Bioprocess Analyzers Market: Major Takeaways

In recent few years, numerous bioprocessing equipment such as bioprocess analyzers utilized in continuous biological product development are gathering impetus. This popularity is attributed to the ability of these equipment to lower the manufacturing cycle time, decrease capital costs, and time by stabilizing bioprocessing operations, and offer consistent product quality. Owing to this factor, the global bioprocess analyzers market is expected to show lucrative avenues in the forthcoming years.

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The area of life science including biotechnology and pharmacology & toxicology are experiencing extensive growth in investments. The main focus of these investments is the discovery of novel vaccines and medicines. This scenario is creating huge opportunities in the global advanced bioprocess analyzers market.

Bioprocess Analyzers Market: Leading Segments

In terms of product, the consumables & accessories segment is projected to offer lucrative avenues in the bioprocess analyzers market.

Of all applications, the recombinant protein is one of the prominent segments of the market.

Based on end-user, the bioprocess analyzers market is foreseen to gain prodigious growth opportunities from contract manufacturing organization segment.

North America was dominant region in the market for bioprocess analyzers during 2018.

Explore 186 pages of superlative research, current market scenario, and extensive geographical projections. Gain insights into the Bioprocess Analyzers Market (Product - Instruments, Consumables and Accessories; Application - Antibiotics, Recombinant Proteins, Biosimilars, Monoclonal Antibodies; End user - Biopharmaceutical Companies, Contract Manufacturing Organizations, Contract Research Organizations) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2019 - 2027 at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/46311

Bioprocess Analyzers Market: Growth Boosters

The global bioprocess analyzers market is likely to show growth at prominent pace in the forthcoming years. This growth can be attributed to increased research and development activities by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies across the globe.

Many biotech companies and research institutes across the globe are increasing research activities for the pre-diagnosis of various chronic diseases. This factor is working in favor of the global bioprocess analyzers market.

In recent few years, there is extensive growth in demand for human and humanized monoclonal antibodies. Key reason behind this scenario is noteworthy growth in cases of many chronic diseases including HIV and cancer. This factor many help in the development of the global bioprocess analyzers market throughout assessment period 2019 to 2027.

Request Brochure of Bioprocess Analyzers Market Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/brochure.php

In recent period, there is considerable growth in research studies to comprehend protein-protein interaction in order to perform a wide range of diagnostic tests including RIA and ELISA. This scenario is likely to drive the global bioprocess analyzers market in forthcoming years.

The vendors working in the global bioprocess analyzers market are growing interest in mergers and acquisition activities. Apart from this, many enterprises are concentrating toward strengthening their production capabilities. Moving forward, they are increasing concentration on technological advancements. This scenario is expected to fuel the expansion of the global bioprocess analyzers market in the years to come.

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Bioprocess Analyzers Market: Well-Established Participants

Some key players in the bioprocess analyzers market are:

Sartorius Group

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Nova Biomedical

Kaiser Optical Systems, Inc.

SYSBIOTECH GmbH

Optocell GmbH & Co. KG

YSI, Inc. (Xylem, Inc.)

Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the global Healthcare Industry:

Bioprocess Technology Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/bioprocess-technology-market.html

Immunoassay Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/immunoassay-market.html

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FAIRFIELD  An Ansonia man was arrested after police say he broke into a Bulkley Road home and stole from it.

Fairfield police Lt. Antonio Granata said Michael John Fernandez, 34, was arrested and charged with third-degree burglary, conspiracy to commit third-degree burglary, sixth-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit sixth-degree larceny for a Nov. 30 incident.

Granata said police were called to the residence at 3 a.m. for a reported burglary and found a window pushed in at the back of the home where they believe he entered.

He said rings, watches, necklaces and other items reported to be family heirlooms were reported stolen.

Surveillance footage from the residence showed a suspect and suspect vehicle with unique characteristics, he said. Information was developed through a Law Enforcement Database identifying Michael Fernandez as a suspect.

Granata said Fernandez has been convicted of 12 burglary offenses since 2017 and was known to operate a similar vehicle.

Detectives examined social media and found videos Fernandez posted that confirmed he drove a vehicle identical to the suspect vehicle on dates before and after the burglary. They also found his vehicle and confirmed it matched the one seen in surveillance footage from the night of the burglary, Granata said.

Fernandez was also wearing the same apparel as the suspect seen on the victims home surveillance video, he said.

He said a search warrant was issued for the vehicle after detectives observed property taken during the burglary in plain view inside it.

Detectives searched the vehicle and located the stolen items from the burglary, Granata said. A superior court arrest warrant was issued for Fernandez.

According to court documents, Fernandez was held on $200,000 bond and is scheduled to enter a plea on March 2.

joshua.labella@hearstmediact.com
DENVER, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Veterans for Responsible Leadership (VFRL), a nonpartisan organization representing veterans from many eras, today condemned the behavior of current and former military personnel who were reported to make up a disproportionate number of those arrested for participation in the deadly events at the US Capitol on January 6th. The 14% of reported arrests who are military members or veterans included a member of the so-called "Proud Boys" and Army veteran Joseph Randall Briggs, retired Air Force officer Larry Brock, former Marine and current national guardsman Jacob Fracker, and Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli, an Army reserve NCO, all of whom are reported to have actively participated in the violent extremism demonstrated at the nation's Capitol on January 6.

"Participation in the insurrection on January 6 by any current or former service member was a violation of their oath. This includes anyone who actively encouraged this horrendous attack on our democracy," said Dr. Daniel Barkhuff, VFRL president and former Navy SEAL. "None of these actions reflect US military values. We urge our fellow veterans to remember their oath and steer clear of this dark road."

According to widespread news reports and court documents, all four men entered the Capitol in violation of federal law. Images appear to show Brock breaching the Senate Chambers wearing a combat helmet and carrying zip ties. Briggs is reported to have encouraged "Proud Boy" participation before and during the insurrection.

"This is a stain on the entire military community. We need to do more to confront the forces and pull of extremism that plague our ranks," Dr. Barkhuff said.

VFRL's members believe that the vast majority of veterans value and cherish our democratic process. However, VFRL will continue to call out veterans whose behavior harms the United States, while organizing veterans to continue to be of service nationwide as civilians.

Veterans for Responsible Leadership (VFRL), http://vfrl.org , is a fully inclusive, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to preserve the integrity of American democracy against those who seek to undermine and subvert its institutions, the rule of law, and electoral system for personal or political advantage. Its members believe that service to the country shouldn't end when they take off the uniform , and all are asked to sign the Veteran Code, http://veterancode.org , to keep faith with their oath, their country, and their fellow veterans.

Media Contact: Jonathan Bernstein or Ellen Gustafson, [email protected] , (720) 449-2310

SOURCE Veterans for Responsible Leadership

Related Links

https://vfrl.org/


The fight against corruption will be long, arduous and drastic, Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong has declared.

Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong chairs a press conference held in Hanoi to announce the 13th National National Congresss results.

He was speaking at a press conference held in Hanoi on Monday to announce the results of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

In response to a question about the continued corruption fight during the new tenure, Mr. Trong said this was a problem that every country has to cope with. It could occur any time but might happen on wide or narrow scope.

It is easy for people who have power or high position to corrupt or act on the benefit of a group, he said.

Since the anti-corruption campaigned began in 2013, some Party Central Committee members and Politburo members have been jailed and their assets which were up to billions of Vietnamese ong seized.

He emphasised that the fight against corruption would never stop, no matter who the accused person is and there was no exceptions whatsoever.

Meanwhile, he hailed the 13th Party Congress a success.

I have attended many congresses. This congress was a really successful one in terms of content, form, organisation, working style and the final result is that the Congress passed the Resolution, Trong said, adding that the Congress was very well organised from accommodation and means of transportation for delegates, creating favourable conditions for them to attend the congress.

Every thing was made to ensure safety, especially during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Answering a question on reasons for achieving remarkable results of the 12th tenure, Nguyen Xuan Thang, Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, said a draft political report submitted to the 13th Congress highlighted important achievements in the fields of socio-economic, culture, environment, Party building work, political system, national defence and security and foreign affairs.

He attributed the results to the solidarity, unity in leadership as well as proper direction of the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat and the Party Committees at all levels. The drastic management and administration of the Government, the renewal of the National Assembly and the People's Councils at all levels also contributed to the success.

The report emphasises the role of the people, the strength of great national unity, the efforts of cadres, party members and the people who carry out the tasks of the 12th term, thereby demonstrating the spirit of active and creative work, creating a successful term with many success imprints," Thang said.

Responding to a question about the threats Viet Nam faced during this term, he said in addition to backward economy; wastefulness, corruption, self-development and self-transformations are big challenges which are clearly stated in the report [of 13th Congress].

These challenges are interacting with each other. Thus if we want to handle these things, we should have synchronised and positive solutions," Thang said.  VNS
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People across the Northeast United States were digging themselves out on Tuesday after a powerful storm blanketed parts of the region with more than 2 feet of snow, prompting airlines to cancel flights and contributing to at least two deaths.

The nor'easter - an East Coast storm whose winds blow from the northeast - cut power to thousands of households, and halted some subway and train service in and around New York City.

It dropped about 30 inches of snow in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and up to 18 inches in New York City.

A man clears snow in the Chinatown section of Manhattan on Tuesday after heavy snowfall blanketed New York City

A Wilmington, Massachusetts resident uses a snowblower to remove snow from his driveway on Tuesday

A resident of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania cleans snow off of a vehicle on Tuesday. Some parts of Pennsylvania reported more than 30 inches of snow

A resident of Stamford, Connecticut is seen above on Tuesday shoveling snow after the area was blanketed by the white stuff

A resident of Derry, New Hampshire uses a shovel to clean snow off his front steps on Tuesday

The snowy weather was expected to continue in parts of the Northeast, with a stretch from upstate New York to northern Maine hit the hardest, the National Weather Service said in its latest forecast on Tuesday.

Snow could develop in the Upper Midwest on Wednesday before the storm runs its course, it said.

In Virginia, four firefighters were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life threatening after their firetruck overturned Sunday on snow-covered roads in Henrico County, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

In Allentown, Pennsylvania, a 67-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease was found lying dead in the snow on Monday after wandering away from her home, police said.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has declared a disaster emergency as that state's residents begin digging out from the storm.

Wilmington, a town northwest of Boston, received 20 inches of snow during Monday's storm. A resident is seen above using a snowblower to clean up the snow on Tuesday

Wilmington, Massachusetts saw some of the highest snow accumulations in the Bay State

The image above shows a man using a skid steer machine to clear snow in front of a home in Wilmington, Massachusetts

A man wields a broom-like object to clean snow from his car in front of his home in Wilmington, Massachusetts on Tuesday

A snow-clearing crew uses large machinery to clear snow in Wilmington, Massachusetts, on Tuesday

Several areas of Massachusetts were hit with more than 18 inches of snow, including the central Massachusetts communities of Fitchburg, Lunenburg and Ashburnham

A car sits buried in the driveway of a home in Wilmington, Massachusetts, on Tuesday

A Wilmington, Massachusetts resident uses a snowblower to clear snow on Tuesday

The above image shows a couple using shovels to clear snow near a home in Wilmington, Massachusetts, on Tuesday

A Wilmington, Massachusetts, resident uses a shovel to clear snow from a driveway after the area was buried by some 20 inches of snow on Monday

Large piles of snow are seen above in front of the entrance to a school in Wilmington, Massachusetts on Tuesday

A Massachusetts resident removes snow from his car in a parking lot in Wilmington on Tuesday

A man protects himself from the falling snow while using a snowblower in Wilmington, Massachusetts on Tuesday

A bucket loader makes a large pile of snow in a supermarket parking lot in Wilmington, Massachusetts on Tuesday

The image above shows an excavator clearing a street in Wilmington, Massachusetts on Tuesday

The image above shows a man shoveling snow from a walkway in Wilmington, Massachusetts on Tuesday

Teens work for extra money helping to clear snow from homes around their neighborhood in Lawrence, Massachusetts on Tuesday

Wolf's proclamation frees up millions of dollars for snow removal and other expenses associated with the massive, slow-moving storm, which dumped feet of snow on swaths of eastern Pennsylvania.

It also authorizes state emergency management officials to request help from the National Guard.

Commercial vehicles remain banned on portions of interstates 80, 84 and 380, while restrictions remain in place on several other major roadways in eastern Pennsylvania.

The National Weather Service has reported huge snowfall totals throughout the central and eastern regions of the state, including 31 inches in Nazareth, 23 inches in Sterling, 22 inches in Auburn and 20 inches in Pocono Summit.

A man in Newark, New Jersey, died after being found lying in the snow on Monday, according to police officials, who said the death was not considered suspicious.

New Jersey residents spent Groundhog Day repeatedly plowing and shoveling even as snow showers, blowing snow, and coastal flooding continued to cause problems Tuesday throughout the state, forecasters said.

A state of emergency imposed Sunday by Governor Phil Murphy remained in effect and state government offices were closed for nonessential personnel.

A massive truck clears snow in Stamford, Connecticut on Tuesday after the huge snowstorm left up to a foot of snow in the state

The above image shows a large pile of snow in the parking lot of the Metro North station in Stamford, Connecticut on Tuesday

A utility worker is seen above in Stamford, Connecticut on Tuesday - a day after snow blanketed the area

A man uses a snowblower to clean up snow in front of a building in Stamford, Connecticut on Tuesday

The image above shows a man shoveling snow on Tuesday in the Connecticut town of Stamford

Cars parked on the side of the road are hemmed in by mounds of snow in Stamford, Connecticut on Tuesday

A massive pile of snow is seen above outside the Metro North railroad station in Stamford, Connecticut on Tuesday

A woman shovels her car out of the snow in Guttenberg, New Jersey on Tuesday

A car is seen above buried in snow in Guttenberg, New Jersey on Tuesday

Two workers shovel snow off of a building scaffolding in Guttenberg, New Jersey on Tuesday

A man shovels the sidewalk in front of an antique shop in West New York, New Jersey on Tuesday

Residents dig their cars out of the snow in West New York, New Jersey on Tuesday

Murphy said a commercial vehicle ban on state roads was lifted at noon on Tuesday.

Just about 2,000 customers were without power about midday Tuesday, the governor said, far fewer than were feared.

'I think we dodged a bullet,' said Board of Public Utilities President Joe Fiordaliso.

The National Weather Service reported 30 inches of snow fell in parts of Sussex and Morris counties on Monday.

NJ Transit resumed regular bus service in the southern part of the state, but it delayed resumption of bus and train service in the northern and central parts of the state.

The New Jersey State Police reported as of 7pm on Monday, troopers had responded to 661 crashes and aided 1,050 motorists since 6pm on Sunday.

There was also concern about coastal flooding due to the storm.

In a video posted on Facebook by Union Beach Police, Keyport Police Chief Shannon Torres and Captain Michael Ferm were shown rescuing a man who was showing signs of hypothermia in his car from floodwaters.

In Connecticut, Danbury racked up 19 inches in snowfall from the multiday storm, with other towns in the southern part of Connecticut not far behind, according to the National Weather Service.

Bridgeport and New Haven both got about 15 inches of snow, while parts of the Hartford area received about a foot or a little more.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont canceled a tractor-trailer ban on state highways at 6am on Tuesday and delayed the opening of state offices to 10am to allow for cleanup efforts.

'The storm appears to be winding down and our state and local road crews have been out all night to clear the roads,' Lamont said in a statement.

In other parts of New England, nearly 15 inches of snow piled up in southeast New Hampshire, and the mountains were getting heavy snow as well.

Much of southern New Hampshire got about a foot of snow with Derry having gotten 13 inches.

Parts of northern New Hampshire, known for ski resorts and snowmobile trails, have 9 to 10 inches on the ground.

'For the next couple of weeks, the conditions are going to be phenomenal' for winter sports, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said Tuesday during an interview on WZID-FM.

The snow continued falling in Maine and won't exit the northern part of the state until Wednesday morning, said meteorologist Michael Clair from the National Weather Service.

A woman digs out a car from deep snow on Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City on Tuesday

A man helps a driver dig her car out from deep snow on Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City on Tuesday

A man watches as the MTA's De-Icer train works on subway tracks as snow falls in Brooklyn on Tuesday

A man removes snow from a car during a snowstorm in Brooklyn on Tuesday

A New York City police officer is seen above clearing snow from his car in Manhattan on Tuesday

Workers are seen above cleaning the streets of snow in Manhattan on Tuesday after a massive snowstorm left more than a foot of accumulation

The image above shows a man clearing snow from a street in Brooklyn on Tuesday

A man carries a child in a stroller over snow in Brooklyn after the area was pummeled by a snowstorm

The image above shows a man shoveling snow off a sidewalk in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn on Tuesday

The image above shows a man shoveling snow on the street in New York City on Tuesday

Off the Maine coast, the ocean was churning with 20-foot swells, and a 73-mph gust was recorded at an offshore buoy.

Several areas of Massachusetts were hit with more than 18 inches of snow, including the central Massachusetts communities of Fitchburg, Lunenburg and Ashburnham.

Other isolated places with 18-plus inches were North Andover and Wilmington, the National Weather Service reported. Chepachet, a village in Glocester, took the prize in Rhode Island with 13 inches.

Power outages in Massachusetts and Rhode Island are minimal, fewer than 1,000 in the Ocean State and about 4,000 in Massachusetts.

In New York City, public transit was coming back to life.

Outdoor subway service, which had been suspended, resumed, buses were running on reduced schedules, and the area's major commuter railroads had resumed partial or full operations.

The city's LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, where flights were canceled on Monday, both said they were working to clear the snow and that they expected activity to pick up later on Tuesday.

The storm prompted widespread closings of schools and COVID-19 vaccination sites.

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday updated New Yorkers on storm recovery efforts and also warned of the two additional storms that could hit the state on Friday and Sunday.

The Friday storm is expected to produce winter weather throughout downstate New York, as well as parts of upstate.

'To all New Yorkers - continue to avoid nonessential travel throughout the duration of these weather systems so our crews can do their jobs safely and effectively,' Cuomo said on Tuesday.

New York City mom Alyssa Burnham was happy for her son to have 'a break from his regular routine.'

Now that snow days have blurred into remote-learning days, 'its fun for him to just get out here and be a kid,' she said as he played in the snow.

The New York City area had scattered power outages by early evening, affecting about 3,200 homes and businesses in the city and its New York suburbs, 4,000 in New Jersey and 1,200 in Connecticut.

Hundreds of flights and many trains and were canceled, and aboveground New York City subway service stopped at 2pm on Monday.

MANHATTAN: Parts of northern New England were waiting their turn to be pummeled by a heavy winter storm Tuesday, while residents of the New York City region were digging out from under piles of snow

BROOKLYN: A man is seen removing snow from around a vehicle Tuesday morning

F

In Connecticut, about 10,000 vaccination appointments were canceled on Monday, with plans to reschedule them for later this week.

Across the Northeast, many coronavirus vaccination sites closed on Monday.

Lamont said the storm forced the postponement of about 10,000 shots and delayed the states weekly resupply of vaccine, now expected on Tuesday.

He urged providers that called off vaccination appointments to extend their hours if needed to reschedule the shots by the end of the week.

The storm disrupted the second phase of Massachusetts' vaccine rollout as a Boston site that was supposed to open Monday for residents ages 75 and over did not; some other mass vaccination sites were open.

'Were used to dealing with snow this time of year, but it's important for folks to take this one seriously due to the heavy snowfall, the high winds, and the speed with which this snow is going to fall when it starts to come down,' Baker said at a press conference.

In a school year when many students are already learning from home, in-person classes were canceled in many places.

'I'd like to think there is still some virtual learning going on, with a little bit of time for sledding along the way,' Lamont quipped.
New international drama Shadowplay comes to SBS next month.

The series stars Taylor Kitsch, Nina Hoss and Michael C. Hall, set in the direct aftermath of World War II, seen from the perspective of 1946s Berlin.

The eight-part drama from the creators of Midnight Sun and The Bridge launches with a double episode on SBS and SBS on Demand.

Created by Mans Marlind (Midnight Sun, The Bridge) and co-directed with Bjorn Stein (Midnight Sun, The Bridge), Shadowplay is the wild west of purgatory. American cop Max McLaughlin (Taylor Kitsch, Friday Night Lights) arrives in Berlin in the summer of 1946 to help create a police force in the chaotic aftermath of the war. Maxs goal is to take down Englemacher Gladow, the Capone of this divided and broken city. Secretly, Max undertakes a personal crusade to find his missing brother (Logan Marshall-Green, Madame Bovary, The O.C), who is killing ex-Nazis in hiding. Unbeknownst to Max, he is being used as a pawn in what will become the Cold War. Shadowplay also stars Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under), Nina Hoss (My Little Sister, Homeland) and Tuppence Middleton (Mank, Sense8).

In an SBS On Demand exclusive, Shadowplay director Mans Marlind will be curating a collection of TV series for Australians to experience on the platform. The collection will showcase a wide variety of European dramas personally recommended by Mans, from ZeroZeroZero and Gomorrah to We Are Who We Are. The complete curation, Mans Marlind Guest Curates, will be available to view from Thursday 4 March.

Shadowplay will be subtitled in Simplified Chinese and Arabic and will be added to the subtitled collection on SBS On Demand. Each subtitled episode will drop at the same time as broadcast.

8:30pm Thursday 4 March on SBS.

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NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Firmament Group ("Firmament") and Harwood Private Capital ("Harwood") announced today an investment in Principal Logistics Technologies ("Principal Logistics" or the "Company"), a company that specializes in warehouse management system ("WMS") software solutions. The company has developed expertise within the United Kingdom and Irish cold storage, 3PL, and chemical warehouse sectors.

Principal Logistics is founded and led by Peter Flanagan, who founded the Company in 1993 and is the original product developer. Recently appointed, Brian Connolly has been driving the Company's acquisitions as the Corporate Development Director. Collectively, the entire management team has decades of experience with some members having been with the Company for more than 10 years.

Firmament and Harwood's investment in Principal Logistics will support the Company's growth strategy, which includes its most recent acquisition of Dublin-based company, Brentech Data Systems ("Brentech"). Brentech is a certified provider of distribution, warehouse management and ERP software solutions. Principal Logistics' Flanagan commented, "I am excited that our longstanding experience in deploying warehouse management software technology into the healthcare supply chain sector, as well as into a range of other sectors, will be increased by this strategic acquisition."

Flanagan added, "I want to thank Firmament and Harwood for the support they provided on this transaction. They are champions of small and mid-sized companies like Principal Logistics, and they provided a flexible capital solution, which helped us achieve our objectives."

Simmons & Simmons provided legal advice to Firmament while Dentons acted on behalf of Harwood.

About Principal Logistics Technologies

Since 1993 Principal Logistics Technologies (Principal Systems Ltd) has been delivering innovative, functionally-rich, Warehouse Management Software and associated technology to 3PL Logistics & Supply Chain warehouse businesses. Its in-house developed, blockchain technology-based, In-DEX WMS solutions suite optimises operational performance, reducing operating cost and increasing revenue. Its expertise spans warehouse operations across 3PL logistics, cold storage, commodities, distribution, FMCG, grocery, food & beverage, hazardous goods, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, retail and more.

About Brentech Data Systems

Brentech Data Systems is an ISO 9001:2015 certified provider of distribution, warehouse management and ERP software solutions with over 30 years' experience. The company has deployed its AWARDS & AWARDS-BA technology into many of the world's leading pharmaceuticals and distribution businesses. AWARDS & AWARDS-BA deliver high-scalability and order processing speed, reduces operational costs, increases efficiency and provides full traceability and compliance.

About Firmament

Firmament ( www.thefirmamentgroup.com ) provides tailored debt and equity capital solutions to small- and medium-sized enterprises. Firmament is a value-added partner to entrepreneurs, management teams and business owners and curates solutions by deploying versatile capital in a user-friendly way. Firmament concentrates on businesses in the healthcare services, software, health and wellness, food and agriculture, life sciences, and business services industries. With offices across the United States and in the United Kingdom, Firmament is focused on turning small business into big business.

CONTACT: Allie Reitman, media@thefirmamentgroup.com

About Principal Logistics Technologies

Harwood Private Capital (www.harwoodpc.com) provides bespoke, flexible debt and equity capital to growing SMEs across the UK and Ireland with profits over 1 million. We aim to partner with founder, family or management owned businesses looking for an alternative to control private equity or traditional bank finance.

Harwood Private Capital is part of Harwood Capital Management Group, a leading UK investor in small and lower mid-market companies, with 1.2 billion of AUM invested in public and private equities.

CONTACT: Jonathan Wheeler, jwheeler@harwoodcapital.co.uk

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/753954/The_Firmament_Group_Logo.jpg
LONDON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

February 2, 2021

Mr. Peter Cohen, Chairman of the Board

Dr. Jessica Shen, Director

Ms. Minnie Baylor-Henry, Director

Mr. Willie Bogan, Director

Dr. Jeff Dyer, Director

Mr. Chris Nolet, Director

PolarityTE, Inc.

123 North Wright Brothers Drive

Salt Lake City, UT 84116

Dear Members of the Board,

As you are aware, Gatemore Capital Management LLP ("Gatemore" or "we") manages the Gatemore Special Opportunities Fund, which today controls 3.7% of the common stock of PolarityTE, Inc. ("Polarity" or the "Company") on a fully diluted basis.

We are writing to follow up on our letter to Mr. Cohen and the members of the Board of Directors (the "Board"), dated December 28, 2020, in which we requested that the Board take the following three actions:

1. De-classify the Board;

2. Provide Gatemore access to books and records relating to the dilutive equity financings completed in February and December of 2020; and

3. Form a strategic alternatives committee to evaluate new financing and other strategic opportunities.

While we were pleased to see the Board announce the formation of a strategic alternatives committee on January 11, we were disappointed that you did not take any action to de-classify the Board and eliminate your staggered elections. Furthermore, in response to our request for access to books and records, you flatly denied our request, writing to us, "Polarity will not produce any documents in response to the Demand."

This stunning lack of transparency or reasonable accommodation to your stockholders is, unfortunately, part of a broader pattern of poor corporate governance at Polarity. Below is a list of, in our view, completely unnecessary defensive entrenchment provisions in the governing documents that, taken together, portrays a Board which ignores best practices and suppresses basic stockholder rights, particularly at a time of significant stockholder value deterioration.

PolarityTE Best Practice Maintains a classified board with only a subset of directors up for re-election each year, with each director serving three (3) year terms. Declassified board with all directors serving one-year terms. Bars stockholders from acting by written consent. Stockholders may act by written consent to approve all actions which may be approved by stockholders at a stockholder meeting. Requires 25% of outstanding shares to call a special meeting of the stockholders. Any stockholder may call a special meeting. Permits the removal of directors only "for cause", and only by a 67% supermajority of the stockholders. Any director may be removed with or without cause by holders of a simple majority of the outstanding shares. Stockholders may not fill vacancies on the Board. Both the Board and stockholders may fill vacancies on the Board, whether caused by director removal or a newly created director set. Requires a 67% supermajority of the stockholders to amend the Company's charter or bylaws. Permits stockholders to approve amendments to the Company's charter and bylaws by holders of a simple majority of the outstanding shares.

Further to the significant flaws in the governing documents of the Company that must be rectified, at the very least, to come into line with appropriate practice for public companies in the market, the Company has abused its nearly unfettered right to issue dilutive equity without any stockholder consent. We, therefore, call for appropriate curbs on the Board's right to approve equity issuances without the consent of the stockholders.

But perhaps the most egregious corporate governance issue is the seeming free pass that the Board has granted to the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, who has overseen the protracted and precipitous decline of stockholder value. As you all know, David Seaburg and Peter Cohen are close, long-time friends, having worked together for nine years at Cowen Group. Mr. Seaburg has no experience whatsoever in running a healthcare enterprise or guiding a company through a bet-the-company regulatory approval process. It is past time for this Board to hold the Company's senior executive management to account for the direction of the Company. Instead of meeting its fiduciary duty to oversee the executive team and an unqualified CEO, the Board has rewarded Mr. Seaburg with large share grants.

In addition to Gatemore, a significant number of your largest stockholders are similarly appalled by the corporate governance practices at Polarity. If the Board continues to show disregard for stockholders through inappropriate entrenchment policies, dilutive issuances and inadequate oversight of its senior executive management team, then we will be forced to take further action.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Liad Meidar

Managing Partner

Rob White, James Williams and Patrick Corcoran - +44 (0) 20 7952 2000 / [email protected]

SOURCE Gatemore Capital Management LLP
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The Lagos State House of Assembly has passed the Unlawful Societies and Cultism (Prohibition) Bill 2020, which has punishment for parents of convicted cultists as one of its components.

The House passed the bill during the plenary session on Monday through a voice vote conducted by the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa.

Mr Obasa said the House had included punishment for parents of cultists found guilty of cultism in the amendment of the Anti-Cultism Law, submitted by the state government.

The speaker said the punishment was to further prohibit unlawful societies and cultism, including other connected purposes in the state.

Parents of cultists found guilty of cultism in the state might be liable for punishment.

The bill, if signed into law, will provide for the prohibition of unlawful societies and cultism in Lagos and for connected purposes.

Though, we will also differentiate between the types of cultism in the country, so that we wont solve one problem and create another, he said.

The House did not specify the kind of punishment it was advocating.

Also contributing, David Setonji, representing Badagry Constituency II, described the issue as a major challenge for the state due to its commotion-causing devilish ideas.

Mr Setonji, therefore, admonished parents to take proper care of their children by ensuring their compliance with societal norms and values.

The issue of cultism has been a major challenge to us in the state.

There is nothing wrong in associations coming together, but when it has to do with devilish ideas, causing a commotion, that is what we are against.

As a result, parents should learn to take care of their children to ensure they conform to societal norms and values, he said.

The speaker, therefore, asked the acting Clerk of the House, Olalekan Onafeko, to send the clean copy of the bill to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his assent.

(NAN)
Japan's lower house of Parliament has approved bills making it possible for the government to impose fines on people and businesses for violation of the restrictions imposed against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Initial plans to introduce prison sentences for Covid-19 patients in refusing to be hospitalised were abandoned last week by ruling and main opposition parties following criticism that the punishment was too severe, reports Xinhua news agency.

Under a new agreement between the ruling and main opposition party which was approved on Monday, Covid-19 patients who refuse hospitalization could soon face fines of up to 500,000 yen, while those who do not comply with health officials' surveys could be fined up to 300,000 yen.

Previous plans were also to introduce fines of up to 500,000 yen for businesses that refuse to shorten their opening hours and close earlier under a state of emergency, and up to 300,000 yen for businesses not under a state of emergency but where anti-virus requests have been made by local prefectures.

The fines have now been lowered to 300,000 yen and 200,000 yen, respectively.

The lowered fines along with the other revisions to the infectious disease law and the special measures law will be enacted by the upper house of parliament on Wednesday.

Under the state of emergency that is now set to be extended, restaurants and bars have been ordered to close by 8 p.m. and people asked to refrain from making unnecessary trips outdoors, especially in the evenings.

The government has also urged people to work from home and large events will have their capacity capped.

is still grappling to bring the virus' spread under control.

On Monday, 1,792 new infections were reported across the country, bringing the nation's total tally of cases to 392,475.

The country's death toll has now risen to a total of 5,846, according to the latest statistics.

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Monday reported 393 new confirmed cases, with the capital city's cumulative total of infections rising to 100,234.

Health officials in the capital of 14 million said that 133 hospitalized patients are designated as being in a "serious condition".

--IANS

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A 32-year-old man has been charged with murder after the victim in a July 9 shooting in Worcester, identified in court records Monday as Luis Tiru-Romero, died over the weekend, months after being shot in the chest and head, authorities said.

Jose Antonio Merced, who had previously been arrested on assault to murder charges hours after the shooting on Mount Pleasant Street in Worcester, was ordered held without bail during his arraignment in Worcester District Court on Monday, according to prosecutors.

Police responded to the shooting at 6 Mount Pleasant St. shortly after 4:50 p.m. on July 9 and found a man inside the hallway suffering from gunshot wounds to his chest and head, authorities wrote in a police report. He was in critical condition.

The victim, who was identified in the report as Tiru-Romero, was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester with life-threatening injuries, the report said.

Tiru-Romero remained hospitalized in the months since the shooting. He was eventually taken to a hospice facility in New York and pronounced dead at 6:40 a.m. Saturday, according to the report.

Detectives detailed in their police report how a witness saw a person shoot Tiru-Romero with a handgun in the hallway.

A photo array was compiled and displayed to the witness, who then identified Merced with 99% certainty, the report said.

Merced was arrested by detectives and officers only a few hours later during a motor vehicle stop on Hope Avenue, according to the report. The Worcester man was handcuffed and taken back to the police station in an unmarked cruiser.

He was out on bail when he was taken into custody again Saturday afternoon, roughly 13 hours after Tiru-Romero died, Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.s office said in a statement.

The Worcester mans case was continued to March 1, officials said.

Related Content: Worcester police arrest Jose Antonio Merced on assault to murder charges hours after shooting on Mount Pleasant Street
CHICOPEE  The city is planning to purchase two trucks and hire two employees to try to reduce illegal dumping and littering throughout the city.

I want Chicopee to be one of the cleanest cities in Western Mass., if not the cleanest, Mayor John L. Vieau said as he rolled out his new plan. I want to focus in on building pride. It bothers me to see people littering.

When the privately owned Chicopee Sanitary Landfill closed in 2019, the city changed to a new system of trash collection that limited the amount of rubbish people could throw away for free. That left residents searching for ways to get rid of appliances, furniture, mattresses and other large items. Now their only option is to bring it to a private waste company, one of which charges a minimum fee of $130 to bring up to a ton of waste.

Using about $164,500 of the more than $1 million in the Department of Public Works enterprise account, Vieau said he has ordered a truck designed to carry large items for a new city-run bulk pickup program.

Residents will make an appointment through the citys new E-Permit process to dispose of up to three items. Residents pay a fee, schedule a day for pickup and leave the item outside the morning for it is to be picked up. There will be up to 10 appointments scheduled a day, he said.

The charge for the items is still being researched, Vieau said, explaining the collection will be a learn-as-you-go program and can be modified as issues arise.

The intent is to provide a service so it will be done on a break-even basis, Vieau said.

The second part of his plan is to have a small trash truck drive through the more than 30 parks in the city at least twice a week to collect trash barrels. Employees will also empty trash receptacles in other spots including Chicopee Center and the Connecticut River Bikeway, handle any dumping complaints and monitor frequent problem areas such as donation boxes, Vieau said.

The plan also calls for six additional trash barrels to be placed in strategic spots throughout the downtown to reduce littering, he said.

The two new employees will be laborers and will not need commercial drivers licenses to operate the vehicles, Vieau said. They can be shifted to other jobs if there are no or few appointments scheduled for the day, he said.

While City Councilors agreed there is a need for bulk pickup, several complained the mayor spent the money without approval from them. The debate at their Jan. 29 meeting devolved into a bickering match during the City Council meeting, with members interrupting each other.

Im not opposed to the program, Councilor James K. Tillotson said. I think money shouldnt be spent without the council voting on it.

He argued the enterprise fund  made up of money people pay to buy overflow trash bags  was created to defray costs of trash collection, not to create new programs.

Tillotson argued the ordinance needs to be changed because there are few, if any, funds solely under the control of the mayor.

Once she was able to break into the debate, Elizabette Botelho, the public works superintendent, confirmed the ordinance gives the mayor the authority to spend the money.

Botelho said the auditor recently told her the department had to start spending down the enterprise fund, so some of the money has been used to pay for fees to have trash hauled away.

I think it is a service that is needed and the reason it was discontinued back in the day was because of lack of use, said Councilor Joel McAuliffe, who worked for several years in the mayors office under Richard Kos.

I do believe there is a need for this program. ... I think residents are looking for bulk pickup, Councilor Derek Dobosz said. If there is a lot of demand the program can create income and if there isnt we can use it (the equipment) for other purposes.

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Four financial institutions face a ban from issuing any guarantees and securities for construction companies hired for projects under the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA). The letter signed by Habtamu Tegegn, the Authority's director-general, stated that the companies were excluded for failing to discharge their obligations in a timely manner.

The Cooperative Bank of Oromia, Enat Bank, Africa Insurance and Nib Insurance are the companies that were debarred from extending guarantees and bonds for construction companies. The letter dispatched to the project development and construction projects management divisions of the Authority stated that the ERA would not accept any new bonds and insurance policies from the companies until further instruction is given on the matter.

"The companies have been exhibiting limitations to the timely discharge of their obligations as per their promises and directives of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE)," reads the letter. "The companies exhibited persistent disobedience and similar previous experiences."

While giving projects to contractors, the Authority requires the companies to hold guarantees from banks and insurance firms as to their performance and any advance payments as well as to replace retention money held as per the contract requirement.

The Authority's contract framework also requires contractors to take out and maintain insurance coverage for the works; plant and equipment; personnel; and vehicles as protection against damages, losses and liabilities during the projects' overall lifespan. Thus, insurance firms sell policies to contractors such as the Contractor's All Risks Policy, Contractor's Plant & Machinery, Workmen Compensation and Professional Indemnity. Contractors also need to be furnished with different bonds as to their performance, advance payments, and other similar issues that require insurance coverage.

Considering the extended reputation of these financial institutions as credible and preferable for providing such guarantees and mainly taking into account their longer relations with ERA, the Authority had been willing to accept any guarantees supplied from them, according to the letter.

"Most of the financial institutions have been discharging their obligations and have fulfilled promises indicated in the contracts and conditions stated under the guarantees," reads the letter. "Nonetheless, some financial institutions have been exhibiting limitations to the timely discharge of their obligations."

Zufan Abebe, CEO of Nib Insurance, says that the Authority did not formally communicate with them about the issue; instead, they heard it from their client, whose guarantee from Nib would not be accepted by the Authority.

Nib is included on the list for a conditional bond for a construction company as an advance payment guarantee, according to Zufan, who adds that the construction company and the Authority are in a court battle, both suing each other. Nib was also involved in the court case.

"However, since the nature of the case [the guarantee Nib gave to a contractor] is a tripartite agreement," she said, "our case went to an arbitral tribunal under the Addis Abeba Chamber of Commerce & Sectoral Associations after the three of us agreed on it. And the case is pending there."

Zufan also says that the insurance company sent a letter to the Authority asking for clarification regarding the case's status. The arbitration tribunal has sent a letter to the Authority explaining the status of the case, according to her.

She argues that it should be noted that the case involves reinsurers as well, as large guarantees normally do. "If we pay ERA without having sufficient evidence that the contractor has failed, we'll lose the amount of money that should be recovered from [the] reinsurer," she explained.

"We're positively waiting for a response from the Authority," she told Fortune, stating that she is confident that the ERA is taking this seriously and will correct its position.

Zufan also adds that Nib is willing to discharge the value if the tribunal rules that the insurance firm is liable to pay the compensation for the guarantee it gave to the contractor.

"We've previously paid different claims to the Authority," she said.

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The claims value is minimal, and it is not something that can ruin the Bank's relationship with the Authority, according to Deribe Asfaw, president of Cooperative Bank of Oromia, which was required to pay six million Birr for a guarantee it gave to a construction company.

Deribe says the Bank has already settled the money, and it is about to start a clearance process.

"Since it's an unconditional bank guarantee," said Deribe, "we're supposed to pay the liability when the receiver defaults."

Initially, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and United Insurance were included on the Authority's list; however, they were removed after they settled the payments they were liable for, according to a source close to the case.

United was excluded from the list after settling 55 million Br in compensation for the performance guarantee bond it gave to Tibeb Construction, which failed to carry out a road project awarded in 2009. United paid the value after a seven-year court battle, which ended with the declaration that the construction firm had defaulted on the project.
Patricia de Leon has launched PDL Cosmetics in partnership with School House, the New York-based creative agency, which helped to develop the brand's core strategy and identity.

Related: Influencer Grace Chow Launches Beauty Line

PDL Cosmetics is a cruelty-free and vegan line of lip products comprising lipstick, liquid lipstick and lip gloss that are reportedly "transfer-proof."



The brand's identity encompasses the positive energy of de Leon and with that, the brand strategy was built on the sentiment that makeup can unlock personal potential. PDL's brand line "You, Unlimited." speaks to this power of individuals when they feel and are positive.

School House worked with the independent brand on a full-scale identity, encompassing positioning, vocal identity, visual identity, art direction, website design and content creation.

PDL Cosmetics' packaging design by School House celebrates positivity and potential in its inaugural strategy and visual branding. At the heart of the brand's visual identity is the power of emotion featuring the iconography of a butterfly-orchid hybrid, the state flower of de Leon's native Panama.

De Leon said, "I created PDL Cosmetics because I have learned throughout my life, career and work with others, that beauty can be positively life changing. The empowering feeling one gets when they put on a great lipstick or lip gloss is why my brand was born to encourage confidence and motivation for all. I am thrilled to be working with the wonderful team at School House who share my passion for the transformational power of color which is reflected in my brand."

School House art director, Irmand Trujillo, said, "Emotion played an important role in the art direction of the brand. We had a desire to create iconic images and visual experiences that match PDL's ethos to create a world of products that consider and work for Latin people."

Trujillo added, "The color palette was a core part of our brand work with PDL. We were inspired by the colors, ingredients, and architecture of Latin culture to create this vibrant, highly-saturated world."



Trujillo concluded, "We are looking forward to the next steps and future growth of this bold, proud brand. We are thrilled, as an agency with significant roots and representation within the Latin community, to help build a visual and brand identify that so boldly champions the Latin spirit."

School House founder and principal, Christopher Skinner, said, "School House was thrilled to partner with PDL cosmetics to build and consider their launch strategy at such a complex time. We wanted to celebrate a beauty line where Patricia's voice is front and center. PDL Cosmetics, like Patricia herself, unapologetically owns its power and is dedicated to helping all women aspire and persevere. The brand is Patricia and her audiences' journey, together."

Ingredients (Bold Aspirations Liquid Lipstick, Azucar Morena Cool Neutral Rose): Isododecane, Bis-Hydroxylauryl Dimethicone/IPDI Copolymer, Tridecyl Trimellitate, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Silica Dimethyl Silylate, Silica, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Tocopherol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Caprylyl Glycol, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Aroma (Flavor), Cyclopentasiloxane, Octyldodecanol, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Propylene Carbonate, Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Cinnamate, CI 77491/77492/77499 (Iron Oxides), CI 15850 (Red 7 Lake), CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide).
Press Release

2 February 2021

In one of his first initiatives as Sandals Resorts International's Executive Chairman, Adam Stewart has announced the creation of The Gordon "Butch" Stewart Tourism & Hospitality Scholarship, fostering the power of education to develop the next generation of Caribbean tourism leaders in honor of the Honorable Gordon "Butch" Stewart O.J, C.D, Hon. LLD.

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"My father fiercely believed in the power of possibility; he understood and celebrated the ability of people to rise above their potential and accomplish great things," said Adam Stewart, Executive Chairman of Sandals Resorts International. "This scholarship's core mission is to ensure a strong future for the Caribbean hotel industry by fueling the talent pipeline with opportunity - a true reflection of my father's passion for the region and its potential. That's why I am delighted to honor his memory and the example he set by empowering our team members to dream big and dream bright."

Funded through contributions raised by the Sandals Foundation, the brand's non-profit philanthropic arm aimed at making a difference in the lives of the Caribbean people, the eponymous scholarship is available to full-time team members who will be evaluated based on their financial needs, personal attributes, and success in their current role. Working alongside the esteemed Sandals Corporate University (SCU) and in partnership with local colleges and universities, recipient(s) of the scholarship will be eligible to receive funding for up to a four-year college program in hospitality and tourism. Applications will be accessible through the SCU starting June 1, 2021.

"When we launched the Sandals Foundation in 2009, we did so to put a formal face to the philanthropic efforts my father championed since he opened the doors of Sandals Montego Bay in 1981. It's my honor now to 'formalize' this scholarship in his name, cementing his passion for mentorship and his profound desire to elevate the promise of the Caribbean," said Stewart.

In addition to the scholarship program, those wishing to help honor the late Gordon "Butch" Stewart and his love of the region he called home, can do so by donating to support the marine conservation efforts of the Sandals Foundation. Through the creation and management of coral nurseries and marine sanctuaries, and by partnering with local community groups for mangrove restoration and turtle conservation, the Sandals Foundation has helped to restore and sustain the delicate marine ecosystems the world has come to know and love. Additionally, the Foundation has continued its commitment to work alongside local schools and educators to integrate marine education in their curriculum, spearhead hands-on field trips to protected areas, and engage residents in coastal communities on proper solid waste management programs to ensure the presence of environmental stewards for years to come.

According to Heidi Clarke, Executive Director of the Sandals Foundation, "The late Chairman was most at home when on the water. He had an unshakeable love for the Caribbean Sea and over the years, greatly contributed to marine conservation throughout the region," said Clarke. "Mr. Stewart has impacted so many people across the globe, and his legacy will live on as we continue to strengthen our partnerships and communities to be positive change makers."

Sandals Resorts International and the Sandals Foundation will continue to do their part in furthering Gordon "Butch" Stewart's passion for philanthropy by educating the region's people, providing the necessary tools and funds to further professional goals, and implementing initiatives to protect the islands he loved so much.

For more information and to donate to The Gordon "Butch" Stewart Tourism & Hospitality Scholarship or to Marine Conservation efforts, please visit www.sandalsfoundation.org.

About the Sandals Foundation

The Sandals Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Sandals Resorts International (SRI), the Caribbean's leading family-owned resort company. The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization was created to continue and expand upon the charitable work that Sandals Resorts International has undertaken since its founding in 1981 to play a meaningful role in the lives of the communities where SRI operates throughout the Caribbean. The Sandals Foundation funds projects in three core areas: education, community and the environment. One hundred per cent of the monies contributed by the general public to the Sandals Foundation go directly to programs benefiting the Caribbean community. To learn more, visit online at www.sandalsfoundation.org.

About Sandals Corporate University

Launched in March 2012, the Sandals Corporate University represents Sandals Resorts' commitment to the professional development of their 15,000+ employees through industry leading training and development programs in partnership with top-ranking accredited institutions of higher learning. Every team member has the opportunity to pursue courses and utilize resources that place them on a pathway to further advance their career and broaden their knowledge to ultimately attain their fullest potential.
Saudi Arabia wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) is mulling plans to launch a major airline to rival regional carriers, in collaboration with other investment entities, Bloomberg reports citing local online Maaal newspaper.

The news broken by unidentified people reveals that the future airline will operate international and domestic flights.

The project is under study, Gulf Business further notes.

The kingdoms current flagship carrier is Saudi Arabian Airlines and the Gulf country is also home for low-cost carrier Flyadeal, owned by Saudi Arabian Airlines, and Flynas, owned by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Sauds Kingdom Holding.

PIF was launched in December 2020 in a move that aims to further improve and develop the private security sector in the Kingdom.

It also launched recently its five-year strategy, including its Vision Realization Program (VRP) 2021-2025.

The fund expects to invest a minimum of $40bn annually in domestic projects and investments, contribute $320bn to non-oil GDP cumulatively through its portfolio companies, grow assets under management to over $1.07 trillion, and create 1.8 million direct and indirect jobs by the end of 2025.
Sonic The Hedgehog made his big screen debut last year alongside Jim Carrey and James Marsden.

And now the beloved video game character is heading to Netflix with his own 3D animated show.

Sonic Prime, a kids-and-family series from Sega of America and WildBrain, is slated to drop on the subscription streaming service in 2022, according to Variety.

Back in action: The beloved video game character Sonic The Hedgehog is heading to Netflix with his own 3D animated show, Variety reported on Monday

Netflix has commissioned 24 episodes featuring Sonic in 'an adventure where the fate of a strange new multiverse rests in his gloved hands,' the outlet reported.

The anthropomorphic blue hedgehog will also embark on a 'journey of self-discovery and redemption'.

In a statement, Dominique Bazay, Netflixs director of original animation, said: 'Sonic is a beloved character and holds a special place in everyones heart including my own.

'Its a privilege to be able to bring this character everyone knows and loves on a brand new adventure with Netflix  one that a generation of loyal fans and brand new fans around the world can enjoy.'

On a mission: Netflix has commissioned 24 episodes featuring Sonic in ' an adventure where the fate of a strange new multiverse rests in his gloved hands,' the outlet reported

Paramount Pictures released its live action Sonic adventure last August.

Ben Schwartz provided the voice for the animated character while Marsden played Tom and Carrey starred as the villainous Dr. Robotnik.

Sega and Paramount have announced that a sequel is in development.

Since its 1991 debut, Sonic the Hedgehog games have sold more than 1.14 billion units, according to Sega of America.
A trio of opposition parties in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region estimates that more than 50,000 civilians have been killed in the three-month conflict, and they urge the international community to intervene before a ` humanitarian disaster of biblical proportion will become a gruesome reality.'

The statement posted Tuesday does not say where the estimate comes from, and the parties could not immediately be reached. Communication links remain challenging in much of the region, making it difficult to verify claims by any side.

No official death toll has emerged since the fighting began in early November between Ethiopian and allied forces and those of the Tigray region who dominated the government for almost three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018. Each side now views the other as illegitimate.

The opposition parties say the international community should ensure the immediate withdrawal of fighters including soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, who witnesses say are supporting Ethiopian forces. The parties also urge an independent investigation into the conflict, dialogue, more humanitarian aid and media access to ``cover what is happening.''

Civilians throughout Tigray, a region of some 6 million people, have been dying from targeted attacks, crossfire, disease and lack of resources, according to witnesses. Even some of the new administrators appointed by Abiy's government have warned that people are dying of starvation as vast areas beyond main roads and towns still cannot be reached.

The opposition parties assert that the hunger is man-made as cattle have been killed and raided, crops burned and homes looted and destroyed. The statement was signed by the Tigray Independence Party, the National Congress of Great Tigray and Salsay Weyane Tigray.

Their statement accuses Ethiopia's government of ``using hunger as a weapon to subdue Tigray since it has been obstructing international efforts for humanitarian assistance.'' Ethiopia's government, however, has asserted that aid is being delivered and nearly 1.5 million people have been reached.

The United Nations and others have pressed for more humanitarian access and a solution to a complicated system of clearances with a variety of authorities, including ones on the ground.

`In 40 years (as) a humanitarian, I've rarely seen an aid response so impeded,` the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, tweeted on Monday.

U.N refugee chief Filippo Grandi after a visit to Tigray told reporters on Monday that the situation is ``extremely grave.' He said his team had heard a `very strong appeal' from appointed authorities in Tigray and Ethiopian ministries for more international help, and he pointed out that the UN works in `northern Syria, in Yemen, in areas of high insecurity.``

The Tigray region hosted 96,000 refugees from Eritrea before the fighting, and Grandi said he had spoken to some who were caught in the crossfire and then resorted to ``eating leaves'' after being cut off from support for several weeks. Others were forcibly returned to Eritrea by Eritrean forces, he said. It was not clear how many.

Two of the refugees' four camps remain inaccessible, and ``most likely there is no refugee presence here anymore,'' he said. Citing satellite imagery, the UK.-based DX Open Network nonprofit this week reported further destruction at the Hitsats and Shimelba camps in recent weeks by unnamed armed groups, with humanitarian facilities among those targeted.

Up to 20,000 of the refugees have been ``dispersed'' into areas where humanitarian workers don't have access, Grandi said.

The UN refugee chief also called for an independent, transparent investigation into alleged abuses. `The situation is very complex,' he said. `=`There has been a lot of crossfire, a lot of violations on all sides,' including Tigray-allied fighters.

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San Franciscos removal of a 124-year-old bronze statue that showed a vaquero and a missionary standing over a fallen and nearly naked American Indian was a legal response to longstanding complaints of racism and did not violate the rights of the sculptures admirers, a state appeals court ruled Monday.

Early Days, a 2,000-pound bronze statue, was one of five sculptures that made up the Pioneer Monument, erected in 1894 to commemorate the settling of California. After years of protests led by Native Americans, the statue was lifted from its perch near Civic Center Plaza in September 2018, with the approval of the citys Historic Preservation Commission, and placed in storage.

The removal has been fought by Petaluma attorney Frear Stephen Schmid, who argued to city officials and courts that San Francisco was censoring a work of art and discriminating against those with opposing viewpoints. The First District Court of Appeal rejected Schmids legal arguments Monday but said he deserved some credit for furthering a constructive discussion.

Slowly, through the years, Californians have begun to acknowledge and renounce this legacy of pioneer era nativism, in no small part due to civic debates like the one that took place in this case, Justice Jon Streeter said in a 3-0 ruling upholding a judges dismissal of Schmids lawsuit.

The monument was originally placed on Market Street near the corner of Grove and Hyde streets. Its move to Fulton Street near Civic Center Plaza in 1993 drew protests, but city officials approved the relocation, with then-Mayor Willie Brown observing, according to the court, that San Francisco had always been a site of controversy between cultures.

When the San Francisco Arts Commission proposed removing the statue 25 years later, the citys Board of Appeals initially refused, saying the city should preserve its history rather than conceal it. But the board reversed course after hearing public testimony that overwhelmingly favored removal.

Schmid then filed suit on behalf of himself and a local resident, saying the action violated their First Amendment right to discuss, appreciate, contemplate, engage and interpret a dedicated piece of fine art. They also claimed the city was discriminating against those of European heritage.

But the court said there was no evidence of discrimination and no legal right for anyone  other than artists and their heirs  to sue for preservation of works of art.

Governing requires policy choices to be made, Streeter said. And in carrying out those choices, government must speakand the First Amendment does not constrain what it says.

The suit, he said, was an attempt to transform ... a matter of cultural grievance into a claim of viewpoint discrimination. The proper remedy for any aggrieved San Franciscans, Streeter said, was the ballot box.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
The natural place for a residency director to go is chair, said Schultz, who has been the program director at the University of Rochester/Highland Hospital Family Medicine Residency program since 2002. But this is what Im meant to do, working with residents and helping patients. Someone comes to me as a medical student, and three years later theyre a board-certified family physician. Theres a high level of satisfaction in that.

Schultz has left his stamp on the program over the course of nearly two decades, starting tracks for global health and advocacy as well as launching an Explorers group that exposes local high school students to medical careers. During the virtual Residency Leadership Summit (formerly PDW-RPS), March 4-6, he will be honored for his efforts by the AAFP and the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors with the Nikitas J. Zervanos Outstanding Program Director Award. The honor will be added to a lengthy curriculum vitae that already includes numerous awards for teaching and leadership from the Academy, the AFMRD, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and state and local organizations.

When I look at the list of previous winners , its humbling, he said. These are people I look up to.

Schultz is putting residents on a path to become leaders in their own careers. He required funding for the advocacy and global health tracks as a condition of his hiring as program director.

My goal is to have people leave with skills they need to advocate for our specialty and patients, said Schultz, who also is an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Rochester.

Residents learn to write letters to policymakers as well as how to make visits (and maintain relationships) with legislators. Residents also have opportunities to put their knowledge to work at the state capitol, and legislators are invited to visit the program.

Schultz said Rochesters residents regularly serve in leadership roles at the local, state and national levels.

By Senior Colonel Wu Qian, Director General of the Information Office of the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and Spokesperson for the MND



Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), answers reporters' questions at a regular press conference on January 28, 2021. (mod.gov.cn/Photo by Li Xiaowei)

(The following English text of the press conference is for reference. In case of any divergence of interpretation, the Chinese text shall prevail.)

Senior Colonel Wu Qian: I have an announcement to make at the beginning. Recently, the 3rd Chinese peacekeeping helicopter unit to Sudans Darfur has begun withdrawing after finishing the missions of the United Nations - African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur(UNAMID). Some troops of the unit returned to China by a PLA Air Forces transport plane on January 27.

Since August 2017, the Chinese peacekeeping helicopter unit has carried out flying missions in more than 20 mission points, including Khartoum, Zalingei and Nyala. It has accomplished a raft of arduous, emergent and dangerous tasks, including humanitarian relief, medical evacuation of patients, and delivery of supplies for peacekeepers, bringing peace and stability to local people. The unit has been praised as a standard unit of peacekeeping by the UNAMID. All the members of the unit have been awarded the UN Peace Medals.

The pursuit of peace is in the DNA of the Chinese nation. Upholding the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, the Chinese military will continue to make contributions to world peace.

Question: At the beginning of the new year, President Xi Jinping signed the Central Military Commission (CMC) Order No.1 in 2021 to launch annual military training. What specific measures have the armed forces taken to implement President Xis order?

Answer: President Xi Jinping, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the CMC, signed the CMC Order No.1 in 2021 on January 4 to launch annual military training. Following the order, troops across the military took immediate and active actions to strengthen realistic training and joint training, improve training with a scientific approach, and manage training in accordance with the law, setting off an upsurge in military training in the new year.

First, leaders took the lead. From the theater commands to the various services and arms, the armed police force and the CMC organs, the principals took the lead in training and set an example for troops.

Second, strict real-combat training was highlighted. The theater commands organized skills training in joint operations command and special joint training. The services and arms carried out real-combat training on snowy plateaus and Gobi deserts, in mountains and forests, and in far seas, just in a bid to hone the troops in harsh environments. The intensity of the militarys winter training remained unchanged.

Third, the training was carefully planned with clear priorities. Overall plans were made to arrange major exercises and training tasks of the whole military, with focuses putting on force-on-force training based on operational plans, training in joint operations command, training in new equipment, new forces and new domains, and their integration into the joint operations system, so as to promote the transformation of military training and form a new type of military training system.

Strengthening combat-readiness is just to keep China away from war. Chinese service members will resolutely implement the decisions and instructions of the CPC Central Committee, the CMC and President Xi, comprehensively enhance real-combat training and war-winning capabilities, resolutely fulfill the missions and tasks entrusted by the Party and the people in the new era, so as to welcome the CPC centenary with outstanding achievements.

In order to better introduce the training of the military, we made a video clip named "2021-Military Training Kicks Off".

Question: President Elect Joe Biden was sworn in as President of the United States on January 20. Whats Chinas view on the China-US mil-to-mil relationship during the Trump administration? Whats China's expectation for the future relationship between the two militaries?

Answer: During the Trump administration, the China-US relations encountered serious difficulties, and the mil-to-mil relationship also faced a lot of risks and challenges. Facts have proved that containing China is an impossible mission. The troublemaker will only get himself in trouble.

The relations between China and the US and between their militaries have come to a new historical starting point. We hope the new US administration will work with the Chinese side, in the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, to strengthen dialogue, focus on cooperation, and manage differences for healthy and steady development of bilateral ties.

At the beginning of this year, the Chinese and American militaries have had some pragmatic exchanges. In January 26 and 27, the two militaries held video meetings on cooperation for searching the remains of American POW/MIA(Prisoner of War/Missing in Action) in China. The two sides discussed several cases and detailed cooperation. This fully reflected that China attaches importance to the US sides concerns in the humanitarian field.

We hope the US side will work with China towards the same goal with the same professionalism, properly address Chinas concerns in the mil-to-mil relationship, strengthen communication, manage risks, avoid crisis, and push the China-US mil-to-mil relationship forward along the right track.

Question: The reform of officer system has established a rank-based system involving three aspects  military rank, position grade, and payment and welfare level. Please brief us on the setting of military ranks in the new officer system and the detailed designs and considerations regarding these three aspects.

Answer: The new officer system has a substantial change in the hierarchy of officers. The old grade-based system has been reshuffled into a rank-based one. The new military rank system consists of ten ranks at three levels. Ranks for general officers include general, lieutenant general and major general; ranks for field officers include senior colonel, colonel, lieutenant colonel and major; and ranks for company officers include captain, first lieutenant and second lieutenant. The military ranks vary among different services and will be prefaced with name of the service in the title. The military ranks for commanding and administrative officers are identified differently from those for specialized and technical officers.

The new hierarchy system is mainly composed of three elements  military rank, position grade and payment and welfare level.

First, the basic order in managing the hierarchy of officers is determined by the military rank. In addition to its functions of distinguishing the hierarchy of officers, and pronouncing officer identification and honor, the military rank is further endowed with the functions of representing officers capabilities and contributions. Moreover, the role of military rank in adjusting officers career development and management, such as education and training, assessment and evaluation, promotion and appointment, demobilization and placement, has also been highlighted. Military rank now plays a dominant role with its intrinsic nature.

Second, the position grade plays an auxiliary role in regulating the promotion and appointment order and commanding relations of officers. The position grade is established in accordance with the grade of military units and officers. Position grades are correlated with military ranks. There are 15 position grades for commanding and administrative officers from vice chairman of the CMC to platoon commander, and four position grades for specialized and technical officers namely senior professional title, associate senior professional title, intermediate professional title and junior professional title. Such a design replaces some functions of the old grade system with position grades. The position grade plays an auxiliary role in officer management. It can further straightens out the order of officer promotion and appointment, clarifies the leading and commanding relations, aligns the hierarchy of officers with the organizational structure of troops, and facilitates a smooth transition from the old system to the new one.

Third, the payment and welfare level determines the basic living benefits of officers. A separate payment and welfare level is established to determine officers basic living benefits, including salary, housing, medical care, and insurances. Based on military ranks, there are 19 payment and welfare levels from Level-1 to Level-19. Each military rank corresponds to a specific range of payment and welfare levels. The payment and welfare level and military rank are correlated to some extent but not strictly bound, which can guarantee that even if officers are not promoted in military ranks, they can also be entitled to better benefits with good performance. This mechanism will guide officers to have long-term military service.

Question: In the reform of officer system, an officer position management system is established with classification of officer positions. Please elaborate on the new classification of officer positions.

Answer: The classification of officer positions is a necessary step to build a professionalized officer system. With operational command as the pivot, the officer system reform classifies officer positions into two major categories  commanding and administrative positions, and specialized and technical positions  with further specifications in each category based on different dimensions and levels.

In terms of work contents, commanding and administrative positions are divided into military positions and political positions. This arrangement is in line with the fundamental nature and purpose of the Chinese armed forces and the dual leadership system. It fully implements and reflects the fundamental principle that the CPC has absolute leadership over the military. In terms of duties, commanding and administrative positions can also be divided into commanding positions and staff positions. It is based on the different roles played by the positions in combat operations and force development. In terms of military specialties, they can be divided into services/arms-specific positions and positions not specific to services (arms). It is based on what professional expertise and experience are needed by the position.

Specialized and technical positions are divided into teaching positions, scientific research positions, engineering positions, health service positions, and specialized positions based on different duties. Such a design is consistent with the national classification of specialized and technical talent and can facilitate the attraction, cultivation and utilization of talent on a broader base.

Efforts will be made to deepen the classified management and development of officer positions in accordance with real situations to gradually put in place a multi-dimensional and multi-tiered position classification system for officers.

Question: According to reports, Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities recently stated that they would deepen ties between the US and Taiwan. At the same time, Taiwan's defense agency keeps mentioning the so-called entry of mainland military aircraft into Taiwan's southwest air defense identification zone. What's your comment, please?

Answer: Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. The Taiwan question is China's internal affair, which allows no foreign interference. The military activities carried out by the PLA in the Taiwan Strait are necessary actions in response to the current security situation across the Taiwan Strait and the need to maintain national sovereignty and security. It is also a solemn response to the interference of external forces and the provocations by the "Taiwan independence" forces.

The rejuvenation and reunification of the Chinese nation is an unstoppable trend. It is where the greater national interest lies, and what the people desire. In the long history of the Chinese nation, the actions taken by a small number of "Taiwan independence" separatists for independence are just like a bubble, which will not make any wave. We seriously warn those "Taiwan independence" forces that those who play with fire will set themselves on fire. "Taiwan independence" means war. The PLA will take all necessary measures to resolutely defeat any attempt by the "Taiwan independence" separatists, and firmly defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Question: Recently, there have been many local outbreaks and sporadic cases of COVID-19 in China. Under such circumstance, how does the Chinese military do its pandemic prevention and control work? Will the military support the local fight against the pandemic? At present, the pandemic situation overseas is still challenging. Could you please brief us on the Chinese military's international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic?

Answer: Recently, sporadic and clustered cases of COVID-19 appeared in many places across China. The Chinese military, with its joint prevention and control mechanism, responded quickly and adopted a series of measures to conduct pandemic prevention strictly.

First, the military organized relevant units to improve contingency plans, reinforce emergency duty, and strengthen coordination and response. Second, we have strengthened pandemic prevention and control work and the management over troops during the Spring Festival in accordance with the relevant arrangements of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council. Third, we carried out special inspections to enhance standardized management in key places such as fever clinics, quarantine areas and canteens. Fourth, we directed military units to strictly implement various pandemic prevention and control measures required by the local governments where the troops are stationed, and strictly prevent COVID-19 from entering barracks. Fifth, we deployed active-service troops, civilian personnel and militias to support local pandemic prevention tasks, such as quarantine and nucleic acid tests.

In response to the current situation of pandemic prevention and control, the Chinese military will continue to do a good job in tasks of pandemic prevention and control and medical treatment in barracks and thoroughly implement the relevant measures in accordance with national arrangements and the decisions made by the CMC. At the same time, the military will continue to support local pandemic prevention and control by providing more emergency response units and epidemiological experts.

In terms of Chinese militarys international cooperation in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, I would like to share a story about a Syrian military doctor, Major Tareq Muhammad. Dr. Tareq was admitted to the PLA Army Medical University to study clinical medicine in 2018. He graduated in 2020 and returned to Syria to work as the deputy director of the Department of Immunology and Rheumatology at a military hospital in Damascus.

After the COVID-19 outbreak, his department was mainly responsible for the diagnosis and quarantine of Covid patients. Dr. Tareq translated relevant knowledge on pandemic prevention and control he learned in China into Arabic to help improve his hospitals diagnosis and treatment mechanism. He used Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in treatment shared TCM prevention knowledge through social media. Dr. Tareqs story was covered by local media in Syria and widely acclaimed by the netizens.

Dr. Tareq's story is a epitome of the Chinese military's international cooperation in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. China will continue to shoulder its responsibilities as a major country with concrete actions and actively contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.



Tariq at work.

Question: We have noticed in President Xi's order for military training, he stressed that the military should conduct training aiming at real combat and promote combat capabilities through training. What are the priorities of the Chinese militarys training this year?

Answer: In 2021, the Chinese military will resolutely uphold Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military in its training work, stick to the military strategic guideline for a new era and implement the spirit of the military training meeting of the CMC. In accordance with the requests in the mobilization order by President Xi, the Chinese military will focus on the following five aspects:

First, focus on combat readiness training. The military will implement the requirements of full-time combat readiness and being ready to fight at any time, and strengthen training for emergencies and combat in response to real security threats. It will organize drills on combat readiness without advance notification, and explore the training-to-combat transition mode with no personnel, equipment or material supplement and with no change of combat readiness level conversion.

Second, focus on systematic training. Based on the laws in generating joint operations capabilities, the military will strengthen the leading role of strategic training, give full play to the pivotal role of joint training in theater commands, and promote the tactical and technical training through strategic and campaign training.

Third, focus on force-on-force training. The military will increase the proportion of force-on-force training at all levels and in all fields, expand live force-on-force training in fields of commanding and joint operations, and highlight force-on-force training in complex battlefield environments.

Fourth, focus on command capabilities training. The military will pay close attention to the command capabilities training for commanders at all levels, explore and establish training files for commanders, and exert all-out efforts to improve the commanders capabilities to lead troops and win wars.

Fifth, focus on using science and technology in training. The military will deepen the exploration of the training mode featuring science and technology plus and network plus to solve the training problems, vigorously develop simulation-, information- and intelligence-based training methods, and accelerate the exploration of training in new areas.

Question: According to media reports, the MND conscription office released promotion videos at the beginning of the year for the first time, encouraging young people to join the military and serve the nation. Please brief us on the conscription work this year. Besides, will there be biannual conscription this year under the influence of COVID-19?

Answer: The biannual conscription policy will be implemented from 2021 with the approval of the State Council and the CMC. The first round of conscription will start on February 20 and end on March 31, and the second will start on August 15 and end on September 30. The applicants can log on to the National Conscription Website (http://www.gfbzb.gov.cn) for more information about the registration time and specific requirements for male and female applicants. It should be noted that the female youth who graduated from full-time higher education in 2020 can apply in the first half of 2021, and their recruiting age is relaxed to 23.

This year, the recruitment of college students and graduates remains one of our priorities. We will recruit graduates from various universities and colleges at all levels, with priorities given to the students with science and engineering background and skilled talent needed for combat preparedness. Meanwhile, graduates from vocational colleges (including technical colleges) who have obtained the national certificates of occupational skill (vocational qualification certificates)at senior or above levels are also welcomed to join the military.

Joining the military and serving the country is an obligation, an honor, and also a responsibility. In this turbulent era, a broader stage is ahead of you, and a bright future is waiting for you!

Question: It is reported that this reform of the officer system has always incorporated the standard of combat effectiveness into specific policy designs, setting up a clear combat-oriented direction in all aspects of officer management. What are the specific manifestations of this in the rules?

Answer: Service members are born to win, and officers are expected to win in battles. The officer system reform has been adhering to the goal of emancipating and developing combat capabilities through the whole process. The reform takes the improvement of combat capabilities as the fundamental criterion in the design of all specific policies. Moreover, the reform aims to devise and strengthen the assessment standards as well as appointment and promotion qualifications for officers based on the needs of actual battles, plan and design their career development roadmaps aiming at generating and unleashing combat capabilities, and systematically carry out the education and training of officers in line with the needs of combat readiness.

For instance, a relatively stable service system is adopted to ensure officers have enough time to accumulate and unleash their combat capabilities. Officers are encouraged to constantly optimize their knowledge structure and hone their combat skills through the three-pronged training system. An objective and comprehensive evaluation system is established to test officers combat capabilities. Officers with excellent performance will have more opportunities for appointment and promotion, and those having strategic visions and strong capabilities can have more access to appropriate platforms to give full play to their talent. Dynamic and orderly officer exchanges are encouraged to strengthen rotation and flow and targeted allocation of capable officers. A more suitable payment and welfare system is established to ensure officers are dedicated to honing their combat capabilities.

Question: According to media reports, Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), said in his report to the eighth party congress of the Workers' Party of Korea(WPK) that the DPRK prioritizes the development of the special relationship with China, which has a long historical foundation, and the five meetings between the top leaders of the two countries provide a reliable guarantee for deepening bilateral ties. Could you please brief us on the current mil-to-mil relationship between China and the DPRK? In addition, Kim Jong Un also said that the DPRK will deal with the US in the principle of responding to aggressiveness with aggressiveness, responding to kindness with kindness". Do you have any comment on that?

Answer: China and the DPRK are friendly neighbors connected by the same mountains and rivers. In recent years, the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries have maintained close communications and forged profound friendship, which has injected strong impetus into the development of bilateral relations and opened a new chapter of China-DPRK friendship.

On January 11, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping sent a message to Kim Jong Un, congratulating him on election as the general secretary of the WPK of the DPRK. Pr. Xi stressed that it is an unswerving policy of the CPC and the Chinese government to preserve, consolidate and develop China-DPRK relations.

China is willing to continue to write a new chapter of China-DPRK friendly cooperation in accordance with the important consensus reached by the two sides, push forward the socialist cause of the two countries and safeguard regional peace, stability, development and prosperity.

Mil-to-mil relationship is an important part of China-DPRK relations and has made positive contributions to the consolidation and development of bilateral relations. China will continue to resolutely implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two parties and countries, conduct friendly exchanges between the two militaries at all levels, and play a positive role in promoting the development of China-DPRK friendly relations and safeguarding regional peace.

As a close neighbor of the Korean Peninsula, China stands for pursuing a political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue in accordance with the dual-track approach in a phased and synchronized manner. China is ready to work with all relevant parties to play a constructive role in realizing lasting peace on the Peninsula.

Question: The new officer system reshapes the officer selection and replacement and adjusts policies related to commissioned ranks and payment grades. It clarifies that the initial military rank for an officer is the rank of second lieutenant, and the commissioned rank for an officer cadet after his/her undergraduate education is also the rank of second lieutenant. What military ranks will be given to graduates with master degrees or doctoral degrees? What are the considerations behind such adjustments, please?

Answer: The officer system reform adjusts the initial military ranks for officers. The major changes include: officer cadets with a bachelors degree from a military school will be commissioned second lieutenant; those who directly continue graduate education will be commissioned second lieutenant after they finish their undergraduate programs, and after they get master and doctoral degrees, they will be promoted to first lieutenant and captain respectively; officers directly recruited from non-military schools will be commissioned corresponding military ranks based on their respective degrees and diploma; those recruited for their highly demanded skills will be commissioned corresponding ranks in consideration of their respective degrees and diploma, work experience, professional capabilities and positions while taking officers with the same or similar qualifications as the reference.

The adjustment of the commissioned rank is an important move aiming to build a rank-based officer system and optimize the structure and layout of officers. The adjustment is to address the lack of officers with second lieutenant ranks in the Chinese military. It can help young officers plan their career development roadmaps from the rank of second lieutenant and give them more time to hone their capabilities at lower ranks and build a solid foundation for future career. In addition, it is fair for officer cadets who graduate in the same year to be commissioned the same rank so they will start from the same point in their career development under a unified standard. At the same time, the payment and welfare level for graduates with a bachelors degree from military schools is set at the Level-18, equal to that of deputy company commanders in the past and remains generally unchanged. Similar policies were designed for military school graduates with other educational levels.

Question: January 11 of this year marked the 10th anniversary of the J-20s maiden flight. Have the J-20 fighters been equipped to troops on a large scale and formed combat capability yet?

Answer: The research and development of a complicated aviation platform must follow its objective laws, which requires a process from maiden flight to forming combat capability. It has been a decade since the J-20 fighter of the PLA Air Force completed its maiden flight on January 11, 2011. The J-20s combat capability has been gradually tested, and it has begun to be equipped to troops.

The Chinese Spring Festival of the Ox Year will come in two weeks. In traditional Chinese culture, the ox not only represents the spirit of dedication to serve the next generation while being head-bowed, like a willing ox, but also symbolizes the fighting spirit to gallop forward like a self-propelled ox.

Arriving along with the Year of the Ox is the new hope that stems from our faith and strength. As an old saying goes, To seek the truth, I would rather go heads-up against millions of others. Wish all of you a happy, lucky Year of the Ox.
New Delhi, Feb 3 : In a joint operation by Delhi Police Special Cell and UP Police, a wanted criminal was shot dead after an exchange of fire at about 10.30 p.m. on Tuesday near Gol Tubewell Baraut in UP at Binali-Meerut Road.

The wanted criminal indentified as Javed was wanted in a case of robbery-cum murder of a Delhi Police constable namely Manish Yadav in September 2020 and was earlier arrested in a gang rape case in Bhajanpura, Delhi in 2019.

Apart from the above cases, Javed was also wanted in two more cases of armed robberies in UP in September 2020. In one of these two cases, the accused had also stabbed the victim on his resistance.

Javed was carrying a reward of one lakh from UP Police.

"He was involved in 21 criminal cases including of murder, attempt to murder, robbery, snatching, assault on police, arms act, gangster act. Out of 21 cases, 13 were registered in Delhi while 8 in UP," said a senior Delhi police officer.
From: Albert Goldson -- Cerulean Council For Immediate Release: Dateline: New York , NY Tuesday, February 2, 2021



Apple Pie Origins The Made in America Weimar Republic-like chaotic violence last spring and summer reached a crescendo of intensity with the dramatic assault and occupation of the US Capitol building in early last month with the temporary planting of the Confederate battle flag. Notwithstanding the following week the Inauguration was held, a lawful and peaceful transition but under a police state level of security underscoring the present-day brittleness of American democracy. Because the impossible has become the plausible, certain present-day governments must be shaking in their boots fearing a surge of social upheaval and threat to their control. If the US, a beacon of political stability and civilized democratic practices, can come to the brink of implosion with the urging of elected political figures at the highest levels, then such an insurrection is not only likely, rather inevitable elsewhere. Think of this situation as the 21st century domino effect with its genesis originating in the US. France and Germany | Turning Point Elections The US, a democratic empire with respect to dwarfing every other nation in economic and military might and a longer and deeper running democracy, fissures are appearing in its socio-economic-political model. European democracies such as Germany and France have their respective growing legitimately elected ultra-conservative political parties which are making dramatic gains in government representation and have gained a certain level of respectability with the mainstream. For ultra-conservative and perhaps radical political elements, Americas beacon of light has a darker and more sinister hue that has tacitly legitimized the next level of political aggressiveness because it is either silently supported or not challenged by their well-educated mainstream demographic. And like their American counterparts who reach back to a delusional revisionist past chanting the mantra, Make American Great Again, European homegrown radicals and sympathizers espouse their own version of an undemocratic, ruthless and racist era such as the Third Reich and Frances colonial empire. The political crossroads for Germany and France are looming on the horizon. Germany has major federal elections this fall. Frances presidential elections are scheduled to take place in May 2022. With the departure of Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel, there is no dynamically strong incumbent to serve as an anchor for democratic principles against ultra-conservative parties like the Alternative for Germany. In France Marine Le Pens popularity is surging and according to several highly regard polls, shes within striking distance of seriously challenging President Macron to whom she lost in a landslide in 2017. Keep in mind that President Macron was an unknown who came from nowhere in forming his own party and within a year of its formation had captured the Elysee. The ultra-nationalists in both countries are gaining traction because of the pandemic-induced recession and deteriorating economies not to mention draconian lockdowns. Without a strong and noticeable economic recovery in the near future public sentiment will doubt the ability of traditional centrist parties and seek the alternative light, albeit a dark one, in the form of torches. Russia | Krashing the Kremlin Although many illiberal democracies and autocratic governments might be reveling in glee over the siege at the US Capitol building that counters the US pro-democracy advocacy, only the most near-sighted of them cant ignore that those mob scenes may be a preview that could occur among their own citizenry. If such an insurrection could occur in Washington, DC on large scale and come within a whisker of harming high-level government officials, then anything is possible. In the past weeks protests have swelled across a wide political-socio-economic demographic swath in 100 cities from Moscow to Vladivostok despite brutally cold weather. This has compelled Russian law enforcement to arrest and detain thousands, more than the usual suspects including over 80 journalists. Nonetheless its not the thousands unarmed protestors that keeps Putin & Company up at night. Though visually impressive, the number of protestors doesnt come close to threatening the present-day leadership. Rather Putin fears the erosion of political power in the upcoming legislative elections in September 2021 for the 450 seats in the State Duma of which United Russia the ruling party has 343 seats. Strangely Putin is manifesting his own Twilight Zone deja vu demise in the potential disintegration of his personal empire in the same way he witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union. The sentencing of his political nemesis Alexi Navalry for 2 years makes it difficult to determine how this will play out with future protests. But like all ultra-nationalists, the tighter the grip, the more brittle the control. With respect to security, five years ago Putin had Cassandra Complex-like foresight to establish special National Guard as a counter-measure for such contingencies. My article entitled Putins SS  The Kremlins Bodyguards published 30 December 2016 described the consolidation of several security services to form a 350,000 man force based exclusively in Moscow under his direct command. Turkey | Overlooked and Under-Appreciated The country that the mainstream media frequently overlooks with respect to their socio-economic situation is the crushing poverty that the pandemic has caused the general population, pushing many in the middle class into poverty for the first time in generations. This situation is creating and stoking a potential social unrest tinderbox that Erdogans government is ill-equipped to resolve economically with some form of relief funds. According to a 2019 Income and Living Conditions Survey of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) 17 million Turks live below the poverty line in a population of 81 million. The surveys definition of poor is when incomes are 60% less than the median income. In Turkey that translates to 21.5 million poor families. The 2020 survey, which would encompass pandemic related issues, wont be released until this upcoming September. For this reason the present-day economic suffering is anecdotal rather than quantitative. Although Turkeys presidential and general elections for the 600 member Grand National Assembly arent scheduled until 2023, popular discontent is growing rapidly and can boil over well beforehand. Instability in Turkey is a critical concern for the rest of Europe because Turkey is a buffer between Europe and the anarchistic situation in the Middle East not to mention the hundreds of thousands of refugees. Copycat Chaos The burning questions is, What are we in for? The clumsy, uncoordinated, haphazard and incompetent efforts by vaccine manufacturers and governments to distribute the vaccine and continued imposition of draconian lockdowns serve as a catalyst for conspiracy theories of a masterplan orchestrated by a shadowy elite. Its perfect public relations fodder for opposing political groups who realize that they wont have a better opportunity than now to challenge and replace the present-day governments whether at the ballot box or otherwise. The depth of the discontentment among a wide & deep swath of the mainstream demographic in many countries is articulated in The Atlantics article entitled The Capitol Rioters Arent Like Other Extremists, published 2 February 2021. In sum the majority of the protestors are first-time protestors, middle age professionals, with no affiliation with ultra-conservative or radical groups. Similarly in Russia the demographics of the protestors include many first-time protestors who are middle age across the political spectrum from Stalinists, nationalist and urban professionals, not the stereotypical narrowly defined reckless youth. Worldwide discontent occurring simultaneously in key countries that will compel these governments to batten down the hatches and focus their efforts domestically making international cooperation more difficult. Finally international cooperation on a myriad of issues will be exacerbated should there be a dramatic change in political parties in the aforementioned countries.  Copyright 2021 Cerulean Council LLC The Cerulean Council is a NYC-based think-tank that provides prescient, beyond-the-horizon, contrarian perspectives and risk assessments on geopolitical dynamics and global urban security. The Fifth Column Arises An extremely dark historical deja vu reenactment is being played out present-day in real time that is recreating events in the tumultuous year of 1968. Thousands of American extras are engaged throughout the country in sowing violence & mayhem in a reenactment of the Tet offensive but on American soil potentially at the Inauguration and certainly post-Inauguration. Already the FBI is vetting members of the National Guard brought in from numerous states who are assigned to support local law enforcement against violent protests and any other threats during the Inauguration.  Firstly, it seems an impossible task to vet every one of the thousands National Guardsman thoroughly enough to pass with a high degree of certainty that a member poses no threat during the ceremony.  Secondly, is the FBI vetting local law enforcement from which several members were alleged to be sympathetic to the pro-Trump protestors who laid siege on the Capital building?  Thirdly, and not least, following the old security adage, whos vetting the FBI? Disturbingly neither the National Guard nor local law enforcement in any part of the country have the training and experience in riot-control or have sufficient riot-specific equipment. For this reason to compensate, the temptation to use excessive force, particularly if they feel that their lives are in danger, is extremely high. This is why the alleged pro-Trump plan to protest at 50 state capitals regardless of the size or even non-violent protest is a devious quantitative gambit. The odds of any protest, anywhere devolving into violent confrontation is high and can trigger a cascade of escalations elsewhere thanks to social media. US Homeland Tet Offensive The Vietcong (VC) launched the infamous Tet Offense  the Vietnamese New Year  on January 30, 1968 with simultaneous attacks on 100 towns and cities throughout the country. Their objective was to provoke a popular uprising against the South Vietnamese government. Although despite the ferocity of their efforts the VC failed militarily but won politically in the long run because it decisively turned the American public against the US governments involvement in Vietnam. Jumping off the pages of a Twilight Zone script, a disturbing historical parallel is unfolding domestically in which, according to the FBI, a determined and well-supported armed anti-government movement is threatening 50 state capitals. January | Historical Deja Vu The following are the astonishing historical parallels between the Tet offensive in 1968 and the present-day violence in the US 53 years later in the same month:  The US was deeply divided politically and racially during the 1960s and present-day with violent protests that led up to the furious assault on government buildings.  The VC assault took place during Tet - their Lunar New Year - while the assault on the US Capitol building took place near our political New Year called The Inauguration in the same month of January.  In Vietnam and the US extremist elements surprised governmental forces.  Anti-government forces, VC and pro-Trump extremists, assault the US Embassy in Saigon (then South Vietnams capital) and the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, respectively.  In each assault the VC and extremists breached the outer security perimeter and had the opportunity to breach the inner sanctum to kidnap, or perhaps worse, the US Ambassador and Congressional members, respectively but never did.  In each assault on US territory exactly 5 Americans died.  Throughout Vietnam assaults against US and South Vietnamese forces raged. Present-day potential violent forces are targeting government, corporate and other important buildings. Seizing power through physical confrontation and reversing the election results is impossible. However like the VC, politically pro-Trump supporters can gain more sympathizers by planting the seeds for the GOPs eventual return to the White House in 2024. Because the venues for Inauguration Day are already predetermined pro-Trump supporters may encounter counter-protests at many of these venues. In other words, all hell could break loose throughout the week with the National Guard, law enforcement and citizens caught in the middle of endless riot firestorms. The following chart entitled DC Troop Levels Five Times as High as Iraq & Afghanistan provided by the US Department of Defense, Task & Purpose, The Drive and provided by Statista, an online statistical firm, embarrassingly shows the overwhelming force required to maintain the peaceful transfer of power in the nations capital. Smile! Youre On Candid Camera! | Citizens With Nothing to Lose It may seem odd and ludicrous that the many pro-Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol building not only didnt wear masks but enthusiastically took selfies, were easily identifiable afterwards. This meant that the rioters absolutely knew beforehand that their images would be recorded by security cameras in and around Capital building but didnt care that it would lead to criminal charges, loss of jobs or become nearly unemployable when identified. The aforementioned is the unsettling part because it signifies that these are people who feel that they have nothing to lose and, as the adage goes, makes this group extremely dangerous. Just as the Western media is befuddled about the religious true believers in emerging and developing countries who are willing to risk everything against their respective present-day governments or join violent groups in failed states, the same is being played out domestically. Similar to the Tet offensive, it also means that these protests will not simmer down or burn out over the course of several weeks or months, rather during the entire Biden administration until the climax of the 2024 US presidential election with the tacit support of likeminded powerful elements at the highest levels of every industry. Interestingly theres a stupefying weird perspective of the present-day violent surge of pro-Trump protests. During Trumps 2016 inauguration there was a paucity of these same pro-Trump supporters to celebrate his election victory. Yet theyve emerged from every nook & cranny in the thousands as Trump is about to leave office to fervently support him at his unabashed urging and continue the fight against the Biden Inauguration. Who Are Those Guys? | Mainstream Citizens Going Mad The following chart entitled Anti-Government Extremist Groups in the US provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center and provided by Statista, underscores the continued anti-government groups in the US. Although the number of groups have declined since the Obama administration, many of these present-day extremists  a cross-section of American society from struggling blue workers to highly-paid white collar professionals are radicalized with an unabashed willingness in committing violent acts.

The ominous coalescence of the present-day groups is that they bring a dangerous cross-section of skill sets, experience and insider knowledge from a wide variety of professions to more effectively undermine the incoming administration which makes them far more dangerous than the earlier street thuggish, anti-government groups. Bright Light in a Narrow Tunnel The urgency of the Biden administration is to avoid a Dark Winter 2 in 2021-2022 at all costs. If this spring through early fall Covid cases and deaths fail to abate and supersede inoculations, and medical personnel burn-out with hospitals running out of supplies, equipment & medicine, the US could become a struggling faraway emerging country with enormous resources blocked but by incompetence and corruption. The realpolitik is that Covid has become a sideshow, a political lightning rod for the opposition. Defeating Covid is a matter of scientific power which is slowly being accomplished. The real issue is the faltering real economy which has enslaved millions of Americans into debt and poverty. The citizenry is infuriated because they believe that the decades-old socio-economic-political structure has failed them over the course of many administrations and caters exclusively and rather openly to the elite. To put it bluntly these citizens have many valid points. The government and corporations have the power yet lack the will to make fundamental structural changes for the public good. With opposing sides digging in their heels unwilling to even discuss these matters in earnest, as the song goes Somethings gotta give but may be increasingly decided on the streets, not at the ballot box.  Copyright 2021 Cerulean Council LLC The Cerulean Council is a NYC-based think-tank that provides prescient, beyond-the-horizon, contrarian perspectives and risk assessments on geopolitical dynamics and global urban security. Political Civil War In a Twilight Zone deja vu there are fascinating yet disturbing historical parallels as Inauguration Day approaches. The shot that killed the US Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt trying to enter the US Capitol building and who now serves as the martyr rallying cry of the pro-Trump extremists, can be eerily compared to the first shot that ignited Americas Civil War at Fort Sumter in 1861, both occurring during a period of a nation deeply divided. For some historical perspective in July 1864 Confederate Lt. General Jabal Early led a battle-hardened, grizzled military force towards Washington DC known soon to be called the Battle of Fort Stevens and almost succeeded in breaching its defenses. Fortunately for the Union, Earlys long march towards the capital under blistering summer conditions and the need to rest for several days upon arrival delayed the main assault by several days. This fortuitous delay enabled the Union Army to frantically muster enough men to carry out a canon bombardment which discouraged a main assault. In January 2021 pro-Trump supporters had far more success with less personnel than Lt. General Early in breaching the Capitol buildings under-manned security, entered the building and came within a hairsbreadth of capturing members of Congress.as hostages Ironically, despite pro-Trump supporters having far less firepower than Lt. General Early, the National Guard will post 20,000 in & around the city for the upcoming 2021 inauguration, slightly less than the 23,000 troops that defended Washington DC in 1864, which powerfully underscores the seriousness of the crisis. Warlord Trumps Werewolves Theres no doubt that this 21st century political civil war is just getting started that will regularly go beyond heated verbal rhetoric. This third surge is undoubtedly a man-made political plague instigated by the proverbial presidential stamp of approval to not only continue rather escalate the fight well after he leaves office. The pro-Trump supporters voted with their military surplus boots in storming the Capitol. They may not have captured members of Congress but their mission was a success beyond their wildest dreams. This has only emboldened and galvanized this new movement. More disturbingly is that this event represents a far-deeper breach into the minds of Americans and despite all its democratic laws and military might, exposes the fragility and vulnerability of Americas democracy. Although Biden clearly won the election with the Electoral College and popular vote it was far from decisive. For this reason this non-decisive victory provides pro-Trump supporters fodder to pursue the stolen election claim, one that was not won beyond a reasonable doubt, a phrase that cannot be defined quantitatively. Only a Biden landslide would have been the coup de grace and pre-empted mass violence at the Capitol. Interestingly the election results indicate considerably more about the weakness of Bidens victory than of Trumps defeat. In war there are often a handful of violent diehard holdouts after a formal surrender encouraged by the defeated or deposed leadership. A similar situation might occur in the aftermath of Trumps election defeat. Trump may be censored on social media yet a multitude of pro-Trump groups have already arisen to communicate his gospel to those who consider our constitutional laws as mere guidelines. In an oft-repeated historical pattern, after regimes were defeated militarily, the ousted government still held powerful political sway in present-day democracies. The US is no exception. The Trump administration and subsequent scorched earth tactics at the US Capitol building is justifiably alarming and reveals the breath & depth of his influence. Trumps charismatic powers run far & deep among his diehard constituency. He received over 74 million votes amongst a wide range of citizens from the unemployed, blue collar disaffected workers to the hidden, albeit wealthy and powerful, not to mention millions of sympathizers all of which represents a daunting demographic. The dramatic violent maelstrom on the Capitol building is confirmation that these 74 million strong voters have his back. One doesnt have to read between the lines of Trumps public statements before, during or after the storming of the US Capitol that hell relish assuming the role of a post-presidential warlord and take advantage of an America, physically, economically and psychologically weakened by the pandemic. The Two Front War The present-day devastating pandemic surge throughout the country is a drain on the economy that threatens to blow past stress test parameters and triggers an economic seizure and possible collapse. The incoming Biden administration, along with the good members of the GOP who support our democratic institutions, face a daunting two front war each of which has equal top priority:  The first is international, the continuing external threat primarily from the emerging troika of China, Russia and non-states, who now smell blood in the water, and intensify their cyber-intrusions.  The second is domestic, the internal threat from the pro-Trump continency who, aside from the violent shock troops, has hidden and powerful supporters at all levels of business and society that could undermine socio-economic recovery efforts. The Biden administration is in an unenviable lose-lose situation that serves merely as a paper stop-gap until the decisive presidential 2024 election that will indelibly determine Americas path in the 21st century. The Sequel | The Security Nightmare The overwhelming attention is focused on a potential replay of violence by pro-Trump supporters not only at the inauguration rather at cities throughout the country and during the rest of this dark winter. What is overlooked or perhaps rarely mentioned, are the equally violent extreme leftist counterparts that are just itching for a pitched battle whether before, on or after inauguration day in any city or town in the US in a perverse re-enactment of the urban pitched battles during the Weimar Republic. These unfolding events were articulated in my article published on 7 August 2020 entitled The Upcoming Phases of Turmoil specifying the intensity of violence before the election, the period between the election and inauguration and post-inauguration. Furthermore the catalysts of violence are the newly inspired lone wolves and anarchists whose sole objective is violence and mayhem> They represent the accelerant that fuels the hatred by hiding under the socio-political banner of either side as they did with the nascent BLM movement. If violent clashes escalate well past the inauguration period, theres the potential for the state or federal government to declare a state of emergency and lockdowns. Further along should these emergency measures fail to quell the violence, they may become codified America. This step of last resort will trigger Americas descent down the slippery and often politically unrecoverable path towards a dak democracy whose constitutional rights are interpreted as privileges to be taken away selectively at the whim of the public/private, corporate/governmental masters in an organically produced domestic real-life version of the dystopian series The Man in the High Castle.  Copyright 2021 Cerulean Council LLC The Cerulean Council is a NYC-based think-tank that provides prescient, beyond-the-horizon, contrarian perspectives and risk assessments on geopolitical dynamics and global urban security. As approved vaccines are distributed as a priority to essential workers worldwide and soon to the general population, the decimated hospitality industry, many of whom are holding onto their fingertips at the edge of a financial abyss, will try to meet the pent-up demand by travelers whose disposable income during the lockdowns were not adversely affected and who can afford to travel. However there are unique factors in the industry that sets it apart that will make its recovery will be extremely asymmetrical due to non-economic, non-quantitative factors. The Travelers Perspective Vacation plans for tourists, and to a lesser extent for business travelers, are heavily based on word-of-mouth references and recommendations from friends, acquaintances, and business associates. Despite the cutting-edge, marketing cyber-sophistication of the hospitality and related & supporting industries, the core fundamentals of tourism will continue to almost always be grass roots oriented through face-to-face conversations. Travelers use technology as a post-decision tool to secure the cheapest and most convenient way to travel, not to confirm their destination decision. This process was brilliantly articulated in the movie The Matrix Reloaded in which Neo consulted the Oracle face to face. Imagine yourself as Neo talking to your friend the Oracle with respect to where you want to go. In the scene the Oracle explains to Neo, You didnt come here to make a choice. Youve already made the choice. Youre here to understand why you made it.  Firstly because of the extended lockdowns and travel restrictions no one has traveled in almost a year making references and recommendations impossible to come by.  Secondly, because of Covids fury, even older references are suspect because the status of many venues has changed dramatically, many of which have closed permanently. Everything has changed. Once freedom of travel becomes a reality there will be limited travel choices, nothing that all the time and money can overcome which means that theres no way to accurately predict the new tourism landscape. Feast or Famine The vaccines uneven distribution has begun with richer countries getting priority because of money, logistical distribution while developing and emerging markets, highly dependent are at the back of the line. The latter rely almost exclusively dependent on tourism for revenue. Like the dynamics of a funnel vaccinated tourists from rich countries will have difficult traveling to developing and emerging countries may still be banned or have limited access because of on-going high public health risks in developing and emerging countries. For this reason domestic tourism will rebound, even flourish, well before international travel. Furthermore an economy that is opening up is defined differently in each country and open to interpretation such as freedom of movement. Tourist may enter a country but will be restricted to specific resorts that are prison-like, gated-community. For this reason the global hospitality industry recovery will be asymmetrical and contingent on location. Business Travelers Business road warriors are hospitalitys revenue and profit margin bread & butter. Nonetheless even domestically there will be far fewer business travelers all of whom will be on limited budgets with shorter stays and lower entertainment expenditures. The business traveler demographic will probably consist of the business core essentials: C-suite executives and technical/sales personnel. During the lockdowns the effectiveness of teleconferencing has been proven to resolve most issues which eliminates future business travel for mid-level personnel. Present-Day State of Global Tourism Global tourism is a critical component of the worlds economy. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council there are 330 million hospitality jobs worldwide which represent one-tenth of the global work force and 10.3% of the global GDP in 2019. The United Nations World Tourism Organization(UNWTO) chart entitled Covid-19s Crushing Impact on International Tourism provided by Statista, an online statistical service, articulates how the pandemic has adversely impacted the global hospitality industry: Domestically, according to the US Travel Association US travel spending is down 45% from 2019. Already 3.5 million or 40% of the travel jobs have been lost with an additional one million by years end. Their forecast is that pre-pandemic levels wont return until 2024. Even with limited international openings, domestic tourism will far outstrip international tourism because in an increasingly unstable geopolitical world notably Americans will be more comfortable traveling in their own country with the same language, culture, and rapid ease of return travel to their hometowns in case of sudden full lockdown mandates. With respect to the hospitality industry financially, the pandemic has been a crushing blow. The following chart developed by UNWTO and presented by Statista entitled Tourism Back to 1990 Levels as Pandemic Halts Travel powerfully underscores this reality and the difficulty in recovery:

Zero Hour | The Re-Set Of all the components in international tourism airlines are best suited to adapt to the uneven recovery. Historically airlines are far better prepared and adaptable in adjusting to demand with fewer flights, smaller aircraft, re-routing through hubs, etc. maintain competitive pricing while securing a reasonable profit. On the other hand geographically fixed services such as hotels have a fixed costs and fixed number of rooms and do not have the means to reduce the cost of those unfilled rooms. With respect to the international and domestic hospitality industry, the logistical challenges and manufacturing to scale of the vaccine will continue to be problematic and delay global economic recovery through most of 2021. Furthermore the continued global economic recession will depress travel & leisure demand which means that the hospitality industry recovery will be arduously slow and painful.  Copyright 2021 Cerulean Council LLC The Cerulean Council is a NYC-based think-tank that provides prescient, beyond-the-horizon, contrarian perspectives and risk assessments on geopolitical dynamics and global urban security. The FDA and British government approvals of Covid-19 vaccines marks the beginning for the upcoming Herculean logistical effort required to inoculate billions of citizens worldwide. For this reason a robust global supply chain will be required at each stage from manufacturing to final delivery. This global inoculation effort is unprecedented. Past inoculation efforts have been country-specific or regional to combat epidemics, not pandemics, and not without its share of complexities and inevitable difficulties. Even if one uses those earlier efforts as operational templates, the sheer depth & breadth of the forthcoming global distribution effort is far more overwhelming logistically, economically and politically. Its one thing to have an approved and safe product, its another to manufacture it to scale and safely distribute it globally requiring the most stringent requirements. Just imagine trying to supply vaccines to one city, akin to the 1947 Berlin airlift which took place over many months and saved German citizens from starvation. A similar logistical effort but on a global scale will be required to save the world from economic collapse. For this reason this is why air cargo is a key component in the critical path of this supply chain/distribution process. Investment Opportunities in Air Cargo Transport The major airlines will play a major role in the transport of vaccines worldwide and investment in any specific airline stock will provide a good return on investment based on a growing and long-term sustained demand for worldwide distribution. The following are the types of air companies that will literally do the heavy-lifting: Airlines The following three major US airlines at the forefront to transport the vaccine worldwide are: 1. American Airlines [NASDQ: AAL] 2. United Airlines [NASDQ: UAL] 3. Delta Airlines [NYSE: DAL] Airfreight Cargo The three major airfreight cargo companies who already specialize in transporting pharmaceuticals but now must do it at scale as a priority are: 1. Fedex [NYSE: FDX] 2. UPS [NYSE: UPS] 3. DHL [OTC MKTS: DPSGY] My investment preference is Air Transport Services Group (ATSG: NASDAQ) because of their broad-based worldwide provider of air cargo. According to their website, ATSG is a leading provider of aircraft leasing and air cargo transportation and related services to domestic and foreign air carriers and other companies that outsource their air cargo lift requirements. ATSG, through its leasing and airline subsidiaries, is the world's largest owner and operator of converted Boeing 767 freighter aircraft. Their services encompass four tenets: (1) leasing, (2) operating, (3) maintenance, repair and overhaul and (4) flight & ground support. Furthermore because of their wide range of services they have more aviation logistic partners. However the following are present-day aviation logistical challenges against the background of a strong demand that far exceeds supply: Air Cargo Freighter Shortage Securing the numerous mothballed aircraft configured and certified for air cargo (cargo freighters) is easier said than done. Even if all the available air cargo freighters were in operation right now, their numbers fall far short of what is required for the global transport of the vaccine. To offset this shortage air companies are converting passenger jets to cargo freighters, the best suited being wide-bodied, long haul models. One such example is the conversion of the new but economically disappointing passenger A-380 which has a 50-ton cargo capacity. Furthermore these large aircraft can only fulfill cargo flights between major hubs with long runways that can handle this type aircraft. Smaller air cargo aircraft will be required to transport the vaccine to secondary urban areas, non-urban areas and more remote areas. Qualified Pilot Shortage Another challenge is the severe shortage of pilots. Because of lockdowns and an almost cessation of air travel, many pilots were either furloughed, let go (younger pilots) or offered early retirement packages (senior pilots). The next step is to (re)hire pilots who are experienced flying air cargo freighters and train those who havent. Unlike a truck driver who can learn quickly on a different model truck without passing a regulatory-mandated check ride, pilots must be certified on the particular type of air cargo aircraft. The shortage of air cargo freighters and qualified/certified pilots compounds the problem to distribute the vaccine at scale. The following chart entitled Thousands of US Pilots Face Furlough This Fall provided by CBS News and presented by Statista, an online statistical firm, highlights the challenge of pilot callbacks to meet the surge in demand for vaccine air delivery. What should not be overlooked are the critical support services required including maintenance personnel who are also on furlough. Stress Test for Global Supply Chain Air cargo comprises less than one percent of transported goods with pharmaceuticals being one of those goods that are usually air shipped. Pharmaceutical companies have established supply chains but they are not designed for mass global distribution. For this reason its architectural structure must be heavily modified, expanded and made a priority over the shipment of regular prescription drugs such as those for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and anti-depressants. Early Pandemic-Related Company Investment Recommendations With respect to pandemic-related products & services and stock recommended track record, my earlier SA article entitled SA article 25 March 2020 entitled USA: A Brutal Coronavirus Economic Reset published 25 March 2020, I was extremely bullish and recommended a strong buy for Moderna Inc. [MRNA: NASDAQ] in the biotech section who had just begun developing a vaccine. Present-day their vaccine is on the cusp of FDA approval and their stock price has exploded from $27.13 on 25 March 2020 (the publication date of my article) to $125.73 on 22 December 2020. The logistics and air transport are unlikely to provide the explosive returns as Moderna, I believe that its immediate to long-term prospects for steady growth are excellent. Outlook Because of the aforementioned aviation logistical challenges I forecast that these air transport equipment and professional services shortages will push back the overly ambitious mass distribution and inoculation schedule well into the late summer and fall of 2021. I project that this transportation demand will continue unabated well into 2022 particularly to lesser developed countries and geographically difficult to reach regions. Ironically the approval of additional vaccines in late winter and spring will not ease the distribution problem because they will offset the difficulties in the mass production of upcoming newly-approved vaccines. This will create an even larger ready-to-ship inventory which will outstrip the increased availability of air cargo transport equipment and professional services not to mention the stockpiling of vaccines. For this reason the need for air cargo transport services will continue well into 2022.  Copyright 2020 Cerulean Council LLC The Cerulean Council is a NYC-based think-tank that provides prescient, beyond-the-horizon, contrarian perspectives and risk assessments on geopolitical dynamics and global urban security.







It is an open secret of the extreme disconnect between the surge in the stock market erroneously labeled as an economic recovery thats underway and the brutal suffering and reality of the common working man and woman. Indeed there is a psychological pent-up demand, a nostalgic desire to return to the old normal in a new normal era. For this reason once the vaccine is widely distributed there will be an economic spike fueled by consumer demand but it will be short-lived as the reality of a continued broken economy and broken personal finances set in. Even your currently employed consumer will realize his limited post-pandemic financial resources because of the changing work dynamics and even pay cut if he decides to continue to work remotely. Small Business Last Stand Some vigilante small businesses, particularly the low profit margin eateries and bars, remain open in defiance of government mandates with respect to indoor and outdoor dining restrictions. Then there are the lucky ones in some municipalities in which the restrictions are on the books yet unenforced. Understandably from the small business perspective its profits over pandemics for the purposes of survival  for the owners, not just the business - because the governmental restrictions, not the virus, represent an existential threat. They know that the cavalry is not coming because government bailouts are only for big businesses. In fact the government is seen not as the rescuing and protective cavalry of the small business owner, rather as rapturous raiders who have historically decimated their profits through capricious regulations and high taxes. For the little guy there are no parachutes. Its go for broke and go down swinging. How It Plays Out The emergence from the Dark Winter of 2020-2021 will ignore the economic rubble with the brief spurt in consumer spending that will give the mainstream media the illusion of a V-shaped recovery underway. This ultra- short-term jump in consumer spending is just that, V-shaped spending but not V-shaped recovery. Recovery is sustainable over many months or years. The mass inoculation gives consumers freedom of movement but because of continued mass unemployment, will be still imprisoned by debt. For this reason the markets will push further into record territory as the black-clad Pied Piper leading investors merrily over the edge because of this misread, and for others who do recognize it, pure greed thinking they can exit before it crashes. As Ive always stated, regardless how quickly you exit is meaningless when the entire building is collapsing. The following chart entitled Service Sector Struggles to Recover Lost Jobs provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and presented by Statista, an online statistical firm, shows the dire situation of the leisure & hospitality sector which has lost almost 3.5 million jobs. The sectors that have suffered the most are the ones that are labor-intensive, difficult to automat and the last ones to make considerable recoveries.

These job losses are far too severe for even the most robust V-shaped economic recovery to bring it back close to pre-pandemic levels even by end of 2021. Mass unemployment, corporate reconfiguration and overhauling 2021 budgets to adapt to a less intense work environment, robotics/automation, high level of flexibility indicate a cautious, uneven, drawn out economic recovery. Corporate financial projections beyond 3 years are not better than using a dart board. Time Compression | Short-Term is the New Long-Term Not only immediate (or near) post-pandemic rather medium-term consumer behavior during unprecedented times. Weve endured three catastrophes in the 21st century in less than a generation: 9/11, the Great Recession and Covid-19, all of which has directly or indirectly affected most of the worlds population. These aforementioned catastrophes mirror the more often occurring once-in-a-century occurrence which has now become a misnomer. Because the intensity of these oft-occurring catastrophes are uncontrollable and unpredictable, its near impossible economically and psychologically to prepare properly for every type of catastrophe. Imagine the possibility of a future far worse pandemic (Covid-19s ease of transmission with Ebolas lethality) or a market crash occurring in short order and longer lasting than their predecessors. For these reasons it may prompt a redefinition of how short, medium and long-term are defined. In broad terms, when people think of long-term one imagines 10, 15 or 20 years. Using the first 20 years of this century as a baseline, short-term may now be one year, medium term 2-5 years and long-term 5-10 years  in other words a time compression outlook. As the impossible has become the plausible, personal, business and government expenditures may take on a new dynamic with a radically different projections and risk assessment models.  Copyright 2020 Cerulean Council LLC The Cerulean Council is a NYC-based think-tank that provides prescient, beyond-the-horizon, contrarian perspectives and risk assessments on geopolitical dynamics and global urban security. The pandemic has exiled many workers into the cloud  a de facto digital Off-World colony as in the dystopic movie Blade Runner which has redefined how workers communicate. The parallel to the movie, which ironically was released in 2019, the same year in which Covid appeared, is unerring to the present-day crisis. In the movie those who were could not pass the medical remained in a hyper-dense, environmental petri dish. In 2020 those whose professions require hands-on work such as essential workers in the medical field and support services as well as those in retail and blue-collar jobs, must also toil in a viral toxic environment. During the carefree pre-pandemic era, the visual cues at work with respect to body language determined whether the workers body language was (in)congruent with their words. Since the digital world has dominated communications since March and will continue well into 2021, the ability to accurately read body language has greatly diminished. With far fewer visual tells remote work has become literally remote communication in the non-technical sense. We Are All Digital Ambassadors Since March those fortunate to work remotely have communicated via Zoom or similar software. Regardless of their title or positions, the worker has seized the initiative to take advantage in becoming their own movie director and producer by leveraging their home as their Hollywood studio with complete control of what viewers see. Human contact is paramount and provides a modicum of warmth even the most austere and sterile designed office space. Remote work offers a psychological sabbatical for many workers with respect to having total control over their work environment for several reasons. Job satisfaction has been declining for years as management imposes greater demands, longer work hours, greater responsibility but stagnant pay, and limited promotional opportunities particularly for middle age workers who are trapped under the invisible glass of age-discrimination. In other words the digital workplace provides a certain albeit temporary level of empowerment. Inception Meets The Matrix The virtual cloud allows the ability to merge the visual special effects of the movies: The Matrix meets Inception. As a creator the worker creates and customizes his own environment and reality to get ready for his close-up. Because video meetings are usually pre-scheduled, they provide the worker more time to literally set the stage and prepare his work and personal presentation which eliminates the sudden impromptu face-to-face meeting. This allows the worker to gradually develop an Academy Award worthy performance in a familiar and customized setting. Off-screen is out of sight, out of mind but beware the hot mic. In this era of the split screen, a split-personality is the only way to go. Putting this same high-level, on-screen performance in person at the office all day, every day is exhausting. Murphys Law dictates than any slip-up will occur at the wrong place, at the wrong time in the presence of the wrong person or group. Digital Body Language | The New Baseline Determining the new body language baseline in the digital world is far more challenging for several reasons. The primary difficult is that many workers are reinventing themselves on camera because of their remote location in their fortress home and can confidently establish new personas. Although one can use vocal cues such as inflections, tonality, and cadence as a guide, some people verbally communicate somewhat differently in person vs on the phone vs teleconferencing in which older quirks are not visible or suppressed and new ones are accentuated. With respect to visual cues, a considerable component of body language has been removed because one only views the upper body or perhaps only the head of the person on screen. Nervous tics, gestures, and tells can be more easily hidden by creative camera angles, lighting and positioning or simply filling the screen with the persons face. Because of the aforementioned reasons, the digital arrangement forces reading body language far more challenging because the baseline has shifted dramatically. Group View vs Group Think Body language is an important component in the face-to-face business world. However the present-day necessity and convenience of digital communications has eliminated a critical element  the collective group body language - whether internally (in-house) or externally in negotiating with an outside firm. Face-to-face meetings often feature several members of varying seniority of a specific unit, department or division. Each individual provides his own unique specific body language baseline signature. Using these behavioral baselines, tells determine whether everybody in the unit is onboard with an idea. An example could be a managers effusive proposal genuinely supported by his body language yet betrayed by his underlings body language that convey profound reservations. However in remote meetings, theres only one view of each member of a group as separate individuals, not as a collective as it would be in person. To the untrained eye in remote viewing its impossible to determine whether the groups body language moves in harmony or independently. Because of this digital silo effect, monitoring the screens in which this group appears and correctly ascertaining the group dynamic is difficult by the highly controlled environment each person has created for himself for purposes of career/job self-preservation. Remote meetings eliminate the power dynamics of the seating arrangements which provide a strong signal as to which persons have the most influence regardless of official title. On the bright side for workers, remote meetings prevent a senior member from using psychological leverage (aka intimidation or bullying) not only in physical space but also in power settings like their office or an executive conference room. The C-Suite Dilemma | Lost in Translation Executives get paid the big bucks because they are the decision-makers. However because they rely heavily on face-to-face visual cues to determine the level of certainty on information provided, remote communication makes this much harder to assess despite state-of-the-art, computer-driven data. The C-suite needs to know in their gut whether their underlings genuinely believe the figures theyve presented, particularly with group presentations. Because of a fragile economy theres far more at stake than market share and profitability to the point that their decisions will determine if the firm survives. This is why face-to-face meetings are more invaluable further up the corporate command chain. In-Person Meetings On-Demand Some firms in professions that can easily operate profitably with a large portion of their staff working remotely will begin to re-think whether important meetings are best held in-person rather than remotely. In particular in high stakes, highly competitive fields, the savvy C-suite executive may insist that his direct reports be in the office full-time and insist that they in turn do the same for their important internal meetings. The post-pandemic economic landscape is about to get rougher and seeing whether someone sweats or stays cool, calm and collective may make the biggest difference.  Copyright 2020 Cerulean Council LLC The Cerulean Council is a NYC-based think-tank that provides prescient, beyond-the-horizon, contrarian perspectives and risk assessments on geopolitical dynamics and global urban security.


DUBLIN, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "5G-Related Service Design and Orchestration: Worldwide Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Communications service providers (CSPs) will invest to modernise their service fulfilment systems in order to become cloud-native and to support dynamic 5G services. CSP spending on 5G-related service design and orchestration (SDO) systems will grow at a CAGR of 33% to reach USD2.7 billion in 2025.

This report provides:

A forecast for 5G-related spending on service design and orchestration software and services

An overview of the key drivers of spending on 5G-related service design and orchestration software and services.

Analysts

Anil Rao

Principal Analyst - Research



Anil is the lead analyst on network and service automation research that includes the Network Automation and Orchestration, Automated Assurance and Service Design and Orchestration research programmes, covering a broad range of topics on the existing and new-age operational systems that will power operators' digital transformations.



His main areas of focus include service creation, provisioning and service operations in NFV/SDN-based networks, 5G, IoT and edge clouds; the use of analytics, ML and AI to increase operations efficiency and agility; and the broader imperatives around operations automation and zero touch networks.



In addition to producing both quantitative and qualitative research for both programmes, Anil also works with clients on a range of consulting engagements such as strategy assessment and advisory, market sizing, competitive analysis and market positioning, and marketing support through thought leadership collateral. Anil is also a frequent speaker and chair at industry events, and holds a BEng in Computer Science from the University of Mysore and an MBA from Lancaster University Management School, UK.



William Nagy

Analyst - Research



William is a member of the Telecoms Software and Networks research team in London, contributing to various research programmes with a focus on Automated Assurance, Service Design and Orchestration and Forecast and Strategy. He previously worked with the regional markets team. William holds a BSc in Physics from Queen Mary University of London.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/w155cb





Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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MOBILITY

AT&T, VA start 5G rollout at Puget Sound health care hub

AT&T and the Veterans Affairs Department have in partnership turned the initial lights on for a 5G and related multiple-access edge computing network at one of the VAs largest health care hubs.

While there is more to come, the Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle now has a distributed antenna system compatible with the needed spectrum and other components needed to enable 5G capabilities.

The Puget Sound systems new mental health and research building is one of those components that now has 5G coverage. AT&T and the VA eye further deployments of multiple-access edge computing and 5G spectrum later this year at faster speeds and better latency throughout the complex.

It is the so-called MEC component that may be the underlying linchpin for ensuring the network covers a space at the size of a VA health care delivery hub.

Garrick Yahnke, area vice president at AT&Ts public sector arm, said the age of many of these buildings is a factor to consider when planning the rollout of a new network and its infrastructure.

By putting MEC in these buildings, we can ramp up the capabilities, thereby allowing the agency to ramp up the capabilities theyre providing to veterans, Yahnke added.

Take the ability to transmit large files for instance as one capability, whether that be medical imagery or other data on patients.

Now with 5G and MEC, theyre going to be able to do that stuff very quickly, Yahnke said.

Daniel Mesimer, director of wireless and local area network engineering and provisioning solution delivery for the VA, told WT that Puget Sounds proximity to greater Seattle meant this deployment can be close to that regions technology community.

He also pointed to what the implications are for telemedicine, which stands to be a key aspect of health care going forward.

Effective telemedicine requires a network that can support near real-time high-quality video without slowing down the facilitys network, said Meismer, an official in the VAs Office of Information and Technology. Adding a high-speed 5G network to existing architectures can support near real-time video for video-based medical consultations to improve access to care, quality of care and care outcomes.

For AT&T, this is the first 5G and MEC deployment it has done in a hospital setting so there will be a point of emphasis on learning given this is a transition to an entirely new networking environment. Some things have already been found out.

We learned that some of the equipment needs to be completely replaced. 5G is different than 4G and requires newer infrastructure than it currently had in existence, Yahnke said. We were hoping that we would be able to upgrade the distributed antenna system and save some implementation time.

Were learning along the way as well, so its why its a partnership with the agency, and were going to learn this stuff together.
ZURICH, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Simmons & Simmons LLP ("Simmons") launched on PartnerVine today. Simmons is starting with SMCR Academy, an e-learning solution that helps asset management firms in the UK meet their training requirements for the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR).

"We're really excited to be launching the SMCR Academy on PartnerVine," says Lee Curtis, head of Sales at Simmons, "Our products will be a good fit for the platform's passionate community of users. Given the impending deadline requires solo-regulated firms to have trained all conduct staff by 31 March, we believe that this solution is of clear value to the asset management industry."

"Simmons is one of the primary reasons we started PartnerVine," says Jordan Urstadt, CEO of PartnerVine. "They've been delivering extraordinary value with software since their first product was launched in 2007. The best software solutions take years of investment and iteration, and we're thrilled to be scaling with a firm that takes its commitment to quality legal services delivered with software as seriously as we do."

SMCR Academy is an e-learning solution for asset management firms subject to the FCA's Senior Managers & Certification Regime. SMCR Academy's 11 e-learning modules cover both general training on the FCA's Conduct Rules and specific training for individual roles at asset management firms. Role-specific case studies have been based on the experience of Simmons regulatory lawyers to provide realistic training scenarios. The FCA requires solo-regulated firms to confirm compliance with the SMCR training covered by SMCR Academy by 31 March.

Simmons is an international law firm with more than 1,500 lawyers in 23 offices in the major business and financial centres around the globe, and develops its legal products through its subsidiary, Simmons & Simmons Solutions Limited.

For more information, go to www.partnervine.com.

About PartnerVine: PartnerVine is where the world's best law firms sell their legal products. PartnerVine helps companies access innovative legal products built by law firms, and law firms sell outside their network. PartnerVine's community is dedicated to legal services delivered with software. PartnerVine has offices in Zurich and New York.

Contact:

Jordan Urstadt

PartnerVine

+41 79 953 4196

jurstadt@partnervine.com

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 10:57:47|Editor: huaxia

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Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has registered better-than-expected economic growth in 2020 despite the impact of COVID-19. With continued stability over the years, local people's sense of contentment and happiness has been consolidated and rural residents are among the biggest beneficiaries. Xinjiang's economy expanded 3.4 percent year on year in 2020, 1.1 percentage points higher than the national GDP growth, according to the local government work report delivered to the annual session of the regional legislature, which opened Monday. The economic expansion has coincided with a period of improved, sustained stability in the region. In a historic feat, the region has eliminated absolute poverty, with some 3.06 million rural residents lifted out of poverty in the past five years. Xinjiang sailed through three rounds of COVID-19 cluster outbreaks last year, which weighed upon the performance of one of China's main agricultural bases. The secondary sector, including manufacturing and construction, was the primary contributor to growth. Fixed-asset investment grew 16.2 percent over the previous year. On the upside, the region registered robust growth from new economic drivers, with a 27.6-percent year-on-year growth in online retail sales and a 25-percent year-on-year increase in high-tech manufacturing added value. The per capita disposable income of rural residents reached 14,056 yuan (about 2,171 U.S. dollars), up 7.1 percent, as the region's anti-poverty campaign bore fruit. The increase was paced at 8.3 percent annually on average over the past five years, as more surplus rural labor force found stable jobs. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge,Sun Shaoxiong&Zhang Zhongkai)

URUMQI, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has registered better-than-expected economic growth in 2020 despite the impact of COVID-19. With continued stability over the years, local people's sense of contentment and happiness has been consolidated and rural residents are among the biggest beneficiaries.

Xinjiang's economy expanded 3.4 percent year on year in 2020, 1.1 percentage points higher than the national GDP growth, according to the local government work report delivered to the annual session of the regional legislature, which opened Monday.

The economic expansion has coincided with a period of improved, sustained stability in the region.

Xinjiang has "completely reversed the past situation marked by frequent violent terrorist activities, with no occurrence of terrorist incidents across the region over the past more than four years," said Shohrat Zakir, chairman of the regional government, as he delivered the work report.

"People of all ethnic groups have significantly increased their sense of fulfillment, happiness and security," Shohrat Zakir said.

Xinjiang will stay committed to fighting terrorism and maintaining stability with effective, law-based measures, he said.

In a historic feat, the region has eliminated absolute poverty, with some 3.06 million rural residents lifted out of poverty in the past five years.

Xinjiang sailed through three rounds of COVID-19 cluster outbreaks last year, which weighed upon the performance of one of China's main agricultural bases.

The secondary sector, including manufacturing and construction, was the primary contributor to growth. Fixed-asset investment grew 16.2 percent over the previous year.

On the upside, the region registered robust growth from new economic drivers, with a 27.6-percent year-on-year growth in online retail sales and a 25-percent year-on-year increase in high-tech manufacturing added value.

The per capita disposable income of rural residents reached 14,056 yuan (about 2,171 U.S. dollars), up 7.1 percent, as the region's anti-poverty campaign bore fruit. The increase was paced at 8.3 percent annually on average over the past five years, as more surplus rural labor force found stable jobs.

In pursuing high-quality development, Xinjiang aims to keep its average annual economic growth rate at 6 percent or above in the 2021-2025 period, driven by key engines like the labor-intensive sector, the emerging industries and tourism, according to the government work report.

Aiming to develop itself as a core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt, the region will also expand opening-up and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with neighboring countries, the report said.

Xinjiang is well known for its outstanding natural beauty, attracting hundreds of millions of tourists from home and abroad every year. The region received more than 158 million tourists in 2020, and the regional government expects to receive more than 200 million this year and 400 million by 2025.

"We've seen a tourism boom in recent years, as more people find Xinjiang a safe and beautiful place," said An Ping, a local lawmaker and owner of a two-story restaurant in Turpan, one of Xinjiang's best-known tourist destinations.

"My main wish this year is for the COVID-19 epidemic to come to an end. I believe our business will rebound to the previous boom once the tourism market heats up," An said. Enditem
CAIRO - Patrick Zaki's pre-trial detention in prison in Egypt has been extended for 45 days, his attorney Hoda Nasrallah told ANSA on Tuesday, confirming rumours that circulated Monday.



The attorney wrote "45 days" in a message after having gone to the prosecutor's office to pick up the official statement on the results of the hearing held Monday before a Cairo criminal court.



"It's confirmed," he limited himself to saying by phone.



Various Egyptian media outlets reported on Monday that pre-trial prison detention had been extended for another month and a half for the Egyptian student of the University of Bologna, and a judicial source confirmed the news to ANSA.



Zaki has been held for nearly one year in Cairo's Tora prison on charges of subversive propaganda, after being arrested on 7 February 2020 when he was returning to Egypt for a vacation.



The news leak on Monday afternoon was criticised by Amnesty International Italia, which said that in Egypt prisoners' rights "are worth less than zero".
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Here what to do in Ocean City on rainy days
A garda who received a suspended sentence for causing the death of a mother-of-three by dangerous driving is to be jailed after a successful appeal by the State to the Court of Appeal.

The three-judge court accepted arguments by the Director of Public Prosecutions that the original suspended sentence imposed was too lenient.

Patrick McDonnell (42), originally from Belmullet, Co Mayo, with an address in Corofin, Co Galway, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Jacqueline Wolohan on the M4 at Rossan, Kinnegad, Westmeath, at around 1am on February 13, 2016.

Ms Wolohan, 51, from Coolock in Dublin, was killed as she made her way back from Longford when McDonnell, who was off duty at the time of the crash, ran into the back of her car at a speed of around 140kph.

McDonnell, a garda of 18 years who is the subject of a summary dismissal procedure by the force, was today jailed by the Court of Appeal for two-and-a-half years, with the final year of the sentence suspended for two years.

In June of last year, he was sentenced to a two-year fully-suspended sentence and banned from driving for four years by Judge Terence OSullivan at Trim Circuit Court. The sentence was successfully appealed by the DPP, who argued that the term was unduly lenient.

Mr Carl Hanahoe BL, for the appellant, said today that the trial judge erred in not giving sufficient regard to the speed of the car driven by McDonnell, the quality of his driving before the crash and the fact that McDonnell left the scene.

Mr Hanahoe said that there was an absence of any evidence that McDonnell slowed down before the crash.

Counsel said that two other motorists were also on the same stretch of motorway - one driving at 130kph; the other at 140kph - and both said that McDonnell's car was moving in excess of their speeds.

Mr Hanahoe said he believed that the trial judge erred by failing to mark the speed of the vehicle and the leaving of the scene as aggravating factors in identifying a headline sentence, which ought to have been higher than two years.

The DPP, he said, had identified five or six years as the appropriate sentence and submitted that the offence was in the middle of the spectrum of seriousness.

Counsel said that while McDonnell did hand himself in to a National Roads Authority member, he could not recall why he left the scene.

"That cannot fall to the lowest end of the spectrum," said Mr Hanahoe.

Counsel said the trial judge had noted in mitigation that McDonnell was of "respected, good character" at the time of the crash, had no relevant previous convictions and had entered a plea of guilty. However, he submitted that the judge had put disproportionate weight on those factors.

Mr Hanahoe said that the plea of guilty was only entered on the first day of the trial and that up until a week before it commenced, which was 18 months after the crash, all strands in the case were still at issue.

"I say, it was a late plea," said counsel.

Responding barrister Mr Paul Greene SC said that McDonnell was not in a position to enter a guilty plea until reports were received. Counsel said that by entering a plea, a three-week trial with numerous witnesses was avoided.

Mr Greene said that his client was easily identifiable for those searching for him because he had left his car at the scene. Counsel added that McDonnell never left the motorway when away from the scene and gave himself up.

Mr Greene said that his client has post-traumatic stress disorder and could only make limited admissions when interviewed. Counsel said the trial court had heard it was possible for memory to fail when such traumatic events occur.

Counsel said that his client was travelling at "twenty miles an hour, at the height of it, over the speed limit".

Mr Greene told presiding judge Mr Justice George Birmingham that McDonnell was remorseful and apologetic, had an excellent work record, volunteered, gave blood and was very unlikely to re-offend after the tragedy.

Mr Justice Birmingham said that two garda superintendents had given written testimonials "very highly" commending McDonnell's "exemplary and admirable previous character".

Mr Greene told the judge that summary dismissal procedures had been initiated by the Garda Commissioner.

In his extempore judgement today, Mr Justice Birmingham said that Mrs Wolohan had been pronounced dead at the scene and was in the car with a passenger, her son and his friend. Mrs Wolohan's son suffered bruising and his friend sustained a fractured skull.

Mrs Wolohan, said the judge, was also the sole carer for her 90-year-old father and that her family "miss her greatly".

Noting that there was "very significant speed indeed" on the night, Mr Justice Birmingham set four years' imprisonment as a headline sentence, which after mitigation was cut to two-and-a-half years in jail with the final year suspended for two years.

Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, quashed the previous suspended sentence, left the driving ban intact and gave McDonnell two weeks to surrender himself to the court.

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Wolohan's sister, Alison, said the family had been "truly robbed" of a "kind, caring, loving person".

"She was young, lively and loved life. Every family occasion is tinged with guilty and sadness. We think of all the milestones she has missed and will miss," the statement said.

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Zoo officials said 20 acres will be set aside for 12 mating pairs of American red wolves, which will be brought in from other organizations in 2022.



By JIM SALTER

Associated Press

O'FALLON, Mo.  The St. Louis Zoo plans to use land it owns in a rural area of Missouri as habitat for a wolf breed on the verge of extinction, zoo officials said Monday.

Only about 20 American red wolves remain in the wild due mostly to illegal hunting, vehicle strikes and habitat loss. Plans call for wolves to live and breed on the Sears Lehmann Jr. Wildlife Reserve, a protected setting that was donated to the zoo in 1993. The reserve is in Franklin County, Missouri, about 40 miles southwest of St. Louis.





. . .

Last year, federal prosecutors around the country brought only 30 cases characterized as domestic terrorism that led with the charge of transmitting a threat, according to an analysis by a Syracuse University research group. Still, that number was the highest since at least 2000.

Historically, these kinds of cases are not high on prosecutors priority lists, said Daniel Silver, a former federal prosecutor in New York who supervised terrorism cases. You really have to show the person intended to cause imminent violence as opposed to just expressing their opinion.

Instead, prosecutors sometimes turn to other charges that are easier to prove against someone who is posting violent threats.

For instance, Eduard Florea, a software engineer in Queens, alarmed law enforcement officials with death threats that they said he had posted on Parler against Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia around the day of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. He wrote in obscenity-laden posts that Mr. Warnock would have a hard time casting votes when hes swinging with the fish, and that dead men cant pass laws, prosecutors said. On the afternoon of the riot, he said he was armed and ready, writing, Kill them all, according to the complaint.

But Mr. Florea was not initially charged with transmitting a threat. He was hit with a weapons charge after agents searched his home and said they found ammunition, which he was not allowed to possess because he has a felony criminal record. He told the agents that he had applied to join the Proud Boys, according to prosecutors, and traveled with them last year to vandalize a church in Washington.

His lawyer, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, declined to comment. At his bail hearing, she said he did not condone violence, arguing that the rhetoric was extremely high on all sides during the riot.

When law enforcement officials are concerned about a violent social media threat that has not led to any real-world action, that person will often get a knock on the door from the F.B.I. with a warning.
William Spangenburg, 82, beloved husband, father and grandfather went to heaven Saturday at St. Lukes Pavillion due to complications from COVID-19.

Born in Hazleton, July 1, 1938, to Maurice and Beatrice Wright Spangenburg, Bill was raised in Conyngham.

Bill graduated from West Hazleton High School in 1956. After graduating, he joined the Army and was stationed in New Mexico. After leaving the service, he worked for the United States Postal Service in New Mexico. He married the love of his life, Virginia, on Aug. 16, 1958. The two made their way back east and settled in Newburgh, N.Y. It was then that Bill entered into a career in law enforcement. He advanced quickly and became the Chief of police in the town of Newburgh. He also trained and graduated from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. In 1979 he was injured in the line of duty and later retired.

After his retirement, he and his family returned to Pennsylvania, where he helped run his wifes engraving business. Bill was very active in the communities where he lived. He was president of the Kiwanis Club. Newburgh, and was involved in the American Legion, Arcil, Red Cross, FOP, Funfest and spent many years in the St. John Bosco choir.

He was preceded in death by his parents; three brothers, Bob, Ben and Jay; and infant grandson, Matthew.

Bill is survived by his loving and devoted wife, Virginia (Magagna); daughters, Tina Reese and Robert; Heidi Genasevich and husband, Mike; Amy Dura and husband, Rich; four grandchildren, his namesake William Reese; Nicole Reese and boyfriend, Tim Klesh; Michael Genasevich Jr.; and Jackson Dura; also, godson and beloved nephew, Bob Spangenburg.

The family would like to thank everyone who helped along the way. We are extremely grateful to Maylath Home Health, Dr. Anthony Veglia, Dr. Catillo and staff and of course, his personal nurse, friend and family member, Anne Sullivan.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday at St. John Bosco Church, Conyngham. All are welcome to attend and there will be no visitation before the service. In following COVID-19 restrictions, social distancing and face masks are required.

Burial will be held at the convenience of the family.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate memorial donations in his memory be made to St. Jude Childrens Hospital.

Hilary J. Bonin Funeral Home, 99 W. Green St., West Hazleton, is assisting the family.


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Sweden is looking for areas in which its cooperation with Russia can be strengthened, Foreign Minister Anna Linde said on Tuesday during a meeting with top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) Sweden is looking for areas in which its cooperation with Russia can be strengthened, Foreign Minister Anna Linde said on Tuesday during a meeting with top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov.

"As [Swedish] Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said on the 2019 Arctic Forum in Saint Petersburg, Sweden is looking for areas for deeper cooperation with Russia, this includes the environment, global warming, trade, regional organizations and other initiatives to strengthen contacts between our peoples, especially the youth," Linde said.

Thousands of participants from over 50 countries attended the 2019 Arctic Forum, and Sweden sent one of the largest delegations, headed by Lofven.

Linde, who arrived in Moscow also as the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, said that she will prioritize gender equality, peace and security issues while she heads the intergovernmental organization. Linde also wished that "Russia will be able to work with us on the issue of women's economic autonomy."
[February 02, 2021] Topia Unveils Innovations to Help Companies Maintain Agility, Prioritize Employee Experience in Fast-Changing Business Climate

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Topia, the leader in Global Talent Mobility, today announced a series of new innovations across its comprehensive global talent mobility platform that address the real-time needs of companies in managing remote and distributed workforces. The new capabilities in its Compass and Plan solutions not only help organizations streamline workforce planning and save money, but also provide efficient, transparent tools that help them maintain agility and deliver a better employee experience in a fast-changing environment. "So many companies are struggling to manage the realities of a distributed workforce. Traditional approaches can be extremely complex and costly, and most solutions are a 'black box'users have no idea what's going on under the hood and whether they should trust the output," said Topia CEO Shawn Farshchi. "Without the right tools, organizations will face additional headaches as remote work becomes a mainstay and business travel returns later this year. That's why we're tackling this problem head-on by offering simple, transparent tools that streamline distributed workforce management at a time when companies need it most." New Topia Compass Capabilities Save Time & Money in Managing New World of Work With remote work making mobile workforces the norm rather than the exception, and business travel resumption on the horizon, Topia Compass now offers two new real-time solutions that reduce unnecessary costs while maintaining tax and legal compliance: City-specific location monitoring allows companies to lower their municipal tax burden while employees are working remotely. By logging employees' actual working locations, Topia customers have already saved millions of dollars in unnecessary tax payments with documented, defensible data to demonstrate compliance and avoid audits.

allows companies to lower their municipal tax burden while employees are working remotely. By logging employees' actual working locations, Topia customers have already saved millions of dollars in unnecessary tax payments with documented, defensible data to demonstrate compliance and avoid audits. Pre-Travel Assessment module that automatically detects and alerts any travel that may require immigration, social security or posted worker documentation. It then integrates directly with immigration/tax logic to assess employee travel and other services to complete necessary compliance tasks. This capability saves time, streamlines the pre-travel workflow, and reduces compliance risk. The new module allows organizations to access a complete view of pending, active and completed travel. This capability is especially critical in Europe , now that Brexit is complete and governments are less likely to forgive infractions. New Topia Plan Tools Support Agility & Employee Experience The fast-changing business environment also requires companies to make agile business decisions with clear insight into potential outomes. But most traditional methods of workforce planning are days-long, cumbersome processes completed by outside consultants with proprietary methods that cost a lot and keep companies in the dark. The outputs are then difficult to digest by non-mobility stakeholders. Organizations have neither the time nor budget for this as they prioritize economic recovery in the wake of COVID-19. The new solutions added to Topia Plan to support these organizations include:



Rapid Cost Simulation module democratizes workforce planning and saves money by putting the power to make rapid decisions in the hands of business users. In just a few simple steps, managers can run scenarios to see the impact of deploying talent on a permanent or temporary basis and simulate various options. Topia's scalable solution gives business users instant access to the answers they need, shortens the process from days to just minutes and saves potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in third-party outsourcing costs.

module democratizes workforce planning and saves money by putting the power to make rapid decisions in the hands of business users. In just a few simple steps, managers can run scenarios to see the impact of deploying talent on a permanent or temporary basis and simulate various options. Topia's scalable solution gives business users instant access to the answers they need, shortens the process from days to just minutes and saves potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in third-party outsourcing costs. Compensation Worksheets Tool reimagines the compensation planning and communication process with a first-of-its-kind solution that enables HR to calculate, update and communicate compensation clearly in a dynamic, app-based experience. The interactive tool eliminates spreadsheet tab overload and gives employees and managers intuitive and easy-to-digest visuals that bring clarity and transparency to mobility compensation, simplifying the employee experience. "Now more than ever, organizations need simple solutions and clear answers in order to navigate these uncharted waters," Farshchi said. "No matter what comes next, you can count on Topia to be there with smart workforce management tools that empower companies to keep pace, maintain compliance, and reduce costs." To learn more about the new features Topia Global Talent Mobility platform, visit www.topia.com .

About Topia Topia is the leader in Global Talent Mobility. We empower companies to deploy, manage and engage employees anywhere in the world. The Topia platform enables organizations to deliver mobility as part of a broader talent strategy encompassing all types of employee movement  remote and distributed workforces, business travel, and more traditional relocations and assignments. This drives enhanced employee experiences and competitive advantage by ensuring the right people are in the right place at the right time, while staying compliant no matter where they are. The Topia platform automates the entire global talent mobility process, including scenario-based planning, expat payroll, tax and immigration compliance, reporting and more. Topia powers global talent mobility programs for world-renowned brands such as Schneider Electric, Dell, Veolia, Equinor and AXA. Topia has raised over $100M from NewView Capital (formerly New Enterprise Associates), Notion Capital and others, and is a global company with offices throughout the Americas and EMEA. For more information, visit www.topia.com and follow Topia on Twitter , Facebook , and LinkedIn . MEDIA CONTACT: Kasey Thomas SSPR 925-285-6449 kthomas@sspr.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/topia-unveils-innovations-to-help-companies-maintain-agility-prioritize-employee-experience-in-fast-changing-business-climate-301220134.html SOURCE Topia

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(CNN) -- Myanmar's powerful military has taken control of the country in a coup and declared a state of emergency, following the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior government leaders in early morning raids Monday.

The country woke up to widespread communications blackouts, closed banks, and soldiers in army fatigues patrolling the streets of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. Residents turning on their television sets could only access the military-owned Myawaddy TV channel, with all other news channels seemingly blocked.

As news filtered through that the country's democratically-elected leaders had been detained in the capital -- hours before the first session of the new parliament was set to open -- a news anchor announced on the military-owned channel that power had been handed over to army chief Min Aung Hlaing.

In the address, the military confirmed it had detained the country's de facto civilian leader Suu Kyi, along with other high ranking National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders, in response to alleged voting irregularities in November's election.

The coup followed weeks of worsening political tensions in the country over the disputed election and rumors that the military could take over had been swirling for days.

The election was only the second democratic vote since the country emerged from 50 years of isolationist military rule in 2011. Suu Kyi's party, the NLD claimed an overwhelming victory, taking 83% of the vote, which granted it another five years in government. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won 33 out of a possible 476 seats, far fewer than the party had expected.

Monday's events have been widely condemned internationally, with the United States calling on Myanmar's military leaders to "release all government officials and civil society leaders and respect the will of the people."

"The United States expresses grave concern and alarm regarding reports that the Burmese military has detained multiple civilian government leaders, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, and civil society leaders," according to a statement from the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "The military must reverse these actions immediately."

Army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who is now running the country, has been under US sanctions since December 2019. He was designated for serious human rights abuses related to the atrocities committed against the Rohingya Muslim community.

Prominent Myanmar historian and author Thant Myint-U said on Twitter Monday that, "The doors just opened to a very different future."

"I have a sinking feeling that no one will really be able to control what comes next. And remember Myanmar's a country awash in weapons, with deep divisions across ethnic and religious lines, where millions can barely feed themselves."

What led to the coup

In its announcement, signed by the newly installed acting President and former military general, Myint Swe, the military alleges that voter fraud took place in the November 8, 2020 elections and said they had detained political leaders for "failing to take actions, not following the request to postpone lower house and upper house parliament sessions."

Last week, a military spokesperson said it would not rule out a coup if the military's claims of alleged voter fraud into the November 2020 election were not investigated.

Myanmar's election commission on Thursday rejected claims of voter fraud, saying any errors -- such as duplicated names on voter lists -- were not enough to impact the result of the vote.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi is widely considered a hero of democracy in Myanmar, where she spent 15 years under house arrest as part of a decades-long fight against military rule.

Following her release, Suu Kyi led her party to a landslide victory in Myanmar's 2015 elections, establishing its first civilian government after decades of isolation and military authoritarianism.

But her international reputation has been tarnished in recent years by allegations of genocide against Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya population. Myanmar denies the charges and has long claimed to have been targeting terrorists.

On Monday human rights non-government organization Burma Rights UK said in a post to their Twitter that the news of Suu Kyi's detention was "devastating."

"This needs to be met with the strongest international response. The military need to be made to understand that they have made a major miscalculation in thinking they can get away with this," the group said.

Communications blackout

As military leaders seized power, there were significant internet and phone network disruption across the country, which could affect the ability of people to get information or organize any response via social media.

Netblocks, which monitors internet blackouts around the world, said that real-time network data showed a major drop in connectivity in the early hours of Monday morning. Doug Madory, an analyst at Kentik, a network observability company, added on Twitter that there was a "large internet outage" unfolding.

"Continuing disconnections have been monitored with national connectivity falling initially to 75% and subsequently 50% of ordinary levels by 8:00 a.m. local time," according to Netblocks.

Reuters reported that Myanmar state media MRTV was having technical issues and unable to broadcast, the network said. "Due to current communication difficulties we'd like to respectfully inform you that the regular programs of MRTV and Myanmar Radio cannot be broadcast," Myanmar Radio and Television said on a post on its Facebook page.

Later in the day, MRTV began broadcasting military propaganda with footage of soldiers waving flags on top of sandbags, helicopters hovering over military personnel and paramedics carrying a stretcher.

Netblocks reported that "technical data show cuts affecting multiple network operators including state-owned Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and international operator Telenor, with preliminary findings indicating a centrally ordered mechanism of disruption targeting cellular and some fixed-line services, progressing over time."

Banks in Myanmar are also temporarily shut due to widespread internet disruptions, according to a Myanmar Bank Association statement. The Chair and Central Working Committee of the Myanmar Banks Association held an emergency meeting Monday morning and decided that banks should cease operations until the internet connection improves.

International reaction

The military action has prompted concern and condemnation from the international community.

US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the situation in Myanmar by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, according to a statement from White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

"The United States opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede Myanmar's democratic transition, and will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed," the statement said. "We are monitoring the situation closely."

Australia on Monday called for the immediate release of Suu Kyi and other senior leaders who are being detained by the military.

In a statement from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Marise Payne the Minister of Foreign Affairs said, "The Australian Government is deeply concerned at reports the Myanmar military is once again seeking to seize control of Myanmar."

"We call on the military to respect the rule of law, to resolve disputes through lawful mechanisms, and to release immediately all civilian leaders and others who have been detained unlawfully," the statement said.

Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed concern over the situation in Myanmar, saying in a statement that it "underscores that all electoral differences be addressed in accordance with available legal mechanism" and urged "all parties in Myanmar to exercise self-restraint and put forth dialogue in finding solutions to challenges so as not to exacerbate the condition."

Why now?

The sudden coup has surprised many observers, who point out that the military already wields significant power.

In 2008, the ruling junta drafted a constitution that allocated 25% of legislative seats to the military as well as control of key ministries such as defense and home affairs, and a veto power on constitutional issues.

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Myanmar, Tom Andrews, told CNN that the coup is a "real mystery."

"They wrote the constitution that they just overthrow. It gives them enormous power, economic power, political power," he said. "So how and why they overturn their own constitution is incredible."

Last week, the military sought to allay concerns it was about to seize power, saying that it would protect and abide by the constitution, according to Reuters.

Andrews said their action is "extremely damaging" and comes at a time when many in the country are suffering extreme hardships because of the coronaviorus pandemic.

"The people of Myanmar have been through so much. They've lived through decades of brutal military rule. They are going through a pandemic. The economy is in tough shape for so many. It's so incredibly unfair for them to have to go through this right now," he said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Myanmar's military seizes power in coup after detaining leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ruling party politicians"
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Mexico was on the verge of approving the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V following the publication of early results of an advanced study, Mexican officials said Tuesday.

Assistant Health Secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the government's pandemic spokesman, said that the health ministry signed a contract Monday for 400,000 doses of Sputnik V that will arrive this month. He said regulatory approval was expected within hours.

Once approved, the Russian vaccine would become the third to receive emergency approval in Mexico. The regulating agency approved the Pfizer vaccine in December and AstraZeneca's in January. Mexico turned to the Russian vaccine following delays in obtaining others it was counting on.

A dozen countries have already approved the Russian vaccine for use, including Bolivia and Argentina, where Lopez-Gatell visited in January to learn more about it. He acknowledged that there had a been a "legitimate concern" among Mexicans, but that the early results published Tuesday in the medical journal The Lancet should alleviate them.

"The Russian Sputnik V vaccine is safe, it has 92% efficacy against COVID, it can be used safely and is effective in seniors," Lopez-Gatell said. "It allows us now to accelerate the step of vaccination against COVID in Mexico."

Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a week ago.

Mexico has so far given about 675,000 doses of vaccine, all of them from Pfizer, leaving a long way to go in a population of 126 million. On Tuesday, a second batch of the active substance in the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Mexico, where it will be packed and distributed through the rest of Latin America.

The Mexican government on Tuesday also launched a new website for people over the age of 60 to register for vaccination appointments.

However, the Mexican Health Department apparently didn't have the bandwidth to handle requests. The department's website was quickly overwhelmed and the registration page didn't load, returning a message of "This site can't be reached."

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.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Notify NYC is warning that snow-covered roads may be difficult to maneuver on Tuesday morning during the noreaster and the MTA is reporting significant changes in bus service on Staten Island.

Buses are running on a reduced schedule throughout the city because of the snow storm, according to the MTA. Expect longer waits and travel times. Only travel if its essential.

Most MTA limited-stop bus service has been suspended on Tuesday because of the storm. Affected routes include the S84, S90, S91, S92, S94, S96, S98, according to the MTA. Riders are advised to switch to local buses along those routes.

Bricktown Mall-bound S78 buses will not make stops from Victory Boulevard and Bay Street to Beach Street and Union Place because of ice. Buses will make stops along Bay Street and resume their regular route at Canal and Wright streets.

Icy conditions at Westervelt Avenue and Hamilton Avenue caused detours of S52 buses in both directions. Buses have resumed regular service.

The S42 is back to its regular route after detours in both directions at Hyatt Street and Hamilton Avenue due to ice.

S44 buses have resumed regular service after being detoured in both directions due to NYPD activity in the vicinity of Clove Road and Post Avenue. The change was prompted by a barricade situation in the 700 block of Post Avenue, according to emergency radio transmissions.

S46 buses have resumed regular service after being detoured in both directions because a disabled bus blocked the road at Brabant Street and Lockman Avenue.

All lanes on the upper level of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge have reopened with residual delays, according to Notify NYC.

Both directions of the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing continue to have a speed restriction of 30 mph, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Empty tractor-trailers, motorcycles and car-pulled trailers now are allowed to cross the Bayonne Bridge, the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing; a ban on those vehicles has been lifted, according to the Port Authority.

Use caution when walking, biking, or driving, according to Notify NYC.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the New York City Subway will resume above-ground service at 5 a.m.

The Staten Island Railway is operating. The Staten Island Ferry went to a one-hour schedule on Monday but has resumed half-hour service as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to the city Department of Transportation.

As the storm makes its way through the region, we continue to urge residents to remain vigilant, avoid unnecessary travel and check in with family and friends, Cuomo said Monday night. We understand the subway and commuter rail lines are critical for essential workers who need to get to work and the MTA is confident they can restore service to those New Yorkers early tomorrow morning.
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, the World Health Organisation and climate campaigner Greta Thunberg have joined Donald Trump among a list of expected nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a survey of Norwegian MPs who are eligible to propose candidates and who have a track record of successfully guessing the winner.

Ms Thunberg, Mr Navalny, and the WHO  for its Covax programme to secure fair access to Covid vaccines for poor countries  are likely frontrunners, research carried out by Reuters found. Nominations for the prestigious award close on Sunday.

The climate activist, Russian opposition leader and global health body are backed by Norwegian lawmakers, who have nominated the eventual laureate every year since 2014, with the exception of 2019.

Thousands of people, from members of parliaments worldwide to former winners, are eligible to propose candidates. A host of other figures including university professors and members of select international organisations can also put names forward.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which decides who wins the award, does not comment on nominations, keeping secret for 50 years the names of nominators and unsuccessful nominees, while nominations do not imply an endorsement from the committee.

But nominators can choose to reveal their picks.

In September, Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a far-right Norwegian politician, put Mr Trumps name forward for the 2021 prize.

He said the now former president had done more trying to create peace between nations than most other peace prize nominees, citing Mr Trumps role in brokering a peace deal between Israel and Middle Eastern nations.

Greta Thunberg watches as President Trump enters the United Nations to speak with reporters in a still image from video taken in New York City, on 23 September 2019 (Reuters)

Other names put forward by the Norwegian MPs Reuters spoke to included Belarusian activists Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo for their fight for a fair election; the human rights group Hungarian Helsinki Committee; and Iustitia, a group of Polish judges defending civil rights.

The Black Lives Matter movement has also been nominated for its tremendous achievement in raising global awareness and consciousness about racial injustice.

Additional nominees included the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists; former Charlie Hebdo journalist Zineb el Rhazoui; news website Hong Kong Free Press, the International Fact-Checking Network; and Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF).

Nato, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the International Space Station and the International Scout Movement have also been listed as potential recipients of the prize.

The 2021 laureate will be announced in October.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 101 times to 135 Nobel laureates between 1901 and 2020  107 individuals and 28 organisations.

In 2020, the World Food Programme won the prize for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

The year before, Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed Ali was awarded the honour for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.

Additional reporting by Reuters
A prominent U.S investor went on trial in Moscow on February 2 nearly two years after he was arrested on embezzlement charges that rattled Russias business community.

Michael Calvey, the founder of the private equity group Baring Vostok, and other executives were detained in February 2019. They have denied wrongdoing and said the charges against them are being used to pressure them in a business dispute over control of Vostochny Bank.

In the Moscow courtroom on February 2, Calvey again proclaimed his innocence.

"The allegation against me is not only unreasonable and unfair, but also illegal," Calvey told the judge, speaking in Russian.

On trial with Calvey is Philippe Delpal, a French national who was among the executives detained in February 2019.

Delpal also denied his guilt, saying the case is a "continuation of unfounded speculation and fabrications, according to the AFP news agency.

The trial is set to resume on February 17.

The case against Baring Vostok has troubled Russias business community and prompted several prominent officials and businessmen to voice concerns about the treatment of the executives.

In November 2020, Russias Supreme Court greatly reduced the terms of detention for Calvey and the six others under house arrest.

The court ruled the seven businessmen could not leave their residence at night and not be in contact with each other, send or receive mail, or use telephones unless in case of emergency.

Baring Vostok is one of the largest and oldest private-equity firms operating in Russia. It was founded in the early 1990s and manages more than $3.7 billion in assets. The company was an early major investor in Yandex, Russia's dominant search engine.

Calvey is one of three Americans currently held in Russia on charges supporters say are groundless. Paul Whelan, a former U.S. marine, was sentenced in June 2020 to 16 years on espionage charges, which he has vehemently rejected.

Another former U.S. marine, Trevor Reed, was sentenced to nine years in prison in late July after a Moscow court found him guilty of assaulting two police officers, a charge that he refused to admit.

With reporting by Interfax and AFP

The Ministry of Home Affairs has handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) the probe into the blast near the Israel embassy in the national capital, officials said on Tuesday. A minor IED blast took place near the Israeli Embassy in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi on Friday evening. No one was injured.

"The investigation into the blast near the Israeli embassy has been handed over to the NIA," a home ministry official told news agency PTI. Some cars were damaged in the explosion that occurred about 150 metres from the embassy on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road in the high-security Lutyens' bungalow zone.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to convey his strong condemnation of the terror attack and asserted that India will deploy all its resources to find and punish the perpetrators.

Both leaders, the PMO said, expressed satisfaction about the close coordination between Indian and Israeli security agencies in connection with the blast probe. The Israeli foreign ministry said all its diplomats and embassy staff in Delhi are "safe and sound".

"I spoke to my friend Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and thanked him for his government's efforts to protect Israeli representatives following the terrorist incident near the Israeli Embassy in India," Netanyahu wrote in a tweet. "Prime Minister Modi noted that his country is committed to the security of our people and that India will continue to cooperate with Israel in the fight against terrorism," he added.

On his part, Prime Minister Modi assured Netanyahu that the attack near the Israeli mission will be fully investigated and perpetrators brought to justice. "Our close and valuable security cooperation will continue. We also discussed our healthcare cooperation in the context of COVID-19," PM Modi tweeted.

On Friday, Netanyahu had expressed "full confidence" in the Indian authorities in ensuring the safety of Israelis and Jews in India following the blast that occurred about 150 metres away from the embassy in the very high-security Lutyens' bungalow zone. Some cars were damaged in the blast.

Netanyahu through his National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, who spoke to his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval, conveyed to PM Modi that he has full confidence that the Indian authorities will do a thorough investigation of the incident and ensure the safety of Israelis and Jews who are there.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi and assured him of 'fullest protection' to diplomats and the mission.

with additional inputs from news agency PTI
Bill Bynum never has to look far for inspiration at Hope Credit Union in Jackson, Miss. Each loan and every account tells a story.

One of Hopes early business loans helped launch a Louisiana company that employs visually impaired people to make surgical gauze for health-care providers. A new employee there was overwhelmed with emotion as she told Bynum this jobher firstmeant she could support her family.

A Mississippi woman used a gift for her 100th birthday to open her first savings account at Hope Credit Union because it was the first time she felt welcome at a financial institution.

Youd have to be a rock to not be moved by the significance of what it means to people to be treated with respect and have access to basic financial tools that so many others take for granted, says Bynum, CEO at the $355 million asset credit union. Every member we get out of a debt trap, every person who becomes a first-time homebuyer, everyone who establishes their first relationship with a depository institution thats going to help them climb the economic ladder is an inspiration.
A worker at a bubble tea store in Australia has been violently slapped by her boss after allegedly complaining about not getting paid.

The shocking video shows a young female staff member speaking in Mandarin to a man in a grey shirt before a second man wearing a black shirt walks into frame and hits the unprepared woman across the face.

Her head can be seen snapping back due to the force of the blow.

The sickening viral video was met with outrage online and has raised questions about the plight of some Asian workers living in Australia.

In a translation posted by viewers of the clip, the young woman accuses her boss of using free labour.

'The owner (of the Adelaide tea store in Chinatown) refused to pay $10 an hour wage to a staff member, claiming she was only working during a 'trial period' therefore does not deserve any payments,' a commenter on Reddit translated.

He added that other types of abuses, such as low wages, no wage 'trial periods' and unpaid overtime are 'extremely common' in Adelaide's Chinatown district.

Daily Mail Australia have contacted South Australia's minister for Human Services Michelle Lensink for comment.

The minister declined to speak on the matter but said she 'condemns all violence against women'.

After the worker is hit she then throws a handbag at the man before motioning to slap him.

He then kicks her in the stomach, knocking her to the ground.

Police have confirmed that an investigation into the incident is now underway.

An 'exploited' Chinese worker (pictured left) has been violently slapped by her boss after complaining about not getting paid

The shocking video shows a young female staff member speaking in Mandarin to a man in a grey shirt before a second man wearing a black shirt walks into frame and hits the unprepared woman across the face (pictured)

Her head can be seen snapping back due to the force of the blow of the man in the black shirt

'At 9.25pm Friday 29 January police were called to a business on Gouger Street following reports that a woman had been assaulted,' South Australia Police said.

'Upon police arrival the suspect had left the scene.

'The victim a 20-year-old Adelaide woman was treated by paramedics before being transported to the RAH.

'The suspect is known to the victim and police are investigating.'

The bubble tea shop where the incident took place has not responded to requests for comment.

South Australia Police said the incident took place at 9.25pm on Friday 29 January at a business on Gouger Street following reports that a woman had been assaulted

The nine Democratic House impeachment managers laid out their case against Donald Trump in a pre-trial brief filed on Tuesday, as the former presidents legal team filed a memorandum of its own in defence of his actions surrounding the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.

Mr Trump, the impeachment managers argue in their brief, was singularly responsible for fomenting resentment among millions of his supporters with lies about the 2020 election results, firing up a crowd of his supporters on 6 January based on those lies, and aiming them like a loaded cannon towards the US Capitol, where they sacked the building in a deadly riot that forced lawmakers to evacuate or find cover.

The Democrats 80-page trial memorandum, posted in full on the House Judiciary Committee website, provides a preview of how lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin of Maryland will prosecute his case against Mr Trump.

He summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue. As the Capitol was overrun, President Trump was reportedly delighted, the memo states, citing reporting from several news outlets about the presidents reaction in real time to the chaos at the Capitol.

Rather than take immediate steps to quell the violence and protect lives, President Trump left his Vice President and Congress to fend for themselves while he lobbied allies to continue challenging election results, the impeachment managers accuse in their memo.

The ex-presidents lawyers, meanwhile, wrote in their 14-page response to the impeachment that Mr Trump was within his rights to question the 2020 election results and galvanise his supporters to his cause.

After the November election, the 45th president exercised his First Amendment right under the Constitution to express his belief that the election results were suspect, since with very few exceptions, under the convenient guise of Covid-19 pandemic 'safeguards' states election laws and procedures were changed by local politicians or judges without the necessary approvals from state legislatures, they wrote.

As several legal scholars and pundits have pointed out, the Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that the First Amendment does not protect speech that incites lawlessness.

And dozens state and federal judges ruled against GOP lawsuits alleging that local election entities illegally altered election laws.

As the impeachment managers underscore in their memo from Tuesday, 61 of the 62 Republican legal challenges to the election results were summarily dismissed. The one that proceeded, a Pennsylvania case, was not substantial enough to affect the outcome of the election there, which broke in Mr Bidens favour.

The trial will commence on 9 February.

House Democrats, along with 10 Republicans, impeached Mr Trump last month (13 January) for inciting the mob that stormed the US Capitol just a week earlier (6 January), interrupting Congress certification of Mr Bidens electoral victory for several hours by sending lawmakers fleeing for their lives from the House and Senate chambers.

The evidence

The Democrats Tuesday trial brief outlines how the former president spent countless hours before the press and his supporters during his final year in office casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election even before it happened, saying mail-in voting would lead to rampant voter fraud. After the election, Mr Trump, his campaign team, and dozens of congressional Republicans spent weeks challenging Mr Bidens victory citing disproven conspiracy theories that were summarily dismissed in court for having no supporting evidence.

Throughout December, Mr Trump egged on rallygoers chanting stop the steal and falsely proclaimed himself the real winner of the 2020 contest, Tuesdays memo from the Democrats details.

On 6 January, the day Congress was set to certify Mr Bidens victory in the Electoral College, Mr Trump told throngs of his supporters gathered in Washington that they were not going to have a country anymore unless they fought for it.

He insisted that the election had been rigged and stolen, and that his followers had to fight like hell and fight to the death against this act of war, since they 'can't let it happen and 'won't take it anymore!' the impeachment managers recount in their brief.

These statements turned his wild rally on January 6 into a powder keg waiting to blow. Indeed, it was obvious and entirely foreseeable that the furious crowd assembled before President Trump at the Save America Rally on January 6 was primed (and prepared) for violence if he lit a spark, the impeachment managers write.

Thats exactly what happened, according to the memo.

At the end of his speech, the president exhorted his supporters to march on Capitol Hill, where they overran police, ran roughshod through the Capitol, and, in some cases, tried to hunt down public officials, including Mr Trumps own vice president, Mike Pence.

Videos of the events show that dozens of the insurrectionists specifically hunted Vice President Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi  the first and second in the line of Presidential succession, respectively, the impeachment managers brief states.

The arguments

Several Senate Republicans  17 of whom the impeachment managers will need to win over to successfully convict Mr Trump with the requisite two-thirds majority  have already acknowledged that Mr Trump bears some responsibility for inspiring the Capitol insurrection on 6 January.

But they have been publicly skeptical that the Constitution allows a former president to be put on trial in the Senate  a tenuous legal position, most constitutional scholars from across the ideological spectrum agree, but one they are entitled to since each senator acts as his own judge and jury in an impeachment trial.

Nevertheless, thats the defence Mr Trumps legal team will be leaning on for his acquittal.

The constitutional provision requires that a person actually hold office to be impeached. Since the 45th president is no longer president, the clause shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for... is impossible for the Senate to accomplish, the presidents lawyers, Bruce Castor and David Schoen, argue in their pre-trial brief.

Its a shallow effort to undermine the prosecutors case, suggested Dale Carpenter, a constitutional law professor at Southern Methodist University.

No federal court is even going to consider arguments about whether a conviction is permissible or warranted. Only the court of impeachment consisting of the Senators themselves will decide this matter. Therefore, the former president's response is a political  rather than legal  defense. He's counting on the fact that few Republicans will dare vote to convict him, regardless of the merits, Mr Carpenter said.

Some Republican senators, such as Floridas Marco Rubio, have argued that the impeachment trial, irrespective of the evidence or its constitutionality, will only serve to further divide the American populace along partisan lines.

I think the trial is stupid. I think its counterproductive. We already have a flaming fire in this country and its like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire, Mr Rubio said in an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News last month.

The House impeachment managers pre-trial brief filed on Tuesday addresses each of those arguments, which they will have to dismantle if they are to successfully convict Mr Trump and bar him from ever holding federally elected office again in the future.

This is not a case where elections alone are a sufficient safeguard against future abuse; it is the electoral process itself that President Trump attacked and that must be protected from him and anyone else who would seek to mimic his behavior, the managers argue.

Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a case that more clearly evokes the reasons the Framers wrote a disqualification power into the Constitution, the memo states.

As for the argument of whether the Constitution allows a former federal official from being impeached, the House managers brief highlights multiple cases throughout US history where a former official has been tried.

The memo also highlights the obvious loopholes for justice permitted by a reading of the Constitution that prohibits post-service trials.

The Constitution does not allow officials to escape responsibility for committing impeachable offenses by resigning when caught, or by waiting until the end of their term to abuse power, or by concealing misconduct until their service concludes, the impeachment managers argue.

Whats more, they point out, the language of the Constitution plainly states in Article I, Section 3, Clause 6: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.

Legal scholars, including former federal judges appointed by Republican presidents, have written extensively on how that phrase provides standing for this trial and others.

If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a Joint Session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense, the managers conclude, it is hard to imagine what would be.
GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- Boosters of the countys Animal Control Department took pies in the face and ice buckets over the head Monday, Feb. 1, to help raise $7,775 to benefit the West Pasadena Avenue shelter.

Kris Rotonda, founder of Jordans Way Charities, hosted a four-hour fundraising drive for the facility on the Genesee County Animal Control Facebook page, bringing in the donations as part of his own 50-state tour aimed at making a difference in the lives of shelter animals.

I think this is fabulous. Its a great morale booster. Its great for letting the public know what were doing here and how hard we work, said Renea Kennedy, deputy director of the shelter. It lets us have a little fun even though this is a very serious job. It lets the community be a part of what we are doing here through the donation and fund-raising process.

Rotonda is visiting shelters to help raise money for them, including several in Michigan. His work on behalf of shelter animals has been featured on The Dodo and the Hallmark Channels Home & Family Show.

Shelter volunteer Tammy Beal said the money raised Monday helps with everything the animals need medically before they can be adopted.

Ive been there a long time and we should be proud of our community for this and the millages that have passed, Beal said. We have really changed the way these animals are looked at and thought about.

County voters approved a seven-year, 0.1994-mill property tax last August after initial millage request was approve in November 2015.

Officials have said that without the revenue from the millage, operations at the shelter at the current level are not sustainable.

Read more on MLive:

Flint area animal lover leaves part of her estate to Genesee County shelter

Genesee County picks Davison police officer as new chief of Animal Control

Flint Township man says Genesee County took his dogs, sues for $2 million
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At one point Kaluuyas Hampton argues that the role of the Panthers is simple: to heighten the contradictions in America. The great and activating contradiction in Judas and the Black Messiah puts ONeal on an equal dramatic footing with Hampton, and demands we see why ONeal did what he did, while imagining what he went through while doing it. Of all unlikely movies, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford may be the closest in spirit to this one. Was ONeal a Judas? In the Eyes on the Prize documentary, he told the interviewer: Do I feel like I betrayed someone? Absolutely not. But he added that supplying the FBI with Hamptons apartment floor plan gave him a sick feeling. I felt bad about it. And then I got mad.
Spider-Man 3, or as Marvel Studios calls it, Spider-Man: Homecoming 3, is dominating the conversation among fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and not because of anything they know about it for sure. Instead, fans are abuzz about the persistent rumors that the threequel will see Tom Holland team up with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as their versions of the wall-crawler in a multiverse hopping adventure.

Despite these fans and the press treating those rumors as an open secret at this point, nothing of the sort has been confirmed by Marvel Studios or Sony Picures. That hasnt stopped fans from speculating and searching for clues, however, and it now seems like at least one former Peter Parkers involvement has been leaked in hilarious fashion.

Is Andrew Garfield officially in Spider-Man: Homecoming 3?

Spider-man replica at the Ani-Com & Games HK Exhibition event in Hong Kong. | Daniel Fung/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

RELATED: Tom Holland Reveals Exactly When He Knew He Was Cast As Spider-Man

The supposed leak came from a Twitter user, @DrnBerry, who claims to be a DoorDash driver and whose location tags put him in Atlanta, where parts of Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 were being filmed. In a tweet from Jan. 21, he claims to have delivered an order to none other than Andrew Garfield.

RUMOR/SPECULATION: It appears Andrew Garfield is in Atlanta for filming of #SpiderMan3 pic.twitter.com/80rel46jKA  Spider-Man 3 Updates (@spideysnews) February 1, 2021

Bit disheartening to hear that Garfield might have been rude with his delivery guy, but who knows with such things. And anyway, thats not the important part.

If the tweet is accurate, its very telling that Garfield was and potentially still is in Atlanta when filming was taking place there for Spider-Man: Homecoming 3. While a lot of film and TV productions shoot in Georgia thanks to its generous tax incentives, it would be a massive coincidence if Garfield was in town for anything else at that exact time.

Just goes to show you how many ways the modern world has to potentially spoil things being kept under wraps on big movies. Look forward to Chris Evans return as Captain America being leaked when he orders Chinese takeaway a few miles from set.

Garfield potentially signed on sooner than Maguire

RELATED: The Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Team Says a Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland Scene Could Happen Down the Road

While little has been made official about Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 beyond the returning cast from Hollands previous outings, reports indicate that Garfield signed on before Maguire did. Colliders Jeff Sneider, who has a solid track record for insider scoops, confirmed that the Amazing Spider-Man actor would return, as would Kirsten Dunst from the original trilogy.

The report also indicated that a deal was still being worked out with Maguire. Its potentially understandable why Maguire would be particular about his return conditions, as hes largely left behind acting in recent years to focus on producing. Nonetheless, fans saw a glimmer of hope when, according to outlets like Just Jared, he was spotted in the parking lot of a costume workshop for a fitting.

Whatever Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 ends up being called, and whoever ends up appearing in it, its scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 17, 2021.
Conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) has displaced more than 200,000 people since violence erupted over a December election result, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday.



Nearly half of those fleeing crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency said.



"Refugee arrivals into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have reached 92,000 according to local authorities and some 13,240 people have crossed into Cameroon, Chad, and the Republic of Congo, since violence erupted in December 2020 ahead of CAR's general elections," the statement said.



Some 100,000 people remain internally displaced within the country.



"The continuing volatility has hampered the humanitarian response and made access to the internally displaced more difficult," the agency said.



The CAR army, backed by UN Russian and Rwandan troops, has been battling rebels seeking to overturn a December 27 vote in which President Faustin-Archange Touadera was declared the winner.



"Refugees have told UNHCR that they fled in panic when they heard gunshots, leaving their belongings behind," spokesman Boris Cheshirkov told journalists in Geneva.



Vast distances and extremely poor road conditions mean that humanitarian assistance takes time to reach people in need, the UNHCR said.



The resource-rich nation, with a population of 4.7 million, has struggled to find stability since a 2013 rebellion ousted former president Francois Bozize. The country plays host to vast sources of gold, diamonds, uranium and oil.



In 2019, Bozize returned to CAR and announced his intended candidacy for the elections, but the Constitutional Court ruled that he did not satisfy the "good morality" requirement, over official allegations of torture and assassinations.

Source: reuters.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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Bearing in mind the growing tension along the borders with China, the government has made a big push towards upgrading resources through military modernisation. For this, the Centre has allocated a defence budget of Rs 4.78 lakh crore for the year 2021-22, with a significant rise towards capital expenditure.

The budget allocated for capital expenditure is Rs 21,326 crore, a rise of 18.75% from the previous year. The total budget of Rs 4.78 lakh crore also includes defence pensions, which is a 1.48% hike from Rs 4.71 lakh crore last year.

Excluding pensions amounting to Rs 1.16 crore, the defence budget for 2021-22 stands at Rs 3.62 lakh crore, marking a 7.34% rise from last years Rs 3.37 lakh crore. The jump in capital allocation will give a push towards the procurement of new and modern equipment for guarding the borders.

READ | MHA Gets Rs 1,66,547 Crore In Budget 2021-22, Majority For Border Guarding Forces, Census Ops

Last year, the armed forces made emergency procurement of weapons and mobilise a massive 50,000 soldiers with ammunition along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). As China moved its troops to alter the status quo along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh, high-altitude gears, missiles and armaments were sent along the border on an emergency basis. The Air Force had also mobilised its strategic assets near the LAC.

The Defence Ministry in its statement on increase in capital allocation said: This is the highest ever increase in capital outlay for defence in the last 15 years.

I specially thank PM& FM for increasing the defence budget to 4.78 lakh cr for FY21-22 which includes capital expenditure worth Rs 1.35 lakh crore. It is nearly19 percent increase in Defence capital expenditure. This is highest ever increase in capital outlay for defence in 15yrs  Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) February 1, 2021

READ | Chidambaram Puzzled By FM Not Mentioning Defence; 'Budget A Letdown Like Never Before'

Opposition criticises Defence expenditure

Despite a significant increase in the defence budget expenditure, the Opposition continued to taunt the Centre for not "spending enough" on defence in the midst of growing threat on the borders.

Reacting to the Union Budget tabled in the Parliament on Monday, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said the vital sector of Defence had not been adequately addressed despite the growing border threat from China and Pakistan.

READ | Defence Budget Hiked To Rs 4.78 Lakh Crore; Gets Biggest Capital Outlay Increase In 15 Yrs

Former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram claimed that the Union Budget was a let down like never before. Pointing out that the Defence sector did not find a mention in the Budget, he said it was unprecedented that Defence expenditure was increased only by Rs 4,000 crores.

"Defence expenditure increased only by Rs 4000 crores but mentions a reduction in pensions. With the Defence expenditure and health care expenditure the government has failed the people," he said at a press conference.

READ | 'Not Enough Allocated To Defence Amid Growing Border Threat': Punjab CM Critical Of Budget
Backroads guests learn history of the Underground Railroad on a historic Savannah to Charleston Multi-Adventure Tour "I cant think of a better way to learn about American history than to see it up close and actively, said Tom Hale, Backroads Founder and President

Backroads, the leader in active travel, in conjunction with Outdoor Afro, the nations foremost network for celebrating and inspiring Black connections and leadership in nature, today announced their new Historic Underground Railroad Multi-Adventure Tour in Georgia and South Carolina. Launched in celebration of Black History Month, this new one-of-a-kind journey offers the opportunity to travel deep into the Black history and culture of the Southeast, exploring our nations past while hiking, biking and kayaking through the lush landscapes surrounding Savannah and Charleston.



This new Backroads tour is a journey into our countrys past, from exploring landscapes once crossed by the historic Underground Railroad to taking guided walks focused on the history of people in the coastal cities of Savannah and Charleston; learning about the Gullah culture through storytelling and song at a Lowcountry boil; visiting the Penn Center, one of the first schools for formerly enslaved people; paddling the waterways of the ACE Basin, once home to dozens of rice plantations; and discovering the marshy channels of the Combahee River, where Harriet Tubman once guided a regiment of Union soldiers. The tour will also visit the Magnolia Plantation, where guests will learn about the experience of Black people from slavery to Reconstruction and into the 1920s and the era of Civil Rights.



I was fortunate enough to take a similar adventure with Backroads, which inspired this trip, said Rue Mapp Founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro. One of the best parts was the deep knowledge and information that I was exposed to; much of the history was unexpected and I was most fascinated by the traditions of the Gullah people of the Lowcountry region of South Carolina. As a Black-American woman, I appreciated how the Black history of the region was presented in triumph and joy as opposed to through the lens of pain and suffering. The history and lore was such an immersive experience for me, and I am beyond excited to make this trip available to the Outdoor Afro community.

I cant think of a better way to learn about American history than to see it up close and actively, said Tom Hale, Backroads Founder and President. Weve been supporters of Outdoor Afro for many years and believe in their mission of expanding access to nature among the Black community. We were thrilled to work with Rue Mapp and her staff to create this new trip and look forward to bringing history to life when the trip launches in October.



The tour was created in conjunction with Outdoor Afro regional leaders who live and work in the South Carolina and Georgia areas. The Backroads Historic Underground Railroad Multi-Adventure tour will run October 3-7, 2021, and is available for booking now. More information here.



About Outdoor Afro

Outdoor Afro has become the nations leading, cutting-edge network that celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. Outdoor Afro is a national not-for-profit organization with leadership networks around the country. With more than 80 leaders in 42 cities nationwide, Outdoor Afro is changing the face of conservation by connecting thousands of people to outdoor experiences.



About Backroads

Backroads was founded in 1979 by Tom Hale and has been a leading innovator in active and adventure travel for over 40 years. The company hosts thousands of guests each year, 75% of whom are repeat guests or referrals from past guests, in hundreds of locations across the globe. Backroads is a founding member of the Adventure Collection. For more information, please visit backroads.com. Or call 800-462-2848 Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Pacific time.


Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday, marking her first call to a foreign leader since entering the White House.

During the call, the two leaders spoke about combating COVID-19, climate change, diversity and other issues, readouts from the White House and Canadian prime minister's office said.

Harris also offered assurances that the Biden administration would 'do everything it can' to secure the release of two Canadian citizens detained by China.

Vice President Kamala Harris held her first call with a foreign leader on Monday, speaking with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's (pictured) office said Vice President Kamala Harris 'recalled fondly' her years as a high school student in Montreal

Beijing imprisoned Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in apparent retaliation for Canada's arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 on a United States warrant.

The U.S. wants her extradited to face fraud charges.

Her arrest infuriated Beijing, and the Chinese government has made moves to punish Canada since then, including banning imports of some Canadian goods.

The detained Canadians are a top priority for Trudeau, and Canada has pushed Washington to apply pressure on Beijing to release them.

According to a readout from Trudeau's office, Harris 'recalled fondly' her years as a high school student in Montreal, and the two also discussed trade policies between the nations and 'avoiding the unintended consequences of Buy America policies.'

President Joe Biden signed an executive order last week focused on strengthening compliance with laws requiring the federal government to use domestic materials and products.

Neither readout mentions the disagreement between the two nations surrounding the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Biden signed an executive order revoking a permit for the pipeline, which carries oil from Canada to the U.S. but has faced fierce opposition from climate change activists and Indigenous advocacy groups.

But Trudeau's office notes that they spoke about a planned meeting between the two leaders set for this month.

Canada has traditionally been the first foreign stop for new U.S. presidents, and Biden's first call to a foreign leader was to Trudeau, made the Friday after he was sworn in.

It's unclear whether the two will meet in person or whether the coronavirus pandemic will force them to meet virtually.
For decades, San Franciscos academically competitive Lowell High School has been a point of pride for the city, consistently one of the top performing public schools in the country, luring straight-A students and churning out prominent figures in politics, entertainment, literature and science.

But now, the so-called academic gem has come under fire by some who have condemned the schools lack of diversity and raised concerns over racist incidents, leading to the school boards abrupt proposal this week to eliminate the selective admissions process in favor of a random lottery like the districts other high schools.

The plan quickly divided the city, pitting the value of a prestigious public school against the role and responsibility of a public education system meant to serve students equally. Critics argue that not only is Lowell exclusionary, but it lacks diversity  its majority Asian  and has more college-prep coursework and more resources than other district high schools.

While the measure is almost certain to pass given a majority of school board members have already signed on to support it, the debate will likely linger as part of a broader racial reckoning across the country, one that also prompted the San Francisco school board a week ago to vote to rename 44 schools over ties to slavery, oppression, colonization and racism.

Several other communities, including New York City, have also looked at eliminating selective schools. In October, a public school in Northern Virginia ended the practice of requiring students to take a test and pay $100 to apply, but admission to Thomas Jefferson High School, which is also predominantly Asian and white, will remain competitive, based on grades as well as an essay and other measures.

Higher education is also part of the debate, with the University of California dropping the SAT and ACT standardized test requirements this year to increase access.

In San Francisco, school board members said they initiated the measure to end selective admission in response to ongoing, pervasive systemic racism at Lowell High School.

The measure comes a week after a three-hour public hearing and conversation about racism in general as well as a recent incident at Lowell, in which students were exposed to pornography, racial slurs and anti-Semitism in an online forum. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.

The question is whether changing the admission process will have an impact on that diversity or racism at the school, students, parents and teachers said.

There is a fundamental problem in the city and in the school system. Lowell is literally just a reflection of whats going on in society, not the cause, said Joyce Yuan, of the Lowell class of 2003, who is against changing to a lottery system. There are a lot of underserved populations that are dealing with social economic issues. Maybe their schools arent as well cared for and we need to look at what they need to be supported.

Whats not clear is whether Lowell students experience racism more than students at other schools.

Last school year, 14% of 11th-graders across the district said they experienced harassment at school based on race, ethnicity or national origin at least once in the previous 12 months. In recent years, schools across the Bay Area have experienced incidents of racism, including swastika graffiti and slurs or anonymous racial harassment online.

School board member Alison Collins, the lead co-author of the measure, did not respond to a request for comment on the prevalence of racism across across the district.

The measure would also create a community coalition to oversee an equity audit and form a plan to address the ongoing toxic racist abuse that Black and students of color have experienced at Lowell, according to the language.

Lowell, with nearly 2,900 students, currently enrolls less than 2% Black students compared with 8% districtwide and less than 12% Latino students compared with 32% in all schools. About a third of students are from low-income families, compared to about half for the district overall.

Lowell is considered a high-pressure school, where students are vying for top grades to get into the best universities, with the schools programs and course offerings backing that effort. Last year, Lowell offered more than 30 advanced placement courses, more than any other high school in the district. The list includes AP Latin, AP music theory, AP macroeconomics and AP human geography. Burton High School, by comparison, offers 13 advanced placement courses, while Balboa High offers 12.

Parent Tiffany Abuan, whose son is a Lowell junior, questioned whether the admission change would increase diversity or address racism.

What does it change? It doesnt change a lack of buses to bring students from different parts of the city, she said. It doesnt address that not all kids feel prepared to attend. What we dont have is a majority of administrators and teachers who are experts in dismantling systems of racial oppression.

Abuan, who is Filipino, said she understands what the proposal is trying to do, but that there is little research or community discussion on the impact.

Civil rights officials praised the boards actions, saying the proposal would end a two-tier system in the districts schools.

The public school system should be open and there really shouldnt be schools where the resources and best classes and teachers are focused, said Victor Leung, director of education equity at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. All school should be providing that excellent education and not just to students that are already high performing.

COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.

The debate Tuesday is likely to be intense  a preview of the discussion already happened when the board voted to temporarily suspend Lowells competitive admission policy last last year because of a lack of grades and test scores during distance learning. That changed the process for students admitted for the upcoming fall.

In addition to the concerns raised over racism and diversity, the board has argued a return to the old admissions policy would violate state law that prevents comprehensive high schools from using selective enrollment. Previously, the district has said the admission process preceded that state law and therefore was not subject to it.

Yet many parents, teachers and alumni said eliminating academic achievement from admission would be like making entrance to Harvard University or UC Berkeley random and would take away a school that feels like home for academically motivated students, a place where studious nerds can thrive.

Lowell has problems, including racism, drug dealing, fights, just like any other school in the district, said a Lowell social studies teacher, who The Chronicle agreed not to name in accordance with its source policy. Many kids transfer from other schools to Lowell because they crave a learning environment where disruptive students are not holding back the class. They crave high-level courses that will prepare them to succeed at the best colleges in this country.

Parent Surveen Singh, who has a sophomore at Lowell, said there is no question anti-racist work needs to done, but said she believes it can be done without changing one of the top-performing schools in the country.

The job market is merit based, college is merit based, she said. Lowells high standards, training and rigor have given many students, especially immigrant families, the impetus and skills to attend college and succeed.

Why on earth would anyone want to take that away?

Chronicle staff writer Vanessa Arredondo contributed to this report.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
(Newser)  Two Indian climbers who claimed to have summited Mount Everest, making them eligible for national awards, actually faked the ascent. That's according to authorities in Nepal, who began investigating after questions were raised about the pair's 2016 summit photo. At first glance, Narender Singh Yadav and Seema Rani Goswami appeared to be huddled at the top of the world. But one climber wore an oxygen mask unconnected to an oxygen tank and held flags that were completely straight, suggesting a lack of wind, per Everest Today. Plus there were shadows in opposite directions. Government investigators were pointed to these issues in August, after Yadav was selected to receive India's highest award for adventure sports, reports the New York Times. Yadar, who was 21 in 2016, now claims to have climbed the highest mountain on five of the seven continents.

story continues below

Nepalese tourism officials had initially believed the evidence presented for Everest, awarding Yadav and Goswami official climbing certificates in 2016. However, the government now says the submitted photos were faked. "Their claims for Everest summit couldn't be established," an official tells the Times. This comes after two other Indian climbers, husband and wife police officers, were found to have doctored summit photos in 2016. The Times notes Indians who summit Everest "are often given national awards." Or, if they work for the government, they might receive "promotions and lifelong benefits." Yadav denies that this was his motive, however. He maintains the climb happened and has filed a police complaint against his Nepalese guide. Climbers found to have faked a summit climb may be banned from all of Nepal's mountains for 10 years. (Everest has a new official height.)
2020 has been a challenging year for the entire world. We predict the pandemic response in 2020 will have a lasting impact on how and where consumers and businesses will use networks services, how service providers will build out their networks and where they will invest in additional capacity.

Here are a few predictions for 2021 for service providers:

Digital Transformation will Accelerate

The pandemic will erase years of resistance by late adopters, social institutions and businesses that previously hadnt bought into the digital transformation argument. Forced to go online or die individuals and businesses have learned new skills, overcome technology limitations and forged new business models during 2020. These will continue in 2021 and will accelerate many technology transitions that service providers are conducting.

IPv6 will Finally Overtake IPv4

Hovering right around 33 percent for most of the year, according to Google, IPv6 will be used in more than 50 percent of Google (News - Alert) searches globally. Boosted by the growth of 5G devices and networks, and increased pressure on CISOs to upgrade enterprise networks for strong network security, many enterprise and websites will accelerate their eventual conversion to IPv6 in 2021. However, many other ISPs, content providers and retailers, hard-hit by pandemic shutdowns, have web sites that are still IPv4 only and will remain unable to fund a conversion of their IT infrastructure. CGNAT can help extend their investment.

The Pandemic will have a Lasting Impact on Education  Remote/Online Learning will Continue Post Pandemic

The abrupt conversion of in-classroom learning to remote during the pandemic, will encourage elementary, secondary and higher education to offer online options to traditional in-classroom on a regular basis. This will expand education during illness, during period of inclement weather (snow days) and other situations where a more flexible arrangement would be beneficial.

Service Providers Move to the Edge  Faster than Expected

Service providers will have to re-architect their access networks to accommodate the traffic shift from dense urban areas to suburban as work/play/learn at home continues, post-pandemic. Edge computing is forecast by IDC to exceed 50 percent of new infrastructure deployments by 2023 and identified by nearly all mobile operators as extremely important to future networks.

Lifestyles will be permanently altered by the pandemic and many will not want to return to commutes and less flexible working conditions. Remote work will become a new, acceptable alternative in many industries. The recent announcements by Tesla and Oracle to move corporate headquarters from tech talent-rich Silicon Valley in CA (News - Alert) to Texas demonstrates a new trend. This will ultimately impact real estate, mass transportation plans and other social institutions that assume large-scale commutes to a few valuable job destinations. This shift will give a boost to distributed edge networks, cloud services and wireless that are less dependent upon centralized traffic aggregation.

Thats it for service providers.but heres my final prediction:

2021 Prediction: This Year will be so Much Better than 2020 and We will all be so Glad

The COVID-19 vaccine will be hugely effective, and the world will establish an international day of togetherness in 2021.

Edited by Maurice Nagle
Infighting between Ovahimba Cultural Group managers has resulted in the Swakopmund municipal council revoking its decision to make land available for the development of an Ovahimba cultural village.

About five years ago, the council approved the lease of a piece of land near the B2 Highway's entry into Swakopmund. The lease agreement was for just short of 10 years at N$465,75 per month. Since then, the 'Ovahimba Living Desert and Cultural Village' was created next to the famous Martin Luther historical site to maximise on tourist traffic in and out of Swakopmund.

Tourists had the unique opportunity to step into an enclosure that accommodated an Ovahimba village with huts, kraal, fires and Ovahimba items for sale, enjoying dances and food, while also interacting with Ovahimba and learning about the Namibian nomads originally from Kunene region.

Katjinounongo Mbimbo of the Eonga Traditional Group told The Namibian last Friday that about 50 Ovahimbas living at Swakopmund benefited from the plan - which did not last long. He accused the managers of the project for not being transparent, and failing to pay those who kept the village alive with cultural songs, dances and interaction.

"We were struggling, and this was a wonderful opportunity for us to earn bread and butter while showcasing our unique culture. It is unfortunate what has happened, and we agree with the municipality. It is a good thing they are doing to stop this. They must have a better plan that will benefit all of us," said Mbimbo.

According to him, there were about 150 Ovahimbas living at Swakopmund, but when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, about half moved back to their rural origins.

The Ovahimba at the coast depend mostly on tourism.

Swakopmund council management committee chairperson Wilfried Groenewald said during a council meeting last Thursday, several meetings were held to find an amicable solution to the infighting between the two groups, but the efforts proved futile.

The groups are led by Marikondjo Tjambiru and Kavetuurire Tjijerua.

The council originally signed the lease agreement with the Ovahimba Cultural Group led by Tjambiru in 2016. However, Tjijerua, who was a member of the group, allegedly did not agree with how Tjambiru was managing the project, which resulted in a split - one accusing the other of incompetence and violation of terms and conditions. One solution the council suggested was the formation of a new steering committee for the project in which Tjambiru would serve as chairperson and Tjijerua as deputy chairperson of the Ovahimba Cultural Village committee consisting of 10 members equally representative of both groups.

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Tjambiru, however, informed the municipality that he refused to accept new members, alleging that the new members violated certain articles within the original committee constitution - even though it was 'agreed' earlier that old procedures must be reviewed by the new committee to suit everyone.

Tjijerua, on the other hand, told the council that he proposed a meeting with Tjambiru, but Tjambiru refused, allegedly saying he was not ready to take new members; furthermore ordering the others not to enter the cultural village until further notice. That was last October.

"One can conclude that the existing infighting and conflicts among the cultural groups will never be resolved," said Groenewald, claiming Tjambiru's leadership has deprived the majority of the benefits they could get from this village.

As a result, the council has decided to revoke its decision on the land on which the village is located, and has suggested that the whole land be fenced off to allow the development of a cultural centre in future where all cultures can be allocated a portion to display their products.

Tjambiru did not respond to any of the messages left by this newspaper to give him a chance to comment.

Tjijerua told The Namibian that it was unfortunate that the municipality had come to the decision, but added that he would still try and engage Tjambiru on a better way forward.
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The UK and South African variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been suggested to have higher infectivity than the ancestral strain. The question remains, are they also more dangerous? Do they escape neutralization by antibodies elicited by the currently available vaccines?

A new preprint research paper by scientists from Sweden and India attempts to provide a preliminary answer to these questions using computational modeling. The research, which appears on the bioRxiv* server, predicts increased virulence with the new variant. If validated, this could help public health authorities prepare for new variants' possible impact as they emerge.

The UK variant

The new variant called Variant of Concern 202012/01, abbreviated VOC-202012/01, the year 2020, month 12, variant 01) belonging to the lineage B.1.1.7 was first sequenced in the United Kingdom. It has some strange multiple mutations in the spike protein, namely, N501Y and A570D in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and the N terminal domain, respectively, H69/V70, 144/145 deletions in the S1 subunit besides P681H, T716I, S982A, and D1118H mutations in the S2 subunit.

Altogether, the UK variant has 29 mutations relative to the original Wuhan strain, representing an accelerated mutation rate compared to the predicted two mutations per month. Moreover, there is also an unexpectedly high number of non-synonymous mutations in the spike protein, with 27% of them being common to the ancestor. Many of these affect essential processes such as spike cleavage or change the sequence of a stop codon (the open reading frame 8 (ORF8) stop codon (Q27stop) mutation). At the same time, the RBD N501Y is thought to increase spike-receptor binding affinity.

Three dimensional structure the spike protein:hACE-2 complex. The residues that are mutated in B.1.1.7 variant are shown in yellow color.

High number of mutations

The unusually high mutation rate occurring within a short period of time indicates the operation of selection pressure operating on the different virus strains in the same patient following treatment with convalescent plasma.

The researchers offer three explanations for such a phenomenon: prolonged infection with the virus in an immunocompromised patient that allowed evasive mutations to occur at high rates, adaptive mutations that initially occurred in the animal hosts and were transmitted to the human host by zoonotic transmission, and selective pressure brought to bear by antibodies, leading to either direct selection or genetic hitchhiking.

Apart from the effects on the spike's binding affinity to its receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), mouse studies indicate increased virulence as well. The double deletion mutation at position 69-70 on the spike protein in the UK variant has also been seen in the Danish Y453F mutant mink strain and the N439K mutation in humans.

The ORF8 mutation inactivates the protein and leads to more mutations downstream, as a result of which the illness may be milder. Other studies suggest a minor effect as a result of this mutation.

Potential consequences

Some suggested implications of these mutations in the UK strain include a 70% increase in transmission and an increase in the reproduction number by 0.4. The gold standard test (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, RT PCR) may not recognize the virus RNA if the double deletion H69/V70 occurs. The spike antigen could be altered by the RBD mutations, allowing the virus to escape neutralization by antibodies and lower vaccine efficacy.

Therefore, the current study aimed to understand the various mutations in this strain and how it affects infection, replication, and pathogenesis with SARS-CoV-2.

Study details

The researchers examined the bonds between the spike RBD and the ACE2 receptor, the wild-type spike, and the double mutated spike, the latter containing the N501Y and A570D mutations. The analysis was carried out using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to determine complex stability over a long time scale.

These studies also yielded computational properties such as the RMSD (root mean square displacement), root mean square fluctuation (RMFS), and hydrogen bond analysis, the last pertaining only to the hydrogen bonds formed between the spike and the ACE2 receptor. The data obtained were used to find the binding free energies using the molecular mechanics-Generalized Born surface area approach (MM-GBSA).

Increased spike-ACE2 interactions

The results show that the number and stability of hydrogen bonds differ between the wild-type and the mutant variant, with the latter resulting in a more significant number of bonds that survive for a more extended period, probably leading to increased spike-ACE2 interactions. In fact, the mutated-spike-ACE2 interaction is higher than the wild-type spike-ACE2 interaction, by ~20 kcal/mol.

The N501Y mutation is found to lower the binding free energies for the ACE-2 receptor by 17-19 kcal/mol. This allows increased interaction between the viral spike and the host cell ACE2, which accounts for the higher infectivity.

The spike mutant has higher stability, by -4 to -10 kcal/mol than the wild-type spike. It also contributes to more significant conformational fluctuations, though this is due to increased flexibility over a small set of residues (527-580). This indicates the effects of the mutation on the structure and dynamics of the ACE2 receptor.

The increased stability of the mutant spike-ACE2 complex formed explains the increased virulence of this variant, as it promotes the spread of the virus between infected cells. The flexibility could cause a mutational escape from antibody-mediated neutralization.

Stability due to increased interactions

The stability is explained by the higher interaction between different pairs of residues, especially TYR449-ASP38, TYR453-HIE34, and TYR501-LYS353, with a greater number of hydrogen bonds between the peptides. Thus, the researchers found that the higher spike-ACE2 affinity was due to hydrogen bonds between pairs of residues not involved directly in the N501Y mutation.

What are the implications?

The mutated spike of the UK variant interacts more strongly and stably with the ACE2 receptor, with lower binding free energies by -20 to -21 kcal/mol. These findings show why this strain is more virulent, with a few pairs of residues interacting more often with a higher number of intermolecular bonds between them.

The decreased free energy of the spike mutant relative to the wild-type spike protein seems to suggest that its suitability for long-term retention and propagation in newly emerging variants. Thus, these computational methods are capable of allowing a better understanding of how mutations affect the interactions within the spike-ACE2 complex.

*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.
State Duma develops bill on representative offices of foreign IT-companies in Russia

 pixabay.com

13:54 02/02/2021

MOSCOW, February 2 (RAPSI)  The State Duma Committee on Information Policy has started its work on a bill regulating the establishment of vested with necessary powers representative or branch offices of foreign internet companies in the territory of the Russian Federation.

The new requirements are first to be applied to the internet companies on the register of internet service providers. Besides, the bill envisages measures aimed at upgrading of penalties for failures to comply with Russian laws on the personal data storage and pay taxes on the proceeds gained in the Russian territory.

Currently, even the existing representative offices of foreign internet companies in Russia are anything but fully functional units since business operations are often carried out without their participation, according to Chair of the Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein.

The Committee is planning to hold a meeting with representatives of the industry in spring to discuss these issues.

Earlier, Russias President Vladimir Putin has issued his instructions as to work on proposals concerning introduction of additional requirements to foreign IT-companies, including the question of presence of their representative offices in Russia.
The victim had lodged a police complaint against the assailant in December after he allegedly harassed her over the phone

Hyderabad: A woman was injured when a man hacked her in the city, enraged over her lodging a police complaint about his alleged objectionable behaviour recently, police said on Tuesday.

The man, a bachelor and known to the woman, attacked her with an axe on Monday evening, causing serious injuries in the shoulder, they said.

She has been hospitalised and was out of danger, police said, adding on a complaint by the woman's husband, a case of attempt to murder had been registered against the assailant.

The man and the woman were known to each other and she had lodged a police complaint against him in December last after he allegedly harassed her over the phone. A case had been registered against him then.

Holding a grudge against her for approaching the police, the man attacked her on Monday.

ZESA Holdings is seeking a review of the mandatory sentence for criminals convicted for stealing power cables and transformers from 10 to 30 years to curb the vice that is prejudicing the power utility of more than US$2 million annually.

The parastatal is now in the process of replacing copper cables with aluminium.

Zesa requires more than US$14 million to procure intruder detection gadgets to fight the scourge that continues to bleed the power utility.

This comes as police in Bulawayo have smashed a well organised copper theft racket, arresting two suspects and recovering 150kg of overheard copper conductors worth US$12 000.

The latest arrest brings to four, the total number of suspects nabbed within the same weeks as police step up efforts in the fight against rampant copper theft in Bulawayo and its vicinity.

Thieves are taking advantage of the 6pm to 6am curfew to steal copper cables.

A number of suburbs in the city including one of the largest referral health institutions in the country - Mpilo Central Hospital - often go for weeks without electricity following theft of cables.

Simon Tapfuma (32) of Magwegwe and Police Ncube (25) of Lobengula West were arrested on Sunday in the early morning hours while their two accomplices are still at large. Tapfuma and Ncube, who were part of a group of five suspects, were arrested when detectives caught them red-handed, leading to the recovery of the loot. The tools used in the commission of the offence were, however, not recovered.

Police impounded the suspects' vehicle, a Toyota Hiace kombi, which was carrying the stolen cables.

The suspects were targeting areas around Mpopoma, Magwegwe, Njube and Lobengula suburbs.

Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed the arrests yesterday, saying investigations were ongoing.

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"We arrested two suspects whom we suspect operated as a syndicate. Our officers from the CID MFFU (Minerals Flora and Fauna Unit) received information that the suspects who were using an orange Toyota Hiace registration number ACL 4787 were in possession of stolen overhear copper conductors," he said.

The cables belong to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution (ZETDC), a subsidiary of Zesa Holdings.

"The detectives reacted to the information and located the vehicle and the suspects in the bush in Pelandaba West."

Insp Ncube said upon spotting the detectives, the five men disembarked from their vehicle and took to their heels abandoning their car in the bush.

Police pursued the suspects and managed to catch up with Ncube and Tapfuma leading to their arrest.

"We recovered six rolls of overheard copper conductors valued at US$12 000 weighing about 150kg hidden inside their kombi. Investigations revealed that the suspects pulled down the cables on Sunday at around 1AM at Congo Beerhall in Mpopoma," said Insp Ncube.

Upon arrest, the two suspects led detectives to the scene. The suspects are linked to a series of copper theft cases which occurred in Mpopoma, Magwegwe, Njube and Lobengula suburbs.
Public School Enrollment Declines During the CCP Virus Pandemic

Parents are turning to homeschool or private schools during the pandemic after witnessing their child struggle with virtual learning, and the harm being done to their childs mental or emotional wellbeing as a result of the pandemic measurements taken to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Alex Maloney was thriving and finding his voice with the dozen or so words he had learned over two years of speech therapy before his school had to switch to remote learning last year in March due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

He was attending prekindergarten in one of Boston Public Schools (BPS) and virtual-only instruction was a challenge for him. Thats because Alex was diagnosed with autism and global development delay and requires all-day stimulation along with the services provided at school to help with his development.

I said to my husband, he is going to be so far behind because he does have a developmental delay in addition to the autism, Lisa Maloney, Alexs mother told The Epoch Times. He basically is a year behind.

Lisa said her son could only do half an hour virtually every day before hed lose focus. She felt frustrated and helpless finding little to no support from the school district and having to also care for two other children.

It was very frustrating because its hard to see your child regressing and I was getting very stressed out, she said.

Alex was regressing, losing more than half of the 10 to 15 words it took him several years to learn after therapies offered at school came to a halt when remote learning began on March 17, 2020.

Lisa decided to advocate for her son, trying to find answers from officials about their plans for special needs children who required in-person services at their school. According to BPS, about 11,350 students aged 321 with disabilities are enrolled in special education programs or 21 percent of the total student population.

So I basically wrote to the superintendent, I wrote to the mayor, the governor, like I left messages for state reps, and different people and no one would get back to me, she said. I cant tell you how many times I did that.

She then turned to organizations that offered autism therapy but due to the pandemic, most centers offered online sessions only while others had a long waiting list for at-home services.

Worried that BPS would switch to remote learning throughout the new school year if COVID-19 cases went up, Lisa didnt want Alex to go through the changes and put him on a waitlist for a private school for autistic children. BPS did begin the school year with students learning remotely.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP virus.

Alex Maloney, who was diagnosed with autism, used to struggle with remote learning but is now thriving at the private school he goes to for in-person learning. (Courtesy of Lisa Maloney)

Alex is now at his new private school. Lisa says hes improving and saying words that he never said before since beginning in-person instruction last October.

Lisa understands that not every parent will feel comfortable sending their child to school for in-person learning, but for her, the benefit outweighed the risk and she felt comfortable with the proper safety precautions implemented at the school.

Public School Enrollment Declining

In collaboration with The Associated Press, Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering education, says preliminary analysis of data from 33 states showed that public K-12 enrollment this fall [September 2020] has dropped across those states by more than 500,000 students, or 2 [percent], since the same time this year.

This is a significant shift considering that enrollment overall in those states has typically gone up by around half a percent in recent years, the organization added.

Seventeen states had not yet released their data by the time the analysis was conducted but the nonprofit believed the decline in public school enrollment would be more noticeable, possibly affecting the school funding based on headcount.

Boston Public School saw its student enrollment fall by 4.7 percent from 50,480 students in 20192020 to 48,112 students in 2020-2021. Even one of Massachusettss top-rated school districts, Public Schools of Brookline, saw an 11 percent decline between this years school enrollment and last year, according to the states elementary and secondary education department.

According to the National Home Education Research Institute, homeschooling saw a drastic growth during the 20202021 school year, with an estimated 4.0 to 5.0 million homeschool students in grades K-12 in the United States. Thats almost twice the number of homeschoolers in the spring of 2019 when there were only about 2.5 million students.

Boston Globe reported in November 2020 that 7,188 students across Massachusetts had transferred from public schools into homeschooling, compared to the 802 students in 2019.

While in North Carolina, over 10,000 homeschool filings were submitted last summer, almost triple that of parents who had filed in 2019, according to the North State Journal.

Private schools have also seen an uptick in enrollment this school year. Scott Bohan, dean of admission at St. Pauls School in Concord, New Hampshire told Concord Monitor back in August of last year that he had worried the pandemic would turn families away from sending their children to the school.

But his worries were unfounded when parents began calling about enrolling their kids in his school since most public schools would be doing remote learning only.

This has probably been the busiest summer Ive ever had, yielding phone calls from people trying to get their kids into St. Pauls, Bohan said. Its been fascinating to see how this has unfolded, from this being a major concern to  we can take many more.
The purpose of this article is not to require a hunter to make a choice as to whether he should provide the most expensive funeral for his beloved coon dog or his faithful wife.

The Coon Dog Cemetery is located seven miles west of Tuscumbia, Alabama in Colbert County on U.S. 72 near Cherokee, Alabama. Turn off the highway onto Alabama 247 and travel approximately 12 miles before turning right onto Coon Dog Cemetery Road and follow the signs.

Eighty three years ago a hunter by the name of Key Underwood buried his dog, a coonhound named Troop, in an old hunting camp where the two of them had enjoyed coon hunting for years.

As a result other hunters also buried their favorite coon dog and erected appropriate headstones in the animal's name and often with other epitaphs such as He wasnt the best, but he was the best I ever owned!

Thus the cemetery came into being and today is run by a five-member Board of Friends of Coon Dog Cemetery of which only two are coon hunters, cousins, Lee Hatton and Frank Hatton.

Dogs must meet three stringent requirements to qualify for burial in the cemetery: (1) the owner must certify that this dog is a purebred coonhound; (2) a witness must declare that the deceased is a coon dog that has been hunted; and (3) a member of the local coon hunters organization must be allowed to view the coonhounds body and certify it to be a purebred.

One restriction is that mixed breed or pet dogs are not allowed to be buried in the graveyard. A one-time perpetual care fee of $100 is due prior to burial and at least one photograph of the coon dog must be provided to the Board.

The headstones range from basic wood and metal monuments up to elaborate marble engraved stones similar to ones found in upscale human cemeteries.

Supporters claim that it is the only cemetery in the world specifically dedicated to the preservation of the memory of coonhounds.

The cemetery was inaugurated on Labor Day in 1937 so on that date every year a large celebration is held with bluegrass music, buck dancing, barbecue and a liars contest.

Admission is free to the public but donations are accepted to meet the $234 monthly upkeep fee. Hats and T-shirts with the Coon Dog Cemetery logo are available for purchase and raffle items are auctioned off to raise additional upkeep funds.

Belt buckles with coon dog designs and coonskin caps similar to those worn by Davy Crockett and Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver in his political campaigns are available for purchase. Each gravesite is decorated with an American flag as a gesture honoring the deceased.

Politicians are often in attendance but no active politicking is allowed.

The cemetery has grown to be the final honored resting place for over approximately 400 coon dogs.

The hallowed ground has been memorialized in a song by Travis Wammack titled Coon Dog Cemetery and the cemetery was featured in the movie, Sweet Home Alabama.

Loyalties and feelings run high in the coonhound community.

One long time coon hunter once had a wife. She felt like the long nights away from home by her husband tracking coons had gotten out of hand. Finally, she told him, Its either me or the dogs.

After the divorce the dog owner became engaged to a lovely lady who accepted her fiance's love of his coon dogs and their relationship became quite content.

The Labor Day celebration for 2020 had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus epidemic; plans for the 2021 event are already in the works.

Mark your calendar for 2021 to take a trip to the only coondog cemetery in existence.

(Dont forget to bring your lawn chairs.)

* * *

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)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 02:25:20|Editor: huaxia

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Supporters of detained Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny clash with riot police officers during an unsanctioned rally in central Moscow on Jan. 23, 2021. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn)



"It is perhaps useful here to recall that any actions of this sort are generally banned in most European countries," Peskov said.



MOSCOW, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Russia is ignoring statements made by the United States regarding illegal protests taking place in the country, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.

"As for the statements made by U.S. representatives regarding our country and the illegal actions that took place in our country, I repeat once again, we are not willing to embrace or listen to them," the RIA Novosti news agency cited Peskov as saying.

"It is perhaps useful here to recall that any actions of this sort are generally banned in most European countries," Peskov added.

He pointed out that law enforcement officers across a range of European countries were faced with difficult situations on Sunday, where they had to work to ensure safety and security.

Peskov further condemned any sort of violence against security forces during the unauthorized rallies, calling it unacceptable that certain individuals act like "hooligans and provocateurs."

His statement came after Rebecca Ross, the spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Russia, condemned the use of "harsh tactics against peaceful protestors and journalists" on Sunday and urged Russia to "honor international human rights commitments."

Protests first broke out across Russia on Jan. 23 when thousands of people took to the streets in support of detained Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Unauthorized rallies continued throughout the country on Jan. 31. 
Rwanda has protested the decision by the United Kingdom government to ban passengers who have been in or transited through the country.

Rwanda says the decision is not backed by science given that it is enforcing strict protocols to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

The EastAfrican has learnt that following the announcement, the government on Friday summoned Ms Jo Lomas, the British High Commissioner to Rwanda, to provide an explanation.

On Saturday, the government issued a statement seeking explanation from the UK government over the "arbitrary decision."

"Rwanda is one of the few countries that require a PCR Covid-19 test for all departing passengers and all those in transit. Notably, Rwanda did not join the widespread bans on travellers from the UK in December 2020 over the variant discovered in parts of the UK.

"Considering the list of countries in the region affected and not affected by the ban, the sparse information communicated to Rwanda does not stand up to scientific scrutiny.

"Rwanda looks forward to receiving clarifications on the motivations behind this arbitrary decision of the UK government."

The UK government last week banned travel to its territory from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Burundi and Rwanda to prevent the spread of the new variant originally identified in South Africa.

UK officials also say the decision was recommended by UK scientists, saying Rwanda has limited gene sequencing testing capacity and the ban, which started with Tanzania in the region, is likely to be extended across East Africa.

"The decision to ban travel from these destinations follows the discovery of a new coronavirus variant, first identified in South Africa, that may have spread to other countries, including the UAE, Burundi and Rwanda. Any exemptions usually in place will not apply, including for business travel," the UK said last Thursday in a statement posted on the government website.

However, the decision sparked outrage with Rwandans criticizing it on social media, forcing the British High Commission in Kigali to issue a separate statement on its Twitter handle saying the decision was made across central and southern Africa.

"Non-UK citizens/residents travelling to Rwanda and Burundi are no longer able to enter the UK; direct flights have been banned. This decision has been made across central and southern Africa.

"This decision was taken due to the risk of the new variants rather than any reflection on Rwanda's strong handling to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic," the British High Commission said.

The ban is likely to complicate ongoing arrangements for the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM 2021) Summit scheduled for June in Kigali.

The ban also poses new challenges for the government that is facing the twin challenge of containing the pandemic and reviving the economy.

In particular, the ban will hit tourism - the country's strategic sector which earned it $498 million in 2019, making it the biggest source of foreign exchange for the government.

Rwanda has an ambitious target of growing tourism to $800 million by 2024.

The national carrier--RwandAir--will feel the pinch because its most profitable route Dubai (UAE), a major source of cargo and transiting passengers, is affected by the ban.

The London route, which had already been downgraded to one flight from three weekly flights, is important for Rwanda's exports as well as transit passengers to and from Europe.

"This is a challenge to a destination depending so much on these two key source markets. Both the UK and Dubai are key aviation hubs for leisure and business travellers to Rwanda... The key message is to communicate that Rwanda is not closed and is still open for business in view of all the circumstances," Dr Carmen Nibigira, a tourism policy analyst, told The EastAfrican.

According to Mr Frank Mustaff, a tourism expert at Horwath HTL East Africa, the decision by the UK government is controversial because the EU just recommended Rwanda among other countries to be lifted from restrictions due to how effectively they are managing the pandemic.

"...On the other hand, the decision by the UK is supported by dozens of scientists who believe that they must act to protect UK citizens against the new variants of the coronavirus. Ultimately, no one knows really when this pandemic will end, so all countries are trying to protect their citizens with their available evidence," he told The EastAfrican.

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Before the pandemic, Rwanda had aggressively positioned itself as a high tourism destination after successfully launching in May 2018 a three-year marketing deal worth $39 million for its "Visit Rwanda" sleeve sponsorship with English premier league's top team Arsenal.

According to available public data, in 2019, Rwanda Development Board (RBD) said the country earned $44 million in just one year.

Rwanda had also registered a steady rise in the number of visitors from the UK, recording a five per cent increase in visitors from the country.

While the government is yet to release the latest tourism figures, analysts say the prolonged impact of the pandemic globally, including travel restrictions, will further complicate recovery for Rwanda's tourism and budding aviation sector.

Report by Berna Namata, Moses K Gahigi and Ivan R. Mugisha.
What designer Andras Veres has tried to do on Instagram is something a little bit different, though, and has already received mixed results from Lancia fans out there.The Dodge Challenger you see here is no longer Americas muscle car, getting a set of styling refinements borrowed from Lancia, all with the purpose of creating what the designer hopes could be a new model launched by the Italian brand.Of course, the chances to see this going live are absolutely zero, as Dodge and Lancia working together on such a model is something happening when pigs fly. However, its still an interesting idea to envision a different approach for Italian car models.At first glance, theres indeed too much Dodge in this rendering, as one commenter says, but on the other hand, its pretty much the only way you could retain the muscle car feeling on a Lancia model. The front fascia is indeed inspired by Lancias, but other than that, its a Challenger from every single angle, theres no doubt about it.And thats not necessarily a bad thing, especially if youre a Dodge fan who likes muscle cars more than anything else. However, for Lancia fans it could be considered more of a blasphemy, mostly because it drops the pure Italian styling these cars have always sported.If anything, the Lancia 037 is the one where such a muscle car-inspired design approach would kind of fit, though for now, the world is still stuck with the original 217 units produced between 1982 and 1984, with no modern overhaul on the radar.
This is the incredible moment two arborists navigate their way to the top of a tree canopy to rescue a stranded cat.

Footage shows brothers-in-law Shaun Sears and Tom Otto, who operate the non- profit organisation Canopy Cat Rescue, scaling the towering tree in Washington to help the feline.

The daring duo, who work on a donations-only basis, estimate that they have rescued more than 2,000 cats since creating their service in 2009.

During the clip, Mr Otto hangs on his harness in a towering fir tree as he tries to move closer to the stranded black and white cat called Stanley.

Tom Otto navigates his way to the top of the towering tree in Washington and helps the black and white cat called Stanley

The arborist hangs on a harness in a towering fir tree as he tries to locate the stranded feline

He grabs hold of the cat by the scruff of the neck and draws him closer before making his descent

He climbs an adjacent tree before pulling himself closer to the cat and grabbing the feline by the scruff of the neck.

The rescuer then gives the cat a gentle rub on his head before placing him inside a string bag and making his descent.

The duo later took to social media to write: 'This was another difficult rescue because Stan was in a hard to access spot in a declining fir.

'After climbing an adjacent tree, I tried to pull the trees together with my net and pole, which didn't work. I ended up pulling myself close enough to pluck Stan off the branch with one hand and then swing back.

'Besides being a little mad about being scuffed, Stan was mostly happy to be in my arms. We quickly descended.'

Another clip shows one of the men scale a 30ft tree in Maple Valley in search of a feline called Ava.

The cat appears apprehensive at first but soon makes her way over to her rescuer who reassuringly holds her against his chest.

Meanwhile another scene shows Mr Sears climb to the top of a tree in Maple Valley to rescue a feline called Bella.

The cat, who was stuck in a fir tree, moves closer to Mr Otto and is then placed in a string bag

Elsewhere another cat called Ava is rescued by the team after finding herself stuck in a tree in Maple Valley

The feline soon makes her way over to her rescuer who reassuringly holds her against his chest

Mr Sears climbs to the top of a towering tree in Maple Valley to rescue a feline called Bella

Mr Sears, who holds a degree in Forest Ecology and Mr Otto, who is also a professional mountain guide, first created Canopy Cat Rescuers in 2009 after discovering how difficult it was for owners to find help for their cats stuck in trees.

On their website they write: 'As cat people ourselves, we know how horrible it feels when a cat is missing and then cries for help are heard high up in a tree.

'Cold, hungry, scared, tired, and dehydrated; many cats unfortunately suffer each year after being stuck in trees. That is why Canopy Cat Rescue rescues catsanytime, day or night, in all kinds of weather.

'All cats deserve to be rescued and reunited with their loved ones. We work on a donations-only basis, because it's our mission and passion to rescue any cat stuck in any tree regardless of their families financial situation.'

The men first created Canopy Cat Rescuers in 2009 after finding out how difficult it was for owners to seek help in getting their cats down from trees. Pictured: Shaun Sears (left) and Tom Otto (right)

In 2015, the rescuers starred in a ten-part reality series called Treetop Cat Rescue on Animal Planet.

The show chronicled the men's adventures as they navigated their way to the top of towering trees to rescue cats at no cost to their owners.

Speaking at the time Mr Otto told The Seattle Times: 'We've both been scratched up and bitten a few times.

'But for the most part, the cats are friendly and receptive to help when they're up in the trees.'

During 2020, the duo managed to rescue a total number of 665 cats from the Washington area.
The Polyethylene market will register an incremental spend of about USD 39.57 billion, growing at a CAGR of 4.27% during the five-year forecast period. A targeted strategic approach to Polyethylene sourcing can unlock several opportunities for buyers. This report also offers market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Download free sample pages

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005519/en/

SpendEdge has announced the release of its Global Polyethylene Market Procurement Intelligence Report (Graphic: Business Wire)

Key benefits to buy this report:

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Information on Latest Trends and Supply Chain Market Information Knowledge centre on COVID-19 impact assessment

SpendEdge's reports now include an in-depth complimentary analysis of the COVID-19 impact on procurement and the latest market data to help your company overcome sourcing challenges. Our Polyethylene market procurement intelligence report offers actionable procurement intelligence insights, sourcing strategies, and action plans to mitigate risks arising out of the current pandemic situation. The insights offered by our reports will help procurement professionals streamline supply chain operations and gain insights into the best procurement practices to mitigate losses.

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Several strategic and tactical negotiation levers are explained in the report to help buyers achieve the best prices for Polyethylene market. The report also aids buyers with relevant Polyethylene pricing levels, pros and cons of prevalent pricing models such as volume-based pricing, spot pricing, and cost-plus pricing and category management strategies and best practices to fulfil their category objectives.

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Some of the top polyethylene suppliers listed in this report:

This polyethylene procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc

SABIC

BASF SE

Equate Group

LyondellBasell Industries NV

Nan Ya Plastics Corp.

Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

Reliance Industries Ltd.

LOTTE Chemical Corp.

Huntsman Corp.

This procurement report helps buyers identify and shortlist the most suitable suppliers for their polyethylene requirements by answering the following questions:

Am I engaging with the right suppliers?

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What are the polyethylene category essentials in terms of SLAs and RFx?

Get access to regular sourcing and procurement insights to our digital procurement platform- Contact Us

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

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While speculating on an early Australian election is a biannual event for tragics, the only person with an actual clue is the Prime Minister and even he might not have made up his mind. Right now, the argument for Scott Morrison calling an election after August looks compelling; by August it might look like suicide.

This year, as last (and apparently as ever), events will decide political fates and defy expert predictions. The ranks of those now confidently asserting the government will go to the polls early and cant lose the next election are swelled by the battalions who were adamant it couldnt win the last. And hands up who circled 2020 in the diary for a pandemic?

Harold Macmillan was once asked by a journalist to reflect on what most troubled him as British Prime Minister.

The twin challenges faced by Morrison this year are the same as last: COVID-19 and China. Anthony Albaneses problems all sit behind him in Parliament.

Morrison knows the risks. His National Press Club speech put suppressing the virus and rolling out the vaccine at the top of his agenda. But keeping the disease in check is largely down to the states capacity to manage hotel quarantine. Western Australia has proved, again, that this is a fragile frontline and perhaps the only certainty of this year is that we can expect more breakouts.

On the upside for the Prime Minister, his hopes for suppression are helped by the risk tolerance of most premiers being set at zero. One case is now considered enough reason to shutter cities and slam shut state borders. The politics are hard to fault because, so far, voters have put a premium on safety and embraced the zero-tolerance approach.

On the downside, if lockdowns were a vaccine they would never win Therapeutic Goods Administration approval. The long-run effects of dislocation, isolation, the loss of education and the disproportionate suffering of the poor make it the 21st century equivalent of ship surgery.

Lockdowns have already exacted a price that cannot be measured in dollars or over the short term and the yo-yo imprisonment of cities will eventually cripple communities economically and psychologically. It is also more than a little disturbing to see how quickly the premiers have embraced authoritarianism with the full-throated support of progressives and activist media. Freedoms lost are not easily returned and every dictator ever born claims s/he is only acting to keep the people safe, especially from themselves.
Egyptian and French air forces concluded air drills on Tuesday at one of the Egyptian air force bases, the Egyptian Armed Forces announced.

According to the Egyptian armys statement on the drills, multi-role combat aircraft of various models took part in the exercise that kicked off on Saturday.

The drills included various training activities and several joint training air sorties as well as the exchange of training and tactical experiences in planning, implementation, command and control methods.

The drills came within the framework of developing military relations and joint cooperation between the Egyptian Air Forces and their counterparts from neighbouring countries.

Egyptian Air Forces Commander Lt. General Mohamed Abbas Helmi and Major General Laurent Lherbette, of the French Air Forces attended the drills along with a number of air forces commanders from Egypt and France.

Short link:


People arriving in Northern Ireland airports and ports will soon be required to fill in passenger locator forms if they are travelling across the border to Ireland.

The Cabinet have been asked to sign off on a deal which will see passenger information shared on both sides of the border.

The move will mean people flying into the North and travelling South will have to detail where they will be restricting their movements for two weeks after arrival.

Irish airport and port authorities will also collect passenger information on people arriving in Ireland before travelling North. This information will then be shared with Northern Ireland authorities.

Read More

It is an offence to provide incorrect information on a passenger locator form and can be punished by a fine of up to 2,500 or six months in prison.

The has been on going tensions between the Government and the Northern Assembly over the sharing of passenger information. GDPR issues were cited as an issue by the Government but the problem has since been overcome and the information will now be shared.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney held a meeting last night with Northern Ireland leaders Arlene Foster and Michelle ONeill. Northern Ireland Health Minister also attended the video conference call.

Mr Donnelly told Cabinet he is finalising regulations that will require people arriving in Ireland from Northern Ireland via ports or airports to complete a passenger locator form.

The minister also told Cabinet legislation will be required to introduce mandatory quarantine facilities for people arriving into the country.

There is frustration within government over the slow pace of quarantine being introduced in the country. One Government source said: Donnelly hasnt advanced mandatory quarantine on iota.

It comes as authorities in Britain are tackling outbreaks of the potentially more infectious South African variant of the coronavirus.

There have been nine cases of the South African variant in Ireland to date and all were contained before they could spread in to the community.

Read More




Foreign Correspondent returns to ABC tonight for 2021.

Reporter Karishma Vyas is in Georgia reporting on the electoral vote by black women.

Meet the formidable women in Georgia who fought for democracy and won. They battled generations of racism and voter suppression, inspiring record black voter turnout. Now their sights are set on the American South.

In Foreign Correspondents season return, we meet the formidable women in Georgia who fought for democracy and won.

In last Novembers presidential elections, black women in the southern US state of Georgia pulled off the unthinkable. They delivered a staunchly conservative state to Democrat Joe Biden.

Their secret? Record voter turnout.

Now they want to do it again in the Senate run-off elections.

This vote is a hammer and you can use it. Or maybe its a flashlight and you can see your way out of this, says Deborah Scott from Georgia Stand-Up, a non-partisan voting rights group based in the capital Atlanta.

Deborah and her team are part of a movement which has campaigned tirelessly for more than a decade to mobilise minorities to vote.

Its an uphill battle. Activists believe the state government has been illegally purging tens of thousands off the electoral roll  a tactic they call voter suppression.

But this just adds fuel to their fire. The more you suppress us, the more we are coming for you, says Deborah.

Our US-based reporter Karishma Vyas goes to the Deep South as Deborah and her team gear up for the crucial Senate poll which will decide control of Congress.

We hear from voters who have been purged from the roll, from white militia members who question the validity of their vote, and from the volunteers mobilising young people to turn out like never before.

Its been an awakening, says 25-year-old Georgia Stand-Up organiser Ariel. Its a great fearlessness because you feel as though anything is possible.

In a timely and inspiring story, we see the black women of Georgia successfully turn out record numbers of voters, even as powerful forces conspire to undermine their democratic rights.

For Deborah and her team, this is just the beginning. They have become a new force in US politics.

As Georgia goes, so does the rest of the South. We see it as a tipping point, says Deborah Scott.

Producer: Catherine Scott

Tuesday 2 February at 8pm on ABC.

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 00:43:16|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- China has added 15 provincial-level regions to a pilot system that supports cross-provincial settlement of outpatient bills, bringing the number of such regions to 27, the National Healthcare Security Administration said on Monday.

A total of 663 medical institutions and pharmacies in the 15 regions, including Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, have been included into the medical insurance system for direct reimbursements, said the administration.

Between its inception in 2018 and the end of 2020, the pilot system incorporated more than 10,000 medical institutions and more than 10,000 pharmacies across the country.

Over 3 million settlements of outpatient bills were made during the period, the administration added.

An official app was also made available to people from the country's 22 provincial-level regions to register for the service, according to the administration.

Before the pilot program was launched, patients had to return to the locality where they were enrolled to be reimbursed. Enditem


TEL AVIV, Israel and NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Apiiro, the industry's-first Code Risk Platform, today announced that Larry Maccherone, internationally-recognized author and DevSecOps thought leader has joined its Advisory Board.

With $35M in funding from Kleiner Perkins and Greylock in late 2020, the strategic addition of Maccherone comes as the company is experiencing rapid growth.

Larry brings extensive experience in driving Digital Transformation using an Agile and developer-first approach and is currently leading the global DevSecOps program at Comcast. Prior to Comcast, Larry served as Principal for his eponymous consulting firm, Director of Analytics and Research at Rally Software, and was a founding director for CyLab at Carnegie Mellon, where he co-led the launch of the DHS-funded Build-Security-In initiative. Larry is a thought leader in agile cultural transformations and believes that Security is an integral part of any DevOps initiative.

"Larry Maccerone brings a practical experience in quantifying the impact of Agile development practices. This gives him a unique perspective into how the right approach to security can have a lasting impact on both security and business results", commented Idan Plotnik, co-founder and CEO of Apiiro. "Apiiro was founded on the idea that we can fundamentally change the way we approach application and infrastructure security from design to code to cloud by focusing on the risks that matter. Larry can help us achieve that goal and we're thrilled to have him on the team."

"As a developer, I revel in elegant abstractions," commented Larry. "Apiiro has taken what people have previously done as point solutions and created a platform that will let you build in an elegant and secure way. Apiiro is pioneering a new way to empower developers and security architects to understand and manage risk. Providing developers with the knowledge they need to take ownership of the security of their products, from design to code to production, is the way to fundamentally drive success in DevSecOps. Apiiro is inventing an entirely new platform category and I'm excited to help them shape this vision."

About Apiiro

Apiiro is the industry's first Code Risk Platform to provide complete risk visibility from design to code to cloud, with every change. Apiiro gives organizations a 360 view of security and compliance risks, from design to production, across applications, infrastructure, developers' knowledge, and business impact. Apiiro is backed by Greylock and Kleiner Perkins. www.apiiro.com

Contact:

Russell Miller

pr@apiiro.com

212-266-0078
Youll probably want to throw something at Erik Thomson in Aftertaste. Or maybe even switch him off.

The bloke is a downright tosser in ABCs new comedy. But thats the point.

Thomson turns his back on affable melodrama roles for the arrogant, in-your-face celebrity chef Easton West. Even the opening scene is likely to have vegans reaching for the remote control. Or maybe the scene where he insults his young niece Diana telling her she is fat (his words) that will be the deal breaker.

But stick with Aftertaste, the rewards are certainly to be found, if possibly at his expense.

The six part series embodies all those things we deride in rock star, foul-mouthed chefs who shout abuse at staff, court the press and attract headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Eastons fall from grace happens at a his swank Shanghai restaurant, sending him back to his Adelaide home penniless. While his sister Denise (Susan Prior) isnt about to overlook her years of resentment, daughter Diana (Natalie Abbott) shares his passion for food. Eastons niece is also very talented in all things culinary leading to a mentorship of necessity.

But this new union does not run smoothly. While Easton looks to open a local restaurant with Diana as his young partner, his sheer arrogance threatens to derail it.

Meanwhile his elderly, hoarding father (Peter Carroll) wants none of his prodigal son, preferring to shoot wildlife on his property and watching television.

Even once-overlooked rising star Ben (Remy Hii) has now opened his own business, a smash hit thanks to astute social media marketing and gifted dishes. Easton has become old school very quickly.

The very eloquent Thomson is having a rollicking time in this role, putting plenty of distance from favourite roles from Packed to the Rafters and 800 Words. But newcomer Natalie Abbott (Muriels Wedding: The Musical) is a complete natural on screen -get out your Logie voting forms now. Together its an unexpectedly joyous union.

But theres also a delicious ensemble at work here with Susan Prior and a rare treat from legendary Peter Carroll. Rachel Griffiths (from episode 2) and Wayne Blair add to the many treats. and then theres the yummy food to make your eyes water.

Will Easton meet his redemption or will he underpay his staff, turn to activated almonds and annoy us with conspiracy theories? I doubt it will happen anytime soon given Aftertaste is having too much fun at his expense.

Aftertaste airs 9pm Wednesdays on ABC.

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Bulandshahr, Feb 2 : Two personnel of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were killed on Tuesday following the collision of two trucks in Bulandshahr's Sikandrabad area.

Meanwhile, several PAC jawans have also been injured in the accident. They have been taken to the hospitals for treatment.

The bodies of the two victims have been sent for post-mortem.

According to reports, the two deceased were posted in 38 Battalion Aligarh and were residents of Ghaziabad.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over incident and has directed senior officials to reach the spot and supervise relief operations.
Taposiris Magna is a city in Egypt established by Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus between 280 and 270 BC.

Its position on the arm of the now dried up bed of Lake Mareotis suggests its may have played a role in trade between Egypt and Libya.

Traders from the west would be able to use water to the harbour, then take a caravan route onwards.

The name means 'great tomb of Osiris' and likely comes from a great temple.

During an excavation in 2020 a team of archaeologists found a mummy with a golden tongue, likely so they could speak with Osiris in the afterlife.

The temple in the city was thought to be the final resting place of Cleopatra.
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[February 02, 2021] Telehealth Claim Lines Increase 2,938 Percent Nationally When Comparing November 2019 to November 2020

NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Telehealth claim lines1 increased 2,938 percent nationally from November 2019 to November 2020, rising from 0.20 percent of medical claim lines in November 2019 to 6.01 percent in November 2020, according to new data from FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker. From month to month, the telehealth share of medical claim lines rose 7.1 percent nationally, from 5.61 percent in October 2020 to 6.01 percent in November 2020. The data represent the privately insured population, excluding Medicare and Medicaid. Trends in the four US census regions (Midwest, Northeast, South and West) were similar to those in the nation as a whole. In each region, there were large percent increases in volume of claim lines from November 2019 to November 2020; smaller increases occurred from October to November 2020 in every region but the South, where the volume of claim lines dropped 2.5 percent. Higher telehealth utilization from March to November 2020 in comparison with the same months in 2019 was likely a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as patients and providers turned to telehealth as a way of reducing the risk of disease transmission associated with in-person visits. Other notable findings of the November Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker concern the top five telehealth diagnoses by volume. In November 2020, COVID-19 appeared for the first time on one of the regional lists of top five telehealth diagnoses, ranking fourth in the Midwest. Its appearance may reflect the surging number of COVID-19 cases and relatively fewer telehealth visits for other conditions, such as the flu, cases of which have been unusually low this season. Another rising diagnosis was exposure to communicable diseases, probably also related to COVID-19. From October to November 2020, exposure to communicable diseases jumped from number five to number two on the national list of telehealth diagnoses. Simultaneously, it rose in the rankings in all regions except the Midwest, where it stayed at number three, the same as the previous month. From October to November 2020, mental health conditions remained the number one telehealth diagnosis nationally and in every region. But the percentage of teleealth claim lines represented by mental health conditions fell nationally and in every region, perhaps as a result of an increase in COVID-19-related visits. Nationally, mental health conditions decreased from 51.81 percent of telehealth claim lines in October to 48.17 percent in November.



About the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker

Launched in May as a free service, the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker uses FAIR Health data to track how telehealth is evolving from month to month. An interactive map of the four US census regions allows the user to view an infographic on telehealth in a specific month in the nation as a whole or in individual regions. In addition to data on the volume of claim lines, diagnoses and procedure codes, each infographic includes findings on urban versus rural usage. FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker is able to provide continuing insights into how it affects telehealth. We will continue to monitor the evolution of this venue of care."

For the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, click here. Follow us on Twitter @FAIRHealth _____________________________

1 A claim line is an individual service or procedure listed on an insurance claim. About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization that qualifies as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code. It is dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 32 billion claim records and is growing at a rate of over 2 billion claim records a year. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health includes among the private claims data in its database, data on Medicare Advantage enrollees. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish and an English/Spanish mobile app, which enable consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offer a rich educational platform on health insurance. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Marty Makary's book The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Careand How to Fix It and Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org. Contact:

Dean Sicoli

Chief Communications Officer

FAIR Health

646-664-1645

dsicoli@fairhealth.org View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/telehealth-claim-lines-increase-2-938-percent-nationally-when-comparing-november-2019-to-november-2020--301220192.html SOURCE FAIR Health

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The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already implemented 292 NATO standards and documents.

"To date, 292 NATO standards and documents have already been implemented in the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces. In addition, in accordance with the NATO-Ukraine Partnership Goals package, 219 NATO standards and guidelines are being considered, ArmiyaInform reports with reference to Colonel Oleksandr Kumeda, head of the Department for Standardization, Codification and Catalogization of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

According to Kumeda, as of today, 192 documents have been considered, of which 128 NATO standards have already been implemented, on the basis of which 145 national and military regulations and normative documents have been drafted. Also, a positive decision was made on 52 standards for their further adoption and implementation in 2021-2025. At the same time, other NATO standards are being considered now.

The Colonel also informed that the already implemented NATO standards and guidelines are being applied in various fields. In particular, they relate to military policy, security and strategic planning, operations and hostilities, preparation of the territory of the state for defense, intelligence; information and psychological operations, military communications, design, test of weapons and military equipment; strategic communications; gender issues, etc.

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Punxsutawney Phil is more likely than not to predict six more weeks of winter on Tuesday, according to a combination of worldwide betting operations offering odds on the outcome of Groundhog Day.

Wagering on whether or not Phil will see his shadow is not legal in Pennsylvania or anywhere in the U.S., for that matter, but some international shops, including ones in Europe, have made six more weeks of winter a 4-to-6 favorite, while it is even money that spring will come early, according to a roundup from US-Bookies.com.

The Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney will be held virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, but there will be live streams aplenty to follow the annual tradition, including one right here on PennLive. If Phil sees his shadow, then a longer winter is in the cards. If not, spring will arrive early, according to the tradition.

In a fitting tribute to 2021, Punxsutawney Phil  the most famous groundhog in North America - is tipped to see his shadow, meaning bookies suggest that the groundhog is more likely to predict six more weeks of winter, A US-Bookies spokesperson said in a news release.

Its worth noting that bookies did correctly predict how Phils morning would go last year, as the odds strongly predicted that he would not see his shadow, and he did not. However, Phils prediction is not consistent among the entire groundhog community, as bookies also predict that four of the nations famous groundhogs will see their shadows and four will not.

Click here to save the PennLive page where Tuesday mornings live stream of the 135th Groundhog Day celebration from Gobblers Knob can be found.
A Londonderry woman accused of an air rage incident will go on trial next month.

Sarah McGuire (39), from Tyrconnell Street, faces two counts of common assault; behaving in a threatening, abusive or insulting manner towards a member of aircraft crew; being drunk in a plane and refusing to obey the lawful command of an aircraft commander last October 18.

She previously admitted using disorderly behaviour at Belfast International Airport arising from the same incident.

It is understood the charges follow an incident on a Belfast to Edinburgh flight which led to McGuire being escorted off. In a video of the incident, McGuire allegedly assaults two men. During a brief review of the case at Antrim Magistrates Court yesterday, District Judge Nigel Broderick enquired whether the footage might be a silver bullet to the defence or might lead to a change of plea, but defence counsel Eoghan Devlin confirmed that McGuire had seen the footage and maintained her denials. Mr Broderick listed the trial for March 8.

[February 02, 2021] Shutterstock Launches The Vault, One of the Largest Photo and Video Archive Collections in the World

NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), a leading global creative platform offering full-service solutions, high-quality content, and tools for brands, businesses and media companies, today announced the launch of The Vault , Shutterstock's archival collection with over 50 million assets across photo and video, covering royals, film, music, sports, wars, politics, and celebrities, making it one of the largest photo and video archives in the world that provides a comprehensive chronicle of the 20th Century. The physical location of The Vault is in an Iron Mountain facility in London, with a significant number of photographs digitized and made available on Shutterstock Editorial. The Vault houses archival content through a rich blend of Shutterstock-owned collections, as well as strategic alliances with world-class global partners, including AP, Associated News, and ITV. "For the first time in six years, we are delighted to open The Vault, officially providing Shutterstock's customers with unparalleled access to the best historical content across a wide range of categories," said Jamie Elden, Chief Revenue Officer at Shutterstock. "Archival photography and footage not only preserve our history, but it adds color and credibility to storytelling in an authentic and cost-effective way, providing immense value, and a wide range of new stories to be told for documentary, film, and television producers." The Vault is managed by Greg Watts at Shutterstock, who leads a team of archivists that catalogue and preserve the content. "I started my career 29 years ago at Rex as a filing clerk in the physical archive in East London, and I am incredibly excited to make this very special collection accessible to the wider Shutterstock community," said Watts. "There are images that have not been seen for nearly 20 years, waiting to be discovered -- it's truly an A-Z of more than a century of world events and stories." The Vault's offering includes The Rex Features Collection, which chronicles historical moments, including iconic images of the British Royal family, Ronald Reagan's transition from film star to politician, as well as Dezo Hoffman's archive, who photographed musical icons, such as Sinatra in the recording studios, and Marvin Gaye appearing on "Ready Steady Go." Additionally, Shutterstock houses the ITV archive, and is the exclusive distribution partner for its enormous catalogue of TV stills, including classics such as Coronation Street, Emmrdale, Spitting Image, The Prisoner, Thunderbirds and Upstairs Downstairs.



Other Shutterstock-owned collections include: The Berliner Archive: Founded in 1973, covering celebrity events in Los Angeles , New York and Las Vegas .

, and . The Picture Library: For 50 years, Alan Davidson , the photographer behind a number of iconic images, from Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger dancing, to a teenage Lady Diana Spencer , captured some of the world's most prolific people, and memorialized countless historical moments.

, the photographer behind a number of iconic images, from and dancing, to a teenage Lady , captured some of the world's most prolific people, and memorialized countless historical moments. The Harry Myers Collection: Starting his career in the 40s and shooting for almost six decades, Myers took photographs of arguably every major film star at London film premieres.

Collection: Starting his career in the 40s and shooting for almost six decades, Myers took photographs of arguably every major film star at film premieres. The Art Archive: A rare and extensive offering from the world's leading fine art galleries, museums and private collections covering every aspect of the creative arts and world culture -- from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics dating back to 2500 BC, to Buzz Aldrin's first steps on the moon. Open The Vault .

ABOUT SHUTTERSTOCK Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK ), is a leading global creative platform offering full-service solutions, high-quality content, and tools for brands, businesses and media companies. Directly and through its group subsidiaries, Shutterstock's comprehensive collection includes high-quality licensed photographs , vectors , illustrations , videos and music . Working with its growing community of over one million contributors, Shutterstock adds hundreds of thousands of images each week, and currently has more than 350 million images and more than 20 million video clips available. Headquartered in New York City, Shutterstock has offices around the world and customers in more than 150 countries. The Company also owns Bigstock , a value-oriented stock media offering; Shutterstock Studios, an end-to-end custom creative shop ; Offset, a high-end image collection ; PremiumBeat, a curated royalty-free music library; and Shutterstock Editorial, a premier source of editorial images and videos for the world's media. For more information, please visit www.shutterstock.com and follow Shutterstock on Twitter and on Facebook . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shutterstock-launches-the-vault-one-of-the-largest-photo-and-video-archive-collections-in-the-world-301219616.html SOURCE Shutterstock, Inc.

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Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) speaks to reporters as (L-R) Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rep. Todd Young (R-IN), Sen. Lisa Murkwoski (R-AK) and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) after meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Feb. 1, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Republicans Had Very Productive Meeting With Biden on CCP Virus Package: Collins

A group of Republicans had a very productive two-hour meeting with President Joe Biden about the CCP virus relief bill, according to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

We have just had a very productive, cordial, two-hour meeting with the president and vice president and some of their key aides to discuss the next steps on the COVID relief package, Collins told reporters outside the White House.

Collins said the Republicans outlined the details of their $600 billion CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus stimulus package. The president also explained the areas of his $1.9 trillion proposal, which still need to be fleshed out.

It was a very good exchange of views. I wouldnt say that we came together on a package tonight. No one expected that in a two-hour meeting. But what we did agree to do is to follow up and talk further at the staff level and amongst ourselves and with the president and vice president on how we can continue to work together on this very important issue, Collins said.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki issued a statement after the meeting saying that the president had a substantive and productive discussion with the Republicans.

While there were areas of agreement, the president also reiterated his view that Congress must respond boldly and urgently, and noted many areas which the Republican senators proposal does not address. He reiterated that while he is hopeful that the Rescue Plan can pass with bipartisan support, a reconciliation package is a path to achieve that end, Psaki said, referring to the reconciliation process which the Democrats can attempt to use to pass Bidens proposed bill.

He reiterated, however, that he will not slow down work on this urgent crisis response, and will not settle for a package that fails to meet the moment, Psaki said.

A total of nine Republican lawmakers and some of their staff attended the meeting, including Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), Rep. Todd Young (R-Ind.), and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) attended by phone.

Bidens $1.9 trillion proposal includes a federally mandated $15 minimum wage, the relevance of which to the relief effort is unclear. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the mandate will result in the loss of 1.3 million jobs.

Biden promised to deliver Americans $2,000 stimulus checks if the Senate turned blue with the victories of the two Democratic candidates in Georgia. The Democrats won, but there has been no tangible progress toward the checks the president promised.

Their election would put an end to the block in Washington on that $2,000 stimulus check, Biden said while campaigning for the senators.
Why North Star felt it was key to keep in-person education amid COVID
Lee University student Tristan Miller ran 47 miles around Lees campus last month to support and fundraise for fellow Lee student and friend Chace Varvel and the Varvel family.



Mr. Varvels mother, Kyle Varvel-White, passed of COVID-19 and double pneumonia this month at the age of 47. Mr. Miller ran 47 miles to celebrate each year she lived.

Mr. Miller set up a GoFundMe to raise money to pay for the medical bills incurred during Kyles illness. When I heard the news of Chaces mother passing, I knew I had to do something to support Chace and his family who I have become so close with, said Mr. Miller. So I decided to run in her and her familys honor.

Mr. Miller, a sophomore business major from Troy, Ohio, is a long-distance runner. He picked up running as a hobby his senior year of high school and has been participating in individual and community long-distance runs ever since, including two Last Man Standing races and a 50k. According to Mr. Miller, he and Chace have been best friends since middle school and are now roommates at Lee. Both Chace and Mr. Miller are members of TKO, a Greek service club, which was also there to support Mr. Miller in the final miles of his run.

Starting his run at 6 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 22, Mr. Miller completed it in just over eight hours, running a six-mile loop eight times. For the first two loops it was just me in the cold, dark morning, said Mr. Miller. By mile 30 my leg muscles felt like rubberthen, at the end of my sixth loop, my good friends Sydney Brown, Anthony Jones, Megan Uhls, and David Priatko were at the start/end point of the loop to cheer me on. Seeing some familiar faces was the only push I needed to get through those last 11 miles. Overall, the run was great, and it was an excellent way to raise money and show my love and support for Chace and his family.

To donate to Mr. Millers GoFundMe fundraiser, visit https://www.gofundme.com/47-for-47-help-support-the-varvels.




From left, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin and Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin





By Kim Hyun-bin







Conglomerate chiefs have been getting together more frequently of late to seek cooperation and find new opportunities for growth. They are even meeting rivals and other industry heads tearing down traditional business boundaries to enhance their competitiveness. The unusual moves come as uncertainties have soared from the COVID-19 pandemic and their preparations for a post-coronavirus world.







The most eye-catching example is Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin's recent surprise visit to Naver's headquarters to meet Lee Hae-jin, the internet portal operator's founder and global investment officer (GIO).







The two were joined by E-mart CEO Kang Heui-seok and Naver CEO Han Seong-sook, to discuss possible business partnerships in online shopping.







Industry insiders believe the encounter was about an alliance between the leading distribution company Shinsegae and online shopping giant Naver, which could bring dramatic changes to the distribution industry.







Shinsegae has been listing its products through Kakao and 11th Street and seeking to expand to other online platforms. Naver has also inked partnerships with offline distribution channels such as Hyundai Department Store, Homeplus and GS to expand its online services.







SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won also met with POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo at the latter's Pohang steel plant, recently. The two inspected the plant, had a luncheon and volunteered to provide lunches for hungry senior citizens.





The two chiefs' encounter is hard to perceive as solely for volunteer work but rather as a means to enhance collaboration to find future growth opportunities between the two firms.





SK Group aims to expand its electric vehicle (EV) battery business through SK Innovation and also its hydrogen energy business, which led to establishing a hydrogen business preparation group under the chairman's guidance.







POSCO supplies SK Innovation with battery materials and has been expediting efforts to expand its hydrogen business.







The world's fifth-largest steelmaker by output, aims to produce up to 5 million tons of hydrogen by 2050 to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy sources.







Industry watchers believe the two heads' eco-friendly vision is likely to create more synergy between the two conglomerates in the future.







In November last year, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun met with Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin at the Lotte Chemical plant in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, receiving a tour of the plant and discussing possible cooperation.







The plant develops high-quality synthetic resins that are used to develop cars and has an R&D center nearby.





Industry watchers believe the two met to discuss the possibility of developing new materials that could be implemented in future vehicles.







The leaders of the top four conglomerates, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, SK Group Chairman Chey and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung also met several times last year to solidify their friendships and increase cooperation between their firms.







"COVID-19 has demolished the industry boundaries with many conglomerates seeking cooperation between the firms to enhance their competitiveness both in the local and global markets," an industry official said. "Now it will be difficult for a conglomerates to stick to its own business boundaries and find great success in the future."


Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 18:47:35|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed and two others injured when a vehicle of a motorcade crashed into another car here, the capital's traffic police said on Tuesday.

The vehicle of the motorcade rammed into the car carrying people from the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after violating the traffic signal, police sources told Xinhua.

The traffic police's tweet added that the driver and the vehicle involved in the accident have been taken into custody, while the police are trying to contact the families of the deceased and will act in accordance with law and proceed legally against those responsible.

Some local media reports said that the deceased were young people who were visiting Islamabad to find employment opportunities.

The incident happened at the Srinagar Highway, a 25-km main east-west artery passing through the capital with traffic signals installed at many places. Earlier on Dec. 27, four people were killed and 25 others injured when a van carrying airport staff violated the traffic signal and rammed into the pickup truck coming from another direction on the highway. Enditem
(Photo : Screenshot From TechTator YouTube) MediaTek Enters 5G Chip Production Realm with Upcoming M80 Expected Later This Year

Tech customers will soon reportedly be able to try out one of the most popular Taiwanese company's very first new mmWave chips, the M80, some time later this year. MediaTek has reportedly joined Samsung and Qualcomm in offering the new ultrafast 5G connectivity for PC, phones, robots, as well as other devices.

MediaTek M80 modem

According to an article by CNet, the Taiwanese chipmaker has just unveiled its brand new M80 modem, which will include millimeter-wave connectivity for the very first time in history. For most of MediaTek's general traditional markets, the absence of this mmWave has not really mattered.

Although the technology is really fast, it can only travel just short distances, and it has already largely only been installed in the dense parts of certain cities. Instead, China, T-Mobile as well as other carriers around the whole world instead have already rolled out the sub-6Ghz 5G, which still does not go as fast but is still very reliable.

mmWave needed for 5G networks

However, mmWave connectivity is still required for phones on the Verizon 5G network, and even more mmWave networks are also being built all around the world. By the time that MediaTek's upcoming M80 modem is finally installed in devices, the mmWave will most likely be more in demand, especially for upcoming high-end phones.

Finbarr Moynihan, the general manager of sales for the official MediaTek stated that they will continue to focus on the stated high end so inevitably, the upcoming millimeter wave will now need to be integrated into a number of those high end platforms moving forward. This insight was given in an interview ahead of the official news. It was also stated that as the market moves, the millimeter wave will then become even more and more of a bigger requirement.

Read Also: Is Your Phone 5G Ready? Here's How to Know

Samsung and Qualcomm

The M80 is said to be capable of downloading certain data of up to 7.67 Gbps and its uploading data reaching 3.76 Gbps. This would edge both Samsung and Qualcomm's very own modem speeds. Qualcomm's popular Snapdragon 888, along with its very own X60 modem, is now capable of downloading data up to a whopping 7.5 Gbps and also upload data at a record 3 Gbps for now which was also reported by VentureBeat.

Samsung's Exynos 2100 is also reportedly capable of handling a maximum download speed of up to 5.1 Gbps over the lower-band 5G as well as download speeds of up to a whopping 7.35 Gbps over the mmWave. While MediaTek's very own new modem touts the proposed fastest speeds, it still likely won't be in the upcoming devices until late 2021 at the earliest.

MediaTek still has not given any specifications regarding when it will be shipping in the products but still said it's own given samples of the M80 to customers will roll out "later in 2021. Qualcomm also tends to unveil its upcoming newest modems ealy within the year. This means that it might soon have a much faster offering for its customers.

Related Article: 5G Conspiracy Theory Finally Explained: Find Out How it Started and How to Stop False Information

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Urian Buenconsejo

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Thats Rich! Having exhausted every last dime I had, we borrowed money from my 70-year-old mother-in-law to get an apartment for my daughters along with my wife and I. I have been homeschooling (remote learning) both my kids. I qualified for $189 per week though the PUA federal program and received it until the first week of December, with five weeks still remaining. I have received nothing since then. I have called and emailed every day and cant get a hold of anyone, Please Help - AJ

AJ, youre one of many readers who recently contacted me about unemployment benefits being cut off in December with eligible weeks showing in their accounts as remaining.

State officials up to the governor have apologized for any number of delays and problems with unemployment. Problems predated the pandemic because (my opinion here) legislators and governors never made it a big enough priority to fix things to more quickly deliver benefits to people in need while also guarding against potentially bad claims or fraud. The increased workload brought on by the crisis made it worse.

None of the apologies, of course, helps those in your financial situation. The governor has admitted as much.

But the state says reprogramming is expected to be in place by this weekend so an estimated 155,453 PUA claimants who had balances on their accounts of up to seven weeks can again be paid, provided they have no other issues holding their claims. Payments can be be retroactive to Dec. 27.

Its complicated. But since Ive received so many questions about different parts of this, lets step through what got the PUA program to this point, and why so many people approved for additional weeks long ago were cut off without being paid (yet). This is based on discussions with state unemployment officials over months.

1. PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) was established under the CARES Act, the first stimulus package approved by congress back in March. It created unemployment benefits for self-employed individuals and those whose wage income was too low for traditional unemployment. (Traditional unemployment is paid for through wage taxes on employers; PUA is paid by the federal government.)

2. Ohio got its PUA system up and running in mid-May, allowing people to file claims retroactive to February, per federal law.

3. The maximum number of weeks under the original program was 39, but benefits would not last beyond Dec. 26.

4. This was later extended to up to 46 weeks (traditional unemployment also got an extension) because Ohios unemployment rate was high enough for the state to qualify for what is called extended benefits, or EB.

5. However, Ohios unemployment rate during the fall dropped below the federal threshold for the state to qualify for EB, cutting off EB payments on Dec. 12. This cutoff included even those who were approved for seven extra weeks beyond the 39.

6. Other PUA recipients kept getting weekly checks through Dec. 26 because they had not reached their original limit of 39 weeks.

7. Heres the good news, albeit much delayed. The second round of stimulus signed into law on Dec. 27 created up to 11 extra weeks of PUA - 50 weeks in all for both PUA and traditional unemployment. But the state says the new law came with so many changes that it has taken time to implement. And, to be fair to the state, Congress and the president waited until the last minute before creating the extensions.

8. By this weekend, the state expects to be ready both (1) for people new to PUA to file claims and receive benefits for qualifying weeks in some circumstances as far back as Dec. 6, and (2) for people who had been approved for the seven extra weeks to begin receiving payments retroactive to Dec. 27.

9. Another group numbering an estimated 1,300 will have to wait until about Feb. 19 to get restarted. These are people who used up their 39 original weeks but did so before being qualified for the additional seven.

As it stands now, the program ends April 10, with no applications after March 13, regardless of whether a person received all 50 weeks of PUA. This, however, could change. President Joe Biden is asking Congress to grant extensions through the summer.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor, writes cleveland.coms and The Plain Dealers personal finance column - Thats Rich! Follow on Twitter @RichExner.

Email questions and suggestions to rexner@cleveland.com. Include your hometown and first name for publication. And to help me sort through the clutter of my email box, try to remember including Thats Rich! in the subject of the email.

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Photo: The Canadian Press

A Nunavut judge who acquitted a woman of murder for killing her abusive spouse in self-defence is warning that the territory's cycle of domestic violence will continue unless victims get adequate support.

Sandra Ameralik of Gjoa Haven was charged with second-degree murder after she stabbed her spouse and father of her six children, Howie Aaluk, once in the chest with a large kitchen knife during an argument in their home in June 2017.

Ameralik was 29-years old and 29 weeks pregnant at the time.

She testified at a trial held last October that her husband had physically abused her for years. She told court she was not trying to kill Aaluk that day, but was trying to stop him from hurting her and her baby, and had been aiming for his arm.

A foot shorter than her husband, she told court that they had been yelling at each other in the kitchen and he went toward her and told her to stab him.

In a decision released Wednesday, Justice Susan Charlesworth ruled that Ameralik was not guilty of second-degree murder or the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Ameralik's defence lawyer, Alison Crowe, said the acquittal is the first in Nunavut in a case using battered woman syndrome as a defence. A 1990 Supreme Court of Canada decision ruled that the syndrome is a legitimate explanation for self-defence in the courts.

Gary Magee, the Crown prosecutor in Ameralik's case, said his office has not yet decided whether to appeal.

The judge said in her ruling that Ameralik had suffered years of violence at the hands of Aaluk which, "led to Ms. Ameralik justifiably taking physical action against the deceased as she perceived him to be a threat to her and her unborn child."

"It is clear to me that there were no other means available to Ms. Ameralik to respond to the threat posed by Mr. Aaluk," Charlesworth wrote.

The trial heard that there were several times, going back to 2010, when Aaluk was charged with assaulting Ameralik. Most times, the charges were dropped because she did not attend court.

"Ms. Ameralik also said that she usually did not go to court because Mr. Aaluk would tell her to stay home and say she could not find a babysitter, or her children were sick. She said she was afraid if she went to court 'that he was going to either fight me or hurt me,'" Charlesworth wrote.

The judge said there are "systemic shortcomings" in Nunavut's justice system.

"We will not know how the course of this familys history might have changed had Ms. Ameralik had the support to follow through with testifying against Mr. Aaluk in any of the trials for charges of intimate partner violence that were brought against him," she said.

Statistics Canada figures show police-reported family violence in Nunavut is 10 times the Canadian average.

Rebecca Kudloo, president of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, said Nunavut's high rates of domestic violence are not new, but "part of the horrific legacy of colonization, relocation of Inuit, and the effects of residential schooling."

Kudloo pointed out that when Ameralik killed her husband, there was no shelter or safe house in Gjoa Haven.
The Main Point is an opinion written collectively by The University Star's Editorial Board. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of our entire publication.
Biden administration will sign a new executive order to measures the damage to thousands of families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, extending efforts over the last four years to reverse relentless changes to immigration policy rapidly.

Alejandro Mayorkas, whose appointment as Secretary of Homeland Security is pending approval by the Senate, will chair a family separation task force focused primarily on reuniting parents and children who remain separated. It is uncertain how many, but about 5,500 children were reported as having been separated during Trump's presidency in court records, including about 600 whose parents have yet to be uncovered by a court-appointed committee.

President Joe Biden will continue to review and roll back some of the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies on Tuesday, including introducing a family reunification task force and signing an executive order updating the "Migrant Protection Protocols."

Trump took more than 400 administrative measures related to immigration while in office. Meanwhile, Biden unveiled a comprehensive immigration reform plan on his first day in the office and signed numerous immigration-related executive orders to stop further construction of the border wall, stress dedication in maintaining the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, and end Trump's so-called Muslim ban.

Owing to the family separation policy under Trump, the task force will first seek to classify all children who are separated from their parents at the border, according to information from administration officials and in a fact sheet. Biden and federal agencies will then make suggestions on measures they should take to reunify families. And it will include updates and recommendations on measures to avoid the re-occurrence of family separation policies.

The explanation of the task force by administration officials falls short of what immigrant advocates and human rights organizations have encouraged the Biden administration to do. The ACLU called on Biden's administration to encourage families to settle in the United States, be granted some legal status, and provide funds for basic needs and medical care.

The border protection analysis involves having asylum seekers wait for U.S. immigration court hearings in Mexican border cities. It is a step towards fulfilling a campaign promise to end the Remain in Mexico scheme, officially known as Migrant Security Protocols, which since its beginning in January 2019 has enrolled nearly 70,000 asylum seekers.

Joe Biden Executive Orders call of action.

Overall, the officials said, Joe Biden will release three executive orders dealing with regional migration, legal immigration, and family reunification.

He would call for a study of a Trump-era law as one of the actions that made it more difficult for more impoverished immigrants to get permanent residency in the United States, they said. A revision of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a divisive program that pushed 65,000 asylum seekers back to Mexico to wait for U.S. court hearings, will also be mandated. Most seekers went back to their home countries, but some stayed near the Mexican border in a makeshift camp.

According to immigration reform analysts, former officials, and advocates on both sides of the issue, Biden's efforts face logistical obstacles and resistance from Republicans.

Although making border protection a big theme of his campaign, Trump won the presidency in 2016. Sarah Pierce, the policy analyst with the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, said that if Biden fails to deter illegal immigration spikes on the U.S.-Mexico border, he might give ammunition Republicans in the 2022 congressional elections.

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The Decatur, Georgia school system, near the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is in a community full of health professionals.

Decatur is a politically liberal area outside Atlanta. Many public health and medical professionals in the community gave suggestions about how schools should operate during the coronavirus crisis. Yet, deep divisions between the parents appeared.

The disputes in Decatur demonstrate the issues many American communities have faced while trying to decide what is safe and acceptable for schools in the middle of a health crisis.

Disagreements

Parents in the Decatur school system had different ideas about reopening schools.

One emergency medicine doctor said early reopening plans for the system's 5,000-plus students were not safe enough. A doctor doing work for the CDC suggested reopenings should be delayed.

Others, including a leader of the CDCs COVID-19 vaccine efforts, argued the district could get students back in classrooms safely. They suggested that not returning students risked their development and mental health.

David Dude heads the Decatur school system.

The challenge for me has been trying to weigh all of these things that Im being told by experts and non-experts alike to try to make the best decision that we can, he said. And thats what I, and Im sure other superintendents, have been struggling with.

Superintendent is the term used to describe the head of schools in a particular area in the United States.

Science and political questions

In the school reopening debate, each side argued that data and science supported their view. The debate sometimes became angry and unpleasant.

Health officials say there is growing evidence that children are not the main drivers of community spread. Virus spread is fairly low in schools where mask-wearing, social distancing and contact tracing are in effect. The CDC says that for schools to open safely, they and their surrounding communities must take preventive measures.

But without clear reopening rules from federal and state leaders, school officials have had to consider the science themselves, Dude said.

When Dude released a reopening plan for the fall, some parents and teachers questioned whether it was safe. When he stopped the reopening, other parents got angry, criticizing the quick change. Some suggested online schooling was not something that could work for long.

Tiffany Tesfamichael is a single parent who moved to Decatur because of the schools. She was concerned about neighbors who were against opening schools, but did not oppose opening businesses.

Why arent they out here with signs protesting restaurants if they really, really mean it? she said.

Dude ended up asking a large group of volunteers to make suggestions for reopening schools.

He then decided on a new plan for January. The plan called for younger students to attend school for part of the day in small groups. Older students would continue with online learning.

Some CDC employees and other health professionals objected to part of the plan. They argued in a letter to a community news website that safe, in-person learning was possible for older students if the right preventive measures were taken. They suggested that decision-makers were misreading evidence about virus spread in schools.

A hospital doctor treating COVID-19 patients sent her own letter, warning that reopening schools as cases increased would be irresponsible.

Lasting disputes

Around Decatur, people tried to avoid the issue in everyday discussions with their neighbors. But the disputes continued during school board meetings and on social media.

In a Facebook group for parents, the disagreements got so bad that some users said their social media posts had been shared with their employers by others trying to insult them.

Kerry Ludlam is a parent of middle school students in the Decatur school system. She worries about the discussions yet to come.

Ludlam said people insulted each other from behind their computers, forgetting that at some point, the world is going to get back to normal... she told The Associated Press. And were going to have to face the things we said to each other and the things we accused each other of, she added.

Im John Russell.

Kantele Franko reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for Learning English. Bryan Lynn was the editor.

Quiz - School Reopening Debate Divides US Community Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

challenge  n. a difficult task or problem : something that is hard to do

mask  n. a covering for your face or for part of your face

contact tracing  n. the process of identifying people who may have come into contact with an infected person

board  n. a group of people who manage or direct a company or organization
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 22:06:24|Editor: huaxia

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MOGADISHU, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- An international charity has confirmed that one of its staff was among nine people who were killed in the terrorist attack on Afrik Hotel on Sunday in Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said it regretted the loss of one of its colleagues in NRC Somalia during the attack by al-Shabab fighters which also left more than ten others injured.

"I am heartbroken and deeply saddened by this tragic loss of a valued colleague and friend. The entire global NRC family is mourning," NRC Secretary-General Jan Egeland said in a statement issued on Monday evening.

Egeland said the attack is another cruel reminder of the totally unacceptable violence engulfing unarmed and neutral humanitarian workers in too many conflicts around the world.

"NRC sends our heartfelt condolences to his family and to the family and friends of all those affected by the attacks," said the charity.

Al-Shabab terrorists attacked the popular hotel in Mogadishu on Sunday evening and engaged in an hours-long siege before being dislodged by the Somali security forces.

Al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, saying it was targeting government officials who were meeting in the hotel. Enditem
NIA to probe Israel Embassy blast case

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 02: The Israel Embassy blast case has been handed over to the National Investigation Agency. The Ministry of Home Affairs handed over the probe to the NIA, government sources tell OneIndia. The official said that taking into the consideration the international ramifications this case has, the NIA has been roped in.

The development comes a day after Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu dialled PM Narendra Modi and thanked him for the security of the Israel diplomats in India.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke today by telephone with Indian Prime Minister and thanked him for his government's efforts to safeguard Israeli representatives in the aftermath of the terrorist event near the Israeli Embassy in India, PM of Israel said in a tweet.

Embassy blast: Dump date of mobile calls under examination, agencies yet to identify suspect

Indian Prime Minister Modi noted that his country is committed to the security of our people and added that India would continue to cooperate with Israel in the fight against terrorism, another tweet read.

While several leads have emerged from the investigation into the low intensity blast that took place outside the Israel Embassy in New Delhi, there are more pointers towards an Iran angle.

While there is nothing conclusive as yet owing to the false flags, officials in New Delhi tell OneIndia that the probe into the Iran angle is on and some of the leads are pretty strong.

There is also a very strong possibility that the blast could be linked to the one that took place on February 13 2012. We are not ruling out any possibility, the official cited above also said.

Investigators are also looking at the role of a group called the Jaish-ul-Hind. A person by the name Vikar had claimed responsibility for the blast on a Telegram group in the ISIS forum that is linked to the Qayam Foundation.

The internet protocol address has been traced to Herat in Afghanistan. However this angle needs to be thoroughly probed as it could be a false flag, officials say. The message posted by Vikar has been forwarded on many groups, but it could be a way of misleading the investigators, officials further pointed out.

On Saturday, the Delhi Police observed two suspects getting off the cab moments before the minor blast.

After observing the CCTV footage, the cops found that the two suspects were getting off a cab moments before the blast. The cab driver has been identified and was questioned by the Delhi Police.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

Following the minor blast outside the Israel Embassy in New Delhi, the police had found a note addressed to the to Israel Embassy ambassador.

The letter contained a threat and describes the explosion as a trailer. The letter also refers to Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran's most powerful generals who was assassinated in a drone strike by the United States in January last year.
UC Davis students communicate while wearing masks in a lab class held on campus in fall 2020. A new linguistics study shows that people can effectively communicate and be understood while wearing a mask. Credit: Karin Higgins/UC Davis

Ten months into COVID-19 living, people are adapting to speaking from behind, and understanding others who are wearing, a cloth face mask, University of California, Davis, researchers suggest in a new study.

Researchers in the Department of Linguistics at UC Davis and University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, investigated how well speech is understood from those speaking while wearing a cloth mask. Due to social distancing measures, speakers for the study consisted of individuals from the same household, who recorded sentences while face-masked and non-face-masked. The researchers tested how well a separate group of listeners, 63 individuals at UC Davis, could understand these productions. They found that masked speech was not more difficult to understand. And in some cases, understanding was improved.

"Strikingly, when speakers are instructed to 'speak clearly' while wearing a face-mask, their speech is even better understood by listeners (compared to when the speakers are unmasked)," said the study's lead author, Michelle Cohn, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in linguistics at UC Davis.

"Results from the current study revealed that wearing a fabric face mask does not uniformly affect speech intelligibility across styles. ... speakers are dynamically assessing listener difficulty and adapting their 'clear' speech accordingly," she said.

The study, "Intelligibility of face-masked speech depends on speaking style: Comparing casual, clear, and emotional speech," investigated the impact of wearing a fabric face mask on speech comprehension, an under-explored topic that can inform theories of speech production. It was published online in the journal Cognition in January.

Speakers, who were members of the same household, produced sentences in three speech styles (casual, clear, positive-emotional) while in both masked and unmasked conditions. Audio-recording equipment was mailed to their home.

In the experiment, researchers added background noise to a recording of a variety of sentences being spoken. The ambient noise made it more difficult to understand speakers, mimicking, for example, the circumstances at crowded supermarkets or in public, Cohn said.

These recordings were played to listeners who completed the experiment online. (Listeners were all native speakers of American English recruited from a UC Davis psychology pool.) Their task was to listen carefully to each sentence, and type the last word that they heard.

For example, after hearing the sentence: "Miss Brown might consider the coast," the participant would type "coast" if they heard the word correctly, or perhaps "toast" if they heard it incorrectly. For "casual" and "smiled" speech, listeners were less able to identify words when the speakers were wearing a fabric face mask, compared to when they were not wearing one, researchers found.

The results showing that most people could, however, adapt their speaking and listening skills can be used to produce practical public recommendations for face-masked speech adaptations in everyday situations. By instructing talkers to "speak clearly" the disadvantages of face-masked speech in noisy conditions can be overcome, researchers said.

"Further, the results highlight the adaptive nature of human speech, and help us to understand why it is a successful communication tool, even in situations where listening is difficult," Cohn said.

Explore further Face masks provide additional communication barrier for nonnative speech

More information: Michelle Cohn et al, Intelligibility of face-masked speech depends on speaking style: Comparing casual, clear, and emotional speech, Cognition (2021). Journal information: Cognition Michelle Cohn et al, Intelligibility of face-masked speech depends on speaking style: Comparing casual, clear, and emotional speech,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104570
KATHMANDU : An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 jolted 110 km NNE of Lobujya, Nepal at 02:31:16 GMT on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 22.15 km, was initially determined to be at 28.8024 degrees north latitude and 87.4023 degrees east longitude.

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San Francisco is a city built by eccentrics, artists and adventurers, and nowhere encapsulates that spirit of wanderlust more than Vesuvio Cafe, the historic cocktail bar thats been watching over North Beach for over 70 years.

I like to think of Vesuvio as the little boat that keeps cutting through the water, owner Janet Clyde says.

Clyde first started working the bar in 1979, when the little alley that runs between it and City Lights bookstore, connecting North Beach and Chinatown, was still called Adler.

It means a lot to me that it means so much to so many people, it keeps me in this.

Shes right, and it means a lot to me, too. Its the only bar Ive ever referred to as the best bar in America, and I stand by the hyperbole.

My fawning over Vesuvio is rooted in fond memories of when I discovered this city. On my first visit to San Francisco from the U.K. in 2004, me and three other young British Kerouac-wannabe visitors, in the midst of a 6,000-mile six-week road trip around the country, spent four nights in a row on 255 Columbus Avenue. Sure, there were other bars and neighborhoods to go visit, but we just wanted to step back through those doors.

We soaked up the city and the whiskey sours and watched life in North Beach pass by from the balcony windows after buying Beat paperbacks from City Lights next door. Is there more of a cliche than reading "Howl" while drinking a Kerouac cocktail on Vesuvio's balcony? There is not, but we didn't care.

On our fourth day, we smoked cigarettes with a man with a magnificent beard in the alley outside who told us he had a campground down the coast and we should come visit. A week later  without even a phone number let alone Google Maps  we somehow made it there and camped with him on the Big Sur river. It was one of those magical adventures that all started at that little bar on Columbus.

But Vesuvio is so much more than one writer's hazy memories; its the heart and soul of San Francisco.

Stepping inside feels like walking into the bowels of a pirate ship adorned with decades of history and loving kitsch, from the giant wicker chair where soused poets read their verses, to the stained glass windows, to the antique Beware of pickpockets and loose women sign under Jack's portrait, to the steep steep bathroom staircase that dives unsteadily into the depths of North Beach as the upper decks balcony spirals around you.

Its truly majestic.

The bar and City Lights together form the hub of the citys literary history and a global mecca for bohemian writing.

Courtesy

Founded in 1948 by artist Henri Lenoir, Vesuvio predates Lawrence Ferlinghettis iconic bookshop by five years. The Examiner once described Lenoir as "the last of the Bohemians." He was by all accounts a true eccentric, described in his final days by the paper as as naughty and as haughty as you want him to be, dapper as ever in his omnipresent black beret and seersucker suit.

Lenoirs Vesuvio soon became a legendary literary hangout for radicals and poets and eccentrics, years before hippies made their way to the Summer of Love. The bar's alchemy imbibed some of the greatest minds of the 20th century. Allen Ginsberg, Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan frequently drank at the cafe. (Ginsberg wrote about Vesuvio's in the 1954 poem "In Vesuvio's Waiting for Sheila.")

Courtesy

On one infamous evening in 1960, Jack Kerouac  already entering his sad, booze-soaked final years  arranged to visit writer Henry Miller in Big Sur. Instead of making his way down the coast, he spent the night drinking in Vesuvio, calling Miller through the night from the bars payphone to apologize for choosing that little corner of San Francisco over the rest of the world, as so many do. The scene was immortalized in one of Kerouacs last great novels, Big Sur.

Adler Alley would be officially named after Jack in 1988.

Lenoir was still hanging around North Beach when Clyde started working behind the bar at Vesuvio in 1979.

In 1997, with the help of the US Small Business Administration, Clyde bought the cafe and building with another family, at the same time Ferlinghetti gained ownership over City Lights long-term rental. The move was a concerted effort to protect the institutions from the corporatization of San Francisco, something that was already a major concern years before tech moved in.

Andrew Chamings

While its still part Beat shrine, the bars clientele have always been a true mix of San Franciscans, from beret-wearing philosophers to working class Italian families to FiDi bros waiting for Broadway strip clubs to open their doors, to regulars who have seen the people, but not the bar, change over its seven decades.

Vesuvio may be most notable for its balcony that circles the bar. Clyde tells me that in the '90s, owners of a restaurant and bar chain in Oregon made a surprise visit.

They were analyzing us, they came by shopping for a Vesuvio, like what makes this place? A few months later she heard of interior balconies showing up in a chain of historic bars on the West Coast.

To her horror, a tourist once told Clyde that the bar looked like a Buca di Beppo. Oh no, it cant look like a Buca di Beppo! she said, but realized that while trends come and go, Vesuvio stays the same.

Beyond its literary bona fides, the cafe has a real sense of humor.

Courtesy

On entering, the words above the doorway read, We are itching to get away from Portland, Oregon! Clyde tells me that this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a century ago when Portland suffered numerous flea infestations, causing many to travel south to wait out the epidemic in San Francisco.

Its a childs paradise, but you have to be 21 to get in, Clyde laughs. Years ago, kids would be occasionally let in during the day, so long as they got out by five.

Clyde believes that what makes the bar special is that it was made by a group of artists, not business people, realizing their vision and having fun.

The bohemians filled this place with surrealism, a sense of humor, whimsy and lightness, and I love them for it, she says. It was how they entertained themselves, they didnt have phones to stare at back then. While some bars were full of these gruff chess-playing businessmen, these guys had this wild sense of humor and creativity."

Courtesy

Clyde's "little boat" has been cutting through some stormy waters of late. Through most of 2020, as a business that didnt serve food (despite the cafe in the name), the bar was forced to shut its doors because of COVID-19 mandates.

More for you Food Can you stock a bar for $100?

In October, they found a creative solution and partnered with Bulgaras Rotisserie and Grill, enabling them to feed and imbibe patrons outside the bar on Kerouac Alley, until the second shutdown hit in December.

While Vesuvio's current situation is a battle, it's not as dire as many city bars, largely due to the purchase of the building by the management in the '90s.

Clyde is currently assessing if they can continue to operate in the alley, now outdoor dining has reopened in San Francisco. We just want to open safely; we dont want to contribute to the spread of this thing.

Before the pandemic, Clyde says that high school class literary tours sometimes came by Kerouac Alley to discuss the bar, and shed go out and talk to the kids.

Id tell them that they can make a Vesuvio, too! The people who made this place harnessed their artistic vision, thats what created this, they made it their own. I asked the kids what their vision is and tell them that they can build it, she says.

Courtesy

I received a thank-you note saying, I can't wait to be 21 so I can hang out in there, she laughs, but its just a little cocktail bar, were not running the Pentagon here.

It is just a little cocktail bar, but little cocktail bars are maybe more important than ever after a year that saw the permanent closure of more than 100 bars and restaurants in the city.

There arent many greater San Francisco moments than walking out of its doors at dusk onto Columbus with a little whiskey sour buzz, watching the light fall over the Sentinel building under the Transamerica Pyramid, and breathing in the city before grabbing a slice from Golden Boy Pizza.

In this cold dark February of 2021, those doors are still shuttered, and beautiful but bleak poetry now covers the windows. The last poem on the Columbus-facing window is an iconic one written by a man who in his day held court inside the bar, Dylan Thomas.

Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

My favorite bar in America has heeded his words for 73 years.

---

Its North Beach Month at SFGATE. Well be diving deep into the neighborhood for the entirety of February as part of a new series where well be highlighting a different corner of San Francisco every month this year. Catch up on last months stories here.
The Federation of Disability Organization has called on government and other stakeholders to develop policies responsive to the plight of persons with disability to create an integrated society with equal opportunities for all vulnerable persons.



Mr Clement Mba, President of the Federation of Disability Organization, Bongo Chapter, said persons with disability were neglected and and denied support to empower them to live dignified lives.



Mr Mba made this during the Bongo District chapters celebration of the international day of the disabled on the theme, not all disabilities are visible.



The International Day of the Disabled, designated by the United Nations and celebrated December 3, each year, was to highlight challenges facing persons with disability and advocate proposals to addressing them.



At the celebration, the federation demonstrated their pleas through placards with inscriptions such as include PWDs in decision making at all levels of governance, give persons with disability a quota in youth employment agency and nation builders corps, make all public places accessible to PWDs now!, stop discrimination against PWDs and respect persons with disability among others.



The Bongo Chapter President noted that about 15 percent of the worlds population were disabled and added that the 2010 Population and Housing Census conducted in Ghana suggested that about 4,063, representing 4.8 percent were disabled in the Bongo District.



Out of this number, the difficulty seeing constitutes 38.5 percent, the physically challenged 23.3 percent, the difficulty hearing 21.8 percent and those with speech impairment 10.8 percent. This clearly shows that the District has a large number of its population being PWDs hence the need for them to be given a lot more attention, he added.



Mr Mba explained that despite the huge numbers of disabled people across the country, their challenges and aspirations had not yet been sufficiently incorporated into the policies and programmes of various departments and agencies to create a society for PWDs to participate fully in nation building.



He said, besides socializing ourselves at public functions, it remains our right to participate in such functions and contribute our quota to the development of our nation Ghana adding that society continued to put barriers that made it difficult them to participate in governance.



Mr Mba said despite the passage of the Disability Act of 2006, Act 715 by Parliament, many of the public buildings were still not accessible to persons with disability and while discrimination was still practised in society against them.



I maybe sounding emotional but it is facts that must be laid bare for society to change their attitude towards us so that we can peacefully co-exist and equally enjoy the fruits of creation. Empowering us should imply loving, caring and providing us with the necessary assistance to work for ourselves,.



While acknowledging President Akufo-Addo for increasing the disability fund from two percent to three and appointing Mr Joseph Makubu as Minister-designate for the Oti, who is disabled, Mr Mba indicated that the federation needed more opportunities to empower them to live dignified lives.



Mr Mba who lauded the efforts of Mr Peter Ayamga Ayinbisa, the Acting District Chief Executive for the area and the Bongo District Assembly for supporting the federation over the years, appealed to the Acting DCE and the Assembly to assist in constructing a motorable road leading to their completed resource centre.



I finally wish to appeal to the DCE to fast track the provision of electricity and potable water at the facility as well as gravel the road to ease accessibility to the place. We will very much appreciate also if a cleaner and security is provided at the place, he added.

Source: GNA









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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 23:07:32|Editor: huaxia

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DHAKA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Police in Bangladesh capital have busted an illicit liquor manufacturing unit and made arrests to break up a bootlegging cartel, after 11 people died from consuming illegally-produced alcohol in two days.

"We've conducted a raid at a place in Dhaka and detained six more persons," Mashiur Rahman, deputy commissioner at Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), told reporters on Tuesday.

He said law enforcers launched the raid in the Bhatara area of Dhaka on Monday night and busted the illegal factory.

Following news of 11 deaths from alcohol poisoning in the past two days, the detectives started investigation to determine whether the fatalities were linked.

All the 11 deaths were reported from capital Dhaka and Bogra district, some 197 km northwest of the capital city.

Reports suggest the illegal liquor may have been produced in bulk and sold and distributed to parts of the country. Enditem
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Adverse reactions to skincare products can be downright painful. As an aesthetician, Lana Ivanov saw numerous clients who experienced adverse reactions to standard skincare products. This inspired her to create a premium skincare line, Vonavi Pro, using ingredients powerful enough to tackle pervasive skin problems, but gentle enough not to cause unwanted side-effects.

Developed to result in healthier, younger-looking skin, Vonavi Pro delivers luxurious, evidence-based skincare solutions. Harnessing natural, botanical ingredients and bioengineered with the highest quality, Vonavi Pro's effective skincare line aims to enhance all skin types, regardless of condition or age. The innovative formulations have been tested for efficacy and potency, with many users reporting they see results within days.

My passion for skincare is personal, says Lana Ivanov, Owner of Vonavi Pro. I want people to improve the health of their skin and feel amazing! Working with Shark Discoveries allows me to expand my audience and help others find the solutions theyve been looking for.

"With Vonavi Pro's top-of-the-line collection, you truly feel empowered and radiant," says Lisa Vrancken, Executive Vice President of Shark Discoveries. "Lana saw untapped potential in the market for effective skincare products that dont result in breakouts, irritation, or allergic reactions and as a Master Aesthetician, was able to do something about it. I love Vonavi Pro and what it represents."

As part of its DRTV campaign with Shark Discoveries, Vonavi Pro has appeared in 30 second spots nationwide, featuring the original Shark himself, Kevin Harrington. Shark Discoveries is comprised of an award-winning team of producers, writers, videographers, and editors as well as industry veterans dedicated to finding the latest, most innovative products and ideas, and putting them on the BRTV map.

About Shark Discoveries

Headquartered in South Florida, Shark Discoveries is a full-service production, branding, and marketing company that specializes in brand response television, including Celebrity Influencer Videos, and brand building. Based out of a 25,000+ sq ft, state-of-the-art studio, the companys creative team handles every aspect of production from script to screen to airing.

About Kevin Harrington

As the inventor of the infomercial, founder of As Seen on TV, and one of the original Sharks on Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington has worked with some of the worlds biggest celebrities and launched some of the best-selling DRTV campaigns in history. Since producing his first 30-minute infomercial in 1984, Harrington has been involved in over 500 product launches that have resulted in over $5 billion in sales. Now, in his latest venture with Shark Discoveries, Harrington is on the hunt for the best new products and ideas, bringing them to homes everywhere through personalized BRTV campaigns featuring the Shark.

For more information on Vonavi Pro, please visit http://www.VonaviPro.com.
New Laois Covid-19 cases have dropped back again on a day when another midland county recorded zero new cases but Ireland suffered its biggest daily death toll from the virus, according to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

There were 16 new cases in Laois reported by NPHET in its statement published on Tuesday, February 2. The daily average over five days for Laois is now 19 cases while the incidence per 100,000 of the population is 348.3 due to 295 in the past two weeks.

Laois ranks just below Longford in the county by county incidence table. NPHET reports no new case or Longford in its latest report. Laois has had 2,675 official cases since the pandemic began. Of the total 1,163 were recorded in January.

However, NPHET reported national figures which reflects that tragic costs of the huge third wave. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 101 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

This represents the highest number announced in one day by NPHET during the pandemic.

Of the deaths, 83 occurred in January while 18 occurred in February. The median age of those who died is 85 years and the age range is 19-103 years.

NPHET said there has been a total of 3,418 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of 2pm today, February 2, 1,388 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 207 are in ICU. There were 45 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

The news on cases has improved. As of midnight, Monday, February 1, the HPSC was been notified of 879 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 198,424* (*denotification of 8 confirmed cases) confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

The 14-day incidence is 14 per 100,000 nationally on the back of 21,668 in 14 days. The seven-day incidence is 181.5. The 5-day moving average for new cases is 1,169 daily.

Of the cases notified today NPHET highlighted 383 in Dublin, 79 in Cork, 53 in Galway, 40 in Limerick, 43 in Meath and the remaining 290 cases are spread across 20 other counties. COUNTY BREAKDOWN AT END OF STORY.

Other key points were that 419 are men / 459 are women, 56% are under 45 years of age while the median age is 41 years old.

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.


CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2021 / Kestrel Gold Inc. ("Kestrel" or the "Corporation") (TSXV:KGC) is pleased to announce results from the 2020 reverse circulation ("RC") drill program on it's 100% owned King Solomon Dome property ("KSD "). The property is located in the Yukon portion of the Tintina Gold Belt, 35 minutes by road south of Dawson City, within the famous Klondike placer gold district. Creeks draining KSD have produced significant amounts of placer gold and Kestrel is evaluating the property's potential to host economic bedrock sources for this gold.

The 2020 drill program consisted of 12 RC holes totalling 515.1 metres designed to provide a shallow first-pass test of existing mineralized occurrences. Targets were selected using historical trenching and soil sampling data as well as the results of Kestrel's 2020 prospecting and excavator trenching programs (see Kestrel's September 9 and December 21, 2020 news releases).

Highlights Include:

Hole 2, located immediately south of the Mitchell Shaft, returned 1.78 g/t Au over 1.52 metres, with a field duplicate of this sample returning 7.29 g/t Au over the same 1.52 metre interval. This variance in gold results is attributed to the presence of erratically distributed coarse gold within the subject interval.

Hole 8, located in the Sheba East area, returned 0.521 g/t Au and 10.01 g/t Ag over 9.14 metres.

Hole 11, located approximately mid-way between the Sheba Zone and Mitchell Zone, returned 0.74 g/t Au over 12.19 metres.

The table below lists all intervals containing values of greater than 0.5 g/t Au. Estimated true widths are approximately 80 to 85% of quoted intervals except in the case of holes KSD-20-03 and KSD-20-05 which are approximately 55 to 60%.

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) Notes KSD-20-01 16.76 18.29 1.52 3.74 KSD-20-02 6.1 7.62 1.52 0.92 and 19.81 21.34 1.52 1.78 field duplicate assayed 7.29 g/t Au KSD-20-03 16.76 22.86 6.1 0.85 incl. 18.29 19.81 1.52 2.29 KSD-20-04 no significant values hole abandoned early due to drilling difficulties KSD-20-05 30.48 32 1.52 0.68 KSD-20-06 no significant values hole abandoned early due to drilling difficulties KSD-20-07 no significant values hole abandoned early due to drilling difficulties KSD-20-08 10.67 19.81 9.14 0.52 Silver values average 10.01 g/t in this interval incl. 13.72 15.24 1.52 1.06 KSD-20-09 36.58 38.1 1.52 0.72 entire hole averages 0.1 g/t Au over 50.29 metres KSD-20-10 scattered weakly anomalous values KSD-20-11 25.91 38.1 12.19 0.74 incl. 32 33.53 1.52 4.49 46.1 g/t Ag KSD-20-12 no significant values

Rob Solinger, President and CEO of Kestrel, states: "Although the loss of three holes was a bit of a blow to our small program, drilling still managed to encounter several zones of interest including the high-grade mineralization found in hole 2 as well as the potential for bulk-tonnage style mineralization in the area of holes 8, 9 and 11. Further exploration is also required for targets in the vicinity of holes 4, 6 and 7 where drilling stopped well short of target depth and for other untested targets on the property. The company would also like to thank the Yukon Government for the assistance it received from the Yukon Mineral Incentive Program (YMEP)."

Sample preparation was completed by Bureau Veritas Minerals at their Whitehorse, Yukon facility with analyses completed at their Vancouver, British Columbia facility. Sample preparation was by PRP70-1kg (crush and pulverize 1 kilogram of material) with gold analyses by FS631-1kg (1kg metallic screen analyses) and multi-element analyses by AQ300 (0.5g sample for 33 elements by aqua regia digestion and ICP-ES). In addition to the standard QA/QC completed by Bureau Veritas, a comprehensive system of standards, blanks and field duplicates was implemented by Kestrel for the 2020 RC program. No significant issues were noted during a review of the QA/QC data.

Details of Metallic Screen Assaying

Metallic screen assays are often used in exploration when coarse or "nuggety" gold is present or expected. A standard fire assay typically treats 30 grams of pulverised sample. The metallic screen method used by Kestrel treats up to 1kg of material, with screening (to -106 micron) to separate coarse gold particles from fine material. After screening, a 30-gram sample of the fine fraction is analysed using the traditional fire assay method. The fine fraction is expected to exhibit reasonably homogenous gold distribution. The entire coarse fraction is assayed to determine the coarse gold content. For exploration targets with coarse "nuggety" gold, the metallic screen assay method will provide a more accurate representation of the amount of gold present within a sample than a standard fire assay.

At KSD, metallic screen analytical results demonstrate an increase in gold grades as compared to standard fire assay. Of the 93 samples with standard fire assay results of greater than 0.05 g/t Au, metallic screen assaying resulted in an average 22.9% increase in grade for these samples. These initial results indicate that metallic screen assaying is an effective analytical method for the property and that standard fire assaying has a tendency to under-represent values at KSD.

Marty Huber P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About Kestrel Gold

Kestrel Gold Inc. is a gold exploration company headquartered in western Canada. The Corporation is focused on gold exploration within the Canadian Cordillera, with an emphasis on hard rock targets located in placer gold mining districts. Kestrel is listed on the TSX Venture exchange under the symbol KGC. Readers are encouraged to refer to the Corporation's website "www.kestrelgold.com" for further information on the company.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information and statements in this news release contain certain forward-looking information. This forward-looking information relates to future events or the Corporation's future performance. This forward-looking information is subject to certain risks and uncertainties and may be based on assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking information. The Company's forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, the Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

For further information contact:

Rob Solinger, President and CEO

Office: (403) 816-2141

Email: rob@kestrelgold.com

SOURCE: Kestrel Gold Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627224/Kestrel-Gold-Drills-729-gt-gold-over-152-metres-and-074-gt-Au-over-1219-metres-at-King-Solomon-Dome
New Delhi: The Delhi Police chief SN Shrivastava on Tuesday (February 2, 2021) defended the heightened security measures at the national capital borders and said that they have strengthened barricades so that they cannot be broken again.

"I am surprised that when tractors were used on January 26 to attack policemen and barricades were broken, no questions were raised at that time. What have we done now? We have just strengthened the barricades so that they are not broken again," the Delhi Police Commissioner was quoted as saying by PTI news agency.

The statement comes after Delhi Police put multi-layered barricading, iron nails on road, barbed wires, iron rods between cemented barriers and deployed DTC buses and extra personnel on the ground at the farmers' protest sites.

Shrivastava also visited the police personnel who were injured during the farmers' tractor rally in the national capital on Republic day. He lauded them for exercising utmost restraint in the face of 'violent' behaviour while persuading the farmers to follow designated routes.

The Delhi Police Commissioner said the force remained firm, yet polite while performing their duty in such hostile situation. He said the staff took appropriate action understanding the gravity of the situation in the interest of people of Delhi and the dignity of the force. He also praised the personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) for performing their duty efficiently along with Delhi Police.

Shrivastava was accompanied by senior police officers, including Special Commissioner of Police (West Zone) Sanjay Singh and Joint Commissioner of Police (Western Range) Shalini Singh.

Delhi Police informed a total of 510 police personnel were injured during the incident.

It has so far registered 44 FIRs against protesters in connection with the violence and arrested 122 people.

Notably, thousands of farmers have camped at Delhi's borders and are demanding a rollback of these three laws -- Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

(With inputs from PTI news agency)



Live TV
From left are Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung, Hana Bank CEO Ji Sung-kyoo and Shinhan Bank CEO Jin Ok-dong. Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung



Leaders of the nation's major financial groups are in the hot seat with regulators planning to sanction them for poor management in their selling of defective financial products last year.



The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) recently notified former Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) CEO Kim Do-jin of heavy sanctions for his failure to properly supervise the sale of troubled funds linked to Lime Asset Management and Discovery Asset Management.



The FSS will hold a sanctions committee meeting Thursday to make a final decision on whether to take severe disciplinary action against Kim.



Financial executives who are reprimanded or receive a warning from regulators are not allowed to work at other financial firms for between three and five years.



The heads of Korea's banking industry are watching closely as the FSS plans to hold similar committee meetings soon to decide on the level of punishment for most commercial banks here  including Shinhan, Woori and Hana  which were also engaged in selling the troubled funds.



The FSS was scheduled to hold the sanctions committee meetings on the commercial lenders last year, but these were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The FSS will decide on the level of sanctions for the leaders of the banks by the end of March.



They are Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung, Hana Financial Group Vice Chairman Ham Young-joo, Hana Bank CEO Ji Sung-kyoo and Shinhan Bank CEO Jin Ok-dong.



The banks are watching closely whether any of the incumbent leaders end up being slapped with heavy sanctions, which they fear could create leadership vacuums.



Woori Bank sold 357.7 billion won worth of Lime funds, while Shinhan sold 276.9 billion won of the products.



"We will comply with any requests from authorities before the committee takes place," a banking industry source said.



Lenders are widely expected to file administrative litigation against the regulator's decision if their leaders are slapped with tough sanctions.



Last year, Woori Bank filed a lawsuit against the FSS decision on Son after he received a disciplinary action over the sale of so-called derivatives-linked fund (DLF) products. Hana Bank also took similar action for its vice chairman. The court sided with the banks and suspended the decisions of the regulator.



The lenders are two of the banks hit hardest by the sales of the DLF options in 2020. Citing problems caused by the funds, the FSC also banned the banks from selling private equity fund products for six months in March last year.



"Given the previous cases, the banks will inevitably file a lawsuit against any possible sanctions by the regulator," the official said.



According to FSS data, the regulator received requests for dispute settlement over risky funds from 13 private equity firms last year. Banks were a major sales channel of the products.




Donna Reddy to Highlight the Recent Acquisitions of Holy Crap Foods Inc. and YamChops - Grown Not Raised

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Plant&Co. Brands Ltd. (CSE: VEGN) (FSE: VGP) (OTC Pink: VGANF) ("Plant&Co" or the "Company"), a modern health and wellness company curating delicious plant-based foods, is pleased to announce its feature participation in the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") hosted four part show case: "Plant Protein: The New Age Food". Plant protein is one of the fastest growing sectors in the global food industry. The CSE is excited to take attendees on a seed-to-sale journey, from the companies growing and processing to the systems of getting products on shelves.

On February 4, 2021 at 3pm ET, Donna Reddy, President, Holy Crap Foods Inc., will present on behalf of Plant&Co in a session that also includes PlantX Life Inc. Ms. Reddy will present on how the family of Plant&Co, including Holy Crap breakfast cereals ("Holy Crap") and YamChopsTM~ Grown Not Raised TM ~ ("YamChops") fit within the rapidly growing plant protein industry.

Shareholders, investors and other interested parties are invited to attend the presentation by visiting www.thecse.com and follow the instructions.

Plant&Co recently completed the acquisition of two health focused plant-based brands: Holy Crap and YamChops, and now offers over 30 proprietary plant-based meats, chicken, pork, fish, breakfast cereals, and various other vegan food products food products through both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) distribution channels.

Holy Crap breakfast cereal is a high-quality product that tastes great, helps maintain a healthy gut, and makes consumers feel good inside and out. Holy Crap offers four distinct SKUs all of which contain certified organic, non-GMO, kosher and gluten free ingredients, such as hemp seed, buckwheat, chia seeds, and gluten-free oats. The tasty, nutrient-packed breakfast cereals have high levels of essential amino and fatty acids, a kick of fiber, and are free from the top 9 allergens and contain no artificial colours or flavours. Holy Crap products are manufactured in Gibsons, British Columbia and are available for sale in many well-known Canadian retailers such as Whole Foods, Save-On-Foods and London Drugs, as well as online through its website at www.holycrap.com and through www.amazon.ca.

YamChops is North America's first Plant-Based Butcher Shop and for over 12 successful years, it has specialized in the development, preparation, and distribution of plant-based meats and other vegan food products. It was featured on TV's famous Dragons Den, named NOW Magazine Reader's Choice Award for "Best Butcher & Best Deli" in Toronto, and recently recognized in a Wall Street Journal article as a leader in the race for a piece of the faux-meat market. YamChops has a retail location in the heart of Toronto's food district, a dynamic website, and it enjoys a high demand on five of the most popular food delivery platforms: Uber Eats, Skip the Dishes, Door Dash, Corner Shop and Ritual One.

Plant&Co's strategy is to leverage their existing distribution networks and B2B relationships for large and bulk ordering of plant-based product already in place with nation-wide distributors and retailers, such as United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI), Whole Foods, London Drugs, Save On Foods, Organic Garage, Nature's Emporium, Choices Markets, The Big Carrot, Natural Foods Ambrosia, Natures Fare Markets and Grande Cheese, to rapidly grow and expand the 20 plus proprietary plant-based products of YamChops to new and emerging markets not only in Canada but to the explosive US markets. YamChops has B2B distribution to Sobey's London, Pusateri's and Nature's Emporium.

Having established a line of proprietary plant-based food products, scalable operating facilities, and an extensive distribution system online and throughout Canada, Plant&Co intends to make an immediate impact to the plant-based food landscape in North America. Its 2021 business objectives include increasing sales of current products, aggressively expanding proprietary product lines, growing the customer base, and taking advantage of the best of both companies.

About Holy Crap Foods Inc.

At Holy Crap Foods Inc. our mission is to create products that create a healthy gut through simple, quality ingredients that ultimately feed the connection between gut and mind. Holy Crap is an organic breakfast cereal for today's consumer that expects their food to work hard for them. Our great tasting cereal helps maintain a healthy gut which creates a happy mind. For more information on the healthy and high-quality breakfast cereals visit: www.HolyCrap.com.

About YamChops

YamChops is a plant-based butcher shop based in Toronto, Ontario. Vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians and even meat enthusiasts love visiting the beautifully curated shop located in the heart of Toronto's food district. Whether customers sample YamChops' Tunaless "Tuna", Chick*n Schnitzel, Szechuan "Beef", Montreal Style "Steak", or browse their vegan grocery market assisted by its knowledgeable staff, customers will have an unforgettable experience at YamChops vegan butcher shop. YamChops' mission is to provide extraordinary plant-based foods and provide extraordinary service to its customers, with a vision to expand its plant based culinary experience and make YamChops the destination of choice for all consumers. For more product information please visit: www.YamChops.com.

About Plant&Co. Brands Ltd.

Plant&Co. Brands Ltd. (CSE: VEGN) (FSE: VGP) (OTCPK: VGANF) is modern health and wellness company curating delicious plant-based foods. For more information please visit: www.PlantandCo.com.

For additional information, please contact:

Shawn Moniz

Chief Executive Officer

ir@plantandco.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release, which has been prepared by management.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws. 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. "Forward-looking information" in this news release includes information about the expectations, intentions, plans and future actions of the Company and YamChops. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates 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 statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the business plans for Plant&Co. or YamChops described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73413
Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure last Thursday informed lawmakers in Banjul that it has no data about the total number of government owned-buildings across the country.

The ministry made the disclosure while presenting its 2018 and 2019 activity reports before the National Assembly Monitoring Committee that monitors the implementations of government projects and infrastructures.

However, the Director of Planning, Essa Drammeh who was the report presenter while commenting on public buildings and facility policy of their ministry, was quick to add that efforts are underway to gather the total number.

"There's no government sector's wide Policy to encourage the sustainable use and maintenance of government buildings and facilities," said Drammeh.

Nonetheless, Mr. Drammeh underlined several challenges in the sector including mobility to address the needs of the two million population of the country.

The report also outlined weak institutional capacity for the Ministry to handle transport constraint because there was no transport unit, until recently when a directorate of transport was created to address transportation concerns and needs.

Mr. Drammeh said the ministry has no vehicles maintenance policy after exhaustion of usage. He also revealed that the ministry has no policy for maintenance and use of public buildings as well as integration of transport mode like maritime and land transportations.

According to him, the ministry has an inadequate transport policy and regulations of bids for contractors and more importantly, 'laws on road transport are out dated and inefficient.'

Mr. Drammeh reported that there are limited local road contractors, saying only three Gambians are said to be able to handle major road projects in the construction industry.

"There are shortages of qualified workers in the construction industry as most institutions like the Gambia Technical Training Institute (GTTI) do not cater for the needs of their institutions and the market demands," he said.

He said among the few qualified local firm, some of them do not deliver their budgets on time due to lack of capacity. However, he suggested the need to conduct a comprehensive review of the transport laws and regulations to meet the adequacy needs of the demand.

Upon concluding the presentation, law makers who were busy noting down their questions began asking them accordingly.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Gambia Urban Issues By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

Member for Wuli West, Sidia Jatta, blamed the ministry for their lack of data for public buildings and maintenance scheme, arguing that properties owned by the public through government are not accounted for and should be accounted for.

Alhagie Drammeh, Member for Jewsang, enquired about government's vehicles monitoring policy and usage. He also asked who among the public servants is entitled to a vehicle.

In response, Director Drammeh said there's plan to audit government buildings and facilities which is embedded in a policy called 'Government's Buildings and Facilities.'

Drammeh said the old policy that was aimed at monitoring vehicles' usage has been abolished and a new one is underway to curb the menace of vehicles misused.

Meanwhile, the report is to be considered by the Monitoring Committee on Monday.
Sheriff's Office Begins Investigation

Hidden Camera

Other Witnesses

No Recollection

(TNS)  No criminal charges have been filed after a hidden surveillance camera was discovered in the wall of a safety building office in Miami County north of Dayton, Ohio, but the county prosecutor called the case a "despicable display of corruption and misuse of power."Miami County Sheriff's detective Lt. Jason Moore launched an investigation Dec. 9 after he determined a covert camera likely was installed in 2015 by then-county IT Director Matt Watkins.Watkins told investigators he installed the camera at the direction of former Miami County Commissioner John "Bud" O'Brien, according to county documents and recorded sheriff's interviews obtained by the. The investigation has led to two resignations.O'Brien declined to comment. He denied knowing anything about a camera when Moore contacted him, an incident report says. Ohio has a "one-party consent law" that prohibits recording oral, written and electronic communication unless one of the parties involved agrees to it. Miami County Prosecutor Anthony Kendell said in a letter to Moore that he reviewed the case for potential criminal charges, including illegal wiretapping, but concluded no evidence exists on the county's computer servers that the camera recorded and transmitted audio.The laptop connected to the camera later was destroyed, Watkins told the detective."Although there are numerous things about this situation that are concerning, to include the (sheer) and unadulterated corruption and illegality, the evidence that has been able to be gathered falls short in terms of being able to bring a criminal case with respect to any of the players in this matter," Kendell wrote.Kendell wrote in his review letter that "... since many of the participants in this despicable display of corruption and misuse of power have developed amnesia and/or selective memory, it appears that no criminal charges will be forthcoming unless and until further evidence is developed in this particular matter."The Miami County Commission is conducting an internal investigation." The Miami County Board of Commissioners is committed to provide an environment where all of our employees' rights are scrupulously honored," according to a statement from the board.Watkins told this newspaper the camera was used for a short time five or more years ago to view access to a storage room door in an office, and the device was forgotten about and sat unused for years."Miami County has suffered through enough negative headlines over the years," he said. "It is unfortunate that not everyone was forthcoming with information during the investigation, which added unnecessary suspicion of wrongdoing.""Their participation could have put this whole thing to a quick end," he said. "It is unfair to the good people that work there."In early December, Moore launched the investigation after the hidden camera was discovered in the office of the Miami County human resources director Tamela Hoover, according to sheriff office's reports obtained by this newspaper.It's unclear exactly how the camera was uncovered, but the sheriff's report says it was found while Hoover's office was cleaned out and the interim HR director removed it.Hoover was the Miami County human resources director from 2013 until September, when the board of county commissioners fired her. Board members approved a resolution that said Hoover was dismissed because she "engaged in conduct inconsistent with her role and responsibility."Watkins told Moore he installed the camera around 2015 after meeting with former Commissioner O'Brien and Leigh Williams, the board of county commissioners' clerk and administrator, according to a video of the interview thereviewed.Watkins said in his interview with the investigator that O'Brien told him information was being "leaked" or removed from storage in the HR director's office and he wanted to figure out who was coming and going from the storage area.Watkins said O'Brien told him to install the camera discretely so no one would know it was there, according to the interview."I've worked for a lot of people, and when somebody's asking me to put a camera in to keep an eye on somebody, I don't ask why, and I don't care to know why," Watkins said in his first of two interviews with Moore. "It's one of those things where the less I know, the better."Watkins told the investigator he bought a consumer-grade surveillance camera from Walmart with his own money and purchased a furnace return air grate. Watkins said he came into work on a Saturday, cut a hole in the drywall below the ceiling in the HR director's office and put the camera inside. He covered the hole with the vent cover.Watkins said he ran a camera cable through the ceiling and into the IT room, where it was plugged into a switch on a server that he said only IT personnel could see and access.The camera was linked to Watkins' county-issued laptop, the sheriff's report says, and he said it had to be plugged into the county's network to access the device and its data.Watkins said he reviewed the footage at O'Brien's request a small number of times over a three- to six-month period.Watkins told the detective he saw only Hoover in the footage. He said he reviewed the recordings on fast forward, without sound.Watkins said in the interview the camera stopped working 18 months to two years after it was installed. The laptop stopped working at some point, according to the sheriff's interviews, and Watkins purchased a new one but did not install the camera software. Watkins told investigators the old laptop was destroyed, in keeping with county policy.Watkins told the detective he never mentioned the camera to his boss, Miami County Auditor Matthew Gearhardt. Watkins resigned his job with Miami County on Dec. 28, according to county records."Once I learned of this incident on ( Dec. 7), I found it to be very troubling and concerning," Gearhardt said. "Once further details of the sheriff's investigation came about, I moved swiftly to rectify the situation as I no longer had the confidence or trust in Mr. Watkins to be the director of the information technology department."Watkins told this newspaper he has lived in the community his whole life and he would never intentionally break the law.The county's servers showed the camera was online and connected until August 2019, according to sheriff's documents.A county IT worker could not find any saved data from the camera on its servers but said anyone connected to the county network could have accessed the camera if they knew the IP address, password and had the viewing software, the case report states.The camera and its cord didn't appear to be damaged, the case report says, and it was spray painted black, likely to help with concealment. The device had a built-in, two-way microphone and was capable of being activated by motion or sound.Miami County Operations and Facilities Director Chris Johnson told Moore that O'Brien asked him to have a covert surveillance camera installed in the HR director's office, likely in 2014, according to a video of the interview.Johnson said he thought the camera was supposed to monitor HR director Hoover's desk and her files and that Hoover knew about it."I was told it was strictly to see who came and went," Johnson said.Johnson said he told O'Brien the IT department should handle the camera installation. Johnson declined to comment.Hoover, the former HR director, told the detective she knew the camera was installed in her office, according to the incident report.She learned about the camera during a meeting with commission clerk Leigh Williams and Commissioners O'Brien, Richard Cultice and Jack Evans.According to Hoover's interview, O'Brien said he believed an HR employee shared information with someone outside the office and he wanted a camera to monitor who was accessing her office.Hoover told the detective she did not request the camera and never suspected anyone of removing items from her office.When contacted, Hoover confirmed that she knew a camera would be installed but didn't know the purpose of it. Hoover told this newspaper no one talked to her about the camera after that meeting with commissioners and she never reviewed or accessed its video.She also said she does not know why she was fired, but it was not related to this case."I didn't have the authority to question it or have it put in or anything," she said. "That was above my title."Moore spoke to O'Brien over the phone on Dec. 23, and the former commissioner said he had no knowledge of the camera, his report states.O'Brien told the detective further questions should be directed to his attorney, the report states.O'Brien was elected to the county commission in 2006. He previously served as the county recorder for a decade and as the chairman of the county Republican party.O'Brien was reprimanded last year for ethics violations while in office. O'Brien was accused of seeking a job with the Miami County Board of Developmental Disabilities while a commissioner, and then voting on resolutions involving the board after applying for the position.Moore interviewed Williams, the commission clerk and administrator, who said she had no recollection of conversations about a camera, according to his report.Williams resigned Wednesday. She did not return a request for comment.Former commissioner Cultice told the detective and thethat he has no recollection of any discussion about a camera. He also told this newspaper he doesn't remember any issues in the HR office and declined to say if he thought using a hidden camera was appropriate without knowing more details.Cultice told the detective that O'Brien might have had a problem with the job performance of one of the human resource department employee's.Kendell told this newspaper if there was evidence that people's conversations were surreptitiously recorded without their knowledge, he definitely would have presented the case to a grand jury.Kendell said he is providing legal advice to the board of county commissioners as it conducts an ongoing internal investigation."All of the people on the board right now  this happened well before their time," he said. "When they did find out about it, they immediately contacted the sheriff and myself, and they acted promptly and appropriately to get to the bottom of this."
Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi speaks at a dinner hosted by the U.S.-China Business Council and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in Washington, on July 11, 2013. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Beijing Tells Biden Administration to Play by the CCPs Rules

Chinas top diplomat Yang Jiechi warned the Biden administration not to cross Beijings red line in a half-hour speech on the evening of Feb. 1.

The United States should stop interference in the affairs of Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang, Yang said, calling the issues regarding the three regions Chinas internal affairs. He made the remarks while speaking at a virtual event hosted by New York-based nonprofit the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

Yang added: They constitute a red line that must not be crossed. Any trespassing would end up undermining China-U.S. relations and the United States own interests.

He also told the United States that it should strictly abide by the One China principle with regards to Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims is part of its territory.

The Trump administration confronted China on its human rights violations against Falun Gong adherents, Hongkongers, Muslim minorities, Tibetans, and Uyghurs, by imposing visa restrictions and sanctions against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials responsible for the abuse.

Additionally, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated CCPs persecution of Uyghurs and other majority-Muslim ethnic minorities as genocide and crimes against humanity last month.

The Chinese regime has often deflected international criticism against its own policies by claiming that certain issues, including its militarization efforts in the South China Sea and coercion tactics against Taiwan, are internal affairs.

Yang called on the Biden administration to restore the China-U.S. relationship to a predictable and constructive track of development.

He named areas in which he said the two countries could cooperate, including drug control and cybersecurity.

China is the largest source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-like substances in the United States, according to a 2018 report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

According to data from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, there were 70,630 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2019; the majority of the deaths related to the use of fentanyl.

Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin. As little as two milligrams is considered a lethal dosage for most people.

In 2020, the United States sanctioned several Chinese nationals and a Chinese company for fentanyl trafficking.

Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department brought more indictments related to Chinas trade secrets theft and related crimes in 2019 than during the eight years of the Obama administration.

Yang also criticized the Trump administration, saying that its misguided policies had led the bilateral relationship to its most difficult period since the two countries established diplomatic ties.

Washington ended its diplomatic ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing in 1979 but has maintained a robust relationship with the island based on the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). Under the Trump administration, the Taiwan-U.S. relationship warmed considerably, most evident by Pompeos decision to lift restrictions on how U.S. officials should interact with their Taiwanese counterparts.

Jacob Gunter, senior policy and communications manager at the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China took to Twitter to give his summary of Yangs speech.

Trump bad, its all his/your fault, and lets just go back to the 2015 status quo, he wrote. The lack of even feigned introspection isnt even surprising anymore.

Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also commented on Yangs speech.

Bottom line: Beijing is ready [to] cooperate only on Chinas terms, he wrote.

U.S.-based China affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan said in a phone interview that the Chinese regime was using both soft and hard tactics to pressure the administration, in the hopes of restarting official talks with the United States.

Yangs speech was an example of a soft approach, while recent incursions into Taiwans airspace and sanctions on former U.S. officials were hawkish tactics.

His speech could be read as an indication that the Chinese regime would be willing to make concessions if the United States would promise not to cross the red lines.

Ultimately, Tang believes the Chinese regime wants to revert back to a time when human rights and commerce were decoupled from each other during negotiations, so that the regime could continue to do business with the United States, while ignoring human rights issues.

Nicole Hao contributed to this report.
After the presentation of the Union Budget in Parliament on Monday, economic experts in Gurugram said it is a very balanced and development-oriented Budget.

They said that this Budget will strengthen the economy of the country which has been derailed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will also give a boost to small industries and start-ups, along with the automobile and textile sectors.

The experts said that the most important thing is that through this Budget, the government has made a concerted effort to take the country on the path of progress, while not trying to please any particular region or class.

On the other hand, the people associated with the industry said that the Budget as a whole is quite impressive.

"This budget is a balanced budget. It is promoting small industries, start-ups, automobile and textile sectors. Through this budget, the central government may not have made any concrete provision for industries directly, but indirectly this budget will encourage industrial expansion, development and investment much easier. The government should reduce the rate of GST," said J.N. Mangla, President, Gurugram Industrial Association.

People associated with the corporate sector said that this budget is better. Amid the pandemic, there cannot be a better budget than this. This is a time when the government is lso short of funds. Reducing corporate tax is a good decision.

"The kind of attention given to the health sector in the budget is commendable and futuristic. The lesson from the Covid-19 pandemic is that our health services should be better. The government took this message and increased the health sector budget by 137 per cent, which is a record in the country's budgetary history. Soon the government is also going to establish a revenue portal for corona vaccine as the vaccine is being exported to other countries which will help to boost the economy of our country," said Dr Swati Maheswari, a health expert.

FDI in the insurance sector has been increased from 49 to 74 per cent. This will increase employment prospects. Special attention has also been paid to the education sector and creation of employment for youth and their skill development.

"This is a commendable budget as this will speed up the pace of development in the country. The provisions made in this regard for infrastructure development are welcome. Through this budget, the weakness of the health sector will be removed and the dream of a healthy India will be realised. This budget will also reduce the dependency on China. Arrangements have been made in this budget to make the agriculture sector dynamic. The steps taken to promote quality of life will benefit people," she said.

Economic expert Amandeep Negi said Covid-19 brought in a crisis and this budget will prove to be balanced as well as boost growth. There is one thing that is not good for the textile industry which is the increase in import duty on cotton fibre by five per cent. This will increase the cost of production. The government should consider it again.

"There is a lot in the budget for health, education, agriculture, industry, transport and infrastructural development. The scope of income tax exemption was expected to increase but nothing happened. Anyway, the government is short of funds at this time," said Anil Lamba, a financial affairs expert.

"The Budget is according to the expectations of the common people. It has everything for the poor, farmers, elderly, women and industrialists. The Finance Minister has allocated additional funds for agriculture, health, infrastructure, roads, railways etc. So overall it is a balanced budget," said local BJP MLA Sudhir Singla.
New Delhi: The High Court of Punjab and Haryana has dismissed the petition of the main accused in the Nikita Tomar case. Justice Sudeep Ahulwalia dismissed main accused Tausif's demand for a re-probe into the case.

The court denied the petitioner's allegations that due to pressure from political leaders, the media and the panchayat, the police investigated and submitted a challan against him in a pre-determined manner within a time limit of just 11 days without thorough investigation.

On the allegation of the petitioner that the challan was presented in a hurry, the High Court said that when the forensic report comes in the case, the investigation team can present the supplementary challan.

The accusation of presenting challan under pressure is not correct as the investigation team has strong evidence like CCTV footage, the testimony of eyewitnesses and call details.

This is to be noted that in the petition filed before the High Court, 21-year-old Tausif and Mohammad Rihan had demanded that there should be an impartial investigation in the entire matter under the supervision of the Director General of Police (DGP).

According to Tausif and Rihan, they have been implicated in the case. Tausif had earlier challenged the challan in November 2020, before Additional Sessions Judge Faridabad, but the application was rejected.

The case pertains to the killing of Nikita Tomar who was shot dead in broad daylight outside her college in Ballabgarh on October 26, 2020.



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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 1, 2021) - Karus Gold Corp. ("Karus Gold") is pleased to announce that it will be conducting a rights offering to holders of its common shares at the close of business on the record date of February 8, 2021 (the "Record Date"). The offering will be for 26,556,228 common shares to raise gross proceeds of CDN$3,983,434 (the "Rights Offering")

The Rights Offering is being undertaken to provide funds for exploration, development and social programs related to Karus Gold's mining interests, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Details of the Rights Offering

Rights will be offered on the basis of one-half of one (1/2) right (the "Rights") for each common share of Karus Gold held at the Record Date. One full Right will entitle the holder to subscribe for one common share of Karus Gold upon payment of the subscription price of CDN$0.15 per common share. No fractional Rights will be issued. The holder's entitlement will be reduced to the next lowest whole number and no additional compensation will be paid.

The Rights will not be listed for trading on any securities exchange. All Rights will expire at 2:00 pm (Vancouver time) / 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on March 15, 2021 (the "Expiry Time"), after which time unexercised Rights will be void and of no value. Shareholders who fully exercise their Rights will be entitled to subscribe for additional common shares (the "Additional Subscription Privilege"), on a pro-rata basis, if available as a result of unexercised Rights prior to the Expiry Time, subject to certain limitations set out in Karus Gold's rights offering circular dated February 1, 2021 (the "Rights Offering Circular").

The Rights Offering will be conducted in all provinces and territories of Canada. Certain holders of common shares in jurisdictions outside of Canada may be able to participate in the Rights Offering where they can establish that the transaction is exempt under applicable legislation. If you are a holder of Karus Gold shares and reside outside of Canada, please review the Notice of Rights Offering, Rights Offering Circular and Notice to Ineligible Shareholders to determine your eligibility and the process and timing requirements to receive and, or, exercise your Rights. The Company requests any ineligible shareholder interested in exercising their Rights to contact the Company at their earliest convenience after the Rights are mailed out, which is expected to be on or after February 12, 2021.

Details of the Rights Offering will be set out in the Notice of Rights Offering and the Rights Offering Circular which will be available under Karus Gold's profile at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.karusgold.com. The Notice of Rights Offering will be mailed to each eligible shareholder of Karus Gold as at the Record Date. Following the mailing of the Notice of Rights Offering, an exercise form enclosed with a statement issued under Computershare's direct registration system (the "Rights Statement") will be mailed to each eligible registered shareholder of Karus Gold as at the Record Date. Registered shareholders who wish to exercise their Rights must forward the completed Rights Statement, together with the applicable funds, to the rights agent, Computershare Investor Services Inc., on or before the Expiry Time. Shareholders who own their common shares through an intermediary, such as a bank, trust company, securities dealer or broker, will receive materials and instructions through their intermediary.

Neither the Rights being offered or the common shares issuable upon exercise of the Rights have been or will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be exercised, offered or sold, as applicable, in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities of the Company. There shall be no offer or sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification of such securities under the laws of any such jurisdiction.

Karus Gold's directors and executive officers who own common shares, as well as other insiders, are permitted, but not required (except for James Hynes pursuant to the Backstop Agreement discussed below), to participate in the Rights Offering on the same terms and conditions applicable to all shareholders. Certain directors and executive officers of Karus Gold have indicated their current intention to participate in the Rights Offering in an amount at least equal to their basic subscription privilege. Nevertheless, each such director and executive officer reserves the right, in his, her or their sole discretion, not to participate in the Rights Offering.

Backstop Commitments

Karus Gold's two largest shareholders have agreed to backstop the total gross proceeds to be raised pursuant to the Rights Offering. Karus Gold has entered into backstop agreements (the "Backstop Agreements") with 2176423 Ontario Ltd. ("2176423"), a company owned and controlled by Eric Sprott, and with 1081646 B.C. Ltd. (together with 2176423, the "Backstop Purchasers"), a company owned and controlled by James Hynes, a director and the interim chief executive officer of Karus Gold.

No fees are being paid to either of the Backstop Purchasers for their commitments pursuant to the Backstop Agreements.

Pursuant to the respective Backstop Agreement, each of the Backstop Purchasers will exercise all of their respective Rights and will exercise their Additional Subscription Privilege so that they each will purchase half of the common shares of Karus Gold not acquired by the holders of Rights under the Rights Offering. The Backstop Agreements contain representations, warranties, covenants and other provisions typical of a transaction of this nature, including the right not to purchase common shares of Karus Gold as contemplated by the Backstop Agreements if there is a breach by Karus Gold of its representations or if there is a material adverse change in the business of Karus Gold.

Early Warning Disclosure

2176423 Ontario Ltd., is providing the following additional information pursuant to the early warning requirements of applicable Canadian securities laws:

Prior to the entering into of the Backstop Agreement, Eric Sprott through 2176423 Ontario Ltd., a corporation beneficially owned by him, beneficially owns or controls 13,659,222 shares and 1,750,000 common share purchase warrants representing approximately 25.7% of the issued and outstanding shares on a non-diluted basis, and approximately 28.1% on a partially diluted basis assuming exercise of such warrants. Assuming none of the holders of Rights take up their Rights other than the Backstop Purchasers, Mr. Sprott through 2176423 Ontario Ltd., would potentially acquire 13,380,084 shares in connection with the exercise of his Rights and Additional Subscription Privilege under the Backstop Agreement and, following closing of the Rights Offering, Eric Sprott would beneficially own and control a total of 27,039,306 shares and 1,750,000 common share purchase warrants which would represent approximately 33.9% of the issued and outstanding shares on a non-diluted basis and approximately 35.4% of the issued and outstanding shares on a partially diluted basis. This would potentially result in an increase in 2176423's shareholding percentage of up to approximately 7.3% on a partially diluted basis.

The securities above are held by Mr. Sprott for investment purposes. Mr. Sprott has a long-term view of the investment and may acquire additional securities of Karus Gold including on the open market or through private acquisitions or sell securities of Karus Gold including on the open market or through private dispositions in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other factors that Mr. Sprott considers relevant from time to time.

A copy of 2176423's early warning report will appear on Karus Gold's profile on SEDAR and may also be obtained by calling Mr. Sprott's office at (416) 945-3294 (200 Bay Street, Suite 2600, Royal Bank Plaza, South Tower, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2J1).

1130447 BC Ltd., is providing the following additional information pursuant to the early warning requirements of applicable Canadian securities laws:

Prior to the Rights Offering, Skye Marker, through 1130447 BC Ltd. a corporation beneficially owned by her, beneficially owns or controls 11,200,243 shares and 1,750,000 common share purchase warrants representing approximately 21.1% of the issued and outstanding shares on a non-diluted basis. Assuming none of the holders of Rights take up their Rights other than the parties to the Backstop Agreement, Ms. Marker through 1130447 BC Ltd, would potentially acquire 10,971,356 shares in connection with the exercise of his Rights and Additional Subscription Privilege and, following closing of the Rights Offering, Skye Marker would beneficially own and control a total of 22,171,599 shares which would represent approximately 27.8% of the issued and outstanding shares on a non-diluted basis. This would potentially result in an increase in 1130447 BC Ltd's shareholding percentage of up to approximately 6.7% on a non-diluted basis.

The securities above are held by Ms. Marker for investment purposes. Ms. Marker has a long-term view of the investment and may acquire additional securities of Karus Gold including on the open market or through private acquisitions or sell securities of Karus Gold including on the open market or through private dispositions in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other factors that Ms. Marker considers relevant from time to time.

A copy of 1130447 BC Ltd's early warning report will appear on Karus Gold's profile on SEDAR and may also be obtained at Suite 960 -1055 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 0B8.

About Karus Gold

Karus Gold controls 1,000 kilometers square of the Cariboo Gold District ("District") in British Columbia. The FG Gold and Gold Creek projects are set for growth and the District is wide open for additional discovery. Karus Gold is supported by strategic investor Eric Sprott who owns 26% of Karus's basic shares. Management and the Board are aligned with shareholders, owning an additional 27% of the basic shares outstanding. Karus Gold has drill results from 2020 pending and has plans to continue aggressive exploration in 2021.

Further information on Karus Gold can be found on the Company's website at www.karusgold.com.

On behalf of Karus Gold Corp

"James Hynes"

Executive Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer

Karus Gold Investor Support

David Jan

1-888-455-7620

info@karusgold.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information based on current expectations, including but not limited to Karus Gold's expectations in connection with the Rights Offering and Backstop Agreements, including the use of proceeds and events which are proposed to occur on closing. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of the words "plan" "contemplate", "estimate", "expect" and "anticipate" and statements that an event or result "may', "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur and any similar expressions or negative variations thereof.

In providing forward-looking information in this press release, Karus Gold has made numerous assumptions regarding the Rights Offering and Backstop Agreement, which Karus Gold believes to be reasonable, including assumptions relating to: (i) the satisfaction or waiver of all conditions to the completion of the Rights Offering and the Backstop Agreement; and (ii) the outcome of the Rights Offering and related transactions, including the expected use of proceeds. Forward-looking information entails various risks and uncertainties however that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking information. Specific risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or disclosed in this press release include, but are not limited to: (i) the dilution that will be experienced by shareholders who do not exercise their Rights; (ii) failure to satisfy the conditions to complete the Rights Offering and the commitments, including failure to receive required approvals, including the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the Backstop Agreements; (iii) the delay of completion or failure to complete the Rights Offering for any other reason; (iv) no assurance as to the ability to trade of any Rights; (v) the exercise of the Rights of a shareholder being irrevocable; (vi) the exercise price may not indicate the value of the common shares; (vii) failure of a shareholder to properly subscribe for shares may result in a non-exercise; (viii) the use of funds may differ from that set out by Karus Gold; (ix) if the Rights Offering is terminated, shareholders will not receive any interest on funds forwarded with their subscriptions; (x) the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and government and market responses to the pandemic may potentially have materially adverse effects on Karus Gold and its business, operations, liquidity, cash flows and ability to close the Rights Offering. In addition to the above summary, additional risks and uncertainties inherent to the Company and the Rights Offering are described in the "Risk Factors" section of the Rights Offering Circular dated February 1, 2021 available on www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information are not guarantees of future performance, and management's assumptions upon which such forward-looking information are based may prove to be incorrect.

Accordingly, there can be no assurance that actual events or results will be consistent with the forward-looking information disclosed herein. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, any such forward-looking information should not be regarded as representations by us that our objectives or plans relating to the rights offering or standby commitment or otherwise will be achieved. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information contained herein and that such forward-looking information are provided solely for the purpose of providing information about our current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. In addition, forward-looking information relates to the date on which they are made.

Karus Gold disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.

Not For Distribution To United States Newswire Services Or For Dissemination Into The United States

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73348
Hal Holbrook, who carved out a substantial acting career in television and film but who achieved his widest acclaim onstage, embodying Mark Twain in all his craggy splendor and vinegary wit in a one-man show seen around the world, died on Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 95.

His death was confirmed by his assistant, Joyce Cohen, on Monday night.

Mr. Holbrook had a long and fruitful run as an actor. He was the shadowy patriot Deep Throat in All the Presidents Men (1976); an achingly grandfatherly character in Into the Wild (2007), for which he received an Oscar nomination; and the influential Republican Preston Blair in Steven Spielbergs Lincoln (2012).

He played the 16th president himself, on television, in Carl Sandburgs Lincoln, a 1974 mini-series. The performance earned him an Emmy Award, one of five he won for his acting in television movies and mini-series; the others included The Bold Ones: The Senator (1970), his protagonist resembling John F. Kennedy, and Pueblo (1973) in which he played the commander of a Navy intelligence boat seized by North Korea in 1968.

Mr. Holbrook was a regular on the 1980s television series Designing Women. He played Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Shakespeares Hotspur and King Lear, and the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilders Our Town.
Nigerias next presidential election is in 2023, which means there are still two years before the poll.

Though the election is still some miles away, politicians interested in the presidential seat have started building alliances, reviving old political catchphrases like the perennial call for restructuring, power shift and the unending quest for ethno-religious consideration in power distribution, among others.

Aside chorusing old sentiments that seem to resonate with the populace whenever elections are nigh, potential aspirants have started testing the waters by sending out their foot soldiers, shadowy groups and emissaries to start mobilising support for them across board.

One of such early birds is the governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, a graduate of accounting from Northern Nigerias premier university, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Not counting the politically undiscerning, only a few Nigerians were shocked recently when his posters bearing different jocular inscriptions written in popular Nigerian lingos snaked into the public space, depicting his interest in becoming President Muhammadu Buharis successor in 2023.

For his initial introduction into the presidential ring via the posters, Mr Bello was largely a butt of ridiculous jokes and sarcasm by netizens of the countrys ubiquitous social media.

By the way, Mr Bello, 45, had denied it flatly last year when Kingsley Fanwo, his commissioner for information, said the governor was under pressure to vie for the number one political seat in the country.

Of course, as history has shown, most Nigerian leaders always initially denied their political ambitions until much later when the coast was clear. Moreover, they always say they are under pressure from their associates, friends and communities to run for elective offices.

Despite Mr Bellos initial denial, his quest to be president in 2023 is beginning to gather momentum, courtesy of the activities of some of his political associates essentially from Kogi State, both online and offline.

Associates drumming support for Bello

In the interim, the most notable group of people working for the Bello for President Project are the states lawmakers elected on the platform of the governors party, APC.

Shortly after the governor presented his budget 2021 proposal to the lawmakers last year, they passed a resolution, urging him to run for president.

True to their vow to mobilise support for the governor, early January, the lawmakers were in Plateau State to seek the support of their counterparts in the state for Mr Bello, in his latest political preoccupation.

Last week, the lawmakers, again, led by their speaker, Mathew Kolawole, met their counterparts in Kwara State and also interfaced with Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on the need to support Mr Bello to become Nigerias president, come 2023.

The lawmakers message was unambiguous: it is the turn of the North-central to produce the president in 2023. In addition, they said Mr Bello is qualified in every ramification, going by the quality of leadership he is offering in his state, as well as his unifying roles in the APC at the national level.

Whether out of courtesy or sincerity, Mr AbdulRazaq praised Mr Bellos efforts in bringing development to Kogi State while also emphasising that the North-central has long been denied its due in the Nigerian federation.

Mr AbdulRazaq said contrary to social media criticisms of Mr Bello, his visits to Kogi State show that the governor is bringing physical development to Kogi and making giant strides in maintaining security in the state that was once a haven of daredevil criminals.

Although the Kwara helmsman did not give an outright endorsement to Mr Bellos ambition, he nevertheless offered a clue that his counterpart from Kogi State can always rely on him.

Besides the lawmakers who are doing a yeomans job to sell Mr Bellos political credentials for the countrys plum job, he has a legion of online warriors, most of them based in Kogi, who continually tout his qualifications and suitability for the job.

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Like the state legislators, these cyber campaigners, mostly in their 30s and early 40s, argue that it is the turn of the North-central zone to produce the president and that Mr Bello, by all metrics of assessment, is shoulders above every other person in the zone to become one.

Power shift

As the country inches towards 2023, so is the call growing louder for presidential power to shift back to the south.

Although power rotation between the north and south is not enshrined in the 1999 Constitution or expressly stated in the constitutions of the two main political parties  PDP and APC  there is an understanding among the political elite that power should always swing between the two regions in order to avoid one lording it over the other.

Against the foregoing, therefore, if the common understanding of power shift between the two blocs is to be sustained, the next president has to come from the south because the incumbent, Mr Buhari, from the north, will complete his two-term tenure of eight years in 2023.

That said, there is a latent conundrum about the call for power shift to the south: where exactly among the three geopolitical zones in the region? Each of the zones is interested and has a compelling argument as to why it is more deserving of the seat.

Nigeria has six geopolitical zones with the two regions having three each. The north has North-east, North-west and North-central while the south has South-west South-east and South-south.

Since the country returned to constitutional democracy in 1999, only the North-central and South-east have not produced a president or vice-president.

That fact about the North-central is one of the best tools the Bello for President canvassers are deploying to advance the interest of their principal.

It remains to be seen how the power shift game will pan out eventually as it is too early to make a definitive call on where the pendulum will swing.

His strengths:

Youthfulness.

Those rooting for Mr Bello say he is young, vibrant and agile and as such will be able to steer the ship of the country with all the vigour and energy it deserves, unlike the incumbent, who once acknowledged that age has weakened his ability to discharge his constitutional responsibilities.

They said Mr Bello becoming the president will align with the silent agitation of the Nigerian youth who want one of them to become president.

A youth group has even declared it would force Mr Bello to declare his interest to be the next occupant of Aso Rock, while another, North Central Coalition for Leadership (NCCL), promised to buy the APC expression of intent and nomination forms for the governor.

His supporters say he has already demonstrated what he can do at the national level through his cabinet picks in Kogi, which is significantly populated by young men and women.

Be that as it may, it is uncertain if Nigerians are ready to elect a president younger than 50 years in 2023. The two leading candidates in the 2019 election were men in their 70s.

Security.

Before Mr Bellos coming to power in 2016, Kogi was a haven for violent criminals, especially high-grade kidnappers.

A year or two into his administration, the volume of crimes and criminalities in the state was said to have reduced, even if marginally, although those in the opposition and his critics say otherwise.

The governors supporters said he has shown kidnappers and cultists hell in the state.

For his commitment to stem the tide of insecurity in the state, Ibrahim Idris, a former inspector-general of police, named him the Best Governor of the Year on Security in 2016, an award the PDP described as undeserving.

Similarly, his supporters recalled that the Northern Governors Forum chose him to head the forums security committee because of his achievements in the sector in Kogi.

Gender sensitivity.

Among the 36 state governors, Mr Bello is said to be one of the most gender-sensitive in terms of distribution of appointments and political offices.

It was during his term in office that a woman was appointed for the first time ever in the state as Secretary to the State Government, in the person of Folashade Ayoade. The states Head of Service is also a woman.

Mr Bello is also the first governor in the state to appoint a female chief press secretary during his first term in office. His current Aide-de-Camp is a woman too.

The vice-chairpersons in all the 21 local governments in the state are female, also a first-time occurrence in the state. Some local commentators said the governor deliberately persuaded his party to pick women as deputies to the chairpersons.

A United Nations body, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, recently commended Mr Bello for facilitating the election of women as deputy chairpersons of all the local councils in the state.

In a commendation letter dated January 26 sent to the governor, UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Comfort Lamptey, described the appointment as a bold effort on the part of the state government.

Ms Lamptey, in her letter, asked the governor for a meeting with him on how the body could help Kogi State in promoting issues that have to do with the female gender.

Interestingly, however, a group, Emerge Women Leaders in Nigeria, criticised the commendation letter, urging the UN to withdraw it with immediate effect based on what the group described as an act of illegality on the part of the governor.

The group said rather than allow the women to run for elective offices, the governor decided to shunt their participation by choosing them as deputies.

Also, the group said the reelection of the governor in 2019 took the life of a woman, Salome Acheju Abuh, a PDP woman leader, who was burnt to death in her house after the election. It also cited the malicious attack on Natasha Akpoti, the gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in the election.

Before the UN commendation letter to Mr Bello, a non-governmental organisation, the National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), had also conferred an award on him for promoting gender inclusiveness in his cabinet, though the PDP condemned the award saying Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike was more deserving of it, going by the number of women, elected and appointed, holding different positions in the state.

Weaknesses

Questionable performance

While Mr Bello and his supporters say has done well as governor in terms of improved security, infrastructural development, among others, his critics say he is the worst governor the state has produced.

They said Mr Bello has squandered the enormous goodwill that heralded his coming to power by failing to leverage on the momentum through quality performance in office.

One major dark spot of his administration, especially during his first term in office, was the endless staff verification exercise his government embarked upon.

The exercise left many civil servants unpaid for months to the extent that some died because they could not take care of their health.

But things have changed in that area. A lecturer in one of the state-owned institutions who did not want his name mentioned told this newspaper that the state government has improved in salary payment in recent times.

Negative perception.

Both online and offline, except for his associates and supporters alike, many Nigerians do not appear to take Mr Bello seriously. In fact, some see him as a comedian just passing time in office and not ready for the real business of organic governance.

Unfortunately for Mr Bello, this negative perception is beginning to assume a life of its own as it is often said that in politics, perception is reality.

Rigged re-election.

Although Mr Bello won the 2019 governorship election in the state according to INEC, which was also judicially affirmed by the courts, many reports by local and international observers decried the way he achieved reelection.

The election was characterised by violence and claimed a couple of lives, including that of the PDP woman leader in Igalaland in Kogi East senatorial district.

The PDP and the SDP said Mr Bello would not have won the November 2019 election but for the violence he allegedly unleashed on the opposition and electoral manipulation.

Mr Bello is also believed to be one of those slammed with visa restrictions by the U.S. because of his roles in the 2019 general election in the state where members of the opposition were gagged, harassed and assaulted by non-state actors believed to be loyal to him.

Northern-ness.

Regardless of whether the North-central has never produced the president or even the VP since 1999 or not, the zone is still considered a part of the north where power would have stayed for eight years by 2023. This ordinarily implies that power should shift to the south in the next presidential contest, other things being equal.

The question then will be: if power is shifting to the south, will Mr Bello qualify to vie for the seat of the president, given that he is a northerner?

Presidential quest a ruse?

Some analysts say Mr Bellos real desire may be to become the running mate to whoever his party picks from the south, having realised it is only fair for power to return to the south in 2023 in the spirit of equity.

If Mr Bellos real quest is to become VP, then some commentators say he stands a good chance. As a Muslim, he can run with a Christian candidate from the south as there is also the need for religious balancing in picking candidates for the countrys two topmost political positions.
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ALEPPO, Syria  The government-affiliated Homs Governorate Council recently gave the owners of the shops located in Homs city center a two-month deadline to reopen their shops that had been destroyed during the war.

On Jan. 24, Al-Watan daily, a newspaper close to the Syrian regime, quoted a source at the Homs Chamber of Commerce as saying, The [Homs] council held successive meetings in the past period with merchants and neighborhood committees during which it called on them to return to the shopping district following its rehabilitation. In case they fail to do so, the council threatened to open the shops themselves. During the last meeting, they were given a two-month deadline to arrange their affairs and reopen their shops.

The source added, The shopping district in Homs city center is ready to resume activity as more than 70% of the rehabilitation works have been completed since the reconstruction campaign was launched four years ago in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program, the Homs Chamber of Commerce, the government service institutions and the local community.

Ghazwan al-Nakdali, an activist and member of the Syrian Association for Citizens Dignity (SACD), told Al-Monitor, The threats leveled by the Homs council against the shopkeepers reflect the regimes desire to speed up the commercial districts recovery.

He noted that the Homs Chamber of Commerce began promoting the decision, which primarily targets the shops located in the covered market and vegetable market. Ostensibly, the decision serves the regimes propaganda that it has completed the restoration works of the markets in the old neighborhoods of Homs and brought them back to life after having destroyed them in its fighting against the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the early years of the Syrian revolution, he added.

The council s decision and threats raise many questions about the fate of closed shops and stores that anti-regime owners abandoned years ago when the residents were displaced in early July 2014. The markets the provincial council approached are located in the neighborhoods that the FSA had held in 2012-13 and where fierce battles raged between the warring sides. They were bombed with various types of weapons and besieged by the regime forces that displaced their residents of these massively destroyed neighborhoods.

Aisha Sapri, a journalist for Aram Media Network, told Al-Monitor, The Homs Governorate Council is pressuring shopkeepers to open their shops in the Naoura, Abu Aouf and Bab Houd markets, the covered market and other shops in the city center that were severely damaged during the fighting between the FSA and regime forces in 2012 and 2013. The decision requires the owners to open their stores by a certain date or else their stores would be seized.

She said, The decision would make it easy for the regime to seize the shops whose owners are against the regime and are displaced. A large number of the residents of Homs old neighborhoods have been displaced. The regime officials want to steal the displaceds properties in a way that would seem legal. Those who do not want their properties to be confiscated will need to either bribe the councils officials or risk their lives and that of their family by returning to Homs  which the regime forces and its security branches control  so as to open their shops out of fear of losing them.

Sapri added, The councils decision consists of pressure placed by the Assad regime on the shopkeepers and aims to limit their options. The vast majority [of shopkeepers] were forcibly displaced and are afraid to return to the regime areas. They might consider selling their stores out of fear that the regime seizes them, and subsequently they would accept to sell them at a very low price to the warlords in Homs. These are mostly close to the Iranian forces and militias commanders, whose members are mostly Alawite and Shiite. The regime continues to work on a demographic change in Homs. It did not content itself with displacing Sunni Syrians from Homs. It also wants to take their real estate, properties and everything that ties them to their city away from them.

Samer Homsi, a political activist and member of the oppositions General Political Commission for Homs governorate, told Al-Monitor, Russia is the one backing such decisions because it seeks the return of refugees and displaced to Homs, as it does in all of the regime-restored areas. This step supports the Russian allegations of facilitating the return of the displaced and guaranteeing their safety and that the regime will not arrest them in case they decide to return. The majority of the displaced do not buy these allegations and do not trust the Assad regime or its allies.

Mahmoud Jadaan, a media activist displaced from Homs and a member of the Syrian Revolutionaries' Gathering, told Al-Monitor, The markets that the regime claims having rehabilitated and wants to open are located in the old neighborhoods of Homs and in the vicinity of Khalidiya, Jouret al-Shiyah, Qusour, Qarabis and Baba Amr neighborhoods that are almost totally destroyed. Most of the residents have fled and those who stayed lack basic services such as water, electricity and health services. It is impossible to bring the markets and destroyed neighborhoods back to life at present. Also, who would guarantee safety for those displaced who decide to return and open their stores? I know a lot of people who were arrested by the regime when they returned to Homs in the past years.

Rami Kasam, a lawyer and member of SACD, told Al-Monitor, "The councils decision serves the regimes propaganda that life has returned to the devastated areas, the economy is steadily advancing and that the shopkeepers in Homs are back and that all displaced residents willing to return are allowed in. Such allegations are deceptive. Through this decision, the regime seeks to steal the properties of the anti-regime displaced that it targets.

[February 01, 2021] Hasco Suzhou Awarded TUV Rheinland World's First IEC 61810-10:2019 Type Approval Certificate for Relay

SUZHOU, China, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, TUV Rheinland Greater China (TUV Rheinland), an international independent third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization, awarded Hasco (Suzhou) Electronics Co., Ltd. (Hasco Suzhou), subordinate to Hasco Relays & Electronics Int'l Corp., the IEC 61810-10:2019 Type Approval Certificate for its high-capacity relay. This relay product is the world's first to have passed TUV Rheinland's IEC 61810-10:2019 Type Approval Certification. Zheng Sikang, Manufacturing Manager of Hasco Suzhou, and Xu Shu, East China Regional Sales Manager of TUV Rheinland Greater China Business Stream Products, attended the certificate awarding ceremony.



Relays are widely used in the automotive, solar, industrial control, and home appliances fields. With the trends of electrization and intelligentization, high-capacity relays are in high demand in the new energy vehicle market. The IEC 61810-10:2019 standard puts forward additional functions and safety requirements for high-capacity relays, making up for the deficiencies of the standard's old version and providing an important guarantee for the safe operation of the whole unit.

At the ceremony, Zheng Sikang said: "As an enterprise specializing in the R&D, manufacturing, and sales of relays under Hasco, Hasco Suzhou firmly pursues the highest quality in our products. Under the persistent business principle of 'technical innovation and customer first' and the long-term goal of 'relying on American technologies, based on Chinese production, and focusing on the global market', we lead the relay industry in continuous innovation and steady development. Now we have passed TUV Rheinland's certification, which will help this type of high-capacity relay gain higher recognition in the market. We will continue to increase R&D investment, launch more innovative products, and lead the market to further development." Xu Shu stated: "As a leading brand in the relay industry, Hasco has strong capabilities in R&D and manufacturing. The relay product has gone through the strict testing of TUV Rheinland and passed the certification. This further shows that the quality and performance of their products can meet the requirements of the international market. In the future, TUV Rheinland will continue to help Hasco maintain the high quality of its products and maintain its leading position in the relay industry with our rich experience and technical strengths in the field of testing and certification, as we always do." SOURCE TUV Rheinland Greater China

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Halewood Artisanal Spirits' John Crabbie & Co 28-Year-Old Speyside Single Malt

The 28-year-old single malt is one of the oldest from John Crabbie & Co

Category - Spirits, whisky, Scotch, Speyside, single malt, 45.5% abv

Available - From this week

Location - The UK, available in the off-premise channel through spirits specialist outlets

Price - SRP of GBP350 (US$480) per 70cl bottle, limited to 260 units

Halewood Artisanal Spirits has sourced a cask of 28-year-old single malt Scotch for a limited bottling from its John Crabbie & Co brand.

Comprising liquid distilled at an unnamed distillery in Speyside's Glenlivet valley, John Crabbie & Co 28-Year-Old Speyside Single Malt is available from this week in the UK company's home market. Packaged in a wooden case, all 260 bottles from the cask will be available from spirits specialists, predominantly online.

"John Crabbie was well-renowned for sourcing whiskies from the very best distilleries in Scotland," said the brand's commercial controller for Scotland, John Kennedy. "This 1992 Speyside Single Malt is certainly no exception. Given the  the real rarity of an age release from this Speyside distillery,  with the price point, and the limited production, we don't think it'll be available for long."

Late last year, Halewood kicked off production at the Sadler's distillery in the UK for its Peaky Blinder range of spirits.

What's coming up in aged spirits in 2021? - Predictions for the Year Ahead
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[February 02, 2021] Cision Releases the Next Generation Cision Communications Cloud in Canadian French

TORONTO, Feb. 2, 2021 /CNW/ -- Cision today announced that its next-gen Cision Communications Cloud is now available in Canadian French. With this latest edition of the full-service platform, communicators in Canada can connect to a network of over 1.1 billion media and influencers and tie earned media back to business outcomes with intuitive, adaptable dashboards and reports. Learn more here. The next-gen Cision Communications Cloud allows communicators to quickly target and engage media, as well as monitor, measure and share impact. Cision's over 7 million global sources can be transformed into actionable, executive-ready business intelligence. Share of voice, social engagement, search engine optimization impact, brand sentiment, and referrals from earned media to company websites are among key metrics that can be tracked. The updated platform also incorporates Cision Impact data with validated audience reach and resonance metrics in one dashboard. Customers can opt to take metrcs to the next level, capturing not only who saw their news coverage but what those viewers did next to connect actions to revenue.



"Last year was pivotal for our customers and the entire communications industry, as it became even more critical to prove the true value PR brings to a business," said Sharlene Dozois, SVP of Sales and Client Experience at Cision. "We're thrilled to kick off the new year with the latest innovations in Cision Communications Cloud in Canadian French, helping our customers in Canada to strengthen their relationships with the media and build a more powerful earned media measurement program." The next-gen Cision Communications Cloud is available in both Canadian English and Canadian French and includes:

Extensive Canadian news monitoring: Cision has secured exclusive rights with publications such as La Presse, Le Soleil , The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and many more. Communicators can view full articles and broadcast clips and share with internal stakeholders.

Cision has secured exclusive rights with publications such as La Presse, , The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and many more. Communicators can view full articles and broadcast clips and share with internal stakeholders. 1.1 billion expertly curated master profiles of traditional media and social media influencers: Communicators can find more contact information, performance metrics, social profiles, pitching tips and recently published content  all vetted and continually updated by Cision's dedicated research team.

Communicators can find more contact information, performance metrics, social profiles, pitching tips and recently published content  all vetted and continually updated by Cision's dedicated research team. Visually-engaging analytics: Fully customizable widgets make it easy to create compelling visuals of earned media value and uncover new insights with competitive coverage data.

Fully customizable widgets make it easy to create compelling visuals of earned media value and uncover new insights with competitive coverage data. Reporting priorities at one's fingertips: Communicators can quickly build sleek, interactive reports right from the dashboards and share them with their business executives and teams.

Communicators can quickly build sleek, interactive reports right from the dashboards and share them with their business executives and teams. Mobile and tablet-friendly layouts: Communicators can access earned media intelligence anytime and anywhere. About Cision

As a global leader in PR and marketing communications technology and intelligence, Cision helps organizations share news, amplify brands, and influence target audiences to drive business results. Newswire distribution, a network of over 1.1 billion influencers, in-depth monitoring and analytics, and social media management headline a one-stop solution suite. Cision has offices in 24 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. For more information about Cision's award-winning solutions, including its next-gen Cision Communications Cloud, visit www.cision.ca and follow @CisionCA on Twitter. Media Contact:

Mary Lorenz

Communications and Content Lead, Cision

CisionPR@cision.com SOURCE Cision Ltd.

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A lab technician with a swab at RocDoc's testing facility in the Blue Car Park of Dublin Airport for hauliers bound for France. The company have announced additional drive-thru testing services at Cork and Shannon Airports for hauliers arriving in cars. PA Photo. Friday January 29, 2021. See PA story IRISH Coronavirus Port. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

A record 101 Covid-19 related deaths were confirmed by the Department of Health today, with the youngest being 19-years-old.

Some 83 of these deaths occurred in January and 18 in February.

The median age of those who died is 85 years and the age range is 19-103 years.

A further 879 more coronavirus cases were confirmed today in the Republic of Ireland.

Read More

This brings the total number of coronavirus related fatalities in the country to 3,418 and the total number of cases to 198,424.

Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said it is the highest number of deaths that have been reported on a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.

He said the high number of deaths at the moment is due to the surge of infection from several weeks ago, and that we have a long way to go.

He added: The best way to honour those who have died from COVID-19, and those who loved them or provided care for them, is to follow the public health advice.

What we can have control over today is the outlook of this disease in the weeks to come. Your positive actions matter, and they add up at a collective level. Please keep it up.

Of the cases notified today:

419 are men / 459 are women

56pc are under 45 years of age

The median age is 41 years old

383 in Dublin, 79 in Cork, 53 in Galway, 40 in Limerick, 43 in Meath and the remaining 290 cases are spread across 20 other counties.

As of 2pm today, 1,388 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 207 are in ICU. There were 45 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly paid his respects to the 101 people whose coronavirus-related deaths were confirmed today.

Appearing on Virgin Medias The Tonight Show, he said: Its heart breaking, its 101 men and women of a lot of different ages.

Its 101 families tonight who are mourning and not only are they mourning but they are having to mourn at a time when no one can mourn the way they want to, it is really tough.

Our thoughts are with them, with the friends and family of all of those people.

This comes as people arriving in Northern Ireland airports and ports will soon be required to fill in passenger locator forms if they are travelling across the border to Ireland.

The Cabinet have been asked to sign off on a deal which will see passenger information shared on both sides of the border.

The move will mean people flying into the North and travelling South will have to detail where they will be restricting their movements for two weeks after arrival.

Yesterday, Dr Holohan effectively ruled out summer getaways this year, dashing hopes people have of travelling to foreign hotspots.

Dr Holohans comments came just hours after Ryanair boss Michael OLeary launched an extraordinary attack on the CMOs leadership and criticised his colleagues on the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).

Mr OLeary accused Nphet of disseminating misinformation and scare stories as well as causing mass hysteria about international travel in an interview yesterday morning.

Speaking at a briefing last night however, Dr Holohan said it is not realistic to expect people can fly to Europe or other destinations for summer holidays and the only beach they are likely to travel to is their local one.

I dont think we are heading for a summer where millions of people from this part of the world can be heading to beaches that are other than in their own localities, he said.

This comes as people arriving in Northern Ireland airports and ports will soon be required to fill in passenger locator forms if they are travelling across the border to Ireland.

The Cabinet have been asked to sign off on a deal which will see passenger information shared on both sides of the border.

The move will mean people flying into the North and travelling South will have to detail where they will be restricting their movements for two weeks after arrival.

Yesterday, Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan effectively ruled out summer getaways this year, dashing hopes people have of travelling to foreign hotspots.

Dr Holohans comments came just hours after Ryanair boss Michael OLeary launched an extraordinary attack on the CMOs leadership and criticised his colleagues on the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).

Mr OLeary accused Nphet of disseminating misinformation and scare stories as well as causing mass hysteria about international travel in an interview yesterday morning.

Speaking at a briefing last night however, Dr Holohan said it is not realistic to expect people can fly to Europe or other destinations for summer holidays and the only beach they are likely to travel to is their local one.

I dont think we are heading for a summer where millions of people from this part of the world can be heading to beaches that are other than in their own localities, he said.
The inter-ministerial committee set up to dispose off assets that have been finally forfeited to the Federal Government said it has such assets in 25 locations across the country so far.

Dayo Apata, who chairs the Inter-ministerial Committee on the Disposal of Assets Forfeited to the Federal Government (ICDAFG), led an inspection tour to four of the locations in Abuja. after a press briefing on the activities of the committee on Tuesday.

One of the four locations visited by the committee was a house at 14 Adzope Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja, a property recovered from a former Chief of Air Staff and later Chief of Defence Staff, the late Alex Badeh.

Mr Badeh, who retired as an air chief marshal in July 2015, was accused of diverting funds belonging to the Nigerian Air Force and using the proceeds to acquire choice houses in Abuja and other places.

He was being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for money laundering until when he was killed in an ambush along Keffi-Abuja Expressway on December 18, 2018.

Following a plea bargain entered into by the second defendant, Iyalikam Nigeria Limited, after Mr Badehs death, the trial judge, Mr Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on March 4, 2019, ordered the permanent forfeiture of some of the landed assets linked to the deceased including the one visited by the ICDAFG on Tuesday.

Committee to sell assets within six months

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, on November 9, 2020, inaugurated the Mr Apata-led committee with a mandate to collate and dispose of all assets that had been permanently forfeited to the Federal Government within six months.

Mr Apata, who is the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, said his committee was expected to carry out the disposal of assets, including, landed property, plants, machinery, vehicles, electronics, furniture and equipment.

The rest of such assets, according to him are, water vessels (canoes, boats, barges and ship), jewelry, ornaments and clothing materials.

He said as of Tuesday, the committee has collated and is still updating the list of assets that have been finally forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

He added that the committee has noted that the forfeited assets are currently situated in 25 locations.

He said committee would be embarking on onsite verification/auditing of all the forfeited assets to confirm their existence and ascertain their current state.

He said the committee had also sought the collaboration of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing on the asset valuation process in line with extant regulations.

Mr Apata also said the committee made publications in the Federal Government Tenders Journal and it two newspapers  This Day and Daily Trust  on February 1, 2021 to kick-start the disposal process.

He said the committee would engage valuers, auctioneers as part of the process in the disposal of assets forfeited to the Federal Government, and that the list of assets will be published accordingly.

Interested persons persons/firms are encouraged to look out for the publication and make submissions in the required format and within the specified timelines, he added.

Locations visited by committee

Other locations visited by the committee on Tuesday were EFCCs vehicle dump site near the National Mosque, a 34-roomed hotel, The Platinum Residence Exquisite Luxury Accommodation, located in AMSSCO Platinum City, Galadimawa, and a house located at 6 Ethiope Close Maitama.

A drop in the ocean

The 25 locations of forfeited assets identified by the committee in almost two months of its inauguration appear to be a far cry from the true state of permanent forfeitures which the agencies, particularly the EFCC, often claim to have recorded.

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In Mr Badehs case alone, up to six houses were permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

The assets are, a mansion at No. 6, Ogun River Street, Off Danube Street, Maitama, Abuja, shopping mall at Plot 1386, Oda Crescent Cadastral Zone A07, Wuse II, Abuja, duplex at No. 19, Kumasi Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja, a duplex situate at No. 14, Adzope Crescent, Off Kumasi Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja, and semi-detached duplex situate at No. 8A, Embu Street, by Sigma Apartment Wuse II, Abuja.

Also $1,000,000.00 recovered from No. 6, Ogun River Street, Off Danube Street, Maitama, Abuja, was forfeited along with the property.

Controversial committee

The inauguration of the ICDAFG by Mr Malami has drawn criticisms from those who say he lacks the power to set it up.

The critics also argued that the committee tended to usurp the statutory powers of EFCC and other law enforcement agencies to seize assets, manage, and dispose of them.

But Mr Apata said on Tuesday that Mr Malami inaugurated the committee in line with a presidential directive.
A bicyclist peddles on slick roads during a winter snow storm, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, in Brunswick, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

People of the northeastern U.S. shoveled themselves out Tuesday after a two-day snowstorm that shut down public transport, canceled flights and closed coronavirus vaccination sites.

Some bands of snow were still moving through parts of Maine and Pennsylvania in the morning, but the worst was over, with more than 30 inches (76 centimeters) in parts of New Jersey and just a few inches in Boston.

Lara Pagano, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in College Park, Maryland, noted that while several areas in the mid-Atlantic saw measurable snowfall for a few consecutive days, that hasn't shattered such records. For example, she said the most consecutive days with measured snowfall for Washington is four, while the mark is five for New York City and six for Philadelphia.

"While this storm has been a prolonged event, it's not a record-setter in that sense, but it does rank up there pretty high of course," she said.

The sprawling, lumbering storm had already walloped the eastern United States by Monday. More than 17 inches (43 centimeters) of snow dropped on Manhattan's Central Park, and as much as 30 inches (76 centimeters) was reported in northern New Jersey.

High tide caused flooding early Tuesday in coastal areas of Massachusetts, where the storm had already disrupted the second phase of the state's vaccine rollout as a Boston site that was supposed to open Monday for residents ages 75 and older did not; some other mass vaccination sites remained open.

Residents clear snow after a snowstorm Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, in Marlborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

Several areas of Massachusetts were hit with 18-plus inches (45 centimeters) of snow, including the central Massachusetts communities of Fitchburg, Lunenburg and Ashburnham.

Much of southern New Hampshire got about a foot of snow. Parts of northern New Hampshire, where the state's ski resorts and most of the snowmobile trails are, got 9 to 10 inches (22 to 25 centimeters.

"For the next couple of weeks, the conditions are going to be phenomenal," Gov. Chris Sununu said Tuesday during an interview on WZID-FM.

In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said the storm forced the postponement of about 10,000 shots and delayed the state's weekly resupply of vaccine, now expected Tuesday. He urged providers that called off vaccination appointments to extend their hours if needed to reschedule the shots by the end of the week.

Mario Vieira, a custodian at the Beatrice H. Wood Elementary School in Plainville, Mass. struggles with a snowblower Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021 while clearing sidewalks and walkways after the area received a blanket of wet, heavy snow overnight. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP)

A state of emergency imposed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy remained in effect Tuesday and the state's six megasites for COVID-19 vaccines were still closed as plow operators faced snow showers and blowing snow.

The New Jersey State Police reported that as of 7 p.m. Monday, troopers had responded to 661 crashes and come to the aid of 1,050 motorists since 6 p.m. Sunday.

There was also concern about coastal flooding in New Jersey. In a Facebook video posted by Union Beach Police, Keyport Police Chief Shannon Torres and Capt. Michael Ferm were shown rescuing a man who was showing signs of hypothermia in his car from floodwaters.

In Virginia, four firefighters were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life threatening after their firetruck overturned Sunday on snow-covered roads in Henrico County, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

In this photo taken with a long exposure, a car driven on a snow-covered road leaves a trail of light during a winter snow storm, Tuesday morning, Feb. 2, 2021, in Freeport, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A woman makes her way past mounded snow in midtown Manhattan in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A man takes a dog on an early morning walk in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Rick Wallace clears a sidewalk with a snowblower during a winter snow storm, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, in Freeport, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Snow clings to Don Wallace as he clears a sidewalk outside a market during a winter snow storm, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, in Freeport, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Rick Wallace fills a bucket with salt to melt snow on a sidewalk outside the Bow Street Market during a winter snow storm, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, in Freeport, Maine. Sleds, shovels and salt will be popular items as the region is hit with its first major storm of the new year. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Power outages appeared to be minimal. About 5,000 customers in Massachusetts and about 3,000 in New York were without power Tuesday morning.

In Pennsylvania, authorities said a 67-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease who reportedly wandered away from her home was found dead of hypothermia on an Allentown street Monday morning.

About 60 miles (97 kilometers) north in Plains Township, a shooting after an argument over snow removal killed a married couple, and the suspect was later found dead at his nearby home of a wound believed to have been self-inflicted, officials in Luzerne County said.

A preliminary investigation indicates the people involved had a long-running conflict, but "this morning, the dispute was exacerbated by a disagreement over snow disposal," District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said.

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Biden framed his views during the virtual meeting with Democrats by talking about the need not to forget working and middle-class families  even those like nurses and pipefitters making $150,000 for a family of four  who are straining during the crisis, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private call.
WASHINGTON  The Biden administration said it would release $1.3 billion in aid that Puerto Rico can use to protect against future climate disasters, and is starting to remove some restrictions put in place by the Trump administration on spending that was to help the island after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Administration officials, describing the move as a first step toward addressing racial inequality through policies designed to address climate change, said they planned to ease the limits that the Trump administration placed on another $4.9 billion in aid on the morning of Jan. 20, a few hours before the former president left office.

Puerto Ricos reconstruction after Maria, which devastated the island more than three years ago, has been far slower than the recovery in other parts of the country, such as Texas and Florida, that were also struck by major disasters that year. That is partly because the Department of Housing and Urban Development had placed restrictions on Puerto Ricos aid funds that didnt apply to other recipients, according to current and former officials and policy experts.

That slow pace of disbursement has dampened Puerto Ricos recovery, said Rosanna Torres, Washington director for the Center for a New Economy, a Puerto Rican think tank.

The money is part of $20 billion that Congress provided HUD after Maria for recovery and for protection against future storms in Puerto Rico. According to federal data, only $138 million, or about 0.7%, has been spent, a far lower rate than for funding that Congress provided HUD to help Texas, Florida and other parts of the United States to rebuild after similar disasters.

That discrepancy reflects the insistence by senior Trump officials that Puerto Rico provide HUD with more information and documentation than state governments about its spending plans before money would be released, according to Stan Gimont, who was HUDs deputy assistant secretary for grant programs at the time.

It seemed like it was excessive, said Gimont, who left HUD in 2019 and is now a senior adviser for community recovery at Hagerty Consulting. It made it a really onerous process.

The Trump administrations reluctance to provide funds to Puerto Rico reflected a number of motivations, according to Gimont and two other former senior administration officials, who asked not be identified discussing the matter because they worried doing so would upset their current or future employers.

One was the concern that the island would struggle to properly spend such a huge amount of money, creating the possibility that some of it would be misspent. That concern was overblown, Puerto Rican officials say.

Kenneth McClintock, a former Puerto Rico secretary of state and Senate president, said that the island had an admittedly slow and bureaucratic process to approve construction projects. But the Trump administration also tagged Puerto Rico as more corrupt than other jurisdictions and delayed the disbursement of federal funds to begin with, he said.

Trump believed that Puerto Rico was the most corrupt place in the nation, he said. We do have corruption, McClintock said, but he said that he considered it no worse than other parts of the country.

Through a spokesman, Ben Carson, the HUD secretary under President Donald Trump, declined to comment. A spokesman for Trump didnt respond to a request for comment.

Concerns about corruption or mismanagement led to a worse problem, former Trump officials said: 3 1/2 years after Maria, much of the damage has yet to be repaired.

The money was appropriated to promote recovery, Gimont said. If you dont spend the money, youre sure not promoting the recovery.

Biden had raised the slow release of Puerto Rico disaster money as an issue during his presidential campaign and had pledged to reverse it.

The office of Gov. Pedro R. Pierluisi, who was sworn in on Jan. 2, referred questions to the Puerto Rico Department of Housing, which said the secretary wasnt immediately available for an interview.

Trump officials complicated the Biden teams ability to make good on that pledge. On the morning of Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, Brian Montgomery, who was about to leave his post as HUDs deputy secretary, approved a request from Puerto Rico to gain access to $4.9 billion to help harden the island against future storms.

But in approving that request, Montgomery added requirements that made it harder for Puerto Rico to spend the money, which would have forced the island to go through a separate approval process for each individual project funded by those dollars. On Monday, HUD reversed the decision, telling Puerto Rico to apply again for the $4.9 billion so that HUD can approve its application without the restrictions.

In an interview, Montgomery said the conditions that HUD imposed on Puerto Rico were justified by the fact that the island rarely suffers from large-scale disasters and so lacked the experience handling large amounts of federal disaster aid that some states have.

Montgomery also said that the conditions imposed in the Jan. 20 letter to Puerto Rico werent intended to tie the hands of the Biden administration. He said the goal was to make more funding available to Puerto Rico, under conditions that he thought were appropriate to safeguard public money.

The secretary and I felt very strongly to get this money out on our watch, because we had been working very closely with Puerto Rico on it, Montgomery said.

A spokesman for HUD, Michael Burns, called the agencys moves on Monday an attempt to reset its relationship with Puerto Rico. The action we are taking today will help the island build resilience to future storms and floods, he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Welcome to City & States Campaign Confidential newsletter, where Senior Reporter Jeff Coltin is covering the run-up to New York Citys hugely consequential 2021 municipal elections for mayor, City Council and more.

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4 months and 3 weeks until the 2021 Democratic primaries

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Five things to watch in the District 24 special

Its finally here  the first New York City election of 2021 and the first of the ranked-choice voting era  and even if youve never heard the word Pomonok, the Council District 24 special election in Eastern Queens could set the tone for this whole season. Here are five burning questions well be looking to answer once the polls close at 9 p.m.

How many voters will rank?

In San Franciscos first ranked-choice voting election in 2004, nearly a quarter of voters said they only voted for one candidate and didnt rank  and that was after an $800,000 outreach campaign. Conventional wisdom says that fewer voters ranking would be good news for James Gennaro, the one white candidate, since six of his competitors of South Asian descent might be targeting the same voters. Another question  given the snow and the cold and the lackluster early voting numbers  is how many people will vote at all.

Can a returner win?

Gennaro represented the district from 2002 through 2013, and for that alone hed be considered a front-runner to win the seat now. Returners are nothing new  Council Member Karen Koslowitz is finishing up her second stint in a neighboring district  but there are a handful of old pros hoping to make the same move this year, including Sal Albanese, Tony Avella, Charles Barron, Gale Brewer and Darlene Mealy. Will voters be kind a second time, or do they want new blood?

DSA can win. Can it win there?

Weve asked that before  but this will be the first test of 21. Moumita Ahmed hasnt been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, but shes been a member for four years and, on Monday, was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. Voters in the district dont have a history of supporting democratic socialist candidates  Melinda Katz beat Tiffany Caban handily in the 2019 Queens district attorney primary  but the many other people supporting Ahmed will be watching closely.

How much influence is Common Sense NYC having?

Common Sense NYC is certainly taking Ahmed seriously, having spent more than $95,000 on mailers and ads that say shell raise your taxes. The independent expenditure committee funded primarily by billionaire developer Stephen Ross wants business-friendly moderates on the council, not democratic socialists, and Common Senses success or failure in this race could determine its playbook for the councils other 50 seats.

Who will be back for the primary?

Gennaro supporters think hell win the special election so handily that it will scare off anybody from trying to take him down in the June primary. But the special election is nonpartisan, so candidates to Gennaros left (all of them, probably) will surely be tempted to try again in June, when only Democrats can vote.

By the Numbers

270

The number of valid signatures New York City Council candidates will need to gather to make the ballot under a new law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday. Thats down from the usual 450 (but smart candidates know you should aim to gather about three times that number). Mayoral candidates now need 2,250, down from 3,750. And petitioning has been pushed back a week and will start March 2. This is all meant to lower the burden during the coronavirus pandemic, but nearly 100 council candidates had called for petitioning to be canceled altogether. Now some are hinting they might sue to stop it.

Whos buying Kevin Riley sweatshirts?

Billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross Common Sense NYC has gotten a fair amount of attention for its $221,140 spent influencing the District 24 special election, but nobody seemed to notice the mysterious independent expenditure group that dropped $70,165 on mailers, radio ads and even sweatshirts supporting Council Member Kevin Riley in the District 12 December special election. Its called Voters of NYC  an odd name, considering it was funded by two shadowy holding companies located in Park City, Utah, and Miami Beach, Florida. The one name attached to Ancel Holding Group Inc. on the New York City Campaign Finance Board website was Brian Cooper, but with that relatively common name, it wasnt immediately clear who that is. The one name behind LRI HoldCo LLC. was J. Randall Waterfield, board chair and CEO of Waterfield Holdings that, among other things, sells glass bottles of water sourced from a remote spring in the Andes. Whats their interest in a small Bronx council race? Id like to know. But it could just be an offshoot of Ross committee. Both groups share a treasurer in political consultant Jeff Leb.

Solidarity, for now

Last Labor Day we wondered: Would labor unions stick with establishment candidates in 2021? Were closer to an answer after the #LaborStrong coalition of 32BJ SEIU, CWA, DC 37, HTC and NYSNA released its list of 31 council endorsements  about as good of a list of the citys front-runners as youll get, at this point. And results are mixed. The unions endorsed two NYC-DSA-backed candidates in Tiffany Caban and Alexa Aviles, and notably stayed out of the other four races where DSA candidates are running. A knowledgeable candidate said its because Big Labor was sensitive to appearing too anti-DSA. But keep an eye on District 29 in Queens, where labor-endorsed Lynn Schulman is running against Working Families Party-backed Aleda Gagarin.

Pool season

Some mayoral candidates seemed to be jealous of the press coverage Andrew Yang was receiving after his announcement, so the past month has seen some traffic jams in journalists inboxes. Shaun Donovan has put out a daily schedule, even on some days without a public event, and Ray McGuires campaign has even set up a press pool so reporters can get some color on events without watching hours of Zooms. The first reports came from The New York Times Katie Glueck, who did her share of pool duty on Joe Bidens presidential campaign. Of course, we still want more info on candidates whereabouts, so if youre attending a forum, let us know  even if your schedule isnt FOILable yet.

Endorsement Watch

New York City Council Member Margaret Chin and Gigi Li, her chief of staff whos running for council in District 1, both endorsed Andrew Yang for mayor  Yang also hung out this week with Bronx Assembly Member Kenny Burgos  The New York State Public Employees Federation endorsed Eric Adams for mayor  Adams also got support from 170 members of the clergy, including Bishop Hezekiah Walker  rapper and actor LL Cool J endorsed Ray McGuire for mayor  Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright endorsed Scott Stringer for mayor  dont put her in charge of petitioning!  Gwen Carr, activist and mother of the late Eric Garner, is supporting Alvin Bragg for Manhattan district attorney  Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel is supporting Khari Edwards for Brooklyn borough president over her three fellow council members  The New York City Sergeants Benevolent Association is supporting Fernando Cabrera for Bronx borough president  Rep. Ritchie Torres has endorsed Eric Dinowitz in the Council District 11 special election  Vote Mama PAC is supporting Ischia Bravo in the District 15 special  Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is endorsing Selvena Brooks-Powers in the District 31 special over his former chief of staff Manny Silva  Silva announced his own ranked endorsements for the Feb. 23 special: 1. Himself, 2. Sherwyn James, 3. Nancy Martinez, 4. LaToya Benjamin.

Poll Sight

Theres no public polling yet for the Manhattan district attorney primary (though we did get tipped that one of the candidates was running a phone poll last week). But a left-leaning group called the Five Boro Defenders was happy to place all eight candidates on a spectrum of most to least harmful to defendants. Unsurprisingly, the one public defender in the race, Eliza Orlins, was rated least harmful. Liz Crotty, a former assistant district attorney, was considered most harmful. A related group of progressive organizations under the banner of The Peoples Coalition for Manhattan DA Accountability also published a detailed candidate comparison last week  and its a must-skim for any voters. Take a look at the more than 90 points of comparison here.

020221-Table-01.png Alt Text: Mandatory life sentences table Image Credit: Alex Law/City & State

Staffing Up

A trio of former Biden presidential campaign staffers have joined Shaun Donovans mayoral campaign: Brendan McPhillips is campaign manager, Rameera Robbalaa is organizing director and Jeremy Edwards is press secretary  Arielle Confino is campaign manager for Michelle Caruso-Cabreras comptroller campaign  and Hank Sheinkopf, who worked on Caruso-Cabreras 2020 House campaign, is now campaign strategist for Terri Liftins comptroller campaign  Sam Goldsmith has joined Zach Iscols comptroller campaign  Emily Fernandez has joined Mark Levines Manhattan borough president campaign as deputy field director  Liz McKenna is campaign manager and Jonah Nelson is communications director for Victoria Cambranes District 33 council campaign in Brooklyn.

Got tips? Email JColtin@CityandStateNY.com or DM me @JCColtin

District Data

012121-districtmap-42.png Alt Text: City Council District 42 Title Text: City Council District 42 Caption: City Council District 42 Description: City Council District 42 Image Credit: Alex Law/City & State

City Council District 42 in eastern Brooklyn, covering neighborhoods including East New York and Starrett City

Current council member: Inez Barron, since 2014, whos term-limited at the end of 2021

2010 census demographics: 72.9% Black, 19.2% Hispanic, 3.9% white, 2.0% Asian

Housing: 77.9% renter-occupied, 22.1% owner-occupied

2013 primary election results: Inez Barron: 43.2%, Christopher Banks: 24.7%, Regina Powell: 8.7%, John Whitehead: 7.6%, Nikki Lucas: 6.7%, Sean Henry: 6%, Prince Lewis: 3.2%

2017 primary election results: Inez Barron: 83.5%, Mawuli Hormeku: 16.2%

Whos running: Charles Barron, Wilfredo Florentino, Nikki Lucas, Marlon Powell and Gena Watson. Assembly Member Charles Barron is the obvious favorite as he attempts to win back the seat he held from 2002 through 2013, now occupied by his wife, Inez. Nikki Lucas has lost to the Barrons many times before, but the former district leader is working hard to reverse her fortunes, with strong fundraising and an endorsement from a fellow Barron foe, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Wilfredo Florentino, an NAACP staffer and a founding member of the New Kings Democrats, is also well connected politically.

Twitter Posting
A woman stomps on a free speech sign at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley in Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 24, 2017. (Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

Young Free Speech Advocates in UK Launch New Movement to Re-Imagine the Public Square

A new free speech movement set on reimagining the public square was launched in the UK on Sunday following recent concerns over freedom of expression in the country.

Launched by a group of university students and recent graduates, the Free Speech Champions initiative aims to inspire the next generation about the importance of free speech, the groups founding director, Inaya Folarin Iman wrote on Twitter.

Im excited to announce the launch of Free Speech Champions @speechchampions, an initiative which aims to inspire the next generation about the importance of free speech, set up by students and recent graduates and supported by @theboi_uk and @speechunion https://t.co/O43FH7L2KG  Inaya Folarin Iman (@InayaFolarin) January 31, 2021

Without being exposed to disagreement, how would we be able to work out if were right or wrong? Iman asked in one of four video messages from group members on the movements new website.

Highlighting the function of free speech in a democracy, group member Oliver Cray said, Freedom of expression and democracy are inseparable.

I think in a system where one man gets one vote, we know that each man is endowed with reason, the capacity to think, and the capacity to make decisions for themselves, Cray said.

To preserve freedom of expression for the future, we may need to tolerate views that we find abhorrent or views that are illiberal.

The Free Speech Champions initiative follows freedom of expression increasingly coming under the spotlight in recent months.

In January, Conservative MP David Davis, a former Secretary of State, told British lawmakers that free speech is under severe threat from cancel culture, warning of a corrosive trend in our universities that aims to prevent anybody hearing ideas that groups disagree with or would be offended by.

In November 2020, teacher Will Knowland was dismissed from the prestigious Eton College over a lecture on his private YouTube channel questioning current radical feminist orthodoxy, although the college denied the dismissal was related to freedom of speech.

Also, in July last year, historian David Starkey lost a Cambridge University honorary fellowship after he made a controversial comment on a podcast.

Antithetical to a Genuine Pursuit of Truth

Free Speech Champions member and Masters year architecture student Richard Stalker explained why free speech is important to him as a younger person and warned of the consequences of not considering differing opinions.

As someone who has fluctuated on political, social, and moral issues on more than one occasion in my admittedly short life thus far, the most important lesson Ive learned is that a dogmatic attitude to some of the most important questions in life is antithetical to a genuine pursuit of truth, he said in a video on the groups website.

When enough people take on this attitude, one of the most crucial pillars of a free society deteriorates.

Group member Rob Downie in another video highlighted the dangers of repressing free speech even for those who want to quash it.

If youre someone whos trying to shut down debate, its really not in your interest in the sense that if you think there are ideas which are dangerous, youll pretty much push them underground where they have room to ferment, he said.

And if they are actually dangerous, then that could have a worse effect than having them out in the open and discussed in a civilized, balanced way.

The new initiative is supported by the Free Speech Union, which wrote on Twitter that the initiative will go to where young people most need the space to think and speak freelyschools, universities and online communities.

.@speechchampions will go to where young people most need the space to think and speak freelyschools, universities and online communitiesand inspire support for and encourage young people to stand up for freedom of speech https://t.co/JNASKAjhFz  The Free Speech Union (@SpeechUnion) February 1, 2021

It is also supported by the Battle of Ideas forum, which hosts an annual festival promoting debate unrestrained by correct ways of thinking.

Free Speech Champions offers advice on how to tackle free speech issues, host events, and set up free speech societies on campus.

It will hold an online launch event on Feb. 18.

Speakers include Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education; University of Cambridge philosopher and Free Speech Union adviser Arif Ahmed; and Cambridge Radical Feminist Network member Sophie Watson.
San Francisco: Billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday bitcoin was "on the verge" of being more widely accepted among investors as he expressed his support for the cryptocurrency in a chat on social media app Clubhouse that drew thousands of listeners.

The comments followed his use of the "#bitcoin" tag on his Twitter profile on Friday, which pushed the cryptocurrency up 14%.

Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc, is known for making comments on Twitter that move markets and he acknowledged this during his debut on the invitation-only app Clubhouse.

"I am a supporter of bitcoin," he said.

"I was a little slow on the uptake," he said, adding he should have bought it eight years ago.

"I think bitcoin is on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people."

Bitcoin last traded up 3.7% at $34,390, having surged over 300% in 2020.

On the wide-ranging chat Musk discussed memes, Mars, his companies, and vaccines, among other topics. He also interviewed Vladimir Tenev, co-founder of online stock broker app Robinhood, which is under fire for blocking retail investors from purchasing GameStop stock.

GameStop stock surged some 400% in the past week after retail investors banded together to buy shares in the U.S. video game retailer, sending hedge funds scrambling to cover losing bets.

Tenev said the market rumour was untrue that Citadel Securities - the market-making arm of billionaire hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin - had pressured Robinhood into blocking retail investors.

"That`s just false," Tenev said, adding that Robinhood temporarily halted trading to meet regulatory capital requirements.

Musk last week tweeted "Gamestonk!!," which many in the market interpreted as an apparent show of support for small investors. "Stonks" is a tongue-in-cheek term for stocks widely used on social media.

Live TV

#mute

Musk also chatted about COVID-19 vaccines, saying he expected an avalanche of them soon. He added that authorities should focus on giving out the first dose of vaccines soon and worry about the second shot later, to speed things up.
The real Wolf of Wall Street has declared the current upheaval in the stock market as a 'paradigm shift'.

Speaking on Fox News on Monday night, former stockbroker Jordan Belfort lauded last week's 'brilliant' revolt of retail investors after the share price of video game retailer GameStop surged dramatically as a group of Reddit users teamed up to buy up the struggling retailer's call options  hurting market short sellers.

'The little guy finally is equipped, information travels instantly now, it used to only be the big guys, they paid the analysts ... so now the little guy finally has the ability to play that same game, at least somewhat,' Belfort said. 'And there is going to be a radical change, it's not going to be the same.'

'I believe this is a paradigm shift right now,' said Belfort who spent 22 months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering in 1999, and has since rebuilt his life as a motivational speaker.

The real Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort said the surge in GameStop stock last week was start of 'paradigm shift' in stock market trading

GameStop stock rocketed from below $20 in January to close around $350 last Wednesday and at one point reached a high of $483 as a volunteer army of investors on social media challenged big institutions who had placed market bets that the stock would fall.

The action was even wilder the following day as the stock swung between $112 and $483. On Monday, the stock was down 30% on last week at $225 a share.

'There are the hedge funds that gang up and literally will short a stock almost down to zero, out of business. They try to spread negative news, investigations, and that's what is seen with GameStop,' Belfort said.

'I think everybody knows there's something wrong in the pit of their stomach. You can silence people, you can de-platform people ... and get away with it. Everybody knows  Republican or Democrat  there's something wrong. That's why both sides of the aisle united on this one thing,' he continued.

Speaking to Tucker Carlson, left, on Fox News, Belfort explained how the stock shot up as a volunteer army of investors challenged big institutional hedge funds

Belfort's crimes were detailed in his first memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, which was later turned into the 2013 blockbuster of the same name, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

The film  directed by Martin Scorsese - chronicles the boyish, fast-talking Belfort's antics as chairman of Stratton Oakmont Inc., the firm he started with a few desks and phones set up in a former Long Island auto shop.

Stratton Oakmont was what is now called a 'boiler room' that marketed penny stocks - those of minimal value - and defrauded investors with the 'pump and dump' type of stock sales, taking large commissions on the trades, often at the expense of their investors.

GameStop stock rocketed from below $20 in January to reach a high of $483

Stratton Oakmont made a fortune by using deceptive, high-pressure tactics to peddle penny stocks at inflated prices. After artificially pumping the value up, Belfort and others would dump their own shares before prices crashed.

Speaking of present day shenanigans, Belfort explained how short sellers are investors who speculate that the price of a stock or security will fall in value.

The strategy sees them borrowing shares in order to sell them with the hopes of buying them back at a lower price in the future.

An army of amateur investors, using the 'WallStreetBets' forum on online platform Reddit as a rallying point, sabotaged short-sellers last week with a massive campaign to buy shares, pushing prices up.

Amateur investors outmaneuvering wealthy hedge funds has fascinated the financial press and disrupted the stock market.

On Monday, the stock dropped by 30% from $316 a share to close the day's trading at $225

Last weeks chart shows the stock fluctuating as amateur investors boosted the price

One month ago, the stock was trading at around $17 a share before it received a massive boost

Belfort praised 'angry as hell' small-time investors who were 'sick and tired of being stomped out by Wall Street, which they have been forever.'

'My hat's off to them, by the way,' he said 'It's brilliant what they did. They found a real inefficiency in the market and a gap where something had been dramatically over-shorted and they could actually get enough buying power. They finally now have some ammunition to fight back.

'The danger is it's gonna end badly for these stocks and I hope people don't lose money in the process.'

A group of demonstrators are gathered by the New York Stock Exchange building (NYSE) to protest Robinhood and bring their voices to Wall Street trades amid GameStop stock chaos

The three million strong group of amateur investors on the Reddit forum exchange tips and boast about beating 'the system'. Some analysts have described the situation as a 'nerds vs Wall Street' battle.

But Belfort said last week: 'If you could prove that they are actually colluding together, then that would be illegal.

'The problem is it is sort of this loose collision where one person says "Let's stick together and stay strong." And theoretically, that's illegal.

'But I doubt that the SEC [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] would try to make a case out of something like that.

'I think what you have to realize is that for the average person there is money to be made in this and money to be lost. You need to be really careful.'

Belfort spent 22 months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering in 1999, and has since rebuilt his life as a motivational speaker. His crimes were detailed in his first memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, which was later turned into the 2013 blockbuster of the same name, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, pictured

Belfort pleaded guilty in 1999 and agreed to become a government witness in a case against an accountant and other stock fraud defendants accused of cooking the firm's books and funneling money into a bogus holding company and overseas bank accounts.

In 2003, after a broken marriage and a bout with drug addiction, Belfort was sentenced to 3 years in prison and ordered to chip away at the $110 million restitution by giving 50 percent of his future earnings to the government.

Stratton Oakmont at one point employed over 1,000 stock brokers and was involved in stock issues totaling more than $1 billion, including being behind the initial public offering for footwear company Steve Madden Ltd.

Belfort served 22 months at the Taft Correctional Center in Taft, California, in exchange for a plea deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the pump-and-dump scams he ran that led investors to lose approximately $200 million and he was ordered to pay back $110.4 million that he swindled from stock buyers.

Belfort shared a cell with Tommy Chong while serving his sentence, and Chong encouraged Belfort to write about his experiences as a stockbroker. He now makes his money as a writer and motivational speaker.

There was genuine pathos in Anthony Albaneses parting remark at the press conference in which he announced his frontbench reshuffle.

I will be the leader of this country after the next election, he declared as he left the rostrum. Those words  inhabiting the did I think that, or did I say it? space  reflected the pressure the Labor leader is under and the depth of his determination to hang on, no matter what.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

How many Australians, even the one-in-three voters who still give their first preference to the ALP, believe Albanese will be proved correct? Does he seriously believe it?

He had just moved one of his strongest supporters, Mark Butler, out of the climate change portfolio, an abject admission of failure on a totemic and electorally crucial issue. Butler had been in charge of fashioning and selling Labors approach to climate change for more than seven years. Memorably, at the last election he produced a policy that was not costed. And yet, Albanese on his elevation to the leadership had kept Butler as Labors climate change spruiker.
Credit Suisse expects Rios underlying earnings to jump by 40-60% over the next three years.

Iron ore prices are set to surge higher predicts , which has upgraded ( ) in anticipation.

The Swiss broker sees the price of iron ore rising by 45% over the next three years due to better demand and supply fundamentals.

Allied to expected near-term rises in the price of other base metals (copper 8% aluminium 3%), Credit Suisse expects Rios underlying earnings to jump by 40-60% over the next three years.

The broker adds that it now prefers Rio Tinto to BHP PLC (LON:BLT), which has been downgraded, due to its view on iron and its greater importance to earnings.

Higher demand for steel and lower production from Brazilian group Vale are behind the iron upgrade, but Credit Suisse adds that the opportunity to reset ESG concerns and its reputation under a new CEO; and a net cash position also makes it a better bet currently than BHP.

The new target price for Rio is 63 in indicating 10% upside potential, while BHPs target price is below the market currently at 19.

Rio has been upgraded to 'outperform' from neutral while BHP goes the other way.

Shares in Rio eased 1% to 56.16, while BHP dropped 0.6% to 20.35.
PredictImmune, developers of pioneering prognostic tools for guiding treatment options and improving patient outcomes in immune-mediated diseases, is pleased to confirm the convening of its IBD Clinical Advisory Board (IBD CAB).

Chaired by Professor Dr Severine Vermeire, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Department of GastroenterologyUniversity hospitals Leuven, Departmental Chair CHROMETA (Chronic diseases Metabolism) KU Leuven, the IBD CAB has been established to provide a platform to share the experience and expertise of practicing healthcare professionals in the field of prognostic risk stratification and treatment guidance for IBD patients.

Dr Vermeire is joined on the Board by six leading IBD KOLs, brought together to share advances in IBD practise, with a view to identifying region-specific opportunities and requirements for the use of the PredictSURE IBD prognostic test.

PredictSURE IBD is a blood-based biomarker test performed close to disease diagnosis to stratify prognostic risk of disease severity, providing the gastroenterologist with information to guide selection of the most appropriate treatment options. The test is based on 15 years of clinical research on gene expression profiling of CD8+ T cells in relation to long term outcomes for patients diagnosed with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. PredictSURE IBD contributes to personalised medicine in IBD.

Professor Dr Severine Vermeire, Chairperson, PredictImmune IBD Clinical Advisory Board commented: "The PredictSURE IBD prognostic test could become the first biomarker test to help physicians in predicting future disease course in their patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and based on this, direct their intensity of follow up and/or therapeutic choices. The effectiveness of PredictSURE IBD to guide treatment choice is currently being investigated in the ongoing PROFILE trial in the UK and we are eager to learn the results from that trial."

Andrew Sandham, Chairman, PredictImmune added: "I am delighted that we have been able to attract a deeply experienced and prolific group of clinical professional advisors to form our IBD Clinical Advisory Board. Having worked closely with clinicians throughout the development of our PredictSURE IBD prognostic test, we are pleased to broaden the scope of advisors across major European countries. This will enable us to understand regional diagnostic and care pathways and offer our test through service providers to provide optimal access in each country. The IBD CAB's guidance will enable us to be more effective in our mission to make PredictSURE IBD available to patients and clinicians across Europe."

For more information about PredictImmune: www.predictimmune.com

Ends

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IKEA Australia is taking their food game to a whole new level and will host an Asian-inspired feast to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

The furniture giant is hosting the dinners on February 11 at their Rhodes and Tempe store in Sydney's inner west.

Rhodes will begin their festivities at 5pm, while Tempe has two sessions at 5.30pm and another at 7pm.

The furniture giant is hosting the dinners on February 11 at their Rhodes and Tempe store in Sydney's inner west (pictured: Rhodes store)

On the menu will be delicious traditional foods such as dumplings, spring rolls, and deep-fried eggs in sweet and sour sauce.

There will also be beef and vegetarian hot pot, tofu salad with chilli and sesame, hokkien noodles and honey soy chicken wings.

For dessert, IKEA will have fruit salad, chocolate wafers and coconut rice pudding with mango sauce.

Tickets to the exciting event are priced at $29.95 for adults. IKEA Family members get a small discount and can secure tickets for $24.95.

'This event will be compliant with all COVID-safe guidelines to ensure its a healthy celebration,' an IKEA spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

Chinese New Year falls on February 12, 2021, and is the Year of the Ox.

Celebrations for the Lunar New Year last up to 16 days before ending with a Lantern Festival on February 26.
Was the hair accessory that Amanda Gorman wore to the presidential inauguration a headband? Or was it a crown?

The wide padded satin piece by Prada, in a shade the brand calls Fiery Red, sat not astride Ms. Gormans head but on top, encircling her braided updo. It heightened the presence of the petite 22-year-old poet behind the large podium with the presidential seal, drawing the viewers eyes from her sunny yellow coat up to her face as she recited her work.

Accessories aficionados rejoiced. It read so powerful and strong, like she had crowned herself, said Jennifer Behr, an accessories designer in New York.
Doctors and other staff in frequent contact with Covid-19 patients or suspected infectees will be among the first to be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Other people on the priority list will be the elderly and those with chronic diseases that make them more vulnerable if they get infected, and officials in the diplomatic service, officials said at a government news briefing Tuesday.

AstraZeneca PLC, a BritishSwedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Cambridge, England, signed a deal Monday to supply Vietnam 30 million doses in the first half of this year for domestic inoculation.

Other details of the deal, including pricing and delivering timings, have not been confirmed.

"We are still negotiating but we will try to get the vaccine as soon as possible. What stands in the way now is that the European Union is limiting the export of vaccines," said Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan.

The Health Ministry has stepped up negotiations with the U.S.s Pfizer and Moderna as well as other vaccine manufacturers in Russia and China.

"It is expected we will have our own vaccines late this year and early next year. By then, along with the imported vaccines, we will have enough doses to provide for the people," Thuan said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Health Ministry to prioritize the study and manufacture of vaccines by Vietnamese companies and institutes, said Chairman of the Governments Office Mai Tien Dung.

Imports are a backup plan for the time that Vietnam is yet to get its own vaccines, he said.

Ngo Chi Dung, CEO of Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Company, said distribution of the AstraZeneca PLC in Vietnam should be "concessionary," allowing everyone to access it. The AstraZeneca vaccine is developed in partnership with Oxford University and is said to be cheaper than other products at $3-4 per dose.

Also, it can be stored at fridge temperature, which makes it easier to transport and use, particularly in developing countries.The vaccine is said to have a prevention rate of 62-90 percent.

Other Vietnamese vaccines

Trials for Nanocovax, the first developed in the country to be tested on humans, began on December 17. The vaccine has been deemed safe, but its efficacy against Covid-19 awaits a final assessment.

Covivac, produced by the ministrys Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals, has been approved for testing on humans and the trials are scheduled to begin after the week-long Lunar New Year holiday that peaks on February 12.

Two other vaccines are under development by the Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 and the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals.
First case of the mutated coronavirus strain detected in South Africa was diagnosed in Thessaloniki city in northern Greece, announced Greek authorities.



The patient who tested positive for this strain is an official with the Greek Orthodox Christian Church, said Nikos Hardalias, Deputy Minister for Civil Protection and Crisis Management, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

The world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in 236 countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.





EODY announced on Sunday that 107 cases of the mutated strain first identified in Britain have been recorded in Greece following analysis of samples taken in the period of January 12 to January 27, bringing the total cases of such strain to 173 in the country.



Greece has been under a nationwide lockdown since November 7. On Friday it was further extended till February 8.



On Sunday EODY announced 484 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking the tally since the start of the pandemic in Greece last winter to 156,957.



EODY also confirmed another 17 deaths, bringing the toll to 5,796.



As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.



Meanwhile, 236 candidate vaccines are still 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 the World Health Organization on January 26.







Source: IANS Panagiotis Arkoumaneas, president of the National Public Health Organization (EODY), called on citizens to take all precautions and comply with instructions given by experts.EODY announced on Sunday that 107 cases of the mutated strain first identified in Britain have been recorded in Greece following analysis of samples taken in the period of January 12 to January 27, bringing the total cases of such strain to 173 in the country.Greece has been under a nationwide lockdown since November 7. On Friday it was further extended till February 8.On Sunday EODY announced 484 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking the tally since the start of the pandemic in Greece last winter to 156,957.EODY also confirmed another 17 deaths, bringing the toll to 5,796.As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.Meanwhile, 236 candidate vaccines are still 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 the World Health Organization on January 26.Source: IANS

"We are conducting sweeping screening tests, with molecular tests and rapid tests, in the wider area... There is no reason to panic," he told Greek national broadcaster ERT.
Married At First Sight star Nasser Sultan has hit back at his co-stars for mocking his appearance at the Grand Reunion.

The 53-year-old shared a video to Instagram of Jessika Power, Sarah Roza and Ashley Irvin sitting in a car and criticising him for returning to film part two of the finale.

'Calling out trolls... Sarah Roza, Ashley and Jessika Power think it's okay to troll Cyrell [Paule] and I? Double standards,' he wrote.

'I'm calling out trolls': Married At First Sight's Nasser Sultan(pictured) hit back at Jessika Power, Sarah Roza, and Ashley Irvin for mocking his appearance at the Grand Reunion on Tuesday

In the video, Sarah films Nasser as he arrives to the studio and can be heard saying: 'I will tell you, Nasser has got balls to turn up'.

'I can't believe he even came back. We were just saying there is no chance he is going to be here,' Ashley added.

Sarah then asked the former MAFS contestants whether they both believe Cyrell will return to film the reunion.

'I hope she breaks her leg or something,' Jessika said, before Ashley continued: 'I'm so anti how she treated everyone last night, it still upsets me.'

Post: The 53-year-old shared a video of Jessika Power, Sarah Roza, and Ashley Irvin sitting in a car and criticising him for returning to film part two of the finale

Nasser's post comes after he was forced to leave the MAFS reunion dinner party on Sunday night after the cast demanded an apology for his online trolling.

The 53-year-old refused to say sorry for the cruel things he'd said on Instagram, and was confronted by Michael Brunelli and Cyrell Paule.

After Michael and Cyrell were joined by multiple cast members in offering Nasser an opportunity to atone for his online sins, he refused.

'You're now at the time where you can actually just stand up and apologise and take ownership of your actions,' Cyrell said, becoming heated.

Hitting back: 'Calling out trolls... Sarah Roza, Ashley and Jessika Power think it's okay to troll Cyrell [Paule] and I? Double standards,' he wrote

Nasser answered, attempting to defend his actions: 'Listen, I thrive on media. My whole life now is media.'

'You are starting these things, and you have a following. That is disrespectful and damaging to the mental health of people,' Michael replied furiously.

Cyrell then confronted Nasser about saying she'd had her son, Boston, as a 'publicity stunt'.

The cast joined in on telling Nasser that he should leave - with multiple people crying out, 'Just leave Nasser'.

Angered, Nasser got up from his seat and snapped: 'I will leave. You know what? I will leave.'
MKH Ventures Announces Two Key Acquisitions of Profit-Sharing Contracts

Sheridan, Wyoming--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Critical Solutions, Inc. (OTC PINK: CSLI) announces it has successfully funded and acquired $600,000.00 in a "Profit Sharing Contract with Across the OC, LLC a cannabis distribution company with sales of over $12.5 million that has launched MKH Finance into a return of $420,000.00 Gross Profit into our company for the next 5 years' worth $2,100.000.00 approximately. Mr. Sam Barraza, CEO of MKH Ventures, states, 'We are excited about the signing of Profit-Sharing Contracts on a 5-year basis for the profit growth of CSLI. Also We have also developed , funded, and acquired a second Profit Sharing contract with 770 Washington LLC, a cultivation cannabis management company with over $20.7 million under grow in the Los Angeles Licensed District. This adds $470,000.00 Gross Profit into our company for the 5 years' worth $2.3 million approximately. These key acquisitions into our holding's portfolio are extremely profitable to our balance sheet. The most important part of these key acquisitions is that these companies are cash flowing on a profitable basis year end and year out."

Mr. Barraza continues, "Once again, I want to thank Robert Munck, our Director of Business Development for guiding and completing the acquisitions into our holdings. Mr. Munck is continuing to build MKH Finance into a highly profitable division of MKH Ventures. Additional key highlights to our company are that we are proceeding with no reverse split and no "toxic" funding. Our key to be known by the company we keep. We will continue to build our company by only working with established and profit producing partners. In the coming weeks, we will be announcing the various JV partners and clients that are adding value to our company."

About MKH Ventures, LLC

MKH Ventures is a diversified holding company. MKH Ventures acquires and invests in emerging growth and profitable companies in the Cannabis, Crypto, and Real Estate markets.

To subscribe to company updates, please visit the Company's website at www.MKH-Ventures.com.

Also note the company has updated its Twitter address to https://twitter.com/MKHVentures.

Contact Information:

CSLI Shareholder/Investor inquiries can be directed to:

MKH Ventures, LLC

1-800-395- 6811

ir@mkh-ventures.com

Safe Harbor Statement: In addition to historical information, this press release may contain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include the intent, belief, or expectations of the Company and members of its management team with respect to the Company's future business operations and the assumptions upon which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to, failure to complete anticipated sales under negotiations, lack of revenue growth, client discontinuances, failure to realize improvements in performance, efficiency and profitability, and adverse developments with respect to litigation or increased litigation costs, the operation or performance of the Company's business units or the market price of its common stock. Additional factors that would cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated within this press release can also be found on the Company's website. The Company disclaims any responsibility to update any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: MKH Ventures, LLC.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73422
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 09:29:20|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Development partners have so far pledged 234 million U.S. dollars towards Zimbabwe's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, senior officials said Monday.

The support, in both cash and kind, has been targeted at eight pillars of the country's response plan, including infection prevention and control, case management and procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), Finance Minister Mtuli Ncube said in a joint statement with Acting Health Minister Aaron Murwira.

"The commitment by development partners now stands at 234 million U.S. dollars. Disbursements by the development partners as at 28 January 2021 stand at 119 million U.S. dollars," the ministers said in the statement.

The officials added that the country was projected to receive 134 million dollars towards the fight against the pandemic in 2021.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has received 49 million dollars from the Global Fund to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HIV, tuberculosis and malaria programs.

"Of the 45 million dollars, 17.5 million dollars worth of equipment has been delivered, 12.5 million dollars deliveries are underway. Meanwhile, about 15 million dollars worth of goods have already been ordered for which delivery is expected in the second quarter of 2021," the ministers said.

Zimbabwe is grappling with a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen an exponential rise in new infections and deaths over the last month.

As of Monday, the country had recorded 33,388 COVID-19 cases, 26,044 recoveries from the disease and 1,217 related deaths. Enditem
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 2 : A Congress leader from Alappuzha in Kerala is in a spot after inaugurating a fund collection drive for the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The fund raising drive is from January 30 to February 28 and RSS workers have been actively meeting people from various sections of society for raising funds.

Raghunathan Pillai, vice president of the Alappuzha District Congress Committee had inaugurated the Ram temple fund collection drive at Kadavil Temple in Alappuzha by handing over the donation to the temple chief priest. Senior Congress leaders and workers have come out against Pillai.

CPM state secretary A Vijayaraghavan while speaking to IANS, said "The Congress and the RSS-BJP combine have always worked liked Siamese twins in Kerala and this is no surprise for the political workers of Kerala. Several Congress leaders have been doing the same always and Congress does not have any right to speak about secularism after doing this".

Pillai however said that internal rivalry in the Congress is the reason for this controversy and added that he had inaugurated the programme as president of the Pallipuram Pattarya Samajam and that his public life is open to all.

KPCC general secretary A.A. Shukoor also defended Pillai. Shukoor said, "Pillai is a true believer and he had inaugurated the function as president of the Samajam and there is no need to rake up a controversy on this. Raghunathan Pillai is a highly secular person and has always opposed the RSS. The controversy is unnecessary."
COVID-safe plans and practices would be more important than ever, he said. It doesnt mean its over, it doesnt mean that COVID-safe plans are any less important. They are in fact more important because weve got more and more people moving around, Mr Andrews said. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video He said not every workplace may reach 75 per cent, as many people might choose to continue working from home. Thats the maximum number, it may be that we dont get to that number, he said.

Loading This is about individual employers, individual businesses, having consultations and discussions with their workers. Many Victorians will try and hang on to a portion of their week working from home, where that works with them and works for the boss. Its very hard to predict where well get to in a lasting sense but what we wanted to do is not be an impediment to more people being back at work. With more people using public transport, Mr Andrews reminded commuters that masks would need to be worn and said cleaning would be increased.

He said more public transport announcements would be made later this week in anticipation of extra commuters from Monday. Lord mayor Sally Capp said bringing city workers back to the office would be critical for Melbournes economic revival. More people in the city means more money coming into local businesses, which keeps Melburnians in jobs, Cr Capp said. Our economic recovery has started but it needs co-ordinated and consistent support to ensure we bounce back as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, the Victorian government will move to extend its state of emergency laws until December 15. The state of emergency declaration was due to end on March 15, but Mr Andrews said the government would introduce a bill to Parliament on Tuesday to extend it for the rest of the year. Mr Andrews said the extension was necessary to ensure the community remained protected from the spread of coronavirus, and it should not become a political issue. We cant go to a situation where there are no rules, he said. Without an extension of the state of emergency, the Chief Health Officer would have no power to compel people to isolate in a hotel, Mr Andrews said.

Loading The rollout of vaccines would take some time and did not equal the end of the pandemic, he said. Whilst the vaccine has been a significant development, that will not be administered to sufficient numbers of people in a matter of weeks. Its going to take a long time, and thats not a criticism, its just an acknowledgment that its a massive task. Its very heartening to think that well be able to protect people from really significant illness, but the notion that people could still have the virus and pass it on will mean that things like hotel quarantine will, for quite some time, be a feature of our COVID normal. Therefore, we need to extend that state of emergency, he said.

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New 9.75m Irish-Led Project Set to Strengthen EU Preparedness and Response to Future Pandemics

National University of Ireland Galway will lead a major new European project on pandemic preparedness and response, starting February 2021

The PANDEM-2 Project will develop IT systems and processes to improve the European Union's preparedness and response to future pandemics

New solutions developed by PANDEM-2 will enable the simulation of future pandemics and the training of pandemic managers on a national and pan-European basis

PANDEM-2 tools will also allow for improved planning and management of critical resources including hospital beds, PPE and vaccines

Under Embargo Until Tuesday, 2 February, 2021 at 00:01am IST: National University of Ireland Galway has been awarded almost 10 million funding by the EU to develop a suite of novel concepts, services and IT systems to improve how the EU prepares for and responds to future pandemics. The two-year project, known as PANDEM-2, aims to create a more consistent and futureproof approach to pandemic management.

The Problem:

While Ireland and Europe have responded robustly to the current pandemic, there is room for improvement in the analysis of real time data, in the sharing of information across borders and in adopting common and consistent policies. Future pandemics are to be expected with population growth, international air travel and environmental factors increasing the likelihood of diseases crossing from animals to humans.

Protecting the health and security of citizens across Ireland and the EU in the face of these pandemic threats requires member states and agencies to share information and to collaborate on joint policies and approaches.

The Solution:

The PANDEM-2 Project will develop IT systems to improve the EU's preparedness and response to future pandemics. The outputs will enable pandemic managers to prepare for a wide variety of different pandemic scenarios and possible responses. PANDEM-2 technologies will also enable improved pan-European planning and management of critical resources including hospital beds, PPE and vaccines. This will position Europe to respond coherently and effectively to the next pandemic, whenever it comes and whatever form it takes.

Government of Ireland, Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, said: "I am delighted to see further EU investment in research and innovation which will help us prepare at a national and European level for future pandemics. I would like to congratulate and thank National University of Ireland Galway for their leadership of this project, which will seek to harness the learning from COVID-19 in the development of a range of innovative technologies to further support and improve the European Union's preparedness and response to future pandemics. While we are still facing many challenges with COVID-19, it is critical that we also focus on longer term developments for pandemic preparedness, as this project will. I am delighted that Irish research will be central to this work."

Professor Maire Connolly, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, National Universiy of Ireland Galway and Coordinator of the PANDEM-2 Project, said: "COVID-19 has had devastating ecoonomic, social and health impacts on countries worldwide. The PANDEM-2 Project aims to better prepare EU member states for future pandemics through innovations in technology, training and cross-border collaboration. The state-of-the-art tools that will be developed by PANDEM-2 have the potential to transform how Europe prepares for future large-scale healthcare crises through improved analysis of surveillance and contact tracing data, innovative pandemic modelling, better resource allocation and training of pandemic managers using simulations across Europe."

President of National University of Ireland Galway, Professor Ciaran O hOgartaigh, said: "I would like to congratulate Professor Connolly and the project consortium on receiving this significant EU funding award. As we continue to experience the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is reassuring to know that National University of Ireland Galway and the PANDEM-2 consortium will be at the forefront of developing systems to improve the EU's preparedness and response to future pandemics. One of our strategic priorities at National University of Ireland Galway is to ensure our research and teaching brings excellent outcomes for the public good. There is no greater need in that regard right now than public health. As a university, we play an important role in shaping society and this project amplifies our commitment to contributing to the health, wellbeing and security of society throughout the EU."

The Team:

The project consortium, led by National University of Ireland Galway, brings together European leaders from the health, security, defence, microbiology, communications, information technology and emergency management fields, ensuring that the most modern science serves the real-world needs of healthcare, government and society. This consortium includes two other Irish companies, Carr Communications and Pintail Ltd. PANDEM-2's Advisory Board membership includes the World Health Organisation (WHO) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Professor Jim Duggan, School of Computer Science, College of Science and Engineering, National University of Ireland Galway, said: "We are very excited to start working on PANDEM-2. Our role within the project builds upon our work from PANDEM which involved research on pandemic response and the development of a resource modelling tool, PANDEM-CAP. This project will aid the development of an IT dashboard that will host pandemic-relevant data from across Europe. This data will enable pandemic managers in capacity building and developing operational strategy for cross border pandemic response so that Europe will be as well positioned as possible for any future pandemic that may arise."

The Foundations:

PANDEM-2 builds upon key insights and lessons learned in several previous EU-funded projects including the original PANDEM. PANDEM was established to identify gaps and priority research needs for pandemic preparedness and response in Europe. PANDEM-2 will build upon this research and ensure better preparedness for the future to ensure better decisions are made to improve health systems and pandemic management in the future.

For more information please visit https:/ / pandem-2. eu or for regular updates follow PANDEM-2 on Twitter (https:/ / twitter. com/ PANDEM2H2020 ) and LinkedIn (https:http://www. linkedin. com/ PANDEM2H2020 ).

###

For Press contact Gwen O'Sullivan, Press and Information Executive, National University of Ireland Galway at gwen.osullivan@nuigalway.ie or +353 87 6601592.

Or

Sharon Sorohan, Carr Communications at ssorohan@carrcommunications.ie +353 86 1236245.

Photo NUIG 0999.jpg: Professor Maire Connolly, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway and Coordinator of the PANDEM-2 Project. Photo: Martina Regan

Photo NUIG 1012.jpg: Professor Maire Connolly, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway and Coordinator of the PANDEM-2 Project. Photo: Martina Regan

Photo NUIG 1174.jpg: Professor Maire Connolly, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway and Coordinator of the PANDEM-2 Project. Photo: Martina Regan

Photo NUIG 1345.jpg: Professor Jim Duggan, School of Computer Science, College of Science and Engineering, National University of Ireland Galway. Photo: Martina Regan

Notes to Editors

Bio of Professor Maire Connolly

Professor Connolly graduated in medicine from National University of Ireland Galway, holds a master's in public health from University College Dublin and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her areas of expertise include health security, disease surveillance, emerging infectious diseases, pandemic preparedness and humanitarian emergencies. Her research interests include the application of informatics, modelling and simulation to public health, use of big data for disease surveillance, use of visual analytics to support decision making in outbreak response and game-based learning for pandemic management.

Prior to joining National University of Ireland Galway, she worked at WHO/HQ in Geneva for 15 years as Coordinator for Disease Control in Emergencies and subsequently Advisor to WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Security up to 2012. Her role included setting the global research agenda for pandemic preparedness and humanitarian emergencies. She has implemented international research projects funded by the EC, ECHO, USAID, DFID and Irish Aid. She has over 50 WHO technical reports and peer-reviewed publications and has published three books on communicable diseases in emergencies. She has worked on UN missions in 15 emergency affected countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, most recently to Jordan as part of the WHO Syrian crisis response.

About National University of Ireland Galway
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San Diego, Calif.-based Partners General Insurance Agency LLC has named Thomas Farrell president.

Jas Chima will become CEO (formerly president and CEO) and John Davis will remain as executive vice president.

Farrell joined PGIA in mid-2019. He has more than 20 years of experience in the commercial casualty and excess markets. He was most recently director of commercial excess and umbrella at Hudson Insurance Co. He ran Admiral Insurance Groups excess division before that. He started his career with General Star Insurance Co.

Partners General Insurance Agency (majority owned by K2 Insurance Services) is a privately owned managing general underwriter, providing primary general liability and excess coverages countrywide through appointed wholesale surplus lines brokers on a non-admitted basis with offices in California, Illinois, Texas, Virginia and Connecticut.

Topics California
With multiple outbreaks of Covid-19 reported in nursing homes, 32,000 residents and their families once again find themselves in the eye of a terrifying storm.

The lack of strategic planning to ensure sensitive communication care and crisis support is provided during outbreaks is evident.

Care Champions, a family-run group, report many families are struggling to contact overwhelmed nursing homes or comfort their relatives, even from a distance, during the final days of their lives, some only granted entry when the dying person is no longer aware of their presence.

Others report relatives have died alone, having endured months apart from family due to restrictions, an unnecessary separation according to the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW), which has repeatedly called on government to review visiting guidance and to provide appropriate support during outbreaks, support which recognises residents fundamental rights to family life.

Studies show the negative impact of visiting restrictions on residents, confirming something we all know innately - connection with family is vital to our well-being.

Window visits and technology, unsuitable for people with communication difficulties, are no substitute for private visits.

Residents share worries about care or abuse with family members, who instinctively protect, motivated not by professional requirements, but by love for the person.

The consequences of the removal of that irreplaceable support over such a prolonged period cannot be overstated, particularly within a sector, which as HIQA and the IASW have repeatedly warned, fails to adequately protect the rights and welfare of residents.

Six years after Aras Attracta, we have neither a safeguarding authority or legislation and social workers do not have a legal right of entry to private nursing homes to investigate concerns.

Responding to criticism of HIQAs role in Oaklands Nursing Home in Listowel, Mary Dunnion Chief Inspector wrote in the Irish Examiner, "Due to limitations on our legal powers, we had to wait until the management of and safety of care in a nursing home had deteriorated to a significant level until we could cancel its registration people should not be subjected to significantly deteriorating care and service quality to the point their very lives are at risk because of legal limitations."

Worryingly, the HSE has acknowledged that at least 1000 concerns relating to institutional abuse in care settings across Kildare, Wicklow and Dublin were not assessed by social workers before residents were cocooned into those services in 2020.

Many families are struggling to contact overwhelmed nursing homes or comfort their relatives, even from a distance, during the final days of their lives.

Social workers continue to receive concerns related to institutional abuse and a wider social work investigation commenced following the alleged rape of a cocooned resident during lockdown. In this context, social workers have advocated for safe alternatives to cocooning to increase the protective presence of families in nursing homes.

While cocooning has been presented by government as an unavoidable consequence of protecting life, in reality, it is a policy choice.

This same philosophy proved unacceptable elsewhere. In 2020, preparing for winter, countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Wales and Scotland sought visiting solutions which aligned with public health advice.

Using a variation of visitor pods, infection control measures, rapid testing, and visitor education, regular and safe indoor visiting was achieved, reflecting research which finds no link between managed visiting and infection rates during periods of low community transmission.

'Visiting can either be safely managed or it cannot, subjectively testing human need for love and connection is one of the most unpalatable outcomes of the pandemic.'

By comparison, the Irish government operated one of the most restrictive visiting systems in Europe, endorsing complex, dense visiting guidance in which residents are often viewed as passive recipients of care.

Plain English versions were not produced for residents and families, while fundamental rights to family life are diluted as something to be measured on the basis of subjective compassionate grounds, one of which recommends that visits are granted in circumstances in which a resident is significantly distressed or disturbed and although unable to express the desire for a visit there is reason to believe that a visit from a significant person may relieve distress.

Social workers rejected this entirely, stating that as family connection is essential for well-being, waiting for signs of significant distress before sanctioning visits is both ethically and morally unacceptable.

Visiting can either be safely managed or it cannot, subjectively testing human need for love and connection is one of the most unpalatable outcomes of the pandemic.

The discretionary guidance advises that residents can decline visits, but no advice is given should a nursing home fail to grant them. In response, social workers voluntarily provided a resource to support Care Champions, outlining how families and residents could challenge visiting refusal.

Proving knowledge is indeed power, Care Champions subsequently reported dozens of nursing homes reversed refusals and agreed to visits.

It is important to note that political will, rather than public health advice delayed investment in visiting spaces.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. File Picture: Julien Behal

Funding was finally announced on 11th December, one day after an RTE report on a letter from the IASW to Stephen Donnelly repeated social work concerns about visiting.

By then, some nursing homes had already developed safe spaces, with some constructed by family members.

It shouldnt take voluntary efforts or RTE reports or family builds to secure visiting rights.

We can do much better than this. Simple, practical measures will help.

The government must listen to family run groups and develop resident councils in nursing homes to ensure the unfiltered voices of residents are heard. Accessible information must be provided to families and residents to ensure that they can exert rights and challenge visiting refusal.

The HSE can no longer ignore the clear body of evidence which shows care settings are not all uniformly safe places and must resource safeguarding teams to provide increased training in nursing homes and respond to backlogs and incoming concerns. Legislative reform and the establishment of a safeguarding authority is essential.

Having ignored multiple meeting requests from the IASW, the Minister for Health must engage and ensure social work expertise is represented in strategic planning.

Social workers are clear, almost a year into the pandemic, we can no longer simply empathise with family distress, we must respond to it.

In April 2020, The IASW developed a liaison model, proposing the temporary redeployment of social workers to provide crisis support and communication care to families and residents in nursing homes in crisis.

Used in some innovative HSE nursing homes to positive feedback from families and care staff, it ensures all resident and families have the same equitable access to social work support, as is available to Covid-19 patients in the majority of our hospitals and hospices.

If visiting is unsafe, the liaison social worker supports families and residents to feel connected from a distance, by ensuring words of comfort, audio and video messages, music, spiritual comfort and other family choices are shared with residents.

This model was identified for inclusion in The Economist Intelligence Unit in its forthcoming global aging report, as the only international project which focuses on rights of residents and families.

Of more importance, the model responds to what matters most to residents and families  feeling connected with those they love.

Surely, something worth investing in.
Three-quarters of unionist voters believe that Northern Ireland will still be part of the UK in 30 years' time, despite the fears voiced by their politicians that the new Irish Sea border threatens the Union.

Unionist confidence about the survival of the state is more than matched by nationalist optimism about Irish unity - 97% of Sinn Fein and SDLP voters predict that the Union will have ended by 2050.

In the LucidTalk opinion poll for the Belfast Telegraph, three-quarters of people think that the Northern Ireland protocol will weaken the Union, but Sinn Fein voters are much more likely to hold this belief than DUP ones.

The online survey of 2,295 people was conducted from January 22 to 25.

The sample was weighted to reflect the local population.

As Northern Ireland celebrates its centenary, it was asked if it would still be part of the UK in 30 years' time. Just over half of people (54%) thought that it would not, with a third predicting that it would be.

However, nationalist and unionist voters differed significantly in their beliefs on whether the constitutional status quo would survive.

Despite all the current fears voiced about the protocol by the DUP, Ulster Unionists and TUV, 72% of their voters think that Northern Ireland will be part of the UK in 30 years' time with just 12% believing that it will not.

But nationalist optimism about Irish unity was even stronger. A staggering 97% of Sinn Fein and SDLP voters said that Northern Ireland would not be part of the UK in 30 years' time, with just 1% believing that it still would be.

Alliance and Green voters shared the belief that Irish unity is likely, although not as overwhelmingly.

A total of 68% believed that Northern Ireland would have left the UK by 2050, with 13% saying that the Union would still be in place.

Yesterday, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that a border poll on a united Ireland should be held on the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

The former Fianna Fail leader said that while a referendum on a united Ireland is not for now, the right time to have one would be in 2028.

Mr Ahern said that he raised the issue when he met with former US senator George Mitchell, former British prime minister Tony Blair and former US president Bill Clinton to mark the 20th anniversary of the agreement.

I said at that stage two things have to happen, Mr Ahern told Newstalk.

One is that we have to have institutions under the Good Friday Agreement that were stable for a prolonged period  we havent had that ever since the agreement in 23 years, Mr Ahern told Newstalk

I dont like the idea of border poll, because it is an issue of sovereignty and how it will happen.

The second point I made was the propriety work that made sense of all of this, which has really only commenced. Theres the Shared Island unit, which is something I support.

Theres a whole lot of other academic work going on.

Both of those things have to happen and what I said at that stage, that any idea of a vote that was seen in the Good Friday Agreement, should be probably on the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which is at the end of the decade.

Unionism is facing one of its greatest challenges as the impact of Brexit becomes apparent.

The protocol - a key element of the December settlement with the EU - has triggered grassroots anger.

It was the resolution to the main sticking point in the Brexit divorce talks: the Irish border. To avoid disrupting cross-border trade and a return of checkpoints along the border, the EU and UK essentially agreed to move new regulatory and customs processes to the Irish Sea, angering unionists.

First Minister Arlene Foster has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to replace the protocol, branding it 'unworkable'.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has said the protocol is "absolutely necessary".

It was also asked if the protocol would weaken Northern Ireland's position in the UK in the longer term.

A total of 77% of people said that it would do so, with 16% saying that it wouldn't have any impact at all.

Two-thirds of DUP voters (67%) thought that the controversial agreement between London and Brussels would diminish the Union, whereas 91% of Sinn Fein voters held that belief.

A fifth of DUP voters thought that the protocol would have no impact whatsoever on the Union compared to just 6% of Sinn Fein voters. Alliance and Green voters were also much more likely than DUP ones to believe that the protocol was bad news for the Union - 85% thought it would weaken it.
SpaceX announced Monday that it would fly a crew of private citizens into orbit around Earth, potentially by the end of the year, in a multiday mission designed to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The announcement comes after the company, founded by Elon Musk in 2002 to make space more accessible, flew two crews of NASA astronauts last year, as well as an astronaut from Japan, to the International Space Station. It also plans to fly a crew of four - all private citizens - to the International Space Station early next year.

The flight announced Monday would mark another significant milestone in the privatization of spaceflight as private companies erode governments' long-held monopoly on human spaceflight. It is being funded by Jared Isaacman, the 37-year-old founder and chief executive of Shift4 Payments, a payments technology company. Isaacman, an accomplished pilot who flies commercial and military aircraft, would command the mission and is donating two of the seats to St. Jude.

One is going to a yet-to-be named health-care worker at the hospital. The other seat would be raffled off in an attempt to raise at least $200 million for St. Jude.

The flight will leave from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but NASA, the U.S. government space agency, is not directly involved in planning the trip, in which the spacecraft will orbit Earth every 90 minutes. "NASA has been briefed on this and has been supportive," Musk said.

It was unclear how much Isaacson was paying for the mission, but he said he is donating $100 million to St. Jude as part of the fundraising effort. "What we aim to raise in terms of those funds and the amount of good it will do will certainly far exceed the cost of the mission itself," he said during a call with reporters.

The mission could last between two and four days, but Musk said the flight parameters were not yet defined. "You get to go where you want to go," he said to Isaacman on the call.

The occupant of the fourth seat will be determined by a competition starting this month among users of Isaacson's platform. The company plans to air an ad during Sunday's Super Bowl to raise awareness about the mission and the opportunity to fly on it.

Isaacson said that contestants would make a video about their business and why they should be sent to space, and that the winner would be announced by an independent panel of judges.

The crew, called Inspiration4, will receive astronaut training from SpaceX on the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft, the company said. It will train them on emergency preparedness and mission simulations.

SpaceX said the flight "will be carefully monitored at every step by SpaceX mission control" and will end in a splashdown off the Florida coast.

Axiom Space, a Houston-based company, has purchased a flight on SpaceX's vehicle to fly a crew of private citizens to the International Space Station as early as January. That mission is to be commanded by Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut who now serves as a vice president at Axiom Space.

The three participants on that flight - all wealthy business executives - are paying $55 million for the flight, training and costs associated with staying aboard the space station for up to eight days.

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin also plan to fly space tourists out of the atmosphere, but on suborbital missions that would scratch the edge of space, giving paying customers a few minutes of weightlessness before coming back down. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Musk said the private astronaut missions are a "steppingstone on the way toward providing access to space for all." The price initially will be "real expensive," he said, "because it's new technology. . . . And so we actually need people who are willing and able to pay the high prices initially in order to make it affordable in the long term for everyone."

As for his personal goals he said, "I will be on a flight one day, but not this one."
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Moovly Media Inc. (TSXV: MVY) (OTC Pink: MVVYF) (FSE: 0PV2) ("Moovly" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, due to demand from an increasingly international client base, the Moovly AI-enabled text-to-speech feature is available in over a hundred languages. Moovly has also added a large number of new voices to its text-to-speak feature, via automatic AI driven translations.

As an online video creation platform enabling users of all experience levels to easily create professional-looking videos, Moovly is currently used by over 3.6 million users in hundreds of countries.

This significant development was driven in large part by the increasing demand from multinational Moovly clients for localized content and tools in multiple languages. The result is an invaluable asset now available to all Moovly clients.

Moovly CTO Geert Coppens explained that "We are delighted to announce the addition of over 300 artificial text-to-speech voices in over 100 languages, enabling our users to simply enter text to stand alongside their videos, all with natural sounding voice-overs."

Multinational and localization features available on Moovly:

Speech to Text

Text to Speech (Hundreds of voice language combinations),

Automatic subtitle generation,

Automatic AI driven Translations

Register for free on our website to test these features yourself.

https://youtu.be/K4j6DnR1WvM

About Moovly:

Moovly is the leading provider of creative cloud-based tools to create compelling marketing, communications and training videos and video presentations. Moovly's advanced Studio Editor with millions of assets seamlessly integrated (via partnerships with Getty Images & Storyblocks) is all you need to create engaging video content to promote, communicate or explain your product, service or message. Moovly's API and Automator technologies allow third parties to automate parts or all of the content creation process, including mass video customization, personalized videos (video version of mail merge), automatic content creation or updating by connecting data sources. With clients including users from over 300 of the Fortune 500, small businesses, freelancers and Ivy league universities, Moovly is an intuitive, cost effective choice for DIY creation of engaging video-based content.

"Your story begins with Moovly"

Files are available for download in our press room at www.moovly.com/pressroom.

For additional information about Moovly, please visit www.moovly.com.

Brendon Grunewald

President, CEO and Director

Email: press@moovly.com

Kelsey Chin

CFO

Email: press@moovly.com

- ### -

Reader Advisory

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward looking statements and information with respect to Moovly's future business plans and the expected benefits of its products. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward looking statements and information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct.

By its nature, such forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could cause the actual results and expectations to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed. These risks and uncertainties, include, but are not limited to, Moovly's inability to continue to commercialize its products or demand for its products decreases or disappears. Other risk factors are set forth in detail in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis dated September 30, 2020 which is available for review under the Company's corporate profile at www.sedar.com. Some other risks and factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information also include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions in Canada, the United States and globally; industry conditions, unanticipated operating events; failure to obtain any necessary third party consents and approvals, if and when required; the availability of capital on acceptable terms; the need to obtain required approvals from regulatory authorities; stock market volatility; competition for, among other things, capital and skilled personnel; changes in tax laws; and the other factors. 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. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date hereof, and to not use such forward-looking information for anything other than its intended purpose. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except 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 adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73402
More than 90,000 Australian parents, including almost 21,000 Victorians, stayed out of the workforce last year because the cost of childcare was too high.

The figures, contained in the Productivity Commissions latest report on government services, reveal a sharp 21.7 per cent rise in the number of parents and carers in Australia who didnt work because of the associated childcare costs in 2020, compared with the previous 12 months.

Emily Hovette, 33, with her two-year-old daughter Margaux. Credit:Justin McManus

Victoria was one of the few states that bucked the trend, with the number of adults who stayed out of work due to excessive childcare costs dropping last year to 20,600 from 23,900 in 2019, according to data released on Tuesday.

Even so, cost was listed as the reason 29 per cent of Victorian parents whose children were not in childcare did not make use of these services last year. Victorian childcare costs are the second-highest in Australia.
The Texas GOP has fired a staffer for posting videos showing him within steps of the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 and confronting people at a D.C. pizza restaurant.

The Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek reports that field organizer Kevin Whitt was fired less than two hours after the Tribune contacted the Texas GOP about Whitt's posts.

AFTER THE ELECTION: Trump lawyers, not Ken Paxton, drafted lawsuit challenging election results, New York Times reports

"Information has come to light of some troubling video of one of our former employees," spokesperson Luke Twombly said in a statement to the Tribune. "Due to this footage, we terminated our relationship."

Whitt, who was hired Nov. 30, 2020, according to Twombly, posted a video showing him standing with a crowd of people near the Capitol entrance on his Instagram account the day after a pro-Trump mob stormed and breached the U.S. Capitol building,

"This is the door of the Capitol," Whitt can be heard saying in the video. "I'm trying to move as close as I can."

Whitt told the Tribune he did not enter the Capitol, had no intention to do so, and left when the crowd outside starting getting rowdy.

In December, Whitt posted a video of him confronting a woman and diners at the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C., the restaurant at the center of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. The debunked conspiracy theory claims that a sex trafficking ring run by high-ranking Democratic officials operates out of Comet Ping Pong.

In the video, Whitt confronts a woman in the restaurant and refuses to leave after she asks. Whitt told the Tribune he "100%" believes the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.

Yall are abusing children," Whitt shouts into the restaurant in the video. "You are pedophiles. Do not eat here. All of yall should leave. They are serving up dead kids. This place is known ... for a restaurant that is sex trafficking children."

The videos were taken down after Whitt was fired. Whitt has also publicly aligned himself with far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys in his social media posts, Svitek reports.

The Texas GOP released a statement after the Jan. 6 riot that left five people dead, condemning the violence and announcing the party had dismissed its sergeant-at-arms Walter West for comments on Facebook that seemingly condoned the chaos at the Capitol. However, later press releases seem to place blame for the riot on "leftist violence."
Washington formally determined Tuesday that Myanmar's military carried out a coup, legally requiring an end to U.S. assistance to the government.

'After a careful review of the facts and circumstances, we've assessed that Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's ruling party, and Win Myint, the duly elected head of government, were deposed in a military coup,' a State Department official said, using Myanmar's former name.

'We continue to call on the Burmese military leadership to release them, and all other detained civil society, and political leaders immediately and unconditionally,' she said.

Military vehicles and soldiers block the road leading to the parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar on Tuesday

Myanmar's military seized power and declared a state of emergency for one year after arresting State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar president Win Myint in an early morning raid

The U.S. State Department determined that Aung San Suu Kyi (pictured), the leader of Burma's ruling party, was deposed in a military coup

People in Myanmar's largest city Yangon clatter pans and various objects to make noise to protest the military coup

Military vehicles and soldiers guard the entrance to the parliament building in Naypyitaw, Myanmar

Under US law, the United States will be forbidden from assisting the government but the effects will be largely symbolic as virtually all assistance in Myanmar goes to non-governmental channels.

Asked how much money goes through the government, the official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said, 'Very little - almost none.'

The military was already under U.S. sanctions over its brutal campaign against the Rohingya minority.

The State Department official said Washington would maintain humanitarian programs, including for the Rohingya, but will also 'undertake a broader review of our assistance' to Myanmar.

President Joe Biden in a forceful statement Monday said the U.S. would consider reimposing sanctions on Myanmar, which were lifted during its decade-long transition to democracy.

Washington has contributed $1.5 billion to Myanmar since 2012 to support democracy, internal peace and violence-hit communities, according to the State Department.

The official said that the United States has had no contact since the coup either with the military or civilian leaders, who have been put under house arrest.

But she said that the United States is 'having daily ongoing conversations' with Japan and India, close US partners that 'have better contact with the Burmese military than we do.'

Japan and India, both eager to offer an alternative to Myanmar's major partner China, have pursued cordial relations even after Western nations pulled back over the treatment of the Rohingya, on which Aung San Suu Kyi said little.

Days before the coup, India shipped 1.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Myanmar.
Budget 2022: Govt Announces Rs3.06 Lakh Crore Scheme for Power DisComs; Urban Development Receives Rs4.29 Lakh Crore for JJM & SBM; Record Outlay of Rs1.10 Lakh Crore for Railways

Expressing serious concern over the viability of power distribution companies, Union minister for finance and corporate affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech of 2021-22, proposed an outlay of Rs3.05 lakh crore over the next five years for a revamped reform- based result-linked power distribution sector scheme. Jal-Jeevan Mission (Urban) and Urban Swachh Bharat Mission have been provided with an outlay of Rs2.57 lakh crore and Rs1.41 lakh crore, respectively. The minister also provided a record outlay of Rs1,10,055 crore for Railways, of which Rs1.07 lakh crore are given for capital expenditure.

In 2020-21, Govt under PM @NarendraModi ji had provided for Rs 4.12 lakh cr for capital expenditure. Increasing expenditure, we are likely to end this year at Rs 4.39 lakh cr.



For 2021-22, in 34.5% increase, Govt has provided for Rs 5.54 lakh cr. #AatmanirbharBharatKaBudget pic.twitter.com/zOX0UW1FV0  Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) February 1, 2021

The scheme will aid power distribution companies (DISCOMs) for infrastructure creation, including pre-paid smart metering and feeder separation, and upgradation of systems tied to financial improvements. The past 6 years have seen a number of reforms and achievements in the power sector, we have added 139 Giga watts of installed capacity, connected an additional 2.8 crore households and added 1.41 lakh circuit km of transmission lines, said Ms Sitharaman.

In her Budget speech, the finance minister (FM) also pointed towards the monopolies of distribution companies across the country and proposed to put in place a competitive framework to give consumers alternatives to choose from among more than one distribution companies.

For a green and sustainable future, the finance minister also proposed to launch a comprehensive National Hydrogen Energy Mission in 2021-22 for generating hydrogen from green power sources fulfilling the announcement made by prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi in November 2020.

The FM also announced that the Jal-Jeevan Mission (Urban), will be launched for universal water supply in all 4,378 urban local bodies with 2.86 crore household tap connections, as well as liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities. It will be implemented over five years, with an outlay of Rs2.87 lakh crore.

Sincere compliments to Honble FM Smt @nsitharaman Ji for announcing major schemes/projects in #AatmaNirbharBharat Budget2021 speech for #TransformingUrbanLandscape across India. These include Jal Jeevan Mission (U) with ?2.87 lakh cr & SBM 2.0 with ?1.41 lakh cr over 5 years. pic.twitter.com/yLKTQFMhYV  Durga Shanker Mishra (@Secretary_MoHUA) February 1, 2021

Moreover, the Urban Swachh Bharat Mission will be implemented with a total financial allocation of Rs1.42 lakh crore over next five years. Also, to tackle the burgeoning problem of air pollution, the government proposed to provide an amount of Rs2,217 crore for 42 urban centres with a million-plus population in this Budget.

Metro Rail expansions have been proposed in Kochi, Bengaluru, Nagpur, Nasik & Chennai. Continuation of tax holidays on investments in Affordable Housing & interest deduction of additional ?1.5 lakh to promote housing till Mar22 & tax exemption for ARHC will boost Real Estate. pic.twitter.com/kM63is4lPt  Durga Shanker Mishra (@Secretary_MoHUA) February 1, 2021

Railways has now the highest ever total plan capex of Rs2.15 lakh crore this year with Rs7,500 crore from internal resources, over Rs1 lakh crore from extra-Budgetary resources and Rs1.07 lakh crore coming from capital expenditure allocation given in the general Budget. In Budget estimate (BE)2020-21, the total capex for the railways was Rs1.61 lakh crore, while the capex in BE2021-22 is Rs54,016 crore or 33% higher than BE2020-21.

Railways plan to boost Atma Nirbhar Bharat Mission and utilise the funds towards completion of vital infrastructure projects, capacity building passengers amenities and safety enhancement.

The FM also announced that in order to achieve the target of National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) in the coming years, the government proposes three steps, including creation of institutional structures, a big thrust on monetising assets and enhancing the share of capital expenditure in Central and state budgets.

NIP, launched in December 2019 with 6,835 projects, has now expanded to 7,400 projects and around 217 projects worth Rs1.10 lakh crore under some key infrastructure ministries have been completed.

Ms Sitharaman announced that Rs20,000 crore has been provisioned in the Union Budget to capitalise the proposed development financial institution (DFI). The FM informed that a Bill will be introduced to set up DFI, which will act as a provider, enabler and catalyst for infrastructure financing. The ambition is to have a lending portfolio of at least Rs5 lakh crore for this DFI in three years time, the FM added.

The FM further stated that in order to enable debt financing of InVITs and REITs by foreign portfolio investors suitable amendments will be done in the relevant legislations. The move is expected to help in augmenting funds for infrastructure and real estate sectors.

In her Budget speech, the minister announced launch of a National Monetisation Pipeline of potential brownfield infrastructure assets stating that monetising operating public infrastructure assets is a very important financing option for new infrastructure construction. The FM informed that an asset monetisation dashboard will also be created for tracking the progress and to provide visibility to investors.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will present its proposal for changes to public land duck hunting to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission for consideration at its Feb. 18-19 meeting.

The meeting will be held in Franklin at the Marriott of Cool Springs.

This proposal is a significant effort to increase the number of duck hunters who get drawn to hunt TWRA public wildlife management areas (WMA)s each season. To increase access and retain tradition, the TWRA will continue to issue some of the current season-long permits while changing other sites into quota hunt locations. Quota hunts will be for 3, 4, or 7-day periods at a marked location or an Agency-built blind. Based on hunter input, these changes will meet the Agencys objective of providing increased access to public land duck hunters, increasing fairness of the draw, and honoring the traditions of duck hunting in Tennessee. There are no changes proposed to privately-owned/permanent registered blinds.

The TWRA has received public comments through the years about how the current public land duck hunting system operates. The comments mostly fall into two categories to include the need for increased duck hunting opportunities on public lands (i.e. more access) and concerns over the fairness of the hand-held duck blind draw system. A scientific survey of duck hunters done in partnership with the University of Tennessee validated these comments as well as other issues with in-person hand-held draws and desire for opportunities to hunt for shorter time periods.

In 2019, the TWRA made changes to make the in-person drawings more equal for everyone. In 2020, due to COVID-19, all hand-held duck blind drawings were computerized and online, which made the process fair and equitable for hunters across Tennessee. This years efforts are a continuation of an effort to meet the agency goals.
CARY, N.C., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Analytics leader SAS continues to innovate by making it easier to access its powerful, cloud-native SAS Viya platform. Recent product developments help customers more efficiently democratize analytics throughout their organizations while seamlessly managing analytic workloads and building SAS into a variety of applications.

SAS Viya users are pushing the boundaries of innovation through analytics to battle COVID-19 and improve public health Tweet this Organizations across the globe - in government, patient advocacy and medical research  are using SAS to transform data into better decisions, allocate scare resources and ultimately save lives.

"Among analytics providers, SAS is a recognized leader for reimagining the way analytics and machine learning are consumed so users realize optimal results that solve business challenges faster with more accuracy," said Ritu Jyoti, Program Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Research at IDC. "This iteration of the SAS Viya platform gives users at all levels of an organization an agile, powerful advanced machine learning engine to help master the complex data that's in cloud environments."

Recognizing that so many organizations have struggled with the global pandemic and its effects, SAS CEO and founder Jim Goodnight says SAS Viya can help in the toughest times. "SAS Viya helps organizations see their data, customers and operations in new ways that encourage confident decision making," said Goodnight. "Leading organizations like Hanesbrands, Mercy, Banco Bradesco and Qualitas Insurance Company rely on SAS Viya each day. Organizations expect to accelerate innovation and reduce costs when they operationalize analytics." SAS Viya provides the missing layer between models developed in multiple languages and the systems where they're deployed, eliminating the need for time-consuming recoding to deploy models.

SAS Viya now offers deep integration with Microsoft Azure services

SAS Viya is now available on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, marking the latest momentum in SAS' strategic partnership with Microsoft announced last year. This integration between Azure and the SAS Viya analytics platform will empower customers to stand up SAS analytics in their cloud environments with ease, run them reliably, easily give users access to the latest innovations and enhancements and centrally manage everything with tools they are already familiar with. All of this will enable IT to focus less on routine analytics workloads and more on high-value, strategic workloads that help business leaders make better decisions.

"The partnership we have with SAS has helped our customers accelerate growth and expand their digital transformation initiatives" said Casey McGee, Vice President of Global ISV Sales at Microsoft. "We're excited about this latest innovation of SAS Viya which provides a seamless customer experience with Microsoft Azure and will bring the power of analytics to our customers, across industries, enabling them to make business decisions faster and more effectively in a cloud experience that's unique to SAS and Microsoft."

As for joint solutions, the Predict & Plan Consumer Demand offering built on SAS Viya is available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace now. SAS' legacy of helping retail and consumer goods companies increase forecast accuracy, improve margins, reduce stock levels and connect to customers more meaningfully, combined with the flexibility of Microsoft Azure automates complex planning tasks that improve supply chain efficiency. It's the first of many industry-specific cloud analytics solutions SAS and Microsoft Azure plan to build together.

Goodnight and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella discuss SAS Viya and the SAS partnership in a recorded conversation. You can learn more about SAS Viya and the SAS partnership with Microsoft at the virtual event Travel to Faster, Trusted Decisions in the Cloud on Thursday, Feb. 11.

A SAS Viya powers a COVID dashboard that helps save lives in India

Other SAS Viya users are pushing the boundaries of innovation through analytics. For example, the Government of Odisha, an eastern India state on the Bay of Bengal, uses an advanced analytics and visualization platform powered by SAS Viya to better understand and control the effects of the COVID pandemic on its 46 million residents. Odisha's citizens and government officials proactively use the Odisha State COVID-19 dashboard as the single, trusted source for tracking trends in infection rates, hospitalizations and available medical resources. Using this platform, high volumes of data around citizen registrations, contact tracing, health conditions and quarantine compliance are aggregated, transformed and processed to generate insights. In addition to rich visualizations, this data has been successfully used in forecasting peak infection times and modelling the optimal infrastructure augmentation and distribution by the State. In essence, the dashboard has enabled Odisha to stay ahead of the virus and save lives.

COPD Foundation uses SAS Viya to make a difference to members facing the pandemic

When the COVID pandemic ramped up, the 320 million people suffering with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) felt more vulnerable than ever. But SAS Viya and its built-in artificial intelligence (AI) strengths helped the COPD Foundation explore unstructured data, identify patterns and create meaningful reports for its members. Collectively, this allowed the organization to pinpoint topics that were the most concerning for members  access to oxygen, medicine, jobs and pulmonary rehabilitation services. It made the foundation's support and outreach more relevant in the early days of COVID when members needed it most.

University College Dublin helps save babies and mothers with help from SAS Viya

Pre-eclampsia is a serious complication of pregnancy affecting one-tenth of pregnancies worldwide. It results in the death of 50,000 women and 500,000 babies annually. Researchers from Ireland's University College Dublin (UCD) together with its AI Healthcare Hub are developing a tool that helps clinicians diagnose and better manage patients to save the lives of mothers and their babies. SAS Viya provides all the needed components to seamlessly navigate the analytics lifecycle so UCD researchers can interactively explore data and build and deploy analytic models within one unified environment.

Boemska acquisition makes cloud-native SAS Viya more portable and scalable

SAS' January 2021 acquisition of Boemska, a UK-based analytic workload management company, enriches the SAS Viya platform with capabilities that accelerate cloud migration. Boemska's offerings boost the portability of SAS Viya and open-source models for mobile and enterprise applications. They also ease the development and execution of models and decisions that depend on low-code and no-code technologies for tasks such as fraud detection, medical event decisions and manufacturing-defect identification. Boemska also offers enterprise workload management tools that optimize cloud migrations.

SAS collaborates with SingleStore to help customers view data holistically in the cloud

SAS and database company SingleStore created a strategic relationship in late 2020 to improve performance, reduce costs, and help customers with analytics and decisioning capabilities in the cloud. The relationship with SingleStore means SAS customers will more easily gain real-time insights from data residing in any cloud environment.

About SAS Viya

SAS Viya is an AI, analytic and data management platform that runs on a modern, scalable architecture. It is cloud-native software, designed to be delivered and updated continuously and bring the power of analytics to everyone, everywhere. SAS Viya integrates the art of decision making with the science of AI and advanced analytics, helping organizations to make better decisions, faster.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries.  indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright  2021 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Editorial Contact:

Laura Fleek Brumley

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+1 214-803-6692

sas.com/news

SOURCE SAS

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LOD, Israel, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nanomedic Technologies, a leader in Electrospun Healing Fiber (EHF) technology for wound healing and skin regeneration, today announced that Rambam Health Care Campus, the primary hospital for northern Israel, has selected the Spincare Wound Care System to enhance patient care and improve its ability to heal wounds and burns.

Nanomedic's Spincare Wound Care System in use at Rambam Health Care Campus

Rambam Health Care Campus is a 1,000-bed academic hospital serving more than 2 million residents of Northern Israel. Using the Spincare System, physicians at Rambam have treated to date dozens of patients suffering from a variety of burns ranging in size and severity.

"Nanomedic's Spincare System has many advantages, including protection against infection from contaminating bacteria and properties that allow it to optimally adhere to the injury in a way that regular dressings cannot," said Prof. Yehuda Ullmann, Chair of the Surgical Department and Director of the Plastic Surgery department at the Rambam Health Care Campus. "The biggest benefit for patients is the avoidance of the pain often incurred from changing bandages, especially when treating children."

The Spincare System creates an artificial skin layer using a smart and customized matrix made of nano polymers that adheres precisely to a wound or burn. This allows for more mobility without damaging the new skin and, as the artificial layer is both waterproof and transparent, patients can shower after 24 hours while healthcare professionals can observe the healing process and make decisions accordingly.

Rambam's trauma center, treats thousands of burns each year, many of which result from accidents at home or the workplace. One such example, a 42-year-old worker who suffered second and third degree burns to his upper body when a pressurized hot water tank exploded, was rushed to Rambam for treatment. "I arrived at the trauma center in excruciating pain with half my body covered in bandages," said patient Ilan S. "Just two weeks after the Spincare treatment my skin had already started to grow back and replace the artificial skin. Today, the improvements following the treatment can be clearly seen."

Given the portability of the Spincare System, it is expected to soon be available for use in clinics and emergency rooms in addition to trauma centers.

"Because the device is portable and easy-to-operate, burns that do not require hospitalization can be treated immediately in the emergency room, where the doctor can spray the substance on the patient's burn," said Danny Kruchevsky, MD at Rambam's Department of Plastic Surgery. "Patients can therefore be discharged sooner to recover at home and return to the hospital for any necessary follow-up examinations."

Spincare, leveraging Electrospun Healing Fiber (EHF) technology, is the first CE-cleared portable electrospinning wound treatment device. While Rambam Health Care Campus is the first hospital in Israel to formally adopt the system for its trauma department, the device is also being used in clinics throughout Europe.

"We are delighted to support Rambam Hospital in its effort to provide patients with the most advanced solutions for wound healing and skin regeneration and look forward to helping other facilities bring this important technology to their patients and physicians as well," said Dr. Chen Barak, Chief Executive Officer of Nanomedic. "We are rapidly expanding across Europe and planning to enter the US market later this year as well."

About Nanomedic

Nanomedic Technologies Ltd. is a medical therapeutics company focused on transforming wound care both within and outside of hospital settings. Specializing in research, development and distribution of its proprietary Electrospun Healing Fiber (EHF) technology, Nanomedic is advancing the standard of care and helping improve wound care across the healthcare continuum. Nanomedic's flagship product, the Spincare System, is the first and only CE-cleared commercialized portable electrospinning wound treatment device on the market. Founded in 2018, Nanomedic Technologies Ltd. is headquartered in Lod, Israel.

For more information, visit https://nanomedic.com.

Follow Nanomedic on LinkedIn: Nanomedic Technologies.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1431410/Nanomedic_Rambam_Hospital.jpg

Media Contact:

Ellie Hanson

Finn Partners

[email protected]

+972-54-467-6980

Nanomedic Contact:

Gary Sagiv

[email protected]

+972-54-562-7083

SOURCE Nanomedic Technologies

Related Links

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A reckless 30-year-old criminal with close links to the Hutch crime faction has been hospitalised after suffering severe injuries after he was accused of stealing a boys bicycle.

Christopher Coakley suffered a broken jaw and a broken arm as well as other injuries when he was assaulted with another bicycle in the incident which unfolded in the Sheriff Street area of the capital shortly after 9pm last night.

The chief suspect for the incident is a 34-year-old convicted killer from the locality who previously served a jail sentence for manslaughter after he killed a young man during a brawl.

Senior sources say it is suspected that the killer got involved in the brutal assault after Coakley came under suspicion for stealing a bike from a boy who is known to him.

There is no doubt that if Coakley did rob that bike, he robbed it from the wrong fella, a source pointed out.

Sunday nights brutal incident is being investigated by Store Street gardai who have not yet made any arrests in the case but are following a definite line of enquiry.

It comes as reckless convicted criminal Coakley is being investigated for being on a crime spree in the days before he was brutally assaulted on Sunday night.

His associates are being investigated in the shocking case of a doctor aged in his 30s who was stabbed at Seville Place in the north inner city at 4.30pm on Thursday as he made his way home from work in Mountjoy Prison.

The doctor was stabbed a number of times in the neck, stomach and arms as he tried to defend himself as his attacker attempted to steal his e-scooter.

No arrests have yet been made in this case but gardai are confident of solving that and Sunday nights brutal attack on Coakley.

Things are tense in the area at the moment and gardai will be hopeful of speaking to Coakley, the source explained.

Coakley, who has over 100 previous convictions, previously served a six-year term for an armed robbery imposed in December 2015, and a three-year term for a hijacking in 2012 imposed in July 2015.

That case heard that he hijacked the car of a woman with her child on the back seat.

Another case in which he received no extra jail time heard that he hijacked a nurse's car during a drug-induced psychosis in the early hours of the morning near Temple Street Hospital and then reversed the car "like a mad man" with no lights on in April 2015.

He has spent more than half his life in institutions after leaving school following national school and has been a heroin addict since he was 13.

After Coakley was released from jail last year where he had been serving time for these crimes, he was the subject of another brutal assault and this time it was from his former associates in the Hutch mob.

On that occasion, Coakley was targeted after he posed for photos in Mountjoy Prison with members of the rival Kinahan cartel, the mob who were responsible for murdering his cousin Derek Coakley Hutch in January, 2018, in a case that has yet to be solved.
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A former scout leader who has been jailed for abusing 10 boys has called for gardai to find the rest of his "many victims" so that he can "put an end to all of this".

David O'Brien (69) of Benburb Street, Dublin, has been sentenced twice at the Circuit Criminal Court, first in 2015 for sexually abusing six boys and then in 2018 for indecent assault on another four. All the offences occurred in the 1970s and early 1980s.

At the Court of Appeal a lawyer acting for O'Brien today revealed that the former scout leader is currently before the Circuit Court in relation to another offence.

He said his client doesn't remember the names of his "many victims" and is therefore unable to make use of a provision in the Criminal Justice Act that allows a person to admit guilt to offences not before the court to have them taken into account in sentencing.

Counsel added that it is virtually impossible for O'Brien to do anything but it is within the power of gardai to find the members of the scouting unit to "hopefully put an end to all of this".

At a previous hearing it emerged that O'Brien told gardai in 2016 that he abused 30 to 40 boys during his time as a scout leader.

In reply Mr Justice John Edwards said it was not a matter for the three-judge Court of Appeal.

The court had earlier heard an appeal by O'Brien against the severity of the eight-year sentence with 16 months suspended imposed on him in 2018.

Padraig Dwyer SC for O'Brien said that the sentencing judge, Judge Karen O'Connor, failed to take into account that O'Brien had already served a sentence for offences that were all committed around the same time. The two sentences together totalled 14 years with three years suspended.

Mr Dwyer submitted that 11 years in prison is not a typical sentence for the type of institutional sexual offending his client had pleaded guilty to.

He also pointed out that his client had come forward to gardai as far back as 1997 and admitted to abusing boys in his care but for reasons unknown no prosecution was ever brought.

He further submitted that his client is not accused of any offence since he left the scouts in the early 1980s.

Mr Justice Edwards, presiding, with Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy and Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, dismissed the appeal in an oral judgment.

Mr Justice Edwards said the fact there were 10 victims with the aggravating factor of a serious breach of trust by a person in authority "could easily have justified a cumulative net sentence of 11 years".

He said the sentencing judge was fully alive to the fact O'Brien had already served a sentence and took that into account.

Dismissing the appeal, he said the court found no error in principle and added: "On the contrary, our impression is that the sentence was constructed conscientiously and with great care."

At the sentence hearing in 2018 Judge O'Connor said the offending was aggravated by the breach of trustand by three of the victims being warned not to tell anyone. She commented that the victims were deprived the innocence of childhood.

She said the case was mitigated by O'Brien's guilty plea, his remorse and the fact he co-operated with gardai. Judge O'Connor sentenced O'Brien to two years imprisonment on a single count of indecent assault relating to each of the four complainants. She ordered that these sentences would run consecutively to each other for an effective operating sentence of eight years imprisonment.

She suspended the final 18 months of this eight years sentence on condition that O'Brien come under the supervision of the Probation Service for 12 months post release.

In his victim impact statement, which he read out in court, the first victim said that the abuse changed his life forever.

The man said that he came from a working class family and his father gave him money to buy a uniform, rucksack and sleeping bag for his first camping trip.

He said that he never went back to the scouts after being assaulted on the trip and his father went ballistic due to the apparent waste of money. He did not tell his father about the abuse until shortly before his death.

After he finished giving his statement, Judge O'Connor told the man that it was very courageous of him to read out his statement in court and that his father would have been proud of him.

The second victim, in a written statement, said he suffered trust issues as a result of what happened to him. He said he knew what had happened to him was not right but could not speak up about it.

The third victim declined to make a victim impact statement.



The fourth victim said he developed an acid reflux due to stress, which required multiple surgeries. He attributed the condition to abuse he suffered on the scouting trip.
CASERTA, FEB 2 - A man of Ghanaian origin was arrested near Caserta north of Naples Tuesday on suspicion of murdering his Liberian partner's two-year-old son, local sources said. The woman took the toddler to hospital Tuesday morning, where he died of injuries allegedly inflicted by her partner. The man was arrested at Castel Volturno. (ANSA).
New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not announced any change in the income tax slab rates for the salaried class in the Union Budget 2021, though some of her announcement on direct taxation will have an impact on individual tax payers.

FM Sitharaman, presenting the Union Budget 2021 has announced some relevant changes for salaried taxpayers ranging from tax on PF to pre-filled income tax forms to further extension of Sops for affordable Housing sector.

Interest accruing on Employees Provident Fund on employee contribution: Interest accruing on Employees Provident Fund on employee contribution exceeding Rs 2,50,000 per annum from April 1, 2021 will be taxable.

Leave Travel Concession: Tax exemption extended to cash allowances received in lieu of LTC, which can be opted by the employee and available for FY 2020-21 only. Lower of one third of the specified expenditure or Rs 36,000 per person exempt. Specified expenditure means expenditure on goods and services which are subject to a GST rate of 12% and above and have been purchased or procured from GST registered vendors or service providers during the period commencing from October 12, 2020 to March 31, 2021.

Pre-filling of returns: Pre-filled returns are available on the Income Tax portal which had details like salary, TDS, tax payments etc. prefilled, in addition to the earlier details and to further ease the tax compliance FM announced that details like capital gains from listed securities, dividend income and interest from banks, post offices etc. will also be prefilled.

Sops for affordable Housing extended till March 2022: The Finance Minister proposed to extend the eligibility period for claim of additional deduction for interest of Rs. 1.5 lakh paid for loan taken for purchase of an affordable house to 31st March, 2022. In order to increase the supply of affordable houses, she also announced extension of eligibility period for claiming tax holiday for affordable housing projects by one more year to 31st March, 2022. For promoting supply of affordable rental housing for the migrant workers, the Minister announced a new tax exemption for the notified affordable rental housing projects.

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Delayed deposit of Employees share of PF contribution to be added to the taxable income of the Employer: FM proposed to add employees share of PF contribution as an income to employers, provided the employers do not deposit the said amount in time.

Commenting on taxable income of employer if there is delayed deposit of Employees share of PF contribution Dharmendra Chachan, Partner at Chachan and Lath LLP said, "This will ensure that there is no loss of interest for the employees on such contribution and increase surety of getting their PF money."
The Ministry of Public Health reports that one in seven people has a disability worldwide, with many experiencing negative attitudes and difficulty accessing public spaces. However, many people also experience challenges when accessing websites, whether this is for work or for leisure. The European Disability forum reports that those unable to connect online may feel isolated and are at risk of mental health issues. As a result, there is an increasing need to make the internet more accessible to individuals with disabilities in the coming year. How can this be achieved?

Home Learning

Saint Martin University Disability Support Service offers course materials in alternative formats and extra time for examinations where needed. Many students will be using the internet to home learn, but some may face challenges. Extra Images and text may create a visual clutter for those with dyslexia, and people with visual impairments may find some web learning content incompatible with screen readers. Educators can check with the European Electronic Communications Code to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access.

Home Working

Homeworking can make businesses more inclusive; that is, they can enrich their workforce with people who may not be able to travel into the office. Providing home working equipment such as laptops, adjustable chairs, and online assistive technology can help those with a disability immensely. However, the communication software used by businesses should also be accessible to those who have specific needs. For example, some virtual meeting applications do not provide sign language-related features, and video lag hinders lip reading. Unfortunately, this may be an issue that has to be handled within businesses by use of the chat features until the software has addressed this.

Home Shopping

Home shopping has become a necessity for many people, with the online grocery shopping market expected to grow by 66% by 2023. The need for isolation among those most vulnerable has likely increased the demand, but many face challenges when online shopping. Many websites are not set up for those who can only use the keyboard - for example, people who have arthritis (making mouse use painful); those who do not have use of their hands at all; or those who have low vision. Setting up an e-commerce site that is accessible to those who have these needs will likely improve the quality of life for many consumers in 2021.

It appears that many websites and software developers have much to learn in the area of accessibility, but consultation with local authorities and EU guidelines can help. Employing those from a wide range of backgrounds can help produce ideas that will make the internet more accessible as we move further into the year.

Credits: Bri Cooper.
With grocery store workers, public transit employees, educators and first responders now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, some employers are encouraging their employees to get vaccinated by offering cash stipends or hourly paid time.

Trader Joes, Aldis, Dollar General, Chobani and Darden Restaurants, which owns the Olive Garden restaurants in the region, are offering two to six hours of paid time for their employees to go get vaccinated. Instacart is offering a $25 cash stipend.

It is just the right thing to do. The happier and safer and healthier your employees are, the more productive they are, said Peter McGuinness, the president and COO of Chobani. I want everyone who wants to get vaccinated to get vaccinated. Whatever that will cost that will cost. This is not a math exercise for us.

Others like Walmart are not offering any incentives, but are working to bring the vaccine to the workplace to make it easier for employees to obtain. The in-house tactic is most highly recommended as the most efficient way to influence the largest number of employees to get vaccinated, according to policy experts and business leaders. But at this stage in the vaccine rollout, it is not the most practical one. Offering paid time off is also important especially for essential workers who often face more barriers during a pandemic to getting their medical needs met.

New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes introduced a bill which, if passed, will grant any public worker four hours of paid leave to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

We want to make sure everyone is getting vaccinated as quickly as possible, especially public essential workers who cant otherwise stay home or dont have as much time to do this on their own time, Gounardes said.

Edmund Stazyk, a public administration and policy professor at the University of Albany whose research focuses on employee motivation, is skeptical that a small monetary stipend will prompt anyone to get a vaccine who wasn't already planning to do so.

What is likely to end up happening is that people who are going to get a vaccine will still go get a vaccine and collect their $25 dollars, but they would have gotten the vaccine even without [the incentive] Stazyk said. If you are really skeptical about these vaccines it would take a lot to fundamentally change behavior. I doubt even $300 would do it.

Many of the largest employers in the Capital Region  like Regeneron, Hannaford, St. Peters Health are not incentivizing workers. Employers who reported that they don't have vaccine incentives pointed to not knowing when it would be feasible for their employees to get vaccinated.

Most employers realize encouraging their workforces to get vaccinated is the right thing to do, said Mark Eagan, president and CEO of the Capital Region Chamber.

I think some employers, because it is early on, they dont know what role yet they will be able to play. It is really too soon, even for the Chamber, to launch any coordinated campaign, but when the time comes, whatever we can do to encourage or to give examples of what employers can do, we will do that.

Some like the health insurance agency CDPHP noted that as the vaccine becomes more widely available they may consider incentivizing employees like they do with the flu shot. CDPHP offers $10 in life points that can be redeemed at dozens of national retailers as part of their voluntary wellness program, said Ali Skinner, a spokeswoman for the agency.

At the moment the EEOC, the federal agency that enforces workplace anti-discrimination laws, does not have any regulations that expressly prevent or prohibit incentives, said Joyce Walker-Jones, senior attorney-advisor at the EEOC. However, a program that offers a vaccine to an employee must be voluntary and an employer can not punish the employee for not participating in the program, Walker-Jones said.

Above all, employees need to feel that their employer is incentivizing them in good faith and that the effort is legitimate and supported by all managers and leaders, Stazyk said. This is particularly important for employers whose employees include minority populations who might be more skeptical of getting the vaccine.

An organizations leaders could say we are supporting this vaccine program, but if your individual manager is not, as an employee you are likely to pick up on those cues or think there might be some disincentives, Stazyk said.

No matter how well an organization promotes getting vaccinated and communicates an incentive program, the unprecedented times will make it hard to know what really worked. The pressures of the pandemic like having to educate a child at home or take care of a sick loved one full-time are so profound and different than ever experienced before, Stazyk said.

Therefore, it is very hard to know if the core tenants of these types of incentive systems will really matter, Stazyk said.
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The Enugu State Government has said it was worried over the apathy by residents of the state to go for COVID-19 test, despite the government setting up sample collection centres in all the 17 local government areas in the state.

The State Commissioner for Health, Ikechukwu Obi, said this during a press briefing on Monday in Enugu.

Mr Obi said the number of samples tested at various sample collection centres would help the government to plan for intervention.

The government is not happy with the response it is getting from the sample (collection) centres because people are not coming out for tests.

We need correct figures and data from the sample centres to work effectively.

When you get tested, you provide valuable evidence and data for us to work with.

The data for public health help in our responses, it is about the number of cases that determine the action the ministry of health, the government and stakeholders should take, Mr Obi said.

The commissioner said international partners and agencies use figures and data to support disease control.

According to him, one of the best ways to prevent the pandemic is making use of non-pharmaceutical measures, which include all the COVID-19 safety rules  hand washing, wearing of face mask, social distancing and using sanitisers, among others.

It is important for us to wear masks so as to avoid getting the virus, as well as saving others, he said.

Mr Obi warned against people going to take vaccines from unauthorised places or persons in the state.

He added all vaccinators must have due authorisation and authority paper from the ministry.

The commissioner thanked all health workers in the ministry for their tireless effort in fighting against the pandemic in the state.

He called on residents to stop spreading negative rumour against COVID-19 vaccine.

People with negative conspiracy theories on the anticipated Federal Government COVID-19 vaccine should stop the rumour.

We are here as a ministry to safeguard the health of our people and lead them to the right path that would continue to guarantee their health and well-being, he said.

(NAN)
GfK Builds New Media Measure for Singapore

GfK has been commissioned by Asian media group Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) to develop a new measure of the state's local media consumption, combining survey data with digitally collected data in a single-source approach.



SPH's core business is in the publishing of newspapers, magazines and books, both print and digital, but it also owns radio stations and outdoor media; a property portfolio including shopping malls in Singapore and Australia; a number of developments of Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in the UK and Germany; and nursing homes in Singapore and Japan.



The new GfK study promises 'a refreshed review of how the audience consumes media', in a world of proliferating media platforms, products and formats. The firm will run two main surveys per year, in which 3,000 representative individuals will provide their print and radio habits - combining this with its own and SPH's digital data. GfK's analysis will identify media engagement and examine media consumption, with deep dives into SPH's print, digital media and radio platforms. The first integrated report is scheduled for release in June this year.



SPH Chief Commercial Officer Ignatius Low (pictured right) says the decades-old incumbent measurement survey has been adapted to reflect changes in media, but 'remains at its heart a largely quantitative measure of audience size'. Low points out that 'the SPH news audience still pays for its news at a time online news sources are mostly free and subscribers that pay to secure a regular supply of credible news are likely to be decision-makers in the office or the home'. He adds: 'The new GfK study will shed more light on media engagement and other qualitative aspects of SPH audience and show how they interact with our content across our various platforms'.



GfK Commercial Director Lee Risk (pictured left) says the new approach 'goes beyond previous services with increased delivery, a single-source and digital approach focused on all consumption and measuring both what people read and listen to but also why they consume these media'.



GfK has its APAC headquarters in Singapore, and operates radio audience research in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia as well as in a number of European countries. It has also conducted the integrated TV ratings service in Singapore since 2016.



Web sites: www.gfk.com and www.sph.com.sg .




She recently split with her businessman beau, Seyed Payam Mirtorabi, following a whirlwind romance.

But Shanina Shaik has already found love again.

The 29-year-old former Victoria's Secret model revealed she was in a new relationship during an Instagram Q&A on Tuesday.

New love! Victoria's Secret model Shanina Shaik has revealed she is in a new relationship with a mystery man after splitting with her businessman beau Seyed Payam Mirtorabi

The Aussie beauty, who is currently living in London during the coronavirus pandemic, did, however, keep her the identity of her new man under wraps.

She posted a picture of his arm around her, but hid his face in the photograph.

Shanina hinted that she had split with Seyed in August last year in a cryptic Instagram post.

Revelation: The 29-year-old former Victoria's Secret model revealed she was in a new relationship during an Instagram Q&A on Tuesday. The Aussie beauty, who is currently living in London during the coronavirus pandemic, did, however, keep her the identity of her new man under wraps

'What I have learned this week nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know,' she wrote at the time.

The couple were last spotted in the South of France only two weeks before, sharing a kiss while at the exclusive, Hotel du Cap Eden.

She had debuted the romance in December 2019.

Over: Shanina hinted that she had split with her ex Seyed (pictured) in August last year in a cryptic Instagram post

The relationship had come after she had announced her split from husband DJ Ruckus in June 2019, after just one year of marriage.

She recently admitted that despite her first marriage ending in divorce, she is open to tying the knot again.

She also revealed during Instagram Q&A last month that she's keen to start a family and wants two children.

First marriage: Shanina announced her split from husband DJ Ruckus in June 2019, after just one year of marriage

'What do you think about marriage?' a fan asked Shanina.

'I think marriage can be a beautiful union!' she replied, sharing a picture of herself from her wedding day.

'I'm not against it... and I would love to get married again one day.'

Open to it: She recently admitted that despite her first marriage ending in divorce, she is open to tying the knot again

She was also asked about her family plans.

'I love children,' Shanina said. 'I'm very maternal. I hope to have two kids... one fine day.'

Shanina, who walked the runway for Victoria's Secret five times between 2011 and 2018, announced her split from DJ Ruckus in June last year, after a year of marriage.

Dreams: She was also asked about her family plans. 'I love children,' Shanina said. 'I'm very maternal. I hope to have two kids... one fine day'

In October 2019, Shanina told The Herald Sun she'd leaned on her family and friends for support in the aftermath of the separation.

'Of course no one decides when they get married to get divorced,' she said.

'It was a difficult time but I've had amazing friends and family supporting me throughout the process and I have a great relationship with my ex-partner and that's important as well.

'We're all on great terms and we want one another to be happy.'
GPS tracking anklets for juveniles on bail and strengthening youth bail laws are being proposed by the Queensland Police Union president to deal with the states youth crime.

We would turn 80 per cent of kids around through the youth justice process and that is [with] caution and other measures, president Ian Leavers told ABC Brisbane.

Police union president Ian Leavers has created a list of suggestions on how to improve Queenslands youth crime problem.

That still works but for these other offenders: no longer a slap on the wrist, it needs to be dealt with.

His proposal was triggered by calls for change following the death of Alexandra Hills couple Kate Leadbetter and Matthew Field and their unborn child, who were struck by a 4WD allegedly stolen and driven by an intoxicated teenager.
NEW identity cards (IDs) for petty traders that contain extra information to enable them to access services from various institutions, including banks are ready for issuance with effect from Monday.

Likewise, the government has warned large-scale business operators of manipulating petty traders to evade tax.

Minister of State in the President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Government) Selemani Jafo told reporters that the IDs were available for collection at all regional and district commissioner offices countrywide.

He also said that districts councils would be in charge of the issuance of the IDs and had to ensure the exercise ran smoothly. The IDs lifespan will be one year - January to December 21, whereas eligible petty traders will each pay 20,000/- to acquire them.

However, he said the government was aware of a trend by some large-scale business operators, who manipulated the petty traders by supplying them with their products for sale to evade tax.

"The government has decided to enhance a tax collection system and the issuance of the IDs is one area that we are focusing on. Therefore, district executive directors must distribute them to eligible beneficiaries," he stressed.

The issuance of IDs to petty traders has yielded positive results, enabling some of them to expand businesses and have access to loans.

Beneficiaries are small individual traders, who are not required to maintain audited accounts and medium individual traders required to maintain audited accounts.

Small-scale traders are taxed by a presumptive tax system, whereas medium-scale traders are taxed based on the annual profit determined from audited accounts.

Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Taxpayer Services and Education Director Richard Kayombo said recently that some of the traders had recorded an increase in sales and business growth in addition to conducting their businesses peacefully.

"For those who sell products worth 11,000/- and above a day qualify for a taxpayer identification number (TIN) to make it easier for them to get business licences and loans from several financial institutions," Mr Kayombo said.

He noted previously that most of them never flourished or grew simply because they were operating clandestinely, but after obtaining IDs, they could do business openly without fear of being charged levies or their goods being confiscated by militiamen.

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In December 2018, President John Magufuli handled out 670,000 IDs to entrepreneurs whose business capital did not exceed 4m/- and also presented 25,000 IDs to each regional commissioner for further distribution.

Before the exercise, President Magufuli said Tanzania's tax base was very poor compared to neighbouring countries like Kenya since only 2.2 million people in the country with a population of 55 million people were taxpayers.

Mr Kayombo said 1.59 million IDs worth 31.86bn/- had been distributed from June 2018 to June 2020. The 20,000/- worth ID cards which were renewable annually were given to traders running a business with a maximum profit turnaround of 4m/- each.

Those considered as small-scale entrepreneurs include traders, who earn not more than 2m/- a year and less than 12,000/- per day. CRDB Bank launched a pad for interest free mobile phone digital micro-loans for micro entrepreneurs with a petty trader ID.

Loans issued to an individual or a group starts as low as 10,000/- to 500,000/- payable in three months and are collateral free through Sim banking.

According to TRA, registered petty traders are those whose details are recorded in their respective municipal databases.

Entrepreneurs with IDs are required to display them to enable them to do business without any problem and will be recognised by TRA officials wherever they are.
The on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the key accused in the 2002 kidnap and murder case of American journalist Daniel Pearl, from his death cell and be shifted to a government rest house.

On Tuesday, a three-judge bench of the apex court resumed the hearing of an appeal filed by the Sindh government against the Sindh High Court's (SHC) December 24, 2020, order to release Sheikh, The Express Tribune reported.

The bench further directed to keep Sheikh at a better location in the jail in an open room for the two days before he is to be transferred to the rest house, where security will be provided.

The British-born Sheikh will however, not be allowed to use a smartphone or the internet.

The bench also allowed his family to stay and visit at the rest house from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Before the apex court rejected the provincial government's appeal, the Sindh Advocate General (AG) told the bench that Sheikh's accomplices could attack the rest house and help him escape.

Tuesday's development comes after the Supreme Court on January 28 decided to acquit and release the four accused persons in the case, including Sheikh.

The US has heavily criticised the decision, saying that it was prepared to prosecute Sheikh in Washington.

The 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal was doing research on religious extremism in Karachi when he was abducted in January 2002.

A graphic video showing his beheading was delivered to the US consulate a month later.

--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.)
Mayor London Breed brought together San Franciscos top law enforcement officials Tuesday in an attempt to reassure residents that the city is committed to keeping the public safe in the wake of violent street attacks that left two elderly men dead.

The brazen, broad-daylight attacks that led to the deaths of Jack Palladino and Vicha Ratanapakdee in recent days have rattled a city already reeling from a sharp rise in incidents of gunfire and a surge of break-ins to residential and commercial properties.

Alongside Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin at a virtual news conference, Breed said city officials are working to hold those suspected of the killings accountable.

When I think about whats happening in San Francisco  the violent crime, the domestic violence, the attacks on our seniors, the gun violence  it reminds me of when I was growing up in public housing in San Francisco, Breed said. The mayor was raised by her grandmother in a neighborhood riven by violence.

I love my community, but there were so many days where I lived in fear because of the violence, not knowing if a stray bullet might hit me or people that I love and care about, she said.

As the mayor made her comments, police were investigating a triple shooting in the Bayview district that left a 40-year-old man dead and two others injured. The shooting happened at 9:44 a.m. at 3rd and Palou streets. Police did not release details about the circumstances.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

San Francisco police said Ratanapakdee, 84, was attacked Thursday morning in the citys Anza Vista neighborhood. A man ran up and shoved him to the pavement before he and a woman fled, police reported. When officers arrived at the scene, they found Ratanapakdee lying on the sidewalk and administered first aid before transporting him to a hospital. He died Saturday, police said.

Breed, evidently stirred by widely circulated video that captured the incident, said it was a heartbreaking thing to watch, and the fact that another human being would do that to an elderly senior in our community is one of the most disgusting things Ive ever seen.

Police on Saturday arrested Daly City residents Antoine Watson, 19, and Maylasia Goo, 20, on suspicion of the killing of Ratanapakdee. Boudin said prosecutors would be charging Watson with murder and elder abuse causing death. Boudin said that while the case is still under active investigation, there is no evidence Goo played any role in Ratanapakdees death.

I was almost in tears when I heard about this, said longtime Anza Vista resident Gary Gan, who lives a half dozen doors north on Fortuna Avenue from where Ratanapakdee was shoved. Its too close to home. Its horrible. And theyre targeting older people. Like me.

Gan said he still feels safe walking in the neighborhood because he takes his husky, Zulu, with him. Hes not sure whether hed go walking without the dog.

You can only do so much to defend yourself, he said. On the same morning of the deadly attack, Gan said there was a break-in in the garage of his neighbor across the street.

They stole three bicycles, he said. Its happening in our community more and more. It makes you angry. Its not petty crime. Nothing petty about it.

Palladino, a storied private detective, was attacked outside his home Sunday by two men allegedly trying to rob him. He was rushed to UCSF, where he never regained consciousness and was taken off life support on Sunday. Officials said Palladino, 76, succumbed to a traumatic brain injury Monday.

The two suspects, Lawrence Thomas and Tyjone Flournoy, were originally charged with attempted murder, but Boudin said the District Attorneys Office expects to to charge the men with murder following Palladinos death, pending a report from the Medical Examiners office. Boudin said he requested that both men be held without bail.

A sharp rise in shootings in San Francisco  incidents where guns were fired  over the first half of 2020 has also spurred concerns about rising violence. The city recorded 48 killings in 2020, up from 41 a year earlier. But the number of recorded shots fired in the first seven months of 2020 jumped by 32% compared to the same period a year prior.

Across San Francisco, burglaries rose by 47% in 2020 compared with a year prior. In response, some residents have formed neighborhood coalitions to help one another safeguard their properties.

Despite the recent, high-profile incidents, including the deaths of Palladino and Ratanapakdee, San Francisco is and will continue to be a safe city, Boudin said. You have all of our commitments that we will defend the safety of our communities, no matter what it takes. It was especially important that we help elderly San Franciscans feel safe, and be safe, he said.

The death of Ratanapakdee, a native of Thailand, inflamed concerns among the Asian American Pacific Islander population, particularly about keeping elderly and vulnerable members of the community safe. The AAPI community was still reeling from a rash of incidents in 2019 and 2020 where elderly individuals were victimized, including one in which an elderly man was taunted as he was beaten  an incident captured on video.

As an organization with members who serve tens of thousands of elders in this city, we cant help but feel like Mr. Ratanapakdee could have been any one of us  a father, a grandfather, an immigrant, said Rob Chua, a representative from the API Council, an advocacy group. These acts of violence toward our community are approaching a fever pitch and they have not subsided.

Scott, the citys police chief, said that while the investigation into Ratanapakdees death is ongoing, there was no evidence suggesting it was a hate crime.

Anybody who thinks that they can attack elderly individuals in our city, you need to think twice, Scott said. We will bring every resource to bear to bring you to account, and we wont rest until thats done.

Chronicle staff writers

Steve Rubenstein and

Michael Cabanatuan contributed to this report.

Vanessa Arredondo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vanessa.arredondo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @v_anana
Hong Kong: Crime rises in 2020

The number of crimes reported in Hong Kong in 2020 was 63,232 cases, an increase of 6.8% compared with 2019.

Releasing crime figures for 2020 today, Police said the increase in overall crimes was mainly due to the rise in over 7,000 deception cases.

In addition, blackmail and crime types that were detected by proactive police action, such as serious drug, serious gambling and organised vice offences, recorded relatively significant increases ranging from about 20% to 55%.

The rise was mainly attributable to the fact that the violence and law-breaking situation arising from incidents relating to the extradition amendment bill have eased since last year, and Police have deployed resources flexibly and mounted intelligence-led operations to combat such offences proactively.

Police also noted that the types of crimes relating to the amendment bill incidents such as arson, criminal damage and offences against public order, also registered decreases ranging from about 10% to 70%, indicating that the law and order situation has gradually resumed stable.

Looking forward, the force will advance the work on safeguarding national security and focus on fighting and preventing crime.

It will also enhance community engagement and spare no effort in assisting the Governments anti-epidemic work.

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

The government has eliminated subsidy on poor man's fuel kerosene through small fortnightly price increases and the fuel sold through the public distribution system (PDS) is now priced at market rates.

The Union Budget for 2021-22 makes no provision for payment of subsidy on kerosene in the fiscal year beginning April, according to budget documents tabled in Parliament.

In the current fiscal ending March 31, the was Rs 2,677.32 crore, down from Rs 4,058 crore in the previous financial year, the documents showed.

Industry sources said the government in 2016 allowed state-owned fuel retailers to raise the price of kerosene by 25 paise a litre every fortnight to cut the subsidy burden.

The subsidy was eliminated by February last year. In all prices were hiked by Rs 23.8 per litre in under four years - From Rs 15.02 a litre in Mumbai to Rs 36.12 a litre.

Subsequent to that, the PDS rates have revised monthly in tandem with the benchmark international oil prices, they said.

So the rates in May 2020 fell to Rs 13.96 a litre but have more than doubled since then to Rs 30.12 a litre. In the last price increase in January, rates went up by Rs 3.87 a litre.

The price hikes have almost gone unnoticed and barely evoked any comments from the opposition, which has only voiced concern over rise in petrol and diesel prices.

Kerosene is used by ration card holders for cooking and lighting purposes. But its consumption has dropped with 8 crore free LPG connections being provided to poor households.

Kerosene consumption showed a de-growth of 28.4 per cent in April-December 2020, according to the Oil Ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

States of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab have been declared kerosene free while Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have voluntarily surrendered a certain quantity of PDS kerosene allocation, according to PPAC.

While petrol price was deregulated in June 2010, diesel rates were freed in October 2014. This meant end of subsidy on the two fuels.

Subsidy continued only on cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene.

On LPG, the budget has provided for a subsidy of Rs 12,480 crore in 2021-22, down from Rs 25,520.79 crore in the current fiscal and Rs 35,605 crore in the previous year.

(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 United Arab Emirates ambassador in Washington is expressing confidence that a proposed sale by the United States of 50 F-35 jets fighter jets to his country will be fulfilled by the administration of President Joe Biden.

Everything is still proceeding while undergoing a review at the same time, UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef al-Otaiba said during an online event hosted by the Washington Institute on Monday, adding, I am confident it will end up in the right place.

The administration of former President Donald Trump offered a $23 billion sale of 50 F-35s, 18 MQ-9B drones and precision-guided munitions to the UAE after its leaders signed an agreement normalizing ties with Israel last year.

But Biden has vowed to stop US support to the Saudi-led military coalition, which includes the UAE, due to its role in the devastating civil war in Yemen. The State Department initiated a review of the F-35 sale to Abu Dhabi and a proposed guided munitions sale to Riyadh last week.

Since the freeze, Otaiba has publicly highlighted the benefits the deal could offer the United States amid Washingtons strategic shift, which includes reducing focus in the Middle East.

The sale, he said last week, allows the UAE to maintain a strong deterrent to aggression and enables the UAE to take on more of the regional burden for collective security, freeing US assets for other global challenges, a long-time bipartisan US priority.

Biden administration officials say they are looking to build on the Trump administrations so-called Abraham Accords, an initiative to convince Arab leaders to recognize Israel as a step toward building regional defense cooperation to shore up regional deterrence to Irans influence and ambitions.

The United States is meanwhile looking to increase its focus on countering China by concentrating its resources on East Asia.

If you are going to have less of a presence and less involvement in the Middle East, you cant at the same time take tools away from your partners who are expected to do more, Otaiba said Monday.

If the deal is completed, the UAE would become the first Arab country to join the exclusive F-35 club and the second in the region after Israel.

Despite objection to the sale from rights groups over the UAEs involvement in conflicts in Libya and Yemen and concern among congressional Democrats about whether the UAE could protect the F-35s highly sensitive technology from US adversaries Russia and China, lawmakers failed to block the deal late last year.

In 2019, the State Department and Pentagon sent investigators to the UAE and Saudi Arabia to investigate how American-made, mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles ended up in the hands of separatists and al-Qaeda-linked groups in Yemen.

The UAE also lost a Russian-made Pantsir mobile air defense battery in Libya when forces aligned with the United Nations-backed Tripoli government captured al-Watiya air base last May. The US military then quietly took possession of the Russian system and flew it to Germany.
As the 2021 Spring Festival approaches, Anhui Gujing Distillery, a subsidiary of the Anhui-based baijiu maker Gujing Group, is set to fuel the festival air by joining hands with the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala. The CCTV Spring Festival Gala has been held for 37 consecutive years, and has become an indispensable accompaniment to Chinese New Year's Eve dinners. Anhui Gujing Distillery has teamed up with the gala since 2016, with its notable baijiu brandGujinggong Baijiu. This year will mark the sixth consecutive cooperation between the two sides. Recently, the company released its advertising campaign tailor-made for the 2021 Spring Festival Gala. "Seeing the special film, you will realize that Spring Festival is right around the corner," one customer said. For many of its customers, drinking Gujinggong Baijiu while watching the Spring Festival Gala has become a new custom, according to the company. The company has launched a new baijiu product for the 2021 Spring Festival. Named after Niansanshi, referring to the Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve, the new product aims to further promote the integration of Chinese baijiu with the Chinese festival, according to Anhui Gujing Distillery. Featuring a new flavor that differs from any traditional scent type, such as mild, strong and sauce fragrances, the new product adopts innovative production techniques after a decade of the company's scientific experiments. Spring Festival contains the cohesion and unity of the Chinese nation, and the Spring Festival Gala reflects not only the yearning and belonging of the Chinese people globally, but also the identification of Chinese cultural values and national identity. The company said it wishes to propose a toast to the Chinese people all over the world through the gala, demonstrating its confidence in both operating its business and undertaking corporate social responsibility. In 2020, Anhui Gujing Distillery contributed to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and the flooding in some southern parts of China. The company donated more than 60 million yuan ($9.26 million) to combat the pandemic last year. In recent years, Anhui Gujing Distillery has committed to upgrading its brand and promoting the internationalization of its market. In December 2020, Liang Jinhui, president of Gujing Group, said that as the unit on duty of the international promotion committee of baijiu culture at the China Alcoholic Drinks Association in 2021, Gujing will do its best to fulfill its responsibilities and obligations, and "Gujing has the confidence, determination and perseverance to join hands with various outstanding liquor companies to stride forward on internationalization".


Protesters chant slogans during a rally against Beijing's new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. (Dale de la Rey/AFP via Getty Images)

Ottawa Must Create Asylum Pathways For Hongkongers Fleeing Persecution, Committee Hears

Canadas current immigration and refugee policies need to include a dedicated pathway for Hongkongers fleeing persecution, a parliamentary committee heard on Feb. 1.

This is not a conventional humanitarian crisis, so conventional solutions are not effective for those who need our help, said Cherie Wong, the executive director of pro-democracy group Alliance Canada Hong Kong.

Wong was testifying before the Standing Committee of Citizenship and Immigration about the plight of Hongkongers under Beijings draconian national security law, which took effect on June 30, 2020.



Wong said Canadas existing immigration programs aimed at supporting Hongkongers may appeal to upper-middle-class migrants, but are not accessible for most Hongkongers and fail to consider the realities of everyday people in the city.

The majority of Hongkongers do not qualify for travel exemptions under the current border restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and many pro-democracy activists have had their travel documents confiscated and exit visas denied by authorities, she said.



(L-R) Pro-democracy activists Eddie Chu, Gwyneth Ho, Leung Hoi-ching, Tiffany Yuen, Joshua Wong, Lester Shum, and Agnes Chow campaign during primary elections in Hong Kong on July 12, 2020. (Issac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images)

To make matters worse, none of the activists profiles that her team has access to has a score high enough to qualify for a program that relies on a points system based on the applicants socioeconomic status, age, or professional history. Moreover, most immigration programs require a police check and biometric data, Wong said.

The Hong Kong Police Force has carried out arbitrary mass arrests and many [activists have] a criminal record, Wong added. A police check can also be used to inform the authorities of the activists intention to leave the city. Even if Hongkongers qualify, they do not have the capacity, resources or luxury to be stuck in bureaucratic processes and these pathways.

In early January, Hong Kong authorities arrested 53 pro-democracy activists, former lawmakers, and politicians for their involvement in a primary election held by the pan-democracy camp ahead of the Legislative Council (LegCo) elections in September 2020, which were eventually postponed by Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, citing a local surge in COVID-19 infection cases.

They were accused of violating the security law on charges of subversion of state power as the primary elections sought to select the most promising pro-democracy candidates to run for legislative office. The pro-democracy camp was hoping to win a majority, or more than 35 seats in LegCo.

Rev. Brian Wong from the Mustard Seeds Hong Kong Concern Group told MPs that Canada needs to come up with an inclusive policy to accommodate the needs of a broad spectrum of Hong Kong people at the risk of political persecution.

The immigration measures for Hongkongers should be prioritized based on their level of risk of political persecution, he said.

He also urged the Canadian government to pay attention to Beijings implementation of the Nationality Law, which experts have said will threaten the rights and safety of 300,000 Canadian citizens living in Hong Kong.

China does not recognize dual citizenship under its Nationality Law, and it is now looking to enforce this regulation in Hong Kong. Chinese nationals who hold Canadian passports are considered Chinese citizens, and are not entitled to Canadian consular protection unless they declare a change of nationality. But once making the change, they risk losing the right to live and work in the territory.

A British National Overseas passport (BNO) and a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China passport are seen in Hong Kong, on Jan. 29, 2021. (Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

Dominic Tse, a senior pastor from the North York Community Church in Ontario, said Canada must act fast to offer a lifeboat to Hongkongers, similar to actions taken by its British ally. The British government announced last July that Hongkongers with British National (Overseas) status are allowed to live, study, and work in the UK for five years and eventually apply for citizenship.



On Jan. 29, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the Chinese regime would no longer recognize the BN(O) passport as a travel document and proof of identity starting from Jan. 31, and reserves the right to take further measures.

In response to Beijings retaliation, the Britishs Foreign Office announced that BN(O) status holders can apply for a UK visa without a BN(O) passport.

Tse warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could close all escape routes from Hong Kong at any time. Before that happens, it is imperative to quickly admit as many Hongkongers as possible into Canadaonce the pandemic is over and travelling restrictions lifted. With work permits, they could work and continue their life in Canada.

Wong concurred with Tses suggestion, adding that Hongkongers working in Canada could gain Canadian experience, which would help in future employment and contribute to Canadian society. But he cautioned the committee that adequate background checks must be conducted to guard against infiltration by CCP agents.

The three witnesses urged the Canadian government to take a strong stand against the CCP.

China is an international bully. They arent retaliating against Canada for what Canada is doing. But they are actively going after every liberal democratic country on this planet to challenge us, to challenge our standard and whether or not we will stand up for human rights, Wong said.

We need to be prepared to accept some of the costs that we will incur from standing up to China. But Canada is not alone on this international stage. We have allies across the Five Eyes, in democratic allies that we have, and we can stand together and accept some of these consequences.

Wong recommended a cohesive strategy for the committee to consider implementing in order to settle Hongkongers in Canada:

Create a dedicated pathway for those fleeing persecution, allowing Hongkongers to apply for travel documents directly from overseas with the ability to waive border restrictions; Modify existing private sponsorship or family reunification measures to enable extended family members and activists to resettle in Canada; Modernize and expedite the Canadian immigration and asylum system to address the backlog of new and impending claims; A clear strategic communications plan to combat misinformation and promote various existing pathways for Hongkongers; Release a plan to support Canadians and their families in Hong Kong, restore citizenship and permanent residency status and expedite PR pathways for extended family members.

With reporting by Lily Zhou and Andrew Chen.


Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 05:34:33|Editor: huaxia

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BUENOS AIRES, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Argentina has decided to keep its borders closed to non-resident foreigners until Feb. 28, in a bid to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Government Gazette announced on Monday.

The measure carried the signatures of Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers Santiago Cafiero and the ministers of the interior and of health, Eduardo de Pedro and Gines Gonzalez Garcia.

The decision to extend the ban follows "a new report (from the Health Ministry) that recommends the maintenance and adoption of new preventive measures to protect public health," state news agency Telam said.

As a result, direct flights to and from the United Kingdom remain suspended, given the new variant of COVID-19 detected there.

The National Directorate for Migration (DNM) will help determine what steps nationals, foreign residents and non-resident foreigners who are direct relatives of Argentine citizens or residents, need to take to enter the country.

According to the gazette, the DNM and the Health Ministry "will ... determine the flight schedules and the number of passengers who will gradually and daily enter the country, especially via flights from the United States, Mexico, Europe and Brazil, keeping the frequency of passenger flights to the first three destinations reduced by 30 percent and to Brazil by 50 percent."

The decision recommends nationals and foreign residents, especially those over 60 years of age or belonging to high-risk groups, "defer their trips abroad," unless essential.

Argentina registered its first case of COVID-19 on March 3 and confirmed 1,927,239 cases of infection and 47,974 deaths as of Sunday. Enditem
Dublin, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Molecular Diagnostics for Infectious Disease - Market Forecasts, Strategies and Trends - By Syndrome and by Country - With Multiplex and Point of Care Market Analysis, Executive Guides and Customization 2020 to 2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Multiplex testing threatens existing infectious disease practice. The microbiology lab may disappear.



The Molecular Diagnostics - Infectious Disease sector of the clinical diagnostics industry is poised for record growth.



A market that just keeps on growing. In spite of the steady decline of disease prevalence, the diagnostic sector keeps growing. Find out why in the informative report. And find out about the exciting developments in multiplex assays which threaten to change diagnosis and treatment while limiting the threat of anti microbial drug resistance.

Infectious disease testing directly benefits from the explosion in biotechnology, especially genomics.

Exciting technical developments especially in the seesaw between sequencing and immunoassay, hold the promise of a dynamic, growing and evolving world market that holds the promise of diagnostics taking the lead in infectious disease eradication.

The report includes detailed breakouts for 15 Countries and 4 Regions. A detailed breakout for any country in the world is available to purchasers of the report.

Learn all about it in this new report. A range of dynamic trends are pushing market growth and company valuations.

Trends like:

Multiplex testing

Emerging economies and global prosperity

Biotechnology advances in genetics

Pathogen evolution

Climate change

Globalization

The rise of rapid testing

Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction and Market Definition

1.1 What is Molecular Diagnostics

1.2 The Diagnostics Revolution

1.3 Market Definition

1.3.1 Volumes

1.3.2 Prices

1.3.3 Revenue Market Size

1.4 Methodology

1.4.1 Authors

1.4.2 Sources

1.5 U.S. Medical Market and Clinical Laboratory Testing - Perspective

1.5.1 U.S. Medicare Expenditures for Clinical Testing



2. The Infectious Diseases - Market Analysis by Disease

2.1 HIV - Human Immunodeficiency Virus (AIDS)

2.1.1 Virology

2.1.1.1 Classification

2.1.1.2 Structure and genome

2.1.1.3 Tropism

2.1.1.4 Replication cycle

2.1.1.5 Genetic variability

2.1.2 Diagnosis

2.1.3 Testing

2.1.3.1 Antibody tests

2.1.3.2 Point of Care Tests (POCT)

2.1.3.3 Antigen Tests

2.1.3.4 Nucleic acid-based tests (NAT)

2.1.3.5 Other tests used in HIV treatment

2.1.4 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.2 HBV - Hepatitis B

2.2.1 Virology

2.2.1.1 Genome

2.2.1.2 Pathogenesis

2.2.1.3 Hepatitis B virus replication

2.2.1.4 Serotypes and genotypes

2.2.2 Mechanisms

2.2.3 Diagnosis

2.2.4 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.3 HCV - Hepatitis C

2.3.1 Taxonomy

2.3.2 Structure

2.3.2.2 Genome

2.3.3 Molecular biology

2.3.4 Replication

2.3.5 Genotypes

2.3.5.1 Clinical importance

2.3.6 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.4 HPV - Human papillomavirus

2.4.1 Virology

2.4.1.1 E6/E7 proteins

2.4.1.2 Role in cancer

2.4.1.3 E2 research

2.4.1.4 Latency period

2.4.1.5 Clearance

2.4.2 Diagnosis

2.4.2.1 Cervical testing

2.4.2.2 Oral testing

2.4.2.3 Testing men

2.4.2.4 Other testing

2.4.3 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.5 Influenza

2.5.1 Virology

2.5.1.1 Types of virus

2.5.1.2 Influenzavirus A

2.5.1.3 Influenzavirus B

2.5.1.4 Influenzavirus C

2.5.1.5 Structure, properties, and subtype nomenclature

2.5.1.6 Replication

2.5.2 Testing

2.5.2.1 Advantages/Disadvantages of Molecular Assays

2.5.3 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.6 CTGC - Chlamydia/Gonorhea

2.6.1 Gonorrhea

2.6.1.1 Diagnosis

2.6.1.2 Screening

2.6.2 Chlamydia

2.6.2.1 Diagnosis

2.6.2.2 Screening

2.6.3 Testing

2.6.3.1 Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs).

2.6.3.2 Performance of NAAT Tests

2.6.4 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.7 Tuberculosis

2.7.1 Mycobacteria

2.7.2 Diagnosis

2.7.2.1 Active tuberculosis

2.7.2.2 Latent tuberculosis

2.7.3 Epidemiology

2.7.4 Molecular Diagnostic Tests

2.7.5 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.8 MRSA - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

2.8.1 Diagnosis

2.8.2 FDA Approved Molecular Tests

2.8.3 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.9 VRE - Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus

2.9.1 FDA Approved MDx Tests for VRE

2.9.2 Market Opportunity Analysis

2.10 Blood Screening

2.10.1 Collection and Testing

2.10.2 FDA Approved Multiplex Assays

2.10.3 Market Opportunity Analysis



3. Industry Overview

3.1 Industry Participants

3.1.1 IVD Supplier

3.1.2 Independent lab specialized/esoteric

3.1.3 Independent lab national/regional

3.1.4 Independent lab analytical

3.1.5 Public National/regional lab

3.1.6 Hospital lab

3.1.7 Physician lab

3.1.8 Audit body

3.2 The Clinical Laboratory Market Segments

3.2.1 Traditional Market Segmentation

3.2.2 Laboratory Focus and Segmentation

3.3 Industry Structure

3.3.1 Hospital Testing Share

3.3.2 Economies of Scale

3.3.2.1 Hospital vs. Central Lab

3.3.3 Physician Office Lab's

3.3.4 Physician's and POCT

3.4 Profiles of Key MDx Companies

Abbott Diagnostics

Accelerate Diagnostics

Ador Diagnostics

Akonni Biosystems

Alveo Technologies

Applied BioCode

Atlas Genetics

Aus Diagnostics

BD Diagnostics

Beckman Coulter

Biocartis

bioMerieux

Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH

Cepheid

Chembio

Curetis

DiagenodeDiagnostics

DiaSorin

Eiken Chemical

Fusion Genomics

Genedrive

GenePOC Diagnostics

GenMark Dx

Grifols

Hologic

Illumina

Inflammatix

Janssen Diagnostics

Karius

Lexagene

Luminex

Mbio Diagnostics

Meridian Bioscience

Mesa Biotech

Mobidiag

Nanomix

Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Panagene

Primerdesign

Prominex

Qiagen

Quantumdx

Quidel

Roche Molecular Diagnostics

Seegene

Siemens Healthineers

T2 Biosystems

Thermo Fisher

Veramarx

XCR Diagnostics

4. Market Trends

4.1 Factors Driving Growth

4.1.1 New Genotypes Creating New Markets

4.1.2 Aging Population a Boon for All Diagnostics

4.1.3 Developing World Driving ID Dx Growth

4.1.4 Point of Care - Why Centralization is Losing Steam

4.1.5 Self Testing

4.1.6 The Need for Speed

4.2 Factors Limiting Growth

4.2.1 Lower Costs

4.2.2 Infectious Disease is Declining

4.2.3 Wellness Hurts

4.2.4 Economic Growth improves Living Standards

4.3 Instrumentation and Automation

4.3.1 Instruments Key to Market Share

4.3.2 The Shrinking Machine.

4.3.2 Multiplex, Point of Care and The Speed Factor

4.4 Diagnostic Technology Development

4.4.1 The Sepsis Testing Market - A New Direction?

4.4.2 POCT/Self Testing as a Disruptive Force

4.4.3 The Genetics Play - One Test for All Known Infections

4.4.4 Antibiotic Resistance Genes - Simplifying Diagnostics



5. Molecular Dx - Infectious Disease Recent Developments

Recent Developments- Importance and How to Use This Section

Importance of These Developments

How to Use This Section

Fusion Genomics to Assess NGS-Based Respiratory Tract Infection Assay

New Genomic Tests Diagnose Deadly Infections Faster

Biotia Raises $2.4M Seed Round

STDs resurge in US

Ares Genetics signs R&D agreement with leading global IVD corporation

Cell-Free DNA Used for Infectious Disease Testing

One BioMed Raises $5M

FDA grants Qiagen clearance for syndromic testing system

iCubate, Wondfo Biotech Form Chinese JV to Develop MDx Assays

Researchers Launch CRISPR Dx Firm Sherlock Biosciences

Israel's BATM to Invest up to $30M in Ador Diagnostics

Superbug Test from Mobidiag Gets CE Mark

Akonni Biosystems Submits Multiplex Diagnostics System to FDA

Mesa Biotech RSV Test Wins CE Mark

Karius Test to Be Available in Brazil

Panagene's STD kit gains Approval

Startup Prominex Raises $4M in Series A

GenePOC's Investment Validated by Medicare Decision

GenePOC launches its GenePOC CDiff test in Canada

NYU researchers adapt HIV test to Zika virus

GA-EMS receives diagnostic device contract

Biocartis & Immunexpress Sign Partnership for Sepsis

PerkinElmer to Acquire Euroimmun for $1.3B

Alveo Closes Financing to Create Accessible Diagnostics Devices

Siemens Healthineers completes takeover of Fast Track Diagnostics

Sekisui Diagnostics Enters Strategic Alliance with Mesa Biotech Inc

Chembio and FIND to Develop Point-of-Care Multiplex Test

Locus Biosciences and IDbyDNA Partner to Develop Companion Diagnostic Test

Alere bags FDA nod for rapid flu diagnostic

FDA approves tests of tick-borne disease to protect blood supply

Qiagen Trichomonas Assay Gets CE Mark

Vela Diagnostics HSV Test Gets FDA Clearance

QIAGEN enters into an agreement to acquire STAT-Dx

Bruker to Acquire Majority Stake in Infectious Disease MDx Firm Hain

Applied BioCode's Syndromic Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel Approved by the FDA

Ares Genetics to develop AI diagnostic test for infectious diseases

FDA Considers Guidelines for NGS-Based Infectious Disease Diagnostics

6. The Global Market for Molecular Diagnostics Infectious Disease

6.1 Global Market Overview by Country

6.2 Global Market by Syndrome-Overview



7. Global Molecular Diagnostics Infectious Disease Markets-By Syndrome

7.1 Respiratory

7.2 Gastrointestinal

7.3 Blood

7.4 Meningitis/Encephalitis

7.5 Sexually Transmitted Disease

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/jsiamy

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
When discussing great educators in Alabama's history, no conversation is complete without bringing in William Hooper Councill.

Born into slavery on July 12, 1849, on the Councill Plantation in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Councill and his family became quite resilient.

William Hooper Councill (center) with his family. (Courtesy: Alabama A&M University) William Hooper Councill (center) with his family. (Courtesy: Alabama A&M University)

He and his mother were solder to a Huntsville attorney David Humphrey in 1857. But when the Union soldiers occupied Chattanooga, Tennesse, they were able to escape to the North.

After the war, in 1865, Councill returned to north Alabama and learned at a Quaker-established school for freedmen in Stevenson, Alabama, for three years.

With that as his only formal education, Councill went onto found the Lincoln School in Huntsville, that would educate black children.

"He partnered with Reuben Jones, who was one of the first legislators in Alabama. It was that connection where Councill realized that he had to have deep political roots in order to establish a sustainable education for freedmen in Alabama," said Eddie Davis Jr., a biographer of Councill.

Davis spent several years researching and writing his story about Councill, "William Hooper Councill: The Greatest Negro the Race Ever Produced."

He also graduated from another one of the schools that Councill helped establish in Madison County, the Colored Normal School at Huntsville, which was created in part through a legislative act on December 9, 1873. It would become a land-grant institutuion in 1891 and eventually come to be called "Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University."

Davis said part of Councill's goal in helping to foster education for Black children and young adults is that he wanted them to be able to translate their learned skills into a livelihood.

"He wanted to make sure that they were still sufficient in agriculture. He wanted to make sure they were still sufficient in the mechanical arts, things they had mastered on the slave plantation, now freed, he wanted to make sure they could also monetize on the master craft that they had already developed in years past," Davis said.

The A&M campus underwent a big change in 2020. It completed the demolition of Prentice Hall, a building that stood nearby where Councill and his wife are laid to rest. It its place, they are erecting a large memorial courtyard for Councill that will include an eternal flame.

School officials said that project is scheduled to be completed on September 21, 2021.

Councill was also extremely accomplished beyond his work in education.

In 1893, he had the opportunity to speak at the Colombian World Expo in Chicago, which catapulted him onto the global stage. He spoke in several countries for prominent audiences and expressed that with education and opportunity, Black people could become valuable members of society.

He pointed back to the successes seen in Alabama.

Councill was also active in the political realm. A few years after arriving in Huntsville as a free man, he became active in the Republican Party and was elected to serve as the Assistant Enrolling Clerk in the Alabama Legislature from 1872 to 1874.

He would eventually switch his party affiliation to the Democratic Party. Councill believed that he would not succeed as a Black Republican in the post-Reconstruction era.

In a speech in Tuscumbia, he said to Black residents who wanted to stay with the Republican Party "The republican party will grow tired of you... and like the bat who was disowned by the beasts and not recognized by the birds, you will find favor with neither democrats or republicans."

Councill also served as the founder and editor of the Huntsville Herald from 1877 to 1884.

He eventually died in 1909 at the age of 61.
Amid a slow build of reckoning on race and racism within the past decade, Houston area colleges have emphasized the need for African and African American Studies programs. Universities such as Rice and Prairie View A&M have made strides to establish a program like that of the University of Houston, which hosts the states oldest Black Studies program  and one of only two in the state.

Now, academics across Houston are looking to pool their resources and talent, creating an academic organization committed to elevating and expanding African and African American Studies scholarship across their campuses.

Just ahead of Black History Month, Prairie View A&M, Rice, Texas Southern University and UH announced the creation of the Southeastern Texas African and African American Studies Consortium  a partnership that will aim to expand such studies during a time of growing interest in the field.

It allows us to come together and amplify the work were all doing so were not working in silos anymore, said Melanye Price, endowed professor of political science at Prairie View A&M, in a written statement. And I think what that will allow us to do is to bring really interesting programs, conferences, lectures and all of those things to our community  both our campus communities and the Greater Houston community.

Anthony Pinn, founding director of Rices recently established Center for African and African American Studies, said the consortium will capitalize on the untapped potential of the four colleges and allow for more dialogue across the campuses.

If you go The Southeastern Texas African and African American Studies Consortium, composed of Prairie View A&M University, Rice University, Texas Southern University, will host its first virtual event "The History of African and African American Studies in Southeastern Texas" on Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m. To register for the event, visit Rice's website. See More Collapse

It seemed to be things that we could do together for African American Studies that we could not do isolated at our individual campuses, said Pinn, who also serves as Rices Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities.

The group has already discussed creating a curriculum that cuts across campuses, teaching students what is happening at other institutions and giving additional perspectives on program material, Pinn said.

Shared benefits

Price, who is also director of Prairie View A&Ms planned Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice, said the pairing of predominantly white institutions such as UH and Rice with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) such as Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern can be beneficial all around. Students at mostly white colleges can increase their experience or knowledge on multicultural and racial issues, and students at HBCUs, which have been historically active in fights against inequality, can have more exposure to other campuses, Price said.

Securing grants that will enable the universities to generate research projects bigger than any one institution is also a major priority, Pinn said.

The timing is also crucial, Pinn notes. With social justice and race issues at the forefront of a national policy debate following events such as the police killing of George Floyd last year, its a unique historical moment, he says.

People are realizing the need to address issues of race in ways that are creative and productive, Pinn said. For us at Rice, its only now that we have an institutional development that really allows us to participate in this conversation.

Rice two years ago launched its Center for African and African American Studies, which has since expanded its African Studies minor and developed an introduction course and a new graduate certificate program.

UH recently lost its director James L. Conyers, who died on Jan. 25. Conyers began teaching at UH in 2002, and served as one of the founding members of the consortium, which he described as an exciting opportunity to share research, pedagogy and institutional developments, according to a university release.

On HoustonChronicle.com: James Conyers, director of UH's African American Studies program, dies at 59

Being around smart people who are doing good work  thats always a perk, Conyers said.

Virtual talk planned

Prairie View A&M, one of two public historically Black universities in Texas, has taken steps toward establishing its own African American Studies program  first launching its African American Studies Initiatives with a speaker series in 2019. The program, which is backed by a $1 million grant, will be housed in the future Simmons Center, which has received at least $1 million in personal donations and will launch virtually Feb. 10.

It will allow us to participate in national and international conversations on the development of African and African American Studies, Pinn added.

The consortium will hold its first event  a virtual panel discussion on The History of African and African American Studies in Southeastern Texas  on Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m.

Panelists will include Nicole Waligora-Davis, associate professor of English at Rice, UH historian Gerald Horne, and Cary Wintz, a distinguished professor of history at Texas Southern who also directs TSUs masters program in history. Wintz recently returned to TSU from a yearlong stint with the Air Force Academy, where he taught the academys first African American history class.

Pinn said the consortium will likely convene and host events virtually or remotely for the remainder of the semester and summer, with hopes of offering a blend of in-person and online events in the fall  all of which will depend on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. But the schools have taken some positives from educating students during the pandemic.

One thing we learned is that we can harness a much larger audience with virtual or online services, Pinn said. Geography is not an issue and we dont want to lose that, but we also recognize theres a deep value of allowing people to come together. Our goal is to blend the two.

brittany.britto@chron.com
A southern Mississippi sheriff's deputy has been shot and killed after he responded to a call of an attempted suicide, authorities said.

Lt. Michael Boutte was gunned down as he tried to get out of his vehicle on Monday near a home in Hancock County, Sheriff Ricky Adam told the Sun Herald of Biloxi.

The suspect then allegedly fired at a second responding deputy who returned fire and wounded the suspect.

Sheriff's deputy Lt. Michael Boutte has been shot and killed after he responded to a call of an attempted suicide

The sheriff's deputy was gunned down as he tried to get out of his vehicle on Monday near a home on Caesar Necasise Road in Hancock County

Boutte was airlifted to a New Orleans hospital and later pronounced dead. The unidentified suspect was hospitalized.

Authorities did not immediately elaborate on the suspect's injuries or provide details about what prompted the call of an attempted suicide.

Boutte was an Air Force veteran who had been in law enforcement for eight years, according to a sheriff's department news release.

'The Hancock County Sheriff's Office suffered a huge loss today,' Adam said in the statement.

'Mike was an incredible deputy and more so a fine person. He was a mentor to our younger deputies, and I know he will be greatly missed by his peers.

Many tributes to the awarded officer have been offered online after the 'tragic loss' of the 'fallen hero'

'You never saw him without a smile or a positive attitude. I can't begin to describe the heartbreak we are all experiencing right now.'

Boutte served in Operation Desert Storm during his time in the Air Force. He later attended the US Marine Corps Police Academy and served in the reserves in New Orleans, authorities said.

Boutte was 'awarded the Life Saving Medal for saving a child's life' and also was credited with spearheading a National Crime Night Out initiative, among other accomplishments, the sheriff's department said.

On Monday night, Gov. Tate Reeves expressed his condolences over Boutte's death.

'His fearless service demonstrates his courage and the outpouring of love demonstrates just how great this loss is,' Reeves tweeted. 'He is a fallen hero.'
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A Missouri GOP state lawmaker has been indicted on federal fraud charges after she allegedly sold nearly $200,000 worth of fake stem-cell treatments she claimed could cure various illnesses, including COVID-19, at her medical clinics.

The 20-count grand jury indictment unsealed Monday also accuses 63-year-old Rep. Tricia Derges, a Republican from Nixa, of illegally providing prescription drugs to clients and making false statements to federal agents investigating the case.

Derges was released on her own recognizance after making an initial court appearance during which she pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

State Rep. Tricia Derges, 63, a Republican from Nixa, Missouri, has been indicted on 20 counts of fraud in a stem cell treatment scheme, illegally providing prescriptions and lying to the FBI

Derges listens to a patient's chest at the Lift Up Springfield medical clinic in 2018. The newly elected state lawmaker is a not a doctor but is licensed as an assistant physician

Her defense attorney, Stacie Bilyeu, said that after the U.S. attorneys office held a news conference to announce the indictment, Derges' social media was flooded with comments by people who assumed by what they heard that she was guilty, which she called unfortunate.

'These are just allegations, these are just charges,' Bilyeu said. 'Dr. Derges hasnt been convicted of a thing and she is presumed innocent until, and if, she is  and that simply hasnt happened yet.'

Derges took to Facebook on Monday and sounded a defiant note, writing in a post in part: 'Lies and twisted words mean nothing. Truth and righteousness mean everything. I can stand before God and know that He will smile at me.'

Prosecutors say Derges administered amniotic fluid, which she falsely claimed contained stem cells, as a treatment to patients who suffered from various diseases, including erectile dysfunction, Lyme disease and urinary incontinence.

Derges, who was elected in November 2020 and sworn into office last month, also allegedly wrote in an April Facebook post: 'This amazing treatment stands to provide a potential cure for COVID-19 patients that is safe and natural,' according to the indictment.

She made similar claims around that time during an interview on OzarksFirst, which raised suspicions in the medical community and ultimately led to a federal investigation.

U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison speaks at a news conference on Monday regarding the charges filed against Derges, who he claimed abused 'her privileged positions to enrich herself'

A National Institutes of Health panel recommends against stem cells use for COVID-19 outside of clinical trials.

US Attorney Tim Garrison said in a news release that Derges abused 'her privileged position to enrich herself' through deception.

'The indictment alleges she lied to her patients and she lied to federal agents,' Garrison said. 'As an elected official and a health care provider, she deserves to be held to a high standard. This grand jury indictment exposes her deception and holds her accountable for her actions.'

Derges is not a physician but is licensed as an assistant physician, according to the U.S. attorneys office. She operates three Ozark Valley Medical Clinic sites in Springfield, Ozark and Branson.

'Derges vowed to do no harm as a health care professional and was elected to serve the people, not deceive them,' said Timothy Langan, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Kansas City. 'She used her position for personal gain and damaged the publics trust.'

Federal investigators launched a probe into Derges after she made a series of claims on social media and in interviews, arguing that amniotic fluid with stem cells could cure COVID-19

Derges operates three Ozark Valley Medical Clinics that offer, among other things, 'regenerative' medical services

The federal indictment charges Derges with eight counts of wire fraud related to five specific victims who were among those who lost a total of $190,000 in the bogus stem-cell treatment fraud scheme, which lasted from December 2018 to May 2020.

During this time, Derges allegedly obtained amniotic fluid, which she marketed under the name Regenerative Biologics, from the University of Utah.

The indictment cites an August 2019 seminar in which Derges told her audience that the amniotic fluid she used in her stem cell practice was a 'stem cell shot' and that it contained 'mesenchymal stem cells.'

In fact, however, the amniotic fluid Derges administered to her patients did not contain mesenchymal stem cells, or any other stem cells, according to prosecutors.

'Derges administered amniotic fluid, which she falsely claimed contained stem cells, to patients who suffered from, among other things, tissue damage, kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Lyme disease, erectile dysfunction, and urinary incontinence,' the indictment states.

The University of Utah sold its amniotic fluid to Derges for anywhere between $244 and $438, and she charged her patients $950 to $1,450. In total, Dergess patients were said to have paid her approximately $191,815 for amniotic fluid that did not contain stem cells.

Derges, who is 2018 received a Humanitarian of the Year award from a local organization, also faces 10 counts of illegally distributing Oxycodone and Adderall over the internet without valid prescriptions.

Derges, who was named Humanitarian of the Year in 2018, is also suspected of illegally writing prescriptions for Oxycodone and Adderall. She pleaded not guilty to call charges

The indictment alleges that Derges, without conducting in-person medical evaluations of the patients, wrote electronic prescriptions for the drugs and sent them to pharmacies over the internet.

The married mom and grandmother is also accused to lying to FBI agents that the amniotic fluid she used in her practice contained stem sells, and denying using the fluid to treat urinary incontinence.

Derges obtained her medical degree from the Caribbean Medical University of Curacao in May 2014 but was not accepted into a post-graduate residency program. She was licensed as an assistant physician by the state of Missouri in 2017.
[February 02, 2021] Fintech Firm Curve Adds Former President of Samsung's Global Strategy Group Cuong Do to Its Board

Curve, the London-based fintech that combines multiple cards and accounts into one smart card and even smarter app, has named Cuong Do as an independent Board director. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005671/en/ Fintech Firm Curve Adds Former President of Samsung's (News - Alert) Global Strategy Group Cuong Do to Its Board (Photo: Business Wire) Cuong brings a rich legacy of global experience to Curve. He was most recently President of the Samsung Global Strategy Group, where he was responsible for developing and executing enterprise-wide strategy and building out Samsung's business plans. Before Samsung, Cuong was the Chief Strategy Officer for Merck, TE Connectivity (News - Alert) and Lenovo. He was also a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he helped to construct its healthcare, high tech and corporate finance practices. In addition to a career in global-level, best-in-class strategy, Cuong has founded three biotech companies. One of them, drug discovery firm Callidus Biopharma, was acquired by Amicus Therapeutics. He is also an active philanthropist, starting a foundation for helping autistic teens thrive in adulthood, and another for helping parents and clinicians working with autistic children. His appointment comes as Curve pursues ambitious growth plans, which include its widely-anticipated launch in the US and a deeper European footprint. Curve is also progressing with the development of Curve Credit, a new product proposition for the UK and US. A trail-blazing 2021 product roadmap is already underway. Customers will enjoy greater control over their finances with more Open Banking integration, ecommerce innovation and Curve Credit for business. Curve recently announced a successful Series C investment of $95m, led by IDC (News - Alert) Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital and Vulcan Capital, with participation from OneMain Financial (NYSE: OMF) and Novum Capital. The UK-headquartered fintech has more than 2 million customers, is live in 31 markets, and has had more than 2.4bn spent on the platform since it launched to customers in 2018.



Shachar Bialick, Founder and CEO of Curve, said: "We are delighted to welcome Cuong to Curve's Board. His extensive experience across key industries, most recently with Samsung, is an ideal fit for us. As the financial environment continues to evolve globally, and as Curve continues to grow, Cuong's expertise in developing and implementing global business strategy will help position and support Curve to deliver long-term value as it matures. Cuong will work closely with myself and senior management to ensure we continue to build our innovative platform, and meticulously execute our strategy." Speaking on his appointment Cuong said: "In my career leading strategy for some of the world's most forward-thinking firms, I've had the pleasure of engaging with many high-growth companies. What stood out to me about Curve, and why I didn't hesitate to say yes when Shachar asked me to join the Board, was the team's impressive execution so far, and Curve's vision of providing consumers with a central point of access to their finances. The ability to bring together your finances will bring comfort, convenience and control to consumers in the UK, Europe and the US. I'm excited about Curve's long-term vision, and very much look forward to helping the company achieve its extraordinary potential."

-ENDS- About Curve Curve is a fintech which allows customers to consolidate multiple cards into one smart card and an even smarter app. The unique Curve card allows customers to supercharge their legacy banks to the 21st century without leaving their bank. Curve is live in 31 markets across the UK and Europe, and plans to launch in the US later in 2021. Curve offers a host of benefits to its customers, including instant notifications and categorisation across their spend, the capacity to earn instant 1% cashback at selected retailers such as Amazon, Uber, Netflix and Tesco, the ability to fit their cards into Google Pay, Apple (News - Alert) Pay and Samsung Pay, even if their banks don't support this, and Curve's patented Time Travel functionality, which enables customers to swap spend to a different card in the app for up to 90 days after the purchase was made. Curve supports Mastercard and Visa networks. The Curve Card and e-money, related to cards issued in the UK, is issued by Curve OS Limited, authorised in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority to issue electronic money (firm reference number 900926). The Curve Card and e-money, related to cards issued in the EEA, is issued by Curve Europe UAB, authorised in Lithuania by the Bank of Lithuania (electronic money institution license No. 73 issued on 22 of October, 2020). For more information go to www.curve.com, like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @imaginecurve and Instagram @imaginecurve. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005671/en/

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Silver Sands Resources Corp. (CSE: SAND) (OTCQB: SSRSF) is pleased to announce the 2,700m Phase II drill program at the Virginia Silver Project, located in Santa Cruz province, Argentina has commenced. This program will follow up and build on the successful 2,831m Phase I drill program completed in November.

Expanding Conceptual Open Pit Structures

A key aspect of Phase II drilling is to continue the expansion of the 2016 mineral resource by drilling gaps and extensions of the principal veins comprising the resource. The 2016 resource contains 11.9 million indicated ounces of silver at 310 g/t and 3.1 million inferred ounces of silver at 207 g/t within seven conceptual open pits. Previous drilling intercepted mineralization at depths from surface to 150 metres.

Source: Amended Technical Report, Virginia Project, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina -- Initial Silver Mineral Resource Estimate, with an effective date of Oct. 24, 2014, and a report date of Feb. 29, 2016.

Phase I drilling expanded the lateral extent of mineralization of two of those structures, the Ely Central and Martina SW with significant intercepts that included:

Ely Central EC-DDH-01 - 233.54 g/t Ag over 9.25m, from 92.75m to 102m Including 441.71 g/t Ag over 4.5m, from 94.55m to 99.05m

Martina SW MSE-DDH-01 - 198.51 g/t Ag over 33.50 from, 79.5m to 113m Including 316.82 g/t Ag over 17.7m, from 85.8m to 103.5m



Reported interval lengths are down hole widths and not true widths

"We were very pleased to encounter significant intersections in 2 of our first 6 holes as we looked at increasing the lateral extent of mineralization at both Ely Central and Martina SW. The Phase II program is further targeting both of these zones, along with some of the other principal veins and new targets generated from the Phase I trenching and IP programs," commented Silver Sands' CEO, Keith Anderson.

"We are fully funded to carry out this program and also to significantly expand this program based on favourable results," he continued. "Speaking of results, we expect to release the results from the remaining 12 holes from Phase I in the near future once the final geochemical results have been received and QA/QC has been fully completed and approved," he concluded.

Adding New Conceptual Open Pit Structures

The Phase II drilling program will continue testing gaps and extensions of the principal veins at the Martina NW and SW, Magi, Julia South Extension, Naty Extension and Ely Central targets. In addition, holes will follow-up and drill down dip and adjacent to some of the better intersections returned during the Phase I program at both Martina and Ely. The aim of 2021 exploration remains extending known mineralization and testing new targets to increase the 2016 Virginia Resource with an updated resource estimate targeted for late H2 2021.







Figure 1: Virginia - Plan map with the Phase II drill collar location

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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6972/73406_275f9b666444bbed_001full.jpg

https://www.silversandscorp.com/images/news/SAND_20210202-Fig1.jpg

Expanding Drilling to Target the Santa Rita Gold/Silver Target

Previous exploration undertaken on the property in the northern section of the property, 15 kilometres northwest of the Virginia Silver Project defined an open ended, northwest oriented, 3,500m long by 500m wide trend of epithermal Ag mineralization in breccias veins from centimetres to 10m wide and an associated sheeted quartz vein stockwork (see Mirasol October 7, 2005 News Release). Three holes from this Phase will be directed at the Santa Rita target to test a recent re-interpretation of previous exploration and drilling data suggests drilling was targeted too high up in the system and targeted too far in the footwall of the trend to reach the favourable hanging wall side of the trend.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by R. Tim Henneberry, P.Geo. (BC) a Qualified Person under NI 43-101 and a Director of Silver Sands.

Silver Sands Resources Announces DTC Eligibility Approval

The Company is pleased to confirm that the Company's common shares have been approved for eligibility by the Depository Trust Company (DTC) thus allowing for cost effective electronic settlement and clearing of its common shares in the United States under its OTCQB symbol, SSRSF.

DTC, the world's largest post-trade financial services company is a subsidiary of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a U.S. company that manages the electronic clearing and settlement of publicly traded companies. Securities that are eligible to be electronically cleared and settled through DTC are considered to be "DTC eligible.

Silver Sands' CEO, Keith Anderson, commented: "Obtaining DTC eligibility is an important milestone for the Company. DTC eligibility ensures a seamless process of trading and settlement in order to enhance liquidity of the Company's common shares in the United States. With Silver Sand's shares now traded electronically, existing shareholders benefit from greater liquidity over time and execution speeds, while new investors are far less restricted from participating in the Company's stock."

Detour Lake Property Termination

The Company has decided not to proceed with its Detour Lake Property option agreement and has advised the Optionor of the termination.

About Silver Sands Resources Corp.

Silver Sands is a well-financed, Canada-based company engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets in mining-friendly jurisdictions. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious and base metal properties of merit. Its key asset is the Virginia silver project, located in the mining-friendly Santa Cruz state of Argentina.

For further information, please contact:

Keith Anderson

Chief Executive Officer, Director (604) 786-7774

Forward Looking Statements: The information in this news release contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry and to policies linked to pandemics, social and environmental related matters. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, mineral tenure issues and mineral recovery processes. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Silver Sands disclaims any obligations to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73406
Every year, World Wetlands Day is celebrated on 2 February to raise awareness about this important kind of ecosystem found on our planet

Every year, World Wetlands Day is celebrated on 2 February to raise awareness about this important kind of ecosystem found on our planet. Environmentalists and governments also organise events to call for action regarding the protection of the wetlands.

World Wetlands Day 2021: What are wetlands

Wetlands can be found in areas where water bodies meet the land. These landforms remain saturated in water and release water very slowly, thereby making them reservoirs to tackle extreme weather conditions like droughts and floods. These ecosystems are home to a variety of aquatic life forms, and they serve as a crucial source of freshwater, a rare commodity on Earth.

World Wetlands Day 2021: Theme

This years theme is Wetlands and Water. According to UNESCO, the particular theme has been adopted to highlight the importance of wetlands as a source of freshwater and encourage action to restore them and stop their loss.

World Wetlands Day 2021: Awareness and celebration

The official Twitter handle of the United Nations wrote how water and wetlands are inseparably connected and are also vital to human life and the health of our planet. The tweet noted that humans continue to use more freshwater than nature can replenish, thereby leaving devastating consequences for wetlands.

Water & wetlands are inseparably connected and are vital to human life & the health of our planet. Yet, humans use more freshwater than nature can replenish, with devastating consequences for wetlands. Tuesday is #WorldWetlandsDay. https://t.co/NSOHlrt3FA via @UN_Water pic.twitter.com/1GAj88nUyA  United Nations (@UN) February 1, 2021

The Twitter account of UN India also said wetlands contain the greater part of the freshwater content found on Earth.

Less than 1% of water on Earth is usable freshwater and most of it is stored in wetlands. On Tuesday's #WorldWetlandsDay, find out more about the importance of wetlands for life: https://t.co/G5OvUkVmUPpic.twitter.com/z4WstHdBRj  United Nations in India (@UNinIndia) February 2, 2021

Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar said that India is one of the few countries in the world to have a wetland inventory system.
Omnispace will power critical global 5G and IoT communications directly from its satellites in space to mobile devices around the world.

This funding enables the company to build upon the investments it has already made to validate 3GPP standards-based 5G products and technologies, and demonstrate 5G connectivity from space. The financing also paves the way for Omnispace to accelerate market access initiatives to secure 2 GHz mobile satellite service (MSS) and complementary ground component (CGC) spectrum globally, which will anchor its next-generation hybrid mobile system. Together these efforts provide the foundation for commercial partnerships with mobile network operators, who enable the terrestrial component of the hybrid network, and wireless technology and device manufacturers.

"Omnispace represents the next evolution of mobile telecommunications. The company recognizes that industries now require truly global mobile connectivity without compromise. Omnispace will be the first to power global 5G from space to universal devices on a single, seamless network leveraging their 2 GHz spectrum platform," said Joshua Pack, Managing Partner, Fortress Investment Group.

"We are forging ahead in the delivery of truly mobile 5G connectivity solutions from space. Our network will leverage harmonized 2 GHz spectrum to bring the power of 5G to users and industries around the globe," said Ram Viswanathan, president and CEO for Omnispace. "We're delighted Fortress Investment Group and our investors share in our commitment to drive innovative, mobile connectivity solutions."

Omnispace's 'one global network' will utilize the company's priority 2 GHz S-band spectrum rights and will be compliant with 3GPP 5G standards, which will ensure security and interoperability of devices all over the world. The initial elements of the Omnispace network will enter into service in 2022, advancing the commercial, technological, and regulatory initiatives and ensure successful launch of the global system.

About Omnispace

Headquartered in the Washington D.C. area, and founded by veteran telecommunications and satellite industry executives, Omnispace is redefining mobile connectivity for the 21st century. By leveraging 5G technologies, the company is combining the global footprint of a non-geostationary satellite constellation with the mobile networks of the world's leading telecom companies to bring an interoperable "one network" connectivity to users and IoT devices anywhere on the globe.

Learn more at: Omnispace.com and follow on LinkedIn or Twitter @omnispace.

About Fortress Investment Group LLC

Fortress Investment Group LLC is a leading, highly diversified global investment manager with approximately $49.9 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2020. Founded in 1998, Fortress manages assets on behalf of approximately 1,800 institutional clients and private investors worldwide across a range of credit and real estate, private equity and permanent capital investment strategies.

Press Contact:

Marie Knowles

tel: +1-202-656-8037

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SOURCE Omnispace
Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum has sacked his commissioner for health, Salisu Kwaya-Bura, a government statement said.

No reason was given for the sack of Mr Kwaya-Bura, who was the chief medical director of the state Hospital Management Board before his appointment as commissioner.

Isa Gusau, the special media adviser to the governor, said Mr Kwaya-Buras sack was part of a move to reposition the health sector.

The sacked commissioner was the secretary of the state COVID-19 high-powered task force.

Though the deputy governor, Umar Kadafur, is the chairperson of the COVID-19 committee, Mr Kwaya-Bura had on various occasions acted as the head of the committee.

Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has relieved the states commissioner of health, Dr Salihu Kwayabura, of his position, Mr Gusau said in the statement shared with PREMIUM TIMES.

Governor Zulums directive was part of the necessary measures to reposition the ministry.

Governor Zulum expresses gratitude to Dr Salihu Kwayabura for his immense contributions to the development of Bornos public health sector in nearly two years of the current administration, and the years he had served under the previous administration.

Governor Zulum has directed his chief of staff, Professor Isa Hussani Marte, who is a professor of pharmacology, a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science with a speciality in cancer research, to oversee the states ministry of health pending the appointment of a substantive commissioner, the statement said.

Kwaya-Bura speaks on his sack

Sources familiar with the development said the sack of the commissioner may not be unconnected with recent employments the state made in the health sector.

The state government had last year employed 694 doctors, nurses and other health workers to boost the lean workforce in the sector.

A source at the ministry of health told PREMIUM TIMES in confidence that Dr Kwaya-Bura was accused of favouring more of his people in the southern part of the state than other zones in the list the governor approved for employment.

The source quickly added that to be fair to the Commissioner, he considered credentials above political and geographic spread.

Some other sources said the alleged lopsided employment might have been the last straw that broke the camels back.

There have been concerns that the funds released for managing COVID-19 in the state were not utilised to the satisfaction of the governor who had since sealed up funding for the Committee.

The Committee was subjected to secret investigation after which some members were cleared. Though Dr Kwaya-Bura was the secretary, it is not clear if he was the only one that was allegedly found wanting in the said mismanagement of COVID-19 funds, the source said.

But the former commissioner who spoke to a few journalists on phone said his sack was neither related to politics nor the COVID-19 Committee.

I never knew that I would be appointed commissioner but it happened and from that day I knew that one day I will leave this position like many others who had served and are no longer occupying, just like me today, he said.

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This is life and is but a scene, someone will come and play his part and leave. I believe this is what happened and the governor of Borno State in his wisdom took such decision today.

If there are any reasons alien to normal administrative changes, the government would have made it known since the press release informing the relieve of my appointment comes from the government.

I do not believe that this is political or anything to do with my role in the Covid-19 team as being speculated because I am a professional medical person and I will continue to play a vital role in the administration of good health to Borno State.

When things happened like this, there are a lot of rumours but I am still with the government and remain professional in my chosen field as I said. I will continue to help the state and give advice where necessary and whenever I am invited to do so.

I believe I have a higher calling that informed this shift. After all, we have faith that it is Allah who appoints one and at the time he so wishes, said Mr Kwaya-Bura.

Governor Zulums directive that his Chief of Staff should immediately take over supervision of the ministry of health pending the appointment of a commissioner has also set tongues wagging.

The governor had last year, in a controversial circumstance, sacked the chairperson of the hospital management board, Abba Masta, without giving reasons for his sack.

Mr Zulum has special advisers in every ministry. Many had expected that in events like this, the adviser, who is also a professional, would supervise pending the appointment of a new cabinet member.
Nepal's caretaker Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday morning called a meeting of the Constitutional Council, which comes after students protesting against the Parliament dissolution clashed with police near the Federal Parliament of Nepal in Kathmandu on Monday. All Nepal National Free Student Union (ANNFSU) members of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) had brawled with police after attempting to organize a flash mob in front of Parliament in Kathmandu.

On Sunday, three former Prime Ministers participated in a sit-in-protest to oppose the recent dissolution of the Parliament. Former Prime Ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Madhav Kumar Nepal, and Jhalanath Khanal took to the streets of Kathmandu to call on the caretaker PM KP Sharma Oli to reinstate the Parliament. This comes after Oli on December 20 dissolved the Nepal Parliament and announced fresh elections in April and May.

The Constitutional Council of Nepal is headed by the Prime Minister and includes the Chief Justice, speaker, chairperson of the National Assembly, leader of the opposition, and the deputy speaker as its members. The council makes recommendations for the key appointments of officials to various constitutional bodies.

READ | Former Nepal PMs Protest Against Oli's Move To Dissolve Parliament

Prime Minister Oli, 68, had dissolved the Nepal Parliament on December 20, amidst a political tussle with Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'. Last week, Oli was expelled from the general membership of the NCP, amid increasing political unrest following his decision to dissolve the lower house. According to the rival faction's spokesperson Narayankaji Shrestha, PM Oli no longer remains a member of the party.

Prior to the dissolution of the parliament, the ruling NCP had been struggling to keep the flock together with several factions formed within the party. NCP came into being after Oli and Dahal merged their respective parties into one entity following the 2017 national elections. Though Oli emerged as the most popular leader, his party was short of the majority required to form a government. Oli and Dahal, whose party was third in the elections, agreed to form an alliance based on a power-sharing agreement.

READ | Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli Expelled From Ruling Communist Party Over Dissolution Of Parliament

Cases of contempt of court filed against PM Oli

On January 29, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered caretaker Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to appear before it with a written response to the cases of contempt of court filed against him. Two separate cases of contempt of court were filed against Oli at the Apex court on Tuesday, for his alleged remarks on 95-year-old senior advocate Krishna Prasad Bhandari, calling him "a grandpa lawyer". Meanwhile, Nepal's apex court has also ordered four former chief justices and one former speaker of Parliament to be present in court on separate cases of contempt of court. The former chief justices facing the contempt charges are Anup Raj Sharma, Meen Bahadur Rayamajhi, Sushila Karki, and Kalyan Shrestha. Former speaker Daman Nath Dhungana faces the same charge.

READ | KP Oli's Troubles Mount; Nepal's Supreme Court Summons Caretaker PM In Contempt Case

READ | Now Nepal's Caretaker PM, Contempt Cases In Supreme Court Over KP Oli's Disparaging Remark
Seoul:

Kim Jong-Un, North Korean leader, vows his nation would "demonstrate its mettle to the US" and never negotiate its weapons programmes after watching the test-launch of its first intercontinental ballistic missile.

The hard line suggests that more tests are being prepared as North Korea tries to perfect a nuclear missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

ICBM launch on Tuesday, confirmed later by US and South Korean officials, is a milestone in Pyongyang's efforts to develop long-range nuclear-armed missiles.

Read more: N Koreas Kim Jong-Un says ICBM a gift to US on their Independence Day

The ensuing uproar only seemed to inspire the North's rhetoric in official media, which described Kim as smiling as he urged his scientists to "frequently send big and small gift packages' to the Yankees", an apparent reference to further tests.

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Why North Star felt it was key to keep in-person education amid COVID
A mum-of-eight with twins and triplets has offered a glimpse into what the night-time routine looks like in her busy household.

Chloe Dunstan, 27, from Perth, and her husband Rohan had three children by the time she turned 22 - Evan, 8, Otto, 7, and Felix, 6 - swiftly followed by triplets Rufus, Hank and Pearl, nearly 5.

Two more babies joined Chloe's family in late October. All of her children were conceived naturally.

The young stay-at-home mum detailed her evening routine in a video on her YouTube channel, and revealed she starts the night-time prep at 4.30pm.

Scroll down for video

Mother-of-eight Chloe Dunstan (pictured with her eight children) has offered a glimpse into what the night time routine looks like in her busy household

The twins were born in late October 2020 and Chloe reviewed the evening routine in a video on her YouTube channel (all the kids pictured)

At around 4:30pm, Chloe starts preparing dinner while the children help each other tidy the play areas - such as the LEGO room, playroom and drawing table.

'The babies have a nap in their rockers, while the others do some tidying up,' Chloe said in the video.

'At the same time, I'll cook the dinner for the kids.'

On this occasion Chloe cooked pasta for dinner using San Remo pasta, eggplant, zucchini, baby spinach, diced tomato, onion, pasta sauce and textured vegetable protein (TVP) as a meat replacement.

She favours quick and easy meal solutions that are simple to make, but also nutritious for her big family.

The children are all under the age of ten and many can help out by tidying the playroom while Chloe prepares the dinner (the children pictured)

In the video the children can be seen tidying the multiple play areas (pictured)

At 6pm, the kids sit down for their dinner.

Chloe said sometimes she and Rohan join them, and at other times they eat later when the kids are in bed.

Once dinner is finished, the children take turns having baths and put their pyjamas on while Chloe bathes and feeds the newborn twins.

The kids like watching Sylvie and Cosmo having their baths, and they then brush their hair and teeth in preparation for bed.

'We read a night time story before bed,' Chloe said.

On this occasion Chloe cooked pasta for dinner using San Remo pasta, eggplant, zucchini, baby spinach, diced tomato, onion, pasta sauce and textured vegetable protein (TVP) as a meat replacement

Chloe tucks the children into their beds at 8pm and says goodnight before relaxing for an hour watching television with her husband (the children pictured in their pyjamas)

Over the years Chloe has collected more than 1,000 books for her family, which are colour coordinated on the shelf.

The children's favourite at the moment is The Gingerbead Man.

Finally, Chloe tucks the children into their beds at 8pm and says goodnight before relaxing for an hour watching television with her husband.

'It's definitely gotten easier over the years with the night-time routine as all bar the twins can now dress themselves,' Chloe said.

'With the triplets there for a bit when they were young, it was a lot of work. But I think with big families you have to do whatever works for you.'

The kids like watching Sylvie and Cosmo having their baths, and they then brush their hair and teeth in preparation for bed

While the couple run a full household, the children seem very well behaved and help keep the house in order

'We home school so there are a lot around, but we keep it really relaxed,' Chloe told FEMAIL

Before the twins were born Chloe told FEMAIL that her children were both excited and delighted to hear the news for the first time.

'They love being part of a big family and can't wait to have more siblings,' Chloe told Daily Mail Australia.

The mum also shared an insight into the Dunstans' busy home lives.

'We home school so there are a lot around, but we keep it really relaxed,' Chloe said.

'The kids do a bit of school work, and then mostly focus on doing the things they enjoy like drawing, art projects, science projects, playing and spending lots of time outside.'

Before the twins were born she said the will be the 'perfect addition' to their huge family, and the kids were delighted to hear the news for the first time

The 27-year-old added that she and the kids usually spend lots of time with friends at home school activities and excursions, but this hasn't happened recently due to the coronavirus pandemic restrictions in place around the country.

A typical day sees the busy mum get up, get her kids started on some work and run her own successful online toy store business with her husband from home.

'It's all about teamwork in this household,' Chloe said.

'It can be a lot with a career, home schooling and homework, but we manage it well together and doing all of this means we can maximise family time, which is really important to us.'
President Joe Biden on Monday called for quick action on a $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill and met with Senate Republicans at the White House, while Democratic leaders of the House and Senate took the first steps toward passing the legislation on a party-line vote if it cant win GOP support.

Hardworking Americans need help and they need it now, Biden tweeted Monday.

Democrats introduced a budget resolution in both chambers, the first step in a process known as reconciliation that would prevent a filibuster and make it possible to enact the legislation even if every Republican voted no.

We are hopeful that Republicans will work in a bipartisan manner to support assistance for their communities, but the American people cannot afford any more delays and the Congress must act to prevent more needless suffering, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a joint statement.

Biden met at the White House Monday for close to two hours with nine of the 10 Republican senators who offered their own $618 billion stimulus bill, less than one-third of the presidents proposal. The 10th senator, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, joined by phone.

Hardworking Americans need help and they need it now. Thats why Im calling on Congress to immediately pass my American Rescue Plan that will deliver direct relief, extend unemployment insurance, help folks put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, and more.  President Biden (@POTUS) February 1, 2021

Getting the support of those 10 Republicans and all 50 Senate Democrats would prevent a successful filibuster of the bill.

After the meeting, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, called the meeting a very good change of views

I wouldnt say that we came together on a package, Collins told reporters on the White House grounds. No one expected that in a two-hour meeting. But what we did agree to do is to follow up and talk further at the staff level and amongst ourselves and with the president and vice president on how we can continue to work together on this very important issue.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that while Biden would prefer bipartisan support, he was willing to pass the measure solely with Democratic votes.

He reiterated that while he is hopeful that the rescue plan can pass with bipartisan support, a reconciliation package is a path to achieve that end, Psaki said. The president expressed his hope that the group could continue to discuss ways to strengthen the American Rescue Plan as it moves forward, and find areas of common ground  including work on small business support and nutrition programs.

He reiterated, however, that he will not slow down work on this urgent crisis response, and will not settle for a package that fails to meet the moment, Psaki said.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

The Republican alternative, for example, left out the $350 billion Biden proposed to help cash-strapped state and local governments pay the salaries of police officers, health care workers, teachers and other public employees.

The Congressional Budget Office provided another argument for a new stimulus bill Monday, projecting that the number of people employed wouldnt return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, and the unemployment rate would stay above the 3.5% rate reached in February 2020 under President Donald Trump.

One area of compromise could be over how to better target next round of stimulus payments, which by itself could lower the cost of the total package but keep all of Bidens priorities intact.

The Republican proposal called for $1,000 payments for individuals making $40,000 or less, or married couples filing jointly making $80,000 or less. Those earning from $40,000 to $50,000 and married couples earning $80,000 to $100,000 would get a partial payment. Eligible families also would get $500 for each dependent child or adult.

Biden proposed $1,400 payments, meaning that taxpayers would be receiving a total of $2,000 when the $600 checks approved in December are figured in. Full payments would go to individuals making up to $75,000 and married couples making up to $150,000.

Individuals making up to $99,000 and married couples making up to $198,000 would get some money. But since there also would be $1,400 a checks for each dependent child, some families earning more than $400,000 would receive a partial payment.

Besides Collins, the Republicans at the meeting included Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who worked with Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., and other congressional Democrats on legislation that led to passage of a $900 billion stimulus package in the waning days of the 116th Congress.

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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com.
This year, Ukraine expects to receive three tranches from the International Monetary Fund to the tune about $ 2.2 billion.

We expect three tranches, SDR 0.5 billion [$0.72 billion] each, for a total of about $2.2 billion this year, and the rest of the money in 2022, Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Kyrylo Shevchenko told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

He added that the IMF missions work currently continued and based on the results of this week it will be clearer what agreements we are reaching.

Shevchenko also disclosed that the Government of Ukraine was planning to issue Eurobonds worth about $2.4 billion in 2021.

There is a new optimism in international markets...We hope that this optimism will not bypass Ukraine, the NBU governor said.

As reported, Finance Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Marchenko said on January 28 that the International Monetary Fund mission had continued review of SBA for 7-10 days.

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Steven Crowder, a conservative host, stated on February 1 that he would sue Facebook over "unfair competition, fraud, false advertising, and antitrust."

His attorney Bill Richmond remarked on Crowder's YouTube channel that the lawsuit is "already initiated," accusing the social network of antitrust violations, false advertising, fraud, and unfair competition.

Steven Crowder to Sue Facebook

More information will be disclosed to the public as the lawsuit progresses.

According to Richmond, "We're going after Facebook based on its own words and its own promises," reported The Daily Wire.

Crowder is the host of the conservative talk show "Louder with Crowder."

He alluded to the lawsuit amid an "explanation" for his three week-radio silence the previous week.

Crowder and the BlazeTV attorney announced the lawsuit on Monday, reported The RF Angle.

According to Crowder, "The key remedy is injunctive relief (stop unfair/deceptive acts). We're also seeking seven-figure monetary damages. The goal here is forcing honesty and clarity in policy application and enforcement," reported The Right Scoop.

He added, "Our broader point is that we are pro-business but anti-fraud. Facebook lured consumers and creators to spend money and provide data and views under the promise of not engaging in political, racial or religious bias in enforcing their policies, but they have done so both expressly and secretively, and hence, the suit."

Crowder alleged the social media platform lured creators and customers to spend money and provide information and views under the vow of not engaging in racial, political, or religious bias in establishing their policies. Still, they have done so both expressly and furtively.

He is mainly seeking injunctive relief and will also be demanding over $1 million in damages for Facebook's apparent malicious practices.

According to a summary of the filing posted on Crowder's website, the lawsuit is slated to be filed this week at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Richmond, who is mockingly referred to on the set as Crowder's half-Asian attorney, was unusually straight-faced during the show on Monday as he divulged details regarding the lawsuit. He expects that it will pull him away from the show for the foreseeable future.

Crowder in the YouTube video stated that his November 3 election livestream was halted amid his coverage. He remarked that he was never provided a reason behind the stream being taken down.

He said Facebook removed the biggest stream that has come to existence from the biggest platform that has ever existed for no reason.

Richmond claimed Facebook said they were no longer inhibiting certain speech but continued to do so.

An example of the alleged speech suppression was when Crowder's election livestream was apparently halted.

Crowder is one of the most noteworthy alleged victims of Youtube's social media censorship and demonetization. The cut-off was after he hit more than 8.1 million views on his election livestream.

The statement indicated they want Facebook to stop such practices or to be honest regarding their practices.

Related Article: Twitter Shares Drop by 12 Percent After Permanently Suspending Trump

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New Delhi, Feb 2 : Amid reports of Delhi Police filing FIRs against many farmers and their leaders, the Congress legal department headed by Vivek Tankha on Tuesday formed teams to assist them for any legal help.

A resolution passed by the legal department says, "Delegations of legal department from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi will be visiting farmer leaders at protest-sites at borders of Delhi to apprise them of legal services already taken to help farmers and journalists regarding relief and redressal." The department will display in public a list of lawyers in each district of the four states who will visit jails and find out about the persons missing and also visit police stations.

The Delhi Police on Monday said that no illegal detention has been done in the farmers' agitation and protest, and appealed people not to fall prey for rumours.

"We have registered a total of 44 cases in the farmers' protest so far and a total of 122 people have been arrested. Apart from those arrested, no one has been detained in the police stations. The records of all those who have been arrested is also available on Delhi Police website," said Eish Singhal, PRO, Delhi Police.

The Delhi Police also said that the kin of those arrested can also seek information from the concerned police stations.

"We have put the information on our website to facilitate the people. We would request people not to give heed to any rumours," the officer added.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up at the three borders and barricades, boulders, barbed wires have come up as additional forces made their way to Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri borders amid the apprehensions of more farmers joining the protest from Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh.

Drones are being used to keep surveillance and intense checking is being done at the border areas which has resulted in massive traffic snarls in the capital. The Traffic was affected on Road no. 56 from ISBT Anand Vihar to Ghazipur due to closing of border. Traffic jam were also noticed at ITO and other places in Delhi amid heavy police checking.

The Dutch diplomat who helped capture serial killer Charles Sobhraj has revealed how difficult it was seeing the killer living a life of luxury after being released from prison in India.

Sobhraj, known as The Serpent, whose story was recently revisited in the BBC series of the same name, drugged and killed at least a dozen Westerners on the Hippie Trail in Asia in the 1970s.

He was jailed for murdering a French tourist in India in 1976 and then escaped from prison, knowing that additional time served when he was re-arrested would mean the 20-year warrant for his arrest in Thailand would have run out by the time he was released.

Former diplomat Herman Knippenberg, who helped exposed Sobhraj as a multiple killer has revealed how difficult it was seeing the killer profit off his crimes while living in Paris after leaving India.

Appearing on Loose Women, Knippenberg said: Sobhraj would 'organise and orchestrate lunches in which rich foreigners, mainly Americans, would be paying thousands to have the privilege of having lunch with a serial killer, which from a moral point of view I thought was disgusting.

Sobraj, pictured with accomplice Marie-Andree Leclerc in 1986, was known as The Serpent because of his skills at deception and evasion, he drugged and killed at least a dozen Westerners on the Hippie Trail in Asia in the 1970s

The story has been re-told in BBC One crime drama The Serpent. Pictured, Jenna Coleman and Tahar Rahim as Marie-Andree Leclerc and Sobraj

Nicknamed 'The Serpent' because he always managed to evade capture, Sobhraj was held at India's top security Tihar jail from 1976 to 1997.

Before his sentence was due to end in 1986, he threw a party for the guards and drugged them with sleeping pills to escape, only to be arriest in Goa following a nationwide manhunt by police in India.

He knew that there was a warrant for his arrest in Thailand, where he could face the death penalty, and banked on being locked up in India for another decade.

His plan worked and when he was released in 1997, with no country to extradite him to, the Indian authorities allowed him to return to Paris where he lived in luxury promoting his infamy.

Former diplomat Herman Knippenberg, who helped exposed Sobhraj as a multiple killer, after the initial attempts to bring him to justice, appeared on Loose Women today

His story has been told in eight-part drama BBC One drama 'The Serpent', with Knippenberg being taken on by British actor Billy Howle (pictured in the show)

Sobhraj, who is now aged 76 and serving his life sentence in Nepal, had already spent 20 years in prison for a string of crimes, including murder and robbery

When asked whether it was difficult seeing Sobhraj profiting off his crimes in Paris, Knippenberg said: 'Very much so.

'But given the fact we could not touch him or he had escaped for the time being from Thailand where we were still looking for him, for me and others in the action committee it was very difficult to take.'

Knippenberg's hunt for the killer started in 1975 with a brief to help Thai police investigate the deaths of the two Dutch students who had been invited to Thailand after meeting Sobhraj in Hong Kong.

He launched his own investigation and gained permission to enter Sobhraj's home, after the suspect had left for Malaysia.

Jailed: Charles Sobhraj (pictured in 2014 with Nepalese police) preyed on Western tourists visiting Asia and was known as The Serpent and The Bikini Killer

There he found victims' blood-stained documents and passports, as well as poisons and syringes.

A sighting of Sobhraj in Kathmandu in 2003 led to his arrest for the murders of two Canadians there in 1975, and at his trial the prosecution relied on evidence accumulated by Knippenberg.

His story has been told in eight-part drama BBC One drama 'The Serpent', with Knippenberg being taken on by British actor Billy Howle - who he says does an excellent job of portraying the character.

'I think that Billy Howle did a fantastic job', said Knippenberg, 'It was so real at times, some of the scenes I saw.

'I was gripped myself and had to make up my mind whether indeed it was as Billy Howle played it or as I had experienced it, it came dangerously close.'

Until now, Knippenberg has not publicly spoken about his role in capturing the killer, but says he took part in the drama to warn young travellers of danger while on abroad.

He said: 'It would give me the chance to extend a warning to travellers, they have to be careful because in paradise there may be the serpent lurking somewhere.

'It's absolutely necessary when someone goes to other countries they are careful about meeting people.'

In the drama, Billy Howle's character is see visiting the morgue to see the bodies of Sobhraj's victims, with Knippenberg confirming this was the visit that made him determined to help catch the killer.

'That was the moment I decided', he said, 'It was absolutely imperative to stop the killings. As I have said to friends before, even if it was not in the parameters of my work, if I could make the difference I felt in that moment I could and I would'.

Sobhraj later inexplicably returned to Nepal in 2003, where he was arrested, tried, and received a life sentence.
The corporate logo of Ford is seen at Brussels Motor Show, Belgium, on Jan 9, 2020. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)

Ford, Google Join Hands to Offer Cloud-Based Data Services

Ford Motor Co will tap into software, artificial intelligence and cloud computing offered by Alphabets Google to develop new consumer services and modernize internal operations, the companies said on Monday.

As part of a six-year partnership, the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker will incorporate the tech giants Android operating system into its Ford and Lincoln vehicles starting in 2023.

Ford will offer its customers built-in Google apps, including its map and voice technology. It will deploy Google artificial intelligence technology to improve the efficiency of vehicle development, supply chain and manufacturing operations, the companies said.

The companies will also form a group, Team Upshift, to explore uses of data to develop new retail, create new ownership offers and other services for Ford customers.

Ford customer data will not be handed over to Google or Google advertisers, Ford vice president for strategy, David McClelland, said during a conference call.

The automaker will continue to use other cloud service providers and collaborate with other tech companies such as Amazon.com, he said.

A Google logo and Android statue are seen at the Googleplex in Menlo Park, Calif., on Nov. 4, 2016. (Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

Will Ford be like Foxconn? No. Absolutely not, McClelland said, alluding to a fear among some auto sector executives that auto manufacturers would be relegated to low-margin hardware assembly, like iPhone assembler Foxconn, in any deal with a technology industry power.

McClelland and Google Cloud chief Thomas Kurian did not disclose details of the commercial terms of the agreement.

The Google-Ford partnership reflects growing pressure on automakers to speed up software and data-enabled services that can generate revenue or cut costs.

Ford, like its established rivals, has watched electric vehicle maker Tesla become the worlds most valuable automaker by far, in part because investors view Tesla as far ahead when it comes to the software and data management required for connected and electric cars.

Last year, Amazon.com joined hands with Japans Toyota Motor Corp to help manage and monetize data gathered from the automakers global vehicle fleet, while Volkswagen AG in 2019 struck a deal with Microsoft to cooperate on cloud computing in China and the United States.

By Shreyasee Raj
All regulatory animal-based food checks have been suspended at Belfast and Larne ports, Northern Irelands Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) has said.

It comes after council staff at Larne Port were withdrawn from inspection duties amid concerns for their safety and welfare.

A Daera spokesman said: On the basis of information received today and pending further discussions with the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland), Daera has decided in the interests of the wellbeing of staff to temporarily suspend physical inspections of products of animal origin at Larne and Belfast.

The situation will be kept under review and in the meantime full documentary checks will continue to be carried out as usual.

Twelve Mid and East Antrim Borough Council staff assisting officials from Daera and UK Border Force with checks at the port were withdrawn from their duties with immediate effect on Monday.

The council said the decision was made following an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks.

Graffiti appeared in the area last month referencing tensions about the Northern Ireland Protocol and describing port staff as targets.

There have also been a number of daubings in Belfast amid anger at the protocol, with a raft of new checks on goods arriving at ports from Great Britain introduced at the start of the year.

The council said the situation has caused extreme distress and worry to staff, and it had no option but to withdraw them from their duties in order to fulfil its duty of care and carry out a full risk assessment with the PSNI, Food Standards Agency and Daera.

It apologised for any disruption but said the safety and wellbeing of staff is of paramount importance.

In addition to concerns over graffiti it is understood staff expressed concerns that individuals had been spotted taking down number plate details.

Graffiti on a wall in east Belfast (Rebecca Black/PA)

Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Peter Johnston, said: We have seen what I would describe as deeply troubling graffiti and a very notable upping of community tensions towards the NI Protocol, particularly in recent days.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is always this councils number one priority and that is why the decision has been taken to withdraw them from their work at the port with immediate effect until we have very real assurances and full confidence that they can go about their duties without fear, threat or concern for their wellbeing.

Sinn Fein councillor James McKeown said: Our staff will step away from this work and will only return when we are totally satisfied it is safe and right for them to do so.

There are simmering tensions within the local community at present and we will not stand by and let our staff be targeted when they are just doing their jobs.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said force officials will meet partner agencies on Tuesday to discuss the situation.

The safety of staff working at points of entry is of the utmost importance to us, he said. Where we have any credible information we will share that with our partners and take appropriate action.

We have increased patrols at Larne Port and other points of entry in order to reassure staff and the local community.

Police last month warned that discontent in loyalist communities was growing over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is designed to allow the country to follow the EUs customs rules and has caused delays at ports because of new declarations and checks.

The DUP has been vociferous in opposition to the protocols operation.

The partys North Antrim MP Ian Paisley condemned the threats to staff but said the protocol was bound to cause these problems.

Such tactics have no place in a democracy, he said.

Ian Paisley (Niall Carson/PA)

This is the sad reality of those who imposed terms on Northern Ireland without the consent of the delicate community balance which exists here. The protocol was bound to end in tears and here we have societys structure falling apart.

When (former Irish premier) Leo Varadkar shamefully distributed copies of border posts being blown up in Newry 30 years ago around EU Commission members, he demonstrated that violence and the threat of violence has a seat at the table.

At the heart of progress in Northern Ireland has been cross-community consent.

Those who thought they could impose something against the will of every unionist are now reaping the seeds of division they have sown.

The protocol was bound to cause these problems given the triumphant approach by republicans and nationalists and the wilful ignorance that 50% of the population was opposed to the protocol.

Its time for the Government to step up and invoke Article 16, set it aside and lets get back to proper trade without restrictions.
Now that we have entered the new world of diversity, inclusion and equity, the acronym DIE aptly applies. While schools have long been involved in these activities, businesses have now voluntarily adopted or been forced to accept this left-wing ideology as well.

Consequently, Coca-Cola has sent out notices to law firms demanding that the company will "require diversity among law firms who bill it for work in the United States and reduce payments if they do not comply."

Because of pressure from the Marxist, anti-American Black Lives Matter, many Fortune 500 companies have pledged to address alleged racial inequality more aggressively.

In fact, there is almost a competition among firms to see who gets the highest score of diversity and inclusion. How is this accomplished?

To determine the Best Workplaces for Diversity, Fortune partnered with Great Place to Work to analyze anonymous survey feedback representing more than 4.8 million US employees. The Best Workplaces for Diversity list focuses on the experiences of women, people of color, LGBTQ people, employees who are Boomers or older, and people who have disabilities. The ranking is based on what these employees themselves report in a 60-question Trust Index survey about the trust, pride and camaraderie they experience in their workplace, and how those experiences compare to their colleagues reports of the same workplaces. Great Place to Work also consider[s] employees daily experiences of innovation, the companys values, and the effectiveness of their leaders, to ensure theyre consistently experienced, as well. The remaining 15 percent of the rank is based on the diversity of the companys overall workforce and its management, senior leadership and board, taking into account industry trends.

Coca Cola Company's Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, Lori George Billingsley, explains how Coca-Cola is creating a culture of diversity and inclusion.

The company that once touted "Red, White, and You," has come a long way to now being a leading proponent of the racism that is the underbelly of diversity.

Thus, Coca-Cola's general counsel is urging law firms to "effect real systemic change" by adhering to new requirements that [mandate that] outside counsel allocate a portion of work to diverse attorneys -- specifically Black lawyers -- or risk losing money or even future legal business."

Dare I call this blackmail? Dare I call it racist?

In essence, "Coke said it will require quarterly reporting about the makeup of legal teams that do work for it and self identify as American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, Black, women, Hispanic/Latinx, LGBTQ, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or persons with disabilities. For those working on new matters for Coke, 'at least 30 percent of each of billed associate and partner time will be from diverse attorneys, and of such amounts at least half will be from Black attorneys.'"

It said the percentages, which are roughly equal to those of the U.S. population overall, will be adjusted over time to eventually hit at least 50 percent of billed time coming from diverse attorneys, with half from Black attorneys. Firms that fail to meet the targets will be docked 30 percent of their fees, and those who continue to come up short may no longer be considered for Coke work.

Apparently like everything that is radically left-wing, merit does not matter. This is identity politics on steroids.

The fact that there are fewer Black lawyers must be, according to Leftist group think, because of racism. It could never be because fewer Black people choose to enter the legal profession or that because of another brainchild of left-wing philosophy, affirmative action, fewer Blacks succeed in the field.

America already has many protections against discrimination, i.e., the EEOC, and yet the legal profession is now being told it must break the law so that Coca Cola can have the final say in its virtue signaling and its adherence to Black Lives Matter demands.

Of course, the natural result of this is many more people will suddenly self-identify as American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or a person with disabilities."

Heck, I should now claim Hispanic heritage because probably an ancestor of mine was one of the Spanish conversos who were exiled or murdered during the Spanish Inquisition!

Another result will be the deep resentment among different groups because one group is being promoted not based on merit but because of identity politics.

This is just another embodiment of Marxist class warfare now redefined.

This, of course, is always the aim of the Left. They will mouth diversity, inclusion, and equity. But anyone who sees through this will note that "equity is not equality. It is a substitute for equal rights. Equity requires the authorities to determine who gets what according to the race, the ethnicity or other status of the beneficiaries. It is updated Marxist claptrap in which race replaces class."

This is because the purveyors of this racist ideology couched in alleged empathy and compassion believe that a "lower than population percentage of blacks in any desirable category must be the result of systemic racism."

What Coca Cola is touting is Critical Race Theory, which is now rampant in schools and businesses in America. Trump banned the use of Critical Race Theory but Biden reinstated it on the first day he issued his slew of executive orders.

We are now in the throes of a hideous left-wing takeover of this country. The term 'diversity' now excludes white straight males. Thus, to achieve equity, you first have to take away equality for individuals who were born in the wrong identity group. Merit has no bearing on anything any longer in this country. Consider that 85% of Biden's new political appointees to the Office of Personnel Management identify as people of color, women or LGBTQ.

It is ironic that businesses, the mainstay of our economic engine, have now taken on the face of tyranny.

I would hope that Americans decide that Coca-Cola is no longer their choice of drink. I would request that these now-designated groups perceive that they are being held to the soft bigotry of low expectations. That to gain a foothold because of something they had no control over such as their race is an abiding insult that lowers self-esteem and pride and worth.

I pray that the legal minds push back hard on Coca-Cola and their dictatorial edicts . I would appeal to the lawyers to stand up and proclaim that such demands are completely contrary to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and are merely more tools in the leftist arsenal to weaken, eviscerate and eventually destroy America.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com

Hat Tip: ES

Image: The Coco-Cola Company
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 19:30:15|Editor: huaxia

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SUVA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Fiji marked this year's World Wetlands Day on Tuesday with a clean-up campaign being conducted by Fiji's Ministry of Environment on a wetland site in Denarau island near Nadi, Fiji's third-largest city.

In his speech, Fiji's Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment Mahendra Reddy stressed the importance of wetlands to the quantity and quality of freshwater, and to the nation's ecosystem.

"Wetlands give us a very useful range of environmental, social and economic services. Wetlands offer a significant range of benefits for the industry and trade. For example, they are home to nurseries for fish and other freshwater and marine life and form a critical feature in supporting Fiji's commercial and recreational fishing businesses," he said.

The minister urged Fijians to re-look at the amount of waste and litter being dumped into rivers, lakes, streams and oceans.

With a population of almost one million, many Fijians are heavily dependent on wetlands for livelihood, food and water, he added.

This year's theme for World Wetlands Day is Wetlands and Water, which highlights the importance of wetlands as a source of freshwater and encourages action to restore them and stop their loss.

The World Wetlands Day falls on Feb. 2 each year. It aims to raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and our planet. This day also marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on Feb. 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Enditem
The company will initiate 3600 metres drilling program with three holes, designed to intercept the large, high chargeability anomaly in the central region close to the Juruena Fault.

All data, including a 3D Inversion of both the IP and MT has been integrated in drill planning.

( ) (FRA:RNF) has started its 2021 Brazilian drilling program, targeting a potential Copper-Gold porphyry system beneath the high-grade Juruena Epithermal gold deposits.

The company will begin the program with an initial 3,600 metres drilling campaign scheduled to start in early February with the rig already onsite.

Three diamond drill holes will test the peak of the chargeability anomaly defined by the 2020 Deep IP and MT survey.

The key priority of the program will be to test the high chargeability anomalies generated by the deep IP survey, which the company completed at the end of 2020.

Game-changer for Meteoric

Meteorics managing director Andrew Tunks said: This drilling campaign could well be a potential game-changer for Meteoric.

Up until this point, we have had a host of positive indicators that led us to believe that the shallow high-grade Epithermal gold mineralisation we see at Juruena was potentially related to a deeper magmatic source.

The 2020 Deep IP &MT survey continues to support this theory having defined a large, high-response IP chargeability anomaly that demands immediate drill testing.

High-value targets

Tunks said: As such, I am pleased to advise that we mobilised the geology team to the site early in the New Year and that drilling of an initial 3 hole program totalling around 3,600 metres will start in early February.

Drilling high-value targets like this is a key reason that I became an explorer  there is never a more exciting time than when you are drilling a target that has multiple lines of support and serious size potential.

What we are about to commence in Brazil represents an enormous opportunity for the Company and I look forward to updating you on our results over the coming months as the drilling continues.

Integrating all data

The company has integrated all data, including a 3D Inversion of both the IP and MT in the drill planning.

The inversions show that the core chargeability IP anomaly is not associated with the large-scale magnetic anomalies, consistent with the interpretation that the IP response is related to sulphides and not background magnetite.

The anomaly is characterised by:

Chargeability values (>20mV/V) in a central core 1,500m long by 1,000 metres wide; and

The top of the chargeability anomaly is modelled 500 metres below the surface.

A downhole EM program is being considered for the proposed drill holes to identify vectors towards any high concentration of sulphide related orebodies.
SALEM, Ore. - Police in Oregon can no longer arrest someone for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs as a ballot measure that decriminalized them took effect on Monday.

SALEM, Ore. - Police in Oregon can no longer arrest someone for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs as a ballot measure that decriminalized them took effect on Monday.

Instead, those found in possession would face a $100 fine or a health assessment that could lead to addiction counselling. Backers of the ballot measure, which Oregon voters passed by a wide margin in November, hailed it as a revolutionary move for the United States.

"Today, the first domino of our cruel and inhumane war on drugs has fallen, setting off what we expect to be a cascade of other efforts centring health over criminalization," said Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which spearheaded the ballot initiative.

Ballot Measure 110s backers said treatment needs to be the priority and that criminalizing drug possession was not working. Besides facing the prospect of being locked up, having a criminal record makes it difficult to find housing and jobs and can haunt a person for a lifetime.

Two dozen district attorneys had opposed the measure, saying it was reckless and would lead to an increase in the acceptability of dangerous drugs.

Instead of facing arrest, those found by law enforcement with personal-use amounts of drugs would face a civil citation, "like a traffic ticket," and not a criminal citation, said Matt Sutton, spokesman for the Drug Policy Alliance.

Under the new system, addiction recovery centres will be tasked with "triaging the acute needs of people who use drugs and assessing and addressing any on-going needs thorough intensive case management and linkage to care and services."

The addiction recovery centres will be funded by millions of dollars of tax revenue from Oregons legalized marijuana industry. That diverts some funds from other programs and entities that already receive it, like schools.

The ballot measure capped the amount of pot tax revenue that schools; mental health alcoholism and drug services; the state police; and cities and counties receive at $45 million annually, with the rest going to a "Drug Treatment and Recovery Services Fund."

The fund will be awash in money if the sales trend for marijuana continues as expected.

In the 2020 fiscal year, marijuana tax revenues peaked at $133 million, a 30% increase over the previous year, and a 545% increase over 2016, when pot taxes began being collected from legal, registered recreational marijuana enterprises around the state.

The other recipients of pot tax revenues are now saying that, after assessment and related treatment options are set up, the distribution of those revenues will deserve another look. A leading lawmaker agrees.

"In the future, as Oregons treatment programs reach full funding, the state should evaluate what other services would benefit from our continually growing marijuana tax revenues," Oregon Education Association President John Larson said in an email.

Larson said a "balanced approach to budgeting" will support communities and students. The OEA union represents about 44,000 educators.

State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, chair of the Senate Committee On Judiciary and Ballot Measure 110 Implementation, said he expects Oregon's cannabis tax revenues to increase exponentially if recreational marijuana in the United States is legalized. He expects that to happen within four years.

That would make the Drug Treatment and Recovery Services Fund "oversaturated with revenue" as out-of-state consumers legally buy Oregon's potent marijuana, Prozanski said in a telephone interview.

"It would be foolish for us as a Legislature to think that the voters would want us to put hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars into a program that would be, at that point, I would think, having a gold standard" in addiction recovery services, the Democrat said.

But Sutton noted that besides traditional treatment services, the fund would also be spent on housing and job assistance to provide long-term stability for people struggling with addiction.

"I cant imagine a situation where this fund becomes oversaturated anytime soon," Sutton said.

Oregon is a pioneer in liberalizing drug laws. It was the first state, in 1973, to decriminalize marijuana possession. In 2014, Oregon voters passed a ballot measure legalizing recreational use of marijuana. But Sutton said there are no plans to pursue legalization and a regulated market of hard drugs in Oregon.

Addiction recovery centres must be available by Oct. 1. One centre must be established within each existing co-ordinated care organization service area.

After decriminalization, about 3,700 fewer Oregonians per year will be convicted of felony or misdemeanour possession of controlled substances, according to estimates by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. The measure will also likely lead to significant reductions in racial and ethnic disparities in convictions and arrests, the state commission said.

Drugs specified by the measure include LSD, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, methadone, oxycodone, and MDMA  commonly known as ecstasy.

While this approach is new in the United States, several countries, including Portugal, the Netherlands and Switzerland, have already decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs, according to the United Nations.

Portugals 2000 decriminalization brought no surge in drug use. Drug deaths fell while the number of people treated for drug addiction in the country rose 20% from 2001 to 2008 and then stabilized, Portuguese officials have said.

Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky.
US charge d'affaires ad interim in Bucharest, David Muniz, and commander of Aviano's 31st Fighter Wing Squadron, Brigadier General Jason E. Bailey, will visit on Thursday the 71st "General Emanoil Ionescu" Air Base in Campia Turzii - Cluj County, the Ministry of National Defense informs.

According to the cited source, this will be an occasion to discuss Air Force matters of common interest, such the contribution and role of the Romanian and the US Air Force within the NATO measures to reinforce the Alliance's eastern flank, as well as bilateral cooperation within the Romania - US strategic partnership.

An MQ-9 Reaper aircraft will be presented in a static display during the event.

A detachment consisting of MQ-9 Reaper aircraft and about 90 US Air Force personnel are being relocated over the next months to the 71st "General Emanoil Ionescu" Air Base in Campia Turzii.

The US troops will carry out intelligence, surveillance and research missions in support of NATO operations, and the Romanian Air Force will provide, through the 71st Air Base, the technical, operational and logistic support they need for their missions throughout their deployment to Romania.

The presence of the American partners in Romania is an opportunity to develop, test and asses the combat capability, as joint activities are key to increasing the level of interoperability between the two parties, the Defense Ministry said.

The US - Romania cooperation contributes to strengthening the collective defense capacity and to increasing regional security, the cited release notes.

The MQ-9 Reaper is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations; the aircraft is developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI), primarily for the United States Air Force.

The personnel operating the aircraft are usually stationed in military facilities and can tackle targets and observe the terrain using multiple sensors, including a thermographic camera. The operator's command takes 1.2 seconds to reach the drone via a satellite link. The MQ-9 Reaper is equipped with six stores pylons that can each carry several hundred kilograms.
Jerry Lara /Staff photographer

People scheduled to get their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine at the Alamodome this week will have to wait until mid-February.

On Monday, city officials said that second-dose appointments on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday would be pushed to Feb. 16-18 because a shipment from the state health department was delayed. The postponement affects more than 5,000 people, said Anita Kurian, head of the communicable disease division at Metro Health.
opinion

Ahead of the January 14 election, Uganda shuttered the Internet, lifting them after almost five days.

An earlier blockage of social media is now in its third week. In the 2016 Internet shutdown, it was reported that Uganda lost close to $2 million for each day the country was off the web.

This time, with the massive shift online fuelled by the Covid-19 and shutdowns, and growth in the digital economy, the losses have been big. One report quoted the Financial Technology and Service Providers Association estimates that companies in their sector alone lost at least Ush66 billion ($17.89 million) daily during the shutdown.

The reasons for the Internet shut down and social media blockade, as indeed the arguments made against it, are familiar, so we won't dwell on them.

One of the things that was striking, was how much the move was a great act of self-sabotage. Immediately, a whole innovative system developed by heroic teachers to teach the millions of students still stranded at home via WhatsApp due to Covid-19 restrictions, went up the chimney.

The African and global fan club of tormented musician-turned-politician and President Yoweri Museveni's main rival Robert Kyagulanyi (more commonly known by his stage name Bobi Wine) is big. They had a field day.

The wave of allegations of electoral skullduggery against Museveni's campaign and the state, that still flourished on social media, trending for days in Kenya, faced virtually no pushback from Museveni's digital troops. From time to time, a regime official or ruling NRM functionary would rear their head for a fight, and very quickly retreat when asked how come he was sidestepping his own government's blockade with a virtual private network (VPN).

The action also likely finally turned Uganda into Africa's uncontested VPN capital.

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In 2016 following a similar election-related social media blackout, within 24 hours Ugandans made 1.5 million VPN downloads on Android alone. At that time, that was about 15 per cent of Uganda's internet users.

In 2018, when Kampala imposed a social media tax (the so-called "gossip tax") there was another exodus, with one proxy measure being Ugandan visits to VPN comparison site ProPrivacy, which the site said rose by 1,567 per cent.

A regulatory notice said VPNs were going to be blocked, an action that would affect mostly the free VPNs. The people who would be able to get paid VPN, or use the other code-based work arounds, are the urban elite, a constituency where Museveni and NRM were ousted by the opposition long ago. It's likely, therefore, that the humble honest NRM believers are more adversely affected.

Ugandans have so many VPNs on their phones, one of them told me he "didn't know which one" was working when he called me.

When the government said it would go after those using VPNs, there was a noticeable number of Ugandans who changed their Twitter names, leaving only the only handle, and some even changed both, sending them deep into social media's anonymity caves.

The Kampala government has thus simultaneously fuelled a massive migration by Ugandans to technologies that make it harder to track their activities online, and dramatically raised its cost of keeping a tab on them.

The author is a journalist, writer and curator of the "Wall of Great Africans".
Outbreak thought to be caused by recruits dining and socialising together

Sandhurst has been hit by a mass outbreak of Covid-19 after officer cadets breached social distancing rules, the Mail can reveal.

Nearly 50 positive cases have been recorded among the 750 trainees - including a member of the Qatari royal family - at the prestigious academy, which trains the cream of the UKs military talent and was attended by Princes William and Harry.

The outbreak is thought to have been caused by recruits flouting social distancing rules by dining and socialising together even though they were in different work bubbles, leaving commanders furious.

Now the recruits have been banned from using the gym, taking any unsupervised exercise or smoking breaks, saying hello to friends or family at the academys gates or consuming alcohol.

Nearly 50 positive cases have been recorded among the 750 trainees at the prestigious academy, which trains the cream of the UKs military talent and was attended by Princes William and Harry

Crucial military exercises have also been cancelled and some officer cadets face not completing their courses and may be prevented from joining their regiments unless the outbreak is curtailed.

A member of the Qatari royal family who is seeking to graduate as an overseas officer cadet is among those struck down by the virus at the Berkshire academy. Four members of staff have also tested positive.

Lieutenant Colonel James Lane, commander of Sandhursts New College, told cadets they faced severe punishment if they breached the new rules.

He said: Due to a failure of adherence to FHPI (forces health protection instructions) and with numerous platoons affected by the current mass outbreak within the academy, the below orders are to be enacted to protect officer cadets, staff, families and contractors and are designed to break the current cycle of spread.

Action will be taken against any staff or cadets who do not adhere to these measures. The standard punishment for an officer cadet who transgresses is to be three work parades and for a member of staff three additional duties.

Now the recruits have been banned from using the gym, taking any unsupervised exercise or smoking breaks, saying hello to friends or family at the academys gates or consuming alcohol. Pictured: Prince Charles inspects the Officer Cadets during the Sovereign's Parade

Those in isolation must not enter the dining room. This must be made clear to all to ensure everyone understands the potential catastrophic consequences of this irresponsible action.

The following are to be implemented with immediate effect: Exercise Allenbys Advance, cancelled. Colleges are out of bounds to all except those who work in them.

'All interaction between officer cadets and friends and family at the academy gates is to cease. Gyms are to shut. Alcohol is not to be consumed by officer cadets, irrespective of isolation or quarantine status. We are now dry.

The outbreak has also affected food supplies at Sandhurst. But when trainees asked for takeaway pizzas to be ordered on their behalf, Lt Col Lane said: Sadly, college funds do not extend to the purchase of pizzas for all those now in isolation or quarantine.

The cancellation of the week-long Exercise Allenbys Advance is significant. It had been due to take place in Brecon, mid-Wales, and was an opportunity for officer cadets to learn infantry training skills, ambushes, reconnaissance patrols and night raids.

The mass outbreak comes after dozens of Sandhurst cadets were disciplined for breaking coronavirus rules by holding an alcohol-fuelled party.

Up to 50 trainee officers went on a drunken spree in the Old College, which faces the famous parade ground where graduates take part in the passing-out ceremony.

They got drunk, ignored social distancing rules and smashed a television. The most serious offenders were punished with 5am room inspections and extra cleaning duties.

Sandhurst was established in 1812 and former cadets also include Sir Winston Churchill.

The Ministry of Defence said last night: We have taken decisive action to put in place additional measures following an increase in positive Covid-19 tests and isolations at Sandhurst.

'By acting swiftly we expect these measures will stop the spread of the virus and safeguard critical training. We take the health and wellbeing our of personnel very seriously.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Lara Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: LRA) ("Lara"), is pleased to report the receipt of additional drill results from partner Hochschild Mining plc., for Lara's Corina Gold Project in southern Peru. Hochschild completed a further 2,318 metres of resource drilling in Q4-2020 on the Corina structure, in follow-up to the discovery drilling completed in 2019 (see Company news release of October 1, 2019 for details). Drilling continues with resource and exploration drilling in the Corina and associated structures to the northeast of the system. The new results are summarized in the table below:

Drillhole ID UTM-E UTM-N From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Gold (g/t) Silver (g/t) DHCOR20015 716,351.55 8,390,929.94 182.70 212.30 29.60 2.5 23 including 184.50 187.35 2.85 10.1 62 DHCOR20018 716,133.76 8,391,095.60 157.80 159.80 2.00 1.2 14 DHCOR20019 716,276.78 8,390,952.96 205.50 211.30 5.80 1.4 23 DHCOR20020 716,351.47 8,390,930.03 204.65 236.20 31.55 4.9 43 DHCOR20021 716,138.68 8,391,093.65 143.75 163.10 19.35 3.9 47 including 151.70 156.50 4.80 8.4 88 DHCOR20022 716,276.77 8,390,952.72 243.50 245.30 1.80 1.4 3 DHCOR20025 716,278.10 8,390,954.99 201.40 206.70 5.30 3.6 19

The reported intercepts are close to, but do not necessarily represent true widths.

Hochschild has the option to purchase the Corina Project from Lara by making staged cash payments totalling US$4,150,000 of which US$650,000 has been paid to date, with the next installment of US$1,000,000 due in July 2021. Hochschild also has the obligation to pay a 2% net smelter return royalty on any production (see Company news release of June 23, 2014 for details).

The Corina Gold Project covers part of a belt of Tertiary-age volcanic rocks in southern Peru that also host Hochschild's Pallancata and Immaculada mining operations and past producer Selene, with Lara's project located approximately 15km north (approximately 25km by road) of the mill at Selene, which currently processes ore from the Pallancata mine.

Drilling Data, QAQC and Qualified Person

Drilling is being supervised by Hochschild's brownfields technical team, based at the Pallancata Mine. The Q4-2020 drilling generated 1,080 core samples, which were submitted for analysis at Hochschild's internal laboratory at the Selene Plant nearby, along with a total of 234 QAQC reference samples (blanks, standards and duplicates).

Michael Bennell, Lara's Vice President Exploration and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and has approved the technical disclosure and verified the technical information in this news release.

About Lara

Lara is an exploration company following the Prospect and Royalty Generator business model, which aims to minimize shareholder dilution and financial risk by generating prospects and exploring them in joint ventures funded by partners, retaining a minority interest and or a royalty. The Company currently holds a diverse portfolio of prospects, deposits and royalties in Brazil and Peru. Lara's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "LRA".

For further information on Lara Exploration Ltd. please consult our website www.laraexploration.com, or contact Chris MacIntyre, VP Corporate Development, at +1 416 703 0010.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

-30-

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73347
PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Green Roof Market by Outlook (Extensive and Intensive), Distribution Channel (Online and Offline), and Application (Residential, Commercial, and Industrial): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202027". As per the report, the global green roof industry generated $1.45 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $4.19 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 15.6% from 2020 to 2027.

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities

Increase in awareness regarding green roof systems, rise in the greenhouse effect, and growth in the residential construction sector drive the growth of the global green roof market. However, presence of substitutes and unfavorable climate conditions hamper the market growth. On the contrary, tax benefits offered by the government to private industries to install green roofs are expected to open lucrative opportunities for the market players in the future.

Download Sample PDF: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/9147

COVID-19 scenario:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, government declared shut down of the production of various sizes of green roof systems to curb the spread of the infection.

The halt in international trade, ceased construction projects, and disruption in the supply chain hampered the demand for green roof systems.

The intensive segment to manifest the highest CAGR through 2027

By type, the intensive segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 17.0% during the forecast period, owing to rapid urbanization, increase in population, and rise in disposable income. However, the extensive segment held the lion's share in 2019, accounting for nearly four-fifths of the global green roof market, due to increase in commercial construction activities that led to high investments.

The commercial segment held the lion's share

By application, the commercial segment dominated the market in 2019, contributing to nearly two-thirds of the global green roof market, due to rise in commercial construction activities and increase in awareness about green roof systems. However, the industrial segment is projected to register the highest CAGR of 17.1% during the forecast period, owing to expansion of the manufacturing sector in emerging countries such as India, China, and Singapore.

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Green Roof Market: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/9147?reqfor=covid

Asia-Pacific to register the highest CAGR; North America would gain momentum

By region, the market across Asia-Pacific is anticipated to manifest the highest CAGR of 18.3% during the forecast period, due to rise in urbanization & industrialization in emerging countries such as India, Japan, and others. However, the global green roof market across Europe held the largest share in 2019, accounting for nearly two-fifths of the total revenue of the market, owing to increase in awareness about green roof systems among the European population and growth in standard of living. In addition, North America is expected to register a CAGR of 15.0% from 2020 to 2027.

Key market players

Axter Limited

Green Roof Blocks

Bauder Ltd

Sempergreen Group

Optigrun International AG

Barrett Company

American Hydrotech Inc

Onduline Group SAS

ArchiGreen Roof Ltd

XeroFlor North America

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Roofing Market: Global roofing market is projected to reach $132,775.6 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.6% from 2020 to 2027.

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Home Automation Market: Global Home Automation Market is significantly reach at $81,645 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 11.2% from 2017 to 2023.

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The Texas Education Agencys latest guidance on how to administer the STAAR exams this spring and summer gives school districts flexibility in their scheduling but requires them to be administered in person.

The agency directed administrators to encourage at-home learners to show up for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, but did not specify consequences if they did not  except for high school seniors who will need to pass end-of-course exams to graduate, and English learners who will miss a chance to prove their proficiency.

To ensure equity for all students, a student must be present at a monitored testing session and must be supervised by a trained test administrator, the agencys updated STAAR guidance states.

Performance on the standardized test this year wont hold students back in the 5th and 8th grades or affect the states accountability rating for schools and school districts, but the data is crucial to knowing how much academic ground Texas students have lost during the pandemic, officials have said. But some have questioned the value of that data if large numbers of students choose not to participate.

In its initial announcement that the test would be administered this year after the coronavirus pandemic cancelled it in 2020, the TEA had acknowledged that some parents of students who were learning at home would not want their kids on campus to take it, and ducked questions about what would happen to classroom learners who skipped it as well.

Now the agency is telling school districts they must make an attempt to test students who are receiving homebound services and instruction.

The guidance allows an extended online testing window for both STAAR 3-8 assessments and STAAR end of-course exams for high school seniors, allowing for five-week periods starting April 6 and ending in June. Adminnistration of the exams on paper will be limited to a single day, because of the time required to ship, process, and score paper testing materials and maintain reporting dates, the guidance states.

Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox

The extension was designed to help schools reduce crowding by staggering the tests days, and to give students who might be under quarantine time to recover and still take the test.

San Antonio area school districts said they were just starting to communicate the requirements to parents and staff and developing plans to administer the tests safely.

Our largest testing group is always the spring and certainly this spring requires our greatest focus, because we are looking at our in-person students and bringing our virtual learners onto campus for the assessments, said Carin Adermann, director of testing and evaluation at Northside Independent School District.

We are encouraging high school students to participate. If the student does not pass or chooses not to participate in the in-person environment, they may take the assessment during the next administration to meet the requirements, Adermann said.

Students who decline to take the STAAR might qualify for medical exceptions or simply be marked as absent. Skipping a test designed for English learners could cause students to miss the opportunity to be reclassified as English proficient, TEA guidance notes.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas students will take STAAR exams but the stakes will ease for school districts

The exams will be held over a number of days so that we have the space to socially distance children in testing areas, North East ISD Superintendent Sean Maika said in a recent email to parents. We will follow CDC guidelines, as well as District health and safety protocols.

Aubrey Chancellor, the NEISD executive director of communications, said administrators are considering asking some students in grades that dont take the STAAR to stay at home and take classes online on the testing dates, to allow for fewer students on campus. The TEA is allowing that option.

Districts are also allowed to set up alternate testing sites to allow for social distance, such as performing arts centers, recreational centers, hotels, other learning centers, the guidance states.

But not every option will a districts needs and budget.

At Northside, every plan is unique to a particular school, Adermann said, as some might have more virtual learners than others, but the testing accommodations will likely happen at the students assigned campus.

We are definitely creating unique options, but we are doing it at the students home campus, she said. We believe that we can create the safest and most comfortable environment at the campus to which they are assigned.

Parents can expect more information from individual campuses this month, district officials said, as administrators work to finalize their plans.

danya.perez@express-news.net
Hanois Noi Bai International Airport has 16 employees who are F1 (direct contact with F0) and hundreds of F2 cases. If one of them is infected, the airport may have to be closed.

Noi Bai airport is at risk as many employees exposed to Covid-19 infection

To Tu Ha, Acting Director of Noi Bai International Airport, has just sent a letter to the Ministries of Health and Transport and the Hanoi Steering Committee for Disease Control asking to administer Covid-19 tests for around 3,200 staff of the airport.

Ha said that despite stringent Covid-19 prevention efforts, the airport is facing high risk of Covid-19 infection.

Up to 16 employees at the airport had close contact with a woman in Hai Duong Province who tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in Japan and a patient who is a security staff at Van Don Airport in Quang Ninh province.

Hundreds of staff from the airport are also coping with the risk of the virus infection as they are F2 (contact of F1) cases.

If the infection is detected, it is possible for the airport to be temporarily shut, Ha warned. He noted that the Covid-19 tests for the airport staff was urgently needed.

Most passengers are aware of the need to wear mask.

At Noi Bai international airport, measures to prevent Covid-19 epidemic have been carried out synchronously. In addition to measuring body temperature, most passengers are aware of the need to wear masks and wash hands.

Representatives of the Northern Airport Authority said that the airport staff regularly checks and reminds passengers to wear masks at the airport. However, there are still some passengers who ignore this.

Vu Diep

Air passengers have tickets refunded due to COVID-19 A number of domestic airlines have implemented a new policy aimed at refunding passengers tickets and performing quick check-in procedures at airports as the country is dealing with a fresh wave of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
10 March 2021

UPDATE

Please be aware that Ireland's national Level Five lockdown, the most restrictive level of the National Framework on Living with Covid-19, has been extended to 5 April.

The Consulate General of Ireland remains open in line with local public health advice in San Francisco. We are operating with vastly reduced numbers of staff present in the office.

In parallel to the approach being taken by the Government of Ireland, the additional restrictions arising from the City and County of San Francisco's placement within Californias Blueprint for a Safer Economy mean that the Consulate has reduced operations to essential services only. This includes the issuing of emergency travel documents, visas and provision of consular assistance.

For updates please follow us on social media (@IrelandinSF on twitter and Facebook) and please be aware that most passport types are renewable online.

We continue to be available to answer your queries. For the most up-to-date information please see below.

Travel to Ireland update:

The Government of Ireland continues to recommend against any non-essential travel to Ireland at present (as does the US government). For those who do travel to Ireland please make sure you are reviewing the most recent official guidance which is available here.

Irish citizens, and others, are free to travel from the US to Ireland on any scheduled flights from a US airport and flights continue to operate, albeit in reduced numbers and from a reduced number of airports. Flights continue to operate directly to Dublin from New York (JFK), Boston and Chicago.

As of Saturday, 16 January, passengers arriving into Ireland from all countries, including the US, are required to show a negative result of a pre-departure PCR Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival in the State. Checks will be made by the Border Management Unit at Dublin Airport and by An Garda Siochana at other points of entry. Mandatory quarantine at a designated facility is required for passengers who arrive in breach of the pre-departure negative/'not detected' PCR requirement.

Please see here for PCR Covid-19 test centres in a variety of locations in the Western USA.

Children aged six and under are exempt from this requirement.

Updated information on these measures are on the gov.ie website, the website of the Irish Immigration and Naturalisation Service, and on our country specific travel pages.

Ireland has implemented the EU Traffic Light System whereby restrictions are based on the location of the passenger during the 14 days prior to arrival. In general, you are requested to restrict your movements for 14 days if you arrive into Ireland from another country. This applies to all travellers entering the State, including Irish citizens coming home and people with no symptoms. Restricting your movements means avoiding contact with other people and social situations as much as possible. Irelands Health Service Executive has provided guidance this on their website.

Passengers entering Ireland from red regions (which currently includes the USA) can exit quarantine early following receipt of a negative/not-detected result from a Covid-19 PCR test taken a minimum of five days after arrival in Ireland. Test results can take a few days; passengers are requested to continue to restrict their movements until they have the negative result. The PCR Covid-19 test is currently the only test type considered acceptable by public health authorities in Ireland in relation to international travel. Testing provision under Irelands framework for international travel is not provided through the public health system, but met by the private commercial sector testing supply, paid for by passengers.

The links below on Cork and Dublin airports websites give details of the current companies providing PCR tests.

Dublin Airport website

Cork Airport website

The general request to restrict movements does not apply to persons travelling for an essential need or function as defined by Paragraph 19 of the EU Council Recommendation on Travel for an Essential Purpose. It is the responsibility of each individual to determine if their circumstances fall into one of the categories in Paragraph 19 of the Recommendation on travel for an essential need or function.

For up-to-date information on what to do if you are travelling to Ireland at this time, please see the Irish Government website.

All passengers arriving to Ireland from overseas must complete a mandatory Public Health Passenger Locator Form and submit it to the relevant authority at their port of entry. Exemptions are in place for providers of essential supply chain services such as hauliers, pilots and maritime staff. See the Irish Government Advice Page for full information.

Further advice for people who have recently returned from abroad is available from the HSE. Please heed this restriction carefully in order to protect yourself and others. Please also download the new tracker app which will help slow the spread of Covid-19 in Ireland.

For our latest travel advice on the United States please see here.

Passport Office update

Ireland remains in Level Five, the most restrictive level of the National Framework on Living with Covid-19. This has been extended to 5 April.

During this time, passport processing is impacted. During this period online passport applications can be submitted but will only be processed when restrictions are moved back down to Level Three.

Please be aware that due to a shift in policy at the passport office, we can no longer accept paper passport applications.

Any such received will be returned unchecked to the applicant. Any documents which we currently have will be held securely at the Consulate until we can progress these outstanding applications.

Please note that paper applications may no longer be submitted to the Consulate.

Foreign Birth Registration/Irish citizenship

Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) applications are not currently being processed. If you have already sent an application for FBR, your application is safe, and will be processed once this service resumes in Ireland.

Details on this process are available here or, if you prefer, we have prepared a video detailing the process which can be viewed here.

Consular Assistance

In line with guidance issued by the state of California and the city of San Francisco, we are operating under the auspices of the public health and social distancing regulations in place locally.

At the present time, our public office remains shut.

Consulate officers remain on call to assist as we have been during the pandemic. We would ask that, if you are in need of emergency assistance, you contact the Consulate through our website "Contact us" form.

Alternatively you can call +1 415 823 7150 and leave a message.

The mailbox and answering machine are both monitored regularly and an officer will contact you as soon as possible.

We continue to discourage people from attending in person unless it is absolutely necessary to do so. We are not open to the public and therefore require all communication with the Consulate to be conducted by post, by phone and by email.

If you feel that you absolutely need to have an in person appointment, please outline in your email or call the reasons for this. We will be happy to advise.

Visas

We continue to process visas for those seeking to move to Ireland for long stay (in excess of 90 days) only.

Visas for short stays (less than 90 days) are only being processed on an exceptional basis. Those requiring a short term visa to visit Ireland at this time should contact the Consulate through the Contact Us tab on our website.

Details on visa requirements are here.

Working Holiday Authorisations

Applications for Working Holiday Authorisations for US national graduates are not currently being processed.

Details on requirements are here.

Other services

Other consular services are not available except in cases of genuine emergency.

Again if you have a need for consular assistance which you feel is an emergency, we would ask that you contact us as per the above.

Latest Official Travel Advice

Latest Travel Alert

There is an increased threat of terrorism and extremist violence worldwide and this should be borne in mind by Irish citizens living and working in the USA. The USA has also witnessed a number of mass shootings in recent years.

Protests, in some cases violent, have taken place in major cities across the United States in recent months. Curfews were enforced in many cities as a result. There remains the potential for further protests and curfews. Irish citizens are advised to avoid large gatherings of people, and to follow the advice of the local authorities.

Travel to the USA

We continue to advise against all non-essential travel to the USA in response to the outbreak of Covid-19.

We are also urging all Irish visitors to the USA, including those on short-term visas (including J1) who risk losing employment, financial security and access to healthcare to return to Ireland from the USA, as soon as possible. Direct flights continue to operate from Chicago, New York (JFK) and Boston.

Covid 19 in the United States

Cases of Covid 19 have been confirmed in the USA including the region covered by the Consulate General of Ireland in San Francisco.

Irish citizens in our consular region can access localised up-to-date information for the region through the authorities listed below:

Alaska: Website and Twitter

California: Website and Twitter

Idaho: Website and Twitter

Montana: Website and Twitter

Oregon: Website and Twitter

Washington: Website and Twitter

Wyoming: Website and Twitter

As a result of the Covid-19 outbreak the US has implemented special entry restrictions for their territory.

Entry into the US is restricted for those travelling from Ireland, the UK, Schengen Area countries, Brazil, China and Iran.

Non US nationals including Irish nationals who have visited, or are resident in the countries listed above for 14 days or less prior to their travel to the USA will be denied entry, unless they are legal permanent residents of the US, or the spouse or child of a US national.

Non-US nationals with legal permanent residence in the US (e.g. green card holders) and their immediate family, as well as immediate family (spouse and children) of US nationals are not restricted from entering the US. However, if travelling from a restricted country they will now be required to enter the country through one of thirteen designated airports and will undergo additional screening on arrival. Further information can be found here. The US Center for Disease Control have also recommended staying home for 14 days from the time of arrival after international travel. Further information can be found here.

The US Government will not permit entry to the USA of any foreign nationals who have visited China or Iran 14 days or less prior to their travel to the USA.

There are currently no restrictions on flights from the USA to Ireland or the UK. You should check with your airline for any additional information they may require before you can board.

There are also a number of restrictive measures in place at the state or city level. If you are an Irish citizen planning to travel to, or resident in, the US we ask that you refer to us, or to your nearest Irish consulate and the local health authority for the most up to date advice.

For further information related to the Covid-19 pandemic, please see links below for details.

US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention

World Health Organisation

If you are in the USA, you should monitor developments regularly and follow the advice of local authorities.

Be alert to common signs of infection: respiratory problems, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Seek medical advice if you experience these symptoms.

HSE medical advice to protect yourself from getting Covid-19 is below.

Do:

 wash your hands properly and regularly with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub

 cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve when you cough and sneeze

 put used tissues into a bin and wash your hands

Dont:

Touch your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean

Additional information on Covid 19 can be found via the following links:

HSE

HPSC

ECDC

World Health Organisation

Centre for Disease Control (CDC)
A YOUNG man who cut and slashed two other men while off his head on drink and drugs has avoided an immediate prison sentence.

Imposing a suspended sentence, Judge Tom ODonnell told Adam Coleman what he did was very wrong but that he was prepared to give him a chance.

Mr Coleman, 24, of Mahon House, Upper William Street, Limerick had pleaded guilty to charges of assault relating to an incident in the Cornmarket area of the city centre in the early hours of June 30, 2017.

Garda Andrew OConnor said Mr Coleman initially encountered the two victims at a takeaway and that he asked for a fight outside.

However, John OSullivan BL, prosecuting, said he came off the worse and that he was knocked to the ground. He left the area but returned again a short time later.

Garda OConnor said Mr Coleman was armed with a knife when he returned and that he ran at a group of people, including the two men he had encountered earlier.

He attempted to cut and slash people at random, he stated.

One of the men he cut sustained relatively minor injuries while the second sustained serious injuries to his hand which required plastic surgery and ongoing medical treatment.

The defendant was restrained at the scene and made admissions when questioned by gardai a number of days later.

Barrister Eimear Carey said her client had consumed alcohol and drugs on the night that he was in self-destruct mode.

He felt as if he was in a movie, she said adding Mr Coleman is extremely remorseful, is now in a stable relationship and has not come to the attention of gardai since.

If he could take it back and change what happened he would, added the barrister.

Imposing sentence, the judge said the use of a knife was a significant concern and that what happened was extremely serious and frightening.

He said the positive contents of a probation report and the delay in the matter coming before the court were factors which he had to consider.

He imposed a two-and-a-half year sentence which he suspended in its entirety.
Furious South Dakota business owners have voiced anger at President Biden for crushing their dreams by scrapping the Keystone XL pipeline - meaning they will lose the custom of construction workers in the state.

Hotel owner Laurie Cox described a 'gut-sinking feeling' when Biden pulled the plug on the $9billion project on his first day in office, after Keystone XL workers had spent months getting food and accommodation at her hotel.

A truck stop owner in Milesville accused Biden of killing the pipeline as payback against Donald Trump, telling the Washington Examiner that 'the way it is now, if you're a Republican, they're going to cut your head off'.

Others in South Dakota had opposed the project, which Biden had promised to cancel after it was blocked by Barack Obama but revived by Trump.

President Biden, pictured, signed an executive order on his first day in office revoking a federal permit for the Keystone XL pipeline that had been granted by Donald Trump

Heavy equipment is seen on part of the Keystone XL route on Monday, as business owners along the route said their dreams had been crushed by Biden's decision

Cox, the hotel owner, said the pipeline workers had become like a 'family' over the months of construction in the town of Midland.

She and her husband had only bought the hotel in September and hoped that pipeline workers would help keep it running for at least the next year.

Cox described making food and running errands for 'her guys' while they worked on the pipeline - before tearing up when she heard about Biden's executive order.

'I tried to choke back my tears because they were still packing up, and their families still had to be told, and the last thing they needed was an innkeeper sitting here crying on them,' she said.

Trudy Flesner, the truck stop owner, described building up a business before Obama scrapped the project, then reviving it under Trump only to be thwarted again in 2021.

'I don't want us to be like the North and the South... you're a Republican, and you're a Democrat, so we're going to war against you. I don't want that,' she said.

A South Dakota mechanic, Gaylord Lincoln, challenged politicians to come to the state and 'see the destruction you caused'.

'It's all bulls*** in Washington. They are playing with our lives,' Lincoln said.

One small-town mayor voiced hope that Biden would either change his mind or that the next president would resurrect the project.

South Dakota has been the scene of controversy over the project after governor Kristi Noem clashed with Native American tribes who opposed the pipeline.

Noem, a Republican, threatened to sue the tribes who had put up coronavirus checkpoints on federal and state highways which connected to construction sites.

A pipeline sign on a farmer's land in Canada, where Biden's decision was also greeted with disappointment

South Dakota saw months-long, sometimes violent protests against another oil pipeline project several years ago near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Biden had promised to revoke the federal permit for Keystone XL, which was granted by Trump in 2017 after previously being denied by Obama in 2015.

While only 1,000 current jobs are being eliminated as a result of Biden's move, the company had said it planned to employ more than 11,000 Americans in 2021.

His decision was also met with disappointment in Canada, where construction of the $9billion pipeline was already well underway.

Alberta-based TC Energy Corp said the move to cancel the pipeline first approved by Canadian regulators in 2010 would mean thousands of lost jobs.

While Ottawa has always supported the project, including current Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, it has long been opposed by environmentalists.

'While we welcome the president's commitment to fight climate change, we are disappointed but acknowledge the President's decision to fulfill his election campaign promise on Keystone XL,' Trudeau said after Biden's inauguration.

The 1,210-mile pipeline was to transport up to 830,000 barrels per day from Alberta to Nebraska and then through an existing system to refineries in Texas.

Work to increase the capacity of two other Canadian export pipelines, the government-owned Trans Mountain and Enbridge's Line 3, is proceeding with fewer remaining hurdles.



A Lord has rued the fact his grandfather did not realise a painting which hung in the servants' quarters and was sold 'for a few shillings' was actually a Botticelli masterpiece worth 67million.

Last week the Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel went under the hammer at Sotheby's auction in New York, and after an opening bid of $80m it was eventually sold via Lilija Sitnika, Sotheby's liaison official with Russian clients for $92million.

Now Lord Newborough has revealed the painting, which was once owned by his family, was sold as part of a job lot in the 1940s when the family moved out of the Plas Glynllifon estate in Wales.

'No-one knew what it was worth and it was sold for a few shillings as part of a job lot,' he said.

The final knockdown figure of 67million was by far the highest paid for a Botticelli at auction and the second highest ever for an Old Master at auction.

The portrait, believed to be of a member of the Medici family, is estimated to have been painted around 1480 and is one of only about 50 paintings by Botticelli known to have survived.

Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel went under the hammer at Sotheby's auction in New York last week and was eventually sold for a record $92.2million to a Russian client

Exactly how the painting came to be at Plas Glynllifon, the Newborough family home at Llanwnda, near Caernarfon, is not known.

Lord Newborough who now lives at the Rhug Estate in Corwen, North Wales

But it is thought to have been acquired by the first Baron Newborough, Thomas Winn, who lived in Tuscany in the 18th century and married an Italian woman.

The first record of it dates from the early 1930s, but there is some dispute over how and when it was sold.

According to the current Lord Newborough - the 8th Baron - it remained in the servants' quarters until the hall itself was sold in 1948.

But according to various records including the Sotheby's pre-sale details, it was bought in about 1935 by art dealer Frank Sabin from the 6th Baron Newborough, who did not know its true value.

Frank Sabin sold the portrait to collector Sir Thomas Merton in 1941 for a five-figure sum and that is when it was first described as a work by Botticelli.

In 1982 it was sold at auction for 810,000 to American property billionaire Sheldon Solow.

Mr Solow died last November and it is understood that is how it came to be put up for sale.

The painting hung in the servants' quarters at Plas Glynllifon after it was reportedly purchased by the first Baron Newborough in the 18th century and was sold for 'a few shillings' in 1940s

Since then it has been on loan to several major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in London and the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt.

A Sotheby's spokesman said: 'Over the years the picture's attribution has been a source of some conjecture among scholars and it had previously been ascribed to Francesco Botticini (1446-1498) as well as the school of Botticelli, rather than the master.

'However, in 1987 it was endorsed by the art historian Richard Stapleford who believed it to be an autograph work from the early 1480s executed during Botticelli's time in Rome or in the two or three years following.'

Sotheby's also conducted further tests including X-rays and infra-red reflectograms to confirm its provenance.

Portrait was discovered to be a Botticelli masterpiece after it was sold for a five-figure sum to collector Sir Thomas Merton. It recently came up for auction after its most recent owner US billionaire Sheldon Solow died in November and has been on loan to various museums

Lord Newborough, who now lives at Rhug, near Corwen, said he had been invited to see the painting while it was in London but had previously been unaware of its significance.

The historic mansion, Plas Glynllifon, became a privately-owned venue which multiple owners have tried to convert into a high-end hotel and wedding venue.

However, it was announced last year that a failed renovation of the 102-room building, which has since fallen into disrepair, had meant it was being placed into receivership.

Asked if he had considered entering the bidding to enable the masterpiece to be returned to the family, Lord Newborough laughingly commented: 'In my dreams'.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China's Vehicle Inventory Alert Index (VIA) stood at 60.1% in January 2021, which dropped 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous month and fell 2.6 percentage points over the previous year, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA). The VIA was still above the official warning threshold.



In January 2021, the car shopping demands evidently dropped as the forthcoming Spring Festival and the intensified prevention and control of coronavirus pandemic led to the decrease in dealer showroom traffic, said the CADA.

The association also noted some demands had been overdrawn in December 2020 because many incentive policies would be terminated by 2020, which somewhat spurred car consumption demands.

As for the performances by regions, the VIA of northern region reached 64.6% in January, rising 3.5 percentage points over a month earlier. The CADA said dealers in northern region faced heavy inventory pressure due to the occurrence of some confirmed cases leading that caused shrinking footfall for dealerships.

The northern region includes Beijing, Hebei, Henan, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi.

The VIA of imported & luxury auto brands and mainstream joint-venture brands stood at 56.4% and 59.4% in January, declining 4.1 and 1.6 percentage points from the previous month. Meanwhile, the index of China's self-owned brands slid 6.6 percentage points month on month to 61.1%.

The CADA expected China auto sales to further decrease this month as January and February are traditional off-season for car shopping and sporadic COVID-19 cases occur in some regions.
Michiganders could have a chance at retro license plates under a proposed bill.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, reintroduced a bill to bring back the blue license plates used from 1983 to 2007 and black plates issued between 1979 and 1983.

The plates would be available to Michigan drivers for a $100 fee. Funds from the nostalgic plates would go to the states transportation fund and used for Michigan roads, according to a release from McMorrows office.

Inspiration for this bill came from McMorrows district, former career and California.

Royal Oak is partially home to the Woodward Dream Cruise, a one-day summer event. There is an abundance of car culture in her district, McMorrow said.

The vintage license plate designs will instill pride in Michigans reputation for automotive development, said Shawn Pomaville-Size, Executive Director of the MotorCities National Heritage Area.

We are happy to support the classic license plate design knowing it will produce a positive influence on both our culture and our economy, Pomaville-Size said in a statement.

When McMorrow was elected in 2018, friends and colleagues from her auto-journalism days asked her to bring back the blue license plate.

It seemed kind of silly at the time, she said. But the more we looked into it, we learned that California had actually done something similar.

In 2014, Californias legislature passed a bill offering a nostalgic black license plate. Released in 2015, it became the most popular specialty plate, generating millions for state budget shortfalls, McMorrow said.

McMorrows bill was previously introduced but did not have a hearing due to COVID-19. It had broad bipartisan support, she said.

The bill will have to pass the Michigan Senate and House and is currently in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Michigan Secretary of State office was not available for comment on this story.
A critical struggle is now unfolding in Chicago, which has vast significance for workers across the United States and internationally. Educators are determined to prevent the deadly reopening of schools in the third largest school district in the US, placing them in direct conflict with the Democratic Party and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), which are negotiating for this reopening to begin as soon as possible.

Chicago teachers march in October, 2019

In countries throughout the world that have been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ruling elites are seeking to reopen schools in order to compel parents to go back to work. On Monday, schools in Sao Paulo, Brazil began reopening, sending potentially over two million students back into classrooms, even as virulent new strains of the virus spread throughout the country. Similar homicidal policies are being pursued in Germany, Britain and across Europe, and dozens of other countries around the world.

Due to the global character of this campaign, the working class internationally must mobilize to unite with Chicago educators and carry out the broadest struggle possible in defense of the lives and safety of the working class.

On Monday evening, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Janice Jackson and Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that there would be a 48-hour cooling off period to forestall a teachers strike. Having reached a compromise with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) on an unspecified aspect of their plan to reopen schools, Lightfoot and Jackson stated that as a gesture of good faith, for now, teachers will retain access to their Google Suitethat is, they will not be locked out of online teaching.

Nothing will change in the coming days between the CPS and CTU, which are in basic agreement that schools should reopen at the worst stage of the pandemic. The only significant change during that time will be that more than 300,000 people will become infected and at least 6,000 more people will die from COVID-19 across the US.

With the COVID-19 death toll in the US standing at 454,213, after 97,917 people died in January, as more infectious variants of the virus spread largely undetected throughout the country, and as growing numbers of children become hospitalized and die from the virus, the Democratic Party is relentlessly pursuing school reopenings in the interests of Wall Street.

CPS and the CTU are in regular communication with the Biden administration, whose central policy proposal is to reopen the majority of schools by the end of April. They are all acutely aware that the opposition among educators threatens to break out of their control and spark a wave of resistance among all workers across the US and globally. For this reason, the district and the union are biding their time and isolating Chicago teachers until they feel they can reach an agreement to reopen the schools.

The very fact that Lightfoot issued a threat to take action against teachers must be taken as a sharp warning. The Democrats in Chicago, in coordination with the White House, are preparing to brutally suppress Chicago teachers through lockouts, fines, mass firings and other punitive actions if they cannot promptly come to an agreement with the union.

The threat by Lightfoot and the response from the CTU evoke the events of 1981, when a similar attack was implemented by the state and went unanswered by the unions. The year 2021 marks 40 years since Ronald Reagan smashed the strike by 13,000 Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) workers, who demanded a shorter workweek, increased wages and more staffing to reduce the extreme stress of their jobs.

The struggle by the PATCO workers was isolated and betrayed by the AFL-CIO bureaucracy, which refused to mobilize its millions of members in a broader struggle despite persistent calls among workers for a general strike.

As with the present conflict in Chicago and the wave of teachers strikes since 2018, the PATCO strike marked a major turning point in the history of the American working class and signaled a direct confrontation between the working class and the capitalist state. The fact that today educators and all workers confront the Democratic Party instead of the Republicans underscores the basic Marxist understanding that both parties serve the interests of the capitalist class.

The defeat of the PATCO strike initiated a rightward shift among all unions in the US, ushering in decades of unending betrayals and the suppression of the class struggle. It was a profound shock to workers in the US and globally, paving the way for union-busting and the defeats of major strikes at Phelps Dodge, Greyhound, Hormel, Caterpillar and many other workplaces.

The program of the unions, based on nationalism and reformism, was completely undermined by globalization and the ability of transnational corporations to shift production to wherever they could find the lowest wages and most brutal exploitation.

During this time, all the teachers unions were integrated into the Democratic Party, to the point where American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten now sits on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and has close relations with First Lady Jill Biden. Millions of teachers today were not born at the time that PATCO took place, but they are faced with the consequences of this betrayal and confront the dire necessity of building new organizations to fight for their own independent interests.

Today, the working class is once again entering into struggle. When the state attacked the PATCO workers, the unions kept them isolated and unable to defend themselves. This must not happen again! Every effort must be made to build independent rank-and-file committees to serve as the workers voice of opposition to the inevitable betrayals that the unions will attempt to impose.

The trade unions todayincluding pseudo-left locals such as the CTUare no longer workers organizations in any sense of the term. They have been transformed into instruments of the ruling class for suppressing the class struggle.

For educators globally, there is nothing to negotiate when it comes to reopening the schools, which poses an existential threat to their lives and safety, as well as that of their students, their families and all of society. In the US alone, at least 689 active and retired K-12 educators and personnel have died of COVID-19, while over 2.7 million children have been infected with the virus.

Despite the endless barrage of corporate media propaganda claiming that schools can be safely reopened at present, the science of the pandemic unequivocally proves that this is a reckless and homicidal endeavor.

The coronavirus pandemic is now evolving into an immense social struggle, with Chicago teachers giving initial expression to the growing militancy among all workers. Increasingly, the confrontation between the two great classes in societythe working class and the capitalist classis coming to the fore.

On January 6, fascists stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to establish a presidential dictatorship headed by Trump. Today, a far more powerful force is on the scene in Chicago.

The relentless assault on the working class over the past 40 years has been accompanied by the relentless promotion of racial, gender and sexual identity politics. The fact that Lori Lightfoot is now the face of the homicidal campaign to reopen the schools reaffirms that the decisive issue is class.

The struggle unfolding in Chicago is of monumental significance and must become the spearhead of a broader movement of the entire working class in a nationwide political general strike, which would send shock waves throughout the world and provoke similar struggles globally.

The Socialist Equality Party will make every effort to connect the struggle of Chicago educators with those of educators and every other section of the working class, across the US and globally. We will fight to provide the necessary leadership to guide these struggles to a successful conclusion, which will ultimately require the socialist overturn of existing property relations, a vast redistribution of wealth, and the rebuilding of society in the interests of the working class.
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks at the weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 3, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Kevin McCarthy Calls on Pentagon to Restore NSA General Counsel Michael Ellis to Active Service

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has urged U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to restore attorney Michael Ellis to active service as the National Security Agency general counsel after reports that Ellis was placed on administrative leave, with McCarthy arguing that Elliss sidelining appears to have been the result of undue political influence.

I urge you to reconsider and reverse the recent decision by the National Security Agency (NSA) to place its General Counsel, a career employee selected through the merit system process, on administrative leave, McCarthy wrote in his letter to Austin. McCarthy also took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), alleging that she politicized an Intelligence Community position by demanding the removal of a national security professional to satisfy her vendetta against the Trump administration.

This is hardly the message of unity that President Biden called for in his Inaugural Address, McCarthy added.

Elliss appointment came on the eve of President Joe Bidens inauguration and after Pelosi sent a letter to then acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller demanding that he immediately cease his plans to install Ellis, calling the move highly suspect.

Public reporting indicates that Mr. Ellis, a relatively recent law school graduate with a limited resume, was selected due to interference by the White House, and was chosen over much more qualified candidates, Pelosi wrote.

The NSA told several news outlets on Jan. 17 that it is moving forward with Elliss placement, while the Pentagon noted in a statement that not proceeding with a merit-based appointment was unjustified.

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 Pentagon stated.

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 former President Donald Trump.

McCarthy defended Ellis as a highly qualified applicant, who served as a naval intelligence officer for over a decade, while characterizing calls for Elliss removal as part of a personal and partisan attack.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he opposes the NSAs hiring of Ellis as its top lawyer, telling 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.

Pelosi echoed Schiffs allegation in her letter, characterizing the staffing move as part of a long-standing practice called burrowing, in which an outgoing administration transitions political appointees into more secure civil service positions, giving them protection from dismissal by an incoming administration and allowing them to continue to serve and, potentially, influence policy.

The efforts to install him or burrow him into a highly sensitive intelligence position 72 hours prior to the beginning of a new administration manifest a disturbing disregard for our national security. Therefore, this placement should not move forward, Pelosi wrote.

McCarthy, in his letter, also called for an investigation into whether the placement of Ellis on administrative leave was motivated by political influence.

The Epoch Times reached out to Pelosis office for comment on McCarthys allegations but did not receive a response by publication.
When the history of American journalism is written, the name of Martin Marty Baron will be featured prominently. He has had a strong influence on many prominent newspapers, and he led The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and the Miami Herald to many Pulitzer Prizes.

Now, Baron has announced that he will retire on Feb. 28 from his role as the executive editor of The Washington Post.

Baron, who was born in Tampa, Florida, began his career at the Miami Herald in 1976. He left after a few years but eventually returned there in 2000 as executive editor. The paper won a Pulitzer for Breaking News Reporting for the coverage of the seizure of Cuban-born Elian Gonzalez by federal agents in 2001.

During his time at The Boston Globe, he oversaw the newspapers Spotlight investigative team, which reported on a pattern of sexual abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and the Catholic Churchs longtime cover-up of those crimes. The 2015 movie Spotlight told the story of that investigation. The role of Baron was played by Liev Schreiber, and the film earned an Academy Award. The newspaper earned a Pulitzer for its coverage.

At The Washington Post, Baron oversaw an investigation that would lead the paper to a 2014 Pulitzer Prize in public service. The articles exposed the National Security Agencys global surveillance efforts.

Baron told The New York Times that he intends to "try to stay involved in journalism and to continue to contribute to the profession. I feel like Im owed a breather after all these years, and Ill use that time to think through how I want to spend my time.

Several University of Miami faculty members shared their opinion on the legacy of Baron. The following is what they had to say.

Sam Terilli, associate professor of journalism in the School of Communication, and former counsel for the Miami Herald:

I have known many very bright and talented journalists during my career as a media lawyer, but no one who brought to the profession more intellectual intensity, basic decency, and insightful analysis than Marty Baron. He can seemingly in an instant sum up a story or investigation and understand its potential impact and what it would need to succeed.

Heidi Carr, lecturer in the School of Communication and former Miami Herald editor:



Marty Baron is to journalism in the 21st century what Woodward and Bernstein were in the 1970s. Maybe even bigger. Marty led three newsrooms through covering the biggest stories in the last 20 years and led his newsrooms to 17 Pulitzer Prizes.

What a lot of people outside the newsroom may not know is that its the executive editor, not the publisher, who directs the newsroomthey decide the big picture such as what projects to green light, who and how many to hire, and how much firepower to throw at a story. It may be the reporters who get their bylines on the story, but its their un-bylined editors, who make sure they get that story.

Marty arrived at the Herald while the Elian Gonzalez story was unfolding. Emotions were very high in the newsroom, but Marty was the calm ships captain in the middle of the gale. Tensions were just as high at the newspaper as they were throughout Miamishould the little boy found at sea be returned to his father in Cuba or stay with his distant relatives in Little Havana? But Marty just listened to everyone, never once giving a hint of his opinion.

Now, Marty was five levels above mehe was the boss of the managing editor, who was the boss of the city editor, who was the boss of the deputy city editor, who was my boss. From my desk in the newsroom, I could see all these people gathering in Martys office, and then teams of reporters, assignment editors and photo editors would be called in. Marty was never the guy who jumped on the desk, or yelledyeah, we had had those kinds of bosses in the past, but that was not his style. He led quietly, firmly, and with a splash of dry humor. Picture this very boisterous meeting, with a bunch of very emotional journalists talking over each other. Then everyone would turn to Marty, hed speak in his way that may have sounded like he was summing up everyone's idea, but it was really all his, and a dozen people would spill out, loudly shouting marching orders to the rest of us.

After leading the Herald to its Pulitzer for its Elian coverage, Marty was snagged by The Boston Globe, where he made the decision to put the Spotlight team on the Catholic Churchs covering up of sex scandals. Not only did this series of stories also win a Pulitzer, the newspapers coverage was turned into a movie. Martys style was not to brag about his work being the subject of a major motion picture. Instead, he posted a photo of actor Liev Schreiber and himself on social media with one of his self-deprecating jokes.

Of course, all journalists were rooting for Spotlight to win the Oscar that year, and I was one of thousands of people who sent Marty good luck messages. Marty responded right away, noting that the cast, including Schreiber, was sitting in the front rows just in case they got to go up on stage, but he was in the front row of the balcony.

After guiding the Globe to six Pulitzers, Baron became The Washington Posts executive editor in 2013.

At a time when newspapers across the country were seeing their newsrooms shrivel, The Washington Post was able to double its size (credit due to owner Jeff Bezos who was willing to invest in good journalism). The Washington Post was breaking stories weekly about the Trump presidency. Trump supporters attacked Bezos. But because theres a wall between Bezos and the newsroom, it was Marty who was making the calls.

His newsroom leadership wasnt all about covering the White House. He helped the newsroom heal after columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered at the direction of a Saudi Arabian prince. Marty was also crucial in getting a Post reporter, who was being held in an Iranian jail for 500 days, released.

The Post was awarded 10 Pulitzers during his tenure for a range of high-profile stories including Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election to National Security Agency surveillance (based on whistleblower Edward Snowden).

Even though the prizes and accolades give you an idea of the importance Marty has made to journalism, I expect his motivation is more noble than winning awards. He is the epitome of a real journalist. He fights to protect sources; he keeps the focus on the stories; he puts facts in front of people, so they can make their own decisions; and he shines a light where some would prefer darkness.

David Kling, professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies:

The 2002 Spotlight series lifted the lid like no other attempt to expose clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Unlike previous cases of sexual abuse, which were often portrayed by the church and hence often reported in the press as isolated incidents (though to be sure, local dioceses attempted to coverup the extent of the abuse). At Marty Baron's prompting, the Spotlight series focused less on priestly perpetrators of molestation on a case-by-case basis and more on the institutional cover-up. Baron emboldened the Globe'sinvestigative team (four journalists, all born Catholics) to dig deeply into a clerical culture of privilege, protection, and secrecy.

In the end, Spotlight exposed a cover-up by local bishops that eventually went all the way up to Boston's archbishop, Bernard Francis Law. Despite the various layers of protection afforded accused priests and complicit bishops (especially legal machination by church attorneys), the Globes dogged investigative team, with assistance from the Globes attorneys, prevailed in unsealing court documents that revealed systemic efforts by the Catholic hierarchy to hide sexual abuse crimes.

The Spotlight expose, thanks to Barons leadership, resulted in a nationwide explosion of investigative reporting on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

Joseph B. Treaster, professor, School of Communication. Treaster worked as a reporter and foreign correspondent for The New York Times for 30 years:

Marty Baron is a model of fine journalism. He didnt invent good journalism. But he practices it at a very high-level. He inspires great reporting and writing. I hope that leaving The Washington Post doesnt mean that he is leaving journalism. Hes 66 years old and I think hes got a lot more journalism in him.
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(Newser)  Presidents usually receive national intelligence briefings even after leaving office. The Biden administration is reconsidering that policy, the Hill reports. There have been calls to stop the briefings for former President Trump from Democrats, as well as former Trump aides, saying he can't be trusted with classified information. Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said that while Trump was still in office. "There's no circumstance in which this president should get another intelligence briefing, not now, not in the future," Schiff said. "I don't think he can be trusted with it now, and in the future he certainly can't be trusted." White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that national security officials haven't made a decision yet.

story continues below

Cutting Trump off would eliminate a national security risk, wrote Susan Gordon in an oped in the Washington Post. Gordon was principal deputy director of national intelligence in the Trump administration. The former president, she writes, "might be unusually vulnerable to bad actors with ill intent." Unlike other presidents leaving office, Trump made clear that he's going to stay involved in politics and policy. Also, "Trump has significant business entanglements that involve foreign entities," which could make him vulnerable. If at some point, there's a national security advantage to telling Trump something, Gordon writes, that works: The president at that time can make the decision. Former FBI Director James Comey was more blunt. "The guy's a lying demagogue who you can't trust," Comey said, per ABC. "You want to be very, very careful about what you give him." (Trump discounted his intelligence briefings about the coronavirus as the outbreak began.)
In a video that has gone viral on social media, a woman can be seen doing aerobics in front of the Parliament building in Myanmar - even as numerous military vehicles arrive behind her. This was the same day that her country's military staged a coup.

Khing Hnin Wai, who describes herself as a physical education teacher, posted a video of herself doing a roughly three-minute routine where she can be seen working out. She seems to be unaware of the fact that there are multiple military vehicles arriving behind her. Despite this, she continues with her routine, according to New York Post.

You can see the video here. While some called it the most "emblematic video of the year", another user called it a "revolutionary workout."

This is how social media reacted to the video:

Talk about a revolutionary workout (thats the military takeover of Myanmar going on in the background). https://t.co/2XDStTUwB8  NYC Weboy (aka Wesley) (@nycweboy) February 1, 2021

We are seeing the birth of a meme I'm sure  Bertini F. Olmo (@YinYang96) February 1, 2021

What a world.  The Smokin Monkey (@jag5081) February 1, 2021

Many questioned the legitimacy of the video and some quipped that she couldn't have not known what was happening behind her. Some even pointed to her shadow and suspected that there was something fishy about the video. However, in a follow-up post, she posted a series of workout videos all taken at the same location on different days.

In her second post on Facebook, Hnin Wai wrote that many had been questioning her video. To put queries to rest, she was uploading a series of videos. She wrote in the caption that she had been filming for a fitness dance competition and had been working out in that very spot for months now. She also clarified that she had no idea what was happening and that she did not dance to become a popular or as a joke.

In case you're unaware about what's happening in Myanmar, here's some context. On Monday, Myanmar's armed forces staged a coup to overthrow the country's democratic government that had been in power since 2011. They arrested civilian leaders and shut down internet. As of now, the country has returned to full military rule - similar to the situation in Myanmar before 2011 when the military had been in power.

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has also been detained. Suu Kyi, 75, came to power after a 2015 landslide election win that followed decades of house arrest in a struggle for democracy that turned her into an international icon.

The Parliament was supposed to hold its first session after November elections in which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won 83% of the body's seats. But the military refused to accept the vote.

The military alleged discrepancies such as duplicated names on voting lists in scores of districts and was unhappy with the election commission's response to its complaints.

READ: What Suddenly Happened in Myanmar? The Turmoil, the Fate of Aung San Suu Kyi Explained

READ: The Rise and Fall of Aung San Kuu Kyi: Now Facing a Coup, Not The Nobel Peace Prize Winner Icon She Was

The coup was announced on a news channel owned by the military where the news presenter cited the Constitution to say that the military had the right to declare a national emergency and that a state of emergency would continue for a year.

According to a report by Firstpost, the military then seized control of the country's infrastructure, shut down internet, cancelled all domestic and international flights and even suspended most television broadcasts.

The military, as the architect of Myanmar's 2008 constitution and fledgling democracy, sees itself as the guardian of national unity and the constitution, and it has enshrined a permanent role for itself in the political system.
New Delhi: Nursery admission in the national capital will begin soon, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Tuesday.

"We will soon begin nursery admission. The process was delayed this year due to the pandemic," Arvind Kejriwal said while interacting with principals and authorities of private schools on educational reforms in the post-COVID-19 era.

Usually, nursery admission in around 1,700 schools in the national capital 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 in December said that a proposal to scrap nursery admissions is being considered as the schools have been closed for 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. School principals were opposed to the idea of not admitting students in nursery this year.

However, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia last month had ruled out scrapping nursery admission. The announcement seems to be in accordance with Manish Sisodias earlier statement.
Oh to be a Kerry Co-op shareholder! Their biggest worry right now is how to divvy up the 2.5bn cash pile that has been accumulating under their backsides for nearly 50 years. Talk about jammy dodgers.

Kerry farmers, despite what they might have you believe, are no better than any other county out there.

They just got rotten lucky the day they hired a 28-year-old Denis Brosnan in 1972. The right man, in the right place, at the right time.

Expand Close Golden goose: Kerry Plc has grown to the point where it now has 26,000 employees and is worth an astonishing 20bn / Facebook

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Whatsapp Golden goose: Kerry Plc has grown to the point where it now has 26,000 employees and is worth an astonishing 20bn

Over the subsequent five decades Kerry Plc has grown to the point where it now has 26,000 employees, is worth an astonishing 20bn and has created many millionaire shareholders out of the initial group of farmers who invested their pounds back in the 70s.

Granted, it took a lot of hard graft, a laser-like focus and a lot of talented people to make this happen, and keep it churning billions with every passing year.

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But Im a firm believer that theres always a huge element of luck involved with most success stories  and the bigger the success, the luckier theyve often been.

The Kerry shareholders have now reached another Rubicon. Should they cash in more of their dwindling shares in the golden goose that is the Plc to take back control of a low-margin milk processing business for 800m?

Itll all depend on who you talk to.

Industry observers reckon that a multiple of 10 times annual profits is saucy for a business with low profit margins. Reportedly, the business generates at least 80m annually from sales of 1.2bn, which equates to a respectable 6.5pc margin.





Relied on

But looking around at their equivalents in the sector, I wouldnt be so sure that margin can be relied on for ever more.

Its hard to keep perspective when your nose is to the grindstone 24-7, but dairy farmers need to be aware that the dairy sector has just come out of a golden decade.

There were a few nasty years in there  2012 and 2016 in particular  but overall dairying has been remarkably resilient and its profits left every other farm enterprise for dead. So its only natural for the sector to feel confident.

It also helps when youve got a golden Plc goose out the back that has been laying eggs that have increased 400pc in value the last decade.

The 800m price-tag is justified by some who point that Friesland Campina and others are also interested in the business at that valuation.

But how realistic is it that the likes of Friesland Campina would really want to buy into a low-margin business where they have no current interests?

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Maybe they are keen on getting a slice of the Kerry milk-pool, but if they are prepared to pay a premium price for it, Id be inclined to let them buy it.

Does it really make any difference to the Kerry milk supplier whether they are being paid by one multinational or another?

The fact is that the co-op is a bit of a nuisance for the Plc at this stage, and it would suit the CEO to be able to move the argumentative farmers a little closer to the exit.

And of course the farmers are mad keen to regain control of the facilities that they rely on to process their milk.

Theyll be taking inspiration from their neighbours in the west Cork co-ops, who epitomise what happens when co-ops are well run.

But the Kerry lads shouldnt lose sight of the fortunes of all the other dairy co-ops around the country that have been trying desperately to achieve the same result as the classy Carbery machine.

Maybe its a bit of luck, maybe its something else, but Dairygold, Glanbia, Lakeland, Aurivo and Arrabawn are proof that high milk prices dont always go hand in hand with 100pc farmer control.

Of course the alternative that the Kerry co-op board continue to munch their way through 2m a year in fees and consultancy payments to look after 2.5bn is just as untenable.

And with Revenue threatening all kinds of punitive taxes for the two-thirds majority of Kerry Co-op shareholders who can no longer claim to have any farming activity, the pressure is on to make a move  any move.

At least the offer is relatively transparent. Looking back at the Glanbia deal of 2012, and Im still not sure what the farmers actually paid for their slice of the agri-business.

But it looks like it was a far cry from the valuation on the Kerry equivalent. And theres not many Glanbia suppliers that wouldnt happily trade places with their Kerry counterparts.

So is this really the best use of all that Kerry Co-op money?

Read More





Darragh McCullough runs a mixed farm enterprise in Meath www.elmgrovefarm.ie
Recent titles of interest:

LOUD BLACK GIRLS: 20 Black Women Writers Ask: Whats Next?, edited by Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene. (Fourth Estate, $26.99.) Black British women from a range of disciplines (writers, artists, actors, etc.) discuss finding and preserving their voices.

RESETTING THE TABLE: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat, by Robert Paarlberg. (Knopf, $27.95.) Paarlberg, a Harvard political scientist specializing in agriculture and food policy, argues that commercial farms have an important role to play in fostering healthier eating habits.

RABBIT ISLAND: Stories, by Elvira Navarro. Translated by Christina MacSweeney. (Two Lines, $19.95.) In this impressionistic, dreamlike collection, Navarro, a Spanish writer, deploys surrealism to comic, haunting effect: a floating grandmother, a pawlike appendage growing from an ear.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO STOCKHOLM: The Adrenaline-Fueled Adventures of an Accidental Scientist, by Robert J. Lefkowitz with Randy Hall. (Pegasus, $27.95.) Lefkowitzs lively memoir traces his path from public health and cardiology to biochemistry and a 2012 Nobel Prize.
A patient is carried to the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Cascais Hospital in Cascais, Portugal, on Jan. 27, 2021. (Pedro Nunes/Reuters)

Nearly Half of Portugals COVID-19 Deaths Were in January

LISBONPortugal reported close to half of all its COVID-19 deaths in January, highlighting a severe acceleration in cases that has prompted several European nations to offer help.

Hospitals across the nation of a little more than 10 million appear on the verge of collapse, with ambulances sometimes queuing for hours because of a lack of beds while some health units are struggling to find enough refrigerated space to preserve the bodies of the deceased.

Austria is willing to take intensive-care patients and is waiting for Portuguese authorities to propose how many they want to transfer, the Austrian embassy in Lisbon said.

Germany will send medical staff and equipment, with a plane carrying 26 doctors, nurses, and hygiene experts, as well as 40 mobile and 10 stationary ventilators. The flight is due to leave for Lisbon on Wednesday.

Hard-hit neighbor Spain has offered help, too, but Portugal has yet to accept, a Spanish foreign ministry source told Reuters.

Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told LaSexta TV that the two countries were in direct contact every day, at all levels.

Portugals 5,576 COVID-19 fatalities in January represent 44.7 percent of the 12,482 registered since the start of the pandemic.

Portuguese officials have blamed the huge increase in infection and death rates on the more contagious variant of the disease first detected in Britain, while acknowledging that a relaxation of restrictions on movement over the Christmas holidays also played a role.

More than 711,000 infections have been reported since March 2020, with 43 percent of those in January, according to health authority DGS. On Monday, it reported 5,805 cases, with 275 deaths.

Portugal has the worlds highest seven-day rolling average of new daily cases per million inhabitants, according to data tracker ourworldindata.org.

We are confident the lockdown will have its (positive) effects, Health Secretary Antonio Sales told reporters. Though case numbers are still on the rise, Sales said that the virus reproduction rate is now falling.

We know we still have a tough two weeks ahead, he added.

With 865 coronavirus patients in intensive care and 6,869 in hospital wards, hospitals are running out of beds and there is a shortage of doctors and nurses.

For most, vaccination against the virus is the light at the end of the tunnel. But so far only about 70,000 people have been fully vaccinated with the two required doses.

By Sergio Goncalves, Catarina Demony and Victoria Waldersee
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Gov. Charlie Bakers administration continues to weather criticism over the states plan for a reimagined Soldiers Home in Holyoke  this time from a bipartisan group of state legislators.

Led by state Sen. John Velis, D-Westfield, 81 state senators and representatives signed a letter urging Baker to reconsider the plan for a new Soldiers Home with 20% fewer beds. The governor ordered a rapid plan to build a new long-term care facility on Cherry Street after a COVID-19 outbreak decimated its veteran residents last spring, with 76 dying after testing positive for the disease between late March and mid-June.

An independent investigation commissioned by Baker heaped blame on the Soldiers Home leadership and the cramped, outdated design of the 70-year-old facility.

Designs for a new home are hurtling toward an April 15 federal deadline to secure construction funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs while various stakeholders joust over the adequacy of the design, submitted by the Boston-based Payette design group.

The Soldiers Home board of trustees has challenged the plan, along with a grassroots group formed to advocate for the facility. The debate sparked a contentious special meeting of the trustees on Jan. 27 that pitted board members against state officials pushing the plan.

Velis said the legislatures collective voice should be part of the process.

This is the Legislature as a co-equal branch of government saying really loudly that we want to be part of this conversation, Velis said in an interview. I also think its meaningful we got nearly half the Legislature to sign on to this ... from the most progressive Democrats to the most conservative Republicans.

Payettes proposal is based on a needs assessment and a series of listening sessions with stakeholders. It includes a maximum of 192 beds versus the facilitys pre-pandemic census of 235  which has been the primary sticking point for opponents of the design.

In the future, the veteran population could increase exponentially to a level that is impossible to accurately predict, the letter reads. It is unrealistic to foresee a smaller number of beds needed at the Soldiers Home, conversely, it is reasonable and eminently responsible to foresee a greater number of beds. If the choice is between filling a vacancy or turning a veteran away, the choice is abundantly clear.

Representatives and senators from every district in the state joined Velis call, including state Sen. Walter F. Timilty, D-Milton, and Rep. Linda Dean Campbell, D-Methuen, who serve eastern Massachusetts districts and chairs of the Joint Special Legislative Oversight Committee for the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Velis also is part of that 17-member committee that has held five public hearings so far airing concerns from staff, families, administrators, board members and others.

One legislator who did not sign was Rep. Joseph Wagner, D-Chicopee, the longest-serving member of the Western Massachusetts delegation and a colleague with Velis on the oversight committee.

While some may disagree with the Payette recommendation for approximately 200 beds in a newly-built Soldiers Home, the report achieves this conclusion based on a comprehensive and data-driven analysis, Wagner wrote in a letter to Velis. I believe it is reasonable that any recommendation to increase the bed count should likewise be supported by a comprehensive and data-driven, rather than subjective, analysis.

He added: I think it is important to have a robust dialogue which recognizes the entire spectrum of long term care services which are necessary to support our States veterans here in 2021 and into the future.

A state spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

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Adventist Health St. Helena does not yet have access to the countys 30,000 person vaccine waitlist, according to Newhart  it could not have called the countys eligible, interested senior residents even if it had wanted to.

Even so, Newhart emphasized Adventist Health was aware the county was doing the best it could.

Were all trying to mobilize as fast as we can, and I feel bad theres a perception that something is happening (that) isnt, he said, addressing community frustration. We will get to everybody as fast as we can. The thing we should focus on now is encouraging our state representatives and our federal representatives to get the county more vaccine.

Kaiser Permanente, another multi-county entity operating in Napa County, said in a written statement it had given first doses to more than 1,100 community members at a clinic in January. It is currently vaccinating health care workers and those 75 years of age and older, it said in the statement, and plans to administer second doses in February pending supply. Eligible Kaiser Permanente members will be able to receive vaccinations at the Vallejo and Vacaville medical centers with a confirmed appointment depending on vaccine supplies, it said.

Researchers from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) in collaboration with colleagues from Belgium take a step in the development of genome editing technology. Currently it is possible to deliver genetic material of different sizes and structures to organs and tissues. This is the key to eliminating DNA defects and treating more patients. The project is guided by Professor Gleb Sukhorukov and supported by the Russian Science Foundation. Research results were published in Particle & Particle Systems Characterization journal.

An international research group developed a polymer carrier with a number of unique properties, several types of genetic material can be loaded in its structure. In particular, the scientists managed to load genetic material of various sizes and structures into "universal containers". From small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to messenger RNAs (mRNAs). The efficiency of delivery was demonstrated on human stem cells.

"Nowadays most of the vaccines, including those for COVID-19, are made on the basis of mRNA. This is a kind of "genetic SD-card" with information which activates human immune system, thus teaches it how to deal with the "enemy proteins" of the virus. Typically, for medical purposes, different types of carriers are used to deliver specific molecules, we proved that it is possible to deliver genetic materials of different sizes using one type of carrier. This technology opens up new horizons for the development of non-viral delivery systems", - notes Alexander Timin, head of the Laboratory for microencapsulation and controlled delivery of biologically active compounds at St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.

Scientists added that the micron-scaled carrier with incorporated genetic material can be delivered by systemic administration, or locally (directly into the tumor focus for cancer).

"The study is conducted jointly with the Raisa Gorbacheva Memorial Research Institute of Children Oncology, Hematology and Transplantation, which provided the patients'mesenchymal stem cells (cells building organs and tissues) for the experiments. In the future, we plan to conduct experiments on tumor-bearing laboratory animals in order to find out how the genetic material delivered to the tumor will be managed, "- said Igor Radchenko, director of the "RASA-Polytech" center.

###

The Raisa Gorbacheva Memorial Research Institute of Children Oncology, Hematology and Transplantation is interested in the early implementation of these developments in order to fulfill the recommendations and medical protocols that will be introduced into medical practice.
About $114 million from the states unexpected surge in sales and income tax revenue should be used to help make up for decades of under-funding the way Connecticut reimburses towns and cities for hosting colleges, hospitals and state-owned property, Democratic majority leaders said Monday.

They currently have no specific plan on how to pay for the proposal, as Gov. Ned Lamont prepares his two-year budget proposal for release next week.

In a joint news conference with members of the bipartisan Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, some Republicans offered qualified support for a three-tiered idea of sending money to cities and towns, as long as it doesnt include an increase in tax rates.

Without the supplemental aid  announced as part of the three-tier plan that would give more money to large cities with higher taxes, but would give affluent towns such as Darien a small bump  New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said his city will face a $66-million budget shortfall that could prompt him to push for a 20 percent increase in local property taxes.

New Haven would get an extra $42 million a year under the proposal, which Speaker of the House Matt Ritter of Hartford and Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney of New Haven said they will make part of this years budget negotiations when Gov. Ned Lamont presents his two-year plan for taxing and spending on Feb. 10.

Looney said that in calculations that include equity and need, 32 towns and cities would receive the highest amounts of additional aid for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT), a program that dates to the late 1970s, but which has never been fully funded. One hundred and one towns would be in the middle tier and the 36 richest towns would make up the third, least-reimbursed tier.

Needs of towns and cities have also been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has exposed the cycle of highly taxed cities with minority communities and under-performing schools, the leaders said.

Some towns have very healthy grand lists per-capita, Looney said during a noontime news conference. Others do not. Greenwich for instance has a net grand list per capita of $735,000 and at the other end of the spectrum is New Britain at $50,000.

Looney noted that in recent years, about $355 million that was supposed to flow each year to towns and cities as part of the 2011 increase in the sales tax from 6 percent to 6.35 percent, has been postponed amid state budget constraints.

Under the proposal, Bridgeport would make an extra $5.8 million the first year; Middletown $3.6 million; Stamford $2 million; Danbury $1.3 million; Norwalk $536,000; North Haven, $419,000 and Darien, $53,000. The 32 top-tier towns and cities would see a doubling of their current PILOT payments.

Communities who have both inadequate tax bases and this very modest rate of reimbursement on PILOT really are struggling with an inadequate grand list under which to provide services, Looney said, stressing that the state does not have a county-government system that could help absorb some costs.

The legislature just has to make it a priority, said Ritter, D-Hartford, who appreciated the bipartisan support from Republicans on the CCM board including Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson and North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda. Weve talked about PILOT for a long time and the legislature just has to make it a priority. If youre an suburban town, at the end of the day you want your cities to thrive, you want them to succeed. Its about health care and education.

Elicker said 27 local leaders have signed on to the idea in a letter to the governor, who is preparing his biennial budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

For New Haven, roughly 60 percent of our property is non-taxable, so that means New Haven residents and business owners that own 40 percent of the property in the city have to pay 100 percent of the taxes, Elicker said, underscoring historical inequities and racism that are the center of public discussions over the last year.

Black residents of our state pay the highest tax rates, yet still send their children to the lowest-funded schools, Elicker said. I think the governor in the next day or two still has an opportunity to help ensure that this is likely to have the support it needs through his budget.

Its a serious, well-structured and long-overdue proposal, said Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, the current president of the CCM board. Communities of all sizes, represented by Republicans and Democrats, cities, suburbs and small towns alike benefit to varying degrees under this proposal.

Freda, past-president of CCM, said he understands the importance of helping urban centers. We need strong cities in Connecticut, he said.

Much of the success of the idea will depend on the continued flow of revenue, which in recent months erased a projected $854 million deficit in the current fiscal year and turned it into a $70 million surplus. Looney said that other potential ways to pay for the increased PILOT would be a surcharge on capital gains; an increase in the highest income-tax bracket; a portion of the projected municipal share of the sales-tax revenue; or an added charge on homes well above average value.

Looney proposed that latter idea separately last year, suggesting a state tax of $1 per $1,000 of assessed value over $300,000. The owner of a house worth $1 million would pay an extra $400 to the state under that plan.

The owners of a house worth $428,500 or less, assessed at $300,000, would not pay anything under Looneys plan.

Ritter believes no new revenue sources would be needed, if the current revenue estimates hold. This is a very, very important policy to the Senate president and the speaker, he said.

I firmly acknowledge that the devil is in the revenue details, said Stevenson, who opposes higher taxes. I do support the concept and I want to be a team player, understanding the challenges in our urban centers, but we cant ignore the fact that we have to find the right revenue source.

Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, warned that Democrats want the middle class to pay more. Theyve targeted middle class families wallets for years and now theyre coming after our homes, he said in a statement.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
GPS tracking anklets for juveniles on bail and strengthening youth bail laws are being proposed by the Queensland Police Union president to deal with the states youth crime.

We would turn 80 per cent of kids around through the youth justice process and that is [with] caution and other measures, president Ian Leavers told ABC Brisbane.

Police union president Ian Leavers has created a list of suggestions on how to improve Queenslands youth crime problem.

That still works but for these other offenders: no longer a slap on the wrist, it needs to be dealt with.

His proposal was triggered by calls for change following the death of Alexandra Hills couple Kate Leadbetter and Matthew Field and their unborn child, who were struck by a 4WD allegedly stolen and driven by an intoxicated teenager.
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Some 41 MPs from Mt Kenya allied to Deputy President William Ruto yesterday fired a stinging letter to President Kenyatta, warning him they will not back ODM leader Raila Odinga for the presidency.

They declared they "cannot sell Mr Odinga in the region, or any other imposed presidential candidate" and warned the president "a full-blown revolt will be inevitable" if he ignores their grievances.

In the lengthy letter which they all signed, they essentially told the President not to influence his succession, to emulate his predecessor President Kibaki, who they said never interfered with people's democratic right to choose his successor.

They reminded him of President Moi's 2002 bid to impose him as his preferred successor and how it triggered a mass revolt.

The lawmakers challenged the Head of State to "redeem a proud legacy" which they said was in jeopardy as they heaped Jubilee's failures on his shoulders.

They also dismissed President Kenyatta's Building Bridges Initiative meeting planned for tomorrow at Sagana State Lodge -- from which the group has been locked out -- as a waste of time, claiming that delegates will be given Sh5,000.

The leaders attacked the President as it emerged that he will first meet MPs and MCAs loyal to him today in Nyeri ahead of his forum with the rest of the group tomorrow at Sagana State Lodge.

The meetings are seen as the President's effort to assert his political authority in the region against a backdrop of a disgruntled backyard and uncertainty over his relationship with his deputy, William Ruto.

Kieni MP Kanini Kega said today and tomorrow's meetings are invite only and that the Tangatanga MPs were deliberately locked out as they do not subscribe to the President's philosophy.

Invite-only function

"This is an invite-only function, for those who only subscribe to the President's doctrine of development between now and 2022. If you have been left out, then you are not part of the agenda of that meeting," Mr Kega said.

Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua, whose constituency will be hosting the meeting, confirmed that they had not been invited.

"The last time I went, they refused to give me a seat, yet Sagana is in my constituency. My people have told me to keep off and I also don't want to be humiliated," Mr Gachagua added.

But in a no-holds barred response after they were ignored, the MPs took issue with the President's dalliance with Mr Odinga and the failures and delays in addressing the issues concerning the region raised in the past meetings.

"The successful effort you made to persuade the people and render the ODM leader unacceptable in Mt Kenya will not be undone in your lifetime," they said, warning that Mr Odinga "or any other imposed presidential candidate" remains a hard sell in the region.

"You blame the leaders and people of the Mt Kenya region for being reluctant to accept the Handshake and the BBI. It is not their fault."

They took issue with the President's call for a rotational presidency, which they said was unfortunate, selfish and insulting. They expressed concern with the government's violation of the Constitution and the rule of law.

Jubilee chief whip Senator Irungu Kang'ata was the surprise addition in the list of MPs who signed the letter, most of whom have been accompanying the DP to rallies across the country. Mr Kang'ata confirmed he had signed the letter and dismissed a denial that was doing the rounds on social media as fake.

"We hope that the issues we have raised form the agenda for consideration at Sagana otherwise... the mountain will remain restless, dissatisfied, and defiant. Ultimately, full-blown revolt will be inevitable," the letter warns the President.

But Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu dismissed the letter. He said the projects the President pledged have been delivered and denied claims that the President will sell Mr Odinga in Mt Kenya.

"Every candidate, including their Ruto, will have to come to the people, sell his agenda and tell them what his government would have for the region," he said. The ultimate decision remains with the people of Mt Kenya, he pointed out.

Economic saboteur

The 41 leaders, who included MPs and senators, described the President as an economic saboteur, whose economic policies have caused anguish and destitution, leaving the people of the region in economic ruin.

They challenged him to use whatever remains of his tenure to return the economy to where President Kibaki left it eight years ago.

Under Kibaki, they said, they experienced unprecedented economic growth. "People had money in their pockets and economic activity was high and visible. This happened despite many serious challenges, including post-election violence," the MPs said.

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They accused the President of never visiting any part of the region to thank the people for standing with him, adding, his tours are marked by ill-temper and abusive encounters that humiliate the leaders ands the people.

"We cannot help but contrast this with your demeanour in Kisumu, where you are a frequent visitor. In those tours, you are unfailingly cheerful and decorous, acknowledging, affirming and respecting the people and their leaders."

They said some of them have been harassed and humiliated by State agencies for merely holding a contrary opinion to the President's. They cited the withdrawal of personal security, seizure of protective firearms and brazen threats of serious harm, as a sign that the President has no regard for them.

"We do not buy fear, and we naturally resist intimidation. The reaction from the ground is nothing more than the people's instinctive rejection of tyranny. Our communities are people who believe in persuasion, discussion, consultation and consensus as opposed to coercion and intimidation."

They challenged him to tackle corruption with equal firmness.
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The latest Lucid Talk poll will send alarm bells ringing in DUP HQ.

Instead of coming out on top the party is now the filling in a Sinn Fein/Alliance sandwich. Its support has plummeted with the TUV reaping the benefits. The UUP is now only two points ahead of Jim Allisters party.

I wouldnt get too carried away with one poll. The stats arent great for the DUP, but I still expect them to come out on top at the next Assembly election. Allister wants the NI Protocol removed but he wont shaft the DUP if his actions bring about Sinn Fein First Minister. The Executive Office is a joint office but the symbolism matters to political unionism.

LucidTalks poll still illustrates a dilemma for the DUP and political unionism itself. The growth of Alliance and the TUV represents a fork in the road. Politicians face a choice: follow the moderate path or further lean into conservative, reactionary politics.

The choice has grown even more stark in light of threats to border control staff and racist graffiti targeting Leo Varadkar. In recent days Alliance representatives Stephen Farry and Kellie Armstrong have both had their offices targeted with graffiti.

There doesnt appear to be a link to loyalist paramilitaries but whoever the agitators are, they blame Alliance for the NI Protocol , although some DUP MLAs have had their offices targeted.

For many unionists and loyalists, the NI Protocol represents an assault on their identity and aspirations. Its as damaging to their political psyche as a hard border with the south would be for nationalist and republicans. Many share their concerns about its implications for Northern Irelands economy.

Its utterly ridiculous to blame Alliance for the NI Protocol. The party voted against it in Parliament and refused to give consent for the Withdrawal Agreement in the Assembly. The Party wanted the Protocol to be implemented but only because the alternative was a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The NI Protocol came about because of the actions of the British government and the European Union. Anger should be directed at them, but in a peaceful, democratic way. Political parties in Northern Ireland should come together to make collective representations to the EU and Boris Johnson.

Jim Allisters proposal to bring down the Protocol by disrupting the Assembly and North-South bodies will make unionists feel better for a few days, but its unlikely to get them anywhere.

Causing political disruption in the middle of a pandemic while hospital waiting lists soar and people are losing their jobs would be the height of political idiocy. The plan wont improve the lives of anyone in Northern Ireland. It will only alienate moderates and boost nationalist and republican confidence.

Research from Uniting UK shows that the neithers in Northern Ireland find political unionism off putting. They see it as an ideology for old men. Outside of the NI Protocol, the actions of political unionism will have long term implications for Northern Ireland and its place within the union.

The people targeting Alliance and border control posts are a minority within unionism and loyalism. Most people will reject their tactics. Political leaders still need to be careful not to fan the flames.

The DUP and UUP say the UK should invoke Article 16. No doubt the EU made a catastrophic error when the Commission invoked the clause last Friday. Its claims to care about the political situation in Northern Ireland lie on shattered ground.

Given the backlash and chaos caused by the Commissions decision, Im not sure why anybody would want to repeat the experience. Why would you look at the reputational damage to the EU think, cool, we should get in on that. Article 16 doesnt remove the Protocol and its procedure is messy and complicated. Its not the silver bullet people think it is.

If people want to get rid of the NI Protocol, theyre going to have to present a viable alternative. A hard border between North and South isnt the answer. Well just replace one problem with another.

Whatever choice is made, cool heads need to prevail. The NI Protocol has left Northern Ireland in a difficult, uncertain place. We need to make sure that the situation doesnt get worse.
Five people who were fired after raising concerns about their employers handling of COVID-19 have filed a lawsuit against the Society Hill community center where they used to work.

The workers allege that they were fired in retaliation for speaking up about COVID-19 safety  an apparent violation of the Philadelphia whistle-blower protection law that went into effect over the summer.

The lawsuit against Old Pine Community Center, filed late last month in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, is one of the first cases citing the citys COVID-19 ordinance. And its one of hundreds of lawsuits that have been filed on behalf of workers during the pandemic: A Philadelphia law firm has filed two wrongful death suits against JBS and Tyson Foods on behalf of Philly-area meatpacking workers who died after contracting COVID-19 on the job. Other workers have filed discrimination suits after, for example, a refusal to grant a work-from-home request for an employee more at risk for COVID-19 complications.

In the Society Hill case, the complaint alleges, a group of Old Pine Community Center workers  youth counselors, program coordinators, maintenance staffers  sent a letter to the board of managers in July laying out concerns about the nonprofits reopening plan. The center, which hosts educational programs and food distribution, is affiliated with the nearby Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church, though the center itself is nondenominational.

 READ MORE: COVID-19 death of Original Philly Cheesesteak supervisor triggers a lawsuit against meatpacking giant

Five days before the center was to reopen to the public, workers were told that the centers then-executive director, April Thomas-Jones, had tested positive for COVID-19 and that they should get tested. In their letter, the workers said they did not feel safe returning to work without a negative test and without quarantining for 14 days, as health professionals at testing sites had told them to do.

Reopening the center on Monday is not in the best interest of the staff and does not take into account our collective voices, they wrote in the letter, which also raised workplace issues such as a lack of transparency from management and a fear of retaliation when speaking up.

Ten days later, five of the nine workers who signed the letter were fired.

Old Pine Community Center did not return a request for comment.

The Philadelphia COVID-19 anti-retaliation law  which more than two dozen unions and worker organizations fought for  is designed to protect workers whose employers do not follow public health orders from the city, state, or U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For workers who believed that their employers were putting them in danger, there were few avenues for protection: Workplace health and safety experts criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency responsible for protecting workers, for failing to be aggressive enough during such a dangerous time for workers. Last year, the agency received more than 9,000 complaints. OSHA issued citations in response to 300 inspections and fined employers a total of $3.8 million.

Worker advocates say the best way to get employers to pay attention to safety concerns is to organize: Get together with coworkers and raise concerns to the boss. Advocates recommended this kind of activity in part because its protected by federal labor law. The citys COVID-19 retaliation law adds another layer of protection for workers who organize for safer conditions. It also gives them a mechanism for taking their employer to court.

 READ MORE: Im back at work and I dont feel safe. What can I do?

Workers can file a retaliation complaint with the city and get a determination of reasonable cause  a notice that means the city has investigated the situation and thinks theres a case to be made that an employer violated the law. They can then use that to take their employer to court.

The Old Pine workers filed their complaint at the end of August and got a determination of reasonable cause from the city in January. It was the second COVID-19 retaliation determination issued by the city since the law went into effect, said Candace Chewning, a spokesperson for Philadelphias Department of Labor.

The city would not identify the other employer, other than to say it was a home health-care agency.

The city received two dozen retaliation complaints last year and is still investigating two-thirds of them, according to a city report. The remaining complaints have either been found invalid, revoked by the complainant, or resulted in a determination of reasonable cause.
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Danny Zaragoza / Laredo Morning Times

A man landed behind bars after he was found in possession of fraudulent records, according to an arrest affidavit filed on Monday.

Eusebio Guadalupe Perez-Mendoza, of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, was about to exit the country via the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge when U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers selected him for secondary inspection.
Multiple police officers came to the rescue of an unconscious woman who was overcome by smoke and seriously injured when a heavy fire broke out at a Cape Cod home early Tuesday, authorities said.

The blaze at the single-family home on Shootflying Hill Road in Centerville, a village in Barnstable, was first reported by a newspaper delivery person shortly after 3:15 a.m., according to a statement from the state Fire Marshals Office.

When first responders arrived at the address, they found the fire in the living room of the single-story ranch home, the Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills Fire and Rescue Department said in a statement.

Four Barnstable police officers who got to the scene before firefighters entered the burning house, found the unconscious woman and rescued her from the building, according to the department.

The officers provided the woman first aid and were able to resuscitate her. She was taken to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis in serious condition, authorities said.

The state Fire Marshals Office noted the the officers were evaluated for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters entered the home with a hose line and knocked down the main blaze on the first floor. They then went to the basement through the bulkhead and extinguished flames found below the living room.

Once the fire was extinguished, crews conducted salvage and overhaul operations, according to the department.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation by the COMM Fire and Rescue Department, the Barnstable Police Department and Massachusetts State Police assigned to both the state Fire Marshals Office and the Cape and Islands District Attorneys Office.
The U.S. State Department has officially declared the military takeover in Myanmar a coup.

"After a careful review of the facts and circumstances, we have assessed that Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's ruling party, and Win Myint, the duly elected head of the government, were deposed in a military coup on February 1," a State Department official said Tuesday.

The comments came a day after the military seized control of the country while detaining senior politicians.

The unnamed U.S. State Department official said on background the assessment of a coup "triggers certain restrictions on foreign assistance to the government" and that the U.S. "will take action against those responsible."

The U.S. will continue programs that help the country's citizens, including humanitarian assistance and democracy support initiatives, the official said.

The Myanmar military said its seizure, set to last one year, was necessary because the government had not acted on claims of voter fraud in November elections that were overwhelmingly won by the NLD. A new session of parliament had been due to begin Monday.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement that he spoke by phone Monday with U.S. President Joe Biden and applauded his response to the military takeover.

"The new administration deserves credit for approaching this situation in a way that's bipartisan and coordinated with Congress," McConnell said. "The world is watching. I hope and expect the United States will quickly make the obvious legal determination that this is a military coup, and impose significant costs on the military for its attack on democracy."

Myanmar's National League for Democracy called earlier Tuesday for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other party leaders.

U.S. officials have "not been able" to speak with NLD members, the State Department official said, and added that "most of the senior officials are under house arrest."

Streets in Myanmar were quiet Tuesday, with phone and internet services running again and banks reopened.

Global reaction

International expressions of concern about the military's action were widespread, with multiple governments urging the military to respect the democratic process and release the detained officials. Biden threatened to impose sanctions.

"The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack," Biden said in a statement.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss the situation in Myanmar.

Britain's ambassador to the U.N. Barbara Woodward, who this month holds the council's rotating presidency, said the Security Council will examine "a range of measures" to uphold the November election and secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the other detainees.

Growing tensions

Monday's developments followed months of tensions linked to the November elections. Myanmar's military said there had been voter fraud, an allegation rejected by the country's election commission.

On Saturday, the Tatmadaw, the official name of Myanmar's military, released a statement arguing that voter fraud had taken place and the international community "should not be endorsing the next steps of the political process on a 'business as usual' basis."

"The Tatmadaw is the one pressing for adherence to democratic norms," the statement read. "It is not the outcome itself of the election that the Tatmadaw is objecting to.  Rather, the Tatmadaw finds the process of the 2020 election unacceptable, with over 10.5 million cases of potential fraud, such as nonexistent votes."

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has long struggled between civilian and military rule but until the coup had been enjoying a hopeful transition to democracy.

A British colony until 1948, Myanmar was ruled by dictators backed by the military from 1962 to 2010.

An uprising in 1988 pushed for an election in 1990, which the NLD party won in a landslide, but the elected members of parliament were imprisoned, and the dictatorship continued.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero, General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947, emerged as a leader in the pro-democracy rallies and in the NLD. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.

In 2010, Senior General Than Shwe announced the country would be handed over to civilian leaders, who included retired generals. They freed political prisoners, including the lawmakers from the National League for Democracy, and Aung San Suu Kyi, who was elected in a 2012 by-election and later became the state counsellor of Myanmar.

But Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, while popular among Myanmar's Buddhist majority, has seen her international reputation decline over her government's treatment of the country's mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.

In 2017, an Army crackdown against the Rohingya, sparked by deadly attacks on police stations in Rakhine state, led hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The International Criminal Court is investigating the country for crimes against humanity.

VOA's Nike Ching contributed to this report.


South Korea's energy ministry disclosed its document about the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in North Korea, Monday. Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy



South Korea's energy ministry on Monday made public an internal document about the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in North Korea to defuse "unnecessary" political turmoil sparked by a report on the paper's existence.



A TV station reported earlier that documents on a nuclear power project in the North were among hundreds of computer files that industry and energy ministry officials deleted ahead of the state audit agency's inspection of atomic energy policies.



The report triggered speculation that the Moon Jae-in administration may have pushed for a secret plan to build an atomic power plant in the North and that Moon may have delivered the proposal to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their summit in April 2018. Kim Chong-in, the interim leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), called the alleged plan an "act benefiting the enemy."



The energy ministry said it unveiled the six-page document considering the "public value of ending an unnecessary controversy" as the dispute showed no sign of letting up despite government officials' repeated clarifications.






Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has effectively ruled out summer getaways this year, dashing hopes people have of travelling to foreign hotspots.

Dr Holohans comments came just hours after Ryanair boss Michael OLeary launched an extraordinary attack on the CMOs leadership and criticised his colleagues on the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).

Mr OLeary accused Nphet of disseminating misinformation and scare stories as well as causing mass hysteria about international travel in an interview yesterday morning.

Speaking at a briefing last night however, Dr Holohan said it is not realistic to expect people can fly to Europe or other destinations for summer holidays and the only beach they are likely to travel to is their local one.

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I dont think we are heading for a summer where millions of people from this part of the world can be heading to beaches that are other than in their own localities, he said.

Dr Holohans comments came following forecasts Ryanair will lose nearly 1bn this year as Mr OLeary said public health officials need to get the finger out.

He insisted there arent lots of young people getting sick and going to hospital and Ireland needs to catch up with UK on the vaccine roll-out.

Mr OLeary also predicted there will be millions of people travelling to the beaches of Europe in July, August and September.

However, in a major blow to the airline industry, Dr Holohan said last night he appreciated everyone wanted a traditional summer break. But he said to fly off to Europe and all parts of the world for summer holidays  I just dont think that is realistic.

Asked for his response to Mr OLearys claim on RTEs Morning Ireland that Nphet is inspiring mass hysteria, he said he had the nothing but admiration for him in what he had done for his industry and the country, but he stands over Nphets advice.

It is based on a reasonable and fair interpretation of the data we are seeing. We would like to be reporting better data and far fewer deaths and more progress.

He said we have a job to do and have to give people news they would prefer not to hear.

Dr Holohan was speaking amid renewed concern that the fall in daily cases of the virus is showing signs of plateauing against a background of a rise in workplace outbreaks and general signs that people are letting anti-Covid-19 measures slip.

He said given the prevalence of the more infectious UK strain  now accounting for 70pc of cases  it is extremely important that workplaces and retail settings need to review their protocols and ensure their staff and customers are protected as much as possible.

Another 10 deaths were reported yesterday as well as 1,062 newly diagnosed cases of the virus.

Professor Philip Nolan of Nphet warned of worrying signs of a slowing down in the reduction and pointed out that in the last seven to eight days, case numbers have been relatively constant at around 1,300 a day.

The incidence of infection in the over-65s and over-85s is beginning to fall but remains high.

Some of the slow down is due to close contacts being tested again, he said, but it was also due to people being less cautious. He said they need to be as strict with themselves as they were three weeks ago.

People are getting a little less careful at a time when the more infectious UK variant is circulating, he added.

There were 29 outbreaks last week in construction, meat and food processing and in manufacturing.

The information they are getting from public health teams across the country is just the tip of the iceberg given they are overstretched, but it appears a lot of transmission is in the workplace.

In some cases it is workplaces that are essential, but the message remains that if people can work from home, they should.
ROME, FEB 2 - Centrist Italia Viva (IV) leader and ex-premier Matteo Renzi said Tuesday the other parties in talks aimed at recreating the coalition that backed outgoing premier Giuseppe Conte were "not accepting mediation" or giving any ground in the talks. "They're not giving in on anything," Renzi reportedly told his IV MPs, according to persons present. "They won't accept mediation on the major issues and they don't even want to put anything down in writing." On the justice issue, Renzi said IV had achieved "absolute zero". A major stumbling block has reportedly been IV's insistence on tapping the European Stability Mechanism rescue fund for health spending, which the biggest government partner, the populist 5-Star Movement (M5S), strongly opposes fearing tough conditions. House Speaker Roberto Fico, who is leading the talks, is due to report back to President Sergio Mattarella on the outcome of the talks later Tuesday. Observers said the apparent lack of progress meant the chances of Conte being reappointed could be falling. (ANSA).

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pew Charitable Trusts today praised the government of Costa Rica for committing to protect coastal wetlands within its updated nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. As outlined in the NDC, the country's actions will help reduce carbon emissions and build resilience to the impacts of climate change:"Costa Rica will continue to lead in conservation, responsible use and restoration of coastal wetlands through deepening scientific knowledge of the ecosystem services these habitats provide and will take steps to better protect and restore these spaces."

Coastal wetlands such as mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and tidal salt marshes are home to some of the richest biodiversity on the planet, and scientists and governments are increasingly recognizing their effectiveness as nature-based solutions to climate change. In addition to sequestering three to five times more carbon per acre than other tropical forests, these "blue carbon" ecosystems can help coastal communities adapt to the impacts of climate change by offering flood protection from storm surges.

Scientific understanding of the climate benefits provided by coastal wetlands has developed rapidly in the past decade, aided in particular by the development of methodologies approved by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to measure mitigation benefits. However, although many countries' first NDCs to the Paris Agreement recognized the potential of these ecosystems, few of them outlined specific policies or goals to protect and preserve these climate benefits.

Costa Rica's updated NDC outlines a suite of detailed commitments to protect and restore coastal wetlands, including:

Protection of 100% of coastal wetlands recorded in the country's National Wetland Inventoryincluding 22,000 hectares of mangroves.

Restoration of priority coastal wetlands areas by 2025.

Development of management and monitoring plans that will enable sustainable community stewardship of mangrove areas that are key to local livelihoods.

Exploration of innovative conservation financing mechanisms, including the potential expansion of the existing payment for ecosystem services model applied to some terrestrial ecosystems.

"Protection of blue carbon ecosystems in our updated NDC can have real benefits in helping mitigate and adapt to climate change," said Haydee Rodriguez, Costa Rica's vice minister for water and the ocean, "both within Costa Rica and more broadly in supporting similarly ambitious countries."

"Costa Rica is once again leading by example. This NDC outlines a clear and bold path that will not only conserve and restore these amazing ecosystems, but also provide vital learnings for other countries looking at the role nature-based solutions can play in climate policy," shared Thomas Hickey, senior officer of Pew's protecting coastal wetlands and coral reefs project.

He added: "Pew is pleased to be working in partnership with the Costa Rican government, Conservation International, and regional experts at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center in support of these ambitious goals."

"Costa Rica has long been an example of achieving sustainable economic growth while valuing and protecting nature," noted Ana Gloria Guzman Mora, executive director of Conservation International Costa Rica. "The country now consolidates its position as a global leader with the recognition of the role of oceans and coastal ecosystems for climate action. This NDC is a perfect complement to Costa Rica's national decarbonization strategy and represents the ambitious commitments the country has made to ensure that people, climate, and nature thrive."

The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. Learn more at www.pewtrusts.org

Barb Cvrkel, 202-510-5670, [email protected]

SOURCE The Pew Charitable Trusts

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The Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Kayode Fayemi, has revealed that about 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines would soon be available in the country to immunise 40 per cent of the population this year.

This, he said, was part of measures being put in place to stem the tide of the deadly virus this year, adding that another batch of 60 million doses would arrive in 2022.

Governor Fayemi disclosed this on Tuesday while delivering a paper: The role of Nigerias State Governments in Recovery: Responses to covid-19 linked Challenges at the Chatham House Africa Programme. The conference was moderated by Elizabeth Donnelly, Deputy Director and Research Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House.

Mr Fayemi at the virtual conference which held via Zoom, said the amount of vaccines being expected was released by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), during a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) last week.

He however said that beyond governments procurement of vaccines, the NGF has remained a strong proponent of the utilisation of public-private partnerships in vaccines procurement as a means of closing the gap between what is available and what is necessary to achieve herd immunity.

Speaking further, Mr Fayemi, disclosed that the country had conducted about 1.3 million tests of which 131,242 persons (10 percent) tested positive to the virus with case fatality rate of 1.2 percent.

He said: As at today, Nigeria has tested 1.3m persons for COVID-19, with 10% (131,242) of these confirmed positive. Compared with the global and Africas Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 2.2% and 2.5% respectively, Nigeria has fared better with a CFR of 1.2%.

Six States (Lagos, FCT, Plateau, Kaduna, Oyo and Rivers) have contributed 70% of confirmed cases, with Lagos the commercial nerve of the country contributing about 40% of total burden. Data indicates that men appear to be disproportionately affected accounting for 69% of the confirmed cases. Most cases occur in people aged 31-40 years.

Discussing efforts of the government at minimising the effect of the pandemic on public health and economic growth, Mr Fayemi explained that the private sector through Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) collaborated with the state and federal governments in raising more than $75 million to provide medical supplies, equipment, isolation and treatment centres and food for the vulnerable in the society.

This, he said, was in addition to the expansion of laboratories services across the 36 states and the federal capital territory and training of about 45,000 health workers across the country on infection, prevention and control measures.

On prevention, we continue to communicate and inform the public on the need to adhere to safety protocols and provide the necessary information to improve awareness about the disease. Both at Federal and State levels, messages to increase awareness about the pandemic, safety protocols to be taken and how/where to get treated are constantly published on print and electronic media.

We are also on the offensive with respect to ensuring people comply with the safety protocols in place. Only last week, Mr President signed the COVID-19 Health Protection Regulations, which provided guidance on gatherings, operations in public places, mandatory compliance with treatment protocols, penalties and enforcement.

When Nigeria reported its first case in late February 2020, only four laboratories in the country could test for COVID-19. By October 2020, testing capacity had expanded to over 70 laboratories across the 36+1 States. The scale up of laboratory services was important given the size of the country and the need to rapidly obtain results for suspected cases. As at December 2020, more than 45,000 health workers have been trained across the country on infection prevention and control measures, he said.

Mr Fayemi pointed out the need to shift approach from emergency response to strengthening the sustainability of the countrys health system and the need to utilise the potential to produce approved vaccines in Nigeria and gain better level of independence in the area of vaccine research.

He called for increased investment in health security and public health emergencies by state governments with recommendation on the need for each state to establish its own Centre for Disease Control in the country.

The COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps our biggest lesson around this, as the pandemic has affected all spheres of the economy. Nigeria now has a National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) that includes a multi-sectorial approach to prepare for and respond to disease outbreaks, he added.
Protesters gather in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok after a military coup that resulted in the arrest of leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Feb. 1, 2021.

Neighboring countries gave a tepid response to a coup in Myanmar on Monday, with no nation coming forward to condemn the militarys seizure of power, amid a general erosion of democracy in the region.

Thailand, which shares a border with Myanmar and has its own history of military coups that toppled democratically elected governments, had little to say in response.

Its their own business, its their internal affair, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters in Bangkok.

Prawit has had a lead role in the Thai government since a 2014 coup overthrew the elected administration of Yingluck Shinawatra. Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha Prayuth became prime minister after the coup and retained the post in a 2019 general election widely viewed as rigged.

In recent months, the Thai government has cracked down on youth-led pro-democracy protests, charging dozens of activists on suspicion of violating a royal defamation law.

In the Philippines, a spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte offered a similar response about the coup in Myanmar.

This is an internal matter, spokesman Harry Roque said, preferring to discuss the more than 1,200 Filipino expatriates in Myanmar.

The primary concern is the focus is the safety of Filipinos  we can offer repatriation and temporary shelter in the embassy, Roque told reporters.

Opposition leaders in the Philippines say that Duterte has increased the power of the military and police since taking office in 2016. By 2020, nearly 8,000 suspected drug addicts and dealers had been killed in Dutertes so-called war on drugs, according to police. Human rights activists say the death toll is likely thousands more.

Both the Philippines and Thailand are founding members of the 10-state Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Myanmar. The blocs core principles include a policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of member states.

The sultanate of Brunei, which chairs ASEAN this year, noted that its charter calls for adherence to the principles of democracy, the rule of law and good governance, respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in a statement on the coup on behalf of the bloc.

Aung San Suu Kyi [Reuters]

Myanmar leader arrested

Early on Monday, Myanmars military arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior leaders, then declared a one-year state of emergency to deal with allegations of voting fraud tied to the general election in November, BenarNews sister entity Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported.

Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party won 396 seats in parliament while the army-affiliated Union Solidarity and Development Party won 33.

Internet and telecommunications services in the capital city were shut down in the capital city, Naypyidaw, RFA reported.

In order to execute the necessary actions including the re-examination of voters lists ... all legislative, administrative and judiciary powers have been transferred to the military commander-in-chief, said a statement issued by Interim President Myint Swe.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing will be in charge of the country, the Associated Press reported, citing a Myanmar military TV report.

The general, who has been Myanmars commander-in-chief since 2011, is under U.S. sanctions for his role in the 2017 crackdown against Rohingya that led hundreds of thousands to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

Malaysian and Indonesian leaders expressed concerns about the military action.

Malaysia calls on the Myanmar military and all relevant parties to give utmost priority to the maintenance of peace and security in Myanmar, uphold the rule of law, and resolve any electoral discrepancies through established legal mechanisms and dialogue in a peaceful manner, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Malaysia reaffirms the strong support for Myanmars democratic transition, peace process and inclusive economic development.

Malaysia currently has an unelected government, after the previous administration collapsed in February 2020, and is under its first national emergency in more than five decades to tackle rising coronavirus infections.

After the Malaysian king declared the emergency last month, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin assured the nation that the move was not part of a coup, but said parliament and state assemblies would be suspended through Aug. 1.

In neighboring Indonesia, the Foreign Ministry said it was deeply concerned by the latest developments in Myanmar, and called for election disputes to be resolved through available legal mechanisms.

Indonesia calls for the implementation of the principles contained in the ASEAN Charter, including the commitment to the rule of law, good governance, democratic principles and a constitutional government, the statement said.

Indonesia is the largest democracy in Southeast Asia, but a report by the Brookings Institution in late January claimed that there is now scholarly consensus that Indonesias democracy has not just stagnated but is regressing.

The report said President Joko Jokowi Widodo had presided over a period of increasing military involvement in public life, with figures linked to the dictatorship of former President Suharto now back in politics.

A Rohingya in a refugee camp at Teknaf, Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, checks his mobile phone for news of the military coup and arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, Feb. 1, 2021. [Abdur Rahman/BenarNews]

Rohingya, rights groups react



The government of Bangladesh, a South Asian country that shares a frontier with Myanmar, called for peace and stability for its neighbor, noting that it remained focused on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees.

Its my belief that well be able to achieve our goal, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said.

About 1 million of the minority Muslims, including 740,000 who fled after the August 2017 crackdown in the Rakhine state, have settled in camps in and around Coxs Bazar after being forced from Myanmar. The two countries signed a repatriation agreement in late 2017, but efforts since have failed.

Syed Ullah, leader of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, a camp-based Rohingya organization, said the military coup might be good for the Rohingya.

Aung San Suu Kyi supported genocide of the Rohingya in 2017 out of greed for power. Today she has become a prisoner of that power, he told BenarNews. The military needs international support, so, politically, the military could focus on the Rohingya issue.

But Mostafa Kamal, a leader at the Leda refugee camp in Teknaf, was pessimistic.

[I]f the situation in the country is turbulent, the issue of Rohingya return will not be discussed, he told BenarNews.

Suu Kyi, an icon of Myanmars pro-democracy movement, was widely criticized after she led Myanmars legal defense in 2019, when the African nation of The Gambia sued Myanmar over allegations that its military had carried out genocidal acts during the 2017 offensive against Rohingya insurgents in Rakhine state.

In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden led Western nations in condemning the coup.

The militarys seizure of power in Burma, the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian officials, and the declaration of a national state of emergency are a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy and the rule of law, he said, using the old name for Myanmar.

In a democracy, force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election. For almost a decade, the people of Burma have been steadily working to establish elections, civilian governance, and the peaceful transfer of power. That progress should be respected.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called Myanmar its friendly neighbor in commenting on the coup.

We hope that all sides in Myanmar can appropriately handle their differences under the constitution and legal framework and safeguard political and social stability, he said.

Hadi Azmi and Noah Lee in Kuala Lumpur, Nontarat Phaicharoen and Wilawan Watcharasakwet in Bangkok, Jesmin Papri in Dhaka, Abdur Rahman in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, Dennis Jay Santos in Manila, Ahmad Syamsudin and Ronna Nirmala in Jakarta contributed to this report.
The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) has informed all members, pensioners, children beneficiaries and spousal annuitants, who receive monthly benefits from the fund, of the temporary suspension of the biometric verification process due to Covid-19 regulations. Members should however not be alarmed as the suspension will not affect payments of their benefits.

"With the new strain of Covid-19 looming and the alarming increase in cases, the GIPF has taken the decision to protect all members, especially our vulnerable stakeholders such as our pensioners" stated Ignatius Manyando, Manager: Annuities.

The biometrics verification system identifies individuals by comparing a person's thumbprint to information stored on a database. Since the verification process is touch-based, the decision was taken in the interest of the health and safety of GIPF staff and that of its members.

"It is imperative that GIPF adheres to regulations put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and encourage members with enquiries to contact their nearest GIPF office," concluded Manyando.

After conducting surprise mandatory COVID-19 tests that uncovered no new cases, Hong Kongs leader Carrie Lam on February 2 defended her administrations use of ambush lockdown. According to Bloomberg, Hong Kong governments new tactic involves authorities giving no warning of an impending lockdown, sealing off buildings where cases are detected and then ensuring everyone inside is tested, usually overnight. On Monday, the officials had cordoned off designated areas in four densely populated districts and conducted about 1,700 tests. However, the authorities found zero new infections.

As several citizens complained that the new lockdown tactic hasnt been effective, Lam defended the governments method and said that they were just one preventive measure among many. She said that the one cant really measure the effectiveness of these operations by the number of cases identified. Lam added that the ambush lockdowns were not a waste of manpower and money but instead well worth. She also said that the efficacy does not only concern the recovery rate but also the prevention of the disease.

READ: Hong Kong Government Critic Jimmy Lai Returns To Court

READ: New UK Citizenship Visa Route Opens For Hong Kong Residents

HK threatens to knock down doors to force tests

Amid a surge in coronavirus infections, Hong Kongs government is taking a much more proactive approach to testing similar to tactics used on the authoritarian mainland. On Tuesday, the government even threatened to knock down the doors of residents who dont respond to authorities conducting mandatory-testing blitzes. The officials said that the government may take legal action including removing individuals or applying to a magistrate for a warrant to break into and forcefully enter a unit.

Hong Kong has been attempting to curb the fourth wave of coronavirus infections with the targeted lockdown. The Asian financial hub has seen authorities cordoning off an area and restricting movement until residents receive negative results. The government has even suggested that some might be deliberately evading the tests in areas that range from densely packed neighbourhoods to just a handful of buildings.

Lams de facto deputy Mathew Cheung has also said that officials would use wider and more frequent lockdowns as the city is heading into the Chinese New Year holidays next week. It is worth noting that Hong Kong was one of the first places to be struck by the coronavirus after China. The city has recorded nearly 10,500 infections with about 170 deaths by imposing effective but economically ruinous social distancing measures for much of the last year.

READ: UK's Special Visa Scheme To Allow Hong Kong Residents To Become Citizens

READ: Thousands Flee Hong Kong For UK, Fearing China Crackdown
[February 02, 2021] K-2 Ventures Advises Mark Two Engineering on Its Sale to CORE Industrial Partners

K-2 Venture Partners ("K-2 Ventures" or "K-2") served as the exclusive financial advisor to Mark Two Engineering, LLC ("Mark Two"), a medical device manufacturer, in its sale to Incodema Holdings LLC ("Incodema"), a portfolio company of CORE Industrial Partners ("CORE"), a Chicago-based private equity firm. Mark Two specializes in complex high-precision machining and manufacturing for established medical device OEMs. The company provides components, surgical equipment, and implant systems across multiple product platforms through a full suite of modern CNC technologies and equipment. Cheryl Box (News - Alert) , President of Mark Two, said, "Not only did K-2 provide us with excellent guidance and representation on this exciting transaction, but they also positioned us well for the sale through their ongoing consulting throughout the year. K-2's significant small business experience combined with their hands-on involvement with the Mark Two team helped us to grow the company and increase its worth. It's difficult to imagine completing this transaction without their support and execution." Mark Kacer, Managing Partner of K-2, said, "It was a pleasure to work with Mark Two's talented team towards enhancing the company's capabilities, performance, and results, ultimately realizing that value through the sale to Incodema. Further, we were pleased to have helped Mark Two achieve record sales and earnings, despite the challenges of the global pandemic." Kevin Kacer, Vice President of K-2, added, "We are confident that Mark Two's technical capabilities and their consistent product quality will bring significant value to Incodema and its operations. We look forward to other similar opportunities in which K-2 can help small business owners execute their strategies successfully." This transaction marks a milestone in the momentum of K-2's M&A advisory services for lower middle-market businesses and is representative of the firm's effective transactional and operational guidance along with its commitment to its clients' long-term sustainale success.



Nason, Yeager, Gerson, Harris & Fumero, P.A. provided legal representation to Mark Two while Winston & Strawn LLP provided legal representation to CORE in the transaction. For additional details on the transaction, please contact Kevin Kacer by phone at 843-666-4818 or by email at kkacer@k-2ventures.com.

About K-2 Ventures K-2 Ventures is a South Florida-based boutique M&A firm offering investment banking services, consulting, and private equity investing. Founded by Mark Kacer and Kevin Kacer in 2019, K-2 is focused on partnering with small to mid-sized businesses, respecting the values and vision of the management team to help each company reach its peak. For more information, visit www.k-2ventures.com. About Mark Two Engineering Founded in 1996, Mark Two is a contract manufacturing firm that specializes in complex high-precision component machining for the medical device industry. Headquartered in Miami Lakes, FL, Mark Two is ISO 9001 certified, ISO 13485 certified and FDA registered. For more information, visit www.marktwo.com. About CORE Industrial Partners CORE Industrial Partners is a Chicago-based private equity firm investing in North American lower middle-market manufacturing and industrial technology businesses. CORE's team is comprised of highly experienced former CEOs and investment professionals with shared beliefs, deep experience, and a proven track record of building market-leading businesses. Through our capital, insight, and operational expertise, CORE partners with management teams and strives to build best-in-class companies with lasting results. For more information, visit www.coreipfund.com. About Incodema Holdings Incodema Holdings ("Incodema") is a leading provider of precision machining and sheet metal cutting and forming solutions, including laser, micro waterjet, specialty stamping, multislide, welding and photo chemical etching, across numerous end markets, including electronics, aerospace and defense, medical and industrials, among others. Headquartered in Ithaca, New York, with additional facilities in Newark, New York, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Denver, Colorado, Incodema holds certifications and compliance designations including AS9100 Rev. D, ISO 9001 and ITAR. For more information, visit www.incodema.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005157/en/

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DALLAS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of a record-breaking growth year, Smoothie King  the world's largest smoothie brand  is eyeing even greater growth in 2021. With key factors such as health, wellness, convenience and safety all remaining top-of-mind among consumers this year, Smoothie King is in a great position to fulfill these needs as it continues to refine and expand on its online-ordering platforms and curbside-pickup services.

As a result of these innovations, along with its continued focus on inspiring healthy and active lifestyles, the franchise is aiming to receive 125 signed agreements before year's end.

"Owning a Smoothie King is an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs who are passionate about living a healthy and active lifestyle and want to inspire that lifestyle among guests," said Kevin King, Chief Development Officer at Smoothie King. "Our franchisees are directly responsible for our success, and that success is largely because of their alignment and belief in our mission and vision. That, combined with our simple operations and constant innovations to better serve guests' needs, blends a real recipe for success. We look forward to welcoming more of those types of entrepreneurs into our system in 2021."

OUR KIND OF TOWN

One of the reasons for the early-year optimism is a recent area-development agreement Smoothie King received in a key target market: Chicago.

The franchise experienced great success in the Windy City last year, nearly doubling its store count and opening seven new locations. Across the market's 16 total stores, Smoothie King also recorded double-digit, same-store sales growth each month from July to December.

That success motivated current multi-unit Smoothie King Owner Yonas Hagos to recommit to the franchise with an agreement that'll bring 30 future stores to the Chicagoland area. Chicago presents a prime development area for the Dallas-based franchise company in part because of the healthy-lifestyle-driven demographic and the size of the market.

"Smoothie King really offers the best of both worlds," said Hagos. "It's a large, well-known brand with a dedicated customer base, but there's still great opportunity for growth in major, untapped markets. Plus, when you consider the outstanding and consistent support from corporate to put owners in the best positions to succeed, investing in Smoothie King is a no-brainer."

RECOGNIZED FOR SUCCESS

Reinforcing the strength of the Smoothie King franchise opportunity, Entrepreneur magazine recently released its annual Franchise 500 List: a prestigious ranking of the strongest and most well-performing franchises around the world over the past year. It takes into account factors like growth and size, brand strength, cost and fees, franchise support and financial strength and stability.

Despite the challenges that came as a result of the pandemic, Smoothie King was able to persevere in 2020  opening a record 263 stores globally, including 71 in the United States. This put the franchise over 1,000 units nationwide and more than 1,300 worldwide.

Because of these achievements, Smoothie King ranked in the top 20 on the Entrepreneur Franchise 500 List, coming in at No. 19 in 2021. This is the 28th year in-a-row the brand has been listed in the Franchise 500 list.

OPPORTUNITY ABOUND

Like Chicago, Smoothie King is looking to establish a greater presence in 2021 in key markets across the country with qualified and brand-passionate franchisees. These include cities in Colorado, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Ohio, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC.

To learn more about the Smoothie King franchise opportunity and become a part of the brand inspiring people to live healthy and active lifestyles, visit www.smoothiekingfranchise.com.

ABOUT SMOOTHIE KING FRANCHISES, INC.

Smoothie King Franchises, Inc., the original U.S. smoothie franchise, is a privately-held, Dallas-based franchise company. Founded in 1973, Smoothie King has evolved into a lifestyle brand inspiring people to live healthy and active lifestyles via nutritious, great-tasting smoothies. The franchise earned the No. 19 ranking overall on Entrepreneur's prestigious Franchise 500 list in 2021, making it the 28th-year in-a-row the brand has been ranked on the list. The company also debuted on the Inc. 5000 list in 2018.

Media Contact: Brian Campbell Jr., Fishman Public Relations, [email protected]

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The Khaleej Times, a daily English language newspaper of the United Arab Emirates, has posted an article highlighting Vietnamese achievements in socio-economic development, especially landmarks under the leadership of the Communist Party.

A screenshot of the Khaleej Times' article.

According to the Khaleej Times, through the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the country can be viewed as a global success story due to domestic economic growth being among the worlds strongest over the past decade.

Upon assessing Vietnamese economic achievements, the article states that many international organisations have recently praised the country for being "a legendary story", "a rising star", or "the brightest economy" in Asia.

These achievements have therefore been recognised and appreciated by members of the international community.

The UAE publication also quotes the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as saying that Vietnam has created a miraculous story in poverty reduction. The Southeast Asian nation recorded a human development index (HDI) of 0.63 in 2019, ranking 118th out of 189 countries worldwide, and among the group of countries with the highest HDI growth rate globally.

The article also outlines that Vietnam finished eighth in the list of the world's best economies to invest in back in 2019, a rise of 15 places compared to 2018. Indeed, its competitiveness ranked 67th out of 141 countries and territories by the World Economic Forum (WEF), a climb of 10 notches compared to 2018.

The media outlet notes that according to a recent report from the World Bank (WB), between 2010 and 2020 Vietnams human capital index increased from 0.66 to 0.69, a score which continues to be higher than the average rate of countries with the same income level.

The Khaleej Times also reviews the United Nations Sustainable Development Report 2020, which indicates that Vietnam is the only nation in Southeast Asia to meet the five UN action targets. This includes measures aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, promoting renewable power, and improving resilience to combat climate change. The nations annual average GDP growth reached 6% during the 2016 to 2020 period, along with achievements recorded in education-training, science-technology, culture and social affairs, with the local poverty rate dropping to below 3%.

More importantly, in the context of a devastating pandemic throughout the world, 2020 witnessed Vietnam stand out as an outlier, praised globally for excellent pandemic control and keeping losses to the economy and human lives to a minimum. The country has been seen as a bright spot in a bleak picture of the world economy, becoming one of the 10 economies with the highest GDP growth in 2020, the Khaleej Times reports.

The story of Vietnam's successful COVID-19 fight is hardly a miracle, however, what it did was take some simple and straightforward measures like imposing travel restrictions, contact tracing and social distancing. But what made this work were the Communist Party of Vietnam's effective leadership and social unity and cohesion, the article concludes.

VOV/ Khaleej Times

Foreign reporters highlight Vietnams renewal achievements Foreign reporters have spotlighted the great role of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in the countrys development as well as achievements Vietnam achieved during 35 years of its Doi Moi (renewal) process.
After being challenged by the Swiss police to re-create the Jerusalema dance, gardai are passing the baton to the Irish public to take on the dance dubbed the Siochana shuffle.

Tralee Garda Mary Gardiner organised the video that has today received mountains of praise across the country.

Ms Gardiner said her mission of putting a smile on people's faces during this trying time is accomplished, adding that she is relieved that the video has been published, so people dont think she was dancing on the roof for no reason.

In the video, Ms Gardiner and her crew create an unconventional scene by busting some moves on the roof of a building.

Police officers in Switzerland first decided to take on the viral #JerusalemaChallenge.

Irish DJ Frankie Beats saw the video and took to Twitter to challenge the gardai to take part.

Police officers in Switzerland @fedpolCH decided to do something special for its people in these dark times. Just amazing! @gardainfo? Will you accept the challenge if enough people retweet this? #Garda #Ireland #Police #Jerusalem pic.twitter.com/n32XWzwO5j  Frankie Beats (@itsbeats) January 15, 2021

He wrote: "Police officers in Switzerland decided to do something special for its people in these dark times. Just amazing! @gardainfo? Will you accept the challenge if enough people retweet this?"

Speaking on RTE Radio Ones Ray DArcy Show Ms Gardiner said it was to put a smile on the face.

They (the Swiss police) put out on their Twitter that they challenge the Irish police, An Garda Siochana, to do the Jerusalema dance, she said.

The whole purpose is to put a smile on the face, even listening to that song you cant help but smile.

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Ms Gardiner said not only did the force want to recreate the original video, but also add some hints of Irish culture.

There were guards in it from Thomastown, Sligo and the garda college - where you see the fabulous Irish dancer, who I believe was a former member of Riverdance.

"It was amazing, we wanted to show our own culture and our own heritage, and our own absolutely beautiful countryside.

"As you can see in the video there are some fabulous locations.

"We have a lovely country and its lovely the way it was shown off, I was so happy when I saw it and so relieved that it went up so people didnt think Mary Gardiner and the lads had lost their minds being up on the roof for no reason!

Not only did gardai across the country partake in the video, but so did garda horses.

Our mounted unit are in it and they are the most fabulous animals and to see them dancing in the video and joining in is fantastic, she said.

Ms Gardiner said that it didnt take her crew in Tralee, or as she called them her victims, to long learn the dance, and is calling on the Irish public to recreate the bop within their bubble.

We are asking people to show us their dance moves and create their own videos in their living room, their kitchen or even in the attic but just make sure they stay in their bubble and tag us with #GardaJerusalema

She added: Its great to hear the comments that it put a smile on the face because that's the point. That was the purpose of it, so mission accomplished.

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) produced and extensively characterized novel organic molecules with a long helical structure. Unlike previous helical molecules, these longer compounds exhibit special interactions between coils that could give rise to interesting optical and chemical properties with applications in light polarization, catalysis, and molecular springs.

More often than not, organic molecules with unique 3D structures bear physicochemical properties that cannot be found in other types of compounds. Helicenes, chains of simple benzene rings that adopt a helical structure, are a good example. These molecules, which resemble a spring, have interesting applications in optics and as chemical sensors or catalysts. However, it is still difficult to synthesize long helicenes; the longest one ever made was sixteen benzene rings long, which amounted to a helical structure with slightly more than two full turns and a half.

In a recent study published in Chemistry - A European Journal, a team of scientists at Tokyo Tech mixed things up by synthesizing a different type of organic molecule with a helical structure. Unlike helicenes, the basic unit of their compounds was anthracene, a linear chain of three aromatic rings (see Figure 1). In previous works, the team had managed to synthesize [3]HA, which stands for "helical anthracene with three anthracene units." However, as Professor Shinji Toyota, the corresponding author of the study, explains, "[3]HA was not long enough to reach a full turn. Therefore, it did not exhibit some of the peculiar characteristics that arise from the interactions between different 'layers' of the helical structure in a face-to-face fashion."

Using a carefully planned step-by-step process, the scientists managed to synthesize [4]HA and [5]HA, which they proceeded to characterize through a variety of experiments backed by theoretical calculations. They verified the composition and structure of the compounds using proton nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray analysis. These findings were confirmed through density functional theory calculations, a widely used approach used to make quantum mechanical models of electronic and nuclear structures.

Then, the researchers quantified the stability of the different helical anthracenes by using them in a virtual chemical reaction that changed them into flat molecules. Interestingly, the stability of 3[HA] was almost the same as that of [4]HA and [5]HA. This indicates that the destabilizing forces that naturally appear in longer molecular chains ([4]HA and [5]HA) actually cancelled out with the new face-to-face stabilizing interactions between different helical layers. These interactions between layered anthracene moiety was visualized by Non-Covalent Interaction (NCI) analysis (Figure 32). The effect of these new interactions was also apparent in the photoemission properties of the longer molecules; their emission bands upon excitation were longer-lived, highlighting the fact that excited states were preserved longer.

Finally, the scientists explored the helical inversion process in the new, longer compounds. This inversion refers to the process of left-handed spirals changing into right-handed ones and vice versa. Some attractive optical properties such as circular polarization are lost if left- and right-handed spirals are present in equal proportion. This motivated the team to analyze the stepwise process by which each helical structure changes directions.

Overall, this study provides some much-needed insight into a new type of helical molecule. Already looking ahead, Toyota comments on future works involving these exciting compounds: "Extending helical anthracenes further and producing them with a single coiling direction remains a challenge, and so does testing their performance as molecular springs. Our team is currently working on synthesizing even longer molecules and performing structural modifications." Only time will tell what's in line for helical structures when longer ones finally spring up!

HOUSTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blindster, an online custom window coverings business, today announced that they were a Silver Winner for the Stevie Awards Customer Service Department of the Year for Retail award. Blindster strives for exemplary customer service and lives by the motto- "We don't just want customers today, we want customers for life!"

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals.

The team is officially known as the "sales and customer service department" but more affectionately known as "The Blindster Bunch". Each team member is given extensive training on the complex, custom products in order to better assist the customer from the sales journey all the way to installation and troubleshooting. Kyle Cox, the founder of Blindster, treats his employees like family and provides a fun work environment which is reflected in their warm and helpful communication service style.

"It is a great honor to be recognized as a Silver Winner for Customer Service Department of the Year," says Cox. "This award solidifies our efforts and commitment to exceptional customer service. We look forward to making lasting impressions and long-term relationships with our customers."

Last year, Cox came up with the idea to donate $2 for every product sold to United Way's COVID-19 Response & Recovery Fund . With the customer's help, $60,848.00 was raised for US-Based United Way's to help fund critical services such as rent and mortgage assistance, donations to food pantries, shelter options and more.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals. More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry, in 51 nations, were considered in this year's competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 160 professionals worldwide on nine specialized judging committees.

"In the toughest working environment in memory for most organizations, 2021 Stevie Award winners still found ways to innovate, grow sales, please their customers, and secure new business," said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher. "The judges have recognized and rewarded this, and we join them in applauding this year's winners for their continued success. We look forward to recognizing them on April 14."

For more information regarding Blindster, please visit their website: Blindster.com

The complete lists of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners by category can be found here: http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales

About Blindster

Blindster offers high-quality, custom-made window treatments direct to consumers at prices far below retail. Many people believe custom window treatments are a job just for professionals. Our mission is to show everyone how easy it is to do it yourself and save money. In fact, we're so confident you can measure and install custom blinds yourself we guarantee our blinds will fit your windows even if you make a mistake. All Blindster products are backed by a limited lifetime warranty and a 60-day satisfaction guarantee. For further information, please visit www.Blindster.com .

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[February 02, 2021] Altium Empowers High School STEM Teachers with a Virtual Electronic Design Curriculum and Tools

In September 2020, Altium LLC, the leading printed circuit board (PCB) software company, launched Upverter Education, a free distance learning initiative to support STEM educators. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005349/en/ "Upverter Education has the opportunity to help high school STEM teachers transition into the virtual classroom. Our goal is to support the next generation of electronics designers of all economic levels by giving them access to free curriculum and professional tools today to prepare them for their innovative careers in the future," explains Rea Callender, Executive Director of Upverter Education. The Upverter Education initiative provides the curriculum and resources to guide users through the design, prototyping and manufacturing of electronics engineering concluding with the delivery of students hardware designs. Teachers can utilize the materials to supplement their existing lesson plans, either as standalone units or as a full, 4-6 week educational program. The program centers around Altium's Upverter, a free, web-based PCB design tool that's easy to use in the distance-learning classroom. Upverter's collaborative and remote capabilities align perfectly with the needs of STEM educators for guiding students through the electronics design process and their exploration of technology and engineering. Since the launch, the Upverter Education team has formed strategic partnerships with schools around the country and collaborations with leaders in engineering education, including the American Society for Engineering Education, TRYEngineering, First Robotics, and NASA's Robotics Alliance Prject.



Schools within Elk Grove Unified, one of California's largest school districts, have adopted the Upverter Education program, as well as the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), a two-year public residential high school in Durham, NC. Marshall Massengill, robotics mentor and alumnus of NCSSM, explains how Upverter has been helping him promote remote learning statewide. "Currently with Covid-19, most of our students are spread throughout the state rather than living on campus. Upverter's collaborative nature is helping transform the team and keep on working, just as we would normally in the lab." The Upverter Teachers Guide provides step by step instructions for teachers to launch the program.

For Michael Rosales, Engineering and Science teacher at Elk Grove Unified Florin High School, Altium's education program is already changing the way he teaches Principles of Engineering. "This is perfect for my class already--it allows the kids to look at virtual circuits before they create physical ones, and you can have multiple people working on one circuit together," Rosales reports. Educators are currently using the program to teach robotics, engineering, digital electronics design, principles of engineering and STEM intro classes. The Upverter Education team is also supporting high school students working on proposals for NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative program, extending the use of Upverter for small satellite payloads. To see how teachers are using Upverter Education in the classroom, please visit: https://youtu.be/cJu0Qopwk2M For a comprehensive overview of the Upverter Education distance learning program, please register for this informational webinar, scheduled for February 27, 2021. About Upverter Upverter is a free EDA system delivered in a web-browser, which enables students and educators to design, share, and review schematics and printed circuit boards. It provides the ability to generate a bill of materials, Gerber files, and 3D rendering. Upverter is an Altium brand. To learn more about Upverter and Upverter Education, visit https://education.upverter.com/. ABOUT ALTIUM Altium LLC, a global software company headquartered in San Diego, CA (News - Alert) is accelerating the pace of innovation through electronics. For over 30 years, Altium has been delivering software that maximizes the productivity of PCB designers and electrical engineers. From individual inventors to multinational corporations, more PCB designers and engineers choose Altium software to design and realize electronics-based products. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005349/en/

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Laura Bofill Spain

Laura Bofills profound interest in painting developed at a very young age. Coming from a family of artists, she became familiar with the practice early on. After training at the School of Industrial Engineering in Barcelona, she left Spain for London, an abundant megalopolis whose cultural melting pot would deeply influence the artist. The urban landscape, shapes and volumes of cities  whether they are treated as empty or full, whether it is about their omnipresence or on the contrary, their disappearance  become the artists central subject.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Gov. Kay Ivey has committed the state of Alabama to lease two huge prisons from one of the nation's biggest private prison operators.

The signed agreements with CoreCivic are for two prisons that haven't been built yet.

President Joe Biden has ordered the federal system to eliminate private prisons, but these terms are different: CoreCivic will own the buildings, but they'll be operated by the state Department of Corrections and staffed by state workers.

Together, they'll house 7,000 inmates.

The plan calls for a third prison as well, and the plan's total cost is about $3 billion.

Contacted by WAAY 31 on Monday, Regions Bank - the largest bank in Alabama - said it is not involved in these projects.

"Regions provides some banking services to CoreCivic, and our contractual obligation to deliver these services lasts until 2023," said Jeremy King, Regions Bank spokesperson.

"We are not extending additional credit services to CoreCivic, and we are specifically not providing CoreCivic with financing for the construction of the prisons to be built in Alabama.

"To be clear, Regions Bank is 100% committed to creating more inclusive prosperity and advancing racial equity."
OTTAWA  Manitobans are among the least likely in Canada to say the Mounties treat everyone equally, despite having high trust in the force, according to internal data obtained by the Free Press,

OTTAWA  Manitobans are among the least likely in Canada to say the Mounties treat everyone equally, despite having high trust in the force, according to internal data obtained by the Free Press,

The RCMP commissioned EKOS Research Associates to survey how Canadians feel about the national police force in January 2020. Responses show most Manitobans hold the force in high regard, but only half believe its advancing reconciliation.

Just 45 per cent of Manitobans said the RCMP provides the same quality of service to all citizens, the second-lowest rating after British Columbia, which sat at 43 per cent.

However, the 153 Manitoba respondents had more confidence in RCMP leadership, with 56 per cent saying local leaders were effective, compared with 45 per cent of respondents nationally.

Similarly, 55 per cent of Manitobans agreed "the RCMP treats women fairly," a number that drops to 47 per cent nationally.

Manitobans echoed other Canadians, with about half expressing satisfaction in transparency or in how the RCMP respects Indigenous cultures or the LGBTTQ+ community.

Those in the Red Serge did, however, rank well for professionalism, compassion and honesty.

Kelly Gorkoff, chairwoman of the University of Winnipegs criminal justice department, said the results are notable, given they suggest a desire for reform existed well before last summers large-scale public protests.

A raft of demonstrations swept the continent following the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis. In April 2020, Indigenous teen Eishia Hudson was shot and killed by Winnipeg police following a pursuit.

The RCMP survey occurred months before those events, and Gorkoff said they were likely informed by other encounters between Indigenous people and police, dating back to the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry in the 1990s.

"In a world of social media, actions of police are more visible  more knowable  and it appears that although people are concerned with this behaviour, and recognize it as problematic, they still think about police as a necessary mechanism for public safety," Gorkoff wrote in an email.

"These numbers would likely reflect that push-pull  people want police, but are concerned with how police actually operate."

Her departmental colleague, criminologist Michael Weinrath, added two-thirds of respondents who said they had encountered the RCMP said it did not involve a criminal investigation, suggesting most people associate the Mounties with other things, such as traffic or crime prevention.

"A problem for activists and individuals promoting less aggressive policing are the generally high overall ratings for the RCMP in many areas," he noted. "People are most often satisfied with traditional policing, making it more difficult for substantive change."

The RCMP has been surveying the public about its perceptions of the force since 2003.

"The vast majority of Canadians are satisfied with the RCMPs contribution to public safety," reads the report, issued in April but only made public last week.

The analysis noted "room for improvement in some areas, particularly when it comes to how the RCMP handles Indigenous matters."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
The editor of Captain Sir Tom Moores autobiography has said the fundraiser packed more into the last year of his life than most of us manage in a lifetime.

Writing on Penguins website, Rowland White paid tribute to Sir Tom after he died aged 100 after testing positive for coronavirus.

Sir Toms autobiography Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day raised funds for his charity The Captain Tom Foundation.

'He gave us something to believe in.'



A tribute to Captain Sir Tom Moore, from his editor Rowland White. https://t.co/qjVxz38bZY  Penguin Books UK (@PenguinUKBooks) February 2, 2021

The bestselling book told the story of his time on the battlefields of Burma in the Second World War.

It also shared tales about him racing motorbikes competitively, how he took off for the Himalayas and Everest in his 90s because he had never been before, and his fundraising efforts for the NHS.

White said: Tom packed more into the last year of his life than most of us manage in a lifetime.

His year in the public eye could not have been more at odds with the life hed led beforehand, but his autobiography, Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, showed us that the qualities that saw Tom inspire the country he loved had been there all along.

White said after a deal was struck with Sir Tom, he told the publisher he had better get writing.

And, true to form, he over-delivered in this in the same way he had with his walk and his fundraising, he added.

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Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day was a No.1 bestseller. It broke more records and, more importantly, shared the wit, warmth and wisdom of a long life, well-lived.

He said Sir Tom gave people something to believe in.

Modest, stoic, determined, down-to-earth and always ready with a smile, Tom reminded us of who we were, how we wanted to be, and how we wanted to be seen, he said.

Tom embodied a kind of Britishness that, as we faced a threat to our lives, loves and livelihoods the like of which most of us had never experienced, felt as if it was what could see us through.
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A former director for renewable energy at the European Commission and one of country's best-known climatologists have been appointed to the new Climate Change Advisory Council.

Marie Donnelly, who drove clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives at the Commission, and currently chair of Renewable Energy Ireland, will become the new chair of the council.

Professor Peter Thorne, director of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units group at Maynooth University joins her as a new member.

Outgoing chair, economist Professor John FitzGerald, is to remain on as an ordinary member.

Climate Action Minister Eamon Ryan has made the appointments in advance of the formation of the new council which will only be formally established when the new Climate Bill is enacted.

The first council ended its five-year term two weeks ago so the body is not currently able to work in any formal capacity although the members can prepare informally for what will be a significantly enhanced role and workload when the new bill comes into effect.

They will have a key role in advising on the new system of carbon budgets to be introduced under the Climate Bill, which will restrict the carbon emissions allowable from each sector of society and the economy as the country moves to carbon neutrality by 2050.

The inaugural council chaired by Dr FitzGerald was criticised by environmental campaigners for being top-heavy with economists and men.

A recent independent review commissioned by the council itself also expressed concern that there were too many ex-offio members  members automatically appointed because of their positions as heads of State agencies.

The review said the independence, or perceived independence, of the council could be compromised.

TDs and senators on the Joint Oireachtas Climate Action Committee recently recommended the Climate Bill stipulate that membership of the council be more gender-balanced, have more scientific and legal experts and consider having a youth representative.

Further appointments and changes to the outgoing membership could still be made. Mr Ryan is to bring his final draft of the amended Climate Bill to Cabinet in the next few weeks.

Earlier today he secured approval from his Cabinet colleagues for one key amendment, the introduction of a legal ban on future oil and gas exploration.


At least 19 people have died and many others were injured during a tribal fight in Papua New Guinea, local media have said.

Around 6000 people, mainly women and children, have fled into forests because of a wave of fighting and property destruction in the Henal province.

The area's police commander Chief Inspector Teddy Agwi said 300 PNG Defence Force personnel and 400 police officers were guarding the area's main town of Tari.

At least 19 people have died and many others injured during tribal fighting in Papua New Guinea, local media have said. Pictured: PNG police officer in 2012

The area's police commander Chief Inspector Teddy Agwi (pictured right) said police could not make arrests as the two warring factions were using high-powered firearms and the police were outnumbered

Mr Agwi said police could not make arrests as the two warring factions were using high-powered firearms and the police were outnumbered, reported the Post-Courier.

'We went into the villages of Oiebi, Mulimbi and Pinagia but they were empty,' he said.

'The people have escaped into the forests with their children to hide from their enemies.'

Around 6000 people, mainly women and children, have fled into forests because of a wave of fighting and property destruction in the Henal province (pictured)

'The fight started between two cousin brothers over a disputed piece of land in Tagali' three weeks ago, Courier-Post journalist Marjorie Finkeo told Daily Mail Australia.

One of the cousin's used a homemade gun to shoot the other which led to violence among tribes in the villages of Tagali, Hoiebi,Mulimbi and Pinagi.

Warlords are using 'high powered guns' and bush knives to kill each other.

She said many of the injured will not report it to authorities or seek medical help out of fear of their enemies.

One cousin used a homemade gun to shoot another which led to violence among tribes in the villages of Tagali, Hoiebi,Mulimbi and Pinagi. Pictured: Hela Province in Papua New Guinea

Ms Finkeo said the fighting stopped on Sunday but the situation is still tense.

One leader has rescued 20 women and children from homelessness in the main town of Tari, the Courier-Post reported.

Mary Michael, 50, took in people fleeing tribal violence at her centre Never Give Up, and is paying for food and supplies at her own expense.

'We cannot bring in men because their enemies could come and kill every one of us,' she said.

She also said she expected to receive more homeless women and children, and that the local Uniting church is caring for around 1000 people.

At least 5,000 Papua New Guineans are hiding in the Hela province, with some travelling by road to escape and others assisted by family.
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VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickel Rock Resources Inc. ("the Company") (TSXV: NICL) (OTCQB: NICKLF) is pleased to announce it has entered into an Option Agreement with arms-length vendor 802213 AB Ltd (Kelly Funk) for the purchase of a 100% interest, subject to a 2% NSR, in 6 mineral claims located approximately 15 km west of Mt Sydney Williams near Fort St James, BC. Additionally, the Company located two adjoining claims by title selection. Combined, the acquisition of 8 additional claims has increased the Company's prospective land position west of the Decar nickel deposit owned by FPX Nickel Corp from 1,151 to 4,146 hectares. The Company will control a 100% interest in over 13,704 hectares in the district.

Importantly, the additional claims overlie a 15 km long magnetic high trend underlain by similar geology as the Decar nickel deposit. In 2011-2012, an airborne magnetic and EM survey with accompanying geophysical modeling was completed over the property. A 2012 field program confirmed the presence of serpentinized ultramafic rocks within the area of the additional claims. Eight rock samples taken from this area yielded highly elevated values of nickel, cobalt, and chromium. Seven of these eight rock samples yielded elevated values of nickel in the magnetic fractions of these samples indicated by Davis Tube analyses, suggesting the presence of the nickel-iron alloy mineral awaruite. However, no mineralogy was completed on the samples to confirm the presence of awaruite. (source: BC ARIS report - 33690Geochemical and Physical Work Report on the MAC Property -2012 for Stratton Resources Inc.). Field work programs including prospecting and rock sampling on the additional claims are planned as part of the 2021 field program on the Hard Nickel Project. See location map (Nickel Rock Expansion).

Terms of the Acquisition

Date Cash Payments Dollar Value of Shares to be Issued Mining Work Upon signing the agreement $50,000 N/A N/A Upon Exchange approval N/A $225,000 N/A 1st Anniversary date of the effective date $75,000 $225,000 Completion of $100,000 in year 1 2nd Anniversary date of the effective date $100,000 $250,000 Completion of $150,000 in year 2 3rd Anniversary date of the effective date $150,000 $300,000 Completion of $300,000 in year 3 4th Anniversary date of the effective date $200,000 $500,000 Completion of $500,000 in year 4 Upon conversion of the claims to a mining lease $500,000 $1,500,000 N/A

On commencement of commercial production, a 2% NSR Royalty will be payable to the Optionor. Nickel Rock retains the option to purchase onehalf of the NSR (being onehalf of the 2%) for the sum of $3 million dollars.

The Agreement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange ("Exchange") approval and all securities issued in connection with transaction will be subject to a four month and a day hold period in accordance with applicable securities laws.

About the Hard Nickel Project

The subject claims are partially underlain by rocks like those hosting the Decar project of FPX Nickel where mineralization includes nickel, cobalt, and chromium. Previous exploration suggests that at least some of the nickel mineralization occurs as awaruite which is a naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy important in the manufacture of environmentally efficient batteries for the electric vehicle markets globally. The mineral awaruite is both highly magnetic and very dense and is therefore amenable to concentration by mechanical processes including magnetic and gravity separation. This style of deposit is unique and presents considerable metallurgical and processing cost saving advantages.

Significantly, the awaruite found is found in a serpentinized ultramafic rock. In 2018, G. Dipple at the University of British Columbia began the Geoscience BC funded research project "Carbon Mineralization Potential Assessment for BC" scheduled for completion in early 2021. In late 2020 a preliminary assessment report was published. One of the key items from the report was " The use of reactive serpentinite tailings from nickel mining as a carbon sink has the potential to make nickel mining carbon neutral or a net carbon sink. " The presence of serpentinized ultramafic rocks has been repeatedly documented in the areas covered by the claims of the Nickel Rock Projects, as well as at FPX Nickel Corp.'s Decar Project (Dipple, G. et.al., Geoscience BC Report 2020-15). The funds to be received from our flow through financing are earmarked for detailed exploration programs on our two very prospective nickel projects in British Columbia and will start as soon as weather permits.

The Company has seen the commodity spot price for nickel to be in a steady uptrend while world stockpiles have been on the decline and EV manufacturers are calling for more supply of nickel because nickel quantities are increasing in batteries as they increase the amount of charge a battery can hold, thus allowing the EV's to travel greater distances. One such company is Tesla Inc., the world's leading EV manufacturer. Tesla's Founder, Elon Musk, stated that a large contract would be signed if a company could produce nickel with a lowered carbon footprint by using more environmentally friendly ways of mining. His comments made waves in the nickel space and several juniors have benefited from his comments and surged 2 to 3 times their value.

Clayton Valley Project, Silver Peak, Nevada

The Company is exploring for lithium clays and brines within its project area of 118 claims covering over 930 hectares (2,300 acres). The property stretches in a northwest direction from the evaporation ponds of Albemarle Corporation. It has been widely reported that Albemarle is planning to double its lithium production by 2025 by committing between US$30 million and US$50 million in additional investment on the property. In 2021, Albemarle plans to commence exploration of clay and evaluate technology that could accelerate the viability of lithium production from clay resources in the region.

Clayton Valley lithium mineralization occurs both in brine and in montmorillonite clays within sediments to a depth of over 150 meters. Recent metallurgical testing indicates low-cost processing can be achieved by leaching with low acid consumption (125 kg/t) resulting in lithium recoveries of over 85%. These high extractions prove the dominant lithium-bearing minerals present are not hectorite, a refractory clay mineral which requires roasting and/or high acid consumption to liberate the lithium. Testing by other companies on their lithium clay properties, including Lithium Americas (Thacker Pass Project, Nevada), Bacanora Minerals (Sonora Project, Mexico), Ioneer (Rhyolite Ridge Project) and Cypress Development (Clayton Valley Project) have all indicated that economic extraction of the lithium may well be possible.

Qualified Person

Jacques Houle, P.Eng., a qualified person as defined by NI 43 - 101, is responsible for the technical information contained in this release. Readers are cautioned that the information in this press release regarding the property of FPX Nickel Corp is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on the property of interest.

About Nickel Rock Resources Inc. www.nickelrockresources.com

The Company is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company active in the exploration for the nickel-iron alloy awaruite in British Columbia and lithium in Nevada. Nickel Rock Resources Inc. is a Canadian based exploration company whose primary listing is on the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company's maintains a focus on exploration for high value battery metals required for the electric vehicle (EV) market.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

"Robert Setter"

Robert Setter, President & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements which include, but are not limited to, comments that involve future events and conditions, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Except for statements of historical facts, comments that address resource potential, upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt and security of mineral property titles, availability of funds, and others are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may vary materially from those statements. General business conditions are factors that could cause actual results to vary materially from forward-looking statements.

Nickel Rock Resources Inc.

1220  789 West Pender Street

Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1H2

604- 428-5690

www.nickelrockresources.com

[email protected]

SOURCE Nickel Rock Resources Inc.
3 1 of 3 Taco Cabana Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Twitter Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Taco Cabana is serving up a special deal for healthcare workers on Tuesdays as a big thank you for their services during the coronavirus pandemic.

The fast food chain wrote on their Twitter page Tuesday afternoon that all healthcare workers can receive 50 percent off every first Tuesday of the month.
Joe Biden (Center R) and Vice President Kamala Harris (Center L) meet with 10 Republican senators, including Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, on Feb. 1, 2021. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

Heres How the GOPs Stimulus Package Compares to Bidens

Ten Senate Republicans released a $618 billion counterproposal to President Joe Bidens $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package hours before they meet in hopes of finding some common ground, but the two proposals have far more differences than similarities.

The $618 billion package only slightly resembles that of the Biden administration, whose proposal is three times as large and includes bigger stimulus checks for a greater number of people.

With your support, we believe Congress can once again craft a relief package that will provide meaningful, effective assistance to the American people and set us on a path to recovery, the group of 10 wrote in a letter to Biden ahead of their meeting.

Ten Senate Republicans released a $618 billion counterproposal to President Joe Bidens $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package hours before they meet on Monday evening in hopes of finding some common ground, but the two proposals have far more differences than similarities.

The $618 billion package only sightly resembles Bidens, whose proposal is three times as large and includes bigger stimulus checks for a greater number of people. Despite the differences, the senators expressed willingness to work with Biden who campaigned on unity and his ability to reach across the aisle.

Though Biden has said that he hopes the final package is a bipartisan result, he also said that the final bill must be large instead of small, and has faced pressure from some Democrats to swiftly pass his package, even if it means doing so with only Democratic votes.

With your support, we believe Congress can once again craft a relief package that will provide meaningful, effective assistance to the American people and set us on a path to recovery, the group of 10 wrote in a letter to Biden ahead of their meeting. We recognize your calls for unity and want to work in good faith with your administration to meet the health, economic and societal challenges of the COVID crisis.

The senators planning to meet with Biden are West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Indiana Sen. Todd Young.

While the two plans are relatively similar regarding vaccine aid and certain provisions for small businesses, they differ regarding stimulus checks, unemployment benefits and state and local aid.

Stimulus Checks

One of the starkest differences between Republicans plan and Bidens plan regards the size of any potential stimulus check and who will ultimately receive them.

Biden campaigned on $2,000 checks, and his plan includes $1,400 checks (on top of the $600 checks in Decembers package) for Americans earning $75,000 or less, and smaller checks for those earning less than $99,000.

The GOP plan instead offers $1,000 checks to a smaller subset of Americans. Instead of phasing out checks for those earning more than $75,000, Republicans plan would do so for individuals earning more than $40,000, and would not go to anybody earning more than $50,000.

Both plans, however, include qualifying dependents, a group that was excluded from the package passed late last year.

Unemployment Benefits

While Bidens plan allots $400 weekly unemployment checks through September, the GOP plan offers only $300 weekly checks through June. The benefits, which were renewed at $300 a week in Decembers package after lapsing last July, are set to expire again in March.

Vaccination and Public Health Measures

The two plans are relatively consistent regarding aid for the distribution, allocation and administration of coronavirus vaccines and other essential public health measures. Both plans call for a $160 billion national vaccination program, expansions to testing and other public health aid.

They also each include $20 billion for a national vaccination program in partnership with States, Tribes and territories, and boost vaccine production through the Defense Production Act.

Schools

Bidens plan allocates far more money towards the reopening of schools than the Republican plan, though some of the difference would go to colleges suffering as a result of the pandemic instead of to K-12 institutions.

His plan grants $170 billion towards schools and colleges, about $130 billion of which would go directly towards reopening elementary, middle and high schools nationwide. The Republican plan, however, includes $20 billion for their Getting Children Back to School Initiative.

State, Local And Small Business Aid

Disagreements regarding state and local aid have been common among Democrats and Republicans and factored into Congresss inability to reach a deal for months across last year.

Bidens plan would give $440 billion to states and localities, with some being given in to small businesses in the form of grants and loans. But as much as $350 billion in emergency funding would go to state and local governments in an effort to help them boost their expansive payrolls.

The Republicans counter allocates $50 billion towards small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and offers no money to state or local governments in an effort to decrease the overall size of the bill.

The Minimum Wage

Bidens plan would increase the national minimum wage from $7.25where it has remained since 2009to $15, though the timetable remains unclear. It would end the tipped minimum wage and sub-minimum wage for disabled people.

Republicans have long objected to a $15 minimum wage, and no increases are included in the plan from the 10 GOP senators.

A 2019 Congressional Budget Office report found that a $15 minimum wage could result in higher pay for tens of millions of workers, but that it could also cost over one million jobs since some employers would terminate employees to reduce their costs.

Many large corporations have already raised the wages they pay their hourly workers and support a national increase, but many small businesses fear that they will be unable to withstand the higher costs associated with the move.

By Andrew Trunsky

From The Daily Caller News Foundation

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Rabat  The National Human Rights Council (CNDH) and the National Human Rights Commission in Mauritania on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at establishing and developing a framework for cooperation and consultation between the two parties.

Signed by the president of the CNDH, Amina Bouayach, and the president of the National Commission for Human Rights in Mauritania, Ahmed Salem Bouhoubeyni, this agreement seeks to implement the joint vision of the two institutions, namely support for initiatives to promote and protect human rights.

According to a press release issued by the CNDH, several areas of cooperation have been identified, including the exchange of experiences, knowledge and good practices, as well as the consolidation of bilateral dialogue to determine measures for the promotion of human rights.

It also involves strengthening the capacity of members and staff of the two institutions, particularly in the areas of observation, processing and follow-up of complaints, interaction with the international and regional human rights system, reporting, communication and advocacy, as well as participation in international, regional or national activities organized by each of the two institutions.
It's a common aspiration of the world that countries, especially major countries, shall uphold the spirit of partnership and work together to recover the global economy.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) Virtual Event of the Davos Agenda was recently held online with the theme "A Crucial Year to Rebuild Trust," where global political and business leaders, as well as heads of social organizations gathered to find remedies to the COVID-19 pandemic and downbeat economic data.

Photo taken on Jan. 22, 2018 shows the logo of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. (Xinhua/Xu Jinquan)

An uneven economic rebound can exacerbate the inequities in many countries, said the Global Risks Report 2021 recently issued by the WEF. The report believes that leadership and international cooperation are more important than ever in today's world.

In the era of economic globalization, countries' development is interwoven. No country is able to isolate itself from the rest of the world, and coordination and cooperation remain an inevitable choice. After the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, the Group of 20 (G20), working together with the spirit of solidarity, steered the world economy away from a free fall and towards stability and recovery. It was viewed as a pioneering endeavor in the age of globalization where united efforts for win-win outcomes prevailed over division caused by selfish interest. Taking responsible measures, China played an important role in facilitating global recovery. Then U.S. President Barack Obama noted that America needed China's support and cooperation to tide over the recession. Then U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also believed that cooperation was the only way to make a success in developing relations with China.

Since the pandemic broke out, China has effectively coordinated epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development. It was the first country to pick up economic growth, becoming an important engine driving global recovery. It was amid open cooperation that the country stood as the only major economy that secured positive economic growth. Last year, China's foreign trade of goods expanded 1.9 percent from a year ago, and its paid-in foreign direct investment also rose 6.2 percent. Bilateral trade between China and the U.S. was up 8.8 percent in 2020. Most of the U.S. companies are more optimistic about the Chinese market and are expanding investment in China, hoping to be a part of China's economic growth. These facts prove that the two countries share broad common interests and enjoy huge space for cooperation.

The true value of China-U.S. cooperation is more prominent amid the current economic downturn. Last year, around 3,500 U.S. firms filed lawsuits in the U.S. Court of International Trade against the U.S. government over its tariffs on China. The voice for cooperation with China in the American society surpassed that for decoupling.

According to a recent report by U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC) and Oxford Economics, a significant decoupling of the worlds two largest economies could shrink U.S. GDP by $1.6 trillion over the next five years and result in 732,000 fewer U.S. jobs in 2022.

USCBC President Craig Allen said trading with China is conducive to U.S. economy and employment and helps improve America's global competitiveness. U.S. business experts and economic scholars are also calling for rebuilding U.S.-China relations and prevent further decoupling of the two largest economies.

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently said that China's embarking upon the new journey of fully building a modern socialist country will provide broader space for enterprises from across the world, including Starbucks and other American companies, to develop in China. This important statement triggered high attention from the U.S. society, which indicates that cooperation is a common aspiration of the two countries.

Opening-up is a fundamental national policy of China. By accelerating to build a new development paradigm, China aims to better connect the domestic and international markets and expand opening-up on a higher level, in broader fields and on a wider scope. It is foreseeable that as China continues improving the quality of its economic growth and opens wider to the outside world, global enterprises, including the ones from the U.S., will definitely enjoy more cooperation opportunities.

Major country responsibility is vital for promoting global recovery. China-U.S. relationship is way beyond being bilateral. A sound relationship between the two countries will make the world more peaceful, stable and prosperous. At a critical moment when global economy is facing a severe situation with unstable and imbalanced recovery, the world is expecting China and the U.S. to join hands to power the global economy.

American media outlets noted that to enhance cooperation with China is beneficial to U.S. and even world economy. An editorial by Japanese news agency Mainichi Shimbun also pointed out that the recovery of cooperation between the two countries is of vital importance for the world when COVID-19 is further dividing the global community.

New opportunities for China-U.S. economic cooperation do exist, and what's more important is whether they can be found and grasped. It is noteworthy that as long as the two countries once again make economic cooperation a stabilizer and ballast stone for their relations, eye on the bigger picture and long-term interests, and maintain healthy development of their economic ties, they can enhance the common wellbeing of their people and even the people in the rest of the world.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
WASHINGTON - President Joe Bidens administration announced Tuesday that it is moving to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines, freeing up more doses for states and beginning to distribute them to retail pharmacies next week. The push comes amid new urgency to speed vaccinations to prevent the spread of potentially more serious strains of the virus that has killed more than 445,000 Americans.

FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2020, file photo, nurse manager Rob Treiber receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Boston. Nearly a year to the day after Wuhan went into lockdown to contain a virus that had already escaped, President Joe Biden began putting into effect a new war plan for fighting the outbreak in the United States, Germany topped 50,000 deaths, and Britain closed in on 100,000. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

WASHINGTON - President Joe Bidens administration announced Tuesday that it is moving to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines, freeing up more doses for states and beginning to distribute them to retail pharmacies next week. The push comes amid new urgency to speed vaccinations to prevent the spread of potentially more serious strains of the virus that has killed more than 445,000 Americans.

Starting next week, 1 million doses will be distributed to some 6,500 pharmacies across the country, the White House said. The administration is also boosting by 500,000 the weekly allocation of vaccines sent directly to states and territories for the coming weeks, up to 10.5 million. It is allowing state and local governments to receive additional federal dollars to cover previously incurred expenses relating to the pandemic.

Coronavirus co-ordinator Jeff Zients announced the moves on a call with the nation's governors Tuesday morning and then detailed them to the public in an afternoon news conference.

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2021, file photo, a nursing home resident receives the COVID-19 vaccine by a CVS Pharmacist at Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a nursing home facility in Harlem neighborhood of New York. The push to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus is hitting a roadblock: A number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine, and tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose are seeing them canceled.(AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Drugstores have become a mainstay for flu shots and shingles vaccines, and the industry is capable of vaccinating tens of millions of people monthly. This will provide more sites for people to get vaccinated in their communities, Zients said.

This is a critical step to provide the public with convenient trusted places to get vaccinated in their communities," he added.

The number of participating pharmacies and the allocation of vaccines are expected to accelerate as drug makers increase production. The White House said the ultimate goal was to distribute the vaccines through more than 40,000 pharmacies nationwide. State and local guidelines will determine who is eligible to get a shot at their neighbourhood pharmacy. Availability will be limited at first.

Getting it into pharmacies is a viable approach, said Dan Mendelson, founder of the health care industry consulting firm Avalere Health. The pharmacies know how to move people in and out.

FILE - In this March 17, 2020, file photo, Pharmacist Evelyn Kim, wears a mask and gloves at the CVS pharmacy at Target in the Tenleytown area of Washington. The Biden administration will begin providing COVID-19 vaccines to U.S. pharmacies, including CVS, part of its plan to ramp up vaccinations as new and potentially more serious virus strains are starting to appear. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Part of the reason the vaccination campaign got off to a slow start, he added, is that states lacked their own infrastructure for mass vaccinations.

The partnership with drugstores was originally announced by the Trump administration in November. At that time, no coronavirus vaccines had been approved. Participating are major chains like CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, big box stores such as Walmart and Costco, and supermarket pharmacies. CVS said it will receive 250,000 doses initially, to be distributed to pharmacies in 11 states.

The pharmacy doses will be distributed to states by population, but a priority will be to get the vaccine to minority communities that have suffered a disproportionately high toll of disease and deaths from the virus, Zients said.

He said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was making sure that we are picking pharmacies in that first phase that are located in areas that are harder to reach to ensure that we have equitable distribution of the pharmacy doses. Walgreens said it was selected in part to optimize vaccine access in medically underserved areas.

The 1 million doses being shipped to pharmacies will be on top of the increased allotments to states over the coming three weeks. The Biden administration has sought to increase certainty to state governments on their upcoming allocations to streamline deliveries and prevent stockpiling of second doses for the two-dose regimens.

The Tuesday announcement comes a day after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious-disease expert, called on Americans to get vaccinated as soon as they're eligible to prevent further mutations of the virus. The U.S. is tracking the spread of potentially more virulent and treatment-resistant variants.

Viruses cannot mutate if they dont replicate," Fauci said. "And if you stop their replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures that you put on it, you will not get mutations.

The U.S. government has already starting working with vaccine manufacturers on potential booster shots to enhance protection against the variants.

Biden's move to allow for an additional $3 billion to $5 billion in retroactive funding to state and local governments for reimbursement of pandemic-related spending was expected to free up more money for vaccine distribution.

States will be fully repaid for things like masks, gloves and the mobilization of the National Guard, and they can use the additional resources for vaccination efforts and emergency supplies moving forward, Zients said.

That is on top of additional assistance to state and local governments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency already authorized by the Biden administration for them to stand up and support vaccination sites across the country.
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Myanmar's top general who seized control of the government in a coup says it was 'inevitable' the military would step in after elections that returned Aung San Suu Kyi to power.

General Min Aung Hliang, speaking at the first meeting of the new military junta today, said he had been driven to take power due to 'fraud' at last year's vote - a claim that the country's election regulator has dismissed.

'Despite the [military's] repeated requests, this path was chosen inevitably for the country. Until the next government is formed after the upcoming election, we need to steer the country,' Hliang said on Tuesday.

He added: 'During the state of emergency, the election and fighting COVID-19 are set priorities.'

Hliang spoke as the military consolidated its grip on power, putting armoured vehicles and troops on the streets of the capital Naypyidaw where it is thought defacto leader Aung San Suu Kyi is being held under house arrest.

Generals assumed full control of the country despite threats from world leaders - led by President Joe Biden - who threatened to impose sanctions and take 'appropriate action'.

While most countries and international organisations spoke out to condemn the coup, China pointedly dismissed it - with state media calling it a 'cabinet reshuffle'.

Myanmar's military was in full control today as armoured vehicles patrolled the streets of the capital Naypyidaw (pictured), where roadblocks were also being enforced

General Min Aung Hliang (left), speaking at the first meeting of the new military junta today, said it was 'inevitable' the army would step in after 'fraud' at the last election - claims which the country's election monitor has dismissed

A soldier stands guard at a gate near the Presidential Palace in Naypyidaw, where it is thought president Win Myint is being held under house arrest

It also emerged that politicians not rounded up at their houses on Monday are being held at a parliamentary dormitory in Naypyidaw, which has been placed under armed guard (pictured)

Soldiers keep watch along a blockaded road near Myanmar's Parliament in Naypyidaw as the military consolidates control

A car is seen leaving the Yangon home of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is believed to be inside and being held under house arrest

Ms Suu Kyi (right) was forced from power on Monday in a coup, with all of her powers transferred to the country's commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (left)

Why has the military staged a coup? Myanmar's military is central to the country's political life - it led the fight for independence in 1948, formed the country's first government, and then ruled as a junta for five decades after abandoning democracy in 1962. That all appeared to change in 2010 with a return to democracy that saw an elected government sworn in - though in reality the military was guaranteed control of key ministries and 25 per cent of seats in parliament. Free elections held in 2015 saw Aung San Suu Kyi's party win a large majority with the military hammered, amid the belief that she would reform the constitution and remove the military from power altogether. More elections held last year handed an even larger share of power to Suu Kyi, prompting fears among military top-brass that their powers were about to be removed. On Monday, just hours before the new government was due to be sworn in, the military struck - arresting Suu Kyi, president Win Myint, and many of the country's most-influential MPs - officially for 'voter fraud'. With border closures already in place and international governments distracted by domestic issues and the coronavirus pandemic, they have faced few obstacles. A year-long state of emergency has now been declared, Vice President Myint Swe - a former general - declared leader, and banks shut until further notice. 'Free' elections will take place after the state of emergency ends, the military has claimed. Advertisement

In a sign of how complete the coup was, it emerged today that politicians not rounded up at their homes on Monday are being held inside a parliamentary dormitory in Naypyidaw, which has been placed under guard.

One MP for Suu Kyi's NLD party described the compound as 'an open-air detention centre'.

'We are not allowed to go outside,' she told AFP by telephone, requesting anonymity for fear of the military. 'We are very worried.'

Suu Kyi and President Win Myint remained under house arrest, the lawmaker told AFP, although it was not immediately clear where they were being held.

'We were told not to worry. However we are worrying. It would be a relief if we could see photos of them at home,' she said.

Despite the intimidation, a statement was posted on the NLD's verified Facebook page calling for the release of Suu Kyi and all detained party members.

'We see this as a stain on the history of the State and the Tatmadaw,' it added, referring to the military by its Burmese name.

It also demanded the military 'recognise the confirmed result of the 2020 general election'.

The military justified its seizure of power by alleging widespread fraud in elections held three months ago that the NLD won in a landslide.

The military announced on Monday that it would hold power under a state of emergency for 12 months, claiming it would then hold fresh elections.

Biden led the chorus of global outrage, calling for a quick restoration of democracy and warning that Washington could reimpose sanctions.

'The international community should come together in one voice to press the Burmese military to immediately relinquish the power they have seized,' Biden said.

The President pointedly chose to refer to Myanmar by its former name - Burma - which the US has never officially recognised because it was changed by the military in 1989 in an undemocratic process.

In recent years, US diplomats have referred to the country as Myanmar as a 'courtesy' due to democratic reforms - signalling the time for courtesy is over.

'The United States is taking note of those who stand with the people of Burma in this difficult hour,' Biden added.

Soldiers keep watch along a blockaded road near Myanmar's Parliament in Naypyidaw on Tuesday

Soldiers stand guard along a blockaded road near Myanmar's Parliament in Naypyidaw

Soldiers keep watch at a checkpoint at the royal palace in Mandalay as Myanmar's generals appeared in firm control

Police vehicles are parked on Sule Pagoda Road in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, on Tuesday

Vehicles filled with riot police officers are parked along a street in Yangon, the country's largest city, on Tuesday

Myanmar's military checkpoint is seen on the way to the congress compound in Naypyitaw, Myanmar

Myanmar's soldiers stand guard at a roadblock manned with an armored vehicle on a road leading to parliament

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the European Union and Australia were among others to condemn the coup. Britain summoned Myanmar's envoy in formal protest.

But China declined to criticise anyone, instead calling for all sides to 'resolve differences'.

China's official Xinhua news agency' described the coup as a 'cabinet reshuffle'.

The United Nations Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on the situation for Tuesday.

Myanmar's November polls were only the second democratic elections the country had seen since it emerged from the 49-year grip of military rule in 2011.

The NLD won more than 80 percent of the vote in November - increasing its support from the 2015 elections.

But the military claimed to have uncovered more than 10 million instances of voter fraud.

Although the military had flagged last week it was considering a coup, Monday's events seemed to stun the country and power was seized extremely quickly.

The military severely disrupted the internet as the coup was unfolding, but then eased restrictions later in the day.

On Tuesday there were few signs of extra security in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city and commercial capital, indicating the generals' comfort levels that, for now, they faced no mass protests.

'We want to go out to show our dissatisfaction,' a taxi driver told AFP early Tuesday morning.

'But Mother Suu is in their hands. We cannot do much but stay quiet at this moment.'

General's daughter-turned freedom fighter Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi was born under British rule in what was then Burma to General Aung San, one of the heroes of the country's fight for independence. General San was assassinated in 1948, while Ms Suu Kyi was just two years old and shortly before the country gained independence. In 1960 - two years before the country entered full dictatorship - she left her home country for India, where her mother had been appointed ambassador in Delhi. Four years later Ms Suu Kyi went to study philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University where she met her future husband, British academic Michael Aris. Suu Kyi and her British husband Michael Aris are pictured with son Alexander in London in 1973 An historian who lectured on Bhutanese, Tibetan and Himalayan culture and history, Ms Suu Kyi married Aris in a Buddhist ceremony in 1972. Ms Suu Kyi spent some time after the wedding living and working in Japan and Bhutan, where Aris was private tutor to the monarch's children, before the couple settled in the UK to raise their own children - Alexander and Kim. In 1988, Ms Suu Kyi returned to her home country - at first to tend to her critically-ill mother, but soon became embroiled in pro-democracy protests after the country's military ruler General Ne Win stepped down. Placed under house arrest in 1989, the military held elections the following year which Ms Suu Kyi won - though they decided to ignore the result. She was kept under house arrest for the next six years, during which time she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, before being freed in 1995 - though kept under strict travel restrictions and bans on speaking to media. Ms Suu Kyi last saw her husband that same year, before he died from prostate cancer in Oxford in 1999. Over the next decade she continued to press for democratic reform of Myanmar while spending time in and out of house arrest - and was locked up during the country's first elections in 2010. In 2012 she won a seat as an MP and was sworn in as leader of the opposition. Her party won power in 2015, and while she became defacto leader of the country she was banned from the official role because her children are British. Advertisement

Myanmar's commander-in-chief and new leader, General Min Aung Hlaing General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of Myanmar's military, is now the country's leader after being handed control of the government using powers embedded in the constitution. Born in 1956 in then-Burma as the son of a civil engineer, Hlaing studied law at the Rangoon Arts and Science University - where classmates remembered him as a reserved student with little interest in politics. While fellow students joined demonstrations, Hlaing made annual applications to join the premier military university, the Defence Services Academy (DSA), succeeding on his third attempt in 1974. General Min Aung Hlaing, who is now the country's ruler after a coup against the government According to a member of his DSA class he was an average cadet. 'He was promoted regularly and slowly,' said the classmate, adding that he had been surprised to see Hlaing rise beyond the officer corps' middle ranks. In fact, Hlaing took over the running of the military in 2011 as Myanmar's transition to democracy began. By the onset of Suu Kyi's first term in 2016, he had transformed himself from a soldier into a politician - using a popular Facebook page to promote his activities and meetings with dignitaries. Hlaing studied other political transitions, diplomats and observers said, and has made much of the need to avoid the chaos seen in Libya and other Middle Eastern countries after regime change in 2011. Hlaing extended his term at the helm of the military for another five years in February 2016, a step that surprised observers who expected him to step aside that year during a regular army leadership reshuffle. He has been opposed to reforming the country's constitution which handed the military a 25 per cent share of seats and bars Suu Kyi from holding power directly. He was also one of the military leaders sanctioned in 2019 for a crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that was widely condemned as genocide. Hlaing was facing forced retirement from the military this year and had been eyeing up a career in politics as a way to remain in power, analysts said, and may have now concluded that a coup is his only chance to hang on. Advertisement

Myanmar soldiers stand inside Yangon City Hall after they occupied the building

Soldiers patrol the grounds of Yangon's city hall building after the military seized control in a coup on Monday

Myanmar soldiers stand guard on a road in the capital of Naypyitaw while checking vehicles that pass through

Members of the military stand guard outside a dormitory building that is used to house members of the country's parliament, but which has been turned into an open-air prison

Soldiers keep watch at a checkpoint at the royal palace in Mandalay on Tuesday, following a coup 24 hours earlier

People line up outside a bank branch in Yangon after the military severely restricted access to money as part of the coup

Military chief and coup leader Min Aung Hlaing is now in charge of the country, although former general Myint Swe is acting president.

Min Aung Hlaing is an international pariah, having been banned on Facebook and under US sanctions for a military campaign against Myanmar's Muslim Rohinyga community that the United States has described as ethnic cleansing.

Suu Kyi, 75, is an immensely popular figure in Myanmar for her opposition to the military - which earned her the Nobel Peace Prize - having spent the best part of two decades under house arrest during the previous dictatorship.

But her international image was shredded during her time in power as she defended the military-backed crackdown in 2017 against the Rohingya.

About 750,000 Rohingya were forced to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh during the campaign, which UN investigators said amounted to genocide.

Derek Mitchell, the first US ambassador to Myanmar after military rule, said the international community still needed to respect Suu Kyi's overwhelming victory in November.

The West 'may have considered her this global icon of democracy and that luster is off. But if you care about democracy in the world, then you must respect the democratic choice and she is clearly that'.

'It's not about the person; it's about the process,' he said.
Sacramento, CA  Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer says he is planning to run against Governor Gavin Newsom if there is a 2021 recall election, and if not, will wait until the 2022 General Election.

The Republican announced plans to run for Governor in a video he released yesterday. He is the first major Republican to formally announce his intentions to run as signatures are being gathered for a recall initiative against Newsom. In the video, Faulconer criticized Newsoms handling of high-profile issues like COVID-19, electricity infrastructure, homelessness and unemployment fraud.

Faulconer, 54, is considered to be a centrist Republican.

When questioned about the recall effort, Newsom has declined to comment, and stated that he is more concerned about things like vaccine distribution.

Democrats have a roughly 2-1 advantage in California when it comes to party affiliation.
"I have never done something like this in my life," the Swakopmund father accused of raping his daughter (5) since January last year wailed while leaving the court yesterday morning.

His case was postponed to 29 March for further investigation.

The father's official bail application in December suffered a blow after his defence lawyer, Danie Kotze, abandoned the attempt when he learned his client may harm himself if released from police custody.

Instead of being granted or denied bail, the accused was remanded in custody and his next appearance was settled for yesterday.

Prosecutor Beata Mwahi yesterday, however, told magistrate Conchita Olivier during a very short session that the investigation has not been finalised, and suggested that the matter be postponed to 29 March to allow for further investigation.

Kotze agreed and Olivier set the date.

The accused then started sobbing.

Olivier suggested he consult his lawyer for further instructions and adjourned the matter, calling for order in the court as he wailed.

During the accused's bail application in December, he denied all allegations.

"We love each other. I love her with my whole life. We have a very good father-daughter relationship.

I would never think of hurting my own child; she is only five years old. She cannot even defend herself. I love her more than myself," he said, offering to take lie-detector tests.

Joanna Lumley's Home Sweet Home - Travels in My Own Land is the new UK travel series on ITV.

After a lifetime of travels that have taken her across the globe, Joanna Lumley is making her most personal journey yet.

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Over three episodes, shell travel from the Yorkshire Dales to St Michaels Mount, from the Highlands of Scotland to the cobbles of Coronation Street, retracing old steps, meeting inspiring people, and exploring the wonders of the country she calls home.

Joanna Lumley said: I seem to have spent a lifetime travelling the world, but as I get older, I realise theres so much of my own country I havent seen. So, I decided that using my travellers eyesIm going to turn that vision onto this country, the place that I now call home. .

Episodes will air Tuesdays at 8PM on ITV from 2 February 2021. You'll also be able to watch online and catch up via ITV Hub.

Joanna Lumley's Home Sweet Home episodes 2021

Episode 1 - 2 February

After a lifetime of travels that have taken her across the globe, Joanna Lumley is making her most personal journey yet. Starting at Tilbury Docks in Essex she heads north, making a nostalgic return to Coronation Street, before ending the journey in Whitby.

Episode 2 - 9 February

This week Joanna travels through Scotland and Northern Ireland. Starting in the Outer Hebrides, she explores the Harris Tweed industry and drives a herd of Highland Cattle across the sands at low tide to their winter grazing. Next Joanna heads to Eilean Donan Castle, the location for her very first episode of the New Avengers, where she strikes some Purdy moves as she scales the battlements.

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Crossing to Northern Ireland, Joanna visits the Dark Hedges, made famous in Game of Thrones, before having a laugh with one of the Derry Girls. She then meets the inspiring founder of the Children in Crossfire charity and finds out how a new generation is working to break down old barriers.

Episode 3 - 16 February

Episode three takes Joanna from North Wales to the West Country, ending in her home town of London. After stopping in the slate quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog, Joanna heads to Carmarthen to meet GoCompare singer Wynne Evans.

In Cornwall she visits the legendary St Michaels Mount, before heading to Southampton to meet a family of Travelling Showpeople who have been in the fairground business for generations. She also meets a couple who have re-wilded their 3500-acre country estate.

Ending her journey in London, Joanna tracks down Allan Willmott, 95 part of the Windrush Generation whose face she spotted at Tilbury at the beginning of her journey and reflects on what she has seen in her travels.

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Details on further episodes are to be confirmed.

Picture: ITV
Burns was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 18, 1935. He attended the University of Oregon from 1953 to 1957, then spent three years designing and drawing greeting cards. Meantime Id visit all the animation houses seeking writing jobs  UPA, Disney, Filmfair, Pantomime, he is quoted as saying in Keith Scotts book The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose. But I was never successful at a full-time job.

While watching tv one afternoon, Burns saw an episode of Rocky and His Friends. Enthralled by its satirical humor, which seemed pitched to adults as much as children, he looked up the address of Jay Ward Productions and turned up at the Hollywood studio unannounced, portfolio of drawings in hand. In the lobby, he came across Ward himself, who looked at his work and hired him on the spot.

Watch Burns talk about his discovery of Rocky and Bullwinkle:

Ward assigned Burns to a marketing campaign built around the Rocky and Bullwinkle characters, ahead of the shows relaunch on NBC (some of the material he created with George Atkins can be seen on the Art of Jay Ward Productions blog). Burns went on to co-create the shows Dudley Do-Right character, who would later get his own spin-off series, and to originate the titular character in the studios George of the Jungle (according to The Moose That Roared).

In 1962, Jay Ward Productions was invited to pitch a mascot for a new cereal from Quaker Oats. Burns came up with Capn Crunch, an old-world naval captain, and various accompanying characters. His pitch was successful and the character became a huge hit, but Burns received a mere $1,000 for his efforts. When youre an animation writer, you have no rights, he told the Television Academy Foundation in 2004. Theres no union for animation writers, even today. Animation writers are the most underpaid, over-utilized people in the business.

Burns left Jay Ward Productions in 1964 and embarked on his stellar career in live action. Yet he would recall his time at the studio as the seminal one of my life. As he told Scott, It was the first time I realized you could write to please yourself and not somebody else. Not only was it unusual for a producer to trust your judgment and your sense of humor implicitly, but when youd write something and have absolutely nothing edited, well this was unheard-of. Jays conviction  that the audience is smarter than the decision makers reckon  was the most valuable thing Ive ever learned.

Burns is survived by his wife Joan, sons Matt and Eric, their wives, and several grandchildren.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The Five Borough Chamber Alliance will host a virtual forum Tuesday for candidates running for the position of New York City comptroller.

Candidates Brian Benjamin, Kevin Parker, Brad Lander and David Weprin will be in attendance at the event, which begins at 6 p.m.

The role of the comptroller will be key as the city deals with its fiscal health coming out of the current pandemic, said Linda Baran, president and CEO of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, which helped to organize the forum. Managing our citys wallet is a huge responsibility, and we need to select the right person who will work to strengthen our overall economy.

Those interested in attending the event should pre-register at its online event page.

A spokesman for the Staten Island Chamber said the topics of discussion at the forum will be geared toward business owners.
Nairobi  A contingent of heavily armed police officers was deployed around the Kiambu Law Courts on Tuesday as former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko was arraigned to answer to assault and robbery charges dating back to 2017.

According to the Police Charge Sheet, Sonko was to be charged, jointly with others, with at least seven counts of robbery with violence and five counts of assault .

Sonko spent the night at the Muthaiga Police Station after he was questioned at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Monday.

The flamboyant former city county chief had presented himself to be questioned over his public utterances on the 2017 election chaos.

Sonko was summoned by the DCI detectives to record statements after Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho complained he had been wrongly accused as the planner and executor of the said chaos.
Since lockdown was imposed world-wide, travel was banned and so were borders. Now that several vaccines for Covid have been launched in different countries, travel and tourism is starting to pick up again. A whole new trend of tourism has come into the picture which promises travel as well as getting vaccinated.

Its been more than a year since the first case of the novel coronavirus was reported. After months under lockdown and millions of cases, the world is celebrating the approval of various vaccines. With another strain now spreading, the pandemic is far from over, but countries are making headway in overcoming this virus and travelers are adapting.

Since various vaccines have been launched, they have been changing the opinion around travel, but theres a whole new concept thats become part of the discussion: Vaccine tourism. Vaccine tourism means visiting another country or state to get a vaccine not available in the particular country. Right now, vaccine tourism is all about the COVID-19 vaccine, which has had a slow rollout in many countries and isnt yet available worldwide.

In the US and other countries that have the vaccine, some populations are getting priority, such as the elderly and health care workers. But some people who dont fall into these groups have been wanting to cut the line by travelling to other countries to get vaccinated.

Also read: Union Budget 2021 Highlights: FM presents #IndiaNextBudget; Health & Infrastructure top priority

When the U.K. approved its first vaccine by Pfizer-BioNTech, Indian travel agents started circulating tourism packages with flights, accommodations, meals, and opportunistically, visits to healthcare centers to get a shot. In December, an Indian travel agency said that they were taking registrations of Indians with a valid 10-year US visa for their COVID-19 vaccine packagea four-day trip from Mumbai to New York City, with a coronavirus shot included.

Until now, there are no official arrangements in place with foreign authorities to ensure these vaccine tourists get the experience they booked. Equally concerning are the ethics of people with money or connections, visiting another state or country to get a Covid vaccine, while others wait for their turn as per their countrys guidelines.

Some countries are now actively preventing vaccine tourism. UK has set rules for those getting vaccinated so that other people dont jump the line, U.S. has state-wise regulations for getting vaccinated and states like Florida are cracking down. The Indian government has not recognized vaccine tours yet and has not released a statement regarding the same. Since the authenticity of these tours are under question, it is also not clear whether a medical visa is required for this.

Also read: Union Budget 2021: Govts mega push to R&D, Tech, Deep-Sea and Space sectors
Libyan delegates at UN-backed talks held the first round of voting Tuesday for a three-member presidency council, part of a new transitional executive to govern the war-ravaged North African country until December elections.

That is part of a complex process it is hoped will help shepherd the deeply divided country towards peace and build on a fragile ceasefire to end over a decade of devastating conflict.

Oil-rich Libya has been torn by civil war since a NATO-backed uprising led to the ouster and killing of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, and the country has become a key corridor for migrants fleeing war and poverty in desperate bids to reach Europe.

The 75 participants at the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum near Geneva -- selected by the UN to represent a broad cross section of society -- were shown on footage broadcast live by the UN casting their ballots in three boxes, each representing a region.

But with none of the 24 candidates meeting the required threshold of 70 percent of votes, elections moved to a second round.

The three council posts, a president and two vice-presidents, will represent Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east and Fezzan in the south.

The 24 candidates for the three posts gave campaign speeches on Monday via videoconference, with many calling for reconciliation and the withdrawal of the estimated 20,000 foreign forces and mercenaries still on Libyan soil.

- 'Uplifting to see' -

According to the UN, the future transitional council will be tasked with "reuniting state institutions and ensuring security" until elections slated for December.

Control of the country is now split between the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and its rival, the eastern-based House of Representatives backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who launched a failed offensive to seize the capital in 2019.

A fragile ceasefire agreed in Geneva in October has largely held, despite threats by Haftar to resume fighting.

The speaker of the Haftar-allied parliament based in Tobruk, key powerbroker Aguila Saleh, took nine votes on Tuesday to become the leading eastern candidate.

The top western candidate was Khaled el-Mechri, who heads the High State Council aligned with the GNA, with eight votes.

From the south, Abdel Majid Ghaith Seif el-Nasser, Libya's ambassador to Morocco, descended from a long line of influential tribal leaders in Fezzan, took six votes.

But with none of the top three meeting the threshold, the next round of voting will be based on a list-based system, the UN announced.

"It is going to be complicated," said Claudia Gazzini, from the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank, on Twitter.

"Much can still go wrong. But it is uplifting to see candidates delivering political speeches, rather than making hate-filled declarations of war."

Delegates have until Friday select from 21 candidates vying for the post of prime minister.

The current GNA Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, a heavyweight in local politics, is a favourite for the job.

The political talks kicked off in mid-November in Tunisia, where the 75 delegates were tasked with laying out a roadmap towards elections.

In mid-November, participants agreed to organise "national" elections on December 24, 2021.

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SARATOGA SPRINGS  In early March, just as the pandemic hit, Amanda Ingarra received a troubling email from her apartments property manager at The Springs.

Ingarra's rent was going up by $200 a month, from $1,609 to $1,805. And if she did not agree to the 12 percent increase, she would have to leave. And if she didnt leave by the time her lease expired in May, her rent would jump to $3,852 a month as she would be considered a holdover.

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Ingarra, a licensed realtor, believed this to be illegal as the state was on lock down and an eviction ban was in place. She also believed the rent increase was above the legal threshold without a proper written 90-day notice.



But more upsetting was her fear that she, a single mom of an 8-year-old special-needs daughter, would be thrown out. She was seized by panic attacks.



I felt uncomfortable in my own home during the pandemic, said Ingarra, who has since moved. That is the one place where I should feel safe. ... It wasnt a good time.

Previously: Saratoga Springs luxury management talks 'trash' to tenants



She decided to file a complaint with the state Department of State, which licenses realtors. The state Department of State confirmed to the Times Union it is looking into the credentials of property manager Patrick Poirier and the affiliated company, Burns Management, that oversees the 308 luxury apartments on Weibel Avenue.



The Department of State has no record of Mr. Poirier or Real Estate Property Management being licensed and will be reviewing the matter, said Mercedes Padilla, a spokeswoman for the state Department of State, wrote in an email. In New York State, a property manager engaged in activities of a real estate broker or salesperson must be licensed as such."

That includes, she said, listing apartments, negotiating lease agreements, or collecting rents.

A Times Union search of the state Department of States database for realty licenses comes up empty for Poirier, Burns Management or Burns President Peter Rosencrans Jr. And while Poirier would only say there was no bullying involved, as far as Ingarra's allegations, he said he possesses all the right credentials.



"I can promise you I have the right accreditations," he said. "Check our corporate offices. Everything is in line."

However, Poirier would not elaborate on what his credentials are.



Burns Management, which was established in 1974 in Albany and, its website claims, handles $80 million in properties, did not return a Times Union phone call to discuss its credentials. Neither did Rosencrans. However, the company's attorney, John Keenan III, said they are working within their legal limits and said that real estate laws are different for property managers as they are for those who sell real estate.



Ingarra was not the only one facing a hefty rent increase. Patrick Cooper, an eight-and-a-half year resident of the complex, said he was told his rent was going up $1,545 to $1,810, an increase of 17 percent. Both of them, along with a third tenant who was told to expect a $225 monthly increase, reached out to Senator Daphne Jordans office seeking help at the end of March 2020.



Joshua Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for Jordan, said the tenants were enumerating concerns about the facility's landlord/management company and that their  rent was slated to significantly increase during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jordan's office referred the case to the state Attorney General's office, who shared details regarding the legal limitations landlords face in increasing rent, Fitzpatrick said.



In an email shared with tenants, the state Attorney Generals office advised them that the landlord cannot ask for more than 5 percent without given written advance notice of 90 days. And if they dont sign a new lease with the increase, the landlord must go to court to evict you.

Poirier, who recently threatened to call the police on tenants whose garbage falls out of the provided dumpsters, said he doesn't want to evict anyone and he "followed all legal processes."



After Ingarra moved out, Poirier presented her with a $20,223 bill. Poirier said that is what she owed after she stayed beyond when the May 2020 lease expired, charging her a month-to-month rate, minus her deposit, through December 2020.



Its insane, said Ingarra. At this point, Ingarra is considering legal action against Poirier and Burns.



My rights were violated in every way imaginable during this pandemic because I refused to pay a $200 rent increase while we were on lockdown and I literally had nowhere else to go, she said. He threatened me and harassed me in the worst time in my life."
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Mr. James Hunter, a concerned shareholder, reports:

Large Shareholder of Fancamp Exploration Ltd. Demands That Fancamp Call AGM Meeting Before March 31, 2021

James Hunter of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a large shareholder of Fancamp Exploration Ltd. ("Fancamp" or the "Company") holding directly and indirectly 10,005,000 shares, representing approximately 6.02% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares, is demanding that the Company stop disenfranchising shareholders of the Company and announce a date for the annual general meeting ("AGM") to be held on or before March 31, 2021. Mr. Hunter and other likeminded shareholders are responding to the Company's November 20, 2020 announcement that, under special provisions to provide relief from restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company had obtained an extension from the BC Registrar of Companies of the time within which it is required to hold its AGM for the year 2020 by six months from December 31, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

Among the group of shareholders sharing Mr. Hunter's concerns (the "Concerned Shareholders") is incumbent director of Fancamp, Peter H. Smith, of Montreal, Quebec who, on December 22, 2020, issued his own statement objecting to the Company's actions to delay holding its 2020 AGM. Also involved in the group of Concerned Shareholders is Mark Fekete of Montreal, Quebec.

Echoing Mr. Smith's prior comments, Mr. Hunter considers the delay of the AGM as a self-serving tactic designed to extend current management's tenure as they seek ways to entrench and enrich themselves at the expense of the Company. Mr. Hunter vehemently rejects that the pandemic relates in any way to the Company's ability to call and hold the AGM in a timely manner. A review of the Canadian junior mining market clearly demonstrates that despite COVID-19 many issuers have continued to hold annual meetings in due course with the efficiencies of on-line tools that allow for virtual meetings. Moreover, BC issued a ministerial order on April 21, 2020 to temporarily allow corporations governed by the BC Business Corporations Act to conduct electronic meetings of shareholders, regardless of an entity's articles or bylaws that might otherwise prohibit such format.

Mr. Hunter wants all shareholders to have the opportunity within a proper time frame to decide as to whom should be given the mandate as directors of Fancamp and demands that the current management and board put shareholders' rights ahead of their own personal self-interests. In the Company's November 20, 2020 news release announcing the delay of the AGM, the Company advised shareholders that it expected to hold the AGM in the first quarter of 2021. These promises were echoed by the Company's interim CEO, Rajesh Sharma speaking to Company shareholders in an "investor call" hosted by the Company on January 19, 2021, in which Mr. Sharma told shareholders that the Company was looking to call a shareholder meeting "in the coming weeks." Mr. Hunter believes that it is incumbent upon the Company to act on its promises to shareholders and call an AGM to allow its shareholders to be heard.

Under applicable securities laws, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Smith and Mr. Fekete may be considered to be acting "jointly and in concert" in connection with their efforts to have the Company call an AGM, and voting of the shares held by them at the AGM once called.

Mr. Smith has beneficial ownership and control over an aggregate of 4,511,097 common shares and stock options to acquire a further 2,400,000 common shares (the "Options") of the Company. Mr. Fekete holds 400,000 common shares. Together, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Smith and Mr. Fekete jointly hold an aggregate of 14,916,097 common shares representing approximately 8.94% of the outstanding common shares of the Company. Assuming exercise of all of the Options, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Smith and Mr. Fekete would jointly have ownership and/or control over an aggregate of 17,316,097 common shares, representing approximately 10.28 % of the then issued and outstanding common shares of the Company.

Each of Mr. Hunter, Mr. Smith and Mr. Fekete acquired the securities of the Company for investment purposes, and has no present intention to acquire further securities of Company, although each may in the future participate in financings and/or acquire or dispose of securities of the Company in the market, privately or otherwise, as circumstances or market conditions warrant.

A copy of the Early Warning Report filed by Mr. Hunter, Mr. Smith and Mr. Fekete with the applicable securities regulators in respect of the above acquisition is available at www.sedar.com under the Company's SEDAR profile.

The Concerned Shareholders have retained Gryphon Advisors Inc. as their strategic shareholder services advisor.

For more information regarding the Concerned Shareholders' position please contact:

Gryphon Advisors Inc.

Tel: 1-833-461-3651

Email: inquiries@gryphonadvisors.ca

Information in Support of Public Broadcast Solicitation

The information contained in this press release does not and is not meant to constitute a solicitation of a proxy within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Although the Concerned Shareholders have approached several nominees for election to the Company's board of directors at the company's next general meeting of shareholders, there is currently no record or meeting date set and shareholders are not being asked at this time to execute a proxy in favour of any matter. In connection with the meeting, the Concerned Shareholders may file a dissident information circular in due course in compliance with applicable securities laws.

The information contained herein and any solicitation made by the Concerned Shareholders in advance of any general meeting of shareholders, or will be, as applicable, made by the Concerned Shareholders and not by or on behalf of the management of Fancamp. All costs incurred for any solicitation will be borne by the Concerned Shareholders, provided that, subject to applicable law, the Concerned Shareholders may seek reimbursement from Fancamp of the Concerned Shareholders' out-of-pocket expenses, including proxy solicitation expenses and legal fees, incurred in connection with a successful reconstitution of the Company's board of directors. The Concerned Shareholders are not soliciting proxies in connection with a general meeting of shareholders of the Company at this time.

The Concerned Shareholders may engage the services of one or more agents and authorize other persons to assist in soliciting proxies on behalf of the Concerned Shareholders. Any proxies solicited by or on behalf of the Concerned Shareholders, including by any other agent retained by the Concerned Shareholders, may be solicited pursuant to a dissident information circular or by way of public broadcast, including through press releases, speeches or publications and by any other manner permitted under Canadian corporate and securities laws. Any such proxies may be revoked by instrument in writing executed by a shareholder or by his or her attorney authorized in writing or, if the shareholder is a body corporate, by an officer or attorney thereof duly authorized or by any other manner permitted by law.

The registered address of Fancamp is located at 7290 Gray Avenue, Burnaby, British Columbia V5J 3Z2. A copy of this press release may be obtained on Fancamp' SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73451
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 10:40:22|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to focus on cooperation and manage differences on bilateral ties so as to return the relationship to the course of sound and steady development.

Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said in a virtual conversation with board members of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations that the bilateral relations now "stand at a key moment and face new opportunities and new challenges."

It is a task for both China and the United States to restore the relationship to a predictable and constructive track of development, and to build a model of interaction between the two major countries that focuses on peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, according to Yang.

"This, I believe, also answers to the expectation of countries in the global community," said Yang, who is also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee.

China hopes the new U.S. administration will respond to the will of both peoples and follow the trend of history, Yang said. Enditem
Romania's status as a privileged partner of the US is a premise that must be maintained, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna said after meeting today with David Muniz, who serves as US charge d'affaires ad interim until a new ambassador is appointed.

"I am well aware that Romanians and the business community expect this government to be a champion of reform and debureaucratization and we intend to keep our word. This was my main message in the discussion I had today with David Muniz. (...) The American diplomat told me that there is a major interest of American companies in the Romanian opportunities in the technology and IT industry, infrastructure and energy. Romania's status as a privileged partner of the US is a premise that must be maintained," Barna wrote on Facebook.

According to him, the meeting discussed "the best ways to strengthen cooperation" between the governments of Romania and the US and how the Strategic Partnership between Bucharest and Washington "can become even more relevant in the next period".

"One of the conditions is for Bucharest to have political stability and an unwavering determination to continue the reforms announced in the governing program," Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna underscored.
More than 1,500 people have died with Covid-19 in nursing homes in Ireland, the Oireachtas Health Committee has heard (Niall Carson/PA)

More than 1,500 people have died with Covid-19 in nursing homes in Ireland, the Oireachtas Health Committee has heard.

A total of 1,543 staff and residents in care homes have lost their lives during the pandemic  369 in the last month alone.

During the third wave of the pandemic, the number of Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes has increased fivefold, from 34 in mid-December to 193 by the end of January.

Some 81% of all coronavirus-linked deaths in healthcare settings in Ireland have been in nursing homes.

A total of 4,300 positive cases were recorded in nursing homes during January, 37% of them healthcare workers.

Questions were raised about the rollout of vaccines in nursing homes by the chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, Tadhg Daly.

The first vaccines arrived in Ireland on 26th December, yet the first was only administered in a private or voluntary nursing home on 7th January 2021 Tadhg Daly, Nursing Homes Ireland

He asked if a critical window of opportunity had been missed by not initiating a widespread rollout of vaccines in nursing homes as soon as the first doses arrived in the country.

He said: With nursing home residents the most susceptible to the virus, just 10% of the initial 77,000 vaccinations administered by mid-January were within nursing homes.

It is appropriate to remind that the National Immunisation Advisory Committee agreed nursing home residents and staff would be priority.

The first vaccines arrived in Ireland on 26th December, yet the first was only administered in a private or voluntary nursing home on 7th January 2021.

Every day is vital for our nursing home residents and staff.

Mr Daly said the entire health service is under immense strain, with staffing levels the predominant emergency.

Some 1,800 nursing home staff are unable to work due to the virus, he added.

Within homes with outbreaks, available staff are going to extraordinary lengths at huge personal sacrifice to ensure continuity of care.

Yvonne ONeill, national director of community operations at the HSE, said the high level of infections over the Christmas period had created immense challenges in the safe, effective delivery of services in the nursing home sector.

Dr Siobhan Kennelly, of the HSEs National Clinical Advisory Group, said significant support will be needed for staff, residents and families affected by the outbreaks.

If you have residents who are isolated for a two-week period during an outbreak, they can become quite deconditioned Dr Siobhan Kennelly, HSE

She said: Theres a very severe impact across the board. We know that a number of bereavement supports have been put in place to help with some of the trauma related directly to the deaths and outbreaks as theyve been happening.

I think there will be a significant need for bereavement supports for many of the staff, and residents and their families who have been impacted directly by outbreaks.

She said many residents who have had to self-isolate have struggled with their mental health afterwards.

She said: If you have residents who are isolated for a two-week period during an outbreak, they can become quite deconditioned.

A lot of them lose weight. Weve actually quantified that in terms of the impact that it has on mood, on appetites, and on a significant number of what we would call physical health parameters as well as mental health parameters.

So we do recognise that residents basic facilities are going to need a significant level of rehabilitation and support.

Their families are going to need support, and clearly staff are going to need a lot of support.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-01 21:27:10|Editor: huaxia

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HANOI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) concluded Monday morning in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

During the eight-day congress, delegates reviewed the party building work and the leadership of the 12th CPV Central Committee (CPVCC), before electing new leaders for the 13th term. They also reviewed the past 35 years of the country's reform cause, discussed the implementation of the 10-year socio-economic development strategy, among other issues.

Delegates agreed on several goals and tasks for the country's future development phases, including making Vietnam a modern industrialized country with upper-middle income by 2030, and a developed country with high income by 2045, the organizers announced at the congress' closing session.

In the 2021-2025 period, Vietnam will strive to achieve an annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of between 6.5 percent and 7 percent, according to the announcement.

All 180 members of the newly-elected 13th CPVCC attended the closing session. Representing the central committee, CPVCC General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong sincerely thanked the people who trusted them with the "great responsibility of great honor."

"Never before has the country established its fortune, potential, international position and reputation as it is having today," Trong said, pledging that the CPVCC will unite to continuously improve its leadership capacity, and strive to weather all difficulties to promote "the glorious renovation cause," in order to serve the country and meet the expectations of the entire party and the Vietnamese people.

In his closing remarks, the party chief said that the congress had been "very successful", completing all items on its working agenda ahead of schedule.

Trong also thanked foreign parties, international organizations and friends for extending their congratulations to the congress, which, he said, demonstrated their friendship and solidarity with the CPV and the Vietnamese people.

He thanked media outlets from home and abroad for their timely reporting, which contributed to the success of the congress.

On Sunday, the 13th CPVCC convened its first meeting to re-elect Nguyen Phu Trong as its general secretary. The CPVCC Politburo was also elected on Sunday with 18 members, together with the secretariat and the 19-member central inspection commission of the CPVCC.

Nearly 1,600 delegates representing over 5.1 million members of the CPV attended the congress held from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service


MANZINI - As they are in a battle for their welfare, paramedics have extended an apology in advance to the nation for the disaster that will happen from tomorrow.

Paramedics are personnel from the emergency medical services (EMS), who are under the Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) Department in the Ministry of Health and due to some challenges they face in their line of duty; they have decided to revoke Section 18(2) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 2001 from tomorrow.

The above Act says; An employee shall have the right to remove himself or herself from danger when such an employee has reasonable justification to believe there is imminent and serious risk to the safety and health of that employee.

Statement

They made this statement through their trade union; the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), during a press conference which was held at the unions conference room yesterday afternoon.

NAPSAWU President Oscar Nkambule said as a union, they want to see emaSwati receiving proper service delivery from government and they advocate for such by encouraging their members to work hard. He said they also expect the employer to also play its role.

However, Nkambule said their members in the EPR department have been facing challenges and government was not doing anything about it. He said this was despite the fact that they had engaged the administration several times about the challenges.

He said the challenges included non-payment of overtime allowances that were being owed to the workers, non provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and victimisation among others.

Therefore, from Wednesday (tomorrow) emaSwati will not be getting assistance when they call the EMS toll free emergency number; 977 because the personnel would have removed themselves from the workplace which poses danger to their lives, the president said. He said their members would not work until government responded positively to their concerns. In that regard, he said the duration of their stay away would be determined by governments responses.

The trade unionist said the EMS personnel would report for work because they were not on strike, but would not work because of the imminent danger of working without PPE among other things.

Situation

Nkambule said they had lost a number of their members due to COVID-19 and many of them, including paramedics, contracted the virus and they could not allow a situation that exposed them to it.

So, we are sorry to the nation for what is going to happen from tomorrow in terms of services from the EMS, the leader of the union said.

On the same note, NAPSAWU Secretary General Thulani Hlatshwako said it was the unions right to protect its members. He said they would not watch as their members die, instead, he said they would protect them and would not allow them to work in a dangerous work environment.

He said the issue of COVID-19 was part of the agenda item in the joint negotiation forum (JNF) and they warned government about the second wave of the virus, but seemingly, it ignored the warning.






Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Former President Donald Trump was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday morning by an Estonian member of the European Parliament, Jaak Madison.

In a post on social media, Madison said:

In the last 30 years, Donald Trump is the first president of the United States, who during his tenure, has not started a war. Additionally, he signed several peace agreements in the Middle East which have helped provide stability in the region and peace.

Madison was referring to the Abraham Accords, a joint statement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Statesand later, with Bahrain and other Arab countries.

We encourage efforts to promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue to advance a culture of peace among the three Abrahamic religions and all humanity, according to a statement on the State Departments website. We believe that the best way to address challenges is through cooperation and dialogue and that developing friendly relations among States advances the interests of lasting peace in the Middle East and around the world.

Trump was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year by Norwegian Parliament member Christian Tybring-Gjedde.

For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees, Tybring-Gjedde told Fox last year.

Separately, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz nominated Trumps son-in-law and former presidential advisor Jared Kushner on Monday morning. Dershowitzwho is eligible to nominate individuals because of his status as a former Harvard Law professorargued that Kushner and his associate Avi Berkowitz helped negotiate the Abraham Accords.

(L-R) Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan pose from the Truman Balcony at the White House before they participate in the signing of the Abraham Accords where the countries of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recognize Israel, in Washington, on Sept. 15, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

The Nobel Peace Prize is not for popularity. Nor is it an assessment of what the international community may think of those who helped bring about peace, Dershowitz wrote. It is an award for fulfilling the daunting criteria set out by Alfred Nobel in his will.

Under the diplomatic push, Trumps administration also negotiated deals with Sudan and Morocco.

Kushner, in a statement Sunday, said that he was honored to be nominated for the prize.

President Joe Bidens administration is expected to review all national security deals struck during the Trump administration, including arms packages for the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Some lawmakers have complained about the Morocco deal because, to win the nations agreement, the United States recognized its sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara.

Also on Monday, the Black Lives Matter movement was nominated for the Peace Prize by a Norwegian Parliament member, Petter Eide. Eide said that people have messaged him to say that BLM is a violent organization, but he rejected the claims.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in November 2021.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Terence Tsai started hearing about the growing labor crisis in shipping in a roundabout way. First, in March, an official at a ship management company in Hong Kong let slip that a captain had purposefully diverted a vessel under its control into the middle of the ocean to protest the treatment of himself and his crew.

Then, from the head of a large Asian shipping company, Tsai heard about a captain who wanted to attend his sons funeral in Eastern Europe. It took more than two months and a mountain of paperwork to surmount Covid-era port restrictions and travel complications to get him on a flight back home.

As the stories started piling up, Tsai, a shipping industry analyst at London-based Fidelity International, began to realize he was getting to see one of the most hidden horrors of the pandemic: How cargo ships turned almost overnight from the engines of global commerce into floating prisons. There are hundreds of thousands of seafarers long overdue for relief, a situation the United Nations has designated a humanitarian crisis and one with consequences, Tsai realized, far beyond the shipping industry.

There are hardly any shipping analysts out there to shine a light on this issue, as you would have on child labor in the consumer industries or deforestation, or carbon, the 34-year-old Tsai said. In the end, if I knew about this issue and didnt raise it, then whats the point of having a shipping analyst?

Tsai realized that the plight of the stranded seafarers had major implications for global trade and the health and safety of marine workers. He shared his findings with some Fidelity fund managers and also the firms ESG team led by Jenn-Hui Tan, setting in motion a campaign to push portfolio companies to resolve the seafarer crisis.

Fidelity International, which oversees about $610 billion and is independent from Boston-based Fidelity Investments, wrote last year to more than 30 companies in the shipping and charter industries, asking them to address the problem. The firm was a lone voice among investors pressing the issue until it gathered a coalition of peers managing more than $2 trillion of assets that recently sent a letter to the UN, calling for action.

Fidelity wants seafarers to be officially designated as key workers and requested the establishment of systematic processes to enable safe crew changes, including the establishment of Covid-19 testing procedures that would allow for orderly crew changes and repatriation.

Tan, whos overseen Fidelitys stewardship and sustainable investing team since 2019, said the firm is seeking a broader structural resolution, which will involve government intervention and international coordination. Simultaneously, Fidelity will use its influence with individual ship owners and charterers to affect crew changes on a more micro level, he said.

Tsai declined to identify the shipping companies that clued him in to the crisis. Fidelity has no plan to divest from firms that ignore the issue or refuse to help solve the crisis, preferring instead to actively engage with their portfolio companies across the shipping, cargo, airline and retail sectors, Tan said.

It was important to us when we did our engagement, that we didnt try to represent this as being an issue of fault for any one party within the value chain, partly because its not, the 42-year-old Tan said. If you think about it, its something thats caused by a lot of people defending their legitimate interests. Its caused because of everyone acting within the system that they have.

Shipping is a highly fragmented industry under a patchwork of regulations that dilutes responsibility for the well-being of ship workers. For example, Tan said the port operators want to reduce the spread of Covid-19 to local communities, while charterers have contractual obligations and delivery dates to meet.

Thats created a logistical nightmare for shipowners trying to get crew home or bring in replacements. Some ports require lengthy quarantines for incoming seafarers. Others block or restrict incoming vessels that have recently changed crew. Meanwhile, travel schedules and border restrictions keep changing.

The Maritime Labour Convention, which has been ratified by more than 80 countries and underpins everything from insurance policies to shipping contracts, sets minimum working conditions for seafarers. But an investigation by Bloomberg in September found multiple examples of labor violations and abuse, including instances where mariners hadnt been paid in months or didnt have current contracts.

Seafarers have become what the International Maritime Organization calls collateral victims of the Covid crisis. The IMO, which oversees global shipping, has requested that all parties prioritize crew changes for the health and safety of the workers and the industry.

While theres widespread agreement that this is indeed a crisis and something should be done, theres been little action. Fidelitys diplomatic approach and unwillingness to label certain parties as bad actors opens the firm to a common criticism of investors who take social or political positions: that their talk outweighs their actions.

Still, Fidelitys actions stands in contrast to other institutional investors, including BlackRock Inc., that have yet to publicly comment on the issue. Tan said he isnt averse, in general, to naming and shaming, citing engagements related to deforestation and the palm oil business, where the firm has taken a more assertive stance. However, he insists such tactics would yield little in the seafarers crisis.

What were trying to do is highlight a huge risk that could happen such as a disastrous maritime accident, Tan said. Its already a humanitarian crisis. It should not turn into an ecological crisis, or an oceanic crisis.

With assistance from Aaron Clark.

About the photo: Cargo ships anchored in the Pacific Ocean off the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles in Signal Hill, California, U.S., on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. October was another record month for dockworkers at the West Coast port of Long Beach as more than 800,000 cargo containers were processed, a first in the terminals 109-year history. Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
A refugee advocate who threw red paint towards Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a visit to the University of Queensland last year has pleaded guilty in a Brisbane court.

South Bank woman Tyler Michelle Hingst, 19, threw the red paint during the Prime Ministers visit to UQs labs, where researchers were working on a COVID-19 vaccine.

Hingst appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday, where she made an early plea deal to the charge of public nuisance.

She was among a group of activists who protested outside the facility on October 12 last year.
The combination of Pivotel satellite communications products and Global Rescues traveler protection services provides a lifeline for people who need continual access to emergency services, or to stay in touch in remote regions without cellular coverage. Past News Releases RSS

Pivotel, the fast-growing satellite and cellular communications company, today announced a new partnership with Global Rescue, the worlds only integrated travel risk and crisis response provider, offering emergency medical, security protection and evacuation services via satellite phone. Pivotel satellite phone users who enroll with Global Rescue can now:



Obtain emergency field rescue and evacuation from the point of illness or injury to the nearest appropriate health care facility

Get immediate access to advisory services including assistance managing local health care systems, visa and passport issues, translation, legal referrals, detailed destination reports and real-time event alerts

Acquire security evacuation protection in the event of natural disasters, a terrorist attack, a government-ordered evacuation, or civil unrest

Get 24/7/365 access to world-class medical experts for real-time video consultations and treatment

Satellite phone users do the worlds most dangerous jobs and sports, and they do them away from any other communications. They rely on satphones for emergency services, but until now customers accessed public resources whose quality and type of response can vary dramatically around the world, said Robert Sakker, President, Pivotel America and Europe. Global Rescue operations centers are staffed by experienced nurses, paramedics, and military special operations veterans, ensuring reliable help when injured, in danger, or just needing medical or security advice.

Global Rescue pioneered worldwide field rescue from the point of injury or illness. With operations centers in five locations worldwide, Global Rescue will send help if you are unable to get to a hospital and are in urgent need of care. If you are a member and have to be hospitalized, and you are far from home, they can transport you to the nearest center of excellence or back home to your hospital of choice.

Global Rescues travel protection services include: destination reports for 215 countries and principalities worldwide including entry requirements and compulsory immunizations; visa and passport assistance; translation support in 190 languages; and legal service referrals in 160 countries.

In addition to providing a comprehensive range of satellite equipment and services, Pivotel is making Global Rescue Travel, Safety and Telehealth services available to any approved traveller via its website at https://www.pivotel.com/global-rescue.

"The combination of Pivotel satellite communications products and Global Rescues traveler protection services provides a lifeline for people who need continual access to emergency services, or to stay in touch in remote regions without cellular coverage, said Global Rescue CEO Dan Richards.

About Pivotel  Connected Everywhere

Pivotel provides unrivalled expertise in satellite and remote communications, keeping people connected who live, work, or travel outside of mobile cellular coverage. Pivotel serves customers with over 110,000 global satellite-based services from offices across Australia, New Zealand, North America, South America, Europe and Indonesia. All of Pivotels customer touchpoints are local, supported by an experienced network of engineers, application developers, customer care agents and over 400 dealers and partners.

Pivotel is Australian owned and operated with global operations. Pivotel maintains a mobile carrier licence in Australia, operates a globally interconnected ground infrastructure, and is licenced to provide retail telecommunications services in the USA, South America and New Zealand. It is the only Australian carrier with direct connection to the worlds four major mobile satellite networks: Iridium, Inmarsat, Thuraya and Globalstar. The companys suite of satellite and mobile technologies enable remote connectivity via satellite phones, satellite broadband, personnel and asset trackers, IOT, machine-to-machine connections and marine satellite communications. Pivotel Groups 4G mobile network, ecoSphere, extends its carrier network to deliver complementary terrestrial wireless services to rural and remote Australians operating outside the coverage footprint of the major mobile networks.

For more information on how Pivotel is keeping you connected through satellite communications, visit http://pivotel.com.
Dr Anthony Fauci has warned that there is still a 'very high risk' of getting infected with a new variant of COVID-19 even if you have been previously infected, as he urged all Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Fauci, who has been appointed as Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, told a White House press briefing that getting vaccinated was more important than ever given the emergence of new strains, in particular those from South Africa, England and Brazil.

On Friday the first major analysis of the South African strain found that being infected previously did not prevent re-infection with the new variant.

Fauci explained that the worrying news meant more people needed to be vaccinated, to reduce the amount of people in whom the virus can replicate.

Dr Anthony Fauci told Wolf Blitzer on Monday that all Americans must get vaccinated soon

Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the Biden administration is aware of issues with vaccine distribution and accessibility and says, we will try to make them straightened out.



Fauci discussed potential solutions like community vaccine centers and mobile units. pic.twitter.com/34ElnOykZL  The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) February 1, 2021

President Joe Biden is seen touring the Walter Reed COVID vaccination site on Friday

'You need to get vaccinated when it becomes available as quickly and as expeditiously as possible throughout the country,' he said.

'And the reason for that is viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate.

'And if you stop their replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures that you put on it, you will not get mutations.'

As of Sunday, 471 cases of variants first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil had been located in the United States, 467 of which were the variant found in Britain.

Fauci later told CNN that there was a 'very high rate' of being re-infected with the new variants, if they become dominant.

'If it becomes dominant, the experience of our colleagues in South Africa indicate that even if you've been infected with the original virus that there is a very high rate of reinfection to the point where previous infection does not seem to protect you against reinfection,' he said.

Experts are warning that it is a race against the clock to get people vaccinated. Pictured are a team preparing syringes of vaccine at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts on Friday

Variants may make the vaccine less effective, Fauci said, but that did not mean vaccinations were a waste of time.

'Even though there is a diminished protection against the variants, there's enough protection to prevent you from getting serious disease, including hospitalization and deaths,' Fauci said. 'So, vaccination is critical.'

January was the deadliest month of the entire pandemic in the United States, with more than 95,300 deaths - an average of more than 3,070 deaths a day.

However, the U.S. does seem to be on a slightly more positive trajectory now.

Compared to last week, the number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is down by 10 per cent or more in 38 states, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

There were 1,562 deaths reported on Monday.

A new order by the CDC requiring people to wear masks while riding any kind of public transportation went into effect shortly before midnight on Monday.

People can take their masks off briefly to eat, drink or take medication; verify their identity to law enforcement or transportation officials; communicate with hearing impaired people; don an oxygen mask on an aircraft; or during a medical emergency, the CDC said.

Children younger than two or people with a disability who cannot wear a mask are exempt.

An estimated 26 million people have received at least one dose of their two-dose vaccines, according to the CDC, and around six million have been fully vaccinated with both doses.

The U.S. is lagging behind other countries in terms of vaccinating people - in particular Israel, the UAE, and Britain.

Israel is vaccinating 1.87 people per 100,000, according to Our World In Data.

The UAE is second with 1.26, and Britain tied with Serbia for third, with 0.58.

The United States is fifth, with 0.4 people per 100,000.
New Delhi: In the aftermath of the coup in Myanmar, the Indian mission in the country has advised all its citizens to take due precautions and avoid unnecessary travel.

The Indian mission has also advised its nationals to get in touch with them, in case required.

They also informed that the Air India Flight (AI1333), which was earlier scheduled to leave on February 4, will now leave on February 11.

The government sources in Delhi told WION that airlines are keeping an eye on the situation and are rescheduling.

This comes after the local authorities in Myanmar issued NOTAM or notice to airmen, that no flights will leave or come in the country.

Monday saw the military dismissing the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in the country drawing a number of reactions from the global community.

India expressed its 'deep concern' and said that New Delhi has always been steadfast in its support to the process of democratic transition in Myanmar.

The official statement said, "We have noted the developments in Myanmar with deep concern. India has always been steadfast in its support to the process of democratic transition in Myanmar. We believe that the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld. We are monitoring the situation closely."

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Residents of the New York Assembly district encompassing much of the North Shore will have an opportunity this week to publicly share their concerns with the man who represents them in Albany.

Assemblyman Charles Fall (D-North Shore) will host a virtual town hall on Thursday, from 6 to 7 p.m. via Zoom, to hear about issues affecting residents of his district.

Town halls are always a good opportunity to connect with the public, to show that youre accessible, Fall said. Were trying to just really have a better understanding of what kind of issues folks are having that we can be helpful with or whats out there that we may not be aware of.

Topics will include the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, education and transportation, according to the town halls online event page.

Those interested in attending will need to pre-register on the event page, and submit their questions that time.

The event will also be live streamed via Facebook, according to the event page.
TUV leader Jim Allister has questioned whether Northern Ireland's chief scientific adviser should be allowed to remain in post.

The MLA asked Health Minister Robin Swann whether it is "tenable" for Professor Ian Young to play such a significant role in the pandemic response, despite the fact that a public inquiry found he misled a coroner investigating the death of a child in a Northern Ireland hospital.

Claire Roberts, who died from hyponatraemia caused by fluid mismanagement, was one of five children whose deaths were examined by the Hyponatraemia Inquiry.

In a subsequent explosive report, chair of the inquiry Mr Justice O'Hara said that Professor Young - who was appointed as an independent expert to review Claire's treatment - had misled a coroner examining the nine-year-old girl's death.

Addressing Mr Swann at the Assembly yesterday, Mr Allister asked: "Does his department fully accept the findings of the O'Hara inquiry into hyponatraemia, which included a finding that Prof Ian Young, who reviewed the case of Claire Roberts, had identified failings in the fluid management of Claire but failed to inform the family and the coroner of this fact and instead provided misleading information that was intended to protect the hospital and the doctors?

"How then, is it tenable for that person to continue to hold a key public facing role with that finding as the voice of the department on matters of great public health importance?"

Mr Swann said he and the department accept the 96 recommendations made by the inquiry, but stopped short of saying whether he agrees with the findings.

The minister also referred to comments made by Mr Justice O'Hara in the Hyponatraeamia Inquiry report that individuals he criticised "were not able to defend themselves" as they would in court.

North Antrim MLA Mr Swann also noted that Mr Justice O'Hara had stated he was "aware that individuals who were criticised may attract adverse publicity, affecting both reputation and career, therefore where critical comment is made of an individual, it must be addressed in the context of the limitations of the process".
Federal politicians are being encouraged to celebrate the Lunar New Year with the Chinese community in a bid to prevent tensions with Beijing fuelling anger or racism.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison asked Liberal and Nationals colleagues to observe the new year so the political issues between governments did not damage friendships with Chinese people.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for vigilance in defending liberal democracy against authoritarian regimes. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Labor welcomed the idea but renewed its call for a national anti-racism strategy on the grounds that Chinese Australians had faced attacks over the coronavirus pandemic and questions over their loyalty.

Mr Morrison called for vigilance on Monday night in defending liberal democracy against authoritarian regimes, amid strained ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping on issues ranging from the countrys trade bans to its military expansion in the South China Sea.
(Image: AP)

The farming community is divided over the Union Budget 2021 unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. While on the one hand, the FM proposed a 10 percent hike in the farm loan disbursal target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore, the allocation for the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare was slashed by 8.5 percent.

Similarly, the flagship PM-KISAN scheme also saw a 13 percent drop in the budget, which is Rs 10,000 crore less than the last years initial allocation.

Read: Farm credit target up, allocation to central agri schemes down

Asserting that the government is committed to farmers' welfare amid the ongoing agitation, FM also introduced an agri infra and development cess of up to 100 percent to create post-harvest infrastructure for improving farmers' income.

Sitharaman also proposed higher allocation for Rural Infrastructure Development Fund and Micro Irrigation Fund and extended Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) to APMCs for augmenting infrastructure facilities.

Union Budget 2021 Highlights | All the action from FM Sitharamans budget as it happened

The AIF was created in 2020, as part of a COVID-19 stimulus package, to provide subsidised financing to projects by primary agriculture cooperative societies, farmer producer organisations, agriculture entrepreneurs, and start-ups to develop cold chain storage and other post-harvest management infrastructure

Agitating farm unions have said that they are only concerned about getting the three farm laws repealed, and what has been offered to the agriculture sector in the Union budget did not matter.

Read: Key takeaways from FM Nirmala Sitharaman's plan for India

"Our demand was to increase the price of crops, not agriculture credit. This is a conspiracy to take away your land. Within 10-15 years, the corporate will take your land. The fight is for the rate of crops, not for credit. They didn't talk about MSP. There is nothing for farmers," farmer leader Rakesh Tikait told PTI.

Echoing Tikait's view, Ranjeet Raju, state president, Gramin Kisan Majdoor Samiti, Sri Ganga Nagar said, "If the government wants to help, they should take steps to increase farmers' income, not by increasing agriculture credit target. This is like pushing farmers into the debt trap, which eventually leads to more farmer suicides. And micro-irrigation corpus, which I am told is doubled in this Budget, is something that goes to industries in the name of farmers".

Read: Major announcements by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

"It can be seen as a sign of support to the APMC system. If they are making APMCs eligible to borrow from this fund, and thus strengthen their infrastructure, the government seems to be sending a message that they are not going to be killed, said Siraj Hussain, former Agriculture Secretary and currently a fellow at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, as quoted by the Hindu.

He further said that the budget "seems like an interim budget for agriculture as there are no major announcements."

Read: Budget at glance, key takeaways; other details

Similarly, Jai Kisan Andolan convenor Avik Saha said, According to the Economic Survey data, nothing has yet been spent out of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore or the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Fund of Rs 15,000 crore, although they were supposed to have been part of the COVID-19 stimulus package.

While big figures are announced in the name of the infrastructure funds, these are actually not budget allocations, but simply notional funds which are meant to finance projects through loans, he added, as per the report.

From towering volcanoes to crashing waves, Madeira is not an exact replica of Italys quaint Sorrentine Peninsula. However, the Portuguese autonomous region of Madeira, which is located in the Atlantic Ocean, 978 km south of Portugal and 450 km north of the Canary Islands is becoming a highly desirable Amalfi Coast Alternative for a certain demographic of traveller.

That demographic? Digital nomads. As CNN Travel reports, Madeira is making a play to join the likes of Bali, Berlin and Lisbon as one of the worlds most attractive purveyors of wifi, coffee and a bang for buck lifestyle.

A tiny archipelago thats been called Europes answer to Hawaii might be the next big thing in remote working.

With many people leaving big cities right now, we wanted a village in a smaller place where people can create deeper connections than in a city, Goncalo Hall  a remote work consultant who is helping launch a new digital nomad community one of Madeiras tiny villages  told CNN Travel.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Official Nisi Iberia Account (@nisi_iberia)

The pilot project opened yesterday, on February the 1st, in the red-roofed village of Ponta do Sol, where it is able to host up to 100 remote workers in a co-working space and surrounding housing.

The project is a joint effort between the regional government of Madeira, StartupMadeira and Hall.

Hall told 150 Sec it frustrates him that not many people know of Madeira.

Ive been to Bali. Ive been to Thailand. Ive been to all digital nomad paradises. But when I visited Madeira, I was blown away and immediately saw the potential there. Its just stunning. Its incredible.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pius Cassio von Syrgenstein (@von_pius)

So far, about 75 digital nomads have committed to being among the first to start working in the picturesque village of about 8,200 inhabitants sandwiched into a verdant valley on Madeiras southwest coast fronted by a pebbly beach, CNN Travel reports.

The nomads hail from a variety of countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Ireland and the Czech Republic.

On top of that, more than 2,000 people from places as far away as South Africa, the United States and Nigeria have registered interest too, Hall told CNN Travel. After registering their interest on the website they are then added to a Slack community where they can seek tips on everything from housing to local Covid-19 restrictions.

A minimum stay of one month is required, to lend the project a community feel. Most applicants, according to Hall, intend to stay for two months.

Francisco Fontes, a Madeira local who recently returned to the island when his job in the United States went remote, told CNN Travel Ponta do Sol is similar to the villages along Italys Amalfi coast.

Its very small. When you think of a nomadic village, its really that A place you would step out and bump into the other people from the project.

Madeira was recently crowned Europes Leading Island Destination 2020 at the World Travel Awards. Scrolling through the vibrant Madeira Instagram geotag gives you a good idea why: the archipelago offers incredible hiking, surfing, a village feel and all sort of quirky crannies.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Visit Portugal (@visitportugal)

As for Covid-19, various measures are in place to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.

CNN Travel reports, As with all things Covid-19, conditions are constantly shifting. On January 29, in response to the countrys dramatically intensifying Covid-19 outbreak, Portugal extended its lockdown and closed the land border with Spain. Citizens are restricted from travelling abroad for 15 days.

Plans to launch are going ahead and that leaves the project organizers waiting to see how things will play out: if they build it, will remote workers come?

The early signs are positive. But only time (and the number of boutique yoga studios and hipster cafes per capita) will tell.

Read Next
Donald Trump could use the money to support candidates. Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Donald Trump is sitting on a $31m (26m) war chest left over from money he raised to press his groundless claims of election fraud.

Filings were released by the Federal Election Commission for the former presidents Save America political action committee, which was formed on November 9, six days after the election.

They showed it had raised tens of millions of dollars but spent only $340,000 (282,000) on fees by January 1.

The money is now available to help Mr Trump back primary challenges by candidates he favours as the Republican Party descends into an internal fight over its future direction.

It cannot be used for his own direct campaigning, but could finance his travel to support candidates, and pay aides.

Mr Trump is known to want to undermine 10 Republican members of Congress who voted with Democrats to impeach him, and may back primary challengers in their states.

Read More

Between the election and the end of the year, aggressive fundraising by Mr Trump and various Republican committees raised a total of nearly $300m (249m).

Meanwhile, Mr Trump faced a deadline today to file a response to his impeachment charge over the US Capitol riots.

Over the weekend he changed his legal team, opting for a new setup headed by lawyers David Schoen and Bruce Castor.

Mr Schoen met with Jeffrey Epstein days before his death in prison and has suggested he was killed. Last night, 10 moderate Republican senators, including Mitt Romney, were meeting with Joe Biden, the president, in the Oval Office to discuss his $1.9trn (1.57trn) coronavirus stimulus relief package.

The Republican group wants to propose a compromise alternative that would provide $618bn (512bn) in relief.

Separately, it was revealed that dozens of Republicans in former President George W Bushs administration are leaving the party, dismayed by a failure of many elected Republicans to disown Mr Trump after his false claims of election fraud.

These officials, some who served in the highest echelons of the Bush administration, said they had hoped a Trump defeat would lead party leaders to move on from the former president and denounce his baseless claims.

But with most Republican lawmakers sticking to Mr Trump, these officials say they no longer recognise the party they served.

Some have ended their membership, others are letting it lapse while a few are newly registered as independents, according to a dozen former Bush officials.

Read More

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
President Joe Biden will take an axe to Donald Trump's immigration policies when he signs executive orders Tuesday rescinding a series of his predecessor's landmark moves.

Among the most high-profile moves will be starting the process to end a 'public charge' rule put in place which let immigration authorities deny green cards to immigrants who were 'public charges' because they were on benefits such as foodstamps, Medicaid or Section 8 housing.

The orders will also call for his administration to streamline the naturalization of nine million migrants, senior officials said, signaling a return to a more inclusive policy.

Biden is also set to order a review of all legal obstacles to immigration and integration that were put in place under Trump - a wide-ranging order whose effects will only become clear in the next few months.

President Joe Biden will overhaul the US immigration process today in a series of executive orders

'The review will likely lead to dramatic changes in policies,' according to a senior government official, saying the goal is 'to restore faith in our legal immigration system, and promote integration of Americans.'

The orders follow Biden suspending construction of Trump's border wall.

'President Trump was so focused on the wall that he did nothing to address the root cause of why people are coming to our southern border,' the official said.

'It was a limited, wasteful and naive strategy, and it failed.'

In line with campaign promises, one of the orders will put in place a working group tasked with reuniting migrant families separated by Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy put in place in 2018.

That policy allowed officials to prosecute and deport adults who had entered the US illegally. Their children, some just days old, were then placed into federal custody.

A federal lawsuit in the Southern District of California has identified more than 600 children who were separated from their parents between 2017 and 2018 who still have not been reunited with their family.

Faced with international outcry, and even criticism from within his own party, the Trump administration was forced to scale down the policy, but hundreds of migrant children have still not been returned to their parents.

Biden will call for his administration to streamline the naturalization of nine million migrants. Pictured: Honduran migrants head to the US through Guatemala

One of the orders will put in place a working group tasked with reuniting migrant families separated by Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy

Biden's immigration executive orders Joe Biden will sign three executive orders on Tuesday to signal a new immigration policy: The creation of a task force to reunite children separated from their families at the border under Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy. This group will be chaired by a homeland security secretary;

The evaluation of immigration programs including the Central American Minors Program established by Obama. This allowed children in Central America to legally reunite with parents in the US. The order will also review Trump's 'Remain In Mexico' policy which left asylum seekers in poor conditions in Central America while they awaited US court hearings, and provide aid to help stop the causes of immigration;

A review of Trump's immigration policies by the State Department, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to assess whether the laws promote 'integration and inclusion'. The order will also call for a review of the naturalization process and the 'public charge' policy which punishes immigrants who use benefits by refusing their green card applications. Advertisement

The working group will examine ways to reunite the families, officials said, without specifying whether that could allow parents or children who had been deported to return to US soil.

A second executive order echoes a similar policy under the Barack Obama administration, putting in place legal mechanisms for prospective immigrants in their home countries to apply for residency, allowing them to avoid dangerous smuggling routes.

The third decree will promote the integration of migrants legally settled in the United States and make naturalization 'more accessible to the more than nine million immigrants who are currently eligible to apply' for citizenship.

There will be a review of the so-called 'public charge rule' introduced in August 2019 that allowed officials to refuse citizenship or green card applications to migrants receiving social assistance, such as subsidized care or housing allowances.

The public charge rule 'basically created or established a wealth test for immigrants,' one senior Biden official said.

Under the public charge rule - which was seen as the work of controversial Trump aide Stephen Miller - green cards, the legal term for permanent residence and a preliminary to citizenship, could be refused to immigrants on a series of benefits.

They included Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, state general assistance payments, SNAP food stamps, Section 8 vouchers or rental assistance, public housing and federal Medicaid.

The Trump administration said the rule protected American taxpayers from subsidizing immigrants and made the country less attractive to poor immigrants.

But immigration groups called it cruel and fought it in the courts. The Supreme Court allowed it to stay in place but has not offered a final view of its legality.

Most of the reforms will be led by the Secretary of Homeland Security.

On his first day in office, Biden also ended the national emergency that diverted millions of dollars to the border wall and halted construction until further review.

Biden has nominated Alejandro Mayorkas to the position, and the Senate will vote on his appointment midday Tuesday.

If confirmed, Mayorkas - who arrived in the United States as an infant as the son of Cuban refugees - will be the first Hispanic person to lead the Department of Homeland Security, a sprawling agency that oversees immigration issues, border police and emergency responses.

The Biden administration's efforts to overturn Trump-era immigration policies will likely be welcomed by the left wing of his Democratic Party.

Since coming into office he has canceled two of his predecessor's landmark measures, suspending construction of a wall along the border with Mexico and lifting a ban on US entry for residents of a number of countries withmajority Muslim populations.

Biden has also sent a bill to Congress that could lead to the naturalization of millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

The legislation's adoption, however, will require convincing several Republican lawmakers to back it - no easy feat.
Laser particles are micrometre and nanometre lasers in the form of particles dispersible in aqueous solution, which have attracted considerable interest in the life sciences as a promising new optical probe. Laser particles emit highly bright light with extremely narrow spectral bandwidth. By transferring laser particles into live cells as shown in Figure 1, individual cells in a heterogeneous population can be tracked using each intracellular particle's specific spectral fingerprint as an optically readable barcode. However, laser particles emit directional light (Figure 2) and freely tumble inside living cells, their orientation varying randomly over time. Therefore optical readout of these labels results in "lighthouse-like" blinking, leading to frequent loss of cell traces.

In a new paper published in Light: Science & Application, scientists from Professor Seok-Hyun Yun's group at Harvard Medical School, and Professor Yun-Feng Xiao's group at Peking University demonstrate single-cell tracking with intracellular laser particles engineered to emit nearly homogeneously in all directions. The omnidirectional laser emission is achieved by incorporating light scattering into the microdisk cavity, which reduces orientation dependent intensity fluctuations by two orders of magnitude (Figure 2), enabling blinking-free tracking of single cells under the same conditions where existing technology suffers from frequent tracking failure. The reported technique will open new avenues for large-scale single-cell analysis, and facilitate other applications of laser particles, such as cellular and biochemical sensing and single-cell analysis in microfluidics.

These scientists summarize the single-cell tagging principle of laser particles:

"Typically, researchers use fluorescent probes to label specific cells, but only a few colors can be used at the same time before spectral overlap becomes a problem. Laser particles are tiny lasers that can be inserted inside living cells. These tiny lasers can be designed to produce many more distinguishable colors. The intracellular laser particles with a specific color will move with live cells, and therefore single cells can be tracked as they move throughout complex biological samples," said Dr. Shui-Jing Tang, a former visiting student at Harvard Medical School and a current Boya postdoctoral researcher at Peking University.

"Unfortunately, laser particles emit light in a specific direction. When particles rotate freely over time as the cell moves, their apparent brightness, as seen by a photodetector, changes dramatically. We developed a new kind of laser particle emitting light in all directions. Therefore, the spatial cell traces could be tracked continuously no matter how each particle was oriented inside a cell," added Paul Dannenberg, a graduate student at Harvard Medical School.

"The presented technique makes it possible to detect and identify laser particles reliably over time in cell tracking applications, which could enable large-scale single-cell analysis in complex biological specimens. In addition to cell-tracking, our work will facilitate other applications of laser particles, such as cellular and biochemical sensing and single-cell analysis in microfluidics," said Dr. Andreas Liapis, a research fellow at Harvard University.

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The country's debt, which hit Sh7.12 trillion by last September is projected to double in the next nine years, says the latest Parliamentary Budget Office report.

By 2030, it is estimated Kenya's debt could account for more than 100 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), which refers to the monetary value of all finished goods and services expected in the country by then.

"In the current financial year, debt is forecasted to reach Sh7.8 trillion and will account for approximately 69 per cent of GDP and 87 per cent of the total debt ceiling. Indeed, the debt stock is projected to double by June 2030 and could account for over 100 per cent of GDP," the report states.

And on the eve of President Uhuru Kenyatta's final year in office, debt service (debt principal and interest payments) will cross the Sh1 trillion mark in the 2021/22 financial year and will be domestically driven.

Sh1trn debt repayment

According to the report, debt repayment, estimated at Sh925 billion in 2020/21 financial year, will reach Sh1.023 trillion by the end of the 2021/22 financial year.

"To manage this situation, lengthening the maturity of existing securities may be necessary even though this will transfer debt to future generations," states the PBO's report on budget options for 2021/2022 financial year and the medium term.

The Sh7.12 trillion debt chalked up by last September accounts for 65.6 per cent of GDP and 79 per cent of the statutory debt ceiling of Sh9 trillion.

Piling loans

Titled 'Evading Recessionary Pressure Under a Mounting Debt Burden,' the report blames the piling loans on expenditure pressures related to infrastructure and debt servicing coupled with decline in revenue generation.

"This trend is projected to continue over the medium term as the expansionary economic blueprint, the need for fiscal stimulus and debt servicing obligations continue to drive expenditures even as revenue generation remains low and the economy continues to underperform," the report adds.

As a consequence of the poor economy, the report cites closure of many companies over the past two years.

Companies shut down

At least 388 companies shut down in 2019, according to the Registrar of Companies.

The country's foreign direct investment declined by Sh31 billion in 2019 and is estimated to have shrunk by 40 per cent last year.

"Concerns with regard to debt accumulation, particularly among investors, may also lead to loss of access to cheap external markets," the report cautions.

Parliament budget experts also caution guaranteed debt is a significant risk to the country's debt position.

As of June 2020, guaranteed debt amounted to Sh165.2 billion, reflecting a 276 per cent increase since June 2015.

This increase is as a result of increase in commercial debt -- Sh79.9 billion (guarantee provided to Kenya Airways) and bilateral credit Sh80.6 billion (guarantees to capital projects undertaken by KenGen and the Kenya Ports Authority).

The report observes the Sh9 trillion statutory debt ceiling has been weak in controlling the borrowing spree as it is "not considered a sustainability indicator but a legal limit."

"It is a numerical limit, arbitrarily set, and delinked from macroeconomic factors that determine the debt-carrying capacity of a country, alongside other factors. Furthermore, it limits the regulatory role of the public debt management office given that there is a single regulatory parameter, which is already fixed. Choice of ceiling will promote transparency and use of better sustainability measures."

Tackling cash crisis

Among proposals to tackle the cash crisis are: a freeze on new projects; rescheduling debt to free more money to finance expenditure in the budget and cutting down on unnecessary spending by state corporations; public servants should continue working from home; government to encourage shift to online platforms for meetings and increase development expenditure financed through external resources.

The policy options to address the runaway debt include the government to stop domestic borrowing and an increase in concessional financing.

By taming domestic borrowing, it will slow down debt growth and concessional external debt will be used to replace or buy out expensive domestic or external debt.

Parliament budget experts also propose that medium term debt service expenditures must be reduced to no more than 3.4 per cent of GDP.

Targeted reduction of debt servicing expenditure alongside reduction of non-core recurrent expenditures will have a higher effect of easing fiscal space.

Revise debt ceiling

The report also recommends the revision of the arbitrarily set debt ceiling, arguing that as designed, it creates a regulatory flaw as it is delinked from the rest of the economy.

Choice of a ratio would provide a debt limit that is more responsive to both liquidity and solvency concerns and lead to prudent debt management practice.

But it is not all gloom.

The report projects the economy is estimated to grow by 0.5 per cent in 2020, increasing to 1.3 per cent in 2021 and 4.3 per cent in 2022.

This is based on the prevailing circumstances and assuming no significant change in policy.

Risks to economic growth include how long the Covid-19 pandemic will take to resolve.

"Even though successful vaccine trials have been reported by several pharmaceutical companies, how effective they are in bringing the pandemic to an end will depend on a number of factors," the report cautions.

There are concerns about acceptability in some regions due to fear mongering as well as challenges in scaling up production and distribution of the vaccine on a global scale.

Covid-19 vaccines availability

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"Already, equity concerns are emerging in terms of who gets the vaccine first and at what cost, with concern that these vaccines may not be available to developing economies at least until end of 2021."

Political uncertainty due to election fever that has set in rather early in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) referendum campaigns as well as various by-elections.

"History has shown that economic growth tends to be muted during electioneering periods. This is attributed to a rather challenging business environment and a wait and see approach by investors pending the outcome of the elections. Thus the political environment will continue to be a key driver affecting growth until end of 2022."

Other factors that could affect growth are erratic weather patterns and corruption.

NHIF enrolment

On universal health coverage, the report urges authorities to make it mandatory for Kenyans aged between 18 and 65 years to be enrolled under the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) social insurance scheme.

It recommends that the elderly (above 65 years) and vulnerable persons be supported by the government to enrol under the NHIF cover through a yearly government supported capitation

On social safety net programmes, the report proposes that the cash transferred through the "Inua Jamii" programme for the financial year 2021/22 be increased by Sh6.5 billion to compensate for further loss of income to beneficiaries arising from the containment measures of the pandemic.
Koinonia House brings Gospel hope to forgotten prisoners amid COVID lockdowns

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Prisoners in Illinois, Mississippi and Louisiana have endured stricter lockdowns due to COVID-19, but thanks to the Christian ministry Koinonia House, professing prisoners have received spiritual encouragement.

Since March, prisoners in Illinois and other states have been in lockdown, said Koinonia House Executive Director Manny Mill to The Christian Post. Mill knows prison from the inside. He became a Christian while hiding from the FBI in Venezuela. When he found God, he returned to the United States, turned himself in, and served two years in prison.

Very few Christians care for the prisoner. Most of our churches dont even mention it, when in fact the Bible is filled with it, he said. When you think of the characters in the Bible  Joseph became a prisoner; Moses became a killer; King David was a former rapist and a killer; Abraham was a pimp and a liar; and Paul was a serial killer.

People always struggle in prison, Mill said. But constant lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions on the few freedoms prisoners have made it even harder.

Its very unusual, he said. Usually, [prisoners] have [freedom of] movement. Depending on the level of the facility, even in a maximum-security they have movement. The movement may be guarded by an officer, but they have movement. They can go to the yard, to school, to a religious service, they can go to eat, but in this time all of those things have not happened.

Prison means constant surveillance, he said. Officers counted Mill seven times a day during his own time in prison. To endure difficult conditions in prison, inmates depend on following a routine.

Lockdowns take you out of your routine. Prison is all about routine, he said. If you get locked down in a situation like this with the fear that you can die, it will bring a complete disruption to your routine. Fear can set in. It can also paralyze you. Thats where people commit suicide.

Lockdowns create a prison within the prison, he said.

Officers go out to the parking lot and get a gun from their car and blow their brains out. It can bring you to the point of despair. And then you have no hope. If you have no hope, you have no life and no reason to live, Mill stressed.

COVID-19 blazes through the prison population four times faster than it goes through the rest of society. Prisoners cant escape the disease.

Since the pandemic began, more than 270,000 prisoners and more than 59,000 correctional employees have been infected with the coronavirus, according to the COVID Prison Project.

To give hope to these prisoners, Koinonia House created DVD videos that prisons could play for inmates. They also hosted online services that prisoners could attend by Zoom. Their most recent video, titled Dare to Hope, features worship music and testimonies from former prisoners on how they found Jesus. Mills group also donated soap, shampoo, coats, backpacks and books to prisoners.

A former prisoner named Eddie testified in the ministry's video, It was there in prison, where I rededicated my life to the Lord. The Bible tells you in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that if any man be in Christ, hes a new creation. It was that scripture that resonated in my heart.

When he became a Christian, his desires to do evil things left him.

There is nothing too hard for God. Nothing too hard for God, he declared.

Mill said his ministry does not refer to prisoners by their last names to avoid attaching them to the shame of their crime.

Koinonia House finds various ways to help prisoners because group members love prisoners, said Mill.

Love is creative, he said. When we face a challenge, when we face a test, when we face a trial, love always triumphs. We have to love creatively. We have to find a way of loving.

On Thursday, Mill led a discipleship group of 36 people at Compass Church in Wheaton, Illinois. Ten attendees were on Zoom, some of whom were current prisoners.

Mill asked one man in prison for life, Joachim, to lead the closing prayer. Prisoners often feel lonely and forgotten by the outside world, Mill said.

If youre a man [in prison], your wife will usually divorce you. Half of the men in prison never get a visitor. About 35% of them never get a piece of mail. They feel that they are forgotten. When they watch these videos, they know that they are being remembered. Its good to be remembered. Thats why we send out Christmas cards, he said.

The Church often doesnt obey Jesus commands to care for and visit prisoners, Mill lamented. Jesus said that His followers will be known because they visited prisons when others didnt. But most churches never even talk about prisoners.

We are the Church. We are commanded by Gods Word to be a voice to the voiceless. We cannot forget the prisoner, he said. Therefore, if were going to proclaim a credible Gospel, we have to include that Jesus Himself became a criminal. We must live a Gospel that includes the prisoner.

Christians can help prisoners by reading their Bibles and asking God to make them more compassionate, Mill said. Then they can work with local Christian groups that work with prisoners.

Become sensitive. Become less judgmental. Know and think that everybody can make it to prison, he said. When you bless the prisoner, God will open the gates of Heaven for you. That is when you make God the Father the happiest.
By Sumeet Chatterjee, Anirban Sen and David French (Reuters) - Robinhood, the U.S. online broker that has emerged as a gateway for amateur traders challenging Wall Street hedge funds, has held talks with banks about raising $1 billion in debt so it can continue to fulfill orders for heavily shorted stocks, according to people familiar with the matter. The capital raised would be separate from the $3.4 billion in financing that Robinhood announced on Monday it had secured from its investors since Jan. 29. It reflects the financial pressure that last week's Reddit-fueled frenzy ...
Very excited to witness the arrival in Beirut of 100 armoured patrol vehicles, a donation from  to @LebarmyOfficial. This is a great practical example of the   partnership, and of our longstanding support for the LAFs vital role in keeping the Syria border safe and secure.

The British ambassador to Lebanon is 'very exited to hand off some useless, half armored patrol vehicles to the Lebanese army:

Keeping the Syrian border safe and secure is certainly not a British priority. Lets not forget that it was Britain which hired various companies, led by 'former' British intelligence officers, who then organized and ran the propaganda campaigns for the Jihadi onslaught on Syria.

The same companies were hired to secretly create 'civil society groups in Lebanon that were then used to demonstrate for 'regime change and to pressure the Lebanese government. It was also Her Majesties Government which hired such intelligence cutouts to embed into and undermine Lebanons justice and security services.

Lebanons army was another target of British intelligence efforts to gain control over Lebanons policies.

'Anonymous' hackers have recovered and published a third batch of documents which show how Britain infiltrated Lebanons Armed Forces Military Intelligence Department. Other documents show that Britain supplied spying equipment to the intelligence services it had infiltrated. Another secret program was designed to infiltrate Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and to manipulate Palestinian youths.

For all this the British government is using company cutouts. A governments Terms of Reference document for the penetration of Lebanons military intelligence describes how the vendor is supposed to proceed. The 'excuse' is to provide training and support for counter terrorism (emphasis added):

The objective of [British Embassy Beirut] is to increase the capacity, capability and Human Rights compliance of the LAF and Military Tribunal within the CT arrest to trial process. A compliant pathway through the Lebanese CT system is sought that could be used by UK law enforcement in the case of terrorism cases with UK links in Lebanon. Requirement An external supplier is required to deliver a two year programme on behalf of the British Embassy Beirut working primarily with the Lebanese Armed Forces Department of Military Intelligence, but with scope to engage with a broader range of security services here, to develop their investigative processes and evidential standards. Working primarily via a embedded CT adviser, the successful supplier will also be expected to demonstrate a broad range of areas of expertise available on call down as necessary, to effectively project manage the programme while reporting into BE Beirut, and to demonstrate that they have built in rigorous and independent M&E processes throughout the programming timeline.

The British government offered 600,000 for the two year project which ran from July 2018 to March 2020 but has been extended to 2022. Importantly the 'supplier' had been told to keep the project secret:

CONFIDENTIALITY AND PUBLICITY The implementer is not permitted to speak publicly (to the media, companies unrelated to any HMG audits or at conferences) about their work without the explicit permission of HMG.

Torchlight, a British company that was involved in previous spying projects in Lebanon and elsewhere, made a bid for the contract. It delivered a number of documents that describe its plans, people and methodology for the project. Here is how it plans to gain access to the Department of Military Intelligence (emphasis added):

Gaining Access to Premises / Organisations. The intricate and complex political and sectarian affiliations and loyalties of the primary security agencies makes them courteous but cautious and reserved hosts, both between agencies and external partners. Each organisation exists within a silo, with little evidence of inter or intra-agency coordination. Within the GSD, for example, investigative processes appear to operate under a strict need-to-know basis which, from our observations, seems to stifle internal partnership working and information sharing. We will astutely and sensitively navigate these complexities during the first deployment to further build trust and assurances around our ongoing and persistent presence in their facilities while respecting the sensitivities of the work involved. Since no formal process exists for securing access to LAF DMI facilities, our Mentor worked hard during the initial phase of this programme to develop and leverage trusted personal relationships to successfully secure clearance and admittance through stringent security checks. Based on this experience, and the robust and enduring nature of the relationships we have established, we are entirely confident of being able to secure ongoing access and office space within the LAF DMI compound for the duration of the programme. This will be further enabled by engaging senior LAF DMI leadership at the outset of the project, ensuring their buy-in to the programme, highlighting how the approach and strategic objectives are fully aligned with their own vision of change as articulated to us during a meeting in March.

A bit of social engineering (and maybe an occasional bribe) and whoops a British government agent has security clearance and sufficient access to freely roam inside Lebanons military intelligence service.

As a follow on project to the above infiltration a Investigations and Digital Evidence Assistance (IDEA) program for Lebanon, Maldives, and Morocco was to be implemented. This would give Britain access to 'counter terrorism data acquired and held by the intelligence services in those countries. It was again Torchlight which made an offer. As part of this it submitted its methodology for the project. From this we can glean that Torchlight will deliver hard and software that the intelligence agencies it has infiltrated will then use to sniff on phones and internet data.

Torchlight is equipment agnostic we will only recommend equipment options that fit the solution. All potential suppliers undergo rigorous due diligence checks to ensure that we mitigate any risks that may affect delivery of outputs and outcomes. We maintain strong relationships with a wide variety of forensic equipment suppliers so that we can select the right solution for the requirement, and these established relationships also allow us to negotiate discounts, which we will pass on to the Authority to achieve VfM. For example, our market relationships and buying power recently enabled us to include a 10% discount for the purchase of digital forensic software to the British Embassy Amman. We will give due consideration to end user technical capability levels, maintenance requirements and fiscal sustainment needs (e.g. ongoing costs for licences, maintenance, software updates, patches etc) to ensure the equipment will continue to be used in a selfsustaining manner independent of project support and be supported into the future. This is particularly critical because digital device technology is continuously advancing, and criminal actors are quick to adopt new technology solutions  law enforcement must therefore be equipped with a solution which can keep pace with these advances.

When Torchlight, working for the British government, provides equipment to other intelligence services one must assume that there will be backdoors built in which will give the British GCHQ and other Five-Eyes spy services direct access to it.

So far we have seen that the British government infiltrated Lebanons civil society, its security services and courts as well as its army intelligence.

An even more sensitive environment in Lebanon are the Palestinian refugee camps. As pretext to infiltrate these HMG asked for offers for a secret counter-ISIS (DAESH) propaganda campaign.

This program had extraordinary secrecy requirements:
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We all love a good nap, but this little girl in China might have had the best snooze in the world with cuddles from her five furry friends.

Trending footage shows the two-year-old Xiao Xi enjoying a blissful afternoon nap while her five family cats snuggled up to her at their home in northern China's Hebei Province.

Ms Chen, Xiao Xi's mother, told MailOnline that her daughter had shared a close bond with the moggies who loved staying cosy with their little owner.

We all love a good nap, but this little girl in China might have had the best snooze in the world with cuddles from her five furry friends. Xiao Xi is enjoying a nap with her family cats

Trending footage shows the two-year-old Xiao Xi enjoying a blissful afternoon nap while her five family cats snuggled up to her at their home in northern China's Hebei Province

Ms Chen, Xiao Xi's mother, told MailOnline that her daughter had shared a close bond with the moggies who loved staying cosy with their little owner. Pictured, one of Ms Chen's moggies

Ms Chen, a photography lover, has been documenting the precious friendship between her children and the family pets online since September 2019 when she and her husband adopted their first cat, a ginger stray named Wang Cai.

Within just over a year, the couple with a boy and a girl welcomed four more rescue cats and a stray beagle into their home in the city of Shijiazhuang.

Soon after Wang Cai settled in, the Chinese mother stumbled across an adorable moment one day when she spotted the cat snuggling up to her two-year-old daughter on the couch.

'Xiao Xi was falling asleep on the couch and Wang Cai was next to her, staring at her with a loving look,' Ms Chen told MailOnline. 'After a while, Wang Cai snuggled up to Xiao Xi and fell asleep.

'I was so touched by what I saw,' the parent added. 'It really warmed my heart and I also felt bad for Wang Cai. I thought maybe he saw Xiao Xi as a mother or a sibling.

'He was really little when we found him, all alone in the rain. It was really sad,' Ms Chen said.

Ms Chen has been documenting the precious friendship between her children and the family pets online since September 2019 when she and her husband adopted their first cat, Wang Cai

In one clip filmed by Ms Chen last Monday, Xiao Xi is seen drifting into her sweet dreams as the family cats jumped onto the bed one after another to join their little owner

Footage of a little girl enjoying her daily afternoon nap with her family cats became trending in China. Pictured, the two-year-old Xiao Xi holding two of her moggies as they snooze together

Since then, the family cat and his little owner's afternoon nap became a daily routine. Over the past year, their snooze sessions welcomed new participants as the other cats who arrived at their home gradually joined in.

In one clip filmed by Ms Chen last Monday, Xiao Xi is seen drifting into her sweet dreams as the family cats jumped onto the bed one after another.

After finding their own favourite spot next to the little girl, the moggies lay down and slowly closed their eyes as they fell into blissful sleep.

The footage quickly became trending after Ms Chen shared it on Chinese social media with her nearly one million followers who described the two-minute video as 'healing' and 'heart-warming'.

One of the Chinese family's rescue cats is pictured with its little pet owner Xiao Xi in China

Ms Chen has been documenting the precious friendship between her children and the family pets online since September 2019 when she and her husband adopted their first cat

Within just over a year, the Chinese couple with their son (pictured right) and daughter (pictured left and right) welcomed five rescue cats and a stray beagle into their home

One commenter wrote: 'Your videos are always so healing and heart-warming! What a lucky little girl.'

Another user said: 'Everyone is sleeping with their paws up, meaning that they are very relaxed. Cats and dogs would only sleep like this when they are in an environment they are completely comfortable with.'

Last year, an adorable video of a little girl taking a nap with her two pets warmed the hearts of millions in China.

The three-year-old girl is seen holding her pet cat, 'Motor', in her arms while being spooned by her golden retriever, Dabao, as the trio enjoyed an afternoon snooze at their home in northeast China's Heilongjiang province.
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 2 : Father Jojo Manmala, 36, is a Capuchin priest under the Catholic church and is serving at a Capuchin centre at Iritty in Kerala's Kannur district. A message was circulated on social media groups for a poor Hindu youth who was undergoing dialysis and would survive only through a kidney transplant.

In the highest order of human love and compassion, Father Jojo did not have second thoughts and decided to donate his kidney to the youth who is from a poor community. This exemplifies the communal harmony in Kerala.

Father Jojo is a student at Don Bosco College, Iritty ,Kannur district and is a frontline activist of Jesus Youth. He was initiated into Capuchin priesthood seven years ago.

Once Father Jojo decided to donate his kidney, tests were conducted and it was found that the blood group and other parameters matched to the receiver.

The wife of the receiver has also decided to donate her kidney to another person thus reciprocating the good deed of Father Jojo. The woman is donating her kidney to a 24-year-old youth from Thamarassery in Kozhikode district.

All the four surgeries are taking place simultaneously at a private hospital in Kozhikode.

This is part of the 'Paired Kidney Exchange' programme and would lead to a chain of kidney exchanges.
The national investigation agency (NIA) took over investigation into the Israel embassy blast case on Tuesday. Officials told News18 that the ministry of home affairs is issuing orders for the same. "We are expecting the orders shortly, will register a case as soon as they are received," an official said.

Iranian hand in the blast has emerged as the main line of investigation. Officials are also looking at the incident in Paris where a suspicious object was found outside the Israel embassy complex. "There are international ramifications of this case," an officer explained about why an NIA investigation is being sought in this matter.

Top intelligence sources on Sunday said evidence suggests that the explosion was a serious blast gone wrong.

Police had recovered battery remains from the Israel embassy blast site though most of the CCTV cameras near the site of the explosion were "non-functional" at the time of incident.

"We have recovered some CCTV footage but have not obtained anything concrete yet as most of the CCTV cameras in the area near the embassy are non-functional," an official source said. Earlier, footage retrieved from CCTV cameras showed a vehicle moving suspiciously near the embassy just before the explosion, sources said.

The minor IED blast took place near the Embassy of Israel on Friday evening, 40-50 metres away at Jindal House.

A team of National Security Guard also visited the explosion site on Saturday afternoon.

After initial investigation on Friday, the police had suspected a vehicle borne bomber of dropping or throwing the IED near a flower pot. But the recovery of the battery and initial reports about the kind of explosive used have forced investigators to look at the angle of a "well planned, well timed conspiracy."
Lashing out at AAP over its demand to deploy Punjab Police force for the protection of agitating farmers at Delhi Borders, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday said, "Arvind Kejriwals party had clearly lost all sense of Constitutional and legal propriety, and was completely ignorant even on the law laid down by the highest court of the land."

A statement by Punjab CMO quoting the chief minister, read, "This demand is not only completely illogical and frivolous but against all principles and rules of the law".

Captain Amarinder's harsh reaction has come in response to AAP's letter to him, calling for police protection of the protesting farmers from Punjab. AAP leader Raghav Chada on Sunday wrote a letter to Captain Amarinder, demanding him to deploy police security at protesting campsites to ensure the safety of the farmers while alleging that "BJP goons engineered and executed attack on farmers".

READ | 'Will Only Hold Talks With Centre After Our People Are Released,' Says BKU's Rakesh Tikait

The Punjab chief minister pointed out that as per the Union Home Ministry directive and Supreme Court order, the Punjab Police cannot stay in another state for more than 72 hours even for a protectee.

"So, this would mean that even if I sign an order today declaring some, if not all, farmers out there as protectees, (which is really neither feasible nor realistic), that would mean the Punjab Police can only be with them for 72 hours and not more," he added according to the statement by the CMO.

Taking a jibe at the AAP over its demands, the Punjab CM further said, "This further means that as Chief Minister of Punjab, which I definitely am for all intents and purposes, howsoever much AAP may wish otherwise, my hands are tied by the law, which your party has clearly no respect for."

Captain Amarinder claimed that the letter from AAP is nothing more than a tactic by the party to divert public attention from its own role in the Red Fort violence, while further claiming that AAP leaders were caught on camera during the violence at the Red Fort on Republic Day. He even alleged collusion of AAP with BJP against the farmers, after the Delhi government notified one of the farm laws in the national capital.

READ | Satya Pal Malik Warns Centre Not To Suppress Farmers' Movement, Urges To 'engage In Talks'

All party meeting called by Captain Amarinder

Captain Amarinder has called an all-party meeting on February 2 to discuss the recent developments in the national capital "especially in view of the Republic Day violence, the Singhu border attack on farmers, and the massive vilification campaign against them".

The farmers continue to protest at on the border areas of Delhi as the protest enters 67th day. If the Republic day violence wasn't enough, clashes broke out on Friday between the protesting farmers and the local villagers on the Singhu border who had come appeal to the farmers on Friday to vacate the protest area. The two sides pelted stones and attacked each other with sticks, leading to a further escalation in violence. The Delhi Police had to intervene which was met with stone-pelting. Thereafter, to control the escalating situation, the police was forced to lathi-charge the aggressive mob and fired tear gas shells. Several cops including SHO of Alipur suffered injuries in the clash at the Singhu Border.

READ | Netas Rush To Support Rakesh Tikait; Priyanka Vadra Dials-in After Akhilesh & Kejriwal
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Mike Lindell (L), founder of My Pillow, during a Made in America event with U.S. manufacturers in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on July 19, 2017. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Twitter Permanently Suspends My Pillows Company Account

Twitter has shut down My Pillows official account after the bedding companys CEO Mike Lindell used it to circumvent his own ban from the platform.

Twitter said it permanently suspended My Pillow for violating its policy against ban evasion. Mike Lindell, a friend and outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, was banned from Twitter a week ago over his repeated claims that the presidential election was rigged.

The ban comes after Lindell posted several messages from the companys official account, which has been used exclusively for product promotion. One of the posts, openly signed by Lindell, called on Twitters CEO Jack Dorsey to be jailed for alleged involvement in election fraud.

Thank you to everyone who has supported My Pillow during this time  Jack Dorsey is trying to cancel me (Mike Lindell) out! the Minnesota businessman wrote. We are extremely busy and hiring as fast as we can to handle all the shipping! Jack will be found out and should be put in prison when all is revealed!

This was the post [Jack Dorsey] was upset about when he canceled [Mike Lindell]!!, the last post on My Pillows Twitter feed reads. [Jack Dorsey] I know you are tied into the election fraud! You are so afraid of being found out! So many are looking forward to you being brought to justice!

Lindell condemned Twitters decision during an interview with USA Today, saying that the social media giant is trying to destroy him.

I cant believe theyre doing this to my company, Lindell said Monday. Theyre out to destroy me.

Lindell said last month that some major retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohls, have told him they will drop My Pillow products. Both companies later confirmed the decision, but cited underperforming sales rather than Lindells actions or his support for Trump.

I just got off the phone with Bed Bath & Beyond. Theyre dropping MyPillow. Just got off the phone not five minutes ago. Kohls, all these different places, Lindell said in a Right Side Broadcasting interview. These guys, theyre scared, like Bed Bath & Beyond, theyre scared.

Lindell is also facing a potential defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for claiming that their voting machines were tampered with to sway votes in favor of then-Democratic candidate and now President Joe Biden. Last month, lawyers for Dominion sent a letter to Lindell, formally demanding he stop making false and conspiratorial claims about the company or expect imminent litigation.

For politicians across the world, the past 12 months have brought challenges few could have imagined. And inevitably, every government has made its share of mistakes.

But for some people, determined to hold up a magnifying glass to Britains failings, there has always been a shining beacon of honesty and competence  the EU.

Time and again, they insisted that France, Germany and their Continental neighbours put Britain to shame.

Our politicians were blinkered, incompetent and corrupt. The European elite were paragons of clear thinking and straight talking.

Does anybody still think this, after the past few days? Does anybody really still believe it after yesterday?

'Despite her pompous presidential title, Mrs von der Leyen (pictured) is not a serious politician'

Blame

The EUs vaccine shambles has been well chronicled, from its failure to sign a timely deal and secure supplies to its mendacious attempts to blame the British/Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and its ham-fisted attempt to close the Irish border.

So I dont intend to rehearse all the gory details.

What has shocked me, though, is that instead of apologising, the Brussels elite have doubled down on their mistakes and evasions.

Having found themselves in a hole, they have been digging more furiously than ever.

In the past couple of days the examples have piled up  and by a remarkable coincidence, many tried to paint Britain as the villain of the piece.

Lets start at the top. Facing furious criticism for her mishandling of the pandemic, the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, insisted yesterday that she had done nothing wrong.

'The French president (pictured) and his allies are deliberately lying about the vaccine, to protect their poll ratings'

The EU was not too slow, she said. Instead Britain had been too fast, having ignored the necessary safety and efficacy requirements before authorising the vaccines.

Is there any truth in this? In a word: no. Not a single credible scientist supports this allegation.

Britain did not cut corners. Nor did other countries racing ahead with their vaccination drives, such as Israel. And as we know, on the available evidence, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is as safe as can be.

To put it bluntly, then, Mrs von der Leyen was either lying or had been falsely briefed.

'Among the high-minded tribe of ultra-Remainers, the EU is wonderful, and Boris is wicked, and thats all there is to it'

Despite her pompous presidential title, Mrs von der Leyen is not a serious politician.

Most German commentators see her as a serial failure, whose time as their defence minister was blighted by her risible inability to arrange proper aircraft procurement.

She was parachuted into the Commission presidency as Angela Merkels creature, a pliant puppet who would do her mistresss bidding. But if Mrs Merkel had known what was coming, she would surely have made a better choice.

Indeed, its telling that the German Chancellor has now begun to place vaccine orders outside the EU system, including 27 million doses from the U.S. firm Moderna, much to the fury of her EU partners.

There have even been calls for Germany to follow Hungarys lead and order the Russian or Chinese vaccine.

Mrs Merkel is no fool. She knows the EU process has catastrophically failed. Why would she allow her final months to be ruined by an avoidable failure to vaccinate her people?

But while she had the common sense to keep quiet, other European leaders behaved very differently  chief among them Frances Emmanuel Macron, self-appointed scourge of the British.

It was Mr Macron, unforgivably, who claimed last week that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was quasi-ineffective for people over 65. But he offered no proof  not surprising, because there isnt any.

'Mrs Merkel (middle) is no fool. She knows the EU process has catastrophically failed'

His motives were obvious. Plummeting in the polls, embarrassed by the total failure of his own Sanofi vaccine, humiliated by the wretched inadequacy of his vaccination policy, this bargain-basement Bonaparte was desperate to discredit the success of the Anglo-Saxon vaccine.

Again, it is worth stressing that Mr Macron was not telling the truth. The vaccine does work for over-65s, whatever this Parisian Pinocchio thinks.

And yet on Monday, his ally, Frances Europe minister Clement Beaune, doubled down on his baseless allegations. The British, he said witheringly, are taking many risks with the vaccine campaign, to make up for our own extremely difficult health situation.

What risks? Can Mr Beaune name a single scientist who agrees with him? Of course not.

Just pause for a moment to consider how despicable all this is. With deaths mounting every day, the French president and his allies are deliberately lying about the vaccine, to protect their poll ratings.

Shock

As former Portuguese politician Bruno Macaes remarked yesterday, who would have believed that European officials and politicians would become the main global source of pandemic disinformation?

Yet all that matters, it seems, is to defend their own record, and cast doubt on Britains success. The EU must be seen to do no wrong; Britain must be seen to do no right.

The most shocking example came from another EU apparatchik, Martin Selmayr, former EU Commission president Jean-Claude Junckers chief bag-carrier.

According to Mr Selmayr, it is unfair to criticise the EU for its vaccination failure. After all, he said contemptuously, in Africa only 20,000 people have been vaccinated.

Its hard to know where to start. Is Africa  the poorest continent on Earth  really the EUs yardstick, rather than Britain or the U.S.?

The tragedy of all this, of course, is that it comes as a punishing human price. No country has handled the pandemic perfectly.

But as Mr Macaes wrote, the EUs incompetence, and the mendacity of Mr Macron and his cronies, will exact a very high cost in lives, prestige and further economic losses.

And there is, I think, an even deeper issue here. The EUs vaccination shambles has laid bare all the institutions greatest weaknesses.

The Commission is too slow and sclerotic. Its senior figures tend to be complacent mediocrities, incapable of decisive or imaginative thinking.

Tirade

The entire apparatus rests on the fiction of high-minded, dewy-eyed Continental solidarity. Yet in a crisis, most people look to their own national government, not to Brussels.

Most could not care less about their partners hundreds or thousands of miles away.

But in some quarters, almost incredibly, the EU can still do no wrong. With comically bad timing, one Guardian columnist chose yesterday as the perfect day to publish yet another tirade about the folly of Brexit.

Among the high-minded tribe of ultra-Remainers  or Rejoiners as they now call themselves  nothing will ever shake the true faith. The EU is wonderful, and Boris is wicked, and thats all there is to it.

As a former Remain voter  albeit an increasingly shamefaced one  even I can see something is desperately rotten at the heart of Brussels.

And if I were still a citizen of the EU, I would be simmering with rage at the incompetence and mendacity of my leaders.

After all, ask yourself this. Where would you rather wake up tomorrow? Brexit Britain, where more than ten million vaccine doses have been administered, with supplies pouring in and millions more waiting to join them?

Or in the EUs chief cheerleader, France, where the total stands at barely 1.5 million, supplies are short and barely half of the population have any intention of having the jab anyway?

I know my answer. I bet I know yours, too.
Sofia Vergara's ex-fiance Nick Loeb has lost yet another legal battle in his fight to obtain legal custody over their frozen embryos after a Louisiana appeals court ruled in favor of the Modern Family star.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in Louisiana last week upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit Loeb had filed in an attempt to claim custody of two embryos they froze seven years ago.

In the ruling dated January 27, the appeals court ruled that Loeb's lawsuit, which it declared as 'abhorrent', should be thrown out because it made a 'mockery' of Louisiana's legal system.

The appeals court also ruled that all documents related to the case should be unsealed.

Long battle: Sofia Vergara's ex-fiance, Nick Loeb, lost another legal battle over custody rights to pre-embryos; seen in 2013

The legal saga dates back to 2015 when Loeb, 45, first filed a lawsuit against Vergara, 48, in a bid to bring to term two female embryos that they had created and planned to use with a surrogate.

The pair had signed a contract at the ART Reproductive Center in Beverly Hills when they created the embryos in 2013 that stated neither could use them without each other's consent.

Legal proceedings initially began in California but were later dismissed.

Loeb later moved the case to Louisiana because officials there consider embryos to be human beings. In California, which is where the embryos were frozen, they are referred to as products.

As part of the Louisiana lawsuit, Vergara was sued by her two frozen embryos. In the unusual lawsuit, the embryos were given the names Emma and Isabella and listed as plaintiffs.

'Emma and Isabella seek that they be entrusted to their natural father Loeb, who is willing and desirous that they be born,' the lawsuit said.

In the past: Nick and Sofia called off their engagement in 2014 after dating for four years; seen in 2010

In throwing out the case last week, the appeals court ruled that Loeb did not in fact live in Louisiana and accused him and his legal team of making a 'mockery' of the state's legal system.

The court found that Loeb 'is not domiciled in, does not maintain a residence in, and does not have the intent to be domiciled or a resident of any parish in the State of Louisiana.'

The ruling also accused Loeb's legal team of 'blatantly engaging in forum shopping' to find a court they hoped would be sympathetic to their case.

'Their behavior brings disrepute to and makes a mockery of the Louisiana legal system and the bar and is abhorrent,' the ruling stated.

The couple called off their engagement in 2014 after dating for four years.

Vergara, who has an adult son, Manolo, from a previous relationship, has been married to Joe Manganiello since in November 2015.

Loeb's legal team say they are now planning to appeal to Louisiana's Supreme Court.
MBABANE  The prince should apologise to the nation.

This is the opinion of outspoken Hosea Member of Parliament Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza following utterances made by Prince Majaha, who said he would never forgive the late political activist Jan Sithole.

Mabuza has, on countless occasions, been seen supporting some of the princes charity initiatives.

The last time he did this was in August last year, when he donated 1 000 bags of rice to the Prince Majaha Foundation.

Prince Majaha was interviewed by our sister publication, the Times SUNDAY following a leaked video clip where he is seen sitting on a couch with the late Minister of Labour and Social Security, Makhosi Vilakati, discussing the death of Sithole.

Laughter

In the clip, the two (prince and Vilakati) burst into laughter before saying the deceased Sithole must rest in peace.

In the interview with our sister publication, the prince made it known that he did not like anyone who was giving his dad a hard time.

This publication sought Mabuzas personal opinion on the utterances based on the fact that he was supportive of the princes charity initiatives, which made many conclude that they were friends.

He confirmed that indeed he supported the princes charity cause.

MP Mabuza confided that he got to know the prince through the deceased minister (Vilakati).

He said he (MP) and Makhosi were good friends and that he continued to respect him and his role as a minister.

Also, he mentioned that he was not a member of any political party, but his motto was to respect the views and beliefs of others even if he did not personally subscribe to them.

As emaSwati, we have been raised to respect each other. And we expect the respect to come from bottom to the top and vice versa, the MP said.

Secondly, he mentioned that emaSwati were also known to be people who respected the dead and showed support to families who lost their loved ones.

Death is a time when emaSwati show compassion to each other. They are not expected to mock those who have died to their families. So, following the utterances, I can say as much as I do not know how the prince and the late Jan crossed paths, I cannot support such comments. Culturally, families join each other in mourning. They show compassion and support, he said.

Mabuza, who is also a businessman, said even if people had differences, it was important to respect each others views. He said he was not oblivious to the fact that the prince must have been exercising his own right, but that he needed to be cautious, especially where death was involved.

So, as much as the prince can exercise his own right to freedom of expression, but the same Jan Sithole exercised his right as a human being on how he wanted to be ruled. So I do not think if I am voicing out my opinion and beliefs, I do not think that should create enmity, he said. Mabuza said he was of the view that if the countrys leadership would allow such actions, then the country would lose all respect, especially that of being known as a peaceful nation.

Makungayekelwa ngabe kuyasiphunyukela, he said in vernacular.

Choices

He mentioned that there was nothing wrong with any liSwati expressing their choices on how they wanted to be led.

So I can say that the prince should come out publicly and withdraw his words. Right now as emaSwati we are shocked that there could be someone saying such words during such painful and difficult times. We are losing loved ones, so no one can laugh or poke fun at that.

I, myself as an MP, I am wondering what will happen to me if I die based on the fact that I have always questioned government in terms of accountability. How many people will come out and tell the whole world that they are happy Im dead? If it has happened to Sithole, I worry about myself, he stated.

Mabuza emphasised that he personally respected the prince, royal family, the leadership, but that he would never respect what he believed was wrong.

So that is why I took a position to say that someone should come out and say sorry to the Eswatini nation, he said.

Meanwhile, Mabuza has had his own fair share of troubles ever since he joined the countrys political scene.

Last year, Mabuza was not only vocal during the debate of the controversial Cannabis Bill, but also had a tiff with Speaker, Petros Mavimbela, who at some point ended up kicking him out of the House of Assembly.

This was after the Speaker informed the House that Mabuza was not only disrespecting his position, but the entire House.

The bone of contention was after he made yet another attempt to move a motion to disqualify seasoned politician and Lobamba Lomdzala MP, Marwick Khumalo.

As if that was not enough, in August last year, residents of Coates Valley in Manzini were treated to a spectacle as Mabuza was arrested by members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS).

His arrest came after the issuance of a warrant for his apprehension for alleged obstruction.
Were more than just a restaurant. Were an economic engine, and we want to plant ourselves in places that will not only be great for patrons but also accessible to the folks well hire. -Mark Bucher

Medium Rare Restaurant Group is about to launch nationwide. The award-winning Washington, D.C.-based hotspot for steak frite lovers is bucking industry trends and actively searching for properties in 26 new North American markets.

Locally famous and universally loved for more than a decade, Medium Rares simple model of weekday dinner plus weekend brunch and dinner has proven to be recession-resistant and economically resilient. Co-owner Mark Bucher says hes looking for available sites in these markets:



Atlanta, GA

Austin, TX

Baltimore, MD

Boston, MA

Chicago, IL

Cincinnati, OH

Columbus, OH

Dallas, TX

Denver, CO

Detroit, MI

Houston, TX

Louisville, KY

Miami, FL

Minneapolis, MN

Nashville, TN

New Orleans, LA

New York City, NY

Orlando, FL

Philadelphia, PA

Phoenix, AZ

Pittsburgh, PA

San Diego, CA

San Francisco, CA

Seattle, WA

St. Louis, MO

Tampa, FL

Specifically, Medium Rare is looking to expand to urban areas within affluent, high-density residential neighborhoods. The 2,700-3,000 square foot locations should all be in existing restaurant spaces (conversions) which require little time and less build-out costs and risks. The properties should all allow for large outdoor seating areas.

Medium Rare Americanizes the French steak frites concept, while using fun French touches throughout the restaurant, such as recorded French lessons (pick-up lines) in the bathroom. Every visit to one of Medium Rares neighborhood locations means a consistently simple, fun, and friendly experience that leaves patrons eager to return again...and again. Each of its three locations averages 2535 employees, with a salaried GM, AGM and Kitchen Manager. Bucher says each Medium Rare restaurant is a proven spark plug that helps ignite complementary local economic activity.

Were more than just a restaurant, says Bucher. Were an economic engine, and we want to plant ourselves in places that will not only be great for patrons but also accessible to the folks well hire.

Bucher invites anyone with information about suitable spaces or sites to reach out to him (contact info below).

About Medium Rare

Medium Rare is an award-winning, iconic, full-service restaurant brand serving the Washington, D.C., metro area since 2011.

Company Contact:

Mark Bucher

Medium Rare

(301) 775-7903

secretsauceME@mediumrarerestaurant.com

Real Estate Contact:

Linsey Aviles

CBRE

(215) 561-8991

linsey.aviles@cbre.com

Media Contact:

Marc Silverstein

(202) 716-9123

marc@onthemarcmedia.com



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Ryan Knowles In just a few short years, Ryan Knowles has catapulted himself into the very top tier of The Bahamas real estate market, selling well over $100 million of real estate in the process.

Haute Residence is pleased to welcome Ryan Knowles to the exclusive Haute Residence Network as its representative in the Bahamas luxury real estate market.

In just a few short years, Ryan Knowles has catapulted himself into the very top tier of The Bahamas real estate market, selling well over $100 million of real estate in the process. With a focus on luxury and new development properties, Ryan has garnered an excellent reputation in the industry and counts successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, and developers as some of his top clients.

Since making history as the youngest Bahamian ever to qualify as a licensed real estate agent, Ryan has added other noteworthy achievements to his resume, including being awarded the prestigious Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist (CLHMS) designation by the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing in recognition of attaining knowledge, experience, and expertise in the fine home and estate market in The Bahamas. And in both 2017 and 2018, he was recognized as a Luxury Specialist by Christies International Real Estate, the largest and most successful real estate network in the world.

After graduating high school in Nassau, Knowles studied International Business at St. Leo University in Florida with a goal of entering the corporate sector. However, upon returning to The Bahamas, a chance meeting with another top-performing Bahamian realtor changed the course of his occupational objectives. While unexpected, this shift in plans allowed Ryan to discover his passion for real estate and to excel in a hyper-competitive Bahamian market. Today, Ryans success and fulfillment continue to demonstrate he made the right choice.

When hes not selling million-dollar houses, receiving industry designations or traveling to real estate conferences, this Paradise Island resident is active in his Bahamian community. As a strong believer in giving back to the community, Ryan played a critical role in establishing the Community Leadership Centre  a not for profit organization dedicated to improving the reading, math, and all-around leadership skills of underprivileged, inner-city children in Nassau.

Visit Ryan Knowles' Haute Residence profile: https://www.hauteresidence.com/member/ryan-knowles-2/

Visit Ryan Knowles' website: http://theryanknowlesteam.com/

ABOUT HAUTE RESIDENCE

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The invitation-only luxury real estate network, which partners with just one agent in every market, unites a distinguished collective of leading real estate agents and brokers and highlights the most extravagant properties in leading markets around the globe for affluent buyers, sellers, and real estate enthusiasts.

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Two men who were shot by deputies and arrested after separate chases about 12 hours apart in West Bexar County were identified Monday.

At about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, authorities received a call that Daniel McCloud was firing guns from his window in the 2600 block of Muddy Peak Drive, according to the Bexar County Sheriffs Office.

McCloud, 38, was then standing outside his home and allegedly pointed two guns at two deputies when they arrived. Both deputies, a 19-year veteran and an 11-year veteran, fired multiple shots at McCloud, hitting him several times.

After he was struck, officials said McCloud tried to flee in his vehicle. He abandoned the vehicle moments later down the street and was taken into custody.

On ExpressNews.com: Fiesta San Antonio postponed until June but signature parades canceled, officials say

Officials said deputies placed tourniquets on McCloud before he was transported to University Hospital. McCloud has since been booked on two counts of aggravated assault against a public servant. His bail totals $150,000.

At 10:21 p.m., deputies with the traffic safety spotted Samuel Eric Castillo, 19, allegedly driving recklessly in the 4600 Block of Southwest Military Drive. He was traveling at 80 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone, Sheriff Javier Salazar said Saturday.

Deputies attempted to stop the sedan, but Castillo kept going. During the ensuing chase, he pointed a realistic pellet gun at the deputies, Salazar said.

The pursuit came to an end in the 6500 block of Westfield, about 5 miles from where it began, officials said Monday.

Castillo exited the vehicle and allegedly aimed the pellet gun at deputies, officials said. One deputy fired several rounds at Castillo striking him in the arm, officials said.

He was arrested and transported to University Hospital for treatment, the sheriffs office said. The deputy who fired the shot has been with the department for one year.

The deputies involved in both shootings were not injured and have been placed on administrative duty, a BCSO spokesman said.

Castillo has since been charged with two counts of aggravated assault against a public servant and evading arrest. His bail totals $225,000.

He was previously arrested on Dec. 20 and charged with retaliation as well as aggravated assault causing bodily injury-married, court records state. He had been out on bonds totaling $7,000.

On ExpressNews.com: Coronavirus transmission declines in San Antonio with improvements to positivity, case rates

Saturdays incidents are the third and fourth officer-involved shootings in less than a week.

The first occurred Tuesday when Felix Santos, 48, led authorities on a pursuit that started in Atascosa County and ended in front of a San Antonio elementary school. Santos was then hit multiple times during a shootout with Bexar County deputies and died at a local hospital Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, Erick Mejia, 26, was pulled over while driving a tractor-trailer rig near Interstate 35 and South Zarzamora Street and ran from the truck into South Park Mall. When he exited the mall, he was shot and killed by San Antonio police after raising a gun near officers.

None of the officers or deputies involved in these shootings have been identified.
As prepared for delivery.

1. Madame President, members of the Executive Board, colleagues, and friends. It is my great pleasure to join you today for this first regular session of the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board for 2021.

2. Allow me to begin by congratulating Her Excellency Ms. Lachezara Stoeva, the Permanent Representative of Bulgaria, on her election as the President of the Board, and welcoming our new Bureau members for 2021.

3. I would like to express my gratitude to the outgoing Bureau members. In particular, I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to the outgoing President, His Excellency Mr. Walton Webson, Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda, for his unwavering leadership and guidance.

4. As we begin this new year, new faces join the UNDP familys leadership team: Ms. Khalida Bouzar as the new Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDPs Regional Bureau for Arab States, who will join mid-February; and Ms. Preeti Sinha as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Capital Development Fund.

5. And some familiar faces take up new leadership roles: Mr. Toily Kurbanov is the new Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers, and Mr. Abdoulaye Mar Dieye takes up the role of Special Coordinator for Development in the Sahel. I know you all join me in extending a warm welcome and congratulations to our colleagues on their important appointments.

A development emergency

6. Madame President, Excellencies, we begin this new year in the middle of a development emergency. As the 30th Anniversary edition of our Human Development Report The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene sets out, the COVID-19 pandemic is the latest crisis facing the world, but unless humans release their grip on nature, it wont be the last.

7. For the first time in 30 years, global human development is set to drop. Governments and development partners everywhere are struggling to stop the spread of COVID-19; respond to the unprecedented socio-economic crisis it has created; and stand up to new and age-old assaults on human rights and gender equality, on social cohesion and the rule of law.

8. Innovative new UNDP research with the University of Denver is sobering. By 2030, one billion people could be living in extreme poverty, a quarter of them as a result of the pandemic, unless we act now. Right now, half of the world is struggling to make ends meet without social protection like unemployment benefits or healthcare  a consequence of care-free and inequitable economies.

9. And the climate crisis is getting worse, with 2020 effectively tying as the hottest year on record, making the last seven years the warmest since the beginning of modern record-keeping. Despite a temporary dip in carbon emissions in 2020 as the world hit pause, there is a real danger of building back worse, with the vast majority of initial stimulus funds invested in fossil fuel- and capital-intensive projects.

10. Even this week, we are reminded that both the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths have not peaked around the world; our timelines are suspended between the promise of new vaccines and the certainty of more human suffering.

The perfect storm

11. Excellencies, Madame President, with the impacts of COVID-19, inequality, and the climate crisis, we begin 2021 in the eye of a perfect storm. As vaccine roll-out begins and debt crises loom, we must be united in the conviction that developing countries simply cannot afford a lost decade  no-one can.

12. In theory, pandemics are levellers  anyone can catch a virus. In practice, poverty, inequality, and marginalization have resulted in highly differentiated impacts. According to a UNCDF pulse survey, 88 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have substantially reduced their operations. In Ethiopia, for example, women represent 80 per cent of the workforce in two of the hardest hit sectors -- tourism and hospitality -- and they bear the brunt of job losses. And COVID-19 has led to the shadow pandemic of rising gender-based violence, which spiked by 30 per cent in some countries.

13. With international travel severely restricted and global supply chains disrupted, countries slipped from middle-income to no-income economies overnight. A number of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) expect the most severe GDP contractions in their islands histories  the economy of Fiji is expected to shrink by one fifth, for example  reinforcing the necessity of going beyond income in measuring vulnerability.

14. As eyes turned to the pandemic, some protracted conflicts grew worse and new conflicts emerged. Three million more Yemeni people will face starvation in the first half of 2021 than last year -- with over half the population projected to be on the edge of famine. Such countries have very little capacity to absorb more shock. Globally, more people were displaced in 2020 from conflict and crisis than at any time in recorded history.

15. This differentiated impact speaks to the importance of being able to work across diverse development contexts in an integrated way where no-one is left behind -- as UNDPs Strategic Plan sets out and as Member States have called for -- because the only way through this storm is together. That is one of the most important lessons of 2020, and that is why I am grateful to speak with you today.

16. My remarks will focus on three things: first, I will preview the development results that UNDP achieved and contributed to in 2020, when #NextGenUNDP investments were tested and demonstrated their worth. Second, I will preview the institutional and financial results achieved and milestones reached in 2020. A full annual report for 2020 will be forthcoming in the months ahead. Third, I will set out some key priorities for 2021, as we close out this Strategic Plan period and ramp up preparations for the next, guided by the common agenda of the UN Secretary-General and the Sustainable Development Goals.

I. Preview of 2020 development results

UNDP at the heart of the UNs COVID-19 response

17. The COVID-19 pandemic tested the UN systems ability to deliver better, quicker, and more effective support to programme countries. Appointed by the UN Secretary-General as the UN Systems technical lead on the COVID-19 socio-economic response, UNDP co-led the drafting process of the common UN framework for an immediate socio-economic response, leveraging our SDG integrator role, which was rolled out to support UN Country Teams. The implementation of the Framework is overseen by an Inter-Agency Task Team co-chaired by UNDP and Development Coordination Office (DCO), with the participation of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

18. Under the convening role of the UN Resident Coordinators, in addition to supporting the UNs COVID-19 health response led by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNDP effectively steered the implementation of the Framework at country level, in close collaboration with other UN entities, working with governments, International Finance Institutions (IFIs), bilateral donors, the private sector, and civil society.

19. To date, 144 socio-economic impact assessments have been completed across 97 countries and five regions. These have guided governments in navigating public policy amidst unprecedented complexity. Since July 2020, the UN has tripled the number of Socio-Economic Response Plans (SERPs)  currently at 119  as a result of dedicated efforts of UN Country Teams, steered by Resident Coordinators, with the technical lead and support of UNDP.

20. The SERPs enabled an emergency development response to COVID-19 to supplement existing UNDAFs or Cooperation Frameworks. Over one-third of the response plans included measures focusing on social cohesion, informed by UNDPs 2020 think piece on the same. Nearly half were developed with engagement and insight from the World Bank, and a third from the IMF, a clear example of our intensified partnerships with International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in 2020.

21. To support evidence-based insights, we also launched the Data Futures Platform. Drawing on data sources from across the UN system and partners, the platform builds on UNDPs long-standing commitment to leverage technology and innovation in responding to development challenges. At its core is UNDPs commitment to accurate, multi-dimensional and inclusive data, with transparent sources and methodologies.

22. With UN Women, UNDP created a Gender Response Tracker, which monitors the policies that governments are using to tackle the crisisdirectly addressing womens economic and social needs, as well as their physical security. The Inclusive Digital Economy Scorecard developed by UNCDF with support from UNDP and others is designed to help governments set and track an inclusive digital transformation.

23. Excellencies, our work together to help countries tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts is an example of UN Reform in action. We are learning and improving together as we go. I would like to draw your attention to the background paper that has been shared with you -- it details our progress with respect to UN Development System reform.

24. UNDP welcomes the 2020 Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR) and will prioritize its full implementation in line with the ambition expressed by Member States. Through its strong focus on thematic and cross-cutting issues affecting the 2030 Agenda  such as gender, youth, digital, and climate, as well as the need for integrated policy solutions  the new QCPR helps shift our collective focus from process to delivering tangible results and generating impact, which is what the world needs from the United Nations more than ever right now.

25 Furthermore, the QCPR requires us to reflect UNDPs unique contribution and added value to implementation of the 2030 Agenda in our new Strategic Plan 2022-2025. The current conceptualization phase of the plan provides an opportunity to fully reflect its relevance for our work and build it into the design of the plan.

26. UNDPs development financing expertise helped UN Country Teams (UNCTs) to cost out response plans  with the total cost estimated at $27.8 billion. To date, $2 billion has been mobilized by the UN, and $3 billion repurposed by the UN agencies in consultation with host governments and development partners. During 2020, UNDP re-programmed and mobilized over $982 million in support of the COVID-19 response.

27. These are exceptional numbers, mobilized in a short amount of time, but the amount is not nearly enough to help countries build forward better from COVID-19 and deliver on the SDGs. UNDP is committed to supporting a fundamental step up in financing, including through the Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFFs) - a collaborative initiative by UNDP, UNDESA, the European Union (EU) now in place for 62 countries. Preliminary reporting suggests that over 40 are linked with COVID-19 recovery.

28. We are calling on all Member States to urgently step up their investment to tackle this development emergency. That includes delivering on the Funding Compact, particularly to increase core and multi-year funding, which give UNDP the agility to respond quickly to emerging needs. This pandemic has proven that no-one is safe until everyone is safe. I reiterate, Excellencies, Madam President, that the only way through this is together. Indeed, when the pandemic hit, access to finance on the ground was an immediate priority. UNDP developed a two-step response, to address first urgent and then medium-to long term needs.

Prepare, Respond, Recover

29. First, as part of our urgent Prepare, Respond and Recover COVID-19 offer, a Rapid Response Facility (RRF) was established to quickly deploy critical finances to 130 countries in the space of just four weeks. This amounted to $30 million -- half to fragile contexts -- and it catalyzed ten times that amount: an additional $304 million.

30. Alongside our focus on the pandemics socio-economic impacts, crisis management and strengthening health systems were priorities. We leveraged our existing health portfolio and Global Fund partnership, which disbursed $3.5 billion across 150 countries to fight HIV, TB and malaria and strengthen systems for health in 2019 and has saved 38 million lives since 2002 to take agile actions in the health response to COVID-19 under the leadership of WHO.

31. In Angola, for example, UNDP played a critical role in three main areas  epidemiological surveillance, logistics, community engagement. In Guinea Bissau, we immediately expanded the partnership between the government, the World Bank and UNDP to procure critical COVID-19 supplies, including PPE and disease surveillance tools.

32. In India, UNDP, together with WHO, UNICEF and others is supporting the Governments rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. UNDP helped to develop the eVIN vaccine supply chain and temperature monitoring system for 28,500 vaccine storage centres across all states and trained 50,000 health care staff in its use.

33. In Pakistan, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, UNDP led the development of a telemedicine platform to facilitate doctor-to-doctor communication. 4,500 medical professionals and junior doctors in 60 underequipped or understaffed intensive care units are now linked with critical care specialists and receiving on-the-spot guidance on patient care.

34. Thanks to support from Japan, UNDP launched Libyas largest-ever telemedicine initiative. During the pilot phase, three hundred doctors are now connected with 7,000 patients offering virtual consultations and e-prescriptions  critical services during COVID-19.

35. Second, leveraging SDG integration, UNDP focused on linking immediate response efforts to medium- and longer-term sustainable development needs. Our COVID-19 2.0 offer: Beyond Recovery, Towards 2030 focused helping decision-makers to set priorities, make choices, and manage complexity in four integrated areas -- governance, social protection, the green economy, and digital disruption, with a focus on gender equality and human rights throughout, while crisis management and health system support continued where needed.

36. To accompany UNDPs four-part offer, we launched a Rapid Financing Facility (RFF) mid-2020 by reprogramming and mobilizing an initial $100 million. Within just 16 weeks, 129 proposals from across the world worth $105 million had been conceptualized, assessed, and approved across the four areas of the offer.

37. In many countries, RFF funds are being used to grow programmes with the potential to go to scale. UNDPs support to the Supreme Court in Bangladesh to establish virtual courts to process bail applications is one such example. It included training over 1,000 Judges, lawyers, courts officials, contributing to a 12 per cent reduction in the prison population in the space of three months.

38. In Togo, the RFF project will expand the existing social protection system run by the National Institute of Health Insurance, particularly to cover the informal sector and the extremely poor. The project will implement a social insurance scheme using mobile technology and other digital technologies.

39. Here, let me once again express my deep appreciation to the many Member States that provided UNDP with flexible and predictable core resources. Core resources were critical to UNDPs COVID-19 response in 2020. Of the over $982 million re-programmed and mobilized in support of UNDPs COVID-19 response in 2020, $103 million was in the form of core resources.

40. Noting that our teams are still reporting on results, and that a full analysis will follow, let me briefly illustrate what those resources -- along with UNDPs broader portfolio as set out through our Strategic Plan -- contributed to in 2020 in the four areas of our COVID-19 2.0 offer.

Governance

41. On governance, on which UNDP invests the major share of programme resources, UNDP responded rapidly to the need for national and local e-governance systems to ensure the continuity of essential public services in Ethiopia, Sudan, and other countries around the world. Always in tandem with the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), we helped national partners to organize elections during the pandemic -- from Bolivia to Vanuatu -- enabling people to exercise their right to vote in the most challenging of circumstances.

42. We worked with national human rights institutions, including in partnership with OHCHR, to support their business continuity during COVID-19 to monitor and address human rights violations, including in Nepal, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, and with countries like Albania, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey to meet the growing demand for free legal aid; with indigenous communities in Peru to broadcast COVID-19 safety messages in their own languages, and with Iraq, launching a Lets Beat Corona campaign in ten cities.

43. UNDPs Oslo Governance Centre, funded by Norway, is strengthening eight countries response to information pollution in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, while UNDP, WHO, UNAIDS and the ONeill Institute for Health Law at Georgetown University launched the COVID-19 Law Lab to help countries implement evidence- and rights-based legal frameworks for COVID-19 responses, building on lessons of HIV. Together with DPPA, UNDP deployed close to 60 Peace and Development Advisors to support UNCTs engagement in cross-pillar analysis and programming for prevention and peacebuilding.

Green economy

44. Fiscal and financial responses to COVID-19 are an opportunity to accelerate a green recovery with green jobs; to take decisions that will tackle the climate crisis, reverse biodiversity loss, reduce pollution and improve production and consumption patterns  restoring balance between people and planet as we build forward better.

45. Towards this end, UNDP continued to grow our Climate Promise in 2020 throughout the pandemic. We are now supporting 115 countries to enhance their pledges under the Paris Agreement. Delivered in collaboration with over 35 partners, this is the worlds largest offer of support for the enhancement of climate action to advance an inclusive, green recovery. It leverages UNDPs $1.9 billion climate portfolio across 150 countries.

46. This scaled investment is fundamental to keep countries focused on a green recovery as the UN Secretary-General has called for. Otherwise, the socio-economic impacts being felt today will pale in comparison with what may come because of the climate crisis.

47. UNDPs engagement work to advance a green economy responds to requests of our partners and is grounded in our long-standing expertise and global network. In addition to the Climate Promise, we helped countries across the world to create jobs and sustainable livelihoods for those hit by pandemic shutdowns.

48. This included cash for conservation initiatives in Cambodia covering over 1,600 rural households; a partnership with Belarus and the EU to help newly unemployed people find new careers in eco-farming; urban greening initiatives in Paraguay and in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and integrated efforts to help Ugandas 1.4 million refugees and their host communities to create sustainable livelihoods through the management of environmental resources.

Social protection

49. On social protection, UNDPs Temporary Basic Income research published in July 2020 estimated what it would cost to establish a minimum guaranteed income above the poverty line, for vulnerable people in 132 developing countries  a step that could slow the current surge in COVID-19 cases by enabling nearly three billion people to stay at home. It is an example of the ambitious policy options that UNDP is putting on the table to help countries both respond to and build forward better from COVID-19 -- a measure we continue to advocate for where appropriate.

50. This was the first in a flagship new UNDP policy paper series called the Development Futures Series. More such insights and ideas will follow in 2021, capitalizing on the wealth of ideas and thought leadership that UNDP colleagues and our partners bring from the country perspective and reality every day to stimulate much-needed conversation on the future of development.

51. On the ground, we worked with 88 countries from Honduras to Nigeria to top-up or expand existing social assistance or cash transfer programmes to reach vulnerable populations quickly, with a clear focus on informal workers, self-employed workers, domestic and unpaid care work, people with disabilities as well as migrant and internally displaced populations. We went beyond income to understand who to target and made digital the default to scale quickly.

52. In Kenya, UNDPs Accelerator Lab supported the use of mobile money as an alternative to cash payments and is working with the International Labour Organization and the National Hospital Insurance Fund to explore ways to expand medical coverage to informal sector workers. In Paraguay, the UNDP Accelerator Lab works to monitor the informal sector, improve the design of public policies, and accelerate the formalization of employment.

53. Their work is one of many examples of how #NextGenUNDPs Accelerator Lab Network came to the fore in UNDPs pandemic response generating a range of innovative, frugal and scalable solutions, helping to change the way we do development by learning fast and tapping into new data sources such as geospatial, social media and citizen data. That included everything from helping to roll-out robots in COVID-19 treatment centres in Rwanda to supporting a 3D Community in Tanzania to design, produce and distribute personal protective equipment to health workers.

54. The work of these labs is critical. Key actors, including development banks, investors and the private sector can sow the seeds of green growth by making long-term investments in local innovation. Thanks to support from key partners like Germany and Qatar, I am pleased to share that we added 32 new labs to the Accelerator Lab Network in 2020. It now covers 116 countries, including 79 per cent of Least Developed and Low-Income Countries and 66 per cent of Small Island Developing States.

Digital disruption

55. From the work of our Labs teams with Nepal to help local government to report quarantine data to our work with Palestine, connecting small-scale women farmers to customers through web platforms -- the focus of UNDPs Accelerator Lab Network epitomized just how central digital interventions were to UNDP results in 2020, and are to the future of development.

56. Indeed, our digital support to governments across the world in 2020 helped them to keep their lights on  so that they could continue to offer support to citizens as COVID-19 spread rapidly. Today, digital by default is becoming part of the UNDP familys DNA, driven by government demand.

57. By the end of 2020 -- over half a million Zoom and Teams calls later -- UNDP had obtained 9,200 zoom licenses for partners at 40 per cent of what it would have otherwise cost and supported approximately 290 entities  including the offices of Heads of State, Parliaments, and Ministries  in their digital transitions.

58. As a result, and with our support, the National Congress of Honduras held its first-ever virtual session; Madagascars COVID-19 Operational Command Centre connected with its regional hubs; Kazakhstan trained over 1,000 civil servants on effective teleworking, including nearly 400 civil servants with disabilities; and Bangladesh provided critical telemedicine services to over 350,000 people.

59. In Uganda, UNCDF supported the main ride-hailing company to switch to an e-commerce model, ensuring the delivery of essential goods during the lockdown to 50,000 customers per day and helping 18,000 drivers and 800 vendors to stay in business. And we joined forces with Jumia Foods, the countrys largest e-commerce company, to create an online platform specifically designed to connect some of the most vulnerable members of the workforce with potential customers. We harnessed the power of digital to reduce corruption, as in Ukraine where we supported a new e-platform which increased transparency in procurement.

60. While reporting is still coming in from UNDP Country Offices, at least 70 countries sought and received UNDPs digital support in 2020. Increasingly, these requests are for wide-ranging, strategic support for digital transformation. With UNDP support, for example, Dominica is preparing to build a national Digital Strategy. Digital disruption has become a permanent feature of development. Establishing the policies, norms and standards that guide and accompany an inclusive digital transformation will be a central development challenge in the immediate years ahead.

Gender

61. Excellencies, Madam President, the long struggle against one, pervasive inequality is at the heart of UNDPs pandemic response, as it must be at the heart of all development action. That is gender inequality, which risks leaving half of the world behind, more so today than ever before. The UN Secretary-General said that the global pandemic has already reversed decades of limited and fragile progress on gender equality and womens rights.

62. Addressing gender inequality takes commitment and tenacity. That is why I was delighted to be joined by Madame President, Ambassador Stoeva, on 19 January to celebrate the extraordinary work of country teams and partners over the past years at UNDPs Gender Equality Seal Awards.

63. The Gender Equality Seal is where the high bar that we set on gender equality  in our development results, through our partnerships, and for our institution -- finds expression in practical terms. For the 2018-2020 round of the Gender Equality Seal, seven Country Offices were awarded with the Bronze Seal, 17 with the Silver Seal, and seven with the Gold Seal. Over 60 per cent of UNDP Country Offices have now completed the Gender Seal since the programmes launch, representing a significant advance for our organization.

64. Excellencies, colleagues, so often, the world does not see the many faces of the people of UNDP in all the countries we serve: colleagues in Yemen who put women at the centre of efforts to create jobs even in the worst humanitarian situation in the world; in Paraguay who, alongside trade unions, womens rights groups, ILO and UN Women, helped to establish minimum wage laws for domestic workers; in Kyrgyzstan, who were instrumental in changing the law to ban marriage for those under 18 years of age;

65. Colleagues in Chile, Guinea, and the Central African Republic, for their role in establishing minimum thresholds and parity laws for women in elections and political processes; or colleagues who promote womens roles in non-traditional sectors, like in water management in Costa Rica and as forest rangers fighting climate change in Indonesia.

66. Looking ahead, we will launch a Gender Seal Accelerated Gold Track in the RBEC region and a special Gender Seal track for countries in crisis settings, which will inspire new ideas across all regions to take us to the next level, and. And we wont stop at UNDP: we are already transforming the Seal into a tool for the public and private sector.

67. Organizations including WFP, IUCN and OHCHR are partnering with us to develop their own gender incentive programmes. We are working with over 600 diverse companies around the world on our Gender Equality Seal for the private sector and multinational companies, and in 2021, we will officially launch the Gender Equality Seal for Public institutions.

68. In the meantime, I hope you will join me in taking a moment to recognize these Country Offices and our partners who fight for a gender-equal world and are determined to bring a feminist lens to our common efforts to build forward better from COVID-19.

II. Preview of institutional and financial results

People for 2030 and a digital shift

69. Excellencies, as you know, for the past two years we have been working hard to improve UNDPs ability to attract, retain and develop top talent to help countries build forward better from COVID-19 and deliver on the SDGs.

70. The implementation of UNDPs People for 2030 strategy continues at pace, with 84 per cent of the strategys policy recommendations now implemented -- including the introduction of an improved performance management system, a new mobility policy, and a new Career Management Framework -- and the balance set to be implemented by June 2021 and on time. At the heart of this strategy lies our commitment to a working environment that is safe and inclusive and where there are opportunities to grow and develop. This includes tackling all forms of discrimination and harassment, including all forms of sexual misconduct.

71. But perhaps the biggest change in the way we worked in 2020 was the pace at which UNDP went digital, a transformation made possible by the UNDP Digital Strategy and enabled by the recently adopted IT Strategy. They enabled UNDP to keep its doors open, so that we could help others to do the same.

72. Zoom and Teams were made available. The electronic signature solution DocuSign was rolled out, increasing organizational efficiency, and saving the equivalent of five million sheets of paper, reducing our CO2 emissions by 154 metric tonnes. Over 600 colleagues enrolled in UNDPs Digital Transformation Learning Programmes while 6,000 colleagues availed of online capacity building on how to work successfully in a virtual environment.

73. Of the 9,458 UN Volunteers who served with 60 UN partners in 158 countries and territories, 2,300 Volunteers -- 90 per cent of them from the Global South -- carried out their assignments remotely. These volunteers served across the frontlines of the pandemic  from medical professionals who offered their vital skills to healthcare centres in countries such as Kenya and South Sudan  to advancing opportunities for persons with disabilities in Kazakhstan.

Sound finances, strong programme delivery

74. Three-and-a-half years ago when I became the Administrator of UNDP, I made a commitment to you, to the UN Secretary-General and to the Deputy Secretary-General, and to my UNDP colleagues and partners that together we would take an organization that was built for a different generation and make it effective for this one, and ready for the next.

75. That has required pushing the boundaries in how we think, deliver, invest, and manage as UNDP. The result is #NextGenUNDP. In 2020, #NextGenUNDP faced the ultimate stress test, and the institution and our teams proved ready. While the 2020 financial books have not yet closed, let me start by considering a few key financial and institutional results and milestones.

76. I made it a priority when I joined UNDP not to have a budget deficit. In 2020, UNDP achieved a balanced budget for the fourth year in a row  solid financial foundations from which to deliver more development results.

77. And that is what we have done. Remarkably, despite the constraints of the pandemic, UNDPs 2020 programme delivery is expected to come in at $4.5 billion, which would be UNDPs second-highest delivery rate in six years. Nearly 60 per cent of UNDPs budget - $3.2 billion in 2020  and nine of our top ten programme countries are fragile contexts. In the Africa region, UNDPs programme delivery was the highest ever in 2020 at $1.2 billion, with books yet to close.

78. UNDPs intensive efforts to strengthen institutional performance, enhance efficiencies in delivery and reduce in institutional costs represent an estimated $350 million in additional resources for development in 2018-2020 compared to 2014-2017.

79. These figures were made possible notwithstanding global lockdowns and because of strong leadership, rapid adaptive management, innovation, and strong support to and trusted relationships with national partners. Taken together, they are a direct expression of Member States interest, trust, and confidence in UNDP.

80. That our efforts to be more efficient are showing results is reinforced by our management efficiency ratio: as we enter the last calendar year of this Strategic Plan, regardless of the management costs of UN Development System reform and the upheaval wrought by the pandemic, UNDP is on track to meet our four-year management efficiency target of 7.3 per cent -- meaning that over the life of this Plan, programme delivery has risen and related institutional expenditures have been reduced.

81. UNDPs strategy to introduce clustering for state of the art finance, human resources, and procurement business processes is designed to further enhance efficiencies, and implementation is well underway. Already in 2020, UNDPs Global Shared Service Centres in Copenhagen and Kuala Lumpur improved, standardized, and modernized the management of nearly 500 Country Office bank accounts and nearly 64,000 vendors across five regions, processing over 26,000 transactions in a way that improves efficiencies, quality as well as oversight, thereby mitigating risk.

82. In 2020, we achieved our highest volume of core contributions since 2016 with a 13 per cent increase over 2019, while non-core resources increased by 14 per cent. This is tremendous news for programme countries and reflects the growing confidence of our funding partners in UNDPs ability to deliver results.

83. At $1.5 billion, capitalization of the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund portfolios, which are administered by UNDP, reached the highest level since the MPTF Office was established in 2003, representing a 20 per cent increase over 2019.

84. UNDP increased its engagement in; and income from UN inter-agency pooled funds by a remarkable 80 per cent from 2019 - an illustration of how UNDP is realizing its commitment to work closer than ever with UN partners as part of a reformed UN development system.

85. UN collaboration was made easier thanks to the Executive Boards approval of a harmonized cost-recovery policy in 2020, as a result of which it will now be easier for Member States to compare the costs of working with different UN funds and programmes, in particular between UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA.

86. Allow me to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all our funding partners, especially, those who increased these much-needed core contributions  namely Germany, Denmark, Japan, the United States, Finland, Czech Republic, and Israel  in addition to those who have consistently been among our top providers of flexible funding  including the United States, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Denmark, and Netherlands, among others.

87. In 2020, core contributions from multi-year commitments covered 50 per cent of the total core contribution received. I also thank the 11 Member States with multi-year core agreements in place. Some Member States have also been stepping up their support to UNDPs Thematic Funding Windows, with year-on-year increases since their inception in 2016.

88. At the same time, the pace of global economic recovery points to a tough year ahead for funding that we will have to navigate together. I know that the impact of COVID-19 on economies will be a major factor in your decision to finance development through UNDP in 2021 and beyond and I encourage all Member States to avoid taking short-term decisions that would redirect ODA away from sustaining hard-earned development gains.

Accountable, transparent, and learning

89. In 2020, we continued to invest in transparency and accountability. UNDP received an unqualified (clean) audit opinion from the United Nations Board of Auditors (UNBOA) for the year ending 2019 -- its 15th consecutive unqualified (clean) audit opinion.

90. The 2020 Aid Transparency Index, produced by the campaign for aid transparency Publish What You Fund (PWYF), again rated UNDP as the most transparent of UN agencies. In June, UNDP started publishing our COVID-19 response work on the UNDP Transparency Portal, making us one of the first organizations to do so.

91. In December 2020, we had an opportunity to discuss the Office of Audit and Investigation (OAI) audit of UNDPs management of GEF resources and the independent review of the GEF  funded Russia Standard and Labels project. We have taken the findings very seriously. UNDP will not tolerate any conduct that undermines our credibility, trust, and ability to perform our mission in support of programme countries and the wider 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

92. Moreover, I have undertaken a set of comprehensive actions designed to have a significant and immediate impact on the issues identified by these reports  as detailed in my separate letter to you. UNDP will continue to update the Executive Board periodically and systematically on this matter.

93. UNDP welcomes the recommendations of the three key Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) evaluations carried out in 2020, management responses for which are before the Board for this session:

a. The evaluation on UNDPs support to conflict-affected countries will contribute to the development of new programmatic offers on conflict prevention and peacebuilding, as well as a corporate crisis and fragility framework in 2021.

b. The evaluation of UNDPs support to the Syrian refugee crisis response (3RP) -- which IEO cites as a model that showcases how humanitarian and development actors can collaborate to address protracted crises -- will strengthen the organizations work across all refugee response situations.

c. We welcome the positive findings of the evaluation on climate change adaptation of UNDPs extensive and valued contribution to supporting vulnerable countries in building resilience, and we acknowledge the recommendation to accelerate attention to mainstreaming consideration of climate risks across our entire development portfolio.

94. In this respect, for example, I am pleased to note that, effective 1 January 2021, climate assessment and climate-risk screening are now essential parts of UNDPs updated Social and Environmental Standards (SES) and Screening Procedure (SESP).

95. For each evaluation, UNDP will build on the areas identified as strong and respond to the areas in need of strengthening. UNDP continues to analyse the key findings arising from evaluations more broadly, including those of the independent country programme evaluations, to identify learnings and ways to improve.

96. Areas to strengthen, for example, include further upgrading results-based management across programme portfolios to advance transformational change; developing a funding model that supports a shift from short-term projects to longer-term portfolios to enhance the sustainability and scalability of results; and moving beyond womens participation to focus more on tackling the root causes of inequality and discrimination. UNDP will ensure that such findings, along with those of the IEOs broader body of work, inform the development of UNDPs next Strategic Plan (2022-2025).

97. In this respect, I would like to draw attention to a new Reflections series from IEO Director Oscar Garcia and his IEO team. It harvests insights from years of evaluation and observation of UNDPs work in crisis settings and I know it will be invaluable in guiding the design and implementation of programmes with a continuous research and development mindset.

98. Tabled for your consideration during this Board are twelve new country programme documents (CPDs), for Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Cote dIvoire, Georgia, Mexico, North Macedonia, Panama, Tunisia, Somalia, Uruguay, and Uzbekistan.

99. In addition, seven extensions are presented for the Boards approval: Afghanistan, Guatemala, Madagascar, Tajikistan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen and four extensions of country programmes will be presented to the Board for information only: Argentina, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Maldives.

100. Let me reaffirm, Excellencies, that I alongside my counterparts at UNFPA, UNICEF, and UN Women are committed to promoting the primacy, alignment and sequencing of the UNSDCF and CPD processes and to uphold high-quality standards in our CPDs, as set out in our briefing for Board Members on 18 January and a related joint information note shared with the Boards (dated 8 January).

At this tipping point, an integrated SDG push could make all the difference

101. Excellencies, COVID-19 is a tipping point. The decisions taken today could take the world in very different directions, and the SDG regression we see already is profound, but not random. It follows a pattern: restricting rights and freedoms, affecting young workers and women in the labour force, excluding informal workers from social protection, reinforcing polarity and exclusion undermining an inclusive social contract, and reinforcing pre-existing structural discrimination. Such patterns can guide a countrys response.

102. Eye-opening research from UNDPs SDG Integration team creates future scenarios for the impact of COVID-19 on the SDGs. It illustrates that an ambitious but feasible set of SDG investments across governance, social protection, the green recovery, and digitalization  the four integrated areas of UNDPs COVID-19 response offer  could lift an additional 146 million people out of extreme poverty by 2030, the majority in fragile and conflict-affected states.

103. This research reinforces the importance of taking SDG action and the implications of not doing so. It suggests that while this new development landscape is complex, it can be navigated with an ambitious architecture of interconnected policy interventions and political choices.

104. In September, Excellencies, you will be asked to consider the adoption of a new UNDP Strategic Plan for 2022-2025. At a time when COVID-19 has exacerbated almost every development challenge you care to name, I see the Strategic Plan as our opportunity to show how UNDP, as an integral part of the UN system and under the leadership of the UN Secretary-General, will adapt to an uncertain, fast-changing future and support countries in getting back on track towards the SDGs.

105. How will we continue to fight poverty, build resilience, and tackle climate change? How we will focus on the most vulnerable people, those hardest hit by COVID-19 on top of conflict, compound crises, and multiple inequalities? And how we will help countries take advantage of opportunities  in innovation, digitalization, womens empowerment?

106. Our plan will look not just at what we do, but how we do it. How we support our partners in addressing complex 21st Century problemsand the demands of digitally connected citizens. How we capitalize on the investments we are already making in innovation, acceleration, and knowledge management. How we deliver development in a conflict-sensitive manner, informed by deeper understanding of multi-dimensional risks. How our business processes and operations can become nimbler and more efficient. And overall, how we become a more agile organization that is ready to respond to any number of possible futures in the huge variety of the countries we serve.

107. We will take deepened UN partnerships into the new Plan period as a result of our investments in this one: including, for example, with UNICEF on innovation, youth, and entrepreneurship; with ILO on the present and future of work; with IOM and UNHCR on livelihoods and digital solutions for people on the move; with UNEP and FAO on finding a balance between people and planet; and ITU and the Broadband Commission to advance inclusive digital nations.

108. And we will bring greater focus to external partnerships because we are but one part, though a unique part, of an ecosystem of public and private, global and grassroots actors who will build the future of development. The COVID-19 Private Sector Global Facility, for example, is an initiative of UNDP, the UN Global Compact and the International Chamber of Commerces (ICC) to collaborate with major private sector actors such as Microsoft to co-create solutions for micro, medium and small enterprises, which represent about 50 per cent of employment worldwide will be vital to power the global recovery.

109. Right now, as we continue to build out that new Plan with your engagement, UNDP has a clear job to do, and several immediate priorities for 2021.

III. Priority areas for 2021

Delivering on UNDPs current Strategic Plan

110. UNDPs Strategic Plan was designed to be agile, responsive and transformational and it remains deeply relevant right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has cast more light on the urgency of an equitable, green transformation, where countries have the capacities and resilience they need to manage crises and an uncertain future. UNDPs role in this changed context is to help accelerate that transformation. Our primary responsibility and priority for 2021, therefore, is to deliver on the final calendar year of our Strategic Plan, with its six signature solutions, covering three, integrated development contexts across the world. As the mid-term review of the Plan set out last year, progress is on track. UNDP is carefully analyzing further progress made and challenges faced in 2020.

111. Consolidating the gains of UN development system reforms and advancing on the implementation of its remaining strands will continue as priorities for in 2021 and beyond. UNDP will advance work, including through the UNSDG, to prioritize the mandates of the QCPR, including through the development of the new UNDP Strategic Plan 2022-25, to ensure the ambitions of Member States are realized.

Governance and fragility

112. UNDP spends more than 50 per cent of our total budget in fragile and crisis contexts, and nine out of our 10 largest country programmes are in these places, where we promote collaborative approaches between humanitarian, development, and peace actors.

113. Our role in this space is critical because fragile contexts are home to over 75 per cent of the worlds extremely poor people; only 18 per cent of fragile and conflict-affected states were on track to meet SDG targets on unmet basic needs before COVID-19, with indicators now sliding backwards. And as the pandemic demonstrated, normal development settings can no longer be assumed to be certain or predictable.

114. In 2021, UNDP will draw on what we learn from evaluation, experience, and partnerships to craft a new approach to development for peace: on increasingly risk-informed policy and programming, investing early to prevent conflict, crisis, and violent extremism, on sustaining peace and addressing fragility. And drawing on ongoing dialogues and consultations, we will develop a forward-looking, renewed offer on governance, supporting the transformation of governance systems across all development settings.

115. We will build on our stabilization experience in countries like Iraq, where the Funding Facility for Stabilization has helped over 8.5 million Iraqis, half of them women, since 2015; in Yemen, where our partnership with the World Bank created over 10.7 million workdays of emergency employment, and helped to stabilize the local economy; and in Sudan.

116. When I visited Khartoum this time last year, just before lock-down, I was privileged to meet with the young women and men who came out onto the streets with everything to lose, whose actions may have changed the course of their country. Today, we are supporting their efforts to transition to civilian democratic rule.

117. We will draw on our partnerships, such as with the UN Peacebuilding Support Office on strengthening core government functions in fragile settings; our work with UN Women, UNFPA, and OHCHR on the UN-EU Spotlight Initiative, a global, multi-year initiative focused on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls.

118. We will leverage our work with partners like DPPA and UNEP on climate-related security risks through the Climate Security Mechanism; with the UNs Department of Peace Operations in co-leading the Global Focal Point for Rule of Law; and UNHCR, IOM and ILO to promote durable solutions for the record number of people who have been forced from their homes, drawing on our experience in countries such as Colombia, Iraq, Libya and Somalia.

119. We will build on our work across borderlands, including as part of the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel to move from delivering aid to ending need, with local leadership, ideas, and investment that breaks cycles of violence and dependence. UNDPs partnership with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, for example, will support 100,000 young African entrepreneurs in the Sahel region. The initiative aims to generate millions of new jobs and contribute at least $10 billion in new annual revenues across Africa.

Poverty and inequality

120. Tackling poverty and inequality will remain at the centre of UNDPs work in 2021. At the macro level, the ultimate stress test of equality within and between countries will be the ability to deliver the largest public health intervention of a lifetime  the COVID-19 vaccines -- to the worlds population this year. The vaccine must be treated as a global public good. There is no place for vaccine nationalism.

121. UNDP is committed to playing its part guided by WHOs leadership and working in partnership with the UNICEF and the broader UN family, as well as GAVI, the Global Fund, the ACT Accelerator, the SDG3 Global Action Plan and others to advance equity and access.

122. At the same time, looming debt threatens to derail any recovery. Six countries have defaulted already in 2020. The poorest countries in the world spent over twice as much of their GDP (as a %) as other countries on external debt service payments in 2020, limiting their options for investing in an emergency development response.

123. Unlike advanced economies, most developing countries will not be able to spend or borrow their way out of this pandemic. Most would like to continue providing income support to SMEs, households and workers until vaccination campaigns are in place, but many have already run out of fiscal space to do so. Last year, UNDP called for a Temporary Basic Income, funded in part by freezing debt service payments in the developing world.

124. In 2021, UNDP is joining with our UN partners to call for a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index that reflects environmental and socio-economic vulnerabilities  for SIDS and all countries; that would enable policymakers, creditors and investors to better understand and address structural constraints, including through concessional finance access, and help safeguard the 2030 Agenda and the S.A.M.O.A. Pathway progress. More will be forthcoming on this shortly.

125. Through our Finance Sector Hub flagship initiative SDG Impact, UNDP developed practice assurances standards for SDG Bonds in 2020 -- illustrative of the kinds of innovative tools and instruments that UNDP will work on with our partners in 2021 in response to growing public and private demand.

126. The UN Secretary-General, together with the Prime Ministers of Canada and Jamaica, have put far-reaching proposals on the table spanning liquidity, debt, and sustainable development finance measures. We must all follow up on these commitments because this is not an accounting issue and it is not about surpluses or deficits. It is fundamentally about advancing human well-being across the globe.

The climate promise and beyond

127. As The Next Frontier: Human Development in the Anthropocene set out, 4,000 generations could live and die before the carbon dioxide released from the industrial revolution to today is scrubbed from our atmosphere, and yet economies continue to subsidize fossil fuels, prolong our carbon habit like a drug running through the economys veins.

128. And the impact will be deeply unequal. By the year 2100, the richest countries in the world could experience up to 18 fewer days per year of extreme temperatures as a result of climate change, while the poorest countries could experience up to 100 days more. That number could still be cut in half if the Paris Agreement is fully implemented.

129. 2021 will also be the year of nature  from the UN Food Systems Summit to the biodiversity and climate Conferences of the Parties. It is a year we must be ready for. UNDP will keep and expand its promise, including by placing greater emphasis on energy.

130. We will continue to advocate against narrow adherence to GDP as a singular measure of a countrys prospect, building on the new and experimental Planetary-adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI) of the 2020 Human Development Report, which adds countries material footprint and carbon emissions to the Human Development Index (HDI).

131. And through partnerships such as that with IRENA, Sustainable Energy for All and the Green Climate Fund on the Climate Investment Platform, we will help to declutter the climate finance space and bridge the gap in funding that countries will need to realize an accelerated energy transition in an efficient and impactful way.

The next frontier for human development starts now

132. Madam President, colleagues, and friends, 2020 was a year like no other. Throughout, UNDP stood by all our partners, with a rapid local response, ambitious thought leadership, integrated SDG policy and programmes, and an increasingly agile and efficient institution that puts a premium on transparency and accountability.

133. We were able to do this because our teams stayed and served and as a result, we helped others to do the same. We mourn our colleagues, partners, friends, and family who lost their lives in 2020 and begin 2021 with the hope that it will mark the end of this terrible pandemic. Though we hope for swift recoveries around the globe, we will help countries to prepare for and adapt to a prolonged season of downturns, delays, and partial recoveries.

134. My hope is that 2021 will also mark the end of complacency on the climate crisis we all face, the end of assaults on human rights, on dignity, on facts, and on science. With the peoples vaccine distributed based on need and not wealth to inoculate against this first-in-a-generation disease; with a commitment to inoculate against inequality, misinformation, racism, stigma and discrimination; a renewed pursuit of peace and a determination to inoculate against the abuse of the planet that we live on and the air that we breathe in.

135. As the UN Secretary-General has said, as the SDGs make clear: our common agenda is a universal agenda, Madam President. This is the time for an SDG push  for a true Decade of Action that delivers the future of development. Finding a way forward from COVID-19 will be the journey of a generation. UNDP is committed to it. And I know that we can count on the leadership, guidance, support of our Executive Board.

Thank you.
Egypts Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki and the African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki discussed a number of issues of mutual interest in a meeting in Cairo on Monday.

The meeting tackled the latest developments in Africa and their reflection on the continents security and peace, as well as how to address African challenges and consolidate security and stability, said a statement by the Egyptian military spokesperson.

Minister Zaki expressed his pride in the strategic partnership between the Egyptian Armed Forces and the African Union Commission in various fields, particularly in peacekeeping in Africa.

Faki, who is on a multi-day visit to Egypt, also expressed his aspiration for further coordination on issues of mutual concern, the statement added.

The meeting was attended by a number of high-ranking commanders from the Egyptian Armed Forces.

On Sunday, Faki met with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, discussing a number of African issues including the latest developments in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations, which have been under AU auspices since last year.

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SANTA FE  A bipartisan proposal to encourage prescribed burning on private land is headed to the House floor without a dissenting vote.

The legislation, House Bill 57, is intended to reduce the threat and severity of wildfires by removing barriers that keep private landowners from conducting prescribed burns.

It passed the House Judiciary Committee on an 11-0 vote Monday, sending it to the full chamber for consideration. The House Energy and Natural Resources Committee endorsed the bill unanimously last week.

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Supporters say prescribed burning can help clear out grass, shrubs and trees that fuel high-severity wildfires.

State Forester Laura McCarthy told lawmakers Monday that the legislation is based on more than a year of study on how to safely expand prescribed burning in New Mexico.

Federal and state land managers, she said, already use burning as part of a strategy to keep forests healthy. A prescribed burn in the Santa Fe National Forest, McCarthy said, helped protect the Santa Fe ski basin in last years Medio Fire.

The legislation would clarify legal liability for private landowners and establish a training and certification program for carrying out prescribed fires safely.

We know prescribed burning works to protect the things we care about, McCarthy said.

Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, said New Mexico has had a fire-suppression policy embedded in its laws since 1882, or 30 years before statehood. Its contributed to overgrown forests at risk of devastating wildfires, he said.

McQueen described the bill as a change in policy 100 years in the making.

He is jointly sponsoring the legislation with Rep. Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena; Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe; and Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview.

A mix of conservation and agricultural groups testified in favor of it.

Sarah Cottrell Propst, secretary of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, said the legislation would help the state better manage its forests amid a changing climate.

The ability to conduct prescribed burns on private land can help prevent future wildfires from becoming more intense, she said in a written statement, especially in the face of warmer and drier conditions due to climate change.

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SEATTLE (AP)  The Washington state Auditor's Office says a data breach may have exposed the personal information of 1.6 million residents who filed for unemployment last year, as well as other information from state agencies and local governments.

The breach involved third-party software used by the auditor's office to transmit files. The software vendor, Accellion, announced last month that it had been attacked in December.





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YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. 1 new case of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Artsakh in the past 24 hours.

24 tests were conducted on February 1, the ministry of healthcare told Armenpress.

A total of 2335 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Artsakh.

The number of active cases is 19.

The ministry of healthcare has again urged the citizens to follow all the rules to avoid new outbreaks and overcome the disease.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The Government and NHS deserve the highest praise for the successful roll-out of the vaccination programme in care homes. It has been inspiring to see this sector receiving top priority at last.

But the scale of the achievement must not be an excuse for complacency. We must now open up these homes again, allow proper visits by loved ones and release residents from the heavy bonds of confinement.

Two steps are urgently required. Firstly, to fulfil the promise to protect all residents, by offering a second jab.

I understand there are limited supplies but now that so many doses have been secured and new products are soon to be made available, care home residents must receive utmost priority. They should not have to wait 12 weeks for their second dose  it's vital they receive the highest levels of immunity as soon as possible.

Nell Prosser, aged 100, gets her Covid-19 jab at a care home in London

The second step is to inoculate as many care home staff as possible so the spread of the disease through the social care system is controlled. This will be a big task, since there are 1.6 million workers in the sector, but the attempt to reach them all has been limited so far.

The vaccination drive must be intensified, since these employees are right on the frontline, shouldering huge burdens in a sector that is seriously short-staffed with more than 100,000 unfilled vacancies.

Once all staff and residents have been inoculated, the task of opening up care homes for loved ones to visit again can begin in earnest.

In the name of humanity, few objectives are more important than this. The current suffering, isolation and loneliness are colossal. Banning visitors has been tearing families apart, with the most vulnerable deprived of vital contact, many feeling utterly alone.

Care home residents bore the brunt of the death toll in the first wave, partly through appalling errors such as releasing Covid patients from hospitals into homes, or failing to supply proper protective equipment and testing.

Jeanette, 97, received her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine during an online call with Boris Johnson

Since then, the sector has endured the most draconian aspects of the lockdown. Many residents are confined to their rooms in solitary confinement, like prisoners  but with even fewer visiting rights.

Unable to meet other residents in their familiar communal settings, they have also been prevented from seeing their own families. One of the most basic human needs, that of reassuring physical contact with loved ones, has been tragically taken away.

Many with dementia struggle to recognise images on a small screen or voices on a telephone, meaning Zoom technology or FaceTime are no substitutes. Worst of all are those left to die on their own, without any friends or family around them. In their final hours on earth, the sense of abandonment must be terrifying.

Over the last 11 months, the catalogue of despair has grown remorselessly, filled with tales of residents crying in anguish or losing the will to live.

In my own experience, one of my friends has witnessed her mother's dementia worsen dramatically due to her feelings of isolation in her care home.

Before Covid, her mother's face would light up when her daughter came. Since March, rare permitted visits were often traumatic as her mother, trapped in her room, became painfully distressed, banging at the glass screens that prevent her from embracing her daughter.

The vaccine offers the way out of this cruel environment. Of course I understand there may be a safety-first approach, perhaps with limits on visitor numbers and appointment times required.

But excessive caution must not be allowed to triumph over basic compassion and human need. One way to lessen the anxieties of care homes would be for the Government to offer them indemnity insurance of the sort given to the NHS, to allay care home management fears of having to bear the costs of vexatious legal claims if visitors are allowed.
As if the original coronavirus wasnt enough to worry about, there are now three other variants of the pathogen circulating in the U.S. that appear to spread more easily and quickly between people.

Although concerning, scientists say the virus is just doing what it can to survive, and that means regularly changing through mutations, producing new  and expected  variants along the way. Whereas some emerge and disappear, others emerge and persist, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

But health experts say we can get a handle on the variants with the same preventive measures encouraged, and in some cases required, from the beginning of the pandemic: hand washing, physical distancing, mask wearing and quarantining when appropriate. Now, add double masking and coronavirus vaccination to the list.

The three variants of concern reported in the U.S. first surfaced in the U.K., Brazil and South Africa. Preliminary evidence suggests they are more transmissible, which could lead to more COVID-19 cases, more strain on health care systems, more hospitalizations and potentially more deaths.

January had 95,211 American deaths from the coronavirus  the most of any month since the pandemic began, and nearly 20,000 more than in December, according to The COVID Tracking Project. More people were hospitalized on average than any other month, but that number has been on a steady decline since at least Jan. 12.

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So far, both of the COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S. appear to protect against the new variants, but studies are underway to understand if and under what circumstances the variants can render the current vaccines ineffective.

The ability to evade vaccine-induced immunity would likely be the most concerning because once a large proportion of the population is vaccinated, there will be immune pressure that could favor and accelerate emergence of such variants by selecting for escape mutants, the CDC says. There is no evidence that this is occurring, and most experts believe escape mutants are unlikely to emerge because of the nature of the virus.

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There is a fourth coronavirus variant that emerged in California in July, but wasnt noticed until November, The New York Times reported. It made up more than half of the virus genome samples collected in Los Angeles by Jan. 13, but more evidence is needed to determine how contagious it is compared to the other variants.

The California variant has been found in several states across the country. The CDC does not recognize it as one of concern.

Heres what scientists know about the variants spreading in the U.S.:

Variant from the U.K  B.1.1.7

The coronavirus variant was first identified in September in the U.K. and was first detected in the U.S. in Colorado at the end of December, according to the CDC. Its called B.1.1.7.

Studies show this variant spreads more easily and quickly than other variants. Experts in the U.K. say it may also be associated with an increased risk of death but more studies are needed to confirm this finding, the CDC says.

In laboratory research, the Moderna vaccine was able to produce similarly high levels of antibodies against the U.K. coronavirus variant compared to other variants. Pfizer-BioNTech also announced its vaccine protected against the variant in lab studies.

COVID-19 vaccines from Novavax and Johnson & Johnson, which are not yet authorized in the U.S., also appeared to offer protection against the U.K. variant during Phase 3 clinical trials. Health officials expect the companies to request emergency-use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration soon.

B.1.1.7 has 17 mutations in its genome, with eight mutations in the spike protein, which the coronavirus uses to enter human cells.

There are 467 cases of the U.K. variant reported in the U.S. across 32 states as of Feb. 1.

Variant from South Africa  B.1.351

The coronavirus variant from South Africa was originally detected in early October, and emerged independently of the U.K. variant, the CDC says. Its called B.1.351.

The first two U.S. cases were found in South Carolina at the end of January in two people with no connection to each other or travel history to South Africa. A third was confirmed Saturday in Maryland, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Studies show this variant spreads more easily and quickly than other variants, but theres no evidence that suggests its more deadly. Novavaxs Phase 3 clinical trial for its vaccine revealed a prior infection with the original coronavirus variant may not completely protect against infection with the South African variant.

However, vaccination does protect against B.1.351.

Moderna said there was a sixfold reduction in its vaccines antibodies effectiveness against the South African variant, but levels of the protective proteins remain above those that are expected to be protective.

COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax all produced sufficient antibodies against the variant in lab studies.

B.1.351 has 10 mutations located in the spike protein.

There are 3 cases of the South African variant in the U.S. across two states as of Feb. 1.

Variant from Brazil  P.1

The coronavirus variant from Brazil was first detected in early January and first confirmed in the U.S. in Minnesota at the end of the month in someone with travel history. Its called P.1.

Studies show this variant spreads more easily and quickly than other variants, and emerging evidence suggests it may have the ability to reinfect people who have already been infected with the original coronavirus variant, the CDC says.

The agency says research so far shows the vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson protect against the variant from Brazil, but more studies are needed. Some companies say its vaccine protects against all variants, while others do not specifically mention P.1.

P.1 has three mutations in the spike protein.

There is one reported case of the Brazilian variant in one state as of Feb. 1.
A Proud Boys supporter in New York accused of posting violent threats on the social media network Parler. A Colorado man charged with sending a text about putting a bullet in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A man near Chicago implicated in a voicemail message about killing Democrats on Inauguration Day.

They were all arrested in recent weeks as part of an escalating effort by law enforcement officials across the country to react more quickly to menacing rhetoric in the wake of the deadly U.S. Capitol breach.

Law enforcement agencies have long struggled to decipher whether online statements could lead to real danger, wary of bringing cases hinged largely on speech that could be protected by the First Amendment. But the volume of tips about threats has skyrocketed since the Capitol assault, leading some officials to decide not to wait to see if violent language developed into action.

Nearly a dozen people who authorities said made politically motivated threats by social media or phone have been charged with federal crimes. Although most of them were nowhere near Washington on the day of the riot, they have become part of its sprawling fallout, with investigators also scouring the country to track down hundreds of rioters and probing whether right-wing extremist groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys had organized the attack.

The riot increased our sense of urgency because it showed the possibility of what could happen, said a senior law enforcement official in New York, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing investigations.

The effort has also coincided with a greater willingness by the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration to publicly label domestic right-wing and militia groups as a national threat. Last week, the agency issued a public bulletin for the first time to warn that violent extremists, fueled by the 2020 election outcome and other perceived grievances, could commit further attacks.

It was not yet clear whether the riot would prompt more government surveillance of extremist groups online. The arrests of rioters, even on misdemeanor charges such as illegal entry, have given investigators the legal justification to obtain search warrants for their phones and electronic communications, potentially providing the government with access to a trove of intelligence on such groups.

Cases based on violent threats are no slam dunk. In 2016, a jury failed to convict an Orange County, California, man who wrote blog posts about beheading a top FBI official, with the trial ending in an acquittal on some charges and a mistrial on others. His lawyers said the blog posts were intended to be satire and were protected by the Constitution.

Prosecutors must prove that the threat was serious and specific, with an intention to harm or kill. Social media posts before the riot about an armed revolution or even storming the Capitol would have been too vague to charge, legal experts said.

Last year, federal prosecutors around the country brought only 30 cases characterized as domestic terrorism that led with the charge of transmitting a threat, according to an analysis by a Syracuse University research group. Still, that number was the highest since at least 2000.

Historically, these kinds of cases are not high on prosecutors priority lists, said Daniel Silver, a former federal prosecutor in New York who supervised terrorism cases. You really have to show the person intended to cause imminent violence as opposed to just expressing their opinion.

Instead, prosecutors sometimes turn to other charges that are easier to prove against someone who is posting violent threats.

For instance, Eduard Florea, a software engineer in New York City, alarmed law enforcement officials with death threats that they said he had posted on Parler against Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia around the day of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. He wrote in obscenity-laden posts that Warnock would have a hard time casting votes when hes swinging with the fish, and that dead men cant pass laws, prosecutors said. On the afternoon of the riot, he said he was armed and ready, writing, Kill them all, according to the complaint.

But Florea was not initially charged with transmitting a threat. He was hit with a weapons charge after agents searched his home and said they found ammunition, which he was not allowed to possess because he has a felony criminal record. He told the agents that he had applied to join the Proud Boys, according to prosecutors, and traveled with them last year to vandalize a church in Washington.

His lawyer, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, declined to comment. At his bail hearing, she said he did not condone violence, arguing that the rhetoric was extremely high on all sides during the riot.

When law enforcement officials are concerned about a violent social media threat that has not led to any real-world action, that person will often get a knock on the door from the FBI with a warning.

But former officials have called the riot a 9/11 moment for domestic violent extremism, a catalyzing event that has pushed local and federal resources around the country to focus on one top priority, with a much lower tolerance to wait and see if threats materialize.

Before the riot, you might have let someone sit out there and stew and vent, said Mitch Silber, a former head of the New York City Police Departments intelligence analysis. Now your calculus has changed. You almost dont have the luxury to let things play out.

Early last year, FBI agents confronted Louis Capriotti in Orland Park, Illinois, after he had left several screaming voicemail messages for members of Congress that insulted their race, religion, political affiliation, or physical appearance, a criminal complaint said. Capriotti acknowledged that the messages could be seen as threatening and said he meant no harm, according to the complaint. The agents told him to stop calling.

But Capriotti kept at it, his tone intensifying after Election Day, prosecutors said, until he left a Dec. 29 voicemail message for an unspecified member of Congress from New Jersey saying that he would kill any Democrat who stepped foot on the White House lawn on Inauguration Day.

He was arrested six days after the riot and charged with transmitting a threat of violence. Capriottis lawyer argued that the government had no evidence he intended to carry out the threat, according to a court filing.

In another case, FBI agents received a tip that Cleveland Meredith had sent threatening text messages targeting public officials, including one on Jan. 7 about finding Pelosi and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV, the criminal complaint said.

Meredith drove to Washington from his home in Colorado with an assault rifle and Glock firearm, prosecutors said, but showed up too late to attend the Jan. 6 rally. After receiving the tip, agents located him at a hotel in Washington, where he admitted to sending the texts, according to the FBI. He was arrested shortly after.

In addition to the text message threat, Meredith was charged with two misdemeanors related to the weapons. A lawyer for Meredith did not respond to a request for comment.

Court filings show that some of the people accused of storming the Capitol were already on the FBIs radar because of their online statements. In November, federal agents interviewed Rasha Abual-Ragheb in New Jersey after they came to believe she was behind a Facebook account posting about an upcoming civil war in a group for the Three Percenters, an extremist offshoot of the gun rights movement.

During the interview with the agents, she claimed that she had been kicked off Facebook for her pro-Trump posts, according to a criminal complaint.

After the riot, two confidential informants notified the FBI that Abual-Ragheb shared photos of herself at the Capitol, the complaint said, resulting in her arrest. A lawyer for Abual-Ragheb declined to comment.

Accused right-wing extremists have not been the only people to face arrests for their online statements in the last month.

Federal prosecutors have also accused Daniel Baker, of Tallahassee, Florida, of promoting the killing of military officers on social media. The complaint described Baker as an anarchist who opposed police brutality and made violent threats against people he claims are white supremacists and fascists.

Baker was arrested on Jan. 15 after he issued a call to arms to defend the Florida state Capitol building against racist mobs, prosecutors said.

In a court filing, Randolph Murrell, a lawyer for Baker, said his clients talk about preparing for a war was political hyperbole, citing similar statements made by local Republican elected officials. Bakers online postings did not pose a real threat, Murrell argued, because they were fantasies that could never have been put into action.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
FM Nirmala Sitharamans budget 2021 speech, which ran into 17,031 words, holds several new ideas to get the economy going again. Though, it could have done without higher import duties. Heres a one-stop shop for the most important details of the Budget.

Where is the fiscal deficit headed?

The fiscal deficit for 2020-21 is believed to balloon to 18.49 trillion or 9.5% of the GDP, against the budgeted 3.5%. Fiscal deficit is the gap between what Centre earns and spends. The gross tax collection is likely to fall short by 21.6% to 19 trillion this year, thus pushing up the deficit. Owing to a hike in the excise duty on fuel, excise duty collection climbed to 3.61 trillion. The fiscal deficit for 2021-22 is expected to be at 15.07 trillion or 6.8% of the GDP.

What is the reason behind this jump?

The Food Corporation of India buys rice and wheat directly from farmers and sells it at a lower price via ration shops. The government has to compensate FCI for this subsidy, which it has not done completely over the years. To meet this gap, FCI has had to borrow money from the National Small Savings Fund, where all the money from small savings schemes ends up. The centre has decided to now discontinue this and take on subsidies as a part of its overall expenditure. Due to this, the food subsidies offered to FCI this year have jumped to 3.44 trillion against 75,000 crore last year. This has pushed up the deficit for the next year as well.

Are there any goodies for the middle class?

Tax slabs remain unchanged, however, senior citizens who only earn a pension will now be spared from filing income tax returns. Also, there was no introduction of wealth tax or any fiddling around with the capital gains tax on stocks. This led to the BSE Sensex rallying by 2,315 points or 5%, from Fridays close. Besides, the additional deduction of 1.5 lakh, currently applicable on interest paid on an affordable home loan, will continue next year.

View Full Image Road to recovery

How much will Centre spend this year?

The government expenditure this year will stand at 34.50 trillion, up by 13.5% against the budgeted 30.42 trillion. Close to 34% of this expenditure will be made between January and March 2021. In an environment where consumer spending and industrial expansion have taken a beating, the government is stepping in as the spender of the last resort. Curiously, the total expenditure allocated for the next year is at 34.83 trillion, despite the fact that the government is initiating many new road projects.

Where does that leave the fiscal stimulus?

When one takes into account the fact that the government has earmarked 8.1 trillion towards paying interest on its debt next year, against 6.93 trillion it will pay this year the real expenditure for next year will come down. In that sense, the fiscal stimulus from the Union government has come in 2020-21, with expenditure going up by a massive 28.4% in comparison to 2019-20.

View Full Image Photo: Mint

Has health spending taken a big leap?

An amount of 35,000 crore has been provided towards covid-19 vaccination for 2021-22. The total allocation towards health and well-being for 2021-22 is at 2.24 trillion, up by 137% from this year. This also includes a grant of 36,022 crore towards water and sanitation. The Centre will also roll-out the PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana to boost healthcare infra. The scheme has an outlay of around 64,180 crore over six years.

Are key disinvestment plans on the cards?

The Centre is aiming to earn 1.75 trillion via the disinvestment route next year. Strategic disinvestment of BPCL, Air India, Shipping Corporation of India, BEML, etc is in store. The government also hopes to bring in the initial public offering of the Life Insurance Corporation of India. The target seems a little stretched since, as of 20 January, the government has managed to earn only 15,220 crore through this route against a proposed 2.1 trillion this year.

What are the new things proposed?

One of the innovative proposals in the Budget is the sale of surplus land lying with the ministries and public sector enterprises. The Centre has raised the foreign direct investment limit in insurance firms to 74%, from the current 49%. It also plans to launch a development financial institution to finance infrastructure projects. There are also plans of launching a bad bank" to take over the bad loans of public sector banks and help them clean their balance sheets.

View Full Image Photo: HT

What happened to MGNREGS allocations?

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) proved to be a rescuer of the Indian economy this year, by creating rural jobs, with the Centre allocating 1.12 trillion towards the scheme. However, the allocation for 2021-22 has been cut by 34.5% to 73,000 cr. The government also plans to extend the Ujjwala Scheme, which has benefited 80 million households, to cover 10 million more beneficiaries.

What about import duties on goods?

Like the previous few years, the FM has increased the import duties on a host of goods across sectors like agriculture, chemicals, plastics, automobiles, gems and jewellery etc. This is in line with the narrative of Atmanirbhar India. The idea is that by making imports expensive, the local producers will become competitive and hence, gain market share. The trouble is that the Indian consumer will end up paying more because of this.

Vivek Kaul is author of Bad Money.

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For those who believe in democracy, this hasnt been a good week. Supporters of the brave Alexei Navalny are being beaten up and imprisoned in Russia, with little sign that Vladimir Putin will relax his grip on the country. His clone in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, seems as firmly entrenched as ever after suppressing weeks of demonstrations over an election that included widespread allegations of vote rigging.

The latest batch of Hong Kong democrats are heading for a long stint in jail; the military in Myanmar have decided to ditch the partial democracy they had tolerated for a few years; one of Africas former bright hopes, the prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, has launched what looks like a civil war against his political opponents; in Uganda, Yoweri Museveni is digging in as ruler for life.

And, towering over these regressions around the globe, there has been the near-fatal political heart attack in the US. A system that has endured and flourished for two centuries  and has been the inspiration of democracies everywhere  came perilously close to a fascist-infused coup detat. No less worrying, a significant percentage of the 75 million Republican voters continue to go along with fraudulent claims about November's presidential election. A smaller but not trivial number appear to have been captured by the QAnon cult, which believes the unfounded conspiracy theory that former president Donald Trump is waging a secret war against paedophiles in government, business and the media.

So, how should we react? I confess that I have been irritated rather than reassured by the routine, identikit political statements condemning the latest abuses. The objects of the condemnation will neither notice nor quake in their boots at this impotent outrage. The tone of priggish self-righteousness invites charges of hypocrisy and inconsistency.

After suppressing the irritation, I am left with two simple questions: what should be the tests of democratic freedom? And what do we do about those who do not meet them, beyond ritual condemnation?

Recommended Navalny sentenced to nearly three years in prison colony

As to the first question, I found some scientific substance in the annual rankings of "freedom" by Freedom House, an American NGO. They have complex measures that include 10 different indicators of political freedom and 15 of civil liberties. There is a healthy process of challenge and review and, despite my scepticism, I felt these were serious people genuinely trying to be objective.

Perfection is achieved only in Scandinavia  Sweden, Finland and Norway  closely followed by Japan, Ireland, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and Australia. Britain isnt too far behind, with Germany, Barbados and Taiwan. The United States is in the second division, with Argentina and Ghana, and below Greece, Chile and Cape Verde.

Then there are the genuine but flawed democracies  India, Indonesia, Israel, Brazil, Nigeria  which are marked as roughly equivalent to Europes leading delinquent, Hungary. On the next rung down are the one-party half-democracies, such as Singapore. Near the bottom of the league, predictably, are China, Russia and Belarus, but they are ranked higher than Saudi Arabia. Competition for the wooden spoon is between such dreadful tyrannies as North Korea and Eritrea.

The ranking is a relief, because it gets beyond the idea of a binary world of goodies and baddies, in which democracy is largely seen as the preserve of rich and majority-white countries. India is too rarely given credit for sustaining near-democracy amongst 1.4 billion people of enormous diversity  a somewhat harder task than meeting the challenge in tiny Scandinavian populations. Nigerias boisterous multi-ethnic democracy is also miraculous, but seldom acknowledged.

Xi Jinpings China will never score well on these metrics, and continued persecution of minorities is a factor. However, achieving freedom from hunger and extreme poverty surely counts as a positive as do recent moves to relax one child restrictions and internal passports. Beijing would argue, not unreasonably, that what really matters is trust in your society and government. The Edelman Trust Barometer tells us that trust is falling almost everywhere, but in China the government is far more trusted by the people than deeply distrusted governments in the US and Russia.

So what can genuinely democratic governments do to support the brave souls who risk their liberty and perhaps their lives fighting for freedom and democracy? A useful starting point is to shift the emphasis from do as we say to do as we do. The censoriousness and pomposity of western governments demanding better governance from other countries has probably been counterproductive. In Africa, especially, China has become much more influential because it doesnt sit in judgement on the defects of the regions many flawed and semi-democratic regimes.

"Do as we do" will not be straightforward. The US, in particular, has a big credibility deficit to make up before it is taken seriously as an exporter of its system of government. The UK is currently in a happier position, but there is quite a gap to meet, say, Swedish standards. Our antiquated and unfair voting system, ridiculous second chamber, over-centralised administration, scandal-prone party funding and over-concentrated media ownership all require reform.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall there was a shared, infectious enthusiasm for free societies and democratic government that led eastern European and Baltic states into the European Union. The prospect of admission also helped to establish democracy in the Balkans. Briefly, the EU led  as Joe Biden puts it  by the power of our example. But that rosy picture is now marred by Hungarys regression and Turkeys exclusion from the waiting list.

Meanwhile, though we lament fractures in existing democracies, I sense no one has thought through even more troubling consequences of a breakdown in undemocratic government. What happens in Russia, if the Navalny protesters are strong enough to destroy the states authority but not strong enough to replace it? The adage be careful what you wish for applies even more strongly to democracy protests in China which, in more than 2000 years of civilisation, has seen semi-democratic government only for a few chaotic months in the 1920s.

Sadly, we have recent evidence from elsewhere that cheering on democracy protesters can end in disaster. The Arab Spring led to one (sort of) democracy in Tunisia, but also to two appalling civil wars and the regression of the most populous country in the region, Egypt, into an even more severe dictatorship.

The Middle East is also a good litmus test of how deep our commitment to political freedom really is. The G20 country that is bottom of the freedom league table is Saudi Arabia (and that is after much-praised reforms, such as letting women drive). While one part of the Foreign Office is thumbing through its thesaurus to find original adjectives to condemn the governments of Russia, China and other unfashionable regimes, another bit is ensuring that nothing undermines our friendship with Riyadh. Saudi Arabias status as our custodian of intelligence-gathering, arms exports and stable oil imports seems to excuse it from the censure that others attract. These double standards ensure that we are not taken seriously anywhere.

For those reasons, there is a strong case for hard-headed realism. A model is Angela Merkels government in Germany. Their leaders and their system practice exemplary democracy at home and within the EU, but they deal with the rest of the world as it is rather than how they and we would like it to be.

Instead of virtue signalling through condemnatory press releases, they prioritise engagement on common interests in climate, nuclear proliferation, pandemics and trade. This honest, fiercely pragmatic approach will do more good than any number of outraged statements ever can.
Bile acids may play previously unknown role in Parkinson's

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Feb. 2, 2021) -- What does bile acid production in the digestive tract have to do with Parkinson's disease?

Quite a lot, according to a sweeping new analysis published in the journal Metabolites. The findings reveal that changes in the gut microbiome -- the rich population of helpful microbes that call the digestive tract home -- may in turn alter bile acid production by favoring synthesis of toxic forms of the acids.

These shifts were seen only in people with Parkinson's and not in healthy controls, a critical difference that suggests bile acids may be a viable biomarker for diagnosing Parkinson's early and tracking its progression. The insights also may provide new avenues for developing therapies that impede Parkinson's-related changes in the gut, thereby potentially slowing or stopping disease onset and progression.

The research was led by the late Viviane Labrie, Ph.D., of Van Andel Institute, in collaboration with colleagues at VAI, Beaumont Health, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that gut health is tightly linked to brain health," said Peipei Li, Ph.D., the study's first author and former postdoctoral fellow in the Labrie Lab. "Our findings provide exciting new opportunities for better understanding this relationship and possibly for developing new ways to diagnose -- and even treat -- Parkinson's."

To investigate differences in the microbiome, the team turned to the appendix, a frequently maligned bit of tissue that actually plays an important role in regulating gut microbes. Using a "multi-omics" approach, the team comprehensively analyzed and compared the microbiome composition of appendix samples from people with Parkinson's and healthy controls. They found significant differences, with the changes in microbial composition of the Parkinson's samples correlating with higher levels of toxic bile acids.

The findings track with a 2020 study led by scientists in Spain that suggest changes in bile acids in the plasma are associated with Parkinson's disease.

"My lab has grown increasingly interested in bile acids and Parkinson's disease following a study completed in collaboration with Dr. Patrik Brundin's group a few years ago," said Stewart Graham, Ph.D., director of Metabolomics Research at Beaumont Health. "We demonstrated that not only was there a significant shift in the bile acid metabolism due to changes we induced in the brain, but that these compounds have the potential to be used as early blood-based biomarkers of the disease. This is extremely important as this is when treatments are believed to be most effective."

In recent years, research has revealed a growing number of links between the gut and Parkinson's. For example, chronic constipation often is one of the earliest signs of Parkinson's disease and can occur years or even decades before the onset of the disease's hallmark motor symptoms. Other studies have shown that hepatitis C, which impacts the liver, increases the risk of developing Parkinson's.

Importantly, a 2018 study by Labrie and colleagues demonstrated that removal of the appendix is associated with a 19-25% reduction in Parkinson's risk when the surgery occurs early in life, before the start of the disease process. They also found that the appendix acts as a storehouse for Parkinson's-related proteins called alpha-synuclein, clumps of which are a key pathological sign of Parkinson's. However, alpha-synuclein was found in the appendixes of healthy controls as well as people with Parkinson's, implying that the presence of the protein alone isn't enough to trigger the disease.

###

Authors include Elizabeth Ensink, Ian Beddows, Ph.D., Noah Lubben, Meghan Schilthuis, J. Andrew Pospisilik, Ph.D., Patrik Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., and Lena Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., of VAI; Bryan Killinger, Ph.D., of Rush University Medical Center; Ali Yilmaz, Ph.D., of Beaumont Health; Jared Lamp, Ph.D., and Irving Vega, Ph.D., of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine; and Randy Woltjer, M.D., Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University. VAI's Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core and Michigan State University's Genomics Core contributed to this work. Tissue was provided by the Oregon Brain Bank.

Research reported in this publication was supported by Van Andel Institute and the Farmer Family Foundation (P. Brundin, with L. Brundin, Pospisilik and Labrie as co-investigators).

Labrie also held awards from the Department of Defense, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health and Michigan State University through the Gibby & Friends vs. Parky Parkinson's Disease Research Award. Graham holds awards from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer's Association and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

The content of this release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the granting organizations.

ABOUT VAN ANDEL INSTITUTE

Van Andel Institute (VAI) is committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations through cutting edge biomedical research and innovative educational offerings. Established in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1996 by the Van Andel family, VAI is now home to more than 400 scientists, educators and support staff, who work with a growing number of national and international collaborators to foster discovery. The Institute's scientists study the origins of cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases and translate their findings into breakthrough prevention and treatment strategies. Our educators develop inquiry-based approaches for K-12 education to help students and teachers prepare the next generation of problem-solvers, while our Graduate School offers a rigorous, research-intensive Ph.D. program in molecular and cellular biology. Learn more at vai.org.

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-01 11:41:38|Editor: huaxia

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Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, delivers a speech at the closing session of the 13th CPV National Congress in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 1, 2021. The 13th National Congress of the CPV concluded Monday morning in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. (VNA via Xinhua)

HANOI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) concluded Monday morning in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

During the eight-day congress, delegates reviewed the party building work and the leadership of the 12th CPV Central Committee (CPVCC), before electing new leaders for the 13th term. They also reviewed the past 35 years of the country's reform cause, discussed the implementation of the 10-year socio-economic development strategy, among other issues.

Delegates agreed on several goals and tasks for the country's future development phases, including making Vietnam a modern industrialized country with upper-middle income by 2030, and a developed country with high income by 2045, the organizers announced at the congress' closing session.

In the 2021-2025 period, Vietnam will strive to achieve an annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of between 6.5 percent and 7 percent, according to the announcement.

All 180 members of the newly-elected 13th CPVCC attended the closing session. Representing the central committee, CPVCC General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong sincerely thanked the people who trusted them with the "great responsibility of great honor."

"Never before has the country established its fortune, potential, international position and reputation as it is having today," Trong said, pledging that the CPVCC will unite to continuously improve its leadership capacity, and strive to weather all difficulties to promote "the glorious renovation cause," in order to serve the country and meet the expectations of the entire party and the Vietnamese people.

In his closing remarks, the party chief said that the congress had been "very successful", completing all items on its working agenda ahead of schedule.

Trong also thanked foreign parties, international organizations and friends for extending their congratulations to the congress, which, he said, demonstrated their friendship and solidarity with the CPV and the Vietnamese people.

He thanked media outlets from home and abroad for their timely reporting, which contributed to the success of the congress.

On Sunday, the 13th CPVCC convened its first meeting to re-elect Nguyen Phu Trong as its general secretary. The CPVCC Politburo was also elected on Sunday with 18 members, together with the secretariat and the 19-member central inspection commission of the CPVCC.

Nearly 1,600 delegates representing over 5.1 million members of the CPV attended the congress held from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1. Enditem
Ahmedabad:

As many as 200 Dalits in Amreli district have threatened to convert to Buddhism alleging police inaction in conducting a fair probe into the death of a community member in judicial custody two weeks ago.

Jignesh Saundarva (29), who was lodged in Amreli sub-jail, died at a civil hospital on June 15.

Though Amreli Police on Tuesday nabbed four prisoners from the sub-jail on the charges of killing Saundarva, Dalit community members as well as the deceaseds kin expressed unhappiness over the probe and rushed to the collectors office to take forms for conversion.

Saundarva was shifted to civil hospital after he developed health complications while being lodged in the Amreli sub-jail, police had said.

He was arrested under the Gujarat Prohibition Act from Dungar village in Rajula tehsil of the district and was sent in judicial custody on June 12.

Earlier, Saundarvas family had refused to accept his body demanding a fair probe into the incident.

Following a day-long protest, they had claimed the body after getting an assurance of a fair probe from the police as well as the district administration.

The Amreli crime branch Tuesday arrested four prisoners who allegedly caused fatal injuries to Saundarva during a brawl inside the jail.

Our probe has revealed that Saundarva had a scuffle with four undertrials inside the jail over some petty issue. During the scuffle, the accused thrashed him and hit his head on the wall, which led to his death. We arrested all these prisoners from the jail, Amreli crime branchs police inspector A P Patel said Tuesday.

Suggested Read | Madhya Pradesh: Upper caste people pours kerosene in Dalits' well for violating 'rules'

However, Saundarvas kin, as well as local Dalit leaders, expressed unhappiness over the police action, as they alleged that Saundarva died due to police torture.

The post-mortem report suggests that Saundarva was beaten up three to four days before he was sent to jail. That means he was tortured during police remand. He might have been thrashed by the jail staff too during judicial custody, Dalit leader Navchetan Parmar alleged.

We want the CBI to investigate the case. We do not have any faith in the police, he said.

To give a strong message to the government, around 200 Dalits from Dungar and other adjoining places have decided to leave Hinduism and embrace Buddhism, for which many of them have collected forms from the collectors office. We will submit these forms in the coming days, said Parmar, who is leading the agitation.

He announced that these 200 Dalits will start their journey towards embracing Buddhism by immersing idols and photographs of Hindu gods and goddesses, kept in their homes, in Thebi dam of the district on Wednesday.

Even if the government orders CBI inquiry, we will not step back from our decision to covert in protest of such an injustice. If needed, we will also dig out Saundarvas body from the grave and march to the collectors office on July 7 to raise our demand for a fair probe, Parmar said.

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Health board seeking clarification on covid vaccination after foster carers left off current priority list

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 2nd, 2021

A health board is seeking clarification on Covid vaccination rules after it emerged foster carers have been left out of the current priority list.

The request emerged after the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) was contacted anonymously and told foster carers were not eligible for the vaccine, although they have always been able to request an immunisation against Hepatitis B.

While many foster carers may look after children for an extended time, they can also take on youngsters for short-term and respite placements, potentially leaving them at risk of exposure to Covid-19.

The issue comes at a time when the supply of foster carers cannot meet demand according to experts.





Betsi Cadwaldr is responsible for rolling out the immunisation across North Wales but has to follow guidelines from the Joint Council on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

They mention nothing about foster carers, although Betsi has confirmed social care staff who work with children do fall within the initial priority groups for vaccination.

Gill Harris, deputy chief executive and executive director of nursing and midwifery, confirmed the board was following national guidance on Covid vaccine eligibility.

She said: Social care workers with a physical client facing role, including adult services, support workers in housing services and childrens services are in groups 1-4 in accordance with JCVI guidance.

According to national guidance, foster carers are not currently part of this eligible group, unless the child in their care is critically vulnerable to Covid-19.

This is because children themselves are not considered to be significantly at risk from Covid-19.

However, we have written to Welsh Government to seek further guidance and clarity on this matter.

We remain in regular contact with colleagues nationally for the latest guidance on eligible groups for vaccination.

Only one county council in North Wales, Flintshire, confirmed it had sent Betsi a list of foster parents asking for them to be vaccinated.

Flintshire county councils senior human resources and organisational development manager, Sharon Carney, said Betsi was responsible for the Covid vaccination programme.

She added: I can confirm we submitted the list of foster carers to BCUHB last Tuesday and shared the link with our foster carers last Wednesday (January 20) to enable them to book a vaccine.

All other county councils in North Wales either didnt respond to our questions or directed the LDRS to the health board.

Welsh Government would only confirm it was following the priority groups set out by the JCVI and those with the highest priority would be immunised as safely and as soon as possible.

By Jez Hemming  BBC Local Democracy Reporter
FLTIN TOWNSHIP, MI -- A missing 47-year-old California woman has been found dead in Flint Township, police said.

Investigators with the Flint Township Police Department, assisted by the Michigan State Police K-9 unit, located Angella Meeks in a small wooded area a short distance from her last known location.

Meeks was last seen at a residence in the 1100 block of Trotwood Lane in Flint Township during the early morning hours on Sunday, Jan. 24, according to a Flint Township Police Department news release.

Her death does not appear to be suspicious, but Meeks body will be sent for an autopsy to try and determine an exact cause of death, police said.

Meeks resides in California but she was staying with a friend on Trotwood Lane.

She left the residence without weather appropriate clothing or her personal effects, police said.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact Detective Lacey Lopez or Detective Alex Minto at 810-600-3250, with Crime Stoppers at 1-800-422- JAIL (5245), or go to www.crimestoppersoffint.com.

Read more on MLive:

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Man arrested after armed robbery of a Bay City pharmacy

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(Natural News) United States intelligence officials have revealed that mass testing for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) has nothing to do with saving lives, and everything to do with allowing communist China to covertly harvest the DNA of Americans.

One of the main purposes behind the Chinese virus scare is to drive the fearful into testing centers where swabs, both nasal and anal, are used to collect DNA that is then sent off to the Chicoms for analysis and databasing.

Foreign powers can collect, store and exploit biometric information from COVID tests, reads a statement issued by Bill Evanina, Director of the United States National Counterintelligence and Security Center.

A CBS News report explains that the BGI Group, which is based out of China, runs Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) testing labs all across the country. It also just so happens to be the largest biotechnology company in the world.

Evanina believes that communist China is trying to collect Americans DNA in a race to control the worlds biodata. Like with most other things, the Chicoms are threatened by all competition and seek to squelch it through anti-competitive, also known as communist, behavior.

A veteran of the CIA and FBI, Evanina told CBS that he believes the CCP is racing to gain an edge on medical advancements before the United States or any other country has the chance to catch up and outpace it.

This shows the nefarious mindset of the Communist Party of China, to take advantage of a worldwide crisis like COVID, Evanina is quoted as saying, adding that he thinks Chinese companies are actively investing in U.S.-based biotech companies to further the countrys efforts to attain all human DNA.

Evanina also warns that all of these ancestry companies that have been popping up in recent years could be involved as well. Under the guise of informing a person about his or her heritage, these companies could be indiscriminately sending DNA samples to Chinese companies that are using it for other purposes.

The military has already sent a warning to service members telling them not to use any direct-to-consumer genealogy companies due to similar concerns about how that DNA is potentially being used overseas.

These genetic tests are largely unregulated and could expose personal and genetic information, the warning states. Outside parties are exploiting the use of genetic data.

If the plandemic persists, communist China will control the global health care system

Fortunately, Evanina has been successful at preventing some states from forming partnerships with the BGI Group. He and his cohorts put out an advisory not just for Americans but for every hospital, association and clinic that performs Chinese virus testing explaining the potential risk involved.

Knowing that BGI is a Chinese company, do we understand where that datas going? the advisory reads.

Another major concern is that communist China will use human DNA to eventually gain total control over health care. If future medical technology is able to determine peoples health risks based on a DNA assessment, then China could use this information to create a worldwide monopoly over therapies and drug treatments.

From a long-term existential cost to our nation, do we want to do that? he asks. Do we want to have another nation systematically eliminate our health care services? Thats whats happening.

On a smaller scale, the U.S. is already almost entirely dependent on communist China to procure personal protective equipment, or PPE. This includes those plastic-woven blue face masks handed out at the big-box stores, as well as gowns and of course testing kits.

Edward You, a former biochemist turned supervisory special agent within the FBI, warns of a potential future where communist China controls everything related to health care, from the drugs people take to the doctors they see.

What happens if we realize that all of our future drugs, our future vaccines  are all completely dependent upon a foreign source? he asks. If we dont wake up, well realize one day weve just become health care crack addicts and someone like China has become our pusher.

Reporter Jon Wertheim reached out to the nations largest genealogy firms to get their input about how DNA test data is used. Ann Wojcicki, CEO of 23&Me, responded with an admission that, yes, it is being used by Big Pharma to develop more patented drugs.

What we have done is we have empowered individuals with this opportunity to come together, to crowd source research, is how she branded it to sound less draconian.

And I absolutely stand behind: we are going to develop drugs so that everyone is actually benefitting from the human genome. So absolutely the data is valuable.

As for Chinas involvement with the process, Wojcicki paid lip service to the idea that we need to be super vigilant in protecting you know  any kind of data from being collected and used by the Chicoms for their own interests.

But the issue is more that China is putting billions of dollars into their own genetic programs and we are not, she added.

More of the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) can be found at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

CitizenFreePress.com

NaturalNews.com

CBSNews.com
Amid the ongoing political crisis in Nepal, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli called a meeting of the Constitutional Council on Wednesday at 11 am.

The meeting comes after students protesting against the dissolution of Parliament clashed with police near the Federal Parliament of Nepal in Kathmandu on Monday. Demonstrators affiliated to All Nepal National Free Student Union (ANNFSU) of ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) had scuffled with police as they attempted to organise a flash mob in front of Parliament in Kathmandu.

Prior to this, three former Nepali Prime Ministers, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal on Sunday participated in a sit-in-protest at Maitighar of Kathmandu against the dissolution of Parliament.

Amongst the trios former Prime Ministers, Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal serve as Chairman of NCP which practically has split after now caretaker PM Oli dissolved the Parliament on December 20 last year.

Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the Lower House on Oli's recommendation on December 20. After dissolving the Parliament, the PM also proposed elections on April 30 and May 10, 2021.

"We will continue our protests and demonstrations till the time, the House of Representatives is reinstated. We will continue this fight till eternity- we will organise sit-in-protests, mass rallies, mass meetings, public meetings, this is an expression of public opinion, their votes and it would continue," Jhalanath Khanal, former Nepali PM had told ANI.

Trio former Prime Ministers of Nepal sat on side of the road accompanied by supporters and members of different provincial and upper house assembly protested for an hour against the "unconstitutional" move by Oli.

Following the announcement of its third phase of agitation against the dissolution of parliament by the party on January 25, the party has been staging a series of protests and demonstrations across the country.

The rival faction of the ruling NCP removed PM Oli from the party, amid increasing political unrest following his decision to dissolve the lower house of the Parliament.

According to the rival faction's spokesperson Narayankaji Shrestha, PM Oli no longer remains a member of the party.

(ANI)

Also Read: China says border issue with India will not be linked with bilateral ties

USIM USIM is working hard to help VISIT PHILADELPHIA plan the regions recovery, drive visitation, grow tourism revenue and remind the modern-day traveler that a trip to Philadelphia is a fun and rewarding choice once travel resumes

USIM is now working with VISIT PHILADELPHIA, the private, non-profit organization that promotes leisure travel to the five-county Philadelphia region (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties). Following a multi-agency review led by Ark Advisors, VISIT PHILADELPHIA has chosen USIM to oversee media planning and purchasing efforts for the tourism board.

USIM is eager to partner with VISIT PHILADELPHIA and help them navigate their media efforts during these trying times. We are working hard to help VISIT PHILADELPHIA plan the regions recovery, drive visitation, grow tourism revenue and remind the modern-day traveler that a trip to Philadelphia is a fun and rewarding choice once travel resumes, said USIMs President Eastern Region, Russell Zingale.

For more information regarding the USIM-VISIT PHILADELPHIA relationship, please contact Stacy Smith, PR/Marketing Manager for USIM.

About USIM

USIM is the fastest-growing independent media agency providing best-in-class integrated media solutions. Every day and with every challenge, USIM Practices the Art of Human Sense  blending cutting edge research and technology with ingenuity, human insight, and creativity, delivered in a seamless experience for its clients and agency partners. USIM is headquartered in Los Angeles and has 17 offices throughout the United States and Canada. For more information, please visit theusim.com.

About VISIT PHILADELPHIA

VISIT PHILADELPHIA is our name and our mission. As the regions official tourism marketing agency, we build Greater Philadelphias image, drive visitation and boost the economy.

On Greater Philadelphias official visitor website and blog, visitphilly.com and uwishunu.com, visitors can explore things to do, upcoming events, themed itineraries and hotel packages. Compelling photography and videos, interactive maps and detailed visitor information make the sites effective trip-planning tools. Along with Visit Philly's social media channels, the online platforms communicate directly with consumers. Travelers can also call and stop into the Independence Visitor Center for additional information and tickets. 6th & Market Streets, (800) 537-7676

Note to Editors: For high-resolution photos and high-definition B-roll of Greater Philadelphia, visit the Photos & Video section of visitphilly.com/mediacenter.


The Colombian military seized two clandestine laboratories where the country's largest guerrilla group generated up to $4 billion in cocaine a year that was then delivered to Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's old cartel in Mexico.

Video released by the South American nation's attorney general's office shows the moment soldiers descended from a helicopter and raided one of the two compounds that had been set up by the National Liberation Army in a forest located in the Pacific department of Narino on Saturday.

Security forces were aided by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and were able to confiscate 2,800 kilos worth at least $95 million.

Military soldiers and intelligence agents in Colombia raided on Saturday two secret laboratories located in the jungle in the Pacific state of Narino, near the border with northern Ecuador, and confiscated 2,800 kilos of cocaine worth $95 million. The compound was set up by the National Liberation Army, the largest left-wing guerrilla group in the country. The drugs were reportedly shipped off to Central America and then handed over to drug traffickers tied to the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's old cartel

Colombian intelligence agents test the purity of some of the 2,800 kilos of cocaine that were seized from one of two secret laboratories that were set up by the National Liberation Army during a raid Saturday in the Pacific coast department of Narino

An agent with Colombia's intelligence agency does a test on a tiny portion of the 2,800 kilos that were seized from a clandestine lab

At least 600 kilos of cocaine paste were also seized from the laboratories, which contained six shops, along with precursor chemicals which included acetone, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and caustic soda.

Colombia's Attorney General's Office estimated that the two laboratories produced at least three to four tons of cocaine a month or 87,000 kilos.

Investigators learned that the cocaine shipments were loaded into speedboats that departed from the Pacific shoreline of Cumbitara, a town near the border with Ecuador.

Pictured is some of the machinery set up at one of the two labs operated by the National Liberation Army, a left-wing guerrilla group in Colombia. The secret labs reportedly produced $4 billion in cocaine that was shipped to Central America and then to Mexico, where the Sinaloa Cartel was responsible for its distribution

The cocaine was delivered to several countries in Central America, and from there they were transferred to drug traffickers associated with the Sinaloa Cartel.

The Colombian government said in October 2020 that four mayor Mexican criminal organizations - Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltran-Leyva Organization - are responsible for the majority of the cocaine that is exported from the Andean nation.

'Mexicans are in charge of buying, trafficking and selling in the United States,' said Rafael Guarin, the presidential adviser for national security, according to Business Insider MX.

'Mexico sends emissaries that verify the quality and leave through Venezuela or northern Ecuador to reach the United States.'

Data collected by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime shows that in 2019, Colombia had 154,000 hectares of coca leaf with the potential capacity to produce 1,137 tons, or 1 million kilos of cocaine.

Colombia intelligence agents survey the cocaine that was confiscated during a massive bust Saturday in the Pacific coast department of Narino. The Colombian Attorney General's Office discovered 2,800 kilos of cocaine worth $95 million

Some of the seized cocaine was supposed to be labeled with Maserati logos prior to shipping
The struggle of Chicago educators to prevent the deadly reopening of schools is intensifying each day and continues to be the focal point of the class struggle in the United States. In defying the dictates of the Chicago Democratic Party political machine headed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, teachers and school workers are giving voice to the strivings of millions of workers across the US and globally to implement measures to contain the pandemic and save lives.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot [Credit: AP Photo/Jim Young, File]

With schools slated to reopen Monday, Democratic Mayor Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Janice Jackson held a press conference Sunday evening in which they falsified science and threatened teachers to try to cow them into submission. Due to widespread opposition, including from parents and students, city and school officials acceded to teachers demands to restrict classes to remote-only on Monday but insisted they conduct online instruction from school buildings or face retribution.

The 62,000 K-8 students that the district officials said would return to in-person classes Monday were instead taught remotely. By the late afternoon, after previously threatening to lock teachers out of their Google Classroom accounts to prevent them from teaching remotely, the district backed off. Officials then declared school would be remote for Tuesday and Wednesday and that no lockouts would occur while the district continues to negotiate with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

Lightfoot told the Chicago Tribune she has been in direct discussions with the White House. The Biden administration is acutely aware of the importance of reopening the third largest district in the country to implement his stated goal to reopen all schools across the country. The Democratic president is pursuing this policy at the worst stage of the pandemic, as hospitals are saturated and more dangerous variants of COVID-19 spread largely undetected throughout the country.

Asked at a news briefing about Bidens position on the situation in Chicago, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden has enormous respect for Mayor Lightfoot, underscoring his support for the mayors vicious threats against teachers for a supposed illegal strike. Psaki then made it clear the president was relying on the CTU to cut a deal to impose the back-to-school order.

The president, Psaki said, trusts the mayor and the unions to work this out. Theyre both prioritizing the right things, which is ensuring the health and safety of the kids and teachers and working to make sure that children in Chicago are getting the education they deserve. So, he is hopefulwe are hopefulthey can reach common ground as soon as possible.

The reality, however, is that there is no common ground between the teachers on one side and Biden and Lightfoot on the other. The political establishment and the corporate interests the Democrats serve are committed to sending teachers and students back into classrooms in order to protect the wealth of the financial aristocracy. Teachers are opposed to this and are speaking for tens of millions of educators and workers across the country who understand the danger posed by a return to school buildings while the pandemic still rages.

After admitting that she was in constant touch with the Biden administration, Lightfoot absurdly claimed these issues are a uniquely local issue, even though the eyes of educators as well as local and school officials across the US are focused on Chicago. She added, We are very, very close, and we can get there if the union takes some steps in our direction.

While offering the carrot to the CTU officials, she is backing this up with the stick of further reprisals against teachers. After falsely claiming that CPS schools are safe, Lightfoot menacingly declared Sunday, We expect all of our teachers who have not received a specific accommodation to come to school tomorrow. Those who do not report to work, and I hate to even go there, but were going to have to take action.

Shortly after the press conference, CPS sent an email to all educators declaring that they will be considered absent without leave and locked out of their Google Classroom accounts if they do not show up to school on Monday.

A veteran Chicago teacher and member of the Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee said, The unions are not going to protect all of us. Joining the Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee is how we must fight. This is why only we can defend ourselves. No one is going to save us. There must be a nationally coordinated response to stop all the reopenings independent of the unions.

Educators and other workers across the country have denounced these threats. An Oklahoma teacher, who was part of the 2018 statewide strike, indicated the explosive nature of the reopening of schools, Every single student has been invited BACK for school in our rural community as weve had an A/B schedule (alphabetically split population) since approx late Sept-Oct. that schedule allowed approximately 7-10 kids per room sized 25X25. A wave of unrest is coming in relation to the Back to school announcement from our Superintendent. I fully support Chicago teachers because this is where we all need to be. In Oklahoma it is naked herd immunity and mass murder. In Chicago its being done by the Democrats. Same game different party name.

A group of Tennessee teachers who have formed a rank-and-file safety committee, which operates independently of the unions, wrote: The Tennessee Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee stands in solidarity with our sister and brother educators in the Chicago Public Schools. CPS rank-and-file educators are currently fighting for their lives on three fronts: they are fighting for their lives against a deadly pandemic that has already claimed over 450,000 American lives in 10 months; they are fighting for their lives against an exploitative political and economic system that is willing to distort science and obfuscate facts in order to send teachers back into classrooms for profits; and they are fighting for their lives against their own union, the CTU, which agrees with the Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot that schools should reopen during a pandemic without community-wide inoculation against COVID-19 instead of upholding the demands and protecting the lives of their own rank-and-file members.

As you stand together, arm in arm in the fight for your lives, know that Tennessee teachers are banding together in a rank-and-file committee to stand against our delusional governor, degenerate legislators and spineless local administrators as they coerce educators back into classrooms. As you bravely countenance the homicidal threats to your livelihoods, professionalism and well-being from your leaders, know that educators and workers in cities across the country and throughout the world are coming together in rank-and-file committees to fight against injustice in their workplaces. As you turn your backs on your dissembling union, the CTU, know that you, the rank and file, are entreating every teacher, every health care worker, every service industry worker, every worker who is being sacrificed by the insatiable oligarchs for their profits, to form rank-and-file committees independent of their feckless unions.

A veteran worker at Ford Chicago Assembly Plant stated his support for the Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees demands. Stopping the virus should be first. Safety is first for everyone: teachers and students and any one in a school building. Students can still learn [from home] if the parents get involved, he told the World Socialist Web Site.

Its messed up, this whole situation with the virus, he continued. The government, the unions, the mayor, the big companies, the auto industryits all about moneynot kids, not autoworkers safety. Not peoples health.

Immediately after Sundays CPS press conference, the CTU held an online all-membership meeting which over 10,000 educators attended. Attendees left over 1,200 comments and questions in the chat, many of which were highly critical of the CTU. The union has been negotiating with CPS behind closed doors to try to reach a miserable compromise to unsafely reopen schools. They fully support Biden and the Democratic Party, which have emerged as the clear enemies of all educators.

At the meeting, CTU President Jesse Sharkey sought to disarm educators, stating, The mayor just got done doing a press conference saying people have to come back on Monday and there are going to be consequences if people dont, but thats the same thing she said last week, and of course, there werent any, you know, people werent locked out.

Sharkey repeated this multiple times, stating, This is not the first time or even the second time theyve threatened us and havent acted on it and On Monday, tomorrow, were working remotely, were going to see what happens. Hopefully, they blink again, he concluded complacently.

The unions primary demands have been that teachers begin getting vaccinated before they are sent back into the classrooms, and that the district close schools if the citywide test positivity rate surpasses a threshold that they are negotiating. Regarding the latter, Sharkey acknowledged that this condition could soon be met, stating, You know, obviously, positivity rates are falling. I do think that the condition, were getting to a place where they could say, okay, we could open school.

The demand that only teachers be vaccinated is totally unscientific and ignores the mountain of evidence that children in schools are major vectors for the spread of the virus throughout communities. Having a citywide test positivity rate to trigger the closure of schools was the same criterion set by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in September to reopen schools in New York City, the largest school district in the country. When the threshold was passed in November, schools closed for less than a week before Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio unilaterally overrode the threshold and reopened schools, with the UFTs full support.

Also, on Sunday evening, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 announced they had reached an agreement with CPS. The union covers roughly 7,500 special education classroom assistants (SECAs), school bus drivers and aides, custodians, security guards and other support staff, many of whom have returned to schools since the phased-in openings began on January 4. The deal gives the district full latitude to deny requests for health accommodations from at-risk workers or those with at-risk family members and pledges that its members will be sent into the schools even if teachers strike.

In their battle to defend the health and lives of students, their families, themselves and all workers, Chicago educators are in a direct confrontation with the entire political establishment and their backers in the trade unions.

There is widespread support to link up the fight of teachers with broader sections of the working class. Factories, warehouses, construction sites, public transit and other workplaces, along with nursing homes and schools, are where the largest outbreaks are occurring.

Only the Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee, which was formed last month independently of the unions and both big business parties, is fighting for the closure of all schools and nonessential businesses, full compensation for all workers and parents who remain home, and for a massive allocation of resources for high quality remote learning, assistance to parents and students and massively ramping up the production and distribution of vaccines. Our committee is coordinating with a growing network of such rank-and-file committees across the US to prepare for a nationwide general strike to close all schools and nonessential workplaces.

The fate of this struggle cannot be left in the hands of the CTU. Preparations must be made to oppose whatever sellout agreement is reached between the union and the district, and to organize the broadest strike action involving educators, parents and all workers throughout the region and nationally. We urge all Chicago educators to sign up today to join and help build the Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee to wage this fight.
We are pleased to release our Ultimate Windows Tweaker for Windows 7 and Windows Vista. This Tweaker was first released at the Microsoft South Asia MVP Meet 2008. It can simply be downloaded and used as a portable application to customize your Windows to meet your requirements. With judicious tweaking, it can make your system faster, more stable, and more secure with just a few mouse clicks. The tweaker detects whether you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista installed and accordingly offers you the relevant tweaks only.

The tweaker is a very small .exe file which does not require an install, but yet packs over 150 tweaks & settings. Simply download the zip file, extract its contents and run Ultimate Windows Tweaker.

What's New:

Windows 10 v2009 Support

Improved descriptions of some tweaks

Option to hide UWT closing popup

Performance tweaks crash fix

Chromium-based Edge support for Microsoft Edge Download Location tweak

"Show User Folder in Navigation Pane" in Customization -> File Explorer

New "Microsoft Edge" tab in Browsers section

Previous release notes:

Internet Explorer Supports Internet Explorer 9 Enable Menu bar permanently Always on InPrivate Filtering Hide Compatibility View button Disable sending keystrokes to your default search engine Enable Quick Tabs Manage no. of rows in about:Tabs (IE9 only) Disable caching of SSL pages Enable software rendering instead of GPU rendering (IE9 only)

User Accounts & UAC Manage user accounts (improved)

System Performance Disable PAE

Other Extensive code optimization for speed improvement Improved refreshing capability after applying tweaks No more prompts after each Apply clicks Some UI and typo fixes.



Note: It is always recommended to create a system restore point before tweaking your system, and hence an easily accessible button for creating the same has been provided in the tweaker. Should you wish or need to, you can always restore your system to the Windows default settings using the Restore Defaults button and applying them.

Versions:
FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 24, 2020, file photo, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., questions Postmaster General Louis DeJoy during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on the Postal Service on Capitol Hill, in Washington. On Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, a teary-eyed Ocasio-Cortez recounted hiding in her office bathroom as a man repeatedly yelled Where is she?" during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and also revealed a sexual assault in her past as she talked about trauma. (Tom Williams/Pool Photo via AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP)  A teary-eyed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday recounted hiding in her office bathroom as a man repeatedly yelled Where is she?" during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and also revealed a sexual assault in her past as she talked about trauma.

The remembered terror of the day made Ocasio-Cortez get emotional as she spoke during an Instagram live video, and she chastised those she said wanted Americans to put the day behind them and not recognize the lingering impact of such an event.

These folks who tell us to move on, that its not a big deal, that we should forget whats happened, or even telling us to apologize, these are the same tactics of abusers," she said.

She went on to say, Im a survivor of sexual assault. ... When we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other." She didn't say anything else about that experience.

Ocasio-Cortez said the atmosphere around the Capitol and Washington had started to feel more tense and volatile in the days before the insurrection.

On that day, she said she was in her office when she heard repeated bangs on the door, like someone was trying to get in. Her legislative director told her to hide, and she went into the bathroom.

That was when she heard a man yelling and trying to find her. I have never been quieter in my life," she said.

She came out shortly after when her legislative director told her to, and saw a Capitol police officer in the office. She said the officer told them to go to another building, but didn't say specifically where or escort them, leaving her feeling unsafe.

You dont know if that person was actually trying to protect you or not," she said.
Richwood, TX (77531)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 84F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low near 70F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
While the rollout of 5G coverage across GCC countries will empower new services, its infrastructure and network ecosystem also create opportunities for threat actors seeking to disrupt the economy, public health and safety, a report said.



The new whitepaper from global consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton outlines 5Gs most significant technical changes, its diverse operational value, and associated risks and opportunities.



5Gs widespread rollout will spur economic activity broadly through the sale, installation, and operation of new networks. Increasing adoption will facilitate productivity gains, novel services, and innovations only made possible by 5Gs technological advances including speed and network flexibility, among others.



An IHS Markit study estimates that $13.2 trillion in global economic value will be possible by 2035, generating 22.3 million jobs in the 5G global value chain alone. Meanwhile, the global 5G IoT market  already worth an estimated $305 million annually  is projected to expand by 54 percent annually in the coming years, driving further gains.



GCC countries 5G plans are already well underway. In September 2020 for instance, in alignment with the UAE strategy for 5G and beyond (2020-2025) to boost 5G services rollout, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced allocation of a new frequency band that allows UAE telecoms operators to expand the application of 5G more broadly.3Separately, while comparing 5G users overall experiences across 12 of the worlds leading developing 5G markets, an Opensignal report found that 5G users in Saudi Arabia have the fastest overall average download speed of 144.5 Mbps.4



Souheil Moukaddem, Executive Vice President and Managing Director at Booz Allen Hamilton Mena stated: As 5G networks come online in the UAE and other GCC countries, facilitating the creation of secure and resilient 5G ecosystems is an urgent priority.5G will forge connections between devices and the digital world. However, this connectivity also translates to new vulnerabilities. The government and private sector must recognize and address these risks early in the network development process.



Booz Allen assembled experts in cybersecurity research, engineering, and threat intelligence to identify 5Gskey interworking technologies. Examining these core 5Gtechnologies, Booz Allens experts identified opportunities adversaries could exploit, what they might hope to gain from targeting these technologies, how these threats could impact organizations and users, and how operators could mitigate identified risks.



5G will have far-reaching impact across industries, empowering sectors such as healthcare and logistics to adopt new operating models, gain novel insights, and drive efficiencies. However, the increased number of mission critical IoT devices will present threat actors with a wide array of new opportunities to inflict damage.



5G IoT devices will generate massive volumes of data that can be stolen, destroyed, or manipulated. Virtual networks customized for specific sectors and organizations will encourage new targeted threats against them. New software and hardware supply chains will most likely lead to the introduction of untrustworthy components in the 5G ecosystem.



While organizations plan to take advantage of the global 5G rollout, it is imperative to proactively prepare for these  and other  identified threats to 5Gs core technologies.



Booz Allens whitepaper outlines specific threat scenarios, aligned to core identified elements of the 5G ecosystem and associated threat mitigations. The scenarios capture a wide spectrum of possibilities from attacks that damage industrial process devices and disrupt critical processes enabled by 5G networks to the theft of sensitive data, the risk of IoT-enabled devices being compromised, and disinformation campaigns.



Ziad Nasrallah, Principal at Booz Allen Hamilton Mena, concluded: Organizations on the path to 5G adoption should take a forward-looking view of this emergent technology. It offers both immense opportunities, while portending a continually evolving threat landscape. 5G deployment is already underway; now is the time for leaders across government and industry to ensure security, trust, and resilience are the foundational principles of the next generation digital backbone.  TradeArabia News Service
CLINTON COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)  Health departments across Indiana are fighting for a limited amount of the COVID-19 vaccine. And smaller, more rural departments are short-staffed and under pressure to vaccinate vulnerable populations.

The Clinton County Health Department recently moved its vaccine clinic to a large building at the county fairgrounds in an effort to show the state the infrastructure was in place to receive more doses.

Health officials successfully made their case and more than doubled the clinic's capacity, from 120 doses per day just a few weeks ago to 270 doses per day this week.

"We did a lot of talking to the state, kind of advocating for our small clinic," says Clinton County Public Health Nurse Dana Longenecker. "We know we are smaller than some counties."

Longenecker runs a small operation of six full-time staff and is need of more volunteers to keep up with the high demand for the vaccine.

"This is a new thing people are very happy to help us right now, hopefully we will continue to get their cooperation and help," says Clinton County Health Officer Stephen Tharp.

Rodney Wann, administrator of the Clinton County Health Department, has a lofty goal for the county's growing immunization effort.

He hopes to vaccinate up to 1,500 people a week at the clinic then roll out mobile vaccination units to reach the rest of the community.

"Thirty nurses would allow us to do about 3,300 doses a week," he says, "and that would be our ultimate goal."

Wann says the clinic is scheduled out until the end of February. But 69-year-old Edwin Harrington was able to schedule his appointment one day after the state allowed people 65 years of age and older to be vaccinated.

"I can't wait till things start to open up again and you don't have to be concerned about, 'Oh, I forgot my mask' here and there, don't have to worry about being in a crowd," Harrington says. "I'm anxious it's going to get a lot better as the year goes on."

Longenecker says she's heard of people traveling to Logansport and Marion for the immunizations. She wants to change that.

"You can only do so much and that's where we do just rely on being innovative and the community support," she says.

The clinic is open three days a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

To volunteer, visit the State Emergency Registry of Volunteers to register, then visit the Clinton County Health Department's volunteer portal to schedule a time to help.
As far as climate groups like the Sunrise Project are concerned, getting insurers out of the coal underwriting business is the most important thing they can do. No more insurance, no more coal.

Its something Sunrise has been pushing for years. But while its happening in Europe, it hasnt caught on in America.

Related: Coal Financing Drying Up as More Countries Target Zero Carbon Emissions AXIS Capital Decides to Stop Insuring Arctic Oil and Gas Projects

Analysts at Societe Generale SA published a report about European insurers and reinsurers that, for the first time, includes a specific ESG input for stock valuations. It primarily reflects each insurers stance on coal, the dirtiest of atmosphere-wrecking fossil fuels. The analysts determined that an insurers position on coal underwriting and investments can have an effect on its valuation ranging from -3% to +9%.

In other words, insurers that do more to exit coal can gain points in their stock valuation while those who have done the least will lose.

SocGens scoring metric is most heavily weighted toward environmental issues, as opposed to social and governance factors. Using this system, the banks analysts raised their target price for AXA SA shares by 6%, their target price for Swiss Re AG, Zurich Insurance Group AG, Assicurazioni Generali SpA, Allianz SE and Munich Re by 5%, and their target price for Scor SE by 4%.

Prudential Plc ranked lowest of the 10 companies in the SocGen report, getting just a 1% boost in its target price from its coal policies.

Putting a stop to coal underwriting is particularly significant because, without insurance, coal projects are simply not viable, the SocGen analysts wrote in their 74-page report. Therefore, the insurance industry can, almost single-handedly, exert pressure on coal energy producers, which other industries are less well placed to do, they wrote.

Climate Analytics, a climate science institute, said coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, and getting rid of it is a key step to achieve the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 1.5C. The institute said its research shows that coal needs to be phased out globally by 2040 to meet commitments in the Paris Agreement.

Nevertheless, little has been done to curb the growth of coal, the SocGen analysts wrote. As recently as July, new coal projects with a combined capacity of 737 gigawatts were still in the pipeline or under construction. Given this potentially disastrous trend, insurance companies deciding to get out of the business could have an outsized influence on curbing coal.

The SocGen report cites analysis from Insure Our Future, which said AXA and Swiss Re scored the highest for their underwriting policies. Both companies said they have stopped insuring new and existing coal projects. SCOR, Munich Re, Allianz and Zurich Insurance have somewhat less comprehensive efforts to sideline coal, since they still provide insurance for some existing coal operations, according to the report.

European insurers are at the forefront of dumping their coal investments, too. SCOR, AXA, Swiss Re, Zurich Insurance and Allianz are leading the way, the analysts said.

The same cant be said for U.S. insurers, such as American International Group Inc. and Travelers Cos., said Ross Hammond, senior strategist at the Sunrise Project. These companies are providing a lifeline to the coal industry by continuing underwriting support, he said.

AIG and Travelers are among the companies that have yet to take any steps to restrict support for the fossil-fuel industry, according to a report published in December by Insure Our Future.

The Sunrise Project is among the nonprofits behind BlackRocks Big Problem campaign, which is pushing the worlds largest money manager to use its heft to press companies to align practices with a low-carbon world. For the past four years, Sunrise Project has worked through Insure Our Future to pressure the global insurance industry to stop underwriting and investing in coal.

Ending insurance for coal and other fossil fuels is most important thing for insurers to do to fight climate change, said Peter Bosshard, the Sunrise Projects finance program director. Its in the public interest.

Top photo: Heavy dump trucks mine coal at the Arch Coal Inc. Vindex surface mine in Frostburg, Maryland. Photo credit: Bloomberg.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Carriers Underwriting
By Lawrence Hamm

President Trumps failed fascist and racist attempted coup that took place in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 highlights the need to end racial disparities in policing. If police can exercise restraint and show respect for the first amendment rights and right to protest of white supremacist terrorists who launched a violent attack on the Capitol, then they should do the same for Black and brown people and everyone else.

It has been reported that some police officers were participants in the Capitol siege. Several mayors have announced investigations to determine if members of their police forces did so. If these officers violated department rules or laws while doing so then they should be penalized, fired, or prosecuted. Municipalities should also put policies and procedures in place to prevent the hiring of officers who are members of violent white supremacist organizations or who participate in their activities.

Congress must continue its investigation into the attempted coup and the policing and security debacle that occurred. Attempted cover-ups should be exposed. A few high-level law enforcement officials have resigned in the aftermath of the attack. If the investigation finds other law enforcement and security officials complicit or culpable then they should resign immediately or be fired.

Apart from that, Congress must hold hearings and issue findings and recommendations on the problem of racism and white supremacy in the police, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and in all branches of the U.S. military. This must include the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI itself.

Congress should also give the mayor of the District of Columbia power to call out the D.C. National Guard if necessary. In the long term, the Biden administration should support and urge Congress to grant statehood to the district, something D.C. residents and officials have requested for decades. Then, the new states governor could call out its own guard unit.

The fact that the major police unions and organizations in this country decided to throw their support behind a would-be dictator not once but twice cannot be overlooked. The power of the police must be checked.

The Peoples Organization For Progress believes that all police forces and agencies should have civilian oversight. State legislatures and Congress should pass laws that will enable municipalities to establish police review boards with subpoena, investigatory and disciplinary powers.

Trump must be held accountable for the insurrection and attempted coup. If the evidence is there, then the Senate must not let politics stand in the way of finding him guilty. Senators who participated in the insurrection in any way should recuse themselves from the trial proceedings. Members of Trumps administration and his inner circle, such as Stephen Miller, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr., and others, should be prosecuted if they have broken the law.

After the violent attack on the Capitol, more than 100 members of the House and six members of the Senate continued to challenge the electoral college votes in an attempt to overturn the outcome of the presidential election based on the lie that the election was fraudulent and stolen from Trump.

Congresswoman Cori Bush has introduced a resolution to expel them to which 47 House members have signed on. Others have called for censure. Either way, or ultimately at the ballot box, they must also be held accountable. There are members of Congress including Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and others who appear to have participated in the coup attempt. They should be sanctioned also. If they have broken any laws they should be prosecuted.

The racist double standard of policing must end whether it occurs at protests or in the daily interactions between police and civilians. The police and the military are compromised and weakened by racism and white supremacy that exists within their ranks. It hinders their ability to do their job. This is especially important since the struggle against the racist and fascist movement that Trump leads will continue long after his departure from the White House.

Lawrence Hamm is chairman of the Peoples Organization for Progress.

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New York, Feb 2 : An analysis of writing patterns may help spot early signs of Alzheimer's disease years before the onset of the symptoms, says a new study by IBM researchers.

In the study published in The Lancet EclinicalMedicine, the researchers found that older adults who were more repetitive in word usage, made spelling errors, and missed words like "the," "is" and "are" even when they were cognitively normal were more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease later.

The study involved a group of 80 men and women in their 80s, The New York Times reported on Monday.

They were participants in the Framingham Heart Study, a multi-generational study initiated in 1948 that has spurred thousands of health studies.

As part of it, they took a writing test. At that time, none of the 80 participants developed Alzheimer's disease.

The IBM researchers used an artificial intelligence (AI) programme that analysed subtle differences in language to examine the word usage by the participants.

The AI programme identified that one group of the participants was more frequent in repeating some words.

They also used a simple grammatical structure in their language and tended to miss words like "the," "is" and "are." The members of that group went on to develop Alzheimer's disease later.

In predicting who would get Alzheimer's disease, the AI programme was found to be 75 per cent accurate, according to the study, said the NYT report.

"We had no prior assumption that word usage would show anything," Ajay Royyuru, Vice President of health care and life sciences research at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, where the A.I. analysis was done, was quoted as saying.
The Made in India vaccines were on Tuesday exported to "a special friend" Dubai as the country witnessed a spike in the COVID-19 cases.

Made in India vaccines reach Dubai. A special friend, a special relationship.#VaccineMaitri pic.twitter.com/HDrRXpoLd5  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 2, 2021

Earlier, India had exported Covishield and Covaxin vaccines to Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Mauritius for free of cost as a friendly gesture.

Dubai had announced that it would close all bars and pubs for the entire month of February and limit other activities after a spike in coronavirus cases followed New Year's Eve celebrations that drew visitors from around the world. The sheikhdom also ordered restaurants and cafes to close by 1 am, as well as instituted crowd limits on cinemas, hotels, malls and other destinations.

The decision came after Dubai insisted as recently as last week that it can confidently say the current situation was under control. That was as coronavirus testing facilities and hospitals came under pressure from 17 straight days of record reported daily coronavirus figures across the wider United Arab Emirates.

The announcement from the government's Dubai Media Office blamed a marked increase in the number of violations of precautionary measures for the decision made by the city-state's hereditary rulers.

The measures seek to further enhance efforts to combat COVID-19, and protect the health and safety of all citizens, residents, and visitors, the statement said.

As daily reported coronavirus cases neared 4,000, Dubai fired the head of its government health agency without explanation. It stopped live entertainment at bars, halted nonessential surgeries, limited wedding sizes, and ordered gyms to increase space between those working out. It also now requires coronavirus testing for all those flying into its airport.
President Joe Biden said Monday the U.S. would review sanction laws and take appropriate action against Myanmar following the military takeover of the country.

For almost a decade, the people of Burma have been steadily working to establish elections, civilian governance, and the peaceful transfer of power," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Monday, noting that Washington had lifted sanctions against Myanmar, also known as Burma, during its transition to democracy.

"The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action, the statement said, urging other nations to do the same.

The U.S. is one of many governments around the world, as well as the United Nations, to express serious concern over the Myanmar militarys takeover of the country and called for the release of detained political leaders.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed grave concern regarding the declaration of the transfer of all legislative, executive and judicial powers to the military. These developments represent a serious blow to democratic reforms in Myanmar.

Tom Andrews, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, urged countries to consider sanctions against Myanmar as well.

Decisive action is imperative, including the imposition of strong targeted sanctions, and an arms embargo until such time as democracy is restored, he said in a statement.

The European Union, Britain, Australia, India, Japan, and Singapore all expressed their concerns about the situation.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) appealed for "a return to normalcy" in Myanmar  a member country of the association.

"We reiterate that the political stability in ASEAN Member States is essential to achieving a peaceful, stable and prosperous ASEAN Community. We encourage the pursuance of dialogue, reconciliation and the return to normalcy in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar, Brunei, the current chair of the 10-nation bloc, wrote in a statement.

Myanmar's military seized control of the country Monday under a state of emergency set to last one year, citing a lack of action on its claims of voter fraud in November elections. Hours earlier, Myanmars de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other officials from the ruling National League for Democracy party, were detained.

China, one of Myanmar's most important economic partners, said it was still gathering information about the recent developments.

"We have noted what happened in Myanmar, and we are learning the further situation now. China is a friendly neighbor of Myanmar. We hope that all parties in Myanmar will properly handle their differences under the constitutional and legal framework and maintain political and social stability, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Satyam Khanna

SEC does ESG... Securities and Exchange Commission has named Satyam Khanna its first senior policy advisor on environmental, social and governance matters. His job is to advance ESG initiatives across the SECs offices and divisions.

Khanna will coordinate efforts related to climate risk and other ESG developments, issues of great significance to investors and capital markets, said acting chair Allison Herren Lee in announcing the Feb. 1 appointment.

Most recently, Khanna was resident fellow at NYU School of Laws Institute for corporate governance and finance. He also was a counsel to SEC commissioner Robert Jackson.

Ceres, the nonprofit that advances sustainability issues at companies and in the capital markets, applauded Khannas appointment.

His hiring to the newly created position is a critical step forward on the path to mandating climate risk disclosure and addressing climate change as a systemic financial risk, said Steven Rothstein, managing director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets.

Rothstein said Ceres looks forward to working with Khanna to address climate change as a systemic risk to our markets and our economy.

A Ceres report found that the US banking sector was far more exposed to climate risks than what they have disclosed to regulators and investors.

Treasury secretary Janet Yellen plans to appoint a top official to lead climate change efforts and to establish a Treasury climate hub.

Chief diversity officer ranks among the top of executive hires in 2020, according to a survey by LinkedIn. Unlike other top titles like chief revenue officer and chief growth officer, the diversity post has nothing to do with bread-and-butter issues.

The role of a CDO is to make sure a companys work force is representative of America. Lets hope their success eliminates the need for the CDO job. CDO can follow the footsteps of chief digital officers, which was a hot job more than a decade ago.

She doesnt work here. Its even worse: she owns the place. Publix Super Markets is trying to distance itself from Julie Jenkins Fancelli, daughter of founder George Jenkins, after the Wall Street Journal reported that she funded the DC rally on Jan. 6 that led to the storming of the Capitol.

She forked over $300K of the $500K funded for the Ellipse event at which the impeached Donald Trump urged the crowd to march to the Capitol and fight like hell.

The $40B chain, which has more than 817 stores in Florida with the balance of the 1,265 units in the southeast, faces a boycott by customers incensed with Fancellis role in funding the insurrection rally.

Publix issued the following lame statement:

Mrs. Fancelli is not an employee of Publix Super Markets, and is neither involved in our business operations, nor does she represent the company in any way. We cannot comment on Mrs. Fancelli's actions.

The violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was a national tragedy. The deplorable actions that occurred that day do not represent the values, work, or opinions of Publix Super Markets.

Fancelli is more than an employee. She is the aunt of Publix chairman Ed Crenshaw, who ran the company from 2008 to 2016, and part of the Jenkins family.

Forbes ranks the Jenkins family as the 39th richest in Americaworth $8.8Band owner of a 20 percent stake in Publix.

Publix has every right to speak out on Fancellis Jan. 6 activities.

Its website is filled with homages to founder Mr. George and his belief in open communications.

In dodging a comment about Fancelli, Publix is failing to live up to the legacy of Mr. George.
Abbie Chatfield was crowned Queen of the Jungle on Sunday night's grand finale episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Australia.

The 25-year-old was over the moon about the win, but she admits that she still struggles with comments from trolls.

Speaking to the TV RELOAD podcast this week, the reality star said: 'I still struggle with all the trolling. I still struggle with things. I try to take care of my mental health.

Struggle: Abbie Chatfield (pictured) told the TV RELOAD podcast that she still struggles with comments from trolls and her mental health

'I go to therapy once a week. It's still very hard. A year and a half in this isn't very long really. And I was 23 when I got all that trolling.'

Abbie added that she has learned to let things go more as time goes on.

'The biggest thing is I have to understand that everything will pass. Things that seem so hard to get through and things people were so mad about when I was on the Bachelor.

She said: 'I still struggle with all the trolling. I still struggle with things. I try to take care of my mental health. I go to therapy once a week. It's still very hard'

'I now literally laugh with my friends, "Why would someone troll me like that? Stealing someone's date card?"

'It's just knowing everything will pass and everything will get better,' she said.

Abbie went on to reveal that she had dark moments of depression after appearing om The Bachelor in 2019, where she failed to win the heart of Matt Agnew.

'I was genuinely suicidal when The Bachelor was airing, now I am so over the moon happy, so everything can change,' she said candidly.

Dark days: Abbie said she had dark moments after appearing on The Bachelor in 2019, where she failed to win the heart of Matt Agnew (right). 'I was genuinely suicidal when The Bachelor was airing, now I am so over the moon happy, so everything can change,' she said candidly

Abbie has always been open about her mental health struggles - revealing on her podcast It's A Lot, that she was seeing good results from taking antidepressants.

In 2019, she revealed that she was having 'really extreme suicidal thoughts' because of the public backlash and social media abuse she was forced to endure.

'I was scared everyone hated me. I was scared I was going to get physically assaulted in public,' she told the Celebrity Kind podcast.

For mental health support, please call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14 in Australia, or call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK.
A nurse who was struck off when her estranged husband reported her for forging prescriptions after she was the victim of a sex attack died from a Codeine overdose, an inquest heard today.

Katie Corrigan - who had been 'desperate to become a nurse' - suffered with anxiety and depression.

The 38-year-old, who died on August 9, also suffered a 'traumatic event' when she was working at the West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance when she was the victim of a serious sexual assault as she walked to her car.

Her mother Christine Taylor told the Truro inquest that her daughter 'did not tell us or her husband at the time' about the sex assault and 'it just festered'.

But her mother said Katie suffered post tramautic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the assault.

Katie Corrigan - who had been 'desperate to become a nurse' - suffered with anxiety and depression

The inquest was told Katie went on to forge prescriptions for herself to be able to get hold of 'thousands' of pills, and she was then arrested and ended in court where she was given a suspended jail term and was struck off.

However, her family claimed at her inquest that she was overprescribed the painkilling drug.

Her mother said: 'She obviously lost her nursing registration and was devastated by this, her whole career she had worked really hard for.'

In 2019, a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel suspected the fact Katie was taking 'thousands' of drugs suggested 'some form of distribution', but with no evidence to prove it, the panel accepted her claim that they were for personal use.

She was struck off after it was said she would have posed a risk to patients by attending to them while under the influence of a large quantity of drugs.

On Christmas Eve 2017 her husband revealed he was having an affair and he left her and their two children.

Mrs Taylor said Katie's husband Steven told police about the forged prescriptions and claimed he was 'controlling' during their divorce and giving her access to their children.

She said Katie was admitted to hospital in 2018 with liver issues and had paracetemol in her system but in November 2019 she took Codeine she managed to buy over the internet and was 'very unwell after that'.

In 2019, a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel suspected the fact Katie was taking 'thousands' of drugs suggested 'some form of distribution', but with no evidence to prove it, the panel accepted her claim that they were for personal use

Her husband refused access to the children during the Covid lockdown because Mrs Taylor was nursing and Katie did not see the children for five weeks, the inquest was told.

Specialist nurse Mrs Taylor said: 'In lockdown she was devastated. She tried her best to keep herself going but her mood was very low.

'She was devastated her husband's partner had more control over her children than she was allowed.'

Her family claim Katie was overprescribed Codeine by her GP surgery and that there were no investigations into her neck pain.

A post mortem said she died from a codeine overdose at her home in St Erth, Cornwall.

The inquest continues.
[February 02, 2021] Edtech startup Upkey raises $2.6 million, launches career-readiness platform to connect diverse Gen Z and Millennial talent with leading companies

CHICAGO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Upkey , a Chicago startup that offers students free online career readiness tools, today announced it has closed $2.6 million in seed funding and signed Purdue University, Southern New Hampshire University and The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian Life) as customers of its platform that helps transform students into confident professionals. S3 Ventures led the seed round funding, joined by Tensility Venture Partners, Bronze Valley, Lofty Ventures and other angel investors, including Steve Schaffer, the founder of Offers.com. The funds will be used to grow and scale Upkey's operations to serve more students and give companies access to a bigger pipeline of diverse talent. As part of this expansion, Upkey plans to open a second office in Austin, Texas. "There has never been an effective and remote professional development service focused on assisting students from underrepresented communities and schools. The product's viral growth in such a short time has highlighted a significant gap in the market. We are excited to partner with Upkey to fuel their next stage of growth," said Charlie Plauche, partner at S3 Ventures, who will join Upkey's board of directors. Similar to driving to an unfamiliar destination, working towards career goals can be confusing and stressful without directions. Upkey offers an arsenal of free professional development navigation tools that provide students ranging from high-school to university level with individualized, self-paced support. These tools include everything from resume-building, pitch development and interview prep, to virtual classes and internships at leading universities and companiesresources that until now have only been available to students in elite educational institutions. Starting today, these tools also include Upkey's newly launched Dashboard, a customized career map tailored to students' individual needs and goals. The Dashboard features interactive, gamified modules hat allow students to earn ranks and badges, providing support and encouragement along the way.



Currently, 70% of Upkey users are minority and first-generation students. According to recent surveys, 96% of those who completed one of Upkey's professional development tracks said they felt more confident pursuing their career goals. In recognition of its success to date, Upkey was recently named a LinkedIn Top Startup for 2020 , highlighting 50 U.S. companies on the rise.

"As is the case with many university career centers, we find value in offering students smart technology platforms in support of their job search efforts," said Timothy B. Luzader, Executive Director of Career Success and Director of Center for Career Opportunities at Purdue University. "We're especially excited about the Upkey product. Upkey is a particularly great fit for freshmen and other students who have never before created a resume. The hands-on elevator pitch feature also resonates well with students. In our efforts to more effectively serve first-gen and low income students, Upkey is a phenomenal partner and offers a multi-use platform to address these needs." In addition to its student-facing benefits, Upkey's tools and approach also allow enterprises to invest in their future workforce through multiple touchpoints and build a diverse pipeline of polished candidates. One example is Upkey's virtual summer internship program (VIP), an 8-week "master class" where students work with professionals in various areas to complete projects for college credits. Upkey has already received interest from students in more than 70 countries. "Upkey allows students to consider various career options and provides businesses with a new avenue to engage, connect and select future talent," said Caitlin Pemble, director of Agency Growth and Development at Guardian Life. "Working with Upkey reinforces our commitment to investing in the future workforce, diversity and developing the next generation of accomplished professionals." "Over the past year, nearly 100,000 students have benefited from Upkey career preparation tools," said Amir Badr, founder and CEO of Upkey. "Our mission is to level the playing field so that every student has the opportunity for support and training to reach their goals while giving organizations access to qualified candidates ready to take on new and varied challenges." To learn more about Upkey and its services, visit www.upkey.com. About Upkey

Upkey provides free online educational resources to students ranging from high-school to university level. Through gamified modules, the company focuses on making professional growth, fun, easy and accessible to everyone. The goal of Upkey is to create equal opportunities across the board, and provide underrepresented students the tools needed to be successful in their career path. Those interested in learning more can visit www.upkey.com . About S3 Ventures

S3 Ventures is one of the largest venture capital firms based in Texas. Backed by a philanthropic, multi-billion-dollar family for over fourteen years, we empower great entrepreneurs with the commitment to patient capital and true resources required to grow extraordinary, high-impact companies in Business Technology, Consumer Digital Experiences, and Healthcare Technology. Please visit us at s3vc.com to learn more. Media Contact:

Mary Kate Welch

Upkey, Inc.

marykate@upkey.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/edtech-startup-upkey-raises-2-6-million-launches-career-readiness-platform-to-connect-diverse-gen-z-and-millennial-talent-with-leading-companies-301219429.html SOURCE Upkey

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As many people are very excited to share that they have gotten their COVID-19 vaccine already, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has warned Americans not to post their COVID-19 vaccine cards on social media.

According to the BBB, a non-profit organization whose main goal is to expose fraudulent activity and provide consumers with information, people should avoid posting pictures of their vaccine cards since it may attract scammers who might take advantage of the information on the card.

In a news release, the bureau said vital personal information such as the person's full name, birthday, and where they got the vaccine is seen on the card. Thus it can be used as a source of information for fraud.

The BBB also stated that if a person's social media privacy settings are not high, there is a huge risk that these details can be phished by scammers and be used in unlawful acts.

Aside from getting personal information from the COVID-19 vaccine cards, the BBB said that posting a picture of the card online makes it easier for scammers to make imitation cards that they can sell. This scheme has already become rampant in Great Britain, according to the BBB.

They also noted that the fake COVID-19 vaccine cards could help others bypass vaccine requirements that are needed for school, work, or travel.

The bureau also recommended that people share pictures of their vaccine stickers instead of the COVID-19 vaccine cards. They also suggested that people always check the settings in their social media accounts and know who they give access to view their information.

The first images of the vaccination kits and vaccination records were released by the Department of Defense back in December.

According to CNN, Immunization Action Coalition associate director Dr. Kelly Moore said that the simplest way to keep track of COVID-19 immunization is through the COVID-19 vaccine cards. The IAC works hand-in-hand with frontline workers who are administering the shots to the public.

Vaccine clinics are also required to submit reports to each state's immunization registry on what vaccine was administered to a patient. For example, a separate entity could check and know if a patient was given the first dose or second dose of the vaccine.

According to recent reports, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that there had been more than 31 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered throughout the United States.

COVID-19 Vaccine Scams

It has been mentioned that the BBB has already warned people that faking vaccine cards and gaining profit from them has been widespread in the U.K.

The scammers who did these were caught selling the fake COVID-19 vaccine cards on online platforms such as eBay, and even in the video-sharing app, TikTok, Journal and Courier reported via MSN.

The BBB has cautioned that it is only a matter of time before these scams reach the U.S.; thus, they advise people to be very careful of what they post on social media and not openly give free data to fraudsters.

The bureau said that while it understands the public's excitement in sharing their COVID-19 vaccine cards, it is still better to keep the card's picture to themselves also for their protection.

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NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Firmament Group ("Firmament") and Harwood Private Capital ("Harwood") announced today an investment in Principal Logistics Technologies ("Principal Logistics" or the "Company"), a company that specializes in warehouse management system ("WMS") software solutions. The company has developed expertise within the United Kingdom and Irish cold storage, 3PL, and chemical warehouse sectors.

Principal Logistics is founded and led by Peter Flanagan, who founded the Company in 1993 and is the original product developer. Recently appointed, Brian Connolly has been driving the Company's acquisitions as the Corporate Development Director. Collectively, the entire management team has decades of experience with some members having been with the Company for more than 10 years.

Firmament and Harwood's investment in Principal Logistics will support the Company's growth strategy, which includes its most recent acquisition of Dublin-based company, Brentech Data Systems ("Brentech"). Brentech is a certified provider of distribution, warehouse management and ERP software solutions. Principal Logistics' Flanagan commented, "I am excited that our longstanding experience in deploying warehouse management software technology into the healthcare supply chain sector, as well as into a range of other sectors, will be increased by this strategic acquisition."

Flanagan added, "I want to thank Firmament and Harwood for the support they provided on this transaction. They are champions of small and mid-sized companies like Principal Logistics, and they provided a flexible capital solution, which helped us achieve our objectives."

Simmons & Simmons provided legal advice to Firmament while Dentons acted on behalf of Harwood.

About Principal Logistics Technologies

Since 1993 Principal Logistics Technologies (Principal Systems Ltd) has been delivering innovative, functionally-rich, Warehouse Management Software and associated technology to 3PL Logistics & Supply Chain warehouse businesses. Its in-house developed, blockchain technology-based, In-DEX WMS solutions suite optimises operational performance, reducing operating cost and increasing revenue. Its expertise spans warehouse operations across 3PL logistics, cold storage, commodities, distribution, FMCG, grocery, food & beverage, hazardous goods, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, retail and more.

About Brentech Data Systems

Brentech Data Systems is an ISO 9001:2015 certified provider of distribution, warehouse management and ERP software solutions with over 30 years' experience. The company has deployed its AWARDS & AWARDS-BA technology into many of the world's leading pharmaceuticals and distribution businesses. AWARDS & AWARDS-BA deliver high-scalability and order processing speed, reduces operational costs, increases efficiency and provides full traceability and compliance.

About Firmament

Firmament ( www.thefirmamentgroup.com ) provides tailored debt and equity capital solutions to small- and medium-sized enterprises. Firmament is a value-added partner to entrepreneurs, management teams and business owners and curates solutions by deploying versatile capital in a user-friendly way. Firmament concentrates on businesses in the healthcare services, software, health and wellness, food and agriculture, life sciences, and business services industries. With offices across the United States and in the United Kingdom, Firmament is focused on turning small business into big business.

CONTACT: Allie Reitman, [email protected]

About Principal Logistics Technologies

Harwood Private Capital (www.harwoodpc.com) provides bespoke, flexible debt and equity capital to growing SMEs across the UK and Ireland with profits over 1 million. We aim to partner with founder, family or management owned businesses looking for an alternative to control private equity or traditional bank finance.

Harwood Private Capital is part of Harwood Capital Management Group, a leading UK investor in small and lower mid-market companies, with 1.2 billion of AUM invested in public and private equities.

CONTACT: Jonathan Wheeler, [email protected]

SOURCE The Firmament Group

Related Links

www.thefirmamentgroup.com


Tonight, Brit hottie Jorgie doing a bit of upscale panty promo inspires this peek at pop culture, community news and top headlines.

Kansas City COVID Camp Out For Big Game

Kansas City-area hotels and movie theaters rent out spaces for Super Bowl Sunday KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Hotels and movie theaters in the Kansas City metro are renting out their spaces for Super Bowl Sunday. "When you have a pandemic like this, there is only one thing you can do and that is roll with it," Jessica Hinkle, General Manager of Embassy Suites Overland Park , said.

Show-Me Vaxx Push

Missouri to start pumping up COVID-19 vaccinations to public at selected area hospitals The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced Monday that more COVID-19 vaccines are heading to select hospitals in our area to greatly pump-up the number of vaccines available to the public.More than two million Missouri residents are currently eligible for vaccination under Missouri's priority phases, however, vaccine allocation

Kansas Tech Doubt

Many skeptical as Kansas Department of Labor upgrades website with new security software TOPEKA, Kan. - The Kansas Department of Labor's website for processing unemployment claims is still dark Monday, but should be back online Tuesday with new security software in place. But some fear the upgrades are too little, too late.

Gorgeous Jorgie Shares V-Day Panty Promo

Hollyoaks' Jorgie Porter wows in sexy black undies with hot red frills The 33-year-old's black undies with hot red frills showed off her curves for a glamorous new shoot. She's been loved up in lockdown with new businessman boyfriend Ollie Piotrowski. He recently turned 32 and she posted a gushing birthday tribute during a country walk. They were first spotted together in September 2020.

Dems Vs. MAGA Redux

Democrats unveil bill to oust Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees Democrats on Monday unveiled legislation to remove Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House budget and education committees. House Democratic leaders are threatening to move forward with the bill if Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy doesn't unilaterally yank Greene from the posts. The legislation, sponsored by former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep.

Murder Tweet Accusation Sparks Republican Outrage

AOC's Ted Cruz tweet sparks growing pushback from House Republicans Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Thursday tweet, in which she appeared to accuse Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, of being complicit in attempted murder, has received some pushback from House Republicans who have added their names to a letter demanding that she apologize.

Free Money Agreement

Biden, GOP senators agree to more COVID talks after 'excellent' first meeting President Biden and a group of 10 GOP senators agreed on Monday to hold additional negotiations on coronavirus relief, as they look to find room to craft a bipartisan agreement. The group of Republicans met with Biden at the White House on Monday for roughly two hours, significantly longer than either side had expected the meeting would last.

Everythings Coup

Myanmar military coup: 'Our world turned upside down overnight' "I guess I'll be live tweeting a coup now," former Reuters journalist Aye Min Thant wrote on Twitter shortly before 07:00 local time (00:30 GMT). "Things are still pretty quiet for now, though people are awake and scared. I've been fielding calls since 6am from friends and relatives.

Naming Noble Nobels

Stacey Abrams, Jared Kushner, BLM movement highlight nominees for Nobel Peace Prize by: Alexa Mencia Posted: / Updated: OSLO, Norway (NewsNation Now) - U.S. voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, climate activist Greta Thunberg and former White House adviser Jared Kushner are among those nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize this year.

Kansas City Hipster Beer Can Winning

KC visual artist among finalists for PBR's annual can art contest Frank Norton's design, "Creature Feature." // Courtesy of Pabst Blue Ribbon Pabst Blue Ribbon officially announced the top 25 finalists for its Annual Art Can Contest. The contest launched in 2012 and has since given $100,000 to artists and designers through the contest and featured original artwork on 350 million cans.

JoCo Cry For COVID Help

Johnson County calls in help after overwhelmed by COVID-19 vaccination questions by: Heidi Schmidt Posted: / Updated: OLATHE, Kan. - Flooded with forms and constantly ringing phones, the Johnson County Department of Health called in reinforcements Monday. The change comes after 150,000 people completed the county's vaccine interest survey, many more than once. Thousands of other people living in Johnson County overwhelmed the phone lines to the department's office.

More Deets On Warm Up

Temps climb to mid-40s for your Tuesday Hide Transcript Show Transcript SLOWLY, BUT SURELY CLEARING OUT CHILE BY 6 PM WILL BE AT 33 DEGREES CLOSE TO FREEZING IF NOT BELOW BY SEVEN AND DOWN INTO THE 20S BY NINE O'CLOCK. MOSTLY CLOUDY SKIES GIVING AWAY TO A PARTLY CLOUDY CONDITION VISIBILITY. UNFORTUNATELY BE CUT DOWN TO TO FOG.

And this is the OPEN THREAD for right now.
Channel Seven has confirmed that The Chase host Andrew OKeefe departed the network before he was charged over an alleged domestic assault on his partner.

Seven is obviously very concerned to read the reports regarding Andrew OKeefe, a Seven spokesman said in a statement.

Channel Seven personality Andrew OKeefe is facing domestic violence charges. Credit:Simon Schluter

Seven has had a 17-year relationship with Andrew across a number of programs, although he is no longer with the network.

As this is a police matter before the courts, we cannot comment further. The program hosted by Andrew, The Chase Australia, is not currently in production. The program is produced for Seven by ITV Studios Australia. Production will resume soon and a decision about who will host future series is still to be made.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the COVID vaccine procured from India is for all adults living in South Africa, regardless of their citizenship or residence status.

In an address to the nation broadcast on state television and posted on the countrys official presidential website, Ramaphosa dismissed reports that the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute in India and developed by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca together with the University of Oxford, would only be available for citizens.

He said, We will be putting in place measures to deal with the challenge of undocumented migrants so that, as with all other people, we can properly record and track their vaccination history. It is in the best interests of all that as many of us receive the vaccine as possible. But I want to be clear. Nobody will be forced to take this vaccine. Nobody will be forbidden from travelling, from enrolling at school, or from taking part in any public activity if they have not been vaccinated.

Nobody will be given this vaccine against their will, nor will the vaccine be administered in secret. Any rumours to this effect are both false and dangerous.

South Africa was one of the countries where clinical trials were held to assess the drugs efficacy.

Ramaphosa said, The arrival of these vaccines contains the promise that we can turn the tide on this disease that has caused so much devastation and hardship in our country and across the world. The speed and scale at which new vaccines have been developed is unprecedented in human history and represents the monumental progress that humanity can achieve in the face of a common threat.

South Africa has been part of this incredible journey by the global community in search of a lasting solution to the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to thank all the South Africans who participated in various vaccines trials on a voluntary basis and commend all the researchers who led these studies. Many of our researchers have participated in ground-breaking research in the field of genomics providing new information about the virus leading to the identification of the variant known as 501Y.V2.

According to Johns Hopkins University, almost 1.5 million South Africans have contracted COVID-19 and 44,399 died of coronavirus.
Nate Gartrell flipped through a fat stack of pages. Im basically just looking for homicides, he said. Every week, Gartrell, a thirty-one-year-old reporter for the East Bay Times, visits the records office of the Contra Costa County criminal courthouse in Northern California, where a young clerk greets him with a smile and two sets of documents. One lists all the defendants scheduled to appear in the coming days; the other contains police reports detailing recent arrests. In late October, the schedule alone was a hundred and sixty pages longnearly five hundred defendants. There were always more stories in the pile than Gartrell could cover, but he hated the thought of missing something important. So he scanned every sheet, tracing his index finger along each name and criminal charge, snapping a photo on his phone whenever a detail caught his eye.

The only way to understand what was in front of himto identify who was coming to court, when, and for whatwas by knowing how to read the penal codes. It took Gartrell a year to memorize them. PC 203: Thats mayhem, he said. Its like gouging someones eyes out or disfiguring a face. PC 459: burglary. The one with an HS: a meth charge. There was a code for police chases. Robbery. Gun possession. Assault with a deadly weapon. PC 187: murder. Gartrell had been noticing a lot of 187s latelynot owing to a sudden spike in killings, he explained, but because of a recent change in Californias felony murder rule.

Gartrell is a devoted custodian of the courts beat. He is the reason you may have read in todays paper that police are investigating a dead body found on the 300 block of Lemarc Street, and he tracks what happens after someone is charged with a crime. Some cases involve dangerous criminals; others center on someone jailed for months, only to be deemed innocent; more than a few turn up wrongdoing on the part of prosecutors or the police. When Gartrell speaks with me about what goes on in courtlike lawyers meeting the burden of proof, say, or gang turf warseach sentence cuts into the next, the habit of someone trying to pack a lot of nuance into little time. He has stark brown eyes, a mat of brown hair, and a deadpan sense of humor. He swears a lot. In his shirt pocket, he has tucked three pensin case his backup needs a backup.

Gartrell stopped at a page and took note of two names: one a gang member in east Contra Costa, the other a man who had been arrested for running a multimillion-dollar auto theft ring around the Bay Area. Continuing on, he paused at the name of a former county election official whod been charged with perjury and other crimes. He embezzled money from his campaign fund and used it to renovate his second home, in Hawaii, Gartrell said. He was a great fucking source, too. We all trusted him.

The pandemic had slowed everything down. The jails werent allowing visits, even from lawyers, and jury selection was taking longer now that only twenty people could be in the courtroom at a time. Gartrell, however, was having his busiest year yet. When we first spoke, in July, he had already written over three hundred and fifty stories; by December, that number had more than doubled.

All through 2020, the country grappled with its history of systemic racism and what felt like a torrential wave of police violence against Black and other marginalized people. Thousands poured into the streets to demand an end to brutal police tactics, mass incarceration, and structural inequality. Municipalities tried to figure out how to respondsome considered abolishing their police departments altogetherwhile the court system remained in the background, as an important, if less discussed, part of the problem. Criminal charges are exceedingly rare among fatal-police-shooting and excessive-use-of-force cases; in the absence of local or state prosecution, the only recourse a victims family usually has is to sue a city in federal court, seeking damages for wrongful death or violation of civil rights. Those cases, often settled quietly, receive relatively little notice from the public unless someone like Gartrell places attention there.

For Gartrell, who is white, watching the video of an officer killing George Floyd was a reminder of the need to question official narratives. He was struck by how much the footage contradicted the initial statement by police, which had attributed Floyds death to a medical incident. Gartrell never wanted to be the kind of reporter who would accept that kind of story. I remember this sinking feeling of, Holy shit, have I ever had something like this happen on my watch, in my jurisdiction, and not dug because it wasnt on video? he said. Its a scary thought, that maybe theres something people should know about that they didnt know about because I was too naive or stupid. He had to make sure he always scrutinized the paperwork. The weekly court record checks could be tedious and time-consuming, but such is the work required to always be watching, to notice when something is off.

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Several years ago, David A. Sellers, who has served as a public information officer for the federal court system since 1987, observed that news about the courts tends to focus disproportionately on the eighty or so decisions made annually by the Supreme Court. Yet it is Americas lower courts, he wrote, in each state, county, and city, that resolve the majority of criminal and civil cases. Their workthe people, the trends, and most importantly, the impactgoes largely unnoticed. Gone from the press room are reporters from evening papers, newsmagazines, and most regional papers, he found. Their disappearance left a gap in coverage that needed to be filled. If not the media, he asked, who?

Around the time of his writing, American newspaper employment was plummeting. The Pew Research Center found that outlets were eliminating beats to save money; a reporter once assigned to focus on local courts, for instance, was now also being tasked with covering city hall or education. Bruce Cadwallader, who covered the cops and courts in Ohio for twenty-five years, had found himself loaded with thirty judges to follow; he was filing up to six stories a week. He had to become more selective about which cases he followed. Eventually, he left his job, at the Columbus Dispatch, and took a position outside journalism. People have little information about whos presiding over these cases, he told me recently. The public has lost the ability to understand their own legal system because of the lack of coverage.

Lately, courts and law enforcement have made gestures toward transparency, hiring public information officers, moving records online, and expanding their social media presence. But that has left scarce room for the press and the public to push back on official narratives. You get spoon-fed stuff from the prosecutors officeWeve got this conviction, that conviction,  Mike Carter, who covers federal cases and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seattle Times, told me. He pointed to the rise of digital news organizations like the Marshall Project, The Crime Report, and The Appeal as direct responses to the need for greater criminal justice coverage. But without reporters regularly showing up at local courts, the judicial branch had turned into a kind of black hole, Carter said. You need someone who knows where to go, who to talk to, whats going to happen next.

Those who work inside courtrooms are often among the first to notice the effects of a depleted press corps. Michael Haddad, a civil rights attorney who represents plaintiffs in police brutality and jail death cases in Northern California, told me that he used to rely on a handful of experienced local crime reporters to cover lawsuits in detail. Now, with the notable exception of Gartrell, members of the press rarely call him anymore. Most reporters will write their entire story just from our press release and print the quote that I put in it, he said.

In the Bay Area, the consequences of thin reporting are direthe outwardly progressive politics of cities like San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley belie a reality complicated by a growing housing crisis, a widening wealth gap, and a criminal justice system that targets Black and Latinx communities at a disproportionate rate. Its racism with a mask on, Pendarvis Harshaw, a reporter at KQED, the local NPR station, told me. In the courtroom, these disparities weigh heavily: a recent ABC7 News investigation found that Black people in Bay Area cities are more than four times as likely to get arrested as white people. Qiana Washington, a former public defender in several Bay Area counties, told me that a defendants fate following arrest often depends less on the crime itself than on outside factorsanything from how much experience a defense attorney has to the implicit bias of a judge. When court reporting foregrounds the view of the prosecution and police, she said, it can skew the publics perception of guilt and innocence. Washington, who runs a criminal defense practice in Contra Costa County and serves on the board of the local bar association, said that reporters like Gartrell play an important role in educating juries. Without Nate, she told me, we would really have a void.

Gartrell landed in his position almost by luck. He joined the paper, then called the Contra Costa Times, as a metro reporter in 2014. But things were changing: The paper had fallen under the control of Alden Global Capital, a New Yorkbased hedge fund notorious for acquiring media companies and slashing them for profit. Through an entity called the the Bay Area News Group, Alden had set out to consolidate, and, in 2016, the Contra Costa Times was absorbed into what became known as the East Bay Times, along with the former Oakland Tribune and Daily Review. Soon, the Bay Area News Group cut its staff from about 380 to 250; after a couple of years, the company had just 160 people left. Gartrells original team dissolved; his former editor became a regional reporter. Sending beat writers out to cover several cities in the area became the new normal.

Amid the shuffle, a reporter on the courts beat became a columnist. Gartrell wound up in the vacated job and eventually found himself working out of a closet-size cubicle in the back of the civil court clerks building. (His old office building was demolished and replaced by a charter school.) At the courthouse, he got to know his main competitors: a couple of reporters for the Bay City News, which for many years touted its local courts coverage. But after a while, they stopped showing up. On most days, Gartrell is the only member of the press around.

Gartrell grew up in a waterfront suburb near the border of Contra Costa, a county of just over a million people spread across nineteen cities and suburbs along the Bay Areas eastern edge, opposite San Francisco. In the late nineties, when he was still young enough to play with Legos and Pokemon cards, a series of stories in the local papers about child kidnappings gripped him with terror and curiosity. I really couldnt relate to why someone would do that, he said. Thats what initially drew me in. Gartrells father, who worked for the water department, and his mother, a poet, tried to shelter him from violent stories by hiding their copies of the paper. Gartrell managed to get his hands on them anyway, at friends houses.

During high school, rumors often circulated in his social circles: about a local cartel safe house getting busted, or drug deals gone awry. Gartrell became fascinated by the criminal underworld that seemed to surround him. There was all this stuff happening right under the nose, a second society of people, he said. I lived in a pasty-white suburb, what I thought was a crime-free, Beaver Cleaver land, and there were people selling meth by the ten-kilo pack, stashing Uzis, building secret compartments in their homes. One summer, a close friend and his sister saw their parents get stabbed to death by an uncle, and they had to testify against him at trial. Their uncle had chosen to represent himself, which meant that he cross-examined his nephew and niece. His premise was that he had done the world a favor, Gartrell recalled.

In his junior year, Gartrell received encouragement from David Ruenzel, an English teacher and the adviser to the high school newspaper, to take a journalism class. Gartrell had been coasting on a B-minus averagethe kind of student, he said, who rolled a joint in the back of the class, always being told I wasnt applying myself enough. His first assignment for the school paper was about a profane but beloved history teacher whod recently announced he was leaving. The teacher gave a farewell speech during a morning meeting; Gartrell can still remember hearing gasps in the hall. He made it sound like he was leaving voluntarily, he recalled. But a rumor spread that the teacher had, in fact, been fired. Gartrell decided to look into it. He interviewed faculty and students, one of whom suggested that the teacher, who was gay, had been unpopular among faculty because of his sexual orientation. Ruenzel approved the assignment, but a school administrator killed it after reading a draft, without giving a clear reason. They used some government language, like fuckin The story was inaccurate, Gartrell said. He wound up publishing the article on a classmates LiveJournal, confirming for the first time that the school had, in fact, asked the teacher to leave. Gartrells scoop became the talk among classmates; he got an A in journalism. From then on, he said, I pretty much was dead set on that.

At San Francisco State University, Gartrell took an introductory reporting course with Thomas Peele, a longtime investigative journalist. On the first day, Peele warned his students that two factual errors would get them an automatic F on an assignment. I remember thinking, Wow, this is fucking great,  Gartrell said. A handful of students dropped out. Gartrell got an A-minus, one of the top grades. The following year, Peele offered Gartrell a paid gig to help him research a book about Chauncey Bailey, a newspaper editor from Oakland who had been assassinated by members of a criminal ring hed been investigating. Gartrell occasionally met Peele at the office of the Oakland Tribune, where he picked up tips from veteran journalists on how to request a police report and a death certificate. That summer, he attended the trial of the men accused of killing Bailey. So the first time Ive ever been in court watching a murder case, I saw pictures of a journalist with bullet holes in his head, he said.

In 2017, Gartrell married his high school sweetheart, Sarah. She respects her husbands passion for journalism, though she worries sometimes. Over the years, shes seen him struggle with the emotional toll of covering gruesome crimes. And she figures that being the only outside observer in a courtroom makes Gartrell easy to spot by people who might want to silence him. Still, she told me, I cant see him doing anything else.

One afternoon in September, I called Gartrell as he bounced in and out of several courtrooms in Martinez, Contra Costas county seat. Trials were reconvening after a six-month hiatus due to quarantine orders, and his days had quickly filled up with hearings. He wanted to make sure he had time to attend a coroners inquest into the recent death of an incarcerated person, and he had to keep checking the clock. When you have two places you need to be in at once, he said, you have to be able to anticipate what the witness is talking about so you can know whether you want to be in place A or place B.

Gartrell has heard colleagues dismiss coroners inquests as canned affairs: a jury meets whenever someone dies in custodymost often in jail or in an encounter with policehears out the evidence, and votes on a cause of death. Unlike at a typical court hearing, witnesses at an inquest can watch one another testify; an officer appointed by the DAs office is allowed to ask leading questions; and police can enter hearsay testimony. More often than not, the deaths are ruled accidents or suicides or are deemed to be the result of natural causes. The verdict doesnt carry any criminal or civil liability for the officers involved. But from his early days as a courts reporter, Gartrell discovered that inquests can provide illuminating details about who the deceased was; what led to the persons death; and what, if anything, might have prevented it. He rarely sees many people in attendancean attorney, maybe a family member or two. The hearings have their flaws, Gartrell said, but they allow members of the public to ask questions, and he sees few alternative ways to get information.

In the spring of 2017, Gartrell went to an inquest concerning a thirty-two-year-old man named Humberto Martinez, who had died after a struggle with officers in Pittsburg, an industrial city in the upper reaches of Contra Costa County. Initial police statements about Martinezs death were sparse: hed had a criminal record; led officers on a short pursuit; he was Tased; he fought with cops as they tried to arrest him; he bit one, breaking skin. A Pittsburg police captain told reporters that, after more officers arrived and managed to handcuff Martinez, he became unresponsive. Officers were able to resuscitate the suspect at the scene, a breaking news story, which Gartrell co-reported, read. He was transported to the hospital, where he died. Police could not say if the suspect had any medical conditions. The Contra Costa County district attorney declined to press charges against the officers involved.

During the inquest, a forensic pathologist testified that hed found cuts, bruises, and several broken ribs on Martinezs body. Several officers who had been at the scene also spoke, including one who said that hed used an arm to put Martinez in a carotid hold, a choke hold technique that cuts off blood flow to the brain and can squeeze the neck so tight that the arteries close. Afterward, Gartrell spoke to Haddad, the civil rights attorney, who had been retained by Martinezs family to sue the City of Pittsburg. Haddad told him that Martinezs family had been denied police reports detailing the incident, and that they were preparing a lawsuit. Haddad also mentioned that he had seen a video of Martinezs struggle with the cops, and that the footage reminded him of what happened to Eric Garner, who was killed by a New York City police officer in 2014, suffocated in a choke hold. Garners dying wordsI cant breathehad since become a slogan for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Gartrell decided to file a public records request asking the Pittsburg Police Department for body or dashcam footage recorded while Martinez died. It was a shot in the dark; police departments typically declined to release videos, citing an ongoing investigation or a pending lawsuit. But Gartrell made a habit of submitting requests anyway, whenever he heard about a death in police custody. After a few weeks, when his request for the Martinez footage was still pending, I thought, Gee, they might actually give me something.

Months went by. Eventually, the Pittsburg police sent Gartrell an email with two videos attached. Hed gotten them on a technicality: the department had already shown the footage to Haddad, which meant the videos were public record. Gartrell soon published a story, making the footage visible to the general public for the first time. In one video, viewers could see an officer place Martinez in a carotid hold for at least fifty seconds as he told them, I cant breathe.

The video was picked up by local media outlets, including Telemundo, ABC, and KTVU. The California Reporting Project, a partnership of forty news organizations across the state, cited Gartrells report in an investigation analyzing the use-of-force records released by 122 law enforcement agencies. Theres a lot of things about that videothe fact that somebody stays on his neck for so long after hes already unresponsive, and they dont know that hes basically dying until somebody else points it outits a hard video to watch, Gartrell said.

In the year after he obtained the footage, Gartrell started to notice that, during several inquests, investigators played video of other fatal police encounters. A new state law had required cops in California to wear body cameras, making the incidents more visible than before. Because an inquest is a court proceeding, and anything shown to a coroners jury is entered into the public record, Gartrell was able to draft public records requests for all the materiala breakthrough in his ability to cover how officers treated people in their custody, and to tell stories that might never have surfaced otherwise.

In October 2020, more than three years after the inquest into Martinezs death, the family won a $7.3 million settlement in their civil rights lawsuitone of the highest such payouts the country has ever seen. Haddad told me he thought that the outrage over videos like the one Gartrell publicized put pressure on judges and juries to deliver larger sums. But monetary compensation is just one part of the accountability families seek in these cases; their settlement terms also tend to include police reforms, which can be harder to negotiate. In the Martinez case, Haddad said they had made a few demands, including that the City of Pittsburg ban carotid holds. They were really resistant, he said, of the Pittsburg officials, until George Floyd.

Haddad has observed how much is required to bring about systemic changemass protest, litigation, facts on the ground. Reporters like Gartrell, he said, have an important role to play. And there is reason to hope, albeit cautiously, for pivotal coverage to come: in the years between Martinezs death and his familys settlement, California passed new legislation requiring that investigations of fatal police encounters be made accessible to the public, a landmark in the states commitment to transparency. Several law enforcement agencies destroyed years of records just before the new bill went into effect; others delayed releasing them even months afterward; but a few, Gartrell has found, are now sending over their footage without his having to ask.

One evening, Gartrell emailed me to share some news: the paper had assigned him to cover Alameda Countys courts, on top of Contra Costas. I congratulated him on what sounded like a promotion. But it added to an already full plateAlameda County is home to fourteen cities, including Berkeley and Oakland. Gartrell told me matter-of-factly: It more than doubles my workload.

Like others in ever-shrinking newsrooms, Gartrell has learned to be judicious with his time. In a typical week, he averages fifteen stories. If he needs to devote a block of hours to sitting in on court hearings or driving around to pull records, he might publish four or more stories in a day. He monitors his traffic analytics to gauge which articles resonate most with readersa quick hit about a man who cannibalized his grandmother, for example, could free up a few hours to chip away at an investigation into civil asset forfeitures. Often, its the subjects that Gartrell finds most important that receive the fewest clicksstories about people with mental illnesses who end up in jail, for instance, whose cases stall while the court debates their competency to stand trial. His editors encourage him to go after stories with impact, but Gartrell has found it impossible not to notice that the reporters hes seen get laid off are those who generate the least traffic. So he pushes himself, into late nights and weekends. Grace Wyler, Gartrells editor, told me that she views him as something between a unicorn and a maniac. She added, Nate is a paper-of-record reporter with Daily Mail instincts.

Gartrell didnt think to give himself a break until hed been on the courts beat for three years, when Sarah gave birth to their daughter, Scarlett. He went on paternity leave. Shortly after Sarah and Scarlett came home from the hospital, though, he stole some time to finish his civil asset forfeitures investigation. And a few days into his leave, Sarah told me, the couple decided that he may as well go back to work until she had to return to her job, at a local gym. He was still very busy, and I remember thinking, Okay, well, we just had a baby, did you want to come and say hello to her?  (Lately, she said, Gartrell had been making an effort to step away from work on the weekends. Theyd just taken a trip to the zoo.)

Now that he had to cover Alamedas courts, Gartrell needed to comb through roughly five hundred additional cases each week and report on a sheriffs department that was less than forthcoming about deaths in custody. (While working on a story about someone who had been beaten to death by a cellmate, Gartrell learned that the jails public information officer didnt know about the incident until a journalist asked.) To manage the extra work, hes had to become more selective about when to sit in court, and hes found himself spending less time than hed like following federal drug and weapons possession cases, which carry long sentences. Now thats falling by the wayside, he said.

Less than a month after his beat had been expanded, we met up. Gartrell was reporting a slew of new stories: He was looking into a sheriffs deputy whod been fired for misconduct (awful shit youll see lol, hed texted me), another body camera case, a local district attorney controversy, a traffic cop lawsuit, an off-duty officer who shot a man in the back, a cop charged with sexual harassment, an officer who was charged for a fatal shooting. And he was writing a follow-up to his investigation into civil asset forfeitures.

We stood under some shade across from a county courthouse. I asked how long he thought he could keep juggling so many stories. Basically, the plan is until I get laid off, Gartrell said, only half joking. This was the job hed always wanted, the job to which hed gravitated even before he knew it existed. One of the first cases he heard about after joining the Contra Costa Times, he said, involved a childhood friend of his who had been convicted of murder. Later, during one of his first interviews as a metro reporter, his father called to deliver some bad news: Ruenzel, his first journalism teacher, had been shot and killed while hiking in the Oakland Hills. Gartrell drove straight to his high school parking lot, where a small pack of TV reporters were waiting around for someone to interview. He answered a few questions, holding back tears. It had been on my to-do list to say Thanks for inspiring me and ask him out to lunch, Gartrell told me.

As trying as his work is, he feels that hed been prepared. And over time, hes drawn more lessons: reporting on the courts has convinced Gartrell that the most important pillar of American society, maybe even more than the right to vote, is the right not to be searched or arrested by the government without just cause. That pillar, he said, was built to make sure the innocent dont get harassed at the expense of protecting people who might be guilty. To do his job well, hed learned, meant listening to the people most likely to be targeted. And he had to keep showing up in court with his notebook and pens. If the justice system was designed to be fair, and there are people saying its unfair based on factors a person cant control, like race or gender, thats a serious flaw that needs to be remedied immediately, he said. That cant happen unless someone acknowledges that it exists.

Gartrell had just checked in to the court clerks office, the final stop on his records tour for the day. The visit turned up nothing. The clerk who typically gave him the weekly filings was out to lunch; neither of the two women behind the window recognized Gartrell or knew where to find the documents for which hed come. Gartrell debated what to do. He could wait for the regular clerk to return, but that would risk missing an important press conference. He could return the next day, but that would mean adding an extra stop on his way to Dublin, a suburb forty-five minutes away, where hed planned to go through the Alameda County court filings system. Finally, he decided to cut bait. Thank you very much for checking, he told the ladies, flashing them a smile as he walked out. Hed be back tomorrow.

Editors Note: This story has been updated to correctly describe the consolidation of the East Bay Times.

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Jaeah Lee is an independent journalist who has written for The California Sunday Magazine, Mother Jones, Topic, Vice News, Pop-Up Magazine, and others. Shes based in San Francisco.
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People previously infected with coronavirus may only need one dose of the vaccine, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that participants who had contracted COVID-19 in the past and received one shot had antibody levels similar to - and even higher than - those who had never been infected and were given two doses.

Additionally, virus survivors were more likely to report side effects after being immunized such as pain at the injection site, fever and fatigue.

The team, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, says giving previously infected individuals only one dose would 'spare them from unnecessary pain and free up many urgently needed vaccine doses.'

A study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, looked at 109 people after receiving coronavirus vaccine doses, 41 of whom were previously infected with the virus. Pictured: Middle school teacher Michelle Survillas (left) of Riverside gets the Moderna vaccine from nurse Natalie Murone in the parking lot of the Riverside Convention Center in California, February 1

COVID-19 survivors (yellow) had antibody levels 10 to 20 times higher after just one shot and about 10 times higher after a second shot

For the study, published on pre-print server medRxiv.org, the team recruited 109 people, 41 of whom were previously infected with the virus.

The study did not specify whether the participants received Moderna Inc's vaccine or the vaccine from Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE.

After the first dose, researchers measured levels of IgG antibodies, which are proteins the body produces in the late stages of infection and may remain for up to months and possibly years after a person has recovered.

Results showed that antibody levels in people with pre-existing immunity were between 10 and 20 times higher after the first dose.

When antibody levels were measured after the second dose, the team found that people previously infected with the virus had antibody levels about 10-fold higher.

For the second part of the study, researchers looked at side effects after vaccines in 231 participants, 83 of whom previously had a positive COVID-19 test.

Nearly 75 percent of those with pre-existing immunity reported at least one symptom compared to about 65 percent of people who had never had the virus before.

People previously infected with the virus (yellow) were also more likely to report side effects such as pain at the injection site, fever and headache

Participants who had been previously infected were not just more likely to report pain or swelling at the injection site but also other side effects such as headache, fatigue and fever.

'I think one vaccination should be sufficient,' author Dr Florian Krammer, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told The New York Times.

'This would also spare individuals from unnecessary pain when getting the second dose and it would free up additional vaccine doses.'

The study did not show if that greater level of protection was long-lasting and follow-up studies are ongoing, according to the authors.

Some public health experts say it's not surprising that people previously infected with COVID-19 may experience stronger side effects.

Researchers say changing vaccine policy so survivors just get one dose could free up vaccines during the shortage, with just about 10% of the population being vaccinated so far (above)

Both approved vaccines work by tricking the body into producing some of the viral proteins, which the immune system then recognizes and builds a defensive response against.

People who have already tested positive already have an immune system response ready to fight off these proteins.

While some scientists say one vaccine may be enough for COVID-19 survivors, others say more research is needed.

'Just because an antibody binds to a part of the virus does not mean it's going to protect you from being infected,' E John Wherry, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Immunology, told The Times.

'Documenting [who has previously been infected] becomes a really potentially messy public health issue.'
Alabama launched its long-awaited online COVID vaccine sign-up site yesterday but it didnt take long for many users to become frustrated with the lack of available appointments.

As of Tuesday morning, only 31 of Alabamas 67 counties had time slots available for COVID-vaccine sign-ups through the health department and many of those appointments werent available until March or were only for follow-up doses.

Many users questioned the effectiveness of the portal, which was first announced by Gov. Kay Ivey in mid-January.

Here is a portal to schedule appointments. Oh yep, no appointments in the bulk of counties. But hey, its a portal, one user wrote on ADPHs website. So get in line for hours IF there is a drive through clinic around you.

ADPH later said on social media that most February clinics and appointments are already booked (in) most counties using the limited supply of vaccine and directed people to check another tab on the site that showed a list of walk-in and drive-up clinics. You can see that link here. The clinics are listed by date (one site may be listed multiple times for different days) and some are only doing second doses.

Additional vaccine distribution sites  including pharmacy locations - are listed here.

ADPH said while appointments may not be available now, the agency expects that access to appointments will grow, particularly for priority populations as our supply from the federal government increases.

The portal does allow people to confirm their eligibility and sign up for email notifications when the vaccine becomes available to additional priority groups. Information about the vaccine product itself and what to expect is also provided.

Jefferson County, which shows no available appointments on the Alabama Department of Public Health site, is handling its own vaccine registration here.

Vaccine pool expanding by 1 million people next week

The pool of people eligible to receive the COVID vaccine is Alabama will soon get much, much larger despite the lack of supply.

Alabama began its vaccination program with frontline healthcare workers and those who work or live in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes. It has since expanded to first responders, such as police officers and firefighters, and those ages 75 and older.

According to ADPH data, Alabama has received 772,275 COVID-19 vaccine doses and administered 359,589 with demand greatly exceeding supply. Alabama has more than 326,000 healthcare workers and nearly 350,000 people who qualify for the vaccine because they are ages 75 and older.

Starting Feb. 8, the state will expand the vaccine eligibility pool to those ages 65 and older, teachers, corrections officers, postal, manufacturing and food workers and those who work in the judiciary. Those additions are expected to include some 1 million people, despite a lack of vaccine supply.

Both of the currently used COVID vaccines require two separate doses administered 21-28 days apart and ADPH said its clinics will likely focus heavily on providing second doses for the month of February.

ADPH does not have a timeline as to when it will move to the next phase of vaccinations.

How to find a COVID vaccine in Alabama

1. Check your county or other counties for COVID-vaccine appointments via the ADPH vaccine scheduler website.

2. Check the schedule, times and qualifications for drive-through or walk-in clinics via ADPH website.

3. Check the list of other providers who have vaccines available. You can access that list here. (Link may direct to walk-in sites. If that happens, click on tab at the bottom that says Alabama Vaccine Providers.
Union Budget 2021 did not offer much to the automotive sector but industry stakeholders were content that there were no nasty surprises, which in budgets past had troubled them.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the commencement of the long-pending scrappage scheme for obsolete vehicles. Owners will be incentivised to scrap such vehicles if they are over 20 years old in the case of passenger vehicles and 15 years in the case of commercial vehicles.

Kenichi Ayukawa, President, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), said: The vehicle scrappage scheme has a good intent and the auto industry will be keen to work with the government on suggestions for maximising benefits to environment and society.

Although the government has not provided any approximation of the number of vehicles that stand to benefit from the scheme, Street estimates indicate there could be 3.7 million commercial vehicles and 5.2 million passenger vehicles eligible.

Sitharaman said that further notification on the scheme will be shared by the ministry concerned.

Industry reactions

Venkatram Mamillapalle, Country CEO & Managing Director, Renault India Operations, said: We welcome the governments announcement pertaining to the scrappage policy, made voluntary, for vehicle age of 15 years for commercial vehicles and 20 years for personal vehicles. This move will significantly reduce pollution and should help bolster demand for new vehicles in the CV and PV sectors.

The average replacement cycle of a passenger cycle in India is around eight years while that of a CV is around 8-10 years. Instances of owners sticking to their vehicles for 15 years or 20 years is rare and therefore it is feared that there wont be too many vehicles lining up for the scheme. But stakeholders welcome the idea of upgradation to cleaner and more efficient vehicles as replacement.

ALSO READ: Budget 2021: What the vehicle scrappage policy means for private car owners, explained

Vikram Kirloskar, Vice Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said: The long-awaited voluntary scrapping policy can help take older vehicles off the roads thus contributing to lower fuel consumption and pollution as also generating additional demand for cleaner new vehicles.

Duty discontent

While the scrappage incentive scheme pleased the automakers, a hike in duty on certain imported parts left them discontented. Imported parts such as electrical lighting, windscreen wipers, instrument panel clocks, ignition wiring sets, safety glass and parts of signalling equipment will become expensive.

Gurpratap Boparai, Managing Director, SKODA AUTO Volkswagen India, said: It is important to keep in mind that even in the coming financial year, the passenger vehicle market is unlikely to reach the level of 2018 and the much-required rationalisation of GST and cess to aid the auto industry was missing. Additionally, the increase in customs duty on certain auto parts to 15 percent will further increase input costs and prices for cars that depend on specialised components which cannot be manufactured locally due to unviable volumes.

Sitharaman also did not pay heed to the auto sectors demand for postponement of next-generation emission norms, set to kick in from 2022. SIAM officially appealed to the government to keep the new norms on hold for 12-18 months so that it could at least recoup the investments on BS-VI first.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine BNT162b2 is likely to be effective against the B1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2, even though its efficacy is modestly affected, say scientists at the University of Cambridge. However, when the E484K mutationfirst seen in the South African variantis added, it substantially increases the amount of antibody required to prevent infection.

The preliminary data, which have yet to be to peer-reviewed and relate to only a small number of patients, also suggest that a significant proportion of over-eighty olds may not be sufficiently protected against infection until they have received their second dose of the vaccine.

As the SARS-CoV-2 virus replicates and spreads, errors in its genetic code can lead to changes in the virus. Towards the end of 2020, the Cambridge-led COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium identified a variant of the virus (now known as B1.1.7) which includes important changes that change the structure of the Spike protein, including the H69/V70 and 144/145 amino acid deletions and N501Y, A570D and P681H mutations. Researchers at Cambridge/COG-UK now report seeing a number of virus sequences that also include the E484K mutation, first seen in the South African variant.

The emergence of the B1.1.7 strain has led to strict lockdown measures in the UK because of concerns over its transmissibility. There is particular concern that these changes might enable the virus to 'escape' the newly-developed vaccines, which typically target the Spike protein.

The UK has begun rolling out two vaccinesthe Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. The efficacy of the vaccines can be boosted by a second dose; however, in order to reach as large a number of people as possible in a short amount of time, the government has concentrated on delivering a first dose to as many individuals as possible by giving the second dose at 12 weeks, rather than three.

Researchers at the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), University of Cambridge, working in collaboration with the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, used blood samples from 26 individuals who had received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine three weeks previously, to extract serum, which contains antibodies raised in response to the vaccine. The age range of the volunteers was 29 to 89 years.

Working under secure conditions, the team created a synthetic version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, known as a pseudovirus. When they tested the individuals' sera against this pseudovirus, they found that all but seven of the individuals had levels of antibodies sufficiently high to neutralize the virusthat is, to protect against infection.

When the team added all eight Spike protein mutations found in B1.1.7 to the pseudovirus, they found that the efficacy of the vaccine was affected by the B1.1.7 mutations, which required higher concentrations of antibody in the sera to neutralize the virus. Although there was a wide range of variation between individuals, on average B1.1.7 required around a two-fold increase in the concentration of serum antibody.

However, when the E484K mutation was added, substantially higher levels of antibody were requiredon average this mutation required an almost ten-fold increase in the concentration of serum antibody for neutralization when compared to the strain circulating prior to B.1.1.7.

Professor Ravi Gupta from CITIID, who led the study, said: "Our findings suggest that the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is likely to offer similar protection against B1.1.7 as it does against the previous strain of SARS-CoV-2. Although we found a reduction in the ability of antibodies to neutralize the virus, given the number of antibodies produced following vaccination, this should still only have a relatively modest effect and people should still be protected.

"Of particular concern, though, is the emergence of the E484K mutation, which so far has only been seen in a relatively small number of individuals. Our work suggests the vaccine is likely to be less effective when dealing with this mutation.

"B1.1.7 will continue to acquire mutations seen in the other variants of concern, so we need to plan for the next generation of vaccines to have modifications to account for new variants. We also need to scale up vaccines as fast and as broadly as possible to get transmission down globally."

The seven individuals who were unable to neutralize the virus after the first dose were all aged over 80 years old. This accounts for almost half of the 15 individuals in this age group. However, at a follow-up visit after these individuals had received their second dose (given at three weeks), they were all able to neutralize the virus.

Dr. Dami Collier, the main co-investigator on the studies, added: "Our data suggest that a significant proportion of people aged over eighty may not have developed protective neutralizing antibodies against infection three weeks after their first dose of the vaccine. But it's reassuring to see that after two doses, serum from every individual was able to neutralize the virus."

The researchers have released their data ahead of peer review because of the urgent need to share information relating to the pandemic, and particularly the new UK variant.

Explore further Pfizer vaccine likely works against UK variant

More information: SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 escape from mRNA vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibodies: SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 escape from mRNA vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibodies: DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-156101/v1
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas announced that an initiative to help residents navigate government programs has closed 500 additional constituent cases this year, totaling 3,500 since she took office in 2019.

According to her office, the types of cases have ranged from assistance obtaining veterans benefits, visas and passport renewals, helping small businesses obtain federal relief, unemployment relief, and ensuring constituents receive their economic impact payment from the IRS.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Bellaire highlights local flood management projects

In her 2020 Mid-Year Report, Fletcher noted that more than half of the new cases closed in 2020 were related to COVID-19, with residents seeking assistance with the Texas Workforce Commission, Small Business Administration, and the IRS.

Many of the constituent testimonials note the helpfulness of her offices representatives, notably Spencer G. and Shirly M., whom many praised for following up and being transparent.

I recently contacted Representative Fletchers office for help resolving an error with TWC, whose call centers have been overloaded due to COVID, wrote Lauren J. on Jan. 7, 2021. Her staff replied within days (thank you Spencer G.!) and put me in touch with someone at TWC who was able to fix my issue immediately. This was my first time reaching out to a representatives office and I really appreciate their responsiveness and help connecting me with the right person.

For more information on how to receiving help with a federal agency, go to https://fletcher.house.gov/forms/casework/.

I am proud our team has helped more than 3,000 people in our district obtain the help they need, said Fletcher in a press release last October. It is a privilege for me and my team to be able to provide tangible assistance to district residents, especially in these difficult times. We are dedicated to helping and serving our neighbors in every way we can.

ryan.nickerson@hcnonline.com
Just 25 manufacturers - largely food and drinks companies, including some homegrown companies - are responsible for more than 75% of the branded litter discarded by the public here, a major environmental survey has revealed.

Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful charity, which conducted an on-street survey in 2019, published its findings on Tuesday revealing that of the top 25 companies - seven are responsible for manufacturing a staggering 52% of branded litter here.

The 25 firms are responsible for 77% of all branded litter.

Taking the top place is Coca Cola with 81,065 discarded items, followed by Boost Drinks (54,097) and Lucozade Ribena Suntory third highest with 31,516.

Ranked fourth is Mondelez Europe, which oversees confectionary brands like Cadbury, accounts for 30,866 items - one place higher than Red Bull in fifth, which also had the same number of items. Placed sixth Mars Incorporated (29,242), followed by McDonalds, which is ranked seventh, and tobacco company JTI UK in eighth with 15,758.

Meanwhile, in ninth is drinks company Britvic Plc with 15,596, followed by products under the Henderson Group in tenth place (14,783).

Tayto NI is ranked just outside the top 10, with 12,347 items in eleventh place.

Keep NI Beautiful conducted its survey between January 21 and March 4 and it was commissioned in anticipation of incoming legislative requirements set out by the EU.

There is no suggestion the companies mentioned in the survey bear any direct responsibility for how their products are discarded with once purchased by consumers.

Read More

The report said that unsurprisingly, one of the most frequently littered branded items was the plastic bottle, with an estimated 100,000 branded plastic bottles recorded during survey dates.

Take-away single-use coffee cups were responsible for around 30,000 recorded during the same period.

It also stresses that tobacco companies products is also prominent, with cigarette butts accounting for 37% of all litter.

Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Edwin Poots, giving his reaction before his temporary departure from his ministerial post was announced on Monday, said the report is an extensive and important piece of work.

I am committed to tackling litter and the damaging impact it has in our community and the environment. The prevention of litter in the first place is the best way to tackle the problem and I am presently considering a number of legislative measures which will assist this, he said.

I am confident that legislative measures, supported with continuing behaviour change initiatives, will help reduce the menace of litter and plastic pollution in our environment.

Dr Ian Humphreys, CEO of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, said the findings show that the focus of reducing litter lies increasingly with producers of products and packaging.

They must contribute fairly to both education and awareness raising campaigns and the huge street cleaning bill currently being met by ratepayers, whether or not they buy those products, he said.

Our intention is to start a productive dialogue with producers to find a workable, maintainable solution that shares the burden in fairer way.

The survey also found that 45% of the public openly admit to littering, contributing to the 29m cost of annual street cleansing for 2018-2019 in Northern Ireland.

It also estimates there are 1.3m items of litter on our streets at any one time, and that for every single item binned, three items are littered.

For more information on the Litter Composition Producers Report 2019-2020 and the work carried out by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful visit keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org
"We saw increased activity as threat groups leveraged the COVID-19 situation to defraud businesses from their funding, and the PPP program has created an entirely new playbook with a lucrative opportunity," says Brian Horton, CEO of Breadcrumb Cybersecurity, which helps companies navigate a wide range of advanced cybercrime, including ransomware, financial crime, intellectual property theft, destructive attacks and employee and insider fraud.

Throughout the first round of the PPP and disbursement of Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), the Breadcrumb Incident Response team investigated numerous wire fraud scams where small businesses were victimized and had their funds stolen, resulting in a loss of millions of dollars for local organizations. Most commonly, thieves would hack into email systems to reroute ACH deposits and have the funds deposited into their own accounts.

"Threat groups are intentional and calculative regarding the timing of their strikes. They are keenly aware of when businesses are typically sending or receiving large amount of funds," Horton said, citing one instance where COVID-19 related "work from home delays" were used as a pretext to defraud an organization out of $2 million.

Typically businesses call the Breadcrumb Incident Response team when they have already been victimized or while fraudulent activity is in process, Horton notes. "We encourage small businesses to reach out to establish a relationship now so we can jump in immediately if warranted. Emergencies can happen to anyone, and every second matters."

Wondering how to protect yourself? Breadcrumb Cybersecurity offers the following tips for small businesses to increase their security as the second round of PPP funds begin to arrive:

Whenever possible, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for e-mail and banking services. By requiring multiple forms of verification, it increases your account security as passwords can be easily comprised. Fraudsters are improving their techniques, but malicious emails still typically contain broken English or improper use of grammar. If anything feels out of place, call and verify with the other party before clicking on a link. Always call to verify any requested banking/ACH updates. Even if the email looks legitimate, it's wise to make a proactive call, using a number you find independently, rather than the one provided in the email. Be wary of an unsolicited email that implies a sense of urgency or threat; i.e. "we need funds now or we will turn off your account." This is often a red flag for malicious activity. Have contact information at the ready so you can reach out to a cybersecurity company in response to a potential data breach. Immediate expert assistance is available worldwide 24/7 via the Breadcrumb Cyber Emergency Hotline at (866) 486-0070 or at [email protected] .

About Breadcrumb Cybersecurity



Breadcrumb Cybersecurity helps organizations protect their infrastructure, critical data, and reputation from today's advanced cyber threats. Located in California, Breadcrumb offers comprehensive cybersecurity services for organizations throughout the U.S. and globe. Services include penetration testing, regulatory compliance, risk assessments, digital forensics, 24/7 incident response, hosted security operations, and on-going advisory services.

SOURCE Breadcrumb Cybersecurity

Related Links

https://breadcrumbcyber.com


President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended the inauguration of several social facilities in Absheron district, as well as a newly laid forest park in Yasamal district.



The head of state and first lady visited the statue of national leader Heydar Aliyev in the city of Khirdalan and laid flowers there, AzerTAc reported.



Ilham Aliyev also attended the opening of the renovated 220/110/10 kV and newly built 110/35/10 kV Khirdalan substations. The head of state viewed conditions created at the Khirdalan substations.

President Aliyev then launched the newly built 110/35/10 kV Khirdalan substation through remote SCADA Dispatcher system. The head of state was also informed about the completion of the first phase of the new SCADA project.

The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the First Lady viewed conditions created at the school-lyceum No 3 in the city of Khirdalan, Absheron district.

A 1176-seat block of the school was renovated and a 1200-seat new additional block was built under the Order of the head of state. The newly built block features modern classrooms that are supplied with the necessary teaching aids.

Ilham Aliyev and Mehriban Aliyeva attended the opening of a newly constructed building of Absheron District Central Hospital. They viewed conditions created at the hospital.



Built under the Order of the Azerbaijani President, the 150-bed hospital was supplied with the necessary equipment. After viewing conditions created at the new hospital, President Aliyev was interviewed by the Azerbaijani Television.

In addition, Ilham Aliyev and Mehriban Aliyeva attended the inauguration of a new forest park in Yasamal district, Baku.



The head of state and first lady viewed conditions created at the park. The park, built on the instructions of President Ilham Aliyev, occupies a total area of 4 hectares.
The interview on a West Virginia news station was an effort by Vice President Kamala Harris to pitch the administration's pandemic relief package directly to voters - including constituents of Democrats who might be less likely to embrace the plan.

"In West Virginia, one in seven families is describing their household as being hungry, one in six can't pay their rent, and one in four small businesses are closing permanently or have already closed, so it's a big issue in West Virginia and across the country," Harris said. "And that's why the president and I are offering the American Rescue Plan."

But within a day, Thursday's appearance was criticized by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., becoming an early test for Harris and an administration facing increasingly complex prospects for its goal of political unity.

Harris was a guest on WSAZ-TV, an NBC affiliate based in Huntington. But Manchin told the same station the following day that the White House had not contacted him about its persuasion efforts in his state. He noted that the White House was pushing a $1.9 trillion relief bill that had yet to win buy-in from all Democrats.

"I couldn't believe it," Manchin said. "No one called me. . . . We're going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward . . . but we need to work together. That's not a way of working together, what was done."

The politics of the coronavirus relief package have proved complicated. Democrats last week began a procedure to pass it unilaterally, but 10 Senate Republicans on Sunday unexpectedly offered their own version, prompting President Biden to invite them to the White House on Monday.

The flare-up with Manchin, while minor in many ways, makes it clear how difficult it may be for Biden to achieve the unity he has called for - even within his own party.

The Senate is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, with Harris as the tie-breaking vote if necessary. That means centrist Democratic senators, who are most likely to defect, will often control the fate of Biden's initiatives. And none is more prominent than Manchin.

The episode also reflects the perilous landscape facing Harris as she seeks to build her brand for a potential second run at the presidency.

The television interview was among Harris's first solo forays in the early weeks of the Biden administration. In most of her events so far, she has flanked Biden, looking on as he has signed executive orders and joining him for the President's Daily Brief on national security matters.

In seeking the presidency, Harris would probably face many of the same struggles that have confronted generations of Democrats as they have tried to make inroads in blue-collar, industrial areas, including Appalachian communities like the one she addressed Thursday.

Harris's appearance seemed to be part of an effort to pressure moderate senators, since she also spoke to a news station in Arizona, home to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who like Manchin is a centrist Democrat.

A Manchin spokesman declined to comment for this report or to make the senator available for an interview.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki stressed that the administration has been in regular contact with Manchin, though she declined to provide details.

"We've been in touch with Senator Manchin, as we have been for many weeks and will continue to be moving forward," Psaki said. "Not only is he a key partner to the president and to the White House on this package, but also on his [broader] agenda."

But she said the administration also wants to make the case directly to Americans in interviews like Harris's. High-ranking administration officials have made dozens of TV and radio appearances.

"Our focus is communicating with the American people about how the American Rescue Plan can help put food on the table and can help ensure we can get vaccines in the arms of Americans and help send kids back to school," Psaki said.

Democrats are divided about how to wield their newly won power in Washington. Biden has stressed that he wants to reach across the aisle, but many liberals say the party should use its power to push through its agenda as quickly as possible, even without Republicans.

An adviser to Manchin said the senator recognizes that the landscape gives power to moderates like him. The adviser did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the senator's behalf.

For Manchin, an early clash with the Biden-Harris administration could be a political boon.

He is the only Democrat elected statewide in West Virginia, holding his seat in 2018 even as Republicans surged on President Donald Trump's coattails. Biden, meanwhile, was walloped in the state last year, earning about 30% of the vote.

Manchin has made inroads with groups that many Democrats have struggled to connect with, including factory workers, coal miners and steelworkers.

In 2008, Barack Obama, then a Democratic presidential candidate, made a costly mistake when talking about coal-mining and steel-mill towns in Pennsylvania and the Midwest that were struggling economically.

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," Obama said.

The statement reverberated, signaling to many an educated, out-of-touch Democrat unable to empathize with struggling blue-collar workers.

Manchin, meanwhile, has won reelection in part because he has avoided being cast as an aloof Democrat, the adviser said.

"His whole brand, the reason why he won, is he says he's a West Virginia Democrat who's going to do the right thing," the adviser said. "He's happy to work with Republicans when they have the right idea, and he says he's happy to work against Democrats when they have the wrong idea."
Conservatives are bemoaning what they perceive to be a hopeless future for returning America to traditional values. They are wondering if they will ever again see a conservative administration. They are dejected, thinking about future election outcomes if millions of illegal aliens are made legal citizens. They are rightfully upset about universities twisting the values of the next generation. What they are ignoring is that they themselves hold the key to America's future. Conservatives need to start getting married and then get busy in the bedroom.

America is barely replacing itself. The overall U.S. population replacement rate has been on a downward slide for some time. The U.S. is now replacing itself at a rate of 1.7 per couple, which is obviously below what is needed for replacement. Twenty eighteen showed the lowest birth rate in the United States in over three decades.

For some time now, almost half of those births are funded by Medicaid, which likely means many are being born into urban, poor, fatherless homes. Given the current trend line, the future for conservative leadership and traditional values would appear to be hopeless.

Contrast that with Israel. According to the Ettinger Report, the Israeli replacement rate is 3.1 per couple and climbing. It is the highest in the developed world and now exceeds the replacement rate of Israel's Arab neighbors. Furthermore, Israeli Jews with traditional values  i.e., traditional and observant Jews  are having, on average, between four and seven children (depending upon category). Starting a family is a measure of hopefulness.

Politically, Israel can only continue to move in a more conservative direction despite liberal efforts to the contrary. Some in Israel look at marriage and family as a mission to grow the state of Israel especially in light of the Holocaust. Americans with traditional values need to take a lesson. They need to take it as a personal mission: grow the nation, and fill it with legacy and hope.

Conservatives need to get involved in implementing policies that support growing families. If liberals want to support policies that encourage health providers to fund abortions and birth control, why aren't conservatives pushing policies that fund adoption services and the like? Again, by contrast, these are services covered by Israeli health service providers.

One other important comparison with Israel: observant families generally will not send their children to secular schools. They send their children to schools where traditional values are reinforced. Are there policies U.S. conservatives could endorse that would make religious schools more affordable?

We need someone in national conservative leadership who can champion this cause. America's new Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett, may help make many important decisions, but perhaps her greatest impact could be as a role model for conservative families.

Why aren't more conservative leaders emphasizing "the need to breed"? More than 40 years ago, Dan Quayle raised the issue of fatherless families. Who will be the champion of the large traditional family?

Cheaper by the Dozen was a great movie, but it seems to have had little cultural impact. Imagine if former vice president Pence or former president Trump would make having children a rallying cry for the seventy-five million patriots waiting for a mission. Who will step up?

Perhaps conservatives have unknowingly been influenced by the left. Has the left been successful in instilling false guilt about the planet's ability to handle more people? Or perhaps the culture of "how does it make me feel" has overwhelmed America and the concept of giving by creating a family has been subconsciously buried. Yet religious people instinctively know the first commandment in the Bible: "be fruitful and multiply."

Message to young Americans: "Stop bemoaning and get busy." The world desperately needs a strong America based on traditional values. A strong America starts with making more Americans.

Stop showing your work colleagues pictures of your pets and start showing them pictures of your growing families. Get to the jewelry store and make a commitment  and get busy. You can turn this around in a generation.

Gary Schiff is a natural resource consultant connecting Israel and the U.S.

Image: Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash. Public Domain.
The Iranian government has given the crew of a seized South Korean ship permission to leave the country.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the Islamic Republic made a humanitarian decision to release the sailors.

Following the South Korean governments request and the assistance of the judiciary within the framework of judicial regulations, the crew of the Korean ship, which was seized on charges of causing environmental pollution in the Persian Gulf, have received permission to leave the country in a humanitarian move by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the state-run Fars News Agency quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

The Iranian military seized the South Korea-flagged Hankuk Chemi on Jan. 4 in the Persian Gulf. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it seized the ship because it ignored warnings regarding environmental pollution.

The seizure may have been related to frozen Iranian assets in South Korea, though. South Korea was until recently a major importer of Iran's oil. In May of last year, Seoul stopped purchasing Iranian oil amid pressure from the US government. South Korea is now illegally holding $7 billion in Iranian oil revenues, according to the Iranian government. The previous US administration made significant efforts to pressure countries to stop doing business with the Iranian government.

Iranian media reports referencing the oil funds in relation to the seizure fueled speculation that Iran seized the ship to pressure South Korea into releasing the money. An Iranian government spokesman also called South Korea a hostage-taker over the frozen assets following the seizure.

The crews pending return home followed a South Korean delegation arriving in Iran to negotiate in January.

The Hankuk Chemi will remain in Iran. Khatibzadeh said that a judicial investigation of the ship is continuing, calling it a trespass case. He also acknowledged the Iranian Foreign Ministry has discussed the oil funds with South Korean counterparts, according to Fars News.


BENGALURU, India, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NYSE: INFY), the global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, has been selected by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE), a global leader in the renewable energy industry, as a strategic partner for SAP S/4HANA implementation to deliver a globally harmonized ERP system. The implementation will enable Siemens Gamesa to become an agile, global organization driving digitalization, while enhancing its digital capabilities, offering, and competitive positioning.

Infosys successfully implemented a Greenfield SAP S/4HANA solution across 7 countries, replacing 2 legacy ERP systems. Infosys and Siemens Gamesa teams co-engineered and built a solution template that helped reduce redundancy across business processes and technology landscapes in record time. The solution is designed to enhance business efficiency across the value chain and reduce time-to-market. This transformation will enable real-time reporting, a digitally enabled workforce, reduced go-to-market time and is the core of Siemens Gamesa's next-generation applications landscape. Siemens Gamesa has further engaged Infosys for an industrialized rollout across 50+ countries, 22 manufacturing plants covering all business units (including onshore, offshore, services and corporate functions), leveraging Infosys Cobalt.

Alan Feeley, CIO of Siemens Gamesa, said, "Implementing a single S/4HANA system across all business units and regions is a core component of our company-wide strategy towards process efficiency, standardization and industrialization. These first go live steps across 7 countries, supporting all business types, have proven the value of the greenfield approach chosen, achieving a stable productive environment around Hybrid Azure cloud by Infosys. This single and global setup provides an almost Zero "change the standard" approach giving confidence towards sustainable cost management & upgrade proofing for the future. Infosys has demonstrated admirable 'staying power' and has delivered a solid product whilst fulfilling our expectations of being a partner in full."

Jasmeet Singh, EVP and Global Manufacturing Head, Infosys, said, "An efficient ERP system is critical for business continuity, especially today. Our strategic partnership with Siemens Gamesa will take their digital transformation journey to its next phase as we work towards delivering innovation via business process harmonization and technology leadership, leveraging Infosys Cobalt. We believe, this collaboration will enable SGRE to achieve stronger market positioning in the post-pandemic world."

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.

SOURCE Infosys

Smithland Bridge Restricted Again Today

By West Kentucky Star Staff

SMITHLAND - The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet plans a lane restriction near the US 60 Cumberland River Bridge at Smithland once more today.Yesterday, trucks hauling structural beams used a side road near Livingston Central High School as a staging area, then traveled on US 60 through Smithland to the new bridge work zone.The same thing will happen today. Delivery and offloading of the beams will require one-lane traffic at the Smithland end of the existing bridge from 8:30 a.m. to about 2 p.m. Some delays are possible during the offloading process.
Belarusian opposition figures, Hong Kong-pro-democracy activists, the global Black Lives Matter movement, a jailed Russian opposition leader and an American voting rights champion are among this years nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.

There is no shortage of causes or candidates for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to consider for what arguably remains the worlds most prestigious prize. But getting a nomination isnt the same being in the running for the award.

Heres a look at the Nobel nomination process:

Who can nominate candidates?

Heads of state or politicians serving at a national level, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, past Nobel Prize recipients and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee are among those deemed qualified to submit a nomination for the prize.

A nomination for oneself will not be considered, according to the committee.

The nominations arent announced by the committee, but those doing the nominating may choose to make it public, raising publicity both for the nominee and the proposer.

There is huge benefit in being nominated, but then comes the quality criteria, Henrik Urdal of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, a body that is independent of the Nobel committee, told The Associated Press.

What is the nomination process?

The deadline for nominations was Sunday at midnight Oslo time. Once all nominations have come in, the very secretive board will sift through the written nominations and validate them. They need to check peoples affiliations and whether the nomination meets the criteria. The committee also can add names themselves, Urdal said.

That all takes time and it wont likely be until the end of February or early March that the committee will say how many people or organizations have been nominated.

How about the 2020 prize?

The U.N. World Food Program won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. It was among 318 candidates nominated, both people and organizations, but those names are being kept secret for 50 years by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Who are among the 2021 nominees?

Some of those who have proposed nominees for this year have publicly announced their choices.

For that reason, we know that among the 2021 nominees are exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and two other Belarus democracy activists, Veronika Tsepkalo and Maria Kolesnikova; the Black Lives Matter movement; Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putins fiercest critic; Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who has become a leading voting rights advocate; and former White House adviser Jared Kushner and his deputy, Avi Berkowitz, who negotiated a series of Mideast agreements known as the Abraham Accords.

Groups nominated in 2021 include the World Health Organization for its role in addressing the coronavirus pandemic; NATO; Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF; and Polish judges defending civil rights.

Why were those people or groups nominated?

In his nomination statement, Norwegian lawmaker Petter Eide said the Black Lives Matter movements calls for systemic change have spread around the world, forcing other countries to grapple with racism within their own societies.

Another Norwegian lawmaker, Ola Elvestuen, tapped Navalny, an opposition leader who returned to Russia in January after spending five months in Germany recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning. He called him the clearest voice for human rights and democracy in Russia now.

Abrams was nominated by Norwegian lawmaker Lars Haltbrekken who said Abrams work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights. Nothing the political divisions in the United States, Haltbrekken said the Peace Prize should point out a direction for what kind of working methods one should use if one is dissatisfied with the society one lives in.

Norwegian lawmaker Geir Sigbjoern Toskedal named the three Belarusian women for their fight for fair elections and inspiration for peaceful opposition to the illegitimate regime in Belarus.

A professor emeritus of Harvard Law School, attorney Alan Dershowitz, named Kushner and Berkowitz for negotiating deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. He said they fulfilled the daunting criteria set out by Alfred Nobel in his will.

Who was nominated before but didnt get it?

Urdal said well-known figures are often nominated but dont win: It is not something new.

Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was nominated in 1939 by Swedish lawmaker E.G.C. Brandt, who said later that was meant as satire.

Most recently Kushners father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, was nominated for the 2020 award but didnt get it. Neither did Greta Thunberg, the Swedish environmental activist known worldwide for pressing for tougher action on curbing climate change.

When will the 2021 winner be announced?

The committees announce their decisions for all the Nobel prizes over a series of days in October. The peace prize and other Nobel awards are presented to the winners on Dec. 10, the anniversary of founder Alfred Nobels death. In 2020, the Nobel prizes came with a 10-milion krona ($1.1 million) cash award  which often is shared  along with diplomas and gold medals.
Rome  The American decision recognizing the full and entire sovereignty of Morocco over its Sahara marked a major turning point which heralds better prospects in terms of promoting peace, stability, investment and economic integration throughout the region, noted leading Italian political scientists, academics and journalists.

In articles published in the Esteri edition of the Italian magazine Formiche for the month of February, these Italian experts analyzed the far reaching and positive consequences of the American decision as a highly important act for the settlement of the regional dispute over the Sahara, highlighting the support of the United States for the autonomy initiative proposed by Morocco as the sole basis for a final solution to this issue.

In this edition devoted to Morocco, these experts also discussed the central role of the Kingdom in the peace process in the Middle East, its commitment in the fight against terrorism and its leadership in the promotion of interfaith dialogue.

Journalist Massimiliano Boccolini wrote that "the conflict over the Sahara is about to end" after the American decision and the support expressed by the United States for the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco and considered to be the only credible and achievable basis for ending this regional dispute.

"The blocking of the El Guerguarat crossing last November, decided by the "Polisario" front to interrupt commercial movement between Morocco and Mauritania, triggered a counterproductive mechanism for the separatist group based in Tindouf, Algeria", wrote the journalist.

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For his part, the former Italian deputy, Khalid Chaouki said that "the Sahara region is today a zone of great interest for international investors because it is a gateway to the African continent", stressing that Morocco has devoted enormous resources to the development of the region, as evidenced by the projects and investments provided for in the 2016-2021 development plan for the southern provinces.

Under the title, "Morocco, an example of moderation", Italian university professor, Paolo Branca stressed that Morocco represents "an example of moderation and respect for minorities", recalling the signature in January 2016, of a Declaration in Marrakech on the rights of religious minorities in the Islamic world, and the visit to the Kingdom of Pope Francis.

As for the journalist of the Gedi group, Karima Moual, she called on Italy to follow the American example in its relations with the Kingdom, highlighting the great progress made in Morocco, thanks to insightful choices which position the Kingdom both as an exception of stability in the region and among the countries which have succeeded in developing a very dynamic market and economy.

For their part, the journalist and expert Carlo Panella, the journalist and writer Francesco De Palo, and the former Italian foreign minister and president of the world committee for the rule of law "Marco Pannella" Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata touched on the new geopolitical issues and the challenges related to peace in the Middle East region, emphasizing the role of Morocco in global diplomacy.

In his contribution published by the magazine, the Moroccan ambassador to Italy Youssef Balla noted that "the announcement by the United States of an investment of 5 billion dollars, and the opening of an Economic Consulate in the Moroccan Sahara region confirm Morocco's position as a platform towards the African depth.
Why North Star felt it was key to keep in-person education amid COVID
State heritage-listed Shafston House is under new management, with plans for a full restoration, apart from the Shafston International College campus buildings, which will be demolished.

The site is the third-oldest residence in Brisbane. It is situated on the Brisbane River at Kangaroo Point and was built in stages from 1851 to the 1930s.

Shafston House was designed by one of Brisbanes most sacred architects, Robin Dods. Credit:Queensland Heritage Register

The historic riverfront site attracted national and international interest when former owner Keith Lloyd put it on the market in November last year.

In doing so, Mr Lloyd also announced the closure of Shafston International College.
The City of Bath, Maine is requesting proposals from agencies that can refresh and redesign the citys logo and branding elements.

Telegram has rolled out a feature that lets you import messages from WhatsApp, LINE, and KakaoTalk allowing users to migrate entire chat histories from WhatsApp to Telegram.

This new feature relies on WhatsApps export chat function, which lets you export the messages in a conversation as a text file. You can also export the photos, videos, audio, and contacts in a conversation.

It isnt possible to move all of your conversations from WhatsApp to Telegram at once this way. You have to go into each of your contacts and groups, and export all of your chats one by one.

Before deciding whether to transfer all of your WhatsApp messages to Telegram, it is important to know how Telegram will be storing those messages.

Telegram cloud chats vs. WhatsApp store-and-forward

When you send a message over WhatsApp and Signal, it is encrypted on your phone and sent to one of the platforms servers.

The message is then forwarded  in its encrypted state  to the person or group you are sending it to. Once delivered, the message is deleted from the server.

In other words, the unencrypted message only exists on your phone and on the phones of the people you sent it to.

Telegram has built its platform on an entirely different philosophy. By default, Telegram stores and keeps messages on its servers, along with the keys to decrypt them.

While Telegram does offer a secret chats feature that works similarly to WhatsApp and Signals end-to-end encryption, but it is not possible to import your WhatsApp messages into a Telegram secret chat.

Telegrams cloud chats have the benefit that you can log in to your Telegram account from anywhere and access all your messages without having to restore them from a backup.

However, it has a major drawback in that you have to trust that Telegram will not read the contents of your messages, sell them, or monetise them in some other way in future.

Telegrams privacy record

Telegrams track record in this regard has been good so far.

It fought an attempt by the Russian government to force Telegram to hand over encryption keys which the Federal Security Service in Russia wanted to use to decrypt users messages.

The battle between Telegram and the Russian government ultimately led to the messaging service being banned in Russia.

This in turn led to a high-tech game of cat and mouse that saw Russian authorities blocking Internet Protocol addresses belonging to Amazon Web Services and Google in an attempt to prevent access to Telegram within Russia. Many local businesses were temporarily knocked offline as a result of the fight.

In an FAQ on its website, Telegram states: To this day, we have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments.

WhatsApp cloud backups

To make an informed decision about the privacy and security risks of migrating your messages to Telegram, its also important to take WhatsApps cloud backup feature into consideration.

WhatsApp offers the ability to back up your messages through integrations with Google and Apple cloud storage services. iPhone users may back up their WhatsApp messages to iCloud, while Android users may use Google Drive.

It is possible to disable cloud backups and opt to manually back up your WhatsApp data.

Whether stored in the cloud or not, these backups are not protected by WhatsApps end-to-end encryption.

Backing up your WhatsApp messages to the Apple or Google cloud is, in principle, similar to exporting and uploading them to Telegram.

Apple, Google, and Telegram may use their own encryption to protect your messages, but they also hold the keys to decrypt them.

If you wish to use WhatsApps cloud backup feature, you must then decide whether you trust Apple or Google to keep your data safe and private.

Similarly, if you wish to migrate your messages to Telegram from WhatsApp you must decide whether you trust it to keep your conversations safe and private.

No quid-pro-quo

Another factor to take into account is that while WhatsApp has provided the option to export your messages, Telegram does not offer a similar feature in its mobile app.

The Telegram desktop client does have the ability to export all of your chats either as human-readable HTML or in JSON format.

However, it does not offer the same level of granularity or ease of use that WhatsApp currently does.

Comparison of WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal

The following table compares the key features of WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.

Not covered here is the issue of the collection and monetisation of personally identifying information by instant messaging applications.

Your messages over free platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram may be encrypted and treated with respect, but that does not stop these platforms from gathering other data such as your usage patterns, contacts, and phone number.

For more on this, please read our earlier report: WhatsApp compared to alternatives Telegram and Signal.

WhatsApps updated privacy policy and terms of service were recently the subject of significant social media backlash, causing Facebook to delay the cut-off date to accept its new terms for using WhatsApp.

Telegram has also previously disclosed that it plans to roll out advertising in the large public broadcasting groups hosted on the platform. It will introduce its own ad platform rather than supporting and sharing user data with third-party ad platforms.
(TNS) - City officials are partnering with members of Middletown's Ministerial Health Fellowship at the local AME Zion Church to address concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine.The mission of the alliance, based at African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at 440 West St., is to address "systemic barriers to Black communities' access to care with an integrated, faith-based, health care advocacy network," according to its website.A small pilot clinic for the 75-and-older crowd is set for Feb. 9, an effort to reach the minority populace, Middletown Acting Health Director Kevin Elak said."By doing this, people are more comfortable getting the vaccine where they're familiar," said Elak, who works with Cromwell, Middletown, Durham and Middlefield, all of which are in the same health region. He has seen the trend across Connecticut and the nation, since he's frequently in contact with the governor's office, state health department and Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention.Having these take place at churches "decreases [minorities'] hesitancy," he said. "There's a longstanding mistrust in health care of persons of color dating back to the [Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis]" of the 1930s, Elak said."These vaccines are relatively new, and created with new technology, so many people already have questions," Elak said, about its efficacy and long-term effects, for example.Due to Monday's storm, the Middletown-based Community Health Center canceled all COVID tests through noon Tuesday at all of its sites statewide. Appointments during that period will be rescheduled and patients contacted, according to the CHC website.The second-shot clinic scheduled for about 20 individuals Monday went ahead at the Emergency Operations Center on Mile Lane for firefighters at the Westfield Volunteer Fire District, according to Elak. Anyone who was unable to make it will have their appointments rescheduled, Middletown Mayor Ben Florshheim said.Although there is no clinic scheduled for Tuesday, there are others this week for those 75 and older in Cromwell (about 15 doses), Middletown (140 doses), and another later in the week in Durham. The city is part of a regional health network that includes these area municipalities.Middletown's positivity and case rates per 100,000 continue to decline, Elak said in his Saturday report.So far, there have been 3,243 confirmed cases of COVID in Middletown, a rise of 148 over last week, according to the report. Total deaths were 126  three more than the prior week.Last week, the positivity rate was 53.9, a decline from 67.2 over the prior two-week period. During that same period, the percent positive per 100,000 declined to 5.8 percent from 7.1 percent the two weeks before, Elak's report said.The city has made a lot of headway in vaccinating eligible residents, he said. Last week, Middletown received 300 doses of the Moderna vaccine, which allowed 120 seniors to be inoculated at the senior center, 60 at Cromwell Town Hall, 70 at Heritage Commons Retirement Community, and 50 at Durham Activity Center, Elak said.If Middletown had received the requested number of doses, all those 75 and older would have been inoculated last week, Elak said.The city requested 600 doses of the Moderna vaccine from the state Department of Public Health for the week of Jan. 31 and received 200, Elak said. The supply has been "extremely limited," something happening across Connecticut, he said.Elak said he will put in another request Tuesday for 600 doses.The city is now negotiating with area agencies and the Community Health Center to coordinate vaccination clinics for residents and staff at congregate living sites, Elak said in his report.___(c)2021 The Middletown Press, Conn.Visit The Middletown Press, Conn. at www.middletownpress.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Food is piling up in all the wrong places, thanks to carriers hauling empty shipping containers.

Global competition for the ribbed steel containers means that Thailand cant ship its rice, Canada is stuck with peas and India cant offload its mountain of sugar. Shipping empty boxes back to China has become so profitable that even some American soybean shippers are having to fight for containers to supply hungry Asian buyers.

People arent getting their goods where they need them," said Steve Kranig, director of logistics at IM-EX Global Inc., a freight forwarder that handles cargoes including rice, bananas and dumplings from Asia to the U.S. One of my customers ships 8 to 10 containers of rice every week from Thailand to Los Angeles. But he can only ship 2 to 3 containers a week right now."

The core issue is that China, which has recovered faster from Covid-19, has revved up its export economy and is paying huge premiums for containers, making it far more profitable to send them back empty than to refill them.

There are signs that the soaring freight rates are boosting the cost of some foods. White sugar prices surged to a three-year high last month, and delays in food-grade soybean shipments from the U.S. could mean higher tofu and soy milk costs for consumers in Asia, said Eric Wenberg, executive director of the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance.

Food Costs

While its not entirely uncommon for containers to transit back empty after a voyage, carriers usually try to backfill them to profit from shipping rates in both directions. But the cost of carrying goods from China to the U.S. is almost 10 times higher than the opposite journey, prompting liners to favor empty boxes instead of loading them, Freightos data showed.

At the port of Los Angeles, the U.S.s biggest for container cargo, three in every four boxes going back to Asia are traveling empty compared with the normal 50% rate, said Executive Director Gene Seroka. In Vancouver, containers remain in the yards. Terminals have shortened the time to transport the stuffed boxes onto ships from three days to as little as seven hours, said Jordan Atkins, vice president of WTC Group.

Its not possible to get the amount of volume we have here in Vancouver to return containers in those tight windows," said Atkins. Pulses in general are struggling getting on the ships," he said, referring to crops like peas and lentils. Canada is the worlds second-largest producer of pulses.

India, the worlds second-largest sugar producer, exported only 70,000 metric tons in January, less than a fifth of the volume shipped a year earlier, said Ravi Gupta, president of Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd, the nations top refiner.

Vietnam, the largest producer of the robusta coffee beans used to make instant drinks and espresso, is also struggling to export. Shipments dropped more than 20% in November and December, said Le Tien Hung, chairman of Simexco Dak Lak, Vietnams No. 2 exporter.

Around the world, some foodstuff buyers are waiting while others have halted purchases altogether, traders say.

Shortage of Everything

Its been like that since December," said Kranig of IM-EX Global. Youre going to get not only a shortage of food but a shortage of everything. I would not be surprised to hear some beneficial cargo owners freight rates for 2021-2022 shipping season double from previous years."

If that prediction bears out, once the bulk of North Americans and Europeans are vaccinated, some of those high freight rates could be passed on to them as they return to cafes, restaurants and office towers.

The container crunch comes just as American shippers are trying to boost exports of everything from soybeans to grain meals to Asia. China is scooping up American crops to feed a hog herd thats recovering from a deadly pig disease faster than most expected. The situation is so dire that some buyers are canceling contracts, opting for bulk shipping methods, the most common for feed products, or delaying purchases to avoid high freight costs.

We know that some of the industrys largest and most consistent buyers of soybean containers in Asia over the years are now electing to buy bulk vessel supplies," said Doug Grennan, vice president for select global grain and oilseeds at Scoular Co., a century-old trader thats one of the U.S.s largest shippers of agricultural goods in containers. And certainly like others, we had some booking cancellations."

Still, a major global spike in food costs is unlikely. Only a small percentage of grains and oilseeds is traded in containers, said Arnaud Petit, executive director of the International Grains Council in London, with the rest going bulk cargo. Its also unclear how much of the rise in shipping costs companies will be able to pass on to consumers, given the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus.

Suspending Shipments

Hapag-Lloyd AG last year told customers it was suspending overseas container shipments of North American agriculture products to reposition empty containers back to Asia. Nico Hecker, director of global container logistics at the German sea-freight company, said in November that the firm was experiencing the strongest increase in demand for 40-foot containers following one of the biggest decreases ever.

The pandemic has also upended flows of refrigerated containers. In China, boxes are piling up at ports as workers have to comply with strict Covid-testing procedures as well as disinfection of meat and seafood products after frozen-food imports were blamed for the spread of the virus. There are so many cold containers in Dalian that the port is running out of power plugs to keep them on.

As imports are being held up, wholesale pork prices in China, the worlds top consumer, jumped to the highest since September. Thats prompted the government to boost sales of state pork reserves to meet booming demand ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.

Labor shortages due to the spread of the coronavirus are slowing operations at ports, and worsening the container shortage. Strikes in Argentina have also boosted demand for American agriculture products to supply Asia, increasing competition for boxes.

Its a bit of a perfect storm," said Grennan. "You have pent up demand in Asia for agriculture products and thats at the same time you have a pretty substantial consumer goods demand in the U.S. When you add to that some of these labor issues, thats what really crated the scarcity you are seeing."

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At left, Richard Oman, Right Worshipful Past District Deputy Grand Master, presents a letter and Certificate of Commendation to Norman Bills, Past Master, at Mount Lebanon Lodge, Jamaica.
As many as 6,136 people were administered the COVID-19 vaccine in on Tuesday, taking the number of those who have received the jabs in the state to 39,588, a health official said.

A total of 7,921 health workers were to be administered the vaccine across 96 sessions on Tuesday, out of which 6,136 could be given the jabs, a coverage of 77.5 per cent, he said.

The total number of people vaccinated for the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the state has risen to 39,588 against a target of around 77,000 by February 9, Special Secretary (Health) Nipun Jindal said.

A total of 33,452 people were administered the vaccine till February 1.

The vaccination drive in the state began on January 16 when 1,536 members of the medical fraternity were given the jabs.

Sixteen cases of AEFI (adverse events following immunisation) were reported in the state on Tuesday, Jindal said, taking the total to 81.

(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.)
[February 02, 2021] Great American Insurance Group Announces the Retirement of Mark R. Lonneman, Sr., Divisional President

Great American Insurance Group announces the retirement of Mark R. Lonneman, Sr., Divisional President of its Property & Casualty Group's Risk Solutions Division, effective April 2021. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005341/en/ Mark R. Lonneman (Photo: Business Wire) Mr. Lonneman began his 41-year career with Great American as a casualty underwriter in the Agricultural Excess & Surplus Lines operation. He later joined the Home Office Underwriting Department in 1985 and held positions of increasing responsibility in underwriting managementroles.



In 2010, Mr. Lonneman was named Divisional President of the Specialty E&S Division. He assumed his current role in 2018, when he successfully led the merger of the Specialty E&S Division and American Empire Surplus Lines Insurance Company to form Great American Risk Solutions. Mr. Lonneman will be succeeded by Brian D. DeSoto, Divisional Senior Vice President of Great American Risk Solutions. Mr. DeSoto joined Great American in 2008.

About Great American Insurance Group Great American Insurance Group's roots go back to 1872 with the founding of its flagship company, Great American Insurance Company. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the operations of Great American Insurance Group are engaged primarily in property and casualty insurance, focusing on specialty commercial products for businesses, and in the sale of traditional fixed and indexed annuities in the retail, financial institutions, broker-dealer and registered investment advisor markets. Great American Insurance Company has received an "A" (Excellent) or higher rating from the A.M. Best Company for more than 110 years (most recent rating evaluation of "A+" (Superior) affirmed October 20, 2020). The members of Great American Insurance Group are subsidiaries of American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG), also based in Cincinnati, Ohio. AFG's common stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFG. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005341/en/

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ISLAMABAD, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- A batch of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines has been officially handed over to Pakistan on Monday at Noor Khan Air Base near the country's capital Islamabad, making Pakistan the first country to receive the Chinese government donated COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier on Sunday, the donated Sinopharm vaccines were loaded onto a plane in Beijing.

Addressing the handover ceremony at the air base, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi expressed his gratitude to the people and the government of China for helping Pakistan in the hour of need and making Pakistan the first country in the world to receive the COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Chinese government.

China kept on showing support to Pakistan since the outbreak of the pandemic including sending medical teams while providing the vaccines is another testament to the traditional friendship between the two countries, he said.

"Our friendship is not limited to governments. Our public have the same sentiments of friendship," the foreign minister added.

On the occasion, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong said that sending the vaccines is a new manifestation to the "iron brotherhood" between the two countries, adding that China has honored its commitment to making Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, once developed and put into use, global public goods.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan, the Chinese envoy said, adding that "we are proud of the friendship between China and Pakistan, that is higher than the mountain, deeper than the sea, and sweeter than the honey."

"Our hearts grow closer in the joint fight against COVID-19 with the great solidarity and support we have for each other, and the steady progress in bilateral cooperation including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. China is ready to contribute to Pakistan's pandemic prevention drive, economic recovery and social development," Nong added.

Pakistan has so far confirmed 546,428 cases and lost 11,683 lives to the disease since the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, according to the latest government data.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) (L) heads to the Senate Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 28, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senate GOP Leader Defends Rep. Liz Cheney, Who Voted to Impeach Trump

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday voiced support for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the highest ranking Republican who voted for former President Donald Trumps impeachment.

Liz Cheney is a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them, McConnell said in a statement to news outlets. She is an important leader in our party and in our nation. I am grateful for her service and look forward to continuing to work with her on the crucial issues facing our nation.

Cheney has drawn calls of support from some fellow Republicans after joining with Democrats and nine other GOP members to impeach Trump on Jan. 13. But others have called on her to step down from her position as House Conference chair, which makes her the number three Republican in the House of Representatives.

She is weakening our conference at a key moment for personal political gain and is unfit to lead. She must step down as conference chair, Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said in a joint statement last month.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has rejected calls to hold a fresh vote on the position, even as he said Cheney did not consult other members of the House GOP leadership before announcing her support of the impeachment.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) speaks during a news conference with other House Republicans at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Dec. 10, 2020. (Erin Scott/Reuters)

I support her, but I also have concerns. She took a position as a number three member in conference, she never told me ahead of time, he said last month.

Cheney claimed Trump summoned and assembled the crowd that barged into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president, she wrote.

Trump has called his speech on Jan. 6 totally appropriate. In the speech, he said that supporters who went to the Capitol should remain peaceful. After the Capitol was breached, he condemned the violence and urged people to leave the building.

Democrats cited Cheneys statement on the House floor before the vote.

I hope others will join Liz Cheney. I hope others will be honest with themselves and with their constituents. As Liz Cheney was saying, there has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said at the time.
Green deal: The proposed Eco-Schemes will require farmers to commit to actions that go beyond existing environmental and climate requirements.

A key feature of the CAP post 2020 proposals is the increased environmental ambition.

EU Agriculture Ministers agreed a Council General Approach on the CAP proposals at the end of last year. At the core of this agreement, which demonstrates the higher levels of climate ambition, are the new Eco-Schemes under Pillar I.

Countries will design Eco-Schemes based on their own analysis of priorities and the schemes will include precision farming, agro-forestry, and organic farming.

Farmers will be able to access the Eco-Scheme funds by undertaking additional actions and practices that go beyond existing environmental and climate requirements.

Annual schemes

The Eco-Schemes are annual agri-environmental schemes that farmers will choose to participate in each year.

However, they must be funded within Pillar 1 of the CAP budget from where farmers direct payment (Basic Payment) derives. And upwards of 30pc of farmers' direct payments might be dependent on their participation in these schemes.

The development of Eco Schemes will be of critical importance to all farmers in receipt of direct payments.

IFA President Tim Cullinan last week claimed they are being exploited by some who want to use them to implement some of the recommendations in the EU Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies by the back door.

He said the EU Commission has refused to carry out an impact assessment of these strategies. "They know they will have a devastating effect on farmers," he said.

In discussions on the next CAP, the Department of Agriculture has also highlighted that given there is no previous experience dealing with Eco-Schemes  combined with the fact that farmers will be able to opt-in/opt-out of the scheme each year  there is significant uncertainty regarding participation levels. There is also the potential risk of losing unspent funds.

Each Member State will have to develop a list of actions for inclusion in their Eco-Scheme(s).

As the Eco-Schemes is an annual programme, actions must achieve an environmental dividend within the specified year.

Eco-schemes must meet the following conditions:

they should cover activities related to climate, environment, animal welfare and antimicrobial resistance

they shall be based on priorities identified at national/regional levels

their level of ambition must go beyond the requirements and obligations established under the baseline (including conditionality)

they shall contribute to reaching the EU Green Deal targets.

The EU recently released a list of potential agricultural practices that could be included in Eco systems.

These include:

organic farming

agro-ecology such as crop rotation with leguminous crops or low intensity grass-based livestock systems.

carbon farming  for example, conservation agriculture or the extensive use of permanent grassland

precision farming such as precision crop farming to reduce inputs or the use of feed additives to decrease emissions from enteric fermentation

husbandry practices that improve animal welfare and/or reduce the needs for antimicrobial substances.

However, Tim Cullinan claims farmers will have to jump through hoops to qualify for these new schemes.

"Many will be faced with having to choose between restricting output and taking on extra cost, or foregoing up to 30% of their income," he said.

Read More

At a glance:the proposed new CAP schemes and what the jargon means

Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) Under the CAP proposals BISS will replace the Basic Payment Scheme or Single Farm Payment.

Capping/Reduction of Payments Capping is an overall limit on the value of direct payments an individual can receive. This will be used to finance the Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).

Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF) The CISYF is a proposed optional income support for young farmers in the form of annual decoupled payment per eligible hectare. This scheme is proposed to replace the Young Farmer Scheme which under the current CAP provides an additional payment per activated entitlement (up to a maximum of 50) for young farmers.

Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) The CRISS is a proposed scheme which aims to ensure a redistribution of support from bigger to smaller or medium-sized farmers by providing a redistributive payment per eligible hectare to increase sustainability.

Convergence The convergence mechanism aims to bring entitlement values towards a national average value.

Conditionality Conditionality refers to the requirements set down either as Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs) or Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) which must be met be any individual who wishes to receive Direct Payments.

Degressivity This is the progressive reduction of payments above a certain level. Under the proposals it requires Member States to reduce payments in excess of 60,000 incrementally.

Eco-Schemes It is proposed that each Member States must provide a voluntary annual scheme or schemes for the climate and the environment. These schemes will go beyond conditionality requirements and replace greening.

Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs)

GAECs refer to the agricultural and environmental practices that recipients of Direct Payments must comply with.

Maximum Unit Value of Payment Entitlements

It is proposed that each Member States must impose a maximum unit value of entitlements by 2026. The product of this must be fed back into convergence.

Under the current CAP, Ireland applied a maximum unit value of 700/ha (Basic Payment Scheme and Greening Payment) in 2019.

National Reserve A fund created in the first year of a new CAP reform period. The National Reserve provides allocations of entitlements to eligible applicants.
Another patient who had been admitted to the Matei Bals hospital in a ward ravaged by fire on Friday has died, the Ministry of Health (MS) informed on Tuesday, according to AGERPRES.

"The Ministry of Health has been informed of a death among patients who were in ward V of the Matei Bals National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest during the fire of January 29 this year. It is about an 80-year-old patient, transferred after a fire to the University Emergency Hospital in Bucharest," reads a Health Ministry release.

The patient had been diagnosed with a severe form of COVID-19, had multiple comorbidities and was hospitaliaed in the intensive care unit of the medical facility, intubated, said the Ministry of Health.

A forensic investigation will determine the causes of death, according to the ministry.
Marvel has now earned 51% equity in Tabakorole (from Altus) and will now move to Stage 3 of the earn in (US$3m to go to 70%, and a DFS to go to 80%).

The company has had an impressive start to life with assets obtained at bargain basement prices.

s ( ) recent bottle roll test work on fresh ore composite samples, undertaken by ALS Metallurgy, highlighted straightforward, non-refractory metallurgical characteristics for the Tabakorole Gold Project ore.

Importantly, average gold recoveries range from 92.7% to 96.6% for grind sizes (P80) of 150 to 75 microns, with attractive leach kinetics, indicating a likely processing route incorporating a simple, industry standard cyanide leach circuit.

The following is a research update on Marvel Gold from Bridge Street Capital Partners:

Tabakorole metallurgy

Following on from MVLs 910koz resource disclosure in October, the company has released initial metallurgical results from its flagship project, Tabakorole. While we thought that the risk of the deposit being refractory was low, it was always a possibility. And with the bulk of the deposit (ca.90%) in fresh rock, met. testing is very important.

So, we were greatly encouraged by the results just released by MVL. Bottle roll tests have been conducted on 4 representative composites at a variety of grind sizes, from 150 down to 75 microns. As shown in the following table (which are averages of the 4 composites), recoveries are consistently above 90% and range as high as 97%. Leach kinetic test work delivered rapid gold dissolution rates. These are impressive results. It seems to us that there will be few metallurgical issues at Tabakorole.

Also important are low reagent consumption numbers with cyanide use in the range 0.22 to 0.42kg/t and lime in the range 0.26 to 0.54kg/t. This, together with the potential for quite a coarse grind size, will assist in keeping costs low.

The resource expansion drill programme is scheduled to be complete by the end of January, with assays available for the new resource perhaps a month later. So, we can imagine a new resource sometime in Q2.

What could Tabakorole be? As a relatively low grade orebody, this deposit is all about strike length. It seems likely that the deposit might extend to the SE by a few hundred metres. The area of key interest is the NW extension, which has been identified by a 500-600m strong magnetic anomaly and a pronounced air core anomaly (with the best hit of 6m at 6.2gpt). Simply ratio-ing up the current resource (at 0.6gpt COG) by say 800m implies an unconstrained deposit size of perhaps 1.2Moz or more. We think this is entirely achievable and could pave the way for a scoping study for a stand-alone 90-100kozpa open cut/CIL operation. Given the friendly met response in initial test work, its possible that the deposit is amenable to heap leach extraction. Early days for this project.

As discussed in the recent quarterly multi-element geochem and high resolution magnetic surveys are underway over the entire 300 square kilometre Tabakorole tenement, with data expected by the end of March. Previous work had already defined gold anomalism several kilometers to the south. The T1 target, near to the southern boundary, has several encouraging RC results obtained by previous explorers. These include 5m at 2.3gpt, 14m at 9.8gpt and 4m at 3gpt, and have never been followed up. As well, MVL is in the process of consolidating exploration ground around Tabakorole, and has recently completed a win-win deal with Oklo on neighbouring tenements.

MVL has now earned 51% equity in Tabakorole (from Altus) and will now move to Stage 3 of the earn in (US$3m to go to 70%, and a DFS to go to 80%).

Lakanfla

Results from Lakanfla drilling (located on the Senegal Mali Shear Zone) were disappointing. We had always regarded this as a high risk exploration target, but one which was always worth drilling. The project had all the right indicators for success, with promising soil geochem, a very encouraging gravity profile (which suggested similar subsurface karst topography to the nearby Yatela deposit), and extensive artisanal mining.

Drilling was problematic, with high water inflows the major problem. Gold mineralisation was obtained in the recent programme, but the zones were highly variable in thickness (3 to 22m) and low grade (0.1 to 0.4gpt).

MVL has also completed a soils programme over the entire tenement with peak values quite encouraging at 39gpt and 4.2gpt. So, further drilling may be warranted.

Historic exploration has delivered what will probably become a modest resource within the adjoining granite. Further drilling will be completed here to allow a resource to be defined. There is an ore-starved mill several kms to the north of Lakanfla which could represent a market for this ore. Again, early days.

Investment view

MVL has had an impressive start to life with assets obtained at bargain basement prices. That MVLs geologists have been able to convert a modest 1gpt orebody into what seems likely to emerge as a +1moz/1.2gpt deposit bodes well for the future of the project. Tabakorole should be suitable for processing using conventional CIL technology, with high met recoveries and low reagent use potentially contributing to low milling costs.

The company is well funded (cash around $5m) which should be sufficient to take Tabakarole through to a resource upgrade.

With an EV of under $18m, MVL looks very under-priced against its peers. Yes, results from Lakanfla were disappointing, but our view is that Tabakorole is the main game here. Yesterdays share price performance was odd, given the very encouraging met results.
Actress Kangana Ranaut, who has reportedly gifted new flats to her siblings Rangoli, Aksht and two cousins in Chandigarh, on Tuesday said she was fortunate that she could share her wealth with family.

"I want to encourage people to share their wealth with their family. Remember happiness multiplies when it's shared, they are beautiful luxury apartments under construction will be ready in 2023 but I am very fortunate that I could do this for my family," Kangana tweeted.

I want to encourage people to share their wealth with their family.... remember happiness multiplies when its shared, they are beautiful luxury apartments under construction will be ready in 2023 but I am very fortunate that I could do this for my family  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) February 2, 2021

The four under-construction properties cost Rs 4 crore as per an E Times report.

On the work front, Kangana will next be seen in Thalaivi, where she essays late actress-turned-politician J Jayalalithaa. The actress also has Tejas, Dhaakad and Manikarnika: The legend Of Didda lined up.
There were no casualties in the past day.

The Command of Ukraine's Armed Forces has reported five violations of the latest ceasefire agreement committed by Russia-controlled armed groups in the Donbas warzone on Monday, February 1.

"In the past day, February 1, five ceasefire violations were recorded in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) zone," the press center of the Ukrainian JFO Command said on Facebook in an update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on February 2, 2021.

In particular, the Russian Federation's armed formations fired automatic, hand-held anti-tank and under-barrel grenade launchers near the town of Avdiyivka, grenade launchers near the village of Pyshchevyk, and automatic rifles near the village of Novomykhailivka.

Read alsoOSCE SMM UAV spots heavy weapons in Russia-occupied part of DonbasWhat is more, the Russian occupation troops used automatic and anti-tank grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and rifles near the village of Pivdenne.

The violations were reported to OSCE representatives through the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) on the ceasefire and stabilization in Donbas.

There were no casualties in the past day.

Since midnight, enemy forces have not attacked Ukrainian troops.

The Ukrainian military say the situation is under full control.

Donbas ceasefire: Background

Participants in the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE) on the peace settlement in Donbas on July 22 agreed on a full and comprehensive ceasefire along the contact line from 00:01 on Monday, July 27, 2020.

On the very first day of the newly-agreed truce, Russia's hybrid military forces mounted three attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. Ukraine has reported more such violations over the latest period.

Reporting by UNIAN
A city worker sorting through donated clothes in Taiwan came across about $10,140 cash that had been stored in red envelopes and placed in the pockets of a clothing item.

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The Taichung Nantung District Environmental Protection Bureau said Huang Chi-lung, 28, a member of the bureau's Cleanup Team, was sorting through bags of donated clothes at a collection site in the city when he found the cash and notified his supervisor.

Officials took the bag that contained the money to a local police station, where officers found receipts and other documents that identified the owner.

The owner, a 72-year-old woman, said her husband had gathered the clothes to be donated without realizing one of the items contained the envelopes of money she had been saving for retirement and a wedding gift for her daughter.

The Environmental Protection Bureau said Zou brought the Cleanup Team a basket of apples to show her gratitude for the return of her money.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 05:57:33|Editor: huaxia

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ROME, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Coronavirus restrictions were eased in most of Italy's 20 regions on Monday after the latest epidemiological picture showed an improving pandemic trend in the country.

Only Sicily, Sardinia, Apulia, and Umbria, plus the northeast autonomous province of Bolzano remained in the so-called "orange zone" -- meaning they were still facing a medium risk of contagion.

All the other regions turned yellow, which allowed restaurants, bars, and any other eateries to resume their activities indoors up to 6 p.m. No area in the country was currently in the red zone.

A three-tier system of red, orange, or yellow zones implemented since early November denotes high, medium, or low risk, respectively according to the rate of virus transmission and state of local hospitals.

A national curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. will remain in place across the country, as well as a ban on inter-regional travels but for proven work, health, or emergency reasons.

In the yellow regions, kindergartens and schools of all grades fully reopened on Monday, with 70 to 75 percent of pupils allowed to attend classes in their classrooms, and the rest following through remote learning.

Also, museums and art exhibitions were allowed to reopen on Monday, provided that they were able to comply with social distancing and all other sanitary rules.

The decision to reduce the tight anti-COVID measures resulted from the latest epidemiological survey unveiled by the National Health Institute (ISS) on Saturday.

The survey showed a reproduction rate at 0.84 in the period under monitoring (up to Jan. 24). That means one infected person spread the virus to less than one other person during that time.

"Overall, the situation shows signs of improvement both in terms of incidence (number of cases on overall population) and of impact on health services," the ISS stated in its latest report.

However, ISS experts noted that the pandemic situation in other European countries was worsening and therefore "a new quick increase in the number of cases in the coming weeks is possible."

As of Monday, Italy has registered over 2.56 million coronavirus cases, a daily increase of 7,925 cases, according to the Health Ministry. Active infections decreased by 6,379 cases to a total of 447,589 on a daily basis, confirming a downward trend seen since early December.

The number of recoveries -- which exceeded 2 million on Saturday -- showed a new rise of 13,975 cases on Monday against the previous day.

The country's death toll stood at 88,845, with 329 new fatalities over the last 24 hours.

By Monday, over 2 million people in Italy have been administered one of the two authorized coronavirus vaccines, according to emergency commissioner Domenico Arcuri.

These included 674,27 people who have received two doses of either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.

Vaccination campaigns with authorized COVID-19 vaccines are underway in many European countries. Meanwhile, 237 candidate vaccines are still 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 the World Health Organization on Jan. 29. Enditem
Covid slump: Ryanair said it expects to post a loss of between 740m and 840m in the year to March

Ryanair warned annual losses could hit 840million  but said Britons could be sunbathing on European beaches this summer if the EU steps up its vaccine rollout.

The no-frills airline said it expects to post a loss of between 740million and 840million in the year to March after the pandemic devastated air travel.

Recent lockdowns, 150 Covid tests at airports and the threat of expensive hotel quarantining upon returning to the UK have dealt another blow to a much hoped-for recovery.

But boss Michael O'Leary said he was 'heartened' by the pace of the rollout of vaccines in the UK and predicted a 'dramatic recovery' that could see families flock to Spanish and Greek beaches this summer.

O'Leary said: 'We think once all those high-risk groups have been vaccinated, then the travel restrictions should be removed.

'So we expect to see a very strong return of British families travelling to the beaches of Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece in relative safety this summer.'
Tesla Inc. apologized to State Grid Corp. of China after a viral video appeared to show a company employee blaming the power system for damage to a Chinese consumers Tesla Model 3, the top-selling electric car in China.

The owner of the car in Nanchang in southeast Chinas Jiangxi Province told local press that his new Model 3 wouldnt run after charging the battery at a supercharger station, saying that a series of errors appeared on the power display.

In a video secretly recorded and posted online by a reporter, a Tesla employee is shown telling the vehicle owner that a current overload in the national grid damaged the vehicles inverter. In an electric car, the inverter changes the batterys DC electricity to AC to power the vehicles motor. The staff member denied that Tesla was responsible for the damage.

The video went viral online. Respondents on social media said the Tesla employees explanation avoided responsibility and sought to shift blame to Chinas State Grid. In a statement on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, the State Grids Nanchang branch denied the allegations.

Our power grid has been operating at a stable voltage, and no abnormality has been detected, the company said. The equipment surrounding the charging poles was also operating normally.

It said Tesla vehicles connect with charging stations through the companys own equipment and not directly to the power circuit.

In response, Tesla apologized to the State Grid in a Weibo video citing a misunderstanding in the exchange with the Tesla owner. The company said the recorded conversation between the staff member and the customer was edited. The overload explanation was only one possibility mentioned that might have caused the vehicles inverter to burn out, the company said in the video.

We are deeply sorry for the misunderstanding and would like to apologize to the Nanchang Power Grid for the inconvenience caused, Tesla said in the video. Currently, we have already resolved the problem with the customer and are carrying out tests and investigations on the cause of this failure.

Liu Kai, director of the Technology and Certification Department of the China Alliance for the Promotion of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure, told Caixin that the likelihood of a charging station damaging an inverter is very small. The power grid provides electricity only according to the requirements of charging stations, Liu said, and Tesla has its own charging stations that have nothing to do with the power grid.

Tesla delivered 137,500 Tesla Model 3s in 2020, making it the top-selling electric car in China, according to the China Passenger Car Association. It started delivering its first Shanghai-assembled Model Y sport utility vehicles to customers in China last month, the latest milestone in the companys drive to deepen its localization efforts in the worlds largest auto market.

Contact editors Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).

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After a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLA made a derogatory remark on people belonging to backward castes, the opposition Congress has demanded that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao suspend him for his "racist arrogance".

TRS MLA Challa Dharma Reddy had said during an address in Warangal that the state has been "spoiled" by officers belonging to backward castes, NDTV reported.

"The economically backward people in top castes are suffering so much injustice, they are poorer when compared to other castes and it is visible. Even after getting 99 marks, they could not secure a job and there are such people in this meeting," Reddy said.

He said all government offices had officers belonging to officers from backward castes, whom he said "did not know any work". Because of this, Reddy said, the state had become "spoiled" and that there was outrage among upper castes on the issue.

Telangana Congress leader and spokesperson Sravan Dasoju blasted Reddy for his comments and demanded Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Working President KT Rama Rao to suspend TRS MLA for his "racist arrogance".

Dasoju asked the police to file a suo moto criminal case against Reddy for his "unconstitutional remarks".

He asked whether this (the comments) were what was being preached by KCR to his colleagues to "attack the weaker sections".
Kourtney Kardashian isn't ready to leave her recent tropical vacation behind.

The 41-year-old beauty puckered up with her sister Kim in a new Instagram shot from their sisters holiday to Turks and Caicos, which she shared to her 109million followers on Tuesday.

The eldest Kardashian sibling has been defying the boundaries of age while soaking up the sun and posting an endless stream of bikini snaps.

Sister, sister: Kourtney Kardashian puckered up with her sister Kim in a new Instagram shot from their sisters holiday to Turks and Caicos, which she shared to her 109million followers on Tuesday

'Greetings from Turks and Caicos. Xx Kourt & Kim [kissing lips emojis],' Kourtney penned on Instagram.

In the photo, Kourtney and Kim are rising out of a turquoise sea on the back of a boat looking like mermaids with their long, saltwater-laden hair cascading around their shoulders.

Kim is rocking a beige printed triangle bikini top with some reflective futuristic shades while Kourtney set pulses racing in a skimpy red string bikini top worn upside down.

The Poosh founder recently revealed how she got in the best shape of her life after giving birth to Mason, 11, Penelope, 8, and Reign, six.

'Greetings from Turks and Caicos. Xx Kourt & Kim [kissing lips emojis],' Kourtney penned on Instagram.

Kourtney revealed: 'How I worked on my body after each pregnancy has changed over the years, I wasnt into intense workouts when I got pregnant with Mason, and I wasnt using a trainer at the time.'

But, after Reign's birth, Kourtney slowly began to get back into her HIIT workouts and worked with a trainer which led her to 'feel this desire to be in the best shape of my life'.

Kourtney added to 'listen to your body' and that society's standards of getting your body back.

Girl's trip: Kourtney has been getting some rest and relaxation during a 'girls trip' with sisters Kim, Khloe and Kylie Jenner in Turks and Caicos, where they dropped mad money on a luxury oceanfront mansion

For the last week Kourtney has been getting some rest and relaxation during a 'girls trip' with sisters Kim, Khloe and Kylie Jenner in Turks and Caicos, where they dropped mad money on a luxury oceanfront mansion.

Wholly unconcerned throughout the ongoing pandemic, the ladies have failed to taper back any behavior or showy displays of wealth, repeatedly dropping ungodly amounts of money on lavish vacations.

Close family pals like Stassi Karanikolaou and Victoria Villarroel were also present, along with Kardashian kids North, Chicago and Penelope.
FOREST CITY, Iowa  Students can return to full-time in-person classes on February 15 in the Forest City School District.

Families will have the choice to have a student classes all online or all in-person. The school district issued the following statement on the change:

The Governor signed a new law on Friday, January 29, requiring Iowa school districts to offer a 5-day-week, 100% in-person learning option to families. This is a change from the minimum 50% in-person instruction requirement that was in effect to begin the school year. Districts do still have the choice of applying for temporary online waivers if a COVID-19 outbreak occurs. E-Learning days (up to 2 more) may still be utilized in the event of inclement weather.

Forest City school families should notify their principal by February 11 if a student is resuming in-person classes.

Mason City Community Schools are also returning to full-time in-person instruction on February 15.
Two FBI agents were shot and killed and three others wounded early Tuesday morning as they tried to search the South Florida apartment of a suspect in an investigation of crimes against children, FBI officials said, marking one of darkest days in recent memory for the country's premier federal law enforcement institution.

The deadly encounter was the first time since 2008 that FBI personnel were fatally shot while performing law enforcement work, and it drew comparisons to an incident 35 years ago in which two agents were killed and five others were wounded in a bloody shootout in a residential suburb of Miami. The bureau released few details of the encounter, other than to say a suspect opened fire on agents as they went to an apartment complex about 6 a.m. "to execute a federal court-ordered search warrant in furtherance of a violent crimes against children case."

Law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said preliminary reports indicate the suspected shooter killed himself, though they cautioned that investigators were still working to piece together the precise circumstances of the encounter. Authorities have not identified the suspect, saying during a news conference Tuesday evening that they would not do so before that person's family had been notified.

The FBI personnel killed were Special Agents Daniel Alfin, 36, and Laura Schwartzenberger, 43, who both specialized in investigating crimes against children. Two other agents were taken to the hospital in stable condition, each having been shot multiple times,and another was hurt but remained on the scene, officials said. The wounded were not identified.

"Every day, FBI Special Agents put themselves in harm's way to keep the American people safe," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. "Special Agent Alfin and Special Agent Schwartzenberger exemplified heroism today in defense of their country. The FBI will always honor their ultimate sacrifice and will be forever grateful for their bravery. We continue to stand by our FBI Family, and the families of these Special Agents, in the days to come, bringing every resource we can to get through this together."

The shooting took place at the Water Terrace apartments in Sunrise, Fla., a bedroom community just northwest of Fort Lauderdale. Royal palms line the nearby streets, with the complex itself located in a part of town where expensive subdivisions of lavish homes give way to middle-class housing. Officials said agents went to the apartment in hopes of seizing computer or other equipment from the residence when the shooting broke out.

George Piro, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami Field Office, said agents serve such warrants almost daily, and they "thoroughly research and meticulously plan to take into account any threats or dangers." Generally, he said, the serving of warrants ends without incident and investigators continue their work.

"The operation this morning in Sunrise ended tragically, with the subject opening fire on the members of the search team," Piro said, adding later, "Dan and Laura left home this morning to carry out the mission they signed up for and loved to do, to keep the American people safe. They were valuable members of the FBI and will forever be heroes."

The sprawling apartment complex, cut by a canal, is gated and surrounded by mauve-colored walls, and the units are housed in taupe buildings, some of them two stories tall. On Tuesday, children in multicolored backpacks were being escorted by crossing guards across the street, where yellow caution tape marked a police cordon.

The complex is within a four-mile radius of at least three schools, including the Franklin Academy Charter School directly across the street. Some parents there on Tuesday afternoon left work to pick up their children after hearing about the shooting.

"This is scary, but it speaks to our day and age," said Ester Fredric, 40, a retail clerk. "I feel like I need to sit down and talk to my daughter in ways she can understand. You know, 'No strangers. Be careful.'"

David Alfin, Daniel Alfin's father, said his son was a graduate of Florida State University who came from a family dedicated to public service. Daniel's older brother works in law enforcement in South Florida, and his younger brother teaches at the U.S. Military Academy.

"I couldn't be more proud of Daniel and his brothers," David Alfin said. "I think that they were incredibly great kids that were interested in helping others, and they found a way to do that through their service commitments."

Piro said Alfin joined the FBI in 2009 and initially was assigned to the office in Albany, N.Y. He had worked on cases involving crimes against children for more than six years and had been in Miami since 2017, Piro said. According to a 2017 FBI article, Alfin was involved in the investigation of the creator of what was believed to be the world's largest child pornography website: Playpen. He is survived by a wife and child, Piro said.

Schwartzenberger joined the FBI in 2005 and initially was assigned to the office in Albuquerque, Piro said. She was assigned to the Miami office in 2010 and had worked on crimes-against-children cases for more than seven years, including investigating those who assume fake identities online and try to solicit or extort nude images from minors. She would periodically talk about her work and the dangers of social media to students at Miami's Rockway Middle School, the school said in a statement.

"She would always say, 'I feel that coming here and talking about the hard stuff means that I won't see you guys on my end,'" the school said in a statement. "With her presentations, students would gain an awareness of online safety, cyberbullying, and experience the evidence response process of an FBI agent. . . . Laura's commitment and dedication to not just Rockway, but the community as a whole, will be missed."

Piro said Schwartzenberger is survived by a husband and two children.

"The FBI is a family, and our chosen profession is fraught with danger," Piro said. "Today, this grim reality has taken two of our best from our family."

Across the country, current and former law enforcement officials praised the agents and said the shooting underscored the dangers of their jobs.

"These Agents were working to protect the most vulnerable in our society," said FBI Agents Association President Brian O'Hare. "FBI Special Agents risk their lives to protect our country, and the loss of these Agents is devastating to the entire FBI community and to our country. FBIAA hopes that all Americans will join us in our efforts to support these FBI families in this time of tragedy."

At the Justice Department in the District of Columbia, a spokeswoman said acting attorney general Monty Wilkinson was monitoring the investigation.

"We mourn the tragic loss of two of our FBI colleagues who were killed today in the line of duty," Wilkinson said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones and with their three colleagues who were shot in today's devastating events. On this dark day, we pay tribute to the brave men and women of the FBI who put their lives on the line every day in support of our mission. We will never forget the ultimate sacrifice made by these special agents."

The FBI publicly lists 81 agents and other employees who have lost their lives in the line of duty, according to an FBI site that tracks that information. The total includes several, in recent years, whose deaths were attributed to illnesses linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

According to the agency's "Wall of Honor," the most recent shooting death occurred in 2008, when Special Agent Samuel Hicks was killed while serving a warrant near Pittsburgh. Authorities were executing a warrant at a house connected to a drug-trafficking organization when Hicks was fatally shot, according to the bureau.

- - -

Faiola reported from Sunrise, Fla. Julie Tate and Mark Berman in Washington contributed to this report.
Eric and Candace Johnson say farewell to Bethel Church

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Bethel Church Pastors Eric and Candace Johnson have said their goodbyes to the Redding, California charismatic megachurch as they begin a new season in ministry.

In a Monday email to the congregation, the couple, who have been in the leadership position for the past decade, wrote that they had many emotions as they composed their final email message after ministering at the church for 18 years.

"It has been the biggest privilege of our lives to serve you as senior pastors over the past decade. Thank you for trusting us in this role and for your continual love, support, and belief. Our hearts are overwhelmed with gratitude for all that God has done through the years here. We have all grown so much and we feel extremely rich for the time that weve had together," they wrote.

"You will forever be a part of us and we are forever changed because of you. Thank you for being a passionate people after Gods heart and for being extravagant lovers of those around you. Your 'yes' to God has always kept the standard high in our lives and continues to challenge us to grow. Your generosity of heart has been astounding and undoing to us. We believe that this is one of the traits that has paved the way for all that God is releasing through this house. We have seen Him and experienced Him more by being with you."

The Johnsons, who are the son and daughter-in-law of Bill Johnson, the senior leader of Bethel, announced their departure days before Thanksgiving, an unexpected move they say surprised even them.

The charismatic megachurch, which is known for its popular worship music label and School of Supernatural Ministry, said at the time that the Johnsons were not pressured to resign and that their reason for leaving was not because of any "moral failure, inciting incident, pandemic or political fatigue, theological difference, or issue of health or capacity involved."

The couple is planning on taking a sabbatical to discern their next steps.

"As we are in this moment of great transition I recognize it's not just us but it's numerous people," Candace Johnson said at a farewell service Sunday.

"This has just been a year of shaking. And what I love about shaking is that you get down to what's true and what's right."

Eric added that their decision to leave was especially hard because of the quality of people that comprised the staff.

"There's something so special about doing what you love with the people you are excited to do it with," he said.

The couple added: "We walk forward in confidence in knowing more of who God is. Thank you for being who you are and for loving us so well! We arent saying goodbye, but just transitioning into a new way of relating. We will always be championing you and running with you."

Eric Johnson is the author of Christ In You: Why God Trusts You More Than You Trust Yourself.
The judge ruled that Navalny was in violation of the terms of his parole.

A Russian court has sentenced Russian opposition's Alexei Navalny to 32 months in a penal colony in defiance of massive public support for the Kremlin critic and international pressure to release the recent survivor of a novichok poisoning attack.

The anti-corruption campaigner was charged with violating a 2014 suspended sentence for embezzlement by breaching parole rules while in Germany, the Moscow Times reports.

The European Court of Human Rights in 2017 ruled that Navalny's 2014 conviction was "arbitrary and unreasonable."

Navalny's suspended sentence of 3.5 years will be transferred into a prison sentence, the court ruled February 2. The 10 months Navalny already served under house arrest as part of the first trial will count against that time, meaning he will be imprisoned for a further two years and eight months.

The judge ruled that Navalny was in violation of the terms of his parole  which required him to appear in person with a probationary officer twice a month  after he was discharged from Berlin's Charite hospital September, where he was being treated for Novichok poisoning.

Read alsoNavalny counts on Germany's support at CoE, ECHR  lawyerWestern governments are already reacting to the decision and calling for Navalny's immediate release. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: "The United States is deeply concerned by Russias actions toward Alexei Navalny. We reiterate our call for his immediate and unconditional release as well as the release of all those wrongfully detained for exercising their rights."

The Council of Europe has said the ruling "defies all credibility and contravenes Russias international human rights obligations."

Navalny's case: Background

Navalny was arrested in Moscow on January 17 immediately upon arrival from Berlin, where he was undergoing treatment after an assassination attempt with the use of a Novichok agent. Navalny says the Kremlin is to blame.

The formal reason for detention was what the authorities called a breach of parole conditions.

Russia's Supreme Court in 2018 upheld the verdict against Navalny and his brother Oleg in the so-called Yves Rocher case, according to RFE/RL.

Aleksei and Oleg Navalny were convicted of stealing about $500,000 from two Russian firms, one of which was affiliated with French cosmetics company Yves Rocher, between 2008 and 2012, and of laundering part of the amount.

The opposition politician then called for protests against the authorities. On January 23, over 150,000 people took to the streets in different cities.

Similar rallies were held on January 31. Over 4,000 protesters were reportedly detained by Russian security forces.

Reporting by UNIAN
Quota Permit Blind Details

Applications must be submitted through at www.GoOutdoorsTennessee.com. No mail-in applications are accepted. When applying through the website, it is critical you include a current email address for your account. The following notifications will arrive ONLY by email: your application has been submitted and accepted into the system, you have successfully made changes to your application (hunt locations, group members, etc.), you were/were not selected for hunts, and how to obtain permits. You can log into your account at www.GoOutdoorsTennessee.com at any time and see hunts you applied for, permits you were awarded, and your priority points balance.

Tier 2 and 3 permits will be issued during three (3) application periods during the regular duck season- early, middle, and late; corresponding to three 20-day periods.

Eligible hunters may obtain a quota permit for each application made during the three (3) hunt periods: Early Waterfowl, Middle Waterfowl, Late Waterfowl. Local vacancy (leftover) drawings will be held after a Notice of Intent (NOI) period.

For Tier 2 and 3 hunt locations, there will be three (3) application periods (early, mid and late). You will receive a priority point for each unsuccessful application. For example you apply for an Early Waterfowl Permit and are unsuccessful, you will receive a priority point for future Early Waterfowl drawings.

The cost is $12.00 non-refundable for each drawing. Example: The Maximum Awarded Permits for WMA Big Game is two, meaning two drawings are held for the same pool of applicants. You may choose to enter one drawing, you will only be eligible for one permit and the cost will be $12.00, plus any applicable fees. If you enter two drawings, you will be eligible for two permits and the cost will be $24.00, plus any fees. There is no cost to apply for holders of valid Sportsman (Type 004), Lifetime Licenses, or seniors possessing a Type 167.

Points are not transferable from one drawing to another.You will have the ability to apply for a priority point only if you wish not to hunt this year. These applications can only be submitted by individuals (not parties) and must be completed during the allotted application period.

For Early, Mid and Late waterfowl quota hunts, hunters awarded a permit must return to TWRA a Notice of Intent (NOI) which states they do or do not intend to hunt during their permitted hunt. The NOI may be submitted online through your www.GoOutdoorsTennessee.com account, by U.S. mail or e-mail. Detailed information will be provided to successful applicants. If TWRA does not receive the NOI by the specified deadline, the permit will be forfeited and become invalid. Any forfeited or invalid quota permits will be reallocated by a local, in-person drawing.

Customers wishing to sign up for vacancy drawings will need to sign up for the desired location using TWRAs Event System and then attend the local drawing. You must be present to be awarded a vacancy permit.

Priority Point Details

Each of the 3 waterfowl quota drawings have unique and separate points. An individual is awarded one point for each unsuccessful application in a drawing. When a person is drawn for a quota hunt, their priority points for that application period will be reset to zero (0). Priority points only apply to the individual drawing in which they were earned, i.e., WMA Big Game, Spring Turkey, and the new Early Waterfowl, Middle Waterfowl, Late Waterfowl drawings.

Applicants with the highest priority are always drawn first. Points are not transferable from one drawing to another.

Priority points of parties will be averaged. If a party application is drawn, all members are awarded a permit and removed from drawing. If a party application is not drawn, all members receive one priority point

Existing Waterfowl priority points will all be applied to the Mid-Season application period. Points may not be moved to another application period nor be used on a season-long permit application.

How does the drawing work?



Applicants select specific hunt choices by location (WMA and hunt site) and dates and arrange these choices by preference. Please select only hunts you are interested in. Applicants will not be awarded a hunt they did not select.

The computer draw process awards applicants with the highest number of priority points first. If the applicants first choice is available, it is awarded. The program then moves on to the next applicants first choice. If the applicants first choice is not available, the program moves to that applicant's second choice, either awarding that choice if available (and moving on to the next applicant), or if not available, the program moves to the third choice, etc.

Each eligible application is included in the drawing. If you are in a party, each applicant in your party is entered into the drawing (so a party of 5 has 5 chances, etc). When a party application is selected, the drawing runs the location/date choices in the order they are entered on the party leaders application. If successful, all members of the party are awarded a permit and removed from the drawing. If unsuccessful, all members of the party are unsuccessful and awarded one (1) priority point.

After the first attempt to award all permits is completed, the system repeats the drawing process, going through remaining choices until it has awarded all available permits. Applicants choose how many drawings they would like to participate in when applying. Each drawing entered creates the possibility of being awarded multiple permits per application.
Kienlongbank has put the settlement of non-performing loans and digital transformation as its top priorities in 2021

Tran Tuan Anh, member of the Board of Directors cum general director of Kienlongbank said that at the end of 2020, the total consolidated assets of the bank reached VND57.282 trillion($2.5 billion), up 12.09 per cent compared to 2019.

Consolidated pre-tax profit of the bank reached VND158.21 billion ($6.9 million), up 84.14 per cent on-year.

Accordingly, Kienlongbank in 2020 aimed to settle loans with collateral shares related to Sacombanks shares, under the Kienlongbank restructuring and bad debt settlement plan.

However, Anh stated that the COVID-19 health crisis hampering the banks plans to handle Sacombanks shares. As of December 31, 2020, Kienlongbank could only sell a part of its Sacombanks shares, thus reducing VND369 billion ($16 million) of bad debts.

Hence, the bank could not meet its proposed plans.

From January 1 to January 29, 2021, Kienlongbank continued to sell more debts collateralised with Sacombanks shares, reducing its bad debts ratio to less than 3 per cent.

Moreover, Kienlongbank nearly completed most of its objectives in its restructuring plan in the 2016-2020 period, which was approved by the State Bank of Vietnam.

The lender also aims to complete the sale of all Sacombank shares and to settle soured loans by March 31, 2021.

In 2021, Kienlongbank will actively accelerate the settlement of debts collateralised with Sacombanks shares and bring the total bad debts of the bank to less than 2 per cent of its total outstanding loans, limit new bad debts, improve management capacity, and enhance risk management.

Moreover, the bank will focus on non-credit services, upgrade its core banking system, and promote the development of digital banking according to the strategic direction of Kienlongbank in the period of 2021-2025.

At the meeting, the Board of Directors also elected Le Hong Phuong as chairman of Kienlongbank's Board for the term of 2018-2022, taking effect from February 1, 2021, along with three vice chairmen, Mai Huu Tin, Pham Tran Duy Huyen, and Tran Thi Thu Hang.
Iryna Zhdanova, Founder of the NGO Open Policy Foundation and Klym Churyumov Scientific Lyceum, Ph.D. in History

I believe in networking. Education. Synergy in action. In an open network of people who wish for peace. They yearn for this and understand that this is not the way for a decade. This is a path through at least three checkpoints: truce-reconciliation-peace.

According to UNOCNA, in just 10 days in January, there were 64 violations of the silence regime. And while the shots are firing and people are dying, and there is no real truce, it is naive to expect reconciliation, much less peace. And most importantly, such populism has an explosive mixture considering the number of weapons in the possession of the citizens of a country at war. What not only ATO veterans and hunters have. And the events of February 19, 2014, should remind of this scenario better than the famous Ukrainian TV series.

I believe that education is a better tool than weapons and explosives. And the lenses of telescopes and microscopes are more promising than the optical lenses of sniper rifles. Weapons aimed at Ukraine. (Would you say I am naive? Maybe). After 6 years of daily work with those affected by the war on both sides of the contact line, I strongly believe in the potential of innovative education in the occupied VS temporarily occupied territories competition. I will give only 3 arguments in this blog.

First. Space of dialogue.

In December 2020, there were 42,000 crossings at the Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint alone. Walking through the checkpoint, can the citizens of Ukraine discuss trust, the achievement of a truce, and common values? In the line at Oschadbank, Administrative Service Centre? Where else do they meet? Those who live THERE. And those who live HERE. Where can they meet to have an unhurried dialogue? Where are values formed? In schools/universities/colleges/vocational schools. It is the environment that shapes the worldview. And this is almost the only place today where children, young people, and their parents, who live on both sides of the contact line, can meet. They have space for dialogue. At least some chance to hear one another. And, to be heard is the most important. And then, step by step, we need quietly develop the hope of a ceasefire that will tickle somewhere in the stomach. It is a hope for reconciliation that will appear in the heart. And, perhaps, it will come true for the lives of their children. A dream of peace and a united Ukraine. And the understanding that this dream can come true, God grant it, for the life of grandchildren...

The second argument. Age of value formation.

I do not believe that older people will cross the second truce-reconciliation checkpoint. Inevitable changes have taken place in 7 years of Russian propaganda - professional propaganda with rich investments. At the same time, we can believe very carefully that the schoolchildren and students parents, middle-aged people (THERE and HERE), will be able to take the first step towards reconciliation in case of a ceasefire. Real one.

The second condition is education for their children. They do not believe (and not only THERE) and will not believe Ukrainian politicians. But they will believe their children. When their children, schoolchildren, and students of Ukrainian schools and universities will tell about Ukraine, where it is safe to study, having a promising future for work, where there are a stable economy and high living standards.

And what is most important, we can hope that these children and young people will be able to get rid of those stereotypes faster when they travel. And this is the next argument.

The third argument. Mobility.

Using, as an example, the International Green School in Kosmach (Carpathians), where students and children whose parents live THERE came to study, I can say that a friendly innovative Ukrainian environment does in 5-10 days more than years of propaganda. Are they all really separatists?.. I saw how they cried when the National Anthem of Ukraine was performed... Parents of primary school children from TOT call the hotline with a request for distance education: we want the child to study in Ukrainian environment, listen not only to what is said in the local school. Generating the stereotype that everyone THERE is a separatist is wrong. I am convinced that they should learn about Europe and European values on the campus of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, with which three displaced universities signed Memoranda with the assistance of the Open Policy Foundation.

Propaganda, fear, lack of money, and information about learning opportunities in Ukraine remain the main risks. At the same time, from 2016 to 2020, 8,225 entrants from the temporarily occupied Crimea and Donbas used a simplified procedure to enter Ukrainian universities through the Donbas-Ukraine and Crimea-Ukraine Education Centers.

Therefore, I believe in the effectiveness of communications at various levels. Since 2016, a hotline has worked at the Open Policy Foundation, and now we have launched an information campaign together with the Government Contact Center. Preparatory courses in mathematics and the Ukrainian language for passing the SFA and IEE for students from THERE and HERE will work in Klym Churyumov Scientific Lyceum in cooperation with Donetsk Polytechnic. Registration will be open on February 15. I do not think that these actions are an attempt to heat the water in the ocean with a heater. I believe in the synergy of small significant and effective projects.

The last. The main thing. About synergy in action.

P.S. I do not believe that meetings at polished round tables in VIP hotels contribute to peace in my country. Because, first, any round table has sharp corners. Second, politicians need to have even greater courage to end a war than to start it. This is a quality that dissolved in sheer populism in the age of digital marketing. Third, it is not only politicians with iron eggs who can afford to play the long game for 10-20-50 years, but also those who have flexible brains and, most importantly, strategic thinking So, lets make a network of small and significant projects, and #keeprowing.
The unbelievable rollercoaster that is Michigans pandemic-era restaurant industry took a slight climb back toward normalcy this week when state health officials allowed a partial return to indoor dining.

The Feb. 1 reopening came with multiple limitations, including on capacity as well as hours. Once again, the changes put restaurant owners in the position of figuring out how to make a new approach work, all while maintaining strict safety standards.

But as people start filtering back into restaurant booths and chairs after the 10-week indoor dining shutdown - and continue to fill the creative outdoor spaces many restaurants, breweries and wineries have been using for months - some things need to be said, owners and staff say. Restaurant workers want to give their customers the inside scoop on what theyre dealing with - and what they expect from their guests.

Theyre asking for compliance with the rules and a little dose of kindness as everyone tries to navigate this.

Heres what they are saying:

The crew at O's Pub and Grill in Auburn (between Bay City and Midland) was excited to show off their burgers for Michigan's Best.John Gonzalez

#1 Its been exhausting, and there is no real end in sight.

Chef Jenna Arcidiacono, Amore Trattoria in Grand Rapids: This is how so many local restaurant owners feel in every way right now. We feel 75% drained. 25% fuel left. Running on empty after the year we have had. 75% LESS of sales in all of January. Most of us have had $300 or less sales days these past 3 weeks. When it costs at least $800 -$1,500 just to open our doors every day, you can imagine the loss. Its not just Amore, I am in a group with 10 other local restaurant owners and we are all wondering where everyone is? We need your help.

#2 Its been a very long 10 months for Michigan restaurant employees. Now more than ever, treat others with kindness.

Chef Shawn Kohlhass, principle at Culinary Cultivations in Grand Rapids: First and foremost is to be kind in all the ways. Everyone in the food service industry is constantly being pounded with regulations, loss of revenue, loss of pay, loss of life, and all the things that have been impacting our industry and the people who support it. If a server forgets something, if the restaurant is out of something, which is usually not their fault, if the experience was not perfect, please put in perspective that your life is not even close to being devastated as probably the hands that serve you. So be kind, greet your server with a smile, tip well (25% or better) and understand that your dining experience is being served by those most affected by this pandemic.

Debra Kue, president, Thai Chef in Grand Rapids: It is absolutely essential that customers also treat one another with respect and equity. I have personally been subject to racism within my own dining experiences and have been made to feel unsafe and targeted. No one should be treated in such a manner, and it should be a conscious effort that all persons treat everyone with respect and equally.

Executive Chef Paul Berglund, Mertens Prime in Grand Rapids: Ive heard from a lot of colleagues about reopening and the common thread is that were all just so happy to be getting back to doing our job. So whatever glitches or hurdles the diner encounters in this weird phase of this weird ordeal, know that youre supporting a community of hard-working people who genuinely want to be there for others.

Richard Smith, server, Electric Cheetah in Grand Rapids: With the increase in online ordering, call-ins for take out, and Door Dash pick ups, it is quite daunting to reopen. Add to that the 12 people now sitting in your space wondering why it is taking long to get their order, please just chill. This is an interesting ride for this bitter old server, I am so glad I have memories!

Rob Hanks, general manager, Post Off wine bar in Grand Rapids: We are in the hospitality industry for a reason. We arent looking to dampen your evening for any reason when we ask you to vacate indoor dining at 10pm. We dont want to talk about how hard it is in our industry because we already know and have been talking about it for a damn year now with barely any assistance. Every decision that we have made has been made to make our guests comfortable, because our guests are our highest priority, so be willing to work with us. This is a public health concern thing and it isnt political for us, and we wont entertain the idea that its political. We are here to make your evening special and fun, and we want to have fun with you, so lets keep it mutually respectful.

Ben Darcie, bartender at Speciation Artisan Ales in Grand Rapids offered this handy list:

Support your local business however you feel comfortable. This includes getting takeout and not hanging out on the premises.

Tip your servers and bartenders well. You choose to be there for a small window and theyre there all day making sure everyone has a great time.

Wear your damn mask. Your compliance = we get to be open.

Dont complain about having to wear your mask to us. We have to wear it all day. Just stop.

Its 25% capacity. That means if you choose to sit inside, there will likely be a wait. Anticipate this.

Were humans, too. ... Were doing our best to take care of you! Be patient! Be understanding! Dont be a jerk!

RELATED: Return of indoor dining greeted with enthusiastic customers, cautious owners in West Michigan

Lunch orders at The Electric Cheetah in Grand Rapids on Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. Bars and restaurants can reopen to 25 percent indoor dine-in capacity or 100 people  the lesser of the two, and will be mandated to close by 10 p.m., by order of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (Cory Morse | MLive.com) Cory Morse | MLive.com

#3 Dont expect things to be normal. They are not.

David Ringler, director of happiness at Cedar Springs Brewing Company: Its not going to be you just flip the switch, and it all goes back to normal. Ive seen this in other states. They reopen, and they go crazy, and theyre like dancing on the tables, and that party times are here again. That just isnt the case. Here in Michigan, its going to be incremental. Well have 25%, and then probably 50%, and then who knows how theyll roll this out. We cant just turn on the spigot and its normal.

Chef Paul Berglund, Mertens Prime in Grand Rapids: Because we have the 25% capacity constraint, spots on a Friday or Saturday might fill up quickly. Consider a mid-week dinner out to get a time slot that you want and also to support your favorite restaurant during the days of the week when they might not otherwise fill up. Given the tight financial margins in the restaurant business, every group that visits a restaurant throughout the week really matters now more than ever.

#4 Outside Dining

Rick Schmitt, owner of Stormcloud Brewing in Frankfort: We have been surprised by the number of guests that have been eating outside, albeit bundled with blankets we provide and heaters and I dont see that changing. And we will continue to offer our thunder domes (igloos) outside which has been a big hit.

See all the nominees for Michigans Best Outdoor Dining.

The Sovengard in Grand Rapids is known for their Scandinavian inspired menu.

#5 You may see changes at your favorite restaurant.

David Ringler, Cedar Springs Brewing Company: The hardest thing is that the food supply chain is all screwed up. You can get some things, you cant get other things. Youre not going to have your entire labor force back. Everybody is not totally back in the saddle. Its time to get people back, and we still have to be 100% safe with all the precautions that we had in before.

Rick Schmitt, Stormcloud Brewing in Frankfort: By in large, the supply chain has rebounded. We did make our menu 20% smaller to adapt, which has been a good and bad thing. Easier to manage, but less choices for our customers.

Debra Kue, Thai Chef in Grand Rapids: When Michigan restaurants were ordered to shut down their dining services, the transition to strictly operate with take-out services altered business tremendously. Not only were restaurants required to make adjustments, all food related businesses, such as food product suppliers were heavily affected. Due to the decreased demand for supplies, less produce and products were purchased and many employees from supplier companies were let go. Despite the hardships, the conditions of the pandemic placed on restaurants and the butterfly effect it has on other food businesses has demonstrated what is absolutely essential for operations.

Dave Duey, director of operations, The Whitney in Detroit: With drastically reduced seating capacity and a curfew, creating a sustainable business model is quite challenging. The Whitney is fortunate to have 16 unique dining areas and over 20,000 square feet of dining space, so we are able to provide a safe dining experience for our guests and our staff. But the continuing regulations will result in the following changes to our business: We will reduce our operating days/hours to avoid any meal periods that will not maximize our business opportunities. We will reduce the number of menu options to reduce the inventory that we must maintain for broader selections. This applies to both food and beverage options. We will reduce our staffing to accommodate Covid concerns, continuing unemployment enhancement and insure that all remaining staff members maximize their income opportunities. We will continue to focus on events, private parties and banquets, but a party that used to be accommodated in a single dining space will now extend to a whole floor and eliminate ala carte dining opportunities for the entire meal period. All in all, its a fine line to walk that continues to offer an outstanding guest experience, a profitable and enjoyable employee experience and maintain enough cash flow to survive operationally until restrictions are lifted.

Richard Smith, The Electric Cheetah in Grand Rapids: One of the things we noticed during the last full service attempt was people just wanted to get out of their houses and hang out. Ordering a couple of drinks and sharing an appetizer or entree, and taking up the table, which under normal circumstances would be OK. Now, the real estate available is much less. Only 18 people will be allowed in at Electric Cheetah on Wealthy. Until we are 100%, come in and have dinner and then depart.

John Sapp, left, and his nephew, Barrett, dine for lunch inside at The Electric Cheetah in Grand Rapids on Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. They are from Lakeview. Bars and restaurants can reopen to 25 percent indoor dine-in capacity or 100 people  the lesser of the two, and will be mandated to close by 10 p.m., by order of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (Cory Morse | MLive.com) Cory Morse | MLive.com

#6 Safety is a number one priority for Michigan restaurants.

Rick Schmitt, Stormcloud Brewing in Frankfort: We did invest in a Bi-Polar Ionization air purification unit for our pub and that was installed in November, two days before we had to shut down. Good news is it is up and running and offers one more layer of protection for our customers and staff. By now, the team is fully onboard with masks and likely we will continue to have our staff wear them when the mandate is lifted, who knows when that will be.

Debra Kue, Thai Chef in Grand Rapids: As a small business that occupies a small space, our seating is already very limited. With the stipulation that restaurants have the option to open their dining areas to 25% capacity, we have chosen to continue serving our customers with take-out services only. We are hoping with the dispensation of the vaccine that a larger percentage can be permitted to dine-in, or that the ban will be lifted so that we can operate and serve our customers as we have in the past: in-person and with in-home hospitality.

Meyer's Hometown Bakery & Beanery's owner Jeff Meyer. He's owned the bakery for 27 years.

More Michigans Best restaurant news:

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The top 21 Michigan restaurants to try in 2021

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See all of the nominations for Michigan Best Outdoor Dining
Downing Street today slapped down Ursula von der Leyen after she accused Britain of compromising on coronavirus vaccine safety and claimed the EU's slower approval process was the 'right decision'.

Number 10 said experts at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had been 'very clear that no corners were cut, no stones were left unturned' when they decided to give the green light to a number of jabs.

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said 'the public should be confident of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines'.

Mrs von der Leyen made the original comments after she pinned the blame for the bloc's vaccine supply shambles, which saw Brussels threaten Britain with a vaccine export ban, on her deputy Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for Trade.

Speaking on Monday, the under-fire European Commission president said she was committed to her role, and that she should be judged at the end of her term in 2024.

She also refused to apologise for the coronavirus vaccines row last week that saw Brussels threaten to introduce a hard Irish border to block vaccine exports to the UK.

But pressure is mounting on the former German defence minister, particularly from her home country where MPs are planning to call her in for questioning over her handling of the EU's slow vaccination programme.

A European source said on Monday that Berlin was putting 'tremendous' pressure on the Commission to improve the vaccine rollout, adding that Mrs von der Leyen's position had been 'severely weakened'.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, pictured in Brussels on Sunday, has come under pressure over the EU's slow jab rollout and her attempt to control vaccine exports

Downing Street today rejected claims made by Mrs von der Leyen that the UK had compromised on safety during its vaccine rollout. Boris Johnson is pictured as he chaired a weekly meeting of his Cabinet today

Speaking on Monday, Mrs von der Leyen defended the EU's slower vaccine approvals policy, while criticising Britain's for compromising on 'safety and efficacy'.

'Some countries started to vaccinate a little before Europe, it is true,' she said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde when asked about Britain.

'But they resorted to emergency, 24-hour marketing authorisation procedures. The commission and the member states agreed not to compromise with the safety and efficacy requirements linked to the authorisation of a vaccine,' she said.

'Time had to be taken to analyse the data, which, even minimised, takes three to four weeks. So, yes, Europe left it later, but it was the right decision. I remind you that a vaccine is the injection of an active biological substance into a healthy body. We are talking about mass vaccination here, it is a gigantic responsibility.'

France's Europe minister, Clement Beaune, had also criticised the UK's rollout as he said 'they are taking a lot of risks'.

Downing Street rejected the claims at lunchtime today, insisting that the MHRA's authorisation of vaccines had been based on an 'extremely thorough' process.

Responding directly to the remarks made by Mrs von der Leyen, the PM's Official Spokesman said: 'I would point back to what Dr June Raine and the MHRA said on each occasion when they set out the authorisation for the Pfizer, Oxford AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines and the work and processes that they undertook to deem them safe and effective.

Dr June Raine has set them out on a number of occasions and was very clear that no corners were cut, no stones were left unturned, that their recommendation was based on an extremely thorough evaluation of all the data from the clinical trials and it is on that basis that the public should be confident of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.

It came after Mrs von der Leyen, through her spokesman, had thrown her deputy under the bus over the EU vaccine shambles, that saw Brussels decide to trigger Article 16 of the Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol before performing a later U-turn.

Brussels accused pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca of breaching its contract with the EU, amid suspicion that the company had supplied the UK with stock that was meant to go to countries in the bloc.

Britain used emergency procedures to grant market approval to the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, and signed a contract three months earlier than the EU, which used a slower approval process.

Mrs von der Leyen said she did not take personal responsibility for the decision to trigger Article 16 of the Brexit treaty, which would have seen a hard 'vaccine border' in Ireland to stop vaccines from being smuggled through a back door into the UK, but she did admit the decision was an error.

Instead, the European commission president said that the responsibility lay with Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for Trade.

'This regulation falls under the responsibility of Mr Dombrovskis,' Eric Mamer, the European Commission's chief spokesman, said on Monday of the former prime minister of Latvia.

'In my country we have a saying, "Only the Pope is infallible",' Mr Mamer said. 'Mistakes can happen along the way the important thing is that you recognise them early on.'

Speaking herself during the newspaper interview, Mrs von der Leyen said: 'I know how sensitive the Irish subject is. But when you take urgent decisions - in this year of crisis, the Commission has taken almost 900 - there is always a risk of missing something. I am relieved that we were able to find a solution.'

The legislation was met with a fierce backlash, and was amended after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Irish prime minister called Mrs von der Leyen.

After years of Brexit negotiations between Britain and the EU to avoid a hard border on the island, the move would have created a 'vaccine border'. It was announced without notifying either Ireland or Britain.

The European Commission president pinned the fiasco - that saw Brussels threaten to implement a hard Irish border - on Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for Trade (pictured in Brussels on January 29)

Mrs von der Leyen's initial comments attempting to avoid blame were met with scathing criticism from Alexander Stubb, the former prime minister of Finland, who campaigned to be appointed European Commission president himself.

'Number one rule of any leader: if your organisation screws up; never, ever blame your team publicly,' he said in response.

To add to her woes, Mrs von der Leyen's predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker said he was 'very much opposed' to her export restriction measures during a speech in Stuttgart on Sunday.

The Brussels-imposed export controls were introduced last week to supervise vaccines leaving the bloc for other countries, after AstraZeneca said it was cutting supplies to the EU in the first quarter of 2021.

'It all went too slow, it all should have been done more transparently, even though that would have been difficult,' Juncker said.

Mr Mamer said the regulation to create an 'export transparency mechanism', which included the Article 16 measure, was passed provisionally and hurriedly by the College of Commissioners on Friday.

'We believe that we are on the right track since the beginning of this pandemic in ensuring there is as cohesive and as effective a European response as possible,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

The Brussels-imposed export controls were introduced last week to supervise vaccines leaving the bloc for other countries, after AstraZeneca said it was cutting supplies to the EU in the first quarter of 2021. Pictured: health worker draws a dose of the AstraZeneca's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine in Newcastle upon Tyne, Britain, January 30

But Mrs Von der Leyen attempt to pass the blame on to her deputy has led to suggestions from EU diplomats that she has gone rogue, and to German MPs in Berlin planning to summon her in for questioning.

To make matters worse for her, the move by German MPs was led by legislators from her own party, Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

Thus far, Mrs von der Leyen has refused calls for a public debate on the fiasco in the European Parliament, and she will instead hold closed-door meetings with MEPs on Tuesday with parties who approved her appointment.

In an interview on German television, she denied that the EU was losing a vaccine race against Britain, insisting that the only race was against the virus and time.

She also gave an assurance that neither the EU or Britain would block each other's vaccine supplies.

The EU and many of its 27 members have faced criticism over their sluggish rollout, with fewer than 10million people getting a dose so far across the entire bloc.

Von der Leyen's European Commission has invested 2.7 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to secure 2.3 billion doses from companies making potential vaccines, mostly using European factories.

Three vaccines are so far authorised for use across the EU's 27 member countries: one by German outfit BioNTech with US giant Pfizer; one by US company Moderna; and most recently one by Anglo-Swedish group AstraZeneca.

All three firms are undershooting on delivery schedules for the January-March first-quarter period.

While excessive bureaucracy in countries such as France and Germany has been one reason for the slow start, the EU has also struggled to get hold of enough supplies.

Pictured: German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaking after a vaccine 'summit' that brought together key players. She renewed a promise to offer every German citizen a vaccine by the end of September

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday defended the European Union's troubled vaccine drive, saying there were 'good reasons' the rollout had got off to a slower start than in some other countries.

Speaking after a vaccine 'summit' that brought together key players, Merkel renewed a promise to offer every German citizen a vaccine by the end of September.

Merkel had convened the online talks in response to growing anger in the 27-member bloc over the sluggish rollout of Covid-19 jabs, which has been beset with delivery delays and piled political pressure on EU leaders.

'It is true that in some areas, the pace became slower, but there were good reasons for it to be slower,' Merkel told reporters in Berlin.

Merkel, the leader of Europe's largest economy, acknowledged that the United States, Israel and Britain were further along with their inoculations.

But she said the EU had deliberately avoided rushed emergency approvals, as seen in the UK, to bolster public 'confidence' in the jabs.

The EU had also at times negotiated 'for a very long time' to ensure pharma companies took on enough liability, she said.

And the bloc chose not to sacrifice data protection, Merkel added, in a nod to Israel's deal with Pfizer/BioNTech to offer data on its inoculation campaign in exchange for doses.

German media has been scathing about the EU's troubled vaccine drive, with the topselling Bild daily calling it a 'disaster'.

Mrs Von der Leyen did not join Merkel's meeting with top German politicians, but the EU commissioners for health and the internal market did.

A string of vaccine makers also took part, including Pfizer, BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and CureVac.

'The months ahead will be challenging. We must all continue working together in solidarity to find solutions,' said Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.

Like other EU leaders, Merkel has come under fire for the decision to pursue an EU-wide rather than a national strategy on inoculations.

She has said a go-it-alone drive would have inflated prices, left pockets of the continent more vulnerable to the pandemic and poisoned political unity in the bloc.

The German debate has been supercharged by the start of a general election year to choose a successor to Merkel, who has led the country since 2005.

The Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Merkel's loveless 'grand coalition' government, at the weekend demanded she produce a 'roadmap' toward the September vaccinations goal.

The UK committed 1.67billion on Covid vaccines before it was known whether they would be effective - more than the 1.57billion the EU put forward for its 448million people, with Britain spending 25.00 per capita compared to 3.51 for Brussels. The US government spent 7.9billion in total, according to the figures from science analytics firm Airfinity, an outlay of 24.02 for each of its 330million people

EU Vaccine approval: State of play Approved for the EU BioNTech/Pfizer (German/US, mRNA vaccine, 95-percent efficacy according the European Medicines Agency): 600 million doses. Its first-quarter deliveries to EU member states were cut by as much as half, but the company vows they will be back to normal by mid-February. Moderna: (US, mRNA vaccine, 94-percent efficacy): 160 million doses. AstraZeneca (Anglo-Swedish, adenovirus, 60-percent efficacy): 400 million doses. It was meant to have delivered more than 100 million doses in the first quarter, but on December 22 said that would be cut to 31 million. Von der Leyen announced on Sunday that would now be boosted to 40 million. Pending approval Johnson & Johnson (US, adenovirus, efficacy unknown): 400 million doses. The Commission says 100 million should be delivered by June if this single-shot vaccine is approved. CureVac (Germany/US, mRNA, efficacy unknown): 405 million doses. Sanofi/GSK (France/UK, recombinant spike protein, efficacy unknown): 300 million doses. After a disappointing Phase 2 trial, the companies are trying a different antigen formulation and are now aiming for production late this year. The Commission is also in exploratory talks with Novavax (US, recombinant spike protein, efficacy unknown) for up to 200 million doses and with Valneva (French, inactivated virus vaccine, efficacy unknown) for up to 60 million doses. Advertisement

Pfizer and BioNTech have slowed down production to make manufacturing changes, while AstraZeneca said it was cutting supplies to the EU in the first quarter of 2021.

That prompted outrage from Brussels, which imposed export controls last week to supervise vaccines leaving the bloc for other countries.

Pharmaceutical companies have since made public pledges to make up for the shortfalls with additional doses later on - though none has pledged to speed up the initial delivery, meaning the EU's Covid pain will drag on for some time.

BioNTech and Pfizer have promised to send up to 75 million extra doses to the bloc in the spring thanks to progress at key manufacturing sites.

Meanwhile Mrs von der Leyen, who signed the vaccine contracts on behalf of the bloc, said Sunday that AstraZeneca would deliver 40 million doses in total in the first quarter - 30 per cent more previously promised - but shipments will not start until the second week of February.

And chemicals giant Bayer announced that from 2022 it would produce a coronavirus vaccine that fellow German pharmaceuticals company CureVac is developing.

CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas said his company would also produce several hundred million doses of its own vaccine by the end of 2021.

CureVac's mRNA vaccine has yet to receive the green light from regulators, but German health minister Jens Spahn said it was 'on its way to approval in the coming weeks'.

French pharma group Sanofi agreed last week to help produce 125 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

A European source said on Monday that Germany was putting 'tremendous' pressure on the Commission to improve the vaccine rollout, adding that von der Leyen's position had been 'severely weakened'.

While Brussels boasts of having a portfolio of 2.3billion doses, it has paid dearly for failing to sign its agreement with AstraZeneca until August last year.

Meanwhile, the EU's contract with Pfizer was not signed until November 2020, two days after the company had announced its successful trial results.

The Pfizer rollout did not begin until the very end of December, and even a month later the daily vaccination rates in countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain are well below those in Britain and the US.

Brussels did sign a deal with Moderna days before Britain, but again this was after the jab had already passed clinical trials.

And the EU was again shown to be lagging when the Novavax trial results were published last week showing 89.3 per cent efficacy.

While Britain has 60million doses ordered, the EU has only conducted 'exploratory talks' with the manufacturer, which were completed in December.

Even then, the 200million doses envisaged in an 'exploratory contract' are a smaller stockpile when adjusted for population size than Britain has ordered.

The EU also has other agreements in place with vaccines from Sanofi-GSK and CureVac, which have yet to conclude clinical trials.

Each EU member state is responsible for its own rollout. Most are giving priority to the elderly and frontline health workers.

Almost all the vaccines require two jabs for a full vaccination. (Johnson & Johnson is aiming for a single-shot regimen, subject to trials and EMA approval.)

Collectively, the European Union as of Saturday had provided 2.4 doses per 100 people, according to official sources collated by the website Our World in Data.

EU country's vaccination programmes have been lagging behind other nations as the bloc continues to struggle with its rollout following the fiasco

Top performers are Malta (6.08 doses per 100 people), Denmark (4.47), Slovenia (3.65) and Romania (3.50).

The bigger countries are trailing: Germany has given 2.8 doses per 100 people, France 2.34, Italy 3.16 and Spain 3.1.

The countries leading the world in giving jabs are Israel (54.7 per 100 people, with most of those over 70 already having been vaccinated with their two injections), the United Arab Emirates (33.7) and Britain (13.9).

Britain, which left the EU last year, is focused on giving the maximum number of people one injection and stretching out the time before they become completely vaccinated through their second injection.

France and other EU countries, in contrast, say they are maintaining stocks to give the second jab as recommended, even if that means a slowdown in their first jab programme.

Some EU countries, particularly in the poorer east of the bloc, are sensitive to the cost of vaccinating their populations. The logistical challenge of the mRNA-type vaccines that require sub-Arctic temperatures is also a factor.

While the price of each vaccine has been kept secret in the European Commission's contracts, a Belgian minister's tweet in December - deleted afterwards - gave a breakdown.

The Moderna vaccine was listed as most expensive, with Brussels paying 14.70 euros a dose. The BioNTech/Pfizer one 12 euros. The AstraZeneca vaccine came in at 1.78 euros a dose.
A huge snowstorm brought chaos to the United States east coast Monday, canceling thousands of flights, closing schools and forcing the postponement of coronavirus vaccinations as New York City steeled itself for possibly one of its heaviest ever snowfalls.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued storm warnings from Virginia to Maine  home to tens of millions of people  as heavy snow mixed with wind gusts up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour spurred blizzard-like conditions along the eastern seaboard.

New York declared a state of emergency that restricted non-essential travel, moved all children back to remote learning and rescheduled long-awaited vaccine shots as the city braced for almost two feet (60 centimeters) of snow.

Salt trucks and snow plows moved out across New Yorks streets, already quieter than usual due to Covid-19, as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the few children who had returned to pandemic-era classrooms would also stay at home on Tuesday.

People walk on the Mall and Literary Walk in Central Park during a winter storm on February 1, 2021 in New York City. Photo: AFP

There will be locusts next at the rate were going, quipped de Blasio, who also suspended outdoor dining, the latest blow to the citys beleaguered pandemic-hit restaurants, on MSNBC.

More than 1,600 US flights were canceled  mostly at airports in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington  disrupting travel that has already been heavily curtailed by the pandemic.

Airlines canceled all flights in and out of La Guardia Airport and JFK Airport, while 71 percent of flights were scrapped at Newark Liberty Airport.

People push a taxi cab stuck on snow covered street during a winter storm on February 1, 2021 in New York City. Photo: AFP

New York shops closed early and outdoor trains were scheduled to stop running at 2:00 pm (1900 GMT).

This is a dangerous, life-threatening situation, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters.

By 1:00 pm Monday, 13.3 inches of snow had been recorded in Central Park, according to the NWS, with eight inches falling in just six hours.

Snowplows drive through Times Square during a winter storm on February 1, 2021 in New York City. Photo: AFP

Snowfall was expected to continue into Tuesday morning with forecasters predicting 20 inches in total.

If that much falls in the Big Apple then it would become the citys eighth biggest snowstorm since records began in 1869.

This is expected to be one of the bigger snowfall events for New York City, Matthew Wunsch, a National Weather Service forecaster, told AFP.

Workers hold snow shovels on the New York City subway. Photo: AFP

Power outages

The most snowfall to have blanketed Americas commercial capital was 27.5 inches, over three days, in January 2016.

In Washington, where snow and ice formed since Sunday, President Joe Biden postponed a scheduled visit to the State Department due to the conditions.

The capital pushed back until Tuesday a planned return to school for tens of thousands of children who have been learning at home for almost a year because of the pandemic.

A snowman is seen on the North Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, February 1, 2021. Photo: AFP

Heavy snowfall was also forecast for New Jersey, Philadelphia and Connecticut.

New Jersey issued a state of emergency, allowing authorities to close roads, evacuate homes and commandeer equipment needed for public safety.

Theres a high potential for power outages due to heavy snow and high winds. Charge your devices, and if you experience a power outage  report it immediately, said Governor Phil Murphy.

A person walks past the Apple Store on 5th Avenue during a winter storm on February 1, 2021 in New York City. Photo: AFP

Philadelphia also declared a snow emergency, closing city government buildings for Monday and ordering residents to move their cars off snow emergency routes so the plows can get through.

The storm hit mountainous parts of California with more than six feet of snow and heavy rain last week.

It then moved to the Midwest, dumping about eight inches of snow in Chicago, according to the NWS.
Posted Monday, February 1, 2021 4:50 pm

Southwest Washington Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, joined 16 colleagues in calling for an investigation into stock-trading platforms that restricted the purchase of some meme stocks, including shares of GameStop, last week.

The move comes after a turbulent week on the stock market, which many characterized as a standoff between amateur investors and hedge fund giants.

These drastic and potentially illegal market access changes appear to disproportionately benefit large institutional investors at the expense of individual retail investors, read the letter, which was addressed to Allison Lee, acting chairwoman of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Last week, an army of amateur investors, organized largely on Reddit, began buying up shares of GameStop, catapulting its value to eye-popping levels. At the same time, hedge fund giants were shorting the same stock, betting big money on the companys decline. As prices instead soared, some big-name investors were short squeezed  costing them billions of dollars while some first-time traders won big.

More young investors quickly piled on to what many saw as a revolutionary challenge to the power of Wall Street.

But when stock trading platforms  most notably Robinhood  suddenly put restrictions on the purchase of those stocks, many disillusioned users felt the platform was rigging the system to protect wealthy traders. Internet memes quickly ensued, many of which hinged on Robinhoods namesake, crying hypocrisy over a platform claiming to democratize finance for all.

In their letter to the SEC, members of Congress demurred Robinhoods claim that the restrictions were due to significant market volatility, saying the New York Stock Exchange already has mechanisms in place to limit volatility and provide a pressure release mechanism during major market fluctuations.

The letter asks Lee whether the restrictions constitute market manipulation given possible conflicts of interest.

Will the SEC commit to conducting an investigation to determine whether any of these market access decisions were made after consultation with entities that had a financial interest limiting retail investors ability to purchase stock in a specific company? the letter reads.

In a statement released on Friday, Herrera Beutler called the restrictions an unfair attack on the countrys free market principles.

Americans deserve integrity in our financial markets, but it appears some brokerage platforms may have broken the law by putting their thumb on the scale to protect privileged Wall Street investors over small individual investors, she said. While I am pleased to see the SEC plans to review possible unfair actions, I believe a formal investigation into the financial services institution and trade clearing firms who restricted the purchase of these stocks is warranted.

In later blog posts, Robinhood offered a slightly different explanation to their trading restrictions, saying the surge of small investments, which required them to front a large amount of money, threatened the company financially.

It was not because we wanted to stop people from buying these stocks, the companys Friday post reads.

Even so, the SEC announced that it would closely review actions taken by regulated entities that may disadvantage investors or otherwise unduly inhibit their ability to trade certain securities, prompting members of the public to submit tips or complaints through sec.gov/tcr.

Anger directed at Robinhood has also informed a class action lawsuit against the platform.
Another patient who was hospitalized at the "Matei Bals" Institute in the ward affected by Friday's fire died, the Health Ministry reported on Tuesday, according to AGERPRES.

"The Health Ministry was informed, this morning, about a death among the patients who were in Ward V of the 'Matei Bals' National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest during the January 29 fire," the quoted source said.

According to the ministry, it is about a 70-year-old patient, transferred after the fire to the "Prof. Dr. Dimitrie Gerota" Emergency Hospital and who was hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit.

"The patient was in a serious condition, being intubated, had comorbidities and was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this situation, the forensic investigation will establish the causes of death," the Health Ministry said.
No. 1 downloaded Christian dating app, Upward looking to help users find God-centered love

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The dating app Upward, previously known as FTH, officially re-launched this year to help Christian singles connect with each other during the pandemic.

Pegged as the fastest-growing dating and lifestyle app for Gen Z and millennial Christian singles by Match Group, Upward wants users to find a relationship where God is glorified and at the center.

We believe that Jesus would encourage people to embrace new technologies and advancements in society as well as guide people to find a like-minded, lifelong partner who strives to know Him well and create a happy, loving relationship with His teachings at the center, Alexis Ferraro Luerssen, vice president of marketing and communications for Match Affinity, said to The Christain Post about the app.

According to research released by Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld, the No. 1 way couples now meet is by using online dating apps, as they're less likely to meet through friends and family.

Upward offers a user-friendly platform where members can describe their faith in their own words to be shared on their profiles, the apps description reads.

Once signed up for the free app, faith-based users are encouraged to swipe left or right on profiles and chat with their matches.

The following is an edited transcript of The Christian Posts interview with Ferraro Luerssen, who details their motivation behind creating the app and reveals its success rate as a new way to find love.

CP: Your app underwent a brand change. Why? And what does Upward stand for?

Ferraro Luerssen: We started out as FTH, which stood for Faith, but after much thought and member discussion, we arrived at Upward. Upward stood out to us from some verses and the clear call  specifically Philippians 3:14  which reads, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The writer of Philippians was one of Jesus' disciples, Paul. He used the analogy of a runner who focuses on the goal ahead of him. Staying on the "path" and preventing distractions and stumbling. Paul's spiritual goal is stated directly here: "The prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Our goal for the Upward app is to bring Christian singles who value like-minded, faithful partners together for a chance at love. Staying on their path and preventing the same type of distractions Paul was facing.

Paul's focus is on forward momentum, not prior mistakes. We see this same focus for our members. Letting go of the past, focusing on the potential of the future and allowing the Upward app to help find a relationship where commitment and faith lead to finding a partner. Paul had a clear goal: being in Heaven with the Lord, or his "upward call." He looks forward to the ultimate reward for his faithful service.

This prize is to be with Christ. We see the prize of the Upward app to find a relationship where God is glorified and at the center.

Upward's mission is simple: to create a community where Christian believers meet and find love based in faith at the center of their relationship.

CP: Who is your app geared toward?

Ferraro Luerssen: Upward is geared toward Christian singles, ages 18-35, who are looking for faith-focused relationships. We did extensive market research and discovered that these Gen Z and millennial age groups needed a welcoming, fresh and youthful place to connect with other like-minded, Christ-centered singles.

CP: For those afraid of dating apps, can you explain how you vet your users?

Ferraro Luerssen: We have a robust set of tools, including automated systems and human review, to capture any bad users on our platform. We review every profile that is created on our app, and users are able to report bad behavior that we review and take very seriously. Our goal is to make our app the safest and best possible experience for members.

CP: Your app sends messages of encouragement to its users. Can you explain the reasoning behind that?

Ferraro Luerssen: When creating Upward, we wanted to ensure that it was more personal, faith-focused and thoughtful than superficial dating apps since thats reflective of the types of relationships we want to foster.

We share messages of positivity and encouragement in a few ways, like through our push notifications, Instagram feed, and brand partnerships. Weve gotten wonderful feedback from our users about the overall positive community aspect of Upward, and we think its really making a difference in the quality and likemindedness of singles on the app.

CP: Do you think Jesus would encourage people to meet this way?

Ferraro Luerssen: We believe that Jesus would encourage people to embrace new technologies and advancements in society as well as guide people to find a like-minded, lifelong partner who strives to know Him well and create a happy, loving relationship with His teachings at the center.

CP: What are good signs users can look for and warning signs users should also look out for?

Ferraro Luerssen: Meeting new people is exciting, and doing it online gives singles a unique opportunity to get to know others on their own personal timetables and level of comfort.

Singles should use similar judgement that they would when meeting someone in person as well as pick up on certain cues to gauge how the relationship is developing, such as conversation flow, common interests, and communication style.

While we put the care and safety of our users first, they should always be cautious when interacting with someone they dont know and use their best judgment, whether you are exchanging initial messages or meeting in person.

CP: How has the pandemic impacted your app?

Ferraro Luerssen: Upwards launch coincided with the onset of the pandemic when we saw singles dating habits begin to change given the unique circumstances. As a result, weve seen Gen Z and millennial singles dating habits shift drastically in the past few months.

For example, 64% of Upward users said that their desire to meet a partner of the same faith has increased during the pandemic. Similarly, 64% of users said that they are open to a long-distance relationship (two+ hours) if they matched with the right person.

More singles are seeking the one, or at least a longterm romantic partner that they could realistically see a future with because of pandemic-induced shrinking social circles and growing desire for companionship.

In just a few months since launching, Upward is already the No. 1 downloaded Christian dating app, which shows Gen Z and millennial Christians' craving for faith-focused relationships.

CP: Can you share about your apps success rate and a testimony of a love story?

Ferraro Luerssen: Since launching Upward in March 2020 (back when it was named FTH), weve seen incredible success with singles finding love. There are thousands of relationships, countless engagements and even a marriage already! In a recent survey we conducted, we found that over 90% of Upward users joined the app hoping to find a longterm relationship leading to marriage.

Were blessed with the opportunity to connect Christian singles with their true matches for faith-focused relationships.

One heartwarming Upward love story is Candie and Elias  a young couple who got engaged after connecting on Upward! Prior to downloading Upward, Candie had downloaded other online Christian dating apps and quickly uninstalled them because they weren't user friendly.

When Candie matched with Elias, they quickly got to know each other and fell more and more in love. They are long-distance, so the first time they met in person was when Candie was in Colorado Springs for a girls' trip. He drove to her Airbnb to pick her up for their first date! Now, a few months later, Candie and Elias are happily engaged and are planning their perfect wedding.

CP: Have you ventured into partnering with churches and their singles ministries?

Ferraro Luerssen: This is definitely something were exploring and looking at for the future. Open to connection!

CP: Is there anything else youd like to add?

Ferraro Luerssen: As part of Match Group (experts in the dating space and creators of other niche dating apps), we have created several community apps: Chispa for Latino singles and BLK for black singles, for example, to better serve singles who are looking for like-minded partners with shared values and backgrounds. Upward launched out of that same focus, to help Christian singles who are looking for more from their dating app to find love with their faith as the foundation.

In looking at other dating app data, we found that females under 25 years old who mention any variation of Christ in their profiles receive 25% fewer right swipes/likes than females who dont mention it.

With that in mind, a specific community for Christians like Upward gives faith-focused, Christian singles a welcoming and comfortable space to meet and develop relationships with partners who value religion and faith the same way they do.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 03:02:04|Editor: huaxia

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by Murad Abdo

ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Italy on Friday decided to block exports of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following similar decisions taken by other European countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, in an attempt to allegedly to prevent using weapons in violation of human rights in war-ravaged Yemen.

Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said in a statement on Friday that "this is an act that we considered necessary, a clear message of peace coming from our country. For us, the respect of human rights is an unbreakable commitment."

However, Yemeni political observers and analysts believe that such decisions of freezing arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE cannot affect a significant change in the trajectory of Yemen's military conflict.

Yaseen Tamimi, a Yemeni political writer and analyst, told Xinhua that "the decisions taken by some European countries to maintain arms sales to Saudi Arabia will leave no tangible impacts on the ongoing Yemeni conflict."

He said that "the coalition representing Saudi Arabia and the UAE is no longer the main party in Yemen's military battle as it stopped involving actively or largely in the war."

"The ongoing battles in Yemen are occurring between several internal parties equivalently using weapons mostly manufactured by Russia," said Tamimi, adding that "so the role of Saudi and UAE-led coalition won't be largely affected by the decisions of stopping the flow of arms to the two countries of the coalition."

Last week, the new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden announced that it is beginning to review arms deals that former President Donald Trump struck with Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Several American media outlets reported that Biden's administration had put a temporary freeze on billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi or UAE officials responding to Biden's decision to temporarily suspend arms sales to the Gulf countries.

Mahmoud Al-Taher, a Yemeni political expert, told Xinhua that the new presidential administration of the United States did not truly decide to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a result of Yemen's military conflict.

He pointed out the suspension is just "a routine procedure" and "may be resumed later through other negotiations" because Saudi Arabia is one of the largest buyers of U.S. weapons.

Al-Taher said that "the Americans are fully aware that such a decision will make Saudi Arabia move to other options including diversifying weapons sources, and it may head to deal with Russia, and this may pose major problems to Biden's administration."

Fares Albeel, a college professor and political commentator, told Xinhua that "members of the international community recently have shown a real desire to end Yemen's conflict, but their perceptions regarding this war and its solutions seem to be deficient or far from the core of the issue."

"Yemen's conflict is not related to the arms embargo on Saudi Arabia or the UAE because most of these weapons imported from abroad do not come to the Yemeni regions or used in the ongoing fighting," said Albeel.

He urged "the international community members to understand the dimensions of Yemen's complicated issue as permanent peace in Yemen won't be achieved through such partial decisions or measures."

The professor dismissed the arms sale restriction imposed by some Western countries as "nothing more than a media stance or an attempt to appear as a humanitarian defender who is worrying about the Yemenis."

The Houthis aligned with Iran launched a large military campaign and seized the capital Sanaa in late 2014, forcing Yemen's internationally-recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to flee to the southern port city of Aden.

Subsequently, the pro-Houthi forces backed by armored vehicles attacked Aden and shelled Hadi's Republican Palace, forcing him to escape again to neighboring Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition intervened militarily and began bombing the Houthi-controlled Sanaa in March 2015, in response to an official request from Hadi to protect Yemen and roll back Iran's influence.

The ongoing fighting between the two warring rivals with daily Saudi-led airstrikes plunged the most impoverished Arab country in the Middle East into more chaos and violence.

Three-quarters of the population, or more than 22 million people, urgently require some form of humanitarian assistance, including 8.4 million who struggle to find their next meal. Enditem
Twenty months into power in its second term, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has witnessed a visible transformation. The BJP makes up more than 90 per cent of the NDA (302 of 334 Lok Sabha members), with just one minister of state from outside the BJP in the Union council of ministers.

Though it formally continues as an NDA government, all the ministers with cabinet rank belong to the BJP. When the present NDA government started its second term, three of the cabinet ministers and one minister of state hailed from the non-BJP NDA. Over the past 20 months, two of the cabinet ministers from outside the BJP resigned when their parties left the coalition and one passed away, and has not yet been replaced.

Today, the NDA officially consists of 19 parties of which 10 are represented in the Lok Sabha. When it returned to power after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA consisted of 20 parties of which 10 were represented in the Lok Sabha. After the 2019 polls, it had 352 members of whom 303 belonged to the BJP (86%). What clearly has changed is the dominant presence of the BJP within the NDA and the fact that the Council of Ministers, save one Minister, is exclusively from the ranks of the BJP.

It would be useful to look at the nature and structure of the NDA in the past. When it first contested the elections as an alliance in 1998, it was a 14-party alliance. In the 1998 polls, the NDA won 251 seats of which the BJP accounted for 178 (71%). With the support of the TDP, it secured a majority and formed the government. In the 21 cabinet ministers in NDA government, 10 (nearly half) were from outside the BJP.

Six of the 21 ministers of state were from the partners of the BJP in the NDA. When elections were held the next year (1999) after the fall of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government by one vote, the NDA won 302 seats of which the BJP share was 182 (60%). There were now 21 parties in the NDA. Nine of the 21 cabinet ministers were from the partners of the BJP in the NDA. In both the Vajpayee-led NDA governments of 1998 and 1999, the non-BJP Ministers held key portfolios including Defence, Commerce, Railways, Law, Steel and Mines, Surface Transport and Power. Post 2014, the portfolios of non-BJP ministers included Food Processing, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Public Enterprises.

Earlier, coalition governments had also seen a minimal role for the key player within the coalition. When VP Singh from the Janata Dal led the five-party National Front government in 1989, it was supported from the outside by both the BJP and the Left parties. Within the National Front, the Janata Dal made up just over one fourth of the numbers in the Lok Sabha. Later in 1996, when the thirteen party United Front came to power with the outside support of the Congress, Prime Minister Deve Gowdas Janata Dal made up less than one fourths of the coalitions strength.

It would also be useful to recall that when the Congress-led UPA was in power for two terms from 2004 to 2014, The Congress made up 60 percent of the alliance in 2004 and 80 percent if the alliance in 2009. One fourth of the cabinet ministers in the UPA were from outside the Congress and held key portfolios, including Agriculture, Railways, Communications and Information Technology, Rural Development, Health and Family Welfare.

The above narration makes very clear three sets of issues. Firstly, the Narendra Modi-led NDA coalition is distinctly different from both the NDA coalitions led by Vajpayee as well as the United Front and National Front coalitions. In these earlier coalitions, the role of the major partner in the coalition was severely limited, ranging from being one fourth of the coalition to seventy percent of the coalition. The Modi-led NDA coalitions have seen the BJP constituting 90 percent of the NDA strength in the Lok Sabha.

Secondly, the composition of the council of ministers in the coalition has also seen a dramatic change. In the National Front, United Front, NDA (under Vajpayee) and UPA coalitions, it is often argued that the coalition partners not only decided who will represent them, they also bargained aggressively for both the numbers they would have and the portfolios that would be assigned. The Prime Minister had to yield to the pulls and pressure of the coalition.

After 2014, the story has been very different. The BJP has been very clear in terms of number of Cabinet berths that the coalition partners would get and also the portfolio they would be allotted. This was always a sore point for the Shiv Sena when it was part of the NDA. It would be useful to recall that the JD(U) refused to join the Cabinet in 2019 because they were unhappy with the number of positions offered.

Thirdly, ever since the BJP-led NDA returned to power after the 2019 elections, the BJP has further consolidated its position and for all practical purposes it is a BJP government. It is important to remember that the BJP preferred to continue with the coalition in 2014 even though they had secured a majority on their own. This gave the party an advantage in dealing with its coalition partners. In its second term, one has seen in the 20 months in office, the BJP placing on priority its key agenda relating to the abrogation of Article 370 and attempting to redefine the contours of politics in what was Jammu and Kashmir. With five coalition partners withdrawing from the NDA (Shiv Sena and Akali Dal being the key ones who also had representation in the Cabinet) the BJP has further consolidated its numbers and strength in the coalition. While the NDA coalition government is for all practical purposes a BJP government, it is just a matter of time that the BJP could well shed the cloak of the NDA and herald the end of three decades of coalition and minority governments.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) Moderna Inc. is proposing to fill up vials with coronavirus vaccines with additional doses, the company's president, Stephen Hoge, has announced.

"As the company is approaching the manufacturing of almost a million doses a day, in order to address one of the manufacturing bottlenecks and to allow for additional production, the company is proposing filling vials with additional doses of vaccine, up to 15 doses versus the current 10 doses. One of the capacity constraints beyond the amount of drug product available, is how many vials you can fill in a given period of time," Hoge said on Monday, as quoted by CNBC.

He added that Moderna still needs to discuss its plans with the US food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The US pharmaceutical company has recently announced cuts in vaccine deliveries to several countries, including the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Italy and Canada.

Moderna says the reason for the delay is adjustments the company needs to make at its facilities to scale-up coronavirus vaccine production.

Perth hotel quarantine security personnel did not have to wear masks even while working on the same floor as COVID-19 infected patients, the WA Health Minister has revealed.

PPE use by guards and hotel staff has been thrust into the spotlight following the infection of a guard with the UK variant of COVID-19 sometime last week at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in the Perth CBD.

WA Health Minister Roger Cook. Credit:Hamish Hastie

Health Minister Roger Cook said security guards in hotel quarantine did not need to wear masks at every point while carrying out their duties, even if a COVID-19 patient was residing on the same floor.

No, not necessarily if the people are in their rooms and the guard is simply monitoring that corridor they wouldnt necessarily, they would probably have to carry it with them in order to protect themselves in the event that someone left the room, he said.
The hashtag #BidenLied trended in Twitter over the weekend after President Joe Biden's supporters got angry at the Democrats for breaking their $2,000 stimulus check promise.

Breitbart said Biden was criticized by supporters who demanded their $2,000 stimulus checks he promised during the Georgia senatorial runoff campaign last January.

During the said campaign, Breitbart said, Biden said that $2,000 stimulus checks will immediately be given to Americans once the Democrat candidates win the senatorial race. He also hit on Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue who he purported would keep the money to themselves.

"Those checks will never get there. It's just that simple," Biden stressed during the Georgia campaign referring to Senator Kelly Loeffler and Senator David Perdue.

"That's literally true. If you send Jon and the Reverend to Washington, those $2000 checks will go out the door. Restoring hope and decency and honor for so many people who are struggling right now," he said referring to now-Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock that he was campaigning for at that time.

However, reality now bites as Democrats reveal through their Twitter post that Biden will be rolling out the $2000 stimulus check in installments.

"@POTUS will build on the $600 down payment provided by Congress last year, sending an additional $1,400 to households across America, totaling direct payments to $2,000 per person," The Democrats tweeted Sunday.

The tweet, which received 15.6K comments, 15.4 retweets, and 6.6K heart reactions as of writing time, came with a blue graphic with the $1,400 enlarged at the middle pertaining to "per person relief checks" that will be provided under the "American Rescue Plan."

The Blaze reported that Ossoff and Warnock also made the COVID-19 relief central to their campaign.

In addition, The Blaze said that The Democrats post last Sunday come as no surprise since Biden actually detailed his coronavirus relief package--officially called as the American Rescue Plan--a week before his inauguration. The details include that $1,400 stimulus checks will be added to the relief package of $600 that the 116th session of Congress approved last December.

"We need to tackle the public health and economic crises we're facing head-on. That's why today, I'm announcing my American Rescue Plan. Together we'll change the course of the pandemic, build a bridge toward economic recovery, and invest in racial justice," Biden said in his Twitter account last Jan. 15.

The said American Rescue Plan, as per The Blaze, features the $1,400 stimulus check, an "extension of enhanced unemployment through September,"and an "extension of moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures through September." The Washington Post added that the American Rescue Plan actually garnered much criticism as soon as it was announced.

Due to the inconsistencies, supporters bashed Biden and cited his remarks prior to his inauguration on the promised stimulus checks.

"Instead of this let's go with what Joe promised before the Georgia runoff," Stonk-umm replied to the Democrats post with a screen capture of a Forbes article highlighting Biden's promise.

The Forbes article, dated Jan. 4, has the headline, "Biden's Final Pitch to Georgia: Vote Blue And $2,000 Checks Will 'Go Out The Door Immediately'."

Stonk-umm's tweet was then supported by Dan Backslide who said, "Apparently that pitch came with some fine print they didn't feel obliged to share with us."

"Thank you for lying to everyone for the whole senate election cycle!" @RiggedPig pointed out.

In similar news from Politico, Biden has agreed to meet with Republican senators regarding their coronavirus relief package that costs a third of Biden's America Rescue Plan.
Rackspace Technology Inc. co-founder Graham Weston and his wife have each filed divorce papers to end their 26-year marriage.

The split has gotten combative, with allegations that Graham Weston sexually assaulted his wife and had several extramarital affairs with women in London  including one who may have tried to blackmail him. Elizabeth Weston is accused of recording her husband and hiring a private investigator to track him for a year and a half.

The case has the potential to be one of the biggest divorces in the San Antonio area in recent years. Graham Weston, 56, made a brief appearance on Forbes magazines annual billionaires list in 2013 before dropping off.

The divorce case centers on whether the wealth Graham Weston has amassed over his career is his own or community property that belongs to them both. He apparently intends to argue he has placed the vast majority of assets accumulated during the marriage in a trust that he controls.

The couple does not have a prenuptial agreement, according to one of Elizabeth Westons lawyers.

Both live in New Braunfels.

Graham Weston disputed his wifes allegations, calling them false and purely retaliatory.

She first asserted these fabricated accusations after I requested a divorce in the summer of 2019, he said in an email Tuesday. She quickly recanted, apologized, and  at her request  we reconciled. I am appalled that she and attorney Jason Davis revived these false claims during (a December court) hearing  in an apparent attempt to gain an advantage in the divorce she filed.

Murray Fogler, a Houston lawyer representing Elizabeth Weston, declined to comment.

Graham Westons family has made fortunes in fashion and food, at one point owning Grandmas Cookies, with a large-scale bakery not far from Rackspaces Windcrest headquarters. Frito Lay bought Grandmas in 1979.

Graham Weston graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station in 1986, around the time the savings and loan crisis sent real estate prices plunging. The Weston family bought the property at 112 E. Pecan St., christening it the Weston Centre.

Since making his fortune at Rackspace  Apollo Global Management acquired the cloud-computing company in 2016  Graham Weston has become a major downtown developer. His firm, Weston Urban, has snapped up more than 20 acres of real estate in the urban core.

Its holdings include the $142 million Frost Tower, completed in 2019, and the Rand Building  home to the co-working space Geekdom that he co-founded. Weston Urban also is planning a 351-unit apartment tower with retail space at 305 Soledad St.

Graham Weston has spearheaded various community endeavors, as well. He co-founded nonprofit Community Labs late last summer to conduct coronavirus testing and promotes entrepreneurship and education through his 80|20 Foundation.

Elizabeth Weston, 59, said in court she has exercised control over various family entities, including at least one that owns more than 200 acres in New Braunfels. Shes also managed a company called Equis Equine LLC that has owned horses.

Graham and Elizabeth Weston wed on New Years Eve in 1994. The couple have three sons, all adults, whom Elizabeth home schooled.

Court records show Graham Weston filed for divorce on Oct. 19 in Comal County District Court, but dropped the action just 25 hours later.

On Oct. 26, Elizabeth Weston petitioned for divorce. Both cases used the couples initials rather than names to hide their identities. Graham Weston filed a counterpetition Dec. 23. They each used boilerplate language  discord or conflict of personalities   as their reason for ending the marriage.

During the December court hearing, Graham Weston blamed the divorce in part on his wife tape-recording him. Asked how he knew, he said he had gotten clues of that  so that confirmed my suspicion, according to a court transcript of the proceeding held before Judge Dib Waldrip.

Graham Weston added he found out Elizabeth Weston had been working with San Antonio attorney Jason Davis to have an investigator on me for 18 months.

So to me, that just shows that I had had enough, Graham Weston said. I just  I had been lured back into the marriage in bad faith.

Elizabeth Weston took the stand after her husband, testifying that in June 2019 she had met with Davis, her longtime counsel, to discuss sexual abuse that Graham Weston has done to me. She and her lawyer talked about anticipated litigation.

The court hearing covered Graham Westons motion to disqualify Davis as Elizabeth Westons attorney in the divorce case because of alleged conflicts of interest.

Davis was called as a witness during the hearing. He addressed the litigation contemplated against Graham Weston, saying it would relate to going to New Braunfels police to seek protection and possible prosecution relating to sexual assaultive behavior.

Comal County court records show no criminal cases against Graham Weston.

Davis was then asked if going to the police was part of a scheme to enhance Elizabeth Westons divorce position.

Thats ridiculous, sir, Davis replied. Theres doctors records  contemporaneous records that would corroborate that.

Elizabeth Weston did not want a divorce, he said, adding, She wanted him to turn away from his deviant ways that were harming her family and himself.

Davis referred to communications by Graham to Elizabeth admitting meeting with multiple women in London, infidelity.  There was messages from Graham to Elizabeth admitting that he had become a potential target of extortion or threats from one of the seven or eight women that he contacted in London.

John Denton, owner of New Braunfels information technology firm Decipher I.T., subsequently testified that he was hired by Davis in June 2019. Denton said Elizabeth Weston told him that a woman was going to contact her.

And I think  she was concerned about, maybe something that Graham might have done with another woman named Charlotte, Denton said. I dont remember her last name, but there was a woman named Charlotte that was going to reach out to her and provide either some pictures or some documentation of something.

William Ford, one of Graham Westons lawyers, later told the judge that Elizabeth Weston may not have any of this information shes alleging that started with the investigation of Graham Weston in the summer of 2019.

Graham Westons lawyers moved to disqualify Davis on the grounds the lawyer previously represented the businessman and currently represents Weston entities in litigation, one of his attorneys argued.

It is particularly troubling that notwithstanding the long history of legal representation, Davis failed to disclose to G.M.W. that Davis was investigating G.M.W.s conduct on behalf of E.W., an attorney for Graham Weston said in a letter to the judge.

Graham Weston said he has paid Davis more than $2 million in legal fees over the years and acknowledged feeling a sense of betrayal.

Davis has access to Graham Westons confidential information, including the value of his assets and property held in trust for him, Westons attorney said.

Fogler, who represents Elizabeth Weston, countered there was no basis for the severe remedy of disqualification. None of the legal services Davis provided is substantially related to this divorce, Fogler said in a letter to the judge. He added Graham Weston expressly authorized Davis to share any information with Elizabeth Weston.

Waldrip, the judge, granted the motion to disqualify Davis without explanation. Elizabeth Westons counsel now want the judge to clarify his order and stay the divorce case while they appeal to a higher court. Davis did not respond to a request for comment.

Granting a stay will not cause G.M.W. any harm, her motion states. As he purports to control most of the property and wealth from the marital estate, he suffers no hardship from delay in deciding on a division.

Waldrip is slated to take up the requests Wednesday.

pdanner@express-news.net
You are here: China

Chinese railway police arrested more than 1,100 ticket scalpers in January amid a special offensive against illegal and criminal behavior, the Ministry of Public Security said Monday.

Railway police nationwide cracked over 900 cases involving train tickets, seizing about 4,200 genuine tickets and 70,000 fake tickets during the campaign, which was launched to ensure smooth travel during the Spring Festival holiday, the ministry said.

During operations targeting theft, robbery and fraud, they solved more than 2,000 criminal cases, dismantling 87 crime rings and detaining 730 suspects, the ministry added.
The union representing workers at Frontier Communications in Connecticut is calling on state utility regulators to require stronger commitments from the Norwalk-based telecommunications company as it attempts to get out of bankruptcy.

Officials with Communications Workers of America Local 1298 want the states Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to demand more of Frontier when the regulatory agency issues its final decision on Wednesday regarding the companys plan to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The union, which is based in Hamden, made its request last week in response to PURAs draft decision in the case.

Specifically, union leaders want Frontier to commit to the following:

$400 million in capital investment in Connecticut.

Fiber optic cable deployment to 200,000 homes in the state.

No reductions in local technician and customer service staff for the next three years.

Local 1298 President Dave Weidlich said the unions filing with PURA is looking to make sure Frontier makes a tangible commitment to its workers and the people of Connecticut.

When they took control in the state in 2014, they made a lot of promises, but it was nothing more than lip service, Weidlich said. They have made commitments to regulators in other states that were much stronger than what they are doing here. Were just looking for something with a little more meat on the bone in Connecticut.

In PURAs draft decision last month, officials with the regulatory agency stipulated commitments by Frontier that included no layoffs for two years and agree to keep its corporate headquarters in the state for that period. Aditionally, it called on the company to extend big-bandwidth fiber broadband to 100,000 locations by the end of 2024.

Frontiers plan to eliminate debt through bankruptcy, would shift control of the Norwalk-based company to creditors. The plan has already been approved by the Federal Communications Commission.

Frontier is eliminating more than $10 billion in debt by issuing ownership stakes to lenders, leaving close to $7 billion in debt on the books. Frontier has received approval for its plan from 13 states, including New York.

Connecticut is one of several states that has not approved the bankruptcy plan. State regulators jurisdiction in the case because the plan to emerge from bankruptcy involves a change of control of Frontier.

The company issued a statement in response to CWAs objections that said in part final approval by PURA that will bring substantial benefits to Connecticut and enable Frontier to emerge from Chapter 11 reorganization as a stronger company with enhanced financial flexibility to support continued investment in an improved customer experience, greater fiber-to-the-premises deployment, and long-term growth.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
A general view of the port in the southern Philippine city of Marawi, which was devastated in a five-month battle in 2017 between government forces and IS-linked militants, April 10, 2018.

A suspected militant and close associate of the slain Islamic State branch leader in the Philippines was killed in a shootout with police in the south, authorities said.

Arrasid Adjing Halissam (also known as Guru Ara), a suspect wanted in connection with bombings and kidnappings in the southern Philippines, was shot dead when he resisted arrest by firing at officers as they moved to serve him with a warrant in Zamboanga City, regional police chief Brig. Gen. Ronaldo Genaro Ylagan said.

During the law enforcement operation the suspect opened fire on the operating unit using his caliber .45 pistol that prompted the police forces to retaliate and neutralize the target, Ylagan said.

Intelligence operatives from the nearby Sulu Islands  a hotbed of militant activity  and Special Action Force commandos launched the raid before dawn, Ylagan said.

Their mission was to capture the suspect, who was a militant with a notorious record, according to the regional police chief. Halissam was traced to a safehouse in a village close to the militarys Western Mindanao Command, which is based here.

According to a police report, Halissam was the trusted man of slain international terrorist, ISIS-ASG Leader Isnilon Hapilon and was the facilitator of late Malaysian International Terrorist Zulkifli bin hir a.k.a Marwan.

The report was referring to Islamic State (IS) by another acronym and to the Abu Sayyaf Group, a Philippine militant group aligned with the international terror organization.

In 2014, the late Isnilon Hapilon together with Guru Ara pledged their allegiance to the ISIS wherein Hapilon was later on pronounced as the Emir (leader) of Islamic State (IS) in the Philippines, according to an excerpt from the report that was included in a statement posted Tuesday on the Facebook page of Philippine National Police.

Arrasid Adjing Halissam (also known as Guru Ara) is pictured in an undated photo released by the Philippine military. [Handout/Western Mindanao Command]

Hapilon, an Abu Sayyaf commander and the Philippine chief of IS, led a five-month militant takeover of the southern city of Marawi before he was killed in action toward the end of the siege in 2017.

Marwan was killed during a raid by Philippine police commandoes in Mamasapano, a municipality in southern Mindanao province, in January 2015. At the time of his death, Marwan was wanted by authorities in the United States because he was a main suspect in twin bombings that killed 202 people in Bali in 2002  Indonesias deadliest terror attack to date.

After Hapilons death in Marawi, Halissam moved to the Sulu Islands, the report said.

Halissam was suspected of being involved in atrocities committed by militants in the south, including a bombing that killed two people and injured 52 others at a bus terminal in Zamboanga on Jan. 23, 2015, the national police said.

He was also suspected of facilitating Indonesian suicide bombers who carried out a twin bombing that killed 23 people at a church in Jolo, the capital of Sulu, in January 2019, police said.

Ylagan said Halissam was wanted, too, for high-profile kidnappings in the south, including of American citizens Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann and Kevin Lunsmann in July 2011, when they were visiting an island off Zamboanga City.

Gerfa was released while her son managed to escape by trekking through the jungle on Basilan Island for two days.

Citing declassified intelligence records, Ylagan said Halissam had been listed since 2018 as belonging to one of the terror cells affiliated with the Abu Sayyaf.

Tuesdays operation took place amid persistent intelligence reports that the militants were preparing to carry out fresh attacks in the south, he said.

Of particular concern is an Abu Sayyaf unit controlled by Mundi Sawadjaan, a bomb-expert and the nephew of Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, who succeeded Hapilon as the Philippine IS leader but is also believed to have been killed during an encounter with the military. His body was never recovered to prove that claim, although it is believed that the nephew has taken over militant operations after Hatibs death.

Philippine authorities tagged Mundi as the mastermind of the attack on the Jolo church two years ago, as well as another twin suicide bombing that killed 15 people in the same town last year.
Re: Support for development

We find it quite interesting that Mr. Boultbee saw the Canadian Horizons proposal in June 2020 and wrote a harsh condemnation of the 300+ houses planned for 1050 Spiller Road. Now, after talking with the developer he sees some personal gain  improved services and increased home value.

His arguments, however, beg some analysis.

By stating that the land has no agricultural value, he denies the many years of cattle grazing on and around the property. And also, judging by the development of orchards and vineyards moving continuously upslope, there is the unrealized potential for further agricultural development on the land.

With reference to the Northeast Sector development plan, he is correct. The land was slated as an area for future growth, but since that 2002 report the changes to the Official Community Plan have shown a much less dense development of the area. It is currently zoned Country Residential  one house for approximately 1 or more hectares, or just over 2 acres per lot, to protect the land from being destroyed and subdivided.

With regard to benefits to the tax base, I think a careful study of any development will never show that a development has caused taxes to go down. And the further from the centre of the city, the greater the cost to service the community; today, even in Kelowna where there is substantial development, there have been recent increases in the residential tax rate.

Mr. Boultbee is either naive or just not informed when he states Canadian Horizons, promised a 50-meter buffer between existing Spiller Road residences and that the development would assist in bringing water to our neighborhood. A developer will promise much but once the rezoning is approved, those promises will evaporate, only to be resurrected in costly legal battles down the road. It is a story that is told time and time again. Dont be fooled by a developer whose goal is not to help the neighbors on Spiller Road, but to make as much money as they can, before moving onto the next project.

As for wildfire risk  you may experience more risk with an additional 300 homes, and then imagine trying to evacuate with your 600 + new neighbours.

We could go on about the environmental degradation, excessive traffic leading into town, and the unappealing site of a subdivision, but suffice it to say, a real dereliction of leadership and a lack of imagination would be to approve the rezoning of 1050 Spiller Road.



Lora and Patrick Corbett
The on Tuesday asked Ltd (FRL) to maintain the status quo with respect to its $3.4 billion (about Rs 24,700 crore) deal with The court said it was satisfied that an immediate interim order was required to be passed to protect the rights of

The development has come as a temporary relief for Jeff Bezos-led e-commerce giant Amazon, which is battling to thwart the Future groups asset sale to Reliance.

Hearing Amazons plea, the high court has granted an interim relief to Amazon, directing all authorities and parties to maintain the status quo on the deal, said Salman Waris, managing partner at technology law firm TechLegis Advocates and Solicitors. The courts direction effectively means that the deal will be on hold till a final decision in the matter is reached. This was what had pleaded.

Amazon, which holds a stake in Future Coupons Pvt. Ltd. (FCPL), alleges that the violated contracts by agreeing to sell its retail assets to rival last year. Future denies any wrongdoing.

sought the implementation of the October 25, 2020, order of the HC, seeking an injunction against the founders and other respondents, and also their detention in civil prison.

Amazons plea also sought the enforcement of the emergency award restraining the from going ahead with its deal with It also wanted the seizure of Future assets for allegedly violating a Singapore arbitration courts order to temporarily halt the deal.

According to the order dated February 2, the court is of the prima facia view that the emergency arbitrator is an arbitrator. The emergency arbitrator has rightly proceeded against respondent no.2; the order dated 25th October 2020 is not a nullity, according to the documents, seen by Business Standard. This court is of the view that the order dated 25th October 2020 is appealable under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation ActThe detailed reasons shall be given in the reserved order.

The court said the respondents were directed to file an affidavit to place on record the actions taken by them after 25th October, 2020, and the present status of all those actions, within 10 days. All the authorities concerned, it said, were directed to maintain the status quo with respect to all matters in violation of the order dated 25th October, 2020, and should file the status report within 10 days of the receipt of this order.

Reacting to this, an Amazon spokesperson said, We have the utmost respect for the Indian legal system and appreciate the interim order of the Honble to uphold the enforceability of the emergency arbitrators order and maintain the status quo.

Earlier, the court had suggested that Amazon and should attempt to resolve their differences amicably and out of the court. The court had suggested that the matter could be referred to two retired Supreme Court judges.

On Tuesday, the counsel representing informed the court that it would create tremendous confusion to have talks with Amazon and it did not concede to the suggestion.

Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanium, who appeared for Amazon, told the court that it had initiated arbitration before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre and was willing to enter into a purposive dialogue. However, the counsel for Future Coupons said a lot of water has flown under the bridge.

In August 2020, the Future group struck a $3.4-billion asset sale deal with RIL. Amazon then sent a legal notice to Future, alleging the retailers deal breached an agreement with the American e-commerce firm. In 2019, Amazon had acquired a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons, the promoter entity of Future Retail, for about Rs 1,500 crore.

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A ballot measure that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs in Oregon took effect on Monday.

Oregon becomes the country's first state to decriminalize the possession and personal use of illegal drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine after the passage of Measure 110 by more than 58 percent of the vote last November.

Measure 110 reclassifies possession of small amounts of illegal drugs from a misdemeanor to a civil violation with a $100 fine or participating in a health assessment.

Instead of arresting and putting people in jail for illegal drugs, the law offers aid to those who need it. It will also shift more than $100 million a year of marijuana tax revenue to support addiction recovery.

According to a U.S. News report, the measure was a ballot initiative funded by the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group supported in part by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

Possession of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and other drugs for personal use is no longer a criminal offense in Oregon. But selling these illegal drugs or possessing them in large amounts is still against the law that could result in a misdemeanor charge. Marijuana remains fully legal in Oregon since the state legalized it in 2014.

Meanwhile, advocates said the shift in decriminalizing illegal drugs is life-changing for thousands of Oregonians. Kassandra Frederique, the Drug Policy Alliance's executive director, said "one of the things people misunderstand" is how criminalization creates blockages for getting treatment. The Drug Policy Alliance is a nonprofit dedicated to legalizing illicit drug use.

"If we want people to make different choices, we have to give them more options... ending criminalization will do leaps and bounds around ending shame, which automatically opens people up for other opportunities," Frederique said in a USA Today report.

Others, including lawmakers, are hopeful this could be the first step when it comes to progressive measures, adding that drug criminalization disproportionately imprisoned people of color across the United States.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman said she hoped that everyone will become more enlightened now that substance abuse is not something that needs imprisonment.

"If you're white and wealthy, you get an opportunity to get a break, go home to your family and go into some kind of health care environment. But it's often different for people of color," Watson Coleman said in the report.

Watson Coleman further noted that it is far more expensive to pay to imprison someone than get them treatment. She added that rehab programs not only empower people but also save communities money.

Related story: 7 Most Powerful Mexican Drug Cartels That Control US Illicit Drug Market





Decriminalization of Illegal Drugs in Oregon

Proponents of Measure 110 see the idea as a chance to prioritize drug treatment over police enforcement based on successful decriminalization models imposed in Portugal and Switzerland, according to a Rolling Stone report.

As per the Drug Policy Alliance, new treatment services, including 15 addiction recovery centers, will be opened by Oct. 1. It will be funded with excess marijuana tax revenue, which earns over $45 million now and could expand to $129 million by 2027.

Oregon's state will fund these services with the money it is expected to save by no longer arresting, imprisoning, and prosecuting people for illegal drug possession.

Measure 110 also seeks to change some police behaviors too. Chris Parosa, a prosecutor for the Lane County District Attorney's Office, said that before, they could establish probable cause for a possible felony if an officer saw a pipe in a car. But now, if they see a pipe in a car, it will be just a violation and will not give law enforcement grounds to search a vehicle.

Related story: Oregon Becomes First State to Decriminalize Hard Drugs
In a massive redeployment of staff, the management of the Nigerian Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has announced the transfer of about 200 employees.

The transferred officials were directed to leave their present posting to new states. The redeployments are to take immediate effect, the management said.

The redeployments were contained in an NHIS internal memo exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday morning.

About 201 names are contained in the memo as workers affected in the shake-up.

Dated February 1, 2020, the memo was signed by Sani Garba, the general manager, human resources and administration at the NHIS.

This is to inform all staff that in line with managements resolution to strengthen and promote commitment and productivity for the accelerated drive towards Universal Health Coverage, the ES/CEO has approved the posting of the under-listed staff to the respective state offices,& the memo read.

The state coordinators are requested to assign functions to each posted staff in line with their positions, qualifications and experiences.

All postings are with immediate effect. The process of handing/taking over and reporting is one week from the date of the memo. All state coordinators are to submit fully endorsed assumption of duty forms of the reported staff to the undersigned.

When contacted Tuesday evening to request the thinking behind the redeployments, Emmanuel Ononokpono, the NHIS spokesperson, said he would get back to this reporter. He did not get back as of press time.

While many of the workers were redeployed from the NHIS headquarters in Abuja to various states, others were transferred between states.

Workers react

While some of the workers affected in the transfer questioned its rational citing the COVID-19 situation, others expressed surprise over the move.

This is not a good time for this kind of transfers. Some of the states the workers are transferred to among the high priority states affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the transferred officials, who does not want his name mentioned for fear of victimisation, said.

Another transferred official said he was surprised about the transfer as most of the affected workers were involved in the transformation project of the NHIS

UHC

Health insurance has been globally recognised as the fastest route for any country to achieve Universal Health Coverage.

Nigeria launched the National Health Scheme in 2005  the same year with Ghana.

But today, not up to 10 per cent of Nigerians have health insurance, while Ghanas scheme has covered over 50 per cent of its population.

The failure of the NHIS to deliver heralded the quest for the establishment of State Health Insurance Schemes (SHIS) by various states.

SHIS offers each state a more feasible platform to manage their own health insurance for residents.

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Lagos, Niger, Delta, Anambra are among about 20 states that have begun implementation of the SHIS.
Detective saga Judgment is making its way to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Google Stadia. Japanese developer Ryu ga Gotoku (perhaps best known for its work on the Yakuza series) is promising upgraded visuals at 60 frames per second, along with shorter load times and all of the previously released DLC.

Judgment, which was one of Engadget's favorite games of 2019, was initially released on on PlayStation 4. You'll step into the shoes of private detective Takayuki Yagami, who searches for clues and brawls with criminals as he tries to solve a series of murders.

The action takes place in Kamurocho, the same fictional area of Tokyo in which the Yakuza games are set. Judgment is split into 13 chapters, which helps to give it the vibe of a detective miniseries. It will arrive on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Stadia on April 23rd and itll cost $40.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said an Amber Alert that was issued for the cursed doll Chucky from the Child's Play horror films was a test that was accidentally sent out.

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The Amber Alert message that was sent out to subscribers of the Texas Alerts System three times on Friday describes the suspect, Chucky, as wearing "blue denim overalls with multi-colored striped long sleeve shirt" and says he was last seen "wielding a huge kitchen knife."

Chucky was suspected of abducting "Glen Ray," the cursed doll's son from the film Seed of Chucky. The alert included photos of both movie characters.

The Texas Department of Safety said the fake Amber Alert was set up as a system test and was never meant to be seen by the public.

"This was actually a test we were running on a dev server and it accidentally went out," DPS spokesman Ruben Medina told KPRC-TV.

Medina said DPS would like to "apologize for this inconvenience."
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / (CSE:JNC)(OTC PINK:JNCCF)(FRA:5VH) JNC Resources Inc. ("JNC" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, subject to compliance with the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "Exchange"), the Company has engaged Xander Capital Partners Inc. ("Xander") for corporate consulting services. The services are anticipated to include a focus on brand awareness and assistance with the introduction of Company management to mining industry partners, research analysts, investment bankers, advisors and potential board members.

Xander Capital Partners has over 30 years of cumulative industry specific experience. Xander is headquartered in Orlando, with their reach expanding internationally. Their services include introductions to high net worth individuals, assistance with the raising of equity capital, and corporate sponsorship.

About JNC Resources Inc.

JNC is a North American-based junior mineral exploration company with a goal to develop under-explored properties and benefit from deal flow generated by strategic partnerships and growth opportunities. Currently the Company is developing its 100% optioned Triple 9 Project in South Central British Columbia. The Triple 9 Project is a gold property with a new discovery of high levels of base metals, located 20 km from the town of Sicamous. JNC also has an option agreement with Great Basin Resources to acquire 100% control and interest in the Imperial Project in Nevada. The Imperial Property is located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, which has been a prolific mining area in the state. The Property is in close proximity to the town of Goldfields, where gold production occurred in the early part of the 20th century. JNC also recently optioned the Malebo and Solomon claims in the province of NSW Australia, subject to closing, with an exploration program planned in 2021.

For further information please contact:

Michael Mulberry

T: 778-855-5001

info@jncresources.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are 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 the Company believes that the expectations reflected in applicable forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in such statements.

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

SOURCE: JNC Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627167/JNC-Resources-Engages-Xander-Capital-Partners
The rules under the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which was enacted over a year ago, are under preparation, the was informed on Tuesday.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 was notified on December 12, 2019 and it came into force with effect from January 10, 2020.

"The Rules under The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 are under preparation. The Committees on Subordinate Legislation, and Rajya Sabha have granted extension of time up to April 9 and July 9, respectively to frame these rules under the CAA," he said in a written reply.

The CAA, which facilitates granting of Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim minorities -- Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian -- of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, was passed by Parliament in December 2019, triggering protests in different parts of the country.

The President had given his assent to the legislation on December 12, 2019.

Under the Act, people from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution in the three countries will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

After the CAA was passed by Parliament, widespread protests were witnessed in the country. Those opposing the CAA contend that it discriminates on the basis of religion and violates the Constitution. They also allege that the CAA along with the Register of Citizens is intended to target the Muslim community in India.

However, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had dismissed the allegations and described the protests against the CAA as "mostly political". He had asserted that no Indian would lose citizenship due to the Act.

Clashes between pro and anti-CAA groups had spiralled into communal riots in Northeast Delhi last year which had left at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

The Manual on Parliamentary Work states that "statutory rules, regulations and bye-laws will be framed within a period of six months from the date on which the relevant statute came into force".

It also states that in case the ministries and departments are not able to frame the rules within the prescribed period of six months, "they should seek extension of time from the Committee on Subordinate Legislation stating reasons for such extension", which cannot be more than for a period of three months at a time.

(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.)
Fences are put up at a road leading to Cai Rong Town, Quang Ninh Province, which is under lockdown, February 1, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Minh Cuong.

Many areas in Vietnam have been placed under lockdowns following the latest Covid-19 outbreak featuring a rapidly transmitting U.K.-originated variant.

The northern province of Hai Duong, the country's biggest hotspot in the new outbreak that struck last Thursday, imposed a 21-day lockdown starting January 28 after dozens of workers of a Taiwanese-run firm were found infected with the novel coronavirus.

No public activity and no passenger transportation out of the town is allowed, apart from exceptional cases. The use of personal vehicles should be avoided as much as possible. Transportation of materials and goods is still allowed.

Besides Chi Linh, home to 220,000 people, Hai Duong, the capital town of the eponymous province, has locked down many residential areas for 21 days since January 31, suspending activities involving large crowds. Some communes and villages in Nam Sach and Kim Thanh districts have also been placed under lockdowns.

Hai Duong is currenty the biggest Covid-19 hotspot with 209 confirmed as of Tuesday morning.

Its neighbor Quang Ninh, another Covid-19 hotspot where 33 infections have been recorded starting with employees at Van Don Airport, has locked down 12 communes and one ward in Dong Trieu Town of Dong Trieu District, and one commune in Van Don District.

The province is set to extend the lockdown over the entire Dong Trieu Town, which neighbors the Chi Linh hotspot in Hai Duong Province and home to around 200,000 people, from Wednesday.

Quang Ninh's Cai Bau Island, 50 km from the famous Ha Long, home to seven communes and towns, was locked down Tuesday after more infections were detected.

Authorities in Hanoi, less than two hours to the east of Hai Duong, have so far locked down nine areas, including a primary school and an apartment in Nam Tu Liem District, the FPT University in Thach That District and a military-managed factory in Dong Anh District. Other locked down areas are in Cau Giay, Hai Ba Trung and Me Linh districts.

Hanoi authorities on Monday afternoon decided to shut down video game and internet parlors in the city from Tuesday, following the shutdown of all bars, karaoke parlors, and discotheques a day earlier.

Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said at a meeting with city authorities Monday that Hanoi should consider applying social distancing on a wider scale as the pandemic situation in the capital has turned complicated and could last longer than expected.

The capital has reported 20 cases under the latest outbreak, as of Tuesday morning.

The northern port city of Hai Phong also locked down its maternity hospital Monday after a man visiting the hospital to take care of his wife was confirmed positive for the virus the same day.

Bac Giang Province, around 50 kilometers from Hanoi, has locked down a commune in Luc Nam District after it recorded its first community transmission case during the latest wave.

Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands, which has reported six infection cases in the latest outbreak, has also placed many areas under lockdown, including a general hospital.

The southern province of Binh Duong, which neighbors HCMC, has also recorded a community transmission case in Thu Dau Mot Town linked to Hai Duong outbreak. Town authorities imposed a lockdown on many areas starting Monday.

The new wave of Covid-19 community transmissions in Vietnam was caused by the fast-spreading U.K. variant, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.

The virus strain was first found in the U.K. last November, and is said to be 70 percent more transmissible.

Long stressed that the new virus variant can be transmitted airborne, adding that the face mask rule must be strictly followed.

The latest outbreak comes just a couple of weeks before Tet, Vietnam's biggest and most important festival, an occasion for family reunions that will see millions travel home.

However, thousands of people are now in centralized quarantine facilities for a period of up to 21 days due to the new variant, meaning that they would not be able to return home for the holiday, which peaks on February 12.

The government has said it seeks to avoid deleterious socioeconomic impacts of a nationwide lockdown. Instead, local social distancing measures are being applied in areas hard hit by the pandemic.
Dr. Michael Kpessa-Whyte, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, will mount the witness box for the Petitioner, Former President John Dramani Mahama, in the 2020 Presidential Election Petition on Tuesday, February 2, 2021.



Dr Kpessa-Whyte is one of the two representatives of the Petitioner stationed at the National Collation Centre ("Strongroom") of the First Respondent (Electoral Commission), during the Presidential Election held on December, 7 2020.



In his witness statement, he said I testify in support of Petitioner's case as contained in his Petition.



He said as one of the Petitioner's representatives in EC's "Strongroom", I noticed many material irregularities during the entire process of the December 7, 2020 Presidential Election.



Dr. Kpessa-Whyte said consequently, he and his colleague representative at the "strongroom", Mr. Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, brought the many material irregularities to the immediate attention of Petitioner and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the political party on whose ticket the Petitioner contested as candidate for the office of President in the Presidential Election.



Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, also a witness for the Petitioner, after presenting his witness statement and has since been cross-examined by the Respondents lawyers and discharged by the court

Former President, John Dramani Mahama has filed a petition at the Supreme Court seeking an annulment of the Presidential Election results and a re-run of the election between him and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is the second Respondent in the petition.



The Petition is also seeking a mandatory injunction, directing the First Respondent, the Electoral Commission to proceed to conduct a second election between the petitioner and the 2nd respondent as the candidates, as required under Articles 63 (4) and (5) of the 1992 constitutions.

Source: GNA









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The countrys largest listed Australian-focused industrial fund, Centuria Industrial REIT, has forecast a rise in sale and leaseback activity as large manufacturers look to sell their real estate and use the cash for expansion.

For the first half of the pandemic-hit financial year, the trust announced a record number of acquisitions as well as significant leasing activity that boosted its funds from operation (FFO)  a more accurate measure of a REITs operating performance  by 43 per cent to $42.8 million, in line with market expectations.

Centuria Industrial Fund paid $49 million for a cold storage site in Derrimut, Victoria in November.

The strong activity and $99.6 million statutory net profit, led the group to issue an FFO upgrade to no less than 17.6 per unit, while the full-year distribution is reaffirmed at 17 per unit.

The $1.7 billion ASX-listed fund has 59 industrial properties across the country and, through a series of large acquisitions over the past six months, has increased its portfolio value by about 50 per cent to $2.4 billion.

US President Joe Biden (File image: Reuters)

US President Joe Biden will sign three executive orders on Tuesday on immigration, including creating a task force to reunify families that were separated at the border by the Trump administration's policies, and to ensure that the legal immigration system operates fairly and efficiently.

According to the White House, Biden, who will sign the executive orders, believes that "immigrants are essential to who we are as a nation and critical to American aspirations for the future."

The previous Trump administration enacted hundreds of policies that run counter to American history and undermine Americas character as a land of opportunity that is open and welcoming to all who come here seeking protection and opportunity, it said.

"This Executive Order will elevate the role of the White House in coordinating the federal governments strategy to promote immigrant integration and inclusion, including re-establishing a Task Force on New Americans, and ensuring that the legal immigration system operates fairly and efficiently," the White House said.

The order requires agencies to conduct a top-to-bottom review of recent regulations, policies, and guidance that have set up barriers to the legal immigration system.

It will also rescind former president Donald Trumps memorandum requiring family sponsors to repay the government if relatives receive public benefits, instruct the agencies to review the public charge rule and related policies, and streamline the naturalisation process.

Hours after being sworn in as the 46th US President, Biden on January 20 took the first steps in a broad, whole of government effort to finally reform America's immigration system, including sending to Congress legislation that creates a pathway to citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in and contributing to the country.

Officials said Bidens strategy is centered on the basic premise that the US country is safer, stronger, and more prosperous with a fair, safe and orderly immigration system that welcomes immigrants, keeps families together, and allows peopleboth newly arrived immigrants and people who have lived here for generationsto more fully contribute to the country.

Biden knows that new Americans fuel our economy, as innovators and job creators, working in every American industry, and contributing to our arts, culture, and government, the White House said.

According to senior administration officials, Biden believes that families belong together.

He has made clear that reversing the Trump administrations immigration policies that separated thousands of families at the border is a top priority.

A key part of this effort is the creation of a task force to reunite families that remain separated.

This task force will work across the US government, with key stakeholders and representatives of impacted families, and with partners across the hemisphere to find parents and children separated by the Trump Administration, said the officials.

The task force will make recommendations to the President and federal agencies regarding steps that they can take to reunify families.

Further, the task force will report regularly to the President and recommend steps to prevent such tragedies from occurring again.

President Biden's Executive Order will also revoke the Trump administrations Executive Order that sought to justify separating children from their parents.

The Trump administration oversaw the separation of over 5,500 families  and the parents of more than 600 children still have not been located, according to US media reports.
Dustin Diamond, popularly known for his character Samuel Screech Powers in the popular sitcom Saved by the Bell, passed away at the age of 44. The tragic news was shared by his representative stating that Dustin passed away on Monday, February 1, 2021, due to carcinoma.

According to People magazine, Dustin breathed his last after a battle with cancer on Monday morning in a Florida hospital. He was diagnosed with cancer and hospitalized just three weeks ago. The late actor's representative said, "We are saddened to confirm of Dustin Diamond's passing on Monday, February 1st, 2021 due to carcinoma. He was diagnosed with this brutal, relentless form of malignant cancer only three weeks ago. In that time, it managed to spread rapidly throughout his system; the only mercy it exhibited was its sharp and swift execution. Dustin did not suffer. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. For that, we are grateful."

Many Hollywood stars took to Twitter and paid tribute to the late actor. Tori Spelling, who had shared her first on-screen kiss with Diamond shared a heartfelt note on Instagram. She wrote, in part: "He's an icon to me professionally and personally. RIP Samuel love, your Violet "

Wendy Williams wrote on Twitter, "Our hearts go out to the family, friends, and fans of actor #DustinDiamond who passed away today at the age of 44 after a short battle with cancer." Take a look at the posts,

Our hearts go out to the family, friends and fans of actor #DustinDiamond who passed away today at the age of 44 after a short battle with cancer. pic.twitter.com/YqiU3iB3VR  Wendy Williams (@WendyWilliams) February 1, 2021

Oh lord. #rip Dustin. Im shocked. I remember all of the times we were there for each other on set of #cbb like captured in this photo. You were talking me out of feeling sorry for myself. You were a sensitive yet strong soul. Im so sorry  #dustindiamond. pic.twitter.com/h5b4O8goKo  Courtney Stodden (@CourtneyStodden) February 1, 2021

After starring in Yogi's Great Escape, Good Morning, Miss Bliss, and Saved by the Bell, Dustin continued to reprise his role in the franchise spinoffs, including Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Over the years, he had continued to appear in films including, Made (2001), Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003), Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003), Tetherball: The Movie (2010), All Wifed Out (2012) and College Fright Night (2014).

ALSO READ: Trans Icon & Grammy Nominee Sophie Xeon Passes Away At 34 Following An Accident

ALSO READ: Resident Evil 8 Star Jeanette Maus Dies After Battle With Colon Cancer
Why North Star felt it was key to keep in-person education amid COVID

The annual tradition of getting married on the Bexar County Courthouse steps at midnight on Valentine's Day, won't be happening this year.



According to Priscilla Hernandez, with Bexar County Clerk's Office, the decision was made in accordance with the city and county order of COVID-19 protocols.



However, that doesn't mean San Antonio couples can't get married for free on the courthouse steps.



Bexar County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark will be performing free wedding ceremonies on the Friday before Valentine's Day - Feb. 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.



The ceremonies will have all COVID-19 safety protocols in place including wearing of a mask and staying 6 feet apart. The ceremony will also only be two couples at a time.



READ ALSO: San Antonio River Walk's famed holiday lights display extended through February



If you can't make it out that day, Adame-Clark will also be offering free wedding ceremonies throughout the month of February.

Couples will need to make an appointment online through the County Clerk's website for all wedding ceremonies.



Also happening during the month of February, Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez is offering no-cost wedding ceremonies at the County Courthouse.
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Cold case detectives hope a $250,000 reward will help solve the suspected murder of an Englishman who vanished from New Farm in 2000.

Steve Goldsmith was 28 years old when he went missing after withdrawing cash from an ATM near his Sydney Street unit in July 2000.

Steve Goldsmith went missing in July 2000. Credit: Australian Missing Person Register

Mr Goldsmith was an arborist subcontracted to Toowoomba City Council and other tree-lopping operators and would return to Brisbane on weekends.

He was last seen by a friend in Toowoomba on July 6, 2000, and was captured on CCTV withdrawing cash from an ATM at Merthyr Village Shopping Centre on July 10.
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Patently Apple opened a 'Project Titan' Archive back in December 2017 as we began to recognize a consistent trend emerging that related to future electric vehicles that were semi and/or fully autonomous. 88 patents later, including two more IP reports posted just today (01 and 02), the press is finally taking the project seriously. A series of rumors have emerged since January and today, the biggest news to date has emerged in the form a a serious home run hire to take Project Titan to the next level.

According to several European reports including Germany's NewsABC.net research, Apple has hired the longstanding head of chassis development at Porsche to build their own car. Cayenne boss Dr. Manfred Harrer was considered one of the best engineers in the Volkswagen Group.

His Linkedin page that we reviewed this afternoon lists him officially as "Vice President Product Line Cayenne Bei Porsche AG. His list of overarching responsibility included:

Project management incl. maturity level

Platform and vehicle concept

Life Cycle Management

Production planning

Marketing and Sales

Finance

Over his almost 14 year career at Porsche AG he held a series of positions prior to becoming Vice President Product Line Cayenne including:

Vice President Chassis Development

Director vehicle dynamics and performance

Director chassis control systems

Manager steering systems and wheels

Prior to Porsche AG, Dr. Harrer worked for the BMW Group for 7+ years and Audi AG for 2+ years.

The European report made the observation that the commitment of a chassis expert is a clear signal that Apple is developing a mobile pedestal for the iCar itself.

The spectacular change in personnel from Zuffenhausen to Silicon Valley has been quiet and quiet so far. At the end of last year, Harrer is said to have said goodbye to colleagues without revealing the reason. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is still employed by Porsche.

A former VW top manager stated for the report that "The American headhunting is amazing. Mr. Harrer was actually a hidden champion. Humanly a very calm guy, without any need for recognition. He is the measure of all things in his field."

Dr. Harrers salary was said to be in excess of $600,000 Euros per year at Porsche and industry experts estimate that Apple will be paying him north of a million per annum. For more, read the full report by European site NewsABC.net research.

For the record, there's been no change in Dr. Harrer's LinkedIn Page acknowledging a move to Apple as of February 02, 2021. Should Dr. Harrer's LinkedIn page be updated to confirm the hire, then Apple has hired a (PhD) Mechanical Engineer that has the kind of experience and depth that could put Project Titan into action and on a production line over time.
The indicated on Monday that it is watching the response of countries in the region on the military in

President Joe Biden, in a statement, said the United States is taking note of those who stand with the people of in this difficult hour.

"We will work with our partners throughout the region and the world to support the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, as well as to hold accountable those responsible for overturning Burma's democratic transition," Biden said as he strongly condemned the military in

"Is that perhaps a message to China?" a reporter asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki during her daily news conference.

"I think it is a message to all countries in the region and countries, who, you know, will be asked to respond or consider what the appropriate response will be in reaction to the events that have happened over the past couple of days," Psaki said.

The US, she said, has had intensive consultations at multiple levels with allies and partners in the region and around the world. "I would expect many of those would come through the State Department," Psaki said.

Senator Bob Menendez, the incoming Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement, strongly condemned the reported detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders of Myanmar by the Tatmadaw. The launch of another would be a tragedy for the people of Myanmar after a decade of work to establish a civilian-led democratic government, he said.

"The Tatmadaw, who are guilty of genocide against the Rohingya and of a sustained campaign of violence against Burma's ethnic minorities, must immediately free the democratic leaders of Myanmar and remove themselves from government," he said.

In a statement, lead Republican of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul said the return of military rule to Myanmar is a tragedy for its people and their decades-long struggle for democracy.

"The crimes of Burma's military, the Tatmadaw, go far beyond ending Burma's five years of partial democracy and include the genocide against the Rohingya and continued abuses against democratic freedoms inside the country.

"Despite being handed many chances, especially the lifting of sanctions in 2016, the Tatmadaw has resoundingly failed to prove that it can act as a reasonable and trustworthy player on the world stage. The Tatmadaw must end arbitrary detentions, stop interfering with communication and return to democracy immediately, and there must be consequences for their actions," he said.

McCaul had co-sponsored the BURMA Act in the 116th Congress to impose sanctions on the Tatmadaw, in addition to authorising humanitarian aid and pushing for a genocide determination.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the reports that Myanmar's military has rounded up civilian leaders, including Suu Kyi and key civil society figures, are horrifying, completely unacceptable and a saddening step backwards for the country's slow and unsteady democratic transition.

"I call on Burma's military to immediately release the civilian political leaders of the country and turn back from this abyss. The Biden Administration must take a strong stand and our partners and all democracies around the world should follow suit in condemning this authoritarian assault on democracy. We need to support the people of Burma in their journey toward democracy and impose costs on those who stand in their way," he said.

Congressman Gregory W Meeks, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said he is deeply concerned by the Myanmarese military's arrest of President Win Myint, Suu Kyi and other elected officials, and called for their immediate release.

"I strongly urge the Burmese military to respect the election result and release those duly elected officials it has arrested in order to minimise the damage that has already been done to the country's democracy," he said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After three months in the hospital, following her COVID-19 diagnosis in October, a Wisconsin woman left the hospital last week to be united with the baby she bore, but had never met.

According to a Monday statement from University of Wisconsin Health, Kelsey Townsend gave birth at University Hospital in Madison, on Nov. 4, while in a medically induced coma.

On Thursday, Townsend was discharged and reunited with her husband and four children - the first time shed met and been able to hold her newborn baby, Lucy, the statement said.

Townsends COVID-19 diagnosis was made in October, when she was nine months pregnant, the statement said, and her condition deteriorated quickly.

According to the statement, for the next 75 days, Townsend was on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine and a ventilator - two life support systems.

UW Health doctors determined in December that in order for Townsend to survive, she would need a double lung transplant - news her husband Derek delivered to her on Christmas Eve, the statement said.

Then, her condition began to improve.

However, Townsends condition began to improve significantly - just days after being added to the lung transplant waiting list.

In fact, the statement said, in mid-January, she was moved out of the intensive care unit, taken off the ventilator, and then removed from the transplant waiting list.

A report by The Hill, cited Daniel McCarthy, a physician and director of the hospitals ECMO program, who said in a video released Monday by the health system: Particularly early on, it was unclear whether we were going to be able to support her through it, and then ultimately there was still a lot of uncertainty around what was the best way to get her safely out of the hospital and home.

Townsend was applauded and congratulated by medical professionals as she left the hospital in a wheelchair, The Hill reported.

She went home - and there was ice cream.

Last Thursday she was reunited with her family - including the daughter she had never met, The Hill reported - her son welcomed her home with her favorite ice cream.

READ MORE:
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has launched another attack on the Centre over heavy barricading on Delhi's border where framers protests are taking place. Gandhi, on Twitter, shared multiple photos of the recently installed barricades and concertina wires near protest sites at several border joints around Delhi.

Gandhi wrote, "GOI, Build bridges, not walls!"

Over the last couple of days, the police has increased security at farmers' protest sites at Delhi's borders. The fortification of the borders is taking place days after the January 26 violence.

At the Delhi-UP border, the police have installed concertina wires in-between four layers of yellow barricades in order to stop farmers from entering the National Capital through the Ghazipur-Meerut highway. Police presence has also increased at the Delhi-Haryana border. Here the police have planted iron rods in between two rows of cement barriers on a side of the highway at the Singhu Border.

A make-shift cement wall has come up at the Delhi-Haryana border blocking another proportion of the highway, according to PTI.

Earlier, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also slammed the Centre for barricading of borders near farmer protest sites. She had shared a video displaying multiple layers of barricading that the police have installed at the borders. Gandhi wrote, "Prime Minister, war with your farmers?"

Last week, Rahul Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "weakening" India by "attacking" farmers. "PM is weakening India by attacking our farmers and workers. Only anti-national forces will benefit," Gandhi had said in a tweet.

The protests against Centre's new farm laws continue as government has refused to fully comply with demands of farmers despite several rounds of talks between both parties. Farmers are now calling for a "chakka jam" protest on February 6, 2021.

Also Read: Opposition leaders walk out from Rajya Sabha; demand discussion on farmers' protests
Her daughter Kirby Bumpus tied the knot in December.

But it was only on Monday that Gayle King announced the news during CBS This Morning and in an interview published in Oprah Winfrey magazine.

And it was King's BFF Oprah who hosted the nuptials that were scaled back due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Kirby, 32, married fiance Virgil Miller at her godmother Oprah's multi-million dollar estate in Montecito, just outside Santa Barbara, California.

The couple got engaged in February 2019.

'Kirby really is so happy, and nothing beats when your children are happy,' King, 66, told Oprah Magazine.

Close: Gayle King's BFF Oprah Winfrey, who is Kirby's godmother, hosted the wedding at her Montecito estate in California in December (King and Winfrey are pictured in 2016)

Very exclusive: Oprah's multi-million dollar mansion is situated on 42 acres of some pf the most expensive real estate in the world. She purchased the property in 2001

The ceremony was officiated by Kirby's brother Will Bumpus and attended by Oprah's partner Steadman Graham and a professional photographer who snapped pictures of the occasion.

King shares Kirby and Will with her ex-husband William Bumpus whom she divorced in 1993

'Nobody knows Kirby the way her brother does, so for him to do the ceremony felt meant to be,' King explained.

'It wasn't the wedding we planned, but it was absolutely perfect,' she noted.

Family: Kirby, 32, married Virgil Miller to whom she got engaged in February 2019. The couple are pictured with King and Kirby's brother Will, who officiated at the ceremony

Her kids: Kirby and Will are King's children with ex-husband William Bumpus from whom she split in 1993

Photos of the ceremony were taken by photographer Joe Pugliese who was at Oprah's mansion for a shoot that got canceled at the last minute and instead found himself playing wedding photographer.

"Joe doesn't normally do weddings... so we lucked out and had a professional photographer who followed all pandemic protocol. I'm so glad we have those memories, because the photos are stunning,' she told the magazine.

She shared some of the photos from the happy day to her Instagram.

In the accompanying caption, she added: 'Ps anybody have tips on being a good mother-in-law ?? Im all ears and taking notes!'
It takes a lot to be kicked out of the United States Congress.

In fact, in its entire 231-year history, just 20 Members have been served with the ultimate sanction of expulsion  15 from the Senate, and five from the House of Representatives.

Of these, 17 were removed for supporting the Confederacy rebellion in 1861 and 1862.

One of the remaining three was Senator William Blount who was expelled in 1797 for treason after he aided the British to conquer the Spanish territory of West Florida.

And in the past 160 years, just two more people have been thrown out: House representatives Michael Myers (1980) and Jim Traficant (2002), both for financial corruption.

So, expulsion from Congress is an incredibly rare event (more frequent is the lesser punishment of censure which has been served on nine senators, 23 representatives and just one president, Andrew Jackson).

Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene boasted of chatting to the former President over the weekend and gushed about how wonderful he is

Greene was only elected in November, but there are already calls for her to be kicked out of Congress

The constitutional criteria for expulsion is disorderly behavior and requires a simple two-thirds majority of representatives.

Now, I dont know exactly what constitutes disorderly behavior for an elected member of Congress - but let me suggest a few things:

1) Being exposed by CNN for indicating support for executing prominent Democratic politicians including liking a Facebook comment that said a bullet to the head would be quicker to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and responding to one commenter who asked Now do we get to hang them?? Meaning H & O??? - referring to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton - by replying: Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly.

2) Indicating similar support, again by liking comments, for executing FBI agents because they were supposedly part of "deep state" working against recently ousted President Trump.

3) Endorsing conspiracy theories calling mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, false flag operations  in other words, acts carried out by people to make it look like they were perpetrated by other individuals or groups. And accusing one student survivor of the Parkland attack, David Hogg, of being a bought and paid pawn actor, then hounding him in the street and telling him more guns in schools was the answer to school shootings.

Greene accused one student survivor of the Parkland attack, David Hogg, of being a bought and paid pawn actor, then hounding him in the street (pictured) and telling him more guns in schools was the answer to school shootings

Greene has claimed Bill and Hillary Clinton murdered political rivals including JFK Jr in a plane crash

Greene posted an image of herself armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle next to a collage of female Democratic representatives

4) Posting images of themself armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle next to a collage of female Democratic representatives including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and urging strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart. A horrifying warning that triggered death threats to the targets.

5) Suggesting the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York were part of a Government conspiracy and that no plane hit the Pentagon.

6) Spreading bogus rumours that California wildfires in 2018 might have been ignited by a space laser controlled by a Jewish cabal including the Rothschild banking firm.

7) Sharing a notorious white supremacist video in which a Holocaust denier claimed that Zionist supremacists have schemed to promote immigration and miscegenation.

8) Describing the results of the 2018 midterm elections as an Islamic invasion of our government.

9) Claiming that Bill and Hillary Clinton murdered political rivals including JFK Jr in a plane crash.

10) Expressing support for QAnon conspiracy theories which focus on the outrageous belief that top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking, Satan worship and cannibalism.

In the past 160 years, just two people have been thrown out of Congress: House representatives Michael Myers (1980) (left) and Jim Traficant (2002) (right), both for financial corruption

Obviously, this litany of appalling beliefs and statements is horrendous enough.

But then imagine this same member of Congress cheering on the despicable insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 that left six people dead - and declaring Its our 1776 moment! in a post on the conservative-friendly social media platform Parler.

And imagine this same member of Congress also branding mask-wearing to combat coronavirus as oppressive.

By this stage, youve probably reached the same conclusion as me that whoever this person is needs to be locked up in a padded cell for the rest of their natural lives.

Or perhaps you think Im the one who should be locked up for being insane enough to think any current member of the US Congress could possibly have done all these things and still be legislating on behalf of the American people.

Yet its all true, and its all come from the disgusting mouth and hand of one woman: Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was elected last November.

And as I write this, shes still there, and still making laws.

This is an outrage; a shameful, contemptible stain on America and its democratic system that worsens with every second Greene remains in place.

Dont just take my word for it.

Try the word of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who raged last night that Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country, and added: Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.'

Of course, hes absolutely right.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell raged last night that Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country, and added: Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party'

But the growing furore surrounding the vile Ms Greene goes right to the heart of the current crucial Republican dilemma and more specifically, the giant elephant in the room that needs resolving before the party can move on from the Trump presidency which ended in such disgrace and ignominy.

That elephant is Donald Trump, who is still here, still falsely howling that the election was stolen from him, and still wielding a malevolent influence over the GOP that threatens to split the party in two.

McConnell sees the danger very clearly, which is why he has turned on Trump, wants nothing more to do with him, is encouraging the new impeachment trial, and wants to see the back of deranged pro-Trump lunatics like Greene who boasted of chatting to the former President over the weekend as she gushed about how wonderful he is.

But there are others in the party still so enthralled by Trump and the thumping 75 million votes he got in the election, and terrified of his possible retribution, that they refuse to publicly denounce him or the likes of Greene.

Well, these gutless weasels need to grow a pair and put the interests of their party and their country ahead of cowardly self-interest.

And they should start that vital process right now by all agreeing that the lying, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, violence-promoting whackjob Marjorie Taylor Greene is an absolutely repulsive, and dangerously deluded, monstrosity of a human being who must be expelled from Congress as soon as possible.
The withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan should be tied to progress in stuttering peace negotiations between the Kabul government and the Taliban, rather than ``slavishly'' bound to an end-of-April deadline, Germany's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Germany is the second-biggest contributor to NATO's Resolute Support training and assistance mission in Afghanistan, after the United States. President Joe Biden's new administration has said it plans to review the peace agreement signed last February between the U.S. and the Taliban.

The Pentagon has said that the Taliban's refusal to meet commitments to reduce violence in Afghanistan is raising questions about whether all U.S. troops will be able to leave by May as required under the peace deal.

At the same time, talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban are making little headway.

At the end of April, ``these peace talks won't be over,'' German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at an event organized by weekly Die Zeit and three other German newspapers. ``Our fear is that the Taliban could use this as a reason to leave the peace talks and seek a military solution.''

``So our approach is to say that we must couple both processes, the withdrawal of foreign forces with the peace negotiations,'' Maas added. ``We don't have to hang on slavishly to the date of the end of April _ these things must be linked and when the peace negotiations are concluded successfully, the time will have come to withdraw foreign troops.''

Maas said an agreement will have to be sought with the U.S., the Afghan government and the Taliban on the matter.

Short link:



AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To help businesses prioritize workforce safety and prepare for the post-COVID workplace, Oracle has updated the Employee Care Package within Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM). The latest updates to the Employee Care Package, which was launched in June 2020 to help HR leaders navigate new workforce demands, include new COVID-19 testing and vaccine tracking capabilities for HR teams and automated guidance for employees as they return to the workplace. The latest additions are included in a new "Return to the Workplace Journey" that is designed to help keep employees safe by guiding them through new processes, training, and safety protocols, while enabling HR leaders to analyze critical workforce data such as testing and vaccination records.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations to prioritize the health and safety of employees and this has put HR leaders front and center as they help their teams adjust to change and address new challenges," said Chris Leone, senior vice president of development, Oracle Cloud HCM. "As the future of work continues to evolve, it's critical that organizations are able to make informed business decisions in real time to protect their teams. Our Return to the Workplace Journey will help our customers meet this challenge and is designed to help organizations ensure the health and safety of their workers."

The new Return to the Workplace Journey seamlessly guides employees through a series of key steps to promote workforce safety and ease the process of returning to in-office routines. This includes reviewing new safety procedures, completing regular wellness checks, taking mask and safety protocol training, booking a COVID-19 test with preferred testing providers, and updating their immunization status through self-reporting questionnaires or proof of vaccination, such as digital certificates or copies of physical records. One way for employees to share this information will be through new digital passports or electronic vaccination credentials. Oracle is working with the technology and health care community to help ensure people will have secure access to this information where and when they need it.

In addition, HR leaders can use Oracle Fusion HCM Analytics to analyze the data captured by Return to the Workplace Journey to gain key insights into workforce safety, such as the percentage of their workforce who have been tested or vaccinated, the distribution across multiple offices, and for global companies, how different regions are progressing. This level of insight will allow organizations to use real-time data to make key decisions such as when to allow in-office access, which offices are ready to re-open, and what location-specific protocols need to be implemented to provide the utmost safety of their employees.

Journeys is the latest addition to the Oracle Employee Care Package, a bundle of HCM tools and technology to help HR teams make work safer, provide more support, and work smarter in a time of constant change. Other key features of the Employee Care Package include:

Oracle Workforce Health & Safety : Enables regular wellness checks for employees and contractors through quick and customizable pulse surveys. With Oracle Workforce Health & Safety, employees have the ability to file various types of incident reports, notify their employer of health incidents such as possible COVID-19 exposure, or flag office cleanliness concerns.

: Enables regular wellness checks for employees and contractors through quick and customizable pulse surveys. With Oracle Workforce Health & Safety, employees have the ability to file various types of incident reports, notify their employer of health incidents such as possible COVID-19 exposure, or flag office cleanliness concerns. Oracle Digital Assistant : Provides 24/7 support for employees throughout the entire return to workplace journey. With immediate access to the Oracle Digital Assistant, employees can get quick answers to any questions (Where would I go to get a vaccine? When will my office re-open? Am I required to come back to the office full-time? Etc.) as they begin the process of coming back to the office.

: Provides 24/7 support for employees throughout the entire return to workplace journey. With immediate access to the Oracle Digital Assistant, employees can get quick answers to any questions (Where would I go to get a vaccine? When will my office re-open? Am I required to come back to the office full-time? Etc.) as they begin the process of coming back to the office. Oracle Learning: Supports a safe return to the workplace by giving employees instant access to new trainings and information on in-office safety protocols. HR leaders can leverage Oracle Learning to specify mandatory courses for their workforce, meet new compliance requirements, and track progress in the learning dashboard to monitor how many employees have completed their trainings.

Oracle Journeys deliver a guided digital experience for employees across resources, services, and actions as they move through personal and professional events. In addition to the new Return to the Workplace Journey, Oracle also offers templates for Safe Travels Journey, Your Well Being Companion Journey, Onboarding Journey, and more. Customers can access available Journey templates through Oracle Customer Connect.

Dedicated to helping customers navigate the current challenges, Oracle is helping lead the way to a post-pandemic world. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is using Oracle's National Electronic Health Records Cloud plus Oracle's Public Health Management Applications Suite to manage the COVID-19 vaccination program throughout the United States. Oracle has also been working with The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change to accelerate wide scale vaccination programs in Africa.

To find out more about the Return to the Workplace Journey and the Employee Care Package, click here.

About Oracle

Oracle offers suites of integrated applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.

Safe Harbor Statement

The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, timing, and pricing of any features or functionality described for Oracle's products may change and remains at the sole discretion of Oracle Corporation.

SOURCE Oracle

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MBABANE  Residents of Nyanyali reportedly decided to take the law into their own hands because they were frustrated by the slow progress of the matter where two children in the area went missing.

Police have arrested six members of the community who now stand accused of having a hand in the death of Nomthandazo Nkambule.

Nkambule (70), who was suspected to be having information pertaining to the disappearance of the children, died after she was hacked with a slasher, kicked all over the body and further stoned by a mob. The accused persons are Phila Dlamini, Langelihle Sebenele Dludlu, Sandziso Tholinhlanhla Dlamini, Wandile Siphelele Dludlu and Luhlelo Sisekelo Nhleko.

The six suspects have been slapped with a total of seven counts which include assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and two murders.

Through their attorney, Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, the accused persons yesterday filed an urgent bail application where they denied to have committed all the offences.

In their application, they submitted that their arrest was as a result of events that occurred at Nyanyali community which had a chequered background. They informed the court that on December 24, 2020, two children went missing in the community, a thing which did not only shock the community at large, but also brought pain and misery. The children are related to some of the accused persons.

We humbly state that there was a vigorous search for the children by members of the community including us. However, the search was undermined by one Thandi Nkambule who publicly confessed to know the whereabouts of the children as she had taken them to a Ngwenya homestead and handed them over to one Sokolile Ngwenya, alleged the accused persons.

They further informed the court that members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service also came to conduct a search for the missing children. According to the suspects, the police were aided by sniffer dogs in their quest. One of the sniffer dogs, according to the accused persons had been acquired from Montigny Company.

Corroborated

Both sniffer dogs did not move beyond a Ngwenya homestead, which in the view of the community, corroborated the averments by Sokolile, contended the accused. It was further one of their submissions that some people from the Ngwenya homestead were taken by the police for questioning, but were later released without giving any feedback to the community.

We state that after being frustrated by the slow progress on the case, a mob of over 100 people from the community invaded the Ngwenya homestead and caused harm. As residents of the community we heard of this and went to see what was going on, contended the suspects.

The accused persons argued that it was, therefore, not true that they participated in the acts thereto and they were not party to the attacks as per the charge sheet.

They further brought it to the attention of the court that following the attacks, most residents of Nyanyali were detained at Hlatikhulu Police Station for questioning and facing possible charges in relation to the arson attacks over a homestead linked to the disappearance of the two Dludlu children in December.

It is when the police were invading every homestead and arresting each and every member of the community that we got to know that we were wanted by the police. Reacting to this, we touched based with Indvuna yeNkhundla Bongani Dlamini, averred the accused persons.

Following the discussion with the indvuna yeNkhundla, the accused alleged that they then called the police and informed them that they could find them at Nkwene Inkhundla if they needed them as they would wait for them there.

Indeed police came through on January 26, 2021 and took us to Hlatikhulu Police Station, where we were charged with seven offences under the doctrine of common purpose, averred the accused.

They submitted that during their trial, they would plead not guilty to the charges as they allegedly did not do any of the acts referred to in the charge sheet. It was further their contention that their involvement in the case was the search for the children not the criminality thereof.

Pending hearing of our case, we are desirous of being admitted to bail and we submit that we intend to tend a plea of not guilty to the charges preferred against us, submitted the accused.

The bail application will be heard by Judge John Magagula today and the Crown is yet to indicate its position in the matter.

The matter is pending in court.
MUMBAI: 'Baahubali' star Prabhas has shared an exciting piece of update about his upcoming magnum opus 'Adipurush'. The southern superstar took to social media and shared a poster of the long-awaited film, also starring Saif Ali Khan in a pivotal role.

"#Adipurush aarambh", wrote Prabhas in an Instagram post, implying that the films shooting has begun. Ever since the announcement has been made, the film has been trending on social media.

Ever since the announcement, fans have gone gaga over the news and the film has been one of the top trends on social media.

Prabhas had in his previous post stated that the magnum opus will open in theatres on August 11, 2022.

Hindi and Marathi film director Om Raut will be directing the movie and according to the poster, Prabhas is expected to play the role of Lord Ram in the project. This will be Raut's first collaboration with Prabhas and second with Saif Ali Khan after 'Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior'.

The genre and plot of the movie has not been officially disclosed yet but Pinkvilla has speculated the film may be based on the Hindu epic Ramayana. Similarly, there have been no confirmed reports on the Bollywood actress who will be playing the role of goddess Sita in the movie.

Online publications have suggested that the leading ladys role could be played by Anushka Sharma, Anushka Shetty or Kiara Advani. As per a Mumbai Mirror report, the makers have roped in Kriti Sanon to play the lead opposite Prabhas in the upcoming epic 3D action-drama. However, there has been no official confirmation from the team or the actress herself.
In a yearly American tradition, a famous groundhog has predicted there will be six more weeks of winter.

The animal, named Punxsutawney Phil, climbed out of his hole Tuesday morning in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. A ceremony takes place each February 2 to mark the tradition, which is known as Groundhog Day.

If the groundhog can see his shadow, the tradition says, there will be six more weeks of winter. If the animals shadow cannot be seen, Americans can expect an early spring.

A group of people from the local community lead the ceremony. They are known as Punxsutawney Phils inner circle. Members of the group said they woke the furry creature up at 7:25 a.m.

Shortly after this years prediction became clear, one member of the inner circle shared a message to the public he said Phil had expressed earlier in the day. The message stated that after the longer expected winter, you can (look) forward to one of the most beautiful and brightest springs youve ever seen.

Another member spoke about the unusual nature of the past year. He noted that people have been talking about life being similar to the subject of the 1993 film Groundhog Day. In the movie, a reporter visits Punxsutawney to cover the event, but becomes stuck in time. He then has to repeat the same day, over and over again, until he becomes a better person.

It has felt like at times were all living the same day over and over again, the member said. However, Groundhog Day also shows us that the monotony ends - the cycle will be broken. He added that there would only be one Groundhog Day this year, and that a new day is coming over the horizon.

The event, however, looked very different this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. While in the past thousands of people have traveled to Punxsutawney for the event, no crowds were permitted this year. The ceremony was held virtually.

A live broadcast of the activities -- which at times had up to 15,000 watchers -- played videos from past Groundhog Day celebrations ahead of this years prediction.

When Punxsutawney Phil appeared, the president of the inner circle, Jeff Lundy, declared you look beautiful. Another member then announced, We have all passed through the darkness of night, but now see hope in mornings bright light. But now when I turn to see, theres a perfect shadow cast of me.

This years prediction, like many years in the past, came as a major snowstorm hit the U.S. Northeast.

The tradition came to North America when German immigrants arrived in what is now the state of Pennsylvania. They chose the groundhog, a large rodent and member of the marmot family, as the animal to continue the tradition.

Groundhog Day in Pennsylvania dates back to 1886. In the events history, groundhogs have predicted winter 106 times and spring 20 times, members of the inner circle say. Some years were lost because no records were kept.

Groundhog Day has become a part of American culture. Other states now hold their own celebrations with local groundhogs.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, and visit our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

shadow  n. a dark shape that appears on a surface when someone or something moves between the surface and a source of light

monotony  n. a situation in which something stays the same and is therefore boring

cycle  n. a group of events that happen in a particular order and are often repeated

over the horizon  phr v. about to happen

virtually  adv. using computer and internet technology to conduct activities normally carried out in person

cast  v. to send light or a shadow in a particular direction
[February 02, 2021]

App Annie Announces Top Publishers in 2021

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- App Annie , the mobile data and analytics company helping brands and publishers create winning experiences on mobile, today announces the annual Top Publisher Award winners which recognize the most successful mobile companies around the world.

In 2020, consumers relied more on their personal devices to connect, play and escape. The Top Publisher Award truly reflects the trend, with gaming and streaming sectors dominating the charts.

Driven by their hit games, publishers saw tremendous growth with Lilith (#12) , Roblox (#19) , Moon Active (#23) and Scopely (#28) all moving up more than ten places. These titles included Rise of Kingdoms , ROBLOX , Coin Master , and MARVEL Strike Force , respectively. With consumers craving social interactions, games integrating social elements such as Roblox, are gaining explosive popularity.







Stay at home restrictions saw consumers spending more time on video. Amazon (#38) saw strong gains in app purchase revenue from both popular streaming services Twitch and Amazon Prime Video . Disney (#22) also rose nine ranks with Disney+ introduced in more markets globally.

China-based Tencent (#1) and NetEase (#2) held the top spots for now four consecutive years with their hit Battle Royale titles Game For Peace and Knives Out . Playrix(#3) jumped four positions to number 3 with Casual Puzzle Games Gardenscapes - New Acres and Fishdom: Deep Dive leading the way.

Publishers headquartered in Asia Pacific dominated the list and make up more than half (31) of The Top 52. With 16, the United States had the most top publishers of any country, followed closely by China with 15.

"Through passion, we unite  through connection, we thrive! First and foremost, we offer our most sincere gratitude to our players and App Annie. NetEase Games will continue our endeavors to create innovative games and provide the most satisfying gaming experience to gamers worldwide." - Matt Liu, Senior Global Publishing & Marketing Director, NetEase Games

"It is a privilege to be awarded by our trusted partner App Annie this year. The Playrix team is happy that our games have brought a lot of joy to our customers around the globe during the pandemic. And this year we will focus on bringing even more through our new games." Maxim Kirilenko, Senior Business Development Director, Playrix

"We're honored to be recognized with the Top Publisher award and truly see this as a celebration of our players," said Daniel Alegre, President and COO of Activision Blizzard. "We have the best player communities across our Activision, Blizzard, and King games, who inspire our teams throughout the year. We look forward to bringing more content and experiences to our fans this year." - Daniel Alegre, President and COO of Activision Blizzard

"We congratulate these exceptional leaders from across the world," said Theodore Krantz, Chief Executive Officer of App Annie. "With mobile accelerating at an even faster rate than anticipated, publishers must engage with this audience to stay relevant."

See the other award winners for a variety of categories and regions here: http://appannie.com/apps/ios/top/level-up-rankings

Methodology

The list is composed of the Top 52 mobile publishers by combined iOS and Google Play revenue estimates from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. These rankings do not include revenue earned from in-app advertising, commerce, or payments outside of the app stores.

About App Annie

App Annie is the industry's most trusted mobile data and analytics platform. App Annie's mission is to help customers create winning mobile experiences and achieve excellence. Founded in 2010, the company launched the first mobile market data solution. In 2020, App Annie launched App Annie Ascend, an advertising analytics solution, making it the first company in its space to offer a side-by-side view of market data and companies' own data to support mission-critical business decisions. Together, these solutions comprise the industry's most complete mobile performance platform. More than 1,100 enterprise clients and 1 million registered users across all geographies and industries rely on App Annie to drive their mobile business. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with 12 offices worldwide.

SOURCE App Annie
Here what to do in Ocean City on rainy days
(Natural News) Nearly every day of former President Donald Trumps term, someone  either from the opposition party or from the Democrat-aligned media  called him some version of authoritarian.

(Article by Jonathan Davis republished from TrendingPolitics.com)

That was especially the case whenever Trump issued an executive order, many if not most of which were summarily challenged by left-wing groups in court, often successfully.

It never made any sense to call a president whose executive orders were overturned and who eventually got kicked off of all social media a tyrant and a dictator since not too many tyrants and dictators throughout the history of Humankind had their orders contradicted or struck down by any legal body.

But now that the current president has a D behind his name, suddenly tyranny is back in style (because for Democrats, authoritarianism has always been their preferred style of governance).

Joe Biden has essentially been governing by dictate since taking office 15-20 minutes ago, and Breitbart News has been tracking the emperor and his actions:

President Joe Biden has issued more executive orders in his first week in office  not yet complete, as of this writing  than any of his 45 predecessors.

As of January 25, 2021, Biden has issued 33 executive orders, actions, proclamations, memoranda and agency directives, according to CNN. Twenty-one of these, according to the White House website, are executive orders.

President Donald Trump signed four in his first week in 2017; President Barack Obama signed five in 2009; President George W. Bush signed none in his first week in 2001; and President Bill Clinton signed one in 1993.

The historical norm for most presidents appears to be no more than a few executive orders, if any, in the first week. The American Presidency Project at the University of California Santa Barbara confirms that no other president has issued as many as Biden  not even Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose energetic first 100 days set a new standard for activity.

Well, thats quite a number of executive actions, is it not? And whats more, Biden has new orders hell be signing all this week as part of various themes, The Hill reports.

And, of course, not a peep from members of his party about this blatant abuse of executive authority.

But one Democrat did speak out: Joe Biden, the candidate, in October.

I have this strange notion, we are a democracy  if you cant get the votes  you cant [legislate] by executive order unless youre a dictator. Were a democracy. We need consensus, he told George Stephanopoulos.

.@JoeBiden in October: I have this strange notion, we are a democracy  if you cant get the votes  you cant [legislate] by executive order unless youre a dictator. Were a democracy. We need consensus." pic.twitter.com/7UotJCXSm3  Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 26, 2021

Well, then.

And we continue to be told that Joe Biden is in command of all his mental faculties.

Read more at: TrendingPolitics.com and JoeBiden.news.

New Delhi, Feb 2 : The opposition forced a second adjournment of the Upper House minutes after it reassembled on Tuesday as farm laws continued to be the contentious issue.

As the Rajya Sabha reassembled at 10.30 a.m., Deputy Chairman Harivansh adjourned the house till 11.30 a.m. following continued ruckus.

Parliament witnessed unruly scenes after rejection of a suspension notice as the opposition walked out of the Upper House on Tuesday in protest, only to return later before the Chairman's podium and raised slogans.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said: "The opposition should adhere to the Chairman's decision." Minutes after the House went into session for the day, Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected the suspension notice given by opposition on the farm laws.

The Chairman said: "The ongoing dialogue between the agitating farmers and government can be discussed during the motion of thanks of President tomorrow (Wednesday)." Following which there was a pandaemonium and the House was first adjourned till 10.30 a.m.

The suspension notice was given by Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress, T. Shiva of DMK, Ashok Siddarth of Bahujan Samaj Party, and E. Kareem from CPI-M. The opposition gave notice under rule 267 of the Rajya Sabha.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "The matter is serious and farmers have been agitating for months so matter should be discussed." Same thing was said by BSP leaders Satish Chandra Mishra.

The Opposition had demanded suspension of the business and also repealing of the three contentious farm laws passed during the September session.

As many as 18 opposition parties had boycotted the President's address on Friday.

The Opposition said that the laws were passed amid a din and now should be repealed as demanded by the farmers. Azad on January 28, said: "The only issue for the boycott is farm laws."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Fisher Investments is hiring for roles in Client Services, Sales, Operations, IT, and other key functions in Tampa. Tweet this

Fisher Investments CEO Damian Ornani said, "Our Tampa location is critical to hiring and retaining the best talent in our industry and providing our clients with the excellent service and portfolio management they've come to expect." He added, "Tampa is also a great community for our employees and their families."

Interested job candidates can visit FisherCareers.com to explore available opportunities, learn more about benefits, and apply.

About Fisher Investments

Fisher Investments is an independent, fee-only investment adviser. As of 12/31/2020, Fisher Investments and its subsidiaries manage over $159 billion in assetsover $101 billion for North American private investors, $39 billion for institutional investors, $16 billion for European private investors and $1 billion for US small- to mid-sized business retirement plans. Fisher Investments maintains four principal business groups: US Private Client, Institutional, Private Client International and 401(k) Solutions, which serve a global client base of diverse investors. Founder and Executive Chairman Ken Fisher wrote the Forbes "Portfolio Strategy" column from 1984 through 2016, making him the longest continuously running columnist in the magazine's history. In recent years, Ken's columns have run consistently in major media outlets across almost every Western European country as well as material Asian countries, spanning more countries and more volume than any other columnist of any type in history. Ken has also authored 11 books, including four New York Times bestsellers on finance and investing. For more information on Fisher Investments, please visit www.fisherinvestments.com.

SOURCE Fisher Investments

Related Links

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MASON CITY, Iowa - Sign-up for the next group of Iowans who want a COVID-19 vaccine started in Cerro Gordo County on Monday.

However, those who are 65 and older, healthcare providers, and those who needed a second dose of the vaccine were welcomed to the online sign-up portal were greeted with a 'all available COVID-19 vaccine appointments are full. Please await further announcements for upcoming appointments' message.

Sue Rebedeau was trying to sign up her mother-in-law for a vaccine.

"I tried for about 10 minutes, tried calling repeatedly, tried calling to no avail. We'll have to wait."

While it may seem frustrating, she advises those who are hoping to sign up to be patient.

"These are unprecedented times. I think public health has everyone's best intentions at heart, and they're doing the best they can."

The Cerro Gordo County Public Health Department said that the problems with the sign-up were a case of supply vs. demand. CG Public Health Director Brian Hanft apologized for what happened and is urging the public to stay patient. He says more sign-ups will be made available in the coming weeks and they will notify people via the CodeRed system.

To sign up for the CodeRed system, click here.
New Delhi, Feb 2 : After forcing repeated adjournments in the Rajya Sabha, the opposition on Tuesday forced the Upper House to be adjourned for the day minutes after it reassembled for the third time as both Chairs found it difficult to continue business amid ruckus over farm laws.

The Rajya Sabha was first adjourned till 10.30 a.m. after the opposition refused to accept the Chairman, M. Venkaiah Naidu's rejection of suspension notice. The second was till 11.30 a.m., and after it reassembled the third one was till 12.30 p.m. Following this, the House was finally adjourned for the day amid unabated ruckus created by the opposition benches.

Parliament witnessed unruly scenes the moment it assembled a day after the Budget was presented.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected a suspension notice given by the opposition on the farm laws.

The rejection did not go down well and the opposition members who returned minutes after walking out and raised slogans before the Chairman's podium.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said: "The opposition should adhere to the Chairman's decision." The Chairman said: "The ongoing dialogue between the agitating farmers and government can be discussed during the motion of thanks of President tomorrow (Wednesday)." Following which there was a pandaemonium and the House was first adjourned till 10.30 a.m.

The suspension notice was given by Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress, T. Shiva of DMK, Ashok Siddarth of Bahujan Samaj Party, and E. Kareem from CPI-M. The opposition gave notice under rule 267 of the Rajya Sabha.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "The matter is serious and farmers have been agitating for months so matter should be discussed." Same thing was said by BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra.

The Opposition had demanded suspension of the business and also repealing of the three contentious farm laws passed during the September session.

As many as 18 opposition parties had boycotted the President's address on Friday.

The Opposition said that the laws were passed amid a din and now should be repealed as demanded by the farmers. Azad on January 28, said: "The only issue for the boycott is farm laws."
STANDISH, MI  An Arenac County man is accused of trying to kill several police officers by rigging his home with a booby trap.

The case began on Jan. 19 when a Merritt woman filed a fraud complaint with the Michigan State Police Houghton Lake Post. The woman said her credit card was used to purchase more than $1,500 worth of items from the Walmart in West Branch, according to MSP.

Troopers worked with Walmarts Loss Prevention and were able to identify Roger A. Broadstone, 67, as a suspect. The purchase was made online using the victims credit card and Broadstone was listed as a secondary person to pick up the order.

Surveillance camera footage showed Broadstone picking up the order at Walmart, troopers said.

On Jan. 20, troopers went to Broadstones Twining home to interview him. Broadstone refused to come out.

Troopers said he barricaded himself in his house and told them through an open window that they would need a search warrant to come inside.

Troopers then obtained a search warrant and entered Broadstones home, finding he had set up a booby trap and made other preparations to harm them. Broadstone resisted as he was being arrested and ended up disarming one trooper of his Taser, said Special 1st Lt. Derrick Carroll. A trooper was also injured, though Carroll declined to provide specifics of the injury.

Troopers also found several items from the Walmart purchase in Broadstones home, they added.

Carroll said he could not describe the booby trap.

Its an open investigation still, the lieutenant said. Its going to be a big case. I dont want to give too many details as far as what he had done.

Broadstone was not injured when arrested, Carroll added.

Broadstone on Jan. 25 was arraigned in Ogemaw County District Court on single counts of illegal use of a financial transaction device and using a computer to commit a crime. On Feb. 1, Broadstone was arraigned in Arenac County District Court on the following 16 charges:

 Five counts of attempted murder

 Four counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police

 One count of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police causing injury

 One count of disarming a police officer, non-firearm

 One count of attempting to disarm a police officer of a firearm

 One count placing an offensive substance with intent to injure

 One count of arson-preparation to burn a dwelling

 One count of felon in possession of ammunition

 One count malicious destruction of police property.

The arraigning judge set Broadstones bond at $1,125,000.

The five attempted murder counts relate to five individual troopers, Carroll added.

Broadstone is to undergo a court-ordered competency evaluation, the date of which is pending.

Read more:

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New Delhi, Feb 2 : A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to freelance journalist Mandeep Punia, who was arrested while covering the violence at the farmers' protest site at Singhu on the Delhi-Haryana border last week.

Police on Saturday arrested Punia after he allegedly misbehaved with a Station House Officer at the protest site. Police claimed that he was moving through roadblocks and barricades when the alleged incident took place.

Granting him bail subject to certain conditions, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Satvir Singh Lamba noted that the alleged scuffle took place around 6.30 pm, but the FIR was registered at 1.21 am the next day.

"Moreover, the complainant, victims and witnesses are police personnel only. Hence, there is no possibility that accused will be able to influence any of the police officials... keeping the accused further in judicial custody will not serve any cogent purpose," the court order said.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate said that it was well settled principle of law that 'bail is a rule and jail is an exception'.

"Hence, considering the totality of facts and circumstances of the present case, he is admitted to bail on furnishing a bail bond." Punia was bailed out on the condition that he will not jump bail, appear in the court regularly and not leave the country without prior court permission.

He was also asked not to indulge in similar or any other offence in the event of release on bail, and not tamper with evidence.

Punia's counsel submitted that his client was "falsely implicated" in the case and that he was merely carrying out his duties at the protest site.

On the other hand, the Additional Public Prosecutor strongly opposed the bail on the ground that the charges against the accused were grave in nature.

It was also contended that the accused may again indulge in instigating the protesters and create nuisance at the protest site with a group of different people and hamper the investigation.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Native American clothing company Feather Bear Forever is excited to announce the release of its new Grass Dance Collection of T-shirts. The collection of inspirational cultural clothing features eight distinctive designs in sizes ranging from six months to youth XL. The companywhich also has a Fancy Dance Collectionwill be offering new designs each month as well as launching videos explaining the significance of its Native American T-shirt collections, which represent indigenous dances from around the world.

Feather Bear Forever Feather Bear Sparkle Design

The new Grass Dance collection is designed to enhance awareness so that when someone is viewing different cultures participating in their traditional dance, they have a reference point. "This may be the first time someone has heard the term 'Grass Dance' in their life if they are outside the Native community," Feather Bear Forever Founder and CEO KC Elvis says.

As a Native American T-shirt business that deeply values cultural diversity, Feather Bear Forever sells apparel with kid-friendly graphics that provide a "first step" into another culture, Elvis says. They encourage peoplenot just childrento embrace and create a sense of curiosity in those around them. Each piece of the company's cultural clothing portrays an image that is educational and offers a description with elements that parents can learn and discuss with their children. However, the company shuns referencing "sacred" elements to avoid the potential of offending any particular culture.

Feather Bear Forever operates under a distinct mission: to inspire open-minded hearts through education. In keeping with that focus, the innovative Native American T-shirt company endeavors to enhance people's awareness of cultures and areas that may have been forgotten or are rarely discussed. Hence, Feather Bear Forever is soliciting the help of culture bearers and other cultural experts who are willing to participate in brain storming sessions and videos to teach children about their unique culture. "If you are a bearer of your culture and know your culture's history, and love our mission, we would love to work with you," Elvis says.

In addition, Feather Bear Forever is strategically guided by the mantra: Open Minds, Open Hearts. The company's collections of cultural clothing present a broad opportunity to enlighten society about a crucial issue. Elvis explains: "If you are a parent or even a grandparent and wish to have children and grandchildren who are accepting of those around themand, more importantly, aware of other cultureswe provide an avenue to start that conversation in a fun way. Also, this may be a discussion piece for teachers and educators who want to highlight diversity."

In essence, Feather Bear Forever seeks to be a catalyst that reignites an interest in people to not only explore their own culture, but to also learn about those around them. The company's name and logo are visual representations of the value it places on maintaining cultural awareness and cultural diversity. "Because we genuinely believe the indigenous cultures, languages and customs worldwide must be practiced and passed on for our kids and grandkids to maintain their identity and the unique elements about us, these elements and stories must live on forever," Elvis says. "Our logo is the symbol and beacon of this belief. Although cute, our bear symbolizes strength and courage while our feather symbolizes wisdom, respect, and patience."

Elvis' individual culture is intrinsic to Feather Bear Forever's identity and brand. A Native American born and raised in Alaska, he grew up in a small village of people with a strong Athabascan heritage. Elvis, whose grandparents were the culture bearers of his people, has led a life that has been constantly guided by his culture. Feather Bear Forever embodies the accumulation of his life story of interacting with people of various cultures, ages, and other attributes. "When diving into each other's lives and backgroundsbeyond the skin and exteriorwe often find that we are more similar than we are different," he says.

For more information about Feather Bear Forever, its Native American T-shirts, or how to work with the company to teach others about your culture, visit https://featherbearforever.com

About Feather Bear Forever

Founded by Native American Iraq War veteran KC Elvis, Feather Bear Forever is a values-driven business that believes children deserve better tools to learn about others, so they can live more connected and satisfying lives. As such, Feather Bear Forever is using cultural clothing to encourage society to see the similarities in others rather than the differences. The company's distinctive Native American T-shirts for children gives parents, grandparents, educators, and others a fun, culturally sensitive way to promote open-minded hearts throughout the world.

SOURCE Feather Bear Forever
A COVID-19 patient who is receiving treatment in Ho Chi Minh City has been found carrying the new coronavirus variant originating in the UK.

The variant was detected in patient No. 1,660, Dr. Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, confirmed on Monday.

The infirmarys research group led by Dr. Chau, in coordination with molecular biology experts from Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) represented by Dr. Le Van Tan, previously conducted the genome sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus variant in the patients throat swab.

The result of mutation analysis using the CoV-GLUE application showed that the genome of the virus was carrying 17 typical mutations of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant.

The B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant is believed to be more transmissible, Dr. Chau stated, adding that it has been causing serious outbreaks in the UK and other European countries.

Patient No. 1,660, a man hailing from the northern province of Hai Duong, previously came into close contact with patient No. 1,612 at a wedding party in Hai Duong on January 18.

On January 28, he went to Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi and traveled to Ho Chi Minh City via flight VN213.

After arriving in the southern metropolis, he took a taxi to Nhu Quynh Hotel on Dang Minh Khiem Street in District 11.

He filled out his health declaration later the same day and was brought to a quarantine center.

The man tested positive for the novel coronavirus on January 30 and was taken to the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases for treatment.

A total of 134 passengers and crew members on flight VN213 have been tested for COVID-19.

Among them, 95 have tested negative for the novel coronavirus, while the remaining 39 are still waiting for their results.

Vietnam has documented 1,851 COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday morning, with 1,460 having recovered and 35 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Finnish self-driving software company Sensible 4 is undertaking preparations for a new pilot program in Gjesdal, Norway. The company says preliminary work has included test drives in the harsh Norwegian winter and mapping of the proposed pilot route with autonomous Toyota vehicles. The pilot will form part of the field-testing phase of the EU-funded FABULOS (Future Automated Bus Urban Level Operation System) project.

The program is a direct continuation of a previous autonomous driving project in Helsinki, Finland, undertaken in spring 2020. The Gjesdal phase will introduce new Toyota Proace vehicles, a revised version of the companys autonomous driving software, and updated features for demand-based public transportation. The planned route is 3.3km long and will be driven without passengers on board, as per regulations laid down by the Norwegian Road Authority.

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The company notes that the environmental and topographical conditions differ between Finland and Norway, with the latest phase introducing steep hills, open roads and narrow suburban streets to the test program. Currently, the pilot location at Gjesdal, near the city of Stavanger, is covered in snow; however, these conditions are ideal for Sensible 4s tests as its software has been developed specifically to handle demanding winter conditions that would defeat most other ADAS.

We are excited to start testing our software in a new kind of surroundings which we dont have in Finland. We dont see it causing our system any major issues and the Toyota vehicles perform well with steep hills and snowy roads, remarked project manager Aleksi Tepponen.

Also under test will be the project remote control center (RCC), located in Algard, Gjesdal. The RCCs role is to provide remote assistance and customer service to autonomous vehicles and their passengers. The facility will also be used to test fleet management operations, which will be vital for the widespread rollout of autonomous services.

The pilot is being conducted in collaboration with Spanish startup Shotl, which is developing an autonomous, on-demand shuttle service, also under the FABULOS umbrella.

Were happy to begin our first autonomous driving pilots abroad. Autonomous driving on open roads is an essential part of testing our software and collecting valuable data for future development, concluded Harri Santamala, CEO of Sensible 4.
A desperate transgender teen is crowdfunding to raise 20,000 for gender reassignment surgery - or faces a 'very scary' seven-year wait on the NHS.

Aria Serplus, 18, from Bournemouth, first came out as transgender at 13-years-old and within months she had legally changed her name.

The 18-year-old had to wait almost two years to be seen by the UK's only gender identity service for children, the Tavistock clinic, before being offered puberty blockers in 2019 to stop her 'developing into a boy'.

Almost two years on, the art student is preparing to start hormone replacement therapy [HRT], which will cause her to go through 'female puberty', while she looks ahead to gender reassignment surgery.

After hitting a financial wall, Aria launched a GoFundMe page which has raised more than 2,350 towards the mammoth five-figure bill, in a desperate bid to slash her 'distressing' wait for help.

Aria Serplus, 18, from Bournemouth, pictured, first came out as transgender at 13-years-old and within months she had legally changed her name. She is now crowdfunding 20,000 in order to pay for her gender reassignment surgery

Aria, pictured before she told her family she was trans, aged 13, was put on puberty blockers in 2019

Describing surgery as a 'medical necessity', Aria said: 'For most transgender people it's a life-and-death situation.

'If I wanted to do this all through the NHS, with bottom surgery, the waiting times are huge.

'I try my best to think positive but it is quite distressing to know the funding isn't there.

'Having to wait that long is very, very scary. At the moment, for the first appointment it's around two to three years.

Aria said getting the much anticipated sex reassignment surgery was a 'matter of life or death' but saif she could count on the support of her mother Lara Rowe, 52, pictured right

Then for your second appointment, there'd be another year and a half [wait]. I could be waiting five to seven years for the NHS.

'The GoFundMe will be for funding my hormones privately, or with a shared-care agreement with my GP.

'It will fund top surgery in 2021 or 2022 and most likely for bottom surgery as well, but I'm not 100 percent sure, because I need to see what the wait times are like [on the NHS].

'If I had money left over from being on hormones and top surgery, and I decided to go on the NHS for bottom surgery, the money would be donated to trans charities.

Aria, pictured, revealed her sister Rainbow Wells, 29, had also been supportive of her coming out as trans

The teen, pictured left during a shopping trip with her sister, said she did not want to be painted as 'someone who is trying to take money from innocent people'

'If people would like to donate and are feeling generous, the [GoFundMe] is there, but I don't want to be painted as someone who is trying to take money from innocent people.

'I think transgender people are often portrayed in a bad light but it's no different to other medical expenses.

'It's quite expensive from the get-go, but I do see it as a necessity.'

Aria struggled with gender dysphoria since childhood before initially coming out as gay to her supportive mum Lara Rowe, 52, and sister Rainbow Wells, 29, in January 2016.

After realising she had been 'putting off' coming out as trans, Aria opened up about her gender identity three months later.

Aria said: 'I was about 13 when I came out to my family as gay. They were very supportive.

Aria revealed she 'put off' coming out as trans because she was afraid of the negative connotations that often surround gender dysphoria

Puberty blockers were the first step in Aria's transition and although she still struggles with gender dysphoria daily, her anxiety about her voice breaking and growing facial hair have subsided. Pictured now

'I was struggling a lot with gender dysphoria [then]. Puberty was starting and a lot of my friends were getting into relationships and finding themselves.

'I thought coming out as gay might make me feel a bit better - it was a step closer to what I actually wanted.

'I have an older sister, Rainbow, who's 11 years older than me. She was really supportive too. It brought us closer.

'Before I came out, I was scared to be in touch with my feminine side, whereas afterwards I got closer to my sister because we went shopping together.

'I always knew I wanted to be a girl but being trans had such negative connotations in the media and on social media that I put off accepting it.

The teen explained her mother took her to the GP shortly after she came out as trans and it took her two years to be put on hormone blockers

Aria, pictured now, said she was lucky because she was a late bloomer, meaning her puberty started late, which facilitated her puberty blockers

Pictured enjoying a milkshake with mum Lara. She admitted she woke up everyday scared that she would have a 'manly voice'

'A few months later, I came out to my mum and sister as trans. I legally changed my name when I was 14.

'Again, they were so, so supportive. I'm so thankful for them.'

Shortly after coming out, Aria's mum took her to her GP, unsure of how to help her daughter.

The teen was then referred to her local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services [CAMHS] and 18 months later, attended her first appointment at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London.

Aria said: 'My mum took me to the doctor straight away not knowing where to turn and they referred me to CAMHS. It was super helpful.

Aria, pictured now, said she was looking to the next step of her transition, which would be hormone replacement therapy

Aria with her friends. The teen said she still struggled with gender dysphoria and had adopted coping mechanisms to deal with it

'On my second appointment, I was referred to Tavistock gender clinic.

'I was on their waiting list for a year and a half for my first appointment. By then I was about 15.

'I went to Tavistock talking about things for a year [of monthly appointments], having more in-depth counselling and explaining how I felt.

'Then I was referred to University College London Hospital [UCLH]. I saw a paediatric doctor that specialises in gender dysphoria.

'We then came to the decision to have puberty blockers.'

Puberty blockers were the first step in Aria's transition and although she still struggles with gender dysphoria daily, her anxiety about her voice breaking and growing facial hair have subsided.

Lara and Aria. The teen said going through puberty as a trans person was a very difficult time that she struggled with daily

Rainbow, Aria and Lara at the beginning of her transition. She explained hormone replacement theray and the following surgery would cost her a lot of money

Aria said: 'Going through puberty was one of the most difficult things I've ever [faced].

'I was lucky because I was a late bloomer. I started puberty blockers at 16 and I was only just starting in the second stage. That usually happens around 13.

'If I wasn't trans, that would have been quite distressing for me, but being trans, I felt that my body was working with me.

'I was spending everyday so scared I'd wake up with a manly voice, facial hair and broad shoulders, developing into a triangle shape.

'It was a very, very distressing time and I struggled with that a lot.

Pictured now. Aria is now weighing up her options for top and bottom surgery, admitting kind donations will cut her excruciating waiting time significantly

The teen admitted she used to struggle with depression and anxiety surrounding her body image but said hormone blockers helped. Pictured now

'That's what they helped me with at Tavistock. They were amazing.

'I struggled a lot with gender dysphoria, I still do, very badly, but having the anxiety that I'd develop into a boy was a massive issue of mine.

'Things were moved along a little quicker for me because I was at danger with my mental health.

'At the time I was really, really struggling with depression and anxiety surrounding my body image. It was very distressing.

'That's immensely improved since starting hormone blockers - I can't imagine my life without them now. It's really helped me.

'I've now been on them for coming up to two years.

Aria now. She admitted that gender dysphoria affected her daily life to the point she could not wash or change clothes because she felt uncomfortable about her body

Aria, pictured now, said she hoped to use plastic surgery to accentuate her more feminine features in the future

Pictured: Aria before her transition began. She explained she now felt one step closer to fully being who she was

'Dysphoria [affects] my daily life, sometimes even affecting my ability to change my clothes or wash myself fully without immense discomfort.

'Currently, my main source of dysphoria is my genitalia. I have practiced and been advised [of] all sorts of coping mechanisms and while they help, nothing fully gets rid of it.'

By blocking the natural process of puberty, Aria had overcome the next biological hurdle her body threw at her.

She has since began working with Gender GP, a transgender health and wellbeing service, who will help her start hormone replacement therapy.

Along with the costs of using the service, Aria is now weighing up her options for top and bottom surgery, admitting kind donations will cut her excruciating waiting time significantly.

Aria said: 'I've started to go privately with a service called Gender GP. That's costing a lot of money and I'm hoping to use some of the money from the GoFundMe to pay for the oestrogen [HRT].

'It's vital for me - for my mental and physical health. I have been thinking about whether I should wait it out on the NHS [for bottom surgery], which is why the GoFundMe is called "transgender medical expenses".

What is gender dysphoria? Gender Dysphoria is the feeling that gender identity and biological sex don't match. - Signs of gender dysphoria include depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, withdrawal, self-neglect and a strong desire to hide physical signs of biological sex, such as breasts or facial hair. Treatment can include therapy, hormonal treatment and surgery. - In 2018/19, around 8,000 people were referred to adult gender dysphoria services in England. Advertisement

'I'm not 100 per cent sure whether to use the money raised for top or bottom surgery yet, or both.

'I use the term 'facial feminisation' [on my page] quite loosely. I feel that the stereotypical [procedure] is hugely in depth but I want more cosmetic procedures that'll enhance the features I have.

'I don't want a rhinoplasty and my whole face shaved down, but I want fillers to enhance the feminine features of my face.

'Starting [HRT] will have a lot of physical effects which will help me. My body shape, face shape, my mindset [will change].

'I'll go through female puberty - without the periods.

'I haven't 100 per cent decided if I'd have bottom surgery on the NHS or not yet. If I was to go private, it'd be around 28,000. It's a huge amount of money.

'The top surgery is implants. Breast augmentation isn't offered on the NHS at the moment for transgender people because it's seen as purely cosmetic.

'That's the physical aspect. It'll also help me a lot with my mental health and knowing I'm one step closer to being who I am.'

You can donate to Aria's page here

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By Bernard J. Wolfson | California Healthline

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, struggling to salvage a once-bright political future dimmed by his mishandling of the COVID crisis, tapped nonprofit health insurer Blue Shield of California last week to allocate the state's COVID vaccine.

The company has thus far said little about how it plans to reorganize a gargantuan and complicated vaccination campaign that has befuddled and frustrated public health officials and vaccine seekers alike.

The agreement with Blue Shield was made under an emergency authorization, circumventing the customary bidding process. Kaiser Permanente, California's largest health plan, will sign an agreement with the state to manage vaccinations for its 9 million members and provide additional assistance to the broader effort.

Blue Shield's job will be to assemble a statewide vaccination network and "allocate vaccines directly to providers to maximize distribution efficiency," according to a statement from the California Health and Human Services agency.

Newsom hopes that replacing the patchwork of county-by-county efforts with a centralized system will accelerate the pace of vaccinations.

The vaccine rollout has been plagued by early stumbles, including confusing appointment systems; shifting rules on vaccine eligibility; long lines that have kept older people waiting for hours, leading some to abandon their quest and go home unvaccinated; and faulty data collection that left state officials unable to say whether Newsom had met his goal of administering 1 million doses in 10 days.

Some health care experts cautiously welcomed the new plan, saying Blue Shield could help bring more structure and efficiency to the enterprise of vaccinating California's nearly 40 million residents.

Blue Shield is the third-largest health insurer in California, after Kaiser Permanente and Anthem Blue Cross. It contracts with a large number of hospitals, medical groups, pharmacies and other providers across the state. Newsom is counting on the insurer's extensive web of relationships to help get vaccines out more quickly and effectively.

Since Blue Shield "has got an organization with a statewide footprint and knowledge of the geography and the population, it seems they could think through all the scheduling and logistics," said Glenn Melnick, a professor of health economics at the University of Southern California's Sol Price School of Public Policy.

Critics said Blue Shield may not be up to the task, and some suspected the decision was not entirely unrelated to the fact that the insurer has been a major Newsom donor.

Here are answers to five key questions about Blue Shield's participation in the COVID vaccination program:

1. Is Blue Shield up to the task?

Time will tell. Despite its experience and clout in the health care industry, Blue Shield has never attempted anything of such magnitude -- with so much riding on it and so many eyes watching.

Skeptics note that Blue Shield's track record in delivering health care to its enrollees has not always been stellar. Its rollout of Affordable Care Act health plans in 2014 was beset by errors, and it has been fined by regulators for improper coverage cancellations and consumer grievance violations, among other things. In 2015, it lost its state tax-exempt status following a controversy over large premium hikes and its hefty financial reserves.

In 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, Blue Shield had the second-highest rate of consumer complaints -- after UnitedHealthcare -- among the nine largest California health plans regulated by the state's Department of Managed Health Care. And it got the lowest possible score on access to care in the 2019-20 health plan ratings by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

2. Was Newsom's decision politically motivated?

It's hard to say definitively without having been a fly on the wall, but Blue Shield is on very good terms with the governor.

It gave about $1 million to support Newsom's 2018 gubernatorial bid, according to filings with the California Secretary of State Office. Last year, the company contributed an additional $31,000 to Newsom's 2022 campaign for governor, as well as $269,000 to his ballot measure committee.

"The reality, I think, is that it reflects the tight relationship Blue Shield has built with Newsom, not its capabilities," said Michael Johnson, a former Blue Shield executive who resigned from the company in 2015 and is now one of its fiercest critics.

In addition, Blue Shield's CEO, Paul Markovich, was co-chair of Newsom's COVID testing task force from March to June last year - experience that some health care experts cited as an asset in the insurer's new role.

Another possible factor in the governor's decision to shake things up is his political need to turn things around quickly, with an effort to recall him gaining momentum from the vaccination chaos.

3. Is Blue Shield well placed to accomplish the equitable distribution of vaccines to underserved communities that Newsom called "the North Star" of the new centralized system?

These communities are not among Blue Shield's core constituency. It has a small presence in Medi-Cal, the state-funded insurance program for people with low incomes -- and only in Los Angeles and San Diego counties. But it does have relationships with numerous hospitals and other providers that serve Medi-Cal patients. It will also need to collaborate with the state's counties.

"It's critical that Blue Shield be required to work hand in hand with local public health jurisdictions to reach vulnerable populations that do not have the same level of access to traditional health care," said Sara Bosse, director of Madera County's Department of Public Health.

4. What could have motivated Blue Shield to tackle such an onerous assignment?

Its payment from the state will be at cost, so there's no apparent profit motive. Though Blue Shield could theoretically leverage its vaccine decision-making power to the advantage of its own business, health care experts doubt it would behave in such a cynical manner.

"Our goal is to do all we can to help overcome this pandemic, and it is our commitment to do that work at cost without making a profit from the state," Blue Shield said in a news release Friday.

Melnick said he knew of no other health plan in the country that has jumped in to help public officials with testing or vaccinations. If Blue Shield succeeds, "it could be an answer for a lot of states and could put pressure on other plans to step up," he said. By the same token, Blue Shield will probably catch the blame if vaccine supply shortages continue.

Johnson, the former Blue Shield executive, suggested a motive other than pure selflessness. "I think the biggest value to Blue Shield is the prestige of it," he said. "It implies Blue Shield has the skill and integrity to be entrusted with something this vital to tens of millions of people."

5. How will Blue Shield's results be measured?

It shouldn't be too difficult to determine whether the insurer is meeting two key goals the state set for it: to speed up the pace of vaccinations and to focus in particular on underserved communities. Both can be measured.

The bar for success is pretty low, Johnson said. "The whole thing has been managed so disastrously," he said, "that it wouldn't be difficult for Blue Shield to improve on the state's performance thus far and come out of this looking like it did a good job."

California Healthline political correspondent Samantha Young and KHN correspondent Anna Almendrala contributed to this report.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. It also appeared on Chico Enterprise-Record. It can be republished for free.
(@FahadShabbir)

The United States on Monday led governments around the world in calling for the restoration of Myanmar's democracy after the military staged a coup, arresting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other politicians

Yangon, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2021 ) :The United States on Monday led governments around the world in calling for the restoration of Myanmar's democracy after the military staged a coup, arresting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other politicians.

- United States - The United States "will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed", White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

She added that Washington opposed any attempt to alter the outcome of the November elections, which saw Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) win in an overwhelming landslide, but sparked allegations of vote irregularities by the routed military-backed party.

New US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called on Myanmar's military "to release all government officials and civil society leaders and respect the will of the people of Burma as expressed in democratic elections on November 8".

Before the coup, Washington, alongside several other Western nations, had urged the military to "adhere to democratic norms" in a January 29 statement that came as the commander-in-chief threatened to revoke the country's constitution.

- Britain - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the coup and Suu Kyi's imprisonment.

"The vote of the people must be respected and civilian leaders released," he tweeted.

- China - China, which regularly opposes UN intervention in Myanmar, called for all sides to "resolve differences".

"China is a friendly neighbour of Myanmar and hopes the various parties in Myanmar will appropriately resolve their differences under the constitutional and legal framework to protect political and social stability," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing.

- Russia - In a statement, Russia's foreign ministry called for "a peaceful settlement of the situation, in accordance with the law in force, through the resumption of political dialogue".

- United Nations - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "strongly" condemned the military's detention of Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other leaders.

"These developments represent a serious blow to democratic reforms in Myanmar," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

- European Union - European Council President Charles Michel strongly condemned the coup.

"The outcome of the elections has to be respected and democratic process needs to be restored," the former Belgian prime minister tweeted.

- Australia - "We call on the military to respect the rule of law, to resolve disputes through lawful mechanisms and to release immediately all civilian leaders and others who have been detained unlawfully," Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said.

- Bangladesh - "We hope that the democratic process and constitutional arrangements will be upheld in Myanmar," the foreign ministry in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya live in refugee camps, said in a statement.

"As an immediate and friendly neighbour, we would like to see peace and stability in Myanmar." - Turkey - The Turkish government, itself the target of a military coup in 2016, condemned the takeover and called for the politicians' release.

"Turkey opposes all kinds of coups and we expect the immediate release of elected leaders, political figures and civilians who have been detained," the Turkish foreign ministry said.
Full-fledged participation of the United States in the Normandy format is possible only with the consent of all its participants, but Russia is unlikely to give it.

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said this on the air of the Freedom of Speech TV program.

He noted that since 2014, the United States has supported Ukraine in counteracting Russian aggression, has been active in attempts to resolve the conflict in Donbas, and has taken a clear stance on the occupation of Crimea.

"Therefore, I have every reason to believe and predict that the United States will be even more active on this track, but a format it will take place in is a matter of negotiations. As for the full participation of the United States in the Normandy format, let us remember that there is one person who will not be happy about such participation, namely the President of the Russian Federation. And the format cannot be expanded at the request of individual participants, it can be changed only by consensus," Kuleba said.

The Normandy format is a level of meetings between representatives of Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia to discuss the issues related to Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine.

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Advertiser Disclosure: At Slickdeals, we work hard to find the best deals. Some products in our articles are from partners who may provide us with compensation, but this doesnt change our opinions.

Everyone wants to live a comfortable financial life. And while earning a decent income can certainly reduce your stress, smart money management habits can have an equally important influence over your financial health.

If youre looking for ways to improve your budget, you can start by trying to reduce monthly expenses. A lower auto insurance premium, for example, could free up cash that you can use toward other financial goals.

Of course, finding a lower car insurance premium will involve a bit of research on your part. The Insurance Information Institute suggests that you compare a minimum of three quotes from different insurance companies before you choose a policy. Below is a look at two online resources you can use to make your search a lot easier.

SmartFinancial

smart financial website

SmartFinancial is an online tool that can help you shop for several different types of insurance coverage, including home, life, health and auto. You can think of it like a search engine designed to help you compare insurance rates.

When you visit the SmartFinancial website, you can look up the average monthly car insurance rate in your state. You can also easily compare personalized insurance quotes within minutes by completing a simple, three-step process.

Provide your personal details. To start, youll need to answer some questions about your identity (name, address, email, phone number, date of birth, gender, marital status, etc.). More questions about your vehicle (year, make and model), homeownership status, history of auto accidents and DUIs and whether youre currently insured or uninsured will follow. Search for rates. SmartFinancial will use the details you provide to search through its database of more than 200 insurance companies. Based on your information, the service will even check to see if you might qualify for discounts. Compare offers. Youll get the chance to compare and review any insurance coverage offers the service finds for you. If you find a policy that you like, you can contact the insurance provider (online, via phone or in person) to sign up for coverage.

Visit SmartFinancial

Story continues

SmartFinancials service is free and available to consumers in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. The company itself doesnt offer insurance coverage. Instead, it earns a commission when people like you use the service and SmartFinancial sends leads to its referral partners. Whether you opt to purchase a policy through one of the websites referral partners or not, its a great way to compare your options.

Esurance

esurance website

Esurance, an Allstate company, was one of the first online insurance providers in the U.S. Initially established in 1999, the company now offers auto insurance to customers in 43 different states. (Coverage in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming is current unavailable.)

If youre looking for more than just auto insurance coverage or youre hoping to take advantage of a multi-policy discount, Esurance has additional options as well. You can request a quote online for renters, homeowners and motorcycle insurance coverage.

According to the company, it takes an average of just six minutes to receive your quote online. Drivers who switched to Esurance between September of 2018 and 2019 reportedly saved an average of $462 per year.

Aside from the savings potential, other perks Esurance customers can take advantage of include:

Easy-to-use digital tools and website

Simple, fast photo claims process when you have an accident

Roadside assistance (towing and labor coverage)

Rental car coverage available

Keep in mind that Esurance is an individual insurance provider, not a comparison website. So, youll still need to compare Esurance with quotes from other companies to see if its the ideal choice for your auto insurance needs.

Another Key to Lower Insurance Premiums  Good Credit Scores

Another potential way to save some cash on your auto insurance premium is to work on improving your credit. It may sound unbelievable, but in some cases your credit score could affect your auto insurance premium more than your driving record.

Many insurance providers use credit-based insurance scores to help predict risk and set the price of your premiums. This special type of credit score isnt the same FICO or VantageScore a credit card issuer or lender uses when you apply for financing. Those credit scores predict the risk that youll pay a credit obligation 90 or more days late within the next 24 months. Credit-based insurance scores, on the other hand, predict how likely you are to file a claim that will cost a provider more than you paid in premiums.

How to Improve Your Credit-Based Insurance Scores

Like standard credit scores, credit-based insurance scores are based on information found on your credit report from either Equifax, TransUnion or Experian. So, if youre looking for actionable ways to try to give your credit-based insurance scores a boost, the following actions might help.

Review your credit reports for mistakes.

A Federal Trade Commission study found that one in four consumers found errors on their credit reports that might impact their credit scores. When you monitor all three of your credit reports you put yourself in a position to find and dispute credit mistakes quickly if they happen to you, potentially helping your credit scores in the process.

Lower your credit card balances.

When you use credit cards the right way, those accounts may have a chance to boost your credit scores. However, a high balance-to-limit ratio on your credit cards (otherwise known as your credit utilization ratio) isnt good for you. Paying down your credit card balance and lowering your credit utilization might help you to move those important numbers back in the right direction.

Dont pay late.

Over one-third of your FICO Score  35% to be exact  is based on your payment history. Paying credit obligations on time is a must if you want to earn good credit scores. Late payments that are 30-days or more beyond the due date or worse can damage your credit scores and may stay on your reports for up to seven years.

It is worth pointing out that some states dont allow insurance providers to use credit-based insurance scores in the pricing of policies. That means theres no guarantee that a higher credit-based insurance score will lead to a lower insurance premium. Even so, you can never go wrong by taking steps to better your credit.

Bottomline

If youre looking for ways to save money, shopping around for the most affordable insurance coverage available can be a smart use of your time. Auto insurance, after all, isnt an expense most people can cut from their budgets. But you can and should take the time each year to make sure youre getting the best coverage at the best price available.

>>RELATED: How to Quickly Boost Your Credit Score for Free

While we work hard on our research, we do not always provide a complete listing of all available offers from credit-card companies and banks. And because offers can change, we cannot guarantee that our information will always be up to date, so we encourage you to verify all the terms and conditions of any financial product before you apply.




The party of Myanmars toppled leader Aung San Suu Kyi demanded her immediate release Tuesday, after a military coup that triggered international condemnation and sanctions threats from the new US president.

Armed troops patrolled the capital, Naypyidaw, where Suu Kyi and other National League for Democracy party leaders were detained in pre-dawn raids on Monday just ahead of the scheduled resumption of parliament.

Soldiers were also stationed Tuesday outside the dormitories for parliamentarians in Naypyidaw, with one NLD MP describing it as an open-air detention centre.

We are not allowed to go outside, she told AFP by telephone, requesting anonymity for fear of the military. We are very worried.

Suu Kyi and President Win Myint remained under house arrest, the lawmaker told AFP, although it was not immediately clear where they were being held.

Despite the intimidation, a statement was posted on the NLDs verified Facebook page calling for the release of Suu Kyi and all detained party members.

We see this as a stain on the history of the State and the Tatmadaw, it added, referring to the military by its Burmese name.

It also demanded the military recognise the confirmed result of the 2020 general election.

The military justified its seizure of power by alleging widespread fraud in elections held three months ago that the NLD won in a landslide.

The military said it would hold power under a state of emergency for 12 months, claiming it would then hold fresh elections.

 Condemnation 

US President Joe Biden led the chorus of global outrage, calling for a quick restoration of democracy and warning that Washington could reimpose sanctions.

The international community should come together in one voice to press the Burmese military to immediately relinquish the power they have seized, Biden said.

The United States is taking note of those who stand with the people of Burma in this difficult hour.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the European Union and Australia were among others to condemn the coup. Britain summoned Myanmars envoy in formal protest.

But Chinas response was less emphatic, with the official Xinhua news agency describing the coup as a cabinet reshuffle.

The United Nations Security Council was due to meet Tuesday for an emergency meeting.

 Military rule 

Myanmars November polls were only the second democratic elections the country had seen since it emerged from the 49-year grip of military rule in 2011.

The NLD won more than 80 percent of the vote in November  increasing its support from the 2015 elections.

But the military claimed to have uncovered more than 10 million instances of voter fraud.

Although the military had flagged last week it was considering a coup, Mondays events seemed to stun the country and power was seized extremely quickly.

The military strangled the internet as the coup was unfolding, but eased restrictions later in the day.

On Tuesday there were few signs of extra security in Yangon, Myanmars biggest city and commercial capital, indicating the generals comfort levels belief that, for now, they faced no mass protests.

On Yangons streets, people voiced anger, fear and helplessness.

We want to go out to show our dissatisfaction, a taxi driver told AFP.

But Mother Suu is in their hands. We cannot do much but stay quiet at this moment.

A newspaper seller said he did not recognise the new government.

The duty of military is to protect the country, not to rule the country but everyone knows the military has guns and they are used to shooting people, he told AFP.

 Pariah 

Military chief and coup leader Min Aung Hlaing is now in charge of the country, although former general Myint Swe is acting president.

Min Aung Hlaing is an international pariah who is under US sanctions for a military campaign against Myanmars Muslim Rohinyga community that forced 750,000 of them to flee into Bangladesh, a campaign UN investigators said amounted to genocide.

Suu Kyi, 75, is an immensely popular figure in Myanmar for her opposition to the military  which earned her the Nobel Peace Prize  having spent the best part of two decades under house arrest during the previous dictatorship.

But her international image was shredded during her time in power as she defended the military-backed crackdown on the Rohingya.

Derek Mitchell, the first US ambassador to Myanmar after military rule, said the international community still needed to respect Suu Kyis overwhelming victory in November.

The West may have considered her this global icon of democracy and that luster is off. But if you care about democracy in the world, then you must respect the democratic choice and she is clearly that.

Its not about the person; its about the process, he said.

SOURCE: AFP
Lindsey is the North Augusta reporter at the Aiken Standard and North Augusta Star. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2017, and grew up in Hodges, SC.
A nurse prepares a syringe with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in the Manhattan borough of New York City, N.Y., on Dec. 23, 2020. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Ottawa Signs Deal With Novavax to Produce COVID-19 Vaccine Domestically

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday that the federal government has signed a memorandum of understanding with drug maker Novavax to produce COVID-19 vaccines domestically in Canada.

The vaccine production will take place at a new National Research Councils Royalmount facility in Montreal, which is currently under construction and is expected to be finished by end of the year. Once it is completed, the facility will produce about two million doses of vaccines of all types every month.

Besides Novavax, Trudeau said the federal government has also invested $25 million into Precision Nanosystem, a drug manufacturer in Vancouver, to build a production facility capable of producing up to 240 million vaccine doses per year.

We knew there would be some hurdles along the way with unpredictability and increased demand for production, Trudeau said. Thats why we invested in vaccine development and manufacturing here at home.

In addition, Trudeau said the government has invested $46 million to the University of Saskatchewans Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) to build Canadas bio manufacturing sector. VIDO-InterVac is projected to produce up to 40 million doses of vaccines annually, according to the prime minister.

Canadas inability to produce the vaccines at home has left the country at the mercy of foreign governments and drug manufacturers, which is evidently seen in recent weeks.

After Pfzier announced on Jan. 19 that it would slow down its production to expand its plant in Belgium, Canada received zero doses last week and will only get 79,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines each week; for this and next weeka fifth of previously planned shipments.

Svein Andersen, 67 years-old resident of Ellingsrud home and first in Norway to receive the vaccine, is given the Pfizer-Biontech CCP vaccine by Nurse Maria Golding in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 27, 2020. (Fredrik Hagen/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

As for Moderna vaccines, the shipment is revised down to 180,000 doses this week, 50,000 doses shy of what had been expected because of production delays at its partner facility in Switzerland.

The risk was exacerbated after the European Union threatened on Jan. 26 to impose export controls on the drug manufacturers vaccines, which put Canadas European-made vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, the Maryland-based drug maker applied on Jan. 29 for Health Canada to approve its vaccine which studies have suggested is 89 percent effective against COVID-19.

The application comes less than two weeks after Ottawa finalized an agreement with the company for 52 million doses of the vaccine, with an option to purchase another 24 million.

Opposition leaders welcomed the news but said the government needs to be far more transparent about the deal, what negotiations are underway with other manufacturers, and when these vaccines will start to be delivered from the Canadian plant.

Canadians should know when things are going to get better, Conservative Leader Erin OToole said in a statement.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh urged Liberals to make public all the vaccine contracts with the seven companies with which Canada has a deal to buy COVID-19 vaccines.

This is a good step forward but it is very late, said Singh. This is something that should have been secured a long time ago. It would have addressed a lot of the insecurity people are feeling about not getting the vaccine and seeing delays in the rollout, because of production delays.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2) - The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Coast Guard clarified on Tuesday that the Chinese survey vessel recently spotted in Catanduanes was allowed to seek shelter due to bad weather.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin, Jr. said the ship was granted permission to seek shelter as requested by the Chinese Embassy.

DFA never gave permission to (research vessel) Jia Geng. For humanitarian reasons, DFA okayed the emergency Chinese Embassy request for shelter against bad weather, he said on Twitter. Request for shelter; not permission to stay and be watched. Period.

Meanwhile, PCG Commandant Admiral George Ursabia said the Chinese vessel has been monitored every now and then transiting Philippine waters in the north.

We should consider that so many vessels are transiting our waters. For as long as they are transiting, theres no need for them to seek permission from us. But they have put on their IAS (automatic identification system) to monitor their movements, which in this case this vessel has complied on that, said Ursabia in an interview with CNN Philippines News Night. It just so happened that it was force majeure on their part to take shelter in Catanduanes because of a weather disturbance in the Pacific.

Barred from ship?

Contrary to an earlier report, Ursabia also clarified that the PCG team was not barred from entering the Chinese vessel after learning that it was government-owned.

We intentionally did not board the ship anymore, because we found that the ship is not a merchant ship, but rather a government ship. Under UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), a government-owned vessel is protected from such boarding...not to mention that DFA has informed us that there is such a formal request on the part of China, added Ursabia.

Ursabia is citing Article 96 of the UNCLOS, which states that ships owned or operated by a State and used only on government non-commercial service" have complete immunity.

The survey vessel left Cabugao Bay in Catanduanes early on Monday.

Also on Monday, the Chinese Embassy slammed reports calling the survey vessels entry into the country as an intrusion.
In her first call to a foreign leader, US Vice President spoke with Canadian Prime Minister on Monday and underscored Canada's deep importance to the United States as an economic and strategic partner.

"The Vice President underscored Canada's deep importance to the United States as an economic and strategic partner, and she expressed the United States' desire to work closely with on a wide range of issues, including combating the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing climate change and expanding our economic partnership in ways that advance the recovery and create jobs in both countries," the White House said in a readout of the call.

Harris also expressed strong solidarity with regarding the issue of two Canadian citizens unjustly detained by China and made it clear that the US would continue to do everything it can to secure their release, the White House said.

During the call, the US vice president and the Canadian prime minister agreed to remain in close touch and support all efforts to expand bilateral cooperation.

(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.)
News

North Korea-Sponsored Hackers Attack with Bad-Code Visual Studio Projects

Microsoft reported a battle with North Korean-sponsored hackers who attacked security researchers with a most innovative technique: compromised Visual Studio projects.

The attack was attributed to a group called ZINC, said to be associated with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

A Jan. 28 post titled "ZINC attacks against security researchers" described the organization as a DPRK-affiliated and state-sponsored group. That determination was based on "observed tradecraft, infrastructure, malware patterns, and account affiliations."

"This ongoing campaign was reported by Googles Threat Analysis Group (TAG) earlier this week, capturing the browser-facing impact of this attack," Microsoft said. "By sharing additional details of the attack, we hope to raise awareness in the cybersecurity community about additional techniques used in this campaign and serve as a reminder to security professionals that they are high-value targets for attackers."

While such battles between hackers and enterprises and security organizations are obviously common and ongoing, one unusual aspect of this encounter was the choice of payloads for the bad code.

"ZINC used a variety of new techniques to target the victims, including gaining credibility on social media with genuine content, sending malicious Visual Studio projects, and using a watering hole website weaponized with browser exploits."

The contaminated VS projects contained prebuilt binaries, including a malicious DLL (dynamic link library) that masqueraded as a database file. The idea was to trick users into launching the projects and tripping attack code.

[Click on image for larger view.] Actor-Controlled Twitter Handles (source: Microsoft).

The Google post provided more information on the slick use of social media:

The actors have been observed targeting specific security researchers by a novel social engineering method. After establishing initial communications, the actors would ask the targeted researcher if they wanted to collaborate on vulnerability research together, and then provide the researcher with a Visual Studio Project. Within the Visual Studio Project would be source code for exploiting the vulnerability, as well as an additional DLL that would be executed through Visual Studio Build Events. The DLL is custom malware that would immediately begin communicating with actor-controlled C2 domains.

Microsoft security pros said the company's Defender for Endpoint tool detects the bad DLLs as Comebacker malware. "A pre-build event with a PowerShell command was used to launch Comebacker via rundll32. This use of a malicious pre-build event is an innovative technique to gain execution."

[Click on image for larger view.] Visual Studio Build Events Command Executed when Building the Provided VS Project Files (source: Google).

The complicated attacks also used a variety of other techniques, including:

Klackring malware: "Klackring is a DLL that registers a malicious service on the targeted machine."

"Klackring is a DLL that registers a malicious service on the targeted machine." MHTML file: "ZINC sent researchers a copy of a br0vvnn blog page saved as an MHTML file with instructions to open it with Internet Explorer. The MHTML file contained some obfuscated JavaScript that called out to a ZINC-controlled domain for further JavaScript to execute."

"ZINC sent researchers a copy of a blog page saved as an MHTML file with instructions to open it with Internet Explorer. The MHTML file contained some obfuscated JavaScript that called out to a ZINC-controlled domain for further JavaScript to execute." Driver abuse: A buggy attempt to use an old driver to exploit a known vulnerability.

A buggy attempt to use an old driver to exploit a known vulnerability. Other malware: These included an encrypted Chrome password-stealer.

These included an encrypted Chrome password-stealer. C2 communication: "After establishing a command-and-control (C2) channel on a targeted device, the backdoor is configured to check into the C2 servers every 60 seconds. Over this C2 channel, the threat actors can execute remote commands to enumerate files/directories and running processes, and to collect/upload information about the target device, including IP address, Computer Name, and NetBIOS."

Microsoft pointed to several tools and techniques organizations can use to improve their security posture against such attacks, including measures to take if a specific ZINC-owned blog was visited with a Chrome browser, which could transmit the malware. Researchers also detailed measures to take going forward: "For proactive prevention of this type of attack, it is recommended that security professionals use an isolated environment (e.g., a virtual machine) for building untrusted projects in Visual Studio or opening any links or files sent by unknown parties."

Much more detailed information can be found in the Microsoft and Google posts, including a list of "indicators of compromise" on the former and a list of known actor-controls sites and accounts in the latter. Neither one reported any specific damage from ZINC.

Note that this wasn't Microsoft's first run-in with ZINC (aka the Lazarus Group), as the company teamed up with Facebook to battle the group three years ago.
State Track: Arrows' Mack and Heesch among six area event winners on opening day

Watertown seniors Cooper Mack and Maggie Heesch and four other area athletes notched event wins Friday during the opening day of the 2021 State High School Track and Field Meet.
On this day, every year, Groundhog Day is observed in the United States as the day that groundhogs usually awaken from their winter slumber. The day became immortalised the world over in 1993, when the film Groundhog Day showed Phil (Bill Murray) inexplicably living the exact same day over and over again.

Well, talk about a case of art imitating life. As we wait en masse to be liberated from our winter bout of pandemic hibernation, life has started to seem a bit monochrome. A bit familiar. A bit... well, Groundhog Day. The odd bout of panic aside, our brains have turned to mush, old habits have worn our days down to one unending, boring existence, and were slowly cracking up while making the same three meals a day, every day.

Yet with some planning, ingenuity and creativity, the days neednt melt into one big blob of Netflix, walking, banana bread and homeschooling. Weve thought of a few ways, both big and small, to shake things up.

1 Have a look at your daily routine. Notice how much of it is dull and samey. Are you watching the same type of thing on Netflix? Never miss an episode of Fair City? Walking the dog on the exact same route? Its all too easy to fall into habits, but getting into a lethargic loop will feel utterly draining. Try a different path with your pet. Ditch Netflix and listen to a meditation on Calm (Cillian Murphy tells bedtime stories on there). Play a game of Scrabble. Anything to get out of the rut youve been in for 10 months.

Expand Close Change the route of your usual dog walk / Facebook

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2 Novelty is key, so get into the habit of learning new things. It can be something simple and fun like learning the words to a new song. Brain plasticity refers to changes in neural pathways and synapses that are due to changes in your behaviour. If you transfer pieces of data around in your brain, your brain changes, adapts and increases the number of neural pathways. The more you do this, the less sluggish you will feel.

One simple way of doing this is to try brushing your teeth with the hand you dont normally use, locking or unlocking doors while alternating hands, or even unloading the dishwasher while brushing your teeth.

3 Is the evening family walk starting to grind you down? Even within 5k, you can change things up. Invent a photography competition, where the family member who takes the best iPhone picture on your walk gets to choose the next family film. Or, try geocaching, an activity where participants use a GPS system to hike and seek containers, or caches, hidden all over the world. See geocachingireland.com for pointers on how to get started.

4 Start the day as you mean to go on. If you are lucky enough not to be on a tight work/homeschool schedule, take some time to make the morning special. Have a bath with scented candles instead of a quick shower; use your best china to serve up a different sort of breakfast than the usual. Try and harvest enough time to do something you enjoy, whether its read a book or listen to old albums.

5 Fond of a bit of Twitter or Instagram doom-scrolling? Have a timeline cleanse and follow a few more funny or motivational accounts. Samantha Kellys timeline is always positive (@Tweetinggoddess), as is Sinead Duffys @GreatestQuotes account. You also cant go wrong if you follow comedian Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo), chat-show king Conan OBrian (@ConanOBrien) and the Best Of Next Door (@BestOfNextDoor), a Twitter account the reminds us of the innate goodness of others.

6 Look into even a minor home renovation. With most of our energies taken up with being indoors (and with the four walls closing in on us), a redecorating project makes for a welcome distraction. On a tight budget? Theres plenty you can do to make small but impactful changes, from buying new cushion covers to getting a throw for the sofa.

7 Making three meals a day is getting to you, right? Change things up by ordering lunch from a lovely local restaurant. Splash out with a spend at Liath To Go in Blackrock, Dublin (liathtogo.com), enjoy top-notch fish and chips at Riba in Stillorgan (ribarestaurant.ie), treat yourself to a burger at Handsome Burger in Galway (handsomeburger.com) or get tapas from Vikkis Wine & Tapas Bar in Sundays Well, Cork (vikkis.ie). If youre feeling adventurous, try a vegan feast  we love My Goodness at the English Market in Cork (mygoodnessfood.com).

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8 This may sound almost inconceivable, but cut the cord to Netflix for one or two evenings a week. Dust off the Scrabble board, get wordy with Balderdash or, if you fancy something a little more grown-up and salty, give Cards Against Humanity a go. Theres never a dull moment: fact.

9 Just because theatres, concert halls and cinemas are closed, it doesnt mean that you cant enjoy a prime slice of culture in your own home. The National Concert Hall has livestreams of concerts (nch.ie), while Whelans of Wexford Street also offers plenty of great gig streams at whelanslive.com. The Dublin International Film Festival, starting in early March, is a great way to catch up on some great cinema from the comfort of your own couch (diff.ie), while IFI@ Home (ifihome.ie) is a great opportunity to get familiar with films you might not ordinarily find on the Flix. Rentals cost from 3.99.

10 If you have time on your hands, make this the year that you finally get around to brushing up on your skill set. There are hundreds of online classes to avail from if you fancy doing a spot of extra-curricular learning. With over 100,000 courses and 24 million students, Udemy (udemy.com) is a great way to learn anything in your own time. If you want to upskill, the Google Digital Garage (learndigital.withgoogle.com) provides training in a number of tech disciplines for free. FutureLearn (futurelearn.com) offers online learning from some of the worlds top universities. If youve always threatened to write a book, Marian Keyes is offering writing classes every Monday evening on her Instagram page (@marian_keyes) and can be accessed on YouTube later.

11 Write a letter to a friend. Stop blathering on about R-rates and vaccine rollouts with your pals and make your interactions more meaningful. Either call them up to talk about a treasured old memory, or your plans to travel/have dinner/see live music. Nothing will jolt them out of a fun like a heartfelt written letter, though.

12 According to neuroscientists, singing along with other people releases endorphins and oxytocin, leading to a happiness boost. CORus (corus.ie) offers online singing classes, while the Casual Choir (facebook.com/casualchoir) rehearses and records a song in one session. The Voice Studio, Wexfords online choir, is recruiting new members, too (voicestudiowexford.com).

13 Micro-volunteering is on the rise at the moment, and literally requires a commitment of two to five minutes. Plus, as with all kinds of volunteering, the feel-good factor is pretty immense. It can be a really short, one-off piece of work, like counting bee flowers online (with Count Flowers for Bees, which helps to create a map of Ireland to help conserve insects; pollinators.ie).

Or sign up to the Be My Eyes app: Professing to bring sight to blind and low-vision people, the free app connects visually-impaired people with sighted volunteers for visual assistance through a live video call (bemyeyes.com).

Another micro-volunteering initiative, Post Pals (postpals.co.uk) aims to lift the spirits of ill children by sending them cards, small gifts, letters and emails. Yet another micro-volunteering drive that makes a big difference.

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14 If boredom is the enemy, one way to thwart it is to schedule in a different house-based project every day. Whether its Marie Kondo-ing your wardrobe, cleaning out the fridge or finally getting around to dusting under the beds, you and yours will start to reap the benefits as you zip through this to-do list.

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The Egyptian government is fast tracking a national project that has been too long in the coming, something to which the decline in the rural development indicators testify. This has been due to decades of neglect of the development needs of the Egyptian village. The National Programme for the Development of Egyptian Villages aims to improve the quality of life for all of the countrys 4,741 villages, promising each its rightful share of infrastructural development, public services and income-generating economic projects that will create job opportunities for their inhabitants.

President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi launched this programme in 2019, in the framework of the Decent Life Initiative, in order to change the face of rural Egypt and raise the standards of living of the 58 million Egyptians who live in the countryside. Over LE 500 billion has been allocated to the programme. In the light of rural to urban migration rates of up to 55 per cent, the government hopes the village development programme will significantly reduce these rates.

According to a recent statement by Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli, the first stage of the programme targets 143 rural communities in 11 governorates in the 2019-2020 fiscal year and 232 more rural communities in the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

A total of 375 villages in this stage, home to approximately 4.5 million people, will soon receive the benefits of 2,180 projects costing a total of LE 13.5 billion. This stage, which is nearly 50 per cent complete, includes bringing 58,000 houses up to the standards of dignified housing through the installation of new roofing and water pipes and wastewater linkups as well as upgrading the communitys potable water, wastewater, drainage, road, electricity and street lighting grids and networks, and other such services. The communities will also be linked by a network of modern roads.

The cabinet will meet once a week in order to follow up on the implementation of the various stages and projects of the programme, which experts believe will radically transform life in Egypt as a whole. The prime minister said that 60 per cent of the Egyptian people will feel the fruits economic reform as the many development projects in this programme come to life.

The Egyptian government has adopted a multi-pronged development approach. It is expanding urban construction and development projects while modernising old communities where possible, and creating new agricultural, residential and industrial zones. It is simultaneously modernising the means of production with the introduction of new technologies and digitalised processes. We can already see vast progress in urban areas where random development and unsafe housing had prevailed.

This urban renewal in fact began before the village development programme. In addition, as part of what has been described as an unprecedented development drive that seeks to deliver the tangible fruits of development efforts to all sectors of society, the government has constructed thousands of kilometres of new roads and repaired and upgraded double that amount in the existing road network. It has also improved the rail and public transportation services and converted public transportation vehicles to natural gas as part of the drive to optimise domestic potential.

Infrastructure and infrastructural services are a key element in development and a main draw to direct investment in the local market. They are among the inducements that encourage investors to adopt positive economic and investment positions in the framework of a clear investment map and a comprehensive development vision.

With its latest national projects, the Egyptian government has once again underscored the centrality of the Egyptian market as an important investment hub in the Arab world and Africa. This market offers a robust and modern infrastructure, an array of investment incentives and privileges for companies and individuals with serious business projects, access to a vast consumer market and ample possibilities for deals that will enable locally produced products to reach dozens of markets without customs duties or taxes.

Rural Egypt will be an integral part of the new gravitational force drawing investors into the race for sustainable development to make life better for all Egyptians.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 4 February , 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that the country is unable to use coronavirus vaccines from the United States because storage of the vaccine requires an ultra-cold freezer.

The prime minister made the remarks in a speech at the opening of a water treatment facility in the capital Phnom Penh. Cambodia currently lacks the capacity to store the vaccine developed by Pfizer, which must be stored at between -80 and -60C (-112 to -76F).

We would accept the help of [a vaccine] from the U.S., but the vaccine needs to be stored at below 76F, so Cambodia cannot use it, Hun Sen said.

If the U.S. wants to help, please send money instead as Australia has, so Cambodia can purchase the AstraZaneca vaccine, he said.

The British-Swedish developed AztraZaneca vaccine can be stored and transported at temperatures between 2 and 8C (35.6 to 46.4F)

The prime minister also said that he would not be the first in the country to receive the vaccine from China as he had said previously, saying he would prefer that medical personnel receive it before him.

I previously emphasized that when the Chinese vaccine arrives in Cambodia, I would go to the airport to welcome it and I would get the first shot. But the problem is, the person injecting the vaccine will not have received it yet, he said.

Let us ask the prime minister of Singapore and the president of Indonesia who have received the vaccine. If they got their shots from doctors who themselves hadnt received it first, I will follow their example, said Hun Sen.

The prime minister said Cambodia will receive its first batch of 600,000 vaccine doses from China this month.

The Chinese vaccine rollout has been marred by safety concerns. The New York Times reported in November that three of four Chinese candidate vaccines in late-stage human testing had at that time been made available to tens of thousands.

The BBC reported in January that although one of Chinas vaccines have been approved for emergency use since July, phase three trials in several different countries showed widely differing efficacy rate, with Brazil initially saying it was 78 percent effective only to revise the figure to 50.4 percent as more data came in.

Cambodians should avoid Chinese vaccines, as they are not officially recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), a former member of the National Assembly from the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) told RFAs Khmer Service.

I appeal to Khmer people not to get the hazardous Chinese vaccines. Lets wait a little bit longer. I believe that when the developed countries produce enough vaccines, they will help to provide us with their safer alternatives, Gnem Nheng said.

Cambodia has confirmed only 466 cases of the virus within its borders with no deaths.

As Cambodia does not face grave danger, the country can afford to wait, San Chey, the executive director of the Cambodia office of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA) told RFA.

We dont need to be hasty. We should take time to study our options thoroughly. It is not bad to wait a bit longer. We are not in an emergency or in panic mode compared to other countries. This means we are still under control, San Chey said.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Michael Hingson joins web accessibility startup accessiBe to help drive its vision of a global accessible internet by 2025.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / accessiBe, the world's leading AI-powered web accessibility solution, welcomes Michael Hingson into the role of Chief Vision Officer. Hingson, who is blind since birth, will play a key role in helping accessiBe reach its goal of making the entire internet accessible by 2025.

Hingson is a hero to many throughout the world, who have been continuously inspired by his escape from the Twin Towers during 9/11. With the help of his guide dog, Roselle, Hingson walked down 78 floors and made it out of the building just as it collapsed. This remarkable experience caught international media attention and made him into a highly-regarded speaker, but Hingson's life up until that point was no less noteworthy.

Brought up by parents who encouraged him to live a successful and productive life, Hingson grew up wandering and exploring the outdoors, riding his bike, and earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Hingson went on to earn a master's degree in physics and a secondary teaching credential from the University of California, Irvine. He enjoyed a successful 25-year career in sales and management in high-tech before 9/11 brought a career pivot for him to become an internationally-acclaimed speaker. Mr. Hingson says, "Even speaking for me is actually a form of sales as I constantly work to sell to my audience that I am no different than they are and that blind people should be recognized as having the same right to fully live in the world as everyone else."

Hingson's first book, Thunder Dog, was published in 2011. It became an instant success, appearing as a #1 best selling book on the New York Times Bestseller list. His second book, Running With Roselle, was published in 2013. Hingson has appeared in countless newspaper interviews, on radio and television programs including five segments on CNN's Larry King Live, Animal Planet, Discovery, and other major television networks.

Hingson's determination to live a full life with his disability makes him an excellent fit for accessiBe. Like Hingson, accessiBe believes that people with disabilities should enjoy all the same interactions and experiences as those who are not considered disabled. As Hingson says, "many people mistakenly believe that eyesight is the only game in town."

But with the right solution, web content can be enjoyed by users who are blind or have other vision impairments as well as those who have other disabilities.

As the Chief Vision Officer at accessiBe, Hingson will serve as a trusted voice that explains the need to use robust, scalable technology to solve the challenge of web inaccessibility.

accessiBe is based on the observation that AI technology is the best solution to tackle the enormous amount of content across the internet and immediately open it to all users, including those with disabilities.

"We've seen repeatedly that manual accessibility solutions are both too expensive and too slow to handle most websites today," says Shir Ekerling, CEO and co-founder of accessiBe. "Only an AI-driven approach can make accessibility affordable and achievable for 99% of websites that are owned by small-and-medium businesses. That's the only scalable way that works today. With accessiBe, inserting a single line of code in a web site is all that is required to provide inclusive access for everyone."

Ekerling and his team are excited for the possibilities that Hingson will open. As the new CVO, Hingson will forge connections with new partners and help educate the wider public about the need for an accessible internet. "Michael's remarkable experiences, familiarity with the high-tech world, and warm personality put him in a unique position to drive adoption of our solution, taking us one step closer in fulfilling our vision," says Ekerling.

Ekerling has always kept his ultimate goal in mind; to make the entire internet accessible by 2025. accessiBe is planning a major expansion into the American market this year, and Hingson will be playing a key role.

Hingson himself is looking forward to it. "Frankly, there's no reason why the Internet should be inaccessible and ridden with solutions that simply don't work or cost more than the websites themselves," he says. "It's time for businesses to take responsibility for including people with disabilities and recognizing the huge untapped market persons with disabilities bring, and accessiBe's AI-powered solution leaves them with no excuse."

About the company

accessiBe was established in 2018 by a trio of experienced marketing and ad agency owners. Their work with SMBs opened their eyes to the need for an AI-powered accessibility solution that would make it easy for website owners to open up their websites to users with disabilities.

Since its launch in 2018, accessiBe has consistently expanded its client base across the US and other countries, while also continually refining its solution in response to ongoing consumer research.

For more information, visit: https://accessiBe.com

Website owner? Test if your website is ADA & WCAG compliant with accessiBe's fast and immediate tool at: https://ace.accessiBe.com/

Contact:

Nadav Dakner

PR & Communications

nadav@accessibe.com

+972524382104

SOURCE: accessiBe

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627337/accessiBe-Welcomes-Michael-Hingson-as-Chief-Vision-Officer
Democrats are pushing to make controversial Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene the face of the GOP, using her to target vulnerable members of the opposition in a new ad.

'He stood with Q, not you' is the attack line in a new ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee targeting seven House Republicans and Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The ads feature images of Greene and fellow GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, who have expressed support for some QAnon theories, and claims the conspiracy group has taken over the party.

'QAnon ... Took over the Republican Party,' the narrator states. 'Sent followers to Congress.'

It goes on to tie the group to the January 6th MAGA riot on Capitol Hill that left five dead, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer.

'And with Donald Trump, incited a mob that attacked the Capitol and murdered a cop,' the narrator says.

The ad will run in Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Omaha and online as it targets Republicans in suburban swing House districts.

Democrats are pushing to make controversial Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene the face of the GOP

New ad from Democrats feature images of Greene and fellow GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert (above), who have expressed support for some QAnon theories

The Democrats new ad targets vulnerable Republican House members in suburban districts

It comes as both parties are preparing for the 2020 midterms when the president's party typically loses seats in Congress. Democrats hold the House of Representatives by three seats and Republicans want to win it back.

TAYLOR GREENE'S BIZARRE CLAIMS The California Camp Fire which killed at least 85 was caused by a space laser linked to the Rothschilds and the state's high-speed rail. PG&E admitted it was caused by a faulty power line and went into bankruptcy to fund a $13.5bn settlement and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin cut off a child's face while she was alive, Clinton wore it as a mask so the terrified child would produce 'adrenachrome' and then organized the killing of a cop who knew about it.

The Las Vegas massacre was organized by Democrats to help them ban guns and shooter Stephen Paddock was not a lone wolf.

There's no evidence of a plane hitting the Pentagon on 9/11.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre which cost the lives of 17 students was a 'false flag planned shooting.'

' I am told that Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that we need another school shooting in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control.'

Seth Rich leaked Hillary Clinton's emails and was murdered in revenge by her aide John Podesta because the emails revealed that a D.C. pizza restaurant had a child-smuggling operation in its basement. It does not even have a basement.

The world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles and the Q in QAnon exists and is the 'best chance to take them out.'

Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett are Muslims.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced by a body double.

She wasn't the person who posted a call to assassinate Nancy Pelosi to her own Facebook page. Advertisement

Green has come to national prominence in recent days as her past musing on social media have come to light, including that she thought California's wildfire was caused by space lasers; claimed that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, before her death, was using a body double; and that Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin cut off a child's face while she was alive - all of which are false.

McCarthy is expected to meet face-to-face with Greene on Tuesday to discuss her social media postings, many of which happened before she was a member of Congress. In them, she expressed support for killing Democratic politicians, touted unfounded QAnon theories along with racist views.

Republicans are facing their own reckoning as they struggle on a path forward after losing control of the White House and the Senate to Democrats.

That battle comes to a head Wednesday when the House Republican Conference meets to discuss whether to punish Greene for her actions and to keep Republican Rep. Liz Cheney on the leadership team.

Cheney outraged some Trump supporters when she was one of the 10 Republicans to support impeaching him on the charge of inciting the January 6th insurrection on Capitol Hill.

Some Republican House members have called for her to be removed from the party leadership - a question that will be decided at Wednesday's meeting.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell took the unusual step to denounce Greene on Monday, calling her 'loony lies' a 'cancer for the Republican Party.'

He didn't specifically name the freshman lawmaker in a statement to The Hill newspaper, but referenced several of the bizarre conspiracy theories the far-right Georgia congresswoman has pushed.

'Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.s airplane is not living in reality,' said McConnell.

'This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.'

The GOP leader also threw his support behind Cheney ahead of Wednesday's meeting of House Republicans to determine if she stays a member of leadership.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy will meet with Greene on Tuesday

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (pictured) denounced QAnon congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday while voicing his support for Rep. Liz Cheney

McConnell called Greene's (pictured left) 'loony lies' a 'cancer for the Republican Party' while stating that Rep. Liz Cheney (pictured right) had 'courage' for voting to impeach Trump

Greene immediately hit back at McConnell's comments on Twitter, as pictured

'Liz Cheney is a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them,' McConnell said in a statement to CNN.

'She is an important leader in our party and in our nation. I am grateful for her service and look forward to continuing to work with her on the crucial issues facing our nation.'

Greene immediately pushed back on McConnell's comments on Twitter, writing that 'the real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully'.

'This is why we are losing our country,' she added.

Democrats have teed up action Wednesday to send a resolution to the House floor that would strip Greene of assignments on the House education and budget committees, if McCarthy doesn't do so first.

'It is my hope and expectation that Republicans will do the right thing and hold Rep. Greene accountable, and we will not need to consider this resolution,' said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

'But we are prepared to do so if necessary.'
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic puts his country's status as continental Europe's front-runner in getting vaccines into people down to one thing: looking east as well as west.

The Balkan country may look like an unlikely success story as the neighboring European Union gets mired in a fiasco over vaccinations. Yet Serbia's history of balancing its geopolitical interests is paying off at a critical time.

Serbia has been an important bridge for China to gain a foothold in Europe, while the country is also a traditional ally of Russia and is aspiring to join the EU. Those relationships have allowed it to diversify vaccine sources and inoculate a bigger proportion of its population than any other nation in Europe after the U.K. Serbia has injected 6.8% of its 7 million people, more than twice the ratio in the EU.

Most of the 1.1 million doses imported by the government in Belgrade so far have come from China's state-backed Sinopharm. Vucic says his refusal to join a chorus of leaders criticizing China at a security conference in Germany helped him establish good relations with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

"I was the only one who didn't accuse China of anything so we had a brotherly meeting-the foreign minister and me-and since then the Chinese support began for us, concerning the coronavirus and everything else," Vucic said in a televised address to the nation last week.

The speedy rollout of injections to combat covid-19 relative to the EU underscores the tension across the continent, and also the potential geopolitical consequences in its most volatile region. Already, the Serbian approach has its followers within the EU: neighboring Hungary became the first member of the bloc to approve shots made by Russia and China.

Serbia's goal is to join the EU, though with an electorate already divided over membership, the pandemic risks pushing the country into the orbit of rival powers. Meanwhile, Belgrade has promised vaccine donations to Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, exposing the divisions again in former Yugoslavia that fueled the bloody wars of the 1990s.

The EU has pledged to give six prospective members in the western Balkans-including Serbia- $85 million (70 million euros) to buy covid shots, but deliveries are facing delays. Instead of waiting for the EU's help, Belgrade secured vaccine from China, Russia and the U.S. directly.

French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the problems Europe is having with rolling out vaccine programs before a lunch with Vucic in Paris on Monday. "I would have wished that France, Europe could have been more present on your side on the topic of vaccines," Macron told Vucic and a group of reporters. "We Europeans must be even more efficient on this."

The former information minister to the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, Vucic called in favors when the covid-19 crunch began, securing ventilators and protective equipment in the early stages of the contagion. He then ordered vaccines from three suppliers: Sinopharm, Russia's Gamaleya and Pfizer-BioNTech.

Details on the Chinese and Russian vaccines are less transparent than the western ones, though health authorities in Serbia have sought to assure citizens that all the shots in use are safe and effective.

A week ago, Vucic said he met with China's ambassador and "literally begged her," for more deliveries. "Knowing President Xi, I believe that before May or June we'll receive significant quantities of new vaccines from China." Serbia is also now looking to start local production of the Russian vaccine.

The Serb leader controls the government and has tightened his grip on power in 2020 elections with a landslide victory, amid a boycott by some opposition parties that accuse him of autocracy. His pitch to voters, though, includes his ability to forge relationships across the geopolitical spectrum, with little regard to the feathers he might ruffle along the way.

In June, Vucic drew condemnation from pro-EU politicians for kissing the Chinese flag when an airplane delivered medical gear from Beijing to Belgrade. At the time he described the promise of solidarity from the EU, by far the biggest contributor of aid and investment to Serbia, as "a fairytale on paper."

Providing vaccines to Serbia gives an important geopolitical win for China as it faces up to a less fractious and more Sino-skeptic West under U.S. President Joe Biden. In recent years, China has focused investment on infrastructure in the Balkans through its Belt and Road Initiative, including a rail link between Belgrade and Budapest in Hungary.

There is a perception of China being more prepared to help than the EU, said Faris Kocan, a foreign policy researcher at the University of Ljubljana. "It started with mask diplomacy and the narrative continues with vaccines, despite the fact that Balkan nations are strategically dependent on EU," he said.

Serbia started to vaccinate on Dec. 24, days before the EU. It has contracts for 6.5 million vaccines, but the global scramble for jabs is hurting confidence that the deals will be honored, Vucic said. No vaccines have come through the multinational Covax initiative, which the Balkan state also joined early on.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel held crisis talks on Monday with pharmaceutical executives and European Commission officials as part of efforts to speed up the stuttering vaccination push. The EU's 27 states collectively have inoculated 2.9% of the population compared with 14.7% in the U.K. and 10% in the U.S., according to Bloomberg's Vaccine Tracker.

"People in the EU are good people, but luckily I had enough experience and knowledge to assume that it would turn out like this," Vucic said. "This is a war for people's lives but also for the future of every country."

Nana AddoDankwa Akufo-Addo has been urged to consider the Member of Parliament(NPP MP) for Upper DenkyiraEast in the Central Region, Dr Festus AwuahKwofie, for a ministerial appointment.



o a group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Upper Denkyira East Constituency, the DenkyiraState played a crucial role in the history of Gold Coast hence its commitment should be appreciated in this manner.



A statement issued by Justice Nana Banful, the Chairman of the group in Accra on Saturday said the constituency had also been a committed part of the Danquah-Busia-Dombofamily since its inception in 1969 and deserved the honour.



President Akufo-Addo on January 21, 2021 submitted to Parliament, for the approval, the names of 46 nominees for appointment as ministers in his new government.



According to the group aside from the ministerial appointment ofthe late Charles Nyarnor, who died while an MP of the area in 2004,no indigene of the area had been part of the government.



Your Excellency, the time is not late, we have now had a vibrant and hardworkingMPin the person of Dr Festus AwuahKwofie who had to be convinced before contesting as a member of parliament.



[He] had for many years embarked on a lot of developmental projects including the giving of loans to constituency members in Accra. Your Excellency, the name of the Denkyira state in Gold Coast history was paramount and we hope you will appreciate our commitment with a ministerial appointment, it said.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Detained: Myanmars leader Aung San Suu Kyi with General Min Aung Hlaing (right) who has claimed control of the country. Photo: PA

Joe Biden threatened to impose fresh sanctions on Myanmar yesterday (Monday) after a military coup put Aung San Suu Kyi, the countrys elected leader, under house arrest once again.

Myanmars military forces made their move in a series of dawn raids targeting Ms Suu Kyi and senior members of her ruling party.

The coup, led by Gen Min Aung Hlaing, derailed years of Western-backed efforts to establish democracy in the country after five decades of military rule ended with much international fanfare in a 2015 election that propelled Ms Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner, to power.

Western governments immediately demanded her release, warning army chiefs that they would not tolerate a return to the full military dictatorship that placed Ms Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 years over a 21-year period, only ending on Nov 13 2010. The US president called the developments a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy and the rule of law.

The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action, he added.

The UN Security Council will hold a closed-door emergency virtual meeting today to discuss the situation.

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Human rights activists said existing targeted international sanctions against the countrys top generals over their violent crackdown on the Rohingya minority in 2017 must now be extended to curb their powers.

The mass arrests began in the early hours of yesterday, on the day parliament was due to start sitting with Ms Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) commanding 396 out of 476 polled seats.

Citizens in Naypyitaw, the capital, and the main commercial centre of Yangon woke up to find their phone and internet connections had been cut off and state television was off air.

Confusion morphed into panic as troops and riot police stood by while residents rushed to the market to stock up on supplies and joined long lines at ATMs, before news of the emergency rule was confirmed by the military.

Win Myint, the president, and other NLD leaders had also been taken, Myo Nyunt, an NLD spokesman, said.

Ms Suu Kyi is believed to be under house arrest in her home in Naypyidaw, but a pre-written statement uploaded on an NLD Facebook page quoted her as saying the armys actions would put Myanmar back under a dictatorship.

I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military, it said.

While the former Nobel Peace Prize winner became an international pariah for her vocal support of the military after its ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims, she remains hugely popular among the majority Buddhist population.

But as supporters of the military celebrated the coup, parading through Yangon on pickup trucks, some brandishing knives, Ms Suu Kyis voters instead anxiously hunkered down as the army imposed an 8pm-6am curfew.

We voted for the NLD, not the military. We dont want a dictatorship again. Im afraid there will be horrible things happening in Myanmar in the coming days, said Daw Thein Hla, 53, a vegetable shop owner.

I cannot believe that this is really happening. Now weve lost hope and Im so worried for our next generation, said U Kyaw Thein, a 35-year-old librarian. The November vote faced some criticism in the West for disenfranchising many Rohingya but the election commission rejected military complaints of fraud. The military yesterday said it would hold a free and fair general election after the emergency is over. However, the reassurances have been met with scepticism at home and abroad. The idea that the Tatmadaw [military] will give up power after 12 months is unlikely, said Prof Damien Kingsbury, a south-east Asia expert at Australias Deakin university.

The international community must take tougher action against Myanmars military rulers in light of both the coup and the horrific 2017 military campaign against the Rohingya that UN investigators have said was executed with genocidal intent, said Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK.

Thant Myint-U, a Myanmar historian, yesterday made an ominous prediction.

The doors just opened to a very different future. I have a sinking feeling that no one will really be able to control what comes next. And remember Myanmars a country awash in weapons, with deep divisions across ethnic and religious lines, where millions can barely feed themselves, he wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile in Bangladeshs refugee camps, Rohingya held special prayers to welcome the justice handed out to the leader they feel cooperated in the bloody crackdown against them.

( Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2021)

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Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
For nearly a decade, Chris Young was told the only way he'd ever leave federal prison is with his death certificate. Handed two life sentences without the possibility of parole after his conviction in a federal drug conspiracy case, Young's only real shot at freedom would have to be a rare presidential pardon.

That rare shot became a reality January 20, when Young, now 32, was granted executive clemency In the final hours of Donald Trump's presidency.

Getting off his flight back home to Tennessee, Young had a long embrace with an unlikely supporter and someone he hadn't seen since the day he was sentenced -- the judge who ordered him to serve life behind bars.

"This is Judge (Kevin) Sharp. This is the man that had to give me two life sentences," Young told CNN. "But I knew it was not something that he wanted to do. He wasn't choosing for me to have two life sentences. America and its judicial systems chose that. ... It's called a mandatory minimum and it means exactly that -- it is mandatory. So I knew he had no choice."

'There's there's no justice happening here today'

The two men first met in 2014, when Young wore an orange jumpsuit in Sharp's courtroom. Though Sharp was in a position of authority, in reality the judge had no authority to decide Young's fate.

Young was arrested when he was 22 and was one of dozens prosecuted in a 2010 drug trafficking investigation in Clarksville, Tennessee. Unlike most of the other defendants, Young didn't take a deal; he said he requested a trial and pleaded not guilty in federal court because, in his mind, he was a "low-level" participant.

But with two minor drug convictions on his record from his teenage years, this was his third strike -- triggering federal mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines, a result of a knee-jerk reaction by Congress to deal with the so-called crack epidemic of the 1980s.

It meant that instead of the five- or six-year sentence Sharp said he would have handed down, Young was set to spend the rest of his life in prison.

"There's no justice happening here today," Sharp recalled thinking about the sentencing. "I'm doing what they tell me to do. But in no way shape or form is this justice."

Young wasn't the first person Sharp had sentenced under mandatory minimum guidelines, or the last. But Young's case was the one he couldn't shake.

"It wasn't just Chris's case, although Chris's case ... became the poster child for everything that I thought was wrong with the criminal justice system. And if they wanted a messenger, then someone else could do that," explained Sharp.

Sharp didn't have a choice when it came to Young's future, but he did have one when it came to his own.

"I had to decide, am I more valuable on the bench or off the bench," Sharp said.

A new path

Sharp stepped down from his lifetime appointment as a US district court judge in 2017.

Nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2011, Sharp noted the frustration of jumping through hoops just to get on the bench, only to have the powerful tools of a judge stymied by the system.

"The White House has done their work to decide whether or not I have those qualities to perform this job. The FBI investigates you, it goes to the Senate, they do their own investigations. You have a confirmation hearing, then it goes to the Senate floor. All of this to do one thing, and that's to make sure that you have the temperament, the judgment, the intellect, all of these qualities to be a judge," Sharp said.

"And now I'm there, and I've got a lifetime appointment, and then they say, except for the most important thing, which is someone's liberty as it relates to a mandatory sentence. We're going to take that from you. And you're going to be an errand boy, sent by the grocer to collect the bill."

News of Sharp's retirement made its way to Young's prison email inbox. Young said he never blamed the judge for his sentence, understanding the legal handcuffs imposed by mandatory minimums, but he was blown away by Sharp's reasons for stepping down.

"He chose a courageous act of leaving the stage and said, 'I don't want to play in this play anymore. This theater, this act that y'all have going on, it's inhumane, and it's wrong.' And I always will respect and admire him for that," said Young.

Sharp joined a law firm that gave him the chance to tackle civil rights cases. But it was an interview with The Tennessean newspaper about his retirement in April 2017 that put him on the other end of that hug from Young in the airport last month. In the interview, Sharp denounced mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines and discussed Young's case -- the one that tore at his conscience the most.

"I don't realize really what to even do about Chris until I hear from Brittany," Kevin says of Young's lawyer, Brittany K. Barnett, who called him after reading the article and told him she was going to be taking on Young's case.

A former corporate lawyer who is now a powerhouse civil rights attorney, Barnett is the co-founder of the Buried Alive Project, a group of lawyers and criminal justice advocates that works to get people released from prison who are serving sentences under outdated federal drug laws.

"She flew to town and we sat down at a coffee shop around here and she just kind of laid it out," Sharp said.

They found nothing to warrant an appeal of Young's case. So Barnett -- who had successfully represented defendants serving life in prison for nonviolent offenses who then received a presidential clemency or commutation -- knew the last avenue for Young's freedom was through executive action by the President.

But his chances were slim. "He would go in line behind 14,000 other people who filed clemency petitions," Sharp said.

'I focused on changing their perspective'

While Barnett and Sharp pored over paperwork and dwindling opportunities, Young said he never lost hope. He spent his days working out his body and mind, learning to code and helping other prisoners with their cases in the law library.

Young's determination to learn from his mistakes and forge a positive future was evident even during his pre-sentencing allocution to the court, even though he knew at the time his fate was sealed.

An allocution is a courtroom formality usually reserved for a defendant's apologies or continued declarations of innocence, but Sharp said he still remembers Young's impassioned, nearly hourlong speech in which he took responsibility for his actions, displaying his potential to be a productive member of society if given another chance at freedom.

Said Young: "I didn't focus on the life sentence, I focused on changing their perspective, changing their feelings of me, hoping I could touch into their heart and change their mentality and make them see me as a human being. I didn't know at the time that I had accomplished that."

Sharp said Young's hope for the future made the fact he couldn't take anything about his past or potential into consideration even more difficult. The former judge noted these types of sentences impact Black and brown communities at a disproportionate rate.

"The system is set up to see certain groups as 'less than.' Some people would say it's less than human, but at the very least, it's less than White. And so they are treated differently," Sharp said. "And that has got to change. Until we start seeing each other as human beings and recognizing that Chris has the same worth as me or anybody else who was in that courtroom, we're going to have this problem."

Adding a little star power

Barnett said she knew from experience that getting a client's case before President Trump was possible, but it often required a little something extra to grab his attention: star power.

Her previous client, Alice Johnson, had her sentence commuted by Trump after reality star and criminal justice advocate Kim Kardashian West lobbied the President.

Still, Sharp said he was surprised when he received a call from Barnett asking whether he would speak with West about the case. And in September 2018, he attended a White House meeting with West, Barnett and others in which he pushed for Young's release.

Though grateful for the advocacy of West and other high-profile supporters, Barnett said a person's freedom shouldn't depend on a celebrity's influence. She said she believes the clemency system itself is broken there should be another way to draw attention to unjust prison sentences.

"You should not have to have a celebrity to get your name to the president. I am grateful that people like Kim Kardashian West and many other celebrities use their platform to raise awareness about this crucial issue. But it shouldn't take a celebrity," Barnett said.

Under the Biden administration, Barnett said, she intends to push for systemic change in the pardon, clemency and commutation process, specifically what she calls out as the "obvious" conflict of interest rooted in the core of the process.

"Typically, the way it works is the clemency petition goes through multiple levels of review within the Department of Justice before it gets to the White House, before it lands on the president's desk. And that part should just be completely transformed," Barnett said.

"There should be no way under the universe that clemency petition should go through the Department of Justice at all (because) you are asking career prosecutors to overturn their own decisions. And so there's a way to make the clemency process much more efficient than it is now."

'And then, nothing'

After the White House meeting, Sharp said he was invigorated. He said President Trump appeared to listen to Young's case. They waited.

"It was all very exciting. There was a great lineup. And then, nothing. There was nothing. Occasionally, I would check on it. And anytime I had the opportunity, I would speak about it. But I'm not hearing anything back from the White House on that," recalled Sharp. He admitted he thought it was over for Young.

Barnett said she was frustrated, but not discouraged. She chipped away at all other avenues, eventually winning Young a sentence reduction in September 2020.

Because Young was no longer serving a life sentence, but still had years left behind bars for a nonviolent conviction, he was set to be transferred out of the maximum security prison he'd been living in for six years. But Young said he never got to celebrate.

In order to stop the spread of Covid-19, the Bureau of Prisons paused most inmate transfers in March. Since Young couldn't be moved to a new location, but needed to be transferred out of maximum security, he was instead tossed "the hole" and put in solitary confinement.

"It's called the hole for reason. It's like a dungeon. You can't see outside, you have no radios, no TVs, no emails, no nothing. And I did four months there," Young explained, before a smile crept over his face. "So the morning that they came and got me and told me I was getting released, it was unbelievable."

A second chance

Young was one of 143 people to receive last-minute clemency from President Trump on January 20. In the statement from the White House about Young's commutation, Sharp's support is mentioned first.

"Mr. Young's many supporters describe him as an intelligent, positive person who takes full responsibility for his actions and who lacked a meaningful first chance in life due to what another Federal judge called an 'undeniably tragic childhood,'" the statement says.

But for Young -- and Sharp -- it's the last sentence in the statement that means the most.

"With this commutation, President Trump provides Mr. Young with a second chance."

Barnett said she is hopeful thousands more will one day get to read similar life-changing words. She admitted Young's case was special for her and she's letting others in her organization handle new cases for a little while. Barnett said she plans to focus on freedom for the remainder of her clients and turn toward improving the support system for people in their lives after incarceration.

"There are still people serving life sentences today under yesterday's drug laws, and so we have a lot more work to do," she said.

Meanwhile, Young said he is ready to take full advantage of his second chance, using the computer science and coding skills he learned in prison.

"I want to bridge the gap between the streets and innovative technology," Young said. "So hopefully you can see more faces like me in Silicon Valley and Wall Street."

He also plans to bring those skills with him to work with the Buried Alive Project, so he can pay it forward and help those who are in the position he was in.

"Unfortunately, it's hundreds of thousands of Chris Youngs and Alice Johnsons still sitting in cages and we need to get them free some kind of way," he said.

Freeing them would take monumental changes to our criminal justice system, but Young and Sharp note they have already beaten the odds once -- and are committed to continue fighting for reform together.

"As for me and him," Young said, "he will always be in my life. This is a surrogate uncle, surrogate father, business partner, business adviser. You will see more of Judge Sharp and Chris Young."

Responded Sharp, "However we are moving forward, I'm sticking close to this guy because he's going to do much more important things than I ever did."
A House Republican staff lawyer who led President Donald J. Trumps early defense against his first impeachment in 2019 recommended one of the lawyers who Mr. Trump hired over the weekend to represent him in his second trial, a person familiar with the decision said. The two lawyers know each other well; they are cousins.

Stephen R. Castor, the congressional investigator who battled Democrats over Mr. Trumps attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rival, urged the former president to consider hiring Bruce L. Castor Jr., a former district attorney in Pennsylvania, according to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations. A second person confirmed the two men are related, a fact first reported by Politico.

Stephen Castor made the recommendation in recent weeks, one of the people said. Mr. Trump announced on Sunday that he had hired Bruce Castor along with David Schoen, a Georgia-based lawyer who had represented Mr. Trumps longtime adviser, Roger J. Stone Jr. A day earlier, the former president had parted ways with five members of his impeachment defense team.

His new lawyers will need to work quickly. The first filing in the case  Mr. Trumps formal answer to the Houses incitement of insurrection charge for his role in stirring up a mob that attacked the Capitol last month  is due on Tuesday. The trial itself is set to start next week.
The government informed Parliament on Tuesday that implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, would take more time, while no decision has been taken yet on pan-India roll-out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The Ministry of Home Affairs, which is framing the rules for the implementation of the CAA, has sought time till April from the Lok Sabha subordination legislation committee and July from the Rajya Sabha committee.

The extension of time was revealed by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai in response to a question from Kerala Congress MP VK Sreekandan in Lok Sabha. "Committee on subordinate legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, have granted extension of time till 9.4.2021 and 9.07.2021, respectively to frame CAA rules," Rai said.

The first phase of census and updation of the National Population Register (NPR) has also been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rai informed the House, according to an ANI report.

This is the third time the MHA has sought extension of time to frame rules for CAA. The first extension was sought in July and the second in October, as per officials. According to parliamentary procedures, the ministry concerned has to frame rules within six months of the bill becoming an Act for its effective implementation.

It was widely speculated that government might frame the CAA rules ahead of West Bengal elections. CAA has been one of the main poll planks of the BJP in Bengal. However, the same issue has the potential of backfiring in Assam, which is also going to polls around the same time. Assam has been rocked by anti-CAA protests since the law was proposed.

A senior BJP leader closely involved with Bengal poll campaign, however, exuded confidence that the delay in framing rules will not affect the party's prospects. The leader citing the example of Mathua community said, "The Mathuas in Bengal will vote for BJP even if the rules are not framed. The fact remains that no other party has passed this law. That credit no one can take away from the Modi government," he said.

The CAA was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 9, 2019 and by the Rajya Sabha on December 11, 2019. It got the President's nod on 12 December and the MHA issued a notification stating that the Act would come into force from January 10, 2020.

The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities -- Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian -- from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. People from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution in these countries will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

This means that people from these six religions will not be deported for not having valid documents, and instead will be given citizenship. Moreover, all legal proceedings against them for illegally entering India will be closed.

Meanwhile, the MHA told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, headed by Congress leader Anand Sharma, that no decision has been taken to create National Register of Indian citizens.

"It has been clarified at various levels in government time and again that till now no decision has been taken to create National Register of Indian citizen," the ministry said, according to a report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

The NRC was updated in Assam to identify bona fide Indian citizens living in the state, but the exercise had created a nationwide uproar. A total of 3.3 crore people in Assam had applied to be included in it. Of them, 3.11 crore have been included in the document and 19.06 could not find place in the NRC, according to the final report published in August 2019.

The parliamentary committee had earlier observed that there is a lot of dissatisfaction and fear among the people regarding the NPR and census.

In the action taken by the government on the committee recommendations with regard to the issue of fears associated with the NPR and census, the MHA said all individual-level information collected in census are confidential. In census, only aggregated data are released at various administrative levels. Like the earlier censuses, wide publicity measures would be taken up for creating proper awareness among public so as to conduct and complete the Census 2021 successfully.

The ministry said questionnaires for census along with that of the NPR have been tested at drive conducted successfully across the country. The committee was also of the view that Aadhaar data should be used in the upcoming census to reduce the duplicity and wastage of expenditure. To this, the government has replied that NPR and Aadhaar are separate exercises with the former collecting more detailed data.

"Aadhaar number has been developed as a separate database which is being used only for de-duplication purpose and authentication of beneficiaries of various government schemes," the home ministry said. The committee in its final observation noted that Aadhaar already has biometric information of the individuals and so the already stored Aadhaar metadata of the individuals may be used in creating a family database for the upcoming census.

(With PTI inputs)
While the world is reeling with the coronavirus spread, work has steadily resumed in almost all sectors. The movie business is also back on track and shooting is taking place with safety protocols in place.

Only recently, an audio clip that leaked from the set of upcoming Mission: Impossible film had shown how lead actor and franchise producer Tom Cruise had gone off on several crew members for not maintaining safe distance while shooting. Apparently, several workers even quit after Tom's abusive rant.

Now, a report has claimed that shooting on Mission: Impossible 7 set is turning out to be "a nightmare". "Tom is completely obsessed with finishing and nothing will stop him. Hes the most determined person. Its impressive, but a nightmare, a crew member was quoted as saying.

It is additionally reported (via) that after production moved out of the UK and on to the United Arab Emirates, crew are worried when theyll ever get to go home, given that direct flights between the Middle East and the UK are now being banned.

Even after a return flight home, under current red list restrictions all travelers from the UAE to the UK will be required to self-isolate for 10 days.

Tom reportedly also bought robots to enforce Covid safety on film set. Now many of the production team, especially the more junior staff who arent on big salaries, are up in arms and just want to go home. It feels like everything is against us at the moment and morale is really down," the report quoted an insider saying.

Meanwhile, MI 7 is set to release in November later this year. The eighth film in the series  being shot back to back at the same time as the seventh  is set to be released on November 4, 2022.
Ireland's first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be here next week, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has confirmed.

In what is considered a major step forward in the battle against Covid-19, 35,000 doses are due in days.

"We're expecting the first delivery next week, the minister told RTE's Morning Ireland.

"We have confirmed from AstraZeneca so far is three installments up to the end of quarter one and it will be starting next week with the delivery of 35,000 doses."

He added: "The good news is that we now have three vaccines. Both EMA, the European regulator, and our own group have said that all three vaccines are suitable for all ages above 16 or 18.

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"So I think that's very, very good news and we'll look through the implications and exactly how to roll that out now later today."

The minister also revealed that the vaccination programme in terms of the roll-out remains on track.

"As of Sunday, we had 207,000 doses arrive in the country and 200,000 or just slightly less were done, he said.

"This week the focus is on the second doses for the healthcare workers and long-term residential care and then the plan is immediately to go back to the second group of frontline healthcare workers and begin the first doses there."

He continued: "At the moment, we have confirmation for is that by the end of March we'll have 1.1 million doses having arrived here.

However Minister Donnelly also repeated warnings from the Taoiseach that the lockdown would likely go on longer.

"We'll have to be led by public health advice at that point. Things are moving in the right direction in terms of the case numbers.

"But as Dr Holohan said last night the rate of decrease is slowing and we're watching that very closely.

"It's probably too early to speculate on exactly what will happen in March. What we can say with some certainty is that everything would not be opening from the 6th of March particularly with this UK variant.

Speaking about the prospect of the return of big sporting and music events Mr Donnelly said that he would hope to see them return this year it will depend on how effective the vaccines prove to be.

Meanwhile the second quarter of the year may be the big one for Irelands vaccine programme, the Chair of Covid-19 vaccine taskforce has said.

Professor Brian MacCraith was speaking as Cabinet prepares to sign off on the purchase of an extra 875,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine.

It brings Irelands order from the US firm up to around 1.76 million doses  including the 880,000 the country was already due to receive under the EUs Advance Purchase Agreement.

We are targeting very close to Denmark in terms of the rollout rate so it will be interesting to see how things are in July, he said of the vaccination programme.

He said hopes it will be significantly ramped up to make the second quarter of the year the big quarter for the programme.

You can be thinking of up to one million or more indeed vaccine doses per month arriving in that period, he said. You can be thinking of that.

Again, if we stick, as we have done so far, to our principal of administering vaccines as soon as they arrive, you can be talking about administering up to 250,000 vaccine doses per week.

That is where all of our planning is taking place.
Officers from the Rochester, New York police department were involved in a brutal assault which was recorded on their body cameras on Friday of last week. The victim of the attack was a nine-year-old African American girl who was handcuffed and subsequently pepper sprayed by police.

The mother of the child had called the police because of a domestic disturbance in the home, which precipitated the nine-year-old leaving the house. The footage shows the police capturing and bringing the girl back to the police car.

Rochester police release body-cam footage of 9-year-old pepper-sprayed (Rochester Police Department)

After a scuffle between the mother, police and child, another officer arrived to manhandle the child by pushing her down into the snow next to the patrol car. The officers that were on top of her then flipped her over while still on the ground and handcuffed her. There were several police cars dispatched to the scene, and none of the officers that were seen in the video were wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

After being forcefully thrown into the back of a police car and tortured by two officers, and only seconds before officers attacked her with pepper spray as she called out for her father, in the body cam footage one officer says, Youre acting like a child. She responded, I am a child.

The use of pepper spray on minors could have long lasting negative effects according to a New York University Langone Health pediatrician Purvi S. Parikh who spoke with North Carolina Health News in November, Any chemicals in your eyes, nose or lungs isnt good, but its especially worrisome for kids because their organs are still developing. It has the potential of causing long-term effects.

The officers involved in the attack were suspended with pay Monday, pending the conclusion of an internal police investigation.

The comments of the police union president on the assault reveals the widespread attitude held by police in the US toward the working class. Had they had to go and push further, and use more force, theres a good chance she could have been hurt worse, Rochester Police Locust Club president Michael Mazzeo noted, declaring that the police would have been justified in meting out an even more brutal beating. The union is named after the species of tree from which their truncheons were produced.

This latest attack follows the death of Daniel Prude at the hands of the Rochester Police Department this past March. Police had placed a plastic bag over Prudes head while he lay naked on the freezing ground, suffocating him to death.

The RPD deployed police dogs, tear gas and pepper balls against peaceful protesters that were drawing attention to the police killing of Prude, George Floyd and others.

Rochesters Democratic mayor, Lovely Warren, had fired Police Chief LaRon Singletary in the face of the protests, and eventually replaced the interim chief, Mark Simmons, this past September with Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan, a longtime RPD employee. Warren and all three successive police officials are African American.

The Democratic Party-dominated Rochester city government responded to the community outcry against police brutality by creating a toothless Police Accountability Board (PAB). The bodys Executive Director, Conor Dwyer Reynolds, issued a statement on the pepper spraying of the child by police, which expressed its impotence: While the PAB cannot conduct disciplinary hearings, we still have a legal duty to bring transparency to all of the RPDs policies and practices, including those at issue here.

Mayor Warren had also implemented a new program after Prudes death that was supposedly designed to reduce interaction between police and non-violent domestic disturbance. However, this did not protect the nine year old from the police. Unfortunately, this was not an incident where the Person in Crisis (PIC) or Forensic Intervention Team (FIT) would have been called because of the type of the initial 911 call, Warren said in a statement released Saturday.

Rochester stands out among the impoverished cities of upstate New York with 31.3 percent of the population living in poverty according to the US Census Bureau. The US poverty threshold for two adults and two children has been determined to be an unlivable $26,200 per year.

Regardless of the reforms and cosmetic changes in leadership, the police continue to prove that they are loyal to the ruling class, protecting their property interests against the working class. The police in the US killed 1,127 people in 2020 according to the mappingpoliceviolence.org website. There have been over 1,000 people killed by police every year for the last five years. Tens of thousands are the victims of police brutality every year.
About the #NUforNE Series: This article is part of the University of Nebraska's #NUforNE series. #NUforNE features students, faculty, staff and alumni from across the University who are making an impact on Nebraska.

Helping Small Businesses Grow: Cathy Lang, J.D.

Have you had your hair cut lately? Taken your dog to the vet? Gotten your car repaired? Whether were conscious of it or not, we interact almost daily with small businesses.

Not only do small businesses increase our quality of life, theyre the backbone of the U.S. economy. They create two-thirds of net new jobs and drive innovation and competitiveness, accounting for 44% of U.S. economic activity. In Nebraska, small businesses represent 99% of all businesses and nearly 50% of all employees across the state. In 2019 alone, they created over 5,000 new jobs for Nebraskans.

Although you may think of small businesses as lifestyle or "Main Street" companies, they cover the gamut from agriculture to manufacturing, tech to startups. Any business with under 500 employees is considered a small businessso a one-person firm and a 300-person manufacturer are both small businesses. One thing they have in common: they need specialized resources to get off the ground and to grow.

Setting Small Businesses Up for Success

Thats where the Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) comes in. Run by Cathy Lang, an attorney with extensive background in economic development and a warm demeanor, the Center is housed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) but serves the entire state. "We have 10 locations across Nebraskaone in each of the major urban areas, as well as offices in communities like Chadron, Scottsbluff, McCook, and Wayne," said Lang.

Whether a small business is looking to start or to grow, there are specific services it needs to set it up for successoperational things like financial projections and other business planning, loan packaging, accessing capital, marketing and technical development. No one person is an expert at all these, and small business owners can be overwhelmed with so many details.

Not only does NBDC provide these and a wealth of other services, they do so one-on-oneand at no charge. When they work with a small business, theyre doing personalized consulting for that specific business and their unique needs. The NBDC consultants providing the services are credentialed business advisers, with academic degrees and professional certifications.

Making Connections; Providing Training

Centers like NBDC are required by the federal government to be located at university campuses; partly for the academic acumen and rigor associated with institutions of higher educationand partly for the connection to faculty, students and innovation. The University of Nebraska supports small business not only through NBDC but through academic programstraining students how to be entrepreneurs and small business owners before they even reach the workforce.

Lang, who serves as the centers director, is a perfect fit for the job. In past roles, she worked in policy and program development and implementation. Now, she focuses on helping economic development occur, one business at a time, in a more granular and personal way. She is also strategic. Asked what more NBDC could do, Lang pursued innovative expansions, bringing their program offerings from three to five.

When COVID-19 hit small businesses in Nebraska, NBDC was able to support new needs that arose, such as helping clients navigate the federal Paycheck Protection Program process and work with lenders. The Center was also part of the Nebraska Business Response Survey, which launched in April of 2020 in partnership with the Center for Public Affairs Research at UNO. The survey information was used by the governor to help develop the COVID relief package the state provided to businesses.

"Im excited about continuing to grow Nebraska and help businesses be successful," Lang said. "I love working with people, and my greatest inspiration as a leader is supporting a persons potential."


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New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/02/2021 -- Reports and Data has added a new research study titled "Global Organ Perfusion System Market Trends and Forecast to 2027" to its extensive database. The Organ Perfusion System market report is a comprehensive research report that offers a detailed analysis of the Organ Perfusion System market on the global and regional level. The report also presents a key analysis of the current and emerging market trends along with a thorough analysis of the key segments and sub-segments of the market. The report also covers the complete impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Organ Perfusion System market and its key segments. The report also presents a current and future scenario of the market in a post-pandemic case. It also offers strategic recommendations to the key manufacturers of the industry to overcome the impact of the pandemic and to gain a strong foothold in the market.



Key Companies of the Organ Perfusion System Market are:



Getinge AB (Sweden), Medtronic plc (Ireland), LivaNova PLC (U.K.), Terumo Corporation (Japan), and XENIOS AG (Germany), Lifeline Scientific, Inc. (U.S.), XVIVO Perfusion AB (Sweden), Repligen corporation and OrganOx.



Get a sample of the report @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/2232



Since organ transplantation is the best way of saving the life of a patient with end-stage organ diseases, an increase in organ donation activities has led to the rise in the number of survivors of organ failure. For example, Times Organs Donation Drive held in Mumbai, India, has led to a surge in organ donations, including cadaveric organ donation. Thus, growing awareness, increased organ transplantation, increased investments in research, and deployment of new technology in the healthcare sector is driving the growth of the organ perfusion system market. However, the lack of accessibility and expensive organ transplantation is expected to restrain the market during the forecast period.



The market is further segmented on the basis of types, applications, end-users, technology, and others.



Type (Revenue, USD Million; 20162026)



Bioreactors perfusion systems

Microfluidic perfusion systems

Pressure-driven perfusion systems

Organ Type (Revenue, USD Million; 20162026)



Heart

Lung

Liver

Kidney

Others



Technique Type (Revenue, USD Million; 20162026)



Hypothermic

Normothermic



Component Type (Revenue, USD Million; 20162026)



Perfusion Pumps

Oxygenators

Heart Lung Machine

Monitoring Systems

Cannulas

Others



To get an exclusive discount on the report, visit @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/discount-enquiry-form/2232



End Use (Revenue, USD Million; 20162026)



Hospital

Clinic

Ambulatory Surgical Centers

Others



The report also studies the strategic alliances of the market, such as mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations, product launches, and brand promotions, government and corporate deals, partnerships and agreements, and others. The report also strives to offer insightful information about the competition to offer a competitive edge to the readers and businesses to help them gain a strong footing in the market.



Key questions addressed in the report are:



What is the estimated market size and share in the forecast period?

What are the key driving factors of the Global Organ Perfusion System market?

What are the risks and challenges the companies will have to face in the forecast period?

What are the emerging trends, and how will they influence market growth?

What are the opportunities for expansion of the global Organ Perfusion System market?

Which region is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period?



Regional Outlook (Revenue in USD Million; 20162026)



The report covers extensive analysis of the regions where the industry operates. According to the regional analysis, the market is segmented into key geographical areas such as North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The regions have been examined on the basis of the production and manufacturing capacities, consumption patterns, cost analysis, import/export, supply and demand ratio, current and emerging trends of each region, and the existence of key manufacturers in each region. Based on the

regional analysis, the market is segmented into:



North America

U.S.

Canada

Europe

Germany

France

UK

Rest of the Europe

Asia Pacific

China

India

Japan

Rest of Asia-Pacific

Middle East & Africa

Latin America

Brazil



To know more about the report, visit @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/organ-perfusion-system-market



Also Have a Look at The Following Reports:



Gene Expression Market Drivers



Tow Prepreg Market Revenue



Thank you for reading our report. Customization of the report is available as per requirements. Please connect with us to know more about the facility, and our team will ensure you get the report well-suited to your needs.



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Reports and Data is a market research and consulting company that provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. Our solutions purely focus on your purpose to locate, target and analyze consumer behavior shifts across demographics, across industries and help client's make a smarter business decision. We offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a multiple industry including Healthcare, Technology, Chemicals, Power and Energy. We consistently update our research offerings to ensure our clients are aware about the latest trend's existent in the market.



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[February 02, 2021] Australian Institute of Marine Science and Accenture Join Forces to Advance Coral Reef Monitoring and Conservation

Australia's tropical marine research agency, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) are working together to accelerate global efforts to protect coral reefs. The collaboration supports AIMS' wider coral reef monitoring efforts as the teams seek to transform the technology used to monitor, collate and analyze data to help improve the sustainable management of these fragile marine ecosystems. Following an initial phase of experimentation at The Dock, Accenture's (News - Alert) flagship R&D and global innovation center, the project is focused on integrating cutting edge techniques in areas including cloud computing, artificial intelligence and data analytics into the applications that AIMS uses to monitor coral reefs. This will enable reef scientists to share data faster, foster collaboration between scientists and organizations across countries and regions, and ultimately assist in conservation efforts. Reefs worldwide are under pressure. The condition of many coral reefs around the world has declined as a result of the cumulative effects of global and local challenges, through extreme weather events like marine heatwaves, tropical storms, ocean acidification, and chronic pollution. With predictions that about 75% of coral reef globally may be severely threatened, not only are the habitats of a quarter of all marine life at risk, but so too are the food sources, incomes and livelihoods that are central to the economic future for one billion people globally. "Australia is an economically well-developed nation hosting coral reefs, including the iconic Great Barrier Reef, and the purposeful development of these technologies will benefit nations across the world towards gaining efficiency in coral reef monitoring and fostering integrative efforts to better manage our reef systems," said Dr. Manuel Gonzalez Rivero, Senior Research Scientist, Australian Insitute of Marine Science.



"Through our work with Accenture we seek to bring innovative and transformative change to the way we monitor our reefs. Such a technological and efficient solution will provide scientists, environmental managers and decision makers with the knowledge that contributes to the sustainable productivity of marine-based industries and helps protect coral reef ecosystems globally." Richard McNiff, rapid innovation director, Accenture's The Dock, added: "This project began with a team at The Dock working to identify ways to use artificial intelligence to help the environment. We started to explore new computer vision approaches to monitor coral resilience and quickly realized that by bringing together Accenture's technology and design expertise with AIMS' incredible knowledge and data, we could add real value to global reef conservation efforts. It was an immensely rewarding experience for our team to apply their skills to such an important topic."

Project outcomes focused on areas including: Scalable Cloud computing to optimize efficiencies in data analyses.

Emerging technologies in artificial intelligence for coral reef monitoring

Purposeful technology development to satisfy stakeholder needs. "The Great Barrier Reef holds significant value for Australia in terms of its natural beauty but also the economic value it contributes to the Australian economy. The use of cloud computing, real time analytics and other emerging technologies to support the valuable work provided by organisations such as AIMS will be vital to protecting the reef now and into the future," added Tara Brady, country managing director for Accenture Australia and New Zealand. This collaboration is a continuation of Accenture's efforts to bring together our breadth of technological capabilities with our people's ingenuity to protect coral reefs. Last year, Accenture, Intel (News - Alert) and Sulubaai Environmental Foundation announced a new solution powered by artificial intelligence to monitor, characterize and analyze coral reef resiliency, which has been deployed in the Philippines since 2019. About Australian Institute of Marine Science The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) is Australia's tropical marine research agency. In existence for almost half a century, it plays a pivotal role in providing large-scale, long-term and world-class research that helps governments, industry and the wider community to make informed decisions about the management of Australia's marine estate. AIMS science leads to healthier marine ecosystems; economic, social and environmental benefits for all Australians; and protection of coral reefs from climate change. Visit us at www.aims.gov.au. About Accenture Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services-all powered by the world's largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 514,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com. Applied Intelligence is Accenture's approach to scaling AI for clients by embedding AI-powered data, analytics and automation capabilities into business workflows, accelerating time to value with a powerful global alliance, innovation and delivery network that can deploy and scale AI within any market and industry. To learn more, visit www.accenture.com/appliedintelligence. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005032/en/

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Greene, McConnell Clash as First-Term Lawmaker Plans Trump Meeting

The top Republican in Congress on Monday clashed with a first-term lawmaker, in a sign of the growing split inside the party.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a statement to news outlets said that loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country.

Somebody whos suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.s airplane is not living in reality, he added. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has in the past speculated that the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks were a false flag, among other theories.

Greene responded on Twitter, writing: The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully. This is why we are losing our country.

Greene also referenced the calls from media outlets and lawmakers for her to be removed from committee assignments, dubbing herself the greatest threat to Democrats and activist media and saying she was stepping up following former President Donald Trump leaving office.

They hate me because I represent your America First views. They think Trump is gone, so they attack you and me. Hes not gone. And we wont back down and we will never give up! We REFUSE to be canceled! she added.

Democrats in Congress are pressuring House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to take action against Greene. McCarthy hasnt addressed the matter publicly but reportedly plans to meet with her this week.

Media outlets and opponents consistently label Greene as a supporter of QAnon, a movement that includes theories that some of the most powerful people in the world have engaged in child sex trafficking, abuse, and cannibalism. They dont use the same labeling against Democrats who promoted unfounded theories of collusion between Trump and Russia.

The growing division inside the GOP primarily pits pro-Trump legislators against detractors. Ten Republicans, including House Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), voted last month to impeach Trump, drawing widespread criticism from within the GOP.

One recently launched political action committee seeks to oust the Republican who backed Trumps impeachment, while another is aimed at opposing Republicans who support the former president.

Some prominent conservatives stood by Cheney, including McConnell and McCarthy, who has so far resisted attempts to remove former Vice President Dick Cheneys daughter from her leadership post.

Greene said in an interview released Monday that she plans to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort soon.

Im excited to go visit him soon and continue to give him a call and talk to him frequently. Great news is, he supports me 100 percent, and Ive always supported him, she told One American News. President Trump is always here for the people, and hes not going anywhere. So I look forward to joining him and what his future plans may be.

Greene said over the weekend that she spoke with Trump over the phone and that he supports her. Trumps office hasnt responded to requests for comment on the matter.
Patna, Feb 2 : The Bihar Cabinet is likely to be expanded in the next few days even as leaders of BJP state unit have met with party's national President JP Nadda in Delhi, sources said on Tuesday.

Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishore Prasad confirmed that the Cabinet expansion would be done very soon.

The sources said that the Bihar leaders forwarded the probable names for inclusion in the Cabinet to Nadda on Monday. Deputy Chief Ministers Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi, Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi were present at the meeting.

The party wants to expand its popularity among all sections of society and hence wishes that ministerial berths be given on social and regional considerations.

The sources said that the list of probable ministers to be appointed in the BJP quota would be sent to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in a day or two.

Leaders like Shahnawaj Hussein, Rana Randhir Singh, Sanjay Singh, Nitin Navin, Neeraj Kumar Babloo, MLC Samrat Chaudhary, Sanjiv Chaurasia, Sanjay Sarawgi, Krishna Kumar Rishi, Bhagirathi Devi, and Pramod Kumar are front runners for ministerial berths, the sources added.

A BJP leader said that there was a consensus in the meeting that all sections of society should get equal representation in the Council of Ministers, and that the party wanted to give both the experienced and young persons ministerial berths.

Meanwhile, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi claimed one more berth in the Cabinet and an MLC seat.

Commenting on the issue, former Minister and Janata Dal-United chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said: "Cabinet expansion is a special privilege of the Chief Minister -- it will happen when he deems fit. It is his constitutional right to expand the Cabinet after an understanding with alliance partners. There is no dispute between them." Earlier, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Chitranjan Gagan had claimed that there was a dispute between NDA allies regarding ministerial berths and hence the Cabinet expansion had been delayed.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the National Democratic Alliance won 125 seats -- JD-U (43), BJP (74), VIP (4), and HAM (4). Lone BSP MLA Jama Khan and an Independent legislator Sumit Singh recently joined JD-U.

The Cabinet strength can be 36, including the Chief Minister. It has 14 Ministers at present, including 7 from the BJP, 5 from JD-U and one each from Vikasheel Insaan Party and HAM.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said 'all vaccines are welcome' today as she praised Russia's Sputnik V jab.

'Every vaccine is welcome in the European Union,' Merkel said in an interview with German broadcaster ARD. 'Today we have read good data for the Russian vaccine too'.

Merkel also told ARD she had recently spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the vaccine, which has been found to 91.6 per cent effective in trial results.

A batch of Sputnik V arrived in Hungary today, making it the first country to adopt the once-controversial jab.

As he announced the vaccine's arrival, Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto slammed the failure of Brussels' attempt to centralise vaccine procurement for member states.

'Brussels' centralised vaccine procurement has failed,' Szijjarto said, adding, 'We were the first in the EU,' to get the Sputnik jab, 'but probably not the last.'

In an interview with state broadcaster ARD, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Sputnik V vaccine, which has been found to be over 91 per cent effective in trials

Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto (pictured right with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, January 22) announced the arrival of the first batch of Russia's Sputnik V vaccinations on Tuesday, saying 'Brussels' centralised vaccine procurement has failed'

The news coincided with the publication of a study by independent experts that found Moscow's vaccine to be more than 90 percent effective.

His comments come as European Commission President Ursela Von der Leyen is facing mounting pressure over the EU's vaccination programme.

Hungary broke ranks with the EU last month by becoming the first bloc member to approve and order Sputnik V.

'The first shipment will arrive today based on the deal we signed in Moscow,' Szijjarto said in a video on his Facebook page.

The first 40,000 doses had landed with two million to be delivered over three months, enough to inoculate one million people, he said.

'The doses were taken without delay to the National Centre for Public Health for the remaining necessary tests to be carried out before Hungarians can get them according to the planned inoculation roll out,' the minister said.

Hungary broke ranks with the EU last month by becoming the first bloc member to approve and order Sputnik V. The country has often clashed with the EU, especially on migration, and repeatedly criticised what it says is the slow pace of vaccine approval and procurement by EU authorities. Pictured: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Brussels in July, 2020

Hungary has often clashed with Brussels, especially on migration, and repeatedly criticised what it says is the slow pace of vaccine approval and procurement by EU authorities.

Last Friday Budapest also approved the Chinese-made Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine - again the first in the EU to do so - and said it had ordered five million doses.

Hungary has also approved the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.

As of February 1, Hungary had recorded 368,710 cases of Covid-19, and 12,578 related deaths, and has given at least one vaccine doe to just 3.23 people per 100.

By comparison, the UK has given 14.42 people per 100 at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, the third highest rate in the world after Israel (57.65) and the UAE (34.79).

As of February 1, Hungary had recorded 368,710 cases of Covid-19, and 12,578 related deaths, and has given at least one vaccine does to just 3.23 people per 100. Pictured: Graphs showing the daily coronavirus cases (top) and deaths (bottom) since the start of the pandemic

Russia registered Sputnik V - named after the Soviet-era satellite - in August, months ahead of Western competitors but before the start of large-scale clinical trials, which left some experts wary.

However, the vaccine is 91.6 percent effective against Covid-19 according to results published in The Lancet journal on Tuesday, that the experts said allayed transparency concerns over the jab.

Just 16 out of 16,500 people given the two-dose jab developed symptoms, while no-one died from the disease or needed hospital treatment.

In a huge boost to Russia's immunisation ambitions, the vaccine was also found to be 74 per cent effective at blocking Covid after just a single dose.

For comparison, Oxford University's vaccine is roughly 70 per cent effective at blocking symptomatic Covid after two doses, while the efficacy for jabs by Pfizer and Moderna is around 95 per cent.

But directly comparing results from trials done in different countries is difficult because trial methods and standards vary.

The Russian jab is what is known as an adenovirus vaccine  which uses a weakened virus that causes the common cold that has been modified not to trigger illness.

Sputnik V, named after the former Soviet space satellites, has been shrouded in controversy since Vladimir Putin green-lit its approval for mass-use in Russia last August before any human trials had been conducted

Researchers have already used this technology to produce vaccines against a number of pathogens including flu, Zika and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).

British scientists reacting to the findings, published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, said the UK should be 'more careful about being overly critical about other countries' vaccine designs'.

Sputnik V has been shrouded in controversy since Vladimir Putin green-lit its approval for mass-use in Russia last August before any human trials had been rigorously analysed. But the jab has still not actually been rolled out nationwide.

Russia's controversial coronavirus vaccine is 92 per cent effective at blocking symptomatic illness, early trial results suggest

The UK Government, which has spent 2billion on pre-orders for 407million vaccines made by seven different developers, has so far made it clear it has no plans to purchase supplies from Russia.

But that hasn't stopped more than 50 countries, including swathes of South America, India, South Korea, Belarus and Hungary, from placing orders.

At about 7 per dose, Sputnik is one of the cheapest Covid vaccines on the market  for example Pfizer's jab costs about 15 per shot, while a dose of Moderna's is 25. Oxford's is still the cheapest, at 3 per dose.

The EU and many of its 27 members have faced criticism over their slow rollout, with fewer than 10million people getting a dose so far across the entire bloc.

Ursela Von der Leyen's European Commission has invested 2.7 billion euros to secure 2.3 billion doses from companies making potential vaccines, mostly using European factories.

Three vaccines are so far authorised for use across the EU's 27 member countries: one by German outfit BioNTech with US giant Pfizer; one by US company Moderna; and most recently one by Anglo-Swedish group AstraZeneca.

All three firms are undershooting on delivery schedules for the January-March first-quarter period, panicking EU officials.

While excessive bureaucracy in countries such as France and Germany has been one reason for the slow start, the EU has also struggled to get hold of enough supplies.

Last week, Brussels accused pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca of breaching its contract with the EU, amid suspicion that the company had supplied the UK with stock that was meant to go to countries in the bloc.

Britain used emergency procedures to grant market approval to the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, and signed a contract three months earlier than the EU, which used a slower approval process.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday defended the European Union's troubled vaccine drive, saying there were 'good reasons' the rollout had got off to a slower start than in some other countries.

Pictured: German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaking after a vaccine 'summit' that brought together key players. She renewed a promise to offer every German citizen a vaccine by the end of September

Speaking after a vaccine 'summit' that brought together key players, Merkel renewed a promise to offer every German citizen a vaccine by the end of September.

For her part, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has offered Putin the possibility of 'joint production'.

Merkel had convened the online talks in response to growing anger in the 27-member bloc over the sluggish rollout of Covid-19 jabs, which has been beset with delivery delays and piled political pressure on EU leaders.

'It is true that in some areas, the pace became slower, but there were good reasons for it to be slower,' Merkel told reporters in Berlin.

Merkel, the leader of Europe's largest economy, acknowledged that the United States, Israel and Britain were further along with their inoculations.

But she said the EU had deliberately avoided rushed emergency approvals, as seen in the UK, to bolster public 'confidence' in the jabs.

The EU had also at times negotiated 'for a very long time' to ensure pharma companies took on enough liability, she said.

And the bloc chose not to sacrifice data protection, Merkel added, in a nod to Israel's deal with Pfizer/BioNTech to offer data on its inoculation campaign in exchange for doses.

German media has been scathing about the EU's troubled vaccine drive, with the topselling Bild daily calling it a 'disaster'.
A shooting in Florida on Tuesday morning left two FBI agents dead and another three wounded, according to authorities.

The alleged shooter is also dead, according to a statement released by the FBI Miami Division.

Two of the injured agents were taken to hospital and are in stable condition, the statement said. The FBI did not mention the condition of the third wounded agent.

The agent-involved shooting was reported around 6 a.m. near 10100 Reflections Boulevard in Sunrise, Florida, according to the statement.

A team of law enforcement officers were there to execute a federal court-ordered search warrant in furtherance of a violent crimes against children case, the statement noted.

The names of the agents who were killed were not yet released Tuesday morning. The name of the alleged shooter was not released.

In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under investigation by the FBIs Inspection Division, the agencys statement said. The review process is thorough and objective and is conducted as expeditiously as possible under the circumstances.
She recently returned home to the UK after welcoming in the New Year in Dubai.

And Sophie Kasaei appeared to be in a reflective mood as she pined over her trip by sharing a sizzling throwback snap to Instagram on Tuesday.

The Geordie Shore star, 31, flaunted her sensational curves as she posed up a storm in a tiny white lingerie set for the mirror selfie.

Wow! Sophie Kasaei looked sensational as she flaunted her curves while posing up a storm in a tiny white lingerie set for a Dubai throwback snap shared to Instagram on Tuesday

Sophie held one toned arm in the air as she showcased her taut midriff in a thong and plunging bra.

The blonde beauty flashed a little underboob as she rocked the very small top, which struggled to contain her ample assets.

She wore her long locks down for the sexy snap, letting them cascade over her shoulder, and added a pair of stylish sunglasses to complete her look.

Honey I'm home! The Geordie Shore star, 31, revealed she was back in the UK earlier this week as she marked her return with another sizzling lingerie snap while lounging on her bed

Tagging her snap as being taken in Dubai, Sophie penned: 'Keep your toes white and your lingerie right #TB [throwback] to life in the apartments of secrets'.

Sophie marked her return to the UK with another sizzling lingerie snap taken while lounging on her bed.

She looked incredible in a white semi-sheer lace bustier, which showcased her curves and was teamed with a skimpy thong.

Sophie kept her look typically glamorous as she sported a full face of make-up with a dramatic smokey eye and a bouncy blown out hair style.

Dubai lifestyle: Sophie is among a host of reality stars and influencers who have taken 'working' trips to Dubai while the UK is plunged into another COVID-19 lockdown

Sophie first revealed her return to the UK by sharing a video on her Instagram Stories from her home, which was still adorned with Christmas decorations.

The TV star revealed it was her 'karma' to return to a fully-decorated house as she admitted she doesn't even like.

Sophie is among a host of reality stars and influencers who have taken 'working' trips to Dubai as the UK is plunged into another COVID-19 lockdown.

The reality star 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.

Sophie's return comes as bars and restaurants in Dubai were forced to close amid a spike in the infection rate in the country.
DALLAS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Trend Micro Incorporated ( TYO: 4704 ; TSE: 4704 ), the leader in cloud security, today announced that for the first time ever, Trend Forward Capital, Trend Micro, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are working together to reward innovative entrepreneurs around the world. In addition to the $30,000 USD no-strings-attached cash award that Trend Forward Capital will be granting to winners of the Forward Thinker Award, all four finalists will also be automatically qualified for the AWS Activate program through the AWS Joint Innovation Center in Taipei, Taiwan. AWS Activate is a program that offers startups tools, resources, and more to quickly get started on AWS. This year, AWS and Trend Micro have upped the stakes further by contributing up to $40,000 USD in AWS Promotional Credit and up to $40,000 USD in Trend Micro cybersecurity software to the cash award.

The prizes will be distributed to a winner and runner-up, selected by a panel of industry judges. The winner will be awarded $20,000 USD in cash prize, and the runner-up will receive $10,000 USD. Each finalist will have the opportunity to be granted up to $10,000 USD in AWS Promotional Credit as well as up to $10,000 Trend Micro cybersecurity software to help launch and secure their business.

"We recognize that financial stability is the oxygen start-ups need to ignite, but having the proper security and scalable infrastructure in place is fundamental to growing that flame. Having AWS onboard for this year's award will provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to bring their bold vision to life" said Jonathan Chang, Investment Partner at Trend Forward Capital. "AWS has collaborated with Trend Micro Inc. for a long time, Trend Micro is also an Advanced Technology Partner in the AWS Partner Network. It is a natural fit for AWS to participate in the competition and help propel start-ups that reflect the goals of all partners involved in the event."

The competition, usually held at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, has been moved to a virtual format in the wake of COVID-19. The competition is designed and hosted by Trend Micro Inc.'s venture capital partner, Trend Forward Capital, with the mission of amplifying the potential of entrepreneurs who unlock a smart connected world.

Of those competing, four finalists will be shortlisted by February 22, 2021 and invited by the Trend Forward Capital team to pitch on March 10, 2021. The judging panel responsible for selecting the winner and runner-up will consist of experienced industry experts and investors. The competition is open to all and submission instructions can be found at www.TrendForward.com/forward-thinker.html . Applicants will be asked to submit a 60-second video and pitch deck here. The application deadline is February 10, 2021.

About Trend Forward Capital

Trend Forward Capital is an independent venture capital firm obsessed with scaling innovative technology with a purpose. With a flexible approach providing funding, business expertise, and access to a global network of resources Trend Forward Capital fills the gaps for start-ups, amplifying their business and making sure their success is sustainable. Visit www.TrendForward.com for more info.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro, a global leader in cybersecurity, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Leveraging over 30 years of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro enables resilience for businesses, governments, and consumers with connected solutions across cloud workloads, endpoints, email, IIoT, and networks. Our XGen security strategy powers our solutions with a cross-generational blend of threat-defense techniques that are optimized for key environments and leverage shared threat intelligence for better, faster protection. With over 6,700 employees in 65 countries, and the world's most advanced global threat research and intelligence, Trend Micro enables organizations to secure their connected world. www.trendmicro.com

SOURCE Trend Micro Incorporated

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3 1 of 3 Kendra Baker / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 New Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3





NEW FAIRFIELD  The towns volunteer fire department was recently awarded a $11,563 federal grant and plans to use it to purchase COVID-related equipment and supplies, U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes announced recently.

The grant money was awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through its Assistance to Firefighters Grants program.




Haiti - Morocco : Towards a strengthening of the cooperation in education and vocational training





Monday February 1st as part of the follow-up to the 2021-2023 roadmap signed on December 12 by Chancellor Claude Joseph and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans living abroad, Nasser Bourita https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32520-haiti-flash-haiti-opens-an-embassy-in-rabat-morocco.html , a Haitian delegation paid a visit to Dakhla (Western Sahara), to examine the means to strengthen cooperation in higher education, vocational training and cultural exchanges between the two countries.



The delegation, led by Yvrose Green, Director of Cultural Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Haiti, insisted on the means that could give a strong impetus, particularly in higher education, vocational training and technical cooperation in key sectors such as agriculture, fishing and renewable energies, while exploring the prospects for cultural exchanges between the two countries.



The Haitian delegation went to the National School of Commerce and Management (ENCG) of Dakhla, to the Specialized Institute of Hospitality and Tourism, to the Regional Center for Education and Training Trades of Dakhla-Oued Eddahab and the Dakhla Maritime Vocational Qualification Center, as well as the Regional Directorate of Culture.



At the end of these visits, Louis Marie Montfort Saintil, Ambassador of Haiti to the Kingdom of Spain, during a press briefing at the Haitian consulate in Dakhla, expressed his satisfaction for the constant support of the Moroccan Government and people to the Haitian people. In addition, the diplomat praised the support of the Moroccan government to the reform processes in Haiti, namely the constitutional referendum of April 25 and the general elections of September and November next. He also reiterated the support of the Haitian Government for the sovereignty of the Kingdom over the Moroccan Sahara https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32360-haiti-diplomacy-haiti-takes-a-stand-in-the-border-conflict-in-morocco.html



For his part, Louino Volcy, Head of post ai of the Haitian Consulate in Dakhla, indicated that the cooperation roadmap concerns in particular the twenty scholarships that Morocco will grant to the Republic of Haiti in technical and vocational higher education establishments in the southern provinces.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32532-haiti-diplomacy-inauguration-of-the-consulate-of-haiti-in-dakhla-morocco.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32520-haiti-flash-haiti-opens-an-embassy-in-rabat-morocco.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32360-haiti-diplomacy-haiti-takes-a-stand-in-the-border-conflict-in-morocco.html



TB/ HaitiLibre


















Credit: CC0 Public Domain

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said all coronavirus vaccines "are welcome" in the EU once they have received regulatory approval, after Russia's Sputnik V jab was found to be 91.6 percent effective in trial results.

"Every vaccine is welcome in the European Union," Merkel said in an interview with German broadcaster ARD, as the bloc faces growing anger over a sluggish start to its inoculation campaign.

The veteran leader stressed however that all jabs must first be authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), whose decisions can only be reached with "the necessary data".

"Today we have read good data for the Russian vaccine too," Merkel said.

She repeated that she had recently spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Sputnik vaccine, a conversation that fuelled hope another jab could be added to speed up efforts to end the pandemic.

Merkel said on January 21 that Germany had offered to assist Russia with its application process at the EMA, through Germany's Paul Ehrlich Institute.

"And if this vaccine is approved by the EMA, then we can talk about joint production or also about usage," Merkel said at the time.

Sputnik Vnamed after the Soviet-era satellitewas approved in Russia months before results from its final-stage clinical trials were published, leading to scepticism from experts.

But the new analysis of data from 20,000 Phase 3 trail participants, published in The Lancet medical journal, suggests that the two-dose vaccination offers more than 90 percent efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19.

The encouraging results come at a time when the bloc's vaccine drive is dogged by supply bottlenecks and delivery delays.

In the ARD interview, Merkel again said that although the United States, Israel and Britain were further along with their vaccinations, Germany had been right to opt for a more cautious EU-wide approach.

While supply of the BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna jabs will remain tight in the first quarter of 2021, Merkel insisted the pace would pick up later in the year, once production issues are resolved and more vaccine candidates are approved.

The outgoing chancellor renewed her promise that Germany was on track to offer every German a COVID-19 jab by late September.

But she also urged Germans "to hold their nerve a little while longer" and keep complying with tough curbs on public life, set to stay in place until at least mid-February.

"We still have a long way to go, and the hardest stretch is this winter," Merkel said.

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

 2021 AFP
Terrorist attacks are being continuously reported Afganistan amid the peace talk. In a new incident, at least two soldiers were injured in an explosion in Afghanistan's Kabul on Tuesday morning., no terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to the Tolo News, The blast took place in the Joy Sher area of the Kabul's second district at around 7 am. Kabul police confirmed that one civilian and one security force member were killed in a blast on an army vehicle in Kabul's PD7 and another security force member was wounded. So far, no terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the blast. This comes after a civilian and a security force member were killed on Monday in a blast on an army vehicle in Kabul's PD7.



Peace talks between theTaliban and the Afghan government were launched in September in Qatar, but progress has been slow. The attacks are continuous to take place. In another attack, A car bomb exploded on Monday at Kabul PD10 in the morning, near the office of Saadat Mansoor Naderi, Afghanistan's Minister of State for Peace Affairs.

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Classavo featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 list

Rohan Shah, left, and Huy Duc Pham of Classavo.

Every opportunity I have, I want to empower and motivate students to follow their passion, to believe in themselves.  Rohan Shah, Co-founder and CEO interactiveX, the company that created Classavo

BUFFALO, N.Y.  As a University at Buffalo undergraduate, Rohan Shah joined with fellow UB students to begin building an educational technology company. That startups first product  Classavo  is now serving college students and professors nationwide, providing cutting-edge tools for online education in the midst of a pandemic. And Shah and fellow UB alumnus Huy Duc Pham have been named to the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for education. Every opportunity I have, I want to empower and motivate students to follow their passion, to believe in themselves. Its been hard, but I have met so many cool people and learned so much in such a short time, says Shah, CEO of interactiveX, the company that created Classavo. He graduated from UB in 2016 with a bachelors degree in computer science and a minor in business. Wild things happen when ideas intersect. UB is a great place for that. With grit and determination, I think we can bottle magic. Sharing this news to my instructors who taught me was extremely satisfying, says Pham, director of product for Classavo. He graduated from UB in 2018 with a bachelors degree in media study. The Classavo team is based at UBs Incubator @ Baird in Amherst, New York.

Meeting remote learning needs in a pandemic

Shah describes Classavo as an all-in-one teaching and learning platform that helps professors engage students better through interactive content. This includes digital textbooks that professors can edit, adding features such as videos, photos, graphics, notes and questions that students can answer in the text. The platform has features for taking attendance, polling and hosting discussions and office hours. Instructors can also access analytics that allow them to understand how much students are engaging with course materials  information that can guide improvements to future courses, Shah says. The pandemic has changed Classavos business, fueling a five-fold increase in requests from professors interested in the platform, Shah says. Previously, we had to explain to people what Classavo is and why they should use it. This year, its different: universities and professors are coming to us, Shah says.

One goal: Reducing costs for students

UB played an early role in Classavos growth, with professors testing and providing feedback on the platform. The startup and its founders have received support, funding and mentorship through university programs including the Entrepreneurship Lab (eLab) course; the Buffalo Student Sandbox; and the UB Center for Industrial Effectiveness (TCIE). interactiveX is also part of the START-UP NY and WIN: WNY Incubator Network economic development program. Shah says his recent experience as a student has informed the companys mission. He says one goal is to cut costs for students by reducing the need to purchase expensive materials like conventional textbooks and handheld clickers that students can use to answer questions in class. Classavo is free to professors, and students pay between $20 for a semester and $69 for five years to access courses through the platform. That price includes a built-in polling feature that can replace clicker technology, as well as access to digital course content including certain textbooks. Additional course materials can be purchased through a Classavo marketplace, where professors can publish textbooks and other content without working through publishing companies. Classavo donates 10% of publishing revenues from these sales to a scholarship fund the company created, Shah says. Through the fund, instructors who use Classavo can nominate students to receive financial support toward tuition, academic supplies and other aspects of their education. In a college class, you have all these different things: A textbook. An online homework system. Clicker systems. And students have to pay for a lot of this, and its expensive, Shah says. Classavo brings many different tools together, and our hope is to help students save on costs. Its $20 for unlimited courses for one semester, so if you have three classes, its still $20. On a broader scale, our ultimate goal is really to empower students and democratize access to education globally. If we can solve education, we can solve every other problem in the world, Shah says.
Turkey and Azerbaijan have begun large-scale joint military exercises in eastern Anatolia near the border with Armenia.



The winter military exercises, set to run from February 1 to 12 near the city of Kars, are the latest sign of deepening ties between the Turkic allies after Turkey threw its weight behind Azerbaijan in its victory against ethnic Armenian forces in a six-week war over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.



The Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement the drills are intended to ensure combat coordination and capabilities under winter conditions.



On Twitter, it posted a video of two combat helicopters saluting the Turkish flag above Kars castle.

On January 30, a joint Turkish-Russian observation center to monitor the cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh began operations inside Azerbaijan, giving Ankara a greater footprint in the South Caucasus.



Under the Russian-brokered cease-fire agreement reached on November 9, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani administration after almost 30 years under the control of ethnic Armenians.



More than 4,700 people were killed in the flare-up of violence.
BETHALTO  Zion Lutheran School in Bethalto has added a Creality3D Ender 3D printer obtained using a grant from the Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis.

Kim Griffith, STEM teacher at Zion Bethalto, attended an introductory workshop on how to use the printer and is collaborating with the classroom teachers on design projects, for this semester and the future. Students are excited about having access to this technology, she said.

At Zion, we are committed to providing the latest and best STEM education available for our students, said Griffith. We are working to make sure they have dedicated STEM activities as well as STEM learning integrated into every aspect of their academic curriculum. In addition, all students in Grades 2 through 8 are learning about responsible digital citizenship and safety online.

Grades 6, 7 and 8 students are working with EV3 robots and programming online with Scratch. Later this semester, Grade 8 students will have the opportunity to learn how to develop a website. They will also use Tinkercad online to design items to make with the 3D printer.

Grade 5 students are working on programming and coding with the Lego WeDo Robots They build race cars and engineer them to be the fastest car in their special race. Later this semester, they will focus on learning word processing and slideshow skills.

Grades 2, 3 and 4 students will be doing basic programming with programs such as Pixel Hack and Code Monkey. They will also work with the Lego WeDo Robots.

Students in Grades 4 through 8 use Chromebooks in a 1:1 environment, with each student having his or her own Chromebook to use throughout the school day. Teachers use Google Classroom as the learning platform which integrates the Google Apps for Education. Students collaborate and submit assignments and projects digitally.

Grade 4 students are learning how to use Google Docs and Google Slides.

Grade 3 students are learning keyboarding skills and the importance of using proper hand positioning. They are also learning to use Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Students in Grades 2 and 3 each have an iPad to use in the classroom to enhance and reinforce the curriculum. Kindergarten and Grade 1 students use iPads for small group activities.

Students in Kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2 are using TypeTastic!, an online keyboarding program to help them learn the location of letters on the keyboard. Soon, they will begin learning about formatting, graphics and general word processing using Microsoft Word.

Registration for new families for the 2021-2022 school year opens Feb. 23. For details or to register a student visit http://zlsbethalto.org. Contact Zion Lutheran School directly at 618-377-5507 or schooloffice@zionbethalto.org

Zion Lutheran School, Bethalto, Illinois provides a Christ-centered approach to life and learning for students and their families. In 2019 and 2020, Zion Bethalto received the Best Local Private School award, as voted by Riverbend area residents and recognized by The Alton Telegraph. Since 1962, the school has excelled in its safe and nurturing environment and commitment to academic excellence. Today, students in Preschool through Grade 8 enjoy a variety of opportunities to grow in their love for learning and love of Jesus. Conveniently located in Bethalto, the school welcomes all who desire a quality Christian education.
More than 30 lakh commercial vehicles in Telangana state, which also include auto-rickshaws, will be affected by the new policy.  Representational image

Hyderabad: The Budget proposal to scrap vehicles as old as 20 or more years and used for domestic purposes, and commercial vehicles that are 15 and more years old, has drawn protests here. It is part of the governments initiatives to control air pollution and give a fillip to the automobile industry.

According to the Federation of App-Based Transport Workers, more than 30 lakh commercial vehicles in Telangana state, which also include auto-rickshaws, will be affected. The Telangana Auto Union JAC said that of the 1.2 lakh auto-rickshaws in the state, half were more than 15 years old. This decision, these outfits alleged, was aimed at helping automobile companies earn more profits.

Used-vehicle dealers felt that the government plan is unjust. Most middle and lower middle class families can only afford to buy used vehicles of around ten years old and are kept by them for many more years, they said.

Sandhya Rani, a school teacher, and her husband who is a private job holder, bought a five-year-old car 15 years ago for about a lakh, which they paid from their savings. Its condition is good. We take care of this car well. By this May, the car will be 20 years old. We use this only for special occasions. Now selling this as scrap will be very painful to us, she said.

Fazal Khan, an automobile dealer for used cars and bikes at King Koti, said, Most middle and the lower middle class families buy used cars. These are 10-plus years old and they maintain them in good condition for another 15 years. If this law is enforced, most families will feel hugely hurt. The government should reconsider this move.

A. Sathi Reddy, Telangana Auto Union JAC, said, Half of the 1.2 lakh autos in the state are 15 years or older. This move by the Centre will break the back of the ordinary people. When a Motor Vehicle Inspector certifies the auto-rickshaw and gives it a fitness certificate, where is the need for phasing it out? This is to help the rich automobile manufacturing firms sell more cars.

Shaik Salauddin, secretary, Indian Federation of App-based transport workers, questioned how the government took such a step without consulting the drivers unions. In Telangana alone, there are around 30 lakh commercial vehicles. After scrapping these, will the government give us a 50 per cent subsidy on purchase of new vehicles? Will the government waive GST and inter-state border taxes? No. So, why such a decision?
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also said that 70 lawyers have been appointed to ensure legal aid to farmers booked by the Delhi Police

The Punjab government on Monday started a helpline to trace people who went missing after the Republic Day tractor parade in Delhi. This comes a day after Samyukta Kisan Morcha claimed that over 100 protesters from Punjab went missing after the rally and the subsequent violence.

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh also said that 70 lawyers have been appointed to ensure legal aid to farmers booked by the Delhi Police.

Singh appealed to the people of Punjab to immediately dial 112 to report any cases of missing persons, even if no cases had been filed with respect of such persons so far, The Indian Express reported.

Punjab Government has already arranged a team of 70 lawyers in Delhi to ensure quick legal recourse to farmers booked by the Delhi police. I will personally take up the issue of missing farmers with MHA & ensure these persons reach home safely. For assistance call 112.  Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) February 1, 2021

The Delhi Police on Monday released a list of 120 people who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the Red Fort violence in Delhi.

The tractor rally in the National Capital was organised more than 60 days after farmers began protests along Delhi's borders against the three contentious farm laws passed by the Centre in September last year. On the day of the tractor parade, protesters clashed with the police and breached the walls of the Red Fort, later hoisting the Nishan Sahib at the fort.

Singh had also said that the state government has met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue of missing persons. We will do everything possible to locate those who are missing. We are trying to get details and will ensure that they return to their homes, said the chief minister, during a virtual event, attended by sarpanchs of various villages.

On Saturday, the Khalra Mission and the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) had also announced free legal aid to the farmers booked by the Delhi Police.
MORAVIAN FALLS, N.C.  On the drive up Brushy Mountain through high pine woods, the GPS guidance peters out quickly.

Take a left at the Road Closed Ahead sign is the first of many twists and turns that John Holman texts to visitors to his distillery, here at the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The bridge to the property was washed away by Tropical Storm Eta last November, and the pandemic has discouraged the customers who normally visit to buy his high-proof waters of life, also known as aquavit, vodka and schnapps.
Egypt received on Sunday the first batch of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on board of an Emirates Airline plane coming from India, Egypt's Unified Procurement Authority (UPA) said in a statement.

The batch, which consists of 50,000 doses, is part of a UPA's agreement that includes 20 million doses of the British AstraZeneca's vaccine  which is developed by India's R-pharma and Serum Institute following their deal to transfer the vaccine manufacturing technology from the British company.

This is the second covid-19 vaccine to be approved on an emergency basis in Egypt following the authorisation of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine earlier this month.

The AstraZeneca vaccine requires two doses administered 21 days apart akin to other vaccines, but without the need for ultra-cold storage, a feature that makes it easier to roll out in hot countries and remote locations.

"The Egyptian Drug Authority approved yesterday the emergency use of the Covishield vaccines, produced by the Indian Serum institute, which contracted to transfer the vaccine manufacturing technology from the British company, AstraZeneca," EDA's Spokesperson Ali Al-Ghamrawy said in a statement on Sunday.

He added that the vaccine underwent the necessary evaluation processes in the departments and laboratories of the Drug Authority as per the global and local rules to ensure the safety, quality and effectiveness of the vaccine.

The EDA is currently studying and evaluating other vaccines, the statement added.

Egypt has vaccinated hundreds of medical staffers nationwide as a first step in the country's vaccination campaign, which kicked off last Sunday.

Egypt has received a 50,000-dose batch from Sinopharm vaccines in December.

The country's vaccination priority list starts with the frontline healthcare workers at the isolation, fever, chest and screening hospitals, followed by kidney failure and cancer patients, then the elderly.

Short link:


WASHINGTON  A preliminary investigation has not found enough evidence to criminally charge the U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who killed Ashli Babbitt, a pro-Trump rioter who stormed the Capitol last month, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the inquiry.

But the officials warned on Monday that the investigation by the citys police force, the Metropolitan Police Department, was not complete and that no recommendation had been made to the U.S. attorneys office in Washington, which would prosecute the officer.

Ms. Babbitt, 35, participated in one of a handful of mob attacks that nearly reached members of Congress during the hourslong siege of the Capitol on Jan. 6. She and fellow rioters hammered at the doors separating them from the House chamber as lawmakers evacuated.

As Ms. Babbitt tried to jump a barrier and enter the speakers lobby through a broken window, the Capitol Police lieutenant shot and killed her. While officials have not provided a full accounting of Ms. Babbitts fatal encounter, it was caught on video and widely shared on social media.
[February 02, 2021] Laurentian University Fiasco Is an Indictment of the Ford Conservatives' Failed Post-Secondary Education Policies: CUPE

The bankruptcy of Laurentian University is an indictment of the policy failures of the Ford (News - Alert) Conservatives, who are failing in their responsibility to ensure Ontarians have access to high-quality post-secondary education, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). "The chronic underfunding of post-secondary institutions has led to universities' relying on revenues from enrolment and the private sector. The pandemic has created the perfect storm as declining enrolment rates combined with the Ford government's systematic attack on revenue streams has led to this disaster at Laurentian," said David Simao, chair of CUPE's OUWCC. Just before the pandemic, the Ford government cut university budgets by four per cent. In 2019, the Conservatives had also reduced tuition fees by 10 per cent without making up for the shortfall in revenues through additional funding. Universities are also challenged by the Ford government's new performance-based funding model, which will further erode the quality of highereducation.



Smaller universities like Laurentian have been particularly hard-hit during the pandemic as revenues decline due to lower enrolment rates. "The people of Sudbury deserve to have a world-class university in their community, and the government must step in to ensure Laurentian does not go under. But this is also part of a larger problem, whereby many other universities are also struggling financially," Simao said.

Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario, said that chronic underfunding has harmed the most marginalized communities across Ontario as universities have dramatically increased tuition fees and thereby created barriers to higher education. Ontario currently has the third highest tuition fees for domestic students and the highest tuition fees for international students. "Post-secondary education has not received adequate support during this massive global pandemic, even though workers, students and administrators have been ringing the alarm bells. Instead the government's priority has been to support for-profit corporations over our public institutions," Hahn said. "This is a wake-up call for the Ford Conservatives. Our post-secondary universities are public institutions and require public solutions premised on the idea of accessible, equitable and quality higher education for Ontarians. We need to have a clear and holistic plan to help our universities overcome the challenges of the current crises, and that plan must acknowledge the policy failures that have brought us to this point." lf/cope491 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006051/en/

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ALBANY - The city's Industrial Development Agency approved the decision to move forward with seizing 0.88 acres of land through eminent domain for the possible development of Liberty Park, or what is commonly known as the parking lot district downtown.

The agency approved the measure last Thursday on behalf of Capitalize Albany Corp., the city's economic development arm. Under eminent domain, a municipality or partner of a city can request a court-ordered sale of land or property at fair market value, if they can prove the parcel is needed for a greater public good such as urban revitalization.

The Albany Business Review first reported the IDA's decision.

The collection of small parcels is the final piece of a roughly eight-acre plot that has been pushed as a possible $100 million economic development opportunity for the city for years. Capitalize Albany has not released fully developed plans for the land, but it has been envisioned as a mixed-use development.

The site had at one time had been planned for the city's convention center, ultimately built on another site next to the Times Union Center. Times Union research shows the state has poured more than $15 million into the site since that convention center was first proposed.

The parcels, which are mainly used for parking, are owned by the family of Paul Chambers, who died in 2003. The family's attorney, William Keniry, did not return a call for comment. In a prior public hearing on the matter, he criticized the IDA and Capitalize Albany, arguing they had not spelled out a rationalization for seizing the land.

In 2019, Capitalize Albany spent $3.3 million to buy another half acre of land from another branch of the Chambers family, calling the land, "of the highest strategic importance to the City of Albany's future."

The land was initially leased in anticipation of building a $220 million-plus convention center between Broadway, the South Mall Arterial and South Pearl Street. But that plan was scrapped, and a smaller convention center was built up the hill at Eagle and Howard streets in 2017. The convention center authority was still spending about $300,000 on leasing the private property, and made back about half of it from parking fees, according to authority budgets.

According to previous Times Union research, the authority spent $8 million buying the E-Comm buildings on Broadway, along with more than 20 other parcels. That bill came with an additional $3.8 million in on-site preparation costs. One E-Comm building has since been torn down after its roof caved in.

The Liberty Park plans involve renovating and keeping the other two standing E-Comm buildings, which are historic 19th-century manufacturing buildings. What is considered Albany's oldest building, the Van Ostrande-Radliff House on Hudson Avenue, will also be left untouched and built around.










Sisters who stabbed their father to death in Russia are now facing a new investigation over whether they lied about killing him in self-defence.

A Russian court has ordered prosecutors to examine claims that Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, subjected daughters Krestina, Angelina and Maria to years of physical and sexual abuse before they stabbed him to death in 2018.

It comes after Mikhail's relatives accused the trio of inventing stories of abuse in a bid to avoid jail, claiming they slaughtered their father in cold blood to inherit his money and property.

The ruling is a blow to efforts by Krestina and Angelina, who were aged 19 and 18 when their father was killed, to avoid a murder charge and possibly 20 years in jail.

A judge in Russia has ordered prosecutors to investigate whether Mikhail Khachaturyan (left), who was stabbed and beaten to death by his daughters in 2018, sexually abused sisters Krestina (center) and Angelina (right) before they killed him

Maria has already been told she will not face the charge and will instead be sent to a psychiatric facility after a judge ruled she was rendered temporarily insane at the moment her two elder sisters attacked their father as he slept.

Mikhail, a known mafia boss, was stabbed through the heart with his own hunting knife and beaten in the head with a hammer during the fatal attack.

Both Krestina and Angelina have admitted taking part in the attack, while Maria said she was present but did not participate.

If investigators discover evidence that Mikhail had abused the girls then he could be posthumously prosecuted, lawyers said.

'The court has granted the plaintiffs' request to return the case to the prosecutor's office until there is a final decision on a criminal case against Mikhail Khachaturyan,' said Alexey Lipster, a lawyer for the sisters.

The sisters' legal team want them treated as victims while Mikhail's family have argued that the pair were lying about abuse, and should be jailed for murder.

The ruling is a blow to efforts by Krestina and Angelina (right) to avoid jail for their father's murder. They claim self defence, but Mikhail's relatives have accused them of lying

Naria (left) and Arsen Khachaturyan (right), Mikhail's sister and nephew, say the girls invented fake claims of abuse and actually murdered their father in cold blood to inherit his wealth

Alexey Parshin, lawyer for Angelina, said the case against the sisters should be 'dropped altogether' because the sisters used 'necessary self-defence'.

The latest twist in the long-running case follows six failed attempts to select a jury, often due to fears of Covid-19.

It has been seen as a test case in Russia for domestic sexual abuse with almost one million signing petitions for the sisters to go free.

The investigation earlier found they faced 'physical and mental suffering...over a long period of time'.

Evidence showed the father threatened one of his 'terrified' daughters: 'You will take the place of your mother.

'I will marry you and you will give birth to my baby.'

An experts' report said: 'He ordered them to get undressed in front of him, saying that he wanted to 'check' them.

'Then ordered them to perform a sex act on him, saying that he had problems with his prostate and it would be a cure.'

Krestina and Angelina are facing up to 20 years in prison if they are found guilty of Mikhail's murder in the long-running case, but want the charge reduced to self-defence

Youngest sister Maria Khachaturyan will not face jail time and will instead be committed to a psychiatric hospital after a judge ruled her unfit to stand trial

He 'abused and humiliated' them 'with various weapons'.

Angelina had blood streaming from her face after one attack by her father who had links both to senior Russian officials and underworld kings, say reports.

But the sisters' aunt Naira Khachaturyan claimed the earlier official investigation found no evidence of sexual violence against the teenagers.

Medical tests showed two of the three were virgins, she claimed, while the third had a secret boyfriend.

'They knew they could live the way they wanted if they got rid of their father,'she told a TV programme.

They wanted to 'delete him from their lives' and enjoy a 'riotous lifestyle'.

The dead man's nephew Arsen Khachaturyan claimed that one of the sisters had inflicted wounds on the other two which they later blamed on violence by their father.

'Sexual violence, other violence, there was nothing of that,' he told viewers.

'The girls decided to kill their father, they conspired a while ago.'
Last summer, as school districts across America were nervously considering whether to pry open the school doors for part-time learning, Miguel Cardona was in Connecticut, pushing districts hard to return five days a week.

Through a combination of pressure and cajoling, along with an open line of communication, Cardona saw all but one school district in his state adopt some flavor of in-person education in the fall, reopening school buildings even as teachers across Connecticut staged noisy protests and districts across the country remained online only.

That record helped pluck the 45-year-old schools commissioner out of seemingly nowhere to become President Joe Biden's nominee for education secretary. Biden has said one of his top goals is to open most schools. Cardona faces a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.

Asked if Biden's goal is too optimistic, Cardona told Connecticut Public Radio, "No, I think it's strong leadership to say that we need to bring our students safely back into schools."

He emerged late in the process and the last man standing after other candidates for education secretary were nixed, largely because they were on one side or another in the intraparty battle over charter schools and other education reforms. Cardona had not taken a position on these issues, and he faced no significant objections to his nomination.

Less than two years ago, he was an assistant superintendent in a small school district, chosen for state education commissioner after Gov. Ned Lamont's first-choice candidate demanded too much money, a state official said. Cardona was formally confirmed as commissioner last Feb. 26, the same day Lamont, D, first addressed the state's response to the novel coronavirus.

In Republican-run states such as Texas and Florida, all schools were ordered open at the start of the school year, urged on by President Donald Trump. But the situation was different in states governed by Democrats, where fears of the pandemic and the concerns raised by teachers unions often outweighed the urgency of returning children to in-person classes.

In many school districts across the country, the choices considered were fully remote or "hybrid" systems, a part-time in-person system meant to reduce the number of students in the classroom at any given time. Many districts that began school last fall fully remote have tried to reopen since then, with mixed success.

In Connecticut, Cardona and Lamont set an expectation starting in June for full reopening. Later, they backed off and said hybrid systems would be all right, and they did not stop the state's largest district, New Haven, from staying fully remote. But these districts had to justify their choices.

The result was that as schools prepared to launch the fall semester, debate in most of Connecticut centered on how - not whether - to reopen.

It became clear to Cardona that school-from-home was failing many Connecticut students over the spring, when the entire country lurched into remote learning almost overnight. State figures showed that some 140,000 students statewide, and possibly more, had barely attended online classes - or did not show up at all. Cardona called that a "devastating figure."

"The inequities have really come to the surface," he told CT Mirror. "The impact that that's going to have - it will last generations."

As summer arrived, Cardona and Lamont said they expected schools to fully reopen.

"We want districts to plan for all students returning in the fall," Cardona said in late June. That means, he said, "all students back to school every day." The state dispersed $266 million to districts to help pay for some expenses and issued public health guidance to help schools plan.

In July, Cardona sent a memo to superintendents suggesting that fully remote or even hybrid plans might not count toward the state's requirement that children receive at least 180 days of school. That was never enforced but for a time concerned some superintendents and teachers.

"If we elected to open with a hybrid model in place, then those days would have to be made up," Kevin Smith, superintendent of Wilton Public Schools, told his reopening committee in July. He said he was worried about the ability to safely reopen his high school in particular.

At the start of the school year, Smith decided that teachers needed a week of fully remote school before moving to a hybrid system and called Cardona to ask permission.

"That wasn't welcome news on his end. The way he framed it was, 'It's temporary, right?' I said: 'Yes it's a week. We need a week.' He assented at that point."

After that first week, all four schools in Wilton, an affluent suburban district outside New York City, began in a hybrid model, and elementary schools have since shifted to full-time in-person.

The state stopped short of trying to mandate a return to buildings. That was considered, the state official said, but it would have been "a difficult political thing to do" because Lamont would be blamed if the virus spread and people became sick. "We need to allow locals to make the decision."

The state's two large teachers unions staged repeated protests and issued lists of demands for reopening, only some of which school districts met. In December, about a dozen union leaders published an open letter to Lamont and Cardona with a dire assessment of the school year to date.

"Morale among educators is at an all-time low," they wrote, demanding a pivot to full remote learning through mid-January. "Generalized fear and anxiety are widespread among teachers, staff and students. . . . Educators and students are sick."

They said that maintaining social distancing inside buildings and keeping kids in cohorts to reduce exposure were "aspirational at best."

Teachers and others have also complained because the state initially said schools should close if virus levels reached a certain point, but backed off that recommendation after infections soared past those thresholds near the end of 2020.

Lamont has replied that in the months since the original recommendations were set, it's been shown that the virus does not easily spread inside schools, so schools can stay open. Still, many districts did ratchet back to hybrid or fully remote around the holidays last year.

Despite their differences with Cardona, both large teachers unions in Connecticut are supporting his nomination.

Some teachers disagree, accusing Cardona of endangering teacher and student lives. They wanted him fired from his current job and oppose his elevation to secretary.

"Teachers are unhappy. They feel unsafe," said Nicole Rizzo, 32, a second-grade teacher in a New Haven suburb who took an unpaid leave of absence rather than return to in-person teaching. She said there are schools with windows that won't open, without soap in the restrooms and where ventilation systems are out of date.

"Do schools need to reopen? Yes. How they need to reopen is with resources and safely, and unfortunately from an educator standpoint that largely has not been the case here in Connecticut," she said.

She holds Cardona partly responsible for school openings. But the statewide teachers union leaders generally praise him, saying he maintained productive and cordial relationships with all major players over the course of the pandemic.

He did so, in part, by keeping them close, holding Zoom meetings every Wednesday at 1 p.m. with state groups representing teachers, principals, superintendents and school boards. On Monday mornings, he held online discussions about the pandemic crisis with teacher union leaders.

Even when they disagreed, Cardona was "very accessible and very responsive," said Donald Williams Jr., executive director of the Connecticut Education Association.

"We don't always agree," said Jan Hochadel, president of the American Federation of Teachers Connecticut. "If you disagree, he's not going to retaliate. There's not going to be any harm from it."

"He always gave time to listen," agreed Robert Rader, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. He said Cardona leaped quickly on myriad problems, such as how and when bus companies and bus drivers would be paid if schools were closed. "Very tough issues," Rader said. "He brought us together with the owners of those companies."

He also was willing to back down - notably in New Haven, the state's largest school district, which didn't want to go back to school buildings at all, full or part time.

The New Haven school board, supervising some 20,600 students, worried about the safety of buildings and buses, about protecting staff and students, about possible spikes in infections, and more.

"We knew there was pressure from the state to get things open," said David Cicarella, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers. Over the summer, he said, there was "a lot of angst, a lot of concern, a lot of worrying."

Superintendent Iline P. Tracey warned the school board, according to minutes of its Aug. 5 meeting, that the state was pressing the board to choose between a full or hybrid opening. She and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, who holds a seat on the school board, favored a hybrid approach that would enable face-to-face learning two days a week.

But the board voted 4-to-3 to open the school year with all-remote instruction.

"We didn't want to put our teachers' and staff's lives in danger," said board member Darnell Goldson, who voted with the majority. He said there were too many unknowns about health and safety.

The school board had to justify its decision to the state. Not knowing how much pushback to expect, Goldson said, the board hired a lawyer to help defend its decision.

At the meeting, Cardona said he and other department heads hoped to share with the board "some facts that maybe you don't have yet."

He encouraged board members to reconsider but stressed that the decision was up to them. "We know each of you are passionate about the well-being of New Haven students and their success," he said, according to a recording of the videoconference.

The state official said the Lamont administration had no interest in going to war with New Haven, especially when so many other systems were planning to reopen. "We were winning everywhere else," he said. "If we're going to war with New Haven, that could have damaged our credibility."

"At the end of the day, Cardona was playing chicken with us," Goldson later recalled. "He decided not to jump in front of that train. We hired a lawyer. We were willing to fight for our position."

In hindsight, Elicker said, Cardona's approach was "compassionate" and savvy. The mayor said the commissioner tried to "nudge" New Haven but did not go too far. "He could have taken a heavier-handed approach to it and said, 'You're all going back to in-person learning,' " the mayor said. But that might have backfired.

"He understood that you've got to work with people," Elicker said, "particularly at this time when there's a lot of fear. Trust is more likely to get a result than a heavy-handed approach."

New Haven eventually came around. On Jan. 19, the district welcomed a few thousand elementary students back to the classroom for a partial reopening.
There's powerful "The Matrix" energy (minus the Bullet Time) surrounding "Bliss," a sci-fi flick in which a sad-sack divorced dad named Greg (Owen Wilson) suddenly learns that everything and almost everyone around him - his dead-end job in a dumpy town, his angry boss (Steve Zissis), his estranged teenage son (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), the daughter who loves him (Nesta Cooper) - isn't real.

Early in the film, the arrival in his life of a cool, sexy know-it-all named Isabel (Salma Hayek) is eye-opening: Swallowing some yellow crystals enables Greg to harness telekinetic powers that let him manipulate the people and things around him, like a god among mortals. Snorting a handful of blue crystals up his nose boots him out of the simulacrum, and back into reality - a paradisiacal seaside community that looks like it's somewhere in the Aegean.

So far, so red pill/blue pill. All of which is to say that the film initially feels shamelessly derivative of the Wachowskis' most famous film franchise, without bringing anything especially fresh to a familiar idea.

But hold on. Check the name again in the writer-director box: Mike Cahill. Isn't he the guy who broke out in 2011 with "Another Earth," a cerebral sci-fi drama about parallel universes, in the form of twin planet Earths, on each of which, it is surmised, live doppelgangers of everyone alive? And isn't he the dude who followed that up with the brain-twister "I, Origins," about reincarnation and the transmigration of souls?

Yes. Yes, it is.

Cahill, who is pals and collaborators with actress/writer Brit Marling and filmmaker Zal Batmanglij, has a thing about duality, it would seem, not to mention unanswerable questions about selfhood.

That becomes apparent after a while, when it's made clear that "Bliss" isn't really all that interested in trafficking in the stuff of mass-market science fiction: the bells and whistles, in the form of nifty hardware, special effects and the like.

Rather, Cahill's latest film is an exercise in existential inquiry. The bar in which Greg meets Isabel is called Plato's Dive, in a rather clumsy allusion to the philosopher's Allegory of the Cave, in which Man is presented as living in a state of ignorance of the truth that lies beyond our subjective senses.

That's not the only appearance of a philosopher in a film that, right off the bat, seems like one would be one too many: Slavoj Zizek - in real life a Slovenian thinker, known for deliberately provocative ideas, who has been called the "Borat of philosophy" - appears as himself, or what looks like a hologram of himself, in a fleeting party-scene cameo in which he delivers a monologue about visitors from heaven checking in on the residents of hell.

The implicit question, in other words - and the question of the film - is about how we define happiness and misery, and how our perception of one can define the other. It's a paradoxical proposition that isn't framed in the conventional sense - you can't appreciate the good without the bad - but as its converse: Maybe you can't appreciate the bad without the good.

Greg ultimately has a choice to make: to stay in a dingy fantasy world where he has a fake daughter who really loves him, or to return to a sanitized, and somewhat surreally plastic Eden. It's an interesting question, the mere asking of which elevates what is otherwise already a cliche.

- - -

Two and one-half stars. Rated R. Available on Amazon Prime. Contains drug use, crude language, some sexual material and violence. 103 minutes.

Ratings Guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Evidence suggests particulate matter is the air pollutant which poses the greatest threat to global health. Studies have shown that exposure to particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns is associated with acute and chronic elevations in blood pressure (BP) as well as hypertension. In the study "The Benefits of Intensive Versus Standard Blood Pressure Treatment According to Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution Exposure" published this week in the journal Hypertension, researchers at University Hospitals (UH) and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine found intensive BP lowering is effective in reducing cardiovascular risk in patients exposed to high levels of air pollution.

Air pollution, particularly fine particulate matter, has been implicated in cardiovascular risk, partly through effects on BP. Particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns is concentrated particles that develop from human impact on the environment, such as automobile exhaust, power generation and other fossil fuels. Researchers sought to determine if intensive BP lowering on cardiovascular events is modified by air pollution exposure in the NIH-funded Systolic BP Intervention (SPRINT) Trial.

Researchers linked integrated satellite-derived air pollution exposures with residential addresses for 9,286 patients enrolled in the SPRINT trial. The study showed that intensive BP lowering (defined as goal systolic blood pressure lower than 120 mmHg) led to significant reduction in cardiovascular events (combination of heart attack, strokes, heart failure, or death from cardiovascular disease) especially in patients exposed to higher pollution levels. The authors concluded that ambient air pollution may influence the benefit of intensive BP lowering. Lowering BP is particularly beneficial for patients who are exposed to high levels of fine particulate matter and it may even reduce adverse cardiovascular effects of particulate matter pollution.

"Air pollution impacts socioeconomically disadvantaged patients to a higher degree. Living within a particular neighborhood should not mean you are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease," said Sadeer Al-Kindi, MD, cardiologist with UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute, Assistant Professor, CWRU School of Medicine and the lead author of the study. "University Hospitals has a history of addressing health care disparities in underserved communities and armed with the information from this study, we can thoughtfully create solutions to better serve these populations."

Patients exposed to high levels of air pollution can take control of their health in knowing that lowering their BP is effective in reducing cardiovascular risk.

"This study improves our understanding of the intersection between air pollution, heart disease and blood pressure. It also has implications in management of patients who are exposed to high levels of air pollution," said Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine, UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute, Professor, CWRU School of Medicine and the senior author of the study.

"This is one of the few findings from SPRINT showing potential heterogeneity in the benefit of BP lowering on cardiovascular outcomes," said Jackson Wright, MD, Ph.D., a member of the SPRINT Steering Committee, Director, Clinical Hypertension Program, UH Cleveland Medical Center and Professor Emeritus, CWRU School of Medicine. "The findings of this novel analysis of the SPRINT trial may provide additional insight and avenues of further investigation into the harmful impact of air pollution on cardiovascular disease."

"Next steps in this research involve studying the mechanistic underpinnings of this effect modification and identifying methods to reduce pollution exposure and reduce the harmful effects of air pollution on the cardiovascular system," said Dr. Al-Kindi.

Explore further Smog exposure linked to higher risk of cardiac arrest
An image of Phobos from March 23, 2008, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

The martian moon Phobos orbits through a stream of charged atoms and molecules that flow off the Red Planet's atmosphere, new research shows.

Many of these charged particles, or ions, of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and argon, have been escaping Mars for billions of years as the planet has been shedding its atmosphere. Some ions, scientists predict, have been smashing into the surface of Phobos and could be preserved in its uppermost layer, according to a paper published on Feb. 1 in the journal Nature Geoscience.

This means that if soil from Phobos were analyzed in labs on Earth, it could reveal key information about the evolution of the martian atmosphere, researchers say. Mars once had an atmosphere thick enough to support liquid water on its surface; today, it's less than 1% as dense as Earth's.

"We knew that Mars lost its atmosphere to space, and now we know that some of it ended up on Phobos," said Quentin Nenon, a researcher at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, and the study's lead author.

Phobos is one of two moons of Mars (the other is called Deimos). It orbits intimately close to the Red Planet, about 60 times closer than the moon orbits Earth, as measured from approximately surface to surface. Misshapen, pockmarked by craters, and 100 times smaller in diameter than Earth's moon, Phobos is the source of great controversy among scientists. The mystery is where did Phobos and Deimos come from? Are they asteroids that were captured by martian gravity, or natural satellites of Mars that were spawned by the same cloud that created the planet? It's also possible that they formed from the debris that spewed when Mars collided with something, similar to how our moon is thought to have formed after Earth collided with a rocky object.

In order to help settle the debate, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is preparing to send the Martian moons Exploration (MMX) probe to Phobos in 2024 to collect the first samples from its surface and deliver them to Earth. But those samples, Nenon noted, could reveal a lot more than the origin of Phobos if MMX were to land on the near side of the moon, or the side that always faces Mars.

Phobos is tidally locked to Mars, like Earth's moon is locked to Earth, thus always showing the planet only one side. As a result, the rocks on the near side of Phobos have been bathed for millennia in martian atoms and molecules. Nenon's research shows that the uppermost surface layer of Phobos' near side has been subjected to 20 to 100 times more wayward martian ions than its far side.

"With a sample from the near side," Nenon said, "we could see an archive of the past atmosphere of Mars in the shallow layers of grain, while deeper in the grain we could see the primitive composition of Phobos."

This visualization shows the MAVEN spacecraft's orbit change during its primary mission as it progressed from the initial, highly elliptical entry orbit to a somewhat less elliptical orbit, and finally to the science orbit. Credit: NASAs Scientific Visualization Studio

Nenon's team analyzed data from NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, spacecraft to reach this conclusion. MAVEN has been collecting data from the orbit of Mars for more than six years in order to help scientists figure out how Mars lost its atmosphere and to provide other important scientific insights on the evolution of the planet's climate. Since the spacecraft crossed the orbit of Phobos about five times each Earth day as it circled Mars during its primary mission, Nenon and his colleagues figured they could use MAVEN measurements to learn something about Phobos, especially since it is the target of the forthcoming MMX mission.

They relied on MAVEN's Suprathermal and Thermal Ion Composition instrument, or STATIC, to measure the martian ions in Phobos' orbit. STATIC measures the kinetic energy and velocity of incoming particles. This allows scientists to compute their mass. Based on the different masses of ions measured, STATIC determined which particles came from Mars rather than from the Sun. The Sun also emits atmosphere-busting ions, though predominantly ones with much lower mass. Scientists then estimated how many ions could make it to the surface of Phobos and how deeply they would be implanted (no more than several hundred nanometers, which is about 250 times shallower than the width of a human hair).

"What Quentin has done is take investigations we've done at the moon and at other moons of the solar system and applied the same methods to Phobos for the first time," said Andrew Poppe, associate research scientist at the Space Sciences Laboratory and co-author of the Phobos paper.

Indeed, studying moons to learn more about their parent planets is common practice. Earth's moon, for instance, with no atmosphere, wind, or water to strip its surface of ancient clues, is considered by scientists to be the best-preserved archive we have of the early solar system.

"What we've seen in Apollo samples is that the moon has been patiently recording individual atoms coming from the Sun and from Earth," Poppe said. "It's a really cool historical record."

Scientists hope that more samples from the moon's surface will inform us about Earth's ancient atmosphere or early magnetic field. Poppe, whose Berkeley colleagues designed and built the STATIC instrument, said he wondered whether the surface of Phobos would be able to reveal information about early Mars, when the planet appears to have been warm and wet.

So when he found himself, several years ago, with no internet service at the lab, "I was forced to talk to my colleagues over coffee because we had nothing better to do," Poppe said. He asked them if Phobos could be subjected to Martian ions like Earth's moon is often subjected to particles coming from Earth. "Do you guys see any evidence of this?" he asked.

Nobody had looked into this, so Poppe did some computer modeling which indicated that he was onto something. When Nenon joined Space Sciences Laboratory in 2019, he offered to pore through MAVEN data to find out if Poppe's model was right. It turns out it was. "So hopefully this finding will have an impact on the scientific activities of the MMX mission," Nenon said.

Explore further Laboratory experiments unravelling the mystery of the Mars moon Phobos

More information: Q. Nenon et al. Implantation of Martian atmospheric ions within the regolith of Phobos, Nature Geoscience (2021). Journal information: Nature Geoscience Q. Nenon et al. Implantation of Martian atmospheric ions within the regolith of Phobos,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-020-00682-0
Dhaka, Feb 3 : The Bangladesh government has rejected the desperate "smear campaign" instigated by extremists and their allies working from London and elsewhere, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ministry also said that the government regrets that the Al Jazeera media house has allowed itself to become an instrument for their malicious political designs aimed at destabilising the secular democratic government of Bangladesh with a proven track record of extraordinary socio-economic development and progress.

The statement added that the fact that the report's historical account fails to even mention the horrific genocide of 1971 in which Jamaat perpetrators killed millions of Bengali civilians and raped more than 2 lakh women, is a reflection of the political bias in Al Jazeera's coverage and that of its principal commentator, David Bergman, convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal (Bangladesh) for challenging the official death toll of 1971 Liberation War.

The ministry in its statement said that the Bangladesh government has learnt of a false and defamatory report titled "All the Prime Minister's Men" by Al Jazeera news channel of Qatar.

"The report is nothing more than a misleading series of innuendos and insinuations in what is apparently a politically motivated 'smear campaign' by notorious individuals associated with the Jamaat-i-Islami extremist group, which has been opposing the progressive and secular principles of the People's Republic of Bangladesh since its very birth as an independent nation in 1971.

"It is noted that the main 'source' of Al Jazeera's allegations is an alleged international criminal claimed to be a 'psychopath' by Al-Jazeera itself," the statement said.

It further said that there is no evidence linking the Prime Minister and other state institutions of Bangladesh to this particular individual, and it is highly irresponsible for an international news channel to draw conclusions on the basis of the words of a mentally unstable person.

"It is also not surprising that the report aligns with the string of anti-Bangladesh propaganda habitually orchestrated by a few convicted absconding criminals and discredited individuals patronised by Jamaat-i-Islami Bangladesh, which on certain occasions have conspired with international extremist groups and news media specially the Al Jazeera," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh army headquarters in a statement on Tuesday strongly denounced the Al Jazeera report, saying it is part of a move to break the harmony among different government organs.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of Bangladesh said, "Bangladesh army headquarters condemn in the strongest possible words the concocted and ill-intended report by a vested group in the news channel Al Jazeera titled 'All the Prime Minister's Men' aired on February 2, 2021." The statement also mentioned that Bangladesh army is the most disciplined under the present chain of command and loyal to the constitution and the government.

It said the army will always remain respectful to the government of Bangladesh and contribute to the nation-building efforts.
Documentary of NYC pastors fight to end violence in Chicago gets Oscar buzz

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An upcoming faith-inspired film, titled Chicago: America's Hidden War, follows a pastor who risks his life to take a stand against violence in the deadliest state in the United States and now the documentary is being considered for an Academy Award.

We're thrilled to announce that our movie "Chicago: America's Hidden War" is being considered for an Oscar nomination in the Best Documentary Feature category, the film's lead pastor, Dimas Salaberrios, wrote on social media.

Salaberrios traveled to Chicago to fast and pray for the violence in Chicago to come to an end. His entire experience was documented along with real-life testimonies of victims, those at great risk such as children, and the staggering statistics of the war on the streets.

Our mission is to turn apathy into empathy through education and exposure, so Americans will not see this is as Chicago's war, but as Our War, he wrote.

The documentary was produced by Salaberrios and his wife, Tiffany, through Miss Muffet Studios production company, which the couple founded. Miss Muffet Studios is a black-owned production studio in NYC that focuses on shining a light on serious matters that plague society.

According to the films synopsis, Chicago Americas Hidden War pulls back the curtain to expose the pervasive genocidal-like behavior, explain what birthed and contributed to this war and why so little is done to stop it, and ultimately inspires a clear path toward change. Its time for us all to unite and take a stand because this is no longer Americas Hidden War. This is Our War.

The film features firsthand testimonies from pastors, gangbangers, and children who say they only feel safe in school and in the church as violence continues to increase.

Salaberrios, a former drug Lord turned missionary from New York felt called to do something about the gun war in Chicago. Upon his arrival, he decided to go on a hunger strike until there was at least five days of peace in the prominent city. He lost 35 pounds before having to end his fast because that day did not come but what did happen was the pastor was able to rally together with other churches in Chicago, gang leaders and the local community who agreed to take steps toward peace.

"When my family received the news that Chicago: America's Hidden War hit the Oscars Best Documentary Feature List, joy entered the room, Salaberrios told The Christian Post of the big news. We yelled for several minutes because my whole family sacrificed so much to tell the truth about the war in Chicago."

According to the statistic on the films website, 90.9% of deaths in Chicago during 2020 were the result of gun violence. Reports show that a person is shot every two hours and a person is killed every 10 hours. Just last month, the city recorded 51 homicides, the highest death toll for January in four years.



The executive producer of the film, Pastor A.R. Bernard, senior leader of Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, is calling people of faith to action against the violence in Chicago.

A team of dedicated individuals worked hard to express, in film, the gun violence that continues to eat away at the Black community, Bernard wrote to CP on Monday. We pray but we must also act!

Salaberrios also stressed that its time for Christians to be on the ground practicing what they were called to do. Rwanda is happening on American soil; black people are being murdered, he lamented.

The rate of black on black, Latino on Latino crime is alarming, and the film is designed to encourage people to get involved through mentoring programs and after school programs. The pastor, who founded Infinity New York Church, said the mission field is now on our soil.

Watch The Christian Post's full interview with Salaberrios below, where the pastor shared the heart behind the documentary and explained how over 100 churches were able to get on the streets of Chicago with the shooters, which caused the crime rate to drop over 20% in 12 months.

The film's release date was postponed because of COVID-19 restrictions. Visit the website for additional information.
Represents new class of HMX charges

Titan Division of Hunting Energy Services, a subsidiary of Hunting PLC, the international energy services company, today unveiled its new class of HMX charges with its Perfecta rock charge.

Engineered for superior perforating performance in stressed rock formations, the Perfecta rock charge delivers a high penetration depth in formation rock. Its use can improve well stimulation and productivity, and prolong the life span of conventional wells.

The Perfecta rock charge line is a new class of HMX charge optimized for maximum penetration in stressed rock. Its performance data was confirmed using stressed-rock perforating analysis, which provides more reliable penetration values that correlate to downhole formation results.

Perfecta rock charges are available through Hunting's network of distribution centers strategically located in all the world's oil-producing regions. It is compatible with existing wireline and Hunting's TCP gun systems up to 6 shots per foot. HMX charges are available for 2-in., 2-7/8 in., 3-3/8 in., and 4-1/2 in. OD guns.

About Hunting

Hunting PLC is an international energy services provider to the world's leading upstream oil and gas companies. Established in 1874, it is a premium-listed public company traded on the London Stock Exchange. The Company maintains a corporate office in Houston and is headquartered in London. As well as the United Kingdom, the Company has operations in Canada, China, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.

The company's Hunting Energy Services Titan Division engineers and manufactures perforating systems, wireline selective firing systems, cased hole logging instruments, nuclear detectors, energetics, and associated wireline hardware and accessories.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005036/en/

Contacts:

John Feuerstein, Hunting, 281-442-7382, john.feuerstein@hunting-intl.com
Mumbai: A fire broke out on the sets of Om Raut's upcoming film Adipurush, starring Saif Ali Khan and Prabhas. The incident took place on Tuesday, which was the first day of the film's shoot.

The fire reportedly broke out around 4.30pm on the set of the film in a Goregaon studio. Neither Prabhas nor Saif was present on the set at the time the fire broke out.

Reports suggest that the incident happened due to a short circuit. IANS reported that the fire was brought under control soon enough and nobody was injured. No casualties have been reported.

Unconfirmed videos from the burning set of the film have gone viral on social media, with netizens expressing their concern over the unfortunate incident.

Earlier in the day, director Om Raut announced on social media that he has begun with the mahurat shot for the film. Prabhas and Om Raut announced the release date of the film in November last year.

Adipurush is Raut's new directorial after last year's blockbuster Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior. Prabhas officially announced the beginning of shoot on Tuesday morning with the word "Aarambh" (start) on his Instagram page.
Born in 1762 and living and working most of his life in slavery, Dr. James Durham is considered the first African American to work as a doctor in America.

In 1864, after years as a nurse, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first African American woman in the United States to receive a medical degree, making her the first African American woman physician in the U.S.

In 1936, Dr. Richard Francis Jones (Dr. R. Frank Jones) became the first African American Diplomate of the American Board of Urology. He is the sixth African American ever to become a board-certified specialist in the U.S. At the time, Black physicians were not allowed to join medical specialty societies, which kept them from working in most hospitals. Dr. Jones is also the first African American member of the AUA.

Dr. Bobbilynn Hawkins is the nation's first African American full professor of urology and the sixth female urologist to be certified by the American Board of Urology. Additionally, she is the first female urologist in the United States Army, and served more than 30 years as a military command surgeon, earning the rank of Colonel and serving in the Gulf War.

While February brings extra attention to the contributions of African American pioneers, it also raises awareness of the prevalence of such urologic disease as prostate, kidney and bladder cancer disproportionality effecting the African American population, as well as the need for increased diversity within the practice of medicine to help provide culturally competent care.

In December, the AUA Board of Directors unanimously approved the creation of the AUA Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Task Force, which aims to identify specific and actionable steps for how the AUA can advocate for, and foster, a diverse and inclusive environment within the association, as well as the global urology community.

"The AUA Board of Directors shares the concerns of our members and patients regarding the inequalities existing within our society," said Scott K. Swanson, MD, AUA Board President. "Increasing our commitment to diversity and inclusion is key to ensuring future success for both the AUA and the specialty of urology, and I look forward to the Task Force's recommendations on education, research and advocacy-related initiatives to enhance diversity and inclusion within these settings."

For more information about the life and legacy of Dr. Richard Francis Jones visit: https://www.urologyhealth.org/healthy-living/care-blog/the-story-of-dr-r-frank-jones-md-medical-and-civil-rights-pioneer

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 and Urology Care Foundation
An aerial view of aluminium production materials containers stored at al-Quoz Industrial Area, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on July 8, 2020. (Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images)

Biden to Keep Tariffs on Aluminum Imports From UAE, Reversing Trumps Policy

President Joe Biden has issued a proclamation maintaining a 10 percent tariff rate on aluminum imports from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), reversing former President Donald Trumps move to end the levies on his last day as president.

Bidens Feb. 1 proclamation argues for keeping the tariffs on grounds of national security.

The available evidence indicates that imports from the UAE may still displace domestic production, and thereby threaten to impair our national security, Biden wrote in the proclamation.

Trump issued a proclamation on Jan. 19 that would exempt the UAE from a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports, citing an important security relationship, and said that the two countries had reached a quota agreement that would restrict such imports.

The United States has an important security relationship with the United Arab Emirates, including our shared commitment to supporting each other in addressing national security concerns in the Middle East, particularly in countering Irans malign influence there; combatting violent extremism around the world; and maintaining the strong economic ties between our countries, Trump said in the decision.

Trump granted the exemption shortly after designating the UAE a major security partner and signing a deal to sell it 50 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets. Last week, the Biden administration said it would temporarily pause that deal, and some others, to review them.

A White House spokeswoman said the reversal of Trumps UAE tariff exemption, which was due to take effect on Feb. 3, should not be seen as derogative to the close diplomatic relationship between the United States and UAE, but was part of a broader review of the previous administrations trade policies, including tariffs.

President Bidens priority is to re-establish an intelligent process for foreign policymaking and trade policy based on deliberative economic analysis and a strategy that ensures a level playing field for the American worker to compete internationally, the spokeswoman said.

The UAE embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.

Under the Trump administration and with its involvement, four normalization deals were signed between Israel and four Arab nationsthe United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. Known as the Abraham Accords, the deals were lauded by many as the most significant diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East in 25 years as the region girds for a prolonged confrontation with Iran.

The U.S. State Department, in a Jan. 20 note on the tighter security cooperation between the UAE and the United States, framed the partnership as a move that guards against threats posed by China, Iran, and Russia.

The deepening U.S. security partnership with the UAE as a result of the Abraham Accords builds the Gulf regions capability to defend and deter increasing dangers from Iran, reinforces our longstanding commitment to Israels Qualitative Military Edge, and pushes back against malign influence from the PRC and Russia, the State Department said.

Trump first imposed the aluminum tariffs in 2018, under Proclamation 9704, aiming to revive idled aluminum facilities, open closed smelters and mills, and boost domestic production by cutting American reliance on foreign producers.

Biden said in his proclamation that this need remains.

Robust domestic aluminum production capacity is essential to meet our current and future national security needs, Biden wrote, adding that U.S. Commerce Department could have granted UAE producers exemptions if it found that domestic producers were not harmed. Instead, it had denied 32 of 33 exemption requests from UAE producers before Trumps 11th-hour decision.

U.S. data showed a drop of 25 percent in aluminum imports from the UAE after the tariff, matched by a rise of 22 percent in domestic aluminum production through 2019, the White House said.

In light of that history, I believe that maintaining the tariff is likely to be more effective in protecting our national security than the untested quota featured in Trumps proclamation, Biden said.

Aluminum imports from UAE totaled $1.3 billion in 2019, according to data from the U.S. Trade Representatives office.

Reuters contributed to this report.


Pune, Feb 2 : The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday announced plans to establish a permanent 'Kashmir Trade & Culture Centre' in the state's cultural, academic and IT capital this year in collaboration with an NGO Sarhad.

Pune Mayor Murlidhar Mohol made the announcement at the inaugural of Sarhad's periodic weeklong J&K Handicrafts Festival in Kothrud where artisans from the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh are showcasing the best of their talent and products.

"The trade & culture centre marks a revival of the country's first 'sister-city' agreement signed between Pune-Srinagar around 13 years ago. It will boost the farmers, artisans, businessmen of Jammu & Kashmir and further strengthen the cultural bonds between the diverse communities of the two states," Mohol said.

Present at the occasion were Kashmir Hotels & Restaurants Owners Federation President Wahid Malik, Deputy Commissioner of Police (one-III) Pournima Gaikwad-Khandare - the wife of IPS officer Satish Khandare, who is the Additional Director-General of Police, Leh (Ladakh).

Slated to become operational by 2021-end, this will be the first-ever permanent trade & culture mission outside Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh in Pune, officials said.

Pune-Srinagar already enjoy strong academic bonds with around 250 students from the 3 UTs currently studying in various top educational institutions here, besides another 4,500-plus in Mumbai and other parts of the state, according to Sarhad President Sanjay Nahar.

"During the Corona pandemic last year, many students returned to their homes territories but after the educational institutions reopen, they will return and the figures could be nearly double," Nahar told IANS.

Mohol said that after the abrogation of Art. 370, followed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, farmers and artisans of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh suffered immensely owing to a severe drop in tourism and related activities.

Besides, the developments resulted in a lack of markets for their traditional products which in turn led to an increase in overall unemployment and fuelled poverty in the three border UTs, he added.

On its part, Sarhad took the initiative to mitigate the farmers' sufferings by organising regular sales in Pune for fresh and dry fruits, arts and handicraft products and other activities.

"The proceeds from the sales not only ensured improved financial condition back home for the farmers in the 3 UTs, but also helped pay the fees and other expenses for many Kashmiri students here, who were cut-off for prolonged periods from their families," Nahar explained.

DCP Gaikwad-Khandare said that the concept of farmers to consumers is mutually beneficial for both, boosts the local economy and helps generated employment opportunities in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

Other dignitaries were Sachin Jamge, Asim Sarode, Yuvraj Shaha, Shailesh Wadekar, Nilesh Navalakha, Shailesh Pagaria, Sanjay Sonawane, Amol Deolekar, Anna Raut and Vijay Kumbhar.

Simultaneously, after nearly nine years, the PMC has decided to beautify and augment facilities at the 'Pune-Kashmir Friendship Square' in Katraj, at a cost of Rs 5.50 million, and to be opened in the next couple of months, said Nahar.

The PKFS will have a large mural depicting a Kashmiri and Maharashtrian girls holding hands, a Peepal and Chinar tree in metal, highlights of the culture of the 3 UTs and this state, landscaping with lush greenery and colour lightings plus a children's play area.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted @ q.najmi@ians.in)
New Delhi, Feb 2 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear a bunch of pleas in connection with incidents of violence during the tractor rally on Republic Day.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices A. S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian will take up the petitions.

One of the pleas filed has sought directions to the NIA to court-monitored investigation against anti-social elements, part of the tractor rally, who engaged in violence on the streets of the national capital on Republic Day.

The plea, filed through advocates Shashank Shekhar Jha and Manju Jetley Sharma, said the attack on the Red Fort and the national flag on Republic Day needs immediate attention. "The protestors cannot be allowed to put the government and people at ransom and undertake violence in the name of protest. The freedom of expression and protest cannot be absolute and must consider the rights of others," said the plea.

The petition also sought directions for constitution of a judicial commission headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court or a Special Investigation Team, which should be monitored by the top court.

Earlier, a petition was filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari urging the top court to issue directions to register FIR against persons or organisation responsible for dishonouring the national flag. "Unfortunately, the tractor march took a violent turn leaving injuries and destruction of public property. This incident also effected the daily life of the public. Internet services were interrupted as government ordered the operators to suspend the same," said the plea.

On the day of the incident, a Mumbai-based law student had also written to Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde to take suo moto cognisance in an incident at Red Fort. So far, nearly five pleas have been filed in the top court seeking action against people who indulged in violence on the Republic Day.

On Republic Day, protesting farmers swarmed into the Red Fort in the Capital during a 'tractor rally' on the Republic Day even as police tried to prevent them from driving towards central Delhi. The farmers barged into the 17th century monument, climbed up its ramparts and waved farmer union flags and banners and even hoisted a pennant.

Police and other security personnel deployed at the Red Fort were seen baton charging the protesters even as they were clearly outnumbered by the farmers. A few youth climbed up the flagpole on the ramparts of the fort and put up a saffron pennant with a religious symbol. Later, a few of them even climbed up further and fixed a farmer union flag near the spot where a bigger tricolour was aflutter.
Emmy Award winning actor Hal Holbrook, who began his professional career on the Holyoke stage, has died. He was 95.

Throughout out the 1950s, Holbrook was a member of the Valley Players, a summer stock theater company at the Mountain Park Casino Playhouse. It was there that Mark Twain Tonight! won prominent critical attention.

My professional acting career actually got its start in Holyoke because that is where I got my Actors Equity Card while performing with the Valley Players, Holbrook told The Republican in a 2010 interview. This was our first foray into the professional theater where actors were the age they were supposed to be. I think my best memories about Holyoke and its Valley Players was this wonderful feeling of being a part of a wonderful group of actors, many of them from New York, who took us in, just a couple of kids from the Midwest, and who were so kind to us.

He credited support from Springfield Morning Union critic Louise Mace, who he described as one of the better critics of the day in newspapers outside of New York.

In 1959, after five years of researching Mark Twain and honing his material in front of countless audiences in small towns all over America, Holbrook opened at a tiny off-Broadway theater, where it was a major overnight success.

He was the Tony Award for his portrayal of Twain in 1966.

He received an Emmy nomination for a TV adaptation of Mark Twain Tonight! in 1967, the first of multiple nominations. He won four Emmy Awards during his career.

The veteran actor also earned an Oscar nomination for supporting actor for his role in the film Into the Wild in 2008.

Holbrooks personal assistant, Joyce Cohen, confirmed his Jan. 23 death to the New York Times on Monday night.

Holbrook had a reoccurring role on Designing Women as the boyfriend to his real-life wife, Dixie Carter. He later co-starred with Burt Reynolds in Evening Shade.

Carter died in 2010.

Holbrook returned to Holyoke in 2011 to perform at a benefit for the Victory Theatre and spoke with students at Holyoke High School about acting.
(@FahadShabbir)

Washington, Feb 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2021 ) :Top US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell reportedly launched scathing criticism Monday of a controversial firebrand in his party, assailing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene as a "cancer" to the Republican brand.

Greene, who has supported debunked conspiracy theories by far-right movement QAnon and echoes former president Donald Trump's baseless claims of rigging in the 2020 election, is facing mounting anger over her incendiary rhetoric.

In a statement to The Hill, McConnell warned that the first-term Georgia lawmaker's embrace of "loony lies and conspiracy theories" is a "cancer for the Republican Party," which is already deeply divided over its path forward in the post-Trump era.

"Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality," McConnell said.

Greene has caught flak for her social media activity, including posting video of herself harassing a school shooting survivor and "liking" posts about executing leading Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Greene's rhetoric "has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party," McConnell said.

Greene responded swiftly to the jibes.

"The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully," she posted on Twitter. "This is why we are losing our country." McConnell, a Trump ally who broke with the outgoing president in December over his repeated insistence that the election was stolen from him, did not mention Greene by name in his statement, according to The Hill.

But the fierce denunciation by the leading Republican in the upper chamber in Congress suggests McConnell is acutely aware of the potential damage she could inflict on the party as it mounts an effort to retake the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.

Greene claims she enjoys support from Trump, and said Saturday that the two spoke by telephone. She also stressed she will "never apologize" as she faces a backlash over her remarks and actions.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is expected to meet with Greene this week as pressure mounts on him to take action.

Democrats are threatening to hold a floor vote this week to oust Greene from the House education and Labor Committee and the Budget Committee if McCarthy does not remove her.
'President Trump will argue that it serves no purpose to subject him to a trial and that the Senate lacks jurisdiction to do so. He is mistaken,' the managers continue. 'As we explain at length belowand as scholars from diverse viewpoints have long recognizedthe text and structure of the Constitution, as well as its original meaning and prior interpretations by Congress, overwhelmingly demonstrate that a former official remains subject to trial and conviction for abuses committed in office.

'Any other rule would make little sense. '

'The Constitution governs the first day of the President's term, the last day, and every moment in between,' the brief reads. 'Presidents do not get a free pass to commit high crimes and misdemeanors near the end of their term.'

The Constitution specifies that disqualification from office can be a punishment for an impeachment conviction.

'This is not a case where elections alone are a sufficient safeguard against future abuse; it is the electoral process itself that President Trump attacked and that must be protected from him and anyone else who would seek to mimic his behavior,' the legal brief states.

Lawyers for Trump are expected to file their own brief Tuesday. In a Fox News appearance Monday night, one of the attorneys, David Schoen, said he would argue that the trial was unconstitutional, that efforts to bar Trump from office were undemocratic. and that his words were protected by the First Amendment.

Democrats made clear that they disagree with all points.

'The only honorable path at that point was for President Trump to accept the results and concede his electoral defeat. Instead, he summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue,' they wrote.

Meanwhile, Trump's legal team is still scrambling to nail down its defense strategy as a deadline looms at noon on Tuesday for the former president to reply to a charge of incitement of insurrection brought by the House last month.

Over the weekend, Trump split with his previous team of lawyers, with reports indicating they were unwilling to center their legal strategy on election fraud claims. His new lawyers, which were announced Sunday, have not indicated what defense they have planned for the 45th president.

Those who will represent Trump in the Senate trial next week are David Schoen, a Fox News commentator and former counsel to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and Bruce Castor, a former county prosecutor in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania  where Trump's campaign sued over claims of fraudulently counting mail-in ballots.

The team shake-up and lack of legal strategy maintains as there's just one week left before the former president's impeachment trial is set to start in the Senate. On Monday, pre-trial briefs are due.

Democrats in the House voted to impeach Trump for a second time last month, claiming his actions and rhetoric on January 6  and before  led to a violent mob storming the Capitol in the name of preventing Congress from certifying the election for Joe Biden.

During the trial next week, Democrats will continue to argue Trump 'incited an insurrection,' and therefore should be convicted.

Donald Trump's impeachment lawyers, David Schoen (left) and Bruce Castor (right) have not yet outlined their legal defense for the former president as a deadline looms Tuesday at noon for them to respond to the charge for 'incitement of insurrection'

Schoen said Monday that the former president had 'nothing' to do with the Capitol riot as he warned the trial threatened to tear the country apart and damage American democracy.

The Atlanta-based lawyer insisted that the trial of a former president was 'unconstitutional'.

Neither Schoen nor Castor have expertise in constitutional law, which many see as the most promising path for Trump's defense  and some argue the Constitution does not allow for an impeachment trial of a political figure who has already left office.

Acquittal of the former president is almost certain as 67 senators are needed to vote in favor of conviction, meaning 17 Republicans would need to cross the political aisle. And most Republicans voted last week that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer president.

Schoen argued further Monday that Trump was not to blame for the violent protests at the Capitol, which killed four people including a Capitol Police officer.

Schoen, a Fox News commentator and former counsel to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, appeared on Fox News on Monday night to discuss the impeachment trial with Sean Hannity

Schoen said that the storming of the Capitol after Trump's January 6 rally was not the 45th president's fault

At a 'Stop the Steal' rally on the morning of January 6, Trump told his followers: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.'

Schoen said: 'He condemned violence at all times. Read the words of his speech. It calls for peacefulness.

'This has nothing to do with President Trump and the country doesn't need to just watch videos of riots and unrest. We need to heal now. We need to move forward.'

Schoen, who will represent Trump along with Bruce Castor, the former district attorney in Pennsylvania who declined to prosecute Bill Cosby, said the impeachment case was 'the most ill-advised legislative action that I've seen in my lifetime.'

He added: 'It is tearing the country apart at a time when we don't need anything like that.'

Schoen, an Atlantabased lawyer, also told Hannity (right) that the January 6 riot 'has nothing to do with President Trump'

Schoen said the the process was being made a mockery because those involved had already made up their minds, before it had even started, and strongly criticized the 'awful bias and prejudgment shown.'

He continued: 'Could you imagine any American citizen considered to be on trial, in which the judge and jury has already announced publicly the defendant must be convicted in this case?

'It undercuts democracy. How could you possibly have a fair trial? Senator Schumer promised a fair and full trial. You can't when you know that they are biased going in.'

Trump was impeached by the House on January 13.

He appears highly likely to be cleared, for a second time, by the Senate after a procedural vote showed that Republicans were unlikely to convict him.

On January 26 the Senate was asked whether they wanted impeachment to proceed.

The Senate voted 55-45, meaning that impeachment will go ahead.

But it showed that regardless of what happens in the trial, there almost certainly won't be enough Republican support to convict Trump: conviction would require 67 votes, or two-thirds of the Senate.

Schoen insisted that the trial was designed to end Trump's political future

Schoen said the trial was being held to damage Trump and bury him politically.

'This is the political weaponization of the impeachment process,' he told Sean Hannity on Fox News.

'There was a rush to judgment. Once President Trump became president, on the day he was elected, there were calls for his impeachment.'

He said the 'agenda' from the Democrats was to 'simply to bar President Trump from ever running for president again.'

Schoen added: 'And that is about as undemocratic as you could get.

'Can you imagine the slap in the face that is to the 75 million or more voters who voted for Donald Trump?'
Five children have been shot dead and their mother critically injured in a horror shooting in the early hours of the morning in Oklahoma, with the father of some of the children arrested.

Friends and family on Tuesday identified the wounded mom as Brittany Anderson.

Her killed children were identified as Jalaiya, 2; Jaidus, 3; Harmony, 5; Nevaeh, 6, and Quedynce, who had just turned 9 on January 12.

The five children were shot dead along with a man - who has yet to be identified by police - in the early-morning shooting in Muskogee.

Jarron Pridgeon, 25, was arrested by police following the attack.

While police have not officially released the names of the victims, a woman claiming to be a sister of the wounded mother identified the family in a GoFundMe campaign raising funds for funeral expenses.

Raven Anderson wrote: 'My nieces and nephew had bright futures ahead of them and I know they were going to change the world, but God needed them more than we did, so he called them home sooner than we could've ever expected.'

The sister revealed that Brittany remained in critical condition at the hospital but said her loved ones 'have the upmost faith that she will pull through.'

A relative has identified the Oklahoma woman who was critically injured and lost her five children in a shooting as Britanny Anderson (pictured above with her children)

Jarron Pridgeon, 25, has been arrested in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in connection with the death of six relatives, including a man and five young children

Officers responded at around 1.30am to a call of multiple people shot at a home in the 900 block of Indiana Street in Muskogee, about 45 miles southeast of Tulsa, police said in a press release.

Once there, officers encountered a person holding a gun. He was identified by the police on Tuesday as Pridgeon.

'One of our officers shot, fired at that suspect, missing him. The suspect ran off,' said Lynn Hamlin, with Muskogee police.

After a brief chase police apprehended Pridgeon and took him into custody, reported Fox23.

A man and five children were fatally shot inside this home on Indiana Street in Muskogee, Oklahoma, early Tuesday

A woman was airlifted to a hospital in Tulsa to be treated for life-threatening injuries sustained during the shooting

Police arrested Jarron Pridgeon, 25, after encountering him holding a gun at the scene

Officers then entered the house and found one man and four children dead. A critically injured fifth child was airlifted to a hospital in Tulsa but also died.

Brittany Anderson was also taken to the hospital by helicopter with life-threatening injuries, police said.

Family members told KFOR4 that Pridgeon is the biological father of some of the children who were killed.

The slain children were described as elementary school-age, or younger, reported Tulsa World.

Brittany Anderson's sister said the mom-of-five is in critical condition but is expected to recover

A relative identified the young victims of the attack as Jalaiya, 2; Jaidus, 3; Harmony, 5; Nevaeh, 6, and Quedynce, who had just turned 9 on January 12 (pictured above)

Muskogee Public Schools released a statement, saying two of the children were students at Creek Elementary School.

'We are saddened by this tragic loss and our deepest sympathies go out to all of those impacted,' stated Schools Superintendent Dr. Jarod Mendenhall. 'No words can adequately express our sadness in losing these students and our thoughts and prayers are with this family.'

The Muskogee police chief told KJRH he believes the shooting was the result of a domestic incident involving members of the same family, but no motive has been revealed.

'I cant say how, but we believe the suspect in custody is related to the victims,' said Chief Johnny Teehee said.

Court records indicate that Pridgeon has a criminal history, which includes charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and threatening to perform act of violence

Neighbors on Indian Street said the family at the center of the incident had only lived there for about three weeks. Pridgeon also resided at that address, according to police.

Court records indicate that Pridgeon has a criminal history, which includes charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, threatening to perform act of violence and malicious injury to property under $1,000 stemming from an incident in 2019.

In 2017, Pridgeon was arrested on suspicion of larceny of an automobile, but that case was later dismissed.

Automated responses to job applications can often be frustrating, but sometimes they're better than what recruiters can often write.

Bored Panda rounded up hilarious interactions job seekers from around the world have had with potential employers, and job listings that have shocking requirements, including one that said applicants should be 'good looking'.

Another person contributed a message they received on LinkedIn from a recruiter in the US, saying only candidates who are currently working will be considered for the role.

Elsewhere, another person from America shared a job listing for a Junior Software Developer that has at least nine years of experience.

Here, FEMAIL shares some of the most shocking interactions which will leave your jaw on the floor...

Bored Panda rounded up shocking job listings and correspondence with recruiters - including one person who was repeatedly referred to by the wrong name in emails

One job seeker was eager to apply for an entry level role until they read a requirement involved being 'good looking'

A job seeker, who lives in the US, received a message on LinkedIn from a recruiter only considering applicants who already have a job

Sorry NOT sorry! One person from the UK, was stunned to receive an email that said they had accidentally been rejected - before the employers said they had reviewed their application and they would still be unsuccessful

Another person received an email from a restaurant in Atlanta, claiming their experience of working with dead bodies was relevant for working with them

Junior doesn't mean beginner? A job seeker who lives in America, was stunned to spot the requirements of a Junior Software Developer included having at least nine years of experience

One person received an email from a potential employer apologising for their attitude during the interview process

Another individual was amused to receive a rejection email, despite withdrawing their application because they accepted a role somewhere else

Most aggressive recruiter ever? A potential employer seeking candidates on LinkedIn warned people not to apply if they've already got an offer from another company

One recruiter claimed they didn't focus on experience when hiring, only to later list a requirement of at least two years

Another employer based in Canada explained they weren't interested in hiring anyone who has a personality

Duncanville Independent School District, based in Duncanville, Texas, recently utilized four school buses outfitted with Internet transmitters as part of its  Wi-Fi on Wheels  initiative to provide access to families without reliable service.The need to facilitate connectivity was the latest in a slew of obstacles the district has had to tackle since the pandemic forced many students to continue their studies remotely nearly a year ago.Superintendent Marc Smith said the first hurdle in closing the digital divide was making sure students had a device to connect to the Internet in the first place. About 82 percent of the districts 12,800 students are considered economically disadvantaged. Many of those students didnt have the devices necessary for virtual learning.Prior to COVID, we were not a district that had one device per student, so we had a sense of our digital divide and our technology challenges, he said. Once COVID hit, it really exposed just how great this digital divide was in our district.But Duncanvilles operational funds were unable to cover the cost of providing new devices. This led the district to dip into its fund balance to purchase nearly $3 million worth of devices, including laptops, iPads and Wi-Fi hot spots . The district also reached out to the Texas Education Agency, which provided about $300,000 in grant funds.Parents just arent able to afford another bill, Smith said. Because of the population that we serve, we definitely had to tap into that fund balance and seek every other opportunity from the state to close that gap as quickly as possible.With demand high, it took a few months for all of the devices to arrive. The district was eventually able to provide over 6,000 devices to students in need, but district surveys indicated connectivity still remained an issue.So much money had already been poured into purchasing devices. Like many districts, Duncanville had to find a creative way to bring the Internet to students homes aside from extending Wi-Fi range outside of its campuses.We knew at some point, we were going to have to get creative and figure out ways to address that deficit in our district, Smith said.Duncanville ISD Network Engineer Brandonn Thomas said Wi-Fi on Wheels was part of a multi-pronged approach to extend the districts Wi-Fi footprint and supplement the limited hot spots at their disposal.Its a different challenge to now shift that support model mid-flight with limited staff, he noted.Duncanville is just one of many districts that's used buses to bring Wi-Fi to underserved communities. Smith said it's an example of how districts with limited resources have had to find ways to adapt. Despite the circumstances, Smith welcomed the challenge.Its pushed us to be creative and look for different ways to think outside the box, and thats a good thing, he said.Facilitating remote learning isnt just all about devices and Internet service, however. Students often rely on help from parents to navigate virtual learning platforms. Many parents simply aren't always available to provide that support, according to Smith.Were still very early in aggregating all of the data, but several homes Ive been in and others whove shared [their experiences] with me have had similar stories  that it was just really a challenge for parents to do their work but also support their kids with technology, Smith said.Shortly after the launch of Wi-Fi on Wheels, Duncanville administrators worked to identify students who were chronically absent or failing their courses. Last week, district volunteers and staff members began visiting about 100 students, sometimes to assist students with issues they have encountered through virtual learning.Smith said part of the goal was to reconnect with students. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , childrens social, emotional and mental well-being has been impacted by the pandemic, often making it difficult to stay on task.We werent seeing them log on continuously. They were having lots of absences and maybe not passing their coursework, with multiple failing grades, Smith said. The effort was to target the most critical students based on our data.These efforts have increased the workload placed upon administrators and staff, which will likely change expectations moving forward.It speaks to their commitment and it speaks to their willingness to do what educators do, and that is looking for ways to make a difference for the young people were responsible for, Smith said.The virtual learning environment is going to be with us, I think, forever now, he later added.As a district staff member and parent of a high school sophomore, Thomas said his biggest takeaway from the past year has been the districts willingness to adapt to shifting paradigms. He believes this will have implications for how schools are expected to deliver content in the years ahead.I think it has completely shifted what we thought we were capable of, both as facilitators and technology professionals, he said. There are things we didnt think we could do that now we know we can do.

The militarys against Aung San Suu Kyis government has knee-capped Myanmars democratic transition and undercut its push to attract more foreign investment, particularly from the West. Whats the armys endgame and how will governments such as the U.S., Britain and China respond?



Whats happening in

Myanmars de facto leader, Suu Kyi, and other top political leaders including President Win Myint were detained in a raid on Monday, in an apparent The nations military, known as the Tatmadaw, seized control of the country.

Is this a temporary takeover or a permanent military government?

The military has said that it is using a state of emergency to take control for one year, promising that it will hold elections afterwards. It is unclear, however, if the pledge is genuine or a ploy to buy time.

What was the response from the U.S.?

President Joe Biden has said the U.S. could reinstate sanctions on if the Southeast Asian countrys military doesnt immediately relinquish the power they have seized in a and release activists and officials.

What is the military trying to achieve here?

While the military had previously committed to transition to a democracy, it had never truly relinquished power, retaining authority in the parliament with veto rights and a guaranteed number of seats. and her National League for Democracy party in the latter months of their first term moved to give more authority to the civilian government, and the military simply were not buying. By following through on a coup, the military is sending a clear signal that it has no plans to be marginalized in a government it has controlled for decades.





What are the implications of the coup to the Rohingya?

Its not good news. The thrust of the pushback on the atrocities in Rakhine state came from strong pressure, which is now squarely focused on the coup. It is unclear what might occur now that the military, which is alleged to have been responsible for genocide there, may do next. It is further worth noting that mobile and internet communications in Rakhine state have been heavily restricted amid accusations from rights groups that the atrocities are ongoing. The military and Suu Kyis former government have denied wrongdoing.

Where is and is she safe?

According to an official from the National League for Democracy, and now-former President Win Myint are understood to be under lock and key in their respective homes. Both leaders were detained by the military on Monday.

What effects, if any, might Myanmars coup have on neighboring countries, such as Thailand?

That is unclear. Southeast Asian nations all seem to have a trajectory of their own while many countries like Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia were on a path of democratic backsliding well before Myanmars troubles arose. There's no indication that will change or be exacerbated by the coup.

How will this coup impact global markets and the global economy?

While not a fully globalized nation, the political crisis in Myanmar does threaten to impact a number of companies around the world, ranging from rare-earth miners in China to global oil and gas majors. Chinas rare-earth miners dropped on Monday following the coup while some businesses belonging to Yoma Strategic Holdings, a Singapore-based company that invests in a number of Myanmar industries including real estate and food and beverage, had been disrupted due to telecommunications outages. Under the military government, it will be very difficult for investors to know, in the short term, whether they plan to revert to protectionist policies that had worked so well for the elite, even while promising to maintain some form of democracy.

Whats Chinas role in all of this?

China plays an increasingly important role in Myanmar. Chinese President Xi Jinping has a vested interest in dozens of infrastructure projects key to his regional Belt and Road ambitions. During the Rohingya crisis, China was one of the few countries that stood behind the government, and has provided the nation with free Covid vaccines. If it were to support the military government now, it could in fact help to get several stalled projects off the ground.

What does this coup mean for Myanmars democracy? Will there be elections again?

Myanmars democracy is still in its infancy. There are varying opinions on whether this is the end of democracy in the country, but that remains to be seen as the military will have to choose what to do with an NLD party that has the overwhelming support of voters. The military has promised to hold fresh polls after a one-year state of emergency.

How effective would sanctions be on Myanmar if governments or the UN decide to impose them?

It depends on the definition of effective. Global sanctions would devastate the economy and could impact the livelihoods of millions of people. But would they do harm to the military elite or dissuade them from pursuing this course of action? The former is unlikely because the military is well-documented to have vast riches across diverse segments of the local economy  from raising billions mining precious stones to millions more from brewing beer.

Other than sanctions, how else can governments pressure Myanmar?

Aside from sanctions, it will be tough to pressure the military. For example, during the Rohingya crisis, the West collectively condemned the actions of the military while U.S. sanctions had no impact. The response proved slow and largely ineffective. It was also left with fewer cards after the private sector largely withdrew investment interest. Western soft power has also taken a hit. Under former President Donald Trump, the U.S. lost a lot of leverage for its blase attitude on rights and democratic backsliding. Thats going to require some degree of rehabilitation before once again becoming an effective diplomatic tool.
Este es uno de los 600 operativos Tayta que realizaremos hasta julio en las zonas mas vulnerables de todo el Peru. Es importante reconocer y agradecer el trabajo que realizan el personal medico y las FF.AA. que participan en estos operativos para cuidar a miles de ciudadanos. https://t.co/N3u2JNqvGl
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  An open Senate seat in Ohio has set off a round of jockeying among ambitious Democrats and a spirited debate over who is best poised to lead a party comeback in a one-time battleground that has been trending Republican.

At the core of the fight, triggered by the unexpected retirement of Sen. Rob Portman, is whether the party should prioritize gender or racial diversity in its nominee or again align behind a white man with the hope of winning back the white, working-class voters who have been leaving the party for years.

As the Democratic Party, we have done the same thing over and over and over again, which is to run white men, and we havent been successful, said Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, among the Democrats considering jumping in the race. I think we have to offer something different and I think thats important; whether thats people of color on the ticket in a meaningful way, and women, you know we are the base of the party, and we shouldnt be an afterthought.

The fight in Ohio is a replay of the one that consumed Democrats' presidential primary last year and suggests the ultimate victory of a white man  now President Joe Biden  did nothing to settle it. Biden lost Ohio by 8 percentage points.

Now some influential Democrats are urging Dr. Amy Acton, a white, former state health director who emerged to prominence during the pandemic, to jump in for what would be her first bid for public office. Meanwhile, veteran Congressman Tim Ryan, a white man who represents Ohio's blue-collar Steel Valley, also has said he's strongly considering a bid, encouraged by Democrats who tout his appeal to working-class voters.

While Acton and Ryan are believed to be the furthest along in their deliberations, several politicians who are Black are also eyeing the seat. They include Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce, a former state treasurer; U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, a five-term congresswoman from Columbus; and Ohio House Democratic Leader Emilia Sykes. Former Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman dropped out of the running Wednesday.

Story continues

Ohio does need to shake it up and this race will dictate where we go in the future, said state Rep. Thomas West, chairman of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. The group is working to recruit a Black candidate for the Senate seat, he said.

Democrats have traditionally won the state on the strength of their support with voters in Ohio's many cities, including Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, all places with large Black populations. That base was augmented with support from a stretch of counties along the Ohio River. But Republicans have been cutting into that support for years, leading to two victories for Republican Donald Trump and a shutout for Democrats in statewide executive offices since 2006.

That's left Democrats looking for a new formula  one that might boost turnout in the cities and build off recent momentum with suburban voters and women.

Antoinette Wilson, a Democratic consultant and recent contender for state Democratic chair, said the party began working to recruit Acton even before Portman announced his decision last week not to run for reelection. Early in the virus outbreak, Acton was a regular on television screens across the state, spawned an Amy Acton Fan Club with its own yard signs, inspired a bobblehead and had young girls dressing like her.

But she also sparked intense pushback over the restrictive health orders she was imposing on the state, at Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's request, which included anti-Semitic swipes and armed protests at her suburban home. She left the administration in June.

As a political newcomer, it's not clear how the physician and former college professor would do on the rough-and-tumble campaign trail, Wilson noted.

The key question is always about electability, Wilson said. Does Amy Acton have great name ID? Yeah. Do people know her name? Of course. But that versus a political candidate is a different dynamic."

Ryan, 47, is coming off a tenth win in his once-solidly Democratic district. But he received a smaller percentage of the vote  52.5%  than in any of his previous elections, a reflection in part of the GOP's steady inroads with voters in the northeast part of the state. Notably, Ryan outperformed Biden, who touts his own working-class following, in the district that includes the General Motors plant in Lordstown.

That history could help Ryan shave the Republican advantage in areas where Trump heavily outperformed Biden, especially rural eastern and southeast Ohio, while also holding Democratic gains in the suburbs, said Aaron Pickrell, a veteran Ohio Democratic strategist and longtime aide to former Gov. Ted Strickland, who has encouraged Ryan to run.

To me that would be the big element of his candidacy, said Pickrell, who ran Bidens Ohio campaign last year. He should be able to tap into the sort of suburban, exurban areas where Trump didnt do as well, but then undercut the Republican gains made in areas that had traditionally been Democratic, like the Mahoning Valley and Appalachia.

Some Democrats liken Ryan to Sen. Sherrod Brown, an outspoken economic populist who won a commanding reelection victory in 2018. But any similarity has never been tested, as Ryan has explored but never pursued a statewide race.

Still, Ryan got a boost Saturday when Hillary Clinton, the partys 2016 presidential nominee, declared on Twitter that she was all in for a Ryan Senate candidacy.

Meanwhile, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author Connie Schultz, who is married to Brown, has tweeted about Actons potential candidacy: Imagine Dr. Amy Acton as Ohios next U.S. senator. I sure can.

The party's debate comes just as a new group of younger, more diverse leaders takes over the state party, led by the party's first female chair and the first Black executive director.

For some Ohio Democrats the cautionary tale is 2018, when a group of female gubernatorial candidates all ceded their ambitions to former Obama administration consumer chief Richard Cordray, who lost the race.

You look at all these women who ran for the Democratic nominee against white men and the white men got the nomination and then lost the general election, said Democratic consultant Sandy Theis. Ohio is littered with that history. Okay, well, why dont we learn from the past and why dont we give the women a try?

Theis said her favorite picks for the Senate bid are Acton and Beatty, 70, whom Theis said showed grit when she was pepper sprayed during a Black Lives Matter rally this summer while protecting another much younger demonstrator from police.

Another prospect is Sykes, 35, who holds a seat that's been in her powerful Akron political family since her father won it in 1983. Vernon Sykes, now a state senator, was succeeded by his wife, Barbara, who also made an unsuccessful run for state auditor in 2006.

Boyce, 49, has been a commissioner in Ohio's largest county since 2016, after holding a series of previous offices, including city councilman and state representative. He was appointed state treasurer by Strickland in 2008, becoming the first Black Democrat ever to hold statewide, non-judicial office. Boyce lost a bid to be reseated two years later.

__

Sewell reported from Cincinnati and Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

France will only administer the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to people under age 65, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday after the government's health advisory body cited a lack of sufficient data about its effectiveness in older people.

The decision could shake up the French vaccination strategy, because the country has prioritized nursing home residents and people over 75. France had counted on the AstraZeneca vaccine for a large part of its upcoming inoculations, until the company announced delays affecting countries around Europe and the world.

"For this AstraZeneca vaccine, we will not propose it to those older than 65," Macron told TF1 television Tuesday night. Instead, the vaccine the British-Swedish company developed with Oxford University will be given to medical personnel under 65, individuals with health vulnerabilities or those facing high exposure, he said.

The French practice differs from the guidance given by the European Medicines Agency, which authorized AstraZeneca's vaccine for use in all adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.

Health authorities in Germany and other countries have raised concerns that the Anglo-Swedish company didn't test the vaccine in enough older people to prove it works for them, and indicated they would not recommend it for people over 65.

In guidance issued Tuesday, France's High Authority for Health said it "recommends that the vaccine ... be given preferentially to people under 65." It says it will review this guidance when AstraZeneca has more data on the vaccine's effectiveness in older people.

The French government depends on the High Authority's guidance and is adapting its strategy based on the announcement. Health officials have said they constantly adapt vaccine strategy based on availability of doses, demand and regulatory guidance.

Macron said France still aims to offer the vaccine to anyone who wants it by the end of the summer.

Macron met Tuesday night with international vaccine producers and major pharmaceutical companies that have an industrial site in France to discuss ways to "quickly" and "significantly" boost short-term production capabilities in France and in Europe. The meeting came amid criticism of the EU's handling of its collective vaccine strategy across the bloc's 27 member nations.

Macron said he sent a scientific team to Russia several weeks ago to study that country's vaccine efforts and "the exchanges were very positive." The French leader noted early results of an advanced study of Russia's Sputnik V published in The Lancet medical journal that showed the vaccine was about 91% effective.

Macron said that if and when the European Medicines Agency decides approve the Russian vaccine, it will not be a "political decision. It's a decision that is scientific."

France has seen some of the world's highest numbers of confirmed virus cases and deaths, which have been steadily rising in recent weeks.

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.
UPDATE: When will the snow stop and this extended winter storm finally end in N.J.?

The long-duration winter storm that has already dumped more than 20 inches of snow across much of northern and central New Jersey isnt quite done as forecasters say it could bring up to 3 additional inches on Tuesday before finally clearing out.

The worst is certainly over, though, as winter storm warnings are set to expire and the dig out begins.

Up to 3 inches of snow could fall in parts of New Jersey on Tuesday as a winter storm lingers into day three and adds to some huge snow totals.

While hundreds of school districts across the state are either closed or have switched to remote instruction for the day, New Jersey Transit buses and trains resume on a staggered schedule Tuesday and there are only a few dozen flight cancellations at area airports.

Forecasters say to expect slippery roads across the state with winter storm warnings in 13 counties expiring at 4 p.m. Power outages remain low though wind gusts could reach as high as 35 mph on Tuesday.

Snow will end from west to east late Tuesday afternoon as dry air from the northwest finally moves into New Jersey, the National Weather Service said in its morning forecast discussion. Temperatures in the 30s during the day will drop into the 20s overnight. Wednesday will be mostly cloudy and in the 30s before the sun returns Friday with highs around 40.

The National Weather Service latest "event total" forecast map includes much of northern half of New Jersey with 20+ inches of snow by the time the storm winds down later Tuesday.

Heres a look a the forecast for the third and final day of the snowstorm:

Eastern Monmouth, Ocean, southeastern Burlington: An additional 2 inches of snow could fall.

Hunterdon, Somerset, Middlesex, western Monmouth, Mercer: Another 1 to 3 inches of snow are in the forecast.

Sussex, Warren, Morris: Forecasters say another 1 to 3 inches of snow is possible. These counties have recorded the highest snow totals  30.2 inches in Sparta, 30 inches in Mendham and 28.5 inches in Mount Arlington as of late Monday, for example.

Salem, Gloucester, Camden, northwestern Burlington: One to 2 more inches of snow might drop.

Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, coastal Ocean: Unlike the above 13 counties, which are under a winter storm warning, these counties have a less severe winter weather advisory in effect until 4 p.m. Forecasters are calling for up to another inch of snow.

Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Union: All watches and warnings have expired, though another inch or 2 is possible, especially in the higher elevation spots such as West Milford.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JGoldmanNJ.

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Aung San Suu Kyi is back in familiar territory, under arrest. Early Monday morning she, along with the President and many others, was arrested in a cunning move by the military.

So far, at least 30 people have been arrested, possibly more. No news on their whereabouts has emerged.

Aung San Suu Kyi (left) who has been detained in the coup, walks with General Min Aung Hlaing (right) in 2016. Credit:AP

This coup was well-planned by the military. They knew all key politicians would be gathered in Naypyidaw, the capital city built by the military, for the start of the Parliament and inauguration of the new government.

The military declared a constitutional emergency, claiming there was large-scale voter fraud at the 2020 elections and that parliament should be postponed until the matter was resolved. It issued statements to the effect that the Vice-President, General Myint Swe, has become the acting President. This appears to imply the president  willingly or unwillingly  has relinquished his office.




Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday accused the European Union of holding up supplies of COVID-19 vaccines to other countries and complained that less wealthy countries lacked the power to secure all they sought.







"This is a fight among the highest bidders, who can pay first," Duterte said in a televised address.







"We are not rich," he said, although he assured the public his government has the funds to procure vaccines.







The Philippines has more than 527,000 confirmed coronavirus cases - among the highest in Asia - and 10,807 deaths.







It has lagged regional peers in securing vaccines, with which Manila hopes this year to inoculate 70 million people, or two-thirds of the population.







Duterte said the issue was getting the supplies as big powers like the EU not only buy up doses in bulk but have threatened to restrict exports of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly AstraZeneca.







"AstraZeneca was held hostage by the European Union," Duterte said.







The British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca said last week it would fall short of delivering promised vaccines to the EU, triggering a furious response from the bloc.







The EU is now looking into a scheme to monitor and authorise export of vaccines, potentially blocking them if its own supply is not met.







"Here we have the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), but we are not really as powerful as the EU. We don't have connections," Duterte said.







AstraZeneca is one of the seven vaccine manufacturers the Philippines is in talks with for supply deals, which are on top of the millions of doses its expects to receive via the COVAX facility. (Reuters)



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The body of Officer Brian Sicknick, 42, will lie in honor at the US Capitol - the same building he died defending. His casket will arrive on Tuesday evening, and stay through Wednesday

The police officer killed during the siege of the U.S. Capitol last month will lie in honor in the building's historic rotunda on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The body of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of his injuries the day after the January 6 attack, will arrive at the rotunda on Tuesday evening and his fellow officers will begin viewing him at 10 pm.

Hundreds of President Trump's supporters stormed into the Capitol attacking police, smashing windows and sending lawmakers into hiding, after a fiery speech in which Trump urged them to 'fight' his election loss to President Joe Biden.

The incident led to Trump's second impeachment; he will face trial in the Senate on a charge of inciting insurrection next week.

Since the 1852, the caskets of just three dozen distinguished Americans have been honored at the Capitol.

30 government officials, judges and military leaders have 'lay in state' at the Capitol, including Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

The most recent politician to lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda was John Lewis, whose casket was place there in July of last year.

The category of 'laying in honor' was created in 1998 in order to recognize distinguished Americans outside of the political realm.

Sicknick, who died at 42, is the fifth American to receive the honor.

The first two citizens to lay in honor in the rotunda were Capitol Police officers Jacob J. Chestnut and John M. Gibson, who were fatally wounded in 1998 by a gunman who ran to the offices of then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay.

The other two were civil rights leader Rosa Parks in 2005 and the Reverend Billy Graham in 2018.

The Capitol building is pictured on Tuesday afternoon following preparations for the arrival of Sicknick's casket

Sicknick's body will arrive at the rotunda on Tuesday evening and his fellow officers will begin viewing him at 10 pm

In the past 200 years, the caskets of only about three dozen distinguished Americans have been honored at the Capitol

Hundreds of President Trump's supporters stormed into the Capitol attacking police, smashing windows and sending lawmakers into hiding on January 6

vDuring the siege of the Capitol, Sicknick was pepper-sprayed and hit in the head, according to his father. An ambulance crew resuscitated him twice as he was rushed to a nearby hospital. He died the following day. Pictured: police and protesters clashing outside the building on January 6

Members of Congress will be able to view Sicknick on Wednesday morning. There will be a congressional tribute on Wednesday before a ceremonial departure.

Sicknick - who had served in the New Jersey Air National Guard- will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

During the siege of the Capitol, Sicknick was pepper-sprayed and hit in the head, according to his father. An ambulance crew resuscitated him twice as he was rushed to a nearby hospital. He died the following day.

Sicknick joined the Capitol Police in 2008.

Last week, New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman introduced legislation to award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Sicknick 'for giving his life to protect the Capitol and the Members and staff of Congress on January 6'.

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is pictured looking at the coffin of her slain husband President John F. Kennedy as his casket lays in state at the US Capitol in 1963

The first two citizens to lay in honor in the rotunda were Capitol Police officers Jacob J. Chestnut and John M. Gibson, who were fatally wounded in 1998 by a gunman who ran to the offices of then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay

Then-President Bill Clinton is pictured speaking in the rotunda as Capitol Police Officers John Gibson and Jacob Chestnut lay in honor in July 1998

It is believed Officer Sicknick's family will join his Capitol Police colleagues inside the rotunda on Tuesday evening.

Sicknick is survived by his wife, Charles and Gladys, as well as two brother and his longtime girlfriend, Sandra Garza.

From his early days growing up in a New Jersey hamlet, Sicknick wanted to be a police officer. He enlisted in the National Guard six months after graduating high school in 1997

They released a statement following his death, paying tribute to the late cop, which read: 'There really arent enough kind words in any language to describe how sweet Brian was. He was truly a lovely, humble soul. We are missing him terribly.

'He was sweet natured through and through. Everyone who met him adored him. He also loved his dachshunds dearly, spoiling them, and ensuring they got the best care possible.'

From his early days growing up in a New Jersey hamlet, Sicknick wanted to be a police officer.

He enlisted in the National Guard six months after graduating high school in 1997, deploying to Saudi Arabia and then Kyrgyzstan. Joining the Guard was his means to joining law enforcement, his family said.

Sicknick joined the Capitol Police in 2008, serving until his death

He was one of five people who died at the Capitol, or from complications sustained in the aftermath.

More than 100 people who stormed into the building have now been arrested and are facing federal charges.

The FBI is said to be investigating more than 30 people in relation to Sicknick's murder, but no one has yet been charged.

Politicians remain shaken by the events, which have led to the erection of eight-foot-high fence around the complex as a temporary measure.

Acting Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman called last week for permanent fencing and back-up security forces near the building.

A rioter holds a Trump flag inside the US Capitol after storming the building. He is standing in front of a painting depicting the Battle of Lake Erie - major US naval victory in the War of 1812
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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Quaterra Resources Inc. (OTCQB: QTRRF) (TSXV: QTA) ("Quaterra" or the "Company") today announced that Gerald Prosalendis has, for personal reasons, resigned as President and CEO and as a director of the Company. Dr. Thomas Patton, Chairman and Founder of the Company, will assume the role of interim President and CEO of the Company.

"We would like to thank Gerald for his leadership during difficult market conditions and the progress the Company has made with its projects in a complex strategic and operating environment," says Quaterra Chairman Tom Patton.

About the Yerington Copper Project, Nevada

Quaterra's Yerington Copper Project is located in the historic Yerington Copper District, a mining-friendly jurisdiction with good infrastructure and a history of copper production, about 70 miles southeast of Reno, Nevada. It comprises the MacArthur oxide and sulfide deposit; the Yerington pit sulfide and oxide deposit previously mined by Anaconda; the Bear porphyry copper deposit; and several exploration targets. The Company has reported oxide and sulfide resources at both MacArthur and the Yerington pit, and the 2012 PEA at MacArthur, all prepared under National Instrument 43-101. The Company also owns valuable water rights in the district.

About Quaterra Resources Inc.

Quaterra Resources Inc. is a copper-gold exploration company focused on projects with the potential to host large-scale mineral deposits attractive to major mining companies. It is advancing its Yerington copper project in the historic Yerington Copper District, Nevada. It continues to investigate opportunities to acquire prospects in North America on reasonable terms and the partnerships with which to advance them.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Thomas Patton, Chairman

Quaterra Resources Inc.

Karen Robertson

Corporate Communications

778-898-0057

For more information please contact:

Thomas Patton, Chairman

Quaterra Resources Inc.

604-641-2758

Email: info@quaterra.com

Website: www.quaterra.com

Disclosure note:

Some statements in this news release are forward-looking statements under applicable United States and Canadian laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which may cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73384
FRANKFURT, Germany, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new China Mobile International Limited (CMI) data centre is now open in Germany. The purpose-built Tier III facility is located in Frankfurt, the financial capital of the European Union.

Trade between Asia and Europe remains strong with significant inter-regional investment flows and growing collaboration in education, research, and other areas. The Frankfurt Data Centre is an important addition to CMI's growing global network and serves as both an International Network Exchange hub and an Internet Data Centre (IDC).

"CMI is locating our second data centre in Europe in Frankfurt to help provide secure and reliable high-speed connections and enable closer ties between Europe and Asia. COVID-19 has meant more users spending more time online, with increased reliance on digital tools for remote working and learning and online shopping. Technology is now an intrinsic part of almost all aspects of our lives, so more data needs to be processed and stored. This in turn means greater demand for cloud and content delivery solutions," said Dr Li Feng, Chairman & CEO of CMI. "CMI provides professional one-stop-shop services to help carrier and enterprise customers respond to and meet the needs of their users in a new era of digital globalization."

The new Frankfurt facility seamlessly connects with CMI's Singapore and UK data centres, its Global Network Centre in Hong Kong and its extensive global mobile communications and cloud network infrastructure. The new data centre will strengthen the international connectivity of iConnect, an integrated solution for carriers and deliver enterprise services to businesses worldwide via CMI iSolutions and mCloud. More than 2,000 international businesses currently leverage CMI's iSolutions product suite for connectivity and specialist solutions covering IDC, information and communications technology, Internet of Things and cloud, while more than 10,000 enterprise users rely on CMI's mCloud cloud-network integration platform.

CMI's global footprint includes cable systems, points of presence (POPs) and data centres, as well as collaborative agreements with 29 data centre service providers that extend its services to more than 210 cities worldwide.

An expert team helps global financial sector organizations build flexible hybrid IT infrastructure that meets the industry's exacting security and compliance requirements across public cloud, private cloud, and physical architecture. CMI's integrated cloud networking products help banks, insurers, security firms and fintechs access secure global data centres, dedicated low-latency routes and cloud connections. CMI leverages its global network infrastructure to offer a service-ready cross-border backbone via mCloud that slashes cloud provisioning lead time to seconds-a fraction of that required for traditional connectivity service deployments. It also ensures 99.99% availability for POP-to-POP connections with mCloud's Cloud Connect solution smoothly integrating different cloud regions around the world.

"With an extensive footprint of cable systems, data centres and more than 80 Cloud Connect POPs, CMI provides global access with ample bandwidth, flexible connectivity and comprehensive one-stop services," Dr Li Feng said. "Serving international customers, especially Chinese enterprises looking to expand in Europe, our new facility is helping confirm Frankfurt as a premier data centre hub."

Located in Morfelden, the CMI Frankfurt Data Centre is designed with two individual cable lead-ins with dual diversity paths and advanced nine-layer security control. The newly built facility is served by a dual power supply from two different power substations. The power system is supported by 2N Transformers and Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS), which is equipped with a 12-minute backup battery. The data centre's cooling system includes chilled water storage reserved for continuous cooling backup.

The new data centre is a Tier III data centre certified by the Uptime Institute under its Tier Certification of Design Documents (TCDD) standard. CMI expects to confirm other international certifications including Payment Card Industry - Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), TUViT Trusted Site Infrastructure (TSI) Level 3, Tier Certification of Constructed Facilities (TCCF) standards, and relevant ISO certifications for security and quality management.

With enterprises increasingly wanting the benefits of comprehensive one-stop-shop solutions, CMI is committed to offering a complete range of value-added services, including professional colocation, cross-connect and remote hands support. The latter provides on-site technicians for maintenance tasks and IT management on behalf of the enterprise and minimises the need for site visits by their in-house personnel.

To meet the growing demands of multinational companies, CMI will continue to advance its presence across the globe and maximise its data centre synergies to achieve efficient convergence and agility, providing global access with large bandwidth connectivity.

About China Mobile International Limited

China Mobile International Limited (CMI) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Mobile, mainly responsible for the operation of China Mobile's international business. In order to provide better services to meet the growing demand in the international telecommunications market, China Mobile established a subsidiary, CMI, in December 2010. CMI currently has 70+ terrestrial and submarine cable resources worldwide, with a total international transmission bandwidth of over 90T, and a total of 180 POPs. With Hong Kong, China as its launchpad, CMI has significantly accelerated global IDC development, creating a strong network for data centre cloudification. Leveraging the strong support by China Mobile, CMI is a trusted partner that provides comprehensive international telecom services and solutions to international enterprises, carriers and mobile users. Headquartered in Hong Kong, China, CMI has expanded its footprint in 37 countries and regions. For more information, please visit www.cmi.chinamobile.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1430410/China_Mobile_International_Opens_Frankfurt_Data_Centre.jpg
Ulster University has confirmed that the School of Health Sciences undergraduate programmes will relocate to its Magee campus in Derry from September 2022.

The relocation will bring over 800 undergraduate students to the Magee campus.

Postgraduate Health Sciences teaching will move to the Universitys Belfast campus at the same time.

Announcing the relocation decision, Professor Carol Curran, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences at Ulster University explained: Now, more than ever, in the context of a health service that continues to face sustained challenge in tackling COVID-19, we are acutely aware of the vital contribution of our allied health professionals.

The Magee campus will best enable the NHS strategic emphasis on development of multi-disciplinary teams and rich opportunities for interprofessional learning.

The programmes will be delivered alongside Magees new Paramedic teaching provision, and Graduate Entry School of Medicine, both of which are recruiting students for the start of the 2021 academic year.

UUs award-winning School of Nursing which ranked 7th in the UK has operated in the city for 20 years.

Magee campus also runs one of only three Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) competency test centres in the UK, established to increase nursing capacity and help alleviate pressures in the health sector.

Professor Curran added: Bringing these programmes together will open up opportunities for an interdisciplinary student learning environment, as well as building on existing research collaborations in personalised medicine and cognitive analytics based at Magee.

Belfast is the most appropriate location for postgraduate provision - supporting the existing health sciences workforce to access continued professional development, alongside our current postgraduate nursing provision.

We value the input of the healthcare stakeholders, partners, students and colleagues who contributed to the public consultation carried out and look forward to working with them as we prepare for the first cohort of students in September 2022.

A UU spokesperson said the decision reflects the Universitys unique regional mission operating across 3 campuses at Derry, Coleraine and Belfast / Jordanstown, enabling access to educational opportunity across Northern Ireland and supporting wider efforts to achieve better regional economic balance.

The University has made the decision following a full Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA), as well as review and analysis of responses to a public consultation that closed in early December.

Professor Curran concluded: We look forward to working with our colleagues, student body, Trade Unions, all the HSC Trusts and our many partners in Derry~Londonderry to welcome students and staff to this progressive school on our beautiful campus in a vibrant university city.

Together we will provide the next generation of highly skilled health professionals so urgently required to meet the needs of the healthcare workforce and patients.

The School of Health Sciences is the regional provider of most of the Allied Health Professions workforce for HSC in Northern Ireland.

This includes diagnostic radiography, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, speech and language therapy, radiotherapy and oncology, as well as healthcare scientists.

Workforce planning within Health and Social Care (HSC) highlights the need for continued growth in this group of employees, the second largest in HSC.

In January 2018, the University confirmed that the relocation of allied health and health sciences provision from Jordanstown to Coleraine would be paused to enable further consideration in the light of healthcare needs, the vision for transforming healthcare to meet those demands, the growing potential for the opening of the Medical School at the Magee campus and the Universitys centres of excellence in teaching and research.

The School of Health Sciences will remain at Jordanstown for the 21/22 academic year to enable sufficient time for transition arrangements to the new locations.
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Myanmar's military should not turn clock back



Myanmar's military seized power in a coup Monday, ending the Southeast Asian country's efforts for a democratic transition. It imposed a one-year state of emergency and detained democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her party  the National League for Democracy (NLD).



The coup is a serious setback to democracy in the poverty-stricken country. Under no circumstances should any attempts to revert to military rule be condoned. The military must realize that its coup is anachronistic and runs counter to the Myanmar people's aspirations for democracy.



The military takeover came after Suu Kyi's NLD won a landslide victory in the Nov. 8 elections  her party snatched 83 percent of the seats up for grabs. The coup took place when a new parliament was scheduled to open following the election. The military's brutal action prevented the opening, trampling on parliamentary democracy.



The military cited "election fraud" as the reason for the coup  a transparently lame excuse to legitimize its action. First Vice-President Myint Swe was appointed as president. He immediately handed over power to the country's top military commander, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. The military has promised to hold elections in a year's time. This promise could make it possible for the commander to become a civilian leader as he is to retire soon.



Yet it is regrettable that the armed forces are back in control of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Returning to military rule goes against the tide of the times. It deals a fatal blow to Myanmar's transition to democracy. The country had been touted as a symbol of success in promoting a Western model of democracy. At the center of the progress has been Suu Kyi, 75, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for standing up for democracy and human rights. Her party took power in 2015, ending five decades of military rule.



Now, her dedication to Myanmar's democracy is on the verge of going up in smoke. Most Myanmarese are gripped by extreme frustration and anger over the coup. The return of the military is also shocking to people around the world.



The international community should take resolute action against the military junta to restore democracy in Myanmar. In this regard, we welcome U.S. President Joe Biden's threat to impose sanctions on the country. As Biden stated, the coup is a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and rule of law. Myanmar's military should immediately stop its bid to return to its dark age.






press release

Ongoing tear gas misuse leading to protesters' deaths and injuries

Website details more than 100 incidents in 31 countries and territories

"The ongoing misuse of tear gas by police forces around the world is reckless and dangerous" - Patrick Wilcken

Amnesty International has today published new evidence of the misuse of tear gas by security forces in several countries in the second half of 2020, including during protests around the election in Uganda, the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA, and in the repression of protesters in Lebanon.

The organisation's interactive website Tear Gas: An Investigation has now been updated to include new cases of police committing human rights violations against peaceful protesters around the world.

Since first launching the site in June 2020, Amnesty International has verified recent incidents of tear gas misuse in several countries, including France, Guatemala, India, Mali, Nigeria, Peru, Serbia and Tunisia.

Patrick Wilcken, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Global Issues Programme, said:

"The ongoing misuse of tear gas by police forces around the world is reckless and dangerous, often injuring and sometimes even killing peaceful protesters.

"Our updated analysis is further proof that security forces continue to misuse this less lethal weapon on a massive scale. Far too often in 2020, peaceful protesters were met with violence, including the widespread, unlawful use of tear gas, which can amount to torture or other ill-treatment in certain circumstances.

"We are again calling on authorities worldwide to respect the right to peaceful protest, and hold to account those who used tear gas unlawfully against people exercising this right."

The update includes 27 new events in 12 countries where tear gas has been misused, with open source investigators verifying the location and date of each instance, and assessing its lawfulness. In total, the website now includes videos of more than 100 incidents of tear gas misuse from 31 countries and territories.

Misuse causing death and injury

In Uganda, ongoing political unrest in the aftermath of the contested election has been met with an internet blackout, as well as a crackdown that has included killings, beatings and violent dispersal of opposition supporters using tear gas and rubber bullets.

In Lebanon, protesters took to the streets following the devastating blast at the port of Beirut in August 2020 that killed at least 204 people. During the protests against the government's response to the explosion, Lebanese security forces repeatedly used dangerous and unlawful force to attempt to control protests, including the excessive use of tear gas.

In Nigeria, #EndSars protests broke out in October 2020, with people demanding an end to police brutality, extrajudicial executions and extortion by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the Nigerian police tasked with fighting violent crime. They were met with unlawful use of force by the army and police forces, including the firing of tear gas, and at least 12 peaceful protesters were reportedly shot dead when the army opened fire on thousands of protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate.

In dozens of cities across the USA, a range of law enforcement agencies targeted peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters with tear gas and other crowd control agents. There were similar examples of tear gas misuse during protests in Indonesia, Peru and Guatemala.

Open source investigation

Amnesty International's Crisis Evidence Lab began researching tear gas misuse around the world from 2019, primarily through analysing videos posted to social media platforms.

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Using open source investigation methods, the organisation verified and highlighted events where tear gas has been misused. The analysis was carried out by Amnesty International's Digital Verification Corps, a network of students at seven universities on four continents trained in sourcing and verifying content from social media.

The site also includes a video produced with SITU Research, which analyses the performance characteristics of tear gas, explains the inner workings of the munitions, and shows how their misuse can maim and kill.

Amnesty International documented police abusing tear gas in multiple ways, including: firing into confined spaces; firing directly at individuals; using excessive quantities; firing at peaceful protests; and firing against groups who may be less able to flee or more susceptible to its effects, such as children, older people and people with disabilities.
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The country will buy another 1.1 million jabs from China, while Covax has promised 17 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the first half of the year

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday received the first batch of 500,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine donated by its closest ally, China, as the country gears up to kick start its immunisation drive later this week.

The vaccines were flown in from China on a special plane of the Pakistan Air Force. The consignment was formally handed over to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi by Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong at Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi.

Alhamdulilah (by the grace of Allah) the first batch of Sinopharm vaccine has arrived! Grateful to China and everyone who made this happen. I salute our frontline healthcare workers for their efforts and they will be first to get vaccinated," tweeted Dr Faisal Sultan, Advisor on Health to Government.

Pakistan will start its vaccination drive later this week, beginning with frontline health workers. So far, over 400,000 health professionals have applied for the jabs. Next, citizens over 65 years would be vaccinated; their registration will start in 10 to 15 days, according to Planning Minister Asad Umar.

Apart from the free vaccine doses which arrived on Monday, Pakistan will buy another 1.1 million jabs from China, while international vaccine alliance Covax has promised 17 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the first half of the year.

At the ceremony in Nur Khan Ar Base, Qureshi said China had once again given practical demonstration of its friendship with Pakistan. "This year is even more significant as it marks 70 years since we established diplomatic ties. We have planned to celebrate [the milestone] and open new doors of cooperation and friendship," he said.

The minister appreciated the top Chinese leadership and its Army for critical help in tackling the pandemic.

Chinese Ambassador Rong said Pakistan is the first country to receive the COVID-19 vaccines for free from the Chinese government. He said China sees Pakistan as its "closest friend" and "priority for cooperation".

On 70 years of diplomatic ties, Rong said, "Our friendship is higher than mountains, deeper than the sea and sweeter than honey. Our hearts grow closer in the joint fight against COVID-19 ."

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that his government would provide anti- Coronavirus vaccine to everyone without any discrimination. "Rich and poor will not matter. We will try to cover as many people as possible," he said.

The government plans to administer the vaccine to the entire population during the current year, Radio Pakistan quoted Khan as saying.

Khan also said that the frontline health workers would be vaccinated in the first phase followed by elderly people and those with medical conditions.

Meanwhile, all education institutions in Pakistan, from nursery to university level, were reopened on Monday following an over two-month closure due to a second wave of the coronavirus .

Pakistan had reopened school and colleges in September last year, following a five-month break due to the virus outbreak. However, a second virus wave led to all education institutions getting closed on 25 November.

Pakistan had opened schools for grades IX to XII on 18 January. Other education institutes were to reopen on 1 February. According to the guidelines, strict compliance with COVID-19 standard operating procedures is mandatory.

Students of each section have been divided into two groups and each group will attend classes for three days in a week.

The move comes as the number of recovered COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has reached 501,252, according to the Ministry of National Health Services.

With the 1,615 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the country's virus caseload stands at 546,428.

The death toll is 1,683, including 26 deaths in the last 24 hours. Authorities said 2,092 COVID-19 patients are in critical condition.
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As part of our latest series on PR Conversation, we at Adgully are speaking to some of the industry leaders from both PR agencies and the corporate communications world about how PR as a business and communication tool has evolved and grown over the years. In the last 10 years, PR has taken a different dimension, especially after the entry of social media in a big way. While the PR business has grown, some of the challenges that the industry is facing have also multiplied as clients are becoming more demanding and are expecting their consultants to be on their toes to manage their brand reputation, as news today travels fast and clients are expecting quick response and action in case of a crisis situation.

In conversation with Adgully, Ruby Sinha, Managing Director, Kommune Brand Communications, speaks about her experience of turning entrepreneur in the PR field, encouraging work-from-home mothers, and how personal interactions still remain critical in the PR profession, despite the advent of virtual nodes of communication.

How has PR evolved in the last 10 years? Going forward how will the industry shape up as the dynamics of the PR is changing with the acceleration of digital?

The PR industry has undergone a massive transformation over the last decade. From being a profession predominantly focused on media relations, PR professionals today are expected to manage communications with all stakeholders and even with the end consumer in many cases. As such, innovation in all aspects has become the key today. Use of digital, social media and analytics has also made the industry very dynamic. As such, there is a growing focus on broadening the communication pitch, storifying of brands, integrating social media with mainstream PR and focusing on immersive PR.

You started your career as a journalist and then you joined a professional PR company. About a decade ago you turned into an entrepreneur in the PR profession. What motivated you and how did the idea of starting your PR consultancy happen?

I call myself an accidental entrepreneur. I was on a sabbatical post my younger daughters birth when a former client offered me a consultancy role for his brand and motivated me to start my own venture. Soon, one or two other clients came on board and I had to put together a team to handle them. In fact, my initial team comprised a group of work-from-home mothers. This was the first difference  our focus on women, especially experienced women professionals in sabbatical. In fact, when we moved to our own office, we started off with a creche to encourage more such women to come out and work! Over the years more and more team members have joined and I am really happy that today WFH is the new normal, which will encourage more and more talented women to remain in the workforce.

How has your journey been as a PR entrepreneur so far? And what are the challenges that you encountered as an entrepreneur? What does the future look like?

Entrepreneurship is not an easy option for anyone, especially working mothers. After becoming an entrepreneur, I experienced the challenges most entrepreneurs, especially women, face in their entrepreneurship journey, but the learnings along the way have made the journey worthwhile. While as an employee I was focused on my personal career growth, as an entrepreneur there were multi-fold challenges like convincing experienced professionals and potential clients to opt for a smaller outfit, issues like budgeting and cash flow management, keeping myself motivated during moments of self-doubt as well as sticking to my conviction, values and vision for my organisation amidst the roller-coaster entrepreneurial journey. All the challenges have made me more resolute to contribute to the entrepreneurship ecosystem in India, and specially motivate talented women out there through knowledge sharing, training and mentorship programs. This also motivated me to start sheatwork.com, a one-stop knowledge portal for women entrepreneurs.

Going forward in the future, we look forward to further consolidating our Digital skills into practice. We have always been particular about the clients we wanted to work with instead of just focusing on numbers and in some ways the pandemic has made me personally more convinced that in the long-term good work done for clients who value what you bring to the table is more important than just building scales.

How different are you as an agency and what are some of the interesting tools that you deploy to give the best in terms of result to your clients?

We are an integrated communications consultancy. We are selective about the clients we work with and try to ensure our complete involvement in the strategy and implementation of communication programs. We at Kommune have always believed that increasingly digital is becoming all pervasive and digital is exciting and have tried to imbibe the same in our communication tools.

PR measurement and effectiveness of PR have always been a subject of debate. As a PR professional, what steps the PR industry should take to bring in uniformity so that everyone speaks one language when it comes to PR measurement?

Professional and effective measurement practices in tune with the rapidly evolving communication landscape are a necessity. Reports suggest that most communication professionals feel that they can do a better job of measuring campaigns effectively. A step forward in this direction is the recently updated Barcelona 3.0 Principles, which outline the need for transparent outcome-based PR measurement and qualitative as well as quantitative analysis of communication programs across all relevant online and offline platforms.

Getting the right skillset and training has always been a challenge in the PR profession. What is your view on the same and what would be the valuable tips that you would like to give to the budding young PR professionals?

As communication professionals, we have to not just be responsible for communicating, but also for ensuring that our messages reach the right stakeholder. The right training and nurturing of skill sets becomes more important in such a situation, especially since Public Relations is a rapidly evolving industry. Besides strong written and oral communication proficiency, todays PR professionals are expected to be to be multi-taskers with knowledge of using digital, social media and analytics along with an ability to think like marketing professionals to take forward the business messaging. There is also an increasing scope for vertical specialists to enter the profession. There are several courses today across colleges and universities and going through them would be helpful for youngsters to get a basic understanding of the profession.

Do you feel the traditional role of interpersonal communication which was so critical to the profession has somehow been put to the backburner because of too much virtual engagement? How are you experiencing that, is it bringing down the efficiency of the agency?

One may argue that the advent of virtual nodes of communication has made it easier to find the right audience and disseminate appropriate content. True, technology has improved the process, but only in its physical parameters. Personal interactions still remain critical in our profession. Though work wise not much has suffered during the pandemic in terms of engagement, but in my opinion, in the long term the trust built through human-to-human connect has no alternative.
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Minister Didiza congratulates the citrus industry on record exports and commits to work with stakeholders to boost growth in the sector

The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Ms Thoko Didiza (MP), congratulates the citrus industry on the record exports they made. Citrus is one of South Africa's most important subsectors in the agricultural sector that provides a significant contribution to job creation and economic activity in our country's rural communities.

"The industry has expanded notably over the past decade, and we thank the farmers for showing confidence and increasing the investments. The industry's investment is starting to pay off, as the Citrus Growers Association reported this morning that South Africa exported a record 146 million cartons of citrus in 2020; which means we are still the world's second-largest exporter of fresh citrus after Spain," said Minister Didiza.

Minister Didiza continued to say that, "the challenge going forward is ensuring that, as a government, we open more export markets for the industry, as the estimates suggest, there will be roughly 300 000 tons added into the current volumes in the next three years that require an export market. As a government, we commit to working with the industry and other stakeholders to expand the market access to destinations such as the United States, China and India, and the European Union and other countries that already enjoy the South African citrus. In the process, we will work with relevant stakeholders in improving logistics for export activity".

"Agriculture is part of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan that the president announced late last year; to this end, we will continue working with all stakeholders to ensure that we provide a policy environment conducive for all subsectors to prosper. Part of the growth-enhancing interventions is detailed in the Sector Master Plan, which will be announced within the first quarter of the year," She concluded.
In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 137% increase in allocations on health and well-being" for 2021-22, to 2.24 trillion. Embedded in that declaration was a definitional change: it also included funds for sectors with a smaller, indirect intersection with health, notably drinking water and sanitation. The broader definition puts additional emphasis on preventive aspects of healthcare, which is where much of the hiked allocation will go to.





However, other fundamental aspects of healthcare have not received the same focus, even after a pandemic tested the entire system for months together. For instance, the National Health Mission (NHM), a flagship healthcare scheme, has seen a mere 4% increase in allocations for the next fiscal. The launch of the Pradhan Mantri AtmaNirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PMANSBY) is welcome, but it will be assessed on how its projected spend of 64,180 crore over six years improves health infrastructure in the country.

Historically, Indias priority on health spending has been modest. Nearly a third of it comes from the Centre, but the ministry of health and family welfare got just around 0.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) for much of the last decade. Even including states health budgets, this goes up only to around 4% of GDP, shows World Health Organization (WHO) data for 2018. This was more than regional neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh, but lagged China (5%) and developed countries such as the UK (10%) and the US (17%).





This puts India at 179 out of 189 countries in terms of the priority given to health in public spending, said the government's recent Economic Survey, in a chapter titled Healthcare takes centrestage, finally! The chapter said this put India in the league of donor-dependent countries such as Haiti and Sudan, and well short of peers.

But, three days after the Survey was released, this does not reflect in the government budget. The health ministrys allocation as a share of total spending in the next fiscal is set to be lower than even the pre-pandemic level of 2019-20. As a share of GDP, it will be nearly the same.

The pandemic has underscored the need for investment into an adequate and robust healthcare infrastructure. But the share of capital expenditure in overall central health spend is abysmally low. Nearly all of the budget goes on revenue expenditure, to meet running expenses such as salaries, maintenance and administration costs. Capital expenditure is crucial for the creation of new hospitals and other such infrastructure.

In 2019-20, capex was merely 2.7% of total expenditure, down from 4.3% in the previous year. Revised numbers for 2020-21 show this figure jumped to 5.4%, but is projected to drop again to 3.5% next fiscal. The health ministry lags the overall government in how much of its budget goes into building capital assets. While the Centre operates in a band of 10-15% of its total spend, the ministry has been operating in 2-6% band.





There is a need to prioritize greater capital expenditure to enable Indias long-term health infrastructure. The PMANSBY is, therefore, a step in the right direction. The government has not released granular details about the scheme, but some interventions listed by the finance minister included critical care hospital blocks, public health labs and emergency operation centres.

Among the major flagship schemes for healthcare, growth in expenditure has been tepid over the past few years, and is set to see only a modest rise in 2021-22. A case in point is the NHM, which envisages achieving universal access to healthcare. According to the Economic Survey, the NHM has been crucial in enabling access to institutional births and pre- and postnatal care.

Yet, the expenditure on NHM grew around 11% a year on average in the five years before the pandemic, as compared to 13% for overall health spending. Revised estimates for 2020-21, the pandemic year, show a mere 1.1% increase. The 4% increase planned for 2021-22 will take the spending to 37,130 crore. Allocations for Ayushman Bharat, the centrally-sponsored health insurance scheme, have been doubled from Rs3,200 crore to Rs6,400 crore for next year.





A closer examination of budgetary allocations to healthcare shows that not all segments have gained equally. Investments in health infrastructure and greater support to flagship schemes such as the NHM are essential to ensuring better health outcomes for Indians in the years to come.

www.howindialives.com is a database and search engine for public data

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Counter-terror police relied on Twitter for information for three hours after the Manchester Arena bombings as one of Britain's most senior officers revealed he only heard about the attack from a husband of one of his senior colleagues.

Speaking at an inquiry into the 2017 terror attacks today, Neil Basu revealed he found out about the attack at around 11.55pm on May 22, nearly 90 minutes after the attack.

A colleague's husband was on a training course in the area and may have heard about the attack over local police radio, Mr Basu told the inquiry.

During the phone call, Mr Basu's colleague told him: 'Don't go to sleep because it looks like something's happening.'

It was also revealed the SO15 Reserve, a 24-hour operations centre for national counter-terrorism operations, was still having to rely on Twitter for information at 12.13am, nearly three hours after the attack.

Mr Basu told the inquiry how social media provided a 'massive hindrance,' as it took up police time.

The shocking delay was revealed after Mr Basu admitted a report into four terror attacks in 2017 which found 103 things could have been done better by counter-terrorism officials was a 'humbling moment'.

The inquiry into the May 2017 bombing at Manchester Arena heard that Mr Basu was senior national co-ordinator for counter-terrorism policing on the night of the attack.

Salman Abedi killed 22 men, women and children when he blew himself up in a suicide bomb attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, Britain's most senior counter-terrorism police officer

Mr Basu, now the country's most senior counter-terrorism officer, was at home when he received a call from his deputy, Assistant Chief Constable Terri Nicholson at 11.55pm on May 22 2017.

'I think the first call that I have any memory of receiving was Terri telling me that she had been notified by her husband, of all people, so not the rigid command and control protocol but an informal notification that something might be happening in Manchester.'

Mr Basu said that Ms Nicholson's husband was 'one of the most experienced counterterrorism specialist firearms officers in the country and was taking a training course in the north of England.

'I think they must have been listening to the force radio or heard something happen in that area and he had contacted his wife and said, "Don't go to sleep because it looks like something's happening,"' Mr Basu said.

Shortly afterwards he got a call from Chief Inspector Richard Thomas, the counterterrorism specialist firearms coordinator responsible for mobilising assets during an attack, who was on the same course as Ms Nicholson's husband.

At 11.12pm, after a second conversation with Ms Nicholson, Mr Basu recorded that armed response vehicles had been deployed to what was believed to be a series of explosions inside the arena.

Despite on-going confusion at the fire and ambulance service, Mr Basu recorded that it was believed there was a 'single seat' for an explosion and that 'one person alone was involved.'

'There was a great deal of confusion on social media suggesting further gunfire. However, at this time there were no other known suspects,' he said.

However, Mr Basu noted at 12.13am that the SO15 Reserve had only a Twitter feed to rely on and he told the inquiry: 'It looked like they hadn't been contacted directly and their only source of information was social media at that time.'

The public inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing carried out by Abedi (pictured)

Mr Basu said social media could be a help but added: 'It's a massive hindrance when there's so much of it that it takes experienced detectives and analysts a long time to go through the material and that obviously could divert resources.'

The inquiry has heard the fire fighters did not deploy to the scene of the explosion for two hours and only one paramedic went into the scene of the explosion in the first 40 minutes.

The force duty officer at Greater Manchester Police, who was supposed to notify SO15, was said to be 'overloaded' and had to get a junior officer to answer his phone.

At 12.18am, Mr Basu noted a conversation with DCS Jackson, saying: 'An Asian male had entered Victoria Station side of the arena with explosives strapped to him which he has ignited and blown back on to the concourse.

'It's now believed there are 20 dead and 50 walking wounded. They are young.'

A meeting at around 2.35am was interrupted in Manchester by the senior investigating officer confirming to Ms Ford that a credit card with a name on, which was believed to be associated with the attacker, had been found and the name was Salman R Abedi.

They then discovered that Abedi had blown himself up in the concourse area outside the arena, known as the City Room, which was spotted on CCTV at 4.45am the morning.

At the start of his evidence Mr Basu addressed watching families of the bereaved and survivors of the tragedy as he said: 'It is incredibly important to me that the families of everyone who has been bereaved... the people who have suffered in this horror... understand I am here not just as... the national lead for counter-terrorism, but as a human being and a parent, to express my deepest sympathies, not just from me personally but from the entire network that I lead.

'Effectively this is a network that is entirely designed to stop there being victims and survivors of terrorist incidents, and I have met far too many in my career.

Abedi stalking the area moments before he would detonate his suicide bomb in his attack

'I know the terrible burden that not just the event but having to sit through inquests, criminal trials and inquiries has on those people, I know how brutal it is.

'I just want them to know I have never worked in my 28 years' continuous service in a part of policing that tries so hard to improve itself constantly to try and stop there being any more victims and survivors, and I just want to pass on my deepest respects to those people who are watching this.'

Mr Basu added: 'I have never been in a part of policing which has so vigorously attempted to find out exactly what happened, how it happened, whether there was anything else that could be done, quite often alongside while we are actually still investigating the offence, in order to try and improve ourselves.

'I spent a long time with... various other people going around the world saying we have the best counter-terrorism machine in the world in this country, and I still think that is true.

'Out of that operational improvement review, always described as Lord Anderson's review - and I hope David will forgive me but he knows it was our review - we found 103 things to do better.

'That is a humbling moment but we do it, but you can't exercise all of the time when you are doing the day job.'

Mr Basu declared the Manchester Arena incident a terrorist attack at 12.56am on May 23 2017 and effectively took responsibility for national strategic command.

But Manchester Magistrates' Court heard he was not responsible for the immediate policing response to the attack which fell to Greater Manchester Police's Gold strategic commander Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Ford.

The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday.

Earlier the senior police officer told the inquiry Prime Minister Theresa May instructed police to 'break the momentum' of terrorist attacks in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing.

Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, Britain's most senior counter-terrorism police officer, described how police came under pressure from Theresa May to identify terrorists after the second attack in two months.

Another attack, at London Bridge, followed 12 days after Manchester.

Mr Basu said police launched a special operation, particularly targeting the extremist group al-Muhajiroun, whose members were involved in both the Westminster and London Bridge attacks.

AC Basu made the comments at the Manchester Arena Inquiry, which is looking at the response to Salman Abedi's attack.

He killed 22 men, women and children when he blew himself up in a suicide bomb attack in the arena foyer at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

The inquiry has already heard how the arena's operators blamed their security contractor for failing to spot the terrorist in the hour he waited before launching his attack.

US-owned multinational SMG said contractor Showsec should have sent stewards to confront him before locking down the venue.

Andrew O'Connor QC for SMG, dismissed suggestions the fanatic could have been spotted by a CCTV operator if he had not been in a blind spot.

He insisted there was nothing about Salman Abedi's dress or conduct that would have made it 'even reasonably likely' he would have been clocked.

But in a closing statement he declared the inquiry should conclude 'with a high degree of confidence' that, had a Showsec supervisor gone up to the mezzanine level of the City Room foyer in the course of his final check at about 10.15pm 'he would have both seen Salman Abedi and considered him sufficiently suspicious to take further action.'

This was the blind spot where Abedi was loitering before he carried out his attack

The inquiry has heard evidence on the police and ambulance response to the terror 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

Mr O'Connor said such a supervisor 'would have walked past Salman Abedi' and unlike a CCTV operator, he would have seen him close up and would have been able to speak to him.'

'There is ample evidence from those who were in close proximity to Abedi at about that time that he looked nervous and suspicious,' he said.

Had there been a supervisor there, there was also 'a real likelihood' that, the parent who raised concerns with a junior steward would have raised his concerns about Abedi with their supervisor.

The same 'applies equally to the presence there of any of the British Transport Police officers on duty that night' who failed to patrol the arena foyer, Mr O'Connor said.

SMG, now called ASM Global, also defended their security provisions, saying the 'consistent advice' they received from Greater Manchester Police was that the security arrangements in the City Room were 'adequate'.

There were frequent visits and discussions from their police counter-terrorism security adviser from 2014 onwards and 'steadily increasing scores,' Mr O'Connor said.

There has been 'no evidence' of Ken Upham proposing changes to the security operation in the City Room that were rejected or ignored by SMG, Mr O'Connor said.

'At no point did Mr Upham enter any note of caution about his ability to give such broad advice, or about SMG relying on it.'

Mr O'Connor described Mr Upham as a 'highly trained expert' who 'had not entered any reservation about the scope of the advice that he could give, far less making any suggestion that SMG should seek additional advice elsewhere.'

'It was, we say, entirely reasonable for SMG to rely upon the CTSAs' advice on the identified attack methodologies and other matters to inform its assessments and baseline measures. '

Abedi would still have blown himself up and killed many of those around him, even if he had been confronted as he lay in wait to launch his attack, police have told the inquiry.

British Transport Police officers failed to patrol the City Room foyer where Salman Abedi launched his attack at the end of the concert, despite instructions to do so from superiors.

Two officers drove five miles to get a kebab during a two-hour meal break on the night of attack while two others took a 90-minute meal break.

Abedi killed 22 men, women and children when he blew himself up in a suicide bomb attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

Austin Welch, on behalf of the victims' families, told the inquiry that British Transport Police had become 'institutionally complacent almost to the point of apathy.'

In closing submissions on security at the arena, Mr Welch said the officers who were policing the arena were 'woefully lacking in experience, seniority, instruction or supervision.'

'Their role was reduced to little more than directing people to the exits and trains at the end, rather like ushers in a cinema,' he said.

John Cooper QC, for 12 of the victims' families, criticised 'distasteful' and 'condescending' written submissions on behalf of the force, in which they said the inquiry had 'deliberately indulged a certain amount of speculation, partly in an effort to encourage free expression of ideas and feelings, perhaps for therapeutic reasons.'

But Patrick Gibbs QC, for BTP, suggested their presence in the City Room foyer would have made no difference.

Had an officer been on the mezzanine level where Abedi, a worried parent called Chris Wild, who reported him to a junior steward, 'may very well have reported his concerns to that officer.'

'What that officer may have done with that report is very hard to say, but they may have spoken to the bomber,' Mr Gibbs said.

'What may have happened thereafter is easy to imagine but impossible to say,' he added.

'It may have depended on the bomber's state of mind, his resourcefulness, his instructions, the disposition of people within the room at that moment, and so much else besides.'

The officer could have been dissatisfied by the bomber's responses, and that could have turned into a 'concrete suspicion' which he thought should be passed on to SMG staff in the control room, to stop people leaving the Ariana Grande concert.

'What the bomber may have done in this period, as the conversation continued, as radio messages were passed to and fro is hard to say,' Mr Gibbs said.

'One thing, you may think, is most unlikely to have changed, in that period is his determination to die and to kill as many innocent people as possible.

'And who may have been where exactly at that time, you have the stills which show the number of people waiting in the City Room in the minutes before the main body of the audience emerged.

'None of them is many steps away from where the bomber had been sitting.'

Mr Gibbs told the inquiry: 'What it comes to, we submit, is if the preceding events had gone differently there would have been a different outcome, but what exactly that outcome would have been, and how many people would have died, and how many would have been seriously injured, and who they would have been is impossible with any confidence to say.'

Nevertheless, Mr Gibbs said it was 'reasonable' for Sgt Gareth Wilson to expect that if his officers were 'unavoidably detained' they would 'inform him of the difficulty.'

'I know that you will take into account that there may be a difference between what it is reasonable for a supervisor to expect of casual security staff on the one hand and of full-time highly trained professional people on the other,' he added.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Storytelling runs through Gadi Schwartzs veins.

The seed was planted when Schwartz would head into the Univision newsroom with his father, Sergio, as a boy.

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As he grew up, journalism became like a shadow, following him closely.

His time at New Mexico State Universitys TV station KRWG and the decade he spent at KOB helped cultivate his passion.

Schwartz is currently an NBC News and MSNBC correspondent, as well as co-host of the Snapchat series Stay Tuned.

On Jan. 16, the 37-year-old former Albuquerque resident took the next step in his journey when he became host of The Overview on NBCs streaming service, Peacock.

The Overview takes a step back from the daily news cycle to provide a new take on the most relevant and pressing issues.

Were always connected, and I lose sight of the big picture all the time, Schwartz said. For me, this show is a chance to step back and remember what the most important thing is.

The first three episodes of The Overview began streaming on Jan. 16, and focus on climate change, the future of elections, and the significance of nostalgia in society as our country is grappling with an unpredictable present.

Peacock is focused on delivering news programming that offers viewers responsible journalism and original reporting from all different perspectives, said Jen Brown, senior vice president of topical programming and development for Peacock, in a statement. With The Overview, we hope to drive peer-to-peer conversations through Gadis thoughtful reporting on issues important to this generation of streaming news consumers.

The goal of The Overview is to cut through and tell viewers how we got here and where its going, Schwartz said.

The impetus for the series came from The Overview Effect  which describes the psychological effects astronauts experience when viewing the Earth from space and how that can influence a change in perspective.

Its what were trying to convey  a new perspective, he said. There are vast improvements with each story. Coming from a place that is not Washington, D.C., or New York or Los Angeles, that vast picture is so important. Were trying to give viewers room to look around with each story.

New episodes are available on Saturdays.

Schwartz and his team work tirelessly to craft the under 30-minute episodes.

Theyve been able to navigate their way around the pandemic  but it has had challenges.

Its changed, he said. We used to be able to go out and talk to anybody and shoot things. In California, there are limitations in place. Permits have to be in place. We have to wear masks and take extra precautions. Interviews are done by Zoom or outside. The cool thing is that its allowed us to step back and embrace all the innovations.

The pandemic has also kept the Cibola High School and New Mexico State University alum from visiting his family in Albuquerque.

I grew up in Paradise Hills on the West Side, he said. In Albuquerque, you always have a sense of direction because the Sandia Mountains are to the east. I still look east from where I grew up and see how big the world is. Its about seeing the big picture.

Working with Peacock has been an opportunity for personal and professional growth.

Schwartz is like many other millennials  he is also looking to find footing in the world.

Working for NBC, there are all generations getting information in different ways, he said. I wanted to have a place where you can come to get news. Even if you arent up to date on whats happening in the world, you can still see what the big picture is. Weve proven that with Snapchat and Stay Tuned that young people will watch the news.

Now streaming

Former Albuquerque resident Gadi Schwartz hosts The Overview, which streams on NBCs platform Peacock.
I have lived in my home since March 2014, and my water is supplied by South West Water.

Recently, I have been getting bills from SES Business Water addressed to a limited company. These are for services for a trough at my address.

On November 3, the bill was 1,588.62. On November 10, a disconnection notice arrived with a charge of 68.63.

I have telephoned SES every time a bill arrives. The firm always promises to sort it out but never does.

S. L., Redruth, Cornwall.

Mystery bills: A reader has been left fearing for her water supply after provider SES repeatedly sent her bills for 1,588.62 addressed to a limited company she'd never heard of

Tony Hazell replies: As you might guess, this is a little complicated, but the roots go back to 2017 when changes were made in the water industry.

For some reason, it was later decided you had an agricultural trough and were a business customer. This resulted in your account being allocated to SES.

You told SES of the mistake and it says it tried to get confirmation from South West Water, requesting your property be returned to residential status.

SES says it has explained on several occasions that you should ignore any bills and not worry about them, as it would definitely not be disconnecting you. In fact, it is against the law to cut off a domestic household supply.

However, I can understand why you would be so worried after receiving a disconnection notice.

It doesn't matter if you are told by phone that all is well: if bills keep arriving and then a disconnection notice comes, you can legitimately wonder whether department A is talking to department B.

The good news is that the issue has finally been resolved.

An SES spokesman says: 'We completely understand your reader's concern and frustration at how long this has taken.

'We have called her to confirm that all charges will be removed and the account closed following confirmation that there is no business supply at her address.'

You have YOUR say Every week Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some on our report that online shoppers buying goods from the EU are facing hefty new charges: There are plenty of British companies which can cater to our needs. Thanks to online shopping, items from lots of small UK craft shops are now accessible across the country. A. E., Edinburgh. My daughter incurs charges on lots of products because she orders from all over the world. I have tried to explain that there is no need to pay more if you order from UK sites. S. S., Southend-on-Sea, Essex. It is sometimes not immediately obvious which country you are buying from. It can be hidden in small print. Perhaps businesses should make it more obvious. L. M., Taunton, Somerset. I order quite a lot from the U.S. and Canada and the extra charges are usually included in the VAT and custom duties. Can EU retailers not sort out a similar arrangement? P. K., via email. I bought a pair of jeans, which I hadn't realised were sent from America. When they arrived, I had to pay VAT, which is fair enough. However, the Royal Mail fee actually exceeded the tax. I always buy locally now. K. F., Aylesbury, Bucks. I do wonder why traders have been taken by surprise. The rules for importing to non-EU countries are well established. Why haven't business leaders been exchanging tips on how to cope with international trade? S. T., Halifax, W. Yorks. My daughter sent me a calendar from the U.S. made up of photos of my granddaughter. Later, we were slapped with a 32 handling fee from FedEx. I'm sure the calendar itself couldn't have cost that much. M. M, Ely, Cambs.

Natwest's no help with power of attorney

I have recently been appointed as an attorney for my mum with a lasting power of attorney. She has banked with NatWest for more than 30 years. At the age of 93, dementia is setting in.

When I phoned customer services, I was advised that I could go into the branch at any time, without an appointment, in order to register. I have a brain injury, so I needed to pick a day when I had the intellectual capacity to deal with something of this nature.

I drove from Norfolk to my mum's home some 100 miles away, collected her and visited her local branch, where most staff know her.

My mother and I are both disabled and find it difficult to stand for long periods.

We had to queue for about 45 minutes only to be informed by the teller that he didn't have time to deal with the matter and that I should have made an appointment.

I told him I have a brain injury and showed him my Headway ID card to prove it. I added that I'd travelled some 100 miles and that customer services said I didn't need an appointment.

He was insistent that he could not help us. I phoned NatWest customer services again, which confirmed I had my facts right.

P. L., Diss, Norfolk.

Tony Hazell replies: This happened before the current lockdown regulations which restrict journeys kicked in.

Regardless, given that looking after your mum's financial affairs is essential, NatWest could, and should, have made the process much easier.

Even if they were unaware of your disability before you arrived, the staff member should still have spoken to his manager and arranged for help to comply with equalities legislation.

NatWest has now spoken with you and the power of attorney has been registered. It has also offered compensation of 250 as a gesture of apology to you both.

NatWest said it couldn't help a customer and her mother after they drove 100 miles to visit

Dial Direct called the debt collectors on me

My house insurance with Dial Direct was due to terminate on October 22. I emailed the firm on September 28 to inform it not to take any further payments.

I also emailed on October 8, and again on October 19, confirming I did not wish to renew and that it was not to try to debit my account. However, it still tried, using an expired card number.

On October 28, I emailed again, pointing out that in all the previous emails I had stated that I was not renewing.

The company sent a bill for cancellation of contract for 64.50 in November, with the threat of debt collectors.

Dr A. G., Sutton, Surrey.

Tony Hazell replies: The problem with relying on email to communicate with firms is that you have to be certain that you are writing to the correct address.

Many companies have unattended email addresses, which they often use to send messages to customers.

This can be confusing for customers who, quite reasonably, think they should be able to reply to the address the company used when writing to them.

Surely it is not beyond the wit of those running IT operations to simply redirect these emails to a different mailbox rather than ignoring them?

Dial Direct says that it did not receive your original email due to an administration error.

The later emails were all sent to an address only used for outgoing emails.

It says you would have received an email back saying the mailbox was not monitored.

I wonder if that ended up in your spam folder? That's where my mail server unhelpfully places some of my emails, especially when they contain words vital to your complaints that it deems likely to be signs of fraud or junk mail.

Dial Direct says that it asks customers who want to cancel to do so by telephone. Most importantly it has removed the charges, apologised and sent a bouquet of flowers.

We love hearing from our loyal readers, so ask that during this challenging time you write to us by email where possible, as we will not pick up letters sent to our postal address as regularly as usual. You can write to: asktony@ dailymail.co.uk or, if you prefer, Ask Tony, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 D erry Street, London W8 5TT  please include your daytime phone number, postal address and a separate note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Tony Hazell. We regret we cannot reply to individual letters. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
On Monday, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale hit back at the opposition parties which had accused the Centre of making false promises in the Union Budget 2021-22. Responding in his trademark style, Athawale asserted that this budget is in fact an attack on the opposition parties resorting to criticism without any basis. According to the RPI(A) chief, the budget catered to all sections of the society. Speaking to the media, he also rejected the notion that this year's Union Budget was meant to influence the poll-bound states of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. He stressed that this budget would speed up the pace of development.

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale remarked, "Some people are saying that this budget is a false promise, but I think that this budget is an attack on the opposition parties. This is not a "jumla" budget but one that is an attack on the people who are criticising without any reason. This budget does justice to all sections of the society. This budget is taking revenge from Congress and other opposition parties."

"All states will be benefited because of the budget. It is not the case that the money is going to be spent only in these 5 states. That's why this Budget is not an election manifesto. People who want to make such claims can do so. This budget has been presented for the development of states and the country. I feel that this budget will speed up the pace of development," he added.

Read: Rakesh Tikait Claims 'nothing For Farmers'; Congress Highlights 6% Decrease In Farm Budget

#WATCH | Union Minister Ramdas Athawale says, "Kuchh log bol rahe hain ki ye Budget khaali jumla hai, lekin mera kehna hai ki ye Budget virodhi dalon par hamla hai". pic.twitter.com/WPQmOUIdct  ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2021

Read: 'Doubts Over Three Farm Laws Should Be Cleared By Budget 2021': Union Agri Minister Tomar

Features of Union Budget

Earlier in the day, Sitharaman presented the first digital Union Budget which laid emphasis on 6 pillars- health and well-being, physical and financial capital and infrastructure, inclusive development for aspirational India, reinvigorating human capital, innovation and Research and Development and minimum government and maximum governance. To begin with, the outlay for the health sector was increased by 137% including the allocation of Rs.35,000 crore for COVID-19 vaccine. There has been a 34.5% increase in the capital budget expenditure as compared to 2020-21.

Fixing the disinvestment target for 2021-22 at Rs.1.75 lakh crore, Sitharaman disclosed that every Public Sector Undertakings in all but 4 strategic sectors will be privatised. In 2021-22, the fiscal deficit is estimated to be 6.8% of the GDP with the aim to achieve a fiscal deficit level below 4.5% of the GDP by 2025-26. On the direct taxation front, relief has been provided to senior citizens above 75 years of age besides changes in mechanisms for reducing disputes and simplifying settlements. For instance, the National Faceless Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Centre will be established. Moreover, the Centre has opted for Customs Duty rationalization and introduced the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess on a small number of items to aid farmers.

Read: Union Budget: Punjab Cong MPs Wear Black Gown To Parliament To Protest Against Farm Laws
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Lafayette, LA  For the last two decades, Deputy Clyde Kerr III has spent his life serving others in law enforcement and the military. He is not your run of the mill officer as Kerr obtained a degree in criminal justice before entering service and has received multiple commendations over the years. He also frequently spoke out about injustice, the drug war, and police accountability. He was one of the good ones. On Monday, Kerrs public service came to an end, and so did his life.

This story is particularly heavy for me as I personally knew Clyde Kerr. He was the resource officer at my daughters school and a great guy all around. I felt it a prudent gesture to share with the world why Clyde walked out in front of the Lafayette Sheriffs Department on Monday and took his own life. It is what he wanted. Sadly, however, he left behind a hole in the community as he was a father and adored by so many children and a much needed voice of reason in so much turmoil.

Clyde Kerr was a good cop and, unfortunately, this system is set up in a way that it drives good cops from its ranks. Before going to work yesterday, Kerr recorded a video suicide note to let the world know why he did what he did.

I can no longer serve a system that doesnt give a damn about me or people like me.

With a calm yet deliberate tone, Clyde described the broken system he has been a part of for nearly two decades. He left nothing off the table. Mentioning Botham Jean, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Trayford Pellerin (who was killed in Lafayette), Clyde described how cops can kill and face very little consequences.

He then went on to call for an end to the drug war, lambasting the fact that police will kidnap, cage, and kill people for a plant.

The countless people who are doing time for [the war on drugs] how do you make amends for that? Clyde said rhetorically. You cant. You cant.

If this feels right to you as a person, then something is wrong with you, he said. Yall are radicalizing people and then when they get upset and end up going against the system, you come down on them with a hammer.

Clyde then goes on to describe how the job of policing needs to change  specifically in regards to mental health. His death is a chilling reminder of this dire need.

You have one psychological eval as a cop, and that is when they hire you. That is not enough, he said. We need at least an annual, every six months, or maybe even quarterly. The stigma on this needs to stop.

For the second half of the video, just hours before he would end his own life, Clyde lists a number of solutions that he says could fix so many of the problems. He started out by saying police need better training in regards to dealing with the public. Just because this job is difficult, he says, doesnt mean you get to be a monster.

He then calls for society to come together and put aside their political differences.

So many people in this country are so caught up in whether they are a Republican or a Democrat that they forgot how to be a decent human being.

In a follow up video, Clyde assured people that he is not crazy or on drugs and that he feels like this act of self-immolation is necessary to change the paradigm within the system. He took his own life to attempt to change the system which drove him to this point.

I know what people will say but I am in my right state of mind. I need to do this to protest this broken system. If I dont do this, who will? he said.

Hopefully, we make sure Clydes death is not in vain and people heed his advice. While we certainly do not advocate for self harm, Clyde clearly felt like this was the only way he could force change. If people really care about cops, then its incumbent upon them to focus on the words Clyde says below.

The public must realize the dire situation, and extreme scope of the mental health epidemic currently facing law enforcement. Theres an extremely high rate of suicide, a domestic violence crisis and much higher rates of addiction in policing than the general public. Its clear that the mental health issues affecting law enforcement should be a top priority if we hope to stem the number of citizens and cops being killed by police in America.

In an interview with The Free Thought Project, former LAPD officer Alex Salazar pointed out why many of his friends ended their own lives:

People are tired of being killed by these cops. They operate with a gang-like mentality similar to the military, in that they are pawns in a larger game, but perceive themselves as warriors for a righteous cause. Cops often turn to suicide after they lose control of their personal lives. They are taught to be control freaks and to be always be in control and it often ends in tragedy.

Salazar says that suicides are not the only problem caused by this mentality. On the TFTP podcast, Salazar pointed out that many cops have PTSD and symptoms from the stress causes them to act out violently against the citizens they are tasked with policing. This is exactly what Clyde was talking about.

Like Clyde, we want to purge this critical sickness from U.S. policing in an effort make the streets a safer place for citizens and police alike.

We need to start looking at this increasing rate of officer suicides and realize the underlying problems attributing to them. If we can begin to correct those problems, the cops shooting citizens rate may start to fall too.

According to other experts in the field, cumulative exposure to trauma, horrific accidents and shootings can lead to mental health struggles that too often go untreated. A report by Blue H.E.L.P. reveals the rate of PTSD and depression for police and firefighters is five times higher than the civilian population. Clyde wants this to change by getting mental health help to be a part of the police department.

Critics believe the lack of resources for mental health also adds to lives being lost. Clyde is a perfect example. Mental health experts have echoed the sentiment of Clyde in the videos below, saying the barrier that keeps officers from seeking help are shame, fear of being off the job and the stigma behind it. Perhaps if cops were better trained at dealing with their own mental health issues, theyd be less likely to kill those with similar problems and this pillar of the community would still be alive today  pushing for change with his life, rather than his death.

olice officers can also text the word blue to 741741 or simply text talk to 741741.

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.
As part of its transformation plan, one of the country's oldest spice processing brands Annapoorna Masalas and Spices, has adopted a new strategy under Annapoorna 2.0, which targets around Rs 500 crore in the next five years. The company is also eyeing its own retail network.

The 45-year-old Coimbatore-based brand is now headed by third-generation owners under the leadership of Executive Director Vijay Prasad, who is spearheading Annapoorna 2.0.

Last year, the company clocked around Rs 35 crore in revenues and this year it is planning to close with Rs 40 crore.

Sree Annapoorna Foods (SAF's) Executive Director Vijay Prasad said that the company has come out with a new corporate identity including a logo, tagline, product packaging and marketing collaterals as the first step in the transformation journey ahead.

The new look and feel with the brand promise of the taste that unites, signals a new chapter for the company, while retaining its rich heritage and family roots. One of the USP for SAF will be regional variants, apart from regular spices and blended spices, which will help the company take on the competition including MTR, Sakthi Masala, Aachi and other players in the market.

Masala is one of the biggest consumed products in the kitchen and it is used daily. The market is estimated to be around Rs 1 trillion a year and branded players account for 20-25 per cent.

The company plans to expand its current product portfolio of 53 products and 101 SKUs to over 80 products in the next three years.

Annapoorna will take a differentiated approach to enable this growth, by not only covering the entire gamut of pure and blended spices, but more importantly by deep-diving into Indias rich food heritage and culture, to revive recipes that are unique to small regions across the country and widen its offering to new, innovative subcategories, said Prasad.

Recently, the company set up a 35,000 sq. ft manufacturing plant at Coimbatore and has a capacity of 35 metric tonnes per day to support its growth plans.

Speaking about distribution, Prasad said, Annapoorna is on its way to strengthen its current retail and distribution network to 500 distributors in the next one year. To begin with, Annapoorna will expand across the market to cover over 50,000 outlets across cities, towns, and villages as compared to 15,000 now. This will be followed by geographical expansion to other neighbouring states in the region.

The company is also looking at setting up its own branded stores. To start with, it will set up one each at Coimbatore and Chennai.

Since its inception in the 1975, Coimbatore-based Annapoorna started with a hotel. Founded by K Damodaraswamy Naidu in 1970 as Sree Annapoorna Gayatri Foods and led by R Velumani from the 1980s, Annapoorna is the epitome of rich and strong traditional values, as much as its recipes.
(@FahadShabbir)

The EU's disease agency launched a Covid-19 vaccine tracking tool on Monday, providing an overview of countries' efforts in the rollout of inoculations across Europe

Stockholm, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2021 ) :The EU's disease agency launched a Covid-19 vaccine tracking tool on Monday, providing an overview of countries' efforts in the rollout of inoculations across Europe.

The first set of data was available on the website of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), covering the 27-nation bloc plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

However it was still incomplete on Monday, as some countries had yet to report their national data. Member states are expected to report their numbers twice a week.

As a result, the tracker indicated the number of vaccine doses administered in its member states as of Monday was 8.23 million, though in reality the number is much higher.

According to AFP's own database compiled from official sources, by 1600 GMT Monday, at least 12.6 million doses have been administered to 10.5 million people in the EU, representing 2.3 percent of the population.

"In this early phase of vaccination campaigns, monitoring the number of doses distributed to countries and doses received by individuals provides useful insights into the progress of vaccine deployment and the evolution of vaccination campaigns," the ECDC said in a statement.

"It also provides initial indicative estimates of vaccine uptake for the first and second dose per population targeted by vaccine recommendations on the national level."
The new pre-boarding COVID test requirement placed on Nigerian travellers by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Netherlands may lead ...

The new pre-boarding COVID test requirement placed on Nigerian travellers by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Netherlands may lead to the suspension of flights to those countries.





Under the new requirement, travellers are to do a rapid test at the airports in Lagos and Abuja four hours to their outbound flights.

Musa Nuhu, the director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), complained about the extra requirement at the briefing by the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Monday.

They are adding an extra requirement of having a rapid test done four hours before departure or before you board, he said.





For us, passengers do the test 72 hours before departure. The PTF recognises the rights of all countries to put in measures to protect their citizens just like Nigeria has done.

If they insist on having these additional tests done, then PTF has decided that their operations will be suspended into Nigeria.

He said these countries and airlines cannot determine for Nigeria who to approve or how these tests will be done.





Nuhu said the government will hold discussions with the airlines and countries involved.

This will enable the PTF to have a clear and transparent process on determining who will do these tests based on the requirement for accreditation by NCDC, National Laboratory Council, Lagos state government for Lagos airport and FCT for Abuja airport.

It is now being probed by the federal government.

There have been reports of Nigerians testing positive on arrival in other countries despite carrying COVID-negative certificates.
document

The Network for Environmental Justice (NEJ), a coalition of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and Journalists working towards environmental protection was launched on January 22, 2021.

The project aims to reduce the environmental information gap through wide and consistent coverage of environmental and climate change issues in Zimbabwe with the ultimate aim of influencing policy to bring about positive change.

It also aims to ensure that local communities and the media play a pro-active role in environmental protection and climate change issues through wide and consistent coverage that seeks to influence policy and set the national agenda with the ultimate aim of bringing about positive change.

The major objective of NEJ is to position local communities and the media to be able to effectively play their part in advocating for the protection and sustainable use of the environment at a local and national level. Some of the projects' objectives include the following;

To act as a medium for information flow on environmental issues between communities (including rural areas), environmentalist and policy makers at various levels and thus strengthening the role of the media in protecting the environment

To promote public debate on environmental issues that affect ordinary Zimbabweans

To raise awareness on environmental protection while at the same time influencing policy formulation and implementation with regards protection of the environment

The launch of NEJ coincided with a Webinar, which was held under the topic "Commercial Water Abstraction and Impacts for Harare".

Representatives from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), Nyagui sub-Catchment Council, Young Volunteers for the Environment and an Independent Water Engineer participated during the online discussion.

The following issues came up during the online discussion:

In Harare, Commercial Water abstraction, especially on residential premises has led to over-exploitation of underground water and the development is now a major cause or concern

There is need for urgent action against companies involved in illegal commercial water abstraction as Harare risks running dry

There is need for strict measures in issuance of permits for groundwater abstraction

Residents who are supposed to abstract groundwater for primary (domestic purposes) have now ventured into commercial water abstraction and that is a major cause for concern

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Media By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

Sustainable use and management of water in Harare is under threat due to over exploitation of groundwater

Harare's wetlands are under threat due to the fact that some companies are doing commercial groundwater abstraction on wetlands

Proposed Way Forward

In light of the above challenges, the following measures were proposed

NEJ to create synergies with residents from affected areas and engage authorities while at the same time amplifying the issues in the media

There is need for enforcement of legislation against illegal commercial water abstraction and in this regard, NEJ should work in collaboration with residents, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, sub-catchment councils among other officials

Advocacy campaigns aimed at equipping residents with knowledge while empowering them to report issues of illegal commercial water abstraction

Campaigns to encourage water harvesting in different communities

Source: Network for Environmental Justice
The Immigration Clinic: Q&A with Director Stacy Kern-Scheerer

Navigating the Immigration Process: The William & Mary Law School Immigration Clinic is staffed by its director, Stacy Kern-Scheerer, Professor of the Practice, and, through private financial support, has welcomed an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow attorney for the 2020-21 year. Courtesy W&M Law School Photo - of - Hide Caption

Through the William & Mary Law School Immigration Clinic, students work under supervising attorneys to provide much-needed access to representation for immigrants living in Hampton Roads who have claims before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The Clinic is committed to preparing the next generation of immigration attorneys for this challenging practice area and is one of the few nonprofit entities that provides pro bono representation on immigration matters in the Hampton Roads region.

The Clinic is staffed by its Director, Stacy Kern-Scheerer, Professor of the Practice, and, through private financial support, has welcomed an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow attorney for the 2020-21 year. Every semester, students in the Clinic handle a variety of matters impacting the clients served by the Clinic.

The Clinic focuses on aiding noncitizens seeking relief as victims of crime (U visa), domestic violence (VAWA and Removal of Conditions), and human trafficking (T visa) and also represents individuals claiming asylum, as well as those currently held in detention seeking release on bond, DACA holders, and individuals applying for naturalization.

How did the Immigration Clinic come into being?

Student interest really helped propel the Clinics establishment. Current and prospective students understandably have a lot of interest in and passion for this area of the law. Immigration law and practice is challenging, timely and extremely impactful on communities, families and individuals. The Law School recognized this interest, and took steps to secure private starting funding for the Clinic.

The Clinics first semester was Fall 2019. Moreover, there is a huge need for pro bono immigration legal services everywhere, and the Williamsburg area is no exception. The Clinic provides students the opportunity to use and expand their legal training while filling an unmet need in the community.

Where does the Clinics financial support come from?

The Clinic relies on private funding to sustain itself. I am delighted that a leadership gift from an undergraduate alumna of the university, and a pioneering social justice advocate and attorney,

Sybil Shainwald 48, LL.D. 19, established the Shainwald Immigration Law Clinic Fund. We are dependent on gifts to the Fund from alumni, parents and friends to continue the Clinics operation.

We are currently in need of private support in order to keep our Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow, Nicole Alanko 18, here in the Clinic next year. Given the high demand for our services, the demand in enrollment, and the intense nature of our work with the students and clients, another dedicated Clinic attorney (in addition to me) is imperative. Nothing is more critical to ensuring the Clinics continued success and growth.

What kind of assistance does the Clinic offer?

The Clinic provides direct representation to immigrants in Hampton Roads. Our representation focuses on humanitarian immigration protections, such as asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), U Visas (for survivors of crime perpetrated in the United States), T visas (for survivors of human trafficking), protections under the Violence Against Woman Act (VAWA), DACA, and medical deferred action.

Because the individuals, families and communities we serve have often experienced extreme harm, either in their home countries or in the United States, we are particularly committed to providing trauma-informed representation and advocacy.

We represent immigrants in their petitions before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. For individuals and families in removal proceedings, we represent them in Immigration Court, which is part of the Department of Justice.

How does word get out about the Clinic so people know where to turn?

That is a great question, because the individuals and communities served by the Clinic are often in spaces that can be difficult to find and adequately reach. Being a trusted member of the immigration advocacy network in Hampton Roads is an essential aspect of the Clinics mission.

Word gets out by reaching out to organizations and individuals who work with immigrants. Even before the Clinic opened its doors, I did a lot of research into organizations serving the underserved immigrant communities in our area and in Richmond. I showed up wherever I thought partners might be. In the Clinics first semester, one student and I called and wrote letters and emails to every potential partner organization we could identify in Hampton Roads. We reached out to domestic violence shelters, trafficking shelters, houses of worship, victim advocates, social workers, refugee relief organizations, private immigration lawyers, community leaders, anyone we thought might come into contact with individuals we are here to serve and represent. I talked to anyone who would listen! Our outreach efforts have proven effective, because we now regularly get calls and referrals from the networks and partnerships we have formed.

What was the Clinics first case like?

The Clinics first client was a young woman seeking asylum, fleeing horrific violence she experienced in Central America. She came to the United States alone as a young teenager and was held in a youth detention facility for a while before being released to a family member in our area. We are representing her in her asylum petition. She is awaiting an asylum interview, which under the current backlogs, can take years. Hers, like the vast majority of our cases, will take months, if not years, to resolve.

What coursework is a pre-requisite for students to enroll in the Clinic?

There are no pre-requisites for the Clinic. What is most important is that a student coming into the Clinic is ready to learn and is committed to working hard for our clients.

What do you want students to learn in the Clinic?

The students are given an enormous amount of responsibility in the Clinic, with close supervision and guidance from me and our incredible Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow Nicole Alanko 18. Students have their own caseloads, but also work in assigned teams, which fosters an intra-Clinic community of support and understanding of the work we do.

In the Clinic, students gain experience with very practical lawyering skills: how to build client rapport and trust, craft interview plans, conduct interviews, work with interpreters, draft client and witness affidavits, develop a record through intentional evidence gathering, counsel clients effectively, and draft persuasive memos and briefs for submission to DHS and the DOJ.

In this Clinic, students put those skills to work in a challenging context. Many our clients are survivors of violence and trauma who have had to navigate (and continue to navigate) a great number of personal and structural barriers. The Clinic is committed to training trauma-informed advocates, which means we teach students to consider the impact of trauma on our clients at every stage of case development and preparation, from client interview planning to final trial preparation. The students also see first-hand the structural barriers to representation that our clients face, and that is often an eye-opening experience.

Clinic training also includes recognizing and mitigating the effects of secondary trauma and reflecting on professional identity. We openly discuss strategies for self-care, which are often necessary to reduce depression and burnout in our profession. I hope that  in addition to the practice skills  students learn that being an effective legal advocate is a multi-dimensional endeavor: you have to marry the practical lawyering skills with productive and informed client management, time management, teamwork, and self-care and reflection.

Can you quantify the Clinics impact?

In just the first three semesters of the Clinics existencehalf of which has been under challenging COVID circumstancesClinic students have provided more than 2,600 hours of service to the Clinic and our clients. We estimate these hours to equal approximately $395,000 of services in the private market. We anticipate that these numbers will continue to rise.

We have seen an incredible growth in the number of Clinic clients after just a few semesters. Serving more immigrants and training more students go hand-in-hand, so I am very proud of how we have expanded both the number of clients we represent and the number of students who can enroll in the Clinic in this short span of time.

A student on the Clinics blog mentions the endless red tape, etc. How do you cope?

Good question. The system is truly Kafkaesque at times, which can be extremely frustrating for everyone, particularly our clients. Law students and lawyers, like most people, would like institutions and systems to work logically, but that is just not the way the world works sometimes. The students see that first-hand.

Before coming to William & Mary Law, I spent 10 years on Capitol Hill. During those years, I learned how to keep an even keel when everything at work seemed to be going sideways. I learned that if you let your frustration dominate your mood and your actions, you will be twice as exhausted and no closer to resolving whatever problem your client needs you to solve. Because of what I learned, I work with the students to take the red tape in stride, and channel our frustration into even stronger determination to help our clients navigate the system.

How has the COVID pandemic changed how you do business?

The COVID pandemic has certainly brought challenges. Many Clinic clients do not have reliable access to the internet or a computer. This means that meeting with clients through programs like Zoom is often not an option, and we have to rely more on the telephone. But, as you can imagine, conducting interviews about trauma over the phone is not ideal for numerous reasons.

It has not been easy. Even when the government makes COVID accommodations, like accepting scanned signatures instead of original signatures on documents, that only helps if your client has access to the technology to enable them to send you their scanned signatures. Weve had to be flexible and creative. Sometimes weve had to mask up and meet with clients in outdoor spacespicnic tables, parking lotsto conduct interviews and sign documents. It has been a learning experience for everyone, and the students have been extraordinary throughout.

How do you get around language barriers?

It is true that translation and interpretation services are necessary in the vast majority of the Clinics cases. We have had to communicate with clients and other individuals who speak Spanish, Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, Russian and Qeqchi (and I might be forgetting a few others!). In some situations, we partner with community organizations who have interpreters. Most of our clients primarily communicate in Spanish.

This means that students who interview these clients, receive documents from the clients countries, or research conditions in the home countries must work with interpreters and translation services in order to fully represent their clients. Some of our students are bilingual, but many are not. We have had volunteer and paid positions for law students who are not students in the Clinic but who have Spanish interpretation and translation skills and experience they are willing to share with the Clinic. Having reliable, consistent and skilled Spanish interpreters is particularly imperative to the Clinic.

Whats in store as the Clinic enters its third year?

Next year, I hope to continue expanding the number of students in the Clinic, which would naturally allow for an increased caseload. We are also actively working on building partnerships across campus, such as with the Office of Community Engagement, the William & Mary School of Education counseling program, and professors in other academic disciplines, to support the work of our Clinic students and our Clinic clients.

Looking a bit farther into the future, hosting conferences, becoming a host site for Citizenship Day in Hampton Roads, and engaging students with state policy advocacy are all possibilities. I have a vision of the Clinic becoming a regional leader in immigration advocacy, providing the students with exceptional practical training and serving the underrepresented in our community. With the support from alumni and friends, and the ongoing commitment of our incredible students, I am confident we can do it.

To learn more about the Immigration Clinic, visit its web page and blog.
Xinjiang has been a multi-ethnic area since ancient times. The Uygur people came into being through a long process of migration and integration. The Uygur people have no other relations with Turkey except that their language also belongs to the Turkic languages (branches of the Altaic languages). The Uygur people are not descendants of the Turks, let alone being their "brothers".





Xinjiang has been home to multi-ethnic people since long ago





Since ancient times Xinjiang has been home of multiple ethnic groups in China. Xinjiang had 13 ethnic groups with a long history, including the Uygur, Han, Kazakh, Hui, Kirgiz, Mongol, Xibe, Tajik, Uzbek, Manchu, Daur, Russian and Tatar. Now it hosts 55 ethnic groups including the Dongxiang, Zhuang, Salar, Tibet, Yi and Korean.





Throughout the long history all ethnic groups living in Xinjiang have been closely related and interdependent, jointly developing and building Xinjiang, safeguarding the stability of the borderland, national integrity and solidarity and promoting the development and progress of the country.





Before the Qin and Han Dynasties there was no documentation of ethnicity in Xinjiang. Clear records came only after the Han Dynasty, which mainly included the Sai, Rouzhi, Wusun, Qiang, Xiongnu and Han (Han here refers to people of the Han Dynasty, not the Han ethnic group in the modern sense).





In 101 BC the Han troops began to be garrisoned in Luntai, Quli and other places to open up wasteland, and later expanded to all parts of Xinjiang. Each garrison became the initial entry point of the Han people. After the establishment of the Western Regions Frontier Command in 60 BC, the Han people entered Xinjiang continuously, either as officials, military personnel or businessmen.





The period of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was a time of great ethnic integration in China with frequent migration of various ethnic groups. Many of them entered Xinjiang such as the Rouran, Gaoche, Da and Tuyuhun.





During the Sui and Tang Dynasties the Turk, Tubo and other ethnic groups had an important influence on the historical process of Xinjiang. In the mid-8th century, the Eastern and Western Turkic Khanates perished one after another, their descendants partly integrating into other ethnic groups. The Western Turkic branch conquered Asia Minor, established Ottoman Turkish Empire and intermarried with local residents, resulting in the Turkish people with both eastern and western characteristics but different from the ancient Turks. The ancient Turks were not equal to the contemporary ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages.





The forefathers of today's Uygur were the Ouigour people mainly lived in the Mongolian steppe. In 745 AD the Ouigour Khanate appeared in the Mongolian steppe and collapsed in 840 AD. Some Ouigour people moved west to Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang and gradually merged with local indigenous people to form the modern Uygur ethnic group. The Uygur people have no other relations with Turkey except that their language also belongs to the Turkic language branch of Altaic language family.





In 1124 the royal family member Yelvdashi of Liao Dynasty led people to move westward, conquered Xinjiang and established the Western Liao regime, from which a group of the Khitan entered Xinjiang. At the beginning of the 13th century after Genghis Khan led his army into Xinjiang, he divided the areas he conquered and passed on to his descendants. The Uighur further assimilated and integrated some Khitan and Mongols.





Wala, the general name of west Mongolians in the Ming Dynasty, first distributed in the upper reaches of Yenisei River, and then continuously expanded to the middle reaches of Erzis River and Yili River Basin. At the beginning of the 17th century Junggar, Durbert, Heshuote and Turhute were gradually formed. In the 1970s, Junggar occupied Yili River Basin, became the head of the four divisions and ruled southern Xinjiang.





After the 1760s in order to further strengthen the border defense in Xinjiang, the Qing government transferred troops of the Manchu, Xibe, Solon (Daur) and other ethnic groups from northeast China to be garrisoned in Xinjiang who became new members of ethnic minorities there. Later the Russian, Tatar and other ethnic groups also moved to Xinjiang.





By the end of the 19th century, there were 13 ethnic groups in Xinjiang, including the Uygur, Han, Kazakh, Mongolian, Hui, Kirgiz, Manchu, Xibe, Tajik, Daur, Uzbek, Tatar and Russian, with the Uygur as the majority, forming the basic pattern of multi-ethnic distribution in Xinjiang today.





At this point the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Ket, Di , Qiang, Turk, Uygur, Khitan and other ethnic groups that were once prominent in history disappeared. Some of them joined the Han people adding fresh blood to the formation of the Han group while others became the major part of Xinjiang Uygur and other ethnic groups. It not only created the flesh-and-blood relationship between ethnic groups in Xinjiang and between Xinjiang and inland groups, but also kept the "diversified and integrated" structure of the Chinese nation as a prominent manifestation of Xinjiang's multi-ethnic evolution.





Xinjiang embraces different religions





The history of Xinjiang shows that multiple religions have long coexisted there. At present, there are Islam, Buddhism, Protestantism, Catholicism and Taoism. The evolution of religions in Xinjiang has roughly experienced four stages, namely, the primitive stage, the formation stage in which Buddhism is the major religion, the evolution stage in which Islam and Buddhism were the major religions, and the developmental stage in which Islam is the major religion.





Long before Islam, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Manichaeism, Nestorianism and other religions had been introduced to Xinjiang along the Silk Road and disseminated around together with native primitive religions. After the introduction of Islam Xinjiang not only maintained the coexistence of multiple religions but also accepted Protestantism and Catholicism.





At the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th century Islam was introduced into southern Xinjiang through Central Asia. In the mid-10th century the Kara-Khanid Kanate, which believed in Islam, launched a religious war against the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan which lasted for more than 40 years and collapsed in Khotan in the early 11th century, expanding Islam to Khotan area. Since the middle of the 14th century Islam has gradually become the major religion of the Mongolians, Uygurs, Kazakhs, Kirgiz and Tajiks under the enforcement of Chagatai Khanate (a vassal state established by Chagatai, the second son of Genghis Khan in Mongolia). At the beginning of the 16th century Islam finally replaced Buddhism as the major religion in Xinjiang.





After Islam became the major religion of the Uygur and other ethnic groups, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Nestorianism, which were originally believed by these groups, gradually disappeared in Xinjiang while Buddhism and Taoism still existed. Since the Ming Dynasty Tibetan Buddhism has made great progress and become one of the two major religions in Xinjiang alongside Islam.





Since the 18th century Protestantism and Catholicism have been introduced into Xinjiang while Buddhism, Taoism and Shamanism have also made great progress. The temples and churches of these religions spread all over the north and south of Tianshan Mountains. Some Muslims even converted to Buddhism, Protestantism and other religions.





The religious history of Xinjiang shows that the Uygur and their ancestors believed in many religions including Islam for only hundreds of years. In history the class struggles were more about ethnic minorities against oppression rather than religious wars.





Although religions in Xinjiang have been constantly evolving, the coexistence of multiple religions has been maintained throughout history. At present, there are mainly Islam, Buddhism (including Tibetan Buddhism), Protestantism, Catholicism and Taoism in Xinjiang. Shamanism still has great influence in some ethnic groups.





The history of Xinjiang shows that multiple religions have long coexisted there, with one or two predominant. The region's religious structure is characterized by blending and coexistence.





The Chinese nation is family of different ethnic people





The process that foreign enemies turned China into a colony or semi-colony in modern times is also the process that the Chinese people of all ethnic groups defeated the same enemy, fought for independence and liberation of the Chinese nation, and safeguarded national unity and territorial integrity.





In the process of saving the nation from subjugation, the Uygur and all other ethnic groups fought against aggression and separation. It further enhanced the awareness of solidarity. The sense of responsibility of people of all ethnic groups sharing the Chinese history has been further stimulated. The patriotism of the Chinese nation has been sublimated. With the deepening of the sense of community of a shared future, all ethnic groups in China are transferring from unconscious unity to consciousness.





In a word, for thousands of years the Uygur ancestors together with other ethnic groups and their forefathers have jointly developed the vast territory of the motherland and created the long history and splendid Chinese culture. In this process all ethnic groups and their ancestors, including the Uygur, frequently and closely contacted to become a unified whole that has become impossible to separate, leading to the formation of a great Chinese nation.





The Chinese nation family is not only a united country maintained by all ethnic groups but also an economic community in which all ethnic groups depend on each other economically. It is more of a cultural community in which all ethnic groups are culturally inclusive. It is the integration and continuous development of various cultures that have created the splendor and brilliance of the Chinese civilization of 5,000 years, which demonstrates the strong sense of cohesion of the Chinese nation.





The author is Uygur historian, President of Hotan Normal College in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The air base in Mihail Kogalniceanu, Constanta County, on Tuesday hosted the certification ceremony of the Spanish Force detachment set to participate as a NATO structure in the Enhanced Air Policing missions in this area of Europe, according to AGERPRES.

The Spanish detachment, made of 130 troops, pilots and technical personnel, equipped with six Eurofighter Typhoone aircraft, will carry out missions in the next two months together with Romanian Air Force troops, equipped with F-16 Fighting Falcon and MIG-21 LanceR aircraft.

In a speech during the ceremony, the commander of the Spanish detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Jose Enrique Hernandez Medel, said that the Enhanced Air Policing missions in which the Spanish troops have participated so far have demonstrated this country's commitment to NATO's policy and he underscored that the troops are ready for missions even in the context of the health crisis.

"The specific conditions of this mission are somewhat different due to the pandemic. All precautions have been taken, there are specific procedures that are applied to prevent the disease and its spread," said the commander of the Spanish Air Force detachment.

In his turn, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu, mentioned that the detachment within the Spanish Air Force is at its first participation as a NATO Enhanced Air Policing structure for the increase of the Romanian Air Force and in support of deterrence and defence measures of NATO.

"I would like to emphasize that the NATO Enhanced Air Policing mission is a collective defence mission in peacetime, designed to ensure the security of the Alliance's airspace. The Enhanced Air Policing is part of the NATO security measures adopted in 2014 at the Wales Summit "Demonstrating the commitment of the Allies to deter any possible aggression. The Enhanced Air Policing Mission is a key component of how the alliance provides security to its members," the defence chief said.

He underscored that the Spanish troops are experienced in missions in the Baltic states and said that the deployment of the detachment in Romania is part of the action plan to ensure operational capacity on the eastern flank.

"Spain's contribution to this mission is a sign of Spain's commitment to NATO and solidarity between member states, a clear message that together we are stronger. Your deployment here will strengthen the role of the Romanian Air Force and demonstrate solidarity and cohesion within the Alliance," Daniel Petrescu also said.

In his opinion, the Spanish participation in missions in this area of Europe strengthens security in the region.

"According to the NATO 2030 - United for a New Era report, the peace that most Europeans have enjoyed in the last seven decades is a historic exception. NATO remains the guardian of this invaluable achievement. Through the extraordinary commitment of all allies, this achievement will be protected in the following years too. Romania is a key ally on the eastern flank, contributing to the defence of airspace in the region along with Canada, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, allies that have so far carried out missions in Romania," said the Chief of the Defence Staff.
After a quiet few years, the FTSE is set to welcome a wave of fresh blood.

Alongside Dr Martens and Moonpig - both of which joined the FTSE this week - a number of multi-billion pound companies are preparing to 'go public'.

This will be the first time these companies will be open to retail investors.

Investors often get excited about IPOs (initial public offerings), as they can be a chance to buy into a fast-growing company.

IPO boom: After a quiet few years, the FTSE looks set to welcome fresh blood this year

The IPO boom should also deliver a jolt to the wider FTSE, which has been flagging in recent years.

So should you seize the opportunity to freshen up your portfolio? And can you get in before the crowd?

Time for a change?

As many investors will know, the FTSE hasn't had a great run lately.

This is not a reflection of the UK economy. Indeed, many of the weakest performers are large multinationals with no connection to the British High Street.

Oil majors, mining companies and struggling banks have contributed to the FTSE 100's reputation as an outdated index.

Debut: Dr Martens' stock opened at 22 per cent above the IPO price when it floated on Friday, but has slipped 1 per cent since

To worsen matters, the number of companies joining the stock market has ground to a halt.

Dynamic new companies - the likes of Pret A Manger, for example - have instead raised money privately from rich investors.

That's bad news for everyday investors and pension funds, which can't benefit from their success. It is a problem for the FTSE too, which has become less popular with international investors.

But 2021 may prove to be the year that starts to change.

The new kids

The City of London is excited about a number of upcoming IPOs expected to take place this year.

They include lockdown winner Deliveroo (estimated to be worth 5 billion), Cambridge-based cyber experts Darktrace and craft beer pioneers Brewdog.

For Rob Burgeman, investment manager at Brewin Dolphin, the IPO frenzy is good news for the wider market.

'It shows that the animal spirit has returned to the stock-market,' he says. 'People are feeling confident enough in the future to want to float their companies.'

Investors will also be hopeful that the likes of Deliveroo and Brewdog follow the trend of recent IPOs - where share prices often shoot up after listing.

That was certainly the case for Manchester-based retailer The Hut Group, which joined the FTSE last year.

The firm was the biggest IPO in London for seven years, and was accompanied by a large buzz.

Its shares have since risen some 30 per cent in four months, rewarding those who got in early.

Dr Martens' stock opened at 22 per cent above the IPO price when it floated on Friday, but has slipped 1 per cent since. Moonpig opened at 25 per cent above, but has since fallen 5 per cent.

So how can you get in first this time - and beat the crowd?

Big names: Investors will also be hopeful the likes of Deliveroo and Brewdog follow the trend of recent IPOs - where share prices often shoot up after listing

Get in first

The IPO process itself is complicated, with the first public shares typically offered to large institutional investors.

'It's a long-running grumble among private investors that they rarely get to participate in IPOs ahead of flotation,' says Lee Wild from Interactive Investor.

Even so, it's worth checking the website of your investment platform about details of upcoming IPOs - and signing up for email alerts of future offers.

There are other ways, however, for investors to put some of their money into new companies.

When large investors invest in private (i.e. pre-IPO) companies, they will often include these shares in their retail funds.

Edinburgh-based Baillie Gifford, for example, has become well known for investing in pre-IPO companies. Most famously, the investment house was an early backer of Tesla.

Its flagship Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust allows for 30 per cent of investors' money to be put into private (non-listed) companies.

Taking a risk on IPOs: Rideshare platform Lyft, a competitor to Uber, has fallen 40 per cent since March 2019

This strategy has paid off in recent years, with 10,000 invested five years ago now worth more than 50,000 (before fees).

For retail investors, this has the added benefit of diversification: you're essentially investing in dozens of companies at once.

Risky buys

But experts warn that - for all the excitement - investors should be wary of assuming every new offering is a guaranteed winner.

'Not all IPOs go well, as those who snapped up shares in Aston Martin Lagonda will ruefully tell you,' warns Russ Mould from investment platform AJ Bell.

The car-maker issued its first shares back in autumn 2018, at a price of more than 10,000.

Since then, its shares have plummeted, losing 80 per cent of their value in just over two years.

And in the U.S., some high-profile IPOs have fallen short of expectations.

Ride sharing platform Lyft, a competitor to Uber, has fallen 40 per cent since March 2019.

The company had originally been tipped by Baillie Gifford, and was included in its retail funds.

'When it comes to IPOs, investors certainly need to take each deal on its merits and carefully assess each company's competitive position,' says Mr Mould.

Either way, investors can look ahead to an interesting year  and hopefully a stronger FTSE, too.

moneymail@dailymail.co.uk

Another lawyer for HK detainees struck off

Mainland human rights lawyer Ren Quanniu has had his licence revoked. File photo: RTHK

Cecil Wong reports

Mainland authorities have revoked the licence of a lawyer who was engaged by the family of one of the 12 Hongkongers arrested and detained in Shenzhen while allegedly trying to flee to Taiwan.



Ren Quanniu was appointed by the relatives of Wong Wai-yin, but was barred from representing him in court.



Authorities say Ren's disqualification is in relation to another sensitive case he took up in 2018, in which he represented a member of Falun Gong, which is banned on the mainland.



Ren was allowed to state his case during a hearing, but the justice department of Henan province rejected his testimony.



The department ruled that by representing the Falun Gong member, Ren had repeatedly defended a cult, and had committed misconduct which prevented criminal proceedings from being carried out.



Ren said he would lodge an appeal against the disqualification.



The lawyer had also recently represented Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist sentenced to four years in prison for her reporting on the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.



Authorities last month revoked the licence of Lu Siwei, another mainland human rights lawyer who was hired by relatives of the 12 Hongkongers, just days after the courts jailed 10 of them for illegally crossing the border.
(CNN)  Sarah Jessica Parker reveals the "Sex and the City" revival won't ignore the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to Vanity Fair," Parker listed a number of things the writers are considering as they pen the series, which will also see the return of Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis.

The pandemic will "obviously be part of the storyline because that's the city [these characters] live in," Parker told the publication, adding, "I have great faith that the writers are going to examine it all."

The show, titled, "And Just Like That," will feature the women, who will now be in their 50s.

"I think that Cynthia, Kristin, and I are all excited about the time that has passed," Parker said. "You know, who are they in this world now? Have they adapted? What part have they played? Where have they fallen short as women, as friends, and how are they finding their way? Did they move with momentum? Are they like some people who are confused, threatened, nervous [by what's happening in the world]? I'm so curious and excited to see how the writers imagine these women today."

She added that the series will also address Carrie Bradshaw's career as a writer, her fashion sense, and her relationship with social media.

The show will include ten half-hour episodes and will be executive produced by Michael Patrick King.

This story was first published on CNN.com The 'Sex and the City' revival will address the COVID-19 pandemic

His Jewish vengeance fantasy Hunters starring Al Pacino proved a hit for Amazon Prime Video.

And now writer and producer David Weil has been given the go-ahead for another original series for the streamer with a star-studded cast attached.

Helen Mirren, Anne Hathaway and Morgan Freeman have all signed on for Solos, an anthology drama series set to premiere later this year, according to THR.com on Monday.

Streaming roles: Helen Mirren, left in September, and Anne Hathaway, right in January 2020, will head up a star-studded cast for the new Amazon Prime Video anthology series Solos

The seven-parter 'will explore the deeper meaning of human connection through the lens of the individual,' per a studio statement.

Joining the trio of Oscar winners will be Anthony Mackie, Dan Stevens, Constance Wu, Uzo Aduba and Nicole Beharie.

In a statement, Weil described himself as 'beyond thrilled' to have such a stellar group of artists on board.

'I created this piece with a desire to capture stories about connection, hope and the search for that common hum of humanity that binds us all,' Weil shared.

'Im immensely grateful to... my incredible partners at Amazon for their unwavering support and collaboration on this special project,' he added.

Anthology: Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman also signed on for the seven-parter which 'will explore the deeper meaning of human connection through the lens of the individual'

On board: The stellar cast also includes Nicole Beharie, left, Constance Wu, center, and Uzo Aduba, right. All are pictured in early 2020

Signed up: Dan Stevens, left, and Anthony Mackie, right, will also be seen in the show that's set to premiere on the streamer later this year

Showrunner: Solos is the new project from writer and producer David Weil, who created Amazon Prime's Jewish vengeance fantasy Hunters. He's pictured in February 2020

In Hunters, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video in February last year, Pacino played a Holocaust survivor who heads up a group of Nazi hunters living in New York City in 1977.

The darkly comedic series centers on high-ranking Nazis conspiring to usher in a Fourth Reich in the U.S. and the efforts of the Hunters to thwart their plans and bring them to justice.

Also starring Logan Lerman and Lena Olin, the show has been renewed for a second season.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Mayor Bill de Blasio made a trip to Staten Island Monday as a major winter storm hits New York City.

So far, the mayor said the citys Department of Sanitation (DSNY) had done its job keeping roads passable as he toured parts of Staten Island, including Grasmere.

Staten Islanders depend on their cars a lot, and its really important to make sure the roads are clear, de Blasio said. It looks pretty good. I think Sanitation got out early and strong here.

Mitch Schwartz, a mayoral spokesman, shared photos of de Blasio visiting the Bagel Stop Deli and Grill on Hylan Bloulevard, where the mayor ordered lunch around 2 p.m.

Snow Patrol: Bagel Stop Deli and Grill on Hylan Blvd on Staten Island



Roadway conditions: very snowy but getting there



Greetings: exchanged



Kaiser rolls: ordered



Alfredo and Vicente: holding it down pic.twitter.com/5JxLU2g5MC  Mitch Schwartz (@mhschwartz10) February 1, 2021

During a morning press briefing with de Blasio, DSNY Commissioner Edward Grayson said one of the departments goals for the day is to keep roadways passable.

According to the latest information from the citys PlowNYC app, most of Staten Islands streets have been plowed within the last six hours, but conditions are expected to worsen as the storm continues.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during an afternoon press briefing that he expects a rate of snowfall over two inches per hour, making plow efforts all the more difficult.

De Blasio said some of the citys toughest terrain to plow is in some of the narrow streets in the hilly sections of the Island. In recent years, the city has acquired special equipment to ensure the best plowing efforts for those roads.

Thats why its really important to get out early and keep coming back (for) multiple passes, and thats the Sanitation game plan, the mayor said. When you got hilly terrain and you got small streets, thats two of the biggest challenges -- and Staten Island has both, obviously. So well try to make sure theres a strong presence from Sanitation early and often.

Cuomo and transit officials announced multiple closures, and said more should be expected, including possible highway shutdowns.

The Staten Island Ferry has been reduced to hourly frequency, and the Staten Island Railway remains in operation, despite shutdowns to outdoor subway stops in other parts of the city, according to Interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) buses remain in operation on reduced schedules, but are subject to further closures as snow continues to accumulate. The Long Island Railroad and Metro-North Railroad systems will also be shutdown in the early evening.

Multiple Staten Island local and express bus routes are being detoured because of safety concerns from the storm. More info on all MTA delays, detours and scheduling updates can be found on the authoritys website.

Regarding transit shutdowns, de Blasio didnt say if hed like to see additional shutdowns or additional transit options to remain in service, but said he respects the decisions the state has made.

I know the state has to make tough decisions in a situation like this, he said. I think this is the kind of thing where you have to see how things are going, and adjust quickly.

Cuomo, de Blasio and other officials have urged New Yorkers to stay off the roads unless necessary. The mayor said that so far he thinks city residents have heeded those warnings.

Snow is expected to continue falling and accumulating on Staten Island until sometime Tuesday morning, according to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Courtney Travis.

The white stuff began to fall across the borough on Sunday afternoon, and residents woke up to a few inches on Monday morning. About 9 inches of snow had fallen in Rosebank by about 11 a.m., according to an unofficial measure by the Advance/SILive.com.

In total, New York City expects to see as much as 2 feet of snow, according to the latest information from the National Weather Service.

Its going to be one of the biggest storms weve seen in a long time, unquestionably de Blasio said, adding that the storm wont be as bad as the 2015 blizzard that brought up to 3 feet in parts of the Northeast.

It wont be quite that big, but its getting up there, he said.

Follow live updates on the storm by clicking here.
Why were no questions were raised on Republic Day violence, asked Delhi Police Commissioner SN Srivastava in a rebuttal to those criticising intense barricading on borders adjoining the capital amid the farmers' protest.

Opposition parties, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi have questioned the barricading being carried out at the borders where farmers have been protesting for four to five months. Gandhi on Tuesday asked the Centre to "build bridges and not walls.

Security has been stepped up with the deployment of extra personnel and strengthening of barricades near farmers' protest sites at Delhi's borders, leading to traffic congestions on many key roads in the national capital.

ALSO READ | No Formal Talks with Govt Until Harassment Stops, Detained Farmers Freed: Samyukt Kisan Morcha

Workers under the watch of police personnel on Monday were seen hooking iron rods between two rows of cement barriers on a flank of the main highway at the Singhu border to further restrict the movement of protesters agitating against the Centre's new farm laws at the site. Another portion of the highway at the Delhi-Haryana border is practically blocked now as a makeshift cement wall has come up there.

Security has also been tightened at the Delhi-Ghazipur border, where protesting farmers are also camping for over two months.

ALSO READ | No Approval: Delhi Police Seeks Explanation as Photos of Cops Armed With Metal Lathis Go Viral

"I'm surprised that when tractors were used, Police was attacked, barricades were broken on 26th (January) no questions were raised. What did we do now? We've just strengthened barricading so that it's not broken again," Delhi Police Commissioner S N Srivastava told ANI, when asked about the barricading at Delhi borders.

I'm surprised that when tractors were used, Police was attacked, barricades were broken on 26th no questions were raised. What did we do now? We've just strengthened barricading so that it's not broken again: Delhi Police Commissioner when asked about barricading at Delhi borders pic.twitter.com/FQkI1qZ75q  ANI (@ANI) February 2, 2021

Meanwhile, a day after photos of policemen armed with metal lathis and large arm guards surfaced online, the Delhi Police put out a disclaimer saying the policemen took the initiative on their own and no formal orders have been given for any new metal armoury. It also asked the police unit in question to explain their action.

The photos emerged after a policeman got injured while trying to subdue a man  reported to be a farmer  who was wielding a sword at Singhu on the Delhi-Haryana border. In an apparent attempt to defend themselves from such swords seen during the farmers protest, photos shared widely on social media showed several policemen from the Shahada unit in the metal armoury on Sunday.

Farmer unions on Monday announced a countrywide 'chakka jam' on February 6 when they would block national and state highways for three hours in protest against the Internet ban in areas near their agitation sites, harassment allegedly meted out to them by authorities, and other issues.

The Haryana government on Tuesday evening extended the suspension of mobile internet services, SMS and all dongle services on mobile networks except voice calls in Kaithal, Panipat, Jind, Rohtak, Charkhi Dadri, Sonipat and Jhajjar till 5 pm on February 3.

Farmer union Sanyukta Kisan Andolan also announced that the legal committee formed to probe the cases of "more than a hundred protesting farmers that have been missing since January 26" will be sharing its findings in a press conference at 8 pm on Tuesday at the Singhu border.

The Centre on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha that protesting farmers "aggressively" resorted to rioting, damage to property and used "criminal force" against public servants during their tractor 'parade' here on January 26 leaving the Delhi police with no option but to use tear gas, water cannons and mild force to control the crowd. The Lok Sabha was also informed that 39 cases were registered between September and December 2020 against farmers protesting against the three contentious agri laws at Delhi's borders.

In a written reply, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy also said the protesting farmers were not following social distancing and gathered in large numbers without face masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On police using tear gas and resorting to baton charge against the protesting farmers, the minister said it has been reported that at Delhi borders, large convoys of agitating farmers in tractor trolleys tried to furiously force their way and go past police barricades to enter Delhi in connection with their tractor 'parade' on Republic Day on January 26.
The European Commission on Tuesday condemned threats of violence against port officials in Northern Ireland, which have prompted authorities to suspend checks on animal products at ports in Belfast and Larne.

Graffiti recently appeared in the Larne area, 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Belfast, describing port staff as "targets".

Staff have also reported suspicious behavior such as people writing down license plate numbers.

The new checks come after the UK left the EU's economic structures at the end of 2020.

As per the UK-EU settlement, there are checks between the bloc and Britain, including on British goods going to Northern Ireland.

European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer on Tuesday said that EU authorities were in contact with counterparts in the UK "both from a security perspective and from the perspective of the implementation of the withdrawal agreement".

Politicians in Britain and Northern Ireland have also condemned the threats.

(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)
Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Hal Holbrook, the actor best known for his amazingly accurate portrayal of Mark Twain in the renowned one-man show he performed on stages for more than five decades, has died. He was 95.

Holbrooks former wife Carol Rossen confirmed his death. The New York Times said he died Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, California.

Holbrooks Tony Award-winning Twain re-creation on Broadway in 1966 was part of an acting career that spanned stage, movies and television. He first encountered Twain when he portrayed the legendary author and humorist in a two-person sketch that was part of a multicharacter revue Holbrook and his first wife took on a high school assembly tour of the Southwest in the late 1940s.

By the time Holbrook turned Twain into a one-man show in 1954, he had performed the brief Twain sketch, An Encounter With an Interviewer, some 800 times in front of high school, university and womens club audiences.

After developing and performing his one-man Twain show in New York nightclubs and in regional performances  as well as performing pieces of his act on The Ed Sullivan Show and other TV programs  Holbrook opened Mark Twain Tonight! off-Broadway in 1959.

Reviewers were uniformly ecstatic in their praise, calling Holbrooks Twain re-creation brilliant and the show extraordinary. Life magazine called it the greatest theatrical surprise of the year.

Holbrook went on to tour the United States, Canada and Europe with his one-man show before bringing Mark Twain Tonight! to Broadway in 1966 to rave reviews.

The 41-year-old actors Broadway triumph was the culmination of more than a decade of research into the life, literature and idiosyncrasies of one of Americas best-known literary icons.

Holbrook had honed Twains speech: his drawl, his slow, casual delivery on the lecture platform and his way of dropping comic nuggets with what Holbrook called the innocent air of a man who does not realize he has said anything funny.

He had perfected the look: the shock of white hair and drooping mustache, along with the age lines, nose and jowls  make-up that took more than three hours to apply.

Actor Hal Holbrook greets patrons in stage make-up following his one man performance in "Mark Twain Tonight" at the University of Texas at Tyler, Texas, on Saturday night, Jan. 13, 2007.AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. Lieberman

He also had refined the costume: a white, three-piece linen suit and black shoes, a maroon cravat with a diamond stickpin, a vintage gold pocket watch with a heavy gold chain, and a small silver penknife that Holbrook used to cut off the ends of the three cigars he smoked during each performance.

Most important, Holbrook had made Twains words, taken directly from the authors lectures and other writings, his own.

As he ambled on stage, the transformation of Hal Holbrook into Mark Twain was complete.

Ladies and gentlemen, he would begin, I wish to present to you a man whose great learning and veneration for truth are only exceeded by his high moral character and majestic presence. I refer in these vague, general terms to myself.

A New York Times critic praised the theatrical magic of Hal Holbrook. He brought Mark Twain back to life to stir the laughter and stab the conscience of a public yearning for such a voice as that of the nations one true comic genius.

In 1967, a national audience of 30 million watched Holbrooks Emmy-nominated performance in a televised version of Mark Twain Tonight! on CBS.

Not wanting to be trapped in the legendary character that made him famous, Holbrook made a point of shaping a varied career as an actor, which included one of his most famous film roles: the mysterious Deep Throat in the 1976 film All the Presidents Men.

On stage, he played everything from Shakespeares King Lear to Shylock to Willy Loman.

On television, he won Emmy Awards for his 1970-71 dramatic series, The Senator, the 1973 TV movie Pueblo (for which he won Emmys for actor of the year  special, and best lead actor in a drama) and the 1974 miniseries Sandburgs Lincoln.

He also earned an Emmy nomination for his role in That Certain Summer, a landmark 1972 TV movie about a divorced homosexual father; he had a recurring role as Julia Sugarbakers love interest on the sitcom Designing Women, which starred his third wife, Dixie Carter, as Sugarbaker; and he played Burt Reynolds cantankerous father-in-law on Evening Shade.

Among his film credits are The Group, Magnum Force, Julia, Wall Street, The Firm and The Majestic.

In 2008, at age 82, Holbrook was nominated for an Academy Award, earning a best supporting actor nomination for the role of a lonely widower in Into the Wild.

But Holbrook could never shake his image as Mark Twain reincarnated. Nor did he want to stop doing something that was so enduringly successful and so much fun to do.

Holbrook was 29 when he began playing the 70ish Twain in his one-man show, and he stuck with Twain for so many years he eventually became older than the age of the historic character he was playing.

To keep fresh, he added new Twain material to the act and, depending on his mood, he often would shift material while on stage.

Ive just become more and more impressed with him, Holbrook told the Boston Globe in 1997. The same truths that captured me when I started in 1954 are even more apparent today.

Playing Twain, he said, is a genuine pleasure, and its a way of getting things off my chest. Its a catharsis. Lets face it, one of Twains favorite subjects was hypocrisy, and that happens on different levels all the time. Its never out of fashion.

As of 2009, he continued to portray Twain on stages 20 to 30 times a year.

Born Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. in Cleveland on Feb. 17, 1925, he was the middle child between sisters. (A brother died in infancy.) When he was 2, his mother abandoned the family and, Holbrook later learned, moved to New York City, where she worked as a chorus girl.

Holbrooks father, a shoe salesman, disappeared a few days after their mother, and Holbrook and his sisters were sent to live with their paternal grandparents in South Weymouth, Mass.

At 7, Holbrook was sent to Suffield Academy in Suffield, Connecticut, where, he later said, he and the other students were routinely beaten by the sadistic headmaster. Holbrook developed an interest in theater at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Ohio, where he graduated in 1942.

Drawn by the drama department at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, Holbrook studied there for a year before being called up for military service in 1943.

While serving with the Army Corps of Engineers in Newfoundland, he joined an amateur theater group, where he met actress Ruby Johnston. They were married in 1945. After his discharge, Holbrook returned to Denison University, where both he and his wife majored in drama.

In 1947, during the fall of their senior year, Holbrook received a late-night phone call that would alter the course of his life.

The call was from Edward Wright, head of the universitys theater department, who said he had been asked by a school assembly booker from Dallas if he had any students who could tour high schools in the Southwest with a show for 30 weeks the next season.

As Holbrook recounted in the prologue of his 1959 book Mark Twain Tonight! An Actors Portrait, Wright told the booker he had a young married couple at the university who had a two-person show in which they performed scenes from the lives of famous personalities: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Alden and Priscilla, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Mark Twain and a few Shakespearean characters as well.

Wright told Holbrook the job paid $210 for 12 shows a week, plus $15 for gas and oil. Holbrook told Wright theyd do it, although he and his wife really didnt have such a show.

Before the Holbrooks began putting their show together, Wright gave them a copy of Twains An Encounter With an Interviewer, a humorous piece in which Twain pulls the leg of a reporter with no sense of humor.

Holbrook recalled that he and his wife began doing the Interviewer sketch for clubs and school groups, and then began adding scenes from Shakespeares As You Like It and other selections.

With a $3,000 loan from the president of a bank in Newark, Ohio, who had seen the Holbrooks in college productions, the couple bought material for costumes, stage lights, an amplifying system for musical bridges and a station wagon to transport both them and their cargo.

In September 1948, they set out on their school assembly tour of the Southwest.

Their audiences improved dramatically over the next three years, Holbrook recalled. They performed their show at womens clubs and small colleges about nine months out of the year and acted in summer stock for part of the summer.

In 1954, after moving to New York City, Holbrook landed a continuing role as the reformed alcoholic son of a minister on the TV soap opera The Brighter Day. The job lasted more than five years, during which he developed and performed his solo Twain show.

In 2001, while working on his autobiography, Holbrook discovered why he became an actor.

I realized there was an imp in me that wanted to say, Here I am. Here I am, he told The Hartford Courant. The little boy who had been abandoned by his parents, he said, was frightened, but he wanted to be noticed.

The twice-divorced Holbrook, who married Carter in 1984, had two children, Victoria and David, with his first wife; and a daughter, Eve, with his second wife, Carol Rossen.

Carter died of complications from cancer in 2010. Less than four weeks later, Holbrook returned to the stage, performing Mark Twain Tonight! at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza in Southern California.

Look, he told the Los Angeles Times shortly thereafter, I need to work. If I dont work, I could sit down and contemplate suicide. My wife was no quitter  she would be telling me to get out there to do my work, and thats what Im doing. So thats the main thing  to keep working, to keep trying to figure out how to do this job right.
Percival Lowell, the American astronomer whose name bears an observatory in Arizona, made several very significant observations of the planets. His biggest contribution being the hunt for Planet X beyond the orbit of Neptune. Although his search was unsuccessful, Pluto was eventually discovered near the place Lowell had predicted the missing planet would be, using the very observatory Lowell founded to study Mars.

The red planet fascinated Lowell, and it was his observations of Mars and the inference he drew from it for which Lowell is remembered the most. Lowell was convinced that there are intelligent beings on Mars, for he could see through the telescope a maze of canal like structures on the surface of the planet. The astronomer theorized that an advanced civilization indigenous to Mars built the canals to bring water from the polar ice caps to the equatorial region in a last ditch attempt to survive in an inexorably drying planet.

A map of Mars drawn by Italian astronomer Giovani Schiaparelli in the 1880s, showing waterways on the planets surface. It was Schiaparelli who first proposed the canal theory. From the book A Popular Handbook and Atlas of Astronomy by William Peck, 1891.

Lowells vision of a dying race fighting an unwinnable war towards an inevitable end excited the public and influenced the likes of H.G. Wells to speculate how different the life of Martians would be from that of earthlings, and how their evolutionary progress might compare to us. Wells theorized that in a planet as hostile as Mars, creatures would have no digestive system and no hands, but tentacles, which they would use to put the blood of other beings in their veins to survive. Ludicrous as it may sound, these ideas culminated into one of Wells most famous worksThe War of the Worlds.

Lowells writing continued to influence science fiction writers well into the middle of the 20th century. Martian canals figure prominently in Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein (1949) and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950). Even today, the vision of Mars derived from his theories remains enshrined in the works of many authors and are still read widely as classics of science fiction.

Percival Lowells interpretation of the canals of Mars.

The notion of canals and intelligent life on Mars was finally put to rest only in 1972, when NASAs Mariner 9 spacecraft sent close-up pictures of Marss surface, showing that there is no such structures on the red planet.

Some of his other ideas took even longer to resolve.

The Spokes of Venus

Percival Lowell

In 1896, soon after Lowell had acquired a new 24-inch refracting telescope and installed it at his Flagstaff observatory, the controversial astronomer began studying Venus. Lowell noticed that when he stopped down the aperture of the telescope, a mysterious dark spot materialized on the planets surface with spoke-like structures emanating from it. Lowell knew that Venus had a thick atmosphere thats impossible to penetrate optically, yet he saw these markings that could only have been on the surface. Stranger still, these features always seem to face the earth, which meant that Venus must be in synchronous rotation with the Sunan inference which didnt tally with other observations. The most puzzling was the fact that no one else, other than Lowell, could see these markings.

The scientific society derided Lowells findings but they couldnt help but wonder exactly what Lowell had seen, and why only he could see it. The matter was left unsettled for more than a century until a couple of amateur astronomers proposed a theory: Lowell was gazing into his own eye!

Lowell often observed the planet high in the daytime sky with the telescope's lens stopped down to under 3 inches in diameter to reduce the effect of the turbulent daytime atmosphere. With that setup, Lowell shrank the telescope's exit pupil in front of his eye to a pinhole of diameter less than 0.5 millimeter, effectively turning the telescope into a giant opthalmoscope that optometrists use to examine eyes of patients.

Percival Lowells drawing of Venus and its spokes (left) somewhat resemble the back of the human eye (right)

Andrew T. Young of San Diego State University explained that a small exit pupil often casts shadows of blood vessels on the retina, making them visible. As the eye pupil moves with respect to the small telescope pinhole, the angle at which rays arrive at the retina changes, so that features [that are] within the eye but a little removed from the retina may cast shifting shadows on the latter and be seen.

To state it plainly: what Lowell saw as spokes were actually shadows of the blood vessels and other structures in his own retina. So instead of mapping the surface of Venus, Lowell had been mapping the structures in his own eye. While this may sound all very strange, this phenomenon is a well-known annoyance among astronomers observing planets at very high magnification.

When the late Carl Sagan spoke at the University of Glasgow in 1985 during Gifford Lectures, he used Lowells example of an over-productive mind as a cautionary tale about the power of belief and yearning to trump science and reason. Ironically, Lowell is sometimes compared to Sagan himself. In a paper published in Space Science Reviews in 2007, the authors described Percival Lowell as the most influential popularizer of planetary science in America before Sagan.

References:

# William Sheehan, Venus Spokes: An Explanation At Last?, Sky & Telescope

# Leon Jaroff, What Lowell Really Saw When He Watched Venus, New York Times

# Kat Eschner, The Bizarre Beliefs of Astronomer Percival Lowell, Smithsonian Magazine

# Kevin Zahnle et al, Emergence of a habitable planet, Space Science Reviews
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A father-of-three suffered a broken skull and stab wounds after was attacked with an axe when he rushed to his neighbour's aid during a terrifying home invasion.

Russell Irwin, 41, was roasting marshmallows with his family when he heard the petrified screams of his female neighbour coming from her home in Cranbourne North, Melbourne, at about 7.15pm on Monday.

Three men had stormed into her house armed with an axe, machete and gun.

Mr Irwin jumped over the fence and ran to his neighbours aid before the intruders turned on him.

41 -year-old Russell Irwin (pictured) was stabbed and attacked by three men in Melbourne after he went to the aid of his neighbour who was heard screaming

One stuck his head with an axe, breaking his skull.

'It could've killed him ... left three kids without a dad ... us without an uncle ... it's disgusting,' a relative told Nine News.

'I honestly think if it wasn't for him she probably wouldn't be around.'

His children were just metres away from the attack.

Detective Senior Constable Alex Fiore commended Mr Irwins quick actions and bravery.

'An innocent man was just in the backyard with his family and has come to the aid of a neighbour, and unfortunately been attacked himself,' he said.

'The victim is extremely brave.

'I know the occupants of this address are very grateful for his involvement.'

The offenders stormed the neighbour's home, demanding money before attacking the father-of-three (pictured) when he came to help, breaking his skull with an axe

The attackers fled the scene and remain at large.

'Police are investigating whether the home invasion was targeted or an isolated incident,' Det Snr Const Fiore said.

'We think there may be a relationship but we're not sure.'

According to witnesses, three men demanded money but fled after attacking to the hero father when he intervened.

The men split ways - two headed towards Lawless Drive and the other fled though a neighbour's backyard, dropping his machete.

Nearby witnesses bravely chased off one of men, described to be Caucasian.

Police are investigating if that man escaped in a blue Mitsubishi or a silver SUV vehicle.

Police are urging anyone who witnessed the attack to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or file a report online.
The South African alcohol industry welcomes President Ramaphosa's announcement yesterday evening to reinstate the sale of alcohol by licenced premised for offsite consumption from Monday to Thursday from 10am to 6pm. Further, the president stated that the sale of alcohol by licensed premises for on-site consumption - such as restaurants and taverns - will be permitted throughout the week from 10am to 10pm.

Credit: Pexels

Report warns govts against using alcohol prohibition laws as emergency response Research conducted by Tracit analysed the economic and social impacts of strict restrictions on the production and/or consumption of alcohol during the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak...

Industry on its knees

SAB suspends 550 temporary workers as production stagnates SAB has had to suspend 550 temporary contract workers across its South African operations, as it navigates the unintended consequences of the third alcohol ban...

Small businesses in need of assistance

Craft brewers battling to survive blanket ban on alcohol According to a survey conducted by The Craft Brewers Association of South Africa, the vast majority of local craft brewers don't see themselves surviving the third alcohol ban...

In addition, it says that the relaxing of restrictions to allow registered wineries, wine farms, micro-breweries and distilleries to sell alcohol for offsite consumption during normal licenced hours is a welcome step to helping the industry begin its long journey back to recovery.However, the industry requests regular review of ongoing restrictions as the health situation improves, and calls for collaborative and transparent engagement with Government going forward."The reinstatement of the alcohol ban for the third time during lockdown announced by the President on 28 December has decimated the industry and threatened its long-term survival. Moreover, this has led to job losses, a rise in illicit trade and a significant decline in its economic contributions."The industry has calculated that the decrease in excise tax contribution to the fiscus has declined more than 28% from R47bn in 2019/20 to R34bn in 2020/21. This R13bn loss in alcohol tax revenue could have covered the investment needed in the procurement of vaccines and other measures needed to curb the impact of Covid-19," the alcohol industry says in a statement.Kurt Moore, CEO of South African Liquor Brandowners Association (Salba) comments, As an industry, we welcome the presidents decision to ease the restrictions on alcohol sales for on and offsite consumption and are extremely relieved that partial areas of alcohol sales are to be opened up again. However, after this six-week ban that has left the industry on its knees, this development is no quick fix for our long-term economic survival."We call on Government to work together with us to find a workable solution going forward that protects lives, while preserving the livelihoods of around one million people who rely on some form of income from this sector.Rico Basson, managing director of Vinpro says, Tonights announcement has long been necessary to one of South Africas oldest but most significant industries which has suffered appallingly at the hands of these lockdown restrictions. Sales of alcohol for on and offsite consumption during restricted hours of trading marks the start of the long road to recovery for this sector, but has come too late for many small businesses that have not been able to weather the storm of Covid-19."Additionally, with the harvest for this years wine underway, the impetus to create sales for our existing wine stock is all the more pertinent if we are to safeguard our future. We continue to implore our consumers to drink responsibly during the countrys ongoing lockdown.The Beer Association of South Africa (Basa) says that while the partial lifting of restrictions still limit the beer sectors recovery, it is relieved to be able to begin trading again. "While there is no guarantee that our craft brewers will recover, the president has offered small businesses a glimmer of hope  although it may be too little too late for some," the association comments.According to Basa, the situation faced by small business owners and craft brewers remains dire. The last two alcohol bans had a devastating impact on the beer industry, with an estimated 7,400 jobs lost and R14.2bn in lost sales revenue.Basa has written to the Presidency and to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), to reiterate its call for urgent government intervention to save jobs and small businesses within the sector. To date, the industry has not been able to secure a meeting with Minister Patel or the Presidency to deal with the matter."Basa would like to reiterate that there is a desperate need for payment deferrals, financial relief, and liquor licence automatic renewals for 2021, if we are to have any hope of saving the businesses that remain standing," says Basa.The industry says it has always understood the need to save lives but maintains that the regulations could have been implemented in a more targeted, less damaging manner that alleviates the impact on the healthcare system and helps to mitigate transmission, while still helping to preserve livelihoods. Since the pandemic began, the alcohol industry has implemented numerous proactive measures to address safety at consumer touchpoints and within the trading environment.It has already committed R150m in harm reduction measures to address the four specific areas prioritised in the proposed social compact: reducing the incidence of binge drinking, drink driving, and underage drinking and gender-based violence. The industry says it supports the president as he urges consumers to drink responsibly to avoid a spike in trauma cases or an increase in infections due to reckless behaviour.
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission will begin forming the city's African American Reparations Advisory Committee to come up with a plan to pay reparations to residents who are descendants of slaves, HRC officials said Monday.

The commission is now accepting applications for the task force, which will be made up of 15 residents.

The creation of the task force is the result of efforts by Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton and the San Francisco branch of the NAACP.

Last year, Walton introduced legislation calling for reparations for African-American residents, possibly using income from the city's hotel and marijuana taxes, to compensate Black people whose ancestors not only provided free labor for hundreds of years through slavery in the U.S., but also suffered injustices during the Jim Crow era.

"The damage caused by slavery and free labor for hundreds of years in the United States still has a major negative impact on the Black community. Being stolen from your own culture and not allowed to reproduce and receive an education, has led to systemic negative impacts to this day for Black people, even here in San Francisco," Walton said Monday in a statement.

"The only way we can right the wrongs of being prevented from building generational wealth and achieving equity, is by true reparations for Black people here in our own city," he said.

Of the applicants for the advisory committee, all will be appointed by the Board of Supervisors to serve indefinite terms. Each of the 15 seats will have specific requirements, ensuring diversity on the committee.

After meeting for six months, the committee will be tasked with reporting its progress to the Board of Supervisors, the mayor and the Human Rights Commission. After 24 months, the committee would submit its final plan for the reparations.

More information about the committee and the requirements and experience needed for each seat can be found at www.sfbos.org/sites/default/files/2021_Maddy_Act.pdf. Interested applicants can go to www.sfbos.org/vacancy_application to apply.

Copyright  2021 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Energy company SSE has said it still expects the coronavirus will cost it around 200million in full-year operating profit.

The Scotland-based group revealed that electricity output from its gas-fired generation plant was eight per cent higher in the last nine months of 2020 than in the same period the previous year.

However, lower levels of both onshore and offshore wind generation caused its renewables output to be 'just over' 5 per cent lower at 7,202 Gigawatts per hour (GWh) despite hydroelectric output rising 12 per cent to 2,571 GWh.

SSE was bought a year ago for 500million by Ovo Energy in a deal that made Ovo the UK's second-largest energy supplier

It added that it was in discussions with banks over a proposed sale of all or part of its one-third stake in the gas distribution firm SGN. SGN manages the gas network for 5.9 million homes throughout Scotland and southern England.

SSE's retail business was purchased a year ago for 500million by Ovo Energy in a deal that made Ovo the UK's second-largest energy supplier, with responsibility for five million customers.

A merger with nPower was initially considered before it was called off, and it agreed to have its Energy Services division purchased by Bristol-based Ovo, which was only set up in 2009 and also owns former rival Spark Energy.

The deal took SSE out of selling gas and electricity to UK customers. Since then, the FTSE 100 sold a 50 per cent stake in its Multifuel assets for almost 1billion in January and agreed the month before to sell its gas exploration and production assets to Viaro Energy for 120million.

It has instead sought to refocus its investments on its networks and renewables businesses, and treble its renewable electricity output by 2030.

A lot of money has been put into wind farm projects, including Seagreen, which will be Scotland's biggest wind farm once complete, Greater Gabbard, and Dogger Bank, the world's largest offshore wind farm under development.

SSE has invested in wind farms such as Seagreen, which will be Scotland's biggest wind farm once complete, and Dogger Bank, the world's largest offshore wind farm under development

SSE said it was making 'good progress' on its plans to invest 7.5billion in low carbon infrastructure over the five years to 2025.

The group hopes its investment will help bring the UK closer to achieving its goal of hitting net zero emissions by 2050. It is also a major partner of the United Nations Climate Change Conference that is due to take place in Glasgow in December.

Many politicians and environmental campaigners have called for the government to prioritise a 'green recovery' from Covid-19 to help revive the UK economy and reach its net zero target.

'The 'green recovery' from Covid-19 prioritised by governments should play to SSE's strengths,' said Donald Brown, senior investment manager at Brewin Dolphin.

Shares in SSE closed 0.1 per cent down at 15.10 and are about 2 per cent lower than they were at the start of the year.

Brown added that SSE's shares are 'basically unchanged over the year, which is a decent barometer of its success in managing the many challenges of 2020 and compares favourably to the FTSE 100, which is down 11 per cent since January 2020.'
Trying to vaccinate more than millions of Oregonians is a daunting task. K-12 teachers have been rightly prioritized. Higher education faculty and staff should be prioritized in the next phase. By June, we will have been teaching remotely for more than a year. Our students are doing their best. Yet, theyre also learning less and losing an important part of their education. Theyre missing out on hands-on learning. Worse, theyre not forming crucial relationships with other students or with faculty. Those relationships are often the key to success for first generation students, students of color, and returning students. Too many college students are finding out that they cannot learn well online with spotty internet connections, the stress of juggling jobs and family or of learning in isolation from other humans. Too many of our students are giving up and dropping out. Oregon needs a well-educated workforce. Our most vulnerable students need in-person instruction. Vaccinating college and university personnel so we can resume in-person teaching in September must be a priority.

Lynn Santelmann, Portland

Santelmann is an associate professor of applied linguistics at Portland State University.
Market

Brokerages on Budget 2021: Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, CLSA and others

Updated : February 02, 2021 09:06 AM IST

Among brokerages, Morgan Stanley is bullish on steel companies after the Budget while Jefferies said it will be a positive for banks and NBFCs. Credit Suisse and JPMorgan are positive on ITC after the Budget. Here are the top brokerage calls for today:

CNBCTV18.com

Morgan Stanley on Budget: As per the brokerage, a big thrust on infra could support volume growth momentum in cement and steel companies.

CLSA on Budget: The brokerage said that the demand-side measures announced in the Budget augur well for growth. It prefers Tata Steel and Hindalco among metals.

Jefferies on Budget: The brokerage said that Budget proposals are likely to be a positive for banks/NBFCs as they stimulate growth.

CLSA on Insurance: MSCI weights may not increase materially due to FDI hike except for HDFC Life, said the brokerage. It maintains a positive view on the sector with Max Financial as a top pick.

Credit Suisse on ITC: The brokerage said that no news (in Budget 2021) is good news as it maintains outperform rating on ITC with a target of Rs 255 per share.

JPMorgan on ITC: The brokerage maintains a 'buy' call on the stock with a target raised to Rs 225 per share from Rs 192 earlier. It also upgraded FY22 EPS estimates by 4 percent.

Published : February 02, 2021 09:06 AM IST
Patna, Feb 2 : The CCTV cameras now play a crucial role in a criminal investigation. In states like Bihar with frequent criminal incidents, the importance of CCTV cameras at the personal as well as at the state government level is seen to be minimal.

IANS visited some of the streets in Patna and found that maximum roads are not under CCTV surveillance. Starting from Bailey road connecting Saguna Mor in Danapur to Dak Banglow Chowk located in the heart of Patna with more than 10 intersections, the majority of them are not under CCTV surveillance. The situation was the same on Ashok Rajpath, Freser road, Exhibition road and many others.

Subhendu Kumar Singh, a resident of upscale Budha colony in Patna said: "Patna is way behind on the security front. CCTV cameras are hardly installed in individual residential buildings." As a resident of Patna, he observed that keeping a low profile is the key here to avoid criminal incidents.

"If we install CCTV cameras in our premises, it is too obvious and the local criminals may demand extortion money from us," Singh said.

"The installation of CCTV cameras on government buildings, multi-storey buildings, electric and telecom poles could be a good option for authorities," he said.

A police source said that the department, in case of criminal incidents, is dependent on CCTV cameras installed in commercial outlets. They are hardly installed or in working condition at traffic signals.

Patna has witnessed a series of crimes in the last one month including the high profile murder of Rupesh Kumar Singh, station head of Indigo Airlines.

The Patna police, in the absence of CCTV cameras at the crime scene and adjoining areas, has been unable to trace the assailants even after 20 days of the murder. In other incidents a JD(U) leader was fired upon in Patna on January 17, an agriculture officer was kidnapped and brutally killed in Masaudhi in Patna district, an employee of the Danapur court was gunned down on January 21 and a 25-year-old youth was killed in Patna City on January 25.

Besides, criminal incidents occurred across the state including BJP spokesperson Afzer Shamshi being shot at in Munger on January 27. The cousin brother of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput and his aide were shot at in Saharsa on January 30, a rice mill owner Aman Gupta was killed in Araria on February 1 and Pawan Kedia, a medicine wholesaler was gunned down in the same district on January 28.

As per data available with IANS, 25,592 cognizable crimes took place from January to November 2020 in Patna district including 191 murders, 830 cases of rioting, 706 burglaries and 124 robberies.

The Bihar government, following an upsurge in such cases, is on the backfoot. As a result, the Patna administration has directed all commercial and residential complexes to install or repair CCTV cameras in their premises by March 31.

A meeting in this regard was held at the divisional commissioner's office on Monday wherein all top officials of Patna district including ADG Sanjay Kumar, DM Chandrashekher Singh, SSP Upendra Sharma, the traffic SP and the commissioner of the Patna municipal corporation were present.

"We have directed officials of Patna to identify places for installation of CCTV cameras in Patna district. The home department has hired Bihar State Electronic Development Corporation Ltd to conduct a survey followed by installation of good quality cameras," said Sanjay Kumar Agrawal, divisional commissioner of Patna.

"We have also directed all commercial shop owners, proprietors of residential and commercial complexes to repair non-functional existing cameras or install new CCTV cameras in parking areas, lifts, lobbies, all floors and corridors," Agrawal said.

Patna has over 1600 residential or commercial complexes. In most of them, CCTV cameras are non- functional or non-existent.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow said they were detained by officers of Armenias National Security Service (NSS) near the village of Tegh in Armenias southeastern Syunik province. It gave no details of the incident.

A ministry statement said the Azerbaijani servicemen were freed at the request of Russian peacekeeping troops stationed in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

The NSS and the Armenian Defense Ministry did not comment on the incident on Tuesday. Teghs mayor, Nerses Shadunts, confirmed the detentions but said he is not allowed to disclose their circumstances.

The situation here is not tense right now, Shadunts told RFE/RLs Armenian Service. There is no panic among local people. Everything is normal.

As for our border guards and army, you can conclude that everyone was on duty and vigilant and properly did their job, he said.

Tegh is located close to the so-called Lachin corridor that connects Armenia to Karabakh and is controlled by the Russian peacekeepers. The rural community also borders the rest of the Lachin district which was handed back to Azerbaijan under the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the war in Karabakh on November 10.

During the six-week war Russia deployed soldiers and border guards to Syunik to help the Armenian military defend the region located southwest of Karabakh against possible Azerbaijani attacks. One of the Russian border guard posts was set up near Tegh.

Russian troops also patrol sections of the main regional highway straddling the Soviet-era Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
- Advances in flame retardant chemistries enable manufacturers to unveil flame retardant masterbatches that exert low human health and environmental impacts

- Demand from automotive industry notably for electric vehicles offers sizable potential revenue streams especially to new entrants, Asia Pacific to be next hotbed of opportunity in global flame retardant master-batches market

ALBANY, N.Y., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Flame retardant masterbatches are particularly useful for formulating thermoplastics to make them safe from ignition, combustion, or burning. A number of additives are incorporated by manufacturers to expand the array of products that meet the flammability norms for end-use industries in the flame retardant masterbatches market. These additives are integrated with the base resin to make plastics with low risk of catching fire on one hand and allow the resin to retain its integrity on the other.

The myriad applications where plastics find use are key to expanding sales in the flame retardant masterbatches market. Some of the popular plastics containing flame retardant masterbatches are found in roofing and ceiling of commercial buildings, construction and automotive fabrics, wiring and cabling in vehicles especially in mass-transit ones, and components in trains and planes.

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North America and Europe have emerged as key regions where most of the prominent manufacturers are domiciled. However, in recent years, the scale has tilted toward Asia Pacific, where high-end plastics are seeing extensive demand in making electric vehicles (EVs).

Clocking CAGR of ~ 7% from 2019 to 2027, the valuation of the flame retardant masterbatches market is projected to reach approximately US$ 3.5 Bn by the period-end.

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Key Findings of Flame Retardant Masterbatches Market

Flammability Norms for Buildings Propel Popularity

Construction and building industry has been one of the prime adopters of plastics added with flame retardant masterbatches. Over the years, the risk of building materials catching fire and spread has also caused concerns for loss of lives and property. Hence, stringent regulatory norms are in place in various countries to reduce the incidents of fire. Thus, there has been extensive and rising demand for flame-retardant plastics from the construction industry, spurring sales in the flame-retardant masterbatches market.

Industry-specific standards drive development of customized formulations

Different end-use industries such as automotive, electronics, and construction differ in the flammability characteristics to meet the functional requirements. For instance, the requirements for automotive cabling and fabrics differ than the ones for housing and construction. Evidently, this has driven manufacturers in the flame-retardant masterbatches market to come out with varying formulation tailored to the end-use industries. This also expands the canvas for players to innovate in the flame-retardant chemistries.

Automotive industry to offer vast revenue potential

Plastics of different functionalities continue to make advances for use in automotive and automobile industry such as in vehicles bodies and in cabling and internal wiring. These are especially prone to flammability or fire risks. Strides made in the automotive industry has veritably surpassed the supply of plastics that can match the regulatory as well as the functional requirements. Thus, there is seemingly an unmet need for developing more plastics formulated with flame-retardant masterbatches which can also help automakers meet the functional criteria. A potential revenue stream in the flame retardant masterbatches has come from the rapid manufacturing of electric vehicles.

View Detailed Table of Contents at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/54870

Formulations that can keep the integrity of plastics intact gathering steam

The scope of innovation in the flame retardant masterbatches market also come from the need for formulations that reduce the health safety hazards. Even after plastics added with flame retardant masterbatches emit smoke after ignition, care is taken that the smokes and the melting resin do not emit any hazardous chemicals. In this regard, the demand for polymeric and reactive flame retardants is gathering traction. Another formulation in the flame-retardant masterbatches market that will gain traction across end-use industries is halogen-free flame retardant chemicals.

Flame Retardant Masterbatches Market: Key Driving Factors and Promising Avenues

Growing pace of commercialization of electric vehicles bolsters uptake of flame-retardant plastics in the automobile and automotive industry

Strides made in construction of commercial and public-use buildings drive end-use demand in the flame-retardant masterbatches market

Investments in consolidating manufacturing facilities to drive growth in the flame-retardant masterbatches market

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Brominated Flame Retardants Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/brominated-flame-retardants-market.html

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Do they want to be the party of limited government and fiscal responsibility, free markets, peace through strength and pro life, or do they want to be the party of conspiracy theories and QAnon? said Mr. Thune, who served in the House for six years. I think that is the decision theyve got to face.

Senate Republicans are also facing that choice as they look to Mr. Trumps impeachment trial and the decision of whether to convict him on a bipartisan charge of incitement of insurrection. All but five of them, including Mr. McConnell, voted last week to dismiss the trial as unconstitutional, a reflection of how reluctant they still are to cross the former president.

Still, a phalanx of Republican senators followed Mr. McConnells lead on Tuesday, inserting themselves into the House turmoil to urge leaders there to reject Ms. Greene.

I think we should have nothing to do with Marjorie Taylor Greene and think we should repudiate the things she said and move away from her, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah said. I think our long history as a party has shown that its important for us to separate ourselves from the people that are in the wacky weeds, and if we dont, then our opposition tries to brand us with their image and their point of view.

Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, told CBS that he agreed with Mr. McConnell entirely, saying, We have to move beyond what someone thinks may be true because it is on the internet.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, took to Twitter to express his support for Ms. Cheney, calling her one of the strongest and most valuable conservative voices in the Republican Party. But Mr. Graham, who was one of Mr. Trumps most loyal allies on Capitol Hill, later told reporters that he was not ready to repudiate Ms. Greene, saying he needed to hear more about whether the reports about her comments were accurate and whether she still believed what she said.
A Connecticut man who is accused of being part of a mob that pinned a police officer in a door frame during the break-in at the U.S. Capitol building last month has been indicted by a federal grand jury for the District of Columbia.

The new charges accuse him of assault on a second officer during the storming of the Capitol building, which means he could face more time in prison if convicted.

Patrick Edward McCaughey III, of Ridgefield, was charged Jan. 19 for his alleged role in the breach of the capitol on Jan. 6. Because McCaughey was arrested in New York, he was initially charged by the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York.

The nine-count indictment released Monday against McCaughey charges him with two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon; two counts civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, with a deadly or dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly conduct in a capitol building; and act of physical violence in the capitol grounds or buildings.

Mark Sherman, McCaugheys Stamford criminal defense attorney, told Hearst Connecticut Media last month his clients case would be moved to federal court in D.C. The indictment against McCaughey formally charges him with offenses in D.C.

Authorities claim McCaughey was part of a mob of supporters of President Trump who attempted to break through a line of law enforcement officers guarding the lower west terrace door of the capitol building.

In a video of the crowd later posted to YouTube, federal authorities claim McCaughey can be seen pushing one of the officers, Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, into a door frame.

The officer was pinned between the clear police riot shield being held by McCaughey and the lower west terrace door. The officer appeared to be loudly crying out in pain, a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

While Hodges was pinned, another rioter was violently ripping off the officers gas mask, exposing the officers bloodied mouth, the release said. Other rioters were also pushing against him as he was trapped in the doorway, according to the release.

Even after days of seeing so many shocking and horrific scenes from the siege on the U.S. Capitol, the savage beating of D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Hodges stands out for the perpetrators blatant disregard for human life, Steven M. DAntuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office said in a statement at the time of McCaugheys initial arrest.

Patrick McCaugheys actions were violent, barbaric, and completely out of control, DAntuono said.

Hodges told CNN he had been pinned in the doorway by the crowd, and that one of the rioters was able to take his baton and beat him with it. He was practically foaming at the mouth, he told the news outlet, these people were true believers in the worst way.

The new indictment was initially sealed out of concern that McCaughey could have been released from custody before formal charges were brought in Washington D.C., including evidence in the original complaint that relates to a digital device.

The public disclosure of the Governments evidence could compromise the integrity of the investigation, including the ability of the [government] to locate and arrest the defendant, which also may lead to the destruction of evidence in other locations including his digital devices, the indictment, which was unsealed Monday, read.

McCaughey was ordered detained rather than having a bond set for his release, according to his attorney.
A former federal police officer convicted of attempted murder for beating another man with a hammer lost his appeal of his 20-to 40-year prison sentence Tuesday.

Instead, a state Superior Court panel rejected Eric Pipers claims that he was the subject of an illegal search by police and that statements by his wife were improperly used against him during his Cumberland County trial nearly two years ago.

Police said Piper, who was a civilian officer with the Defense Logistics Agency police at New Cumberland Army Depot at the time, broke into the victims Carlisle-area home in January 2018, beat the 29-year-old man repeatedly with the hammer and kicked him in his jaw and ribs.

The victim said he managed to escape and grab a handgun, forcing Piper to flee.

Eric Piper

Investigators said Pipers wife had moved in with the victim in November 2017. She and Piper had reconciled and moved back in together, but she had not returned the victims house key at the time of the attack, police said.

Piper, now 45, of Carlisle, was convicted of charges including attempted murder, aggravated and simple assault and burglary.

Friends and relatives of those involved said Piper mistakenly thought there was a romantic relationship between his wife and the victim. They said the victim was a friend who was aiding Pipers wife during a difficult time.

Senior Judge James Gardner Colins, who wrote the Superior Courts opinion, agreed with county Judge Albert H. Masland that Piper didnt get a raw deal.

Colins seconded Maslands rejection of Pipers claims that statements made by his wife were improperly cited by prosecutors during the trial even though his wife had invoked her spousal right not to testify against him.

Those statements included one the wife made while visiting the victim in the hospital. When the victim described his attacker, the wife said, Kind of sounds like my husband. When the victim returned home and found a hat and a flashlight there that didnt belong to him, the wife said, Thats my husbands.

Those were excited utterances that were eligible to be admitted as evidence, Masland found.

Pipers search warrant argument failed because police interviewed multiple witnesses, not just his wife, before targeting him as a suspect in the attack, the county judge concluded. Masland rejected Pipers claim that police had used improper scare tactics to pressure his wife for information.
A judge in Moscow has ordered a suspended 3 1/2 year sentence that opposition politician Aleksei Navalny received in 2014 to be changed to time in a penal colony, adding that time previously spent under house arrest in the sentence would count as time served, thus reducing his incarceration to 2 years and 8 months.

The following are reactions to the February 2 court ruling from around the world:

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken

"The United States is deeply concerned by the Russian authorities decision to sentence opposition figure Aleksei Navalny to two years and eight months imprisonment, replacing his suspended sentence with jail time."

We reiterate our call for his immediate and unconditional release as well as the release of all those wrongfully detained for exercising their rights.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab

Todays perverse ruling, targeting the victim of a poisoning rather than those responsible, shows Russia is failing to meet the most basic commitments expected of any responsible member of the international community, Raab said in a statement.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas

"Today's verdict against Aleksei Navalny is a bitter blow against fundamental freedoms & the rule of law in Russia," Maas said on Twitter.

French President Emmanuel Macron

The condemnation of Aleksei Navalny is unacceptable. Political disagreement is never a crime. We call for his immediate release, Macron said on Twitter.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell

"The sentencing of Aleksei Navalny runs counter to Russia's international commitments on rule of law and fundamental freedoms," Borrell wrote on Twitter, adding that the prison sentence goes against a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis

"The dialogue between the European Union and Russia is now possible only in the language of sanctions, Landsbergis said. "If the community doesn't hurry, Lithuania will consider its own national sanctions," he added.

Amnesty International

The London-based rights group said in a statement that the February 2 court ruling "is the latest indication that the Russian authorities are spiraling out of control in their desperation to silence their critics.

In their vendetta against Aleksei Navalny and his supporters, the Russian authorities have shredded any remaining veneer of justice and respect for human rights. The politically motivated sentencing of Aleksei Navalny shows the true face of the Russian authorities, who seem intent on locking up anyone who dares to speak out against their abuses and repression of human rights, Natalya Zviagina, Amnesty Internationals Moscow Office Director, was quoted as saying in the statement.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul

Putin's decision to jail Navalny today is not surprising, but still tragic and depressing. Putin's level of autocratic repression, including now this absurd show trial that we witnessed today, shows that he has more in common with Stalin than any recent Soviet/Russian leader, McFaul said on Twitter.

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic

"With this decision, the Russian authorities not only further exacerbate human rights violations as already established by the European Court of Human Rights, they also send a signal undermining the protection of the rights of all Russian citizens and affecting the integrity of the European system of human rights protection. The Russian authorities should restore a climate of respect for human rights based on the international standards by which the Russian Federation is bound.

Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek

"Sentence for #Navalny is no surprise with a clear motivation of the regime to silence the opposition. Czechia demands his immediate release as this is a show trial. Unfortunately, we remember a number of those from our own history. The #EU should return to the issue of sanctions."
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ISLAMABAD, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan army said Monday night that three terrorists were killed after they tried to infiltrate into the country's northwestern region.

An army statement said the security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation to thwart an infiltration attempt by terrorists, close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the Lower Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"During exchange of fire, three terrorists got killed," the statement from the army's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations said.

A large quantity of weapons, ammunition and grenades were also recovered, according to the statement.

These terrorists remained involved in several target killing incidents at the country's northwestern Swat region in 2019, the army said, adding that these terrorists had planned to infiltrate and target several notables inside Pakistan, but they were timely engaged and killed.

"Locals of the area appreciated the operation and vowed their full support to defeat menace of terrorism from the area," according to the statement.

The army did not say which militant group was involved in the incident. Enditem

Even though Nokia phones are running on vanilla Android, the Nokia 8.3 5G is the first handset from the company to receive Google's latest Android 11 OS. That's almost six months after the release of the said OS.



Screenshot from the changelog

Nokia announced the rollout in a tweet and users say that the OTA update has already started. The download weighs 1.89GB and the changelog is brief but goes through one of the key Android 11 features like notification grouping, chat bubbles, one-time permission handling, etc.

The update also bumps up the security patch to January 2021. In case you still haven't received your update, don't worry as this may be a staged rollout so you might have to wait a couple of days.

Source | Via
NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Limited ("Dr. Reddy's" or the "Company") (NYSE: RDY). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether Dr. Reddy's and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On January 29, 2021, Dr. Reddy's issued a press release announcing the Company's financial results for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2020. Among other results, Dr. Reddy's posted a lower-than-expected profit for the quarter, citing the impact of "trigger based impairment charges taken on a few acquired products including gNuvaring."

On this news, Dr. Reddy's American Depositary Receipt ("ADR") price fell $4.78 per ADR, or 7.24%, to close at $61.28 per ADR on January 29, 2021.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

888-476-6529 ext. 7980





SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

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ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan military aircraft brought back the country's first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from China on Monday (Feb 1), the country's health adviser, Faisal Sultan, said.

China's envoy in Islamabad would formally handover the 500,000 doses of vaccine produced by Sinopharm later on Monday, enabling Pakistan to begin its vaccination drive this week, officials said.

"Thank God, the first batch of Sinopharm vaccine has arrived! Grateful to China and everyone who made this happen," Sultan said in a statement released on Twitter.

"I salute our frontline healthcare workers for their efforts and they'll be first to get vaccinated," he said.

Pakistan has asked China for another one million doses. It has also been pledged 17 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine under a global scheme to deliver coronavirus treatments to developing nations.

About 6 million doses will arrive by the end of March under the COVAX scheme, with the remainder due by mid-year, Sultan announced last week.

Pakistan, a country of 220 million people, reported 1,615 new infections and 26 deaths in the latest 24-hours, taking the total number of cases to 546,428, with 11,683 deaths.

"All eligible citizens as per phases will be informed to register once the vaccine process will start," health ministry announced at its website.

Pakistan signed up last year to the vaccine sharing scheme coordinated by the World Health Organization to support lower-income countries.

Pakistan has approved both the vaccines for emergency use and will review their approval quarterly, officials said.

The Russian Sputnik-V vaccine is also set to be approved for emergency use as the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has accepted its data.
In her first call to a foreign leader, US Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday and underscored Canada's deep importance to the United States as an economic and strategic partner. "The Vice President underscored Canada's deep importance to the United States as an economic and strategic partner, and she expressed the United States' desire to work closely with Canada on a wide range of issues, including combating the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing climate change and expanding our economic partnership in ways that advance the recovery and create jobs in both countries," the White House said in a readout of the call.

Harris also expressed strong solidarity with Canada regarding the issue of two Canadian citizens unjustly detained by China and made it clear that the US would continue to do everything it can to secure their release, the White House said. During the call, the US vice president and the Canadian prime minister agreed to remain in close touch and support all efforts to expand bilateral cooperation.

(Image Credits: Twitter/@VP)

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
[February 02, 2021] Nate Blaylock joins Canary Speech as CTO

PROVO, Utah, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Canary Speech announced Feb. 1 that Nate Blaylock has agreed to join the company as CTO. Blaylock, a former Senior Research Manager and NLU architect at Nuance Communications, was hired as the CTO. Blaylock, a former Senior Research Manager and NLU architect at Nuance Communications, was hired as the CTO responsible for the management of Language and Software Engineering departments at Canary Speech. Blaylock will report directly to Henry O'Connell, CEO for Canary Speech, beginning Feb. 1, 2021.



Henry O'Connell , CEO of Canary Speech. Blaylock received bachelor's degrees in linguistics and computer science from Brigham Young University and a master's degree and doctorate in computer science from the University of Rochester. He continued his work as a research associate at He continued his work as a research scientist at Saarland University and later the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) where he led research projects on dialog systems and natural language understanding. Blaylock's business experience and technical background, including his proficiency in multiple languages, are timely and helpful to Canary. Blaylock is fluent or has advanced working knowledge of German, Spanish, Japanese and French.

In addition to his academic achievements, Blaylock has excelled professionally in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Understanding, and speech and language processing. Working for more than fifteen years at increasingly senior roles in directing technical teams, in both R&D and commercialization, Blaylock spent eight years at Nuance and Cerence (a spinoff of Nuance's Automotive division), where he was responsible for the development and implementation of products in over 20 languages. Nate Blaylock said, "Canary is a leader in the speech-as-biomarker space in the healthcare industry. After speaking with founders Jeff Adams and Henry O'Connell, I knew that Canary Speech is where I want to devote my time and energy. " To learn more about Canary Speech, please visit https://www.canaryspeech.com . Press Contact:

Caitlyn Brooksby

801-369-8408

caitlyn@canaryspeech.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nate-blaylock-joins-canary-speech-as-cto-301220651.html SOURCE Canary Speech

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Delta, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - AirTest Technologies Inc. (TSXV: AAT) (OTC: AATGF) ("AirTest") President George Graham is very pleased to announce that AirTest has introduced the TR9700-wifi CO 2 , temperature, humidity and pressure sensor specifically designed for applications in school classrooms to ensure safe ventilation levels in this era of COVID concerns. According to Graham, "While many school districts across the country are looking at upgrading air quality and ventilation equipment prior to re-occupancy, California is setting the trend with their comprehensive School Energy Efficiency Stimulus Program (SEES) that will go into effect later this year. The AirTest TR9700-WiFi is specifically designed to meet the requirements of this type of classroom upgrade application." This new three year, California grant program is intended to install CO 2 sensors for monitoring in school classrooms as a continuous check of ventilation levels. There is also an option for CO 2 demand-controlled ventilation which allows ventilation to vary based on classroom occupancy which provides a balance between air quality and energy use.

The TR9700-WiFi is designed to meet six specific CO 2 monitoring requirements established by the program. According to Graham, "These requirements for schools have been very well thought out and will likely become standard practice throughout North America. Our approach to provide a multi-functional platform that can produce a cost effect retrofit solution to school districts interested in maximizing the effectiveness of their grant allocation."

The California SEES initiatives also fund approaches to ensure that classrooms are not over pressurized. A key feature of the TR9700-WiFi platform is an ability to very accurately measure and in real time, control building pressure based on the use of two very accurate absolute pressure sensors located inside and outside the building. This is the first, real time pressure control system designed to work with the smaller HVAC systems typically used in school buildings. This approach can ensure air quality and increase energy efficiency.

The TR9700 has a number of options for communicating CO2 readings to Teachers and maintenance personnel that is capable of including a local display, phone app, WiFi connection or data that can be viewed and stored in the cloud. The platform can also use its WiFi capability to communicate to other HVAC equipment or to tie into building control networks already established in the building.

"While we are seeing strong interest from the schools segment, we also see good opportunity for harvesting energy savings and providing COVID protection with the multi-parameter TR9700-WiFi transmitter in commercial, retail and institutional buildings," said Graham.

About AirTest: AirTest Technologies (www.airtest.com) is a Green-Tech company specializing in sensors that improve commercial building operating efficiency and at the same time create energy savings. These sensors are all based on technical innovations developed in the last ten years, and comprise a growing second wave of energy saving technologies that will make a significant impact on making the large number of existing buildings green and sustainable. AirTest offers its products to leading-edge building owners, contractors and energy service companies targeting the buildings market. AirTest also provides energy cost reduction solutions to building equipment and controls manufacturers who incorporate AirTest sensor components in their products.

# # #

Statements about the Company's future expectations and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward-looking statements". The Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbours created thereby. Since these statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, the Company's actual results may differ materially from the expected results.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. George Graham

President

Phone: (604) 517 3888

Fax: (604) 517 3900

Email: ggraham@airtest.com

Website: www.airtest.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.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73460
Queensland tourism operators are losing sleep as they brace for the end of the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme and months of lacklustre domestic travel, the states acting Premier says.

The Sunshine States tourism industry has been bleeding tens of millions of dollars every day, with state and international borders locked down for most of the past 12 months.

Acting Premier Steven Miles said it was up to the federal government to stump up the cash to help businesses keep staff on past the planned end of JobKeeper in March.

Many of them are suffering from sleepless nights right now, worrying about how they are going to sustain their businesses, how they are going to keep their workers in the face of the end of JobKeeper, he said.
Burma Myanmar Military Appoints Ex-Generals, USDP Members to New Govt

Soldiers and police are stationed near the Myanmar Parliament following the military coup on Monday. / The Irrawaddy

YANGONFollowing its coup detat on Monday, the military regime in Myanmar has formed a new cabinet largely made up of generals and ex-military officials, along with some members of its political proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

The armed forces have detained Union President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected civilian leaders since staging a takeover in the early hours of Monday.

Military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing announced the formation of the 11-member Union cabinet on the same night, appointing Lieutenant General Soe Htut as the home affairs minister, General Mya Tun Oo as defense minister and Lieutenant-General Tun Tun Naing as the border affairs minister. All three ministries were already under the control of the military prior to the coup.

The foreign minister post once held by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was given to U Wunna Maung Lwin, a USDP Central Executive Committee member who lost his election race to an NLD rival in November. He held the same position form 2011 to 2016 under the quasi-military U Thein Sein government.

U Win Shein, another failed USDP candidate and ex-military officer, was appointed minister for planning, finance and industry. He was the minister for finance and revenue under U Thein Sein.

The Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations, formerly headed by U Thaung Tun, will be led by U Aung Naing Oo, an ex-military officer.

U Ko Ko Hlaing, a former military officer-cum-chief political adviser to the Presidents Office under U Thein Sein, was picked as the minister for international cooperation, a post formerly held by U Kyaw Tin.

Writer and former editor U Pe Myint has been replaced by U Chit Naing as head of the countrys Information Ministry. The new minister is an ex-military officer who writes under the pseudonym Chit Naing (Psychology).

U Ko Ko and U Myint Kyaing are the new ministers of religious affairs and labor, respectively.

One of the most recognizable faces of Myanmars effort to combat COVID-19, Dr. Myint Htwe, has been replaced by his former subordinate Dr. Thet Kaing Win, a permanent secretary, as minister of health and sports.

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WASHINGTON  Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and several other major automakers said Tuesday they would no longer try to block California from setting its own strict fuel-economy standards, signaling that the auto industry is ready to work with President Biden on his largest effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The decision by the companies was widely expected, coming after General Motors dropped its support for the Trump-era effort just weeks after the presidential election. But the shift may help the Biden administration move quickly to reinstate national fuel-efficiency standards that would control planet-warming auto pollution, this time with support from industry giants that fought such regulations for years.

After four years of putting us in reverse, it is time to restart and build a sustainable future, grow domestic manufacturing, and deliver clean cars for America, said Gina McCarthy, the senior White House climate change adviser. We need to move forward  and fast.

The auto giants announcements come on top of a 2020 commitment by five other companies  Ford, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo  that they would abide by Californias tough standards. And last week, G.M. pledged to sell only zero-emissions vehicles by 2035, a move that would put the company in line with another recent California policy banning the sales of internal-combustion vehicles by that year.
Rigorous, in-depth third-party certification process ensures user experience meets all Microsoft-defined quality and security parameters

MELBOURNE, Australia, and DALLAS, Texas, Feb. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dubber today announced that it is among the first Unified Cloud Call Recording solutions to achieve compliance call recording certification for Microsoft Teams. To be certified under the Microsoft program, companies are required to submit their solutions for rigorous third-party approved testing for quality assurance, performance within the Microsoft Azure environment, interoperability and compatibility with the Teams user experience, security and compliance, marketing and customer support.

Achieving Teams Certification for the Dubber Unified Call Recording (UCR) solution means service provider partners, channel partners and enterprises are ensured of a trusted solution that has met the highest levels of testing for the Teams platform. Spanning several months of rigorous testing, Dubber's solution met and, in many instances, exceeded the parameters of the certification process for voice, video, and screen share. As a part of the certification process, Dubber will also be included in the Microsoft AppSource Marketplace for compliance.

"Achieving Microsoft Teams Certification for Compliance is a significant first for Dubber and our partners. Successfully completing this rigorous level of testing, our service provider partners and enterprise users can be confident the Dubber platform will meet their requirements for security and compliance call recording on the Teams environment. The Teams compliance certification is especially significant for our customers in the banking, government, insurance, and financial services environments who are often under legal mandates to record and store call recordings. With Dubber, they can eliminate costly on premises and cap-ex intensive solutions and meet their obligations for Teams users in call center, branch and work-from-home environments simply, easily and with confidence," said Adrian Di Pietrantonio, EVP, Global Platforms & Partnerships, Dubber.

Mike Ammerlaan, Director, Microsoft 365 Ecosystem at Microsoft Corp. said, "Our partners are an essential part of meeting our customers' communication and collaboration needs with Microsoft Teams. We are pleased to have Dubber successfully complete the Teams compliance recording certification process. This can help their customers - especially in the financial services sector - stay compliant and meet their call recording obligations for calls placed in Teams."

Background:

As a part of the certification process, Dubber is listed in the AppSource Marketplace here:

https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/product/web-apps/dubbercorp1603082091027.dubber01'src=wnblogjan2018&tab=Overview

About Dubber:

Dubber is unlocking the potential of voice data from any call or conversation. Dubber is the world's most scalable Unified Call Recording service and Voice Intelligence Cloud adopted as core network infrastructure by multiple global leading telecommunications carriers in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Dubber allows service providers to offer call recording for compliance, business intelligence, sentiment analysis, productivity and more from any endpoint. Dubber is a disruptive innovator in the multi-billion-dollar call recording industry, its Software as a Service offering removes the need for on premise hardware, ties to specific applications or costly and limited storage.

Dubber on Microsoft URL: https://www.dubber.net/microsoft-teams-customer/

Reseller URL: https://www.dubber.net/microsoft-teams-reseller

Chief Operating Officer, Victoria Gibbs, celebrates 10 years at elite tutoring company, Tutors International

OXFORD, England, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Victoria Gibbs joined Tutors International (TI) in January 2011. She has several integral roles within the company, demonstrating her depth and breadth of aptitudes. She prepares the finances of TI's international companies and financial transaction records in multiple currencies. Project management is also a central part of Gibbs's role, as well as administrative functions for the domestic and international companies under the Tutors International umbrella, like Sea Tutors. She is also a Visa specialist and performs an HR role within the company.

In regard to her marketing and PR performance at Tutors International, she has written shortlisted entries for the 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015 Education Investor Awards. Just last year, she successfully negotiated a 21% reduction in advertising costs.

10 Years of Change and Growth

Gibbs details how her role has changed in her decade at Tutors International:

"My job has changed enormously in the last 10 years. As the company has grown and developed, so has the complexity of my role. When I started out, I think we only had three companies to contend with: two in the UK and in America. Now, we have multiple UK companies, one in the US, one in Hong Kong, one in Canada and until last year we were also running one in Singapore. In addition, we have explored both the Chinese and Japanese markets, although the current pandemic has put those plans on hold right now.

"Operating in so many jurisdictions has been a steep learning curve.

"I have had to redesign various admin systems and processes to deal with larger volumes of tutors, as well as responding to new legislation from within the UK and of course Brexit is bringing its own set of challenges regarding visa requirements."

CPD

Victoria Gibbs is an advocate and committed practitioner of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). She has bettered her expertise at every opportunity over the last decade.

"I enjoy the feeling of "levelling up" professionally. I have always stressed the importance of continuous professional development and have been lucky in that our CEO, Adam Caller, has supported this in his staff. I have always had the training I have asked for, and I think this has helped me take on more responsibility as I have progressed through the company.

"Adam kindly agreed to sponsor me through an MA in Education, which I completed remotely while in full-time employment. I am pleased to say that my understanding of the sector has increased exponentially. I am also very proud of my dissertation which was graded in the low 80s and is certainly a personal best in terms of my academic career."

Her most recent CPD achievement is gaining her Leadership & Management Level 7 Diploma in October 2020.

A Fulfilling Role

Pre-pandemic, Tutors International was an early adopter of the work-from-home model. Victoria explains how this has worked in her life:

"Now I have a young daughter, home working with TI has become even better as I am able to do the nursery run in my working day, and I get to enjoy her crazy Duplo creations if I need five minutes away from my desk in the afternoons. I simply tie up any loose ends from my working day once she has gone to bed.

"The other 'best bit' is the team that Adam has built around himself. We don't often have the chance to meet up as we are well spread across the northern hemisphere, but this doesn't seem to have had a negative impact on our working relationships. To prove a point, by 2016 our bookkeeper and I had built up such a good working relationship that the first time I met her in person was at my wedding!"

Gibbs also reflects on how feeling the impact of her hard work benefitting others is what motivates her:

"We have seen troubled children get back on track, school refusers embrace their learning, and teenagers achieving goals - both personal and academic - that they never thought possible. All the work we do is in pursuit of these moments, and knowing that Tutors International makes such a positive difference on these young lives makes all the hard work and effort worth it."

Adam Caller

Gibbs's employer and CEO of Tutors International, Adam Caller, comments on her professional milestone:

"I'd like to congratulate Toria on 10 years at Tutors International. I'm grateful for her continuous hard work and loyalty. She has always adapted and excelled in her role. She has been a real asset to the company's development over the last decade, and I hope she'll continue to lend her expertise and commitment well into TI's future."

About Tutors International

Tutors International provides an unparalleled bespoke service that matches the right tutor with the right child, in order for the student to fully reach their personal potential and academic excellence. Providing a service for children of all ages at different points in their educational journeys, Tutors International is founded on a commitment to finding the perfect tutor to realise the specific goals and aspirations of each student. Tutors are available for full-time tutoring positions, after-school assistance, and home-schooling.

Founded in 1999 by Adam Caller, Tutors International is a private company based in Oxford, a city renowned for academic excellence. Our select clientele receives a personally tailored service, with discretion and confidentiality guaranteed.

Contact Details

Web: www.tutors-international.com

Email: marketing@tutors-international.com

Phone: +44 (0) 1865 435 135

Tutors International

Clarendon House

52 Cornmarket Street

Oxford

OX1 3HJ

UK

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1431394/TI_Victoria_Gibbs_10_Years.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/699064/Tutors_International_Logo.jpg
In 2008, when the Volkswagen Group announced Its Chattanooga as its choice for their newest automobile assembly facility, Chattanooga State Community College was ready. Volkswagens strong commitment to education led to a Volkswagen/Chattanooga State collaboration, culminating in a new training facility at the plant named the Volkswagen Academy, home to the secondary and post-secondary mechatronics training programs.

In the spirit of continuing collaboration, Volkswagen Group of America-Chattanooga Operations and Chattanooga State Community College announce their 10th anniversary to commemorate a continuing educational partnership.

We at Chattanooga State are incredibly proud of our 10-year partnership with Volkswagen Chattanooga, stated Dr. Rebecca Ashford, Chattanooga State president. VW plays such an important role in our community as they provide good jobs and careers for thousands of community members. We are proud to play a part in training VWs workforce and providing a bridge to a prosperous future for members of our community.

The Automotive Mechatronics Program, established in 2010, was developed as a partnership between Chattanooga State and the Volkswagen Group of America-Chattanooga Operations, followed by the Car Mechatronics Program in 2012. These one-of-a-kind three-year programs were housed at VWA and offered students a comprehensive learning environment that blended classroom and laboratory instruction with paid, on-the-job training experience in the Volkswagen assembly plant. Recently, the AMP program transitioned to the Robotronics Technology Expert program, a shorter, two-year program that focuses on Robotics and Industry 4.0 concepts.

In 2011, Volkswagen Chattanooga and Chattanooga State Community College sealed their partnership with an official Memo of Understanding signifying their unified commitment to education in the Tennessee Valley. A new MOU was signed between Chattanooga State and Volkswagen Chattanooga, marking ten years of continued partnership and excellence in December 2020. Over the past 10 years, 130 students completed the various apprenticeship programs and were offered jobs by Volkswagen Group of America.

"Part of securing our future is investing in workforce development, from attracting new talent to training our existing team members in new technologies such as electric vehicles, high voltage battery technology and robotics, said Burkhard Ulrich, SVP of Human Resources for Volkswagen Chattanooga. Our educational programs in partnership with Chattanooga State Community College attest to our ongoing commitment to training and development. Chattanooga State has remained our educational partner for the past 10 years, and we are honored to continue our successful apprenticeship program with them in our community.

Volkswagen Academy is now actively recruiting students for the fall 2021 RTE apprentice cohort. To learn more about VWA, visit volkswagengroupofamerica.com/en-us/volkswagen-academy.
Paramedics on the coronavirus emergency response team in Swaziland are to stop work because they do not have proper protective equipment.

They say they face 'imminent and serious risk to [their] safety and health'.

The National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) said work would stop from Wednesday (4 February 2021). Paramedics would report for duty but would not go out on calls.

NAPSAWU President Oscar Nkambule said paramedics had not been paid overtime allowances and had not been given proper personal protective equipment (PPE).

Paramedics are among the first-line responders during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis that is gripping Swaziland.

Nkambule said a number of members of NAPSAWU had contacted or died with coronavirus, including paramedics.

Nkambule told the Swaziland News, an online newspaper, '[We] tried in vain to engage government to provide working equipment and allowances hence the decision to down tools. We apologize to members of the public as services will be limited and it's unfortunate that the employees were forced to take decision.'

As of Monday there had been 15,804 reported cases of coronavirus and 574 deaths according to the Swazi Ministry of Health.




A number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and clusters have been reported in some parts of China of late, revealing the loopholes in the pandemic prevention and control measures especially in rural areas. Against this backdrop, the Spring Festival travel rush could drastically increase the number of infections.

Keeping these facts in mind, the government has tightened the prevention and control measures, and local authorities in many places have asked people to stay where they work during the Spring Festival holiday to avoid infection. Some local governments have even unveiled plans to give people, especially migrant workers, special subsidiessomething like hongbao (red envelopes with money) gifted during Spring Festivalto persuade them to not travel during the holiday.

As the biggest festival in China, Spring Festival usually sees the world's largest human migration as people across the country travel back home to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year with family and friends. This year, according to the Ministry of Transport, about 1.7 billion passenger trips are expected to be made during the festival travel rush, but now the figure may shrink rapidly.

However, the Spring Festival travel rush is much more than just human migration. It is also about the development gap between urban and rural areas. According to official data, China has more than 290 million migrant workers, accounting for 20.7 percent of the country's total population, and about 157 million of them work in the urban centers of the eastern coast. And more than 75 million workers have migrated to other provinces for work, with 64 million of them moving from the central and western regions to the eastern region.

The primary reason for the annual human migration is unbalanced urban-rural development, and the economic disparities among different regions. For example, per capita disposable income of urban residents was 43,834 yuan in 2020, compared with only 17,131 yuan for rural residents.

And although the average income of migrant workers was 53,000 yuan in 2019, rural residents who work in cities do not have equal access to even basic public services. True, more and more local authorities are easing strictures on hukou (household registration), but migrant workers still cannot enjoy the same rights as urban residentsfor instance, they are not entitled to government-funded affordable housing.

And their hukou status, although it does not prohibit them from buying a house, restrains them from doing so. As a result, in 2018, only 2.9 percent of migrant workers were able to live in government-funded affordable houses.

Moreover, migrant workers cannot get their kids enrolled in government-run schools in cities, and some migrant workers' children cannot take the college entrance exam in the city their parent/s work.

Since the hukou system makes it very difficult for migrant workers to buy a house and settle down in a city, they don't consider the city where they work as "home" and choose to return to their hometown at least once a year, mainly to celebrate Spring Festival.

This year, however, the subsidies given by city governments and the requirement of a negative nucleic acid test certificate to travel could prompt some of them to stay where they work. So it is likely that fewer rural workers will travel during the Spring Festival holiday this year.

Yet it would take years to see a substantial change in the mass human migration during the Spring Festival holiday, because temporary subsidies and medical restrictions alone cannot end the social exclusion of migrant workers. Well-worked-out, long-term and effective policies, which are sensitive to migrant workers' needs and social status, are needed to resolve this knotty issue.

The easing of the hukou policy in different places shows local governments' willingness to accept migrant workers as urban residents.

But to expedite the process, the government needs to intensify people-oriented urbanization and high-quality development, and make more efforts to narrow the economic gap between rural and urban areas and help people to work in or near their hometowns. The government also needs to deepen policy reform to ensure migrant workers enjoy the same rights as urban residents. Only an inclusive society can empower the migrant workers and only a responsive city can make them feel at home.

The author is deputy director of School of Public Administration at Nanchang University. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
World Health Organization investigators have praised the 'excellent facilities' at an animal disease centre in Wuhan as part of their probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 13-strong team of international experts arrived at the Hubei Animal Disease Control and Prevention Center on Tuesday amid a heavy security presence, with a barricade set up outside the Chinese facility.

Team member Peter Daszak told reporters later they had 'excellent facilities, very informative meeting,' and he tweeted the team met with staff in charge of the health of livestock in Hubei province, toured laboratories and had an 'in-depth' discussion along with questions and answers.

But further details of the visit were not announced and the barricades came down as soon as the investigators had entered the animal disease centre.

The team members were wearing full protective gear during Tuesday's visit and were pictured waiting in a corridor of the Hubei Animal Disease Control and Prevention Center in Wuhan

World Health Organization investigators have praised the 'excellent facilities' at an animal disease centre in Wuhan as part of their probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: Peter Daszak (centre) speaks to other WHO team members

The lack of information comes as WHO officials in Geneva pushed back on Monday against suggestions the experts were not getting enough access or data amid concerns China is still covering up crucial data.

The team members were wearing full protective gear during Tuesday's visit and were pictured waiting in a corridor of the animal disease centre.

Intense negotiations preceded the WHO visit to Wuhan since China has maintained strict controls on access to information about the virus, possibly to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.

A day before their probe began, WHO insisted that the team will eventually visit a lab at the centre of theories that the virus was leaked, but it has not published a timetable and there is no indication of when that might take place.

A worker wearing a protective gear sprays disinfectant at the entrance of Hubei Center for Animal Disease Control and Prevention

Multiple countries have uncovered evidence that the virus was circulating months earlier than originally thought. While Beijing has tried to insist this proves the virus originated elsewhere, most scientists still think China was the origin - raising the prospect that communist officials simply hid evidence of the early spread

Again on Monday, WHO's Covid-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said the team has plans to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But still no timetable was published.

Dr Michael Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, said the agency was continuing to ask for more data and said anyone with information about how the pandemic started should share it with the organization.

The data the team assembles will add to what is expected to be a years-long quest for answers involving taking animal samples, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies.

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

On Sunday, the WHO investigators visited the Huanan wet market in Wuhan where Covid-19 was first detected.

The team arrived at Huanan amid a heavy security presence, with additional barricades set up outside a high blue fence surrounding the market.

They did not respond to questions thrown at them by reporters gathered at the entrance as their convoy drove into the market.

The barricades came down as soon as the investigators had entered the market.

Public access to the market has been severely restricted since it was shut at the beginning of last year.

A worker in protective overall disinfects a vehicle from the World Health Organization convoy while they were visiting the Huanan market in Wuhan on Sunday

WHO investigator Peter Ben Embarek and his team of experts arrived at Huanan on Sunday afternoon amid a heavy security presence

A plainclothes security person uses his umbrella to block journalists from filming as the WHO team entered the market

Before its closure, it was a bustling market comprising hundreds of stalls divided into sections for meat, seafood and vegetables.

Some Chinese diplomats and state media have said they believe the market is not the origin, and have thrown support behind theories that the virus potentially originated in another country.

On December 31, 2019, after four cases of a mystery pneumonia were linked to the market, it was shuttered overnight. By the end of January, Wuhan had gone into a 76-day lockdown.

Public access to the market has been severely restricted since it was shut at the beginning of last year

Chinese scientists and officials have been keen to point the finger of blame outside their own borders - variously suggesting that the virus could have originated in Bangladesh, the US, Greece, Australia, India, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia or Serbia

Experts say the Huanan market still plays a role in tracing the origins of the virus, since the first cluster of cases was identified there.

Following a two-week quarantine in the city that ended on Thursday, the WHO team is expected to visit laboratories, markets and hospitals in Wuhan.

The WHO-led probe in Wuhan has been plagued by delays, concern over access and bickering between China and the United States, which accused China of hiding the extent of the initial outbreak and criticised the terms of the visit, under which Chinese experts conducted the first phase of research.

The team had been set to arrive in Wuhan earlier in January, and China's delay of their visit drew rare public criticism from the head of the WHO, which former U.S. President Donald Trump accused of being 'China-centric'.

On Saturday, the WHO team was given a tour of an exhibition that celebrates China's response to the pandemic.

The team from the World Health Organisation was shown around an exhibition celebrating China's response to the crisis on Saturday

The visit to a show that critics say offers little more than propaganda will not reassure those who fear WHO is too close to Beijing and that its probe into the coronavirus outbreak will be a whitewash.

The trip came after WHO experts went to a hospital in Wuhan where some of the earliest coronavirus patients were treated and took place a day after they had their first face-to-face meeting with Chinese scientists.

Amid suspicion of a Chinese cover-up, WHO insisted in a tweet: 'All hypotheses are on the table as the team follows the science in their work to understand the origins of the Covid-19 virus.'

China has largely stopped domestic transmission of the virus through sometimes draconian measures, including strict testing and electronic surveillance.

Mask wearing in public is standard and lockdowns are routinely imposed on communities and even entire cities where cases are detected.

Schools have gone online and travel has been drastically cut during this month's Lunar New Year holiday, with the government offering incentives for people to stay put in the cities rather than return to their home towns for family gatherings.
Negotiations of any sort will never bear fruit unless all parties involved are ready to compromise, willing to give a little to get a little. And the talks make sense only if everyone is working toward the same goal.

Consider the simplest, real-world example: A pair of coworkers discussing where to have lunch wont ever be able to reach accord if one of them isnt actually intending to eat until dinnertime.

Ten Senate Republicans who produced a coronavirus relief package that is roughly one-third the size of the $1.9 trillion measure proposed by President Joe Biden went to the White House on Monday to talk. Even before the confab, the administration said that Biden wouldnt be making any sort of a counteroffer at their meeting.

Thats just fine.

If the GOP proposal was made in good faith, with those behind the plan willing to listen to Biden, and he to them, theres the possibility that some good could come from the meeting. But only if the proposal was offered in good faith.

Take, for just one example, disagreements about the proper size of stimulus checks and who should be eligible to receive them. This is exactly the sort of thing that is properly negotiated. No one can rationally argue that a well-to-do family thats sitting pretty is in need of a $1,400 stimulus check for each family member. But neither can anyone paying attention suggest that there arent folks who are hurting and who need help. Now.

Finding common ground here shouldnt be impossible.

That said, Biden will rightly be wary of Republican efforts that appear to lead nowhere. Back in 2009, when President Barack Obama was trying to pass landmark health-care legislation, congressional Republicans repeatedly signaled a willingness to work with the administration -- but in the end did nothing at all but stand in the way. Biden, of course, was Obamas vice president then, and remembers well the bait-and-switch. As such, hes likely to be gun-shy this time around.

Still, the president and the GOP 10 deserve credit for giving it a go. Perhaps they can find a way toward compromise. It would be a surprise, in our current badly divided moment, but one hopes that its not completely impossible.
SACRAMENTO  Gov. Gavin Newsoms approval rating among California voters has dropped as his administration struggles to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and distribute vaccines more quickly, two new surveys found.

One poll, released Tuesday by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, found Newsoms popularity sinking at a time when Republicans are trying to qualify a recall measure for the ballot. The poll showed that recall backers still have an uphill climb, however. A total of 45% of registered voters who responded said they opposed a recall, versus 36% who would vote to remove the governor and 19% who were undecided.

These results should provide a strong warning to the governor, Eric Schickler, co-director of the Institute of Government Studies, said in a statement. If the recall election does go forward, the states response to the pandemic needs to be seen as more successful for the governor than it is now for him to be confident of the election outcome.

Newsoms job approval rating in the institutes poll dipped to 46%, a sharp decline from 64% in September. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they disapprove of his performance and 6% had no opinion.

A second poll, by the Public Policy Institute of California, found a slim majority of likely voters, 52%, approved of how Newsom is handling his job. That was also a drop from September, when the institute found 60% support for the governor.

The nonpartisan institute didnt ask about the recall in its poll. Mark Baldassare, the institutes president, said Newsoms approval ratings are sharply divided along partisan lines, and likened the split to trend lines seen in polls on former President Donald Trump and former Gov. Jerry Brown.

But hyperpartisanship also works to the advantage of recall proponents when it comes to gathering the approximately 1.5 million voters signatures needed to qualify for a 2021 special election to recall Newsom, Baldassare wrote in a memo.

Newsom has come under fire in recent months over his handling of the pandemic, the states shifting restrictions and slow rollout of vaccines. Even some Democratic legislators have begun to publicly question the rationale behind Newsoms executive orders amid the pandemics deadliest wave.

Dan Newman, a consultant for Newsoms planned re-election campaign, said the finding that more than one-third of Californians support a recall isnt necessarily surprising, because roughly that many state voters supported Trump last year and Republican John Cox in the 2018 governors race.

Voters recognize that this is an incredibly challenging, intensely complicated and critically important moment for public officials worldwide, Newman said. Thats why the governor remains laser focused on vaccinations, reopening, relief and recovery.

According to the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, just 31% of respondents said Newsom has done an excellent or good job handling Californias pandemic response, against 23% who said he was doing a fair job and 43% who classified it as poor. Only 22% say he has done an excellent or good job managing the vaccine rollout.

Newsom received slightly higher marks in the Public Policy Institutes poll: Half of likely voters said they approve of his handling of the pandemic. On vaccine distribution, though, a majority said Newsom has done a fair or poor job.

If Californians are satisfied with the COVID-19 response, a recall election may not gain much traction, Baldassare wrote. But if Californians are frustrated, it could set the stage for a recall election that upends the political status quo.

Backers need to gather 1.5 million signatures of registered voters by March 17 and say they have obtained 1.2 million so far. However, as of Jan. 6, they had submitted just over 400,000 valid signatures to the state.

The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll included 10,357 registered voters and was conducted in late January. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. The Public Policy Institutes poll included 1,703 adult Californians surveyed from Jan. 21 to 31 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
The Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus has been approved by the Armenian Health Ministry, according to a press release of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

"The vaccine was approved by a decree of the Ministry of Health based on data of Phase III clinical trials in Russia without conducting additional trials in Armenia," TASS cited the statement as saying.

The Sputnik V vaccine has already been registered in Russia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, the UAE, Iran, the Republic of Guinea and Tunisia.

On August 11, 2020, Russia became the first country worldwide to register a vaccine against the coronavirus which was named Sputnik V. The preparation was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry. Sputnik V is a human adenovirus-based vector vaccine.
An administrator in charge of New Jerseys only womens prison, who inmates and relatives say played a prominent role last month when some women said they were beaten by officers, previously was accused of at least three separate cases of misconduct. 

Inmates have sued Associate Administrator Sean St. Paul at least three times in the past seven years, according to federal court records. One said St. Paul broke his arm. Two others said he refused to stop officers from abusing other prisoners.

St. Paul also was suspended 20 days more than a decade ago for workplace discrimination, but after an appeal that charge was dropped, according to state records.

He is one of dozens of staff from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility on paid administrative leave, according to William Sullivan, president of NJ PBA Local 105, the states largest corrections union.

St. Paul is the highest-ranking person to be suspended so far from the Hunterdon County prison, state and union officials said. His position is below the prisons overall administrator, who was on leave before retirement.

Several prisoners and their relatives say St. Paul was part of a Jan. 11 incident when, inmates allege, they were brutally attacked by staff, according to three letters written by prisoners and interviews with two inmates and other family members.

One woman told NJ Advance Media she was sexually assaulted by an officer.

Lawmakers have since demanded the commissioner in charge of the entire prison system be fired, and the governor appointed a special investigator to look into the incident.

St. Paul could not be reached for comment.

NJ Advance Media called, emailed and messaged phone numbers, email addresses and a LinkedIn account listed for St. Paul throughout last week. Nobody answered the door Friday at a property St. Paul owns and a lawyer who represented St. Paul in the discrimination case said he no longer works with St. Paul.

A prison spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on St. Pauls role in the Jan. 11 incident or his record at the department.

I heard a bone crack

At least three male inmates in recent years have sued St. Paul, who previously worked in at least one mens prison in New Jersey.

Last year, a man accused St. Paul and two other officers of breaking his arm several years earlier, according to court records.

During a transfer, St. Paul was standing on top of me and stomping kicking beating on me, wrote Douglas Manning, who is in East Jersey State Prison for multiple charges, including sexual assault and manslaughter, according to prison records.

Manning said St. Paul twisted his arm and I heard a bone crack, according to the complaint. The lawsuit is ongoing.

A spokesman for the state attorney generals office, which represents the corrections department in court, declined to comment on that case.

In a 2018 complaint, Christopher Sperry said an officer beat him in retaliation for having filed a grievance.

Other officers soon arrived. St. Paul was part of a group that either actively participated in the attack or failed to intervene, according to the lawsuit.

Attorneys representing the corrections department have broadly denied his allegations in court. Sperry is in prison for robbery, and his attorney could not be reached for comment. The suit is ongoing.

A third male inmate said St. Paul condones and supports misconduct by officers he supervised.

Lemont Love said he once overheard St. Paul speaking with another staff member near a mail room, according to a 2015 lawsuit.

A Code 33 was called, which is when officers are summoned to stop a fight or assist with an unruly prisoner.

When St. Paul was told which inmate was the target of the call, he allegedly replied, Hes getting f----d up, hes getting f----d up.

St. Paul also knew of complaints accusing multiple officers of abusive behavior but he has failed to take disciplinary action against them or otherwise control their behavior, Love wrote.

Love is in prison for drug, assault and robbery charges, among others. He represented himself in the case, which was dismissed on procedural grounds.

Years prior, St. Paul was also suspended for 20 working days for violating the states workplace discrimination policy, according to records from the civil service commission, a bipartisan agency that oversees public employment in the state.

After St. Paul appealed the 2007 charge, the punishment was dropped to a written reprimand and he was given 20 days worth of back pay, records show. After another hearing, the written reprimand was thrown out too.

St. Paul then asked the civil service commission to give him more than $37,485 to reimburse his lawyer, David Heintjes. The agency denied his request, according to the records.

When reached by phone, Heintjes said he did not recall what accusation St. Paul originally faced.

Full disciplinary files for officers are not considered public records in New Jersey and typically only surface through lawsuits and civil service appeals, so its unclear whether St. Paul faced other discipline throughout his career.

The womens prison

In recent weeks, families of at least two of the women who were allegedly attacked say they had been trying to speak with St. Paul about complaints concerning several officers. The families hoped he would help.

He assured me he would handle it, one mother, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation for her daughter, told NJ Advance Media.

The other woman never heard back from St. Paul, the second relative said.

Its unknown if St. Paul addressed the complaints about verbal and physical harassment from officers.

In early January, there were also multiple instances of inmates throwing fecal matter at officers, according to Sullivan, the union official.

On Jan. 11, officers tried to move several women from their cells, Sullivan said.

Many details of the cell extraction are still unknown, and prison officials have so far declined to provide more information, citing the pending criminal investigation.

One inmate, Ajila Nelson, said a group of armored officers barged into her cell in the prisons Restrictive Housing Unit, where women are held for disciplinary reasons.

They punched and kicked her and stripped off her clothes while she was handcuffed, Nelson said. Other women also said they were hurt in the process.

In a phone interview last week, Nelson said she saw St. Paul present while she was being attacked.

She also alleged that another officer grabbed her breast and put his fingers into my vagina.

NJ Advance Media does not normally name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Nelson said she wanted to come forward to increase public awareness, especially since other women have reported abuse at the prison over the years.

The mother previously in contact with St. Paul said her daughter suffered a concussion, whiplash, a split lip, bruises all over her back and knots on her head from the incident.

If the person that is supposed to help you when things like this go on is the person behind it all, then who do you turn to? the mother said about St. Paul.

Two women reported that after the alleged attack St. Paul threatened future retaliation if they misbehaved.

St. Paul allegedly said, they want to act up this will happen every night, according to a letter written by an inmate. NJ Advance Media is not naming the letters author to protect her from retaliation.

St. Paul was placed on paid administrative leave Jan. 15, according to state and union officials.

He joined the state payroll in 1991 and was making $128,195 as of September, according to online pension records.

He was appointed to a Prison Gang Violence Task Force in 2005, according to legislative records, and by 2018 hed earned the rank of lieutenant and was working at Northern State Prison, union records show.

He was associate administrator at the womens prison by the start of the pandemic, according to an internal memo.

The department announced a new Edna Mahan administrator, Patricia McGill, 10 days after staff were first suspended, according to another internal memo obtained by NJ Advance Media.

McGill was initially acting administrator and fully took the reins Monday, prison spokeswoman Liz Velez wrote in an email.

NJ Advance Media Research Editor Vinessa Erminio contributed to this report.

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EACH AND EVERY DAY, my colleagues and I hear about how New Hampshires high property taxes are an unsustainable burden on hardworking Granite Staters. According to a recent report from US News and WalletHub, New Hampshire has the third-highest property tax rates in the country. For young wor
Education Research

Pandemic Has Changed Main Challenges of School Counselors

For once, the number of students an individual school counselor is responsible for advising wasn't the overwhelming choice when they were asked to examine their day-to-day challenges. Many more school counselors responded that the big obstacles were getting access to students in a virtual environment (cited by 68 percent) and providing counseling and lessons to students in a virtual environment (mentioned by 62 percent). Just a little over half (53 percent) said managing a high caseload was either "challenging" or "extremely challenging." And 51 percent said it was a continual challenge to close "opportunity and achievement gaps."

Those results came out of a newly released study from the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), produced just in time for "National School Counseling Week," which takes place between Feb. 1 and Feb. 5, 2021. The survey was done in October 2020 and derived from a sampling of U.S. K-12 school counselors representing a population of 110,000.

The number of students being advised by each counselor continued to decline, from 455 students for every one counselor, reported in 2019 by the organization, to 430:1 in the latest survey. The optimal ratio recommended by the ASCA is 250:1. Just a quarter of counselors reported that they were responsible for 250 or fewer students.

The report noted that job responsibilities had changed for most respondents in response to the pandemic. Some 73 percent said they now followed up with students who weren't participating in virtual classes. That share was higher (80 percent) for counselors working in schools that are operating in an all-virtual mode and far lower (44 percent) for those in in-person schools. More than half (53 percent) said they now followed up with students who hadn't returned to school since the fall reopening. Forty-eight percent participated in attendance and check-ins. And 45 percent focused more on social-emotional learning "implementation"; in fact, six in 10 (63 percent) said they had spent more time on SEL in the past year than in previous years.

As part of addressing racism and bias in their school counseling programs, more than two in five (42 percent) spent time monitoring student behavior, both in person and in virtual chats, "to identify racist behavior or speech." Thirty-eight percent said they provided individual counseling; 35 percent offered classroom lessons; and 22 percent worked to identify and advocate for the revision or removal of policies that disproportionately affected students of color.

Interestingly, almost a quarter of respondents (23 percent) said they weren't part of crisis planning and response for their schools. That count was even higher--31 percent--for those working in high schools.

The full report is openly available on the ASCA website.
Benglauru, Feb 3 : Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said Aero India will give a boost to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clarion call of Aatmanirbhar Bharat scheme by signing as more than 200 agreements during an event- Bandhan (the bond) - on the last day of the biennial show on February 5.

The 13th edition of the country's premier air show - Aero India 21 is being held in the backdrop of Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) bagging a Rs 48,000 crore order for fighter jets - Tejas Mark 1A and India's engagement with Indian Ocean Region (IOR) countries.

Heaping praise on Prime Minister, Narendra Modi for his vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat at the curtain raiser event of Aero India 2021 here, Singh said that India will soon be the most powerful defence economy in the world.

"This is the beginning of a new journey. The association of Bengaluru has proved to be most appropriate. Aero India 2021 will lead to India's defence manufacturing revolution. India is getting great response globally and is being trusted for defence investments," he explained He further said that Aero India would spark a renewed sense of pride in India's defence manufacturing and take defence cooperation to the next level.

"It would also bring together the defence ministers of various countries, service chiefs, policymakers, foreign OEMs, industry, entrepreneurs and academia to showcase, connect and collaborate as well as highlight policy reforms driving India's new defence manufacturing revolution," he said.

He added that the Aero India 2021 starting February 3 will also show the gateways to defence and economic engagement in the country.

Singh said the relentless efforts of our soldiers at borders helped us to be strong and safeguard the sovereignty of our country despite challenges.

"I have no hesitation in saying that our robust stance, immediate and calibrated response and the unrelenting spirit of the soldiers on the borders led to stabilisation of the situation and we showed our resolve to defend the sovereignty and integrity of our country," he added.

Singh claimed that since 2014, the government has brought in policy reforms to push indigenous defence manufacturing with an enthusiastic response from the global business community.

He further said that the world has now started to recognize India as a trusted defence investment destination.

The Union Defence Minister added that hosting the Aero India in Bengaluru, will consolidate not only the Karnataka's position as a favoured investment destination, but also establish the state as the gateway for defence and economic engagement.

Singh said that Aero India 2021, three-day mega event to showcase the prowess of Aviation Industry will begin from Wednesday at Bengaluru. "This is the 25th year of Aero India and the 13th edition of the event. The President of India will attend the valedictory function for Aero India 2021 on 5th February," he said.

The Defence Minister also thanked Karnataka CM B. S. Yediyurappa for his presence which he said is significant in many ways adding that it shows his personal involvement with the event.

Aero India 2021 will witness IOR Defence Ministers' Conclave and Chief of Airstaffs' conclave for the first time. Before the curtain-raiser event, Rajnath Singh inaugurated the second line for production of LCA Tejas at HAL.

It will be the First Hybrid show that means it can also be attended virtually as well due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The event will be open for the business domain while others can witness it virtually.

Only 3,000 persons per show will be allowed and booking will be online. Covid-19 protocols are strictly being followed at the Aero India 21 as it happens to be the first post-pandemic international event. The total number of exhibitors has increased to 600 from 403 in 2019.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, this time Aero India has 78 foreign exhibitors as compared to 165 foreign exhibitors in 2019.

Defence Minister will inaugurate the Aero India 21 on February 3 and the order ceremony for LCA Tejas will take place right after the inauguration. There will be a number of events and displays during the three days of Aero India 21.

On February 4 the first-ever Defence Ministers' Conclave will take place with the participation of 27 Defence Ministers, physically and virtually.

Chief of Air Staff's conclave will also be held on February 4. Startup Manthan will be held on February 5 to facilitate all startups and MSMEs in the aerospace and defence sector.

A number of seminars will also be held related to the defence sector. President will be virtually present for the valedictory function of Aero India 21 on February 5.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
A popular TV actress, whilst returning from a family dinner in Delhi, had a horrifying experience on January 31 night. She shared the incident with TOI and said that while she and her husband were on their way home, they were chased by four drunk men.



She shared, We were coming back from a family get-together around 2am. The incident happened near Madhuban Chowk, when we honked at the car in front of us to give us way. Instead of letting us go through, the driver stopped the car in the middle of the road. When we were overtaking the car, they (the four men in the vehicle) stared at us and started following us. My husband took a detour because we didnt want them to know we live nearby.

She went on to add that they made their way to their home and started threatening them at the gate. We didnt see anyone following us after we took the detour, but their car came behind us the moment we reached our society gate. Our society has automatic gates, so the guard took some time to open them. These men started threatening us at the gate, saying we banged into their car. They followed us into the society, abused us and almost barged into our home. Thats when we called the police. Two PCR vans came and the men were taken into custody, she said.

For the unversed, the actress has filed a police complaint. She also expressed disbelief at the fact that such an incident happened with her in Delhi. She added that she no more lives in the city but her in-laws live in Delhi. The actress confessed that she was scared as they were four drunk men who could have done anything. She said that she decided to talk about the incident because she doesnt want any other person to go through the same.

The police have filed an FIR in the case and Pramod Kumar Mishra, DCP Rohini, Delhi Police added, The incident happened at midnight and she lodged a complaint on Monday evening. Four persons were arrested for misbehaving with her. Since this is a bailable offence, they have been granted bail.

ALSO READ: Actress Files Complaint Against OTT Platform For Showing Obscene Content

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The many different sensations our bodies experience are accompanied by deeply complex exchanges of information within the brain, and the feeling of pain is no exception. So far, research has shown how pain intensity can be directly related to specific patterns of oscillation in brain activity, which are altered by the activation and deactivation of the 'interneurons' connecting different regions of the brain. However, it remains unclear how the process is affected by 'inhibitory' interneurons, which prevent chemical messages from passing between these regions. Through new research published in EPJ B, researchers led by Fernando Montani at Instituto de Fisica La Plata, Argentina, show that inhibitory interneurons make up 20% of the circuitry in the brain required for pain processing.

The discovery represents a significant advance in researchers' understanding of how our bodies and brains respond to pain. The underlying circuitry of the pain process involves a specific configuration of interneurons, each of which link specific pairs of regions, or 'nodes' within the brain. Crucially, a certain fraction of these neurons will be inhibitory; varying the strengths of the connections they provide. To create a biologically plausible model, Montani and colleagues would first need to consider all possible links between specific pairs of nodes, and determine their relative strengths. Within a structure as complex as the brain, however, it would be virtually impossible to do this by considering each configuration individually.

The researchers overcame this issue using 'graph theory,' which studies structures made up of sets of nodes, which influence each other's behaviours via links of variable strengths. Using a novel statistical approach, they estimated the signals produced by each region of a virtual brain in a given configuration, and how far they diverge from realistic values. From their initial estimates, Montani's team could then build up a realistic graph by strengthening and weakening the influences of certain links. Their analysis revealed that a configuration where 20% of all interneurons associated with the pain process are inhibitory to information transmission.

###

Reference

R De Luise, R Baravalle, O A Rosso, F Montani (2021), Networks configurations of pain: an efficiency characterization of information transmission, Eur. Phys. J. B
Well over 100 million people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 worldwide, and more than 2.2 million have died from it. In Germany, nearly 57,000 have fallen victim to the virus so far. One year after the outbreak of the pandemic, the situation continues to deteriorate.

The much invoked light at the end of the tunnel, the vaccination of the population, is proving to be a real debacle. The EU and the German government have not bothered to provide the vaccine in sufficient quantities for all of Europe. Instead, they have entrusted this to private pharmaceutical companies worth billions. The vaccine manufacturersBionTech-Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZenecapromised huge supplies to win the lucrative EU contracts; now they cannot fulfil them at all.

Patient in an intensive care unit (ICU) [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

The result is an increasingly open, vicious trade war at the European level. At the same time, hundreds of vaccination centres have stood empty for almost two months, while new, even more dangerous variants of the virus are spreading rapidly.

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP), its youth organisation the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) and the World Socialist Web Site call on workers, teachers, educators, students and pupils to take matters into their own hands. A European-wide general strike must enforce a coordinated lockdown in Europe that also shuts non-essential manufacturing and service industries and closes schools and day-care centres until the pandemic is under control. The IYSSE in Germany has organised an online meeting on the issue February 1.

In doing so, the SGP, IYSSE and WSWS explicitly oppose right-wing politicians, journalists and celebrities who are now using the chaotic vaccination debacle to spread nationalism and demand the opening up of businesses and schools. In Germany, one example is the Christian Democratic district administrator Stephan Pusch from North Rhine-Westphalia, who demanded on Facebook on Friday, In two weeks, and this is an urgent appeal, schools must reopen.

Pusch is crisis manager in Heinsberg, the first district to be severely affected by coronavirus, for which he received the Federal Cross of Merit from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Later, in an interview with several media outlets, he repeated that schools and shops must finally be reopened. Little by little, the economy must also be loosened again  Theres a time bomb ticking.

Regarding the vaccination chaos, Pusch criticised the German government for wanting to order the vaccine through the European Union. When the pandemic broke out, we saw how nations around the world fought veritable battles over the supply of protective masks. Against this backdrop, it was naive to believe that the community of nations would share the vaccine peacefully, said Pusch, who was clearly in favour of an even stronger national solo effort.

The spread of the new virus variants from Britain, South Africa and Brazil shows the complete ineffectiveness and bankruptcy of such solo national efforts.

More and more outbreaks with the new mutation discovered in Britain are becoming known. In the meantime, there are already hundreds of cases of such mutations, and the number of unreported cases is very high, as even the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) admits. Sixty-four cases of infections with such variants have been discovered in Cologne alone, as Johannes Niessen, head of the Cologne Health Department, reported on broadcaster WDR. They were detected in four day-care centres, one refugee shelter and two hospitals.

Recently, Charite virologist Dr. Christian Drosten issued an unequivocal warning: Were in a risky situation, you have to realise that. Speaking on broadcaster NDRs Coronavirus Update, he explained what the consequence of a premature relaxation could be under conditions of a further spread of such mutations: Even if it were possible that the elderly were all vaccinated and protected (which he does not think is possible), then we could have an extreme number of infections in a short time. In England, there were around 60,000 new infections every day.

But it could be much worse, according to Drosten. Then we would have a situation with 100,000 to 120,000 infections a day ... These would be much younger people who would then also become seriously ill. Because we know that people without risk factors also become seriously ill and end up in intensive care.

This phenomenon can already be observed in several hospitals and day-care centres. Since the new variants spread more easily overall, more children and young people inevitably become infected with them. As a result, even children have become so seriously ill in recent days that they had to be ventilated.

What is developing unpleasantlyit has to be saidis the situation among children, the head of Lower Saxonys crisis unit, Heiger Scholz, said a few days ago. He reported that the COVID-19 patients who had to be ventilated in his state included two children. A total of eight children with COVID-19 are in hospital in Lower Saxony.

In Hamburg-Altona, no fewer than 13 of a total of 14 educators at the Elbpiraten day-care centre have been infected with coronavirus, although it is not known with which variant. Among the children, 18 out of a total of 35 children are infected, and numerous family members are also said to have already been affected.

In Freiburg, too, a variant of the coronavirus was detected in 18 children and educators in a day-care centre. This prompted the state government under Winfried Kretschmann (Green Party) to change its plans, according to which it wanted to reopen schools as early as February 1contrary to nationwide rules. Only a few days earlier, Kretschmann had vehemently pleaded for this opening of schools. One should not forever pretend that primary schools and kindergartens are the problems of this pandemic. That is simply not the case.

Meanwhile, on the TV programme Anne Will, intensive care physician Uwe Janssens warned of a terrible third wave if the Brazilian virus spreads. In recent days, there have already been several horrific outbreaks at hospitals in various German states.

On January 26, the Bayreuth hospital in Bavaria had to impose an admission ban and a quarantine of 3,000 staff after a new outbreak of the virus mutant B.1.1.7 was detected in a total of 99 cases. Now the hospital only admits patients who present in an absolute emergency.

Previously, the Humboldt-Klinikum in Berlin-Reinickendorf and the Medius-Klinik Nurtingen had been completely quarantined because of similar outbreaks. While the B.1.1.7 variant was also detected in Berlin, two other new mutations were discovered in Nurtingen. New outbreaks also occurred at hospitals in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.

In these completely sealed-off hospitals, the staff are subject to a so-called shuttle quarantine, which places enormous additional burdens on them. They are only allowed to shuttle between work and home, but not to walk the streets, use public transport, or even go shopping, take the rubbish out or empty the mailbox.

Wheres the shuttle service, wheres the shopping service, wheres the childcare? caregivers ask desperately under the Twitter hashtag #shuttlequarantine. One writes, The word shuttle quarantine is a savage euphemism. It should rather be isolation with work obligation, and thats still the least drastic thing I can think of.

The risk of contagion is also growing in the factories. At Airbus, the British variant has been detected in a further five employees at the Hamburg plant. This means that seven of the 21 Airbus employees who have tested positive so far have been infected with this variant. The WSWS wrote about this: The outbreak at Airbus shows once again that workers are completely on their own when it comes to the high health risks to which they are exposed. The company, the authorities and the trade unions and their works council representatives owe their allegiance to the bank accounts of the shareholders rather than the lives and health of the workforce.
A Hixson woman has been charged with setting up a $10,000 robbery a passenger in her car outside an East Ridge business last Nov. 30.

Christie Nichole Henderson, 38, of 4725 Sabrina Lane, was earlier charged with filing a false police report.

Now she has been charged with facilitation of especially aggravated robbery.

Police said Ms. Henderson drove a white Mercedes to a convenience store at 3918 Ringgold Road at 12:43 p.m. on Nov. 30. Her passenger remained in the front seat while she went inside, paid for gas and went to the restroom.

While in the store, Ms. Henderson is seen on video using her cellphone to talk to someone.

While she was in the store, a black male wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt entered the unlocked Mercedes on the driver's side door and struck the passenger in the head with a pistol.

Police said the robber took $10,000 from the passenger and fled.

Ms. Henderson at first denied any knowledge of the robbery, but later said she did have some information. She said she did not know the robber, but police found video of Ms. Henderson arriving that morning at 8:24 a.m. in the Mercedes at the America's Best Value motel on Lee Highway with the same black male in the front seat.

Pigeon Forge, Tn., officers on Dec. 13 arrested 33-year-old Corey Jamall Greer, on warrants for especially aggravated robbery and possession of a weapon in the commission of a felony. They also confiscated two cellphones from Greer, including a white one he could be seen using in video from the Lee Highway motel.

Police said an analysis of the content of the phones showed that Ms. Henderson was directly involved in planning and execution of the robbery.

At one point she texted Greer, "I gotta be careful texting bc he watching me" and asking "so we not going for the 32?"

She also texted, "I need to know how we gonna take this 10K in traffic" and "we need a plan. We can't be reckless."

Ms. Henderson also told Greer, "If we can get us this 32, n----- you better neva leave me."

Griffin Hospital/Contributed

DERBY  Thursday is World Cancer Day and, in honor of that, the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby will offer free pre-screenings for breast cancer mammography.

The pre-screening will be conducted by a breast cancer specialist over the phone and is designed to help individuals understand breast cancer screening guidelines and when they should be screened, as well as genetic testing options. Participants will be able to make an appointment for a breast cancer test if needed.
The suspect has gained notoriety for abductions and major abuse of held persons.

Ukraine's Police Department in Donetsk region has charged in absentia a region's native, enrolled to the occupation forces' security agency to become a prison guard in a Donetsk-based secret prison, colloquially named Izoliatsia (Isolation).

The suspect has gained notoriety for abducting and torturing civilians, as well as exploiting held persons as free labor force, the police reported.

Investigators found that in early 2016, the suspect joined a terrorist organization, namely the "special operations forces" run by occupation authorities. He was appointed as a security guard at the so-called "MGB base"  a secret torture chamber located at the premises of a former insulation factory in Donetsk, Izoliatsia.

For two years, the suspect would illegally imprison citizens, in particular those with a pro-Ukrainian stance. He and other militants would hold prisoners in inhumane conditions and torture them with electric shockers for hours, also applying other types of physical violence and humiliating them. Both civilians and Ukrainian military personnel are held in the said prison.

Among the victims are both male and female prisoners, including the elderly.

Criminal proceedings have been opened on charges of participation in a terrorist organization, participation in an illegal paramilitary formation, violation of the laws and customs of war, cruel treatment of the civilian population, as well as the abduction and holding of a person for exploitation purposes.

Investigative actions are underway.

The police continue to document the crimes committed by the Izoliatsia administration. Recently leaked photos of prison premises have been added to the case file.

What is Izoliatsia

Izoliatsia is a notorious secret prison in the stronghold of Russia-controlled forces, Donetsk, run by the self-styled "DPR Ministry of State Security." It was created in June 2014 at the site of the Izoliatsia art fund seized by the Russian proxies.

Little is known about the prison. According to media reports, prisoners may be held there for years without trial. Torture against detainees is a common occurrence.

Reporting by UNIAN
South Africa, the continents worst COVID-hit country, is due to receive its first batch of coronavirus vaccines on Monday.



Initially scheduled for the end of January, the first one million shots of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine produced in India will be used to inoculate healthcare workers over the next three months. The second batch of 500,000 jabs is scheduled to arrive later in February.



Despite criticism from opposition parties and medical experts that the procurement process of the vaccine has taken too long, Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize has called the arrival of the vaccines from the Serum Institute of India a massive achievement of unprecedented proportions.



Once the consignment has undergone quality checks, which are going to take between 10 and 14 days, the country will begin its long-awaited, three-phase immunisation campaign. Following the inoculation of front-line healthcare workers, other high-risk groups such as the elderly, people with comorbidities and essential workers such as minibus drivers, police and teachers are going to receive their shot. The third phase targets everyone else above the age of 18.



The arrival of the jabs comes a month after the United Kingdom was the first to roll out the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and some two months after the UK and the United States began using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.



Responding to accusations that the delay was caused by the South African government starting negotiations too late, Deputy Director-General for the National Department of Health Dr Anban Pillay told Al Jazeera: We could not procure a vaccine without knowing that it is effective, safe and when it would be delivered. This info only became available in December for some vaccines. We had to wait to have this info before we make a financial commitment.



Under its agreement, South Africa is paying $5.25 per shot, $2 more than what is going to cost when the same vaccine arrives within the deal the African Union (AU) has secured for African countries.



Professor Barry Schoeb, who chairs the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on COVID-19, said South Africa prioritised the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine as it is the one that was immediately available.



Authorities aim to vaccinate 40 million South Africans by the end of 2021, or 65 percent of the population of almost 60 million. But efficiency will depend on a whole lot of factors, Mkhize acknowledged in a public web briefing about the vaccine last week, including the uncertainty of whether South Africa is going to actually receive the ordered doses.



While he promised the government would do its best to get as many people vaccinated as possible, many other countries are currently not getting the supplies they ordered, the minister cautioned.



According to official sources, 21 million shots of the Pfizer (12 million) and the Johnson & Johnson (nine million) vaccines have been secured through collective programmes such as the World Health Organization-backed COVAX scheme and the AU, as well as bilateral deals with suppliers. Meanwhile, Mkhize told a Sunday newspaper another 20 million shots had been ordered by Pfizer, taking South Africas expected supply to more than 40 million doses.



These vaccines are secured and awaiting manufacturers to submit final agreements with details of delivery dates and exact amounts, Mkhize told The Sunday Times.



South Africa is the African country most affected by the pandemic, counting almost 1.5 million confirmed cases and nearly 44,000 related deaths. In January, new daily infections peaking at more than 20,000, the vast majority of whom could be traced back to a new strain identified last year.



The potent new 501Y.V2 variant is thought to be 50 percent more transmissible than previous variants, while some studies have shown it to be relatively more resistant to existing vaccines.



Whether the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is effective against it is currently being studied, with results expected in the coming days.



Meanwhile, the government has launched a social media campaign  using hashtags such as #VacciNation and #ListenToTheExperts  to debunk myths and rumours about COVID-19 and vaccines that have been widely circulating.



We are going to ensure that there is adequate information available to the communities to remove the doubts about the vaccines, said Mkhize.



The Department of Health is currently conducting a study to find out the level of information about vaccines among healthcare workers, as some appear apprehensive of getting inoculated.



People are scared. They talk about 5G, triple 6 and microchips, said a nurse working at a clinic near central Johannesburg. According to the nurses information, online training of nurses will begin on Monday.



Healthcare workers have not been informed enough about the vaccine, said Sibongiseni Delihlaso, from the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa.



It is them who will be driving this on the ground. How are these people going to convince patients to get the vaccine if they are not convinced?

Source: aljazeera.com









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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that increasing taxes for ordinary Indians in the budget was not an idea she was willing to consider. In her first postBudget interview to a private television channel, she told Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi that had the government had more resources, she would have shared it with taxpayers in the form of lower taxes.

I certainly didnt want to fund this through taxation. That is why I have provided for large borrowing, disinvestment, asset monetization, she said.

The stock markets have reacted with glee, giving Sitharaman the biggest budget-day rally of the twenty-first century.

In her third budget, she announced plans for large-scale privatization and monetization of public sector assets, recapitalization of banks, higher foreign investment limits in insurance and reform of electricity distribution.

The higher borrowing, she said, would not affect the governments fiscal prudence, which is on a glide path to 4.5% of GDP in FY26. This would not be a cause for concern for Indias sovereign ratings.

I dont want to say I am not bothered. But I dont want to let it bother me, she said of the likely reaction by ratings agencies to the borrowing plan and higher fiscal deficit estimates, pegged at 9.5% of GDP for FY21 and 6.8% of GDP in FY22. I am confident that this will be appreciated by the people who matter.

The finance minister made major announcements in her conversations with Joshi:

A new law will be passed that will have a provision for private development financial institutions to fund infrastructure projects.

There is so much demand for development financing.

The government is not in the business of doing business but governance, she asserted.

I am still sayingbare minimum even in strategic sectors, she said in reference to public sector participation in business.

The government is committed to privatization of two banks and one general insurance company this year. It has started engaging with the Reserve Bank in a big way.

Is it right to pour taxpayer money into banks? that cannot stand up on their own, she asked.

A holding company with some government participation will be created to own the bad loans of banks. This company will then call for interest from private sector asset reconstruction companies to sell non-performing assets.

This is a workable solution. The banks are all on board.

She clarified that the Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess would be carved out of additional excise duty which is owed to the central government. The end consumer or the importer is not going to pay one rupee more.

The finance minister asked farmer unions to return to the negotiating table in a spirit of goodwill and explain their points of difference on the farm reform laws. Some of whom are farmers are misguided. Please talk on particular points of concern. We are willing to concede, she said.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand  A cyclone caused flooding as it crossed Fiji, requiring rescues of residents and sending thousands of people into shelters in the Pacific archipelago. At least one person died and five others are missing.

Authorities said Monday that more than 10,000 people were sheltering at 300 evacuation centers after Cyclone Ana made landfall Sunday on the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. The cyclone created flooding across parts of both islands, including in the capital, Suva.

The National Disaster Management Office reported that a 49-year-old man had drowned, while four fishermen and a toddler were missing.

Office Director Vasiti Soko said a river near Suva unexpectedly burst it banks and crews needed to rescue villagers from their homes. She said there was severe flooding on the other main island of Vanua Levu and it was getting more rain as another storm passed through.

But in Suva, the sun is out again, the water is going down and the evacuees are returning, she said.

Fijis Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama pointed to climate change as a cause of recent deadly storms.

Today, my priority is on Fijians safety  but the rest of the world needs to wake up and reckon with why this is happening, Bainimarama wrote on Twitter.

Fiji was still recovering from an even more powerful cyclone that hit in December. That storm, Cyclone Yasa, killed four people, with a fifth person listed as missing.

But while people remained displaced Monday, the country was also trying to quickly get back to normal. Schools remained closed but other civil servants were told they should report back for work unless theyd been directly affected by the cyclone. That move angered some people

Soon after Cyclone Ana made landfall, wind gusts were hitting 140 kilometers per hour (87 miles per hour), according to the Fiji Meteorological Service. During Cyclone Yasa, which destroyed dozens of homes, winds topped 200 mph.

Located about one-third of the way from New Zealand to Hawaii, Fiji has a population of about 930,000.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Close-up of the semiconducting 2D alloy. Scanning tunneling microscopy image of a Si-Ge alloy with a composition of Si5.67Ge0.33. Tall protrusions correspond to Ge atoms and short ones to Si atoms. The distance between protrusions is only 0.64 nm. Credit: Antoine Fleurence, JAIST

Semiconducting 2-D alloys could be key to overcoming the technical limitations of modern electronics. Although 2-D SiGe alloys would have interesting properties for this purpose, they were only predicted theoretically. Now, scientists from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have realized the first experimental demonstration. They have also shown that the Si to Ge ratio can be adjusted to fine tune the electronic properties of the alloys, paving the way for novel applications.

Alloysmaterials composed of a combination of different elements or compoundshave played a crucial role in the technological development of humans since the Bronze Age. Today, alloying materials with similar structures and compatible elements is essential because it enables us to fine tune the properties of the final alloy to match our needs.

The versatility provided by alloying naturally extends to the field of electronics. Semiconductor alloys are an area of active research because new materials will be needed to redesign the building blocks of electronic devices (transistors); in this regard, two-dimensional (2-D) semiconductor alloys are seen as a promising option to go past the technical limitations of modern electronics. Unfortunately, graphene, the carbon-based poster child for 2-D materials, does not lend itself easily to alloying, which leaves it out of the equation.

However, there is an attractive alternative: silicene. This material is composed entirely of silicon (Si) atoms arranged in a 2-D honeycomb-like structure reminiscent of graphene. If the properties of silicene could be tuned as needed, the field of 2-D silicon-based nanoelectronics would take off. Although alloying silicene with germanium (Ge) was theoretically predicted to yield stable 2-D structures with properties tunable by the Si to Ge ratio, this was never realized in practice.

Now, a team of scientists from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) have experimentally demonstrated a new way to grow a silicene layer and stably replace a portion of its atoms with Ge, allowing them to fine tune some of its electrical properties.

Their study is published in Physical Review Materials.

First, the scientists grew a single layer of 2-D silicene onto a zirconium diboride (ZrB2) thin film grown on a silicon substrate through the surface segregation of Si atoms which crystallize in a 2-D honeycomb-like structure. However, this silicene layer was not perfectly flat; one sixth of all Si atoms were a bit higher than the rest, forming periodic bumps or 'protrusions."

Then, Ge atoms were deposited onto the silicene layer in ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Interestingly, both theoretical calculations and experimental observations through microscopy and spectroscopy revealed that Ge atoms could only replace the protruding Si atoms. By adjusting the number of Ge atoms deposited, a SiGe alloy with a desired Si to Ge ratio could be produced. The composition of the final material would thus be Si6xGex, where x can be any number between 0 and 1.

The team then studied the effects of this adjustable Si to Ge ratio on the electronic properties of the SiGe alloy. They found that its electronic band structure, one of the most important characteristics of a semiconductor, could be adjusted within a specific range by manipulating the composition of the material. Excited about the results, Senior Lecturer Antoine Fleurence from JAIST, lead author of the study, remarks, "Silicon and germanium are elements commonly used in the semiconductor industry, and we showed that it is possible to engineer the band structure of 2-D SiGe alloys in a way reminiscent of that for bulk (3-D) SiGe alloys used in various applications."

The implications of this study are important for multiple reasons. First, the ultimate thinness and flexibility of 2-D materials is appealing for many applications because it means they could be more easily integrated in devices for daily life. Second, the results could pave the way to a breakthrough in electronics. Co-author of the study, Professor Yukiko Yamada-Takamura from JAIST, explains, "Semiconducting 2-D materials made of silicon and germanium with atomically-precise thickness could further decrease the dimensions of the elemental bricks of electronic devices. This would represent a technological milestone for silicon-based nanotechnologies."

Overall, this study showcases but a few of the advantages of alloying as a way to produce materials with more desirable properties than those made from a single element or compound. Let us hope semiconducting 2-D alloys are further refined so that they can take the spotlight in next-generation electronic devices.

More information: A. Fleurence et al. Band engineering in an epitaxial two-dimensional honeycomb Si6xGex alloy, Physical Review Materials (2021). A. Fleurence et al. Band engineering in an epitaxial two-dimensional honeycomb Si6xGex alloy,(2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.5.L011001

Provided by Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
In Tory Bellecis new Amazon Prime show, The Great Escapists, the former Mythbusters alum finds himself shipwrecked on a desert island alongside Top Gear host Richard Hammond. The goal is to find a way back to civilization, but unlike the typical Bear Grylls outdoor adventure, surviving is the easy part.

We figure out water, food and shelter straight away. The real challenge is how do we deal with the boredom of being stuck on this island, says Belleci over Zoom.

The faux-reality show, which premiered January 29, pits Bellecis affable inventor ingenuity against Hammonds need for speed personality as the pair bicker over the best way to get themselves rescued in a premise thats essentially Gilligans Island meets MacGyver. Filming took place in Panama over the course of six weeks in early 2020, just before shelter-in-place was announced.

We literally got off the island a week before the shutdown. So if wed been filming any longer, we wouldve got stuck on the island for real, says Belleci. But based on how much fun they look like theyre having on the show as they build tricked-out soap box racers and a two-story shelter, that might not have been too bad. Plus, despite how rough the conditions on the show look, the cast and crew actually lived in a relatively comfortable island inn. We got back to the real world and it was like, ahhhh, I want to go back to our fantasy life!

Courtesy of Buchwald

Currently Belleci spends most of his time in Monterey, but still has an apartment in San Francisco from his days hosting the long-running scientific debunking show Mythbusters, which was filmed out of a super-secret warehouse in Potrero (to the dismay of their neighbors). Once during a segment on gunslingers, the crew were firing Colt 45 revolvers with blanks and got an unwelcome visit from the police after someone called in a complaint.

Another time, Belleci was testing a theory about what happens to deep sea divers who lose air pressure if detached from the boat. Legend has it that one of those old-timey copper diver helmets would collapse in, crushing the person inside. Since no human was stupid enough to test that, Belleci improvised by building a plastic skeleton and attaching pork loins to it to create a meat man, which they kept fresh in a refrigerated truck.

I remember coming into work one morning and flies were coming out of the truck. I was like, what the heck? The generator would kick on all night to keep it cool, and the neighbor jumped over the fence and unplugged the generator, he says.

Belleci worked on the show from 2003 to 2014, but it wasnt his first stint in San Francisco. Before joining the crew, he studied at San Francisco State Universitys film school. One of his most inspiring classes featured members of the Industrial Light & Magic special effects team explaining the techniques used in films like Jurassic Park and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. He felt so inspired by the experience that he applied at the iconic studio, founded by George Lucas, and landed his dream job building models for the first two Star Wars prequels.

Given the hero worship that many feel for Lucas, the company stressed that no one should approach the director if they saw him on-set or in the office. One day while working on the Federation Battleship for Star Wars: Episode One, Belleci took the policy a little too seriously.

He came out on set, and Im freaking out, because Im a geek and hes George Lucas. And he asked me a question, and I didnt say anything because I was told not to talk to him. He kind of looked at me, then looked at the producer, and the producer said, its okay, you can talk to him if he asks you a question.

Bellecis most recent trip to San Francisco took place during the short period when indoor dining was reopened in the early fall, when he visited Greek restaurant Kokkari Estiatorio in the Financial District. Some of his other go-to spots include Pizzeria Delfina (my favorite restaurant hands-down) and Velvet Cantina (which recently closed).

Back on that deserted island, there was no modern Greek food to be found, at least on-screen. In the first episode, after scavenging through the ruins of their ship, the pair find a couple cans of rations: Hammond scores a tin of baked beans, but Belleci has to settle for dog food. Belleci tentatively wolfs down a bite or two, while Hammond relishes his beans. For Belleci, welding together a tank-like vehicle to race against Hammond was easy, but these more casual scenes were the real challenge.

It was grueling because Im not an actor. So the hard part was getting used to playing myself, pretending what we were doing is real, that was the biggest challenge," says Belleci. "Normally on Mythbusters were just working away and theyre documenting us. For this we were playing ourselves. There were emotions that we had to hit. It was like, ah, Im a TV host, not an actor!
Democratic President Joe Biden met with 10 Republican senators Monday in his first public engagement in the effort to pass an emergency COVID-19 rescue package through Congress. The 10 Republicans, headed by Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, sought the meeting in a letter to Biden sent on Sunday, which produced an immediate invitation to the White House.

Despite the praise of negotiation and bipartisanship, the position of the 10 Republicans was more akin to a demand for preemptive surrender. While Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion packageitself completely inadequate to meet the massive social need caused by the pandemicthe Republican counter-offer was only $600 billion, less than a third, and with numerous provisions in the Biden plan entirely eliminated.

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

For example, the Republicans would scrap the proposed rise in the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next five years. The federal minimum has remained at an abysmal $7.25 an hour for the past 11 years, and even the higher rate leaves a single mother with a child, working full-time, year-round, living well below the poverty line.

The Republican plan would entirely eliminate $300 billion in aid to state and local governments, whose budgets have been devastated by the plunge in tax revenues due to the shutdown of much of the US economy, combined with increased expenditures for health care and other social services, made necessary by the pandemic. US states and cities are, for the most part, legally barred from running budget deficits and have had to slash spending by huge amounts.

This proposal is particularly provocative because there was limited aid to state and local governments in the CARES Act passed 11 months ago, when Republicans controlled the Senate and Trump was in the White House. Trump and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell blocked any further aid in subsequent bills, claiming that it would amount to a bailout of states and cities mismanaged by Democratic governors and mayors. Now, with the Democrats in control of the White House, the Senate and the House, this group of Republicans demands a continuation of the Trump-McConnell blockade.

The only area where the Republicans claim to agree with the initial Biden plan is direct spending for vaccination and care of COVID-19 patients, where both sides would agree to spend $160 billion, a sum that is unlikely to cover the actual costs if the vaccination rate accelerates to 1.5 million or 2 million per day.

One of the cruelest aspects of the Republican plan is the elimination of a proposed increase in federal supplemental unemployment insurance from $300 to $400 a week. The $300-a-week supplement, set in legislation enacted in December and signed into law by Trump, would continue at that level rather than expiring March 15. But, unlike the Biden version, which raised the benefit to $400 and extended it to September 30, the Republican counteroffer would freeze the benefit at $300 and extend it only to June 30.

There is no serious prospect that the tidal wave of new unemployment claims will have evaporated by June. New filings for unemployment compensation have been between 700,000 and one million each week for the past several months. When applications for special pandemic-related benefits filed by contingent workers and the self-employed are included, the total of new claims for unemployment compensation has been more than one million a week since last April.

In addition, the Republican plan would slash the proposed one-time relief check from $1,400 to $1,000 and lower the income level for eligibility to receive a full check from $75,000 to $50,000 a year. The $1,400 was already a reduction by Biden, who campaigned in the Georgia Senate runoffs claiming that if voters elected Democrats and gave the party control of the Senate, $2,000 checks would immediately be issued. Later, Biden claimed that he meant $1,400, on top of the $600 checks to be sent out under the bailout bill passed by Congress in December.

According to one analysis, the combination of lower dollar amounts and tightened restrictions on eligibility would cut the cost of the relief checks in half, from $465 billion under Bidens plan to $220 billion under the Republican plan. Some 29 million people, mainly middle-income (in 2019, before the pandemic), would become ineligible for the payment.

Biden continued to make a show of sticking to his $1.9 trillion target. He and his spokespeople have repeatedly declared that the main danger is a package that is too small, not too large.

But the Democratic president made an effusive show of welcome to the 10 Republicans, treating their demands for outright capitulation as though they were a genuine contribution to a political negotiation. The day before, his top economic aide, Brian Deese, appeared on a Sunday television interview program and suggested that at least one concession, involving income eligibility for receiving a stimulus check, would be under consideration.

The 10 senators were exactly the number required, combined with 50 Democrats in the Senate, to give the necessary 60 votes to a legislative package that could overcome a filibuster. But the Democrats have another option for the legislation, enacting it under a special procedure called budget reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority and cannot be filibustered. That would enable Vice President Kamala Harris to break any tie and ensure passage.

Under the arcane procedures of the Senate, both the House and Senate must first pass a budget resolution, which is not signed into law by the president but provides a framework for congressional committees to draft spending bills for various federal departments. Both the House and the Senate are expected to pass such a resolution this weekthe House version was unveiled on Monday. Budget resolutions, under Senate rules, cannot be filibustered.

Once the budget resolution is adopted, a separate bill to reconcile spending totals on specific programs with the overall resolution can pass the Senate again without being subject to a filibuster. This bill, passed once each year, has been utilized by the party controlling the Senate to push through its top priority. In 2017, Senate Republicans used the reconciliation process to enact a $1.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy without any Democratic votes.

Democrats in both the House and the Senate have called for the use of the reconciliation process to pass the COVID-19 relief bill without Republican support, if necessary. Senator Bernie Sanders, who now chairs the Senate Budget Committee, made such a demand in an appearance on the ABC Sunday interview program This Week.

It is notable that Sanders demands the use of reconciliation only to pass Bidens watered down and inadequate COVID-19 relief bill, not to pass legislation that would actually address the massive social needs created by the pandemic and the ongoing economic collapse.

Throughout 2020, during his failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and after, Sanders claimed that it would be possible to put pressure on a Biden administration and move it to the left. Instead, the left-talkers in the Democratic Party have become nothing more than mouthpieces for the pro-business policies of the Biden White House.

This includes, most importantly, Bidens campaign to reopen the schools and reopen the economy, forcing workers back to work in the midst of the pandemic, despite the danger to their health and lives, in order to keep profits flowing for corporate America.
CLEVELAND, OH / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Mace Security International (OTCQX:MACE) today announces the appointment of Michael Weisbarth as chief financial officer. He will report directly to Gary Medved, president and chief executive officer.

"Mike is a corporate finance veteran who has an impressive track record of elevating financial performance at the companies he has served. The diversity of his industry experience combined with his ability to improve profitability, develop strong banking relationships, and motivate cross-functional teams make him a valuable addition," said Medved. "I have tremendous confidence in his ability to support our growth goals and further enhance shareholder value."

Weisbarth most recently served as Vice President of Finance and Treasurer at Cleveland-based Preformed Line Products Co. Reporting to its CEO, Mike was responsible for financial assessment of target acquisitions and managed the integration of reporting and accounting controls. During his tenure, he completed two foreign acquisitions and provided financial oversight for 23 subsidiaries in 21 countries.

"Mike is smart, a great team player, and he will fit into the Mace culture very well. He has a meaningful track record of diving into details, expanding margins and providing steady guidance, all of which are key requirements for his role as the company continues on its path of transformative growth," said Sanjay Singh, Executive Chairman.

"The Mace brand has strong recognition in the marketplace," said Weisbarth. "Mace has been assembling a management team and board of directors focused on growth and leveraging the brand's leadership position. It is an exciting time to be joining an organization on the cusp of explosive growth. My primary goal will be focused on increasing cash conversion, upgrading data analysis and systems to support future growth, reducing waste and solidifying investor relations strategies."

Mike began his career with Deloitte & Touche in Cleveland, OH. Before his appointment at Mace, Weisbarth served in executive roles across a diverse range of publicly traded companies. He helped build the financial strength of OfficeMax, LESCO, Cardinal and other leading Northeast Ohio enterprises.

Mike holds a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, Accounting, from Bowling Green State University

About Mace Security International, Inc.

Mace Security International Inc. is a globally recognized leader in personal safety products. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the Company has spent more than 30 years designing and manufacturing consumer and tactical products for personal defense and security under its world-renowned Mace Brand - the original trusted brand of pepper spray products. The Company's other leading brands include Tornado Brand stun guns and pepper spray, and Vigilant Brand personal alarms. The Company also offers aerosol defense sprays for law enforcement and security professionals worldwide through its Take Down Brand.

Mace Security International distributes and supports its products and services through mass-market retailers, wholesale distributors, independent dealers, e-commerce channels and through its website, www.Mace.com. For more information, please visit www.mace.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements and information included in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Federal Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words or phrases "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimate," "projected," "intend to" or similar expressions are intended to identify "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks, known and unknown, and uncertainties, including but not limited to economic conditions, dependence on management, our ability to compete with competitors, dilution to shareholders, and limited capital resources.

CONTACT:

Gary Medved

President and Chief Executive Officer

gmedved@mace.com

SOURCE: MACE SECURITY INTERNATIONAL INC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627215/Mace-Appoints-Michael-Weisbarth-to-Chief-Financial-Officer
Ministry to address elderly benefit flaws

THAILAND: The Interior Ministry is considering regulatory amendments to address flaws in benefits for the elderly.



By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 2 February 2021, 10:39AM

Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said the ministry has asked all 7,850 local administrative organisations nationwide to avoid causing more problems to the elderly while it finds solutions. Photo: Bangkok Post.

According to Thai law, the elderly are supposed to receive monthly living allowances. However, those already receiving pensions are not qualified to receive additional allowances.

Last month, the media reported that an 89-year-old woman in Buri Ram was told to return B84,000 of her allowances after it was discovered that she had already received special pension payments following the death of her army officer son.

Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda yesterday (Feb 1) said the ministry is considering requesting amendments be made to regulations to address the issue of the elderly receiving multiple welfare packages.

Gen Anupong is expected to reveal his plan after the ministry has concluded its investigation into the matter.

He said the ministry has asked all 7,850 local administrative organisations nationwide to avoid causing more problems to the elderly while it finds solutions.

Gen Anupong suggested that local organisations negotiate with the elderly or delay the process of collection.

Concerned government agencies have reportedly agreed to delay the process for some people, such as those who are very old and bedridden, and those with children that have served the country.

Others who have received a lot of pension money but still accepted the allowance might be handled differently, he said.

However, the minister said it was still unclear how to halt legal proceedings against those already facing legal action from the government.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said he agrees with the idea to allow the elderly to keep their allowances, but suggested intention must also be taken into account when judging who should return the money.

The deputy premier insisted that the elderly will not go to jail since these are civil cases.

Early this month, reports began emerging of the Comptroller Generals Department asking elderly citizens to return allowances they had not been qualified to receive.

Among them were widows, parents of deceased state officials, police officers and soldiers.

The Lawyers Council of Thailand has urged provincial lawyer councils to assist the elderly in returning their living allowances, noting it is believed they did not intend to cheat the system.
One of Britain's first single dads by surrogate has praised the 'incredibly selfless women' who helped him become a father to six-month-old son Miles.

Teacher David Watkins, 42, from Southampton, is one of the first single men in the UK to have a surrogate baby after a law change in January 2019, welcoming Miles into the world on July 19 2020.

Appearing on Lorraine today, he hailed his son a 'miracle' and said that his surrogate Faye Spreadbury, 37, from Leicester, will very much remain part of his son's life in the future.

Mother-of-two Faye volunteered to carry a child for David, using his sperm and the eggs of an anonymous donor, after the pair met at a social event in July 2019 and 'instantly clicked'.

Teacher David Watkins, 42, from Southampton, is one of the first single men in the UK to have a surrogate baby after a law change in January 2019. Pictured, David with six-month-old son Miles

He met Faye Spreadbury, 37, from Leicester, East Midlands, at a social event. Faye, who is a mother-of-two, reached out to David and eventually became his surrogate

'He's the light of my life really,' said David of his son, 'I'm so incredibly lucky, he's a miracle. I'm so blessed, he's such a smiley happy boy'.

Previously, only couples were able to apply for a parental order, which transfers parentage from the surrogate to the intended parents after the baby is born.

This meant that single parents were unable to get a parental order and, theoretically, the surrogate could reclaim the child at any time.

Fortunately for David, the law changed in 2019 to allow single parents to also apply for the order to become the child's legal parent.

David chose an anonymous egg donor who had similar characteristics to himself such as Caucasian background and blue eyes

Appearing on Lorraine today, he hailed his son a 'miracle' and praised the 'incredibly selfless women' who helped him become a father

Speaking of his decision to become a single parent, David went on: 'I was always very happy being single. I had relationships over the years, but it just didn't work out that way in the end.

'But I moved into a place where I was absolutely fine being a single dad and I celebrate that, I wouldn't have it any other way now.'

David admitted that he 'never thought he would get here' and thanked both Faye and the anonymous donor for helping him to become a father.

David admitted that he 'never thought he would get here' and thanked both Faye and his anonymous donor. David is pictured holding his now six-month-old son Miles

David and Faye kept in regular contact and visited one another's hometowns during the pregnancy

How has the law for single parents by surrogate changed? When a baby is born by surrogate parental rights do not immediately transfer to the intended parents. Instead, the parents have to apply for a parental order which transfers rights from the surrogate mother to them. This process can take several months and can only begin after a child is born. Previously, only couples could apply for a parental order. This meant that single parents by surrogacy could theoretically see their child or children taken back by the surrogate at any time. In 2016, the government conceded that the law discriminated against single parents when the president of the family division of the court declared it incompatible with human rights legislation In 2019, the law changed to allow single parents to apply for a parental order. The Human Fertilisation & Embryology Act 2008 (Remedial) Order 2018 came into force in January 2019. Advertisement

'I was helped by two incredibly selfless women,' said David. 'Faye who was my surrogate and an anonymous egg donor'.

After three months of getting to know one another, Faye and David began the embryo transfer process in October 2019.

David had four embryos 'ready and waiting' at CRGH fertility clinic in London. A pregnancy test revealed Faye was carrying David's child in November 2019.

When asked whether he's received any criticism about is choice, David said: 'Any time we create our own families we do it on a sort of selection basis.

'When people get together on their first date with a lifetime ahead they are making selections about what that person looks like; do they find them attractive? Do they want to go on a second date?

'Nothing is ever random I don't think. I was able to choose very basic characteristics I was looking for.'

David chose an anonymous egg donor who had similar characteristics to himself such as Caucasian background and blue eyes.

'It was really important I had a biological connection to Miles that was something I wanted to do.

Surrogate Faye Spreadbury, 37 (centre), with David Watkins (right) and her husband Lee (left) at the 20 week scan

He added later: 'At the end of the day it doesn't really matter what Miles ends up looking like, whether he looks like me or the egg donor.

'But at that time I felt it was important I had a physical connection to him so I chose things that were similar, hair colour skin colour, similar height'.

David added that he's had 'loads of support' from his friends and family, and that he couldn't be happier with his decision and has a 'calm and loving home' with his son.

As for whether David will be expanding his brood in the future, he said: 'Potentially, I'm not sure, being a single parent is tough. It's been very overwhelming at times.

'If I could do it all again, I don't think its feasible at the moment, but never say never! I always wanted an army of kids so we'll have to reassess in a couple of years time.'
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Cities have become critical players in reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are causing global climate change. Urban areas produce almost 70 percent of those emissions, and city governments are proposing a variety of policy actions aimed at reducing them. Many cities also produce inventories that detail their greenhouse gas emissions.

Now, professor Kevin Gurney of Northern Arizona University's School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems and colleagues have compared the self-reported emissions inventories published by 48 major U.S. cities to estimates from a state-of-the-art emissions information system. As described in Nature Communications, Gurney and his research collaborators found large differences and a systematic under-reporting of urban emissions by cities.

Gurney, who specializes in atmospheric science, ecology and climate policy, has spent the past two decades developing a standardized system for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions under his Vulcan and Hestia Projects. The system, funded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), quantifies and visualizes greenhouse gases emitted across the entire country down to individual power plants, neighborhoods and roadways.

The emissions estimates generated by the system help identify problem areas and enable better decisions about where to cut emissions most effectively. Two recent studies, at the nationwide level (link) and within the city of Indianapolis, IN (link), have shown that Gurney's estimates are consistent with estimates based on direct atmospheric monitoring, a key independent form of independent validation.

Climate change policies in cities are rapidly progressing, and cities often rely on their self-reported inventories when developing their policies, Gurney compared 48 of these self-reported inventories from U.S. cities to emissions estimated by his Vulcan information system. The cities in the study included New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver and Philadelphia.

"The results of this comparison were surprising," Gurney said. "The differences were large and varied widely from one city to the next. When averaged, the self-reported emissions were almost 20 percent below the emissions estimated by the Vulcan system." But that average doesn't tell the whole story: for example, Cleveland, Ohio reported emissions 90.1 percent below the Vulcan estimate while Palo Alto, Calif., reported emissions 41.7 percent greater than the Vulcan estimate.

Graph shows differences between U.S. cities' estimates of their greenhouse gas emissions as compared to estimates generated through the standardized Vulcan emissions system. Credit: Northern Arizona University

In order to prioritize and track emission reductions, cities will need an unbiased understanding of their emissions."The adage 'you can't manage what you can't measure' is really applicable here," Gurney said. "Cities need a comprehensive and accurate assessment of their emissions. Without it, they could target the wrong emissions sources in their landscape for emission reduction or think they are on an emissions trajectory to meet their target, when in fact, they are not."

For example, the city of Indianapolis aims to make a 20 percent reduction in GHG emissions from buildings by 2025 relative to 2016 values. With the 26.9 percent underestimate found in the study, it will be difficult to track progress towards this target or know when and if it has been achieved.

"Consistency in estimating emissions from one city to the next is also critical to comparing and contrasting different mitigation approaches and policies," said Gurney. "This allows cities to borrow emission mitigation policies from others with similar emission characteristics. The inconsistencies in self-reported inventories make that very difficult."

The approach taken by the research team uses a consistent method across all cities in the U.S., combining federal, state, and local data systematically.

"It is expensive and time-consuming for cities to build accurate urban greenhouse gas inventories," said Geoffrey Roest, an NAU postdoctoral researcher and co-author of the study. "But we have emissions data for every city in the U.S., and we can collaborate with cities to help them produce comprehensive, accurate inventories from that data."The research team found that the differences between the self-reported inventories and the Vulcan estimates were likely due to cities' not accounting for particular fuels or sectors where local information was limited or difficult to come by.

"Vulcan data can be adapted to meet the needs of different cities by incorporating local data" said Yang Song, an NAU postdoctoral researcher and co-author on the study. "This will help cities identify the most effective strategies towards true and lasting emission reductions backed by the best science."

Explore further Scientist maps carbon dioxide emissions for entire US to improve environmental policy-making

More information: Gurney, K.R., Liang, J., Roest, G. et al. Under-reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities. Nat Commun 12, 553 (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Gurney, K.R., Liang, J., Roest, G. et al. Under-reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities.12, 553 (2021). doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20871-0

More than 90 people told the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors and staff that more must be done to address racism and inequalities in 
The collapse occurred on the northern end of the buildings west wall, Ald. James Cappleman, 46th, said. Snow caused part of the roof parapet to collapse, which also damaged the fire escape below it. Cappleman reached out to owners of the building but had not heard back yet by Tuesday afternoon, so he was unsure if the damages were structural or cosmetic.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Tuesday 56.13 per cent of those covered under the latest serological survey in the city in January have developed antibodies against coronavirus. The minister also said Delhi was "moving towards herd immunity, but only experts will be able to give a clear picture".

The fifth sero survey  the largest in the country so far  was conducted from January 15 to January 23, he said. At 62.18 percent, Southwest Delhi district reported maximum seroprevalence. North Delhi at 49.09 percent recorded the lowest, Jain said.

RELATED NEWS Herd Immunity Appears Unlikely for COVID-19, but CDC Says Vaccinated People Can Ditch Masks in Most Settings

"A new, better technology was used during the survey. Samples were collected from every ward. In all, 28,000 samples were taken," a senior official said. The minister said the number of cases, fatalities and hospital admissions have declined significantly, but insisted that people should continue use masks for a few more months and maintain "COVID-19-approriate behavior".

Jain said three major changes were incorporated during the latest survey. "We increased the sample size. Samples were collected on the basis of socio-economic conditions. A new, more sensitive kit was used and the testing was conducted at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences," he said.

The minister also informed that frontline workers will start getting COVID-19 vaccine jabs this week. Nearly six lakh frontline workers, including government school teachers, MCD employees, police personnel, ASHA and ANM workers, are expected to be administered the vaccine.

The findings are helpful to assess the rate of spread of the disease but need to be taken with caveats, said immunologist Satish Devadas. "Even if the sample size is relatively small, it must be taken to account. However, the conclusions on herd immunity have to be taken with a pinch of salt," Devadas, a scientist with the Institute of Life Sciences in Odisha, told PTI.

Other scientists also advise abundant caution. Though the results suggest the possibility that herd immunity may break the chain of COVID-19 transmission and the findings are insightful to get an idea of the community spread of the coronavirus in the city, several experts said the dangers may be far from over.

The number of daily reported COVID-19 cases has been on a steady decline since the city's highest single-day spike of 8,593 cases on November 11. On Monday, the city reported 121 fresh cases and three deaths, the lowest in 10 months. Herd immunity occurs when a significantly large number of people ina community become immune to a contagious disease after recovering from infection, thereby curbing its spread across the population.

Experts noted that it is not known what the number of recovered individuals need to be in a community to break the chain of viral transmission with herd immunity. "Our best bet is still in the 60-70 per cent range but this is based on theory, and not on specific information we have about duration of immune protection following infection," epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan said.

Laxminarayan, founder and director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) in the US, said many pockets within urban India may have already reached this threshold. However, it remains unclear if even herd immunity with a 60-70 per cent seropositivity in a population could still prevent a subsequent wave of COVID-19.

Scientists cited the example of the Brazilian city of Manaus, where immunity against the infection may have begun to wane already. A study of blood donors in the city, published in the journal Science, indicated that about 76 per cent of the population may have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 by October 2020 -- an infection rate that would have been above the theoretical herd immunity threshold. Coinciding with this, COVID-19 hospitalisations in the city peaked in late April and also remained stable and "fairly low" from May to November, noted a commentary published in The Lancet journal on Thursday.

While some experts noted that this may have been due to the population attaining herd immunity, the scientists, including those from Universidade de Sao Paulo in Brazil, said a sudden abrupt increase in the number of COVID-19 hospital admissions in Manaus this month has been unexpected and a "cause for concern". One of the reasons cited by the scientists in the commentary was that immunity against infection observed in the Manaus population might have begun to wane by December 2020 after initial exposure to the coronavirus. The scientists also highlighted the possibility of new lineages of the coronavirus driving a resurgence of cases in places with high seropositivity if these virus variants have increased transmissibility compared with pre-existing circulating strains.

"If resurgence in Manaus is due to waning of protective immunity, then similar resurgence scenarios should be expected in other locations," the scientists wrote in the commentary. Immunologist Satyajit Rath believes there is a possibility of a similar situation in cities across the world, including Delhi.

"High rates of infection and seropositivity in the large Brazilian city of Manaus initially seemed to indicate effective 'herd immunity', but then case numbers began going up again in Manaus," said Rath, who is affiliated with New Delhi's National Institute of Immunology. "There is some indication that this may be accompanied by declining seropositivity because antibody responses may not be well sustained over time in all affected people. That would make them re-susceptible," he added.

Rath said the infection and seropositivity patterns in the population are extremely variable for the novel coronavirus, and "a hundred samples per municipal ward in Delhi may not have captured this variation and may therefore be overestimating overall seropositivity". "Post lockdown the restrictions on movement have decreased and hence communities cannot remain in isolation. Thus a general comment about herd immunity or community immunity is unrealistic at this juncture," added immunologist Vineeta Bal, affiliated with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Recent studies, including those from Rockefeller University in the US, have indicated that a declining count of antibodies in recovered individuals may still not suggest a risk of reinfection.

Michel C Nussenzweig, lead authors of one of these studies, noted that instead of the body producing antibodies all the time after recovering from the virus, the immune system creates memory B cells which recognise the coronavirus, and quickly unleash a new round of antibodies when they encounter it a second time. This study, published in the journal Nature, also noted that residual viral particles hiding within gut tissues could be driving the evolution of memory B cells in a way that may potentially train it to tackle emerging variants of the virus.

With reliable estimates not available on the percentage of people that need to be immune-protected in order to halt the spread of the virus definitively, Rath said vaccination may be the way forward. Bal agreed.

Since the number of vaccine doses currently available in the country is limited, and with the immunisation drive progressing very slowly, she believes the seroprevalence data does not provide any useful information for vaccination. Research has also shown that recovered and vaccinated individuals may also not completely break the transmission of the virus.

Experts, including Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to US President Joe Biden, haveadvised vaccinated and recovered individuals to continue wearing masks.
13:20 | Lima, Feb. 2.

The government agency affirmed that each traveler who comes from overseas must comply with a 14-day quarantine





However, this mandatory isolation period can be reduced to 6 days if the traveler proves not to be infected with coronavirus and receives an epidemiological discharge.





Before this mechanism was implemented, sending an e-mail to said ministry attaching the document issued by a molecular laboratory was necessary to confirm a negative result from the COVID-19 detection test, as well as awaiting a response from the State-run agency.





Now, the epidemiological discharge document will be generated and sent automatically to the e-mail address provided by users at the laboratory where the test was conducted in case the result is negative.





Minsa reminded citizens that it will be the strict responsibility of each traveler to sign up at the laboratory where the test is conducted.





The information must include the same data registered in the Health Affidavit of the Migratory Control System. Otherwise, it will not be possible to validate the molecular test results.
Dr. Emil Freireich, a maverick doctor who invented the first effective treatments for childhood leukemia, made strides that revolutionized cancer care and became a pillar of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, died Monday. He was 93.

Defying the status quo throughout his career, Freireich was one of the first modern clinical cancer researchers in the world and spent 50 years at MD Anderson. The doctors early experiences with personal loss and his deep passion for saving lives drove him to innovate. He died in the care of the hospital where he spent his career and inspired countless students. The hospital and his family declined to disclose his cause of death.

He was truly a great humanitarian, said the doctors daughter, Debbie Freireich-Bier. He had a firm belief in hope.

That hope, to help children battling cancer, would lead to groundbreaking but controversial treatments that today has saved thousands of lives. Despite criticism and obstacles from the medical establishment at the time, Freireich made advances that proved for the first time that cancer could be cured.

The doctor came into medicine when the field of cancer research did not yet exist. He began his work in 1955 at the fledgling National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., the first of its kind in the world. He was assigned to work in the leukemia ward on his first day.

Before entering medicine, Freireich lost someone close to him to cancer; a girlfriend from his youth died of acute leukemia.

At that time, leukemia was a death sentence, Freireich said in previous interviews, and most children diagnosed with the disease died within four weeks.

You cannot imagine how horrible it was, Freireich told the Chronicle in 2015. These were 3-, 4-, 5-year-old kids bleeding to death, bleeding out of their ears, eyes, nose, skin and bowels, bleeding internally, vomiting blood. It was a parents greatest horror.

The physicians priority became to stop the continuous bleeding, a hallmark of leukemia. He correctly theorized it was caused by insufficient platelets, discs in blood that are necessary for clotting. Freireich also realized that the blood children had been getting from blood banks was too old to contain the platelets needed to stop the bleeding.

The doctor invented and patented the first continuous-flow blood cell separating machine, which allowed platelets and white blood cells to be extracted from the blood of donors and then transfused to leukemia patients.

In the late 1950s Freireich and a team of researchers began investigating the idea of combination chemotherapy treatment for childhood leukemia patients. The method, which involves using a combination of drugs, had been successful in curing tuberculosis.

The team began a series of trials and eventually began administering four types of highly toxic drugs to patients in 1961.

At the time people said what he was doing was criminal and that those children should be left alone to die with dignity, said Dr. Hagop Kantarjian, chair of the leukemia department at MD Anderson.

People were critical because what Freireich did was unlike anything that had been done before, said Dr. Jordan Gutterman, professor of leukemia at MD Anderson.

Most new great ideas, when initially presented in medicine and science, commonly are considered to be crazy because they are different, said Gutterman.

Freireich didnt care what other people thought of him and the criticism never gave him pause, Gutterman said.

Because of Dr. Freireichs vision and personality, he was able to push through and create new opportunities in cancer treatment, said Kantarjian.

Despite backlash, the treatment trial worked, resulting in a 90 percent remission rate in the patients. Now, the survival rate for acute lymphocytic leukemia in children is still 90 percent overall, according to the American Cancer society.

In 1965, Freireich and his research partner Emil Tom Frei III were asked to launch a chemotherapy program at MD Anderson, which became the Department of Developmental Therapeutics. During that time, the department developed drug combinations to cure various kinds of cancer based on the combined chemotherapy research in leukemia patients.

The physicians and researchers who were recruited to the department became the first of a new generation of oncologists and hematologists who went on to develop more treatments for many types of cancer.

Freireich continued researching and teaching full time at MD Anderson until 2015. But even after he announced his retirement, the doctor never really stopped working in the medical center. He continued to teach part time until the pandemic made it too risky for Freireich to go into work. But even after that, Freireich would still sit in virtually on the centers most important meetings, said Kantarjian.

Above all else, Freireich was committed to saving lives and never giving up when options are limited.

His whole issue was giving life and maintaining life, said Gutterman. He would get really upset if a doctor said they didnt think there was anything more they could do for a patient. That was the worst thing you could say in front of him.

Caring for patients with humanity was deeply important to Freireich, his daughter said.

He spent hours and hours with patients and their families, she said. He cared about the comfort of the patient.

In his work, the doctor witnessed a lot of death, suffering and trauma. But he always maintained hope, said Freireich-Bier.

He believed that any contribution a patient made to helping discover something new was valuable, she said. When patients died, it wasnt in vain. That life had meaning will possibly help save other lives.

Freireich had learned to cope with loss at an early age. Born to Hungarian immigrants in 1927, he grew up poor in inner-city Chicago during the Great Depression. His father died, presumably by suicide after the 1929 stockmarket crash when Freireich was 2. He hardly saw his mother, who worked in a sweatshop 18 hours a day everyday to support the family. The boy considered an Irish maid who cared for him to be his surrogate mother.

At 16, Freireich was encouraged by a teacher to apply to the University of Illinois. The teen was accepted and paid for his education waiting tables and doing odd jobs. He received his medical degree from the universitys College of Medicine at 22.

Freireich interned and held residency at two Chicago hospitals before he accepted a fellowship in hematology at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital in Boston. There, he published a study on anemia and met his wife, Haroldine Cunningham, who was a nurse at the hospital.

The researchers journey from poverty to becoming a world-renown celebrity in the cancer research community was chronicled by author Malcolm Gladwell, in the 2013 book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. Freireich was the David in the story, an underdog who had the will to push himself to achieve what some thought was impossible.

Freireich contributed to more than 600 scientific papers and more than 100 books. He was recognized with many honors for his work, including the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award. MD Anderson created the Emil J. Freireich Award for Excellence in Education in his honor, a nod to his work instituting teaching programs for graduate students to drive progress in research.

Freireich is survived by his wife, Haroldine, four children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held virtually. In lieu of flowers, his family asks for donations to MD Anderson.

Anna Bauman contributed to this story.

hannah.dellinger@chron.com
MPV

kW

Developed by Kraton Corporation, a Houston-based global manufacturer of specialty polymers and high-value biobased products, the IMSS technology uses ultra-high flow thermoplastic elastomers. Part of the Hydrogenated Styrenic Block Copolymers (HSBC) family, those are used to produce lightweight, ultra-thin leather-like materials for the automotive industry.Unlike conventional PVC soft skins, these HSBC-based materials allow injection molding, making them easy to apply on various interior panels. They contain no added plasticizer, phthalates, or cross-linking agents and give off less odor than conventional soft skins.Producing various interior panels using this technology can help automotive interior manufacturers sidestep the expensive, labor-intensive, and energy-consuming slush molding process. That's because the injection molding equipment offers higher efficiency, is cheaper to maintain, and consumes less electrical energy.The process of creating an IMSS skin by injection molding can take 20% less time than manufacturing a PVC soft skin of similar size using the conventional slush process. Injection-molding tools also offer a longer lifespan than electroformed slush molds.Since the early development stages, the IMSS technology has undergone rigorous material and part testing. Kraton representatives state that the soft skins achieved excellent results, which led them to search for suitable partners to use them on mass-produced vehicles.Kratons first major client is SAIC-GM, a joint venture between General Motors Company and SAIC Motor Corporation Limited that manufactures and sells Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac brand vehicles in mainland China.This collaboration made the upgraded Buick GL6 the first mass-produced vehicle to feature Kratons revolutionary IMSS technology for its instrument panel.The IMSS compound for this project is supplied by Chinas Dawn New Materials Co. Ltd, which developed it working in close cooperation with Kraton. The company states that it has also established technology transfer licenses with other worldwide premier compounders so that this technology becomes available to an increasing number of carmakers.For those who are curious about the GL6, theis based on a modified version of GMs Delta II architecture and is only available in mainland China in three different trims.The highlight of the range is the six-seat model, which comes with a 1.3-liter turbocharged straight three along with a standard 48V mild-hybrid system for a combined maximum output of 161 hp (120).Kratons innovative IMSS-made instrument panel is part of an extensive interior redesign. Judging by the available images, its not quite on par in terms of luxury with the cabins Buick delivers on its U.S.-based models . Still, it does feature two 10.25-inch LED displays that serve as a digital instrument cluster and central infotainment screen.The GL6 also uses Buicks V2X technology that enables vehicles to communicate with one another and the surrounding infrastructure by sending and receiving basic information such as location, speed, braking status, and directions. SAIC-GM states that it will enhance the efficiency of advanced safety features.Although this technology is nothing new for other markets, Kratons potentially revolutionary IMSS technology is something that we look forward to seeing in the U.S. and Europe.
If you havent been in the shoes of the person you are working with, you are more likely to be biased. Clinicians may believe we know what our patient needs, and screen and refer her. Thats neither effective nor trustworthy. CHWs change this dynamic.

In rural Tennessee, a CHW might work at a faith-based organization. He will meet somebody at a church, food pantry or local hospital. Hell take an hour to get to know that personto learn where he was born, what happened in his life, what challenges he faces, his successes, and how he wants to improve his life and health. There is some shared life experience. CHWs always reflect back to the person and ask: What do you want to do about that? Then they create a step-by-step plan together. It might include battling an eviction notice, organizing a virtual funeral for someone who died of COVID, or going together to a doctor's appointment.

What role are community health workers playing in the pandemic and what role should they be playing?

COVID disparities are a symptom of an underlying pandemic of injustice that has persisted through history. Headlines have shown that Black and Brown people are disproportionately dying of COVID. Millions of Americans are going hungry in a new Great Depression while others are getting rich. Ultimately this all stems from the same problem: the trajectory of health inequities.

Thats why CHWs are an incredibly valuable workforce. They dont just address symptoms or disease; they go straight to the root and identify solutions. We had a pandemic of racial and economic injustice long before COVID. So we need more than a vaccine. The hardest thing is to address the full range of social determinants of health but its the only way to advance health equity.

Can community health workers help overcome reluctance or resistance to vaccination?

As a public health scientist myself, I want to help people get better and vaccination is critical. CHWs can help with access and information, but they are trusted because they are trustworthy. Being trustworthy means not having an agenda and just offering help. Its incumbent on us in public health to communicate the good science we have done in a very accessible way so people can make their own decisions about whether or not they want to take the vaccine.

What gives you hope right now?

On the policy front, I think this is our moment. This work began as grassroots and it still is. CHWs are meeting people on their porches and at their bedsides, asking them how we should build this workforce. Community-engaged scientists are doing strong randomized trials that not only demonstrate that CHWs can be effective, but also how. Were working with the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to translate that science into standards for the CHW workforce. So I think we're ready for scale.

There are approximately 50,000 CHWs in the county. Thats not nearly enough. President Bidens proposal to create jobs for 150,000 CHWs would get us a lot closer to where we need to be. We helped inform the Biden proposal. We worked with bipartisan lawmakers on proposals to pay CHWs for the full range of work they do. Weve had great conversations with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) about allowing Medicaid to fund the full range of supports CHWs provide. Thats the most momentum weve seen in this field. That gives me great hope.

Learn about how another RWJF Award for Health Equity winner is leading efforts to support mental health in communities of color during the pandemic.

About the Author


Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Minister-designate for the Information Ministry, has clarified aspects of the reintroduction of a ban on social gatherings as announced by President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, last Sunday.



Among other things, the president announced that weddings have been banned until further notice while asking for churches to still run but strictly stick to two-hour services, contrasting the fact that weddings are mostly held in churches.



But, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah stated that what has been banned are social activities such as parties and/or receptions associated with occasions such as funerals and marriage ceremonies.



By that, he said that marriage ceremonies, which are held in churches, and mosques, under the adherence of strict COVID-19 protocols can still go on.



The president did not ban burial service because the activity of burial, we actually encourage to go on What is banned is the funeral where typically in the Ghanaian community we will all gather, shake hands, announcement of people, then theyll call for a song, people will come and dance, where there is a little party associated with it. That is what has been banned, he explained.



The president did not say that marriages are banned. In the same way, when it comes to marriage, what the president has said is that, what in Ghana we call wedding, the full-blown wedding where we have a big party with a reception and people dancing and people eating, sitting at reception tables, etc, that is what has been banned, he added.



Weve got a lot of requests about so what if somebody is having a church service, which is allowed, and they choose to bless their marriage there as part of the church service. Im not sure that is what has been banned. Its the wedding. The full-blown wedding with its reception and social activity associated with it is what has been banned, Mr Oppong-Nkrumah explained further.



He made this known during the Tuesday, February 2, 2021, presser on governments response to COVID-19, in the country.



Case update



The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye noted that as at January 30, 2021, Ghana had recorded 5,515 active cases, 424 deaths and 61,843 discharges or clinical recoveries.



He also noted that the Greater Accra Region accounted for 56.7 percent of total cases, while the Ashanti and Western Regions accounted for 16.0 and 6.1 percent of cases respectively.



He added that 294 persons who had tested positive for COVID-19 were on admission, with 34 being critical, 122 being severe and 138 being mild to moderate cases.

















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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Coronavirus vaccines could be tweaked to spark immunity against new variants in just three weeks, a top scientist has said.

Professor Robin Shattock, an Imperial College London scientist who is working on booster shots, said experts could rapidly adapt the current crop of jabs, allowing them to be rolled out within a couple of months.

He added antibodies triggered by jabs based on the old virus would still be effective at preventing serious illness, should someone catch a new variant.

Professor Shattock was leading trials of a Covid-19 vaccine but abandoned them last month because other jabs were already approved and being rolled out.

Scientists fear new variants  which can contain dozens of potentially dangerous mutations  may be able to dodge vaccine-triggered immunity, and possibly cause re-infection or serious illness.

No10's top experts are most concerned about the South African variant  which has sparked a door-to-door testing blitz across England  and a Brazilian strain which have sparked international alarm.

And today fears were raised over the Kent variant that is widespread across the UK after it emerged it may be evolving to include a key mutation that may make it better able to resist immunity.

Professor Robin Shattock, who is working on booster shots to fight the new variants, said tweaked jabs could be in the arms of patients within three months

Covid-19 variants across the world have sparked concern that the virus may be able to dodge jab-triggered immunity

Professor Shattock said scientists are already working worldwide to make booster shots to protect against new variants.

'(It's) quite a fast process  we can go from seeing these changes to making a new vaccine in the laboratory in a period of about three weeks,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.

FAMILIES TOLD TO STAY HOME IN HUNT FOR SOUTH AFRICAN VARIANT Families living in areas undergoing mass testing to try to weed out cases of the South African Covid variant have been told to 'think twice' about going out food shopping and to stay at home if they possibly can. And the frantic door-to-door testing blitz may not stop the variant spreading because the 11 cases announced yesterday are just the 'tip of the iceberg', according to leading scientists. None of the infected patients had travelled to South Africa, suggesting the strain could already spreading in the community. The Government announced yesterday that it would aim to swab 80,000 people as quickly as possible in eight areas of England where cases of the variant have been discovered, to stop it from spreading further. Experts fear the strain may be able to evade immunity given by vaccines or increase the risk of people getting Covid for a second time. People will not be told whether they are carrying the South African variant because this cannot be seen in a routine test, but the plan intends to find positive cases among people without symptoms in a bid to isolate them before they can infect others. And officials have urged people living in those areas  in specific parts of London, Surrey, Midlands, Kent, Hertfordshire, Merseyside and Lancashire  to be extremely strict about lockdown rules. Tory MP and universities minister Michelle Donelan said: 'Think again before you go about activities, even those within the rules such as essential shopping. Do you really need to go for that shopping or have you got enough in?' But experts are sceptical about the testing scheme and say there are far more than 11 people infected with the strain already and that testing will slow it down, at best. Advertisement

'We can we can make these vaccines in the lab in a three-week process but then to actually get them manufactured, that would take two to three months to get to the manufacturing stage and into the clinic  thats still quite fast.

'And we need to remember that more changes may occur but these vaccines wont go from working well to not working at all.

'So a three-month period to provide an update and develop a boosting strategy is quite effective.'

He said Britons may need to have annual booster Covid jabs to protect against new variants of the disease as they appear.

Scientists at Imperial and Oxford University are already working on updated jabs to fight off the new variants.

Imperial College London declared it was shelving large scale trials of its Covid-19 vaccine last week to allow scientists to focus on booster shots.

They said although early results of their own jab were 'promising', the fact Oxford, Pfizer and Moderna beat them to the punch meant it was no longer worth pursuing.

Imperial said it will use brand new saRNA technology to help make current vaccines better at targeting antibody-resistant strains, including the ones that first emerged in Brazil and South Africa that are causing international alarm.

SaRNA - or 'self-amplifying RNA' - are tiny pieces of genetic material that deliver instructions to human cells, in this case training them how to fight Covid-19.

The British Government has pumped millions into developing the technology, and had secured early access to doses if trials had proven successful.

The candidate vaccine was tested on over 400 volunteers in phase I and II clinical trials, but results from these studies are yet to be published.

Professor Shattock said: 'Although our first generation Covid-19 vaccine candidate is showing promise in early clinical development, the broader situation has changed with the rapid roll out of approved vaccines.

'It is not the right time to start a new efficacy trial for a further vaccine in the UK, with the emphasis rightly placed on mass vaccination in response to the rapid spread of the new variant.

We want our technology to have the greatest impact. That means developing self-amplifying RNA technology to adapt to new variants, to boost other vaccines and to be deployed against future pandemic threats.'

It comes after fears were sparked after evidence emerged the Kent variant of the virus - which studies showed was susceptible to antibodies - had mutated again in what scientists had dubbed as a 'worrying development'.

One of the key mutations on the South African and Brazilian variants appear to make the virus more able to resist immunity that has been developed by past infection or from the current vaccines.

And this mutation has now been found at least 11 times in different cases of people infected with the Kent variant, Public Health England revealed, raising fears it could become a permanent feature of the British strain.

A Public Health England report yesterday revealed that the E484K coronavirus mutation, a key difference found in the South African variant, had been found in 11 cases of the Kent strain of the virus (B1.1.7). It said there had been 'more than one acquisition event', meaning the virus had mutated separately in multiple different people at random

Mutations on the spike protein can allow the virus to dodge jab-triggered immunity

Both the Kent and South African variants already share one mutation, named N501Y, which makes the virus spread faster. And if this mutation, named E484K, sticks around as well the variants could become extremely similar.

E484K has been concerning scientists because it changes the shape of the virus's outer spike protein in a way that makes it difficult for the body to recognise it if it is only used to looking for older versions of the virus without the mutation.

This could raise the risk of reinfection or reduce how well vaccines work  but top Government advisers insist jabs should still be effective.

SAGE adviser Professor Calum Semple suggested today that the risk of the Kent variant  and other versions of the virus  continuing to evolve was 'inevitable' and 'will occur in time', and this mutation would likely be part of that.

Speaking about the threat, Professor Ravi Gupta, an infectious diseases expert at Cambridge University, said: 'The number of sequences is low at present, though enhanced surveillance is being undertaken by PHE. There may be more cases out there given how high transmission has been. We need to continue vaccinating and drive down transmission.'
Former President Donald J. Trump lost ground with every age group in the 2020 election compared to his performance in 2016, but he had his greatest erosion with white voters, particularly white men, according to an analysis by one of his campaign pollsters.

The 27-page report, by the Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio, focused on what he called 10 key target states. Five of them  Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin  all flipped to President Biden after supporting Mr. Trump in 2016. Another five  Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas  were held by Mr. Trump in both 2020 and 2016.

Mr. Fabrizio, who analyzed National Election Pool and Associated Press exit polls, also found that the bulk of independent voters broke for Mr. Biden. The analysis was first reported by Politico.

Mr. Trumps handling of the coronavirus played a key role in why voters did not back him, Mr. Fabrizio found. The pollster and Mr. Trumps former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, had urged Mr. Trump to take the virus more seriously earlier in 2020, and Mr. Fabrizio had pushed Mr. Trump to support some form of a national mask mandate. But Mr. Trump rejected the idea.
Police have arrested four 'violent' robbers on the Costa del Sol after a high-speed chase in which the criminals allegedly tried to run over police officers, who had attempted to cut off their escape.

In the end, they were captured and, as a result the gang of thieves who attacked four houses on the Costa del Sol is considered disbanded by the police.

The arrests took place on the 11 January, when National Police officers  from the Malaga and the Velez-Malaga robbery investigation branches - detected the four suspects in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol. All of them are of Chilean nationality.

When they were discovered, one of them fled on foot but was captured after a 200-metre chase. The rest fled in a vehicle and a high-speed pursuit followed when it is alleged they almost ran over some officers as they tried to get away.

Eventually they were stopped in Torremolinos, where a National Police roadblock cut them off and arrested the other three alleged members of the gang.

Sources say that the alleged leader of the gang has three arrest warrants against his name, two issued in Barcelona and one from the German authorities for crimes against property. SUR has also discovered that he has a record in Chile for murder, kidnapping and bank robberies, among others.

The four men arrested now face charges of robbery with force, belonging to a criminal organisation, reckless driving and falsification of documents.
Former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong is full of praise for General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, for what she considers to be an outstanding performance exhibited under cross-examination in the ongoing Presidential election petition before the Supreme Court.



Monday's court hearing saw Mr. Asiedu Nketia, popularly called General Mosquito, being cross-examined by Lawyer Akoto Ampaw, lead counsel for the 2nd Respondent, President Nana Akufo-Addo.



The witness was shown video clips of himself and other leading members of the NDC making declarations that sought to project the petitioner, John Dramani Mahama as winner of the 2020 Presidential elections.



For well over six hours, General Mosquito was subjected to a barrage of questions from Lawyer Akoto Ampaw; and the opposition party considers his performance as sterling.



Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, a Spokesperson for the petitioner, after the court hearing, was effusive in her praise for the witness saying "we are extremely satisfied with the testimony given by our General Secretary today. In fact, nothing that he has said undermines our case. Indeed, everything he said goes to point to the fact that we're entitled to the declarations that we're seeking...So today, we're happy with the cross-examination of the General. We're happy with the results and we think that our case was made clearly in the court today''.



On the issue of the videos played in court, she stated; ''The video that they sought to show to try and dent the credibility of the General Secretary didn't happen as they thought it would. In the end, his credibility rather soared. If you watch the video and I'm sure you all watched it, it is clear from the video that he never said at any point in time that the petitioner had won the elections. In fact, what he did were projections and rightly so.''



''They cross-examined the General on the issue of padding and you can sense from the cross-examination that they admit that there was padding. What they tried to portray was that on a pen drive, there was an indication that there was also padding in favor of the NDC. Now, if they admit that there was padding, then obviously we're dealing with a very flawed election. That is the point and they admit it! It's a clear admission of a flawed election'', she further stressed.



A striking incident in court was the NDC General Secretary denying knowledge of the content of the pen drive that contained the video evidences proven by Lead Counsel for the 2nd Respondent, Akoto Ampaw, which has become a topical issue because some critics wonder how Mr. Asiedu Nketia could claim not to know what was on the pen drive when the documents formed part of their evidence.



Explaining what transpired, Mrs. Marietta Brew told the press that Mr. Asiedu Nketia only had hard copies of the documents but didn't see the pen drive, hence there was no way he could have identified what was on the pen drive.



She said; ''The information on the pen drive was printed for the General. It was printed for him, so he saw the hard copy. He didn't actually see the pen drive and from what I could see on the screen, they were actually reading from the names of the folders which he would not have. He would have the printed document because of interest to him was the information in the document and not the names of the folders.''

























Cross-Examination

Hearing continues Tuesday, February 2, 2021

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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South Africa: COVID-19 vaccine expected to arrive in KZN mid-February

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala has announced that the Oxford University Astra-Zeneca vaccine, which arrived in South Africa on Monday, is expected to arrive in the province around 14 February 2021.

Outlining KwaZulu-Natals Vaccine Roll-Out Plan during a virtual media briefing on Tuesday, Zikalala said that the province has developed its own vaccination rollout plan, based on guidelines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and National Department of Health.

Our Plan focuses on the management, distribution and dispensing of the vaccine. Key to the success of this plan is co-operation between the public and private sector, as well as non-governmental, community, and faith-based organisations (FBOs), Zikalala said.

The province has also established a Vaccine Co-ordinating Committee, which includes, amongst others, private hospitals, traditional leaders, eThekwini Municipality, Health Systems Trust, Organised Labour, PEPFAR partners, the academic sector, National Health Laboratory Service, civil society, and the South African Military Health Services.

According to Zikalala, all provincial districts across the province have finalised vaccination distribution plans.

He noted that the Provincial Command Council will support, monitor and perform oversight over the vaccine roll-out process.

All District Command Councils, led by MECs and mayors will spend time in districts for the duration of the roll-out and ensure daily accountability and hands on support. The Provincial Vaccine Coordinating Committee, Chaired by the Head of Department for Health, which includes unions, NGOs, traditional healers, academic sector, civil society, and Military Health Care services, has also been established to fast-track implementation, Zikalala explained.

Phase 1

The province will follow the phased approach to vaccination, including Phase 1, which is divided into two categories.

The two categories include health care workers and support staff, and administrative and other staff.

The provincial first beneficiaries targeted include 67 644 public sector health care staff; 9 292 medical doctors, dentists, pharmacists, Emergency Medical Services (EMS); 390 interns; 34 279 nurses; and 20 417 non-occupation specific dispensation (OSD) employees.

The beneficiaries also include 2 639 allied health professionals; 366 engineers/artisans; 256 staff providing social services; 14 625 privately contracted staff working in public sector; 5 939 traditional healers; 350 military health care staff; 6 699 NGO sector staff; as well as 360 environmental health practitioners.

A total of 163 256 health personnel from various sectors in KwaZulu-Natal are eligible to receive vaccination during the first phase, as announced by the President. These include 81 000 Health Care Workers (HCWs) in the public sector and 49 000 in the private sector, the Premier said.

Vaccination sites identified

To date, Zikalala said, the province has identified 91 vaccination sites, which will include all the public hospitals and Community Health Centres (CHCs).

These hospitals and CHCs will be responsible for the clinics, and other sites that are part of the value chain in their catchment areas. Every vaccinated person will be observed for a while before being discharged after being vaccinated, the Premier explained.

A communication and social mobilisation strategy has also been developed to ensure that all citizens in the province are well informed about the vaccine and the rollout plan.

Decline in new COVID-19 cases

Meanwhile, Zikalala said that the province, which is currently the second-highest countrywide in terms of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, has observed a decline in the number of new cases weekly.

The overall percentage change in the number of new cases between 17  23 January 2021 and 24-30 January 2021, amounted to a decline of 51%. The actual number of cases was 22 608 in week 3, and 11 099 in week 4, respectively.

Over the past week, the highest number of cases received was 2 079, [and] the average number of cases recorded daily was 1 777 cases per day, Zikalala said.

However, Zikalala noted that the second wave has been more severe than the first wave in terms of the deaths in the province, with an average of 75 deaths daily over the past two weeks. The analysis was done using the date the person died, not the date of reporting.

Hospitalisation update

On hospitalisation, the province currently has 3 601 patients admitted; this includes 2 429 patients admitted in private hospitals and 1 172 in public hospitals, as at 31 January 2021.

Of those admitted, 483 patients required intensive care services. Among those who required intensive care, 211 were being ventilated, the Premier said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
This article has been updated to reflect news developments.

For the first time in close to a decade, the rule of President Vladimir Putin of Russia may be facing a sustained challenge.

Over the past two weekends, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of cities and towns across the country to voice their disapproval of the arrest of the anti-corruption campaigner Aleksei Navalny. This impressive display of dissent has been met, increasingly, with force. On Sunday, over 5,000 people were detained  the most ever on a single day in Russia  including 1,600 in Moscow alone.

This strategy of suppression was successful before. In the winter of 2011 and 12, thousands of people demonstrated against electoral fraud by the ruling United Russia party and Mr. Putins impending return to the presidency. The protests, hailed by some as the beginning of the end for Mr. Putin, were eventually stifled by a combination of police and judicial repression. To judge from Sundays deliberate show of force, Mr. Putin assumes he can ride out this latest turbulence.

He may well be right. The odds seem stacked against the protesters, who remain a tiny fraction of the population. Though his approval ratings have declined from previous highs, Mr. Putin still commands substantial popular support. There is little sign of rifts within the Russian elite, and the government has a formidable repressive apparatus at its disposal. The Kremlin also has a firm grip on the political system: United Russia holds 335 out of 450 seats in the State Duma, and the rest are mostly held by parties that back the government.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. Donations to Armenias City of Smile Foundation aimed at assisting children and young people up to the age 25 suffering cancer and blood diseases have sharply declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent war. However, at the end of the year the Spanish Aladina Foundation has provided help to the City of Smile, in particular covering the treatment costs of beneficiary children for about two months, Director of the City of Smile Foundation Ester Demirchyan told Armenpress.

The coronavirus pandemic led to huge decline in donations. It was followed by the war which further deepened the crisis situation. We hadnt ever had such a low figure of donations since the opening of the Foundation which we had during the wartime  in October, November and December. Of course, there were objective reasons for this situation, as we all were focused only on one direction  to try to help, to do the utmost to win the war, to help our soldiers and the displaced people, she said.

She considered normal the fact that when an issue of national identity arises, the foundations are left on the second plan. But she noted that children suffering cancer cannot wait long as each day, each delay of drugs and examinations leads to heavy consequences. Demirchyan, however, stated that no one was rejected by the Foundation during that days.

After the war the flow of donations has relatively activated. We have received a number of small grants by different organizations. However, the only one organization which was the most inspiring for us that days was the Aladina Foundation which provided a donation of 160,000 USD, she said, adding that this is the biggest donation received by one organization.

Aladina is operating mainly in Spain, is working with 15 different hospitals of Spain. This is their second experience of international transfer, the first one was provided to Lebanons child cancer center.

Its very honoring that we managed to attract its attention. This cooperation was the best New Year gift for us as it gave us strength and energy to continue the mission of the Foundation, she said.

Demirchyan calls this cooperation as a very good beginning of the year, stating that they need to attract more organizations. The Foundations monthly costs for children, young people comprise nearly 70-80 thousand dollars. The Aladina Foundation provided money for two months. Mrs. Demirchyan said the whole staff of the City of Smile Foundation expresses its deepest gratitude to the Aladina Foundation and directorate.

The Aladina Foundation is operating in Spain for about 15 years assisting children suffering with cancer. The Foundation is organizing various events, renovating rooms, providing psychological support, etc. Demirchyan hopes that the cooperation with this Foundation will continue.

She reminded that the treatment of children suffering cancer is quite expensive, adding that many people should unite around this issue. She called on the public to regularly make donations for this purpose. Ester Demirchyan said the website of their Foundation allows to choose the option of making monthly donations and become the supporter of it.

I understand that currently many people are facing many difficulties, however, I believe that each of us can provide some help at least once a month to these children who really need it, she said, calling on both individuals and various organizations not to forget about these children and provid their help.

The annual expenditure of the City of Smile Foundation comprises nearly 1 million USD: its beneficiaries are children, young people from Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk. So far, the Foundation has provided help to nearly 370 children and young people. In 2020 the Foundation had 95 new beneficiaries. Demirchyan stated that nearly 70% of children suffering cancer in Armenia are completely recovering.

Interview by Anna Grigoryan

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to polarise the assembly election environment in West Bengal said Nusrat Jahan, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MP from Basirhat. Speaking exclusively to Zee News, Nusrat Jahan added that the BJP is "making Hindus and Muslims against each other".

She also said that the TMC is confident of winning election in West Bengal and Mamata Banerjee will be the chief minister. "BJP is trying to polarise the poll environment here and making Hindus and Muslims against each other. We are confident of winning elections here, Mamata Banerjee will be the chief minister," said Jahan.

On the recent row over 'Jai Shree Ram', Jahan added, "Jai Shree Ram bolo, lekin gale lagakar, gala dabakar nahin. This is a strategy of BJP to harass Mamata Banerjee by shouting slogans like Jai Shree Ram. This is a political slogan for BJP, not a religious slogan, else why aren't they taking names of other Gods?"

She added, "Celebrities, artists had to hit the road as they are being targeted by social media trolls, they are receiving death threats. Those who are going to BJP are being offered a huge amount of money, plump posts and Z-security. It is a lie that there is corruption, I have visited my constituency during Amphan cyclone and distributed relief items amidst COVID-19 situation. So has other leaders, they are lying that they are not being allowed to work in their constituency."

Jahan also added, "It is not true that Abhishek Banerjee and Mamata Banerjee are the only ones running the party, each and everyone in the party is important."

Speaking on the voters she said, "Muslim voters are intelligent in West Bengal, they know MIM is a plant of BJP and they are not going to vote for them. BJP is an outsider. They do not know our culture and tradition, they garland a statue and say it was Birsa Mundas. They insult Netaji with Jai Shree Ram slogans."

On 'Love Jihad', Jahan said, "There is law of the land and anyone who tries to convert someone forcibly, action should be taken against them. There is no need for any law on love-jihad."
Ministers should consider vaccinating children against coronavirus to protect them from getting 'long Covid', top scientists said today.

Dr Anthony Costello, a paediatrician and member of Independent SAGE, warned experts are still baffled by the long-term complications of the disease, which is not thought to pose an immediate threat to youngsters.

He described children as a 'very special risk area' because there was a chance they may face effects that last for decades even if they don't get sick to begin with.

Children are not currently on No10's vaccine priority list because the jabs approved are only proven to block symptomatic illness and severe bouts of the disease that may prove fatal, neither of which seem to affect under-18s.

Youngsters barely get ill and statisticians have calculated they face a greater risk of being hit by lightning than dying of Covid.

Dr Costello said that studies suggest the Government should consider vaccinating children to protect them from long Covid.

He said researchers had found that 15 per cent of secondary school pupils and 13 per cent of children at primary school still had coronavirus symptoms five weeks after getting infection.

Ministers should consider vaccinating children against coronavirus to protect them from getting 'long Covid', Dr Anthony Costello (pictured right), a paediatrician and member of Independent SAGE, has warned. Dr Deepti Gurdasani (left), an epidemiologist at Queen Mary, University of London, said schools are 'not magical places where transmission doesn't happen'

Dr Costello told the All-Party Parliamentary Group's meeting on coronavirus today: 'The worry is this: we don't really understand long Covid and what it means.

'We don't know how long this virus lasts in people's bodies and even in their brains.'

There are 19million children in the UK, Dr Costello said, and if they were left unprotected and lockdown rules lifted, half of them could catch the virus and millions could suffer long Covid.

'We don't absolutely know what the impacts are going to be, long term,' he said.

'Should we be vaccinating children, even if they're the lowest priority group? This needs some new consideration.'

Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary, University of London added: 'We don't understand long Covid yet given that, it would be completely negligent to put children at risk.

Children's commissioner backs jabs for teachers The Children's Commissioner today insisted teachers should receive Covid-19 vaccinations after the first on the priority list as calls grow for schools to reopen. Anne Longfield said about 500,000 teachers and 500,000 support staff could all be given the jab 'in a couple of days' given recent data on UK vaccination capacity. She added that this would only mean the under-70s would have to wait an extra 48 hours while teachers got their vaccinations in order to get schools reopened. Mrs Longfield added that headteachers have told her it is vital to carry out rapid lateral flow tests on pupils to 'help ensure schools stay open for good this time'. Advertisement

'This may not be a short-term illness for many people, it may be a chronic illness.'

Dr Costello's comment comes as Boris Johnson has laid forth plans to get schools reopened from March 8.

With cases and deaths easing and the rollout of jabs surging ahead of schedule, the Prime Minister is said to have ordered a ramping up of preparations for children to get back in classrooms.

But experts fear the date he has set it too early.

SAGE adviser Professor Calum Semple today warned the UK was 'nowhere near' being able to reopen schools because daily infections are still too high, even though they are falling rapidly.

He added that No10's advisory panel has always said 'schools should be the last thing to close and first thing to open' because children are 'not the primary driver of this outbreak'. He also warned that they are 'suffering dreadfully' from home-learning.

But scientists today claimed evidence was 'very clear' that shutting schools is one of the best ways at bringing down the R rate  the average number of people each coronavirus patient infects.

Dr Gurdasani said schools are 'not magical places where transmission doesn't happen'.

She said in the meeting: 'The idea that children are less susceptible was based on very limited and flawed data.

'With much better studies now we know that children play a very, very important role in transmission.

'Looking at data from around the world it's very clear that school closures is one of the most effective measures for bringing down R.

'Children are two times more likely to bring Covid into the household than an adult and they are two times more likely to infect other people in the household than adults.

'Overall, they contribute a lot to transmission in schools and in the community, that is very clear in global evidence  schools are a huge link.'

She added: 'It was very clear during the last lockdown, when schools were open, cases of the new variant were rising at an R of 1.5  it was only closing schools that brought R below one.'

Boris Johnson discussed the state of play in the coronavirus crisis with Cabinet this morning - with most ministers dialling in remotely but Priti Patel in the room

Dr Gurdasani said closing schools could cut the R rate by as much as 20 per cent.

Dr Costello, added: 'The evidence I've seen suggests children are not far off the same as adults at transmitting the infection, so we have to treat them as such.'

Long Covid strikes one in ten under-50s who are infected with Covid-19, according to estimates.

But studies have suggested women are 50 per cent more likely to suffer with persistent symptoms than men.

Experts warn the NHS could face crippling demand from long Covid patients when the pandemic comes to an end, given that millions of Britons have already caught the disease.

Researchers from the group Patient-Led Research for Covid-19 investigated the impact of long Covid by surveying more than 3,700 patients complaining of persistent symptoms.

They found 1,665 - or 45 per cent - said they had a 'reduced' work schedule than before they became unwell.

And 825 - or 22.3 per cent - were not working due to health conditions, although the researchers didn't say whether this was due to the virus or an underlying factor present before they were infected.

Up to 317 - or eight per cent - said their symptoms had become severe enough for them to be admitted to hospital, and 1,312 - or 35 per cent - said they had visited A&E due to symptoms.

NHS England guidance warns Covid-19 sufferers should call an ambulance if their symptoms get worse or last for longer than seven days.

They add severe shortness of breath, coughing up blood, blue lips or face, feeling clammy and cold, collapsing, becoming difficult to rouse, feeling confused and not visiting the toilet often are also warning signs patients should be heading to A&E units.

But in the survey participants didn't say what symptoms had led to them attending hospital.

More than half of all patients surveyed - 2,454 or 66 per cent - were still suffering at least one symptom of coronavirus six months after their infection.
press release

The African Development Bank, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and GRID-Arendal have released the inaugural Sanitation and Wastewater Atlas of Africa, a tool to benchmark and propel Africa's progress towards Sustainable Development Goal targets on safe sanitation and wastewater management. The Atlas aims to help policymakers accelerate change and investment in the sector.

The result of four years of collaboration, the Atlas assesses progress and highlights opportunities where investment in sanitation and wastewater management can improve health and spur economic growth. It incorporates maps, graphics and profiles of all African countries, including analyses of their water resources and provision of basic services. The publication also explores the links between sanitation and wastewater and ecosystem health and human health, and discusses frameworks and circular economy approaches that can lead to better infrastructure and systems.

"Africa cannot have a healthy society without adequate access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene," said Wambui Gichuri, the African Development Bank's Acting Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development. "In the past 10 years, the African Development Bank has invested more than $6 billion in sanitation and hygiene improvements, but much more financing is needed from the private sector, development finance institutions, governments and other sources. The new Sanitation and Wastewater Atlas of Africa can inform strategic investment going forward."

According to the report, more than half of the population in 34 out of 38 sub-Saharan African nations lacks access to basic handwashing facilities. It recommends investment in the necessary policies, infrastructure and human skills capacities to operationalize actions towards the achievement of goals and targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including those for sustainable sanitation and wastewater management.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sharpened an already existing need to upgrade Africa's water and sanitation infrastructure. The report's authors urge African governments to incorporate sanitation and wastewater programs into their post-COVID-19 strategic planning.

"As the world seeks to recover better after COVID-19, prioritizing wastewater and sanitation infrastructure in Africa is critical. Sustainable Development Goal 6, which calls for making water and sanitation available to everyone, is within reach by 2030 if we commit the needed resources. The Sanitation and Wastewater Atlas of Africa provides the tools for policymakers to focus on this important challenge," said Leticia Carvalho, Head of UNEP's Marine and Freshwater Branch.

In addition to advancing SDG Goal 6, the Atlas is expected to promote the African Union's Agenda 2063 as well as the Africa Water Vision for 2025, an initiative of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the Bank and the AU.

"We have gathered a wealth of information on practical and transformative solutions for wastewater management and the provision of sanitation services, which can help to boost public health and secure the sustainability of Africa's natural resources," said Clever Mafuta, Head of the Waste Programme at GRID-Arendal, a Norwegian non-profit organization established to support the work of UNEP.

NOTES TO EDITORS

About the African Development Bank Group

The African Development Bank Group is Africa's premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank, the African Development Fund and the Nigeria Trust Fund. On the ground in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan, the African Development Bank contributes to the economic development and social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information:

About the United Nations Environment Programme

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa Water Sustainable Development By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

UNEP is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

About GRID-Arendal

GRID-Arendal transforms environmental data into innovative, science-based information products and provides capacity-building services. GRID-Arendal supports environmentally sustainable development through partnerships with UNEP and other organizations.

For more information, please contact

Olufemi Terry, Communication and External Relations Department, African Development Bank

Moses Osani, Communication Division, UN Environment Programme, Tel +254 716 145 616

Lisa Hymas, Communications Department, GRID-Arendal, tel: +47 40 40 61 30 and +1 206-853-2673
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Washington, Feb 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2021 ) :One declined to prosecute Bill Cosby for rape, trading lawsuits instead with his alleged victim; another considered defending alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The two lawyers former president Donald Trump has hired to defend him in his Senate impeachment trial are confident, tough and media-honed criminal case experts who could liven up what is already set to be a nationally televised spectacle.

A day after breaking with his original legal team, reportedly over strategy, on Sunday Trump named David Schoen and Bruce Castor to represent him at the trial.

They have one week to muster a strategy to ensure that the ex-president receives enough support from Republican senators to avoid conviction, for the second time in one year.

That should be easy. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority of the 100-member Senate, and already 45 of the 50 Republicans have signalled they believe trying Trump after he has left office is unconstitutional.

But according to reports Trump has been adamant about arguing the case that President Joe Biden's election win was based on fraud.

That claim, despite there being no evidence to support it, propelled the violent assault on the US Capitol that forced Trump's vice president Mike Pence to go into secure hiding and left hundreds of members of Congress fearing for their safety.

Arguing such a case could conceivably erode some of the already tenuous Republican support for Trump. The strategy reportedly contributed to the split with his original defense team.

- Constitutionality question - The turmoil with his legal team may have persuaded Trump to change his mind on the strategy.

"The strength of our constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history," Castor said in the statement issued by Trump to announce the new line-up.

The two attorneys will face prosecutors -- Democrats from the House of Representatives -- arguing the single charge of "incitement of insurrection.

" They allege that Trump fostered sedition by stoking the January 6 attack on the Capitol, which left five people dead and halted, for several hours, Congress' certification of Biden as the election winner.

Trump had earlier called for the process to be stopped.

Both attorneys have deep court experience.

Schoen is a trial lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia, with a record of picking up notorious cases and clients. He helped convicted Trump political advisor Roger Stone in his appeal case, before Trump pardoned Stone.

He was also in discussions to represent Epstein before he committed suicide ahead of his trial for sex trafficking of minors.

"I represented all sorts of reputed mobster figures," Schoen told the Atlanta Jewish Times in an interview last year, pointing to organized crime figures from Russia, Israel and Italy.

Castor, 59, spent much of his legal career as a prosecutor in Pennsylvania, rising from the county level to become the top state attorney.

He was criticized for declining in 2005 to prosecute the mega-celebrity Cosby for rape, saying the evidence against him was too weak to win a trial. He went on to trade defamation lawsuits with the alleged victim, Andrea Constand.

The case moved forward under Castor's successor and Cosby was convicted in 2018.

After Trump's original five lawyers dropped out on Saturday, the need to assemble a new team was urgent. The ex-president needs to submit a formal response to the summons to trial on Tuesday.

On February 8 his team then needs to submit a pretrial brief, opening the way for arguments to begin, probably a day later.

The change in the defense team so close to trial, said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, should lead to a postponement.

"A week is clearly insufficient to prepare a defense," he said on Twitter.

But with Trump's acquittal widely considered a foregone conclusion, it might not matter.
The Tamil hit, Oh My Kadavule' will soon be adapted in Hindi. The film will be produced by Endemol Shine India, Merry Go Round Studios and Mumbai Talkeez and directed by Ashwath Marimuthu. This will be the first Hindi film for Ashwath Marimuthu who made his directorial debut with the original Tamil film. He is also currently directing the Telugu version of the film which is on floors.

A 2020 Valentines Day release, Oh My Kadavule' featuring Ashok Selvan and Ritika Singh, with Vijay Sethupathi in an extended cameo, proved to be a hit at the box-office, winning appreciation from the critics and the audience, for its beautiful portrayal of a slice of life, fantasy tale.

Endemol Shine India, Umesh Shukla, Ashish Wagh and Parag Desai are in the process of deciding the cast and the title of the Hindi film. The Hindi film will be written and creatively produced by Umesh Shukla.

Abhishek Rege, CEO Endemol Shine India says, We at Endemol Shine India are always on the lookout for stories and characters that are authentic, relatable, and enjoyable. Oh My Kadavule is just such a story with a simple tale and a poignant message that any audience will relate to. We are sure that this is a narrative with wide appeal that everyone will identify with and definitely want to watch.

Umesh Shukla of Merry Go Round Studios says, "Oh My Kadavule' was a massive hit in the South and it resonates with my style of filmmaking. It is a beautiful story that has a universal appeal, and we cannot wait to recreate the same magic for the Hindi audiences."

Director Ashwath Marimuthu ecstatic about his first Hindi venture says," This film is very dear to me and has been my stepping-stone into the film industry. While I am currently working on the Telugu version of the same, I cannot wait to begin the Hindi film shoot soon. It's going to be an exciting journey for me."


Posted Monday, February 1, 2021 5:42 am

Along with beginning his first term on the Ridgefield City Council, Rob Aichele picked up a new passion project in 2020.

In November, Aichele decided to take a trip in the proverbial time machine and purchase a 1970 Ford F100 pickup from a fellow enthusiast in Ohio. On Dec. 7, a bright yellow F100 custom arrived at his door on the back of a transport  with a dead battery.

I immediately went down (to the store) and bought a battery so we could get the vehicle unloaded, Aichele said.

Aichele grew up in rural Oregon and worked loading trucks with bales of hay on a 200-acre cattle farm when he was a teenager. In order to do his job and drive loads of hay to other areas of the farm to feed the cattle, the farmer taught Aichele how to drive the farm truck, which had a four-speed clutch just like the F100 sitting in his shop today.

I believe its important to preserve things from previous generations so we dont forget how great those times were, Aichele said.

Preserving and reliving the past is important to Aichele, especially when it comes to motor vehicles. His daily driver is a 2007 Shelby GT500 retro comeback vehicle. Next to his daily driver, Aichele has a Harley-Davidson Sportster model 72, a limited production replica model of the motorcycle company's 1972 Sportster.

I have a passion for things from the 70s because it reminds me of my youth and all the good times I had as a young man, Aichele said.

Throughout his life, Aichele has always been a part of the automotive community. He and his wife each own a Shelby, and Aichele got his dashboard signed by the late Carroll Shelby. He also met the two specific technicians who signed his engine block and placed it in his car. When he lived in Battle Ground, Aichele hosted the annual Northwest Shelby meet in his yard.

Ive always been a Ford guy, he said.

Once the battery was replaced, other small issues with the truck began to pop up, and Aichele began making a documented list of the improvements he made.

The previous owner supplied me with lots of receipts and a journal that he had kept for eight years, he said. I am continuing that journal.

Following the battery replacement, Aichele replaced the heater control valve, freeze plugs and more to stop the truck from leaking antifreeze in his garage. Hes also worked on the steering lash and manual steering, spent a few days completely restoring all four hubcaps on the truck and is in the process of restoring the front headlights he finds too dim.

The previous owner has done a good job on the restoration work to date, Aichele said, mentioning that most of the work he has had to complete was cosmetic finishes.

Paying attention to detail is important to Aichele and his restoration process. After his time working on a cattle farm, Aichele spent many years working as a carpenter and eventually became a superintendent at Skanska Construction, where he learned to pay close attention to details on large construction projects. Aichele credits his keenness for detail to this work in construction, as catching one little mistake in the process can save thousands of dollars in construction.

Aichele takes a detail-oriented approach to his work on the truck. Doing his best to make all the parts look aesthetically pleasing. In the truck bed, he originally intended to replace just a few chipped areas and ended up refinishing the entire bed. On the rear, Aichele is working to fix the lights after refinishing the entire Ford logo, making the car look pleasing to the eye, all while continuing the long journal log of additions, repairs and restorations to the car.

Future restorations Aichele plans to complete are completing the circuit to the factory horn, fixing the defrost control cable, completing a tuneup and realigning the truck and replacing its 12-year-old tires.

While he is putting a ton of work and attention into the detail and aesthetics of the truck, Aichele said he doesnt plan on entering the truck into any car shows and is planning to make the truck his working truck for hauling bark dust and events around town.

I put up signs in the community, the big signs, he explained. I put a lot of signs up for the seniors for Ridgefield schools for the school bond. Im very active in stuff that's gonna benefit our community.

Aichele is looking forward to being able to put the signs in the truck as he drives around town and blares the truck's custom horn to announce his arrival.

Its going to be super fun once this is all said and done, he said.

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[February 01, 2021] Asia Online Publishing Group Announces DisruptiveTechAsean.com Thai Language Edition

CYBERJAYA, Malaysia, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Southeast Asia's leading specialist IT news publisher, Asia Online Publishing Group (AOPG), today announced the launch of the Thai language edition of the leading news portal, disruptivetechasean.com. The Thai Language Edition of the site can be viewed at www.disruptivetechasean.com/th. Since launching datastorageasean.com back in 2014, AOPG has become the region's leading independent publisher of enterprise IT news. By providing highly focused news portals, AOPG has been able to serve IT professionals with targeted and relevant news content. The approach has been successful with the company growing revenues, staff and online titles every year since that time. Melina Hwang, AOPG's General Manager and Co-Founder, explained, "We have always prided ourselves on being the go-to resource on specialised tech news for readers across ASEAN, but were always aware that we could not adequately serve the Thai market by publishing in English. We looked at our various titles and decided that disruptive tech is highly relevant in the Thai market. IT professionals in Thailand are often fast adopters of new disruptive technologies. It made sense to make disruptivetechasean.com our first publication specifically geared to Thai IT professionals." Thai readers can expect more to follow. Hwang highlighted, "We believe that the Thai tech news market is underserved at the moment and we intend to fill a gap. In additio to providing news and interviews on enterprise-class disruptive technology, we also plan to extend our current studio-quality webinar capability to Thailand and will soon be running professional-level informative live webinars presented in Thai."



The announcement has been met with positive response from industry experts and vendors alike, who are hoping that the portal will provide IT professionals and enterprises in the fast-developing country with a new avenue for the latest disruptive technology news and information. "AOPG have been a successful partner for Cloudera and we welcome this move to expand to Thailand. We look forward to working with them on this new venture to showcase how organisations are adopting an enterprise data cloud to harness and drive business outcomes from their data," said Gabrielle Cichero, Head of Marketing, APAC, Cloudera. Pang Yee Beng, Senior Vice President, South Asia, and Managing Director, Malaysia at Dell Technologies commented, "As we witness the data decade take off, advancements in the areas of multi-cloud, edge, 5G, data management, AI/ML and security are playing an increasingly central role in digital transformation and business decisions around the globe. Being a publication uniquely focused on emerging technologies in the ASEAN market positions Disruptive Tech Asean as a strong news source for an important growth market like Thailand. We congratulate AOPG on this welcomed move and we look forward to continue working together across Southeast Asia."

Like other ASEAN countries, Thailand has seen an acceleration in digital transformation across multiple sectors including e-commerce, fintech, cloud and smart city innovation. In fact, Statista projects that the usage of the Internet will grow up to 87% of the Thai population in 2025. Research from Statista regarding the consumer behaviour and media consumption in Thailand also shows that 43.9% of generation Z aged 23 years and younger read online news publications, whilst 16.2% of baby boomers aged between 57 and 75 years reflect a growing number of the older generations starting to move to online news. This shows that regardless of demographics, there is a growing appetite for online content in the country, which DTA Thailand hopes to serve. Melina Hwang confirmed, "Content around disruptive technologies are always an interesting read and AOPG hopes that with DTA Thailand, we can bring important and engaging subject matters to the country, in the same way, we have with the English version of the portal." About Asia Online Publishing Group As ASEAN's leading specialist IT news publisher, AOPG currently operates websites covering enterprise tech topics ranging from data, storage, cloud, cybersecurity, AI and disruptive technology. Our portals include specialist DataStorageAsean.com, CyberSecurityAsean.com and DisruptiveTechAsean.com. These portals are supported by it-explained.com, the technology definitions website and aopgdownloads.com, a technical eBook library. The company also runs AOPG Insights, a premium B2B research business unit of AOPG. In addition, AOPG has a number of online events and showcase platforms including AOPG Virtual Events, AOPG Digital Showcase and AOPG Academy, that enable us to provide a complete, integrated digital experience for our readers and clients alike. SOURCE Asia Online Publishing Group

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A shopper will spend 18 days in jail after he refused to wear a face mask on the first day of Perth's harsh coronavirus lockdown.

The 41-year-old man was outside a shopping centre on the Great Eastern Highway in Midland when he was approached by police officers on Monday.

Police allege the man was not wearing a face mask and asked him to do so, in accordance with the latest restrictions in the city.

Face masks were made mandatory as metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the South West region were plunged into a five-day lockdown after a hotel quarantine security guard tested positive to Covid-19.

A shopper will spend 18 days in jail after he refused to wear a face mask on the first day of Perth's harsh coronavirus lockdown. Pictured: Police patrol the Covid-19 Clinic at Perth Royal Hospital on Monday

The lockdown, which began at 6pm on Sunday, is scheduled to conclude on Friday.

Police said they offered the man a face mask to wear and he allegedly refused to take it from them.

The man, from Ellenbrook, was then arrested and police allege he failed to give officers his full name and identifying information.

He has been charged with failure to comply with a direction and failure to comply with a request to give police personal details.

The man appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Monday, where bail was refused.

He will appear in Midland Magistrates Court on February 19.

Face masks were made mandatory as metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the South West region were plunged into five-day lockdown after a hotel quarantine security guard tested positive to Covid-19. Pictured: Residents walk on Monday

A WA Police spokesperson said officers initially approached the man to ensure he was aware of the newly introduced legal requirement to wear a face mask in public.

'When it was established he did not have a face mask, he was offered one for free by the officers to assist him in complying with the legal requirement,' the spokesperson said.

'At that stage there was no intention to arrest or charge the man.

'However, once it was confirmed the man was aware of the legal requirement, had the ability to now comply with that legal requirement, and that he continued to fail to comply the with direction, the officers acted in the best interest of the community and arrested him.'

The spokesperson said everyone in the community has a shared responsibility to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

'While police officers will operate under a 'compliance with compassion' approach, where the is a clear case of a person failing to comply with the direction, police will act to protect the community,' they said.
New Delhi: Incidents of fake news of late have caught the attention of authorities as such developments have contributed to inciting the mob and creating anti-government propaganda. On this issue, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar on Monday said that it was irresponsible to post such content.

Citing the fake news on the picture of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at Rashtrapati Bhavan and that on farmer's death due to police firing, Prakash Javadekar said that some journalists tweeted that it was the picture of an actor and not that of Netaji, which is fake news, as even the actor in question confirmed that it was not his picture.

In a fake news incident, Delhi Police took prompt action in view of the alarming circulation of fake news regarding the resignation of Police personnel. It arrested accused Om Prakash Dhetarwal, who had posted an old video from September 2020 of Home Guards of another state and portrayed it was from the Delhi Police

The fake news was accompanied by a message of resignation by 200 Delhi Police personnel. Accused had created a Facebook account by the name of Kisan Andolan Rajasthan. The police also apprehended another person for posting fake news about the resignation of 200 police personnel on Twitter.

Acting on the fake news about the resignation of police personnel, the Cyber Crime Unit (CyPAD) of Delhi Police arrested the culprit from Rajasthan, according to the police officials.

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"The mischievous social media campaign has been going on for the last two days propagating false rumours regarding disaffection in police ranks. Old, unrelated videos were being posted with fake news of the resignation of police personnel. Acting on such fake news, the CyPAD Unit of DelhiPolice registered a criminal case and in view of the seriousness of the incident, formed a dedicated team comprising of Inspector. Brahm Prakash, SI Avdesh and others to effect an immediate arrest," DCP Anyesh Roy of CyPAD told Zee Media.

He said that the location of the accused persons was zeroed in and one person namely Om Prakash Dhetarwal has been arrested from the Churu district of Rajasthan.

The accused is a graduate with a Diploma in Civil Engineering and is active on social media. The device used in the commission of the offence has been recovered, said Roy, adding that the accused is being further interrogated.

"One more person has been apprehended from Bharatpur Rajasthan for posting the fake news about resignation of 200 Police Personnel on Twitter. Further, arrests in the case are likely soon. Citizens are advised to avoid sharing or posting any such content without verifying its authenticity," Anyesh Roy added.
A senior RAF commander was 'flabbergasted' by the attitude of a Major accused of defrauding the military out of 40,000, a court heard today.

Royal Engineer Lloyd Hamilton, who was awarded an MBE for his charity work, allegedly used thousands of pounds of tax payers' money to send his two children to an exclusive independent school.

A court martial heard the 47-year-old was only eligible to claim the allowances as long as his wife was living with him.

But a Station Commander told a military court today that he did not recall meeting Major Hamilton's wife - and said he 'lost respect' for the Royal Engineer because he was 'antagonistic and pretty damn rude.'

Royal Engineer Lloyd Hamilton (pictured outside Bulford Military Court), allegedly used thousands of pounds of tax payers' money to send his two children to an exclusive independent school

The court previously heard that following a breakdown in their marriage, Major Hamilton's wife remained at their private 500,000 four bedroom home in Hamble, Hampshire (pictured)

Giving evidence at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire, Station Commander Michael Blackburn said he had 'racked his brains' but could not remember ever meeting Major Hamilton's Cambridge-educated wife, Liz.

Commander Blackburn said the environment at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was sociable.

He said: 'My abiding memory of Major Hamilton in the mess was him on his own, I've tried to rack my brains.

'It was a contrast because it was a sociable place and social functions were a part of life.

'I got to know lots of different individuals and their spouses but I don't recall ever meeting Major Hamilton's wife.'

The court previously heard that following a breakdown in their marriage Liz, an IBM manager, remained at their private 500,000 four bedroom home in Hamble, Hampshire.

Major Hamilton allegedly sent his wife texts saying he knew he was being investigated for fraudulently claiming 38,892 worth of fees to send his two children to Queen Elthelburga's Collegiate in Yorkshire.

Commander Blackburn denied he 'didn't like' Major Hamilton and told the court he had been shocked by his attitude towards senior commanders.

He added: 'I lost respect because I found him antagonistic. He was pretty damn rude to me and my command group and I was flabbergasted by it.

'You are always going to meet some people at work that you aren't going to get along with but it in no way colours my judgement.'

Major Hamilton is one of the founding members of Toe in the Water, a tri-service charity that uses competitive sailing to re-inspire injured servicemen and women to see beyond their injuries

Defending Major Hamilton, David Richards, said Cdr Blackburn had in fact met Liz at a social occasion in Cyprus but claimed he 'turned his back on her' because he disliked the Major.

Prosecuting, Commander Peter Barker said Major Hamilton's two children, a daughter aged 12 and in year 7, and a son, then 10, and in year 5, both attended Queen Elthelburga's.

He alleges the majority of the fees at the 49,875 a year school were paid for fraudulently by the Major because he knew he was no longer eligible.

Major Hamilton's wife was supposedly away from Cyprus for 298 days during the 12 months the offences were alleged to have taken place.

Bulford Military Court, Wilts heard that between 1 July 2017 and 1 August 2018 there were 'substantial difficulties' in Major Hamilton's marriage.

Prosecutors also claimed trips made to Cyprus by Mrs Hamilton were taken just to to maintain the 'facade' that they were still together.

Major Hamilton received his MBE for his work with Toe in the Water, a tri-service charity that uses competitive sailing to help injured servicemen and women.

He denies two charges of fraud. The trial, expected to last five days, continues.
Green Party Government minister Roderic OGorman is opposing Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) plans to lift planning restrictions on its new 320m 3.1km runway at Dublin airport.

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, who is Dublin West TD, has branded as unacceptable the noise levels local residents will be faced with if planning restrictions are lifted.

Due to become operational next year, the DAA is seeking amendments to the original 2007 planning permission that will be allow the runway be used between 6am and midnight.

It has suggested a noise quota system would be used to dictate the number of night-time flights at the airport.

However, in an eight-page submission made with Green party colleagues, Cllr Pamela Conroy and Cllr Daniel Whooley, Minister OGorman claimed if the restrictions are changed those living in this area will not benefit from a reduction in noise levels when the north runway is opened.

Minister OGorman said instead, the level of noise that they are experiencing will remain the same and they will experience new night noise. This is unacceptable.

The objection, which comes with a photo of the former DCU law lecturer and 'Roderic O'Gorman Green TD for Dublin West' against a green and white background, said the best way to mitigate any noise from the new runway is to leave the planning conditions as they are and refuse this application.

Regarding DAAs proposed noise quota system, Minister OGorman said rejecting this proposal and maintaining the current restrictions is what residents prefer and standard among similar airport.

The closing date for submissions was Monday and a spokesman for Fingal County Council said today that around 250 have been received, though the total is not a final figure as council staff continued to validate submissions.

Scores of north Dublin residents are objecting to the proposals and the impact the noise from night-time flights will have on their residential amenity.

However, the airline industry has thrown its weight in support of the plans with 15 carriers including Dublin airports two main customers, Ryanair and Aer Lingus offering their support.

In their submission, the Irish arm of international logistics firm, FedEx Express said the DAAs proposals for the easing restrictions dont go far enough and that all night time cargo flights should be exempt from any restrictions.

Director with FedEx Express Ireland, James Davies has told Fingal County Council the restrictions proposed in the 2007 planning permission will have a significant detrimental negative impact on FedExs operations and business in Ireland.

Mr Davies said during the Covid 19 pandemic, the air cargo industry has been more important than ever through bringing in medical products and PPE into Ireland.

Mr Davies said cargo night time flights into Dublin supports 1.1bn in GDP and 15,000 jobs.

IDA Ireland and IBEC have voiced their support for lifting the restrictions and Dublin Chamber said the current restrictions will inhibit growth and damage the airports competitive reputation. A decision is due on the application next month.

Huawei today announced it would create a further 110 new jobs in Ireland by the end of 2022, bringing to at least 310 the total of new jobs it will have added over a three year period from 2019 to 2022  more than doubling its workforce in that time. Huawei will invest 80 million in Irish research and development (R&D) over the next two years to support its growing business in Ireland.

Over the past 15 months, Huawei has created 200 jobs in Ireland, as well as investing 60 million in R&D. In the next two years, Huawei will invest a further 80 million in R&D in Ireland, doubling its commitment from 2019.

The new jobs will meet sustained growing demand for Huaweis products and services across its sales, R&D, IT development and in its consumer division.

The company has a strong focus on helping its business partners roll out 5G across Ireland in coming years. The jobs will be mainly based in its Dublin headquarters and across operations in Cork and Athlone.

Minister for Trade Promotion and TD for Longford-Westmeath, Robert Troy, welcomed Huaweis jobs announcement and its continued investment in Athlone. Huawei opened its first Irish R&D centre in Athlone in 2011.

Minister Troy said, This is a further endorsement of the skills and potential of the midlands. Despite all the challenges we have faced over the past year, Ireland has demonstrated itself as top investment option for some of the worlds leading companies resulting in real, quality jobs for people at a time we need them most. Athlone clearly demonstrates it punches above its weight in software and technology and I am committed to seeing similar investments from across different sectors spread to all corners of the midlands.

The investment is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.

Tanaiste & Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar said: The news that Huawei will create 110 new jobs is most welcome. The company is creating new jobs at a time when we really need them with so many people out of work. Despite all the current uncertainty and challenges, Ireland continues to attract top class investment from global technology companies. These 110 jobs, which come in addition to the 200 created over the past 15 months, will be accompanied by an 80m investment in Irish research and development. I wish the company the best of luck with this expansion.

Huawei Ireland Chief Executive Tony Yangxu said: We are delighted to see such growth in our workforce and business. Huawei has a long-term commitment to Ireland, where since 2004 we have built a world-class team servicing our ever-growing consumer and enterprise customer bases. Todays announcement is testament to the strength of those, as well as the ongoing success of our research and development programme, to which we committed 70 million in 2019. Our story in Ireland is one of mutual success, as we assist with the national digital transformation and Ireland continues to grow its international reputation as a pro-business environment with great talent available.

IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan added: This is a welcome investment by Huawei which will add substantially to Irelands technology and R&D ecosystem. The companys continued commitment to significant investments in R&D and creating high value jobs demonstrates Huaweis confidence in Ireland and the talent pool available here.
As he rolled up his sleeve to receive his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, Department of Veterans Affairs Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said he was excited to get a shot that will decrease the likelihood he'll bring the coronavirus home to his family.

"My wife is a very asthmatic person, so I definitely need to take all the precautions to ensure that she is staying healthy," Hayes said shortly after receiving the vaccine at the VA's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Hayes, a retired Army master sergeant, received one of a million doses the VA had distributed as of Tuesday. According to the department, 582,000 first doses and 44,000 second doses of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been delivered to veterans, while more than 401,000 doses have been given to VA employees.

Read Next: Navy Eyes New Virus Prevention Strategy: Thousands of Rapid COVID Tests

An additional 1,200 have been administered to personnel from other federal agencies that work with the VA, according to officials.

Across the entire U.S., roughly 32 million vaccine shots had been administered as of Feb. 1, according to New York Times compilations. The VA's million-shot milestone puts it ahead of states including North Carolina, New Jersey and Washington; it has administered more vaccine doses than the states of Oregon and Louisiana combined. Only eight U.S. states have administered more vaccine doses to date. On Tuesday, the state of Illinois, which has a population of 12.67 million according to the last census, also administered its millionth vaccine dose.

The Department of Defense has administered about 500,000 vaccine shots to date, according to the Times.

Dr. Richard Stone, acting under secretary for health for the Veterans Health Administration, was among a dozen clinicians at the VA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., administering the vaccine to essential workers in the building this week.

Stone, a retired Army physician, said he is pleased with the progress of delivery across the system nationwide, adding that the department administers its weekly allotment of more than 108,000 doses "in three to four days."

The VA has the capacity, he added, to administer 600,000 doses a week.

"We built a system ready to accommodate much larger quantities as the manufacturers ramp up," he said.

According to Stone, the rate of vaccine acceptance among VA employees is between 80% and 83% -- far higher than the rate of 60% reported in December among the general U.S. population, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.

One of the reasons VA employees are eager to get the vaccine, he said, is that the department has been "hit really hard."

"We're doing health care and taking care of some pretty sick patients. The willingness to take the vaccine has been overwhelming," Stone said.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, more than 209,000 VA patients have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Roughly 9,200 have died, including 1,800 in January alone -- the deadliest month to date for VA patients, surpassing the record in December of roughly 1,700 people.

VA employees also have succumbed to the virus: As of Tuesday, 121 had died.

The VA began delivering vaccines late last year, starting Dec. 14 with Margaret Klessens, 96, a World War II veteran who lives in a VA community living center at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts.

The VA is delivering vaccines at more than 215 sites across the country, with plans to expand to additional sites as vaccine supplies increase.

But officials said that until manufacturers increase delivery -- and new vaccines become available, likely in March -- "many facilities may temporarily run out of vaccines for short periods of time."

In addition to announcing the millionth vaccine milestone, VA officials have started posting data on the number of veterans who have received a COVID-19 vaccine by facility -- data that will be updated daily, according to acting VA Secretary Dat Tran.

As of late January, the VA was in "Phase 1B" for administering COVID-19 vaccinations to veterans, including those who are 75 years of age or older, serve as essential workers, have an underlying health condition requiring chemotherapy or dialysis, or are organ transplant recipients.

Stone said the vaccine has proven to be safe for the VA's vulnerable patient population: The department has recorded adverse reactions in fewer than 30 patients who received the vaccine -- mainly fainting or a rapid heart rate, and zero hospitalizations.

The VA has been contacting veterans who are eligible for vaccination to schedule appointments; those who would like additional information can go to the VA COVID-19 vaccines webpage, visit their local facility's website or contact their doctor.

Hayes received the vaccine because he is considered an essential worker who interacts with the public frequently. He said he hopes that his decision to get the vaccine will influence others -- including members of his own family -- to get it.

"My family down South is very hesitant to take the vaccine for various different reasons that are legitimate so I wanted to ... help them understand that it's best to get the vaccine -- not just to protect themselves but to protect their family and anyone they come in contact with," he said.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: Active-Duty Troops May Help with Nationwide COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Senator Mitch McConnell said on Monday that the loony lies and conspiracy theories embraced by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene amounted to a cancer on the Republican Party, issuing what in effect was a scathing rebuke to the freshman House Republican from Georgia.

In a statement reported by The Hill, Mr. McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, never named Ms. Greene, but he referred to several of the outlandish and false conspiracy theories she has espoused and warned that such statements were damaging the party.

Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country, Mr. McConnell said. Somebody whos suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.

House Republican leaders in the past week have been mostly silent as pressure mounted to respond to the cascade of Ms. Greenes problematic social media posts and videos that have surfaced in the past week, in which she endorsed a seemingly endless array of conspiracy theories and violent behavior, including executing Democratic leaders. At the same time, they are weighing calls within their ranks by loyalists of former President Donald J. Trump to strip Representative Liz Cheney, the No. 3 Republican, of her leadership post as punishment for her vote to impeach Mr. Trump.

Meyer Vacation Rentals is proud to have the legitimate business practices, strength of brand and guest loyalty that allow us to be a perfect fit for this interface with Homes & Villas by Marriott International.

Showcasing a unique collection of private vacation residences throughout the world, Homes & Villas by Marriott International recently partnered with Gulf Shores, Ala.-based Meyer Vacation Rentals to promote Meyers premium vacation rental properties.

Meyer Vacation Rentals, serving families vacationing on the Alabama and Florida Gulf Coast since 1967, manages beach homes and condos in Gulf Shores, Fort Morgan and Orange Beach, Ala., and Perdido Key, Fla.

Homes & Villas by Marriott International partners with select professional home management companies that meet a strict set of requirements to ensure every home listed on its booking site can be served at a standard expected of Marriott International. Before listing a property on its site, Homes & Villas by Marriott International evaluates the potential partner as well as each individual property to ensure its standards are met.

Marriott requires each property listed to be professionally managed by a trusted property management partner that provides guests with a professionally cleaned home, 24/7 local support for assistance while staying at the property, high-speed Wi-Fi, premium linens and amenities, and family-friendly conveniences upon request.

Meyer Vacation Rentals underwent an intensive review process with Homes & Villas by Marriott International in order to be considered as an accommodations partner.

Meyer Vacation Rentals President Michelle Hodges said the analysis started with a company overview inspecting ownership structure, company background and history, website, property management system partner, total property count, and average daily rates.

Then, to dive deeper, we provided our liability insurance coverage as well as our audited financials for the previous two years along with key performance indicators, rental agreements, cancellation terms, financial flows, crisis management planssuch as for tropical occurrencesand more, Hodges said. Marriott does not take lightly sharing its guest base and vacation brand with any partner, and we are proud to have the legitimate business practices, strength of brand and guest loyalty that allow us to be a perfect fit for this interface with Homes & Villas by Marriott International.

Vacationers booking a Meyer Vacation Rentals property through Homes & Villas by Marriott International may redeem Marriott Bonvoy guest loyalty points toward the cost of their accommodations.

ABOUT MEYER VACATION RENTALS

With the responsibility of managing 1,000+ individually owned homes and condos in its vacation rental inventory and driven by an unwavering commitment to providing superior 24/7 service and support to vacation rental property owners and guests, since 1967 Meyer Vacation Rentals has assisted hundreds of thousands of vacationers stay, play and create lifelong memories along the Alabama and Florida Gulf Coast.
Update: More than 19K Michigan residents apply for tuition-free community college in first 24 hours

Michigan residents 25 and older who dont have a college degree can now apply for funding to cover community college tuition costs or skilled trades training scholarships.

The initiative, known as the Michigan Reconnect program, is being funded initially by a $30 million appropriation in the state budget that had bipartisan backing from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Republican-majority legislature.

To be eligible, applicants must least 25 years old, a Michigan resident for at least a year and have a high school diploma, but not a college degree. Scholarships funded by Michigan Reconnect will be accepted by all Michigan community colleges, although applicants who want to attend a community college outside of their district will only be covered for the in-district portion of their tuition.

The program pays the balance of tuition and mandatory fees after any other state and federal financial aid the applicant is eligible for is applied. The initiative also covers scholarships to private training schools for certificates in high-demand careers like manufacturing, construction, information technology, healthcare and business management.

Its unclear exactly how many people will take the state up on the offer, although state officials estimate more than 4.1 million Michigan residents could be eligible.

All Michiganders deserve a pathway to a good-paying job, whether they choose to pursue a college degree, technical certificate, or an apprenticeship, Whitmer said during a virtual news briefing Tuesday. Michigan Reconnect will connect thousands of Michiganders to good-paying jobs and connect businesses with the talent they need to thrive in their communities.

Whitmer initially pitched the program shortly after taking office. The idea earned support from lawmakers like Sen. Ken Horn, R-Frankenmuth, who said Michigan Reconnect will help fill gaps in the states workforce that are expected to widen as more workers retire.

Whitmers free-college plan: Would it really improve college graduation rates?

Even if Michigan were able to keep every high school student, every college graduate, it wouldnt be enough to fill out the states talent gap, Horn said. Our aim with Michigan Reconnect is to meet our states need by making it possible and affordable for working-age Michiganders to earn a degree or certificate.

Previously, the state offered a similar option for frontline workers through the Futures for Frontliners program, which was open to workers without an associate or bachelors degree who were deemed essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 120,000 residents applied to that program, Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Acting Director Susan Corbin said, adding that 30,000 of those applicants who didnt qualify as a frontline worker will automatically be made eligible for Michigan Reconnect.

25-year-old Lansing resident Shabaka Bailey said during the news conference he planned to apply to Michigan Reconnect to enroll in Lansing Community Colleges aviation program. Bailey, who said hes been laid off from work twice during the pandemic, said hed considered community college before, but couldnt afford to cover both his tuition and supporting his children.

The Michigan Reconnect program is a great opportunity for me to pursue my dream now...and allow me to make something of myself, he said.

Eligible Michigan residents can visit the Michigan Reconnect website for more information and to apply.

Related coverage:

Michigan front-line workers eligible for tuition-free community college under state program

Thousands of essential workers to attend GRCC for free through Futures for Frontliners program

Eastern Michigan University, Washtenaw Community College partner in Futures for Frontliners program
Social media sensation and TikTok celebrity CHANGHA was included in a TikTok billboard ad placed in central Tokyo - sending his 10 million followers on the video-sharing platform into a frenzy.

The famous South Korean content creator, known worldwide for his impressive visuals and entertaining regular content on the platform, was reportedly "honored and touched" by the support and love he received from the TikTok community, featuring him on a billboard at an exceptionally busy location.

Aside from being one of the most-followed content creators in TikTok, CHANGHA also has close to a million Instagram followers as well as a growing fanbase on his YouTube. The young social media sensation, also known as Jeon Changha, offers a variety of content aimed at being relatable and enjoyable for the younger generation. He mostly dances and produces short videos on TikTok. On YouTube, he posts a variety of content - ranging from game streams to his cover versions of popular songs, not just in Korean but also from other Asian nations.

Shortly after launching his TikTok page in December 2018, CHANGHA soon had a fan meeting event in Thailand and even served as an influencer with the Hallyu Com-On Swiss 2020, hosting an online date with his fans.

As for his cover series of popular songs, he has collaborated with some of K-Pop's rising and prominent artists including AOORA, BAE173, DKB, Cherry Bullet, and the rapper JESSI. His most recent work, the Korean version for the Indonesian song "Cintanya Aku" with Ari from the K-Pop girl group REDSQUARE, now has close to 35k views in less than 24 hours. His effort to sing some parts in its original language earned praises from his Indonesian fans, as well as those simply charmed by his and Ari's vocals.

Follow CHANGHA through his TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube channels.

RELATED ARTICLE: 3 TikTok Challenges by Your Favorite K-idols That You Can Try While Stuck at Home
MOUNTAIN VIEW (dpa-AFX) - Search giant Google has reached a $3.84 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor to resolve allegations of systemic compensation and hiring discrimination at the company's California and Washington State facilities. The disparities were found during a routine compliance evaluation by the labor department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The labor department had found pay disparities affecting female employees in software engineering positions at its facilities in Mountain View, Seattle and Kirkland. The agency also identified hiring rate differences that disadvantaged female and Asian applicants for software engineering positions at Google's locations in San Francisco, Sunnyvale and Kirkland. The settlement amount will be paid to more than 5,500 current employees and job applicants. It includes a total of $2.58 million in back pay and interest to 2,565 female employees in engineering positions subject to pay discrimination as well as 1,757 female and 1,219 Asian applicants for software engineering positions not hired. Additionally, an amount of at least 1.25 million will be set aside as cash reserve for pay-equity adjustments over the next five years for U.S. employees in engineering positions at Google's Mountain View, Kirkland, Seattle and New York establishments. Google has also agreed to enhance future compliance proactively and review its current policies, procedures and practices related to hiring, compensation; conduct analyses; and take corrective action to ensure non-discrimination. Google said in a statement, 'We believe everyone should be paid based upon the work they do, not who they are, and invest heavily to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and unbiased.' Recently, the National Labor Relations Board or NLRB filed a complaint against Google for violating US labor laws by spying on workers illegally and firing them following protests. The complaint relates to two employees, Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers, both of whom were fired by the company in late 2019 in connection with organizing employee protests. 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.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Snow showers are swirling from North Ridgeville to Macedonia, with winds gusting up to 30 mph and visibility dropping to three-quarters of a mile.

The National Weather Service has issued a special weather statement, warning of the fast-moving line of snow showers that will drop up to an inch of snow by 6:30 p.m.

Cities affected include Cleveland, Lorain, Elyria, Medina, Painesville, Willowick, Vermilion, Parma, Lakewood, Euclid, Mentor, Cleveland Heights, Strongsville, Brunswick, Westlake, North Royalton, North Ridgeville, Solon, Avon Lake and Willoughby.

The Weather Service urges commuters to use extra caution if they must travel, since rapid changes in visibility and slick roads could lead to accidents.

Related: How much snow fallen has since Sunday morning? Check out city-by-city snowfall totals

The Weather Service predicts light snow for the rest of Monday night, accumulating up to 3 inches.

NWS Meteorologist Doug Kahn says the next couple of hours will be the most intense, and then the snow will gradually decrease overnight.

For the next six hours, cities impacted will see one to two additional inches of snow until midnight or 1 a.m., Kahn says. After that, there will be light snow.

Cleveland.coms new snowfall predictor map also shows about 3 inches for by Tuesday morning for much of Northeast Ohio.

See more from todays snowstorm here.
Congress MLA Raminder Awla alleged that Akali supporters initiated the clash while Badal accused Awla of being behind the violence. The SAD also demanded Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's resignation over the alleged breakdown of law and order in the state

Chandigarh: SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal's car was damaged and four persons were injured on Tuesday in a clash between Congress and Akali workers during filing of nomination papers for Jalalabad municipal polls in Fazilka district, officials said.

Badal, however, escaped unhurt in the violence, they said.

Akali Dal Chief and Ferozepur MP Badal and his supporters reached Jalalabad administrative complex to file nomination forms of their party nominees for the municipal polls.

In the meantime, Congressmen accompanied by Jalalabad party MLA Raminder Awla's son also reached there to file nomination papers of their party men, SAD workers claimed.

The two groups got engaged in a verbal spat and the Congressmen later 'gheroed' Badal's vehicle to oppose him, triggering a violent clash during which the two groups pelted stones at each other, police said, adding some gunshots too were fired but it was yet to be ascertained who fired them.

The two groups also attacked each other with sticks, police said, adding several vehicles, including Sukhbir's car, were damaged.

Videos of stone-pelting on Sukhbir's car went viral on social media. Police lathi-charged the mob to disperse it.

MLA Raminder Awla, when contacted, accused Akali supporters of initiating the clash by breaking down the barricades and pushing Congressmen to intimidate them. Akalis fired gun-shots and used sticks, injuring two Congressmen, he alleged.

In his counter-allegation, Badal accused Awla of being behind the violence, adding that being a Member of Parliament from the area, he had gone there to boost the morale of party candidates at Jalalabad but the Congressmen attacked his car besides injuring three Akali workers.

Fazilka's Senior Superintendent of Police Harjit Singh said four people suffered injuries. One critically injured man was referred to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, he added.

We have controlled the situation and now all the aspirants are filing their nomination papers in a peaceful atmosphere, the SSP said. Further investigation is going on and accused will be taken to task, he added.

Later, while addressing workers, Badal lashed at the local Congress MLA as well as police. He sat on a 'dharna' at Shaheed Udham Singh Chowk, demanding the registration of a case against the guilty.

Meanwhile, SAD condemned the "murderous attack" on Akali workers and Badal by "police-backed Congress goons at Jalalabad and demanded Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's resignation over the alleged breakdown in the law and order situation in the state.

The party condemns the murderous attack on Akali workers &on SAD president S. Sukhbir Singh Badal by police- backed Cong goons in Jalalabad. The party demands @capt_amarinder s resignation for premeditated attempt on S. Badals life &he complete breakdown in law&order in Punjab. pic.twitter.com/460NVfTBRb  Shiromani Akali Dal (@Akali_Dal_) February 2, 2021

In a statement, party spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said, "It seems there was a premeditated attempt on the SAD president's life and the Jalalabad police was complicit in this crime as it allowed attackers a free run."

Alleging that the attack enjoyed state patronage, he also demanded a high-level judicial inquiry under the supervision of the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Asserting that democracy was being murdered in the state under Amarinder Singh's leadership with criminals ruling the roost, Cheema said the chief minister had lost the moral right to continue in his post.

He should put in his papers immediately, the SAD leader asserted while accusing the chief minister of being directly responsible for disturbing the peace and communal harmony of the state.

Elections to the eight municipal corporations and 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab will be held on 14 February.

Cheema said it was clear now that free and fair elections could not be held to the municipal bodies under these circumstances.

"The State Election Commission has also utterly failed to rein in rogue Congress elements. The SAD demands immediate deployment of paramilitary forces in the state as the Punjab police could not be trusted to do its duty. The Ferozepur SSP and all other police officials complicit in this crime should also be proceeded against immediately," Cheema added.
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Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 presented the Union Budget 2021 in Lok Sabha. And while the government announced a slew of tax reforms and an increase in healthcare spending, child health and protection experts are calling this year's budget the "worst for children in the last ten years".

Under the ninth budget of the Narendra Modi government, the finance minister proposed a sharp rise in capital expenditure for the next fiscal to Rs 5.54 lakh crore, from Rs 4.39 lakh crore in the current financial year. Several sectors, however, remained overlooked with one sector seeing a sharp decline in the allocation of funds - the budget for children.

Children of India receive only 2.46 percent of the total Union Budget 2021-22 (BE), a reduction from 3.16 percent in 2020 by HAQ Centre for Child Rights found in a report.

2020 took a severe took on child health, education, and protection in India. And yet, Budget 2021 has noted a decrease in spending across sectors when it comes to Budget for Children, be it in the department of healthcare, education, development or protection.

"The Budget for Children (BfC) was reduced by 16.22 percent at the stage of Revised Estimates (RE) in 2020-21," HAQ Foundation co-Director Kumar Shailab told News18. "This is the lowest it has been in ten years".

Despite the new implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on the safety and well being of children - concerns that were well acknowledged by various stakeholders including the judiciary and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Shailab who headed the team of researchers who created the Haq report, felt the Budget did not hold the best interest of children at heart.

While child health has received a boost, budgetary allocations for child education and protection has taken a severe dip.

"On one hand, India boasts about its young population and how the country is rich in human capital. But what will happen of this human capital if it doesn't allocate resources it needs to materialize its potential?" Shailab said.

Education

Coronavirus deeply impacted the global education of children. The number of out-of-school children is set to increase by 24 million that could reverse decades of progress. In India, the emergence of online education as an alternative for mainstream schooling revealed the problems faced by students, especially from marginalised sectors, due to unequal access to digital tools and internet. Last year also saw severe impact on women's education. With school closing and large-scale unemployment, many girl children dropped or were taken out of school.

Despite the special focus laid by the Finance Minister on the New Education Policy, 2020, during the Budget speech, the child education sector remains severely underfunded. A look at previous budgets shows that the share of budget allocation for child education has gone down from 2.18 percent in 2020-21 to 1.74 percent in 2021-22. The total budget for education has been slashed by 6 percent (Rs 6,000 crores) from last year. This year's allocation - Rs 93,224 crore - is the lowest in three years.

The allocation of funds for key flagship program like Samagra Shiksha has been reduced by 19.87 as opposed to the previous year. In fact, the entire Budget points toward negligence of the education sector with an allocation of funds for the Department of School Education and Literacy reducing by 9.71 percent against last year. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, which was allocated Rs 23 crores last year, also faced cuts with a Rs 21 crore budget allocation.

Protection

The coronavirus pandemic has also led to a recorded increase in sexual abuse and trafficking with women and children being most vulnerable to violence and abuse. Protection of children, nevertheless, remains least prioritized in terms of resource allocation with a mere 0.03 percent in the total Union Budget 2021-22.

Under the present budget, the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), one of the government's major flagship schemes for compounding child protection services, had been merged under Child Protection Services. The latter, along with Child Welfare Services, now constitutes "Mission Vatsalya", which has been allocated Rs 900 crore. "This is a huge shortfall of nearly 40 percent when measured against the allocation of Rs 1,500 crore to for ICPS alone in 2020-21," M Rammhohan, a Telangana based anti-trafficking activist and Director of HELP, told News18.

"What is even more surprising is that they have not allocated any funds specifically for victims of trafficking or abuse. Child protection is a wide sector that includes not just the upkeep of juvenile correctional or care homes and institutions for survivors of abuse, trafficking or violence but must also includes compensation for victims," Rammohan said.

The activist also pointed out that apart from reducing funding for child protection, the Budget had reduced funding for the Ministry of Women and Child Development as a whole. In 2020-21, Rs 25516.41 crore had been allocated to the ministry. In 2021, the amount has dropped to Rs 20400.6.

That's an over 20 percent decrease and is a cause for concern for agencies and institutions working on reducing gender violence promoting education among girl children.
WASHINGTON  As soon as this city began offering COVID vaccines to residents 65 and older, George Jones, whose nonprofit agency runs a medical clinic, noticed something striking.

Suddenly our clinic was full of white people, said Jones, the head of Bread for the City, which provides services to the poor. Wed never had that before. We serve people who are disproportionately African American.

Similar scenarios are unfolding around the country as states expand eligibility for the shots. Although low-income communities of color have been hit hardest by COVID-19, health officials in many cities say that people from wealthier, largely white neighborhoods have been flooding vaccination appointment systems and taking an outsized share of the limited supply.

People in underserved neighborhoods have been tripped up by a confluence of obstacles, including registration phone lines and websites that can take hours to navigate, and lack of transportation or time off from jobs to get to appointments. But also, skepticism about the shots continues to be pronounced in Black and Latino communities, depressing sign-up rates.

Early vaccination data is incomplete, but it points to the divide. In the first weeks of the rollout, 12% of people inoculated in Philadelphia have been Black, in a city whose population is 44% Black. In Miami-Dade County, just about 7% of the vaccine recipients have been Black, even though Black residents comprise nearly 17% of the population and are dying from COVID-19 at a rate that is more than 60% higher than that of white people. In data released last weekend for New York City, white people had received nearly half of the doses, while Black and Latino residents were starkly underrepresented based on their share of the population.

And in Washington, 40% of the nearly 7,000 appointments initially made available to people 65 and older were taken by residents of its wealthiest and whitest ward, which is in the citys upper northwest section and has had only 5% of its COVID deaths.

We want people regardless of their race and geography to be vaccinated, but I think the priority should be getting it to the people who are contracting COVID at the highest rates and dying from it, said Kenyan McDuffie, a member of the City Council whose district is two-thirds Black and Latino.

Alarmed, many cities are trying to rectify inequities. Baltimore will offer the shot in housing complexes for the elderly, going door-to-door.

The key with the mobile approach is you can get a lot of hard-hit folks at the same time  if we just get enough supply to do that, said the citys health commissioner, Dr. Letitia Dzirasa.

Officials in Wake County, North Carolina, which includes Raleigh, are first attempting to reach people 75 and older who live in nine ZIP codes that have had the highest rates of COVID.

We werent going to prioritize those who simply had the fastest internet service or best cell provider and got through fastest and first, said Stacy Beard, a county spokesperson.

Fixing the problem is tricky, however. Officials fear that singling out neighborhoods for priority access could invite lawsuits alleging race preference. To a large extent, the ability of localities to address inequities depends on how much control they have over their own vaccine allocations and whether their political leadership aligns with that of supervising county or state authorities.

The experiences of Dallas and the District of Columbia, for example, have resulted in very different outcomes. Dallas County, predominantly Democratic, has been thwarted by the state health department, under the aegis of a Republican governor, which quashed the countys plan to give vaccines to certain minority neighborhoods first. But Washington was able to quickly course-correct.

D.C. Pivots to Reach the More Vulnerable

A few days after its 65-and-older population became eligible for the vaccine on Jan. 11, McDuffie, the city councilman in the District of Columbia, flagged the issue of wealthier residents getting disproportionate access to the vaccine in a call with city officials. Overall, 74% of deaths and 48% of cases in Washington have been among Black residents, who make up 46% of the population; 11% of deaths and 25% of cases have been among white residents, who make up nearly the other half of the district.

By the end of that week, the city announced a new policy  offering the first day of new appointments to people in ZIP codes with the highest rates of infection and death from the virus. Under the new system, more appointments would be added a day later and people from other neighborhoods could sign up then. The city also quadrupled the number of workers helping people make appointments through its call center, to 200.

But email lists in wealthier neighborhoods lit up in protest.

It looked like maybe Ward 3 was being punished for being more computer savvy, said Mary Cheh, a city council member representing the ward, where houses in neighborhoods near American University or the Potomac River routinely sell for more than $2 million. I was inundated with emails from people who were just really angry about it.

The day after the policy change, Cheh wrote to her constituents, citing the data about the shots and saying that our anxiety to get one right away should not cloud the pursuit of equitable vaccine distribution.

When I sent out that note, people said, Oh thank you, I understand now, Cheh said. Still, she called the citys new system a very blunt instrument, and said it would be fairer to base need on an individuals risk, not an entire neighborhoods.

Adora Iris Lee, 70, lives in one of Washingtons priority neighborhoods  Congress Heights, part of Ward 8 in the districts southern area, which is heavily Black and has had the highest number of COVID deaths. She said she still had spent more than three hours on hold, but obtained appointments for herself and her mother, who is 93.

Being able to call at a time that was designated for us  I felt good about that, Lee said. People who live in Ward 3 and people who live in Ward 8, theyve got different social realities. This is no joke for us.

Still, Jones, of Bread for the City, said that even with the new system, hardly any of the people coming for shots at his clinic were its regular patients. The clinic started reaching out to its regulars and, with the citys permission, reserved all its first doses for them and for clients of other social service organizations last week.

Its not just a case of preserving the spots for people, Jones said. Somehow weve got to persuade them to use those spots.

Showdown in Dallas

Dallas Countys rollout plans for the vaccine included an inoculation hub in a neighborhood that is largely African American and Latino. But when the sign-up website went live, the link speedily circulated throughout white, wealthier districts in North Dallas.

Instead of getting a diverse sampling, we had a stampede of people who were younger and healthier than those who had initially gotten the links, said Judge Clayton Jenkins, head of the Dallas County Commissioners Court. Observers told commissioners that those in line were overwhelmingly white.

The county commissioners quietly contacted Black and Latino faith leaders in South Dallas, who encouraged constituents to show up for shots without appointments, as long as they offered proof that they were 75 and older.

That plan worked for a day or so.

Then city council people in North Dallas got calls and the mayor said it would be open to everyone over 75, Jenkins said. That led again to a huge stampede of people from the suburbs who had reliable cars.

John Wiley Price, a Dallas commissioner who represents voters in South Dallas, argued that the 27,000 people who had signed up from 11 vulnerable ZIP codes should be given the vaccine ahead of other neighborhoods. Already, more than 300,000 Dallas County residents had registered; the county was only receiving a weekly allocation of about 9,000 doses.

But when Jenkins inquired whether geographical priority would pass muster, state officials said that if Dallas proceeded with the plan, the state would withhold the countys supply.

According to a state health department spokesperson, inoculation hubs had to agree to vaccinate any Texan, because not every county has a site. If Dallas excluded residents by geography, providers would be in breach of contract.

Dallas backed down.

Persuading People to Get the Shot

Even successful efforts to target impoverished neighborhoods are running into another problem. Many Black and Latino people are hesitant to get the vaccine.

In Colorado, 1 of 16 white residents have received the vaccine so far, compared to 1 of 50 Latinos, who comprise 20% of the states population, according to a Colorado Springs newspaper, The Gazette.

There are a lot of Chicanos who are like, I want to wait, I have questions, I need some answers,  said Julie Gonzales, a state senator from Denver, who starts her workday sending condolences to constituents, many of them Latino, who have lost family members to the virus.

Public health experts and outreach campaigns need to be attuned to cultural nuances that differ among Latino generations, Gonzales said. Its one thing to speak to an old-school Chicano who has been here for generations versus someone who is concerned about whether ICE can find out their personal information if they try to get the vaccine, she said, referring to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

A tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, conducted just before President Joe Biden took office, found that while the share of people overall who wanted to get the vaccine as soon as possible has increased since December, 43% of Black adults and 37% of Hispanic adults said they wanted to wait and see how its working, compared with 26% of white adults.

When initial statistics in Philadelphia showed that only 12% of vaccine recipients were Black, city health officials recoiled. Blindsided by an inexperienced startup company whose vaccination strategies faltered, health officials also attributed the low numbers to hesitation among city nursing home workers and hospital aides, many of whom are Black.

Now that the city has expanded eligibility, it is hopeful that the distribution will become more equitable. The vaccine is going to residents with high-risk medical conditions, as well as first responders, people who work in public transit and those in retail and food service jobs who come into contact with the public.

Many of these are people who are paid less, tend to be from communities of color and are at high risk because they are exposed to lots of people, said James Garrow, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Mixed Success as Outreach Expands

Some cities now provide vaccination pop-up clinics in Black churches. Denver is directing doses to community clinics that serve the underinsured.

Dallas has a new bilingual call center. Still, according to the latest county data, white people, who make up 28.5% of Dallas population, have gotten 62.6% of its vaccine doses.

Even in Washington, D.C., frustrations linger despite clear progress. Last week, city officials announced results of their tweaked distribution plan: Just over half of shots have now gone to residents of neighborhoods given priority, up from 29.6% during the first week that older people were vaccinated.

Yet, during a daylong session last week, council members heard pained accounts from people like Janett Gasaway, 77, who still has not been able to get vaccine appointments for herself or her 89-year-old husband. Despite multiple calls  she on their landline, he on his cellphone  on the days that appointments are offered to the most vulnerable ZIP codes, they havent succeeded. On Thursday, 1,745 appointments were gone in 18 minutes.

It is not working, she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
2020 was a difficult year for everyone, especially newly minted attorneys. Many of them were too young to be directly impacted by The Great Recession. This podcast promotes stories of resilience for junior attorneys, so they too can bounce back from setbacks and ultimately thrive in their careers.

Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), the worlds leading legal search firm, has launched a new podcast: Bouncing Back: Resilience for Lawyers. Each month, host Rebecca Glatzer chats with lawyers and other professionals about how they have overcome challenges and are now thriving in their careers.

The first episode features Manita Rawat, Silicon Valley office managing partner for Duane Morris LLP, as she talks about getting laid off during The Great Recession and learning to build a book of business during the aftermath of that experience, leading to a successful legal career.

2020 was a difficult year for everyone, especially newly minted attorneys. Many of them were too young to be directly impacted by The Great Recession, said Rebecca Glatzer. This podcast promotes stories of resilience for junior attorneys, so they too can bounce back from setbacks and ultimately thrive in their careers.

To listen to the podcast, visit MLAGlobal.com, SoundCloud, Google Podcasts, iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you would like to provide feedback, suggest topics or be considered as a guest, email Rebecca Glatzer at rglatzer@mlaglobal.com.

About Major, Lindsey & Africa

Major, Lindsey & Africa is the worlds leading legal search firm. The firm, founded in 1982, offers a range of specialized legal recruiting and advisory services to meet the ever-changing needs of law firms and legal departments and to support the career aspirations of talented lawyers and legal and compliance professionals. With more than 25 offices and 200-plus search consultants around the world, Major, Lindsey & Africa uses its market knowledge and experience to partner with organizations to fulfill their legal talent needs and provide solutions to increase team efficiency and effectiveness. Major, Lindsey & Africa is an Allegis Group company, the global leader in talent solutions.

To learn more about Major, Lindsey & Africa, visit http://www.mlaglobal.com
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The communication of the attached supplemental information circular and any other document or materials relating to the issue of

the securities offered hereby is not being made, and such documents and/or materials have not been approved, by an authorized

person for the purposes of section 21 of the United Kingdoms Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as amended. Accordingly,

such documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United

Kingdom. The communication of such documents and/or materials as a financial promotion is only being made to those persons in

the United Kingdom who have professional experience in matters relating to investments and who fall within the definition of

investment professionals (as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order

2005, as amended, (the Financial Promotion Order)), or who fall within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Financial Promotion

Order, or who are any other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be made under the Financial Promotion Order (all such

persons together being referred to as relevant persons). In the United Kingdom, the Securities offered hereby are only available

to, and any investment or investment activity to which the attached supplemental information circular relates will be engaged in

only with, relevant persons. Any person in the United Kingdom that is not a relevant person should not act or rely on the attached

supplemental information circular or any of its contents. This document is confidential and is being supplied to you solely for your

information and may not be reproduced, redistributed or passed on to any other person or published, in whole or in part, for any

other purpose.



Notification under Section 309B(1)(c) of the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289 of Singapore (the SFA)  the Notes are

prescribed capital markets products (as defined in the Securities and Futures (Capital Markets Products) Regulations 2018 of

Singapore) and Excluded Investment Products (as defined in MAS Notice SFA 04-N12: Notice on the Sale of Investment Products

and MAS Notice FAA-N16: Notice on Recommendations on Investment Products).



You are reminded that the attached supplemental information circular has been delivered to you on the basis that you are a person

into whose possession this supplemental information circular may be lawfully delivered in accordance with the laws of jurisdiction

in which you are located and you may not, nor are you authorized to, deliver this supplemental information circular to any other

person.



The materials relating to the offering do not constitute, and may not be used in connection with, an offer or solicitation in any place

where offers or solicitations are not permitted by law.



This supplemental information circular has been sent to you in an electronic form. You are reminded that documents transmitted via

this medium may be altered or changed during the process of electronic transmission and consequently none of us, or any person

who controls us or any director, officer, employee or agent of it or affiliate of any such person accepts any liability or responsibility

whatsoever in respect of any difference between the supplemental information circular distributed to you in electronic format and

the hard copy version available to you on request from any of us.



You are responsible for protecting against viruses and other destructive items. Your use of this e-mail is at your own risk and it

is your responsibility to take precautions to ensure that it is free from viruses and other items of a destructive nature.





Supplemental Information Circular



(to the Offering Circular, dated December 12, 2019) Strictly Confidential















GUANGDONG  HONG KONG GREATER BAY AREA



HOLDINGS LIMITED



        



(Incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability)



Additional US$13,500,000 of 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021



(to be consolidated with the outstanding US$193,500,000 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021

issued on December 19, 2019, the outstanding US$50,000,000 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021

issued on January 6, 2020, the outstanding US$13,000,000 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021

issued on October 30, 2020 and the outstanding US$23,500,000 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021

issued on November 25, 2020)



Issue Price: 101.90% plus accrued interest from (and including)



December 19, 2020 to (but excluding) January 29, 2021



Guangdong  Hong Kong Greater Bay Area Holdings Limited, formerly known as Hydoo International Holding Limited, (the Company) is issuing 14.0% Senior

Notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount of US$13,500,000 (the New Notes). The New Notes will be consolidated and form a single class with the 14.0% Senior

Notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount of US$193,500,000 issued by the Company on December 19, 2019 (the Original Notes), the 14.0% Senior Notes due 2021

in the aggregate principal amount of US$50,000,000 issued by the Company on January 6, 2020, the 14.0% Senior Notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount of

US$13,000,000 issued by the Company on October 30, 2020 and the 14% Senior Notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount of US$23,500,000 issued by the Company on

November 25, 2020 (together with the Original Notes, the Existing Notes and, together with the New Notes, the Notes). The Notes will bear interest at the rate of 14.0%

per annum, payable semi-annually in arrears on June 19 and December 19 of each year, beginning June 19, 2021. The Notes will mature on December 19, 2021. The New Notes

have the same terms and conditions as the Existing Notes in all respects except for issue date and issue price. Upon completion of this offering, the aggregate principal amount

of the outstanding Notes will be US$293,500,000.



The New Notes will be issued under the indenture dated December 19, 2019 (the Indenture) governing our Existing Notes. Terms not defined in this Supplemental

Information Circular have the meanings given to them in the Offering Circular, dated December 12, 2019 (the Offering Circular).







The Notes are senior obligations of the Company, guaranteed by certain of our existing subsidiaries (the Subsidiary Guarantors), other than (1) those organized

under the laws of the Peoples Republic of China and (2) certain other subsidiaries specified in Description of the New Notes in the Offering Circular. We refer to the

guarantees by the Subsidiary Guarantors as the Subsidiary Guarantees. Under certain circumstances and subject to certain conditions, a Subsidiary Guarantee required to be

provided by a subsidiary of the Company may be replaced by a limited-recourse guarantee (the JV Subsidiary Guarantee). We refer to the subsidiaries providing a JV

Subsidiary Guarantee as JV Subsidiary Guarantors.



At any time and from time to time prior to December 19, 2021, we may redeem up to 35% of the aggregate principal amount of the Notes with the net cash proceeds of

one or more sales of common stock of the Company at a redemption price of 114.00% of the principal amount of the Notes redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to

(but not including) the redemption date. In addition, we may redeem the Notes, in whole but not in part, at any time prior to December 19, 2021, at a redemption price equal to

102.236% of the principal amount of the Notes redeemed plus a premium as set forth in this Supplemental Information Circular plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to (but

not including) the redemption date. Upon the occurrence of a Change of Control Triggering Event, we must make an offer to repurchase all Notes outstanding at a purchase price

equal to 101% of their principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to (but not including) the date of repurchase.



The Notes will (1) be senior in right of payment to any existing and future obligations of the Company expressly subordinated in right of payment to the Notes, (2) be at

least pari passu in right of payment with all other unsecured, unsubordinated indebtedness of the Company (subject to any priority rights of such unsecured, unsubordinated

Indebtedness pursuant to applicable law), (3) guaranteed by the Subsidiary Guarantors and JV Subsidiary Guarantors (if any) on a senior basis, subject to certain limitations, (4)

be effectively subordinated to secured obligations (if any, other than Permitted Pari Passu Secured Indebtedness) of the Company, the Subsidiary Guarantors and the JV

Subsidiary Guarantors (if any), to the extent of the value of the assets serving as security therefor and (5) be effectively subordinated to all existing and future obligations of the

Non-Guarantor Subsidiaries. In addition, applicable law may limit the enforceability of the Subsidiary Guarantees and the JV Subsidiary Guarantees (if any). See Risk Factors 

Risks Relating to the Subsidiary Guarantees and the JV Subsidiary Guarantees in the Offering Circular.



For a more detailed description of the Notes, see Description of the New Notes in the Offering Circular.



Investing in the New Notes involves risks. See Risk Factors in the accompanying Offering Circular.



The Existing Notes are listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the SGX-ST) and application will be made for the listing and quotation of the

New Notes on the Official List of the SGX-ST. The SGX-ST assumes no responsibility for the correctness of any of the statements made or opinions expressed or reports

contained in this Supplemental Information Circular. Admission of the New Notes to the Official List of the SGX-ST or the listing and quotation of any New Notes on the SGXST

are not to be taken as an indication of the merits of the offering, the Company, the Subsidiary Guarantors, the JV Subsidiary Guarantors or any of their respective subsidiaries

or associated companies, the New Notes, the Subsidiary Guarantees or the JV Subsidiary Guarantees. The Notes will be traded on the SGX-ST in a minimum board lot size of

US$200,000 for so long as the Notes are listed on the SGX-ST and the rules of the SGX-ST so require.



Notification under Section 309B(1)(c) of the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289 of Singapore (the SFA)  the Notes are prescribed capital markets products (as

defined in the Securities and Futures (Capital Markets Products) Regulations 2018 of Singapore) and Excluded Investment Products (as defined in MAS Notice SFA 04-N12:

Notice on the Sale of Investment Products and MAS Notice FAA-N16: Notice on Recommendations on Investment Products).



Fitch Ratings Ltd. (Fitch) has assigned a corporate rating of B- to the Company with a stable outlook. The Existing Notes are rated B- by Fitch and we do not

expect the ratings to change as a result of the issuance of the New Notes. These ratings do not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell or hold the New Notes and may be subject

to suspension, reduction or withdrawal at any time by the relevant rating organization.







With reference to the Notice on Promoting the Reform of the Filing and Registration System for Issuance of Foreign Debts by Enterprises ( 

) promulgated by National Development and Reform Commission (the NDRC) of the PRC on September 14, 2015 which came

into effect on the same day, we have registered the proposed issuance of the New Notes with the NDRC and obtained a certificate from the NDRC dated March 13, 2020

evidencing such registration and we will cause relevant information relating to the issue of the New Notes to be reported to the NDRC within 10 working days after the issue

date of the New Notes.







The New Notes, the Subsidiary Guarantees and the JV Subsidiary Guarantees have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of

1933, as amended (the Securities Act), and may not be offered or sold within the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject

to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. The New Notes are being offered and sold only outside the United States in

offshore transactions in accordance with Regulation S under the Securities Act. For a description of certain restrictions on resale or transfer, see Transfer

Restrictions in the Offering Circular.



It is expected that the delivery of the New Notes will be made through the facilities of Euroclear Bank SA/NV (Euroclear) and Clearstream Banking S.A. (Clearstream), on or

about January 29, 2021 against payment therefor in immediately available funds.











The date of this Supplemental Information Circular is January 27, 2021





You should rely only on the information contained in this Supplemental Information Circular

and the Offering Circular. The Offering Circular contains important information with respect to an

investment in the New Notes. This Supplemental Information Circular is not complete without the

Offering Circular. Terms not defined in this Supplemental Information Circular have the meanings

assigned to them in the Offering Circular. To the extent any information in this Supplemental

Information Circular (including any information incorporated by reference in it) is inconsistent

with the Offering Circular, you should rely on this Supplemental Information Circular, including

information incorporated by reference. We have not authorized any other person to provide you with

different information. If anyone provides you with different or inconsistent information, you should

not rely on it. We are not making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer

or sale is not permitted. You should assume that the information appearing in this Supplemental

Information Circular and the Offering Circular is accurate only as of their respective dates. Our

business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since those

dates.







The Supplemental Information Circular should be read and construed in conjunction with the

audited consolidated financial statements of the Group for the year ended December 31, 2019 with

independent auditors report thereon (collectively, the Audited Financial Statements), which are

contained in the annual report of the Company, which was published on the website of The Stock

Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the Stock Exchange) on April 17, 2020 (available at

https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0417/2020041700954.pdf). The Audited

Financial Statements shall be deemed to be incorporated in, and form part of the Supplemental

Information Circular.







The Supplemental Information Circular should also be read and construed in conjunction with

the 2020 Interim Results (as defined herein), which was published on the website of the Stock

Exchange on September 15, 2020 (available at

https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0915/2020091500482.pdf ). The 2020

Interim Results shall be deemed to be incorporated in, and form a part of the Supplemental

Information Circular. The 2020 Interim Results have not been audited by our independent

accountants or any other independent accountants and may be subject to adjustment if audited. The

2020 Interim Results may not be indicative of our future performance and results of operations.

Consequently, potential investors must exercise caution when using such information to evaluate

our financial condition and results of operations.







We are relying on an exemption from registration under the Securities Act for offers and sales

of securities that do not involve a public offering. By purchasing the New Notes, you will be deemed

to have made the acknowledgments, representations, warranties and agreements described under

Notice to Investors in the Offering Circular. You should understand that you will be required to

bear the financial risks of your investment for an indefinite period of time.







This Supplemental Information Circular, together with the Offering Circular, may only be

used in connection with an investment in the New Notes. We have not authorized its use for any

other purpose. This Supplemental Information Circular and the Offering Circular may not be copied

or reproduced in whole or in part. They may be distributed and their contents disclosed only to the

prospective investor to whom this is provided. By accepting delivery of this Supplemental

Information Circular and the Offering Circular, you agree to these restrictions. See Notice to

Investors in the Offering Circular.









This Supplemental Information Circular and the Offering Circular contain information

provided by other sources that we believe are reliable. We cannot assure you that information from

other sources is accurate or complete. This Supplemental Information Circular and the Offering

Circular summarize certain documents and other information and we refer you to them for a more

complete understanding of what we discuss in this Supplemental Information Circular and the

Offering Circular. In making an investment decision, you must rely on your own examination of us

and the terms of the offering and the New Notes, including the merits and risks involved.







No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by us or the Trustee to any purchaser of the

New Notes as to the accuracy or completeness of the information set forth herein, or regarding the

legality of an investment in the New Notes by such purchaser under any legal, investment or similar

laws or regulations. You should not consider any information in this Supplemental Information

Circular and the Offering Circular to be legal, business or tax advice. You should consult your own

attorney, business advisor and tax advisor for legal, business and tax advice regarding an investment

in the New Notes.







We have prepared this Supplemental Information Circular and we are solely responsible for its

contents. You are responsible for making your own examination of us and your own assessment of the

merits and risks of investing in the New Notes. By purchasing the New Notes, you will be deemed to have

acknowledged that you have made certain acknowledgements, representations and agreements as set forth

under the section entitled Transfer Restrictions below.







You should contact us with any questions about this offering or for additional information to

verify the information contained in this Supplemental Information Circular and the Offering

Circular.







Neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission

nor any other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved of these securities nor have any of

the foregoing authorities passed judgment upon or endorsed the merits of this offering or

determined if this Supplemental Information Circular and the Offering Circular are truthful or

complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.







Notification under Section 309B(1)(c) of the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289 of

Singapore (the SFA)  the Notes are prescribed capital markets products (as defined in the

Securities and Futures (Capital Markets Products) Regulations 2018 of Singapore) and Excluded

Investment Products (as defined in MAS Notice SFA 04-N12: Notice on the Sale of Investment

Products and MAS Notice FAA-N16: Notice on Recommendations on Investment Products).







We reserve the right to withdraw the proposed issuance of the New Notes at any time.









RECENT DEVELOPMENTS







Audited Consolidated Financial Statements for the Year Ended December 31, 2019







On April 17, 2020, we released the 2019 annual results in accordance with the rules of the Stock

Exchange as applicable to us, which included audited consolidated financial statements of the Group for

the year ended December 31, 2019 with independent auditors report thereon . This Supplemental

Information Circular should be read and construed in conjunction with the Audited Financial Statements,

which have been published on the website of the Stock Exchange on April 17, 2020 (available at

https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0417/2020041700954.pdf). The Audited

Financial Statements shall be deemed to be incorporated in, and form part of the Supplemental

Information Circular.







Unaudited Consolidated Interim Results for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2020







On September 15, 2020, we released the 2020 interim results in accordance with the rules of the

Stock Exchange as applicable to us, which included unaudited consolidated interim results of the Group

for the six months ended June 30, 2020 (the "2020 Interim Results"). The Supplemental Information

Circular should be read and construed in conjunction with the 2020 Interim Results, which have been

published on the website of the Stock Exchange on September 15, 2020 (available at

https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0915/2020091500482.pdf). The 2020

Interim Results shall be deemed to be incorporated in, and form a part of the Supplemental Information

Circular. The 2020 Interim Results have not been audited by our independent accountants or any other

independent accountants and may be subject to adjustment if audited. The 2020 Interim Results may not

be indicative of our future performance and results of operation. Consequently, potential investors must

exercise caution when using such information to evaluate our financial condition and results of operations.







Issuance of Additional Notes







On January 6, 2020, we issued 14.0% senior notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount of

US$50,000,000, on October 30, 2020, we issued 14.0% senior notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount

of US$13,000,000, and on November 25, 2020, we further issued 14.0% senior notes due 2021 in the aggregate

principal amount of US$23,500,000 (together with the Original Notes, the Existing Notes), which was

consolidated and formed a single class with the Original Notes.







Redemption of the 2020 Notes







On May 11, 2020, we fully redeemed the outstanding 12% senior notes due 2020 (ISIN:

XS1809865378) issued by the Company.







Appointment of Executive Director, Change of Chief Executive Officer and Other Change on the

Board of the Company







On June 9, 2020, Mr. Yang Sanming () was appointed as an executive director and chief

executive officer of the Company. Mr. Cai Hongwen () resigned as chief executive officer of the

Company, but he remains as an executive director and a co-chairman of the board of the Company. Mr. Yang

is a senior engineer and an architect, is engaged in construction and real estate industry for 24 years. Mr.

Yang obtained a bachelor degree in architectural engineering from Tongji University in the PRC and an

executive master of business administration (EMBA) from China Europe International Business School.

Separately, following the passing away of Mr. Zhao Lihua (), who had been an independent nonexecutive

director of the Company, on December 23, 2020, the board of the Company includes only two

independent non-executive directors. The Company is endeavoring to identify a suitable candidate to be

appointed as soon as practicable.













Change of Company Name







On July 14, 2020, our English name was changed from Hydoo International Holding Limited

to Guangdong  Hong Kong Greater Bay Area Holdings Limited and our Chinese name was changed

from  to .







Acquisitions of Urban Renewal Projects in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province







On October 23, 2020 and November 11, 2020, we acquired equity interests of three target

companies from independent third parties for a total consideration of approximately RMB334.20 million

(US$50.75 million). The target companies hold three land parcels in Dongguan city of the PRC. One of

the land parcels is approximately 19,000 sq.m. with a GFA of approximately 64,000 sq.m., the other

land parcel is approximately 15,300 sq.m. with a GFA of approximately 62,000 sq.m., while the last

land parcel is approximately 26,000 sq.m. with a GFA of approximately 93,400 sq.m. . The land parcels

are part of the Three-old transformation () plan of Dongguan city. We intend to redevelop the

land for residential and/or commercial use.







Acquisition of The Target Projects in Guizhou Province







On November 30, 2020, we acquired equity interests of a target company from independent third

parties for a total consideration of approximately HK$188.27 million (equivalent to approximately US$24.29

million). The target company and its subsidiaries are currently developing two projects in Guizhou Province

of the PRC. One residential project is located in Xishui, Guizhou Province of the PRC and is currently under

development with a site area of approximately 48,000 sq.m. and a GFA of approximately 190,000 sq.m.

(among which, the saleable area is approximately 140,000 sq.m.), while the other residential and commercial

project is located at Renhuai, Guizhou Province of the PRC and is currently under development with a site

area of approximately 72,000 sq.m. with a GFA of approximately 320,000 sq.m. (among which the saleable

area is approximately 250,000 sq.m.).







Acquisition of Land Use Rights in Heyuan City, Guangdong Province







On December 24, 2020, we participated in the listing-for-sale bidding process of the land use rights

of 12 parcels of land in Heyuan City, Guangdong Province of the PRC and successfully won the bid for the

land parcels at a total consideration of approximately RMB366.6 million (equivalent to approximately

US$56.14 million). The aggregate site area of the land parcels is approximately 197,000 sq.m. with an

estimated GFA of 430,000 sq.m., and the use of the land parcels is for residential and commercial use.









USE OF PROCEEDS







We estimate that the gross proceeds from this offering, including accrued interest from (and

including) December 19, 2020 to (but excluding) January 29, 2021, before deducting estimated expenses

payable in connection with this offering, will be approximately US$13,966,500. We intend to use the net

proceeds primarily for repayment of debts, financing acquisition or development of assets or property in the

ordinary course of business, and for general corporate purposes.







Pending application of the net proceeds of this offering, we intend to invest such net proceeds

in Temporary Cash Investments as defined under Description of the New Notes in the Offering

Circular.







DESCRIPTION OF THE NOTES







The following provisions should be read in conjunction with the section entitled Description

of the New Notes in the Offering Circular.







The Company will issue the New Notes as Additional Notes under the Indenture.







The Company is issuing US$13,500,000 aggregate principal amount of New Notes in this

offering. The New Notes constitute Additional Notes under the Indenture and are identical in all

respects to the Existing Notes, other than with respect to date of issuance and issue price, and will

be consolidated and form a single class with the Existing Notes. Upon completion of this issuance,

the aggregate principal amount of outstanding New Notes and Existing Notes will be

US$293,500,000. Interest on the New Notes will accrue from December 19, 2020. All references to

the New Notes in the Offering Circular include the New Notes and Existing Notes, except as

otherwise stated.







The New Notes issued in reliance on Regulation S will have the same ISINs and common codes

as those that are assigned to the Existing Notes previously sold to investors in reliance on

Regulation S. The New Notes will be subject to restrictions on transferability and resale and may

not be transferred or resold except as permitted under the Securities Act and applicable state

securities laws or exemption therefrom.







Unless otherwise defined below, you can find the definitions of terms used in this section

under Description of the New Notes  Definitions in the Offering Circular.









TRANSFER RESTRICTIONS







TRANSFER RESTRICTIONS







Because of the following restrictions, we encourage you to consult legal counsel prior to making any offer,

resale, pledge or other transfer of the New Notes.







The New Notes are subject to restrictions on transfer as summarized below. By purchasing the New Notes, you

will be deemed to have made the following acknowledgements, representations to, and agreements with, us.







(1) You understand and acknowledge that:

. the New Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any other applicable

securities laws;

. the New Notes are being offered for resale in transactions that do not require registration under

the Securities Act or any other securities laws; and

. the New Notes are being offered and sold only outside the United States in offshore

transactions in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act.









(2) You represent that you are not an affiliate (as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act) of ours, and

you are purchasing the New Notes in an offshore transaction in accordance with Regulation S under the

Securities Act.









(3) You acknowledge that neither we nor any person representing us has made any representation to you

with respect to us or the offering of the New Notes, other than the information contained in this

supplemental information circular. You represent that you are relying only on this supplemental

information circular in making your investment decision with respect to the New Notes. You agree that

you have had access to such financial and other information concerning us and the New Notes as you

have deemed necessary in connection with your decision to purchase the New Notes including an

opportunity to ask questions of and request information from us.









(4) You represent that you are purchasing the New Notes for your own account, or for one or more

investor accounts for which you are acting as a fiduciary or agent, in each case not with a view to, or

for offer or sale in connection with, any distribution of the New Notes in violation of the Securities Act.









(5) You acknowledge that we, the Trustee, the Paying and Transfer Agent and others will rely upon the

truth and accuracy of the above acknowledgments, representations and agreements. You agree that if

any of the acknowledgments, representations or agreements you are deemed to have made by your

purchase of the New Notes is no longer accurate, you will promptly notify us, the Trustee and the

Paying and Transfer Agent. If you are purchasing any New Notes as a fiduciary or agent for one or

more investor accounts, you represent that you have sole investment discretion with respect to each of

those accounts and that you have full power to make the above acknowledgments, representations and

agreements on behalf of each account.









(6) You also acknowledge that this supplemental information circular has not been, and will not be,

registered as a prospectus with the MAS. Accordingly, you have represented, warranted and agreed that

you have not circulated or distributed, nor will you circulate or distribute, this supplemental

information circular or any other document or material in connection with the offer or sale, or

invitation for subscription or purchase, of the New Notes, and have not offered or sold any New Notes

or caused any New Notes to be made the subject of an invitation for subscription or purchase and will

not offer or sell any New Notes or cause any New Notes to be made the subject of an invitation for

subscription or purchase, whether directly or indirectly, to any person in Singapore other than (i) to an

institutional investor (as defined in Section 4A of the SFA) pursuant to Section 274 of the SFA, (ii) to a

relevant person (as defined in Section 275(2) of the SFA) pursuant to Section 275(1) of the SFA, or

any person pursuant to Section 275(1A) of the SFA, and in accordance with the conditions specified in

Section 275 of the SFA and (where applicable) Regulation 3 of the Securities and Futures (Classes of

Investors) Regulations 2018 of Singapore or (iii) otherwise pursuant to, and in accordance with the

conditions of, any other applicable provision of the SFA.







UPDATE ON RISK FACTORS







You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and other information contained in

this offering circular before making an investment decision. The risks and uncertainties described below may

not be the only ones that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are not aware of or that we

currently believe are immaterial may also adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of

operations. If any of the possible events described below occur, our business, financial condition or results of

operations could be materially and adversely affected. In such case, we may not be able to satisfy our

obligations under the New Notes, and you could lose all or part of your investment.







Risks Relating to Our Business and Industry







We face risks related to health epidemics and other outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic







Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of the Ebola virus, H1N1 flu, H5N1 avian flu,

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, COVID-19 or other epidemics or outbreaks. In particular, the

outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 has endangered the health of many people in China and other countries,

resulting in numerous confirmed cases and deaths and significantly disrupted travels and local economies in and

outside of China. To prevent further transmission of COVID-19, the PRC government has adopted a series of

measures nationwide, including, among others, locking down cities, restrictions on enterprises from resuming

work, traffic control, travel bans, management and control over commencement and delivery schedules of

businesses. Therefore, we are subject to certain risks, which include, among others, (i) we may incur extra costs

in relation to our precautionary measures and disinfection works carried out by us at our properties and offices;

and (ii) we may be required to quarantine some or all of our employees, or disinfect the properties and offices to

prevent the spread of the disease if any of our employees were suspected of contracting or contracted an

epidemic disease. The occurrence of any of the above events may adversely affect our operations. Furthermore,

such adverse epidemics may severely affect and restrict the level of economic activity in China as the

government in each region we operate may impose regulatory or administrative measures quarantining affected

areas or other measures to control the outbreak of the infectious disease, which together with the disruption of

business in major industries may adversely affect the overall business sentiment and environment in China,

which can in turn affect consumers purchasing power in the affected areas and, therefore, reduce demand for

our products. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the world have imposed travel

restrictions and/or lockdown to contain its transmission. There is no assurance that the current containment

measures will be effective in halting the pandemic. The reduction in demand and supply may adversely and

materially affect economic growth globally. Any prolonged occurrence or recurrence of these pandemic

diseases or other adverse public health developments in China, or the fear of such development, may have a

material adverse effect on our business and operations. These could include our ability to develop, sell and

deliver commercial and residential properties in our trade centres, as well as temporary closure of our trade

centres for quarantine or preventive purposes, which in turn may materially and adversely affect our business,

financial condition and results of operations.









ISSUER







Guangdong  Hong Kong Greater Bay Area Holdings Limited







Registered Office



PO Box 309, Ugland House

Grand Cayman KY1-1104

Cayman Islands



Principal Place of Business in Hong Kong



Suite 2305, 23/F, Prudential Tower



The Gateway, Harbour City, Kowloon



Hong Kong







TRUSTEE PAYING AND TRANSFER AGENT AND REGISTRAR







Citicorp International Limited

20/F, Citi Tower, One Bay East

83 Hoi Bun Road, Kwun Tong

Kowloon, Hong Kong



Citibank, N.A., London Branch

c/o Citibank, N.A., Dublin Branch

One North Wall Quay, Dublin 1



Ireland







LEGAL ADVISORS TO THE ISSUER







as to U.S. Federal Securities, New York and Hong Kong law:







DLA Piper Hong Kong



25th Floor, Three Exchange Square

8 Connaught Place, Central



Hong Kong



DLA Piper Singapore Pte. Ltd.



80 Raffles Place



UOB Plaza 1, #48-01



Singapore 048624







as to British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands law:







Maples and Calder (Hong Kong) LLP



26th Floor, Central Plaza



18 Harbour Road, Wanchai



Hong Kong





 IMPORTANT NOTICENOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATESIMPORTANT: You must read the following before continuing. The following applies to the supplemental information circularfollowing this page, and you are therefore advised to read this carefully before reading, accessing or making any other use of thesupplemental information circular. In accessing the supplemental information circular, you agree to be bound by the following termsand conditions, including any modifications to them any time you receive any information from us as a result of such access.NOTHING IN THIS ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION CONSTITUTES AN OFFER OF SECURITIES FOR SALE IN THE UNITEDSTATES OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO DO SO. THE SECURITIES HAVE NOT BEEN, ANDWILL NOT BE, REGISTERED UNDER THE U.S. SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED (THE SECURITIES ACT), OR THESECURITIES LAWS OF ANY STATE OF THE UNITED STATES OR OTHER JURISDICTION AND THE SECURITIES MAY NOTBE OFFERED, SOLD OR OTHERWISE TRANSFERRED WITHIN THE UNITED STATES, EXCEPT PURSUANT TO ANEXEMPTION FROM, OR IN A TRANSACTION NOT SUBJECT TO, THE REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS OF THE SECURITIESACT AND APPLICABLE STATE OR LOCAL SECURITIES LAWS.THE FOLLOWING SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION CIRCULAR MAY NOT BE FORWARDED OR DISTRIBUTED TO ANYOTHER PERSON AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY MANNER WHATSOEVER, AND IN PARTICULAR, MAY NOT BEFORWARDED TO ANY U.S. ADDRESS. ANY FORWARDING, DISTRIBUTION OR REPRODUCTION OF THIS DOCUMENT INWHOLE OR IN PART IS UNAUTHORIZED. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS DIRECTIVE MAY RESULT IN A VIOLATION OFTHE SECURITIES ACT OR THE APPLICABLE LAWS OF OTHER JURISDICTIONS. IF YOU HAVE GAINED ACCESS TO THISTRANSMISSION CONTRARY TO ANY OF THE FOREGOING RESTRICTIONS, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED AND WILL NOTBE ABLE TO PURCHASE ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN.The following supplemental information circular is not a prospectus for the purposes of the European Unions Regulation (EU)2017/1129.The target market for the Securities by the managers who are distributors is eligible counterparties and professional clients only,each as defined in Directive 2014/65/EU (as amended, MiFID II); and all channels for distribution of the Securities to eligiblecounterparties and professional clients are appropriate.Confirmation and your representation: In order to be eligible to view this supplemental information circular or make aninvestment decision with respect to the securities, investors must be outside the United States. By accepting the e-mail andaccessing this supplemental information circular, you shall be deemed to have represented to us that (1) any customers yourepresent are outside the United States and the e-mail address that you gave us and to which this e-mail has been delivered is notlocated in the U.S. and (2) that you consent to delivery of such supplemental information circular by electronic transmission.Prohibition of Sales to EEA Retail Investors  The securities are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made availableto and should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the European Economic Area (the EEA).For these purposes, a retail investor means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client as defined in point (11) ofArticle 4(1) of MiFID II; or (ii) a customer within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2016/97, where that customer would not qualifyas a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II. Consequently no key information document requiredby Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014, as amended (the PRIIPs Regulation) for offering or selling the securities or otherwisemaking them available to retail investors in the EEA has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the securities or otherwisemaking them available to any retail investor in the EEA may be unlawful under the PRIIPS Regulation.Prohibition of Sales to UK Retail Investors  The securities are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and shouldnot be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the United Kingdom. For these purposes, a retail investor means aperson who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 2017/565 as it forms part ofdomestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act2020 (EUWA); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of the provisions of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 of the UnitedKingdom, as amended (the FSMA) and any rules or regulations made under the FSMA to implement Directive (EU) 2016/97, where thatcustomer would not qualify as a professional client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 as it forms part ofdomestic law by virtue of the EUWA. Consequently no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 as it formspart of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA (the UK PRIIPs Regulation) for offering or selling the securities or otherwise making themavailable to retail investors in the United Kingdom has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the securities or otherwise makingthem available to any retail investor in the United Kingdom may be unlawful under the UK PRIIPs Regulation.The communication of the attached supplemental information circular and any other document or materials relating to the issue ofthe securities offered hereby is not being made, and such documents and/or materials have not been approved, by an authorizedperson for the purposes of section 21 of the United Kingdoms Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as amended. Accordingly,such documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the UnitedKingdom. The communication of such documents and/or materials as a financial promotion is only being made to those persons inthe United Kingdom who have professional experience in matters relating to investments and who fall within the definition ofinvestment professionals (as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order2005, as amended, (the Financial Promotion Order)), or who fall within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Financial PromotionOrder, or who are any other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be made under the Financial Promotion Order (all suchpersons together being referred to as relevant persons). In the United Kingdom, the Securities offered hereby are only availableto, and any investment or investment activity to which the attached supplemental information circular relates will be engaged inonly with, relevant persons. Any person in the United Kingdom that is not a relevant person should not act or rely on the attachedsupplemental information circular or any of its contents. This document is confidential and is being supplied to you solely for yourinformation and may not be reproduced, redistributed or passed on to any other person or published, in whole or in part, for anyother purpose.Notification under Section 309B(1)(c) of the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289 of Singapore (the SFA)  the Notes areprescribed capital markets products (as defined in the Securities and Futures (Capital Markets Products) Regulations 2018 ofSingapore) and Excluded Investment Products (as defined in MAS Notice SFA 04-N12: Notice on the Sale of Investment Productsand MAS Notice FAA-N16: Notice on Recommendations on Investment Products).You are reminded that the attached supplemental information circular has been delivered to you on the basis that you are a personinto whose possession this supplemental information circular may be lawfully delivered in accordance with the laws of jurisdictionin which you are located and you may not, nor are you authorized to, deliver this supplemental information circular to any otherperson.The materials relating to the offering do not constitute, and may not be used in connection with, an offer or solicitation in any placewhere offers or solicitations are not permitted by law.This supplemental information circular has been sent to you in an electronic form. You are reminded that documents transmitted viathis medium may be altered or changed during the process of electronic transmission and consequently none of us, or any personwho controls us or any director, officer, employee or agent of it or affiliate of any such person accepts any liability or responsibilitywhatsoever in respect of any difference between the supplemental information circular distributed to you in electronic format andthe hard copy version available to you on request from any of us.You are responsible for protecting against viruses and other destructive items. Your use of this e-mail is at your own risk and itis your responsibility to take precautions to ensure that it is free from viruses and other items of a destructive nature.Supplemental Information Circular(to the Offering Circular, dated December 12, 2019) Strictly ConfidentialGUANGDONG  HONG KONG GREATER BAY AREAHOLDINGS LIMITED        (Incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability)Additional US$13,500,000 of 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021(to be consolidated with the outstanding US$193,500,000 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021issued on December 19, 2019, the outstanding US$50,000,000 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021issued on January 6, 2020, the outstanding US$13,000,000 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021issued on October 30, 2020 and the outstanding US$23,500,000 14.00% Senior Notes due 2021issued on November 25, 2020)Issue Price: 101.90% plus accrued interest from (and including)December 19, 2020 to (but excluding) January 29, 2021Guangdong  Hong Kong Greater Bay Area Holdings Limited, formerly known as Hydoo International Holding Limited, (the Company) is issuing 14.0% SeniorNotes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount of US$13,500,000 (the New Notes). The New Notes will be consolidated and form a single class with the 14.0% SeniorNotes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount of US$193,500,000 issued by the Company on December 19, 2019 (the Original Notes), the 14.0% Senior Notes due 2021in the aggregate principal amount of US$50,000,000 issued by the Company on January 6, 2020, the 14.0% Senior Notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount ofUS$13,000,000 issued by the Company on October 30, 2020 and the 14% Senior Notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount of US$23,500,000 issued by the Company onNovember 25, 2020 (together with the Original Notes, the Existing Notes and, together with the New Notes, the Notes). The Notes will bear interest at the rate of 14.0%per annum, payable semi-annually in arrears on June 19 and December 19 of each year, beginning June 19, 2021. The Notes will mature on December 19, 2021. The New Noteshave the same terms and conditions as the Existing Notes in all respects except for issue date and issue price. Upon completion of this offering, the aggregate principal amountof the outstanding Notes will be US$293,500,000.The New Notes will be issued under the indenture dated December 19, 2019 (the Indenture) governing our Existing Notes. Terms not defined in this SupplementalInformation Circular have the meanings given to them in the Offering Circular, dated December 12, 2019 (the Offering Circular).The Notes are senior obligations of the Company, guaranteed by certain of our existing subsidiaries (the Subsidiary Guarantors), other than (1) those organizedunder the laws of the Peoples Republic of China and (2) certain other subsidiaries specified in Description of the New Notes in the Offering Circular. We refer to theguarantees by the Subsidiary Guarantors as the Subsidiary Guarantees. Under certain circumstances and subject to certain conditions, a Subsidiary Guarantee required to beprovided by a subsidiary of the Company may be replaced by a limited-recourse guarantee (the JV Subsidiary Guarantee). We refer to the subsidiaries providing a JVSubsidiary Guarantee as JV Subsidiary Guarantors.At any time and from time to time prior to December 19, 2021, we may redeem up to 35% of the aggregate principal amount of the Notes with the net cash proceeds ofone or more sales of common stock of the Company at a redemption price of 114.00% of the principal amount of the Notes redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to(but not including) the redemption date. In addition, we may redeem the Notes, in whole but not in part, at any time prior to December 19, 2021, at a redemption price equal to102.236% of the principal amount of the Notes redeemed plus a premium as set forth in this Supplemental Information Circular plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to (butnot including) the redemption date. Upon the occurrence of a Change of Control Triggering Event, we must make an offer to repurchase all Notes outstanding at a purchase priceequal to 101% of their principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to (but not including) the date of repurchase.The Notes will (1) be senior in right of payment to any existing and future obligations of the Company expressly subordinated in right of payment to the Notes, (2) be atleast pari passu in right of payment with all other unsecured, unsubordinated indebtedness of the Company (subject to any priority rights of such unsecured, unsubordinatedIndebtedness pursuant to applicable law), (3) guaranteed by the Subsidiary Guarantors and JV Subsidiary Guarantors (if any) on a senior basis, subject to certain limitations, (4)be effectively subordinated to secured obligations (if any, other than Permitted Pari Passu Secured Indebtedness) of the Company, the Subsidiary Guarantors and the JVSubsidiary Guarantors (if any), to the extent of the value of the assets serving as security therefor and (5) be effectively subordinated to all existing and future obligations of theNon-Guarantor Subsidiaries. In addition, applicable law may limit the enforceability of the Subsidiary Guarantees and the JV Subsidiary Guarantees (if any). See Risk Factors Risks Relating to the Subsidiary Guarantees and the JV Subsidiary Guarantees in the Offering Circular.For a more detailed description of the Notes, see Description of the New Notes in the Offering Circular.Investing in the New Notes involves risks. See Risk Factors in the accompanying Offering Circular.The Existing Notes are listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the SGX-ST) and application will be made for the listing and quotation of theNew Notes on the Official List of the SGX-ST. The SGX-ST assumes no responsibility for the correctness of any of the statements made or opinions expressed or reportscontained in this Supplemental Information Circular. Admission of the New Notes to the Official List of the SGX-ST or the listing and quotation of any New Notes on the SGXSTare not to be taken as an indication of the merits of the offering, the Company, the Subsidiary Guarantors, the JV Subsidiary Guarantors or any of their respective subsidiariesor associated companies, the New Notes, the Subsidiary Guarantees or the JV Subsidiary Guarantees. The Notes will be traded on the SGX-ST in a minimum board lot size ofUS$200,000 for so long as the Notes are listed on the SGX-ST and the rules of the SGX-ST so require.Notification under Section 309B(1)(c) of the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289 of Singapore (the SFA)  the Notes are prescribed capital markets products (asdefined in the Securities and Futures (Capital Markets Products) Regulations 2018 of Singapore) and Excluded Investment Products (as defined in MAS Notice SFA 04-N12:Notice on the Sale of Investment Products and MAS Notice FAA-N16: Notice on Recommendations on Investment Products).Fitch Ratings Ltd. (Fitch) has assigned a corporate rating of B- to the Company with a stable outlook. The Existing Notes are rated B- by Fitch and we do notexpect the ratings to change as a result of the issuance of the New Notes. These ratings do not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell or hold the New Notes and may be subjectto suspension, reduction or withdrawal at any time by the relevant rating organization.With reference to the Notice on Promoting the Reform of the Filing and Registration System for Issuance of Foreign Debts by Enterprises ( ) promulgated by National Development and Reform Commission (the NDRC) of the PRC on September 14, 2015 which cameinto effect on the same day, we have registered the proposed issuance of the New Notes with the NDRC and obtained a certificate from the NDRC dated March 13, 2020evidencing such registration and we will cause relevant information relating to the issue of the New Notes to be reported to the NDRC within 10 working days after the issuedate of the New Notes.The New Notes, the Subsidiary Guarantees and the JV Subsidiary Guarantees have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of1933, as amended (the Securities Act), and may not be offered or sold within the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subjectto, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. The New Notes are being offered and sold only outside the United States inoffshore transactions in accordance with Regulation S under the Securities Act. For a description of certain restrictions on resale or transfer, see TransferRestrictions in the Offering Circular.It is expected that the delivery of the New Notes will be made through the facilities of Euroclear Bank SA/NV (Euroclear) and Clearstream Banking S.A. (Clearstream), on orabout January 29, 2021 against payment therefor in immediately available funds.The date of this Supplemental Information Circular is January 27, 2021You should rely only on the information contained in this Supplemental Information Circularand the Offering Circular. The Offering Circular contains important information with respect to aninvestment in the New Notes. This Supplemental Information Circular is not complete without theOffering Circular. Terms not defined in this Supplemental Information Circular have the meaningsassigned to them in the Offering Circular. To the extent any information in this SupplementalInformation Circular (including any information incorporated by reference in it) is inconsistentwith the Offering Circular, you should rely on this Supplemental Information Circular, includinginformation incorporated by reference. We have not authorized any other person to provide you withdifferent information. If anyone provides you with different or inconsistent information, you shouldnot rely on it. We are not making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offeror sale is not permitted. You should assume that the information appearing in this SupplementalInformation Circular and the Offering Circular is accurate only as of their respective dates. Ourbusiness, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since thosedates.The Supplemental Information Circular should be read and construed in conjunction with theaudited consolidated financial statements of the Group for the year ended December 31, 2019 withindependent auditors report thereon (collectively, the Audited Financial Statements), which arecontained in the annual report of the Company, which was published on the website of The StockExchange of Hong Kong Limited (the Stock Exchange) on April 17, 2020 (available athttps://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0417/2020041700954.pdf). The AuditedFinancial Statements shall be deemed to be incorporated in, and form part of the SupplementalInformation Circular.The Supplemental Information Circular should also be read and construed in conjunction withthe 2020 Interim Results (as defined herein), which was published on the website of the StockExchange on September 15, 2020 (available athttps://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0915/2020091500482.pdf ). The 2020Interim Results shall be deemed to be incorporated in, and form a part of the SupplementalInformation Circular. The 2020 Interim Results have not been audited by our independentaccountants or any other independent accountants and may be subject to adjustment if audited. The2020 Interim Results may not be indicative of our future performance and results of operations.Consequently, potential investors must exercise caution when using such information to evaluateour financial condition and results of operations.We are relying on an exemption from registration under the Securities Act for offers and salesof securities that do not involve a public offering. By purchasing the New Notes, you will be deemedto have made the acknowledgments, representations, warranties and agreements described underNotice to Investors in the Offering Circular. You should understand that you will be required tobear the financial risks of your investment for an indefinite period of time.This Supplemental Information Circular, together with the Offering Circular, may only beused in connection with an investment in the New Notes. We have not authorized its use for anyother purpose. This Supplemental Information Circular and the Offering Circular may not be copiedor reproduced in whole or in part. They may be distributed and their contents disclosed only to theprospective investor to whom this is provided. By accepting delivery of this SupplementalInformation Circular and the Offering Circular, you agree to these restrictions. See Notice toInvestors in the Offering Circular.This Supplemental Information Circular and the Offering Circular contain informationprovided by other sources that we believe are reliable. We cannot assure you that information fromother sources is accurate or complete. This Supplemental Information Circular and the OfferingCircular summarize certain documents and other information and we refer you to them for a morecomplete understanding of what we discuss in this Supplemental Information Circular and theOffering Circular. In making an investment decision, you must rely on your own examination of usand the terms of the offering and the New Notes, including the merits and risks involved.No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by us or the Trustee to any purchaser of theNew Notes as to the accuracy or completeness of the information set forth herein, or regarding thelegality of an investment in the New Notes by such purchaser under any legal, investment or similarlaws or regulations. You should not consider any information in this Supplemental InformationCircular and the Offering Circular to be legal, business or tax advice. You should consult your ownattorney, business advisor and tax advisor for legal, business and tax advice regarding an investmentin the New Notes.We have prepared this Supplemental Information Circular and we are solely responsible for itscontents. You are responsible for making your own examination of us and your own assessment of themerits and risks of investing in the New Notes. By purchasing the New Notes, you will be deemed to haveacknowledged that you have made certain acknowledgements, representations and agreements as set forthunder the section entitled Transfer Restrictions below.You should contact us with any questions about this offering or for additional information toverify the information contained in this Supplemental Information Circular and the OfferingCircular.Neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commissionnor any other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved of these securities nor have any ofthe foregoing authorities passed judgment upon or endorsed the merits of this offering ordetermined if this Supplemental Information Circular and the Offering Circular are truthful orcomplete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.Notification under Section 309B(1)(c) of the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289 ofSingapore (the SFA)  the Notes are prescribed capital markets products (as defined in theSecurities and Futures (Capital Markets Products) Regulations 2018 of Singapore) and ExcludedInvestment Products (as defined in MAS Notice SFA 04-N12: Notice on the Sale of InvestmentProducts and MAS Notice FAA-N16: Notice on Recommendations on Investment Products).We reserve the right to withdraw the proposed issuance of the New Notes at any time.RECENT DEVELOPMENTSAudited Consolidated Financial Statements for the Year Ended December 31, 2019On April 17, 2020, we released the 2019 annual results in accordance with the rules of the StockExchange as applicable to us, which included audited consolidated financial statements of the Group forthe year ended December 31, 2019 with independent auditors report thereon . This SupplementalInformation Circular should be read and construed in conjunction with the Audited Financial Statements,which have been published on the website of the Stock Exchange on April 17, 2020 (available athttps://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0417/2020041700954.pdf). The AuditedFinancial Statements shall be deemed to be incorporated in, and form part of the SupplementalInformation Circular.Unaudited Consolidated Interim Results for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2020On September 15, 2020, we released the 2020 interim results in accordance with the rules of theStock Exchange as applicable to us, which included unaudited consolidated interim results of the Groupfor the six months ended June 30, 2020 (the "2020 Interim Results"). The Supplemental InformationCircular should be read and construed in conjunction with the 2020 Interim Results, which have beenpublished on the website of the Stock Exchange on September 15, 2020 (available athttps://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0915/2020091500482.pdf). The 2020Interim Results shall be deemed to be incorporated in, and form a part of the Supplemental InformationCircular. The 2020 Interim Results have not been audited by our independent accountants or any otherindependent accountants and may be subject to adjustment if audited. The 2020 Interim Results may notbe indicative of our future performance and results of operation. Consequently, potential investors mustexercise caution when using such information to evaluate our financial condition and results of operations.Issuance of Additional NotesOn January 6, 2020, we issued 14.0% senior notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amount ofUS$50,000,000, on October 30, 2020, we issued 14.0% senior notes due 2021 in the aggregate principal amountof US$13,000,000, and on November 25, 2020, we further issued 14.0% senior notes due 2021 in the aggregateprincipal amount of US$23,500,000 (together with the Original Notes, the Existing Notes), which wasconsolidated and formed a single class with the Original Notes.Redemption of the 2020 NotesOn May 11, 2020, we fully redeemed the outstanding 12% senior notes due 2020 (ISIN:XS1809865378) issued by the Company.Appointment of Executive Director, Change of Chief Executive Officer and Other Change on theBoard of the CompanyOn June 9, 2020, Mr. Yang Sanming () was appointed as an executive director and chiefexecutive officer of the Company. Mr. Cai Hongwen () resigned as chief executive officer of theCompany, but he remains as an executive director and a co-chairman of the board of the Company. Mr. Yangis a senior engineer and an architect, is engaged in construction and real estate industry for 24 years. Mr.Yang obtained a bachelor degree in architectural engineering from Tongji University in the PRC and anexecutive master of business administration (EMBA) from China Europe International Business School.Separately, following the passing away of Mr. Zhao Lihua (), who had been an independent nonexecutivedirector of the Company, on December 23, 2020, the board of the Company includes only twoindependent non-executive directors. The Company is endeavoring to identify a suitable candidate to beappointed as soon as practicable.Change of Company NameOn July 14, 2020, our English name was changed from Hydoo International Holding Limitedto Guangdong  Hong Kong Greater Bay Area Holdings Limited and our Chinese name was changedfrom  to .Acquisitions of Urban Renewal Projects in Dongguan City, Guangdong ProvinceOn October 23, 2020 and November 11, 2020, we acquired equity interests of three targetcompanies from independent third parties for a total consideration of approximately RMB334.20 million(US$50.75 million). The target companies hold three land parcels in Dongguan city of the PRC. One ofthe land parcels is approximately 19,000 sq.m. with a GFA of approximately 64,000 sq.m., the otherland parcel is approximately 15,300 sq.m. with a GFA of approximately 62,000 sq.m., while the lastland parcel is approximately 26,000 sq.m. with a GFA of approximately 93,400 sq.m. . The land parcelsare part of the Three-old transformation () plan of Dongguan city. We intend to redevelop theland for residential and/or commercial use.Acquisition of The Target Projects in Guizhou ProvinceOn November 30, 2020, we acquired equity interests of a target company from independent thirdparties for a total consideration of approximately HK$188.27 million (equivalent to approximately US$24.29million). The target company and its subsidiaries are currently developing two projects in Guizhou Provinceof the PRC. One residential project is located in Xishui, Guizhou Province of the PRC and is currently underdevelopment with a site area of approximately 48,000 sq.m. and a GFA of approximately 190,000 sq.m.(among which, the saleable area is approximately 140,000 sq.m.), while the other residential and commercialproject is located at Renhuai, Guizhou Province of the PRC and is currently under development with a sitearea of approximately 72,000 sq.m. with a GFA of approximately 320,000 sq.m. (among which the saleablearea is approximately 250,000 sq.m.).Acquisition of Land Use Rights in Heyuan City, Guangdong ProvinceOn December 24, 2020, we participated in the listing-for-sale bidding process of the land use rightsof 12 parcels of land in Heyuan City, Guangdong Province of the PRC and successfully won the bid for theland parcels at a total consideration of approximately RMB366.6 million (equivalent to approximatelyUS$56.14 million). The aggregate site area of the land parcels is approximately 197,000 sq.m. with anestimated GFA of 430,000 sq.m., and the use of the land parcels is for residential and commercial use.USE OF PROCEEDSWe estimate that the gross proceeds from this offering, including accrued interest from (andincluding) December 19, 2020 to (but excluding) January 29, 2021, before deducting estimated expensespayable in connection with this offering, will be approximately US$13,966,500. We intend to use the netproceeds primarily for repayment of debts, financing acquisition or development of assets or property in theordinary course of business, and for general corporate purposes.Pending application of the net proceeds of this offering, we intend to invest such net proceedsin Temporary Cash Investments as defined under Description of the New Notes in the OfferingCircular.DESCRIPTION OF THE NOTESThe following provisions should be read in conjunction with the section entitled Descriptionof the New Notes in the Offering Circular.The Company will issue the New Notes as Additional Notes under the Indenture.The Company is issuing US$13,500,000 aggregate principal amount of New Notes in thisoffering. The New Notes constitute Additional Notes under the Indenture and are identical in allrespects to the Existing Notes, other than with respect to date of issuance and issue price, and willbe consolidated and form a single class with the Existing Notes. Upon completion of this issuance,the aggregate principal amount of outstanding New Notes and Existing Notes will beUS$293,500,000. Interest on the New Notes will accrue from December 19, 2020. All references tothe New Notes in the Offering Circular include the New Notes and Existing Notes, except asotherwise stated.The New Notes issued in reliance on Regulation S will have the same ISINs and common codesas those that are assigned to the Existing Notes previously sold to investors in reliance onRegulation S. The New Notes will be subject to restrictions on transferability and resale and maynot be transferred or resold except as permitted under the Securities Act and applicable statesecurities laws or exemption therefrom.Unless otherwise defined below, you can find the definitions of terms used in this sectionunder Description of the New Notes  Definitions in the Offering Circular.TRANSFER RESTRICTIONSTRANSFER RESTRICTIONSBecause of the following restrictions, we encourage you to consult legal counsel prior to making any offer,resale, pledge or other transfer of the New Notes.The New Notes are subject to restrictions on transfer as summarized below. By purchasing the New Notes, youwill be deemed to have made the following acknowledgements, representations to, and agreements with, us.(1) You understand and acknowledge that:. the New Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any other applicablesecurities laws;. the New Notes are being offered for resale in transactions that do not require registration underthe Securities Act or any other securities laws; and. the New Notes are being offered and sold only outside the United States in offshoretransactions in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act.(2) You represent that you are not an affiliate (as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act) of ours, andyou are purchasing the New Notes in an offshore transaction in accordance with Regulation S under theSecurities Act.(3) You acknowledge that neither we nor any person representing us has made any representation to youwith respect to us or the offering of the New Notes, other than the information contained in thissupplemental information circular. You represent that you are relying only on this supplementalinformation circular in making your investment decision with respect to the New Notes. You agree thatyou have had access to such financial and other information concerning us and the New Notes as youhave deemed necessary in connection with your decision to purchase the New Notes including anopportunity to ask questions of and request information from us.(4) You represent that you are purchasing the New Notes for your own account, or for one or moreinvestor accounts for which you are acting as a fiduciary or agent, in each case not with a view to, orfor offer or sale in connection with, any distribution of the New Notes in violation of the Securities Act.(5) You acknowledge that we, the Trustee, the Paying and Transfer Agent and others will rely upon thetruth and accuracy of the above acknowledgments, representations and agreements. You agree that ifany of the acknowledgments, representations or agreements you are deemed to have made by yourpurchase of the New Notes is no longer accurate, you will promptly notify us, the Trustee and thePaying and Transfer Agent. If you are purchasing any New Notes as a fiduciary or agent for one ormore investor accounts, you represent that you have sole investment discretion with respect to each ofthose accounts and that you have full power to make the above acknowledgments, representations andagreements on behalf of each account.(6) You also acknowledge that this supplemental information circular has not been, and will not be,registered as a prospectus with the MAS. Accordingly, you have represented, warranted and agreed thatyou have not circulated or distributed, nor will you circulate or distribute, this supplementalinformation circular or any other document or material in connection with the offer or sale, orinvitation for subscription or purchase, of the New Notes, and have not offered or sold any New Notesor caused any New Notes to be made the subject of an invitation for subscription or purchase and willnot offer or sell any New Notes or cause any New Notes to be made the subject of an invitation forsubscription or purchase, whether directly or indirectly, to any person in Singapore other than (i) to aninstitutional investor (as defined in Section 4A of the SFA) pursuant to Section 274 of the SFA, (ii) to arelevant person (as defined in Section 275(2) of the SFA) pursuant to Section 275(1) of the SFA, orany person pursuant to Section 275(1A) of the SFA, and in accordance with the conditions specified inSection 275 of the SFA and (where applicable) Regulation 3 of the Securities and Futures (Classes ofInvestors) Regulations 2018 of Singapore or (iii) otherwise pursuant to, and in accordance with theconditions of, any other applicable provision of the SFA.UPDATE ON RISK FACTORSYou should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and other information contained inthis offering circular before making an investment decision. The risks and uncertainties described below maynot be the only ones that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are not aware of or that wecurrently believe are immaterial may also adversely affect our business, financial condition or results ofoperations. If any of the possible events described below occur, our business, financial condition or results ofoperations could be materially and adversely affected. In such case, we may not be able to satisfy ourobligations under the New Notes, and you could lose all or part of your investment.Risks Relating to Our Business and IndustryWe face risks related to health epidemics and other outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemicOur business could be adversely affected by the effects of the Ebola virus, H1N1 flu, H5N1 avian flu,Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, COVID-19 or other epidemics or outbreaks. In particular, theoutbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 has endangered the health of many people in China and other countries,resulting in numerous confirmed cases and deaths and significantly disrupted travels and local economies in andoutside of China. To prevent further transmission of COVID-19, the PRC government has adopted a series ofmeasures nationwide, including, among others, locking down cities, restrictions on enterprises from resumingwork, traffic control, travel bans, management and control over commencement and delivery schedules ofbusinesses. Therefore, we are subject to certain risks, which include, among others, (i) we may incur extra costsin relation to our precautionary measures and disinfection works carried out by us at our properties and offices;and (ii) we may be required to quarantine some or all of our employees, or disinfect the properties and offices toprevent the spread of the disease if any of our employees were suspected of contracting or contracted anepidemic disease. The occurrence of any of the above events may adversely affect our operations. Furthermore,such adverse epidemics may severely affect and restrict the level of economic activity in China as thegovernment in each region we operate may impose regulatory or administrative measures quarantining affectedareas or other measures to control the outbreak of the infectious disease, which together with the disruption ofbusiness in major industries may adversely affect the overall business sentiment and environment in China,which can in turn affect consumers purchasing power in the affected areas and, therefore, reduce demand forour products. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the world have imposed travelrestrictions and/or lockdown to contain its transmission. There is no assurance that the current containmentmeasures will be effective in halting the pandemic. The reduction in demand and supply may adversely andmaterially affect economic growth globally. Any prolonged occurrence or recurrence of these pandemicdiseases or other adverse public health developments in China, or the fear of such development, may have amaterial adverse effect on our business and operations. These could include our ability to develop, sell anddeliver commercial and residential properties in our trade centres, as well as temporary closure of our tradecentres for quarantine or preventive purposes, which in turn may materially and adversely affect our business,financial condition and results of operations.ISSUERGuangdong  Hong Kong Greater Bay Area Holdings LimitedRegistered OfficePO Box 309, Ugland HouseGrand Cayman KY1-1104Cayman IslandsPrincipal Place of Business in Hong KongSuite 2305, 23/F, Prudential TowerThe Gateway, Harbour City, KowloonHong KongTRUSTEE PAYING AND TRANSFER AGENT AND REGISTRARCiticorp International Limited20/F, Citi Tower, One Bay East83 Hoi Bun Road, Kwun TongKowloon, Hong KongCitibank, N.A., London Branchc/o Citibank, N.A., Dublin BranchOne North Wall Quay, Dublin 1IrelandLEGAL ADVISORS TO THE ISSUERas to U.S. Federal Securities, New York and Hong Kong law:DLA Piper Hong Kong25th Floor, Three Exchange Square8 Connaught Place, CentralHong KongDLA Piper Singapore Pte. Ltd.80 Raffles PlaceUOB Plaza 1, #48-01Singapore 048624as to British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands law:Maples and Calder (Hong Kong) LLP26th Floor, Central Plaza18 Harbour Road, WanchaiHong Kong
NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The SynGAP Research Fund (SRF) announces a grant award to Dr. Thomas Frazier, Professor of Psychology at John Carroll University . Dr. Frazier will receive funding over two years for development and validation of a Neurobehavioral Evaluation Tool (NET) for autism and related genetic syndromes. The grant will facilitate the participation of SYNGAP1 patients and their caregivers in the development and application of the tool.

SYNGAP1-related intellectual disability is a rare genetic disorder caused by a variation on the SYNGAP1 gene, with over 700 diagnosed patients accounted for globally according to the #SyngapCensus . It leads to several neurological issues in patients, including mild-to-severe intellectual disability, epilepsy, autism, sleep issues, hypotonia (low muscle tone), apraxia (delayed/no speech), impulsivity and aggression.

Dr. Frazier seeks to address the lack of a tool specifically catered to collecting information from patients with neurodevelopmental genetic syndromes (NDGS) such as SYNGAP1. Many characteristics of existing tools are irrelevant to NDGS patients, and data collection often requires difficult long-distance travel. The new tool, designed with clinician, patient and caregiver involvement, will be more accurate, repeatable and sensitive to change than what is currently available.

"To develop better interventions and supports, we need measures that accurately capture important behaviors and the challenges patients experience. I am excited about the measures we are developing because they will be designed to sensitively track improvement by collecting data from the caregiver and the patient to provide a comprehensive assessment," says Dr. Frazier.

This work is primarily funded by PTEN Research , a medical research charity funding research into new and better treatments for PTEN. The PTEN Hamartoma Tumour Syndrome Foundation and Autism Speaks are also supporting the work. SRF is excited to collaborate with these and other rare disease groups-like ADNP Kids Research Foundation & Malan Syndrome Foundation --to ensure SYNGAP1 patients benefit from Dr. Frazier's research.

Michael Graglia , Managing Director of SRF says, "Collaboration between autism and rare neurological disease groups is a model we must embrace to address the needs of our communities in a timeframe that matters. Supporting Dr. Frazier to develop a validated scale for clinical trials, soon, is exactly the kind of grant parent-led groups should make." SRF has connected Dr. Constance Smith-Hicks, MD, PhD of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, to the project. Her deep clinical expertise with SYNGAP1 patients will help inform the work.

"This is an exciting project as the proposed tools will fill a notable gap in our ability to measure and track neurobehavioral phenotypes in NDGS," says Dr. Smith-Hicks.

ABOUT SYNGAP RESEARCH FUND

SRF, incorporated in 2018, is a 501(c)(3) public charity. The mission is to improve the quality of life of SYNGAP1 patients through the research and development of treatments, therapies and support systems. Completely parent-led, SRF is the largest non-government funder of SynGAP research having committed over $1M in grants. The founders cover all operational costs, allowing 100% of donations to go to research. SRF is a member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition , COMBINEDbrain and Global Genes Foundation Alliance . For more information, visit SyngapResearchFund.org .

ABOUT JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY

John Carroll University is located in University Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Its mission inspires individuals to excel in learning, leadership, and service in the region and around the world. One of 27 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States, John Carroll University is recognized nationally for an exceptional four-year graduation rate, teaching excellence, and a commitment to living a faith that does justice.

Contact:

Peter Halliburton, SRF Development Director

[email protected]

SOURCE SynGAP Research Fund

Related Links

https://syngapresearchfund.org



By Eleanor Mannion RTE

Life on the Isle of Man is returning to near normal after the island exited a 25-day lockdown.

Covid-19 restrictions were lifted shortly after midnight after the British Government found that no community transmission is now taking place.

It means there is no longer a requirement for social distancing and members of the public do not have to wear face coverings.

Meanwhile, schools have reopened and healthcare services have returned to normal. All shops and pubs have also been allowed to welcome customers again.

Despite the lifting of restrictions, strict controls remain in place at the islands borders, including rules on those who can travel to the Isle of Man.

The islands circuit-breaker lockdown was brought in on 7 January following a cluster of Covid cases.

Susan Coyle, originally from Cootehill, Co Cavan, works for the Isle of Man Safeguarding Board. She was redeployed to the islands contact tracing team last year.

Ms Coyle said: Today feels like a success. But we are in a strange little oasis. We know we are really lucky, but I still have lots of family in Ireland, England and Scotland. I have friends whose families were really ill. Its almost like survivor guilt.

Susans 21-year-old daughter, Saoirse Coyle-Carroll, is an actor who had been living in Nottingham in England.

Having returned to the Isle of Man towards the end of last year, she plans to head back to the UK later this week to start a new job.

She said: I get four days of not being in lockdown, so I have a really tight timeline to see everyone I have missed.

A few friends are going to the pub tomorrow night. Its such a lovely feeling because everyone is really happy to see everyone. Im really grateful that I have a few days of freedom.

Isle of Man Chief Minister Howard Quayle urged people living on the island to remain vigilant.

Mr Quayle said: After almost a month of lockdown, this is the moment we have all been waiting for. The Isle of Man has achieved local elimination of the virus for a second time, meaning the risk of community spread of COVID-19 is extremely low.

This has only been possible due to the seriousness with which the public have approached the measures set out by government to bring the virus under control and eliminate its spread.

This achievement is thanks to the collective determination, the sense of duty, and the community spirit of the Manx people, for which they are to be commended.

 RTE 2021.
Government will investigate mining syndicates defying a ban on riverbed mining, but operations on some rivers deemed to have capacity to sustain activities will be allowed with approval.

Cabinet last September announced a ban on riverbed mining and mining in national parks, but malcontents in the small scale mining sector have continued operating clandestinely.

Government said operations on rivers such as Angwa and Save, which had capacity to sustain riverbed mining, could be sanctioned after strict review and approval of working plans.

Ministry of Mines and Mining Development Permanent Secretary, Mr Onesimo Moyo, said there had not been a change to last year's Cabinet directive and cases of defiance would be investigated.

"There are rivers such as Save and Angwa which can sustain riverbed mining," he said. "But before it is done, those who want to mine should present their pilot plan to Government for approval so that it can be assessed if their activities are suitable for the river.

"But there is no change to the Cabinet directive that bans riverbed mining. If there is anyone still involved, the ministry will investigate such cases of miners who are still doing what was banned and appropriate action will be taken.

Government policy was clear that mineral exploitation should be done in an environmentally friendly manner.

In the case of national parks, the reasoning was motivated by the need to preserve the country's wildlife -- which is key to the country's tourism revival strategy.

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While others heeded the Government's call, a number of miners continue operating in flagrant disregard of the Cabinet directive.

Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu recently told Parliament that Government arms had moved in to stop operations.

He said the Ministry had also crafted a Statutory Instrument to give legal effect to the bans.

In Concession, Mashonaland Central Province, small scale miners have descended in a largely farming area near Zanadu and have disrupted farming activities with their operations.

Manangazi Farm and Glenbrook Farm are the worst affected, with dams on those two farms now giving in to siltation as a result of mining within their vicinity.

While some of the operations appear spontaneous in the case of Manangazi Farm, the miner there has moved in with heavy mining equipment and operations are affecting a nearby stream.

"Government has made it very clear that such operations should be stopped, but we just don't understand why these people are being allowed to continue like this," said a Concession farmer who declined to be named.

"Our livestock sometimes gets trapped in their pits and I don't know where we must find recourse."
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Posted Monday, February 1, 2021 6:30 am

Around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30, Clark County Sheriffs Office deputies were dispatched to a stolen vehicle in Hazel Dell near NE 15th Ave. and NE 94th St. in Vancouver. The owner of a Toyota Camry left a vehicle running and unattended for a moment after they loaded their two small children into car seats in the back.

Video footage shows a while, late model vehicle (possibly a KIA Optima) pull up near the Camry. A suspect exited the passenger side, climbed into the Camry and drove off. The Camry was found several blocks away. According to a news release, the suspect had fled, leaving the two children undisturbed, one still asleep.

A K9 track for the suspect was unsuccessful. A witness claimed to have seen an individual matching the suspects description being picked up and driven away in a white vehicle with tinted windows.

A description of the suspect from the sheriffs office said the suspect is a black male of average height wearing a grey hoodie and black baggy pants. The vehicle was described as a KIA Optima with tinted windows and grey wheels.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 23:26:58|Editor: huaxia

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MALE, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Minister of Tourism of the Maldives Abdulla Mausoom has said the country will vaccinate 10,000 tourism workers against COVID-19, local media reported on Tuesday.

"Workers who provide their services directly to guests at closer to 3-foot distance will be our top priority," Mausoom was quoted as saying by the Sun Online.

Minister Mausoom said the decision to vaccinate tourism workers was made by President Ibrahim Solih and the vaccination was crucial for the survival of the tourism sector.

Mausoom said that the country's borders will not be closed for tourism despite a recent rise in cases, noting that only 0.08 percent of tourists tested positive for COVID-19 in January.

The Maldives received 100,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine from India on Jan. 20 and began its vaccination program on Feb. 1.

The island country expects to receive 700,000 more doses of Covishield in March and vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO) in February. Enditem
Ex-TMC leaders accuse Banerjee of Muslim appeasement in Bengal

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

Kolkata, Feb 02: Ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal, ex-TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee accused the ruling party of Muslim appeasement in the state.

Adhikari pointed out the discrepancies in the honorarium given to Muslim clerics (Imams) and Hindu priests (purohits) in the state.

The current BJP leader asked, "You tell me why honorarium for Imams is 2500 per month while that of Purohits is just 1000 per month? Why is this difference? I am not asking to reduce the honorarium for Imams. Increase their pay if you want (in the whole of West Bengal) But, we (Hindus) should also receive the same amount as them."

"If you want to receive an honorarium for being an Imam, you do not require any local or permanent residency of the State. It implies that even Rohingyas and Bangladeshis are also eligible to receive the payment. But, for Purohits, permanent residency and Aadhar card is a must. Only 8000 Hindu priests get the honorarium while 60,000 Muslim clerics get benefitted," Suvendu Adhikari emphasized.

He further stated that while all Imams have been receiving their payment, a majority of Purohits are being denied even the meager allowance. The BJP leader alleged that Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders have been siphoning off the honorarium, meant for Hindu priests, under the pretext of being one.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

While Rajib Banerjee said, "We have seen that those who aren't even Brahmins or purohits have received the honorarium. This is a peculiar situation. I am making it clear from this stage of Sanatan Brahman Trust that as long as all Purohits in the State do not get their due share, we will continue our democratic agitation against the government."

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 16:27 [IST]
China has said it is cracking down on a crime ring making "fake vaccines" for Covid-19 that has been running since September, state media report.

Police departments in Jiangsu, Beijing and Shandong have arrested more than 80 people involved in producing more than 3,000 fake Covid-19 vaccine doses, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xinhua said China's Ministry of Public Security is investigating crimes related to manufacturing and selling of counterfeit vaccines "and the illegal practice of medicine and fraud under the guise of the vaccines."

Police found that since September 2020, those involved "have been making huge profits by fulfilling saline solution into injectors to process and make fake coronavirus vaccines and selling them at a higher price," the agency said.

China has been vaccinating its population with shots from two companies, Sinovac and Sinopharm, and both have also been rolled out in other countries, including Turkey.

Both companies initially said their vaccines were more than 78% effective, but late-stage trials of the Sinovac candidate in Brazil reported an efficacy rate of 50.38%.

Sinovac has stood by its vaccine, even as some countries have placed it under review and paused rollouts, but scientists have called on the company to release more data.

Sinopharm, the state-owned company whose vaccine was the first to be approved in China, said its product was 79.34% effective in trials.
Chandigarh, Feb 2 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday that the state government will again introduce amendment bills to negate the 'draconian' farm laws in the Vidhan Sabha since the Governor had failed to send the earlier bills to President Ram Nath Kovind.

"We will bring the bills again as the Constitution provides that if bills are passed twice by the Vidhan Sabha, they have to be sent by the Governor to the President," Amarinder Singh said, adding that the Governor should not have sat over the bills.

The state is empowered to amend the laws under Article 254 (ii) of the Constitution, he said.

Pointing out that the President had refused to meet Punjab leaders following the passage of the bills in the Vidhan Sabha on the ground that he had not received them, the Chief Minister told the all-party meeting that he will seek time from the President again.

Amarinder Singh said that he is in constant touch with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue of farm laws and the farmers' protest, as suggested by the Prime Minister.

Underlining the need for an early resolution to the crisis, the Chief Minister said that the threat from Pakistan could not be undermined.

"We have to work to resolve this issue before things go out of hand," he said, adding that he knew how many drones, arms and ammunition are being smuggled into the state from across the border.

Recalling how Operation Bluestar happened soon after the prolonged two-month negotiations on an earlier crisis related to a list of some 42 demands, the Chief Minister warned that "if anger builds here, it will be exploited".

Pointing out that the voice of the people is the strongest in a democracy, the Chief Minister stressed that "we will have to raise a united voice of Punjab".

If there is no peace here, no industry will come to the state, he said.

The Chief Minister also slammed the Centre for penalising Punjab, and said it still owes the state Rs 13,000 crore of GST, which it has held back, along with Rs 1,200 crore of RDF.

Amarinder Singh promised to look into SAD's Prem Singh Chandumajra's suggestion that the state government should provide loan waiver to the families of all those killed during the ongoing farmers' agitation.

Earlier in his opening remarks at the all party meeting, the Chief Minister asserted that the meeting had been convened to evolve a consensus and send out the message that the whole of Punjab is with the agitating farmers, who have fed the nation right since the Green Revolution.

Regretting that New Delhi had failed to listen to the voice of Punjab and its farmers, he said that the Centre, instead of seeing the pain and discomfort of the farmers braving the cold at Delhi borders, seemed to have hardened its stance against the farmers.
by Melani Manel Perera

The auxiliary bishop of the capital led a Mass on Saturday to celebrated the stations work. The event offered an opportunity to celebrate 35 years of marriage of its founders and owners. For Catholics, the broadcaster has been an important voice during the coronavirus lockdown. The bishop appeals to the faithful to support its activity.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  Sri Lanka has one Catholic TV station, Verbum TV, which has been operating for the past six years. The broadcaster is a medium of communication that benefits the local Church, and intends to guarantee good spiritual service to the countrys Catholics.

Since its founding, the station has become a tool to proclaim the Word of God and promote evangelisation, a blessing for the nation and a means to reach the hearts of Christians, so that they may bear witness to the Good News.

It is with this spirit that the station broadcast a thanksgiving Mass last Saturday led by Mgr Maxwell Silva, auxiliary bishop of Colombo. The service, concelebrated with Fr Cecil Joy Perera, director of the diocesan seminary, and Fr Linton Joseph, took place in the Church of St John the Baptist in Nagoda (Kandana), a suburb of the capital. Verbum TVs top officials and staff were present, while the faithful were able to follow the function live on television.

In the homily, Fr Perera thanked God for the gift of Verbum TV (Gods Word), which, over the years, has become a means to give him grace for the blessings received in these six years of activity for the benefit of all Catholics, not only in Sri Lanka .

The Mass also provided an opportunity to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the marriage of Milan and Mallika De Silva, the owners of the Catholic station.

The faithful present at the service gave their thanks for the blessings received over time and for the courage and strength to face future challenges. This is a journey of faith said Bishop Silva, and I thank and congratulate all the staff, starting with the director for the work done so far.

The prelate offered his wishes of health, strength and blessings to the TV station and its owners, who celebrated their wedding anniversary, so that you may share the Word of God for a long time to come.

Addressing the faithful, he urged them to show all possible support for Verbum TV, because it is essential for its survival.

Talking to some Catholics, AsiaNews can confirm how important it is to have a Catholic television channel in the country, especially in this period of lockdown designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The station has been a major medium to keep alive and nurture the faith of the community.

We only have Verbum TV as a God-gift to satisfy our spiritual needs, said some Catholics. The fact that there is no advertising is what we appreciate the most, said 76-year-old retired teacher Nicholas Anthony.

We strongly believe that the Gospel is the most important message of love we can share, station president and owner Milan De Silva told AsiaNews. Our goal is to bridge the gap between the Church and her people, bringing the teachings of Christ closer to the thoughts, words and deeds of people.
The Ukrainian authorities are demonstrating double standards, imposing sanctions against Nicaragua for opening a consulate in the occupied Crimea and simultaneously buying Russian electricity, MP from the European Solidarity faction Oleksiy Honcharenko said.

"Surely, we must support sanctions against Nicaragua, any other country that follows Russian politics, Russian narratives. We must fight and demonstrate to the whole world that Crimea is Ukraine [...] But it surprises me that President Zelensky is ready to fight Nicaragua, but for some reason he is not ready to fight Russia. At the time when we make a decision on sanctions against Nicaragua, Ukraine buys Russian electricity. Since February 1, we have resumed the import of Russian electricity. What is it?" Honcharenko said.

According to the website of the European Solidarity party on Tuesday, the parliamentarian said the EU refused to purchase electricity from the Belarusian nuclear power plant, and Ukraine buys it, despite the fact that Belarus and the Russian Federation are "one energy system." "Why are we making a Ukrainian miner, a Ukrainian power engineer, Ukrainian industry beggars in order to pay money to a Russian miner, a Russian power engineer?" MP said.

"I appeal to the NSDC secretary: immediately stop the import of Russian electricity, immediately stop the import of Belarusian electricity. Immediately impose sanctions on this. The bill is in the Verkhovna Rada. Why is it not being considered? Why, next to the sanctions on Nicaragua, there is no other law to stop the murder of our own energy?" Honcharenko said.
Four Indians, including three women, have been arrested in Nepal for allegedly sending Nepali labourers to Canada for jobs illegally via India, officials said.

Acting on a tip off, a special team from the Department of Foreign Employment on Monday raided a local Tripple Star Manpower Company located on the outskirts of Kathmandu. The officials detained Kaur Mannat (45) Farman Raban (24), Manpreet Kar (18) and Sonu Kumar (46), hailing from Delhi.

They were operating their office with the banner of Ganapati Happy Life, an Indian company, in the office of Tripple Star, according to an official at the department of foreign employment.

They were operating in collaboration with Tripple Star without having any formal company registered in Nepal, Kushal Baral, one of the members of the team, said. They were found to be involved in sending aspiring Nepali labourers to Canada via India through illegal channels.

According to preliminary investigation, they charged Rs 5,000 to Rs 12,000 per person as the first installment for sending people to Canada.

They said that they are working as employees for an Indian company owned by one Arif Seikh, who operates the business from Delhi.

The arrested persons did not possess any valid document to operate manpower business in Nepal, the official said, adding that three of them did not even have any identification card, while one of the women was carrying an Indian driving license. The police have recovered a laptop, some copies of passports and receipts in the name of Ganapati Happy Life from them.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)

Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 18:45:30|Editor: huaxia

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File photo taken on a marine surveillance plane B-3837 shows the Diaoyu Islands and nearby islands. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- China and Japan will hold the 12th round of high-level consultations on maritime affairs via video link on Wednesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a press briefing that officials from foreign ministries, defense ministries, maritime law enforcement and ocean management departments from both countries will attend the talks.

According to Wang, the two sides held a meeting between delegation heads under the consultation mechanism on Jan. 20.

The high-level consultations are a comprehensive mechanism for bilateral communication and coordination, said the spokesperson, adding that in this round, China looks forward to a full exchange of views with the Japanese side on maritime issues of mutual concern to boost mutual understanding and trust, and continuously expand pragmatic cooperation. 
GREENVILLE  The Wyche Law Firm has doubled down on its commitment to downtown Greenville with a plan to lease two floors of an office building on East Broad Street after the sale of its current property to a Georgia-based bank.

The move for Wyche will be within walking distance of its current digs on East Camperdown Way.

Lauren Roach, the law firm's chief marketing officer, told The Post and Courier on Monday afternoon that Wyche will occupy the fourth and fifth floors of 200 E. Broad St., which itself is being vacated by the Elliott Davis accounting firm. A Georgia-based bank  United Community Bank  will be setting up residence where Wyche is currently headquartered at 200 E. Camperdown Way.

Roach said the move, which keeps the firm within Greenville's central business district, would be complete by the end of 2021.

Wyche shareholder Wallace Lightsey said in a statement that the firm, which is entering its 100th year of operations, is grateful to stay at the center of Greenville.

"It is a privilege to remain in one core area for such a long time, and our good fortune to secure space just a few blocks away that will honor our history while also accommodating our needs for the future," Lightsey said.

The office-space game of musical chairs marked by Wyche's announcement Monday was set off by the United Community Bank's decision in December to purchase the Wyche firm's 1.9-acre parcel on East Camperdown Way. Elliott Davis, meanwhile, had committed two years ago to moving into the 16-story Falls Tower building at Main and Broad in the middle of downtown. That structure  part of a separate "Camperdown" development that overlooks the Reedy River Falls  is all but complete, with Bank of America on Monday opening its newest branch on the ground floor.

Elliott Davis's move to Falls Tower opened up access for Wyche to lease its old "class A", top-of-the-line office space at 200 E. Broad St. The Broad Street building, constructed 20 years ago, was listed Monday at a rate of $28.50 a square foot  about 10 percent higher than the average rental rates for office space in downtown Greenville, according to a recent Colliers report. The six-story structure underwent a major renovation in 2019, according to marketing documents. Other tenants in the building include Creative Builders and South State Bank.

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Roach said the new space will be completely redone to reflect the Wyche brand, a firm known for its commitment to environmental causes. One of the firm's former principals, Tommy Wyche, was instrumental in the conservation of Caesar's Head State Park, Jones Gap State Park and Raven Cliff Falls.

In a media release, the firm also said it wanted the office space to foster a sense of "collegiality, collaboration and finding creative solutions to complex problems."

"We are already starting to work on getting the build out," Roach told The Post and Courier. "It will be good to have more space as we expand and bring more people in."

A rendering of the building features a glowing "Wyche" sign visible from Church Street, itself the marker of where the central business district begins. Motorists driving by have a full view of downtown Greenville's skyline.

Roach said she was not immediately certain about the square footage of the new space, but a listing for 200 E. Broad St. shows each floor of the building is about 21,000 square feet. With two stories occupied, this would bring the firm's footprint downtown to roughly 42,000 square feet total.

The firm's CEO, Tally Parham Casey, said in the media release that the move allows Wyche to expand and remain downtown while also encouraging "vibrant growth" of the city.

The Wyche firm also played a role in developing many of downtown Greenville's most iconic projects: The Peace Center, The Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, The Hyatt Hotel, among others.

Wyche sold its longtime headquarters at 44 E. Camperdown Way exactly two years ago  Feb. 1, 2019  to make way for construction of The Grand Bohemian Hotel. The lawyers at that time moved into an office building next door at 200 E. Camperdown Way. They continue to work there today, though the space was always envisioned as temporary, according to the release.

The 200 East Broad LLC is listed as the building's owner, and its registered agent  Garry Rank  is a shareholder with Elliott Davis.
Korea's exports soared 11 percent in January on the strength of flagship products like semiconductors and mobile phones.

The country exported US$48.01 billion worth of goods in January, up 11.4 percent on-year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Monday. Shipments of 12 of 15 key export items increased.

That was the third monthly increase in a row after 4.1 percent in November and 12.6 percent in December.


Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed the latest developments concerning the decade-long standoff caused by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with his Congolese Counterpart Felix Tshisekedi during a meeting held at Cairo's Ittihadiya Presidential palace on Tuesday.

The meeting comes days before the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) assumes the presidency of the African Union (AU), the current mediator of the on-off GERD negotiations, succeeding South Africa.

According to a statement released by the Egyptian presidency, both leaders agreed to reinforce the joint coordination and cooperation to follow up on the developments of the long-running dispute.

President El-Sisi affirmed the importance of reaching a legally binding agreement over the rules of filling and operating the Ethiopian dam, the statement added.

The AU has been mediating the talks between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the dispute caused by GERD since last year.

Negotiations mediated by South Africa, the incumbent president of the AU, over the GERD have been put on hold due to Khartoum's desire to grant a bigger role to the experts involved in the AU-mediated talks instead of holding direct discussions among the three nations. Ethiopia, in addition to Egypt, refuse Sudan's demand.

During the meeting, President Tshisekedi voiced out his country's keenness in benefiting from the Egyptian efforts, expertise and vision in leading the AU amid what he described as "the flaring and successive challenges" facing Africa, in general, and the Nile Basin and in particular, the Horn of Africa.

"The matter urges intensifying cooperation and coordination with Egypt and its leadership on the back of the pivotal [significant role] Egypt represents in the region and the entire continent in terms of maintaining peace and security," the statement quoted the Congolese president as saying.

The AU presidency is to be transferred from the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to President Tshisekedi during the upcoming African summit slated for 6-7 February in Ethiopia, according to the summit's agenda released by the union.

Promoting Egyptian-Congolese ties

The pair also held expanded bilateral discussions to discuss strengthening bilateral relations in all fields, in the presence of delegations from both countries, the statement added.

El-Sisi, expressed, during the meeting, Egypt's eagerness to develop ties and consolidate strategic cooperation in various fields with Congo to establish sustainable partnership, the statement added.

The president also praised the bilateral relation with Congo on political, economic, security and cultural levels, as well as the "growing cooperation in the field of building people's capabilities in light of Egypt's keenness to invest in human resources throughout Africa.

He stressed the importance of developing bilateral cooperation projects, especially in regards to strengthening Egyptian trade exchange and investments in various fields.

The Congolese president expressed his country's keenness in promoting ties with Egypt in various fields, foremost of which are trade and economic cooperation to match the "deep and distinct" political relations between the two countries.

He also hailed the Egyptian companies working in DRC and in the sectors of construction, energy and infrastructure, expressing his aspiration for increasing Egyptian investments in his country.

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Unemployment rates remain high in Idleb, despite efforts by the Salvation Government to introduce job schemes for young people, writes Enab Baladi.

Unemployment is increasing in the Idleb Governorate due to the large number of displaced people and a lack of financial investment. The Salvation Government, which controls the Civil Administration, is being criticized for not providing job opportunities for those who need work.

Currently, the unemployment rate in Idleb is between 78 percent and 80 percent of the total local population, according to figures obtained by Enab Baladi from the Syria Response Coordinators office. The figures exclude those who work daily jobs.

One man, who preferred not to be named out of fear of losing his employment, got a job through a competition that the Salvation Government launched. He is a university student from the Idleb countryside and said that he had started studying at the University of Homs, but never graduated. He later participated in, and won, a competition by the Salvation Government, after which he became employed.

The young man landed a job in the Development Directorate in the northern countryside of Idleb. His salary is approximately 550 Turkish liras (around 39,000 Syrian pounds). Not many other citizens were as lucky, though.

Based on research by Enab Baladi, there are holders of university degrees who have no job prospects and were forced to work in fields that are unrelated to their academic backgrounds.

No government can employ all citizens

Mulham al-Ahmad, the official in charge of media relations in the Salvation Government, spoke with Enab Baladi about efforts to employ young people. He stressed that the government has been trying to reduce unemployment by attracting various cadres, degree holders, and university graduates.

In response to the criticism over the high unemployment levels in the governorate, Ahmad said, there is no government in the world that is capable of creating job opportunities for all its citizens.

The phenomenon of unemployment is a societal one that requires various segments of society to come together  including factories, companies, organizations, and others, he added.

Ahmad explained that the Salvation Government has very specific criteria whereby it attracts the talent needed by the various parties under its purview.

The Salvation Government controls everything related to peoples lives in the Idleb Governorate and the northern Hama countryside  which is under opposition control  and part of the western countryside of Aleppo, at the level of services and administration. The Salvation Government is also establishing projects in the city.

Moreover, the government supervises the management of Turkish border crossings and crossings with areas under the control of the Syrian regime. It keeps some regions under an independent administration, with which it coordinates.

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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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed North Korea's nuclear arsenal in an exclusive interview with NBC News Today. Blinken told NBC Chief Washington Correspondent Andrea Mitchell that North Korea is a "growing problem" that "has gotten worse across administrations."

Blinken said the U.S. President Joe Biden has instructed him to review U.S. policy toward North Korea, "to make sure that we're using the most effective tools to advance the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

He added that those tools could include additional sanctions, coordination and cooperation with allies and partners, and diplomatic incentives.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Achieves Record Revenues and Quarterly Growth

VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Body and Mind Inc. (CSE: BAMM) (OTCQB: BMMJ) (the "Company" or "BaM"), a multi-state operator, is pleased to report its financial results for the first fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2020.

Q1 FY2021 Financial Summary (results expressed in $USD unless otherwise indicated):

Reported Q1 FY2021 revenue of $5.29 million , a 144% increase over Q4 FY2020 ( $2.17 million ) and 267 % increase over Q1 FY2020 ( $1.44 million );

, a 144% increase over Q4 FY2020 ( ) and 267 % increase over Q1 FY2020 ( ); Q1 FY2021 Gross profit of $1.8 million ;

; Q1 FY2021 Net Operating Loss of $0.70 million ;

; Q1 FY2021 Net Loss of $0.78 million ;

; Basic and Diluted loss per share of $0.01 ;

; Positive Adjusted EBITDA of $57,135* ;

; Managed Q1 FY2021 revenue of $6.49 million **;

**; Inventory of $1.87 million as of October 31, 2020 ;

as of ; At October 31, 2020 , BaM had $1.33 million in cash and a working capital surplus of $1.91 million ;

, BaM had in cash and a working capital surplus of ; Total Assets were $40.57 million , Total Current Liabilities were $4.61 million and Total Liabilities were $7.19 million at October 31, 2020 ;

, Total Current Liabilities were and Total Liabilities were at ; 108,307,278 common shares were issued and outstanding as of October 31, 2020 (108,377,778 as of January 25, 2021 ).

Operational Milestones for Q1 FY2021 and to Date:

California:

ShowGrow Long Beach dispensary ownership transferred to 100% owned Body and Mind subsidiary to allow consolidation of revenues effective August 28, 2020 ;

; ShowGrow Long Beach dispensary commenced curbside pickup and online ordering purchase options;

ShowGrow San Diego dispensary has commenced delivery service in addition to curbside pickup and other on-line ordering purchase options.

Nevada:

Received cannabis distribution license from the state of Nevada ;

; Received approval to expand cultivation canopy. The Company continues to renovate past production areas into new cultivation space;

Worked with brand partner Her Highness to launch their female focused brand into the Las Vegas market.

Ohio:

Ownership of The Clubhouse dispensary outside Cleveland, Ohio transferred to a 100% owned Body and Mind subsidiary to allow consolidation of revenues effective September 4, 2020 ;

transferred to a 100% owned Body and Mind subsidiary to allow consolidation of revenues effective ; A definitive agreement is in place to acquire the remaining 70% ownership of NMG Ohio LLC subject to regulatory approval;

Development of the NMG Ohio production facility, which is currently 30% indirectly owned by BaM, has advanced with construction expected to be completed around March 2021 .

Arkansas:

Body and Mind dispensary awarded "Best Dispensary in Arkansas " by Ark420.com;

" by Ark420.com; Commenced delivery and online ordering options;

Preparation for cultivation ongoing with cultivation team engaged in the final stages of set up in advance of inspection and permitting by local and state authorities;

The facility construction Capex is complete with roughly 3,500 square feet of retail and approximately 6,500 square feet constructed for future cultivation and packaging operations.

"These strong quarterly results reflect our emphasis on lean operations and asset consolidation," stated Michael Mills, CEO of BaM. "Our focus on limited license jurisdictions and efficient operations has resulted in strong financial results, a clean balance sheet and no long-term debt. As we fully consolidate our current assets and complete our current projects, we look forward to adding revenue within our current infrastructure. Our current production and cultivation developments are anticipated to expand the Body and Mind branded product portfolio into Ohio and Arkansas. Our dispensary and cultivation operations show steady growth as we continue to evaluate new expansion and acquisition opportunities for licenses and the Body and Mind brand."

*Adjusted EBITDA is a Non-GAAP metric used by management that does not have any standardized meaning prescribed by U.S. GAAP and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Management defines the Adjusted EBITDA as the Income (loss) from operations, as reported, before interest, taxes, and adjusted for removing other non-cash items, including the stock-based compensation expense, depreciation, and further adjustments to remove acquisition related costs or gains. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA is a useful financial metric to assess its operating performance on a cash adjusted basis before the impact of non-cash items and acquisition activities. The most comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP is net income (loss) from operations, which was presented above prior to the Adjusted EBITDA figure.

**Managed revenue: refers to results for the full three months ended October 31, 2020, including managed revenues, which are sales of cannabis products from entities for which management arrangements or definitive agreements are in place but BaM cannot consolidate due to regulatory restrictions, or from equity investments, in which results cannot be consolidated. Managed entities include Body and Mind's involvement in certain California, Ohio, and Arkansas operations.

The unaudited consolidated interim financial statements for the quarter ended October 31, 2020 are available on SEDAR and EDGAR and should be read in connection with this news release.

The Company will be hosting earnings call on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.

Participants can dial 1-888-664-6392 or 416-764-8659 and use confirmation number 57147511

A replay of the conference call will be available at 1-888-390-0541 until February 10, 2021. Please use replay number 147511 #

View the Body and Mind video at:

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=x4Kv0IspqnY&list=PLpvtfnO6zJVIINtW_tLr3aeIuOpYqJmUR&index=3

About Body and Mind Inc.

BaM is an operations focused multi-state operator investing in high quality medical and recreational cannabis cultivation, production and retail. Our wholly owned Nevada subsidiary was awarded one of the first medical marijuana cultivation licenses and holds cultivation and production licenses. BaM products include dried flower, edibles, oils and extracts as well as GPEN Gio cartridges. BaM cannabis strains have won numerous awards including the 2019 Las Vegas Weekly Bud Bracket, Las Vegas Hempfest Cup 2016, High Times Top Ten, the NorCal Secret Cup and the Emerald Cup.

BaM continues to expand operations in Nevada, California, Arkansas and Ohio and is dedicated to increasing shareholder value by focusing time and resources on improving operational efficiencies, facility expansions, state licensing opportunities as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Please visit www.bodyandmind.com for more information.

Instagram:@bodyandmindBaM

Twitter: @bodyandmindBaM

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.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release constitutes "forward-looking statements" as such term is used in applicable United States and Canadian laws. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any other statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans, "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and should be viewed as "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the actual results of activities, variations in the underlying assumptions associated with the estimation of activities, the availability of capital to fund programs and the resulting dilution caused by the raising of capital through the sale of shares, accidents, labor disputes and other risks. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this news release and in any document referred to in this news release.

Certain matters discussed in this news release and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company may constitute forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Many of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact the Company and the statements contained in this news release can be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities.

SOURCE Body and Mind Inc.

Related Links

https://bamcannabis.com/


Newark Liberty International Airport never shut down during Mondays snowstorm, but flight delays and cancelations continued into Tuesday as crews cleaned up heavy snow accumulations.

New Jersey-New York metro area airports saw a total of 341 canceled flights by noon on Tuesday due to the storm that had crews clearing runways and taxiways throughout Monday and into Tuesday.

Crews at Newark Airport had to cope with the highest snowfall at 18 inches while LaGuardia and JFK had roughly 13 inches of snow, said Cheryl Ann Albiez, a Port Authority spokeswoman.

Despite having to deal with heavy snow accumulations, airport crews remained hard at work with de-icing and snow removal operations throughout the airport, particularly the continuous clearing of the airport runways and taxiways, she said. Although flights were canceled yesterday, the airports remained open.

Snow continues to fall at #Newark Liberty, with a reported 17 inches of accumulation. With 95 flights canceled for Tuesday, passengers should check with their carriers on flight status before heading to #EWR. Our crews are working hard to get everything back to normal. pic.twitter.com/kgcGuG56wF  Newark Liberty Airport. Wear a Face Covering. (@EWRairport) February 2, 2021

As of noon, 144 flights had been canceled at the airport and the airport AirTrain was providing limited service with shuttle buses substituted where needed. Another 66 flights were delayed. Those figures paled to the 356 flights canceled at Newark Airport on Monday during the brunt of the storm. Of the planes that were able to fly in, 24 were delayed.

LaGuardia Airport had 82 cancelations and 26 flight delays Tuesday and JFK had 115 canceled flights and 31 delayed.

The first commercial flights departed Newark at around 9:30 a.m. and arrived at 10 a.m. The first flight left JFK at 8:45 a.m. and from LaGuardia at 10 a.m., she said.

Nationally, there were more delays at 385 than the 600 canceled flights in the U.S., as airports Tuesday cleaned up from the storm.

While recovery was occurring on Tuesday, travelers were urged to check on their flight.

Airlines are monitoring weather conditions both within the region and outside and are making decisions about their flight schedules accordingly, Albienz said. Customers are urged to confirm flight status with their airline and allow extra travel time.

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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.
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Myanmars military took control of the country Monday just hours after arresting civilian leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi. Military leaders cited voter fraud in recent elections. VOAs Arash Arabasadi reports.

CHICAGO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chickapea , a certified B-Corp and woman-owned natural foods company, has announced an innovative new take on pasta: +Greens. This veggie-packed, organic and gluten-free pasta is made with only chickpeas, lentils, kale, and spinach. The +Greens line is available in penne, spaghetti, and spirals.

Reimagine Pasta with Chickapea's New +Greens Line Each +Greens serving provides more than two servings of vegetables, 11 grams of fiber, and 24 grams of plant-based protein.

Each +Greens serving provides more than two servings of vegetables, 11 grams of fiber, and 24 grams of plant-based protein. In addition, +Greens is a great source of iron as well as vitamins K and B6, giving it the best nutritional profile in the pulse pasta category.



"As a busy parent, I'm constantly crunched for time. That's why +Greens provides a one-pot solution with its high protein, vegetable, and nutrient make-up," said Shelby Taylor, founder and CEO of Chickapea. "+Greens is incredibly versatile. You can easily replace animal-based proteins with Chickapea  it's delicious tossed in a salad, soup or curry or enjoyed in your favorite pasta dishes. It's a high-quality, shelf-stable protein with clean, plant-based, organic ingredients."

As a former health shop owner, Taylor founded Chickapea in 2015. After recognizing the challenge of putting a healthy meal on the table that everyone would enjoy, she turned a family favorite into a superfood using a combination of organic chickpeas and lentils.

Chickapea is the only women-owned and certified B Corp company in its category. As a business owner, Taylor is committed to doing good and making a positive impact. Since 2018 the company has donated 2% of revenue, not just profit, to feed nutritious meals to people and communities in need.

Chickapea's +Greens line will roll out into stores nationwide beginning in February 2021, including with many Co-op and independent grocers and all MOMs Organic Markets. The products will also be available for sale on the Chickapea website and Amazon .

In addition to +Greens, Chickapea continues to offer their popular line of organic pasta featuring their original chickpea and lentil recipe. This product line includes:

Chickapea founder and CEO Shelby Taylor is available for press interviews.

High-res images and recipes are available upon request.

About Chickapea

Founded by entrepreneur Shelby Taylor in 2015, Chickapea is dedicated to providing plant-based, high-protein, organic foods that are minimally processed, rich in nutrients and made with simple, wholesome ingredients. Chickapea is proud to be a certified B Corporation whose mission is to create good in the world through nutritious, organic meal options and impactful social contributions. Quickly gaining ground as a healthy brand people trust, the Chickapea brand is the pasta of choice for many families, health food professionals, athletes, seniors and health-conscious consumers.

Website

Instagram

Facebook

Media Contact:

Shnane Liem

[email protected]

778-866-0084

SOURCE Chickapea
Snake micro scales reveal secrets of sidewinding and slithering

The mesmerizing flow of a sidewinder moving obliquely across desert sands has captivated biologists for centuries and has been variously studied over the years, but questions remained about how the snakes produce their unique motion. Sidewinders are pit vipers, specifically rattlesnakes, native to the deserts of the southwestern United State and adjacent Mexico.

Scientists had already described the microstructure of the skin on the ventral, or belly, surface of snakes. Many of the snakes studied, including all viper species, had distinctive rearward facing "microspicules" (micron-sized protrusions on scales) that had been interpreted in the context of reducing friction in the forward direction--the direction the crawling snake--and increasing friction in the backward direction to reduce slip.

Considered through the lens of a sidewinder's peculiar form of locomotion, however, it seemed that these microspicules would not function in the same manner. But no one had examined the microstructure of sidewinders, nor of a handful of unrelated African vipers that also sidewind.

Working with naturally-shed skins collected from snakes in zoos, researchers used atomic force microscopy to visualize and measure the microstructures of these scale protrusions in three species of sidewinding vipers as well as many other viper species for comparison. The results of the research, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that indeed the sidewinders have a unique structure distinct from other snakes.

The microspicules were absent in the African sidewinding species and reduced to tiny nubbins in the North American sidewinder. All three snakes also had distinctive crater-like micro-depressions producing a distinctive texture not seen in other snakes.

Daniel Goldman, Dunn Family Professor of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Jennifer Rieser, working as a postdoctoral researcher in Goldman's group and currently an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at Emory University, developed mathematical models to test how both the typical texture of rearward-directed microspicules and spicule-less cratered texture function as snakes interact with the ground. The models revealed that the microspicules would actually impede sidewinding, explaining their evolutionary loss in these species.

The models also revealed an unexpected result that microspicules function to improve performance of snakes that use lateral undulation to move. Lateral undulation is the typical side-to-side mode locomotion used by the majority of snake species. "This discovery adds a new dimension to our knowledge of the functionality of these structures, that is more complex than the previous ideas," said Joseph Mendelson, director of research at Zoo Atlanta and adjunct associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences.

The models indicate that the microspicules act a bit like corduroy fabric. "Friction is low when you run your finger along the length of the furrowed fabric--consistent with previous work--but the furrows produce significant friction when you move your finger sideways across the fabric texture," said Goldman. The functionality of the distinct craters remains a mystery.

The findings could be important to the development of future generations of robots able to move across challenging surfaces such as loose sand. "Understanding how and why this example of convergent evolution works may allow us to adapt it for our own needs, such as building robots that can move in challenging environments," Rieser said.

In terms of anatomy, this was a classic example of convergent evolution between a pair of snake species in Africa and a very distantly related snake in North America, Mendelson noted. Biogeographic reconstructions conducted by Jessica Tingle, a doctoral student at University of California Riverside, indicated that the African snakes are evolutionarily much older than the North American sidewinder, suggesting that the sidewinders represented an earlier phase in adaptation for sidewinding.

Tai-De Li, then at Georgia Tech in the lab of Prof Elisa Riedo and now at the City University of New York, did the AFM measurements.

Drawing from the fields of evolutionary biology, living systems physics, and mathematical modelling, the team produced a study that explains some aspects of what these microstructures on the bellies of snakes do and how they evolved in snakes.

"Our results highlight how an integrated approach can provide quantitative predictions for structure-function relationships and insights into behavioral and evolutionary adaptions in biological systems," the authors wrote.

###

This research was supported by the Georgia Tech Elizabeth Smithgall Watts Fund; National Science Foundation Physics of Living Systems Grants PHY-1205878 and PHY-1150760; and Army Research Office Grant W911NF-11-1-0514. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.

CITATION: Jennifer M. Rieser, Tai-De Li, Jessica L. Tingle, Daniel I. Goldman, and Joseph R. Mendelson III, "Functional consequences of convergently evolved microscopic skin features on snake locomotion." (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021)

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

Posted Monday, February 1, 2021 5:24 am

This is the message I just sent to Amazon:

Dear Amazon,

I just read your letter to President Biden dated January 20, 2021. Your offer to President Biden to help in distributing COVID virus vaccine throughout the United States is very generous. This offer from the tremendous Amazon distribution system will make a huge contribution in getting the vaccine to all corners of our country. Where was the letter to President Trump in December when the vaccine began arriving from suppliers? How many lives would have been saved if Amazon had offered its huge distribution system over a month ago? But you waited until you could obtain the political gain from the Biden presidency. Cancel my Amazon account now!
A decade later, those who worked to reopen Jacksonville after the so-called Groundhog Blizzard left record amounts of snow on the ground Feb. 1-3, 2011, havent forgotten the arduous task.

It was quite an intense battle, said Steve Morthole of Steve Morthole Masonry Concrete and Snow Removal.

It was 10 years ago this week that west-central Illinois was bracing for one of the largest snowstorms to cross the Midwest in more than a century, with predictions calling for more than a foot of snow, blizzard conditions and cold temperatures.

The National Weather Service and emergency teams were not wrong.

The Groundhog Blizzard  so named by the National Weather Service  left behind 12 inches of snow in Jacksonville, 13.5 inches in Beardstown and 18 inches in Winchester. It added in below-freezing temperatures and snow drifts as high as 15 feet.

Dottie Unland Gholson of Beardstown recalled how high the snow drifts were as she tried to attend to her horses.

(I) struggled through a drift as high as my shoulders to clear snow away, she said via Facebook, also recalling having (a) city worker dig my car out so (I) could get out to feed my horses.

Jacksonville/Morgan County Office of Emergency Management director Phil McCarty recalls doing what needed to be done to help Bob Fitzsimmons, who then was EMS director.

I remember we worked with the Department of Transportation to move patients, McCarty said, explaining how they followed behind snow plows as they attempted to clear roads during and after the storm.

The blizzard  which by definition includes sustained winds of 35 mph, visibility reduced to  mile and more than three hours duration  blanketed the region the night of Tuesday, Feb. 1, according to Daryl Onton, meteorologist for the weather services.

For this area, it certainly was one of the biggest, (most) widespread storms, Onton said. The majority of it came before midnight.

Prior to 2011, the largest recorded storm dated back to Feb. 26-28, 1900, when 14 inches fell, 12 of them on Feb. 28, Onton said.

Residents were stuck in their driveways, unable to use the roads and otherwise dealing with icy conditions.

The community respected the snow, McCarty said of those who stayed inside.

For those like McCarty, working with crews to reopen the city, the work continued days after the storm came through, making its way to the Northeast.

I was constantly plowing snow, McCarty said of working with Morthole. We were plowing for days.

Morthole, who has been in the snow removal business for 47 years, remembers the Groundhog Blizzard as one of his most exhausting jobs.

We ran out of places to move it (snow) so we had to haul it off, Morthole said. We worked on it for nine days in a row. The first couple of days were 24 hours a day, he said.

The storm also caused power lines to be down and, with parking lots covered with snow, Morthole also was tasked with clearing areas so Ameren could store powerlines and equipment for the utilitys work.

We had to keep the Pathway (Services Unlimited) parking lot clear for wires and trucks, Morthole said. We had added work.

Morthole recalls everyone banding together to get the city reopened but also will never forget the sheer the amount of equipment needed. That was the last time he had to use all of his larger plow pushers at once, he said.

It was a team effort, not only with the city but with our equipment, he said, recalling his recurrent thought as he plowed. When is this ever going to quit?

Winds near 46 mph and near-zero visibility were reported in Jacksonville during the storm, and all the elements of the storm were perfectly aligned to be one rare blizzard for west-central Illinois, Onton said.
The year 2020 delivered a lot of blows, and taught many people lessons they had never been forced to learn in a lifetime. At the very heart of it all, however, people learned to appreciate the healthcare and medical community in a whole new light, understanding just how important they are. It should come as no surprise that the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the forefront the many job opportunities the healthcare industry has to offer, whether that is front-line staff, patient-facing positions, or even back office administration people. Each position plays an important role in keeping people healthy.

The career of a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) is one that has really gained steam and started to become more well-known, not just to patients but to prospective students looking for that "perfect" career to pursue, and those already working in the medical industry who want to move up the career ladder.

So, what's involved in becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner, and why might it be a good career path for you? Let's break down all the essential information, look at the steps involved, and provide some advice that will help if you choose to pursue this career.

What Does a Family Nurse Practitioner Do?

The world of healthcare is vast, and quite frankly that's an understatement. There are so many different jobs that all rely on each other, and depend on each other in order to keep the wheels turning smoothly and provide patients with high-quality, equitable care.

As a Family Nurse Practitioner, you will be working with patients first-hand. It will be your job to evaluate them, diagnose them, treat them, prescribe medication, and also work with any other health care providers necessary in the patient's care. There is also a real focus on holistic care. As an FNP, a big part of your job will be to provide education to your patients on how they can make healthy life choices, improve their overall health, and even prevent illness from happening.

Unlike the very demanding shifts that RNs are forced to work, as an FNP you'll also have more control over your work hours. It's common to work an 8, 10, or 12 hour shift giving you the freedom of flexibility and choice.

Your patients will range in age from 0 right up to end of life. It's common to work in outpatient clinics, in a private practice, in urgent care clinics, in schools, and in hospitals. Because you have such wide-stretching options it can really give you a sense that you are making a difference and helping people.

What is the Career Outlook for an FNP?

In terms of a nurse practitioner, this is a career path that is currently going through huge amounts of growth. Healthcare jobs in general are in high-demand as employers struggle to fill all the available spots, so pursuing this path all but guarantees you'll be able to find a job.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics groups nurse practitioners with other jobs such as nurse midwives, and nurse anesthetists, and shows a job growth of 45% by 2029. This is much faster and higher than the national job growth rate. As for the average yearly wage for nurse practitioners, the BLS has it listed as $111,840 as of 2019.

Now you can take these same categories of job growth and median pay and apply it to registered nurses and there is a shocking difference. Job growth is only listed at 7% for RNs and they have a median pay of $73,300. Obviously taking that next step and pursuing a career as an FNP can make a massive difference in terms of your career outlook.

How to Become an FNP

Because Nurse Practitioners (NP) are classified as a very Advanced Practice Nurse (APN), and are in fact the most highly trained of all the registered nurses, you can expect that there will be a number of steps you need to take. First you need to already be a graduate of a registered nursing program. That includes having passed your RN licensure exam, which is called the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). Once you've obtained a Bachelor's in Nursing you can then move on and apply for a higher level program - a Master of Science in Nursing - Family Nurse Practitioner program.

Now it should be noted that there is no reason to do all your schooling at once. In other words, after graduating and becoming an RN you can choose to work in the field for a while and get experience, make some money, and then enroll in an FNP program down the road. It's a great way for registered nurses to take that next step.

This site goes into more details on how to become an FNP, including how to enrol, what the program entails, and even what to expect in the final FNP exam - which you need to pass.

Not All States Allow FNPs to Practice

One very important thing to keep in mind for those eyeing up a career as an FNP is that not every state offers the right to practice. In fact there are only 22 states, and Washington D.C. who currently make it possible for FNPs to fully practice. There are another 16 states that offer reduced practice, and then there are 12 that restrict practice - but look for some of these restricted states to evolve and perhaps change categories.

What's interesting is that the healthcare industry as a whole is starting to go through a real shift wherein it has become more common for patients to have a nurse practitioner involved in their care, even in a hospital setting. These NPs are focusing on direct care, allowing physicians to focus more on the complex issues that arise in the hospital setting. As this situation continues to change and shift that too can affect which states FNPs are restricted from practicing in.

An Intriguing and Exciting Job Path

So, if you're looking to map out a career in healthcare, or you're already an RN who is now looking for ways to move up the career ladder, pursuing your Master of Science in Nursing - Family Nurse Practitioner program could be the ideal path for you.
Hello everybody, Justin here. I just wanted to let you all know that you can't fly anywhere nice for a while. Me and my government, well just me actually, have decided that you shouldn't be allowed to fly to Mexico or the Caribbean because it is making other people envious. I'm following the science of course, because that tells us that nearly 2% of the infections in Canada are caused by people selfishly travelling to other countries. You can still fly to Florida if you want, or a host of other places but not Mexico or the Caribbean. Don't ask me why, I'm just following the science.

I know section 6 of the Canadian Charter of Rights says that you can go to these place, but honestly what I tell you is way more important than that charter, which is old and probably out of date; I might rewrite it when I'm not so busy fighting the virus and being here for all of you.

Some people have suggested that this is just a distraction to take people's minds off the fact that the vaccine is not being distributed in Canada fast enough. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Don't worry though, you will all be vaccinated eventually, maybe not this year, but eventually. You have my word on this and I have never lied to you have I? Okay there was that PR thing, but I had my fingers crossed when I made that promise so it doesn't count. Oh there was the WE misunderstanding, but I don't know what the fuss was about, it was only $900 million and anyway it's my money. You taxpayers are always making a fuss about money, but when you pay tax it becomes my money and I can do what I want with it. Obviously you people don't understand how economics work.

Trust me I do sympathise with you that you can't all go out and have fun and enjoy an evening at the pub. It has hit me hard too. Me and my buddies like the Aga Khan, Prince Charles, Bill Gates, George Soros and the rest of the lads, we all like to go for a few pints on a Friday night., shoot the breeze about diversity, resilience, inequality, that sort of thing. You see, we are just a regular bunch of guys, but with a lot more money obviously..

Finally, if you have any questions, feel free to call me on 1 613 992-4211. I won't answer, but feel free to call anyway.



Love,

Justin

(AKA Peter Emery, Kelowna)



We are proud to be the only pharmacy staffing firm in the U.S. and Canada to win the Best of Staffing Client and Talent Awards for more than a decade running.

Rx relief, part of The PrideStaff Companies, is pleased to announce for the seventh consecutive year that they have earned one of ClearlyRateds Best of Staffing Client and Talent Diamond Awards, after winning the Best of Staffing Client and Talent Awards at least five years in a row for providing superior service to their clients and job seekers. This is the twelfth consecutive year Rx relief has won a Client Award and the eleventh consecutive year they have won a Talent Award.

Each year, fewer than 2% of all U.S. and Canadian staffing agencies earn a Best of Staffing Award and even less go on to earn Diamond Awards. As the only staffing firm dedicated to pharmacy staffing in the U.S. and Canada to win Client and Talent Diamond Awards seven years in a row, Rx relief is truly in a class by itself:



Each year, fewer than 1% of all U.S. and Canadian staffing agencies earn a Client and Talent Best of Staffing Diamond Awards.

Rx relief received a Net Promoter Score from their clients that is more than triple the industrys average of 28 in 2020.

Rx relief received a Net Promoter Score from their placed job candidates that is more than triple the industrys average of 18 in 2020.

Winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and candidates. On average, clients of winning agencies are twice as likely to be completely satisfied compared to those working with non-winning agencies. Candidates who have been placed by winning agencies are also twice as likely to be completely satisfied with the services provided. Rx relief tripled and quadrupled those industry averages, distinguishing themselves as the best of the best.

"In a year when public health and safety was of critical importance, Rx relief excelled as a pharmacy staffing leader by living our mission statement, 'Consistently provide client experiences focused on what they value most'," said PrideStaff COO, John-Reed McDonald. "We pivoted our operations, staffed essential critical infrastructure roles and implemented new technology to answer the call. This allowed us to seamlessly connect employers and talent during a time of unparalleled challenge.

"We are proud to be the only pharmacy staffing firm in the U.S. and Canada to win the Best of Staffing Client and Talent Awards for more than a decade running," continued McDonald. "In the year ahead, we'll continue prioritizing customers' needs, adapting our solutions, and improving our processes and technology to drive even better results for those we serve."

"After one of the most turbulent years in modern history, winners of the 2021 Best of Staffing award have proven their commitment to go above and beyond in support of their clients and placed talent," said ClearlyRated's CEO and Founder, Eric Gregg. "These service leaders have demonstrated their capacity to be agile, to be precise, and to prioritize the client and talent experience above all else. It is my honor to celebrate and showcase the 2021 Best of Staffing winners alongside feedback from their actual clients and placed talent on ClearlyRated.com!"

About Rx relief

A division of PrideStaff, Rx relief is a Joint Commission Certified and GSA approved pharmacy placement firm providing temporary and full-time pharmacy professionals for all pharmacy practice settings. The parent company was founded in the 1970s as 100% company-owned units and began staffing franchising in 1995. They operate over 80 offices in North America to serve over 5,000 clients. With over 40 years in the staffing business, headquartered in Fresno, CA, all PrideStaff brands offer the resources and expertise of a national firm with the spirit, dedication and personal service of smaller, entrepreneurial firms. For more information on Rx relief services, visit our website.

PrideStaff and Rx relief's shared Mission: Consistently provide client experiences focused on what they value most.

About ClearlyRated

Rooted in satisfaction research for professional service firms, ClearlyRated utilizes a Net Promoter Score survey program to help professional service firms measure their service experience, build online reputation, and differentiate on service quality. Learn more here.

About Best of Staffing

ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing Award is the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies that have proven superior service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and placed talent. Award winners are showcased by city and area of expertise on ClearlyRated.com  an online business directory that helps buyers of professional services find service leaders and vet prospective firms with the help of validated ratings and testimonials.
She's one of Australia's top TV presenters, and fronts Channel 10's revamped morning show Studio 10 alongside Tristan MacManus.

And on Tuesday, the 39-year-old thrilled viewers when she shared a sweet and hilarious throwback photo of herself at the age of three.

The picture was submitted for a segment on bad haircuts, and it's safe to say the 'do on display wasn't one of her best.

Guess who! She's one of Australia's top TV stars - but would YOU recognise her from this sweet childhood photo?

The little girl in the photo is none other than Studio 10 host Sarah Harris.

In the image, she has a front fringe and a bowl-like haircut and wears a pink dress.

She smiles for the camera, showing off a toothy grin and chubby cheeks.

Familiar face: The little girl in the photo is none other than Studio 10 host Sarah Harris

'You look like me, love,' co-anchor Tristan said, as Sarah burst into fits of giggles.

'I do, too. I was, like, three years old... I ate all the pies at school,' she laughed.

She added: 'They showed beautiful Deanna who is on reception here at Channel 10. She is Croatian, like my family. She said, "It looks like you were eating a lot of Croatian pancakes back in the day.... you look like a tubba!"'

Funny: 'You look like me, love,' co-host Tristan MacManus said, as Sarah burst into laughter

Sarah is not one to shy away from sharing childhood flashback photos, and last year posted a picture of herself as a toddler enjoying an ice cream at the beach.

'How good is salty skin, bare feet and melted ice cream by the beach?! Here's a three year old me loving the beach holiday life. (Bondi I think, probably went topless). Ahh. Those were the days,' she captioned her post on Instagram.

Sarah has previously opened up about her childhood being raised by a single mother in housing commission flats and caravan parks around Mount Druitt.

Adorable! Sarah is not one to shy away from sharing childhood flashback photos, and last year posted a picture of herself as a toddler enjoying an ice cream at the beach

Last year, she spoke about her humble beginnings and how far she's come in an interview with The Australian Women's Weekly.

She said it was her mother who inspired her to do well in school and 'shoot for the stars' and 'dream big'.

'When you don't come from much you have to stop and think about how far you've come,' Sarah said.

'Hand-me-downs were the norm, mum drove around in a fourth-hand car, we didn't go on overseas holidays or to fancy private schools.'

Looking back: Sarah has previously opened up about her childhood being raised by a single mother in housing commission flats and caravan parks around Mount Druitt

Sarah got her first job at 14 and even worked at McDonald's as a teenager to help out her single mother.

She went on to get work experience in year 10 at Channel Seven, and was later offered a weekend shift position, kicking off her career in media.

'I really pushed myself hard because I wanted to make my mum proud,' she said.

Sarah said her own sons, Paul, four, and Harry, two, wear second- or third-hand clothes because she doesn't want to 'spoil them'.
A mother of two children with intellectual disabilities has told of her fears that plans to reopen special needs schools will not go ahead as planned on February 11.

It was announced yesterday that special needs schools will reopen at the end of next week, with special education classes in maintstream classes to follow on February 22.

Elaine Healy from Mallow, told RTE radios Morning Ireland that she had been thrilled to hear the news, but was trying not to get her hopes up.

I'm absolutely thrilled, I would be absolutely delighted if it goes ahead - I'm really trying not to get my hopes up in case it doesn't, but it seems to be optimistic and to be honest it's a lifeline to us - in this house we're desperate for the children to get back to school. It's been really hard having them at home.

Ms Healy said that this lockdown had been the most difficult to date.

Having the two dates for schools reopening and having them whipped away again without warning, it broke my heart and it just took away all hope and I think this one is really hard on people.

When asked about the possibility of a gradual, part-time return to schools, she said she was delighted that they were going back at all: I'd gladly take one or two days if that's what it takes for them to build it up and I think it might be no harm for some kids that will struggle.

My kids will be delighted to go back to school and they'll slip into that routine again very quickly, but a lot of children on the spectrum will find it hard because staying at home has become their new routine so easing into school might help.

Ms Healy expressed how shocked she was to find out special schools would not stay open considering how many families publicly said they were struggling:

I was very surprised that they didn't keep special schools open after what we saw last time - so many documentaries, so many parents that went public about how extremely hard it was. I thought that this time no matter what happened with the country, they'd keep the schools open because a lot of other countries have managed to keep the schools open, especially special schools.

Ms Healy said she had been prepared for another lockdown as long as the children could go to school: I was really, really shocked that they're not in school, they've completely been abandoned - it essentially means they've had no education for the best part of a year now.

When you have kids on the spectrum they need all the help they can get, they need all that early intervention because what you put into them now is what will stand to them when they're older. The fact that they've missed out on almost a whole year - I think it's disgraceful that they've left the children with nothing.

The mother of two  a nine-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy, both with ASD and intellectual disabilities explained that for children on the spectrum routine was the most important thing for them.

That's been completely taken away from them - there's no such thing as remote learning in this house, the kids are just too severe, they just don't have the understanding, they don't really transfer over that school can be at home as well.

This is a home environment and it just became too upsetting trying to do any homeschooling with them because of the lack of understanding, we can't explain to them that they're not in school, but they have to do the same work.

We might be their parents, but we're not teachers and we're certainly not special education teachers, so the fact that everything has been taken away from them, it's just been heartbreaking for them.

School is actually both their favourite place to go so it's been devastating and has had an awful impact on all of us.

Ms Healy added that the children have regressed, they have stopped eating and are both now on medication. Both also have sleeping problems.

We've had problems with toileting even though they've been toilet trained for a few years. It's affected everything with me, my own mental health - I need a break during the day from the kids so I can breathe and get myself together to deal with what we have to do especially when they're not sleeping at night.

When they're not sleeping at night and not going to school it's literally 24 hour care for the two of them - it's been very, very hard, not being able to see family, not getting support from any one - all my family is in Cork as is Brian's which is well outside our 5K so we don't have any supports.
Aussie-Made Home CCP Virus Test Ramps Up Production for US, Not Australia

An Australian-made over-the-counter rapid home test for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, will soon be manufactured in the United States to make it available to millions of Americans, but it will not be available to Australians because it is prohibited by law.

The company was given an emergency authorisation in December by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to supply the Ellume COVID-19 Home Test for non-prescription use by symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals aged two years and older. The home tests deliver 96 percent accurate results within 15 minutes.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles told reporters on Tuesday he was proud to see Ellume transition from a small Brisbane-based research company into a manufacturer, then an exporter.

[It] will now have a massive new manufacturing presence in the United States and I just want to congratulate them and say how proud Queenslanders and the Queensland government are of their achievement, Miles said.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles speaks to the media during a press conference in Brisbane, Australia, on June 30, 2020. (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt)

The Queensland government invested in the company last year through its $50 million Essential Goods and Supply Chain Program in a bid to create hundreds of jobs for Queenslanders and help the company ramp up production to produce 20 million tests by July.

Currently around 100,000 tests are being manufactured per day in Brisbanethis is expected to increase to 250,000 per day by Marchand shipped to the United States where they are desperately needed.

The federal health ministers spokesperson echoed the Queensland deputy premiers congratulations for providing support to the United States through their CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus (novel coronavirus) outbreak.

This not only provides jobs for Australians, but support for one of our closest allies in the United States, the spokesperson told The Epoch Times on Tuesday. This achievement was supported by $1 million in Australian Government funding in 2015 to assist them in commercializing their technology.

The Biden administration has awarded US$231.8 million to Ellumes United States arm, which initially got the green light from the Trump administration last year. A new U.S. facility is expected to produce to over 633,000 tests kits per day (19 million per month), of which 8.5 billion units are earmarked for Americans.

President Joe Biden signs documents including cabinet nominations and sub-cabinet nominations in the Presidents Room at the Capitol after the inauguration ceremony in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. (Jim Lo Scalzo-Pool/Getty Images)

However, under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989, the supply and advertising of self-tests for COVID-19 in Australia without a health professionals oversight is illegal.

Under Australian regulation, Ellume could supply their product for use at the point-of-care by certain suitably qualified health professionals. However, to date, Ellume has not sought approval through the Australian process for this purpose, the health ministers spokesperson said.

Australian medical experts have advised the government that testing for the CCP virus should only be conducted in an accredited pathology laboratory or by suitably qualified healthcare professionals in clinics, where immediate clinical advice and treatment can be provided to the individual, the spokesperson said.

In a low COVID-19 prevalence environment such as Australia, the risk of false-positive results in rapid antibody or antigen tests (such as the Ellume) is higher than in high prevalence environments such as currently exists in the United States, the spokesperson said.

Patrick Condren, an Ellume spokesman, told The Epoch Times: The TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration] administers those laws. It would be up to that organisation to ask the Commonwealth to change those laws.

With Queensland government investment, Ellume is expected to support over 500 jobs in Brisbane when fully operational, with up to an additional 200 jobs created during construction.

A spokesperson for Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles, who has touted the projects job creation aspect on social media, told The Epoch Times these jobs are guaranteed once the U.S. facility is up and running.
Dancing parties of youth and students take place to celebrate the Day of the Shining Star, the birth anniversary of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea in this February 16, 2019 KCNA Photo.

Citizens in North Korea are resentful at being forced to practice singing and dancing for the annual birth anniversary celebration of late former leader Kim Jong Il amid harsh winter weather and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, residents of the border regions told RFA.

The birth anniversary of Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) on February 16, known as the Day of the Shining Star, and his father and predecessor Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), known as the Day of the Sun, solidify the cult of personality surrounding the Kim family and the countrys third-generation leader, Kim Jong Un.

The two days bookend a two-month Loyalty Festival period, where in most years the country puts on mass games, military demonstrations and cultural events that draw large crowds.

People now being made to practice singing and dancing during the harsh blizzards of the Siberian winter say the government is being hypocritical for making them gather in large groups during the pandemic, when even small gatherings are banned.

These days every organization is busy preparing for a performance to celebrate the Day of the Shining Star. People from factories, schools, and neighborhood watch units must gather at the practice site, a resident from North Hamgyong province in the countrys northeast told RFA on Jan. 28.

Its not easy for the people to gather at the practice sites right now because it snows a lot and the wind stings. Even though the authorities previously banned gatherings and ceremonial events because of the coronavirus, now they are forcing us to practice in the extreme cold, said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

In most years on the Day of the Shining Star, the people compete in a national musical performance contest where they sing the praises of Kim Jong Il. This year they have been ordered to praise the current leader Kim Jong Un, who recently promoted himself to General Secretary of the ruling Korean Workers Party.

Even though the coronavirus situation has not at all improved, they are still making us practice singing songs about the General Secretary. Some people are complaining that they dont know why they are celebrating the Day of the Shining Star by praising Kim Jong Un [instead of Kim Jong Il,] the source said.

Even as the coronavirus crisis is making our lives even more difficult, the authorities are making us prepare for the celebration. They might be trying to raise the celebratory mood for Kim Jong Uns ascendency to general secretary, but these are forced musical performances to showcase loyalty. Who could genuinely welcome the new general secretary from the bottom of their heart in this situation? said the source.

A source in neighboring Ryanggang province told RFA on Jan. 27 that factories, companies, neighborhood watch units and the womens union mobilized to practice singing and dancing for Feb. 16.

Due to the blizzard and strong winds crashing in from Mt. Baekdu, it is hard to even open our eyes. The people who have to go to the practice site every day are blaming the authorities for their misery, said the second source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The people who are still suffering in the aftermath of the coronavirus are made to practice so they can praise General Secretary Kim Jong Un through song and dance. Who would like that? asked the source.

The residents are fiercely protesting that the authorities are ignoring the ban on gatherings, and seem to be unconcerned about the health and safety of the people who are barely holding it together amidst widespread food shortages and harsh cold weather.

Though North Korea still claims outwardly that it has not confirmed a single case of the virus, authorities over the past year have taken extensive measures to limit its spread, including cancelling major cultural events, quarantining entire counties and cities, and restricting travel between provinces.

Most importantly, North Korea and China closed their border and suspended all trade in January 2020, a move that has been disastrous for local North Korean economies, and import-dependent industries.

Reported by Jieun Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
The European Business Association (EBA) calls on the authorities to conscientiously approach the registration process for the COVID-19 vaccine in Ukraine.

"The business urges the authorities to take a very conscious approach to the vaccine registration process as the lives of millions of people depend on it. It is not permissible to register a vaccine even with a mediocre percentage of efficacy or a vaccine about which no full information is available. For example, there are concerns about one type of Chinese vaccine which efficacy and effectiveness are not completely proven by official data," the EBA said on its website.

"Besides, the EBA community appeals to the president of Ukraine and the government to foster the promptest availability of the vaccine in the country and launch a nationwide vaccination campaign as soon as possible, which, in fact, is already happening in developed countries. Surely, the community understands that a lot depends on market players in this context but prudent communication with international partners and a transparent approach to the issue is essential for the country to receive the vaccine in sufficient quantities and in the shortest time possible," the report says.

"According to preliminary information, Ukraines vaccination campaign should begin in February. We hope that there will be no disruptions in vaccination plans as this is not an issue that can be neglected," it said.
A Melbourne panelbeater who sexually abused a nine-year-old girl has been jailed for 10 years after pleading guilty to eight charges.

Shane Spooner, 36, preyed on his victim repeatedly starting in 2018, and continued the abuse until she was 11 years old.

The County Court on Tuesday heard that on one occasion, Spooner made his victim wear black lace underwear, gave her a small sum of money and told her not to tell her parents.

When the victim did tell her parents about the abuse, Spooner claimed she was capable of making up the allegations.

Shane Spooner (pictured), 36, preyed on a nine-year-old girl until she was 11 and has been jailed for 10 years

But her parents went to the police, who later found the black underwear at Spooner's house.

Spooner said the underwear and other items found at his house were a 'coincidence', but DNA testing of the items linked him to the crimes.

Police arrested Spooner in February last year, and he pleaded guilty to eight charges including three counts of sexual penetration of a child under 12.

'It goes without saying how much the community abhors your kind of offending,' Judge Peter Lauritsen told Spooner.

'Your moral culpability is very high, you had no regard to the effect of your behaviour upon her.'

The court heard Spooner's victim has nightmares and is afraid he might escape from prison, while her parents fear they have failed to protect her.

Judge Lauritsen said while Spooner had shown genuine remorse, effectively treating his paedophilia would be a long process, and Spooner is currently a moderate to high risk of sexual reoffending.

Spooner will serve a non-parole period of six years and nine months.
Controversy has long surrounded Mr Chaus connection to the United Nations bribery scandal given his role as a major political donor to both major parties in Australia. Mr Chau has denied any wrongdoing and successfully sued journalists who reported on the FBI probe into the payment from his firm Kingold to Mr Ashes personal bank account. Liberal MP Tim Wilson. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Chau was never charged by the FBI. In 2018 Liberal MP Andrew Hastie named Mr Chau in Parliament as the source of the alleged bribe funds and claimed Australias defamation laws were being used to suppress information in the national interest.

Mr Hastie said at the time that Mr Chau had given more than $4 million since 2004 to the Liberal and Labor parties and also donated $45 million to universities in Australia. Mr Wilson said in Parliament on Tuesday that: Mr Chaus role in providing funds [to Mr Ashe] has been obscured by defamation cases. He also repeated the allegations aired by Mr Hastie that security agencies regarded Mr Chau to be part of Beijings efforts to influence overseas governments. These documents reveal Mr Chaus private company made payments to Mr Ashe via one of Mr Ashes bank accounts, Mr Wilson said. It reveals the FBI regarded this payment as a quid quo pro in an arrangement to get Mr Ashe to speak at Mr Chaus 2013 conference. It reveals that in February 2016, FBI agents questioned Mr Chau about these payments. It reveals he told the FBI it was in his mind merely a donation to alleviate poverty. Meanwhile, the US authorities charged Mr Chaus contact Sheri Yan with bribery over the same payment.

Mr Wilson said his intention in tabling the documents was to let the light in, adding the best antidote against those who seek to influence our political system or our universities ... is sunshine. Mr Chau previously won a large pay-out in a defamation case involving former Walkley Award-winning Age and Sydney Morning Herald journalist John Garnaut for a story he wrote about the bribery scandal. On Tuesday, Mr Chau had another legal victory in a Federal Court defamation case he lodged in connection to a 2017 Four Corners story detailing the payment to Mr Ashe and the FBI case. The ABC and Nine were ordered to pay Mr Chau $590,000 in damages after a Federal Court judge found the media outlets defamed him by suggesting he bribed John Ashe and that he bribed Australian politicians in the form of political donations. However, Federal Court judge Steven Rares found the program did not convey two of the more serious allegations that Mr Chau had claimed.

The media outlets said they were deeply disappointed by the judgment and urged state and territory legislators to take urgent steps to pass reforms to defamation laws that have been agreed upon by a national working group. The tabling of the FBI case file in Parliament is significant because it provides fresh information about the law enforcement agencys investigations into Mr Chau. Mr Chau has never been charged with any criminal offence and there is no suggestion that he has engaged in any criminal conduct. Both Mr Chau and Yan maintain that the $200,000 payment from Mr Chaus company to Mr Ashe was not a bribe. The tabled FBI files include a summary of information gathered by investigators and which states: Ultimately, CCW [Chau Chak Wing] paid a bank account controlled by UN general assembly president ASHE $200,000, and in return, ASHE travelled to and spoke at an event being hosted at CCWs Imperial Springs property. The FBI files detail emails and conversations between Ashe, Yan and Yans offsider Heidi Park, in which Ashe said he would attend the 2013 conference but only if he was paid money into an account he had set up to finance his campaign to remain president of the UN General Assembly. The FBI documents refer to Mr Chau using his mandarin name Zhou Zerong.

Loading ASHE had told YAN and PARK to keep their promise to help his PGA fund, and they asked ZHOU [Chau Chak Wing] to donate money to ASHE. ZHOU [Chau Chak Wing] made a $200,000 payment to ASHE directly into his PGA account in November 2013, states one of the FBI documents tabled in parliament. The FBI case file also summarises a record of a February 2016 interview Mr Chau gave to FBI agents. Mr Chau told investigators he had known Yan for five or six years. He also told the FBI that he only got involved in transactions of more than $10 million and therefore didnt pay much attention to the $200,000 payment from Kingold to Ashe beyond telling an associate to go ahead and do it. Mr Chau said in the interview he was told the $200,000 was a donation to fight poverty but he never received a donation report or any receipt. The FBI account of its interview states: Chau reiterated that the order of events was he spoke with Yan and she mentioned the United Nations wanted to send Ashe to the summit, he referred Yan to [redacted] and shortly after he approved a donation to Ashe in the amount of $200,000 for the alleviation of poverty.
"We are excited to have John join the Brennan organization," said Brian Roach, Managing Principal at Brennan Investment Group. "John brings deep experience, market knowledge and strong broker relationships in Colorado that will aid both our existing portfolio as well as our effort to source future opportunities."

Mr. Torp brings a strong background in industrial real estate, including acquisitions, dispositions, development and leasing. Before joining Brennan Investment Group, Torp was Vice President at Stream Realty Partners in its Denver office where he advised institutional and private clients on project leasing, asset repositioning and development. Previously, he was a member of the Capital Group at Newmark Knight Frank.

"It is a privilege to join one of the top industrial real estate firms in the country," said John Torp, Vice President at Brennan Investment Group. "Brennan has a strong national platform and track record, and I look forward to joining the team in growing the region through developments and acquisitions".

About Brennan Investment Group

Brennan Investment Group, a Chicago-based private real estate investment firm, acquires, develops, and operates industrial properties in select major metropolitan markets throughout the United States. Since 2010, Brennan Investment Group has acquired over $4 billion in industrial real estate. The company's current portfolio spans 29 states and encompasses 45 million square feet.

Brennan Investment Group co-invests with private and institutional capital to achieve outstanding risk-adjusted returns. The firm's management team is among the most accomplished in its industry, having invested in over 4,000 properties covering more than 60 cities throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

For more information on Brennan Investment Group, go to brennanllc.com.

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SOURCE Brennan Investment Group

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PHILIPSBURG:--- When the Netherlands joined the United Nations in 1945, it committed itself to two fundamental obligations as far as St. Maarten is concerned. The first was to fulfill in good faith its obligations under the United Nations (present) Charter and the second was to ensure a full measure of self-government for St. Maarten.

The idea behind the Full Measure of Self-Government was to ensure that European colonial powers no longer exercised control over colonized peoples. The United States and Russia had just defeated Nazism in Europe. Just as the United States and Russia had helped to free Europe from Nazi domination, both nations were demanding that European colonial states free their colonial peoples from foreign domination. That was the basis behind the concept of a Full Measure of Self-Government or decolonization if you will. The Netherlands signed onto the UN Charter and ratified it. Therefore, it is bound to comply with its obligations under the present charter.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands and the "putative" (that which appears lawful, but in fact is not) Kingdom Charter was met with much skepticism by the UN General Assembly in 1955. The members pointed out that a governor, as well as, Articles 44, 50, and 51 of the Kingdom Charter were incompatible with a Full Measure of Self-Government. The members consequently refused to acknowledge the Kingdom of the Netherlands and instead addressed Resolution 945X of December 1955 to the Government of the Netherlands. They furthermore rejected the Kingdom Charter, and for the first time, included two amendments in Resolution 945X stating that it did not grant the peoples of the Netherlands Antilles a Full Measure of Self-Government.

The Kingdom Charter, COHO, and the CfT agreements are of the same legal character as an employment contract in which the employee out of free will agrees to work for less than minimum wage. We know those types of contracts well on St. Maarten. What the Netherlands is attempting with the Kingdom Charter, COHO and the Cft was, and is, to cheat St. Maarten out of its Full Measure of Self-Government. (The UN wisely saw through that move with the Kingdom Charter in 1955)

The fundamental problem with the Kingdom Charter is that it stands in direct contradiction to the UN Charter. Once the Full Measure of Self-Government has been achieved, there is simply no role for the Netherlands, which include the Cft and COHO, to play in these parts any longer. In 1945, The Netherlands signed onto the UN Charter and ratified it. Therefore, it is bound to comply with its obligations under the present charter. Simply put, there is no lawful role for neither the Kingdom Government nor the Cft on St. Maarten.

Denicio Brison

Pro Soualiga Foundation
DALLAS, Feb. 2, 2021  Young, Black adults are more than twice as likely to die in the first year after a heart transplant when compared to same-age, non-Black heart transplant recipients, according to new research published today in Circulation: Heart Failure, an American Heart Association journal.

Research has consistently shown that Black heart transplant recipients have a higher risk of death following heart transplantation compared to non-Black recipients. Black patients have higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease at younger ages, and therefore, they may need heart transplants at younger ages. Researchers hypothesized that studies focused on disparities among Black heart transplant recipients may be missing an even greater disparity  younger Black patients.

Generally, older patients are at a higher risk of having worse outcomes following a major procedure, said Errol L. Bush, M.D., senior author of the study, associate professor of surgery and surgical director of the Advanced Lung Disease and Lung Transplant Program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Organ transplantation, however, is a complex operation that requires lifelong, specialized medical and surgical care. Continued access to the health care system and financial resources such as insurance may be unfairly limited in younger patients, potentially leading to worse outcomes.

Researchers analyzed the outcomes of almost 23,000 adults (median age 56, 25% female) who had a heart transplant between Jan. 1, 2005 and Jan. 31, 2017. Patient information was obtained from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, a registry that includes data on all transplant donors, wait-listed patients and recipients in the United States. Risks of mortality were compared between Black and non-Black transplant recipients in four different age groups (18-30 years, 31-40 years, 41-60 years and 61-80 years).

The researchers found that when compared to other heart transplant recipients:

Across all age groups, Black heart transplant recipients had approximately a 30% higher risk of death.

However, when examined by age groups, the risk of death among Black heart transplant recipients was 2 times higher among recipients aged 18-30 years and 1.5 times higher among recipients aged 31-40 years.

Among Black heart transplant recipients aged 18-30, the risk of death was primarily during the first year after transplant, with Black recipients having 2.3 times higher risk of death in this time period.

Our study is the first to highlight young, Black recipients as a subgroup at a higher risk of death during the first year after a heart transplant, said Hasina Maredia, M.D., first author of the study whose interest in health disparities inspired her to initiate and lead the project as a medical student at Johns Hopkins. Our findings indicate clinical research moving forward should focus attention on young, Black recipients during this high-risk period so that longstanding racial disparities seen in heart transplant survival can be improved.

In the study, young, Black heart transplant recipients differed from young, non-Black recipients in several ways, including being more likely to have diabetes and/or high blood pressure; have a weakened heart muscle (cardiomyopathy); and be insured by Medicaid rather than a private insurer. More serious illness and additional medical problems prior to surgery might increase the risk of death from surgical complications, and financial constraints might make it more difficult for younger recipients with limited insurance to access specialized care and take the medications needed to prevent organ rejection, according to the researchers discussion of possible mechanisms for the disparity.

The high risk associated with Black race is not specifically due to race itself; it is a marker of systemic racism and inequities that have resulted in significant health care disparities, said Bush and Maredia.

The American Heart Association recently published a presidential advisory that addresses structural racism as a cause of poor health and premature death from heart disease and stroke. The advisory, titled Call to Action: Structural Racism as a Fundamental Driver of Health Disparities, reviews the historical context, current state and potential solutions to address structural racism in the U.S. and outlines steps the Association is taking to address and mitigate the root causes of health care disparities.

###

Co-authors are Mary Grace Bowring, M.P.H.; Allan B. Massie, Ph.D.; Sunjae Bae, M.P.H.; Amber Kernodle, M.D.; Shakirat Oyetunji, M.D.; Christian Merlo, M.D., M.P.H.; Robert S. D. Higgins, M.D.; and Dorry L. Segev, M.D., Ph.D. Author disclosures are in the manuscript.

The study is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

Additional Resources:

Statements and conclusions of studies published in the American Heart Associations scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Associations policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers are available here, and the Associations overall financial information is available here.

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the publics health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

San Clemente City Council to Debate Limiting Use of E-Bikes on Certain Trails

The San Clemente City Council will vote Feb. 2 on a motion to limit the use of electric bicycles (e-bikes) on trails and parks in the Southern California city.

The motion includes restrictions on some regular bicycles as well. It affects beach trails and inland trails, and would prohibit the use of all bicycles on turf within San Clementes parks.

People shouldnt be expecting a major change in terms of restriction or anything like that, San Clemente Councilmember Chris Duncan told The Epoch Times. The issues before the council are more about how to ensure that e-bikes are operated safely on the beach trail.

At its meeting, the council will address the inclusion of e-bikes in the code addressing use of bicycles in city parks and on trails. Speed limits will be reduced from 10 mph to 5 mph, and bicycles will need to be walked on the Mariposa Bridge.

Duncan said he has not decided how he plans to vote on the measure.

The things that are on the forefront of my mind are how to balance the widespread use of e-bikes by residents as a mode of transportation, particularly to beach areas, with the safe use of the beach trail by residents for walking and just kind of generally enjoying the ability to be able to stroll that close to the beach, he said.

Duncan noted that while e-bikes on beach trails are being discussed the most right now, the council will at some point be looking at the use of them throughout the city, because of how prevalent they are in San Clemente.

He said the topic of e-bike safety has been discussed due to a number of reported close calls on beach trails, though there have not been many actual collisions recorded to this point.

We check with our public safety people and we dont have a lot of reported actual incidents, he said. But the council wants to ensure something doesnt happen as more and more bikes use the beach trails, he added.

As the city continues to discuss the use of e-bikes going forward, it will be important to educate the public on how to operate them safely in order to avoid injuries, according to Duncan. He said he wants to make sure people are able to enjoy e-bikes without overregulating their use.

They are an environmentally friendly and generally a good way to get people transported down to the beach areas, he said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  The Philippines will follow the recommendation of the World Health Organization to use the country's first COVID-19 vaccine doses arriving this month to protect healthcare workers, officials said on Tuesday.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the vaccines that will be received by the Philippines by mid- to late-February will be given to healthcare workers. Next in the prioritization list will be other frontliners, such as workers who help drive the economy and government staff responding to the pandemic.

"Ang pinakauna na directive ng WHO na magbibigay sa atin ng COVAX, kailangan unahin natin ang preservation ng healthcare system... Ang instruction sa amin sa COVAX, sila ang uunahin natin, ang 1.9 million na ating health workers," vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said in a media briefing.

[Translation: We were instructed to prioritize the 1.9 million health workers with the vaccines from COVAX.]

RELATED: WHO wants medical workers vaccinated with first COVID-19 doses from COVAX in February

However, the vaccines arriving in the Philippines this month through the WHO-led COVAX facility will only be 117,000 doses, which can only protect 58,500 people as they need to receive two doses to fully protect them from the virus.

Testing czar Vince Dizon admitted that it will not be enough to cover all healthcare workers in the country. He said it is still unclear how they will choose the frontliners to receive the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech.

"This is obviously not enough to inoculate all our health care workers initially but its a start in February... We can say is that the first vaccinations are going to be so important. because the main challenge is really vaccination confidence," he told CNN Philippines' The Source.

The Philippines is expected to receive at least 5.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the first quarter of 2021 through the COVAX facility. The country may be able to access 5.5 million to up to 9.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines by late February or early March  if it soon receives the emergency use listing from the WHO.

WHO has committed to supply the Philippines with 44 million doses of vaccines for cover 20% of its population by the end of the year.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 18:25:16|Editor: huaxia

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Students play Ukrainian and Chinese music during the launch event of a course on the history of Chinese music at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 1, 2021. A course on the history of Chinese music kicked off for the first time at a Ukrainian university here on Monday. Maksym Tymoshenko, president of the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, the first Ukrainian university to include such a subject in its curriculum, said at the launch event that the new course "is a great breakthrough at the national level, a great achievement for our countries." TO GO WITH "First course on Chinese music history kicks off at Ukrainian university" (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua)

KIEV, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A course on the history of Chinese music kicked off for the first time at a Ukrainian university here on Monday.

Maksym Tymoshenko, president of the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, the first Ukrainian university to include such a subject in its curriculum, said at the launch event that the new course "is a great breakthrough at the national level, a great achievement for our countries."

The academy pays special attention to cooperation with China in all areas, Tymoshenko told Xinhua, adding that it has been a lasting and fruitful process to deepen the cultural ties between the two countries.

Valeriia Zharkova, head of the academy's World Music History Department, said exchanges between the West and the East through such courses are beneficial for students.

"Starting from this semester, a completely new course of Chinese music history is available in our academy, which has no analogs in Ukraine. You can see that such a course is taught in some Chinese universities, but also not everywhere. Our department of world music history believes that it is necessary to expand the material that we give to our students," Zharkova said.

More and more Chinese students have enrolled with the academy in recent years, Zharkova noted. "Not only the East comes to us to study, but we also want to know more about this ancient and very interesting culture."

Li Qing, a lecturer at the department, said the new course will introduce to the students the main historical stages in the development of Chinese music and its most striking examples, and help them better understand the development of culture in the modern world.

According to Tymoshenko, the academy has also launched a cooperation project with the city of Hengshui, in north China's Hebei Province, where Chinese students learn the Ukrainian language and music history.

"We are planning to visit China, Beijing, Hengshui, do concerts both online and live. We have just talked with our Chinese partners, and we plan to visit China this year," he added. Enditem
Kenya: 'I Have Lost Everything. What Do You Expect Me to Eat?'

DW, 17 February 2021

While Kenya is having some success fighting desert locust swarms, farmers in the north and center of the country face huge losses from ongoing waves of locust swarms. Read more 
Letters: Trump brought troubles on himself, the Capitol, as Crouere seems to forget
21 runners killed during mountain race in northwestern province of Gansu; Indian variant of Covid-19 found in Guangzhou; Beijing willing to arrange for vaccines to be sent to Taiwan

May 28, 2021 08:15 PM
Two Kenyan MPs have exchanged blows at a funeral after one of them insinuated that the other was corrupt.



"We have several leaders here in the company of our deputy president who have a tainted life. These are fraudsters who should not be allowed to take up any leadership position," said Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati, Standard news site reports.



MP Sylvanus Osoro, who had just addressed mourners, jumped from his seat and confronted Mr Arati and a scuffle broke out.



It's unclear if Mr Osoro was punched, shoved or kicked but a picture shared online showed him sitting on the ground but with enough clues to suggest he didn't get there willingly.









Standoff at a funeral in Kisii being attended by DP Ruto & ODM leader Raila as MPs Simba Arati and Sylvanus Osoro clash pic.twitter.com/3Aao0xBDev

 Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) February 1, 2021

Mr Osoro is an ally of Deputy President Willian Ruto while Mr Arati is a strong supporter of opposition leader Raila Odinga, both of whom were present at the funeral.They are seen as the leading contenders in next year's presidential election and have been engaging in an intensified war of words at political rallies and funerals.A campaign to change the constitution is the latest issue that has them and their political lieutenants engaged in popularity contests which sometimes, as on Monday, have turned physical.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The NCUA in January issued two prohibition notices, prohibiting individuals previously associated with credit unions from any future participation in the affairs of a federally-insured financial institution.

Violation of a prohibition order is a felony offense punishable by imprisonment and a fine of up to $1 million. Details from last months prohibition notices follow:
The EU could have endangered vaccine supplies to Northern Ireland by enforcing Irish Sea trade disruption, the health minister has said.

Robin Swann was speaking in the Assembly as MLAs from all sides rounded on the EU's threat to trigger Article 16 on Friday.

The Oxford AstraZeneca jab is manufactured in the UK but the Pfizer BioNTech's vaccine comes from a plant in Belgium, and has in the past been routed to Belfast via Dublin.

The European Commission was forced into an embarrassing U-turn on Friday when it backtracked on an attempt to restrict the free flow of vaccine across the Irish border.

Mr Swann said: "This had potentially very real implications for ourselves because we had vaccine actually in transit, and had that article been enforced we may have seen difficulties in the supply and the arrival of vaccines here in Northern Ireland."

More than 246,000 doses have been administered.

Mr Swann said: "Vaccine is not something that should become political."

Senior European politicians have conceded it was a mistake to try to unilaterally suspend part of Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol to prevent the region being used as backdoor to move inoculations from the bloc into the UK.

The protocol, which governs the movement of goods in and out of Northern Ireland post-Brexit, was created to ensure continued free flow of trade across the Irish border. Checks are focused primarily on produce moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.

Unionists have been calling for the UK Government to itself suspend elements of the protocol using Article 16 until the issues have been resolved.

First Minister Arlene Foster said the EU's actions were "horrific".

"The export controls extended only to Great Britain due to the existence of the protocol, and, therefore, the EU had to take deliberate and particular action to trigger Article 16 in order to ensure that we, the people of Northern Ireland, would not be able to obtain any vaccines through that route," she said.

"I think that that is very striking and very horrific in equal measure. It is also important to highlight the nature of the action of the European Union. This was no accident or some inadvertent mistake, as some have tried to allege.

"The EU had been working on this all last week.

"It was done with purpose, and it was done with intention.

"It was only due to the public furore that it changed its mind," the DUP leader added.

Sinn Fein MLA Sinead Ennis said the EU Commission had been foolish, and Friday's actions "were reckless and disproportionate".

"Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, has struggled to get to grips with the vaccine issue in the EU bloc, and, on Friday evening, a bad couple of weeks for her and her team almost descended into chaos," she added.

Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson said there was "no justification" for the European Union invoking Article 16, or attempting to invoke it.

"The last thing that the EU, the United Kingdom and, indeed, the world needs is a vaccine war. Shame on the EU for what it attempted," he said.
(CNN)  Myanmar's military seized power of the Southeast Asian country in a coup on Monday, after detaining the country's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and numerous other top government figures.

In a television address, the army announced that power had been handed to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and that it was declaring a national state of emergency for one year.

Suu Kyi and several state ministers are being detained in the capital Naypyidaw, according to a spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy (NLD).

The move comes after months of increasing friction between the civilian government and the powerful military, known as the Tatmadaw, over alleged election irregularities.

The two bodies have attempted to share power since the 2015 elections, Myanmar's first openly contested poll since the end of military rule. That power sharing relationship now appears to be over following Monday's coup.

Here's what you need to know about the situation.

Who is Suu Kyi? What is Myanmar's political system?

Suu Kyi was once celebrated as an international democracy icon. A former political prisoner, she spent 15 years under house arrest as part of a decades-long struggle against military rule.

Her release in 2010 and subsequent election victory five years later were lauded by Western governments as landmark moments in the country's transition to democratic rule after 50 years of the military regime.

However, despite embarking on some democratic reforms and installing a quasi-civilian government under General Thein Sein in 2011, Myanmar's military was not keen to relinquish their power. The ruling junta drafted a constitution in 2008 that made sure the military would continue to wield significant political and economic influence, regardless of future administrations.

Under this constitution, the military is allocated a quarter of seats in parliament and it retains control of key ministries like home affairs and defense. The military also has veto power on any attempts to amend the constitution.

It's within this framework that Suu Kyi and the NLD first formed a government in 2015. She was elected to office under the title of state counsellor -- which had been invented as a loophole, since the military-drafted constitution barred her from becoming President.

Allegations of genocide against the Rohingya

After her 2015 victory, Suu Kyi's tenure was quickly marred by difficulties in making real progress with the peace process that aimed to end the country's many ethic civil wars.

Suu Kyi also came under fire internationally for failing to speak out against numerous atrocities allegedly carried out by the military against Rohingya Muslims in western Rakhine state. Hundreds of thousands of the persecuted ethnic minority were forced out of western Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh during violent military operations in 2016 and 2017.

Suu Kyi has repeatedly denied these charges, siding with military and labeling the accusations "misinformation."

Her government and the military are now facing a genocide investigation at the International Court of Justice.

However, domestically she remained popular, especially among the Bamar ethnic majority. In November 2020 the NLD won another resounding victory at the polls, awarding Suu Kyi a second term.

What triggered the coup?

Monday's crackdown is centered around November's parliamentary election.

The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) performed dismally in the poll, prompting the party to demand a new vote, claiming bias and "unfair campaigning."

The military also repeatedly disputed the election results. It claims, without providing evidence, that there are more than 10.5 million cases of "potential fraud, such as non-existent voters" and called on the election commission to publicly release the final polling data.

Last week, a military spokesperson warned it would "take action" if the dispute wasn't settled, and refused to rule out staging a coup.

The election commission has denied there is widespread voter fraud.

But the threat of military intervention prompted international leaders, including the United Nations Secretary-General to voice concern -- and the military appeared to back down, claiming that its comments had been misinterpreted.

By Monday, it became clear that the military had seized power in a coup.

What's the situation on the ground? What's next?

Myanmar's first Vice President and former general Myint Swe was installed as the country's acting President on Monday. The whereabouts of Suu Kyi and the other detained officials and ministers is unknown.

In its television address, the army said it had detained Suu Kyi and other political leaders for failing to take action over unfounded election fraud and had declared a state of emergency for one year. Power was transferred to the commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who will carry out an investigation into voting irregularities, according to the announcement.

Justifying the coup, the military cited a section of the constitution that said in the event of a state of emergency, as is the case now, the commander-in-chief has the constitutional right to "take over and exercise State sovereign power."

In a statement later on Monday, Min Aung Hlaing's office said that elections will take place only after the election commission has been "re-constituted" and the voter lists have been investigated.

"A free and fair multiparty general election will be held and then, state responsibilities will be handed over to the winning party meeting norms and standards of democracy," the statement said.

It's hard to say what will come next, especially since there has been widespread disruption in internet and news access across the country -- which could affect the ability of people to get information or organize any response via social media.

Netblocks, which monitors internet blackouts around the world, said that real-time network data showed a major drop in connectivity in the early hours of Monday morning. At one point, the only operational TV channel was the Myanmar military-owned television network Myawaddy TV.

Banks across the country were also temporarily shut down, with operations ceased until the internet connection improves, according to a statement from the Myanmar Bank Association.

What have world leaders said?

World leaders and international organizations were quick to voice alarm and concern.

The United Nations Security Council will discuss Myanmar in private consultations Tuesday morning, according to its latest schedule, which has been updated following the coup.

President Joe Biden called on Myanmar's military leaders to "immediately relinquish the power they have seized, release the activists and officials they have detained, lift all telecommunications restrictions, and refrain from violence against civilians."

Biden threatened to review sanctions on Myanmar, saying the US removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. "The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action," Biden said in a statement.

Other countries, including India, Japan, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, have also released statements calling for de-escalation and the release of those detained.

Australia on Monday called for the immediate release of Suu Kyi and other senior leaders who are being detained by the military.

In a statement, Marise Payne the Minister of Foreign Affairs said, "The Australian Government is deeply concerned at reports the Myanmar military is once again seeking to seize control of Myanmar."

"We call on the military to respect the rule of law, to resolve disputes through lawful mechanisms, and to release immediately all civilian leaders and others who have been detained unlawfully," the statement said.

Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed concern, saying in a statement that it urged "all parties in Myanmar to exercise self-restraint and put forth dialogue in finding solutions to challenges so as not to exacerbate the condition."

In the Thai capital of Bangkok, protesters gathered outside Myanmar's embassy on Monday. Video from Reuters showed some demonstrators burning a picture of Myanmar's army chief.

Myanmar shares a border with Thailand, which experienced a coup in 2014 when its military overthrew the government.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a tweet Monday, "I condemn the coup and unlawful imprisonment of civilians, including Aung San Suu Kyi, in Myanmar. The vote of the people must be respected and civilian leaders released."

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said they are "learning more about the situation" and that China is "a friendly neighbor of Myanmar, and we hope that all parties in Myanmar will properly handle their differences under the constitutional and legal framework and maintain political and social stability."

"The military's actions show utter disdain for the democratic elections held in November and the right of Myanmar's people to choose their own government," said Brad Adams, Asia director of the international NGO Human Rights Watch, in a statement. "We urge concerned governments to speak out forcefully against the military's actions and consider targeted sanctions against those responsible."
BP has suffered a mammoth annual loss of 4.2billion after demand for oil plummeted amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The oil giant's disappointing figures compare with profits of 7.3billion in 2019 and come despite a bounce-back in prices during the second half of the year.

BP's results for the final quarter of 2020 show it made underlying profits of 84million, having swung out of the red in the previous quarter, but the figures were worse than expected.

It said oil prices have risen since the end of October, helped by the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine worldwide, while it also expects demand to bounce back this year.

Brent crude oil barrel prices plummeted from 44 per barrel at the beginning of 2020 to below 13 per barrel at the height of the pandemic in April.

Prices then rebounded sharply and are currently trading above 37 per barrel.

The oil giant's hefty underlying replacement cost losses compare with profits of 7.3billion in 2019 and come despite a bounce-back in the second half of the year

It comes as BP dismantled its century-old exploration team, cutting the division to less than 100 employees from over 700 just a few years ago.

The move shows how fast the energy supermajors are withdrawing from oil in their battle to become carbon net zero by 2050.

Chief executive Bernard Looney said: '2020 will forever be remembered for the pain and sadness caused by Covid-19. Lives were lost, livelihoods destroyed.

'Our sector was hit hard as well. Road and air travel are down, as are oil demand, prices and margins.'

'We launched a net zero ambition, set a new strategy to become an integrated energy company and created an offshore wind business in the United States,' Looney said.

'We began reinventing BP - with nearly 10,000 people leaving the company. We strengthened our finances - taking out costs and closing major divestments.'

He said 2020 was also a 'pivotal year' for the company as it launched a net-zero goal and overhauled itself in a move that saw nearly 10,000 jobs go.

Mr Looney added: 'We expect much better days ahead for all of us in 2021.'

Despite a more optimistic outlook for 2021, BP said coronavirus restrictions globally will continue to knock demand throughout the first quarter, with oil refining margins to remain under pressure.

The group's reported results showed the impact of massive write-offs made in the summer after Brent crude oil prices plummeted as the crisis took hold and as Russia and Saudi Arabia kicked off a production war.

Brent crude had started the year on around 44 per barrel, but dropped to 40 before January was out, even briefly dipping below 13 in April. This saw BP write off around 12.8 billion in June.

The price of oil rapidly plummeted at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in April and May

Rival Royal Dutch Shell also wrote down many billions of pounds and will reveal the toll on its results on Thursday.

For BP it has now been a year since boss Mr Looney took over the top job, promising to steer the ship on a new course.

The company, which is more than 100 years old, plans to reduce its emissions to a level low enough where they can all be offset by 2050.

However, this requires major change throughout the business.

Hundreds of employees have already left the company's oil and gas hunting arm as the company reportedly scaled back how much time it spent looking for new resources.

After an initial pledge in February as he stepped into the role, Mr Looney laid out more detail in August, winning cautious optimism from sometime critics.

He said that oil and gas production would be cut by 40 per cent and investment in low-carbon projects increase tenfold to 3.8 billion every year by 2030.

Tuesday's results were published one day after the company announced the sale of a 20 per cent stake in Oman's block 61 gas field to Thailand's state-controlled PTTEP for 1.9billion. BP will retain a 40 per cent stake and continue to operate the block.

Under Looney, who took over the reins at BP a year ago as the pandemic began taking hold, the group is looking to raise 18.25billion from asset sales by 2025.

After companies worldwide closed their doors and airlines grounded planes towards the end of last year's first quarter, oil prices dropped off a cliff, even turning negative at one point.

Prices then rebounded sharply and are currently trading above 37 per barrel.

Since being formed in 1909, BP has been renowned for its oil exploration skills  showing, and teaching, the world how to find the black gold.

From the outset, the company had a reputation as a dashing risk taker unafraid to take on difficult projects across the Middle East and South America.

By the 1960s BP was making massive profits as investors shrugged aside one of the worst safety records in the industry. But under Bernard Looney, who became chief executive last year, the tradition has ended.

'The winds have turned very chilly in the exploration team since Looney's arrival,' a senior member of the team said.
-Pres. Weah's Islamic Advisor urges Muslim community

Islamic Advisor Sheik Usmane T. Jalloh (center) cuts ribbon to a newly erected hand pump for the Shik Mohammed Salim Bin Bakhit Central Mosque in Caldwell Township

The Islamic Advisor to President George Manneh Weah, Sheik Usmane T. Jalloh has urged Muslims in Liberia to rally resources to construct an Islamic university and hospitals to buttress government's effort in the educational system of the country.

According to Sheik Jalloh, Muslims here control ninety percent (90%) of the economy yet they cannot boast of an Islamic university, hospitals and their own educational system as it is being done by Christians and other religions.

He made the call at the dedication of the Shik Mohammed Salim Bin Bakhit Central Mosque's Hand Pump over the weekend in Caldwell Township, Montserrado County.

Sheik Jalloh noted that though they are in the position to undertake such projects, Muslims in Liberia are not willing do so but often they depend on support from donors while using their resources to construct private homes and improve their businesses.

He also called on Muslims to remain united, stressing that with unity they can embark on any initiative for the growth and development of Liberia.

Speaking also, the chief Imam of the Shik Mohammed Salim Bin Bakhit Central Mosque, AbubakarFeaka, lauded Sheik Usmane T. Jalloh for his initiative and called on all Muslims in the country to rally around the Islamic Advisor to move the religion forward, being the first Muslim appointed to that position.

Imam Feaka noted that since Liberia declared her independence in 1847, no past Liberian president or government had an Islamic Advisor except President Weah so, Muslims in Liberia should join him for unity and transformation in the country.
Kerala: Cochin Fisheries Harbour gets budgetary support

February 02,2021 | Source: The Hindu

The Union Budget 2021-22 has stated that substantial investments would be made in improving facilities at some of the major fishing hubs in the country, including Kochi. The other harbours and fish landing centres that found a place in the Budget speech were Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Petuaghat. The five hubs will be developed into centres of economic activities.



The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and the Cochin Port Trust had signed an agreement towards the end of September last year to modernise the fish landing centre and harbour at Thoppumpady. The improvement work at the harbour will help substantially increase the unit value of sea-caught fish as well as significantly reduce post-harvest losses. A memorandum of understanding was signed by the MPEDA chairman K.S. Srinivas and Cochin Port Trust chairperson M. Beena to launch the ?140-crore project.



According to an official communication at the time of the signing of the MoU, the resources for the project would be mobilised from various Central government schemes and a special purpose vehicle would be launched to implement the project. The Cochin Fisheries Harbour is one of the oldest in the State and was brought under the control of the Cochin Port Trust. The facility is located on 27 acres and is the centre of business activities in West Kochi. Hundreds of seafood businesses in Ernakulam and Alappuzha depend solely on the supply of raw materials from the Thoppumpady harbour.



Air-conditioned auction halls, packing hall and bays for loading and unloading, a reverse osmosis plant, rainwater harvesting facility, automated equipment such as tripods, conveyor belts and pallet jacks for better movement of fish within the harbour will be the key features of the developed harbour. There will be an effluent treatment plant, facilities for drivers as well as canteen and restrooms. Meanwhile, the Matsya Thozhilali Aikya Vedi has welcomed the Budget announcement and called it the right step forward for the fishing sector. But, Aikya Vedhi convenor Charles George said the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fishing sector and traditional fishers had been ignored.
(CNN)  A Moscow court sent Alexey Navalny to prison for more than two and a half years on Tuesday, closing a heated hearing in which the Kremlin critic ridiculed claims he broke his parole conditions while recovering from poisoning, and denounced Russia's leader as "Putin the poisoner."

The decision inflamed anger among Navalny's supporters. Vast crowds of people took to the streets in central Moscow following the sentencing and hundreds have been detained. Navalny's allies had already called for another round of nationwide demonstrations this weekend.

Navalny was detained two weeks ago upon his return to Moscow from Berlin, where he spent several months recovering from poisoning with nerve agent Novichok. He blames the attack on Russian security services and on President Vladimir Putin himself, accusations that the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

The court on Tuesday ruled that while Navalny was out of the country, he violated probation from a 2014 embezzlement case in which he had received a three-and-a-half year suspended sentence and five years of probation. Navalny describes the case politically motivated.

His suspended sentence will now be replaced with a prison term. The judge took into account the 11 months Navalny had already spent under house arrest as part of the decision.

He will appeal the verdict, according to his lawyer Olga Mikhailova. Speaking outside the courthouse after the sentencing, she said Navalny took the verdict "bravely as usual."

His team in Moscow criticized the ruling as Putin's "personal revenge, tweeting: "This is Vladimir Putin's personal revenge. For investigating corruption. For having survived after poisoning. For exposing the FSB killers. For not being scared and returning to Russia."

The verdict also sparked condemnation abroad. US Secretary of State Tony Blinken called on the Russian government to "immediately and unconditionally release" Navalny. The UK, Germany, France and others issued similar statements.

Navalny tears into Putin

As he listened to the judge read out a lengthy verdict, Navalny drew a heart on the glass box he was confined in for his wife, Yulia Navalnya, who was in the court room.

Earlier, he had ridiculed allegations that he could have better informed parole officers of his whereabouts while comatose to the objections of prosecutors and repeatedly being told by the judge to stop speaking.

When prison service representative asked why he had not provided documents to explain the serious reasons that prevented him from showing up for inspections, Navalny shot back: "Coma?"

"Why are you sitting here and telling the court you didn't know where I was? I fell into a coma, then I was in the ICU, then in rehabilitation. I contacted my lawyer to send you a notice. You had the address, my contact details. What else could I have done to inform you?" he said.

Navalny's defense lawyers argued the prison service was well aware of Navalyny's whereabouts as it received a notice from him in early December. His lawyers also presented a letter from Berlin's Charite Clinic showing that he was in rehabilitation up until his return to Russia.

"The President of our country said live on air he let me go to get treatment in Germany and you didn't know that too?" Putin has said that he personally "gave the order" to let Navalny be medically evacuated to Germany.

In a separate outburst, Navalny described Putin as a "little thieving man in his bunker" who "doesn't want me to set foot on the ground in Russia."

"The reason for this is the hatred and fear of one person who is hiding in the bunker. I've offended him so deeply by the fact that I've survived," Navalny charged.

When a prosecutor tried to object, Navalny snapped back: "I don't need your objections."

"He can pretend he is this big politician, the world leader, but now my main offense to him is that he will go down in history as Putin the Poisoner. There was Alexander the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise, and there will be Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants," Navalny added.

"He is not engaging in geopolitics, he holds meetings on how to smear underwear with chemical weapons."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that Putin was not planning on following Navalny's hearing Tuesday, and was instead meeting with "teachers who are teaching the future generation of Russia."

Navalny fell ill from exposure to military-grade Novichok during a trip to Siberia in August. A CNN-Bellingcat investigation in December implicated the Russian Security Service (FSB) in Navalny's poisoning, piecing together how an elite unit at the agency trailed the activist and his team for years, including on the trip to Siberia.

Navalny also duped one of the agents into revealing that he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok applied to his underwear. The same nerve agent was used in the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in England in 2018, which, the British Government concluded, was carried out by Russian military intelligence officers and "almost certainly" approved by the Russian government.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement and Putin himself said in December that if Russian security services had wanted to kill Navalny, they "would have finished" the job. Reacting to the investigation at the time, Putin didn't dispute any details of the findings but essentially confirmed that FSB agents did indeed trail Navalny.

A perennial thorn in Putin's side, Navalny has been arrested and detained several times but had until now avoided lengthy sentences.

The case in which Navalny was sentenced on Tuesday dates back to 2014, when he and his brother Oleg were convicted of embezzling about $500,000 from two Russian firms between 2008 and 2012. One of the firms was affiliated with a French cosmetics company, Yves Rocher, and the investigation alleged that the Navalnys laundered part of the sum. Both were sentenced to three-and-a half years in prison, but Alexey's sentence was suspended.

Navalny has insisted that the case is politically motivated. Under Russian law, convicted criminals are barred from running for political office.

In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the brothers were unfairly convicted in the case and that Russian courts handed down "arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable" decisions in the case.

Mass detentions

Tuesday's hearing opened under a heavy security presence, with riot police securing the court building and cordoning off the general area with police vehicles, trucks and vans. Nearby streets were open but closed to pedestrians and protesters with barricades.

CNN reporters witnessed police detaining dozens of people outside the court before the hearing had begun.

On Sunday, protesters across the country were met with the harshest show of force by Russian security services in years. More than 5,000 people were detained in at least 85 cities, according to OVD-Info, a record since 2011 protests. Navalny led mass protests in 2017-18 against Putin's government.

Most of Navalny's key allies and some family members have been detained or put under house arrest in recent weeks, feeding fears of growing political repression. Yulia Navalnaya has been arrested twice since she returned to Moscow with her husband. She was released Sunday soon after being detained that same day.

"Yulia, they show you on TV and keep talking about your radical behavior. Such a bad girl, I'm proud of you," Navalny said shortly before his hearing began.
Mumbai, Feb 2 : International pop sensation Rihanna on Tuesday extended her support to the ongoing farmers protest in India. Soon after Rihanna's tweet, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut tweeted calling her a fool and a dummy. Kangana also said the protesting farmers were terrorists.

On Tuesday, Rihanna reacted to a news piece talking about the protest on Twitter and wrote: "Why aren't we talking about this? #FarmersProtest ." The pop star's tweet has been widely shared by netizens.

However, Kangana chose to offer an answer to Rihanna and responded to her tweet using adjectives like "fool" and "dummy" while addressing her.

Reacting to her tweet, Kangana wrote: "No one is talking about it because they are not farmers they are terrorists who are trying to divide India, so that China can take over our vulnerable broken nation and make it a Chinese colony much like USA... Sit down you fool, we are not selling our nation like you dummies." Just a few days ago, the Bollywood actress had tweeted calling Indians supporting the ongoing farmers protest as terrorists.

"Six brands cancelled contracts with me some were already signed some were closing n said I called Farmer terrorists so they can't have me as an ambassador. Today I want to say each and every Indian who is supporting these riots is also a terrorist including anti national brands," Kangana Ranaut had tweeted on Republic Day.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Teamsters are grieving the loss of Frankeye Duckett, a member of Teamsters Local 355 who was shot and killed in Baltimore last Friday. Duckett was on the job at the time of his death, working as a driver for the Maryland Transit Administration's MobilityLink Program, a transit service for people with disabilities.

"It was with a heavy heart that we learned of this senseless, horrible act of violence that took away from the world not just a Teamster brother, but a grandfather, a father, a sibling, a friend; a man who meant so much to so many," said James P. Hoffa, Teamsters General President. "We pray that those responsible for this are held accountable as swiftly and justly as possible."

"A life taken before its time is always a tragedy of immeasurable degree, but it is even more painful knowing that this was a kindhearted man who went to work every day to provide an essential service to Baltimore's most vulnerable residents, a man who served his community selflessly," said Rick Middleton, Director of the IBT Passenger Transportation Division. "We want his family to know that the Teamsters are here for them during their time of need."

As of this writing, Maryland law enforcement officials have apprehended one suspect in this crime but are still searching for another. If you know anything that could assist them in their search, please don't hesitate to call the Baltimore Police Department's anonymous crime stopper hotline at 1-866-7LOCKUP.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Galen Munroe, (202) 439-7427

[email protected]

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Related Links

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Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
Labors foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said Australia should work with other countries to send a clear signal to Myanmars military leaders that their actions are a direct attack on Myanmars democratic transition and stability. The Australian government must stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and ensure the bilateral relationship wont return to business as usual until democracy is restored and political prisoners are released, she said. Following yesterdays events, the government needs to explain whether this [military] cooperation is consistent with Australias strategic interests, review other areas of bilateral cooperation and consider additional targeted sanctions as appropriate. Asked in 2018 whether the Australian government was considering suspending defence cooperation with Myanmars military, Defence secretary Greg Moriarty told a Senate estimates hearing that it was in Australias interests to continue engagement. The maintenance of a very limited defence cooperation engagement with Myanmar serves Australias interests and would potentially help with the professionalism of the armed forces in Myanmar, he said on October 24, 2018.

Michael Shoebridge, director of the defence program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the Australian government should be looking at its defence cooperation closely in the wake of the coup. From one point of view: there has been another military coup and do we want to engage with and empower militaries that conduct military coups? No, Mr Shoebridge said. But the counter argument is that militaries are often conduits for relationships when the rest of the relationship has gone bad. So keeping some form of military-to-military connection allows for some dialogues between governments. Australia currently has sanctions against six current or former members of Myanmars military, but does not have in place broad sanctions against the country. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video

World leaders are now considering sanctions and targeted responses to the escalating situation. US President Joe Biden threatened to reimpose sanctions early on Tuesday morning AEDT in a move that could trigger a diplomatic spiral in the region. The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy, he said. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action. Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel overnight. The Australian government is concerned that Myanmar could become a satellite state of China if it reduces engagement with its military. The view is echoed by other allies amid fears that imposing sanctions could push the Tatmadaw further towards shadow financing from Chinese authorities while hurting the local population. The military and its top brass are heavily intertwined with a complex web of business interests through shares in Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited. The Tatmadaw ruled Myanmar as a military junta for half-a-century prior to Suu Kyis release from house arrest and landslide victory in 2015.

Loading The MEHL has links to multinational banking, beer, manufacturing sectors. An investigation by Amnesty International in 2020 found partnerships had been established with global conglomerates including Japanese beer multinational Kirin and South Korean steel giant POSCO. Mr Shoebridge said although China has kept up its close ties with the military, it would not want to be promoting the fact that the new government prevailed in a military coup. To the extent Myanmar needs foreign currency and revenue, that will drive them towards China in an economic sense, he said. Herve Lemahieu, director of the power and diplomacy program at the Lowy Institute, said China has strong ties with the National League for Democracy and the military - and is now in a position to hedge and work with whoever is in power. The West is not in a good position as it has less good relations with the military, he said.
Kansas Senate advances amendment claiming there's no abortion right to 2022 ballot

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Lawmakers in Kansas last week overwhelmingly passed a ballot proposal that, if approved by state voters, would amend the state constitution to clarify that there is no right to an abortion.

Senators in the Sunflower State voted 28 to 11 last Thursday to support Concurrent Resolution 5003, which places the amendment on the Aug. 2, 2022 state ballot, where a simple majority would be needed to change the states constitution.

The language of the amendment states that the constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion.

The measure, known as the Value Them Both Amendment, was passed in the Kansas House by a vote of 86 to 38 on Jan. 22, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.

To the extent permitted by the constitution of the United States, the people, through their elected state representatives and state senators, may pass laws regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or circumstances of necessity to save the life of the mother, the resolution states.

Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican, said in a statement that the proposals passage marked a monumental day for both women and the unborn in Kansas.

As a result of this historic action, the people of Kansas will now have the opportunity to right the wrongs of the Kansas Supreme Court ruling from May of 2019, Masterson stated.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a pro-choice Democrat, denounced the proposed amendment and claimed that it would harm the economy and send the state back to the Dark Ages.

There are a number of CEOs who really look to see what kind of inclusive policies we have in place that make it easier for them to recruit and retain a talented workforce, Kellytold the Associated Press in a recent interview. It will be an economic development issue for us.

Senate Democrats have also voiced disapproval with the amendment. Senate Democratic Leader Dinah Sykes accused Masterson and other Senate Republicans of trying to control the healthcare and personal decisions of Kansans.

Make no mistake: this amendment opens the door for the Legislature to ban abortion in cases of rape or incest, Sykes argued in a statement shared by WIBW. If approved by Kansas voters, the Legislature will have unchecked power to ban abortion including in cases where the life of the mother is at risk. And it paves the way for politicians in Topeka to ban abortion outright.

Passage of the proposal was praised by pro-life and social conservative advocacy groups, such as the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council and Students for Life of America. Meanwhile, abortion lobbying organization Planned Parenthood Action has expressed its outrage.

The social conservative organization Family Policy Alliance of Kansas argued on Facebook that the proposal is all about empowering women and protecting babies. The organization thanked its national partners, such as the James Dobson-founded Focus on the Family.

Despite what is going on nationally, we will keep promoting a culture of life and the dignity of every person in the states! the Family Police Alliance vowed.

Brittany Jones, the director of advocacy for the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, celebrated the news of the concurrent resolutions passage in a statement shared with Focus on the Familys news outlet, The Daily Citizen.

With the passage of Value Them Both in the Kansas Senate, the people of Kansas now have the opportunity to have a say in ensuring that our live-saving laws are protected, she said.

Kansas is the latest of multiple states to consider similar amendments. Last November, voters in Louisiana added a similar measure to their state constitution.

Louisiana Amendment 1, also called the No Right to Abortion in Constitution Amendment, passed last year with 62% of the vote. Over 1.27 million voters supported the measure.

The amendment added to the Louisiana Constitution states that nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.

The Iowa legislature is currently considering a similar measure, with the proposed measure advancing through a House subcommittee in a vote of 2-1 last month.

Last week, the South Carolina Senate voted 30-13 to approve a bill that would outlaw abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Similar bills have been passed in other states in recent years and faced legal challenges.
Elon Musk's SpaceX announced on Monday that it would fly a crew of private citizens into orbit around Earth, by the end of the year in a multiday mission designed to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

Last year the company flew two NASA astronauts as well as an astronaut from Japan to the International Space Station. It also plans to fly a crew of four - all private citizens - to the International Space Station early next year.

This flight is significant for privatisation of spaceflight as it crushes government's long-held monopoly over human spaceflight.

SpaceX's flight will be funded by Jared Issacman, founder and chief executive of Shift4 Payments. Issacman, an accomplished pilot who flies commercial and military aircraft would command the mission and is donating two seats to St Jude.

One seat will go to a health-care worker at the hospital, while the other would be raffled off in an attempt to raise $200 million for St Jude.

The flight will leave from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but NASA, the US government space agency, is not directly involved in planning the trip.

"NASA has been briefed on this and has been supportive," Musk said.

The mission could last between two and four days, but Musk said the flight parameters were not yet defined.

The three participants on that flight, all wealthy business executives, are paying $55 million for the flight, training and costs associated with staying aboard the space station for up to eight days.

The fourth occupant would be chosen through a competition starting this month among users of Issacson's platform. The company plans to air an ad during Sunday's Super Bowl to raise awareness about the mission and the opportunity to fly on it.

Isaacson said that contestants would make a video about their business and why they should be sent to space, and that the winner would be announced by an independent panel of judges.

Also read: White House denounces desecration of Gandhi statue in California

Also read: Ford Motor, Google signs contract to offer cloud-based data services
The wealth management industry is exhibiting consistent growth and investment from new and established providers, presenting opportunities for disruptive technology companies to digitize the industry and capture market share along the value chain. Today software solutions are often legacy and purpose-built, with many point solutions fragmented by geography, process and category. However, industry trends include the need to serve global clients consistently, digitize advisor and client interactions, create efficiency in front to back office processes, and provide integrated solutions which can span all wealth segments including mass affluent, high net-worth and ultra high net-worth needs.

InvestCloud's platform has been selected by many of the world's largest financial institutions, private banks and Insurers as their global digital wealth platform. Motive and Clearlake, working with InvestCloud, identified that Tegra118 would be a complementary fit as the base for future product innovations, and Finantix would be the ideal partner for private banking capabilities. In addition, Finantix's focus on private banking in Europe and Asia provides a strong base for InvestCloud's international expansion. The combined company has over 500 direct clients, including 380+ wealth managers (distributors: 7 of the top 10 Broker Dealers in the USA) and 120+ asset managers (manufacturers: 9 of the top 12 in the USA), with hundreds more indirect clients that manage over $4 trillion of assets around the world using the platform. The combined company, which will operate as InvestCloud, benefits from a blue-chip client base, superior modern technology and substantial industry tailwinds.

"We are delighted with the opportunity to combine the strengths of Tegra118 as the leading Managed Account platform in the USA, and Finantix Private Banking expertise with InvestCloud's leading digital wealth platform," said John Wise, CEO of InvestCloud. "The timing represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with fellow entrepreneur Rob Heyvaert, the broader Motive Partners team and Clearlake to seize the opportunity to transform the industry."

Rob Heyvaert, Chairman of InvestCloud and Founder & Managing Partner of Motive Partners, commented, "Our research in recent years around the macro and regional wealth-tech trends led us to acquiring Finantix, Tegra118 and ultimately to John and the InvestCloud team. Today marks both our collective intent and an important opportunity for the industry, as the newly formed InvestCloud Group unveils its combined vision for clients across multiple regions and sub-sectors of financial services. We are looking forward to capitalizing on the unique industry timing for our clients with John, Christine, Cheryl and our team of experts."

"InvestCloud has established a leading, differentiated position in the wealth management software space with a pure-play, cloud-native platform that meets the unique needs of global financial institutions and their clients," said Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, and James Pade, Partner of Clearlake. "We look forward to partnering with John, Motive Partners and the InvestCloud team as the company, in combination with Finantix and Tegra118, continues to provide best-in-class solutions to its global customer base."

As part of the transaction, Rob Heyvaert (Founder & Managing Partner, Motive Partners) will become Chairman, with John Wise as Group CEO who will lead the combined business, with Cheryl Nash (CEO, Tegra118) and Christine Ciriani (CEO, Finantix) reporting to Mr Wise.

In addition, James Pade (Partner & Managing Director, Clearlake), Vikram Abraham (Vice President, Clearlake), James Cox (Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, Fiserv), Scott Kauffman (Founding Partner, Motive Partners), Richard Lumb (Industry Partner, Motive Partners) and Doug Smith (Industry Partner, Motive Partners) will join the Board of InvestCloud to support the growth of the business.

Cheryl Nash, CEO of Tegra118 commented, "InvestCloud's platform is without doubt the most digitally advanced solution in the wealth industry. Combining InvestCloud with our network of asset managers and wealth managers will add substantial and unprecedented value to our clients and the market."

Christine Ciriani, CEO of Finantix commented, "With the democratization of wealth and digitalization of advice, there is no better time to offer the market an integrated front- and middle-office platform delivering feature-rich digital assets for the global wealth management and insurance industries. To combine Finantix's strength in Europe and Asia in private banking with InvestCloud's market leading SaaS platform in North America and Tegra118 is an exciting prospect for both our customers and people."

About Motive Partners

Motive Partners is a specialist private equity firm with offices in New York City and London, focusing on control-oriented growth equity and buyout investments in software and information services companies based in North America and Europe and serving five primary subsectors: Banking & Payments, Capital Markets, Data & Analytics, Investment Management and Insurance. Motive Partners brings differentiated expertise, connectivity and capabilities to create long-term value in financial technology companies.

More information on Motive Partners can be found at www.motivepartners.com

About Clearlake

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a leading investment firm founded in 2006 operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake's operational improvement approach, O.P.S. The firm's core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has approximately $25 billion of assets under management and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 200 investments. The firm has offices in Santa Monica and Dallas.

More information on Clearlake can be found at www.clearlake.com and on Twitter @ClearlakeCap.

About InvestCloud

InvestCloud is a global company specializing in digital platforms that enable the development of financial solutions, pre-integrated into the Cloud. The company offers on-demand client experiences and intuitive operations solutions using an ever-expanding library of modular apps, resulting in powerful products. Headquartered in Los Angeles, InvestCloud has over 20 global offices including New York, London, Geneva, Singapore and Sydney, supporting trillions in assets across hundreds of diverse clients  from the largest banks in the world to wealth managers, asset managers and asset services companies.

For more information, visit InvestCloud.com.

About Finantix

For over two decades, clients and analysts have recognized Finantix as the leading provider of trusted technology to the worldwide financial industry. Applying deep sector knowledge, Finantix empower wealth managers, insurers and banks to digitally and intelligently engage with clients and provide insightful and compliant advice. By injecting artificial intelligence into a comprehensive yet modular, API-first platform, the proven technology enables holistic customer intelligence, sales and servicing productivity and individualized omni-device experience.

Finantix's flagship platform can run in the cloud or be deployed as services that can help turn routine transactions into valued and collaborative interactions. It serves multiple actors across financial services organisations and is proven across multiple devices, languages, currencies, jurisdictions and regulations. Finantix operates from offices across Europe, North America and Australasia.

More information on Finantix can be found at www.finantix.com

About Tegra118

Tegra118 is an industry leading provider of software solutions to the wealth and asset management industry with a vast network of broker-dealers, asset managers, and custodians and trading interfaces. Its technology platform provides portfolio management, trading, accounting, rebalancing and reporting for managed accounts. Tegra118 also provides modular, goals-based financial planning, performance reporting and fee billing software for financial advisors and asset managers using modern API-based open technology. Tegra118 is committed to delivering powerful solutions that set a new standard for how people interact with, manage, and grow their wealth.

More information on Tegra118 can be found at www.tegra118.com

For more information please contact:

SAM TIDSWELL-NORRISH

Principal, Motive Partners

+447855910178

[email protected]

JENNIFER HURSON

Clearlake Media Contact - Lambert & Co.

+1-845-507-0571

[email protected]

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the expected timing and benefits of the transaction. Statements can generally be identified as forward-looking because they include words such as "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "could," "should," or words of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are subject to assumptions, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. The factors that may adversely impact the anticipated outcomes include, among others: the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the transaction agreement; conditions to the completion of the transaction may not be satisfied on the terms expected or on the anticipated timeline; and the benefits of the transaction may be different than currently anticipated. You should consider these factors carefully in evaluating forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Motive Partners assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release.

SOURCE Clearlake Capital Group

Related Links

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EUGENE, Ore.  Today marks the beginning of Career and Technical Education Month in Oregon.

Some examples of CTE involve welding, diesel mechanics, health-related fields like nursing and Emergency Medical Technician work, and also careers focused around more artistic fields like graphic design.

KEZI 9 News talked to Grant Matthews, vice president of CTE and workforce development at Lane Community College.

Matthews said in the past, a lot of these industries have been recession-proof and many have not only survived the pandemic but thrived. He also made a point to mention these are not just careers for people fresh out of high school but for anyone looking to switch careers or bolster their skill set.

Were really looking at value proposition, Matthews said. When you look at these trainings -- some of them short term, some of them a two-year degree -- youre really looking at in a short amount of time gaining the required skills. And its a value proposition of being able to jump right into very well-paying careers.

LCC likes to use this month to call attention and awareness to CTE programs. They also use the time to lobby in Salem to get more funding, which Matthews said they will be doing virtually this year.

CTE programs in the community are a great investment. Matthews said for every dollar invested in Career and Technical Education, $8 of work is produced in the community.
The military coup that took place in Myanmar early on Monday morning took the world by surprise. It was generally assumed that the second free election on November 8, 2020, despite the quasi-democratic constitutional arrangement with the Army retaining control over the security agencies, was merely strengthening democracy. The world was distracted by US President Donald Trump refusing to concede defeat after the November 3 presidential election and the re-spiking of Covid cases across the developed world. The Myanmar Armys allegations about election fraud were thus largely ignored. If the coups occurrence should not have been a surprise, its timing and reasons need examination.

The timing was dictated by both domestic and international factors. The new Parliament was meeting on February 1 to endorse the election results. Aung San Suu Kyis party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), had bagged 396 out 476 seats, constituting 83 per cent, after a 70 per cent turnout. The countrys constitution allows the Army to nominate a quarter of the seats, but the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), that it backed, won merely 33 seats. This lopsided verdict tilted the balance of power, maintained precariously over previous five years, in the NLDs favour.

Moreover, the Army chief, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, is retiring in the next three months. He and his family are rumoured to have a vast network of businesses, for decades the bane of military rule.

The principal international factor would be the taking over of US President Joe Biden. Gen. Hlaing and three colleagues were sanctioned by the Trump administration in December 2019 for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority in 2016-17. The Biden administration is likely to be even more strict in enforcing human rights and international humanitarian law. In retirement, the good general would have perceived an existential threat to himself, his family and business interests. This is despite Ms Suu Kyi having even blotted her international image as a defender of human rights, in protecting the Army against charges of genocide, by deposing before the International Court of Justice. The charge had been brought by Gambia, a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).

China would be the obvious beneficiary of the coup as its modus operandi of suitcase diplomacy works best when decision-making is opaque and autocratic. Moreover, as its international isolation increases, the Myanmar regime will be driven even deeper into Chinas embrace. This is despite Ms Suu Kyi courting China even to the extent, it was speculated, of making the generals nervous. China can now expect more seamless cooperation and the expansion of China Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), mirroring to Indias west the CPEC running through Pakistan. This happens as despite assurances secured by external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during his three-day visit to Sri Lanka last month, Sri Lanka has just reneged on the Trincomalee oil storage deal. The politically resurrected Rajapaksa clan is deepening its old China alliance. As a former envoy to that nation, Mr Jaishankar will have some explaining to do on how India has lost traction to a rival power.

The international reaction to the Myanmar coup has been along expected lines. The United States proclaimed that it opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections. US secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged that they stand with the people of Burma in their aspirations for democracy. Finally, President Biden has urged international community to come together in one voice. British PM Boris Johnson, already on the backfoot over Chinas repression in Hong Kong, condemned the coup as unlawful and asserted that the vote of the people must be respected and civilian leaders released. Australia also intoned with similar sentiments. The European leaders were quick to condemn the coup but are likely to take longer to build a consensus on action against the junta. Unsurprisingly, China simply refused to go beyond noting the events.

Indias reaction was interesting as it joined the international outcry. In the past, India has oscillated between supporting the democratic forces in Myanmar and engaging the juntas to safeguard its crucial interests, such as the issue of Indian insurgents taking refuge within Myanmar. In fact, Ms Suu Kyi, despite having been educated in India, seems to harbour residual resentment over being mostly abandoned by India during her decade and a half of internment.

Two issues complicate Indias approach to the new developments. One, the BJP clearly sees the Rohingya issue almost entirely via the religion prism, as it plays well in its politics in Assam, in the past, and now in West Bengal. The arrest and internment of persecuted neighbourhood Muslims, illegally in India, links directly to the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act, which only provides succour to non-Muslims. Thus, the question arises to what extent the Indian government might be willing to go to condemn the genocide by the Myanmar Army and join the international community in sanctioning them. Of course, the release of elected leaders and restoration of democracy has now become the main issue.

The other point is the conflict generally between the governments domestic politics, increasingly majoritarian, and its foreign policy where India has traditionally stood beside nations espousing liberal democratic values, including treatment of all citizens equally, whatever their faith, caste or creed. Can this charade be maintained without India being called out for its hypocrisy? For instance, this schizophrenia was obvious when on Mahatma Gandhis death anniversary Saturday, a hashtag on his assassin Nathuram Godse was trending on the social media without a word of criticism from the government. However, the government simultaneously made a strong demarche to the United States about the vandalising of Gandhijis statue in Washington.

India has had good links with the Myanmar Army. In October 2020, India gifted a Kilo-class submarine to Myanmar. Indias vaccine diplomacy also covers that country. Currently, the emergency declaration is for one year. The military junta is claiming that it was only to restore constitutional rule and hold fair elections, as different apparently from the one in November.

India is now caught between Biden administrations call for united action and the traditional Indian policy of playing both ways. But, more than ever before, India will find the balancing more difficult, caught between its domestic political biases, its claimed strategic ties with Washington, its worry over the Chinese ascendancy in a vital neighbourhood as well as its dependence on whoever runs Myanmar for the security and development of its northeastern region.
The warm reception of Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin to the Cathedral of Bamenda in Cameroon shows that faith is bigger than politics and intimidation, according to Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya.

In welcoming the visit of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, the first foreign authority to visit the people of the north-west and south-west regions of Cameroon since the beginning of the crisis in 2016, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bamenda voiced the sentiment of all those people who, despite widespread forms of intimidation, came to pray together for peace.

Various interpretations have been offered for the block imposed by the separatists. The delegation of the Holy See passed through a city where all activities were suspended and the streets were completely deserted - perhaps more in an attempt to show Cardinal Parolin the conditions in which people are forced to live, than to send a message of protest to the Church.

Archbishop Nkea thus paid tribute to the courage of the thousands of persons who showed up to take part in the solemn celebration of Sunday, 31 January.

Ambassador of reconciliation

It was enough to look into the eyes of the many young people who, on Saturday, 30 January, came from far and wide to welcome Cardinal Parolin to the precincts of the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Mankon, to appreciate their heartfelt joy.

As Archbishop Nkea explained, We are delighted because in this time of crisis we see you as a messenger of peace and an ambassador of reconciliation; we see you as a promoter of justice; we see in you the presence of our Holy Father Pope Francis in our midst. Even when the Holy Father speaks no words, his very presence is one of consolation, his blessings bring peace, and his words pour balm on wounds that are still fresh. Here in your presence, I can say all the more forcefully: Now is the time for peace!

Visit amid unrest

Cardinal Parolins visit, organized down to the last detail by the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Giulio Murat, and his assistant, Father Mario Biffi, takes place at a time when the populations of the regions of north-west and south-west Cameroon are suffering greatly for a situation they did not create: many are internally displaced or have fled as refugees.

On numerous occasions, businesses have closed, and for about four years now, children and young people have been unable to go to school.

As Archbishop Nkea noted, Children have been used as bait for political reasons and for fighting. Many priests, religious, bishops and lay people of this province have been beaten, harassed or even killed in the conflict. And yet the Church continues to bring the message of the Gospel as a beacon of hope to a traumatized people.

Strength of faith

For the city of Bamenda, the presence of Pope Franciss Secretary of State is an invitation to contribute to working for peace, justice and reconciliation. As Archbishop Nkea put it, We are certain that your arrival in Bamenda will be like the rain, which never falls without drenching the soil. So too, you will not leave us so that we can go back to fighting; you will leave us as people who will begin to love one another.

At the conclusion of his greeting to Cardinal Parolin, Archbishop Nkea stated: We, the people of Bamenda, lack many things. Yet the one thing we do not lack is faith. The fact that the people of Bamenda are here in such great numbers is a sure sign that, for them, their faith is bigger than politics. The faith of the people of the Archdiocese of Bamenda is bigger than intimidation. Their presence here is also proof that the devil is a liar. With faith in God, and with profound gratitude for the person of Your Eminence, we can now join together in praying for peace and reconciliation.

First seeds of peace

Hope in a future of rebirth and reconciliation was evident on the faces of many people, and the songs that accompanied, day and night, the whole time of Cardinal Parolins presence, represented a first seed planted for the growth of the tree of peace.

The Secretary of State looked into the eyes of a suffering people, he set foot on soil bathed in the blood of hatred, and he offered words of reconciliation and peace, inviting everyone, without exception, to put aside all that stands in the way of the process of dialogue.


VALPARAISO, Ind. - February 1, 2021 - The Coalition to Retire the Crusader, a group composed of current Valparaiso University students, alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and community members, is calling on the midwestern Lutheran University to retire its Crusader mascot immediately. The Coalition, citing the offensive history of the symbol for its association with the Crusades and the persecution of people of both Muslim and Jewish faith, as well as fellow 
Barbed wire is installed on the top of a security fence surrounding the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 15, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Demand for Unanimity Foreshadows American Fascism

Commentary

Two weeks into the Biden administration and already the prospects of restoring the American spirit, the economy, and the old Constitution look bleak. In a flurry of executive orders, the new presidentsuperannuated figurehead though he ishas sought immediately to overturn the legacy of the Trump administration on such matters as border security, immigration, and energy self-sufficiency. And thats just for starters.

Make America Great Again has become Make America Grovel Again. Which is, of course, exactly the way the punitive, progressive left wants it as it goes about refashioning the country along the lines of its own fascist antecedents.

It seems that the end of the American Experiment now loomsto be replaced by what, remains to be seen, although history offers us a frightening clue. But since the liberal legislative program of the mid-1960s established itself as the successor to the constitutional republic we once enjoyed, the nature and character of the United States has fundamentally changed. And dont the progressives know it.

Second Constitution

For one thing, the freedom of association guaranteed by the First Amendment has been effectively negated in favor of a victimhood-based definition of rights, ever growing and all-encompassing. As Christopher Caldwell argues in his recent book, The Age of Entitlement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964a law regarded by liberals as their crowning achievementhas become a second constitution, creating an omnivorous federal Leviathan legally (if not morally) permitted to stick its snout into every area of human behavior, and to regulate it under the rubric of neo-Marxist political correctness.

Affirmative action and political correctness were the twin pillars of the second constitution, he writes. Only with the entrenchment of political correctness did it become clear what Americans had done in 1964: They had inadvertently voted themselves a second constitution without explicitly repealing the one they had.

The result hasnt been the expected social harmony and the internment of the sins, but renewed grievances and conflict, much of it explicitly fanned by various metastasizing governmental agencies.

The law of unintended consequences was similarly observed in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which greatly reduced immigration from Europe in favor of what was then known as the Third WorldAsia, South America, and Africa. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society, promised Ted Kennedy, the bills floor manager.

Today, as the United States changes from a majority-European nation into something else, the country is unhealthily obsessed with race and ethnicity, with the insulting term white supremacy now being thrown around with impunity as statues tumble without consequence and murder rates skyrocket.

Leftward Slide

Like the Reagan administration before it, the Trump administration was an attempt to reject collectivization, restore the primacy of the individualthe bedrock principle upon which the country was foundedand reduce the scope and power of the state. But neither Bush administration stopped the leftward slide from the John F. Kennedy/Lyndon B. Johnson administrations through James Earl Carter, Jr., to William Jefferson Blythe III (Clinton) to Barack Hussein Obama II, and now his former veep, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.

And what a slide its been. Under todays radical Democrats, the notion of equality, in the sense of opportunity, has been replaced with equity, in the sense of material goods or wealth; the power of the state to dole out and enforce that equity can only grow and become more intrusive. Victimhood has transmogrified from a regrettable happenstance into a proof of moral superiority, one marked by a deep-rooted resentment against aptitude, accomplishment, and achievement. The remedy for perceived imbalance is now called social justice.

But if justice requires a modifier, it isnt justice but revenge, and that requires the overthrow of the dispassionate rule of law and its replacement by a vengeful one-party state, quasi-dictatorship. Now that dissent is no longer the highest form of patriotism, the lefts sanguinary lust to transform the country-as-founded into an especially pernicious form of National Socialism along the Italian and German models of a century ago will only increase.

This is why they bandy about the word nazi so freely these days, because they know it more correctly describes them, and are attempting to escape its taint by forcing it onto their political opponents. Civil unrest, retributive justice, confiscation of property, an unholy alliance between the government and big business (Krupp and Thyssen in the 1930s, Google and Twitter today)all these things are emblematic of fascism, and every one of them now marks the United States of America.

Fascist Roots

Try as they might to deny it, though, the left has deep roots in fascism. Until the outbreak of World War II, Italian fascism had many fanciers among the Democrats, not the least of whom was Franklin D. Roosevelt as he took office in 1933.

With capitalism apparently having failed spectacularly in both the United States and Europe, there was a great deal of affinity among Roosevelt, Hitler, and Mussolini: Throughout the 30s, intellectuals and journalists noted areas of convergence among the New Deal, Fascism, and National Socialism, wrote the German cultural historian, Wolfgang Schivelbusch in his 2007 book, Three New Deals.

Later, Roosevelt was notoriously chummy with the international socialist Uncle Joe Stalin as they prosecuted the war against what the Germans themselves called the National Socialist State (NS-Staat).

In fact, just after FDRs first inauguration, a New York Times reporter noted that the mood in Washington was strangely reminiscent of Rome in the first weeks after the march of the Blackshirts, of Moscow at the beginning of the FiveYear Plan.  America today literally asks for orders.

And orders is what President Joe Biden is handing outmore than 40 since taking office on Jan. 20. The ukases deal with such things as the climate crisis, eliminating private prisons, allowing transsexuals to join the military, and various COVID-19-related issues. Stroke of the pen, law of the land, chortled former Clinton apparatchik Paul Begala back in 1998. Kinda cool.

Naturally, theres been to no fretting about our democracy, no fuss from the media robinettes over Bidens rule-by-decree, and barely any pushback from the federal judiciary, which under President Donald Trump had rarely if ever seen an executive order it didnt want to enjoin nationwide within 24 hours.

But, hey, its mourning in America again, and who has time for the old-fashioned notion that Congress writes the laws and the president executes them assuming they pass constitutional muster? Every trace of the hated Trump must be expunged, his orders overturned, his bank accounts closed, he and his followers de-platformed by the tech giants and hounded into either penury or jail, and preferably both.

After four years of screaming that the 2016 election was stolen by Trump and the Russians, Democrats now demand that the electorate must affirm that there wasnt a scintilla of fraud last November, and that what the country now needs is not only unity but unanimityby any means necessary.

What are you, anti-American?

Michael Walsh is the editor of The-Pipeline.org and the author of The Devils Pleasure Palace and The Fiery Angel, both published by Encounter Books. His latest book, Last Stands, a cultural study of military history from the Greeks to the Korean War, was recently published.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cadent, the advanced TV platform company, announced today an expansion of its long-standing agreement with Premion, an industry-leading premium CTV/OTT advertising platform for regional and local advertisers. Under the terms of the new agreement, Cadent Viewer Graph, Cadent's proprietary and cookieless matching technology, will unify audiences across Premion's inventory of branded networks and providers so that advertisers can activate cross-screen campaigns against custom segments.

Identity graph technology is only as good as its accuracy  including its match rates, scale, data quality and resolution. Cadent Viewer Graph uses patented technology, as well as a combination of first- and third-party data, to connect multiple TV devices back to viewing households, enabling TV advertisers to deduplicate and map any audience segment to television with minimal drop-off and maximum reach, as well as industry-leading resolution and match rates.

Cadent Advanced TV Platform will provide Premion with a complete suite of audience solutions and tools, including first-party data onboarding, audience building, insights, analytics, reporting, and campaign deployment. Advertiser CRM files will be securely onboarded for direct matching with all the consumer TV devices within Cadent Viewer Graph's 104 million household graph, allowing Premion to activate an advertiser's first-party data and create unique datasets for targeting and lookalike modeling.

Premion will leverage Cadent's proprietary, location-based, syndicated audience data as its primary dataset for targeting purposes. In addition, Premion will have access to other third-party behavioral datasets from leading data partners within Cadent's Data Marketplace to help advertisers build a fully comprehensive view of their audiences. Once these highly accurate audiences are created, Premion advertisers can leverage Cadent platform's deployment tools to seamlessly activate an audience across multiple publishers. Premion will gain powerful TV insights that let advertisers drill down into audience composition by behavioral attributes including demo, geo, age and gender. Post campaign, analytics and reporting tools will offer deeper insights for Premion's advertiser customers on what worked, what didn't work and why.

"True audience-based targeting tied to real-world business outcomes is critical for marketers today," said Tom Cox, President, Premion. "Our agreement with Cadent allows us to better understand the value of our audiences so that we can provide best-in-class solutions to advertisers."

"For years, Cadent and Premion have partnered to bring incredible, innovative OTT solutions to market," said Tim Jenkins, EVP, Head of Audience & Identity Solutions, Cadent. "Through this new agreement, we can enable Premion's advertisers to unlock even greater value from their OTT campaigns by helping them unify disparate media audiences and get a more complete picture of how to best reach their target households."

About Premion



Launched in 2016 by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA), Premion is an industry-leading premium CTV/OTT advertising platform for regional and local advertisers. Gray Television Inc. acquired a minority stake in Premion in 2020. With directly-sourced inventory from 125+ premium publishers, Premion delivers transparency and brand safety, making it easy for advertisers to target and reach engaged audiences at scale. For more information, visit www.premion.com.

About Cadent

Cadent powers the evolution of TV brand advertising. Cadent provides marketers, agencies, operators, and media owners with data-driven solutions for buying and selling TV advertising. By connecting brands with national TV audiences across cable, broadcast and OTT, Cadent's technology improves efficiencies and boosts the results of linear, addressable, and cross-screen campaigns. For more information, visit http://www.cadent.tv or follow @CadentTV.

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Two more Pennsylvania residents have been charged in connection with last months riot at the U.S. Capitol.

As of Monday, Zachary J. Alam, 29, and Ryan Samsel, 37, were both facing charges in the U.S. Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Federal authorities say both were involved with the Jan. 6 riot during the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College vote count in the 2020 Presidential Election.

According to the FBI, Alam was taken into custody in Denver, Lancaster County, on Saturday, and Samsel was taken into custody the same day in Bristol.

Zachary Alam

Charging documents state that Alam was spotted in video footage at multiple stages during the riot inside the Capitol, including a video of him smashing a window into the Speakers Lobby just before Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb through one of the shattered windows.

As FBI agents scoured video footage, the man they identified as Alam is first seen in a fur-lined hat with ear flaps, climbing through the window of the Senate Wing around 2:17 p.m.

He and a large crowd forced their way past Capitol Police, making their way further into the building, authorities say, noting he appeared to be agitated as he got close to a Capitol Police officer near the East Stairs.

Authorities say Zachary Alam is seen in the fur hat in this image from a video as a crowd makes its way through the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. (FBI).

Several videos also show Alam among the group that was trying to breach the barricaded door into the Speakers Lobby, guarded by three Capitol Police officers as more officers approached to guard it from the other side.

A video showed Alam punching the glass door panels behind the officers, splintering the glass and pushing his body up against one of the officers. The FBI says Alam was among those shouting (expletive) the blue at the officers.

Court documents state during the chaos, Alam grabbed a black helmet from another member of the crowd as he began smashing the middle glass panel, shattering the window to chants of Break it down. After he broke the glass, Babbitt was shot trying to climb through one of the shattered windows, court records state.

Days later, with the investigation was underway, the FBI received an anonymous tip providing Alams name, phone number, email address and other identifying information.

Agents watched his YouTube Channel, saw his Facebook page and matched the images with his drivers license, they say.

On Jan. 19, a relative of Alams reached out to the FBI, saying they were the anonymous tipster, and they provided a phone number from which the relative had been in contact with Alam, court records state.

That relative was shown images from the videos at the Capitol and identified Alam. While the relative did not know where Alam was, they told the FBI Alam called them and said he was sorry for what he had done at the U.S. Capitol, but he was not going to turn himself in because he did not want to go to jail again, court records state.

Alam is now facing charges of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon, destruction of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, unlawful entry on restricted building or grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct.

Ryan Samsel

According to investigators, multiple videos show Samsel assaulting an officer and engaging in disruptive and disorderly conduct outside of the U.S. Capitol.

Court records state around 12:50 p.m., as the preparations for the proceedings inside were underway, Samsel was among a large crowd gathered around the Peace Monument to the west of the Capitol.

Samsel and another man moved to a line of barricades constructed from metal bike racks and guarded by officers, where the area was marked as closed.

Court records state that Samsel immediately began confronting an officer as he started pushing and pulling on the barricade, then he removed his coat and turned his hat around, as if preparing for a fight.

Authorities say Ryan Samsel is the man in these images, seen taking down a barricade outside of the U.S. Capitol. (FBI).

They broke down the barricade, knocking over one officer, who hit her head on the ground and lost consciousness for a moment. Samsel moved that officer, who told investigators Samsel told her We dont have to hurt you, why are you standing in our way?

Authorities say Ryan Samsel is seen in this image, moving a Capitol Police officer who was knocked over and hit her head as the crowd pushed through a barricade. (FBI).

That officer went back to work, but hours later, collapsed, and had to be rushed to the hospital to be treated for a concussion, authorities say.

The FBI says Samsel can be seen among the crowd pushing further into the Capitol grounds and, when met with a line of officers in riot gear, he tried to pull a shield from one of them.

During the investigation that followed and through interviews with the injured officer, FBI agents say they identified Samsel, and they found he was on parole in Pennsylvania and was wanted out of Riverside, New Jersey, on a warrant in a 2019 assault case. His drivers license photo appeared to match the images from the videos.

Investigators learned from the Pennsylvania Parole Board that Samsel was staying with his aunt and uncle in Bristol. Using data associated with Samsels cellphone number, investigators say they were able to see that he had left Levittown and was in the vicinity of Washington D.C. the day of the riot.

He is charged with forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating or interfering with a federal agent; committing or attempting to commit an act to obstruct law enforcement and obstruction of official proceedings.
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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 15:59:53|Editor: huaxia

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Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, holds an online conversation with board members of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 2, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xiang)

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to focus on cooperation and manage differences in bilateral ties so as to bring the relationship back to its former course of sound and steady development.

Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the call in an online conversation with board members of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

"More than a week ago, the Biden administration officially took office. China-U.S. relations now stand at a key point and face new opportunities and new challenges," said Yang, also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee.

Yang said that normal China-U.S. interactions need to be restored, and "China should be seen as it is."

The previous U.S. administration pursued some misguided policies toward China, said Yang, noting that the root cause is a strategic misjudgment by some in the United States. "They view China as a major strategic competitor, even an adversary. That, I am afraid, is historically, fundamentally and strategically wrong."

It is a task for both China and the United States to restore the relationship to a predictable and constructive track of development, and to build a model for interaction between the two major countries that focuses on peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, according to Yang.

China hopes the new U.S. administration will respond to the will of both peoples and follow the trend of history, said Yang. "For normal exchanges to resume, our two sides have to work in the same direction."

He proposed that, at the government level, the embassies of the two countries and other channels should serve as bridges, while other players including think tanks, universities, media organizations, and businesses as well as exchanges at the sub-national level can also contribute in their own ways to bolstering overall relations.

Yang said that he hopes the new administration will remove the blocks to people-to-people exchanges, such as harassing Chinese students, restricting Chinese media outlets, shutting down Confucius Institutes and suppressing Chinese companies.

"These policy measures are not only wrong but also unpopular," Yang said. He suggested that more should be done to send a positive message that China and the United States are working together, to encourage positive public perceptions of each other and win more public support for growing China-U.S. relations.

Yang then called for the proper management of differences and the broadening of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Noting that the two countries have different histories, cultures and systems, Yang said that what matters is that the differences are managed properly so that they do not stand in the way of our overall relations. "Both sides need to respect each other's histories, cultures and traditions, respect each other's core interests and major concerns, and respect each other's choices of political system and development path."

He said that China has no intention to challenge or replace the United States' position in the world. Emphasizing that China never meddles in the internal affairs of the United States, he urged the United States to honor its commitments under the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques, strictly abide by the One China principle, and respect China's position and concerns on the Taiwan question.

Furthermore, Yang urged the United States to stop interference in the affairs of Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, and to stop attempts to hold back China's development by meddling in China's internal affairs. "Any trespassing would end up undermining China-U.S. relations and the United States' own interests."

He noted that in the face of COVID-19, there are more and broader areas where China and the United States can and must cooperate, including coronavirus response, economic recovery, climate change and ways to jointly improve the global public health system.

Those few U.S. politicians should immediately stop using the pandemic to stigmatize China. Instead, they should do things that will contribute to an enabling environment for bilateral cooperation against COVID-19, he said.

Yang stressed that trade issues should not be politicized. He said that China will always welcome U.S. business investment in China, and noted that it falls on both sides to provide a fair, open and non-discriminatory environment for each other's companies.

He also reiterated China's commitment to the Paris Agreement, saying that China has announced its goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060. "For China and the United States, climate change, renewable energy and low-carbon, sustainable development could be areas of mutually beneficial cooperation, which I believe will serve economic and social development in our countries and help protect Mother Earth," he said.

Yang said that the history of China-U.S. relations gives us reason to be optimistic about a brighter future for China-U.S. relations. He called on the two countries to bear in mind the fundamental interests of people in the two countries and beyond, respect each other, seek common ground while putting aside differences, keep disagreements under effective control, and expand common interests.

"If we follow this approach, I am convinced the China-U.S. relationship will embark on a path of improvement and development, a prospect that would tremendously benefit our two peoples and the entire world," he said. Enditem
Myanmar coup: Muted response, but a quandary nonetheless for Beijing

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 02: The military coup in Myanmar is clearly an early challenge for US President Joe Biden who has threatened sanctions if the action is not reversed.

Experts say that the the powerful generals of Myanmar are trying to replicate the China model. It may be recalled that China's foreign minister, Wang Yi during his last meeting with Myanmar Army chief Min Aung Hlaing had Calle the two countries, brothers. Yi also praised the military's national revitalisation.

Even after the coup, China had a muted reaction. Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin called Myanmar a friendly neighbour and urged all sides to properly manage differences. It must also be noted that as of last year, China was the biggest investor in Myanmar behind Singapore with USD 21.5 billion in approved foreign capital. Beijing also accounts for about a third of all Myanmar's trade.

Reverse actions immediately: US tells Myanmar after military coup

When there was a barrage of condemnation from across the world on the couple, China remained largely muted. Myanmar was the last country that Chinese President Xi Jinping visited. During President Xi's January 17-18 2020 visit, China and Myanmar had signed 33 deals covering areas such as trade, politics, investment and people-to-people communications.

The main focus of the agreements appeared to be on the implementation of the CMEC which is akin to the USD 60 billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), under which China looks to access Pakistan''s Gwadar port in the Arabian Sea.

The CMEC is also a giant connectivity project linking landlocked southwestern China to the Indian Ocean. The CMEC deal included the USD 1.3 billion Kyaukhphyu deep-sea port and economic zone.

Experts say Myanmar is of special significance to Beijing's geo-strategic plans. The Kyaukhphyu project concerns India as it provides a stepping stone for China to the Indian Ocean.

Wenbin said, "China is a friendly neighbour of Myanmar. We hope that all parties in Myanmar will properly handle their differences under the constitutional and legal framework and uphold political and social stability," he said, parrying questions over reports that the coup was a setback to Beijing, especially to the USD nine billion China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), which provides access to China to the Indian Ocean.

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi detained, 1 year emergency declared | Oneindia News

It would be interesting to watch China's approach in the next few days. The coup may have put Beijing in a quandary considering the fact that the country had warmed up to Aung San Suu Kyi in recent years. This despite China maintaining close ties with Myanmar's military and expanded its influence in the country during her long years of incarceration.

India expresses deep concerns over developments in Myanmar

While China defended the military during the military junta rule, Beijing also backed Suu Kyi's government after suffered global outrage and alienation over the Rohinga issue.
The Syrian National Coalition has claimed that the Syrian regime and its allies are behind recent bombings in northern regions of Aleppo, according to Baladi News.

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) has accused the Syrian regime, Iran, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of being behind the bombings that hit the northern regions of Aleppo.

In a statement, the SNC said that the criminal campaign was intended to kill women and children and destroy residential neighborhoods, in addition to spreading chaos, preventing stability, and creating a state of fear in order to displace people or prevent their return.

The SNC affirmed that the regime and its allies from Iranian militias and the SDF are behind these crimes, indicating that the regimes strategy seeks to bypass the agreements to fully implement its attacks by terrorist means. This attack comes in parallel with other bombings and multiple violations against the Syrian people, the SNC claimed.

The coalition described the protracted bombings and the killing of women, children, and young people in the targeted residential neighborhoods these acts as ominous, observing that they are not promising in terms of new possible disasters and catastrophic conditions.

The SNC called on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities and to work towards building real international cooperation to confront the terrorism that targets the Syrian people with explosions, car bombs, and aircraft.

On Sunday, six civilians were killed and others were wounded when a car bomb exploded in a crowded market along the Cultural Center Street near the headquarters of the Syrian Interim Government in the city of Azaz, north of Aleppo.

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.
One of two women murdered by the brother of up-and-coming rapper Uzzy Marcus has been identified as his fiancee, 26-year-old Savannah Rae Theberge, mother to a four-year-old son.

Raymond Weber, 29, known as Zino, was arrested in California following an eight-hour standoff with police and charged with killing the women, whose lifeless bodies were captured in an Instagram Live video.

Vacaville Police Sgt. Kate Cardona said one victim was 27 and the other was 15.

Theberge's mother, Enyaw Taylor, wrote on Facebook: 'My heart is heavy I'm so sad to say I believe one of those girls that were killed is my baby girl Savannah Rae Theberge whose birthday is 2/3.'

She said her daughter was 26.

She confirmed that Theberge and Weber this month told her of their engagement, CBS 13 reported.

Theberge grew up in Georgia and had recently been living in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she worked for FedEx. It was unclear when she traveled to California.

Savannah Rae Theberge, 26, was killed by Raymond Weber, 29, in California on Saturday

Theberge, whose son is now four, had recently become engaged to Weber, her mother said

Raymond Weber, 29 (left), the older brother of California rapper Marcus Weber (right), known as Uzzy Marcus, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder

Her friend, Meg Grubbs, set up a GoFundMe page to try and raise funds to bring her body home for burial.

'Our dear sweet Savannah Rae's life has been taken from her too soon,' Grubbs wrote.

'Her home state, Georgia, where she grew up and all of her family resides at. Her body remains in California, where the horrific incident occurred.

'She had plans to come back home, eventually, but things didn't go as planned. She wanted to raise money a few years back, but never could come up with enough to travel home with her belongings.'

Grubbs is aiming to bring her remains back to Georgia 'where she belongs'.

The second woman is yet to be identified.

Weber was taken into custody by police in Vacaville at around 8.30am on Saturday and was then booked into the Solano County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder and multiple other felonies, including domestic assault.

Weber is the brother of local rapper Uzzy Marcus, 25, whose real name is Marcus Weber.

Raymond Weber was seen on Instagram Live smoking a cigarette next to the bodies of two women on Saturday

In the video, Weber brandishes and gun, and accuses his rapper brother of trying to kill him and the female victims of setting him up

Marcus Weber is currently being held in the Sacramento County Jail without bail in connection to an unrelated case.

He is accused of endangering the life or health of a child and possession of a firearm by a felon.

The incident in Vacaville began at 12.42am on Saturday, when police responded to a call of a welfare check at the Rocky Hill Veterans Apartments, located at 582 Rocky Hill Road.

A woman called to report a man, later identified as Raymond Weber, was inside an apartment and possibly armed. She said the suspect had livestreamed himself on Instagram brandishing a gun while crouching next to two women lying motionless on the floor.

In the chilling video, Weber is seen pointing a gun into the camera while smoking a cigarette.

At one point, he lifts a woman's hand and says: 'that b**** tried to set me up. That's what she did.'

He then accuses his younger brother and others of trying to have him killed, but he does not elaborate.

Police responded to the apartment building at 582 Rocky Hill Road in Vacaville, California, early Saturday to perform a welfare check

After an eight-hour standoff with Weber, SWAT team members used flash bang grenades to get inside the apartment

'Uzzy Marcus wanna have me killed,' he says while waving his gun.

Later in the video, Weber turns off the light in the room and pretends to fire his gun.

'There's police everywhere,' he whispers. 'This gonna be the last time y'all see me. Any minute they're gonna kick this door down. They're all outside.'

Officers learned Weber, from Santa Rosa, was wanted for an outstanding warrant for various felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon.

Police who responded to the scene found the suspect had barricaded himself inside the apartment, prompting the activation of the SWAT team.

Police negotiators were also dispatched to the scene and tried to convince Weber to surrender, but to no avail.

Other units in the apartment building were evacuated as police used 'distraction devices and chemical agents' to force Weber out of the property.

Some eight hours later, police entered the apartment and found Weber hiding inside.

After a brief struggle, during which the 29-year-old was tasered, he was taken into custody.

Police discovered the two women dead inside the apartment.

Weber remained jailed without bond on Monday. He is due back in court on Tuesday.

Weber has a lengthy criminal history.

In 2014, he was said to be present when his then-16-year-old brother, Antoine, shot and killed Weber's 19-year-old girlfriend, Nicole Duarte, reported ABC10.

Uzzy Weber released his debut album in 2017. He is currently in jail on counts of endangering the life or health of a child and possession of a firearm by a felon

Raymond Weber, who was on parole on separate charges, was 22 at the time and fled the scene.

Antoine Weber later pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sent to state prison, where he will be eligible for parole in 2028.

Marcus Weber released his debut album as Uzzy Marcys, Mafia Reputation, in 2017, followed by the album Project 42K in 2019, and his third album, titled Friendly Gang Fire, last year.

He has collaborated with rappers Mozzy and Celly Ru.

His title track 42K has been played on Spotify more than 177,000 times.

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[February 02, 2021] Renaissance Strategic Advisors Names Four New Partners

Renaissance Strategic Advisors, a leading aerospace, defense, and government services advisory firm, announced today appointments to Partner of David Black, Mikhail Grinberg, David Hiley, and Ryan Peoples. Pierre Chao, Founding Partner at RSAdvisors, said: "We are thrilled to announce these well-deserved appointments. This is a long-tenured group whose hard work, dedication and tireless support of our client base was fundamental to the firm's success throughout our initial growth years. We look forward to their continued leadership and wisdom as RSAdvisors enters the next era of growth." The 2020s will usher in a new decade of challenges and opportunities for our clients as they navigate new shifts in security, technology, and business models, and the new partners believe it is an exciting opportunity to help RSAdvisors' current and future clients navigate this change. David Black joined the firm's London office in 2011 and leads corporate strategy and M&A due diligence for our global defense industry and sponsor clients, including navigating transatlantic and international market entry strategies. David is also the firm's leading expert for training, simulation, sustainment, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul markets. Mikhail Grinberg joined the firm's DC office in 2012 and leads our corporate strategy and advanced technology work, focusig on helping firms develop growth strategies for new capabilities and business models. He also specializes in assisting commercial firms seeking to enter the national security market. Mikhail has conducted wide-ranging research on innovation and technology management. He serves as an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.



David Hiley joined the firm's London office in 2011 and leads engagements for a broad constituency of clients including global defense companies, financial sponsors, and government organizations. His work covers the development of future military capability, security scenario planning, and developing processes of smart military procurement. David assists clients in meeting their strategic growth objectives in domestic and export markets and in aligning technology development with end-user demand. Ryan Peoples joined our Washington, DC office in 2011 and brings 20 years of engineering and consulting experience in the aerospace & defense sector. He supports corporate strategy and development, M&A due diligence, competitive assessment, and pricing strategy initiatives for clients spanning defense primes, mid-tier suppliers, and financial sponsors. Ryan is a leading expert on naval markets, in addition to having broad experience across land systems, military aircraft, unmanned systems, and defense electronics.

About Renaissance RSAdvisors is a leading advisory firm supporting premier clients in the aerospace, defense, space, intelligence, and government services industry as they address their most complex and critical issues. Our corporate strategy, market analytics, and M&A due diligence services are founded upon multi-disciplinary skills, judgment, and trust. For further information, please visit our website at: www.rsadvisors.com United States

1300 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 800

Arlington, VA 22209 United Kingdom

33 St James's Square

London SW1Y 4JS View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005203/en/

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The Bharat growth story is all set to become bigger. Through the pandemic last year when life literally came to a standstill in urban India, it was the tier 2-3-4 markets which displayed exceptional resilience. Be it companies such as Hindustan Unilever, ITC or Britannia, all of them experienced growth on the back of rural consumption. Rural for most of these companies was a laggard just a year ago. Be it higher agricultural yields that increased disposable income, reverse migration or less incidences of the pandemic, it is rural India which came to the rescue of India Inc in FY21. It's not just staples, biscuits and soap manufacturers, even car-makers and white goods brands saw green shoots in rural India. The Union Budget which has announced huge outlays for bolstering rural infrastructure has made industry stalwarts even more upbeat about the Bharat growth story.

Be it extended agri-credit targets, increased provision for rural infrastructure development or the setting up of five fishing economic hubs, captains of India Inc are hoping that these measures would significantly help in stepping up consumption. "The enhanced capital expenditure particularly on infrastructure, will create livelihoods and provide an accelerated thrust to the v-shaped recovery trajectory. The heightened spends on agriculture and rural infrastructure development are aligned to the comprehensive policy interventions aimed at creating agri value chains to raise farm incomes. These augur well for the economy and will spur a virtuous consumption-investment-employment cycle," says Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and MD, ITC.

"Overall, the Union Budget ticks the right boxes with an encouraging capital infusion in infrastructure and funding the same through prudent borrowing , disinvestment and restructuring of allocations without impacting consumers negatively. I believe that, going forward, this will bode well for generating demand, driving consumption and sustaining the growth momentum needed to revive the economy," adds Saugata Gupta, MD and CEO, Marico.

A well laid-out rural infrastructure would not just generate more income opportunities for rural consumers and hence increase their spending power, it would also pave the path for consumer companies to strengthen their distribution might in rural markets. Even though 80 crore Indians live in rural India, most consumer companies have found it difficult to spread their wings due to infrastructure challenges. "With key focus on building Atmanirbhar Bharat, there are significant allocations for infrastructure building especially for rural India. The Budget enhances allocation to agri-credit and also prioritises the agricultural and agri-allied sectors. All these measures are expected in generating an increase in rural consumption which is necessary for reviving the economy," says Harsha V. Agarwal, Director, Emami Ltd.

However, R.S. Sodhi, MD of India's biggest food company, Amul, has a slightly contradictory opinion on the Union Budget. He says that though the Budget at an overall level will surely boost consumption, the focus should have been more on building the agriculture and dairy infrastructure. "The focus should have been on infrastructure which can generate returns in the long-term without subsides."

"They have reduced custom duty on animal feed, but that won't make too much difference. Around 27 per cent of agriculture GDP comes from the dairy sector, and I was expecting more concrete changes such as reduction of GST on categories such as paneer," adds Rahul Kumar, MD, Lactalis India.

Sanjesh Thakur, Partner, Deloitte India, says that Union Budget FY21-22 will surely improve consumption propensity of the average Indian, especially of those living in the tier 2-3-4 markets. "But a lot depends on how the economy fares overall. All the measures that been announced have to be implemented only then can one feel the impact."

Also Read: For a change, no increase in cigarette prices in this year's Budget

Also Read: SBI share rises 20% in 5 sessions; hits 52-week high

Also Read: Budget 2021: Disinvestment, asset monetisation to help govt raise revenue

After an investigation, thousands of Moderna vaccine doses thought to be spoiled are now approved for use, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The state said 8,900 vaccines were reported as being stored at too cold of temperatures in a Jan. 17 shipment, but after an internal investigation by McKesson Corp. and the CDC, it was discovered the vaccines were not spoiled by low temperatures. Initial reports had the impacted vaccines at 11,900, but the state has clarified the number.

The vaccine doses were headed to 21 sites around the state, including local health departments, federally qualified health centers and other vaccine providers.

Each vaccine shipment has a temperature monitoring device used to check the vaccines while in transport.

We are pleased we will be able to use these vaccines to protect Michiganders from the virus as we work to reach our goal of vaccinating 70% of Michiganders over age 16 as quickly as possible with the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, DHHS chief medical executive and chief deputy for health. These safeguards are put into place to ensure the integrity of the vaccine and based on the investigation that was conducted, these vaccines can now be used.

The mid-January report was the first alert of potentially compromised COVID-19 vaccines shipped to Michigan.

Vaccines are shipped to providers across the state by manufacturers and distributors. Vaccines are not shipped or distributed by MDHHS.

Restaurants reopen for indoor dining  here are Michigans new rules

Michigan passes million mark on COVID-19 vaccine shots

9% of Michigan adults vaccinated against COVID-19 so far; see numbers in your county

[February 02, 2021] Idaho Health Data Exchange Announces Mental Health and Substance Use Data Initiative

Today, Idaho Health Data Exchange (IHDE), Idaho's statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE), announced a new partnership with Leap Orbit to implement its Consentric granular consent management toolkit built on HL7's Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) specification. The partnership will enable IHDE to expand its HIE network and services to behavioral health providers, facilitate sharing of mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) information with patient approval, and improve coordination across the continuum of care. The partnership reflects the broader trend in healthcare to treat the whole person by integrating behavioral health services with the physical healthcare infrastructure. With increased awareness, investments, and solutions to better address mental health and SUD across the sector, IHDE's partnership with Leap Orbit signifies a shift toward whole-person healthcare. Leap Orbit's Consentric toolkit enables healthcare organizations to rapidly configure and deploy streamlined digital consent workflows, which will be made widely available to IHDE's users via initial integrations with its clinical portal and master patient index. As a result, clinicians across Idaho will be able to obtain patient consent quickly and easily during any patient encounter. To maintain patient privacy preferences and safeguard sensitive health information, patients will be able to choose from several data sharing profiles that address their medical and behavioral health information. "Given the sensitive nature of behavioral health data, it is paramount that IHDE addresses barriers to the appropriate sharing of mental health and SUD information," said Hans Kastensmith, IHDE Executive Director. "IHDE's partnership with Leap Orbit will allow our users to easily manage a patient's privacy preferences as they are working in the patient record."



IHDE and Leap Orbit's new partnership will modernize existing paper-based consent processes and ensure compliance with HIPAA, 42 CFR Part 2, and other federal and state privacy laws. The collaboration also positions IHDE to create new provider-mediated and patient-facing consent workflows as necessary to pursue other data exchange scenarios that align with its commitment to improving the medical, behavioral, and social well-being of all Idahoans.

About Idaho Health Data Exchange Idaho Health Data Exchange (IHDE), a non-profit 501(c)(3) company, is Idaho's statewide Health Information Exchange, dedicated to meeting the needs of healthcare providers and ensuring that Idaho's citizens receive the most effective health services possible. To achieve these goals, IHDE is working with a wide-array of stakeholders and actively building a best in breed technology infrastructure to provide access to reliable data and information, combining traditional healthcare data with other data sources to help address the medical, behavioral, and social needs that influence the well-being of Idahoans. In addition to technology enhancements to improve overall performance, an array of tools aimed at improving patient outcomes will be made available to IHDE participants, including: an analytics platform, a telehealth platform, a remote patient monitoring system, and a social determinants of health platform. As a trusted data sharing partner in Idaho, IHDE looks forward to bringing you a new suite of service offerings to improve quality of health outcomes and reduce the cost of care. For more information, visit: https://idahohde.org/ About Leap Orbit Founded in 2015, Leap Orbit is the trusted innovation partner to many of the market-leading health data networks, including CRISP, Manifest MedEx, and NEHII. Leap Orbit's philosophy is to run toward healthcare's biggest challenges, providing technology and solutions to assist with the opioid crisis and patient data privacy. Through its health organization partners, Leap Orbit's work reaches at least 45 million patients from Alaska to Maryland. The partnership between IHDE and Leap Orbit adds to Leap Orbit's momentum as the leading innovator in digital consent management solutions for healthcare. Leap Orbit's consent platform is being used by HIEs in Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and West Virginia. For more information, visit LeapOrbit.com and follow on LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005272/en/

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"...while TCA provides strong investment potential, it is much more: its exciting and rewarding to be a part of the success and growth of so many young companies." - Jeff Lapin, chairman, Tech Coast Angels

Tech Coast Angels (TCA), recently named the most active angel network in the world, today announced the appointment of current member and former TCA-Los Angeles chapter president, Jeff Lapin, to chairman of the angel networks board of governors for 2021. David Friedman joins the board as vice-chairman.

TCA is an important link in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, providing early-stage funding to companies who need capital to support growth, said Mr. Lapin. TCA has an incredible amount of collective knowledge -- and therefore we as a network can offer so much more than capital: we offer expertise, wisdom, and a certain amount of real-world been there, done that that can be so crucial to an early-stage company.

Mr. Lapin is a seasoned executive with experience in management/C-level roles at Starwood Hotels, House of Blues, Atari, THQ, and Take-Two, as well as many privately-held companies. At many of these companies, he successfully met the difficult task of turning the company around or creating high-growth opportunities. He says he looks for the same traits in entrepreneurs that he looked for when hiring executives: the drive to work hard and succeed; the ability to listen; the flexibility to pivot as needed; and the communications skills necessary to reach and influence all constituents.

Celebrating his tenth year as a member of TCA, Mr. Lapin brings enormous experience to the position, with over 30 start-up investments as an angel, in addition to his robust management expertise. Mr. Lapin was president of TCA-LA in 2014/15. In his current role as chairman with TCAs board of governors, he oversees the networks four chapters that span Southern California.

Being a member of TCA is a rewarding experience not only by giving entrepreneurs the chance to succeed, but I learn so much every time I attend a screening session about the newest technology or innovations, concluded Mr. Lapin. We can achieve great things because our members are smart and successful. Because of TCAs size and influence, we have members who are familiar and experienced in nearly every field, in nearly every industry, who want to invest not only money, but their time -- to mentor, guide, connect, and share their expertise. So yes, while TCA provides strong investment potential, it is much more: its exciting and rewarding to be a part of the success and growth of so many young companies.

About Tech Coast Angels:

Tech Coast Angels (TCA) is one of the largest and most active angel investor networks in the nation, and a leading source of funding for seed-stage and early-stage companies. The angel network is comprised of four chapters, consisting of over 450 members in Southern California. Every TCA member is an accredited investor, and companies in which TCA invest go through well-structured, transparent, time-efficient screening and due diligence. TCA members are founders and business leaders who have extensive knowledge in the investment process and world-class business practices, and thus are able to provide companies with more than just capital: they also contribute counsel, mentoring and access to an extensive network of investors, customers, strategic partners and management. In December 2020, TiE named Tech Coast Angels the Most Active Angel Network in the World.

Since its founding in 1997, TCA has invested over $250 million in more than 450 companies and has helped attract more than $1.7 billion in additional capital/follow-on rounds. http://www.techcoastangels.com.

Media contact:

Kimber Smith Fidler

for Tech Coast Angels

kimber@smithfidler.com


The two companies agreed to amend the terms in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted exploration and mineral activity

The amended terms see O3 Mining receiving 500,000 shares of Gaia and the agreements second-year anniversary date will be reset to November 3, 2021

( ) (OTCMKTS:OIIIF) has amended the terms of its option agreement with Gaia Metals Corp (CVE:GMC) on the FCI property in Quebec, according to a joint release on Tuesday.

The amended terms see O3 Mining receiving 500,000 shares of Gaia and the agreements second-year anniversary date will be reset to November 3, 2021.

The two companies agreed to amend the terms in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted exploration and mineral activity in the province, the companies told investors.

The FCI claim blocks form a contiguous land package with the Company's wholly owned Corvette claim block and are collectively termed the Corvette-FCI Property, totalling 283 claims and 14,496 hectares within the Guyer Group of the greater La Grande Greenstone Belt.

Under the terms of the amended agreement, originally signed in 2018, the remaining earn-in stipulations require Gaia to incur a total of C$800,000 in work exploration expenditures on or before the second anniversary date, upon which it would vest a 25% interest. Gaia must also incur an additional $1.2 million in work exploration expenditures on or before the third anniversary date, upon which it would vest an additional 25% interest, for a total of 50% undivided interest in the FCI Property.

O3 Mining will act as operator of FCI for the term of the 50% earn-in, with a steering committee of equal representation formed to provide advice and direction to the operator.

Once the 50% earn-in is completed, the two companies will establish a joint venture corporation with Gaia retaining an option to acquire a further 25% interest, for a total of 75% undivided interest, though funding of the next $2 million in exploration expenditures. Gaia may become operator if it notifies O3 Mining that it intends to incur the $2 million in work expenditures for a final undivided interest of 75%.

O3 Mining's remaining 25% interest may be further reduced through dilution if they elect to not fund their portion of subsequent exploration and development. If ownership falls below 10%, O3 Mining will have the right to convert this remaining interest into a 1% Net Smelter Royalty (NSR), of which Gaia retains the right to buy for $5 million in cash or shares for 100% interest.

Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas
A third evacuation centre has been set up at Swan Active on Benara Road, Beechboro.

A bushfire emergency warning remains in place for people in parts of The Vines, Bailup, Ellenbrook, Gidgegannup, Millendon, Walyunga National Park, Upper Swan, Aveley, Henley Brook, Avon Valley National Park, Red Hill, Belhus, Baskerville, Herne Hill, Bullsbrook, Wooroloo, Brigadoon in the shires of Mundaring, Chittering and Northam and the City of Swan

The department said people who have been personally directed to self-isolate or quarantine due to COVID-19, or anyone in a region subject to lockdown restrictions, should find alternative suitable premises and wear a mask, but it was not possible, proceed to the evacuation centre and identify yourself to centre staff immediately on arrival.

Protocols are in place to minimise COVID-19 risk at the evacuation centre and you must follow the directions of centre staff.

Continue to follow COVID-19 precautions and maintain appropriate physical distancing.Please take any essential items such as medications and identification to the evacuation centre.

Pets (except recognised assistance animals) are not allowed inside evacuation centres for health and safety reasons, so you should make alternative arrangements for them. If this is not possible, please still proceed to the evacuation centre with your pets and await further advice.

Roads closures in place:

Railway Parade between Neaves Road and Maralla Road.

Great Northern Highway closed from West Swan Road to Rutland Road.

Toodyay Road in both directions between Bunning Road to Bailup Road.

Weribee Road from Cheddaring Road to Linley Valley Road.

Government Road from Linley Valley Road to Jason Street.

Bailup Road from Burma Road to Government Road.

Keep up to date:

Visit emergency.wa.gov.au, call 13 DFES (13 3337), follow DFES on Twitter: twitter.com/dfes_wa, Facebook: facebook.com/dfeswa, listen to ABC Local Radio, 6PR, or news bulletins.
[February 02, 2021] Execupay acquires Massachusetts based Fox Payroll

SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- San Antonio, Texas-based payroll and human resource services and technology firm Execupay announced in January that it has acquired Foxboro, Massachusetts-based Fox Payroll. Texas -based Execupay acquires Massachusetts -based Fox Payroll, expanding to the Northeast. Founded in 1991, Fox Payroll, owned by Jim Fox of Foxboro Massachusetts, processes payrolls for hundreds of small-businesses focusing on a personal touch and the highest level of customer service. Tom Klingbeil, Executive Vice-President of Execupay, states that "Jim goes above and beyond for his clients and we look frward to carrying on that tradition as we welcome Fox Payroll to the Execupay family of companies."



"It is an honor to be able to continue the Fox Payroll tradition and we are excited about bringing new services and the latest technology to Fox Payroll," states Execupay CEO, Gerald Stowers. The majority of the Fox Payroll staff, including Jim Fox, will join the Execupay team and remain in Massachusetts. "We look forward to bringing Jim's more than two decades of experience to our team," says Siva Shanmugam, VP of Finance for Execupay.

Fox Payroll clients will see very little change in their payroll processing, as Fox Payroll utilizes Execupay Software making the transition seamless. Fox Payroll clients will see no disruption in service and gain access to an expanded suite of payroll and HR, cloud-based products and services. Execupay will retain the Fox Payroll brand but update the logo and corporate colors. "Following a year of unprecedented change, we look forward to continue helping Fox Payroll clients navigate the Paycheck Protection Program and all the available payroll-based tax credits designed to help small businesses recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," says Execupay CEO Gerald Stowers. About Execupay Founded in 1974, Execupay provides human capital management services, solutions, and technology covering payroll, time and labor management, benefits, talent acquisition, talent management, and HR management to SMB's throughout the United States. The company is also a leading provider of software for the payroll service industry and white-labeled payroll services to accountants, payment companies, HR software providers, and banks powering brands like Sam's Club Payroll, BBVA Payroll, GoCo, and GetBeyond. Contact: Scott Abramson, scott.abramson@execupay.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/execupay-acquires-massachusetts-based-fox-payroll-301220625.html SOURCE Execupay Payroll & HR Services

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CytoDyn will dedicate at least 200,000 vials (100,000 doses) of leronlimab from its inventory to Chiral Pharma Corp. for potential sales in the Philippines



VANCOUVER, Washington, Jan. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CytoDyn Inc. (OTC.QB: CYDY), (CytoDyn or the Company), a late-stage biotechnology company developing Vyrologix (leronlimab-PRO 140), a CCR5 antagonist with the potential for multiple therapeutic indications, announced today it is working with Chiral Pharma Corp. in the Philippines to register Vyrologix under a licensed physicians request for Compassionate Special Permit (CSP) to treat COVID-19 patients with leronlimab for a fee. Last night, the CytoDyn team presented the results from various studies (primarily from U.S. eIND patients) of leronlimab as a potential therapeutic for COVID-19 patients to several Philippine regulators, hospital executives and physicians. Drs. Seethamraju and Agresti discussed their patient experiences with leronlimab for critical COVID-19 patients under eIND. References were also made to several published papers by Drs. Otto Yang and Nicholas Agresti, among others, for the treatment of COVID-19 patients with leronlimab.

CytoDyn appointed Chiral Pharma, a subsidiary of New Marketlink Pharmaceutical Corporation (NMPC), to register Vyrologix for potential approval from the Food and Drug Administration in the Philippines to treat COVID-19 patients.

Nader Pourhassan, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of CytoDyn, commented, We are very pleased to initiate sales of Vyrologix (leronlimab) in the Philippines as soon as we have CSP approved for patients. Under the CSP program, we will also generate significant data from Philippine patients with COVID-19. We continue to look forward to unblinding the data from our Phase 2b/3 clinical trial very soon and remain optimistic given the results from many eIND patients in the U.S.A., who were in a similar clinical condition as the patients in our CD12 trial.

About Coronavirus Disease 2019

CytoDyn completed its Phase 2 clinical trial (CD10) for COVID-19, a double-blinded, randomized clinical trial for mild-to-moderate patients in the U.S. which produced statistically significant results for NEWS2. CytoDyn completed enrollment of 390 patients in its Phase 2b/3 randomized clinical trial for the severe-to-critically ill COVID-19 population and expects to release results in early February 2021.

About Leronlimab (PRO 140)

The FDA has granted a Fast Track designation to CytoDyn for two potential indications of leronlimab for critical illnesses. The first indication is a combination therapy with HAART for HIV-infected patients and the second is for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Leronlimab is an investigational humanized IgG4 mAb that blocks CCR5, a cellular receptor that is important in HIV infection, tumor metastases, and other diseases, including NASH. Leronlimab has completed 11 clinical trials in over 1,200 people and met its primary endpoints in a pivotal Phase 3 trial (leronlimab in combination with standard antiretroviral therapies in HIV-infected treatment-experienced patients).

In the setting of HIV/AIDS, leronlimab is a viral-entry inhibitor; it masks CCR5, thus protecting healthy T cells from viral infection by blocking the predominant HIV (R5) subtype from entering those cells. Leronlimab has been the subject of nine clinical trials, each of which demonstrated that leronlimab could significantly reduce or control HIV viral load in humans. The leronlimab antibody appears to be a powerful antiviral agent leading to potentially fewer side effects and less frequent dosing requirements compared with daily drug therapies currently in use.

In the setting of cancer, research has shown that CCR5 may play a role in tumor invasion, metastases, and tumor microenvironment control. Increased CCR5 expression is an indicator of disease status in several cancers. Published studies have shown that blocking CCR5 can reduce tumor metastases in laboratory and animal models of aggressive breast and prostate cancer. Leronlimab reduced human breast cancer metastasis by more than 98% in a murine xenograft model. CytoDyn is, therefore, conducting a Phase 1b/2 human clinical trial in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and was granted Fast Track designation in May 2019.

The CCR5 receptor appears to play a central role in modulating immune cell trafficking to sites of inflammation. It may be crucial in the development of acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and other inflammatory conditions. Clinical studies by others further support the concept that blocking CCR5 using a chemical inhibitor can reduce the clinical impact of acute GvHD without significantly affecting the engraftment of transplanted bone marrow stem cells. CytoDyn was conducting a Phase 2 clinical study with leronlimab to support further the concept that the CCR5 receptor on engrafted cells is critical for the development of acute GvHD, blocking the CCR5 receptor from recognizing specific immune signaling molecules is a viable approach to mitigating acute GvHD. The FDA granted orphan drug designation to leronlimab for the prevention of GvHD. Due to the lack of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company suspended its Phase 2 trial for acute GvHD.

About CytoDyn

CytoDyn is a late-stage biotechnology company developing innovative treatments for multiple therapeutic indications based on leronlimab, a novel humanized monoclonal antibody targeting the CCR5 receptor. CCR5 appears to play a critical role in the ability of HIV to enter and infect healthy T-cells. The CCR5 receptor also appears to be implicated in tumor metastasis and immune-mediated illnesses, such as GvHD and NASH.

CytoDyn has successfully completed a Phase 3 pivotal trial with leronlimab in combination with standard antiretroviral therapies in HIV-infected treatment-experienced patients. CytoDyn has been working diligently to refile its Biologic License Application (BLA) for this HIV combination therapy since receiving a Refusal to File in July 2020 and subsequently meeting with the FDA telephonically to address their written guidance concerning the filing. CytoDyn expects to refile its BLA in the first half of calendar year 2021.

CytoDyn has completed a Phase 3 investigative trial with leronlimab as a once-weekly monotherapy for HIV-infected patients. CytoDyn plans to initiate a registration-directed study of leronlimab monotherapy indication. If successful, it could support a label extension. Clinical results to date from multiple trials have shown that leronlimab can significantly reduce viral burden in people infected with HIV. No drug-related serious site injection reactions reported in about 800 patients treated with leronlimab and no drug-related SAEs reported in patients treated with 700 mg dose of leronlimab. Moreover, a Phase 2b clinical trial demonstrated that leronlimab monotherapy can prevent viral escape in HIV-infected patients; some patients on leronlimab monotherapy have remained virally suppressed for more than six years.

CytoDyn is also conducting a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial with leronlimab in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. More information is at www.cytodyn.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Words and expressions reflecting optimism, satisfaction or disappointment with current prospects, as well as words such as "believes," "hopes," "intends," "estimates," "expects," "projects," "plans," "anticipates" and variations thereof, or the use of future tense, identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements specifically include statements about leronlimab, its ability to have positive health outcomes, the possible results of clinical trials, studies or other programs or ability to continue those programs, the ability to obtain regulatory approval for commercial sales, and the market for actual commercial sales. The Company's forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance, and actual results could vary materially from those contained in or expressed by such statements due to risks and uncertainties including: (i) the sufficiency of the Company's cash position, (ii) the Company's ability to raise additional capital to fund its operations, (iii) the Company's ability to meet its debt obligations, if any, (iv) the Company's ability to enter into partnership or licensing arrangements with third parties, (v) the Company's ability to identify patients to enroll in its clinical trials in a timely fashion, (vi) the Company's ability to achieve approval of a marketable product, (vii) the design, implementation and conduct of the Company's clinical trials, (viii) the results of the Company's clinical trials, including the possibility of unfavorable clinical trial results, (ix) the market for, and marketability of, any product that is approved, (x) the existence or development of vaccines, drugs, or other treatments that are viewed by medical professionals or patients as superior to the Company's products, (xi) regulatory initiatives, compliance with governmental regulations and the regulatory approval process, (xii) general economic and business conditions, (xiii) changes in foreign, political, and social conditions, and (xiv) various other matters, many of which are beyond the Company's control. The Company urges investors to consider specifically the various risk factors identified in its most recent Form 10-K, and any risk factors or cautionary statements included in any subsequent Form 10-Q or Form 8-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any responsibility to update any forward-looking statements to take into account events or circumstances that occur after the date of this press release.

CONTACTS

Investors:

Michael Mulholland

Office: 360.980.8524, ext. 102

mmulholland@cytodyn.com
Dan Nye will unify Company vision behind valuable graphene assets and increase international presence

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Earthasia International Holdings Ltd. (the "Company") ("Earthasia") (OTCQX:ETIHY; HKEx:6128), is pleased to announce that accomplished leader, Dan Nye has joined the Company as Chief Strategy Officer. Dan has more than 20 years experience, both as a business leader structuring and building robust, cohesive business teams and a value investor employing financial and operational analysis to identify mispriced assets.

"Dan has a proven track record of solidifying business direction and operations in line with a singular goal and we are extremely pleased that he shares our vision of the Company as we move forward," said Chan Yick Yan Andross, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Earthasia International Holdings Ltd. "We continue to optimize our business units to leverage our expertise and leadership in graphene production and manufacturing for current uses, such as lithium ion battery anodes, and continue to research additional graphene products and processes in order to aid the evolution of renewable energy initiatives for a sustainable world. We are confident that Dan will be integral to the success of the Company, while using his global reputation and experience to significantly raise our profile internationally, including the U.S. market."

"I am delighted to work with the team to focus on strengthening Earthasia's leadership in the high growth graphene and renewable energy sectors," said Dan Nye, Chief Strategy Officer, Earthasia International Holdings Ltd. "All evidence suggests that the graphene business is set to grow significantly and Earthasia is well positioned to benefit from that growth."

Previously, Dan led manufacturing operations for publicly listed semiconductor robotics and automation company, Asyst Technologies, in Silicon Valley. Dan grew his team to support revenue growth from $80 million to $300 million.

Dan worked as a Strategy Consultant with Bain & Company, consulting with private equity clients investing in industrial and technology companies. He led mergers and acquisitions transactions with Robertson Stephens International, specializing in semiconductor and hardware systems businesses. Dan later moved into asset management to focus on managing portfolios of assets for CIM Investment Management.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University, a Master of Science Equivalent in Nuclear Engineering from the US Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program and an MBA, with honors, from Harvard Business School, where he won the Loeb Finance Award.

--30--

About Earthasia International Holdings Ltd.

Earthasia International Holdings Ltd. is a publicly traded company, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the OTCQX Best Market. Based in the People's

Republic of China (PRC), and strategically located near the largest supply source of high quality natural graphite anywhere in the world, the Company is a leading supplier of graphene products. Earthasia owns 25 patents in the PRC, including products, production methods, machinery design, and environmental protection. The Company's spherical graphite is an essential anode material for lithium-ion batteries.

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements regarding our prospective performance and strategies within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The Company intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are including this statement for purposes of said safe harbor provisions. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe future plans, strategies, and expectations of our company, are generally identified by use of words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "project," "seek," "strive," "try," or future or conditional verbs such as "could," "may," "should," "will," "would," or similar expressions. The Company's ability to predict results or the actual effects of its plans or strategies is inherently uncertain and based, in part, on third party market research which the Company's assumed to be accurate. Accordingly, actual results may differ materially from anticipated results. Some of the factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ from its expectations or beliefs include, without limitation, the risks of its businesses, the assumed significant growth of graphene related products and spherical graphite products. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date on which such statements were made.

Media Contact

Gavin Davidson

investrel@earthasia.com.hk

SOURCE: Earthasia International Holdings Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627277/Earthasia-International-Adds-Visionary-Leader-and-Executive-as-Chief-Strategy-Officer-as-Company-Refines-Its-Focus-on-Renewable-Energy
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A trio of Massachusetts lawmakers refiled a bill on Tuesday that would make it illegal for local court and police officials ask about a persons immigration status, as well as limit cooperation between police and federal immigration agents.

There is no reason that someone who is pulled over by a police officer in a car or interacting in a court has to be asked about their immigration status, said Sen. Jamie Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, who first filed the bill eight years ago.

Eldridge filed the bill, SD. 532, on the Senate side Tuesday morning. Rep. Liz Miranda, a Boston Democrat, and Rep. Ruth Balser, a Newton Democrat, refiled the House version Tuesday morning.

The bill failed to move forward in the Massachusetts Legislature, even as the Trump administration removed priorities for who could be deported and made it difficult for certain foreigners to maintain legal status to stay in the United States.

We know how frightened so many members of our immigrant community feel, so frightened that many wont call a doctor to participate in contact tracing or even now take advantage of the vaccination rollout because of the fear, Balser said, referring to undocumented immigrants who fear going to the doctors office could lead to an encounter with immigration officials.

The bill cleared the Public Safety Committee last session, a first for the proposal, but was never put up for a vote in the Legislature. Balser and Miranda said theyre hopeful the bill will get a vote on the House floor.

Im really hopeful as well that our colleagues will join us because of this moment that were all trying to meet and the consciousness that I think has been raised, particularly in the last six months of the Legislature, Miranda said, noting that more than 90 legislators signed onto the bill last session.

More than 50% of Mirandas district is foreign-born, but immigrants with varying levels of immigration status live across Massachusetts. The Bay State is home to an estimated 250,000 people with temporary or no legal status, ranging from those who are undocumented to those who have protections under Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

The proposal would prohibit court and police officials from inquiring about someones immigration status unless its required by law. There would be an exception for judges and magistrates if the inquiry is necessary to adjudicate a case.

Under the bill, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could only be notified of someones release from prison at the end of their sentence. Lawmakers say it would prevent ICE agents from detaining and deporting immigrants accused of crimes before they have their day in court.

The bill would require that federal immigration agents get written consent before interviewing someone in Massachusetts, which would effectively ensure Miranda rights are extended to non-citizens.

It would also bar local agencies from entering into 287(g) agreements with the federal government, a partnership thats come under scrutiny as local officers are effectively deputized as immigration agents.

Four Massachusetts agencies have 287(g) agreements with ICE. The Barnstable County Sheriffs Office, Bristol County Sheriffs Office, Plymouth County Sheriffs Department and the Massachusetts Department of Corrections renewed their contracts with ICE in 2020.

ICE touts the partnership as a way to get violent criminals off the streets. ICE highlighted a Dec. 3 arrest the Plymouth County Sheriffs Office made of an undocumented Dominican man on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. But the agency didnt name the suspect, and immigration records are often kept confidential.

Lawmakers say the 287(g) agreements have not made their communities safer as immigration agents have detained and deported immigrants with little to know criminal records.

More than half of the foreign nationals deported from Massachusetts between October 2009 and February 2020 had no criminal conviction, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Coming into office, President Joe Biden vowed to undo some of the changes the Trump administration made to crack down on illegal immigration and limit legal immigration. He signed an executive order reversing President Donald Trumps order that removed who is prioritized for deportation, among other immigration-related orders halting border wall construction, reversing the travel ban and preserving DACA.

He also introduced an immigration reform package that, among other things, would offer a path to citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants and those with temporary status.

But Bidens proposal does not limit the 287(g) program, Eldridge said. The was created under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and led to local-federal partnerships in Massachusetts over the past two decades.

The Biden administration has not yet suggested ending the 287(g) agreements, so that piece is critical, Eldridge said. Harmful immigration practices have existed in Massachusetts through both Democratic and Republican administrations. We cant wait for the federal government or Congress to act.

Related content:
Washington: Donald Trump was singularly responsible for the January 6 assault on the Capitol and must be barred from office for endangering the life of every member of Congress, Democrats have argued in their official brief for the former presidents Senate impeachment trial.

In an 80-page document laying out their case, the Democrats impeachment managers state Trump summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Donald Trump spoke to his supporters in Washington before they stormed the Capitol. Credit:Getty

His conduct endangered the life of every single member of Congress, jeopardised the peaceful transition of power and line of succession, and compromised our national security, the Democrats write in their brief.

This is precisely the sort of constitutional offence that warrants disqualification from federal office.
A child has been rushed to hospital in a serious condition after being struck by a car in Sydneys lower north shore on Wednesday morning.

The boy, 8, was struck by a four-wheel-drive Suzuki Jimny on Blaxland Street in Hunters Hill just after 8am.

Three ambulance crews and a Careflight helicopter arrived on the scene, where the boy had suffered head, facial and chest injuries.

He was treated at the scene before he was transported to the Childrens Hospital at Westmead in a serious condition.

NSW Ambulance Inspector David Morris urged the public to stay vigilant on the citys roads.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-03 03:03:14|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Moscow court on Tuesday sentenced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 3.5 years in real jail time in defiance of pressure from domestic protesters and Western countries.

Navalny got a suspended sentence of 3.5 years behind bars in December 2014 for a fraud case concerning French cosmetics company Yves Rocher, and he was required to show up at Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) regularly during the probation period until the end of 2020.

The Moscow court ruled to replace Navalny's suspended sentence with real time in prison after the FSIN charged the Kremlin critic with breaching the probation conditions by failing to show up for checks.

Navalny's lawyer Olga Mikhailova said the defense will appeal the court ruling and resort to the European Court of Human Rights after all legal procedures in Russia are exhausted.

If the verdict takes effect, the 44-year-old opposition figure may need to spend 2.5 years behind bars as he has been under house arrest for 12 months.

Navalny was detained by FSIN officers on Jan. 17 upon his landing at a Moscow airport from Germany, where he received medical treatment for alleged poisoning over the past months.

The activist fell into a coma on a flight from the Russian city of Tomsk to Moscow on Aug. 20, 2020. He was then transferred to a hospital in Berlin 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 asked for solid evidence from Germany.

Navalny's detention sparked mass protests in major Russian cities at the past two weekends as his supporters took to the streets demanding his release. Western countries have also pressured Moscow to free him. Enditem
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which was approved by the European Commission last week, will start arriving in France next week at the latest, French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said on Monday.

From the end of this week, latest early next week, AstraZeneca vaccine doses will start arriving in France We will be able to start vaccinating (with it), Beaune said on France Inter radio.

France has so far approved vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

There are also other vaccines arriving, notably Johnson & Johnson. From the month of February we will be able to have the authorisation and the doses, Beaune said.

On Jan. 30, France had injected nearly 1.5 million first doses, while over 45,000 people have received a second shot, health ministry data show.

SOURCE: REUTERS
The current shift towards greater openness by an intelligence service that in Soviet times preferred to remain in the shadows is a welcome one.

The Foreign Intelligence Service has recently published a 74-page "White Book 2021" analyzing current international threats to Ukrainian security, marking a significant moment in the history of Ukraine's intelligence community.

It is the first time the country's spy agency has gone public in this manner with details of the dangers facing Ukraine, reads a piece by Brian Mefford for the Atlantic Council.

The current shift towards greater openness by an intelligence service that in Soviet times preferred to remain in the shadows is a welcome one, not least because it demonstrates that today's Foreign Intelligence Service (SZR) is busy addressing external enemies rather than spying on Western tourists.

The content of the recently published White Book is even more significant, the report reads. Crucially, it identifies Russia as the main threat to Ukraine's security.

"This kind of straight talk is refreshing," the article reads. "It is also a sign that the intelligence services are no longer Russified."

For a country seeking to gain NATO membership, "such clarity is essential."

The report offers an overview of the diverse range of tools Russia deploys in its ongoing hybrid war against Ukraine, including Moscow's attempts since 2014 to destabilize Ukraine by promoting separatism movements in regions like Odesa and Zakarpattia.

Russia's information war against Ukraine forms a key element of the White Book, as does the Kremlin's increasing use of cyberattacks. Through social media, exploiting the anonymity of the internet, Russia projects its narratives into the Ukrainian informational space. Moscow's key message is the portrayal of Ukraine as an unstable actor prone to far-right extremism. The only solution, according to the Kremlin narrative, is to get Ukraine back to the Russian sphere of influence.

This message has prevailed throughout the seven years of undeclared war between the two nations. Russia also promotes the same narratives internationally as part of efforts to drive a wedge between Ukraine and the countrys Western partners.

The report notes that in the occupied Crimea, Russia is creating conditions for strengthening their nuclear potential. It observes that the Kremlin views Crimea from a purely military perspective and shows little interest in improving living standards for local inhabitants.

Read alsoPutin haunted by "health issues," Ukraine intelligence saysRussia's continued energy blackmail of Ukraine and plans to expand economic sanctions have also been highlighted. A number of scenarios are explored involving Kremlin efforts to push out Ukrainian businesses and replace them with Russian-controlled front firms. Importantly, the report notes: "the determining external factor holding back the implementation of such scenarios is the comprehensive support for our state from the West."

Other cited aspects of Russian hybrid warfare include Moscow's efforts to legitimize in the international arena the occupied regions of eastern Ukraine.

"Finally, in smart move that is likely to strike a chord with ecologically aware European Union audiences, the report points out the environmental problems caused in the Azov Sea by the ongoing Russian occupation," the oped reads.

The report includes details on SZR efforts to become full-fledged participants in the communication systems of NATO and its intelligence services.

The increased 2021 Ukrainian state budget allocation of UAH 4 billion (nearly $140 million) for foreign intelligence operations sends a particularly important signal, showing that Ukraine is prepared to invest in own security. In contrast, over the last five years the SZR budget has been underfunded by around UAH 6.8 billion ($240 million).

Reporting by UNIAN
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been ordered by a judge to face a seven-hour deposition as part of its legal battle with Epic Games. The judge also denied Apples attempts to subpoena Samsung in the case with Epic Games.

According to a report by Gizmodo, the court documents revealed Epic Games originally planned on deposing Cook for eight hours, but Apple cited the apex doctrine in which prevents high-level executives from being deposed. However, Epic Games then conceded to a four-hour deposition, but the judge in the case decided that Cook could be deposed for seven hours.

Gizmodos report noted: According to court documents, Epic Games wanted to depose Cook for a proposed eight hours. Apple then tried to cite the apex doctrine, which in a nutshell prevents a high-level corporate employee from being deposed. Or, you know, zero hours. Apple later offered a concession of four hours. According to Judge Thomas S. Hixon, however, this dispute is less than meets the eye. Hixon writes that the apex doctrine limits the length of a deposition, rather than barring it altogether, and that given the circumstances, the dispute is a question of whether Cook should be deposed for four hours, eight hours, or some length of time in between. Hence, Hixons ruling that Cook should be deposed for seven hours.

In his justification for the seven-hour deposition, Hixon wrote that when it came to Apples app store policies, there is really no one like Apples CEO who can testify about how Apple views competition in these various markets that are core to its business model. Despite being made out of court, Cooks testimony could be used when the case goes on trial in May this year.

Hixon also denied the Cupertino-based tech giants request to subpoena internal documents from Samsung. Apple had pressed to subpoena the South Korean giants internal communications to help prove its policies are similar to that of other companies. However, Hixon referred to this as a quirky deep dive into the relationship between Samsung and Epic Games. For context, Epics relationship with Samsung has blossomed in the aftermath of its ban from the Play Store and App Store
Security has been stepped up with the deployment of extra personnel and strengthening of barricades near farmers' protest sites at Delhi's borders, leading to traffic congestions on many key roads in the capital.

Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Traffic Police alerted commuters about the closure of borders and suggested alternative roads for travel.

Workers under the watch of police personnel on Monday were seen hooking iron rods between two rows of cement barriers on a flank of the main highway at the Singhu border to further restrict the movement of protesters agitating against the Centre's new farm laws at the site.

Another portion of the highway at the Delhi-Haryana border is practically blocked now as a makeshift cement wall has come up there.

Security has also been tightened at the Delhi-Ghazipur border, where protesting farmers are also camping for over two months.

"Ghazipur border is closed. Traffic diverted from NH 24, NH 9, Road no 56, 57 A, Kondli, Paper market, Telco T point, EDM Mall, Akshardham & Nizammudin Khatta. Traffic is heavy on Vikas marg, IP extention, NH 24. Pl(ease) commute from other borders," the Delhi Traffic Police tweeted.

According to the police, Delhi-Ghazipur border remains closed for traffic due to the farmers' protests. The commuters are suggested to take alternate routes via Anad Vihar, Chilla, DND, Apsara, bhopra and Loni borders, it added.

"Singhu, Saboli, piau Maniyari borders are closed. Auchandi, Lampur, Safiabad,Singhu school & Palla toll tax borders are open. Pl(ease) Take alternate route(s)," the traffic said in another tweet.

The police said traffic was diverted from NH-44 and suggested commuters to avoid Outer Ring Road, GTK road and NH 44.

On Monday, Commissioner S N Srivastava and other senior police officers visited Ghazipur border to take stock of the security arrangements.

Security arrangements continue to be strengthened at the Delhi-UP border site, which is galvanising farmers from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, days after an emotional appeal by Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait.

Drones have also been deployed to monitor the protesters.

Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been camping at Delhi's borders for weeks, seeking a repeal of the three agriculture laws.

They claim that the new laws will weaken the minimum support price (MSP) system. But the Centre says the laws will only give farmers more options to sell their produce.

(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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New programs help Native, Indigenous, tribal and rural Kansas students develop interest in becoming veterinarians

Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021

MANHATTAN 

The College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University is launching two new opportunities for future veterinarians: SPARK, the Summer Program for Aspiring Rural Kansas veterinarians, and SPRINTS, the Specialized Programs for the Recruitment of Indigenous, Native and Tribal Students initiative.



SPARK seeks to create direct and purposeful connections between aspiring veterinarians and veterinary practices in rural communities throughout Kansas. As a daylong immersive experience, SPARK provides participants with the opportunity to shadow veterinarians in rural communities and gain exposure to the demands and rewards of rural veterinary practice. The goal of the program is to generate long-term interest in a career in rural veterinary medicine. Additionally, SPARK participants will engage in educational sessions to learn how to garner the necessary financial resources to attend a professional Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program, as well as how to create a competitive application for a selective Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program.



Ideal applicants for the SPARK program are those who intend to apply for admission to a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program during the 2021-2022 application cycle and are within five years of attaining a veterinary medicine degree. Applicants outside of that criteria are welcome to apply as well. To apply, go to kstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6L2r0qVJG39VJMV.



The SPRINTS initiative, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides opportunities for high school and college students who identify as tribal, Native American or Indigenous to gain exposure to veterinary medicine as a potential career path. The initiative encompasses many programs, including sponsoring registration, travel and lodging costs for students to attend Vet Med ROCKS, an annual summer camp hosted by College of Veterinary Medicine students. SPRINTS participants will receive tailored consultations about the required prerequisite coursework and their current high school or transcripts, as well as the application process for acceptance into the College of Veterinary Medicine. They also will receive fee waivers for their supplemental application to the college.



Ideal applicants for the SPRINTS initiative are high school and undergraduate college students, at least 18 years of age, who identify as Indigenous, Native American or tribal, and with a desire to learn more about careers in veterinary medicine. To apply, go to kstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ddolYXno3dPE9jD.



Questions about these programs can be directed to admit@vet.k-state.edu.






Kathmandu, February 1

Further relaxing restrictions imposed to control the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, the government of Nepal has decided to grant on-arrival visas to non-resident Nepalis.

The Department of Immigration published a notice informing the relaxation on Monday. The department says cabinet meetings held on January 24 made the decision.

As per the decision, foreigners with the Nepali origin (those whose passports mention Nepal as their birthplace), foreigners related to Nepalis, and non-resident Nepali citizens will get on-arrival visas to enter the country, unconditionally.

Until now, only those obtaining a permit in advance from the Nepali diplomatic mission in the country would get on-arrival visas.

Meanwhile, the government also decided to grant on-arrival visas to diplomatic and official passport holders including the staff of the UN and international agencies in Nepal.

The on-arrival visa facility is available at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu only and not at other entry points.

Others should obtain the visas from Nepali missions abroad before embarking on the trip.
Labors foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said Australia should work with other countries to send a clear signal to Myanmars military leaders that their actions are a direct attack on Myanmars democratic transition and stability. The Australian government must stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and ensure the bilateral relationship wont return to business as usual until democracy is restored and political prisoners are released, she said. Following yesterdays events, the government needs to explain whether this [military] cooperation is consistent with Australias strategic interests, review other areas of bilateral cooperation and consider additional targeted sanctions as appropriate. Asked in 2018 whether the Australian government was considering suspending defence cooperation with Myanmars military, Defence secretary Greg Moriarty told a Senate estimates hearing that it was in Australias interests to continue engagement. The maintenance of a very limited defence cooperation engagement with Myanmar serves Australias interests and would potentially help with the professionalism of the armed forces in Myanmar, he said on October 24, 2018.

Michael Shoebridge, director of the defence program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the Australian government should be looking at its defence cooperation closely in the wake of the coup. From one point of view: there has been another military coup and do we want to engage with and empower militaries that conduct military coups? No, Mr Shoebridge said. But the counter argument is that militaries are often conduits for relationships when the rest of the relationship has gone bad. So keeping some form of military-to-military connection allows for some dialogues between governments. Australia currently has sanctions against six current or former members of Myanmars military, but does not have in place broad sanctions against the country. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video

World leaders are now considering sanctions and targeted responses to the escalating situation. US President Joe Biden threatened to reimpose sanctions early on Tuesday morning AEDT in a move that could trigger a diplomatic spiral in the region. The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy, he said. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action. Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel overnight. The Australian government is concerned that Myanmar could become a satellite state of China if it reduces engagement with its military. The view is echoed by other allies amid fears that imposing sanctions could push the Tatmadaw further towards shadow financing from Chinese authorities while hurting the local population. The military and its top brass are heavily intertwined with a complex web of business interests through shares in Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited. The Tatmadaw ruled Myanmar as a military junta for half-a-century prior to Suu Kyis release from house arrest and landslide victory in 2015.

Loading The MEHL has links to multinational banking, beer, manufacturing sectors. An investigation by Amnesty International in 2020 found partnerships had been established with global conglomerates including Japanese beer multinational Kirin and South Korean steel giant POSCO. Mr Shoebridge said although China has kept up its close ties with the military, it would not want to be promoting the fact that the new government prevailed in a military coup. To the extent Myanmar needs foreign currency and revenue, that will drive them towards China in an economic sense, he said. Herve Lemahieu, director of the power and diplomacy program at the Lowy Institute, said China has strong ties with the National League for Democracy and the military - and is now in a position to hedge and work with whoever is in power. The West is not in a good position as it has less good relations with the military, he said.
Bindi Irwin is about to welcome her first child, a baby girl, with husband Chandler Powell.

But ahead of their daughter's arrival in March, the Wildlife Warrior, 22, spent some quality time with the ones she loved most - her family.

It appears that the Irwin clan tagged along while Bindi and Chandler enjoyed a babymoon in Uluru.

Special trip: Bindi Irwin, 22, spent some quality time with her family ahead of the arrival of her first child, a girl, with Chandler Powell, 24, in about eight weeks. Pictured: Bindi and Chandler with Robert, 17, and Terri, 56, in Uluru

Bindi shared a picture of her 'experiencing the heart of Australia' in the Northern Territory with Chandler, 24, Robert, 17, and Terri, 56, to Instagram on Wednesday.

'Experiencing the heart of Australia together was such a blessing. Uluru is truly extraordinary,' the soon-to-be first-time mother captioned her post.

In the photo, the family are seen standing in front of Ayers Rock together and smiling sweetly for the camera.

Bindi showed off her baby bump in a black elephant T-shirt and cradled her tummy.

Her husband Chandler proudly stood by her side with his arm wrapped around her.

Making memories: In a similar post, Chandler captured the family's holiday - but added an extra picture of himself with his wife in front of the iconic landmark (pictured)

Meanwhile, Terri and her younger brother Robert wore their iconic Australia Zoo uniforms.

In a similar post, Chandler captured the family's holiday - but added two extra pictures of himself with his wife and of the iconic landmark.

'Got to experience Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park for the very first time. A truly special place,' the American captioned the post.

Sooner than expected! Chandler is expecting his first child with Bindi, who is 32 weeks pregnant, in late March or early April

Chandler is expecting his first child with Bindi, who is 32 weeks pregnant, in late March or early April.

The birth of their daughter comes after the couple married on March 25, 2020, in a makeshift ceremony at Australia Zoo.

They first met in November 2013 when Chandler, who hails from Florida, was touring Australia for a wakeboarding competition.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Its the third consecutive day of snowfall as a massive noreaster makes its way through New York City, and Staten Islanders should prepare to see at least another one or two inches of the white powder on Tuesday  but at least the worst of the storm is over, according to a meteorologist for AccuWeather.com.

Related: S.I. Chuck reveals his Groundhog Day 2021 prediction

I think the worst is over, Tom Kines, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather, told the Advance/SILive.com on Tuesday morning. It will be on the windy side today and there will be some precipitation, but I dont think it amounts to a whole lot. Maybe we can squeeze out another inch or so [of snow]. But theres rain and sleet mixed in this morning, and thats going to be tough to accumulate from that, but yeah, maybe another inch or so during the day today.

Kines explained the bigger issue on Tuesday will be the continued strong winds.

While temperatures will be above freezing, he said blowing winds will make it feel like temperatures are in the teens. Light snow will come every now and then on Tuesday night, but Kines said it shouldnt amount to much.

Tomorrow, maybe some flurries around, but that should be the worst of it. Its still on the windy side, but temperatures should get above freezing tomorrow, he said.

Some flurries could fall around the borough on Wednesday, as well. Residents should also watch for freezing temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday night, when wet spots could freeze and cause ice issues, Kines added.

By the storms end, Staten Island should see an average of 18 inches of snowfall, Kine told the Advance/SILive.com.

I would say that when its all said and done, its probably going to average around 18 inches, Kines said. Some people are going to have less than that, some people are going to have a little bit more. But I think the average will be close to 18 inches.

And it will likely be a while before we see most of the snow melt.

Kines said Tuesday and Wednesday will see temperatures slightly above freezing during the day, which means there could be a little bit of melting. Thursday should bring a lot of sunshine, as temperatures will reach up to or above 40 degrees.

If youre looking for some melting, maybe during the afternoon hours on Thursday we can really start to put a dent in the snowfall, Kines said.

But more snow could fall early next week. Staten Island could possibly see another weather system move through Sunday or Monday with some snow. Kines said its too far out to speculate just how much snow we could see in that system.

If youre looking for more accumulating snow, there might be some, he said. But as I said, thats six, seven days away. Thats tough to call from this far out.

The meteorologist added it will turn cold for a few days behind that system, which means the first part of next week will be pretty chilly. Kines said its possible that Staten Island could feel high temperatures in the 20s.

WINDY AND COLD ON TUESDAY

It remains windy and cold, with the temperature at 32 degrees Tuesday morning, although it feels more like 22 degrees out there, according to AccuWeather.com. The deep chill will continue through Tuesday, with winds likely gusting over 45 mph and blowing steadily at over 25 mph, driving wind-chill factors down into the teens, according to forecasters.

While main roads have been plowed across the borough, the side streets remain snow-covered. Notify NYC is warning that roads may be difficult to maneuver on Tuesday morning.

Staten Island was buried in 15 inches of snow measured in Westerleigh on Monday evening, according to the National Weather Service.

** Want to know exactly how much snow will fall in your backyard? Click here for SILive.coms exclusive weather map **

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
ABBOTT SETS LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

Under state law, the Texas governor gets to set priorities for the Legislature. Here are the five items Republican Gov. Greg Abbott outlined on Monday in his State of the State address:

1) Police funding

Abbott is critical of any efforts to cut law enforcement budgets, calling for punishments to municipalities that do. Ideas he has floated include withholding their sales tax revenue, denying them annexation powers or taking over their police departments entirely.

Last summer, the Austin city council voted to reduce some funding from its police budget last year and restructure other financial streams amid nationwide protests over police brutality. The move became a rallying cry for Republicans heading into the November election, while Democrats pushed for reforms to root out structural racism in policing.

Democrats in Texas have generally said they do not favor "defunding" the police, and Austin had the highest per capita police budget of any major city in Texas heading into last year's cuts.

2) Bail reform

The governor is taking another swing at legislation aimed at reforming the state's broken bail system, calling for stricter limits on violent offenders while declining to endorse additional measures aimed at reducing the number of people in jail simply because they can't afford to get out. Similar legislation passed the House last session, but died in the Senate.

Last week, Abbott acknowledged the financial inequalities that target poor, nonviolent defendants, but said his focus is on prohibiting violent offenders from harming others, particularly law enforcement, while out on bail. That would include making sure judges who set bail have access to their defendants' full criminal records, implementing a statewide case management system to improve access to information at bail hearings, and limiting which arbitrators get to set bail.

3) Internet connectivity

The pandemic has highlighted wide disparities in access to high-speed internet, and Abbott has called for legislative intervention. More than 800,000 rural Texans are estimated to lack adequate broadband infrastructure, and they tend to be poor, elderly, non-native English speakers or live outside major cities.

The problem is in part that it's too expensive for service providers to build broadband infrastructure in rural areas, leaving residents with unreliable satellite connections.

In 2019, the Legislature created a council to study the issue, and the state has worked with education officials during the pandemic to create hotspots for students in communities with limited access. But the council was never tasked with developing an actual plan, and lawmakers have since urged the governor to establish a timeline for developing one, with clear goals.

4) COVID lawsuit limits

The governor has pushed hard for businesses to remain open throughout the pandemic, rolling back early restrictions and allowing restaurants and many bars to remain open even during infection surges. Now he wants the Legislature to ensure those businesses don't get sued if their employees or customers contract the virus on site.

Abbott has argued that businesses know what precautions to take to limit the spread of the coronavirus, and shouldn't be punished if they have done everything they can to limit exposure. Federal Republicans have spent months trying to pass similar civil liability protections, but have so far failed.

5) Election integrity

Calling for more safeguards on the integrity of Texas elections, Abbott left no doubt that he'll push for more restrictions on voting of the sort that have been proposed by Republican lawmakers.

Texas is already known for its strict voting laws and is one of 16 states that require voters to have an excuse to vote by mail. Republican bills include measures to further tighten mail voting restrictions and stop governors from changing election laws during disasters, addressing two concerns that former President Donald Trump raised in his challenges of election results.
Auto rental specialist Car Inc. moved one step closer to delisting from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with its Monday publication of a timetable to privatize. Photo: VCG

The end of the road as a listed firm is just around the corner for Car Inc., an auto rental specialist that once hoped to make big bucks by tapping a growing hunger for mobility from Chinas booming middle class.

The company was once a highflyer that attracted the likes of former U.S. giant Hertz and top-tier private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC as investors. But its hoped-for growth story ultimately stalled, and its reputation sank further last year when its name got sucked into the massive accounting scandal surrounding Starbucks Corp. challenger Luckin Coffee Inc.

This week Car Inc. moved one step closer to delisting from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with its Monday publication of a timetable to privatize under a plan first floated in November. That plan saw private equity firm MBK Partners offer to purchase all of the companys shares for HK$4 ($0.52) apiece  a more than 20% premium over the stocks price the previous five trading days, but still less than half the HK$8.50 price from the companys 2014 IPO.

The company said the offer, which was formally made by an MBK investment vehicle called Indigo Glamour Co. Ltd., was effective from Monday, and would run through Feb. 22. The company would be delisted after that if enough investors tendered their shares.

Privatizing the company gives the leadership time to take a pit stop and take a good look under the hood to fix what needs fixing, said an analyst at a midsize brokerage that recently considered buying the stock but ultimately decided to pass, speaking on condition of anonymity due to company policy.

The delisting would mark a quiet end for a company that once held out big promise as one of the earliest major entrants to Chinas car rental market.





Quick out of the gate

Founded in 2007, Car Inc. made headlines in 2012 when Warburg Pincus invested $200 million for an undisclosed stake in the company, then known as China Auto Rental Holdings, in a deal that was billed as the biggest ever at that time in Chinas car rental industry. A year later in 2013 it would make headlines again when it attracted $100 million in investment from The Hertz Corp., the U.S. car rental giant that filed for bankruptcy last year after its business tanked during the pandemic.

Car Inc. would go on to make its Hong Kong IPO in 2014, and briefly saw its shares more than double within its first year as a public company. But its stock gradually trended downward afterward as its growth failed to impress investors. In its latest annual report for 2019, the companys rental car revenue grew a scant 4.1% to 5.6 billion yuan ($867 million), while its net profit tumbled nearly 90% to just 31 million yuan. Between 2016 and 2019, its revenue grew just 11%.

Even as its own prospects were fading, the companys name would suffer more damage when it got tangled up in the scandal involving Luckin, an upstart Chinese coffee chain that shocked the world nearly a year ago when it confessed to inflating its revenue by $310 million in 2019. Car Inc. and Luckin shared a connection through Lu Zhengyao, the controlling shareholder of both companies.

Read more

Luckin Explained: How Did Scandal-Plagued Coffee Highflyer Get Into Such Hot Water?

Car Inc.s shares lost more than half their value in the trading day after the Luckin fraud was first exposed, as investors worried the scandal could infect Lus other major assets. It seems like after Car was contaminated by the Luckin scandal, which looked like it went all the way to the top, it was hard for investors to trust the company again, said the analyst at the midsize brokerage.

Car Inc. would ultimately unwind itself from the scandal when its own controlling shareholder Ucar, a limousine services company controlled by Luckin boss Lu, agreed to sell about 21% of the company to MBK Partners in November for HK$1.8 billion. At the time, Car Inc. said the purchase would make MBK its second-largest shareholder behind Legend Holdings Corp., parent of PC giant Lenovo Group Ltd., which owned 26.6% when Car Inc. filed its interim report in September.

As is often the case with underperforming assets, MBK is likely to try to overhaul Car Inc. and improve its prospects before disposing of it in the future for a markup from its current value, which now stands at a relatively modest $1.1 billion.

I suspect we will see the company in public markets again, but it may be a bit further down the road, said the analyst at the midsize brokerage.

Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.
We are bringing our live coverage of the Wooroloo bushfires to a close for the night. Please say safe out there. For essential information, visit emergency.wa.gov.au.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services has warned people in the Avon Ridge and Joshua Mews area it is too late to leave and they are in immediate danger.

You must shelter in place or if you are prepared you must actively defend, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services has warned. There is a video from the latest community meeting this afternoon below.

Whether you are in lockdown or have been personally directed to quarantine for COVID-19, you must do whatever you need to do to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

Visit emergency.wa.gov.au, call 13 DFES (13 3337), follow DFES on Twitter: twitter.com/dfes_wa, Facebook: facebook.com/dfeswa, listen to ABC Local Radio, 6PR, or news bulletins.

A bushfire emergency warning is in place for people in parts of Millendon, The Vines, Bailup, Ellenbrook, Gidgegannup, Walyunga National Park, Henley Brook, Upper Swan, Aveley, Avon Valley National Park, Wundowie, Belhus, Baskerville, Bullsbrook, Wooroloo, and Brigadoon in the shire of Mundaring, Chittering and Northam and the City of Swan.

You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive. There is a threat to lives and homes.

WHAT TO DO:

Hong Kong, Feb 2 : Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, who has been charged with foreign collusion under the controversial national security law, will continue to remain in custody after a court decided to adjourn his bail ruling.

The decision was taken by the Court of Final Appeal on Monday, reports Xinhua news agency.

Monday's development comes nearly two months after Lai, the founder of Apple Daily newspaper who is a fierce critic of China's authorities, was granted bail and was placed under house arrest.

He was also ordered to pay a $1.3 million bond.

The 73-year-old became the most high-profile person to be charged under the national security law, which was enacted on the city by China on June 30, 2020, to ban acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces He had appeared in West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts for trial on December 3 and 12, 2020 respectively.

The two cases were adjourned and Lai's bail applications were rejected.

One of the city's most prominent supporters of the pro-democracy movement, Lai is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion.

Having made his initial fortune in the clothing industry, he later ventured into media and founded Next Digital, the parent company of Apple Daily - a tabloid that is critical of the mainland Chinese leadership.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Sales have been really strong and were hoping that this is an intermission; its a moment for us to refill the popcorn and get back on Friday to business as usual, Ms Burgess said.

Perths Fringe World organiser Sharon Burgess is proud of being a beacon of hope to performance artists who have gone without pay for most of the year and will still get paid despite the current lockdown. Credit:Naomi Jellicoe

For Fringe World organiser Sharon Burgess, whose month-long festival was interrupted 2 weeks in, ticket sales had been tracking similarly to last year, but with fewer shows and reduced capacity were enjoying much busier houses.

West Australian performance artists remain on the fringe of survival as Perths lockdown bites but festival organisers remain hopeful and proud that there is a show that must go on.

She said artists with cancelled shows would get some kind of financial settlement, with everything in the Fringe donation fund from ticketholders who elected to contribute money or donate any refunds on their tickets being distributed equally to those affected.

In some cases it will be the first pay packet they have received because independent artists do fall through the cracks and they have particularly had a rough time and we at the Fringe, were not funded to support, commission or pay artists, were just merely here to provide a platform to sell tickets and market their shows to a wider audience, Ms Burgess said.

So hopefully we will be able to do that and in some cases do that beyond the normal fringe timetable.

Almost 84 per cent of the artists at this years Fringe were from WA, with only a few international acts who were already in the state and a handful from interstate, although a Brisbane show got caught out by the hard border.

Its been devastating but the whole year has been devastating and we were that beacon of hope, not only for the artists here in Western Australia but for the Fringe family globally, said Ms Burgess, who is also the CEO of Artrage.
Bindi Irwin is counting down the weeks until she welcomes her first child with her husband, Chandler Powell.

And on Tuesday, the 22-year-old wildlife warrior shared a sweet tribute to her mother, Terri, on Instagram.

She posted a photo of herself smiling alongside Terri, 56, as they sat by the fireplace with their dogs.

'Thankful for moments like this': Pregnant Bindi Irwin shared a tribute to her mother, Terri, on Tuesday. She posted this photo to Instagram of the pair sitting by the fireplace alongside the caption, 'Always laughing with my beautiful mama'

'Always laughing with my beautiful mama. Her amazing sense of humour and kind heart make me smile every day,' she wrote in the caption.

'Thankful for moments like this,' Bindi added.

On Monday, Bindi revealed she'd started wearing her husband Chandler's Australia Zoo uniform because her bump no longer fits under her shirt.

'Reason 1 million I'm thankful': On Monday, Bindi revealed she'd started wearing her husband Chandler Powell's Australia Zoo uniform because her bump no longer fits under her shirt

Bumping along nicely: The wildlife warrior, 22, who is expecting a baby girl, shared this photo of herself showing off her button-up top, with Chandler's name embroidered above the pocket

The brunette, who is expecting a baby girl, shared a photo of herself showing off her button-up top, with Chandler's name embroidered above the pocket.

'Reason 1 million I'm thankful for my husband. Borrowing Chandler's uniform because my khakis won't button over my belly,' she wrote.

The conservationist also shared another photo of herself cradling her baby bump while posing for the camera.

Counting down the weeks: On November 11, Bindi revealed she was 20 weeks along in her pregnancy, meaning she is due to give birth in late March or early April

Just married! The young couple were married on March 25 in a makeshift ceremony at Australia Zoo, just before the Covid-19 lockdown took effect

On November 11, Bindi revealed she was 20 weeks along in her pregnancy, meaning she is due to give birth in late March or early April.

The young couple were married on March 25 in a makeshift ceremony at Australia Zoo, just before the Covid-19 lockdown took effect.

They first met in November 2013 when Chandler, who hails from Florida, was touring Australia for a wakeboarding competition.
BOISE - The Idaho Fish and Game will be setting new seasons for upcoming deer, elk, pronghorn, black bear, mountain lion, and wolf hunts in March, and are gathering public input on upcoming season proposals beginning February 8, 2021.

The easiest way for hunters to review proposals and weigh in will be visiting the big game proposals webpage at idfg.idaho.gov/big-game. Proposals will be posted on February 8, and the comment period will run from February 8-25. The proposals will be posted by region and separated by species within each region.

The public comment process will also include virtual open houses hosted by Fish and Games staff for each of its regions, along with one statewide open house.

In addition to the virtual open houses, regional Fish and Game staff will also host call-in sessions to provide people without internet access an opportunity to weigh in on the proposals.

Virtual Open House Schedule

All virtual open houses will start at 6:00pm local time. Links to each virtual meeting will are available at idfg.idaho.gov/big-game.

Panhandle - February 18

Clearwater - February 24

Southwest (McCall) - February 17

Southwest (Nampa) - February 22

Magic Valley - February 23

Southeast - February 16

Upper Snake - February 18

Salmon - February 24

Statewide - February 25

Call-in Session Schedule

All call-in sessions start will take place from 5:00pm - 7:00pm local time. Before participating in the call-in sessions, the public is encouraged to review the proposals at idfg.idaho.gov/big-game. Proposals will be posted on February 8.

Panhandle - February 23

Clearwater - February 17

Southwest (McCall) - February 22

Southwest (Nampa) - February 24

Magic Valley - February 24

Southeast - February 18

Upper Snake - February 23

Salmon - February 17

Big game seasons will be finalized by the Fish and Game Commission during its March 17-18 meeting in Nampa.
WOONSOCKET, R.I., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Starting Thursday, February 11, CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) will begin to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to eligible populations at a limited number of CVS Pharmacy locations across 11 states. Supply for the initial rollout, which is sourced directly from the federal government through the pharmacy partnership program, will be approximately 250,000 total doses. As more supply becomes available the company will expand to additional states while increasing the number of stores offering vaccinations.

"Our presence in communities across the country makes us an ideal partner for administering vaccines in a safe, convenient, and familiar manner," said Karen S. Lynch, President and Chief Executive Officer, CVS Health. "This is particularly true for underserved communities, which have been a focus for us throughout the pandemic."

There are nearly 10,000 CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide, with almost half located in communities ranked high or very high in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index. More than 90,000 health care professionals including pharmacists, licensed pharmacy technicians, and nurses will participate in the vaccination effort, giving CVS Pharmacy the capacity to administer 20  25 million shots per month.

State-specific details (eligibility will be confirmed and communicated by states in advance of the rollout):



Number of doses

(approximate) Number of active

stores (approximate) Current eligibility guidelines California 81,900 100 https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Revision-of-Allocation-Guidelines-for-COVID-19-Vaccine.aspx Connecticut 6,800 12 https://portal.ct.gov/Coronavirus/covid-19%20vaccinations Hawaii 4,400 7 https://hawaiicovid19.com/vaccine/ Maryland 11,000 18 https://covidlink.maryland.gov/content/vaccine/ Massachusetts 21,600 18 https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-covid-19-vaccination-phases New Jersey 19,900 27 https://covid19.nj.gov/faqs/nj-information/slowing-the-spread/who-is-eligible-for-vaccination-in-new-jersey-who-is-included-in-the-vaccination-phases New York* 20,600 32 https://covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov/phased-distribution-vaccine#phase-1a---phase-1b Rhode Island 3,400 4 https://covid.ri.gov/vaccination South Carolina 15,300 17 https://scdhec.gov/covid19/covid-19-vaccine Texas 38,000 70 https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/coronavirus/immunize/vac cine.aspx Virginia 26,000 28 https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine/



* excluding New York City

CVS Health is also working directly with Indiana (utilizing two CVS Pharmacy locations) and Ohio (19) to provide in-store vaccinations to eligible populations using state allocations. Other states may choose the same option, which is separate from the federal pharmacy partnership program but can run concurrently.

Vaccines in a retail setting will be offered on an appointment-only basis via CVS.com or through the CVS Pharmacy app, and those without online access can contact customer service: (800) 746-7287. For CVS Pharmacy locations that will begin to offer COVID-19 vaccinations on February 11, appointments will become available for booking as early as February 9 as stores receive shipment.

Long-term care vaccination effort remains on schedule

CVS Health has administered the first round of COVID-19 vaccine doses to nearly 8,000 skilled nursing facilities, and second doses are more than 60 percent complete. First doses at all long-term care facilities that selected CVS Health to provide COVID-19 vaccinations  more than 40,000 in total  will be complete by mid-February.1 As made clear by regularly updated data the company makes publicly available, most states chose activation dates for assisted living and other facilities well into January, which prevented clinics from being scheduled earlier.

Multimedia assets, including b-roll and still photography from long-term care facility and in-store COVID-19 vaccinations, are available here. More information on steps CVS Health has taken to address the pandemic is available at the company's frequently updated COVID-19 resource center.

About CVS Health

CVS Health is a different kind of health care company. We are a diversified health services company with nearly 300,000 employees united around a common purpose of helping people on their path to better health. In an increasingly connected and digital world, we are meeting people wherever they are and changing health care to meet their needs. Built on a foundation of unmatched community presence, our diversified model engages one in three Americans each year. From our innovative new services at HealthHUB locations, to transformative programs that help manage chronic conditions, we are making health care more accessible, more affordable and simply better. Learn more about how we're transforming health at www.cvshealth.com.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of CVS Health Corporation. By their nature, all forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and are subject to risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and/or quantify. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties described in our Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") filings, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section and under the heading "Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward Looking Statements" in our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2020. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on CVS Health's forward looking statements. CVS Health's forward-looking statements are and will be based upon management's then-current views and assumptions regarding future events and operating performance, and are applicable only as of the dates of such statements. CVS Health does not assume any duty to update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, uncertainties or otherwise.

Media contact

T.J. Crawford

212-457-0583

[email protected]







1 Excludes facilities that 1) requested a later date due to a COVID-19 outbreak or other reason, 2) were rescheduled due to lack of responsiveness, or 3) requested to be added to the program after the start date or did not meet original program criteria regarding distance from CVS Pharmacy locations, but CVS Health has opted to support.

SOURCE CVS Health

Related Links

http://www.cvshealth.com


Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 13:24:49|Editor: huaxia

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People walk out of a bank in Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 2, 2021. The Military True News Information Team has announced all banks in Myanmar are still open to provide customer services, state-run media reported Tuesday. (Photo by Haymhan/Xinhua)

YANGON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Military True News Information Team has announced all banks in Myanmar are still open to provide customer services, state-run media reported Tuesday.

The announcement said that the rumours were spread in social media about the closure of banks and suspension of services due to disconnection of internet and phone communications on Monday morning.

All local banks under the Myanmar Banks Association temporarily suspended financial services for some hours due to poor internet connections, according to the Myanmar Banks Association on Monday.

Currently, internet services have been reactivated and banking services are running regularly, the military's announcement said.

Myanmar's President Office on Monday declared a state of emergency for one year after the military detained government leaders and other senior officials.

The state power has been handed over to the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing under the Constitution.
MOSCOW -- Authorities in Russia have been at pains to portray participants in two waves of mass protests in support of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny as unruly hooligans with whom it was only possible to deal forcefully.



"We are talking about illegal events," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on February 1. "There can obviously be no negotiations with hooligans and provocateurs."



But witnesses to the January 31 rallies, at which more than 5,600 people were detained by security forces in cities across the country, tell a different story of police who were primed in advance to put the protests down harshly despite the fact that protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful and nonconfrontational.



"The police had been set the task of putting down the protest at any price," said Yevgeny Stupin, a member of the Moscow city legislature who was detained at the demonstration in the capital. "And that is the way they have been acting. I think that they were given the green light to use any cruelty. And this decision, I believe, was made at the level of the national leadership. The protests are being held across the country, so the decision about how to cope with them was made personally by Putin."

Stupin said that, when he went to the center of Moscow on January 31 to observe the protest, he found all of the streets blocked off by police. He decided to take the metro to Sukharev Square, where he'd heard demonstrators were gathering.



"As soon as we left the metro station, police approached me and one of my assistants and escorted us immediately to a police van," he told RFE/RL's Russian Service.



"Legal Nonsense"



"The van was already overcrowded. They pushed us in, and the van headed toward Severnoye Tushino," he said, referring to a district on Moscow's outskirts. "After about half an hour, they asked if Stupin was there [in the van]. Apparently someone had called them. I responded and the van just stopped in the middle of the street and they let me out. The others were driven away."



Stupin said that he made his way to the detention center anyway in order to help the other detainees. He said most of them were charged with creating an obstacle to pedestrians and other traffic, an accusation that he describes as "legal nonsense."



"They didn't obstruct anything," he said.

Prominent journalist Nikolai Svanidze, who is a member of Putin's advisory Human Rights Council, and his wife were also detained during the Moscow protest.

"I was detained on the square across from the Sklifosovsky Hospital," he said. "My wife and I had only just arrived and we were met by Aleksandr Verkhovsky, a colleague on the Human Rights Council. He was also with his wife. We were there as observers from the Human Rights Council."

"We were standing there chatting when suddenly two large men approached us," Svanidze said. "They were in riot gear, so-called space suits, with indecipherable insignias. They didn't introduce themselves and politely, but insistently took me by the arms and led me toward a police van. I tried to identify myself, but they didn't listen and took me to the van. I ended up in a police van in the very pleasant company of some young people."

After about 20 minutes, Svanidze said, his wife managed to explain to one of the officers who he was.

"Immediately as if rising up out of the ground, there appeared a man in plainclothes," he said.

"It turned out that this man in plainclothes was in charge, and he ran quickly over to have me released. So, everything ended OK for me, except that I never learned why I was detained at all. Not only did they fail to identify themselves, they also refused to explain why they were detaining me."



"Neither in the police van nor on the street did I see a single drunk person or hear any of the young people swearing," Svanidze added. "Everyone was acting politely. There were some very sharply worded anti-presidential slogans, but no swear words were used, nothing personally offensive. I personally did not see any cases of police brutality, although I read about many. I only saw an enormous number of people who had been detained or were being detained. Based on my own experience, I can only ask  were all these people really detained for cause?"



'Perfectly Innocent Civilians'



In Kazan, the capital of the Volga River region of Tatarstan, journalist Maksim Shevchenko, who is also a deputy in the Vladimir Oblast legislature, was detained as he was conducting a livestream on YouTube.



"The police behaved very aggressively, sometimes even brutally," Shevchenko said. "I saw some elderly people and the police quite suddenly pounced on them and began chasing them, and me as well. I had been just standing there talking to people, broadcasting a livestream. Suddenly two men in green uniforms with a badge that just said 'police' in a sort of military khaki  not at all like (civilian) police, which are gray or dark blue. They grabbed me firmly and began leading me away."



"But I'm fairly well known in Tatarstan and some man in plainclothes ran up and ordered them to release me," Shevchenko continued. "But the others were not so lucky. Later, with horror, I saw a video of how police in Kazan were throwing people face down on the snow."

"I don't know why the security forces were acting like this," he said. "Why would the police just beat perfectly innocent civilians? Most likely someone at their bases was prompting them. They were probably told that the protesters were some sort of villains, cursed enemy-liberals or Navalny-istas. But I didn't see a single Navalny-ista. Everyone told me they came out because they were sick of corruption, arbitrariness, and lawlessness. The real agenda of the protests was not about Navalny. It was about huge social inequalities and a whole host of local and regional problems."



He added that a recent film by Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation alleging that Putin controls a huge palace complex on the Black Sea coast, which has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube, helped the public to "finally recognize" their own discontent and "as they say, a gestalt emerged."

Stupin, the Moscow lawmaker, said the crackdown probably frightened some opposition-minded citizens, but many others were more "radically oriented."



"Those people, I think, were outraged and next time, they might behave differently," he said. "There might be fewer people, but they will act more aggressively."

Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting from Moscow by RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Lyubov Chizhova
Beaten ballots: political participation dynamics amidst police interventions is the title of the academic article by Toni Rodon and Marc Guinjoan, lecturers of Political Sciences at UPF and the UB, respectively, which seeks to look in greater depth at the effects of police interventions regarding political participation, taking the "repression-mobilization" nexus debate as a starting point.

The study, published recently in the Cambridge University Press journal Political Science Research and Methods, focuses on the analysis of the referendum on independence held in Catalonia on 1 October 2017, when despite the police crackdown, 2,286,217 people voted, representing 44% of the electorate.

The research stresses the study of an aspect that has been largely ignored in the academic literature: the spatial dynamics triggered by violence in political mobilization. That is, whether the police violence on participants has a positive or a negative effect at the places where it occurs and nearby areas.

Toni Rodon, a professor with the UPF Department of Political and Social Sciences and member of the Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology (RECSM-UPF), and Marc Guinjoan, a doctor of Political and Social Sciences from UPF and currently a postdoctoral researcher at the UB Institutions and Political Economy Research Group (IPERG), claim that, in the referendum of 1-O, "although the police raids had a negative impact on local participation, it induced positive spillover effects in nearby areas". According to them, "our findings indicate heterogeneity in spatial dynamics: police actions encouraged people to go to vote in nearby areas, but it also mobilized the residents of these neighbouring areas, especially those with less incentives to go to vote".

The study uses quantitative and qualitative methods with aggregate data relating to polling stations that were visited by the police (with or without violence), a geo-survey conducted by the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinio (CEO - centre conducting surveys on public opinion) a few days after the referendum, and interviews held with members of the police forces. These interviews have enabled the authors to ascertain the micromechanisms of the logic behind the police action, which facilitated their research.

Moving to neighbouring areas and the activation of new voters in protest

The study estimates that although the state police forces managed to reduce the number of votes cast in the municipalities where they took action (around 14-15 percentage points, on average), participation in surrounding areas increased. The greatest effect was felt in municipalities some ten kilometres from the affected spots, where turnout was 6.2% higher than average. About 25 percent of this increase in participation was due to the activation of new voters, while the remaining 75 per cent can be explained by people living in areas raided by the police who travelled to neighbouring areas, which was possible due to the 'universal census' whereby any voter could vote at any polling station.

Among the "new voters", the authors calculate that there was a large proportion of undecided or ambivalent voters, not clearly in favour of Catalan independence but with dual sense of national identity. "Our interpretation of this pattern is that some people who identify equally with Catalonia and Spain, for whom the likelihood of participating in the referendum or travelling to another town to vote was low, became angry and mobilized after seeing police violence in neighbouring municipalities", the researchers assert. According to Toni Rodon, "police violence did not make certain people change from being unionists/federalists to Catalan separatists overnight, but it did mobilize them as a means of protest or civil disobedience".

The police went from following general instructions to acting randomly

Another section of the study focuses on analysing the patterns followed by police action, i.e., why the police went to some areas and not to others: "Before finding out the effects of police actions on participation, we needed to know if their treatment (police violence) was random. Otherwise, it would have been very difficult to identify the effect of violence on participation", Toni Rodon states. And he adds: "As the interviews reveal, the police logically designed an initial plan that was not random (let us recall their actions at the polling stations where the pro-independence leaders voted, for example). However, the day's events ended up making many of their actions random".

The study shows that there is no common policy variable or one that indicates a particular pattern regarding police intervention, either with respect to municipality size or density, turnout for previous elections or support for separatism, profile of the citizens, etc. The agents interviewed acknowledged that the plans changed suddenly the morning of the referendum, once the difficulty had been realized of closing polling stations and confiscating ballot boxes due to the mobilization by the citizens and the activation of the 'universal census'. "The initial goal of preventing a large number of voters from voting suddenly became unviable", the researchers affirm.

Toni Rodon and Marc Guinjoan emphasize that the conclusions they have drawn with this study are very close in line with recent research that has been conducted in other contexts that tends to demonstrate that "police brutality often fails to change what 'partisans think, but this does not mean that they will not react against it when they find it excessive".

###

Reference article: Rodon, T., Guinjoan, M. (January 2021). "Beaten ballots: political participation dynamics amidst police interventions". Political Science Research and Methods
The Government will make an extra 20million available to Britain's local authorities to bolster their electric car charging infrastructure.

The cash injection is for kerb-side devices to be installed in towns and cities to 'allow residents without private parking to reliably charge their vehicles,' says the Department for Transport's announcement this morning.

However, a report also released on Tuesday morning warned MPs that charge points need to be rolled out five times quicker than the current pace to get ahead of the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030.

New cash injection for chargers: The Government has announced an extra 20million to fund the installation of on-street EV charging devices in the next financial year

Some 40 per cent of Britons do not have access to off-street parking, which is seen as one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the adoption of electric vehicles in the next decade.

Ministers have acknowledged the issue, launching an On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme at the end of 2016 as part of a broader plan to pump 1.3billion into the nation's charging infrastructure over the next four years.

Taxpayer funds are made available through the scheme to authorities who can apply for a portion of the cash based on demand from electric car owners and buyers in their areas.

The latest 20million investment for the financial year 2021/22 announced today is double the Government's funding in 2020/21, with the scheme appearing to gather pace.

The new cash injection could facilitate the installation of around 4,000 on-street EV chargers, which would double the current availability in the UK.

The DfT said authorities who have already received funding through the scheme can apply for more alongside those that have yet to take advantage of the pot.

A lack of charging infrastructure, especially for those without off-street parking, is one of the biggest hurdles stopping motorists switching to EVs

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Tuesday: 'From Cumbria to Cornwall, drivers across the country should benefit from the electric vehicle revolution we're seeing right now.

'With a world-leading charging network, we're making it easier for more people to switch to electric vehicles, creating healthier neighbourhoods and cleaning up our air as we build back greener.'

However, while government funds appear to be readily available, research published last month suggests take-up of the scheme has been slow.

Centrica said local councils are planning to install just 9,317 public charge points for electric cars between now and 2025, which in turn could cause a huge 'bottleneck in adoption' to plug-in vehicles in the coming years.

The new cash injection confirmed today could facilitate the installation of around 4,000 on-street EV chargers, which would double the current availability in the UK

TOP 10 COUNCILS INTENDING TO FIT THE MOST ON-STREET EV CHARGERS Council Chargers per 100,000 people to be installed by 2025 Current on-street chargers Westminster 500.2 497 Kent 240.3 201 Stirling 156 56 Plymouth 122.1 33 Haringey 111.7 N/A York 97.8 23 Gwynedd 80.3 N/A Richmond upon Thames 70.7 227 Hackney 65.8 116 Brent 64 149 Source: Centrica FOI request to councils

Westminster tops the list of councils planning to retrofit roads with on-street chargers, a report from Centrica revealed earlier this year. The local authority looks set to bolster its current availability of 497 charge points to 500.2 per 100,000 local residents by 2025

An average of 35 chargers per local authority are due to be provided in the next four years with 126 councils currently having no plans to fit any at all, despite the Government's scheme to support installations.

And, in contrast to Mr Shapp's 'from Cumbria to Cornwall' claim, Centrica's report showed a significant disparity in on-street charger installations between regions, with local authorities in the south of England planning to install 2.5 times more on-street chargers than councils in Northern England, the Midlands, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

Can you run an electric car cable across the pavement and could people claim if they trip? Read our guide on everything you need to know about charging an EV without a driveway If someone trips and falls on an electric car's charging cable strewn across the pavement, who is liable?

Commenting on the DfT's new 20million cash injection for charging devices, Edmund King, AA president, said it has previously identified misuse of the government's funds, with some councils tapping into the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme to add devices to their pay-and-display car parks.

'For the 40 per cent of households without designated off-street parking, finding a viable, cheap and simple to use solution, is key,' he said.

'However, our own study last year showed that some councils used this grant to only fund charge points in town centre car parks.

'While car park chargers are important, we feel this goes against the spirit of the grant which is aimed at overcoming tackling the problem of EV drivers without off-street parking.

'The charging network must also be reliable which is why we are working with chargepoint operators to help keep the power flowing.'

Installation of chargers is lagging, says new report

The roll-out of electric car charging devices needs to be accelerated by five times the current pace of installations before a ban on new petrol and diesel cars comes into force in 2030, experts warned this morning.

Think tank, Policy Exchange, estimates that the UK needs around 400,000 public chargers by 2030.

In order to reach that target, the infrastructure needs to expand from current levels of 7,000 a year to 35,000 annually over the next decade.

It also warned that without additional funds or intervention from ministers, rural areas and small towns are at risk of becoming 'charging blackspots' and will restrict the appetite for electric vehicles in these regions.

Think tank, Policy Exchange, has reviewed the existing charging infrastructure and current rate of expansion. It says installations need to take pace immediately to facilitate the wider switch to EVs when new petrol and diesel cars are banned from sale in 2030

Report author and Policy Exchange senior research fellow Ed Birkett said the government should focus on areas where it isnt delivering enough public chargepoints, including the north west of England, Yorkshire and Northern Ireland.

He added: Companies are rolling out chargepoints at a record rate, but theres a risk that some areas of the country wont get enough chargepoints and will be left behind.

Were concerned about patchy deployment of chargepoints, which runs against the governments plans for levelling up and a strong and connected Union.

The report made several additional recommendations to rapidly bolster the charging infrastructure, including contracting private firms to fit devices in areas where they are sparse and local councils to have dedicated teams to identify where and when chargers need to be installed.

It also called for a maximum usage charge and regulations for on-street chargers fitted using government funds to avoid providers exploiting local monopolies - and demanded improvements to usability of the devices so drivers could easily locate available devices and pay to use them using an app.

Commenting on the report, Rod Dennis, spokesman for the RAC, said: 'Without a big increase in the number of charge points right across the UK, certain parts of the country risk getting left behind as 2030 approaches.

'Having a sufficient number of charge points will also become especially important in those rural areas of the UK that see large annual influxes of visitors by car in the summer months.'

SIMON LAMBERT: Public charging is still not good enough The best route for most electric car owners is a wall box for home charging, but for many people thats not an option. Mainly this is talked about as being a city problem, but it is it true of many towns and villages too - and owners with a wall box will drive places they need to charge before returning. Over recent months Ive been driving a variety of electric cars for reviews, without a wall box at home to charge them. In my town of 30,000 people there is effectively one public charger Thats meant relying on public chargers. So, is the infrastructure good enough? Im a great advocate of electric cars, but to be blunt: no, it isnt. In my Hertfordshire town of 30,000 people there is effectively one public charger. Ive been using the invaluable Zap Map site to find chargers and it actually shows there are three, however, one of them appears to be permanently out-of-service and another is within the gates of a car dealership, so is theoretically available to people but not publicly accessible. That leaves a solitary charger in a public car park for the whole town. Its easy enough to use, but you cant rely on it. There is just one charging point  so when you need it, youd better hope no one else does  and it is a 7KW charger that you are only allowed to use for a maximum of three hours. At that rate of charging over three hours you can add about 40 per cent to the battery of the Peugeot e208 GT that I spent the past fortnight driving. This means that it is physically impossible to use the only available public charger in a town of 30,000 people to fully charge an electric car. The lack of charging was fine when electric cars were all about early adopters; those willing to plan and allow for a quirkier motoring life. But we now need many more of the general population to go electric quickly and are falling short. We need more chargers, which are easier to use - and cheaper.
A solid player in the citys Thai restaurant scene, Kin Thai & Sushi has opened a second location on Bulverde Road at Loop 1604 on the Northeast Side.

The original Kin Thai & Sushi opened in 2018 at the Dominion Ridge shopping center on the Northwest Side, earning praise from the Express-News for its curry bowls, pad thai noodles, tom kha gai soup and creative sushi rolls. The same extensive Thai and Japanese menu carries over to the new location, with bar service that includes beer, wine and sake.
The hospitality trade in Malaga has pleaded for help in the face of the closure of all non-essential trade in the city from Wednesday, after the 14-day incidence level for the coronavirus exceeded the 1,000 per 100,000 inhabitants threshold.

The president of Malaga's association of bar and restaurant owners, Javier Frutos, has said, "Such an important sector cannot be closed without enabling any direct help."

Frutos explained that the situation for the entire sector is "very critical" and since last January the turnover has fallen by 80 per cent.

He claimed that the authorities are determined to hold the hospitality sector responsible when most cases occur in social gatherings.

We are very responsible; we have provided our clients and employees with all the necessary safety measures and yet we continue to be the ones hit, he said.

The head of the association said that they are considering court action. "We are without economic or image protection," he says. "We are evaluating judicial measures against the authorities who are leading to the total ruin of the sector," he added.
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget 2021 on Monday (February 1) that outlined a slew of measures to pull the economy out of the pandemic-induced slump.

Industry leaders hailed the Union Budget 2021 for being pro-infrastructure and investment Budget.

Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, SBI said, The Union Budget has unveiled a set of well-crafted and robust policies that encompasses the vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat. The Budget has rightly envisaged a substantial jump in capital expenditure that has a strong multiplier impact on the economy."

The budget 2021 is extremely positive, driving the country towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat by laying huge stress on health care, infrastructure, banking and insurance, textile and agriculture that will aid the country not only towards economic revival but also spur growth. The Infrastructure spending is going up by 34% through NIP and a welcome Focus on boost in Road and Railway infrastructure", Rajiv Agarwal, CEO and MD, Essar Ports Ltd said.

Samantak Das, Chief Economist and Head of Research, JLL India has termed the Budget as a pro-infrastructure and investment Budget. "The proposed easing of restrictions on leverage by InvITs/REITs will attract more REITs listings and thus higher investments into real estate. The announced monetisation of surplus land of government and government bodies is a welcome move; however, the implementation will need to be monitored," he added.

Sanjay Palve, Senior Managing Director, Essar Capital Ltd, said that This is a spend big budget with clear focus on banking and infrastructure sector which is exactly what the economy needed and in sectors that required it.

"Especially the manner in which the FM has sought to clean up the balance sheet of banks by creating a bad bank for stressed assets. This will certainly give banks the elbowroom they need to start lending aided by the proposed Development Finance Institution with  20,000 cr capital. All these initiatives will spur corporate investments. With this comprehensive approach, the FM has reset the economy for a V shaped recovery, he said.

Abhijit Malkani, Co-CEO & Country Head, ESR India termed the Budget as a progressive one with a welcome change to drive India towards a $5 trillion economy by 2024.

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"National infrastructure pipeline extended to cover over 7,000 projects is a welcome move towards driving economic growth. The commissioning of Eastern and western dedicated freight corridors by 2022 and 3 new dedicated freight corridors will boost connectivity and will have an impact towards lowering the logistics cost as a percentage of GDP and provide momentum to the industrial and warehousing sector, he added.

M&A

February opens with more closed M&A deals

February is upon us and it begins in the same way we started January: a whole lot of completed transactions in the government market to run through.

Four to be exact were announced on Monday as closed, while a fifth on this list sees a new platform introduced to the sector.

Here is a summary of those deals.

Carlyle Group

What was acquired -- IST Research and Two Six Labs, which have combined to form Two Six Technologies.

Who the new company is -- Provides cybersecurity, data science and mobile services and deployed products to federal agencies.

Who is leading it -- CEO Joe Logue, a former Booz Allen Hamilton executive vice president; and Board Chairman Larry Prior, the former CSRA CEO.

Who its customers include -- The Defense Department including its Advanced Research Projects Agency, State Department, Cyber Command, Homeland Security Department and intelligence agencies.

Who helped make the deal happen -- Raymond James & Associates was financial adviser to IST Research and Two Six Labs. King & Spalding was legal adviser to Two Six Labs and Holland & Knight LLP was legal adviser to IST Research. Latham & Watkins was legal adviser to Carlyle.

Part of the backstory: IST was backed by Blue Delta Capital Partners, the venture firm that invests partial stakes in government contracting and cybersecurity firms.

Intellibridge

What was acquired -- Alethix. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia.

Who the target is -- Provides data transmission and processing services, plus enterprise system interoperability support to federal agencies.

Who its customers include -- Agriculture Department, Defense Department, Homeland Security Department and Census Bureau.

Who helped make the deal happen -- KippsDeSanto was financial adviser to Alethix.

The backstory -- This is IntelliBridges second deal with the backing of Enlightenment Capital, which unveiled that platform last year. Enlightenment recently completed a pair of successful exits with the sale of 1901 Group to Leidos and the initial public offering of Telos Corp.

General Atomics

What was acquired -- Tiger Innovations. Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.

Who the target is -- Develops spacecraft and other space systems including satellites for U.S. government agencies.

What the buyer sees -- Greater ability to incorporate Tiger Innovations customized hardware and software into space and satellite systems.

What the product line includes -- Solar array simulators, power control boxes, electronic spectrometers, satellite ground systems, satellite flight software, cubesat prototypes and specialty payloads.

Whats next -- Tiger Innovations will become a part of General Atomics electromagnetic systems group.

Salesforce

What was acquired -- Acumen Solutions, first announced in December and now completed.

Who the target is -- Provides professional services to government agencies and businesses on their digital transformations, particularly those that involve Salesforce implementations.

Who their customers include -- Veterans Affairs Department, Defense Department, Health and Human Services Department, and Securities and Exchange Commission.

What the buyer gets -- Added revenue of $150 million in Salesforces next fiscal year and greater skills on the integration front to couple with the product itself.

The backstory -- Salesforce snuck in this announcement along with the massive acquisition of Slack.

AE Industrial Partners

What they did -- Merged their portfolio companies NuWave Solutions and PCI to form BigBear.ai.

Who this new company is -- Focuses on data and the digital spectrum to help defense, intelligence and civilian agencies in their information superiority and decision support efforts.

Who is leading it -- Reggie Brothers is CEO after previously leading NuWave, while PCIs co-founder and former CEO Sean Battle is chief strategy officer.

The backstory -- AEI acquired Nuwave in June 2020 and PCI in October 2020, then added BigBear to the former in December of last year.
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a tentative deal Tuesday with U.S. vaccine-maker Novavax to produce its product in Canada if the COVID-19 vaccine gets approved for use here.

A health-care worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a UHN COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Toronto on Thursday, January 7, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a tentative deal Tuesday with U.S. vaccine-maker Novavax to produce its product in Canada if the COVID-19 vaccine gets approved for use here.

"This is a major step forward to get vaccines made in Canada, for Canadians," Trudeau said.

But the agreement won't ease pressure on the government to get vaccines into Canada because it won't start delivering until late next fall.

Novavax applied Friday for regulatory approval for its vaccine candidate in Canada but is still finishing its clinical trials and doesn't expect to have the final data available for a month at least. The NRC facility is going up at lightning speed, said Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, but it won't be finished until late summer.

And then it will take a month or two, said Champagne, for the facility to be certified.

"At the end of the year we will be a position to be producing vaccine," said Champagne.

The new facility in Montreal was announced last August, and Champagne's department has been in talks with most of the leading vaccine makers trying to lure them into making their vaccine there when it is finished.

None of those talks bore fruit until now.

Currently Canada relies on Europe for its COVID-19 vaccine supply, a situation that's becoming treacherous because the European Union has new export controls on COVID-19 vaccines to try to protect its own deliveries.

Trudeau said the oral promises he received from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Canada's deliveries won't be stopped by the new controls, "were enough" to reassure him.

This week's shipments of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are both starting to arrive in provincial receiving locations already, said Procurement Minister Anita Anand.

Canada's shipments have been delayed or reduced by production slowdowns, but Trudeau said the promised four million doses from Pfizer and two million from Moderna are still expected to arrive by the end of March, and 40 million from each by the fall.

If Canada's deliveries aren't interrupted, Canada's plan is to have most Canadians vaccinated by the end of September, before the new Canadian production of Novavax's product even starts.

Trudeau said Canada has to look beyond the current vaccine plan.

"We don't know what the future looks like for a year from now, two years from now, three years from now," he said. "What we're very clear on is Canada will be developing domestic manufacturing."

Both NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said the Novavax deal is welcome but too late.

"This is something that should have been secured a long time ago," said Singh. "It would have addressed a lot of the insecurity people are feeling about not getting the vaccine and seem delays in the rollout, because of production delays."

O"Toole said the fact the deal won't help Canada for months underscores the glacial pace the Trudeau government has set in expanding Canada's domestic biomanufacturing industry.

"We need vaccines to turn the corner on COVID-19," he said.

O'Toole said Canada should have learned the lessons last spring, when not having places to make face masks and respirators and surgical gowns left Canada to compete in a wild global marketplace to get them.

Now we're in the same position with vaccines, he said.

Canada used to have a strong domestic vaccine industry. Federal records show in 1973, Canada relied on imports for only about one-fifth of its domestic pharmaceutical requirements including both vaccines and therapeutic drugs.

But the industry began to dry up in the 1980s, with multiple firms closing their Canadian operations, including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers and Johnson and Johnson.

Today, Canada relies on imports for at least 85 per cent of the vaccines and other pharmaceuticals it uses.

Novavax would be the first COVID-19 vaccine to be made in Canada. Medicago, the only potential Canadian supplier of the seven COVID-19 vaccines the federal government has pre-purchased, is building a new facility in Quebec to eventually make vaccines but if its COVID-19 vaccine safely finishes clinical trials and is approved, the initial doses will be made in North Carolina.

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline are partnering on a vaccine though it is delayed until at least the fall because of disappointing early results. GSK, which is supplying the adjuvant for the vaccine  an additive to increase its effects  may fill vials with the adjuvant in Canada but the vaccine itself will be produced by Sanofi elsewhere.

Trudeau announced two other new facilities will be capable of producing COVID-19 vaccines, but neither will be ready to do so this year.

The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan will be able to produce 40 million doses annually but won't be finished until the end of 2021.

A new facility at Precision NanoSystems in Vancouver will be the first in Canada capable of producing mRNA vaccines, the technology involved in both vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

But that facility won't be ready until 2023, said Champagne.

Canada has a contract to buy 52 million doses from Novavax. Last week the company said a Phase 3 trial  typically the last before a product is approved for wide use  in the United Kingdom showed the vaccine to be 89 per cent effective against COVID-19, including the new variant known as B.1.17 that was first identified there. A smaller Phase 2 trial in South Africa showed the vaccine was also effective against a variant that first emerged there, known as B.1.351.

If it is approved by Health Canada, some doses will still have to be imported, because the new facility in Montreal is equipped to make only about two million doses a month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2021.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the federal government was spending $123 million to build a new vaccine production facility in Montreal.
Life-saving initiatives will provide pharmaceutical-grade medication as alternative to toxic illegal drug supply during COVID-19 outbreak and beyond

VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 1, 2021 /CNW/ - The overdose crisis continues to be one of the most serious public health crises in Canada's recent history. Tragically, in many communities, the COVID-19 outbreak is worsening this crisis. The Government of Canada continues to support communities across Canada as they respond to drug overdoses and harms during the outbreak.

Today, on behalf of the Minister of Health, the Honourable Hedy Fry, along with the Honourable Sheila Malcolmson, British Columbia's Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, announced more than $15 million in federal funding for four safer supply projects for people at risk of overdose in B.C. These projects will provide pharmaceutical-grade medication as an alternative to the toxic illegal supply in circulation.

The four safer supply projects, based in Vancouver and Victoria, will provide people with opioid use disorder with a safer, medical alternative from a licensed prescriber. The initiatives will also connect them with important health and social services, including treatment, which may be more difficult to access during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Substance use disorder is a health condition that can be managed and treated if people are provided with services and supports that best meet their needs. However, during the COVID-19 outbreak, people who use drugs are experiencing a number of increased risks, with several jurisdictions reporting higher rates of overdose, including fatal overdoses, and other harms related to an increasingly toxic illegal supply. The Government of Canada is working in collaboration with all levels of government, partners, stakeholders, people with lived and living experience of drug use, and organizations in communities across the country to respond to the outbreak and the overdose crisis.

Quotes

"The COVID-19 outbreak is worsening the situation for people struggling with substance use disorder in communities across the country. We must do more to address the devastating consequences that the toxic illegal drug supply is having on many parts of Canada. Working with these organizations and the Province of British Columbia, the support we are providing to these life-saving initiatives is another way we are helping people from Vancouver and Victoria, who are at risk of overdose, stay safe and find access to care and treatment for substance use disorder."

The Honourable Patty Hajdu

Minister of Health

"Substance use disorder is a proven health issue. Street supply opioids have been tainted by fentanyl and benzodiazepines, making them fatal. The number of preventable deaths have steadily increased and evidence shows that one of the surest ways to save lives is through replacement therapy with a safe supply. These four safer supply projects in Vancouver and Victoria using physician prescriptions is one way of preventing deaths and blocking illegal supply chains - one of many actions that need to be taken together."

The Honourable Dr. Hedy Fry

Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre





"The pandemic has magnified the effects of an already devastating overdose crisis across Canada. In B.C., we've been expanding services as well as advocating for additional federal resources and I'm pleased that Health Canada is working with us to help separate more people from the toxic drug supply. I'm grateful to the frontline organizations whose critical work is so vital to B.C.'s overdose response and the people they serve."

The Honourable Sheila Malcolmson

Minister of Mental Health and Addictions

"Over the past year, we have had more overdoses than we have seen since the beginning of the public health emergency, in part due to the pandemic. The drug supply is more contaminated than ever and now is the time to talk about a safer drug supply for those people who are consuming illegal drugs. Our SAFER program is a step towards that. Vancouver Coastal Health, PHS Community Services Society and the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use thank the federal government for funding our proposal to support people most at risk of overdose and to ultimately save lives."

Dr. Patricia Daly

Chief Medical Health Officer, Vancouver Coastal Health

"Providing pharmaceutical alternatives to the highly toxic and deadly drug supply in Victoria, a city that consistently ranks one of the highest in British Columbia for overdose deaths, is an important action. Our project will benefit from the skills and leadership of people with lived/living experience and the support of nurses, system navigators and physicians to save and improve the lives of people in our community we care about."

Katrina Jensen

Executive Director, AVI Health and Community Services

"We are grateful for the support from the Substance Use and Addictions Program, a timely investment as we continue to battle British Columbia's opioid overdose crisis. In this context, the expansion of safe drug supply in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver represents an important step. This program critically expands the holistic nature of the supports we offer, in collaboration with Providence Health Care and Vancouver Coastal Health, at the Hope to Health Complex. These currently include innovative primary health care, selected specialty consultative services, a dedicated oral opioid substitution program, and an ophthalmology clinic, with the ultimate goal of optimizing the control of HIV and viral hepatitis within an environment where mental health and substance use are highly prevalent."

Dr. Julio Montaner

Executive Director and Physician-in-Chief, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

Head, HIV/AIDS Program, St. Paul's Hospital, Providence Health Care

"Indigenous people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside living with substance use disorder face an ominous risk of fatal opiate poisoning and COVID-19 infection. The Kilala Lelum Health Centre (Urban Indigenous Health and Healing Cooperative) aims to support Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to obtain health and wellness through a partnership approach between primary care providers and Indigenous Elders. Substance Use and Addictions Program funding has given Kilala Lelum the means to provide increased medical care (including injectable opiate replacement therapy) and cultural programs to reduce the risks associated with the current dual health crises."

Dr. David Tu

Primary Care Co-Lead, and Board Member of the Kilala Lelum Health Centre (Urban Indigenous Health and Healing Cooperative)

Clinical Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine

Quick Facts

On July 15 , the Minister of Health, along with the B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and the Chief Medical Health Officer of Island Health, announced approximately $2 million in federal funding for the Vancouver Island Health Authority to operate a four-year safer supply pilot project.

, the Minister of Health, along with the B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and the Chief Medical Health Officer of Island Health, announced approximately in federal funding for the Vancouver Island Health Authority to operate a four-year safer supply pilot project. In the Fall Economic Statement 2020, the Government of Canada committed to help Canadians struggling with problematic substance use by providing an additional $66 million over two years. This funding would support community-based organizations responding to substance use issues, including to help them provide frontline services in a COVID-19 context.

committed to help Canadians struggling with problematic substance use by providing an additional over two years. This funding would support community-based organizations responding to substance use issues, including to help them provide frontline services in a COVID-19 context. Health Canada has published a toolkit with guidance for health care practitioners on providing medication as a treatment for substance use disorder or as a pharmaceutical-grade alternative to toxic street drugs during the outbreak.

has published a toolkit with guidance for health care practitioners on providing medication as a treatment for substance use disorder or as a pharmaceutical-grade alternative to toxic street drugs during the outbreak. Early findings from Canadian evidence show that using pharmaceutical-grade medications, such as hydromorphone, as an alternative to highly toxic street drugs for people at risk of overdose can help save lives and improve health outcomes. It can also help establish an entry to primary care and treatment for people with substance use disorder.

The four safer supply projects were funded through Health Canada's Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP). SUAP provides financial support to provinces, territories, non-governmental organizations and key stakeholders for programs and initiatives that aim to prevent, treat and reduce harm of substance use issues.

Related products

Associated links

SOURCE Health Canada

For further information: Cole Davidson: Office of the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health, 613-957-0200; Media Relations, Health Canada, 613-957-2983, [email protected]; Public Enquiries: 613-957-2991, 1-866-225-0709
WASHINGTON  The Biden administration said it would release $1.3 billion in aid that Puerto Rico can use to protect against future climate disasters, and is starting to remove some restrictions put in place by the Trump administration on spending that was to help the island after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Administration officials, describing the move as a first step toward addressing racial inequality through policies designed to address climate change, said they planned to ease the limits that the Trump administration placed on another $4.9 billion in aid on the morning of Jan. 20, a few hours before the former president left office.

Puerto Ricos reconstruction after Maria, which devastated the island more than three years ago, has been far slower than the recovery in other parts of the country, such as Texas and Florida, that were also struck by major disasters that year. That is partly because the Department of Housing and Urban Development had placed restrictions on Puerto Ricos aid funds that didnt apply to other recipients, according to current and former officials and policy experts.

That slow pace of disbursement has dampened Puerto Ricos recovery, said Rosanna Torres, Washington director for the Center for a New Economy, a Puerto Rican think tank.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 17:40:35|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday extended congratulations to Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on taking office as Mongolia's prime minister.

In his congratulatory message, Li said China and Mongolia are friendly neighbors connected by mountains and rivers and bilateral relations have maintained sound momentum for development.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Li said, the two peoples have helped and supported each other and achieved positive results in their joint fight against the virus, writing a new chapter in their traditional friendship.

Under the new circumstances, China-Mongolia relations are facing new development opportunities, he said, adding that China is willing to work with Mongolia to lift the China-Mongolia comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level. Enditem
President Joe Biden made good on his promise to take action on curbing U.S. emissions when he issued an executive order halting new oil and gas leases on federal lands and water.

The order, signed Wednesday, directs the Department of the Interior to pause issuing leases to oil and gas companies pending a review of the climate impacts of the departments leasing and permitting practices. About 22% of U.S. oil production is reliant on federal lands and waters.

Anticipating Bidens move, U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, expressed dismay at how a moratorium on leasing would impact jobs in Texas oil and gas sector.

"Killing more Texas jobs," Brady said in a Jan. 22 tweet. "After killing #KeystoneXL pipeline, #Biden suspends new oil/gas leasing on fed lands/water. If permanent, 120,000 TX jobs lost. 120,000 MORE jobless. Pssst... aren't you supposed to CREATE jobs?"

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Bidens move will have a disproportionate effect on states with large swaths of federal lands used for oil and gas activity. New Mexico, for instance, has 24 million acres of federal land, or about 32% of the states total land mass; Wyoming has 29 million federally owned acres, or about 47% of the state.

Texas, on the other hand, has very little federally-owned land  3 million acres, or 2% of the state. Nearly half of that is managed by the U.S. National Park Service. As of 2019, about 185,000 acres were under lease for oil and gas production in Texas.

Although most of Texas oil and gas industry is based onshore, a sliver of the industry is actively drilling in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. As of Jan. 22, there were 16 offshore rigs in the Gulf compared with 175 on Texas land, according to the Baker Hughes rig count. (In February last year, before the coronavirus pandemic dealt major blows to the global oil industry, about 20 rigs were deployed in the Gulf compared to around 400 onshore in Texas.)

With such a small fraction of the states industry likely impacted by Bidens directive, is Brady correct when he says that 120,000 Texas jobs are at stake?

New vs. existing leasing

According to Bradys aides, the number he cited is pulled from a study released last year by the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade and lobbyist group. The study estimated that a ban on new and existing leases would cost nearly 1 million jobs by 2022, with top production-states hit the hardest. While Texas would lose 120,000 jobs, New Mexico would lose 62,000 and Wyoming would lose 33,000, the study says.

But the Biden administrations moratorium on federal land leasing halts only new leases from being issued.

Bradys tweet misses this distinction. He said that the ban on new leasing would cost Texas 120,000 jobs, while the study he cited totaled losses tied to banning both new and existing leases.

The petroleum institute hasnt released estimates of how many jobs will be impacted by Bidens order. Another group, the Wyoming Energy Authority, released a study last month that determined a ban on new leasing alone would impact 58,700 jobs in the eight states that make up the majority of public land production, which does not include Texas.

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However, an American Petroleum Institute spokesperson said it's reasonable to expect the administration will expand the ban to include existing leases as well.

"We view this as a first step toward a federal leasing ban that would impact all oil and gas development on federal lands and water," said spokesperson Bethany Aronhalt.

This expectation is based on numerous remarks the president has made on the issue. For instance, during a 2020 primary debate, Biden said "no more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period  ends." And Aaronhalt highlighted how Biden's nominee for interior secretary, environmentalist and progressive Deb Haaland of New Mexico, has been unequivocal in her opposition to leasing federal lands and waters to the industry.

"I am wholeheartedly against fracking and drilling on public lands," she told The Guardian in 2019. "Public lands are a statement about who we are as Americans. The most pristine and beautiful places in our country should never belong to one person."

Gulf jobs

If Biden did ban all federal leasing  new and existing, onshore and offshore  does Texas stand to lose 120,000 jobs by 2022?

"Most of the Texas impact is due to closing development of the Gulf of Mexico, of the offshore" drilling, said Geoff Brand, Senior Economic Advisor at the American Petroleum Institute.

Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico supports about 300,000 jobs, according to a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimate. This figure represents both jobs created directly by industry  like offshore drilling, platform construction and platform staffing  and the jobs indirectly created by the industry, like service companies and other onshore support operations. In economic terms, the 300,000 figure represents jobs created by the industrys direct, indirect and induced economic impacts.

That workforce is sourced primarily from Texas and Louisiana, each of which contribute about 150,000 workers to the offshore industry, Brand said. The projected 120,000 Texas jobs lost due to a possible ban on new and existing federal leases would impact roughly 80% of Texas offshore workforce.

This figure is so high, Brand said, because most jobs are created when the industry spends capital up-front on drilling new wells and constructing new platforms. A complete ban on new leasing or permits would grind that development to a halt.

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"If you stop drilling and expanding, then youre just maintaining production platforms," Brand said. "It's kind of like building a pipeline  you get most the jobs up front when you spend the capitol and build things. Its when you spend the money that the jobs are created. ... If you're maintaining a platform, you're spending some operational money, but you're not really spending that much."

The American Petroleum Institutes study is based on the National Energy Modeling System, a model of domestic energy markets created by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The model bases employment numbers on the industrys rate of spending. The harder it becomes for producers to obtain leases and permits, the less theyre spending on development, which, as a result, sheds jobs.

The methodology behind the institutes analysis is unobjectionable, according to Karr Ingham, a petroleum economist with the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.

"If that activity is just stopped wholesale, what do you think's going to happen to those jobs?" he said.

"Even someone who's utterly opposed to energy production, offshore production, federal lands production, whatever the case may be, taking issue with the way they went about this (analysis) would be a difficult proposition. They started with a sound model and went through sound processes to end up with state-level impacts," Ingham said.

Although the industry will adjust to Bidens directive by reallocating resources to drilling on non-federal lands and waters, those adjustments will be gradual and may not impact short-term economic projections.

Similarly, it will take time for jobs in the fossil fuel industry to be replaced by jobs created in new energy sectors. The administration has stressed the importance of green job creation as it shrinks the fossil fuel sector. Bidens Build Back Better economic recovery plan pledges to "create millions of good-paying union jobs" by building a "clean energy economy."

But Ingham says it will take time before these new industries are replacing lost fossil fuel jobs on a one-to-one ratio.

"If a job gets lost some time in the next 12 months, what are you going to replace that job with? Where are those folks going to go" Ingham said. "It's not like for every job you eliminate in the oil and gas sector, a green energy job springs up on the other side."

Our ruling

Anticipating Bidens move to ban leasing on federal lands and waters, Brady said that a permanent ban on new leasing will cost Texas 120,000 jobs.

Brady pulled that number from a report released last year by the American Petroleum Institute. However, the institute said that the 120,000 figure is based on a ban of both new and existing federal leases, which is more far-reaching than Bidens actions so far. Bradys comment ignores that distinction.

Otherwise, the 120,000 job losses projected by the institutes analysis is accurate given that it was based on modeling from the federal National Energy Modeling System.

We rate this claim Half True.
These are really difficult times in a pandemic, exacerbated by the incompetence of the previous administration that didnt leave us with enough vaccine to really quickly get to the entire population in our city that needs it. But were going to keep working hard recognizing the concern that, really, all of our residents have regarding COVID-19, she said.
By the age of 9, Samii Emdur had already figured out the big things she wanted to do with her life. She learned most of them from her own family.

From the time I was born we basically had an open-door policy for anybody who was in need, said Emdur. I grew up knowing that if you were able to open up your home, you should.

Thats what her parents did. In her earliest years, her dad had a metal factory in Camden. Hed hire people who needed a second chance, and the family gave them a place to live in their South Jersey home if they didnt have one themselves.

Samii Emdur decided she would one day do that for kids in need  by becoming a foster parent.

And did she ever. At 26, Emdur took in her first foster child. She was already working at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia as a nurse (something else she had decided, at a young age, would be in her future). Now, eight years later, Emdur, 34, has fostered a dozen children, and even adopted one of them: daughter Jordan  my everything  a super-inquisitive, chatty little girl who will turn 3 on Feb. 9.

But thats not all. Two years ago, Emdur  so close to her own three brothers and troubled by the loss of connection she saw between siblings in foster care  started Camp To Belong River Valley to help reunite separated brothers and sisters.

In 2019, the camp brought together 20 siblings for a week at Camp Conrad Weiser, South Mountain YMCA, in Berks County. In addition, about 45 children took part in events throughout the year. And in 2020, despite the limits imposed by COVID-19, 50 brothers and sisters were able to reconnect virtually.

And she will soon get to do much more. Emdur, who now works in oncology at CHOP, has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Pilot Pen company to support her camps work on behalf of New Jersey and Pennsylvanias foster children.

Through the G2 Overachievers Grant, Pilot Pen recognizes and celebrates those who go above and beyond their nine-to-five role to make the world a better place, said Ariann Langsam, Pilot Pen vice president of marketing, in a statement. Along with being a full-time nurse and mom, Samiis deeply committed to making a positive impact on the foster-care community. Shes the perfect example of the Overachiever spirit.

Emdur plans to use the money to strengthen her young nonprofit and, in doing so, increase the number of children it can serve. Shes hoping, pandemic permitting, an in-person weekend camp will be possible this fall in New Jersey. If not, shes looking into Zoom and other virtual activities or one-day camp events like those held in 2019.

Last year, when COVID-19 required a pivot to a Plan B, Emdur created and distributed packages to foster families that offered activities to help support foster-sibling relationships. For example, each child received 12 cards so they could write and send notes to their siblings every month. And one night, they held a symbolic campout: They were told that, even though they were not physically together, they were looking up at the same stars.

Still, at the heart of Emdurs nonprofit is the sleepover camp where foster children reunite with siblings who, in some cases, they hadnt spent time with in years.

The quarantine we have been dealing with for almost a year is [difficult] on a much greater scale for foster children because theyre quarantined away from their siblings, she said. At camp, Were creating a place they can forget about being a child in foster care, forget about their therapies or court dates, and just have fun and build up sibling relationships.

I think its easy to take for granted the ability to share moments with our siblings or just play board games, said Emdur. But our campers do not take those moments for granted. They cherish them.

Miranda Conley, 18, said that the week she got to spend at Camp To Belong River Valley with her younger brothers, Eithan and Joey, was the most amazing experience I ever had.

That week in 2019 brought her closer to her siblings, she said, and helped close the gaps between other brothers and sisters, too.

Around the campfire, people would get up and talk about it, said Conley, who lives in Atlantic County. Youd cry. Youd hear the brokenness in these kids hearts.

The experience meant so much to her, Conley said, that she took Emdur aside that week and offered to be a counselor when the camp is held again.

Joseph Longo, 43, a social worker, is the adoptive father of Conleys brothers, now 14 and 16. The week at camp did much to restore the siblings relationship, he said.

They hadnt spent an overnight with their sister in many, many years, said Longo, of Salem County. Normally, it was two hours for a barbeque or something like that. But to actually bond for a full week, that was amazing. It just gave them a chance to reconnect and see what it was like to be a family again.

Just as the bond of family has been so important in Emdurs life, she has tried to help bring it to others. Growing up, her brothers had medical needs, and she was there for them, even driving home from college to administer one of her brothers injections for an autoimmune disorder. She herself has several autoimmune conditions that flared up in her early adulthood, making her so gravely ill that she had to relearn to walk. During that time, it was hard for her parents to understand why she remained so passionate about continuing to foster children, she said, but they supported her nonetheless.

So now, when a new foster child comes into her home, Emdur said, she tries to build a relationship with the childs whole family. Her goal is to support them however I can, and, if possible, to help bring them back together. But her special mission is the siblings, about 75% of whom get separated from each other when they enter foster care.

Just as Emdur welcomed guests in need at her familys home when she was a child, her daughter, Jordan, is doing the same with the children Emdur fosters. Sometimes, said Emdur, Jordan gets quite attached to their houseguests.

A lot of people cant understand why I put Jordan through that, Emdur said. But I think I she is growing up knowing that this is her permanent home, she is never leaving, and I am always her mommy. We are also a safe place for children when their mommy and daddy are not healthy. For the duration that we foster, this is what shell know.

Jordan is also learning what Emdur herself learned as a child: You always have something to give to others  and that, in time, your efforts may bring change.

I want the day to come that our program does not need to exist, Emdur said. That means that Ive done my job advocating that siblings shouldnt be separated.

For more information about Camp To Belong River Valley, visit its website www.ctbrivervalley.org.

Havn Life to supply psychedelic compounds for clinical trials launched by neuroscience and technology leader HealthTech Connex

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 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 a strategic partnership with neuroscience and technology leader, HealthTech Connex Inc.

Upon approval of the Company's Licensed Dealer application, the Company's subsidiary, Havn Labs, will be a preferred psychedelic supply partner for future clinical trials launched by HealthTech Connex's Centre for Neurology Studies. In addition, HealthTech Connex will promote Havn Life's library of naturally derived compounds to its other clinical trial partners and be a preferred partner for the execution of Havn Life clinical trials.

As an innovative company working to bridge the gap between research and real-world applications in advanced brain care, HealthTech Connex has been a pioneer in the field of brain research since its founding in 2013. The British Columbia-based organization uses technology, clinics, and clinical trials to translate neuroscience innovations into improved care for a variety of neurological conditions.

The partnership is a significant milestone for Havn Life, representing the company's first clinical trial execution agreement. Establishing this link with HealthTech Connex also enables Havn Life's own researchers to draw on the wealth of neuroscientific and technological expertise that HealthTech Connex brings. President and Chief Scientific Officer of HealthTech Connex, Dr. Ryan C. N. D'Arcy, is an established international leader in neurotechnology and neuroscience innovation. Dr. D'Arcy has led large health technology clusters, successfully brought brain technology products and services to market, and attracted more than $85 million in competitive research and innovation funding through prominent academic roles within Canada's top universities and the National Research Council of Canada.

In 2019, Health Canada approved the NeuroCatch Platform, a class II medical device developed by HealthTech Connex that conducts a rapid 6-minute scan to measure and report on cognitive brain function. Researchers use this technology to gain insight into a range of common neurological conditions, including concussion and brain injury; dementia and neurological disease; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mental health; and brain performance and human optimization. Given Havn Life's deep commitment to the study of PTSD and human optimization, along with its focus on the Veteran community, the partnership brings significant benefit for both organizations. Havn Life will assist HealthTech Connex in expanding the use of NeuroCatch technology to psilocybin clinical trials.

"We're thrilled to enter into this strategic partnership," noted Tim Moore, CEO of Havn Life. "HealthTech Connex is a leader in the science and technology of brain health. NeuroCatch technology will be able to provide objective and sensitive cognitive brain evaluations that are otherwise not available to researchers. By supplying their clinical trials with our naturally derived psychedelic compounds, we'll learn a tremendous amount about the applications of these compounds in several key areas of neuroscience and mental health."

"Havn Life is at the forefront of extracting quality-controlled, naturally-derived psychedelic compounds. We're fascinated by the therapeutic potential of these compounds across a wide range of cognitive and mental health applications, so it was essential for us to find a rigorous, science-driven supply partner like Havn Life," said Sonia Brodie, VP Services at HealthTech Connex.

With a steady supply of Havn Life's quality controlled compounds, The Centre for Neurology Studies at HealthTech Connex will be able rapidly and objectively evaluate changes in cognitive brain health in order to continue leading the way in the clinical science of brain health and human optimization.

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.

Contact:

Investor Relations: ir@havnlife.com 604 687 7130

Media: savi@emergence-creative.com 647 896-8078

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release, including statements which may contain words such as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", or similar expressions, and statements related to matters which are not historical facts, such as statements regarding the contemplated completion of the Acquisition, are forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's expectations and are based on certain factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct, nor that the Acquisition will be completed as contemplated, or at all. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly any future revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this news or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as expressly required by law.

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/627093/Havn-Life-Announces-Strategic-Clinical-Trial-Partnership-with-HealthTech-Connex-Inc
The University of Hyderabad (UoH) last month commenced the process to allow post-graduate students in a phased manner to return to 'in-person' classes.  Representational image

Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad has reported three positive Covid-19 cases in the last five days at the hostel. Those infected are MSc students at the School of Life Sciences, sources told Deccan Chronicle.

Students acquainted with the three positive patients said that their symptoms were visible for several days before they finally tested positive.

The correspondent reached out to the Dean, Students' Welfare, R.S. Sarraju, and Chief Warden, Dr Vineeth Nair, to ask what measures the university was taking on the matter. However, despite repeated attempts, they did not respond to questions.

The University of Hyderabad (UoH) last month commenced the process to allow post-graduate students in a phased manner to return to 'in-person' classes after the Vice-Chancellor approved the Task Force recommendation to permit about 148 terminal semester students of the Science Schools and SN School to return to the campus for completion of laboratory/practice courses.
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 2 : Ahead of the Assembly elections in Kerala, BJP chief Jagat Prakash Nadda will be visiting the state on a two-day visit from February 3 to take part in various organisational programmes.

This is the first visit of Nadda after he assumed office as the party's national president.

BJP media in-charge and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni in a statement said: "Nadda will address the party's Kerala unit core committee and also meet newly elected councillors and block, Zila Panchayat members of the party in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday." He said the BJP chief will visit the Padmanabhaswamy Temple to offer prayers and will hold meetings with NDA alliance partners individually on Wednesday evening.

The BJP chief will participate in a road show through Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. He will also hold discussions with people from all walks of life and chalk out the election strategy of the "Mission Kerala" project.

Kerala BJP chief K. Surendran told IANS: "The arrival of our national president is a major moment of pride for all of us and we will use this opportunity to plan out our election strategy for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state." Surendran added that the votes of the Christian community will be a major factor in the Assembly polls and the party is confident of support from the community.

Mizoram Governor and former BJP chief of Kerala, P.S. Sreedharan Pillai had meetings with the Jacobite and Orthodox Church heads along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Catholic Church Cardinals apprised Modi of their issues including reservation for the Dalit Christians.

Nadda will be meeting the party's core members and state's office bearers, besides the RSS state leaders. With the party eyeing 10 to 20 seats in the polls, there is a possibility of a major surge in its electoral prospects.

"On Thursday, Nadda will reach Cochin and address a meeting of state office bearers, in-charges, convenors, district presidents and district general secretaries. In-charges and convenors of the assembly constituencies will also participate in this meeting. The BJP chief will address a huge public rally in the evening in Thrissur at Vadakkunnathan Temple ground," Baluni added.
[February 02, 2021] Southeastern Grocers Celebrates Black History Month with Community Donation Program

To celebrate Black History Month, Southeastern Grocers, Inc. (SEG), parent company and home of BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, together with the SEG Gives Foundation, announces a community donation program benefiting the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant Program. The grant program supports nonprofits in the fight for racial equity and social justice, and addresses racial disparities in education, food insecurity and health care. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006059/en/ Beginning Feb. 3 through March 2, customers at all BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie stores can make donations to the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant Program. (Photo: Business Wire) Beginning Feb. 3 through March 2, customers at all BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie stores can make donations to the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant Program. Customers are encouraged to round up their grocery bills at the register to help support organizations that serve minority sectors of communities throughout SEG's seven-state footprint. The SEG Gives Foundation is contributing an additional $100,000 donation to the campaign total. Elizabeth Thompson (News - Alert) , Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer for Southeastern Grocers, said, "We are proud to honor Black History Month by recognizing the key contributions of our Black associates, customers, community partners and diverse supplier partners. During the month of February, and all year long, it is our hope that customers are reminded of our rich diversity and sense of unity with each visit to one of our stores. As we reflect on life during this poignant time in history, SEG is poised to continue fostering a culture of belonging, inclusion and diversity, where associates and customers are empowered to be themselves, and where we all embrae our differences as our strongest asset."



In honor of Black History Month, SEG is also sharing the inspirational story of the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant's namesake, 101-year-old Winn-Dixie associate Romay Davis. A video tribute highlighting the fascinating life story of Ms. Romay will be released later this month and includes her historic role in serving as part of the first all-Black Women Army Corps unit deployed overseas during World War II, and her thriving 30-year fashion career as a designer and model in New York. Ms. Romay achieved other impressive milestones throughout her accomplished life including earning a master's degree, Black Belt in Taekwondo and much more. SEG hopes the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant named in her honor inspires the next generation to combat challenges and seize every opportunity. SEG is a company that proudly reflects the diversity of communities within its footprint. From the products on its shelves to the partnering organizations, the grocer strives to support initiatives and programs to help bridge the gap of racial disparities impacting people of color in larger numbers. In 2020, SEG and the SEG Gives Foundation donated more than $3.7 million to community partners with missions that aid in supporting diverse populations throughout the Southeast.

In its inaugural year, the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant Program awarded funds to nine nonprofits committed to taking on racial inequity in education, food insecurity and health care. SEG will begin accepting 2021 grant applications from qualifying organizations later this year. For additional information about the grant, SEG's Inclusion and Diversity Statement and more, visit www.segrocers.com/careers/whychooseus. About Southeastern Grocers Southeastern Grocers, Inc. (SEG), parent company and home of BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, is one of the largest conventional supermarket companies in the U.S. SEG grocery stores, liquor stores and in-store pharmacies serve communities throughout the seven southeastern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie are well-known and well-respected regional brands with deep heritages, strong neighborhood ties, proud histories of giving back, talented and caring associates and strong commitments to providing the best possible quality and value to customers. For more information, visit www.bi-lo.com, www.frescoymas.com, www.harveyssupermarkets.com and www.winndixie.com. About SEG Gives Foundation SEG Gives Foundation is the charitable arm of Southeastern Grocers, Inc. (SEG), parent company of BI-LO, Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie stores. The SEG Gives Foundation aligns giving with causes that are priorities to the communities SEG serves, including the fight against hunger, support for military service members and their families, relief to those affected by extreme weather and natural disasters and quality educational opportunities for students. Southeastern Grocers strives to be ingrained in its communities and, through the SEG Gives Foundation, better the lives of its customers and neighbors. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006059/en/

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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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Former President Donald Trump is once again nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize Award by an Estonian politician for 'not starting any wars while at office."

According to The U.S. Sun, Jaak Madison, a member of the right-wing populist party EKRE and an Estonian politician, claimed that he nominated former president Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize for having contributed to ensuring stability in the Middle East.

Donald Trump is the first president of the United States in the last 30 years, whose office the country has not started any war. In addition, several peace agreements have been made under his leadership in the Middle East, which has helped ensure stability in the region and peace." Jaak Madison wrote in a Facebook post.

Madison also mentioned in his post that he submitted his nomination "exactly two hours" before the given deadline and that he was "definitely not the only one" who wanted to nominate Donald Trump.

Although, this was not Trump's first Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

In 2020, Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed to a historic deal normalizing relations.

Trump, the ruling president at that time, was then nominated in September last year by the far-right Norwegian lawmaker Christian Tybring-Gjedde for the "historic peace agreement" between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

"For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees," Tybring-Gjedde told Fox News.

A formal invitation letter was not required to be able to submit a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize but persons or organizations could only be nominated by a qualified individual. A total of 318 candidates were part of the nominated list for last year's prize, which consists of 211 individuals and 107 organizations.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee was responsible for picking the Nobel Peace Prize winners.

Magnus Jacobsson, a Swedish Parliament member, announced the second nomination of Donald Trump in a letter shared on social media in September 2020 citing Trump's efforts in the Middle East.

"I have nominated the US Gov. and the governments of Kosovo and Serbia for the Nobel Peace Prize for their joint work for peace and economic development, through the cooperation agreement signed in the White House. Trade and communications are important building blocks for peace," he wrote on Twitter.

Trump was also nominated for the 2021 prize by law professor David Flint for his foreign policy philosophy, dubbed the "Trump Doctrine." Flint noted how Trump used "common sense" to establish peace and stability in the Middle East.

"He went ahead and negotiated against all advice, but he did it with common sense. He negotiated directly with the Arab states concerned and Israel and brought them together," Flint said as per Sky News at the time.

"What he has done with the Trump Doctrine is that he has decided he would no longer have America in endless wars, wars which achieve nothing but the killing of thousands of young Americans."

"The states are lining up, Arab and Middle-Eastern, to join that network of peace which will dominate the Middle-East," he continued. "He is really producing peace in the world in a way in a which none of his predecessors did, and he fully deserves the Nobel Peace Prize."

Another nomination for the 2021 prize comes by way of Finland's Laura Huhtasaari, a European Parliament representative and a member of the far-right Finns Party. Laura Huhtasaari cited the former president's "endeavors to end the era of endless wars."

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, has also been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in brokering historic deals between Israel and the four Arab League nations.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses reporters during his first press briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., Jan. 27. Reuters-Yonhap



By Do Je-hae



The new Joe Biden administration may use a two-track approach to deal with the nuclear standoff with North Korea, offering either incentives or sanctions depending on which stance the North takes, diplomatic analysts said.



U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave his first TV interview since taking office and there was very little mention of North Korea. But experts are taking note of the fact that the new top U.S. diplomat mentioned both "additional sanctions" and "diplomatic incentives" when talking about the next steps the Biden administration will take with North Korea.



"The first thing we're going to do is to review the policy across the board to look at what tools we have, including additional sanctions, including especially additional coordination and cooperation with allies and partners, but also to look at diplomatic incentives. So once we do that, we'll be able to tell you how we plan to move forward," Blinken said during an interview with MSNBC. He also called North Korea a "problem that has gotten worse across administrations."



Some experts said that Blinken's remarks suggest that the new administration could review a two-track policy of sanctions and engagement in order to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table regarding denuclearization.



"Blinken mentions both imposing costs and offering benefits, because his goal is to alter North Korea's incentive structure in favor of progress toward denuclearization," Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told The Korea Times.



Other analysts say the carrot-and-stick approach is not much different from policies U.S. administrations have taken in the past.



"Blinken is playing the familiar game of carrot-and-stick while suggesting that nothing will happen without a lengthy policy review," Donald Kirk, a columnist on Korean Peninsula affairs, told The Korea Times. "Secretary Blinken is pursuing much the same line that has characterized U.S. policy for years. The U.S. position under every president, even Donald Trump despite the relationship that he formed with Kim Jong-un, has linked incentives to sanctions. The message is clear: The U.S. will advocate certain incentives, notably economic aid, while giving up sanctions if the North takes clear steps to give up its nuclear program."



Blinken underscored that Biden has ordered a policy review to ensure the "most effective tools to advance the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," and to deal with the "growing problem posed by North Korea's arsenal." North Korea recently unveiled a submarine-launched ballistic missile earlier last month ahead of Biden's inauguration.



"Biden's policy review will consider what worked and what didn't during the Trump administration and the Obama years. Strategic patience and showy summits are likely to be replaced by more coordination with allies on deterrence, sanctions enforcement, and humanitarian and diplomatic engagement," Easley added.



Some experts also noted that the policy review this time would be different from previous ones, because the Biden administration will need to carefully analyze the communication that existed between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea during the Trump administration. "What's different with previous transitions is the personal contact and communication at the highest leadership level. Biden must carefully weigh this record of relations of 2018-20," Mark P. Barry, an independent analyst on U.S.-North Korea relations, said in a recent tweet.


Were still buzzing from the weekend... that was one hell of a McGazza Fest.



A massive thank you to everyone that participated and spectated. It was a mega turn out to commemorate Kelly McGarry and we think hed be stoked.  Kelly McGarry Foundation

Jess Blewitt is feeling the stoke as she leads the push-up line to drop in.

Billy Meaclem shows off his impressive wingspan as he soars through the line.

Conor MacFarlane spent a lot of time upside down on the track he spent 250 hours to help develop in 2017.

Dave McMillan leads in a huge train of riders.

George Brannigan and Vinny Armstrong Show off their t-bogs

The riders were cheered on by a throng of eager spectators.

Billy Meaclem making the world's biggest public jumps look like a breeze.

Jess Blewitt throwing it sideways for the crowd.

Matt Begg was one of the only riders tackling the jumps on a hardtail. This is pretty impressive considering some of the hits are 50 foot plus.

It wasn't showing any signs of holding him back either.

There's no shortage of style in Queenstown

Jackson Davies going long on some already huge jumps

Cole Lucas showing that enduro riders can hang with the freeriders on the bike park jumps.

Jonty Vink throwing it past 90 with a huge whip.

Conor MacFarlane Really is the master of these jumps

Ellie Chew taking her trail bike to new heights.

Calum Booth was rocking the jorts all afternoon.

George Brannigan has set himself out as an early contender for 2021's Save of the Year thanks to this unintentional leg dangler

The trains continued late into the evening to celebrate the life of a legend. Ride in peace Kelly.

With New Zealand now largely COVID free, there was nothing that was going to stop its close-knit riding community from coming together to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the passing of freeride legend Kelly McGarry . McGarry was a fan favourite at events as varied as Crankworx and Rampage and was instantly recognisable thanks to his golden mane, giant smile and ineffable personality. Constantly smiling, quick with a joke or a laugh, he was the ultimate ambassador for New Zealand and mountain biking in general.Each year, Queenstown's Skyline Bike Park hosts McGazza Fest, a 3-day event to celebrate the life of McGarry. Events include a chainless race on the Mcnearly Gnarley track, a kids airbag/mulch session and the highlight every year, a final jam on the Dream Track. This sees the Queenstown riding community gather on the huge jumps that were first built in 2004 for New World Disorder 5, and most recently extended in 2017, for a laidback session that ensures McGarry's legend and memory will live on. Ride in peace.
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- American Homebuilders of West Africa (AHWA), the premier production homebuilder serving West Africans in the diaspora and those resident in the region, announced that Keith Williams had joined as Senior Advisor on Anglophone Market Expansion.



Keith has been working in commercial banking for nearly a decade and developed an interest in Africa a few years ago. Before joining AHWA, he made a personal investment in residential property in Ghana. Now he is eager to use the skills he developed evaluating real estate opportunities in Ghana to help AHWA expand in Anglophone markets throughout West Africa. Keith's advisory role focuses on two priority areas: sourcing and evaluating expansion opportunities in Anglophone markets, and leading AHWA's efforts to better connect with the historical diaspora with an interest in Africa.



Keith said, "I first learned about AHWA when I was trying to acquire real estate in Ghana and was particularly interested in financing options. I was immediately struck by how AHWA solves so many problems for people wanting to own real estate in West Africa - so much so that I decided I wanted to be involved in their work. For members of the historical diaspora like me who feel the pull of Africa, having a trusted, US-based company to work with is a natural fit. I am excited about advising AHWA on new market development and helping other members of the historical diaspora realize their dreams of being truly connected to the continent."



Jonathan Halloran, Co-Founder of AHWA added, "When I met Keith and heard his story, I immediately felt a connection. Keith demonstrates the skills, network, experience and leadership that we knew would boost our ability to open new markets more quickly. Keith marries a banker's analytical mindset with a deep passion for West Africa. He understands the value of what AHWA is doing because he knows the experience of buying a home in the region. It is hard to imagine a better person to advise us on creating new investment opportunities and broadening our target market beyond the recent diaspora to include all who dream of establishing tangible connections to life on the African continent."



Keith resides in Philadelphia with his wife and three beautiful children. He travels frequently to West Africa's four key anglophone markets for AHWA: Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia.



About Keith

Keith Williams is a senior credit analyst with nearly a decade of progressive commercial banking experience in risk analysis for banks and other lending institutions. He is skilled in financial analysis, research, credit evaluation of mid-size firms to publicly traded companies. He holds a bachelor's degree from Delaware State University and is currently pursuing his MBA in International Business and Finance from Saint Joseph's University. In addition, Keith was formally trained in commercial credit analysis at a fortune 500 financial institution. In his career, he is responsible for facilitating over $200MM in commercial credit and successfully structured a range of credit facilities. Keith is passionate about the advancement of African economies, and is focused on solving the housing deficit and creating jobs that have competitive pay.

Contact:

American Homebuilders of West Africa

[email protected]



Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12856449



Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE American Homebuilders of West Africa
TMC Birbhum president Anubrata Mondal to be under strict EC surveillance from 5 pm till Fri 7 am: Official

Ahead of West Bengal assembly polls, another TMC MLA exits party

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

Kolkata, Feb 02: In yet another backlash for Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party has lost another MLA. This time, it is two-time legislator from Diamond Harbour, Dipak Haldar, who has walked out.

His decision, which he said was due to "not being allowed to work", immediately fueled speculation of a possible switchover to the BJP, which in recent months has welcomed a swarm of leaders from rival parties in West Bengal.

Scindia loyalists not feeling insecure in BJP: Rao

According to reports, Dipak Haldar is expected to join the BJP this afternoon at a rally in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district.

However, the TMC has said that he has quit because he was not going to be given a party ticket for the upcoming election due to his non-performance as an MLA.

Earlier, Banerjee had said that those who know that they are not going to be given tickets are leaving and the TMC is not worried about them.

Aero India 2021 takes off on Feb 3 amidst Covid, buzz around 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'

A number of leaders have left the TMC in the past few months for various reasons, with most of them joining the BJP soon after. Till now, at least 18 sitting and former MLAs, including some former cabinet ministers, have shifted loyalties to the Hindutva party.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

Five former Trinamool leaders were flown in to New Delhi last Saturday to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and join his party.

This is besides leaders from other parties such as the CPM and the Congress, who have, in recent times, joined the BJP which is trying to replace Chief Minister Banerjee's regime. Elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly are expected to be held in April-May this year.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 12:36 [IST]
The parliament may need to pass a number of bills as conditions for more loans, the chief banker believes.

Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Kyrylo Shevchenko has said Ukraine expects to receive US$2.2 billion across three tranches from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2021.

"We expect three tranches, SDR 0.5 billion each, for a total of about US$2.2 billion this year, and the rest of the money in 2022," he told Reuters on January 1.

According to Shevchenko, the IMF mission's work is underway in Ukraine.

"Based on the results of this week it will be clearer what agreements we are reaching," he said when asked whether Kyiv could anticipate receiving money by the end of the first quarter.

Shevchenko stressed that the central bank was fulfilling its IMF commitments, playing down concerns over the central bank's independence that were spotlighted last year when his predecessor Yakiv Smolii resigned citing political interference.

Read alsoIMF mission's work extended for another 7-10 days  finance ministerHowever, the parliament may need to pass some bills as conditions for more loans, he said, without specifying which ones.

The chief banker added that the government plans to issue eurobonds worth about US$2.4 billion in 2021. The central bank also expects foreign portfolio investors will bring in about US$1 billion by buying government bonds in the domestic market this year.

Background

On January 14, 2021, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal held a constructive meeting with the IMF representatives on natural gas prices in Ukraine.

On January 15, 2021, the International Monetary Fund expressed concern over a fixed gas tariff Ukraine's government introduced recently because this is in fact government regulation.

Reporting by UNIAN
GE is looking to construct wind farms in Lang Son

Notably, General Electric (GE) group from the US expressed its interest in surveying two wind farms in this province. One is the 165MW Chi Lang wind power project located in Chi Lang and Loc Binh districts. Covering an area of 1,431 hectares, the project is planned to have a total investment capital of VND6.45 trillion ($280.43 million) and is expected to generate power in the period of 2024-2025.

We realise that Vietnam is a country with abundant wind potential and Lang Son is one of the provinces with good potential for building wind farms in Vietnam. Research, survey, and development of wind power projects in Lang Son province, stated the document.

The second one is the 253MW Ai Quoc project. Covering an area of 3,817ha in Loc Binh and Dinh Lap districts, the project would have a total investment capital of VND12.9 trillion ($560.86 million), expected to generate power in the period of 2024-2025.

Previously, the province approved Singapore-based BayWa r.e Wind Pte., Ltd. to study and survey three wind farms in Chi Lang, Loc Binh, Cao Long, and Van Quan since the third quarter of 2020.

In December, the company submitted a document to propose the province to approve its member company to handle the study and survey on these three projects once its member company is established in Vietnam.

According to BayWa r.e Wind Pte., Ltd., the company completed the procedure to establish BayWa r.e Wind Projects Vietnam Co., Ltd. in August 2020, which has chartered capital of VND232.9 million ($10,126), however, this member company has yet to be established due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

BayWa r.e Wind commits that when the member company is established, it will take over the work relating to these three projects.
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Another year, another proposal to restructure wagering and lotteries business Tabcorp - the company that could be best described as a corporate shape-shifter.

Confirmation that a number of proposals have been lobbed before the Tabcorp board to sell its wagering and media business shouldnt really surprise anyone that follows the company.

But it is increasingly clear that the status quo is not an option. If the wagering assets are not sold, shareholders will renew a push for a demerger.

Tabcorp under pressure to restructure Credit:Getty

Tabcorp merged with the successful Queensland-based Tatts Group in 2017 having demerged its casino operation six years earlier.
New Delhi, Feb 2 : China and Turkey are going all out to consolidate Pakistan's defence arsenal even as the country's external debt continues to accumulate and the Imran Khan government finds itself on a sticky wicket yet again ahead of this month's plenary meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.

While 'iron brother' China launched a second advanced warship for Pakistan in Shanghai last week, Turkey - its only other all-weather ally - also held a welding ceremony of third ship of MILGEM class corvettes for Pakistan Navy at the Istanbul Naval Shipyard (INSY).

The launch of the second Type 054 Class Frigate was held at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard on Friday with the Pakistani Navy highlighting how warship's induction will enhance country's maritime defence and deterrence capabilities.

The first of the four warships of Type-054 Class Frigate constructed by China for Pakistan was launched in August, last year.

"Technologically advance platform fitted with latest Surface, Subsurface, Anti-air weapons, Combat Management System & Sensors will strengthen PN combat capabilities & maintain peace & stability in IOR," Pakistan Navy tweeted Saturday.

In Istanbul, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan's Ambassador to Turkey Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi jointly kicked off the MILGEM class corvettes project by performing the block welding.

The contract for four MILGEM class corvettes for Pakistan Navy with concurrent Transfer of Technology (ToT) was signed with ASFAT Inc, a Turkish state owned Defence contractor in 2018. The ToT entails construction of two corvettes at Istanbul Naval Shipyard and another two at Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works (KS&EW).

Erdogan highlighted deep-rooted relationship between the "two strategically aligned nations" and underscored the defence collaboration for construction of MILGEM class warships as major milestone in Pak-Turkey defence ties.

The MILGEM class corvettes will be surface platforms equipped with modern surface, subsurface and anti-air weapons and sensors integrated through a network centric Combat Management System.

These ships, said Pakistan Navy, will augment its "kinetic punch" and will significantly contribute in maintaining peace, stability and "balance of power" in Indian Ocean Region.

Pakistan Navy's top officers are now regular visitors to Ankara and Beijing, just like the country's ships now frequently call at their ports.

Last month, after taking over the command of the Pakistan Navy in October, Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi visited the Turkish Fleet Headquarters at Golcuk Naval Base and also the Istanbul Naval Shipyards where he was briefed on the current status of the ongoing construction of the first corvette of the 'Jinnah' Class Corvette Project.

During his visit, Niazi, who was conferred with 'Legion of Merit of the Turkish Armed Forces' by Turkish Naval Forces Commander Admiral Adnan Ozbal, also called on Turkey's President of Defence Industries Ismail Demir.

After being commissioned in November at the Black Sea Port of Constanta in Romania, Pakistan Navy's new Corvette - a Damen OPV 1900 named PNS Tabuk - visited Turkey's Port Aksaz on her return passage to Pakistan. On departing the port, Tabuk participated in coordinated patrol with Turkish Navy ships.

The Commanding Officer of the ship, in a meeting with Aksaz Naval Base Commander Rear Admiral I Kurtulus Sevinc discussed "matters of mutual interest", including Kashmir.

Discussing Kashmir to further foster the "brotherly relations" between both the countries comes naturally to Pakistan and Turkey.

Pakistan Navy Ship Zulfiqar, with embarked helicopter, had visited Port Aksaz in October 2020 to participate in Turkey-led Mavi Balina 2020 multinational Anti Submarine Warfare exercise. During the stay, Commanding Officer of the ship had called on senior naval officials and dignitaries, including Sevinc and Flag Officer Commanding Aksaz Naval Base to discuss Kashmir.

In March, another Pakistan Navy Ship Yarmook - the first ship commissioned at Constanta Port - had visited Golcuk during its voyage back to "develop interoperability" with Turkish Navy. The Commanding Officer of PNS Yarmook had also called on important authorities of Turkish Navy to discuss Kashmir.

At the same time, China continues to strengthen Pakistan Navy, enhancing its ability with new assets and joint Sino-Pakistani naval exercises.

"Pakistan Navy is enlarging its marines, which now operates from Gwadar into a division-sized force. China funds the marines defending Chinese interests at Gwadar and PN's Special Service Group Navy (SSGN) originally trained by US Seals is planned to grow into a brigade-sized force by 2023. China is enabling Pakistan to set up a network-enabled warfare capability with satellite feeds to monitor the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) like the Indian Navy employs Centrix provided by the US Navy," Commodore Ranjit B Rai, a former Naval Intelligence and Operations Director, wrote in Indian Defence Review, last year.

Meanwhile, India and the new Joe Biden administration in Washington will be closely watching the proceedings at this month's Aman-2021 exercise scheduled to be held in the water area of the Pakistani port of Karachi.

Besides China and Turkey, the Russian Navy has confirmed the participation of its Black Sea Fleet (BSF), including a frigate, a patrol ship, a rescue tug, a Marine Corps unit, a demining squad and a sea-based helicopter, in the exercise.

It is expected to be held at around the same time when FATF meets virtually from February 22 to 25 to consider blacklisting Pakistan as it continues to abate terrorism.

(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
Dr Alexandre LeBeaut to be proposed to Annual General Meeting for appointment to Board

Dr Gianni Zampieri and Gilbert Achermann will not stand for re-election

Regulatory News:

Vifor Pharma today announced that the Board of Directors will propose Dr Alexandre LeBeaut for election to the Board at the next Annual General Meeting on 6 May 2021.

Jacques Theurillat, Chairman of Vifor Pharma, commented: "We are very pleased to nominate Alexandre LeBeaut for election to the Vifor Pharma Group Board of Directors. Dr LeBeaut has broad experience in R&D, clinical development and research/medical affairs. He will optimally complement the Board to assess Vifor Pharma's pipeline development and clinical programs aiming to become the global leader in iron deficiency, nephrology and cardio-renal therapies."

Alexandre LeBeaut was formerly Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice-President R&D at Ipsen Bioscience Inc. with more than 25 years of extensive global R&D experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including Schering-Plough, Novartis, Sanofi, Axcan Pharmaceuticals and Bluebird Bio. Alexandre is a French and US citizen and a pediatrician who holds a M.D. from Paris University. He is a member of the Board of Calypso Biotech.

After 25 years with Vifor Pharma and four years of service on the Board of Directors, Dr Gianni Zampieri has decided that he will not stand for re-election to the Board at the Annual General Meeting in 2021. "With his expertise and valuable insights, Gianni Zampieri has been instrumental in the strategic development of the company in various roles. Because of his profound strategic foresight he drove the development and the launch of Ferinject, which is now a blockbuster product for the company." As CEO for Vifor Pharma he successfully managed the separation of the group and the IPO of Galenica. Gilbert Achermann has also decided to step down from the Board of Vifor Pharma and therefore does not stand for re-election. "On behalf of the Board of Directors, I extend our sincere gratitude to both Directors for their excellent and successful work for Vifor Pharma, and we wish them all the best for their private and professional future" said Jacques Theurillat.

Vifor Pharma Group is a global pharmaceuticals company. It aims to become the global leader in iron deficiency, nephrology and cardio-renal therapies. The company is a partner of choice for pharmaceuticals and innovative patient-focused solutions. Vifor Pharma Group strives to help patients around the world with severe and chronic diseases lead better, healthier lives. The company develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products for precision patient care. Vifor Pharma Group holds a leading position in all its core business activities and consists of the following companies: Vifor Pharma and Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma (a joint company with Fresenius Medical Care). Vifor Pharma Group is headquartered in Switzerland, and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX Swiss Exchange, VIFN, ISIN: CH0364749348).

For more information, please visit viforpharma.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005792/en/

Contacts:

Contact and further information:

Media Relations

Nathalie Ponnier

Global Head Corporate Communications

+41 79 957 96 73

media@viforpharma.com



Investor Relations

Julien Vignot

Head of Investor Relations

+41 58 851 66 90

investors@viforpharma.com
Irans top diplomat all but invited on Feb. 1 the European Union to choreograph a return of both Iran and the United States to the 2015 nuclear agreement.

Clearly, there can be a mechanism to synchronize it or coordinate what can be done, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told CNN. Zarif was responding to a question by interviewer Christiane Amanpour about an apparent early impasse in which both US and Iranian officials have insisted in recent days that the other side must return to compliance with the deal first.

The JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) has a mechanism built into the deal. That is the joint commission, he said, adding that the commissions coordinator, Josep Borrell, can choreograph the actions that are needed to be taken by the United States and Iran.

A spokesperson for Borrell, who is also the EUs top official on foreign affairs and security policy, did not immediately return Al-Monitors request for comment.

Zarifs statement offered a small glimmer of hope as officials in Washington and Tehran continue to insist the other side must budge first.

President Joe Bidens recent inauguration has opened the door to Washingtons prospective return to the multinational pact, three years after the Trump administration scuttled the US participation in favor of a campaign of economic sanctions aimed at crippling Irans ability to develop ballistic missiles and support proxy militias in the region.

In return, Iran began publicly violating its own obligations under the deal, including enriching nuclear fuel well beyond JCPOA-permitted limits in an ostensible effort to pressure Washington to return to the deal.

The United States also accused Iran of backing violent attacks in the Gulf against international shipping and US partner states such as Saudi Arabia in 2019. Tehran denied the charges, even as US and Saudi officials publicly presented evidence that Iranian munitions were used.

Zarif on Feb. 1 doubled down on his governments position that its ballistic missiles were not up for negotiation amid expected talks about the nuclear issue.

According to previous resolutions, missiles were a problem if Iran had the capability of producing nuclear warheads. Now clearly the nuclear accord will prevent us from producing nuclear warheads, so the issue of missiles will be immaterial, he said.

Bidens national security adviser Jake Sullivan has said Tehrans conventional ballistic missile program and regional influence campaign must be included in follow-on negotiations, though it is not clear how the White House plans to convince Iran to engage in such discussions.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has cautioned that a return to bilateral compliance with the JCPOA may take time, but Zarif suggested his government had no interest in waiting.

The 8,000 pounds of enriched uranium can go back to the previous amount in less than a day.  Some may take a few days or weeks, but it wont take any longer than it would take the United States to implement executive orders that are necessary to put back Irans oil, banking, transportation and other areas that [former] President Trump violated back into operation, he said.

The United States needs to come back into compliance, and Iran will be ready immediately to respond, Zarif said, adding, The issue is not timing. The issue is whether the new administration wants to follow the failed policies of the Trump administration or not.

Many observers see a narrow opportunity for a mutual return to the deal, as the term of Irans President Hassan Rouhani expires in June. Zarif on Monday reiterated that his government would reduce the access of UN nuclear inspectors in his country if the United States does not relieve sanctions by Feb. 21.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is seeking to carefully recalibrate its approach to its regional partners, many of whom have hostile rivalries with Tehran. The Israeli militarys chief of staff last week came out against the US return to the agreement, raising the ominous possibility of an Israeli strike against Tehrans nuclear program if Washington returns to the original deal.

Saudi officials who previously supported Trumps decision to quit the nuclear deal have said any return must include Riyadh as a party to the pact. Frances President Emmanuel Macron voiced support for the proposal late last week, but it has already been rebuffed by Tehran.

The Biden administration has said it will seek to build on the Trump administrations initiative to convince Arab leaders to normalize ties with Israel, part of a longer-term US effort to shore up regional defense cooperation to counter the influence of Tehran and potentially China in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the State Department has frozen a highly controversial sale of 50 advanced F-35 fighter jets and 18 armed drones to the United Arab Emirates, as well as precision munitions to Saudi Arabia for further review. As a candidate, Biden promised to end US support for the two Gulf countries involvement in Yemens civil war.

Is the United States prepared to reduce hundreds of billions of dollars it is selling to our region? Is the United States prepared to stop the massacre of children in Yemen? said Zarif, whose military supports the regime of Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

The United States was not willing to discuss these issues when we negotiated the nuclear deal [in 2015]. That is why we agreed to limit the nuclear deal. We paid the price, he said.
The Visva Bharati, Santiniketan has officially released a notification inviting applications for the posts of Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor on its website visvabharati.ac.in. There are a total of 106 vacant posts to be filled as part Visva Bharati recruitment 2021 drive. Willing and interested candidates can apply for the open positions through the prescribed application format before 27 February 2021.

Visva Bharati Recruitment 2021: Vacancy Details

Name of Post Vacancies Professor 33 Assistant Professor 53 Associate Professor 20 Total 106

Visva Bharati Recruitment 2021: Eligibility Criteria

Educational Qualification:

Professor: A candidate must be a Ph.D. Degree holder in the allied/concerned/relevant discipline, and should have published high-quality work, with a minimum of ten research publications in the University Grants Commission (UGC) or peer-reviewed listed journals.

Associate Professor: A candidate should have a Ph.D. degree in the concern/allied/relevant disciplines and should have a good academic record, or a master's degree with a minimum of 55% marks.

Assistant Professor: A Post Graduate with a Master's Degree in a concerned subject with at least 55% marks from any recognised University.

Age Limit:

The candidate's age should be between 40 to 70 years of age to apply for the posts of Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor Posts Organisation Visva Bharati Educational Qualification Post Graduate, Doctorate Experience null Job Responsibilities null Skills Required null Job Location West Bengal Salary Scale Rs.57700 - Rs.144200 per month Industry Teaching Application Start Date January 1, 1970 Application End Date January 1, 1970

Visva Bharati Recruitment 2021: Selection Criteria And Pay Scale

The shortlisted candidates will have to go through the interview round on which the selection will be done.

The candidates who will get selected for the Visva Bharati recruitment 2021 for the post of Professor will be paid an emolument of Rs. 1,44,200; for Associate Professor entry pay is Rs. 1,31,400; and for Assistant Professor the pay scale is Rs. 57,700 according to 7th CPC Pay Matrix.

Also Read: IMD Recruitment 2021 For 54 Scientist C/D/E Posts, Apply Online Before February 22

Visva Bharati Recruitment 2021: Application Fees

For Academic Level 14 and 13A, the application fee is Rs. 2000, and for Academic Level 10 the application fee is Rs. 1600.

Visva Bharati Recruitment 2021: How To Apply

The interested and eligible candidates can apply for Visva Bharati, Santiniketan Recruitment 2021 through the official website. The applicant needs to fill the prescribed application form with all the basic details and attaching registered documents to complete the registration process.

Download Visva Bharati, Santiniketan Recruitment 2021 Notification PDF for Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant Professor Posts here
Darryl Vinson, 57, was arrested Friday and charged after a passing motorist noticed him hitting the victim - identified as an unnamed 48-year-old woman

A man brutally beat and raped his ex-girlfriend for four days while keeping her bound and locked in a closet of a Louisiana home, police said.

Darryl Vinson, 57, was arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree rape, aggravated kidnapping, false imprisonment while armed with a weapon and possession of stolen property.

According to Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson, the victim - identified as an unnamed 48-year-old woman - suffered a brain bleed, broken ribs, black eyes, facial swelling and heavy bruising and cuts throughout her body.

'I can only imagine every time you hear that closet door getting ready to open, the fear she was in, not knowing what was next,' Lawson said, NOLA.com reports. 'It was a very brutal and sadistic event.'

Starting on January 25, the Marrero man is said to have repeatedly beat the woman. He repeatedly forced her to have sex with him, inflicting great injury, Lawson stated.

'What she went through over this period of time was unbelievable,' Lawson added.

Starting on January 25, the Marrero man is said to have repeatedly beat the woman. He repeatedly forced her to have sex with him, inflicting great injury

While the woman was trapped for the four days, there were no missing person reports filed on her behalf.

On Friday, Vinson brought the woman with him on a trip to a store. A passing motorist saw him hit the woman and alerted authorities, according to police.

'Whoever the person is who called 911 saved this woman's life,' Lawson said. 'This was only going to escalate more. We might have had a homicide and not realized what was going on.'

The woman was freed, soon after, telling authorities of the nature of her injuries once away from Vinson. She was taken to a local hospital and listed in stable condition on Monday.

Vinson was detained by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office on outstanding attachments.

He is currently being held without bail at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center.

The man has a long history of prior arrests, with a burglary charge and a number of theft charges under his belt.

Public records indicate that in 1997, Vinson pleaded guilty to a charge of resisting arrest.

First greeted with scepticism, experts have since been convinced of the effectiveness of the Russian coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, with positive results published in The Lancet medical journal on Tuesday. The development represents a scientific and political victory for Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Putin at the forefront

From the first weeks of the pandemic, the Russian president ordered the scientific, political and military apparatus of the country to work in overdrive to develop the world's first Covid vaccine -- even if that meant taking shortcuts.

Last spring, Alexander Gintsburg, the director of the state-run Gamaleya research centre that developed Sputnik V, boasted of having personally injected himself with an experimental version of the jab.

ALSO READ | Russia's Covid-19 Vaccine 'Sputnik V' Shows Over 91% Efficacy in Phase 3 Trial: Lancet Study

A few months later, in mid-August, Putin announced the approval of the world's first coronavirus vaccine. With the shot at that point having only been tested by a few dozen volunteers, the proclamation was greeted with skepticism abroad.

The vaccine nonetheless soon became available to Russia's elite, including one of Putin's daughters, even before the beginning of Phase III clinical trials involving tens of thousands of volunteers. Russia made the vaccine available to the wider public in December, when Europe and the United States were just deploying the first doses of the vaccines made by their pharmaceutical companies.

Global ambitions

For the Kremlin, the homemade vaccine -- first vilified by the West -- demonstrates Russia's excellence, with Putin having called Sputnik V "the best vaccine in the world".

The choice of name for the jab is highly symbolic. A tribute to the world's first satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, Sputnik V recalls a scientific feat for Russia and a historic setback for its rival the United States.

The success of the vaccine restores Russian research capabilities to the world's top echelons, after the sector had been decimated by crises and corruption in the wake of the USSR's collapse in 1991. Sputnik V has been approved in more than 15 countries, including ex-Soviet nations like Belarus and Armenia, allies like Venezuela and Iran, but also South Korea, Argentina, Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan.

Sputnik V in Europe?

Last month the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which helped finance Sputnik V, announced that it had applied for registration of the vaccine in the European Union.

But the Russian vaccine has been treated with suspicion due to a lack of publicly available scientific data.

Denouncing European delays, Viktor Orban's Hungary sidestepped the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and registered the vaccine on its own. For her part, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has offered Putin the possibility of "joint production".

Production capacity?

Russia says it has received pre-orders of more than a billion doses of Sputnik V, but it is unable to meet that level of demand. The quantities of doses that have been delivered abroad have mainly been symbolic, like the 20,000 exported to Bolivia.

In some cases the figures were not revealed, while Argentina experienced a shipment delay last month. No official source has made clear how many doses have been produced or deployed, though authorities in mid-January said that 1.5 million people had been inoculated with Sputnik V around the world.

Rather than exporting Sputnik V in bulk, Moscow hopes to develop production partnerships with local factories. Brazil, India, Kazakhstan and South Korea are currently producing the jab, though not all them have made it available to the public yet.

Other Russian vaccines

At least three more Russian coronavirus vaccines are expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks. Sputnik V -- a two-dose vaccine using adapted strains of the adenovirus, a virus that causes the common cold -- is set to be produced as "Sputnik Light", a less effective single-dose version.

Mass production of the EpiVacCorona vaccine, developed by the Siberian Vektor laboratory, is set to launch this month. The Russian government has said that a third vaccine named CoviVac is expected to be approved this month too. And there may even be a fourth, with the Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca and the developers of Sputnik V having said they are working to combine their respective vaccines.
The prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has resigned, a move that will enable President Felix Tshisekedi to appoint his own prime minister supported by a new parliamentary majority.



Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba was constitutionally required to resign after being censured by the National Assembly on Wednesday.



He is a close ally to former President Joseph Kabila whose supporters have been locked in a tussle for power with Tshisekedi since he took office two years ago.



Presidency spokesman Giscard Kusema told the AFP news agency that llunga said he had drawn the consequences of the developing political situation.



Kusema said it was too soon to say when Tshisekedi would appoint the next prime minister.



Ilunga, 73, was appointed by Tshisekedi in May 2019 under a power-sharing deal that he and Kabila struck when handing over the presidency  the first peaceful transition in the DRCs history.



Kabilas decision to step down after 18 years in office paved way for elections in December 2018 that were controversially won by Tshisekedi, the son of a veteran opposition leader.



But on the same polling day, a strong pro-Kabila majority emerged in the National Assembly, preventing Tshisekedi from having a grip on all the political levers of power.



He was forced into a coalition  a leviathan of a government with 65 ministers, two-thirds of whom was from the pro-Kabila Common Front for the Congo (FCC).



Tensions swiftly grew and erupted into the open last year when Tshisekedi declared his reform agenda was being blocked.



On December 6, he announced the end to the coalition and said he planned to seek a new government supported by the National Assembly, a move that sparked brawls in Parliament.



On Wednesday, a motion of censure against Ilunga and his government was approved by 367 out of 377 members of Parliament present in the 500-seat legislature.



Tshisekedis proposed Sacred Union of the Nation now wields support from 391 legislators, according to an envoy, Senator ModesteBahati, who was appointed to try to forge a majority.

Source: AFP









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
She expecting her first child in July.

And Lauren Goodger showcased her blossoming bump in a video she shared with fans on Instagram on Monday as she posed in bed wearing a low-cut brown bodysuit.

The former TOWIE star, 34, looked radiant as she played with her chestnut locks and pouted for the camera as she showed off her changing shape.

Radiant: Pregnant Lauren Goodger, 34, showcased her baby bump in a low-cut brown bodysuit in bed on Instagram on Monday as she caught the attention of boyfriend Charles Drury, 23

Blossoming: The 34-year-old is expecting her first child with boyfriend of four months Charles and showed her bump for the camera

Lauren, who is expecting her first child with boyfriend of four months Charles Drury, 23, caught his eye as he posted some heart eye emojis in the commernts.

Keeping up her glam appearance, the TV personality wore a lick of makeup to draw attention to her stunning features.

Her skintight top which accentuated her ample assets and hugged her bump as she sat pushed the duvet down to give fans a better view.

The mother-to-be captioned the adorable video with a simple pregnant woman emoji.

He's a fan: The video caught the eye of Lauren's boyfriend Charles who shared some heart eye emojis in the comments

On Wednesday, Lauren lashed out at her critics after being hit by claims her baby bump is fake.

She said: 'People have even accused me of having a fake bump. Its totally crazy. It can be frustrating and annoying.

'But at the end of the day we are happy, we are having a baby, keep your opinions to yourselves and f*** off.'

Lauren also shed light on comments she made earlier this month, when she was condemned for her apparent anti-vaxxer views, despite scientists saying vaccination is the best hope for beating COVID-19.

Mother-to-be: Keeping up her glam appearance, the TV personality wore a slick of makeup to draw attention to her stunning features

Bump: She wore a brown skintight top which hugged her bump as she sat pushed the duvet down to give fans a better view

She claimed she 'doesn't believe' in face masks and likened the virus to a cold as she said she would refuse to get the coronavirus vaccine.

Piers Morgan went on to brand her 'a half-wit' for the comments, yet she has now insisted the comments were misconstrued and inaccurate.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, an incensed Piers questioned how Lauren could refuse the vaccine but inject herself with fillers - before imploring the public 'not to listen to these imbeciles'.

He said: 'Lauren Goodger, who I'm informed is a TOWIE babe, has gone public having a go about the Covid vaccine on the day we discovered a million people in this country have the virus and we're obviously in a desperate situation.

'She said she's terrified of the vaccine and has already had Covid and didn't die, so obviously it's not a problem.

'She said I don't like taking medicine or antibiotics. Lauren said: 'I'm more scared of the vaccine than I am the virus' really?' She said: 'I don't like taking medicine, I won't take antibiotics but I do do aesthetics'... what?'

On his comments, Lauren insisted he was incorrect in his criticism, as he went on: 'Theres one big reason I wont be having the vaccine for a while.

'Im pregnant, Im not allowed to. Why are they commenting on my Instagram?'
US threatens sanctions on Myanmar

Washington, Feb 1 (UNI) United States on Monday threatened to impose sanctions against the Myanmar following a military coup.

"The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action," US President Joseph Biden said in a statement.

Both State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were detained by the military in an early morning raid after which the military announced a state of emergency in the country for the period of one year.
A corner of Vietnam (Illustrative photo: VNA)

Hanoi  The outcomes of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)s 13th National Congress have continued to be in the spotlight of regional and international media outlets.

The Malaysia-based New Straits Times on February 1 spent half a page in its World column reporting the results of the congress. The article emphasised that Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's determination to fight corruption has been supported by the majority of the Vietnamese people and CPV members. According to the article, the promotion of the campaign against corruption is one of the top task of the CPV in the next tenure.

Meanwhile, the Malaymail highlighted the next tenure will focus on post-COVID-19 economic recovery and development.

The Republic of Koreas news agency Yonhap commented that the outcomes of the congress showed that Vietnam is focusing on the stability of its State. The country will maintain its current stance and policies, open to the outside world and attract foreign investment as a driving force for economic growth.

In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency, Kyle Springer, senior analysist at the Perth USAsia Centre, Western Australia, said the outcomes of the Congress are important to Australia given that both countries are building a deeper strategic partnership and Australia wants to develop an economic partnership with Vietnam.

Australias relations with Vietnam have expanded significantly since the last Party Congress in 2016. They established a formal strategic partnership in 2018 and are now in two major, multilateral trade agreements together: CPTPP and RCEP, Springer said.

To Australia, he said, Vietnams economic direction after the congress will become ever more important as Australia seeks to diversify its trade and investment relations with reliable neighbours such as Vietnam.

Reuters also reported on the key politic event of Vietnam, saying the country aims to rev up its economy over the next five years, trusting on its custom-tooled mix of free trade deals, privatisation and tight COVID-19 curbs.

In an article, the news agency said with a raft of free trade deals envied by regional peers and increasing attraction of investor, the party formally approved goals to raise growth beyond an annual 6 percent in the pre-pandemic era to 6.5-7.0 percent for the 2021-2025 period.

According to Reuters, in an economic development blueprint, Vietnam would boost its growing role as a key manufacturing hub for global giants like Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp. At the same time, the party is targeting raising the countrys profile beyond a low-cost labour destination to a centre for science and technology.

Germanys Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper also noted that Vietnam has risen economically at an almost unprecedented rate over the past few decades and that effective prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened the partys strength.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long confirmed five new locally-transmitted Covid-19 patients in Quang Ninh, Hai Duong and Hanoi at the Governments online meeting with 63 cities and provinces this morning, February 2.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long at the meeting on February 2 morning.

Quang Ninh reported three cases, while Hanoi and Hai Duong confirmed one each.

Up to now, Hai Duong Province has reported 207 Covid-19 cases in the current wave, while Quang Ninh Province and Hanoi City have confirmed 33 and 20 cases, respectively. Gia Lai Province has reported six Covid-19 cases, Bac Ninh Province, three, Hoa Binh Province, two, and Binh Duong Province, two.

HCMC, Hai Phong and Bac Giang have reported one case each.

The number of Covid-19 cases reported in Hanoi and Quang Ninh is on the rise, while the number of cases in Hai Duong is declining, said the minister.

After the new coronavirus wave emerged, the Ministry of Health has immediately mobilized and dispatched over 1,200 health workers to Hai Duong Province and managed to control the spread of Covid-19.

Long worked with Quang Ninh Province this morning, he said, adding that social distancing might begin in the provinces Dong Trieu District in line with the prime ministers Directive 16. Accordingly, Covid-19 testing will be conducted on a large scale in the district, which has reported three more Covid-19 cases.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and the ministry worked with Hanoi City on February 1 to determine the affected areas and quarantine people who had contact with the Covid-19 patients, according to Long. The situation in Hanoi City remained complicated.

To effectively bring the disease under control, Minister Long proposed the provinces and cities continue following Covid-19 infection prevention and control regulations in line with the prime ministers Directive 15 and ordering residents to wear face masks in public places.

Long also proposed the local authorities limit mass gatherings and tighten control over illegal entry into the country.

Apart from this, the leader of the ministry proposed the Government allow the provinces and cities to use their budgets to buy Covid-19 vaccines for their residents as the spending on vaccines is expected to be cheaper than that on quarantine and lockdown.

The virus was initially found in 28-year-old patient from the northern province of Hai Duong and features 17 signature mutations of the super-spreader B.1.1.7 strain that has been the cause of the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in both the UK and the Europe.

This is according to an analysis conducted by a group of researchers from the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU). The patient is currently receiving treatment at the citys Cu Chi Field Hospital.

The strain is believed to be far more easily transmissible than the original variant, and it is highly likely that it is the dominant source of infection in Hai Duong.

SGT/VNN
Researchers have given new insights into why people would choose to donate Covid-19 plasma after recovering from the virus, which will be used to support the recruitment of convalescent plasma donors to help treat current Covid-19 patients and support ongoing trials.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham's School of Psychology, in collaboration with Australian Red Cross Lifeblood and the University of Queensland Australia have been the first in the world to examine the motivations and barriers to convalescent plasma donation in the UK. The findings published in Transfusion Medicine, showed that most people would choose to donate as they want to show their gratitude by giving something back after recovering.

Convalescent plasma is a treatment being trialled for Covid-19 and involves blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients being transfused into patients who are currently in hospital with the virus. This provides 'passive' immunity as the antibodies against Covid-19 are transferred from the recovered patient to the current patient to support their immune system to fight the virus.

Professor Eamonn Ferguson from the University of Nottingham's School of Psychology was one of the lead authors on the study, he said: "The use of convalescent plasma as a treatment relies on the generosity and 'altruism' of those who have recently recovered from the virus to help those currently ill. To enhance the recruitment of convalescent plasma donors - much as blood donors in general - we need to understand what would motivate, or even defer, those who are eligible to be convalescent plasma donors to donate."

The study involved 419 UK residents who indicated they had been infected with Covid-19 and were eligible to donate convalescent plasma. They were asked about their awareness of convalescent plasma, motivations, and barriers to donating.

The researchers identified six key motivations - Altruism from adversity, post-traumatic growth, moral and civic duty to help research, patriotism and control, reluctant altruism, and signalling reluctant altruism. They found the main motivation to donate from these was altruism from adversity - people being grateful to have survived with a sense of pay-it-back and pay-it-forwards reciprocity, and moral and civic duty- the morally right thing to do to help family, friends and support research.

Barriers to donating were also explored - not well enough, logistics, generic donation fears, lack of trust in institutions, fear of re-infection, infection and process risk to self and others and worry that others will know of COVID-19 infection. Of these, generic fears were the biggest barrier with a fear of needles being a particular deterrent.

Professor Ferguson continues: "These results highlight the extreme kindness, generosity, and cooperative spirit of human nature. Even under the adverse condition of a global pandemic, people are willing to help strangers and those who are in need which is borne out of adversity but also a moral sense of what is right. This is a real good news study about the human condition and how we are all there for each other. Indeed, little put people off donating convalescent plasma other than a general fear of needles.

The results also suggest several ways that transfusion services to develop recruitment campaigns to attract more convalescent plasma donors. These could focus on simple gratitude interventions, ideas of pay-it-back reciprocity, and moral imperatives.

We feel these new and novel findings have the potential to help in the fight against COVID-19 by providing evidence about ways to support the recruitment of convalescent plasma donors that are urgently needed to support ongoing research trials and treatment of patients."

Dr. Rachel Thorpe from Australian Red Cross Lifeblood said: "It's incredibly useful for transfusion services to understand that people are willing to donate plasma for research even during a pandemic, and that this willingness could be enhanced through increasing public awareness about convalescent plasma and about what is involved in donating plasma."

###
In December of 1969, 21-year-old Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, was shot and killed in his bed during a raid by the police and the FBI. In the eyes of the American governmentspecifically FBI chief J. Edgar Hooverhe was a threat to society, and as such, killing him was an acceptable course of action.

Aaron Sorkins The Trial of the Chicago 7, released in October on Netflix, touches on that moment in historyin that film, Hampton (played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) appears to support Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who was the national chairman of the Black Panther Party and the cases temporary eighth defendantbut largely glosses over it. Arguably, the brevity of Hamptons appearance is an inevitable side effect of Hampton and Seale being just one part of an ensemble story but points to the weaknesses of Sorkins movie.

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Shaka Kings new film Judas and the Black Messiah, debuting in theaters and on HBO Max less than six months after The Trial of the Chicago 7, focuses specifically on the three years leading up to Hamptons assassination. It follows Hampton and William ONeal, the petty criminalturnedFBI informant who was instrumental in Hamptons murder, as the two men get to know each other, and ONeal struggles with the task hes been put up to. In that sense, the movie acts as a corrective for Sorkins film. But, more than that, Kings film makes a case for itself as necessary viewing in its own right.

The Black Panthers occupy a strange space in The Trial of the Chicago 7; the dramatization of the way Seale was treated in court (denied a lawyer, bound and gagged, beaten by the attending police) and the mention of Hamptons murder exist almost as a means to an end. What Seale goes throughand what happens to Hampton off screenserves the narrative, which focuses on the white protesters known as the Chicago Seven, more than furthering Seales and Hamptons respective stories. Sorkin seems to recognize that, as, in a key scene, Seale asks Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Your life, its a fuck you to your father, right? A little? And you can see how thats different from a rope on a tree?

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But recognition of the fact that the Black characters have been marginalized doesnt ultimately change the fact that theyre on the sidelines. In Adam Naymans review for the Ringer, he accused Sorkin of [mobilizing] Black suffering to trouble the consciences of white characters, writing, After placing his tragic, defiant African American character on display so that we can shake our heads at his treatment, the director is free to return to the seriocomic bickering between movie stars that is his specialty.

Where Hamptons presence and impact are fleeting in Sorkins film, hes front and center in Judas and the Black Messiah, which stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and Lakeith Stanfield as ONeal. Neither man is turned into a caricature or cameo; King, who collaborated with Will Berson and the Lucas brothers on the story, turns both of them into more than just the archetypes that the films title suggests. They and their struggles feel real and present, rather than like mouthpieces or means to an end.

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Kings film also easily demonstrates how much more complicated the event was than the scant attention its paid in The Trial of the Chicago 7. Fred Hamptons murder was not just an act of violence carried out by white police but also an act accomplished by holding the threat of prison over another Black mans head. ONeal was just 17 at the time he was recruited by the FBI to become an informant, and King digs into the lasting effects of what ONeal facilitated by peppering the film with re-created clips of the one public interview that he gave, a full two decades after Hamptons death. The older ONeal, now 40 years old, is composed but gives relatively circumspect answers that belie the turmoil hes portrayed as having gone through as a young man. His actions cant be condoned, but his motives can be sympathized withhe didnt want to go to jail, and the FBI seemed to be offering him a certain sort of freedom. Hes given a car, hes paid handsomely, and hes always taken out to nice restaurants to eat when he meets with the agent whos handling his case. At first, ONeal seems happy with the arrangement, almost cocky, but as the realities of it all settle inwhen he expresses hesitance about going furtherits made clear that hes still not a person in their eyes. Hes just a tool.

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And Hampton, whose work and significance barely register in Sorkins film, burns through the screen here. Hes magnetic when in front of a crowd, and its easy to see why people would gravitate to him. But hes also just a man, as we see in private. When left alone with an admirer (and his soon-to-be romantic partner, Deborah Johnson, played by Dominique Fishback), hes so much shier than in his public appearances that she cant help but laugh, telling him that she didnt expect him to be this way. Its a sweet moment, and it underscores one of the films most powerful scenes: After one of his peers is shot and killed, Hampton visits the mans mother, who says that, yes, he did kill another man, but that aint all he did  it dont seem fair that thats his legacy.

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To wit, if The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a simplification of events, then Judas and the Black Messiah is the expansion and complication of Hamptons legacy. Yes, Hampton was killed, and yes, ONeal betrayed him. But there are infinitely more details to their stories, and King tries to get into as many of them as he can, aided by powerhouse performances from his two leads, as well as a remarkable supporting turn from Fishback. Though its early in the year, it doesnt feel like a stretch to name it one of 2021s best films. It may be one of the years most important movies, too, as a work created by Black artists about Black historical figures, and a full telling of the circumstances of and people involved in Fred Hamptons death rather than a footnote in a white story.
Gov. Phil Murphy is again urging people to stay home and off the roads Tuesday as a long-lasting winter storm that covered parts of the New Jersey with more than 30 inches of snow gradually moves out Tuesday.

The governor referred to the snow totals in parts of the state as impressive, adding its been more than a decade since the state has recorded the amount of snow dropped on parts of the state.

This was a big one, Murphy said at a briefing on the storm. This has been an all hands on deck storm. Just because the snow may be letting up, please just stay in.

Murphy said snow clearing efforts continue Tuesday and people should let the crews complete their jobs as the storm moves out.

The commercial vehicle ban instituted on Sunday was lifted as of noon Tuesday, but the state of emergency remains in effect, Murphy said.

Acting State Police Superintendent Col. Pat Callahan called it a monumental storm by all accounts.

I think this storm may rank as one of the top five, Callahan said, comparing it to a 1996 winter storm.

17 Fierce winter storm moves through N.J.

The storm that dumped more than 20 inches of snow across much of northern and central New Jersey could bring up to 3 additional inches Tuesday before finally clearing out.

While hundreds of school districts across the state are either closed or have switched to remote instruction for the day, New Jersey Transit buses and trains resume on a staggered schedule Tuesday and there are only a few dozen flight cancellations at area airports.

Forecasters say to expect slippery roads across the state with winter storm warnings in 13 counties expiring at 4 p.m. Power outages remain low though wind gusts could reach as high as 35 mph on Tuesday.

Snow will end from west to east late Tuesday afternoon as dry air from the northwest finally moves into New Jersey, the National Weather Service said in its morning forecast discussion. Temperatures in the 30s during the day will drop into the 20s overnight. Wednesday will be mostly cloudy and in the 30s before the sun returns Friday with highs around 40.

NJ Advance Media Staff Writer Jeff Goldman contributed to this report.

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

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.
Deep Six president Nick Kruczaj, an Air Force veteran and cannabis entrepreneur, remarked, "Delta 8 has done wonders for our customers in other regions, including Pennsylvania's Philadelphia area. We're thrilled to have the freedom to bring helpful, natural THC 8 to Virginia."

No med card? No problem for users in the Newport News area.

He added, "With less than a dozen medical cannabis dispensaries in Virginia, it was a great opportunity to bring Delta 8 THC dispensary know-how to Newport News and to give people the chance to experience these full relaxation & mood lifting effects for themselves. We'll also continue to carry CBD products for cannabis treatment seekers who don't wish to experience the 'high'."

Deep Six customers in Newport News report using Delta 8 THC for everything from PTSD to simple relaxation, and that they enjoy a soothing, clear-headed "buzz" without the slack-jawed paranoia & anxiety that traditional Delta 9 THC cannabis can cause when consumed.

Deep Six's location in Patrick Henry Mall, just a short drive from Williamsburg and Norfolk, began by serving their community with a range of hemp-derived vape, oil tincture, and edible forms. The stores' new Rewards program provided a means to thank their more loyal customers directly - with discounts, exclusive sales, and more. Combined, these have transformed Deep Six from a curious convenience to a communicative, welcoming retail operation with consistent and dedicated customers in every area that they touch.

"Newport News residents owe it to themselves to try Delta 8," said Benton Purtle, Operations Manager of Deep Six CBD. "I use a Delta 8 micro dose as a more natural alternative to attention medications such as Ritalin. I've battled with ADHD for my entire life - Delta 8 THC oil tincture, used consistently in very small doses, helps me to maintain focus in my daily professional and personal lives."

SOURCE Deep Six

Related Links

https://www.deepsixcbd.com/


The Ministry of Health confirmed one new community case of COVID-19 in Hai Duong province on February 2 morning, bringing the overall number of infections in Vietnam to 1,851.

The new patient is a 44 year-old man who lives in Lai Cach town, Cam Giang district, Hai Duong City.

On February 1, he was diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 virus after showing symptoms of a fever, cough, and a sore throat and was sampled for COVID-19 testing.

He is currently placed into isolation to receive treatment at Hai Duong General Hospital, with epidemiological information continuing to be investigated.

On February 1 Vietnam recorded 31 new COVID-19 infections, including one imported case.

Of the new community cases, 17 are from Hai Duong, five from Quang Ninh, four from Hanoi, two from Gia Lai, one from Bac Giang, and one from Binh Duong.

Most patients are linked to the fresh COVID-19 outbreak in Chi Linh city in northern Hai Duong province.

Meanwhile, the one imported case was quarantined upon arrival in Ho Chi Minh City.

The total locally-transmitted cases in the nation now register 914, including 271 detected since the resurgence of the virus on July 27.

Vietnam has registered a total of 271 community transmissions in 9 provinces since its latest outbreak began last on January 27. Hai Duong tops the list with 206 cases, followed by Quang Ninh (30), Hanoi (19), Gia Lai (6), Bac Ninh (3), Hoa Binh (2), Binh Duong (2) and HCM City and Hai Phong one, each.

Meanwhile, 1,460 cases have been given the all-clear. The death toll remains at 35.

Among those still under treatment, eight have tested negative for the novel coronavirus once, five twice, and two thrice.

A total of 27,714 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or arrived from pandemic-affected areas are under quarantine across the country.

Hanoi orders closure of internet shops to control COVID-19 Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee Chu Xuan Dung speaks at a meeting of the city's Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control Authorities in Hanoi have ordered the temporary closure of online game and internet shops from February 2 early morning, as part of the efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the city, according to Vice Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Chu Xuan Dung. Previously, municipal authorities ordered the closure of bars and karaoke clubs to avoid large crowds, and required restaurants to have partitions. Addressing a meeting of the municipal Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on February 1, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health Hoang Duc Hanh said Hanoi had so far recorded 19 COVID-19 cases linked to the COVID-19 outbreaks in northern Hai Duong and Quang Ninh provinces. The zoning, tracing and quarantine for F1 cases were urgently implemented, Hanh noted. Affirming that this new wave of COVID-19 spreads quickly and can become more complicated, Hanh proposed to raise the prevention work by one level. He said that the COVID-19 contact tracing must be quickened, towards swiftly collecting samples and quarantining of those from pandemic-hit areas. Hanoi has so far identified about 15,000 people relating to the outbreaks in Hai Duong and Quang Ninh, of them 10,000 have been tested, he said. Vice Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Chu Xuan Dung asked relevant agencies to arrange concentrated quarantine for F1 cases, and focus on tracing F1, F2 and F3 cases. In a meeting with the municipal Peoples Committee the same day, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam urged Hanoi authorities to complete the collection of samples for those from pandemic-hit areas before January 4./.VNA

Nguyen Lien

As hundreds of F0, F1 cases avoid declaration, Deputy PM urges people to voluntarily make medical reports Within four days, Vietnam recorded 240 cases of Covid-19 community infections. However, the Ministry of Health said that up to 20% of F0 cases did not cooperate with the authorities Covid-19 tracing effort.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 22:17:33|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Feb. 1, 2021 shows military vehicles parking in the City Hall in Yangon, Myanmar. (Xinhua/Zhang Dongqiang)

The detained chief ministers and members of parliament representatives of the ruling National League for Democracy party were freed from detention by the military on Tuesday morning, the Myanmar military source said.

YANGON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A majority of regional and state chief ministers were released on Tuesday from the military's detention, a senior Myanmar military official told Xinhua.

The military detained government leaders, regional and state chief ministers and central executive members of the ruling National League for Democracy early Monday.

People walk out of a bank in Yangon, Myanmar, on Feb. 2, 2021. (Photo by Haymhan/Xinhua)

The detained chief ministers and members of parliament representatives of the ruling party were freed from detention by the military on Tuesday morning, the military source said.

"There may be a reshuffle among chief ministers by appointing qualified ones," he said.

The President's Office declared a state of emergency for one year and the state power was handed over to Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services after the government leaders were detained on Monday.

The military announced a major cabinet reshuffle including the appointment of new ministers for 11 ministries and termination of 24 deputy ministers.

People walk out of a bank in Yangon, Myanmar, on Feb. 2, 2021. (Photo by Haymhan/Xinhua)

In another development, the state-run media quoted the Military True News Information Team as saying that all banks in Myanmar resumed services on Tuesday.

All local banks under the Myanmar Banks Association temporarily suspended financial services for hours on Monday due to poor internet connections.

Internet services had been reactivated and banking services were running regularly, said the military announcement. 
BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday held a phone conversation with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.

Mekdad congratulated the Communist Party of China (CPC) on its 100th anniversary and praised China's brilliant achievements in various fields under the CPC leadership.

He said that Syria firmly upholds the one-China policy and firmly stands with China on issues involving China's core interests such as Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

Syria strongly condemns the groundless suppression and smear by some Western countries of China's anti-pandemic efforts and will never forget that the country's first batch of foreign anti-pandemic aid came from China, Mekdad said.

The foreign minister also voiced hope that China will actively consider providing vaccine aid to Syria.

Noting that almost ten years have passed since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis, Wang said the Syrian people have paid a huge price and made great sacrifice to safeguard national dignity, independence and sovereignty.

The overall situation in Syria at present is de-escalating, but there is still a long way to go before comprehensive security and stability are restored, Wang said.

The future of Syria should be decided by the Syrian people themselves, he said, stressing that the international community should adhere to the Syrian-led and Syrian-owned principle, and support the process of reaching a solution which conforms to Syria's national conditions and accommodates the concerns of all parties through inclusive political dialogue.

The international community should also join efforts to fight against terrorism, and resolutely eradicate the terrorist forces in Syria listed by the United Nations Security Council, Wang said.

Wang said that China, as Syria's good friend and partner, will always firmly support the country to safeguard its national independence, and continue speaking for Syria's justified and lawful rights on multilateral occasions.

During the fight against the pandemic, Wang said, China and Syria have helped each other thus deepened friendship between the two peoples. China has provided Syria with much needed medical supplies within its capacity and will continue to offer vaccine and emergency food aid, so as to help the country prevail over the virus at an early date.


Tory MPs yesterday accused ministers of incompetence in their response to the cladding crisis in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Politicians from all parties rounded on the Government during a landmark Commons debate last night  and warned more leaseholders will go bankrupt if urgent action is not taken.

A Labour motion calling on ministers to provide immediate funding to fix unsafe homes and spare leaseholders the crippling financial burden passed by 263 votes to zero.

The vote is not binding and Tory MPs were told to abstain, but campaigners hailed it as encouraging and called on Boris Johnson to heed the demands of his own backbenchers.

More than 70 MPs spoke out during the debate while Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick was slammed for skipping the vote.

It came after the Daily Mail launched a campaign to end the cladding scandal within 18 months and spare leaseholders the cost. This newspaper also wants firms responsible for the safety failures to pay their fair share.

Pictured, the Grenfell Tower inferno r in the Lancaster West Estate in North Kensington - the disaster was the worst residential fire since WWII

Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders face average costs of 40,000 each  and some of up to 115,000  to replace dangerous cladding, similar to that found on the Grenfell Tower in Kensington, west London, where an inferno killed 72 people in June 2017.

Just 216 out of a possible 11,760 dangerous buildings have been fixed since the fire.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said last night: Im really pleased the Mail is running the campaign. Everybody Ive met who understands what the problem is thinks that this is a complete injustice, so by bringing it to public attention the Mail is increasing the chances of justice.

Sir Keir said it was unimaginable that the Government could not meet the deadline of fixing all unsafe homes by June next year.

He added: What I want to see is some real energy from the Government, to front some of the money themselves, identify the highest risk blocks and get on with it. But we must also go after the developers and builders.

Charlotte Warner and partner Aubrey Reynolds are unable to sell or remortgage their flat due to the huge bill being demanded for repairs to remedy the cladding issues that arose after the Grenfell disaster.

Stuck in an unsafe flat, family plans are on hold A couple who cannot sell their flat due to the cladding scandal say their family plans have been put on hold. Charlotte Warner, 35, and Aubrey Reynolds, 37, hoped to move out of their one-bed flat in Bow, east London, and into a family home. But they are stuck because their development, which has around 150 flats, failed a fire safety test  meaning they cannot sell or remortgage their 320,000 property. Residents are trying to make the developer, Vistri, pay for the works, but are concerned about a costly legal battle. Mr Reynolds, a film producer, said he has sleepless nights living in an unsafe property, unsure when it will be fixed or how much it will cost. He added: We want to start a family. But not in a one-bed flat. My partner cries because she feels her biological clock ticking. Miss Warner, who works as a buyer for Paperchase, said: We cant move, we dont have a timescale  its the uncertainty for us. Advertisement

Labour is also calling on the Government to establish a taskforce to examine the extent of dangerous cladding in England.

The Government avoided a rebellion during last nights vote by ordering Tory MPs to abstain.

But it did not escape fierce criticism from Conservative backbenchers, who said its attempts to fix the crisis had made matters worse for leaseholders. Stephen McPartland, Tory MP for Stevenage, said the Government had been incompetent throughout this saga.

Several Conservatives offered their support for the amendments, signalling the Government faces a strong challenge when the Bill returns to the Commons.

Dame Margaret Hodge, Labour MP for Barking in east London, accused ministers of abandoning leaseholders who had been left to live on the edge from one pay cheque to the next. Housing minister Chris Pincher said the Government will announce very shortly a financial solution to protect leaseholders from high costs to deal with unsafe cladding.

Emma Byrne, of the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign, said: It was encouraging to hear that so many MPs from all political parties understand the awful circumstances in which so many of us are living.

The fact that Robert Jenrick could not even be bothered to attend shows, tragically, that this issue still does not have the priority it deserves within Government.

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak must now listen to the rising level of concern within their own party. If they do not act to protect leaseholders they will be making a colossal political mistake which will not be forgotten by millions of voters.

The Government has set aside 1.6billion to fund repairs but MPs estimate the total cost could be closer to 15billion.
THE 2021 land leasing market is set to be an expensive place for tenants and rewarding for landowners.

Cork auctioneer Dan Fleming told the Farming Independent the price of rented land is going through the roof, citing a 90ac tillage farm in north Cork he recently let for 410/ac,

This is top-class land and could be used for vegetables, he said, Im getting about 300/ac for grass and most customers want maps, they dont want entitlements.

"They want bare land in order to register it for compliance with the nitrates directive. They cannot use land with entitlements to comply with the directive. Good grazing land is making between 300/ac and 350/ac, while poorer ground is making 250/ac.

He added that farmers will not cut back on stock to comply with the 5pc reduction in nitrates, They have built up their herd, they know their cows and they wont part with them, he said. They also have extended milking parlours and yards and have loans to pay back so they are not going to reduce anything.

With long-term leases having almost completely replaced the con-acre system, thanks to tax-

Rolled over leases

Most available ground is tied up in leases of between five and 15 years, and while many of the early tax-free five-year leases will be due for renewal this year, auctioneers expect them to be rolled over.

However, prices may dictate otherwise as land rented for 150/ac five years ago could see its rent increase by up to 75pc in the current market.

Auctioneers are loathe to predict prices. They dont want to be seen as talking up the market, but most are expecting a significant price increase, particularly for fresh land.

Tom Crosse of GVM Limerick described the land leasing market as being on fire.

Prices of 250 to 300/ac are being paid, I recently let a 90ac farm for 280/ac. Not only that, farmers are bidding on land where there is a sitting tenant, something that never happened before.

"Incidentally, the same thing is happening at online land sale auctions where the anonymity of the process means neighbours are bidding against neighbours. Its like 2006 all over again.

New entrants

He believes the surge is driven by the nitrates directive and also by the fact that leasing land is a far simpler financial option than buying land, both for new entrants to farming and farmers looking to expand

In north Leinster, Stephen Barry of Raymond Potterton Auctioneers is handling the lease of a 100ac farm outside Mullingar in Co Westmeath. Described as a good piece of ground with 45ac in stubble and the rest in grass, the farm comes with a decent array of sheds and is easily accessible.

I expect strong interest from all sectors in this holding, the tillage and beef farmers will have keen interest in a place like this, he said.

Mr Barry is guiding the six-year lease at 200/ac. We are seeing demand totally outstrip supply and this will obviously have an impact on the final lease price for this farm and for many others.

"There is very little fresh land coming on the market and the competition will be fierce for whatever comes up with prices of 250/ac and 260/ac for grazing ground.

Auctioneer Raymond Fees Dundalk office handles sales and lettings in Monaghan and Louth and he too has been busy on the phones since Christmas. Most of the leases are rolling over but some will come back on the market, he said.

Potato ground

"The prices I see at the moment are coming in around 185 to 200/ac for a spring crop but potato ground is making about 500/ac.

He has plenty of eager tenants and says he could do with four or five farms to lease. I find the drystock farmer is back in play. Beef prices are coming good and some of these farmers are part-time and at home because of the lockdown. They are doing more farming than they were, he said.

Kilkenny auctioneer Joseph Coogan said the land leasing market in south Leinster is a very lively place with lots going on.

You have dairy farmers trying to extend to deal with the nitrates directive, but then you have a straw shortage that is compounded by the new government scheme paying tillage farmers 250/ha to chop up and plough in straw.

"Dairy farmers, who are moving to straw bedding, are renting tillage land to grow their own straw. As they expand, they find that putting straw bedding in existing sheds is far cheaper than converting them into slatted units.

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Grazing ground

He said that a lot of five-year leases are due for renewal and he finds tenants and farmers are agreeing terms between themselves before involving auctioneers.

Also, farmers are approaching neighbours and surrounding landowners directly about new leasing and are making an initial agreement before contacting auctioneers.

Mr Coogan predicts the cost of leasing good grazing will rise by about 40pc. Land making 220 to 250/ac five years ago is now making 300/ac and more. Land that is well fenced and has cattle handling facilities will make between 300 and 350/ac this year, while average land will make 270 and 280/ac, he said. Fresh land is very scarce and will make big money, he said.

Roscommon auctioneer John Earley said there is a very strong demand for land in the west. I handle about 100 lettings every year and 95pc of those will turn over, some with increases. However, I have a book full of clients looking for ground, he said.

Mr Earley expects prices to average around 200/ac for good grazing ground, which is strong for his area.

Bidding war

Staying in the west, north Galway auctioneer Gerry Coffey says his phone has been very busy with enquiries. Land leasing doesnt start here until February and March, but I am already getting lots of enquiries.

"Farmers are ringing and are not asking how much leased land is going to cost them, they are telling me what they are prepared to pay. We are looking at 150 to 200/ac.

"A lot of current leases will be renewed, but fresh land will be a different story. I expect a bidding war, he said.
The imminent decision on the Leaving Cert, with an expected choice of exams or awarded grades, will relieve some of the stress facing pupils, parents and teachers. Sixth year is anxious enough without remote learning and missing a chunk of the previous year thrown in, so this is a weight off.

A plan for special schools and classes to reopen is also on the cards for students and parents who deserve immediate action after being messed about for weeks. However, while exams and special education are a worthy focus, there is a large cohort of disadvantaged children not getting the attention they deserve.

Since January 11, creches have been open for children who need additional care and safeguarding  but nothing is offered for their school-going siblings.

The definition of vulnerable children who can go to creche is broad, and rightly so. It includes those part of the provision of family support services by Tulsa and any child deemed by the States child and family agency to require childhood services in order to promote their welfare.

This covers children sponsored under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) who are experiencing poverty, disadvantage or child welfare issues, and those kids public health nurses have flagged may benefit from immediate re-engagement. It is shocking that exceptions were not extended to some school children.

Many are known to the child-protection system as vulnerable, but no safety net has been put in place to continue with in-person education.

When you turn five, are you deemed capable of looking out for your own welfare if your parents need help?

That is a very facetious comment, but it is what our approach is saying.

I spoke with a social worker on Sunday and I could not sleep that night thinking about the miserable circumstances some children are in. This social worker said they were seeing many more cases of domestic violence, and they are worried  there are fewer eyes on these kids and you miss a lot on a Zoom call.

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The usual social outlets are unavailable, everyone is living at close quarters and the day is shapeless without the structure school gives. It has added up to a pressure-cooker environment in some homes facing additional stressors such as mental illness, a chronic shortage of money, substance abuse or domestic abuse.

I consider how tricky I find it in lockdown to keep my own kids motivated and in a good mood  and we are fortunate with a comfortable home without any real difficulties. In the UK, schools never closed for vulnerable children. Not last March and not today.

OK, in England they are not fully reopening until 8 March, but with vulnerable children on social workers lists, along with essential workers children and those without devices or broadband, all currently going into school, they have the peace of mind this will help stem the inevitable damage of school closures.

Can we not find a way for kids with a troubled home life to go into school for a few hours a day at secondary and primary level? The social worker highlighted how there could be a stigma for children who have to go in when their friends dont. They suggested any child not engaging with their teachers should also really be in a physical school.

Research done last year in disadvantaged schools in Dublin said this was the case for a quarter of pupils.

Nationally, the Corona Citizens Science study told us 3pc of primary school children had no contact with their teacher during lockdown.

There are substitute teachers now giving online tutorials. Can we sweep all available teachers into action to supervise these kids? Recent studies in the UK and Sweden show teachers could be at a lower risk of contracting coronavirus than other occupations outside of healthcare. Surely a few children in a class is possible.

I think teachers would do it. They are aware the cost of the pandemic is mounting for some children.

There is talk of a cautious and phased reopening of schools. But when you look at the evidence collected since last March, while second-level schools might need to stagger their return, primary schools should open sooner rather than later.

There are countries in the EU  such as France, Spain and Belgium  that are now open at primary level. For secondary, they have classes on alternate days.

Last March we did not have a clear picture, but now we know very few children get sick enough to go to hospital.

How few? In January we had over 100,000 cases and only one child under 12 had to go to ICU. No primary school child has died of Covid and from March to December, for those under the age of 24, 14 people from 24,057 cases (0.06pc) ended up in ICU.

Most evidence shows children aged 10 years and younger are less likely to acquire Covid and less likely to transmit it to others  hand-washing and the use of masks can reduce that further.

The under-12s seem to get Covid from other adults outside school settings and creche outbreaks tend to involve creche workers  so perhaps we need to fully open creches too.

The Taoiseach has admitted in-person special education not recommencing after Christmas was a failure all round.

Very few will disagree with this. Uncertainty around the Leaving Cert has also been very tough. But what about the equal failure of schools not reopening for disadvantaged children who need extra protection?

Where is the urgency, flexibility and empathy for them with our cautious and phased reopening?
Bachelor winner Irena Srbinovska won a legion of fans with her upbeat personality during the last season of the show.

But on Monday, the 31-year-old appeared uncharacteristically glum while accompanying Locky to a Survivor reunion in Adelaide.

Irena barely cracked a smile as she strolled alongside her strapping boyfriend during a catch-up with fellow reality stars, Nick Iadanza and AK Knight.

Why so glum? Bachelor winner Irena Srbinovska (L) looked downcast alongside boyfriend Locky Gilbert and AK Knight during a Survivor reunion in Adelaide on Monday

The loved-up couple were spotted walking around the Adelaide city restaurant precinct with the lads.

At one stage, Irena appeared to be frowning and crossing her arms as Locky chatted to his old pals.

But it wasn't long before the nurse was back to cheery herself, laughing and smiling with the gents.

Locky and Irena appeared to be getting along famously with the duo, even enjoying a post-dinner stroll together.

There's that smile! But it wasn't long before the nurse was back to cheery herself, laughing and smiling with the gents. She is pictured here with Survivor stars Nick Iadanza and AK Knight

Irena kept it casual for the outing, wearing a double denim ensemble.

The Perth-based beauty complimented the outfit with a white top along with a pair of studded sandals.

She kept her signature tresses down and opted for a low-key matte makeup palette for the casual evening out.

Better late than never! Locky finally met winner Irena Srbinovska's parents, Vesna and her father Vasco, in South Australia, last month

Meanwhile, Locky donned a loose-fitting white T-shirt along with purple jeans and white sneakers.

Locky and Irena's romance appears to be going from strength-to-strength after he met her parents during a trip to the Barossa wine region, last month.

The 32-year-old adventure seeker fit right in when he met his ladylove's mother Vesna and her father Vasco for the first time.

Waiting game: Locky was supposed to meet Irena's family during The Bachelor, but the Srbinovskas couldn't fly to Sydney because Victoria closed its borders

The trio all held up a beer in the photo as they celebrated the meeting.

Since The Bachelor wrapped, the couple have moved to Locky's native Western Australia together.
New REPS was flagged as a major boost to the thousands excluded from the current GLAS scheme, but the details suggest it wont be a big hit with farmers

A new Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) was hailed as one of the big wins for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael coming out of the Government talks with the Greens last year.

It was flagged as a major boost to the thousands of farmers excluded from the current GLAS scheme and reassured farmers generally that the next environment scheme wont be too onerous.

Last summer, the Tanaiste was referring to it as REPS plus or REPS 2 and only last week at the IFA AGM, Taoiseach Micheal Martin referred to it as REPS 2 .

One reason why REPS won so many plaudits among farmers was it was perceived as having tidied up the countryside in some respects.

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The scheme was a huge success among farmers, mainly because it was understandable and manageable and created a positive attitude among farmers to the environment.

Unfortunately, being tidy and implementing simple environmental measures is not enough any more, it seems, and the millions being spent on agri-environmental schemes needs to start showing tangible results, according to the policymakers in the EU.

The GLAS scheme was the first move in this direction, with traditional hay meadows and wild bird cover among the first measures farmers were asked to undertake which would have no positive impact on the economics or tidiness of a farm.

Using productive farmland in this way along with other more onerous requirements frustrated and angered many farmers.

Just 13pc of dairy farmers joined up. Lots of other farmers just couldnt afford to turn down the max 5,000 payment.

So with the REPS brand back on board, the Government deal was sold to farmers up and down the country.

Released

However, it was to my surprise this week that when more details of how new scheme would work were released as part of a public consultation, there was no mention of REPS 2 or REPS-plus as the politicians have christened it.

Whats more, the details of how the scheme would work bore no comparison to the REPS schemes of old.

It looks likely that farmers can expect more red tape and less money and a scheme that bears little resemblance to how it was sold by the politicians.
Local Government Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta has announced the four commissioners that will act in place of elected representatives at the Tauranga City Council.

The commissioners appointed are: Anne Tolley, Bill Wasley, Stephen Selwood and Shadrach Rolleston.

An independent review in November 2020 identified significant governance problems within the council, and in December 2020, the Minister made the decision to appoint a commission to the council.

The commission is necessary to put Tauranga in a stronger position for the future, says Mahuta.

The council is facing substantial infrastructure and funding challenges that need to be addressed in its 2021-31 Long-term Plan. My decision to appoint four commissioners strikes the right balance between the significant decisions that need to be made and the important task ahead in rebuilding the relationship between the council and the Tauranga community.

In appointing these commissioners, I have carefully considered the right skills and experience to deliver the Long-term Plan, restore public confidence in the council, recognise the strategic growth challenges, working with iwi and develop a pathway to return the council to an elected membership in October 2022.

Tolley, who will chair the commission, was a Member of Parliament for almost twenty years and was Deputy Mayor of Napier City Council.

She says she is pleased to have been appointed as chair.

As New Zealands fifth largest city, it is important that Tauranga is governed effectively. This will be a big challenge for the commission, says Tolley.

I am looking forward to working with the other commissioners and the people of Tauranga to address the councils problems and return the city to full local democracy as soon as possible.

The commissions term is expected to begin on February 9 2021 and end after the triennial local authority elections on October 8 2022.

Tauranga City Council acting chief executive Christine Jones. Photo: Supplied.

Tauranga City Council acting chief executive Christine Jones welcomes the appointment of commissioners.

She says staff are looking forward to working with the commissioners to address the citys pressing, growth-related issues.

The Executive team has prepared a comprehensive briefing paper to assist commissioners when they take up their new roles on February 9," she says.

Amongst the many critical matters they will be tasked with is the delivery of our 2021-31 Long-term Plan (LTP) and we anticipate a period of intense community engagement leading into the development and adoption of the draft plan for formal consultation."

Christine says the staff are committed to working closely with the commissioners.

"The senior management team looks forward to meeting and greeting the commissioners when they take up their appointments."
Los Angeles County recently lifted its ban on outdoor dining, despite record-breaking COVID-19 cases and deaths in January.

And Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey braved the open air on Monday afternoon as they grabbed a late lunch at Il Pastaio in Beverly Hills.

The 26-year-old pop sensation tenderly locked hands with his wife of two years, while making their way to the entrance of the swanky Italian joint.

Lunch date: Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey braved the open air on Monday afternoon as they grabbed a late lunch at Il Pastaio in Beverly Hills

Tender moment: The 26-year-old pop sensation tenderly locked hands with his wife of two years, while making their way to the entrance of the swanky Italian joint

Hailey, who is the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, put on an ultra stylish display in a pair of distressed VETEMENTS jean, which she cuffed at the ankles.

The 24-year-old model paired her high fashion denim with an oversized black sweater and some white Dr. Martens oxfords.

Her golden blonde hair was parted down the middle and flowed down on her chest in sleek strands, while a pair of sunglasses and a mask kept the majority of her face covered.

High fashion: Hailey, who is the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, put on an ultra stylish display in a pair of distressed VETEMENTS jean, which she cuffed at the ankles

Sleek: Her golden blonde hair was parted down the middle and flowed down on her chest in sleek strands, while a pair of sunglasses and a mask kept the majority of her face covered

Hailey carried all of her essential belongings in a striking zebra print Bottega Veneta 'pouch' bag that she tucked under her arm.

As for Justin's going out look, the Baby hitmaker repped his streetwear brand Drew by throwing on a blue button up shirt featuring the signature logo.

He finished off his ensemble with some black slouchy jeans and a pair of chunky trainers with neon green laces.

Free at last: Los Angeles County recently lifted its ban on outdoor dining, despite record-breaking COVID-19 cases and deaths in January

Finishing touches: The 24-year-old model paired her high fashion denim with an oversized black sweater and some white Dr. Martens oxfords

The Grammy Award-winner let his messy locks poke out from beneath a brown beanie, while briefly opting to go without a mask as he strolled by Hailey's side.

Thankfully, Bieber placed a mint green mask over his face as he got closer to fellow Il Pastaio.

After filling up on some high quality Italian cuisine, the couple exited the restaurant and made their way towards the valet.

Statement piece: Hailey carried all of her essential belongings in a striking zebra print Bottega Veneta 'pouch' bag that she tucked under her arm

The valet quickly retrieved their luxurious Tesla, which Justin got in the driver's seat of.

Earlier in the day, Hailey hit up a Pilates class in Beverly Hills with her longtime BFF and fellow runway maven Kendall Jenner, 25.

The dynamic duo each arrived to the rigorous workout class in dueling ensembles that consisted of leggings and cozy tops.

Time to go: After filling up on some high quality Italian cuisine, the couple exited the restaurant and made their way towards the valet

Riding in style: The valet quickly retrieved their luxurious Tesla, which Justin got in the driver's seat of

Taking to Instagram after their fitness session, Jenner reposted a snapshot shared by journalist pal Derek Blasberg that featured herself and the wife of Justin Bieber.

'IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST SLICE @haileybieber @kendalljenner,' captioned the 38-year-old as Hailey and Kendall posed on either side of him for the smile-filled shot.

Hailey looked noticeably makeup-free and had on a comfy black long sleeve top, while Kendall looked a little more glamorous with a made up face and a nude toned sweater.
opinion

The search for a vaccine has re-ignited debates on the role of big pharmaceutical companies (Big Pharma) in addressing the health needs of developing countries.

Indian Ocean, pirates and seizures

As the world races against time in search of a vaccine to attend to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, one cannot help but feel that the more things change around access to medicines, the more they stay the same. The search for a vaccine has re-ignited debates on the role of big pharmaceutical companies (Big Pharma) in addressing the health needs of developing countries. So far the pathway to accessing a vaccine for developing countries is as clear as mud. The big question is whether it is possible to ensure that commercial gains do not trump public health needs.

In 2009, pirates operating in the Indian Ocean caused havoc, attacking over 200 vessels and hijacking more than forty. The situation was so bad that international warships were deployed to deal with the situation. What is less known about that same year are the adventures of custom officials from the European Community, who were confiscating shipments of medicines destined for developing countries.

There were also other seizures outside of the Indian Ocean with German authorities enraging public health activists when a shipment of the generic amoxicillin was seized in Germany on its way to Vanuatu, a little-developed country in the Pacific. The reason offered for the seizure was that the drugs violated trademark rules. Surprisingly, despite this "violation," the drugs were eventually released. The generic drugs were from India. Developing countries protested at this seizure of 3, 047, 000 tablets in Frankfurt before they could be shipped to Vanuatu. Amoxicillin is an antibiotic used to treat a broad range of bacterial infections. There was therefore anger at the seizure, given the importance of the drug to public health.

In the Netherlands, health activists through the Health Action International took on the Dutch government through the Freedom of Information Act. The request filed under this Act revealed that there had been over 17 seizures by the Dutch authorities and that the medicine they had confiscated was for diseases ranging from cardiac ailments to dementia. Dutch authorities had seized medicines destined for Ecuador, Peru, and Nigeria, amongst others, getting their authority from the European Commission Council Regulation No 1383/2003 of 22 July 2003. This regulation gave custom officials the authority to take action against goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property rights. It is important to note that "suspicion" is enough grounds to get medicines seized.

Vaccine nationalism

One would think that talk about access to medicines and public health issues should largely be within the ambit of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The reality, however, is that important aspects of access to medicine are handled within the domain of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This is because in 1995, what we now know as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) came into force.

TRIPS covers lots of things, including the relationship between intellectual property rights and public health. TRIPS rules obligate states to grant patent owners at least 20 years of exclusive commercial rights to make or sell their inventions, such as medicines. While this aims to protect research and development investments, it allows patent holders to keep patented drug prices artificially high, putting them out of reach to many. With mark-ups of patented drugs often a significant factor in high medicine costs, the manufacture and marketing of generic medicines can significantly reduce the cost of medicines.

In the last three months, the term "vaccine nationalism" has been in ascendancy, to describe how countries are sprinting to secure doses of the Covid-19 vaccine for their own citizens first. This has seen the richer countries signing pre-purchase agreements and entering advance market commitments with big pharmaceutical manufacturers. The United Kingdom (UK) government has struck a deal with Novax, and also with Johnson & Johnson for an extra 90 million vaccine doses for its citizens. This means that the UK now has at least six advance arrangements involving four different types of vaccines.

In August, the United States of America (USA) government bought 100 million doses after ploughing $1.5 billion into the Moderna experimental vaccine. They also got the right to purchase an extra 400 million doses in future bringing their total commitment to the Moderna vaccine to just under $3 billion. This does not include the funding that USA has invested in a French company Sanofi. This funding invested through the United States Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority gives USA the priority for future pre-orders of the vaccine. Russia, through Gamaleya Research Institute, has also developed a Covid-19 vaccine for its domestic market, unsurprisingly named Sputnik V.

It is worrying that at a time when billions of dollars of public funds are being invested in future vaccines and treatment for Covid-19, not as much energy has been put in pushing for a relaxation of intellectual property to make access to vaccines easier. This means that Big Pharma and rich countries will determine who gets access. There is, therefore, merit in calls for Covid-19 vaccines to be designated global public goods to deal with this global pandemic, because in the final analysis, no one is safe, until all of us are safe. Hence, the Covid-19 vaccines should be free from the monopoly control of pharmaceutical companies.

Strengthening local productive capacity

Part of dealing with the monopolistic tendencies of big pharma requires the building of manufacturing capacity in developing countries. The debate on strengthening the local production of essential medicines has been raging on for some time. In this respect, WHO's posture and positioning has not exactly been helpful. WHO has argued against local production not without reason, the chief being that that local production tends to be more expensive and commercially unviable. WHO has, therefore, argued that if the production capacity by companies from the developed countries can adequately supply the world demand, then it is not necessary to produce essential medicines in developing countries as these countries can just plug in to world supply. In contrast, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have been pushing for the strengthening and support of local pharmaceutical production in developing countries.

The current scramble for access to Covid-19 vaccines and the attendant vaccine nationalism which has come with it means that the WHO position is problematic. For example, the USA, the European Union (EU) and the UK have signed pre-purchase orders for the first 2.5 billion doses of the different vaccines being developed. If anything, the position pushed by WHO has encouraged dependency which has left developing countries exposed and at the mercy of donations. Even the argument on expensive costs of production by developing country companies now seems tenuous. Big Pharma in the EU and other developed countries, including the USA, have tended to entrust certain medicine productive capacities in Asian countries to take advantage of low labour costs. However, there are now calls to reconsider this approach. The most vocal calls have come from the Germany Federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, who has urged the EU to seriously consider relocating back to the EU countries the production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API).

This seems to suggest that the EU may opt to pay higher costs so that it exercises some level of control on productive capacities. The pre-purchase orders for billions of doses has also created a shortage of doses which will negatively impact on Africa and most of the world's developing countries. In short, this means that even if these developing countries were able to raise enough money, there will not be any vaccines available for purchase because of existing prior deals.

The trouble with COVAX

In April 2020, what is known as the Access to Covid Tools (ACT) Accelerator was launched as part of a global collaboration to push for equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines. COVAX is the vaccine pillar at the heart of the ACT Accelerator. This collaboration brings together scientists, governments, philanthropists and civil society organisations amongst others. COVAX is jointly led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO. The idea behind COVAX is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee equitable access for every country in the world. It is therefore not surprising that COVAX has been touted as some kind of solution for Africa and for developing countries elsewhere.

So far, a total of $5 billion seems to have been set aside to procure vaccines for Africa. However, there are some unanswered questions, including worries that COVAX seems to be a Western-driven arrangement that prioritises self-financing countries. It is also worrying that a small group took critical decisions without much consultation on how allocations for the vaccine will be made. There are also concerns that if the pre-purchase agreements are anything to by, it may take more than a year after vaccines are out for Africa to obtain access.

What is to be done?

Against this background, it may be important for Africa to seriously explore potential multiple sources for vaccine access. China seems to be the best bet for Africa given that the country has already committed to sharing its vaccines with developing countries that it has ties with. China's president, Xi Jinping, promised the World Health Assembly in May that its vaccines would be "global public goods". The China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing revealed that two vaccines developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company, Sinopharm, will be ready latest in December. Apart from the tests in China, these two vaccines are also being tested in other countries, including Argentina and the United Arab Emirates. Russia also is a good candidate for Africa to reach out to. It has so far covered significant ground as it seeks to register its second coronavirus vaccine before the end of October. The experimental vaccine has been developed by Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology and early clinical trials were conducted on volunteers in July.

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The market dominance of Big Pharma will continue to be a problem and affect access to patented health products needed to address Covid-19. However, countries should take advantage of flexibilities built in the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Doha Declaration on TRIPs and Public Health. The Doha declaration allows WTO members to interpret TRIPS in a manner that supports and promotes access to medicines. The Doha declaration also gives countries the authority to use the flexibilities provided in the TRIPS Agreement the right to grant a license, without permission from the license holder, on various grounds including public health. The demand for access to the Covid-19 vaccine will far outstrip its supply and if the world is serious with dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, then the enforcement of patents on Covid-19 products must be suspended. The world must also invest resources in building and strengthening production capacity in developing countries.

It is worth noting that India and South Africa have jointly asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to allow all countries to neither grant nor enforce patents and other intellectual property rights related to Covid-19 health products until some kind of herd immunity has been established. The request is a reasonable one as it calls for a waiver only within the confines of what is needed for Covid-19 prevention and treatment. At any rate, Article IX 3 and 4 of what is known as the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO (WTO Agreement) are clear that a waiver can be granted under exceptional circumstances from some obligations required by WTO treaties such as TRIPS. The granting of waivers is not unprecedented at the WTO. A waiver, for example, has previously been granted to allow countries producing generic medicines through a compulsory license to supply the medicines to other countries that do not have the capacity to produce the medicines themselves. As aptly demanded by civil society organisations, WHO and the United Nations must push for "binding commitments from biopharmaceutical companies and other manufacturers for the rapid supply of existing and future medical products, especially diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines to developing and least developed countries at an affordable price and also ensure that intellectual property rights do not affect or hinder efforts to curb the Covid-19 outbreak".

*Makombe is the team leader for the Democracy and Governance cluster at the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa.
The tender was awarded at a premium of $122 per tonne, cif Incheon port, according to a notice published by the state agency on Tuesday February 2 The premium will be paid on top of the aluminium cash LME Daily Officia l price, which was $1,985.50 per tonne on February 1.

This tender...

What we call criminal law broadly refers to federal and state laws that make certain behavior illegal and punishable by imprisonment and/or fines. Our legal system is largely comprised of two different types of cases: civil and criminal. Civil cases are disputes between people regarding the legal duties and responsibilities they owe each other. Criminal cases, meanwhile, are charges pursued by prosecutors for violations of criminal statutes.

Criminal Law: History

In the United States, British common law ruled during colonial times. Common law is a process that establishes and updates rules that govern some nations. Once America became an independent nation, it adopted the U.S. Constitution as "the supreme law of the land." The U.S. continues to employ a common law system, which works in combination with state and federal statutes. As far as criminal laws are concerned, each state has its own penal code which defines what is or is not a crime, the severity of any offense and its punishment.

Felonies and Misdemeanors

Criminal cases are generally categorized as felonies or misdemeanors based on their nature and the maximum imposable punishment. Each state is free to draft new criminal laws, so long as they are deemed constitutional. Thus, what is a crime in one state may not necessarily be a crime in a neighboring state.

A felony involves serious misconduct that is punishable by death or by imprisonment for more than one year. Most state criminal laws subdivide felonies into different classes with varying degrees of punishment. Crimes that do not amount to felonies are typically called misdemeanors. A misdemeanor is misconduct for which the law prescribes punishment of no more than one year in prison. Lesser offenses, such as traffic and parking tickets, are often called infractions.

Police Investigate, Prosecutors File Charges

Many people think that police officers (who investigate crimes) also charge offenders. That is a common misconception. Police gather evidence and sometimes also testify in court. But prosecutors  including district attorneys, United States Attorneys and others  ultimately decide whether a suspect is prosecuted or not.

Criminal Defense Lawyers

A qualified criminal defense attorney is often a crucial advocate for anyone charged with a crime. These attorneys are very familiar with local criminal procedures and laws  some may have even first worked as prosecutors. Most defense lawyers should be able to handle any misdemeanor or low-level crime. But not all lawyers are qualified to handle serious charges. Some courts don't allow inexperienced attorneys to represent defendants facing capital punishment, for example.

So whether you were arrested for a crime against a person (like assault and battery, rape, or murder), a crime against property (like shoplifting, burglary, or arson), or a drug crime (marijuana possession or cocaine dealing), a criminal defense lawyer can help.

Findaw's Criminal Law section has a wealth of information that covers most criminal law situations. We have definitions of dozens of common crimes, an overview of stages in a typical criminal case, tips on your constitutional rights, information on criminal records, juvenile crime and much more.
Western Australia has recorded no new cases of coronavirus after two days of lockdown - as officials investigate how a hotel quarantine security guard caught the UK strain of coronavirus.

Premier Mark McGowan said there were 15,496 new tests and told those who had been swabbed 'you have done your state proud'.

Perth, Peel and south-west WA were plunged into lockdown on Sunday after a guard at the Sheraton Four Points hotel tested positive.

Western Australia has recorded no new cases of coronavirus after two days of lockdown. Pictured: Scarborough beach in Perth

Perth residents are allowed out of their homes for one hour of exercise with a mask on

Some 151 close contacts and 68 casual contacts of the guard have been contacted by officials and asked to isolate and get tested.

The guard worked two 12-hour shifts on both January 26 and 27 while there were four Covid-19 patients there, including two with the highly-infectious UK variant and one with the South African strain.

Mr McGowan said genomic sequencing has revealed the guard caught the UK strain from an infected traveller on the floor he was working on.

The guard had delivered medication to the door of the patient's hotel room but had not gone inside.

Nurses take swabs at a COVID-19 testing clinic in Perth on Monday as residents endured lockdown

Officials have temporarily stopped overseas arrivals from staying at the hotel and are asking anyone who left the hotel from January 25 to isolate and get tested.

'We have decided to take an extra cautious approach at this facility until we find out exactly what occurred,' Mr McGowan said.

'As a result, no further overseas arrivals will be going into this quarantine facility at present.

'Existing arrivals in quarantine at the four points hotel which were due to leave incoming days will remain in quarantine until they complete an additional negative test.

'Anyone who has been recently released from this facility going back to January 25 is being contacted directly by our health teams to instruct them to remain in self quarantine until they receive a further negative test result,' the premier said.

The man, who is aged in his 20s and from Maylands, was working as a security guard at Sheraton Four Points hotel

The guard was probably infectious for five days before he tested positive to Covid-19, authorities believe.

And during the time he was infectious, he visited 15 locations across Perth - including a Coles, KFC, hair dresser, halal grocery store and Indian consulate - leaving contact tracers in Western Australia scrambling to locate all potential contacts.

The security guard, who is in his 20s and from the inner-suburb of Maylands, became the first instance of community transmission in the state in 10 months when he tested positive to the virus on Saturday night.

The man, who claims he was wearing PPE while working at the hotel, returned negative results as part of routine testing on January 15, 17 and 23 but started to become unwell on January 28 - and called in sick for his shift on January 30.

Western Australia's chief health officer Andy Robertson said the security guard was most likely infectious from January 26 - five days before his positive test result came through on Saturday night.

WA's health incident coordinator Robyn Lawrence on Tuesday claimed the guard 'did everything right' despite failing to isolate when he first fell ill.

He eventually attended a GP practice in Nedlands and got tested.

'He was unwell, he stayed home, he sought medical advice and then subsequently the following day when he was still unwell, sought a COVID test,' Dr Lawrence told Perth radio 6PR.

Health authorities have listed 15 venues, on top of Sheraton Four Points hotel, as potential exposure sites after they were visited by the security guard. Pictured: Map shows venues the positive Covid case visited

'There is no bungle at this point in time.

'I will agree that the State Health Incident Control Centre is responsible for the hotel quarantine program and we take that responsibility incredibly seriously.'

Anyone living in the lockdown zone, including school students, must stay at home unless shopping for essentials, attending to medical or healthcare needs, exercising within their neighbourhood or working if unable to do so remotely.

Metropolitan testing clinics are staying open until 10pm, but Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup has called for the government to open a 24-hour clinic.

He also wants an immediate end to some hotel workers holding second jobs.

Mr McGowan has said the government is close to enforcing such a ban which is likely to be softened by a 40 per cent pay increase.

The Sheraton guard is also a rideshare driver but is not believed to have worked in that job since January 22 - several days before likely becoming infected.

He is said to be fully cooperating with a police investigation.

With AAP
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off death row and moved to a so-called government safe house." Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years will be under guard and won't be allowed to leave the safe house, but he will be able to have his wife and children visit him. It is not complete freedom. It is a step toward freedom," said Sheikh's father, Saeed Sheikh, who attended the hearing. The Pakistan government has been scrambling to keep Sheikh in jail since a Supreme Court order last Thursday upheld his acquittal in the death of Pearl generating expressions of outrage by Pearl's family and the U.S. administration.

In a final effort to overturn Sheikh's acquittal, Pakistan government as well as the Pearl family have filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to review the decision to exonerate Sheikh of Pearl's murder. The Pearl family lawyer, Faisal Sheikh, earlier said a review has a slim chance of success because the same Supreme Court judges who ordered Sheikh's acquittal sit on the review panel.

The US government has said that it would seek Sheikh's extradition if his acquittal is upheld. Sheikh has been indicted in the United States on Pearl's murder as well as in a 1994 kidnapping of an American citizen in Indian-ruled Kashmir. The American was eventually freed.(AP) .

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The Capitol police officer who shot and killed Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt during the January 6 insurrection should not be prosecuted, an initial police investigation has concluded.

Babbitt, 35, was killed as she tried to climb through a broken window to get into congressional chambers, after breaking into the federal building with a mob of pro-Trump rioters.

On Monday night sources told The Wall Street Journal that the unnamed Capitol lieutenant had been cleared by an internal investigation.

The Justice Department will ultimately decide whether to press charges, and is yet to make their conclusions.

Ashli Babbitt, 35, was shot and killed by a member of the Capitol Police during the riot

The mob was seen smashing windows and pushing at the doors while armed officers stood guard with their guns drawn on the other side. Babbitt was then seen trying to clamber through a smashed window to enter the chamber as a fellow rioter shouted 'he's got a gun'

It was always felt unlikely that the officer, who was in the last line of defense between the rioters and the politicians huddled inside, would be charged.

Federal prosecutors must be able to prove not only that an officer used excessive force, but also that the officer willfully violated someone's constitutional rights.

The officer who fired the deadly shot told investigators, according to The New York Times, that there was utter confusion at the time, and he feared the rioters were about to access the chamber when he pulled the trigger.

Instead, there were police outside and they moved away as reinforcements arrived.

The crowd smashed the glass with a helmet and stick, according to video footage.

Multiple videos of the shooting posted on social media showed Babbitt, who appears to be wearing a Trump flag as a cape, falling from a smashed-out window after being shot by the officer on the other side of a set of double doors.

Footage shows three officers guarding the door appearing to make way for the back-up tactical team, with one saying: 'Theyre ready to roll.' That leaves the door completely unguarded as the rioters continue to try and break down the doors

A gunshot then rung out and the 35-year-old fell back out from the window onto the ground

The officer said he had used tables and chairs to barricade the door to the highly restricted area and said he had 31 rounds in his gun. The officer said he thought he heard that shots had been fired elsewhere in the Capitol before the fatal shooting

The officer claimed to have not known there had been three officers guarding the door. He said he had only seen the crowd advancing towards him in the moments before Babbitt's death at around 2:30pm.

Footage shows the three officers guarding the door had no visible shields or riot gear.

The officer, who was put on leave pending an investigation, also claims he did not know a tactical team was on its was to help clear out the rioters.

Footage shows as the three officers guarding the door appear to make way for this team, with one saying: 'They're ready to roll.'

But that leaves the door completely unguarded as the rioters continue to try and break down the doors.

The officer who shot at Babbitt has told officials he did not know if any of those in the crowd were armed as he fired his single shot.

He also said he had no advance planning on how to deal with such a charge on the building.

Babbitt had traveled from San Diego to take part in the Trump rally and subsequent riot

Babbitt has become a martyr for Trump supporters, who have held multiple vigils for her

Babbitt and the crowd she joined had been heading for the passage that was being used to evacuate the House floor.

The officer said he had used tables and chairs to barricade the door to the highly restricted area and said he had 31 rounds in his gun. The officer said he also thought he heard that shots had been fired elsewhere in the Capitol earlier in the siege.

Christopher Ray Grider, 39, of Eddy, Texas told local outlets that he was just a few feet when Babbitt was shot.

He was later accused of willful depredation of federal property, remaining in a restricted area unlawfully, and violent entry in the January 6 riot.

Chad Barrett Jones, 42, of Coxs Creek, Kentucky, was charged with assault on a federal officer, certain acts during a civil disorder, destruction of government property over $1,000, obstruction of justice, unlawful entry on restricted building or grounds, violent entry, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

According to an affidavit, the FBI received a public tip identifying Jones through images taken from the video in which Babbitt was shot.

Thomas Baranyi, 28, also allegedly featured in a widely circulated interview filmed in the aftermath of the death Babbitt. Federal agents viewed footage of Babbitt's shooting and saw a man wearing the same blue Giants sweater and black baseball cap standing beside her.

Baranyi has been charged for his alleged role in the riot.

Babbitt has become a martyr for Trump supporters, who have held multiple vigils in her memory.

Dozens of people have been charged over the January 6 insurrection

The mob overran the small contingent of Capitol Police for the first time since 1814

On social media she is described as a veteran and libertarian who loved her husband, her large black-and-white dog 'and above all, my country.'

Based in San Diego, California, her military service included several deployments to Iraq during the war.

On the day before the riot, Babbitt tweeted: 'Nothing will stop us....they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours....dark to light!'

Babbitt's husband Aaron paid tribute to his wife, who served 14 years in the Air Force, as a staunch Trump supporter who was 'a great patriot to all who knew her.'

He said: 'She didnt have any weapons on her, I dont know why she had to die in the Peoples House. She was voicing her opinion and she got killed for it.'

DailyMail.com exclusively reported that Babbitt had a significant rap sheet that included reckless endangerment, malicious destruction of property and tampering with a car, and that she was the subject of two restraining orders.

She also had a three-way relationship with her husband with a 29-year-old bartender Kayla Joyce, who lived with the married couple in San Diego.

Joyce told New York Magazine that she learned of her girlfriend's death on TV.

'I actually saw it first on video when I was on the phone with multiple hospitals trying to find her,' the 29-year-old said.

'We found out through the news. Through live television.

'We were trying to get in touch with her once this sh*t was all over the media. We were trying to call and trying to call, and nothing. Her location services were off. We just couldn't find her, and finally we saw the live video of her.'

Babbitt was one of five people killed in the riot.

Three others were also Trump supporters, while one was an on-duty cop who died trying to defend the Capitol from attack.

Roseanne Boyland, 34, was trampled in the Rotunda and crushed in the mob.

Kevin Greeson, 55, from Alabama suffered a heart attack 'in the midst of the excitement', according to his family.

Benjamin Phillips, 50, a computer programmer from Pennsylvania, died after suffering a stroke.

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died when a fire extinguisher was thrown at his head by the mob.
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Kai Hatty, 13, has been found safe and well

A 13-year-old schoolboy whose disappearance sparked fears he was in trouble due to treacherous weather has been found safe and well.

Kai Hatty, 13, had been missing from around 7pm last night, police said.

The youngster, from Leeds, West Yorks., was reported missing after he did not return home sparking a police appeal for information.

Leeds was battered by heavy snowfall overnight as temperatures plummeted and police said the treacherous conditions heightened concern for the schoolboy's safety.

An amber snow warning with 'potential risk to life' has been issued by the Met Office for the area.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: 'There are concerns for his welfare due to the weather conditions in the area overnight and today.

'Enquiries are continuing to locate Kai and anyone with information which may assist is asked to contact police.'

West Yorkshire Police have since confirmed the 13-year-old schoolboy has since been found safe and well after police appeal for help to trace his whearebouts.
To give businesses and investors a better understanding of this new trend, Taiwan's financial weekly magazine Business Today held its inaugural ESG Sustainability International Summit (Taiwan) on January 26. Besides inviting well-known players in the ESG field, among them, WIN Semiconductors Corp. (3105.TW), Evergreen Marine Corp. (Taiwan) Ltd. (EMC) (2603.TW), China Steel Corp. (CSC) (2002.TW), Bank SinoPac, Delta Electronics, Inc. (DELTA) (2308.TW) and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) (2303.TW), to share how they have made ESG a key factor in the decision-making when it comes to investments, PwC Taiwan and Cathay Securities Investment Trust were also on hand to give opinions from a capital markets perspective. For the first time, attendees were able to directly exchange opinions with international rating agency MSCI and leading corporate governance solutions provider ISS Corporate Solutions.

Students will have to take more science and foreign-language classes after changes made to state graduation requirements, leaving some school districts worried about having the faculty to meet the demand.

The requirements were included as part of House Bill 2170, which was introduced by Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, during the legislatures lame-duck session last month.

The bill adds two years of foreign language classes and two years of laboratory science classes instead of just science courses.

The foreign-language requirement wont take effect until the 2028-29 school year. The laboratory science requirement will start earlier, in the 2024-25 school year.

We have some time to plan for it, said Dan Scott, assistant principal at Jacksonville High School.

Scott said its a move the school supports, but theres a concern about finding staff to teach the courses.

There are no requirements for foreign languages at present.There are three foreign language teachers at the high school, one for German and two for Spanish. Jacksonville High School also has an American Sign Language teacher.

The school already meets the two-year requirement for laboratory science.

Triopia High School does not have foreign language requirement, but offers it as an elective, Superintendent Adam Dean said.

He expressed concerns with the foreign language requirement because it puts another requirement on students  which will hurt electives enrollment  and because with the state having a shortage of foreign-language teachers, some schools might have to offer it on an online platform.

My concern is it will lead to curricular changes and a possible watering down of standards because instead of the students who truly want to be in the class taking it, we have to make sure all kids get through it before they graduate, Dean said. While I appreciate the effort to make more students bilingual, it leads to several more issues.

The requirement doesnt change for laboratory sciences at Triopia because students already are required to take two sciences  physical science and biology  that fulfill the new requirement.

monashees led the financing round with the participation of all existing investors to accelerate Vortexa's exceptional growth in the multi-$T energy and shipping industries

Vortexa, the energy intelligence provider that combines AI and deep industry expertise to provide the most complete real-time data and analytics tools for waterborne energy and shipping markets, has today announced it has raised $19 million in Series B funding. The round was led by monashees with participation from all existing investors, including Notion Capital, Mosaic Ventures and Metaplanet Holdings. The investment brings the total amount raised by Vortexa to more than $30 million since inception. Vortexa will use the funding to further accelerate its international expansion and product development.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005387/en/

Fabio Kuhn, CEO, Vortexa (Photo: Business Wire)

Vortexa empowers energy trading and shipping companies to make superior decisions on the movement of energy at a global scale and in real time. Vortexa's clients include oil supermajors, commodities trading houses, investment banks, brokers and ship owners, spanning across all continents.

With $1.8 trillion of trades on water per year, the physical energy market is still one of the most opaque markets in existence today. Data is fragmented and incomplete, leading businesses to make high-stake decisions in the dark. Vortexa shines light on the physical flows of energy to help traders, analysts and charterers identify opportunities to move energy more economically and efficiently.

"The combination of state-of-the-art technology with energy markets expertise provided by Vortexa is unlocking immense value for our clients, partners and society our success is a reflection of theirs" said Fabio Kuhn, Founder and CEO of Vortexa. "With our Series B, we are well positioned to scale our international expansion and technology development even faster."

Vortexa has experienced exponential growth since announcing its Series A in 2019, tripling revenues in 2020 and opening offices in Singapore and the U.S., while doubling their organisation to more than 70 people and 2021 is looking even more promising.

"The amazing traction Vortexa has seen reflects the energy sector's fundamental need for better and faster data and analytics" said Caio Bolognesi, Partner at monashees. "Without access to high-quality information, it is very difficult for energy and shipping companies of any size to be competitive in the market. Vortexa is playing a key role in levelling up the industry and we're really excited to partner with Fabio and the team in this next phase of growth".

About Vortexa

Vortexa tracks more than $1.8 trillion of waterborne energy trades per year in real time, providing energy and shipping companies with the most complete picture of global energy flows available in the world today. Vortexa's highly intuitive web-based app and programmatic API/SDK interfaces help traders, analysts and charterers make high-value trading decisions with confidence, when it matters the most.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005387/en/

Contacts:

For more information contact

Charlotte McCrum

+44 7903 985834

charlotte@harper-gray.com

https://www.vortexa.com/press
It starts with a conversation. A conversation that needs to be had more and more, one that needs to be destigmatized. The cat is out of the bag, and it has been for quite some time. Anyone who does not believe the disease of addiction can affect their life, whether directly or indirectly, is simply turning a blind eye.

Drug addiction can affect anyone from any socioeconomic background, any sex, any race; the fact is that addiction does not discriminate. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2019 alone, among people aged 12 or older, 57.2 million people used illicit drugs or misused prescription drugs. 9.7 million of those misused prescription painkillers, 5.9 million misused prescription tranquilizers or sedatives, 5.5 million used cocaine, 5.5 million misused prescription stimulants, and 2 million used methamphetamines. According to the CDC, over 70,000 people died from overdose, 50,000 of those involving opioids.

As an individual or family member whose loved one is caught in the thick of the desperate trap that is addiction, finding the right help seemingly only adds more confusion and more difficulty in the battle of overcoming addiction.

Individuals seeking help for substance addiction can find assistance with United Recovery Project, a unique and intensive program designed for those struggling with substance abuse. United Recovery Project offers a comprehensive and holistic approach to addiction treatment. Treatment typically begins with detoxification or detox for short. Detox is the first step in the journey towards recovery, and is very important to safely rid your body of the toxins associated with drugs and alcohol in a medically supervised environment. While there are many different types of treatment options offered, individuals have the option to reside in one of the many luxurious facilities offered by United Recovery Project during the course of their treatment.

Bryan Alzate serves as the Chief Executive Officer of United Recovery Project, and he has a vested passion as an active member of the recovery community with over 10 years substance abuse free.

Before co-founding the United Recovery Project, Bryan attended Florida Atlantic University and today brings 9 years of substance abuse treatment experience to United Recovery Project. It is more than a goal; it is his lifes mission to provide a safe, healing environment where clients are given the tools needed to achieve total health and wellness.

His newly released Podcast Hell Has an Exit features people from all different walks of life who have found their way out of Hell against all odds. The podcast is intended to further the message that We Do Recover. The episodes focus primarily on addiction with episodes ranging all the way from stories of the son of a Colombian cartel boss doing cocaine at 12, to a drug addicted gangbanger selling kilos of cocaine who now has 9 years clean and multiple college degrees, to a cheerleader addicted to heroin obtaining her Masters degree and becoming a present and loving mother. And while the podcast's main focus is addiction, some episodes feature people exiting different kinds of Hell. In one episode, Bryan sits down with Anita Karl, as she tells her story of being one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust. Hell Has an Exit is a way for those who have been affected by addiction to access the minds and thoughts of others who may have found themselves in similar situations. As human beings, relating to others and discovering that we are not alone in our battles is one very important part of the healing process. Learning to accept the help of others while also learning to trust that we do deserve better despite what our subconscious tells us, is part of the message that Bryan wants to spread.

In an interview with Bryan, we ask him a series of questions to help us understand where he stands on some touchy subject surrounding Big Pharma & the reputation of rehabs.

When we asked Bryan what his stance is on the damage caused by Big Pharma (Purdue) his response was:

Sure I can place blame on Big Pharma for the opioid epidemic were living in today, but at the end of the day there are people whose jobs it is to fight the big corruption. Placing blame is the easy way out, theres no action in placing blame for someone like me.

My job is to spark the flame in the addict who doesnt think he can. Thats what I focus on. Little sparks all over the world. Not trying to put out a forest fire. Im focused on starting my own fire.

I want people talking about how cool recovery is. How fun rehab was. How successful addicts are, how smart addicts are and how diverse they are.

Its easy to be angry and to get caught up in the news. Does the news about the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma do anything for me? Maybe. Maybe its good to know justice is being served. But what about Kratom, what about fentanyl? What about the scam rehabs that pay addicts to go there; that house them like slaves and bill their insurance? Sure, it felt good when Safe Haven, the worst rehab in Florida, got shut down and they went to prison. But guess what, the next day there were 3 more. So again, what good does it do for me to focus on all the scams? I want to talk about the good places and focus on the fact that there are good places. I want addicts that need help to be able to trust that there is good help out there.

With the Hell Has an Exit podcast and United Recovery Project, Bryans mission is to help addicts trust that there is good help out there and that they can start their road to recovery too. Visit the United Recovery Project for more information.

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Mumbai, Feb 2 : Two-wheeler and commercial vehicle manufacturer Bajaj Auto on Tuesday reported a 8 per cent growth in total sales during January on a year-on-year basis.

According to the company, total sales during the month under review grew to 4,25,199 units from 3,94,473 units sold during the corresponding month of 2020.

However, Bajaj Auto's total domestic sales declined. It stood at 1,70,757 units -- down (-) 11 per cent -- from 1,92,872 units sold in January last year.

The company's overall exports zoomed by 26 per cent to 2,54,442 units from 2,01,601 units shipped out during the like month of 2020.

In terms of two-wheelers, the company's total sales rose by 16 per cent to 3,84,936 units from 3,32,342 units sold in January last year.

However, commercial vehicle sales during the month under review declined by 35 per cent to 40,263 units from 62,131 units sold during the like period of last year.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Austria will start relaxing its third coronavirus lockdown from February 8, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced on Monday, with schools, museums and shops set to reopen.

The relaxation of restrictions, which have been in place since December 26, is being undertaken even though "we are far removed from our ideal scenario of a seven-day average of 50 new cases", Kurz told a press conference.

"For this reason only careful steps towards opening are possible," he said, speaking after a day of talks with scientists, the opposition and heads of regional governments.

He said that while from an epidemiological point of view the ideal course of action would be to continue the lockdown, the government also had to consider wider social and psychological effects of lockdown.

School pupils will have to be tested every two days, with older pupils attending according to a rotating timetable.

Shops, museums and zoos will be able to reopen but customers and visitors will have to wear medical-grade face masks.

Services such as hairdressers and beauticians will also be allowed to reopen but customers will have to show proof of a negative coronavirus test.

Meetings of people from more than two households will once again be allowed but Kurz pleaded for social contacts to be kept to a minimum.

He said the government would re-assess the situation in two weeks to see if it would be possible to reopen restaurants and cafes or restart cultural events.

But he warned the government could also reintroduce restrictions if infection numbers get worse.

One of the few exceptions to the wide-ranging shutdown in recent weeks has been ski resorts, which have stayed open for local visitors despite several reported outbreaks.

While the country was spared in the first wave of the pandemic, it has been hard hit by the second and has suffered more than 7,800 deaths of people who have contracted the virus.

At the same time, frustration with lockdown measures has become ever more visible with some large demonstrations.

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

 2021 AFP
A trial prosecutor, Gevorg Baghdasarian, revealed the permission and demanded an explanation from the judge, Anna Danibekian, during the latest court hearing on coup charges leveled against Kocharian and three other former officials.

We dont know the grounds on which Robert Kocharian is allowed to leave Armenia, complained Baghdasarian. He said Danibekian should have consulted with the prosecution before making the decision communicated to the Armenian police.

If you think that the courts decision must be appealed you are not deprived of that possibility, countered the judge.

Kocharian was allowed to be absent from the country from February 3-8. His spokesman Victor Soghomonian told the Hraparak newspaper that the ex-president will fly to Moscow to take part in a meeting of the board of directors of a major Russian corporation, AFK Sistema.

Kocharian has been a board member since 2009. He reportedly attended a board meeting during his previous trip to the Russian capital in mid-December.

The 66-year-old, who governed Armenia from 1998-2008, had not been able to attend any Sistema meetings since being first arrested in July 2018. He was most recently released from jail on bail in May 2020.

Sistemas main shareholder, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, was reportedly one of four wealthy Russian businessmen who paid the bulk of the $4.1 million bail set by Armenias Court of Appeals.

Russia has criticized the criminal proceedings launched against Kocharian. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made a point of congratulating him on his birthday anniversaries and praising his legacy.

Some Kocharian loyalists claimed that Putin spoke with his former Armenian counterpart by phone during the latters December trip to Moscow. Kocharians office did not confirm that.

The ex-president, his former chief of staff Armen Gevorgian and Armenias two former top generals, Seyran Ohanian and Yuri Khachaturov, stand accused of overthrowing the constitutional order after a disputed presidential election held during the final weeks of Kocharians decade-long rule. The charges stem from a deadly post-election unrest in Yerevan. All four defendants reject them as politically motivated.

Speaking during Tuesdays court hearing, Kocharian insisted that he is tried for his handling of a political process.

Kocharian has been at loggerheads with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians government ever since it took office following the Velvet Revolution of April-May 2018. He has joined opposition groups in blaming Pashinian for Armenias defeat in the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh and demanding his resignation.

Kocharian said last week that that he and his political allies will participate in snap parliamentary elections even if they are held by Armenias current government. We will participate and win, he declared.
The Delhi government on Saturday announced an extension of the Covid-induced lockdown till June 7. As per new rules, the movement of individuals except for essential activities till 5 am on 7 June (Monday), or further orders whichever is earlier".
Washington state is hit by one of the nastiest data breaches on its systems for the year, as a record high of 1.6 million unemployed residents of the area has their identity exposed to security threats and hackers. The attack was said to be centered on the third-party service provider of Washington and is not pointed towards the Employment Security Department (ESD).

The country's capital state was hit by an attack that has compromised several of its data and information that exposes its citizen's identity, and have taken advantage of the third-party service provider's software vulnerability. The attack was said to be originating back to December 25, 2020, where unauthorized access to the systems was detected.

The third-party service provider is identified by the Office of the Washing State Auditor (AOC), Pat McCarthy, to be Accellion, a private cloud solutions company that is based in Palo Alto, California. The company focuses on file sharing, primarily involving data sharing and collaboration.

Read Also: Snowstorm Mount 'WoW' Arrives with BlizzCon 2021 Celebration Packs

Washington State Auditor Blames Accellion for Data Breach

According to the Office of the Washing State Auditor (SAO), Accellion confirmed the data breach to the government authorities in the last week, January 25, 2021, which is almost one month after the first detection. The exploiters have attacked the vulnerability in the software's collaborative system, accessing personal and sensitive information.

Accellion has revealed that they have been studying and investigating the data breach, before it has reported the incident to SAO, which in turn, put the heat on them, with the agency blaming them for the hack. Moreover, the primary data that was targeted by the exploiters is the list of Washington residents who filed for unemployment claims last year.

The data includes those who filed from Jan. 1 until Dec. 10, 2020, and has an accumulated list of 1.6 million residents of the state. The number is a massive one, especially with their data and identities exposed to the exploiters, ranging from different sensitive information including full name, birthdate, address, previous occupation, etc.

These data may be used against the users, by either blackmail content or identity theft that steals information from others, using their credentials that are complete with the essentials.

Other Data Exposed from Accellion Breach in Washington State

According to Seattle Times' report, Pat McCarthy, the State Auditor, is entirely putting the blame on Accellion, and not on the Employment Security Department (ESD), whose data was taken and exploited. While ESD was the main target of the attack, it was Accellion's systems that failed and exposed a vulnerability to the hackers says McCarthy.

Moreover, other data that were taken and exposed include the personal information of both the public and state employees, which signifies that the attack was extensive and more dangerous than how it sounds. Additionally, a smaller number of group data were also taken, including those from the Department of Children, Youth, and Families.

Related Article: COVID-19 Vaccine Cards:Why Posting Them On Social Media is a Bad Idea-According to Experts

This article is owned by Tech Times





Written by Isaiah Alonzo

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Nicola Sturgeon could allow Scottish students to return to school weeks before those in England after her top medical adviser said it was safe for them to go back.

Professor Jason Leitch claimed 'progress' is being made against the coronavirus and he has recommended to the SNP Government that younger children can return.

At the last review on January 19 the Scottish Government said the earliest date schools could possibly open for pupils who are not vulnerable or children of key workers was being pushed back to at least mid-February.

In England, schools are not expected to reopen until March 8 at the earliest, with scientists casting doubt today on even that target.

It came as Ms Sturgeon prepares to introduce a tough new policy on international arrivals that goes further than the one announced by Boris Johnson last week.

In what is seen as an attack on the Prime Minister she is set to say that his plan to force hotel quarantine on arrivals from 'red list' nations is not strict enough.

But her plan to force all travellers from abroad - including returning Brits - into quarantine sparked accusations that she was seeking to divert attention from Scotland's stuttering vaccination campaign.

Just 9,628 patients received their first vaccine dose yesterday, the fewest since the Scottish Government began publishing figures on January 11.

Scotland is lagging behind the rest of the country, as Government data revealed another 322,000 vaccines were dished out across the country on Sunday.

Ms Sturgeon was also dragged into a bitter internal SNP row after MP Joanna Cherry, a close associate of former party leader Alex Salmond, was sacked from its frontbench team in Westminster.

Ruth Davidson, the Conservative leader at Holyrood, said: 'As yesterday saw a new low for vaccinations and Scotland officially having the lowest rate of any of the nations and regions of the UK, the dead cat strategy is enacted.

'Watch all columnist rush to dissect the Joanna Cherry sacking, rather than SNP vaccine failure.'

Nicola Sturgeon could allow Scottish students to return to school weeks before those in England after her top medical adviser said it was safe for them to go back.

Professor Jason Leitch claimed 'progress' is being made against the coronavirus and he has recommended to the SNP Government that younger children can return.

Ms Sturgeon was also dragged into a bitter internal SNP row after MP Joanna Cherry was sacked from its frontbench team in Westminster. Ruth Davidson, the Conservative leader at Holyrood, said: 'As yesterday saw a new low for vaccinations and Scotland officially having the lowest rate of any of the nations and regions of the UK, the dead cat strategy is enacted'

Scots vaccine rollout slower 'because some GPs don't work Sundays' Scotland's top medic today said that Scotland's slow vaccine rollout had been hindered by GPs whose surgeries are closed on Sundays. Holyrood ministers have been accused of being too slow over the vaccination rollout in recent days, with opposition politicians saying the rest of the UK is moving faster. On Sunday, just 9,628 vaccinations were completed in Scotland, out of a UK-wide total of 322,000. Speaking to the BBC today Prof Leitch said 'Sundays are a little bit tricky' and that the vaccination team has been asked to 'have a look at that'. He added that the reason for the drop on Sunday was because of where the jabs are being administered, with most being delivered in GP practices which 'didn't all work (on) Sunday'. 'We decided to do the over-80s in their own practices, where they would know their nurses, where they would know their GPs, where they would be close to home,' he said. Advertisement

Ms Sturgeon will update MSPs this afternoon changes decided by the Cabinet to the current restrictions in Scotland, which was forced into lockdown earlier this month.

National clinical director Prof Leitch told the BBC his recommendation to ministers is that younger children can return, although he is reluctant to say older pupils - who will be working towards qualifications - can do the same.

'We're heading in the right direction,' he said.

'I can break the secret - you definitely won't see all of lockdown lifted, but there is progress and therefore you've got to think, as public health advisers, what is the first thing you should do? The most important thing is children.

'That's what we've trailed in the last few weeks that, if we can, we will get some kids back to school.'

Ms Sturgeon will also outline Scotland's new quarantine plan, which goes further than Boris Johnson's hotel quarantine for arrivals from 'red list' states with high levels of Covid-19

At her daily press briefing yesterday she said today that Scotland had to 'be ever more vigilant in trying to stop the virus coming into the country'.

'To reduce the risk of the virus entering the country, as you know, we have already agreed with other countries across the UK to introduce supervised quarantine from some countries,' she said.

'However, as I said last week, in our view the current UK-wide proposals don't go far enough so tomorrow we will provide some more information about the extent to which we intend to operate supervised quarantine here in Scotland.

'We will also set out some additional measures we are working on to make current travel restrictions more effective than they are already.'

The SNP was in uproar today after the sacking of prominent Remain campaigner Ms Cherry.

Widely tipped as a future SNP leadership challenger to Nicola Sturgeon and an ally of previous leader Alex Salmond, the barrister said she had been removed from her role despite 'hard work, results & a strong reputation'.

The QC, who has been involved in an internal party row over gender recognition and trans rights, delivered a parting shot as she said the SNP needs to 'radically rethink our strategy'.

The move was announced by Ian Blackford, the SNP's Westminster leader, as part of a wider reshuffle as he said 'team working and cooperation are key to ensure results and this reshuffle will give us a strong team to take us forward'.

The decision to sack Ms Cherry prompted a furious backlash from supporters as fellow SNP MP Kenny MacAskill tweeted: 'This is the leadership's call but many of us find this inexplicable and harmful to our cause.'

An official reason for removing Ms Cherry from the frontbench was not given by the SNP amid speculation that it could have been because of the trans rights row or because she is viewed as a leadership threat to Ms Sturgeon.

An SNP parliamentarian told The National newspaper they believed Mr Blackford had sacked Ms Cherry with Ms Sturgeon's approval.

'It's been well known that Jo and Nicola have not been getting on well for a long time,' they said. 'Ian Blackford was the willing stooge to wield the knife. There is no way this would have happened without Nicola Sturgeon. Not a chance.'

Meanwhile, an SNP source claimed to the New Statesman that the dismissal was for 'continued gross disloyalty'.
A Twitter post by Rajasthan State Open also confirmed that Rajasthan Education minister will formally release the Rajasthan Open School Class 10 result 2020 online on the official website

Rajasthan Open Result 2020 will be released soon on the Rajasthan State Open School website. Students who had appeared for the RSOS Class 10 examination can check the official website of RSOS  rsosapp.rajasthan.gov.in.

According to a report in Times Now, sources have revealed that the result was supposed to released today, 2 February at 3 pm. Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasra was slated to go live on Facebook, where the RSOS Class 10 result was expected to be released.

A Twitter post by Rajasthan State Open also confirmed that Rajasthan Education minister will formally release the Rajasthan Open School Class 10 result 2020 online on the official website.

Here's how to check the Rajasthan Open Result 2020:

Step 1: Candidates need to visit the official website of RSOS  rsosapp.rajastha.gov.in.

Step 2: Once there, they need to click on the RSOS Class 10 result link.

Step 3: Students need to enter the RSOS Class 10 roll number and other login credentials before clicking on the submit button to check the result.

Step 4: Student can then check the result and download it for future use.

According to a report by NDTV, the board had previously released the result for Class 12 for September exams. Around 37.5 percent of total students passed the exam. RSOS Class 12 result was declared for Science, Commerce, and Arts stream at the official website.
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey proclaimed February 2021 to be Black History Month in Arizona to recognize the accomplishments and significant contributions of the African American community.

Black History Month is an excellent opportunity to celebrate the many ways the African American community influences Arizona and the entire nation, said Governor Ducey.



Black History Month was established in 1976 by President Gerald R. Ford and has since been recognized by every U.S. President. Governor Ducey has issued a total of six Black History Month proclamations.



Proclamation:



WHEREAS, Black History Month is an annual opportunity to recognize the central role of African Americans in the history of our state and nation; and



WHEREAS, during Black History Month, we celebrate the many achievements and contributions of African Americans to our economic, cultural, spiritual, social, and political development; and



WHEREAS, the national commemoration of black history in the United States dates back to 1926, and was initially observed the second week in February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass; and



WHEREAS, by the late 1960s, the week had evolved into Black History Month, thanks in part to the Civil Rights movement and a growing awareness of the experiences of African Americans in our country; and



WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously 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; and



WHEREAS, Black History Month was officially established in 1976 by President Gerald R. Ford, who called on the public to, seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history, and has since been recognized by every U.S. President; and



WHEREAS, the State of Arizona honors the significant contributions and advances made by African Americans in our state, across our nation, and throughout the world, in such areas as education, medicine, art, culture, public service, economic development, politics, and human rights; and



WHEREAS, we see the greatness of America in those who have risen above injustice and enriched our society.



NOW, THEREFORE, I, Douglas A. Ducey, Governor of the State of Arizona, do hereby proclaim February 2021 as

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

and urge all Arizonans to join in celebrating the contributions of African Americans to our state and nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Arizona



GOVERNOR



DONE at the Capitol in Phoenix on this twenty-ninth day of January in the year Two Thousand and Twenty-One and of the Independence of the United States of America the Two Hundred and Forty-Fifth.



ATTEST:



SECRETARY OF STATE
A resident of Gobabis yesterday admitted that he caused the death of his 10-month-old baby boy but denied that he intended to kill the infant.

Dawid Nowaseb (27) told Windhoek High Court Judge Christie Liebenberg that he threw his infant son, August Geinamseb, to the ground in anger, but that he did not intend to kill him.

He admitted this in a plea explanation read into the record by his legal aid lawyer Eliaser Shiikwa. According to the accused, he was at the house of his then girlfriend and the mother of his son when an argument erupted between them after she refused him a sleeping place for the night.

He said the woman, Erna Geinamses, threw sand in his face and physically accosted him while he had the baby on his shoulders.

He went on to say that she also yelled that he wants to kill her, prompting her family members to become aggressive towards him.

As he was afraid of being beaten up, he walked away from the house with the baby still on his shoulders.

"I realised that my ex-girlfriend's relatives were following me. We had a confrontation and out of anger I intentionally threw the deceased on the ground, injuring his head before I left the scene to my brother's house where I went to sleep," he narrated.

Prosecutor Joseph Andreas for the prosecution did not accept the plea, as it did not contain the elements of intent, which he intends to prove.

Geinamses, however, had another explanation to give.

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According to her, after the accused fetched the baby and another child, Johannes from her house, she pleaded with him to return the children, but he just kept on walking in the direction of the bushes. She said that she and the woman she was staying with, Lena Geinamses, followed the accused, all the way pleading with him to return the children.

At one stage she said, the accused stopped and told them "today I will kill these two boys and then I will kill myself" before he hoisted the toddler from his shoulders and threw him onto the ground.

She further said that he then ran away and when she went to the child, she saw that he was bleeding from the nose and mouth and that his head was very swollen.

She further said that she took the boy to the hospital in a taxi and he was declared dead on arrival. The boy's cause of death was determined as multiple fractures to the skull.

Nowaseb is also facing a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and one charge of common assault both read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act to which he pleaded not guilty. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of escape from lawful custody which the State accepted.

The matter continues and Nowaseb remains in custody.
Colorado Springs, CO (80903)

Today

Mixed clouds and sun this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High near 75F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then cloudy skies after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low around 50F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
"I'm not an idiot. I don't need to be forced to work": Uygurs debunk anti-China rumors

A female farmer from Xinjiang shows the viewers her daily work and life as a reply to forced labor claims hyped by the US.

Some Uygurs have recorded daily life videos to tell the outside world what's really happening in Xinjiang, debunking recent anti-China rumors spread by the US.

A female farmer from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region created a self-recorded video, showing the viewers her daily work and life as a reply to forced labor claims hyped by the US.

Owning five polytunnels with 10 employees, the woman said in the video that, without being forced to work, she just wanted to earn more money with her own hands.

"Now I can earn a net annual income of 200,000 yuan (about 30,000 US dollars). So why not seize this good opportunity? I'm not an idiot. I don't need to be forced to work," she said, sending out an unequivocal message against claims that there are mass forced laborers in Xinjiang.

In the video, she also showed her polytunnel for strawberries, saying the strawberries would ripen in a month, and then many tourists would visit her polytunnel and pay to pick the strawberries.

According to a white paper on the employment and labor rights in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, workers' job preferences have always served as an important reference for the local government of Xinjiang in designing its employment policies, expanding employment channels, creating jobs, organizing vocational training sessions, and providing placement services.

"This ensures that the people can make their own choices about work and enjoy a happy life," the white paper says.

A 91-year-old Uygur woman (central) shares her happy life with viewers, refuting some US politicians' claims that China is committing genocide.

Aside from the farmer, a 91-year-old Uygur woman spoke on camera to share her happy life with viewers.

"I've got five sons, two daughters, and over 40 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I feel truly happy," she said.

Her words came after some US politicians claimed that China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uygurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

"I felt indignant when my grandson told me that a man named Mike Pompeo accused China of committing genocide.' I've got over 40 grandchildren and great-grandchildren! Pompeo, you are such a big liar," she said.

Statistics show that the Uygur population in Xinjiang increased from 5.5 million to 12.71 million from 2010 to 2018. This increase rate is not only higher than that of the entire Xinjiang population, but is also more than 10 times the growth rate of the ethnic Han population over the same period. The average life expectancy of Xinjiang residents has increased from 30 to 72 years old over the past six decades or so.

"There's never ever such thing as genocide in China. Period," China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at the regular press conference on Jan 28, saying Xinjiang has never been more prosperous than it is now with unprecedented achievements in socio-economic development and improvement of people's life.

Zhao's remarks have struck a chord with many Chinese netizens, who flooded the comments section on social media to voice their support. "Genocide? It appears that our Uygur celebrities such as Dilraba Dilmurat and Guli Nazha are not famous enough" read one comment, while another user teased that, "Come on, American politicians. It is the 21th century. Get on your internet, please."

These Uygurs are just a small proportion of Xinjiang residents who are using their voice to speak up about what is happening in Xinjiang, which proved to be the best refutation of certain US politicians' groundless accusations.

Zhao Lijian urged the US side to "heed the voice of all 1.4 billion Chinese people, including 25 million Xinjiang residents of various ethnic groups" to deal with the relevant issues in a prudent, fact-based and responsible manner.

"The dogs bark, but the caravan goes on," said a Uygur girl in a short video.

(Natural News) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued civil investigative demands (CID) to leading tech companies, namely Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Apple.

CID is considered a type of administrative subpoena used by some executive agencies in the United States to obtain information relevant to an investigation. It is typically issued before a complaint is filed by the government against the recipient of the CID.

Information being requested includes the policies and practices of the companies regarding content moderation. The CIDs issued also specifically seek information related to Parler, a social media application recently blocked or terminated by Google, Apple and AWS.

A press release posted at the website of the Texas Attorney General stated that big tech companies have silenced voices in the social media sphere and shut down competing companies and platforms for years and that it has grown worse in recent months. It also mentioned the removal and blocking of former president Donald Trump from online media platforms, calling the action discriminatory and unprecedented. (Related: Twitter now bans people for posting FACTS that offend liberals.)

First Amendment rights and transparency must be maintained for a free online community to operate and thrive. However, the seemingly coordinated de-platforming of the president of the United States and several leading voices not only chills free speech, it wholly silences those whose speech and political beliefs do not align with leaders of big tech companies, said Paxton.

Every American should be concerned about this large-scale silencing and the effects it will have on the future of free speech. The public deserves the truth about how these companies moderate and possibly eliminate speech they disagree with. I am hopeful that these companies will set aside partisan politics and cooperate with these CIDs in order to get to the bottom of this contention and ensure a truly free online community consistent with the highest American ideals.

Trump may have joined Parler following Twitter ban

On Thursday, Jan. 14, Parlers lawyer, David Groesbeck, told a federal court in Washington State that the site would have been a logical destination for the president following the permanent ban on his Twitter account.

In the companys court filing, Parler Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John Matze argued that possibility was behind the decision of AWS to stop hosting their content.

I believe AWSs decision to terminate service to Parler was based, not on expressed concerns about Parlers compliance with the AWS Agreement, but in part on a desire to deny Trump a platform on any large social-media service, Matze said.

Parler had a surge of new users after mainstream social media sites blocked Trump and others who had posted provocative messages in the hours around the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The social media app had 15 million users when AWS cut off its service and put Parler offline just before midnight on Sunday, Jan. 10.

Apple and Google earlier removed Parler from their app stores because of its failure to adopt a content moderation plan to deal with violent threats.

During the hearing, Groesbeck denied that Parler was involved in the Capitol attack last week and urged Judge Barbara Rothstein to order AWS to reinstate its web hosting service.

AWS is alleging without evidence that Parler was used to incite the riots, Groesbeck said. There is no evidence other than some anecdotal press references that Parler was involved in the riots of Jan. 6.

Ambika Doran, a lawyer for AWS, said Parler had no plan to effectively moderate content that incites violence.

According to Doran, AWS executives were concerned about continuing to host the site because of a surge in violent posts following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. She noted that the company was slow to eliminate violent rape, murder and torture threats from its platform.

Sources include:

ThePalmieriReport.com

TexasAttorneyGeneral.gov

Politico.com
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Chintalapudi : , Feb 2 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh police arrested a 50-year-old man on Tuesday for defaming a statue of B. R. Ambedkar recently as he was enraged with the architect of India's Constitution for providing reservations to the downtrodden people.

Kalapala Srinivas Rao (50) was arrested for the offence at Chintalapudi village in Andhra Pradesh's West Godavari district.

"He has been influenced because of reservations being granted by the government. He was frustrated with his family," a police official told IANS.

According to police, some friends of Rao had also provoked him saying that reservations or affirmative action was injustice to upper castes in the country, leading to the sowing of hatred in his mind.

"He was influenced and was also drinking since many days. On Saturday night, around 2.30 a.m., he picked up a wire from the roadside, collected slippers and made a garland out of them and used it to garland Ambedkar statue," said the official.

The crime happened at the Ambedkar statue near the panchayati office and CCTV footage procured by the police proved crucial in nabbing Rao.

Police said Rao admitted to the crime, prompting them to file a case under IPC Sections 153 and other relevant sections.

Rao is expected to be produced in the Court on Wednesday.
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Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed on Tuesday the latest developments in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) dispute with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosathe Egyptian presidency stated.

According to a statement, President El-Sisi expressed his appreciation for President Ramaphosas efforts during the GERD talks while chairing the African Union (AU) last year,.

He expressed his hope that this vital file would witness a hopeful and necessary progress in the upcoming period under AU chairmanship of Congo, and lead to a legally binding agreement that would protect Egypts water rights.

From his side, President Ramaphosa expressed his views on Egypts positive efforts during the GERD talks - under the auspices of the AU - in order to reach a solution for the issue.

The two leaders also discussed the arrangements for the upcoming AU meeting, which is going to be held via video conference next week.

El-Sisi also also congratulated Ramaphosa on his successful tenure as chairman of the AU in a very critical year with many challenges, on top of them the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier on Tuesday, El-Sisi discussed the latest developments in the GERD dispute with his Congolese Counterpart Felix Tshisekedi, the incoming AU chairperson, during a meeting held at Cairo.

According to a statement released by the Egyptian presidency, both leaders agreed to reinforce joint coordination to follow up on the developments of the GERD dispute.

Short link:


Cats and dogs showing coronavirus symptoms are to be quarantined under new rules in South Korea, officials announced on Monday.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it has developed a testing and quarantine protocol for pets suspected of carrying the virus.

Its announcement came after a cat living in a missionary centre in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province tested positive for coronavirus on January 24.

It is thought that neither cats or dogs can pass Covid-19 on to humans, but some have been shown to be able to catch it themselves.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it has developed a testing and quarantine protocol for pets suspected of carrying the virus. Pictured: A dog wearing yellow jumper is seen at the Seoul Fashion Week. South Korea is a pet-loving nation with around a third of its 50 million people keeping animals in their homes

While it is rare for them to get sick, if the pets do fall ill, health authorities and zoo staff under the system will test the animals.

The pets will then not be allowed to go outside until their results are released.

Cats or dogs that do test positive for coronavirus will then be isolated and cared for by a single family member, but will not be sent to a state-run quarantine.

'There have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus infections spreading from pets to humans,' a ministry official said, according to The Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

However, just like humans, they will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

The news comes after a kitten became the first animal to be infected by Covid-19 in South Korea after catching the virus from its owners.

The kitten was infected at the International Prayer Centre, a missionary school in the southern city of Jinju where more than 100 people have been infected.

The pet kitten was tested along with its mother and sibling when the cats were being transferred to an animal shelter.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun (pictured during a press conference last week) on Sunday ordered health officials to 'scientifically evaluate the possibility of transmission of COVID-19 between humans and animals and keep the public well informed.'

Cats with Covid have been reported in Britain, Brazil and Japan, while a dog died in Hong Kong last year after testing positive for the virus.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Sunday ordered health officials to 'scientifically evaluate the possibility of transmission of COVID-19 between humans and animals and keep the public well informed.'

South Korea is a pet-loving nation with around a third of its 50 million people keeping animals in their homes.

The country has been praised for its response to the coronavirus, having seen just 78,844 cases of the virus and 1,435 related deaths - far lower figures than a number of other countries with similar population densities.

The pet kitten was tested along with its mother and sibling when the cats were being transferred to an animal shelter (stock image)

Cats and COVID-19: Q&A How do cats catch coronavirus? Cats become infected in the same way as humans do, by inhaling infected droplets after an infected person coughs or sneezes. There have been a handful of cases around the world and almost all appear to have caught it off their owners. Luckily, animals are far less susceptible to infection. The biggest cat to fall victim is Nadia, a four-year-old Malayan tiger at New York's Bronx Zoo. She made a full recovery. Could dogs and other animals get it too? Yes, there have been cases in dogs and other pets around the world. Some animals are particularly susceptible. Hundreds of thousands of minks have been slaughtered on farms in Spain and the Netherlands following outbreaks. Can humans catch Covid from infected pets? There is no evidence that animals transmit it to humans, with research suggesting they do not 'shed' enough virus to be infectious. However, Government scientists have warned that animals could act as 'fomites', in the same way as surfaces such as door handles do. For example, if an infected person coughed on their dog, the virus could survive on its fur and be passed to another person when they stroke it. What about animals spreading it to each other? There is evidence that cats can spread coronavirus to other cats. In May, researchers at the University of Wisconsin conducted an experiment when they infected three cats with the virus, then put three Covid-free felines in with them. The three newcomers went on to test positive after catching it from the infected animals. How bad are the symptoms of the virus in cats? Covid-19 seems to be far less deadly in animals than in humans. The British cat who tested positive showed mild clinical symptoms, but made a full recovery. Many other felines which have tested positive displayed no symptoms at all. I have tested positive  how can I protect my pet? Public Health England has urged pet owners to wash their hands before and after contact with animals. The British Veterinary Association advises infected people to restrict contact with animals. Owners who test positive should also keep cats indoors if possible. Should I put a mask on my cat or dog? No! Dr Jenny Stavisky, of the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine, explains: 'They are likely to find it scary. It may, however, be a good idea to try to acclimatise your pet gently to seeing people wearing masks so they don't get frightened.' Advertisement

In July, health officials in England revealed that a cat and its owners had tested positive for coronavirus.

The animal suffered from a runny nose and shortness of breath but made a full recovery along with the owners, Downing Street said.

At the time experts warned against cuddling pets and last week a group of scientists in Britain and the United States argued that cats and dogs could require vaccines.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia, the Earlham Institute in Norwich and the University of Minnesota said that transmission from animals to humans poses a 'significant long-term risk.'

'It is not unthinkable that vaccination of some domesticated animal species might ... be necessary to curb the spread of the infection,' they wrote.

In Denmark last year, hundreds of Covid-19 cases were caused by variants associated with farmed mink, leading to millions of the animals being culled.

Similar action was taken in other countries after outbreaks were detected among mink farm populations.

One of the authors of the University of East Anglia study, Cock van Oosterhout, professor of evolutionary genetics at UEA, said: 'It makes sense to develop vaccines for pets ... We really need to be prepared for any eventuality.'

He pointed out that Russia has started to develop a vaccine for pets.

Kevin Tyler, editor-in-chief of Virulence, said: 'Cats are asymptomatic but they are infected by it and they can infect humans with it.

'The risk is that, as long as there are these reservoirs, that it starts to pass as it did in the mink from animal to animal, and then starts to evolve animal-specific strains, but then they spill back into the human population and you end up essentially with a new virus which is related which causes the whole thing all over again.'

He said that while mink were culled in Denmark, 'if you were thinking about domestic animals, companion animals, then you might think about whether you could vaccinate to stop that from happening'.

He added: 'It's not an obvious risk yet.'

In their editorial, the scientists wrote: 'Continued virus evolution in reservoir animal hosts, followed by spillback events into susceptible human hosts, poses a significant long-term risk to public health.

'SARS-CoV-2 can infect a wide range of host species, including cats, dogs, mink and other wild and domesticated species and, hence, the vaccination of domesticated animals might be required to halt further virus evolution and spillback events.

'Whilst the vaccination campaigns against SARS-CoV-2/ Covid-19 are being rolled out worldwide, new virus variants are likely to continue to evolve that have the potential to sweep through the human population.'

They said that more transmissible virus strains, such as the UK variant, require more people to be vaccinated to keep coronavirus under control.

'Vaccination against a viral pathogen with such high prevalence globally is without precedent and we, therefore, have found ourselves in uncharted waters,' they wrote.

The scientists have called on governments to consider the continued use of strict control measures such as masks and social distancing as the only way to reduce the evolution and spread of new Covid-19 variants.

Winston, 48, was one of several gorillas among those at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park' who were confirmed positive for the virus. A number of other zoo animals have tested positive, too, including tigers, pumas and snow leopards

A number of studies have been done to learn about how Covid-19 can affect different animals.

Experimental research has shown that animals including cats, dogs, ferrets, fruit bats, hamsters, tree shrews and mink can contract the virus.

There have also been cases of animals catching the virus in zoos, including tigers, pumas, snow leopards and gorillas.

These animals became sick after coming into contact with zoo employers who themselves had Covid-19, according to the US' Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

While there is little evidence to suggest that animals play a role in spreading the virus, reports from infected mink farms in the Netherlands and Denmark suggested that there is the possibility for spread of Covid-19 from mink to people.

Many experts believe Covid crossed over from bats to humans, possibly through another species, in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
EAGAN, Minn., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS), the world's leading e-discovery training and certification professional association and part of The BARBRI Group, is partnering with CLE Companion to offer attorneys and paralegals an easy and affordable way to meet continuing legal education requirements.

As part of their ACEDS membership, attorneys and paralegals who need CLE credit now have free access to CLE Companion's portfolio of accredited offerings across 50 states and its case law library. The program helps provide essential skills for paralegals and attorneys and enables them to stay on top of ABA and State Bar Association requirements to meet not only CLE requirements, but new and emerging requirements with respect to technology competence. Members of ACEDS can take unlimited courses in both live streaming and on-demand formats. Among the most innovative, convenient, and cost-effective CLE platforms in the industry, CLE Companion offers an easy-to-navigate website, comprehensive case law research tool, the ability to track credits, a mobile app, and API integration.

The new partnership builds on the current close collaboration between ACEDS and CLE Companion to provide a best-in-breed suite of continuing education and professional development offerings. Three popular ACEDS courses are now available in the CLE Companion library, and the association's E-Discovery Executive (eDEX) Certificate program for standard, technology, trial skills, and ethics is now eligible for CLE credit throughout the U.S. and Canada. The eDEX credential is a foundational step towards preparing for the Certified E-Discovery Specialist (CEDS) Certification.

"We couldn't be more pleased about our partnership with CLE Companion," Michael Quartararo, president, ACEDS said. "Kristin and CLE Companion have set the bar for integrating continuing legal education and technology and doing it in a way that's affordable for professionals and meets the ever-growing need for CLE in a seamless online offering that truly benefits ACEDS members."

"We're excited to be able to officially announce this partnership," said Kristin Davidson, the founder of CLE Companion. "Making the CLE completion process quick and easy is invaluable for professionals in the legal industry. Our goal in this partnership is to take ACEDS' already impressive e-discovery development program even further. Through the partnership, ACEDS members now have access to our entire library of CLE courses and credit tracking technologies."

To become an ACEDS member, visit https://aceds.org/membership/

To learn more, visit https://aceds.org/membership/#benefits

About ACEDS

The Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS), part of leading legal education provider The BARBRI Group, is a global association for professionals working in e-discovery, information governance, compliance, and the broader legal community. ACEDS provides training and certification in e-discovery and related disciplines to corporate legal departments, law firms, the government, service providers and institutions of higher learning. The CEDS certification is recognized around the world and used to verify skills and competence in electronic discovery for organizations and individuals through training, certification, and ongoing education. The CEDS credential is held by legal professionals at the largest Fortune 500 companies, Am Law 200 firms and government agencies. ACEDS has 26 chapters, with locations in major U.S. cities, the UK, Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, and South Africa. Our goal is to help professionals and organizations reduce the costs and risks associated with e-discovery while helping to improve and verify their skills and advance their careers and overall technology competence in e-discovery and related fields. http://www.aceds.org/

About CLE Companion

CLE Companion is a nationally accredited virtual continuing legal education provider. Its mission is to utilize technologies to support the completion of CLE with unparalleled convenience and value. This led CLE Companion to create the most innovative CLE platform in the industry. CLE Companion has set the bar for continuing legal education in all practice areas. Find out more at: https://clecompanion.com

SOURCE Association of Certified eDiscovery Specialists

Related Links

http://www.aceds.org


ALBANY  A decorated FBI agent who began his career in the bureaus Albany field office  and was later honored for his work taking down global-scale child predators on the Internet  was one of two agents shot and killed in south Florida on Tuesday.

Special Agent Daniel Alfin, 36, who worked in the Capital Region from 2009 until 2014 and went on to be awarded for his work in a case that led to nearly 900 arrests globally, was killed in Sunrise, Fla., in Broward County along with Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger, the bureau announced.

Three other FBI agents were wounded in the shocking attack. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that Alfin and Schwartzenberger were shot in the line of duty while executing a court-ordered federal search warrant in a case involving crimes against children in Sunrise, which is located just northwest of Fort Lauderdale.

Wray said two of the other agents were taken to a hospital but were in stable condition. The third agent, he said, did not require hospitalization.

FBI: 2 agents killed, 3 wounded, suspect dead in Florida

Dan was a tremendous agent who was a tireless worker, Andrew Vale, the now-retired former special agent in charge of the FBI's Albany field office, told the Times Union. He was respected by all who came in contact with him. As good as an agent he was, Dan was an even better person. We will all grieve this senseless loss for a very long time.

In June 2018, the 34th Directors Awards of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys recognized Alfin for his exceptional work as the case agent for Operation Pacifier. The case led to the arrest of Steven W. Chase of Naples, Fla., the creator and lead administrator of Playpen, a "dark web" online site that was described as the worlds largest child pornography portal.

The FBI said that case and follow-up investigations were unprecedented in their reach and scope. It led to 350 arrests in the United States, 548 international arrests, the prosecution of 51 "hands-on" child sex abusers and 25 producers of child pornography, and identified or rescued 55 victimized U.S. children and another 296 around the world, a description of the award said.

Chase received 30 years in prison. Two other top co-defendants, Michael Fluckiger, 46, of Indiana, and David Browning, 47, of Kentucky, received 20-year terms.

Public records show Alfin had lived in Greene County and Albany while in the region. He said in sworn affidavits and past testimony that prior to becoming an FBI agent, he worked as a field engineer at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Keyport, Wash., where he managed servers and networks used by the Navy and Marines.

In an affidavit in a case in 2016, Alfin said that as an agent assigned to the Violent Crimes Against Children Section, he held a degree in information technology and completed training courses on advanced network investigative techniques, analysis, ethical hacking and malware analysis.

The Associated Press reported that based on a preliminary investigation, federal officials believed the suspect Tuesday fatally shot himself, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter. The person cautioned that an official cause of death has not yet been determined and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

The shooting happened around 6 a.m. Tuesday in a middle-class neighborhood of single-family homes, duplexes and apartment buildings.

Every day, FBI special agents put themselves in harms way to keep the American people safe, Wray said in the FBI director's statement. Special Agent Alfin and Special Agent Schwartzenberger exemplified heroism today in defense of their country. The FBI will always honor their ultimate sacrifice and will be forever grateful for their bravery. We continue to stand by our FBI Family, and the families of these special agents, in the days to come, bringing every resource we can to get through this together.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Harare West legislator Joana Mamombe and party activist Cecilia Chimbiri will spend the night at Chikurubi Maximum Prison after Magistrate Stanley Mambanje postponed their bail application to Wednesday.

Mamombe, Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were arrested in Harare yesterday with the latter released in unclear circumstances.

ZRP has charged Mamombe and Chimbiri with section 11 of SI 83 2020 -obstructing or hindering police officer performing duty during lockdown. Allegations are, they shouted at police saying do not to arrest people, release them in Shona.

Speaking after the deferment of the matter, the duo's lawyer Charles Kwaramba from the Zimbabwe lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said they will be back in court tomorrow.

"They are being charged with contravening section 177 of the Criminal Code that is undermining the authority of the police or alternatively contravening section 11 of SI 83 of 2020 they allege that hindering or obstructing police officers during the performance of their national lockdown duties so they have appeared in court today unfortunately we could not do much today.

"The state applied that we deal with the matter tomorrow because it's too late as a result of the Covid regulations and wanted to go home to beat the curfew so we are coming back tomorrow," said Kwaramba.

Kwaramba said he was not happy with the continued arrest of his clients who are denying the charges.

"Obviously as a lawyer I am not happy. They are denying the case and in due course they will be telling you the real story of what happened. We reserve much of our thoughts, views and defence at the moment. We can let everyone write whatever they want but we will tell our story at the appropriate fora at the right time." he said.

Kwaramba confirmed that Mamombe and Chimbiri suspect that they are being trailed and he would deal with the allegations in court tomorrow.
Now that COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed nationwide, its only a matter of time before credit union employees will be going back to their offices, where they will once again come in close contact with customers and co-workers. This presents a potential problem for credit union employers, because if their employees are not vaccinated, their staffers could contract COVID-19 and would likely have a greater chance of infecting others. Therefore, credit unions are now asking whether they can require their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Yes, Employees Can Be Required to Get the COVID Vaccine

On Dec.17, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued written guidance that states that employers can, as a condition of employment, require employees to be vaccinated. The EEOC said that having a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy would not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act because vaccinations were not considered medical examinations or inquiries under the ADA.

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Cold case detectives hope a $250,000 reward will help solve the suspected murder of an Englishman who vanished from New Farm in 2000.

Steve Goldsmith was 28 years old when he went missing after withdrawing cash from an ATM near his Sydney Street unit in July 2000.

Steve Goldsmith went missing in July 2000. Credit: Australian Missing Person Register

Mr Goldsmith was an arborist subcontracted to Toowoomba City Council and other tree-lopping operators and would return to Brisbane on weekends.

He was last seen by a friend in Toowoomba on July 6, 2000, and was captured on CCTV withdrawing cash from an ATM at Merthyr Village Shopping Centre on July 10.
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[February 02, 2021] Onward and Upward: Annual US Home Price Appreciation in 2020 Outpaced 2019 Levels by 50%, CoreLogic Reports

CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today released the CoreLogic Home Price Index ( HPI (News - Alert)) and HPI Forecast for December 2020, providing a look back at the state of the housing market and the pandemic's impact on home price performance throughout 2020. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005396/en/ CoreLogic National Home Price Change and Forecast; December 2020 (Graphic: Business Wire) The housing market exceeded expectations in 2020, closing out the year with the highest annual home price gain since February 2014 in December at 9.2%. Despite a blip in April, home-purchase demand surged as record-low mortgage rates persuaded first-time homebuyers to enter the market. Meanwhile, the consequences of the pandemic were seen in the dwindling supply of homes - dropping, on average, 24% below 2019 levels - as homeowners delayed selling. These factors translated to significant home price growth in 2020, surpassing the previous year's levels with an average monthly year-over-year gain of 5.7%, compared with 3.8% in 2019. However, with the severe shortage of for-sale homes, we may see rising affordability concerns and some prospective buyers priced out of the market in 2021. Top Takeaways: Nationally, home prices increased 9.2% in December 2020, compared with December 2019. On a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 1% compared to November 2020.

December 2020 gains across all of the 10 select metropolitan areas (Table 1) surpassed their December 2019 levels.

Affordability concerns continue to persist as prices continue to steeply rise. For instance, in San Diego, prices increased 10.4% year over year in December 2020 compared to the 3% gain December 2019. San Diego home prices are also forecasted to increase an additional 8.2% over the next 12 months.

At the state level, Idaho, Indiana and Maine had the strongest price growth in December, up 19.1%, 16.1% and 15.2%, respectively. "At the start of the pandemic, many braced for a Great Recession-era collapse of the housing market," said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "However, market conditions leading into the crisis - namely low home supply, desire for more pace and millennial demand - amplified the rapid acceleration of home prices."



"Two record lows are fueling home price gains: for-sale inventory and mortgage rates," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic. "Prospective sellers with flexible timetables have opted to delay listing their home until the pandemic fades or they are vaccinated. We can expect more inventory to come available in the second half of the year, leading to slowing in price growth toward year-end." The next CoreLogic HPI press release, featuring January 2021 data, will be issued on March 2, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. ET.

Methodology The CoreLogic HPI is built on industry-leading public record, servicing and securities real-estate databases and incorporates more than 40 years of repeat-sales transactions for analyzing home price trends. Generally released on the first Tuesday of each month with an average five-week lag, the CoreLogic HPI is designed to provide an early indication of home price trends by market segment and for the "Single-Family Combined" tier, representing the most comprehensive set of properties, including all sales for single-family attached and single-family detached properties. The indices are fully revised with each release and employ techniques to signal turning points sooner. The CoreLogic HPI provides measures for multiple market segments, referred to as tiers, based on property type, price, time between sales, loan type (conforming vs. non-conforming) and distressed sales. Broad national coverage is available from the national level down to ZIP Code, including non-disclosure states. CoreLogic HPI Forecasts are based on a two-stage, error-correction econometric model that combines the equilibrium home price-as a function of real disposable income per capita-with short-run fluctuations caused by market momentum, mean-reversion, and exogenous economic shocks like changes in the unemployment rate. With a 30-year forecast horizon, CoreLogic HPI Forecasts project CoreLogic HPI levels for two tiers - "Single-Family Combined" (both attached and detached) and "Single-Family Combined Excluding Distressed Sales." As a companion to the CoreLogic HPI Forecasts, Stress-Testing Scenarios align with Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) national scenarios to project five years of home prices under baseline, adverse and severely adverse scenarios at state, metropolitan areas and ZIP Code levels. The forecast accuracy represents a 95% statistical confidence interval with a +/- 2% margin of error for the index. About Market Risk Indicator Market Risk Indicators are a subscription-based analytics solution that provide monthly updates on the overall "health" of housing markets across the country. CoreLogic data scientists combine world-class analytics with detailed economic and housing data to help determine the likelihood of a housing bubble burst in 392 major metros and all 50 states. Market Risk Indicators is a multi-phase regression model that provides a probability score (from 1 to 100) on the likelihood of two scenarios per metro: a >10% price reduction and a = 10% price reduction. The higher the score, the higher the risk of a price reduction. About the Market Condition Indicators As part of the CoreLogic HPI and HPI Forecasts offerings, Market Condition Indicators are available for all metropolitan areas and identify individual markets as "overvalued," "at value," or "undervalued." These indicators are derived from the long-term fundamental values, which are a function of real disposable income per capita. Markets are labeled as overvalued if the current home price indexes exceed their long-term values by greater than 10%, and undervalued where the long-term values exceed the index levels by greater than 10%. Source (News - Alert) : CoreLogic The data provided are for use only by the primary recipient or the primary recipient's publication or broadcast. This data may not be resold, republished or licensed to any other source, including publications and sources owned by the primary recipient's parent company without prior written permission from CoreLogic. Any CoreLogic data used for publication or broadcast, in whole or in part, must be sourced as coming from CoreLogic, a data and analytics company. For use with broadcast or web content, the citation must directly accompany first reference of the data. If the data are illustrated with maps, charts, graphs or other visual elements, the CoreLogic logo must be included on screen or website. For questions, analysis or interpretation of the data, contact Valerie Sheets at newsmedia@corelogic.com. Data provided may not be modified without the prior written permission of CoreLogic. Do not use the data in any unlawful manner. The data are compiled from public records, contributory databases and proprietary analytics, and its accuracy is dependent upon these sources. About CoreLogic CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), the leading provider of property insights and solutions, promotes a healthy housing market and thriving communities. Through its enhanced property data solutions, services and technologies, CoreLogic enables real estate professionals, financial institutions, insurance carriers, government agencies and other housing market participants to help millions of people find, buy and protect their homes. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com. CORELOGIC, the CoreLogic logo, CoreLogic HPI and CoreLogic HPI Forecast are trademarks of CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005396/en/

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Listening to soothing music and words while youre unconscious on the operating table could mean you wake up in less pain.

Thats the finding from new research, published in The BMJ, which looked at whether playing relaxing music and recordings of positive comments, such as You are safe now and in good care, to patients under general anaesthetic had any impact on their recovery.

Astonishingly, it did. The patients who were played the sounds via headphones reported 25 per cent less pain than those who had surgery in silence, the results showed.

Listening to soothing music and words while youre unconscious on the operating table could mean you wake up in less pain

They were also 17 per cent less likely to need opioid painkillers such as morphine  the family of drugs most commonly used post-surgery  during the first 24 hours after the operation.

The study is based on the theory that while we are seemingly out for the count, we are actually in a state of connected consciousness.

This means that although we are not awake during general anaesthetic (because the consciousness centre in the brain, known as the reticular activating system, is turned off) the pathways to the brain remain working, so the body can still hear and process information.

With general anaesthesia making up 80 per cent of the 3.5 million anaesthetics given by the NHS each year, these new findings have implications for millions of patients with post-operative pain.

Research shows that some 80 per cent of patients experience this, with the pain persisting for around one in ten people.

This new approach could also help reduce the number of patients prescribed powerful opioid drugs which, as Good Health has repeatedly warned, can be highly addictive.

The patients who were played the sounds via headphones reported 25 per cent less pain than those who had surgery in silence, the results showed

It could provide a safe, feasible, inexpensive and non-drug technique to reduce post-operative pain and opioid use, with the potential for more general use, say the researchers.

Professor William Harrop-Griffiths, a consultant anaesthetist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, and vice-president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, hailed the results.

Morphine-like drugs are commonly used to treat acute pain after surgery, but they can have significant side-effects, including breathing difficulties, constipation and itching, and if the patient is not managed properly after surgery they can become dependent on these drugs, he says.

This is not a sweeping cure for the opioid crisis but it may lead to a slight decrease in the number of people taking opioids. More research is needed before this approach is introduced, but these are really interesting findings.

Music is known to have a profound effect on our emotions and mental state while we are awake. For example, the pleasure of listening to music triggers the release of feel-good chemicals, endorphins, which can help relieve pain, stress and anxiety.

The theory is that if endorphins are released during surgery, we are primed for the post-operative pain, so feel it less. Reassuring words  known as positive suggestions  could have a similar effect.

We dont really understand the process of connected consciousness yet, said Dr Abigael San, a clinical psychologist based in North-West London. But the hypothesis is that music has the same kind of effect on the brain even when we are unconscious, and this could help with pain relief.

Previous studies have shown that listening to music before, during and after surgery reduces peoples pain, anxiety and need for painkillers.

Acupuncture before surgery has also been identified as a way of treating post-operative pain, as suggested by a study presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists conference in 2020. It found military veterans who had pre-surgery acupuncture reported less pain and took nearly three times fewer opioids in the first 24 hours after surgery than those who didnt have it.

The latest study involved 385 patients, aged 18 to 70, who underwent routine surgery under general anaesthesia, lasting between one and three hours, in five hospitals across Germany. They were randomly split into two groups. All were fitted with earphones once asleep. Half were played a mix of background music (from a German CD, Trancemusik) and positive phrases; the rest had a blank recording.

During the first 24 hours after surgery, pain scores were 25 per cent lower in the group who listened to soothing sounds (based on a scale of zero to ten, with ten being the most severe pain).

And 63 per cent of those with the music recording needed opioids, compared to 80 per cent in the control group.

Dr Daniel McIsaac, an anaesthetist at the University of Ottawa, Canada, said the findings suggested the subconscious mind might be an important target for improving patient experience and outcomes.

However, the researchers behind the study also issued a warning to medics that if patients can process and benefit from positive sounds during operations, the opposite may also be true.

This means surgeons and anaesthetists should be careful about background noise and conversations during surgery.
Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee Chu Xuan Dung speaks at a meeting of the city's Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  Authorities in Hanoi have ordered the temporary closure of online game and internet shops from February 2 early morning, as part of the efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the city, according to Vice Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Chu Xuan Dung.

Previously, municipal authorities ordered the closure of bars and karaoke clubs to avoid large crowds, and required restaurants to have partitions.

Addressing a meeting of the municipal Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on February 1, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health Hoang Duc Hanh said Hanoi had so far recorded 19 COVID-19 cases linked to the COVID-19 outbreaks in northern Hai Duong and Quang Ninh provinces.

The zoning, tracing and quarantine for F1 cases were urgently implemented, Hanh noted.

Affirming that this new wave of COVID-19 spreads quickly and can become more complicated, Hanh proposed to raise the prevention work by one level.

He said that the COVID-19 contact tracing must be quickened, towards swiftly collecting samples and quarantining of those from pandemic-hit areas.

Hanoi has so far identified about 15,000 people relating to the outbreaks in Hai Duong and Quang Ninh, of them 10,000 have been tested, he said.

Vice Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Chu Xuan Dung asked relevant agencies to arrange concentrated quarantine for F1 cases, and focus on tracing F1, F2 and F3 cases.

In a meeting with the municipal Peoples Committee the same day, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam urged Hanoi authorities to complete the collection of samples for those from pandemic-hit areas before January 4.
Iowa Woman Charged After Bomb Threat at KSP

By West Kentucky Star Staff

HICKORY - An Iowa woman was arrested Monday after an investigation into a weekend bomb threat.On Sunday, detectives with the Kentucky State Police received a bomb threat on the Kentucky State Police app. The anonymous threat reportedly stated that the target was the Kentucky State Police post located in Hickory.Troopers and detectives performed a thorough search of the property and no threats were located.After an investigation into IP records and cellular service provider data, the suspect was reportedly identified as 21-year-old Keely J. Bennett of Cherokee, Iowa.Detectives issued an arrest warrant for Bennett, and a short time later she was located by the Cherokee Police Department and taken into custody. She is awaiting extradition back to KentuckyBennett is charged with first degree terroristic threatening.
All of our family is devastated, but we need to support each other. Nothing will ever be the same, but we need to find the strength to keep going, Espinosa said while standing in front of the home where his brother once lived with his four daughters and their mother.
Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt were spotted filming scenes for Thor: Love and Thunder in Sydney on Monday.

The Hollywood stars were seen in full costume among other co-stars and extras as they shot on an impressive set built in Centennial Park.

However, it appears less than 24 hours after 'cut' was called on those scenes, the location was immediately packed up.

Scroll down for video

Thor one day, gone the next! Hollywood film set for Thor: Love and Thunder, located in the heart of Sydney (pictured) was packed up on Tuesday - ONE day after stars filmed action scenes at the Centennial Park location

Action! Chris Hemsworth (left as Thor) and Chris Pratt (right as Peter Quill/Star-Lord) were spotted filming scenes for Thor: Love and Thunder in Sydney's Centennial Park on Monday

Workmen were seen packing away the construction of an impressive colourful structure which was erected late last week.

The structure appeared to represent a bunch of colourful scrap metal and building pillars, and was used for a large action or fight scene in the blockbuster.

Hemsworth portrays Thor in the franchise, while Pratt will reprise his role as Peter Quill or Star-Lord, previously seen in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers films.

Hemsworth was seen back in his character's long blonde wig and carrying Thor's stormbreaker axe around set this week, with his muscular arms on show in a sleeveless red leather vest.

Pratt meanwhile was dressed in Star-Lord's red armour as the two actors chatted between takes during the al fresco shoot.

Movie magic: The construction of the structure was in its early stages two weeks ago, and appeared to be completed late last week

How will it appear on screen? The structure appeared to represent a bunch of colourful scrap metal and building pillars, and was used for a large action or fight scene in the blockbuster

Thor: Thunder and Love's Centennial Park set was likely under strict surveillance, with the area being cordoned off with a large fenced perimeter

Large machinery vehicles were also present, likely used for filming and then the removal of the set and props.

The latest instalment in the Thor franchise is currently filming in Australia after being a recipient of the Federal Government's $24.1 million Location Incentive grant.

Giving back: The film, directed by New Zealand's Taika Waititi, is expected to invest over $178million in the local economy, will create around 2,500 jobs and enlist services from around 1,650 businesses

The film, directed by New Zealand's Taika Waititi, is expected to invest over $178million in the local economy, will create around 2,500 jobs and enlist services from around 1,650 businesses. Marvel has also set up a trainee program for Australian actors and crew as part of the deal.

According to Screen NSW, it's part of a deal which will see several of the Marvel films made in Australia over the coming years.

The film is being shot at the city's Fox Studios but elaborate structures have been set up at nearby Centennial Park.

Keep out: Thor: Thunder and Love's Centennial Park set was likely under strict surveillance, with the area being cordoned off with a large fenced perimeter

Hollywood... Down Under: The film is being shot primarily at the city's Fox Studios, but elaborate structures like the one in Centennial Park will no doubt pop up in the coming months

In the forthcoming Thor installment, Natalie Portman is back as Jane Foster, and will also pick up the hammer and become the Goddess of Thunder/ female Thor.

Natalie was absent for 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, but was a key player in the first two Thor films in 2011 and 2013.

The film, directed by Taika Waititi, is due for cinematic release in May 2022.

She's back! In the forthcoming Thor installment, Natalie Portman is back as Jane Foster, and will also pick up the hammer and become the Goddess of Thunder/ female Thor. Pictured: 2019
A Northern Territory town is setting out to dispel stereotypes the Top End is simply made up of red dust, large rocks and crocodiles.

The NT is famous for its outback desert landscape and Uluru, a culturally significant sandstone rock in the middle of the 'red centre'.

But the Territory also boasts clear-blue swimming waters perfect for a getaway and an Instagram shot.

Mataranka, an hour south of Katherine, welcomes visitors from across the country to enjoy its stunning sandy-bottomed thermal pool.

A woman poses for an Instagram shot as she enters the thermal pool in Mataranka

Mataranka (pictured) is an hour south of Katherine in the Northern Territory

The small town was put on the map after it was featured in autobiographical novel We of the Never Never in 1908.

Locals are now pushing for Mataranka's revival as the coronavirus situation in Australia continues to ease.

There were almost 220,000 visitors to Elsey National Park, which includes the Bitter Springs and Mataranka Thermal Pool, in 2019.

The number of tourists took a hit in 2020, thanks to border closures introduced to halt the spread of Covid.

The town was home to 350 residents at the time of the 2016 census.

Judy Kutschki, who moved to Mataranka as a young girl in 1966, said she has seen the town blossom over the years.

Mataranka boasts clear-blue swimming waters perfect for a getaway and an Instagram shot

The average annual temperature is 27.2C and the pools are open all year round

The mum-of-three is the proud owner of the Mataranka Store.

'I've been in [the] Territory all my life so I don't think I could live in the city,' she told Domain.

'Mataranka's got the river so you can go camping, fishing, whatever, and we've got the springs. You don't have to fight traffic, so yeah, it's a good little town.

'It's also a community where everyone knows each other - they help each other out.'

The best time to visit Mataranka is from May to October for warm, dry days and cool nights.

The average annual temperature is 27.2C and the pools are open all year round.
Perrin Sue Peters (L) and her sister Harlow Peters, of Pottsville, Pa., help their mother Aubrey shovel out her car in Pottsville, Pa., on Feb. 1, 2021. (Jacqueline Dormer/Republican-Herald via AP)

Sprawling Winter Storm Hits More of Northeast, Dumping Snow

BOSTONParts of northern New England were waiting their turn to be pummeled by a heavy winter storm Tuesday, while residents of the New York City region were digging out from under piles of snow that shut down public transport, canceled flights, and closed coronavirus vaccination sites.

The National Weather Service said a foot or more could be on the ground in New England by the time the snow finally tapers off in the northernmost states by Wednesday evening.

Lara Pagano, a meteorologist with the weather service office in College Park, Maryland, noted that while several areas in the Mid-Atlantic have seen measurable snowfall for a few consecutive days, that hasnt shattered such records. For example, she said the most consecutive days with measured snowfall for Washington is four, while the mark is five for New York City and six for Philadelphia.

While this storm has been a prolonged event, its not a record-setter in that sense, but it does rank up there pretty high of course, she said.

The sprawling, lumbering storm already walloped the eastern United States on Monday, as the snow piled up. More than 16 inches of snow dropped on Manhattans Central Park, and as much as 30 inches was reported in northern New Jersey.

Workers shovel snow from their restaurant and bar entrance in midtown, New York City during a snowstorm, in New York, on Feb. 1, 2021. (Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

High tide caused flooding early Tuesday in coastal areas of Massachusetts, where the storm had already disrupted the second phase of the states vaccine rollout as a Boston site that was supposed to open Monday for residents ages 75 and older did not; some other mass vaccination sites remained open. The state was expected to get 12 to 18 inches of heavy, wet snow and winds up to 55 mph along the coast, according to Gov. Charlie Baker.

In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said the storm forced the postponement of about 10,000 shots and delayed the states weekly resupply of vaccine, now expected Tuesday. He urged providers that called off vaccination appointments to extend their hours if needed to reschedule the shots by the end of the week.

A state of emergency imposed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy remained in effect Tuesday and the states six mega sites for COVID-19 vaccines were still closed as plow operators faced snow showers and blowing snow. The New Jersey State Police reported as of 7 p.m. Monday, troopers had responded to 661 crashes and come to the aid of 1,050 motorists since 6 p.m. Sunday.

There was also concern about coastal flooding in New Jersey due to the storm. In a video posted on Facebook by Union Beach Police, Keyport Police Chief Shannon Torres and Capt. Michael Ferm were shown rescuing a man who was showing signs of hypothermia in his car from floodwaters.

In Virginia, four firefighters were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening after their firetruck overturned Sunday on snow-covered roads in Henrico County, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Authorities converge on the scene of a double homicide and apparent suicide on Bergh Street, in Plains, Pa., on Feb. 1, 2021. (Dave Scherbenco/The Citizens Voice via AP)

In Pennsylvania, authorities said a 67-year-old woman with Alzheimers disease who reportedly wandered away from her home was found dead of hypothermia on an Allentown street Monday morning. About 60 miles north in Plains Township, a shooting after an argument over snow removal killed a married couple, and the suspect was later found dead at his nearby home of a wound believed to have been self-inflicted, officials in Luzerne County said.

A preliminary investigation indicates the people involved had a long-running conflict, but this morning, the dispute was exacerbated by a disagreement over snow disposal, District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said.
Should Matthew Hancocks proclamations get any more self-regarding they may need to carry a Government disclaimer.

Pretty soon signs will have to flash up on the screens around the Commons. Warning: Shameless self-promotion alert, or: The following statement may contain lengthy tracts of unbearable smugness.

The reason for Mr Hancocks bushy-tailed chirpiness of late is the success of the Governments vaccine rollout on which, to give him his due, he has so far played a blinder.

Yesterday he came to the Commons to have a well-deserved boast about it. Yes, all this Covid news means we are back to our daily dose of the Health Secretary.

Insufferable: Matt Hancock pictured having his routine coronavirus test at a new Covid-19 testing facility in the Houses of Parliament in London

Hancock entered the chamber, carrying with him that customary affected sense of propriety. Reminds me of someone arriving at their club for the first time and trying to look all casual.

So keen was he to get going he practically leapt from his chair. Boing! Always an early warning sign that hes at his most insufferable. He announced the Governments vaccine strategy had been no accident. They had backed many horses in the race to find a successful inoculation and those bets had all romped home.

The Tory benches murmured in approval. Only weeks ago, when Hancock was locking the country down again, they rounded on him like a pack of foam-flecked hyenas. Now they were eager to share in the honeyed glow of his triumph.

Philip Hollobone (Con, Kettering) congratulated Hancock on his difficult, brave decision in securing a vaccine.

A phenomenal job, trumpeted Tobias Ellwood (Con, Bournemouth E), while Nus Ghani (Con, Wealden) chose to gush over the ministers leadership.

Hancock beamed. Such unity in the House really makes me proud he said. It was all very uplifting. Ay-oop! For a brief moment there I thought we might get a sprinkling of waterworks.

From the Opposition benches there came little complaint about the vaccines delivery. Fingers crossed it really is going tickety-boo.

Naturally they directed their praise toward the NHS. Most of them would sooner gouge out their own eyeballs than spray Hancock with treacle.

The Health Secretary takes a coronavirus test at the Houses of Parliament. The voluntary walk-in centre has been set up for MPs and parliament staff who have to travel into their offices

The attacks were focused on this new South African strain of Covid threatening to wreak havoc around the country.

Angela Eagle (Lab, Wallasey) said the Government had done too little too late on the issue of shutting down our borders.

Philippa Whitford (SNP, C Ayrshire) wanted travel restrictions put in place around the country. Hancock told her there already were. Presumably theres not much more they can do, short of set up road blocks.

Actually, I shouldnt say things like that. It might give Hancock ideas.

Woke warrioress Zarah Sultana (Lab, Coventry S) bemoaned the Governments catastrophic mismanagement of the crisis. She began citing New Zealands zero death rate.

Considering little New Zealands remote location and teensy population, is this really a grown-up argument? Im beginning to think Miss Sultana doesnt do grown up.

Back on the vaccine, Ben Bradshaw (Lab, Exeter) wanted to know why fit and healthy 60-year-olds such as he were getting the jab earlier than younger public sector workers.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, pictured visiting the new Covid-19 testing facility in the Houses of Parliament in London

Must say I would never have guessed Ben was 60. Perhaps its his funky new hairdo. Its now spikier than a row of stalagmites.

James Davies (Con, Valley of Clwyd) wanted more of the vaccine produced. More? With 400 million doses banked, weve got so much of the stuff its practically spouting out of the taps.

Speaking of our excess vaccines, Layla Moran (Lib Dem, Abingdon) felt it time we started shipping some off to areas still struggling to get their hands on any.

Hancock said there were millions of people here still in great danger from the virus but we would share the wealth with others eventually.

Thanks to the fact we didnt choose the EU scheme we are far further ahead, he said. Narrowing his eyes a tad, Hancock added pointedly: As she knows.

Porcelain-faced Miss Moran, you will recall, was among those who joined the chorus of swivel-eyed apoplexy when the Government withdrew from the EUs vaccine programme last year, accusing them of favouring Brexit over vaccines.

Ministers should never strut, but on this occasion we can forgive Mr Hancock for his polite little reminder.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions protesting against farm laws at Delhi borders for months, on Sunday claimed that more than 100 people were missing since the tractor parade violence on Republic Day.

The union has formed a committee to look into the issue, which seeks to compile information on the "missing persons" to able to initiate formal action with the authorities. The six-member committee has urged people to share information on missing persons on phone number 8198022033.

PTI

Committee, helpline number set up

The union has asked people to share information on the missing person, including their full name, full address, phone number of the person and any other contact number at home and the time during which they went missing.

In a statement, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) said that it will collect data on such missing persons and take up the matter with the authorities for formal action.

Sushil Verma

Meanwhile, the Punjab government on Monday started a helpline to trace people who went missing. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has also said that 70 lawyers have been appointed to ensure legal aid to farmers booked by the Delhi Police. Singh appealed to the people of Punjab to immediately dial 112 to report any cases of missing persons, even if no cases had been filed with respect of such persons so far, The Indian Express reported.



Punjab Government has already arranged a team of 70 lawyers in Delhi to ensure quick legal recourse to farmers booked by the Delhi police. I will personally take up the issue of missing farmers with MHA & ensure these persons reach home safely. For assistance call 112.  Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) February 1, 2021

A little backgrounder

The farmers' tractor parade against three new agriculture laws on January 26 in the national capital turned violent after a large number of protesters clashed with massive police force and entered the iconic Red Fort and hoisted their flags from its ramparts.

Delhi Police has arrested 84 people, detained over 200 and filed 38 FIRs so far in connection with the violence in which over 300 police officials were injured. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the country was saddened to witness the insult of the national flag in Delhi on the occasion of Republic Day on January 26 as he addressed the nation through his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat.



PTI

Remember, farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders for over two months now. Enacted last September, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the wholesale market system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.



BCCL

What's happening now

Meanwhile, as the farmers' protest against the three agricultural laws entered its 70th day, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, addressing an ever-swelling crowd of farmers at Ghazipur, responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Saturday remark that the government's proposal of suspending the laws for 18 months is still open to farmers. He also demanded that arrested farmers be released.

BCCL

Police has cemented nails, built makeshift walls, installed barbed wires and mutli-layers of barricades to stop farmers from agitating. The police upped the measures shortly after farmers' unions announced 'chakka jam' on February 6 during which they plan to block transport on highways from noon to 3pm.

Additionally, the police has also shut all the entry points to all the protest sites so that more people cannot join the agitation. Some farmer unions allege that power and water supply to the protest sites is cut, internet services suspended and additional troops have been deployed.

BCCL

Police also wanted the trains, especially from Punjab to be diverted or short-terminated, due to which at least one train from Jalandhar was stopped at Rohtak and two diverted on Monday, so that those travelling to join the protest are unable to do so.
YOUNG HEROES OF THE SOVIET UNION: A Memoir and a Reckoning, by Alex Halberstadt. (Random House, 320 pp., $18.) Titled after his first-grade history textbook, Halberstadts lush and moving account of his family and the country where he was born, the Times book critic Jennifer Szalai noted, is also skeptical, surprising and often very funny.

SUPREME INEQUALITY: The Supreme Courts Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America, by Adam Cohen. (Penguin, 448 pp., $18.) While wishing that Cohen, a former member of the Times editorial board, had ended his sweeping judicial analysis with reforms rather than lamentations, our reviewer, Kenji Yoshino, called his argument  that after it turned to the right in 1969  the court also turned on the poor  impressive and necessary.

LITTLE GODS, by Meng Jin. (Custom House, 320 pp., $16.99.) This ambitious debut work of fiction about a young womans galvanizing excavation of all that her mother, a brilliant Chinese physicist, buried  including the truths of her daughters parentage  expands the future of the immigrant novel, our reviewer, Gish Jen, observed, even as it holds us in uneasy thrall to the past.

HITTING A STRAIGHT LICK WITH A CROOKED STICK: Stories From the Harlem Renaissance, by Zora Neale Hurston. (Amistad, 304 pp., $17.99.) Presented in the order in which Hurston composed them, these 21 stories by the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God show her progression as a writer, according to our reviewer, Jabari Asim, as well as her exemplary fidelity to idiomatic speech and irresistible engagement with folklore.
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! runner-up Grant Denyer enjoyed a beer at the show's official wrap party in Sydney on Sunday.

The Gold Logie-winning TV presenter, 43, drank a Pure Blonde low-carb beer at the bash, as his pregnant wife Chezzi was seen leaving her hotel with their daughters.

The sighting comes after Grant vowed to ditch the booze completely in an interview with The Daily Telegraph last month.

Sipping away: I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! runner-up Grant Denyer enjoyed a beer at the show's official wrap party in Sydney on Sunday

On the Channel 10 show, Grant told his fellow campmates he suffered from anxiety and would sometimes drink to excess to cope.

At about this time, a tearful Chezzi spoke about her husband's drinking on Studio 10.

But it appears Grant has just reduced his alcohol intake instead of becoming a teetotaller, as shown by his drinking a beer at the I'm a Celeb party.

Drink: The sighting comes after Grant vowed to ditch the booze completely in an interview with The Daily Telegraph last month

Stepping out: The Gold Logie-winning TV presenter, 43, drank a Pure Blonde low-carb beer at the bash, as his pregnant wife Chezzi was seen leaving her hotel with their daughters

Anxiety: On the Channel 10 show last month, Grant told his fellow campmates he suffered from anxiety and would sometimes drink to excess to cope

He appeared in good spirits as the cast and crew celebrated Abbie Chatfield's win.

Last month on I'm a Celebrity, Grant acknowledged having a problem with alcohol.

'I'd never put two and two together, and I've been asking myself this question for, far out. Five years? Do I have a problem? And I think the answer is, I do,' he confessed.

Problem: 'I'd never put two and two together, and I've been asking myself this question for, far out. Five years? Do I have a problem? And I think the answer is, I do,' he confessed

'And it was coming in here, watching how I couldn't control the pace at which I was drinking, because I do everything fast.

'[I realised] I was trying to stem the fear and anxiety of what we were about to do and I thought, I think I do that every week.'

Grant said he didn't realise he had a problem until he went on I'm a Celebrity.

'I think I've only just realised from coming in here that I drink to lessen anxiety, which I didn't really realise I had until I saw the pattern of fear coming into here and the anticipation of a new gig and will I fit in? Is it gonna be fun?' he said.

In his corner: Last month, a tearful Chezzi spoke about her husband's drinking on Studio 10. 'It is something that we have spoken about a number of times,' she said

Grant later told The Daily Telegraph he was going to cut booze out of his life for good.

'I want to push the button on cancelling it altogether and see how I go,' he said.

Last month, Chezzi broke her silence on Grant's drinking on Studio 10.

'It is something that we have spoken about a number of times, but I really felt the penny dropped when he was talking to Mel [Buttle] during that conversation,' she said, referring to her husband's admission on I'm a Celeb.
[February 02, 2021] Lyniate Earns Best in KLAS for Integration Engine Segment

Lyniate, a global leader in healthcare data interoperability, today announced two of its solutions placed in the top three of the 2021 Best in KLAS: Software & Services report. The company's Corepoint solution earned the Best in KLAS Integration Engine award for the 12th consecutive year, and the Rhapsody solution ranked third in the same segment. The 2021 Best in KLAS: Software & Services report leverages feedback from customers to rank vendor solutions based on their operational and clinical impact. Anonymous feedback KLAS received for Lyniate products and servces include:



"The vendor's support during the COVID-19 crisis has been fantastic." - Manager, July 2020 "The people at Lyniate really listen to their customers. The vendor is top notch. They are continually making sure that our needs are being met. I feel like the vendor is always thinking about their customers." - Analyst/Coordinator, July 2020 "I couldn't ask for a better product or better service. We migrated our integration engine over to Corepoint about a few years ago. We came off of our previous product; it was a bear for us in terms of reliability and getting any kind of support for the product. We have had the exact opposite experience with Lyniate. The vendor was outstanding to work with during the migration. The product has been rock solid, and we have never had any kind of unexpected or unplanned downtime." - Manager, January 2021 Additionally, over 97% of Corepoint solution users indicated that Lyniate keeps promises, is part of their long-term plans, and would buy Lyniate again. "We are honored that our customers enjoy working with Lyniate and offer this validation to their peers," said Erkan Akyuz, Lyniate CEO. "Healthcare organizations rely on our people and our products to connect healthcare, and we do not take this responsibility lightly. This designation reflects our continued commitment to our customers and partners, whose trust we value greatly."

"Each year, thousands of healthcare professionals world-wide share their voices with KLAS with the goal of helping their peers to make more informed decisions," shared Adam Gale, KLAS President. "The Best in KLAS award serves as a signal to provider and payer organizations that they should expect excellence from the winning vendors." The 2021 Best in KLAS: Software & Services report analyzes data such as client satisfaction scores, benchmark performance metrics, and verified customer insights. Corepoint Integration Engine received an overall score of 95.9, and the Rhapsody received an overall score of 89.6. The 2021 Best in KLAS: Software & Services report can be accessed here: http://klasresearch.com/. About KLAS: KLAS is a data-driven company on a mission to improve the world's healthcare by enabling provider and payer voices to be heard and counted. Working with thousands of healthcare professionals, KLAS collects insights on software, services and medical equipment to deliver reports, trending data and statistical overviews. KLAS data is accurate, honest and impartial. The research directly reflects the voice of healthcare professionals and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. To learn more about KLAS and the insights we provide, visit https://klasresearch.com/ About Lyniate: Lyniate partners with healthcare organizations around the globe delivering cutting-edge solutions to address interoperability challenges. The company's industry-leading products, Corepoint and Rhapsody, are used by thousands of customers to send hundreds of millions of messages every day. Lyniate is committed to delivering the best interoperability solutions for healthcare organizations, from specialty clinics to large networks, from payers to vendors, and everything in between to build the future of interoperability. Visit: www.lyniate.com for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005956/en/

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Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Myanmar has descended into chaos since a junta seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. Armed forces and police have fired on demonstrators, who appear undeterred by curfews and a nationwide state of emergency, but the military have also entered shops and houses to attack people. The country is on the brink of collapse and civil war. More than 500 have been killed, with children among the victims. Thousands of people have been detained, including leaders of the former civilian government. Air strikes have been launched against ethnic minorities and the UNs special envoy to Myanmar has warned of a possible multi-dimensional catastrophe in the heart of Asia. The most famous person arrested is Suu Kyi, the 75-year-old civilian leader whose party won the November 2020 elections in a landslide. Key allies of the Nobel peace laureate have also been locked up, including Sydney academic Sean Turnell who has long served as an economic adviser. He faces up to 14 years in prison under colonial-era laws. This latest coup happened after she came into conflict with armed forces commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who questioned the legitimacy of the November 2020 elections that returned Suu Kyi with a massive majority. The target of US sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act for his alleged involvement in human rights abuses against the Rohingya minority and others, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has for 10 years maintained significant power even as the country has moved towards democracy. Did Suu Kyi ever really have power? What has triggered this latest turn of events? And wasnt Myanmar a democracy? Anti-coup protesters run to avoid military forces during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar, on Wednesday. Credit:AP

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What do I need to know about Myanmar? The south-east Asian republic, once a British colony called Burma, lies to the west of Thailand and also shares borders with China, Bangladesh, India and Laos. Officially a federation of states and regions known as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, it is the worlds 25th most populous nation with 57 million people, nearly 90 per cent of them Buddhist. Myanmar became independent from Britain in 1948 but endured military rule almost uninterrupted between 1962 and 2011. The generals flirted with democracy in 1990 when they held a general election but rejected it when Suu Kyi, then under house arrest, won. Then, a decade ago, a group of generals traded khaki for suits and set up a new, quasi-civilian government. They promised elections, and largely delivered in 2015 when Suu Kyis party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), scored a resounding victory. The next election, when the NLDs five-year term was up, was in November  and the partys win was even more emphatic. Loading The military has never handed over power unconditionally, though, and under the junta-drafted constitution of 2008 it holds key positions in the cabinet, picks one of the three vice-presidents and is guaranteed a quarter of the seats in Parliament (which are therefore never up for election). Myanmar has seven large ethnic groups of which the largest is Burman with about 68 per cent, and the government recognises nearly 200 ethnic minorities and clans. The government does not recognise the Rohingya, a Muslim minority; Myanmars military has been accused of waging an attempted genocide against the Rohingya, leading to more than a million displaced people, including about 700,000 in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

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Myanmars military, called the Tatmadaw, has also been involved in civil wars with state-level armed forces that opposed central rule or rebelled against the oppression of a one-party state. The national governments recent efforts to broker a truce among the states have yielded mixed results. Demographically, the country is young: more than a quarter of the population is aged under 14, yet it has one of the lowest rates of spending on education as a percentage of gross domestic product in the world. The CIA World Factbook ranks Myanmar at 175 out of 228 countries for real GDP per capita. Women working in a paddy field in the Irrawaddy region of Myanmar in August. Credit:Getty Images Who is Aung San Suu Kyi, and why is she controversial? Born in British Burma in 1945, Suu Kyi is the daughter of a general who played an important role in the fight to establish an independent Myanmar after World War II. General Aung San was assassinated in 1947, and he remains a hero to the Burmese majority, including to the military leaders who detained Suu Kyi. A diplomat and scholar, Suu Kyi married Oxford historian Michael Aris and had two children. She was outspoken on human rights issues and confronted the military as its hold on power grew more repressive in the late 20th century. Aris died in 1999. Suu Kyi under house arrest in her dilapidated mansion in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) in 1996. Credit:Getty Images

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The pro-democracy movement of 1988 was a turning point for Suu Kyi, who had returned to Myanmar from Britain. The 8888 Uprising grew during the year, building up to August 8, 1988, a date people considered auspicious. However, the army killed 350 people (activists claim the true toll is thousands) and detained many more. Suu Kyis speech urging non-violent resistance at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon on September 26, to more than half a million people in the aftermath of the massacre, became an iconic moment. Adored as The Lady, Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 while under house arrest in Yangon. The generals refused to hand over power. Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace while detained; she spent about 15 years in total under house arrest before being released in December 2010 during a thaw in relations with the military. Aung San Suu Kyi defends her country against accusations of the Rohingya genocide at the top UN court in the Hague in the Netherlands on December 11, 2019. Credit:Getty Images Her election victory in 2015 was hailed as a watershed moment for Myanmar democracy  she was allowed to campaign openly and to actually take power  but there were already questions about whether she had compromised too much of her credibility by engaging with the generals. She was criticised during the campaign for failing to rebuke the military for their longstanding abuses of the Rohingya minority, who had been denied citizenship and the right to vote. The condemnation grew after she was in office, as the military launched a crackdown that United Nations agencies have likened to genocide, in October 2016. Two years later, at the World Economic Forum, she equivocated by saying we have to be fair to all sides. Amnesty International stripped her of the Prisoner of Conscience Award shortly after while other honours have been revoked. Despite agitation from activists, there is no possibility of rescinding the Peace Prize under the Nobel statutes. Police charged Suu Kyi for illegally possessing communications equipment, allegedly found during a raid on her house in the capital, Naypyidaw, and when she first faced court in secret on February 16, The New York Times reported she was also charged with contravening a natural disaster management law by interacting with a crowd during the coronavirus pandemic.

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The military are both unearthing obscure colonial-era laws and drafting new cybersecurity bills to counter online activism. International Commission of Jurists accountability director Kingsley Abbott told the BBC one law, threatening public tranquility, was so vague and so broad is can pretty much be used to arrest anyone on any pretext. The bottom line is the military is completely above the law, and these developments are really a full-frontal assault on human rights and the rule of law in Myanmar. A protester holds a placard with a defaced image of Myanmar military commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Credit:AP What does the military want and why has it struck now? The military has been involved in politics since independence. Military dictator Ne Win had already served as prime minister when he staged a coup in 1962 that led to the establishment of a one-party, socialist state. Ne Win stood down during the protests of 1988 but he was replaced by the notorious State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which detained thousands of political prisoners. It renamed itself the State Peace and Development Council in 1997; armed forces chief Than Shwe led the council from 1992 to 2011 and served as prime minister for part of that time; now 88, he remains an influential behind-the-scenes figure. His successor is Min Aung Hlaing. These decades of military rule left Myanmar a pariah state. Australia was among the countries that imposed sanctions on the nation after generals rejected Suu Kyis win in 1990 elections. Subject to sanctions and reliant on China, the former rice bowl of south-east Asia became an economic ruin, reaching crisis point in 2008 after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy delta, killing 138,000 people. The military was criticised for blocking relief efforts and international aid.

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Indian American entrepreneur Suresh U. Kumar poses this question: Could it be that maybe, just maybe, Jan. 6, 2021, was the modern-day Thermopylae moment for America? A seeming defeat that sets us up for big victories in the years ahead. The multiple crises that Americans face today are of a colossal scale; yet it is quite conceivable that President Joe Biden could just be the person most suited to lead Americans out of this darkness towards our better angels and to a stronger, more united America. Seen above: President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks before signing an Executive Order in the South Court Auditorium at the White House on Jan. 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Sheriffs Deputy Dies After Being Shot on Duty in Mississippi

A deputy who was shot while on duty in Hancock County, Mississippi, has died from his injuries.

Lt. Michael Boutte was responding to a call for help regarding an attempted suicide when he was shot while trying to get out of his vehicle near a home, Hancock County Sheriff Ricky Adam told the Sun Herald.

A second responding deputy arrived shortly afterward. He was also fired at by the suspect but he managed to return fire, injuring the suspect.

Boutte was airlifted to a New Orleans hospital and was later pronounced dead.

The suspect, who is not yet identified, was also taken to a hospital for treatment.

Boutte was an Air Force veteran who had served in law enforcement for eight years. He had also attended the United States Marine Corps Police Academy and served in the reserves in New Orleans.

We just lost a brave man in the line of dutyLieutenant Michael Boutte of the Hancock Sheriffs Dept, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said on Twitter.

His fearless service demonstrates his courage and the outpouring of love demonstrates just how great this loss is. He is a fallen hero. Please pray for the many who loved him.

We just lost a brave man in the line of dutyLieutenant Michael Boutte of the Hancock Sheriffs Dept. His fearless service demonstrates his courage and the outpouring of love demonstrates just how great this loss is. He is a fallen hero. Please pray for the many who loved him. pic.twitter.com/ED48Axvgek  Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) February 2, 2021

During his time with the Hancock County Sheriffs Office, Boutte was awarded the Life Saving Medal for saving a childs life, the department said in a news release, adding that he was also credited with spearheading National Crime Night Out and initiating the Silver Alert Database for the City of Diamondhead.

The Hancock County Sheriffs Office suffered a huge loss today, Adam said in a statement. Mike was an incredible deputy and more so a fine person.

He was a mentor to our younger deputies and I know he will be greatly missed by his peers. You never saw him without a smile or a positive attitude.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigations will be investigating the shooting.
Nokia and Vodafone have announced the successful trial of a new Passive Optical Network (PON) technology capable of delivering speeds up to 100 gigabits per second (Gb/s) on a single wavelength 10 times faster than the most advanced networks available today. This marks the latest industry-first in fiber access for Nokia, following breakthroughs in 10G PON, TWDM-PON, universal PON and 25G PON.

The trial, which took place in Vodafones Eschborn lab in Germany last week, is the latest milestone in a long-standing collaboration between Vodafone and Nokia to accelerate the potential of fiber broadband. The demand for broadband connectivity continues to grow exponentially in terms of the service types, number of connected devices and the bandwidth consumed. It is essential that future fixed access networks have the capacity to absorb this growth.

To deliver 100 Gb/s on a single wavelength, Nokia Bell Labs leveraged cost-effective 25G optics in combination with state-of-the-art digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. 25G class optics are based on mature eco-system and available today. Going beyond 25G requires advanced DSP capabilities demonstrated in this trial. Once this DSP is adopted, the steps to 50G and 100G are straightforward and could be commercially available in the second half of the decade.

The Nokia Bell Labs 100G PON prototype is the worlds first application of flexible rate transmission in a PON network. Flexible rate transmission works by grouping fiber modems (ONUs) that exhibit similar physical network characteristics (e.g. loss or dispersion) and makes data transmission more efficient. Using flexible rate transmission results in lower latency on a PON and cuts power consumption in half  two essential characteristics for fiber networks that have a rapidly growing role in the massive delivery of fixed and mobile broadband services.

Vodafone has a history of pioneering state-of-the-art access technologies, having been the first operator in Europe to trial TWDM-PON, also with Nokia. The operator has the largest next-generation access network capability in Europe, covering 140 million homes. Vodafones strategy is to push fiber deeper to customers and evolve to a unified fiber-based network for access, aggregation, backhaul of cable nodes and mobile transport. Vodafone see 100G PON as a potential way to create highly flexible and scalable PON networks that will mitigate the risk of future peak-hour congestion and enable densification of cable and mobile networks.

Gavin Young, Vodafones Head of Fixed Access Centre of Excellence, said, 100G PON has 40 times the capacity of todays GPON networks, and 10 times the capacity of XGS-GPON, so it will help us keep ahead of the demand curve. In addition to ultra-high speeds, the technology supports our vision of highly efficient and adaptable next-generation networks. 100G PON enables flexible rates, and works by grouping modems using a technique similar to the one we already use in our cable networks, so this experience can help us to better evaluate and exploit this new PON technology.

Stefaan Vanhastel, Chief Technology Officer, Fixed Networks Division, Nokia, said, We keep pushing the potential of fiber access so that capacity stays ahead of the unrelenting demand of the connected world. In 2020, we launched the first commercial 25G PON solution. Now, were delighted to show state-of-the-art 100G technology together with Vodafone. These breakthroughs in speed turn an existing fiber-to-the-home network into a fiber network that can connect homes, businesses, remote cable nodes and 5G small cells.

Peter Vetter, Head of Access and Devices Research, Nokia Bell Labs, said, Nokia Bell Labs is focused on delivering the innovative technologies needed for the flexible, adaptable networks of the future. Optical innovations pioneered by Nokia Bell Labs, like shaping, are widely adopted by the industry. For the first time, we show a unique flexible rate capability that allows optimizing capacity depending on the link losses and low-cost optical component capabilities in an optical network termination. We believe fiber will play a key role in 5G and 6G, and that is why we are truly excited about the 100G PON demo, and its potential in creating the future of fibre broadband.
OTSEGO, MI -- Jennifer Mitchell has received bad news in two different hospital rooms.

She has seen, firsthand, the effect of two different pandemics over the last decade. She has watched ventilators breathe for two of her favorite people. And she has said two very difficult goodbyes.

There is an empty La-Z-Boy in Jennifers living room that sits right next to hers. Sometimes, when she refers to her husband Tim she still gestures to it. Tim died of COVID-19 on Jan. 7. His absence is still fresh though Tim was in the hospital for almost an entire month.

The death of Jennifer Mitchells husband came a little more than 10 years after the couple lost their 29-year-old daughter, Erica, in 2009 amid the height of the H1N1 pandemic.

The freezer is still full of casseroles from neighbors and friends delivered while Tim was in the hospital. Jennifer said she had waited to thaw them, expecting he would return home.

Related: 9 retired nuns die from COVID-19 in January at Adrian home

The Mitchells were just returning home after living in a hotel room due to a construction mistake that left them with a sagging roof. The five weeks in a hotel already felt like quarantine, so they were surprised when they were hit hard with fever, fatigue and congestion.

When COVID-19 news first came out, he was really scared and I was really scared for him, Jennifer said. He caught almost every bug that came along so we were really careful.

As a young man, Tim had a spinal fusion and was left with lifelong backpain. He would get routine steroid shots to manage the pain and to allow him to continue working at Parker Hannifin. Over time, his weakened immune system took a toll on him, his wife said.

Jennifer got sick first. Too nauseous and weak to get out of bed, she eventually called an ambulance for herself. She went to Bronson Methodist Hospital and received two IV bags of fluids and some nausea medicine. She returned home to take care of Tim.

Two days later, Tims COVID-19 symptoms had progressed rapidly and were affecting his breathing.

He was admitted to Bronsons COVID-19 unit. He and Jennifer texted and called daily, as she was unable to visit in person during the pandemic. He was eager to go home, but doctors advised otherwise.

When doctors said a ventilator was necessary he was resistant, Jennifer said. He told the doctors he did not want to be hooked up to machines forever.

Tim was intubated for a day and a half, when Jennifer and her son, Grant, were finally allowed to visit him. His lungs were no longer flexible and they watched the ventilator slam into his chest repeatedly, trying to expand them.

His heartbeat started to become irregular and it was becoming obvious Tim would not return to normal, Jennifer said.

I think people think, Thats somebody else, thats not going to happen to me, Jennifer said. It happens to anybody.

One of Tims grandsons asked if its possible he is still at the hospital and just hasnt come home yet.

Jennifer has a new puppy at home  Penny Lane. The miniature goldendoodle is just 10 weeks old. The couple picked her out before they both got COVID-19. Tim named the puppy, but never got to meet her.

The dog came home to stay a few days after Jennifer made the decision to stop Tims ventilator. The puppy is a blessing in disguise, Jennifer said.

[Life] just rolls along, she said. Its just meant to be is what it feels like to me. All along, everything kind of falls into place.

The Mitchell family plan to have a barbecue at their hunting property in Chase, Michigan, and spread Tims ashes. They will be missing his famous spaghetti and meatballs, and his homegrown pumpkins for Halloween.

Another seat is now empty at the Mitchell family table.

In November 2009, the couples 29-year-old daughter, Erica, died of pneumonia. Though her death was not clearly linked to H1N1, it came as that pandemic spread worldwide in 2009-10.

Erica was diagnosed with bone cancer after she broke her leg jumping down from her bunk bed after her first night as a freshman at University of Michigan. Emergency room scans found a tumor in her thigh.

Her leg was amputated and six months of chemotherapy followed. The cancer later came back in her lungs and portion was removed. She continued her education and graduated from Michigan  a childhood dream. She became an English teacher and got a Masters degree. She went to concerts and traveled the world. She was cancer free.

She did an awful lot for her young life, Jennifer said.

Right as the world was learning about H1N1, Erica caught a bug she just couldnt shake. Fevers would come and go, but doctors advised staying home since that virus was so contagious.

Eventually, she went to Bronson Methodist Hospital and got a chest scan. Doctors found that she had atypical pneumonia. Shortly after being admitted, she was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit and put on a ventilator, Jennifer said.

She was still expecting her daughter to bounce back.

They thought I understood, but I did not, that she was really already dead, the mother said. Her lungs were not gonna recover just like Tims lungs were not gonna recover. The doctor that put her on the ventilator kept saying to me, She cant get any sicker. Its like, What the hell does that mean?

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Jennifer is reminded of how fragile immunocompromised individuals can be. On Ericas birthday, she posted a photo reminding her Facebook friends: While you may be strong as an ox, please think about who you could kill when you dont follow the safety protocols put in place by people with our own best interests at heart.

Jennifer watched as Pfizer trucks rolled out of the companys Portage facility carrying the COVID-19 vaccine. She said she plans to get the shot when she is eligible. It stings to know that is the same week Tim got sick.

Related: More than half of 65-plus population in Kalamazoo County have requested a vaccine

Thats definitely a sad thing, she said. But Im glad for all the other billions of people who dont have to get sick and die.

Shortly after Ericas death, Tim used his retirement money to help Grant and his wife buy the house just down the street. Their three kids grew up seeing grandma and grandpa everyday. Jennifer said that house was the life raft she and Tim needed to save them from the loss of their daughter.

People might think, These people are cursed, Jennifer said of her familys story. But, I dont think so. I think were blessed.

Jennifer said she can still feel Ericas presence.

During her treatment for bone cancer in the late 1990s, multiple of Ericas medical procedures were set for Sept. 11. When the terrorist attacks happened in 2001, Erica was unnerved that the date was haunting her. She decided to flip the narrative, opting to celebrate Sept. 11 as her second birthday every year  cakes, candles and presents included.

Erica died before meeting her nephews, but Jennifer said it feels like she is watching them from above. Grants first child was born on Jennifers birthday, the second was born on Sept. 11 and the third was born on Tims birthday.

There is a God, and Erica has clearly got him wrapped around her little finger, Jennifer said.

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The hotheaded boatie who rammed an oar-wielding school principal with his dinghy in a viral video is a convicted killer on life parole with 'severe anger issues'.

John Frederick Dixon was released from prison in 1987, but his unhinged behaviour in the recent boating incident so concerned New Zealand authorities that they requested he was recalled to prison because he posed undue risk to public safety.

Mr Dixon, now 58, was 16 when he bashed Joseph Hishon to death after the man denied him a loan in Hamilton in 1978.

The hotheaded boatie who rammed an oar-wielding school principal with his dinghy in a viral video is John Frederick Dixon (pictured), a convicted killer on life parole with 'severe anger issues'

Mr Hishon died from 'extensive head injuries' and had a broken skull.

Dixon admitted punching and kicking the man's head after he refused to hand over money for cigarettes and rent.

That trial - 42 years ago - heard Dixon had severe anger issues and a personality disorder and that at 11 he was sent to a boy's home because his parents couldn't control him, the NZ Herald reported.

The trial also heard reports that Dixon had 'marginally abnormal brain functions' and suggested 'a tendency to over-react to threats, teasing or any excitement'.

Dixon was convicted of murder and served eight years in jail.

The video showed an enraged Dixon recklessly ramming his inflatable dinghy into an aluminium boat after a dispute with another boatie, deputy school principal Catherine Browning.

The bizarre boat rage incident erupted on January 23 at the Tairua Harbour marina, a tourist destination on the Coromandel Peninsula famous for kayaking and sailing.

Dixon is understood to live in a $150,000 yacht on the marina and was angry that boats passing had ignored a 5km/h speed limit, sending a wake towards his yacht and damaging his dinghy.

'You rammed our boat and you spit at me, you piece of s**t,' Ms Browning says as Dixon approaches the boat aggressively.

'You're a piece of s**t, you just caused $1000 worth of damage', Dixon shouts, slurring his words.

Tairua primary school's deputy principal Catherine Browning (pictured) swung her oar at Mr Dixon in the drama caught on video

'What are you talking about?' Browning asks.

'You drive past my boat, you rock it if you're not doing 5 knots,' Dixon screams.

Ms Browning grabs a wooden oar as Dixon angrily buzzes another mariner and swings it at him.

'There are children,' Ms Browning shouts. 'What do you think you're doing?'

'I don't care, I want some money' replies the man as his dinghy promptly deflates and sinks into the water.

Ms Browning spoke to the NZ Herald on Saturday, breaking down in tears from the pressure after the video went global, escalating the incident to international news.

She said the video only captured half of the incident with the angry man originally targeting another boat in the drama that unfolded before the video started.

'He came in at full speed attacking us, ramming us,' she said.

'He scared the s*** out of me and I had to defend myself.'

John Dixon (pictured left) can be seen in the video yelling at Catherine Browning before speeding off and circling back to ram her boat (pictured right)

She was facing action from the school board over her behaviour too.

Ms Browning was dubbed, perhaps unfairly, a 'boat Karen'.

A 'Karen' is a pejorative term for an entitled middle-aged woman who complains to the manager.

Ms Browning said that the impact of the sudden and unwelcome fame has left her unable to sleep or eat.

'It's made my life a nightmare.'

Efforts to have Mr recalled to prison have so far failed, but he is now required to a special Parole Board hearing for a final determination on whether he will remain a free man.
Amaravati: An infraction in the brain caused the death of the 44-year-old ASHA worker in Guntur on January 24 and it was not related to COVID-19 vaccine she had taken days earlier, the post-mortem report said on Tuesday.

Colleagues of the 44-year old worker had earlier alleged that she died following the coronavirus vaccination, though Guntur Collector Samuel Anand had said the exact cause of the death would be known only after post-mortem and maintained there was not a single adverse event reported in the district.

A senior health department official told PTI on Tuesday that the post-mortem report cited "infraction in the brain" was the cause of the ASHA workers death. It said the death was not related to COVID-19 vaccine, he added.

Shortly before the report came, Deputy Chief Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani), who holds the Health portfolio, denied the ASHA worker's death was due to Adverse Event.

Following Immunisation (AEFI)

Replying to questions at a press conference here, he said "It (AEFI) has not yet been established." He, however, said a financial assistance of Rs 50 lakh was being extended to the kin of the deceased.

Earlier on January 25, state Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, in a letter to Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, had said there was one fatality in the state due to AEFI.

The ASHA worker complained of severe headache and fever on January 22, three days after she took a shot of the coronavirus vaccine. "We first took her to a private hospital and later shifted to the GGH as her condition worsened. She was a very fit person and rendered tireless service during COVID-19 time," the deceased's brother had said after her death.
(TNS)  California's Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest reshuffling of pandemic rules suggests this paraphrase of an old line: Nothing so concentrates the mind as the thought of a recall.There has only been one recall of a governor in California history  Democrat Gray Davis in 2003  and it must still be frighteningly fresh in Newsom's mind.Back then, he was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and about to be elected mayor.The prospect of a Republican-backed recall attempt qualifying for a state ballot seems slightly better than 50-50.But the odds these days of any Democratic governor actually being recalled by voters in this deep blue state are very low without a celebrity Republican challenger  such as an Arnold Schwarzenegger, who ousted Davis. And none is in sight. But Newsom isn't ignoring the risk."You can't put your head in the sand," one gubernatorial insider told me, asking for anonymity. "We're realists. You have to always be prepared.""We're doing what we need to do. But at the end of the day, this is about governing and making sure he's doing the right things."Newsom's latest moves indicate he's feeling the public pressure and reacting. Politicians always deny that, as if reading the polls and complying with people's desires is somehow a sign of weakness  or even sleaziness. To me, these denials are silly.In a healthy democracy, there's a delicate balance between leading the voters and following them. Politicians are elected to represent the people's interests and desires, after all.Newsom has recently taken swift actions in an effort to get a grip on managing the pandemic, gradually return everyone's lives to normal and calm anger over the snails-pace delivery of vaccinations, failure to reopen public schools and other complaints. Some major moves: He suddenly lifted stay-at-home orders all over the state. It meant reopening outdoor dining, hair salons and other struggling small businesses. People were going stir-crazy in midwinter and restaurateurs were facing bankruptcies. Newsom heard the griping. He shifted prioritization for vaccinations to seniors 65 and up. The governor figured that 75% of COVID-19 deaths are in that age group and seniors are more likely to require hospitalization. Getting them vaccinated means clearing hospital rooms, reducing high medical risks and speeding up the time until everyone can resume normal life.An earlier attempt to vaccinate 65-year-olds became a nightmare when there wasn't enough vaccine. President Biden has promised larger deliveries to states. With websites crashing or unnavigable, Newsom created a state-run site where people can check on their vaccine eligibility and schedule shots. It's starting as a pilot project in Los Angeles and San Diego counties but is slated to go statewide soon.Good idea  in theory. But other Sacramento forays into technology haven't always worked out. He hired Blue Shield of California to oversee distribution of vaccine to counties, pharmacies and private healthcare providers. Newsom thought the distribution system needed more centralization because the current locally managed operation was sluggish and inconsistent, depending on the locale."We needed help," the insider says.Whoa there, countered a coalition of county governments and health officials. In a letter to Newsom, they expressed "tremendous concern" about loss of local control and the role of a "third party"  Blue Shield  "in vaccine allocation without the benefit of local context." Newsom and the Legislature extended until June 30 a program to protect renters from eviction if they've been hurt financially by the pandemic. The program was going to expire Sunday. Tenants must pay 25 percent of their rent to avoid eviction.There'll also be a rent subsidy for low-income tenants, costing $2.6 billion in federal money.We'll see how this renter relief flies with small landlords who must pay mortgages on their units while losing income.Newsom keeps stepping in trouble. Two examples: There's an incredible scandal involving fraud, incompetence and past inattention at the state Employment Development Department. Two state audits last week blistered EDD for sending out at least $11 billion in fraudulent unemployment benefits  some to state prisoners and foreign criminal gangs. An additional $19 billion is being investigated.Newsom inherited the mess. It's largely the fault of bureaucratic inertia and an outmoded computer system that should have been updated years ago. Now it's Newsom's problem to fix. He's trying, but it's still pokey and flawed. Newsom's ballyhooed $2-billion back-to-school plan for elementary students is flunking. He set a mid-February target for classroom reopening. Forget it. Another pandemic failure.One major holdup is that teachers understandably insist on being vaccinated first. But there's not enough vaccine and teachers are behind healthcare workers and 65-year-olds on the priority list."If we wait for the perfect, we might as well just pack it up and be honest with folks that we're not going to open for in-person instruction this school year," the agitated governor told school administrators last week.By the weekend, the recall campaign had collected 1.3 million voter signatures, strategist Dave Gilliard says. The deadline is March 17 for turning in the 1.5 million required to qualify the recall for an election. But about 2 million should be collected to ensure enough signatures are valid.Even if there is no recall election, Newsom needs to keep his mind concentrated on voters' grumbling. He'll be asking them for a second term next year.
They have survived gun battles, attempted abductions, attacks by angry militiamen and days-long treks to safety with nothing to eat but moringa leaves.

Yet Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia fear their suffering may not be over, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed strains to end a brutal conflict in the northern region of Tigray that has rendered them uniquely vulnerable.

Nearly 100,000 refugees from Eritrea, an oppressive, authoritarian nation bordering Ethiopia to the north, were registered in four camps in Tigray when fighting erupted in November between Abiy's government and the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

Two of those camps, Hitsats and Shimelba, were caught up in hostilities and remain inaccessible to the United Nations refugee agency and its Ethiopian counterpart, the Agency for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA).

The information vacuum has spurred dire speculation over the refugees' fate.

The UN has sounded the alarm over reported targeted killings and abductions by Eritrean soldiers, whose role in the conflict is widely documented but officially denied by Addis Ababa and Asmara.

The US State Department last week cited "credible reports" of looting and sexual violence in the camps.

On his first trip to Ethiopia since the conflict began, UN refugees chief Filippo Grandi over the weekend visited Mai Aini, one of two camps in southern Tigray where the UN has regained access.

The camp is now home to hundreds of refugees from Hitsats, some of whom told AFP of the horrors they left behind.

"Most of the people, if you search this camp, they'll start crying when they talk about what happened," said Girmay, who like other refugees insisted on using only one name, fearing reprisals.

"Our friends could be alive or dead. We don't know."

'They came and killed'

The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for almost three decades -- it was in power when Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a border war that killed tens of thousands between 1998 and 2000 and led to a two-decade stalemate.

After taking office in 2018, Abiy initiated a surprise rapprochement with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, a move that won him the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

Yet Isaias and the TPLF -- whose region borders Eritrea -- remain bitter enemies, heightening the risks for Eritrean refugees caught up in the conflict.

Once fighting reached Hitsats in late November, pro-TPLF militiamen targeted refugees in reprisal killings after suffering battlefield setbacks against Eritrean troops, several refugees told AFP.

On one morning the militiamen shot dead nine young Eritrean men outside a church, they said.

Pro-TPLF forces based themselves out of Hitsats for weeks, forbidding hungry residents from going out in search of food and shooting dead several who tried anyway.

"At first we couldn't believe it because they speak the same language as us," Girmay said of the pro-TPLF forces.

"Before we are friends... Suddenly they came and killed."

Eritrean soldiers also committed abuses, the refugees said, arresting dozens of people, likely more, and whisking them to an unknown destination.

"The Eritrean soldiers caught some people and started asking them questions. I've counted 26 or 27," one refugee said.

"The next day they took them somewhere else. We don't know where they are."

Many refugees fled Eritrea to avoid its notorious system of compulsory national service, which inspires descriptions of the nation as an "open-air prison", and among their greatest fears is to be forced back.

Addressing reporters at the end of his visit Monday night, the UN's Grandi said he had come away with "a more complex sense" of who committed abuses.

"There were very precise allegations regarding TPLF elements. There were very specific allegations regarding Eritrean forces present -- possibly or surely present -- in the region," he said.

Ethiopia's government is investigating abuses and will try to account for all of Hitsats' pre-conflict population, which it estimates at around 11,000, said Tesfahun Gobezay, ARRA's executive director.

"With regard to Eritrean soldiers taking Eritrean refugees, we don't have any solid evidence yet," Tesfahun told AFP.

'How can I feel safe?'

Eritrean forces assumed control of Hitsats in early January and forced those remaining in the camp to evacuate, refugees said.

"They threatened to kill us and people were afraid," said one refugee now in Addis Ababa, who asked that his name not be used.

Roughly 3,000 refugees from Hitsats and the other inaccessible northern camp, Shimelba, have since reached the two camps in southern Tigray, many travelling by foot with no water and only leaves for food.

In Mai Aini some new arrivals complained of poor access to clean water and of not having a place to sleep.

But their biggest concern, shared by some longtime residents, was for their security, with several worrying that pro-TPLF militias could attack the camp despite an extensive federal military presence nearby.

"How can I feel safe here?" said Natnael, who has lived in Mai Aini since he was a boy. "There are many militias around the camp."

ARRA's Tesfahun said the southern camps were safe and that progress had been made in re-establishing basic services.

Grandi, for his part, called for a more efficient system of distributing aid, saying the current situation in Tigray was "very grave" and that "without further action it will get worse."

It remains to be seen what has become of the two camps in northern Tigray that are still out of contact.

Satellite imagery shows widespread damage to both, suggesting a campaign to destroy them, the British-based investigations firm DX Open Network said.

"There are clear and consistent patterns across both camps over a two-month period demonstrating that these refugee camps were systematically targeted despite their protected humanitarian status," it said in a statement.

Short link:


Importers of essential commodities in The Gambia have informed the National Assembly Select on Trade that the high charge on demurrage is one of the major factors contributing to the hike in prices of the essential commodities.

Demurrage, according to Merriam Webster dictionary, means a charge for detaining a ship, freight car, or truck.

The importers made this disclosure on Thursday 28th January 2021, during their engagement with the Trade Committee on the reason for the constant hike in commodity prices and discuss what can be done to curb the trend.

"There is also a high demand on essential commodities, especially in Africa and the production level is very low. Increment on the demurrage on trade in containers is US$3000 to US$ 4000 on rice, sugar and oil. This is another major factor for the increment in basic commodities," said the importers.

They also told the committee that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they have problems in importing and when it comes to shipping, most of the ports in the Far East of India and Pakistan, have to operate the way they were in pre-COVID-19 era.

"Before the pandemic, the costs of shipment of a container of rice used to be around US$1600, but today it is US$3800 to US$ 4000. At the same time, factories and suppliers are not working consistently... In some cases 50 per cent of them are working, while the remaining fifty percent of them are not operating. So this has caused lack of capacity or scarcity in the shipping of the essential commodities," the importers said.

According to the importers, they have series of meetings with the Trade Ministry and the ministry has asked them to produce their weekly sales; their weekly prices, sales and weekly stock levels.

"We are trying our best to sell at the cheapest price and not to increase our prices. It is not our favor as business. On the other hand we have to import and sell at a cheap price," the importers said.

Gamfood Trading Official revealed: "Currently, there are plans afoot to start oil production in the country in the next three to four months, under the project called United Vegetable Oil Industry at Saroo.

"It is taking time because of the pandemic, because our materials and machinery keep delaying, but in the next three to four months we would have clearer view when we will start."

Commenting on demurrage, the importers informed the committee that the government should look into the charges on containers importing essential commodities in to the country with a view to fixing it at an affordable cost.

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They also told the committee that the fact that they had some stock in sugar prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which has really helped, stressing that without the stocks, the price of sugar would have been higher than its current price.

The importers also said the closure of businesses and loss of jobs are some of the contributing factors to the rise in prices of the commodity. They said the supply is low due to effective operations of the shipping and supplying companies.

The Chairperson of the Trade Committee, Muhammed Mahanera, hailed the importers for honoring their invitation and providing the information to the committee.

Mahanera said the information would guide the committee in its struggle with the stakeholders to ensure that the persistent price hike of commodities is reviewed and fixed at a reasonable price.

The Importers who appeared before the trade committee, included Shyben A Madi and Sons Limited, Gamfood Trading,Nandu, Sas Enterprise, L.B Gaye and Sons Sugar Company, Tony Banana and Sons Ltd, EASB NAFA Ent, Mustapha G Jallow and Sons, Bussura Trading, I J Enterpise, M A Jallow Food Trading and Khalil Jaafar.
While harness racing headlines are typically dominated by three-year-old Standardbreds, four-year-old Century Farroh has more than earned his share of the spotlight, most recently being named Canada's Somebeachsomewhere Horse of the Year at Sunday's (Jan. 31) virtual O'Brien Awards.

"We expected that there was a good possibility that he would win the Aged Pacer of the Year, but we didnt know about the Somebeachsomewhere award," Dave Ratchford, who owns Century Farroh with his wife, Marguerite, told the Cape Breton (N.S.) Post.

Now a two-time O'Brien Award winner after taking top honours among three-year-old pacers in 2019, Century Farroh turned it up a notch in 2020, winning four of 16 races, including two editions of the Preferred at Woodbine Mohawk Park, as well as the Dan Patch Stakes and the Breeders Crown Open Pace at Harrah's Hoosier Park.

And with $1.4 million banked in his career to date, the son of Mach Three and Beachy Girl has cemented himself one of the richest horses to campaign for Cape Breton-based connections  not bad for a $17,000 purchase from the London Selected Yearling Sale in October 2017. In fact, Century Farroh has just gotten better with age  winning the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots Series as a two-year-old before graduating to the Gold Series and a few Grand Circuit appearances at three, and then achieving Canadian harness racing's highest achievement at four. To say the least, Ratchford was surprised by the level of success Century Farroh has achieved given his purchase price.

"Our budget that we used to buy him doesn't usually put us on that avenue," he explained. "In my estimation, he was less money than what he should have likely been at the sale, but we were just looking for an Ontario Sires Stakes competitor  we werent looking for a world-class horse of his nature, thats for sure."



Dave and Marguerite Ratchford (fifth and sixth from left), pictured at the 2019 O'Brien Awards receiving Century Farroh's first O'Brien trophy. Dave and Marguerite Ratchford (fifth and sixth from left), pictured at the 2019 O'Brien Awards receiving Century Farroh's first O'Brien trophy.

What does 2021 hold for Century Farroh? It'll be hard to top a year like 2020, but trainer Dr. Ian Moore has the Ratchfords' champion back in training in preparation for a spring return to the races.

"From a financial point of view, he can likely make more money on the racetrack right now than he could in a stud barn," Ratchford explained, indicating that a stallion career could be in the cards for Century Farroh down the road. "If he goes to the stud barn and hes what everyone hopes he might be as far as reproduction is concerned, its a different story all together."

For now, though, Ratchford is just delighted with his pacer's already long list of accomplishments ... highlighted by back-to-back O'Brien honours.

Its quite a big deal for sure, and we couldnt be prouder of him.
By Zhang Ning

Moscow and Washington signed an agreement on January 26 on expending the New START treaty for five years without preconditions, without any additions, as Moscow insisted, indicating that the only remaining arms control pact between the two countries is likely to be extended after the INF Treaty lost effect in 2019. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who headed the talks with the American side on behalf of the Russian president, said the extension creates the possibility for the two countries to continue dialogues on the whole set of issues that influence strategic stability worldwide.

Previously, Moscow has expressed its willingness to extend the New START treaty without any preconditions on quite a few occasions. Still, Washington gave the cold shoulder to the gesture and kept throwing out conditions during the negotiations that were hard for Moscow to accept. President-elect Biden released signals to restart the procedures of extending the centerpiece US-Russia nuclear arms treaty. On January 21, the next day after he took office, the White House announced its intention to extend the treaty by five years.

Both Russia and the US have separate considerations for the extension of New START.

If the only extant bilateral arms control pact between the two countries cannot sustain, their mutual trust will fall to a new low, and a nuclear arms race will loom large, which doesnt cater to their strategic aspirations.

For Kremlin, extending the treaty is conducive to maintaining its position in the domain of global strategic stability, easing the confrontation with the US, and avoiding getting sucked into a costly nuclear arms race with the US.

For the White House, the new president Biden needs to ensure Americas current nuclear superiority and effective nuclear deterrence by extending the treaty and hopes to discuss new topics with the Kremlin on that basis. He also wants to reshape US global reputation by showing the international community Americas commitment to arms control. Besides, the New START treaty is a political legacy from a Democratic presidency under Obama, and Biden, as a long-time partner of the former president, wishes to inherit and protect this legacy.

Notably, the extension of the New START treaty for five years wont reverse the long-standing tensions between Russia and the US. Militarily, the Biden administration may be able to keep the New START treaty, but its not likely to re-join the INF and the Open Skies treaties that the Trump administration decided to quit. Politically, neither the Biden administration nor the Democratic partyis pro-Moscow, and Moscow accused the White House of being behind the recent massive protests in the country.

As the US and Russia can hardly bridge their divergences on Ukraine, Syria, chemical weapons, and cybersecurity, and their structural conflicts will stick for a long time, a substantial improvement of bilateral relations will face a string of obstacles. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki recently said, Even as we work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, so too we work to hold Russia toaccount for its reckless and adversarial actions. US Secretary of State Antony Blinkenmade it clear at a recent congressional hearing that the Biden administration will use policy tools, including sanctions, to make sure Russia pays for what it did.
Police Spokesperson Charles Owino has refuted claims of extrajudicial killings in Tiaty, Baringo County.

This comes after post-mortem examinations revealed six people, whose bodies were found dumped in a bush in Baringo South, were tortured before they were shot dead.

The examinations were carried out on Thursday following the recovery of the bodies of the victims from Arabal.

Baringo County Pathologist Wangare Wambui performed the examinations supervised by Titus Ngulungu, who acted on behalf of the Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU).

Illegal arms

Ten people, including security officers, have been killed in an ongoing operation in Baringo and Turkana counties to end fatal bandit attacks and recover illegal firearms.

Defending his men, Mr Owino said Friday that police have recovered 35 illegal firearms and arrested the seven people who had them.

"We have asked the locals to voluntarily surrender illicit arms to the police. We wish to assure the public that volunteers shall not be prosecuted," he said.

He also accused the pastoralist communities residing in the area of turning against police officers and reservists recruited to offer support in case of impromptu attacks

"Cattle rustling has become a commercial enterprise, with the very wealthy and influential financing the crime. This means that today's cattle rustlers are simply criminals for hire."

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Asked about the said financiers' identities, he replied, "I do not know who these financiers are. Go ask your politicians. Ours is just to provide security."

Radicalisation

Mr Owino also waded into the matter of rampant school fires since the reopening of schools eary in January.

He urged the youth to resist incitement and radicalisation as these may result in acts of violence.

"We need to remind young boys and girls who are burning and maliciously destroying school property that all persons aged eight years and above are criminally liable for any criminal acts or omissions that they commit," he said.

"Upon prosecution, your criminal records shall be kept by the criminal records office at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for the rest of your life. This will definitely affect your future career prospects."
To budge is: 'to cause to move; to begin to move'.

If I don't budge in the morning, I don't get out of bed. If my children don't budge when they're getting ready for school, we end up late.

Though there's more at stake than me getting out of bed.

Globally, we witness economic instability, global terrorism, millions of asylum seekers looking for refuge and Western democracies caught in the midst of circumstances requiring strong, decisive leadership.

The issues are great and the pressure is immense. Though, I suggest that if leaders of influence fail to act, and do not make clear, strong, godly decisions in a rapidly changing 21st century context, we become inundated with complexities far beyond anything we started with.

The fear that many in our communities have today is not so much that great global and societal issues might impact us, but rather that leaders who do not budge will effectively cause these issues to impact us. If leaders choose to remain in places of indecisiveness then we cannot progress in dealing with complex societal issues.

If leaders, for instance, do not make strong decisions about how they deal with growing Islamic militancy in the global community, then by doing nothing the problem worsens. If we abdicate making difficult decisions about protecting people fleeing from war, the issue will continue to gnaw away. When leaders of churches fail to budge from old ideas, they don't preserve their church: they kill it.

As an Australian who has just witnessed the handing down of the Federal Budget for the financial year to come, here is my concern: Australian politicians continually speak about the enormous deficit of the Australian economy and that something needs to be done urgently. Then when the budget is handed down, no great change is announced and nothing moves. We tinker around the edges and fail to make any substantial difference. The leaders have failed to budge. The budget didn't budge-it.

By failing to budge, we merely perpetuate the problems.

No great change comes without great leadership. Arguably, in today's context, we see the Donald Trumps of the world flourish, not because they have good morals or great insights, but because they will choose to budge. They may well move things in the wrong direction, but society is so sick of not moving, they'd rather vote in someone like Trump who at least will get things moving.

I think it's time that good leaders budge.

In an era of economic instability, politicians must budge.

One cannot simply alert its people to the fundamental problems of its economy, if there is no intention to move forward with creative solutions to resolve the problems.

In an era of scores of asylum seekers seeking refuge, governments must budge.

Tightening the borders seems to be the flavour of the month. Yet, while governments fail to recognise and welcome genuine refugees, millions of people live in limbo, simply disadvantaged by the geographical location in which they were born.

In an era of declining churches, denominational leaders must budge.

To fail to find new ways of doing old things, will be to the demise of the Christian church. The message stays the same, but the methods must change.

In an era that celebrates individual achievement and prosperity, society must budge towards the disadvantaged.

Some people are disadvantaged simply because they weren't born in an affluent society. We must distribute our wealth. We cannot renege our responsibility to help the poor. If we haven't budged already, we need to. Loving our neighbour was not an optional extra.

When we choose to budge, we choose to begin to move. Ultimately, we move towards the betterment of our societies, for the glory of God.

I am reminded that if I don't budge in the morning, I don't get out of bed; nothing gets done and I am still left with all the pressing issues from the day before and no doubt a truckload full of dirty dishes.

We must budge.
CDC country offices serve as a focal point and provide a connection between the wealth of expertise that exists at CDC headquarters and overseas to partners in-country. CDC teams posted overseas assist colleagues across the agency, and provide linkages to ministries of health, U.S. embassies, and other partners. Relationships established through CDC country offices build understanding of the local context and culture. These relationships foster in-country collaborations that address many health challenges.

In coordination with other key programs at CDC, CGH works with countries to strengthen public health systems, train public health personnel to prevent, detect, and respond to disease outbreaks, and implement science-based disease eradication and elimination programs. This practice, known as public health capacity development, is defined as building the knowledge, skills, commitment, structures, systems, and leadership capabilities that enable public health actions to improve health. Public health capacity building is at the core of CGHs collaborative technical partnerships to implement and sustain science-based public health program interventions and strategies.

Building global health capacities for outbreak preparedness and response is possible. For example, since 2015, CDC has focused on building public health workforce, laboratory, surveillance, and emergency response capabilities in 17 partner countries as part of a U.S. government effort to improve global health security. These investments are showing promising results:
Amid ongoing exodus from TMC ahead of the assembly polls, two-time MLA from Diamond Harbour Dipak Haldar Monday quit the party accusing the Trinamool Congress leadership of not allowing him to work for the masses, fuelling speculations of his possible switchover to the BJP. Haldar, however, remained tight-lipped on joining the saffron camp.

He sent his resignation to the party-state president Subrata Bakshi and South 24 Parganas TMC president Subhasish Chakraborty. "I am a two-time MLA. But, since 2017, I am not allowed to work properly for the masses. Despite informing the leadership, no action was taken to improve the situation. I am not informed about any party programme. I am answerable to the people of my constituency and supporters.

"I have sent my resignation letter to the district and state president this evening through speed post. I thank Mamata Banerjee for allowing me to serve as an MLA," he said. Accusing a section of the party leadership for harassing him and his family members, Haldar said "just because of differences with me, my family members were also harassed. Why should I tolerate this humiliation? I don't deserve this." However, he said he is not resigning from the post of MLA, as he is committed to the people of his constituency.

For the last few months, Haldar has been speaking against the party leadership. Haldar, considered to be a close associate of BJP leader Sovan Chatterjee, since his days in the TMC, recently met the latter at his residence in South Kolkata.

The TMC leadership said Haldar was a "non-performing" MLA of the party and it was unlikely that he would have got a nomination this time. "If he felt so humiliated then he should have resigned two years back. Why did he wait for so long? The fact is he was well aware that he won't be getting a ticket this time and that is why he is now planning to jump the ship," a senior TMC leader said.

In 2015, Haldar was suspended from the party after he was arrested for his alleged involvement in a clash between rival factions of the party's students' front in a district's college. Later he was out on bail and was reinstated in the party.

Since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the BJP bagged 18 seats, just four less than the ruling TMC and emerged as its main challenger in Bengal, 17 MLAs of the Trinamool Congress, one TMC MP, three belonging to the Congress the CPI(M) each and one from CPI has crossed over to the saffron camp. However, except for the former state cabinet ministers Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee, none of them resigned as MLAs.

Elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly are likely to be held in April-May this year.

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The total allocation for the five autonomous institutes under the MoEF&CC was reduced by 20 percent, instead of the planned increase.

The Rs 230-crore reduction in the budgetary allocation to the environment ministry has drawn flak from environmentalists who say it may slow down or completely halt green initiatives. Besides the shrunk budget, they also feel that the Centre has not clarified how a separate amount of Rs 2,217 crore, set aside for tackling air pollution in 42 cities with minimum population of one million, will be utilised. "The total budget allocated for the ministry this year is Rs 2,869.93 crore while last year it was Rs 3,100 crore. This implies that a number of environmental measures could be slowed down or halted," said Avinash Chanchal, a Climate Campaigner for the Greenpeace India.

"The government has allocated Rs 2,217 crore to tackle air pollution in 42 urban cities and introduced a voluntary vehicle scrapping policy. But it isn't clear how these funds would be utilized to resolve the pollution crisis, he said.

In the previous budget, he said, the government had announced Rs 4,400 crore for clean air, but there is no information on public platform on how this fund was utilized.

Vikrant Tongad, an environmentalist and the founder of NGO SAFE (Social Action for Forest and Environment), said this reductions may have an adverse impact on environment-friendly intiatives.

"By reducing the amount, the government is making clear that it is not serious about the environment," Tongad said.

The budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also reduced the sum allotted to the climate change action plan by Rs 10 crore to Rs 30 crore.

Shuchin Bajaj, the founder and director of Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals, expressed hope the government will re-look and assign more funds for it.

Environment is the basic necessity of good health. We may have been looking at health in the COVID-19 scenario but we forget that climate change is one of the biggest health factors affecting the communities in the years to come and also has the potential of creating much bigger disasters than COVID-19 .

So, we must keep working on the climate change action plan as much as possible. I am sure the government will have a relook and will assign more funds in fighting climate change in the near as well as distant future, Bajaj said.

Experts also felt that the amount of Rs 470 crore allocated for "Control of Pollution" out of Rs 2869.93 crore, was not enough.

The Budget document mentions that under Control of Pollution', a total of 470 crore are allocated for 2021-22. This includes providing financial assistance to Pollution Control Boards/Committees, funding to National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). There are 122 cities presently under NCAP and the allocation for it is merely around Rs 470 crore, which is clearly not enough," Chanchal said.

According to Greenpeace India's annual Airpocalypse report 2020, 231 cities out of 287 had PM10 levels exceeding the 60 g/m3 limits, prescribed under National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) by CPCB, implying that all these cities/towns belong to the non-attainment list.

"The NCAP needs to include all these polluted cities. This would require an increased budget allocation for tackling the 'pollution control'," he said.

The central government and local authorities must come up with a public platform where all actions under 'control air pollution' plan are updated and are available. This will ensure transparency and efficiency," Chanchal said.

Expressing disappointment over the reduced budgetary allocation for clean air, Jai Dhar Gupta, the Founder and CEO of Nirvana Being (a protective solutions company) and Founder of the Citizen Movement, 'My Right to Breathe', said air pollution is a far greater health emergency than COVID-19 .

"I have to mention that I am disappointed by the reduced allocation for Clean Air. Air pollution is a far greater public health emergency than COVID; while COVID claimed 1.5 lakh lives in 2020, air pollution is responsible for about 18 lakh deaths across India.

However, I do want to highlight other things in the budget that will impact the environment positively such as the voluntary vehicle scrapping policy and allocation for waste management to reduce plastic waste, Gupta said.

In her budget speech, Sitharaman also announced a voluntary vehicle scrapping policy, to phase out old and unfit vehicles as per which vehicles will undergo fitness tests in automated fitness centres after 20 years in case of personal vehicles and after 15 years in case of commercial vehicles.

The minister also proposed to provide additional capital infusion of Rs 1,000 crore to Solar Energy Corporation of India and Rs 1,500 crore to Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency. She also announced the extension of the city gas distribution project to 100 more districts.

Welcoming this announcement, Suyash Gupta, the Director General, Indian Auto LPG Coalition, said he hoped the city gas project is diversified to include Auto LPG along with CNG which is the current focus.

Despite being one of the cleanest and most easily available gas, Auto LPG remains highly under-utilized in India's transport sector.

Inclusion of Auto gas in the city gas distribution project will not only allow a wider choice for consumers but will also be a major boost to efforts to clean up the environment. We absolutely need a low hanging fruit like Auto LPG, which can be implemented immediately. With 14 of the world's top 20 most polluted cities in India, we cannot wait until the next decade to breathe cleaner air, he said.
A Canadian dog owner has shared a hilarious clip of his tone-deaf Huskies howling along to Billy Joel's Piano Man, whilst their Golden Retriever friend looks less than impressed.

Chris Boudens, 30, from Fernie, British Columbia, pulled out his camera to capture Nico, seven, and Jackson, six, accompanying the classic 70s tune.

The dogs, who are brothers, have been howling at music since they were puppies, but Golden Retriever Zoey's hangdog expression suggests not everyone's a fan.

Mr Boudens, a carpenter, said: 'Once one gets going the other gets going and they don't stop.'

He said the Huskies favoured songs with certain instruments, adding: 'The harmonica gets them going for sure.

'They have certain songs that they've always howled to since they were puppies, every time they heard it, like Piano Man and a couple of songs from The Lumineers.'

Owner Chris Boudens, 30, from Fernie, British Columbia, pulled out his camera to capture the video of his two Huskies singing along to Billy Joel's Piano Man

One of the Huskies is singing their heart out to the song as the Retriever hides off camera

Please stop! Zoey, five, looks unimpressed by the performance, giving a pained look

The musical dog duet were introduced to their quieter friend, Zoey, five, when her owner began dating Mr Boudens.

Mr Boudens said: 'She doesn't seem like she minds, but she does give you that look like she would rather it not be going on.

'She'll look at you or she'll smile. She usually anticipates a treat after she sits through that, so she gets a reward for it.'

The musical Husky duet (back) were introduced to their quieter friend, Zoey, five, (front) when her owner began dating Mr Boudens

While huskies Nico and Jackson howl Zoey does her smiles and hopes for a treat

Mr Boudens said Zoey is the boss of the bunch, pictured here on a hike, and they are best pals

Even with all of the howling, Mr Boudens said that Zoey is the boss of the bunch and that they are all best buddies.

He added: 'They seem like they're a handful in the video, but they're pretty quiet at home.

'They get out a lot and we go fishing, snowboarding and hiking with them.'
SCHENECTADY  New Yorks four state-licensed casinos could seek a tax break this year but to do so they would have to prove they are suffering financially. And a consultant hired by the state believes they should have to explain what the casino operators would use the tax savings for.

The proposal for potential casino tax breaks is tucked deep in Gov. Andrew Cuomos 2021-22 budget plan. It calls for letting the rate fall to as low as 25 percent for slot machine revenue  if casinos can explain their financial stability without the break and provide a complete examination of all financial projections.

Taxes on slot machine revenues currently vary from 37 percent at the del Lago casino in Waterloo and Tioga Downs in Nichols to 39 percent for Resorts World Catskills and 45 percent for Rivers in Schenectady.

The budget proposal is similar to a possible tax cut that a consultant, the Pennsylvania-based Spectrum Gaming Group, in recent weeks made as part of a wide-ranging report on the states gaming industry.

We suggested the state consider letting operators petition for tax relief, said Mike Pollock, managing director at the consulting group.

He added that We suggest that the burden be on the operator to demonstrate that tax relief is in best interest of state and operator.

Pollock added that any savings from a tax break should be used to enhance the facilitys marketability through new capital spending. That way, the state would protect against a casino from simply pocketing the money and sending it to their home offices.

Rivers officials have noted that their 45 percent slot tax was the highest in the state, as well as higher than the relatively new MGM casino in Springfield, Mass., where the tax is 25 percent.

They also welcomed the concept of a tax break, given the COVID-19 pandemic, which closed the facilities down over the summer.

Our priority at Rivers is the economic viability of Schenectady and the well-being and job stability of our 1000 team members. We look forward to working with the Governor and the legislature to pull out of this economic crisis, the company said in a prepared statement. The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented economic disaster to the City of Schenectady and the state of New York, so we are encouraged that the Governors budget prioritizes stabilization of the upstate casinos, and the preservation of casino jobs.

Pollock explained that the differing tax rates across the state reflect the different demographics of upstate New Yorks diverse regions. Rivers is located in the most densely populated sector, in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area.

Tioga is in the Southern Tier, del Lago is between Syracuse and Rochester, and Resorts World is in the Catskill Mountains.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which closed casinos for part of 2020, has scrambled their finances and the tax receipts that they generated.

At Rivers, for instance, the casino generated $9.8 million in revenue in September 2019, paying $5 million in taxes.

In September 2020, just after they re-opened under limited capacity after being closed for the summer, the net revenue was $4.8 million, yielding $2.9 million in taxes (All the casinos also pay a flat 10 percent on table games).

More for you Business Report raises possible NYC casino delay

An upstate tax break may also tie in with plans to eventually license three casinos in New York City. That is scheduled to happen in 2023 but given the budget pressures put on the state from the COVID-19 pandemic, the state may want to speed things along.

Indeed, the governors proposed budget acknowledges that, calling for the state Gaming Commission to this year issue a Request for Information that would Inform the commission for the purposes of determining: the appropriate size and scope of

development, the value of the gaming facility license, and the process that should be used in award consideration.

There have been calls by New York City real estate developers to speed the casino licensing process, which could help offset the office vacancies created by the pandemic, which has led to thousands of people working from home.

The upstate casinos were initially given a head start to help them get established, since there is so much more population in the New York City area.

The Spectrum report, with its call for capital improvements in return for a tax break, was started prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Spectrum Vice President Joseph Weinert said the pandemic has highlighted the possible need for a tax break. The challenges raised by the pandemic and the attendant closures, he said, made it more critical, particularly raising questions as to whether some properties might need such consideration to remain going concerns.





By Bahk Eun-ji







Yonsei University will hold a global forum virtually this week to discuss the impacts and challenges that the coronavirus pandemic has presented with regards to international cooperation, as well as how to raise awareness of sustainable development.







Under the theme, "3Ps Beyond Security: Peace, Prosperity and Partnership," the Global Engagement and Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development (GEEF) will take place on Thursday and Friday, according to the university.







The conference is aimed at discussing partnerships and the path forward to accelerate the achievement of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with reviews of the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.







The event will begin with a congratulatory address by Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, and speeches from former World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Deputy Secretary-General of the U.N. Amina J. Mohammed.







During a special session, Ban Ki-moon, the honorary chair of the Institute of Global Engagement and Empowerment at Yonsei University, along with UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie, will discuss global issues about refugees, women and children, who have often been marginalized in the coronavirus response.







Experts, scholars and government officials from dozens of countries were initially invited to participate in person, but the forum will be held online due to COVID-19, as well as broadcast live on YouTube, the university said.







For the roundtable session, World Health Organization former Director General Margaret Chan, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs and Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen will share insights on global partnership during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.







In featured sessions, scholars will discuss the progress and prospects of sustainable development, global partnerships and the role of higher education.







Yonsei hosts the forum every February to increase awareness of the importance of sustainable development.







The university launched the Institute of Global Engagement and Empowerment in 2017 to strengthen its social responsibility to nurture future leaders of our society under the three main values of engagement, innovation and excellence.







"Yonsei University is committed to serve as an engaged academic partner to promote the sustainable development of our society," Yonsei President Suh Seoung-hwan said in a statement.


YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. Defense Minister of Armenia Vagharshak Harutyunyan received on February 2 Charge d'Affaires of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Armenia Helen Fazey, accomponied by Military Attache of the United Kingdom to the Republic of Armenia Tony Brumwell (residence in Tbilisi) and Defense Advisor Claire McCain (residence in Tbilisi).

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Armenia, Helen Fazey congratulated Vagharshak Harutyunyan on the occasion of assuming the post of the Defense Minister of Armenia in a difficult period for Armenia, expressing condolences for the victims of the war.

Defense Minister Harutyunyan presented the implementation process of the agreements reached following the cessation of military operations. Minister Harutyunyan particularly highlighted the issue of returning of the POWs by the Azerbaijani side. Vagharshak Harutyunyan also informed that assessment of drawbacks and omissions made during the war is being implemented.

During the meeting the sides also discussed the opportunity of deepening Armenian-U.K defense cooperation.

The three new licences cover several areas near the historic mining centre of Ballarat in Victoria for a term of five years

( ) and PLC ( ) have said Red Rock Australasia Pty Ltd (RRAL), a joint venture in which the two firms own a 50.1% and 49.9% stake respectively, has been granted three licences covering exploration interests near the historic mining centre of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia.

The new licences, which have all been granted for a period of five years, cover the 133 square kilometre (sq km) Blue Whale licence south and east of Ballarat as well as the 74 sq km Blue Chip licence to the west and south and the 8 sq km Blue Ribbon licence to the north.

In its announcement, Power Metal said RRAL will launch an expeditious exploration programme, further details of which will be announced shortly, while Red Rock said in a separate release that it is one of four applicants for a 148 sq km tenement, EL007540, which was compulsorily surrendered by the owners of the Ballarat mine.

"The grant to RRAL of these priority licenses is another milestone in our progress, and the one that opens RRAL's pathway to the future. We thank Earth Resources Regulation of Victoria for their diligence and responsiveness, in the difficult circumstances created by long lockdowns and a flood of new license applications last year. We now have 215 sq km of granted tenements, forming an outer ring around Ballarat and along the Ballarat trend. The ground that the Ballarat Mine has not been permitted to renew and that forms a close-fitting inner ring around their mine, became available and we immediately applied for it, as did three other parties. This ground is surrounded on all sides by our granted tenements and if granted would link them, Red Rock chairman Andrew Bell said in a statement.

As a Ballarat-based company with its focus on Ballarat, we consider that this ground would be a logical fit with RRAL's other holdings in the area and would enable it to further its mission of becoming a Ballarat exploration specialist. We will now proceed with our plans for a listing of all or part of the RRAL assets. Exploration will begin immediately and we anticipate further updates to the market in respect of RRAL in the near term", Bell added.

Meanwhile, Power Metals chief executive Paul Johnson said: "The grant of three licenses marks a highly important moment for the Australia gold joint venture, enabling RRAL to move forward with active exploration in a highly prospective group of licenses in the Victoria Goldfields, centred on the historic mining centre of Ballarat. We will be publishing early exploration plans shortly, something all parties have been preparing for over a number of months and utilising the RRAL Ballarat headquarters as the centre of the operational work.

In addition we continue to work on corporate activities surrounding the RRAL business, which given the level of interest shown in the Victoria Goldfields and now with the grant of the three licenses, becomes all the more relevant. Importantly, Power Metal is particularly well funded and is able to immediately invest in gold exploration programmes to build what we believe will be considerable value in this unique and significant opportunity", the Power Metal CEO added.

Shares in Red Rock were up 4.6% at 1p in early trading on Tuesday, while Power Metals rose 6.6% to 2.8p.

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The trial of Gibril Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean man accused of committing war crimes in Liberia, will start Wednesday, the Pirkanmaa District Court in the Finnish city of Tampere has said.

Finnish State Prosecutor Tom Laitinen detailed the war crimes charges against Mr Massaquoi at a preparatory session on Monday (when the court announces its schedules and plan for translation). Among his charges are murder of civilians, including children and other vulnerable individuals, and rape.

Mr Massaquoi is accused of committing the acts in multiple locations in Liberia, including Lofa County, between January 7, 1999, and March 9, 2003, according to the 20-page indictment.

The main trial will commence on Wednesday. Mr Massaquoi, who is currently held in pretrial detention in Finland, is expected to appear. After two weeks of the proceedings in Finland, the case is expected to be moved to Liberia, the countrys first war crimes trial. He will remain in Finland while the trial is ongoing in Monrovia and make a virtual appearance.

Prosecutors are calling for a life sentence.

In the preliminary response to the charges delivered to the court by his defence, Mr Massaquoi denies all charges, arguing that he was not even in Liberia after June 2001.

Mr Massaquoi, 51, moved to Finland over a decade ago after acting as a key informer for the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). As a top figure within the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Mr Massaquoi was well-placed to provide information on the groups inner workings.

In 2018, an investigation into his alleged crimes was launched by Finlands National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). He was arrested in March last year, with charges delivered on January 25. NBI said it interviewed several witnesses in Liberia, who it says will testify in the case.

As a signatory to international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions, Finland is obligated to investigate and prosecute international crimes, even if they did not take place on its soil, Mr Laitinen said.

Finland takes its obligations to international law seriously. The case against Mr Massaquoi is exceptional in Finland, but not the only one of its kind.

Two Iraqi brothers recently stood trial for war crimes and other offences allegedly committed in Iraq. They were cleared of charges due to insufficient evidence. Kaarle Gummerus, Mr Massaquois lead lawyer, defended one of the brothers in that trial.

Mr Massaquoi is the third person who is not a Liberian to be prosecuted over the countrys civil war, which killed an estimated 250,000 and displaced a million.

The first was Chuckie Taylor, the American son of former President Charles Taylor, who is serving a 97-year prison for torture in Liberia. And the other is Guus Kowenhoven, a Dutch timber dealer who was found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes in the West African nation in 2017.

A verdict in Mr Massaquois case is expected later this year.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project
Mayor Linda Tyer looks to a better year ahead in her state of the city address.

Mayor Tyer Delivers First Virtual State of the City Address

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Mayor Linda Tyer on Monday outlined a historically difficult year in the city of Pittsfield, as with the rest of the world, in her annual state of the city address.

"It's hard to believe that next month marks one year of dealing with this global public health crisis," she said. "In looking back at the past year, it is easy to become fixated on all of the things that we have done to mitigate COVID-19. Our attention and energy were focused, and rightly so, on doing all that we could to keep our community safe.

"Circumstances are constantly evolving. It requires us to monitor, assess, and adjust. We are still very much in the midst of protecting ourselves and each other while at the same time, finding ways to sustain our economy, keep people employed, and reopen our schools."

In the half-hour address, the second-term mayor reflected on the pandemic's toll on the city's agenda, the continued fight against COVID-19, homelessness, upcoming city initiatives, and economic development.

One consequence of the novel coronavirus was the first-ever virtual state of the city address, filmed by Pittsfield Community Television (PCTV) and broadcast via multiple platforms, including online and radio. In normal years, Tyer would have given her address with the City Council in chambers at City Hall.

The mayor said her team had been ready to kick off 2020 with a "full and robust agenda" of investments to enhance the city and community after four years of work to stabilize Pittsfield's financial situation.



With the onset of COVID-19, that focus shifted and the city had to pivot to what was critical.



"Last year was a tough one," Tyer said.



She pointed to the economic package developed to support small businesses, non-profits, and residents. Some of the ways that the community came together to support one another were providing easy access to food, supplying Chromebooks to students after schools were closed, and creating 13 "grab and go" zones to support restaurants with takeout and delivery.



By the end of 2020, and through the $1.1 million Economic Relief and Recovery program and the Restaurant Rapid Response Grant program, a total of 90 grants were awarded to small businesses and restaurants in Pittsfield resulting in nearly $700,000 in financial support.



"In the midst of great uncertainty we zeroed in on high-impact ways to keep our city going, adjusting to the fast-changing climate by establishing the COVID-19 economic relief and recovery program," Tyer said.



When the city's first confirmed COVID-19 case was announced in March, Tyer said she acted quickly to establish a COVID-19 task force consisting of experienced professionals including city and school officials, law enforcement, first-responders, leadership from the sheriff's office, Berkshire Health Systems, and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.



For nearly 100 days, the task force convened daily and now meets weekly or in the case of an emergency. Tyer reported that the work had been intense and fast-moving in the beginning but did not affect their commitment.



"It is my sincere privilege to be a part of this amazing team." she said. "And I am in complete awe of all the hospital staff and everyone else on the front lines of this pandemic in the face of long hours great uncertainty and personal risk. You continue to serve our community in ways great and small. I truly appreciate all the work that you do to support the health and well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors, thank you."



Tyer also took a moment to remember those who were lost to the virus and to acknowledge their grieving families.



From the beginning of the pandemic to Jan. 29, there have been 2,201 COVID-19 cases in Pittsfield, 59,643 tests administered, and 49 resident deaths.



"Behind every number, behind every data point is a person who is loved and cherished. We must never lose sight of this," Tyer said.



As the city heads into the second month of 2021, Tyer said the fight continues with a sustained emphasis on getting the virus under control.



At the start of the new year, the city saw post-holiday case counts ravage long-term care facilities, which impacted the lives of colleagues, friends, and loved ones.



With cautious optimism, Tyer reported that current public health data is beginning to look promising. The 14-day positivity rate rests at 3.5 percent, taking Pittsfield out of the high-risk red zone and into the yellow zone.



Data from recent sewage testing used to detect virus concentration in wastewater support this downward trend, Tyer said.



Stage 2 of the state's vaccination rollout began on Monday, focusing on seniors ages 75 and older. Tyer said that with aid from the Council of Aging, the Health Department, her office, and from citizens, seniors were able to secure vaccination appointments electronically.



This week, 1,400 seniors will receive their first dose at at the Berkshire Community College vaccination clinic.



Tyer acknowledged the community's struggle with limited vaccine supply. Within hours of vaccine clinics opening, slots for appointments filled quickly, leaving many frustrated.



"it shouldn't be this way," she said. "But this is where we are for now."



Production is reportedly underway to boost the federal supply of vaccines and when it is available, Tyer said Pittsfield is primed to handle it with solid infrastructure in place, proven efficiencies, and vaccinators and volunteers ready to deploy.

Tyer hopes that in-person hybrid learning will resume for all students after winter break ending on Feb. 19.



A significant amount of planning and investment has been done to ensure that the schools are safe for in-person hybrid learning, she said. Air filtration systems have been repaired and upgraded, air quality is measured daily, and safety protocols such as masking, social distancing, extensive cleaning, and symptom monitoring will also be in place.



Testing remains a key component of the city's overall strategy and work is underway to expand testing for staff and students within the schools. Tyer is hopeful that the city's partner, County Ambulance, will soon be engaged to conduct surveillance testing for staff and students.



Simultaneously, the search is on for the next superintendent of Pittsfield Public Schools after the departure of Jason McCandless.



A search committee has been established and focus groups representing various constituencies including teachers, parents, and business leaders are being conducted. Tyer said community input in this process is critical.



Tyer also said she was happy to report economic developments this year and last, and that she has several key items on the business development agenda.



Pittsfield was able to support one of its long-standing generational businesses by providing tax increment financing for the expansion of John's Building Supply on Crane Avenue. The city has also proposed a TIF package to support Mill Town Capital's Fresh Powder and Blue Chair, the new owners of Bousquet Ski Area.



To support the expansion of Bousquet's brand and set up future growth, Tyer has proposed an appropriation from the Pittsfield Economic Development Fund for the construction of new water and sewer lines on Dan Fox Drive.



She will also be issuing a request for redevelopment proposals for the former Arace's property on West Housatonic Street. This 10-acre commercial property has been empty and left to deteriorate for several years.



Tyer also spoke about the addition of multiple residential housing units, including the Wright Building on North Street as well as the former Reigning Love Church on East Street.



By the end of 2021, there will also be an additional 36 market-rate housing units on Tyer Street built by Mill Town and improvements made through a $3 million MassWorks grant that will pay for a new roundabout and upgrades to sidewalks, and crosswalks, and other amenities.



Tyer thanked the City Council for at last supporting her At Home in Pittsfield home improvement grant program by approving a $500,000 allocation from the Economic Development Fund. This program was first proposed in 2019 and was initially rejected.



She said the city's No. 1 housing goal for 2021 is securing safe and stable housing for those experiencing homelessness.



"This past year I was heartbroken by the trauma that our homeless brothers and sisters experienced when the St. Joe's emergency COVID shelter closed." she said. "I acted quickly to ensure that the city, along with our community partners, provided as much care as possible. I'm deeply grateful for the sustained response by our community partners, for the volunteers who helped in countless ways, and for all the donations given by a generous community."



Reportedly, in 2021, Pittsfield will prioritize expanding and improving crisis sheltering with an emphasis on the development of new supportive housing.



Tyer said that if all goes well, a new 40-bed crisis shelter will be opened at First United Methodist Church on Fenn Street once COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.



In closing, the mayor reflected on the social justice work that unfolded in the United States in 2020, which the city participated in. She has commissioned a study group led by the city's human resource office to undertake a comprehensive review of diversity, equity, and inclusion best practices and is looking forward to their recommendations later this month.



"In Pittsfield, we remain fully committed to this transformative work, as a government organization, the city of Pittsfield will lead the way by continuing to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion," Tyer said.

The mayor's remarks as prepared for delivery can be found here.

Benchmark indices rallied for the second day on Tuesday, as investors cheered the Union Budget announcements. Positive global cues also lifted the sentiment. The Nifty managed to close near 14,650 level.

As per the provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, soared 1,197.11 points or 2.46% at 49,797.17. The Nifty 50 index surged 367.8 points or 2.58% at 14,649.80.

The broader market lagged the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 2.26% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.59%.

Buyers outnumbered sellers. On the BSE, 1,768 shares rose and 1,173 shares fell. A total of 173 shares were unchanged.

The Union Budget 2021 unveiled on 1 February 2021 supported all the essential aspects of growth by an increase in government spending without an increase in indirect taxes. The Budget offered huge stimulus to infrastructure, capex, healthcare and boosted the credit flow by taking out the toxic assets of the banking system. Increased FDI limit in insurance improved the overall outlook of the sector.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,494.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 90.46 crore in the Indian equity market on 1 February 2021, provisional data showed.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 10,34,18,646 with 22,38,286 deaths. India reported 1,63,353 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,54,486 deaths while 1,04,48,406 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

New Listing:

Shares of Indigo Paints hit an upper circuit of 20% at Rs 3129 at 15:25 IST on the BSE, at a premium of 110% over the initial public offer price of Rs 1490. The stock was listed at Rs 2607.50, at a premium of 75% or 1117.5 points to the initial public offer (IPO) price. So far the stock hit a high of Rs 2756.30 and low of Rs 2475.20. On the BSE, 10.35 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far. The initial public offer (IPO) of Indigo Paints was subscribed 117.02 times. The issue received bids for 64.57 crore shares as against 55.18 lakh shares on offer, according to the stock exchange data. The issue opened for subscription on 20 January 2021 and closed on 22 January 2021. The price band for the IPO was set at Rs 1488-1490 per share.

January Auto Sales:

Hero MotoCorp fell 1.49%. The two wheeler maker sold 485,889 units of motorcycles and scooters in January 2021, lower than 501,622 units sold in January 2020. Domestic sales were at 4,67,776 units in January 2021 as against 4,88,069 units in January last year. Exports rose to 18,113 units as compared to 13,553 units.

Eicher Motors gained 1.86%. The company's total Royal Enfield sales jumped 8% to 68,887 units in January 2021 from 63,520 units in January 2020. The sales of models with engine capacity up to 350cc jumped 9% to 64,248 units, the sales of models with engine capacity exceeding 350cc rose 7% to 4,639 units in January 2021 over January 2020. Royal Enfield's exports soared 103% to 4,515 units in January 2021 as against 2,228 units in January 2020.

Bajaj Auto rose 2.09% after the two-wheeler maker's total sales rose 8% to 4,25,199 units in January 2021 from 3,94,473 units in January 2020. While total domestic sales declined 11% to 1,70,757 units, total exports improved 26% to 2,54,442 units in January 2021 over January 2020. During the month, the company's total two-wheeler sales jumped 16% year-on-year (YoY) to 3,84,936 units. Total commercial vehicles sales declined 35% year-on-year to 40,263 units in December 2020.

VST Tillers & Tractors rose 0.84% after the company's total sales jumped 16.80% to 2,905 units in January 2021 from 2,487 units in January 2020. While the company's power tiller sales jumped 14.56% to 2,258 units, tractor sales increased by 25.38% to 647 units in January 2021 over January 2020.

Earnings Impact:

HDFC rose 2.88%.

The housing finance major's standalone net profit tanked 65.05% to Rs 2,925.83 crore in Q3 December 2020 from Rs 8,372.49 crore in Q3 December 2019. Total income stood at Rs 11,716.34 crore in Q3 December 2020, dropping 42.25% from Rs 20,291.45 crore in Q3 December 2019. Profit before tax tumbled 58.95% to Rs 3,752.54 crore during the period under review. Total tax expense rose 7.29% to Rs 826.71 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20.

Central Depository Services (India) gained 2.46% after the company reported 66.3% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 48.75 crore on 69.4% increase in net sales to Rs 89.20 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20. Consolidated profit before tax rose 66.7% to Rs 63.71 crore in Q3 FY21 from Rs 38.22 crore in Q3 FY20. Tax expense were steeply higher at Rs 16.52 crore in Q3 FY21 from Rs 5.81 crore in Q3 FY20.

Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL) declined 3.81% after the company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 213.65 crore in Q3 FY21 as against net loss of Rs 150.79 crore in Q3 FY20. Net sales declined 44% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 7,893.37 crore during the quarter. Pre-tax loss in Q3 December 2020 stood at Rs 326.95 crore as against Rs 303.15 crore in Q3 December 2019. MRPL's gross refining margin (GRM) was at $3.26 per barrel in Q3 December 2020, up by 2.2% from $3.19 per barrel in Q3 December 2019.

Escorts surged 5.44% after the company's consolidated net profit jumped by 85.1% to Rs 286.71 crore on a 23.8% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 2,042.23 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20. Profit before tax in Q3 December 2020 stood at Rs 382.49 crore, up by 81.2% from Rs 211.12 crore in Q3 December 2019. Tractor volumes were up by 25.7% at 31,562 units in quarter ended December 2020 as against 25,109 units in the corresponding period last fiscal. Construction equipment sales volume for the quarter ended December 2020 were up by 20.1% at 1,254 machines as against 1,044 machines in corresponding period last fiscal.

Finolex Industries jumped 5.79% after consolidated net profit soared 163.30% to Rs 259.40 crore on 52.5% increase in net sales to Rs 1,066.88 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019. Consolidated profit before tax (PBT) surged 163% to Rs 348.96 crore in Q3 December 2020 as against Rs 132.67 crore in Q3 December 2019. Current tax expense for the quarter jumped 122% to Rs 88.81 crore as against Rs 40.01 crore in Q3 December 2019.

Coromandel International lost 0.45%. On a consolidated basis, the company reported 26.2% jump in net profit to Rs 333.80 crore on a 7.8% increase in net sales to Rs 3533.01 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20. While the company's total expenditure rose 6.6% to Rs 3033.75 crore, interest payments declined by 55.3% to Rs 20.54 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019. Profit before tax in the third quarter was at Rs 446.87 crore, up by 26.1% from Rs 354.42 crore reported in the same period last year. EBITDA for the quarter ended Dec 2020 has grown by 16% to Rs. 501 crore as compared to Rs 432 crore during corresponding quarter of last year.

Castrol India was up 0.47%. The company reported 30.8% drop in net profit to Rs 187.70 crore on a 7.6% fall in net sales to Rs 935.20 crore in Q4 December 2020 over Q4 December 2019. Profit before tax in Q4 December 2020 stood at Rs 249.80 crore, down by 26.3% from Rs 338.80 crore in Q4 December 2019.

Dhanuka Agritech fell 0.07%. On a consolidated basis, the company reported 44.7% jump in net profit to Rs 40.04 crore on a 8.9% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 295.66 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20. Sequentially, the company's net profit declined by 42.9% and revenue from operations contracted 33.2% over Q2 FY21. Profit before tax in Q3 December 2020 stood at Rs 54.45 crore, up by 44.7% from Rs 37.62 crore in Q3 December 2019.

Global Markets:

Shares in Europe and Asia advanced on Tuesday. Globally, investors are keeping an eye out on further signs that economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic is not too far away, as vaccination rollouts continue and new infections and fatalities start to slowly decline amid lockdowns.

In Asia, the Japanese government is set to extend the state of emergency covering Tokyo and other regions till March 7 in order to contain the coronavirus, as per media reports.

US stocks jumped on Monday, the first session of February, as Wall Street appeared to shake off concerns about a speculative retail trading mania that largely drove the market's worst weekly sell-off since October.

Meanwhile, a group of 10 Republican senators sent President Joe Biden a letter on Sunday, urging him to consider a smaller, scaled-down COVID-19 relief proposal. His current plan calls for $1.9 trillion in additional fiscal stimulus.

The alternative proposal comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber will move to pass a budget resolution, the first step toward approving legislation through reconciliation. The process would enable Senate Democrats to approve an aid measure without GOP votes.

In economic data, US manufacturing activity slowed slightly in January. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Monday its index of national factory activity fell to a reading of 58.7 last month from 60.5 in December.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai, Feb 2 : A fire broke out on the sets of Om Raut's upcoming biggie Adipurush, starring Prabhas and Saif Ali Khan, on Tuesday, which was the first day of the film's shoot.

The fire reportedly broke out around 4.30pm on the set of the film in a Goregaon studio. Neither Prabhas nor Saif was present on the set at the time of the accident.

It is reported that the incident happened due to a short circuit. According to sources in the studio, the fire was brought under control soon enough and nobody was injured. No casualty has been reported.

Unconfirmed videos from the burning set of the film have gone viral on social media, with netizens expressing their concern over the unfortunate incident.

"Fire caught on the sets of #Adipurush at a Goregaon studio #Mumbai. Everyone is safe no one has come under any physical harm. It happened due to short circuit and the entire chroma set up went into ashes. #Prabhas and Saif were not a part of this shoot," photographer Viral Bhayani wrote on Instagram.

Earlier in the day, director Om Raut announced on social media that he has begun with the mahurat shot for the film.

Adipurush is Raut's new directorial after last year's blockbuster Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior. Prabhas officially announced the beginning of shoot on Tuesday morning with the word "Aarambh" (start) on his Instagram page.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
The FTSE 250 group added it has been in regular contact with its tenants since the start of the pandemic with few serious cases of coronavirus reported.

( ) said rental collections from its portfolio of care homes have been unaffected by the devastating impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on the sector.

Deaths at care homes across the UK have soared in the past two months due to the virus with the1,705 coronavirus-related fatalities officially recorded in the week ending January 22, 2021, the highest since May.

In a statement for the three months to end-December 2020, Civitas said it had continued to see a strong financial and operational performance which was in line with expectations.

The FTSE 250 group added that it has been in regular contact with its tenants since the start of the pandemic with few serious cases of COVID-19 reported.

As at February 1, 2021, over 99% of rents in respect of the period to December 31, 2020, had been received across its 619 properties with the balance expected shortly, it said.

Demand for high-quality homes for people with learning disabilities, mental health and autism is also continuing to grow, it added.

The group's NAV per share at of end-December 2020 was 108.17p (September 30, 2020: 108.01p).

A 1.35p quarterly dividend was declared, which Civitas said is in line with its full-year target of 5.4p
Its an honor to be recognized nationally for our success as a franchise brand and were excited to continue our growth in the years to come!

Fitness Machine Technicians, specialists in the maintenance and repair of exercise equipment for commercial and residential customers, today announces it has ranked #208 on Entrepreneur magazines list of top 500 franchises.

This highly competitive list recognizes the top 500 franchise brands that continued to grow and evolve in 2020 despite challenges faced in the industry across the U.S. Entrepreneur evaluates franchises based on five pillars:



Costs and fees

Size and growth

Support (i.e., training times, marketing support, operational support)

Brand strength (i.e., social media, years in business)

Financial strength and stability

We value each and every one of our Franchise Machine Technicians franchisees and aim to provide top-notch support and training to ensure they feel confident in their respective markets, and we have the stability to back it up, says Don Powers, CEO and Founder of Fitness Machine Technicians. Its an honor to be recognized nationally for our success as a franchise brand and were excited to continue our growth in the years to come!

Fitness Machine Technicians sold its first franchise in 2012 before rolling out a national franchise campaign in 2018. The brand has since signed 45 franchisees, with over 100 territories in operation and is open in 31 states. In addition to continuing its growth across the United States, Fitness Machine Technicians will expand into Canada this year.

For more than 40 years, Entrepreneur has recognized franchise brands in their Franchise 500 ranking and calls itself the worlds first, best, and most comprehensive franchise ranking. Last year, Fitness Machine Technicians made the publications list of Fastest Growing Franchises.

Fitness Machine Technicians offers service/repair and maintenance on a variety of exercise equipment on a contract and non-contract basis. The company is headquartered outside of Philadelphia and offers franchise opportunities in multiple markets across the nation.

About Fitness Machine Technicians

Fitness Machine Technicians specializes in the maintenance and repair of fitness equipment for commercial and home exercise facilities. Clients include fitness centers, corporations, hotels, condominiums, high schools, colleges and universities, government, and residential homes across the United States. Its corporate-trained and authorized technicians are committed to providing the most reliable repair and maintenance services.

Fitness Machine Technicians also offers franchise opportunities to individuals with an interest in fitness and looking to run a service-based business based on a proven operating model. The companys award-winning franchise currently has locations in approximately 100 territories across the country. For more information, visit the website at http://www.FitnessMachineTechnicians.com or call 844-FMT-FIXX.
(CNN) - Moderna President Dr. Stephen Hoge said the company is focused on the vaccine dosing data it has  and that data says two doses is what works.

He made the comments a day after Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told NBCs Meet The Press that as many people as possible over the age of 65 should be given the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Osterholm said this to respond to a possible surge in the next six to 14 weeks caused by the coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom. Such a strategy could delay second shots of the vaccine.

When asked for his thoughts on this strategy, Hoge told Good Morning America:

At this point, as a scientist and physician, I focus really on what the data says, and the data we have from our clinical trials shows that two doses is excellent, very good at protecting against COVID-19, and ultimately thats the only regimen that weve really studied.

Hoge said its possible that one dose would provide some benefit, but we really just dont have any data to prove that at this point.

As Moderna, we try to stick to the data and the science, what we have, he continued, adding that public health officials have complicated choices to make about how to protect as many people as possible when there are limited vaccine supplies.

Our responsibility as a company is to stick to the data and make as many doses as we can available, Hoge said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Moderna says no data on how much protection a single COVID-19 vaccine dose provides"
Several successful police operations were conducted in the capital last week, resulting in three arrests. All three culprits were caught in the act and arrested by order of the prosecutor's office.

The first drug deal was observed on Tuesday in front of the central station. Three men were involved in the act, and the two buyers were handed a fine. As the seller was seen removing a package from his mouth, he was subsequently subjected to a body search. Police found a total of 23 cocaine packages and arrested him.

 Police

The second drug deal was also observed on Tuesday, not far away on one of the platforms at the train station. Officers caught the dealer red-handed and detained him.

On Thursday afternoon, another dealer was arrested on Avenue de la Gare after selling product on Rue de Strasbourg earlier in the day. Police officers searched the man and found four packages of cocaine.

 Police

On Friday evening, twelve officers with police dogs patrolled the streets of the Gare district. 23 people were checked in total, one being in possession of drugs, another one in possession of an airsoft pistol.
The community organization My Block, My Hood, My City sent out an alert ahead of the storm, recruiting volunteers for its M3 Shovel Crew in neighborhoods around the city. Lolly Bowean, a West Chatham resident and former Tribune reporter, shoveled up and down her block with several neighbors  and even got a call from a former neighbor who had moved to the suburbs offering to help get her car out.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Gaia Metals Corp. (TSXV: GMC) (OTCQB: RGDCF) (FSE: R9G) (the "Company") is pleased to announce an amendment to the terms of the Option Agreement (the "Agreement") with O3 Mining Inc. for the FCI Property, whereby the Company maintains its Option to acquire up to a 75% interest. The FCI Property is comprised of two neighboring claim blocks, for a combined total of 5,688 ha, located in the James Bay Region of Quebec, proximal to regional hydro-electric and road infrastructure. The geologic setting is prospective for gold, silver, PGEs, base metals, and lithium-tantalum over several potential deposit styles including orogenic gold, volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS), komatiite (ultramafic), and lithium pegmatite.

Under the terms of the amendment, the Company will issue a total of 500,000 common shares to O3 Mining and the Agreement's Year 2 Anniversary Date will be reset to November 3rd, 2021. The amendment follows a Force Majeure period that was triggered in 2020 in lieu of the uncertainty and restrictions caused by COVID-19 and brings the Agreement extension in line with that issued by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MERN) for claim exploration requirements in the Province of Quebec. The remaining requirements of the FCI Option Agreement are detailed at the end of this news release.

Company President and Director Blair Way comments, "We are happy to have secured an amendment to this Agreement with O3 Mining in light of the global pandemic and look forward to advancing this high-quality asset that has demonstrated considerable potential for gold, silver, copper, and lithium. Gaia Metals is positioned strongly to benefit from the global recovery efforts that will be focused on green technologies, which will result in an insatiable demand for those commodities we are focused on at both FCI and Freeman Creek."

The FCI claim blocks form a contiguous land package with the Company's wholly owned Corvette claim block and are collectively termed the Corvette-FCI Property, totalling 283 claims and 14,496 ha. The Property is situated within the Guyer Group (wacke, iron formation, komatiite, tuffs, amphibolite) of the greater La Grande Greenstone Belt, which trends east-west through the region, approximately 6 to 18 km south of the Trans-Taiga Road and power line corridor.

The primary target areas are the Golden Gap Prospect and the Maven Copper-Gold-Silver Exploration Trend. However, the Property also hosts a largely underexplored lithium pegmatite trend in excess of 25 km in length where high-grade spodumene pegmatite has been discovered. A summary of exploration results is presented in Figure 1 and is further described below. The Company is currently planning the 2021 exploration campaign at Corvette-FCI and will provide an update in due course.

Figure 1: Exploration summary of the Corvette and FCI claim blocks (collectively, the "Corvette-FCI Property")

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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7666/73337_a509cb5114356985_001full.jpg

Golden Gap Prospect

The Golden Gap Prospect is a gold-bearing horizon associated with a deformation zone in a volcano-sedimentary sequence. Mineralization is associated with deformed quartz veins and pyrrhotite-pyrite-arsenopyrite sulphide assemblage. Historical sampling at Golden Gap returned 3 to 108.9 g/t Au in outcrop and 10.5 g/t Au over 7 m in drill hole. In 2019, surface sampling by the Company discovered two new areas of outcrop exposure assaying 1.87 g/t Au and 2.81 g/t Au, indicating a possible western surface extension of the main Golden Gap occurrence. In addition, a 2020 re-interpretation of IP-resistivity data over the Prospect indicates a distinctly different and yet to be drill tested trend of mineralization, compared to the historical interpretation.

Maven Copper-Gold-Silver Exploration Trend

The Elsass and Lorraine copper-gold-silver prospects were discovered in 2019 and are located in an area not historically prospected, approximately 2.5 km southeast of the Golden Gap Prospect, and within the Maven Copper-Gold-Silver Exploration Trend. The main trend contains the Lorraine (8.15% Cu, 1.33 g/t Au, & 171 g/t Ag), Elsass (3.63% Cu, 0.64 g/t Au, & 52.3 g/t Ag), and Black Forrest (1.13% Cu, 0.05 g/t Au, and 19.5 g/t Ag) discoveries from 2019, as well as the historical Lac Smokycat-SO (1.75% Cu, 1.47 g/t Au, & 40.5 g/t Ag) and Tyrone T-9 showings (3.36% Cu, 0.82 g/t Au, & 38.4 g/t Ag), collectively spanning a strike length of over 5 km. The trend continues for another 3+ km to the southeast with the incorporation of the newly discovered Hund Showing (3.28% Cu, 0.78 g/t Au, & 30.1 g/t Ag) and additional proximal historical showings, for a collective prospective copper-gold-silver trend of more than 8 km. The Maven Copper-Gold-Silver Exploration Trend remains to be drill tested.

Lithium-Tantalum Pegmatite Trend

To date, a total of eleven (11) well mineralized spodumene pegmatites have been identified with the discoveries outlining a prospective lithium exploration corridor across the entirety of the Corvette-FCI Property - in excess of 25 km of prospective trend. The potential is highlighted by the CV1 and CV5-6 pegmatite occurrences, which outline a core lithium trend in excess of two kilometres. The CV5 spodumene pegmatite is the largest and most well-mineralized occurrence discovered to date on the Property, with approximate exposed dimensions of 220 m long x 20-40 m wide, with CV1 similar in size. Discovered in 2019, a total of eight (8) samples have been collected from the CV5 Pegmatite, averaging 3.00% Li 2 O and 154 ppm Ta 2 O 5 , including a peak assay of 4.06% Li 2 O and 564 ppm Ta 2 O 5 . The exploration corridor remains largely unexplored with the pegmatites discovered to date typically hosting a strong tantalum component in addition to the lithium. All lithium pegmatite targets on the Property remain to be drill tested.

Amended Agreement

Under the terms of the amended Agreement, originally entered into in 2018 (See news releases dated September 4th, 2018 and April 24th, 2019), the remaining earn-in requirements by the Company for the FCI Property are as follows (all dollars are stated in CA$):

Incur a total of $800,000 in work exploration expenditures on or before the second anniversary date (November 3rd, 2021), upon which the Company would vest a 25% interest. A total of approximately $165,000 of exploration expenditures has been incurred to date towards Year 2

Incur an additional $1,200,000 in work exploration expenditures on or before the third anniversary date (November 3rd, 2022), upon which the Company would vest an additional 25% interest, for a total of 50% undivided interest in the FCI Property

O3 Mining will act as Operator of the FCI Property for the term of the 50% earn-in, with a Steering Committee of equal representation formed to provide advice and direction to the Operator. Upon completion of the 50% earn-in (third anniversary date of Agreement), a Joint Venture Corporation will be formed with the Company retaining an Option to acquire a further 25% interest, for a total of 75% undivided interest, though funding of the next $2,000,000 in exploration expenditures. The Company may become Operator upon notice to O3 Mining that it intends to incur the $2,000,000 in work expenditures for a final undivided interest of 75%. O3 Mining's remaining 25% interest may be further reduced through dilution if they elect to not fund their portion of subsequent exploration/development. If ownership falls below 10%, O3 Mining will have the right to convert this remaining interest into a 1% Net Smelter Royalty (NSR), of which, the Company retains the right to buy for $5,000,000 (cash or shares), and thereby, would obtain a 100% undivided interest in the FCI Property.

The FCI Property is subject to a 1.5% precious metal NSR royalty on production of the first 1M oz and increases incrementally as a function of metal price and production thereafter to a max of 3.5%. A 2.0% NSR royalty is present on all other products; however, the collective aggregate royalty on any claim may not exceed 3.5%.

Qualified Person

Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P. Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company and Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release.

About Gaia Metals Corp.

Gaia Metals Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of mineral projects containing base and precious metals, including platinum group elements, and lithium.

The Company's flagship asset is the Freeman Creek Gold Property, located in Idaho, USA. The Property hosts two major advanced targets; the Gold Dyke Prospect, with an historical drill intercept of 1.5 g/t Au and 12.1 g/t Ag over 44.2 m (RDH 8), and the Carmen Creek Prospect, with surface sample results including 25.5 g/t Au, 159 g/t Ag, and 9.75% Cu.

Additional assets include the wholly owned Corvette Property, and the FCI Property (held under Option from O3 Mining Inc.) located in the James Bay Region of Quebec. The properties are contiguous and host significant gold-silver-copper-PGE-lithium potential highlighted by the Golden Gap Prospect with grab samples of 3.1 to 108.9 g/t Au from outcrop and 10.5 g/t Au over 7 m in drill hole, the Elsass and Lorraine prospects with 8.15% Cu, 1.33 g/t Au, and 171 g/t Ag in outcrop, and the CV1 Pegmatite Prospect with 2.28% Li 2 O over 6 m in channel.

In addition, the Company holds the Pontax Lithium-Gold Property, QC; the Golden Silica Property, BC; and the Hidden Lake Lithium Property, NWT, where the Company maintains a 40% interest, as well as several other assets in Canada.

For further information, please contact Adrian Lamoureux, CEO and Director at Tel: 778-945-2950, E-mail: adrian@gaiametalscorp.com or visit www.gaiametalscorp.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

"ADRIAN LAMOUREUX"

Adrian Lamoureux, CEO and 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 news release.

Forward Looking Statements:

Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements may be identified by words including "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Company's future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73337
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In a major blow to the democracy in Myanmar, the army has once again seized power of the country and taken custody of Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi. The visibility of democracy in Myanmar is zero at the moment and the conditions are very delicate. The fall of democratic values at a time when many countries, including India, felt that Myanmar has a future of democracy, shows that Myanmar's DNA is still lacking in democracy.

READ | Myanmar military coup: Joe Biden's statement directed at all nations, says White House

In DNA on Tuesday, Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary explains Myanmar's political crisis and importance of democracy for any country. Here are five important points on the current scenario in Myanmar--

Firstly, there were general elections in Myanmar just two months before the coup and in these elections, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party won 396 seats out of 498. She managed to form the government for the second time but within two months, she was stripped of power and taken into custody.

READ | Indian embassy issues advisory for its citizens amid Myanmar coup

Secondly, Aung San Suu Kyi won the election but the army there started making allegations of rigging in the elections. Then it was also said that Myanmar's Election Commission has helped Aung San Suu Kyi win. Conflict conditions had started to build there only after the charges made by the army. During this time, the soft attitude shown about Rohingya Muslims was also opposed.

Thirdly, the army started protesting only after the election results came and in the midst of this confrontation, Myanmar was overthrown and its President and State Counselor Suu Kyi was detained.

Fourthly, democracy was restored in Myanmar in 2011 itself. Earlier there was the military rule for 50 years and once again the army has taken over the power there.

Lastly and most importantly, an emergency has been imposed in Myanmar for a year and under it the army has taken the country under its control. This means that for the next one year, Myanmar will remain in power with Commander In Chief of Defence Services General Min Aung Lang.

The situation is tense at present in Myanmar and the army has deployed tanks on the way to Parliament there. Apart from this, government television and radio have also stopped working there. Telephone and internet services have been halted in many provinces.

The military coup in Myanmar was opposed by most of the countries and these included India. Apart from India, several countries including the UK, USA, Australia have demanded the immediate release of the detained leaders and the US has also indicated to take tough steps. European Union has also opposed the coup.

It is important to understand that China's response to this whole matter is different from other countries. China has said so much that it is gathering information in this matter and for this reason, questions are also being raised about China's role and it is being said that China can be behind what happened in Myanmar.

We have done some important research on this, which raises doubts about China.

* China is the most invested country in Myanmar.

* China has proposed 38 projects in Myanmar under the China Myanmar Economic Corridor, of which 29 projects have been approved.

* China's total investment in Myanmar's power sector is around 57 per cent.

* China has 18 per cent investment in oil, gas and mining sectors

* China is also working on a megacity project in Myanmar, on which it will cost 10,950 crores.

Now you can understand why doubts are being raised about China's role behind the coup in Myanmar. It is also being said that one of the motives behind this coup could be that other countries, other than Myanmar, can be sidelined except China and its full benefit is to China. India is the most important in these countries.

Myanmar is a neighbouring country of India and the political stability there can have an impact on the relations between the two countries as well as peace of the border areas. Not only this, China is prominent among the five countries with which Myanmar borders. That is why the Myanmar government becomes more important for India.

Four Indian states--Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, share borders with Myanmar and are 1,600 kilometres long. Arunachal Pradesh also shares a border with China, due to which Myanmar becomes very important for India. One thing to understand here is that relations between China and Myanmar's forces are considered good. In such a situation, with the coming of the rule of the Myanmar army, India's concerns may increase.

Now here, understand what are important things for India under these circumstances? Under no circumstances should India stop talks with Myanmar. May be India's criticism for this is that it is giving importance to relations with a country where there is a military dictatorship. But India should keep this aspect aside and maintain diplomatic relations with Myanmar. Myanmar has always supported India in the fight against terror and when India took action on militant organizations in Myanmar, it has always stood as a good friend with India.
MANISTEE  The Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance continued their call on leaders to provide business owners with clarity by releasing a comprehensive plan to fully reopen bars and restaurants.

Monday marked the first day in 75 days that bars and restaurants were able to open for indoor dining  albeit at 25% capacity.

Weve been waiting for this day, and were relieved to be reopening, but we owe clarity to our bars and restaurants on what will happen after Feb. 21 when this current order expires, said Stacie Bytwork, chairperson of the Alliance and president of the Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce in a news release. Our bars and restaurants cant keep operating three weeks at a time; this isnt sustainable, and our job providers deserve more certainty.

The Alliance represents 16 chambers  including those in Manistee and Benzie counties  and economic development organizations and over 7,000 member businesses from all across northern Michigan.

Michigan has lost nearly 3,000 restaurants since the onset of the pandemic, according to a news release from the Alliance. The group fears this trend will continue if a pathway to reopening isnt outlined soon. The absence of a plan to fully reopen bars and restaurants has also complicated the hospitality industry's operations.

The uncertainty of these shutdowns has put pressure on all aspects of our operations," said John McGee, co-owner of McGees, Harringtons by the Bay and Sorellina in the Grand Traverse region. "We werent able to keep all of our staff offering only takeout and lost good employees to other sectors. Now we will have to work on rebuilding our staff with this continued unpredictability.

The unpredictability of the situation has even caused some business to hold off on reopening their doors.

Were not reopening today, in part because we are concerned about restocking our restaurant only to close again, said Connie Freiberg, chef/owner at Blue Fish Kitchen and Bar in Manistee.

The Alliance continues to offer its partnership to leaders across the state in crafting a comprehensive plan for a full reopening for bars and restaurants. The coalition is willing to safely meet with any leader who wants to formulate a real plan for reopening. The Alliance also urges northern Michigan residents to support their bars and restaurants in whatever way they feel comfortable.

The restaurant community wants our customers and community to know that our industry is accustomed to strict health and safety protocol," McGee said. "COVID just adds a layer on top of our already comprehensive measures. We want our diners to know we are committed to their health and safety.

The Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance continues to support chambers, economic development organizations and their member businesses by providing timely information and advocating for rural business needs primarily at the state level. The Alliance is engaged in delivering industry-specific information, access to funding opportunities, and ensuring the northern Michigan voice is represented in reopening discussions. More information on the Alliances latest work can be found at nmichiganbusiness.com.

SEE ALSO:

Manistee County restaurants get creative with seating options

Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance calls for pathway to reopening restaurants

'It's about time': Restaurant owners prepare to offer indoor dining next month
[February 01, 2021] Kia starts pilot of last-mile delivery service in Singapore for future PBV business

Kia to begin a breakthrough pilot project in last-mile delivery in Singapore in partnership with cold chain startup 'S.lab Asia Inc.'

Electric Purpose Built Vehicles (PBV) optimized for last-mile delivery services will help keep Singapore's city center clean

Kia will utilize Niro EV modified for pilot operations that will fit into S.lab Asia's last mile delivery service

Wider plan for Singapore includes developing PBVs and CaaS platforms; creating an EV charging ecosystem; and building a fleet management structure

Kia to strive to lead the global PBV market by establishing various partnerships via an open innovation process SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kia Corporation has begun to lay the groundwork for its innovative Purpose Built Vehicle (PBV) business, partnering with cold chain startup 'S.lab Asia Inc.' to break into Singapore's last-mile delivery market. On January 28, the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at launching a pilot project in Singapore using the Niro EV and evaluating the potential for a future PBV-based business model. The Niro EV model optimized and modified for last-mile logistics service will be used in Singapore's city center, in the process responding to the needs of the rapidly growing e-commerce market. In addition, the strategic model will also help strengthen the PBV capabilities and service operations of both partners. "Through this agreement, Kia will leave a strong image of itself as a collaborative partner providing new vlue to global mobility service companies," said DongSoo Ahn, Vice President and Head of the PBV Business Group at Kia Corporation. "Kia will strive to lead the global PBV market by establishing partnerships with various operators through not only last-mile delivery services but also various open-innovation collaborations."



Purpose built vehicles  the development of which forms the core of Kia's mid- to long-term business strategy, known as "Plan S"  are vehicles that are designed for specific applications, such as last-mile delivery, autonomous shuttles and chauffeur-driven luxury vehicles. In terms of Kia's pilot PBV venture, 'last-mile delivery service' refers to the last leg of a product's delivery from a warehouse hub to a customer, with a focus on maximizing delivery quality and service differentiation. S.lab Asia is a startup that produces special boxes for cold-chain fresh product deliveries and offers advanced delivery services. It is currently building a logistics network that will sell and distribute fresh products to Korea and Southeast Asia.

As Kia's next-generation PBVs are currently undergoing final product development and optimization, Kia, in cooperation with S.lab Asia, will use the Niro EV with a modified interior for the ease of unloading and uploading S.lab Asia's boxes with a maximum loading space. The operations will begin in Singapore in the first half of this year, during which Kia will assess and advance its PBV business model, including product and service aspects, by applying the real-world lessons learned from utilizing the modified Niro EV in Singapore. Through the pioneering scheme, Kia will gain core PBV project competencies and experiences, including: developing EV-based PBVs that are optimized for last-mile delivery; advancing the Car as a Service (CaaS) platform for fleets and leasing needs; establishing an EV-charging ecosystem; and creating an EV fleet management services structure. Kia has selected Singapore as the optimal location for its next PBV project, taking advantage of the city-state's world-class infrastructure, vibrant economy and rapidly advancing e-commerce. Instrumental in Kia's decision was Singapore's plans to gradually phase out internal combustion engine transportation by 2040 via a forward-looking set of eco-friendly mobility policies, including increasing subsidies for EVs. To successfully implement the project, Kia plans to establish a collaborative framework with key partners in this area, including Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Singapore; SP Group, Singapore's largest EV-charging company; and Kia's local authorized dealer, Cycle & Carriage. Kia will also collaborate with S.lab Asia to further develop and optimize its PBV business model for the Korean market, and expand similar services to the country in the first half of this year. Kia Corporation  about us Kia (www.kia.com) is a global mobility brand with a vision to create sustainable mobility solutions for consumers, communities, and societies around the world. Founded in 1944, Kia has been providing mobility solutions for more than 75 years. With 52,000 employees worldwide, a presence in more than 190 markets, and manufacturing facilities in six countries, the company today sells around three million vehicles a year. Kia is spearheading the popularization of electrified and battery electric vehicles and developing a growing range of mobility services, encouraging millions of people around the world to explore the best ways of getting around. The company's brand slogan  'Movement that inspires'  reflects Kia's commitment to inspire consumers through its products and services. For more information, visit the Kia Global Media Center at www.kianewscenter.com SOURCE Kia Corporation

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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Local and state government agencies paid more than $1.2 million in penalties and legal fees in 2019 for failing to follow the states Inspection of Public Records Act, according to the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.

But some of those legal fees and some of the penalties didnt come out of the local government or state agency budgets. Instead, they were covered by insurance  something that has open government advocates concerned.

By covering the costs for withholding documents, insurance gives those entities no incentive to comply with the law, Santa Fe attorney Daniel Yohalem said in an interview. They are withholding too many records because they figure the cost is free.

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Melanie Majors, director of the Foundation for Open Government, said there is a deterrent when the agency knows it has to pay for withholding records, but she said the organizations board has just recently started to discuss the matter.

IPRA cases are brought by news media, lawyers and members of the general public who have a grievance with government  or just want to have a question answered. Defendants range from police departments to school boards to state agencies.

Violating IPRA can be costly. In recent years, for example, state and local governments have settled public records lawsuits for $400,000 and $360,000.

Legal fees paid to attorneys who bring the lawsuits  IPRA provides that a successful petitioner in an IPRA case can recover lawyer fees  make up a big chunk of those settlements.

But local governments and state agencies also face penalties of up to $100 a day in damages for not complying with the Inspection of Public Records Act.

Violations can include absolute refusal to turn over documents to failure to meet the timeline requirements set out in IPRA for government records custodians to follow in producing records.

Judges have considerable discretion in determining damage awards for non-compliance.

A district judge in Santa Fe recently ruled that the Santa Fe Police Department was in violation of IPRA when it failed to turn over information about rape kits to a former employee, Michele Williams.

District Judge Bryan Biedsheid ordered the city to pay Williams $75 a day for the 57 days it failed to turn over the records for a total of $4,275. The department also is on the hook for Williams legal fees.

Not typical case

Albuquerque attorney Phillip B. Davis says IPRA is unlike typical liability cases that may involve car accidents or property damage, because when it comes to records, government officials make a decision on whether or not to comply with the law.

Davis said insurance coverage may assure that the person who was victimized by wrongfully withholding records gets paid, but it also allows government officials to ignore the law if they want.

Davis is representing a client who successfully sued Rio Rancho Public Schools for records in a personnel case. His client wanted prior settlements by the district, which refused to turn them over on the basis that they were included in personnel files.

The judge said they should have been produced.

Damages and attorney fees incurred by Davis client for the IPRA portion of the case could exceed $100,000 and would be covered at least in part by the Public School Insurance Authority.

The law is fairly simple  government records are public unless otherwise specified by law, he said. Those exceptions are fairly limited.

There have been several large settlements in IPRA lawsuits over the past two years.

In one case, the city of Jal agreed to pay more than $400,000 to the communitys weekly newspaper, the Jal Record, after a bitter dispute over the citys failure to turn over records.

The paper sought records concerning an oil field disposal well located over an aquifer that some thought would supply drinking water to the small southeastern New Mexico city.

City officials said in 2019 that the settlement was not covered by insurance and would come out of the citys budget.

City officials said they were concerned that it would cost more money to take the case to trial.

In another case, the state agreed to pay $360,000 to cover the legal fees of the Santa Fe Reporter after a long fight over public records with then-Gov. Susana Martinez.

The weekly paper filed a lawsuit in 2013 claiming Martinez failed to produce public records and discriminated against the paper by cutting off its access to basic information from her office.

A judge ruled in favor of the newspaper on the IPRA claims, finding that the Martinez administration should have turned over emails and other public records it requested. But the judge denied the discrimination claim, setting off a lengthy legal battle over the collection of attorney fees that was finally settled by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams administration.

The costs of the Santa Fe Reporter case were covered by the states Risk Management Division, which handles legal claims against the state.

The division covers legal fees and most statutory damages in IPRA cases but doesnt cover fines or punitive damages.

In 2019, the division added a specific requirement for agencies to contribute from their budgets to settlements involving IPRA on a case-by-case basis determined by the division director.

Coverage varies

Government insurance carriers for public schools and local governments began offering specific coverage for public records lawsuits in the last five years.

The Association of Counties, the Municipal League and the Public Schools Insurance Authority all offer different types of IPRA coverage to their members. The city of Albuquerque is self-insured.

Each insurer sets its own limits on how much it will cover in the way of claims, and some do not cover penalties.

The New Mexico County Insurance Authority offers insurance to pay up to $75,000 in plaintiffs attorney costs and fees if awarded in a settlement or by a judges order.

But Taylor Horst, risk management director of the authority, said in an email that it does not provide coverage for any penalties due to an IPRA violation.

The Municipal League began insuring IPRA cases about three years ago and sets policy limits from $1 million to $2.5 million. The Public Schools Insurance Authority initially offered IPRA insurance of up to $20,000, but that has increased to $500,000.

Weve offered coverage over the last few years, said Richard Valerio, authority director. It is not a big cost item; there are a handful of cases each year.

In a case settled in 2019, the Attorney Generals Office agreed to pay $265,000 in damages and attorney fees to settle a long-running case brought by an animal welfare activist.

According to the settlement, the AGs Office under then-Attorney General Gary King improperly withheld hundreds of documents sought by activist Marcy Britton, who filed her initial IPRA request in 2009.

Albuquerque attorney John Boyd represented Britton and pointed out that the AGs Office is tasked with ensuring that public agencies follow IPRA.

It was not a pretty picture for them to be so evasive, Boyd said.

Public pays

Under the Inspection of Public Records Act, most state records are open to public inspection unless exempted by state law. Exemptions range from letters of reference and opinions in personnel files, to medical information to confidential law enforcement records.

A.J. Forte of the Municipal League said there arent that many IPRA lawsuits.

We are really doing a lot of loss control, Forte said. We teach an IPRA class for elected officials. We tell them how much it can cost and stress following the law.

Forte said his group tells local public officials to call the league if they have questions.

They seem to be receptive, especially after we tell them some of the horror stories, he said.

Public officials also call the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government for advice on public records and open meetings, director Majors said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation has offered online education programs (www.NMFOG.org) and the Attorney Generals office has an online guide (https://www.nmag.gov/ipra.aspx).

These are the publics records, and they have the right to access them, Majors said.

Following the law is easier and cheaper than a legal fight, she said.

The public pays either way, Majors said. Either out of its budget or through insurance premiums.
" Collaborations with global suppliers will also help buyers in cost-saving and ensure high-quality procurement in the forthcoming years in this dynamic market. Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by the constant monitoring of price influencing factors. During the forecast period, the market expects a change of 2%-5%," says senior procurement analyst at SpendEdge.

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.
She has been soaking up the sun on a 'work' trip to Mexico with her girlfriend Francesca Farago.

And Demi Sims looked nothing short of sensational as she showcased her incredible figure in a bikini snap she shared on Tuesday.

The TOWIE star, 24, displayed her washboard abs as she posed in bathroom mirror while continuing to enjoy her trip to Mexico.

Stunning: Demi Sims looked nothing short of sensational as she showcased her incredible figure in a bikini snap she shared on Tuesday

The Essex native donned a burgundy two-piece while she let her locks fall loose down her shoulders.

Showcasing her sun-kissed glow, Demi, who shared the snap on her Instagram Stories, shielded her face from the camera.

Demi's girlfriend Francesca also shared a loved-up photo of the couple in a bar as they snuggled up close for the camera.

Alongside the post, the Too Hot To handle star, 27, wrote: 'Take out dinners, movies & cuddles with you over everything'.

Loved-up: Demi's girlfriend Francesca Farago also shared a loved-up photo of the couple in a bar as they snuggled up close for the camera

Francesca wrote: 'Take out dinners, movies & cuddles with you over everything' to which Demi replied: 'Me loves you soooo much '

Demi wrote back: 'Me loves you soooo much '.

It comes after Demi admitted marriage could be on the cards with Francesca as they took part in an Instagram Q&A on Saturday.

The star enthused: 'I'm waiting for the ring!' as the couple kissed and cuddled in their hotel room.

Reading a question asked by a fan, Canadian beauty Francesca said: 'Do you see yourself marrying the person that you're with?', to which she replied: 'Yes.'

Moving fast: Demi recently admitted marriage could be on the cards with Francesca as they took part in an Instagram Q&A on Saturday during their 'work' trip in Mexico

Make-up artist Demi also gushed: 'I'm waiting for the ring babe' as she was smothered in smooches by her lover.

Francesca fake cried with happiness as she added: 'I would totally live in LA with you,' before her girlfriend erupted into laughter.

The reality stars also declared that their followers 'said they were in love with' the stunning couple.

Last week, they shocked social media as they got their names tattooed on each other's bottom and wrist, just days after going public with their relationship.

In their element: The dynamic duo have been flaunting their loved-up status on social media during their sun-soaked 'work' trip

Wild tributes: Last week, the Essex native showed off her dainty 'F' piece on her wrist (L), while the influencer debuted her 'Demi' inking, which was placed on her bottom (R)

The pair are among a host of reality stars who have switched their 'work' trips from Dubai to Mexico amid a ban on UAE flights.

Francesca first received attention for her role in the Netflix original series Too Hot to Handle last April, when she briefly dated her co-star Harry Jowsey.

Demi has previously dated Leonie McSorley, with them last being seen out together in October, and having confirmed their romance in July.

The loved-up pair are currently in the country with Demi's sister Chloe, 38, and cousin Frankie, 33.

Ex files: Demi has previously dated Leonie McSorley, with them last being seen out together in October, and having confirmed their romance in July (pictured)

Celebrities and influencers have been flocking to Mexico's bars and beaches as it establishes itself as the latest COVID getaway destination.

The country, which is not yet on the UK's travel red-list, appears to be the new destination of choice for global jet-setters and could rocket in popularity after travel from influencer magnet Dubai was banned on Friday.

Popstar Dua Lipa, and model Lottie Moss are among those that have been pictured in the Central American country in recent weeks.

Travel abroad is now banned from the UK without a legally permitted reason, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced on Wednesday, as she criticised influencers for 'showing off in sunny parts of the world'.
New Delhi, Feb 2 : The simmering tension between the all-powerful military and the government led by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar has led to the deposition of Suu Kyi by the generals. Highly placed sources told India Narrative that the coup is mainly the result of an internal power struggle within Myanmar, and external powers are unlikely to have played a role in the military takeover.

The Myanmar military, called Tatmadaw, declared a state of emergency for one year and detained government leaders including Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. The Tatmadaw has also arrested other ruling party members and cabinet ministers. The Irrawaddy newspaper says that the military had alleged irregularities in the November 8, 2020, parliamentary elections where Suu Kyi's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), had won a landslide majority.

Since the elections 0, the army had been releasing statements that the elections were marred by flawed voters lists. Simultaneously, opposition parties too had filed cases before the courts against the NLD.

Recently Myanmar had begun to open up to the world and was trying to get out of China's clutches. The embracing of democracy by Myanmar was welcomed across the world. Barack Obama became the first-ever US President to visit the country. Japan and India too improved their relations considerably with Myanmar, a country that occupies an important geo-political position in Asia linking South Asia and South-East Asia.

India, which shares a long, nearly 1,600-km border with Myanmar, issued a statement saying: "We have noted the developments in Myanmar with deep concern. India has always been steadfast in its support to the process of democratic transition in Myanmar. We believe that the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld. We are monitoring the situation closely." India had been cultivating both the power centres in the country - the democratically elected government as well as the military. India had last year given the Myanmar Navy the Sindhugosh submarine and also provided training to its personnel in managing it. A proud Myanmar Navy inducted the country's first submarine on its 73rd anniversary on 25 December 2020.

Numerous high-level visits had been exchanged between the leaders of both countries over the past few years. In the latest, Foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Indian Army chief General MM Naravane visited Myanmar in October while Indian Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh visited the country in February 2020.

Besides India, Japan too was trying to wean the country away from China. The last three to four months saw a number of high-profile visits from the Japanese, who were looking at enhancing the democratic and the electoral processes in the country.

Japan has been taking a proactive stand in peace talks. Yohei Sasakawa, special envoy of the government of Japan for national reconciliation in Myanmar, visited Naypyidaw regularly for his mediation role. Sasakawa met both - Suu Kyi as well as army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Also, he was successful in mediating with the rebel group Arakan Army (AA) which agreed to a ceasefire. The AA has been active in the Rakhine state, a province of great strategic importance to China and India due to its location in the Bay of Bengal - where China has developed the port of Kyaukphyu to be able to bypass the Malacca strait.

To ensure that the democratic credentials of Myanmar remained on track, Japan was ensuring that voters of various communities were not disenfranchised by the country. It supported the NLD administration, promoted reconciliation with minorities and was trying to ensure that the Myanmar military kept itself away from politics.

With the advent of democracy, Myanmar had been moving away from China, which has invested considerably through its manipulative China Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC). Myanmar had also been stalling Chinese projects as it feared a debt trap on similar lines as Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar in the first week of January 2021 to speed up the CMEC projects. Wang's visit came soon after the Myanmar elections wherein he promised coronavirus vaccines and other pharmaceutical products to Myanmar as aid.

With the Tatmadaw springing a surprise, many nations will be on tenterhooks in a rapidly-changing world, particularly in the Indo-Pacific.

(This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)
Greetings everybody. I conclude tonight my fifth visit to Ethiopia as UN High Commissioner for Refugees and at the outset I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government for having facilitated his visit, and for the exchanges that I have had with its members, starting with the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the President, the Minister of Peace and other officials. Ethiopia, as you probably know is one of UNHCR's most important partner countries, a country in which we have worked for decades, and more importantly a country, and that's the reason why we've been here for so long, that has hosted for those decades millions of refugees: 800,000 - 900,000 at the current count.

And not only that, but Ethiopia is a country that has been quite exemplary in many aspects of refugee assistance, and it is for this reason that have 2019, I came to Addis to invite the Prime Minister to be one of the five co-convenors of the Global Refugee Forum that we held in Geneva at the end of that year. That of course was due to some very innovative policies inaugurated by this Government here in Ethiopia in respect of refugees, both at the legislative level and the operational level.

The purpose of my visit of course here was to follow up on the very critical situation that has developed as we all know in the past couple of months in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, with the focus on the overall humanitarian situation in the region, but also in particular on the situation of Eritrean refugees that are hosted there. I think you have all seen statements that I have made in the past few months. I thought that the time had come, and the Ethiopian Government agreed, that the time had come for me to come and exchange frankly, as I did, views on the situation and looking at the way forward. I did not of course meet only the leadership of the country, but I also met my UN colleagues, NGOs international and national, Civil Society Organizations, refugees themselves, and other diplomats, donor partners and other important actors here on the ground.

I would like to add that I was also able to travel to the Mai Aini refugee camp in southern Tigray, together with the Minister of Peace and the Director General of ARRA. ARRA is the Ethiopian National Refugee Organization, our counterpart in the country. This took place on Saturday and I want to thank the Government for that.

My conclusion before I take off tonight. The humanitarian situation in Tigray, I think I will say something that everybody knows, but I think it's important to repeat it, is extremely grave. People need all possible forms of support: food items, non-food items, medicine, clean water, shelter. The closure of the banking system, of the telecommunication system has added to the hardship of thousands of people, so the restoration of services is a very big priority and the United Nations as you know also estimates that hundreds of thousands, figures are difficult put forward in this situation, have been displaced and continue to be displaced. There has been some progress in the security situation as we have heard from the government, although some isolated or scattered incidents continue to happen, but of course we have observed, and in some areas we continue to observe, violence carried out by various armed elements and militias, but also as often is the case in these military situations, by criminal elements and this has resulted in looting, in violence, sexual violence, in rape. Unfortunately, as you know, also six humanitarian workers have lost their lives in in recent weeks.

So, the first message that I have shared, I must say to receptive ears of the Prime Minister, to Deputy Prime Minister and other interlocutors is very important: conflicts impact severely on civilians and whilst it is not in my place to make more political judgments, this is not my role, I have a responsibility to tell the Government that we're here to help minimize and eliminate the impact on civilians of these situations.

There are many people, as we saw in Mai Aini, and other colleagues have seen in other places that have been very severely traumatized and need support, and what we have heard from the provisional authorities in Tigray, there was by the way another UN mission that visited Mekelle on the same day in which I was in Mai Aini, led by the Under Secretary General for Security of staff, and that mission focused on that particular aspect of our work and there was a very strong appeal by the temporary authorities for more help to come on the part of the international community to help address these needs. The same is heard by many colleagues of mine in the UN and among the NGOs from line ministries from the Health Ministry, the Water Ministry, that we need to step up assistance. The situation as I said is very grave is very urgent. Without further action it will get worse. I do want to appreciate what the government is already doing to address this situation, and reiterate that the UN and the international humanitarian community is ready to help and step up and I think that this step up, and they said this to the Prime Minister, is very important if we want to avoid a further widespread suffering of people. In my experience if you don't attend to this escalating humanitarian crisis the needs become so acute and so big and huge that it is much more difficult to address. We still have time, I guess, in spite of all the suffering that has already happened, to intervene now and this is why I really welcome the very constructive discussions in this respect that we've had with the Government.

It is very positive that clearances were obtained in recent days to deliver cargo to the warehouses in Tigray in particular in Mekelle. I think that the next step is really to make sure that these goods, this cargo, food in particular, but also non-food item gets out and gets to the people who need it in the civilian population in all parts of the country, and I was very happy to hear the Deputy Prime Minister talk about the need to make joint assessments between the UN, the NGOs and the Government so that we can further refine our intervention. We talked a lot about needs, relief, access. Now we need to become more specific, where it is possible to do it and most urgent, we need to go there and do it and this needs some assessment and needs movement.

This of course leads me to the very important issue that I have been discussing very frankly with the Government and that my colleagues here have been discussing with the Government for quite some time since the agreement in November: access is fundamental for the UN and NGOs. There are 16 UN agencies and 25 NGOs that have submitted requests for clearances. What I have discussed with all interlocutors, the Minister of Peace, Deputy Prime Minister but also the Prime Minister, is the importance to have an access management system, a clearance management system, that is fast, that is efficient and as close to the field operations as possible. I mean my experience in these situations is that the situation can be easily volatile, insecurity can move, so it is important that these procedures are very agile that they ensure the security of humanitarian workers. This is an important responsibility of the government and the government is taking it seriously, but that it does not limit access to the point where access is insufficient, as it is the case right now. So, we need to strike a balance there, and I think that we need to put in place, and I heard, clearly, from the Deputy Prime Minister a commitment that these access procedures will be very quickly made as flexible and effective as possible, and we will follow up on that.

On the specific issue of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia, as I said on Saturday I visited the Mai Aini refugee camp. You know, I think everybody knows, but for the sake of those who don't know, there were four refugee camps, Eritrean refugee camps in Tigray before the beginning of November: two in the north Hitsats and Shimelba and two in the South of the region, Mai Aini and Adi Harush. We visited the southern ones in fact Mai Aini one of the southern ones, and we met and spoke together with the Minister of Peace and her delegation, we met and spoke to the refugees residing. Some, most of them have resided for many years, maybe up to ten years in Mai Aini, but we also were able to meet some of the almost 3000 refugees that have now been relocated or have relocated themselves from the other two camps Hitsats and Shimelba. Now we know that, everybody knows, that in those two camps they were theater of conflict they have suffered severe destruction of infrastructure and damage and also most likely severe abuse on the refugees that were caught in the crossfire especially at the beginning of the operation and that those refugees have fled. This was a very traumatic situation for them in particular but also for the refugees in Mai Aini and Adi Harush who expressed to us their fear for their future. They said we don't want to have the same situation happen here, and I was glad to hear the Minister of Peace assure them several times that the situation in these two southern camps was secure, they were welcome there and that they would be supported and assisted.

Those that we spoke to that were coming from the two other camps reported issues of very much concern to us. They reported that they had been cut off, as we know, from support and assistance for several weeks. Some of them told us and told the Minister that they had resorted to eating leaves because there was no other food, but they also spoke about, especially at the beginning as I said being caught in the crossfire that was at the beginning of the military operation, and they also spoke of infiltration of armed actors in the camps, of killings, abductions and also some forced return to Eritrea at the hands of Eritrean forces present in the areas. Others reported that other refugees had chosen themselves to return to Eritrea given the insecurity prevailing in the area.

We heard many reports, not just on Saturday but also on other occasions and of course this is a situation of great concern these abuses and the strong appeal that I made to the Government, and I think this came loud and clear during our visit, is that it is very important that these abuses if they still happen, it is very difficult to tell without access, must be put to an end. Especially deportations are of course as we know quite a violation of international law as I have flagged to the authorities.

Now the priorities therefore are as follows looking forward: first of all, I raised this and we had very frank constructive engagement with the government on this issue, it is urgent that we get back in touch with those refugees that are still dispersed from Hitsats and Shimelba. We estimate they might be somewhere between 15 and 20,000 people, perhaps a little less, that are dispersed in areas where we do not have access. Whilst relocation to the southern camps continues, I think that we need to accelerate that operation, and in order for that to be accelerated and bring people to safety away from the insecure areas it is important that we the ARRA, the Ethiopia Refugee Organization with our support that we have access to those areas.

The Prime Minister told me that he understood very well this important priority for us, that he would personally follow up to ensure that this would happen, and we discussed this in more detail with the Deputy Prime Minister. So, we will continue to follow up on this particular issue.

Meanwhile, another big priority is to scale up assistance in Mai Aini and Adi Harush because they will be receiving more people. ARRA has told us that they will negotiate with local authorities to find the space to accommodate a larger population and we will continue to work together to ensure that.

Now there is a broader issue of course, generated by these allegations of violence and abuse that refugees I would say Eritrean refugees all over the country as we heard in Mai Aini, as we hear here with urban refugees in Addis Ababa, all over the country are now in a situation of anxiety and fear. They fear that the hospitality and protection that Ethiopia has given them for a long time is going to shrink or diminish and I have raised this in all my meetings, and I am happy to have heard that this is not the case. The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Peace, told me that the commitment of Ethiopia to protect Eritrean refugees continue to be undiminished and I think it is important that this is known and repeated to send a message to reassurance to all refugees around the country.

I want to add a few elements. As you know last November after the beginning of the military operation, I went to Sudan at the border with the Ethiopia to meet the Ethiopian refugees who were afraid of the situation in Tigray and that were crossing over into Sudan. That number by the way has now exceeded 60,000 refugees. What I heard there, and I spent quite some time, a couple of days, speaking to the refugees in a way mirrored what we heard from some of the Eritrean refugees but of course in a slightly different context.

We heard of course the fear of fighting, this is a very natural fear of any civilian population but we also heard the fear of abuse and violence not at the hands of the Federal forces but at the hands of militia, irregular militia, and I shared this view with the authorities today. Most of them, I have to tell you, most of them told me that they wanted to return to Ethiopia fairly quickly and of course UNHCR stands ready, and we discussed this today with the authorities, to support this return provided of course it is a free and voluntary choice of the refugees, something that Ethiopia fully respects but I also advised the government here that we must address this issue of abuse by individuals or by groups if we want to encourage these people to return. It is very important that the Government says and continues to say that people are welcome back. I think that if this issue of violence is addressed, the Deputy Prime Minister explained to me how a plan is being rolled out to diminish any irregular violence and reestablish law and order in the area, I think that this would constitute a good context for people, it will encourage at least some people to go back feeling safe feeling that they have the security and support that they need.

Let me repeat it again many people want to return. They are missing or have missed the harvest their left behind the houses belongings they have fled many times in haste, so it is important that this is addressed as a matter of urgency. It is also as part of the peacebuilding process which I heard the Government is intending to embark upon after the military operation or even now as the military operation continues, I think it is important also to address these allegations that we have heard of violence at the hands of militias, of foreign forces, of others. I was very pleased to hear even in the camp when I visited with the Minister of Peace and then from other authorities a commitment by the Ethiopian Government to investigate what has happened.

My main priority, our main priority, is to gain access to deliver aid and protection, ensure the safety of everybody now but it is also important, and I have seen it in so many conflict situations, that also what has happened might be addressed in full transparency. This is not my mandate, this is something more in the domain of human rights, but my strong recommendation having seen this over and over again, is that the Ethiopian government in full transparency conducts this investigation, this investigation needs to be as impartial and credible as possible, to fulfill what they need to fulfill, bring to accountability the people that may be accountable whichever side or whichever group they belong to, but also at the same time to ensure that there is a due process of redress for what has happened to reassure the civilian populations that have been impacted. By the way, you know, there is a lot of noise on social media in the public domain around these issues. When you visit like I did on Saturday, you realize that the situation is very complex, that there's been a lot of crossfire, a lot of violations on all sides, and all this needs to be impartially investigated by those who will do it, and I think it is very important as the impact of the conflict on civilians or of the operations on civilians is investigated that refugees are also included in this investigations.

My final point is that the Government is rightly concerned that we need resources to respond to this crisis, and I would like to flag and to continue to run all other operations humanitarian and development operations in this country. I remind you that UNHCR alone with ARRA is dealing with South Sudanese refugees in Gambella, with Somali refugees in the Somali region, with Sudanese refugees in Assosa, that although the IDP population in the country has decreased in other regions other than Tigray there are still areas of IDP operations that need to be supported and I think that for this of course international assistance is necessary. I told the Government that access to people in need, presence of international organizations in support of the national effort, all these will be very welcome sign of building costs and encouraging the international community to support also financially the operations of the Government, of the United Nations, and of NGOs. You know that the United Nations has appealed for one 170 million dollars specifically for operations in Northern Ethiopia, there has been a good response, 65% has been funded, but we need more to come through because the needs in my opinion will escalate as we go forward. In Sudan as well we have appealed for the refugees there for about $150 million, almost half of that amount has been contributed including a recent and very substantive American contribution but once again we need to have those efforts supported until we come to a solution of this crisis and hopefully we move forward along all the directions that I have outlined. Many thanks.
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In the face of an 'unprecedented' crisis, Panjabi said he was humbled by the challenges the US the world faced to build back better. (Image credit: Twitter/@rajpanjabi)

Washington: US President Joe Biden has appointed Dr. Raj Panjabi, an Indian-origin public health professional, to lead his Malaria Initiative which aims to control and eliminate the disease in African and Asian countries.

Born in Liberia, Panjabi and his family fled the country during its civil war and arrived in the United States as refugees in the 1990s.

"After being sworn in this morning, I'm honored to share that I've been appointed by Biden as the president's Malaria Coordinator to lead the US president's Malaria Initiative. I'm grateful for this chance to serve," Panjabi, 39, said on Twitter.

"My family and I arrived in America 30 years ago after fleeing civil war in Liberia. A community of Americans rallied around my family to help us build back our lives. It's an honour to serve the country that helped build back my own life as part of the Biden-Harris Administration, he said.

In the face of an "unprecedented" crisis, Panjabi said he was humbled by the challenges the US the world faced to build back better.

"But as I have learned in America: we are not defined by the conditions we face, we are defined by how we respond," he said in a series of tweets.

As a doctor and public health professional who has cared for patients alongside the staff of the President's Malaria Initiative and its partners the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Center for Disease Control, Panjabi said: "I've been inspired by how they've responded to fight malaria, one of the oldest and deadliest pandemics, and saved lives around the world."

He said this mission is personal for him.

The US President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), launched in 2005, supports 24 partner countries in sub-Saharan Africa and three programmes in the Greater Mekong Subregion in Southeast Asia to control and eliminate malaria.

"My grandparents and parents were infected with malaria while living in India. As a child in Liberia, I fell sick with malaria, and as a doctor serving in Africa, I have seen this disease take too many lives," he said. He said he has seen how the Malaria Initiative and its partners have responded with resolve in the countries where it operates.

"I've seen the relief on the faces of parents whose children survived malaria because they were treated with medicines and by health workers backed by its support," he said.

Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated Panjabi on his appointment.

"Congratulations Raj Panjabi on your appointment as @POTUS Malaria Coordinator for @PMIgov. Together, we can end Malaria!" Ghebreyesus tweeted.

Panjabi fled Liberia during the country's civil war at age nine, becoming a refugee in the US. He returned to Liberia as a medical student and in 2007, and co-founded Last Mile Health.

He has served as an assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, an associate physician at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the CEO and co-founder of Last Mile Health, according to his profile on LinkedIn.

Panjabi and the Last Mile Health team played a key role in the 2013-16 West Africa Ebola epidemic, helping train over a thousand frontline and community health workers and support the government of Liberia to lead its national Ebola Operations Centre. Panjabi delivered testimony on the Ebola epidemic at the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee.

In response to COVID-19, he led Last Mile Health to support governments in Africa to train frontline health workers. He served as the advisor to former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her role as the co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response at the World Health Organization (WHO). Panjabi has cared for patients with COVID and urgent care needs.

He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, trained in internal medicine and primary care at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and received a master's degree in public health in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins. He has served as a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Last month, Axios published "Off the rails," a series taking you inside the end of Donald Trump's presidency, from his election loss to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that triggered his second impeachment  and a Senate trial set to begin next week.

In this bonus edition, we take you back into those final weeks  to one long, unhinged night a week before Christmas, when an epic, profanity-soaked standoff played out with profound implications for the nation.

Four conspiracy theorists marched into the Oval Office. It was early evening on Friday, Dec. 18  more than a month after the election had been declared for Joe Biden, and four days after the Electoral College met in every state to make it official.

Get smarter, faster with the news CEOs, entrepreneurs and top politicians read. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.

"How the hell did Sidney get in the building?" White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann grumbled from the outer Oval Office as Sidney Powell and her entourage strutted by to visit the president.

President Trump's private schedule hadn't included appointments for Powell or the others: former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, and a little-known former Trump administration official, Emily Newman. But they'd come to convince Trump that he had the power to take extreme measures to keep fighting.

As Powell and the others entered the Oval Office that evening, Herschmann  a wealthy business executive and former partner at Kasowitz Benson & Torres who'd been pulled out of quasi-retirement to advise Trump  quietly slipped in behind them.

The hours to come would pit the insurgent conspiracists against a handful of White House lawyers and advisers determined to keep the president from giving in to temptation to invoke emergency national security powers, seize voting machines and disable the primary levers of American democracy.

Story continues

Herschmann took a seat in a yellow chair close to the doorway. Powell, Flynn, Newman and Byrne sat in a row before the Resolute Desk, facing the president.

For weeks now, ever since Rudy Giuliani had commandeered Trumps floundering campaign to overturn the election, outsiders had been coming out of the woodwork to feed the president wild allegations of voter fraud based on highly dubious sources.

Trump was no longer focused on any semblance of a governing agenda, instead spending his days taking phone calls and meetings from anyone armed with conspiracy theories about the election. For the White House staff, it was an unending sea of garbage churned up by the bottom feeders.

Powell began this meeting with the same baseless claim that now has her facing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit: She told the president that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged their machines to flip votes from Trump to Biden and that it was part of an international communist plot to steal the election for the Democrats.

Powell waved an affidavit from the pile of papers in her lap, claiming it contained testimony from someone involved in the development of rigged voting machines in Venezuela.

She proposed declaring a national security emergency, granting her and her cabal top-secret security clearances and using the U.S. government to seize Dominions voting machines.

"Hold on a minute, Sidney," Herschmann interrupted from the back of the Oval. "You're part of the Rudy team, right? Is your theory that the Democrats got together and changed the rules, or is it that there was foreign interference in our election?"

Giuliani's legal efforts, while replete with debunked claims about voter fraud, had largely focused on allegations of misconduct by corrupt Democrats and election officials.

"It's foreign interference," Powell insisted, then added: "Rudy hasn't understood what this case is about until just now."

In disbelief, Herschmann yelled out to an aide in the outer Oval Office. "Get Pat down here immediately!" Several minutes later, White House counsel Pat Cipollone walked into the Oval. He looked at Byrne and said, "Who are you?"

The meeting was already getting heated.

White House staff had spent weeks poring over the evidence underlying hundreds of affidavits and other claims of fraud promoted by Trump allies like Powell. The team had done the due diligence and knew the specific details of what was being alleged better than anybody. Time and time again, they found, Powell's allegations fell apart under basic scrutiny.

But Powell, fixing on Trump, continued to elaborate on a fantastical election narrative involving Venezuela, Iran, China and others. She named a county in Georgia where she claimed she could prove that Dominion had illegally flipped the vote.

Herschmann interrupted to point out that Trump had actually won the Georgia county in question: "So your theory is that Dominion intentionally flipped the votes so we could win that county?"

As for Powell's larger claims, he demanded she provide evidence for what  if true  would amount to the greatest national security breach in American history. They needed to dial in one of the campaign's lawyers, Herschmann said, and Trump campaign lawyer Matt Morgan was patched in via speakerphone.

By now, people were yelling and cursing.

The room was starting to fill up. Trump's personal assistant summoned White House staff secretary Derek Lyons to join the meeting and asked him to bring a copy of a 2018 executive order that the Powell group kept citing as the key to victory. Lyons agreed with Cipollone and the other officials that Powell's theories were nonsensical.

It was now four against four.

Flynn went berserk. The former three-star general, whom Trump had fired as his first national security after he was caught lying to the FBI (and later pardoned), stood up and turned from the Resolute Desk to face Herschmann.

"You're quitting! You're a quitter! You're not fighting! he exploded at the senior adviser. Flynn then turned to the president, and implored: "Sir, we need fighters."

Herschmann ignored Flynn at first and continued to probe Powell's pitch with questions about the underlying evidence. "All you do is promise, but never deliver," he said to her sharply.

Flynn was ranting, seemingly infuriated about anyone challenging Powell, who had represented him in his recent legal battles.

Finally Herschmann had enough. "Why the fuck do you keep standing up and screaming at me?" he shot back at Flynn. "If you want to come over here, come over here. If not, sit your ass down." Flynn sat back down.

The meeting had come entirely off the rails.

Byrne, backing up Flynn, told Trump the White House lawyers didn't care about him and were being obstructive. "Sir, we're both entrepreneurs, and we both built businesses," the former Overstock CEO told Trump. "We know that there are times you have to be creative and take different steps."

This was a remarkable level of personal familiarity, given it was the first time Byrne had met the president. All the stanchions and buffers between the White House and the outside world had crumbled.

Byrne kept attacking the senior White House staff in front of Trump. "They've already abandoned you," he told the president aggressively. Periodically during the meeting Flynn or Byrne challenged Trump's top staff  portraying them as disloyal: So do you think the president won or not?

At one point, with Flynn shouting, Byrne raised his hand to talk. He stood up and turned around to face Herschmann. "You're a quitter," he said. "You've been interfering with everything. You've been cutting us off."

"Do you even know who the fuck I am, you idiot?" Herschmann snapped back.

"Yeah, you're Patrick Cipollone," Byrne said.

"Wrong! Wrong, you idiot!"

The staff were now on their feet, standing behind one of the couches and facing the Powell crew at the Resolute Desk. Cipollone stood to Herschmann's left. Lyons, on his last day on the job, stood to Herschmann's right.

Trump was behind the desk, watching the show. He briefly left the meeting to wander into his private dining room.

The usually mild-mannered Lyons blasted the Powell set: "You've brought 60 cases. And you've lost every case youve had!"

Trump came back into the Oval Office from the dining room to rejoin the meeting. Lyons pointed out to Powell that their incompetence went beyond their lawsuits being thrown out for standing. "You somehow managed to misspell the word 'District' three different ways in your suits," he said pointedly.

In a Georgia case, the Powell team had misidentified the court on the first page of their filing as "THE UNITED STATES DISTRICCT COURT, NORTHERN DISTRCOICT OF GEORGIA." And they had identified the Michigan court as the "EASTERN DISTRCT OF MICHIGAN."

These were sloppy spelling errors. But given that these lawsuits aimed to overturn a presidential election, the court nomenclature should have been pristine.

Powell, Flynn and Byrne began attacking Lyons as they renewed their argument to Trump: There they go again, they want to focus on the insignificant details instead of fighting for you.

Trump replied, "No, no, he's right. That was very embarrassing. That shouldn't have happened."

The Powell team needed to regroup. They shifted to a new grievance to turn the conversation away from their embarrassing errors. Powell insisted that they hadn't "lost" the 60-odd court cases, since the cases were mostly dismissed for lack of standing and they had never had the chance to present their evidence.

Every judge is corrupt, she claimed. We can't rely on them. The White House lawyers couldn't believe what they were hearing. "That's your argument?" a stunned Herschmann said. "Even the judges we appointed? Are you out of your fucking mind?"

Powell had more to say. She and Flynn began trashing the FBI as well, and the Justice Department under Attorney General Bill Barr, telling Trump that neither could be trusted. Both institutions, they said, were corrupt, and Trump needed to fire the leadership and get in new people he could trust.

Cipollone, standing his ground amidst this mishmash of conspiracies, said they were totally wrong. He aggressively defended the DOJ and the FBI, saying they had looked into every major claim of fraud that had been reported.

Flynn and Powell had long nursed their antipathy to the FBI and Justice. Flynn had pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation but withdrew the plea after hiring Powell as his lawyer in June 2019.

The two alleged the FBI had entrapped Flynn and failed to disclose exculpatory evidence, known as Brady material, as required by law. They had found an ally in Barr, a fierce critic of the Russia investigation who finally directed the DOJ to drop Flynn's case.

Herschmann, known inside the White House as a defender of Barr and the DOJ, went off on Flynn again: "Listen, the same people that you're trashing, if they didn't produce the Brady material to Sidney, your ass would still be in jail!"

It was no longer technically true that Flynn would be in jail, as he had received a post-election pardon from Trump. But Flynn was furious. "Don't mention my case," he roared. Herschmann responded, "Where do you think Sidney got this information? Where do you think it came from? From the exact same people in the Department of Justice that you're now saying are corrupt."

Byrne, wearing jeans, a hoodie and a neck gaiter, piped up with his own conspiracy: "I know how this works. I bribed Hillary Clinton $18 million on behalf of the FBI for a sting operation."

Herschmann stared at the eccentric millionaire. "What the hell are you talking about? Why would you say something like that?" Byrne brought up the bizarre Clinton bribery claim several more times during the meeting to the astonishment of White House lawyers.

Trump, for his part, also seemed perplexed by Byrne. But he was not entirely convinced the ideas Powell was presenting were insane.

He asked: You guys are offering me nothing. These guys are at least offering me a chance. Theyre saying they have the evidence. Why not try this? The president seemed truly to believe the election was stolen, and his overriding sentiment was, let's give this a shot.

The words "martial law" were never spoken during the meeting, despite Flynn having raised the idea in an appearance the previous day on Newsmax, a right-wing hive for election conspiracies.

But this was a distinction without much of a difference. What Flynn and Powell were proposing amounted to suspending normal laws and mobilizing the U.S. government to seize Dominion voting machines around the country.

Powell was arguing that they couldn't get a judge to enforce any subpoena to hand over the voting machines because all the judges were corrupt. She and her group repeatedly referred to the National Emergencies Act and a Trump executive order from 2018 that was designed to clear the way for the government to sanction foreign actors interfering in U.S. elections.

These laws were, in the view of Powell, Flynn and the others, the key to unlocking extraordinary powers for Trump to stay in office beyond Jan. 20.

Their theory was that because foreign enemies had stolen the election, all bets were off and Trump could use the full force of the United States government to go after Dominion.

It was remarkable that the presidency had deteriorated to such an extent that this fight in the Oval Office between senior White House officials and radical conspiracists was even taking place.

"How exactly are you going to do this?" an exasperated Herschmann asked again, later in the conversation. Newman again cited the 2018 executive order, which prompted Herschmann to question out loud whether she was even a lawyer.

Then Byrne chimed in: "There are guys with big guns and badges who can get these things." Herschmann couldn't believe it. "What are you, three years old?" he asked.

Lyons, the staff secretary, told the president that the executive order Powell and Flynn were citing did not give him the authority they claimed it did to seize voting machines. Morgan, the campaign lawyer, also expressed skepticism about their idea of invoking national security emergency powers.

To help adjudicate, Trump then patched in the national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, on speakerphone. Trump's personal assistant brought O'Brien into the call with no explanation of what madness would await him.

O'Brien said very little in the short time he was on the call but intervened at one point to say he saw no evidence to support Powell's notion of declaring a national security emergency to seize voting machines. There was so much fiery crosstalk it was hard for anyone on the telephone to follow the conversation.

Trump expressed skepticism at various points about Powell's theories, but he said, "At least shes out there fighting."

The discussion shifted from Dominion voting machines to a conversation about appointing Powell as a special counsel inside the government to investigate voter fraud. She wanted a top secret security clearance and access to confidential voter information.

Lyons told Trump he couldn't appoint Powell as a special counsel at the Justice Department because this was an attorney general appointment. Lyons, Cipollone and Herschmann  in fact the entire senior White House staff who were aware of this idea  were all vehemently opposed to Powell becoming a special counsel anywhere in the government.

By this point Trump had also patched into the call his personal lawyer Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meadows indicated that he was trying to wrap his mind around what exactly Powell's role would entail. He told Powell she would have to fill out the SF-86 questionnaire before starting as special counsel.

This was seen as a delaying tactic. The sense in the room was that Trump might actually greenlight this extraordinary proposal.

At its essence, the Powell crew's argument to the president was this: We have the real information. These people  your White House staff  don't believe in the truth. They're liars and quitters. They're not willing to fight for you because they don't want to get their hands dirty. Put us in charge. Let us take control of everything. We'll prove to you that what we're saying is right. We won't quit, we'll fight. We're willing to fight for the presidency.

On some level, this argument was music to Trump's ears. He was desperate. Powell and her team were the only people willing to tell him what he wanted to hear  that a path to stay in power in the White House remained.

The Oval Office portion of the meeting had dragged on for nearly three hours, creeping beyond 9 p.m. The arguments became so heated that even Giuliani  still on the phone  at one point told everyone to calm down. One participant later recalled: "When Rudy's the voice of reason, you know the meeting's not going well."

Giuliani told Trump he was going to come over to the White House. The president, having forgotten about the others on the line, hung up and cut multiple people off the call.

Herschmann, Cipollone and Lyons left the Oval Office, but soon discovered that the Powell entourage had made their way to the presidents residence. They followed them upstairs, to the Yellow Oval Room, Trump's living room, where they were joined by Giuliani and Meadows.

Trump sat beside Powell in armchairs facing the door, separated by a round, wooden antique table. Giuliani sat in an armchair to the right of them, while Byrne and Meadows sat on a couch. Byrne wolfed down pigs in a blanket and little meatballs on toothpicks that staff had set on the coffee table.

Herschmann was primed to brawl and ready to dump on Powell. It had been a long day.

"Rudy," he said, turning to Giuliani, "Sidney was just in the Oval telling the president you don't know what the fuck you're doing. Right, Sidney?" He turned to Powell: "Why don't you tell Rudy to his face?"

"Eric, really it's not appropriate," Trump replied curtly.

"What's not appropriate?" Herschmann shot back. Turning to Powell, he said, "Why don't you repeat to Rudy what you just told the president in the Oval Office  that he has no idea about the case and that he only just began to understand it a few hours ago."

Three days later, Giuliani would publicly distance himself from Powell, telling Newsmax that Powell did not represent the president, and that "whatever she's talking about, it's her own opinions."

It didn't take long for the yelling to start up again. They were now in hour four of a meeting unprecedented even by the deranged standards of the final days of the Trump presidency.

Now it was Meadows' turn, blasting Flynn for trashing him and accusing him of being a quitter. "Don't you dare challenge me about whether I'm being supportive of the president and working hard," Meadows shouted, reminding Flynn that he'd defended him during his legal troubles.

Trump and Cipollone, who frequently butted heads, went at it too, over whether the administration had the authority to do what Powell was proposing.

Powell kept asserting throughout the night that she had  or would soon produce  the evidence needed to prove foreign interference. She kept insisting that Trump had the legal authority he needed to seize voting machines. But she did not have the goods.

Powell at one point turned to Lyons and demanded, "Why are you speaking? Are you still employed here?" The staff secretary, who had already resigned, laughed and joked, "Well I guess I'm here until midnight."

It was after midnight by the time the White House officials had finally said their piece. They left that night fully prepared for the mad possibility Trump might still name Sidney Powell special counsel. You have our advice, they told the president before walking out. You decide who to listen to.

 Listen to Jonathan Swan on Axios' new investigative podcast series, called "How it happened: Trump's last stand."

Read the rest of the "Off the Rails" episodes here.

About this series: Our reporting is based on multiple interviews with current and former White House, campaign, government and congressional officials as well as direct eyewitnesses and people close to the president. Sources have been granted anonymity to share sensitive observations or details they would not be formally authorized to disclose. President Trump and other officials to whom quotes and actions have been attributed by others were provided the opportunity to confirm, deny or respond to reporting elements prior to publication.

"Off the rails" is reported by White House reporter Jonathan Swan, with writing, reporting and research assistance by Zach Basu. It was edited by Margaret Talev and Mike Allen and copy edited by Eileen O'Reilly. Illustrations by Sarah Grillo, Aida Amer and Eniola Odetunde.

Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.
SHOW LOW, Ariz., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Smith Bagley, Inc. (SBI), the Northern Arizona company that owns Cellular One and Sunstate Technology Group, is proud to announce that it has been awarded 13 new projects covering 23 site locations from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) to advance wireless broadband coverage in rural areas where it's currently challenging to access broadband data. This marks the third year in a row that the carrier has been awarded broadband projects from New Mexico's PRC.

"For more than 25 years it has been our mission to bring wireless communications to underserved communities throughout the Southwest. There's no question that broadband data brings with it so many advantages. We are pleased to work arm in arm with the New Mexico PRC to make steady progress year after year," said Judd Hinkle, CEO of Cellular One (SBI).

"Reliable technology lends strength to our healthcare, public safety, and educational systemsas well as supporting the overall functionality of our business community and economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that coverage is more important than ever."

The New Mexico Broadband Program, which is managed by the telecommunications bureau of the New Mexico PRC, was officially formed in 2017. In fact, Cellular One's Chief Legal Officer Timothy Shaffery, who was recently named a finalist for Arizona Business Magazine's 2021 Corporate Counselor Awards, served for over 2 years as one of the industry experts assisting the PRC with the conception of the broadband fund and its objectives.

In October of 2020 Cellular One was awarded 13 projects by the PRC for 2021. The scope covers 23 sites, including build out of 5 new towers and LTE upgrades to 18 cellular sites. The carrier is also completing work on sites scheduled for 2020 that were delayed due to the pandemic, including new towers at Mariano Lake, Pinedale, Bisti, and Fence Lake. In fact, the new Fence Lake tower, which goes live this month, will bring significantly increased LTE broadband coverage to areas just south of Gallup and Zuni tribal lands.

About Cellular One

For more than 25 years, Cellular One has been a leading regional provider of mobile technology and wireless communications service for underserved tribal lands and rural communities in the American Southwest. The company operates a network of more than 230 cell sites, covering 60,000 square miles and has almost 200 employees, many of whom are Native American. For more information, please visit cellularoneonline.com.

SOURCE Cellular One

Related Links

http://www.cellularoneonline.com


MURPHYSBORO (AP) A partnership between a housing authority in southern Illinois and the group PCs for People will help provide hundreds of computers and mobile internet hotspots to residents.

Alexandra Hamilton is the director of social services for the Jackson County Housing Authority, and worked last year to secure an opportunity to provide residents of the JCHA with much-needed tech access. Hamilton found help through PCs for People, a group that refurbishes recycled business electronics to offer technology to low-income households. Hamilton said she has worked hard to create a focus-driven Social Services department that is centered on true change and personal growth for residents.

One of the main barriers I have been working to remove was the lack of computers in the homes of many of our residents who could significantly benefit from them, Hamilton said in a message to The Southern.

Hamilton told The Southern she has secured 500 computers in total as well as 75 mobile hotspots with several months of internet service prepaid on them to give away. The computers were secured through local sponsorships. For $20, a sponsor could gift a computer to a JCHA resident. For $15, a sponsor could give a mobile hotspot. Hamilton said the community support for the program was heartening.

Hamilton said 50 of the computers will be used to furnish community spaces at each of the JCHAs locations throughout the county. The rest will go to residents who were selected from those eligible to receive one from PCs for People  residents must meet income requirements to qualify. They are allowed to keep each item donated.

Not one to commit to things she doesnt yet have, Hamilton said residents will be called to inform them they qualify for a free computer. She didnt want anyone to be told they got a computer and suddenly have to take back that promise.

I dont like to disappoint people, she said. She also said the JCHA will allow sponsors to connect with the recipient of their donations if theyd like.

The mayors of Carbondale and Murphysboro were present at the Bridgewood Community Center in Murphysboro, when the computers were delivered to the housing authority. Hamilton said everyone was a bit shocked by the more than 10 pallets of computers that had been delivered. When people brought up just how big the donation was, she reminded them of one thing.

This is only half of them, she said. She said this really drove the point home that this was going to have a huge potential impact on the community.

Illinois education reform bill will head to governor; economic equity bills pass House

Hamilton has only been with the JCHA since September, but said because of good bosses, she has been able to run with passion projects like the computer donation. She said she personally knows how transformative access to technology can be. In her last six months of college, she said, she went through a divorce that caused her to live several months in public housing with her kids. She recalled having no internet and taking her family to a McDonalds parking lot to access Wi-Fi for school.

Aaron Freeman lives in a JCHA complex in Murphysboro and said hes been taking his first semester as an online student at John A. Logan College. Freeman said he hopes to one day work as a drug awareness counselor. But, he said, without a computer, hed either have to use Hamiltons if she was in her office or go to the library or his mothers house to do schoolwork.

It was very, very stressful, he said. He got a computer on Friday. Now, he can work on his classwork on his own time.

If I can sit at my own kitchen table and work, Id much rather do that, he said.

He had no idea he had been selected to receive a free computer until Hamilton knocked on his door Friday.

Its almost like Christmastime again, Freeman said.

It was great timing  he said he has assignments he needed to do that day.
[February 02, 2021] Humax to supply RAiDEA mobility service platform to leading car rental company in the Middle East

SEONGNAM-SI, South Korea, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Humax, a total mobility platform provider, has signed a contract with Saudi Arabian business WTC Auto Rent  the leading car rental organisation in the Middle East. This new agreement will see Humax supply WTC with the RAiDEA mobility service platform (powered by its affiliated company, Alticast) for contactless car rental automation services. RAiDEA is an all-in-one mobility service platform that provides an array of services such as B2C, B2B and P2P. This technology is suitable for round trip, one way and free-floating infrastructures, and is designed for vehicles including cars, motorcycles, bikes and electric scooters. As a result of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, car rental operators around the world are facing significant business challenges due to reduced utilisation and poor financial performance. In an effort to overcome these difficlties and improve the business environment, WTC will introduce the RAiDEA platform to provide contactless rental car services.



These services will enable WTC to reduce costs through contactless operation and automation of existing face-to-face transactions, increase vehicle utilisation and diversify revenue through the application of new rental business models. Furthermore, customer loyalty is expected to grow thanks to improvements in the digital rental experience. Mi-sung Cho, CTO at Alticast, said: "After successfully commercialising the RAiDEA platform through Carplat, a Korean corporate car-sharing service provider, in June 2020, Humax is pleased to be partnering with WTC to enhance its contactless services. This collaboration recognises the competitiveness of RAiDEA as a comprehensive, all-in-one platform that offers a complete solution including rental automation and car sharing services."

Jeff Kim, EVP of Worldwide Sales at Humax, said: "Following this agreement, we expect our global business expansion to accelerate rapidly with major Car Sharing Operators (CSOs) and car rental companies." Learn more about Humax's mobility solutions at https://biz.humaxdigital.com. About Humax Founded in 1989, Humax is a leading gateway developer dedicated to providing better content delivery systems for consumers through continuous research, development and innovations. With 20 overseas subsidiaries and branches across the globe, Humax currently provides 80 major broadcasting companies and mobile carriers with high-quality video gateways, set-top boxes and broadband gateways. Humax is also active in the field of mobility business encompassing mobility service platform, mobility device platform and mobility hub platform.

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We hear from a lot of adult children whose parents live in Kane County, and they say my parents are never going to figure out how to make an appointment, Community Health Director Michael Isaacson said. We are partnering with local organizations so they can go someplace where theres trusted people who can help them.
Last Wednesday, Nick Kristof addressed his column to his conservative hometown friends in Yamhill, Ore., urging them to hold liberals accountable while doing the same for right-wing extremists, kooks and charlatans. In that spirit  and with Nicks cheerful acquiescence  I offer a rejoinder in the form of a letter to my liberal friends.

Dear Friends,

No, I cant relax! And no, Im not worried that the Biden administration is going to send Trump voters to re-education camps, impose Cuban-style socialism or put out the welcome mat for MS-13. Im just afraid that todays Democratic leaders might look to the very Democratic state of California as a model for Americas future.

You remember California: People used to want to move there, start businesses, raise families, live their American dream.

These days, not so much. Between July 2019 and July 2020, more people  135,400 to be precise  left the state than moved in, one of only a dozen times in over a century when thats happened. The website exitcalifornia.org helps keep track of where these Golden State exiles go. No. 1 destination: Texas, followed by Arizona, Nevada and Washington. Three of those states have no state income tax, while Arizonas is capped at 4.5 percent for married couples making over $318,000.
We will have contests for people to decorate their houses. That will get the community involved, Viero said. Here at BAPA, we will work with our businesses to come up with something really cool, but we dont have it nailed down yet. We have reached out to the businesses to ask if they want to be a part of something for the parade date.
Posted Monday, February 1, 2021 4:26 pm

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, introduced a bill last week to address a nationwide childcare shortage, specifically targeting rural areas. The bipartisan bill, introduced with California Democrat Josh Harder, would create a $100 million grant program to build and expand child care centers and train professionals.

Lewis County has been described as a childcare desert, with few affordable options for parents  an issue exacerbated by school closures during the pandemic.

Working parents and guardians need solutions like the Child Care Workforce and Facilities Act that will increase the availability and affordability of child- care in Southwest Washington, no matter where families live. Im pleased to help address the childcare crisis from Congress as we emerge from this crisis and endeavor to get our economy back up and running, Herrera Beutler said in a press release.

The bill has support from the Save the Children Action Network, which said in the press release that the childcare industry is crucial to allow adults to rejoin the workforce.
The unions said that the budget presented by the Finance Minister is full of rhetoric and far away from the ground realities

New Delhi: A joint platform of 10 central trade unions on Tuesday gave a call for a nationwide protest on February 3 against privatisation and other "anti-people" policies proposed in the Budget for 2021-22 and to press for scrapping labour codes and providing income and food support to the families of poor workers.

The ten central trade unions are Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Trade Union Co-ordination Centre (TUCC), Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC).

"The joint platform of Central Trade Unions and the independent sectoral federations/associations calls upon the unions and working class to observe nationwide protest on 3rd February demanding, scrapping of labour codes and electricity bill 2020, No privatisation, Income support and food support to all poor workers' households and (to protest) against anti-people policies as reflected by union budget ( presented on Feb1, 2021)," a statement by joint forum said.

According to statement protest day to be observed through massive demonstrations/mobilizations at the workplaces, and industrial centres/areas and also burning the copies of the Labour Codes.

The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent Federations has called upon the trade unions and workers in general to carry on an intensive campaign in all the workplaces and in residential areas throughout the country against the destructive anti-worker, anti-farmer and anti-national policies of the government and make the programme a massive success to pave the way for further combative struggles including multiple day's strike in the days to come to fight, defy and resist the destructive and anti-national policy regime.

The unions said that the budget presented by the Finance Minister is full of rhetoric and far away from the ground realities.

It is totally deceptive and destructive for the national economy, besides being cruelly insensitive to the suffering of the mass of the toiling people. The Finance Minister has repeated the claim of the government's economic survey that the labour codes are good for the workers, similarly, the farm laws were also praised.

"There is no relief to the farmers' rather the government has only announced the increase of the threshold for taking loans. It is a cruel joke on the farming community which is already finding itself in a tight corner and is already entrenched in debt. The demands of the farmers are totally ignored rather the farm laws are being praised by the government as a boon to them, when they are braving all odds seeking their total repeal," they highlighted.

The budget has totally ignored the poor masses and their needs. The government has stood for the Corporates and abandoned the common masses pushing Indian economy further into mess, the unions added. She has actually extended, rather repeated her presentation of the same deceptive packages announced in the month of may 2020, they added.

The budget is friendly to Indian and foreign Corporate and continues to give huge concessions, reduction in tax for them and increase in the cess on the common man. The common masses are burdened more when there is a crisis for their livelihood itself, the unions opined. The budget continues its policy of selling our public sector banks, enhancing FDI in the Insurance sector to 74 per cent besides pushing through aggressive disinvestment in LIC, and pursuing privatisation in almost all profit-making public sector enterprises while announcing the closure in all loss-making PSUs including those in core and strategic sectors, they stated.

The stated target of raising up to Rs 1.75 lakh crore from disinvestment of profit-making Public Sector Enterprises exposes the destructive motives and bankruptcy of the government, they pointed out.
SACRAMENTO  Gov. Gavin Newsoms approval rating among California voters has dropped as his administration struggles to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and distribute vaccines more quickly, two new surveys found.

One poll, released Tuesday by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, found Newsoms popularity sinking at a time when Republicans are trying to qualify a recall measure for the ballot. The poll showed that recall backers still have an uphill climb, however. A total of 45% of registered voters who responded said they opposed a recall, versus 36% who would vote to remove the governor and 19% who were undecided.

These results should provide a strong warning to the governor, Eric Schickler, co-director of the Institute of Government Studies, said in a statement. If the recall election does go forward, the states response to the pandemic needs to be seen as more successful for the governor than it is now for him to be confident of the election outcome.

Newsoms job approval rating in the institutes poll dipped to 46%, a sharp decline from 64% in September. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they disapprove of his performance and 6% had no opinion.

A second poll, by the Public Policy Institute of California, found a slim majority of likely voters, 52%, approved of how Newsom is handling his job. That was also a drop from September, when the institute found 60% support for the governor.

The nonpartisan institute didnt ask about the recall in its poll. Mark Baldassare, the institutes president, said Newsoms approval ratings are sharply divided along partisan lines, and likened the split to trend lines seen in polls on former President Donald Trump and former Gov. Jerry Brown.

But hyperpartisanship also works to the advantage of recall proponents when it comes to gathering the approximately 1.5 million voters signatures needed to qualify for a 2021 special election to recall Newsom, Baldassare wrote in a memo.

Newsom has come under fire in recent months over his handling of the pandemic, the states shifting restrictions and slow rollout of vaccines. Even some Democratic legislators have begun to publicly question the rationale behind Newsoms executive orders amid the pandemics deadliest wave.

Dan Newman, a consultant for Newsoms planned re-election campaign, said the finding that more than one-third of Californians support a recall isnt necessarily surprising, because roughly that many state voters supported Trump last year and Republican John Cox in the 2018 governors race.

Voters recognize that this is an incredibly challenging, intensely complicated and critically important moment for public officials worldwide, Newman said. Thats why the governor remains laser focused on vaccinations, reopening, relief and recovery.

According to the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, just 31% of respondents said Newsom has done an excellent or good job handling Californias pandemic response, against 23% who said he was doing a fair job and 43% who classified it as poor. Only 22% say he has done an excellent or good job managing the vaccine rollout.

Newsom received slightly higher marks in the Public Policy Institutes poll: Half of likely voters said they approve of his handling of the pandemic. On vaccine distribution, though, a majority said Newsom has done a fair or poor job.

If Californians are satisfied with the COVID-19 response, a recall election may not gain much traction, Baldassare wrote. But if Californians are frustrated, it could set the stage for a recall election that upends the political status quo.

Backers need to gather 1.5 million signatures of registered voters by March 17 and say they have obtained 1.2 million so far. However, as of Jan. 6, they had submitted just over 400,000 valid signatures to the state.

The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll included 10,357 registered voters and was conducted in late January. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. The Public Policy Institutes poll included 1,703 adult Californians surveyed from Jan. 21 to 31 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
The sun was nowhere in sight Tuesday, but Fairfield resident Jean Treglia was looking on the bright side.

Its good exercise. Youve just got to pace yourself, Treglia said while shoveling in front of her home near the Fairfield-Bridgeport line.

A blanket of clouds lingered overhead all day and flurries and freezing rain dropped periodically. And in much of southwestern Connecticut, more than a foot of snow needed clearing from driveways, sidewalks, and buried vehicles.

By Tuesday morning temperatures had risen to the mid-30s, giving people shoveling and using snow blowers a head start by melting some of the snow that had fallen.

Its perfect shoveling snow, Treglia said. Theres no ice on it. The best part is its perfect for snowmen. Thats what Id rather be doing right now.

Most towns in the region reported having no trouble keeping roads clean throughout the storm and keeping up with the pace of the snowfall.

Fairfields Acting Director of Public Works, John Marsilio, said snow had been pushed back to the curb on most roads by Tuesday afternoon. That could be important because it will give crews somewhere to push fresh snow if more falls during a storm predicted for Sunday.

We have to be prepared for a temperature drop tonight, and ice, he said. So, thats what well be doing, is putting down salt and widening the roads.

Its maintenance now, he said. The snow is to the curb line. Now, we just have to push the snow back and put some salt down in the event that the roads freeze. Well probably be back at it tomorrow.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganims spokesperson, Rowena White, agreed, saying crews would be on the lookout for any icy conditions to lay down sand.

White said there were fortunately no life-endangering incidents in the city during the storm, echoing emergency management officials from throughout the area, who reported no major crashes or fires.

White said there were a few trouble sports in neighborhoods where folks did not follow (the) parking ban, and advised those shoveling snow to be careful and take breaks.

Fairfield police Lt. Antonio Granata said one car had to be towed from an area with a parking ban in effect on the 700 block of Fairfield Beach Road. Granata attributed not needing to tow many cars to the fact that the town notified residents of parking bans and cops knocked on doors asking people to move their cars.

All things considered, not bad, Shelton Emergency Management Director Michael Maglione said of the storm, noting no major issues during the daylong noreaster that dumped more than a foot of snow in the city along with high winds through the night.

Public works crews worked the entire day clearing roadways, and there were only two equipment breakdowns, Maglione said, adding that he measured 15 inches of snow at his home.

Shelton had 22 plows ready to clear roadways, with outside contractors on call for the duration of the storm.

Crews are working today to do cleanup and then coming back on Wednesday to complete the job, Maglione said. They want to get as much done before the hard freeze comes.

In Stratford, Public Works Director Raynae Serra said that public works crews were focusing on the towns school properties Tuesday afternoon.

Because of wind drifts it can be very time-consuming, she said.

Roads were by and large in great shape, she said, because the department kept up with clearing snow as it was falling at its heaviest.

We really staffed up and saturated the roads as soon as the snow started falling at midnight, she said. The best thing to do was to keep up with the snow. Once you fall behind you cant push it any more, its falling too fast, too heavy, too hard.

Because of the storms duration, most people were off the roads during the heaviest part of the storm, which helped public works crews a lot, according to Trumbull First Selectman Vicki Tesoro. People also were good about removing cars parked on the street.

In Milford, Mayor Ben Blake said most roads were cleared by Tuesday afternoon  but the cleanup work would continue for some time.

Well be mopping up for days, he said.

Staff writers Brian Gioiele, Brian Lockhart, Donald Eng, Josh LaBella contributed to this report.
Some women in Kaduna State have decried alleged extortion and nepotism in the ongoing N20,000 grant being disbursed by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in the state.

The women spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Kaduna at the venue of the disbursement.

The said that unidentified persons were extorting money from some of the beneficiaries.

NAN reports that the fund was meant for poor and vulnerable women.

They alleged that most of the targeted beneficiaries were schemed out of the process, adding that those who benefitted were mainly family and friends of the officials and politicians.

The women told NAN that the process was characterised by massive extortion of unsuspecting beneficiaries by unidentified individuals.

One of the women, Kahdija Ahmad, told NAN that the grant designed to give a lifting hand to some of the poorest and most vulnerable citizens was ending up in the pockets of the well-to-do.

According to her, some of the women that benefited drove to the venue in flashy cars, a clear indication that they do not need such support.

Another woman, Rabi Mohammed, said that the names of about 50 of them were collected and were told to come to the venue in group, lamenting that none of them received the money.

We have been coming here every day for the past three days, with some of us coming as early as 6:00 a.m. but got nothing.

Others will come, make a call or two and someone will come out from the hall and usher them in. Few minutes later, they will come out smiling with money in their pockets while we stand and watch, Mrs Mohammed told NAN.

She also alleged that some women collected the money in place of other womens names on the list, just because they know someone in the system, and we dont.

We have also seen five people being given N20,000 to share, instead of N20,000 each, while some that were assisted had to part with between N15,000 to N17,000 to the persons that assisted them.

Also, Hafsat Musbau told NAN that she sat close to some women who were mobilising desperate women to go in and collect the money under different names.

But the story was different for Adama Salisu, a 23-year-old girl from Kawo, who claimed to have received the N20,000 along with her other sisters without any hitch.

According to Ms Salisu, I am a relation of a serving minister and our names and account details have been collected about a month ago.

Another lady who spoke on condition of anonymity said that her brother, who was among the officials, helped her to access the grant.

My brother works with them, so he managed to get my name into the list, and I got the money, she told NAN.

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When contacted, the Project Accountant, National Cash Transfer Office, Ibrahim Adam, acknowledged that some persons have been arrested and handed over to the police for extorting money from some of the beneficiaries.

Mr Adam, however, denied any sharp practices by officials of the ministry, saying that those alleging favouritism and nepotism were not on the list of beneficiaries.

He added that more than 5,000 women had so far received the grant in the state.

The official explained that the beneficiaries were selected from the 40 per cent of poor and vulnerable households in the National Social Register (NSR) that were not benefiting from the ongoing Conditional Cash Transfer.

He said that currently, only 60 per cent of the poorest of the poor and vulnerable households in the NSR were benefiting from the ongoing cash transfer of N5,000 monthly across the country.

The N20,000 grant for rural women was introduced in 2020 to sustain the social inclusion agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The grant is part of the presidents strategy of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, he said.

However, a senior government official in the state told NAN on condition of anonymity that only 1,000 women were selected from the social register.

I do not know how the officials got the remaining beneficiaries, but I know that 1,000 beneficiaries were sourced from the social register and they got their grant between Tuesday and Wednesday, the official said.

(NAN)
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Chances of seeing an aurora or two next week increase as space experts forecasted the arrival of a stream of solar particles heading towards Earth. The solar particles or solar wind are on their way to the planet.

A stream of solar winds is approaching Earth, space experts have said. A small hole has opened on the surface of the Sun's southern hemisphere, releasing a barrage of solar particles. Earth is directly in the crosshairs of the particles, with experts stating the stream of solar winds will arrive on February 2.

The moment the solar particles hit the Earth, the collision can trigger aurora in the Arctic regions.

"Flowing from a southern hole in the Sun's atmosphere, the stream could spark bright auroras around the Arctic Circle."

Related Article: [UPDATE] Solar Storms: Are They Dangerous?

Solar Winds

Solar winds are streams of charged particles released from the atmosphere of the Sun. These winds consist of different chemical materials with trace amounts of heavy ions and atomic nuclei C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, and Fe. There are also rarer traces of some other nuclei and isotopes such as P, Ti, Cr, Ni, Fe 54 and 56, and Ni 58,60,62.

Like every other solar activity, solar winds happen naturally, all the time. These solar activities are called CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejection).

A solar wind's impact varies on the intensity of the solar ejection. A pretty strong gust can lead to a solar storm. And, solar storms are what cause geomagnetic storms.



Should we be worried?

These cosmic events sound terrifying. Are these signs that we should start worrying?

The short answer is no, solar storms won't kill off the human race. It won't emit enough radiation to fry a person's brain.

But, it can hurt mankind in a different way.

While this solar storm is not a cause for concern, some astronomers believe a major one could hit, and in a world so reliant on technology, the consequences could be devastating.

A recent study from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Russia, said: "A major solar storm could shut down electricity, television broadcasts, the internet, and radio communications, leading to significant cascading effects in many areas of life.

"According to some experts, the damage from such an extreme event could cost up to several trillion dollars, and the restoration of infrastructure and the economy could take up to 10 years.

"Thus, understanding and forecasting the most hazardous extreme events is of prime importance for the protection of society and technology against the global hazards of space weather."

A Call for Awareness

The first author of the study, Dr. Jenny Marcela Rodriguez Gomez, said: "Understanding the characteristics of extreme solar eruptions and extreme space weather events can help us better understand the dynamics and variability of the Sun as well as the physical mechanisms behind these events."

The researchers are hoping for an increase in support when it comes to studying solar activities. As such, they have called for better infrastructure to monitor the Sun's solar activity and other cosmic phenomena.

ALSO READ: Incoming Storm: Solar Winds to Arrive on Jan. 25

For more Cosmic news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 15:55:57|Editor: huaxia

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Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, delivers a speech at the closing session of the 13th CPV National Congress in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 1, 2021. (VNA via Xinhua)

Specifically, the country is looking to build itself into a modern industrialized country with upper-middle income by 2030, and a developed country with high income by 2045.

by Xinhua writers Jiang Shengxiong, Huang Shuo, Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuan

HANOI, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Amid the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) was concluded on Monday morning, a day ahead of schedule.

Despite the shorter duration, the congress managed to map out the main tasks for the country's socio-economic development over the next five years, setting the tone for Vietnam's development in the new phase.

Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, delivers a speech at the closing session of the 13th CPV National Congress in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 1, 2021. (VNA via Xinhua)

ADVANCING REFORM CAUSE

According to the documents adopted by the congress, a main task for the CPV Central Committee (CPVCC) in the next phase is to synergistically advance "Doi Moi," which refers to the country's reform cause, industrialism and modernization, so as to make Vietnam a developed country with a socialist orientation by the middle of the 21st century.

Specifically, the country is looking to build itself into a modern industrialized country with upper-middle income by 2030, and a developed country with high income by 2045.

The targets are one of the biggest focuses of the report, as such bold and specific 10-year and 25-year targets were never put forward at previous CPV National Congresses, said Nguyen Vinh Quang, vice chairman of the Vietnam-China Friendship Association and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic Studies and International Development.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of Vietnam's "Doi Moi" cause. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.8 percent annually on average between 2016 and 2019, and 2.9 percent in 2020 despite COVID-19 impacts.

Photo taken on Jan. 25, 2021 shows a scene of the preparatory session for the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in Hanoi, Vietnam. (VNA via Xinhua)

However, Vietnam's economic growth is yet to reach its potential, and its economic independence and flexibility are yet to be improved, CPVCC General Secretary and Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong said in his report delivered at the opening ceremony of the congress.

The breakthrough fields of institution, human resources and infrastructure put forward by a report reviewed at the congress are thus significant to the country's bid to reach its development targets, said Vo Dai Luoc, former head of the Hanoi-based Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences.

Vietnam should continue to make the most of free trade agreements it has signed, attach great importance to private businesses and focus on innovation in science and technology, especially advanced technologies, Luoc told Xinhua.

Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2021 shows the scene at the first meeting of the 13th Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee (CPVCC), where Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected as general secretary of the CPVCC in Hanoi, Vietnam. (VNA via Xinhua)

HIGHLIGHTING ANTI-CORRUPTION

During the congress, Trong was re-elected as the general secretary of the ruling CPVCC for his third term on Sunday, as the new party leadership was introduced.

Trong, also head of Vietnam's Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, has been underlining anti-corruption efforts on multiple occasions over the years.

There is no "prohibited zone" for anti-corruption work, and the fight against corruption is a long haul, he said once again at a press briefing following the closing session of the CPV National Congress on Monday.

"Corruption is the disease of people who have positions and power," he said. "Fighting corruption is extremely complicated and difficult, and without bravery, determination and dignity, we can never make it a success."

The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) opens in Hanoi, Vietnam, Jan. 26, 2021. (VNA via Xinhua)

A key task for the development of Vietnam in the next phase is to build and improve the country in terms of the rule of law, push forward the construction of an honest and powerful political system, while stronger action should be taken against corruption and bureaucratism, according to documents adopted at the congress.

To effectively prevent corruption, a sound prevention mechanism, an effective handling mechanism and a reasonable treatment mechanism should be established, so that officials cannot, dare not and do not want to resort to corruption, Tran Ngoc Liem, deputy head of the general administration for inspection under the Vietnamese government, told media during the congress.

Since the 12th CPVCC was elected in 2016, at least 87,000 Vietnamese party cadres and members had received disciplinary action, more than 3,000 of whom were involved in corruption, according to a meeting of the country's Central Steering Committee last December. 
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TUCSON, Ariz.  An inmate at the federal penitentiary in Tucson has died less than three weeks after testing positive for COVID-19, according to authorities.

They said 64-year-old Charles Purly Romero died at a Tucson hospital last Thursday.

Romero had been in the penitentiary since 2009. He was serving a life sentence for armed bank robbery and aggravated sexual abuse in New Mexico.

Tucson TV station KOLD reports Romero tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 8 and was immediately placed in medical isolation with the penitentiary staff providing treatment while monitoring his symptoms.

On Jan. 11, Romero was transported to a hospital for treatment due to respiratory distress.

Authorities said Romero had long-term, pre-existing medical conditions that put him at risk for developing more severe symptoms from the coronavirus.

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Salina, N.Y. -- A 38-year-old Syracuse man has been arrested and charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated after a crash on the New York State Thruway, according to a New York State Police news release.

Edward P. Verstraete was found to have a blood alcohol content of .22 percent, nearly three times the legal limit, police said Tuesday.

The crash happened Sunday at 1:30 a.m. in Salina, according to police. An investigation found that Verstraete had driven his 2013 Dodge Avenger off the Thruway and into a snow embankment, police said.

Verstraete was released to a sober third party and given an appearance ticket, according to police.

Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati via the Signal app for encrypted messaging at 585-290-0718, by phone at the same number, by email or on Twitter.

[February 02, 2021] Recent Verizon/Crown Castle Agreement Bodes Well for Digital Locations

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital Locations, Inc. ( DLOC ), a developer of 5G small cell sites for the 5G revolution, today commented that the agreement between Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) to add 15,000 small cell sites over the next 4 years validates its business plan to focus on enabling small cell networks in the last square mile to deliver true high speed 5G service.

High frequency 5G signals, also known as millimeter wave (mmWave) signals, cannot travel farther than 100 meters. As a result, without antennas spaced every few hundred feet apart, 5G killer apps such as holographic gaming, remote surgery and self-driving cars are simply not possible. The recent agreement between Crowne Castle and Verizon represents a clear indication of the growing market need to develop many small cells required to truly offer 5G mmWave coverage, said Bill Beifuss, President of Digital Locations. The field is white and ready to harvest for companies such as Digital Locations that are focused on developing the last square mile of 5G coverage needed by the large carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Mr. Beifuss continued, We plan to lay the groundwork by entering into agreements with property owners offering sites that are most likely to be needed for 5G small cell site development in the near-future. Site assessment and site acquisition is an expensive and time-consuming process for the large carries and Digital Locations aims to reduce the time and expense to market to capitalize on this exciting growth opportunity.



Mr. Beifuss concluded, It is estimated that 1 million new 5G small cells will be needed throughout the country to actually deliver the 5G experience and applications that wireless carriers have been advertising about. However, we have targeted the last square mile as the bulls eye opportunity. Every community or concentrated area of mobile wireless users will need at least 20 small cell sites to cover a square mile. That is our focus. About Digital Locations, Inc.

Digital Locations, Inc., is a developer of cell tower sites for the 5G revolution. 5G wireless networks are expected to be 100 times faster than current 4G LTE networks. This will enable global scale killer applications such as self-driving cars, the Internet of things (IOT), mobile streaming of 4K videos, real-time hologram-based collaboration, and lag-free high definition gaming. To realize this vision, many new 5G antennas are needed because high frequency 5G signals cannot travel farther than 100 meters. It is estimated that more than 1 million new 5G cell towers must be added in the United States alone. To rapidly enter the market, Digital Locations plans to partner or co-develop a portfolio of cell tower sites to help meet the demands of 5G networks. Our goal is to become a landlord of tomorrows wireless communications assets. To learn more about Digital Locations please visit www.digitallocations.com Safe Harbor Statement Matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "may," "intend," "expect" and similar expressions identify such forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein, and while expected, there is no guarantee that we will attain the aforementioned anticipated developmental milestones. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of the Company and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with: the impact of economic, competitive and other factors affecting the Company and its operations, markets, product, and distributor performance, the impact on the national and local economies resulting from terrorist actions, and U.S. actions subsequently; and other factors detailed in reports filed by the Company. Press Contact:

communications@digitallocations.com

(805) 456-7000



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The dueling filings offer the first public glimpse of the arguments that will be presented to the Senate beginning next week. The impeachment trial represents a remarkable reckoning with the violence in the Capitol last month, which the senators witnessed firsthand, and with Trumps presidency overall. Held in the very chamber where the insurrectionists stood on Jan. 6, it will pit Democratic demands for a final measure of accountability against the desire of many Republicans to turn the page and move on.
[February 02, 2021] BOSTON SCIENTIFIC 24 HOUR DEADLINE ALERT: Former Louisiana Attorney General and Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Remind Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against Boston Scientific Corporation - BSX

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, the former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have only until February 2, 2021 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX), if they purchased the Company's securities between April 24, 2019 and November 16, 2020, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. What You May Do If you purchased securities of Boston Scientific and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-bsx/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action by overseeing lead counsel with the goal of obtaining a fair and just resolution, you must request this position by application to the Court by February 2, 2021 .



About the Lawsuit Boston Scientific and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On November 17, 2020, the Company announced a global recall of all unused inventory of its LOTUS Edge Aortic Valve System, due to "complexities associated with the product delivery system," and that "[g]iven the additional time and investment required to develop and reintroduce an enhanced delivery system, the company has chosen to retire the entire LOTUS product platform immediately." On this news, the price of Boston Scientific's shares fell $3.00 per share, or 7.89%, to close at $35.03 per share on November 17, 2020. The case is Jevons v. Boston Scientific Corporation et al., 20-cv-5894. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients  including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors  in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. Contact: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boston-scientific-24-hour-deadline-alert-former-louisiana-attorney-general-and-kahn-swick--foti-llc-remind-investors-with-losses-in-excess-of-100-000-of-deadline-in-class-action-lawsuit-against-boston-scientific-corporation----301219678.html SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

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In this Nov. 16, 2018, file photo, South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. AP



North Korea has expanded ballistic missile units and strengthened special forces with modernized equipment and exercises of attacking strategic targets, such as South Korea's presidential office, the defense ministry said Tuesday.



These changes in the North Korean military were among the main points of the 2020 edition of South Korea's biennial defense "white paper" that the defense ministry unveiled online and offline Tuesday.



According to the document, North Korea now has 13 missile brigades under its strategic force command, up from nine units in 2018.



The units are believed to operate short-range ballistic Scud missiles that aim to strike South Korean targets, Rodong missiles with a range of around 1,300 kilometers and Musudan intermediate-range missiles with ranges of over 3,000 km that put the U.S. strategic military base in Guam within range.



The increase in the number of such units is in line with the communist country's recent moves to strengthen its missile and other conventional weapons amid stalled denuclearization talks with the United States and chilled inter-Korean relations.



In 2019 alone, the North carried out a total of 13 missile tests, and displayed several new types of ballistic missiles, including its version of Russia's Iskander, the U.S.' Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and a super-large multiple rocket launcher, as well as an advanced submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).



"North Korea appears to have expanded its existing missile facilities. We are analyzing what types of missiles are deployed to the newly established units," a military official said.



North Korea has also taken steps to beef up its special operations force and elevate its status, according to the document.



"The special warfare unit has carried out attack trainings by using mockups of South Korea's major strategic facilities, and modernized its equipment," according to the document. It revealed a photo of the force training with a mockup of South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.






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CONCORD, N.H.  Pressure is building on school systems around the U.S. to reopen classrooms to students who have been learning online for nearly a year, pitting politicians against teachers who have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

In Chicago, the rancor is so great that teachers are on the brink of striking. In California, a frustrated Gov. Gavin Newsom implored schools to find a way to reopen. In Cincinnati, some students returned to classrooms Tuesday after a judge threw out a teachers union lawsuit over safety concerns.

While some communities maintain that online classes remain the safest option for everyone, some parents, with backing from politicians and administrators, have complained that their childrens education is suffering from sitting at home in front of their computers and that the isolation is damaging them emotionally.

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In Nashua, New Hampshire, the school board voted to stick with remote learning for most students until the city meets certain targets on infections, hospitalizations and tests coming back positive for the coronavirus.

Alicia Houston, whose sons are in sixth and 10th grade, said her biggest frustration is not being able to help my children effectively, even though she has quit her job to attempt just that.

Watching them become a little bit darker, she said last week. Watching them fall apart. The emotional and mental health piece is one of the most important pieces. A trauma like this is not something theyre necessarily going to recover from right away.

Some families and their supporters have argued, too, that reopening schools would enable parents to go back to work instead of staying home to oversee their childrens education.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a recent study that there is little evidence of the virus spreading at schools when precautions are taken, such as masks, distancing and proper ventilation.

But many teachers have balked at returning without getting vaccinated first against the scourge that has killed over 440,000 Americans.

Kathryn Person, a high school teacher in Chicago, wants to continue teaching remotely so she doesnt risk the health of her 91-year-old grandmother and an aunt battling lung cancer. Person said she trusts the union will fight school officials if they try to punish teachers who wont go back.

If they try to retaliate, when that happens we will go on strike, she said.

In California, with 6 million public school students, teachers unions say they wont send their members into an unsafe situation.

Newsom, a Democrat, has said he will not force schools to reopen but instead wants to give them an incentive and has proposed a $2 billion plan that has met with criticism from superintendents, unions and lawmakers. It would give schools extra funding for COVID-19 testing and other safety measures if they resume in-person classes. Schools that reopen sooner would get more money.

Newsom told educators that he is willing to negotiate but that certain demands, including the call by unions to have all teachers vaccinated before school starts, are unrealistic given the shortage of shots.

If everybody has to be vaccinated, we might as well just tell people the truth: There will be no in-person instruction in the state of California, he said.

The biggest districts, including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, say the plan sets unrealistic rules and timelines.

The virus is in charge right now and it does not own a calendar, the 300,000-member California Teachers Association warned in a letter. We cannot just pick an artificial calendar date and expect to flip a switch on reopening every school for in-person instruction.

President Joe Bidens administration and Republican senators have dueling proposals for stimulus packages that would distribute billions of dollars to help schools get children back into classrooms.

About 10,000 Chicago teachers and staff and 62,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grade were supposed to return to school Monday for the first time since last March. But the Chicago school system extended remote learning for two more days and called for a cooling-off period in negotiations with the teachers union.

Districtwide efforts to vaccinate Chicagos teachers wont begin until the middle of February.

In several states, lawmakers are advancing legislation to require more in-person learning.

An Iowa law, signed on Friday by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, requires districts to offer full-time in-class instruction to parents who request it. Despite concerns that teachers still havent been vaccinated, they are set to return this month.

In North Carolina, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper faces pressure from GOP lawmakers to reopen more schools. In South Carolina, a bipartisan push to get students back in class five days a week is underway.

After this pandemic is over, I hope to never do another Zoom call, said House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, a Democrat. I hate it. I cant stand them. I cant imagine being in third or fourth grade and having to stare at a screen in order to learn.

In Utah, the Salt Lake City school system announced plans to resume in-person learning for at least two days per week under pressure from lawmakers who threatened to cut funding.

The schools chief in Washington state is pushing for teachers to get vaccinated when its their turn but also insisting they get back to classrooms immediately, shot or not.

The bottom line is a vaccine is a tremendous safety net, but it is never the thing that is going to create the perfect scenario, said Chris Reykdal, superintendent of public instruction.

Emily VanDerhoff, a first-grade teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia, and a union official, was scheduled to be vaccinated last Friday. But she and others saw their appointments canceled when the vaccine supply ran low.

The Fairfax County superintendent has unveiled a tentative plan for students to start returning on Feb. 16, but a union survey in October showed fewer than 10% of teachers feel it is safe to return.

Even once were all vaccinated, its still going to take having lower community spread for people to feel safe and for it to be safer to have students in the schools, VanDerhoff said.

___

Kunzelman reported from College Park, Maryland. Associated Press reporters Bryan Anderson, David Pitt, Sophia Tareen, Don Babwin, Jeffrey Collins and Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report.

___

This story was first published on February 2, 2021. It was updated on February 4, 2021 to make clear that a union survey of teachers showing that fewer than 10% felt it was safe to return was conducted in October 2020.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney called QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene a 'kook,' while fellow GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham gave Greene some wiggle room to explain some of her past comments, which feature conspiracy theories, racism and anti-Semitic dog whistles.

Romney told Capitol Hill reporters Tuesday that 'our party isn't big enough to have both conservatives and kooks.'

Graham, on the other hand, said he wanted to make sure some of Greene's social media content, which has been under fire for the past week, hasn't been 'manipulated.'

Sen. Mitt Romney (left) called QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene a 'kook,' while Sen. Lindsey Graham said he traveled with Greene to Georgia last month and had a 'very pleasant experience,' before suggesting that some of her postings could have been 'manipulated'

Republican senators were split Tuesday on their views of QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who Democrats want to see stripped of her committee assignments. A number of stunning claims Greene has made have been exposed over the past week

'I rode down with her to Georgia,' Graham said, referencing the trip he took with the Greene and then President Donald Trump on January 4, for a rally supporting the two GOP Senate candidates who lost their run-off races the next day. 'Had a very pleasant experience,' Graham said of Greene.

'Are these postings accurate? I want to hear from her. Before I want to judge what to do about her, I want to know what the facts are. If these are not accurate postings they've been manipulated, I'd like to know that,' Graham continued. 'If they are accurate, do you still hold these beliefs?'

Last Tuesday, CNN reported that Greene had liked and responded to posts on Facebook that indicated she supported executing top Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In response, Greene attacked the media and also said that she wasn't always in charge of her Facebook page.

Since then, a number of controversial posts and videos have come out.

In one video, Greene is seen charging after Parkland survivor and gun control activist David Hogg, asking him why he's attacking her Second Amendment rights.

This was released alongside posts that show Greene saying she believed school shootings like Parkland and Sandy Hook were 'false flag' operations.

These statements compelled Pelosi to lash out at Republican leadership for placing Greene on the committee that deals with education.

Democrats are currently engaged in an effort to get Greene stripped of her committee assignments.

In similar fashion, she's suggested there wasn't evidence that a plane hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

In a Facebook post found by Media Matters, Greene pushed out a convulated conspiracy theory on how California's Camp Fire got started in 2018.

Greene linked then Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown to the Rothschilds - in an anti-Semitic slur - to a company she claimed made space lasers - which doesn't - to burning down acres of California in order to install a high-speed rail project Brown supported.

Most famously, Greene has expressed that she's a follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which centers on Trump making moves against a Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic, child sex trafficking ring filled with Democratic politicians and prominent liberals.

Greene also got into an altercation with fellow freshman lawmaker, Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat.

Greene has gone after Bush, who is black, saying she is a part of the 'Black Lives Matter terrorist mob.'

Pelosi helped Bush facilitate an office move.

'I think we should have nothing to do with Marjorie Taylor Greene, and think we should repudiate the things she said and move away from her,' Romney advised on Tuesday.

A reporter asked Romney if he was surprised that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned Greene, saying that her 'loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country.'

Romney expressed that he agreed with McConnell's actions.

'I think our long history as a party has shown that it's important for us to separate ourselves from the people that are the wacky weeds,' the Utah Republican said. 'If we don't, then our opposition tries to brand us with their image and with their point of view, which has been detrimental to any party that doesn't do that.'

When reporters questioned Graham, one pointed out that Greene was on video making some of these claims.

'Then she'll have to tell me if it's accurate,' the South Carolina Republican and Trump ally responded. 'I dont' know, I hadn't seen the videos. What's accurate, what's not, what position do you have today and if your position is different today, why?' he said he wanted to ask her.

Greene has said she's been in contact with Trump and that he '100 per cent' supports her.

During an appearance Tuesday on One America News she said she plans to visit the former president at Mar-a-Lago.

The Texas National Guard has quarantined soldiers in a San Antonio hotel who tested positive after returning home from duty in Washington, D.C., where they were deployed to provide security for the presidential inauguration.

One soldier familiar with the action, Sgt. Jonathan Nussbaum, said GIs who tested positive after returning from Washington were moved to the hotel Jan. 25 after landing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

He said he didnt know if troops were being similarly quarantined in other Texas cities. The Texas National Guards public affairs office in Austin declined to say how many soldiers tested positive during their Washington duty and how they were being treated.

National Guard members completed a COVID-19 post-response risk-based screening and health assessment before the end of their activation, and the deployment was conducted with all appropriate force health protection measures, the office said Wednesday in an email.

Troops getting off the plane at Lackland answered health questionnaires, were given temperature checks and took a coronavirus test, Nussbaum said. Those showing symptoms or testing positive were sent to the hotel and expected to stay in quarantine for 10 to 14 days.

From my understanding, soldiers are given a room but they also have certain areas they can go to, said Nussbaum, 31, of San Antonio. Of course, they go outside and get some fresh air, theyre not staying in the room the whole time, theyre able to stretch their legs.

Things are being provided and delivered, he continued. I know a lot of soldiers are using the food delivery services, things like Uber Eats, Grubhub, just whatevers available here.

On ExpressNews.com: Another day, another war for Texas Guard

The coronavirus pandemic has posed concerns for the National Guard troops who were sent to Washington from every state to provide security in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Some from guard units near Washington, D.C. were quarantined in hotels when they tested positive; others returned to their home states already sick.

The numbers appear to be small, though the National Guard Bureau has followed a Pentagon directive not to provide specifics. Army Lt. Col. Paul Tumminello, deputy surgeon general of the D.C. National Guard, said last week that about two percent of the more than 25,000 guardsmen sent to Washington tested positive for the coronavirus since Jan. 6. The guard still has about 7,000 troops supporting law enforcement agencies there and will reduce it to 5,000 through mid-March, said Nahaku McFadden, a bureau spokeswoman.

Throughout the military, 138,763 COVID cases had been reported through Jan. 28, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs, the joint staff surgeon, in a press conference late last week. In the previous 10 days or so, the increase in cases has leveled off across the United States, and we're seeing the same trend in our population as well, he said.

The guard bureau said around 1,200 Texans were part of the security force in Washington. Nussbaum said the troops returning to San Antonio were met by medical personnel and tested immediately before there was even a chance to do anything else, do any sort of real moving around.

He said the Texas Guards work in Washington involved minimal interaction with crowds, although people they encountered were very thankful and they were happy to see us there.

Everyone was wearing masks, they were distancing themselves appropriately, and it was one of those things where everyone was trying to ensure proper precautions and being considerate just overall, Nussbaum said. Its definitely part of the reality that were living in right now  that kind of question in the back of your mind is if you are interacting with someone, and its just that you never know if they have it and theyre asymptomatic or if they may not have it.

sigc@express-news.net
Most mature 2G 3G 4G Open RAN to help Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo, XL Axiata, and Smartfren deploy Open RAN in Indonesia

NASHUA, N.H., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Parallel Wireless, Inc., the leading U.S.-based Open RAN company delivering the world's only 2G 3G 4G 5G O-RAN-compliant Open RAN macro solution for rural and urban connectivity, today announced that it is the first Open RAN software vendor to power Open RAN initiatives at the Telecom Infra Project's (TIP) newly launched Community Lab in Indonesia.

Because mobile phones are the main tool used to access the internet in Indonesia, mobile phone penetration has surged from 20 percent in 2005 to over 80 percent today. While the subscriber demand for data is increasing exponentially, the ability for customers to pay for their increased consumption is limited. As a result, the pressure for regional MNOs to lower cost per GB is stronger than ever.

Mobile operators in Indonesia are looking for new architectures such as Open RAN to commoditize the hardware, open up RAN interfaces to avoid vendor lock-in, mix and match software and hardware, and implement software functionalities to deliver network reliability and quality of experience at much lower deployment cost.

In line with the Indonesian government's goal to become one of the most digitally advanced countries in Southeast Asia, TIP's Community Lab will help Indonesian mobile operators test and use OpenRAN-based technology as leverage to their business to have greater buying power as they continue shaping the telecom ecosystem, innovation, and industry's future in the region to better support their diversified customer base across 4G today and 5G tomorrow.

This Community Lab represents a new ecosystem for Open RAN deployments with:

TIP leading test and validation efforts for Open RAN deployments in the region.

Telkom University providing engineering resources to make solution deployment ready.

Ministry of Communication in Indonesia supporting this effort as a means to connect more people with OpenRAN.

supporting this effort as a means to connect more people with OpenRAN. The 4 leading regional mobile operators (Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo, XL Axiata, and Smartfren) testing the Parallel Wireless Open RAN solution in the lab, with the plan to roll out the Open RAN solution in live networks to deliver coverage at a much lower cost.

AMDOCS providing system integration expertise.

Parallel Wireless software innovation in ALL G Open RAN and expertise in deploying Open RAN on six continents for the last 6+ years and enabling the most mature radio and server ecosystem for Open RAN. Parallel Wireless will also provide support by providing training programs to build local Open RAN ecosystems in Indonesia .

TIP is a leading proponent of Open RAN driving industry innovation to reduce deployment cost and avoid vendor lock-in.

Parallel Wireless's ALL G cloud-native O-RAN-based solution has shown very strong performance, quality of service, and cost benefits for operators worldwide with:

Most mature ecosystem of Open RAN RRUs, that is software upgradable to 5G and can support a variety of 3GPP-compliant RAN splits.

COTS-based vBBU to deliver scalable capacity to the end customers.

Most mature 2G 3G 4G Open RAN software platform, that virtualizes RAN to lower the cost through simplification, automation, and full virtualization. It also provides seamless mobility, local breakout, and low enabling the best subscriber experience for the end customers.

The announcement today follows an ongoing commitment from TIP to test and deploy OpenRAN technology across the globe. The worldwide efforts include PlugFests, development of reference designs, and conducting trials and deployments for over four years.

Supporting Quotes

Attilio Zani, Executive Director, TIP, said, "The TIP Community Lab in Indonesia exemplifies TIP's collaborative approach. It brings together a range of industry leading companies and organizations, like Parallel Wireless, alongside policy makers and universities to accelerate the development of new disaggregated, interoperable, and standards-based solutions that will benefit all stakeholders. We are delighted to have Parallel Wireless's support for our first Community Lab in Southeast Asia."

Keith Johnson, Chief Operation Officer, Parallel Wireless, said, "The telecom industry is demanding networks that are open and flexible in order to reduce deployment and maintenance cost. We are pleased to be working with TIP to enable an open ecosystem of disaggregated RAN solutions based on open interfaces and O-RAN standards and to be the first Open RAN vendor to power the TIP Community Lab in Indonesia with Open RAN for leading mobile operators in the region."

About Parallel Wireless

At Parallel Wireless, we believe that software has the power to unleash amazing opportunities for the world. We disrupt the ways wireless networks are built and operated. We are reimagining how hardware, software and the cloud work together to change deployment economics for our customers. Our ALL G O-RAN software platform forms an open, secure and intelligent RAN architecture to deliver wireless connectivity, so all people can be connected whenever, wherever, and however they choose. We are engaged with over 50 global MNOs and have been recognized with over 74 industry awards. At the core of what we do is our team of Reimaginers who value innovation, collaboration, openness, and customer success. For more information, visit: www.parallelwireless.com. Connect with Parallel Wireless on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About the Telecom Infra Project

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is a global community of companies and organizations that are driving infrastructure solutions to advance global connectivity. Half of the world's population is still not connected to the internet, and for those who are, connectivity is often insufficient. This limits access to the multitude of consumer and commercial benefits provided by the internet, thereby impacting GDP growth globally. However, a lack of flexibility in the current solutions - exacerbated by a limited choice in technology providers - makes it challenging for operators to efficiently build and upgrade networks. Founded in 2016, TIP is a community of diverse members that includes hundreds of companies - from service providers and technology partners, to systems integrators and other connectivity stakeholders. We are working together to develop, test and deploy open, disaggregated, and standards-based solutions that deliver the high-quality connectivity that the world needs - now and in the decades to come. Find out more: www.telecominfraproject.com

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General Assignment Reporter

Chris Mays is a general assignment reporter for the Brattleboro Reformer. He has been with New England Newspapers Inc. since 2012.
LONDON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The practical guide provides a means to analyse power dynamics in local conflicts. The approaches and activities contained support organisations to develop conflict mitigation, resolution, and prevention techniques that reflect the underlying political and cultural factors that drive conflict.

The free, open-access toolkit provides organisations with a step-by-step guide on how to plan and run a two-to-four-day workshop on applying "Elite Bargains and Political Deals" (EBPD) theory in community-level conflict settings. The workshop explains foundational EBPD concepts and supports local organisations to translate theory into practical peace and stabilisation activities.

Peacebuilding and stabilisation efforts must consider the informal power structures that drive conflicts. EBPD theory supports peacebuilders and peace enablers to uncover different groups' and institutions' informal power bases. By acknowledging the role that 'elites' play in reducing and resolving violence, the toolkit supports implementors to identify and develop effective 'political deals' and 'bargains' that help resolve local conflicts.

"Elite Bargains and Political Deals theory allows development organisations to uncover the drivers of conflict and its potential solutions. Understanding local power structures and influential groups' motivations is key to encouraging elites to cooperate rather than resorting to physical violence to pursue their interests," said Michel Shaw, technical contributor to the toolkit and a director at Chemonics International.

To build on the publication of the toolkit, an online panel discussion titled 'The Politics of Peacebuilding: How to Engage Elites in Constructive Conversation' will take place on 2nd March. By bringing together researchers who developed the 'Elite Bargains and Political Deals' theory with implementers who piloted the approach in conflict settings, the discussion will investigate the effectiveness of elite-focused conflict resolution methods, with an emphasis on how it can be practically applied to programming. Register your interest for this open-to-all event by following this link.

What does the Toolkit Contain?

The toolkit begins with an explanation of EBPD theory and the types of conflict that it seeks to address. It defines the terms 'elites' and 'elite bargains' to immerse the reader in the foundational concepts that underpin EBPD programming. Examples from Mali, Yemen, and Colombia help ground the theory and provide a detailed rationale for its use.

An in-depth guide to the planning and implementation of the two-to-four-day workshop forms the bulk of the toolkit. The toolkit's appendix contains customizable worksheets and learning materials that workshop leaders can use and adapt as they see fit.

The workshop first guides participants through the process of developing an understanding of why a conflict is happening, and the roles of 'elites' within conflict scenarios, through the lens of EBPD theory. Participants are then shown how to use data-driven approaches to verify the elements of their conflict narrative, particularly the relationships between 'elites' and other groups.

Once the conflict narrative has been verified, participants learn how to develop a theory of change that articulates the attitudinal and behavioural changes that 'elites' and other groups must undergo to achieve peace. The final set of activities guides participants to apply their new understanding of conflict to developing EBPD-informed interventions. Participants are encouraged to identify and assess their own and others' ability to influence specific 'elites'.

The toolkit also provides participants with guidance on how to set up monitoring and evaluation systems. These systems support participants to sustainably adopt EBPD theory in their future activities and measure the effectiveness of programming.

Tried-and-tested Methods and Approaches

With funding from the British Embassy in Bamako, Mali, Chemonics International's Technical Assistance to the Civic Engagement: Identity and Citizenship Project (AT-PECIC) programme tested new EBPD techniques and devised an EBPD workshop to introduce local NGOs to the theory. By adopting Chemonics' tools and techniques the NGOs went on to apply the conflict narratives they developed to ongoing land disputes, at the communal and even the household levels. The success of these initiatives motivated the report's authors to create a flexible and adaptable toolkit to support other implementers to deliver EBPD workshops.

The toolkit is intended for any organisation, including government ministries, local government entities, civil society organisations, and private sector enterprises involved with peace and stabilisation programming. The authors developed the toolkit to allow users to apply the material to the cultural, political, and geographic context they are operating within.

"Although grounded in the realities of implementing peacebuilding and stabilisation activities in Mali, the toolkit's strength lies in its flexibility. Irrespective of geography, the methodology provides a blueprint for developing solutions to a diverse array of conflict and stabilisation issues," Todd Diamond, a contributing author to the toolkit and director at Chemonics International.

The Authors and Genesis of the Report

The Elite Bargains and Political Deals Toolkit was written by Todd Diamond, project director on the Mali AT-PECIC project, Jaclyn Grace, project manager on the Mali AT-PECIC project, and Daniel Emory, project manager on the AT-PECIC project. Technical contributions were provided by Michael Shaw and Karana Olivier.

The Elite Bargains and Political Deals Toolkit would not have been possible without the immensely valuable contributions of experts in the field of EBPD theory. Gratitude and credit go to the UK Government's Stabilisation Unit, in particular the authors of its EBPD paper, Christine Cheng of King's College London, and Jonathan Goodhand and Patrick Meehan, both of SOAS University of London. Thanks also to Jenny Jones and Mahamane Djitteye of the Sahel Conflict, Stability and Security Fund for their support.

The Elite Bargains and Political Deals Toolkit can be accessed here.

Interviews and comments with peace and stabilisation experts and the toolkit's authors can be organised upon request. Please use the contact information below.

About Chemonics: Founded in 1975, Chemonics is an international development consulting firm. In more than 70 countries around the globe, our network of approximately 5,000 specialists share a simple belief: those who have the least deserve our best. So we pursue a higher standard every day to help clients, partners, and beneficiaries achieve results. Where Chemonics works, development works.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or visit us at www.chemonics.com.

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Kanpur : , Feb 2 (IANS) A physically challenged widow in Kanpur district has alleged that she was told to pay money to local policemen to fill diesel in their vehicles so that they would agree to search for her minor daughter who was kidnapped last month by a relative.

The woman named Gudia, who moves on crutches, approached the Kanpur police chief on Monday with her complaint against the allegedly errant officials.

Speaking to local reporters at the commissioner's office, Gudia, said that she had filed a case about her missing daughter last month. The police, however, were not helping her, she alleged.

"The cops told me that 'we are looking for your daughter'. Sometimes they would shoo me away and cast aspersions on my daughter's character. The policemen then said that if you fill diesel in our vehicles then we will search for your daughter," she said.

Gudia admitted that she had paid for diesel worth Rs 10,000 to 15,000 for the police vehicles. She said she had borrowed from relatives to arrange the money for the diesel.

After video clips of Gudia describing her ordeal went viral, the Kanpur police tweeted saying the police post in-charge under whose jurisdiction the case of Gudia's missing daughter was registered has been removed. A departmental inquiry into the matter has also been ordered.

The police tweeted a video of the elderly woman being driven in a police vehicle from the Commissioner's office to the concerned police station. Four teams have been formed to look for her daughter, the tweet said.

SP Rural, Brijesh Kumar Shrivastava, said, "We have asked the police station in-charge to immediately act on the case. All her allegations will be looked into and if anyone is found guilty, we will take action".
Franklin Templeton MF: SC Asks Rs9,122 Crore Be Paid within 20 Days to Unit-holders

In a relief to lakhs of unit-holders of six debt schemes of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund (FTMF), the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked FTMF to return Rs9,122 crore to investors within 20 days through SBI Mutual Fund.

In an order, the bench of justices Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, said, "We have heard and concluded arguments on validity of e-voting. The counsels are at ad idem that Rs9,122 crore, the figure as on 15 January 2021, and subject to provisions on expenses in ordinary cost, should be distributed amongst the unit-holders under the six mutual fund schemes in proportion to the respective interest in the assets of the scheme. The exercise will be carried on by SBI Mutual Fund. Counsels for Franklin Templeton Trust Services Pvt Ltd and counsels of SEBI agree."

"Parties are to move the court through an application in case of any difficulty. Such distribution would be carried out expeditiously and preferably within a period of 20 days from the period of the copy of the order," the bench said. Justice Khanna observed during the hearing that FTMF has Rs9,122 crore in cash from proceeds which is distributable as these securities are liquidated. FTMF counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi informed that securities of about to Rs14,000 to Rs15,000 crore are not yet liquidated.

Responding on the time-frame to refund money to investors, Mr Singhvi told the SC that around 80% to 85% of the job can be wrapped up in six months. After hearing arguments from all sides, the bench noted that the counsels appearing for others do not have any objection to distribution of funds by SBI Mutual Fund. "Franklin Templeton Trusts Services Ltd and asset management company would fully cooperate with SBI Mutual Funds in this regard and would furnish to him entire details," the SC said.

Earlier in November, Franklin Templeton Trustee Services, which initially had argued that mutual funds are empowered to wind up schemes without unit-holders' consent, sought permission from SEBI to hold a vote on the issue on 8th November.

The Karnataka High Court, in its judgement in October 2020, had said the decision of FTMF to wind up the six schemes cannot be implemented unless the consent of the unit-holders is obtained.
Just a few hours ago, a Malaysian discovered that there is a fake Maybank website online. Unfortunately, he learnt it the hard way as he got scammed badly by going into the wrong page that looks exactly like the original.

From his experience, he went to Google Maybank and without realizing it, he just clicked on the first link. The fake Maybank website is https://campaignmay2u.com/ and if you see it for yourself, the user interface is identical except for the font choice, size and missing trademarks. After entering the password, he received an SMS asking for a TAC number and he just followed the instructions.

Unfortunately, he was already too late and there was a majority of transaction that took place in Lazada. His Maybank app also couldn't be accessed anymore and was advised by the company to block his Maybank2u and bank card. The police are investigating as well as there have been many reports about it already.

For reference, the correct Maybank website is www.maybank2u.com.my. The website will never ask for your TAC number as well, as this will only happen in the mobile app (either MAE or M2U MY). Stay safe and be careful, stay tuned for local trending tech news at TechNave.com.
A man who was arrested at the weekend for allegedly hacking his 11-year-old stepdaughter and her mother several times with a panga, has also been charged with rape, the police confirmed yesterday.

Omaheke police commander Commissioner Andreas Haingura said the 44-year-old man, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of the victims, assaulted his wife with a panga before turning it against his stepdaughter who came to the aid of her mother. The incident occurred on Friday between 00h00 and 02h00 at Gobabis in the Omaheke region.

The regional commander said the young victim, who is still receiving medical attention in hospital, narrated that she was raped four times by the suspect in January, including the day of the incident and was threatened not to report the matter.

"It is alleged that the suspect unlawfully and intentionally tied the victim's mouth with a cloth, undressed her and had sexual intercourse with her without her permission, while the mother went to the bush to relieve herself," said Haingura.

He added that thereafter the victim ran outside and met up with the mother, where the victim informed the mother of what had happened. Upon hearing what had happened, the mother decided to confront the suspect, leading to the near fatal attack.

"The suspect got aggressive and took a panga and hacked the victim's mother on the head, back and hand, and just as the young victim wanted to run out of the house the suspect grabbed and hacked her on the neck, back and on the right arm, which got shattered," the police commissioner added.

Haingura noted that the mother was discharged from hospital the same day while the daughter is in a stable condition, adding that no life was lost as reported in some local media.

He said the suspect has appeared in court and the case was postponed to 13 April for further investigations. He was remanded in custody.
San Francisco, Feb 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2021 ) :Executives at Google parent company Alphabet will report quarterly earnings on Tuesday, seeking to highlight the internet titan's money-making success while mindful of regulators concerned about the firm's clout.

Google, which has long dominated the lucrative online advertising market, is the target of a trio of antitrust lawsuits in the US accusing it of abusing its position.

Regulators are concerned that the Silicon Valley giant's search engine, ad platform, mapping service, Android mobile operating system and other offerings give it unfair advantages.

Google has thrived during the pandemic as people rely on the internet for work, school, shopping and socializing.

Worldwide, the firm is on track to take in $116.7 billion in digital ad revenue this year, an increase of 18.4 percent from 2020, according to a forecast by industry tracker eMarketer.
Alabamas first large-scale COVID-19 vaccination sites opened Monday and Tuesday in Mobile, Auburn and Hoover, a week before more than a million seniors and essential workers in the state become eligible for shots.

Staff and volunteers In Mobile, Lee County and at the Hoover Met will eventually be able to administer more than 1,000 vaccines a day, depending on supply, said Bob Shepard, spokesman for the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Shepard said he expected more than 800 vaccines to be administered on Tuesday as the Hoover Met clinic ramps up to full capacity. Some cities and counties have held day-long vaccine clinics, but these are the first efforts to deliver more than a thousand vaccines every day, Monday through Friday.

Vaccines are available by appointment only, and people can register through online portals operated by the Alabama Department of Public Health, East Alabama Medical Center and the Jefferson County Vaccine Call Center. The vaccination site in Hoover is a partnership between UAB and the City of Hoover. Another site will open soon at A.H. Parker High School in Birmingham.

By 11 a.m. on Tuesday, a line of cars snaked through lanes marked with traffic cones in Hoover. Patients pass through checkpoints to verify appointments, then receive the shot and park in a holding area for 15 minutes for observation.

We havent had any allergic reactions at any of our vaccine clinics, Shepard said. It was going very smoothly.

On Feb. 8, people age 65 and older and many essential workers will become eligible for COVID-19 vaccines. UAB and the City of Birmingham are still working out the details of the vaccination site at A.H. Parker High School.

State health officials expect demand to exceed supply during for the near future, which could make it difficult to schedule appointments. So far, most vaccines have been available in limited quantities through local health departments and hospitals.
(CNN)  Jared Isaacman, an entrepreneur behind a payment processing startup, is funding a multimillion trip to space aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which could be the first-ever orbital flight crewed entirely by non-astronauts.

Isaacman, 37, said he will command the mission, which is slated for late-2021 and will see the spacecraft make a "multi-day" trip into Earth's orbit, according to a press release. Isaacman has purchased three additional seats aboard the mission. The seats will be donated to a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital "ambassador," and a member of the public who enters for a chance to join the trip.

The St. Jude's ambassador has already been selected, Isaacman said. He did not disclose any details of their identity beyond saying it would be a woman.

The fourth seat is reserved for a winner of a contest, limited to customers of Isaacman's eCommerce platform, Shift4Shop. Eligible competitors will have to launch an online store on the platform and tweet a video about their "entrepreneurial story," which will then be reviewed by "a panel of celebrity judges, " according to the company. The names of the judges were not yet disclosed.

In a statement, Isaacman said this mission, dubbed Inspiration4, "is the realization of a lifelong dream and a step towards a future in which anyone can venture out and explore the stars."

He added that he wanted the mission to also mark a "historic moment to inspire humanity while helping to tackle childhood cancer," and he pledged to also donate $100 million to St. Jude's as part of a push to raise $200 million more dollars for the organization's research.

Isaacman is also the CEO of Shift4, a payment processing company that says it provides services to more than 350 software companies in industries including retail, hospitality and gaming. Forbes estimates Isaacman has a net worth of roughly $2 billion.

SpaceX has long said it would be open to selling tickets to civilians and tourists for seats on its Crew Dragon capsule, which entered operations last year and is primarily intended to shuttle NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Last February, SpaceX hinted that it would put together a trip for four people to spend a few days in orbit, enjoying Earthly views onboard the 13-foot-wide spacecraft.

SpaceX will train Isaacman, who has previous experience piloting various aircraft, and his fellow crew members for the mission at SpaceX facilities.

That training will involved some of the regimen that professional astronauts undertake, including emergency preparedness, microgravity training and space suit training, according to the press release.

SpaceX  and NASA  have long hoped that SpaceX's new Crew Dragon spacecraft would cultivate more private-sector interest in spending big bucks on space travel. SpaceX created the capsule for NASA under its Commercial Crew Program, which sought to return humans spaceflight capabilities to the Untied States after the Space Shuttle Program's retirement in 2011 left America without that capability for nearly a decade.

But rather than owning the spacecraft, as NASA has owned all previous humans spaceflight vehicles, the Commercial Crew Program allowed SpaceX to retain ownership, allowing it to sell seats to non-astronauts with the aim of drumming up interest in space-based research and tourism.

This story was first published on CNN.com SpaceX announces first-ever all-civilian space flight crew
Police are seen on patrol at a Covid-19 drive through clinic in Inglewood where members of the public have been waited over two hours in line on Feb. 1, 2021 in Perth, Australia. (Matt Jelonek/Getty Images)

Several States Shut Borders After Western Australias Emergency Lockdown

Several states have closed their borders to West Australians (WA) following a single locally acquired CCP virus case in Perth.

After a hotel quarantine worker tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, the WA state government issued a five-day lockdown for the Perth metropolitan area and the Peel and South-West regions.

In response, most states and territories have closed borders for those travelling from the affected areas, but South Australia (SA) has gone further.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall with an Australia day mask made by Detmold Group in Adelaide, Australia on Nov. 30, 2020. (Kelly Barnes/Getty Images)

SA has chosen to prohibit all WA travellers from entering the state unless they meet exemption requirements with the order effective immediately last Sunday. Those who have already entered SA since Jan. 26 must undergo a 14-day self-quarantine and be tested.

Despite issuing the strict border measures, SA Premier Steven Marshall took to Facebook to express support for WA. We have confidence that WA will get on top of this situation and that these restrictions wont be in place for too long, he said.

Victoria, which has reached its 26th consecutive day of no locally acquired cases, has restricted entry for those travelling from the affected areas but exemptions apply. Victorias COVID-19 Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar said the 1,700 people who travelled from WA to Victoria have been told to get tested by authorities via text message.

If we start to see people are not coming forward to get tested, then we will be phoning them, we will be reminding them, if we need to go knock on their doors we will do just that, said Weimar.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at a press conference in Homebush in Sydney, Australia on Aug. 17, 2020. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has stuck to her open border policy telling reporters on Monday that NSW Health is prepared and will allow all travellers from WA.

It is a manageable situation at this stage and there is no reason why we will be altering our border situation, she said. However, [NSW] Health has already put in place special measures in terms of notifying people if they have come across from WA in the last while, as well as screening those people who are coming in from WA.

NSW Healths new public health order subjects WA travellers to the same stay-at-home restrictions they would have back home. These interstate travellers are also required to inform authorities if they had attended any of the venues listed by the WA government.

The WA lockdown is expected to end on Friday, Feb. 5. as authorities continue testing and contact tracing.
Haryana: 'Betrayed' Akali Dal lashes out at BJP for inducting its lone MLA into its fold

Muslims should be under citizenship law, says re-elected SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal

SAD ready to make any sacrifice for farmers, will decide on continuing in NDA later: Sukhbir

Sukhbir Badal escapes unhurt as Akalis, Congress workers clash

India

oi-Deepika S

Chandigarh, Feb 02: The Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday alleged that the vehicle of its chief Sukhbir Singh Badal was pelted with stones when party workers were attacked by Congress members in Punjab''s Jalalabad.

Four persons were injured in the incident at Jalalabad Tehsil complex. However, Badal was unhurt, they said.

Badal was accompanying Akali candidates for filing of nomination papers for the February 14 civic polls.

His media advisor Jangveer Singh alleged that Akali workers were attacked by the Congress workers led by son of ruling party MLA Raminder Singh Awla.

"Congress goons stoned SAD president''s vehicle, fired and injured two Akali workers," alleged Jangveer Singh.

Rajnath Singh inaugurates HAL's second LCA production line

He claimed the police remained "mute-spectator" during the whole incident. SAD leader Parambans Singh Romana alleged that Congress workers also fired from their guns.

Elections to eight municipal corporations and 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab will be held on February 14.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 17:02 [IST]
A horrifying map has revealed the danger areas under threat from a devastating bushfire which has already claimed at least 71 homes as thousands of residents flee for their lives.

More than 200 firefighters are bracing for worse conditions as the blaze in Perth's north-east burns out of control for a third day after it flared up at Wooroloo near the Perth Hills earlier this week.

Six firefighters have been injured battling the ferocious blaze, which is now four times the size of Rottnest Island.

A bushfire emergency warning was issued early on Wednesday morning for residents in more than a dozen areas, including the City of Swan district.

Lives are also under threat with residents in a 25km stretch between Wooroloo and Walyunga National Park told it's now too late to leave.

A raging bushfire continues to burn out of control in Perth's north-east with conditions expected to worsen on Wednesday. Pictured is a firefighter battling the Wooroloo blaze

'You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive. There is a threat to lives and homes,' an Emergency WA alert states.

Residents in surrounding areas of the emergency warning zone, and who are not prepared to fight the fire, have been urged to leave immediately.

A total fire ban is in place on Wednesday with 35C-plus temperatures forecast as firefighters battle the Wooroloo bushfire in extreme terrain and conditions.

The WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services shared terrifying footage of the raging bushfire.

'Erratic fire behaviour fanned by strong winds continues to challenge crews on the frontline who are protecting what they can & putting containment lines in place,' the department tweeted.

This map shows the areas in the path of raging bushfire that's now four times the size of Rottnest Island

Residents in high-risk zones have packed up their cars and pets and fled their homes, which are now under threat. Pictured are evacuees in their cars at the Brown Park Recreation Complex evacuation centre in Perth on Tuesday

Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm conceded the loss of more homes is likely.

'Tragically, 59 properties have been lost in this fire, and that number may increase as we continue to assess the extent of the damage,' he said late on Tuesday, before that number soared to 71.

Around 2000 residents and businesses were left without power on Tuesday afternoon with 150 poles and 100 transformers down in the fire scar area, Western Power said.

The state's electricity provider was not able to safely access the fireground to repair the damaged infrastructure and restore power, but was working with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services to remove damaged power lines and poles.

A large aerial tanker is en route from NSW to help battle the blaze and the prime minister had been briefed on the situation.

'This is an extremely dangerous fire and a serious situation. Weather conditions are extremely volatile,' WA Premier Mark McGowan told residents.

'Please do everything you can to keep you and your family safe and look after each other.'

More than 250 firefighters (pictured) are battle an out of control bushfire which has now been burning for three days

Ellenbrook residents fled their homes under threat from a raging bushfire. Pictured are children playing at the Brown Park Recreation Complex evacuation centre

In Gidgegannup, the Coghill family recalled the horror of watching the home they built more than two decades ago burn to the ground on Monday night.

They were forced to seek refuge in their pool as the blaze ripped through the home, which couldn't be saved.

Firefighters arrived an hour later but it was too late.

Their home was among the 80 per cent of all properties in the rural area of Tilden Park in Gidgegannup that were lost.

'The smoke was so strong and it just felt like really ... I had a moment of panic because I felt like I can't breathe properly,' Louise Coghill told the West Australian.

'While I was in the pool watching our house burn, I was like "OK, we are not going to die, that's OK".

'I am so relieved to be alive that even though it's the terrible, terrible thing that we've lost our family home and my parents have lost our memories, but watching it burn really put it into perspective as opposed to being away from the house and then coming back.'

The bushfire in Perth's north-east has already destroyed 59 homes. The loss of property is expected to rise on Wednesday as conditions worsen
Tito Ortiz Will Remain Huntington Beachs Mayor Pro Tem

Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Tito Ortiz won the first fight of his political career Feb. 1 when a no confidence vote aimed at the rookie politician failed.

During a heated debate, Huntington Beach councilmembers discussed whether to strip Ortiza mixed martial arts championof his mayoral title. Those who spearheaded an agenda item proposing to do so accused him of failing to take his job seriously.

Numerous members of the public gathered at the citys civic center to support Ortiz prior to the vote; others spoke both for and against the councilmember during the meeting.

Ortiz was sworn into city council last Dec. 7, and garnered the most votes for a Huntington Beach council seat in history with 42,246 votes.

Since taking office, he has been criticized by some for refusing to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was also under fire for calling in sick for a meeting.

Demonstrators gather in support of Huntington Beach City Councilman Tito Ortiz, at the Huntington Beach Civic Center, on Feb. 1, 2021.(John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

He told councilmembers that the criticisms directed toward him have been unfair.

Ive been pro tem for five weeks, Ortiz said during the meeting. You guys have never even given me an opportunity.

The difference between this and in the fight game is in the fight game, I get to get in a cage, you get to compete against another man, and we shake hands, and we say OK. With this, I dont get nothing like that. This is not about the money. For me, this is about the future of my children. This is about the future of my city. Im not leaving. Im not planning on leaving. I want to make the best decision for the city.

Councilmember Michael Posey, who helped author the agenda item, proposed to delay the motion after hearing that Ortiz was committed to improving his performance.

Tito demonstrated that he acknowledges some of his mistakes, and that he made a pledge to commit himself to being effective at the job and that efficacy means communicating regularly with his colleagues, and attending meetings, Posey told The Epoch Times.

He will have some time, with no certainty, to demonstrate that hell live up to that commitment.

Councilmember Dan Kalmick said he was upset that Ortiz missed the councils first meetingwhich was not a regularly scheduled meetingand that he did not wear a mask to council meetings as requested.

If this was the private sector, you would have been fired because of your behavior, Kalmick told Ortiz during the meeting. We have set rules. The leader of our board set rules, and you chose not to follow them.

Mayor Kim Carr, who co-authored the agenda item, said she needs a reliable right-hand man to work with.

I worked really hard to get to this position; I take it very seriously. And when I see people that are not taking it seriously, they make a joke out of itits not representative of the city, she said during the meeting.

I need somebody that I can count on, whos going to be able to go to events, whos going to be able to go to presentations, whether you have to wear a mask or not. And sometimes you just have to do it, because thats what the job requires.

Meantime, Councilmember Erik Peterson accused Carr of failing to take the initiative to help orient Ortiz into his new role.

Kim, youre the mayor, Peterson said. Talk to him. Say hey, I need you to do this. There hasnt been a lot of those things.
The Harris County District Attorneys Office has asked Texas highest-ranking criminal judges to consider a new punishment for Raymond George Riles  the states longest-serving inmate awaiting execution following the 1974 murder of a Houston man.

The former trucker, now 70, has been locked up for more than 40 years. But for decades, Riles  convicted in 1976 of capital murder  has been considered mentally ill and incompetent for execution and no date has recently been set. His lawyers and prosecutors now agree that the Court of Criminal Appeals should let Riles have a second chance at a punishment hearing.

In a brief, District Attorney Kim Ogg outlined her reasoning. Sentencing for capital crimes, she said, have changed since Riles conviction. Juries  prompted by the so-called Penry claim set through a U.S. Supreme Court precedent  are now asked to weigh mitigating evidence, such as an offenders childhood trauma, brain injuries or mental illness, into the punishment.

In 1976, Riles capital murder jury was not given this opportunity, Ogg said in a later statement.

Riles, then 24, and an accomplice, Herbert Washington, shot and killed a used car dealer in Houstons Northside neighborhood. The duo confronted the victim, 31-year-old John Thomas Henry, over the condition of a car and shot him while demanding the money back, authorities said.

Riles pocketed $42 from the robbery.

Washington, also sentenced to death, had his sentence overturned and he pleaded guilty to two related charges.

Our prosecutors notified the crime victims son, Ogg continued in a statement. These cases are heartbreaking because the process takes so long that laws can and sometimes do change, and it just prolongs justice and healing for the families of the dead.

The brief, published Friday, concludes with Ogg asking that a new punishment hearing take place and for a jury to take that evidence into account. The outcome could lead to a jury sticking to the death penalty or a number of years determined by that jury.

Defense attorneys for Riles argue that mitigating evidence would include serious mental illness since childhood.

Mr. Riles mental illness is one of the diverse frailties of humankind that a jury must be permitted to weigh when deciding whether to impose the ultimate punishment, lawyer Jim Marcus, of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said in a statement.

Marcus and co-counsel Thea Posel, also with the university, said that Riles has been treated with heavy antipsychotic drugs over the past four decades and that he had multiple trips between death row and the psychiatric hospital.

Unhinged antics were documented in the initial trial, in which Riles tore off a door jamb, jumped on the defense table and screamed that the judge and prosecutors were mad dogs.

On another occasion, he shouted religious scripture: Woe be to unjust judges. He was barred from the courtroom during most of the trial.

Riles had the death sentence reversed on appeal in 1978 but a jury again found him guilty and ordered him to be executed. He made notoriety again in 1985 when he set fire to himself  suffering burns to about 30 percent of his body  in his cell while reciting religious chants.

Early in his incarceration, Riles said he could no longer live under the mental stress prompted by death row and asked that the courts either set him free or execute him.

We suffer and we eventually end up executed anyway, Riles in 1986 told reporters. This is not living at all."

He was nearly executed by lethal injection that year and got as far ordering his last meal. A stay prevented the execution hours before the scheduled punishment.

Oggs 17-page document also cites another recent instance of where the Penry claim was used  with success. The state court, citing inadequate jury instructions, overturned in 2019 the death sentence for another longtime inmate, Cesar Fierro, in the 1980 killing of an El Paso man. Fierro was instead sentenced to life.

nicole.hensley@chron.com
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-03 03:21:17|Editor: huaxia

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Protesters hold posters in support of detained Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during an unsanctioned rally at Pushkin Square in central Moscow on Jan. 23, 2021. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn)

The defense will appeal the court ruling and resort to the European Court of Human Rights after all legal procedures in Russia are exhausted.



MOSCOW, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Moscow court on Tuesday sentenced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 3.5 years in real jail time in defiance of pressure from domestic protesters and Western countries.

Navalny got a suspended sentence of 3.5 years behind bars in December 2014 for a fraud case concerning French cosmetics company Yves Rocher, and he was required to show up at Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) regularly during the probation period until the end of 2020.

The Moscow court ruled to replace Navalny's suspended sentence with real time in prison after the FSIN charged the Kremlin critic with breaching the probation conditions by failing to show up for checks.

Navalny's lawyer Olga Mikhailova said the defense will appeal the court ruling and resort to the European Court of Human Rights after all legal procedures in Russia are exhausted.

If the verdict takes effect, the 44-year-old opposition figure may need to spend 2.5 years behind bars as he has been under house arrest for 12 months.

Navalny was detained by FSIN officers on Jan. 17 upon his landing at a Moscow airport from Germany, where he received medical treatment for alleged poisoning over the past months.

The activist fell into a coma on a flight from the Russian city of Tomsk to Moscow on Aug. 20, 2020. He was then transferred to a hospital in Berlin 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 asked for solid evidence from Germany.

Supporters of detained Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny clash with riot police officers during an unsanctioned rally in central Moscow on Jan. 23, 2021. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn)



Navalny's detention sparked mass protests in major Russian cities at the past two weekends as his supporters took to the streets demanding his release. Western countries have also pressured Moscow to free him. 
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Rep. Chuck Fleischmann has been selected to serve on the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, the Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, and the Homeland Security Subcommittee, which he leads as the top Republican.

He said, I am grateful that my colleagues have selected me to serve on a third House Appropriations Subcommittee for this Congress.

I have been able to secure critical funding for East Tennessee priorities in my roles on the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee and the Homeland Security Subcommittee. I am honored to be chosen to serve on the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee in addition to my other subcommittee assignments for this Congress.

"As we tackle the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our nation it is critical now more than ever that we are prioritizing funding for health and education priorities to move our nation forward.
Having called the vaccine distribution gap between rich and poor nations a catastrophic moral failure, Secretary-General of the United Nations on January 31 blasted wealthier nations for hoarding vaccines. More than 70 million #COVID19 vaccine doses have been administered so far and less than 20,000 of these were on the African continent, said UN chief Antonio Guterres in a tweet. He raised concerns about vaccine disparity between rich and poor countries.

Several concerns have been raised to address the vaccine gap between the rich and poor. A Guardian analysis revealed Canada is among a few other countries to have the highest number of vaccine doses relative to their populations. The country has procured enough supplies to give each person at least four doses, the analytical report stated.

"Nine out of ten people in poor countries are set to miss out on COVID-19 vaccine even next year, a report by Amnesty International said, issuing a similar warning. Rich countries have hoarded enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly 3 times over, it alleged. Wealthier nations have bought up enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly three times over by the end of 2021 if those currently in clinical trials are all approved for use," Amnesty report said, earlier.

Read: Germany Wants Push To Secure 2022 Vaccine Supply

Read: 'Great Step Ahead': Bharat Biotech Hails Rs 35,000 Cr Budget Allocation For COVID Vaccine

More than 70 million #COVID19 vaccine doses have been administered so far.



Less than 20,000 of these were on the African continent.



A global immunity gap puts everyone at risk. We need a global vaccination campaign that reaches everyone, everywhere.  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 31, 2021

"No one should be blocked from getting a life-saving vaccine because of the country they live in or the amount of money in their pocket. But unless something changes dramatically, billions of people around the world will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 for years to come," Oxfams Health Policy Manager, Anna Marriott warned. The WHO, meanwhile, reiterated Amnestys concerns.

55 doses in Guinea

WHO stated, that more than 80 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been bought by rich countries and 55 doses were gone in just one low-income country, Guinea. Only 'few' Guinean public officials were vaccinated in December with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine on an experimental basis, the Associated Press reported. "Then nobody was vaccinated after that," the agency asserted, citing the Guinea health ministry.



"In my opening remarks last Monday, I said the world faced a catastrophic moral failure if it doesnt walk the talk on vaccine equity.

A new study published yesterday by the @iccwbo Research Foundation confirms that it would also be an economic failure"-@DrTedros #EB148  World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 26, 2021

Meanwhile, in a dire warning to the world, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference that the rich countries' behaviour will prolong the coronavirus pandemic, and increase human and economic suffering. "More than 39 million doses of vaccine have now been administered in at least 49 higher-income countries. Just 25 doses have been given in one lowest-income country. Not 25 million; not 25,000; just 25," Tedros said at a virtual meeting of the WHO Executive Board, streamed live.

Read: Reax To EU Plans For Vaccine Border Controls In NIreland

Read: Myanmar Launches COVID-19 Vaccination Drive Following Shipment From India
A man sits in his car as he is administered the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine at a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination centre on Jan. 8, 2021 in Hyde, England. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

South African Variant More Resistant to Antibodies: Medical Experts

The South African variant of the CCP virus is more resistant to antibodies than the old variant and may reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, British medical experts have warned.

The UK has now identified 105 cases of this variant, 11 of which do not appear to have any links to international travel, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday.

Health authorities are conducting door-to-door surge testing for the variant in eight local areas in England in an attempt to contain its transmission in the communities.

Calum Semple, professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool, said the South African variants apparent resistance to antibodies is causing concerns.

Whats worrying the scientists is that, in the test tubes, its showing less susceptibility to two thingsless susceptibility to the plasma of people that have had natural infection, and less susceptibility to the plasma from people that have had the vaccine, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

But he said there is still a lot of uncertainty, because we havent tested against the other parts of immune systemthe T cells, and we arent seeing yet lots of people coming back into hospital with reinfection, with severe disease, who have previously had the old strain.

Semple said, We really just dont know about the clinical importance of this.

The huge effort to test and trace and observe for reinfections and readmissions is incredibly important to help us understand whats going on here, he said.

Nick Loman, professor of microbial genomics and bioinformatics at the University of Birmingham, also said the variants ability to resist antibodies is concerning.

There is quite good evidence experimentally that a particular mutation in this variant called E484K will help resist antibodies that are generated during natural infection. So, we might expect that this variant could cause more in the way of reinfection, he told the BBC.

But its potential impact on the effectiveness of vaccines is a little bit more complicated, he said.

There has been a study demonstrating the Novavax vaccine, which isnt yet used in the UK, did work much less well against this South African variantB1351than the other variants including our UK variant.

But another study recently reports there wasnt much impact on the antibodies generated by the Pfizer vaccine that is in use, said Loman.

He said bigger studies are needed to help scientists get a good grip on this.

Professor Robin Shattock, head of mucosal infection and immunity at the Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, stressed that vaccines remain effective on the new CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus variant, even if their effectiveness is reduced.

At the moment theres some evidence that some of the vaccines are slightly less effective against the new variant, but that doesnt mean that theyre not effective.

Theres a distinction between preventing any infection and preventing serious disease. Something thats transmissible more actively is harder to prevent getting any infection whatsoever, but the vaccines are still quite effective at preventing hospitalisation, he said.
Indian Parliament

The proceedings in Lok Sabha in the ongoing Budget session of the Parliament were on February 2 adjourned for the day after members of the opposition parties disrupted the Question Hour to press for repeal of the three new farm laws.

Soon after the proceedings started at 4 pm, members from parties including the Congress, the DMK and the Trinamool Congress trooped into the well, raising slogans demanding repeal of the three 'black' laws. Speaker Om Birla adjourned the proceedings for an hour.

When the House reconvened at 5 pm, the members continued their protest and the house was adjourned till 7 pm. Since the sloganeering continued, the speaker adjourned the House till 4 pm on February 3.

Follow our Live Blog on Farmers' Protest Here

Earlier in the day, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day after members of the opposition parties raised slogans demanding the suspension of the business of the day and take up discussions over the farmer's protest.

This was the third business day of the ongoing Budget Session that started on January 29. The first two days which also saw the presentation of Budget 2021, passed off without any protests.

The Opposition parties boycotted the president's address on January 29. In his address, President Ram Nath Kovind condemned the violence during the tractors rally on Republic Day while asserting that with the new three agricultural reforms, the government has provided new facilities and rights to farmers.

Enacted in September 2020, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector. But the opposition parties allege that the farm laws were brought 'without any consultations with states and farmer unions and lacked national consensus'.

Thousands of protesting farmers, primarily from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at several Delhi border points for over two months, demanding the repeal of the laws, and a legal guarantee on minimum support prices (MSP) for their crops.

Follow our Union Budget 2021 LIVE Updates Here

The protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that these laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of MSP and do away with the 'mandi' (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

Eleven rounds of talks between farmers unions and the Centre have so far failed to end the impasse.
Calvin Vondara

After nearly five years after leaving San Antonio, TV host Alanna Sarabia will return to the Alamo City.



In an emotional video posted on Instagram, Sarabia shared news that she will be headed back to San Antonio.



"I have some breaking news for everyone. Oh, this is going to be a lot harder than I thought," Sarabia begins to hold back tears. "After almost 5 years of hosting Good Morning Texas, I'm headed home to San Antonio and I'll be leaving the show at the end of the month. I'm so sorry I thought I was going to be a lot stronger than this."

Sarabia told MySA the decision came after feeling unfulfilled.



"Being back in Dallas, near my hometown and working for the show I grew up watching is a dream, and I still feel that way, though something wasnt balanced. I realized that I have been confusing what I do, with who I am. That left me unfulfilled," the TV host told MySA. "What I thought was the definition of happiness was, lo and behold, very off. My work was my worth, and that just shouldn't be."
SMALLTIME

A Story of My Family and the Mob

By Russell Shorto

In the hierarchy of literary respect, fiction is king, followed by historical narrative and, dead last, the lowly memoir. To those who have never practiced it, or to those who practice it badly, memoir writing is simply a regurgitation of life events. But a well-crafted memoir involves archival research, hours of taped interviews and a narrative structure that leaves more on the cutting-room floor than on the page.

Reporting on your own life or on the lives of people who share your DNA can be much more challenging than reporting on strangers. For starters, some friends and family will hate you for it. But the main difference is the emotional investment  and emotional payoff  which can push the memoir to the top of the literary heap.

In his new book, Smalltime, after much throat clearing and hedging about not being a memoirist, Russell Shorto  a master of historical narrative  digs up the facts on his family. Until now, Shorto has written books mostly about people hes never met, trying to get inside the heads of Peter Stuyvesant in The Island at the Center of the World; Baruch Spinoza in Amsterdam; and George Washington in his last book, Revolution Song. But the most fascinating characters in those books  for Shorto and for the reader  are always the ones that history has forgotten.

An Italian-American whose family name was changed long ago from Sciotto, Shorto comes from a small-time criminal clan in Johnstown, Pa., people you have never heard of before. History has not forgotten them. It never knew them to begin with.
(The new functionality enables organizations to hold events in multiple languages for international audiences.)

Event technology company Hubilo has updated its virtual event platform to include support for all the European languages, to meet the demands of a growing global market for virtual events which is expected to be worth over $400bn by 2027.

Hubilo's platform offers customers a DIY (Do It Yourself) feature that allows them to create events based on individual specifications using a few basic steps, including customizing events in their chosen language to make the entire process simple to understand and operate. The new multilingual feature enables Hubilo to support customers across Europe better, creating a truly universal hub.

Additional Features include a networking lounge where attendees can connect and video chat with the ones with similar interests, virtual booths that provide businesses and promoters with a separate online space to market their products, speaker lounges where attendees can see a list of all event speakers and their sessions and register and add sessions to their event itinerary, live and on-demand sessions, surveys and polls, gamification experiences, automated registrations and ticket processes, and 24/7 customer care services.

For the organizers, there is a provision of features like analytics and insights to help them with quality lead assessments for conversions, a system of records that acts as a reference point to ensure that the organizers have a complete understanding of the attendee engagement rate and interactions along with other required insights across various touchpoints at the event, a broadcast studio which eliminates the need of an additional video conference software, at the same time shares all the tools that are provided by the external software and branded themes, here you can customize your event as per your brand guideline to deliver the precise brand messaging.

Vaibhav Jain, Founder and CEO, Hubilo said: "We launched our virtual platform to deliver a richer online experience for organizers and attendees, mirroring numerous positive features of in-person events along with the addition of a few advanced ones. We are glad that we are able to offer a more inclusive range of languages to our existing, and new as well as prospective clients across Europe. In fact, in order to comply with the European rules and regulations, Hubilo will also now host information on European clients and attendees on dedicated EU servers, within the European jurisdiction."

Hubilo, which lists Roche, GITEX and Informa Group among its customers, managed to pivot to deliver online virtual events in February 2020, backed by a $4.5m investment led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Hubilo covers the entire spectrum of meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) for external and internal events such as trade fairs, job fairs, award shows, annual sales meet, employee engagement initiatives, town halls, office parties and more.

About Hubilo:

Event technology Company Hubilo has created a comprehensive virtual platform that meets all the event-based requirements through the integration of numerous technology tools. They have redefined the entire marketing landscape around virtual events to unlock massive value for key stakeholders, such as CMOs, event organizers, and sponsors. Hubilo covers the entire spectrum of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) which include FMCG, BFSI, Education, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical, Information Technology and Manufacturing, as well as several other industries. Founded in 2015 and pivoted in February 2020 by Vaibhav Jain and Mayank Agarwal, in just 5 years, Hubilo's clientele is inclusive of names like United Nations, Roche, Informa Markets, Tech in Asia, Fortune, AWS, Siemens, GITEX, to name a few.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005812/en/

Contacts:

Neermohi Shah

neermohi@hubilo.com.
Nominations for the position of Directors of the Swift Current Chamber of Commerce now open
Joe Biden has condemned the military coup in Myanmar and arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi amid questions over his language.

Mr Biden referred to the south east Asian country by its former name of Burma in his statement, but his top spokesperson denied the president was meaning to be discourteous" in doing so.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the issue in her press briefing the day after the countrys military staged a coup and said it would remain in power for one year.

I dont think thats the conclusion you should draw, said Ms Psaki.

"The militarys seizure of power in Burma, the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian officials, and the declaration of a national state of emergency are a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy and the rule of law," said Mr Biden in his statement.

"In a democracy, force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election.

For almost a decade, the people of Burma have been steadily working to establish elections, civilian governance, and the peaceful transfer of power. That progress should be respected.

Ms Psaki clarified that the White Houses official policy was to use the name Burma, but that they use Myanmar as a courtesy in certain communications.

When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State she also used Burma and never Myanmar, a name introduced by the then ruling military junta in 1989.

Much of the international community, including the United Nations, accepted the name change but the United Kingdom and United States have historically balked at using it.

On its website the US State Department writes: "The military government changed the countrys name to Myanmar in 1989. The United States government continues to use the name Burma.

Explaining the military seizure of power, the countrys military commander in chief says that he took action as the government had not acted on allegation of fraud in the November election, in which Ms Suu Kyis ruling party won a majority.

The coup came on the morning of the opening of the new parliamentary session.

The military insist they are acting legally as a clause in the constitution, which they drafted, allows them to act in times of national emergency.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The results are in!

Staten Island Chuck called for an early spring Tuesday during a Groundhog Day ceremony at the Staten Island Zoo in West Brighton.

While the event is typically attended by hundreds of people, it was closed to the public this year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Instead, the ceremony was live streamed for all to watch.

Shortly after 8 a.m., Chuck -- aka Charles G. Hogg -- crawled out of his burrow in search of his shadow, but to no avail. As tradition goes, if the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If not, an early spring is on the way.

A representative from Investors Bank, the events sponsor, announced Chucks prediction.

Chuck has been making his prediction since 1981 with his accuracy tracked by local youth, dubbed junior weather predictors, in recent years. The children track how many days over the six weeks following Chucks prediction are warmer  or atypical  for winter weather, defined as days when the temperature rises above 40 degrees.

At the end of the six-week period, if there were more atypical weather days than typical weather days, it means we had an early spring. If there were more typical weather days than atypical weather days, we had six more weeks of winter.

According to the Staten Island Zoo, Chuck has an almost 80% accuracy rate with his predictions. He has made an incorrect prediction only once since 2010.

Unlike Chuck, Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter on Tuesday morning.

HISTORY OF GROUNDHOG DAY

The Groundhog Day tradition can be traced to Candlemas, an early Christian holiday where candles were blessed and distributed. Those who celebrated Candlemas decided that clear skies on the holiday meant a longer winter.

The Germans eventually began to believe that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, a hedgehog would cast a shadow  predicting six more weeks of harsh winter weather. And it was the Germans who brought this belief to the United States.

When German immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania, they found a large number of groundhogs. And they tasked the groundhog, which resembles a European hedgehog, with the job of predicting the weather.

The holiday started with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, founded in Punxsutawney, Pa., in 1887. The editor of the Punxsutawney newspaper was a member of the club, and he claimed that Punxsutawney Phil was the only true weather-predicting groundhog.
Russian state prosecutors are poised to jail Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny for three-and-a-half years, according to The Guardian. Navalny was jailed after he returned from Germany on January 17 and last week, a Moscow court had rejected his appeal to be released. World leaders, including the US, had condemned Moscows heavy-handed tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists. Now, Kremlin has shrugged off the complaints about Navalnys case and said that Moscow would ignore statements from US President Joe Biden administration, following Sundays mass pro-Navalny protests.

It is worth mentioning that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called for Navalny to be set free. He had said that the US is deeply disturbed by the violent crackdown against people exercising their rights to protests peacefully against their government. He added that frustration with official corruption and growing autocracy had driven popular protests. Further, Blinken urged Kremlin officials to look inward, not outward and said that Navalny is giving expression to the voices of millions and millions of Russians.

While the White House was reviewing whether to impose further sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, warned against fresh sanctions. Peskov said that Russia is not prepared to accept or heed the American statement about this. He went on the describe the pro-Navalny protests as illegal and added that there can be no conversation with hooligans and provocateurs.

READ: Over 1100 Arrested At Pro-Navalny Protest In St. Petersburg

READ: Pro-Navalny Rallies Attended By 'hooligans And Provocateurs', Claims Russia

Court hearing on Feb 2

On Sunday, thousands of demonstrators had gathered in Moscow demanding the release of Navalny. The protest was organised despite a warning from Russian authorities prior to the demonstration. The police detained nearly 5,000 protesters on Sunday alone and demonstrators were seen marching on the streets and chanting, Putin, thief!. Despite threats of jail terms, warnings to social media groups and tight police cordons, Navalnys team has yet again called for another protest in Moscow for February 2, when the Kremlin-critic is set to face a court hearing that could send him to prison for years. The hearing on Tuesday could turn his 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into one he must serve in prison.

(Image: AP)

READ: Over 5,000 Russians Arrested Over Demonstrations Demanding Navalny's Release

READ: Court Fines Navalny's Wife After Protests In Moscow
Persecuted evangelicals in Mexico help Traditionalist Catholics break free from pagan idolatry

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Most Americans presume that Mexico is a Christian country, unaware that many Mexicans who identity as Catholic regularly practice a form of pagan idolatry, according to Universidad Cristiana de Mexico President Jaime Castro.

Castro leads an evangelical Christian university in Queretaro, Mexico. As Mexican Christians share the Gospel, they often face persecution from Mexican traditionalist Catholics, he told The Christian Post.

Unlike Christianity, traditionalist Catholicism relies on giving gifts to the gods in exchange for health, good fortune and protection from evil. They often participate in animal sacrifices to the gods and worship saints, incorporating practices from pagan Aztec beliefs.

I was a pastor, and I have the experience to know some American Catholics. They werent like [Mexican Catholics]. The syncretism between Catholics that came to Mexico adopted every idol and every goddess [from the Aztec religion], he said.

Castro told a story to illustrate the difference. Once, a Catholic parish in the U.S. noticed that it had many Latinos in the area. Leaders brought in a bilingual priest and invited Hispanic Catholics into the American Catholic church. Three-hundred-and-fifty new people arrived.

The shock came when the Dia de los Muertos happened. Catholic seniors were scared about what the [Hispanics] were doing in their parish  idols and skeletons and offerings and all these rites that were not biblical. Its just to show Latin American Catholicism is very different, he said.

Syncretism worships Catholic saints as pagan gods, said Castro.

People give saints offerings to get favors. Cartel members usually make offerings to saints who have a reputation for granting success for both evil and good actions.

The Catholic Church has officially condemned devotion to Mexicos most infamous cartel death saint, Santa Muerte. However, Mexican Catholics worship other saints as an expression of syncretism. Some argue that Mexicos Virgin of Guadalupe represents an Aztec mother goddess, but Pope John Paul II canonized the man who allegedly first had a vision of her.

Syncretist Catholics who worship saints are responsible for almost all the persecution against Mexican Christians, said Castro. Although evangelical Christianity has been in Mexico for 120 years, it still faces hostility from local Catholic communities. The government may allow religious freedom, but local people often ostracize, threaten or attack Christians. The worst persecution happens in remote areas where the government cannot exert its power.

Christian advocacy group Open Doors USA's World Watch List ranks Mexico as the 37th worst country for Christians to live in due to the high rate of persecution of believers. The threats surrounding the Church include secularist pressure, syncretist persecution and cartel violence. Persecution in Mexico increased in 2020 because COVID-19 hampered the Mexican government from using its power to protect believers.

Mexico has three main religious zones, said Castro. Most evangelical Christians live in the south, Catholics dominate central Mexico, and northern Mexico is increasingly secular and materialist due to the influence of American culture.

[The state of Oaxaca] has a lot of mountains, many isolated communities, and its hard for the government to establish safety for Christian missionaries. Some are killed, some get expelled from their villages. That still happens in Oaxaca and Chiapas. It also happens in Central Mexico and Hidalgo, he said.

Small towns in Mexico have many Catholic festivities. A community leader will ask each local family for money or resources to support the festival. When evangelical Christians refuse to support it, town authorities refuse to provide them with community resources like public school, he said.

They do not allow Christians to receive any services from the community if they dont support [Catholic festivals], he said. Thats against the law, but its happening. An evangelical church tried to hold a revival two years ago and asked to rent the city hall. They quickly answered, no. Why? We dont have a permit for you. The next weekend the Catholic church had a festivity.

Despite these setbacks, the percentage of Mexican evangelical Christians has grown by 49% since 2010. According to a survey Castro cited, 11.2% of Mexicans now practice evangelical Protestantism. According to the Joshua Project, that figure is 10.39%.

Catholics in Mexico dont call themselves Christians, the pastor said. But the knowledge they already have of the Christian faith gives evangelists much to work with. Sycretists already know the basics of the Christian faith, he said, adding that they need to turn from transactional saints to a personal God.

When you want to do door-to-door evangelism, almost every door you go to knock on has a sticker that says, This home is Catholic. We do not accept propaganda from other religions, said Castro. Evangelical Christians are doing a great job and the Gospel is being spread. The most optimistic people will tell you that we are within 15-to-20% evangelical Christian in Mexico.

When people convert from traditionalist Catholicism to Christianity, their families change for the better, he said. Catholicism in Mexico forbids divorce, but it doesnt teach married men how to be good husbands. Often, they spend money on alcohol and have affairs with other women. Some men even have secret second families.

[When men become Christians], the home becomes strong and they have more opportunities, said Castro. The head of the house used to spend a lot of money on alcohol, on parties. But now he becomes more committed to his marriage and becomes a committed father, a committed husband, and it makes a difference in the community.

Living a responsible life has such a significant impact that families become financially better off, he argued. Castros parents were missionaries and the community where they ministered accused them of paying people to convert because people had more money when they left Catholicism.

Evangelical Christianity also brings real knowledge of the Bible and a community that supports believers, he said. New Christians rejoice for the opportunity to learn about and understand the Bible.

They dont understand why the Catholic churches dont preach so people understand. In Catholicism, they dont have a fellowship. You walk in. You walk out. You dont talk with anyone. Evangelical churches in Mexico provide a fellowship, Castro said.
New Delhi, Feb 2 : Ahead of the assembly elections in Kerala, BJP chief Jagat Prakash Nadda will be visiting the state on a two-day visit from February 3 to take part in various important organisational programmes.

BJP media in-charge and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni in a statement said: "Nadda will address the party's Kerala unit core committee and also meet newly elected councilors and block, Jilla Panchayat members of party in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday." He said the BJP chief will visit the Padmanabhaswamy Temple to offer prayers and will take meetings with NDA alliance partners individually on Wednesday evening.

"On Thursday, he will reach Cochin and address a meeting of state office bearers, in-charges, convenors, district presidents and district general secretaries. In-charges and conveners of the assembly constituency will also participate in this meeting. The BJP chief will address a huge public rally in the evening in Thrissur at Vadakkunnathan Temple Ground," Baluni said.
Amid the stalemate between the central government and protesting farmers over the newly-enacted farm laws, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Vadra on Tuesday questioned Prime Minsiter whether he is on a war with the farmers.

"Honourable Prime Minister, are you on war with your farmers?" tweeted Vadra in Hindi. She also shared a video that features heavy deployment of security personnel at Delhi borders.

Meanwhile, former Congress president and party's Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi advised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government to 'build bridges and not walls'.

"GOI, Build bridges, not walls!," tweeted Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday.

These comments came after the administrations have deployed heavy deployment of security personnel and barricades at the borders of the capital to keep up the law and order situation.

Security has been beefed up at Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri borders, as farmers continue to make their way to the protest site for the past two to three days.

The Delhi Police have blocked roads near Akshardham and vehicular movement has been restricted between Delhi and Ghaziabad on Highway-24.

Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

(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.)
Selena Gomez has another hit, this one named "Baila Conmigo" off her upcoming all-Spanish EP "Revelacion."

The 28-year-old Texas artist teamed up with Puerto Rican reggaeton sensation Rauw Alejandro to debut the second single off her highly anticipated first Spanish-language EP due out March 12.

SELENA GOMEZ 'RARE BEAUTY': Selena Gomez launches first line of 'Rare Beauty' products at Sephora

According to Billboard's Jessica Roiz, Gomez told Apple Musics Zane Lowe how proud she was about her venture into a Spanish-language album.

This has been something I've wanted to do for 10 years, working on a Spanish project, because I'm so, so proud of my heritage, and just genuinely felt like I wanted this to happen, Gomez said. And it happened, and 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?

This song definitely makes me want to get up and dance straight into the video. Fittingly, "Baila Conmigo" translates to "Dance with Me."

According to Billboard's Mitchell Peters, the song was one of music listeners' new favorite release of the past week in a recent poll.

"'Baila Conmigo' brought in nearly 78% of the vote, beating out new music by Weezer (OK Human), Maluma (#7DJ), Eric Church ("Heart on Fire"), Lil Durk featuring Lil Baby ("Finesse Out the Gang Way"), and others."

This is the second Spanish single released in just two weeks after Gomez debuted "De Una Vez (At Once)," singing about healing from a relationship in an eye-catching video featuring pulsating urban notes.

The 2020/2021 time frame is shaping up to be a big one for Gomez. Last year the actress/artist debuted her "Rare Beauty" cosmetic line and made a TV comeback with a cooking show titled SELENA + CHEF on HBO Max.

I, for one, can't wait for Gomez's entire Spanish EP to drop, because if these first two singles are anything like what we can expect from the rest of the album, I predict a Latin Grammy in her future.
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UPDATE: Punxsutawney Phil has made his prediction.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Those who wish to watch Punxsutawney Phil make his prediction will have to do it via live stream this year.

While tens of thousands of people traditionally travel to Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., to watch, the ceremony was closed to the public this year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Instead, everyone can watch beginning at 6:30 a.m. on the Punxsutawney Groundhog Clubs website.

THE TRADITIONS ORIGINS

The Groundhog Day tradition can be traced to Candlemas, an early Christian holiday where candles were blessed and distributed. Those who celebrated Candlemas decided that clear skies on the holiday meant a longer winter.

The Germans eventually began to believe that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, a hedgehog would cast a shadow -- predicting six more weeks of harsh winter weather. And it was the Germans who brought this belief to the United States.

When German immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania, they found a large number of groundhogs. And they tasked the groundhog, which resembles a European hedgehog, with the job of predicting the weather.

The tradition was started by the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club in 1887. The editor of the Punxsutawney newspaper was a member of the club, and he claimed that Phil was the only true weather-predicting groundhog.

WATCH PHILS PREDICTION

Those interested in seeing Punxsutawney Phil make his prediction can view it here.
Introduction

Rick Warren famously began his bestselling The Purpose Driven Life with, Its not about you. He needed to say this straight up because through our fallenness makes us chronically self-centred and the extraordinary affluence of contemporary Western life has magnified this tendency more than ever in history.

The real question with an answer, rather than a query ending in cynical denial or empty speculation, is not What is the meaning of life?, but The End For Which God Created The World (Jonathan Edwards 1765).

Beginning, Centre, End

Contrary to the popular modern message about human happiness, God has a wonderful plan for your life., the scriptures testify that existence is for the Lord. Both Father and Son testify about themselves, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. (Revelation chapter 1 verse 8; chapter 22verse 13). More concretely, the Creator testifies he has made sons and daughters for my glory (Isaiah chapter 43 verses -7).

When I read the Bible for the first time the divine decree, You shall have no other gods before1 me. (Exodus chapter 20 verse 3) came across to me as incredibly selfish. Since then I have accepted my personal response merely illustrated Voltaires famous quip, God made man in his own image, and man has been trying to return the favour ever since.

Sadly, this is why our perception of a selfish God remains the shallow heart attitude of the vast majority of humanity.

Something to be Seen

Depth of insight into what it means to be made for Gods glory comes through combining scriptures, Psalm chapter 19 verse 1, The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship, Romans chapter 1 verse 20 Gods invisible qualities have been clearly seen in the things that have been made, Colossians chapter 1 verse 15, Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

The Father made all things through Jesus so that in all things we might see his glory in Jesus (Colossians chapter 1 verse 16). This seeing refers to the spiritual insight of an enlightened heart (Ephesians 1:18).

Being a Seer

When someone asks me to test whether they are a seer I remind them that seer is an old biblical word for prophet (1 Samuel chapter 9 verse 9). Then, and far more importantly, I ask them what they are seeing. If they are being true to the purpose for which they were created their response will centre on seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6).

Any Christian who wants to honour Gods purpose in creating them must live by the truth that the testimony given by Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy (Revelation chapter 29 verse 10). Jesus is constantly working to give witness through your life by the power of his Spirit to the glory of the Father in sending him to be your Lord and Saviour.

Our created purpose is to live for Jesus in a way that is visible to all with eyes to see (Matthew chapter 5 verse 16; 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 12). This reminds me of the probing question, If you were on trial for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you? How do we see the glory of the Lord and shine it out that others might see his splendour?

Becoming a Seer

Jesus explained his humanity entered into the fulness of the glory of God through suffering according to Gods will, Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? (Luke chapter 24 verse 26 cf. Romans chapter 6 verse 4). This theme is the constant testimony of the New Testament writers, Luke (Acts chapter 7 verses 54-55), Paul (Romans chapter 8 verse 18; Ephesians chapter 3 verse 13), Peter (1 Peter chapter 4 verse 14).

It has been well said, The greater the vision from God the greater the suffering for God. But to this we must add, The greater the suffering in faithful agreement with the will of God the greater the vision of glory (1 Peter chapter 3 verse 17; chapter 4 verse 19).

Conclusion

As Jesus willingly to lose sight of the glory of God (Mark chapter 15 verse 34) so we might dwell in this glory forever (Revelation chapter 21 verse 23), we are called to suffer anything that might illuminate the presence of the Lord in the world through us. The dying words of the persecuted preacher-teacher John Chrysostom (347-407) come to mind as a worthy life goal, Glory be to God for all things.
Ellsworth: Did you get the message from your body?
DALLAS

Finos Pharmacy owner dies at 86

The longtime owner of Finos Pharmacy in Dallas Borough has died.

Dominic P. Fino, 86, died on Jan. 26 in Jersey Shore Medical Hospital in Monmouth County, New Jersey, according to his obituary.

They were a good, old-fashioned pharmacy, said Cynthia Post Mitchell, former president of the Back Mountain Chambers board of directors. Its been a staple in the Back Mountain forever.

As a teenager, Fino began working at Finos Pharmacy on Main Street in Pittston, which was founded by his father in 1951.

After serving in the U.S. Navy from 1955 to 1958, Fino attended and graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, now known as the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Upon graduation, he returned to Northeast Pennsylvania and in 1963 started Finos Pharmacy in Dallas.

They are always community minded, Post Mitchell said. They were always very generous.

 BOB KALINOWSKI

China's internet regulator has announced a crackdown on citizen journalism around the country, banning anyone from posting news-related information online without a license.



The move was announced by Zhuang Rongwen, deputy director of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s central propaganda department, during a Jan. 29 online conference on promoting "orderly communications" on all online platforms, the Cyberspace Administration said in a statement on its official website.



"We must control the source of online texts, and resolutely close any loopholes," Zhuang told the conference. "The standardized management of citizen journalism should be a priority, with increased punishments for offenders and actual teeth for regulators."



Changes to media regulations three years ago required any organization publishing news or current affairs-related content to hold a license from the country's media regulator, and the focus on citizen journalism will extend the full implementation of that rule to include both regular citizens and journalists posting on their private accounts to evade censorship.



The move comes months after authorities detained and jailed a number of people for reporting unofficially on the unfolding of the coronavirus pandemic in the central city of Wuhan in the early months of 2020.



Independent scholar Fang Liang said the move simply means even tighter CCP control over online speech.



"They are gradually getting control of all channels through which people could get information," Fang said. "They want to have actual control over people's right to comment on current affairs and share information."



"The aim is to make it so that the general public will only be able to access a one-way flow of information from official channels," he said.

Accounts recently warned



Social media users told RFA that all WeChat official accounts were recently warned by Tencent not to publish any real-time news or information that hasn't been through an official approval process.



Sohu and Baijia have also issued similar notices to users in recent days, banning accounts with no news publishing license from posting on news or current affairs.



"Online censorship is moving away from people's right [to know] and more towards the power of the government to control the people," Fang said.



A pastor in a Protestant church in the eastern port city of Qingdao told RFA that the authorities aren't only concerned with news, but also with religious content.



"I have heard that they will comprehensively rectify citizen journalism, current affairs, politics, commentary, and also religious content," the pastor, who gave only a pseudonym John, said.



"The government is clamping down on citizen journalism, which will quash freedom of speech even more than before, and mean that the voices of the least privileged people in our society won't be heard any more," he said.

Disappeared, detained, jailed



Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, several citizen journalists who went to Wuhan in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak to report from the front line, have "disappeared," been detained or jailed.



According to the overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network, the exact whereabouts of Fang Bin and Chen Qiushi remain unknown.



On Dec. 28, 2020, citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by the Pudong District People's Court, which found her guilty of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target critics of the government.



She was accused of "posting false information" on overseas social media platforms Twitter and YouTube, and for giving interviews to foreign news organizations.



Meanwhile, Chen Mei and Cai Wei, who tried to preservedcensored COVID information, are still in detention, CHRD said.



"Outspoken critics of President Xi Jinping for his handling of the pandemic are locked up  Ren Zhiqiang received 18 years in jail, Guo Quan and Xu Zhiyong remain in pretrial detention," it said in a recent report.



Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Man Hoi Yan fowhile or the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.




Protesters remain in their treetop positions as bailiffs and police officers attempt to clear the site of a "Stop HS2" camp at Euston Station in London on Jan. 27, 2021. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Struggle Between Euston Tunnel Protesters and HS2 Spills into Courts

The struggle between protesters and bailiffs in Euston Square is spilling out from a muddy 100-foot tunnel under Londons streets to the courts.

When bailiffs moved in on the long-standing tree-top blockade of construction for the HS2 high-speed rail hub last Wednesday, protesters fled to a tunnel that they had constructed over several months, claiming that they had enough food and water to last for several weeks.

Specialist security staff working for HS2 have since been trying to remove the protesters from the tunnel and to ensure their safety.

On Monday night a judge issued an order for one of the activists to leave the tunnel, cease tunnelling, and inform authorities of the number of people in the tunnel, including any children.

The last point relates to unconfirmed allegations that there was a child in the tunnels.

The activist will be in contempt of court if he does not comply.

According to the Telegraph, the judges order notes the situation in the tunnel is very dangerous.

Bailiffs dismantle a structure at a Stop HS2 camp at Euston Station in London on Jan. 30, 2021. (Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, a barrister on Monday filed an appeal on behalf of the protesters for an urgent injunction and judicial review to halt the eviction.

The protest group, called HS2 Rebellion, have been living in 80-foot-high treehouses, tents, and pallet shelters since the summer, to protect what they describe as some of the most historic trees in Central London, which they say are at risk from the construction of a temporary taxi rank.

That taxi rank will serve Euston Station while the current rank is demolished to allow construction of the high-speed rail hub that will ferry passengers to Birmingham New Street.

The HS2 project, which will initially link Birmingham and London via high-speed rail, has attracted various criticisms from a variety of different groups.

HS2 Rebellion appears to share a loose ideological position with the similarly named Extinction Rebellion.

The tunnel dug by HS2 Rebellion dug under Euston Square. (HS2 Rebellion)

HS2 Limited has taken temporary possession of the land and has hired private security to handle the eviction.

The company warned again on Monday night that the tunnels were at risk of flooding or collapse with rain forecast for the next 48 hours.

The safety of people trespassing and the safety of HS2 staff and agents in this operation is of paramount importance, the company said in a statement to The Epoch Times. We are doing all we can to end this illegal action quickly and safely, including providing those underground with airdespite claims to the contrary. 

Our message is, however, that those in the tunnels should come out now for their own safety.

Some of the protesters had earlier accused the security team of removing the drainage system they had built into the tunnel system.

HS2 Limited refuted some specific claims made by Hs2 Rebellion.

The number of ancient woodlands that will be affected by the project will be 43, according to HS2 Limited, as opposed to the figure of over 108 cited by the protesters.

HS2 Limited said 80 percent of the total area of the affected ancient woodlands will be untouched by the construction. There are 52,000 ancient woodland sites in England, according to the company.

The protest site had also become something of a hub for some homeless people.

The group has argued that the site comes under pandemic-related legislation that bans evictions.

HS2 Limited, however, said, The current ban on evictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic is not applicable and the police, landowners, and those with legal possession of the land have the power to remove trespassers using minimum force.
Oil and gas

Regarding Oil and gas needs to accept climate reality, Biden help in winding down, (Jan. 29): Consumers of petroleum products are the ones who are releasing carbon dioxide into the environment  commuters and truck drivers; vacationers driving, flying or cruising; residential heating, hot water and cooking, etc. The demand for todays fuels will not change until consumers replace their energy-using equipment. This will require decades, new technology and large investments. Meanwhile, if we shut down production of oil and gas in this country, it will be replaced with imported fuels.

Tomlinsons advice to wind down our oil industry will result in unreliable, more expensive energy for consumers, the loss of good jobs, the further ballooning of our trade deficit as well as the empowerment of malign petro-states such as Russia. Such an outcome could undermine public support for the project with drastic consequences for the environment.

Ross Alexander Mclaurin, Boerne, TX

Regarding Lets tackle climate without destroying jobs, (A17, Jan. 31): Rep. Dan Crenshaw attempts to stoke discord and ignores reality. As demonstrated by GMs commitment to electric vehicles, clinging to extractive industries is a losing proposal. Weather-related disasters regularly remind us that it is imperative to act now to reduce emissions. The clean energy industry offers a way to do that more cheaply and to provide workers safer and more secure jobs than does an unnecessary pipeline project. Both political parties need to address these economic and environmental risks instead of trying to preserve the status quo.

Mike Grimes, Houston

Closing the rodeo

Re: The power and peril of principle ( A15, Jan 31): Sundays article is factually incorrect about the decision-making to close the Houston Rodeo. The entire NRG complex is within the jurisdiction of the City of Houston. As such the responsibility to apply public health disease mitigation efforts such as issuing a health order to quarantine the property is the responsibility of the Local Health Authority for the City of Houston.

On the evening of March 10, I was notified of a gentleman who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and had no travel history, nor contact with one of the Egyptian river cruise cases we had already been managing. This case represented the first occurrence of local spread of COVID-19 in the Houston area. In addition, the gentleman had been working security at the HLSR barbecue cook-off.

I immediately called Mayor Turner and we agreed, without hesitation, that the responsible course of action was to issue the control order to close the Rodeo. I then called the leadership of the Rodeo to tell them of the decision. The order was signed and the rodeo was closed as of noon the next day. No official from Harris County was involved in the decision to close the rodeo.

While this decision was painful, it was made quickly, forthright and without reluctance.

Dr. David Persse, chief medical officer, City of Houston

Correction: A letter published Sunday Jan. 31 on climate change and national security was misattributed to Louise Talen. It was written by Terry Hansen of Hales Corners, Wis.
An eight-year-old girl from Tobias Hainyeko constituency in the Khomas region could not secure placement in any school because she has no birth certificate.

Naapopye Erastus and her two siblings lost their mother in 2019, while their father's whereabouts are unknown.

She has been staying with her grandparents since then, whose efforts of registering them at home affairs for a birth certificate proved futile.

According to the 58-year-old grandmother Verena Simon, she was not able to register her granddaughter for school because to get admitted to a school, an abridged birth certificate or identity document is required.

"I have made repeated attempts over the past two years to register her using the birth passport card obtained from the nearby hospital, but the child could not be admitted. The home affairs staff have been mistreating me and I gave up attempting to get the certificate," an emotional Simon explained.

Simon said that she was very much disappointed by the way home affairs officials treated her as an elderly taking care of orphans and who is trying to acquire documents for innocent children. "The last time I saw the children's father was in 2019 during the passing of their mother. From there, he disappeared. We had his phone number, but he never picks up calls or talks to us regarding the children. We later lost his number," she explained.

Erastus was born with a cleft lip condition and was operated by a female doctor only known as Caroline.

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"We are appealing for that doctor to come forth to issue us with a declaration letter that indicates that Erastus is disabled and qualified for the special grant. The letter is also part of the requirement needed by the ministry of gender to register Erastus for the social grant," said Simon.

Good Samaritan chips in

Meanwhile, a good Samaritan Catrine Jacob came to the rescue of the family to ensure all the relevant documents are secured for processing at home affairs.

Jacob who met Erastus when she was carrying out her Christmas charity project last December said she was touched by her story and decided to volunteer to assist her to acquire the birth certificate.

"The guardian who is the grandmother said she went for birth certificate registration multiple times, through the councillor's office, but was sent back home with no assistance. I previously worked in Ohangwena region, where I also researched the undocumented people and coming from that background, I understood the struggle of getting a birth certificate and I have decided to take on this responsibility to help Naapopye get a birth certificate," narrated Jacob.

Jacob decided to spend the day getting the home affairs requirements to get her a special school admission.

She pleaded to school authorities to place Erastus in grade 1 because she has already attended pre-primary school.

The grandmother is unemployed and still does not qualify for the monthly old-age pension grant, while Erastus cannot benefit from a social grant because she has no birth certificate.
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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's Regular Press Conference on February 2, 2021

2021/02/02

FSN: Reports say Chinese police cracked a fake vaccine ring. Could you give us a little bit more details on that?

Wang Wenbin: The Xinhua News Agency has released information about the Ministry of Public Security instructing the public security departments nationwide to carry out the special operations to combat and prevent vaccine-related crimes, as well as on police in Jiangsu and other provinces and regions jointly solving a case of manufacturing and selling fake vaccines. As we understand, the Chinese side has notified relevant countries of the situation. I'd like to stress that the Chinese government attaches high importance to vaccine safety and will continue to take measures in accordance with law to crack down on illegal production and sale of counterfeit vaccines, smuggling, illegal vaccination and other vaccine-related crimes. In the meantime, we will enhance law enforcement cooperation with relevant countries to prevent the spreading of such crimes.

Xinhua News Agency: We understand China and Japan are expected to hold the 12th round of high-level consultations on maritime affairs shortly. Could you give us the time, venue and agenda?

Wang Wenbin: As agreed by the two sides, the 12th round of high-level consultations on maritime affairs between China and Japan will be held virtually on February 3. Officials from departments covering foreign affairs, defence, maritime law enforcement and marine management will attend the event. Earlier on January 20, the two sides' heads of delegation already held a dialogue under this mechanism.

The high-level consultations were established as an integrated mechanism of communication and coordination for maritime affairs between the two sides. We look forward to having a thorough exchange of ideas on maritime issues of mutual concern with the Japanese side to enhance mutual understanding and trust and expand practical cooperation.

Phoenix TV: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview that the US should follow the UK in letting in those repressed fleeing from Hong Kong. He also said that "we have to be able to approach China from a position of strength......and that strength, I think, comes from......actually engaging in the world and showing up in these international institutions. He also brought up the WHO expert team in Wuhan, alleging that China's arrangement lacks transparency. What is your response?

Wang Wenbin: On your first question, China's position on Hong Kong-related issues is consistent and clear. Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong, and Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs. No foreign country has the right to interfere in them.

All illegal activities will be punished by law. This is the case in all countries and regions governed by rule of law. If the US side agrees that this basic principle also applies to what happened at the Capitol Hill, then it should seriously think about its behaviors, including emboldening law-breakers in Hong Kong and using Hong Kong affairs to interfere in China's internal affairs, and correct its wrong words and actions, so as to avoid damaging China-US relations and cooperation.

On your second question, China is committed to upholding and practicing multilateralism. As an active participant in global governance, China is and will always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a guardian of international order. The international community bears witness to this. Meanwhile, China maintains that only when all parties practice genuine multilateralism can world peace, stability and development be safeguarded.

On your third question, since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese side has maintained close communication and cooperation with WHO on global origin-tracing in an open and transparent manner. WHO experts have made three visits to China for exchanges and communication on relevant issues. The visit this time is part of global science and research cooperation on origin-tracing, and the Chinese side has provided strong support and assistance to make this visit happen and work. Chinese experts have shared loads of information and research outcomes and conducted rounds of in-depth exchanges on scientific issues of mutual interest with their counterparts. The WHO and international experts all speak highly of China's efforts.

I need to point out that origin-tracing is a complex scientific issue which involves many countries and places. More and more clues, reports and studies have indicated that the infections broke out in multiple places in the world in the latter half of the year 2019. According to a US CDC report, Covid-19 antibodies were detected in blood donations collected in December 2019, which means that the virus may have already been spreading in the United States by then, earlier than January 21 when the first official confirmed COVID-19 case was reported in the country.

We hope that following China's example, the US will act in a positive, science-based and cooperative manner on the origin-tracing issue, ensure transparency, and invite WHO experts in for an origin-tracing study. This is what the US can do to promote international anti-epidemic cooperation and science-based origin-tracing.

Prasar Bharati: The question is related to China's vaccine exports. China has started exporting its vaccines to many countries, but these vaccines have not yet been approved for use in people younger than 18 and older than 59 due to insufficient clinical data. Also, data for phase three clinical trials have not been published yet. So, how do you see this situation?

Wang Wenbin: You raised a similar question yesterday. I can assure you that the Chinese government always regards vaccine's safety and efficacy as the top priority. China's vaccine R&D companies have been advancing their work and conducting international cooperation in strict accordance with scientific rules, regulatory requirements and relevant laws and regulations. At the current stage, several China-made vaccines are undergoing phase III clinical trials overseas, and judging from the data generated by these trials that have been released so far, Chinese vaccines are safe and effective. At the end of last year, China's National Medical Products Administration granted conditional marketing authorization to Sinopharm's inactivated vaccine. Plus, many countries including the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Brazil have approved the use of Chinese vaccines. All these testify to the safety and efficacy of Chinese vaccines. If you are interested in getting more details, I would refer you to the competent authority.

FSN: Yesterday you mentioned the issue regarding T-shirts that were printed by a member of staff from the Canadian embassy. A spokesperson for Canada's foreign services said that the graphic that was on the shirt wasn't a bat; and it was in fact of an American rap group, the Wu-Tang Clan, that may have looked a bit like a bat. What is your comment? Has that matter been cleared up satisfactorily in China's view?

Wang Wenbin: I stated China's position on this issue yesterday. The Chinese side has lodged stern representations with the Canadian side, demanding that the Canadian side thoroughly investigate the incident and give China a clear explanation.

AFP: The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting later today on the situation in Myanmar. What are China's expectations for it?

Wang Wenbin: We have noted what happened in Myanmar. China is a friendly neighbor of Myanmar. We hope that all parties in Myanmar will properly handle their differences under the constitutional and legal framework and maintain political and social stability.

We are in communication with relevant parties of the Security Council on this issue. Whatever actions taken by the international community shall contribute to Myanmar's political and social stability, promote its peace and reconciliation, and avoid escalating the conflict and complicating the situation.

Prasar Bharati: China International Students Union has said in a statement that foreign students should be allowed to return to China step by step based on COVID tests and antibody tests, like how business people have been allowed. They also say online studies are not practically possible and their diplomas will not be recognized in their countries. They said that they are ready for vaccination if that helps them get back to China. Will China consider their plea for their return based on these measures? Second, China allowed certain foreign students to return. What is the issue in allowing students from other nationalities?

Wang Wenbin: I remember you have raised this question here many times, and each time we gave you a response. Here I would like to recap our position.

First, as COVID-19 situation remains severe, all countries are taking prevention and containment measures based on their own conditions. This is to protect the safety and health of all citizens, including students. I'm sure everyone will understand this.

Second, we hope the international community will strengthen anti-epidemic cooperation to win the fight as soon as possible so that students can return to campus sooner rather than later.

Third, on the precondition of observing containment protocols, the Chinese authorities will study in a coordinated manner the matter of allowing foreign students to come back for their studies and maintain communication with relevant parties. I'll refer you to the competent department for more details.

NHK: US President Biden said that the "military's seizure of power" in Myanmar is "a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law" and called on the military to "immediately relinquish the power they have seized", otherwise they will face sanctions from the international community. Does China have a comment?

Wang Wenbin: I just stated China's position on this issue. Any action by the international community should be conducive to Myanmar's political and social stability, peace and reconciliation, and avoid escalating tensions and complicating the situation.

AFP: I have one question about Iran. Yesterday, Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asked the European Union to coordinate US return to the nuclear deal. He said that the EU should play a role. Do you have any comment on that? And could China help the US to return to the nuclear deal as well?

Wang Wenbin: The Iranian nuclear issue is at a crucial juncture. The imperative at the moment is for all parties to accelerate implementation of the consensus reached at last December's foreign ministers' meeting, push for the unconditional return of the United States to the JCPOA as early as possible, its resumption of compliance and elimination of all relevant sanctions. On this basis Iran should resume full compliance. China is following the situation closely and maintaining close communication with all relevant sides. We support a step-by-step and reciprocal approach and will continue to work with relevant parties and the international community to bring the JCPOA back on track and promote the political settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue.




Soldiers and civilians staged joint rallies across North Korea, calling for nationwide cooperation to carry out new policies and decisions made during a recent rare party congress, state media reported Wednesday.







North Korea held the eighth congress of the ruling Workers' Party that ended last week, unveiling a new five-year economic development plan focusing on self-reliance in the face of the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and global sanctions on its regime.







"Joint rallies of soldiers and civilians were held on Tuesday in North Pyongan, North Hwanghae, Jagang and South Hamkyong provinces to perfectly realize the decisions made during the eighth party congress," the Korean Central News Agency said.







The participants, including heads of the ruling party's provincial committees, expressed their unwavering support for the decisions by the congress and had discussions on how to attain the objectives set forth during the gathering, the KCNA added.







They, in particular, pledged to carry out the five-year economic development scheme that leader Kim Jong-un unveiled during the party congress while admitting to shortcomings of his previous development plan.







North Korea's economy has faced multiple challenges, including the border closure due to the global pandemic and biting global sanctions. It was also hit hard by back-to-back summertime typhoons last year.







Despite the announcement of the five-year development plan with great fanfare, the North decided during a subsequent parliamentary meeting to increase its budget for economic projects this year by a mere 0.6 percent, which experts see as indicative of the predicament confronting the country. (Yonhap)


Pipeline

2 February 2021

Deutsche Hospitality and Huazhu are planning a further hotel project in China in the form of a new Steigenberger Hotel in Kunming, a location which is nicknamed the "City of Eternal Spring" because of its temperate climate. The Steigenberger Hotel in Kunming is planned and will be operated by Huazhu, the shareholder of Deutsche Hospitality. Two Steigenberger Hotels in Haiyan on China's East coast were already announced in November, and this latest move now means that the hotel group's portfolio will be gaining an attractive destination in the South-West of the country. Kunming is the capital of Yunnan Province. The new Steigenberger Hotel will offer 300 rooms and forms part of a new tourism centre called Lakeside Town, which is being developed on the banks of Lake Dian. Two Unesco World Heritage Sites are nearby, the Naigu Stone Forest and Suogeyi Village.

"This project represents another milestone for Deutsche Hospitality's growing presence in China," stated Marc Cherrier, COO of Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts at Huazhu. "We are delighted to be contributing to the creation of Lakeside Town by acting as a hotel partner and are very much looking forward to working with the Sunac Culture & Tourism Group. Lakeside Town and Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts share common values. We both stand for sustainable development, and our aim is to make it possible for guests from every region of the world to experience the local culture here." The basis for the Steigenberger Lakeside Town, Kunming, which is scheduled to open in 2024, was set out in an agreement signed in Kunming a few weeks ago by Marc Cherrier, the Sunac Culture & Tourism Group's General Manager Zhang Yunshui and Gao Xujiao, General Manager of the Lakeside Town Project.

Marcus Bernhardt, CEO Deutsche Hospitality, also expressed his pleasure at this joint hotel project in China. "The plans for a new opening in Kunming underline our strategy for expansion and the successful collaboration that is taking place with our shareholder Huazhu. This is a further stage along the route to establishing the elegance, tradition and first class service quality of Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts in Asia. We are looking forward to greeting guests in Kunming in future."

The Lakeside Town Project is a new quarter which will bring together tourism, business, retail and culture. It is taking shape just under an hour's drive from Kunming Airport at Lake Dian, which extends over an area of 300 km and is the largest body of fresh water in the province. Lakeside Town will offer both holidaymakers and business travellers a wealth of leisure opportunities alongside conferencing, meetings, cultural and events services. The nearby city of Kunming boasts a proud history which stretches back for over 2,400 years. Today it is the political, economic and cultural centre of the Province of Yunnan.
Fans Rejoice as Downtown Disneyland Restaurants Emerge From Lockdown

ANAHEIM, Calif.Downtown Disney has begun reopening its restaurants for outdoor dining, much to the delight of theme park fanatics.

It feels great, Marilyn Botzenhardt, a Disneyland annual pass holder in her 70s, told The Epoch Times Feb. 1. Just to be able to walk in here, even though its just on Main Street, is great because we bought our annual passes last year and havent been able to use them.

The restaurants reopened after Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted a regional stay-at-home order that was in place since Dec. 7. Under the order, restaurants could remain open only for take-out orders.

The Disneyland theme park has been closed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last March.

Disney restaurants that reopened include Ballast Point, Naples Ristorante e Bar, Tortilla Jos, and Uva Bar & Cafe, as well as Ralph Brennans Jazz Kitchen. Sprinkles Cupcakes is reportedly planning to reopen Feb. 9.

A family walks by a coronavirus saftey sign at Disneyland California Adventure themepark in Anaheim, Calif., on Feb. 1, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

For customers who have missed the Disney experience for much of the past year, the return of outdoor dining can be a small taste of what an eventual full reopening will be like.

Though most of Disneyland and California Adventure remains closed, Botzenhardt said shes happy she can now get one of her favorite meals: the fried chicken dinner at the Plaza Inn.

This was always my happy place, she said. It is the happiest place, and to be able to come herewe live in Irvine, its like 15 to 20 minutes away, and we just come, and sometimes maybe only come for lunch to spend two or three hours. Were not here the whole day but we just like to go to have fun and talk to everybody.

Customers looking to eat at the theme park are able to make a reservation on Disneys website for outdoor eating at any available restaurant.

Although rides are still closed, customers can go inside California Adventure, where some shops and small snack vendors are open and selling food and beverages.

Customers looking to eat at Buena Vista Street and other areas are strictly required to wear a mask, social distance, and have their temperature taken when entering the park.

Its still unknown when Disneyland and California Adventure will be fully reopening with rides, tours, and other activities.

Meanwhile, one of Disneylands parking lots is being used as a mass COVID-19 vaccination site for Orange County residents.
A Windhoek resident who is accused of 23 offences, including the rape and mutilation of a 10-year-old girl in 2018, pleaded not guilty to all charges yesterday in the High Court before Judge Dinnah Usiku.

Gavin Gawanab did not offer a plea explanation and indicated to the court through his State-funded lawyer that the burden of proof is on the prosecution to prove its case.

Gawanab is accused of attempted murder after strangling the minor girl with intent to murder her, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and a further count of rape of the same victim.

All of this is said to have happened on 26 October 2018 near farm Satan Loch in the Windhoek area.

After allegedly violating the little girl he went into hiding in the mountains surrounding Windhoek, causing a massive manhunt for him. He was on bail for a number of offences at the time of the attack on the minor girl.

It is further alleged that he assaulted another girl near the same farm on 29 September 2018. He allegedly grabbed her by her waist tightly and dragged her, causing injuries.

He also allegedly assaulted another young girl by stabbing her with an arrow and hitting her with his fist on 29 April 2017 in the Havana area of Windhoek before he proceeded to rape her and robbed her of money.

On the same day, the indictment read, Gawanab assaulted another young woman on the same day and in the same area by stabbing her with an arrow.

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He is further facing another count of assault with an intent to cause grievous bodily harm after stabbing another young woman on 2 September 2016 in Havana.

On the same day, he also allegedly threatened to stab another girl at the same location.

It is further alleged that on the same day in the same location Gawanab forced another woman into a room and made her remove all her clothes under duress and attempted to rape her.

He is facing further counts of attempted murder, housebreaking with intent to rape and rape read with the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act for raping another under-aged girl in the same location on 26 September 2015.

He also faces charges of assault by threat and crimen injuria for an incident that happened on 14 May 2013 at farm Oas in the Windhoek District where he swore at two complainants and threatened to stab them with a knife.

It is further alleged that on 22 December 2012 near Daan Viljoen in the Windhoek District, Gawanab attempted to rape another minor girl and tried to murder her by strangulation.

The matter is currently being heard in camera at the child-friendly courtroom at the High Court as most of the complainants are minors. The State is represented by Innocencia Nyoni and the accused by Mbanga Siyomunji on instructions of legal aid.
Bengaluru, Feb 2 : Karnataka is contemplating to ban hookah bars in the state, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said here on Tuesday in the Assembly.

"Few hookah bars operate as part of restaurants while some are standalone in cities such as Bengaluru and Mysuru. Youngsters throng these places. We are seriously thinking to ban hookah bars," Bommai told the Legislative Assembly during Question Hour.

He added that Karnataka was planning to study other states that have banned hookah bars. "We need the cooperation of urban local bodies such as BBMP as they are the licensing authorities," he said, adding that authorities had booked over 70 cases against hookah bars in Bengaluru alone so far this year.

Bommai was responding to a question by Congress' Jayanagar MLA Sowmya Reddy during the Question Hour in the Assembly. She alleged that drugs were available in hookah bars and cafes. "Karnataka needs to have sustained action against drugs. It shouldn't become seasonal when it gets media coverage only once in a while," she said.

JD(S) Magadi MLA A. Manjunath also complained that his constituency had seen mushrooming of hookah bars and cafes after the police started a crackdown on drugs in Bengaluru.

Bommai assured the Assembly that the government's 'war on drugs' will continue. "Drug abuse is present from slums to the elites, educated to the illiterates," he said.

"Drug abuse can seen from slums to even among educated people as an addiction. It is a family issue and we are taking it seriously. We are constantly fighting this. We are going after synthetic drugs found in chocolates and tablets and we are looking to root out how they are coming. We are constantly tracking the dark web and the drug peddlers," he explained.

The minister contended that they (authorities) were constantly raiding and filing cases on hookah bars. "We will discuss with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities and bring in the law for this." Bommai added that in order to make the ban successful, there has to be cooperation between the state government and urban local bodies like the BBMP as they are the licensing authority.

"War on drugs should be a people's movement and teachers and parents should be careful about their students and wards. I urge everyone to join hands in this war against drugs," Bommai appealed.

He added that earlier, only ganja was seized. "But, we are going after synthetic drugs in the form of tablets and chocolates," he said, adding that the number of cases against drugs has gone up from 127 in 2016 to 2,786 in 2020.

This is not the first time that hookah bars have come under the lens of the political class. In 2017, BBMP corporators had also demanded winding up of hookah bars for allegedly allowing minors in their establishments.


remaining of

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Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has relieved the states commissioner of health, Dr Salihu Kwayabura, of his position. ...

Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has relieved the states commissioner of health, Dr Salihu Kwayabura, of his position.

The Governors Special Adviser on Public Relations and Strategy, Malam Isa Gusau, who announced this on Tuesday in Maiduguri, noted that Governor Zulums directive was part of necessary measures to reposition the ministry.

Gusau said in a statement that Governor Zulum expresses gratitude to Dr Salihu Kwayabura for his immense contributions to the development of Bornos public health sector in nearly two years of the current administration, and the years he had served under the previous administration.

The spokesman announced that Governor Zulum has directed his chief of staff, Professor Isa Hussani Marte, who is a professor of pharmacology, a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science with specialty in cancer research, to oversee the states ministry of health pending the appointment of a substantive commissioner.
Source: Adobe/promesaartstudio

Colombian banks are set to form an unlikely alliance, with some of the nations biggest crypto exchanges set to work together on a cryptoasset transactions pilot.

Per Semana, the pilot will, in most cases see crypto exchanges join forces with a bank to test how financial institutions can use crypto to conduct transactions  and whether it can indeed speed payments and improve efficiency.

The pilot will take place within a newly constructed regulatory sandbox, the brainchild of the Financial Superintendence (Superintendencia Financiera or Superfinanciera), one of the nations top financial regulators.

The biggest crypto players have teamed with big-hitting banks, with Banco de Bogota working with Bitso and Buda, while Bancolombia pairs with the Colombian branch of Gemini. Binances Colombian operations, meanwhile, will work with the Davivienda bank and a fintech firm named Powwi.

The neobank Movii will work with Panda and Bitpoint, while the financial services provider Coltefinanciera will team up with Obsidiam, and the digital assets firms Coink and Banexcoin will work together.

Some five other proposed partnerships were rejected by a selection body comprised of Financial Superintendence members, other financial regulators, and members of the presidential office.

The firms will begin on a year-long pilot, and the Superintendence warned that exchange partners must perform due diligence when making decisions to buy and sell cryptoassets in the sandbox, adding that the high standards used in a conventional bank needed to be applied to crypto-related dealings.

And the regulator added that the pilot did not affect the legal status of crypto in the nation, nor did it mean that banks could start pursuing crypto-related business outside the confines of the sandbox.

The plan for the sandbox was outlined last year in a presidential decree.

____

Learn more:

Colombian Watchdog Says Companies Can Convert Capital to Bitcoin

Colombias Financial Sector May Be Allowed to Pilot Crypto Transactions

Over 70% of Surveyed Argentinians Interested in Crypto

Bitcoin Pay Gets Traction in Venezuela While Crypto Gathers Pace in Argentina

Crypto Adoption in 2021: Bitcoin Rules, Ethereum Grows & Faces Rivals

Puerto Rico Neobank the Latest to Unveil Bitcoin, Ethereum Custody Plans
A huge snowstorm brought chaos to the United States' east coast Monday, cancelling thousands of flights, closing schools and forcing the postponement of coronavirus vaccinations as New York City steeled itself for possibly one of its heaviest ever snowfalls.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued storm warnings from Virginia to Maine -- home to tens of millions of people -- as heavy snow mixed with wind gusts up to 50 miles (80 kilometres) per hour spurred blizzard-like conditions along the eastern seaboard.

New York declared a "state of emergency" that restricted non-essential travel moved all children back to remote learning and rescheduled long-awaited vaccine shots as the city braced for almost two feet (60 centimetres) of snow.

Salt trucks and snow ploughs moved out across New York's streets, already quieter than usual due to Covid-19, as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the few children who had returned to pandemic-era classrooms would also stay at home on Tuesday.

"There will be locusts, next, at the rate we're going," quipped de Blasio, who also suspended outdoor dining in the latest blow to the city's beleaguered pandemic-hit restaurants, on MSNBC.

More than 1,600 US flights were cancelled -- mostly at airports in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington -- disrupting travel that has already been heavily curtailed by the pandemic.

Airlines cancelled all flights in and out of LaGuardia Airport and JFK Airport, while 71 per cent of flights were scrapped at Newark Liberty Airport.

- 'Dangerous' -

Covid-19 vaccinations for New York City were also to be halted on Tuesday.

"This is a dangerous, life-threatening situation," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters.

By 4:00 pm Monday, 15.3 inches of snow had been recorded in Central Park, according to the NWS, with eight inches falling in just six hours.

Snowfall was expected to continue into Tuesday morning, with forecasters predicting 20 inches in total before the storm moves northeast through New England.

If that much falls in the Big Apple, then it would become the city's eighth-biggest snowstorm since records began in 1869.

"This is expected to be one of the bigger snowfall events for New York City," Matthew Wunsch, a National Weather Service forecaster, told AFP.

The most snowfall to have blanketed America's commercial capital was 27.5 inches, over three days, in January 2016.

In Washington, where snow and ice formed since Sunday, President Joe Biden postponed a scheduled visit to the State Department due to the conditions.

- Closed roads -

The capital pushed back until Tuesday a planned return to school for tens of thousands of children who have been learning at home for almost a year because of the pandemic.

The heavy snowfall also lashed New Jersey, Philadelphia and Connecticut.

New Jersey issued a state of emergency, allowing authorities to close roads, evacuate homes and commandeer equipment needed for public safety.

"This storm is going to get worse before it gets better," tweeted Governor Phil Murphy, adding that six vaccination mega-sites in the state would remain closed Tuesday.

Philadelphia also declared a snow emergency, closing city government buildings for Monday and ordering residents to move their cars off snow emergency routes so the ploughs can get through.

In a suburb of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a couple in their fifties were shot dead by their neighbour during an argument about moving snow in front of their house, the local police chief told AFP.

The shooter took his own life as police arrived to arrest him, he added.

The storm hit mountainous parts of California with more than six feet of snow and heavy rain last week.

It then moved to the Midwest, dumping about eight inches of snow in Chicago, according to the NWS.

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A fitness trainer has shared her simple method for cooking the perfect cafe-style eggs in just seconds 'every single time'.

Kat Clark, from the Gold Coast, Queensland, said the trick is to pour water into the frying pan around the sunny-side-up eggs, and cover with a lid.

'Let the steam cook on top of the eggs. I usually let it sit for about 30 seconds,' the 33-year-old said in a TikTok video.

'I like my eggs super runny but I hate when the egg whites aren't cooked properly.'

Scroll down for video

Fitness trainer Kat Clark (pictured), from the Gold Coast, Queensland, has shared her simple method for cooking sunny-side-up eggs to perfection in just seconds 'every single time'

She served the egg on a bed of cooked baby spinach and mushrooms.

'The eggs are gooey and it's so good,' Kat said, adding she didn't use any cooking oil because she has a 'really good non-stick pan'.

Dozens were amazed with her simple trick, with many describing it as the 'perfect hack' because they could never cook eggs with a runny yolk right.

'Finally. I like the gooey yellow yolk but hate the egg whites under-cooked,' one said.

One chef said she's worked with plenty of professional cooks in her career but she has never seen eggs being cooked this way.

She said the trick is to pour water into the frying pan around the sunny-side-up eggs, and cover with a lid

She served the egg on a bed of cooked baby spinach and mushrooms

Some said the water isn't necessary because it's 'fried' eggs, not 'poached' eggs.

'I do this all the time but I don't add water. I put the lid on straight away, the egg will actually cook even quicker and you get the same result,' one man said.

And one woman added: 'Woah it's almost like a poached fried egg.'

However, many pointed out the trick works well for frying sunny-side-up, with one chef saying the water helps 'create a convection heat'.

Meanwhile, dozens of people shared their own egg cooking techniques.

'I just flip mine and the yolk is still there. Doesn't get hard. It's just a matter of experience. Eggs cooked on both sides are the best,' one wrote.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif attends a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu (not seen) in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 29, 2021. (Turkish Foreign Ministry /Handout via REUTERS)

Irans Foreign Minister Tells CNN Choreographed Actions Can Bridge Nuclear Deal Impasse

WASHINGTONIranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested during an interview with CNN a way on Monday to overcome the impasse over who goes first in returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, saying a top EU official could synchronize or choreograph the moves.

There can be a mechanism to basically either synchronize it or coordinate what can be done, Zarif told CNN when asked how to bridge the gap.

Each government wants the other to resume compliance first with the agreement, which former U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018 but which President Joe Biden as said he will rejoin if Iran resumed strict compliance.

Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program to make it harder for it to develop nuclear weapons in return for relief from U.S. and other economic sanctions.

Zarif noted the pact created a Joint Commission coordinated by the European Union foreign policy chief, now Josep Borrell. Borrell can  sort of choreograph the actions needed from both sides, Zarif told CNN.

The commission includes the EU and the seven parties to the deal: Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States.

After abandoning the deal, Trump reimposed U.S. sanctions and imposed new U.S. economic penalties on Iran.

Iran said in January last year it would no longer abide by the limits of the 2015 nuclear deal in response to the U.S.-killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. Iran then declared it was enriching uranium up to 20 percent at its Fordo facility on Jan. 4.

Analysts said Zarifs stance might lay the ground for talks on reviving the deal despite Irans prior insistence that the United States lift sanctions first.

It is entirely unsurprising to me that we are hearing, amid a largely uncompromising position from the Iranians, occasional breadcrumbs that will enable them to enter into a negotiation, said Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution.

Zarifs stance was a shift from his position, expressed in a Jan. 22 article in which he said the United States should remove U.S. sanctions before Iran returned to the deal.

By Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay. The Epoch Times contributed to this report.
Will Libya Turn a New Page With New Executive?

The 74-members of the UN-led Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) have selected an interim Prime Minister and President of their new executive council, marking what UN Special Representative Stephanie Williams called another "historic moment" on the road to unification of the war-torn country. The primary task of the "temporary unified executive authority" is to take Libya towards the "sacred goal" of national elections on December 24, 2021, Williams said earlier. In October 2020, a ceasefire deal was signed in Switzerland between forces loyal to the UN-recognized Government of National Accord based in Tripoli, and opposition forces loyal to General Haftar, in the east. Under the terms of that deal, all foreign fighters were expected to leave Libya within three months. It was in Tunis that the LPDF agreed to a "roadmap" for the country, that will define the mandate of the temporary executive.
Financial business district of Raffles Place in Singapore on January 11, 2021. (PHOTO: ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

By Lawrence Loh

The annual national budget day for Singapore is just round the corner on 16 February. It is almost an annual ritual of the Finance Minister presenting the budget in parliament, followed by an intensive series of debate which covers the entire government as well as the respective ministries.

The coming budget will be like no other. It comes at a time after the year-long COVID-19 pandemic which saw an unprecedented four parliamentary budget sessions plus two other finance ministers statements. The total commitment last year was a whopping S$188 billion or 40 per cent of the gross domestic product to support businesses, households and individuals. More significantly, a drawdown to the tune of S$52 billion was made in the national reserves.

As Singapore is readying a transition to a post-COVID era, Budget 2021 will have to adopt a somewhat different stance. To begin with, the wide range of budgetary measures and schemes should not last indefinitely. Budget 2021 has to be a responsible budget.

While Budget 2021 will be a turning point for Singapore, there are three major challenges.

First, is the question of whether to adopt an approach with market as arbiter.

Out of necessity, the budgets of 2020 have focused on providing assistances. This is particularly so in the suite of schemes related to jobs. These include the Jobs Support Scheme which defrays wages, the Jobs Growth Incentive which co-funds new hires and the various measures in the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. Most of the schemes will expire in the first quarter of this year.

The policy dilemma is whether and how to move from an assistance-centric to a more market-based stance. It will not be feasible to sustain many of these schemes indefinitely as they distort labor markets and induce inefficiencies, including the propping up of non-viable and zombie companies.

Second, is the question of the form and extent of safety nets.

If Budget 2021 adopts the rule of market discipline even in a phased manner, measures must be in place to help those which are in so-called strategic sectors like aviation, or who are vulnerable such as older workers.

Story continues

From a public funding angle, the quandary is complex. Many of the schemes have both broad and specific components. It will be difficult to apply industry or demographic criteria as even within each grouping, there are differences in whether the help is deserving. For example, sector-based assistance may be too blunt as companies vary in each of these sector.

More fundamentally, should the government be using public funds to retain business sectors that are not resilient to changes? Also, will prolonged individual safety nets reduce the incentive for hard work? The last thing Singapore probably wants is to become a welfare state.

Third, is the question of the thrust of capacity building.

In the pandemic, it is clear that businesses have to transform or even pivot to new industries. In this light, policy support has been on specific skills development. For example, there are rightly much assistance given to rapid digitalization.

The predicament is how a balance can be made between the ability to address immediate needs and the ability to adapt to new needs. Training has often been on precise plug-and-play skills. In the longer term, however, skills for continuous self-directed skill development will be more critical. Beyond an instruction-manual approach, a playbook is desired. Going forward, capacity building will have to include the skill to learn new skills  this is akin to meta-skills.

In essence, Singapores Budget 2021 will have to address the triple-issue of a right market approach intertwined with purposeful safety nets in the shorter term and calibrated capacity building in the longer term.

Budget 2021 will be a watershed for Singapore to steer the turning-point into a post-COVID world.

Lawrence Loh is Director, Centre for Governance and Sustainability and Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy at NUS Business School, National University of Singapore
Jammu, Feb 2 : Pakistan troops again violated ceasefire through unprovoked firing with small arms and shelling with mortars on the Line of Control (LoC) on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Devender Anand said that the ceasefire was violated in Mankote Sector around 2.45 pm, to which the Indian Army retaliated befittingly.

Pakistan had violated the ceasefire in the same Sector on Monday as well.

Pakistan has been violating the bilateral ceasefire agreement signed with India in 1999. Lives of thousands of people living in border villages along the LoC in J&K have become miserable because of cross-border shelling that endangers human lives, cattle, property and agricultural fields.
TIRUPATI: Netizens started a new meme-fest on microblogging sites soon after union finance minister Nirmala Seetharaman tabled the Union Budget 2021 in Parliament on Monday.

With increase in fuel prices presented in the budget, majority of people have been left disappointed. This has led to them sharing their concerns on social media through memes and trolls.

As Nirmala Seetharaman is married to Parakala Prabhakar, who belongs to a noted political family that held key positions in united AP, Telugu people had pinned high hopes on the union budget, expecting funds and announcements for the state. However, their hopes got dashed.

This made netizens mock the budget. Taking out references from popular movies, they shared hilarious posts. They referred to scenes from movies like Mr. Bean, Golmaal, 3 Idiots and so on. Posts also differentiated between commerce and science students in understanding the budget.

The most interesting of the meme was from a user of Andhra Pradesh, who linked the union budget to Madanapalli double murder case. Chudagane #bhakths motham satyalokam loniki vellipoyaru, which means  On seeing the budget, all devotees had gone into Satyalokam.

The meme, which has GIF of Mr. Bean, also carried the following  Eeyyyyyyy ee budget pettindi meme (This budget was presented by us), Modi is coming, Amithsha is coming, Work is done, thanks to nirmalakkai (Nirmala sister) elevation.
Ford to Discuss Results for Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2020 with J.P. Morgan Securities

Senior leaders from Ford (News - Alert) will discuss the fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 operating environment and the company's financial results, which will be released this Thursday, during a fireside chat hosted by J.P. Morgan Securities auto analyst Ryan Brinkman. The discussion will take place Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 11 a.m. EST.

The discussion will also focus on Ford's electrification strategy, global redesign, 2021 outlook, and updates on recently launched products like F-150, Bronco Sport and Mustang Mach-E.

The webcast will feature:

John Lawler, chief financial officer

Hau Thai-Tang, chief product platform and operations officer

Lynn Antipas Tyson, executive director, Investor Relations

Participants are encouraged to register for the webcast in advance here. Information is also available at shareholder.ford.com.







About Ford Motor Company (News - Alert)

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification; mobility solutions, including self-driving services; and connected services. Ford employs approximately 187,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit corporate.ford.com.

For news releases, related materials and high-resolution photos and video, visit www.media.ford.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006111/en/
Hope for mobile operators as roaming revenues in 2022 forecast to exceed $33 billion. International travel in 2021 predicted to remain 60% lower than pre-covid levels

New research from leading roaming research experts Kaleido Intelligence predicts that global same-day and overnight international travel trips will reach 830 million in 2021, before exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels in 2024.

Following the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, international travel trips fell by 73% in 2020, leading to over 1.5 billion fewer trips worldwide. With overall prospects for a travel recovery in 2021 remaining low, any increased activity is expected only from Q3 2021.

Hope for Operators as Roaming Revenues Predicted to Rise By 120% in 2022, Driven by Data Traffic Growth

Kaleido Intelligence's Roaming Data Hub Q4 2020 research found that the Coronavirus impact on travel resulted in a decline of consumer roaming revenues by 64% in 2020, with Asia-Pacific and Europe witnessing the greatest level of depreciation amongst global regions. In comparison, IoT roaming revenues continued to grow in 2020, driven by existing IoT roaming devices.

However, as travel recovery begins, inbound and outbound roaming revenues from consumer and IoT connections will grow 120% from 2020 to exceed $33 billion in 2022.

Nitin Bhas, Chief of Strategy Insights at Kaleido Intelligence added: "With retail and wholesale roaming revenues being significantly impacted, these are testing times for operators around the world. MNOs continue to work on necessary steps to protect roaming revenues in the short and medium-term by renegotiating wholesale agreements or focusing on new IoT services. Nonetheless, long-term prospects stay unimpacted with roaming data traffic predicted to match 2019 levels by 2022".

Kaleido forecasts that consumer mobile and IoT data roaming traffic will exceed pre-COVID-19 levels as early as 2022. Traffic will witness an average annual growth of 41% over the next four years to exceed 2,200 Petabytes in 2025.

Mobileum, BICS, TOMIA and Vodafone Assessed Number 1 Providers of Roaming Services

Mobileum, BICS, TOMIA and Vodafone were scored the number 1 providers of roaming services across 7 categories covering Steering of Roaming, Sponsored Roaming, Roaming Hubs, IPX, Data Financial Clearing, Analytics Value-Added Service and Fraud Management Security.

Kaleido's latest Mobile Roaming Vendor Hub H1 2021 analysed 37 leading roaming vendors. The scoring methodology focused on categorising vendors according to their product leadership, unique market positioning, problem-solving capabilities, innovation leadership and finally, how vendors are positioned to meet critical operator needs and requirements.

Quotes from No 1 Ranked Roaming Vendors

Mikael Schachne, BICS CMO VP of Mobility and IoT Business: "We are thankful to Kaleido and the operator community for reaffirming BICS' market leadership position in Roaming, Fraud, IPX and Analytics. Our focus throughout our solutions is to help operators optimise and protect their business, while generating new revenue streams."

Sherif Bakir, Director of Vodafone Roaming Services: "Vodafone's commitment to connecting people for a better future is exemplified by its leadership in roaming technologies and services, and by ensuring the satisfaction of our customers wherever they are."

Kishore Vangipuram, Mobileum Head of Roaming: "This award recognises our market-leading solutions for Steering of Roaming, Analytics and Fraud and Security Management, highlighting our unique capabilities to address emerging roaming opportunities and to protect operators' revenue streams."

Andrei Elefant, TOMIA CPO: "Being ranked #1 for our Clearing Services and Champions for our Network Services validates the power of our Platform."

Read the full press release on our website for further details on all Champion vendors

14 of the 37 companies achieved a Champion Vendor status across one or more of the seven service categories, demonstrating a leading product range and the highest quality of service to enable operator success. A further 8 companies achieved a High Flyer vendor status, recognising their high-quality roaming solutions.

The leadership scoring analysis for 37 roaming vendors is summarised in Kaleido's Mobile Roaming Vendor Hub H1 2021 report, along with an impartial assessment of company strengths and opportunities.

View our online Vendor Hub for free information on all 37 Vendors, including Champion High Flyer Vendors, company overviews and product offerings

About Kaleido Intelligence

Kaleido Intelligence is a specialist consulting and market research firm with a proven track record delivering telecom research at the highest level. Kaleido Intelligence is the only research company addressing mobile roaming in its entirety, covering:

Data Forecasts by Market

Historical Forecast Viewpoints

Competitive Intelligence

Strategic Insight

Trend Analysis

Research is led by expert analysts, each with significant experience delivering telco research and insights that matter.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005064/en/

Contacts:

For further details on this press release contact:

Jon King.

jon.king@kaleidointelligence.com


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A state of emergency has been declared in New Jersey and several parts of New York after a powerful Nor'easter and winter storm pummeled the east coast and New England, halting flights, forcing the close down of vaccination units and paralyzing normal life in New York City.



The United States' first major winter storm of 2021 is expected to dump up to two feet of snow to New York City and other parts of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. It has projected a level five impact on New York City.



New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in New York City as well as 44 other counties as the winter storm is producing large amounts of snow and creating dangerous travel conditions. It is expected to continue into Tuesday.



He announced that mass vaccination sites at SUNY Stony Brook, Jones Beach, Aqueduct Racetrack, the Javits Center and the Westchester County Center will remain closed Tuesday. The health workers and individuals who were scheduled to receive a vaccination will get their appointments rescheduled 'when conditions are safer,' he said in a press release.



Hundreds of flights have been cancelled at major airports, including Newark Liberty International Airport, New York's John F Kennedy Airport, La Guardia Airport, and Philadelphia International Airport.



All commercial flights at John F. Kennedy Airport were canceled Monday afternoon due to the storm.



Amtrak suspended services to Boston and Albany from New York City.



New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio issued an order closing public schools on Tuesday.



New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy suspended the state's bus and rail operations.



The following are the amount of snow dumped in the worst affected East Coast cities: Mendham, NJ, 30 inches; Whitehall Twp, PA, 23.5 inches; Spring Valley, NY, 21 inches; Sabillasville, MD, 19 inches; Bridgeport, CT, 15.2 inches; and Sheffield, MA, 10.6 inches.



NWS Weather Prediction Center has forecast widespread heavy snow, gusty winds, near blizzard conditions and coastal impacts across the region from Pennsylvania to Maine, including the Philadelphia, New York, and Boston metro areas.



The heaviest snow is expected over parts of northern New York into northern Maine. Additionally, it is forecast that rain or freezing rain will develop over parts of Coastal New England today.



People in the impacted areas have been advised to avoid travel.



The White House said that the President's Homeland Security Advisor, Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall, convened a coordination call with the Acting FEMA Administrator and the Director of the National Weather Service on the storm system.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Some bakeries and pastry shops in Bamako, the Malian capital, on Monday began unilaterally a 48-hour strike to denounce the rise in the price of flour since last week, from 17,000 to 20,000 CFAF per 50kg bag, PANA reports
Residents ages 65 or over in Pike, Schuyler and Brown counties have a second option to receive the COVID-19 vaccination this week through an agreement with Adams County Health Department.

Though the health departments in each of those counties is providing vaccinations, their smaller staffs are having trouble keeping pace with the large demand.

Right now, we have more than 1,700 people that are 65 and over on our pre-registered list, said Sharon Bargmann, Pike County Health Departments nursing director. When we can only do 200 to 300 a week, that is something that would take a long time.

Adams County, by comparison, has a larger staff and a larger allocation of vaccine doses, because it also has the ultra-cold storage the Pfizer vaccine requires. Many smaller departments dont have that kind of storage, she said.

Adams County has the ability to do up to 1,200 vaccinations a day, so they are able to get through those people a lot quicker, even taking on other counties, Bargmann said.

Through a partnership between the three counties and Adams County Health Department, the Adams department will provide Pike, Schuyler and Brown counties residents with vaccinations this week at the Oakley Lindsay Center, 300 Civic Center Plaza in Quincy.

Because of its limitations, Pike Countys vaccination focus currently is on people ages 80 or above, with other age categories to follow.

Those 65 or older who are willing to go to Adams County to receive the vaccine can register by calling 217-600-4829 or by going to the Adams County Health Department website.

Though Pike County has partnered with Adams County, those who cant make the trip to Quincy still will be able to receive the vaccine through Pike County Health Department; it just may take more time, Bargmann said.

She is hopeful that pharmacies soon will be vaccinating the general population, which would take some of the burden off of local health departments, she said.

Those who would like to get the vaccine through Pike County Health Department can contact the department at 217-285-4407 or online through the departments website.

Brown County Health Department can be contacted at 217-773-2714. Schuyler County Health Department can be contacted at 217-322-6775.
Tamil Nadu: Palk Bay fishing dispute: Casting the net in a sea of conflict

by Meera Srinivasan, C. Jaisankar, L Srikrishna and R Rajaram

February 01,2021 | Source: The Hindu

Four fishermen from Ramanathapuram district are the latest casualties in the decades-old Palk Bay fisheries conflict between India and Sri Lanka. L. Srikrishna, C. Jaisankar, R. Rajaram and Meera Srinivasan report on the human cost of the issue touching on bilateral ties, livelihoods, and ecological concerns. Samson Darwin was a toddler when his family fled their home in Jaffna in the 1990s, to escape the civil war that was tearing apart Sri Lankas north and east. Mandapam camp in Ramanathapuram became their home. Away from incessant bombing and destruction, they thought they had another chance at life. Last week, 28-year-old Darwins body was brought back home after he and three other fishermen died in the Palk Strait, in Sri Lankan waters. Darwins wife (they got married just a year ago) had given birth to their first child weeks before that, and just as their new life as a family was about to begin, his life ended.



Darwin fled the civil war nearly 25 years ago but the adversity that began chasing him then came a full circle that fatal night. After escaping the battle in Sri Lanka, we came here [Ramanathapuram]... but Darwin died in the hands of the Sri Lankan Navy, a relative says, requesting anonymity. He echoes the grief that pervades their village following the tragic death of Darwin, along with A. Mesiya (30), V. Nagaraj (52) and S. Senthil Kumar (32), all hailing from Ramanathapuram, on the night of January 18. Outraged by the incident, Tamil Nadu fishermen have accused the Sri Lankan Navy, which was patrolling the seas for poaching fishing trawlers, of killing the four men. The Sri Lankan Navy, on the other hand, maintains that the fishermen and their boat sank while resisting arrest by a Navy vessel.



The Indian government conveyed its strong protest to Sri Lanka, and insisted it adopt a humanitarian approach in dealing with fishermen. Sri Lankas Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda, a Tamil from Jaffna, set up a three-member committee tasked with finding a permanent solution to the Palk Bay fisheries conflict, affecting fishermen of Tamil Nadu and northern Sri Lanka. None of the official statements mentions a probe being sought or agreed to. The four Tamil Nadu fishermen and the Sri Lankan Naval personnel alone were witnesses to what happened late that night, mid-sea, and only one side is alive to tell their story.



A long-festering problem



What wrong did my brother do? He was unarmed and he has been brutally killed, says A. Simon, Mesiyas older brother, in his thatch-roofed hut in Thangachimadam, a predominantly fishing village in Ramanathapuram. Whenever we set out fishing we pray that we return home safely, irrespective of whether the catch is good or not. The innocent fishermens end is horrifying.



That too at sea, to which their lives are so intimately tied. Fisherfolk wake up to the sound of the sea, head to the waters for a living, come back to the shore, catch some sleep at odd hours, again with the reassuring sound of the waves. After fishing for about 30 hours, we return to the shore. On many days, the Sri Lankan Navy, under the pretext of surveillance, chases us. Sometimes they throw stones at our boats or hurl empty liquor bottles, says another fisherman mourning Mesiyas death. Fishermens representatives in Tamil Nadu accuse the Sri Lankan Navy of injuring hundreds of fishermen over the years. About 300 of our fishermen have died in the Palk Strait, says P. Sesu Raja, Rameswaram-based leader of a fishermens association engaged mostly in bottom trawling. The Sri Lankan Navy has consistently denied the mounting allegations  through the years of the war and since it ended in 2009.



While the cause of death of the deceased fishermen has never been established in a court of law, the fact that these young fishermen died at sea remains a grim reminder of the human cost of the Palk Bay fisheries conflict. Their distressing death, when they were out at sea to earn a days living, is yet another stark reflection of a long-festering problem  of depleting marine resources in the Palk Bay, competing livelihoods of fishermen, and a solution that remains elusive, as the fishermen on both sides are unable to agree on it. Tamil Nadu fishermen are not a homogenous group with the same interests. They are part of a complex ecosystem of moneyed and often politically influential owners of trawler fleets who engage other fishermen; of those who practise traditional fishing in their small, mechanised boats; and thousands of poor fishermen who have only their labour to sell in order to survive. Depending on who you ask, a different aspect of the problem comes to light.



Like Sesu Raja, most owners of the 5,000-plus registered trawlers say that the Sri Lankan Navy attacked our fishermen, arrested them, or seized their vessels. Daily wage fishermen speak of the enormous pressure on them to risk their lives and go as far as it takes to get a decent catch that would ensure a days earnings in full. Arockia Sesu, 47, from Thangachimadam, who has been fishing for 29 years, says he makes about ?700 on a good day. With a family of five, including his elderly mother and two children, making both ends meet is no easy task. Earlier, it was just poverty which we had to battle. But in recent years, we also have to safeguard ourselves from the Sri Lankan Navys aggression, he says.



Straying in international waters



Despite the GPS units attached to their boats, the fishermen often stray into Sri Lankas territorial waters, across the International Maritime Boundary Line, mutually agreed upon by the neighbouring countries in the mid-1970s. India embraced mechanised fishing using bottom trawlers, after its fishing fleet was modernised between the 1950s and the early 1970s, with millions of dollars from the Norwegian government. In the fishing method of bottom trawling, fishermen drag large nets from the vessels through the sea, virtually scooping out young fishes, shrimps and other organisms from the seabed indiscriminately. Some use thangoosi valai or monofilament nets, widely considered harmful for marine species. The catch, using these methods, has proved significantly higher, boosting the States exports. Data from the Fisheries Department show that Tamil Nadu exports about 1.28 lakh tonnes of sea food, amounting to ?5,591 crore.



For the export-oriented governments at the Centre and State, and profit-driven owners of trawlers, the practice gradually became an addiction despite the serious environmental implications along the Tamil Nadu coast, periodically highlighted by scientists. Small-scale fishermen, too, bear the brunt. In Pudukkottai district, further up the coast, small-scale fishermen spoke of how the trawlers have struck a huge blow to their livelihoods. They [trawlers] return with huge catches thus depleting the marine resources and depriving the smaller mechanised boat fishermen of Pudukkottai district of good catch, said B. Balamurugan, president of the Mechanised Boats Association in Jagadapattinam, from where over 200 mechanised boats using traditional fishing practices operate.



The trawlers are not just at the centre of an international conflict but have also bred local conflicts, points out Chinna Adaikkalam, President of the Kottaipattinam Mechanised Boat Owners Association. The longer-sized and higher capacity Karaikal trawlers have resorted to long durations of fishing, for almost 15 days, leaving hardly anything for us in our seas, he says. Intuitively chasing fish, Tamil Nadu fishermen employed in the larger, mechanised trawlers regularly veer into Sri Lankan waters. The ecological damage is comparatively less on the Sri Lankan side because most Sri Lankan fishermen do not engage in bottom trawling. It is the prospect of a bigger catch that pushes Tamil Nadu fishermen to risk encountering arrest by the Sri Lankan Navy or worse, death.



Strained livelihoods and ties



Over time, Sri Lankan fishermen grew more vocal about the adverse effects of bottom trawling along their coastline. Their catches fell, and livelihoods were threatened. Fishermen on both sides speak of a time when they shared cordial ties. We would call each other machaan and maapilai [brother-in-law and son-in-law]. We would share our porridge, karuvaadu [dried fish] and beedis. They would give us cigarettes and biscuits, Sesu Raja recalls. Sri Lankan fishermen too reminisce about a time when they took an overnight boat journey to catch the latest M.G. Ramachandran film in Rameswaram and return the following day. But the Sri Lankan civil war and the growing use of mechanised bottom trawlers in India have strained their ties. For a good part of the nearly three-decade civil war, fishermen in the northern Jaffna peninsula and the Vanni were barred access to the sea, as the Sri Lankan Navy, along with the armed forces, was taking on the LTTE. It is when the war ended in 2009 that the fisherfolk, most of them displaced in the years of strife, returned to their homes, and gradually began to rebuild their lost livelihoods. However, their return to sea was far from smooth: they found their catch dwindling after Indian trawlers ravaged their seas at least thrice a week, and their nets, often bought with huge loans, getting caught and damaged under the trawlers.



The Sri Lankan Navy stepped up surveillance, arresting fishermen and seizing trawlers trespassing into Sri Lankan waters. Since 2010, more than 3,000 Indian fishermen, all from Tamil Nadu, have been arrested by the Navy. As of today, 12 fishermen and more than 60 trawlers are in Sri Lankan custody. The issue has remained a sensitive bilateral issue, but the Central, State and provincial governments in India and Sri Lanka have achieved little success, besides paying lip service, fishermen note with distrust. Sri Lanka banned bottom trawling in 2017, and in 2018, imposed large fines on foreign vessels fishing illegally in its waters. While arrested fishermen have been released periodically, at times after a considerable diplomatic push by New Delhi, the 60-odd trawlers seized since remain in custody. Their owners in India are yet to come to Sri Lanka, to appear in court and pay the fine, before reclaiming the vessels, say officials in Sri Lankas Fisheries Department.



Options tried and tested



Talks at the governmental level, as well as among fishermen, have not resulted in a durable solution. With heightened surveillance and increased arrests making news in late 2020, India and Sri Lanka resumed bilateral talks, after a three-year gap, in December 2020, through a Joint Working Group with senior officials from both sides. Apart from government-level talks, fishermen leaders from both countries have held discussions several times since 2004. They met at least six times between 2010 and 2015  in both India and Sri Lanka  when the Palk Bay conflict intensified. Tamil Nadu fishermen could not keep their promise of phasing out trawlers, and also refused to agree to Sri Lankan fishermens demand that bottom trawling be fully stopped as a goodwill gesture. Talks remain deadlocked since.



It is not possible to find a solution to the five-decades-old vexatious issue in two or three sittings. No follow-up action has been taken to resume talks for so long. Governments are receptive and react only when fishermen are killed or arrested in Sri Lankan waters, says U. Arulanandam, Tamil Nadus representative of the Alliance for the Release of Innocent Fishermen, a long-time activist based in Pamban, Ramanathapuram. While a section of fishermen in Pudukkottai and Ramanathapuram districts is for restarting talks, fisher leaders in Sri Lanka remain sceptical. We are really pained by the recent death of Indian fishermen. We are all fishermen first, only then Indian or Sri Lankan. We fully understand their suffering, we are in solidarity with them and want to put an end to this, says K. Rajachandran, who leads a fisher cooperative in Karainagar, a small island off the Jaffna peninsula.



At the same time, he calls for more sincerity in trying to come up with a solution. I have been for several rounds of these talks. Despite many assurances to phase out trawlers, they continued coming in trawlers very close to our shore. If they agree to use small boats and traditional fishing methods, we are more than willing to come to the table to work out an arrangement to share our resources responsibly. That is the only way our future generations can live, he says, insisting that stopping the use of trawlers be a pre-condition for future talks.



Unlike the state, fisher leaders do not talk in terms of invisible boundary lines in the sea, or the law that deems their fishing illegal, unreported and unregulated. They appear more inclined towards a humane and practical arrangement that will address their short-term concerns of securing their livelihoods, as well as the long-term interest of preserving the marine organisms in the Palk Bay. The use of bottom trawlers has to be stopped fully. Northern fishermen here, whose livelihoods were devastated by a long-drawn civil war, are frustrated that despite their struggle over many years, the problem of bottom trawling by Tamil Nadu has not ended, says Ahilan Kadirgamar, senior lecturer at the University of Jaffna, who researches fisherfolks livelihoods in Sri Lankas war-affected region. There could be more rounds of talks and a promise of a permanent solution, but how can you really resolve this crisis without addressing the fundamental problem that is bottom trawling, he asks.



Further, the Indian trawlers have spawned a fleet of relatively smaller, but still destructive trawlers in Jaffna, Rajachandran notes with concern. We dont oppose trawlers because they are from India. We oppose trawlers from Jaffna [there are some 500] as well. It is the destructive practice we are against, not the fishermen engaging in it. Some others like Annalingam Annarasa, leader of the federation of fisher cooperative societies in Jaffna, want to give talks another chance. Honestly, this is not an issue between two countries, or one between the Tamil Nadu fishermen and the Sri Lankan Navy. It is fundamentally an issue threatening the livelihoods of Tamil fishermen in both India and Sri Lanka. We need to work together with mutual understanding and solidarity, says Annarasa. We need to form an alliance with small-scale fishermen in Tamil Nadu and together raise awareness about the dire consequences of bottom trawling. That could be a starting point for talks.



Solution in sight?



Meanwhile, a project of the Indian government, aimed at weaning Tamil Nadu fishermen off trawlers and diverting them to deep-sea fishing methods, took off in 2017, but has hardly progressed as planned. Both New Delhi and Tamil Nadu, implementing the ?1,600 crore initiative, hoped to replace at least 2,000 trawlers with deep sea fishing boats with long lines and gill nets. However, less than a tenth of that target has been achieved, The Hindu reported in December. According to Johny Tom Varghese, Project Director Palk Bay and Additional Director (Fisheries) in Tamil Nadu, deep sea fishing will eventually be lucrative, though it is capital-intensive. A fisherman who invests his money in a deep sea fishing boat can break even in about 18 months. We are training them. We have signed 103 agreements with individuals under the scheme, he says. Those grappling with the shift from trawlers to deep sea vessels are also confronted with rising costs. In Sesu Rajas view, the 70% subsidy, together from the Centre and State, for the deep sea fishing boats, is insufficient. The governments had worked out the cost at ?80 lakh per boat, while it is almost ?1.20 crore today, he observes.



Pointing to the schemes very slow progress, Arulanandam says, If it is implemented within a year or two, I hope it can offer a possible solution. But the governments should make sure of buying back all existing trawlers. The fishermen in Kottaipattinam and Jagadapattinam villages in Pudukkottai too complain that while the government is taking steps to introduce deep sea fishing, the old boats are yet to be weeded out. The proposal to shift fishermen of Kottaipattinam, Jagadapattinam and Rameswaram towards deep sea fishing has not picked up, fishermen say. There have not been many takers for fish farming in the Gulf of Mannar, either. The hype following the successful demonstration of fish farming by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute in Mandapam was short-lived. The Fisheries Department seized mechanised boats used for pair trawling on several occasions, but the punitive actions could not eliminate the practice fully. The deep divisions among various fishing groups and frequent agitations have put the brakes on enforcing strict regulations, according to fishermen.



As the campaign in election-bound Tamil Nadu picks up, the issues of fishermen, who constitute a sizeable electorate in coastal districts, will take centre stage again. The real challenge for fishermen on both sides is to keep this issue in focus even after the polls, says Annarasa, reflecting a similar sentiment heard in Tamil Nadu about not allowing politicians to exploit our situation. At one level, the problem at hand is historical, complex and layered. At another, it is about sustaining and sharing finite marine resources in the Palk Strait, a narrow strip of water, just over 100 km at its widest, separating south India and northern Sri Lanka. As fishermen repeatedly point out, at the heart of this persisting conflict is their insecurity about their livelihoods and futures. Elections come and go, but that is yet to be decisively addressed.
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[February 02, 2021] TVSquared's ADvantage XP First to Bring Standardized, Cross-Platform Measurement & Outcomes to TV

TVSquared announced today the launch of ADvantage XP, the premier tier of its ADvantage analytics platform, built to provide scalable, uniform measurement across channels, platforms, devices and identity partners. With trusted, independent attribution, and direct relationships with advertisers, DSPs, publishers, agencies and MVPDs, ADvantage XP measures the effectiveness of TV advertising through an infinitely scalable platform for linear, addressable and OTT/CTV. ADvantage XP provides unduplicated reach, and quantifies reach extension by channel and platform to inform optimizations and audience activations. Whether direct-to-consumers (DTCs) or more traditional advertisers, ADvantage XP serves up always-on analytics for impression-based advertising and ties every media dollar back to outcomes. With household-level precision for all forms of TV, ADvantage XP tracks the customer journey and helps advertisers find the right audiences and inventory to drive growth. With a safe and compliant one-to-one deterministic platform that does not use third-party cookies, ADvantage XP links census-level media exposure data to consumer response to measure reach and frequency, reach extension, outomes and audience segments for further activation. Foundational to ADvantage XP is TVSquared's robust network of direct publisher integrations and data partnerships, which solve for identity and power TV measurement for all impressions delivered across platforms and screens.



A fully automated platform, ADvantage XP offers a host of new options for advertisers: Cross-channel: Track and analyze performance of TV ads served across linear and digital channels, including all traditional and programmatic inventory. Cross-platform: From one to many, measure across publisher platforms to quantify unique reach, and determine how to effectively find and reach the right audience to drive KPIs, including sales, brand lift and offline outcomes. Cross-screen: Leverage secure and compliant household-graph technology to track and measure viewing across all screens - from smart TVs to laptops and mobile devices. "TV is now able to match digital in terms of targeting and accountability, as advertisers, agencies and publishers lean into one-to-one deterministic data, targeting and measurement," said Jo Kinsella, President, TVSquared. "ADvantage XP serves the entire TV landscape with immediate results of creative performance, frequency caps and conversions, and covers every channel, platform, device and identity partner. It is the industry standard for TV's watershed year, where cross-platform ad investments will soar."

With strategic partnerships across major TV markets, and advertisers live in more than 75 countries, TVSquared goes beyond traditional panel sizes and probabilistic methods to deliver converged TV analytics and attribution at a global scale. About TVSquared TVSquared is the global leader in cross-platform TV ad measurement. Our ADvantage platform empowers thousands of advertisers in more than 75 countries to inform TV media strategies and drive business growth. We measure reach, attribution and outcomes, and help identify the right audiences. TVSquared measures TV how people watch it - across screens and platforms. Learn more at www.tvsquared.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005709/en/

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State and local elected officials reacted quickly to the deaths of George Floyd and other African Americans at the hands of police last year by passing a raft of new laws and enacting new policies to reduce police violence against civilians. While those measures seek to change police practices from the top down, reformers' next step should be to work from the bottom up to enhance police accountability through collective bargaining processes.Opportunities abound. Major cities, including Houston and St. Paul, are currently renegotiating their collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) covering police. Other major cities with police union contracts expiring this summer include Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Phoenix and San Francisco. Chicago has been in the midst of heated contract negotiations between the local police union and Mayor Lori Lightfoot.CBAs determine many police department policies, and are typically renegotiated every three to five years. The stakes are high: America's 20 cities and counties with the largest police departments paid over $2 billion to settle claims of officer misconduct between 2015 and 2020.CBAs too often protect bad cops and keep them on the beat until something tragic happens. This is because CBAs detail the procedures by which officers can file grievances against superiors, the steps in misconduct investigations, how civilians can file complaints and the keeping of officer performance records. All of these add up to significant officer job protections and constraints on police leadership, especially related to misconduct and discipline.Today's CBAs have been long in the making. Over multiple rounds of negotiations, the number of job protections has slowly ratcheted up in many contracts as unions representing police pushed for rules that protect their members. For officers, job protections are highly valuable. Getting sacked mid-career can kick former officers out of the middle class, as the skills they've acquired are not easily transferrable to other jobs. Management, on the other hand, has too often seen job protections as something to be traded away in place of raising salaries or benefits. Wage or benefit increases cost money in current dollars; job protections don't.To improve department operations, policymakers need to comb through current contracts, review existing and past practices, and devise strategies to weed out obstacles to accountability. As outlined in a new Manhattan Institute paper , reformers need to prioritize removing obstacles to the receipt of civilian complaints and their investigation, the determination of any penalties, and the keeping of good records. That means focusing on the following areas of their existing CBAs:Grievance procedures allow officers disciplined by superiors to challenge their actions. The potential problem is that by empowering officers to push back against management, they decrease superiors' incentive to make tough decisions because they do not want to fight grievances.Arbitrators have power over contested disciplinary cases. Arbitrators can overturn decisions made by police department leadership, even reinstating officers who have been fired, sometimes with back pay. But overturning leadership decisions can undermine accountability. It's hardly legitimate to accuse a chief of running a department poorly if multiple officers who would have been disciplined or dismissed are pardoned or reinstated by arbitration panels.It's vital to review CBAs to ensure that they aren't erecting too many barriers to civilians identifying bad cops through misconduct reporting. Easing misconduct reporting will inevitably lead to more frivolous and false accusations and more time wasted investigating them, but it is arguably worth the trade-off if it makes civilians feel that they can be heard and taken seriously  an important step to improving community trust in the police.Collective bargaining agreements often detail the processes by which any complaint is investigated. However, some steps in this process can tilt the playing field too far in favor of the accused officer. It is also important to determine whether current processes lead disciplinary cases to be decided on procedural rather than substantive grounds.Policymakers should push to store officers' disciplinary records in searchable electronic databases. The too-common practice of purging of officer records deprives supervisors of accurate information necessary for managing their organizations effectively. However, to ensure that officers are not held overly liable for unsubstantiated allegations or misconduct from long ago, departments should develop rules for who can consult past records and how they can be used.As the ink dries on the new laws, reformers should not rest on their laurels. To make further change palatable to officers and their unions, policymakers will need to offer things that can help recruit and retain officers, such as higher starting pay or more flexible retirement arrangements.Ultimately, communities, police officers and departments will all benefit if the links in the chain of accountability are stronger and tighter. Improving accountability is an important step toward reducing unnecessary use of force, changing public perceptions of police departments and bolstering community trust in the police.GoverningGoverning
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2021 ) :Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Pakistan Atadjan Movlamov here on Tuesday said that his country possessed the world's 2nd largest gas reserves and was ready to provide 3000 MW electricity to Pakistan.

The electricity would cost Pakistan almost half of its current energy price helping its industry to achieve better growth, he added while giving a presentation to the business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on potential areas of bilateral cooperation between Turkmenistan and Pakistan.

He identified 1840-km TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline, 1635 Km optic fibre line and power transmission line as potential areas of strong cooperation between Turkmenistan and Pakistan and added that materialization of these mega project would bring multiple benefits to the economy of Pakistan. He said that Turkmenistan would start construction of the TAPI gas pipeline this year up to the Herat Province of Afghanistan.

He said Turkmenistan could also supply LPG to Pakistan.

Atadjan Movlamov said that Turkmenistan was waiting for the visit of Pakistani business community after the COVID-19 pandemic to explore new avenues of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

He said that lack of direct trade between Pakistan and Turkmenistan was a major hurdle in promoting two-way trade volume.

He said that being a landlocked country, Turkmenistan considered Gwadar port and Karachi port very important to promote its trade and exports with other countries.

He said that Afghanistan provided the shortest trade route to Pakistan for Turkmenistan and establishment of peace in Afghanistan would enable both countries to promote bilateral trade up to their actual potential.

He said that Pakistan was poised to become a hub of economic activities in the region and Turkmenistan was keen to strengthen its trade ties with it.

He said that Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan should consider signing of a transit trade agreement that would help in promoting trade volume between them.

Speaking at the occasion, ICCI President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that current level of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Turkmenistan was much less than the potential of both countries, therefore, both should focus on developing strong business linkages between their private sectors to improve bilateral trade.

He also urged the need that Pakistan and Turkmenistan consider signing a free trade agreement to address hurdles and increase trade ties.

He said that regular exchange of business delegations and organizing trade exhibitions on reciprocal basis must be encouraged for further promotion of trade and economic relations.

He also urged the stakeholders to make strenuous efforts to establish peace in Afghanistan that would open a short route for Pakistan to Central Asian countries.

He said that after the coronavirus, ICCI would consider taking a delegation to Turkmenistan to explore new avenues of bilateral cooperation.

Healys greatest strength is his eye for the procedural details  the who, what, when and where of the Soul City story. Yet his book is a lost opportunity. My goal in telling the story of Soul City is not to assign blame, he writes. It is to understand the forces that led to its downfall and the lessons it offers for the pursuit of racial equality today. As someone who has spent a career writing about racial equality, I can promise you that it is impossible to further that cause without assigning blame, and Healys reticence on this point ultimately makes Soul City a soulless book.

One part of the problem is Healys reluctance to contextualize the case of Soul City. He acknowledges racism generally but presents the slow and inevitable collapse of the project as though it were separate from the wider phenomenon of institutionalized inequality. Nixon was a booster of Soul City, yet it was his administration, through the grant-giving powers of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, that provided the seed money for the criminal justice juggernaut that we are now working to dismantle. Under Nixon, the agencys budget more than tripled, to $850 million.

That Soul Citys fate is directly bound up with this development is evident in the fact that, though the towns residential neighborhoods were never completed and today only about 200 people reside in them, Soul Tech I is now a manufacturing plant for janitorial supplies that relies on the labor of prisoners at a nearby correctional facility.

But there are other implications of Healys procedural approach. We are too rarely given access to the internal lives of the main characters during their most trying moments. For example, the word soul in Soul City was a major obstacle to McKissicks efforts to attract investment from major companies like General Motors. Such corporations perceived the word as too Black, even separatist, and thus likely to scare off potential white residents (Soul City was meant to be Black-run but residentially integrated).

McKissick refused to change the name until it was too late. His connection to the word was likely multifaceted, but its significance in the book is unwittingly commandeered by this racist complaint. It is not until the epilogue, when McKissick, figuring out life after heartbreak, takes up preaching, that we learn he had always dreamed of being in the pulpit and long held strong religious sentiments. That this fundamental trait is withheld from us until the end means that we are deprived of full knowledge of McKissick and the context for his seemingly stubborn refusal to abandon the name Soul City.

Smaller problems abound as well. Though Healy early invokes the fact that Soul City was located near Klan country, he only ever vaguely signals that the city faced local racial resistance. And though he energetically describes a minor player in the Watergate scandal as a dirty trickster, somehow the segregationist Senator Jesse Helms, who promised McKissick that hed kill Soul City, is never called what he was: a racist.

There is much to be learned in Soul City about the facts of the case. But if we want to know what the project meant at the time and what it should mean for us today, Healys book provides more of a reason to move on from rather than linger on its pages.
Google will pay $2.6million to 5,500 female and Asian employees and applicants who claim they were underpaid and overlooked for jobs.

The internet giant announced the settlement on Monday to resolve the four-year-old allegations in California and Washington state.

The settlement closes a case the Labor Department brought as part of its periodic reviews of the pay practices at federal government contractors such as Google.

Google will pay $2.6million to 5,500 female and Asian employees and job applicants who claim they were underpaid and overlooked

The inquiry resulted in accusations that during a period spanning from 2014 to 2017, Google paid female engineers less than men in similar positions.

The pay discrepancies were cited in several Google offices in its home state of California, as well as at locations in Seattle and Kirkland, Washington.

Google had fiercely contested the allegations as unfounded before reaching the settlement without acknowledging any wrongdoing.

'We believe everyone should be paid based upon the work they do, not who they are, and invest heavily to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and unbiased,' Google said Monday.

The company also said it has conducted internal audits during the past years to address any inequities in the pay of its male and female employees.

Nevertheless, the settlement will require Google to pay $1.35million to more than 2,500 of its female engineers to compensate them for past discrimination alleged by the Labor Department.

The pay discrepancies were cited in several Google offices in its home state of California, as well as at locations in Seattle and Kirkland, Washington (pictured)

Another $1.23million is earmarked for more than 1,700 women and Asians who unsuccessfully applied for engineering jobs at Google.

The settlement also requires Google to contribute $250,000 annually for five years to create a reserve to cover any necessary adjustments still needed in the future.

'Regardless of how complex or the size of the workforce, we remain committed to enforcing equal opportunity laws to ensure non-discrimination and equity in the workforce,' said Jane Suhr, who oversees the Labor Department's federal contract compliance programs in San Francisco.

The settlement will barely put a dent in Google or its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., which generates more than $130billion in annual revenue.

But news of settlement may further blemish Google's once cherished reputation as an employer that pampers its workers to the point of spoiling them with cushy paychecks, free food and other plush perks.

In recent years, more of Google's own employees have been openly blasting management's practices, including allegations of coddling powerful male executives who harassed female employees.

More recently, thousands of Google employees have protested the December departure of an artificial intelligence researcher who says she was fired over a research paper that didn't sit well with the company.

The growing unrest inside Google culminated in hundreds of employees forming a labor union in last month, a rarity in the tech industry.
[February 02, 2021] Spectra Medical Devices, Inc. Introduces Their New And Convenient E-Commerce Site For Health Care Providers Worldwide

WILMINGTON, Mass., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Spectra Medical Devices, Inc. has exciting news to share, our new e-commerce site is now live. "We are proud to offer customers worldwide a new way to shop for our products safely and conveniently. Qualified customers with proper licensing can easily and securely register at our e-commerce site. This is great news for the worldwide medical community! Spectra Medical Device's first priority is patient safety. The quality and innovation of our products is second to none," stated Tony Arrigo, President and CEO of Spectra Medical Devices, Inc. Spectra's products available on our e-commerce site: Needles  Epidural, Spinal Echogenic, PNB Single Shot, RF-Radio Frequency, Introducer

Epidural, Spinal Echogenic, PNB Single Shot, RF-Radio Frequency, Introducer Other Products  Day Masks, Surgical Masks, Hand Sanitizers, and Safety Scalpels Spectra's pharmaceuticals products available only in the USA on our e-commerce site: Lidocaine Hydrochloride Injection, USP, 1% 5mL Single-Dose Ampules/Vials

Bupivacaine Hydrochloride in Dextrose Injection, USP, 0.75%, 8.25%, 2mL Single-Dose Ampules

Sodium Chloride Infections, USP, 0.9% 5mL and 10mL, Single Dose Ampules How It Works: Once registered, qualified customers will recive login information, allowing them to purchase a wide variety of our products directly from the e-commerce user friendly site. Please click on the link below to get the e-commerce site or the Shop Now button on Spectra Medical Devices website and go directly to our e-commerce site. Throughout the purchasing process, Spectra Medical's customer representatives will be readily available to assist you. Our sales team can be reached at (978) 657-0889 or email at sales@spectramedical.com.



http://store.spectramedical.com E-Commerce Site Shipping Information:



With our new automated inventory system, products will be promptly shipped internationally to countries where we have a CE Marking or Marketing Authorization. Shipping costs are automatically calculated and added at check-out based on product destination. Customers will receive emails with tracking codes and expected delivery information to keep them informed throughout shipment and delivery. Spectra Medical Devices works with our customers to ensure the entire buying process is successful. We are confident that Spectra's customers will enjoy the ease of use and convenience of the new E-Commerce site.

Who We Are: Spectra Medical Devices, Inc. is one of the largest procedural needle manufacturers in the world, with substantial market share in over 50 countries. Spectra Medical Devices, Inc. utilizes the latest state-of-the-art manufacturing and inspection systems, along with over 225 years of experience in manufacturing needles. Spectra operates five manufacturing plants worldwide with 300 employees. Corporate headquarters are located in Wilmington, Massachusetts. Spectra Medical Devices, Inc. was founded in 1995 by Tony Arrigo. Spectra has been granted several US patents for specialized needle processing and products. For questions on Spectra's e-commerce site, contact the sales department at (978) 657-0889 or email sales@spectramedical.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1429465/Spectra_Logo.jpg Contact:

Peggy Rose

Public Relations

peggy@peggyrose-pr.com

+1-617-835-7673 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/spectra-medical-devices-inc-introduces-their-new-and-convenient-e-commerce-site-for-health-care-providers-worldwide-301219497.html SOURCE Spectra Medical Devices, Inc.

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Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) -Green Rise Foods Inc. (TSXV: GRF) ("Green Rise" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed its acquisition through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bull Market Farms Inc. ("Bull Market"), of the assets of Mor Gro Farms Inc., comprising a 22-acre greenhouse on a 57-acre property in Kingsville, Ontario. Further to the Company's December 23, 2020 news release concerning this acquisition, it is pleased to advise the following:

On January 15, 2021, the TSX Venture Exchange provided conditional approval of the acquisition.

The acquisition has been funded through a $13 million first mortgage on the property provided by The Royal Bank of Canada. The Company has assumed a contract relating to a fully automated packing line valued at up to 1.75 million Euros. Payment for this packing line is due over a 4 (four) year period, although the payment schedule can be accelerated at the Company's option. Once operational, the automated packing line will allow the Company to improve gross margins and product quality. The contract has several conditions, including site acceptance testing, which is expected to be finalized by April 2021.

As part of the acquisition, the Company welcomes experienced growers and managers that bring decades of experience in growing and distributing fresh produce.

In addition to the Mor Gro Farms greenhouse range, the Company acquired 100% of the shares of Mor Gro Sales Inc., a fully licensed marketer of fresh produce.

"We are excited to add 22 acres of producing assets to our stewardship. This is an important acquisition as it increases our cultivation capacity by 60%. Our executive team, including Chief Financial Officer George Hatzoglou and Chief Growth Officer Adam Suder, are focused on integrating the range into Green Rise by streamlining financial reporting, leveraging purchasing and maximizing operational efficiencies in the coming fiscal year," said Vincent Narang, Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

ABOUT GREEN RISE

Green Rise is a grower of fresh produce with 73 acres of greenhouse ranges located in Kingsville, Ontario. Poised to be the "best-in-class" contract grower of fresh produce, the Company takes pride in providing high-quality, consistent and reliable products to meet the growing consumer demand for locally grown fresh produce. By leveraging innovative growing solutions and embracing technology, Green Rise optimizes its operations to generate improved product quality, expand profit margins, and provide investors with meaningful and growing returns. The Company is proud to be an environmentally sustainable investment, producing locally grown, pesticide-free, bee-pollinated fresh produce using 90% less water. The Company is proud that its first range is EFI (Equity Food Initiative) certified.

Contact Information

For further information, please contact:

Green Rise

Vincent Narang, Chief Executive Officer

Phone: 416-294-2881

E-mail: vnarang@greenrisecapital.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the impact of the acquisition on future results and operating costs for Green Rise. Any such forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "projects", "plans" and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. Green Rise undertakes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. Green Rise undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third parties in respect of Green Rise or their respective financial or operating results or (as applicable), their securities.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73481
The Jan. 26 announcement by state and company officials of a $1.3 billion Shintech plastics expansion in Plaquemine came just eight weeks after the chemical giant agreed to pay $356,500 in state and federal fines for violations dating back a dozen years, incidents that included the release of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals and the injury of several workers.

Under initial permits issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality just a week before the expansion announcement, Shintech's combined manufacturing complex will be allowed to emit 80 additional tons a year of ozone-creating chemicals, 70 additional tons a year of particle emissions and about 110,000 tons a year more of carbon-equivalent emissions, which are linked to global warming.

The permitting decision followed the DEQs Dec. 7 approval of two settlement offers by Shintech involving different batches of state rule violations, requiring payment of fines of $80,000 and $70,000.

DEQ spokesman Gregory Langley said payment of the fines was not required before the state permits were granted.

"A permit application/permit modification can be approved when the applicant has pending enforcement actions," Langley said. "An applicants enforcement history is considered in the permit decision process and any comments about that history will be included in the basis for decision that is part of the permit when it is issued."

There's no mention of the fines or the violations for which they were given in either of the two air permits issued to the facility in January.

Shintech to invest $1.3 billion for Louisiana expansion; here's how many jobs it will create Shintech Louisiana LLC plans to invest another $1.3 billion to expand its manufacturing sites in Iberville and West Baton Rouge parishes.

The $80,000 state settlement involves dozens of violations of state environmental rules discovered during four days of inspection in March 2012, five days of inspections in July 2012, and 15 days of inspections in September, October and November 2014, as well as a December 2017 review of records filed with the DEQ by the company. The violations in this settlement included 20 different failures to submit required reports, document safety procedures, perform inspections and tests on instruments, pumps and valves needed for emergency shutdowns and emission controls.

They also included a 2012 accidental release of chlorine in which two contractors were injured and required medical treatment. The records check found improper releases of nearly 200 pounds of 1,2 dichloroethane, vinyl chloride monomer and ethylene in 2012; the release of more than 400 pounds of vinyl chloride monomer in 2013; the release of several hundred pounds of hazardous ethylene dichloride, vinyl chloride monomer and hydrochloric acid in 2011; and the release of nearly 100 pounds of the same three chemicals, also in 2011.

The settlements close out dozens of violations of state air and hazardous waste regulations dating back to 2008.

Shintech entered into a separate settlement agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in February 2020 over violations of federal regulations governing chemical accident prevention and releases of hazardous chemicals dating back as far as 2016.

The $70,000 state settlement cleared seven other compliance orders involving violations of state law dating back to 2008, including the release of nearly 500 pounds of ethylene dichloride, ethylene and vinyl chloride monomer on Oct. 1 and 2, 2008. That incident occurred when an employee disconnected a running pump that was being prepared for maintenance. The employee received first- and second-degree burns on his face, lower arms and hands.

A review of company permits found that the resulting power loss from that incident triggered use of a vent stack to release gases that had never been included in the companys permits.

Other violations in this settlement included weekly checks of vinyl chloride monitoring systems that were required to be checked daily, which could have resulted in fines of as much as $50,000 a day for each day of violation.

Inspections in January 2013 and file investigations found the company couldnt produce information on the design of ventilation for normally occupied areas, or of a thermal destruct system used to eliminate some pollutants.

During those inspections, the company also failed to document that its equipment complied with generally accepted engineering practices, didnt have procedures for startup after a turnaround or emergency shutdown, and didnt have an explanation of the consequences or steps to correct or avoid deviations in operating parts of the plant, all of which are violations of state law.

Asked why the two settlements, involving some violations that occurred a dozen years earlier, took so long to be approved, the DEQ did not directly respond.

It appears Shintech made the settlement offer on these older actions about the same time we were going forward with a settlement on a newer action (the $80,000 settlement), said Langley, the spokesman.

Asked why the numerous violations included in each of the settlements resulted in relatively small fine amounts, Langley said, We reviewed the violations and associated information and appropriately assessed penalty amounts for each.

Such combinations of small fines and lengthy enforcement delays were criticized by Louisiana Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera in a management audit of DEQs enforcement efforts released last week.

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A summary of the audit concluded: "There is a risk that facilities may have violations that remain uncorrected for years. Best practices state that effective enforcement includes swift and predictable responses to violations."

Shintech also entered into a settlement over environmental violations with the EPA in February 2020, agreeing to pay $168,500 in fines to settle violations of the Clean Air Act, based on an Oct. 24-26, 2017 inspection and records review aimed at the companys compliance with rules governing chemical accident prevention.

Included in the long list of violations in that settlement was an April 13, 2016 incident that required an operator to seek medical treatment after being exposed to chlorine. The inspection found the company didnt have a procedure to remove chlorine from one piece of equipment before maintenance activities started.

The EPA settlement also included a Sept. 15, 2016 incident where almost 4,700 pounds of toxic chemicals, including vinyl chloride, ethylene dichloride, ethylene, carbon tetrachloride, benzene and chloroform were released.

Danny Cedotal, vice president of manufacturing for Shintech, said the company estimates its expansion will result in an 8.3% increase in emissions for the entire Shintech facility.

The expansion project is located in Iberville Parish, one of five Baton Rouge-area parishes that have been combined into a historically high ozone and particulate matter region. While levels of both have dropped in recent years in the five-parish area to levels that allow some leeway in new emission increases, the company must still meet stringent limits on those releases.

In its application, Shintech determined that its increased releases of nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) would violate state standards. As a result, it plans to continue to participate in an emissions trading program that allows it to purchase credits from other companies in the region that have cut emissions. Under a 2018 Trump administration rule change, the company is being allowed to substitute nitrogen oxide credits for VOC credits, since both are precursor chemicals of ozone.

By the time the new facility is open, theres a chance its emissions credit strategy will have to be changed, thanks to a Friday ruling by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. That court found that no trading of one chemical for another is allowed, though it is likely to be appealed by industry groups.

Shintech plans to purchase its required permits from Shell, which had earlier purchased them from Dow Plaquemine. The credits were created by Dows shutdown of a gas turbine.

According to DEQ, such credits can only be used once, and expire after 10 years. Shintech has already been purchasing credits from ExxonMobil to offset existing emissions.

In addition to the toxic releases, the expansion also will result in an increase of about 110,000 tons of carbon equivalent emissions, substances linked to human-caused increases in climate change. That addition will increase the facilitys carbon equivalent emissions by about 18%, to 717,000 tons per year.

Cedotal points out that the company complies with current greenhouse gas regulations and is committed to complying with all future GHG emission regulations.

Last year, Gov. John Bel Edwards created the states Climate Initiatives Task Force to find ways of reducing carbon emissions and the effects of climate change  such as sea-level rise and more intense rainfall events. However, the task force is only in its initial investigation stages and has not recommended any changes in existing carbon emission regulations.

Shintech is closely monitoring the activities of the governors climate task force and is committed to working with our industry partners to address and implement recommendations sets forth, Cedotal said.

He said the companys major product  PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, a type of plastic  is itself a carbon-cutting product.

It is the most energy-efficient major plastic because it is largely derived from salt  an abundant and inexpensive resource, he said.

However, plastic, and especially PVC, have been criticized by environmentalists for its long-lasting pollution aspects when improperly disposed of in the environment, with tiny particles posing an increased threat to fisheries.

"It's going to produce polyvinyl chloride, which is the most environmentally damaging plastic," said Anne Rolfes, executive director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. "Its life cycle, the production of it, the use of it, its disposal, results in the release of toxic chemicals and that's obviously a problem.

"The state of Louisiana and our governor seem to have as our driving force of economic development to become the base of the world's largest plastic operations," she said, pointing to recent expansion announcements by Shintech, Mitsubishi and Formosa Plastics.

"And yet, look at the opportunities that exist now to go in a different direction. (President) Joe Biden announced last week that the federal government was going to start investing in cleaner technologies; General Motors announced it was going to stop manufacturing gasoline-fueled vehicles by 2035," she said. "There's a shift happening in our economy  a lot of promise there  and that is where our state needs to focus."
A Kuwaiti hit-and-run driver who mowed down two 18-year-olds has still not been deported from the UK more than a year after his release from prison.

Banned motorist Hadi Hamid ploughed into Luke Mason and Matthew Lockwood outside the Empire in Middlesbrough in October 2017.

Shocking CCTV footage showed the 40-year-old driving over Luke's body 'like a speed bump'.

Luke, who is now the Conservative Councillor for Coulby Newham, was put in an induced coma after being hit by the blue Dodge Avenger.

He suffered a broken spine, ribs, arms, collar bone, pelvis, a collapsed lung, dislocated elbow and he had stripped from his back and part of his head.

Hamid was sentenced to four years behind bars at Teesside Crown Court in February 2018 and was ordered to be deported.

He was released from prison in October the following year after serving half of his sentence but he has still not left the country.

Hamid has appealed the decision, under the European Convention on Human Rights, and currently remains at large in the UK.

Hadi Hamid, 40, was jailed for four years after ploughing his blue Dodge Avenger into Luke Mason and Matthew Lockwood outside the Empire club in Middlesbrough but was released after serving less than 18 months

Simon Clarke, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, highlighted Luke's case in a Parliamentary Debate on Monday evening.

He called for 'root and branch reform' to end the 'mockery of justice' of foreign criminals abusing the European Convention on Human Rights to thwart deportation.

Mr Clarke said: 'Luke and his mother Wendy understandably feel massively let down by our human rights laws - and I share their frustration.

'Mr Hamid came to our country claiming refugee status - a status that I am glad to say he was stripped off by the Home Office in March 2019, although he continues to appeal that decision.

'He abused that status shamefully, and his only thanks to the country that took him in has been to cause great harm and distress.

'Mr Hamid is relying on Article 2 and Article 3 of the ECHR to trump deportation claiming he fears for his life or being tortured if he is returned to Kuwait.

'Luke is not entitled to any further information than this, despite being the victim of this double injustice. Kuwait is a stable country and a friend to the United Kingdom.

'I suspect strongly that Mr Hamid knows precisely how to play the system, as we know so many offenders like him do, to take advantage of the provisions of the Human Rights Act.

'In my view, he has forfeited any legitimate right to stay in this country.'

Luke and his friend Matthew, who suffered facial injuries, were celebrating a birthday in the town centre when they were hit by Hamid's vehicle.

Hamid pleaded guilty to two charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at the court in Middlesbrough - having previously claimed he was not at the wheel at the time of the accident.

Despite losing a year of his life to a series of very painful operations, Luke succeeded in his A-levels and is now studying philosophy, politics and economics at York University.

Luke Mason after the collision: The pair, who were both 18 at the time, had been enjoying a night out celebrating a birthday when banned driver Hamid crashed into them both, leaving Mr Mason in an induced coma with a broken spine and Mr Lockwood with severe facial injuries

The life-long Coulby Newham resident became a Conservative Councillor for his community last year after taking 49% of all votes in the by-election.

Luke said: 'What truly angers me is not the obvious crimes that were committed that night, such as the drink driving and driving whilst disqualified - although he is a repeat offender when it comes to driving whilst disqualified so is most certainly a danger to the public - it's the worrying lack of regard when it comes to human life.

'After hitting me he didn't stop to help, he drove straight over the top of me very much like a speed bump.

'In court he showed a degree of callousness and demonstrated no regard to how well either me or Matthew had recovered - he spoke only to ask how long his custodial sentence was. I firmly believe that this man remains to be a threat to our society and simply does not respect our laws and customs.

'To allow people such as him to remain in this country without a clear and obvious reason as to why he should be allowed to remain is a disgrace, a slight on our judicial system in this county and an insult to victims such as myself.

'I believe there is one way in which many issues raised in cases such as these can be solved with some ease - by repealing the human rights act of 1998 and replacing it with a British Bill of rights.'

Home Office statistics show 455 appeals against deportation by Foreign National Offenders were successful in 2018 - 25% of all the appeals lodged by these convicted criminals.

Of these successful appeals, 172 relied on human rights grounds.

Each and every week in 2018 three foreign national offenders sidestepped the UK Borders Act based on human rights claims.

Mr Clarke said: 'Luke's case takes us to the heart of the ongoing debate about human rights law in the United Kingdom.

'Whether it strikes the appropriate balance between the rights of the victim and the perpetrator and between foreign national offenders and the wider public.

'My primary concern was what happened after Mr Hamid was released from prison in October 2019, having served half his sentence.

Mr Mason who has undergone operations and is still recovering from the devastating injuries

'Under the terms of the UK Borders Act 2007, he should then have been eligible for automatic deportation as a foreign national offender.

'The Act is clear that a deportation order must be made in respect of a foreign national offender sentenced to twelve months or more and where the sentence is four years or more, the public interest requires deportation unless there are very compelling circumstances.

'I would say the public interest very much requires deportation in this particular case. However, this has not happened.

'To date, Mr Hamid has relied successfully on the European Convention on Human Rights, enshrined in our law through the Human Rights Act 1998, to avoid being deported and frankly to make a mockery of justice for Luke and his family.

Mr Clark said that ECHR should be there to 'protect the innocent against grave and exceptional threats'.

He added: 'Instead, immigration lawyers are advising their clients precisely what are the right buzz words to initiate a successful appeal.

Mr Clarke is also calling on the concept of Deportation With Assurances to be widened to include all cases involving foreign national offenders.

Currently it only applies to those individuals suspected of terrorism offences.

In addition, he has written to the Secretary of State for Justice calling for the maximum penalty for dangerous driving to be strengthened saying 'It is surely too weak as the law stands'.

The Government previously said about the case that attempts are made to deport foreign criminals wherever it is legal and it would deport 'wherever it is legal and practical to do so'.

Turkish airline professional turns amateur radio buff

The Anadolu Agency reports Levent Tamay rediscovered amateur radio when he was suspended from his job due to the pandemic



The news report says



Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Tamay shared how an unpleasant surprise -- his temporary suspension from his job with reduced salary because of the pandemic -- introduced him to the unfamiliar yet exciting world of amateur radio.



After a few weeks of confusion, frustration and indecision, I determined that keeping myself busy through a hobby would be the best way to preserve my sanity. I then remembered my long-lasting interest in amateur radio, he said.



Being part of a community spread all around the world and communicating with them in a not-so-common and harder way makes me feel somewhat special, he added.



Read the full story at

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/life/turkish-airline-professional-turns-amateur-radio-buff/2124220
At the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic, physician anesthesiologists are saving lives
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty ImagesBy CATHERINE THORBECKE, ABC News



(SEATTLE) -- Amazon announced Tuesday that Jeff Bezos will be stepping down as CEO -- and transitioning to executive chair of the company's board -- in the third quarter of this year.



Andy Jassy, the current chief executive of Amazon Web Services, will replace Bezos as the e-commerce giant's new CEO.



In a memo to Amazon staff posted on the company's website, Bezos reflected on how the firm he founded in 1994 has exploded into the e-commerce behemoth it is today over the past few decades.



"As much as I still tap dance into the office, I'm excited about this transition," Bezos wrote. "Millions of customers depend on us for our services, and more than a million employees depend on us for their livelihoods. Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it's consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it's hard to put attention on anything else."



As executive chair of the board, Bezos said he will "stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions."



"I've never had more energy, and this isn't about retiring," Bezos wrote. "I'm super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have."



Bezos also expressed confidence in his successor, Jassy, saying he "has been at Amazon almost as long as I have."



"He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence," Bezos added.



Jassy has been with Amazon since 1997, and has driven new growth for the company as head of its cloud-computing arm, AWS.



Amazon has propelled Bezos to become one of the wealthiest people on the planet, with a net worth of some $188 billion, according to Bloomberg data. He was only recently unseated as the richest man on the planet earlier this month when Tesla chief executive Elon Musk's net worth surpassed his.



The coronavirus pandemic has fueled an increased demand for delivery goods, and saw Amazon's profits skyrocket over the past year.



Bezos and Amazon's dominance in the e-commerce sphere have, however, courted controversy in recent years. In July, he and other tech chiefs were called to testify before lawmakers in a wide-ranging hearing on monopolies and more.



In a separate statement Tuesday, Bezos said, "Amazon is what it is because of invention."



"We do crazy things together and then make them normal," he added. If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. That yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. When you look at our financial results, what youre actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention."



He concluded by saying he sees Amazon at its "most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition."



Copyright  2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


LAS VEGAS, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asia Broadband Inc. (OTC : AABB), a resource company focused on the production, supply and sale of precious and base metals primarily in Asian markets, is pleased to announce that the Company has retained veteran agency Integrity Media to manage the Companys Investor Relations and Corporate Communication.



Integrity Media has over two decades working in public markets in the U.S. and Canada and is led by Kurt Divich, a veteran author and public relations specialist. One of the premier financial copywriters in the industry, Divich is twice published in fiction and non-fiction. Mr. Divich has consulted and provided Investor Relations services to public companies ranging the gamut from industry leaders and American icons like Smith & Wesson to emerging, innovative ideas new to the market.

Integrity Media is renowned for its elite communication and for their genuine concern for shareholders, stated James Gilbert, President, Asia Broadband, Inc. Mr. Divich is a highly skilled communicator and as we enter this important new phase for Asia Broadband, his skill set allows us to further increase our transparency.

We are thrilled to be able to represent Asia Broadband and to be in service to Mr. Gilbert, the Company and its shareholders, stated Kurt Divich, Founder and President, Integrity Media. Asia Broadband is at an important stage of their trajectory, having recorded significant new revenue and in a strong cash position to develop the high potential mineral projects in play. Additionally, the Companys gold-backed cryptocurrency token launch is imminent. As Asia Broadband enters into this dynamic new phase we will help it effectively communicate its story to the investing public, the brokerage community, and the media.

And as always, making sure that shareholders have access to the proper information and get their questions answered quickly and honestly will be paramount, added Divich. We also fully intend to be an effective conduit for investors and senior management.

Further to come this week, AABB will release an auditor status update.



About Asia Broadband

Asia Broadband Inc. (OTC : AABB), through its wholly owned subsidiary Asia Metals Inc., is a resource company focused on the production, supply and sale of precious and base metals, primarily to Asian markets. The Company utilizes its specific geographic expertise, experience and extensive industry contacts to facilitate its innovative distribution process from the production and supply of precious and base metals in Mexico to client sales networks in Asia. This vertical integration approach to sales transactions is the unique strength of AABB that differentiates the Company and creates distinctive value for shareholders. AABB also is releasing a freshly minted mine-to-token gold-backed cryptocurrency and expects to become a world-wide standard of exchange that is secured and trusted with gold backing, an outstanding quality relative to other cryptocurrencies. Visit www.AsiaBroadbandInc.com for more info.

Investor Relations & Financial Media

Integrity Media Inc.

team@integritymedia.com

Toll Free: (888) 216-3595

www.IntegrityMedia.com

Forward-Looking Statements are contained in this press release within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the Asia Broadband Inc.s (the Company) expected current beliefs about the Companys business, which are subject to uncertainty and change. The operations and results of the Company could materially differ from what is expressed or implied by the statements made above when industry, regulatory, market and competitive circumstances change. Further information about these risks can be found in the annual and quarterly disclosures the Company has published on the OTC Markets website. The Company is under no obligation to update or alter its forward-looking statements as future circumstances, events and information may change.
MIAMI  The sun had not come up yet on Tuesday when a group of F.B.I. agents assigned to investigate criminals who prey on children online approached the Water Terrace apartments in Sunrise, Fla., to execute a search warrant, a routine part of the job that is always fraught with risk.

What exactly happened in the ensuing minutes is unknown, but a gun battle broke out, rousting neighbors out of bed in the quiet residential community. Law enforcement officials called emergency dispatchers. Multiple shots fired, they reported. Send air rescue.

Two F.B.I. agents died and three more were injured in one of the deadliest shootings in the bureaus history. No agent had been shot and killed on duty since 2008. A similarly bloody shootout took place in a Miami suburb 35 years ago, killing two F.B.I. agents and injuring five others.

The man being investigated in the case, which the authorities said involved violent crimes against children, had barricaded himself inside the complex and was found dead. A law enforcement official said it appeared that the man had killed himself before agents were able to arrest him. His identity was not released until his family could be notified of his death.
Chandigarh: Of the persons from Punjab reported missing since the Republic Day violence in the national capital, 70 are in Delhi jails, while 14 of the remaining 19 missing had been located, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh disclosed on Tuesday.

The Chief Minister, who had yesterday announced helpline number 112 for citizens to make complaints in this regard, told the all-party meeting that as per information received, 5 persons from Punjab are still missing. All efforts were being made to trace them, he added.

Captain Amarinder Singh

The 70-member lawyers team of Advocate General Atul Nanda, deputed to help out farmers with free legal aid, were reaching out to those in prison and those facing cases filed against them by the Delhi Police, said Captain Amarinder.

The Chief Minister asserted that his government was extending all possible help to the agitating farmers, camping out at Delhis borders for over two months now, and also to their families back home. No effort would be spared to ensure the safe return of all the farmers to their homes in Punjab, he added.

The Chief Minister also disclosed that 170 cases registered against farmers during agitations in Punjab were being withdrawn by his government.
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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday called on victims of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) to speak out and document their evidence properly.

The Executive Secretary of NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, made the call on Tuesday in Enugu at the ongoing 2nd round of Public Sitting of the Special Investigation Panel on SGBV.

Mr Ojukwu said the Federal Government through the commission was committed to end SGBV but needed the peoples cooperation especially victims and those close to them to come forth with complaints.

He said It is clear that SGBV is becoming a pandemic just as the COVID-19 pandemic and the commission needed our people to break the culture of silence and fear of stigmatisation.

There is a need for victims and those close to them to speak out as well as ensure that whenever SGBV occurs, there is documented evidence kept intact and properly.

For issue of sexual abuse or rape, the victims needed to quickly visit health facility to get medical expert take medical sample of the evidence and document same for future reference in a panel like this or at the court, he said.

He said that the commission through the panel could offer some remedies to victims of SGBV.

Mr Ojukwu said The remedies to SGBV can be tendering of genuine apology especially for minor cases.

Again, the perpetrator or perpetrators paying damages in terms of monetary compensation.

On a serious SGBV case and where those involved in the whole issue cannot be settled through our panel mediation; it will be referred to the law court for adjudication. The panel is not a law court.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NHRC would treat a total of 119 SGBV cases in the sitting with petitions of reported cases coming from seven states and the Federal Capital Territory (26 cases).

The states are, Enugu (30), Lagos (15), Ebonyi (12), Cross River (9), Rivers (16), Sokoto (7) and Adamawa (4).

A total of 113 complaints across the six geo-political zones were received and treated during the first round of Public Sitting of the Special Investigation Panel, with South-East accounting for the highest number of 35, Mr Ojukwu said. (NAN)
Posted Monday, February 1, 2021 4:47 pm

CENTRALIA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Broken Window

 At approximately 2:05 p.m. on Jan. 29, a window was reported damaged in the 900 block of Alder Street.

Crashes

 A non-injury, two-vehicle collision was reported in the 1800 block of Harrison Avenue at 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 29.

 At 4:10 p.m. on Jan. 29, a caller reported that a vehicle knocked over a stop sign at the intersection of West Summa and South Pearl streets and left the scene.

 A non-injury, two-vehicle collision was reported at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and East High Street at 6:25 p.m. on Jan. 29. Jacquelyn J. Bray, 22, of Elma, was arrested and released for driving with a suspended license.

 A non-injury, two-vehicle collision was reported at the intersection of West Main and Yew streets at approximately 12:15 p.m. on Jan. 31.

 A non-injury, two-vehicle collision was reported in the 700 block of Harrison Avenue just before 1:50 p.m. on Jan. 31.

Third-Degree Assault

 Janette A. Qawasmi, 32, of Liberty Lake, was arrested just after 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 29 in the 900 block of Scheuber Road and is being referred to the Lewis County Prosecutors Office for third-degree assault.

Theft

 There was a report of shoplifting from a local business in the 1200 block of Harrison Avenue just before 9 p.m. on Jan. 30.

 Just before 2:40 a.m. on Jan. 31, an attempted theft of money occurred in the 1300 block of South Gold Street. The incident is under investigation.

Vehicle Prowls

 Just after 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 30, a victim reported that a speaker was stolen from a vehicle in the 100 block of Jalyn Street.

 Just before 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 30, there was a report of a vehicle being broken into in the 1100 block of South Pearl Street.

 A vehicle prowl was reported at 1:45 a.m. on Jan. 31 in the 400 block of North Oak Street.

 At 9 a.m. on Jan. 31, a victim reported miscellaneous items stolen from their unlocked vehicle in the 100 block of Sunnyside Drive.

 Just after 1 p.m. on Jan. 31, a victim reported miscellaneous items stolen from their unlocked vehicle in the 3000 block of Russell Road.

CHEHALIS POLICE DEPARTMENT

Theft

 Just after 7:40 a.m. on Jan. 29, a caller in the 2000 block of Northeast Kresky Avenue reported that the theft of some items occurred overnight, and that the subjects left behind a machete.

 A possible shoplift was reported in the 1000 block of Northwest Maryland Avenue just before 5:40 p.m. on Jan. 29.

 A possible vehicle prowl was reported in the 800 block of West Main Street at 9:20 a.m. on Jan. 30.

 A possible theft of prescription medication was reported at noon on Jan. 30 in the 1600 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue.

 A report of third-degree theft was made in the 1600 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue just after 1:40 p.m. on Jan. 30. The incident is under investigation.

Hit-and-Runs

 At approximately 9:20 a.m. on Jan. 29, a caller reported that a hit-and-run had occurred in the 10 block of Southeast Third Street sometime in the last week, and that the subject had hit a building.

 Just before 9:40 a.m. on Jan. 29, a traffic light pole with a crosswalk button at the intersection of Southwest Interstate Avenue and Southwest Parkland Drive was found to be damaged. The incident hadnt been reported.

Crashes

 A non-injury, two-vehicle collision was reported in the 1600 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue just before 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 29.

 Just after 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, a caller reported that a semi-truck cut a turn too sharply in the 200 block of Southwest 10th Street and hit a parked vehicle. No injuries were reported.

 A non-injury, two-vehicle collision was reported in the 1600 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue just after 11:20 a.m. on Jan. 30.

Refusal to Wear a Mask

 At approximately 9:40 a.m. on Jan. 29, a caller in the 1700 block of North National Avenue reported that a customer was refusing to wear a mask.

Vicious Dog

 Just after 9:40 p.m. on Jan. 31, a caller in the 600 block of Northeast Franklin Avenue reported a vicious dog.

The incident is under investigation.

DUI

 Gabriel C. Munoz, 41, Chehalis, was arrested at approximately 8 p.m. on Jan. 31 for driving under the influence after his vehicle hit a ditch in the 2100 block of Southwest Olympic Drive.

LEWIS COUNTY JAIL STATISTICS

As of Monday morning, the Lewis County Jail had a total system population of 187 inmates, including 141 in the general population and 46 in the Work Ethic and Restitution Center. Of general population inmates, 112 were men and 19 were women. Of the WERC inmates, 40 were men and six were women.
Early vaccination data is incomplete, but it points to the divide. In the first weeks of the rollout, 12% of people inoculated in Philadelphia have been Black, in a city whose population is 44% Black. In Miami-Dade County, just about 7% of the vaccine recipients have been Black, even though Black residents comprise nearly 17% of the population and are dying from COVID-19 at a rate that is more than 60% higher than that of white people. In data released last weekend for New York City, white people had received nearly half of the doses, while Black and Latino residents were starkly underrepresented based on their share of the population.
[February 01, 2021] MDH Acquisition Corp. Announces Pricing of Upsized $240 Million Initial Public Offering

MDH Acquisition Corp. (the "Company") today announced the pricing of its upsized initial public offering of 24,000,000 units at a price of $10.00 per unit. The units will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") and trade under the ticker symbol "MDH.U" beginning on February 2, 2021. Each unit consists of one share of Class A common stock and one-half of one redeemable warrant, with each whole warrant exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share. After the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, the shares of Class A common stock and warrants are expected to be listed on the NYSE under the symbols "MDH" and "MDH.WS," respectively. The offering is expected to close on February 4, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. MDH Acquisition Corp. is a blank check company whose business purpose is to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. While the Company may pursue an acquisition opportunity in any business, industry, sector or geographical location, the Company intends to focus on industries that complement its management team's background in transportation and logistics, telecommunications, financial services and professional servies, and to capitalize on the ability of its management team to identify and acquire a business.



Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated and Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. are acting as joint bookrunning managers of the offering. The Company has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,600,000 units at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments, if any. A registration statement relating to these securities was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the " SEC (News - Alert) ") on February 1, 2021. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Attention: Syndicate Department, One South Street, 15th Floor, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, email: syndprospectus@stifel.com, or by telephone: (855) 300-7136 or Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. at 85 Broad St., New York, NY 10004. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements," including with respect to the initial public offering and search for an initial business combination. No assurance can be given that the offering discussed above will be completed on the terms described, or at all, or that the proceeds of the offering will be used as indicated. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's registration statement for the initial public offering filed with the SEC. Copies are available on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201006009/en/

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[February 02, 2021]

Americaneagle.com Achieves Milestone in Sitecore Experience Commerce Specialization

CHICAGO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Americaneagle.com, today announced that it achieved specialization in Experience Commerce (XC) by Sitecore, the global leader in digital experience management software. As a Platinum Solution Partner, Americaneagle.com has earned a specialization badge for successfully completing a rigorous assessment to verify it has met product enablement requirements and has a dedicated and scalable practice with proven customer satisfaction.

"This achievement highlights a level of commitment appreciated and welcomed by Sitecore and customers."

Americaneagle.com has completed a practice-wide product immersion including verification of product enablement requirements, creation of a dedicated capable and scalable practice including proven customer success for Sitecore Experience Commerce.

An enhancement to the Solution Partner Program, Sitecore product specialization is a way to surface and highlight Partners' product skills and capabilities, giving partners and customers a head start on project success. This Experience Commerce-ready designation enables Sitecore customers to recognize a specialized solutions patner, increasing customer confidence and reducing project risks to help maximize ROI.







"We are proud to achieve our Experience Commerce (XC) Specialization Certification badge from Sitecore," said Jonathan Price, Sitecore Practice Director at Americaneagle.com. "This specialization paired with Americaneagle.com's 20+ years of ecommerce experience enables us to greatly serve our customers and the Sitecore community."

"Sitecore welcomes Americaneagle.com to the list of Partners who have been awarded the Sitecore Experience Commerce product specialization. Not only does this achievement reflect a significant investment of time and resources, it highlights a level of commitment appreciated and welcomed by Sitecore and customers," said Arnaud Merlet, SVP, Global Operations.

Key partner qualifications to earn a Sitecore Experience Commerce specialization include a minimum of one System Architect, one Business Analyst, two Developers, one Quality Assurance specialist, and one Project Manager. Partners can apply for specialization if they have at least six individuals who have completed all required training and at least one live implementation of Experience Commerce.

For more information about the Practice Specialization Framework Program refer to Sitecore's website.

About Americaneagle.com

Americaneagle.com is a full-service, global digital agency based in Des Plaines, Illinois that provides best-in-class web design, development, hosting, post-launch support and digital marketing services. Currently, Americaneagle.com employs 500+ professionals in offices around the world including Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, London, Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Washington DC, Switzerland, and Bulgaria. Some of their 2,000+ clients include Dairy Queen, FASTSIGNS, Soletrader, Stuart Weitzman, WeatherTech, and the American Management Association. For additional information, visit www.americaneagle.com.

Contact

Michael Svanascini, President

press@americaneagle.com

847-699-0300

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americaneaglecom-achieves-milestone-in-sitecore-experience-commerce-specialization-301218736.html

SOURCE Americaneagle.com
Hong Kong: Judicial independence upheld

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said she is obliged to uphold the independence of Hong Kong's Judiciary.

Mrs Lam made the statement ahead of this morning's Executive Council meeting.

She said: "That is a duty imposed on me as the Chief Executive under the Basic Law because I am not just the head of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, I'm also the one in charge of the entire Hong Kong SAR. And the independence of the Judiciary, the efficiency of the Judiciary and the smooth operation of the Judiciary are matters of concern to the Chief Executive."

Mrs Lam noted that it is normal and necessary for the Chief Executive to meet the Chief Justice to discuss matters of the Judiciary.

"I need to meet with the Chief Justice who is the head of the Judiciary to discuss those matters within our respective jurisdiction.

"I think the Judiciary has also issued a response along those lines, that the CJ - whether the current CJ or the former CJ - does meet me from time to time when he has issues to raise, for example about staffing, resources, new court buildings and the appointment of judges because I'm the authority to appoint judges. And in some of the local legislation, there's a requirement for the Chief Justice to nominate, and for the CE to consult. So if we don't meet, how do we do that?

"So this is only normal, and I would advise against any reading into legitimate and proper meetings between the CE and the CJ as intervention in judicial independence."

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

House prices fell last month for the first time since June as demand for properties slowed ahead of the end of the stamp duty holiday, new data revealed today.

The average price for a UK home fell 0.3 per cent in January to 229,748, according to the latest index by mortgage provider Nationwide.

Average annual house price growth across the country also slowed to 6.4 per cent from 7.3 per cent in December.

Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide, said: 'To a large extent, the slowdown probably reflects a tapering of demand ahead of the end of the stamp duty holiday, which prompted many people considering a house move to bring forward their purchase.'

The property market is showing the first 'cracks', according to some analysts

While the stamp duty holiday, which was introduced in July, is not due to expire until the end of March, Gardner said that 'activity would be expected to weaken well before that, given that the purchase process typically takes several months'.

Nationwide house price index is based on mortgage approvals, and in January it was probably already too late to complete the house purchase before the end of March and so avoid paying stamp duty.

The potential stamp duty holiday saving on the average home is 2,650, while the maximum saving on a property costing 500,000 or more is 15,000.

But this is expected to come to an end on 1 April, despite calls for an extension or end of the duty altogether and some MPs arguing for an extension in a virtual House of Commons session yesterday.

The latest index comes as Halifax's December data also hinted that house prices could be starting to come off the boil.

Gardner said that if the stamp duty holiday does come to an end and the economic situation deteriorates as many economists forecast, then housing market activity is likely to slow down - 'perhaps sharply' - in the coming months.

Slowing down: Annual house price growth slowed down to 6.4% in January

However, he still expects a shift in housing preferences caused by the pandemic - which has seen some buyers searching for larger houses with outside space where they can work from home - to support the market to a certain extent.

'The typical relationship between the housing market and broader economic trends has broken down over the past nine months,' Gardner said.

'This is because many people's housing needs have changed as a direct result of the pandemic, with many opting to move to less densely populated locations or property types, despite the sharp economic slowdown and the uncertain outlook.

'However, if the stamp duty holiday ends as scheduled, and labour market conditions continue to weaken as most analysts expect, housing market activity is likely to slow, perhaps sharply, in the coming months.'

House prices strengthened significantly over 2020 as the market was buoyed by the release of pent up demand following the easing of the first lockdown in May, the stamp duty holiday as well as people reassessing their housing needs in the wake of the pandemic.

But some economists have said that the dip in prices in January is an indication that prices 'are topping out' and that 'cracks are finally beginning to appear'.

Pushing higher: House prices have been on an upward trajectory over the past decade

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the: 'The first month-to-month fall in Nationwide's index since June adds to evidence that house prices are topping out.'

He expects house prices to drop by about 2 per cent over the course of 2021, provided that Government polices do not change.

Howard Archer at the EY Item Club believes that the current strength of the housing market 'will prove unsustainable sooner rather than later' and predicts steeper falls in prices of around 5 per cent by the end of the year.

Guy Harrington, chief executive of residential lender Glenhaw, said: 'Despite a third lockdown, pent up demand, changing attitudes towards urban living and the stampede to benefit from the stamp duty holiday continues to fuel transactions as well as price growth.

'However, cracks are finally beginning to appear as the economic backdrop continues to deteriorate and stamp duty help draws to a close.'
[February 02, 2021] BioKansas Announces Strategic Plan with Five Transformative Goals

BioKansas, a life science nonprofit committed to promoting the bioscience industry in Kansas, has announced their new strategic plan that will guide their efforts as they accomplish five goals that will have substantial impacts for the bioscience industry and broader economy in Kansas. The exciting outcome of the extensive strategic planning process involving members, regional stakeholders, state leadership, and beyond was shared with the BioKansas membership in late November. In this communication, President & CEO, Dr. Sonia M. Hall stated that accomplishing the ambitious goals would "alter the trajectory of our organization and the state for years to come." BioKansas' transformative strategic plan will focus on five goals: Develop a roadmap and vision for building out key infrastructure to build a sustainable bioscience enterprise. Improve the perception and visibility of Kansas as a competitive bioscience ecosystem within and beyond the state to better position Kansas as a competitive and well-equipped state for bioscience investments, businesses, and careers. Support an ecosystem for the growth and sustainability of companies and new technology emergence. Increase access to and retention of diverse scientific talent assets. Continue modernizing BioKansas' operations. "Through organizational and collaboative efforts, BioKansas will grow Kansas into a thriving bioscience hub that fosters an inclusive culture that embraces bold creativity, continuous improvement, and discovery," said Dr. Sonia Hall, President & CEO of BioKansas.



The new strategic plan goals will be achieved through a series of highly integrated strategic efforts that has not been seen before in Kansas. A few of the new strategic efforts included are: Publication of an annual bioscience investor prospectus that will feature companies looking for funding and investment, historical data of interest to investors, and technologies available for sale or licensing.

Hosting an Innovation Festival that brings together both the science and non-science community to enjoy music, art, and more - all while showcasing innovations from the state's bioscience community.

Multiple workforce development efforts designed to retain and attract talent to the region, including hosting an annual research and recruitment conference. These engagements will be pivotal for successfully advancing Kansas' bioscience ecosystem as BioKansas drives and sustains innovation, inspiration, and collaboration. To learn more or to partner with BioKansas, visit their website.

About BioKansas: BioKansas is a non-profit life science organization and voice of the bioscience community in Kansas and the surrounding region. BioKansas' members span the private, academic, government, and non-profit sectors. BioKansas' organizational and collaborative efforts are designed to lead the effort of supporting and growing Kansas' bioscience ecosystem including bioscience research, commercialization, training, and business development through meaningful content, connections, and advocacy. Learn more at www.biokansas.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005268/en/

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The Lever Action Plate System improves the standard of care by offering the first functional plate on the market. Current techniques are imprecise, leaving frustrated surgeons to accept less than anatomic alignments, which leads to traumatic arthritis. Failure to restore an alignment also risks placement of screws in unsatisfactory positions, including within the wrist joint. In some cases, the patient may need a repeat surgery to revise the alignment and replace the conventional plate, further increasing the chances of stiffness and/ or traumatic arthritis. The Lever Action Plate System gives surgeons the ability to precisely adjust the alignment of the broken bone fragments, limiting the need for further surgery and the risk of complications.

Why this innovative technology is critical for patients?

The Lever Action Plate System addresses a real and prevalent need in orthopedics. Distal radius fractures account for about 20% of all fractures. 1 in 5 ER treated fractures are of the distal radius. A complication rate of 15% has been reported with traditional volar plating. The Lever Action Plate System is an improvement on the standard of care. The system is patented, FDA cleared and available for use.

Details for surgeons and industry leaders:

The innovative Lever Action Plate System features proprietary subchondral beams that dynamically align volar tilt. The beams are used to elevate the malreduced fracture fragments with the turn of a screw to the surgeon's desired position. Optimizing alignment, the beams provide independent fixation of the central and radial column. The beam's contoured design provides subchondral fixation to reduce subsidence. When standard reduction techniques prove inadequate, the plate itself can be used as a controlled, dynamic reduction tool by the addition of one or two subchondral beams. These beams can be used to elevate the lunate and scaphoid facets independently or together, allowing not only reliable restoration of anatomic volar tilt, but also reduction of die-punch, sagittal, and coronal split fractures in situ.

An improvement on the current plates available on the market, the system also has optional variable angle screws of varying sizes with patented locking technology. The plate is contoured to sit just proximal to the watershed line on the distal radius. The Lever Action Plate System is designed to assist the surgeon with restoring volar tilt and intra-articular fracture alignment, facilitating an anatomic reduction and potentially improving patient outcomes. Used in combination with the IntelliSense Drill Technology, a drill that auto-stops at the far cortex of the bone and indicates depth measurement for accurate screw sizing, the Lever Action Plate System will improve outcomes and minimize risk.

Surgeons and industry leaders can see the Lever Action Plate System at the 2021 annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) and the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH).



For more information, go to www.mcginleyorthopedics.com or email [email protected].

SOURCE McGinley Orthopedics
Federal investigators said theyll focus on the crash of a box truck that killed five bicyclists on a stretch of Nevada highway in December as they consider recommendations to prevent similar fatalities.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a brief preliminary report about the Dec. 10 crash that led to the arrest of commercial truck driver Jordan Alexander Barson on 12 felony charges including driving under the influence causing death.

Prosectors say Barson, 45, had a high level of methamphetamine in his system when his flat-faced truck plowed into cyclists riding behind a support SUV on U.S. 95 between Boulder City and Searchlight, Nevada.

Two other bicyclists and the driver of the support vehicle were injured.

Barson was later arrested at home in Kingman, Arizona. He is jailed without bail in Las Vegas pending a Feb. 4 preliminary hearing of evidence on charges that could put him in prison for decades.

The NTSB issued a report in December 2019 titled, Bicyclist Safety on U.S. Roadways: Crash Risks and Countermeasures, that cited the deaths of 857 bicyclists in crashes in 2018.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also has barred Barson from operating a commercial motor vehicle.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Auto Nevada Transportation
A bus carrying teachers back to their homes outside Havana crashed over the weekend leaving at least 10 dead and more than 20 injured including two children, authorities reported.

On Saturday, the bus left Cuba's capital to Mayabeque province and careened off the highway, plunging off a bridge that crosses a dry ravine about 42 kilometers outside Havana.

The teachers on board had been returning to their provinces after working in Havana.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Alameda County reported on Tuesday six confirmed or suspected cases of a new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that was discovered in the United Kingdom.

The cases are the first of this variant tied to a specific Bay Area county. Stanford scientists had identified a handful of cases in the region last week, but declined to say what counties they were from.

The variant, known as B.1.1.7, has been identified in other parts of the state, mostly in Southern California, and 127 cases have been reported in California as of Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide, 541 cases of the variant have been reported in 33 states.

But public health officials say the variant likely is much more widespread and has not yet been identified due to lack of testing and genetic sequencing. They expect the numbers to increase as the state and country ramp up surveillance for new variants.

Whats happening now is labs are increasingly doing more sequencing than was done before, said Dr. Nicholas Moss, the Alameda County health officer. People have cranked up that effort.

Moss noted that the new variants so far dont seem to be interfering with declining case numbers and hospitalizations in the region as the winter surge continues to wane. But he and other public health experts say they worry that the variants  either those already circulating or others that have not yet emerged or been identified  could lead to new waves of illness in the coming months.

Whatever is going on with these variants, it hasnt changed our trajectory for now. But it puts us on notice based on what we see in other parts of the world, he said. Were glad to be in a period where we can reopen some things again and were grateful to have vaccines, but we need to be prepared for future surges.

The six Alameda County cases are under investigation, Moss said. He did not yet have information about whether any of the individuals had traveled recently, but he believes they were all infected in the community.

He said the county also has identified cases of the variant identified in California earlier this month, known as B.1.429. Alameda County has not yet found cases of the variants identified in South Africa or Brazil, both of which are concerning because they may be able to partially evade vaccines.

The variant from the United Kingdom is thought to be roughly 50% more infectious than the original virus and thus able to spread faster and cause more illness. It may also cause more serious illness, though more research needs to be done.

Moss said he wasnt surprised to find the B.1.1.7 and B.1.429 variants in Alameda County, given how many cases have been reported in other parts of the state.

Any variant thats been detected in any number of the larger counties in California, its a good bet its already present, he said. Even with travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders, our populations are interconnected.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday
A senior Israeli official said on Tuesday that it would take Iran around six months to amass the amount of fissile material needed to build a nuclear weapon, nearly double the breakout time estimated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

During an interview with public broadcaster Kan, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said the previous US administrations abandonment of the landmark nuclear accord in 2018 had weakened Tehran and seriously damaged Irans nuclear project and entire force buildup.

In terms of enrichment, they are in a situation of breaking out in around half a year if they do everything required, Steinitz said. As for nuclear weaponry, the range is around one or two years.

The landmark 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPOCA), set curbs on the purity and amount of Irans enriched-uranium stockpile. The world powers that signed the deal estimated it would take Iran at least a year to produce enough weapons-grade enriched uranium to develop a nuclear weapon in the event that it reneged on the agreement.

Since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA and reimposed harsh economic sanctions, Iran has ramped up its nuclear activities. In a major violation of the deal announced last month, Iran said it had begun enriching uranium up to 20% purity at its Fordow underground nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom.

Iran is now enriching uranium using a second cascade of advanced IR-2m centrifuges and plans to install a third at its Natanz uranium enrichment site, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency report published by Reuters on Tuesday.

If Iran reverses its breaches and resumes full compliance under the JCPOA, President Joe Biden has said he will reenter the multilateral pact as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.

But Israels leaders are skeptical of Bidens efforts to revive diplomacy with Tehran. In podcast interview with Al-Monitors Ben Caspit, former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren described the JCPOA as a terrible agreement and said, If you renew the JCPOA, you will be putting Israel and the Middle East on war footing.

The Biden administration makes the case that Iran is closer to building a nuclear weapon now than it was before Trump withdrew from the deal. During an interview with NBCs Andrea Mitchell on Sunday, Blinken said public reports indicate that Irans breakout time has been reduced to a few months. He warned that could drop to a matter of weeks if Iran continues lifting nuclear restraints in violation of the JCPOA.

Now, the fissile material is one thing. Having a weapon that they can actually detonate and use is another, Blinken said.

Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed Blinkens comments as more addressed to the public opinion than to reality and insisted Irans nuclear program exists only for peaceful purposes.

Iran does not seek a nuclear weapon, Zarif said in an interview with CNN. If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon, we could have done it some time ago, but we decided that nuclear weapons would not augment our security and are in contradiction to our ideological views.

Biden officials have said that after rejoining the JCPOA, Washington will consult with allies and partners to seek a longer and stronger agreement that would tighten Irans nuclear constraints and address its ballistic missile program.

Asked by NBC whether Irans release of detained Americans would be a condition in a revised deal, Blinken was noncommittal. Iran is holding several Americans on spying and other political charges, including Morad Tahbaz and Siamak and Baquer Namazi.

"We're going to focus on making sure that they come home one way or another," Blinken said.
A media commentator and cafe owner says she has been vindicated after charges of attacking two young women in Belfast city centre almost two years ago were dropped.

Businesswoman Barbara Whearty was charged by the Public Prosecution Service with assaulting two pro-life campaigners in June 2019.

Mrs Whearty, the owner of the Cafe Cuan in Belfast city centre and Ardens of Whitehead, has been a regular commentator on current affairs issues on BBC NIs Radio Ulster and UTV.

She was accused of unlawfully assaulting the women during an incident which attracted massive attention on social media.

Pro-life campaigners had a stall near Cornmarket in the city centre which featured graphic images of aborted foetuses which many find offensive.

It was reported at the time that the businesswoman confronted a group of the anti-abortion protesters, which included teenagers from the Youth For Life wing of Precious Life.

Mrs Whearty said on social media she had previously suffered a miscarriage and the images on display brought back the pain of that experience.

She commented on Twitter at the time: Oh and now my business is being trolled with one star reviews, all because I lost a child and didnt want to be reminded of it every time I walk through town.

Mrs Wheartys husband, John Paul  the founder the Loyalists Against Democracy (LAD) social media pages and who works alongside her at Cafe Cuan  also tweeted about the incident at the time, saying the images had upset his wife.

The alleged victims were both prominent local pro-life activists.

Mrs Whearty took to social media yesterday to confirm that all charges against her were dismissed.

She tweeted that the fallout of the case has been costly, both personally and professionally, adding that the trolling that followed was exhausting.

I owe every one of you who have supported me through this a debt of gratitude, thank you for your constant friendship and for reminding me who I am, Mrs Whearty added.

Mrs Whearty's legal representatives were approached for comment.
On the occasion of International Customs Day, the Geneva Customs Delegates invited the WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya to an online meeting with the objective of strengthening the dialogue between the Customs community in Brussels and Geneva and for discussing topics of mutual interest.

The introductory meeting was chaired by Ms. Sheri Rosenow (WTO) in her capacity as the President of the Geneva Customs Club, consisting of 19 active members from 12 WTO missions and four international organizations.

Dr. Mikuriya wished all the participants a happy International Customs Day. He expressed his appreciation for the tremendous effort by all Customs officers during the pandemic and shared the WCOs vision for the theme of the year 2021 under the slogan Customs bolstering Recovery, Renewal and Resilience for a sustainable supply chain. He further explained the long tradition of cooperation between the WCO and the WTO, the priorities of his Organization for the year ahead, including COVID-19-related activities and focus on technology, and offered to further assist the WTO and the Geneva Customs community work in the areas of joint interest, such as implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and E-Commerce.

The Customs Club members expressed sincere appreciation for the Secretary Generals participation with the hope that the dialogue will continue hopefully someday soon in person in Brussels and Geneva.


Oshifo  A 23-year-old man who matriculated from the Rukonga Vision School at Divundu in the Kavango East has appealed for financial support to realise his dream of acquiring a qualification after failing at two attempts to further his studies.

Mbitukorua Murumba was the toast of his family in 2018 when he obtained 49 points in seven subjects upon completing his grade 12 at the sought-after Rukonga Vision School.

The school, which is situated in Divundu, was established as a centre of excellence for children who come from poor backgrounds across the country.

However, lack of finance over the years disrupted his mission of furthering his studies at local institutions of higher learning.

Murumba, who hails from the marginalised Ovahimba community, deep in the mountains of Otjamaungu village in the Ruacana constituency, said his widowed, unemployed mother cannot afford to send him to university anymore.

After completing his secondary school, Murumba with the help of his mother and some Good Samaritans in 2019 enrolled for computer science at the Namibia University of Science and Technology, however, he dropped out four months later as he could not afford the cost of studying.

He narrated how his mother sold livestock to send him to school. However, his life at university was short-lived.

Last year, Murumba with the help of a Good Samaritan secured registration fee and enrolled for an online course at a local university, but the same fate caught up with him, as he could not afford data and dropped out again. "I had no electricity, I had no data," said Murumba. With the academic year set to start soon, Murumba said he has not given up on his dream of going to university and has hopes of doing mass communication as he is passionate about writing and computer science. However, without financial support, Murumba is likely to sit for another year at home. Narrating his short time at the university, Murumba said there were times he had no taxi money to attend classes or food to eat but he kept pushing. "There were people who came through for me, gave me transport or sometimes food because many a time I had nothing, but only my registration fee was paid there was no further money to pay the full tuition," said Murumba. He described his experience as very painful and disheartening as many of his peers are now at varsity chasing their dreams while he is home. Murumba has since moved to Oshifo in Ruacana to do odd jobs to keep him going, however, with Covid-19 even the odd jobs have become scarce. For now, he spends his days reading and writing and hoping for a better tomorrow.

- Singular leads round with participation from Point Nine Capital, Hummingbird Ventures and US-based DCF

- Follows recent 2.6M seed round bringing total financing to over 14M to accelerate development of data monitoring platform and build global community of users

BRUSSELS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Soda announced today that it has raised 11.5M Series A financing to accelerate the development of its data monitoring platform that streamlines how teams find the data worth fixing. The round was led by leading European venture investor, Singular, with returning participation from seed investors Point Nine Capital, Hummingbird Ventures, DCF and angel investors.

Raffi Kamber, General Partner at lead investor, Singular, said, "Analysis and usage of data has become business critical in most applications. Data quality needs to be preserved everywhere in a modern data stack, which is becoming increasingly massive and complex. A natural need has thus emerged for a platform that monitors data and provides a unified view of the data and its issues to all the stakeholders. That's what Soda is about, and Maarten and Tom bring deep expertise on this issue to the industry, their partners and customers."

According to Gartner's Data Quality Market Survey , the average financial impact of bad data on organisations in 2017 was estimated to be around $15 million per year. This is because people across any business - data engineers, developers, data scientists, managers, senior executives - are all exposed to data, and use it as part of their roles every day. If data is incomplete or damaged, the time taken to correct the data is both time-consuming and costly. For Soda, maintaining data quality is a team sport that means everyone who has a stake in the data - and that is everyone in the business - needs to understand it, trust it, and stay on top of it. Soda's mission is to bring everyone closer to trusted data.

"Testing and monitoring of software and infrastructure is ubiquitous, so why don't we apply the same principles to data, arguably any business' most important strategic asset? The world's fastest-growing companies rely on data in online retail, financial markets and even vaccine discovery, and in every instance the quality and integrity of the data is paramount," explained Tom Baeyens, CTO & Co-founder, Soda. "Our data monitoring platform empowers teams to collaborate seamlessly to firstly define what quality data looks like, and then resolve issues swiftly before they have an adverse impact on the business downstream."

Reflecting the rapidly growing importance of the data monitoring category, Soda's Series A round follows soon after a seed round of 2.6M led by Point Nine Capital, one of Europe's leading early-stage investors, bringing total financing to over 14M over the past six months. In 2018, Soda won 500,000 as part of an Innovative Starters Award from Innoviris, the Brussels regional institute for Research and Innovation.

Louis Coppey, Partner at Point Nine Capital, said, "Beyond our conviction that the data monitoring space is one of the most exciting new categories, we, at Point Nine, have been very impressed by Tom and Maarten's deep insight into the problem and by their ability to build global demand for the product. We are excited to continue supporting the team as they bring this critical brick of infrastructure to the modern Enterprise."

Soda plans to use the funding to develop the usability and scalability of its cloud-based platform, in addition to establishing a global community of users. Available as a soon to be released open source community edition and enterprise edition, Soda's platform keeps data fit for purpose, verifiable and trustworthy by connecting data engineers, operations and the business to collaborate and work with trusted data. The platform's interface is accessible and easy-to-use, enabling users to effortlessly instrument multiple datasets across any data workload to create observability so that anyone in the organisation can collaborate on data monitoring. This means businesses can adapt quickly to change, swiftly deploy new technologies and build innovative new products on solid data foundations.

"Companies like Amazon, Tesla and Deliveroo have shown that you can disrupt entire markets at scale with data. Businesses are moving from using data to being built entirely on data, but there are challenges in terms of how they collect, process and maintain this data. You need to test and monitor data to stay on top of it, but most companies don't have the capabilities and engineering resources to do this," said Maarten Masschelein, CEO & Co-Founder, Soda. "We have seen a surge in demand for our data monitoring platform from innovative digital companies wanting to address these challenges, and this round of funding allows us to start commercially meeting this need. Soda is leading the way to a future where companies all over the world can build and rely on data of the highest quality."

About Soda

Soda is the data monitoring platform that keeps your data fit for purpose, verifiable and trustworthy. We uncover data issues, alert the right teams, and trigger resolution workflows to identify causes that impede data quality. Our open source testing projects and monitoring platform brings together data engineers, operations and the business to create trusted data. Data-driven organisations choose Soda to realise the value of their data and secure its quality. For more information, visit www.soda.io

CONTACT:James Kennedy

+44 (0)780-949-5759

james.kennedy@tuvapartners.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1430484/Soda_Co_Founders.jpg
New Delhi, Feb 2 : The BJP on Tuesday appointed poll in-charges and co-incharges for the upcoming assembly polls in the states of Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry.

According to a BJP statement, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh have been appointed poll in-charge and co-incharge respectively for Assam.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, G. Kishan Reddy has been appointed poll in-charge for Tamil Nadu, while former army chief and Union Minister for State General V K Singh has been made co-incharge.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwathnarayan have been appointed poll in-charge and co-incharge for Kerala.

Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal has been appointed poll in-charge for Puducherry and party spokesperson Rajeev Chandrasekhar has been made poll co-incharge.

Groysman ready to become prime minister again, but needs to get mandate of confidence in elections

The leader of the Ukrainian strategy of Groysman party Volodymyr Groysman is ready to become the prime minister of Ukraine again, but considers it necessary to get a mandate in the elections.

"If you ask me if I am ready to be the prime minister of the country, then I can say for sure: professionally I am absolutely ready for this," Groysman said in an exclusive interview with Interfax Ukraine.

At the same time, the politician said that the premiership is not his goal.

He said that he considers it right to get a mandate in the elections.

"But the best way is to get a mandate of trust from Ukrainians. When there is such a mandate, you can use it to achieve the goal. The way of our team to this goal - a normal life for people in Ukraine - lies right through the parliamentary elections," Groysman said.
I Got the Rhythm, written by Connie Schofield-Morrison and illustrated by Frank Morrison. This story of a girl and her mom taking a simple walk to the park and being overtaken by the music around them  in everything from butterfly wings to ice cream trucks  is one of Whitneys favorites on the list. It celebrates the beauty of art in the Black community and specifically in the diaspora, she said.

Christian in Algeria Imprisoned for Cartoon on Facebook Share Tweet

TIZI-OUZOU, Algeria, February 1, 2021 (Morning Star News)  A Christian who had received and reposted a cartoon of the prophet of Islam on his Facebook account three years ago was not too concerned when gendarmerie showed up at his door on Jan. 20.

By the next day, the 43-year-old father of four young children had been sentenced to five years in prison under an Algerian law against insulting Muhammad, sources said.

Hamid (surname withheld for security reasons), a poultry farmer in El-Aiyaida, 19 miles east of Oran, had not heard from authorities since reposting the cartoon on his Facebook page in 2018, said Rachid Seighir, pastor of Oratoire Church in Oran, some 250 miles west of Algiers on the Mediterranean coast.

It is a tragedy for us and for his family, Pastor Seighir said. When a member of the Body of Christ is sick, the whole body feels the pain. Brother Hamid was naive in accepting this cartoon on his Facebook account. That this story goes back three years and only now its resurfacing  its hard to digest.

Hamids four children are 6, 4, 3 and 3 months, and his wife is dejected and dismayed, especially since one of the children is seriously ill, the pastor added.

Gendarmerie took Hamid into custody for questioning late in the day on Jan. 20 and released him, but he had barely arrived home when he received a call to return, sources said. Returning alone to find out what they wanted, he was detained and spent the night in a jail cell.

The next morning (Jan. 21), a lawyer, Pastor Seighir and other Christians arrived in time to accompany him at a hearing at a court in Arzew, a coastal city in Oran Province, at about 11 a.m. After questioning him about a caricature of Muhammad recorded on his Facebook account with a screenshot by agents from Algerias cybercrime unit in 2018, the prosecutor requested he be punished with five years in prison under Article 144 of the penal code against insulting Muhammad.

Pastor Seighir said he and the attorney encouraged Hamid to have the hearing adjourned as Algerian law allows counsel a week to prepare a defense. Eager to return home and believing he would be able to do so after the hearing, Hamid asked to go before the judge the same day, and he did so at 2 p.m. along with his attorney, even though she had no time to prepare.

The judge sentenced him to five years in prison for insulting Muhammad. His attorney told Morning Star News there is a good chance they can get the sentence reduced on appeal.

In 2017 a judge in Algeria reduced from five years to one year a prison sentence for a Christian convicted of offending Islam with cartoons on his Facebook page. Samir Chamek, a 33-year-old theater actor in Algerias northern area of Wilaya de Bouira, had been sentenced to five years and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars (US$900). Cartoons of Muhammad published elsewhere had been shared on his Facebook page.

On July 31, 2016, Slimane Bouhafs was also arrested under Article 144, in his case for posting a message on Facebook that characterized Islam as a lie. Bouhafs, who converted to Christianity from Islam in 1997 and was baptized in 2006, was sentenced on Aug. 7, 2016 to five years in prison and fined 100,000 Algerian Dinars (US$900). The following month the sentence was reduced on appeal to three years, and the fine was dropped.

Article 144 has been condemned by numerous human rights organizations as a violation of international law. In its report, Policing Belief, pro-democracy group Freedom House said the article was commonly used to persecute Christian and allowed police officials and judges to impose their own religious perspectives on society, and to give at least one version of Islamic practice the force of law.

Nearly 90 people are imprisoned in Algeria for acts related to protest and/or exercise of individual freedoms. Charges are often based on Facebook posts, according to the National Committee for the Release of Detainees (CNLD).

Algerian activist Yacine Mebarki, sentenced to 10 years in prison for insulting the precepts of Islam and other offenses, on Nov. 25 had his sentenced reduced to one year with support from the Algiers-based Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, other advocates and the media.

Algerian courts do not have the right to judge peoples religious beliefs and opinions, notes Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watchs Middle East and North Africa division. Algeria should urgently revise its penal code to end criminal sanctions for peaceful free expression, including opinions that may insult religion.

Algerias new constitution, approved in a referendum largely ignored by the population on Nov. 1, no longer mentions freedom of conscience as the previous constitution did.

Islam is the state religion in the 99-percent Muslim country. Since 2000, thousands of Algerian Muslims have put their faith in Christ. Algerian officials estimate the number of Christians at 50,000, but others say it could be twice that number.

Algeria ranked 24th on Christian support organization Open Doors 2021 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/?

Article originally published by Morning Star News. Used with permission.

Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Oleksii Liskonih
ROCKVILLE, Md., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sparks Group, a leading staffing agency, announced today that they have won the Best of Staffing Client Diamond Award for providing superior service to their clients for at least five (5) consecutive years. Presented in partnership with presenting sponsor CareerBuilder and gold sponsors Indeed & Talent.com, ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing Award winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients. On average, clients of winning agencies are twice as likely to be completely satisfied with the services provided compared to those working with non-winning agencies. Winners who earned the Diamond Award distinction have won the Best of Staffing Award for at least five years in a row, consistently earning industry-leading satisfaction scores from their clients.

Sparks Group Wins ClearlyRated's 2021 Best of Staffing Client Diamond Award for Service Excellence

Sparks Group received satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 82.6% of their clients, significantly higher than the industry's average of 38%.

Sparks Group received a Net Promoter Score of 80.7%, significantly higher than the industry's average of 28% in 2020.

Sparks Group received ratings from clients from more than 60 companies, across a number of industries, giving a comprehensive view into the high-quality service this firm provides.

This year marks the 10th year in a row that Sparks Group has received the Best of Staffing Client Award. Additionally, this is the 6th time Sparks Group has received the Best of Staffing Client Diamond Award.

"We are so grateful for our clients who have supported us over the past 50 years," said Steve Sparks, Owner and Chief Executive Officer of Sparks Group. "Being recognized again with the Best of Staffing Client Award by our clients is a true honor. We could not have thrived for so long without the customers who we cherish so much. It is humbling to see the level of commitment they have to Sparks Group as reflected in our evaluation."

About Sparks Group

Headquartered in Rockville, MD Sparks Group is an award-winning provider of staffing and recruiting services to businesses throughout DC, MD, VA, NC, and beyond. This year, Sparks Group is celebrating 50 years of excellence in the staffing industry, sourcing exceptional talent to help clients build world-class teams and candidates advance their careers.

About Best of Staffing

ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing Award is the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies that have proven superior service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and placed talent. Award winners are showcased by city and area of expertise on ClearlyRated.coman online business directory that helps buyers of professional services find service leaders and vet prospective firms with the help of validated ratings and testimonials.

Contact:

Sparks Group

Shawn Connelly, Marketing Manager

Office: (301) 279-2300

Email: [email protected]

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The digital transformation process is being carried out throughout Vietnam, from large enterprises to small shops.

Tens of thousands of technology firms have been established in the last year, promising to create a new engine for economic growth.

Vietnam aims to become a developing country with industry marching towards modernity and income surpassing the lower average level by 2025; a developing country with modern industry and higher average income by 2030; and a developed country with high income by 2045.

With such important changes, VietNamNet introduces readers to a number of articles on the topic.

Reform is a must

The factory of Dien Quang Lamp JSC in the HCM City Hi-tech Park is witnessing strong digital transformation. Dien Quang, which has been in business for many years, has shifted from an equipment manufacturer to a provider of comprehensive solutions in the power, lighting and information technology sectors.

The area displaying Dien Quangs technological solutions, including a smart home and smart lighting system, catches special attention. In December 2020, Dien Quang Smart V2, the smart solution system of the enterprise, became one of the top 10 'Make in Vietnam' excellent digital products recognized by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

When developing the product, we targeted Vietnamese customers first. As the product is made by Dien Quang, the design can be changed to customers orders. The software is also developed by Dien Quang, so it can be customized to fit Vietnamese usage trends, a representative of Dien Quang said.

As a state-owned economic group, the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has also been moving ahead with the digital transformation process in recent years. At present, transactions between clients and EVN, from service ordering and contract signing to payments can be carried out online via digital platforms, such as QR Code, Epoint (the app for customer care) and chatbot (to give consultancy to clients).

Our clients can order services, from electricity purchase contract signing and equipment installation, to problems to be fixed to bill payment. There is no need to travel to our office, said Vo Quang Lam, EVNs deputy general director.

At first, EVN planned to complete the digital transformation by 2025. However, after the working session with MIC, EVN decided that the process would be shortened and would be completed by 2022.

Activating new growth engine

Digital transformation is proceeding very strongly in Vietnam, not only at large enterprises, but also at small stores and street rice shops.

MICs report, released at a forum on digital tech business development held recently, showed that after one year of implementing the Make in Vietnam strategy, more than 13,000 digital technology firms were established, an increase of 28 percent.

People now use digital tools to sell more products and access more clients at more reasonable costs. Their habit of making payment in cash has been replaced by online payment.

Amchams report presented at the 2020 annual Vietnam Business Forum showed that like many other countries, the pandemic has accelerated Vietnams digital economy and e-commerce.

Schools and offices throughout the country have shifted to use online solutions. The number of online orders increased by 10 times during the social distancing period.

The institutions and enterprises quickly deploying new platforms, apps and services can better adapt to new circumstances. While trying to maintain continuity in current business, they have shifted to working and learning from a distance. They have even tried new methods to satisfy customers requirements.

This is the driving force that will help create more and more Vietnamese technology firms. This will be the source of life and growth for young enterprises.

MICs report, released at a forum on digital tech business development held recently, showed that after one year of implementing the Make in Vietnam strategy, more than 13,000 digital technology firms were established, an increase of 28 percent. Vietnam now has a community of over 58,000 firms.

Vietnam once thought of having 6,000 firms a year, but that has been greatly surpassed. The goal of having 100,000 digital technology firms by 2030 may be attainable by 2025.

A recent report of the National Center for Socio-Economic Information and Forecasting said the 4.0 industry revolution and the digital economy are expected to develop faster after Covid-19, giving Vietnam the opportunity to step up economic restructuring and a growth-model reform based on science, technology and innovation.

Taking advantage of 4.0 industry can create a foundation for Vietnam to shift from a growth model based on resources, low-cost labor and capital-intensive industries to a growth model based on productivity, quality and efficiency.

The Vietnam Economics Institute has recommended changing the way of thinking, considering information technology and digital transformation as an important push and a fundamental pillar to support the recovery process, increase the resilience of the economy, and improve growth quality towards an efficient, green and sustainable path.

A representative of the Japan Business Association in Vietnam, speaking at the Vietnam Business Forum 2020, said he believes that Vietnam, with policies to build a reasonable business environment to attract FDI and carry out digital transformation, will continue to grow strongly in the future.

Luong Bang

Reshuffle underway to further stimulate revival of economy The 13th National Party Congress is expected to set the countrys average annual growth rate of 6.5-7 per cent from now until 2025, when Vietnam may become a higher middle-income nation.
Indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is all set to take the center stage in the coming days during the 13th edition of Aero-India 2021.

On Tuesday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the second production line for the Light Combat Aircrafts that are going to be manufactured by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

BCCL

Last month, the Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the largest indigenous defence procurement deal worth about Rs 48,000 crores to buy 83 LCA Tejas Mark1A fighter jets.

The deal to be signed in the next few days with HAL would strengthen the Indian Air Force's fleet of homegrown fighter jet 'LCA-Tejas' and overall combat capability.

The delivery of the Tejas LCA to the Indian Air Force will begin from March 2024 and around 16 aircraft will be rolled out annually till the completion of the total supply of 83 jets, Chairman and Managing Director of HAL, R Madhavan, said recently.

BCCL

Out of the 83, HAL is all set to manufacture 73 Mark 1-A, the new variant of the Tejas which will be more potent and effective than the previous Mark 1, 10 will be Mark 1 trainers.

Commenting on Tejas, Singh said many foreign nations have shown interest in procuring the indigenous fighter aircraft.

During the inaugural speech, Singh said that under the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan', the country is looking forward to increasing its defence manufacturing capabilities. "India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence," the defence minister said.

BCCL

"Tejas is not only indigenous, but it is also better than its foreign equivalents on several parameters and also comparatively cheaper. Many countries have shown interest in Tejas. India will achieve the target of Rs 1.75 lakh Cr in the field of defence manufacturing in few years," he said in a tweet.

Inaugurated the HAL's new LCA-Tejas Production Line in Bengaluru today. Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan India is looking forward to increase its defence manufacturing capabilities. India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence. @HALHQBLR pic.twitter.com/7HCmYnjp1P  Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) February 2, 2021

Light Combat Aircraft Mk-1A variant is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern 4+ generation fighter aircraft. It is equipped with critical operational capabilities of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile, Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite and Air to Air Refuelling (AAR), a potent platform to meet the operational requirements of Indian Air Force, IAF.

BCCL

The LCA-Tejas will be the backbone of the IAF fighter fleet in the years to come. LCA-Tejas incorporates a large number of new technologies many of which were never attempted in India. The indigenous content of LCA-Tejas is 50 per cent in the Mk1A variant which will be enhanced to 60 per cent.

The Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is indigenously designed by the Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Australian Prime Minister Rallies Global Allies Against Big Tech

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is hoping world leaders can cooperate on reining in the influence of Big Tech firms such as Google and Facebook.

The call comes after the Australian governments endeavours to introduce the News Media Bargaining Code evolves into a public spectacle between the government and Big Tech, garnering global attention.

At a National Press Club address, the prime minister referring to the Media Code told reporters: I would like to see more alignment between the worlds economies on these sorts of things.

We want to work with the companies (Google and Facebook) on these sorts of things. We want a practical outcome. But the world has changed, Morrison said on Monday.

He said regulatory frameworks were not keeping pace with the digital world, and public interest journalism was suffering as a result.

The golden rule for me is, is what happens in the real world has to happen on the digital world. Just the same rules, Morrison told Sky News Australia on the same day. A lot of the regulation and how taxation works, antitrust competition laws, theyve got to catch up.

You cant have these platforms with a business model, which is about being in the Wild West forever  The sheriff eventually gets the rule of law in place in this world.

Morrison is due to meet with G7 leaders in June where many fellow attendees, including Canada, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom are already examining new laws to cope with the influence of the social media giants.

Competition regulators from the Five Eyes nations meanwhile have intelligence-sharing arrangements underway aimed at regulating the influence of the major digital companies.

Just last week, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault told fellow members of Parliament that the Liberal government would table new laws to address how Big Tech will compensate news companies.

According to The Globe and Mail, Guilbeault revealed they were watching the events in Australia and France closely.

Over 300 French publishers recently agreed to a deal with Google France to pay for news.

However, Australias News Media Bargaining Code differs. It has a wider scope and sets up a framework for all Australian eligible news media companies to negotiate with Google and Facebook for payment.

The response from the Silicon Valley companies has not been as welcoming.

Both companies stated they were prepared to remove news content to avoid paying news media altogether.

Google Australia went even a step further last week telling a Senate committee they would consider withdrawing the Google Search service entirely from Australia, prompting an angry response from presiding senators.

While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has appealed directly to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, according to an ABC Insiders interview.

When pressed on whether hed change his mind, Frydenberg responded, Mark Zuckerberg didnt convince me to back down, if thats what you are asking.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella meanwhile, held low key discussions with the prime minister last week to discuss the possibility of Microsoft-owned Bing becoming the main search provider in the country, along with alternative providers DuckDuckGo and Brave.

According to web analytics service Statcounter, Bing is currently Australias second most popular search engine, with just 3.6 percent market share. Google is currently the leader with 94.4 percent.
(Newser)  The state of Western Australia has recorded just nine deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic beganand it is taking very tough measures to keep it that way. A strict five-day lockdown in Perth, Australia's fourth-largest city, was brought in Sunday after a single case was detected, reports Reuters. It was Australia's first known case of locally acquired infection in 14 days and Western Australia's first in almost 10 months. Officials say the infected person is a security guard at a hotel where returning travelers were being quarantined, including four who had tested positive. Authorities say the man, who tested positive Saturday evening, is infected with the British strain of the virus. Police say they are looking into how the worker became infected, but it's not a criminal investigation.

story continues below

Western Australia is bigger than Texas and Alaska put together, but almost 80% of its people live in Perth, population 2 million. Authorities said Sunday that people are barred from leaving their homes from nonessential purposes until Friday and masks must be worn at all times outside the home. "I know for many Western Australians, this is going to come as a shock," said Mark McGowan, the states premier, per the New York Times. "We cannot forget how quickly this virus can spread, nor the devastation it can cause." No other infections have been detected. The security guard also worked as a rideshare driver, and McGowan is looking into increasing the pay of hotel quarantine workers to discourage them from working second jobs, 9News reports. (Read more Australia stories.)
Chevron Corp. and Reliance Industries Ltd. are meeting with U.S. State Department officials to request a rollback of some of the previous administrations restrictions against Venezuelas oil industry.

Representatives from the two companies are holding virtual discussions with officials this week, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information isnt public. High on the agenda: reinstating transactions known as oil swaps that would allow companies to receive Venezuelan crude in exchange for supplying diesel, one person said.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela SA in early 2019, in an effort to dislodge President Nicolas Maduro from power by depriving his government of oil revenue. While some companies were still allowed to engage in limited dealings with the South American country, the swaps were nixed last October, said one of the people.

Indian refiner Reliance is seeking to revive those swaps. Meanwhile, Chevron, for now, wants to build goodwill and remind officials of its commitment to remain in Venezuela, another person said. The oil giant currently has until June to wind down operations, unless it gets another extended waiver.

The U.S. cant ban international companies from buying Venezuelan oil. It can, however, financially squeeze them by prohibiting them from doing business with American companies if they ignore sanctions. Reliance and Chevron requested meetings with the State Department even though some of the key decisionmakers, including assistant secretaries to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have yet to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Ray Fohr, a spokesperson for Chevron, said the company is in regular conversations with multiple agencies within the U.S. government to make sure laws are understood.

STILL HELD: Houston's 'Citgo 6' sentenced to prison in Venezuela

We remain committed to the integrity of our joint venture assets, the safety and wellbeing of our employees and their families, and the companys social and humanitarian programs during these challenging times, The San Ramon, California-based oil producer said of its Venezuela operations in an emailed statement.

Reliance and the State Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Venezuela is barely able to produce its own refined products because of widespread mechanical failures at refineries. Reliance is basing its request to resume oil swaps on the argument that the operations do not provide cash to the Venezuelan government but rather help lessen the humanitarian crisis there, one person said. Diesel is used in power generation, public transportation, agriculture and to deliver food and medicine.

The resumption of oil swaps could allow Venezuela to boost oil production, said Scott Modell, managing director at Rapidan Energy Advisors LLC. Output, which is currently at between 400,000 and 500,000 barrels a day, could hit 750,000 barrels day if the Biden administration eases some of the sanctions, he said.
As we all know, Shruti Haasan will next be seen sharing screen space with Prabhas in his debut Kannada film Salaar, directed by KGF: Chapter 2 director Prashanth Neel. She recently shared a picture of herself from the shooting location in Telangana on her Instagram story. The actress looks gorgeous in a monochrome picture, in which she hid her face with a military print mask.

Amidst all, a report published in a Telugu bulletin suggests that the heavy security has been deployed on the sets of Prabhas-starrer in Telangana. For the unversed, the film is being shot at a deserted coal mine in Godavarikhani, Telangana. While speaking about the security, the Commissioner of Police of Ramagundam, Satyanarayana revealed that a total number of 40 people were deployed at the shooting location as well as Prabhas' guest house.

The Commissioner said, "At first, the makers of Salaar were skeptical about shooting in Godavarikhani, owing to the pseudo-Naxals movement. But we assured all possible support to them and they trusted in us. We are providing tight security with a team of 40 police personnel at the shooting location in order to curb any anti-social occurrences."

Looks like the popularity of the Baahubali star is making fans curious to see him while shooting once in their lifetime. Hence, cops are prepared to handle the crowd. Meanwhile, Prabhas' upcoming film Adipurush has started shooting today (February 2, 2021) in Mumbai. Directed by Om Raut, the film also stars Saif Ali Khan as the main antagonist Lankesh.

Coming back to Salaar, the Prashanth Neel directorial is expected to hit the screens on Christmas 2022. Apart from Salaar, Prabhas is also a part of Radhe Shyam and Nag Ashwin's yet-to-be-titled sci-fi film.

Also Read : Salaar: Shruti Haasan To Star Opposite Prabhas In The Prashanth Neel Directorial!

Coming back to Salaar, the Prashanth Neel directorial is expected to hit the screens on Christmas 2022. Apart from Salaar, Prabhas is also a part of Radhe Shyam and Nag Ashwin's yet-to-be-titled sci-fi film.

Also Read : Salaar Auditions: Prashanth Neel Offers An Opportunity To Work With Prabhas; Details Inside
A Birmingham woman died Monday, more than a week after she was injured a Vestavia Hills crash.

The Jefferson County Coroners Office identified the victim as Lydia Danice Boggan. She was 56.

The crash happened at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 20 on Interstate 459 in Vestavia Hills. Details about the wreck werent immediately available.

Boggan was taken to UAB Hospital where she was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. Monday. Alabama State Troopers are investigating.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. Ruling party MP and Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Armenian Parliament Ruben Rubinyan has reiterated that Armenia continues to be the guarantor of security of Artsakh.

Armenia remains the guarantor of security of Artsakh, Rubinyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, told reporters at a briefing in parliament.

Speaking about the latest PACE session, he said that the Azeri delegation was behaving in a way as if the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is over and all issues are resolved. And our notion was the following: there is not a single fact to testify that the issues are being solved by Azerbaijan or that the Azerbaijani policy is constructive. On the contrary, there are numerous facts that it is quite the opposite, the issue of prisoners of war remains unresolved, a state sanctioned anti-Armenian policy continues in Azerbaijan, Armenophobic post stamps are issued in Azerbaijan and so on, Rubinyan said, expressing certainty that the international communitys pressure will mount on Azerbaijan over these issues.

The post stamp mentioned by Rubinyan is one of the latest infamously racist anti-Armenian propaganda move by Azerbaijani authorities.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

A man filmed trolling police officers just an hour into Perth's lockdown has shared another video of himself confronting cops who repeatedly ask him to wear a mask.

In the new video, the man, who claims to be a journalist, walks through the quiet streets of Fremantle on the second day of Western Australia's snap lockdown and greets two policemen.

In the video the cops remind the man that masks are mandatory to wear outside, saying he could be liable for a $1,000 fine if he does not comply.

When he ignores the request, the officers start to record the man using their body cameras, dismounting from their bikes to ask the man for identification.

A Perth man has shared a video of his confrontation with police who repeatedly ask him to wear a mask that are currently mandatory to wear outside during WA's five day lockdown

'Are you aware that I have rights?' he asks the police officers, and claims he is free to go when asked for his name and address.

'You're a public servant, you work for me.'

The man refuses to wear and mask or give the officers his details, saying: 'I don't answer questions fellas, my apologies. Lots of love to you though, I love you guys.'

The man also warns the policemen to keep their distance: 'Apparently it's a pandemic.'

Curious passersby stop to watch the confrontation, as cops remind the man that everyone else around him is wearing a mask.

The video ends with the police issuing the man with a move on notice, saying he is 'hindering lawful activity' by not complying with lockdown directives.

The footage is the latest in a series of videos the man has uploaded to YouTube.

In a previous video the man mocked two policemen who told him to wear a mask one hour into the five day lockdown.

When the man ignores the cops request, the officers start to record the confrontation using their body cameras, dismounting from their bikes to ask the man for identification

The man gave his viewers a tour of the back of a police station before ranting at cops, who tell the man he has five minutes to leave the premises.

Lockdown rulings will continue until Friday night throughout metropolitan Perth, Peel and the South West of Western Australia.

The snap lockdown came after the state celebrated ten months free of coronavirus, when a security guard tested positive at the Four Points hotel by Sheraton Perth.

There were four active cases in the hotel quarantine when the security guard was working at the hotel.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan confirmed that of the four cases, three were variant strains, one from South Africa and two from the UK.

'We are told the guard was working on the same floor as a positive UK variant case', Mr McGowan said.

The family of the security guard have tested negative for Covid-19 and are currently in quarantine in a state run facility.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan has confirmed that masks will be mandatory throughout the lockdown period.

For those needing to leave their homes, people who work in indoor settings and on public transport, masks must be worn.

WA's Chief Health Officer Dr Andrew Robertson said a rapid response was vital, particularly if the case in question was one of the more infectious strains.
Global investment firm Brookfield's Investment Trust (REIT) public issue will hit the capital market on Wednesday to raise up to Rs 3,800 crore.

REIT will be the third listed trust in India if it is successfully subscribed.

The first one Embassy Office Parks REIT, backed by Blackstone and Embassy group, got listed in April 2019 after raising Rs 4,750 crore.

Mindspace Business Parks REIT, owned by K Raheja and Blackstone, was listed in August last year amid COVID-19 pandemic after raising Rs 4,500 crore.

The initial public offer (IPO) of India Trust ( REIT) will open on February 3 at a price band of Rs 274 to Rs 275. The public issue will close on February 5.

Brookfield REIT, the country's only 100 per cent institutionally managed public commercial vehicle, is issuing units aggregating up to Rs 3,800 crore. It is offering 14 million square feet of its commercial portfolio in the REIT.

The net proceeds from the public issue will be utilised for partial or full pre-payment or scheduled repayment of the existing debt of Asset SPVs (special purpose vehicles).

Bids can be made for a minimum lot of 200 units and in multiples of 200 units thereafter by bidders other than the units subscribed for by anchor investors. The units are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE.

REIT, a popular instrument globally, was introduced in India a few years ago, aimed at attracting investment in the real estate sector by monetising rent-yielding assets. It helps unlock the massive value of real estate assets and enable retail participation.

Industry experts and property consultants expect the Brookfield issue to be successful, with active participation from retail investors.

"The Brookfield REIT IPO which opens for subscription tomorrow comes at a time when the market is buoyed by the Union Budget, with REITs enabled to raise Debt from Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs).

"Dividend distribution of REITs has also been made exempt from TDS for domestic shareholders, while for FPIs the TDS will be at a lower treaty rate," Vestian CEO-APAC Shrinivas Rao told PTI.

With the backing of one of the largest asset management companies globally, Rao said retail investors would favour investing in the IPO with a view on both steady dividend income and long-term capital appreciation.

Ramesh Nair, the former CEO of JLL India, said: "The Brookfield REIT is definitely a must-buy for retail and institutional investors given the stable yield, rental growth potential, identified acquisition opportunities where there is an exclusive right, mark to market rental correction possibility, land with new development potential and gradual asset value appreciation".

This REIT offers retail and institutional investors an opportunity to invest in a fully integrated office ecosystem with the predictability of income with low volatility and high liquidity, Nair said.

Shobhit Agarwal, MD & CEO of Anarock Capital, said: "The Brookfield REIT IPO launch definitely helps strengthen the overall India real estate investment trust space".

With the initial two REITs from Embassy Group and K Raheja Corp garnering very good support from investors, he said more and more new investors are coming into the listed real estate assets space via REIT.

The success of the first two REITs, along with the expected success of the Brookfield REIT, will definitely encourage many more real estate asset owners to come out with REIT listings in the future, Agarwal said.

Sumit Suri, Senior Director (Capital Markets), JLL India, said: "REITs have been very well received by the investors in India so far. Both Embassy and Mindspace REITs were oversubscribed. Their success has opened the door for many such future offerings. Budget 2021 has given a major boost to market confidence".

The Finance Minister on Monday announced some positive push for REITs which will help further enhance investor confidence, he said.

"With Tier 1 sponsor and quality tenants, we may see good retail participation for the current REIT offer as well," Suri said.

Tushar Rane, Executive Director - Capital (Core Assets), Knight Frank India, said the Brookfield REITs offering is a great indicator of the strong future that commercial real estate has in India.

"After the successful listing of Embassy and Mindspace REITs, this rides high on the long-term investor confidence," he said.

Piyush Gupta, MD, Capital & Investment Services (India) at Colliers International, said: "With two REITs in India having demonstrated strong performance with both capital appreciation and consistent dividend pay-outs, the retail investors are likely to find Brookfield opportunity attractive for exposure to Office Real Estate as an alternate investment asset class".

Further, he said, the sentiment is strengthened by certain large office transactions in the past few months reflecting the confidence of large global institutional investors.

Midas FinServe Pvt Ltd MD Rajesh Bansal, however, cautioned that there may be significant financial stress in the Indian real estate ecosystem right after the RBI moratorium period ends.

The fears of disruption in office space due to COVID-19 and the emphasis on work from home may adversely impact the rental pricing, he said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

The Navy is eyeing a plan to administer as many as 16,000 rapid COVID-19 tests per day to asymptomatic workers at 12 major bases in an effort to keep new outbreaks at bay.

According to an active request for information posted on the federal government's contracting website, Naval Air Systems Command wants to hear from businesses that can administer daily tests that yield results in 24 to 48 hours for the purpose of mass screening. It's also looking to obtain a one-hour testing capability for "small, high-risk populations" on the bases.

The goal, according to the document, is to administer COVID tests to between 10% and 50% of the bases' on-site population each week on a voluntary, random basis, averaging 15,990 tests per week.

Read Next: Hundreds of Doctors Fired by VA May Still Be Treating Veterans, GAO Finds

"Protecting the workforce from COVID-19 is the priority. To accomplish this, NAVAIR''s intent is to provide a rapid, onsite COVID-19 screening testing for asymptomatic employees for the purpose of establishing infection rates, shaping the workforce, or controlling the work site to prevent the spread of COVID-19," the document states.

The bases that would receive rapid testing capabilities include the following:

Joint Base Lakehurst, New Jersey

Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland

Webster Outlying Field, Maryland

NAS Oceana, Virginia

Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina

NAS Jacksonville, Florida

Naval Support Activity Orlando, Florida

NAS Whidbey Island, Washington

NAS Lemoore, California

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California

NAS Point Mugu, California

NAS North Island, California

The largest on-site testing population is at Patuxent River, with 6,174 workers, according to the documents. Of note, that still represents only a fraction of the more than 20,000 troops and civilians employed at Pax River; some may have remote, rather than on-site, work arrangements.

While officials said they would consider either polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, molecular

testing or antigen testing solution, NAVAIR prefers PCR tests, which yield fewer false negatives and are less likely to miss an active infection. Documents indicate testing work would begin at bases as soon as this month, and could continue through the end of the year, although it likely will end sooner.

"Expectation is through the end of July 2021, but may be shorter if we see rapid decrease in cases due to vaccine effectiveness," one response to a question from industry reads. "May be longer if cases do not rapidly decrease as expected in late Spring/early Summer."

This effort furthers a previous Navy initiative rolled out last June, known as sentinel surveillance testing or SST. That effort administered regular COVID-tests to asymptomatic individuals strategically across the fleet to minimize outbreaks and create a "COVID-free bubble" around units about to deploy. A Navy message about SST noted that NAVAIR was among commands with increased transmission risk due to "high-density office personnel."

As workplaces seek to return to in-person conditions, mass rapid testing is an appealing option to help identify and isolate cases of COVID-19 before they can spread. However, the expense can be a hindrance. Some rapid tests carry an out-of-pocket cost of $100 or more. It's not clear how much the Navy is looking to pay to implement its rapid testing plans.

The military has already employed rapid testing in some more limited cases. In November 2020, the Defense Department announced that troops taking Patriot Express flights could expect random on-site rapid COVID tests.

NAVAIR plans to invite bids on its rapid testing proposal this month, and set a mid-February due date for companies to respond.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.

Related: Active-Duty Troops May Help with Nationwide COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny talks to one of his lawyers, left, while standing in the cage during a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 2, 2021. (Moscow City Court via AP)

Russian Court Orders Kremlin Critic Navalny to 2.5 Years in Prison

MOSCOWA Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to more than 2 1/2 years in prison on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning.

Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had earlier denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission.

The prison sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that he has rejected as fabricated.

The 44-year-old Navalny was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from his five-month convalescence in Germany from the attack, which he has blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny any involvement. Despite tests by several European labs, Russian authorities said they have no proof he was poisoned.

Wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Yulia arrives to attend a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Alexei Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 2, 2021. (Viktor Berezkin/AP Photo)

As the order was read, Navalny pointed to his wife Yulia in the courtroom and traced the outline of a heart on the glass cage where he was being held.

Earlier, Navalny attributed his arrest to Putins fear and hatred, saying the Russian leader will go down in history as a poisoner.

I have deeply offended him simply by surviving the assassination attempt that he ordered, he said.

The aim of that hearing is to scare a great number of people, Navalny said. You cant jail the entire country.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands in the cage during a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 2, 2021. (Moscow City Court via AP)

Russias penitentiary service alleges that Navalny violated the probation conditions of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money laundering conviction that he has rejected as politically motivated. It asked the Simonovsky District Court to turn his 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into one that he must serve in prison, although he has spent some of that sentence under house arrest.

Navalny emphasized that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that his 2014 conviction was unlawful and Russia paid him compensation in line with the ruling.

Navalny and his lawyers have argued that while he was recovering in Germany from the poisoning, he couldnt register with Russian authorities in person as required by his probation. Navalny also insisted that his due process rights were crudely violated during his arrest and described his jailing as a travesty of justice.

Police officers detain a young man during a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 2, 2021. (Denis Kaminev/AP Photo)

I came back to Moscow after I completed the course of treatment, Navalny said at Tuesdays hearing. What else could I have done?

Navalnys jailing has triggered massive protests across Russia for the past two weekends, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to demand his release and chant slogans against Putin. Police detained over 5,750 people Sunday, including more than 1,900 in Moscow, the biggest number the nation has seen since Soviet times. Most were released after being handed a court summons, and they face fines or jail terms of seven to 15 days. Several people faced criminal charges over alleged violence against police.

I am fighting and will keep doing it even though I am now in the hands of people who love to put chemical weapons everywhere and no one would give three kopecks for my life, Navalny said.

Navalnys team called for another demonstration Tuesday outside the Moscow courthouse, but police were out in force, cordoning off the nearby streets and making random arrests. More than 320 people were detained, according to the OVD-Info group that monitors arrests.

Some Navalny supporters still managed to approach the building. A young woman climbed a large pile of snow across the street from the courthouse and held up a poster saying Freedom to Navalny. Less than a minute later, a police officer took her away.

In court, Navalny thanked protesters for their courage and urged other Russians not to fear repression.

Millions cant be jailed, he said. You have stolen peoples future and you are now trying to scare them. Im urging all not to be afraid.

After his arrest, Navalnys team released a two-hour YouTube video featuring an opulent Black Sea residence allegedly built for Putin. The video has been viewed over 100 million times, fueling discontent as ordinary Russians struggle with an economic downturn, the coronavirus pandemic, and widespread corruption during Putins years in office.

Putin insisted last week that neither he nor his relatives own any of the properties mentioned in the video, and his longtime confidant, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, claimed that he owns it.

As part of efforts to squelch the protests, the authorities have targeted Navalnys associates and activists across the country. His brother Oleg, top ally Lyubov Sobol and several others were put under house arrest for two months and face criminal charges of violating coronavirus restrictions.

The jailing of Navalny and the crackdown on protests have stoked international outrage, with Western officials calling for his release and condemning the arrests of demonstrators.

Visiting Moscow on Tuesday, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, the current chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, urged Russia to release Navalny and condemned the crackdown on protests.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who will visit Moscow later this week, has criticized the detentions and the disproportionate use of force against protesters, emphasizing that Russia must comply with its international commitments on human rights.

Russia has dismissed U.S. and EU criticism as meddling in its domestic affairs and said Navalnys current situation is a procedural matter for the court, not an issue for the government.

More than a dozen Western diplomats attended the hearing, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said their presence was part of efforts by the West to contain Russia, adding that it could be an attempt to exert psychological pressure on the judge.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is ready for dialogue about Navalny, but sternly warned that it wouldnt take Western criticism into account.

We are ready to patiently explain everything, but we arent going to react to mentor-style statements or take them into account, Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

By Daria Litvinova and Vladimir Isachenkov
One of Australia's best barristers has been hired to help reunite an eight-month-old baby with his teenage parents after he was taken from them and placed in foster care, friends of the couple claim.

Distressing footage emerged of the baby being ripped from his mother's arms as she breastfed him in a car park in Brunswick Heads, near Byron Bay on the NSW North Coast, on January 15th.

Family and Community Services said the family's lifestyle choices - including living outdoors and their strict anti-vaccination stance - was putting the little boy at risk.

At a court mention last week, the family and their supporters are understood to have arrived with a local 'shaman' to defend them.

Since then a representative for the family claimed they have hired a top lawyer to represent them when the matter returns to the family court.

Family friends have also questioned whether the state had any right to take the baby, given he was allegedly never registered and does not have a birth certificate.

While the lifestyle is unorthodox, those close to the situation insist the woman (pictured together) is a 'great mother... doing what she thinks is best for her baby'

'We all became property of the Commonwealth [when we got birth certificates] and that means we have to abide by the Queen's laws... I believe there is some kind of loophole here,' the friend explained.

Australian parents must register a child within 60 days or eight weeks of birth.

Without registration papers and a birth certificate, a child cannot travel overseas, enrol in school or access Medicare.

The young parents, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have been granted access to their son for a couple of hours at a time, a few days a week.

But the 17-year-old mother has said leaving her child again was too much to bear.

'This will leave both mother and son with more abandonment wounds and trauma, so they have decided not to take up this offer,' the friend said.

The baby's mother was '15 or 16' when she fell pregnant and after going into labour on the beach, presented at her local hospital to give birth. Pictured: Mother and son together

An eight-month-old baby was forcibly removed from his mother's care while she was in the process of breastfeeding him

Daily Mail Australia understands the Department of Family and Community Services has been involved in the infant's life since he was born.

His mother was 15 or 16 when she fell pregnant and after going into labour on the beach and presented at her local hospital to give birth.

Her own mother wasn't at the hospital and nurses quickly established that she and her young boyfriend did not have a fixed address.

Family services were called and explained that they weren't allowed to leave hospital with their baby unless they had an address to return to - so they provided the teen's older sister's address as a base.

The couple lived there for a short time but eventually decided to return to their outdoor lifestyle and raise their baby within the bush community.

Authorities then kept a close eye on the couple before eventually swooping in on January 15 and removing the baby.

'They just wanted to live on the land and raise their child how they wanted,' a friend explained.

The boy's father (pictured with the baby) is concerned about how he is being treated in foster care. The young couple, who are 17 and 18, were resolved to raise him outdoors and 'on the land'

The officers initially try to reason with her and convince her to hand her baby over, before eventually trying to peel her off him

'This is not a neglected child, this child is thriving and nourished and very bonded with his mother.

'This is discrimination for how these parents want to raise their child. All she wants is to nourish and nurture her baby.'

Since the baby's removal, his mother has developed mastitis due to not being able to breastfeed, and both parents are said to be heartbroken.

The confronting footage of the removal taken last month shows the topless mother clutching her little boy to her chest as she pleads with police to leave her alone.

'This is not right, this is my baby. Please don't take him,' she repeatedly says.

The young couple (pictured) allegedly appeared in court alongside a 'local shaman' to help return their baby. They have now enlisted the help of a 'top barrister'

The baby's father expressed concerns about the way he is being supported in the care of authorities. He said he was particularly worried the chemicals in which his baby is being bathed in and the thought of him sleeping alone

In the video, the young mother argues with several officers and support workers from family and community services, who arrived in her commune in the Byron Shire to remove the little boy.

While their 'outdoor lifestyle' is unorthodox, those close to the situation insist the woman is a 'great mother... doing what she thinks is best for her baby'.

The officers initially try to reason with her and convince her to hand her baby over, before eventually trying to peel her off him.

They repeatedly tell her she is 'hurting the baby' as she tries to keep a hold of him.

One of the support workers at one stage hears the baby cry and tells the woman that there is no other outcome than him leaving her care.

'He's crying... We'll sort stuff out but he's going to have to go. This is not going to end any differently at the moment.'

The woman then says she has 'concerns for the safety and well being of the baby'.

The baby's father expressed concerns about the way he is being supported in the care of authorities.

What does it mean if a child was not registered at birth? After giving birth, parents must register their baby within 60 days - or before the baby is eight weeks old. This is not done at the hospital, but is free to do. It is how a child receives an official name and paperwork that they require for the rest of their life. The birth must be registered before a family can get a birth certificate. A birth certificate is needed to apply for: - Access to healthcare and other government services - Entry to childcare, kindy or school - An Australian passport Advertisement

Confronting footage shows the shirtless mother clutching her little boy close to her chest as she repeatedly asks the officers to leave her alone

He said he was particularly worried the chemicals in which his baby is being bathed in and the thought of him sleeping alone.

'He sleeps in between [his mother] and I... Never by himself. When he wakes up at night, mumma is right there with her breast,' he explained.

'He never cries, is always smiling and laughing. We don't know when he will return but we hope to be reunited soon.'

The graphic footage sparked outrage online among the parents' community, many of whom criticised the support workers for telling the young mum that she was 'hurting' her baby in the video.

One of the women said: 'He's getting squeezed and he's crying. You're squeezing him when you do that action.'

In response, the mother said that her 'chest isn't even on him' and again reiterated that she did not want to hand her boy over.

A fundraising appeal to fund the family's legal costs has already raised more than $25,000.
Israel Cracks the Whip



Netanyahu tells Biden how to deal with Iran



By Philip Giraldi

February 02, 2021 " Information Clearing House " - Anyone who persists in believing that the United States is not Israels poodle should pay attention to the comedy that is playing out right now. Joe Biden was president for less than a week when the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu government announced that he would soon be receiving a possibly unwelcome visitor in the form of the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossads chief Yossi Cohen, who will be flying to Washington in February to explain the correct policy when dealing with Iran. And lest there be any confusion on the issue, the Israel Defense Force chief of staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi also announced that any Biden attempt to mend fences with the Islamic Republic will have to meet certain conditions or Israel will exercise other options. He said In light of this fundamental analysis, I have instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare a number of operational plans, in addition to those already in place. It will be up to the political leadership, of course, to decide on implementation but these plans need to be on the table. Another government minister clarified that the options would include an attack on Iran, though there has been no indication whether or not Israel would possibly contemplate deploying its tactical nuclear weapons to prevent retaliation by Iranian forces.

There is no limit to Israeli hubris. A leading Rabbi in Israel is predicting that as the United States is in decline it is up to the Jewish state to take over the role of guiding civilization forward. And that kind of thinking shapes how Israel treats the United States with condescension, acting as if it is the knowledgeable elder statesman whose guidance must be respected. In this case the Zionist solution to the Iran problem will by design be unpalatable for the government in Tehran if it intends to remain sovereign. For Israel the correct policy for dealing with Iran is to effectively disarm it and make it impossible to establish any sphere of influence in the countries adjacent to it, to include Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. That would be to concede Israeli dominance over the entire region and if the Iranians do not play ball the next step would be to convince the United States to attack it on some pretext, possibly to include an Israeli false flag to start the process going.

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The Times of Israel sums up the Israeli official position as Iran must halt the enriching of uranium; stop producing advanced centrifuges; cease supporting terror groups, foremost Lebanons Hezbollah; end its military presence in Iraq, Syria and Yemen; stop terror activity against Israeli targets overseas; and grant full access to the IAEA on all aspects of its nuclear program. Completing the disarming of Iran would also include requiring Tehran to abandon its ballistic missile program.

The irony is, of course, that it is Israel that has a secret nuclear arsenal that it created by stealing uranium and triggers from the United States and it is also the leading regional supporter of terrorist groups, to include al-Qaeda and ISIS. Irans presence in Syria is due to its lending assistance to the Damascus governments resistance to the insurgencies supported by Israel and the United States. And Iran has not targeted Israeli citizens and groups overseas, but Israel and the U.S. have assassinated Iranian officials while also bombing both government and civilian targets in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. And all of the kinetics occur in a context where Israel continues its illegal occupation of Palestine and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people replete with both war crimes and crimes against humanity. Iran is also a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Israel is not, so who is the rogue state?

Biden will likely fold like a cheap suit when confronted by the force majeure of Cohen. The new American president has assembled a national security team for dealing with the Middle East that is nearly all Jewish and all Zionist, an affliction that he himself claims to suffer from. The Biden nominee for secretary of state Tony Blinken said at a confirmation hearing last week that the new administration would consult with Israel before any possible return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal and he also made clear that there would be additional conditions for Iran. It was an odd comment for a government official who is supposed to support American interests, but it was predictably what Congress wanted to hear. As Iran has already indicated that it is unwilling to abandon its defenses and its role in the region, the Biden proposal will be a non-starter in any case, though Israel will be prepared to apply its own veto if anything undertaken by the State Department moves beyond the talking stage.

Currently there is credible speculation that Israeli intelligence has been able to compromise most if not all of the U.S. governments information systems as well as those of major corporations. As the Jewish state is the most active in spying against the United States, that should surprise no one. For Israel to interfere in U.S. politics or government blatantly is not exactly new, though it is rare to have anyone in the mainstream media or in government say anything about. That is because Israels ability to wage war against critics is second to none, having at its back nearly unlimited financial resources and easy access to the media as well as active supporters from among the nearly six hundred Jewish organizations that exist in the United States.

Indeed, Israel has been involved in American politics frequently, one might even argue incessantly, even if it is predictably never held accountable. To cite only one well known example, it has been suggested that Russiagate was really Israelgate based on what actually took place shortly after the 2016 election. The contact with Russia was set up by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was at the time seeking to kill an anti-Israeli vote in the United Nations. He sought to do so by lobbying Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner on the matter shortly after the 2016 election. Netanyahu was particularly close to the Kushner family, having on at least one occasion slept overnight at their mansion in Manhattan.

Prompted by Netanyahu, Kushner dutifully contacted Trump National Security Advisor-designate Michael Flynn and asked him to privately call Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak to lobby Moscow to vote against the bill. There were two phone calls but Kislyak refused to cooperate. It should be noted that while all of this was taking place Barack Obama was still president and his intention to abstain on a vote on Israels illegal settlements is what provoked Netanyahu to act, so Netanyahu-Kushner-Flynn were subverting their own elected government and were definitely in the wrong. Flynn was subsequently thrown under the bus by his Jewish friends without any mention in the media of the Israeli role, thereby becoming the first casualty of Russiagate. He was subsequently forced to resign from his post in disgrace in February 2017.

The whole issue of the U.S.-Israel relationship constitutes one of the most formidable red lines in American politics as part of its power comes from the fact that the media and political classes pretend that it does not even exist. Israels power was poisonous enough prior to the election of Donald Trump, but Trump, advised by a gaggle of orthodox Jews, dramatically shifted the playing field to favor Israel in ways that will define the relationship for years to come. Bidens team is little better and the president will be taking his orders from Jerusalem and saluting as long as he stays in the White House. Will it lead to a totally unnecessary and unwinnable war with Iran? That is what Israel demands above all, and Israel always gets what it wants.
More than 25 districts in Uttar Pradesh to experience heavy rain under Cyclone Yaas impact

UP MLA gets multiple messages from Pakistan number threatening to kill her

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Lucknow, Feb 02: Uttar Pradesh's BJP legislator Sadar Sarita Bhadauria has received multiple messages on WhatsApp from a Pakistani number threatening to kill her, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and senior BJP and RSS leaders, police said on Monday.

The MLA from Etawah Sadar has told police that she received the messages on WhatsApp with the logo of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.

According to her, the first message was received on Saturday around 11 pm.

By Sunday morning she had received eight messages threatening to kill her, the prime minister, and senior BJP and RSS leaders, police said.

Senior Superintendent of Police of Etawah Akash Tomar said, "The MLA has received messages on her WhatsApp. I have seen the message. It has come from a mobile number of Pakistan starting with +92.

We are probing the matter and also reviewing security arrangements for the legislator."

Bhadauria had won 2017 Assembly election from Etawah Sadar by defeating Kuldeep Gupta of Samajwadi Party by 17,342 votes.

She came into politics after the murder of her husband Abhayveer Singh Bhadauria in 1999.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

The MLA said she would continue to fight for the people and would not get intimidated by any such message.

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KYODO NEWS - Feb 2, 2021 - 16:02 | World, All

South Korea's Defense Ministry dropped its description of Japan as a "partner" in the latest defense white paper published Tuesday, a move painted by local media as a "downgrade" that reflects worsening ties between the two countries.

In the previous white paper published two years ago, South Korea and Japan were described as "geographically and culturally close neighbors as well as partners cooperating for global peace and prosperity."

The latest white paper states the two countries are "close neighbors that should cooperate not only for the two countries' relationships but also for peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia and the world."

A ministry official said in a briefing that given Japan's stronger export controls implemented against South Korea in 2019, the ministry decided it was "reasonable" to call Japan a "neighbor" and stop at that.

The downgrading in description was not the first.

Biennially published South Korean defense white papers used to state the two countries "share the basic values of liberal democracy and market economies." But the white paper published in 2019 -- the first one released under the government of President Moon Jae In -- no longer contained that description.

Japan-South Korea relations have long been difficult due to Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. But their ties have soured considerably in recent years, particularly after South Korean Supreme Court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to compensate groups of Koreans for wartime forced labor.

The latest white paper, meanwhile, blamed Japan for stalemating ties with South Korea by making "unilateral announcements that misrepresented facts" about such issues as Japan's claim to a pair of South Korean-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan and a 2018 close encounter between a Japanese surveillance plane and a South Korean destroyer.

While pledging to "resolutely deal with unilateral and arbitrary measures taken by Japan," the white paper said South Korea will "continue cooperating" with Japan on "issues of common concern."

South Korea's description of North Korea in the white paper remained unchanged from the previous one, which deleted the word "enemy" to reflect an improvement in inter-Korean relations following several summits between their leaders in 2018.

Alan Leavitt has launched a podcast entitled Fast Horses: A Podcast About Harness Racing, Horse People, and Life In General.

The first episode of Fast Horses is now available by name in all podcast feeds, or by visiting the Fast Horses website.

Leavitt brings to his podcast a lifetime spent breeding and racing harness horses. His credentials include a longtime directorship in the Hambletonian Society, a second term as Governor Andy Beshears designee to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission after previously serving for eight years under Gov. Steve Beshear, 28 years as a USTA director, and, in 2008, election to the Harness Racing Living Hall of Fame.

Leavitt stated that his podcast would be produced on a weekly basis, with the second episode scheduled for release on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

(Walnut Hall)
President Joe Biden threatens new sanctions against Myanmar after its military launched a coup and detained its government's civilian leaders, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Joe Biden attacked the country's army for the coup, calling it a "direct assault on the transition of the country to democracy and rule of law." Even globally, the coup in Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been roundly condemned.

"The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy," Biden said in a statement. "The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action. The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack.

Myanmar has been a project for advancing Western democracy for decades and has been a sign of some success. But there have been increasing worries about its backsliding into authoritarianism over the past few years. Disappointment with Suu Kyi, the former leader of the opposition, has run high, mostly because of her opposition to Rohingya Muslims' persecution in the west of the country.

Myanmar emerged from decades of rigid military rule and international isolation that started in 1962. On Monday, the events were a stunning fall from power for Suu Kyi, who, for her work promoting democracy and human rights, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

For years, as she sought to drive her country towards democracy, she had lived under house arrest and then became its de facto leader after her National League for Democracy won elections in 2015.

After the military began loosening its hold, former President Barack Obama started relaxing sanctions on Myanmar in 2011 and lifted several remaining restrictions in 2016. The Trump administration placed targeted sanctions on four military officers in 2019 over reports of abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing.

The National League for Democracy Party of Suu Kyi won a landslide 83 percent in an election on Nov. 8. The military called its seizure a reaction to electoral fraud.

Consults for decision in Myanmar threat

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington had had "intensive" talks with allies during a routine news briefing. She refused to say what other actions, apart from sanctions, were under consideration.

Biden's observation that the United States was "taking note" of how other nations reacted was "a message to all countries in the region," Psaki said.

Robert Menendez, the senior Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Washington and other countries should impose strict economic sanctions, including additional measures on its armies. And military leadership of Myanmar if they did not free the elected leaders and withdraw from the government.

The events in Myanmar are a big blow to Biden's administration and its attempt to forge a robust Asia Pacific strategy to stand up to China.

Many of the Asia policy team of Biden, including its head, Kurt Campbell, are veterans of the Obama administration, which praised its work to end decades of military rule in Myanmar as a significant achievement of foreign policy upon leaving office 2016. As Obama's vice president, Biden served.

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Private investor Leda Holdings has kicked off 2021 with five land transactions in western Sydney, amounting to more than $20 million.

It comes as a land parcel in the Mamre Road Precinct of the Western Sydney Aerotropolis is also being sold and is expected to generate strong interest, with price expectations of up to $80 million.

Thanks to the rise in demand for online shopping, boosted by the closure of bricks-and-mortar stores during the pandemic, industrial property and zoned land for warehouse developments are in high demand.

The englobo site at 1079 Great Western Highway, Minchinbury.

CBREs Elijah Shakir and John Micallef and Savills Mick Ferreri negotiated the five individual Leda sales that formed part of a subdivided englobo block of land in Minchinbury, about 40 kilometres west of Sydney CBD.
NHS Covid-19 app users asked to self-isolate now eligible to apply for 500 payment

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Feb 2nd, 2021

Those asked to self-isolate via the NHS Covid-19 app are now be eligible to apply for the 500 self-isolation support payment.

App users who have been notified as being exposed to the virus, are on low income and at risk of financial hardship are eligible alongside those who have been asked to self-isolate by Test, Trace, Protect or parents whose child has been asked to self-isolate by their education setting.

To be eligible to apply, app users will need to meet the criteria of the main scheme and be:

Employed or self-employed;

unable to work from home and will lose income as a result; and

(the applicant or their partner) are currently receiving, Universal Credit, Working Tax Credit, income-based Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit and/or Pension Credit; or

Have their application accepted under the discretionary element of Self-Isolation Support Scheme.

To allow as many people notified by the app to apply as soon as possible, a temporary workaround has been created until a digital solution is available.





Users can apply for the payment by contacting their local authority.

However until the app is updated to verify individuals who has been asked to self-isolate, users will need to show evidence that the app has asked them to self-isolate in addition to evidence of reduced income when applying.

Local authorities will be able to accept and process applications for payments from Friday 5 February and applicants will be able to apply up to three weeks from their last date of isolation.

Minister for Housing and Local Government, Julie James said: The Welsh Government is committed to protecting peoples health and wellbeing and we will continue to support the people of Wales during this difficult time.

The 500 payment has already provided financial security to those asked to self-isolate, helping to break the cycle of transmission and ensure no one has to choose between feeding their family or going to work and potentially spreading the virus.

Local authorities have once again risen to the challenge of ensuring all those who need financial support throughout this pandemic receive it whilst we finalising work to allow people to apply directly through the app.

They have already been working tirelessly I once again thank them for their hard work and dedication.

I will continue to keep the scheme under review to ensure that those most in need receive the support they need to self-isolate and reduce transmission.
The owner of a popular burger store has been forced to apologise after a 'racist' Facebook post sparked widespread outrage.

Downtown Brooklyn Penrith, in western Sydney, took to its social media accounts after Australia Day to promote one of its American-style burgers.

But the post was interpreted as 'racist' by some after Invasion Day protesters were described as 'bandwagoners'.

'Three great things about today!' the restaurant wrote on January 27.

'One of our fans grabbed a Fairy Bread Burger and trekked into the city to grab this shot.

American-style burger restuarant Downtown Brooklyn Penrith (pictured) has copped backash over a 'racist' post written after Australia Day

The post (pictured) sparked outrage online after it described Invasion Day protesters as 'bandwagoners'

'We are back open from 5.30pm so you can grab yourself a Fairy Bread Burger.'

'[And] 364 more sleeps till we have to listen to the Invasion Day bandwagoners again!'

Australia Day is called 'Invasion Day' by those who argue the January 26 national public holiday is offensive to indigenous people as it marks the arrival of Britain's First Fleet and the start of European settlement.

Social media users were particularly incensed by the term 'bandwagoners' with some vowing to boycott the restaurant.

'Downtown Brooklyn Penrith has revealed that they've got gross slimy ugly attitudes to match their gross slimy ugly burgers and we all get to watch the fallout,' one woman wrote.

'Probably about 10 days until you go out of business, so you don't even need to worry about waiting the full 360 days,' another added.

'Thanks for letting me know where not to spend my money,' a third commented.

The post drew the attention of former Labor MP Emma Husar (pictured) who said the store's attitude' towards your own community that you profit from sucks'

Downtown Brooklyn BurgersOwner Chris O'Shea ( pictured 2nd from left, with co-owner Nyome O'Shea, left, and Dave Huges, second from the right) has since issued an apology admitting the post 'may have pushed the boundaries too far'

Former Labor MP Emma Husar also weighed in, saying the store's attitude 'towards your own community that you profit from sucks'.

'Well, this level of racism is disappointing [and] also stupid,' she said.

'Western Sydney is home to the largest numbers of First Nations people in a metro setting.'

Downtown Brooklyn's owner Chris O'Shea issued an apology in response to the backlash, admitting the post 'may have pushed the boundaries a bit too far'.

'The point #3 was made in regards to social influencers and how they love to jump on bandwagons,' he wrote in a post online.

'They use these days to support an issue for the likes or clout, then move on to the next one, forgetting about the true cause.

The apology (pictured) drew a mixed response, with many labelling it as 'backtracking'

'Unfortunately somewhere along the line, this has been misconstrued as being racist, and it has taken off from there.'

Mr O'Shea said he would 'cop the hate' and said it was 'never meant to be a hateful or racist post'.

The apology has received mixed reviews, with many labelling the post as 'backtracking'.

'Nice try but... no, not buying your backtracking. A lot of Aboriginal people and allies and other people of colour and just decent people live in Penrith. You will feel the impact of this,' one person wrote.

'Here's a tip: Apologising and owning your actions is very different to patronising people by, apologising for the way they 'perceived' your thinly veiled hatred fuelled posts and comments. Which is what you have done here,' another comment read.
I remember when social media was the new frontier, as I did my thesis on a little-known platform called Twitter that had 2,000 users at the time. Clearly, we've come a long way. As technology and mediums have both evolved, I am always curious to see what's next. While the quick answer may be cryptocurrency or blockchain or even perhaps A.I. more broadly, the real answer, I believe, is the rise in digital privacy and, specifically, identity.

This year, the Covid-19 pandemic expedited how quickly innovators across all industries bring ideas to market, and the digital identity space has become something of a burgeoning topic. According to recent research from Deloitte, digital identities are becoming the foundation of our rapidly evolving, technology-based economy and society.

Clearly, the digital identity frontier is a territory worth exploring further. Like with all innovation, certain brands will lead the charge. Here are three such brands that I am watching closely in 2021:

LivePerson

As a leader in conversational A.I., LivePerson has its roots in helping brands connect with customers by making it easy to message with them anywhere, anytime. Since you can't have a good conversation (let alone make purchases) without trust, the company has also championed efforts to make tech more fair and equitable. LivePerson is a founding member of EqualAI, a nonprofit organization and movement focused on reducing unconscious bias in the development and use of artificial intelligence. In 2021, we will hear much more about unconscious bias in tech. Removing it (or at least reducing it dramatically) will be key to allowing trusted interactions between brands and consumers to thrive.

CognitiveScale

At the core of all digital identity, there must be trust. This is why I am watching CognitiveScale, an enterprise A.I. software company whose product Cortex Certifai compiles a composite "trust score" that measures data and modeling risks related to effective compliance and quality in software development. Cortex Certifai helps businesses foster confidence in the digital systems they create and work with. For example, is the system compliant with specific industry regulations? How easily is it fooled into performing incorrectly? These will be the questions any brand tackling digital identity must answer.

ATB Ventures

ATB Ventures, the innovation arm of Alberta-based financial institution ATB Financial, has multiple projects in development, and I recommend watching its launches closely over the next few years. ATB Financial was recently accepted into the Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC), a nonprofit coalition of public and private sector leaders committed to developing a Canadian digital identification and authentication framework. ATB Ventures' portfolio includes products within the self-sovereign credential (identity) platform, the open-source enabled open finance and data platform, and a patent-pending trusted A.I. framework. The cohesion of these systems create for trust at the architecture, model, and experiential layers.
Armenia's Central Bank has decided today to raise the refinancing rate by 0.25% setting it at 5.5%.

According to the press service of the regulator, the pawnshop repo rate provided by the Central Bank was 7%, and the rate on funds attracted from other banks was 4%.

Before that the Central Bank changed the refinancing rate on December 15, 2020, increasing it by 1.0 percentage points, to 5.25%, ARKA reported.
Rep. Brooks Landgraf of Odessa sent a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday requesting that educators be classified as front-line workers to immediately receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccine is currently only available for health care workers or others who work directly with coronavirus patients and individuals age 65 or older or with chronic health conditions.

I emphatically ask you to include Texas public school employees in the priority category of frontline workers, Landgraf wrote in the letter to Abbott. These individuals are clearly on the frontlines, risking contracting COVID-19 each day in Texas schools in order to continue educating our Texas students.

He added that educators have continued to teach students in-person during the pandemic, so its only fair that we must support our educators during this critical time.

It is in the best interest of all Texans to ensure that our Texas public school employees are included as frontline workers to make certain our Texas schools remain healthy, he wrote.

The Department of State Health Services has not yet announced when teachers will be eligible to receive the vaccine; school nurses are classified as front-line workers and are eligible for the vaccine. DSHS has estimated that the vaccine will be open to the general public in the spring.

The Texas State Teachers Association released a statement last month urging Abbott to add school employees to the vaccination priority list. They also asked the governor to end an executive order that revokes state funding for school districts that dont offer in-person learning.

Our public schools and students will not be safe from this pandemic until every educator who wants a vaccine can get one, and it may be some months before Texas has enough vaccine doses to cover all educators and other high-risk groups, TSTA said in the statement. We repeat our call for the governor and the Texas Education Agency to give school districts the flexibility to close their buildings and conduct only remote instruction, without losing state funding.

Midland ISD has offered both an online academy and on-campus classes since the fall of last year.

MISD has reported 1,322 COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic but does not report whether cases are employees or students. They reported 258 cases in January.

On Monday, MISD staff had the opportunity to receive vaccines when it became apparent that there were a number of no-shows at the Horseshoe, according to information from the district. Preference was given to those who met the 1A or 1B criteria, the district stated.

MISD continues to work in collaboration with MMH regarding COVID-19 vaccination and we are thankful for the doses that have been made available to our staff, according to a statement.
ISTANBUL  Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters gathered in Istanbuls Kadikoy district, as student-led demonstrations continued to escalate on Feb. 2. Videos shared on social media show protesters clashing with Turkish security forces in Kadikoy and downtown Ankara, where dozens were reportedly taken into custody.

The events came after police detained more than 150 protesters at Bogazici University on Feb. 1 following almost a month of demonstrations by students and some faculty members over the controversial appointment of a government-linked rector to head the school.

Nearly 100 of Mondays detainees were released, but demonstrators gathered once more on Feb. 1 in at least three Turkish cities to denounce what they called disproportionate police force employed to quell protests at Bogazici. Some Turkish citizens in several cities also showed support for demonstrators by clanging pots and pans from their windows at 9 p.m.

Since Jan. 4, students at Bogazici University, one of Turkeys top educational institutions, have called for the resignation of Melih Bulu, a long-time member of Turkeys ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) who was appointed as the schools rector early last month by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Opponents of Bulu say his appointment violated university election customs and view the move as a politically motivated attempt to influence the administration at the traditionally liberal university.

Protests intensified on Feb. 1 when security forces dispersed demonstrations at the university after two students were arrested. Two others were placed under house arrest Saturday for displaying a poster deemed insulting to religious values.

The poster depicted the Kaaba in Mecca, among the holiest sites in Islam, with LGBT flags and a mythical creature of Middle Eastern folklore in its place, drawing condemnation from conservative groups and political officials in Turkey.

Heavy police presence on and off the Bogazici campus prompted fresh demonstrations on Feb. 2. Before crowds gathered, the Istanbul governors office imposed a one-week ban on protests at the planned demonstration site in Kadikoy.

Levent Piskin, a lawyer representing arrested Bogazici students, said the protest ban was illegal and criticized state officials repeated use of COVID-19 restrictions to criminalize mass gatherings.

The AKP is allowed to hold a party congress with thousands of people, but others are not allowed to gather due to the pandemic, as if COVID-19 only infects their opponents, Piskin told Al-Monitor. The government has no authority to ban protests, especially for an extended period of time.

The rallies have touched a nerve across various sectors of Turkish society. Student protesters use of pro-LGBT symbols, such as rainbow flags, have widened initial protests against Bulus appointment to include broader discussions on LGBT and minority rights in the country.

In response, several government officials have shared anti-LGBT views while denouncing ongoing protests. Turkeys Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu twice in recent days referred to the LGBT community as bastards or deviants in tweets on his account, which have since been flagged by Twitter for violating the platforms policies on hateful conduct.

In a speech on Feb. 1, Erdogan also praised his AKPs youth wing for not being LGBT.

"We'll carry our youth to the future, not as LGBT youth, but like the youth from this country's glorious past. You are not the LGBT youth," Erdogan said during an online conference Monday.

In a Feb. 1 tweet, Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency communications director, framed ongoing protests as an attempt by students to trample our values underfoot after the university administration blocked an application to establish an LGBT club at Bogazici.

Sinem Adar, an associate at the Center for Applied Turkey Studies in the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and a Bogazici graduate, said the demonstrations have drawn increasing political attention because they conflict with state officials current rhetoric in which they outline plans for coming democratic reforms.

When police were violently hitting protesters [on Monday], Erdogan was giving a speech where he was celebrating the continuous commitment of the AKP government in the last 18 years to democracy and to reforms, Adar told Al-Monitor.

She added, I think its that gap between the presidents statement and what was happening that is the fragility of Turkeys ruling alliance. That gap is becoming more and more visible.

Several opposition party members have criticized the governments response to the ongoing protests. The main opposition Republican Peoples Party chair Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Feb. 1 called on Bulu to resign to end this ugly situation. Meanwhile, Oguzhan Aygoren, a member of the oppositional DEVA Party, declined an offer to serve as an adviser to Bulu at Bogazici University.

Adar said opposition party members reactions to the Bogazici protests will play a key role in determining the coming course of events in Turkey. Noting many citizens have come under increased pressure from rising food prices and slow economic growth as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Adar said many are fed up with their current circumstances.

I think the necessary conditions for mass discontent are there, Adar told Al-Monitor. Whether this will bring larger protests, we are not in the position to predict, but the Bogazici protests could be a spark," she added.
The first commander of Britain's new space force has been revealed as a fighter pilot who has served in the RAF for 30 years.

Air Commodore Paul Godfrey, 48, will carry the new rank of Air Vice Marshal when he takes the helm at Space Command.

The father, who was made an OBE in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours, joked he is watching Steve Carell's Space Force on Netflix to prepare for the role.

He wrote on Twitter: 'Thanks to everyone for the very kind comments. Clearly an enormous administrative mix up again, but I'd rather be lucky than good!

'Really looking forward to the job and working with some amazing people. Currently binge-watching Space Force on Netflix for ideas...'

Air Commodore Paul Godfrey will carry the new rank of Air Vice Marshal when he takes the helm at Space Command

The father, who was made an OBE in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours, has also flown Spitfires (pictured)

He joked on his Twitter page about the job, saying he is watching Steve Carell's Space Force on Netflix (pictured) to prepare

Space Command will be a Joint Command based at RAF High Wycombe and staffed by personnel from all three services of the UK military.

Space operations, space workforce generation and space capability will be brought together under a single 2-Star military commander.

The regiment will work closely with Space Directorate and Strategic Command to deliver defence 'needs to operate and fight' in the information age.

Capabilities to be developed in the space domain include satellite communications, position, navigation and timing, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance.

Paul Godfrey's sky-high career: May 1991: Commissioned into the RAF after graduating from RAF Cranwell 2008: Watched live as Richard Hammond raced a Typhoon on Top Gear. 2014: Made an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2015: Served as a Harrier Jump Jet pilot before becoming station commander at RAF Lossiemouth 2017: He rose to Air Commodore and was made Head Carrier Enabled Power Projection in the Ministry of Defence. July 2020: He was made Combined Air & Space Operations Centre Director in Al Udeid, Qatar. Advertisement

Boris Johnson announced in November 16.5billion more for defence over four years.

The bigger settlement is expected to be spent on Space Command - which could launch Britain's first rocket in 2022.

Air Commodore Godfrey joined the RAF in 1991 and has been a fighter pilot most of his career, in addition to RAF Lossiemouth Station Commander.

He recently planned and employed coalition air and space power across the Middle East within the US Air Force Combined Air and Space Operations Centre.

In the past few years he has risen the ranks, going from Group Captain to be Officer Commanding Royal Air Force Lossiemouth in November 2015.

Two years later he rose to Air Commodore and was made Head Carrier Enabled Power Projection in the Ministry of Defence.

And last July he was made Combined Air & Space Operations Centre Director in Al Udeid, Qatar.

He was present when Richard Hammond used a Bughatti to race a Typhoon on Top Gear in 2008 and flew actor Ewan McGregor in a Typhoon for a TV special.

He also hosts the Pilot Episodes Podcast with fellow flying legends Duncan Mason and Anthony Parkinson.

Godrey has flown Spitfires, Hurricanes and Chipmunks during his distinguished career, including three seasons with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

In an 'RAF stories' video he spoke about the time he almost crashed a Spitfire when trying to land it during his first flight in the iconic plane.

He took off in the Mark 5 Spitfire and did a 500ft display before coming down to a 100ft display 'very close to the ground' where 'she flew like a dream'.

He said: 'It's exactly what you thought it would be like - until I got to land. I landed, it was a nice landing... it wasn't what's termed a three-point landing where you're almost stalling on to the runway.

'It was a landing where the tail was up because I'd landed a little bit fast because it was gusty.

'The guys had told me that this particular aeroplane went right on landing, but when the tail wasn't coming down I made the massive mistake of just tweaking it down.

'The left wing lifted and I ended up arching off the runway, I just missed the windsock.

'At this time I thought ''I'm going to crash a Spitfire, this is going to be horrendous''.'

He said the wing came down but then the right wing lifted, sending him into a curve with the brakes not working back towards the runway.

He added: 'Fortunately I managed to wrestle that wing down, I started braking and the brakes are a bit like a bicycle brake on a curved stick.

'So I started braking and the tail was coming up so I don't want to dig the prop in. I eventually wrestled her back on to the runway and came to a stop and... it was very nice to meet some of the firemen who came out to meet me after seeing me ''crash'' off the side.'

On his new role, Godfrey said: 'I am incredibly honoured to be selected to lead the new joint Space Command.

'Having just returned from a role embedded with the United States military, where I was privileged to be able to plan and direct air and space power in support of coalition operations, I have seen first-hand how critical the space domain is and how it underpins not only military operations but broader everyday activities.'

Director Space Air Vice-Marshal Harv Smyth said: 'Space, and our assured access to it, is fundamental to military operations.

'Loss of, or disruption to, the Space Domain, will impact our ability to undertake the majority of Defence Tasks, and has the potential for significant effect on civilian, commercial and economic activity.

Group Commander Martin Sampson (left) and then Wing Commander Paul Godfrey (right) speaking to journalists at the Italian airbase Of Gioia Del Colle Near Bari in 2011

'The threat from adversaries in this rapidly maturing domain is real and it is here now. If we fail to understand how to operate successfully in the Space Domain through integrated operations, we lose our battle-winning edge.

'The establishment of a UK Space Command for Defence is a crucial step in our development, and will underpin our ability to understand and operate in Space.'

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, said: 'This Government's determination to establish UK Space Command is a huge step forward because Space is fundamental to our national security and to our way of life.

'UK Space Command will protect and promote the United Kingdom's interests in space, working with like-minded allies around the world for the benefit of all.'

General Sir Patrick Sanders, Commander of Strategic Command added: 'The benefits we derive from Space are vital to our economy, our way of life and to our national security.

'In particular we rely on space for the military command and control systems, cyber capabilities, communications, and surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that Strategic Command provides with our partners to defend the UK and our allies.

'I look forward to Strategic Command, working very closely with the new Space Command to deliver the integration of these capabilities to our Armed Forces as they operate in the air, on the land, at sea and in cyberspace.'
The newly-accredited U S AMBASSADOR to Liberia Michael A. McCarthy has renewed his governments' continuous partnership with the Armed Forces of Liberia in making the force more relevant to the people of Liberia.

AmbassadorMcCarthy said his government will continue to partner with Ministry of National Defense and the Armed Forces of Liberia, stressing that "It is a pleasure to work along with a partner like you because it makes the work easier."

"It is an inspiration that Liberia has come so far in the understanding of peacekeeping that Liberia is today a contributing nation to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations around Africa," he further indicated.

The Ambassador made the statement on Monday, February 1, 2021, when he paid a courtesy call on Liberia's Defense Boss, Major General Daniel D. Ziahnkahn, Jr. (Rtd.) the Barclay Training Center office.

For his part, Minister Ziahnkahn assured the U S Government of enhanced partnership in sustaining Liberia's Defense sector.

The Defense Boss appreciated the United States Government for her increased support to the Armed Forces of Liberia peacekeeping operations. He particularly praised the leadership role being demonstrated by the U.S. leadership, indicating "We will do everything possible to get to where we are to get as partners."

The Defense Minister indicated that the US Government continues to play a vital role in training, equipping and mentoring personnel of the Armed Forces of Liberia and staffers of the Ministry of National Defense.

He said, "We are committed partners based on a deeper root with the United States of America. The U S Government has been working on lots of projects that have rejuvenated the Armed Forces of Liberia to a 'force for good'."
Eva Mendes is taking issue with the way one of her Instagram replies was taken out of context in a news story.

The retired actress, 46, took to social media on Monday saying she 'wanted to clear up' a few things after her response to a comment lead to a piece claiming she 'denied plastic surgery accusations.'

'Never "denied plastic surgery,"' she wrote while sharing a grab of a headline. 'All I did was reply to a specific comment on SM,' she continued. 'Would never deny that stuff. Im all for it. All. For. It.'

Setting it straight: Eva Mendes 'wanted to clear up' a few things after her response to a social media comment generated stories saying that she 'denied plastic surgery'; seen in 2018

The screen capture in question read: 'Eva Mendes denies plastic surgery accusation left on her Instagram post.'

The subheadline continued to say that 'the actress clapped back at an Instagram commenter who said she was absent from Instagram due to getting "work done."'

In the caption, the Hitch star laid out her concerns, writing: 'Regarding this "headline"  ummm Kinda. Sorta. But not really.

'Never "denied plastic surgery". All I did was reply to a specific comment on SM,' she continued. 'Would never deny that stuff. Im all for it. All. For. It.'

Mendes went on to critique the idea that she 'clapped back' at an Instagram user, as she strives to genuinely and kindly reply to as many of her followers as possible.

Not her style: Mendes also critiqued the idea that she 'clapped back' at an Instagram user, as she strives to kindly reply to as many of her followers as possible; seen on Now To Love

Speaking out: The retired actress, 46, shared a screen capture of a headline on Monday which read, 'Eva Mendes denies plastic surgery accusation left on her Instagram post'

'Also I dont like the term "clap back,"' Eva wrote.

'Sounds aggressive to me. As a lot of you know, I reply to as many comments as I can. I dont clap back; I try to connect/communicate.

'Thats all. Wanted to clear that up,' the actress concluded, before adding a heart emoji.

The post comes after the actress shared a selfie with a friend on Saturday, which counted as one of the rare photos of herself on social media.

'I dont like the term "clap back,"' Eva wrote. 'Sounds aggressive to me. As a lot of you know, I reply to as many comments as I can. I dont clap back; I try to connect'; seen in 2018

What started it all: The post comes after the actress shared a selfie with a friend on Saturday, which counted as one of the rare photos of herself on social media

When a fan commented and asked why Eva does not appear on her Instagram more often, another user replied by baselessly speculating that it was due to the fact that she recently underwent plastic surgery 'and I dont think shes happy with it.'

Ever the polite social media presence, Mendes replied to that user with, 'Im not sure why Im answering you but here I go. Im posting less because I really want to be present for my family. My little ones need me and posting takes up too much time.'

She also responded to the claims about having plastic surgery, noting that 'As far as getting work done, Ill do that whenever I please.'

The Training Day actress finished her message by writing, 'I personally cannot juggle family and social media. So -big shocker -I choose family.'

When a fan commented and asked why Eva does not appear on her Instagram more often: Another user replied by baselessly speculating that she recently underwent plastic surgery

Ever the polite social media presence: Mendes replied to that user with a lengthy and enlightening comment of her own

Eva is in a longterm relationship with fellow actor Ryan Gosling, and the gorgeous pair share two daughters, Esmeralda Amada, six, and Amada Lee, four.

They met on the set of the drama The Place Beyond The Pines in 2011.

Mendes, whose last screen credit was all the way back in 2014, has previously been vocal about her preference for being present with her family as opposed to remaining very active on social media.

As recently as last month, the beauty explained that her recent protracted break from Instagram came after one of her daughters complained to her about being 'on the phone too much.'

And as for cosmetic procedures to remain youthful, Eva has been open about that too.

Dedicated momma: Eva, whose last screen credit was all the way back in 2014, has previously been vocal about her preference for being present with her family as opposed to social media

Last November, the star posted a somewhat disturbing selfie showing seven large needles injected into her neck.

In the post's caption, she explained that the procedure was called mono-threading, which is a treatment in which threads are stuck into the skin to aid in lifting and tightening.

'This spa-home away from home is incredible! No office with bad fluorescent lighting. No sterile office vibe,' Eva wrote.

'This is my go to for all things beauty. A home where you can relax while being tortured by the best of the best. This is my happy place!'
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-03 06:25:47|Editor: huaxia

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HAVANA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Tuesday reported over 1,000 new daily cases of novel coronavirus infection for the second time in less than a week, after tests detected 1,044 new cases.

According to the latest report from the Ministry of Public Health, a total of 28,636 people have tested positive for COVID-19, 22,921 have recovered and 218 people have died from the disease, two in the past day.

"It is necessary to take note of the severity of the epidemic process that we are facing, and that increasingly requires the active and responsible participation of the entire population," the ministry's national director of hygiene and epidemiology Francisco Duran said during a televised broadcast.

Havana continues to be the epicenter of the national outbreak, with 483 of the new cases, followed by Santiago de Cuba with 165 and Guantanamo with 145, although all provinces, except Camaguey, reported new infections.

The number of community transmissions was also the highest reported to date (1,022), while imported cases, mostly from the United States and six other countries, numbered 22. Enditem

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- A proposed revision of the citys sign laws would define a flag as a sign -- and therefore subject to regulation -- if it were held down or fastened at more than one edge.

Also, residents posting temporary signs -- including those that promote political candidates -- could have no more than 32 square feet of signs on any one property, and signs would have to stand at least 72 inches apart.

However, the revised laws would not restrict the content of signs -- including political ones -- or require residents to obtain permits for temporary signs.

The possible sign code revisions were discussed Jan. 18 by City Councils Legislation Committee. Next, the Brecksville Planning Commission will review the proposed code changes, then refer the matter back to council with recommendations.

We want the (sign) ordinance redone so that we have a leg to stand on if we were going to enforce anything, and also at the same time give our constituency some direction on what they can and cannot do with signs, Mayor Jerry Hruby said during the committee meeting.

The issue of signs has come up in Brecksville due to controversies and disputes over political signs this past election season. Hruby said some residents have complained about the number, size and content of political signs in certain yards during the 2020 presidential campaign.

Hruby said arguments between neighbors over political signs occurred in some cases. Such incidents were unprecedented in the citys history.

We really feared there was going to be some assaults, that there would be some damage of property, Hruby said.

The citys existing code contains a section on political signs in particular. It says that political signs must be placed at least 12 inches behind the public right-of-way line and cant be posted on tree lawns within the right-of-way. Political signs cant be illuminated. But existing code doesnt limit the size of signs or the number of signs on any one property.

However, Sergio DiGeronimo, the citys prosecutor and assistant law director, said the code section is no longer valid, due to the 2015 Supreme Court decision Reed v. Gilbert. The ruling means that, in effect, sign laws cannot pertain only to political signs, but must cover all signs, and cannot restrict content, under the First Amendment right to free speech.

Cities can still distinguish permanent signs from temporary signs, however, so political signs will likely fall under the temporary sign category.

Hruby said residents are wondering on social media whether the city, with its review of the sign code, plans to outlaw political signs or the peoples right to express themselves on those signs. He said no, that the citys only desire is to make its sign code comply with federal law and court rulings.

Flags vs. signs

DiGeronimo, who worked on the code revision with Building Commissioner Scott Packard, said he included a definition of flag in the ordinance to differentiate flags from signs. He said city code now doesnt regulate flags and would not do so under the sign ordinance revision.

A flag flying by one edge from a pole would remain a flag, under the citys definition, but would become a sign or banner -- and thus regulated under the sign code -- if its tied down or fastened at two or more edges. The flag-turned-sign would count under the 32-square-foot limit for temporary signs.

DiGeronimo said he saw several flags containing political messages and/or promoting candidates held down by two or more edges during the 2020 election season.

Councilman Michael Harwood agreed, saying he has seen flags attached at all four corners on tops of garages and in the middle of yards. Such flags would become banners or signs under the new code and would be subject to regulation.

The new sign laws would also differentiate between permanent and temporary signs. Permanent signs -- including directional, identification, information, directory and address signs, as well as billboards -- would require municipal permits.

Temporary signs -- including real estate, yard sale, special event, ground, roof, window, portable and political signs -- wouldnt need city permits.

The proposed ordinance would prohibit temporary signs in the public right-of-away and on tree lawns or on land owned by the government. Temporary signs would have to be posted at least 12 inches behind the right-of-way line.

The proposed ordinance would prohibit signs or banners -- including flags held down by two or more edges -- from hanging more than 5 feet off the ground. Each temporary sign would not be able to exceed 8 square feet. Illumination would not be permitted for temporary signs.

Read more from the Sun Star Courier.
Local trains have reopened for Mumbaikars after a gap of over 10 months. But the decision hasn't brought much joy to the residents as they are still not allowed to travel during peak hours. While the government has said it expects offices to stagger their timings to suit local trains' schedule, many office-goers are in a state of flux, wondering how long they will have to wait for such a decision. Meanwhile, the traffic on the streets hasn't eased as people from far away suburbs are forced to take the road route to reach work destinations.

From February 1, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government resumed local trains for all Mumbaikars. But they will not be allowed to travel in peak hours between 7 am to 12 noon, and between 4 pm to 9 pm. Only those serving in essential services, are allowed to travel in peak hours. Meanwhile, the Central Railways and Western Railways have restored 95 per cent services to cater to the additional load.

On the first day of the service being opened, chaotic scenes were witnessed outside several prominent railway stations.

"People are not at all happy. There were serpentine queues throughout the day. During the peak hours, I could issue tickets to only those who had valid identity cards. The others had to be turned away. People are so upset. Many people cursed me. What can I do? Even I am helpless. Very few people understand. Locals should open for all the Mumbaikars now. This will be painful to handle," a ticket vendor at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus said.

He said the footfall had already increased during the non-peak hours.

"How will office goers travel? This is very inconvenient. Office timings continue to remain the same. But government says we can't travel in peak times. How can we wait till 9 pm after every day? The government should think about it," said an office-goer, who had been denied return ticket at CSMT.

"There is no use of this opening up," said Ishwar Namugade, a streetside vendor from Dadar. For the last 40 years, he has been selling small decoration items at the Dadar footpath, outside the railway station. "When the trains were closed for us, it was nothing but exploitation. Rickshaws, taxis overcharged us. We paid exorbitant price for transporting goods. Firstly, this is Corona period. There is no business. People dont leave homes, they dont buy much. On top of it, we cant even procure goods without being exploited. We are all having a bad time," he said.

When asked about how he conducted business during lockdown, he said survival was difficult. Now that trains have opened, does he feel it will be better?

"Of what use is the resumption of trains? Someone leaves for work at 6 am or 7 am, they will be caught by the TC. They wont be allowed to travel after 7 am. For us, shops open at 11 am. I have to travel to Masjid bunder to get my goods. Even if I travel after 12 noon, how will I return before 4 pm? Does it mean I will have to sit till 9 pm so I can travel back?" he asked.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had last week announced the opening of local trains for general public. But he had also requested private establishments to stagger the timings of their offices to make sure that the load of peak hour does not fall on the local trains. It is important to maintain social distance and to practise precautions to save ourselves from Covid, he had announced. But since work hours continue to remain unchanged, heavy traffic on streets continues to be a routine feature in Mumbai.

"This is not going to change till we are allowed to travel in locals without any restrictions," Namugade said.
This document in English is a translation of the original in Swedish. In case of any discrepancy, the Swedish original will prevail.



February 2, 2021

Focus on Sweden to meet increased needs, SaaS subscription levels steady compared to last year





October - December 2020

Net sales were KSEK 7 132 (8 201) *

Profit after financial items increased to KSEK -2 648 (-3 676)

Earnings per share were SEK -0.1 (-0.2)

January - December 2020

Net sales were KSEK 24 916 (25 873) *

Profit after financial items increased to KSEK -13 166 (-15 273)

Earnings per share were -0.7 (-1.0)

* At the end of Q4 2020, the company had about MSEK 2.1 in accounts receivable from result-based contracts, accrued during Q42018-Q12020, of which SEK 2 million have been recognized as revenue during Q4 2019 and Q4 2020. For more information, see page 5 in the report.





During the last quarter of the year, we could see that the sales situation caused by COVID-19 improved somewhat and we could once again book client meetings in Finland and Sweden. This resulted in an expanded contract with Transcom, through which they will be implementing HealthManager at all sites in Sweden. We also signed a new client contract with the Swedish assistance company Curira, which is our first healthcare client in Sweden.



The decrease in net sales is due to delayed delivery of some services because of COVID-19 and changes in exchange rates. The EBITDA has developed positively due to cost control.

A focus on Sweden to meet increased needs

As we look ahead and enter 2021, we have - due to the current situation - chosen to focus on the Swedish market. We have a strong momentum here and need to meet the increased needs.

We continue to invest some of the capital provided during the fall to expand and reinforce our sales organisation in Sweden. This is done in part through recruitment and in part through increasing sales capacity through outsourcing.

SaaS subscriptions increasing

As of December 31, we have around 49 000 subscriptions.

I look forward to 2021 with confidence. We have many activities ongoing that will further improve our ability to help existing and potential clients keep their employees healthy and committed using digital processes and best practices from Aino.



Jyrki Eklund

CEO and President

Aino Health AB





The information contained herein is such as shall be made public by Aino Health AB (publ), in accordance with the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This information was made public, through the agency of Jyrki Eklund, CEO and President of Aino Health AB, at 08.30 AM CET on February 2, 2021.



For more information:

Jyrki Eklund, CEO Aino Health

Phone: +358 40 042 4221

Certified adviser

Erik Penser Bank

+46 8 463 83 00

certifiedadviser@penser.se





About Aino Health (publ)

Aino Health is the leading supplier of Software as a Service solutions in Corporate Health Management. The company's complete system of SaaS platforms and services reduces sick leave, lowers related costs, and improves business results through increased productivity and employee engagement by making health, wellbeing, and safety an integrated part of everyday work. For more information visit ainohealth.com. Aino Health AB.

Attachments

Opening remarks by MoS Byrne at IIEA Rule of Law event

Speech

Check Aganist Delivery

Opening Remarks by Minister of European Affairs Thomas Byrne,

Rule of Law, IIEA Event, 2 February 2021

I would like to thank the IIEA for the invitation to join this event and indeed for the work you have done in bringing it together in these challenging times.

The Institute has done an excellent job in adapting to the circumstances and I know that a huge amount of work goes on behind the scenes to bring these events together.

I would also like to thank Minister Varga for joining us to expand on Hungarys position on the rule of law.

The pandemic has given us many challenges. Among the less serious but still important is the reduced frequency of our in-person engagements.

So I am thankful for the opportunity today to have a more in-depth conversation, even if it is still an online one.I hope that I will be able to welcome the Minister to Ireland, in person, in the not-so-distant future.

I would like to briefly make clear the strong bilateral relations between our two countries.

There are around 10,000 Hungarians living in Ireland who make a valuable contribution to our society, our culture and our economy. There are strong and growing trade links between our countries, which our Embassies and state agencies are doing much to improve.

In the context of our shared EU membership, and in a post-COVID 19 recovery and post-Brexit situation, I am sure there are many areas in which we can build on that relationship going forward.

In a world of rapid fire and divisive arguments on social media platforms, it is important to make space for calm, constructive and reasoned discussion in which we can build our understanding of respective positions.

These engagements are particularly important on such an important subject. Rule of law is at the heart of the EUs functioning and at the centre of current debate both in the EU and beyond.

So I look forward to hearing from Minister Varga and I thank her once again for joining us. I also look forward to hearing from those of you who are joining us online. I appreciate you taking your time today to engage in this discussion.

Today, I hope to provide a detailed explanation of Irelands position on the rule of law, particularly at EU level.

I will first look at our understanding of the rule of law, before considering this Governments commitments to it.

To begin, I would like to expand on our understanding of the rule of law.

We sometimes hear that the rule of law is a concept that has no agreed definition, that it is apparently a concept so elusive that it is impossible to be held accountable to it. From the outset, I must be clear that we dont accept that argument. We do not believe that the rule of law is a nebulous concept. We believe that it is well-understood and well-defined.

We agree with the definition of the rule of law provided by the European Commission. The Commission has stated that under the rule of law, all public powers must always act within the constraints set out by law, in accordance with the values of democracy and fundamental rights, and under the control of independent and impartial courts.

The Commissions definition further highlights some of the key principles of the rule of law:

legality;

legal certainty;

effective judicial protection by independent and impartial courts;

separation of powers;

and equality before the law.

The Commission is not alone in highlighting these pillars of the rule of law.

The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has also carried out extensive work in defining the rule of law. This has included the development of a rule of law checklist. The Venice Commissions checklist also points to pillars such as legality; legal certainty; prevention of abuse or misuse of powers; equality before the law and non-discrimination; and access to justice.

In other-words, under the rule of law, no one is above the rule of law, the law applies equally and fairly to everyone. No one is all-powerful in such a system, there are check and balances, limits and accountability.

So it can be seen clearly that the rule of law protects every one of us.

Successfully implemented, the rule of law protects the rights and liberties of individuals and companies. It provides the legal protections and space for a truly free and open society. Under the rule of law, we are safe-guarded from the consequences of unchecked power and assured that the broader interests of society are kept at the heart of policy making.

The benefits of the rule of law seem so boundless, so obvious, that it can sometimes be difficult to imagine that we would still need to argue for them. It is difficult to think that we would even need to argue for something as simple as limits on power. On these principles, we thought that most were agreed.

But argue we must. We must continue to actively defend the rule of law in Ireland, in the EU, and Globally.

Even when we may think that argument has been won, we must continue to promote and protect the rule of law.

The rule of law is not a permanent state of being. Gains that have been made, can be lost. In fact, the losses are often much quicker than the gains. That said, we have been consistently clear, no country is perfect. Ireland is not perfect.

We all have areas that need to be improved, areas where our systems could be strengthened.

As far as the rule of law is concerned, there is always work to be done. That is why our Programme for Government highlighted our support for the EUs values of cooperation, peace, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

The Programme for Government states that we will strongly advocate for democracy and democratic values and the rule of law. These commitments are not new. They are based on existing commitments that we have made as a Member State of the European Union, enshrined in the EU Treaties.

Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union states that the Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.

In Ireland, these values were given the support of the Irish people directly, through referenda. This commitment to the shared values is enshrined in our Constitution. Article 29 of the Constitution states: Ireland affirms its commitment to the European Union within which the member states of that Union work together to promote peace, shared values and the well-being of their peoples.

That is why Ireland has firmly supported the rule of law as a core value of the European Union and will continue to do so. But respect for the rule of law is also vital for the credibility and functioning of our Union.

The rule of law is the cornerstone supporting mutual trust between Member States, which is vital for the functioning of the EU and the Single Market.

It is therefore very important for the EU to have the necessary tools to monitor the rule of law across Member States and effectively respond to challenges where they arise. In particular, the European Commission, as the guardian of the Treaties, has an important role to play in monitoring and enforcing the rule of law.

When the Commission seeks to hold Member States accountable to the promises that they have made, this is not over-reach or mission creep.

This is the Commissions role and it is a role that we are support fully.

We support the Commission in this role even when it may not be in Irelands direct interest, even in those cases when it is Ireland that is challenged by the Commission. Based on this support for the Commissions role, we welcomed the publication last September of the Commissions first Annual Rule of Law Report. The report offers a comprehensive overview of the state of the rule of law across the EU, with specific chapters on each Member State.

The Commission did tremendous work last year in delivering the report in spite of the challenges presented by Covid-19, a demonstration of the importance which the Commission places on its duties to the protect the rule of law.

We actively engaged with the Commission in the preparation of the Ireland chapter of the report. We were fairly consulted and we welcome the independent and impartial review of rule of law in Ireland.

Like all Member States, Ireland is certainly open to criticism. Examples of areas that the Commission considers to be of concern in Ireland and outlined in its report include the number of judges in Ireland in comparison to the EU average, and rules on state advertising in media.

These areas of concern highlighted in the report are ones that we will consider and take seriously.

While criticism may sometimes be difficult for Member States to hear and accept, it is important that the Council of the European Union has an objective basis on which to conduct its dialogue on the rule of law across the Member States and the Commission is best placed to provide that objective basis.

As we go forward, we will remain open to dialogue on the rule of law and we encourage our fellow Member States to do the same. We will continue to cooperate with the Commission and contribute to the annual iteration of the report. The Commissions report has been an important addition to the rule of law tool-box.

But we accept that monitoring the rule of law is not enough. As a Union, we need to be able to respond appropriately to challenges that arise.

Of course, we already have infringement procedures, whereby Member States can be challenged before the Court of Justice of the EU on their failure to implement EU law.

These procedures are a fundamentally important element of holding Member States to account. We of course support the continued use of infringement procedures where appropriate and in accordance with the Treaties.

But we have also been open to new initiatives designed to respond to challenges to the rule of law. More recently, Ireland strongly supported the introduction of a strong and effective Rule of Law mechanism to protect the EU Budget.

The new mechanism links access to EU funds to adherence with the rule of law. The agreement reached on this in December last year is an important step towards ensuring that the Union can respond more effectively to internal challenges to values that we have all accepted as Member States.

Once the regime of conditionality is introduced, Ireland will support its fair, proportionate and effective implementation. But it is worth noting that the EU has several other tools at its disposal and there are other ongoing initiatives and procedures of which Ireland is supportive.

This includes the ongoing Article 7 procedures with Hungary and Poland separately. Although I appreciate that this is a challenging topic, it is important the EU Member States speak openly on it. Ireland supports the continuation of Article 7 procedures and we hope that discussions at Council level can continue towards a constructive resolution.

Between EU Member States, there have always been, and I am sure, will always be, disagreements. There will always be frank and even challenging conversations to have. But I am sure that as Member States, we arrive at these conversations with a willingness to find a solution.

The internal challenges that we face, to the rule of law and other areas, can be addressed through dialogue. Events such as todays, where we have the opportunity to expand on our positions in detail, and better understand each others views, form an important part of this process.

I hope that I have shed some light on Irelands position and I look forward to our discussion.

Thank you.

|
WASHINGTON - The Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol came as lawmakers were set to debate whether to accept the 2020 electoral college results in key states. After it happened, though, most lawmakers instead focused on the unrest.

But then, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., attempted to refocus things on the task at hand: He pressed forward with trying to invalidate the results, pointing to changes to Pennsylvania's election laws that he argued violated the state's constitution.

Left unsaid in the objections to those changes by Hawley and many other Republicans: The law at issue, Act 77, was passed by the GOP-controlled majorities in both chambers of the Pennsylvania legislature.

While Republican officials in many states spearheaded changes to mail-in voting, former president Donald Trump's 2020 defeat has led to building pressure on them to head in the opposite direction. Such measures were often undertaken due to the coronavirus pandemic, but they could just as soon be rolled back. And that's a particularly acute possibility in many key states in which Republicans are in control - and the kind of extraordinarily high turnout we saw in 2020 could imperil the GOP.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law has been keeping tabs on efforts to restrict voting rights or curtail mail-in voting in state legislatures. It counts more than 100 bills that have been introduced in 28 states - many of them in states that are under complete GOP control. More than one-third of them are meant to limit mail voting, which was a focus of the baseless fraud claims by Trump and his team.

Bills being introduced, of course, doesn't mean that they'll actually be enacted. Any member of a legislature can introduce a bill that may or may not have support in the broader chamber or be signed by the governor.

But in many of the states that decided the 2020 election, Republicans have the power to enact such laws. Thirteen states were decided by eight percentage points or fewer, and six of those have complete Republican control - i.e. both chambers of the state legislature and the governorship: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and Texas. Only one of the 13 is completely controlled by Democrats: Nevada.

The inclusion of Arizona, Georgia and Texas on that list is particularly relevant. All three have been trending blue, with Arizona and Georgia going narrowly for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. But Republicans continue to have the power to increase voting restrictions in them - restrictions that could affect future elections for years to come. There will undoubtedly be significant pushes in each of them, especially in Arizona and Georgia, given how much many Republicans in those states have argued the 2020 results were invalid.

"It's absolutely an important effort," Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Monday on Fox News in comments she later promoted on Twitter. "It's going to be done at the state level. I think a lot of these states are already looking at their laws. Many of them were not codified because of covid, so they weren't changed legally, and so these states are going to look at that.

"But not just that: How do we make sure that the laws on the books are actually enforced? And the other thing is, how do we clean up our voting rolls, and that's something the RNC will be taking a very heavy role in going forward."

One bill in Georgia seeks to require voter identification for absentee ballots twice - when applying for a ballot and when returning one. Another in Arizona attempts to do three things: restrict assistance for voters delivering absentee ballots, require such ballots to be notarized, and require identification for returning the ballots in person.

Top GOP officials in Arizona and Georgia have been made public enemies by Trump and his allies, given their decisions to accept and certify their election results - particularly Govs. Doug Ducey in Arizona and Brian Kemp in Georgia. But they were in many ways pushed into a corner. They could either accept the results from their own election officials or reject them and question the decisions and judgments of their fellow partisans.

Passing laws that could restrict access would be a different matter, in which such decisions wouldn't be as immediately problematic for them and their allies and wouldn't generate as much news. Kemp and even Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was also a target of Trump's ire, have in the past established their political brands by elevating concerns about significant voter fraud.

It's not difficult to see such officials signing on to voting restrictions away from the glare of a contested election. Some of them might also feel this is a way to reach out to disaffected Trump voters who feel the election was marred, without actually subscribing to the idea that it was stolen. McDaniel, for instance, has distanced herself in recent days from many of the wild claims made about a stolen election.

The GOP made a successful voter ID push in many of these states a decade ago, after Republicans gained hugely in key state legislatures and won crucial gubernatorial races. Voting rights groups have long argued that such legislation requiring photo identification to vote was meant to disenfranchise minority voters who were less likely to have those IDs. But polls regularly showed that Americans favored such measures to combat voter fraud. Voters who might not subscribe to Trump's allegations of fraud might nonetheless see value in increasing restrictions, which could provide GOP-controlled states with the political cover they need to press forward.

Given the historic turnout we saw in 2020, it's a hugely important story line moving forward. Many casual voters and nonvoters were drawn into the process, but it's not a sure thing they will be moving forward - or that it will be as easy for them to do so.

Along with the decennial redistricting process, this will be one of the most significant developments to watch at the state level over the next two years.
Momentum In-line Blower

Calnetix Technologies today announced that it has successfully designed and developed a high-speed in-line blower and a dual controller for NASAs next-generation CO2 removal system.

The design and development of the Four Bed Carbon Dioxide Scrubber (4BCO2) is being led by NASA and is planned for installation on the International Space Station (ISS) after rigorous ground testing at its facilities.

Calnetix was responsible for the development of the blower assembly, which includes a compact in-line blower on magnetic bearings, called Momentum, and an integrated hybrid dual controller, called Continuum, to drive the blower. The magnetically levitated in-line blower is an integral component of the CO2 removal system and will drive the airflow through the entire system in a microgravity space environment.

Calnetixs Momentum In-line Blower features an overhung permanent magnet motor, a centrally located five-axis active magnetic bearing (AMB) system, backup bearings and an overhung centrifugal impeller in a very compact package. Magnetic bearings were used instead of conventional bearings due to their low transmitted vibration, high-speed levitation, low power consumption, high reliability, oil-free operation and tolerance to particle contaminants in the air stream.

Calnetixs Continuum Dual Controller consists of an AMB controller and a variable speed drive (VSD) motor controller in a single compact package that supports speeds up to 60,000 RPM with long-term maintenance-free operation. Calnetixs AMBs were utilized to eliminate lubrication and rotating drag losses, which was an important aspect in meeting NASAs stringent outgassing requirements.

In order to meet the application needs, the in-line blower system has the following features:



Must survive launch vibrations and acceleration requirements

Complies to electro-mechanical and power quality requirements under NASA SSP 57000

Must be designed to have a shelf life of 15 years

Must operate 30,000 hours without requiring maintenance

Must operate with very low conductive and convection cooling availability

Bearings used cannot introduce contaminants, such as lubricants or grease into the airstream

Blower must be able to tolerate the ingestion of particles, such as particles liberated from the filter media and dust in the cabin air without incurring damage

The main design challenge was to fit the new magnetic bearing blower into the same space as the foil bearing supported heritage blower, which is currently being used on the ISS. The AMB system with position sensors and backup bearings had to be miniaturized to fit into a highly constrained space. In order to create a compact design, the bearing system was centrally placed to be used with a centrifugal impeller positioned at the air inlet and an overhung permanent magnet motor at the outlet side of the machine. The air flows through an annular passage around the internal components.

Having passed NASAs rigorous testing, the 4BCO2 blower system is an important validation of our patented permanent magnet motor, magnetic bearing and new controller technologies, said Vatche Artinian, CEO of Calnetix Technologies. The flight hardware components supplied by Calnetix met all the critical design, performance, interface and environmental requirements for a compact and robust blower system. This is the first time a commercial technology of this kind has been qualified for aerospace and flight application.

Upon successful use of the magnetic bearing blower on the ISS, magnetic bearings could also be used in other aerospace applications, such as fluid pumps, reaction wheels and gyroscopes that challenge conventional bearing technologies.

Photo caption:

1. Momentum In-line Blower

About Calnetix Technologies

Calnetix Technologies, LLC (Calnetix), headquartered in Cerritos, Calif., is focused on Innovation That Drives Industries. The company specializes in high-performance, high-speed motor generators and best-in-class advanced magnetic bearings and control systems. Calnetixs patented, underlying technologies, which have been in use since the companys inception in 1998, have made Calnetix a world leader in the design and production of high-speed machines. The companys overall technology portfolio and system integration capabilities have led to development and production contracts with industry leaders and the start of many successful subsidiaries that focus on unique niche markets. For more information, please visit http://www.calnetix.com.

Media Contact:

Jim Rhodes

+1 757 451 0602

jrhodes@rhodescomm.com
For the past month, a lot of stir has been going on regarding the foreign direct investment policies of Nepal. It has received so much backlash from various sides after the government welcomed foreign investment in agriculture among other sectors. Implications of foreign investment in agriculture are yet to be analysed fully, however, many hypothesise it is bad for a country that is still largely dependent on agriculture for its gross domestic product (GDP).

It is a topic of grave importance, yet, many are still unaware of what all the fuss is about. Here is what has happened so far that you need to know about:

1. The disputed decision

The main source of income for the village is still agriculture and livestock farming.

On January 4, 2021, the government of Nepal decided to allow foreign investment in the agricultural sector. The decision immediately came into effect with its publication in the Nepal Gazette.

As per the announcement, for agricultural products like wheat, rice, and maize, the foreign investor(s) should have an immovable capital investment of Rs 500 million and should export 75 per cent of the production.

2. Governments argument

Director-General for the Department of Industry Jiblal Bhusal

Director-General for the Department of Industry Jiblal Bhusal says the call was made to integrate technology in the agricultural sector as well as to make the sector more professional.

Bhusal also argues that foreign investment in agriculture and agro or forest products were never discouraged since the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act (FITTA) was introduced in 1992.

In fact, he argues, 289 projects were said to have started with a pledge from foreign investors with a gross worth of more than Rs 7 billion, during this period. Adding on that, he says, retaliation against foreign investment now does not make sense and is one-sided.

There are guidelines and conditions imposed on all foreign investment ventures. Foreign investment in the agricultural sector will now be more structured and it will create more opportunities for exports and jobs, says Bhusal.

3. The disagreement

However, stakeholders do not buy Bhusals arguments.

If we look at clauses of FITTA, foreign investment is welcomed in Nepal, in all but nine sectors.

The prohibited sectors include primary agro-production as well as animal husbandry, cottage and small industries, arms and ammunition, chemical or nuclear weapons, real estates, remittances, tourism-related services, media outlets, finance and skill-based training services such as music and computer or language and consultancy services.

And, the controversy arises here citing that the government is planning to welcome foreign investment against the Act, arguably for vested interest. The government had plans to invite foreign investment in Nepals agriculture in 2019 itself with the amendment to the Act, before the 2019 Investment Summit. However, the Industry, Commerce, Labour and Consumer Interest Protection Committee of Parliament passed a bill that discouraged foreign investment in the agricultural sector as well as small and cottage industries.

Many have accused the government of tweaking the Act to invite Indias AMUL (Anand Milk Union Ltd.) in Nepal and seeking personal gain.

One of them is former Minister for Agriculture Ghana Shyam Bhusal, who claims the prime minister showed specific interest and put pressure to bring this amendment into effect, despite his multiple efforts, and support of Minister for Industry Lekh Raj Bhatta, to prove it unwanted and unreasonable during cabinet meetings. He claims the bill was passed in his absence and was denied access to its files.

4. Major concerns

Former Agriculture Secretary Hari Dahal thinks such foreign investment will invite misuse of the investment, privatisation of the sector and monopoly in the milk industry and agro-production and their respective markets, given the government cannot properly monitor them.

Likewise, experts also say that if the foreign investors and established companies intervene in these sectors, Nepali farmers, producers and investors will not be able to compete, in terms of investment, production, technology and market penetration. As a result, there will be a syndicated market and minimal to no local involvement. They claim that the foreign investment in the primary agro-production sector will result in a loss of Rs 85 billion local investment, loss in jobs and subsequent income of local producers.

As for now, the milk industry contributes about 9 per cent of the national agricultural income. The industry, with the Dairy Development Corporation and private milk enterprises, is moving towards self-sufficiency with 80 per cent market coverage.

Former Minister for Industry Nabindra Raj Joshi is of the view that Nepal should not invite foreign investment in sectors where the country is capable of being independent, both in production and market. He is also sceptic about the governments ability to penalise them if the foreign investors fail to adhere to the policy.

5. The backlash

Four organisations namely Dairy Industries Association (DIA), Nepal Dairy Association (NDA), Central Dairy Cooperative Association Nepal, and Federation of Central Livestock Cooperative, jointly expressed disagreement against the move, in a programme on January 5, and demanded the government take back the decision.

They further express their disappointment with the government that is inviting foreign investment rather than helping them recover, post-lockdown and loss inflicted by the shutdown.

On January 20, the Supreme Court issued an interim order to put the decision on hold as well.

On January 22, other 18 organisation working in the relation of the farmers also appealed the government to take back its decision. Two days later, the other 15 organisations related to agro-production formed a joint protest committee to speak against the governments move. Other private organisations also have demanded the government hold its decision until further research.
Update:

Birmingham Jill, Alabamas weather-forecasting possum, saw her shadow this morning at the Birmingham Zoo, predicting 6 more weeks of winter. Sigh.

Earlier:

Move over Punxsutawney Phil  theres another weather-predicting critter in town.

The Birmingham zoo is celebrating Groundhog Day 2021 with Birmingham Jill, an opossum. The zoo will air the possums predictions on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 10 a.m. on its Facebook page.

The zoo is closed Tuesday but you can enjoy all of Jills predictions from the comfort of home (or comfort of your phone  whatever works).

Birmingham Jill is filling for Birmingham, the zoos resident groundhog, who is social distancing this year, or as the animals call it, hibernating.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-01 15:49:12|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

BANGKOK, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Thailand on Monday reported 836 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, mostly detected via active testing in Samut Sakhon province, according to the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

Of Monday's newly reported cases, 832 were domestic infections and four others were imported cases, CCSA spokeswoman Apisamai Srirangsan told a press conference.

Of the domestic infections 793 were detected via active testing among migrants and Thai nationals in factories and communities in Samut Sakhon and southwestern suburbs of the national capital Bangkok, according to Apisamai.

Thailand has so far reported 19,618 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, 17,155 of which were domestic cases and 2,463 others were imported cases, she said.

Of the total, 12,514 patients have fully recovered and been released from hospitals while 7,027 patients are currently being treated in hospitals, and 77 fatalities from COVID-19 have been reported so far, she said. Enditem

[February 02, 2021] HackNotice Uses Years of Data to Predict Breach-Source Trends

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- HackNotice, provider of the world's first company-wide threat intelligence platform, HackNotice Teams, announced its predictions report focused on the shifting trends of data breach information. In 2018, HackNotice discovered 29,562 reported breaches. By December 2019, the total had risen to 44,863 ? a 51.7% increase over the year. By December 2020, the total was 67,529 ? a 50.5% over the year. Now they share the worrying trends about how people are notified of the cyberthreats that affect them. HackNotice shares worrying trends about how people are notified of the cyber threats that affect them.



"If you want to know who's being hacked, you have to go into the dark web and interact directly with hackers," said HackNotice CEO and Co-Founder, Steve Thomas. "We've analyzed three years' worth of data breach coverage, based on the original source reporting the data breach, categorized based on the type of source it is." HackNotice lists five main breach-source categories:

Leak report: A file containing data coming from a breached company, as claimed by hackers.

News: A data breach first being reported on by online news outlets

Official: A data breach disclosed to official sources and disclosed, such as state level DOJ websites and HHS.

Defacement: A website breached by a hacker, with the hacker changing the site's content as proof.

Ransomware: A company breached by a ransomware gang, infected with ransomware, with data being disclosed due to the company refusing to pay the ransom." From the analysis, here are a few of the conclusions that are readily apparent: Leak reports are the #1 way to discover breaches and growing.

Official disclosures used to be ~25% of breaches, but are now closer to ~13%.

Ransomware and defacements are growing sources of breaches, while news and official sources are shrinking as a share of disclosed breaches. To download the accompanying graphic, visit: https://hacknotice.com/hacknotice-breach-source-study-2020/ About HackNotice

HackNotice is a threat intelligence provider that helps consumers and businesses identify and protect against potential risks and respond to hacks through real-time alerts, around-the-clock monitoring, and actionable recovery recommendations. Indexing up to a quarter of a billion records each day, HackNotice provides users with the information and visibility they need to protect their digital identities. Founded in 2018, HackNotice is based in Austin, TX. For more information visit www.hacknotice.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hacknotice-uses-years-of-data-to-predict-breach-source-trends-301219510.html SOURCE HackNotice

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Akash Thosar, who rose to instant fame across India after the success of Marathi movie Sairat will now be seen in a pivotal role in upcoming war-epic 1962: The War In The Hills. Directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, the series also stars Abhay Deol and Sumeet Vyas amongst many other prominent actors - details of which will be announced soon. The Hotstar Specials series - 1962: The War in the Hills is inspired by true events and narrates an untold story of bravery and valour and how an army of 125 Indians stood against 3000 Chinese.

Akash Thosar who will be seen as one of the Bravehearts, recently revealed that his childhood dream was to join the armed forces. He said, "The series 1962: The War in the Hills is a dream project for me! Ever since I was a child, I had a dream of joining the Indian Army and I had also tried giving my tests twice to get selected before getting into the movie industry. Not only an army officer but I also tried to enroll myself in the police services. If I wasn't an actor, my career was definite to be joining the forces to protect our country."

He further added, "The first time I was given an opportunity to play the role of an army soldier, my heart was filled with happiness and pride. If not in real life, I was glad to be wearing the uniform in my reel life. Whenever I wore the uniform I felt differently, as if I was actually a part of the army and would look at myself that way"

Akash Thosar will essay the role of Kishan who is part of the battalion led by Major Suraj Singh (Abhay Deol). Hotstar Specials presents 1962: The War In The Hills is slated for release on 26th February 2021 only on Disney+ Hotstar VIP and Disney+ Hotstar Premium.

Catch 1962: The War in the Hills only on Disney+ Hotstar VIP and Disney+ Hotstar Premium.
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Bern (Switzerland), Feb 02, 2021 (SPS) - Several European parliamentary groups have asked the President of the United States, Joe Baiden, to cancel the proclamation made by his predecessor and which recognizes the alleged sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara, as well how to work to recover the United Nations process in Western Sahara.

In this sense, the Swiss parliamentary group, who has coordinated the initiative, said in a press release made public today that 180 European parliamentarians have expressed their deep concern over the negotiation made by Trump in exchange for their country's recognition of the alleged Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara .

On the other hand, the parliamentarians emphasized the need to find a solution to the Sahrawi-Moroccan conflict, which must be through respect for the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination, calling the attention of the US president to the suffering caused by this long conflict that takes more than forty-five years. SPS

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Alcohol-related deaths spiked to their highest level since records began last year amid the first national lockdown, official figures show.

An Office for National Statistics report published today found alcohol was a contributing factor in 5,460 fatalities in England and Wales between January and September, a rate of 12.8 per 100,000.

This was a 17 per cent rise on the same period in 2019, when there were 3,732 deaths  11 per 100,000. It was also the highest number since the ONS started tallying alcohol-related deaths in 2001.

Professor Karol Sikora, a medicine expert at the University of Buckingham, told MailOnline it 'made sense' the rise in alcohol deaths would coincide with Britain's draconian lockdown.

From March until August the UK was under stay-at-home orders and only allowed out for exceptional reasons in a bid to contain the first wave of coronavirus in spring. Dozens of surveys found people got drunk more than usual during the lockdown to cope with the distress of the pandemic or through boredom.

However, the ONS report showed that alcohol poisoning deaths were up only slightly in the last year. There were 353 in 2020, compared to 320 during the same time in 2019  a rise of 10 per cent.

The majority of last year's deaths (4,355) were from liver disease, which is caused by excessive alcohol abuse over many years. This was 16 per cent higher than the same period in 2019, when there were 3,732.

Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, said it was possible some of the increase was caused by excessive drinking during lockdown speeding up the deaths. 'If people with liver disease start drinking again, especially binge drinking, that would certainly be very bad for their liver and could lead to Liver failure and subsequent death,' he added.

But he noted booze-induced liver disease deaths had been creeping up over the past two decades, regardless of Covid. Professor Hunter told MailOnline: 'It certainly looks like that deaths from alcohol related disease have increased in 2020.

'But alcohol related deaths are rarely the result of acute alcohol poisoning. The great majority of deaths are from alcoholic liver disease which would be due to drinking alcohol for many years in the past.

'Although there will be some increased deaths from more alcohol consumption due to anxiety over the virus and lockdown loneliness/boredom. I suspect that the big impact will have come from people with alcoholic liver disease.'

Other scientists have said the likely cause for the spike was liver disease patients struggling to access healthcare when the NHS shut down the majority of its services to make way for Covid patients during the first wave.

The ONS said only 78 deaths involved Covid. A spokesperson said the reasons behind the spike 'are complex and it will take time before the impact the pandemic has had on alcohol-specific deaths is fully understood'.

It takes about 10 years for a patient to develop cirrhosis, or liver disease, and the condition affects between 10 to 20 per cent of long-term heavy drinkers. The damage caused by cirrhosis is permanent, and it's one of the primary ways alcoholism kills.

A person who has alcohol-related cirrhosis and does not stop drinking has a less than 50 per cent chance of living for at least five more years - which makes the increase in deaths last year unlikely to have all been at the hands of Covid.

But people who had early-stage cirrhosis and started excessive drinking again during lockdown may have accelerate their condition, experts say. The exact cause for the spike will not be fully understood until more analysis has been done.

Ben Humberstone, deputy director of health analysis and life events at the ONS said: 'Today's data shows that in the first three quarters of 2020, alcohol-specific deaths in England and Wales reached the highest level since the beginning of our data series, with April to September, during and after the first lockdown, seeing higher rates compared to the same period in previous years.

One in four drinkers increased their alcohol consumption during coronavirus lockdown. Young middle-class women are the most likely to turn to drink to cope with lockdown, a study says. A quarter of all drinkers increased their alcohol intake after stay-at-home rules were imposed last spring. Most of these were younger educated women on above-average salaries. Researchers suggest women may be more vulnerable to lockdown anxieties over money and jobs, and may also face an added burden of looking after children and home schooling. The University College London survey of 30,000 people, taken during the first fortnight of the first lockdown, follows widespread concern that boredom, loneliness, worries about family and friends, and difficulties with work and money led to a major increase in drinking. A third of those surveyed did not drink during lockdown but researchers say those who drank more last year are likely to have increased their alcohol use again during the current lockdown. The study said: Younger women with post-16 educational qualifications and a household income over 30,000 were more likely to report increased alcohol consumption. It also indicated that having an anxiety disorder, being stressed about finances or about catching or becoming seriously ill from Covid-19 were factors associated with increased alcohol consumption. Dr Claire Garnett of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care said: Despite women being more likely than men to report drinking more than usual during lockdown, heaviness of drinking is still positively associated with being male, which was the case before lockdown. Women might be more likely to drink more than usual during lockdown because they have been more negatively affected by the pandemic through increased gender inequalities as women are more likely to lose their jobs and carry the burdens of increased childcare and housework, she added. The report said: Drinking less than usual was independently associated with being younger, male, black or ethnic minority, having a household income lower than 30,000, having been diagnosed with or suspected to have Covid-19, taking on COVID-19, being stressed about becoming seriously ill from Covid-19, and not being a key worker. Advertisement

The ONS report added: 'Since 2001, rates of alcohol-specific deaths have been generally higher in the first quarter of each year.

'As such, despite the rate in Q1 of 2020 being the highest seen since 2001, the Q1 rate of 2020 was not statistically different compared with that in the same quarter in 2019.

'On the other hand, Q2 and Q3 had statistically significantly higher rates in 2020 than any other rate in the same quarter since 2001. Both male and female rates increased significantly in Q2 and Q3 compared with the same quarters in 2019.'

Commenting on the figures, Dr Sadie Boniface, head of research at the Institute of Alcohol Studies and visiting researcher at King's College London, said: 'Because of the way alcohol-specific deaths are defined, most of these deaths were as a result of chronic health conditions caused by longer term higher risk or dependent drinking. Around 4 in every 5 alcohol-specific deaths is from alcoholic liver disease.

'This means the increase is not explained by people who previously drank at lower risk levels increasing their consumption during the pandemic. There have been substantial changes to drinking patterns during the pandemic, but the health consequences of these for individuals and at a population level largely remain to be seen.

'Reasons behind the increase in the first nine months of 2020 are likely to include further increases in consumption among people who were already drinking at higher risk or dependent levels for some time, but also around access to health care.

'For example, liver disease often presents as an emergency, but people may have been frightened to go to A&E because of the virus.

'Last year there was a reduction in emergency presentations and admissions across the board, and addiction treatment data also showed fewer new clients starting treatment last summer. These deaths were not inevitable, but sadly one of many indirect consequences of the pandemic, which need to be considered carefully in recovery planning.'

Professor Julia Sinclair, chair of the Addictions Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, added: 'The all-time high rate of alcohol-specific deaths in England and Wales is as tragic as it is avoidable. Health services are ill equipped to treat the growing numbers of people who are now drinking at dangerous levels as a result of the pandemic.

'Addictions services have had seven years of funding cuts and are unable to provide the necessary support for people who are alcohol dependent. Even more lives will be lost if we don't see urgent substantial investment from Government to enable health services to offer patients the care they need. Thousands of deaths could be prevented if services are finally given the resources to offer the right treatment when needed.'

It comes on the back of dozens of reports and studies which have all pointed to an increase in alcohol intake during the pandemic.

A University College London survey of 30,000 people last month found a quarter of all drinkers in Britain increased their alcohol consumption after stay-at-home rules were imposed last spring.

Before lockdown last March, an estimated 3.4 per cent of adults were downing more than 50 units of alcohol a week, the equivalent of around 1,500,000 people.

By December, this had risen to 5.7 per cent, or more than 2,520,000 people, according to analysis of a YouGov poll for Public Health England.

Julie Breslin, from the drug, alcohol and mental health charity We Are With You, said: 'The number of people in treatment for an alcohol issue has fallen by nearly one fifth since 2013/14.

'At the same time we know that around four out of five dependent drinkers aren't accessing any kind of support.

'Sadly, these statistics show the impact of what happens when the majority of people with an issue with alcohol aren't accessing treatment or support, especially in a country with such a heavy drinking culture as the UK.'

She added: 'While these statistics don't include the impact of the pandemic, we've seen this picture become exacerbated in the past year.

'Many older adults are unable to see their loved ones or friends, and are drinking more as a way to cope with increased loneliness, isolation and anxiety.

'Our research showed that at the end of last year more than one in two over-50s were drinking at a level that could cause health problems now or in the future, with nearly one in four classed as high risk or possibly dependent.'

Nuno Albuquerque, head of treatment at the UK Addiction Treatment Group, added: 'We must remember that what we're talking about here aren't just figures; they're people.

'They're mums, dads, brothers, sisters, friends, colleagues and neighbours who have lost their lives to alcohol; a substance so widely accepted and almost encouraged in this country but one so controlling, addictive and, ultimately, life-threatening.

'Unfortunately, we expect these figures to rise even further after the difficulties we all faced in 2020.

'We know first-hand how many people have struggled with their relationship with alcohol since the Covid-19 crisis. Our treatment facilities across the country admit more clients for alcohol addiction than any other substance and all our beds are almost full.'

Addiction expert Dr Niall Campbell, based at the Priorys Roehampton Hospital in south-west London, added: 'Alcohol sales have soared under lockdown, and spurred seriously problematic drinking for thousands of people who are on a collision course with alcohol.

'One patient said to me that the expression working from home had just become drinking from home. A starting time of 6pm for opening a bottle of wine had become 5pm, then 4pm, 3pm and then lunchtime, with people drinking throughout the afternoon.

'Financial worries, juggling work with home-schooling, relationship issues, anxiety about Covid-19, boredom, and devastating isolation for many of the over 60s, have left people self-medicating with alcohol to a significant degree.

'Drinking at home is easy and cheap, and theres often no one to encourage you to curb your intake. But alcohol is not a coping mechanism. Also worrying is that alcohol-specific deaths  those which are a direct consequence of alcohol misuse - do not include very many deaths where alcohol may be a related issue, such as certain cancers, and therefore the figure is likely to be a significant underestimate of the issue.'

Experts have warned people who get a Covid-19 vaccine should avoid drinking alcohol two weeks before or after getting the jab because it can reduce the body's immune response to the injection.

Alcohol changes the make-up of the trillions of microorganisms that live in the gut which play an important role in preventing the invasion of bacteria and viruses.

This leads to the damage of immune cells in the blood, known as white blood cells, including lymphocytes, which send out antibodies to attack viruses.

Immunologist Professor Sheena Cruickshank, at the University of Manchester, said the reduction in lymphocytes could lower the effectiveness of the body's immune response.

Therefore Professor Cruickshank has urged people to avoid alcohol around the time of their Covid-19 vaccination.

Professor Cruickshank said: 'You need to have your immune system working tip-top to have a good response to the vaccine, so if you're drinking the night before, or shortly afterwards, that's not going to help.'
NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomed a U.S. State Department official's statement confirming that President Biden "embraces and champions" the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.

"We must educate ourselves and our communities to recognize antisemitism in its many forms, so that we can call hate by its proper name and take effective action. That is why the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism, with its real-world examples, is such an invaluable tool," said Kara McDonald, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

Addressing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Expert Meeting on Combating Antisemitism in the OSCE Region, McDonald noted, "As prior U.S. Administrations of both political stripes have done, the Biden Administration embraces and champions the working definition. We applaud the growing number of countries and international bodies that apply it. We urge all that haven't done so to do likewise." The U.S. has long recognized the IHRA working definition as a vital educational tool.

AJC CEO David Harris called McDonald's remarks "a solid reaffirmation of American leadership in the global fight against antisemitism. The IHRA working definition is the gold standard." AJC, the premier global Jewish advocacy organization, has spearheaded over many years a diplomatic advocacy campaign to encourage all 57 OSCE member states and other countries around the world to adopt and implement the working definition.

Harris saluted McDonald's announcement that she is currently overseeing the work of the State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism as President Biden considers nominating a successor to Elan Carr, who served as envoy in the Trump Administration.

The OSCE expert committee meeting is organized by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, in cooperation with the organization's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The ODIHR's recent hate crime report revealed that 22 percent of all hate crimes in 2019 were antisemitic, even though Jews constitute less than one percent of the population in the OSCE region.

AJC staff experts addressing the OSCE gathering included Rabbi Andrew Baker, Director of International Jewish Affairs, who also serves as the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office's personal representative on combating antisemitism, and Felice Gaer, Director of AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights.

The IHRA definition is based on the 2005 European Monitoring Centre (EUMC) Working Definition. It offers a clear and comprehensive description of antisemitism in its various forms, including hatred and discrimination against Jews, Holocaust denial, and, of particular note, antisemitism as it relates to Israel. AJC worked closely with the EUMC to develop the working definition, and has advocated for its adoption at the institutional, national, and popular levels.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

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http://www.ajc.org


Jeff Bezos, the founder and erstwhile chief executive officer of Amazon, has announced that starting Q3 2021, he will be renouncing his role at the helm of Amazon. Succeeding him into the future of the global technology giant will be Andy Jassy, the present chief of Amazon Web Services, and an Amazon employee for almost 24 years now. The announcement comes as Amazon stands as one of the most valuable companies in the world with a gross valuation of around $1.6 trillion, even as it is riddled by antitrust and anti-competitive practices lawsuits in its home turf USA, as well as in other parts of the world. After stepping down as CEO, Bezos will shift into the role of being the executive chairman of Amazon's board of directors.

In his address to Amazon's 1.3 million employees around the world, Bezos expressed confidence in Jassy's ability to take over the reins of the company. While the times are not particularly turbulent for Amazon, Jassy will be the top executive from Amazon to be held accountable and responsible by lawmakers in the USA, and some have already expressed their intention of conversing with Jassy on pressing matters such as the numerous antitrust lawsuits that Amazon, as well as fellow Big Tech companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google face today. Bezos also highlighted the number of new products and milestones that Amazon has touched during his 27-year tenure as the chief of Amazon -- as it went from being an online bookstore in the early days of the internet, to the global giant that it is today.

Speaking about his continued role in the Amazon ecosystem, Bezos wrote, "As Exec Chair, I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives, but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions." Concluding his address, Bezos further added, "Amazon couldnt be better positioned for the future. We are firing on all cylinders, just as the world needs us to. We have things in the pipeline that will continue to astonish. We serve individuals and enterprises, and weve pioneered two complete industries and a whole new class of devices. We are leaders in areas as varied as machine learning and logistics, and if an Amazonians idea requires yet another new institutional skill, were flexible enough and patient enough to learn it."

At the start of 2021, Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk surpassed Bezos as the richest man in the world. Musk's $185 billion valuated wealth stands marginally above Bezos, who is the second richest man in the world with $184 billion. Bezos' Blue Origin is incidentally one of the biggest competitors of Musk's private space company SpaceX, and recently, the two have been at either ends of a battle to deploy private satellites around Earth to beam affordable and fast internet to various countries. While Amazon claimed that SpaceX is attempting to sabotage the prospect of other companies in this sector by selecting a lower Earth orbit to deploy their satellites in, Musk shot back by stating that his company has already received necessary regulatory approvals for the move, and that "it does not serve the public to hamstring Starlink today for an Amazon satellite system that is at best several years away from operation."

Bezos' Amazon has also grown into one of the most important companies in India's technology sector, and holds a strong presence in the Indian e-commerce space as well. Going forward, it will be interesting to see how the reshuffle impacts Amazon, which now joins the likes of Microsoft and Google in the list of big tech companies today that have transitioned on to greater heights, even without their founders as the chief executives.
[February 02, 2021] CloudPay Reports Significant Growth in 2020, Sets Strong Direction for 2021

NEW YORK and LONDON, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading global payroll provider CloudPay today announced details of its 2020 momentum, sharing it exceeded its pre-COVID new business plan growth by 50 percent. Particularly noteworthy was increased demand for CloudPay's expanded treasury services offering and an overall trend among its existing customers to consolidate even more payroll operations on CloudPay's platform.

Stacey Harris, Chief Research Officer and Managing Partner at Sapient Insights Group, said, "We've watched CloudPay from start-up to established leader in global payroll, and its recent results are impressive in a year where we've otherwise seen a general contraction in the HCM space. Our research underscores the complexity of global payroll, and more than 49 percent of our global respondents choose to outsource in this area. CloudPay provides a critical solution in the underserved global payroll category, especially given its focus on customer satisfaction and technology." New Customers, Expanded Relationships

CloudPay attributed much of its 2020 results to new customers, expanding its new customer wins by 35 percent in a single year. Many customers chose CloudPay as their need to mitigate risk, consolidate vendors and ensure payroll continuity evolved in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. CloudPay signed its largest deal of the year with a global organization based in 40+ countries with 25,000+ employees who will benefit from CloudPay's unified global payroll solution. CloudPay CEO, Paul Bartlett, commented, "CloudPay has a proven track record of successful large-scale global payroll transformations for some of the world's largest and most sophisticated customers in the banking, medical, high-tech, travel, and financial service industries. Our people and our focus on advanced automation cut down manual processes and reduce data integrity issues that plague many global payroll organizations. We've seen our solution become even more compelling as companies have needed to deploy automated solutions that can scale and contribute to business continuity plans."



Equally crucial to CloudPay's 2020 success was the continued growth among its installed base, with many longtime customers choosing to add more countries and employees to CloudPay's solution. In 2020, new customers saw an average of 1,030 employees start using CloudPay's solution, establishing it as the payroll leader for mid to large global companies. Investment In Continued Growth

In 2019, CloudPay announced its redesigned teams and processes to set the foundation for company growth. As part of this initiative, CloudPay's team grew from 400 to 600+ employees. Simultaneously, the company expanded its service offering to include global treasury services for organizations looking to consolidate payroll and payments processing.

CloudPay's Chief Strategy Officer, Josep Elias, commented, "We include our treasury services offering in 85 percent of new contracts with customers. Many of these organizations originally went to the market to improve their global payroll operations but are now clearly recognizing the value of combining payroll and payments into a unified process and governance model." Winners of the Global Payroll Innovation Award in 2020, CloudPay was also recognized for its innovation by HRO Today while consistently achieving service levels of 99.9 percent accuracy and timeliness. CloudPay raised $35 million in growth capital during 2020 and is preparing to bring new products to market in mid-2021. About CloudPay

CloudPay delivers end-to-end managed global payroll and payment services to thousands of multinational organizations through a single, unified cloud solution. Recognized as a leader by industry analysts and recipient of the 2020 Global Payroll Innovation Award, CloudPay's solution ensures accurate, compliant payroll processing across 130+ countries. Backed by a global team with deep industry expertise and a commitment to excellence, CloudPay's solution minimizes manual processes while reducing operating costs. For more, visit www.cloudpay.net .

Note to editors: Trademarks and registered trademarks referenced herein remain the property of their respective owners. Media Contact: Kate Achille The Devon Group +1-732-706-0123 ext. 703 kate@devonpr.com

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Todays tech stock exuberance is a flashback to the 1990s. Now oil investors are experiencing their own deja vu.

Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two largest descendants of Rockefellers Standard Oil monopoly, discussed a potential merger last year, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The companies shares barely moved Monday morning, perhaps reflecting skepticism that such a deal can happen.

As over-the-top as the idea soundsit could be the largest corporate merger everit isnt inconceivable. Todays oil market conditions look similar to those that made oil megamergers possible starting in the late 1990s, when the Asian financial crisis led to a sudden collapse in global growth and oil demand. The resulting glut considerably weakened energy giants, leading to cost cuts and paving the way for big tie-ups. Both Covid-19 and Asias crisis knocked about a third off the average Brent price in 2020 and 1998, respectively.

That backdrop was what preceded Exxons merger with Mobil in 1999, number one and two in the U.S. at the time. Chevrons 2001 nuptials with Texaco brought together what were then numbers two and three. Combined, Exxon and Chevron would satisfy about 4.3% of global oil demandonly a percentage point higher than the combined share of Exxon and Mobil a year after their merger.

It is unclear how close the deal is to materializing. Antitrust concerns aside, Chevron investors might be cautious about merging with Exxon as it faces scrutiny from securities regulators and activist investors.

But the news is a clear sign of how weakened the energy markets have become. A combination would bring at least four of Standard Oils pieces back together. At the height of its dominance, Standard Oil controlled 95% of U.S. refininglong before anyone realized there were vast petroleum deposits in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela and decades before state companies became the real Big Oil."

The mere fact that Exxon and Chevron are considering the once unthinkable shows that their executives grasp the enormousness of the oil markets challenges.

Write to Jinjoo Lee at jinjoo.lee@wsj.com

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Indoor dining will be back in the Big Apple on Valentines Day at 25% capacity. The allowances appear to have a tepid welcome among proprietors and some potential patrons.

Ryan McGinley of Flour & Oak in Tompkinsville says its just not worth venturing into service and he will remain closed for now.

We are going to wait until probably the second week of March when the weather starts to break, hopefully, and we have at least 50% indoors, said McGinley. He added, Its just not feasible to be 25% and open oneself up to possible fines and violations with a myriad of new rules and governing agencies.

Adobe Blues Jim Stayoch said Feb. 24 was more likely the kick-off date for him as the traditional Valentines Day menu would be pricey and costly.

He said, At this juncture I dont have the money to be speculating on lobsters and filets. I dont think Mexican is going to be a draw on Feb. 14. So, hell be patient and wait it out a bit more. Stayoch also plans to shut on Mondays and Tuesdays going forward as he said, Those two days have been particularly dead.

Five of Peter Botros Staten Island restaurants will resume sit-down service starting at the brunch hour on Sunday, Feb. 14  Sofias Taqueria in Rosebank, Sallys Southern in West Brighton, Stone House at Clove Lakes Park and the Grant City operations of Violettes Cellar and Rustic Pizza & Pasteria.

However, its not clear on how Sofias Guac Bar will roll at the Staten Island Mall. Its stand-up countertop functions like a bar with five stools bellied up to a counter. Most likely, that small section will be eliminated and Botros will turn the seating arrangements over to the Malls Food District communing area.

He said, On Valentines Day all will be open and plan to remain open past Valentines Day. Im optimistic for slow and steady return to some normalcy and hoping we can climb out of the deep financial holes we have been put in.

Killmeyers Old Bavaria Inn will serve in its historic, Charleston dining room come the inaugural day of indoor dining.

I dont see it being very much different from what it was like in November and October, said Ken Tirado, referring to the brief time that sit-down service revved up again.

He said, Im lucky in that my business is large enough that 25% its still going to be like 35 people in my dining room. My indoor capacity is 140. Now there are smaller places in which 25% is going to be like one table of eight. Thats going to hurt  I get it.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's face on a sticker at Joyce's Tavern, Eltingville. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

Danny Mills of Ruddy and Dean in St. George will reopen as well. But he calls the 25% a scam.

He explained, Its a scam because Cuomo said, Follow the science. Check the numbers. Thats what makes it a scam.

A North Shore restaurant manager echoed the sentiment. He said, Leadership has failed the entire hospitality industry over and over again since March. There has been no logic behind any of the decisions made, nor any attempt at maintaining a balance between keeping people safe and letting restaurants begin to recover.

Frankly, if a business is open at 25% it is essentially 75% empty. And with razor-thin margins and skyrocketing labor costs it is not practical.

So his place of business will remain closed through the spring and the manager has found employment in New Jersey where eateries have remained open for dining since the summer.

Kettle Black is pickup and to go only before Feb. 14, 2021. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

But are diners ready to come out like the pre-pandemic days?

Dr. Sylvia Clark of Sunnyside said, As a single person, Ive always enjoyed taking myself out to eat. I am sympathetic to restaurateurs who need more customers to make real money. But Im hopeful that this is a step in the right direction.

Grymes Hill resident Ray Melnick said, It will be take-away and delivery for me until six weeks after my second vaccination. I can live without indoor dining.

Attorney and City Planning Commissioner Allen Cappelli said he looked forward to eating out again. He additionally opined, It seems to me the wiser course would have been to shut everything down completely for two months with people and restaurants and businesses being paid by the Federal Government to minimize the economic consequences for everybody and to seriously curb the virus.

Cappellis first two food stops in which to be served will be Bin 5 in Rosebank and Sallys Southern in West Brighton.

Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.
Metro Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2) Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who earlier offered to step down as the government's contact tracing czar, said he will keep the post if President Rodrigo Duterte asks him to.

"Who can refuse the president? The president is just so persuasive, and I don't think anybody can simply resist the president," Magalong, who had said his resignation tendered last week was irrevocable, told CNN Philippines' Front and Center on Tuesday.

He added he would also be talking to Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, regarding the matter.

While Duterte has yet to make an official pronouncement, his spokesperson Harry Roque said the chief executive would surely want Magalong to stay put.

"I have heard with my own two ears, nothing but words of praises for Mayor Magalong from the President," Roque said in his media briefing in the same day. "I am sure, 100% sure that the President would want Mayor Magalong to stay on as contact tracing czar."

Fellow czars express support for Magalong

Galvez and testing czar Vince Dizon meanwhile both expressed hope their colleague in the COVID-19 response will continue with the job, citing Magalong's "invaluable" work.

During the Laging Handa briefing on Tuesday, Galvez said a possible replacement for Magalong will have big shoes to fill.

"Wala siyang katulad," Galvez said. "Nakikita namin ang paghihirap niya bilang contact tracing czar. Nakita namin mahihirapan kung sino man ang ide-designate po namin."

[Translation: He is incomparable. We saw how he worked hard as Contact Tracing czar. We think whoever will be designated to the post will have a hard time.]

Dizon, in an interview with CNN Philippines' The Source, also urged Magalong to reconsider the resignation, especially with the country nearing the "end of the tunnel" in this pandemic.

"Actually malapit na tayo sa dulo. Nakikita na natin 'yung proverbial light at the end of the tunnel ika nga (We are nearing the finish line. We are already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, as they say)," Dizon said separately.

In his resignation letter, Magalong cited a recent event where "several lapses in protocol were committed." He said he should have done an "immediate spot correction" of the violations he saw, and noted that he was committed to hold himself accountable following the issue.

The mayor made headlines after photos of him attending events organizer Tim Yap's birthday party in a Baguio City hotel circulated online. Parts of the celebration caught on camera showed Yap and other personalities, including Magalong's wife, not wearing face masks and face shields.

RELATED: Groups condemn 'small fine' imposed on Tim Yap and company from Baguio party

OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Ocean Springs residents can now report crimes, including photos, via a smartphone app.

The City announced Monday the police department had partnered with Relay to provide what is described as a modern day neighborhood watch.

The Relay app provides an alternative to calling police dispatch for non-emergency situations and suspicious activities in real time. City residents can also receive alerts and updates on incidents in town, including traffic situations.

The Ridgeland police department has it. I looked at the app and have been watching it for the last couple of years to see how it progress, explained Ocean Springs police chief Mark Dunston.

Dunston said he ultimately had an opportunity to meet with Ed Gebhart, an Indiana police chief whose original idea was the genesis for Relay.

After taking a look at it and meeting with him, I liked the idea of having another avenue for citizens to alert us to police calls, he said.

After downloading the app from either the Apple store or Google Play via relayapp.com, residents will be able to submit incidents, including notes, photos and location. The information is immediately related to officers on patrol, with each officer having the app on their phones and receiving notifications when theres a call.

App users can then monitor the progress on the incident and can also receive notifications when the incidents have been responded to and resolved.

Police officials emphasize that the Relay app is in not way intended to replace 911. All emergency situations should be reported by calling 911 or 228-875-2211.

According to Relay, the app was launched to serve as a community engagement platform to help connect first responders with the citizens they serve, creating a space for community protection to thrive. Relays products create easy avenues to help, report, and communicate in real time, while putting privacy first.

As of April 2020, Relay had 240,000 users.

Dunston said he hasnt checked with Relay to see how many users have already signed up, saying he would likely wait a couple of weeks before doing that.

He also said that he expects the app to be particularly valuable in missing person cases.

Thats one feature I particularly like, Dunston said. If we have a missing child or senior citizen wandering around, we can do a reverse notification and everyone in town who has the app on their phone will get the notification of the missing person, with a picture of the person were looking for.
After pictures of Delhi Police digging roads and plastering nails on streets went viral on social media in light of ongoing farmers' protests, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi advised the government to 'build bridges and not wall'.

GOI, Build bridges, not walls!," tweeted Gandhi on Tuesday.

Delhi Police has placed barricades with nails cemented on roads at Ghazipur and Tikri borders of the national capital to prevent farmers from entering the area.

Last week, during a press conference, Gandhi accused the government of "beating, threatening and bullying" farmers, adding that the three new farm laws should be repealed immediately and it would be wrong for the ruling coalition to think that the protests will end.

ANI

Meanwhile, security has also been tightened at Ghazipur, Singhu, and Tikri borders, as farmers continue to make their way to the protest site for the past two to three days.

The Delhi Police have also blocked roads near Akshardham and vehicular movement has been restricted between Delhi and Ghaziabad on National Highway-24.

Twitter/BCCL

Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
Nay Pyi Taw, Feb 2 : A day after seizing control of the country, the military in Myanmar on Tuesday released a majority of the detained regional and state Chief Ministers, but there was no word on State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint.

Confirming the development to Xinhua news agency, a military official said: "There may be a reshuffle among chief ministers by appointing qualified ones." MPs belonging to Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party were also among the freed government official, the source added.

Hours after the coup, the military, known as the Tatmadaw, also announced a major cabinet reshuffle, under which there were new appointments for 11 Ministries, while 24 Deputy Ministers were removed.

The Union Chief Justice and Judges of the Supreme Court of the Union, Chief Justices and Judges of Regional or State High Courts are allowed to remain in office, according to a statement issued by the military.

Members of Anti-Corruption Commission, Chairman, Vice Vhairman and members of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission will also remain in office.

Chairmen and members of the Nay Pyi Taw Council and the Union Civil Service Board will be removed from their posts, while a new Chairman was appointed for the Union Civil Service Board, the statement said.

In an earlier release, the military also said that the Union Election Commission (UEC) will be reformed and ordered a review into the results of the disputed polls, noting that there were some irregularities in the voting process in the previous months.

"When these tasks have been completed in accord with the provisions of the State of Emergency, free and fair multi-party general elections will be held and the assigned duty of the state will be handed over to the winning party meeting norms and standards of democracy." At present, access to state-run broadcasting channels and telecommunications have resumed after being cut off across the country earlier Monday.

The Military True News Information Team announced on Tuesday that all banks were open to provide customer services.

Internet services have also been reactivated after they were suspended after the coup.

Monday's actions reversed a 10-year period of democratic transition following 50 years of military rule.

Since the election, where the NLD obtained more than 80 per cent of the seats and increased its parliamentary majority, the Tatmadaw had called for an investigation into voting lists, alleging fraud and discrepancies.

The Election Commission rejected the allegations of election fraud on January 29.

Suu Kyi has asked the people "to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military".


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CHIEF medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has warned Ireland still has "a long way to go" in halting the spread of Covid-19 as the highest ever number of deaths was reported this evening.

The Department of Health confirmed 83 of the 101 further deaths recorded today happened in January, while 18 people have died this month so far.

This brings the death toll to 3,418.

The median age of those who died is 85 years and the age range is 19 to 103 years.

Dr Holohan said the spike in mortality is due to the high levels of transmission that occured after the festive period.

This is the highest number of deaths we have reported on any single day of the Covid-19 pandemic so far," he said.

"The high mortality we are experiencing as a country at the moment is related to the surge of infection we saw several weeks ago, and the hospitalisations and admissions to ICU that followed as a direct result.

Although we have seen great improvement in the level of infection being reported, we have a long way to go and incidence needs to decline much further.

"The best way to honour those who have died from Covid-19, and those who loved them or provided care for them, is to follow the public health advice. Stay at home unless absolutely necessary, and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

What we can have control over today is the outlook of this disease in the weeks to come. Your positive actions matter, and they add up at a collective level. Please keep it up.

There is now an additional 879 cases of the virus in Ireland, bringing the total to 198,424.

Of the cases notified today, 383 are in Dublin, 79 in Cork, 53 in Galway, 40 in Limerick, 43 in Meath and the remaining 290 cases are spread across 20 other counties.

There are currently 1,388 Covid-19 patients in hospital, 207 of which are in ICU.

It comes as the Oireachtas Health Committee heard today that more than 1,500 people in nursing homes have died with Covid-19.

A total of 1,543 staff and residents in care homes have lost their lives during the pandemic  369 in the last month alone.

During the third wave of the pandemic, the number of Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes has increased fivefold, from 34 in mid-December to 193 by the end of January.

Read More

Some 81pc of all coronavirus-linked deaths in healthcare settings in Ireland have been in nursing homes.

A total of 4,300 positive cases were recorded in nursing homes during January, 37pc of them healthcare workers.

Questions were raised about the rollout of vaccines in nursing homes by the chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, Tadhg Daly.

He asked if a critical window of opportunity had been missed by not initiating a widespread rollout of vaccines in nursing homes as soon as the first doses arrived in the country.

He said: With nursing home residents the most susceptible to the virus, just 10% of the initial 77,000 vaccinations administered by mid-January were within nursing homes.

It is appropriate to remind that the National Immunisation Advisory Committee agreed nursing home residents and staff would be priority.

The first vaccines arrived in Ireland on 26th December, yet the first was only administered in a private or voluntary nursing home on 7th January 2021.

Every day is vital for our nursing home residents and staff.

Mr Daly said the entire health service is under immense strain, with staffing levels the predominant emergency.

Some 1,800 nursing home staff are unable to work due to the virus, he added.




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Public lands are an invaluable source of revenue and recreation for communities across the West. In New Mexico, we are blessed with a plethora of iconic places, including Chaco Culture National Historical Park and Aztec Ruins National Monument here in my own backyard. These places draw millions of visitors to New Mexico each year, with outdoor recreation providing over 99,000 direct jobs and generating $9.9 billion in annual consumer spending. Notably, public lands have provided our state with a sustainable source of revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the essential economic and cultural role of public lands in New Mexico, former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt did everything within his power to turn them over to oil and gas companies. In the past six months alone, he oversaw oil and gas lease sales on more than 1.6 million acres of public lands across the West, including lands on the doorstep of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. And he did so as our communities are still struggling with the social and economic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic and despite minimal interest from the oil industry and deflated oil prices.

The Trump administration was able to get away with this because our federal oil and gas leasing system is terribly out of date and unsuited to the needs of 21st century America. Its obsolete rates and emphasis on development over protecting our communities, wildlife and water let the outgoing administration put oil and gas CEOs first at the publics expense.

One major consequence of this industry-first system is the rise of abandoned oil wells. These wells can threaten our families health by contaminating our drinking water and leaking dangerous methane pollution into our air. Bonds put down by companies before drilling are supposed to cover the cost of cleaning up these wells. But because the federal rules that determine the size of these bonds have not been updated in decades, taxpayers are facing millions, if not billions, in cleanup costs. In New Mexico, the state estimates that it will cost over $3 billion to clean up the 136,000 wells that are found throughout our state, many of which are located on federal land. Yet, the Government Accountability Office estimates the Bureau of Land Management has collected an average of just over $2,000 per well from oil companies to reclaim abandoned wells. With cleanup costs in New Mexico averaging around $35,000 per well, this outdated system is not only threatening the health and well-being of our communities, but its shifting costs that should be borne by oil companies onto New Mexicos taxpayers.

Furthermore, the federal royalty rate  the amount that companies have to pay for the privilege of producing oil and gas from federal public land  has not been updated in more than a century. As a consequence, its estimated that New Mexicans lost out on $2.5 billion in revenue over the last decade. This is money that should have gone toward funding our schools and hospitals, updating our public infrastructure, and protecting our clean air and water that instead went to oil and gas CEOs.

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Communities like Aztec can no longer afford a leasing system that prioritizes oil and gas CEOs profits above our own families health, safety and economic well-being. Fortunately, the Biden administration has the opportunity to reverse course and reform the federal leasing system. The first step, taken by Biden on Wednesday, was to call a time out  so that no more leases are issued with outdated royalty rates or to companies that cannot afford to clean up their wells. Now the new administration can begin the process of reforming the leasing system. For guidance, it can look to several oil and gas reform bills that were introduced in the last Congress. This includes legislation from Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., that would modernize federal oil and gas bonding rates to ensure oil companies  and not taxpayers  are paying to clean up abandoned wells, and bipartisan legislation from New Mexicos former Sen. Tom Udall and Iowas Sen. Charles Grassley to update royalty and other fiscal rates and deliver urgently needed funds to our communities.

We now have a unique opportunity to chart a different path for our magnificent public lands, one that supports our states effort to diversify its economy and puts the needs of our communities, wildlife and waters first. As a public servant, I thank President Biden for taking a time out on new leasing and am hopeful his administration will move forward with long-overdue reforms to the federal oil and gas leasing system.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Talisker Resources Ltd. ("Talisker" or the "Company") (TSX:TSK)(OTCQX:TSKFF) is pleased to announce the confirmation of near-surface bulk tonnage gold mineralization at the Charlotte Zone, located directly above the high-grade veins that are the primary focus of the 2021 resource drill program. Extensive near-surface gold mineralization was first intersected during the Company's validation drill program last year and comprises a series of shallow-dipping, stacked quartz veins.

Key Points:

Talisker confirms near surface bulk tonnage gold mineralization at the Charlotte Zone from surface to a vertical depth of beyond 250m.

25 intersects from 14 drill holes have defined a broad zone with multiple gold-bearing structures over a strike length of 600m, a width of 270m and extending at least 300m down plunge from surface.

The Charlotte zone has been confirmed by field mapping to outcrop at surface.

Gold mineralization is hosted by four shallow-dipping, parallel structures that dip approximately 40 degrees to the northwest.

A 15,000m core relog and re-sample program has been initiated to identify other areas with near-surface bulk-tonnage potential.

While the high-grade veins remain the primary focus of Talisker's resource drill program, the Charlotte Zone presents opportunity for significant previously overlooked additional upside. Given the Charlotte Zone is situated adjacent to and immediately above the high-grade veins, no change to the already outlined 50,000m drill program is required.

Highlights from previously released assay results from the Charlotte Zone are provided below and all results are provided in table 1 below.

Charlotte Zone Highlights (previously released):

SB-2020-005A: 10.47 g/t gold over 10.30m, from 102.70m to 113.0m

SB-2020-007: 3.36 g/t gold over 7.50m from 23.05m to 60.55m

SB-2020-009: 2.56 g/t gold over 14.25m, from 208.00m to 222.25m

SB-2020-015: 3.96 g/t gold over 20.20m, from 138.00m to 158.00m

SB-2020-017A: 1.06 g/t gold over 13.55m, from 470.00m to 483.55m

SB-2020-019: 2.50 g/t gold over 10.00m, from 201.00 to 211.00m

SB-2020-021: 1.55 g/t gold over 36.95m, from 208.45 to 245.40m

SB-2020-023: 1.16 g/t gold over 38.00m, from 80.50m to 118.50m

SB-2020-023: 1.69 g/t gold over 13.35m from 407.00m to 420.35m

Recent results announced on January 19th (SB-2020-021) and earlier today (SB-2020-023) represent 95% true width of the veins given they were drilling perpendicular to the dip of the structure.

Terry Harbort, President and CEO of Talisker commented, "We are extremely excited about the potential optionality that the near surface bulk tonnage gold mineralization discovered at the Charlotte Zone could potentially add to the high-grade gold veins that we are currently focusing on for our resource estimate. Importantly, the vein structures hosting the gold mineralization at Charlotte occur as shallow-dipping vein structures that bode well for any future bulk tonnage/open pit economic assessment. Furthermore, the widths quoted from recent drilling at Charlotte were drilled perpendicular to the orientation of the vein structures and therefore represent 95% true widths."

While the Charlotte Zone was only recently identified by drilling conducted by Talisker last year, a detailed review of the historical drill database has revealed other zones of possible near surface gold mineralization which were not followed-up by previous operators due to their selective focus on higher-grade material at depth. Samples from this historic drill core are currently awaiting assay at the laboratory and will aid in the rapid confirmation of additional zones.

To aid in the clarity of drill results targeting both high grade and bulk tonnage targets, the technical team has provided a new template and naming convention for the Bralorne Gold Project that will be used for future press releases. Attached to this press release are three figures that illustrate the Charlotte Zone:

Figure 1 shows the Bralorne Gold Project and the six zones demarking the high-grade vein zones at depth - Fergusson, King, Bralorne West, Bralorne East, Pioneer and Pioneer Extension, as well as the near surface bulk tonnage Charlotte Zone (in red), nearby surface infrastructure and major quartz vein structures in white projected to surface. The 50,000m drill program has also been outlined into their respective zones.

Figure 2 shows the approximate target depths of near surface bulk tonnage gold mineralization (surface to 300m), high grade veins targeted for the current resource drill program (300m to 750m) and high-grade veins at depth that could be drilled but will not be the focus of resource infill drilling in 2021 (750m to ~2,000m).

Figure 3 shows drill hole traces of drill holes into the Charlotte Zone to date.

While the Charlotte Zone presents a significant potential to provide optionality to any future economic considerations on the Bralorne Gold Project and overall growth of the Company, Talisker has not changed its view on the high-grade veins below. Instead, the Charlotte Zone could provide the opportunity to accelerate its previously announced resource drill program given the shallower drilling and likely wider drill spacing required to achieve a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate at the Bralorne Gold Project.

Bralorne Gold Project Drill Holes SB-2020-005A, 006, 007, 008, 009, 011A, 013, 015, 017, 017A, 017AW1, 019, 021 Diamond Drill Hole Name From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) Interpreted Structure Method Reported SB-2020-005A 102.70 103.30 0.60 20.80 Charlotte Zone Au-SCR24 SB-2020-005A 103.30 104.80 1.50 0.62 Au-AA24 SB-2020-005A 104.80 106.30 1.50 1.14 Au-AA24 SB-2020-005A 106.30 107.80 1.50 57.80 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-005A 107.80 109.30 1.50 1.44 Au-AA24 SB-2020-005A 109.30 110.75 1.45 1.66 Au-AA24 SB-2020-005A 110.75 111.50 0.75 1.61 Charlotte Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-005A 111.50 113.00 1.50 0.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-006 257.15 258.00 0.85 0.16 Charlotte FW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-006 258.00 258.55 0.55 0.31 Au-AA24 SB-2020-006 258.55 259.05 0.50 0.19 Au-AA24 SB-2020-006 259.05 259.65 0.60 0.34 Au-AA24 SB-2020-006 259.65 260.65 1.00 0.13 Au-AA24 SB-2020-006 260.65 261.15 0.50 0.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-006 261.15 261.65 0.50 0.61 Au-AA24 SB-2020-007 53.05 54.05 1.00 0.31 Charlotte HW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-007 54.05 54.55 0.50 0.38 Au-AA24 SB-2020-007 54.55 55.15 0.60 1.88 Au-AA24 SB-2020-007 55.15 55.80 0.65 0.11 Au-AA24 SB-2020-007 55.80 56.40 0.60 0.68 Au-AA24 SB-2020-007 56.40 57.35 0.95 3.64 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-007 57.35 58.00 0.65 28.90 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-007 58.00 59.05 1.05 0.05 Au-AA24 SB-2020-007 59.05 59.55 0.50 0.48 Au-AA24 SB-2020-007 59.55 60.05 0.50 0.02 Au-AA24 SB-2020-007 60.05 60.55 0.50 1.06 Au-AA24 SB-2020-008 249.60 250.20 0.60 0.43 Charlotte Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-008 250.20 251.00 0.80 1.79 Au-AA24 SB-2020-008 251.00 251.60 0.60 1.88 Au-AA24 SB-2020-008 251.60 252.20 0.60 0.92 Au-AA24 SB-2020-008 252.20 253.00 0.80 0.42 Au-AA24 SB-2020-008 253.00 254.00 1.00 0.15 Au-AA24 SB-2020-008 254.00 255.00 1.00 0.43 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 208.00 208.50 0.50 0.17 Charlotte Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 208.50 209.15 0.65 0.05 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 209.15 209.65 0.50 0.81 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 209.65 210.50 0.85 0.70 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 210.50 211.00 0.50 1.64 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 211.00 211.75 0.75 4.88 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 211.75 212.50 0.75 3.47 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 212.50 213.40 0.90 5.69 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 213.40 213.90 0.50 4.86 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 213.90 214.40 0.50 3.98 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 214.40 215.00 0.60 5.56 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 215.00 215.50 0.50 3.10 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 215.50 216.15 0.65 3.78 Charlotte Zone Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 216.15 216.65 0.50 2.91 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 216.65 217.15 0.50 6.35 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 217.15 217.65 0.50 1.60 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 217.65 218.45 0.80 1.85 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 218.45 219.20 0.75 3.47 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-009 219.20 220.25 1.05 0.97 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 220.25 220.75 0.50 1.09 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 220.75 221.25 0.50 0.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 221.25 221.75 0.50 0.06 Au-AA24 SB-2020-009 221.75 222.25 0.50 0.49 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 288.00 289.50 1.50 0.37 Charlotte Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 289.50 290.00 0.50 0.56 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 290.00 290.50 0.50 5.61 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-011A 290.50 291.25 0.75 1.80 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 291.25 292.25 1.00 1.68 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 292.25 292.75 0.50 0.04 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 292.75 293.25 0.50 0.08 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 293.25 293.75 0.50 0.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 293.75 294.25 0.50 0.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 294.25 294.75 0.50 0.08 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 294.75 295.25 0.50 0.86 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 295.25 295.75 0.50 2.41 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 295.75 296.25 0.50 1.66 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 296.25 296.75 0.50 0.63 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 296.75 297.25 0.50 1.45 Au-AA24 SB-2020-011A 297.25 297.75 0.50 0.61 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 150.75 151.25 0.50 0.10 Knight Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 151.25 151.75 0.50 0.74 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 151.75 152.50 0.75 0.22 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 152.50 153.25 0.75 0.62 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 153.25 153.90 0.65 3.82 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-013 153.90 154.50 0.60 7.52 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-013 154.50 155.20 0.70 0.12 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 155.20 156.20 1.00 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 156.20 156.90 0.70 0.11 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 156.90 157.55 0.65 0.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 157.55 158.20 0.65 0.88 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 158.20 158.90 0.70 1.76 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 158.90 159.40 0.50 2.55 Knight Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 159.40 160.10 0.70 2.26 Au-AA24 SB-2020-013 160.10 160.60 0.50 0.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 138.00 139.00 1.00 1.60 Charlotte Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 139.00 139.70 0.70 1.08 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 139.70 140.60 0.90 0.62 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 140.60 141.20 0.60 2.79 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 141.20 142.00 0.80 3.78 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 142.00 142.50 0.50 4.32 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 142.50 143.20 0.70 6.03 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 143.20 143.70 0.50 3.38 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 143.70 144.20 0.50 3.30 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 144.20 145.00 0.80 1.69 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 145.00 145.70 0.70 1.81 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 145.70 146.55 0.85 5.02 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 146.55 147.10 0.55 1.81 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 147.10 147.65 0.55 2.60 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 147.65 148.60 0.95 1.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 148.60 149.20 0.60 6.76 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 149.20 150.00 0.80 11.95 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 150.00 150.70 0.70 4.47 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 150.70 151.30 0.60 12.80 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 151.30 152.00 0.70 12.00 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 152.00 152.60 0.60 8.18 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 152.60 153.20 0.60 8.80 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 153.20 154.00 0.80 3.29 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 154.00 154.70 0.70 0.72 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 154.70 155.20 0.50 0.43 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 155.20 155.90 0.70 3.64 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 155.90 156.65 0.75 3.05 Au-SCR24 SB-2020-015 156.65 157.40 0.75 0.15 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 157.40 158.20 0.80 1.13 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 165.60 166.25 0.65 0.26 Charlotte FW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 166.25 166.80 0.55 0.09 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 166.80 167.50 0.70 0.14 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 167.50 168.00 0.50 0.32 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 168.00 168.50 0.50 0.09 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 168.50 169.00 0.50 0.10 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 169.00 169.50 0.50 0.62 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 169.50 170.00 0.50 0.24 Charlotte FW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 170.00 170.50 0.50 0.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 170.50 171.10 0.60 0.18 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 171.10 171.80 0.70 0.18 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 171.80 173.00 1.20 0.25 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 173.00 174.00 1.00 0.15 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 174.00 175.10 1.10 0.02 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 175.10 175.60 0.50 0.41 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 187.70 188.70 1.00 0.75 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 188.70 189.35 0.65 3.68 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 189.35 189.85 0.50 0.44 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 189.85 190.70 0.85 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 190.70 191.40 0.70 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 191.40 191.95 0.55 0.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-015 191.95 192.60 0.65 0.71 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017 204.00 204.60 0.60 0.55 Charlotte HW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-017 204.60 205.30 0.70 0.51 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017 205.30 206.00 0.70 0.23 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017 206.00 206.50 0.50 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017 206.50 207.00 0.50 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017 207.00 208.00 1.00 0.00 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017 208.00 209.30 1.30 0.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017 209.30 209.80 0.50 0.93 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 470.00 470.50 0.50 0.23 Knight Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 470.50 471.10 0.60 0.20 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 471.10 471.90 0.80 1.25 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 471.90 472.40 0.50 2.76 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 472.40 473.20 0.80 0.18 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 473.20 474.15 0.95 0.17 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 474.15 474.80 0.65 0.14 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 474.80 475.30 0.50 0.29 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 475.30 476.40 1.10 0.14 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 476.40 477.00 0.60 0.18 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 477.00 477.50 0.50 0.15 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 477.50 478.00 0.50 0.06 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 478.00 478.50 0.50 11.95 Au-GRA22 SB-2020-017A 478.50 479.00 0.50 0.10 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 479.00 479.50 0.50 2.18 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 479.50 480.00 0.50 2.26 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 480.00 480.80 0.80 0.55 Knight Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 480.80 481.80 1.00 1.28 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 481.80 482.65 0.85 0.22 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017A 482.65 483.55 0.90 0.72 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017AW1 461.05 461.95 0.90 0.15 Knight Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-017AW1 461.95 462.50 0.55 0.32 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017AW1 462.50 463.00 0.50 1.85 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017AW1 463.00 463.60 0.60 3.30 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017AW1 463.60 464.15 0.55 6.07 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017AW1 464.15 464.70 0.55 2.22 Au-AA24 SB-2020-017AW1 464.70 466.00 1.30 1.30 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 183.50 184.15 0.65 1.99 Charlotte HW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 184.15 184.80 0.65 0.38 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 184.80 185.30 0.50 1.67 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 185.30 185.80 0.50 2.50 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 185.80 186.45 0.65 2.41 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 186.45 187.50 1.05 0.14 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 187.50 188.10 0.60 0.45 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 188.10 188.65 0.55 1.31 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 188.65 189.45 0.80 0.17 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 189.45 190.35 0.90 3.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 190.35 191.00 0.65 1.26 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 191.00 191.55 0.55 0.49 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 201.00 201.65 0.65 0.38 Charlotte HW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 201.65 202.20 0.55 8.91 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 202.20 203.00 0.80 3.04 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 203.00 203.55 0.55 5.12 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 203.55 204.75 1.20 1.17 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 204.75 205.25 0.50 0.08 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 205.25 206.50 1.25 0.02 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 206.50 207.00 0.50 1.49 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 207.00 207.60 0.60 6.44 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 207.60 208.10 0.50 4.09 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 208.10 208.60 0.50 3.27 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 208.60 209.30 0.70 2.50 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 209.30 210.15 0.85 1.83 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 210.15 211.00 0.85 1.85 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 217.55 218.05 0.50 3.10 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 218.05 218.60 0.55 0.11 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 218.60 219.45 0.85 0.81 Charlotte HW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 219.45 220.20 0.75 1.37 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 259.00 259.85 0.85 1.06 Charlotte Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 259.85 260.50 0.65 1.81 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 260.50 261.00 0.50 0.98 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 261.00 262.00 1.00 1.05 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 262.00 263.00 1.00 0.29 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 263.00 263.70 0.70 0.86 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 263.70 264.35 0.65 0.14 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 264.35 265.00 0.65 0.18 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 265.00 266.00 1.00 0.06 Au-AA24 SB-2020-019 266.00 267.00 1.00 0.21 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 78.85 79.50 0.65 1.75 Charlotte HW Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 79.50 80.00 0.50 5.42 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 80.00 80.50 0.50 3.59 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 80.50 81.00 0.50 0.30 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 81.00 81.50 0.50 0.26 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 81.50 82.00 0.50 0.32 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 82.00 83.00 1.00 0.50 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 83.00 84.00 1.00 0.32 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 84.00 85.50 1.50 0.22 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 85.50 86.20 0.70 0.03 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 86.20 86.70 0.50 1.19 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 208.45 209.10 0.65 1.27 Charlotte Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 209.10 210.15 1.05 0.69 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 210.15 211.05 0.90 0.26 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 211.05 212.20 1.15 0.12 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 212.20 213.30 1.10 0.04 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 213.30 214.00 0.70 0.69 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 214.00 214.50 0.50 1.06 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 214.50 215.20 0.70 0.35 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 215.20 215.70 0.50 0.89 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 215.70 216.45 0.75 1.11 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 216.45 217.00 0.55 0.58 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 217.00 217.50 0.50 0.16 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 217.50 218.00 0.50 0.35 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 218.00 218.65 0.65 0.60 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 218.65 219.45 0.80 0.81 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 219.45 219.95 0.50 0.53 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 219.95 221.00 1.05 1.22 Charlotte Zone Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 221.00 222.00 1.00 0.00 No Recovery SB-2020-021 222.00 223.35 1.35 0.68 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 223.35 224.20 0.85 2.89 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 224.20 224.70 0.50 4.20 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 224.70 225.50 0.80 1.50 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 225.50 226.00 0.50 1.57 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 226.00 226.80 0.80 2.04 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 226.80 227.30 0.50 22.60 Au-GRA22 SB-2020-021 227.30 228.00 0.70 2.88 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 228.00 228.85 0.85 2.89 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 228.85 229.75 0.90 1.35 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 229.75 230.70 0.95 2.59 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 230.70 231.25 0.55 2.86 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 231.25 232.00 0.75 2.70 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 232.00 233.20 1.20 1.03 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 233.20 234.50 1.30 0.68 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 234.50 235.60 1.10 1.81 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 235.60 236.65 1.05 1.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 236.65 237.20 0.55 2.01 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 237.20 238.20 1.00 1.34 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 238.20 239.20 1.00 2.07 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 239.20 240.30 1.10 2.57 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 240.30 241.10 0.80 2.83 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 241.10 242.05 0.95 0.69 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 242.05 243.00 0.95 0.52 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 243.00 244.00 1.00 1.29 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 244.00 244.50 0.50 0.54 Au-AA24 SB-2020-021 244.50 245.40 0.90 0.12 Au-AA24 Notes: Diamond drill hole SB-2020-005A has collar orientation of Azimuth 154; Dip -56. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-006 has collar orientation of Azimuth 174; Dip -46. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-007 has collar orientation of Azimuth 120; Dip -60. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-008 has collar orientation of Azimuth 197; Dip -53. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-009 has collar orientation of Azimuth 199; Dip -61. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-011A has collar orientation of Azimuth 215; Dip -53. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-013 has collar orientation of Azimuth 160; Dip -45. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-015 has collar orientation of Azimuth 205; Dip -52. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-017 has collar orientation of Azimuth 193; Dip -50. Diamond drill holes SB-2020-017A and SB-2020-017AW1 have collar orientations of Azimuth 193; Dip -48. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-019 has collar orientation of Azimuth 193; Dip -55. Diamond drill hole SB-2020-021 has collar orientation of Azimuth 187; Dip -50.True widths are estimated 40 - 90% of intercept lengths and are based on oriented core measurements where available. Method reported includes the most up to date information as of this press release.



Talisker is providing an opportunity for shareholders and other interested parties to participate in a Webinar to be held at 4 pm ET on Thursday, February 4th. To register, please click on the following link - https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_86qwSGqUTLCyEBO2w2SM3w. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

About Talisker Resources Ltd.

Talisker (taliskerresources.com ) is a junior resource company involved in the exploration of gold projects in British Columbia, Canada. Talisker's projects include the Bralorne Gold Complex, an advanced stage project with significant exploration potential from a historical high-grade producing gold mine as well as its Spences Bridge Project where the Company holds ~85% of the emerging Spences Bridge Gold Belt and several other early-stage Greenfields projects. With its properties comprising 278,364 hectares over 256 claims, three leases and 198 crown grant claims, Talisker is a dominant exploration player in the south-central British Columbia. The Company is well funded to advance its aggressive systematic exploration program at its projects.

For further information, please contact:

Terry Harbort

President & CEO

Terry.harbort@talliskerresources.com

+1 416 361 2808 Mick Carew

VP, Strategic and Corporate Development

mick.carew@taliskerresources.com

+1 604 803 7711

Qualified Person

The technical information contained in this news release relating to the drill results at the Bralorne Gold Project has been approved by Leonardo de Souza (BSc, AusIMM (CP) Membership 224827), Talisker's Vice President, Exploration and Resource Development, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Sample Preparation and QAQC

Drill core at the Bralorne Gold Project is drilled in HQ to NQ size ranges (63.5mm and 47.6mm respectively). Drill core samples are minimum 50 cm and maximum 160 cm long along the core axis. Samples are focused on an interval of interest such as a vein or zone of mineralization. Shoulder samples bracket the interval of interest such that a total sampled core length of not less than 3 m both above and below the interval of interest must be assigned. Sample QAQC measures of unmarked certified reference materials (CRMs), blanks, and duplicates are inserted into the sample sequence and make up 9% of the samples submitted to the lab for holes reported in this release.

Sample preparation and analyses is carried out by ALS Global, at their laboratory in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Drill core sample preparation includes drying in an oven at a maximum temperature of 60C, fine crushing of the sample to at least 70% passing less than 2 mm, sample splitting using a riffle splitter, and pulverizing a 250 g split to at least 85% passing 75 microns (code PREP-31).

Gold and in diamond drill core is analysed by fire assay and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) of a 50g sample (code Au-AA24), while multi-element chemistry is analysed by 4-Acid digestion of a 0.25 g sample split with detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) for 48 elements (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ge, Hf, In, K, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Re, S, Sb, Sc, Se, Sn, Sr, Ta, Te, Th, Ti, Tl, U, V, W, Y, Zn, Zr).

Gold assay technique Au-AA24 has an upper detection limit of 10ppm. Any sample that produces an over-limit gold value via the Au-AA24 technique is sent for gravimetric finish via method Au-GRA22 which has an upper detection limit of 1,000 ppm Au. Samples where visible gold was observed are sent directly to screen metallics analysis and all samples that fire assay above 3 ppm Au are re-analysed with method Au-SCR24 which employs a 1kg pulp screened to 100 microns with assay of the entire oversize fraction and duplicate 50g assays on the undersize fraction. Where possible all samples initially sent to screen metallics processing will also be re-run through the fire assay with gravimetric finish provided there is enough material left for further processing.

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Talisker's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this release contains forward-looking information relating to, among other things, the operations of the Company and the timing which could be affected by the current global COVID-19 pandemic. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Talisker. Although such statements are based on reasonable assumptions of Talisker's management, there can be no assurance that any conclusions or forecasts will prove to be accurate.

While Talisker considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect. Forward looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include risks inherent in the exploration and development of mineral deposits, including risks relating to changes in project parameters as plans continue to be redefined, risks relating to variations in grade or recovery rates, risks relating to changes in mineral prices and the worldwide demand for and supply of minerals, risks related to increased competition and current global financial conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic, access and supply risks, reliance on key personnel, operational risks, and regulatory risks, including risks relating to the acquisition of the necessary licenses and permits, financing, capitalization and liquidity risks.

The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof, and Talisker is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.

Figure 1: Map of the Bralorne Gold Project showing major high-grade vein structures projected to surface (white) and surface infrastructure.

Figure 2: Long section of the Bralorne Gold Project showing the relative target depths for 1) near-surface bulk tonnage gold mineralization (surfacer to 300m), high-grade veins targeted for resource drilling in 2021 (300m to 700m) and high-grade veins at depth that could be drilled in 2021 but will not be the focus of the 2021 resource drill program (700m to ~2,000m).

Figure 3 shows drill hole traces of drill holes into the Charlotte Zone to date.

SOURCE: Talisker Resources Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627244/Talisker-Announces-Confirmation-of-Near-Surface-Bulk-Tonnage-Gold-Mineralization-at-the-Charlotte-Zone-Bralorne-Gold-Project
A new method for constructing special solar cells could significantly increase their efficiency. Not only are the cells made up of thin layers, they also consist of specifically arranged nanoblocks. This has been shown in a new study by an international research team led by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), which was published in the scientific journal Nano Letters.

Commercially available solar cells are mostly made of silicon. "Based on the properties of silicon it's not feasible to say that their efficiency can be increased indefinitely," says Dr Akash Bhatnagar, a physicist from the Centre for Innovation Competence (ZIK) "SiLi-nano" at MLU. His research team is therefore studying the so-called anomalous photovoltaic effect which occurs in certain materials. The anomalous photovoltaic effect does not require a p-n junction which otherwise enables the flow of current in silicon solar cells. The direction of the current is determined at the atomic level by the asymmetric crystal structure of the corresponding materials. These materials are usually oxides, which have some crucial advantages: they are easier to manufacture and significantly more durable. However, they often do not absorb much sunlight and have a very high electrical resistance. "In order to utilise these materials and their effect, creative cell architectures are needed that reinforce the advantages and compensate for the disadvantages," explains Lutz Muhlenbein, lead author of the study.

In their new study, the physicists introduced a novel cell architecture, a so-called nanocomposite. They were supported by teams from the Bergakademie Freiberg, the Leibniz Institute of Surface Modification in Leipzig and Banaras Hindu University in India. In their experiment, the researchers stacked single layers of a typical material only a few nanometres in thickness on top of one another and offset them with nickel oxide strips running perpendicularly. "The strips act as a fast lane for the electrons that are generated when sunlight is converted into electricity and which are meant to reach the electrode in the solar cell," Bhatnagar explains. This is precisely the transport that would otherwise be impeded by the electrons having to traverse each individual horizontal layer.

The new architecture actually increased the cell's electrical output by a factor of five. Another advantage of the new method is that it is very easy to implement. "The material forms this desired structure on its own. No extreme external conditions are needed to force it into this state," says Muhlenbein. The idea, for which the researchers have now provided an initial feasibility study, could also be applied to materials other than nickel oxide. Follow-up studies now need to examine if and how such solar cells can be produced on an industrial scale.

###

The study was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and with funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
My sister called and said she wanted me to review Radium Girls. She had just watched an interview with Lily Tomlin, who produced the film, and thought it would be a good movie for me to review. Actually, I think she wanted me to review the film so if I liked it, she would watch it, and if I didnt, she wouldnt waste her time.

Based on a true story, names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty. In the 1920s, a woman, Bessie (Joey King), convinces two other factory workers (Olivia Macklin and Colby Minifie) to help her advocate for safer work conditions after one of her sisters, Mary, dies and the other sister, Josephine (Abby Quinn), becomes fatally ill from radium poisoning.

The women at the American Radium factory use radium to paint clock faces so that they glow in the dark. To keep their paintbrush tips pointed, the women lick the paintbrushes with every stroke, getting radium on their tongues and down their throats.

I found myself wanting to scream, Stop licking that brush and run out of there!

We know now that exposure to radium can cause cancer and a myriad of other problems for humans. This film was very reminiscent of Silkwood, starring Meryl Streep and Cher, which told the story of workers exposed to carcinogenic material.

I recognized King as Channing Tatums characters daughter, Emily, in White House Down. She has an illustrious career ahead of her. The girl is only 21 and already has 65 acting credits on her resume. She carries Radium Girls and puts in a powerful performance. I felt all the performances were excellent.

Radium Girls was directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler. Mohler also wrote the script with Brittany Shaw. Throughout the film, they use actual shots of people in the 1920s. At first, I found this a little disconcerting, but as the movie progressed, I realized how it really set the roaring twenties up for the audience.

The directors had a woman, Etta (Susan Heyward), taking pictures throughout the film and the pictures they used were the pictures she was taking to record the times.

As I watched the film, I realized that both my grandmothers were the same age as Bessie and her friends, which helped me visualize what their lives must have been like.

I really liked this movie, but it is not very cheerful in the time of COVID, so if you are looking for something lighthearted, this is not the movie for you.

Radium Girls is on Netflix. I give the film four and a half stars out of five.

Movie critic Mary Cox lives in Wood River and studied film at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has worked in L.A. with various directors and industry professionals. Contact Mary at mary.cox@edwpub.net.
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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 22:23:53|Editor: huaxia

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A shuttle bus of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) is seen at the Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminal 1 in Paranaque City, the Philippines, Feb. 3, 2021. The PAL is going to let go of 2,300 employees in mid-March, as part of its recovery initiative amid losses due to the pandemic, the company announced on Tuesday. The airline said the affected employees represent about 30 percent of its workforce and that the total includes voluntary separations and involuntary retrenchment. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

MANILA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine Airlines (PAL) is going to let go of 2,300 employees in mid-March, as part of its recovery initiative amid losses due to the pandemic, the company announced on Tuesday.

The airline said the affected employees represent about 30 percent of its workforce and that the total includes voluntary separations and involuntary retrenchment.

"This has been an extremely difficult and painful decision. For our colleagues who are leaving, rest assured that we are committed to supporting you through this transition," PAL president Gilbert Santa Maria said in a statement.

Before the retrenchment, PAL implemented temporary furloughs and flexible working arrangements to hold off job cuts as long as possible.

The airline said the move is part of PAL's recovery plan to survive the pandemic, which severely hit the global airline industry.

"While demand for air travel slowly returns, the airline states that it is still far from pre-pandemic levels," PAL said.

The airline vowed to help the affected employees with job placement.

The airline first announced the retrenchment program in October last year.

The airline said its current operations will continue despite the job-cutting.
MIAMI  As the final performance of Miami New Dramas Seven Deadly Sins ended Sunday night, the actors streamed onto Lincoln Road, thanking the companys artistic director, Michel Hausmann. They had spent months performing separately, inside adjacent vacant storefronts on this South Beach pedestrian mall, to an audience that watched and listened from a distance.

Whooping and hugging each other, they gathered around the gregarious Hausmann at the outdoor bar lit by a neon Purgatory sign. They continued celebrating, even as the glowing red signs, reading Lust Greed Wrath and more, flickered off and the block turned dark.

The pandemic closed the city on March 13, the eve of the opening of Miami New Dramas first musical. To keep the 5-year-old company going, Hausmann, who is from Venezuela, commissioned seven notable playwrights  five Latino or Latina, two Black  to write short works that would fit under the Seven Deadly Sins rubric.

They included Aurin Squire, who imagined sloth as a white woman claiming Black identity. Carmen Pelaez envisioned pride as the arrogant statue of John Calhoun, an outspoken defender of slavery, challenging the crowd that is pulling him down. Moises Kaufman, who co-founded New Drama with Hausmann, portrayed greed by way of a brother and sister clashing over their fathers will.
By Ryotaro Nakamaru, KYODO NEWS - Feb 2, 2021 - 22:52 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

The Japanese government on Tuesday extended the state of emergency covering Tokyo and other regions by one month to March 7, as hospitals remain under pressure despite declining coronavirus cases.

The state of emergency will remain in place in 10 prefectures including Osaka, Aichi and Fukuoka, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at a meeting of the government's COVID-19 task force. Tochigi, north of the capital, will be the only prefecture to have the emergency lifted on Feb. 7 because its situation has significantly improved.

Under the state of emergency, people are urged to refrain from unnecessary outings while restaurants and bars are being asked to close early. Businesses are encouraged to adopt remote working and attendance at large events has been capped.

"Thanks to the measures and the cooperation of the Japanese people, we are beginning to see clear results," Suga said at a press conference. "We are asking you to hang on for a little longer so that we can firmly establish a downtrend in infections."

While the measures have been less strict than the previous state of emergency last spring, when schools were closed nationwide and some businesses were told to temporarily close, they have been somewhat successful in bringing down the number of infections.

Tokyo reported 393 coronavirus cases on Monday, the lowest figure in more than a month and down from the single-day peak of 2,447 marked when the current emergency was declared on Jan. 7.

Suga said the state of emergency will be lifted before March 7 in prefectures that see a significant improvement in several key indicators.

One benchmark for Tokyo's early exit would be daily new infections falling below 500, with other factors including the availability of hospital beds. On Tuesday, the capital reported an additional 556 cases.

Neighboring Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama as well as Aichi, Gifu, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures will all remain under the state of emergency based on a special measures law aimed at containing infections. Okinawa, which was under consideration for inclusion due to outbreaks on some remote islands, was left off the list.

Suga, who has seen his public support dwindle amid criticism that his pandemic response has been sluggish, is scrambling to contain the coronavirus in time for this summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

Asked by a reporter whether the games could be held without spectators, the prime minister said ensuring a "safe and secure" event was the top priority, without elaborating.

Hospitals are struggling as the number of COVID-19 patients in serious condition and deaths attributed to the disease remain near peak levels, with health experts warning it will take time before the situation improves.

The nationwide death toll for Tuesday was 119, the most in a single day yet. The number of coronavirus cases in the country was 2,324, with the health ministry putting the number of patients in serious condition at 937.

Japan is also behind other countries such as the United States in rolling out vaccines. Suga said the government would aim to begin inoculating health workers in mid-February, sooner than his previous target of late February.

Opposition lawmakers on Tuesday criticized Suga for failing to fulfill his pledge to rein in the virus by the state of emergency's initial Feb. 7 end date.

"We need a clear explanation from the prime minister why it couldn't be lifted in one month, and what measures the government plans to take over the next month," Tetsuro Fukuyama, secretary general of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters.

Earlier in the day in parliament, Suga said he was sorry that four members of the ruling coalition had visited hostess bars in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza district despite the government's call for people to stay at home.

Suga declared a state of emergency in the Tokyo metropolitan area on Jan. 7 and expanded it to the other prefectures on Jan. 13. Unlike other countries that have imposed hard lockdowns, Japan has no legal basis at the moment to punish rule breakers.

To add teeth to its measures, the government has proposed legislation introducing fines for COVID-19 patients refusing to be hospitalized as well as restaurants and bars ignoring orders to close early.

The revisions to the coronavirus special measures law and the infectious diseases law passed the House of Representatives on Monday and are expected to be enacted Wednesday following approval by the House of Councillors.

Related coverage:

Tokyo's daily coronavirus cases drop to 393, total tops 100,000

Japan to extend virus emergency to March 7

Tokyo Jan. virus cases near 40,000, double from previous monthly high

The following is a chronology of major events related to the novel coronavirus and Japan.

Jan. 9, 2020 -- Chinese state-run media reports novel coronavirus detected in patient.

Jan. 15 -- Japan confirms 1st coronavirus infection.

Jan. 30 -- World Health Organization declares global emergency.

Feb. 3 -- Diamond Princess cruise ship begins quarantine in Yokohama Port, group infection later confirmed among passengers, crew members.

Feb. 13 -- Japan confirms 1st COVID-19 death.

March 11 -- WHO declares spread of coronavirus to be pandemic.

March 13 -- Parliament enacts legislation enabling the government to declare a state of emergency over the coronavirus.

March 24 -- 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games postponed to 2021 due to pandemic.

April 7 -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declares state of emergency in Tokyo, six other prefectures.

April 16 -- State of emergency expanded to entire nation, domestic infections top 10,000.

May 14 -- Abe lifts state of emergency in 39 of Japan's 47 prefectures.

May 25 -- State of emergency fully lifted.

July 22 -- Government launches "Go To Travel" subsidy program to revive domestic tourism industry battered by coronavirus, excluding Tokyo.

Oct. 1 -- Tokyo added to "Go To Travel" subsidy program.

Dec. 14 -- Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announces halt of "Go To Travel" subsidy program during the New Year holidays.

Dec. 18 -- U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. applies for approval of coronavirus vaccine by Japan's health ministry.

Dec. 21 -- Domestic infections top 200,000.

Dec. 22 -- COVID-19 deaths in Japan top 3,000.

Jan. 4, 2021 -- Suga says vaccinations may start in Japan in late February.

Jan. 7 -- Suga declares state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures effective through Feb. 7.

Jan. 13 -- State of emergency expanded to seven more prefectures including Osaka, Aichi and Fukuoka. Domestic infections top 300,000.

Feb. 2 -- State of emergency extended to March 7 in 10 prefectures. Declaration to be lifted in Tochigi Prefecture.
"Different cohorts showed various levels of improvement in cognitive function, emotional status and physical health."

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) today announced that Hong Kong-based Chanwuyi Lifestyle Medicine Program has earned Certified Lifestyle Medicine Program designation. The designation recognizes, supports and encourages adoption of evidence-based health intervention programs that meet rigorous review requirements and standards for offering lifestyle modification for chronic disease treatment and reversal.

Lifestyle Medicine is defined as the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic interventionincluding a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connectionas a primary modality, delivered by clinicians trained and certified in this specialty, to prevent, treat, and often reverse chronic disease.

According to a United Nations report in 2007, up to 1 billion people, nearly one in six of the worlds population, suffer from neurological disorders, from Alzheimer and Parkinson disease, strokes, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy to migraine, brain injuries and neuroinfections.

Those patients suffer from various kinds of cognitive and emotional problems such as memory loss, decision making, language problems, depression and anxiety that significantly affect their daily living. However, most of the cognitive disorders cannot be treated efficiently with Western medicine. The purpose of the Chanwuyi Lifestyle Medicine is to develop an intervention to improve this major, worldwide health issue.

Professor Agnes Chan, PhD, a professor at the Department of Psychology of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Director of the Neuropsychological Laboratory of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, developed the Chanwuyi Lifestyle Medicine Program (CLMP) in 2007 to integrate the Western concept of Lifestyle Medicine and Chinese medical concepts. The aim is to help patients cultivate a lifestyle that can positively impact their brain, as well as their physical and psychological health.

The program recommends: the intake of vegetables, fruits, whole-grains and plant-based proteins in each meal; avoidance of trans-fats, sugar, processed foods and risky substances such as smoking and alcohol; and remaining physically active in daily living such as increasing the time of walking and household chores. The participants are advised to practice Chinese deep breathing and meditation practices as a mean of stress management, and to cultivate gratitude and positive thinking. The treatment is provided in both group format and individual sessions.

The Research Center for Neuropsychological Well-Being has been researching Chanwuyi Lifestyle Medicine activities since 2007, said Chan. We have tested our program on children with autism, older adults with memory problems, and patients with depression. So far, the results are very encouraging, and different cohorts showed various levels of improvement in cognitive function, emotional status and physical health.

The ACLM program certification designation is offered at three different levels based upon evaluation scoresHonorable Mention, Certified and Gold Certified. The levels are based on factors including years in operation, number of participants, number of organizations using the program, inclusion of all Lifestyle Medicine pillars, intervention trials, duration of active treatment, amount of staff contact and follow-up, positive health metrics achieved and participant testimonials.

ACLM is proud to recognize the Chanwuyi Lifestyle Medicine Program as a Certified Lifestyle Medicine Program, said ACLM President Cate Collings, MD, MS, FACC, DipABLM. We celebrate the impact and outcomes Dr. Chan has been able to document.

Learn more about the Chanwuyi Lifestyle Medicine Program at https://chanwuyilifestyle.psy.cuhk.edu.hk.

For more information about ACLMs certified program certification and requirements, see https://lmeconomicresearch.org/certified-programs/.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF LIFESTYLE MEDICINE: ACLM is the medical professional society for those dedicated to the advancement and clinical practice of Lifestyle Medicine as the foundation of a transformed and sustainable health care system. Lifestyle Medicine is the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic interventionincluding a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connectionas a primary modality, delivered by clinicians trained and certified in this specialty, to prevent, treat, and often reverse chronic disease.

More than a professional association, ACLM is a galvanized force for change. ACLM addresses the need for quality education and certification, supporting its members in their individual practices and in their collective mission to domestically and globally promote Lifestyle Medicine as the first treatment option, as opposed to a first option of treating symptoms and consequences with expensive, ever increasing quantities of pills and procedures.

ACLM members are united in their desire to identify and eradicate the root cause of disease. Learn more at http://www.LifestyleMedicine.org.

ABOUT THE CHANWUYI LIFESTYLE MEDICINE PROGRAM: The Chanwuyi Lifestyle Medicine Program provides lifestyle therapies for individuals with cognitive disorders such as children with autism, older adults with memory problems, and individuals with psychological problems such as depression. CLMP has evidence to support its effect as a neuropsychological intervention for improving cognitive and psychological functions for people of all ages. Learn more about the Chanwuyi Lifestyle Medicine Program at https://chanwuyilifestyle.psy.cuhk.edu.hk.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has handed over to the Investigation Agency the probe into the blast near the embassy here, officials said on Tuesday.

A minor took place near the Israeli Embassy in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi on Friday evening. No one was injured.

"The investigation into the blast near the Israeli embassy has been handed over to the NIA," a home ministry official said.

Some cars were damaged in the explosion that occurred about 150 metres away from the embassy on the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road in the very high-security Lutyens' bungalow zone.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to convey his strong condemnation of the terror attack and asserted that India will deploy all its resources to find and punish the perpetrators.

Both leaders, the PMO said, expressed satisfaction about the close coordination between Indian and Israeli security agencies in connection with the blast probe.

The Israeli foreign ministry said all its diplomats and embassy staff in Delhi are "safe and sound".

(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.)

Jonas has more than 20 years' experience building and delivering successful products and services around new and emerging technologies, from telematics systems to holographic beam-forming satellite antennas. His M&A work in technical due diligence resulted in several material events in funding and acquisitions. In his tenure, he led cross-functional teams delivering key solutions for Toyota, Fiat Group, Chrysler, Ford, Microsoft, and more.

ZEV's CEO, Carolyn Maury, commented, "Jonas brings a wealth of automotive technology experience spanning embedded software, autonomous systems, and connected services,"

"ZEV is in a unique position, focused on a real gap in the automotive industry," added Mr. Nicholson. "I am pleased to join a team filled with industry visionaries and exceptional engineers on a product poised to make a real impact."

Dr. Arunachala Nadar Mada Kannan earned his PhD degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1990 with a focus on metal/air batteries and alkaline fuel cells. Dr. Kannan joins as a Battery consultant at ZEV with his 30 years of experience in battery and fuel cell industry and academia.

At ZEV, he plays a key role in developing highly efficient battery package system for range extension along with longer cycle/calendar life of the world class ZEV's Trident. Dr. Kannan is a Professor in the Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, USA, specializing in low temperature fuel cells, Li-ion batteries for automotive and stationary applications. Before his current position, Dr. Kannan worked as Chief Scientist at Hoku Scientific Inc., Hawaii in designing and developing fuel cells for electric vehicles. Dr. Kannan publishes extensively and presents regularly at national/international conferences on batteries, fuel cells and H 2 technologies. He serves as an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, as well as on other editorial boards.

ZEV's CEO, Carolyn Maury, commented, "We are thrilled to have Dr. Kannan on board, he will help us as we seek to drive viability, efficiency and appeal of EV through our unique IP and technology."

As the CMO Nick Platt is helping bring the brand postioning for ZEV of 'Democratizing EV' to the world, with a career spanning two continents and three decades, Nick Platt creates magic in the moments that matter. Prior to joining ZEV Nick was Executive Creative Director at RAPP, responsible for all creative output produced in the agency's Los Angeles office, including creative campaigns for clients such as Toyota, Bank of America, and Mattel. His particular focus was on delivering creative solutions that are simple, relevant and original.

During his 30 years of experience in advertising and direct marketing, he has worked at a range of prominent agencies, including Saatchi & Saatchi, Proximity, and TBWA\GGT, among others. He has won numerous industry awards, including the Grand Prix at the New York Festivals, Gold at the ECHOs, D&AD, John Caples, DMAs and London International Advertising Awards.

"Joining this team is fantastic, you can feel the energy and see the determination that everyone brings. Helping ZEV share their vision with the world will be a absolute pleasure"

About Zero Electric Vehicles, Inc.

Zero Electric Vehicles INC. ("ZEV") is an Arizona based automotive design, EV technology and manufacturing company with an extensive background in applied power conservation intellectual property along with battery electric propulsion systems. The company is driven to produce the most efficient, high-scaled production all electric vehicle. ZEV is currently in development of the Trident where these proprietary power generation techniques will be showcased in the OEMs first production vehicle in Q1 2022. ZEV has sought to be the first manufacturer apart of the EV 2.0 movement. ZEV is breaking down the barriers of adoption, inviting participation in the EV experiences of the future, and creating the infrastructure to bring EV solutions to all.

www.zeroevcorp.com

Shareholder Contact:

Shannon Kendall

[email protected]

832-643-3459

This news release contains "forward-looking information" (within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws) and "forward-looking statements" (within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Such statements or information are identified with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "potential", "estimate", "propose", "project", "outlook", "foresee" or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Such statements include the Company's expectations with respect to the capability, functionality, performance and cost of the Company's technology.

Such forward-looking information or statements are based on a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions which may cause actual results or other expectations to differ materially from those anticipated and which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, management's expectations regarding future growth, plans for and completion of projects by the Company's third-party relationships, availability of capital, and the necessity to incur capital and other expenditures. Actual results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including, without limitation, operational risks in the completion of the Company's anticipated projects, delays or changes in plans with respect to the development of the Company's anticipated projects by the Company's third-party relationships, risks affecting the Company's ability to execute projects, the ability to attract key personnel, and the inability to raise additional capital. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information or statements are reasonable, prospective investors in the Company's securities should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because the Company can provide no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward- looking information and statements contained in this news release are as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise this forward-looking information and statements except as required by law.

SOURCE Zero Electric Vehicles, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.zeroevcorp.com







MANZINI - Over 60 people, including 11 textile workers survived after the vehicles they were aboard were involved in accidents yesterday.

Three accidents were recorded yesterday in different locations.

The first one took place at Matsapha Industrial Site, at around 6:30am and it involved a Toyota Quantum which was loaded with textile workers, who were going to work, and another car, a Toyota Noah.

According to an eye witness, both vehicles were coming from Mathangeni direction, going towards His Majestys Correctional Services and the Toyota Quantum was following the Toyota Noah.

He claimed that the driver of the Toyota Quantum tried to overtake the Toyota Noah, only to find that it was also branching from the road to the right.

He also claimed that the driver of the Toyota Noah allegedly indicated late that he was branching to the right.

Crashed

As a result, the source said the Toyota Quantum tried to avoid knocking the Toyota Noah, but it hit it on the back before it veered off the road and crashed onto a tree.

Two of the textile workers, including the one who was sitting on the front seat, sustained some injuries and they were treated and discharged at a local hospital, the source said.

Thereafter, about an hour later, another car, which was driven by a man, who was travelling with a female passenger, was involved in accident at Mfabanutfu, along the MR3 Highway Road.

A source claimed that the driver of the car allegedly lost control of the vehicle and it plunged into a ditch.

The source said the driver escaped unharmed, while the female passenger sustained minor injuries and she was treated and discharged.

Later on, at around noon, a bus, which was coming from Nhlangano driving towards Manzini, was involved in an accident at the intersection at Mhlaleni in Matsapha.

The bus, which was carrying 46 passengers crashed onto a truck which was going towards Mbabane direction.

During the accident, the passengers and the occupants of the truck escaped unharmed, but the driver of the bus had to be rushed to hospital as he sustained some injuries. However, this publication gathered that he was discharged after being treated.

The police who were found at the scene did not want to reveal anything relating to who could have been wrong between the driver of the truck and the one for the bus. Instead, they said they had launched an investigation.

Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni confirmed all the three road traffic accidents. She said police were investigating them
In foster care, Foofur was mentored by a dog named Penny, McDonald said. Her Puppy Bowl segment was filmed in October, and Foofur was cleared for adoption shortly thereafter. She was quickly scooped by an Oak Park family that renamed her Rosie. They said shes doing great, McDonald said. Shes kind of won the puppy lottery. Shes got a yard to play in, loves to chase her ball and just go for long walks with the family. We were told that she has even won a Halloween costume contest and loves socializing with all her neighbor friends.
Atma Nirbhar Swasthya Bharat Scheme, the highlight of this budget, focuses on strengthening primary and secondary healthcare centres but doesn't mention persons with disabilities.

Some disability rights NGOs have expressed disappointment over differently-abled people being allegedly "neglected" in the 2021-22 Budget unveiled on Monday. Other than exempting senior citizens above 75 from filing ITR and easier dividend payout, the Budget has no specific mention of inclusion and schemes for persons with disabilities, they alleged. Arman Ali, the executive director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), said the Budget document talks about it being dependent on six pillars, one of them being inclusive development for aspirational India, but persons with disabilities have once again been "neglected".

"Year after year, disability sector sends its asks to the Govt of India but this time again these asks were not even mentioned. This budget was of utmost importance due to the ongoing pandemic as people have lost jobs and children have dropped out of schools because of the lack of facilities," he said.

Ali said the Atma Nirbhar Swasthya Bharat Scheme', which is the highlight of this budget, focuses on strengthening primary and secondary healtcare centres but has no word on persons with disabilities.

"However, we hope that all disabled people are included under the announced health schemes. The saddest part is that the budget document is still referring to the Persons with Disabilities Act,1995. We have entered into the 5th year of RPWD Act 2016 and yet, time and again, we have to remind the government about the latest laws on disability," he said.

The allocation for the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DePwD) has been reduced to 1,171.76 crore from 1,325.39 crore, with an approximate cut of Rs. 150 Crores, Ali said.

"As a sector, we are all disappointed and concerned about the future of persons with disabilities in our country," he added.

National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, in a statement, said it lodges its "strong protest" at the substantial reduction in budgetary support to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.

This substantial reduction of nearly 12 per cent will adversely impact various schemes and programmes that are being undertaken by the department, it said.

Meanwhile, civil society group DaDi DaDa Foundation (DDF) welcomed the government announcement to exempt elders from filing their income tax returns (ITRs).

DDF Director Muni Shankar Pandey said exempting older persons aged 75 years will help a large number of elderly people get rid of hassles faced during filing of income tax returns during a crucial phase of their lives.

In the Budget, the government also proposed a budget outlay of Rs 2,23,846 crore for health and wellbeing in 2021-2022, an increase of 137 per cent from the previous fiscal, with Rs 35,000 crore earmarked for COVID-19 vaccine in the upcoming financial year.

Pandey said, "This will address the health concerns of senior citizens. The government has time and again always cared about the makers and senior citizens of the country."

Dadi Dada Foundation is an organisation working for the welfare of senior citizens in India.
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New Delhi, Feb 2 : The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has welcomed the Budget proposal to impose 2 per cent extra tax on foreign e-commerce companies whether engaged in business of sale of goods or providing services, acceptance of offer for sale, placing of purchase order, acceptance of purchase order, payment of consideration or supply of goods and services partly or wholly.

As per a statement, it has also been clarified in the Budget that the tax will be applicable for consideration of sale of goods, irrespective of whether the provider owns the portal, and consideration of provisions of services irrespective of whether services are provided or facilitated by e-commerce operators.

The provision has been made in the Budget by proposing amendments to Section 163 sub clause (3), Section 164 clause (cb), Section 165 sub section (3) and clause (b) of The Finance Act, 2016.

The provision will be applicable retrospectively with effect from April 1, 2020. All such foreign companies which are engaged in sale of goods or providing services through any online mode will come under the purview of this provision and will have to pay 2 per cent extra w.e.f. from April 1, 2020.

It's a bold step taken by the government which has been heartily welcomed by the traders across the country, CAIT said.

National president of CAIT, B.C. Bhartia, and secretary general, Praveen Khandelwal, while appreciating the move, said that the proposal expands the definition of "online sale of goods" and "online provision of services", thereby eliminating all confusions regarding what could be the true definition of e-commerce in India.

CAIT has welcomed the conceptual construct of this provision even as it studies its fine print. The provision amply reflects the intent of the government to crackdown on the the unholy business practices of global e-trailers to monopolise and control Indian e-commerce and retail trade, CAIt said .

Bhartia and Khandelwal informed that the introduction of equalisation levy is meant to create a level playing field and to prevent circumvention of tax laws on the digital transactions.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations are also9 working on the issue, as there is a global consensus on bringing a mechanism to tax the digital economy adequately.

Though equalisation levy in India has undergone changes in 2020 from its introduction in 2016, certain changes have been introduced vide the Finance Bill, 2021
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. The UN has provided 2 million USD financial assistance to people displaced from in and around Nagorno-Karabakh and affected communities in Armenia, ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of the UN Armenia.

''The UN in Armenia quickly mobilized a response and from early October began complementing Government humanitarian support provided by ten priority municipalities as well as the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to those displaced. The UN system put in place a structure with five thematic working groups under the overall lead of the Resident Coordinators Office and with support from UNHCR, to coordinate efforts of the UN and humanitarian partners, working closely with Government and municipal authorities. The UN Armenia country team discussed the UNs support programme with Deputy Prime Minister Grigoryan and Foreign Minister Ayvazyan on 9 and 21 December respectively, noting the close partnership with the Government and the municipalities.

The UN together with its donor partners has provided support across a range of critical needs for those displaced and host communities', reads the statement.


China on Tuesday called for international actions conducive to Myanmar's stability instead of "intensifying conflicts and complicating the situation" after President Joe Biden threatened sanctions on Myanmar's military government that arrested the country's civilian leaders in a coup.

Biden assailed the country's army for the coup, calling it a "direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and rule of law."

The coup in Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been roundly condemned internationally.

Separately, at the Tuesday briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin refuted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's accusations on China of "falling far short of the mark" when it comes to giving access to WHO experts investigating into origin the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wang said that WHO experts team has given "positive evaluations" on China's cooperation and exchanges.

During an interview with NBC News, Blinken said China's lack of transparency was a "profound problem."

In response, Wang called on the U.S. to invite WHO experts to the U.S. to conduct the virus-tracing investigation so as to "maintain transparency," citing a CDC report that suggests the new coronavirus may have emerged in the U.S. as early as December 2019.

The WHO team, with expertise in veterinarian, virology, food safety and epidemiology, have visited two hospitals and two markets that were centers of the early outbreak as well as the CDC offices of the city of Wuhan and the province of Hubei.

Also, Wang hit back at Blinken's remarks on Hong Kong in the interview, saying the U.S. should "seriously reflect on and correct its wrongdoings" of publicly bolstering lawbreakers in Hong Kong and meddling in China's internal affairs.

Blinken said that the U.S. should accept people fleeing Chinese authority's political repression in Hong Kong, and accused China of acting "egregiously" by imposing the national security law in the city.

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)
Food Network star Duff Goldman and his wife Johnna have welcomed their first child, a daughter named Josephine.

Goldman, 46, shared a series of shots Monday of his adorable baby daughter, explaining his whirlwind of emotions on the day.

'I have no words to describe this blessing,' said the Detroit native. 'Her name is Josephine and she is the most beautiful thing Ive ever seen in the whole world.'

Momentous: Food Network star Duff Goldman, 46, and his wife Johnna, 27, welcomed their first child, a daughter named Josephine on Sunday

The TV pastry chef said his daughter was born Sunday and weighed eight pounds, two ounces, and measured at 21 inches long.

'Im so in love I cant stand it,' he said. 'Some friends have told me that the love Ill experience when looking at my daughter will be different than anything Ive ever experienced and they were totally right.'

The Ace of Cakes personality praised his spouse, 27, for her labor efforts, saying, 'My muffin was amazing and I am in awe of how strong and natural and intuitive she is. Shes a natural mom no doubt ... I have the two best ladies in the whole world.'

The new doting dad wrote about the goodies he prepares to make and the music he plans to play for his newborn daughter.

The TV pastry chef said his daughter was born Sunday and weighed eight pounds, two ounces, and measured at 21 inches long

The Ace of Cakes personality praised his spouse for her labor efforts, saying, 'My muffin was amazing and I am in awe of how strong and natural and intuitive she is;' the new mom gathered by her daughter on the momentous day

Too cute! The doting dad posted a shot of his newborn's feet

'I keep telling Josephine about all the wonderful things shes gonna get to try like pizza and candy and swimming and concerts and riding a bike,' he said. 'She already loves music.

He continued: 'Her first song was Ill Fly Away by Allison Krauss. She also likes James Brown, Led Zeppelin, and the Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra so well see where her musical tastes go.'

Goldman and his spouse got engaged in 2018, and wed in Los Angeles early the following year at the Museum of Natural History.

The couple announced they were expecting last summer in an Instagram post as Johnna wrote, 'Our biggest adventure yet! Mini Muffin expected January 2021!'

The new doting dad wrote about the goodies he prepares to make and the music he plans to play for his newborn daughter
Military members stand guard at a checkpoint manned with an armored vehicle in a road leading to the parliament building Naypyitaw, Burma, on Feb. 1, 2021. (AP Photo)

US Designates Burmas Military Takeover a Coup, Will Cut Foreign Aid

The United States on Tuesday designated the military takeover in Burma a coup, which will result in America cutting off aid to the country.

After careful review of the facts and circumstances, we have assessed that Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burmas ruling party, and Win Myint, the duly elected head of government, were deposed in a military coup on February 1, a State Department official told reporters on a call.

Suu Kyi, Burmas state counselor, was detained along with Myint, the countrys president, in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 1, according to military television.

President Joe Bidens administration continues pushing for the military to release them and other detainees immediately and unconditionally, the U.S. official added on Tuesday.

Labeling what happened a coup triggers restrictions on aid from the United States to Burma, though America already provides very little assistance as the government of Burma has been subject to restrictions in the past due to its human rights record.

Sanctions are possible, the State Department official said.

Burmas State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi leaves after paying her respects to her late father during a ceremony to mark the 73rd anniversary of Martyrs Day in Yangon on July 19, 2020. (Ye Aung Thu/Pool via Reuters)

Biden said in a statement early Monday that the militarys takeover in Burma are a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy and the rule of law.

The United States is taking note of those who stand with the people of Burma in this difficult hour. We will work with our partners throughout the region and the world to support the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, as well as to hold accountable those responsible for overturning Burmas democratic transition, he added.

The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action.

Suu Kyi won reelection in November 2020 but the military alleged this week that the election was tainted by fraud, prompting the takeover.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is in Southeast Asia adjacent to Thailand and India, among other countries. It has a population of around 54 million.

Suu Kyi was previously detained in 1988 after helping the National League for Democracy win a majority of Parliament seats. The military refused to adhere to the results and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for around two decades.
Lorraine Kelly has revealed Kate Garraway told her she has to 'keep going for the kids' as her husband Derek Draper remains in hospital after contracting Covid.

The Good Morning Britain host, 53, has often spoken candidly about her husband's ongoing fight and supporting their two children Darcey, 14 and William, 11, since he was diagnosed with the potentially deadly virus in March last year.

Speaking to OK! magazine, fellow ITV star Lorraine, 61, described Kate as 'incredible' amid 53-year-old Derek's health battle.

Support: Lorraine Kelly has revealed Kate Garraway told her she has to 'keep going for the kids' as her husband Derek Draper continues to battle Covid in hospital

She said: 'Honestly, she is the bravest girl. I don't know how she does it. We've known each other for years and I've always really liked her because, obviously, she's lovely but she is also a steel magnolia.

'She's been incredible. She says she's not doing anything anyone else wouldn't do but I'm not so sure about that. And of course, she says she's to keep going for the kids.'

Lorraine recalled interviewing Kate on her chat show about how she was dealing with Derek's prolonged stay in hospital.

The broadcaster said it reminded her how 'serious' Covid is and is also why she gets so angry with people who do not wear masks or believe conspiracy theories about the pandemic.

Ordeal: Kate, 53, has often spoken about her husband's ongoing fight and supporting their two children Darcey, 14 and William, 11, since he was diagnosed with the virus in March last year

She said: 'We were talking about Derek and I just wanted to give her a big cuddle. Because of what happened to her, it brought it home to all of us at work just how serious this is.'

Lorraine, who added that she suffers from 'imposter syndrome' said she thinks people should 'cut ourselves a bit of slack' during lockdown and not be too hard on themselves if they have lost their usual routine.

Speaking recently on the 5 Years Time podcast, Kate confessed that after months of uncertainty, she is still unsure if Derek will recover, but is continuing to hold out hope.

She explained: 'It's been really tough for us. Derek got really sick in the beginning of March...

Finally: Kate's children, daughter Darcey, 14 and son William, 11, finally got to visit their father in hospital in December (pictured in 2018)

'Even though we're hoping he can recover, it's taking a very, very long time. We don't know how much he can recover. So that's impacted on us obviously dramatically. So, it's been really difficult.'

Revealing that she had a more positive outlook this year, she added: 'Everybody is hoping 2021 will bring just a bit of hope and relief.

'The vaccine is here now, so everybody is hoping that will help Covid, I think, and help us regain some normality.'

Kate also noted that returning to work on GMB and hosting Smooth Radio has provided a welcome distraction amid her personal crisis.

Lorraine said: 'She's been incredible. She says she's not doing anything anyone else wouldn't do but I'm not so sure about that. And of course, she says she's to keep going for the kids'

While Derek no longer has coronavirus, the virus has left him suffering from multiple health conditions including diabetes and holes in his heart and lungs.

Back in September, he passed the grim milestone of becoming the longest patient battling coronavirus in hospital in the UK, with doctors telling Kate that Derek's infection was the 'highest they had seen in a patient who had lived'.

Although Derek continues to fight his illnesses, doctors have warned that he may 'never come out of a coma'.

Speaking on GMB last week, Kate's colleague Piers Morgan, 55, urged viewers to take the virus seriously and made the stark revelation that Derek remains in perilous condition.

Honest: Kate recently confessed that after months of uncertainty, she is still unsure if Derek will recover, but is continuing to hold out hope (Derek pictured with their children in 2019)

In his desperate message to viewers, Piers said: 'We know from our colleague Kate Garraway, whose husband is still in a coma from Covid. He may never come out of that coma. She's been told this, and it's heartbreaking.'

Just days before, Kate gave a heartbreaking update on her husband's ongoing battle with Covid-19, saying 'his body has been ravaged' by the virus.

Kate spoke to Piers and Susanna Reid about her upcoming book which will detail the last year of her family's life, admitting she's been feeling 'physically low and at the end of my tether' since Christmas.

'Derek's still ravaged from the effects of Covid from way back in March, his recovery is incredibly uncertain,' Kate explained.

Tough year: Kate will release a book about her struggle, The Power Of Hope, in April

She added that she's working with Derek's medical team to come up with new treatments but she's finding the scale of the current Covid death rate 'unbearable'.

'I'm trying to look for new things and new ways and talking to doctors about what we can do for him meanwhile people are still dying in extraordinary numbers - people that aren't older and haven't got underlying conditions, it's unbearable.'

She added to Piers that he inspired her to write her book The Power Of Hope after he told her to keep a diary since the early days of Derek's illness:

'You and Susanna say: "You're just an inspiration to keep going", and I thought if I could tell my story and some of the people that have helped me then maybe that will be helpful for people.'

Kate took to Instagram to share the front cover of her 'raw and emotional story', The Power Of Hope, about her husband's 'long fight'.

Kate told her followers Derek's 'journey is far from over' and the family are working out what their 'new future will look like'.

She wrote: 'Hello everyone - I've not been on here for a while as I've been taking time to gather myself and focus like everyone else on getting through this latest lockdown.

'The pandemic is far from over and so is Derek's journey but I have decided to share our story and what's helping to keep me going, as we all try to work out what our new futures will look like.

Health: While Derek no longer has coronavirus, the virus has left him suffering from multiple health conditions including diabetes and holes in his heart and lungs (pictured in 2019)

'I am really hoping that it will help you with all that you are going through.'

Derek has regained minimal consciousness from his medically induced coma and while he has not been speaking, he heartbreakingly mouthed the word 'pain' in October last year.

Kate's children finally got to visit their father in hospital in December.

She admitted the family reunion was 'heightened with emotion' because her children saw how Derek was 'very changed' by his battle with the virus.

She explained: 'It was very heightened with emotion, because he's very changed.

'So all the routines that we'd normally do, it was one of those moments that it was so wonderful but also it amplified how sad everything was. And how different it is.

'But it was still fantastic, and we're very grateful to have had that opportunity.'

Kate has been unable to see Derek due to new restrictions introduced during the third lockdown, which bans any visitors on the COVID-19 ward where he is recovering.
Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Brazilian counterpart, Ernesto Araujo, discussed on Monday ways to encourage more cooperation between the private sectors in both countries as well as the latest in the GERD dispute.

Shoukry and Araujo urged during a video conference cooperation between private sector companies in agriculture, medical and pharmaceutical research, as well as science and technology, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

They also agreed on enhancing commercial relations and investments between Egypt and the Mercosur, the South American trade bloc.

The two ministers also affirmed the need for cooperation between the two countries within the framework of the projects that Egypt is implementing in Africa in order to achieve the common good for African countries.

They also discussed the latest in the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the statement noted.

Shoukry stressed to his Brazilian counterpart Egypt's insistence on the need to reach a legally binding agreement on the filling and operating of the Ethiopian dam through engaging in serious talks without procrastination.

During the meeting, the two ministers also highlighted the strong relations Egypt and Brazil share at various levels, expressing keenness to intensify bilateral coordination on regional and international issues of mutual concern.

In 2018, trade exchange between Egypt and Brazil stood at $3.34 billion,according to a report released by the Egyptian Commercial Service (ECS).

In the same year, Egyptian exports to Brazil reached $260 million while Brazilian exports to Egypt stood at $1.54 billion in the same year.

The Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry states that 600 made-in-Egypt products exported to Mercosur countries are fully exemped from taxes, as part of the free trade agreement signed between Egypt and the South America trade bloc.

Short link:


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Oh no!

At 7:25 a.m. Tuesday, Punxsutawney Phil crawled out of his tree stump, looked around, saw his shadow and called for six more weeks of winter.

It was the 106th time he predicted more winter on Groundhog Day.

Not happy with the prediction? Dont worry. Staten Island Chuck, the boroughs weather-prognosticating groundhog, called for an early spring. (And he has a better track record.)

While tens of thousands of people traditionally travel to Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., to watch Phil, this years ceremony was closed to the public due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Instead, everyone watched on the Punxsutawney Groundhog Clubs website.

THE TRADITIONS ORIGINS

The Groundhog Day tradition can be traced to Candlemas, an early Christian holiday where candles were blessed and distributed. Those who celebrated Candlemas decided that clear skies on the holiday meant a longer winter.

The Germans eventually began to believe that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, a hedgehog would cast a shadow -- predicting six more weeks of harsh winter weather. And it was the Germans who brought this belief to the United States.

When German immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania, they found a large number of groundhogs. And they tasked the groundhog, which resembles a European hedgehog, with the job of predicting the weather.

The tradition was started by the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club in 1887. The editor of the Punxsutawney newspaper was a member of the club, and he claimed that Phil was the only true weather-predicting groundhog.
Twitter says a recent tweet by the Turkish interior minister describing Istanbul protesters as LGBT perverts violated the company's rules on hate speech.

Protests erupted last month after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan installed a loyalist to run the prestigious Bogazici University in Istanbul. The clashes with police escalated after protesters last week hung a poster on the campus that depicted Mecca  Islams holiest site  with rainbow flags.

As of Tuesday, Turkish authorities had rounded up more than 200 people for protesting Erdogans appointee, businessman Melih Bulu. Police in Ankara have arrested at least 69 people for taking part in solidarity protests in the Turkish capital.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey, but a lack of legal protections for LGBT individuals has led to discrimination and harassment, rights groups say. For the past five years, the Turkish government has banned the annual gay pride march in Istanbul, citing security concerns and more recently the pandemic.

Should we tolerate the LGBT perverts who insult the great Kaaba? Of course not. Should we tolerate the LGBT perverts who attempted to occupy the rectors building? Of course not, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu tweeted on Tuesday.

Shortly after he made it, Twitter added a warning label to Soylus post. Twitter stated that although Soylu violated the sites rules about hateful conduct, the tweet remains accessible, as viewing it may be in the public interest.

The protests come as Erdogans critics say the longtime leader and his religiously conservative Justice and Development Party have chipped away at the countrys secular tradition. Erdogan has previously accused LGBT activists of "poisoning" young people and made similar claims in a video broadcast to members of his ruling party on Monday.

"You are not the LGBT youth, not the youth who commit acts of vandalism. On the contrary, you are the ones who repair broken hearts, Erdogan said.

Since the failed 2016 coup, Erdogan has overseen a far-reaching clampdown on journalists, academics, human rights activists and other government critics for their alleged role in the coup attempt that left at least 250 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha also alleged that the increased barricading, including digging trenches, fixing nails on roads, setting up barbed wire fences, closing of internal roads, stopping of internet services and orchestrating protests through BJP-RSS workers are part of the attacks being organised by the government.  AP Photo

New Delhi: Refusing to budge, Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said on Tuesday that the farmers agitation may continue till October as the protesters are not going to return home until the three controversial agricultural reform laws are withdrawn by the government.

Soon after a delegation of Shiv Sena MPs, led by Sanjay Raut, met Mr Tikait at the Ghazipur border, the BKU leader said: Our slogan is kanoon wapsi nahi, to ghar wapsi nahi (Will not go back home until the laws are withdrawn). This agitation will not end before October it will not end anytime soon.

Speaking about the Republic Day violence, Mr Tikait claimed that the youth who hoisted the Sikh flag at the Red Fort had been allowed there by the authorities. All this was done to malign the image of the Punjabi community and paint the image of farmers as anti-national, he added.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella organisation of the protesting farmers unions, said there can be no formal talks with the government until the harassment by the police and administration stops and all the detained farmers are released.

A public interest litigation plea seeking a judicial inquiry into the cases relating to the Republic Day violence will come up before the Supreme Court Wednesday. The Delhi high court has already directed the Centre and the police to take action in accordance with the law on the FIRs filed in connection with the violence.

As the protest sites at Delhis borders are being fortified by the police with steel coils and cement barriers, the farmers claim the war-like preparations are an attempt to scare the protesters away and turn locals against them.

A large number of the protesting farmers, meanwhile, turned up at toll plazas on the national highways in Haryana. At the Landhri toll plaza, the farmers vowed to wage a long battle against the three agri laws. The protesters also blocked the Patiala-Jind-Rohtak-Delhi national highway to oppose the Internet restrictions in some parts of the state.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha also alleged that the increased barricading, including digging trenches, fixing nails on roads, setting up barbed wire fences, closing of internal roads, stopping of internet services and orchestrating protests through BJP-RSS workers are part of the attacks being organised by the government, police and administration against the farmers.

At an all-party meet in Chandigarh, Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh said it was painful to see the farmers losing lives while fighting for their rights. Cutting across party lines, the leaders tried to evolve a consensus on taking an all-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

AAP leader Bhagwant Mann demanded the setting up of a help desk at the Delhi border. He said the AAP government in Delhi would help the Punjab CM in case he decided to station himself in the national capital to mobilise political parties in support of the farmers agitation.
Guwahati, Feb 2 : With a recovery rate of 99.61 per cent, Arunachal Pradesh has topped among 28 states across the country in terms of Covid-19 recoveries.

According to the data released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday, besides Arunachal Pradesh, four other states -- Odisha (99.13 per cent), Bihar (99.09 per cent), Mizoram (99.09 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (99.05 per cent) -- have a recovery rate of above 99 per cent against the national average of 97.05 per cent.

According to the health officials, six other northeastern states - Nagaland (98.83 per cent), Tripura (98.78 per cent), Assam (98.66 per cent), Meghalaya (98.49 per cent), Manipur (98.25 per cent) and Sikkim (96.44 per cent) - also exceeded national recovery rate.

Another northeastern state Mizoram has earned the distinction of having the lowest death rate of 0.21 per cent among the 28 states in India while Punjab remained in the top position in Covid-19 moratality at 3.24 per cent against the national fatality rate of 1.43 per cent.

Sikkim's fatality rate of 2.22 per cent is the third highest in the country after Maharashtra's 2.52 per cent.

According to the Health and Family Welfare Ministry data, the mortality rate in six other northeastern states - Manipur (1.28 per cent), Tripura (1.17 per cent), Meghalaya (1.06 per cent), Assam (0.50 per cent), Nagaland (0.73 per cent) and Arunachal Pradesh (0.33 per cent) - are lower than the national average.

According to the officials of the Health and family Welfare Department of Assam, the state had reported its first death due to coronavirus on April 10. The first death in Assam, as well as in the northeastern region, was reported from Hailakandi district in southern Assam where a middle aged man, who had visited abroad, succumbed to Covid-19 at the Silchar Medical College and Hospital.

Mizoram was the lone state in India where there was no Covid-19 related death until October 28 last year when a 62-year-old man died of Covid-19 in the mountainous state even as the first death was reported in India on January 30, 2020.

The nationwide immunisation drive began across the country on January 16 after the approval of two Covid vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin, which have been cleared for emergency use by the authorities.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is the manufacturer of India's first indigenous vaccine for Covid-19 - Covaxin - while Covishield has been developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India in Pune.Over 39,50,000 people, mostly health workers, vaccinated so far.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Long derided as a bumbling seat-warmer, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is emerging as a ruthless strongman -- deflecting U.S. pressure; purging rivals; empowering his son, wife and trusted aides; and letting dollars flow to keep his battered economy from collapse.

The result is that the man thought to be the wan face of Chavismo -- the movement named for his magnetic predecessor, Hugo Chavez -- is now the robust head of what is increasingly called Madurismo.

"Maduro has been underestimated, including within Chavismo, and has managed to surprise and overcome his enemies inside and out," Caracas political analyst Dimitris Pantoulas said. "He's placed trusted people in the most influential positions, replacing those who could challenge his power."

Barring outside intervention, an increasingly remote possibility, Maduro is likely to remain at the helm in Venezuela for the foreseeable future. As he beds in, the nature of Madurismo is becoming clearer. A United Nations report last September referred to extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions, accusing the regime of "crimes against humanity" -- a charge the government rejected.

Following rigged elections in December, Maduro snatched the nation's congress --and last democratic body -- from U.S.-backed opposition chief Juan Guaido, naming right-hand man Jorge Rodriguez its new leader. Son, Nicolas Jr., and wife Cilia Flores both secured spots as lawmakers.

As Venezuela's economy shrank for a seventh straight year in 2020, the socialist leader fostered an unofficial dollarization and loosened his grip over the private sector. He allowed in more than $2 billion, some in the shape of a nascent luxury dollar economy, and others in remittances from the 5 million who have fled the nation, helping him maneuver around a U.S. embargo on his oil and a blockade of his nation's assets abroad.

He has done all this with approval ratings below 15%. His opponents are rapidly losing steam, with street demonstrations fading away despite the collapse of basic goods and services in a country that was once among the world's wealthiest. Oil exports, at all-time lows, are inching up again.

Allies like Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, sister to Jorge, are rising while challengers, including Diosdado Cabello, are sidelined.

A retired army lieutenant and former vice president who joined Chavez in a failed coup in 1992, Cabello led the all-powerful constituent assembly until Maduro ordered its dissolution last year. Cabello is now left with the largely symbolic role of second-in-command of the socialist party and its organizer in congress. Cabello didn't respond to a request for comment.

In the meantime, Nicolas Jr. was awarded control of the party's junior group, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Vice President Rodriguez has also been appointed finance minister, a rare dual role.

Others close to Chavez, such as former Education Minister Elias Jaua, have seen their careers thwarted. Jaua was walled off after proposing more democratic methods for decision-making and electing officials withing the party, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. He's now a university professor. He didn't respond to a request for comment.

Maduro is said to have also forcibly displaced Major General Miguel Rodriguez Torres, former justice minister and head of Chavez's intelligence police. He had him jailed in 2018, charged by a military court with treason and instigation to rebel after he criticized the government and created a rival party with Chavista roots, according to members of his party. He remains in prison in Fuerte Tiuna, the country's military headquarters.

Ruling party lawmaker Francisco Torrealba, who met Maduro while both worked in public transportation in the early 90s, acknowledges that many were skeptical of Maduro following Chavez's death eight years ago. "Today," he said, "No one doubts the great skills and political wisdom that the president has managed to develop."

Maduro has kept close key military allies, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, the longest standing official in his role.

"The military structure will always lean toward whoever controls the majority of the centers of power," said Javier Biardeau, a sociologist and professor at Venezuela's Central University.

Under Maduro, military leaders have won sizable government contracts and mining concessions as well as control over ports and the state oil company. Most recently, they've taken over gas stations nationwide as U.S. sanctions squeeze the country, which has the world's largest oil reserves, nearly out of gasoline, leading to endless lines where officers review credentials of drivers at the pumps.

Maduro's foreign backers, including China, Iran and Russia, continue to play a key role: helping sell millions of barrels of doctored Venezuelan heavy crude under disguise, shipping much needed fuel and goods in exchange for gold and even agreeing to send millions of Sputnik-V shots to immunize the nation.

While Guaido retains some global support, the opposition remains divided and bereft of ideas, weakening his stance as the showdown with Maduro drags on and as more opposition politicians are forced into exile, jailed or legally sidelined.

Even though previous attempts to negotiate a political end to the crisis have failed, a segment of the opposition is hoping to restart talks ahead of municipal and state elections this year.

The political change in the U.S. could also help Maduro. Donald Trump singled out Venezuela, and its alliance with Cuba and Nicaragua, for pressure. President Joe Biden is expected to seek some accommodation with Cuba. And while his top aides have made clear they consider Maduro to be a dictator, they have also indicated an interest in modifying some of the sanctions.
Virtual Vocations database of remote jobs grew 53% in 2020 over the year priorthe biggest jump in company history. Pre-pandemic remote work rates had been climbing year over year, but the acceleration seen in 2020 has pushed working remotely to a whole new level. Virtual Vocations CEO and co-founder Laura Spawn

A new report from one of the webs leading remote job boards outlines a year of record-breaking growth for remote workand paints a picture of what the digital workplace could look like in 2021 and beyond.

Citing company data and national remote work statistics, Virtual Vocations sixth annual Year-End Report breaks down the top industries, companies, and locations for remote jobs in 2020, and offers insight into the state of remote work as told by jobseekers and current working professionals.

According to the report, information technology (IT) reigned supreme for the fourth straight year in a row as the top industry for remote jobs. One in five openings posted to Virtual Vocations job board in 2020 came from the IT field.

Remote sales jobs, which had topped the chart as recently as 2015, fell to No. 3 in this years list of best industries, according to Virtual Vocations. Jobs in healthcare, education, and finance rounded out the top five.

The openings listed on Virtual Vocations job board are sourced from more than 15,000 remote-enabled employers, all hand-screened by the companys expert team. In 2020, over 460,000 jobs made the cut, an increase of 53% from the year priorthe biggest jump in company history.

But the record-breaking doesnt stop there. Virtual Vocations 2020 Year-End Report and Remote Jobs Statistics also highlights employers that led the pack with fresh work from home openings, including familiar faces like VocoVision, UnitedHealth Group, Stride, Inc. (formerly K12 Inc.), and Oracle.

Also earning spots in the top 10 were companies like Humana Inc., Parallon, PRA Health Sciences, and Anthem Inc., all of which operate in the healthcare sphere, whether through providing direct care, insurance, or business services to medical providers.

That these employers led in the number of jobs posted reflects the unique hiring circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. But though many companies used the opportunity to expand their hiring pools across the country, some jobs posted to Virtual Vocations database in 2020 were location-specific.

Of those, top locations for remote work in 2020 included California, Texas, and Florida, according to Virtual Vocations report. New York and Illinois also made the top five.

Released Monday, Virtual Vocations 2020 Year-End Report and Remote Jobs Statistics comes after what company CEO Laura Spawn called a year of unprecedented growth for remote work.

The past year has seen unprecedented growth in remote jobs due to the effects of COVID-19, Spawn said. Pre-pandemic remote work rates had been climbing year over year, but the acceleration seen in 2020 has pushed working remotely to a whole new level, and we expect that to continue to fuel growth at a faster pace in 2021.

Spawn also said Virtual Vocations is excited about the progress that has been made with employers who have accepted remote work as a viable option for their employees.

We anticipate the next year will bring even more opportunities for employees and employers alike to experience the advantages of remote work, she said.

To learn more about Virtual Vocations or view the companys full 2020 Year-End Report and Remote Jobs Statistics, visit: https://www.virtualvocations.com/blog/annual-statistical-remote-work-reports/2020-year-end-report-and-remote-jobs-statistics/

ABOUT VIRTUAL VOCATIONS

Founded in 2007 by CEO Laura Spawn and her brother, CTO Adam Stevenson, Virtual Vocations is a small company with a big mission: to connect jobseekers with legitimate remote job openings. To date, Virtual Vocations has helped more than two million jobseekers in their quests for flexible, remote work.

In addition to providing a database that houses more than 40,000 current, hand-screened remote job openings at any given time, Virtual Vocations offers jobseekers a number of tools to aid in their job searches, including exclusive e-courses and downloadable content, and resume writing services. Virtual Vocations also releases several data-driven reports each year on current trends in remote work.

Virtual Vocations, Inc. is a private, family-owned, and 100% virtual company incorporated in Tucson, Arizona.

PRESS INQUIRIES

Michelle Rawlings

michelle(at)virtualvocations(dot)com

1 (800) 379-5092 ext. 703

VirtualVocations.com
New financial investors, led by Motive Partners and Clearlake Capital, partner to create next-generation SaaS wealth solutions platform with InvestCloud

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- InvestCloud, an award winning global FinTech firm has completed a recapitalization that values the business at $1 billion. New financial investors are led by Motive Partners ("Motive") with Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. ("Clearlake") and include other InvestCloud client shareholders. Under the terms of the agreement, Motive Partners will also contribute two portfolio businesses, Finantix and Tegra118, into InvestCloud, creating a global Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") wealth solutions platform.

"The recapitalization achieves our first objective," said John Wise, InvestCloud's Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. "At a valuation of $1 billion, we can reward early investors in the business, while injecting new capital to fuel the next stage of our growth, further supporting our clients' needs. Crucial to our ultimate objective - which is to build the world's largest financial supermarket - is the partnership with Rob and the Motive team, Clearlake and the Tegra118 and Finantix businesses. Together with Cheryl, Christine and their exceptional teams, they enable us to accelerate our plans to build platforms serving the main markets in global wealth and asset management, each utilizing the proven SaaS design principles, architecture and data models of the InvestCloud platform."

John Wise continues, "Tegra118 has the largest integrated platform in the US, with fund sponsors (asset managers: 9 of the top 12 in the USA) connecting to distributors (wealth managers: 7 of the top 10 Broker Dealers in the USA) for financial products. Combining this with the Digital Platform of InvestCloud provides the best-in-class digital advice to Advisor Networks and Advisors. With our existing clients, InvestCloud will now build a worldwide financial supermarket using Tegra118 as the base. Finantix adds further strength in Europe and Asia - particularly in the private banking space - to fulfill our ambition to distribute the InvestCloud platform and our collective solutions globally."

"Huge forces are impacting the wealth sector," said Rob Heyvaert, Founder and Managing Partner, Motive Partners and Chairman of InvestCloud. "Whether it's demographics, democratization or disintermediation, the sector will change massively in years ahead. We believe the use of InvestCloud's cloud technology and platform with our existing assets (Tegra118 and Finantix) will determine the winners. This investment, and the commitment of two of our existing businesses and their exceptional talent, creates a global wealth platform provider that has proven technology with the ability to scale and serve the needs of our global clients and their customers through existing, new and hyper-personalized solutions."

"Wealth managers are faced with several operational complexities, including increased demand for tailored, diverse investment products as a result of the shift towards open banking," said Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and James Pade, Partner, of Clearlake. "We believe InvestCloud's leading software solutions, in combination with Finantix and Tegra118, uniquely position the company to address these trends and deliver significant value to its global customer base."

In addition to their established reputations, blue chip customer base and rich functional capabilities, the addition of the Finantix and Tegra118 businesses further establishes InvestCloud as a leader in the wealth and asset management marketplace. InvestCloud will now have in excess of $4 trillion of assets on its platform and revenues over $285 million, with a team of over 900 people and a truly global footprint, by adding locations and expert knowledge of continental European and Asian markets.

InvestCloud will now organize its business to serve clients through four distinct market opportunities for its unique and proven platform capability within the wealth and asset management arenas:

Wealth Advisor Platform - with over $2 trillion AUM already, the InvestCloud platform will continue to build upon its success in North America , the UK, continental Europe and Asia .





AUM already, the InvestCloud platform will continue to build upon its success in , the UK, continental and . Private Banking Platform - using the Finantix product as its core, InvestCloud will offer an international private banking platform using its proven technology.





Financial Supermarket - using the Tegra118 product (already $2 trillion AUM), and its extensive network of existing distribution relationships with asset managers, broker-dealers and custodians, InvestCloud will continue to build an international financial supermarket to connect manufacturers (asset managers) to distributors (wealth managers).





AUM), and its extensive network of existing distribution relationships with asset managers, broker-dealers and custodians, InvestCloud will continue to build an international financial supermarket to connect manufacturers (asset managers) to distributors (wealth managers). Custom Financial Platform - using the hyper-modular cloud platform, clients can truly design and build unique Intellectual Property (IP) using InvestCloud's design-first methods and AI PWP (Programs Writing Programs)TM to create cloud solutions.

John Wise is Chief Executive Officer of InvestCloud, and Rob Heyvaert (Founder & Managing Partner, Motive Partners) is Chairman. Cheryl Nash of Tegra118 will become the CEO of the Financial Supermarket division and Christine Mar Ciriani of Finantix will become the CEO of the Private Banking division. Both will join the global InvestCloud management team reporting to John Wise.

About InvestCloud

InvestCloud is a global company specializing in digital platforms that enable the development of financial solutions, pre-integrated into the Cloud. The company offers on-demand client experiences and intuitive operations solutions using an ever-expanding library of modular apps, resulting in powerful products. Headquartered in Los Angeles, InvestCloud has over 20 global offices including New York, London, Geneva, Singapore and Sydney, supporting trillions in assets across hundreds of diverse clients - from the largest banks in the world to wealth managers, asset managers and asset services companies.

For more information, visit InvestCloud.com.

About Motive Partners

Motive Partners is a specialist private equity firm with offices in New York City and London, focusing on control-oriented growth equity and buyout investments in software and information services companies based in North America and Europe and serving five primary subsectors: Banking & Payments, Capital Markets, Data & Analytics, Investment Management and Insurance. Motive Partners brings differentiated expertise, connectivity and capabilities to create long-term value in financial technology companies.

More information on Motive Partners can be found at www.motivepartners.com

About Clearlake

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a leading investment firm founded in 2006 operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake's operational improvement approach, O.P.S. The firm's core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has approximately $25 billion of assets under management and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 200 investments. The firm has offices in Santa Monica and Dallas.

More information on Clearlake can be found at www.clearlake.com and on Twitter @ClearlakeCap.

InvestCloud Media Contact:

Sarah Mason

Metia Group

+44 (0) 3100 3613

Sarah@Metia.com or to InvestCloudUK@Metia.com
Myanmar protesters living in Japan raise their fists and shout slogans during a demonstration as they show a picture of Myanmar's army chief Min Aung Hlaing with his face crossed out after a military coup in their home country, Tokyo, Feb. 1, 2021.

A grouping of Southeast Asian nations needs to pressure Myanmar and kick it out of the bloc if military leaders there dont end the coup they launched this week, an association of MPs from across the region said Tuesday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, other Asian nations such as Japan and China, and the West need to stop saying nice things about reconciliation in Myanmar and take concrete action, said Charles Santiago, chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

ASEAN should have a high level delegation visit Myanmar in the next days to put pressure on it to return the government back to Aung San Suu Kyi  to impress [upon them] that the coup is not acceptable and very inconsistent and it violates ASEAN principles and the ASEAN charter, Santiago, a lawmaker from Malaysia, told an online news conference with other pro-democracy groups, referring to the civilian leader of the Myanmar government.

[I]f Myanmar does not turn around, I think there should be proceedings to expel Myanmar out of ASEAN.

Santiago acknowledged that ASEAN nations were divided in their individual responses to the coup, with Cambodia, Thailand, and, initially, the Philippines, saying the development was an internal matter of Myanmar. Notably, all three countries have a history of coups.

Santiago is a member of the opposition in Malaysia, which has an unelected government and is under its first national emergency in more than five decades.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, expressed serious concern about Mondays coup in the fellow ASEAN state. And the kingdom of Brunei, as chair of ASEAN this year, urged a return to normalcy in accordance with the will and interests of Myanmars people.

Manila, however, changed its tune on Tuesday, and also expressed worries about the military coup in Myanmar.

The Philippine government is following with deep concern the developing situation in Myanmar, and is especially concerned with the safety of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Fortify Rights, a Southeast Asian group, called on the United Nations Security Council to impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar and refer the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party won 396 seats in parliament while the army-affiliated Union Solidarity and Development Party won 33 in general elections in November.

Early on Monday, Myanmars military arrested Suu Kyi and other senior leaders, then declared a one-year state of emergency to deal with allegations of voting fraud tied to the general election three months ago.

On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said it had assessed that the elected government in Myanmar was deposed in a military coup a day earlier. Therefore, the United States would now review foreign assistance to the Myanmar government, the department said.

Coup an ASEAN problem

Non-interference in member countries domestic affairs is a foundational principle of ASEAN, so unless the coup directly affects member nations, the bloc is unlikely to take any action against Myanmar, said Mohammad Hasan Ansori, research director at the Habibie Center, an Indonesian think-tank.

Indonesia or any other ASEAN member countries cannot intervene or apply strong pressure. It doesnt work that way, Hasan told BenarNews.

In fact, even though Indonesia on Monday urged Myanmar to implement the ASEAN Charters principles  including a commitment to democratic principles  it must not say or do much more, said Hikmahanto Juwana, a professor in international law at the University of Indonesia.

For now, its not advisable for Indonesia to make a statement that could be perceived by the coup government as interfering, he told BenarNews.

The blocs non-interference policy doesnt apply to the coup in Myanmar because the military takeover there had wider, regional ramifications and needed to be addressed by the blocs member-nations, Santiago, the Malaysian MP, said.

This is not interfering because Myanmars problem will become an ASEAN problem  because countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand will now have more refugees coming to those countries and this could pose a security problem for those nations, he said.

Meanwhile, as of December 2020, there were more than 150,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from Myanmar registered with UNHCR, the refugee agency of the United Nations, in Malaysia, the agency said. They comprise 102,250 Rohingya, 22,410 Chins and 29,360 other ethnic groups from conflict-affected areas or fleeing persecution in Myanmar, according to UNHCR.

An estimated 600,000 Rohingya people remain in Myanmars Rakhine state, including some 126,000 who are effectively confined to camps or camp-like settings established in 2012, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday.

In addition, more than 100,000 people from various communities remain displaced by conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army in Rakhine and Chin states, OCHA said.

Humanitarian access to more than a third of these displacement sites remains cut off, OCHA said.

Fears for Rohingya in Rakhine

The Rohingya in Myanmar are very fearful about what will happen next in Myanmar, said Wai Nu, director of the Womens Peace Network and a Rohingya activist.

What is going to happen in the ethnic areas and where the conflict is ongoing? ... Mostly in the camps they are very fearful of what will happen to them next, what will be their future, Nu said at the press conference with Santiago.

There has been no progress over several years, but with this military coup, they are more frustrated about accountability processes, justice, and peace for the future.

The U.N. General Assembly president on Tuesday echoed the U.N. spokesmans worries about the Rohingya still in Myanmar.

I am deeply concerned that the military coup in Myanmar could further exacerbate the problems of the most vulnerable, including Rohingya Muslims. I condemn the coup once again and call for unrestricted humanitarian access to Rakhine State and other parts of the country, said Volkan Bozkir said on Twitter.
Regarding Students get a lesson in subtle white privilege (Open Forum, Jan. 30): I disagree with Ingrid Seyer-Ochis lesson about Sen. Bernie Sanders being an example of white privilege. Sanders did not dress in his finest outfit as the other elites on stage, instead he dressed with his mittens like most of the people in the audience dressed for these events. Sanders is cold and a lot older. How does that manifest privilege?

Sanders has spent some 60 years fighting against white privilege for the benefit the less privileged. As a high school student, he campaigned for aid for Korean orphans and organized fundraising events. He protested police brutality in the early 1960s. He abhorred the student housing segregation policies of the University of Chicago and worked on a successful campaign that ended 50 years of student segregation.

He then went after segregation of Chicagos public school system, which lead to him being arrested during a demonstration. Bernie was active in the early civil rights era and marched on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr.

The depth of his involvement with minority communities is further demonstrated by the early support he got from Jessie Jackson for several of his early political campaigns. He is still going nonstop. I only wish he had a matching knitted cap on his head.

John Radogno, Rohnert Park

Smart to dress warmly

The author feels that Sen. Bernie Sanders was underdressed at President Joe Bidens inauguration, and that his attire was an expression of white privilege.

On the contrary, dressing warmly for an outdoor occasion in mid-January Washington, D.C., displays a refreshing practicality and lack of pretensions. Perhaps those who demand adherence to a dress code of expensive or expensive-appearing business suits or of luxurious designer dresses should not be too self-righteous in their condemnation of a status quo.

Patrick Rooney, Santa Cruz

Not a valid example

I am completely baffled by the Open Forum essay by Ingrid Seyer-Ochi. Applying my inquiry skills, I fail to see why Sen. Bernie Sanders was the target of her piece as an illustration of white privilege. He is an older man, sitting outside in freezing weather in the Capitol, hence the parka and mittens. Its possible that he was sitting alone because he wasnt invited to sit with others on the platform.

He has spent his entire life fighting white supremacy and privilege, as demonstrated by his arrest for fighting against segregated housing while a college student in Chicago. At this very moment, he is fighting for working families and those unfairly suffering from this pandemic due to no fault of their own.

All ethnicities are included. He is advocating for emergency health care coverage, relief checks and paid sick leave, among many other helpful provisions. The subtle white privilege must be so obscure as to be nonexistent. We all must fight white supremacy, however Sanders at the inauguration is not a valid example of the deeply rooted struggle.

Adina Haun, San Francisco

Scrap S.F. school board

I attended San Francisco public schools long enough in the past that I remember a school board that was appointed, not elected. It functioned much like a municipal commission and did a pretty decent job, without politics or ideological agendas.

In light of the travesty of school renaming and the abrogation of admission criteria to Lowell High School, I propose doing away with an elected school board in favor of an appointed body.

Members can be appointed by various stakeholders, such as the mayor, Board of Supervisors, teachers, students and families.

Each member would serve for a specific term and be subject to yearly evaluation by the appointing entity to ensure fidelity to educational objectives and the best interests of SFUSD students. Board members should also be prohibited from running for public office while they are serving on the board.

The crisis of the current lockdown has presented an opportunity: Scrap the current group of incompetents doing damage to public education in our city and move governance to those who will serve only to further the integrity of our schools.

Frank Kurtz, San Francisco

Clueless decision

Regarding Renaming S.F. schools doesnt erase history of bigotry (Letters, Jan. 31): The author stated, Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the renaming of public schools is that it has been done by educators.

Sorry, but the actual fact is that almost all decisions made in the U.S. that involve setting goals and providing direction in education are made by lay people who are not educators. Unlike more advanced and successful educational systems as in Finland, Singapore, Denmark and South Korea, where decisions are made by educators, and master teachers earn as much or more than principals, our boards of education are mostly comprised of non-educators, who collectively give entirely new meaning to the word clueless.

Though they may have a college degree in another field, that doesnt mean they know how to educate our youth any more than saying just because theyve had a hip surgically replaced qualifies them to be an orthopedic surgeon.

After half a century as an honored teacher, I know of no real educator who would be wasting time and resources on renaming San Francisco schools at this critical time. There are too many far more important priorities.

Larry Lack, Novato

Lesson in humility

All jobs require some kind of training to receive employment. It would be good to require politicians that vote on legislation to be given a $20 dollar bill and a sleeping bag and require that they spend one week living in the streets like many people do for years. After this training, perhaps politicians would not stall on passing a bill that is beneficial to people that need help.

Gene Van Dyke, Carmel Valley

Failure to motivate

The San Francisco Unified School District boards plan to permanently make Lowell a lottery admission school is reprehensible and anti-American.

Mark Sanchez said in October it was only due to a temporary emergency. Lie detector test anyone? They gave two days warning in October after discussing the matter for several months.

Lowell students sacrifice 10,000 hours more than average over a childhood studying, reading and memorizing, proving their content-of-character by rejecting TV and other wasted time. They now want to punish them because someone, no one knows if its a student or someone anywhere in the world, said something racist on a blog. Isnt that like making 200 guys run 5 miles in Army basic training because one guy hid a jelly doughnut or didnt make his bed?

Collective or blood guilt shouldnt exist in the U.S. The board should be ashamed Black and Latino kids in San Francisco score far lower than the Black and Latino U.S. averages.

Ive met African American kids who spent 13 years in SFUSD who didnt know Black immigrants from over 30 African nations earn more than whites within a generation by studying far more hours.

The school boards supposed to motivate these kids to work hard in school. The boards failed us all.
The @Highland office building at the corner of Bluebonnet Boulevard and Highland Road. Plans are in the works to add a second building to the development, which could include as many as 240 apartments along with office and commercial space.
Vietnam's Communist Party on Sunday reelected Nguyen Phu Trong to be its chief, the state Vietnam News Agency reported.

His selection makes him the nation's de facto leader for a third five-year term.

The vote at the 13th National Party Congress in Hanoi took place a day earlier than planned, as the meeting, scheduled to end Tuesday, was being shortened to lessen the threat from a coronavirus outbreak, which last week spread to the capital city.

Vietnam is a single-party Communist state, so party leaders almost automatically assume leadership of the government, though debates can take place within the party's bodies and the legislature.

The 1,587 delegates at the congress were selected in a process that began at the party's grassroots.

The newly-elected 200-member Central Committee selected Trong as general secretary and head of the 18-member Politburo, the highest-ranking party body.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
MELVILLE, N.Y., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Professional Physical Therapy, a leading provider of outpatient physical therapy and rehabilitation services throughout New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, announces today the acquisition of a new clinic in Warwick, NY, formerly Optimum Physical Therapy.

In its commitment to expand availability and access to care for their patients, this acquisition allows for residents in upstate New York to receive the quality of care Professional is known for.

"With this acquisition into Orange County, Professional Physical Therapy continues to expand our brand, increase our density in the Northeast, and provide outstanding service to the patients in the Warwick, New York community. Rick Rutkowski and the Optimum Performance team have a well-established business that we are honored to partner with and grow with. The cultures of our organizations are mutually aligned around putting patients first. We look forward to accelerated growth and providing access to top tier patient care by challenging limits to transform lives," states Dan Dourney, CEO of Professional Physical Therapy.

Jeffrey De Bellis, Vice President of Operations in New Jersey, of Professional Physical Therapy adds, "I am very excited to welcome the entire team at Optimum to the Professional Physical Therapy family. Rick and his staff bring a rich history of clinical excellence that strongly compliments our commitment to the same. We could not ask for a better group to partner with to kick off our growth plans in Orange and Rockland County New York."

Samantha Dziuba will be staying on the team as the Clinical Director of the new Warwick, NY location, sharing, "Having been here for 7 years already, I look forward to growing it further. It's exciting to expand everything we have to offer."

Professional Physical Therapy currently operates widely across five of the Northeast states. For more information and a list of all Professional Physical Therapy locations and services, please visit http://www.professionalpt.com.

About Professional Physical Therapy

Professional Physical Therapy, headquartered in Melville, New York, is a leading provider of outpatients physical and hand therapy and rehabilitation services throughout the New York Metropolitan area, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Professional's patient-centric treatment philosophy is focused on providing exceptional, compassionate care to the entire person, and not just their injury. Their licensed Physical Therapists design customized treatment plans, using the most innovative therapeutics, to help patients achieve and exceed their goals. Service offerings include telehealth, in-home physical therapy, and outpatient physical, hand, and occupational therapy in over 180 clinics throughout the Northeast.

SOURCE Professional Physical Therapy

Related Links

https://www.professionalpt.com/


Just as pressing a guitar string produces a higher pitch, sending laser light through a material can shift it to higher energies and higher frequencies. Scientists have discovered how to use this process to explore quantum materials in more detail.

Topological insulators are one of the most puzzling quantum materials - a class of materials whose electrons cooperate in surprising ways to produce unexpected properties. The edges of a TI are electron superhighways where electrons flow with no loss, ignoring any impurities or other obstacles in their path, while the bulk of the material blocks electron flow.

Scientists have studied these puzzling materials since their discovery just over a decade ago with an eye to harnessing them for things like quantum computing and information processing.

Now researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have invented a new, hands-off way to probe the fastest and most ephemeral phenomena within a TI and clearly distinguish what its electrons are doing on the superhighway edges from what they're doing everywhere else.

The technique takes advantage of a phenomenon called high harmonic generation, or HHG, which shifts laser light to higher energies and higher frequencies - much like pressing a guitar string produces a higher note - by shining it through a material. By varying the polarization of laser light going into a TI and analyzing the shifted light coming out, researchers got strong and separate signals that told them what was happening in each of the material's two contrasting domains.

"What we found out is that the light coming out gives us information about the properties of the superhighway surfaces," said Shambhu Ghimire, a principal investigator with the Stanford PULSE Institute at SLAC, where the work was carried out. "This signal is quite remarkable, and its dependence on the polarization of the laser light is dramatically different from what we see in conventional materials. We think we have a potentially novel approach for initiating and probing quantum behaviors that are supposed to be present in a broad range of quantum materials."

The research team reported the results in Physical Review A today.

Light in, light out

Starting in 2010, a series of experiments led by Ghimire and PULSE Director David Reis showed HHG can be produced in ways that were previously thought unlikely or even impossible: by beaming laser light into a crystal, a frozen argon gas or an atomically thin semiconductor material. Another study described how to use HHG to generate attosecond laser pulses, which can be used to observe and control the movements of electrons, by shining a laser through ordinary glass.

In 2018, Denitsa Baykusheva, a Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow with a background in HHG research, joined the PULSE group as a postdoctoral researcher. Her goal was to study the potential for generating HHG in topological insulators - the first such study in a quantum material. "We wanted to see what happens to the intense laser pulse used to generate HHG," she said. "No one had actually focused such a strong laser light on these materials before."

But midway through those experiments, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the lab shut down in March 2020 for all but essential research. So the team had to think of other ways to make progress, Baykusheva said.

"In a new area of research like this one, theory and experiment have to go hand in hand," she explained. "Theory is essential for explaining experimental results and also predicting the most promising avenues for future experiments. So we all turned ourselves into theorists" - first working with pen and paper and then writing code and doing calculations to feed into computer models.

An illuminating result

To their surprise, the results predicted that circularly polarized laser light, whose waves spiral around the beam like a corkscrew, could be used to trigger HHG in topological insulators.

"One of the interesting things we observed is that circularly polarized laser light is very efficient at generating harmonics from the superhighway surfaces of the topological insulator, but not from the rest of it," Baykusheva said. "This is something very unique and specific to this type of material. It can be used to get information about electrons that travel the superhighways and those that don't, and it can also be used to explore other types of materials that can't be probed with linearly polarized light."

The results lay out a recipe for continuing to explore HHG in quantum materials, said Reis, who is a co-author of the study.

"It's remarkable that a technique that generates strong and potentially disruptive fields, which takes electrons in the material and jostles them around and uses them to probe the properties of the material itself, can give you such a clear and robust signal about the material's topological states," he said.

"The fact that we can see anything at all is amazing, not to mention the fact that we could potentially use that same light to change the material's topological properties."

Experiments at SLAC have resumed on a limited basis, Reis added, and the results of the theoretical work have given the team new confidence that they know exactly what they are looking for.

###

Researchers from the Max Planck POSTECH/KOREA Research Initiative also contributed to this report. Major funding for the study came from the DOE Office of Science and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Citation: Denitsa Baykusheva et al., Physical Review A, 2 February 2020

(10.1103/PhysRevA.103.023101)

SLAC is a vibrant multiprogram laboratory that explores how the universe works at the biggest, smallest and fastest scales and invents powerful tools used by scientists around the globe. With research spanning particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, materials, chemistry, bio- and energy sciences and scientific computing, we help solve real-world problems and advance the interests of the nation.

SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
(Newser)  Police in Oregon can no longer arrest someone for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone, and other drugs as a ballot measure that decriminalized them took effect on Monday. Instead, those found in possession would face a $100 fine or a health assessment that could lead to addiction counseling, the AP reports. Backers of the ballot measure, which Oregon voters passed by a wide margin in November, hailed it as a revolutionary move for the US. "Today, the first domino of our cruel and inhumane war on drugs has fallen, setting off what we expect to be a cascade of other efforts centering health over criminalization," said the head of the Drug Policy Alliance, which spearheaded the ballot initiative. Ballot Measure 110's backers said that treatment needs to be the priority and that criminalizing drug possession was not working. Having a criminal record makes it difficult to find housing and jobs and can haunt a person for a lifetime.

story continues below

Two dozen district attorneys had opposed the measure, saying it was reckless and would lead to an increase in the acceptability of dangerous drugs. Under the new system, addiction recovery centers will be tasked with "triaging the acute needs of people who use drugs and assessing and addressing any ongoing needs thorough intensive case management and linkage to care and services." The centers will be funded with millions of dollars of tax revenue from Oregon's legalized marijuana industry. That diverts funds from other programs and entities that already receive it, such as schools. While this approach is new in the US, several countries, including Portugal, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, have decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs, according to the UN. Portugals 2000 decriminalization brought no surge in drug use. Drug deaths fell while the number of people treated for drug addiction in the country rose 20% from 2001 to 2008, then stabilized, Portuguese officials have said.

(Read more decriminalization stories.)
Holly Willoughby's mother Linda has received the coronavirus vaccine.

During Tuesday's episode of This Morning, the host, 39, revealed her mum had text her to confirm she had received the jab, much to Holly's relief.

Before Holly delivered her news, it was announced that 9.3million Britons have now received their first dose after No10 promised to vaccinate 13.9million of the most vulnerable by mid-February, in order to begin easing lockdown restrictions.

Sweet: Holly Willoughby's mother Linda has received the coronavirus vaccine

Holly said: 'I've got a good bit of news today! My mum has just had her vaccine, she just texted me. Shes in the over 70 category, so she got the call. So that is a relief. It's incredible isn't it, it's really amazing."

She has been candid over the past year about missing her mother and in May last year she shared a snap and lamented not being able to hug her mum.

She wrote: 'Happy birthday to my beautiful mumma... miss you so so much...Can't wait to cuddle you again... love you."

Prior to her announcement, Holly took to social media to share a rare family snap as she posed for a selfie with her son Chester, whose face was covered.

Happy days: During Tuesday's episode of This Morning, the host, 39, revealed her mum had text her to confirm she had received the jab, much to Holly's relief

Happy days: She revealed the news on This Morning

The star is mum to Harry, 11, Belle, nine, and Chester, six, with her husband Daniel Baldwin and while she seldom shows her kids, she gives snippets to her followers.

To celebrate Children's Mental Health Week, Holly posed with Chester while reading her school friend Hannah Peckham's book Conker the Chameleon.

In the caption, she revealed she had bonded over Hannah due to their dyslexia and admitted she was feeling emotional at the thought of their friendship.

She wrote: 'Today is a very important day for one of my oldest friends... we met on our first day of school and eventually moved into our first flat in London together... weve been through a lot!...

Sweet: To celebrate Children's Mental Health Week, Holly posed with Chester while reading her school friend Hannah Peckham's book Conker the Chameleon

'Probably something that bonded us hugely was the fact we are both dyslexic... thats why this post is even more special and writing this I feel very emotional...

'if I could go back and tell my school friend that on the 2nd of February 2021 to mark the begin of Children's Mental Health Week, she would publish her 1st book...

'Im not sure shed believe it possible... you did it Hannah... so so proud of you... its a beautiful and important book. One that helps open the conversation with your little ones about how to talk about their emotions... we all need that right'.
PTI

Farmers have given a call for a nationwide agitation on February 6, a week after clashes erupted between farmers and police personnel in Delhi on India's 72nd Republic Day. Read more

Here's more top news of the day:

1) Doctors On Hunger Strike Over Govt's Move To Allow Ayurveda Practitioners To Perform Surgery

Twitter

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) members and doctors of modern medicine have started a relay hunger strike from Monday at over 50 places across the country. Read more

2) 'Aatmanirbharta' Is Oxford's Word Of The Year For Hindi In 2020

TOI

Oxford has named 'Aatmanirbharta' implying self-reliance as its Hindi word of the year 2020 as it "validated the day-to-day achievements of the countless Indians who dealt with and survived the perils of a pandemic". Read more

3) Build Bridges, Not Walls: Rahul Gandhi Advises Govt Over Turning Delhi Borders Into Fortresses

Twitter

After pictures of Delhi Police digging roads and plastering nails on streets went viral on social media in light of ongoing farmers' protests, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi advised the government to 'build bridges and not wall'. Read more

4) As Iran Link Emerges In Israel Embassy Blast, NIA Takes Over The Probe

BCCL

A letter that was addressed to the Isreal Embassy in New Delhi, outside which a minor blast took place on Friday is leading investigators to look for foreign hands in the incident. Read more

5) Maharashtra Horror - 12 Kids Given Hand Sanitiser Drops Instead Of Polio Vaccine

PYI

In what can be called a huge case of negligence, 12 kids in Maharashtra were given hand sanitiser drops instead of oral polio vaccine drops in a village in Yavatmal district, according to an official as per a report in PTI. Read more
Head of the National COVID Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV), doctor Valeriu Gheorghita, announced on Tuesday that 574,544 people are scheduled to receive the priming vaccine dose and 931.331 are appointed for the booster shot between February 3 - April 14.

"Of the total number of appointments, 104,832 were booked via call center, 170,129 - through family doctors and attending physicians, 78,642 were made personally, directly on the appointment booking platform, and 278,637 via employers, through legal entity accounts," Gheorghita told a press conference.

According to the CNCAV president, of the 948,149 doses of BioNTec Pfizer vaccine received by Romania, 784,109 were distributed across the country and 164,040 doses were still in stock at the regional centers as of February 2.

Dr. Gheorghita informed that the next shipment of BioNTech Pfizer vaccine, of about 163,800 doses, is expected to arrive on February 8.

As many as 36,000 doses of Moderna vaccine had arrived in Romania in two installments as of Tuesday. "The current stock is of 36,000, and starting with February 3, ie tomorrow, the first 26,210 doses will be distributed to the storage centers," Valeriu Gheorghita explained, adding that immunization with the Moderna serum starts on February 4.

The head of the national vaccination program also said that 1,826 doses (0.24 percent) of the total of 784,109 had been lost as of January 31 either due to damaged vials, incorrect reconstitution or deviation from the temperature requirements for the optimal stability of the vaccine.
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STOCKHOLM, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Elkem has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Vow ASA's wholly owned subsidiary Vow Industries with the aim of reducing fossil CO2-emissions from the production of silicon and ferrosilicon products for the global market.

The two companies will join competence and technology solutions to develop and manufacture biocarbon and other products for Elkem's production processes. The biocarbon will be produced at Vow Industries planned plant at Follum, outside Oslo in Norway, from a sustainable feedstock comprised of forestry wood mass, wood waste and other wood materials.

"Elkem is one of the world's leading companies in the environmentally responsible manufacturing of advanced material solutions, and we believe that sustainability is increasingly a competitive advantage. Using climate-neutral renewable biocarbon instead of fossil reduction agents is a key part of our sustainable production strategy. Through our activities in biocarbon, like this exciting cooperation with Vow Industries, we aim to secure long-term access to low-cost, high-quality renewable biocarbon to replace fossil material, and further improve our competitive position for the sustainable future. Our long-term goal is to achieve carbon-neutral production," says CEO of Elkem, Michael Koenig.

Elkem already uses close to 20 per cent biocarbon in its production in Norway and the company is working towards increasing this to 40 per cent by 2030. Elkem also sources 83 per cent of its of electricity consumption from renewable energy. The company recently received an "A" rating by CDP, ranking among the world's leading companies on climate transparency and action.

Vow Industries' planned plant will initially produce around 10.000 tonnes of biocarbon, that can easily be scaled up to more capacity when needed. Vow Industries plans to build, own and operate the plant, which will become the centre of a new circular and sustainable industrial cluster at Follum.

In addition to its efforts in Norway, Elkem is involved in a range of biocarbon projects around the world. This includes work to develop competitive and sustainable sources of biocarbon as well as longer-term R&D projects. The company is currently constructing a new biocarbon pilot plant in Canada. In 2019, Elkem's plant in Paraguay achieved 100 per cent biocarbon of the reduction materials in its production of ferrosilicon as a pioneer plant in Elkem and the advanced materials industry.

For more information:

Odd-Geir Lyngstad, VP Finance & Investor Relations

Tel: +47 976 72 806

Email: odd-geir.lyngstad@elkem.no

Fredrik Norman, VP Corporate Communications & Public Affairs

Tel: +47 918 66 567

Email: fredrik.norman@elkem.no

About Elkem

Founded in 1904, Elkem is one of the world's leading suppliers of silicon-based advanced materials with operations throughout the value chain from quartz to specialty silicones, as well as attractive market positions in specialty ferrosilicon alloys and carbon materials. Elkem is a publicly listed company on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker code: ELK) and is headquartered in Oslo. The company has more than 6,700 employees with 31 production sites and an extensive network of sales offices worldwide. In 2019 Elkem had revenues of NOK 22.7 billion. To learn more, please visit www.elkem.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/elkem/r/elkem-signs-new-agreement-for-norwegian-biocarbon,c3277572

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California prison officials and medical staff sparked a public health disaster with their botched handling of prisoner transfers to San Quentin and Corcoran state prisons last year, the states Office of Inspector General said in a blistering report Monday.

Prison operators also failed to contain the disaster after inmates starting falling sick from coronavirus infections, the report said. The OIG is responsible for oversight and monitoring of the states correctional system.

The 60-page report said executives from California Correctional Health Care Services pressured officials at the California Institute for Men in Chino to rush the medical screenings of 189 incarcerated people before transferring them to Corcoran State Prison and San Quentin State Prison.

The report examined the transfers of 189 medically vulnerable inmates from the California Institute for Men in Chino in May, when that prison was experiencing a widespread COVID-19 outbreak. The department transferred 67 people to Corcoran (Kings County) on May 28 and May 29, and 122 people to San Quentin on May 30.

Within weeks, people transferred in both groups started testing positive for the virus. The outbreak at San Quentin was especially dire: of 122 inmates sent there, 91 ultimately tested positive. Two died of complications from COVID-19, the report said.

During the transfers, packed buses did not allow for distancing, the report found, and once an outbreak started at San Quentin, the prison was not equipped to quarantine prisoners or trace their contacts.

The report said that efforts by prison officials to prepare for and execute the transfers were deeply flawed and risked the health and lives of medically vulnerable incarcerated persons ... as well as the thousands of other incarcerated persons and staff at Corcoran and San Quentin.

In a joint statement on Monday, prison operators and prison health officials said the transfers were done with the intent to mitigate potential harm to inmates from COVID-19, and were based on scientific information they had at the time.

We have acknowledged some mistakes were made in the process of these transfers, and both (state corrections officials and prison health administrators) have made appropriate changes to patient moving since that time, the statement said. These changes include increased testing, the use of designated isolation and quarantine spaces, and the enhanced use of personal protective equipment when indicated.

Of the 189 prisoners, 172 were not tested for the coronavirus for at least two weeks before they were moved, the report found.

The decision to transfer the medically vulnerable incarcerated persons despite such outdated test results was not simply an oversight, but a conscious decision made by prison and CCHCS executives, the report said.

Prison nurses warned superiors about the outdated test results before the transfers, according to the report. In a May 27 email to an unnamed medical executive at the California Institute for Men, a nurse asked whether there was a procedure to retest prisoners with outdated results.

No reswabing (sic), the executive replied.

Some inmates told the OIG that others displayed symptoms of the virus during the bus ride.

The OIG obtained emails showing prison health executives ignored directives that limited capacity on the buses to 19 people  half of the typical capacity. In an email, one unnamed CCHCS medical executive said, We would be OK with a larger group with face coverings.

The benefit of a more rapid move in this specific situation appears to outweigh the risks, the medical executive said.

Concerns about the medical conditions of the inmates started soon after their arrivals.

San Quentin nursing staff immediately noticed two people who were transferred had symptoms of COVID-19. Prison health officials put the symptomatic inmates in cells with solid doors, but the rest were placed in units without solid doors, which allowed air to flow freely between cells, the report said.

Likely because the unit did not allow for the proper quarantining of those incarcerated persons, the virus spread quickly, both to the other incarcerated persons who transferred from the California Institute for Men, as well as to the 202 other incarcerated persons housed in the same unit, the report said.

In total, 28 people incarcerated at San Quentin and one staff member have died from complications of COVID-19.

The outbreak at Corcoran, the report said, was less severe, which the OIG attributed to the facility being a modern prison with a design better suited for quarantining and isolating prisoners. Officials there were able to place all incoming prisoners in cells with solid doors. Only two of the 67 inmates transferred to Corcoran tested positive.

The OIG was tasked by the California Assembly with assessing the prison systems policies and directives in response to the coronavirus crisis. Mondays report is the third in the series of reviews. Two others examined the prison systems screening efforts and distribution of protective equipment.

State Inspector General Roy W. Wesley said in the report that prison officials have taken multiple actions to better safeguard prison transfers, but the OIG did not give details.

Michael Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: michael.williams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michaeldamianw
The appeal going out from the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and the government bureaucracy to boost the efficiency of state-owned companies might be considered a kind of cynical joke. Unfortunately, it is not. Rather, it is a well-crafted plan.

The dictatorship needs Cubans to depend on the state and, inevitably, the poorer they are, the more dependent they will be. Generals and colonels do not want state-owned companies to disappear because they are already preparing to seize the least obsolete ones for themselves.

This is what they plan to do when Castro II, Machado Ventura and the remaining commanders of the "historical" old guard step off the stage.

But it is one thing to prevent state companies from collapsing, and then turn them into private companies, and another is to tell Cubans that state companies are the key to economic development.

Thus arises the brutal paradox that while the centerpiece of the regime's Tarea Ordenamiento legislation is a kind of harsh "neoliberal" shock therapy, at the same time it constitutes a huge leap back in time, to the 1960s, when Fidel Castro and "Che" Guevara, after Sovietizing the economy and creating the Stalinist "consolidated companies, claimed that "the future belongs entirely to socialism."

Today, entering the third decade of the 21st century, Marino Murillo, in charge of administering this shock therapy, makes the same plea: "more responsibility is demanded from the state business sector to seek efficiency", as under the latest directives they are "called upon to be more competitive and creative." Has he no shame?

This demand is exactly the same as the one made by the Argentine commander as Minister of Industry when he bitterly scolded those heading up the companies under that super-ministry (encompassing all the country's industries). I was an eyewitness to this scolding, in 1964, at a large meeting at the MININD with Minister Guevara, which I attended on behalf of Cubatex, under the Ministry of Foreign Trade.

Except for North Korea, with its Communist monarchy, Cuba is the only other country among the 35 constituting "real socialism" in the 20th century that maintains the state-owned company as "the cornerstone of the national economy", as proclaimed by the current Constitution and is reiterated in the Tarea Ordenamiento. In China and Vietnam the Communist parties that remain in power today got rid of economic statism.

Raul's regime, in contrast, insists on doing the same thing over and over again, holding out hope for different results, something Einstein called the best definition of insanity.

Even Lenin realized that statism was disastrous

The architect of the world's first Communist state realized that what was starving millions of people in Russia was land collectivization, and that the shortage of consumer goods was due to the nationalization of industry. Thus, in March 1921 he launched his New Economic Policy (NEP), authorizing free production and trade by peasants. Thousands of private companies were created in every economic branch, even heavy industry, such as steel, oil, coal, etc.

Famine and scarcity quickly disappeared. The Bolshevik leader had planned for the NEP to be provisional, but it took firm root in the Russian economy until Stalin seized power and ripped it out. State companies were restored as absolute monopolies in every sector of the economy, and peasants were re-enslaved by the state. As a result, in just nine years (until 1937) 12 million people died of hunger, according to historians.

Returning to Cuba in 2021, Havana calls the economic adjustment measures in the world's democratic countries "savage capitalism," while the PCC insists that the state-owned company is the panacea, ensuring abundance in Cuba. It does not make any sense.

It does not add up because, in reality, no one in the dictatorial leadership really believes in the state-owned company. Proof of this is that the military, the true powerholders on the island, are now successful businesspeople controlling a massive capitalist corporation. In other words, when it comes to doing business and acquiring foreign money, the traditional Communist state enterprise is considered useless, a nuisance.

The generals, colonels and "historic" commanders and their relatives have already privatized and seized those sectors that are economically viable and generate cash for them (tourism, retail trade, foreign trade, banking and finance, biotechnology, mining, the Port of Mariel, beaches, civil aeronautics and airports, merchant shipping, etc.)

To the civil bureaucracy they left nothing but the scraps: obsolete state industrial plants, and then instructed it to feed, clothe and provide transport for everyday Cubans with them. It is a peculiar kind of socialism under which the military comprises a capitalist mafia that seizes the money entering the country and does not even stand accountable to the government or the PCC. The bank accounts of these "Marxist revolutionaries" in Switzerland, Panama and New Zealand, hidden by fronts, are bursting.

On top of all this, these millionaire military men, their children and grandchildren own thriving private businesses abroad, and also in Cuba. They are organically grouped into GAESA, a giant capitalist corporation that is as transnational and "imperialistic" as General Electric, Nestle, Volkswagen, Sony Corporation, or any other of the corporations that appear on Fortune magazine's annual list.

How can this cadre of affluent elites have the nerve to tell Cubans today that the socialist state enterprise is the best in the world if they know full well that it is unworkable, and, in fact, downright disastrous?

The official insistence on statism is, in fact, not ideological or socialist at all. Rather, its objective is to prevent the growth of a thriving private sector in Cuba that might compete with the military's corner on corporate capitalism. They want to get richer and richer, and enjoy lives including annual vacations in Europe.

No autonomy for "Che" Guevaras state-owned companies

When, commissioned by Castro I, "Che" Guevara a self-confessed admirer of Stalin and Mao set up the Communist economic model, he did not apply the system of economic calculation that had existed in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin, but rather the Stalinist budgetary system based on a strict state monopoly in every economic branch and centralized control of all economic activity across the country.

"Che" rejected the Soviets' reform of economic calculation, which he considered a disguised expression of capitalism because, among other things, it granted state companies a degree of autonomy. They decided on the ranges to produce, and the investments to be made, and obtained a percentage of the profits. For Guevara, this was a betrayal of Communism.

Six decades later, Castro II continues to refuse to give state companies true autonomy. Even the former economy minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez, states today, without blushing, that the autonomy of state businesses was one of the factors that brought down the Soviet Union.

A leader of a state company in Holguin (who asked to remain anonymous) asked an independent journalist: "How are you supposed to produce more with equipment that is increasingly obsolete, when you can't even change it or consume more energy?"

The interviewee added: "We in management cannot decide practically anything, despite what they say. We only have autonomy on paper," explaining that any kind of new equipment or type of production that is necessary cannot be acquired or adopted because it is out of their hands. Everything is rigorously controlled and centralized by the State.

It is an insult to Cubans that the PCC continues to portray the state company as the solution to the country's development. The corpse of socialism was buried in the Kremlin's walls by its own architects. We have heard enough lies from those scheming to get even richer when Cuba's state companies are finally all theirs.
Lead Franklin Templeton is joined by Fidelity and new strategic investors AWS, CapitalG, and Salesforce Ventures; Current strategic investor Microsoft also participated

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Databricks , the Data and AI company, today announced a $1 billion investment in response to the rapid global adoption of its unified data platform. The Series G funding, led by new investor Franklin Templeton, puts Databricks at a $28 billion post-money valuation. Franklin Templeton is joined by other new investors including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Fidelity Management & Research LLC, and Whale Rock, along with new strategic investors Amazon Web Services (AWS), CapitalG and Salesforce Ventures. Existing investors participating in the round include Microsoft, Andreessen Horowitz, Alkeon Capital Management, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Coatue Management, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and Tiger Global Management.

"We see this investment and our continued rapid growth as further validation of our vision for a simple, open and unified data platform that can support all data-driven use cases, from BI to AI," said Ali Ghodsi, CEO and Co-Founder of Databricks. "Built on a modern lakehouse architecture in the cloud, Databricks helps organizations eliminate the cost and complexity that is inherent in legacy data architectures so that data teams can collaborate and innovate faster. This lakehouse paradigm is what's fueling our growth, and it's great to see how excited our investors are to be a part of it."

This funding will accelerate Databricks' innovation and allow the company to scale and support the rapid adoption of the lakehouse, which is quickly becoming the data architecture of choice for data-driven organizations around the world.

"Franklin Templeton is excited to work with Databricks as they enter this next stage of their impressive journey. We've seen first hand their ability to help enterprises leverage data to better understand customer journeys, operationalize business processes and, ultimately, build competitive advantage rooted in data. We believe they have a strong, accomplished team and visionary platform, and believe that the future for Databricks is bright, with a clear leadership position and open-ended growth opportunity," said Jonathan Curtis, Senior Vice President, Research Analyst and Portfolio Manager, Franklin Templeton.

"Azure Databricks continues to be an impressive solution that brings the latest advances in open, flexible and scalable data and AI capabilities to our customers," said Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Cloud + AI, Microsoft Corp. "Our investment underscores the vision we share with Databricks of simplifying data and AI for our customers. Together, we will continue to build on the success of Azure Databricks and seamless integrations across Azure data services to enable cloud-scale analytics and AI on Azure."

Other existing and new investors that participated in this funding round include: Discovery Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Founders Circle Capital, Geodesic, GIC, Green Bay Ventures, Greenoaks Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Octahedron Capital.

About Databricks

Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 5,000 of organizations worldwide  including Comcast, Conde Nast, Nationwide, H&M, and over 40% of the Fortune 500 rely on Databricks' unified data platform for data engineering, machine learning and analytics. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe. Founded by the original creators of Apache Spark, Delta Lake and MLflow, Databricks is on a mission to help data teams solve the world's toughest problems. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter , LinkedIn and Facebook .

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A new cross-border body should be established to police customs to ensure goods are compliant with EU rules, the Ulster Unionists have said.

The proposal aims to solve some of the problems posed by the Northern Ireland Protocol to the supply chain from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

The protocol meant that to avoid a hard Irish border, Northern Ireland remains in the EU single market for goods and also applies EU customs rules at its ports.

That has led to well-publicised problems getting some goods into Northern Ireland.

Now the UUP have outlined "a number of practical measures and legislation to remove barriers" currently being faced by local businesses and consumers.

UUP leader Steve Aiken said the proposals "are an attempt in good faith to provide possible solutions and start a conversation around how we bring an end to the barriers being faced by businesses and consumers".

"The Northern Ireland Protocol continues to pose serious challenges to the economic and constitutional integrity of the UK," he said.

"We urgently need to see derogations put in place."

He added: "Consumers in Northern Ireland cannot continue to be penalised, so a way forward must be found."

Mr Aiken said the "farcical scenes on Friday when the EU triggered Article 16 and then spent the days since rowing back from their actions" shows there is "a need for real change" around the protocol.

"This provides an opportunity for both sides to take a fresh look and to come up with solutions that will serve Northern Ireland in the long-term free from the charade that either side holds this place in higher esteem than the other," he added.

The paper calls for the establishment of an all islands compliance body' "within the existing North/South and East/West structures".

The UUP said it believes "it could resolve the issues with onward supply and EU customs officials at NI ports and other Irish Sea and airports".

According to the paper, the newly created body could provide a dual function of education and enforcement to ensure compliance with EU rules.

"Not only could it provide an educational role on the island of Ireland ensuring manufacturers understand requirements on goods and the components of goods and their transport in the Single Market, they could also carry out visits to premises and depots across the Island to ensure goods are compliant with EU Single Market Rules," the paper said.

It added: "Having a body that can operate seamlessly across these islands could be a pragmatic solution to the current situation of rotating customs officials from different EU nations."

The UUP also said an additional treaty with the EU/Republic of Ireland might be necessary.

"A new cross-border body will require an amendment to the existing 1999 treaty setting up the current six bodies. Involvement of the EU in such a treaty might be appropriate to give it confidence that arrangements were going to be honoured in a legal context," the paper said.

"Furthermore, some modest devolution from Westminster to Stormont may be required to facilitate these new arrangements."
Bengaluru, Feb 2 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday said it has filed a supplementary charge sheet against three people, including former Karnataka minister and Congress leader Vinay Kulkarni, in connection with its probe into the murder of BJP leader Yogesh Gowda.

A CBI official here said that the agency filed a supplementary charge sheet against Kulkarni, who is a former MLA from Dharwad, his relative Chandrashekhar Indi and Shivananand Birdar.

The official said that during probe the alleged role of three persons in the conspiracy was revealed. He said that all three of them are presently in judicial custody.

The official said, "It was alleged that the Kulkarni had personal enmity and political rivalry with Gowda, who had declined the request to step back from contesting the Zilla Panchayath (ZP) election in 2016." "Investigations revealed that Kulkarni allegedly conspired with his close associates and in pursuance thereof, one of his associates agreed to execute the murder," he said.

The official also said that a land deal was entered by the accused and a purported land dispute was portrayed as a motive for the murder. The CBI has recovered three country-made pistols, which were allegedly used in the crime.

CBI investigation revealed that an associate of the said accused arranged another accused from Bangalore and they visited Dharward on two occasions. They allegedly committed the murder on the second attempt and fled after the commission of crime.

Gowda, a Zila Panchayat member, was murdered on June 15, 2016 in a gym in Saptapur in Karnataka's Dharwad. The agency took over the probe on the recommendation of the Karnataka government on September 24, 2019.

In June last year, the CBI had examined Pandu Rangrane (the then retired Commissioner Hubli, Dharwad), Jinendra Khanagavi (the then DCP Dharwad and presently SP Security Division Bengaluru), and Mallikarjun Baladandi (the then DCP Crime and Traffic Dharwad and presently Additional SP Haveri).

The CBI has earlier identified and arrested eight other accused -- Santosh Savadatti, Dinesh M., Sunil K.S., Harshith, Aswath S., Nazeer Ahamad, Shanawaz, Nutan K.S. -- and also filed a charge-sheet on May 20 last year.

The Karnataka Police which has registered the earlier, has also charge sheeted six persons in the case in September 2016 -- Basavaraj Muttagi, Vikram Ballari, Keerthi Kumar, Sandeep Savadatti, Vinayak Katagi, and Mahabaleshwar Hongal alias Mudaka -- all residents of Dharwad.

According to the CBI, Gowda ran a gym in Dharwad and was a friend of Basavaraj Shivappa Muttagi, the prime accused, for the last 10 years, both with different political inclinations. Gowda came to know about a land purchase deal by Muttagi. As per the CBI, Gowda had threatened Muttagi that he should not purchase the land as it was under his custody and if he still proceeded, he would kill him.

Gowda was, however, killed in his gym by accomplices of Muttagi, who first sprinkled chilli powder on his face before hacking him to death.
While speculating on an early Australian election is a biannual event for tragics, the only person with an actual clue is the Prime Minister and even he might not have made up his mind. Right now, the argument for Scott Morrison calling an election after August looks compelling; by August it might look like suicide.

This year, as last (and apparently as ever), events will decide political fates and defy expert predictions. The ranks of those now confidently asserting the government will go to the polls early and cant lose the next election are swelled by the battalions who were adamant it couldnt win the last. And hands up who circled 2020 in the diary for a pandemic?

Harold Macmillan was once asked by a journalist to reflect on what most troubled him as British Prime Minister.

The twin challenges faced by Morrison this year are the same as last: COVID-19 and China. Anthony Albaneses problems all sit behind him in Parliament.

Morrison knows the risks. His National Press Club speech put suppressing the virus and rolling out the vaccine at the top of his agenda. But keeping the disease in check is largely down to the states capacity to manage hotel quarantine. Western Australia has proved, again, that this is a fragile frontline and perhaps the only certainty of this year is that we can expect more breakouts.

On the upside for the Prime Minister, his hopes for suppression are helped by the risk tolerance of most premiers being set at zero. One case is now considered enough reason to shutter cities and slam shut state borders. The politics are hard to fault because, so far, voters have put a premium on safety and embraced the zero-tolerance approach.

On the downside, if lockdowns were a vaccine they would never win Therapeutic Goods Administration approval. The long-run effects of dislocation, isolation, the loss of education and the disproportionate suffering of the poor make it the 21st century equivalent of ship surgery.

Lockdowns have already exacted a price that cannot be measured in dollars or over the short term and the yo-yo imprisonment of cities will eventually cripple communities economically and psychologically. It is also more than a little disturbing to see how quickly the premiers have embraced authoritarianism with the full-throated support of progressives and activist media. Freedoms lost are not easily returned and every dictator ever born claims s/he is only acting to keep the people safe, especially from themselves.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 23:37:47|Editor: huaxia

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VIENTIANE, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Lao government has instructed local authorities to carefully monitor people entering Laos and quarantine returning workers to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control under the Lao Ministry of Health, Phonepaserd Sayamoungkhoun, told a press conference on Tuesday that local authorities must closely monitor borders to prevent the illegal entry of Lao laborers returning from neighboring countries, in a bid to avoid a second wave of COVID-19.

People entering Laos, especially returning workers, will be sent to quarantine centers for 14 days to prevent people from bringing the virus to the country.

All people at quarantine centers must have their temperature checked every day.

On Monday, a total of 2,600 people entered Laos through international border checkpoints. Of these, 1,281 people crossed the border with Thailand.

A total of 41 people entered Laos from China, while 1,119 people entered Laos from Vietnam, and 159 people entered Laos via the Wattay International Airport in the Lao capital Vientiane.

At all border crossings, the temperature of each person entering Laos was checked and no one showed signs of fever.

The National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control said it was monitoring 2,588 people at 33 accommodation centers across the country.

As of Tuesday, Laos has tested 104,212 suspected cases with 44 cases testing positive, and 41 patients have recovered.

Laos detected its first two COVID-19 cases on March 24 last year. Enditem
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The Egyptian Government has extended its staunch and unconditional support to the dignity, independence, sovereignty and unity of the Sri Lankan nation in the face of mounting internal and external pressures.

The message of support was reiterated by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi as he extended his greetings to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the people of Sri Lanka on the country's 73rd Independence Anniversary.

"I take this good opportunity to express my appreciation of the bilateral relations binding our two friendly countries, affirming that I look forward to promoting them in all domains for the best interest of our two friendly peoples," President Sisi stressed.

The full text of the message of greetings reads as follows:

H.E. Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka;

On the occasion of celebrating the Independence Day of your friendly country, it gives me immense pleasure to convey to Your Excellency and your people my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes.

I take this good opportunity to express my appreciation of the bilateral relations binding our two friendly countries, affirming that I look forward to promoting them in all domains for the best interest of our two friendly peoples.

Dear Mr. President, please accept my sincere wishes for the best of your well-being and for the progress and prosperity of the people of Sri Lanka.

Highest consideration and appreciation.

The Egyptian Government noted that Egypt was the first Arab and African country to establish diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka in 1957. "Bilateral relations are currently experiencing a surge across many fields as both countries are cooperating and working together to overcome the diverse challenges presented by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Even during these difficult times, bilateral trade has gathered in momentum while the two countries are pursuing enhanced cooperation on several other fronts following the first round of bilateral political consultations held between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Egypt and Sri Lanka in Cairo on 12 December 2019. Subsequently, EgyptAir, the national flag carrier of Egypt commenced direct cargo flights between Cairo and Colombo from October 2020, while the inauguration of direct passenger flights between the two countries is also in the pipeline," the release noted.

"Egypt is also a traditional friend of Sri Lanka in international fora, especially in extending its staunch and unconditional support to the dignity, independence, sovereignty and unity of the Sri Lankan nation in the face of mounting internal and external pressures," the embassy added.
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Three Individuals Affiliated With the Oath Keepers Indicted in Federal Court for Conspiracy to Obstruct Congress

Columbia, Ohio - Three individuals associated with the Oath Keepers, a paramilitary organization focused on recruitment of current and former military, law enforcement, and first responder personnel, were indicted today in federal court in the District of Columbia for conspiring to obstruct Congress, among other charges.

Jessica Marie Watkins, 38, and Donovan Ray Crowl, 50, both of Champaign County, Ohio; and Thomas Caldwell, 65, of Clarke County, Virginia, were indicted last week in federal court in the District of Columbia on charges of conspiracy, obstructing an official proceeding, destruction of government property, and unlawful entry on restricted building or grounds, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  371, 1512, 1361, and 1752. Watkins and Crowl were arrested on Jan. 18; Caldwell was arrested on Jan. 19. All three individuals originally were charged by criminal complaint. The maximum penalty for Obstructing an Official Proceeding is a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

According to the charging documents, Watkins, Crowl, and Caldwell communicated with each another in advance of the Jan. 6, 2021, incursion on the U.S. Capitol and coordinated their attack. Watkins, Crowl, and Caldwell are all affiliated with the Oath Keepers, while Watkins and Crowl are also members of the Ohio State Regular Militia. Watkins claimed to be a commanding officer within the Ohio State Regular Militia in a social media post.

According to the indictment, the three defendants initiated their communications and coordination in November 2020 and continued through on or about Jan. 19, 2021, when Caldwell was arrested. The exchanges vary in topics from a call to action to logistics, including lodging options, coordinating calls to discuss the plan, and joining forces with other Oath Keeper chapters. On Dec. 31, 2020, Caldwell posted, THIS IS OUR CALL TO ACTION, FREINDS! SEE YOU ON THE 6TH IN WASHINGTON, D.C. ALONG WITH 2 MILLION OTHER LIKE-MINDED PATRIOTS. In a subsequent post on Jan. 2, 2021, Caldwell stated, It begins for real Jan 5 and 6 on Washington D.C. when we mobilize in the streets. Let them try to certify some crud on capitol hill with a million or more patriots in the streets. This kettle is set to boil

According to the criminal complaint filed on Jan. 19, on Jan. 6, the three documented their participation and whereabouts in or around the U.S. Capitol on social media. Caldwell posted messages on Facebook such as, We are surging forward. Doors breached[.] and at 3:05 p.m. posted just, Inside. Watkins posted photos of herself, and with Crowl, on her Parler account and captioned a photo by stating, Me before forcing entry into the Capitol Building. #stopthesteal2 #stormthecapitol #oathkeepers #ohiomilitia. Subsequently, she posted a video of herself inside the Capitol captioned, Yeah. We stormed the Capitol today. Teargassed, the whole, 9. Pushed our way into the Rotunda. Made it into the Senate even. The news is lying (even Fox) about the Historical Events we created today.

In addition to the communication via Facebook and Parler, the FBI obtained an audio recording of Zello communications between Watkins and other suspected Oath Keepers during the Capitol incursion on a channel called Stop the Steal J6. As alleged in the indictment, in one transmission Watkins stated, We have a good group. We have about 30-40 of us. We are sticking together and sticking to the plan. An unknown male responds, Well see you soon, Jess. Airborne. Following the U.S. Capitol incursion, Watkins and Crowl each interviewed with the media. During the interviews, both confirmed membership of the Oath Keepers.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia and the National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section, Department of Justice. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorneys Offices for the Southern District of Ohio and Western District of Virginia. The case is being investigated by the FBIs Washington Field Office and the Cincinnati Division, Dayton Joint Terrorism Task Force, with assistance by the FBIs Richmond Division.
[February 02, 2021] ATB Ventures Steps Up Its Investment in Deep Technology With Strategic Investment in Radical Ventures

CALGARY, AB, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ATB Ventures , the innovation arm of leading Alberta-based financial institution ATB Financial, is making a strategic investment in Radical Ventures to advance ATB's innovation efforts in applied AI and machine learning. Toronto-based Radical is a leading AI-focused venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs applying artificial intelligence to transform industries including financial services, healthcare and smart cities. Alongside ATB, investors in Radical's US$325 million fund include Canada's largest pension fund CPPIB and PSP Investments. As AI continues to play a critical role in shaping the economy, collaborating closely with Radical means ATB can increase its partnerships and future acquisitions of emerging technology companies. Although the pandemic has disrupted businesses across the board, AI-driven innovations and applications are being developed and adopted at an unprecedented rate. "At ATB, we are building, investing and partnering with different technologies to keep Alberta and ATB at the forefront of the digital economy," said Curtis Stange, President & CEO of ATB Financial. "This means leveraging partners like Radical who are investing in startups that have deep technological expertise to offer our customers personalized and innovaive services."



ATB continues to cement its position in the startup ecosystem and remains committed to supporting the talent pipeline of STEAM professionals in the province. Effective partnerships and connections to firms like Radical ensure that ATB and Alberta-based AI-startups continue to grow and compete, globally. Beyond the strategic benefits of the partnership, ATB's investment in Radical also strengthens an important connection building on the growth and success of Alberta's tech and venture capital ecosystem.

"We're in the midst of a transformative moment. The research coming out of Amii and Alberta's AI ecosystem has the capacity to shape the future of our economy," said Jordan Jacobs, co-founder and managing partner of Radical Ventures. "Like ATB, we believe smart, patient capital with deep expertise in this space will play an important role in commercializing and transforming massive industries and building world-changing companies." About ATB Financial With $54.9 billion in assets, ATB Financial is an Alberta-built financial institution that is a catalyst for economic growth in our province. We got started in 1938 to help Albertans through tough economic times. Today, ATB's more than 5,000 team members love to deliver exceptional experiences to nearly 800,000 customers through our many branches and agencies, our 24-hour Client Care Centre, four entrepreneur centres, and our digital banking options. Everything we do is focused on how we can serve Albertansfrom providing expert advice and supporting entrepreneurs to helping Albertans buy a home and grow their wealth. About ATB Ventures Launched in 2020, ATB Ventures is a diverse team of entrepreneurs, technologists, and data scientists who are seeding growth at the edges of innovation and exploring opportunities beyond financial services. ATB Ventures turns inventions into commercial reality by building, partnering and investing in technology to create the marketable products and services of tomorrow. We harness emerging trends to keep ATB, its customers and Alberta at the forefront of innovation. About Radical Ventures Created by AI founders for AI founders, Radical Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in people applying artificial intelligence to transform massive industries. Radical invests in enterprises shaping the future of how we live, work and play. From healthcare and financial services to infrastructure and manufacturing, Radical partners with entrepreneurs who understand the transformational power of AI. Learn more at www.radical.vc. Media Contact:

Natalie Mounier

Zen Media

290141@email4pr.com

702-204-1530 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/atb-ventures-steps-up-its-investment-in-deep-technology-with-strategic-investment-in-radical-ventures-301219393.html SOURCE ATB Ventures

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Shipping containers have been converted into overflow morgues for the dead in South Africa, where a mutant variant of coronavirus has driven a second spike.

As mortuaries reached capacity, the country's largest undertakers, AVBOB, distributed 22 refrigerated shipping containers to its funeral homes.

Coffins marked 'highly contagious' line the inside of the containers, where AVBOB employees work in protective Hazmat suits.

A more infectious variant of Covid-19 known as 501Y.V2 has become South Africa's dominant strain and has spurred a resurgence of the virus since the first peak last year.

The new variant has caused concern globally and spooked some governments into imposing hard border measures on South African arrivals.

But cases inside the nation have started to fall and restrictions are gradually being eased - sales of alcohol have resumed, the nighttime curfew has been reduced and public parks and beaches have been allowed to reopen.

Shipping containers have been converted into overflow morgues for the dead in South Africa, where a mutant variant of coronavirus has driven a second spike

But cases inside the nation have started to fall and restrictions are gradually being eased - sales of alcohol have resumed. Pictured: Customers enjoy wine and food in Bottega Cafe, in Parkhurst, Johannesburg

Coffins marked 'highly contagious' line the inside of the containers, where AVBOB employees work in protective Hazmat suits

South Africa has had more than 1.4million confirmed cases, including 44,399 deaths, representing more than 40 per cent of all cases reported across the African continent of 1.3billion people.

As AVBOB marshalled shipping containers to store the dead, marketing manager Marius de Plessis said: 'If you compare the number of funerals that we are dealing with currently as compared to the same time last year, for example, there's been a significant increase.'

South Africa is working to launch its vaccination campaign in mid-February after its first delivery of vaccines on Monday: 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India. An additional 500,000 are coming later in February.

South Africa will use the doses to inoculate its frontline healthcare workers as the country aims to vaccinate 67 per cent of its 60million people by the end of the year.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said more vaccine doses will arrive in the coming months from the global COVAX facility, the African Union's vaccine acquisition task team and direct purchases from manufacturers.

Empty coffins are stored at an AVBOB mortuary in Johannesburg today

Crosses for use at funerals are stored at an AVBOB mortuary in Johannesburg after morgues reached capacity

People lay in the sun on Clifton beach in Cape Town, South Africa. On Monday President Cyril Ramaphosa lifted the ban on alcohol sales, shortened the time of the curfew, eased some restrictions on gatherings and reopened beaches

Many African countries will get vaccines from the AU initiative, which has sourced 600million doses through COVAX and acquired another 400 million from manufacturers including AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, Ramaphosa said Monday night.

Neighboring Zimbabwe will be among the first countries to receive China's COVID-19 vaccine, the country's ambassador said Tuesday, as the southern African country reels from a deadly resurgence of the coronavirus.

'Zimbabwe will be one of the first 14 countries to receive vaccine aid from China very soon,' Ambassador Guo Shaochun tweeted, citing a statement from his countrys foreign affairs ministry. Neither statement said how many doses would be delivered, when they would arrive or whether they will be free of charge.

Other African countries to get China's vaccine include Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to the statement.

Clients enjoy a beer, in 'Hells Kitchen Bar and Restaurant' in Melville, Johannesburg

Cars caught in a traffic jam during the afternoon commuting time in Johannesburg, South Africa

Zimbabwe has not yet ordered any vaccines. A top Zimbabwean official recently said the government had budgeted $100million to buy around 20 million doses.

That would be enough to inoculate about 60 per cent of Zimbabwe's 15million people to achieve herd immunity, finance ministry permanent secretary George Guvamatanga told state media.

The vaccines would be acquired through the AU initiative, the Sunday Mail newspaper reported. The ministry is waiting for regulators to give authorization 'before placing a concrete order,' Guvamatanga said.

There are fears that the new, more infectious variant of the virus arrived when scores of thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa returned home for the holiday season.

The country, whose once robust public health system has deteriorated along with the economy over the past two decades, has confirmed 33,548 cases, including 1,234 deaths.
About 500 pupils boarding at Mweshipandeka High School at Ongwediva were on Sunday left stranded with their belongings as maintenance and renovations at the school's hostel were not completed.

Many have travelled from remote rural areas hoping to commence with their academic year.

When they arrived at the school, they were informed by the authorities that the hostel was not ready and they should go home.

They would be informed when to return.

Yesterday, some pupils were fetched by their parents, but others had nowhere to go and no money to travel home with.

The school was to reopen on 26 January, which was postponed to today (yesterday) due to maintenance conducted.

Hilma Nuunyango-George, the deputy director of education in the Oshana region, said the school's reopening would now be delayed by an additional two or three weeks.

"We were under the impression that the renovation work would be done by Friday and the pupils would be allowed to start school on Monday [yesterday]. But when they showed up, they were informed the contractors were still busy and the hostel facilities were not ready for use. Pupils were told to go back home and wait to be informed when school would commence. It's a dilemma and we are really sorry for the pupils and their parents for any inconvenience caused," Nuunyango-George said.

She said the school would prioritise Grade 11 pupils who are expected to write their final exam in the next few months.

The school has not undergone renovations since it was constructed in the early 1980s, and with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the school's management saw it fit to revamp the hostel facilities and maintain hygiene.

School principal Joseph Nangombe assured the pupils that the renovations would be completed in due course.
President Hassan Rouhani said Iran's coronavirus vaccination rollout could begin by Feb. 20. He said millions of doses will be available for the vaccination program, which will prioritize the front line medical community as well as high-risk individuals.

Rouhani did not specify the origin of the vaccine that will be distributed. The Iranian government recently approved the importation of of the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V. The decision was made public by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during his visit to Moscow last week. Later, Irans ambassador to the Russian Federation, Kazem Jalali, declared that the first batch will be on board a Tehran-bound plane by Feb. 4 and be followed by regular shipments every two weeks.

The plan to purchase the Russian vaccine has triggered widespread criticism from Irans top medical experts. In an open letter to Rouhani, Irans Medical Council cast serious doubt on Sputnik V, citing a lack of transparency in the vaccines research and development stages.

Hossein-Ali Shahriari, who chairs the Iranian Parliaments Health Commission, spoke of mistrust in the Russian vaccine, which he will obviously avoid. When we are not clear about the clinical trials of a vaccine, we cannot let it be tested on our people, he said.

In an interview with Jahan-e-Sanat, Irans most prominent epidemiologist Minou Mohraz struck out at the Food and Drugs Administration for issuing an emergency approval of the Russian vaccine, which has not yet been approved by the World Health Organization.

The Health Ministry, however, has dismissed all these statements with ferocious counterattacks, accusing the critics of speaking based on personal taste and their own conflicts of interest.

Iran says it is already halfway through developing multiple indigenous vaccines, but it might take up to June before the products are ready for distribution. According to the latest official data, over 58,000 Iranians have lost their lives to the coronavirus pandemic, with the number of confirmed cases standing well above 1.4 million.

A speedy vaccination with internationally approved products has been a persistent demand from much of the Iranian public, worried that the virus could reach it faster than a vaccine. However, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a strict order back in January banning any vaccine imports from the United States and United Kingdom, countries he said he had no confidence in.
The terrifying moment a SUV flies through an intersection before smashing into a car has been caught on camera.

Dashcam footage shows the large 4x4 taking a wide corner at a T-intersection in Hervey Bay, Queensland, before it smashes into a car in the opposite direction on Monday about 4.45pm.

As the two vehicles collided, one car is pushed into a power pole as the other car slowly continues down the road before coming to a stop.

The driver of the SUV is seen taken an extremely wide corner at an intersection before smashing into a car

The video received more than 25,000 views on YouTube as viewers slammed the SUV driver for their carelessness.

'What the f**k were they even trying to do charging out of a blind T junction that hard? It's like they were asking for it,' someone commented.

'Damn...didn't even LOOK at their brakes!' Another wrote.

'This sort of ''accident'' should result in immediate suspension of licence,' another suggested.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-03 01:48:28|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The head of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Stefano Del Col, on Tuesday called for respecting the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon to avoid escalation of tensions.

"Any actions, especially adjacent to the Blue Line, must at all times be guided by principles of positive engagement through UNIFIL's liaison and coordination mechanisms, prior notification, and respect for the Blue Line to reduce potential sources of tension," he said in a statement released by the UNIFIL.

Del Col's remarks came during the first tripartite meeting of 2021, with senior officers from the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at a UN position in Ras Al Naqoura.

The UN commander stressed that LAF and IDF activities along the Blue Line should remain predictable, with sufficient prior notification and coordination through UNIFIL in order to prevent escalation and potential misunderstandings.

"Blue Line marking is a deconfliction tool which helps to reduce ambiguity and potential points of friction. Enhancing the security infrastructure along the Blue Line is in all our interests," he said.

The Blue Line is a border demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon that was published by the UN in 2000 and has been observed by the UNIFIL to prevent conflict between the two sides.

Del Col also updated the parties on the progress in the refurbishment of security infrastructure along the Blue Line, adding that more than 100 Blue Line markers and cut lanes have been refurbished in the recent months. Enditem
Arlene Foster has accused Boris Johnson of a dereliction of duty and claimed he is not doing enough to address unionist anguish over Irish Sea trade disruption.

Northern Irelands First Minister demanded action from the British Prime Minister following the EUs horrific botched move to invoke a mechanism to suspend elements of the new post-Brexit arrangements.

The European Commission was forced into an embarrassing U-turn on Friday when it backtracked on an attempt to restrict the free flow of coronavirus vaccine across the Irish border.

Mrs Foster told BBC Radio Ulster: I have to say directly to the Prime Minister and to the UK Government that it is a dereliction of duty for a prime minister of the United Kingdom to stand by and allow United Kingdom citizens to suffer, and that is what he is allowing to do at present, so therefore action is absolutely needed.

Senior European politicians have conceded it was a mistake to try to unilaterally suspend part of Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol to prevent the region being used as backdoor to move inoculations from the bloc into the UK.

The protocol, which governs the movement of goods in and out of Northern Ireland post-Brexit, was created to ensure continued free flow of trade across the Irish border.

It does so by moving regulatory and customs processes to the Irish Sea, with checks instead focused primarily on produce moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.

Empty food shelves in Sainsburys store in Bangor, Co Down (Michael McHugh/PA)

Some aspects of trade have experienced disruption since the protocol came into effect on December 31 and unionists have been calling for the UK Government to itself suspend elements of the protocol using part of the agreement called Article 16 until the issues have been resolved.

The First Minister told the Stormont Assembly: The protocol was imposed upon the people of Northern Ireland.

Read More Unionist leaders blast number of mourners at Loyalist funeral

I have always opposed it.

Despite significant protestation and logical argument against its provision, it is still here.

She said the EU still holds the power to invoke Article 16 in reserve.

Some within loyalism blame the DUP for delivering a Brexit that includes an Irish Sea border (Rebecca Black/PA)

It has caused significant dismay and distress. It is wrong and unnecessary and we all know that is the case.

She accused the bloc of threatening to trigger Article 16 without consultation, without thought or consideration of the welfare of the people of Northern Ireland.

The DUP leader added: Too many people have been fooled by what it seemed on paper but reality has bit and unionists across the length and breadth of Northern Ireland are in anguish.

It should matter that everyone in Northern Ireland is being denied supply of trade and if they really care about all of the people of Northern Ireland they will act.

Senior Sinn Fein representative John ODowd urged unionists to stop sabre-rattling and called for calm heads and measured words rather than violence.

He said: Many in this society have faced the inside of courtrooms, police stations and jails because of loud voices from people who march them up to the top of the hill and then leave them there.

The Upper Bann Assembly Member said the Commission was wrong in its actions last week and acknowledged fears over the Protocol.

He told the Northern Ireland Assembly: There are genuine concerns within the unionist community.

We are prepared to listen to them, we are prepared to work with them.

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said he is not trying to inflame tensions.

He reiterated his demands for invocation of Article 16 by the UK to ease east/west trade.

Our economy, our society and our culture, and virtually every aspect of Northern Irelands life, is being impacted.

We, as a unionist party, have said for a considerable time that Article 16 should be there and should be used.
Aspen, CO (81611)

Today

Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. High 71F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 44F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
The company believes that diverse backgrounds, expertise, and extensive networks of two newly appointed members will significantly strengthen the depth and breadth of its board.

The company is about to begin the construction phase of its Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron project.

ioneer Ltd ( ) ( ) (FRA:4G1) has appointed two US-based independent non-executive directors Rose McKinney-James and Margaret R. Walker to its board.

Rose McKinney-James is a Nevada-based expert in environmental business and technology policy, renewable and clean energy advocacy, and sustainable development.

Texas-based Margaret Walker is a chemical engineer with significant experience working across the chemical, engineering and construction sectors.

Strengthen the depth and breadth of our Board

ioneer executive chairman James Calaway said: We are delighted to welcome Rose and Margaret to the ioneer Board, whose diverse backgrounds, expertise, and extensive networks in the United States will significantly strengthen the depth and breadth of our Board.

Rose brings with her decades of experience in ESG and sustainability governance, advocacy and strategy, and is uniquely positioned to support ioneer as we grow to become the largest domestic supplier of lithium and an important voice in electrification in the United States.

At , Margaret worked across all aspects of the development and operations of the companys facilities, leading engineering development and construction of Dows largest global operations, and this will greatly assist us as we move into the execution phase of Rhyolite Ridge.

I know I speak for all of our board members when I say we think Rose and Margaret are the perfect complements to our Boards skills, and adding their experience is timely indeed.

McKinney-James is a Nevada-based expert in environmental business and technology policy, renewable and clean energy advocacy, and sustainable development.

Extensive search

Following the retirement of Pat Elliott, the board undertook an extensive search process for his successor.

The search provided the opportunity to broaden and strengthen the expertise of the board, reflecting the evolving needs of the company as it nears the construction phase of its Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project, particularly about large-scale chemical plant construction and ESG experience.

These two critical areas of experience and commitment are expertly provided by these two outstanding new non-executive directors.

Walker is a chemical engineer with experience across the chemical, engineering and construction sectors.
Future-Reliance Deal: Delhi HC Asks To Maintain Status Quo

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked Future Retail Ltd and all authorities to maintain status quo in relation to the company's Rs24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. The HC, however, reserved its order in the plea by Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings to stop Future Retail from relying on approvals given by statutory authorities to deal with the Reliance group company.

The single-judge bench of Justice JR Midha formed a prima facie view that the emergency award is enforceable under section 17(2) of the Arbitration Act. It stated, "Emergency Arbitrator rightly proceeded against Future Retail, emergency award is not a nullity." Emergency award is enforceable under Section 17(2) and appeal-able under Section 37 Arbitration Act.

The HC also directed Future Retail to state all steps and actions taken by it after the date of the Emergency Award on 25 October 2020, in connection with the deal with the Reliance group company.

Last month, despite exhortations by Amazon, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had approved the deal between Future Group and Reliance Industries. SEBI, in a letter issued, had approved the deal subject to several conditions in the Composite Scheme of Arrangement. The BSE on its part said that it has no adverse observations on the transaction.

After securing approval from SEBI, Competition Commission of India (CCI) and exchanges, Future Retail had moved National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for the nod to its deal with Reliance Retail.

On 11th January this year, Amazon had written to SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi informing that the regulator should not give no-objection to the Future Retail transaction with Reliance as the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) has constituted an arbitral tribunal.

In a letter to Mr Tyagi, Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings said, "We write to inform you that the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) has constituted the arbitral tribunal in the Arbitration Proceedings initiated by Amazon against inter alia FRL, Kishore Biyani and Rakesh Biyani."

"We wish to highlight that in view of the constitution of the Arbitral Tribunal, the Interim Award passed by the EA stands automatically extended for the duration of the Arbitration Proceedings unless it is reconsidered/modified/vacated by the Arbitral Tribunal," Amazon had communicated to Mr Tyagi.

In August 2020, Kishore Biyani and Future Group had entered a Rs25,000 crore agreement with Reliance Retail. As part of the pact, Future Group was to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehouse businesses to Reliance Retail Ventures.

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Why Are You Doing It Joe?

By Margaret Orchowski

As a congressional journalist for almost 15 years now, i have considered newly installed President Biden to be a "man of the Senate" who doesn't believe in imperial presidencies. He is on record for opposing executive orders and for advocating that complicated issues like immigration should be legislated in a democratic process of compromise. So I really believed that Biden would not issue many executive orders during his term.

How wrong could I be! In Biden's first ten days of office he has signed more executive actions than any president before him.

The Democrats and the press say he is overturning Republican "draconian" immigration, foreign relations and energy policies immediately as he promised. But executive orders as Biden himself has pointed out, do not have the authority or sustainability of laws. They can only regulate actions of executive branch agencies with allocated budgets. They are a weak way to make policy.

Executive orders can be blocked by a single federal judge applying a universal injunction if considered to inflict immediate significant harm to thousands of people (as Democrats did for years to block DACA and other Trump immigration restriction orders). They also can be challenged in the Supreme Court as an unconstitutional usurpation of power (the executive branch trying to legislate, etc). They also can be rescinded by the next president.

Biden knows all this very well. So why has he done this?

The only explanation I can think of is that liberal Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Chuck Schumer are terrified that almost no legislation that they have promised their far left liberal base, can pass. Their Democratic vote margins are just too thin.

In the highly partisan Senate, Schumer cannot lose a single Democratic vote or he won't even have a 50-50 split for VicePresident Kamala Harris to tie-break. Conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (WVa) and others already have said they would not support doing away with the filibuster.

On her side of Congress, Pelosi can only lose four Democratic votes or she loses her majority. She only has 222 Democrats in the House and she needs 218 to pass anything. Yet there are 18 "Blue Dog" Democrats in the House caucus who are fiscally conservative and oppose raising the national debt any more. Many are against any coronavirus relief bill not less a $2 TRILLION one that's spends a good portion on non-COVID related far left projects.

Plus remember! Pelosi only won her leadership position by two votes. Her far left "squad" held off their votes until the last minute. One has to wonder what Pelossi promised them for their votes: to "Go Big" and push Biden to sign multiple executive orders that support their agenda in the first weeks in office?

So I take these numerous far left leaning executive orders by Biden as a risky strategic move by Democratic leaders who know they only have three to six months to assure their liberal base they support a big far left agenda, before their moderate base demands compromises. They are hoping that some of the executive orders will stick and keep the left from abandoning them.

But the Dems are taking a big chance. The entire strategy could backfire. Everyone could end up feeling betrayed.

It could take months for many of these orders to be administered. Biden is signing aggressive executive orders before even his agency heads are approved and their bureaucratic appointed directors are even chosen not less settled into their offices. And old bureaucrats know how to delay things to assert their own power.

Biden also can end up looking disingenuous. Many people including establishment Republicans voted for Biden because they thought he was centrist and reasonable, willing to negotiate and compromise. Now he's already blown that image.

Moderate Democrats thought he would hold strong against the radical left. But his aggressive executive orders in his first week of office create grave doubts about that image.

The likelihood that Democrats could lose their razor thin majorities in both the House and the Senate in 2022, grows with each Biden executive order.

# # # # ##
More than 11,000 registered Republicans in Oregon, or 1.4%, have left the party since Election Day, state voter registration figures show.

Some of those departures were likely the result of administrative actions to correct voter rolls to reflect voters known to have died, left the state or otherwise lost qualification to vote. Statewide registration totals also reflect a loss of almost 8,500 registered Democrats, or 0.8%, since early November.

But it is clear that there has been an unusually large number of voters disavowing their Republican party identities, particularly in Washington County, where the number of Republicans fell by nearly 1,900, or 2.3%, over the past two months.

Most of the Republican defectors appear to have rejected all party affiliation, rather than moved to a different party. Oregons count of unaffiliated voters rose by more than 10,000 since Election Day, records show.

One of Oregons highest profile Republicans, former gubernatorial nominee Knute Buehler, told the New York Times he canceled his Republican Party registration recently after the Republican Party of Oregon issued a statement condemning the 10 Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach President Donald Trump and aligning itself with conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Long a moderate in his party, Buehler tightly embraced Trump and his policies during his unsuccessful May 2020 primary race for Oregons 2nd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives won by Ontario Republican Cliff Bentz.

According to the Times, Buehler called quitting the Republican party very painful.

-- Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com; @OregonianPol
Melbourne experienced a 30 per cent collapse in the number of people relocating to the city from other parts of the country during the pandemic, while students and people of prime working age fled for regional Victoria.

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show a net 7445 people left the Greater Melbourne area through the September quarter, more than three in five of them moving to a regional bolthole.

Melbourne CBD was empty during lockdown, contributing to people moving away to find work. Credit:Wayne Taylor

Sydney lost a net 7782 residents, which along with Melbournes figures resulted in capital cities nationally losing 11,200 people to regional areas, the biggest quarterly movement out of metropolitan Australian on record.

Migration out of the nations two largest cities has almost doubled since the September quarter last year before the advent of the pandemic. The pandemic has also slowed the natural movement of Australians around the country, with total internal migration down almost 8 per cent over the past year.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Moneta Porcupine Mines Inc. (TSX: ME) (OTC Pink: MPUCF) (XETRA: MOP) ("Moneta" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results from six (6) holes drilled to test three (3) targets areas for gold mineralization over a strike length of 1,600 metres (m) to the east of the Windjammer South open pit gold resource. The drill holes were drilled as part of the expanded 2020/2021 winter drill program on the Golden Highway Project, 110 km east of Timmins, Ontario (Figure 1).

Highlights:

Drilling has intersected significant gold mineralization in three targets areas (Halfway, Halfway Lake and East Fold) over a 1,600 m strike length east of the current gold resources at Golden Highway:

Halfway, located outside the current Windjammer open pit and up to 400 m east of the current resource: Intersected 10.00 metres "m" @ 2.85 grams per tonne "g/t" gold "Au" including 1.00 m @ 16.10 g/t Au and 1.00 m @ 10.90 g/t Au in drill hole MGH20-159 Intersected 73.00 m @ 0.95 g/t Au including 0.85 m @ 11.00 g/t Au and 0.50 m @ 10.70 g/t Au in drill hole MGH20-159 Intersected 37.46 m @ 0.93 g/t Au including 0.75 m @ 5.35 g/t Au in drill hole MGH20-159

Halfway Lake, located up to 700 m east of the Windjammer South resource outside the current open pit: MGH20-164: Intersected 10.00 m @ 0.47 g/t Au, 9.10 m @ 0.41 g/t Au and 25.00 m @ 0.37 g/t Au in drill hole MGH20-164

East Fold, located up to 1,600 m east of the current resources and beyond the current Windjammer open pit: Intersected 12.40 m @ 1.13 g/t Au, including 5.00m @ 1.97 g/t Au and 13.56 m @ 0.93 g/t Au, including 1.00 m @ 7.42 g/t Au in drill hole MGH20-162 Intersected 1.00 m @ 13.90 g/t Au in drill hole MGH20-160



"We are excited to have intersected significant gold mineralization over a 1,600 m strike length outside of our current gold resources with our latest drilling," commented CEO Gary O'Connor. "The drilling has intersected gold mineralization in three areas hosted within the same geological setting, along the regional banded iron formation "A" unit, as the majority of our current resources at Golden Highway. The results highlight the potential to continue to add gold resources beyond our current open pit hosted resources over a significant strike length. The Windjammer South open pit resource currently consists of 1.10 million ounces "Moz" gold indicated resources and 1.00 Moz gold inferred resources at a 0.3 g/t Au cut-off within a total Golden Highway resource of 2.70 Moz gold indicted and 2.80 Moz gold inferred resource. We look forward to concluding the recently announced acquisition of the adjacent Garrison project which will bring our total resource endowment to 4.00 Moz gold indicated and 4.40 Moz gold inferred for the combined project."

The latest assay results are from six (6) drill holes for a total of 3,459.8 m of drilling, completed as part of the current 30,000 m 2020/2019 winter drill program. The six reported holes were targeting the eastern extensions of the Windjammer South resources over a strike length of over 1,600 m in an area which has not been historically targeted. The drilling was focussed on testing clastic Timiskaming age sediment host rocks to the immediate south of the regional banded iron formation ("BIF") A unit, the same geological setting as most of our current gold resources (Table 3).

Discussion of Drill Results

Halfway

A total of three (3) drill holes for 2,283.8 m were drilled to test the Halfway target located up to 400 m east of the current Windjammer South gold resource. The holes were targeting the extensions of shallow dipping wide stacked mineralized veins drilled and modeled at Windjammer South as well as the steeper extensional higher grade vein set. The drilling was conducted to follow-up significant mineralization intersected in 2019 in hole MGH19-123 which tested the significant gold mineralization east of the Windjammer South resource within the same geological setting (See press release ME-PR-19-2019; "Moneta discovers gold mineralization with 500 m step-out drilling") intersecting 1.80 m @ 7.48 g/t Au, including 0.77 m @ 15.50 g/t Au at 210.20 m and 1.28 m @ 7.79 g/t Au at 288.00 m.

Other historical drill holes have been drilled in the area to the east of the current mineral resource estimate but were not included in the resource update due to a lack of drill density (see Table 2: Historical Drill Results: Halfway Target). Drill intercepts of up to 18.00 m @1.84 g/t Au including 1.47 m @ 16.86 g/t Au in hole MWJ11-43 and 27.00 m @ 0.61 g/t Au in hole MWJ11-41 and 22.00 m @ 1.02 g/t Au in hole MGH20-142 occur outside the current open pit and will be used in conjunction with the newly released holes as well as additional drilling planned in 2021 designed to continue to expand the resource estimate in this area.

Drill results from the current program at Halfway confirmed the occurrence of the same style of shallow dipping wide and lower grade stacked veins sets as well as the steeper higher grade extensional veins and associated alteration haloes at Halfway over a strike length of 500 m to the east of Windjammer South. Drill hole MGH20-158 was drilled 100 m south of MGH20-159 and intersected wide zones of gold mineralization up to 23.00 m @ 0.45 g/t Au. Drill hole MGH20-159 located 100 m east of MGH19-123 intersected up to 73.00 m @ 0.95 g/t Au including 0.85 m @ 11.00 g/t Au and 0.50 m @ 10.70 g/t Au, 10.00 m @ 2.85 g/t Au including 1.00m @ 16.10 g/t Au and 1.00 m @ 10.90 g/t Au, and 37.46 m @ 0.93 g/t Au including 1.75 m @ 3.88 g/t Au. Drill hole MGH20-161 was drilled 100 m south of MGH19-123 and intersected wide zones of lower grade gold mineralization of up to 16.85 m @ 0.41 g/t Au and 8.45 m @ 0.73 g/t Au.

Halfway Lake

One (1) drill hole for 438.0 m was drilled at the Halfway lake target located up to 700 m east of the current resource, located in the same geological setting adjacent to the regional BIF A unit. The drill hole intersected stacked quartz vein zones and steeper extensional veins within altered Timiskaming age clastic sediments. Drill hole MGH20-164 intersected up to 25.00 m @ 0.37 g/t Au, 10.00 m @ 0.47 g/t Au and 9.10 m @ 0.41 g/t Au.

East Fold

A total of two (2) holes for 1,335.0 m were drilled to test for gold mineralization at East Fold, located over 1,600 m east of the current resources at Golden Highway. The BIF A unit is folded and fault off-set in this area with fault emplacement of mafic units also occurring. Drilling confirmed the occurrence of gold mineralized vein sets within altered Timiskaming age clastic sediments. Drill holes MGH20-160 intersected veining of up to 1.00 m @ 13.90 g/t Au, and drill hole MGH20-162 intersected 12.40 m @ 1.13 g/t Au and 13.56 g/t Au @ 0.93 g/t Au including 1.00 m @ 7.42 g/t Au.

Table 1: Selected Significant Drill Results

Target Hole From To Length Au Name # (m) (m) (m) (g/t) HW MGH20-158 325.93 331.00 5.07 0.48 HW MGH20-158 387.00 410.00 23.00 0.45

includes 399.00 405.00 6.00 0.86 HW MGH20-159 82.00 123.00 41.00 0.35 HW MGH20-159 242.00 252.00 10.00 0.41 HW MGH20-159 270.00 280.00 10.00 2.85

includes 275.00 280.00 5.00 5.51

includes 275.00 276.00 1.00 16.10

and 279.00 280.00 1.00 10.90 HW MGH20-159 289.00 326.45 37.46 0.93

includes 325.00 325.75 0.75 5.35 HW MGH20-159 291.00 364.00 73.00 0.95

includes 295.60 296.45 0.85 11.00

and 331.00 331.50 0.50 10.70

and 336.10 338.20 2.10 5.60

includes 337.05 338.20 1.15 7.24 EF MGH20-160 539.50 540.50 1.00 13.90 EF MGH20-160 667.40 668.10 0.70 5.80 HW MGH20-161 214.00 230.85 16.85 0.41 HW MGH20-161 462.55 471.00 8.45 0.73 EF MGH20-162 332.60 345.00 12.40 1.13

includes 336.00 337.00 1.00 3.29

and 340.00 341.00 1.00 3.35 EF MGH20-162 348.44 362.00 13.56 0.93

includes 351.00 352.00 1.00 7.42 EF MGH20-162 357.00 362.00 5.00 0.84

includes 358.00 359.00 1.00 2.35 HL MGH20-164 148.00 158.00 10.00 0.47

includes 148.00 149.00 1.00 2.18 HL MGH20-164 232.90 242.00 9.10 0.41

includes 232.90 235.00 2.10 1.17 HL MGH20-164 277.00 302.00 25.00 0.37

includes 296.00 297.00 1.00 2.78

Intercepts are calculated using a 0.30 g/t Au cut-off, a maximum of 3m internal dilution and no top cap applied. All intercepts are reported as drill widths and estimated to be 75% to 95% of true width.







Figure 1: Location Map- Golden Highway Project (Draft)

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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4852/73354_85fc060064cecb2f_002full.jpg







Figure 2: Golden Highway Project- Drill Hole Locations

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4852/73354_85fc060064cecb2f_003full.jpg







Figure 3: Golden Highway Project- Long Section

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4852/73354_85fc060064cecb2f_004full.jpg

Table 2: Historical Drill Results: Halfway Target

Target Hole From To Length Au Name # (m) (m) (m) (g/t) HW MGH19-123 210.20 217.90 7.70 2.02

includes 211.23 212.00 0.77 15.50 HW MGH19-123 232.00 238.50 6.50 1.46

includes 235.00 235.75 0.75 4.17 HW MGH19-123 288.00 289.28 1.28 7.79 HW MWJ11-41 249.00 266.00 17.00 0.62

includes 256.00 257.00 1.00 2.98 HW MWJ11-41 400.00 427.00 27.00 0.61 HW MWJ11-41 440.00 463.00 23.00 0.32 HW MWJ11-43 401.00 419.00 18.00 1.84

includes 410.75 414.00 3.25 8.87

includes 411.70 413.17 1.47 16.86 HW MGH20-142 78.00 100.00 22.00 1.02 HW MGH20-142 105.00 122.00 17.00 1.09

includes 119.00 122.00 3.00 3.09 HW MGH20-142 140.00 153.00 13.00 0.81 HW MGH20-142 180.00 184.00 4.00 2.46

includes 181.00 182.00 1.00 8.08 HW MGH20-142 194.00 215.00 21.00 0.66 HW MGH20-142 425.00 449.00 24.00 0.57

Intercepts are calculated using a 0.30 g/t Au cut-off, a maximum of 3m internal dilution and no top cap applied.

All intercepts are reported as drill widths and estimated to be 75% to 95% of true width.







Figure 3: Golden Highway Project Historical Holes- Long Section

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4852/73354_85fc060064cecb2f_005full.jpg

Table 3: Drill Hole Details

Hole Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Inclination Depth (#) (mE) (mN) (masl) () () (m) MGH20-158 572703 5370491 346 65 -50 639.0 MGH20-159 572671 5370569 355 65 -55 450.8 MGH20-160 573942 5370859 340 50 -50 699.0 MGH20-161 572610 5370449 354 65 -50 597.0 MGH20-162 574033 5370853 343 50 -50 636.0 MGH20-164 573042 5370643 358 65 -50 438.0

QA/QC Procedures

All core drilling conducted by Moneta is oriented. Drill core is cut with half sent to AGAT Laboratories Inc. (AGAT) for drying and crushing to -2 mm, with a 1.00 kg split pulverized to -75 m (200#). AGAT is an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory. A 50 g charge is Fire Assayed and analyzed using an AAS finish for Gold. Samples above 10.00 g/t Au are analyzed by Fire Assay with a gravimetric finish and selected samples with visible gold or high-grade mineralization are assayed by Metallic Screen Fire Assay on a 1.00 kg sample. Moneta inserts independent certified reference material and blanks with the samples and assays routine pulp repeats and coarse reject sample duplicates, as well as completing routine third-party check assays at Activation Laboratories Ltd. Kevin Montgomery, P.Geo. is a qualified person under NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this press release.

About Moneta

Moneta's land package in the Timmins Gold Camp covers 12,742 hectares (ha) including six gold projects plus a joint venture with Kirkland Lake Gold Corporation covering 4,334 ha. The Company's flagship project, Golden Highway Gold Project is located 100 km east of Timmins and hosts a total indicated resource of 2,145,000 ounces gold contained within 55.3 Mt @ 1.21 g/t Au and a total of 3,337,000 ounces gold contained within 49.7 Mt @ 2.09 g/t Au in the inferred category at a 2.60 g/t Au at South West, 3.00 g/t Au cut-off for the other underground deposits and 0.30 g/t Au for the open pit deposits. The project includes a total of 1,512,000 ounces of open pit indicated resources contained within 50.5 Mt @ 0.93 g/t Au and 1,207,000 ounces of open pit inferred resources contained within 34.0 Mt @ 1.10 g/t Au. The project also includes 632,000 ounces of indicated underground resources contained within 4.9 Mt @ 4.05 g/t Au and 2,128,000 ounces of inferred underground resources within 15.7 Mt @ 4.21 g/t Au.

A preliminary economic assessment "PEA" study was completed in September 2020 on the South West underground gold deposit, one of 6 deposits located on the Golden Highway project, and highlighted an underground bulk mining operation consisting of an 11-year mine life with an after-tax NPV5% of C$236MM, IRR of 30% and a 3.4 year payback, generating C$371MM LOM after-tax free cash flow. The project envisaged producing 76,000 oz/pa at a cash cost of US$590/oz at a gold price of US$1,500/oz and an exchange rate of US$0.77/C$. The open pit resources and new underground discoveries have not yet been subjected to a preliminary economic assessment study at Golden Highway.

Moneta has entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire the Ontario assets of O3 Mining (see press release ME-PR 01-2021 dated January 14, 2021). O3 Mining holds 9,269 ha of prospective land within the Golden Bear project located adjacent to or in near proximity to Moneta's Golden Highway project, 100 km east of Timmins. O3 Mining completed an updated resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment (PEA) study on the Garrison Gold project within the Golden Bear project in December 2020. The study highlighted a measured and indicated open pit resource of 1,822,000 ounces contained within 66.3 Mt @ 0.86 g/t Au and an inferred open pit resource of 1,062,000 ounces contained within 45.3 Mt @ 0.73 g/t Au at a 0.30 g/t Au cut-off. The PEA study showed an open pit mining operation consisting of a 12-year mine life with an after-tax NPV5% of C$321MM, IRR of 33% and a 2.3 year payback. The project envisaged open pit mining producing 121,000 oz/pa in years 1 to 8 (94,000 oz/pa LOM), at a strip ratio of 2.7:1 at a cash cost of US$721/oz using a gold price of US$1,450/oz and an exchange rate of US$0.75/C$.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Gary V. O'Connor, CEO

416-357-3319

Linda Armstrong, Investor Relations

647-456-9223

The Company's public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com. For further information on the Company, please visit our website at www.monetaporcupine.com or email us at info@monetaporcupine.com.

This news release includes certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, collectively "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to information with respect to the future performance of the business, its operations and financial performance and condition such as the Company's drilling program and the timing and results thereof; and the ability of the Company to finance and carry out its anticipated goals and objectives.

Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, fluctuating commodity prices, competitive risks and the availability of financing, as described in more detail in our recent securities filings available at www.sedar.com. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking-statements and we caution against placing undue reliance thereon. We assume no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73354
Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is considered as a diverse group of epithelial cancers characterized by poor outcomes. Cholangiocarcinoma can be divided into three types according to the original position: Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), Perihilar Cholangiocarcinoma (PCC) and Distal Extrahepatic Tumors (DET). The most promising way to cure cholangiocarcinoma is surgery, including laparoscopic liver resection and open liver resection. However, the post-surgical outcome is less than satisfactory and there is a poor 5-years survival rate of 16.5-48%. Furthermore, more than two-thirds of the patients are unable to be treated with surgery when diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma. According to the present meta-analyses, HBV and HCV infections significantly increase the risk of cholangiocarcinoma. For instance, with the high HBV infection rates in Asia and China, the incidence rate of cholangiocarcinoma is approximately 7 per 1 million people in China. Unfortunately, there are no effective biomarkers and typical clinical features for the early diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma. Additionally, its poor response and limited chemotherapeutic regimens also render its progression difficult to control. Cholangiocarcinoma's median survival time is commonly less than 24 months after diagnosis and therefore, new therapeutic approaches are strongly needed to improve patients' survival rate. In this article, medical specialists from The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, China report a case of a male patient with a stage 4 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, who was unsuccessfully treated with different chemotherapy regimens and who was further treated with a new therapeutic method to restrict the progression of the lesion.

This patient had been diagnosed with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma for 2 years and when first discovered in August 2018, metastases were found in the lung and multiple lymph nodes. Medical imaging reasonably doubted that the original lesion was in the bile duct. However, a pathologic biopsy confirmed the result in September 2018. Pathological genetic testing showed alterations in the in TP53 and KRAS genes.

According to the specific medical imaging and pathological results, gemcitabine and nedaplatin were used as a first-line chemotherapy regimen in October 2018. After 6 courses of chemotherapy, the disease was assessed as stable. In the February 2019 follow up period, Apatinib and Tigio were used to maintain the treatment. However, the disease progressed after the next assessment in April 2019. Paclitaxel for Injection (Albumin Bound) and Oxaliplatin were used with the expectation of stopping the disease progression. After 2 courses, medical imaging that was performed in June 2019, showed that the disease was progressing again and with an increased growth of the lung lesion. Therefore, the clinician had to change the patient's chemotherapy regimen into Loplat and Retitrexet, which was, unfortunately, unsuccessful after 2 courses. From September 2018 to August 2019, the patient CT images showed that the lung metastases continued to increase, the hepatic lesions were obviously enhanced, and the para-aortic lymph nodes were enlarged and fused. In August 2019, with the absence of a solution, the doctors discussed with other doctors and confirmed the possibility to combine PD-1 and VEGF inhibitors with chemotherapy to control the tumor progression. Therefore, the oncologists recommended the treatment combination of FOLFOX6 (Oxaliplatin 130mg d2 + Calcium Levofolinate 500mg d2 + 5-FU 500mg d2 + 5-FU 3000mg d2 46h; q2w), Camrelizumab (PD-1 inhibitor) (200mg d1) and Fruquintinib (VEGF/VEGFR inhibitor) (5mg d1-21). After discussing this with his family, the patient provided his consent, and consequently, they collected his data for results' comparison.

After a complete course, the liver and lung lesions stopped growing, which was encouraging, but still worrying, and after discussion with the patient, the doctors decided to proceed with the course. Six courses later, they delightfully discovered that the patient's lung lesions were significantly reduced, the liver lesion enhancement was reduced, and the abdominal para-aortic lymph nodes were stable. The lesion was assessed as PR (partial response) and stable afterwards.

Significant efforts have been made in improving survival of cholangiocarcinoma patients. In this case, combining a PD-1 inhibitor, a VEGF/VEGFR inhibitor in chemotherapy for controlling cholangiocarcinoma is a promising therapeutic approach; however, more studies are still needed to fully understand how the treatment works.

###

CHICAGO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 included in this global antimicrobial wound dressings market report.

The global antimicrobial wound dressings market is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 6% during the period 2020-2026.

Key Highlights Offered in the Report:

1. COVID-19 has negatively impacted the antimicrobial wound closure devices. Majority of the hospitals are occupied with COVID-19 patients and their treatments, there is a huge reduction in number of surgeries performed during the pandemic time this has reduced the usage of antimicrobial wound dressing in the healthcare settings.

2.North America accounted for the largest share with more than 35% and the US dominated more than 30% share globally and 88% in the North American region in 2020.

3. Chronic wounds dominated the market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 6% due to increased target population with chronic wounds worldwide.

4. Foam and collagen segment is growing at a faster rate with CAGR of more than 5%, as many upcoming antimicrobial wound dressing products are based on the foam and collagen material.

5. Hospitals accounted for the largest share of the market, however specialty wound management clinics are increasing worldwide and they have become one of the largest customers for antimicrobial wound dressing products, this segment is expected to grow at a highest CAGR of approximately 6%.

6. There are an increased number of collaborations among the hospitals, long term care centers, and wound care management companies which is increasing the awareness and usage of advanced wound care products including the antimicrobial wound dressing in the market.

Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Revenue | 2020-2026

Market Dynamics - Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities

Market Segmentation - A detailed analysis by product, wound type, end-user, and geography

Competitive Landscape - 5 key vendors and 27 other vendors

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Antimicrobial Wound Dressings Market - Segmentation

Considered an ideal solution to maintain an optimal balance between moisture and bacterial growth, the demand for foam-based dressings is growing worldwide. These dressings are compliant with the existing wound care protocols as they are effective against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, along with fungi and yeast infections.

The rise in surgical site infections (SSI) is a key factor for the growth of acute wounds. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities in healthcare systems across the world and has adversely affected the global market. To reduce the risk of infections among patients and healthcare providers and conserve critical resources such as personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and intensive care beds enacted a temporary ban on elective surgeries for a short period, which limits the usage of advanced wound care products.

A high percentage of chronic wound patients are turning to hospitals for treatment as they are equipped with the latest machines and technology for diagnosing, treating, and healing wound conditions. All high-risk diabetic foot cases requiring intensive care services and major amputations take place in hospitals.

Antimicrobial Wound Dressings Market by Product

Foam

Hydrogel

Collagen

Alginate

Others

Antimicrobial Wound Dressings Market by Wound Type

Acute

Chronic

Antimicrobial Wound Dressings Market by End-user

Hospitals

Specialty Wound Management Facilities

Long-term Care Facilities

Home Healthcare Settings

Others

Antimicrobial Wound Dressings Market - Dynamics

The need for developing new generation antimicrobial agents rises due to the existence of drug-resistance pathogens and emerging problems of microbial infections. The infections with the antibiotic-resistant pathogen are not only difficult to treat but also involve prolonged debility for the patients and expensive healthcare. Chitosan may be one of the most important biopolymers that can be used to produce wound dressings that not only accelerate the wound healing process but also prevent infection of the wound, a necessary step in the wound healing process in the future. Multiple types of research are being conducted worldwide to combat bacterial wound infections. One such research from Biointerfaces lab has developed a cellulose membrane equipped with antimicrobial peptides. This skin-friendly membrane made of plant-based material kills bacteria to achieve an antibacterial effect. The researchers designed multifunctional peptides which, can bind to cellulose fibers and exhibit antimicrobial activity.

Key Drivers and Trends fueling Market Growth:

Increased Role of Wound Care Management Companies in Hospitals

Telemedicine Changing Wound Care Dynamics During COVID-19

Increased Prevalence of Acute & Chronic Injuries & Wound Infections

Technological Advances & Product launches

Antimicrobial Wound Dressings Market - Geography

North America is one of the most competitive markets for antimicrobial dressing products and is the main revenue contributor to vendors. This is due to multiple factors such as a larger target population, increased awareness of the availability of advanced products, and affordability through reimbursement or insurance options in the country. The region has more than 6.5 million people with chronic wounds that require ongoing care. The adoption of advanced antimicrobial wound care dressing products is high compared with other regions. The major revenue contributor to the markets in North America is the US and Canada. The US accounts for a major share of the region, with developed healthcare infrastructure in the country. This is due to the increased target population. For instance, an increase in the diabetic population, with more than 100 million people and an expansion in the elderly population of more than 55 million in 2020, contribute to the use of antimicrobial wound dressings.

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Antimicrobial Wound Dressings Market by Geography

North America

US



Canada

Europe

UK



Germany



France



Italy



Spain

APAC

China



India



Japan



South Korea



Australia

Latin America

Mexico



Brazil



Argentina

Middle East & Africa

Saudi Arabia



Turkey



South Africa

Major Vendors

3M

Coloplast

Smith+Nephew

Molnlycke Health Care

ConvaTec

Other Prominent Vendors

Argentum Medical

Aspen Surgical

Axio Biosolutions

B.Braun Melsungen

BD

BSN Medical

Covalon Technologies

Cardinal Health

CellEra

Dermarite

DeRoyal Industries

Eloquest

Ferris Mfg

GEMCO Medical

Paul Hartmann

Hollister

Integra Lifesciences

Lohmann & Rauscher (L&R)

Milliken

Medline

Organogenesis

Pharmaplast

Safe n' Simple

South West Technologies

URGO MEDICAL

Tricol

TRIAGE MEDITECH

Explore our healthcare & lifesciences profile to know more about the industry.

Read some of the top-selling reports:

Digital PCR (dPCR) and Real-Time PCR (qPCR) Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025

Rapid Diagnostics Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025

COVID-19 Diagnostics Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026

Ureteral Stents Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026

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Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

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The son of a Co Antrim woman who died after contracting Covid-19 recorded songs and posted them online for nurses to play for her as he was unable to visit her in hospital.

Kelli McCaw (48) from Galgorm died on January 12, a month after she had been admitted to hospital.

She is survived by her husband Stephen, son Dean, and the wider family circle.

Unable to visit his mum in hospital, Dean was assured by hospital staff that although she was sedated in the intensive care unit, she could still hear her family.

The nursing staff played Deans recordings to his mum as he just wanted her to hear his voice.

Kelli had rheumatoid arthritis but no other underlying health conditions.

Doctors told her family that Covid-19 had ravaged her body.

Speaking to Sky News, Dean said he would be tempted to say those who think the virus is a hoax should experience it for a day.

But I wouldn't wish that on any of them because it's just horrid, he added.

Kelli and her husband Stephen were married for 26 years and he described her as an amazing wife, an amazing mother and a very loyal friend.

The family continued to hope she would recover and could not believe how quickly her health deteriorated in the end.

She went from just having the standard nose oxygen to the full face mask in 24 hours and 48 hours after that, she was being sent to intensive care, Stephen explained.

He recalled: Kelli went out to the ambulance, probably around 11pm. Her words going out the door were I love you.

Kellis family were brought into the room next door and allowed one more video call to say goodbye in her final moments.

We prayed with her, told her we love her, talked about memories and then I read Psalm 46 to Mum, Dean said.

Just as I finished the passage, the doctor said Mum's heart had stopped so the last thing she heard would have been 'be still and know that I am God.

Dean still posts songs in his mums memory and he accepts that she has gone home - just not home to us.
In October 2019, Iranian dissident Ruhollah Zam was running a widely followed news site based in France, accompanied by his family and benefitting from refugee status as well as security in his country of exile.

But just over a year later, on December 12, 2020, Zam was hanged in Iran, an execution that prompted international condemnation.

How had Zam gone from the relative comfort of his life in France to meeting his death aged just 42 at the hands of the hangman in his home country, whose leaders he had targeted in his work?

His father Mohammad Ali Zam is a cleric still based in Iran and was, at one time, a senior figure in Iranian cultural institutions.

So fervent was his support of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the Shah that he named his son after its founder, Ruhollah Khomeini.

Colleagues and friends of Ruhollah Zam in France told AFP that he had made the mistake of being lured into a trip to Iraq in October 2019, defying their warnings of danger and falling into a trap set to exploit his own character.

"He played a dangerous game by going to Iraq and he lost," said Mahtab Ghorbani, a Paris-based Iranian writer and a refugee who worked with Zam.

"He was dragged into a dirty psychological game designed by this regime."

- 'No red line' -

Resident in France for almost half a decade, Ruhollah Zam had attracted up to two million followers to his Telegram channel Amadnews, encouraging people to turn out in protests during the winter of 2017-2018 and also publishing sometimes sensational allegations about the Iranian leadership.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said there were "serious concerns" that Zam's capture outside of Iran "could amount to an abduction" /  AFP/File

As the privileged child of an influential father, Zam enjoyed good contacts in Tehran which he held onto even after leaving the country following the 2009 protests over disputed elections.

He first went to Malaysia and Turkey, and then France.

"When there were turf wars between people in power, they turned to Zam," said Maziyar, a friend and fellow Iranian refugee, who worked on Amadnews and asked that his full name not be published.

"He delivered information without limits, he had no red line, he respected neither the president, nor the supreme leader, nobody. He even laughed at his own father."

But the success of Amadnews and Zam's own growing radicalism proved their undoing as Telegram suspended the account for inciting followers to use Molotov cocktails against police.

Zam's influence appeared to be waning. Even friends began to question if he was pushing too hard for the overthrow of the Iranian regime.

- 'Alone and isolated' -

"Ruhollah became really well known. He advocated the overthrow of the regime and maybe he started to think of himself as a leader," said Hassan Fereshtyan, a Paris-based lawyer who assisted Zam.

"Bit by bit, he lost his friends," he said.

"He was alone and isolated, and part of the Iranian opposition in exile did not trust him," added Ghorbani.

He was also receiving an increasing number of threats, which prompted French police to give him protection.

His friends said this was a dark time for Zam, a hugely ambitious man who feared that the media presence he had built up so fast was now rapidly losing clout.

"He was in the position where he could make bad decisions and fall for the trap," said Maziyar.

In mid-October 2019, he appeared at Fereshtyan's Paris office and told the astonished lawyer that he was going to travel to Iraq to conduct an interview with Ayatollah Ali Sistani, one of the most influential figures in Shia Islam.

- 'It's the end' -

This interview was supposed to launch a new television channel suggested by an individual claiming to be an Iranian businessman.

Colleagues and friends of Ruhollah Zam say the Iranian dissident, based in France, made the mistake of being lured into a trip to Iraq /  MIZAN NEWS/AFP

His associates immediately sensed the danger, given the security influence Iran has in Iraq, a majority Shiite country, following the 2003 US invasion.

"I shouted, I told him: 'If you go, it's the end, you will never come back to France!'" said Fereshtyan.

And even though Zam gave no indication of when he planned to go, he took the plane to Amman and then onwards to Baghdad the next day.

"Everyone advised him against leaving, even his bodyguard, but he simply replied that he was tired of waiting," added Maziyar.

"And he went. Sadly."

Zam telephoned his wife from Amman airport but he appears to have been apprehended as soon as he arrived in Baghdad.

He was later blindfolded, put into a car and driven to the Iranian border in footage later seen on Iranian state TV.

His detention inside Iran saw him in July 2020 give an interview to state TV, a method used on prisoners in Iran that activists regard as a forced confession extracted by torture.

Sitting in a deep armchair, he was interviewed on the programme "Without Compliments" by Ali Rezvani, officially a journalist for state broadcaster IRIB but who campaigners say is actually an interrogator for the Revolutionary Guards.

- 'Sow panic' -

Zam was convicted of charges including "sowing corruption" and spying for foreign intelligence including France and Israel, accusations vehemently denied by him and his supporters.

His execution on December 12 came just four days after the confirmation of the supreme court's verdict was announced, a haste that is unusual.

His father wrote on his Instagram account that he was allowed to meet his son a day before the execution, about which he said Ruhollah had been kept in the dark.

His daughter Niaz wrote on social media that her father had called on WhatsApp -- inexplicably from a +44 UK number -- hours before his execution.

"I knew that was it, and the hardest thing was that I knew and I could not do anything about it!" she wrote.

Still in grief, the family declined requests for interviews from AFP through their lawyer.

The United States and Europe expressed outrage at the execution while UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said there were "serious concerns" that Zam's capture outside of Iran "could amount to an abduction".

But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he did not believe the killing would harm relations between Iran and Europe, noting that capital punishment is part of Iranian law.

And for dissidents based in France, the execution was a warning that their security cannot be guaranteed even while outside the country.

"With this execution, they wanted to send a message to the loyalists of the regime not to take another path," said Ghorbani. "And also to show opponents outside of Iran their power and sow panic among them."
New Delhi, Feb 2 : The Union Budget 2021, the first-ever paperless budget was announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday. While a lot of prominence was given to the revival of all the sectors, post COVID-19; the overall reaction from the education sector was lukewarm. The sector felt that the budget fell a bit short on capitalizing on the opportunity to build momentum for digitization in Indian education that could have had far-reaching benefits for the young population.

While there would be many debates happening all around the country in the upcoming days, here are some quick reactions on Union Budget 2021 from the prominent leaders of the education sector.

Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani, Provost - HSNC University lauded and welcomed the futuristic measures announced by the Hon'ble Finance Minister and stated, "The modern outlook and approach in the budget outlook for the education sector is opening-up floodgates to reinvigorate human capital on a serious note. The outlays drawn is paving the path for the advance of India on the global map via extensive initiatives and measures like Rashtriya Shiksha Mission, extended support continues for primary education and for tribal areas as well as underprivileged additionally encompassing focus on higher education inclusive of skill development that falls in tune with NEP 2020." However, Mr. Manit Jain, Chairman, FICCI ARISE felt that the budget did not make important announcements as expected and said, "In order to fulfil the objectives established by the National Education Policy, spends in the education sector need to go up substantially. Given the economic crisis that we are in, due to COVID-19 and the several competing social sectors that demand great attention, it is high time that the State and Central governments invite private capital to invest in education. This would mean higher investments through the private sector and FDI which could then be regulated by a government body. We have been wishing for opening up and formalising the sector and ensuring long term responsible and patient capital, giving the much- needed confidence to potential investors to invest in the sector and expect legitimate ROI as spoken about several times in the past." Speaking on the same lines, Vishnu Karthik, CEO Xperiential Learning Systems and Director, The Heritage School said, "Education sector has been seriously hit post-Covid-19 both in terms of financial sustainability and also in terms of learning outcomes. This budget hasn't had anything specific to expand budgetary spend to offset the impact of COVID-19. But it is not surprising as there is not much fiscal cushion this year for the Government. We hoped to see more clarity on setting up institutions to strengthen assessments on critical skills enumerated by the NEP and hope that the MHRD provides clarity on this sooner." Commenting on the National Apprenticeship Scheme of 3000 crores, Mr. Sunil Dahiya, Executive Vice President, Wadhwani Opportunity at Wadhwani Foundation, said, "The proposed amendment of the Apprenticeship Act in the budget has the potential to reboot and revitalize our education and training systems to further enhance apprenticeship opportunities for our youth. An apprenticeship could be the best model to skill India's blue-collar workforce as it will transform the student into a fully-trained industry executive with real-time exposure to shop-floor dynamics. It will not just enhance employability and reduce joblessness, but from an employer perspective, it will lead to improved skills, productivity and professionalism." Satisfied with the announcements, Mr. Aditya Malik, CEO & MD, Talentedge said, "The Union Budget 2021-22 has proposed some forward-looking measures for the education sector in the country. The proposal to set up 100 new Sainik schools in partnership with NGOs, the private sector and the states will not only expand the school base in this area but will also bring in synergies from the NGO and private sector." Mr. Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions also seconds the Union Budget and said, "The budget paves the way for a phased implementation of the National Education Policy with the first step of bringing 15,000 schools across India under the policy's ambit. This will help minimize any widespread disruption in the pedagogical processes or curriculum, as these schools will serve as models for the other schools to follow. The other schools will draw their lessons from these model schools for a smoother implementation of NEP in the future." Charu Wahi, Principal Nirmal Bhartia School opined, "The prolonged closure of educational institutions for almost a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic has put immense duress with schools feeling the heat of financial stress now. The qualitative strengthening of more than 15,000 schools under the New Education Policy (NEP) shall assist in achieving the ideals of the policy. Besides, the setting up of 100 Sainik schools is a good step that will further create a ripple effect in terms of impact. The 750 Eklavya Model Schools for impoverished communities is a great move too, and we hope that private schools are also engaged in the setting up of these schools." While most educators are happy with the announcements for FY 2021-22, tech expectations are yet to be met for the striving education sector.
Its hard enough to teach kids from high-poverty communities in normal times, but add a pandemic into the mix and the challenges multiply.

At North Charleston High School, whose student body is predominantly African American, teachers and staff no longer can concentrate solely on in-school learning; they must reach out beyond the walls of the building if they are to keep their students engaged.

So on Saturday morning, taking a cue from Principal Henry Darby, about 20 assistant principals, teachers and staff volunteered to go door to door to visit more than 100 kids struggling academically.

The foot soldiers dispersed in seven teams with a simple message: You will not be left behind.

This was the first time this crew had been assembled for this purpose, said Assistant Principal Tony Boyer, who coordinated the whole thing. It probably wont be the last time, he said. The high school staff of about 50 are determined to be helpful.

Theres a relentless attitude here that Ive never seen before, he said.

Boyer, joined by special education teacher Arian Rollerson and Assistant Principal for Instructors Hannah Studemeyer, first drove into the Ferndale neighborhood. At the door of one home, their reference to low grades prompted a student to smile in embarrassment, but Boyer was quick to make clear that this was not about admonishment.

We just want you to know we're here to support you, he said. Youre part of our family.

A couple more addresses in this part of town, then it was off to the Russelldale neighborhood and others.

Each team had a list of 15-20 homes and hit the street armed with mobile hot spot devices, in case families needed a way for their kids to connect to the internet for remote learning. If no one answered the door, they left a card emblazoned with the school logo: We are sorry we missed you today, it reads on one side. Please give us a call. On the other side theres a photo of the school building, the names of staffers and another message: We are here for you!

Darby became principal of North Charleston High School in 2017. He has developed a reputation for tough love, determination and commitment. When The Post and Courier reported that he had taken a night job at Walmart stocking shelves to earn money he could use to assist families in need, the story went viral, prompting donations from readers and attracting the attention of NBCs Today" show.

His colleagues at Walmart didnt know Darby was a school principal. When they understood what was going on, the company wrote a $50,000 check in support of the school and its families.

Darby said he knows that such charity, however sincere and generous, can be short-lived, that families in need will continue to struggle long after the news headlines disappear.

He also knows that his commitment would mean nothing if he decided now to stop stocking shelves from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. It would be ethically dishonest, he said. I am loyal to whatever organization I work for.

This is the leadership that has inspired the schools teachers and staff, Boyer said.

He definitely brings out the best in us.

Finding a way

North Charleston High has 800 enrolled students. About 600 of them are attending classes online only, mostly using Zoom, Boyer said.

Boyer said learning becomes more difficult without the traditional structure, schedule and physical safe space that schools provide. It requires that all involved  students, teachers and administrators  step up.

So teachers spend time online after school hours tutoring kids. Darby reaches out to families. At the beginning of the academic year, about half of the school's students were not checking in regularly or were failing, but school officials managed to connect with three-quarters of the missing and struggling kids.

Even district officials, such as Kala Goodwine, get involved in the effort.

Goodwine, a former principal, now is a director of student services working on the student engagement team. She was there Saturday morning armed with boxes of the mobile hot spot devices and a full supply of goodwill.

She and her team know that successful schooling is hindered by social and economic problems, including inadequate housing, food deserts, unemployment and the lack of pre-K and day care, she said.

Her job, in part, is to connect these dots and advocate for social equity and opportunity in order to better serve students from low-income neighborhoods.

Darby, who also has a seat on Charleston County Council, said his experience as a longtime educator informs his approach to politics. He has worked with council on a summer jobs program, on providing students with free bus passes, and other initiatives, he said.

Hes also rolled up his sleeves and embarked on one-man recruitment campaigns, hoping to convince White families to send their kids to North Charleston High School. When he arrived, the student population included just 20 White kids. Today, the number has increased to 51, Darby said.

Tough love

North Charleston High is an example of a traditional neighborhood school that has been on the losing end of the school choice equation. The district long has encouraged families to apply each winter to send their children to affiliated magnet and charter schools. (The deadline is Feb. 26.) But this tends to direct talented and ambitious students away from neighborhood schools, exacerbating racial and economic segregation.

Diminished student populations often mean less money is flowing to schools that most need it. Historically, North Charleston High has suffered from lots of staff turnover, and this has added to the challenge of motivating its students to perform well.

Darby, who grew up nearby, said he is striving to combat some of the effects of this dynamic, conveying a sense of stability and purpose, setting high standards, and enjoining students, staff and teachers to do well. When he became principal at the high school, many students were ill-behaved and required discipline  even, in some cases, expulsion. He did not hesitate, he said.

But he also made it clear that he and his staff were there to help. Today, the solidarity is tangible, he said.

Studemeyer said the pandemic learning curve has been steep for all involved. And the kinks still are being worked out. Instructors are figuring out how to teach online, and how to solicit feedback from students in an effort to fine-tune the process, Studemeyer said.

Far more attention must be devoted to each student in a virtual environment compared with the classroom environment because of distance, isolation and non-academic impacts on students lives.

The kids are learning how to write emails and otherwise speak up  which is inadvertently teaching them a few key life skills, she added.

The district provides welcomed support, sharing research and emerging best practices.

Its made people want to be more innovative, she said.

The pressures on low-income families and their kids can be enormous. It doesnt take much  the loss of a job, a broken-down car  to put a family into dire financial straits, and this can distract young students trying to push up their grades, Boyer said.

If you are going to be an educator, youre going to have to be part of the solution to poverty, he said.
TikTok users are sharing the funniest, strangest, and overall worst names they've ever heard in real life, from twins named Orangejello and Yellowjello to a girl named Shittyanna.

Doctor Carlton kicked off the viral trend on January 22, asking others on the app: 'Tell me the most unfortunate name you've ever run across.

Dozens have since chimed in, sharing names that are strange, hilarious, and likely incredibly embarrassing burdens for those who carry them.

Share time! TikTok user Doctor Carlton asked other users to share the 'most unfortunate names' they've ever come across

Oh dear... One woman came across a set of twin boys whose names were Orangejello (pronounced or-AN-jel-oh) and Yellowjello (pronounced (yell-O-jel-oh)

No L! She also met an Hijkmno that was pronounced 'Noelle'

Is this allowed? TikToker @the.house.hippo met a Jkmno whose name was pronounced Noel

Oh dear: She also met a Forrest whose name was spelled Ssst with four S's and a Shittyanna

Doctor Carlton offered his own example first, saying he went to school with a guy named Richard Head  who one could only imagine was called Dick Head by classmates.

'What were his parents thinking?' Carlton asked.

A teacher on TikTok joined in to share the names plastered to a row of lockers, which included Astryd and Teancum.

But certainly one of the most viral videos came from TikToker @ttcskrb, also a teacher, whose clip has been viewed nearly five million times.

'I've heard some pretty unique children's names,' she said. 'These three that I'm about to say are the most unique and most unforgettable names ever.

First, she came across a set of twin boys whose names were Orangejello (pronounced or-AN-jel-oh) and Yellowjello (pronounced (yell-O-jel-oh).

Yes, that's real! Yet another recalled Dick Swett, who served as the US Representative for New Hampshire's second congressional district from 1991 to 1995

Jokes: Another TikTok user revealed that her own name is Piper Harder

Yikes! This woman knows of a teacher named Peter File (left), while a Navy veteran went to boot camp  where everyone was addressed as Seaman  with a woman named Guzzler

Danger: This woman said her aunt is named Sylvia Edith Dick  with Edith occasionally pronounced like 'eat this' with a speech impediment

There was also, she said, a little girl whose name was spelled 'Hikjmno' but was pronounced 'Noelle '  as in, the letters are in alphabetical order but there is no "L."

Shockingly, she wasn't the only person to come across that name. User @the.house.hippo, who used to work at a children's hospital, listed the top five unusual children's names she came across  which included Jkmno, pronounced 'Noel.'

Others she encountered included Shittyanna (pronounced SHIH-tanya), Jugalo, and Sssst (pronounced like Forest).

Unsurprisingly, there have been an incredible number of phallic and otherwise sexual names, which no doubt made most of these people the target of bullies on the schoolyard  and are still clearly earning giggles as an adult.

One TikTok user regularly gets emails from a man named Mike Cooch, while another said her aunt is named Sylvia Edith Dick  with Edith occasionally pronounced like 'eat this' with a speech impediment.

Another TikTok user revealed that her own name is Piper Harder, while one more said she knew a teacher named Peter File.

How unfortunate! One TikTok user regularly gets emails from a man named Mike Cooch

Oh no! A teacher on TikTok joined in to share the names plastered to a row of lockers, which included Astryd and Teancum

Rough: At least two users said they've come across people named Shithead  an Indian named that is pronounced 'shy-THEED' but had an unfortunate English spelling

Poor woman! Meanwhile, one woman named Rhona said her name had never been a problem until the COVID-19 pandemic

Yet another shared photos of Dick Swett, an American politician who served as the US Representative for New Hampshire's second congressional district from 1991 to 1995, as well as US Ambassador to Denmark from 1998 to 2001.

An American veteran looked rueful as he recalled his time in Navy bootcamp, when everyone  men and women  are addressed as 'Seaman,' followed by their last name.

One unfortunate woman in his boot camp had the last name Guzzler.

At least two users said they've come across people named Shithead  an Indian named that is pronounced 'shy-THEED' but had an unfortunate English spelling.

Meanwhile, one woman named Rhona said her name had never been a problem until the COVID-19 pandemic, but now she constantly hears and sees people complaining 'f*** 'rona.'

'It's not my fault,' she lamented.
The announcement comes a couple of weeks after rival beauty retailer Sephora announced it would double the number of Black-owned brands it sells to 16 by the end of the year. Ziesemer declined to specify the number Ulta sells but said doubling it would bring the share of Black-owned brands to 5% of Ultas total offerings.

The official said the Nigerian government is worried about the high number of health workers getting infected.

At least 75 Nigerian healthcare workers tested positive for COVID-19 last week, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, has said.

Mr Ihekweazu, while speaking at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Monday, said the number of healthcare workers getting infected is becoming worrisome.

He noted that efforts are ongoing to ensure health workers are actively protected against the virus.

"In the last one week, we have 75 healthcare workers infected in Nigeria," he said.

"So we are very worried about this and we can reduce this risk."

Health workers at risk

Barely a month ago, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), announced the deaths of 20 doctors within a week from complications arising from coronavirus, news President Muhammadu Buhari described as 'sad'.

Healthcare workers are often at risk of exposure to infections, including COVID-19 as they are the first responders to patients.

Although health workers have been advised to use full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) before attending to patients, many do not have access to this equipment and as a result, many health workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in Nigeria.

As of June 2020, at least 812 health workers had tested positive for COVID-19, according to Nigerian health minister, Osagie Ehanire.

As of September 2020, over 41,000 health workers in Africa have been infected with COVID-19 virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

The exact number of health workers that have been infected in Nigeria so far could not be ascertained as of the time of reporting.

Nigeria has recorded over 130,000 COVID-19 cases and almost 1,600 deaths since February 2020 when the country diagnosed its first case of the virus.

Rapid test kits

Mr Ihekweazu said the Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits (RDTs) will be used in more facilities over the next month as part of efforts to protect health workers.

"We are rolling out the use of Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits (RDTs), in more health facilities over the next one month, as an additional tool to protect healthcare workers," he said.

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"We remain deeply grateful for the efforts and commitment of healthcare workers across the country."

Mr Ihekweazu noted that the agency has started training health workers in five health facilities in FCT, on the use of RDTs in health care settings.

He said this would soon be replicated across federal hospitals in the country.

The NCDC chief said this can help reduce the risk of infection in health facilities which is a major challenge in the fight against the pandemic.

He explained the need for doctors and nurses to be on the alert on suspicion of any COVID-19 case.

He said COVID-19 should be ruled out first for patients with pneumonia symptoms, congested chest, fever, body pains and even vague symptoms.

He appealed to health workers to model the behaviours they would like to see in others.

"Show people you wear a mask when visiting, reinforce the public health measures (in your homes and other settings). Model the behaviour you want to see in others," the official said.
[February 02, 2021] Simmons & Simmons launches on PartnerVine

ZURICH, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Simmons & Simmons LLP ("Simmons") launched on PartnerVine today. Simmons is starting with SMCR Academy, an e-learning solution that helps asset management firms in the UK meet their training requirements for the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR). "We're really excited to be launching the SMCR Academy on PartnerVine," says Lee Curtis, head of Sales at Simmons, "Our products will be a good fit for the platform's passionate community of users. Given the impending deadline requires solo-regulated firms to have trained all conduct staff by 31 March, we believe that this solution is of clear value to the asset management industry." "Simmons is one of the primary reasons we started PartnerVine," says Jordan Ustadt, CEO of PartnerVine. "They've been delivering extraordinary value with software since their first product was launched in 2007. The best software solutions take years of investment and iteration, and we're thrilled to be scaling with a firm that takes its commitment to quality legal services delivered with software as seriously as we do."



SMCR Academy is an e-learning solution for asset management firms subject to the FCA's Senior Managers & Certification Regime. SMCR Academy's 11 e-learning modules cover both general training on the FCA's Conduct Rules and specific training for individual roles at asset management firms. Role-specific case studies have been based on the experience of Simmons regulatory lawyers to provide realistic training scenarios. The FCA requires solo-regulated firms to confirm compliance with the SMCR training covered by SMCR Academy by 31 March. Simmons is an international law firm with more than 1,500 lawyers in 23 offices in the major business and financial centres around the globe, and develops its legal products through its subsidiary, Simmons & Simmons Solutions Limited.

For more information, go to www.partnervine.com. About PartnerVine: PartnerVine is where the world's best law firms sell their legal products. PartnerVine helps companies access innovative legal products built by law firms, and law firms sell outside their network. PartnerVine's community is dedicated to legal services delivered with software. PartnerVine has offices in Zurich and New York. Contact:

Jordan Urstadt

PartnerVine

+41 79 953 4196

jurstadt@partnervine.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1311880/PartnerVine_Logo.jpg

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Hundreds of members of Myanmars Parliament remained confined inside their government housing in the countrys capital on Tuesday, a day after the military staged a coup and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ms Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party, meanwhile, released a statement calling for the military to honour the results of last Novembers election and release all of those detained.

The commander-in-chief seizing the power of the nation is against the constitution and it also neglects the sovereign power of people, the party said in a statement on one of its Facebook pages.

One legislator said he and some 400 members of parliament were able to speak with one another inside the compound and communicate with their constituencies by phone, but were not allowed to leave the housing complex in Naypyitaw. He said police were inside the complex, with soldiers outside.

Police vehicles line a road in Yangon, Myanmar on Monday after the coup (@benjaminsmall/AP)

The legislator said the politicians, comprised of members of Ms Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party and various smaller parties, spent a sleepless night worried that they might be taken away, but were otherwise OK.

We had to stay awake and be alert, said the politician, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The takeover took place on the morning politicians from across the country had gathered in the capital for the opening of the new parliamentary session and followed days of worry that a coup was coming.

The military said the seizure was necessary because the government had not acted on the militarys claims of fraud in Novembers elections  in which Ms Suu Kyis ruling party won a strong majority  and because it did not delay the opening of Parliament.

An announcement read on military-owned Myawaddy TV on Monday said Commander-in-Chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, would be in charge of the country for one year.

Demonstrators holding portraits of Myanmars de facto government leader Aung San Suu Kyi stage a protest rally in front of the United Nations University in Tokyo on Monday (Chika Oshima/Kyodo News/AP)

Late on Monday, the office of the commander-in-chief announced the names of new Cabinet ministers. The 11-member Cabinet is composed of military generals, former military generals and former advisers to a previous government headed by former general Thein Sein.

The coup is a dramatic reversion for Myanmar, which was emerging from decades of strict military rule and international isolation that began in 1962.

It now presents a test for the international community, which had ostracised Myanmar while it was under military rule, then enthusiastically embraced Ms Suu Kyis government as a sign the country was finally on the path to democracy. US President Joe Biden threatened new sanctions, which the country had previously faced.

On Tuesday in Yangon, the countrys biggest city, the streets were quieter than usual but taxis and buses were still running and there were no outward signs of heavy security.

The English-language Myanmar Times headlined the state of emergency, while other state-owned newspapers showed front-page photographs of Mondays National Defence and Security Council meeting, which the newly appointed Acting President Myint Swe and Min Aung Hlaing attended with other military officials.

The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack US President Joe Biden

The military has maintained its actions are legally justified  citing a section of the constitution it drafted that allows it to take control in times of national emergency  though Ms Suu Kyis party spokesman as well as many international observers have said it amounts to a coup.

The takeover marks a shocking fall from power for Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country toward democracy and then became its de facto leader after her party won elections in 2015.

Ms Suu Kyi had been a fierce critic of the army during her years in detention. But after her shift from democracy icon to politician, she needed to work with the generals, who despite allowing elections had never fully given up power.

While the 75-year-old has remained popular at home, Ms Suu Kyis deference to the generals  going so far as to defend their crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that the United States and others have labelled genocide  has left her reputation tarnished abroad.

The coup was met with international condemnation and many countries called for the release of the detained leaders.

Mr Biden called the militarys actions a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy and the rule of law and said Washington would not hesitate to restore sanctions.

The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack, he said in a statement.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the developments a serious blow to democratic reforms, according to his spokesman.

The Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the militarys actions  likely on Tuesday, according to Britain, which currently holds the council presidency.
editorial

Investigations are needed by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) into allegations that some pharmacies are removing from open sale on their shelves some drugs that may possibly alleviate symptoms of Covid-19 and selling them under the counter at inflated prices and only for foreign currency.

In fact, that investigation, which Zacc says it has started, needs to be widened as there are still pharmacies that insist that some drugs must be sold for foreign currency.

Under the rules set by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for bidders in the weekly foreign currency auctions there are three that are pertinent to an inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector.

The first is that the invoices submitted for payment using auction funds have to be on the priority lists. Well pharmaceuticals are most definitely on that list and in fact are one of the categories that are big enough to be separately listed in the weekly results.

So all approved medicines, those made locally and those imported, should be readily available in Zimbabwe dollars.

If such drugs are being held back for foreign currency sale, or are being priced at high margins, or are being priced at black-market rather than auction rates, then action is needed. And there are allegations that all three practices are followed, at least by some.

The second area that Zacc needs to look at is what happens when a drug does fall into temporary short supply. This can happen when there is a sudden surge in demand, either locally when it can be fixed within a week or two with new imports, or globally when Government action might be needed to ensure Zimbabwe at least gets a fair ration.

But, when something is short, how are pharmacies rationing?

A responsible pharmacy will obviously give priority to established customers, especially if the drug in question is one needed for a chronic ailment where the customer comes every month regularly as clockwork, and then add to the priority list particularly vulnerable patients, if necessary checking with the prescribing doctor.

But if they think the way to ration is to hide the drugs and ration by price, then they need to be hammered.

A couple of established approved medications are now in this category with some primary care doctors wanting to try them out on Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms. They may or may not work, and since a lot of drugs have been tried in other parts of the world with little success the odds are not good.

But the medical authorities, after satisfying themselves that if properly administered the drugs will at least do not, have given the go ahead.

Already we have reports that some pharmacies are rationing by price, and reports that some unscrupulous people are selling the veterinary versions that are not approved for human use. Both evils need to be tracked down to source and eliminated.

The third area for investigation involves the dual business of many retail pharmacies. Some just sell approved medicines, and so just need to keep two sets of accounts, one for local currency and one for foreign currency, and use these largely for tax purposes although they are obliged to spend their own foreign currency on imports before hitting the auctions.

But many have a major sideline, in some cases a dominant sideline, in patent medicines, in what are politely described as health foods, in cosmetics and perfumes, and in assorted goods like hairdryers. None of these are likely to be on approved lists and the temptation to leak foreign currency revenue from those customers buying medicine who prefer using foreign currency, which is quite legal if cannot be made compulsory, to the luxury trade, must be strong. Zacc need to ensure that multiple accounts are kept.

All of this will explode in our faces if we do not fix them first when the Covid-19 vaccines become available in Zimbabwe.

Despite the social media chatter from anti-vaxxers, most people will want to be vaccinated and have their families vaccinated as soon as possible.

Like every other country, the Zimbabwean Government will set priorities as the deliveries of the approved vaccines are made, and hopefully will at least at the beginning manage the whole distribution and inoculation process.

This means we will start by vaccinating the most vulnerable and working our way down the lists in a fair and responsible way, with everyone waiting to take their turn.

But there are already reports in countries where vaccination programmes have started of rich people cheating, paying bribes, using influence and manipulating the system to jump the queue.

And we have seen with Covid-19 testing some individuals in the public sector health services ready to cheat unless adequate controls are put in place. So we need those controls and auditing.

We do not need some rich young healthy low-priority business person pushing an old person out of the queue by handing out big US dollar banknotes.

While Government has committed US$100 million to buy vaccines, we might need more. Government has, very sensibly, said it will also mobilise some private sector support.

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It is easy to imagine, for example, a large mine wanting to see its entire workforce vaccinated, along with the families in the company housing, and being prepared to use some of their retained export earnings to pay for the doses.

It makes good business sense if nothing else. So long as their efforts add to Zimbabwe's vaccine ration or fit into the priority list, this must be welcomed.

But what we have already seen with an unproven drug, we might also face diversions from the national vaccine supply, fakes or unapproved vaccines being made available, and other corrupt practices.

It is one thing to allow those who can afford to pay to do so, so long as they take their turn and fund extra vaccine supplies, but it is quite another to wreck a proper vaccination programme with corruption.

This means that Zacc and other authorities, while probing the pharmacies and the laboratories that are already under investigation, need to set up systems that will make it easy to uncover swiftly abuses in the vaccine procurement and distribution, and preferably make those systems good enough that they will deter the dishonest.

We have learned a lot about the almost unlimited imaginations of the dishonest, and blocked a lot of corruption and profiteering already.

We need to apply that knowledge when it comes to our national vaccination programme so it is fair and effective.
[February 02, 2021] PENNEXX Has Submitted Its Formal Patent Application for the YourSocialOffers.com Technology

Philadelphia, PA, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire  Pennexx (PNNX) has submitted to the United States Patent Trademark Office its formal application for "Systems and Methods for Running Social Media Marketing Campaigns." This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/967,679 filed in 2020 and covers aspects of Pennexx's http://yoursocialoffers.com social media merchant marketing technology.

This is a significant milestone in the company that can increase future shareholder value and protects its existing technology. Upon approval, a patent gives Pennexx the right to stop others from copying Pennexx's invention without permission. This would prevent other companies from competing with the company using its invention and increase its value as it protects its intellectual property. It would also put the company in a position to license the technology to other companies, providing another possible revenue source. This patent will be viewable publicly upon publication by the U.S. patent office and covers a number of aspects of the Your Social Offers platform. The inventors of the technology, Joseph Candito, and Vincent Risalvato selected Stephen Lewellyn of Lewellyn Law, PLLC https//lewellyn-law.com as the company's patent attorney as he has vast experience in the submission, execution, and defense of patents. A search of the USPTO reveals 186 results for patents Mr. Lewellyn has been involved in.



Vincent Risalvato, CEO of Pennexx, has been an expert witness in billion-dollar patent and intellectual property cases such as Motorola vs. Microsoft, Kodak vs. HTC, and others. He noted, "Mr. Lewellyn is one of the best patent attorneys he has ever worked with." Mr. Risalvato said, "I am very pleased with this, our first non-provisional patent application and thankful for my new association with Mr. Lewellyn. I believe that we will bring prosperity to the company through this and future patent applications and protect the companies' technology."

For More Information: Pennexx will do their best to openly and publicly answer your questions and concerns via social media on Twitter https://twitter.com/pennexx @pennexx, or you may email investors@pennexx.net. You may also follow them on Twitter; Mr. Risalvato (@vrisalvato) https://twitter.com/vrisalvato, Joe Candito (@jcandito) https://twitter.com/jcandito and Ms. Sunny Sweet (@sunnysweettweet) https://twitter.com/sunnysweettweet. About Pennexx Foods Inc. About Pennexx Foods Inc. (PNNX: OTCMKTS US). Pennexx, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, is a holding company within the Software/Internet Industry focused on social media, prepaid debit cards, BitGift, artificial intelligence, targeted marketing, and consumer rewards. Safe Harbor Act: This release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may,""future," "plan" or "planned," "will" or "should," "expected,""anticipates," "draft," "eventually" or "projected." You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report. For additional information, you may also visit our website at https://yoursocialoffers.com or https://pennexx.net or call 866-928-6409. Please follow us on Twitter @Pennexx.



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House Democrats on Tuesday accused former President Donald Trump of a betrayal of historic proportions and argued that his actions leading up to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol should permanently bar him from office, even as Trumps lawyers rejected that assertion and pressed their claim that his impeachment trial is unconstitutional.

Those positions, laid out in the first formal filings from Trump and the nine Democratic House impeachment managers who will prosecute him, offered the most detailed distillation yet of the case both sides intend to present as the proceedings get underway next week.

With lies about a stolen election, the Democrats wrote, Trump summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue. They added in their 80-page filing: If provoking an insurrectionary riot against a Joint Session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense, it is hard to imagine what would be.

Trumps brief, signed by his new lawyer and former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. in a sweeping blue pen, hewed closely to a strategy endorsed by Republican senators: focusing on questions of constitutionality and whether his remarks at the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol attack were protected speech.

It gave only a passing nod to the strategy Trump is said to favor and which reportedly led him to part ways with his previous legal team: doubling down on his widely disproven claims of a stolen election.

Castor and co-counsel David Schoen, an Alabama criminal defense lawyer, asserted in the filing there was insufficient evidence to conclude the former presidents fraud claims were inaccurate  a conclusion disputed by the nations top law enforcement officials, election administrators in both parties, courts, and legal experts.

The Trump team also attempted to recast Trumps sweeping and false fraud claims as concerns about election procedure.

 READ MORE: Fact-checking false claims about Pennsylvanias presidential election by Trump and his allies

The bulk of the case they laid out, though, centered on what is shaping up to be one of the most significant hurdles Democrats face in trying to persuade Republicans to convict Trump  the question of the trials constitutionality.

The Senate of the United States lacks jurisdiction over the 45th President because he holds no public office from which he can be removed, Trumps lawyers wrote, echoing the argument 45 out of 50 GOP senators embraced last week in seeking to block the trial.

The House impeachment managers, including Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Pa.), aimed to chip away at that argument by pointing to legal scholars who have said it is within the Senates right to try a former president.

There is no January Exception to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution, their brief said. A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last.

They cited two instances in which former officials  a senator and a secretary of war  were tried on impeachment charges after they had been expelled or resigned. The latest example dated back to the 1870s.

More important, they argued, Trumps actions were so unprecedented that they require a swift and unquestionable response.

The nation cannot simply move on from presidential incitement of insurrection, they wrote. If the Senate does not try President Trump (and convict him) it risks declaring to all future presidents that there will be no consequences, no accountability.

The chain of events the Democrats laid out started well before Trump left his post or Jan. 6, the day of the Capitol attack. By then, Trump had spent months seeding the air with baseless claims of fraud, they wrote, even as his legal challenges almost universally failed.

He urged his supporters to gather in Washington the day Congress was to formally count the votes in Joe Bidens electoral victory, with the Twitter exhortation will be wild! even amid widespread warnings that threats of violence were rising in response. And during his 50-minute speech he exhorted the crowd to fight like hell because if you dont fight like hell youre not going to have a country anymore, the Democrats noted.

They pointed to videos showing that after he said youll never take back our country with weakness, and that you have to show strength, supporters shouted take the Capitol right now! and invade the Capitol building!

 READ MORE: Fact-checking Trumps false claims about Pa.s election before his supporters attacked the Capitol

President Trump created a powder keg on January 6. Hundreds were prepared for violence at his direction, the Democrats wrote. All they needed to hear was that their President needed them to fight like hell. All they needed was for President Trump to strike a match.

They also sought to dispatch quickly with the claim that Trumps remarks were protected by the First Amendment, arguing that it was drafted to protect private citizens from the government.

It does not protect government officials from accountability of their own abuses in office, the brief stated.

Castor denied that Trumps calls to fight like hell had anything to do with what happened after and noted Trump also urged supporters to protest peacefully, a point some Republicans have pointed to as evidence he did not provoke violence.

The comment was clearly about the need to fight for election security in general, he wrote, while implying that the effort to prosecute him for it was just vindictive: Political hatred has no place in the administration of justice, the Trump team wrote.

Before even starting their arguments, their filing began with a typo, perhaps reflecting the rushed nature of the work. It addressed the brief to Members of the Unites States Senate.

 READ MORE: Donald Trump becomes the first president in American history to be impeached twice

Democrats face steep odds of making Trump the first president in history to be convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors: Nearly every Republican senator voted last week to block the trial from even happening on procedural grounds. Democrats will need support from at least 17 GOP senators for the two-thirds vote needed to convict Trump.

The former presidents lawyers are expected to file a more extensive statement of their defense next week before the trial is set to begin Tuesday. Democrats who control the Senate are hoping for a much faster proceeding than the one that saw Trump acquitted last year after his first impeachment. The exact schedule remains unclear, though as long as the case lasts it could slow Bidens attempt to quickly advance his agenda in his early days in office.

Read the House Democrats impeachment brief:

Read Trumps brief:
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The Internal Revenue Service has issued a warning about a wave of COVID-19-related scams targeting recipients of economic stimulus payments.

The services Criminal Investigation Division says it has seen a number of schemes emerge aimed at stealing money and personal information in the past several months.

Scams the service warned people about include:

Text messages asking taxpayers to disclose bank account information to collect stimulus payments.

Phishing schemes using email, letters and social media messages with keywords related to COVID-19, coronavirus and stimulus payments.

Offers for fake at-home COVID-19 test kits, cures, vaccines and other fraudulent treatments.

Fake donation requests for individuals, groups and areas heavily affected by the disease.

Opportunities to invest in companies developing COVID-19 vaccines that promise the company will dramatically increase in value as a result.

The IRS also reminded taxpayers that it will never send unsolicited texts or emails, nor will it call with threats of jail or lawsuits.

The service will also not demand tax payments be submitted via gift card. COVID-19 scams should be reported to the National Center for Disaster Fraud hotline at 866-720-5721 or the agencys website.
$477 Million pre-tax NPV 5 %; pre-tax IRR OF 37.3% (post-tax $328 Million and 30.2%) at US$1,600 per ounce gold

TSX: TML OTCQX: TSRMF

Highlights (all currencies are reported in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified):

LOW CAPITAL INTENSITY PROJECT WITH PRE-PRODUCTION CAPITAL COST OF $233 MILLION AND PRE-TAX PAYBACK PERIOD OF LESS THAN 2 YEARS

AND PRE-TAX PAYBACK PERIOD OF LESS THAN 2 YEARS ROBUST ECONOMICS WITH POST-TAX $328 MILLION NPV 5 %; IRR OF 30.2%; AT US$1,600 PER OUNCE GOLD

NPV %; IRR OF 30.2%; AT PER OUNCE GOLD MINE LIFE OF 13 YEARS, WITH AVERAGE ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION DURING FIRST 9 YEARS OF 102,000 OUNCES AND TOTAL LOM RECOVERED GOLD OF ~1.1 MILLION OUNCES

WORLD-CLASS INFRASTRUCTURE INCLUDES EXISTING HYDRO POWER, NATURAL GAS AND CP RAIL LINES PLUS TRANS- CANADA HIGHWAY

HIGHWAY BOARD APPROVAL TO ADVANCE THE PROJECT TO THE PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDY STAGE

LEVERAGE TO GOLD PRICE: $726 MILLION NPV5% PRE-TAX AT RECENT SPOT PRICE OF US$1,850 PER OUNCE GOLD

TORONTO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Treasury Metals Inc. (TSX: TML) (OTCQB: TSRMF) (Frankfurt: TRC1) ("Treasury" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results from a preliminary economic assessment ("PEA") for the Company's Goliath Gold Complex ("GGC" or the "Project"), which includes the Goliath, Goldlund and Miller deposits along a prospective 65-kilometre trend in northwestern Ontario. The PEA, prepared by Ausenco Engineering Canada Inc. ("Ausenco") in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), demonstrates the potential to develop a low-cost 5,000 tonnes per day ("tpd") combined open pit and underground mining operation with strong economics and the opportunity for significant benefit to the Company, Indigenous Nations and local stakeholders.

"With the announcement of the PEA results today, combined with receipt of the federal Environmental Assessment approval in 2019, we have confirmed the Goliath Gold Complex has sufficient critical mass and we expect Treasury Metals to become one of Ontario's next gold producers. Our robust base case for the project supports a 13-year mine life with average annual production of 102,000 ounces of gold for the first nine years with a post-tax NPV of $328 million and IRR of 30.2%," said Jeremy Wyeth, President and CEO of Treasury Metals. "The project is underpinned by a high-quality resource, and we have taken a conservative approach to resource estimation, with the total M&I ounces virtually unchanged from previous estimates. We also see significant exploration potential across our 330-square-kilometre land package. In 2021, we are focusing on in-fill and definition drilling to better define the resource, while also initiating step-out drilling to test new targets around both the Goliath and Goldlund deposits."

Treasury continues to advance Goliath Gold Complex through the commencement of trade-off optimization studies as part of the pre-feasibility level study work, baseline environmental work, community engagement and other critical activities to the required level to facilitate the provincial permitting process.

Goliath Gold Complex PEA Overview

The Goliath Gold Complex PEA was prepared by Ausenco in collaboration with other technical consultants and the Company's operations and exploration teams (see Qualified Persons section below).

The PEA was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 and the technical report that summarizes the results of the Goliath Gold Complex PEA will be filed on the Company's website and on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) within 45 days of this news release.

PEA Assumptions and Economic Results

General Gold price assumption per ounce US$1,600 Exchange Rate ($US:$CAD) 0.75 Economics (pre-tax) Net present value (NPV 5%) $ millions $477 Internal rate of return (IRR) % 37.3% Payback (undiscounted) Years 1.92 Average annual cash flow* $ millions $74 Cumulative cash flow (undiscounted)* $ millions $991 Economics (post-tax)



Net present value (NPV 5%) $ millions $328 Internal rate of return (IRR) % 30.2% Payback (undiscounted) Years 2.17 Average annual cash flow* $ millions $58 Cumulative cash flow (undiscounted)* $ millions $775 Mining



Mine life years 13.5 Total LOM recovered gold ,000 ounces 1,064 Average annual mining rate million tpa 1.8 Average annual gold production, years 1-9 ounces/year 102,000 Peak gold production in year 5 ounces 119,000 Gold Recovery (LOM) % 93.64% Initial capital costs $ millions $233 AISC** US$ per ounce Au $911

*Cash flows during operational period **AISC includes cash costs plus sustaining capital, closure cost and salvage value

The PEA is preliminary in nature, includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Mining and Processing

The PEA considers a combined open pit and underground mining operation utilizing the resources from three different pit areas over the life of the mine. It is envisioned that mining will be initiated at the Goliath project due to both its proximity to the processing facility and its existing federal EA approval. With significant environmental and baseline work underway it has been assumed that mining at the Goldlund deposit will follow the initial start of production by approximately one year. The Goliath underground operations are expected to begin development in year three with first underground production to come in year four of the proposed mining operations. Proposed open pit and underground mining is envisioned as being conventional truck and loader/shovel and long hole stoping, respectively.

The process plant will treat 1.8Mt of ore per year at an average throughput of 4,875 tonnes per day with an availability of 92%. The plant design includes a three-stage crushing circuit, ball mill, gravity concentration, classification, standard leach and Carbon-In-Leach (CIL) technology, and detoxification before deposition into a Tailings Storage Facility (TSF).

The process plant has been designed to realize an average recovery of 95.7% of the gold sourced from Goliath, 91.9% sourced from Goldlund, and 89.6% sourced from Miller over the life of the project. Of this, the gravity circuit recovers 17%-44% of the gold across the three different ore sources. Gold recovery has been based on metallurgical test work completed on Goliath and Goldlund material between 2011 and 2017 with the confidence in recoveries reflecting the more extensive metallurgical work done at Goliath compared to Goldlund and Miller. Metallurgical testing planned for 2021 at Goldlund and Miller is expected to improve recovery assumptions.

The Company will provide additional details related to Tailings Management and Closure in the PEA report filed on SEDAR within 45 days.

Mining & Processing Inputs Mine life  Total years 13.5 Mining Rate



Open Pit (Year 1-5 average) tpd 45,000 Underground (Peak production) tpd 1,400 Open Pit



Total Mill feed million tonnes 21.0 Open Pit  gold grade g/t 1.17 Open Pit  silver grade g/t 0.80 Total waste million tonnes 82.5 Total Material Mined million tonnes 103.5 Open pit strip ratio waste:mill feed 3.93 Underground



Total mill feed (underground) million tonnes 3.0 Underground  stope gold grade g/t 3.67 Underground  silver grade g/t 9.05 Processing



Feed Rate tpd 4,875 Total tonnes processed Million tonnes 24.0 Mill head grade  gold g/t 1.47 Mill head grade  silver g/t 1.82 LOM gold recovery % 93.6% LOM silver recovery % 60.0%

A mine plan summary is included in Appendix 1 at the end of this news release.

Operating Costs

Mining costs for owner operated mining were developed from first principles with local vendor quotations and detailed haulage profiles. Process plant operating costs were developed based on the labour requirements and calculated consumption rates of reagents, consumable materials, and electrical power associated with the plant equipment. Costing factors were applied leveraging in-house data based on comparable gold milling operations in Ontario. Processing costs include plant maintenance and upkeep.

Operating Costs (life of mine average) Mining costs (open pit) $/t mined 3.27 Mining costs (open pit) $/t processed 16.95 Mining costs (underground) $/t processed 70.31 Processing costs $/t processed 11.37 G&A costs $/t processed 2.28 Total site operating costs $/t processed 40.70 Cash Costs Cash costs (LOM)* $/oz Au 699 All-in sustaining costs (LOM)** $/oz Au 911

*Cash costs consist of mining costs, processing costs, mine-level general & administrative expenses and refining charges and royalties **AISC includes cash costs plus sustaining capital, closure cost and salvage value

Initial and Sustaining Capital Costs

Initial capital costs in the PEA are estimated to be $233 million including a contingency of 5% on mining equipment, and 25% on all other direct costs, excluding pre-production stripping. Life of mine sustaining capital is estimated at $313 million, primarily for Goliath underground development and TSF construction. A small sustaining capital budget is allocated to the processing plant, with general plant maintenance and upkeep accounted for in operating costs.

Initial Capital Costs ($ millions) Mining equipment and infrastructure $20 Pre-production mining $25 Processing plant $65 Site infrastructure $51 Project delivery, owner's costs and other indirects $43 Contingency $30 Total Initial Capital $233 Sustaining Capital Costs ($ millions)

Mining equipment $26 Underground mine development $136 Mining infrastructure $55 TSF $71 Process plant sustaining capital $1 Site closure and reclamation $24 Total Sustaining Capital $313

Site closure and reclamation include final closure costs for the Goliath, Goldlund and Miller projects. Costs address demolition of facilities, placement of covers on the tailing facility and waste rock storage areas, and revegetation of disturbed areas.

Economic Sensitivity to Gold Price

Sensitivities of post-tax NPV and post-tax IRR to gold price per ounce are as follows:

Gold Price US$/oz Post-Tax NPV(5%) Base Case Initial CAPEX Total OPEX FX (-25%) (+25%) (-25%) (+25%) (-25%) (+25%) $1,200 $47 $101 ($8) $170 ($93) $331 ($163) $1,400 $189 $244 $134 $308 $66 $513 ($15) $1,600 $328 $383 $273 $445 $208 $694 $102 $1,850 $498 $553 $443 $615 $381 $921 $243 $2,000 $600 $655 $545 $717 $484 $1,057 $326

Gold Price US$/oz Post-Tax IRR Base Case Initial CAPEX Total OPEX FX (-25%) (+25%) (-25%) (+25%) (-25%) (+25%) $1,200 9.3% 16.9% 4.4% 19.0% 0.0% 30.4% 0.0% $1,400 20.7% 31.0% 14.3% 28.5% 11.3% 41.5% 3.5% $1,600 30.2% 42.7% 22.4% 37.1% 22.5% 51.4% 14.1% $1,850 40.7% 55.6% 31.3% 46.8% 34.0% 62.7% 24.6% $2,000 46.4% 62.6% 36.2% 52.2% 40.2% 69.2% 30.1%

All-In-Sustaining-Cost*

All-in-sustaining costs ("AISC")* are built up as follows:

AISC US$ per ounce of Au* Operating Cost $688 Royalties $16 Refining Cost $11 Silver Credit ($16) Subtotal Cash Cost $699 Sustaining Capital $204 Salvage Value ($8) Closure $17 Total AISC $911

Mineral Resource Estimate

The mineral resource estimate for Goliath used as the basis for the PEA with an effective date of December 16, 2020 was completed using a total of 726 surface drill holes with an aggregated length of 238,036 metres and a total of 96,912 assays. The QP responsible for the resource estimate is Pierre Desautels P.Geo of AGP Mining Consultants.

For Goldlund, the mineral resource estimate with an effective date of October 23, 2020 was completed using a total of 176,498 metres of drill core and channel samples entered as pseudo holes distributed in 856 surface drill holes, 189 surface trench channel samples, 480 underground drill holes, and 246 underground channel samples for a total of 114,102 gold assays. The QP responsible for the estimate is Chris Keech P. Geo. of CGK Consulting Services Inc.

For Miller, the mineral resource estimate with an effective date of October 26, 2020 was completed using a total of 96 surface drill holes totalling 7,386 metres. Of those, 26 intersected the mineralized domains and were used in the resource estimate. The QP responsible for the estimate is Paul Daigle P. Geo of AGP Mining Consultants.

The table summarizes the resource estimate for all three deposits. The material amenable to open pit extraction was reported within Lerchs-Grossman optimized resource constraining shell, while the material amenable to underground extraction was reported within a 3-dimensional wireframe representing a likelihood of being coherent mining shapes with reasonable prospect of being accessed. Open pit resource constraining shell and underground resource shapes were provided by AGP's Engineering team.

For the Goliath Deposit, a gold price of US$1,700 /ounce and a silver price of US$23 /ounce was used for the cut-off determination. For open pit resources, a cut-off of 0.25 g/t gold was used. Resources below the open pit shell used a cut-off of 1.60 g/t gold to define possible underground resources. For the Goldlund and Miller Deposits, a gold price of US$1,700 /ounce was used for the cut-off determination. For open pit resources, a cut-off of 0.26 g/t gold was used. Resources below the open pit shell at Goldlund used a cut-off of 1.60 g/t gold to define possible underground resources.

Deposit Cut-off

Grade (g/t) Quantity

('000 tonnes) Grade Gold

(g/t) Contained Gold

('000 oz) Measured Resources Goliath Open Pit 0.25 1,471 1.90 90 Goliath Underground 1.6 98 4.84 16 Total Measured

1,569 2.09 105 Indicated Resources Goliath Open Pit 0.25 26,956 0.87 757 Goliath Underground 1.6 2,592 3.16 263 Goldlund Open Pit 0.26 24,300 1.07 840 Total Indicated

53,848 1.07 1,860 Total Measured and Indicated

55,417 1.10 1,965 Inferred Resources Goliath Open Pit 0.25 5,644 0.65 76 Goliath Underground 1.6 704 2.75 62 Goldlund Open Pit 0.26 14,400 0.56 260 Goldlund Underground 1.6 233 6.8 51 Miller Open Pit 0.26 1,981 1.24 79 Total Inferred

22,962 0.77 528

Note on Mineral Resources: (1) Mineral resources are estimated in conformance with the CIM Mineral Resource definitions referred to in NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. This mineral resource estimate covers the Goliath Deposit, the Goldlund Deposit and the Miller deposit. (2) Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The quantity and grade of the reported Inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are conceptual in nature and are estimated based on limited geological evidence and sampling. Geological evidence is sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade or quality continuity. For these reasons, an Inferred Mineral Resources has a lower level of confidence than an Indicated Mineral Resources and it is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. (3) Goliath: Mineral resources are reported within an optimized constraining shell using a gold price of US$1700/Oz and a Silver price of US$23/Oz and recoveries of 95.5% for gold and 62.6% for silver and a base mining, processing + G&A costs of $CDN18.68/tonne open pit, $CDN93.54/tonne for underground.

Grades were estimated using 1.5-meter capped composites via Ordinary kriging for the Main and C zones and inverse distance cubed for all other zones. (4) Goldlund: Mineral resources are reported within an optimized constraining shell using a gold price of US$1700/Oz and gold recovery of 89% and a mining and processing + G&A costs of $CDN18.51/tonne open pit, $CDN93.53/tonne for underground and $CDN2.71/tonne for base mill feed cost.

Gold grades were estimated using 2.0 m capped composites within 9 mineralized zones using ordinary kriging. (5) Miller: Mineral resources are reported within an optimized constraining shell using a gold price of US$1700/Oz and gold recovery of 89% and a mining, base mill feed and G&A cost of US$21.22/tonnes.

Grades were estimated using 2.0 m capped composites within the granodiorite domain using Inverse Distance Cubed interpolation. (6) Summation errors may occur due to rounding.

Overall, a more conservative approach was taken to the mineral resource estimation methodologies on all sites in anticipation of a potential future mining and construction decision. For both Goliath and Goldlund a probabilistic estimation approach was used to model the gold and silver mineralization.

For Goliath, this differs from the previous mineral resource estimate approach that used discrete wireframes created from both geological contacts and drill assay results for the underground model and wider wireframes for the open pit model. With the new methodology, the entire mineralized corridor for the Main Zone and C-Zone were wireframed conventionally and then, internally sub-divided in a low grade, medium grade and high grade components using a probabilistic approach. The resulting single model respects the known geological information while ensuring that the grade distribution is more representative of the field condition. This has resulted in having a more conservative approach to continuity of the mineralization in both the low grade (Open Pit) and high grade (Underground) zones.

For Goldlund, the mineral resource estimation approach has considered a more conservative treatment of unsampled historic intervals to limit the influence of high-grade samples within the mineralized zones. The Goldlund probability mineral resource estimation approach has also revised the search strategy and geological domains to ensure that the modelling better reflects the controls on gold mineralization. This has resulted in a more conservative mineral resource estimate with more tonnes at a lower average grade above cut-off. Drilling is currently underway that specifically targets areas that have insufficient drill hole density with the goal of increasing the confidence in the continuity and adding inferred mineral resources in those areas.

The results of these updated resource estimates allow for a much larger proportion of Measured and Indicated resources to be included in the proposed mining plan. The following graph shows the high proportion of Measured and Indicated resources within the proposed mine plan. Additional exploration drilling is currently ongoing that is anticipated to enhance resource continuity based on this approach to previously assumed levels.

Further details on the mineral resource estimate will be available in the technical report on www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.treasurymetals.com.

Permitting and Approvals

The approach to environmental permitting and approvals for the Goliath Gold Complex will be to treat the Goliath, Goldlund and Miller deposits as three distinct projects for provincial permitting, all being processed at the mill facility within the existing federal EA approval for Goliath.

The schedule for permitting and approvals for the Goliath Gold Project is more advanced than the schedule for Goldlund and Miller, given that a Federal Environmental Assessment (EA) has already been completed for this Project. Specifically, on August 19, 2019, Treasury Metals received Federal Government approval under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 for the Goliath Gold Project, with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada concluding that with implementation of appropriate mitigation measures, the Project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects. Therefore, following the release of the PEA, the Goliath Gold Project may proceed directly into provincial permitting and other environmental approvals using the updated proposed mining plan, while additional baseline data collection will be completed for Goldlund and Miller to support anticipated future provincial approval processes. A full year of baseline data collection has been completed for the Goldlund site and will continue throughout the remainder of 2021 to support the anticipated future provincial approval processes.

Opportunities

The PEA has outlined a number of initiatives that may enhance the project which include:

For Goldlund, 6,400 metres of additional infill drilling in Zone 1 to confirm the continuity of high-grade mineralization and convert indicated to measured mineralization; 29,000 metres of additional infill drilling in Zones 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 9 to convert inferred mineralization to indicated mineralization; and 7,200 metres of exploration drilling to confirm the northeast extensions of Zones 1 and 4.

For Goliath, the focus will be on converting the remaining Inferred resources to the Indicated category in preparation for a Pre-Feasibility Study. The proposed resource conversion program consists of approximately 31,000 metres of additional drilling across the full strike of proposed underground mine plan. A small, limited drill program is also proposed for resource expansion between covering a strike length of 200 metres on the eastern portion of the deposit which could result in sufficient material amenable to open pit extraction. This small program consists of approximately 3,000 metres of additional drilling.

Further metallurgical test work to increase gold recovery at Goldlund and Miller.

The use of mined out open pit areas provide an opportunity for the storage of tailings and waste material. There is a significant volume that could be utilized for storage on a long term basis that would both reduce cost, and importantly provide an opportunity to limit the footprint and volume of tailings stored above surface.

The transport of Goldlund mineralized materials represents a significant cost that could be reduced by the use of ore sorting technology. Goldlund material has been shown to be amenable to such technology and prioritized for study.

The optimization of transporting material from the Goldlund and Miller sites to the Goliath Mill facility represents an opportunity for reduced cost. Additional studies will be completed in the next phase to better define the capital and operating costs of various options including different trucking options and the use of technologies such as Railveyor that provide efficient transport options.

Additional testing of the correlation of gold to silver at the Goldlund and Miller deposits has the opportunity to add silver to the resource if completed. The limited test data at the Goldlund resource is not sufficient to be included as part of the resource, but it should be noted that in this limited testing there does appear to be silver associated with some samples. A more fulsome assay program should be instituted to re-assay available samples and include assaying for future drill programs to investigate whether or not sufficient correlation is possible to create a silver by product from mining.

Next Steps

The Company intends to immediately initiate trade-off and optimization studies as part of a formal Pre-Feasibility Study, baseline environmental work, and other critical studies with a view to completing all required engineering work to facilitate the provincial permitting process later this year. Engagement with local communities and Indigenous Nations will also continue throughout the year.

In addition, the Company will continue exploration drilling at the Goldlund deposit totalling approximately 42,000 metres, which will include both infill and definition drilling, as well as additional drilling at the Miller deposit. The Company intends to mobilize a second drill at the Goliath deposit in the spring to conduct infill and definition drilling totalling approximately 27,000 metres in order to explore targets at depth and along strike which are outside the existing resource. Contingent on the success of the drill program and market conditions, the Company may consider mobilizing a third exploration drill.

Qualified Persons

The PEA for the Treasury Metal Goliath Gold Complex summarized in this news release was completed by Ausenco together with other technical consultants and will be incorporated in a NI 43-101 technical report which will be available under Treasury's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and on the Treasury website at www.treasurymetals.com within 45 days of this news release. The affiliation and areas of responsibility for each of the Qualified Persons involved in preparing the PEA, upon which the technical report will be based, are as follows: Mr. Tommaso Roberto Raponi, P.Eng  Qualified Person for Processing and Metallurgy; Mr. Pierre Desautels, P.Geo.  Qualified Person for Goliath Mineral Resource Evaluation; Mr. Christopher Keech, P.Geo  Qualified Person for Goldlund Mineral Resource Evaluation; Mr. Paul Daigle, P.Geo  Qualified Person for Miller Resource Evaluation; Mr. Gordon Zurowski, P.Eng  Qualified Person for Mine Engineering and Costing; Reagan McIsaac, Ph.D., P.Eng.  Qualified Person for Tailings Management; Sheila Daniel, P.Geo.  Qualified Person for Closure and Closure Costing,

By virtue of their education, membership to a recognized professional association and relevant work experience, Mr. Tommaso Roberto Raponi, Mr. Pierre Desautels, Mr. Christopher Keech, Mr. Paul Daigle, and Mr. Gordon Zurowski, are independent Qualified Persons as defined under NI 43-101.

Data Verification

The Qualified Persons responsible for the preparation of the PEA and the technical report in respect thereof have verified the data disclosed in this news release, including sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the information contained in this news release. Geological, mine engineering and metallurgical reviews included, among other things, reviewing mapping, core logs, and re-logging existing drill holes, review of geotechnical and hydrological studies, environmental and community factors, the development of the life of mine plan, capital and operating costs, transportation, taxation and royalties, and review of existing metallurgical test work. In the opinion of the Qualified Persons, the data, assumptions, and parameters used to estimate Mineral Resources, the metallurgical model, the economic analysis, and the PEA are sufficiently reliable for those purposes. The technical report in respect of the PEA, when filed, will contain more detailed information concerning individual responsibilities, associated quality assurance and quality control, and other data verification matters, and the key assumptions, parameters and methods used by the Company.

Mark Wheeler, P.Eng., Director, Projects, and Adam Larsen, Exploration Manager, are both considered as a "Qualified Person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Project ("NI 43-101"), and have reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this news release on behalf of Treasury.

Twitter @TreasuryMetals

About Treasury Metals Inc.

Treasury Metals Inc. is a gold focused company with assets in Canada. Treasury's Goliath Gold Complex, which includes the Goliath, Goldlund and Miller deposits along a 65-kilometre trend, is located in Northwestern Ontario. The deposits benefit substantially from excellent access to the Trans-Canada Highway, related power and rail infrastructure, and close proximity to several communities including Dryden and Sioux Lookout, Ontario. The Company also owns several other projects throughout Canada, including the Lara Polymetallic Project, Weebigee-Sandy Lake Gold Project JV, and grassroots gold exploration property Gold Rock.

To view further details about Treasury, please visit the Company's website at www.treasurymetals.com.

About Ausenco

Ausenco is a global company based across 26 offices in 14 countries, with projects in over 80 locations worldwide. Combining deep technical expertise with a 30-year track record, Ausenco delivers innovative, value-add consulting studies, project delivery, asset operations and maintenance solutions to the mining & metals, oil & gas and industrial sectors.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains information and projections that constitute "forward-looking statements" under applicable securities laws. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expect, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "intends", "estimates", "envisages", "potential", "possible", "strategy", "goals", "objectives", or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to statements regarding: the Company's expectations relating to the development of the Goliath Gold Complex, including, without limitation, the anticipated mine life and annual gold production of any mine to be developed, the ability of the Company to implement a "hub and spoke" regional production strategy, the anticipated operating costs, initial and sustaining capital costs, all-in sustaining costs, closure costs and post-tax NPV and IRR of any such development, the processing methodologies expected to be used in connection with any such development and the gold recovery of such processing methodologies; the economics and benefit to the Company, Indigenous Nations and local stakeholders that would result from any such development; the mineralization of the Goliath Gold Complex; the exploration potential across the Company's 330 square-kilometre land package and the results of future exploration activities thereon; expectations regarding the Company's ability to expand its resource in parallel with development; the approach to permitting that will be taken by the Company with respect to the Goliath Gold Complex and the timing of receiving all necessary permits; expectations regarding future work anticipated to be completed on the Goliath Gold Complex, including, without limitation, trade-off and optimization studies, baseline environmental work, exploration drilling and other critical studies and the anticipated timing thereof; expectations regarding the timing of the Company progressing to the feasibility stage with respect to its evaluation of the Goliath Gold Complex; expectations regarding the initiatives suggested by the PEA that might enhance the Goliath Gold Complex project, including, without limitation, additional infill drilling, further metallurgical testing work, the use of mined out open pit areas for the storage of tailings material, the use of ore sorting technology, the optimization of transporting material from the Goldlund and Miller sites to the Goliath Mill facility, additional testing of the correlation of gold to silver at the Goldlund and Miller deposits and the review of locating the process plant and tailings storage facility on the Goldlund property. Actual results or developments may differ materially from those described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. Treasury disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, save and except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Forward-looking statements in this news release reflect the Company's views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this presentation and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, but are not limited to: the risk of that the assumptions underlying the PEA and the Company's financial projections, including, without limitation, assumptions relating to the price of gold and the exchange rate from USD to CAD, are inaccurate; the risk that that the results of the Company's exploration of the Goliath Gold Complex to date does not an accurately reflect of the mineralization of the Goliath Gold Complex; the risk that the Company with not be able to undertake all planned development and permitting activities in a manner consistent with its expectations and without material delay; the risk that the Company will not be able to maintain all necessary existing permits; the fact that mineral reserve and mineral resource figures relating to the Goliath Gold Complex are only estimates and are subject to revision based on developing information; health, safety and environmental risks; the risk that the Company will not have to resources to finance the development of the Goliath Gold Complex as contemplated or at all; uncertainties related to negotiations with contractors and other material parties in connection with the development of the Goliath Gold Complex; risks associated with the mining industry, including operational risks in exploration and development as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; and such additional risks listed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated March 27, 2020 and in other filings of the Company with securities and regulatory authorities which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements could vary materially from that expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking information.

Appendix 1

Mine Plan Summary



Total Total Year

-1 Year

1 Year

2 Year

3 Year

4 Year

5 Year

6 Year

7 Year

8 Year

9 Year

10 Year

11 Year

12 Year

13 Year

14 Mill Feed Mill Feed

(Kt) 23,966 - 1,530 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 836 Au (g/t) 1.47 - 2.37 1.93 1.76 1.98 2.16 2.09 1.78 1.61 1.60 1.13 0.52 0.45 0.41 0.41 Ag (g/t) 1.82 - 1.5 1.6 - 1.3 4.0 3.0 2.7 2.7 2.1 2.5 0.1 0.6 1.7 1.7 Goliath Mill Feed

































Open Pit Mill Feed

(Kt) 6,099

301 353 - 26 602 197 - - - 1,314 - 670 1,800 836

Au (g/t) 0.97

3.22 2.98 - 2.74 2.21 1.33 - - - 0.66 - 0.41 0.41 0.41

Ag (g/t) 2.77

7.80 7.98 - 10.50 4.36 2.97 - - - 2.05 - 1.68 1.68 1.68 Underground Mill Feed

(Kt) 2,965

- - - 181 450 511 511 511 501 283 18 - - -

Au (g/t) 3.67

- - - 3.31 3.62 4.22 4.04 3.32 3.27 3.56 4.92 - - -

Ag (g/t) 9.05

- - - 11.14 10.27 9.32 9.34 9.45 7.60 6.61 8.37 - - - Goldlund Mill Feed Mill Feed

(Kt) 13,590

1,229 1,447 1,800 1,593 749 925 1,171 1,111 1,085 36 1,782 662 - -

Au (g/t) 1.25

2.16 1.68 1.76 1.82 1.24 1.22 0.78 0.78 0.78 0.77 0.48 0.48 - -

Ag (g/t) -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Miller Mill Feed Mill Feed

(Kt) 1,312

- - - - - 167 118 178 214 168 - 468 - -

Au (g/t) 1.16

- - - - - 1.32 1.91 1.92 1.85 0.76 - 0.46 - -

Ag (g/t) -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SOURCE Treasury Metals Inc.

Related Links

www.treasurymetals.com


Tom Tailor Boosts Efficiency, Transparency and Flexibility with Centric PLM I just cannot imagine a world without Centric PLM, today or in the future.

Centric Software is delighted to announce the release of a success story about its customer, Tom Tailor.

Founded in Hamburg in 1962, the core market of the Tom Tailor Group was traditionally located in Germany but has grown to 30 countries including Austria, Switzerland, South Eastern Europe and Russia. Now, with approximately 3,400 employees, over 640 own-retail stores and 8,585 other points of sale, about one third of the companys sales are currently generated abroad.

Having grown substantially both nationally and internationally in recent years, Tom Tailors teams used to struggle with the demands of administrative data entry and a lack of transparency between disconnected legacy systems for managing product information. Product development was not intuitive, and teams could not access client server-based product development software in meetings or outside the office.

We had a lot of different client-server based software that was outdated, slow and not intuitive, says Tom Tailors former Senior Manager of Core Applications, We had no single, integrated system that our teams could go to for all data pertaining to a product.

The company needed a solution with strong fashion foundations that was flexible enough to allow it to configure the different processes and best practices, and it particularly wanted a web-based solution that would enable users to work flexibly while traveling or outside the office. After thorough research, Tom Tailor decided to implement Centrics Fashion Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).

Tom Tailor Sourcing (TTS) now works extensively in PLM, sharing all essential product data, so we no longer have to send emails around the world to get simple things done... We can also put plans in place for emergencies, so that not all our work is allocated to one region.

Tom Tailor is looking ahead to a bright future with Centric.

I just cannot imagine a world without Centric PLM, today or in the future.

Discover how the German fashion and lifestyle brand experienced remarkable results with Centric PLM:

Read the Full Story

Request a Demo

Tom Tailor (http://www.tom-tailor.com)

TOM TAILOR is one of the best-known fashion and lifestyle companies in Europe. With the brand TOM TAILOR and the lines TOM TAILOR Denim, MY TRUE ME and mine to five, TOM TAILOR offer fashionable clothing and accessories in the mid-price segment.

As an international and vertically oriented fashion company, Tom Tailor focuses on fashionable casual wear. Each brand has its own clearly defined essence and distinctive character. Yet they all share one overriding goal: providing high quality fashion for the style-conscious whilst giving attractive value for money.

The company always has their finger on the pulse of time and implement current trends quickly and purposefully. This trend awareness is reflected in the Tom Tailor product strategies and the changing monthly collections, which are inspired by the current zeitgeist and street wear looks. This enables all Tom Tailor brands to respond to specific customer interests and the emotional needs of various target groups.

The core business of the Tom Tailor family brand is aimed at men and women between the ages of 25 and 45. The collections focus on comfortable, versatile looks and style with a fashionable, self-confident and authentic attitude.

RALEIGH, N.C., Feb. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Media Partners, Inc. (MPI) celebrates twenty-one years in business. "While 2020 was not the 20th Anniversary Celebration we had intended we are still thriving and looking to make our twenty-first year something to really celebrate," said partner, Nancy Bono.

MPI was founded by Bono in 2000. Since then, the company has persevered despite ups and downs in the economy and the many changes to the advertising landscape.

"I think the secret to our success has been our ability to adapt," said Bono. "We have always prided ourselves in responding to our partners' needs. That means understanding the market and helping our clients adapt too."

Today, MPI specializes in the areas of broadcast television, health care, education, and non-profits. From B-to-B campaigns to cutting-edge digital campaigns, MPI continues to offer clients a strategic partner to address their advertising and public relations needs.

"We have found that our clients appreciate the time we spend to understand their business," said Sal Conino, partner since 2009. "That kind of relationship helps us understand their voice and leads to creative concepts that resonate with clients and their customers."

After twenty-one years, the Raleigh-based company has 11 employees and serves about 20-25 clients annually in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. Among them are Good Samaritan Hospice of Roanoke and New River Valleys, Vidant Health in Eastern North Carolina, Raleigh Radiology, North Carolina Cyber Academy, Roanoke Prevention Alliance, Discover Durham, Roanoke Center for Higher Education, Virginia Broadcast Solutions (statewide VA), Diamond View Studios for national media, and television stations in Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington, Charlotte, NC, Knoxville, TN, and Lynchburg, VA.

Recent MPI account wins include:

Vidant Health for full-service media planning and buying in serving the Eastern North Carolina health care community extending from Rocky Mount to Ahoskie and New Bern to Chowan, Carolina Retreats in Surf City, NC including new properties launching in Oak Island, Carolina Beach, and Manteo, NC, Raleigh Radiology with expanding locations in Wake Forest and Clayton in early 2021, and ZIA-NYC, a New York-based children's clothing company.

SOURCE Media Partners, Inc.

Related Links

Mediapartners-inc.com


Many workers called back by employers resuming or expanding operations despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic face a dilemma: return to jobs that put them at high risk of the virus, or say no, and risk going without pay or unemployment benefits.

President Joe Biden argues workers should not have to make that choice.

An executive order signed on his second full day in office could make it easier for people to still qualify for jobless benefits if they quit or refuse a job that puts them at undue risk of infection from the coronavirus.

More than 18 million Americans are drawing some form of government unemployment assistance.

The order asks the U.S. Department of Labor to clarify that workers who refuse jobs due to unsafe working conditions can still receive unemployment insurance. A department spokesman told Reuters the agency is developing an Unemployment Insurance Program Letter  the usual mechanism for issuing guidelines or clarifying policies  in response to the order.

The Labor Department also issued new guidance on Friday with recommendations on how employers can protect workers from the virus, which has infected more than 25 million Americans and led to more than 433,500 U.S. deaths since the pandemic began.

In a period where lots of people have lost jobs and people are desperate for work, people will go and end up working under dangerous conditions and they will do so believing they have no other alternative, said Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

Assuring them they have the right to refuse unsafe work, and paying them enough to afford not to work, is vitally important, Jacobs said. You want people in the greatest risk groups to stay home.

Seeking Clarity

Its not clear how many workers have lost unemployment benefits after refusing jobs because of COVID-19 safety concerns, said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation and an expert on unemployment insurance. Still, the new guidance should establish minimum protections for workers, replacing an approach that can vary by state, he said.

Its been very unclear for a claimant to understand whether they can refuse an offer to go back to work, Stettner said.

Currently some states, including Texas, publish lists of the circumstances in which a worker might be able to keep receiving benefits after turning down a job. For instance, the state offers exceptions for workers age 65 and up, or those with health conditions that put them at high risk.

But other states advise workers of a narrower set of protections, and many make decisions on a case by case basis.

The goal would be to have some clear standards, Stettner said.

The new federal guidance, likely to be issued in the coming weeks, would be aimed at making both states and workers aware they should be able to qualify for unemployment benefits after refusing a job that puts them at greater risk because of their age, a health condition or lack of COVID-19 safety protocols, analysts say.

We Need A Standard

That policy could make a big difference for people in jobs at restaurants or other businesses requiring workers to be in close proximity to others, two recent studies suggest.

Essential workers were 55% more likely to get infected with coronavirus than those who stayed at home, according to a study of the early months of the pandemic in Pennsylvania published this week by researchers at Independence Blue Cross and the Wharton School of Business.

We all had a hunch that essential workers by the nature of their jobs are probably more exposed, which means theyre probably more likely to get infected  but what we didnt know was by how much, said Whartons Hummy Song, one of the papers authors.

A separate study out last week from the University of California found deaths of working-age Californians increased by 22% in 2020 from what would have been expected based on prior trends, and the deaths were concentrated in certain occupations.

Deaths among workers in food and agriculture, for instance, were 39% higher. Among healthcare workers, deaths were up 20%, the study noted.

The findings indicate there may be better protections in place in health care settings than in restaurants or other fields, said Yea-Hung Chen, one of the studys authors.

New guidance from the Biden administration could help workers in at least some of those higher-risk sectors keep unemployment benefits and avoid unsafe work  even as it puts pressure on companies to make workplaces safer, said University of California, Berkeley professor Jesse Rothstein.

We need a standard, said Rothstein. The DOL has been AWOL for the last year.

About the photo: A masked fruit vendor prepares her streetside cart while waiting for customers near downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020.


Dr. Eichmiller will act as Chairman of P&R's DentaQual Advisory Council, providing critical guidance on the underlying metrics used in the DentaQual quality measurement platform. Dr. Eichmiller will also act as a DentaQual domain expert for industry associations, providers, press and dental plans, and will assist the P&R team as it develops and launches a new value-based reimbursement platform that will enable dental plans to implement effective pay-for-performance programs.

Dr. Eichmiller has spent the past 15 years in leadership roles at Delta Dental of Wisconsin, most recently as Vice President and Science Officer, where he was a close partner to P&R and a power-user of P&R's data-driven business intelligence solutions.



Paul T. Sheils, CEO of P&R said: "Fred is a highly regarded thought leader in dental quality measurement with a keen appreciation of the powerful insights that big data and sophisticated analytics can deliver to dental payers. His expertise will be an invaluable resource to the DentaQual Advisory Council and to its goal of implementing objective, uniform quality metrics across the industry."



"I've long been a fan and avid user of P&R's solutions," said Dr. Eichmiller. "For years I've shared a strong enthusiasm with the P&R team for how data and analytics can change the dental benefits industry for the better. I've been a member of the DentaQual Advisory Council for several years now and I'm excited to be taking a larger role with that group as we look at what's possible with objective dental quality measurement. I'm pleased to be joining the P&R team to offer my guidance on some of their most exciting data-driven quality solutions. Together, we can help dental payers evolve their offerings and help their members make more informed oral healthcare decisions."



For more information about P&R Dental Strategies, DentaQual objective dental quality measurement, or any of our other payer business solutions, visit https://www.pandrdental.com/



For business inquiries, please contact P&R Dental Strategies Business Development at +1.856.986.6216 or email [email protected]



About P&R Dental Strategies, LLC

P&R Dental Strategies is the premier dental insights company delivering customized, actionable business intelligence powered by DentaBase, our national multi-payer claims database. P&R Dental Strategies' flexible, cutting-edge technology platform provides an enterprise-level suite of quality measurement, claim review and utilization management, provider profiling, fraud and abuse prevention and network development solutions to customers seeking to contain costs and maximize efficiency across their businesses. P&R Dental Strategies customers can depend on the support of an industry-leading team of dentists, consultants and statisticians to focus on their unique challenges.



Website: https://www.pandrdental.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pandrdentalstrategies

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PandRDental

Joe Mann

Vice President of Marketing

P&R Dental Strategies, LLC

(609)783-9011

[email protected]

This release was issued through WebWire. For more information, visit http://www.webwire.com.

SOURCE P&R Dental Strategies, LLC

Related Links

http://www.pandrdental.com


Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2) President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday claimed the European Union is holding hostage the COVID-19 vaccines manufactured in their region, saying the Association of Southeast Asian Nations  which the Philippines is a part of  is not as influential when it comes to securing coronavirus vaccines.

He said the powerful regional bloc is obstructing the export of AstraZeneca vaccines made in the United Kingdom before the company fulfills its obligations in EU.

"Eh yung AstraZeneca hinostage ng European Union. Iyong ating ASEAN it is not that powerful to have a clout sa mga ganitong ginagawa ngayon. Wala nga eh. Walang supply," he said in his weekly taped address with his Cabinet members, even as some ASEAN members have already started their vaccination program.

[Translation: AstraZeneca is being held hostage by the European Union... The ASEAN is not that powerful to have that same amount of clout. We don't have supply.]

The European Union recently called out vaccine makers AstraZeneca and Pfizer over delivery delays. Officials even threatened to restrict exports and take legal action against the manufacturers.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. backed Duterte's claim, but he said the country will not be affected by the "politics" in the United Kingdom since the Philippines' supply of AstraZeneca vaccines will be manufactured in Thailand and at the Serum Institute of India.

The President also said the Philippines' "greatest disadvantage" is that the country cannot compete with nations that offer to purchase the doses at a higher price.

"Labanan ito ngayon sa highest bidder nga. Kung sino yung makabayad ng una, mag-deposito na, tapos lalo na kung yung bansa na yon ang humihingi ng supply ng vaccine is the country where the factory is located, nauuna talaga sa kanila," he added.

[Translation: This is an issue of who can bid the highest, who can pay first, who can deposit the payment first. The country where vaccines are manufactured are also prioritized.]

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez assured the government has funds to buy vaccines for Filipinos. He said there will be multilateral funding from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank worth P66.2 billion that can pay for 106 million doses of vaccines. The Philippines will also pay over P4 billion for 40 million doses of vaccines that can be accessed through the COVAX facility.

The country is set to have its initial rollout of vaccines by end of February or in March as the Philippines is set to receive its first doses of coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX facility, an initiative led by the World Health Organization. At least 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are seen to arrive in the country on the second or third week of February. The Philippines may also be able to access 5.5 million to up to 9.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines made in South Korea by late February or early March.

However, neighboring countries in ASEAN like Singapore, Indonesia, and Myanmar have already started to immunize their people against the coronavirus.

The finance chief added that the target is to get vaccines for 70 million Filipino adults, but he said national officials negotiated for doses for 92 million people to factor in possible delays.

While waiting for the arrival of the vaccines, Duterte assured the public the government is doing its best to address the health crisis.

"We cannot do anything. We cannot call upon the heavens to fall on its knees, to demand and be ours what is not to be simply ours," he said. "Just keep your faith in government."

[February 02, 2021] Ricoh Canada partners with Women of Influence to host the 2021 Top 25 Women of Influence Awards

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Feb. 2, 2021 /CNW/ - Ricoh Canada Inc. has extended its partnership with Women of Influence for the second consecutive year by becoming the presenting sponsor of the 2021 Top 25 Women of InfluenceTM awards. The annual Top 25 Women of Influence awards celebrates the accomplishments of Canada's female role models throughout the past year by recognizing their efforts towards influencing and driving positive change. This year's virtual awards ceremony will include fireside chats with 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Camille Orridge (Senior Fellow at Wellesley Institute and former CEO of the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network) and Top 25 Award recipient Larissa Crawford (Founder and Managing Director of Future Ancestors Services). Ricoh's partnership with Women of Influence reinforces its ongoing commitment towards celebrating diversity and inclusion for female role models across Canada's communities and the global stage. The 2021 Top 25 Women of Influence awards is a perfect synergy with Ricoh's 'Change. For better.' campaign.



"As this year's presenting sponsor, celebrating diversity and inclusion acts on our promise of the Ricoh Way  to embrace and respect the collective and unique talents, experiences, and perspectives of everyone. That's how we live the Ricoh Way, and change.For better," says Eric Fletcher, Vice President of Marketing at Ricoh Canada. "We're proud to continue our partnership with Women of Influence in highlighting significant accomplishments achieved through female empowerment and leadership." "We are thrilled to be partnering with Ricoh again this year for our Top 25 awards celebration, "said Alicia Skalin, Co-CEO, Head of Events & Programming. "This partnership represents our shared vision in shining a spotlight on the incredible and diverse accomplishments of Canadian women over the past year."

This year's Top 25 recipients represent a variety of sectors, career stages, and contributions to women's advancement. As women of influence with the common goal of creating lasting change, their individual achievements continue to inspire others in striving for positive progression and transformation. About the Event For more event information or to purchase tickets, visit: https://www.womenofinfluence.ca/event/2021-top-25/ About Women of Influence Women of Influence, now in its 27th year, is one of North America's leading organizations offering solutions for workplace gender equality and women's advancement. Through our global events, digital media, signature awards, and consulting, Women of Influence reaches a diverse community of professional women and men across Canada and internationally. Providing insights and inspiration, perspectives on key issues, and creating opportunities to connect  we are making change happen for women, today. Our signature programs include the Top 25 Women of Influence Awards and the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards. For more information, please visit www.womenofinfluence.com For more information about Ricoh, please visit www.ricoh.ca or follow the company's social media channels on Twitter , Facebook and LinkedIn . | About Ricoh | Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, communications services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2020, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,008 billion yen (approx. 18.5 billion USD). For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com .  2021 Ricoh Canada Inc. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies. SOURCE Ricoh Canada Inc.

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[February 02, 2021] Career Development Platform Careerist Raises $1.25M in Seed Round At $21M Market Cap

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Careerist (ex JobEasy), a Silicon Valley-based career development platform which adapts US labor to the new economy for a share of the future salary, has raised $1.25 million in seed financing. IIDF, an international VC supporting Russian-speaking entrepreneurs, Bogdan Iarovoi, an early-stage investor and his SmartHub syndicate, as well as other Silicon Valley-based business angels participated in the round. The new capital will be primarily used for new software product development, growth and scaling operations. Founded in March 2019, Careerist gives anyone without a tech or coding background a chance to land a job in the U.S. tech industry. The platform trains and applies its students for simple well-paid jobs like software testing, while helping them grow into more advanced roles. Students pay an initial application fee and sign an Income Share Agreement to pay a full tuition fee only if they land a job. With a 500% growth rate in 2020 despite the economic downturn and hiring freezes, an edtech and fintech startup recorded nearly $2 million in yearlyrevenue. Careerist graduates have already secured jobs at Google, Apple, Amazon, Slack, Salesforce, Samsung, Verizon, AT&T, Snap, Facebook, and others.



Ivan Tsybaev, the CEO and founder, is a serial entrepreneur and Silicon Valley veteran. Previously founded Trucker Path, U.S. most popular app for truckers (crowdsourced navigation + financial services), raised over $30M from VC and sold it to a public company. Platform

An advanced software platform, Careerist develops data-driven education products and automates the full customer lifecycle, from pre-qualification to job placement and beyond. The company continuously works on both education and job placement functions such as machine learning-powered job applications en masse, as well as the fintech component, including background checks, contract automation and collections. Rebranding into Careerist.com further advances the company's ambition to be not only an education platform, but also a lifetime career partner. From jump-starting the career to assisting in salary and promotion negotiations and providing advanced training, Careerist aims to help thousands of people in the U.S. to quickly adapt to in-demand job requirements without taking a burden of huge student loans.

Contact:

Mary Glazkova

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The Nagol is Back! VTOs guide to this years Nagol, plus where to stay and play in south, central and north Pentecost.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have held their first phone call, reaffirming the importance of a strategic partnership between the two countries.

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, Kuleba wrote this on his Twitter account on Monday, February 1.

"In our first call today Secretary of State Blinken and I affirmed the importance of the Ukraine-U.S. strategic partnership. We agreed to raise the level of ambition and begin a new day in our relations. Grateful for the unfaltering U.S. support of Ukraine's sovereignty & territorial integrity," he wrote.

In our first call today @SecBlinken and I affirmed the importance of the Ukraine-U.S. strategic partnership. We agreed to raise the level of ambition and begin a new day in our relations. Grateful for the unfaltering U.S. support of Ukraines sovereignty & territorial integrity.  Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 1, 2021

On January 26, the U.S. Senate approved Blinken as Secretary of State in the Joe Biden administration.

During the hearings held in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Blinken spoke in support of Ukraine. He stressed that the United States must help Ukraine overcome not only an external threat from Russia, but also its internal enemies - corruption and the lack of effective institutions of democratic governance.

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The FIGEAC AERO Group (ticker: FGA), a leading partner for major aerospace manufacturers, provides an update on the initiatives it is taking to improve its competitive standing and commercial momentum.

Public funding to support the Group's development

FIGEAC AERO received a substantial 3.6 million subsidy in December 2020 under the stimulus plan set up by the Occitanie regional authority for the aerospace industry; the subsidy will be used to spur the Group's R&D efforts aimed at optimising its productivity. R&D is being carried out in several areas, such as workpiece removal of milled hard metal, optimal use of cutting tools and standardised machining processes to become more competitive. The region is thus expressing its full confidence in the Group yet again by supporting it through this unprecedented crisis.

The Group has also responded to the call for proposals for France's "industrial recovery package", launched by the government alongside Bpifrance, which will provide financial assistance from the aerospace modernisation and diversification fund. FIGEAC AERO submitted a proposal towards the end of the year to transform its information systems by rolling out a new standardised RPA-type (Robotic Process Automation) system across the Group's various facilities. Its application will be examined over the coming weeks and is likely to succeed.

FIGEAC AERO is also preparing to join forces with some of the main aerospace contractors in a number of industrial partnership projects working towards green aviation.

Operational optimisation plan

The economic downturn in the airline industry and its consequences have forced the Group to extensively reorganise its workforce at its overseas production facilities but also in France at the Figeac site (head office) and Meaulte site; the aim is to maintain its competitive standing and prepare for the economic difficulties lying ahead as well as their repercussions on employment.

Dialogue between management and labour led to an agreement with the unions on a PSE (Employment Protection Plan). The plan was approved by DIRECCTE (Regional Directorates for Business, Competitive, Consumption, Labour and Employment) during the course of January 2021. The reorganisation will involve reducing the headcount by 220 in Figeac (compared with the initial 320 discussed) and by 21 in Meaulte. The Group is now focused on putting this plan into action, which will involve high-quality individual support measures for those concerned.

Sustained commercial momentum

Given current circumstances and the lack of short-term visibility, FIGEAC AERO will not release its revenue figures for the 3rd quarter of this financial year so its next financial publication will come out on 27th May 2021 after trading when it releases its full-year revenue at 31st March 2021. The Group nonetheless continues to roll out its pro-active commercial strategy, all the more so now that the Boeing 737 Max is flying again; for instance, it has won more tenders for aerostructure parts and engines, and is pursuing efforts to diversify its business portfolio.

FIGEAC AERO is still very confident about its ability to win new business with sizeable revenues and in the full range of commercial aviation programmes (A220, A320, B737, etc.); the new contracts it won during the crisis are testament to its capabilities.

ABOUT FIGEAC AERO

The FIGEAC AERO Group, a leading partner for major aerospace manufacturers, specialises in producing light alloy and hard metal structural parts, engine parts, landing gear and sub-assemblies. FIGEAC AERO is a global group operating in France, the USA, Morocco, Mexico, Romania and Tunisia. The Group generated annual revenue of 447m in the year to 31st March 2020.

FIGEAC AERO

Jean-Claude Maillard - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Tel.: +33 (0)5 65 34 52 52



Camille Traineau

Corporate Development Director

Institutional Relations / IR

Tel.: +33 (0)5 81 24 61 90 / camille.traineau@figeac-aero.com ACTUS Finance & Communication

Corinne Puissant - Analyst/Investor Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 77 / cpuissant@actus.fr



Manon Clairet - Press Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 73 / mclairet@actus.fr

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Why Jordan Petersons Home Is Decorated With Soviet Propaganda Art

Whenever I visit the home of a friend or acquaintance, I make a point of looking at two things. One of them is their library.

One can learn a great deal about someone simply by checking out the books on their shelves, Ive found. Are they filled with books on how to make money or sci-fi? Are the crime thrillers written by John Grisham and James Patterson or Capote or Mailer?

Sometimes patterns emerge. Biographies of inspirational figures tend to be accompanied by literature on self-improvement. If you find an Ayn Rand novel, almost invariably youll find something written by Hayek or on Ronald Reagan. Sometimes its the randomness thats striking. Say, what are these romances doing next to Kierkegard? And why is Bukowski with Chesterton and C.S. Lewis?

And what if there are no books? Well, maybe that tells a story, too.

Some may think of this as snooping, but books are on display for a reason. They say things about us. Which leads me to the second thing I observe when I visit someones home: artwork.

Like the books on our shelves, the art in homes can say a lot about us. Thats, again, why people display itand have been known to pay extraordinary amounts of money to do so.

Art Lionizing the Soviet Revolutionary Spirit

Ive been in homes that have displayed unusual artwork, including one house decorated in African-themed pieces that many would consider pornographic. But I dont believe Ive ever seen anything quite as unusual and unique as the art in Jordan Petersons home.

To be clear, Ive never actually visited Petersons house. But his home and its artwork are described in some detail by Norman Doidge, who wrote the foreword to Petersons best-selling book 12 Rules for Life.

Doidge met Peterson in 2004 at a gathering hosted by mutual friends, a pair of Polish emigres who came of age during the days of the Soviet empire. At the time, Peterson was a professor at the University of Toronto, and he and Doidgea psychiatrist and psychoanalystsoon became friends. (Apart from their scientific interests, it seems the men shared a passion for the great books, particularly soulful Russian novels.)

Doidge visited Peterson on more than one occasion, and he describes the Peterson house as the most fascinating and shocking middle-class home I had seen. Among the fascinations was an impressive collection of unusual artwork.

They had art, some carved masks, and abstract portraits, but they were overwhelmed by a huge collection of original Socialist Realist paintings of Lenin and the early Communists commissioned by the USSR, writes Doidge. Paintings lionizing the Soviet revolutionary spirit completely filled every single wall, the ceilings, even the bathrooms.

Books and art can tell you a great deal about people, as I said, but one must be careful to not draw the wrong conclusions. Which invites an important question: Why was Petersons home covered in Soviet era artwork?

One might assume that Peterson was a socialist. Yet, this isnt the case. Or maybe, one might guess, Peterson began gobbling up Soviet propaganda pieces following the fall of the Soviet Union simply as investment. (I wish I had possessed the foresight to buy up a bunch of vintage Soviet art following the fall of the Soviet empire; alas, I was only 12.) Perhaps, but this wouldnt explain why its displayed throughout his home.

Fortunately, Doidge offers us an answer.

The paintings were not there because Jordan had any totalitarian sympathies, but because he wanted to remind himself of something he knew he and everyone else would rather forget: that over a hundred million people were murdered in the name of utopia, Doidge writes.

The Horrors of Collective Power

Its easy to forget that people like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Mao werent actually monsters. They were simply people who did monstrous things in their quest to build utopias.

Our policy was to provide an affluent life for the people, Pol Pot once explained in a famous 1979 interview with The Guardian. There were mistakes made in carrying it out.

It was the great lie that bewitched so many in the 20th centurythe idea that a more perfect world could be built through collectivism and coercion. And it was one that consumed many people, not just the devils of history.

I have seen the future and it works, the American investigative journalist Lincoln Steffens once observed after visiting Stalins Soviet Union.

It seems absurd to think anyone could possibly forget that 100 million people were murdered in the name of utopiauntil you realize many of us have. The horrors of collective power seem mostly a distant memory, especially among intellectuals. There was a time when many intellectual giantsAldous Huxley, George Orwell, and J.R.R. Tolkien, among themsaw concentrated government power as perhaps the greatest threat to humanity.

Its probable that all the worlds governments will be more or less completely totalitarian even before the harnessing of atomic energy; that they will be totalitarian during and after the harnessing seems almost certain, Huxley observed not long after the conclusion of World War II. Only a large-scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the present tendency toward statism.

Huxley was no crank. He was one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century. But any intellectual offering such a warning today would likely be dismissed by fellow scholars as just that, a crank.

Many seem happy to forget the great lesson of the 20th century: Those who seek to create heaven on earth through coercion almost invariably create hell. (To paraphrase the French author and psychiatrist Francois Lelord.)

Jordan Peterson is determined to not forget.

And wed all do well to remember that a healthy and prosperous society is built through peace, trade, and freedomnot government force.

Jonathan Miltimore is the managing editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, and The Epoch Times. This article was originally published on FEE.org
OTTAWA - Justice Minister David Lametti isn't ruling out the possibility of asking the Supreme Court to advise on the constitutionality of a bill to expand access to assisted dying.

Justice Minister David Lametti is seen during a news conference in Ottawa, Thursday November 26, 2020. Lametti isn't ruling out the possibility of asking the Supreme Court to advise on the constitutionality of a bill to expand access to medical assistance in dying. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Justice Minister David Lametti isn't ruling out the possibility of asking the Supreme Court to advise on the constitutionality of a bill to expand access to assisted dying.

Testifying to the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee Monday, Lametti said a reference to the top court, rather than waiting for a specific case to make its way there through lower courts, is always a possibility.

But he made it clear he's not convinced of its value.

"It always remains an option but I've never been convinced that it's our best option," he told the committee.

Lametti's office later added in an email statement: "For greater emphasis, we have no plans to ask for a constitutional reference on medical assistance in dying."

But while the government may have no plans to refer Bill C-7 to the top court, it may be forced by the Senate to reconsider the matter.

Senators seem determined to propose amendments. And the idea of an amendment that calls for immediate referral to the Supreme Court appears to have support both among senators who think the bill doesn't go far enough to ease the rules on assisted dying and those who think it goes too far.

Some senators who believe the bill is too restrictive have argued that it would be more humane to refer it to the Supreme Court directly, rather than force intolerably suffering people to spend time, money and effort challenging the legislation in lower courts.

Other senators, who believe the bill discriminates against people with disabilities, have argued that the top court needs to weigh in before the law is changed to expand eligibility for assisted dying to people who are not already near the natural end of their lives.

The committee heard Monday from legal experts on both sides of the equation who agreed the bill should be referred to the Supreme Court.

The bill is intended to bring the law into compliance with a 2019 Quebec Superior Court ruling, which the federal government chose not to appeal. It struck down a provision that allows assisted dying only for those whose natural death is "reasonably foreseeable."

Lametti acknowledged that Bill C-7 could well be challenged as a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But he said his goal is to reduce individuals' suffering as quickly as possible and argued that passing C-7 is the fastest way to do that.

He noted that references to the top court take time. It took 14 months for the Supreme Court to render its advice on Senate reform in 2014.

"I think this is a more expeditious way forward to alleviate the suffering of people more quickly," Lametti said.

"Yes, there will be potential challenges but we think  we've really narrowed both the scope and the time frame for those constitutional challenges."

Bill C-7 would scrap the reasonably foreseeable death requirement to qualify for an assisted death. But it sets up two eligibility tracks, relaxing some rules for those who are near death and imposing stricter conditions for those who are not.

It explicitly prohibits assisted dying for anyone suffering solely from mental illness  an exclusion that many legal experts have said violates the charter guarantee of equal treatment under the law, regardless of physical or mental disability.

The committee is holding three daylong hearings on the bill this week before sending it back to the Senate as a whole. Lametti urged senators to deal with it expeditiously, leaving sufficient time for cabinet to consider proposed amendments and, if necessary, put them to a vote in the House of Commons and send the bill back to the Senate  all before the court-imposed deadline of Feb. 26.

The committee heard from a number of witnesses Monday who echoed the concerns of disability rights groups that the bill sends a message that life with a disability is not worth living. Among them was Gerard Quinn, the United Nations special rapporteur for the rights of persons with disabilities.

He acknowledged that the government must try to balance the autonomy rights of people with disabilities who want to choose an assisted death with the reality of the "ecosystem" in which they live, often in poverty and without the health and social supports necessary to make a real choice.

"I think the idea of some sort of reference to your Supreme Court to really think through the balancing between these two rights is actually where it's at and I'm not sure that that's been done well thus far," Quinn said.

Dalhousie University law professor Wayne MacKay agreed that "this concern needs more thought and judicial input."

MacKay and former senator Serge Joyal, a constitutional law expert, both argued that the top court should also weigh in on the proposed exclusion of people suffering solely from mental illnesses  an exclusion they both believe is unconstitutional.

Sen. Brent Cotter, who sits in the Independent Senators Group, said "the debates and concerns we're hearing now cry out for an authoritative answer" from the Supreme Court.

Some senators have raised the idea of a sunset clause on the mental illness exclusion, giving the government a year to come up with appropriate safeguards to allow those suffering solely from mental conditions to access assisted dying.

Joyal said such a clause must be clear that people with mental illnesses would still be able to seek a court-ordered assisted death while the government is developing its guidelines.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb, 1, 2021.
Jeff Goldblum has officially received his 'first dose' of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

He announced the news on Monday in an Instagram post, which included a snapshot of the 68-year-old actor seemingly getting the vaccine at his home in Los Angeles.

'As a citizen well into my platinum years, I got my first dose of the vaccine through the LA County Department of Health,' captioned the Jurassic Park star, who boasts 2.1million followers.

Done and dusted: Jeff Goldblum has officially received his 'first dose' of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

Goldblum posed for the snapshot in his luxurious looking backyard, while donning a black robe, sweat pants, and leopard print slippers.

He also had a mask over his mouth and nose that just happened to coordinate with his lounging ensemble.

Standing a few feet beside Jeff was a nurse, donning a face mask and gloves, seemingly preparing to give him the vaccine or having just finished administering the first dose.

Goldblum went on to express his 'immense gratitude to all of the frontline healthcare workers, continuing to work tirelessly to keep us all safe.'

Backlash: Despite having seemingly good intentions behind his post, Jeff was flooded with mixed feedback, with many calling out the luxury of having the vaccine 'delivered to [his] house'

Rare experience: 'I love you but this kind of pisses me off that you get to get it in your house in your pajamas,' wrote one Goldblum fan, reminding others that the vaccine process is rarely as glamorous or convenient

The Independence Day actor also noted in his caption that, despite receiving the vaccine, he will 'continue to wear masks and practice social distancing' in public.

'This too shall pass. Grand things are ahead,' he concluded, followed by a pink heart emoji.

Despite having seemingly good intentions behind his post, Jeff was flooded with mixed feedback, with many calling out the luxury of having the vaccine 'delivered to [his] house.'

'Your health department does home visits?' asked one commenter rhetorically, while another wrote: 'I want to be rich enough to be vaccinated at my house.'

Priority issue? Another major point of contention was the actor thanking essential workers, while simultaneously getting the vaccine while many essential workers (inside and outside medical environments) remain unvaccinated

'I love you but this kind of pisses me off that you get to get it in your house in your pajamas,' wrote one Goldblum fan, reminding others that the vaccine process is rarely as glamorous or convenient.

Another major point of contention was the actor thanking essential workers, while simultaneously getting the vaccine while many essential workers (inside and outside medical environments) remain unvaccinated.

'CDC recommends that initial supplies of COVID-19 vaccine be allocated to healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents,' reads the CDC's official vaccine guidelines.

'Curious how an actor gets vaccinated before 'essential workers' that make sure your stores are serving you. Rather self righteous,' read one irked comment.

Flaunting? Some people saw Jeff's post as a means of 'flaunting' his access to the vaccine as well as the means it was administered to him

'We will all wait online. You go ahead and post your privilege,' read another, with one comment calling out Jeff's social status as 'jumping the line.'

Some people saw Jeff's post as a means of 'flaunting' his access to the vaccine as well as the means it was administered to him.

'Way to flaunt getting a vaccine at your house. Incredibly tone deaf and disgraceful,' read one angry comment, with the person adding that they are 'no longer a fan' of Goldblum.

'Are celebrities priority? Don't they have excessive square footage on which to quarantine safely?' asked another commenter, noting that quarantine in a small apartment is much more emotionally taxing than quarantining in a Los Angeles mansion.

Positive vibes: Luckily for Jeff, there were a few positive comments among the waves of critique, including many comments labeling him a 'national treasure' in need of 'protecting'

Thankful: 'So happy you're safe legend! We love you!' read one piece of positive, while another comments praised the Thor: Ragnarok actor for his 'positive attitude' amid the pandemic

Inquisitive: Some commenters even used Jeff's experience as a way to ask questions about the vaccine, with one person asking if the star has had 'any side effects yet?'

Luckily for Jeff, there were a few positive comments among the waves of critique, including many comments labeling him a 'national treasure' in need of 'protecting.'

'So happy you're safe legend! We love you!' read one piece of positive, while another comments praised the Thor: Ragnarok actor for his 'positive attitude' amid the pandemic.

'Thank goodness I need you to stay safe,' wrote a relieved Instagram user.

Some commenters even used Jeff's experience as a way to ask questions about the vaccine, with one person asking if the star has had 'any side effects yet?'

Vaccinated: 'As a citizen well into my platinum years, I got my first dose of the vaccine through the LA County Department of Health,' captioned the Jurassic Park star, who boasts 2.1million followers; Jeff pictured in 2020

The Maderna COVID-19 vaccine is administered in two doses, which are given to recipients 28 days apart, according to the CDC. The vaccine is 'shot in the muscle of the upper arm.'

Some of the possible side effects listed are pain, swelling, and/or redness in the injection site, as well as 'rest of body' effects like chills, tiredness, and/or headache.

As for how COVID-19 is fairing among citizens in Goldblum's Los Angeles County, local news station ABC 7 reported on Monday that the 'number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalization' are seemingly 'headed in the right direction.'

'Hospital intensive-care units in the Los Angeles area were filled to capacity for weeks, with health-care workers struggling to treat overwhelming numbers of COVID-19 patients,' stated the outlet, adding that the 'surge is now leveling off.'

Quarantine crew: Goldblum has been hunkered down with wife Emilie Livingston, 38, and their two sons Charlie, five, and River, three; the entire family pictured in 2020

Despite a mild improvement, health experts are encouraging civilians to continue to 'take major precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.'

Recent data reported by the LA Times revealed that January was the 'deadliest month' for California, with Los Angeles County reporting nearly 17,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

'In Los Angeles County, 6,411 people died in January  137% more than the previous most-deadly month of December, in which 2,703 people died,' the outlet revealed.
Two-thirds of London's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community had Covid last year - nine times the national average and around 0.3 per cent of those infected died, a study has shown.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found the rate of past infection was at 64 per cent in the community of around 15,000 people.

This compares to rates of 11 per cent in London more generally and just seven per cent across the UK, according to estimates by the Office for National Statistics.

Suspected infections in the community peaked in early March, just before the first lockdown, when rates then began to fall sharply, before rising again in the autumn once restrictions were lifted.

The researchers say the reasons for such high rates of infection are unclear, but crowded housing and deprivation are thought to be contributing factors.

Ultra-Orthodox families have significantly larger households than the UK average - with five to six individuals per house compared to a UK average of 2.3 - and tend to live in areas of increased population density.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found the rate of past infection in London's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community was 64 per cent

Jewish men and women suffered the highest death rates in the first wave of the pandemic in Britain

Hasidic Jews in north London ignored social distancing rules back in May as hundreds gathered to celebrate a sacred festival in their religious calendar

Entire basis of ultra-Orthodoxy is communal gatherings While the researchers insist the reasons behind such high rates of infection are unclear, others suggest crowded housing and socio-economic deprivation as possible causes. Ultra-Orthodox families have significantly larger households than the UK average - with five to six individuals per house compared to a UK average of 2.3 - and tend to live in areas of increased population density. Communal events and gatherings were regularly attended in pre-pandemic times, though there have been a number of high-profile breaches in recent weeks, too. Israel Frey, an ultra-Orthodox journalist who has been critical of the community's response to the pandemic, told the Jerusalem Post he does not see 'even a gram' of introspection or change in direction in the leadership's attitude to the crisis. He added: 'Ultra-Orthodoxy in 2021 is about the energy of communal gatherings and celebrations: everyone being together. 'That is what sustains ultra-Orthodoxy  its entire basis is communal gatherings.' Last week also saw the death of two of the most senior and revered ultra-Orthodox rabbis in the world - Rabbi Meshulam David Soloveitchik, 99, and Rabbi Yitzhak Scheiner, 98 - both of whom had previously being diagnosed with the virus. A number of other religious leaders have fallen victim to Covid in Israel and the US, with funerals attended by thousands despite restrictions on gatherings, the JP reports. Advertisement

Communal events and gatherings were regularly attended in pre-pandemic times, though there have been a number of high-profile breaches in recent weeks, too.

Israel Frey, an ultra-Orthodox journalist who has been critical of the community's response to the pandemic, told the Jerusalem Post he does not see 'even a gram' of introspection or change in direction in the leadership's attitude to the crisis.

He added: 'Ultra-Orthodoxy in 2021 is about the energy of communal gatherings and celebrations: everyone being together.

'That is what sustains ultra-Orthodoxy  its entire basis is communal gatherings.'

Last week also saw the death of two of the most senior and revered ultra-Orthodox rabbis in the world - Rabbi Meshulam David Soloveitchik, 99, and Rabbi Yitzhak Scheiner, 98 - both of whom had previously being diagnosed with the virus.

A number of other religious leaders have fallen victim to Covid in Israel and the US, with funerals attended by thousands despite restrictions on gatherings, the JP reports.

It comes after the Mayor of Hackney has called on Orthodox Jews to stop holding massive weddings after a string of events breaking lockdown rules emerged.

Police broke up a 150-strong gathering in Stamford Hill, north London, at a strict Orthodox Charedi Jewish school last Thursday.

Guests fled from the wedding held at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School when police arrived at around 9.15pm, where some had covered up windows and closed gates to hide the celebrations.

The school's former principal, Rabbi Avroham Pinter, died from coronavirus last spring, according to the Jewish News.

The publication also claims that at least 50 illegal Orthodox weddings have happened during lockdown.

The LSHTM study invited more than 1,750 people in the community to complete a demographic and medical information survey and provide a blood sample between November and early December 2020, which was then tested for antibodies.

Blood samples from 1,242 individuals were collected, with an overall infection rate was of 64%, one of the highest recorded anywhere in the world.

During the research, 697 people (37.5%) reported an illness they thought was consistent with COVID-19.

There were clear peaks in reported illness consistent with the first and second waves of the virus in the UK.

A total of 16 (0.9%) individuals reported hospitalisation for COVID-19 and a further three individuals were reported to have died of COVID-19.

Dr Michael Marks, who co-led the LSHTM study, said: 'Our work has revealed the extremely high rates of infection in this very interconnected population.

'Working in tandem with the community we are conducting further work to understand the potential factors involved. These findings could support potential new interventions that may help reduce infection in the community.'

Officers attended the scene in north London in May before the celebrations, left, and were told that no more than 10 members of the same family, which lived at the house anyway, would be there. Police went back a few hours later and found the party in full swing, right

Ethnic and religious minorities have been disproportionately affected by Covid throughout the pandemic, with deprivation, reduced ability to work from home and larger household sizes all thought to be contributing factors.

Researchers add that while attention in the UK has largely focused on the Afro-Caribbean and South Asian populations, data from Public Health England shows other minority groups have also been severely affected.

Jewish men aged over 65 years were found to have a rate of death twice as high as Christians, even after adjusting for socio-demographic factors.

Mr Marks said: 'The rates we observed are among the highest reported anywhere in the world to date.

'As our survey was completed by early December 2020, prior to the subsequent surge in cases, it is likely that the overall burden of infection in this community is now even higher.

'Whilst lockdown measures were still very effective at reducing transmission, over the course of 2020 three out of four secondary school aged children and adults were still infected.

'We would very much like to thank the community. It was a privilege to work directly with them, and think this community partnership approach could be a blueprint to further understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on other groups in the UK.'

The Office of the Chief Rabbi has been approached for comment.
She recently celebrated her 32nd birthday and said she thinks 2021 is going to be her 'favorite year yet.'

And pregnant reality star Brittany Cartwright again took to Instagram on Monday with a new selfie showcasing her baby bump.

The Vanderpump Rules star wore a pair of high-waisted gray maternity pants, along with a black shirt with white writing on it.

She's almost there: Pregnant reality star Brittany Cartwright again took to Instagram on Monday with a new selfie showcasing her baby bump

Brittany bunched up the T-shirt underneath her bust to display the fullness of her belly.

The wife of Jax Taylor had her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail in the bathroom selfie.

Cartwright captioned the snap, posted to her Instagram stories, with '10 weeks to go!!'

She added a kiss face emoji and tagged the Instagram account @littlebabycauchi.

Parents to be: Brittany is expecting her first child, a boy, with husband Jax Taylor, also a Vanderpump Rules star

Cauchi is a reference to her husband Taylor, 41, whose real name is Jason Michael Cauchi.

The pair were married in June 2019 in Britannys native Kentucky, after getting engaged in Malibu the previous summer.

This is the first child for them both.

Late last month: Brit shared a duo of cute birthday selfies in which she was holding her small brown dog and a bunch of balloons to mark her 32nd birthday

Late last month, Brit shared a duo of cute birthday selfies in which she was holding her small brown dog and a bunch of balloons to mark her 32nd birthday.

Cartwright's pregnancy has coincided with not one but two of her Vanderpump Rules costars, Stassi Schroeder and Lala Kent.

In the middle of January, Schroeder gave birth to a daughter, Hartford Charlie Rose Clark.
Moncks Corner, SC (29461)

Today

Partly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms possible. High 82F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 61F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
New Delhi, Feb 2 : The schedule for the class 10 and class 12 Board exams has been finalised with the issue of the datesheet by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday.

The exams will begin on May 4 and culminate on June 10. Results for both the classes will be declared by July 15.

According to the datesheet, exams for some of the main subjects for class 10 will begin with the English exam on May 6, followed by Hindi on May 10, Urdu on May 11, Science on May 15, Home Science on May 20 , Maths on May 21 and Social Science on May 27.

Similarly, class 12 students will appear for the English exam on May 4, the Taxation exam on May 5, the Physical Education exam on May 8, Engineering Graphic on May 10, Business Studies on May 12, Accountancy on May 17, Chemistry on May 18, Political Science on May 19, Biology on May 24, Economics on May 25, Hindi on May 31 and Mathematics on June 1.

For details and the complete datesheet, students can log on to the CBSE web site, where the entire schedule has been upload on Tuesday evening.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said: "While fixing the datesheet, we have tried that students get a lot of time between exams of important subjects. Students must remain relaxed. We have tried to get connected with students so that students can happily prepare for their exams." The minister further said on Twitter: "I hope now that the students have the datesheet, they can prepare well for the exams. They have already proved themselves in difficult circumstances. I extend my gratitude to our teachers, who have acted like warriors and nurtured their students along with the parents." Nishank further added: "Gradually the entire country is attaining freedom from the Corona pandemic. The people of the country have turned this crisis into an opportunity. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have got two vaccines. Still, we must stay alert till everything returns to normal and also help others stay vigilant," added the minister.
While speculating on an early Australian election is a biannual event for tragics, the only person with an actual clue is the Prime Minister and even he might not have made up his mind. Right now, the argument for Scott Morrison calling an election after August looks compelling; by August it might look like suicide.

This year, as last (and apparently as ever), events will decide political fates and defy expert predictions. The ranks of those now confidently asserting the government will go to the polls early and cant lose the next election are swelled by the battalions who were adamant it couldnt win the last. And hands up who circled 2020 in the diary for a pandemic?

Harold Macmillan was once asked by a journalist to reflect on what most troubled him as British Prime Minister.

The twin challenges faced by Morrison this year are the same as last: COVID-19 and China. Anthony Albaneses problems all sit behind him in Parliament.

Morrison knows the risks. His National Press Club speech put suppressing the virus and rolling out the vaccine at the top of his agenda. But keeping the disease in check is largely down to the states capacity to manage hotel quarantine. Western Australia has proved, again, that this is a fragile frontline and perhaps the only certainty of this year is that we can expect more breakouts.

On the upside for the Prime Minister, his hopes for suppression are helped by the risk tolerance of most premiers being set at zero. One case is now considered enough reason to shutter cities and slam shut state borders. The politics are hard to fault because, so far, voters have put a premium on safety and embraced the zero-tolerance approach.

On the downside, if lockdowns were a vaccine they would never win Therapeutic Goods Administration approval. The long-run effects of dislocation, isolation, the loss of education and the disproportionate suffering of the poor make it the 21st century equivalent of ship surgery.

Lockdowns have already exacted a price that cannot be measured in dollars or over the short term and the yo-yo imprisonment of cities will eventually cripple communities economically and psychologically. It is also more than a little disturbing to see how quickly the premiers have embraced authoritarianism with the full-throated support of progressives and activist media. Freedoms lost are not easily returned and every dictator ever born claims s/he is only acting to keep the people safe, especially from themselves.

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A former governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni, has declared his intention to run for the governorship position in the states 2022 elections.

Mr Oni, who was governor between May 29, 2007, and October 15, 2010, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while opening his campaign office in Ado-Ekiti on Monday, said that even federal power cannot stop him from becoming governor.

He christened the campaign office PDP Family Edifice.

Speaking on his intention, he said Except the parameters change, I am interested in the governorship. Though only God knows tomorrow, but as of now, yes, I am contesting and we are projecting that God will sanction it.

He assured that he would work with major leaders of the opposition party to ensure that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is dislodged.

No single action can cement any crack in a political party, but when the processes are coming from different ways, then you see the crack filled up.

I have been in politics for long and I understand the importance of unity. Let all leaders play their roles. Politics is a team game. If you look at the mood in town now, the people have changed their minds going by what the people are saying in town, saying they would not vote for APC in the next election.

Ekiti PDP is not afraid of incumbency power and the federal might. No government is undefeatable. President Donald Trump wanted to conquer America. He introduced Mafian styles, thinking that he could not be defeated. Where is he today? He is in Florida in retirement. That is the power of the people.

Politicians should be able to subject themselves to the will of the people so that we wont destroy the system. You can see that if our democracy had continued growing from 1966, Nigeria would be better than where we are today.

All of us must be subject to the will of the masses. No one should think he could perpetuate himself in power. In the Ekiti governorship, I wont advise anybody to do anything funny, that wont be in the best interest of anyone, he said.

Mr Onis first tenure as governor was brought to an abrupt end in 2010 following an appeal court judgement delivered by Ayo Salami.

The judgement brought in Kayode Fayemi, the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) at the time.

Mr Oni left the PDP to APC in 2014 and he supported Mr Fayemis second term ambition. During his stay at APC, he served as the Deputy National Chair (South) of the party.

He later fell out with Mr Fayemi, which forced him to return to the PDP last year, with claims that he was being maltreated by the APC.
The family of a 'drunk' wedding guest who fell to his death at a Tube station and lay undiscovered for more than six hours are suing London Underground for more than 300,000 for negligence.

Bernard Ovu, 35, was trapped in a stairwell at Canning Town station for nearly an hour before tripping down concrete steps leading off the escape bridge and suffering a 'catastrophic head injury', it is claimed.

The IT expert fell just before 3am on January 22, 2017, after mistakenly straying into a staff-only area on his way home from a late-night wedding in Rotherhithe, south-east London.

His mother Roselyn Aigbibo Ovu, has now launched a 300,000 damages claim against London Underground Ltd, alleging negligence in failing to ensure safe staffing levels which she says would have led to his presence in the station being detected before it was too late.

But London Underground Ltd deny blame, claiming Mr Ovu was 'intoxicated' and 'trespassing' in a restricted area when he met his death.

Their lawyers claim a toxicology report found that Mr Ovu's blood alcohol level was twice the driving limit, and also showed up traces of cannabis and cocaine.

Bernard Ovu, 35, was trapped in a stairwell at Canning Town station for nearly an hour before tripping down a flight of concrete steps leading off the escape bridge and suffering a 'catastrophic head injury' on January 22, 2017, it is claimed

Pictured: The entrance to Canning Town Tube station

Computer specialist Mr Ovu, who worked for the Bar Council, could have been saved had more staff been on duty, his mother's lawyers claim.

Mr Ovu became 'trapped' in the staff-only area of the station after emergency gates through which he had passed were mistakenly closed, preventing him returning safely to the station platforms, lawyers for his family say in court documents.

He ended up 'trapped for a 50-minute period behind the emergency gates on a bitterly cold morning, before falling down stairs and suffering fatal injuries,' the lawyers add.

There was only one staff member monitoring the shut-down station at the time of his death and as a result Mr Ovu was left wandering helplessly for nearly an hour before falling down the steps suffering 'catastrophic head injuries', it is claimed.

Mr Ovu was captured on CCTV at the top of the staircase leading down to the DLR platform at around 2.47am, and just two minutes later he clattered down the steps suffering fatal head injuries. His body was discovered at 8.45am - six hours after his fall.

Barrister Guy Watkins, for London Underground, said Mr Ovu was 'heavily intoxicated' when he left the wedding venue, and his blood alcohol level was twice the driving limit. Toxicology reports also showed up traces of cannabis and cocaine, the barrister stated.

The IT expert fell just before 3am after mistakenly straying into a staff-only area on his way home from a late-night wedding in Rotherhithe, south-east London

Mr Ovu's mother, Roselyn Aigbibo Ovu, has now launched a 300,000 damages claim against London Underground Ltd, alleging negligence

Mr Ovu had been 'trespassing in a non-public area' at the time and was 'behaving erratically and was obviously unsteady on his feet', Mr Watkins claimed.

He had earlier tried to open the glass automatic doors on the Jubilee Line at Canada Water station and attempted to open a fire door on the platform, the barrister said.

London Underground denies that Mr Ovu was left trapped, insisting that he could have left the station via an emergency footbridge at any time.

Their lawyers also dispute that Mr Ovu was owed any legal duty of care at the time, since he was trespassing in a restricted area. The case has now adjourned to return for trial at a later date.

The first stage of the trial will focus on the 'preliminary issue' of whether or not that duty of care existed.

An inquest in November 2017 heard that the sole member of staff on duty, on January 22, failed to check when Mr Ovu set off an alarm by accidentally going through an emergency door. The inquest heard that safety procedures were 'inconsistent and unclear'.

In a narrative verdict, a jury at Walthamstow Coroner's Court found: 'Processes that were known in the event of an emergency door trigger were not followed. Had this process been carried out, it is possible that Bernard may have been located earlier.'

After his death the RMT union called for an independent inquiry into Tube job cuts and staffing levels.
The Royal Mail has revealed 12 new 'cushty' designs of Only Fools and Horses characters and classic moments to honour the show's 40th anniversary.

New stamp designs referencing the hit BBC comedy have been released with eight of them depict scenes and one-liners from the sitcom, while four others show the main Trotter characters Del Boy, Rodney, Grandad and Uncle Albert, alongside their catchphrases.

Del Boy's reads: 'This time next year, we'll be millionaires!'

Only Fools And Horses first aired in 1981 and featured the escapades of market trader Del Boy - played by Sir David Jason - and his less streetwise younger brother Rodney, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst.

Its seventh regular series aired in 1991 and was followed by sporadic Christmas specials until the show ended in 2003.

Four stamp designs next to Del Boy and Rodney pictured with the iconic Trotters Independent Traders three-wheel van

This design shows Del and Rodney at the moment they realised they had finally become millionaires

One of the funniest moments of the entire series showing Rodney's reaction to Del Boy blowing up the tour bus for the Jolly Boy's Outing

Rodney and Cassandra on the episode 'The Unlucky Winner Is' in which Rodney has to pose as a 14-year-old and join a kid's club on holiday, The Groovy Gang!

A young Rodney in the eary days of the series and his classic, sarcastic catchphrase 'cosmic'

One of the most iconic moments in British comedy history - Del Boy falls through the bar as a bewlidered Trigger wonders what has happened

Sir David and Lyndhurst reprised their roles as Del Boy and Rodney for a 2014 Sport Relief special starring David Beckham.

Royal Mail stamp strategy manager Philip Parker said: 'The superb writing, comic one-liners and the warmth and idiosyncrasies of its characters made Only Fools And Horses one of the most loved TV comedies of all time.

'We celebrate 40 years of the Trotters' wheeling and dealing, with new stamps revisiting some of the show's classic moments.'

Del Boy and Boycie have a heated, high-stakes poker match in which both of the dodgy dealers pull out all the cards

Marlene and her 'baby' Duke the Great Dane who spent an unlucky week in the small flat in Nelson Mandela House

Del Boy and his iconic catchphrase 'this time next year, we'll be millionaires!'

Grandad was part of the original line-up until the actor, Lennard Pearce, sadly passed away at the age of 69 - he appeared in 23 episodes

Uncle Albert, played by Buster Merryfield, was introduced after Grandad died and became one of the most loved characters - an unlucky sailor who 'during the war' sank on every boat he ever served on

One of the stamps features the scene where Del Boy falls through a bar in a pub, which last year was voted as the nation's most memorable TV moment in a poll by Virgin Media for the Bafta TV Awards.

The stamps will be on sale from February 16.

They will also be available for purchase as a full set in a presentation pack from the Royal Mail's website.
2020 was a year like most generations have never seen before, it is just a fact. But Whats Certain About Uncertainty is the question that Midland Center for the Arts is asking of the community. The upcoming exhibit, Whats Certain About Uncertainty, is a traveling exhibition featuring objects from the Greater Michigan area that focus on the pandemic, historic flood in Midland County, racial injustice and other life altering events through the lens of our friends and neighbors.

This exhibit will explore the consequences of the pandemic, affecting the economy, health care and social norms across the globe and then the devastation of a catastrophic flood that washed away the fabric of our community, said Gina Schreck, curator at Midland Center for the Arts. We are calling upon our community, people of all ages and levels of art experience, to submit photos, drawings, paintings, sculptures and other mediums that they created and depicts the lived experiences of these situations  from the perspective of members in our community.
In the latest revelation, Taiwan has become Asias top-performing economy for 2020 and unexpectedly outgrew China for the first time in three decades. As the global demand for Taiwans tech exports outweighed the hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, the islands economy grew 2.98% in 2020 compared to 2019. The information was revealed by the advance estimates of Taiwans statistics office showed on Friday.

As per reports, it beat the 2.58 per cent forecast by its central bank and edged out Vietnams 2.9 per cent growth even though some statistics had predicted that Vietnam would be Asias fastest-growing economy last year. Angela Hsieh, an economist at British bank Barclays, wrote in a Friday report after Taiwan released the numbers, 2020 has been a record year for Taiwan, and we expect the star to continue shining.

Taiwans strength in exports in the second half of 2020, particularly of semiconductors and helped the economy to easily offset other drugs from the COVID-19 pandemic, said Hsieh. In the report, the economics raised her forecast for Taiwans 2021 growth by 1.2 per cent points to 5.2 per cent which is much greater than the official projection of 3.83 per cent.

Even Taiwans expansion last year was also higher than Chinas growth for the entire year of 2.3 per cent in 2020. Taiwan had last outgrown mainlands economy 30 years ago, in 1990 when its 5.5 per cent growth surpassed Chinas 3.9 per cent, as per official data of both sides.

Read - Chinese Warplanes And US Reconnaissance Aircraft Entered Taiwan's Air Defence Zone: Report

Read - US-Taiwan Deepening Ties Prompt China To Issue War Threat Against 'independence Forces'

China Warns Taiwan 'independence Means War'

Taiwan's historic economic showdown is might irk Chian that considers the island as its own territory. In the latest war of words between the long-lasting China-Taiwan feud after Beijing toughened its military activities near the island, the mainland on January 28 warned Taipei that independence means war. China has claimed Taiwan as its own territory and has often threatened using the military. The Chinese government believes that Taiwans democratically-elected government is moving the island towards the declaration of formal independence even though Taiwanese President Tsi Ing-wen has repeatedly claimed that the island is an independent country called the Republic of China.

Read - Taiwan Reports First COVID-19 Death In Eight Months From Hospital Cluster

Read - China Warns Taiwan 'independence Means War', Addresses Military Activities Near Island
BOSTON and PARIS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Stilla Technologies is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Philippe Mourere as its new Chief Executive Officer. Former CEO and Founder Dr. Remi Dangla has been appointed Chief Technology Officer and remains a member of the Board of Directors.

Stilla technologies was founded in 2013 and is a global leader in the digital PCR market. Its naica product line includes the naica system, microfluidic chips and reagents optimized for a wide variety of applications including liquid biopsy and COVID-19 testing. The appointment of Mr. Philippe Mourere represents a milestone in the company's commercial evolution.

"We founded Stilla Technologies with the goal of improving healthcare by developing and providing solutions for high precision genetic analysis to researchers and clinicians worldwide. As we accelerate our commercial growth, I am pleased to be handing over the company's leadership to Philippe who brings valuable experience for our next chapter," commented Remi Dangla. "I remain committed to driving the company's innovations as Chief Technology Officer and a member of the Board of Directors."

Mourere is an experienced executive leader with over 25 years' experience gained at leading life science and diagnostic companies including HalioDx, Ultivue, Cell Signaling Technology, PerkinElmer and Caliper Life Sciences. Mourere has delivered transformative growth across genomic and proteomic market spaces globally.

"I am truly honored to join Stilla as President and CEO to build upon its strong foundation in the digital PCR market." Mourere added "I am very impressed by the level of performance achieved by end users of Stilla's platform across a wide range of applications. I look forward to working with Remi and the team to continue to deliver highly differentiated solutions for critical applications."

Nick Naclerio, Chairman of the Board, said, "On behalf of the Board or Directors, I want to recognize the accomplishments of Remi Dangla as CEO through the past seven years and welcome Philippe Mourere as Stilla's next Chief Executive Officer. Philippe's vision and commercial experience is exactly what the company needs for its next phase of global growth."

About Stilla Technologies

Stilla Technologies is a Parisheadquartered life sciences company that focuses on accelerating the development of nextgeneration genetic tests by providing a groundbreaking and flexible digital PCR (dPCR) solution: the naica system. Taking advantage of cuttingedge microfluidic innovations, Stilla aims to make dPCR a lab commodity for all areas of the life sciences. Stilla actively advises and supports its customers worldwide through its dynamic and multidisciplinary R&D team, with expertise spanning from microfluidics to chemistry, including molecular biology and AI.

SOURCE Stilla Technologies
On Tuesday afternoon, Disha Patani scrolled through her archives and shared a photo from her recent trip to the Maldives. She wrote that she is "missing the sea". Disha stunned in a white bralette and left her hair to naturally bounce while she posed for the camera. The Baaghi actor had jetted off to the location to ring in the New Year with her rumoured boyfriend, Tiger Shroff.

As soon as Disha Patani's post was up on the internet, fans rushed to drop comments on it. Tiger's sister, Krishna Shroff called her "natural beauty", whereas Khushboo Patani wrote, "Wow beauty". Users also talked about Disha's fitness regime and many complimented her outfit. "Your perfectly toned body is just a result of your regular hard work at the gym. I love your outfit too," read another fan's comment.

Disha Patani is 'missing the sea'

Also Read | Nick Jonas Unveils Poster Of 'Chaos Walking', Writes Listen To 'noise Of The New World'

It was on December 29 when Disha Patani's photos from the Maldives stormed the internet. She was seen sailing a boat in a yellow bikini. "Aquaman feels," Patani wrote in the caption. She had shared many photos from her villa as well. Tiger Shroff was also holidaying at the same location, but the duo did not post any photos together.

Also Read | Priyanka Chopra Jonas Twins With Her Pet Dog Diana, Says 'White Tiger And Her Cub'

Disha Patani's movies

On the work front, Disha was last seen in Malang, alongside Aditya Roy Kapur. The movie also features an ensemble cast of Kunal Kemmu, Anil Kapoor, Amruta Khanvilkar among others. Disha will be seen in the upcoming film titled Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai, alongside Salman Khan. The movie is the remake of a South Korean film titled, Veteran. The film is directed by Prabhu Deva and will also star Randeep Hooda, Jackie Shroff in pivotal roles.

Apart from this, she also has Shashank Khaitan's next in the pipeline. However, many details about this are not reported yet. She had also begun filming for her next film titled KTina. It was in 2019 when the makers had released her first look. Ekta Kapoor had written that the Disha will play a never-before-seen avatar. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari was one of the firsts to congratulate the team.

Also Read | Allu Arjun Greets Scores Of Fans Outside Pushpa Shoot Location, Video Takes Over the Internet

Also Read | Sonam Kapoor Ahuja Recalls When Anand Proposed Her In 2017, Shares Throwback Pic From NY

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.
Groundhog Club President Jeff Lundy interacts with Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, during the 135th celebration of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pa. Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. Phil's handlers said that the groundhog has forecast six more weeks of winter weather during this year's event that was held without anyone in attendance due to potential COVID-19 risks. PHOTO:(AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

Groundhog Declares Six More Weeks of Winter

By The Associated Press

PUNXUTAWNEY, PA - There will be six more weeks of winter, Punxsutawney Phil predicted as he emerged from his burrow on a snowy Tuesday morning to perform his Groundhog Day duties.Members of Phils inner circle woke up the furry critter at 7:25 a.m. at Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to see whether he would see his shadow or not.Shortly after this years prediction was revealed, one of the members shared a message he said Phil had told him earlier in the day: After winter, youre looking forward to one of the most beautiful and brightest springs youve ever seen.The spectacle that is Groundhog Day still went on, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, revelers werent able to see Phil and celebrate in person: This year, it was all virtual.A livestream, which had more than 15,000 viewers at one point, played footage from previous Groundhog Days ahead of the big reveal.Then of course, the prognosticator of prognosticators emerged at dawn. The lore goes that if he sees his shadow as he did this year, there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesnt, spring comes early.The livestream from Gobblers Knob, a tiny hill just outside Punxsutawney about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, is made possible by the Pennsylvania Tourism Offices Holi-stay PA. The event there  always Feb. 2  dates back to 1887.
Donald Trump's legal team is still scrambling to nail down its defense strategy as a deadline looms at noon on Tuesday for the former president to reply to a charge of incitement of insurrection brought by the House last month.

Over the weekend, Trump split with his previous team of lawyers, with reports indicating they were unwilling to center their legal strategy on election fraud claims. His new lawyers, which were announced Sunday, have not indicated what defense they have planned for the 45th president.

Those who will represent Trump in the Senate trial next week are David Schoen, a Fox News commentator and former counsel to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and Bruce Castor, a former county prosecutor in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania  where Trump's campaign sued over claims of fraudulently counting mail-in ballots.

The team shake-up and lack of legal strategy maintains as there's just one week left before the former president's impeachment trial is set to start in the Senate. On Monday, pre-trial briefs are due.

Democrats in the House voted to impeach Trump for a second time last month, claiming his actions and rhetoric on January 6  and before  led to a violent mob storming the Capitol in the name of preventing Congress from certifying the election for Joe Biden.

During the trial next week, Democrats will continue to argue Trump 'incited an insurrection,' and therefore should be convicted.

Donald Trump's impeachment lawyers, David Schoen (left) and Bruce Castor (right) have not yet outlined their legal defense for the former president as a deadline looms Tuesday at noon for them to respond to the charge for 'incitement of insurrection'

Schoen said Monday that the former president had 'nothing' to do with the Capitol riot as he warned the trial threatened to tear the country apart and damage American democracy.

The Atlanta-based lawyer insisted that the trial of a former president was 'unconstitutional'.

Neither Schoen nor Castor have expertise in constitutional law, which many see as the most promising path for Trump's defense  and some argue the Constitution does not allow for an impeachment trial of a political figure who has already left office.

Acquittal of the former president is almost certain as 67 senators are needed to vote in favor of conviction, meaning 17 Republicans would need to cross the political aisle. And most Republicans voted last week that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer president.

Schoen argued further Monday that Trump was not to blame for the violent protests at the Capitol, which killed four people including a Capitol Police officer.

Schoen, a Fox News commentator and former counsel to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, appeared on Fox News on Monday night to discuss the impeachment trial with Sean Hannity

Schoen said that the storming of the Capitol after Trump's January 6 rally was not the 45th president's fault

At a 'Stop the Steal' rally on the morning of January 6, Trump told his followers: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.'

Schoen said: 'He condemned violence at all times. Read the words of his speech. It calls for peacefulness.

'This has nothing to do with President Trump and the country doesn't need to just watch videos of riots and unrest. We need to heal now. We need to move forward.'

Schoen, who will represent Trump along with Bruce Castor, the former district attorney in Pennsylvania who declined to prosecute Bill Cosby, said the impeachment case was 'the most ill-advised legislative action that I've seen in my lifetime.'

He added: 'It is tearing the country apart at a time when we don't need anything like that.'

Schoen, an Atlantabased lawyer, also told Hannity (right) that the January 6 riot 'has nothing to do with President Trump'

Schoen said the the process was being made a mockery because those involved had already made up their minds, before it had even started, and strongly criticized the 'awful bias and prejudgment shown.'

He continued: 'Could you imagine any American citizen considered to be on trial, in which the judge and jury has already announced publicly the defendant must be convicted in this case?

'It undercuts democracy. How could you possibly have a fair trial? Senator Schumer promised a fair and full trial. You can't when you know that they are biased going in.'

Trump was impeached by the House on January 13.

He appears highly likely to be cleared, for a second time, by the Senate after a procedural vote showed that Republicans were unlikely to convict him.

On January 26 the Senate was asked whether they wanted impeachment to proceed.

The Senate voted 55-45, meaning that impeachment will go ahead.

But it showed that regardless of what happens in the trial, there almost certainly won't be enough Republican support to convict Trump: conviction would require 67 votes, or two-thirds of the Senate.

Schoen insisted that the trial was designed to end Trump's political future

Schoen said the trial was being held to damage Trump and bury him politically.

'This is the political weaponization of the impeachment process,' he told Sean Hannity on Fox News.

'There was a rush to judgment. Once President Trump became president, on the day he was elected, there were calls for his impeachment.'

He said the 'agenda' from the Democrats was to 'simply to bar President Trump from ever running for president again.'

Schoen added: 'And that is about as undemocratic as you could get.

'Can you imagine the slap in the face that is to the 75 million or more voters who voted for Donald Trump?'
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted will update the public on the states response to the coronavirus outbreak Tuesday afternoon.

This week, Ohio teachers and school workers began to be eligible to get the vaccine. The state set a schedule for each school district.

Also this week, Ohioans age 70 and older began to be eligible for the vaccine. That included DeWine and First Lady Fran DeWine, who got shots Tuesday morning.

Watch the 2 p.m. coronavirus briefing below, broadcast by the Ohio Channel.

As of Monday, the Ohio Department of Health said 853,965 doses of vaccine had been administered.

More coverage:

With 3,287 new coronavirus cases, Ohio case total nears 900,000: Monday update

Gov. Mike DeWine recognizes Black History Month by incorrectly recycling proclamation from 2020

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted not running for U.S. Senate, others still considering: Capitol Letter

Read the Ohio coronavirus public health order reducing the overnight curfew by 1 hour

Ohio Liquor Control Commission revokes Clevelands Barley House liquor permit, effective March 24

Ohio Supreme Court to decide limits of Marsys Law in kidnapping, rape trial
Oregon lawmakers on Monday held the first night of hearings on recent investigative findings that Rep. Diego Hernandez, D-Portland, persistently pressured two women to restart romantic relationships and subjected a third woman with whom he was in a long-term relationship to controlling and abusive treatment.

The panels four members voted unanimously Monday to concur with several of the investigators findings of Hernandezs bad conduct regarding the third woman.

None of the three worked for Hernandez or other lawmakers. But Hernandez behavior caused the women to reasonably fear he might retaliate against them by undercutting their work at the Capitol, independent investigators found during a nine-month inquiry.

On Monday, Acting Legislative Equity Officer Jackie Sandmeyer revealed that a larger number of people  13  were identified as potentially having experienced inappropriate behavior by Hernandez that could constitute sexual harassment under the Legislatures workplace rules.

However, eight of the women opted not to take part in the investigation. Some women cited concerns that their identities might become public, some were concerned about other women dropping out of the investigation and some white women were reluctant to accuse one of the Legislatures few Latinx lawmakers of inappropriate behavior, Sandmeyer said. Hernandez also threatened last year to sue the state and officials including House Speaker Tina Kotek, although he has not filed such a suit.

The other individuals decided not to move forward with an investigation, which means those allegations of conduct were not investigated, Sandmeyer said. Investigators were unable to substantiate allegations by two of the five women who participated in the inquiry.

Sandmeyer said some alleged victims told Sandmeyer they wanted to stop participating in the investigation after reading one or more news reports in which Hernandez was quoted as saying all the women had dropped their allegations  a statement Sandmeyer said was false.

At one point, there was sort of articles out there saying there were no longer any parties participating in the case, Sandmeyer said. I did have parties reach out, including parties who were participating in the investigation, to confirm that and let me know that if that were the case that they also would drop out because they did not want to be the only person complaining.

Sandmeyer informed the women that multiple women were participating in the investigation. But Sandmeyer, who uses gender neutral pronouns, said they could not correct the record publicly because they were not allowed to discuss the matter publicly.

Sandmeyer did not identify the news report or reports that quoted Hernandez making inaccurate statements. But Hernandez told Willamette Week in a fall 2020 endorsement interview, There was no complaints from any individual that actually moved forward in the investigation. It was HR reports from legislators who either from second-hand or third-hand decided to file reports that is being investigated.

Hearings by the House Committee on Conduct are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. every evening through Thursday and stream on the Legislatures website. Committee members -- two Democrats and two Republicans -- are reviewing the investigation findings and will likely deliberate later this week on whether to take any action against Hernandez or recommend such action to the full House.

One of the women whose claims investigators verified submitted testimony about the impact of his actions. The woman, whose statement was read by another woman during the hearing Monday night, described what she called his insidious pattern of behavior that included throwing a cell phone at her and sending controlling texts.

The woman, who described herself as Latinx, said there is a long history of machismo and domestic violence in the Latinx community and Latinx and Black women are told to tolerate abuse. And if we dont, we are not down for our gente, she said, using the Spanish word for people.

Quite literally, the gaslighting of my experience expanded from my perpetrator to a community-wide position, she said. Hernandez easily won reelection in November, despite a challenge from Oregon Working Families Party candidate Ashton Simpson.

Hernandez and his attorney also raised race as an issue, implying that it was racist for Kotek to call for Hernandez to resign because Kotek is white. They also suggested Koteks true motivation was to punish Hernandez for refusing to vote to trim some public employees retirement benefits as part of a deal to raise business taxes for schools.

In a May 2020 article in the Gresham Outlook, Hernandez lawyer Kevin Lafky said a white, powerful speaker is attempting to destroy a man of colors character because he refused to help her reduce working-class peoples retirements. We have centuries of history in which men of color have been disproportionately affected by unfair and/or falsified allegations of gender-based misconduct.

Hernandez told Willamette Week in the fall 2020 endorsement interview that Kotek and Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, Karend him by filing mandatory human resources reports about possible harassment. Karen is pejorative shorthand for privileged, demanding white women and is often used in reference to them doing racist things.

Hernandez did not appear at the hearing Monday but Lafky did and read a statement submitted by Hernandez. In the lengthy statement, Hernandez emphasized that two of the relationships ended a couple years ago and said the relationships had absolutely nothing to do with my work as a legislator. He has said he was friends with the women before he took office as a legislator.

He also complained he was forced to choose between appearing at the hearing or having his attorney take part, which he said was a violation of my rights.

In recent days, a number of powerful political groups have called for Hernandez to step down or for lawmakers to expel him by a vote of the House. The statewide teachers union Oregon Education Association on Friday called for Hernandez to resign and on Monday, a long list of liberal and progressive groups and more unions called for the Legislature to take bold and swift action against Hernandez, with some individuals specifically calling for legislators to expel him.

The House Committee on Conduct voted Monday night to concur with several of the investigators factual findings on Hernandez interactions with one of the women. The committee will ultimately decide whether Hernandez violated in the Legislatures workplace rules.

-- Hillary Borrud; hborrud@oregonian.com; @hborrud

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Chinese Researcher Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Stealing Trade Secrets

A Chinese researcher was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Feb. 1 for conspiring to steal U.S. trade secrets and make a profit in China.

Chen Li, 47, a former resident of Dublin, Ohio, worked at the Ohio-based Research Institute at the Nationwide Childrens Hospital from 2008 until 2018. Her husband, Zhou Yu, 50, worked at a different medical research lab at the same hospital from 2007 until 2017.

In 2015, they founded a biotech company in China, which sold exosome isolation kits based on exosome-related trade secrets stolen from the hospitalwithout the hospitals knowledge.

Beijing GenExosome was the name of the China-based company the couple set up. The company was eventually acquired in October 2017 by GenExosome Technologies, a subsidiary of the New Jersey-based biotech firm Avalon GloboCare Corp.

Exosomes are small sacs containing nucleic acid and proteins and play an important role in cell-to-cell communication. They have been found to be important in the treatment of multiple diseases, such as liver cancer, liver fibrosis, and an intestinal disease called necrotizing enterocolitis that affects premature infants, as well as tissue regeneration therapy.

According to the indictment, the couple received funding from various Chinese government entities, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, an institution administered under Chinas cabinet-like State Council; and Chinas State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs, an agency responsible for recruiting foreigners.

Chen also applied to multiple Chinese talent plans, which according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), are a method used by China to transfer foreign research and technology to the Chinese government.

The couple was arrested in California in July 2019 and subsequently charged. In July 2020, Chen pleaded guilty to charges of stealing trade secrets and wire fraud. Zhou pleaded guilty to similar charges in December last year and now awaits sentencing.

Chen and her husband executed a scheme over the course of several years to set up businesses in China, steal American research, and profit from doing so, stated U.S. Attorney David M. DeVillers for the Southern District of Ohio, in a DOJ press release.

He added: Chen willingly took part in the Chinese governments long-term efforts to steal American intellectual property. She deserves time in federal prison.

As part of her sentence, Chen was also ordered to pay $2.6 million in restitution. She will also forfeit about $1.25 million, 500,000 shares of common stock in Avalon GloboCare Corp., and 400 shares of common stock in Avalons subsidiary GenExosome Technologies.

According to a report by Columbus Business First, Zhou was named co-CEO of the U.S. subsidiary in 2017. But he was fired from the company in August 2019, about a month after he was indicted.

For far too long, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has encouraged the outright theft of American trade secrets through Chinese government programs that reward researchers for stealing what China cannot produce through its own ingenuity, said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers for the National Security Division.

He added: These programs, like the Thousand Talents, are not innocuous platforms for academic collaboration. Todays conclusion of yet another successful prosecution for theft of trade secrets encouraged by the PRC Government serves as a warning to all who might seek to profit from Chinas illicit efforts to achieve technological dominance through thievery.

The Thousand Talents Plan, which Beijing rolled out in 2008, is one of many talent recruitment programs the Chinese regime has maintained for decades, to attract overseas Chinese and foreign experts into working for Chinas science and tech sectors.

Through these programs, Beijing hopes to quickly turn China into an industrial and innovation powerhouse and transform its military to rival that of the United States.
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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(Newser)  Republican senators who presented their own, much smaller, coronavirus relief package to President Biden on Monday night said the two sides will keep working togetherbut there's no deal yet. The president met with 10 GOP senators in the Oval Office for almost two hours, the Washington Post reports. "It was a very good exchange of views. I wouldnt say we came together on a package tonight. No one expected that in a two-hour meeting," said Collins, who organized the Republican effort. "But what we did agree to do is follow up and talk further, at the staff level and amongst ourselves and with the president and vice president, on how we can continue to work together on this very important issue." Biden's plan costs $1.9 trillion; the Republicans' runs about $618 billion.

story continues below

White House aides said Biden wanted to hear about the GOP package and is ready to negotiate details, and Collins said the president gave a complete explanation. But there are no signs that Democrats are interested in a proposal one-third the size of Biden's, per the New York Times, concerned that it won't be enough to help people who are struggling. "The risk is not that it is too big, this package," the White House press secretary said earlier in the day. "The risk is that it is too small." Congressional Democrats began Monday to move toward being able to pass the legislation without any Republican votes. "Congress has a responsibility to quickly deliver immediate comprehensive relief to the American people hurting from COVID-19," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. (Read more economic stimulus package stories.)
Hong Kong: Secondary school views sought

The Education Bureau today sent a one-month school questionnaire survey to all secondary schools to gauge their views on the proposals to optimise the curricula and assessments of the four senior secondary (SS) core subjects.

In tandem with the recommendations on creating space for students and catering for learner diversity set out in the review report, the committees on the four SS core subjects under the Curriculum Development Council (CDC) and the Examinations & Assessment Authority (EAA) have formulated proposals to optimise the curricula and assessments of the subjects.

For Chinese Language, the proposal is more about streamlining the teaching of the compulsory part and elective parts and reducing the number of papers in the public assessment to avoid excessive drilling.

For English Language, space would be created via integrating the teaching of the elective part into the compulsory part to reduce overlapping in teaching.

For Mathematics, the curriculum comprises the Foundation Topics and Non-foundation Topics. Students could opt for studying the Foundation Topics together with only part of the Non-foundation Topics.

They would be able to score as high as Level 4 in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination should they perform well in the Foundation Topics.

As regards Liberal Studies, while the subject will be given a new name, various enhancement measures will be in place and the weight of its curriculum content will be reduced by half.

The school sector's views will be put to the committees on the four SS core subjects under the CDC and the EAA for consideration.

If eventually accepted, the proposals can be implemented at Secondary 4 in the 2021-22 school year at the earliest to benefit students as soon as possible.

Click here for details of the school questionnaire survey.

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Nearly 11 percent of people admitted to an intensive care unit in Sweden between 2010 and 2018 received opioid prescriptions on a regular basis for at least six months and up to two years after discharge. That is according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in Critical Care Medicine. The findings suggest some may become chronic opioid users despite a lack of evidence of the drugs' long-term effectiveness and risks linked to increased mortality.

"We know that the sharp rise in opioid prescriptions in the U.S. has contributed to a deadly opioid crisis there," says first author Erik von Oelreich, PhD student in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet. "Now, there are signs that opioid prescriptions have increased in parts of Europe and it is therefore important to find out to what extent opioid prescriptions during and after intensive care may contribute to long-term use and its consequences."

Opioids such as morphine and fentanyl are commonly used in critical care for sedation and pain management. There is, however, a lack of evidence to support the use of opioids as a long-term solution to dealing with chronic pain. In addition, misuse of prescription opioids has turned into major health problems in countries such as the U.S. where, on average, 130 Americans die per day from an opioid overdose.

In this study, the researchers found that nearly 11 percent (22,138) of 204,402 individuals continued to receive opioid prescriptions for at least six months and up to two years after critical care treatment in Sweden. The study included all adults who survived at least six months after being admitted to an ICU between 2010 and 2018.

Average opioid consumption peaked in the first quarter after admission and declined continuously during the 24-month follow-up period but never returned to the pre-admission level, according to the study.

Pre-admission opioid consumption was the main risk factor for chronic opioid use after discharge, which was defined as repeated prescriptions for at least six months following ICU treatment. A majority of those who continued to receive opioids had a pre-admission history of use. Women, older people, people with more than one illness and those who stayed longer than two days in ICU were also more likely to receive repeated opioid prescriptions.

The study also found that chronic opioid users had a 70 percent higher risk of death six to 18 months after critical care, also after adjustment for other risk factors. The same finding was seen in patients not using opioids before ICU admission.

Chronic opioid use has previously been linked to adverse health outcomes, including breathing difficulties, constipation, heart attack, stroke, blood clots and an inappropriate immune response.

"The care of the critically ill is complex and finding ways to alleviate pain are important for many patients," says Anders Oldner, adjunct professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet and last author of the study. "However, it is important to be aware of the potential risks of long-term opioid use, including the risk of death. We hope that our findings contribute to increasing understanding about opioid use during and after critical care."

###

The findings are presented on February 2 at the 2021 Critical Care Congress hosted by the Society of Critical Care Medicine in the U.S.

Financing was provided by The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, The Swedish Carnegie Hero Funds, Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish Society of Medicine and Stockholm County Council.

Publication: "Opioid use after intensive care: a nationwide cohort study," Erik von Oelreich, Mikael Eriksson, Karl-Fredrik Sjolund, Andrea Discacciati, Emma Larsson, Anders Oldner, Critical Care Medicine, February 2, 2021, doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000004896
French automobile giant Citroen has officially unveiled the C5 Aircross SUV in India today. The SUV will be assembled in India at the company's Tamil Nadus Thiruvallur plant. The C5 Aircross gets only a 2.0-litre diesel engine option that delivers 177PS of output and 400Nm of torque and is teamed up with an 8-speed automatic gearbox only.

The premium 5-seater SUV has DRLs on either side, dual-beam headlamps, and an upright tailgate with split LED tail lamps. To enhance the look of the vehicle, red accents have been used all over the car. In terms of interior, the C5 Aircross SUV is equipped with the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, an 8-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, panoramic sunroof, dual-zone climate control, and wireless smartphone charging. What makes this care more luxurious is the heating and massage function on the front seats.

The upcoming C5 Aircross is also top-notch when it comes to safety. The SUV is equipped with a safety kit that contains multiple airbags, ABS with EBD, and front and rear parking sensors.

Since C5 Aircross has quite a few premium features, it is certain that it will not be one of the easily affordable cars. Most likely the price of the vehicle will start from Rs 25 Lakhs (ex-showroom). The other important thing about the car is that it may only be available in a single variant for now.
press release

Data highlights species at risk and helps manage trade demands

Coral is one of the treasures of the sea, whether it's illuminating the shallow tropical waters of the Caribbean or hidden in the darker depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Its beauty has not gone unnoticed, however, and coral is often sought after to decorate small and large aquariums, create elegant jewellery and produce medicines. Millions of these highly-prized marine polyps are extracted and sold around the world every year.

Few people realise that coral reefs are actually living organisms. Corals may look like plants, but they are in fact animals. Clustered together in colourful colonies, they use the stinging cells of their tiny tentacles to catch plankton and even small fish. These reefs form some of the earth's most diverse ecosystems. But many of our coral species are under threat.

Rising sea temperatures and water pollution have caused the widespread bleaching and loss of reefs worldwide. Australia's Great Barrier Reef is one notable example.

"Coral reefs, as well as the fish that inhabit them, are a fundamental building block of tropical coastal systems, but they are under pressure from greenhouse gas pollution that is increasing water temperatures to the point where corals are dying," said Kim Friedman, Senior Fisheries Resources Officer at FAO.

"This threatens not only these wonderful systems, but also the food and livelihoods of many people who depend on them."

Trade is a lifeline

Trade in fish and other marine species, like corals, is critical for the lives and livelihoods of many communities, and demand has increased in recent decades. But global distribution is uneven, and overfishing and illegal trade are putting species at risk.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, was conceived to survey and control the trade ofplant and animal species facing extinction.

CITES came into force in 1975 and has been adopted by 183 countries. The treaty aims to ensure that international trade in animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Its mechanisms and provisions are designed to ensure that trade is legal, sustainable and traceable. Every three years, countries that are parties to the agreement consider changes to the CITES list.

"CITES is important because we need all hands on deck when it comes to protecting our natural marine environments and the social systems that depend on them," says Friedman.

FAO, together with the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre, has released CITES and the Sea to reveal just how critical a role trade can play in the survival of a species.

And it is not just coral. In spite of their reputation as fearsome killers, some shark species are also threatened. According to the CITES report, 44 637 individual sharks, despite being on the CITES list, were killed and traded for their fins and meat between 2007-2016.

European eels, seahorses, wrasses, giant clams and queen conch sea snails are also endangered. Their inclusion on CITES lists highlights the need for countries to better manage these species through recovery plans or other action.

Traditionally fisheries have concentrated on stock management - the fish in the water and their capture. But to successfully manage marine species, we have to look across the ecosystem and the value chain from how fish are caught, handled and processed to how consumers receive their fish products.

FAO provides technical expertise on the status of marine species and advice on the conservation benefits that come from using the CITES provisions. This means policymakers can be better informed about managing their fishing sector to ensure future sustainability.

"FAO is helping countries make the right decisions so they can have better outcomes for fishers, markets and their communities as a whole," says Friedman. "It's important for the entire ecosystem to achieve sustainability, and consumers will benefit by having more fish products available over the long-term."

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Information gathering is critical

CITES enables countries to share records of marine wildlife trade, but countries need to actively participate. FAO helps governments and fishers alike to fully understand the implications of trade on marine species.

Friedman states, "It is not just about collecting data, it is about making communities aware. We have to make sure the fishermen on the water understand what international treaties like CITES require."

Once a species is listed by CITES, FAO helps countries to raise awareness by encouraging the fisheries sector and government ministries to work together.

"There are aims for sustainable use of fish, and there are aims for biodiversity protection and they are not mutually exclusive," concludes Friedman.

"We have to cooperate if we are to have productive and sustainable oceans in the future - and FAO will play a significant role in making that a reality."
Major stakeholders in the San Antonio River Walk Association are questioning the groups merger with Visit San Antonio and demanding association records to examine its troubled finances.

We simply do not understand how these decisions were made (to merge) with no input from us, nine members said in a Jan. 27 letter to the associations executive director and its executive committee. We are now asking for full transparency and an opportunity to part take in a solution that might be agreed by a majority and endorsed by the true invested stakeholders, property and businesses owners on the River.

On ExpressNews.com: Devastated River Walk Association merges with Visit San Antonio

Rick Grinnan, who founded what is now The Republic of Texas restaurant on the River Walk in 1975, said he and many of the associations more than 200 members only learned of the planned merger from media accounts.

We want to know why, he said. What happened? Why didnt you discuss it with us? Because, you know, we're the stakeholders, in a sense. Without any of us there wouldn't be a River Walk.

The letter says that the association should have asked members to form a committee to look at the pros and cons of the merger.

The associations chairwoman, Maria Martinez, said in an email to the Express-News that the overwhelming majority of our members are supportive of the unanimous decision by our board to take the step on a possible merger.

Maggie Thompson, the associations executive director, responded to the dissidents in a letter, saying members in coming weeks would be invited to play a major role in determining how the merged organization would function.

The board approved the merger on Jan. 22.

On ExpressNews.com: Wary Traveler: Dearth of travel guides reflects travel industry slump

Visit San Antonio, the public-private partnership that promotes the city to convention planners and leisure travelers, plans to take over the staging of major events on the River Walk. Those include the Holiday River Parade and the Texas Cavaliers River Parade during Fiesta.

The River Walk Association saw revenue plummet last year after the pandemic forced the cancellation of most public events. Without the cash generated from event sponsorships, the group faces a shortfall of about $300,000 for the fiscal year ending Feb. 28, sources say.

In the fall, the group laid off five of its six staff members and reduced Thompson to part-time status.

Terry Corless, CEO of Mad Dog Restaurant Group and a River Walk Association board member, said he found out about the merger in mid-January, when the executive committee detailed its plan and insisted board members sign confidentiality agreements.

We are all struggling to keep our own businesses afloat but surely it would have been at least politically prudent to reach out to various people to say, Look, we are in this position, said Corless, one of four board members who signed the Jan. 27 letter.

Corless said he did not attend the Jan. 22 meeting when the merger vote took place because he was upset over the lack of discussion with association members.

Another board member, Will Grinnan, who co-owns the Republic of Texas Restaurant with his father, said he only learned of the merger an hour before the association put out a press release on the merger agreement.

Its very distasteful, said the younger Grinnan, who is an ex-officio non-voting board member. He represents the San Antonio Restaurant Association.

A third board member, Bob Buchanan, said he signed the letter because of what he called the groups lack of transparency. Despite his qualms, Buchanan, owner of The Original Mexican Restaurant, said he voted for the merger because of the River Walk Associations financial troubles.

In the letter, the stakeholders asked the association to turn over financial records by Feb. 1, including balance sheets, monthly profit & loss reports from 2019 and 2020 along with minutes of meetings articulating the pending crisis.

Other signers included: Bill Lyons, owner of Casa Rio, the first restaurant on the River Walk in 1946; Richard Higbie of Boudros and his partner, Andreas Esparza, who is a non-voting board member; Chris Hill, who is developing the Canopy by Hilton San Antonio River Walk Hotel; and Sam Panchevre of Acapulco Sams on the River Walk.

Like the River Walk Association, Visit San Antonios revenue nose-dived in the past year as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the citys tourism industry hard.

The organization relies on a tax on hotel rooms for much of its income, and room occupancy fell dramatically once people were ordered to stay away.

Lyons said one of his concerns about the merger is that the promotion of the River Walk, heavily frequented by tourists, could lose out to Visit San Antonios focus on filling downtown hotel rooms with conventioneers. Visit San Antonio books conventions for the citys Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

We just want to keep a balance with VSA so they dont ignore the leisure business, Lyons said.

Visit San Antonio Board Chairman Jeff Arndt said the organization will continue our long-standing commitment to maintaining our sharp focus on the leisure market, especially during the critical recovery period ahead.

Visit San Antonios board approved the merger on Jan. 26.

randy.diamond@express-news.com
Fairtrade Africa has urged the government of Ghana and the United Kingdom to finalise a trade agreement to save fruit exporting companies.



Ghana and UK failed to finalise a trade agreement before the end of the BREXIT transition December 31, 2020.



It said although it welcomed the joint announcement by the Ghanaian Ministry of Trade and the UK Department of Trade earlier this month that an agreement had been reached to allow tariff free access the delay was impacting negatively on players in the industry.



We call on both the UK and Ghanaian governments to immediately sign an agreement to bring this into effect. Fairtrade Africa also requests that exporters be compensated for the tariffs already paid as it will be unfair for them to bear the brunt of the two governments delay in finalising an agreement, it said in a statement.



Established in 2005, Fairtrade Africa is the independent non-profit umbrella organisation representing all Fairtrade certified producers in Africa.



Fairtrade Africa requests that the government of Ghana involves all key stakeholders especially the producers in the negotiation process and ensure they are fully and speedily informed on the negotiation process, it said.



These requests according to Fair Trade Africa would collectively ensure that jobs were not only protected or secured but that new jobs are created and that Fairtrade plantations can keep to their commitment to paying workers a living wage.



Fairtrade Africa is committed to supporting its members by advocating to remove bottle necks in trade that impact negatively on livelihoods. Working together with all stakeholders across different sectors both in public and private sector, we ensure that our member organisations thrive in order to support their workers and communities, it said.



It is estimated that more than 15,000 direct and indirect jobs are currently being affected negatively due to the failure of Ghana and UK to sign a post Brexit trade agreement that allows Ghanaian fruit producers tariff free access to the UK market as exists under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).



Mr George Kporye, Golden Exotics Corporate Affairs Manager in an interview expressed worry over the high tariffs being paid adding that the tariffs should be waived in the interim and the deal concluded in days, rather than weeks.



He said We had to reduce the volumes because of the uncertainties of reaching a deal on time.



This means exorbitant tariffs for Ghanaian banana, cocoa and other fruit exporters who are now trading under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). For the banana sector, exporters who were previously trading under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU, without payment of tariffs, now have to pay 95GBP tariff per ton of banana.



Affected companies that are Fairtrade Certified producers and members of Fairtrade Africa (FTA) namely the network of all Fairtrade Certified Producer Organisations in Africa and the Middle East are: Golden Exotics Limited (GEL), Volta River Estates Limited (VREL) and Blue Skies Company Limited.



These Fairtrade Certified Producer organisations together employ over 5,000 direct workers and create more than 10,000 indirect jobs.



The banana producers association of Ghana is made up of 3 companies; Golden Exotic Limited, Musahamat Farm Limited and Volta River Estates Limited situated in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions with a surface area of about 2,500 hectares and a workforce of about 4500.



These companies Mr Kporye said also provide an additional 10,000 indirect employment.



The industry has been actively exporting bananas for the past 26 years to the EU market to which the UK belonged until BREXIT came into force as from 1st January, 2021.



Two of these companies are Fairtrade certified and altogether, the three companies export about 85,000 MT of bananas annually with about 60 percent of exports going to the UK market.



The delay by the Ghanaian and UK governments in concluding and signing an agreement to allow tariff free access of these producers to the UK market means an increase in the cost of their business resulting from significantly high tariffs they have been required to pay since January 1, 2021.



The Golden Exotics Limited (GEL), which exports around 45,000 tonnes of Fairtrade and organic bananas to the UK each year, had to pay a 17,000 duty on its first post-Brexit shipment to arrive in the UK this year.



Ghanas Volta River Estates Limited (VREL) plantation exports around 9,500 tonnes of Fairtrade-certified bananas to the UK each year for sale at Co-op and Waitrose supermarkets paid a duty of 16,000 on weekly shipments of nine containers of bananas.



An additional 53,000 has been paid for three more deliveries since then.



Anthony Blay, Director of Agric, VREL said Volta River Estates exports about 85 per cent of its volume to the UK, having developed long term trade relation with the COOP and Waitrose supermarkets.



The company cannot survive this level of tariffs even in the short term, putting the jobs of its 700 direct employees at risk, he said.



He said Ghanaian banana exporters risk losing their market to other African exporters who were able to broker some transitionary agreement with the UK before the deadline and were therefore not subject to duty payment.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Axed CBeebies star Sarah-Jane Honeywell revealed she was frozen out by her 'best friend' Mr Tumble after she was fired from the show for a topless shoot.

The former TV host, 47, shot to fame in 2002 on shows such as Higgledy House and Mighty Mites, alongside Justin Fletcher, 50 - also known as Mr Tumble - however her career went down in flames when she posed for raunchy photos in 2011.

Speaking about the fall-out she said: 'I called and left him a message but to this day he's never responded. We were the best of mates, so that really hurt. I do understand it though, because as a children's presenter he needs to protect his own image.'

It's all over now: Axed CBeebies star Sarah-Jane Honeywell revealed she was frozen out by her 'best friend' Mr Tumble after she was fired from the show for a topless shoot

Sarah-Jane enjoyed huge fame on the kids' TV circuit in the various BBC shows, however her ill-fated career hit a speedbump when she posed for PETA during a break from her presenting duties in 2011.

After posing topless on a huge plate of food in London's Trafalgar Square to oppose eating meat, she was met with rage from bosses and was dropped from the channel.

Sarah-Jane admitted she only agreed to do the shoot for a 'bit of fun' and wasn't paid for her involvement, but still faced backlash from BBC bosses.

The star also posed for a shoot in a skimpy vest pouring Diet Coke all over her breasts, and when the images came to light she learned she'd been sacked.

Trouble: Sarah-Jane's controversial topless shoot for PETA in 2011, is pictured. The shoot was thought to have enraged BBC bosses, who then dropped her from CBeebies

Infuriating: The star also posed for a shoot in a skimpy vest pouring Diet Coke all over her breasts, and when the images came to light she learned she'd been sacked

She told The Sun: 'The BBC was asked to comment, and they simply said I no longer worked for them. That was how I found out. There was never a phone call or a single conversation with my bosses  despite me having worked there for 10 years'.

In 2016, Sarah-Jane wrote a blog about losing her friendship with Justin, penning: 'I regret losing my wonderful friendship with Justin. The day my picture went in the paper with the headline, 'Cboobies' I never heard from my lovely friend again.'

Justin has long been the channel's hottest property and is said to earn six figure sums from the lucrative live shows that he once put on.

He continues to appear on the series Something Special, which has been praised for its use of Makaton sign language and being aimed at children with special needs or those that struggle to communicate.

Justin began presenting on BBC and later CBeebies in 1999, after landing his first big hosting job on ITV's Fun Song Factory in 1998.

Hurtful: Speaking about the fall-out she said: 'I called and left him a message but to this day he's never responded. We were the best of mates, so that really hurt. I do understand it though, because as a children's presenter he needs to protect his own image'

Sarah-Jane said that she understands why their friendship had to end, saying: 'He had a very important, brilliant brand to protect. For the sake of children's joy everywhere, I'm glad he chose them over me...

'Justin loves the kids and he is passionate about entertaining them and that's why I do love him. I actually feel quite emotional writing this and I think it's the first time I've truly admitted to myself that, I miss my old mucker.'

The star admitted that after her sacking she was bombarded with online abuse criticising her behaviour, and she faced yet more criticism after speaking about taking cocaine in her youth.

In a 2013 interview she told The Sun: 'When I did my first line of cocaine, it felt like nothing. It was less mind-altering than alcohol. I started to think, ''I don't get what the big deal is''. But what I didn't realise is that cocaine is a slow burner.

'That's what is dangerous and what we forget to tell people. Over the first year of me doing it, it got worse and worse.

'Cocaine psychosis had started to come into my life. I became paranoid because I thought people were following me. I was very thin. My friend and I realised one of us was going to die or go crazy.'

Happier times: Speaking about the fall-out she said: 'I called and left him a message but to this day he's never responded. We were the best of mates, so that really hurt. I do understand it though, because as a children's presenter he needs to protect his own image'

After the demise of their friendship and the loss of her job, it was then that Sarah-Jane's life began to spiral, as she racked up 100,000 worth of credit card debt and became suicidal due to her lack of work.

After reflecting on ending her life, she was pulled back from the brink by her Hollyoaks star husband Ayden Callaghan, with whom she has son Phoenix, five, and Indiana, three. The family live together in Lincoln.

In 2016 she reflected on her battles with drugs and alcohol in an Instagram post to mark her 44th birthday.

Sarah-Jane, who was pregnant with her second child at the time, wrote: 'Today I'm 44 years old - yes old, not young and I'm also proud to be 16 years #cleanandsober - my little boy Phoenix, my little boy bump and my husband @aydencallaghan are the best gifts a girl could ever wish for on her birthday - I am truly blessed!

'I'm proud to be old and thrilled I'm an old mum - apart from 2 well documented years of 'extreme partying' on that awful drug cocaine, I've lived a clean and sober life for 16 years now.

'I may not be working on kids TV anymore because I admitted to my past mistakes in the hope of helping the future generations that watched me on TV but that's ok,I did it to help others not me.

'We are all addicts but be addicted to something wonderful like family not something toxic like alcohol or drugs! Living a clean life has blessed me in the future.

'By keeping completely away from drugs and drink for 16 years now I have kept super healthy so I could start a family in my 40's - being a mum is the best thing I have ever done. It's who I am. It's the best drug in the world. #dreamscancometrue.'

Sarah-Jane was previously candid and honest about experiencing a miscarriage in their first pregnancy. Ayden asked Hollyoaks bosses to remove a stillbirth storyline on the show due his personal experiences.

Reflecting on the loss of her first child, Sarah-Jane said that the work opportunity came up for Ayden when they had 'just started to feel OK about [their own loss]'.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org
Sen. Gerry Cardinale is an arch-conservative, a better fit for Alabama than New Jersey, a man who opposed marijuana legalization from the start.

But even Cardinale can see that it is plain crazy to throw someone in prison for years because they grow marijuana in their back yard  especially after New Jersey voters made it clear in a landslide vote that they want weed to be legal.

It boggles the mind, says Cardinale, R-Bergen. If its a legal substance, what is the public interest in not allowing people to grow it, like carrots or beets?

Right now, the governor and Legislature are caught in a stalemate over legislation to implement the mandate of voters after 67 percent favored legalization for adult recreational use in Novembers vote. The sticking point is how to enforce rules barring minors from joining the party.

But Cardinale points to a second big problem with the bill on Gov. Phil Murphys desk: It does nothing to change the draconian laws barring users from growing their own marijuana plants.

Cultivating a single plant remains a third-degree crime in New Jersey, punishable by three to five years in prison. Growing 10 plants is a first-degree crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison, with one-third mandatory  the same penalty state law imposes for operating a meth lab.

The intention is to ensure that legal growers, those granted a state license, can establish themselves as successful businesses. Without the legal growers, the illegal market would continue to fill the need, derailing this entire exercise. A second concern is that home-growers could grow more than enough to satisfy their own need and sell the remainder on the illegal market.

Somehow, at least 18 states have survived allowing home-grown for either recreational or medical use, or both. They include Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Their legal markets have not collapsed as a result, and many experts say consumers are no more likely to grow their own marijuana than to brew their own beer, given the expertise required to do it right.

Youre going to see the proliferation of craft cannabis economy here in New Jersey, thats the future, says Bill Caruso, of New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform. Just as weve seen with craft brews.

Even if the Legislature and governor refuse to legalize home grow, do these long prison sentences make a scrap of sense? Do we really want to derail someones life over a few pot plants in the basement?

Thats insane, and its not where the public is, says Caruso, of New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform.

The case for home-grow is especially strong among medical marijuana users. This is their medicine, and often sells for more than $400 an ounce, thanks to supply shortages. Insurers dont cover it, and patients often have trouble finding the strain that addresses their illness most effectively. Forcing sick people to buy from this narrow and expensive market is inhumane.

Physicians like me recognize a public health argument for allowing home cultivation, Dr. David Nathan, a Princeton-based psychiatrist and founder of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, wrote in Cannabis Insider. Those who need a particular strain should be able to grow it if it isnt available in dispensaries.

The governor declined comment on Cardinales bill. But Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Sen. Nick Scutari, D-Union, both say they are open to allowing some home-grown, and will likely address the issue in a clean-up bill once agreement is reached on the existing bill.

We want to get this up and running, and then look at that issue, Sweeney says. The first thing were going to do is clean up those penalties. Theyre too severe.

Cardinale is 86 years old and is facing a tough challenge this year from Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi, 49, a fellow Republican who has been his running mate for the last decade. If Cardinale manages to survive, hell be 89 when his two-year term expires. I dont think Ive slowed down too much, he says.

Bergen Republican will make that call. But for now, heres hoping that legislative leaders and the governor hear his sensible call to liberate home growers.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Our picks

Tom & Jerry. Long in the making, this film revives the beloved franchise in hybrid form. The cat and mouse appear in cgi, but the design, rigging, and animation attempt to be faithful to the style of the hand-drawn originals. The film is launching simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, as per the strategy for Warner Bros.s films this year. It will leave HBO Max after 31 days. (Feb 26)

Kid Cosmic. Craig McCracken, the creator of The Powerpuff Girls, returns to sci-fi superhero territory for his first Netflix series (which is also his first serialized show). A boys dream of acquiring superpowers comes true when he discovers five magical cosmic stones. Trouble is, hes not very good at wielding those powers. (Feb 2)

Earwig and the Witch. Studio Ghiblis first film in six years is a departure from the house style: for the first time, the storied anime studio has produced a feature entirely in cgi. But the story  about a young orphan girl discovering her magic powers  fits right into the studios canon. Two days after opening in select theaters, the film is debuting on HBO Max, joining the rest of the Ghibli catalogue. (Feb 5)

The Book of Life. Jorge Gutierrezs graphically arresting tribute to Mexicos Day of the Dead is a riotous, hugely entertaining slice of fantasy. Produced by Fox, it is now in the Disney stable, and will soon sit on Disney+ alongside Pixars later film Coco (which bears more than a passing similarity to it). (Feb 19)

Inside Pixar: Portraits. Disney+ is getting five more episodes of the behind-the-scenes mini-series. This batch will look beyond directors and visual artists to other, lower-profile professions, such as director of international production and pastry chef. The short films are studio-produced, which means they have good access and a general back-slapping vibe. (Feb 12)

Netflix

Kid Cosmic (series; Feb 2)

Mighty Express, season 2 (series; Feb 2)

Xicos Journey (feature; Feb 12)

Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan (OVA; Feb 18)

High-Rise Invasion (ONA; Feb 25)

Bigfoot Family (feature; Feb 26)

Disney+

Inside Pixar: Portraits, second batch (series; Feb 12)

Marvel Battleworld: Mystery of the Thanostones, season 1 (series; Feb 12)

The Book of Life (feature; Feb 19)

Disneys American Dragon: Jake Long, seasons 12 (series; Feb 26)

Mickey Go Local, season 1 (series; Feb 26)

Myth: A Frozen Tale (short; Feb 26)

HBO Max

Cyclone Yaas to make landfall near Odishas Balasore around Wednesday noon; Flight services may be hit

Cyclone Yaas: NDRF deputes highest-ever number of teams for Odisha, Bengal; over 10L evacuated

Odisha CM Patnaik stresses on saving lives as countdown for cyclone Yaas begins

Cyclone: Over 750 births recorded amid natures fury, parents rush to name newborns 'Yaas'

Odisha gets highway Eighteen patrolling units

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Bhubaneswar, Feb 02: Eighteen patrolling units were rolled out for various state and national highways across Odisha on Monday by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Patnaik said that these units will play a crucial role in saving the lives of accident victims on highways.

He said the state government has a target of creating 36 patrolling units in various accident-prone stretches.

Budget 2021 focused on health sector, infrastructure: FM Sitharaman

The functioning and experience of these 18 units in the first phase will guide the government for further action and future initiatives, he added.

Patnaik asked officials to start more sensitisation initiatives for drivers on various road safety mechanisms and laws relating to it.

The introduction of the highway patrolling will help reduce the time for taking an accident victim from the spot of an accident to the nearest hospital, he said.

"The quicker we can take an injured person to hospitals, the better is the chance of survival," Patnaik said.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

Around 4,000 people die in road mishaps in Odisha every year, an official said.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 9:36 [IST]
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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed an external professional IT company to conduct an audit of HDFC Banks IT Infrastructure and has sought a report from the company at the earliest, said a person familiar with the development.

The RBI has appointed a third party to conduct an audit of the IT infrastructure, said an official in the bank who didnt want to be named.

This is part of the RBIs inspections to examine if the bank had improved on it digital capabilities following the recent issues, the person said.

The HDFC bank has also informed the exchanges that the RBI move is in the backdrop of incidents of outages in the internet banking/ mobile banking/ payment utilities of the Bank over the past two years, including the recent outages in the Bank's internet banking and payment system on November 21, 2020 due to a power failure in the primary data centre.

As an update to the above Intimation, kindly note that RBI has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the Bank under Section 30 (1-B) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 ('the Act'), at the cost of the Bank under Section 30 (1-C) of the Act, the bank told the Exchanges. Further, the Bank shall accordingly extend its cooperation to the external professional IT firm so appointed by RBI for conducting the special IT audit as above, the bank said.

On January 19, Moneycontrol reported that the lender is preparing a two-pronged strategy to address the issue of digital outage reported in the recent past. The lender expects to implement a short-term plan to fix the digital outage over the next 10-12 weeks.

The short-term plan is aimed at fixing the technical issues that led to recent multiple outage on HDFC Banks digital banking channels. Once the short-term plan is implemented, the bank hopes to get a reprieve from the regulator on new digital launches, said a person aware of the plan, the report said.

On December 3, HDFC Bank announced that the RBI asked the bank to temporarily stop all launches under its Digital 2.0 initiative and stop sourcing new credit card customers. The announcement came after the bank experienced multiple outage in its internet banking, mobile banking and payment utility services over the past two years.

Recently, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that banks must invest more in building robust IT platforms to fortify public confidence in digital banking.

More investment is required by all stakeholders for building robust IT platforms and technologies for operational purposes as well as for fortifying public confidence in digital banking, especially when the financial landscape is rapidly embracing new technologies, Das wrote in the foreword of RBI Financial Stability Report (FSR).

Acknowledging that information technology platforms and digital payment systems have provided considerable support for business continuity and smooth functioning during the pandemic, Das said digital technologies have been identified as a bright spot in Indias economic prospects.

HDFC Bank is not the only lender which has faced digital outage. Recently, State Bank of Indias YONO app, which is a platform for various digital transactions, too faced prolonged technical glitches. The bank has addressed the problem subsequently.

More banks are now turning aggressive on digital banking channels to reduce the dependency on traditional brick and mortar models and catch the younger generation who are more tech-savvy. As against the traditional banking, digital transactions are more convenient and most of these can be done round the clock.

Recently, the RBI had made the Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) available round the clock on all days from 12.30 AM December 14. With this, India became one of the few countries in the world to operate its RTGS system round the clock throughout the year.

This came within a year of operationalising NEFT 24x7 by the RBI, the central bank said. Transactions worth a minimum of Rs 2 lakh or more can be done via RTGS with no maximum ceiling as per RBI.

Digital transactions have picked up in the recent past. Digital transactions exhibited a sustained recovery and momentum picked up in November 2020, supported by both wholesale and retail transactions, RBI data showed in December.
Tokyo, Feb 2 : Japan's lower house of Parliament has approved bills making it possible for the government to impose fines on people and businesses for violation of the restrictions imposed against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Initial plans to introduce prison sentences for Covid-19 patients in Japan refusing to be hospitalised were abandoned last week by ruling and main opposition parties following criticism that the punishment was too severe, reports Xinhua news agency.

Under a new agreement between the ruling and main opposition party which was approved on Monday, Covid-19 patients who refuse hospitalization could soon face fines of up to 500,000 yen, while those who do not comply with health officials' surveys could be fined up to 300,000 yen.

Previous plans were also to introduce fines of up to 500,000 yen for businesses that refuse to shorten their opening hours and close earlier under a state of emergency, and up to 300,000 yen for businesses not under a state of emergency but where anti-virus requests have been made by local prefectures.

The fines have now been lowered to 300,000 yen and 200,000 yen, respectively.

The lowered fines along with the other revisions to the infectious disease law and the coronavirus special measures law will be enacted by the upper house of parliament on Wednesday.

Under the state of emergency that is now set to be extended, restaurants and bars have been ordered to close by 8 p.m. and people asked to refrain from making unnecessary trips outdoors, especially in the evenings.

The government has also urged people to work from home and large events will have their capacity capped.

Japan is still grappling to bring the virus' spread under control.

On Monday, 1,792 new infections were reported across the country, bringing the nation's total tally of cases to 392,475.

The country's death toll has now risen to a total of 5,846, according to the latest statistics.

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Monday reported 393 new confirmed cases, with the capital city's cumulative total of infections rising to 100,234.

Health officials in the capital of 14 million said that 133 hospitalized patients are designated as being in a "serious condition".
Another six cases of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the strain from the United Kingdom, were traced in Romania.

"The Ministry of Health was informed by the National Institute of Public Health - the Center for Disease Control, that there were reported six new cases of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the UK mutant strain, genetic line B.1.1.7," the Ministry of Health specifies, in a press release sent to AGERPRES.

According to the quoted source, it is about 3 males from the County of Bihor (35 years), the County of Ilfov (63 years) and Bucharest (39 years) and 3 women from Bucharest (69, 49 years respectively) and the County of Dambovita (54 years) for whom epidemiology inquiries will be launched.

For these samples, the genome sequencing was done within the Matei Bals National Institute of Infectious Disease, the quoted source says.
WASHINGTON - Former president Donald Trump's company reported making $10,577 in profits from its business with foreign governments in 2020, a steep decline from the totals during the first three years of his presidency.

The Trump Organization announced that figure in a letter to the Treasury Department dated Jan. 19, the last full day of Trump's presidency. The letter was accompanied by a check for $10,577 to the federal government.

The letter and the check were released Thursday by the Biden administration.

Trump made similar donations in previous years, in keeping with a pledge to donate all profits from doing business with foreign governments and foreign political parties. In the past, these transactions have included parties hosted by foreign embassies at the Trump hotel in Washington and stays at that hotel by foreign officials.

"It's our great honor, to once again, voluntarily donate profits from foreign government patronage at our hotels and similar businesses . . . to the United States Treasury," Trump's son Eric Trump said in a written statement.

As in other years, the company did not provide details about how it calculated the donations.

These donations were one way Trump tried to assuage fears that foreign governments could seek to influence him through his business. Some critics had asserted that Trump was forbidden from doing business with foreign governments at all, citing a clause in the Constitution that says presidents may not accept "emoluments" from foreign states.

Several groups sued Trump, seeking to block these transactions, but the cases became mired in legal fights about who had the right to sue in the first place. When Trump's term ended, the cases were dismissed, leaving most legal questions unresolved.

In previous years, the company had reported much higher foreign profits: $151,000 in 2017, $192,000 in 2018, and $105,000 in 2019. The 2020 figure was down by 90% from the year before.

The Trump Organization did not respond Thursday to questions about the reasons for the decline in 2020.

One likely reason for the drop was the pandemic, which drastically reduced travel and large gatherings worldwide. In recent filings, Trump's company said its revenue had declined by more than $120 million in 2020.

At one point during his presidency, Trump seemed to have set his company up for a huge increase in foreign government revenue in 2020.

In 2019, he chose his own Doral resort to host the next year's massive Group of Seven Summit of foreign leaders. That would have brought hundreds of aides, security personnel and journalists to the struggling resort near the Miami airport.

But, amid criticism, Trump said he would hold the event at Camp David, the presidential retreat. In the end, the summit was canceled because of the pandemic.
The six alumni of the University of Benin Law Faculty who were recently elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, were last week urged by the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN that the rank brings not only fame and privileges, but that it also imposes a huge responsibility.

Fashola who is also an alumnus of the University of Benin and an SAN made this remark while delivering a keynote speech a Special Luncheon to celebrate the six SANs last Thursday at the Banquet Hall of the University.

He said 'In a world where consideration for self now takes pre-eminence over selflessness, in a world where selfies (as in photographs) now dominate our conversation, I urge that we seek to enthrone more selflessness in our lives.

'In this regard, I ask all of us to reflect and ask whether we will be here to celebrate Senior Advocates, if there were first no Lawyers, and if we could celebrate Lawyers without law graduates, and indeed, if they could have been law graduates without successful law students.

'The extended question in reflection is this: where would we all have been without our teachers in primary and secondary schools, in the University and the Nigerian Law School?'

The new SANs include:-

1. Chief (Dr.) Richard Oma Ahonaruogho, SAN

2. Mr. Adedapo Osariuyime Tunde-Olowu, SAN

3. Mr. Lotanna Chuka Okoli, SAN

4. Mr Peter Adogbejire Mrakpor, SAN

5. Mr. Nureini Soladoye Jimoh, SAN

6. Mr. Yusuf Asamah Kadiri, SAN

Babatunde Fashola further said 'Many, including my humble self, have walked your path. If it was difficult at the time I was preferred in 2004, I can only now imagine how much more difficult it must have been. There are many more qualified Lawyers seeking the rank, and therefore, the competition is immensely magnified. The conditions that I have looked at for prequalification, are more stringent'.

'For your dedication, hard work and ultimate success, I doff my hat in admiration.

'To all those in Uniben Law Alumni who are still aspiring, the magnitude of HARD WORK and the span of dedication it requires to succeed is not intended to deter, but to challenge you to aspire. Afterall, you are the products of the great Uniben.

'As I understand it from history, the University of Benin is the product of the farsighted and visionary commitment of men and women who sought to develop Nigeria's human capital. That vision has fructified manyfold, and it is still bearing fruit as is evident from the many products of this University who have, and are still occupying positions of leadership and responsibility in the private and public spheres of our nation.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

'That list is long and growing, and I doubt that there could be a better tribute to the vision of the founders than what we gather to do today; to celebrate six products of University of Benin who ascend to leadership role in the legal profession in the year 2020 when University of Benin commemorated its 50th year of existence.

'Of course, the rank brings fame and privileges, but it also imposes a huge responsibility of LEADERSHIP, to be used to improve the cause of justice and enthrone law and order for the peace, order and good government of Nigeria and her people.

'You and I who are the beneficiaries of this rank must therefore, always remember that we are products of Uniben. We must fly her flag proudly with our rank. We must not be afraid to break new grounds in the development of the law', he said.
Every child who presents to an emergency department with a head injury should be re-examined by a doctor within two weeks of their initial treatment according to new national guidelines developed by a Melbourne-led research team.

The guidelines  the product of a collaboration between emergency medicine physicians, GPs, neurosurgeons, radiologists, paramedics and nurses in Australia and New Zealand  are the first nationally consistent protocols for treating children with head injuries.

Jakob Salter, 15, pictured with his father Matthew Salter, was hospitalised with concussion and underwent a CT scan after crashing his BMX bike. Credit:Penny Stephens

Lead researcher Professor Franz Babl from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI) said one of the principle aims of the guidelines, published on Wednesday in the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia, was to help emergency clinicians decide when to use radiation-intense CT scans on childrens brains.

There is currently a substantial variance in how readily doctors order CT scans, with a five-fold difference in the rate of use reported by different emergency departments. Exposure to radiation can have a greater impact on children than adults, particularly in cases that require multiple scans.
Xaxis, the Outcome Media Company and GroupMs advanced programmatic arm, today announced the launch of its programmatic creative services solution, Xaxis Creative Studios (XCS), in India. With full-service in-house creative capability, XCS' team of designers, producers, developers, and animators will help clients develop and deliver more relevant, more engaging creative executions to drive greater programmatic performance and insights.

XCS brings value to brands through outcome-focused designs and customized creatives for enhancing effectiveness in brand communication. Data insight is key for brands to understand consumers and their context to tailor the brand messaging in real-time. Using Xaxis proprietary data integration technology and a range of data signals from advertisers 1st-party or 3rd-party data to personalize ads at scale and deliver relevant messages to the right user at the right time. With client-centric executions, the XCS team can deliver outputs with flexible production timeframes, optimize on-going campaigns and tweak creatives in-flight so that brands can improve performance and ensure maximum return on investments (ROI).

Announcing the launch of XCS, Rita Sahajpaul, National Head of Product and Marketing Science, Xaxis India, said, With the launch of Xaxis Creative Studios, Xaxis will be able to provide last-mile services to the clients and address a gap in the market in integrating creatives and media for digital ads. Digital media can be quite cluttered, and our focus is to bring innovative and engaging creative solutions which allow the brand messaging to stand-out and be effective in reaching the right audience.

To enhance the impact of creative content, the XCS team works to reimagine and reassemble existing assets into new formats and in multiple versions that can be delivered in real-time according to audience insights and factors such as user location, time of day, weather, and site. Customized to reach the target audience, these high-quality, digital-ready creatives include rich media display units, interactive video, conversational chat ads, voice-activated audio ads, gamified experiences, dynamic ads,and many experimental formats that work cross-screen. Meanwhile, advanced reporting capabilities allow clients to measure and optimize their media strategy and executions to ensure that digital ads have the best chance of grabbing customers' attention.

The co-ordination of agencies, creatives, data and programmatic strategists is essential in exploring the diversity of the digital media to help companies boost brand awareness. Xaxis Creative Studios has been helping clients in Asia Pacific, North and Latin America drive meaningful creative impact with its suite of cross-channel solutions. We hope to bring the same capabilities to the Indian market to solve our clients' unique business challenges and needs," added Sahajpaul.
DeSantis: Florida Inmates Wont Get COVID-19 Vaccines Before Seniors

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is rejecting the notion of prioritizing prison inmates for COVID-19 vaccinations ahead of the states seniors, as virus-linked deaths in state prisons continue to surge.

The Republican governor has pledged to make seniors access to vaccinations a state priority. He said during a Feb. 1 press briefing that Florida ranks first or second in the country in terms of the percentage of seniors receiving vaccinations.

So far, Florida has given a higher percentage of its vaccinations to senior citizens than any other state in the country, DeSantis told reporters at a briefing to announce further drive-through vaccination sites in the state.

The first state in the country to put seniors first  that has been our goal, thats been our policy. We havent wavered from that. And of course, now many states are following Florida to put seniors first.

Nearly 30 percent of the states 4.5 million seniors have been vaccinated against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, DeSantis said.

However, when pressed by the media on the possibility of vaccinating prison inmates first, given that the death toll in the states prison system rose above 200 this month, DeSantis brushed off the idea.

Theres some states that are still in single digits on that, DeSantis said, referring to vaccine administration for senior citizens. You know, some of these states are vaccinating prisoners instead of seniors. Theyre vaccinating drug addicts instead of seniors.

Whose priorities are you looking out for? Were looking out for our parents and grandparents here in Florida, he said. Theres no way youre going to get some prisoner a vaccine over a senior citizen. And so our seniors-first promise is ironclad.

According to nonprofit criminal justice news site The Marshall Project, which tracks COVID-19 deaths in prisons, Florida has recorded the most inmate deaths of any state prison system205 as of Jan. 26.

In the three weeks ending Jan. 22, just over 560 state prison inmates were tested for COVID-19, and 45 percent of those tests came back positive, the Orlando Sentinel reported, citing data from the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC),

The FDCs website states that as of Jan. 27, 22 correctional institutions have active cases of CCP virus. It notes that if an inmate begins experiencing symptoms indicative of COVID-19, they will be placed in medical isolation and tested.
From the Australian wildfires to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 threw a range of unpleasant obstacles in our way.

But new data has revealed that 2020 wasn't all bad, with a peak in happiness in the UK on September 27.

This was the Sunday after lockdown restrictions were eased to allow couples in an 'established relationship' who had been separated since March to reunite.

According to sleep technology firm Simba, which gives a daily questionnaire to its 50,000 British sleep app users, this was the happiest day of the pandemic, outranking even the approval and rollout of vaccines.

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According to sleep technology firm Simba, which gives a daily questionnaire to 50,000 Britons, September 27 was the happiest day of the pandemic, outranking vaccines

THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF 2020 The happiest day of the pandemic in the UK came on September 27, new data claims. This was the Sunday after restrictions were eased in order to allow couples in an 'established relationship' who had been separated since March to reunite. The end of November was also period of buoyed spirits nationally, as people registered high levels of happiness tied to the first approved vaccine and news the Prime Minister Boris Johnson was pushing to bring in three household 'bubbles' over the Christmas period between December 23 and 27. While Mr Johnson would go on to renege on this promise to people in the South-East, East and London due to the emergence of the new more infectious variant of the coronavirus, the initial hope saw spirits soar. A notable low point in the final third of 2020 was the start of lockdown two on November 5, with increased numbers of people saying they woke up sad. Advertisement

Psychologist Dr Andy Cope worked with Simba on the project, which lasted throughout the pandemic. The latest analysis spans from September 1 to January 10.

The announcement on September 23 that couples living apart could see each other for the first time since restrictions were implemented in March is thought to be the main reason behind it being the year's happiest day.

'It's not a surprise to me that the happiest day of the year was when we were allowed to finally spend time with our loved ones once again,' Dr Hope told MailOnline.

'There are 17.2 million single people in the UK. That's 34 per cent of the population, locked down, starved of companionship for a large chunk of 2020.

'It's interesting that Simba's data reveals our wake-up moods then nose-dived again on 16 October after many were left broken hearted by the change in tier rules banning them from meeting indoors unless they were in a "support bubble".

'Companionship is baked into the human operating system. At the most basic level, people need other people. Take human contact away and we begin to suffer.

'Loneliness used to be something that affected the elderly generation. All of a sudden, lockdown brought loneliness and social isolation to singletons and the younger generation.'

The end of November was also period of buoyed spirits nationally, as people registered high levels of happiness tied to the first approved vaccine and news the Prime Minister Boris Johnson was pushing to bring in three household 'bubbles' over the Christmas period between December 23 and 27.

Psychologist Dr Andy Cope worked with the app on the project, which lasted throughout the pandemic. The latest analysis spans from September 1 to January 10

While the Premier would later renege on this promise to people in the South-East, East and London due to the emergence of the new more infectious variant, the initial hope saw spirits soar.

A notable low point in the final third of 2020 was the start of lockdown two on November 5, with increased levels of people saying they woke up sad.

Announcement of the highly-infectious Kent strain and Tier 4 restrictions also triggered a downturn in the public morale.

The announcement on September 23 that couples living apart could see each other for the first time since restrictions were implemented in March is thought to be the main reason behind the year's happiest day (stock image)

Dr Cope adds: 'Physical contact is an important part of making it through the pandemic, as long as you stay within the rules.

'Love is a drug, a legal and totally free way of getting high.

'Physical contact stimulates the production of oxytocin, a neurotransmitter that acts on the brain's emotional centre.

'It releases dopamine, another wonderful chemical that can help stave off depression and a whole host of ailments.

'Dopamine changes how our bodies handle stress, both physical and social.

'It also promotes feelings of contentment and reduces anxiety and stress as well as encouraging feelings of devotion, trust and bonding.

'Some research indicates that touch releases hormones that are immunoregulatory, having a deep impact on the health of our immune systems.

'When scotch eggs hit the headlines was when permission was given to meet up with your friends.

'For some people, the 'Scotch egg' moment was the human equivalent of plugging your phone in for a re-charge.

'It topped up our levels of social intercourse, re-charging us for the choppy waters ahead.'

Looks like we survived January, 2021, most of us at least. With the post-holidays spike in COVID cases and the arrival of new more contagious mutated versions popping up, the pandemic death toll is simply epic. Its now eclipsing all American combat deaths during World War II. Remember New Years Eve when we all breathed a collective sigh of relief that 2020 was ending? Do you remember thinking 2021 has GOT to be a better year?

But, so far, it hasnt! Every Wednesday in January brought a new crisis that easily could provide rough scripts to launch four new Netflix docudramas with the same working title: America Divided.

Wed. January 6th: Our Capitol was invaded for the first time in over two hundred years, this time by our own citizens. Many people share the blame including those in charge of Capitol security starting with then Commander in Chief, Donald J. Trump. It will take months to sort out the whole sordid story. But, to me, its clear that this country needs serious election reform. I remember 1960 when everyone was amazed that Kennedys election was not called for several hours. In 2020, it took several weeks.

Wed. January 13th: After deliberating for just one day, a largely Democratic House majority voted to impeach Mr. Trump for the second time. How do you remove a president who has already served out his term? This is nuts. Its no wonder Chief Justice wont preside over the Senates pending kangaroo trial. The Democrats obviously know they dont have the votes to convict. Yet, they will soldier on as they did last January with their baseless charge about Russian collusion. So much for seeking unity.

Wed. January 20th: Joe Biden was sworn in as president. In an apparent clumsy attempt to live down his nickname Sleepy Joe, Mr. Biden immediately signed off on a blizzard of Week One executive orders, three times as many as his three predecessors combined. He is asking us taxpayers to lend 1.9 trillion dollars to stimulate the economy and then canceled the Keystone Pipeline which eliminated eleven thousand jobs. His premise that it will improve the environment by shipping Canadian oil in gas-driven tankers instead of an enclosed pipeline is crazy. Dont get me started on our so-called Catholic presidents directive to resume public funding to support abortion in gross opposition to basic Christian teaching. This action is as evil as New York Governor Cuomos decision to send elderly COVID patients to nursing homes instead of the emergency hospital beds the Trump Administration provided him.

Wed. January 27th: Upstart brokerage firm Robinhoods executives decided to halt trading the next day in GameStop stock after investors on an internet chat site conspired to artificially drive up the stock to record levels. Talk about politics making strange bedfellows: pundits from the extreme left and extreme right are all hailing this as a victory for the little guy. Yet, these investors just made fortunes investing in a company that was fundamentally heading toward bankruptcy! Is that legal now? Nothing upsets the stock market more than uncertainty like this. So, some investors are now heading for the exits.

Now we await February 3rd. Are we in for yet another cataclysmic Wednesday or will we just be glad to have January behind us? Rather than wait with dread, lets turn this Wednesday into a day for some serious soul searching. Prayer is the best response in times like these. Pray for our COVID victims living and dead. Pray for our great health care workers and first responders. Lets pray for each other and peaceful national unity based on truth, not partisan, politicized versions of the truth.

John Robb, a retired investment advisor and journalist, lives in Mobile.
Dont panic. This is not doomsday. The sight of government testers going door-to-door in protective clothing, in search of the new Covid variants, might look like a scene from a horror movie, but theres no cause for real alarm.

Coronavirus mutations such as the so-called South African variant, which have emerged in recent weeks, are an entirely predictable by-product of viral evolution and scientists expected this to happen.

Indeed, the fact that we have detected these variants is a sign of how well Britain is doing in the arms race against Covid  better than anywhere else in the world.

Viruses mutate naturally as they spread. They develop fractional differences in their DNA sequence, which are passed on from one generation of the virus to the next.

The sight of government testers going door-to-door in protective clothing, in search of the new Covid variants, might look like a scene from a horror movie, but theres no cause for real alarm. Pictured: Mike and Natasha Wallace, both from South Africa, help each other take Covid tests at their home in Woking,Surrey

Covid-19 is not an especially mutable virus. It doesnt throw up new strains as often as flu, for instance: We see new kinds of flu every year.

And the coronavirus isnt especially infectious either  measles is at least three times worse.

But it is stealthy, which is why it spreads so effectively. As long as people can be infected without showing symptoms, they are liable to pass it on, because they simply dont know theyve got it.

The Government is particularly concerned about the South African variant because it appears to be symptom-free for longer and may make current vaccines slightly less effective. That doesnt necessarily make it more deadly for those who catch it, but it does increase the risk that they will pass it on without ever realising they are infected.

Im afraid the surge testing of people in eight particular postcodes where cases have been identified is likely to be futile.

The fact that we have detected these variants is a sign of how well Britain is doing in the arms race against Covid  better than anywhere else in the world. Pictured: Volunteers hand out the COVID-19 home test kit to a resident in Goldsworth and St Johns in Surrey

Colleagues tell me there were at least 50 cases across the country two weeks ago. Given that only a fraction of new Covid strains have been fully DNA-sequenced in the lab, the variant genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

The door-to-door testing is a highly visible way to encourage people to stay indoors, but I fear it could come at a cost. During a pandemic, it seems unwise (to say the least) to employ people to go from one house to the next, potentially spreading the very disease they are trying to constrain.

Whether this variant really originated in South Africa, we may never know. One similar to it has certainly been detected there, but it is possible that the same random mutation occurred independently in this country.

Britain leads the world in genome-sequencing of the virus. We identify these new variants because we are better at looking for them.

Thats why we detected the Kent variant, which provoked such panic in Europe initially that some ports were closed to British traffic for a time. We were the pariahs of Europe, penalised because we are so good at monitoring mutations in our highly effective fight against the virus.

Volunteers Hanna and Sophie Taylor deliver coronavirus test kits during door-to-door coronavirus testing in Woking, Surrey, part of a testing blitz of 80,000 people in England

If other governments undertook such rigorous studies, they too would detect similar variations springing up naturally within their own borders.

Not only are we among the best at genome sequencing, but were way ahead when it comes to the number of people we are vaccinating.

Mass vaccination will inevitably lead to new variants, as some versions of Covid evolve to survive vaccination.

This too is no reason for panic. Because we are able to identify new variants so swiftly, we can also tweak the vaccines accordingly. The latest vaccines are being engineered to counteract new variants as and when they emerge.

We are winning the arms race. The news might seem scary, but I feel more optimistic now than at any time since the outbreak began.

Brendan Wren is Professor of Vaccinology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has said President Muhammadu Buhari has no right to condemn the Eastern Secu...

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has said President Muhammadu Buhari has no right to condemn the Eastern Security Network, ESN.

Kanu said both Buhari and governors lacked the moral right to criticize the security outfit recently launched by IPOB.

In a series of tweets, the IPOB leader wondered why the Buhari-led government would not prosecute terrorists but granted them pardon.

He also faulted the decision of the Nigerian Army to rehabilitate terrorists.

Kanu wrote: When your President does not prosecute TERRORISTS but pardons and gives them scholarships. When your Governors negotiate with and BANDITS and pay them.

When your security agencies rehabilitate terrorists and induct them in your Army. They lose the moral right to traduce #ESN. We move!.
LAVAL, QC, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BHC) ("Bausch Health") and its dermatology business, Ortho Dermatologics, one of the largest prescription dermatology health care businesses, today announced the opening of the application process for its 2021 Aspire Higher scholarship program. The program, which began in 2013, will award nine students who have been treated for a dermatologic condition with a scholarship of up to $10,000 in support of their academic goals.

"Many students today are balancing a mix of in-person and remote education in addition to managing part-time jobs and extra-curricular activities. In normal circumstances, it can be challenging for students to juggle all that is part of getting an education, and with the added physical and emotional burden of living with a skin condition during a worldwide pandemic, it's even more difficult," said Scott Hirsch, senior vice president and chief strategy officer, Bausch Health, and president, Ortho Dermatologics. "We are excited to continue the Aspire Higher scholarship program in 2021 and to assist deserving students as they work to achieve their academic goals."

To apply for the 2021 scholarship, students are required to submit letters of recommendation along with a long-form essay describing the impact of their dermatologic condition and the role that a dermatologist, physician assistant or nurse practitioner has played in helping to treat their condition. Scholarships are open to applicants who have been accepted to, or students currently attending, an accredited, nonprofit, two- or four-year college, university or advanced (post-high school) vocational or technical school for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Scholarships are available in the following three categories:

Undergraduate Scholar Awards for students pursuing undergraduate degrees

for students pursuing undergraduate degrees Graduate Scholar Awards for students pursuing graduate degrees

for students pursuing graduate degrees Today's Woman Scholar Awards for students who are mothers pursuing either undergraduate or graduate degrees

"For several years, I've tackled a chronic skin disease while fighting to accept myself with this condition," said Magdalena Augustine, a 2020 Aspire Higher scholarship recipient. "The Aspire Higher Scholarship Program has made that fight so much easier by recognizing students like me who are living with skin conditions and helping to support our higher education aspirations."

Students can apply for the Aspire Higher scholarship through May 31, 2021, and winners will be announced in July 2021. To learn more about the scholarship, including eligibility criteria, terms and conditions, and to see stories from previous winners, please visit www.AspireHigherScholarships.com.

About Aspire Higher

Since 2013, the Aspire Higher scholarship program has awarded 51 scholarships, providing students a total of $738,000 toward their higher education on campuses nationwide. The Aspire Higher Scholarship program is funded through the Bausch Foundation.

About the Bausch Foundation

The Bausch Foundation was established in 2017 to improve the lives of patients globally by providing access to safe, effective medicines and by financially supporting health care education and causes. Since its inception, the Bausch Foundation has contributed millions of dollars' worth of financial and product donations to charitable health organizations.

About Ortho Dermatologics

Ortho Dermatologics is one of the largest dermatology businesses dedicated to helping patients in the treatment of a range of therapeutic areas, including psoriasis, actinic keratosis, acne, atopic dermatitis and other dermatoses. The Ortho Dermatologics portfolio is further complemented by Solta Medical, the maker of Fraxel, Thermage, Clear + Brilliant and Vaser ultrasonic assisted liposuction for aesthetic applications. More information can be found at www.ortho-dermatologics.com.

About Bausch Health

Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BHC) is a global company whose mission is to improve people's lives with our health care products. We develop, manufacture and market a range of pharmaceutical, medical device and over-the-counter products, primarily in the therapeutic areas of eye health, gastroenterology and dermatology. We are delivering on our commitments as we build an innovative company dedicated to advancing global health. More information can be found at www.bauschhealth.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements, which may generally be identified by the use of the words "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "should," "could," "would," "may," "believes," "estimates," "potential," "target," or "continue" and variations or similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties discussed in Bausch Health's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and detailed from time to time in Bausch Health's other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian Securities Administrators, which factors are incorporated herein by reference. They also include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties caused by or relating to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, and the fear of that pandemic and its potential effects, the severity, duration and future impact of which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, and which may have a material adverse impact on Bausch Health, including but not limited to its project development timelines, and costs (which may increase). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Bausch Health undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this news release or to reflect actual outcomes, unless required by law.

/TM are trademarks of Ortho Dermatologics' affiliated entities.

 2021 Ortho Dermatologics' affiliated entities.

NPR.0022.USA.21

SOURCE Bausch Health Companies Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bauschhealth.com


Border force workers and high-risk hotel quarantine staff will be the first people in Victoria to be immunised against coronavirus when the Pfizer vaccine arrives in Australia within the next few weeks.

High-priority healthcare workers in coronavirus wards, intensive care units and emergency departments, as well as in laboratories handling COVID-19 swabs and screening clinics, will be next in line under a plan to administer the vaccine to those most at risk of contracting the virus.

Pharmacist Lei Ching Yeoh in the vaccination hub at Sunshine Hospital, where ultra-low temperature freezers will store thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine as soon as it lands in Australia. Credit:Justin McManus

But inoculations for healthcare workers will be staggered to ensure masses of staff are not off work sick at the same time, amid warnings from the Therapeutic Goods Administration  which last week approved use of the Pfizer vaccine in Australia  that it may come with some short-term side effects.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said Australian Border Force officers and hotel quarantine workers would be vaccinated first because they were most at risk of contracting or transmitting the virus as they were frequently exposed to COVID-19 among people arriving in Melbourne from overseas.

Billionaire businessman and horse breeder Luke Comer has said his horses are "looked after better than people" after he confirmed veterinary inspectors had recently visited his multi-million racehorse facility on foot of a complaint.

Vets from the Department of Agriculture and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board spent a number of days inspecting his facilities in Kilternan on the Dublin-Wicklow border last month.

However, Luke told the Sunday World he had nothing to hide as he showed us around the facilities this week when we contacted him about the inspection.

"I understand somebody is trying to do us down at the moment," he said.

He added that he had seen a letter being sent around about his horse facilities recently and suspects the person behind that was also behind the complaint to the IHRB.

"I don't know what letter they got but I seen a letter that was sent to somebody else and it was the worst I've ever seen in my life. There were words stuck in like something a really evil person would do.

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Whatsapp Luke Comer says the complaints about his horse facilities are overblown

"If anyone went to the Turf Club (IHRB) with that they would have thought there were some terrible things going on.

"I don't think they're genuine animal lovers because if anyone knew what they were talking about they'd see the horses are looked after better than people.

The former plasterer from Glenamaddy, Co. Galway, made his fortune with his brother Brian in property around Europe particularly in Ireland, the UK and Germany.

The 63-year-old is a resident of Monaco but regularly travels back to Ireland and said this week his hope is to eventually retire and become a full-time trainer.

Luke was previously fined 50,000 by the Turf Club (IHRB) in 2017 for a number of breaches of regulation including refusing Turf Club officials access to the yard, failing to arrange adequate supervision of his horses, his medicine register not being in order, shortcomings in management structures and his representatives providing false and misleading information regarding the whereabouts of horses.

He said this week that the 2017 issues were "completely overblown" and said his facilities are state of the art.

"There was never one cent spared on how we look after the horses," he said.

"It was completely overblown. There is a certain personality in the Turf Club which a lot of trainers have issues with but we always find them generally okay.

"There are lots of people doing all sorts of things with horses to try and make them win and they have to be ruthless to stop that and as far as I'm aware they're doing a good enough job. They're okay."

The facilities are overseen by trainer Jim Gorman, who described them as like "a five-star hotel" for horses. "We have the physiotherapist in all the time. Our vets are in every day. Everything is done properly. It helps he has the money," Jim said.

Luke has around 70 horses at Kilternan which has been in operation for over two years and he also owns stud farms. He said he has spent 150 million on his horse facilities and he plans to have around 300 horses in Kilternan when more development is carried out over the next year.

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Whatsapp Luke Comer aims to have 300 horses at his facility.

The new plans include a multi-storey development housing 160 stables, staff accommodation a parade circuit, an equine exercise pool and drying and cleaning rooms. He said a lot of money has already been invested in the existing facilities.

"You can see all the horses are happy as can be. They're all very well looked after and that's why, hopefully, some of them will turn into great racehorses."

"The facilities in Kilternan racing stables are second to none. We've built a walker that can walk 56 horses in one go between water and normal walking."

He said he had enough feed for two years at all his horse facilities around the country and well-kept stables.

Luke said he was annoyed that people were making allegation about his facilities after he invested so much into them.

"I'm not annoyed so much because I know there's nothing true but they do annoy you when you put so much in and people make stupid remarks or evil remarks."

Luke said a vet did an independent report at the same time the vets from the Department and the IHRB were there and his report found no wrongdoing.

"I haven't seen anything back from the Department of Agriculture or the Turf Club but I have seen the independent report and it was a glowing report."

A spokesperson for the Department said they "cannot comment on ongoing investigations". An IHRB spokesperson said: "We do not comment on individual inspections. During inspections, if there any matters identified that may indicate a breach of our rules, the licensee is brought before a Referrals Committee and the outcome of the case is publicised"

Luke told the Sunday World that he has always loved horses and has become involved in the industry because of that love and not as a money-making exercise.

"It's very seldom anyone makes money in this game and I'm not in it to make money, I'm in it for the love of it. Obviously you'd like to be successful in whatever you do and that's why we are building it up...

"For the last three or four years I decided if we're going to do this we should do it now and maybe someday I can retire to training full-time myself. That's what I'd like to do."





Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn has expressed hope the industrys tarnished reputation has been partly repaired by how banks responded to the coronavirus pandemic, after lenders played a key role in shielding the economy from the shock.

In comments marking two years since the banking royal commissions final report, Mr Comyn, who is also chairman of the Australian Banking Association, said the industry had taken steps to make sure simply unacceptable failures did not happen again.

CBA chief executive Matt Comyn. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Aside from a series of changes to banks policies that resulted from the explosive inquiry into financial misconduct, Mr Comyn also sought to highlight the importance of how banks dealt with customers on a daily basis, including during the economic shock sparked by COVID-19.

Over the past two years, the banking industry has implemented significant changes to improve customer outcomes and ensure that issues identified in the royal commission do not re-occur, Mr Comyn said in a statement.
National carrier RwandAir is set to commence flights to Central Africa Republic's capital Bangui as part of its recovery strategy from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.

RwandAir will commence flights to Bangui, twice a week from February 3, with flights operating on Wednesdays and Sundays.

The airline says that the development is informed by identification of a lucrative market and is aimed at stimulating trade in the region.

"The launch of our new twice-weekly service to Bangui will open up a new lucrative market for RwandAir and help stimulate trade in the region and beyond Africa," Yvonne Manzi Makolo, RwandAir Chief Executive said.

"We believe this new route will strengthen the growing trade ties in Africa and bolster Rwanda's growing economy. Customers will benefit from more choice, through our premium onboard service, and will fly in a safe and hygienic environment thanks to our world-class cleaning measures."

RwandAir resumed commercial flights in August 2020 across its global network, including most of its African routes, as well as some long-haul destinations such as London Heathrow, Brussels and Dubai.

The airline has resumed about 70 per cent of flights that were halted by the pandemic.

To ensure the health and safety amidst a pandemic, RwandAir has published a Five-Step Health & Safety Guide to provide for a clean and secure onboard experience.

To drive recovery, the government in the last budget increased funding to the national carrier to Rwf145.1 billion in the 2020/21 fiscal year, up from Rwf121.8 billion the previous financial year, citing that it will bring more muscle to help the airline respond to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has tearfully revealed that she is a survivor of sexual assault as she talked about the trauma she felt during the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol.

The 31-year-old made the revelation during a 90 minute Instagram live video on Monday night that has been viewed more than 1.4 million times.

While speaking about her terror, Ocasio-Cortez chastised those who she said were pushing for people to put the day behind them and not recognize the lingering impact of such an event.

'The reason I'm getting emotional in this moment is because these folks who tell us to move on, that it's not a big deal, that we should forget what's happened, or even telling us to apologize, these are the same tactics of abusers,' Ocasio-Cortez said.

'I'm a survivor of sexual assault, I haven't told many people that in my life.

'As a survivor, I struggle with the idea of being believed.'

She gave no details about the assault or when it took place.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was discussing the aftermath of the Capitol insurrection on Instagram Live on Monday night

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tweeted on Monday night about her experience that she shared with more than 150,000 Instagram followers online

The New York congresswoman drew parallels between the lawmakers seeking to 'move on' from the Capitol riot and the denial tactics used by abusers.

'They're trying to tell us to move on without any accountability, without any truth-telling, or without confronting the extreme damage, loss of life, trauma,' she said

'When we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other.

'There's no, something really big happens to you and then you deal with it and you move on, and then when something else happens to you, you deal with that.

'Whether you had a negligent parent, or whether you had someone who was verbally abusive to you, whether you are a survivor of abuse, whether you experience any sort of trauma in your life, small to large. These episodes can compound on each other.'

'All of your traumas can, kind of, intersect and interact.'

She said those telling people to move on were using the same tactics as abusers.

She specifically called out some Republicans, including Ted Cruz, who she says encouraged the violence.

'These are the tactics of abusers, or rather, these are the tactics that abusers use,' she said.

'This is not about a difference of political opinion, this is about basic humanity.

'The accountability is not about revenge... It's about creating safety. And we are not safe with people who hold positions of power who are willing to endanger the lives of others if they think it will score them a political point.'

At one point, Ocasio-Cortez appeared to wipe away tears.

Ocasio-Cortez grew emotional as she described her experience hiding from the Capitol rioters

She said she heard someone storming into her office as she hid in a bathroom She then told how she was 'a survivor of sexual assault' with tears in her eyes

She had earlier apologized to her friends and family watching who may learn 'things about me that you didn't know before'.

'It's not about hiding. Sometimes you just can't tell the same story over and over,' she said.

Ocasio-Cortez went on to recount the terror she felt during last month's attack on the US legislature at the hands of Trump supporters who were trying to overturn the election results.

She explained how at one point a man whom she believed to be a rioter broke into her congressional office as she hid in the bathroom.

She recalled hearing him yelling: 'Where is she? Where is she?'

'This was the moment where I thought everything was over,' she said. 'I thought I was going to die... I have never been quieter in my entire life.'

She later said she found out the man was actually a Capitol Police officer.

Ocasio-Cortez came out shortly after when her legislative director told her to and saw the officer in the office. She said the officer told them to go to another building, but didn't say specifically where or escort them.

'You don't know if that person was actually trying to protect you or not,' she said.

Fellow lawmaker Katie Porter took to MSNBC to say that she had provided Ocasio-Cortez with a pair of sneakers during the riot, in case she needed to 'run for her life'.

'I just hope I get to be a mom. I hope I don't die today,' Porter recounted Ocasio-Cortez as having told her.

'My story is not the only story, nor is it the central story, it's one of many stories of what these people did in creating this environment,' Ocasio-Cortez said.

'These folks who are just trying to tell us to move on are just like pulling the page - they're using the same tactics - of every other abuser who tells you to move on.'

Ocasio-Cortez went on to address calls for her to apologize after tweeting that Senator Ted Cruz 'almost had me murdered' during the riot

Ocasio-Cortez went on to address calls for her to apologize after tweeting last week that Senator Ted Cruz 'almost had me murdered' during the riot.

'Some of the representatives who actually encouraged people to threaten members of Congress are actually asking me to apologize for saying and speaking truth to what happened.

'These are the tactics that abusers use... And how I feel is, not again.

'I'm not going to let it happen to me again and I'm not going to let it happen to our country.'

She told viewers: 'If you have experienced any sort of trauma, just the fact of recognizing that and admitting it is already a huge step. Especially in a world where people are constantly trying to tell you that you didn't experience what you experienced, or that you're lying...

'Those are additional traumas on traumas that you've already experienced. There's the trauma of going through what you went through, and then there's the trauma afterwards. Of people not believing you, or trying to publicly humiliate you, or trying to embarrass you.'

Ocasio-Cortez, whose district includes parts of the Bronx and Queens, is one of the most prominent progressive leaders in the United States.

She become an influential voice in both New York city and national politics often drawing intense and sometimes vitriolic criticism from those on the right.

She had strong condemnation for Trump for inciting the riots, as well as members of his administration who did not invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office, as well as those who voted to overturn the election results.
Politician claims that Russia has taken over the Syrian peace process, according to North Press.

Majid Ibrahim, a politician, told North Press on Sunday that the Russian presence in Syria has turned the Geneva peace process into the Astana peace process.

He added that the sponsor of the Astana process intervenes whenever UN-led Geneva talks fail in order to rescue discussions from stopping.

He pointed out that the intransigence of the Syrian government delegation and its failure to abide by the constitution, in addition to missing the fifth round of the talks, forced Astana process countries (Russia, Turkey and Iran) to send their delegates to Geneva, hoping that they would save the round from failure.

After a meeting between the Kremlins special envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev and the opposition delegation, Lavrentiev asked for the viewpoint of the government delegation to facilitate the work of the Constitutional Committee.

However, the government delegation presented a memorandum, which focused on combating terrorism more than the constitutional contents.

The second item dealt with the demand for the occupation forces to leave the Syrian territories, and that the factional Shia, Iranian and Russian presence is an integral part of the Syrian people.

The memorandum called for cancelling the sanctions imposed on the regime and its supporters, as he stated.

What is going on is just a waste of time in order not to call for a new round of Constitutional Committee meetings until after the presidential elections, he noted.

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.
DeNova would also serve as manager of the property, though with no on-site office.

Three different apartment designs will differentiate between one- and two-bedroom units, and a variety of design elements include open spaces, landscaping and raised garden beds, gables, balconies, and dormers.

Each unit will have at least a single garage, and DeNova Homes has also committed to improving on-street parking and sidewalks on Grant Street.

Planning Commission Vice-Chair Tim Wilkes also addressed concerns from the public regarding new construction of a three-story complex and maintaining Calistogas small-town character. He cited the continual need for affordable housing, especially when workers are needed for the new resort on Silverado Trail.

We have a known deficiency of any kind of housing of this sort to fill a very real need, he said. We are in a rural area, and in a small town, but the only way to stay a small town, and to house the people we need to house in town, is either to grow out, as in Los Angeles, or to grow up.

WATCH NOW: HOMELESS AND PREGNANT: ONE NAPANS STORY

PHOTOS: CHECK OUT NAPAS MOST EXPENSIVE HOMES IN DECEMBER

You can reach Cynthia Sweeney at 942-4035 or csweeney@weeklycalistogan.com.
A young Jefferson County woman looking forward to getting her first therapeutic massage ended up a sexual assault victim and has been living a nightmare for weeks.

The 26-year-old woman earlier this month saw that a Vestavia Hills massage parlor was offering a special for health care workers and first responders as a sign of appreciation for their efforts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carrying a tremendous amount of stress in her neck, she said, she jumped at the offer and booked an appointment.

When it was over, however, the woman said she had been fondled and worse at the Oasis Day Spa and Wellness Center in a second-floor suite in the Rocky Ridge Plaza off Rocky Ridge Road. I just dont feel like myself anymore,' she said. I feel like a part of me has been taken away.

Another woman, 39, received a massage at Oasis as a gift from a family member. She booked a one-hour hot stone massage and said she, too, ended up violated. I cant believe somebody had the audacity to do what he did,' she said.

LeVan Uriah Johnson, the 43-year-old CEO of Oasis, has been charged with six counts of first-degree sexual abuse for six different woman who were clients at the business, which opened in October 2020. Though Oasis has a business license, the owner and employees are not licensed massage therapists.

Vestavia Hills police obtained the felony warrants in four cases 10 days ago and added two more on Monday. Lt. Mike Keller said the investigation is ongoing and more charges are possible. Anyone who believes they have been a victim of Johnson is asked to call Vestavia Hills police.

Johnson, a former U.S. Army soldier and former police chief in central Alabama, is being held in the Jefferson County Jail on bonds totaling more than a quarter of a million dollars. Johnsons attorney didnt return a call seeking comment and the spa was not open for business on Monday. The spa was shut down once the investigation began but authorities say Johnson reopened anyway.

Charging documents indicate the sexual assaults happened in November 2020 and January 2021. Two of the six victims recounted their ordeals with AL.com but asked that their names not be used since they are victims of sexual assault.

The 26-year-old health care worker was off that Monday and called Oasis about 9 a.m. and told them she was available to leave right then.

Instead, the woman who answered the phone told her to come at 2 p.m., which she did. When she arrived, she was greeted by the female employee with whom she had previously spoken on the phone. The employee introduced herself and told her she would be giving her the massage.

The victim was given paperwork to fill out, which is standard procedure. She provided her personal information and specified on paper that she only wanted her neck, shoulders and back worked on, she said. While filling out the paperwork, she said, she heard the floors creaking in one of the massage rooms. She said she found it somewhat odd, and eventually disconcerting.

I thought, well maybe somebody was just getting a hard massage,' she said. But I kept hearing it and I was like, What the hell?'

By then, it was 2:30 p.m.  30 minutes past her appointment time. When it was finally time to begin her session, the woman said she ran into Johnson who introduced himself and thanked her for choosing Oasis.

She went into a dark room, the only light coming from one burning candle. He came in and tells me the rules  like if it was too hard to let her (the female massage therapist) know. He said communication is a big key and he wanted me to enjoy my experience,' she said. I was like, Oh youre so sweet. Thank you.

Though the woman had specified she only wanted a neck and back massage, she said the female therapist instead gave her a full body massage. But because she was female, the woman just went with it, not concerned or afraid at that point.

When her time was about up, the female therapist informed her that they were going to give her extra time since shed had to wait so long, and that Johnson would be finishing the massage because he was more skilled in techniques for the neck.

I was still laying on my stomach, but she told me to turn over and lay on my back,' the woman said. Im already uncomfortable because Im naked in a room with a man I dont know. I was telling myself to calm down, hes a professional, hes not going to do anything to you.

Johnson, she said, massaged her neck, and then her head. He inched down to her collarbone, and then went even further, fondling both of her breasts. Now Im scared. I froze,' she said. My body is paralyzed and Im thinking about survival.

He was breathing loudly, she said, and he touched her genitals. At that point, she told him she had to leave, and he told her, No, this is part of Native American Healing.

Do you fight back? Because if you fight back, hes going to hold you down and kill you,' she said she recalled thinking. And when he kills you, hes going to put you in one of these rooms and no one would ever find you.

Johnson, she said, then orally molested her. Again, she said she had to leave and lifted herself up. He goes to the door and just says, You can put your clothes on now,' she said.

The woman quickly dressed and ran to the bathroom and locked the door. She texted someone close to her who is in law enforcement and he told her to call 911 immediately. But she was panicked and just wanted to get out of there. She then texted some friends and told them to meet her at the Vestavia Hills Police Department.

Eventually, she left the bathroom and walked into the lobby. I was trying to stay calm and they were like, Did you enjoy your massage?' she said. He was staring at me like he knew what the hell he did.

The woman quickly paid and left, stopping at a restaurant next door because she wanted the safety of other people being around. She waited until a group of people left the restaurant so she could blend in with them when they walked out.

When she got to the police department, she said, they told her they didnt know of the business and sent her to the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office on U.S. 280. She said she felt like she was getting the run-around.

Eventually, she went back to the parking lot of the Oasis and called 911 again. This time an officer showed up and took a report. They put her in touch with Jefferson Countys One Place Metro Alabama Family Justice Center, which provides services to victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. It is a joint effort by the District Attorneys Office, Birmingham police, the YWCA and the Crisis Center. She later met with detectives and prosecutors.

It was then she learned, and police confirmed, that Johnson nor his employees are licensed massage therapists in Alabama. Johnson, authorities said, skirted the licensing requirements by claiming to have an exemption for practicing Native American Healing.

The woman said she was shocked to learn it had also happened before. Theres no excuse,' she said. He needed to be off the streets.

The 39-year-old said she went for her massage in late January.

She, too, told Johnson in was the first time shed been to a spa for a massage, though she had previously had someone come to her home. She had specifically requested a female massage therapist, but when she arrived Johnson told her he would be doing the massage. He told her it was up to her whether to cover herself with a sheet, but he preferred he didnt. She complied since he had indicated he worked better without a client using the sheet.

She said the room was very dark and she asked if she could turn on a light. He said no, because Native American Healing works through the candle. She said she was going to turn on the light anyway, but there was no switch on the wall. She had not brought her cell phone with her because she needed the time to relax.

Johnson, she said, told her that the business had just reopened two days earlier because someone didnt do what they were supposed to do.

Now, I didnt think that meant he had been arrested for sexual assault,' she said. I just thought they needed to clean for COVID.

She said Johnson told her she was the last client for the day, and she could stay for as long as she wanted. She told him that her kids were in the car and she wanted one hour only. He said, Ill ask you again when I finish your feet because I havent even gotten to the good part,' she said. I said, Even when you finish my feet, my answer will still be no. One hour is fine.

During the massage, she said, he brushed her private parts several times. By this point, Im holding my breath. I just wasnt breathing. I just wanted it to be over,' she said.

He then put his cheek to her cheek and started to breath heavily. He later rested his head on her breasts. I had to tell myself to breathe because his ear was to my chest and he would know if I wasnt breathing,' she said. There was no massaging going on. It was just gross.

She said she felt trapped because she didnt have her phone with her and feared he would harm her worse if she resisted. My whole thing was if I could just out of there,' she said. Thats what I tell my son about dealing with police  you go quietly and make sure you get out OK and if theres something to be handled, we will handle it later.

My fear was that I would be trapped in there with him,' she said. And I didnt have any clothes on so I couldnt just jump up. I couldnt even seen where my clothes were.

When she finally left and went to the car, she realized shed been in there for two hours. She told her family what happened but didnt immediately call the police because they werent sure anyone would believe her. But she knew what had happened was wrong.

For the next 48 hours, she said, she researched Native American Healing and even called the Alabama Board of Massage Therapy, where she learned Johnson was not a licensed massage therapist. They told me he wasnt licensed, and the establishment had just been raided two weeks prior, she said.

They directed her to call police, which she did. What was killing me was trying not to say anything about it. I didnt feel a little bit better until I spoke with the police,' she said. I got the massage on a Sunday and I dont remember Monday through Thursday. Im not OK.

She has reached out to a therapist but said the ordeal hasnt just affected her. Her school-aged son has been having nightmares and now sleeps with her because, hes afraid the man is going to come back and get me.

She said she had almost bought a massage for her godchild as well, and is so thankful she didnt. I couldnt imagine her trying to make sense of what Im trying to make sense of,' she said.

She said she, too, is speaking out because she doesnt want anyone else to endure what she endured. I will be victorious,' she said.

Police said the investigation is ongoing and they expect there will be charges for at least two to three more victims. It is a complex investigation, they said, that has taken time to build a strong case.

Johnson was booked into the county lockup Jan. 22 and remains held. So far, police said, no actual rapes have been reported but investigators said the victims stories are all eerily similar and none of them know each other. Their only connection, police said, is Oasis.

The 26-year-old victim said she also will be undergoing counseling. Her anxiety has been off the charts, she said, and she has even had suicidal thoughts. It shocks you and it scares you and it traumatizes you,' she said. Im on medication. I cant sleep. I have break downs.

It has still been a struggle. I feel violated,' she said. I felt like this man was going to rape and kill me. Its the worst feeling in the world.

She said she plans to try to look at the positives from here on out. Since I reported this, other women have have been helped,' she said. I just turned 26. I dont want to bring this into my new age.
Technology based on nanoparticles identifies IgG antibodies and costs only about a fifth of similar devices now on the market. It was developed by scientists at the University of Sao Paulo and Brazilian startup Biolinker.

A test that detects antibodies to the novel coronavirus in 10 minutes and costs only a fifth of the market average has been developed by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo's Sao Carlos Chemistry Institute (IQSC-USP) and Brazilian startup Biolinker, with Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP's support.

The device works similarly to the rapid tests available now in pharmacies. It analyzes a drop of blood, and two red LEDs light up if it detects the presence of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, which are produced in the acute phase of COVID-19 (ten days after the onset of symptoms on average).

"The more antibodies there are in the blood, the brighter the red color. We believe this means the test can also be used to monitor the response to vaccination. We know not everyone develops protective immunity after being vaccinated. We also know the level of antibodies declines over time," Frank Crespilho, a professor at IQSC-USP and principal investigator for the study, told.

The study was conducted by two of Crespilho's students, Karla Castro and Isabela Mattioli. According to Crespilho, the technology can easily be adapted to the novel SARS-CoV-2 variants, if necessary.

The test can be sold for 30 Brazilian Reais (now about 5.50 US dollars) once it has been approved by ANVISA, the national health surveillance authority, he said. Similar tests can currently be purchased in Brazil for about 140 BRL. The researchers optimized the quantity of raw materials and reagents to lower its production cost and developed a technology based on nanoparticles to facilitate IgG detection.

"We combined a gold nanoparticle [which originates the red color] with a piece of the virus's spike protein recognized by human antibodies. This bioconjugate is about a millionth of the size of a human hair," Crespilho said.

The virus's spikes form the corona-like structure that suggested its family name. They enable the virus to enter and infect human cells by binding to the ACE-2 receptor on the cell surface.

To develop the molecule used in the test device, Biolinker's researchers worked in the laboratory to synthesize the docking tip of the spike protein, known as the receptor-binding domain (RBD). According to Mona Oliveira, Biolinker's chief science officer and co-founder, they used a recombinant DNA technology involving bacteria genetically modified to express the viral protein in vitro. This part of the process was supported by Sao Paulo Research Foundatin - FAPESP's Innovative Research in Small Business Program (PIPE) and FINEP, the Brazilian Innovation Agency.

"All reagents and other inputs used by the device are produced in Brazil, which helps reduce the cost. We worked around the clock to develop it in just four months," said Crespilho, who heads the University of Sao Paulo's Bioelectrochemistry and Interface Laboratory. The aim is to expand testing in Brazil by making it affordable for low-income families. "We designed it as a means of enabling mass testing at a competitive cost in line with economic reality," he said.

Testing is underway to determine the accuracy of the method developed by the IQSC-USP group. The scientists are also working on a plan to ramp up production and have other groups perform trials to validate the methodology. Around 500 units will be produced and tested using samples from patients treated at Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) in Botucatu, the Federal University of Sao Carlos (UFSCar) and the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP).

"We're also negotiating with groups in the Northeast region," Crespilho said. "Validation will take about a month. Then we'll apply for approval by ANVISA."

###

Crespilho is supported by FAPESP via several projects (19/15333-1, 19/12053-8, 18/11071-0 and 18/22214-6), by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and by the Ministry of Education's Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES).

About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
EHGO EXPRESSES CONCERNS ABOUT ARRANGEMENTS MADE BY DEPARTED ICONIC LABS DIRECTORS WITH GREENCASTLE CAPITAL

European High Growth Opportunities Securitization Fund ("EHGO"), an institutional investment company based in Luxembourg, has expressed significant concerns about arrangements made by the departed executive directors of Iconic Labs plc ("Iconic") with Greencastle Capital ("Greencastle"), a company established by the former Executive Chairman of Iconic, David Sefton.

John Quinlan, Liam Harrington and Sam Asante resigned from Iconic on 31 January 2021, with Iconic also announcing it had received notices of termination of the management service agreements between the company and Greencastle Capital in respect of the JOE Media and TheLondonEconomic businesses.

Greencastle Capital then announced that the former Iconic directors had joined them. Iconic had previously lent Greencastle Capital the 1m required to purchase JOE Media, having received the money in financing from EHGO.

In a statement, EHGO said: "The timing and sequencing of the activity by these three departed directors of Iconic raises serious questions, to say the least. Especially as Greencastle is a vehicle established (and owned) by David Sefton, the former Executive Chairman of Iconic. EHGO provided Iconic with 1m in financing, which Iconic then lent to Greencastle to buy JOE Media. The directors of Iconic then refused to honour our financing agreement, forcing us to take legal action against Iconic. The directors then departed for Greencastle, leaving Iconic holding the outstanding debt and pending proceedings, with Greencastle holding JOE Media (the acquisition of which was financed by Iconic) Greencastle then cancelled its service agreement with Iconic (thereby depriving Iconic of any benefit from the JOE Media acquisition).

"We are gravely concerned about these moves. Iconic had been protected in its arrangements with Greencastle through a conversion right whereby it would have the right to equity (shares) in Greencastle by converting the debt. However, on December 7th last year, Iconic announced that it had amended its agreement with Greencastle in order to do away with the conversion right in respect of Greencastle shares. Such an equity conversion right was central to the business rationale of the Greencastle/JOE Media structure, as it meant that Iconic could come in at any time and become a direct equity owner in Greencastle. We note that the amendment of the agreement to do away with the equity conversion right with Greencastle followed less than two business days after EHGO's presented revised settlement terms to the Iconic board detailing terms on which it would be willing to settle its claim with Iconic. It would seem that the only parties who benefited from the amendments to the Greencastle agreement announced on December 7th of last year were David Sefton, and now that they have left, John Quinlan, Liam Harrington and Sam Asante (who were members of the board of Iconic at the time they made the decision to amend the Greencastle agreement).

"These moves therefore appear to us to have been pre-planned in order to give the directors a lifeboat on which to jump ship to Greencastle and raise significant concerns about the directors' compliance with their fiduciary duties as directors of Iconic.

"This follows their stewardship of Iconic in which they presided over huge value destruction for shareholders and a collapse in the share price of the company, leaving the company in an almost valueless state with significant debts owed to its creditors. This whole episode raises major questions about their conduct and the conduct of David Sefton, questions which we expect they will now be required to answer, whether in court or by the appropriate regulatory authorities."

Ends

Notes to editors

About European High Growth Opportunities Securitization Fund

European High Growth Opportunities Securitization Fund is an institutional investment company based in Luxembourg which focuses on financing innovative companies globally that are deemed to be significantly undervalued.

CLARIFICATION: The above article, originally published on 2 February 2021, refers to legal action taken by EHGO against Iconic Labs PLC. That legal action is between EHGO and Iconic only, and does not involve Greencastle Capital, Mr David Sefton, Mr John Quinlan, Mr Liam Harrington or Mr Sam Assante as parties, nor any allegations that former directors of Iconic breached any of their duties to Iconic.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005931/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact

Edward Keller

keller@ehgo.co
Engineers at Rolls-Royce have conducted the first tests of 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel in a business jet engine.

The testing was conducted on the aero-engine manufacturers latest business aviation engine being developed, the Pearl 700, in Dahlewitz, Germany, shortly after unblended Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) was successfully used for the first time in engine ground tests on a Trent 1000 engine in Derby, UK.

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The test demonstrated that the Rolls-Royces current engines for large civil and business jet applications can operate with 100% SAF as a full drop-in option, laying the groundwork for moving this type of fuel towards certification. At present, SAF is only certified for blends of up to 50% with conventional jet fuel and can be used on all current Rolls-Royce engines.

The SAF that was used in the tests was produced by low-carbon fuel specialist World Energy in Paramount, California, sourced by Shell Aviation and delivered by SkyNRG. According to Rolls-Royce the biofuel has the potential to reduce net carbon dioxide lifecycle emissions by more than 75% compared to conventional jet fuel, with the possibility of further reductions in future.

Dr Joerg Au, chief engineer  business aviation and engineering director for Rolls-Royce Deutschland said, Sustainable aviation fuels have the potential to significantly reduce the carbon emissions of our engines. Combining this potential with the extraordinary performance of our Pearl engine family brings us another important step closer to enabling our customers to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

The Pearl 700 engine is being developed for the Gulfstream G700 aircraft expected to enter service in 2022. The engine combines the Advance2 engine core with a low-pressure system to enable an 8% increase in take-off thrust at 18,250 lbs compared to the Rolls-Royces BR725 business jet engine.

According to Rolls-Royce the Pearl 700 offers a 12% better thrust-to-weight ratio and 5% higher efficiency, while maintaining low noise and emissions performance. The engine also features a 51.8in blisked fan, a high pressure compressor with a market-leading pressure ratio of 24:1 and six blisked stages, an ultralow emissions combustor, a two-stage shroudless high pressure turbine and an enhanced four-stage low pressure turbine that is one of the most efficient and compact in the industry.
Global energy markets and industry insiders believe that it was a good idea for Saudi Arabia to slash oil production by one million barrels daily until the end of March 2021. While it certainly helped to buoy short-term oil prices and spark a sense of optimism regarding the outlook for oil prices, which were severely impacted by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, it may not be as favorable as initially believed. The surprise cut allowed a new OPEC Plus production agreement to be established after initial discussions failed because some participants, notably Russia and Kazakhstan, wanted to increase their petroleum output. By implementing the cut, the cartels oil production for January, February, and March 2021 will average 22.119 million barrels per day, a 13.6% decrease compared to the 25.6 million barrels per day pumped during 2020. When the cut was announced oil prices soared, gaining 10% since the start of 2021 leading to claims of a sustained rally and higher prices ahead. Higher crude oil prices will benefit OPEC members because their economies and government finances are highly dependent on petroleum prices and exports. A key beneficiary is the worlds third-largest crude oil producer Russia. Not only does Moscow benefit from higher oil prices, because of Saudi Arabias significant production cut, but can increase oil output during February and March 2020. During January 2021 Russia, according to the deal, can pump on average 9.12 million barrels of crude daily, which incidentally is the same as Saudi Arabia. In February 2021, Russia is permitted to increase production by 0.7% to 9.1 barrels daily, and then another 0.7% for March to 9.24 million barrels daily.

By slashing production Riyadh risks losing market share at a time when non-OPEC countries are ramping-up oil operations. This includes South American nations Guyana, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina which see higher oil output as a means of strengthening economic growth to mitigate the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. As their oil production expands, they will fill the supply gap left by Saudi Arabia, particularly Brazil which has experienced strong demand growth from Asia for its medium-grade sweet crude oil varieties. Brazil finished 2020 as the fourth-largest supplier of crude oil to China, a slot previously filled by Angola whose oil exports declined because of reduced production due to eventual compliance with its OPECs quota.

Related: Russia Is The Biggest Winner In The OPEC+ Deal



A significant beneficiary of Riyadhs decision is the U.S. shale oil industry. It was the shale oil boom that eventually catapulted the U.S. to first place among global oil producers. During 2018 the U.S. produced on average 10,964 barrels daily overtaking Saudi Arabias 10,317 barrels per day, securing the top spot as the worlds largest oil producer. Even sharply weaker oil prices and a prolonged global supply glut did little to crimp the growth of U.S. shale oil. There is every sign that shale drillers will ramp up drilling activity to capitalize on higher oil prices. The Baker Hughes rig count shows there were 378 active drill rigs in the U.S. as of Friday 22 January 2021. That is five greater than a week earlier and 134 rigs higher than the 2020 bottom which occurred in mid-August. Steadily falling breakeven prices for U.S. shale formations, which now average $46 to $52 per barrel according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, coupled with firmer oil prices have spurred on increased drilling activity. This indicates that drilling activity is already rising despite calls by industry insiders for restraint. The U.S. shale oil industry has a long history of unchecked growth with companies focused on maximizing cash flow by quickly bringing new production online when oil prices rise. Even sharply weaker oil prices after the August 2014 oil price collapse which eventually saw WTI drop below $30 per barrel did little to crimp industry growth.

It was widely speculated, even before the latest OPEC Plus deal and subsequent oil price rally, that lower breakeven prices would spark renewed drilling activity in the Permian and other major shale oil basins. The largest operator in the Permian Basin, Occidental Petroleum, appears likely to continue drilling despite weaker oil prices. In September 2020, Colombian national oil company Ecopetrol, which has a joint venture with Occidental, announced plans to drill 100 Permian wells during 2021. Oil supermajor ExxonMobil stated during October 2020 that it intends to boost Permian oil production despite slashing costs and reducing its workforce. The volume of operational drill rigs in the Permian has been steadily growing since hitting a 2020 low of 116 rigs in mid-August 2020 to 188 operational rigs as of last Friday.

Related: A Glimmer Of Hope For Oil Markets



For an industry under considerable pressure from investors and bankers to generate cashflow, meet financial obligations and generate returns, it is difficult to see operators taking a restrained approach. It should be remembered that the U.S. shale industry endured a multi-year oil price slump in relatively good shape because of falling breakeven prices. Those developments coupled with greater operational flexibility, improved technology, and slimmer operational structures have made the industry particularly nimble. That means U.S. shale can quickly ramp-up activity and drill new wells. There is a large volume of drilled uncompleted wells, notably in the Permian which according to EIA data had 3,524 DUCs at the end of December 2020. DUCs are quicker to complete and bring online than a normal well, which from site selection to fracking can take up to 90 days. The large inventory of DUCs, which according to EIA data totals 7,298, means shale oil production can be swiftly increased. For these reasons, the U.S. shale oil industry will ramp up drilling activity and ultimately production in response to higher oil prices. Ed Crooks, Vice-Chair Americas at Wood Mackenzie said:

Yet despite all the compelling arguments for restraint, the industrys history suggests that increased cash flows generally get k,turned very quickly into new wells,

Chinas demand for U.S. oil imports is swiftly increasing. For the first 11 months of 2020 U.S. crude oil exports to the worlds second-largest economy grew two and a half fold to almost 16.2 million metric tons. That ranks the U.S. as the ninth-largest supplier of oil to China making it responsible for supplying just over 3% of the countrys total petroleum imports. Saudi Arabias production cut saw Asian buyers rushing to secure other sources of crude oil seeing record North Sea cargoes being bought, while demand for Russian Urals grade crude oil has soared. There are many crude oil producers eagerly eyeing how to fill the supply gap created by Saudi Arabias production cut. U.S. shale oil producers are uniquely positioned to fill the gap. A key reason for the sharp increase in U.S. crude oil cargoes being sent to China was the rapidly growing demand for light sweet crude oil. WTI Midland has an API gravity of 40 to 44 degrees and an extremely low sulfur content of less than 0.2%, making it highly suitable for refining into high-quality low sulfur content fuels including IMO2020 compliant marine bunker oil. Whereas Saudi Arabias principal export crude oil grade Arab light has an API gravity of 33 degrees and 1.77%, it is particularly sour making it less attractive for Asian refiners seeking low sulfur content crude oil. The U.S. shale oil industry will likely surprise energy markets once again during 2021, with annual production potentially being higher than the 11.1 million barrels daily predicted by the U.S. EIA.

Saudi Arabias surprise decision to shoulder the burden of OPEC plus production cuts by slashing one million barrels daily off its crude oil output for three months has buoyed oil prices at a critical time when COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions are severely crimping oil demand. The decision could very well be a blow for Riyadh. Not only does it indicate that the Saudis finally recognize their strategy of opening the spigots to drive down oil prices and force U.S. shale producers out of production has failed, but it threatens the countrys market share. U.S. shale oil producers will not exercise restraint nor ignore the ability to bolster urgently needed cash flow by taking advantage of higher crude oil prices and boosting production. Many U.S. drillers were already contemplating expanding production to cash in on lower breakeven prices for new shale oil wells and growing crude oil demand triggered by COVID-19 vaccines and U.S. economic stimulus. While the surprise cut has given Saudi Arabia greater pricing power, reduce fiscal pressures and likely curried favor with Bidens new administration, it will lead to a loss of market share and greater global oil production. The long-term fallout for Riyadh could far outweigh the short-term gains.

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
GENEVA, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement was jointly issued by the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), British Tamils Forum (BTF), Irish Tamils Forum (ITF), Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice in Sri Lanka (South Africa), and the United States Tamil Action Group (USTAG).

We, members of the Tamil diaspora spread across the world call on the states gathered to deliberate at the 46th Human Rights Council session to pass a new resolution on Sri Lanka following the recommendations laid out in the January 2021 report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The report clearly confirms that, in the twelve years since the end of the war, Sri Lanka has failed to demonstrate that it has the political will[1] to move forward on a domestic or hybrid justice process and reparations for atrocity crimes committed during the war which ended in 2009.

We strongly endorse High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet's call for "alternative international options for ensuring justice and reparations," including referral to the International Criminal Court, the exercise of universal jurisdiction and sanctions and travel bans on alleged Sri Lankan war criminals and State officials. We welcome the High Commissioner's call for a mechanism for collecting and preserving evidence for future judicial processes and urge a stronger, more widely based OHCHR presence in Sri Lanka.

We welcome the tone of urgency by the High Commissioner that there are "clear early warning signs of a deteriorating human rights situation and a significantly heightened risk of future violations" and her strong call for preventative action by the Council.

It is commendable that the High Commissioner's report recognizes that the 1983-2009 war was a result of the ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. We welcome the recognition that this ethnic conflict continues following the war, with Tamils and Muslims "increasingly marginalized and excluded". However, too much credit was given to the previous Sirisena government of 2015-2019 despite not making any tangible progress on reconciliation, accountability, and human rights.

Tamils have felt under threat from ethnic majoritarianism since independence when the Sinhalese-majority parliament's very first act was to disenfranchise a third of the Tamil-speaking population. Tamils have endured the ever-increasing destruction of their community through discrimination, ethnic violence, forced removal of Tamil habitations and genocidal war.

We hold even less confidence than the High Commissioner in the Government's efforts towards development and reparations, as the Government is continuing to enrich the Sinhala-Buddhist ethnicity over other indigenous ethnicities with government-led demographic changes in the areas of historical habitation of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking peoples.[2]

To move forward on transitional justice, the United Nations and its member states must push Sri Lanka toward a more just and equitable society, in hopes of a more prosperous and stable future for all Sri Lankans. While urging passage of a comprehensive Resolution at the Human Rights Council, we also reiterate the High Commissioner's call for bilateral action, including: "Member States can also apply targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans against State officials and other actors credibly alleged to have committed or be responsible for grave human rights violations or abuses."

For more information, please contact:

S. Seetharam

President - United States Tamil Action Group (USTAG)

(formerly USTPAC)

T: +1(202) 595 3123

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.theustag.org

Twitter: @UstpacAdvocacy

Pregas Padayachee

Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice in Sri Lanka (SGPJ- South Africa)

[email protected]

K. Sutharsan

Irish Tamils Forum (ITF)

T: 00353 899592707

[email protected]

V. Ravi Kumar

General Secretary - British Tamils Forum

T: +44 (0) 7814 486087

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.britishtamilsforum.org

Twitter: @tamilsforum

M. Manokaran

Chairman - Australian Tamil Congress

T: +61 300 660 629

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.australiantamilcongress.com/en/

Twitter: @austamilcongres

[1] "the inability and unwillingness of the State to prosecute and punish perpetrators of crimes when State agents are the alleged perpetrators," #51, page 13, HCHR report

[2] 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord, IN LK_870729_Indo-Lanka Accord.pdf (un.org)

SOURCE USTAG


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Comcast is doubling the speed of its Internet Essentials package, its $10-a-month product to connect low-income families to the internet. From March 1st, new and existing users will automatically be able to receive download speeds of up to 50 Mbps, and uploads up to 5 Mbps. The announcement comes as part of the companys commitment to closing the digital divide and addressing both digital literacy and the homework gap. This is the second time in recent months that Internet Essentials has seen a speed boost, as Comcast pushed the package to 25/3 Mbps in response to COVID-19 in March 2020.

As part of the push, the company is also pledging to bring free, high-speed WiFi to 1,000 community centers across the country. These Lift Zones are designed to let kids access the internet in a safe area, letting them access remote learning and complete their homework when outside of school. The company says that itll meet its goal of 1,000 Lift Zones by the end of 2021, significantly ahead of its own schedule.

In addition, Comcast says that it will donate $3.5 million to organizations like CodePath, the YWCA, Genesys Works and Philadelphia Youth Action Center. This is the latest tranche of a $40 million commitment to bankroll education and equity organizations across the US.


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South Africa has received its first batch of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines.



The one million doses will be given to healthcare workers who have been battling the virus in the continent's worst-hit country but no date has been set for the start of the roll-out.



President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Monday evening give a national address in which he is expected to give an update on the fight against the pandemic.



Many also expect him to respond to calls to ease some of the lockdown restrictions which have been criticised by businesses.



The president's Twitter account live-streamed the arrival of the vaccines at the Oliver Tambo Airport in Johannesburg.







Source: BBC









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Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2021 shows that a doctor from Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University giving instruction to patients. Healthcare activities for residents were jointly organized by the hospital and Community Healthcare Center in West Coast District in Qingdao City, east China's Shandong Province, in order to ensure the wellbeing of people during the forthcoming holidays. (Zhang Jingang/Guangming Picture)

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PROSECUTORS from the army, air force and police have 18 days to vacate the civilian courts, a development which will ensure that a Constitutional Court (ConCourt) ruling of 2019 that barred them from operating at civilian courts is fully implemented.

On February 20, 2019, the ConCourt, sitting as a full bench, unanimously banned the use of State security agents as public prosecutors in civilian courts.

The ConCourt said their secondment to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was a serious violation of the Constitution.

The ruling, which becomes effective on February 20 this year, came following an application filed by the Zimbabwe Law Officers Association and former public prosecutor Derek Charamba, in which the parties sought an order compelling Prosecutor-General (PG) Kumbirai Hodzi and Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi to stop engaging police and army personnel as public prosecutors.

The ConCourt gave them until February 20 to vacate the civilian courts.

In January 2015, the late former Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, who then headed the nine-member ConCourt bench, reserved judgment in the matter after submissions were made by the PGs representative Sharon Fero and applicants lawyer, Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara.

But on February 20 last year, ConCourt judge Justice Antoinette Guvava delivered the unanimous judgment and read out the operative part which ordered the PG to disengage the services of security officers from the NPA over two years.

The engagement by the first respondent (NPA) of the serving members of the security services to prosecutorial duties is in contravention of section 208 (4) of the Constitution  It is, hereby, ordered that: the first respondent (NPA) is directed to disengage all members of the security services within 24 months from the date of this order, Justice Guvava said.

During the hearing, Justice Chidyausiku took the PGs Office to task, demanding an explanation on why NPA wanted its job to be done by police officers and soldiers still in service.

Why do you want the police to do your job? We in the Judiciary do not want to have police officers as magistrates, Justice Chidyausiku said then.

Give us one good reason why we should have police prosecutors as opposed to civilian prosecutors  In principle, I do not see the reason why the PG would want his job done by the police, he said.

In response, Fero said the practice of engaging security forces as public prosecutors had been in existence since time immemorial, adding that the main reason was the unattractive conditions of service offered by NPA.

Fero also said there were no provisions in the Constitution that precluded security forces from being engaged as prosecutors.

But in his submissions on behalf of the applicants, Zhuwarara said the use of security forces to perform prosecutorial duties in civilian courts was in violation of section 208(4) of the Constitution.

He said that engagement of the police and army officers to prosecute in civilian courts was a misnomer, adding that the practice could not be condoned, tolerated or excused in a democratic society.

The mechanics of birthing a public prosecutor are different from those put in place to bring about a police officer or an army officer  They (police and army prosecutors) are part of the security system and cannot be engaged in civilian institutions since they are bound by specific rules of discipline, he said.

Charamba yesterday said they would wait for the PG to comply with the order, failure of which they would take him to task.

We will go back to court if they defy, our papers are ready. We are giving them time to comply with the order. The NPA was given two years which is ample time to recruit and the prosecutors to wind up their cases, Charamba said. Newsday
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DALLAS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Does Valentine's Day bring you all those warm, fuzzy feelings, or does it unearth annual flashbacks of the former flame who did you wrong? For travelers with emotional baggage looking for closure and sweet revenge, Hotels.com is listing the only stay suitable for a trash ex  a dumpster.

Reserve A Dumpster For Your Trash Ex On Hotels.com for Valentines Day

Now through Feb. 12 at 8 a.m. ET, visit hotels.com/vdaydumpsterstay to tell us why your ex deserves a stay in the dumps and where your dreamiest hotel stay would be. You'll receive a totally fictional yet equally satisfying booking confirmation email for your ex's figurative V-Day Dumpster Stay, and in return, you'll be entered to win a suite reward for yourself in the form of a $300 Hotels.com gift card (with no expiration  so it's ready for check-in when you are). Who said breakups have to suck?

That's right  just booking your trashy ex a dumpster stay enters you to be rewarded your dream hotel stay  and we're envisioning a classy penthouse suite. Now you both get to sleep where you belong!

Are they sleeping in an actual dumpster? No, we're not THAT crazy, but imagine the satisfaction and closure you'll get while sleeping in a plush, five-star hotel bed after sending them to the dumps. Like they say, revenge is a dish best served as room service, in bed, with a robe on, and nonstop cable TV playing. They do say that, right?

"If there are two truths on which we can all agree, it's that we have a terrible ex who should be left in the past, and travel is always one of the best forms of self-love," said Jennifer Dohm, Head of PR and Communications, North America. "That's why Hotels.com is rewarding travelers looking for a way to move on and move up from their former flames this year with this one-of-a-kind Valentine's Day offer."

Get ready to pack your bags because you may be one of the lucky 15 winners to snag a $300 Hotels.com gift card for your own "get over them" getaway. Winners will be notified by Friday, Feb. 12 at 5 p.m. ET  just in time for a self-love-filled V-Day stay or your future "get over them" getaway, whenever that may be.

It pays to be petty, especially when your ex is trash! For official terms and conditions, see here.

About Hotels.com (or Hotels.com) Hotels.com is the most rewarding way to book a place to stay. We really love travel and we know you do too. That's why we make it really easy to book with us. With hundreds of thousands of places to stay around the world and 90 local websites in 41 languages, Hotels.com has it all. So, whether you're looking for value in Vegas, treehouses in Thailand or villas with views, it's all just a click away. And with our "Reward-winning" loyalty program you earn free* nights while you sleepwhat could be better? Booking just got smarter too. With over 25 million real guest reviews and an app so easy to use that it's been downloaded 70 million times, you can be sure to find the perfect place for you.

*Exclusions apply. Reward night worth average price of previous 10. Taxes/fees payable on each Reward Night redeemed. A $5 fee is charged on each Reward Night redeemed, unless redeemed on the app. See T&Cs https://www.hotels.com/customer_care/terms_conditions.html?pos=HCOM_US&locale=en_US

 2021 Hotels.com, LP, an Expedia Group company. All rights reserved. Hotels.com and the Hotels.com logo are trademarks of Hotels.com, LP. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. CST# 2083949-50

SOURCE Hotels.com

Bright spots indicate that cancer cells have responded to a one-day challenge with estrogen in this positron emission tomography (PET) scan of a woman with breast cancer. In a small study, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that only women whose tumors responded to estrogen challenge benefited from hormone therapy. The findings could help doctors choose the treatments most likely to help their patients. Credit: Farrokh Dehdashti

Hormone therapy commonly is given as a targeted treatment for women whose cancer cells carry receptors for estrogen. But the therapy only works for about half of all patients. Until now, there hasn't been a good way to reliably predict who will benefit and who will not.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can distinguish patients likely or unlikely to benefit from hormone therapy using an imaging test that measures the function of the estrogen receptors in their cancer cells. In a small phase 2 clinical trial, the researchers showed that the cancers of all patients with working estrogen receptors remained stable or improved on hormone therapy, and progressed in all women with nonfunctional estrogen receptors. The findings, published Feb. 2 in Nature Communications, could help doctors choose among treatment options and reduce the chances that women would receive a therapy unlikely to help.

"If breast cancer in a patient is estrogen receptor-positive, doctors will usually recommend hormone therapy even though they know it will only work for slightly more than half the patients," said senior author Farrokh Dehdashti, MD, the Drs. Barry A. and Marilyn J. Siegel Professor of Radiology at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR). "When hormone therapy works, it's typically quite effective, and it has milder side effects than some other therapies, and that's why oncologists and patients want to try it first. But we need to narrow down who is likely to benefit, and there really hasn't been a reliable test to accomplish that."

Approximately four out of five breast cancerssome 250,000 per year in the United Statesare labeled "estrogen receptor-positive," meaning that the cancer cells carry estrogen receptors and the tumor grows in response to the naturally occurring hormone estrogen. Hormone therapy is designed to stop the effects of estrogen on the tumor.

A variety of drugs can be prescribed as hormone therapy, and doctors choose a treatment regimen depending on the patient and the specifics of that person's disease. Aromatase inhibitors prevent the body from making estrogen and are usually the first treatment chosen for hormone therapy. Fulvestrant blocks the estrogen receptor on cancer cells. These drugs usually are given to postmenopausal women. Pre-menopausal women often are given different hormone therapies because their ovaries still are producing large amounts of estrogen.

Doctors have long suspected that the difference between women who respond to hormone therapy and those who don't comes down to whether the estrogen receptors on their cancer cells are working properly. If the receptors are present but nonfunctional, targeting them is unlikely to have much effect.

Dehdashti and colleagues, including co-authors Barry A. Siegel, MD, a professor of radiology, and Cynthia Ma, MD, Ph.D., a professor of medicine, set about measuring the functionality of estrogen receptors by taking advantage of a link between the estrogen receptor and a receptor for another hormone: progesterone. When estrogen receptors are stimulated, cells respond by increasing the number of progesterone receptor molecules on their surfaces.

Co-author John Katzenellenbogen, Ph.D., a chemist at the University of Illinois, designed an imaging agent to probe the number of progesterone receptors on the surface of cancer cells, in collaboration with the late Michael Welch, Ph.D., then a professor of radiology at Washington University. The compound, 21-[18F] fluorofuranylnorprogesterone (FFNP), attaches to progesterone receptors and can be detected with a positron emission tomogrophy (PET) scan. When more progesterone receptors are present, the PET signal is higher.

The researchers recruited 43 postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. Most (86%) had metastatic disease, while 14% had locally advanced or locally recurrent disease. The majority (72%) already had received some form of treatment before the start of the study. Their prior treatment was most often a hormone therapy-based regimen.

The women underwent a PET scan using FFNP, followed by three doses of estrogen over a 24-hour period, and then a second PET scan a day after the estrogen treatment.

For 28 women, the PET signal in the tumor increased considerably after exposure to estrogen, indicating that their estrogen receptors were working and had responded to the hormone by triggering an increase in progesterone receptor numbers. Fifteen women showed little to no change in progesterone receptor numbers after estrogen treatment.

Then, the researchers followed the participants for six months or longer as they underwent hormone therapy as recommended by their individual oncologists. The disease of all 15 women whose tumors had not responded to estrogen worsened within six months. Of the women whose tumors had responded, 13 remained stable and 15 improved.

"The goal of therapy is to control or improve disease, so if the therapy is likely to be ineffective, it should not be given to a patient," said Dehdashti, who is also senior vice chair and division director of nuclear medicine at MIR. "We observed 100% agreement between the response to estrogen challenge and the response to hormone therapy, even though the participants were on a variety of treatment regimens. This method should work for any therapy that depends on a functional estrogen receptor, and it could provide valuable information to oncologists deciding how best to treat their patients."

The researchers are now in the process of setting up a larger phase 2 clinical trial with collaborators at other institutions to verify their results.

Explore further New study sheds light on the best drug choices for some patients with advanced breast cancer

More information: Dehdashti F, Wu N, Ma CX, Naughton MJ, Katzenellenbogen JA, Siegel BA. Association of PET-Based Estradiol-challenge Test for Breast Cancer Progesterone Receptors with Response to Endocrine Therapy. Nature Communications. Feb. 2, 2021. Journal information: Nature Communications Dehdashti F, Wu N, Ma CX, Naughton MJ, Katzenellenbogen JA, Siegel BA. Association of PET-Based Estradiol-challenge Test for Breast Cancer Progesterone Receptors with Response to Endocrine Therapy.. Feb. 2, 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20814-9
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BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Switzerland stock market ended on a bright note on Tuesday, extending gains from previous session, amid optimism about additional U.S. stimulus, greater momentum in vaccination rollout and on easing concerns about retail trading frenzy. For the second straight day, several markets across Europe closed notably higher. The mood in Asian and the U.S. markets also was fairly bullish. The benchmark SMI, which rose to 10,857.05 around mid morning, ended the session with a gain of 63.35 points or 0.59% at 10,803.57. Swatch Group, Swiss Life Holding and Credit Suisse gained 2.4 to 2.9%. Alcon, LafargeHolcim, Richemont and ABB ended higher by 2 to 2.2%, while Swiss Re and UBS Group gained 1.9% and 1.8%, respectively. Partners Group, Sika, Zurich Insurance Group and SGS also ended notably higher, while Givaudan ended lower by about 1.6%. Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, Julius Baer gained more than 4.5%. According to reports, Julius Baer is considering large scale M&A deals in the near future. The bank's CEO Philipp Rickenbacher said in an earnings call on Monday that a deal close to CHF 100bn ($118bn) in assets for the bank 'could be a reality, again, in the future. We will see.' Logitech and OC Oerlikon Corp gained 3.8% and 3.7%, respectively, while AMS, Sonova, Straumann Holding, Flughafen Zurich and Georg Fisher moved up 2 to 3%. Among the other major markets in Europe, Germany and France ended sharply higher, with their benchmark indices DAX and CAC 40 climbing 1.56% and 1.86%, respectively. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 advanced 0.78% and the pan European Stoxx 600 ended 1.29% up. 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.
AKRON, Ohio  Police are searching for a man who robbed a flower shop in the citys Ellet neighborhood.

Officers were called to Flowerama, 2495 Mogadore Road, at 7 p.m. Saturday. A store employee tells police the male suspect entered the store and handed a clerk a note demanding money. The suspect indicated he was armed, but no weapon was seen, police say.

The man then ran from the store with an undisclosed amount of money.

The suspect is 20 to 30 years old, approximately 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-8, and between 150-160 pounds. He was wearing black shorts with a gray stripe down the side, a gray Nike hooded sweat shirt, a black hat with a circular logo, gloves, one gray and the other black, and white Nike shoes with a black swoosh on the side.

Anyone with information can call police at 330-375-2490 or the Summit County Crimestoppers at 330-434-COPS. Individuals also can send tips by texting TIPSCO to 274637. Callers can remain anonymous.

More crime-related content on cleveland.com:

Family says man killed after Cleveland police failed to arrest woman was caring son, loving uncle

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Neighbors find Cleveland man dead from gunshot wound to the head

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Cleveland man shot to death in bank parking lot, police say
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group has predicted a growth rate of 2.9 per cent for the Nigerian economy in 2021, higher than the 1.5 per cent growth rate suggested by the International Monetary Fund.

The NESG identified eight key policies and events that will help shape the outlook of Nigerian economy in 2021.

This is contained in the groups 2021 Macroeconomic Outlook Report titled, Four Priorities for the Nigerian Economy in 2021 and Beyond, launched virtually on Tuesday.

According to the report, for Nigerias economy to get back on track, the economy needs a high, robust and sustained economic growth that will deliver a significant reduction in unemployment and poverty.

The report said the governments most important agenda in 2021 must be to address these problems as a foundation for economic recovery in the short term and inclusive economic growth in the future.

The 77-page report stated that in consonance with the expected recovery of the global economy in 2021, Nigeria is also projected to exit the recession this year, and that the countrys business-as-usual scenario agrees with this projection.

However, the report said Nigeria needs more than a simple GDP rebound, especially taking into consideration the last recovery cycle.

Recession

In November last year, the Nigerian economy slipped into its second recession in five years as the countrys gross domestic product contracted for the second consecutive quarter.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Development, Zainab Ahmed, said the Nigerian government was working towards reversing the declining trend.

The policies and events 

The NESG report noted that the key policies and events that will determine the nations economy this year will include mass production and administration of COVID-19 vaccines globally, implementation of Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), introduction of special bills by the Central Bank of Nigeria in order to manage excess liquidity in the system, and OPEC+ agrees to boost oil output.

Others are: COVID-19 partial lockdown and social distancing; completion of the Lagos-Ibadan Railway Project; Early implementation of the 2021 Appropriation Bill and the Reopening of land borders.

The new strain of the virus could however slow recovery in 2021 the report said.

Prospects

In a case scenario presented in the report, the NESG predicted that the Nigerian economy would grow by 2.9 per cent in 2021, and that it would achieve a sustained high growth rate up to 2025. The International Monetary Fund predicts a growth rate of 1.5 per cent for Nigeria in 2021.

It said projected revenue to increase by 23.3 per cent in 2021 and said exchange rate will become stable and key inclusive growth indicators such as unemployment and poverty rates will gradually reduce overtime.

In his remarks, NESG CEO, Laoye Jaiyeola, said in 2021, many of the challenges encountered in 2020 will remain, or perhaps become amplified.

So will the expectations of citizens and the business community on the government to address these challenges, he said.

Mr Jaiyeola said a lot more efforts are needed to get Nigeria on the path of positive economic growth that will deliver a reduction in unemployment and poverty.

Mr Jaiyeola said the four priorities areas must be macroeconomic stability, policy and regulatory consistency, sectoral reforms and human capital development.

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The overall goal must be to attain a favourable business environment and improve the welfare of the average Nigerian, he said.
HELSINKI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) Finland is considering giving up electricity import from Russia, a representative of Fingrid transmission system operator told Sputnik.

According to Jussi Jyrinsalo, the electricity is transferred from Russia via four lines, three of which are old and require repairs.

Fingrid has asked its Russian partners whether they plan maintenance and if yes, then when and for how long, but there was no reply.

As a result, Finland is not certain it will continue getting electricity from Russia and has to consider all options, the company representative said.
Pakistans former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani said that the Joe Biden administration will not let the Taliban have its way as the price for ending the war in Afghanistan. Opposed to former US President Donald Trumps policies that had charted the roadmap of Afghan national reconciliation and complete withdrawal of US and NATO troops from the region, emboldening the Taliban. Bidens US Afghanistan policy will not cede to Taliban negotiations to put an end to deteriorating security and nearly two decades of war between conflicting parties in Afghanistan. Haqqani further alleged, that despite Trump brokered the US-Taliban deal reached in Doha, al Qaeda has entrenched in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, gaining strength, and the Taliban refused to respect the gains for the Afghan people.

In an opinion piece for DC-based newspaper The Hill, the director for the South and Central Asia at Hudson Institute said, Biden administration has grounds to believe that the Taliban has failed to keep the promise made in the Afghan peace deal, which was predicated on the latter's promise to cut off ties with Al-Qaeda. Calling the signing of the US-Taliban deal a non-starter Haqqani said in the interview that the Taliban acted as if it was talking, as victors of a civil war, to other Afghan factions about a power-sharing agreement, albeit on the Taliban's terms, as cited by news agency ANI.

[In November 2020, Taliban's peace negotiation team meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo amid talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, in Doha, Qatar. Credit: AP/file]

Read: Blinken: Biden Ordered North Korea Policy Review

Read: US To Begin Deporting Of Asylum Seekers After Trump Loyalist Rejects Biden's Order

To re-evaluate Talibans compliance

Biden will maintain a military presence in Afghanistan indefinitely, as he had committed to end forever wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East during his election campaign trail, with a mission-focused on al Qaeda and ISIS, the former Pakistan ambassador to US noted. But Haqqani stressed, that Biden, however, might not completely walk away from Trump administrations regional diplomacy, breaking new ground, as the sitting US President had vowed to bring the vast majority of our troops home from Afghanistan. After a phone call held last week between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his Afghan counterpart, Hamdullah Mohib, Biden administration gave mixed signals about US Afghan policies in the press, stating that the administration plans to re-evaluate the Talibans compliance.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration also expressed willingness to work with Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad for future intra-Afghan talks. Even as the White House has provided uncertainty over Bidens robust stance on Afghan policies, Haqqani said, Biden administration will provide full support to the government of Afghanistan in seeking a settlement with the Taliban. "Even Pakistan, which facilitated US dialogue with the Taliban and has long provided sanctuary to the group's leaders, now seems to support such an approach while describing a hasty US withdrawal as 'unwise'," he wrote.

Read: US, NATO Allies 'strongly Condemn' Continued Violence By Taliban In Afghanistan

Read: US Watchdog: Taliban Attacks Increased In Afghan Capital
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Ahli United Bank (AUB) has announced the launch of Bahrains first digital onboarding platform that allows customers to open accounts using their CPR cards.

Customers can now open a current, savings, or MyHassad account from the comfort of their homes, with the least amount of time, effort and documentation possible when compared to any other bank on the island, and without the hassle of visiting a branch at any stage of the process, the bank said.

The process itself takes no more than a few minutes and allows customers to fund their accounts or request debit cards instantly.

AUB said to incentivise quick adoption of the new technology, the bank is combining the launch with a programme that rewards early adopters with chances to win exciting prizes.

The prizes include PS5 consoles, iPhone 12 handsets, and shopping vouchers.

Our aim is to deliver a truly customer-centric experience and provide a simpler, easier way to the bank. We have created an exceptionally seamless and straightforward digital journey that only requires a valid CPR card, which demonstrates our commitment towards simplicity and ease of use, said Suvrat Saigal, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer  Retail Banking at AUB.

This latest development comes in the wake of multiple enhancements that the bank has undertaken in the digital space to help customers with a freshly redesigned experience across all touch points.

This position is confirmed by the fact that we have recently received the titles for Best Digital Transformation and Best Retail Bank in Bahrain, he added.

The AUB M-Bank Bahrain mobile app can be downloaded from Google Play or the App Store.

DUBLIN, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Eurofins is making new assays for the identification of B.1.1.7 (UK) and B.1.351 (South Africa)/B.1.1.248 (Brazil) variants with a one hour run time available for free to public health institutions who do not have capabilities to rapidly identify the presence of these variants.

SARS-CoV-2 belongs to a group of RNA viruses that exhibit spontaneous mutations. Some alarming variants have recently been identified including: The new lineage B.1.1.7 first identified in South England and the lineages B.1.351 and B.1.1.248 initially discovered in South Africa and Brazil, respectively. All of these variants appear to be more infective.

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) is generally used for detecting new mutations of the virus as part of epidemiological studies. However, NGS typically takes three to five days. This is often too slow to identify carriers of the new variants so that their contacts can be isolated and tested as a matter of priority to stop the spread of these variants in regions where they are not yet prevalent.

Eurofins Technologies and Eurofins Genomics now offer kits and primer and probes sets to identify the new variants. The GSD NovaType SARS-CoV-2 Detect & ID available in Europe only is a Real-Time RT-PCR test for the qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2, and the subsequent identification of B.1.1.7 and B.1.351/B.1.1.248 variants. The product has been validated as a two-step workflow with a CE-IVD marked diagnostic test followed by an identification step (Research Use Only "RUO"). Alternatively, laboratories can choose to request just the RUO identification kit GSD NovaType SARS-CoV-2 ID.

Eurofins' global network of clinical laboratories is continuously monitoring the emergence of additional SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and expects to be at the forefront of launching additional kits to detect those due to its unique integration of capabilities across laboratory testing, primer and probe design as well as IVD kit development. An updated version of NovaType able to detect and distinguish additional variants is expected to be released mid-February.

Further information about the kits can be found here.

About Eurofins  the global leader in bio-analysis

Eurofins is Testing for Life. With over 50,000 staff across a network of more than 800 laboratories in over 50 countries, Eurofins' companies offer a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods.

Eurofins Shares are listed on Euronext Paris Stock Exchange.

Notes to Editors:

For more information, please visit www.eurofins.com.

SOURCE Eurofins
ORANGE, Calif., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Many southern states have a small business-friendly economy and an overall favorable environment to help Black female entrepreneurs succeed, according to data just released from the first MerchantMaverick.com "Top States for Black Women-Owned Businesses in 2021" report.

Top States for Black Women-Owned Businesses in 2021

MerchantMaverick.com, the business product comparison site for small business owners, discovered that the southern states topping the list often did so thanks to a higher-than-average Black population. In all but three of the top 10 states, the Black population exceeds 21% of the states' residents. It appears logical; a state with a higher Black population should have a strong support network for Black female entrepreneurs. However, a few states which cracked the Top 10, such as Maryland, Delaware and Arizona, achieved high marks, despite a relatively lower Black population.

The MerchantMaverick.com Top 10 list frequently beat the trendline when looking at the percent of businesses run by Black women: 1.41% of all businesses in the top 10 states are run by Black women, which nearly doubles the national average of 0.74%. Beyond that, many of these states often engage Black women to become business owners at a faster rate than other states. And some states feature impressive economic landscapes for entrepreneurs of all races and genders.

COVID-19's impact may not be fully represented in this report as most of the latest data regarding entrepreneurship in the US is from 2019 or earlier. Because of this, the report can't accurately gauge the pandemic's role in the current state of Black women who own businesses.

Researchers analyzed data from sources including the U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 Annual Business Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey, and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis -- to name a few  in order to bring you the Top 10 States for Black Women-Owned Businesses in 2021.

The full report is available HERE:

THE TOP 10 STATES FOR BLACK WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSES IN 2021:

#1. Missouri

#2. Georgia

#3. Maryland

#4. Virginia

#5. North Carolina

#6. Delaware

#7. Texas

#8. Mississippi

#9. Arizona

#10. Louisiana

Methodology

To best determine the best states for Black female entrepreneurs, the researchers selected and weighted the following metrics:

Percent of employer firms led solely by Black women (17.5%)

Percent of employees at solely Black women-led firms (17.5%): Annual Business Survey.

Annual Business Survey. Percent of Black women self-employed in their own business (17.5%)

Average income of Black women self-employed in their own incorporated business (17.5%)

Workforce growth between 2018 and 2019 (10%)

Cost of living (10%)

State income tax rates (5%)

Unemployment rates (5%).

Note that because Black women business owners have a small sample size for certain states in the Census Bureau surveys, and the researchers adjusted some outlying results for accuracy.

"While we're making some national strides toward gender and racial equity, we still have a significant way to go," says Julie Titterington, Editor-in-Chief, MerchantMaverick.com. "For instance, our data showed that Black women only solely run 0.74% of all employer firms in the country, and that figure needs to improve."

About MerchantMaverick.com :

With more than 700,000 page views per month, MerchantMaverick.com is an online publication devoted to providing business owners with accurate, unbiased reviews for their businesses. The company's goal is to provide the most honest, accurate, and useful reviews of business products and services to empower entrepreneurs with businesses of all sizes.

For more information on this list and this topic, please contact Sarah Johnson, [email protected] or 917-864-6355

SOURCE MerchantMaverick.com

Related Links

http://MerchantMaverick.com


He might as well have won the Georgia Lottery.



Thats how excited Cody Ridley was about his chance to enter the Conasauga Mental Health Court program, which provides the tools for addicts like him to turn their lives around without going to prison.



Its just really a godsend, Mr. Ridley said as he became the second graduate of the program during a Jan. 21 ceremony at the Murray County Courthouse. This program was like hitting the lottery for me. You guys showed me the way to the bank - thats the best way I know how to explain it.



Ironically, Mr. Ridley didnt have to sign up for the program because he could have taken a lighter probation sentence being offered to him instead, but he knew in the long run that a slap on the wrist wouldnt change his life for the better.



Here I was sitting in jail, the Murray County native recalled, and I had come to a reckoning: I needed help. I didnt know how to fix myself, so I had to put my trust in somebody else.



His addiction to drugs, he said, was really more of a symptom of a bigger problem. My problem was me, he said. I was broken, and until you realize that, until you put trust into somebody else in this program to help you address each and every issue that caused that, you have to submit, you have to surrender and realize that your way doesnt work.



My way, he admitted, got me into jail.



By that point, Mr. Ridley was at the end of his rope, having burned bridges with everyone, including his own mother, Cheryl, who had always been his biggest supporter.



Graduating from the Mental Health Court program wasnt easy, though.



I had so much trouble in the beginning because I was just going through the motions, Mr. Ridley said. I figured I would just follow the rules and everything would be okay  when the whole time I had an internal war going on. I didnt have my heart change, and I needed the heart change.



Mr. Ridley lived at Providence Ministries in those early days, but then he made some bad decisions and couldnt stay there anymore, leaving the home of his estranged mother as the only alternative.



Angie Anderson (Mental Health Court coordinator) called Codys mom and basically begged her, will you please give him another chance and let him stay [with you] because we had run out of other options, Mental Health Court Judge Scott Minter said. She agreed, but she made it quite clear to him and to us that if he stepped out of line with her, that she was going to report him to us. Cody told me one time that his mother was the hardest and toughest probation officer he ever had.



But Cody got himself straightened out. He made a turn in his behavior, his choices, and he became a big help to her, taking care of the house and the yard. One of the compliance officers told him he had one of the nicest yards theyd ever seen because he was always out there working in the yard whenever they came by.



Mr. Ridley and his mom were able to reconcile and repair their relationship, and in the end for her, he was able to be there for her during her final moments, the judge said.



When she passed suddenly and unexpectedly, Cody was able to be there, Judge Minter said, and that would not have happened had Cody not chosen to enter this program and not chosen to use the tools that we are able to provide to change his life. That is one of the most proud moments for our program.



Now that hes completed the program, Mr. Ridley says his routine has remained the same and he urged fellow participants to avoid the trap of the addict mentality that I cant wait to get out of this program so I can have my life back.



What do you mean, the life you had before? Mr. Ridley asked. Thats what landed you in jail. Build your life the way you want it while you have this lottery ticket now. Set the foundation now for the future so youre living your live the way you want it  clean, sober, with your kids, with your family, being a real man or a real woman, taking responsibility for your actions. Not, oh well, I just want to go have this illicit relationship over here, or I want to go over here and hang out with this old friend of mine. Boundaries  you dont owe them anything. You owe it to yourself and your family to be the man or woman youre destined to be.



A native of Murray County who once was a Chatsworth police officer before bad decisions took him down the wrong path, Mr. Ridley admits hes still an addict, but says hes been a clean and sober addict for more than two years and has earned the trust of his employers at the carpet company where he has a good, steady job as a truck driver.



I celebrated New Years with my family clean and sober, he said, quipping that he went and had an overdose of Mexican food!



He told other participants the program can seem difficult because youre fighting yourself.



Every single step in this program, every single person on staff wants to see you succeed, he said, so whats stopping you? The only thing stopping you is you. Everything that they put in place no matter how easy it looks and it drives you nuts  why are they in my business? Why are they in my emails? Why are they in my text messages? You just have to completely surrender. Once you surrender, its not that hard because youre surrendering to a better life  youre surrendering to the life that you were meant to live.



The Mental Health Court program, which serves residents in Whitfield and Murray counties, began in July 2018, with Ms. Anderson hired as coordinator at that time to start putting together policies and procedures and assembling the team of professionals on the staff.



In Georgia, treatment courts such as drug courts and mental health courts save up to $5,000 for every individual they serve, and each graduate returns as much as $22,125 back in economic benefit. Nationally, treatment courts return as much as $27 for every $1 invested, officials said..



The program offers a recovery-focused program for defendants in the criminal justice system who have been diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness and/or substance abuse disorder, and definitely fills a real need in our community, Judge Minter said.



The judge praised the really dedicated staff members who go the extra mile," noting they really care about the participants, and all of them have had an impact on their lives."



"Mr. Ridley wanted to be a better person, and everyone in this program has the potential to be where he is, said Latasha Heflin with the Whitfield County Public Defenders Office. Im very happy for [him].
She recently returned to the UK after a sunny getaway to The Maldives.

And Kady McDermott set pulses racing in racy green lingerie as she posed for a pair of scantily-clad Instagram snaps on Monday.

The former Love Island star, 25, put on a busty display in the plunging two-piece as she posed for the snaps in her swanky apartment.

Jaw-dropping: Kady McDermott, 25, set pulses racing in racy green lingerie as she posed for a pair of scantily-clad Instagram snaps on Monday

Kady flaunted her ample cleavage in the sexy green bra and matching bottoms for the pair of sexy snaps she shared on Instagram Stories.

The reality star showed off her incredible physique in the revealing two-piece to promote the brand Lounge Underwear.

Kady let her amazing figure take centre stage as she showed off her eye-catching bust in the lingerie set.

Wow! The former Love Island star put on a busty display in the plunging two-piece as she posed for the snaps in her swanky apartment

Kady is now believed to be back at home in the UK following trips to the Maldives with boyfriend Myles Barnett and Dubai, which she documented with a slew of scantily-clad social media snaps.

The reality star has received criticism in the comments section for travelling.

One follower slammed her for being abroad while the majority of the UK were forbidden to travel and stuck in Tier 3 and Tier 4 before the third lockdown was announced.

He remarked: 'Breaking the rules again - don't see this as a business trip!'

Peachy! Kady is now believed to be back at home in the UK following trips to the Maldives and Dubai, which she documented with a slew of scantily-clad social media snaps

Kady bit back: 'Oh so because you dont see it as a business trip it means it isnt? Oh ok lol.

'But if you mush know as you keep sending me DMS too I am here with @trendingtravel.co.uk and had a valid letter for travel from the CEO. Not everyones work is based in an office, David!' [sic]

And her latest post drew further criticism with some perhaps not realising they weren't taken during lockdown.

Referring to the picture in which Kady's arm is stretched out, one suggested the caption should be: 'No don't take a pic I should be on lockdown with everyone else.'

And another wrote: 'Well the rest of us are working.'
New Delhi:

Reena Pushkarna, the celebrity chef who introduced Indian food to Israel, has been given the task of cooking for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he is on a three-day visit to Israel. Pushkarna owns a chain called Tandoori in Israel that serves Indian delicacies.



Interestingly, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had on Tuesday told PM Modi that he had come to Pushkarna's eatery 30-years-ago on his first date and after that he became the proud father of two beautiful daughters. And now, Pushkarna too has confirmed the same.



"My mother land is India and fatherland is Israel. I am very proud of my heritage. Now that he has himself told PM Modi, I would like to confirm that PM Benjamin Netanyahu came for his first date in my restaurant 30-years-ago," she said.



On asking about Modi's preference for food she said, "It is very easy to prepare food for PM Modi because it seems he loves 'maa ke hath ka khaana'. He loves home-made food such as Khichdi, moong ki daal, chapati, bhindi ki sabzi.

Watch Video | PM meets 'Baby Moshe'; 26/11 survivor says 'Dear Mr Modi, I love you', wish to visit Mumbai

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New dataset is 25% larger than original HCCI dataset, containing health insurance claims for 55 million people, one third of people with employer-based health insurance in the United States

WASHINGTON, DC (February 2, 2021)  The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) today announced the launch of its new health care claims dataset for research. The new dataset is more than 25% larger than the original HCCI dataset, containing more than 1 billion claims per year for more than 55 million people who receive health care coverage from their employers. Researchers will initially have access to data from 2012 to 2018, with 2019 and 2020 information being added as soon as possible. The data is sourced from Aetna/CVS, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and more than 30 non-profit health plans included in the Blue Health Intelligence national dataset , enabling researchers to conduct analysis at the national, state, and sub-state level. HCCI's patient-, provider-, and payer-deidentified dataset contains comprehensive diagnostic, procedure, site of care and cost information, including payments made by insurers as well as what patients pay out of pocket.

"This rich new claims data enables the critical research and reporting that will be needed in the coming years, to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges facing the health care system as the US approaches spending 20% of GDP on health care," said Niall Brennan, President and CEO of HCCI. "HCCI is a critical national resource for researchers, policymakers, employers, journalists, and the public to understand trends in health care access, spending and utilization."

"HCCI has a rich history of facilitating leading edge academic and policy research and this new data will allow for even greater insights," said Bob Town, Chairman of the HCCI Board and the James L. and Nancy Powell Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin. "As we launch our new, expanded dataset, in addition to our data contributors, we want to acknowledge the support of our philanthropic funders, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Arnold Ventures, West Health and The Commonwealth Fund, without whom the launch of this dataset would not be possible."

HCCI's data covers all 50 states and D.C., and is open to researchers at universities and non-profit research organizations. The data can be accessed on an annual basis to pursue approved research proposals. The research teams get access to all available years of the full dataset via a secure data enclave with included analytic software licenses.

###

Interested researchers should visit HCCI's newly launched Data Access Hub website, which provides granular details about the new dataset and will guide them through the application and data access processes. Transparent pricing details are also available on the site.
Imperial Valley News Center

Businessman Charged in Scheme to Hoard Personal Protective Equipment and Price Gouge Health Care Providers

Jackson, Mississippi - A Mississippi businessman was charged with defrauding the United States and other health care providers in a $1.8 million scheme related to acquiring and hoarding personal protective equipment (PPE) and price gouging health care providers, including numerous U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals in critical need of PPE.

Nicholas L. McQuaid, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, Darren J. LaMarca, Acting U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Mississippi, Michelle A. Sutphin, Special Agent in Charge of the FBIs Jackson, Mississippi Field Office, Jeffrey A. Breen, Special Agent in Charge of the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) South Central Field Office, and Jack Stanton, Acting Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI), New Orleans Field Office made the announcement.

Kenneth Bryan Ritchey, 57, of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, was charged in an indictment in the Southern District of Mississippi with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit hoarding of designated scarce materials, and hoarding of designated scarce materials. The defendant made his initial appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Myers of the Southern District of Mississippi.

The indictment alleges that after the first U.S.-confirmed case of COVID-19, Ritchey participated in a scheme to defraud health care providers, including the VA, of more than $1.8 million by acquiring PPE and other designated materials from all possible sources, including home improvement stores and online retailers, and ultimately hoarding the same. The indictment alleges that due to nationwide PPE shortages and COVID-19-related fears, Ritchey directed sales representatives to solicit health care providers, including the VA, to purchase PPE and other designated materials at excessively inflated prices through high-pressure sales tactics and through misrepresenting sourcing and actual costs. It is alleged that Ritchey sold PPE to health care providers desperate to acquire the same at incredible markups. For instance, the indictment alleges that Ritchey sold N-95 masks to the VA and other health care providers for as much as $25.00 per mask, despite acquiring such masks at much lower prices.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case was investigated by the FBIs Jackson Field Office, VA-OIG, and ICE HSI. Principal Assistant Deputy Chief Dustin M. Davis and Trial Attorney Sara E. Porter of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathlyn R. Van Buskirk of the Southern District of Mississippi are prosecuting the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Health Care Fraud Strike Force. Since its inception in March 2007, the Health Care Fraud Strike Force, which maintains 15 strike forces operating in 24 districts, has charged more than 4,200 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for approximately $19 billion. In addition, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-Office of Inspector General, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.

The public is asked to report COVID-19 fraud, hoarding or price-gouging to the National Center for Disaster Frauds (NCDF) National Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or visit The Department of Justices NCDF website.

Thank you for reading!

Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.
YOSEMITE Associates, a business advisory engaged by business owner leadership teams, will launch its newest product, Greenpoint, at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, February 1, 2021.

Greenpoint is a first of its kind, confidential self-guided decision-making tool designed to stress test client readiness for a successful exit. Requiring clients to think deeply in offering answers to ten categories of questions prompts the exposure of gaps in client planning, pointing to action steps needed to maximize a desired exit valuation.

Too often a successful business does not equal an exit ready business, says YOSEMITE associates Founder and CEO, Larry OToole.

OToole continues, Identifying the drivers behind desired exit valuations in a variety of companies and industries offers concise questions business owners must first nimbly answer to accelerate their climb to a desired exit valuation.

https://www.yosemiteassociates.com/greenpoint

ABOUT YOSEMITE ASSOCIATES

YOSEMITE Associates, LLC is a business advisory engaged in removing decision-making uncertainty by assisting business owners and CEOs in creating business worth growth strategies. Founded in 2018, Yosemite Associates leverages the over 20 years of enterprise and business unit CEO experience possessed by founder Larry OToole in a range of public and privately held manufacturing and service businesses. YOSEMITE Associates offers real world operating experience to business leaders desiring practical, actionable insights and guidance. Advisory services are centered on identifying gaps in strategic thinking & planning and helping executive teams build a bridge to achieve their future desired exit event with their business.

https://www.yosemiteassociates.com/

CONTACT

Larry.OToole@YOSEMITEassociates.com

CEO

+1 949 874 0787
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Some 48 mentors and mentees will officially kick off this year's Katuka Mentorship Programme in Windhoek tomorrow. Well-known human resource specialist Sabine Ruegg will conduct the three-day orientation programme.

Sponsored by Bank Windhoek, the Katuka Mentorship Programme aims to empower and encourage entrepreneurs, business and professional women to succeed in their careers through mentorship by seasoned business and professional women. The late Lena Markus, former Businesswoman of the Year 2000 in the category of Corporate/Professional, founded the programme.

In its twentieth year, the programme has produced significant results in the careers of the participating mentees. To date, 401 entrepreneurs and businesswomen have completed the programme.

"The Katuka Mentorship Programme is a method of advancement, which provides support and training through relationship building. It is about matching a mentee and a mentor with a similar personal and professional interest in the process of support, sharing, and learning to help entrepreneurs and businesswomen who want to start up, successfully run, or achieve success in their existing field of business at the highest level," said programme organiser, Desere Lundon-Muller.

Bank Windhoek's Head of Corporate Social Investments, Sponsorship, and Events, Bronwyn Moody, said the bank is a partner for growth for women entrepreneurs - both personally and professionally. "We are proud to be a conduit to the relationship that mentors and mentees will be building over the coming year."

Designed to facilitate the career development of younger women by exposing them to the experience of individuals with established careers, the Katuka Mentorship Programme will host its second training session in April and a third in August. "As we journey together in this partnership, we hope that each one who is involved in this process reaches her full potential," concluded Moody.
Under state law, there are standard conditions required for parole, such as a felon cannot be in possession of weapons and cant have any contact with the victim or victims family, Sweat said. Sometimes, the board can require a parolee to be on electronic home monitoring, he said.
Stroll slams Aston Martin sale rumours

F1 team owner Lawrence Stroll has slammed rumours that the Aston Martin brand may be sold once again.

A media report last week claimed that although billionaire Stroll's new acquisition will only see his team re-branded this year, Aston Martin may already have a Chinese buyer on the horizon.

"Lawrence Stroll himself describes the rumours as pure bullsh*t and completely untrue," a spokesperson for the Aston Martin team told Dutch publication racingnews365.

"Stroll stressed that he is very enthusiastic about the project, and he believes in a long and successful future in Formula 1," the source added.
Controversial preference whisperer Glenn Druery faces new probity concerns after landing a taxpayer-funded role working for state upper house Liberal Democrats MP David Limbrick while running his own lucrative cash-for-votes business.

Mr Druerys business brings micro parties together in a bloc to preference each other and leapfrog better-supported parties. The practice helped Mr Limbrick get elected at the 2018 poll with just 0.8 per cent of the primary vote.

Glenn Druery appearing before a Senate Voting Reform Committee hearing in 2016. Credit:Andrew Meares

An investigation by The Sunday Age revealed on the weekend that in a previous staff job for then senator Derryn Hinch, Mr Druery charged taxpayers almost $155,000 in travel and other expenses in a period of just over two years.

Those expenses were racked up at the same time as he was running his cash-for-votes business.
With the departure of former President Donald J. Trump, the G.O.P. has become a leaderless party, with past standard-bearers changing their voter registrations, luminaries like Senator Rob Portman of Ohio retiring, and far-right extremists like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia building a brand on a web of dangerous conspiracy theories.

With no dominant leader other than the deplatformed one-term president, a radical right movement that became emboldened under Mr. Trump has been maneuvering for more power. More moderate Republicans feel increasingly under attack, but so far have made little progress in galvanizing voters, donors or new recruits for office.

Instead, in Arizona, the state Republican Party has brazenly punished dissent, formally censuring three of its own: Gov. Doug Ducey, former Senator Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, the widow of former Senator John McCain. The party cited their criticisms of Mr. Trump and their defenses of the states election process.

In Wyoming, Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, headlined a rally on Thursday to denounce Representative Liz Cheney for her vote to impeach Mr. Trump. Joining Mr. Gaetz by phone was Donald Trump Jr., the former presidents eldest son, who has been working to unseat Ms. Cheney and replace her with someone he believes better represents the views of her constituents  in other words, fealty to his father.
More than 1m worth of drugs was seized

Gardai are investigating if at least two different west Dublin gangs clubbed together to import and distribute over 1m worth of drugs which were seized this morning.

The drugs were found in a number of shipping containers following a detailed search in an industrial unit in the City West area of the capital.

This is the same location where officers discovered 5m worth of ecstasy and MDMA last November.

Senior sources say that detectives are working on the theory that The Family gang whose stronghold is in the Ballyfermot/Clondalkin area worked with a Tallaght gang in getting the drugs which were discovered today into Ireland.

One line of an enquiry is whether a Tallaght criminal aged in his late 20s who previously survived a gun assassination attempt and has served a jail term for a violent high-profile assault may have been involved in importing the drugs along with The Family gang.

Over 1m worth of drugs and four imitation firearms have been recovered after armed detectives raided a storage facility in the capital.

The seizure includes one of the biggest hauls of crack cocaine that has been seized in recent times.

Dozens of gardai were involved in this mornings operation during which a total of 27 storage containers were searched in the City West area.

Crack cocaine with an estimated value of 542,000 was seized along with 452,00 worth of cannabis herb.

A further 70,000 worth of cocaine along with four imitation firearms was also seized in the raids targeting serious organised crime in southwest Dublin.

Due to the nature of the operation members of the heavily armed Emergency Response Unit (ERU) were brought in to help with the searches.

No arrests have yet been made in relation to the significant seizure but inquiries are ongoing with a total of 27 shipping containers being searched.

The investigation is being led by detectives based in Tallaght garda station where an incident room has also been established.

A Garda spokesman said: The operation was led by the District Detective Unit Tallaght assisted by District Detective Unit Rathfarnham, Drugs Unit Tallaght, Burglary Response Unit DMR South, Emergency Response Unit, the Dog Unit and other local units.

No arrests were made in this phase of the investigation. An Incident Room has been established at Tallaght Garda Station and the scene is currently being preserved pending technical and forensic examination.

Investigations are ongoing, the spokesman added.

The bust could be just the latest blow to The Family mob who are led by convicted heroin dealer Brian Grendon (42) and who have been the subject of numerous raids by specialist garda units in recent years.

Despite this, sources say that their base continues to grow and that they are typically working with other gangs in arranging the importation and distribution of drugs.

Detectives have seized millions in euro in cash from The Family gang in recent months.

A source said that such a large seizure of crack cocaine  over 542,000 worth  is unusual in Ireland but it shows that it is an increasing problem.

The number of people treated for crack cocaine use increased by 44pc between 2018 and 2019, according to the report from the Health Research Board (HRB) released last July.




It also proposed global legal framework for mining on the moon, called the Artemis Accords, encouraging citizens to mine the Earths natural satellite and other celestial bodies with commercial purposes.

The directive classified outer space as a legally and physically unique domain of human activity instead of a global commons, paving the way for mining the moon without any sort of international treaty.

Spearheaded by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Artemis Accords were signed in October by Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy and the United Emirates.

Unfortunately, the Trump Administration exacerbated a national security threat and risked the economic opportunity it hoped to secure in outer space by failing to engage Russia or China as potential partners, says Elya Taichman, former legislative director for then-Republican Michelle Lujan Grisham. Related: Will France Abandon Nuclear Power?



NASA is working on lunar bases that can travel on wheels, or even legs, increasing landing zone safety, provide equipment redundancy and improve the odds of making key discoveries. (Image courtesy of NASA.)

Instead, the Artemis Accords have driven China and Russia toward increased cooperation in space out of fear and necessity, he writes.

Russias space agency Roscosmos was the first to speak up, likening the policy to colonialism.

There have already been examples in history when one country decided to start seizing territories in its interest  everyone remembers what came of it, Roscosmos deputy general director for international cooperation, Sergey Saveliev, said at the time.

China, which made history in 2019 by becoming the first country to land a probe on the far side of the Moon, chose a different approach. Since the Artemis Accords were first announced, Beijing has approached Russia to jointly build a lunar research base.

President Xi Jinping has also he made sure China planted its flag on the Moon, which happened in December 2020, more than 50 years after the US reached the lunar surface.

The next Wild West?

China has historically been excluded from the US-led international order in space. It is not a partner in the International Space Station (ISS) program, and a US legislative provision has limited NASAs ability to cooperate with it in space since 2011.

America and China should cooperate in space, say policy experts Anne-Marie Slaughter and Emily Lawrence. If the US managed to coordinate with the Soviet Union on space policy during the Cold War, it can find a way to cooperate with China now, they note.

Slaughter, a former director of policy planning in the US State Department from 2009 to 2011, believes that President Joe Bidens team should distance from Trumps accords and instead pursue a new course within the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Biden can restore some of Americas global legitimacy by working to establish a multilateral framework, negotiated with all relevant parties that protects areas of common interest while granting internationally accepted commercial opportunities, Slaughter and Lawrence wrote.

It will not be an easy task, they say, but a necessary one. Without an international framework that includes all major spacefaring countries, the moon could become the next Wild West.

The race is on. It has been for a while. So much so that NASA has laid out a $28 billion plan to launch an unmanned mission around the moon in 2021, followed by a crewed moon flyby in 2023, then a lunar landing in 2024.

NASA plans to build a permanent moon-orbiting base called the Gateway, similar to the ISS. From there, the agency hopes to build a base on the lunar surface, where it can mine the resources required to fly the first astronauts to Mars. Related: A Glimmer Of Hope For Oil Markets

Russia has been pursuing plans in recent years to return to the moon, potentially travelling further into outer space.

Roscosmos revealed in 2018 plans to establish a long-term base on the moon over the next two decades, while President Vladimir Putin has vowed to launch a mission to Mars very soon.

NASA outlined in 2019 its long-term approach to lunar exploration, which includes setting up a base camp on the moons south pole. (Artists rendition courtesy of NASA.)

The US, Russia and China are not the first nor the only nations to jump on board the lunar mining train.

Luxembourg, one of the first countries to set its eyes on the possibility of mining celestial bodies, created in 2018 a Space Agency (LSA) to boost exploration and commercial utilization of resources from Near Earth Objects.

Unlike NASA, LSA does not carry out research or launches. Its purpose is to accelerate collaborations between economic project leaders of the space sector, investors and other partners.

The tiny European nation announced in November plans to create a European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC), in charge of laying the foundations for exploiting extra-terrestrial resources.

Luxembourg is also supporting a program to begin extracting resources from the Moon by 2025.

The mission, in charge of the European Space Agency in partnership with ArianeGroup, plans to extract waste-free nuclear energy thought to be worth trillions of dollars.

Trillion-dollar market

Both China and India have also floated ideas about extracting Helium-3 from the Earths natural satellite. Beijing has already landed on the moon twice in the 21st century, with more missions to follow.

In Canada, most initiatives have come from the private sector. One of the most touted was Northern Ontario-based Deltion Innovations partnership with Moon Express, the first American private space exploration firm to have been granted government permission to travel beyond Earths orbit.

Space ventures in the works include plans to mine asteroids, track space debris, build the first human settlement on Mars, and billionaire Elon Musks own plan for an unmanned mission to the red planet.

Geologists, as well as emerging companies, such as US-based Planetary Resources, a firm pioneering the space mining industry, believe asteroids are packed with iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth, making up a market valued in the trillions.

On December 5, 2020, a metallic asteroid 140 miles wide and worth an estimated $10,000 quadrillion made its closest approach to our planet.

In this concept image, a resource prospector carrying a payload roves on the lunar surface. (Image courtesy of NASA.)

With NASA and other companies investing in and developing nuclear power for use in space travel and colonization, the reality of mining asteroids is closer than ever before, says Bob Goldstein, CEO of US Nuclear Corp.

With proven successful fusion energy experiments under their belt, US Nuclear and Magneto-Inertial Fusion Technologies (MIFTI) believe they are only a few years away from building the worlds first fusion power generator.

Fusion power releases up to four times as much energy as fission, and uses fuel that is lightweight, low-cost, safe, and sustainable.

A spacecraft with fusion-powered propulsion systems could reach the asteroid belt in as little as seven months. According to Goldstein, it could be powerful enough to transport the asteroid to an earth orbit where it would be much more efficient to mine and transport these valuable resources to earth.

By Mining.com

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said its operatives have arrested 19 suspects for Internet-related offences.

The commission in a statement by its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, on Tuesday, said the suspects were arrested at a guest house located in the Mpape suburb of Abuja on January 29.

READ THE STATEMENT IN FULL

19 Internet Fraud Suspects in EFCCs Net

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC have apprehended nineteen suspects allegedly involved in internet and related criminal activities. They were smoked out of their hideout, a guest house located in the Mpape suburb of Abuja on January 29, 2021.

The arrest followed actionable intelligence on their alleged criminal activities. The suspects are Sheyi Abimbola,Ogunsanmi Mola, Akinyemi Ayomide, Babatunde Owoeye, Ife  Oluwa Gbadebo, Friday Owocho, Olorunwa Emmanuel, Jibrin Sediq, Jonah Maxwell, Ibrahim Mustapha and Shaibu Chris.

Others are Gabriel Ekele, Kolawole Omitogun, Washma Samuel, Yusuf Ayomide Abdulazeez, Moshood Awowole, Farouk Olamilekan, Adebayo Samuel and Lekan Olufowobi.

Items recovered from them include mobile phones and laptop computers containing various incriminating documents.

They will be charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded.

Wilson Uwujaren

Head, Media & Publicity

2 February, 2021
Old Defenders in America are not exactly found just lying around. The nameplate was at one point no longer welcome stateside because it didnt comply with local regulations. But enough time has passed now for the Defender to be subject to the 25-year rule excepting it from complying with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.And that only means one thing: old Defenders are likely to migrate to America in larger numbers, and were pretty certain a good portion of them will be subject to major work in the years ahead, completely transforming them.This particular Defender 130 so far escaped such a fate. Its a right-hand drive machine imported to the U.S. in 2019 from South Africa, and it gets noticed mostly because of its stock, ready-for-work appearance.Wrapped in white over a gray and beige interior, the truck is equipped with the required accessories for trekking the unbeaten path, including a snorkel and a receiver hitch. The bed at the rear is covered by a tan canvas cover to protect the cargo from the elements.The 16-inch Wolf wheels are wrapped in Cooper STT Pro tires and get their spin from a 2.5-liter turbodiesel inline-four, worked by means of a five-speed manual transmission and a two-speed transfer case.The truck is selling as is on Bring a Trailer with import documents and a clean Pennsylvania title, and it has already caught the eye of several bidders. At the time of writing, with about 12 hours left in the process, the highest offer is $29,000.
Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Sixth Wave Innovations Inc. (CSE: SIXW) (OTCQB: ATURF) (FSE: AHUH) ("Sixth Wave", or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update regarding the development of its Accelerated Molecularly Imprinted Polymers ("AMIPs") technology for the rapid detection of viruses and associated mutations.

AMIPs development commenced in Q2 2020, with a number of notable benchmarks having been achieved since then. Phase 1, desktop design work on the AMIPs virus detection polymer and detection systems was completed in 2020. This design work is being implemented in the polymer development work currently being undertaken pursuant to an agreement with researchers at the University of Alberta ("U of A"). Dr. Garrett Kraft, a Senior Scientist at Sixth Wave, is working at U of A in Edmonton as lead researcher. The Company reports significant progress regarding the development of the AMIPs polymer:

Sixth Wave has successfully completed development of the virus immobilization platform to be used for imprinting. This first production step distributes and deposits the virus onto a solid substrate that allows the generation of a template for creating the final AMIPs. Completion of this step allows us to proceed directly to the creation of the functional AMIPs nanostructured polymer. This provides the foundation for creating artificial imprinting polymer templates, allowing for the production of AMIPs without the use of the virus or antibodies as part of the mass production of AMIPs.

Sixth Wave has successfully developed a virus application and distribution process to bind the virus to the immobilization substrate and confirmed successful deposition and distribution of the actual SARS-CoV-2 virus on the substrate. Sixth Wave has validated these results with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) which provides quantitative and visual confirmation.

Note that the above two steps will be common to the development of AMIPs products for other viruses, including any significant mutations that dramatically change the physical properties of the SARS-CoV-2 virus should they occur in the future. The successful development and testing of these protocols allows the Company to rapidly adapt the AMIPs to any such SARS-CoV-2 variants and provides the platform for increasing the number of different viruses detectable with AMIPs.

Research is currently focused on producing the first fully-formed molecular imprint designed to capture the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus.

In addition to participation by world-renowned scientists, the state-of-the-art facilities at the U of A and the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology allow the Company to progress this development work in parallel with the existing AffinityTM cannabis project. This negates the need to expand internal facilities and limits development costs. Sixth Wave has received work authorization waivers to allow the research and development to proceed pursuant to U of A and Provincial COVID-19 restrictions. This work is partially funded through a participation agreement with the Province of Nova Scotia COVID-19 Response Counsel. Any new intellectual property derived as part of the Services Agreement with the University of Alberta will remain the sole property of Sixth Wave.

The Company also reports that work continues further to an agreement with York University of Toronto for the detection of the airborne virus, funded in part by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada ("NSERC"). The specific goals of this project are to develop a continuous monitoring and detection system for airborne viruses in multiple environments such as heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems utilizing AMIPsTM.

"The rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2 indicates a mutation scenario with which immunoassay-based RDT's may be incapable of keeping pace," said Dr. Jon Gluckman, President, and CEO of Sixth Wave. "Recent mutations such as the Brazilian variant ("P.1"), in which the virus appears to be less recognizable by antibodies generated from a previous COVID-19 infection, are of particular concern. All of the existing immunoassay tests - rapid or otherwise - rely on known antibodies produced in animals to capture and immobilize the COVID-19 virus from test samples. Variants such as the P.1 may render such tests of limited or no value, since the antibodies may never capture the mutated virus and therefore would never generate a positive response even with the virus present."

"Scientific and public policy leaders indicate that achieving back-to-normal activities will require near-constant testing for the next several years at a minimum, especially with regards to travel, sporting activities, family gatherings, and the like," continued Gluckman. "While immunoassay tests are coming to market, none appear to provide clear pathways comparable to AMIPs, that has the potential to accommodate multiple emerging variants using a single testing tool".

While these are substantial milestones in the development of AMIPs and validating production methods, the company is not making any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure, detect, or contain the COVID-19 (or SARS-2 coronavirus) at this time.

The Company further reports that it has settled convertible debt in the amount of USD $276,178 (CAD $351,461) through the issuance of 1,301,520 common shares.

About Sixth Wave

Sixth Wave is a nanotechnology company with patented technologies that focus on extraction and detection of target substances at the molecular level using highly specialized Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) and other techniques. The Company is in the process of a commercial rollout of its Affinity cannabinoid purification system, as well as, IXOS, a line of extraction polymers for the gold mining industry. The Company is in the development stages of a rapid diagnostic test for viruses under the Accelerated MIPs (AMIPs) label.

Sixth Wave can design, develop and commercialize MIP solutions across a broad spectrum of industries. The company is focused on nanotechnology architectures that are highly relevant for the detection and separation of viruses, biogenic amines, and other pathogens, for which the Company has products at various stages of development.

For more information about Sixth Wave, please visit our web site at: www.sixthwave.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Jonathan Gluckman"

Jonathan Gluckman, Ph.D., President & CEO

For information, please contact the Company:

Phone: (801) 582-0559

E-mail: info@sixthwave.com

Cautionary Notes

This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" including statements regarding the planned use of proceeds and performance of the AMIPs technologies. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future events or developments that the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. 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 events or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company'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. In particular, successful development and commercialization of the AMIPs technology are subject the risk that the AMIPs technology may not prove to be successful in detecting virus targets effectively or at all, uncertainty of medical product development, uncertainty of timing or availability of required regulatory approvals, lack of track record of developing products for medical applications and the need for additional capital to carry out product development activities. The value of any products ultimately developed could be negatively impacted if the patent is not granted. The Company has not yet completed the development of a prototype for the product that is subject of its patent application and has not yet applied for regulatory approval for the use of this product from any regulatory agency.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73439
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Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday detained assistant film director Rishikesh Pawar in connection with the drugs case linked to the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput last year. Questioning of Pawar is underway at the NCBs office, he said.

The name of Pawar, who was a friend of the late actor, had cropped up during interrogation of other accused arrested earlier in the case, he said. Pawar was detained by the Mumbai zonal team of the NCB after various summons were issued to him," the official added.

The NCB had earlier raided Pawars residence and seized some gadgets, the official said. Rajput was found hanging at his flat in suburban Bandra on June 14, 2020.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing Rajputs death while the NCB is investigating the drugs angle related to the case. The NCB is also probing the alleged Bollywood-drugs nexus and had conducted multiple raids over the last few months. The federal anti-drugs agency had also arrested a number of drug peddlers.
Spain's Pamplona bull-running festival will have to be cancelled for a second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic, a local official has said.

The San Fermin festival 'won't be possible' this year, regional head of Navarre, Maria Chivite, told an economic forum on Tuesday. 'It is not responsible to create expectations which will be impossible to fulfill,' she added.

A spokesman for Pamplona city hall told AFP news agency that it is up to the regional government of Navarre to formally cancel the event held each year from July 6-14, but that as of now 'that decision has not been taken'.

2019: Participants run next to Miura fighting bulls on the last bull run of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain. The festival had to be cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and a local official has said it will likely have to cancelled in 2021 as well

Spain is currently under a nationwide curfew until early May 2021, with people only allowed outside for essential reasons such as work, education, to buy medicine or to care for those who cannot look after themselves - such as the elderly or children.

During the annual celebrations, half-tonne fighting bulls chase hundreds of daredevils, many of whom wear traditional white shirts and scarves, through the narrow streets of the city each morning.

With over a million people attending the festival in 2019, it would be impossible for officials to enforce its social distancing measures that require people to remain one and a half meters apart from one-another to limit the spread of the virus.

The festival in honour of the patron saint of Spain's northern Navarre region - San Fermin - dates back to medieval times and involves religious processions, concerts and all-night partying, as well as the hair-raising daily bull runs that made it famous.

The festival draws tourists from around the world and its cancellation will deal another blow to the local economy, especially the hotel and restaurant sector which is already reeling from lockdowns and restrictions imposed to contain the virus.

The San Fermin festival, that is normally held in July, was immortalised in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel 'The Sun Always Rises'.

Pictured: In this file photo taken on July 15, 2019 revellers raise red scarves and candles as they sing the song 'Pobre de Mi', marking the end of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona

The last time Pamplona did not celebrate the festival two years in a row was during Spain's 1936-39 civil war.

Other major Spanish events have already been called off for the second year in a row. Seville has cancelled Easter week processions while the Mediterranean port of Valencia has postponed until the second half of the year the Las Fallas festival usually held in March.

Spain has been hard-hit by the pandemic, recording nearly 60,000 deaths from over 2.8 million cases so far, including 350 of the strain detected in Britain.

Tuesday also saw Spain that it would restrict arrivals from Brazil and South Africa by air to try to reduce the spread of new coronavirus variants.

2020: People walk past empty swings due to measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, in Pamplona, northern Spain in October 2020

Only legal residents or nationals of Spain and the neighbouring microstate of Andorra will be allowed in from Brazil and South Africa, government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero told a news conference.

Passengers stopping in Spain while on their way to another country will be allowed to enter as long as they will remain for less than 24 hours and do not leave the airport, she added.

The new rules will take effect on Wednesday and will remain in force for two weeks although it could be extended depending how the pandemic evolves, the minister said.

Spain has been hard-hit by the pandemic, recording nearly 60,000 deaths from over 2.8 million cases so far, including 350 of the strain detected in Britain. Pictured: Graphs showing the seven-day average of coronavirus cases (top) and deaths (bottom) in Spain

Madrid has since the end of December banned arrivals by sea and air from Britain except for residents or nationals of Spain and Andorra because of the discovery of a new more contagious virus strain there last year.

This strain, which has led to a surge in infections in Britain in recent months, is one of several virus variants have been identified since the pandemic began last year.

Another strain, known as E484K, detected initially in South Africa and on subsequent variants in Brazil and Japan, has raised greater alarm among researchers over its possible impact on immunity.
WASHINGTON, D.C.  A Trump administration decision to roll back habitat protections for the northern spotted owl on federal forestlands in the Pacific Northwest is now drawing increased scrutiny from a group of Democratic lawmakers.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden led the group, which includes Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative Earl Blumenauer, in asking federal investigators to determine if former Interior Secretary Davd Bernhardt "overruled guidance by career officials" to remove federal protections for the threatened owl species.

In January, the US. Fish & Wildlife Service published a revised critical habitat designation for the northern spotted owl, excluding nearly 3.5 million acres of forestland from federal protections  much of that land in Oregon  and opening it for potential timber harvesting.

RELATED: Trump admin weakens enforcement of Endangered Species Act

The change reduced protected habitat for the owl species, as of 2012, by more than a third.

Wyden and the other Democratic lawmakers wrote to the U.S. Department of Interior Inspector General on Tuesday, asking him to review the decision.

The USFWS decision appears to fit a larger pattern of malfeasance by the Trump administrations political leadership at the Department of Interior," the lawmakers wrote to Interior Inspector General Mark Greenblatt. "In less than two brief years under David Bernhardts leadership, the Department has been mired in one ethical scandal after another. Bernhardt and his loyalists have demonstrated a willingness to insert themselves into the scientific process in order to achieve preferred policy outcomes, withhold information from the public, and even mislead Congress.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife officials previously acknowledged that the spotted owl's declining numbers warranted an upgrade from "threatened" to "endangered" status, but the agency declined to make that change in December. Instead, the agency moved ahead with the proposal to cut protected habitat  increasing it from an initial proposal of just over 200,000 acres to the final ruling of nearly 3.5 million.

RELATED: Oregon receives grant for endangered species study

While the Biden administration has taken actions to mitigate the effects of this rule, we ask that you quickly review this decision and to determine whether USFWS contradicted or ignored scientific recommendations made by career staff, the Democratic lawmakers concluded.

Conflicts between Oregon's logging industry and environmental groups over the northern spotted owl's accustomed habitat in old-growth forests span back decades. The species first received threatened status under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, with other protections developing over the following years. Regardless, the species' population has continued to dwindle.

Along with the threat of habitat loss, the spotted owl has increasingly suffered from competition posed by the more robust barred owl, an invasive species native to the eastern U.S. that has moved into the spotted owl's habitat.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Feb. 1, 2021 -- Honda and Acura dealer associations across the country will soon have access to powerful new marketing capabilities, as two nationally prominent automotive advertising agencies have finalized plans to merge. Pinnacle Advertising and Marketing Group , headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., and RealWorld Marketing, headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., have created a dedicated division within Pinnacle, which will become one of the nation's largest agencies dedicated to the Honda and Acura brands.

"We are very excited about this merger in that it offers our clients significantly greater resources, depth of talent and expertise," said Michael Magnusson, Pinnacle Advertising's Founder and CEO. "We have a very strong focus on where the automotive retail business is moving and the demands it puts on agencies to innovate and evolve. We have a clear vision of how different strategies, tools, technology and messaging are impacting dealer success and will continue to leverage this data to enhance the outcomes in each market."

Pinnacle's reputation as a media powerhouse just got a boost that will benefit all of their clients with this merger. Now with more than 40 Honda and Acura dealer associations and national clients including WeatherTech and Camping World, this merger will bring agency media billings north of $300 million this coming year.

"We are very proud of our media team at Pinnacle," added Magnusson. "We have invested significantly in technology, research, data and people and have achieved remarkable results for our clients. Our media capabilities and performance rival any national media agency out there. In addition to national planning and buying, Pinnacle currently plans and places linear and digital in 193 local DMA's out of the 210 DMA's in the country for local clients."

The Pinnacle Advertising and RealWorld Marketing teams are no strangers to the Honda and Acura dealer association world. RealWorld has worked exclusively with Honda and Acura dealer associations, since their formation in 1999, while Pinnacle has been working with Honda and Acura since 2005. The organization will employ more than 160 people, with about 70 dedicated to Pinnacle's Honda and Acura Tier 2 division.

The headquarters of Pinnacle's Honda and Acura Tier II division will be located in Scottsdale and will employ staff members in other parts of the country, including Chicago, as the new division will maintain field offices across the country to offer local client service.

"The merger of our two companies comes at a very important time as more and more Honda and Acura dealer associations are looking for advertising partners with greater resources and different approaches to impact the needs and challenges in their specific market," said Leah Wilson, President of RealWorld Marketing. "While we will be bigger, it's not necessarily size that will make us greatit's about superior influence, strategic thinking, services, tools, research and specialties. In all of this, we will remain quick and agile, moving at the speed of retail in today's marketplace. It also provides a larger field team to share ideas and bring thinking from numerous markets across the country."

No staffing changes are planned and the existing in-market or near-market Account Managers who manage client business on the local, retail level, will continue to do so. This allows for faster and better communication as well as a stronger understanding of the needs and increased effectiveness of the advertising messaging at the District and store level.

The management team will be a blend of existing leadership from both organizations. Michael Magnusson will continue as the CEO of Pinnacle, Leah Wilson will serve as the Chief Client Officer and Jake Rostollan will become President of the Tier 2 division within Pinnacle. Various elements of the merger integration will roll out over the coming months and the combined team will communicate them as they occur.

For more information on Pinnacle, please visit pinnacleadvertising.com.

About Pinnacle Advertising and Marketing Group

Founded in 1998, Pinnacle Advertising and Marketing Group is a full-service agency with a diverse client roster and a distinct specialty in the automotive industry. From its headquarters in Chicago, Pinnacle employs more than 100 people and is led by founder and CEO Michael Magnusson. Prominent brands represented by Pinnacle include Arlington International Racecourse, Camping World, Gander Outdoors, Honda, Acura, Metrovac and WeatherTech. Pinnacle has produced Super Bowl advertisements for WeatherTech for the last seven years and has been their agency of record for the last 12 years.

About RealWorld Marketing

RealWorld Marketing provides advertising services exclusively for Honda and Acura brands at the Tier II leveldealer associations. Since 1999, from its headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz., the agency has been the only one in the nation solely serving Honda and Acura Tier II. Owner and CEO Leah Wilson oversees the firm, which employs more than 50 people.

Media Contact

Lindsay Curre

585-402-1916

[email protected]

SOURCE Pinnacle Advertising and Marketing Group
Greater Orlando Society for Human Resource Management (GOSHRM)

The Greater Orlando Society for Human Resource Management (GOSHRM) announces the appointment of its 2021 Board of Directors. Presiding over the new Board is GOSHRM President, Cheryl Brown-Merriwether, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, CPRC.

In addition to her GOSHRM responsibilities, Brown-Merriwether is Vice President and Executive Director of the International Center for Addiction and Recovery Education (ICARE). Based in Orlando, ICARE is a Center of Excellence for developing programs to overcome todays unprecedented societal challenges of substance misuse and addiction. For 20 years, Brown-Merriwether worked in HR leadership positions for AT&T where she focused on organizational development. She is the first black woman to be named president of GOSHRM, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2017.

Other members of GOSHRMs newly appointed 2021 Executive Committee include Steve Holland, SHRM-CP, MHR, PHR (Director of Finance), Pam McGee. SHRM-CP, PHR, MBA (Secretary), and Nate Shannon SHRM-SCP, SPHR (Immediate Past President). The complete list of Board members can be found here.

GOSHRM represents an incredibly diverse and highly talented group of HR professionals. I am honored to work with my team to serve the Orlando business community on all things HR-related, noted Brown-Merriwether.

According to Shannon, Brown-Merriwether is well-equipped to lead the chapter into the future. She has a fantastic blend of professional leadership, board experience, and heart  enabling her to support our members as they pursue a culture of empathy and trust in their businesses, said Shannon.

Presidents Vision

GOSHRMs mission is to elevate people and workplaces through education, connections and service. This year GOSHRMs educational programs and community activities will shine a spotlight on the human aspect of HR to create a positive workplace environment for both employees and employers. Given the magnitude of the pandemic and the unprecedented historical events facing our modern workforce and society, GOSHRM is deeply committed to fulfilling this mission in 2021.

GOSHRM members, workplaces, and community, and others worldwide, have suffered tremendously because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Brown-Merriwether. I empathize with the life experiences of our members and appreciate the positive impact that our association has on meeting their needs, the needs of those organizations that employ them and the collective HR needs of Central Florida.

Community Involvement

Exemplifying GOSHRMs active involvement in Orlandos business community, Shannon was invited to be a panelist on an upcoming interactive virtual conference. 2021 Future of Workforce, is sponsored by the Orlando Business Journal and will be held on Thursday, February 4, 1:00  3:00pm ET. Panelists will discuss Central Florida's workforce challenges and explore long-term solutions needed to address them. Register here.

About GOSHRM

Founded in 1957, the Greater Orlando Society for Human Resource Management (GOSHRM) has 335 members in the greater Orlando area, and currently is the fifth largest chapter in the State of Florida. GOSHRMs mission is to elevate people and workplaces through education, connections and service. GOSHRMs vision is to make Central Florida a workplace destination of choice. GOSHRM is the only Society for Human Resource Management affiliated chapter in the greater Orlando area. For more information visit http://www.goshrm.org.

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She recently revealed she is undergoing IVF with 'soulmate' Carter Reum to ensure she can have a 'boy and girl twin', after dating him for a year.

And Paris Hilton honoured her other half Carter with a sweet Instagram post on Tuesday, as she celebrated 14 months with her beau.

The 39-year-old heiress shared a montage of clips of herself and Carter looking loved-up in a series of stunning locations together.

Me and you! Paris Hilton honoured her other half Carter with a sweet Instagram post on Tuesday, as she celebrated 14 months with her beau

In the first video Paris and Carter, 39, were slow dancing against a beach backdrop before sharing a sweet kiss.

Further clips showed the couple at glitzy events and galas as well as away on exotic getaways together.

In the caption of the post, Paris wrote: 'Happy 14 Month Anniversary my love! When you look into my eyes my heart melts. Nothing else exists in my mind, except you and me.

Looking at you: The 39-year-old heiress shared a montage of clips of herself and Carter looking loved-up in a series of stunning locations together

Stunning! In the first video Paris and Carter, 39, were slow dancing against a beach backdrop before sharing a sweet kiss

'When you kiss me time stops. Every day with you feels like a dream come true! I love you so much! Like nothing I've ever felt or experienced in my entire life! I thank God every day, for sending you to me. My sweet handsome angel.'

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros's Home was playing over the top of the montage, and Paris wrote: 'You are my forever home and there's no place I would rather be. I love this song! The lyrics seem like they were made for you and me.

She then wrote some of the lyrics to the song, and said: 'I'll follow you into the park. Through the jungle, through the dark. Girl, I never loved one like you. Moats and boats and waterfalls. Alleyways and pay phone calls. I've been everywhere with you.

Aw! Further clips showed the couple at glitzy events and galas as well as away on exotic getaways together

In the caption of the post, Paris wrote: 'Happy 14 Month Anniversary my love! When you look into my eyes my heart melts. Nothing else exists in my mind, except you and me'

She said: 'When you kiss me time stops. Every day with you feels like a dream come true! I love you so much! Like nothing I've ever felt or experienced in my entire life! I thank God every day, for sending you to me. My sweet handsome angel'

'That's true, laugh until we think we'll die. Barefoot on a summer night. Never could be sweeter than with you. And in the streets you run a-free.

'Like it's only you and me. Geez, you're something to see. Ah, home, let me come home. Home is wherever I'm with you. Ah, home, let me come home. Home is wherever I'm with you...'

The socialite, 39, told The Trend Reporter with Mara podcast last week that best friend Kim Kardashian, 40, had introduced her to the idea of in vitro fertilization.

Our song: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros's Home was playing over the top of the montage

Paris wrote: 'You are my forever home and there's no place I would rather be. I love this song! The lyrics seem like they were made for you and me'

Paris said: '[Kim was the one] who told me about that. I didn't even know anything about it. I'm happy that she told me that advice and introduced me to her doctor.

'We have been doing IVF, so I can pick twins if I like.'

The hotel heiress admitted the egg extraction procedure was 'tough' to go through, and explained she had to undergo the method 'a couple of times'.

Baby news! Paris revealed she is undergoing IVF with Carter, to ensure she can have a boy and girl twin after BFF Kim Kardashian told her about treatment

She added: 'I've already undergone the egg extraction procedure. It was tough, but I knew it would be worth it. I did it a couple of times.

'[Carter] is just my dream guy He's 100 percent [the one]. We talk about [planning a wedding] all the time and planning our babies' names and all of that.

'Just doing it together and having a partner that is just so supportive and always makes me feel just like a princess all the time ... that it wasn't that bad.

Paris honest: told host Mara Schiavocampo (R) she already underwent the egg extraction procedure: 'It was tough but I knew it would be worth it'

'So, I'm really excited to just move on for the next step of my life, and finally just have like a real life.'

'Because I really do believe that having a family and having children is the meaning of life.

'And I haven't got to experience that yet, because I didn't feel like anybody deserved that love from me, and now I finally found the person who does.'

Kim would have been able to give Paris sage advice about falling pregnant with IVF.

The 39-year-old said on The Trend Reporter podcast: 'We have been doing the IVF, so I can pick twins if I like!'

She suffered from pre-eclampsia and placenta accreta during her first two pregnancies with North, now seven, and Saint, five, and underwent five operations to fix internal damage.

She told E!: 'After my daughter was born, I still continued to do the process of freezing my eggs.

'I was able to get pregnant through that with my son Saint, and then I had two embryos left.'

Due to her high-risk and difficult pregnancies, Kim and Kanye West used gestational surrogates to carry Chicago, three and Psalm, 21 months, for them.

Meanwhile, Paris is already aunty to big sister Nicky's daughters Lily-Grace, 4; and Teddy, 3; and her sister-in-law Tessa's daughter Milou, 11 months.

Nicky told US Weekly in 2019 that Paris would be an 'incredible mother.'

She knows her stuff: Kim Kardashian and her estranged husband Kanye West had daughter Chicago, three, and 20-month-old son Psalm via surrogacy

She said: 'Paris is like a big kid herself. So I think she'll be an amazing mother one day.'

She said her own children think Paris is 'like, a doll.'

Adding: 'When she visits New York, I'll take them over to her loft, and they'll just look at her dolls and her trinkets and her figurines and then the little dogs, and they just are in heaven.'

The socialite will of course have to make room in her 'Slivington Manor' in Beverly Hills considering the seven dogs and one cat already residing there.

Paris revealed last September she wanted to have twins and was looking for a baby name for a son.
Airtel wants fees on incoming calls from other networks till 2022

How To Make The Most Out Of Social Distancing By Staying Connected

Data of 25 lakh Airtel customers in J&K allegedly leaked; telco claims no breach in server

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Feb 02: Data of around 25 lakh Bharti Airtel subscribers of Jammu and Kashmir circle, including Aadhaar numbers, address and date of birth, has reportedly been leaked by hackers, even as the telecom operator denied any breach in its servers.

A sample of the leaked database was shared on Twitter by cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia which shows masked details of the subscribers.

Rajaharia also shared a video of an email conversation between Bharti Airtel and the hackers with the name of ''Red Rabbit Team''.

The video shows that the hackers informed Bharti Airtel about the breach in December and demanded money.

"Hackers have claimed that they have access to pan-India data of Airtel subscribers and they only uploaded a sample of subscribers data from Jammu and Kashmir.

"It may be possible that the hacker may have uploaded a shell (malicious software code) in Airtel servers. During the Covid-19 peak period several companies could not focus on security and their data was breached," Rajaharia said.

Govt set to seal Rs 48,000 crore Tejas aircraft deal at Aero India show in Bengaluru

The hackers also uploaded the subscriber data on a website, but it was not accessible later.

When contacted, a Bharti Airtel spokesperson denied any breach of the company''s servers.

"Airtel takes great pride in deploying various measures to safeguard the privacy of its customers. In this specific case, we confirm that there is no data breach at our end.

"In fact, the claims made by this group reveal glaring inaccuracies and a large proportion of the data records do not even belong to Airtel. We have already apprised the relevant authorities of the matter," the spokesperson said.

with PTI inputs

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 23:25 [IST]

Stride Investment Management Limited (SIML) today announced the resignation of General Manager Investment Steve Penney from the companys executive team.

SIMLs Chief Executive Officer Philip Littlewood commented: Steve joined the business in January 2019 and has been involved in a number of important initiatives since that time. I would like to sincerely thank Steve for his contribution and wish him well in his future endeavours.

A process to appoint a new executive has commenced and SIML looks forward to updating the market once this process has concluded.

Please see the links below for more details:

SPG - Change to Executive Team - 020221

Source: Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd

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[February 01, 2021] XAI Octagon Floating Rate & Alternative Income Term Trust Declares its Monthly Distribution of $0.073 per Share

XAI Octagon (News - Alert) Floating Rate & Alternative Income Term Trust ("XFLT" or the "Trust") has declared its regular monthly distribution of $0.073 per share on the Trust's common shares, payable on March 1, 2021 to common shareholders of record as of February 17, 2021, as noted below. The amount of the distribution represents no change from the previous month's distribution amount. The following dates apply to today's monthly distribution declaration:







Ex-Dividend Date February 16, 2021 Record Date February 17, 2021 Payable Date March 1, 2021 Amount $0.073 per common share Change from Previous Month No change

Distributions on common shares may be paid from net investment income (regular interest and dividends), capital gains and/or a return of capital. The specific tax characteristics of the distributions will be reported to the Trust's common shareholders on Form 1099 after the end of the 2020 calendar year. Shareholders should not assume that the source of a distribution from the Trust is net income or profit. For further information regarding the Trust's distributions, please visit www.xainvestments.com. The Trust's net investment income and capital gain can vary significantly over time, however, the Trust seeks to maintain more stable monthly distributions over time. The Trust's investments in CLOs may be subject to complex tax rules and the calculation of taxable income attributed to an investment in CLO subordinated notes can be dramatically different from the calculation of income for financial reporting purposes under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("U.S. GAAP"), and, as a result, there may be significant differences between the Trust's GAAP income and its taxable income. The Trust's final taxable income for the current fiscal year will not be known until the Trust's tax returns are filed. As a registered investment company, the Trust is subject to a 4% excise tax that is imposed if the Trust does not distribute by the end of any calendar year at least the sum of (i) 98% of its ordinary income (not taking into account any capital gain or loss) for the calendar year and (ii) 98.2% of its capital gain in excess of its capital loss (adjusted for certain ordinary losses) for a one-year period generally ending on October 31 of the calendar year (unless an election is made to use the Trust's fiscal year). In certain circumstances, the Trust may elect to retain income or capital gain to the extent that the Board of Trustees, in consultation with Trust management, determines it to be in the interest of shareholders to do so. The distributions paid by the Trust for any particular period may be more than the amount of net investment income from that period. As a result, all or a portion of a distribution may be a return of capital, which is in effect a partial return of the amount a common shareholder invested in the Trust, up to the amount of the common shareholder's tax basis in their common shares, which would reduce such tax basis. Although a return of capital may not be taxable, it will generally increase the common shareholder's potential gain, or reduce the common shareholder's potential loss, on any subsequent sale or other disposition of common shares. The distribution shall be paid on the Payment Date unless the payment of such distribution is deferred by the Board of Trustees upon a determination that such deferral is required in order to comply with applicable law or the applicable terms or financial covenants of the Trust's senior securities or to ensure that the Trust remains solvent and able to pay its debts as they become due and continue as a going concern. * * * The investment objective of the Trust is to seek attractive total return with an emphasis on income generation across multiple stages of the credit cycle. The Trust seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in a dynamically managed portfolio of opportunities primarily within the private credit markets. Under normal market conditions, the Trust will invest at least 80% of its Managed Assets in floating rate credit instruments and other structured credit investments. There can be no assurance that the Trust will achieve its investment objective. The Trust's common shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "XFLT." About XA Investments XAI is a Chicago-based firm founded by XMS Capital Partners in April, 2016. XAI believes that the investing public can benefit from new vehicles to access a broad range of alternative investment strategies and managers. XAI provides individual investors with access to institutional-caliber alternative managers. It will partner with established asset managers with proven capabilities in alternative credit, private debt and select hedge fund strategies. About XMS Capital Partners XMS Capital Partners, LLC, established in 2006, is a global, independent, financial services firm providing M&A, corporate advisory and asset management services to clients. It has offices in Chicago, Boston and London. For more information, please visit www.xmscapital.com. About Octagon Credit Investors Octagon is a 25+ year old, below-investment grade corporate credit investment adviser based in New York with over $25 billion in assets under management. Octagon focuses on leveraged loans, high yield bonds and structured credit. Through fundamental credit analysis and active portfolio management, Octagon's investment team identifies attractive relative value opportunities across below-investment grade asset classes, sectors and issuers. Octagon's investment philosophy and methodology encourage and rely upon dynamic internal communication to manage portfolio risk. Over its history, the firm has applied a disciplined, repeatable and scalable approach in its effort to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns to its investors. For more information, please visit www.octagoncredit.com. * * * Future distributions will be made if and when declared by the Trust's Board of Trustees, based on a consideration of number of factors, including the Trust's continued compliance with terms and financial covenants of its senior securities, the Trust's net investment income, financial performance and available cash. There can be no assurance that the amount or timing of distributions in the future will be equal or similar to that described herein or that the Board of Trustees will not decide to suspend or discontinue the payment of distributions in the future. XAI does not provide tax advice; please consult a professional tax advisor regarding your specific tax situation. Income may be subject to state and local taxes, as well as the federal alternative minimum tax. Investors should consider the investment objectives and policies, risk considerations, charges and expenses of the Trust carefully before investing. For more information on the Trust, please visit the Trust's webpage at www.xainvestments.com. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the laws of such state or jurisdiction. NOT FDIC INSURED NO BANK GUARANTEE MAY LOSE VALUE View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005811/en/

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Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- We strongly commend the decision by MEPs from the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee to set up a Working Group, to look into allegations around Frontexs role in the illegal pushbacks of sea migrants and asylum seekers, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement.

On January 29, 2021, MEP Tineke Strik, Greens/EFA Coordinator in the LIBE Committee, announced reaching an agreement in the European Parliament to set up the Frontex Scrutiny Working Group to thoroughly investigate all allegations on violations of fundamental rights committed by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and draft recommendations.

Earlier this month, Euro-Med Monitor launched an extensive report entitled Frontex: Accountability Declined highlights a pattern of the excessive and alarming autonomy of Frontex, as its budget, role and staff are augmented by the EU without clear legal boundaries.

The report analyzed 10 incidents where Frontex has contributed to, covered up, thwarted the reporting of, or neglected serious illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers and migrants at sea by Greeces coastguards. The report presented a lengthy detailed argument on how such measures violate International law and the EU charter and principles and underlined the dangerous consequences of the EU Commissions inability to hold Frontex accountable.

The efforts of MEP Strik and her colleagues at the LIBE Committee are a crucial step on the path of ensuring the agencys compliance with International Law and EU principles, and defending the rights of refugees and migrants, said Dr. Ramy Abdu, Euro-Med Monitor Chairman, We also encourage the Working Group to investigate Frontexs contracts with Israeli companies to import field-tested predator drones to monitor sea migrants. Drones whose value was demonstrated by their use in the course of oppressing the Palestinian people and occupying their territory.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stresses the need to hold Frontex, as well as Greece, accountable for their pushbacks and other violations committed at the European external borders; to impose more stringent transparency and accountability measures over Frontexs practices; to ensure that Frontex activities fully respect international human rights and refugee law, as well as the law of the sea; and to quickly put in place an independent monitoring mechanism.

Media contact: Nada Nabil, Euro-Med Monitor's spokesperson

Location: Geneva

Email: Media@euromedmonitor.org



Phone: +41 78 679 24 15

>> Original story here: European Parliament Frontex Inquiry is Major Step Towards Accountability





This news has been published for the above source. EuroMedMonitor.org [ID=16728]

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CHIEF Justice Prof Ibrahim Juma has called for close partnership with other pillars of the State to maintain issues of separation of powers and enhance justice delivery.

Prof Juma made the call during the climax of this year's Law Day celebration and 100th anniversary of the High Court, noting that the Judiciary alone cannot tackle the existing challenges.

"The important thing is to set boundaries and understand the functions and procedures of others in handling situations. Solving challenges facing the 21st century requires the support from the Executive and the Parliament," noted Prof Juma.

According to the Chief Justice, in the 21 century, there is a lot of competition and revolutions, the Judiciary cannot lag behind in fast tracking decision making.

He pointed out that the Judiciary has to move in line with the country's vision, while taking into account the existing challenges dominated by widespread competition and technological muscles.

Such factors include a good transport and communication network, experienced human resources with great potential and capabilities. Prof Juma said the Judiciary has prepared a five-year strategic plan in implementing the country's vision 2025.

"Among the initiatives includes timely delivery of justice, good governance while ensuring the Judiciary is an important place for creating a conducive and peaceful environment in exercising justice for development and stability of the nation," noted the CJ.

The CJ said the Court is finalising talks with the WB on how they can assist in supporting the improvement of the Judiciary, in acquiring funds which has enabled them to execute their duties in the past five years. He recounted the initiative made by the President in May 2016 in obtaining a soft loan amounting to 139.5bn/- equivalent to USD 65 million in eradicating various challenges facing the Court.

On his side, the Civic United Front (CUF) Chairman, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba applauded budgetary support to the Judiciary.

He requested the President to implement all his pledges including the issue of the new Constitution.

The registrar of political parties, Judge Fransis Mtungi said the judiciary has demonstrated professionalism in promoting justice to wananchi including political parties.
An iconic anti-racism image of Nicky Winmar has been turned into a parody of Collingwood president Eddie McGuire as fallout from his response to an independent report into racism at the AFL club continues.

McGuire has been slammed overnight after declaring the Magpies undertook the report to help 'make them better'.

The image was created by Aussie artist James Fosdike and depicts McGuire lifting his shirt and pointing at his white hairy belly.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire is accustomed to getting on the phone. Probably not quite like this

The iconic 1993 image of Nicky Winmar captured at Collingwood's Victoria Park.

Aussie artist James Fosdike did the artwork following the fallout from the Adam Goodes saga

It was originally commissioned for The Chaser in relation to the Adam Goodes saga and is being widely distributed following McGuire's disastrous press conference held in response to the racism report.

It is based on an image captured by photographer Wayne Ludbey, who caught the Winmar moment after a Collingwood versus St Kilda game while working for The Sunday Age newspaper in 1993.

In the image, the indigenous player is seen pointing at his skin before a rabid Victoria Park crowd following a hard-fought win against the Magpies on their home soil.

The iconic photograph has since been immortalised by sculptor Louis Laumen in a bronze statue, which was unveiled at Perth Stadium in 2019.

Fosdike is probably best known for his artwork for comedian Wil Anderson and also a couple of unflattering portraits of former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott.

He declined to comment when contact by Daily Mail Australia this morning.

On his website, Fosdike says he 'loves being ridiculous and immature when I can'.

'Lately in my personal work Ive been experimenting with the creepy and strange,' he states.

'Its fun to draw without restrictions or pressures; it gets weird a lot of the time, which I love.'

The McGuire painting has gone on sale across a variety of items, including mugs, phone cases and t-shirts.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire's image is being sold on t-shirts

Former Collingwood player Heritier Lumumba has been fighting to expose the club for eight years. He says the report has justified his claims

Collingwood President Eddie McGuire speaks to the media in Melbourne on Monday. It did notr go down well with fans

A t-shirt sporting the image can be purchased for $52.44 while a face mask goes for $16.54.

Eddie McGuire and Adam Goodes Scandal Speaking on his breakfast radio program in 2013, McGuire said Goodes should be used to promote the musical King Kong, only a matter of days after the indigenous star had been racially abused by a Magpies fan who called him an ape. McGuire later said he was affected by prescription drugs at the time. McGuire apologised to Goodes, but the damage was done. Advertisement

McGuire failed to respond to Daily Mail Australia when contacted on Tuesday.

Only moments earlier, former Collingwood player Heritier Lumumba took to ABC's Radio National to slam the president.

Lumumba said he felt the report vindicated claims he had been making for almost eight years.

On Monday, Lumumba branded the McGuire press conference 'bizarre'.

'It was painful to watch the club dig itself deeper into delusion and dishonesty at today's press conference,' he tweeted.

McGuire denied there was any 'systemic racism' at Collingwood, and said that on his watch they 'built a fantastic club'.

'It was not systemic racism, as such, we just didn't have the processes to deal with it that we do now. I don't think there's any shame or disappointment here... this is a day of pride,' he said.

McGuire had said the independent 'Do Better' report would be a 'landmark situation for the world'.

'We have decided as a club that this fight against racism and discrimination is where we want to be. We make mistakes, we learn, we strive to be better.' he said.

'We're delivering something we can build on, that we hope will be a landmark situation for the world.'

Former Swans champion Adam Goodes recreated the iconic Winmar pose himself

Former Magpie Adam Treloar was unceremoniously dumped at the end of last season in what became a PR nightmare for the club

Collingwood received the report in December last year but had not made any comment on it until it was leaked by the media on Monday morning.

As fallout from the press conference continued on Tuesday, the Collingwood faithful are asking how the club could have bungled it's public relations efforts so badly.

With 'Eddie Everywhere' McGuire and former Murdoch hack Stephen Reilly at the spin-doctor helm, the pair have been condemned for bungling both its response to the racism report and the exit of beloved former Magpie Adam Treloar.

With McGuire declaring he has just one year left to serve of his 23-year stint, many are calling for his immediate resignation.

Reilly might not be too far behind.
The extent of the damage done by the coronavirus crisis to Treasury coffers was today laid bare after official data showed air passenger duty as well as income tax and VAT receipts have been hammered during the pandemic.

Office for National Statistics numbers highlighted the devastating impact of travel restrictions as fewer air passengers meant the loss of more than 2.9billion in tax.

Overall air passenger duty receipts in 2020 were just 0.9billion - down by more than three quarters on the almost 4billion generated in 2019.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak also saw VAT receipts fall from 11.7 billion in February 2020 to 10.1 billion in May 2020 - the worst fall recorded since the 2008 recession.

Meanwhile, income tax receipts in July 2020 totalled 18.6 billion, which was 3.8billion (17 per cent) less than in the same month in 2019.

The numbers will inevitably reignite speculation ahead of the Budget on March 3 over whether Mr Sunak will bring forward tax rises to pay for the pandemic.

New data published today by the Office for National Statistics showed the Treasury lost more than 2.9billion in air passenger duty because of the coronavirus pandemic

VAT receipts have also taken a hammering as the pandemic has wreaked havoc with businesses

The numbers will inevitably spark speculation over whether Rishi Sunak could hike taxes at the Budget on March 3

The Government has been borrowing record amounts of cash during the coronavirus crisis to prop up UK plc.

Official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predict borrowing could reach 393.5 billion by the end of the financial year in March, which would be the highest seen since the Second World War.

Mr Sunak has previously hinted that tax rises will be needed in the future to get the public finances back on a sustainable footing.

An ONS analysis published today of the impact of the pandemic on tax receipts shows how badly hit the Treasury was in 2020.

The stats body said it is 'still too early to see the overall effect on public sector finances' but 'certain taxes have been immediately affected by restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus, reducing the income that helps pay for public services'.

One of the worst affected revenue raisers was air passenger duty as a ban on non-essential international travel dramatically curtailed the number of people buying plane tickets.

Air passenger duty brought in just 0.9 billion last year, down by 76.3 per cent on the 3.8billion received in 2019.

The biggest change was recorded between January to March and April to June when air passenger duty income fell by 93.6 per cent during the first national lockdown.

There was a rally between July and September after draconian curbs were eased but the 128million generated was still down 88 per cent on the 1billion in the same three months of 2019.

Meanwhile, provisional data shows VAT receipts fell from 11.7billion in February 2020 to 10.1 billion in May 2020.

The numbers rebounded to 12billion in December but that was still lower than a peak of 13.5billion in October 2019.

The ONS said the 'last time VAT receipts dropped as significantly as the provisional data indicate was in the 2008 recession'.

Income tax receipts have also suffered a hit after increasing in each financial year between 2015 and 2019.

The provisional ONS data for the period between April and December last year suggests that money generated through income tax was down on the same period in 2019.

The biggest fall was in July 2020 when receipts were 18.6billion, some 3.8billion lower than in July 2019.

Income tax receipts suffered a significant fall during lockdown last year before gradually recovering

The Government's stay at home message also hammered fuel duty receipts, with the numbers only recovering in August before suffering another dip

That July figure included 4.8billion received through self-assessment, down by 49 per cent from the 9.4billion recorded in the same month in 2019.

The ONS said this fall 'is highly likely to be down to the government allowing self-assessment payments to be deferred to January 2021'.

Mr Sunak is under growing pressure to find ways to boost tax revenues, with some suggesting he could end a freeze on fuel duty.

The ONS data showed fuel duty cash fell by almost 50 per cent between March and May last year as more people stayed at home.

It only recovered to pre-lockdown levels - generating approximately 2billion a month - in August before suffering another 'less significant' fall in November and December.

Statistics published earlier this month suggest the UK is facing a double-dip recession as business activity declined.

Closely-watched PMI data for the private sector showed a reading of 40.6 so far in January - with anything below 50 pointing to a contraction.

Ministers have been borrowing record amounts of money during the Covid-19 crisis to keep UK plc afloat

Economists warned that a double-dip downturn is now firmly 'on the cards' after the fledgling recovery from the worst recession in 300 years was strangled by fresh action to control a surge in cases.

Figures published last month showed GDP dropping 2.6 per cent in November during the second England-wide Covid lockdown.

Any December rally will have been smothered by the harsh 'tier' controls in England, and the renewed blanket curbs in January.
Integrating the skills and experience of the NET team into our company enables us to further increase our ability to serve the industrys union job requirements with a greater range of knowledge, responsiveness and regional coverage.

POTOMAC TESTING, a TechPro Power Group company, today announced the recent acquisition of Northern Electrical Testing Inc. (NET), a NETA Accredited independent third party electrical testing firm based in Troy, Michigan.

Commenting on the announcement, Lyle Detterman, President of Northern Electrical Testing said: We are very pleased to join Potomac Testing and the TechPro Power Group family of companies. We will be able to expand our geographic service area of Michigan and Northwest Ohio that our certified engineers and technicians presently serve. We will also expand our services to the utility, manufacturing & heavy processing industries including high & medium voltage.

Mr. Ken Bassett, President of Potomac Testing, said: Integrating the skills and experience of the NET team into our company enables us to further increase our ability to serve the industrys union job requirements with a greater range of knowledge, responsiveness and regional coverage. We look forward to the many opportunities our combined resources and strength will bring for the benefit of our customers and employees.

Mr. Michael Kilpatrick, Chief Executive Officer of TechPro Power Group Inc., said: We are pleased to welcome NET into our growing family of companies. As a specialty services contractor focused on electrical testing and commissioning, our ability to bring together companies such as NET that provide a great depth of capability, while also ensuring a cultural fit of quality, safety and integrity, is a cornerstone of our success in serving our increasing range of client needs and meeting the strong demand for third party technical services in the industry nationwide.

ABOUT NORTHERN ELECTRICAL TESTING INC.

Northern Electrical Testing is an independent service company established in 1979 and based in Troy, Michigan. The company provides electrical power system acceptance and maintenance testing services, engineering studies, and emergency power restoration services. Accordingly, it provides independent third party, objective testing and analysis, free of the influence of manufacturers and installers of electrical power distribution equipment, emergency generators, paralleling switchgear, and automatic transfer switches. The companys services are utilized by owners and consulting firms to provide site data and supporting engineering studies to complement their design projects. For more information, please visit http://www.northerntesting.com.

ABOUT POTOMAC TESTING

A TechPro Power Group company, Potomac Testing, established in 1985, has earned its position as an industry leader in comprehensive low, medium, and high voltage electrical equipment services: from NETA acceptance and maintenance testing, planned and emergency field services, power quality and engineering studies, to retrofitting and refurbishment of electrical equipment. For more information, please visit http://www.potomactesting.com.

ABOUT TECHPRO POWER GROUP

Established in 2017, TechPro Power Group Inc. is a family of best-in-class companies providing electrical, instrumentation and control testing and start-up and commissioning services as well as electrical test equipment rental, sales, calibration and repair to the power, oil & gas, process industries and other industrial end markets. Its holdings include Potomac Testing and Technical Diagnostic Services, LLC (TDS). For more information, please visit http://www.techpropowergroup.com
Early last Wednesday morning, Chattanooga Police responded to a shots fired report on 6th Avenue and found a man who had been threatened earlier was now dead.

The victim, Jerry Couch, was found unresponsive inside an outbuilding near his residence, and was pronounced dead by Hamilton County EMS a little while later.

Around 15 minutes later, a detective arrived in order to investigate, and he learned the victim had been involved in an argument with his nephew Gary Wayne Skiles, 35, the previous day. This argument ended in Couch calling the police. He told them his nephew had threatened to shoot him with a black firearm before fleeing the scene. Police took out an affidavit for aggravated domestic assault about six hours before Couch was shot at his home.

The investigator saw the deceased lying on his bed, shirtless and with blood visible on the right side of his chest. There was evidence that indicated the shooter may have fired from outside the structure. Investigators also found multiple spent 9mm shell casings at the scene.

Later that morning, Skiles was arrested after he was found in the drivers seat of a red pickup truck in Rossville. Police said he resisted arrest when they tried to get him out the vehicle, and they found a black 9mm handgun in the floor of the drivers side.

When transported to the jail and questioned, police said he initially denied being on-scene when the shooting happened, and denied firing the gun. However, police said he was on-scene and shot into the ground to scare away a dog.

Skiles was arrested and charged with criminal homicide.
The COVID pandemic has shown us that disruptions to the way we move around, complete daily activities and interact with each other can shatter our wellbeing.

This doesn't apply only to humans. Wildlife across the globe find themselves in this situation every day, irrespective of a global pandemic.

Our latest research published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution has, for the first time, quantified the repercussions of logging, pollution, hunting, and other human disturbances, on the movements of a wide range of animal species.

Our findings were eye-opening. We found human disturbances, on average, restricted an animal's movements by 37%, or increased it by 70%. That's like needing to travel an extra 11 km to get to work each day (Australia's average is 16 km).

Disruptions cascade through the ecosystem

The ability to travel is essential to animal survival because it allows animals to find mates, food and shelter, escape predators and competitors, and avoid disturbances and threats.

And because animal movement is linked to many important ecological processessuch as pollination, seed dispersal and soil turnoverdisruptions to movement can cascade through ecosystems.

Species included in our study, clockwise from top-left: sleepy orange butterfly, southern leopard frog, tawny owl, white shark, diademed sifaka and red-eared slider turtle. Credit: Flickr under Creative Commons license CC BY 2.0. Clockwise from top-left: Anne Toal; Trish Hartmann; Les Pickstock; Elias Levy; John Crane; USFWS Midwest Region

Our study involved analyzing published data on changes in animal movement in response to different types of disturbance or habitat modification by humans. This included agriculture, logging, grazing, recreation, hunting, and pollution, amongst others.

All up, we looked at 719 records of animal movement, spanning 208 studies and 167 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, insects and amphibians. The size of the species we studied ranged from the sleepy orange butterfly to the white shark.

What we found

We found changes in movement are very common, with two-thirds of the 719 cases comprising an increase or decrease in movement of 20% or more. More than one-third of cases changed by 50% or more.

Whether an animal increases or decreases its movement in response to disturbance from humans depends on the situation.

Animals may run away from humans, or move further in search of food and nesting sites. For example, a 2020 study on koalas found their movements were longer and more directed in areas where habitats weren't well connected, because they had to travel further to reach food patches.

Likewise, the daily movement distances of mountain brushtail possums in central Victoria were 57% higher in remnant bushland along roadsides, compared to large forest areas.

Land clearing can cause animals to move through risky areas in search of suitable habitat. Credit: Tim Doherty, Author provided

Decreases in movement can occur where animals encounter barriers (such as highways), if they need to shelter from a disturbance, or can't move as efficiently through altered habitats. In the United States, for example, researchers played a recording of humans talking and found it caused a 34% decrease in the speed that mountain lions move.

On the other hand, some decreases in movement occur where an animal actually benefits from habitat changes. A wide range of animalsincluding storks, vultures, crows, foxes, mongooses, hyenas and monitor lizardshave shorter movements around garbage dumps because they don't have to move very far to get the food they need.

Huge changes in movement make animals vulnerable

Overall, we found the average increase in animal movement was +70% and the average decrease was -37%, which are substantial changes.

Imagine having to increase the distance you travel to work, the shops and to see family and friends, by 70%. You would spend a lot more time and energy traveling and have less time to rest or do fun things. And if you live in Melbourne, you know what substantial reductions in movement are like due to COVID-related lockdowns.

In addition to greater energy expenditure, increased movements can mean animals need to move through risky areas where they are more vulnerable to predation.

And decreases in movement can be harmful if animals can't find adequate food or disperse to find mates, or if ecological processes such as seed dispersal are disrupted.

For example, flightless rails, birds native to New Zealand, are important for dispersing seeds. But research showed birds in areas of high human activity (campgrounds) moved 3541% shorter distances than birds away from campgrounds. This could limit the population growth of plants if their seeds are not being dispersed as far.

Examples of what a 70% increase (bottom left) and a 37% decrease (bottom right) in your normal home range (top) might look life if you lived in Melbourne.

When disturbances are unpredictable

We compared the effects of different disturbance types on animals by splitting them into two categories: human activities (such as hunting, military procedures and recreation like tourism) and habitat modification (such as agriculture and logging).

Both disturbance types can have severe impacts, ranging from a 90% decrease to 1,800% increase in movement for human activities, and a 97% decrease to a 3,300% increase for habitat modifications.

But we found human activities caused much stronger increases in animal movement distances (averaging +35%) than habitat modifications (averaging +12%).

This might be because human activities are more episodic in nature. In other words, animals are more likely to run away from these unpredictable disturbances.

For example, military maneuvers in Norway led to 84% increase in the home range of moose. And when moose in Sweden were exposed to back-country skiers, their movement speed increased 33-fold.

In contrast, habitat modifications like logging generally represent more persistent changes to the environment, which animals can sometimes adapt to over time.

Changes in animal movement distances in response to different types of disturbance. Positive values mean movement was higher in disturbed compared to undisturbed areas.

Reducing harms on wildlife

To reduce the harms we inflict on wildlife, we must protect habitats in relatively intact sea and landscapes from getting degraded or transformed. This could include establishing and managing new national parks and marine protected areas.

Where ecosystems are already modified, improving the connections between habitats and the availability of resources (food and water) can help animals move more easily and populations persist.

And with regards to human activities, which generally caused stronger increases in movement, better managing disturbances such as hunting, recreation and tourism can help to minimize or avoid impacts on animal movement. This could include, for example, establishing a no-take zone in a marine protected area, or enforcing restrictions to activities during breeding periods.

Explore further Human activity forces animals to move 70% further to survive

More information: Tim S. Doherty et al. Human disturbance causes widespread disruption of animal movement, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2021). Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution Tim S. Doherty et al. Human disturbance causes widespread disruption of animal movement,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01380-1

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Libyans watching a peace process nearing a critical phase this week in Switzerland need only try driving from one side of their country to the other to understand the obstacles to diplomacy.

An October ceasefire called for all foreign mercenaries to leave the country and for the main coastal road between west and east to reopen. But the mercenaries remain, the United Nations said last week, and the road is shut.

For those who cannot take one of the flights that resumed last year between the capital Tripoli in the west and Benghazi in the east, it means a long, dangerous detour through the desert.

"Drivers face violence and abuse. Sometimes we lose contact with the drivers for two days until they reach safety and can get a mobile signal," said a transport company worker, who asked not to be named fearing reprisals from armed groups.

A 24-year-old driver from Benghazi, waiting in Tripoli to fill his minibus with goods to take back, said he had no other way to make a living.

"The road is difficult and there is a lot of looting. The trip takes about a day and a half," he said. That is double the time it would take along the coastal road.

The continued closure of the key artery, and lawlessness along alternative routes, underline how Libya remains beset by instability 10 years after the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi but unleashed civil war.

The United Nations last week urged both sides of the conflict to reopen the road, as it hosts a meeting near Geneva to select a new transitional government for the whole country to oversee the run-up to elections scheduled for December.

Belqasem Egzait, a member of the State Council set up as part of an earlier peace process, said he believed diplomacy was moving forward, but would be slow.

"The political track is by its nature complex. That complexity will continue," he told Reuters.

However, some Libya experts have warned of the risk of renewed fighting as the process drags on.

The transport company worker said stories of attacks on drivers were commonplace.

"Last week a group of armed men stopped a driver and stole everything - even chemotherapy doses. The thugs will target anything they find."

OBSTACLES

Libya has been split between factions in the west and east since 2014.

The latest round of diplomacy follows the failure last year of Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) to capture Tripoli, seat of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

In recent interviews with Reuters, leaders on both sides of the frontlines accused each other of refusing to abide by ceasefire terms that temporarily halted the 14-month assault.

The GNA defence minister, Saleh Namroush, who has nominated himself for a leadership role in the transitional government, said the LNA was bringing in more equipment and digging new defences.

But in Benghazi, LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari blamed armed groups in the west for breaching the agreement.

Along the frontline between the cities of Sirte and Misrata, a joint military committee is still discussing ceasefire terms. Both sides have dug in.

On the GNA side, a local field commander, Musa Araibi Mayouf, said the absence of fighting since the summer showed that the current talks were serious. But he acknowledged the risk of a return to warfare.

"There are obstacles. And they are the gentlemen who sit in the political chairs," he said. His fighters, in camouflage uniforms, stood atop their "technicals" - pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.

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Insurance fraud seems like it might be an easy thing to do. Insurance companies are often so huge, one wonders how they might not even notic...
China has supported the idea of launching a Ukrainian-language audio guide in the world's largest palace complex, Gugong (the Forbidden City), located in Beijing. As the press service of the Embassy of Ukraine in China informs, this was discussed during a meeting between Ambassador of Ukraine to China Serhiy Kamyshev and the embassy diplomats and Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism of People's Republic of China, co-Chair of the Ukraine-China Subcommittee on Cultural Cooperation Zhang Xu.

"The Chinese side supported the idea of launching an audio guide in the world's largest palace complex  the Gugong Museum  as part of the initiative of cultural diplomacy of First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska," reads the statement.

In addition, the parties agreed to hold presentations of the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine with the participation of representatives of leading Ukrainian tourism companies in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in the second half of 2021. In case of quarantine restrictions, the presentation of Ukraine's tourism potential for interested Chinese tour operators will take place online.

In the field of deepening cooperation between the museums of the two countries, the officials agreed to expand the exchange of experience in the preservation and restoration of art monuments, mutual organization of exhibitions in the leading museum institutions of Ukraine and China.

It is also planned to jointly begin preparations for the organization of festivities to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and China in 2022 and to resume the tours of performs after the quarantine restrictions are lifted.

In addition, the parties discussed the prospects for mutual establishment of cultural centers, as well as the introduction of new forms of cooperation in the field of culture.

As reported, on December 26, 2020, the Ukrainian-language audio guide was launched in the Colosseum in Rome, becoming the ninth audio guide in the worlds museums as part of the project initiated by First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.

This year it is planned to launch Ukrainian-language audio guides in the Tower of London, the Palace of Versailles, the National Museum of Natural History in Berlin, the Vatican Museum, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and the Savitsky State Museum of Art in Uzbekistan.

l
A Ndumbi Port construction project on the shores of Lake Nyasa has reached 55 per cent and is expected to be completed in October this year. The government has invested 12.28bn/- for implementation of the project.

Speaking after the board of directors of the Tanzania Shipping Agency Corporation (Tasac)'s tour of the project site at the weekend, Unitec Civil Consultant Project Engineer Joshua Makwere said they were given 22 months for the project and all was going well and they expected to finish it before the projected time.

"This project started in December 2019 and is expected to be completed by October 2021. The project is at 55 per cent and we expect to finish it by the end of time," said the engineer.

Commenting on the progress, board of directors member Mussa Mandia said there was good progress in the construction of the port, which was one of the new ports constructed on the shores of Lake Nyasa.

"We have seen a great step on the construction and we are satisfied with how you're implementing the project. The main reason we are here is to see what is going on since we know this port will be crucial for coal business."

Mr Renatus Mkinga, who is working as both member of the board of directors of the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) and Tasac, said what was being done was President John Magufuli's efforts to boost the economy by investing in various areas.

Meanwhile, Tasac is set to install two weather forecasting plants worth 300m/-, (150m/- each) in the Lake Zone to mitigate water accidents, reports 'Daily News' Reporter Abela Msikula in Mwanza.

Tasac Director-General Emmanuel Ndomba told 'Daily News' at the weekend that, plants would be set up in Mwanza and Kagera regions.

"However, we will be sending all gathered information to the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA). We just support timely and precise availability of weather information to all Tanzanians," he said.

He noted that people using Lake Victoria were among the most targeted, following frequent fatal water accidents. Data shows that at least one fatal accident occurs in Lake Victoria every day.

"Fatal water accidents are preventable through various measures, including this approach we have come up with. Lake users will be informed about possible disasters," he added.

According to him, Tasac has accumulated funds for the installation of security and rescue centres in Tanzanian water bodies for the same purpose.

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He noted that already some fund had been collected from Tasac's internal sources and financial institutions, including the African Development Bank (AfDB) for procuring at least five rescuing boats.

"The two boats will be stationed in Mwanza, two at Tanga Port and one in Lake Nyasa. Being stationed in a certain place means not only to serve the community around, but also one can be involved in a water accident in Dar es Salaam and be rescued by a boat from Tanga. All these are part of our strategic plans which should be implemented before the end of this year," he said.

Marine Services Company Limited (MSCL) Chief Executive Officer Eric Hamiss commented that security was one of the marine stakeholder priorities, especially in this time when the government wanted to revive all grounded marine vessels.

"It also set to build news ships and we expect nine ships to operate countrywide by the end of this fiscal year," he said.




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Pastor Alexis released against ransom :

Pastor Pierre Rebert Alexis kidnapped on January 28, as well as 2 of his faithful were released early in the morning of February 1, 2021 by their captors after paying a ransom.



First day of public transport strike

Monday, the first day of strike launched by several public transport unions to protest against the kidnappings, public transport vehicles were scarce. Schools were closed as were most businesses including banks. Only motorcycle taxis were still in operation.



The crisis is resolved through elections

"The Organization of Democratic Elections is the best solution to the current crisis for institutional continuity. We must initiate the electoral process, summon the people to their comitia and carry out the legislative, face-to-face, municipal and local contests," declared Mathias Pierre, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister, in charge of electoral questions and relations with political parties.



Message from the Embassy of Haiti in Cuba

The Embassy of Haiti in Cuba informs that due to the epidemiological situation resulting from Covid-19, it only serves Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, at the new schedule from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm Monday and Wednesday: visa application (by prior appointment). Friday: visa passport issuance.



Moise talks about elections under the new Constitution

After the preliminary draft of the Independent Advisory Committee for the development of a new constitution presented on Friday, January 29 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-32894-haiti-flash-summary-of-the-preliminary-draft-of-the-new-constitution-official.html President Moise hopes for a favorable vote in the referendum and the possibility of organizing the next elections under the aegis of the new Constitution.



PNH : Safety devices assessment meeting

On Monday, February 1, a command meeting was held to assess the arrangements put in place, as part of the protests organized in several cities of the country on Sunday, January 31. Leon Charles, the Commander-in-Chief of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) insisted on the need for the officials of the various police jurisdictions to implement, in strict compliance with the law, all measures aimed at protecting lives and property of citizens. The arrangements to be secured during the next carnival festivities were also discussed.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Johnson & Johnson seeks to register vaccine

THAILAND: Johnson & Johnson is seeking to register its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine in Thailand, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed yesterday (Feb 1).

CoronavirusCOVID-19drugshealth

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 2 February 2021, 09:08AM

Activists gather at Government House in Bangkok yesterday to demand assistance for COVID-19-affected people, especially women, children and vulnerable people. Photo: Arnun Chonmahatrakool.

The American multinational corporation has applied to register their vaccine with the FDA but some documents were missing, said Dr Surachoke Tangwiwat, deputy secretary-general of the FDA.

The company is required to have the relevant papers and file them within 30 days, he said.

In the meantime, the FDA is examining the filed papers that have been submitted, Dr Surachoke said, adding that no other company has recently applied to register their coronavirus vaccine.

The FDA last week revealed that it approved the registration of AstraZeneca Cos vaccine after the firm submitted nearly 10,000 pages of documents in December.

As for the registration of Chinas Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, Dr Surachoke said although it has yet to be registered for use in China, the jab could be allowed to be used in Thailand if the FDA determines it is safe and effective.

The plan to locally manufacture AstraZenecas vaccine is pressing ahead despite uncertainty surrounding the timing of the delivery of the jab, according to Dr Sophon Mekthon, chairman of the governments sub-committee on COVID-19 vaccine management.

Siam Bioscience Co is contracted to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine in Thailand.

The kingdom will also import early doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which are due early this month.

However, the import has been rescheduled due to the European Unions bid to limit COVID-19 vaccine exports, Dr Sophon said.

Once the vaccine arrives, the inoculation plan will immediately be implemented, he said.

He declined to say when the AstraZeneca jabs will reach Thailand, noting that the government has yet hear the firms explanation about the European Commissions (EC) export limitations.

According to the EC, it needs to ensure timely access to vaccines for all EU citizens and tackle the current lack of transparency in vaccine exports outside of the EU.

The EC recently put in place a measure requiring that such exports be subject to authorisation by member states.

Dr Sophon said the governments committee tasked with securing supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, led by Dr Nakorn Premsri, director of the National Vaccine Institute, has assured him that AstraZeneca would not be the sole supplier of COVID-19 vaccines in Thailand.

US vaccine developer Novavax could also be a supplier if its jab is approved by the FDA, he said.

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

As of October 2020, individuals aged 20-49 were the only groups sustaining COVID-19 transmission with reproduction numbers well above 1 in the US, according to the latest publication in Science today by the Imperial College COVID-19 Response team.

Following initial declines, numbers of COVID-19 cases started to rise again halfway through 2020 in the United States and Europe. In September the team published report 32, using age-specific mobility data from across the United states and linking these to age-specific COVID-19 mortality. Their findings pointed out that targeting interventions to adults aged 20-49 could facilitate safe reopening of schools and kindergartens.

The peer reviewed publication in Science today includes new data up to October 2020. The updated analysis of aggregated age-specific mobility data from more than 10 million individuals in the US, shows that 65 of 100 COVID-19 infections still originated from individuals aged 20-49 in the US.

Across the US as a whole, the mobility trends indicate substantial initial declines in venue visits (such as visit by an individual to locations like supermarkets and restaurants) followed by a subsequent rebound for all age groups. In contrast with the large fluctuations in the share of age groups among reported COVID-19 cases, the study describes the share of age groups among the observed COVID-19 deaths remarkably constant.

The researchers find that in locations where novel highly-transmissible SARS-CoV-2 lineages have not yet established, additional interventions among adults aged 20-49, such as mass vaccination with transmission-blocking vaccines, could bring resurgent COVID-19 epidemics under control and avert deaths.

The work is presented in the latest report from Imperial's Department of Mathematics and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Modelling within the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (J-IDEA), Imperial College London.

Since the emergence of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in December 2019, the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team has adopted a policy of immediately sharing research findings on the developing pandemic.

Dr. Samir Bhatt, from Imperial College London, said, "This work is a big step in understanding how age affects the dynamics of COVID-19 epidemics. We would like thank in particular all epidemiologists at state Departments of Health who work tirelessly to update data on the evolving COVID19 epidemics. Without this effort, this study would not have been possible."

Dr. Melodie Monod, from Imperial College London, said, "We find adults aged 20-49 are a main driver of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United State and are the only age groups contributing disproportionally to onward spread, relative to their population size. While children and teens contribute more to COVID19 spread since school closure mandates have been lifted in fall 2020, we find these dynamics have not changed substantially since school re-opening."

Dr. Oliver Ratmann, from Imperial College London, concluded, "We believe this study is important because we demonstrate that adults aged 20-49 are the only age groups that have consistently sustained COVID-19 spread across the US, despite large variations in the scale and timing of local epidemics. Thusat least where highly transmissible variants have not establishedadditional interventions targeting the 20-49 age group could bring resurgent epidemics under control and avert deaths."

More information: "Age groups that sustain resurging COVID-19 epidemics in the United States," Science (2021). Journal information: Science "Age groups that sustain resurging COVID-19 epidemics in the United States,"(2021). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi  1126/science.abe8372
Dutch riot police line up in front of the Rijksmuseum, rear left, as they watch over a demonstration against the curfew and other COVID-19 related restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Mike Corder)

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte extended almost all of his country's tough lockdown measures on Tuesday for at least a month, saying that the rapid spread of the new more transmissible variant made the decision unavoidable.

A curfew imposed 10 days ago, which triggered widespread rioting in its first days, will remain in force, Rutte said. He said the government will weigh up the lockdown options again early next week.

The premier spoke hours after the country's public health institute said new coronavirus infections fell 20% over the last week but more transmissible variants, in particular the one first identified in southern England, now account for two-thirds of Dutch infections.

Rutte said that infections are "slowly but surely" declining, but went on to warn that "all calculations point to a third wave that seems inevitably to be bearing down on us, the main cause of which is the British variant of the coronavirus."

The public health institute said new infections fell to 28,628 but urged "the greatest possible caution" in any relaxation of the lockdown.

Rutte heeded that advice.

His ruling coalition "reached the conclusion that extending the current lockdown almost in its entirety until March 2 is unavoidable," he said.

Bars and restaurants in the Netherlands have been closed since mid-October and non-essential shops since mid-December. Public venues such as cinemas, museums and libraries also remain shut and there are strict limits on the size of gatherings both indoors and outside.

This Sept. 2020 photo provided by Johnson & Johnson shows a scientist in Janssen laboratory in Leiden, The Netherlands. Johnson & Johnson's long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine appears to protect against symptomatic illness with just one shot  not as strong as some two-shot rivals but still potentially helpful for a world in dire need of more doses. Johnson & Johnson said Friday, Jan. 29, 2021 that in the U.S. and seven other countries, the first single-shot vaccine appears 66% effective overall at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19. It was more protective against severe symptoms, 85%. (Johnson & Johnson via AP)

Two women inside a cigar smoking lounge watch Dutch riot police disperse demonstrators who protested on Museum Square against coronavirus related restrictions in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Mike Corder)

People gather on Museum Square to protest against coronavirus related restrictions in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Mike Corder)

People cycle past luxury goods stores that are boarded up, protected by concrete blocks and sea containers at P.C. Hooft street in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, following days of rioting and looting after a nation-wide curfew to limit the coronavirus pandemic went into effect last weekend. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

The first easing of the lockdown this year came Sunday, when the government announced that elementary schools and daycare centers will reopen next Monday. Rutte said high schools would remain closed until at least March 1.

In another minor easing of the lockdown, Rutte said that from Feb. 10 all stores will be allowed to sell their products and customers can collect them at pickup points outside the shops.

The public health institute said last week's reduction in new infections was a result of the lockdown, but said it was too early to tell what effect the country's curfew has had since taking effect on Jan. 23. The Netherlands this week recorded the lowest daily increase in infections since the end of September.

The public health institute said "without the more contagious variants, the situation would be going in the right direction" but warned that "relaxing the (lockdown) measures can only be done with the greatest possible caution."

The confirmed Dutch death toll in the pandemic is more than 14,100.

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.
The Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said on Tuesday that interim results published in The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal, have confirmed the efficacy of the Sputnik V vaccine at 91.6 per cent in phase 3 trial. RDIF's India partner, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, which is also conducting the clinical trials here, has said that it would apply for emergency approval in March and that it aims to launch the vaccine in the same month.



Based on the human adenoviral (flu virus) vector platform, Sputnik V showed higher efficacy in the elderly group (over 60 years) at 91.8 per cent, RDIF said in a statement. In the interim efficacy analysis, data from 19,866 volunteers were included. Of these, 14,964 received the vaccine and 4,902 were given the placebo.



RDIF added that the vaccine has shown good safety profile. Most adverse events (about 94 per cent) were mild and included flu-like symptoms, injection site reactions, headache and asthenia (weakness or lack of energy). No serious adverse events associated with vaccination were reported nor were any events of allergies or anaphylactic shock.



Alexander Gintsburg, director, Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, said, The publication of internationally peer reviewed data on Sputnik Vs clinical trial results is a great success in the global battle against the Covid-19 pandemic... Several vaccines have already been created based on human adenoviruses and this tool is one of the most promising for development of new vaccines in the future.



For India, supplies of 125 mn patient doses (each patient needs two jabs) have been lined up over the next 12 months. While most of these doses would come from Indian manufacturers, some will arrive from Russia.



Sputnik V is already registered in 16 countries: Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Argentina, Bolivia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia and Armenia.



"The data published by The Lancet proves that not only is Sputnik V the worlds first registered vaccine, it is also one of the best," RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said. "It fully protects against severe Covid-19, according to data which has been independently compiled and reviewed by peers and then published in The Lancet."



"Sputnik V," he added, "is one of only three vaccines in the world with efficacy of over 90 per cent but outperforms them in terms of safety, ease of transportation due to storage requirements of +2 to +8 degrees (Celsius) and a more affordable price.
DALLAS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Ladd Hirsch has joined the firm's Dallas office as a partner in the Litigation Practice Group.

"I have known and respected Ladd throughout his career, he is an outstanding lawyer, and I am pleased to become his partner and add his talents in our strong and growing Dallas office," said Dallas Office Managing Partner Richard A. Sayles. Bradley Chairman of the Board and Managing Partner Jonathan M. Skeeters added, "Ladd is widely recognized as a leading lawyer for Business Divorce matters focused on disputes between majority owners and minority investors related to substantial private Texas businesses. The addition of Ladd offers us the opportunity to further expand the expertise we can provide our clients across the state and beyond."

Bradley's Dallas office has tripled in size since it opened in January 2019 and has reinforced the firm's strengths in its litigation, finance, corporate, fintech and emerging business practice areas. In addition, the firm has grown to more than 50 lawyers located across its offices in Dallas and Houston, and more than 70 lawyers licensed in the state, allowing the firm to handle a wide variety of legal matters for its clients in Texas and beyond.

Mr. Hirsch has more than 30 years of experience representing companies and high net worth business clients in complex litigation cases and arbitration matters. He has litigated claims arising in a variety of industries, including real estate, manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare, construction, technology and insurance. Mr. Hirsch focuses a significant amount of his practice on business divorce disputes and related litigation and has tried cases to judgment in state and federal courts across the country. Mr. Hirsch has been recognized as one of The Best Lawyers in America, as well as by D Magazine and Texas Super Lawyers.

Mr. Hirsch earned his J.D. (cum laude) from Cornell Law School and his B.J. from the University of Missouri.

About Bradley

Bradley combines skilled legal counsel with exceptional client service and unwavering integrity to assist a diverse range of corporate and individual clients in achieving their business goals. With offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, the firm's nearly 550 lawyers represent regional, national and international clients in various industries, including banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, and technology, among many others.

Contact: Mike Androvett

214.559.4630

[email protected]

Social Media: @bradleylegal, #legalnews, #lawyers

SOURCE Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Related Links

https://www.bradley.com


[February 01, 2021] IronCore Labs Launches Customer Managed Keys for Amazon S3 Free Trial in AWS Marketplace

BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to mounting pressure from Schrems II, CCPA, GDPR and threats like the SolarWinds hack, SaaS companies are turning to SaaS Shield CMK for Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), an advanced data privacy solution from IronCore Labs. The newly launched SaaS Shield CMK for Amazon S3 is a simplified way to add customer managed keys to SaaS applications to protect customers' files stored in Amazon S3 on Amazon Web Services (AWS). "We've seen companies like Salesforce and Box grow exponentially thanks to their custom-built, premium data privacy features," said Patrick Walsh, CEO of IronCore Labs. "SaaS Shield CMK for Amazon S3 is the market-ready solution you don't have to spend years building or millions to launch. It deploys transparently, is something you can charge a premium for, and we offer a free trial plus one free tenant for life." Customer managed keys, sometimes referred to as bring your own keys (BYOK), is a cloud architecture that gives customers ownership of the encryption keys that protect some or all of their data stored in SaaS applications. It is per-tenant encryption where customers can independently monitor usage of their data and revoke all access to it if desired. "There's no greater return right now for SaaS companies than to give their customers enhanced privacy and data controls. With SaaS Shield CMK for Amazon S3, there's almost no barrier to adding the feature, differentiating against competitors, and creating a new stream of revenue from new and exising customers," Walsh said. "SaaS customers need and want control of their data in the cloud and SaaS vendors can now offer it. It's a win for everyone."



Within the SaaS Shield product line, IronCore Labs also offers the SaaS Shield CMK Kit, which allows developers to build CMK into their software to handle any data, regardless of where it is stored. The SaaS Shield CMK for Amazon S3 complements the CMK Kit by allowing SaaS companies to add support for Amazon S3 file protection without code changes. SaaS Shield for Amazon S3 can be installed with a simple Amazon CloudFormation template. SaaS companies looking for more information about SaaS Shield CMK for Amazon S3, including pricing and a free trial, are encouraged to visit the IronCore Labs website or AWS Marketplace.

About IronCore Labs IronCore Labs (https://ironcorelabs.com), the data control and privacy platform, enables software developers and businesses to rapidly build privacy solutions with data control. Whether meeting GDPR or other compliance requirements, handling sensitive data safely, or deploying systems that give customers control of their data, IronCore Labs removes the traditional obstacles to keeping data private and secure, while accelerating time to market for application-layer encryption. Related Links: Get the Free Trial

Learn More About SaaS Shield CMK for Amazon S3

Watch the Demo Video Riah Solomon

Marketing Manager

IronCore Labs

riah.solomon@ironcorelabs.com This release was issued through WebWire. For more information, visit http://www.webwire.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ironcore-labs-launches-customer-managed-keys-for-amazon-s3-free-trial-in-aws-marketplace-301219449.html SOURCE IronCore Labs

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Appointment

2 February 2021

Hotelier Eugene Leonard has been appointed General Manager of The Maybourne Beverly Hills, the first international property of the Maybourne Hotel Group, operators of London's most legendary and prestigious hotels, Claridge's, The Connaught and The Berkeley. Eugene who hails from Co. Clare, Ireland, has been a longstanding member of the Maybourne family, having worked across all three hotels for over a decade.

Most recently, Eugene was Hotel Manager for four years at the iconic Claridge's hotel in Mayfair, London. His role included supporting a major hotel restoration, the opening of super chef Daniel Humm's Davies and Brook restaurant and spearheading the annual installation of the famous Claridge's Christmas Trees. Before Claridge's, Eugene was Hotel Manager at The Connaught and Director of Events for the Maybourne Hotel Group. In his new role as General Manager, Eugene will oversee a transition to position The Maybourne Beverly Hills as one of the finest hotels in the world; bringing the property in line with the prestigious and iconic five-star hotels in London, while reflecting the contemporary spirit and inspiring style of the Golden State.
[February 02, 2021] Healthcare-Focused IT Firm Kreative Technologies Expansion to Create 296 New Jobs in Fairfax County

Gov. Ralph Northam announced today that Kreative Technologies, LLC, a leader in information systems for the federal healthcare industry, will invest $1.5 million to expand its operation at 4114 Legato Road in Fairfax County. The company will more than quadruple its current workforce of 67 with the creation of 296 new jobs. "At Kreative Technologies, we are constantly striving to meet our customers' missions by transforming their vision into reality, and we empower our clients to shape the future by cultivating creativity and harnessing the power of technology," said Kreative CEO Adnan Karimi. "Located in the heart of Fairfax, it is critical to our ongoing collaboration to be close to our customer base. Kreative Technologies is a small disadvantaged, SBA 8(a) certified company founded in Virginia in 2013. "We are delighted to see Kreative Technologies expanding so significantly, because its focus on secure information systems and health IT is a perfect match for the tech-talent pipeline that we are attracting and growing in Fairfax County and Northern Virginia," said Victr Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.



The company is based in the Springfield District of the County. "I want to thank Kreative Technologies for its investment in the Springfield District and Fairfax County and for its recognition that we have the talent and business environment they need to grow," said Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity (Springfield District). The FCEDA worked with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity to secure the project for Virginia, and will support Kreative Technologies' job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority promotes Fairfax County as a business and technology center. In addition to its headquarters in Tysons, Fairfax County's largest commercial district, the FCEDA maintains business investment offices in six important global business centers: Bangalore/Mumbai, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Seoul and Tel Aviv. The FCEDA is a member of the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance. Other members: Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, Arlington County, City of Fairfax, City of Falls Church, Fauquier County, Loudoun County, City of Manassas, City of Manassas Park and the Prince William County Department of Economic Development. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006080/en/

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Financial advice fees have rocketed 28 per cent in the past two years as planners leave the industry in droves and more onerous professional standards come into effect.

The median fee per client at the end of 2018 was about $2500, rising to about $2800 a year later, a rise of 12 per cent, according to a survey conducted by Adviser Ratings. Fees rose by a further 16 per cent in 2020 to about $3240.

Financial advice fees have increased by 28 per cent in the past two years Credit:Fairfax Media

Advisers are charging more because their costs are going up rapidly, there is growing demand for advice as baby boomers move into retirement and there are fewer planners, says Mark Hoven, chief executive at Adviser Ratings.

There were about 25,500 planners in the first half of 2018  the high water mark for numbers. By the middle of last year their numbers had dwindled to about 21,600.
New Delhi:

A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi entered into a verbal spat over the communal clashes in North 24 Parganas district, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday spoke to both of them.



In a written communication, the home ministry also sought a detailed report from the West Bengal government on the violence that broke out following an objectionable Facebook post and on the steps taken to contain it and restore normalcy.



The home minister also held separate telephone conversations with Tripathi and Banerjee and took stock of the prevailing situation in the riot-hit area.



The governor and chief minister are believed to have explained their respective positions to the home minister, who counselled them to resolve their differences amicably, sources said.



Making a dramatic allegation against the governor, the chief minister yesterday accused him of threatening and insulting her over the communal incident. Banerjee said she had even thought of quitting office over the humiliation.



While the chief minister yesterday alleged the governor was acting like a BJP block president, the governor said he was surprised at her attitude and language.

ALSO READ | 'The way Guv spoke to me, I once thought of quitting, says Mamata Banerjee

The talks between the Honble Chief Minister and the Honble Governor were confidential in nature and none is expected to disclose it, a statement issued by Raj Bhavan here said.



Communal clashes broke out in North 24 Parganas district Monday night following an objectionable Facebook post, prompting the government to rush in 400 BSF troopers to assist the local administration in controlling the situation.



In his conversations with the West Bengal chief minister and governor, the home minister also discussed the situation in Darjeeling, where the indefinite strike for a separate Gorkhaland state entered its 21st day today.

ALSO READ | Mamata-WB Guv row: TMC alleges 'Rajbhawan converted into RSS Shaakha'



(With inputs from PTI)

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The concept renders of the iPhone SE 3 (left in the photo above) by Svetapple shows the smartphone with flat edges similar to the iPhone 12 lineup. Interestingly, the iPhone 12 smartphones' design was inspired by the original iPhone SE (right in the photo above), released in March 2016 also with flat edges. The renders further tease the device with a hole-punch display that has slim bezels on all sides. Notably, the back panel is still imagined with a single rear camera. (Image: Svetapple)
Beginning in 2023, all Ford and Lincoln models will be equipped with Googles platform as pre-loaded software, thus providing customers with Google Maps navigation, Google Assistant integration, and other capabilities as a factory-installed application.Android Automotive, a stand-alone platform currently being used by Polestar and Volvo, and set to be adopted by General Motors, Peugeot, Citroen, and Opel, offers an Android experience tailored to each car, all without the need for any additional hardware. Android Auto , which is Googles other offering in this market, requires an Android phone to power the experience behind the wheel.Ford is also dropping hints that its teams of engineers working on software would be reorganized after its cars begin shipping with Android Automotive.In addition to the Google Play ecosystem, Ford and third-party developers will create even more apps to enable an improving and more personalized ownership experience. By leveraging Android Automotive, Ford also will be able to divert significant software engineering talent from operating system development to the creation of unique Ford and Lincoln customer innovations, the company announced In addition to the adoption of Android Automotive in all Ford and Lincoln cars, the partnership between the two also allows the American automaker to use Google Cloud as its exclusive cloud provider.Google Cloud will allow Ford to continue our digital transformation; more importantly, itll be the service powering the connected car experience the American brand is betting so big on in the long term.Itll be used for personalized services but also for the implementation of next-generation technology that should help with product development, manufacturing, and supply chain management. In addition, it will also power various AI systems that will eventually improve daily operations.

"Bad news for the city's economy," is how the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, described the announcement of the closure of non-essential business activity in the city of Malaga after a 14-day cumulative incidence of 1,008 positive diagnoses per 100,000 inhabitants was reached.

All non-essential business sectors - including hospitality - must lower their shutters from Wednesday for 14 days in line with the Junta de Andalucias orders.

"I hope that this bad news can be turned into an opportunity for reflection and a necessary effort in responsibility," said the councillor.

In the first place because the fewer infections there are, the fewer people will have to be hospitalised, and fewer people from Malaga who have to be admitted to the ICU and who are at risk of dying. And secondly, because when we have fewer than 1,000 cases it will mean the normalisation, to some extent, of non-essential economic activity.

The mayor once again emphasised the importance of individual responsibility: I encourage you to do your best. We must work to reduce the number of people who suffer infections, to ease the burden on the health workers who are overwhelmed by the pressure of hospital admissions and to save our businesses and economy while the vaccine is rolled out.

He concluded, Now is the time, dear friends, to make an effort to reduce the infection rate to below 1,000 and then drop below 500.
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Patna, Feb 2 : Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has said that on the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission (2021-26) local bodies in Bihar will get Rs 35,577 crore compared to Rs 21,143 crore from the 14th Finance Commission (2015-20).

He said that in this way, the 15th Finance Commission has recommended Rs 14,434 crore more to the local bodies of Bihar (urban and Panchayati Raj institutions) in the next five years than the 14th commission.

Sushil Modi issued a statement on Tuesday saying, "In addition, for the first time, the Finance Commission has made a provision of Rs 6,017 crore for the health sector, which will be spent through the local bodies. These include Rs 5,033 crore in rural areas and in Rs 984 crore in urban areas." He said, "This amount will be spent on the construction of primary health centres, sub-centres and urban wellness centres. The bodies will have to get their accounts audited to get the grant amount. In the first two years, 25 per cent of the bodies will have to make their audit reports public, which will get them full grant. In the subsequent three years, 100 per cent audit will be mandatory." The 14th Finance Commission had given Rs 18,916 crore to Panchayati Raj institutions, while Rs 19,561 crore would be received on the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission. Similarly, the 15th Finance Commission has recommended 9,999 crore to urban bodies, while under the 14th, only Rs 2,227 crore was received, he said.

With this amount, the Patna Municipal Corporation with a population of over 10 lakh, will get Rs 1,690 crore while other urban bodies of the state will get Rs 8,309 crore.
Alex Kasser has submitted a revised version of her proposed groundbreaking legislation named after Jennifer Dulos that would expand Connecticuts legal definition of domestic violence to make it easier for victims to obtain restraining orders.

The Greenwich senators proposal tightens controls on the number of court filings litigants can make in divorce and custody matters and also lists a range of behaviors that include financial abuse, threats of the loss of housing, stalking, and threatening to publish sexualized images of the victim that would now be considered domestic violence or abuse.

If we can achieve and apply the standards laid out in the law, we could save enormous amounts of judicial resources and we would stop the cycle of abuse years earlier, Kasser said.

The bill has the support of Jennifer Dulos close friend, Carrie Luft, who has acted as the spokeswoman for her family as the missing persons case has spanned nearly two years.

Intimate partner violence affects all genders and cuts across the socioeconomic spectrum, Luft said. This bill, and other legislation like it, is a critical step toward a larger shift. By changing the language of domestic violence to include coercive control, we can change the law. By changing language, we can also change the discussion, and, I hope, change the story.

Jennifer would have wanted to do everything in her power to help others in abusive situations to live free from fear, Luft added.

Jennifer Dulos sought a restraining order and emergency custody of her five children when she left her husband, Fotis Dulos, in June 2017. A judge, however, denied her request for a restraining order because she was unable to show she was physically abused, according to court documents.

However, Fotis Dulos had threatened to take their five children and used intimidation to get his wife to sign a custody agreement, court documents show.

The divorce and custody dispute spanned more than two years and ended after Jennifer Dulos vanished in May 2019. The 50-year-old mother is presumed dead after police said they believe her estranged husband attacked her in the garage of her New Canaan home when she returned from dropping off their children at school, arrest warrants in the case state.

Fotis Dulos died in January 2020 from a suicide as he faced murder and other charges in connection with his estranged wifes death and disappearance.

Kasser, who also represents New Canaan where Jennifer Dulos lived, has spent the months since the disappearance researching how to prevent similar tragedies by allowing victims to get help they need immediately. Shes worked with legal experts from around the country to craft Jennifers Law, which is in the hands of the Judiciary Committee.

The bill would expand the definition of domestic violence, domestic abuse and family violence in all state statues to include coercive control, a set of behaviors that abusers often employ when trying to instill fear to maintain control of their victims.

The behaviors include isolating victims from family and support networks, attempts to restrict resources needed for independence, including money, housing, transportation and health care, repetitive demeaning or degrading behavior, threatening to harm a victims children or pets, damaging the victims property as a means of intimidation, displaying or referring to weapons as a means of intimidation and threats or attempts to obstruct a persons right to end a marriage or intimate partner relationship.

The new version has a consistent definition of domestic violence and abuse, which also includes coercive control, Kasser said. The law applies that definition to all restraining orders, divorce cases and child custody cases because those are the forum of which domestic violence and abuse plays out in our family court system.

An earlier version of the bill died last year when the legislature was forced to halt the 2020 session due to the coronavirus pandemic. Kasser used the time to sharpen the bill to include provisions for allowing victims to apply for restraining orders online and to limit litigation abuse by setting a limit of 50 court filings for each person. After that limit has been reached, the litigants must receive court approval before filing any other pleadings, according to the bill.

The legislation also requires the court to prioritize child safety by recognizing, evaluating and adjudicating allegations of abuse, including child abuse before looking at other factors in determining the best interests of the child, Kasser said.

When there is domestic violence and abuse in the family dynamic, children are also the victims, Kasser said. This will prioritize the safety of the children.

The new definition of domestic violence, domestic abuse and family violence will be applied to all statutes that pertain to child safety and custody. The bill also amends divorce statutes to substitute domestic violence or abuse for intolerable cruelty and requires the Judicial Branch to provide legal assistance to victims of abuse to help with restraining order applications.

Under the bill, the Judicial Branch would have to commit to training judges and other staff in domestic violence, domestic abuse and family violence and presenting the Judiciary Committee with an annual report.

If the law passes, Connecticut will be the first in the nation to require courts to consider domestic violence or abuse first when ruling on what is in the best interest of the child, Kasser said.

Jennifer Dulos was denied a restraining order based on the present definition of the law, Kasser said. Had the definition been what Im proposing, she would have gotten the order.

[February 02, 2021] Omnispace Continues to Advance the Development of its Global 5G Hybrid Mobile Network

TYSONS, Va., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Omnispace, the company that is reinventing mobile communications by building a global hybrid network, announced today that it closed on a round of $60 million in equity financing that advances its development of its 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) and expands its 2 GHz spectrum footprint in key markets globally. The Omnispace network will power critical global communications, including 5G and mobile Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, directly from its satellites in space to mobile devices around the world. Omnispace will power critical global 5G and IoT communications directly from its satellites in space to mobile devices around the world. Led by new investor Fortress Investment Group, the latest round includes funding from existing investors Columbia Capital, Greenspring Associates, TDF Ventures and Telcom Ventures. This funding enables the company to build upon the investments it has already made to validate 3GPP standards-based 5G products and technologies, and demonstrate 5G connectivity from space. The financing also paves the way for Omnipace to accelerate market access initiatives to secure 2 GHz mobile satellite service (MSS) and complementary ground component (CGC) spectrum globally, which will anchor its next-generation hybrid mobile system. Together these efforts provide the foundation for commercial partnerships with mobile network operators, who enable the terrestrial component of the hybrid network, and wireless technology and device manufacturers.



"Omnispace represents the next evolution of mobile telecommunications. The company recognizes that industries now require truly global mobile connectivity without compromise. Omnispace will be the first to power global 5G from space to universal devices on a single, seamless network leveraging their 2 GHz spectrum platform," said Joshua Pack, Managing Partner, Fortress Investment Group. "We are forging ahead in the delivery of truly mobile 5G connectivity solutions from space. Our network will leverage harmonized 2 GHz spectrum to bring the power of 5G to users and industries around the globe," said Ram Viswanathan, president and CEO for Omnispace. "We're delighted Fortress Investment Group and our investors share in our commitment to drive innovative, mobile connectivity solutions."

Omnispace's 'one global network' will utilize the company's priority 2 GHz S-band spectrum rights and will be compliant with 3GPP 5G standards, which will ensure security and interoperability of devices all over the world. The initial elements of the Omnispace network will enter into service in 2022, advancing the commercial, technological, and regulatory initiatives and ensure successful launch of the global system. About Omnispace Headquartered in the Washington D.C. area, and founded by veteran telecommunications and satellite industry executives, Omnispace is redefining mobile connectivity for the 21st century. By leveraging 5G technologies, the company is combining the global footprint of a non-geostationary satellite constellation with the mobile networks of the world's leading telecom companies to bring an interoperable "one network" connectivity to users and IoT devices anywhere on the globe. Learn more at: Omnispace.com and follow on LinkedIn or Twitter @omnispace. About Fortress Investment Group LLC Fortress Investment Group LLC is a leading, highly diversified global investment manager with approximately $49.9 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2020. Founded in 1998, Fortress manages assets on behalf of approximately 1,800 institutional clients and private investors worldwide across a range of credit and real estate, private equity and permanent capital investment strategies. Press Contact:

Marie Knowles

tel: +1-202-656-8037

e: mknowles@omnispace.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/omnispace-continues-to-advance-the-development-of-its-global-5g-hybrid-mobile-network-301219400.html SOURCE Omnispace

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 20:35:06|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday appealed for funding to provide food and nutrition assistance to more than 60,000 Ethiopian refugees fleeing into eastern Sudan in recent months.

The WFP, which described the situation "critical time as the humanitarian situation at the border remains dire," has called for urgent funding so as to provide basic humanitarian assistance to Ethiopian refugees flocking into eastern Sudan on the backdrop of recent military confrontation in Ethiopia's northernmost Tigray region.

"Despite generous contributions and efforts, WFP Sudan still requires 173.8 million U.S. dollars in funding for its operations in the first half of this year, of which 8.6 million U.S. dollars is needed to sustain food assistance and nutrition support for refugees arriving from Tigray over the coming four months," a WFP statement issued Tuesday read.

Noting that people who are arriving at the border have fled "with almost nothing, exhausted and hungry with no sense of when they can return home," Hameed Nuru, WFP representative and country director in Sudan, stressed that it is essential that "we move quickly to provide necessary assistance as they overcome the shock of being displaced from their homes."

Last week, the WFP officially launched a "Share the Meal" fundraising campaign aiming for individual users of the ShareTheMeal app to share 1,000,000 meals.

According to Nuru, the campaign allows individual givers from all around the world to make donations towards this cause at a time when it's needed most.

The WFP has been responding to the influx of Ethiopian refugees in Sudan, mainly through the provision of food at reception centers on the border, logistical support to the humanitarian community, distributing monthly food rations to refugees in camps, and providing nutrition support to children under five and pregnant as well as nursing women.

After conflict broke out in Ethiopia's Tigray regional state between the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in early November last year, fighting had escalated throughout the region, which eventually left tens of thousands to seek refuge crossing the Ethiopian border into Sudan.

In addition to Ethiopian refugees fleeing to Sudan, various UN agencies have been recently calling for support for conflict-affected people inside the region, who are also facing the brunt of pre-existing humanitarian crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Migration Agency, had emphasized that recent conflict, coupled with the pre-existing humanitarian needs and the COVID-19 pandemic, "has created a concerning and volatile humanitarian situation" in the Tigray region.

The Ethiopian federal government, which is now engaged in restoration activities on the backdrop of the conflict, had also recently disclosed the provision of humanitarian assistance to more than 1.8 million people in the conflict-hit Tigray region.

"Humanitarian response in the Tigray region is underway. Since the law enforcement operation in the Northern part of Ethiopia was completed, humanitarian assistance containing food and non-food items and medical supplies have been delivered for more than 1.8 million beneficiaries," Ethiopia's Ministry of Peace said last week.

The ministry further said that preparations have been finalized to address more than 2.5 million beneficiaries across the region. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-01 22:51:16|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- A batch of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines has been officially handed over to Pakistan on Monday at Noor Khan Air Base near the country's capital Islamabad, making Pakistan the first country to receive the Chinese government donated COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier on Sunday, the donated Sinopharm vaccines were loaded onto a plane in Beijing.

Addressing the handover ceremony at the air base, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi expressed his gratitude to the people and the government of China for helping Pakistan in the hour of need and making Pakistan the first country in the world to receive the COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Chinese government.

China kept on showing support to Pakistan since the outbreak of the pandemic including sending medical teams while providing the vaccines is another testament to the traditional friendship between the two countries, he said.

"Our friendship is not limited to governments. Our public have the same sentiments of friendship," the foreign minister added.

On the occasion, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong said that sending the vaccines is a new manifestation to the "iron brotherhood" between the two countries, adding that China has honored its commitment to making Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, once developed and put into use, global public goods.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan, the Chinese envoy said, adding that "we are proud of the friendship between China and Pakistan, that is higher than the mountain, deeper than the sea, and sweeter than the honey."

"Our hearts grow closer in the joint fight against COVID-19 with the great solidarity and support we have for each other, and the steady progress in bilateral cooperation including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. China is ready to contribute to Pakistan's pandemic prevention drive, economic recovery and social development," Nong added.

Pakistan has so far confirmed 546,428 cases and lost 11,683 lives to the disease since the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, according to the latest government data.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday evening wound up his four-day working tour of his Mt Kenya backyard with a directive that all stalled development projects should be completed expeditiously.

He made the order at a meeting held with cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries and other senior civil servants at the Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri.

Principal secretaries were given the role of taking charge and inspecting development projects in the region.

Sources at the meeting, which was also attended by governors from Mt Kenya counties, said the leaders were asked to prioritise major projects that would help the Head of State to regain his political foothold by catalysing development.

Also targeted are economic sectors that directly impact locals including transport and imports.

Some of the major ongoing projects are the dualling of the Kenol-Sagana-Marua highway and the Mau Mau road; which cuts across the counties of Nyandarua, Murang'a and Nyeri.

"The Head of State called for collective responsibility in the implementation of government projects and programmes so as to ensure timely delivery," the source said.

Legacy projects

Mt Kenya region comprises Nyeri, Murang'a, Embu, Kirinyaga, Kiambu, Nyandarua, Laikipia, Tharaka Nithi and Meru counties.

By having his ministers at the centre of formulating and driving government programmes, the President's message was largely construed to mean that he is keen on completing his legacy projects.

Leaders present were also asked to rally MCAs to pass the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) referendum bill at the earliest opportunity.

MCAs representing 10 county assemblies from Central, who were hitherto averse to the referendum debate, vowed to pass it when it is tabled in their chambers.

Governors also promised the President that they would discourage divisive politics that could disrupt the peace and unity of the region.

Earlier on, a consultative meeting between the President, the clergy, and women leaders was called off at the last minute. State House spokesperson Kanze Dena said the meeting had been postponed and that a new date and venue would be communicated.

At Ndathi village in Kieni, Mr Kenyatta launched the Last Mile Connectivity project, which he said would be extended to other parts of the country to ensure that more households are connected to electricity. He also promised that the Tagwa-Ndathi-Naromoru road will be tarmacked.

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Hustler Nation movement

On Sunday, the President visited the Chaka multi-purpose market and promised traders it would be opened within the next one month.

"My message to the leadership of this country has been unity because without it there isn't much we can achieve," said Mr Kenyatta at Ndathi village. The President also rallied leaders to support him in endorsing the BBI constitutional amendments.

He said that the BBI will, among other benefits, unite the country, empower the youth, and ensure equitable distribution resources. He warned locals against being drawn into the "hustler narrative" fronted by his deputy, Dr William Ruto.

Through his populist "Hustler Nation" movement that seeks to exploit the wide social and economic inequalities in Mt Kenya, Dr Ruto has portrayed both the BBI referendum and the 2022 election as a class battle between him and the dynasties -- a reference to President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga whose fathers were post-independent Kenya's first president and vice-president respectively.

Local politicians loyal to Dr Ruto have also accused Mr Kenyatta's administration of neglecting the region.

"Do not be lied to with this hustler tales. Do not allow yourself to be divided because of false hopes," he said.

"The money our counties have been getting is not enough to do all the development work. That is why we are asking that you support the constitutional changes that bring in more resources to our region that are commensurate with our numbers," he said.
Interprovincial alcohol distribution in Canada has always been a nightmare. For our wineries, breweries and spirit makers, selling alcohol to Americans is easier than selling to consumers outside their own province.

Opinion

Interprovincial alcohol distribution in Canada has always been a nightmare. For our wineries, breweries and spirit makers, selling alcohol to Americans is easier than selling to consumers outside their own province.

Many Canadian alcoholic products such as wines, beers and spirits have won international prestigious awards but cant be sold to most Canadians. Its simply ridiculous.

But a private members bill in Ottawa is offering Canadians a renewed chance to "free the beer."

Canadians held their breath with the Gerard Comeau case a few years ago. In 2012, Comeau was pulled over and fined more than $292 for bringing more than the 12-pint limit of beer back to New Brunswick from neighbouring Quebec. The case went to the highest court in the country and the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2018 that the fine was constitutional, giving provinces reason to protect their markets.

Conservative MP Dan Albas has other plans. In December, he presented and tabled a private members bill to amend the Canada Post Corporation Act so Canadian-made wine, beer and spirits could be accessible in a direct-to-consumer program, with shipping through Canada Post, between provinces.

Only four provinces now allow direct-to-consumer shipping of alcoholic products: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and British Columbia. Most provinces, including highly-protective Quebec and Ontario, are very much against opening their markets.

The genius of this cant be underscored enough. If Albas gets his way, the bill will prohibit Canada Post, a federal Crown corporation, from refusing direct delivery to consumers of beer, wine or spirits originating in another province. Trade barriers upheld by the Supreme Court between provinces would be secondary.

Provincial governments would have the right not to adhere to the new regime. But if they do, businesses in their own province wont be allowed to sell outside their province either. Opting out goes both ways. Provinces opting out would obviously need to explain to their constituents why interprovincial restrictions will remain.

Some great wines, beers and spirits are produced in Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward County and Niagara on the Lake in Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia.

Understandably, this bill received little or no media attention because of the pandemic and our focus on vaccines. But helping struggling businesses is not just about providing financial assistance during COVID-19. Its also about empowering the economy and helping businesses grow.

Todays robust online commerce environment represents a great chance for the federal government to give wineries and brewers in smaller provinces the ability to prosper and have access to larger domestic markets.

According to some industry estimates, the global online alcohol market was at $35 billion in 2020. In Canada, $350 million to $400 million worth of booze was sold online last year, up 75 per cent from 2019.

Food distribution rules have changed with COVID-19. Consumers have more choice than ever, thanks to online ordering. Supply chains are more open and democratic than ever, which is why this bill is timely and utterly needed.

But thats just a theory. As usual, politics will get in the way. This bill likely wont survive a spring election, or the wrath of larger provinces such as Ontario and Quebec. Both the LCBO in Ontario and SAQ in Quebec are influenced by the growing emphasis on getting consumers to buy local foods more often. Its hard to argue with a perspective like that. But a Canadian product, for many, is indeed local.

Nevertheless, if we can "free the beer" this time, it will be a miracle. So dont hold your breath.

Sylvain Charlebois is senior director of the agri-food analytics lab and a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University.

 Troy Media


By Lee Seong-hyon





U.S. President Joe Biden plans to deliver his most substantive foreign policy remarks since becoming president on restoring "America's place" in the world. He is likely to talk about "leadership" and "multilateralism" according to the Chinese media. In a not-so-veiled warning, it said that if Biden's multilateralism means only strengthening the U.S. alliance structure, it would be indicative of an American attempt for "baquan" of hegemony.



Baquan means "hegemony." But in Chinese it is a much more pejorative term than in English. Apparently, the Chinese warning is also indicative of Beijing's concern about whether, and how much, Biden is willing to inherit Trump's China policy legacy.



Interestingly, Yang Jiechi, the most senior foreign policy adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping, gave a speech on U.S.-China relations, only hours before Biden's speech. "For the past few years, the Trump administration adopted misguided policies, plunging the relationship into the most difficult period since the establishment of diplomatic relations," Yang said.



"Some" in the United States "attempted to seek decoupling and the so-called 'new Cold War.'" He continued, "We believe that peace and development are still the prevailing trend of the times. Peaceful co-existence and win-win cooperation remain the shared aspiration of all peoples."



The rest of Yang's speech was as expected, a mixture of warnings and appeasement. But what is notable is his characterization of the current state of U.S.-China relations as a "new Cold War," even though he added the qualifier, "so-called." In addition, he also made it clear that it was "some" in the United States, rather than the Chinese, seeking such a Cold War. These claims can be dissected by historians later.



The academic community has also not resolved its heated debate on whether or not the current state of U.S.-China relations should be defined as a "Cold War." Let them continue to do so. It's their job. In the meantime, what is pertinent for the policy community is that the U.S.-China relationship is a serious enough issue and has resemblance to many elements of the Cold War. (The problem with South Korea's policy community is that it confuses the two. Its mission is to practice real-world policy, but it is still basking itself in entertaining academic and theoretical debates.)



How will China fare from now? Yang's speech has a hint. "China calls for a New Type of International Relations." This phrase is the key. It is an "upgraded" version from the phrase, "New Type of Great Power Relations" (xinxing daguo guanxi). In the earlier phrase, the "great power" refers only to the two nations, the United States and China.



China assertively pursued this "Great Power" policy during the previous Obama administration. A signature Chinese metaphor at that time, uttered by Xi to Obama, was that the Pacific Ocean is big enough to contain both the U.S. and China. So both countries should not quarrel.



It sounded peaceful. So, it took a while for the Obama people to realize that its actual message was that the U.S. should treat China as an "equal" power and concede the Western Pacific (that is, "half" of the Pacific Ocean) to be under the Chinese sphere of influence. Some scholars at that time interpreted this as the Chinese version of the Monroe Doctrine.



The concept of "Great Power" relations is centered on the dualistic international relations paradigm, reflecting the view that as long as China (as the number two power) successfully resolves its relationship matrix with the world's number one power, the rest of the global power structure and balance will be stable for China.



However, due to intensifying conflict with the United States under the Trump administration, China rightly realized that its "Great Power" paradigm had two flaws. First, it was seen as China pursuing hegemony as a rising superpower.



Second, for sure, the United States is important, but the rest of the world is important as well, in this increasingly multilateral world.

In particular, China has noticed that the foundational strength of the U.S. and its global influence lies in having many allies and partners. China doesn't have them. So, the name change from new "Great Power" to new "International Relations" reflects this strategic realization.



Taken together, the next phase of the U.S.-China competition (which will largely continue regardless of what Biden says) will be about who, between the U.S. and China, has more friends and partners in the world. In diplomatic terms, this new situation means "multilateralism." It is about stealing allies and snatching friends. What will this new situation mean for South Korea?



Lee Seong-hyon (sunnybbsfs@gmail.com), Ph.D., is director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the Sejong Institute


Photo by Clayton Taylor

Jill Ditmire, the longtime arts and culture journalist who hosted WFYI's arts program Curious Mix, has died. She was 56.

Her work in broadcast journalism over the past 25 years, in both local radio and television, was extensive. At WFYI public radio, she served as the local news anchor during All Things Considered and as a contributor to Morning Edition, to Sound Medicine, and to other programs. Ditmire also contributed to a variety of print publications and brought social media savvy to her Curious Mix coverage, posting many interviews with artists on Facebook Live.

Ditmire brought both depth of knowledge and innovation to her work, assets that led to a series of social media videos that many WFYI audience members used to stay connected to and inspired by the arts, especially during COVID-19, stated the WFYI press release.

Jill was a respected journalist and a tireless advocate for the Indianapolis arts community, said WFYI CEO and president Greg Petrowich in the press release. More than that, she was a friend and colleague and will be missed by all who knew her."

Ditmire's career included explorations beyond broadcast journalism. An American Wine Society certified wine judge, she worked as an owner of Mass Ave Wine Shoppe from 2007-2013.

In 2019, she shared those experiences with NUVO.

Its 24/7, 365 days a year, she said about the time commitment involved running the shop.

You dont just do one job you do everything, every job from cleaning the bathrooms to buying the wine to selling the wine to managing the employees, she continued. It was fun because it was at a time when that whole east end [of Mass Ave ] was starting to blossom and we were ahead of our time in that I put a different local artist on the wall every month. And we had the free tasting Tuesday; we did the wine and a psychic reading; we did wine and chair massage; we did Italian wine with Italian language lessons. We did crafting with wine. Now everybody does that. Every brewery, every winery, everybodys got an event going on all the time but nobody used to do that. I would bring in local musicians and have them play. I think back on that now and we promoted so many local products.

Ditmire graduated from Butler University (Radio/Television, Journalism/Political Science) in 1986.

Indianapolis jazz musician Jared Thompson called her, in a Feb. 1 Facebook comment, a true champion of the arts.

I cant tell you how much she helped and influenced the popularity of my band and many of my friends and colleagues in the music scene, he said.

Also posting on Facebook, Indianapolis visual artist Katie Norman wrote of Ditmires tireless efforts advocating for the Indy arts community. Her energy, positivity, and love for the arts was so apparent to anyone that knew her. I will miss our conversations and listening to Curious Mix. She was a giant in the Indy arts community and will be sorely missed.
The PM-CARES fund, which has been set up to provide relief during the pandemic, has contributed over Rs 2,200 crore for the first phase of vaccination drive, which is looking to inoculate frontline healthcare workers, the Expenditure Secretary said on Tuesday.

Set up in March 2020, the exact collections made by the fund through voluntary contribution by individuals and corporates, are not known but the corpus managed by the PMO has been providing relief to pandemic-hit sectors.

With the Budget for the current fiscal, which was presented before the onset of the pandemic, making no separate allocation for vaccination, more than 82 per cent of the cost of the same during January to March is being borne by the

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget for the next fiscal beginning April 2021 has set aside Rs 35,000 crore towards COVID vaccination.

In an interview with PTI, Expenditure Secretary T V Somanathan said the cost of vaccination of frontline and healthcare workers in the current fiscal is being borne fully by the central government and the money is coming from and Health Ministry.

"For January-March the (vaccination) cost is expected to be about Rs 2,700 crore approximately. Part of it is coming from the Health Ministry and some part of it is funded from the This is for the first round of 3 crore frontline and health workers," he said.

The entire cost of this round will be borne by the Central Government, he said.

"We had provided extra funds to the Health Ministry for incidental costs to vaccination. We made an additional allocation of Rs 480 crore just for the 3 crore batch of vaccination," he said.

The remaining about Rs 2,220 crore will come from PM-CARES fund.

"Yes, that is my information," he said when asked if the remainder of the Rs 2,700 crore cost of the vaccination drive, after accounting for Rs 480 crore from the health ministry, will come from the PM CARES Fund.

Opposition and rights activists have criticised the secrecy behind the PM-CARES Fund. This is because information on donations made and expenditure has not been shared citing the fund not being a "public authority" under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

The Prime Minister Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) was set up in March last year where people can contribute to help the government fight against and similar "distressing situations".

The trust is headed by the Prime Minister. The other ex-officio members of the trust are the defence minister, the home minister and the finance minister.

India in January approved two vaccines, Oxford's Covishield manufactured by SII in the country and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, for restricted emergency use. The country launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 16 in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the world's largest inoculation programme with priority to be given to nearly three crore healthcare and frontline workers.

According to the COVID-19 Vaccine Operational Guidelines, 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 based on evolving pandemic situation.

The Budget on Monday proposed a budget outlay of over Rs 2.23 lakh crore for health and well being in 2021-2022, an increase of 137 per cent from the previous year.

Sitharaman in her Budget speech had said that India has two vaccines available, and has begun medically safeguarding not only her own citizens against COVID-19, but also those of 100 or more countries.

"It is added comfort to know that two or more vaccines are also expected soon," she said.

Somanathan said the recommendations of the Finance Commission in the area of health relating to local body grants have been accepted in full.

"Whatever the Commission has recommended in the area of local body grants for health, water and sanitation are being accepted in full and will be implemented. We have also made the necessary budget provisions for those grants," 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.)
ONE of Limericks most impressive businesses, Odyssey Studios, has been announced as a finalist in this years National Enterprise Awards.

The awards, an initiative of the Local Enterprise Office, will take place virtually on February 11.

Odyssey Studios, which was set up in 2017, will compete against 29 other national finalists for a prize fund totaling 50,000.

The state of the art model making studio based on the Dock Road and is one of the largest permanent model making studios in Europe.

The studio supplies blockbuster film and TV productions with miniature models, weapons, armour, props and prosthetic makeup and the teams have worked on films such as The Hobbit, Penny Dreadful and Into the Badlands.

Odysseys next generation facility houses the latest in design and production technology for laser cutting and 3D scanning, modeling and printing and this allencompassing approach makes it a one stop shop for productions and individual artists from the concept stage, through to the finished article.

The company is currently expanding into exhibition fit-out and design and specialist training to meet the growing demands of the industry.

Like many others, the film industry came to a halt during the first lockdown last March. Odyssey Studios, which was affected by the restrictions retained four employees, under the Wage Subsidy Scheme, while four others were temporarily laid off.

Odyssey, which operated on a reduced capacity in three remote locations for several months, is now back in full production and has increased its workforce to 10 full time employees having achieved strong turnover and increase in sales in final quarter of 2020.

During the lockdown period, Odyssey Studios produced PPE for frontline staff on a pro bono basis, fulfilling their corporate social responsibility mandate.

Also during the lockdown period, availing of time arising from the reduced activity, Odyssey management focused on developing a future growth strategy, and successfully applied for an SBCI Future Growth loan, as well as an additional LEO business expansion grant.

This funding enabled Odyssey Studios to realise its future growth strategy, including expanding its 3D printing and laser printing capacity and developing an area in the Studios to house the Odyssey Training Academy.

The company has identified increasing its reach in the International Film production market, working with artists to realise large scale public art projects, offering its expertise to the heritage exhibition sector and the development of the Training Academy as the main engines of future growth.

Now in their 22nd year, the National Enterprise Awards celebrate small businesses and includes awards that recognise excellence in exporting, sustainability and innovation along with 8 regional awards and an overall National Enterprise Awards winner.

This year also sees the addition of two new award categories that reflect the challenging business conditions that companies have faced in 2020. The Pivot Award will be presented to a company who has successfully pivoted their business in the face of challenging conditions in the last 12 months. The Brexit Ready Award will be presented to a company who have excelled in their preparation for Brexit particularly where it would have created specific challenges for them as a business.

Commenting ahead of the awards, Head of Enterprise at LEO Limerick, Mike Cantwell, said: "It has been a challenging year for small businesses so this is a chance to highlight positive stories and businesses that have excelled in the face of unprecedented challenges. These businesses have been through a judging process which looked at every aspect of their business and this in itself can be a huge benefit to them as they plan for the future. Whether they win or not, these finalists achievements deserve to be recognised and celebrated and the Local Enterprise Offices look forward to continuing to support them to help them grow and achieve their potential."

Vincent Murray, Director of Economic Development at Limerick City and County Council added: We are delighted to see such a dynamic company representing Limerick at a national level. Limerick City and County Council is constantly working to develop economic opportunities in the film industry and skills and facilities available at Odyssey Studios is an important resource to attract film makers locally as well as exporting to the international market. Odyssey represents how traditional artistic skills can be combined with cutting edge technology demonstrating the creativity and innovation that is driving economic growth in Limerick.

Minister for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English said: "Through the National Enterprise Awards we celebrate the very best in small local companies who are leading in their field of business expertise. Over the past 20 years the awards have been the benchmark for excellence in micro-enterprise across the country. Looking at the list of winners, finalists and participants through the years it is easy to be inspired by our talented businesses and people who are the backbone of outstanding Irish entrepreneurs, many of whom are trading successfully across the globe. This years finalists are no different with some exceptional companies shortlisted. The very best of luck to all finalists and no doubt they will continue to grow beyond this and become part of Irelands growing international business community.
ECA Group brings its aerial drone, the IT180 UAV, to a new level with enhanced capabilities: agnostic and scalable payloads, enhanced vision, displayed data collection, real-time and georeferenced situational awareness.

Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link



ECA Group's IT180 UAV (Picture source: Army Recognition)

Robust, reliable, resilient and performant, ECA Group's IT180 is a mini long-endurance electrical Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle  UAV. The IT180 carries multiple payloads and performs various missions discreetly, with live and enhanced vision, superior tracking for Defence and Security missions. Its low radiated noise and radar cross section allow to perform covert operations, making it the ideal solution for numerous missions that require seeing without being seen: intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, reconnaissance, integration of more and heavier payloads.

Along with modem and data link integration that better protect the integrity of the information gathered, the upgrade of the IT180 allows for heavier and additional payloads:

 The upgraded IT180 UAV supports up to 5 kilos of heavier payloads and benefits from a higher/ variable or adjustable ground clearance thanks to additional sliders, to be able to carry bulkier payloads.

 The power supply dedicated to the payloads has also been increased from 40W to 100W allowing to embed more sophisticated sensors such as the optronic payload day/night or EO/IR integrating an IR cooled sensor with continuous zoom.

The UAV has been upgraded with more power capacity, new generation cameras and IA based operator assistance functions to further meet the armies expectations and operational requirements.

The operator can control and manage the IT180 at a distance of up to 50km, thanks to the video feedback display and cartography mission follow-up. The quality of the video images and other information received in real time is ensured by the sensors and the new digital data links providing a higher output or bandwidth. The increased range of 50 km is equally linked to the new data links using a specific waveform allowing for such an extension.

The Ground Control Station provides all essential data, with stable quality images and videos and make real-time target acquisition, detection and tracking easier and more efficient.



The new and more powerful embedded electronic card allows for video processing to use different compression formats to send through the data link. The UAV now also has the capability of using real-time Computer Vision or/and Artificial Intelligence algorithms including, but not limited to:

 Operator assistance during long survey (object recognition and classification);

 Operator navigation assistance in case of GPS denied.

 Georeferenced data collection

Equipped with a wide choice of dual sensors (EO/IR) gyro-stabilized cameras, the operator benefits from an accurate and precise situational awareness. The data collected is displayed in real-time and georeferenced on the screen of the Ground Control Station (GCS), from which the UAV IT180 is operated.



Operational by harsh weather conditions, the IT180 resists to wind gust up to 60km/h, rain, sand, extreme temperatures. French army Adjutant Gerald shared their experience with ECA GROUPs IT180 We are indeed impressed by the performance of the Drogen* in an environment as specific as the Sahel-Saharan Strip (BSS): we were particularly apprehensive about the wind, but above all about the high temperatures which could have limited our field of use of the UAV. This is not the case." (* Drogen: name given to ECA Groups IT180 by French Armys engineer (genie) Unit. Literally DROne for the GENie).



ECA Groups IT180 development is based on the experience feedback from French Armys operations in Afghanistan. During a reconnaissance mission, it allows engineers to raise any doubts about the presence of a threat on an axis or in an area while remaining at a distance. This handy, in 3 minutes ready to fly, and stealthy UAV facilitates the work of the Barkhane force units by increasing their capacity to master their environment.



From the mechanical and electronic parts, to the auto piloting system and the Ground Control Station, ECA Group entirely owns and controls the design and the manufacturing of its IT180.

Capitalizing on its leeway, ECA Group has developed 2 motorizations:

 The IT180-60 electrical version, allowing for 1-hour autonomy with a 5 kilos payloads.

 The IT180-120 gasoline version, allowing for 2-hours autonomy, with a 5 kilos payloads.

Thus, several armies benefit from ECA Groups expertise that offer a modular and agonistic UAV solution designed for their operational requirements.



The UAV IT180-60 has optimal capacities for covert operations and to perform intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance operations (ISTAR), thanks to its electrical engine and low radar cross section preventing noise pollution.



The UAV IT180-120 is ideal for long-endurance and long range missions. It can also meet the needs for:

 Naval applications such as floating drifting mines detection and magnetic range measurements

 Search-and-rescue missions and can also be deployed in fire surveillance, as well as chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) detection missions
Representative image

Note to Readers: This is a two-part series on the Varied Shades of Remote Work.

A year ago, exactly to this day, if someone were to tell you that you'd spend all of 2020 working from home, I'm sure you would have politely suggested a remedy for their hangover. However, here we are in front of our screens, having traversed all of 2020 wondering when this mass work-from-home experiment will end.

While the pandemic, job-retention and stress consumed much of our mental space in 2020, we have come to realise that in the knowledge era, work can never be confined to boundaries restricted by real-estate. The learnings from 2020 are global, have the largest sample size (of the entire world) and are from across industries as hardly anyone was spared.

In a single year, we have experienced working-from-home, remote work,* and in some cases become entirely remote-first**. The underlying theme: taking work beyond the office premises, while maintaining productivity and the smooth functioning of the organisation. It has also been a time when we have experienced how each of these models has panned out and the nuances of each as highlighted in this article.

Before we delve deeper, the biggest upside as rightly pointed out by Ganapathy Venugopal, Cofounder and CEO of Axilor Ventures,*** is that trust and accountability have grown as the need for supervision has fallenupending traditional management models.

After 50+ conversations with Founders, Senior Management and Employees, here is what comes through strongly:

1) Long-term work-from-home will never take off (anywhere).

2) Hybrid work is emerging as a middle path. Is it the panacea?

These shifts have been interesting to observe and from my multiple conversations, I have realised that there are too many variations attached to each model and hence in this article I try to relate aspects that resonated with me and I leave you, the reader to determine what resonates with you.

* WFH and Remote are not the same (while WFH is more geographically restricted, remote work means working from literally anywhere).

** I will be writing a separate piece on remote-first companies. Watch this space.

*** The writer is Manager, Outreach at Axilor Ventures.

THE REPORT CARD:

Why will long term work-from-home never take off?

Before the pandemic struck, only 7 percent or roughly 9.8 million workers in the US had access to remote work, says this report. During the pandemic-induced work-from-home, it was almost impossible to step out and that affected everyones mental health to varying degrees. Stress, irregular working hours, death by notifications have been spoken about enough. We also know that infrastructure-wise, large-scale work-from-home is a burden on bandwidth and whether it was Koramangala, South Bombay or swanky Gurgaon, the internet was flaky and there were frequent power cuts, sometimes amidst work calls.

Mohammed Abraz, Lead Product Designer at BimaPe, a startup that simplifies insurance, lives in East Bangalore. He says: I am a Product Designer and my job entails interacting with people and seeing their expressions. On a call, I cannot figure their tone or expression. My job is not suited for remote work. Abraz says sometimes he even has to be mute on calls and have someone else ask his questions due to a roar of construction-related noise outside his house.

War cannot be fought remotely, believes Arnav Kumar, Founder of LeapFinance, a Fintech startup. For startups that want to grow more than 100x a year, unless you are celebrating small wins regularly and being more collaborative, it becomes stressful. I have not yet figured a great way to celebrate remotely. Think of an army control room, how can you run that remotely?

Vineeta Singh, CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics, echoes him: For a startup there is a huge dependency on innovation, creativity and a combined mission to disrupt the market. While the teams rose to the occasion working from home, we already have some members coming back to office at least once a week. SUGAR Cosmetics also has a manufacturing division, a warehouse and a supply chain division. And being a trendy cosmetics company, there was a constant need to produce fresh social media content, which was all done ingeniously through the lockdown. However, much of this is hard to sustain when things slowly look better.

Bhagyashree Pancholy, a lawyer, specialises in Remote laws. Pancholy says that whether it is India or Egypt, women who work from home or even remotely create their own communities and prefer working in each others homes. Not only does this solve child-care issues, it also gives them a safety net and these spaces are better equipped than co-working spaces that do not specialise in child care.

Work-from-home was also particularly hard on students who had to seek internships and many I spoke to mentioned that not only were they shortchanged in terms of profiles, but they were not paid. Also, if they were given sales roles, they had to buy the product themselves many times, in case they were not able to meet targets, meaning they literally had to buy their internship certificates.

Lastly, Pancholy reports that while the number of cases of child abuse fell, the number of domestic violence cases rose during the pandemic. During the first four phases of the lockdown, women in India filed more domestic violence complaints than recorded in the last 10 years. According to official data with the National Commission for Women (NCW), domestic violence complaints received in 2019 were 607, while in 2020 between March and May 1477 cases were registered.

Hybrid work is emerging as a middle path: is it the panacea?

Companies have hired employees across geographies (within India) during the pandemic. And, on the other hand, many employees have also gone back to their home towns and villages/ parents homes or families during this period. In such cases, hybrid work is emerging as a middle path between employees and the management. This model is one where people can come into office for two or three days a week and also entails that the company has a hub-and-spoke real-estate model.

Hybrid work has its own nuances. According to Vinish Garg, Founder of a digital agency in Chandigarh, who has been remote since 2008, remote workers working in a different city or even in another country should be given a wider choice and the right incentive to travel. Common sense plays a role in defining these rules.

Kartik Mandaville, Founder and CEO of Springworks, has a slightly different point of view. The hybrid model is a disadvantage to people who cannot come to office. They lose out on the camaraderie and discussions others could possibly have over the water cooler, he opines.

Mandaville prefers the remote-first model where there are no headquarters and employees can work from the closest co-working spaces instead. For team bonding, he proposes offsites (among teams or even the company at large) for more focussed sessions and unstructured time.

Pancholy was a legal consultant with Automattic when it set up its APAC business in 2012 and has now started All Remotely, an India-based Remote Law consultancy. She has observed that over time, employees who live far away do not turn up to swanky offices in the hybrid model and that adds to the real estate and utility cost of the company. Legally speaking, an office space is considered an asset that can earn companies tax rebates. However, if it is not used over a long period, the overheads tend to go up.

Secondly, if employees are working from multiple cities, then there are State tax implications that can get very complicated for the company (which has to pay tax in the city of its incorporation).

Lastly, for the hybrid model to be successful, new definitions of productivity and output have to be put into place and the role of managers has to be better defined. Says Praval Singh, VP Marketing at Zoho Corporation: Hybrid as a model is easier to adopt in traditional companies and is slowly redefining the way we work. It gives one the flexibility of planning their week for both remote and in-office work, and provides for articulation and better clarity in communication  we might end up with far fewer meetings. And lastly, it creates more ownership and accountability.

Founders I spoke to were unanimous in their choice of the hybrid model but also said that they were yet to assess its true implications. There is a good possibility that we may go back to the old ways of office-first or become completely remote-first.



Co-working spaces will become community centres of talent and people. More companies will have seats in co-working spaces and they will create the sub-remote culture where talent and under-represented communities will thrive. Further, as per this article, co-working spaces may provide some kind of respite in terms of secured networks and a technician on call to address cybersecurity and computer-malfunction challenges of occupants.





Modular work overtakes 9-5. The clock was seen as a proxy to productivity. After having worked remotely, there is a realisation that work happens in chunks. While we may continue to put in 40+ hours a week, they need not come in 8-hour stretches anymore.





The talent of India meets the spirit of Bharat. During the pandemic, companies such as Zoho opened satellite offices in districts such as Surandai, Mohanur, Namakkal, Srirangam, Palakkad and other locations in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. They are opening more. The objective is to take opportunities to the hinterlands. This also helps conserve remote dialects and develop tier 3 and 4 cities.





Cities for digital nomads: one example of this is Remote Portugal, where Portugal is marketing itself as the ultimate destination for remote workers in Europe. Similar initiatives will come up in India and some are already in the works.





More regulation to protect remote workers. Pancholy says that overseas there are remote regulations in place where it is mandatory for companies to reimburse employees for WFH facilities and part of their utility costs. That apart, in an all-remote environment there are laws mandating ergonomics checks on employees remote workplaces and certifications to protect employers against legal action in case employees are injured at work.



Overall, organisations are built by people but driven by cost efficiencies. It is still unclear what the long-term cost implications of both models are. Many startups gave up their offices to save on rent. However, these costs were offset by setting up home offices, employee perks and shipping hardware. Similarly, for those who have not given up office space, upkeep charges remain the same or have decreased only marginally. In this article we have addressed the people aspect; the cost aspect will be better understood over time.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden met late Monday with a group of Republican senators who have proposed a slimmed down $618 billion coronavirus aid package  a fraction of the $1.9 trillion he is seeking  as congressional Democrats vowed to push ahead with or without GOP support.

Biden greeted the lawmakers in the Oval Office, joking that he felt like he was back in the Senate as they started the private session. He and Vice President Kamala Harris were hearing the Republicans' pitch for a smaller, more targeted COVID relief package that would do away with Democratic priorities but could win GOP support and appeal to his effort to unify the country.

The Republican group's proposal taps into bipartisan urgency to shore up the nation's vaccine distribution and vastly expand virus testing with $160 billion in aid, similar to what Biden has proposed. But from there, the two plans drastically diverge. Less focused on economic aid, the GOP's $1,000 direct payments would go to fewer households than the $1,400 Biden has proposed, and the Republicans offer only a fraction of what he wants to re-open schools.

They also would give nothing to states, money that Democrats argue is just as important, with $350 billion in Biden's plan to keep police, fire and other workers on the job.

Gone are Democratic priorities such as a gradual lifting of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Engaging the White House in high-profile bipartisan talks comes House and Senate Democrats announced they would push ahead, laying the groundwork for approving Biden's package with a process that won't depend on Republican support for passage.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that history is filled with the costs of small thinking.

The cost of inaction is high and growing, and the time for decisive action is now," he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement.

The goal is for approval of COVID relief by March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid expires.

The overture from the coalition of 10 GOP senators, mostly centrists, is an attempt to show that at least some in the Republican ranks want to work with Bidens new administration, rather than simply operating as the opposition in the minority in Congress. But Democrats are wary of using too much time courting GOP support that may not materialize or delivering too meager a package as they believe happened during the 2009 recovery.

The accelerating talks came as the Congressional Budget Office delivered mixed economic forecasts Monday with robust growth expected at a 4.5% annual rate but employment rates not to return to pre-pandemic levels for several years.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said there is obviously a big gap between the $1.9 trillion package Biden has proposed and the $618 billion counteroffer.

Psaki said Monday that the meeting with Republican lawmakers would be an exchange of ideas but Biden would reiterate his stance that the risk is not that it is too big, this package, the risk is that it is too small.

An invitation to the GOP senators to meet at the White House came hours after the lawmakers sent Biden a letter on Sunday urging him to negotiate rather than try to ram through his relief package solely on Democratic votes.

We recognize your calls for unity and want to work in good faith with your Administration to meet the health, economic, and societal challenges of the COVID crisis, the 10 GOP senators wrote to Biden. We share many of your priorities.

The cornerstone of the GOP plan is $160 billion for the health care response  vaccine distribution, a massive expansion of testing, protective gear and funds for rural hospitals, according to a draft.

Other elements of the package are similar to Biden's plan but at far lesser amounts, with $20 billion to reopen schools compared to $170 billion. The Republicans offer $40 billion for Paycheck Protection Program business aid.

Under the GOP proposal, $1,000 direct payments would go to individuals earning up to $40,000 a year, or $80,000 for couples. The proposal would begin to phase out the benefit after that, with no payments for individuals earning more than $50,000, or $100,000 for couples. Thats less than Bidens proposal of$1,400 direct payments at higher incomes levels.

With Biden's plan, the direct payments would be phased out at higher income levels, and families with incomes up to $300,000 could receive some stimulus money.

The meeting to be hosted by Biden would amount to the most public involvement for the president in the negotiations for the next round of virus relief.

Winning the support of 10 Republicans would be significant for Biden in the 50-50 Senate where Vice President Kamala Harris is the tie-breaker. If all Democrats were to back an eventual compromise bill, the legislation would reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to overcome potential blocking efforts and pass under regular Senate procedures.

The plea for Biden to give bipartisan negotiations more time comes as the president has shown signs of impatience as the more liberal wing of his party considers passing the relief package through a process known as budget reconciliation. That would allow the bill to pass with a 51-vote majority in the Senate, rather than the 60 votes typically needed to advance.

The White House remains committed to exploring avenues for bipartisanship even as it prepares for Democrats to move alone on a COVID relief bill, according to a senior administration official granted anonymity to discuss the private thinking.

However, the number being brought to the table by Republicans was viewed as too small, according to the official.

At the same time, the White House may be willing to adjust its ask, perhaps shifting some less virus-oriented aspects into a subsequent package that is set to go next before Congress, the official said.

Biden himself has been on the phone to some of the Republicans coming to the White House on Monday and more in-person outreach is expected in the days ahead, the official said.

The other GOP senators invited to meet with Biden are Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Todd Young of Indiana, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Biden has leaned on his resume of decades in the Senate and as vice president to bring the parties together to solve vexing political problems, but less than two weeks into his presidency, Biden has shown frustration with the pace of negotiations as applications for jobless benefits remain stubbornly high and COVID death toll nears 450,000 Americans.

___

Associated Press writers Alexandra Jaffe, Darlene Superville and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
Despite growing outrage over the Pakistan Supreme Court's order to release terrorist Omar Sheikh, it directed that he should be shifted from jail to a rest house within the next 2-3 days. This comes even as US Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi about ensuring accountability for Sheikh, the main accused in Daniel Pearl case. In 2002, Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia Bureau of The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped in Karachi and beheaded while he was pursuing a story on the links between ISI and Al-Qaeda.

In custody since February 2002, Sheikh's death sentence was commuted to 7 years by the Sindh High Court on April 2, 2020, while three other accused serving life terms were acquitted. The PPP-led Sindh government had challenged this verdict in Pakistan's apex court and immediately detained the 4 men under Section 3(1) of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960. However, the same Sindh HC bench struck down the provincial government's decision on December 24, 2020. In a 2:1 verdict, a three-judge bench of Pakistan's SC dismissed the Sindh government' challenge against the HC order on January 28.

A day later, the Sindh government had filed a review petition and the Imran Khan-led government too moved an application seeking to be made a party to this plea. On Tuesday, Pakistan's top court ordered the authorities to ensure complete security to the rest house and allow Sheikh's family access to him from 8 am to 5 pm. It was hearing a petition filed by the terrorist against his detention. While Sheikh will not be given access to mobile and internet services, his family shall be provided accommodation and transport on the government's expense.

Read: 65-yr-old Woman Finally Returns To India After Being Locked Up For 18 Yrs In Pakistan Jail

MEA condemns Pakistan SC order

British-born-terrorist Omar Sheikh dropped out of the London School of Economics and instead, underwent training at terror camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 1994, he was arrested in India for kidnapping foreign tourists and remained incarcerated till he was freed by the NDA government in exchange for hostages of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight which was diverted to Kandahar in Afghanistan in December 1999. Sheikh returned to Pakistan after his release.

Read: Five-year-old Boy Drives An SUV In Pakistan, Police In Action After Video Goes Viral

The Ministry of External Affairs too condemned the Pakistan SC's order to release him. Briefing the media, MEA official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "I have mentioned earlier about the low conviction rate of Pakistan in sentencing terror accused. And this case demonstrates the lack of any seriousness on part of Pakistan for taking action on terror-related issues. It is also a travesty of justice not to find Omar Saeed guilty of any charges in this heinous charge of terror. Our position on Pakistan taking verifiable, credible and irreversible action against terrorism and terrorist funding emanating from all territories under its control remains unchanged."

Read: Pakistan Pilot & Others Spot 'Massive UFO' In Karachi Sky; 'Aliens Came To Collect Debt?'
Ambassador of Belarus A.Metelitsa meets the Additional Secretary (Europe) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan

On February 2, 2021 the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Andrei Metelitsa, met with the Additional Secretary (Europe) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Muhammad Tariq.

The Sides exchanged information on the relevant issues of the Belarusian-Pakistani agenda in political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres.

A primary attention during the meeting was paid to the topic of enhancing interaction between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries, including the holding of the next round of inter-ministerial political consultations.

Interlocutors also discussed the status of preparation for the sixth Session of the Joint Belarusian-Pakistani Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation in Minsk coming spring.

The Sides reached an understanding to restore the previous dynamics of bilateral cooperation after the gap caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Redmi 9 Power is the latest smartphone in the Redmi 9 series after the Redmi 9, Redmi 9 Prime, Redmi 9a and the Redmi 9i. Unlike the other smartphones in the series with either MediaTek Helio G25 or G35 entry-level and mid-range Helio G80 SoC in the Redmi 9 Prime, this one is powered by Snapdragon 662 SoC. It also comes with an improved 48MP main camera and a whopping 6000mAh battery. Is the phone worth the price? Let us dive into the review to find out.

Box Contents

Redmi 9 Power 4GB + 64GB storage version in Blazing Blue colour

USB Type-C Cable

2-pin 22.5W charger

SIM ejector tool

Clear protective case

User manual

The Redmi 9 Power has a Full HD+ display with a pixel resolution of 2340  1080 pixels, 19.5:9 aspect ratio 2.5D curved glass screen with gentle rounded corners. It has a large 6.53-inch screen size and a pixel density of about 394 PPI. The display is bright, thanks to 450 nits brightness and the colors are vibrant. Sunlight legibility is good, since it has a Sunlight display that uses hardware-level technology to adjust the contrast of each pixel in real time, so images are less affected by glare. It doesnt have an HDR display like the mid-range Redmi Note 9 series phones.

Since this has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio screen, you can pinch to zoom to fill the screen when you use video apps, but the content is cropped. There is also an option to hide the notch that adds a black bar on the top. Under the display options there are different options to adjust colors and contrast based on your preference. There is also a reading mode that lets you reduce the displays blue light emission, so it doesnt cause eye strain when you are reading at night. There is Dark mode with customizations, similar to other phones running MIUI 12.

Above the display there is an earpiece on the top edge, but it doesnt have a notification LED. The proximity is on the bezel, but it is hardly visible. It also has a gyroscope and a magnetic sensor, otherwise known as a magnetometer. There is also an 8-megapixel camera on the front.

There is a small bezel below the display, which is almost the same as the Redmi Note 9.

Coming to the button placements and ports. The volume rockers and the power button that also comes with a fingerprint scanner are present on the right. It has dual SIM and a microSD card slot on the left arranged in a single tray. The 3.5mm audio jack is present on the top along with the IR sensor and a vent for the speaker. The primary loudspeaker speaker grill, USB Type-C port and the primary microphone are present on the bottom.

This doesnt miss out on the dedicated dual SIM and microSD card slot.

On the back there is a 48-megapixel camera along with an 8-megapixel 119 wide-angle lens, 2-megapixel depth sensor and a 2-megapixel macro camera. This has a slight camera bump due to the large sensor, but the camera lens is protected by a scratch-resistant glass and the case also protects it. Even though the phone has a large screen, it is compact to hold. This has a textured polycarbonate back that offers improved grip and resistance from fingerprints. There is a large Redmi branding on the back. We have the Blazing Blue colour, but it also comes in Mighty Black, Fiery Red and Electric Green colours. It has Splash proof P2i coating and corrosion-proof ports. The phone weighs 198 grams even though it has a huge 6000mAh battery, and the weight distribution is good. Overall the build quality is good for the price.

Camera

The phone packs quad rear cameras, that includes a main 48-megapixel primary rear camera with single LED Flash, 1/1.2 Samsung GM1 ISOCELL sensor, 0.8m pixel size, f/1.79 aperture, secondary 8-megapixel camera with 119 ultra-wide angle lens with OmniVision OV8856 sensor, f/2.2 aperture, 1.12m pixel size, 2-megapixel depth sensor with OmniVision OV02B for portrait as well as 2-megapixel camera with SK Hynix Hi259 for macro with 1.75m pixel size and f/2.4 aperture. It has an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with OmniVision OV8856 sensor, 1.12m pixel size and f/2.05 aperture.

The camera UI is familiar with other Xiaomi smartphones running MIUI 12 with flash, HDR, AI, Filters (Normal, Vivid, Gold Vibes, Lime, Gourmet, Film, Amour, Movie, Soda, Sky blue, Blush, Childhood, Lit, Travel, Rise, Cyberpunk, Black ice, B&W and Classic) and Google Lens on the top. Pressing the menu option shows Movie frame, show gridlines, straighten, Macro, Tilt-Shift, Pro colour and Timed burst. There is a front camera toggle on the bottom along with option to select modes such as Pro, Video, Photo, Portrait, and More option has Night, 48MP, Short Video, Panorama, Documents, Slow motion, Time-lapse and AI watermark. Pro mode lets you adjust white balance, focus, shutter speed (1/4000s to 30 seconds), ISO (100 to 4000) and option to select main and ultra-wide lens. You can also shoot in RAW in Pro mode and enable focus peaking, exposure verification and more options. Beautify option for the front camera lets you adjust several features, in addition to smoothness. The 21:9 wide portrait feature which is called movie frame mode works both rear camera front cameras and for video, but there is no separate portrait video mode.

Xiaomi has enabled Cam2API by default, so you can side-load ported Google Camera APKs for advanced editing including RAW capture.

Coming to the image quality, daylight shots came out well, but the white balance is not the best at times since some images look dull even in daylight, but the AI mode helps in such cases. After 4-in-1 pixel binning you get 12MP output. HDR shots are better with improved dynamic range, but the macro shots from the 2MP camera is just average. Wide-angle shots are good as well, and the portrait shots have good edge detection. 48MP mode that offers a lot of details, but some images can go up to 20MB in size. Even though there is no telephoto lens, it uses the software for offering 2x zoom, which might be handy sometimes, but it loses details.

Low-light shots are decent, thanks to 4-in-1 Super Pixel technology that lets the cameras sensor hardware combine 4 pixels into a single 1.6m large pixel, and the night mode is even better making the images brighter offering more details, but there is noise and the ISP cant handle when it comes to low-light shots. Images with flash are good and the flash is not overpowering. Daylight front camera shots are decent for an 8MP camera, but low-light front camera shots are just average. Portrait shots have decent edge detection even though it is done using software.

Check out the camera samples (Click the image to view the full resolution sample.).

It can record videos at 1080p at up to 30 fps from both main and ultra-wide cameras, and it also has slow motion 720p resolution video at 120fps. You can also shoot 720p 30 fps video using macro camera. Check out the video sample below.

Software, UI and Apps

It runs Android 10 out of the box with MIUI 12 on top. It has Android security update for November 2020, and should get Android 11 update in the coming months. MIUI 12 that was introduced last year brings several features including improved animation, Dark mode 2.0, Privacy improvements and more. This has all the usual set of features such as Dual Apps, Second Space, App Lock, Quick Ball and more. Inside the special features option there is Game Turbo, Video toolbox, floating window and Lite mode, but misses out Quick Replies and Second Space features that are present in Redmi Note 9 series.

Apart from the usual set of utility apps, Google apps and Xiaomis own set of apps, it comes pre-loaded with Amazon Shopping, Facebook, WPS Office, Amazon Prime Video and LinkedIn app and some games. It also asks for additional app installation during setup, which you can skip. You can easily uninstall these apps, but these come up when you reset the phone.

Xiaomi is infamous for showing ads on its phones with MIUI, which the company says is done in order to support the development cost of its own apps. If you dont want to see ads, you have to disable recommendations while setting the phone up, promoted apps and in Xiaomis own apps such as Music, Mi Video, File Manager, Mi Drop, App Vault, and others. You can also uninstall these apps by following the procedure here without rooting the phone.

Since the phone has an infrared sensor for remote function, it comes with Mi Remote that lets you control your home appliances easily. Out of 4GB RAM, you get 3.7GB of usable RAM, and about 1.5GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. Out of 64GB internal storage, you get about 47GB of free storage. Since this has UFS 2.1 storage, we got sequential read speeds of about 492MB/s. Since the 128GB storage version has UFS 2.2 storage, it will have faster read speeds.

Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock

The phone has a fingerprint sensor on the ride side, embedded into the power button. It immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger on the power button so that you dont have to press it. This is more convenient compared to the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and faster than the in-display fingerprint scanner. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for app local and payments in apps. The phone also supports face unlock, but it is not as secure as fingerprint since it can be unlocked with a photo.

Music Player, FM Radio and Multimedia

The Mi Music Player is the default music player with usual Xiaomi audio effects and equalizer. It also has FM Radio with recording. Audio through the speaker is loud. Since the phone has stereo speakers audio is louder than the mono speakers found in most smartphones in the price range, which is a good move. Audio through earphones is good as well.

This comes with Widevine L1 support out of the box so that you can enjoy HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hotstar and other streaming apps. This is good for a phone in the price range.

Dual SIM and Connectivity

It supports 4G VoLTE for Reliance Jio, Airtel and other networks and support Dual 4G VoLTE that offers 4G in both the SIM cards at a time. There is Snapdragon X11 LTE modem, but you cant expect carrier aggregation in the price range. Other connectivity options include Dual-Band Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 + 5GHz), Wi-Fi calling / VoWiFi support, Bluetooth 5.0 LE and GPS. It also has USB OTG support that lets you connect USB drives. Moving on, the call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume was loud. It has stock dialer and messaging apps.

The Redmi 9 Powers body SAR is 0.865 W/Kg (Distance:15mm) and head SAR is at 0.868W/Kg which is below 1W/kg, even though the limit in India is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).

Performance and Benchmarks

Coming to the performance, this is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 662 11nm Mobile Platform, which has 4 x Kryo 260 Performance CPUs (A73-based) clocked at up to 2GHz and 4x Kryo 260 Efficiency CPUs (A53-based) at up to 1.8GHz. It has Adreno 610 GPU with support for Open GL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, as well as Vulkan 1.1 graphics and 4GB LPDDR4x RAM.

We did not face any issues or frame drops in games. It gets a bit warm on intensive gaming and 4G data use, but it doesnt get too hot to handle. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below, which shows good performance compared to other mid-range chips, but it cant beat the Helio G80 when it comes to gaming.

Battery life

Coming to the battery life, the phone has a 6000mAh (typical) built-in battery making it the largest battery in the Redmi phone. It lasts for a whole day even with heavy use, and with average use it lasts for two days, thanks to optimization in the MIUI 12. Since the phone has support for 18W fast charging, it takes about 1 hour for 0 to 50% and 0 to 100% takes over 2 hours using the bundled fast charger. This is decent for a phone in the price range. If you want faster charging, the POCO M2 Pro is an option, which comes with 33W fast charging at slightly higher cost. At the launch event the company said that it offers enhanced lifespan battery with 1000 charge cycles compared to 600 cycles in other phones.

It achieved One Charge Rating of 19 hours and 59 minutes in our battery test, which is almost same as the Redmi Note 9 Pro and the Pro Max that come with a 5020mAh battery. This might be due to the SoC used an the optimization, which might be different. Battery life is based on different factors such as software optimization and the processing power that requires to power the phone, so if the phone lasts for a day with heavy use, it is good.

Conclusion

At a starting price of Rs. 10999, the Redmi 9 Power is decent budget smartphone from Xiaomi. The 6.53-inch FHD+ screen good compared to most phones that only offer HD+ screen in the price range, the 6000mAh battery offers good battery life even with heavy use and the build quality is good. The camera is not impressive enough compared to the competitors and the phone has a lot of bloatware and the UI has ads.

Competition

The Moto G9 is a direct competitor that offers better camera quality and a stock Android experience for the same price. The latest POCO M3 at the price is also a good option, if you can compromise on the ultra-wide camera for 6GB of RAM and no ads. If you spend more the POCO M2 Pro is a good deal after the price cut since it doesnt have ads, puch-hole HDR display and faster 33W charging.

Availability

Priced at Rs. 10,999 for the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version and Rs. 11,999 for the 4GB RAM with 128GB storage version, it is available from Amazon.in, mi.com and Mi Home Stores, Mi Studios and Mi Stores.

Pros

Large Full HD+ display

Smooth performance

Stereo speakers

Good battery life

Cons

Average camera performance

Bloatware and ads in UI
Dovel's Paul Leslie to retire after 8-year run and exponential growth

It looks like Paul Leslie is calling it a career at Dovel Technologies as the company on Monday announced his pending retirement as executive chairman, effective in March.

Leslie has been with the company for more than eight years with most of that time as CEO. He passed the CEO role to Damon Griggs in October 2019 and continued to serve as executive chairman.

The company, owned by Macquarie Capital, announced former ICF Chairman and CEO Sudhakar Kesavan as Leslie's successor.

Leslie has had quite the run at Dovel, taking it from a small business into the middle tier with growth rates some years of 60 percent. The employee count grew from 50 to 2,200. Dovel being acquired by Macquarie in early 2019 infused some capital into the company allowing it to acquire Ace Info Solutions in September 2019.

After that deal closed, the CEO role was transitioned to Griggs the following month. Though Leslie and Griggs described it to Washington Technology as a several month process. Griggs was previously president and chief operating officer.

It has been an honor to have led Dovel through its entrepreneurial growth stage. I will forever be grateful to the management team and all our wonderful employees for their dedication to our customers success and their enduring support of our growth strategy, Leslie said in a company release.

Hell continue to serve as an adviser to the company. Griggs called Leslie a mentor.

The transformative success he created is the foundation that propels Dovel as we continue to support missions that truly make a difference in the world, Griggs said. At the same time, I am excited to welcome Sudhakar to Dovel. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience leading and scaling a mission-driven business and I look forward to the ideas and value he will add to our team.

Kesavan led ICF through an initial public offering, expansion of operations globally and more than 20 acquisitions. He retired from ICF at the end of 2020.

I am impressed with the quality of the management team at Dovel as well as their ambition, said Kesavan. I look forward to working with them to support their vision to scale the business and deliver solutions that have a positive impact across the federal government.
Organized crime strategy has changed with social media being used to self-promote their lifestyle. Drug traffickers were seen on an inflatable boat speeding up as a Customs Surveillance Service vessel of Spain was chasing them.



The one-minute TikTok video garnered more than one million views, according to a Courier-Journal report.

Howard Campbell, an anthropologist and drug expert at the University of Texas at El Paso, said that cartels have long used social media to intimidate their enemies from other cartels.

Campbell added that the use of social media platforms has been proven to be an effective strategy.

"The use of TikTok is just the latest phase of this phenomenon," Campbell was quoted on a report.

David Saucedo, the Mexico City-based security analyst, also added that TikTok is being used to mainly promote a lifestyle.

Saucedo said that the social media platform is being used to show a picture of luxury and glamour, as well as to show the benefits of joining criminal activities.

Related story: How Mexican Drug Cartels Earn Billions in Drug Trade

Enticing Young People to Join The Cartel

"I've seen a few criminal messages, (but) what I've seen the most, it's a message to encourage people to join the organized crime," Saucedo was quoted on a report.

After the video of cartel members trying to elude authorities while in a boat, other cartel members started posting anonymous clips of experiences that they have recorded using their phones.

Other cartel members have posted about their luxurious lifestyle, including showing their expensive cars, exotic animals, and jewelry, according to a What's Trending report.

Alejandra Leon Olvera, an anthropologist at Spain's University of Murcia, believes that these videos are "narco-marketing." She said that cartels used these kinds of platforms for publicity.

As a response to the trend, Mexico's Federal Police have made their officers make their own TikToks to address specific videos and the trend in general.

Meanwhile, TikTok is working on removing the said videos from their platform. A spokesperson from the social media platform said that TikTok is committed to working with law enforcement to address organized criminal activity.

Even if TikTok was successful in removing the said videos, many were already starting to screen-record these videos and post them on other social media platforms.

Gang Recruitment and Violence

Families in northern Central America are fleeing the homes and seeking safety in other countries due to death threats, gang recruitment, extortion, and other forms of targeted violence, according to a new UNHCR and UNICEF survey.

About 20 percent of more than 3,100 interviewees migrating in family units said the violence was the main reason behind their decision to leave their communities. This violence includes death threats, extortion, gang recruitment, and domestic violence.

Meanwhile, over 30 percent of unaccompanied migrant children said that violence is the main driver of their movement. These children said that violence affected their access to essential services, which includes attending classes.

"The shift in the demographics of flight from the north of Central America reflects a grim reality on the ground in the countries of origin where entire families are under threat and flee together to find safety," Giovanni Bassu, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency Regional Representative for Central America and Cuba, was quoted on a UNICEF statement.

Related story: Notorious Mexican Cartel Leader Using Children as Shields in Gang War
OTTAWA - It had been a while since Alana Fiks had been able to open her shop in Winnipeg when she spoke about the impact of COVID-19.

Alana Fiks, left, and Angela Farkas, co-owners of Black Market Provisions, are photographed in their store in Winnipeg, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

OTTAWA - It had been a while since Alana Fiks had been able to open her shop in Winnipeg when she spoke about the impact of COVID-19.

The co-owner of Black Market Provisions, which sells food and housewares, said the business has done OK as the store moved to curbside pickup when case counts rose through the fall and winter.

But other LGBTQ-owned business have had a rougher ride, she said. Fiks said she's recommended some of them look at federal aid programs, while also trying to send business their way.

"There's probably a lot of people out there who really need them," she said in a telephone interview.

The question is whether those programs targeting LGBTQ-owned companies are doing the job, with owners saying federally targeted aid remains steps behind what is available in the private sector.

Compounding problems is that broader programs don't appear to collect diversity data on ownership that LGBTQ entrepreneurs say would better track shifts in government procurement, for example.

"The federal programs, they're still in their infancy and I feel like they have a ways to go to catch up even right now," said Connie Stacey, president and founder of Edmonton's Growing Greener Innovations, which sells high-end batteries and solar technology.

"To be honest, it's the first time we've seen any initiatives that are coming out to support diverse groups, but we're a long ways from seeing the real impact of what they could potentially be doing."

But, she says, "you've got to start somewhere."

The LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce says there are more than 28,000 such businesses in the country, contributing an estimated $22 billion in economic activity and employing more than 435,000 people.

They are often in the food-services sector, which has been hard-hit by the pandemic and is likely to take longer to rebound because it often relies on in-person interactions.

The businesses are generally smaller and newer than non-LGBTQ-owned businesses. That means they tend to have less money in reserve when times get tough, and fewer connections to rely on.

"We have a lot of customers who definitely come to us because they know we're queer-owned," Fiks said.

"There is also a camaraderie of being a queer in business. We have a couple in our neighbourhood that are all queer-owned, and lots of Winnipeg, and we all stick together and send each other business."

For those in other areas, like Stacey's green-energy company, the challenge is also being taken seriously when vying for large procurement contracts.

The chamber's CEO, Darrell Schuurman, says that about half of the group's members have hidden their LGBTQ ownership at one point or another. Nearly one-third have said they lost contracts because of their ownership.

That overarching concern harms their growth potential because they're hiding a piece of who they are, Schuurman said.

"That's a challenge and a barrier that they're facing," he said.

"When you couple that with the pandemic and the economic crisis, it just adds greater challenges."

Federal aid programs have doled out billions to businesses to help keep them afloat as revenues fell as public health restrictions took hold, even while expenses remained steady.

Schuurman said many of his members weren't able to access some of the programs early on because of their structure. For instance, many had contract employees, which meant they couldn't access the wage subsidy because they didn't have a traditional payroll.

Questions about aid are part of a survey the chamber has sent to its members. Preliminary data should be available in the next month.

The Liberals have since made changes that Schuurman said should aid many businesses that were originally shut out.

What the chamber is looking for now is a bigger push to diversify federal procurement efforts to give members a chance to compete for contracts.

"It's not an advantage  it's just about making sure that they have that ability to compete," Schuurman said.

"Over the last year, I think that we have certainly seen the government advance a lot more on this."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2021.
China Insider: Chinese Leaders Bullying Remark Backfires

When giving a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Chinese leader Xi Jinping emphasized that big countries should not bully the weak, causing widespread criticism. Some experts pointed out that while Xi made the statement, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was sending a large number of military planes to intimidate Taiwan.
Canada Signs Deal With Novavax to Make Its COVID-19 Vaccine at New Montreal Facility

OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a tentative deal Tuesday with U.S. vaccine-maker Novavax to produce its product in Canada if the COVID-19 vaccine gets approved for use here.

This is a major step forward to get vaccines made in Canada, for Canadians, Trudeau said.

But the agreement isnt going to ease pressure on the government to get vaccines into Canada, because Novavax first has to get its vaccine approved, the National Research Council has to finish building a new facility in Montreal where the doses will be made, and that facility has to be certified to make the vaccines.

Novavax applied Friday for regulatory approval in Canada but is still finishing its clinical trials and doesnt expect to have the final data available for that review for a month or two at least. The NRC facility is going up at lightning speed, said Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, but it wont be finished until late summer.

And then it will take a month or two, said Champagne, for the facility to be certified.

At the end of the year we will be a position to be producing vaccine, said Champagne.

Currently, Canada is reliant on Europe for all its COVID-19 vaccine supply, a situation thats becoming treacherous because the European Union has new export controls on COVID-19 vaccines to try to protect its own deliveries.

Trudeau said the oral promises he received from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Canadas deliveries wont be stopped by the new controls, were enough to reassure him.

This weeks shipments of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are both starting to arrive in provincial receiving locations already, said Procurement Minister Anita Anand.

Canadas shipments have been delayed or reduced by production slowdowns, but Trudeau said the promised four million doses from Pfizer and two million from Moderna are still expected to arrive by the end of March, and 40 million from each by the fall.

If Canadas deliveries arent interrupted, Canadas plan is to have most Canadians vaccinated by the end of September, before the new Canadian production of Novavaxs product even starts.

Trudeau said Canada has to look beyond the current vaccine plan.

As we see new variants rising, we see a virus that will continue to be present in many places around the world, he said.

We dont know what the future looks like for a year from now, two years from now, three years from now.What were very clear on is Canada will be developing domestic manufacturing.

In addition to the Novavax prospect, Trudeau said the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan is ready to produce about 40 million vaccine doses a year, though there is no contract yet in place for a particular vaccine to be made there.

Precision NanoSystems in Vancouver is building a new vaccine facility that will be the first in Canada capable of making the messenger RNA vaccines currently being used in Canada. That facility wont be finished until 2023.

Canada has a contract to buy 52 million doses from Novavax, which has shown promising results. Results from a Phase 3 trialtypically the last before a product is approved for wide usein the United Kingdom published last week showed significant effectiveness against both the original virus behind COVID-19 and the variant known as B.1.17 that was first identified there. A smaller Phase 2 trial in South Africa showed the vaccine was also effective against a variant that first emerged there, known as B.1.351.

If it is approved by Health Canada, some doses will still have to be imported, because the new facility in Montreal is equipped to make only about two million doses a month.

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have shown potential in lab tests against the variants, which are believed to spread more easily and may cause more serious illness. However, the trials that led to those vaccines being approved were completed before the variants had been identified.

More than half the COVID-19 cases identified in Novavaxs British trial were the B.1.17 variant and 90 percent of the cases in South Africa were B.1.351.

The federal Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and the National Research Council have been in talks with all the front-running vaccine makers in the world for months, trying to lure at least one of them to make some of their vaccines at the new facility, which is on track to be finished this summer.

None of those talks have borne any fruit until now.

Opposition leaders welcomed the news but said the government needs to be far more transparent about this deal, what negotiations are underway with other manufacturers, and when vaccines will start to be delivered from the Canadian plant.

Canadians should know when things are going to get better, Conservative Leader Erin OToole said in a statement.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh urged the Liberals to make public all the vaccine contracts with the seven companies with which Canada has a deal to buy COVID-19 vaccines.

This is a good step forward but it is very late, said Singh. This is something that should have been secured a long time ago. It would have addressed a lot of the insecurity people are feeling about not getting the vaccine and seem delays in the rollout, because of production delays.

Canada used to have a strong domestic vaccine industry. Federal records show in 1973, Canada relied on imports for only about one-fifth of its domestic pharmaceutical requirements including both vaccines and therapeutic drugs.

But the industry began to dry up in the 1980s, with multiple firms closing their Canadian operations, including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers and Johnson and Johnson.

Today, Canada relies on imports for at least 85 percent of the vaccines and other pharmaceuticals it uses.

By Mia Rabson
The new 'Bad Bank', as announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Union Budget 2021-22, would be set up "within the next one or two months", Financial Services Secretary Debashish Panda said on February 2.

The new Development Finance Institution (DFI) announced by the finance minister will be called the 'National Bank for Financing, Infrastructure, and Development', Panda told Moneycontrol.

The stakeholders will be state-owned and private scheduled commercial banks, he further added.

The Bad Bank is expected by the government to adequately address the non-performing assets (NPA) crisis of the public sector lenders.

The creation of Bad Bank would allow the banks reeling under stressed assets to clear up their balance sheets, Sitharaman had said during her post-Budget press conference.

Exclusive | Govt won't own or fund 'Bad Bank, loans worth Rs 2.25 lakh crore to be shifted to new entity

Bad Bank to use 15:85 model

Explaining the details about Bad Bank, Panda had earlier told Moneycontrol that the Bad Bank would function in a 15:85 mechanism. It means that banks will get 15 percent upfront payment as cash and 85 percent value as receipts.

"The government is not going to put any money, nor is it going to have any shareholding of Bad Bank," Panda said.

IIFCL can be merged with new DFI

The government is also considering merging India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) with the new Development Finance Institution (DFI), the Financial Services Secretary claimed.

Panda clarified that the new DFI, or any private DFI, will be regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.

The proposed DFI was announced by Sitharaman with the intent to enable long term funding of Rs 5 lakh crore in three-year period for infrastructure projects.
[February 02, 2021] MoneyGram Launches Industry's First Real-Time P2P Payment Solution to Vietnam using Visa Direct

DALLAS, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MoneyGram International, Inc., a global leader in cross-border P2P payments and money transfers, and Visa, the world's leader in digital payments, today launched a real-time peer-to-peer (P2P) payment solution to Vietnam. This latest integration in the partnership between MoneyGram, Visa, Sacombank and other leading banks across the country enables customers to transfer money from the United States, United Kingdom and 18 European countries1 to Vietnam quickly and securely through Visa Direct.2 Consumers can transfer money digitally through the MoneyGram mobile app or website to arrive almost instantly to any Visa cardholder located in Vietnam. "We've already hit the ground running in 2021, and this latest integration with Visa Direct further improves our leading customer experience and will help execute our strategy to scale digital growth in one of the largest remittance markets in the world," said Grant Lines, Global Chief Revenue Officer at MoneyGram. "We've built a modern, mobile, and API-driven company that has enabled MoneyGram to become the preferred partner for cross-border transfers, and we're excited to continue to expand our real-time transfer capabilities with Visa Direct." "Our digital solution will enable MoneyGram consumers to quickly and conveniently receive money directly into their bank accounts via Visa Direct," said Madame Dang Tuyet Dung, Country Manager at Visa Vietnam and Laos. "Cardholders can use any Visa debit or prepaid card to receive cross-border payments via Visa's real-time push payment solution. This partnership with MoneyGram will support Vietnam's economic growth and streamline the remittance transferring process, which is vital to our customers' digital experience and helps introduce our innovations to consumers." Vietnam is estimated to be one of the top-10 remittance recipients in the world. The millions of Vietnamese living and working abroad will now be able to use MoneyGram to send money seamlessly and conveniently to family and friends back at home. "I this digital age, we believe it is important to introduce solutions that can improve our cardholders' lives," said Nguyen Minh Tam, Deputy General Manager at Sacombank. "We're excited to once again be at the forefront of innovation with Visa Direct making cross-border remittances hassle-free and efficient to any Sacombank account holder in Vietnam using their Visa card on Sacombank Pay application."



With Visa Direct, customers can now transfer up to 2,500 USD per transaction and 10,000 USD per day. From now until June 30, 2021, consumers can send money to a Visa debit card in Vietnam without incurring a transfer fee. About MoneyGram International, Inc.

MoneyGram is a global leader in cross-border P2P payments and money transfers. Its consumer-centric capabilities enable family and friends to quickly and affordably send money in more than 200 countries and territories, with 89 now digitally enabled.

MoneyGram leverages its modern, mobile, and API-driven platform and collaborates with the world's leading brands to serve millions of people each year through both its walk-in business and its direct-to-consumer digital business. With a strong culture of innovation and a relentless focus on utilizing technology to deliver the world's best customer experience, MoneyGram is leading the evolution of digital P2P payments. For more information, please visit ir.moneygram.com and follow @MoneyGram. About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. is the world's leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company's relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere.?As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit ? About Visa , visa.com/blog and? @VisaNews . MoneyGram Media Contact

Stephen Reiff

media@moneygram.com Visa Media Contact

Nguyen Thi Phuong Trang

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2 Actual fund availability depends on receiving financial institution and region. Visa requires fast-funds enabled issuers to make funds available to their recipient cardholders within a maximum of 30 minutes of approving the transaction. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/moneygram-launches-industrys-first-real-time-p2p-payment-solution-to-vietnam-using-visa-direct-301220234.html SOURCE MoneyGram

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A new stabilizer could soon turn any soldier into an expert marksman, able to hit their targets with deadly accuracyeven from a standing position.

The Aim Control Enhancer, or ACE, is being evaluated by the US Army for its Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) Program, which fast-tracks cutting-edge firearms.

The device easily attaches to a rifle's Picatinny rail, the mounting platform near the muzzle, and is held by the shooter's non-firing hand.

Small gyroscopes and sensors in the ACE counter subtle horizontal or vertical motion, similar to a camera gimbal.

It was originally developed as part of the U.S. Special Operations Command's now-scuttled 'Iron Man' super-suit program.

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The Aim Control Enhancer, or ACE (pictured), stabilizes a rifle barrel against unnecessary movement. It's being evaluated by the US Army as part of its Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) Program

The enhancer attaches to the weapon's mounting platform and the shooter grips it with their non-firing hand, like a rifle foregrip, Task and Purpose reported.

With the push of a button, it compensates for even slight movements and keeps the muzzle on target.

'It doesnt automatically aim, but the whole thing is closer to image stabilization in a camera lens,' ACE's inventor, Matthew Angle, told Task and Purpose, 'As your hand shakes, the system moves to keep the barrel still.'

The Army confirmed officials with the NGSW program are evaluating the ACE.

'The program is looking at anything and everything in a variety of different aspects, whether it's trigger or barrel technology, and this is just another one of those,' Project Manager Soldier Lethality spokesman Peter Rowland told Military.com.

Small gyroscopes and sensors in the ACE counter subtle horizontal or vertical motion, similar to a camera gimbal

Maintaining stability while firing is exceeding difficult, especially in an unsupported position.

Even breathing techniques and years of training can't always compensate for muzzle wobble.

But the ACE enables a shooter to select a target and remain in the proper orientation, using small gyroscopes and inertial sensors to monitor and adjust how the rifle is moving.

'This effort seeks to merely correct for the shaking of the weapon that is not controllable by the user,' according to the ACE's contract.

'In this manner, a compact, self-contained unit may be constructed in a form factor that is useful on a tactical rifle.'

Angle designed the ACE device in 2014, while working on his doctorate at MIT.

The ACE was originally being considered as part of the Army's now-defunct TALOS, programan attempt to create a real-life version of Iron Man's high-tech super-suit

'The idea is just to get rid of the shake you can't control and still let you aim the thing,' he told Military.com. 'It does reduce your wobble pattern. ... In most people, we can take out somewhere between 60 and 80 percent their wobble pattern size.'

The current iteration weighs just under nine ounces and will retail for about $1,000, Angle said.

It can run on two batteries for five hours before it needs recharging.

Angle had originally been developing the equalizer for the Army's defunct TALOS, or Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, programan attempt to create a real-life version of Marvel's Iron Man.

Back in 2013, the U.S. Special Operations Command requested design submissions for a military-grade 'super suit.'

Submissions were required to incorporate an 'operable exoskeleton' capable of a full range of motion while giving the wearer an array of virtual superpowers  including super-human strength, the ability to see in the dark, and a way of deflecting bullets.

TALOS was abruptly shuttered in February 2019, but interest in ACE survived.

The Army is still looking for a weapons manufacturer to produce automatic rifles the ACE could be attached to, Task & Purpose reports.
QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene boasted Monday that she would soon be visiting former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

During an appearance on One America News, Greene said that Trump was 'doing really well.'

'I'm excited to go visit him soon and continue to give him a call and talk to him frequently. Great news is, he supports me 100 per cent and I've always supported him.'

QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said on One America News Monday that she would soon be visiting former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago and also said he backs her '100 per cent,' as Democrats push GOP leadership to remove her from committees

Former President Donald Trump is photographed on inauguration day heading to Mar-a-Lago. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told One America News on Monday that she planned to visit Trump in Florida soon

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Monday that she planned to visit former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where he's, so far, spent his post-presidency

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (center) previously appeared alongside President Donald Trump (left) at a Dalton, Georgia rally on January 4 on behalf of two Republicans senators who lost their run-off races the next day to Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is giving Republicans an ultimatum - to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments or else Democrats will take action against her

Greene lashed out on Twitter against Hoyer, claiming he should be 'held accountable' for backing the war in Iraq

She also said the 'fake news media' are targeting her because 'I am one of you.'

TAYLOR GREENE'S BIZARRE CLAIMS The California Camp Fire which killed at least 85 was caused by a space laser linked to the Rothschilds and the state's high-speed rail. PG&E admitted it was caused by a faulty power line and went into bankruptcy to fund a $13.5bn settlement and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin cut off a child's face while she was alive, Clinton wore it as a mask so the terrified child would produce 'adrenachrome' and then organized the killing of a cop who knew about it.

The Las Vegas massacre was organized by Democrats to help them ban guns and shooter Stephen Paddock was not a lone wolf.

There's no evidence of a plane hitting the Pentagon on 9/11.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre which cost the lives of 17 students was a 'false flag planned shooting.'

' I am told that Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that we need another school shooting in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control.'

Seth Rich leaked Hillary Clinton's emails and was murdered in revenge by her aide John Podesta because the emails revealed that a D.C. pizza restaurant had a child-smuggling operation in its basement. It does not even have a basement.

The world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles and the Q in QAnon exists and is the 'best chance to take them out.'

Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett are Muslims.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced by a body double.

She wasn't the person who posted a call to assassinate Nancy Pelosi to her own Facebook page. Advertisement

Greene said Saturday she had spoken on the phone with Trump.

'President Trump is always here for the people, and he's not going anywhere,' she continued. 'So I look forward to, to joining him and what his future plans may be.'

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Greene previously appeared alongside Trump at a Dalton, Georgia rally for Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue on January 4, one day before the GOP candidates lost their run-off races to Democrats.

Greene publicly touting her alliance with Trump comes as Democrats are pursuing options to move her off committees if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy doesn't move forward with reprimanding the Georgia freshman Republican over controversial comments she's made.

It also comes as Senate minoroty leader Mitch McConnell on Monday denounced the QAnon congresswoman , calling her 'loony lies' a 'cancer for the Republican Party.'

He did specifically named the freshman lawmaker in a three-sentence statement to The Hill, yet referenced several of the bizarre conspiracy theories the far-right Georgia congresswoman has pushed.

'Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality,' said McConnell.

'This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.'

On Tuesday, CNN reported that Greene had liked and posted comments indicating support for executing prominent Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's ultimatum gives Republicans 72 hours to remove Greene from committees or Democrats will bring the issue to the floor.

'We're focused on making sure that we can render powerless the poisonous nature of this member,' Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters Monday. 'The House has to be able to take actions to police its own membership,'

It is not clear the exact path Democrats would take to remove Greene, but party leaders have several options  and Wasserman Schultz on Monday introduced a measure for removal.

During a call on Sunday, Democratic leadership also discussed a separate motion that would go through the House Rules Committee.

McCarthy and Greene are scheduled to meet for a face-to-face sit-down later this week.

Allies claim he will decide how to move forward with the situation depending on how that conversation goes.

The Republican leader had a similar meeting with then-Rep. Steve King in 2019 after the Iowa lawmaker questioned in an interview with the New York Times why the term white nationalism was so offensive.

During that meeting, King showed little remorse, and shortly afterward, McCarthy removed King from his committees.

McCarthy paid a visit to Mar-a-Lago last week in a public display of support for Trump, who was impeached for a second time last month and will be on trial in front of the Senate next week.

Two of the most severe sanctions Democrats can pursue against Greene would be a formal censure and expelling her completely from the House.

In retaliation against Hoyer, Greene took to Twitter Monday to lashed out at the majority leader for supporting the war in Iraq and claiming he also needs to be 'held accountable.'

'Dems, the DC Swamp and the Fake News Media are more angry at me than they are at @StenyHoyer who voted for the Iraq War, which cost our country thousands of lives and trillions of dollars,' Greene tweeted.

'When will career politicians be held accountable for the blood of Americans on their hands?' she continued.

She posted in another tweet Monday that she is facing attacks from Democrats and the media because she is a 'normal person.'

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (right) is being pressured to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congressional committees. Greene has publicly remained aligned with former President Donald Trump (left), while McCarthy visited Trump last week

'The DC Swamp and the Fake News Media are attacking me because I am not one of them,' Greene wrote. 'I am one of you. And they hate me for it.'

Several Democrats, and a growing number of Republicans, are looking for ways to punish Greene after more revelations came out of her pushing QAnon theories and other conspiracies, like calling the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings a 'hoax.'

Greene sits on the House Education and Labor Committee  and, in particular, lawmakers are concerned with this assignment in light of her stance on mass shootings.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, in an interview Friday with The New York Times, said she won't retaliate against Greene.

She also said in the interview, which was published Monday, that the RNC will 'stay neutral' as the 2022 primary campaign ensues.

'Majorie Taylor Greene is trying to distance herself from those things and there's going to be an investigation,' McDaniel said of the freshman Georgia Republican representative.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel says the GOP will not retaliate against Greene and will 'remain neutral' going into the 2022 primaries

McDaniel said that Rep. Greene is 'trying to distance herself' from QAnon conspiracies she pushed in the past

Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio (left) said Sunday that his colleagues should 'stand up' against Greene, while he and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (right) said they trust and respect voters in Georgia's 14th congressional district to election someone to Congress that represents them

'I trust the voters,' she told The New York Times in an interview Friday. 'I have a lot of faith in the voters to pick who's best to represent them.'

McDaniel, the cousin of Senator Mitt Romney, said the RNC would step in if 'there's more egregious things,' like 'if there's a David Duke situation.'

She also said she trusts McCarthy to 'handle' Greene.

'She has said they're not from her,' McDaniel said of the QAnon conspiracies Greene subscribes to, like that the government is run by a left-leaning, devil-worshiping cabal of pedophiles and sex traffickers.

'There does need to be an investigation, and I trust that Kevin McCarthy will handle that within his own caucus,' she added.

People familiar with McCarthy's thinking told the Times that he felt crippled by the circumstances surrounding Greene and has expressed that the only way to deal with her is to tolerate her.

'If you have a family dispute, don't go on '"Jerry Springer,"' McDaniel also recommended. 'Do it behind closed doors.'

'It's my role to call them and explain that if we don't keep our party united and focused on 2022, we will lose. If we are attacking fellow Republicans and cancel culture within our own party, it is not helpful to winning majorities,' she told The Times.

McDaniel, however, did condemn the QAnon conspiracies pushed by Greene by calling the comments 'atrocious.'

She said 'they need to be condemned,' adding: 'They are inaccurate. They are very, very dangerous.'

McDaniel said the RNC would remain neutral in the Republican primaries, including in Greene's reelection in 2022  as long as no extreme behavior emerges.

Republicans are split over what to do with Greene  who has quickly become arguably the most controversial figure within the party, possibly tied with Trump.

GOP Sen. Rob Portman demanded his colleagues issue a 'strong response' to Greene.

'I think Republican leaders ought to stand up and say it is totally unacceptable what she has said,' the Ohio senator told CNN on Sunday morning.

'I saw a couple videos over the weekend and one had to do with violence as I see it. There is no place for violence in our political dialogue,' Portman continued. 'By the way there is no place for violence in our country. I mean, this is something we got to get away from. So yeah. I think people ought to speak out clearly.'

Portman, however, along with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, also a Republican, said Sunday that voters in Georgia's 14th district should be respected and trusted to elect someone to Congress who represents their values.

'The people of her district elected her and that should mean a lot,' Hutchinson told ABC Sunday, adding that Greene's constituents would decide if she should serve another term or not.

'She's going to run for reelection and she'll be accountable for what she said and her actions.'

'Given her history is she fit to serve?' ABC host Martha Raddatz pushed Hutchinson.

'I'm not going to answer that question as to whether she's fit to serve because she believes in something that everybody else does not accept,' the Arkansas governor dodged.

'I don't think we ought to punish people from a disciplinary standpoint  a Party standpoint  because they believe something a little bit different.'

Before being elected to Congress, Greene expressed some extreme and dangerous views, like supporting the calls for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among other prominent Democrats, to be executed.

Many lifelong Republicans feel there is no place for this more radical version of Republicanism in the modern-day Party.

Greene appears to be creating a place for herself in the party, however, as she took to Twitter Saturday to defend McCarthy against the conservative anti-Trump political action committee, The Lincoln Project.

The PAC called McCarthy a traitor after pictures emerged last week of him meeting with Trump while in Southern Florida for donor meetings.

'The Lincoln Project are the REAL traitors! You aren't Republicans. You are nothing but a bunch of America last losers,' Greene lashed out in a Twitter tirade.

'You wallow in the same pit with the bloodthirsty media and the socialist democrats. [McCarthy] is fighting for America First. The LP is Biden's little tool,' she continued.

Democratic Rep. Cori Bush, also a freshman, announced last week she was moving her Congressional office to get away from 'white supremacist' Greene after she 'berated' her in the Capitol.

Greene has refused to quit saying it was Bush who 'berated' her and that Democrats hate her only because she's 'a threat to their goal of Socialism.'

Some other unfounded conspiracy theories pushed by Greene include claiming the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced by a body double, the 2017 Las Vegas massacre that left 58 dead was organized by Democrats and that there is no evidence a hijacked plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11.

She also wrote on Facebook that California's 2018 Camp Fire was possibly caused by lasers that were connected to former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and the Rothschilds, an anti-Semitic dog whistle.
[February 02, 2021] Confie Named Best Call Center by Yo Amo Tijuana

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Seguros Confie, the Shared Services Center and BPO division of Confie, was named the best call center in Tijuana by local publisher Yo Amo Tijuana. Winners were selected through a multi-round online process led by the popular publisher and social media leader Yo Amo Tijuana (I love Tijuana). Confie is the leading US personal lines insurance distributor. Its nearshore Seguros Confie division is comprised of a shared services center and business process outsourcing (BPO) with over 1,000 staff members who are predominantly bilingual in English and Spanish. The facility operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year to deliver high-quality efficient support for Confie's US brands and its BPO clients. Seguros Confie offers essential services to insurance and financial industry clients, including call center support, back-office processing, and robotic process automation (RPA) that enables them to reduce operational costs while maintaining quality. The Yo Amo Tijuana nomination process included a series of eliminatory rounds. Confie Seguros prevailed as the best call center. Connempathy, Telvista, TaskUs, and Integon were also considered in the nomination process. As part of the process, Confie employees shared the link with friends and family to submit their vote. Commercial partners and vendors of Confie also showed support in their Instagram stories by sharing their votes for them. Commercial partners and vendors of Confie aso showed support in their Instagram stories by sharing their votes for them.



"The most important thing about this distinction is that not only our employees voted, but also their friends and family did as well. That is the greatest recognition we can receive, the trust and affection of those who are part of this great company," stated Javier De La Torre, Vice President and General Manager of Confie's call center. "It is great to see that our employees truly believe that we are the Best Call Center in Tijuana. Their passion is unsurpassed. I see it every day through their consistent collaboration and communication with our BPO clients and their willingness to listen to their needs, adapt to changes, and their desire to always exceed our clients' expectations. I am so proud of our employees. Their drive to always be the best makes me proud to be part of the Confie family," stated Alex Trachtman, Senior Vice President, Business Development.

For more information on Confie's Business Process Outsourcing division, visit www.confiebpo.com. If you would like to inquire about career opportunities, please visit www.confiemx.com or www.confie.com. About Confie Established in 2008, Confie is the nation's leading personal lines insurance distribution company. Today, Confie meets customers wherever they are with more than 750 retail locations in 23 states, the Bluefire general agency, and a telephone and online shared service center servicing all 50 states. With flexible insurance options, outstanding value, and convenient service, Confie's goal is to be the most trusted source of insurance solutions so our customers can have peace of mind. Confie is a portfolio company of ABRY Partners. The Seguros Confie division is a world-class nearshore shared services center and BPO specializing in the insurance and financial industries. For more information, please visit www.confiemx.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/confie-named-best-call-center-by-yo-amo-tijuana-301220280.html SOURCE Confie

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ABC and Nine have lost a defamation case brought about by businessman Chau Chak Wing, with a Federal Court awarding him $590,000 in damages.

The case was brought about following a joint Four Corners / Fairfax investigation which uncovered how Chinas Communist Party is secretly infiltrating Australia.

Chau Chak Wing claimed the program carried six defamatory imputations including that he betrayed his country, is a member of Chinas Communist Party and made enormous donations to influence politicians.

Dr Chaus barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, likened the programs opening to a spy novel and accused the ABC and Nine of failing to keep their tabloid instincts under control.

ABC / Nine statement:

The ABC and Nine are deeply disappointed by todays judgment by Justice Rares in the Federal Court and believe it will have a further chilling effect on media freedom in this country.

The June 2017 Four Corners program Power and Influence, a joint investigation by the ABC, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, raised matters of vital public interest around the issue of Chinese foreign interference in Australias democracy.

The reporting resulted in an important national discussion about the issue of foreign interference in Australia and led to the landmark Foreign Interference and Espionage laws being introduced in 2018.

This case has again starkly demonstrated fundamental problems with Australian defamation law and pre-trial procedures being heavily skewed in favour of a plaintiff.

Not only did the ABC and Nine have to defend imputations the reporting never intended to convey, they were forced to do so before the Court had even determined the program did in fact convey those imputations.

Todays decision confirms the program did not convey two of the more serious allegations the plaintiff had claimed.

Media organisations have long argued Australias defamation laws require reform. Their affirmation in this case will have an immediate and significant impact on media freedom.

The ABC and Nine renew their calls to State and Territory legislators to urgently enact defamation law reform in order to balance the playing field, defend public interest journalism and protect the publics right to know.

MEAA Media section federal president Marcus Strom said: Without commenting on the specifics of todays ruling, the matter highlights the difficulty journalists operate under negotiating Australias restrictive defamation laws. Reform has started but it needs to be quicker, deeper.

Ultimately, Australias defamation regime concerns the publics right to know and press freedom in Australia, Strom said. Lengthy court cases and massive damages payouts are crippling to media organisations. Amendments to the uniform national defamation law regime will hopefully go some way to ameliorating that threat.

The ABC and Nine are both reviewing todays decision.

Source: New Daily

Related
Dillon proposed a $10,000 limit on loans. That issue will come back for exploration at a future Board of Supervisors meeting. Actions taken by the Board of Supervisors would apply only to county races, not city races.

I can read the tea leaves and see my $2,000 isnt catching on, Wagenknecht said.

But he was still happy to see something done on the loan issue.

It can be totally dishonest to give yourself money at the beginning of the campaign and then collect it afterward when no one cares who gives you what, Wagenknecht said. That would be wrong.

A 2016 report by California Common Cause found that about 28% of the states counties and 23% of its cities have adopted their own campaign contribution limits, many of them stricter than the new $4,900 state default limit. The average limit for county board of supervisors races was $2,465.

For example, the Santa Cruz County campaign contribution limit for its Board of Supervisors races is $500. Sonoma Countys is $3,350.

Candidates for local office should not be funded by just a few mega-contributions from the mega-wealthy, Rey Lopez-Calderon of California Common Cause said after Assembly Bill 571 passed in 2019.
Now is a critical moment for his wife, Ms. Yang said. We hope that this is a temporary problem.

Mr. Yang, 54, had long been one of Chinas most obdurately determined democracy activists, and had spent more than a decade in detention and prison.

Best known by his pen name, Guo Feixiong, he took part in the pro-democracy protests of 1989, and made a living as a small-time publisher and novelist before pouring his energies into grass-roots campaigns and debating Chinas political future.

Mr. Yang is among the Chinese dissidents who preferred passionate gestures and rallies over low-key methods such as litigation and online petitions. He made a name as a combative activist when organizing villagers near Guangzhou in southern China in 2005 to protest land seizures that they said were corrupt.

He was sentenced to prison in 2007 after being convicted on charges of illegal business activities related to his publishing. After his release in 2011, he plunged back into activism, and in 2013 joined protests at the Southern Weekend newspaper in Guangzhou, where journalists had denounced tightening censorship.

In 2015, Mr. Yang was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of disturbing public order and picking quarrels and provoking trouble  a vague accusation often leveled at dissidents  for his role in the newspaper protest as well as for supporting a public campaign for China to ratify an international rights covenant.

As Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party leader, has tightened censorship and punishment for dissent, many activists have stepped back from confrontation or given up campaigning.

Mr. Yang has said he rethought his tactics, but never retreated from opposition to one-party rule or from his belief that China would ultimately embrace constitutional democracy. He said he had refused opportunities to move to the United States, where his wife and two children settled in 2009 after leaving China.
The 5-year Eritrean National Action Plan (NAP) on combating Antimicrobial Resistance, 2021 - 2026, developed jointly with MOH, line ministries, and WHO was officially signed by the honorable Ministers on 28th December 2020, reiterating their commitment for implementation.

Honorable Minister of Health, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Land, Water and Environment, Minister of Marine Resources, signed the official document indicating their support and pledge to the NAP implementation and shared responsibility.

This is a milestone for Eritrea, as the joint development and implementation of the strategic plan mirrors the ongoing efforts of SDGs execution. Health has been a top priority in the country, and it continues to lead by bringing relevant sectors together, understanding the significant role other sectors play in the attainment of health-related SDGs.

The objectives of the strategic plan are centered on four critical elements:

- Education and Awareness on AMR;

- Research and Surveillance;

- Infection Prevention Control and

- Antimicrobial Use

The process of development of the National Action Plan was very consultative and inclusive of all stakeholders. In addition to the aforementioned Ministries, Academic institutions, Orotta School of Medicine, National Health Laboratory, Ministry of Information and UN Agencies have been actively involved in the process.

As stated in the consensus building workshop "a collaborative approach between different sectors, and disciplines is essential to address AMR effectively" Mr. Berhane Gebretinsae, Director General of Medical services.

The Honorable Mr. Arefaine Berhe, Minister of Agriculture, emphasized that the tripartite (WHO, FAO and OIE) should play a key role in supporting governments, producers, traders, stakeholders and consumers to move towards the responsible use of antimicrobials in agriculture, human and environment.
Pune, India, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global floating wind power market is set to gain momentum from the rising awareness in various countries about achieving the green energy targets. This information is given by Fortune Business Insights in a new report, titled, Floating Wind Power Market Size, Share & Covid-19 Impact Analysis, By Water Depth (Shallow Water (< 30m Depth), Transitional Water (30m - 60m Depth), and Deep Water (> 60m Depth)), By Capacity (Upto 3 MW, 3 MW to 5 MW, and Above 5 MW), Regional Forecasts, 2020-2027. The report further states that the floating wind power market size was USD 0.67 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 59.24 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 82.2% during the forecast period.

Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market.





Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/floating-wind-power-market-101488





COVID-19 Pandemic: Halt of Electricity Distribution Network Expansion to Affect Growth

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on several major wind energy producing countries, such as Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and China. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), there might be an estimated fall of 6% in the global energy use in 2020. At the same time, the pandemic has affected the expansion of the electricity distribution network in emerging nations by halting the activities.

To get to know more about the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market,





please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/floating-wind-power-market-101488





What Does This Report Contain?

This report includes in-depth information associated with change in material usage, new product launches, and technological advancements. It provides market dynamics based on various factors, such as opportunities, challenges, drivers, hindrances, and dynamics. At the same time, it will deliver a complete insight from the supply side respondents related to market share, distribution, and size.

Drivers & Restraints-

Rising Investments in Renewable Energy Sources to Drive Growth

Several countries worldwide are nowadays adopting renewable energy sources to reduce the emissions of carbon. Hence, wind and solar energies are experiencing high demand. Also, the offshore wind power industry is set to gain new opportunities because of the increasing usage of onshore wind farms. The Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2019 report mentions that there was a surge of USD 272.9 billion in the global investment in renewable energy in 2018. These factors are anticipated to accelerate the floating wind power market growth in the near future. However, the engineering activities and pre-development of wind farms involve a lot of cost spending. It may obstruct growth.





Request a Sample Copy of Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/floating-wind-power-market-101488





Segment-

Above 5 MW Segment Held 63.0% of Share in 2019

Based on capacity, the above 5 MW earned 63.0% in terms of the floating wind power market share in 2019. This growth is attributable to the rising number of planned wind farm construction projects globally.

Regional Insights-

Japan to Remain at Forefront Fueled by Its Plan to Expand Offshore Wind Power Capacity

Geographically, Japan earned USD 0.22 billion in terms of revenue in 2019. The Japan Wind Power Association declared that the country is expected to broaden its installed offshore wind power capacity to 30-45 GW in 2040 and 10 gigawatts (GW) in 2030. It will help in attracting many investors.

The United Kingdom, on the other hand, is set to grow significantly as the world's largest offshore floating wind farm is currently under construction in this country. China will soon become the leader in the coming years. At present, it has several upcoming and under-construction projects lined up for future. In Europe, various countries are considered to be the world leaders in terms of production and usage of wind energy. It would therefore surge the demand for floating wind power plants in this region.





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Competitive Landscape-

Key Players Focus on Winning New Contracts to Compete against Their Rivals

The market for floating wind power houses multiple international and regional companies that are persistently striving to strengthen their positions in the market. To do so, they are trying to bag new orders from reputed floating wind power plant owners. Below are the two latest industry developments:

October 2020 : Total purchased a 20 per cent stake in EolMed floating wind pilot project. It is located in the Mediterranean Sea, near Port-La-Nouvelle and off the coast of Gruissan in France. It will contain three MHI Vestas 10 MW turbines.

: Total purchased a 20 per cent stake in EolMed floating wind pilot project. It is located in the Mediterranean Sea, near Port-La-Nouvelle and off the coast of Gruissan in France. It will contain three MHI Vestas 10 MW turbines. June 2020: Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy bagged a new order to deliver 100 units of its SG 14-222 DD offshore wind turbines for 1.4 GW Sofia Offshore Wind Farm. It is located in the U.K. The project will be able to generate electricity to power more than 1.2 million households.

A list of all the floating wind power providers operating in the global market:

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A. (Spain)

ABB (Switzerland)

GE (U.S.)

Ming Yang Smart Energy Group Co. (China)

MHI Vestas Offshore Wind (Denmark)

Senvion S.A (Germany)

Adwen GmbH (Germany)

Nordex SE (Germany)

GoldWind (China)

Envision Energy (China)

Suzlon Energy Limited (India)

Hitachi (Japan)





Quick Buy- Floating Wind Power Market: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/101488





Major 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 Emerging Trends  For Major Countries Latest Technological Advancement Regulatory Landscape Porters Five Forces Analysis Suppy Chain Analysis

Qualitative Analysis  Impact of COVID-19 Impact of COVID-19 on the Floating Wind Power Market Steps Taken by the Government to Overcome the Impact Key Developments by Industry Players in Response to COVID-19 Potential Opportunities and Challenges due to COVID-19 Outbreak

Global Floating Wind Power Market Analysis (MW, USD Billion), Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Water Depth Shallow Water (< 30m Depth) Transitional Water (30m - 60m Depth) Deep Water (> 60m Depth) Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Capacity Upto 3 MW 3 MW to 5 MW Above 5 MW Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Region U.S. U.K. Germany France Spain Sweden Japan South Korea Rest of the World

U.S. Floating Wind Power Market Analysis (MW, USD Billion), Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027

Key Findings / Summary



U.K. Floating Wind Power Market Analysis (MW, USD Billion), Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027

Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Water Depth Shallow Water (< 30m Depth) Transitional Water (30m - 60m Depth) Deep Water (> 60m Depth) Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Capacity Upto 3 MW 3 MW to 5 MW Above 5 MW



Key Findings / Summary



Germany Floating Wind Power Market Analysis (MW, USD Billion), Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027

Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Water Depth Shallow Water (< 30m Depth) Transitional Water (30m - 60m Depth) Deep Water (> 60m Depth) Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Capacity Upto 3 MW 3 MW to 5 MW Above 5 MW



Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Water Depth



Shallow Water (< 30m Depth) Transitional Water (30m - 60m Depth) Deep Water (> 60m Depth)



Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Capacity



Upto 3 MW 3 MW to 5 MW Above 5 MW



TOC Continued..





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Impact of Covid-19 on the Oilfield Services Market Size, Share, Industry Analysis and Regional Forecast 2019-2027

Hydrogen Generation Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (On-site and Portable) By Technology (Steam Methane Reforming, Water Electrolysis, Partial Oil Oxidation, and Coal Gasification), By Application (Ammonia Production, Petroleum Refinery, Methanol Production, Transportation, Power Generation, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 02:02:54|Editor: huaxia

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LONDON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Urgent testing for coronavirus was launched Monday in parts of Britain amid concerns over community transmission of the virus variant related to South Africa.

Around 80,000 people live in the eight areas in England, including Surrey, London and Kent, are being targeted. Those over 16 years old are asked to take tests whether they have symptoms or not, according to the BBC.

The latest development came after 11 cases cannot be directly traced back to people who had travelled to South Africa, prompting fears there may be community transmission of the variant.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, "It is vital that we do all we can to stop transmission of this variant and I strongly urge everyone in these areas to get tested, whether you have symptoms or not."

"The best way to stop the spread of the virus -- including new variants -- is to stay at home and follow the restrictions in place," he said. "Until more people are vaccinated this is the only way we will control the spread of the virus."

It is "absolutely vital" that people in these eight areas of England minimise all social contact, the health secretary said at a virtual Downing Street news conference on Monday afternoon.

The emergence of the new variant was a "stark reminder the fight against this virus is not over yet" and that now ws "no time to let things slip," he added.

A total of 105 cases of the variant related South Africa have been identified in Britain so far, Sky News reported.

Hancock doesn't rule out further restrictions in the eight areas, the BBC reported.

Susan Hopkins, chief of COVID strategy at Public Health England, also urged people in these areas to come forward and take the test.

"We are trying to contain this so it does not spread," she said.

Early study had suggested that the variant related to South Africa is more transmissible but there are signs it could make vaccines a little less effective, according to the BBC.

There is no evidence the variant causes more serious illness, like the variant first detected in Britain.

In a bid to reassure the public, the British Department for Health and Social Care said: "There is currently no evidence to suggest this variant is more serious than others, or that the regulated vaccine would not protect against it."

Nearly 9 million people in Britain have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.

Britain aims to deliver a first dose to 15 million of the most vulnerable by mid-February and to offer all adults their first dose by autumn.

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 roll out coronavirus vaccines. Enditem
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said it has found six more cases of the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant in the country. This is the same variant currently causing anxiety in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world.

The Director-General of NCDC, Chikwe Iheakwazu, while speaking at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Monday, said the cases were detected from samples collected from Osun and Kwara states by scientists at Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), at the Redeemers University in Ede, Osun State.

On 30th of January, our partners at ACEGID detected the B.1.1.7 variant in six additional samples  five from Osun and one from Kwara State. This is the variant of concern that first emerged in the UK, he said.

The five in Osun is most likely related to the fact that this is where ACEGID is and where they get a lot of samples from. In total, we have detected the B.1.1.7 variant in seven cases within Nigeria.

Mr Iheakwazu said the development implies community transmission of this variant of concern, hence the need to scale up on genomic surveillance.

Specifically, we have begun sequencing positive samples among travellers from the UK and South Africa, who test positive on the seventh day of testing.

We are developing a protocol to sequence more samples from across states at ACEGID and our sister-agency NIMR. This is in addition to our capacity at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Mr Ihekweazu said.

He, however, said it is unclear if the new variants are leading to increased transmission recorded in some countries.

We are all aware that with increasing transmission, the virus is adapting to the human population leading to what is known as variants of concern.

In most countries, it is still not clear if the variants of concern are leading to increased transmission, or if the increase in cases is as a result of poor adherence to public health and social measures, he said.

He explained that an additional layer of response required to understand the variants of concern is with genetic sequencing and genomic surveillance.

The BBC quoted top British health officials as saying there was no evidence the new variant was more deadly or would react differently to vaccines, but it was proving to be up to 70 per cent more transmissible.

COVID-19 variants

The new variant detected in the UK in September and dubbed lineage B.1.1.7 has triggered the current exponential spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, leading to a travel ban on the UK by some countries and a stay at home order.

The UK has recorded almost 4 million cases of COVID-19, with over 100,000 deaths, data from Worldometers.com shows.

Over 45 countries have so far identified the UK variant, with experts warning that more countries could report sharp increases in cases in the coming weeks, the BBC reported.

Precautions

Amidst high concerns of the rapid spread of the new variant, some countries are taking proactive measures to prevent importation of new cases of the virus.

The Nigerian government earlier announced new travel rules for passengers coming in from the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Effective from Monday, December 28th, all passengers coming into the country from the UK and South Africa on direct flights, must use the Nigerian International Travel Portal to register, fill in the health questionnaire and must upload a negative COVID-19 PCR result with a validity of not more than five days and must pay for a COVID PCR test at day seven of arrival in country without which they will not be allowed to board the flights, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Sani Aliyu, had said.

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He noted that a special register would be opened at the airports for passengers from these two countries specifically to track and ensure they present for COVID test on day seven.

Mr Aliyu said the country was concerned about the emergence of the new variant in the UK and the additional mutate that was described as coming from South Africa.

He noted that Nigerias system for travels in terms of ensuring the safety of citizens and preventing the importation of cases is one of the most strict.

If you do not present a travel permit, the airlines are being directed not to board.

So if you are coming into Nigeria from the UK and South Africa, it is in your best interest to familiarise yourself with the Nigerian International Travel Portal, Mr Aliyu had said in December.
Bharat Forge Ltd is quoting at Rs 630, up 2.73% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 28.98% in last one year as compared to a 24.25% jump in NIFTY and a 31.77% jump in the Nifty Auto index.

Bharat Forge Ltd gained for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 630, up 2.73% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 1.87% on the day, quoting at 14547.6. The Sensex is at 49555.64, up 1.97%. Bharat Forge Ltd has gained around 14.01% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Auto index of which Bharat Forge Ltd is a constituent, has gained around 11.76% in last one month and is currently quoting at 10227.95, up 2.91% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 20.04 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 39.47 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark February futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 637.45, up 3.32% on the day. Bharat Forge Ltd is up 28.98% in last one year as compared to a 24.25% jump in NIFTY and a 31.77% jump in the Nifty Auto index.

The PE of the stock is 178.1 based on TTM earnings ending September 20.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 17:07:13|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Beijing court on Tuesday handed a death sentence with a two-year reprieve to a man who injured four people with a knife at a hospital in the city.

Cui Zhenguo was convicted of intentional homicide in the first instance, according to the Third Intermediate People's Court of Beijing Municipality.

At Chaoyang Hospital on Jan. 20, 2020, Cui, then 36, attacked Tao Yong, a doctor at the hospital, with a kitchen knife as he was not satisfied with the effect of Tao's treatment on his eyes, said the court.

Tao was seriously injured, and three others who were attempting to stop Cui sustained minor injuries.

Cui awaited police at the scene and the court considered him to have surrendered himself.

It is not known yet if he will file an appeal. Enditem
U.S. consumers can expect to see the newly packaged wines starting this month, with the roll-out to continue through April.

2020 depletions were up 30% over the previous year, reports Shawn Balzano, National Sales Director at 1821 Fine Wine & Spirits, the Zonin familys U.S. import arm. The Castello del Poggio line-up includes Americas favorite Italian Moscato, a DOCG Moscato dAsti, a new delle Venezie DOC Pinot Grigio, an Extra Dry Prosecco, a Rose, and two red blends: Smooth Red and Templars Red.

The new packaging speaks clearly and directly to Castello del Poggios growing diversity of millennial and Gen Z consumers, explains Mike Wolff, 1821 Fine Wine & Spirits Head of Consumer & Trade Marketing. Tasting notes are in English and Spanish. Back labels confirm that contents are gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan-friendly. An easy-to-read sweetness/dryness scale has also been added.

Two offerings are undergoing a name change: The former Castello del Poggio Sweet Rose is now Castello del Poggio Rose. The Sweet Red Provincia di Pavia becomes Smooth Red  the latter a runaway success in the U.S., experiencing 50% growth in volume within the past year.

Shippers and merchandising materials now sport QR codes for seasonally updated content to keep the brand current.

Front labels feature delicately drawn flowers indicative of the primary aroma associated with each wine: orange blossom for the Moscato IGT, honeysuckle and orange blossom for the DOCG Moscato, French broom for the DOC Pinot Grigio, jasmine for the Prosecco, peach blossom for the Rose, wild roses for the Smooth Red, and red peonies for the Templars Red. The floral theme continues in illustrated screwcaps for the premium high-shouldered bottles, exceptions being the prestige DOCG Moscato dAsti 2020 and DOC Prosecco, both of which remain sealed with a classic cork closure.

A new Castello del Poggio website is also in the works and projected to go live later this spring.

Distributed by 1821 Fine Wine & Spirits, Aventura, FL

Moscato Provincia di Pavia NV, IGT, $12

Moscato dAsti 2020, DOCG, $15

Prosecco DOC Extra Dry NV, $15

Pinot Grigio delle Venezie 2019/2020, DOC, $12

Rose Veneto NV, IGT, $12

Smooth Red Provincia di Pavia NV, IGT, $12

Templars Red NV, $12

1821 Fine Wine & Spirits is an independent subsidiary of Zonin1821, the largest privately owned vine growing and winemaking company in Italy. The Zonin family portfolio includes nine wineries located in the seven most prestigious wine growing areas in Italy, as well as California, Argentina, South Africa, and New Zealand. The Zonin family is fully committed to practicing ecologically sustainable viticulture that ensures every bottle embodies the philosophy of preserving the local winemaking traditions, land, and culture of their respective regions. The 1821 Fine Wine & Spirits portfolio is distributed in all 50 states. For more information, please visit http://www.1821fws.com

Zonin, the largest privately owned vine-growing and winemaking company in Italy, is well-known in the U.S., thanks to such successful brands as Zonin Prosecco, Castello del Poggio (Piedmont), Castello di Albola (Tuscany), Masseria Altemura (Apulia) and Dos Almas (Chile). Two new portfolio additions are Lands End from South Africa and three California wines under the 100 Nails Ranch label. All Zonin wines are imported and distributed in the U.S. by 1821 Fine Wine & Spirits.
PRAGUE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Slovakia has reached 3,743, the highest number recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, the country's Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.

"Over the past day, the republic added 1,737 new patients with the coronavirus. Overall, 24,668 people are currently sick, of which 3,743 are hospitalized, including 581 in a serious condition.

This figure is the highest for hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic," the health ministry said in a message.

In December, Slovakia's government decided to extend the state of emergency, which has been in force since October 1, for another 40 days, until February 8.

Earlier in January, Slovakia confirmed first coronavirus cases associated with the faster-spreading strain from the United Kingdom.

To date, Slovakia has confirmed 252,094 COVID-19 cases, with a death toll of 4,784.
Divisions in the early church. Just their problem or ours, too?

By Terri Fullerton

The Greek word eucharisteo (I give thanks) is a term which refers to one of the central traditions in the Christian faith. It is the ongoing commemoration of the last supper Christ had with his disciples before his crucifixion. Its intended to be a time of thanksgiving and remembering the sacrificial and redemptive work of Christ accomplished by his death and resurrection.

In the early church, issues came up as Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians try to become the united, multi-ethnic people of God. Like us, they run into problems that were destructive and divisive to the body of Christ.

In his letters to the communities in Corinth and Rome, Paul addresses the divisions that are bringing more harm than good (1 Corinthians 11: 17, 18). For Paul, this is a pastoral and ecclesial issue that needs correction. The Lords Supper is to focus on Christ with discerning hearts prior to sharing in this meal. It is to bring unity with Christ (1 Cor. 10: 16) and with each other as siblings in the body of Christ. The one bread and one cup stand for the unity of the Church (Phil. 4:1).

Paul points out that some of the Christians in Corinth are not gathering for the Lords Supper but for their own appetites (21), at the banquet meals common in the time-period. Some, likely the poor and marginalized, are going without (being excluded) while others (likely the wealthy hosts) are getting drunk off the wine. It was bringing shame and destruction rather than building up one another up and bringing glory to God. Paul reorients the community to the words and command he received: Christ took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body. Do this in remembrance of me. (23-25). He reminds them that Christ took the cup and proclaimed that it was the new covenant in his blood, and to remember the Lord when they partake of it. (25). He exhorts them to examine their own hearts before sharing this commemorative meal because some are weak, sick, and have forgotten the purpose. At the heart of the Lords Supper is the belief in Christs salvific death and resurrection. By participating in this communal meal, believers testify to Gods faithfulness through his Son in the past, present, and future.

Pauls letter to the house churches in Rome addresses a different issue but it is also causing division and harming table fellowship. In the early church, the Lords Supper was part of gathering for meals. Again, the eucharist was to bear witness to the new family Christ inaugurated, to show the world how the Jew and the Gentile, rich and poor, slave and free could get along because of Christs love. However, like the churches in Corinth, they are not sacrificially loving one another.

The Strong (Gentile Christians) were holding status over the Weak (mostly Jewish Christians) who had just returned to Rome after being expulsed by Claudius. There were disputes over the food laws with the Strong eating unclean food and disregarding what was important to the Jewish believers. The Strong are influenced by having the power and status over others, an influenced by the culture of the Empire. The Strong are behaving in such a way as to exclude their Jewish brothers and sisters. The Weak respond with great judgment and divine-like wrath. They just really despise each other. Table fellowship has become full of quarrels (14:1) and contempt (14:3), rather than focusing on the Lord and what he has done, is doing, and will do for the believers who remain steadfast. Paul states that each one is to be faithful to his or her own conscience regardless of the issue (14: 5-6) of food and holy days.

Paul admonishes them to accept, welcome, and love one another for they do not live for themselves alone (14:7). He compels them to love God and one another, as Christ loved them.

The disruption and division in the early church communities is both their problem and our problem. While we do not judge one another over food laws, we do withdraw and judge one another over social turmoil, political party, racism, sexism, sexual orientation, masks, etc. We seem to always have a targeted enemy, though we often fail to see who the real enemy is for its not the other. The line that strikes me in Romans for our context and contemplation is this Do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. (14: 20) While we often dont often have issues over food laws or Sabbath, we have our own issues causing great division.

What is our food issue? Is it our political party? Views on racism? Women in leadership roles at church? What area do you and I need to examine that is causing more harm than good? I wonder what Paul would say to us today?

Do not for the sake of _________ destroy the work of God.

The kingdom of God is not about food; but about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit of God (14: 17, 18).
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed in a phone conversation with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that Washington would continue robust U.S. economic and military assistance to Kyiv.

"The Secretary emphasized strong bipartisan support for Ukraine. He pledged to continue robust US economic and military assistance to Ukraine," State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

It is noted that Blinken "highlighted the importance of Ukraine maintaining progress on fighting corruption and implementing rule of law and economic reforms that will strengthen Ukraine's institutions and ensure a bright and prosperous future for all Ukrainians."

The U.S. Secretary of State and the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry discussed the fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease.
"With the royalty cashflows now available to support project development, the updated 2021 BFS will for the first time reflect the genuine underlying value of this highly strategic asset," says MD.

Ironbark believes the royalty buyback is likely to have a positive impact on the project economics

( ) has executed the buyback of the Citronen Projects life of mine production royalty, which is now extinguished in full.

The projects life of mine and 2.5% net smelter return (NSR) royalty is now extinguished in full to Pearyland Royalties Co.

Ironbark has agreed to pay Pearyland Royalties Co Ltd the following consideration in exchange for the extinguishment of the royalty:

$316,000 in cash ($50,000 of which will be paid as a non-refundable deposit); and

122 million shares from its existing 7.1 placement capacity.

Transformational step forward

Managing director Michael Jardine said: This represents another transformational step forward in converting Citronen from opportunity to reality, and an extremely positive outcome for all IBG shareholders.

With the royalty cashflows now available to support project development, the updated 2021 BFS will for the first time, reflect the genuine underlying value of this highly strategic asset.

This is a very constructive development during a time of generally rising commodity prices.

The potential for Citronen to become the next major greenfield zinc mine development is clearly demonstrated by the high quality of Ironbarks shareholder base, the recent support of UK-based Bacchus Capital, and the encouraging dialogue established with the US Government-backed EXIM Bank, culminating in the recently announced EXIM financing MOU.

The board, in place since late 2019, is very focused on rewarding shareholders for their long-term commitment to this highly strategic asset and I look forward to further updating the market with positive progress over 2021.

Commercial terms

A due diligence period of 14 days from the signing of the terms sheet has been agreed, with a final settlement date of no later than 30 days after signing.

In the event the royalty buyback is successfully completed, the numbers of shares on issue in IBG will increase from 940,552,114 to 1,062,552,114, with the shares being issued for the royalty buyback comprising 11.5% of the issued capital in IBG.
Nick Petrangelo Leads Star-Studded Super MILLION$ Final Table

February 02, 2021 Matthew Pitt

Nick Petrangelo returns to GGPoker this evening knowing he is only eight eliminations away from becoming the latest Super MILLION$ champion. Petrangelo may be I pole position at the restart but there are some legitimate poker superstars still in the hunt for the $424,580 top prize.

Super MILLION$ Final Table Chips Counts (Feb. 2, 2021)

Place Player Country Chips 1 Nick Petrangelo Canada 3,908,741 2 Bert Stevens Mexico 3,207,143 3 Michael Zhang Brazil 2,825,669 4 Laurynas Levinskas Austria 2,776,960 5 WatWudHaraldSDo Austria 2,339,967 6 Andrii Novak Ukraine 2,173,167 7 Aliaksei Boika Mexico 1,665,325 8 Benjamin Rolle Austria 1,270,234 9 U LOSSER India 832,794

Super MILLION$ Final Table Payouts

Place Prize 1 $424,580 2 $327,396 3 $252,457 4 $194,671 5 $150,111 6 $115,752 7 $89,257 8 $68,826 9 $53,072

Battle Against ElkY and Fedor Holz in GGPoker's New Flip & Gos

Petrangelo has 3,908,741 chips in his stack or a shade over 78.2 big blinds if you prefer. The two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner is one of the greatest tournament players of all-time having banked almost $17.5 million in the live arena and almost $3 million online at GGPoker alone.

It should be no surprise that Petrangelo is the favourite for glory in the latest final table betting market. We certainly wouldnt bet against him besting his third-place finish on December 20.

Former Champion Stevens Is Also Deep Stacked

Bert Stevens

Bert Stevens (3,207,143 chips) is hot on the heels of Petrangelo and will fancy his chances of a second victory in this event. Stevens triumphed on September 17, 2020 and scooped $393,262. Finishing sixth or better takes Stevens GGPoker winnings tally past $4.5 million.

Brazil-based British pro Michael Zhang is the man third in chips courtesy of his 2,825,669 stack. Zhang is an incredible tournament player, one from a high stakes cash game background. This is only Zhangs third appearance in a Super MILLION$ event and its his first in-the-money finish. His betting odds of 6.60 (US +560) look like fantastic value for anyone wanting to take a punt.

Watch This Star-Studded Final Table Unfold Who will win this week's Super MILLION$? Find out right here Head to GGPoker's YouTube channel

Fourth place at the restart belongs to Laurynas Levinskas who has now played in 32 of the 34 Super MILLION$ events. Levinskas has won $432,925 from his 11 Super MILLION$ cashes. His best result weighs in at $151,103, his reward for a fifth-place exit back in August 2020. Finishing fourth or higher would see Levinskas beat that impressive score.

Do you believe in beginners luck? You may do after learning about Austrias WatWudHaraldSDo. They only joined GGPoker this week and enjoyed a couple of small cashes. They then won a $1,000 satellite into the Super MILLION$ and navigated their way to the final table with enough chips, 2,339,967, for fifth-place when play resumes. The newcomer has already locked up $53,072 and is only three eliminations away from a six-figure haul.

GGPoker Launch Daily $30,000 GGCare Flipouts; Bad Luck Has Its Rewards!

Will 13 Be Lucky For Andrii Novak

Ukraines Andrii Novak is hoping 13 is his lucky number tonight. This is Novaks 13th appearance in the $10,300 Super MILLION$ and his fifth cash. Hes reached the final table on two occasions, which resulted in fourth and fifth place exits.

Former EPT Malta champion Aliaksei Boika returns to the fray seventh in chips hoping his final table appearance lasts longer than his previous attempt; Boika finished ninth on January 17 for $56,863. He is already guaranteed a substantial return at this final table because he won his Super MILLION$ seat via a $1,000 satellite.

Down in eighth-place is the high roller genius that is Benjamin Rolle. You may know him better as bencb789. This is Rolles fourth cash and second final table from 11 attempts. His previous final table, on August 9, saw Rolle crash out in fifth-place for a $136,479 haul.

Bringing up the rear with 832,794 chips is U LOSSER who hails from India. U LOSSERs previous attempt to win the Super MILLION$ ended prematurely so they took a shot at this weeks event by entering a $100 satellite. That satellite turned into a $1,000 satellite seat which is now worth at least $53,072. U LOSSER has plenty of work ahead but all you need is a chip and a chair in this game.

Win Your Way Into The Next $10,300 Super MILLION$ Tournament

Satellites for the next edition of the Super MILLION$ are running at GGPoker right now. Head there and see if you can follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest players in the world and become a GGPoker champion.
VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 1, 2021 /CNW/ - Protecting and restoring our wild fish habitat and stocks is a priority for both the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia (B.C.). We know that healthy wild stocks are vital to healthy ecosystems, the economy, the social fabric of B.C.'s coastal communities, and Indigenous cultures and livelihoods.

Both governments are working hard on multiple projects to address and reverse the decline of salmon stocks. This work includes restoring lost protections for fish and fish habitat in the modernized Fisheries Act, advancing science-based fisheries management measures, reviewing concerns regarding predation, and implementing a science based plan to fight climate change.

Today, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Bernadette Jordan, the Premier of British Columbia, the Honourable John Horgan, and the B.C. Parliamentary Secretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Fin Donnelly, announced funding for four projects under the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF). Over the next four years, more than $4M in funding will be delivered to support projects that will help restore salmon habitats across B.C. The latest projects that will receive funding through BCSRIF are:

The Osoyoos Indian Band will support post-mudslide restoration and effectiveness monitoring for Inkaneep Creek and its floodplain. Restoration work will improve the survivability of Okanagan Steelhead, Rainbow trout, and Chinook salmon and apply an innovative combination of traditional knowledge and science towards sustainable fisheries co-management.

The Adams Lake Indian Band will support restoration of the Upper Adams early summer run sockeye to a sustainable level, and improve opportunities for sustainable use.

The Seymour Salmonid Society will undertake a multi-year, Seymour watershed-wide initiative. This will combine rockslide mitigation work to enable upstream fish passage, along with physical habitat enhancement and restoration work to improve the habitat quality and functionality within the watershed.

The Juan de Fuca Salmon Restoration Society will support upgrades to the Sooke River Jack Brooks hatchery facility and interpretive center. Facility upgrades will meet green building codes, include upgraded effluent treatments and the potential for stock assessment capability.

A total of 42 projects have now received BCSRIF funding, representing an investment of approximately $71M for the future of wild Pacific salmon, and the B.C. fish and seafood sector. These investments will play a key role in making B.C.'s wild fisheries more sustainable for the long-term. These investments will also benefit B.C.'s fish and seafood sector by ensuring it can continue to offer stable employment to thousands of Canadians. By supporting projects that build environmental and economic resilience, BCSRIF is also contributing to our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Priorities for the Fund in 2020 have been:

research to refine the scientific understanding of Fraser steelhead, Chinook salmon, and Coho salmon through scientific partnerships and the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge;

habitat restoration projects that target red status conservation units or Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada -listed populations;

-listed populations; innovative processes and technologies to increase the quality and value of B.C. fish and seafood products and optimize fishing operations;

projects to advance selective fishing practices aimed at minimizing bycatch of species of concern;

new aquaculture technologies and processes to improve environmental performance and increase supply chain transparency; and

infrastructure upgrades or improvements to existing hatcheries.

BCSRIF funding is open to Indigenous communities, industry associations, environmental non-governmental organizations, commercial enterprises, and academic institutions. Investments through this program will help recover salmon habitat, benefit commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture, as well as support science and research initiatives. Further information on the application process, timelines and program criteria are available on the BCSRIF website: www.bcsrif.ca

Quotes

"Our Pacific wild salmon are facing unprecedented pressures due to climate change and the increasing demand for fish and seafood products. The Canadian and British Columbian Governments are firmly committed to protecting and restoring this iconic species of our west coast. The BCSRIF program allows us to support hardworking teams on the ground that are leading incredible efforts toward this common goal."

The Honourable Bernadette Jordan, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard

"The Government of Canada and the Province of British Colombia share a deep appreciation for the critical importance of Pacific salmon to BC's culture and economy. The projects announced today will help to restore Pacific salmon fish stocks and ensure they are maintained for future generations."

The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and Member of Parliament for North Vancouver

"I am pleased to see the continued collaboration between the Government of Canada and the Province of British Colombia when it comes to protecting our wild Pacific salmon. BCSRIF supports Indigenous communities, recreational fisheries and industry associations in restoring habitat and creating quality jobs while using the best conservation methods to ensure healthy stocks for future generations."

Terry Beech, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, and Member of Parliament for Burnaby NorthSeymour

"Wild salmon are on the decline and it's going to take all of us working together to conserve, protect and rebuild this culturally and ecologically important species. We need to listen to the voices on the front lines including, First Nations, fishers, streamkeepers, researchers and others if we are to restore salmon populations. By funding projects through the B.C. Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund that focus on innovation, infrastructure and scientific partnerships, we're giving wild salmon every chance to survive in B.C. waters for generations to come."

Fin Donnelly, Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Government of British Columbia

Quick Facts

The Juan de Fuca Salmon Restoration Society project was previously announced by the Province of British Columbia here: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020PREM0044-001492

here: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020PREM0044-001492 The Adams Lake Indian Band project was previously announced by the Adams Lake Indian Band here: http://adamslakeband.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ALIB-Adams-RIver-Salmon-Restoration-Press-Release-Jan-12-2021.pdf

Additional information on projects selected for the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF) can be found online here.

The BCSRIF is a 70 per cent federal, 30 per cent provincial cost-shared program.

The Government of Canada is investing $100M over five years for the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, and provided a one-time investment of $5M for the Pacific Salmon Endowment Fund.

is investing over five years for the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, and provided a one-time investment of for the Pacific Salmon Endowment Fund. The Government of British Columbia is investing $42.85M over five years.

is investing over five years. Indigenous communities, commercial organizations in the wild fisheries and aquaculture sectors, recreational fisheries, as well as non-commercial organizations such as universities and research institutions, industry associations, and conservation groups, can apply.

Salmon are a part of intricate food webs in both their freshwater and marine environments, affecting everything from tiny zooplankton, to large mammals like whales and bears, to birds of prey.

Wild salmon are culturally important for many First Nations in British Columbia . Wild salmon is also part of the province's long-running tradition of recreational and sport fishing, which is directly connected to its tourism industry.

. Wild salmon is also part of the province's long-running tradition of recreational and sport fishing, which is directly connected to its tourism industry. BCSRIF accepted new applications for funding from July 15 to September 15, 2020 . Applications are under review by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Province of British Columbia .

Associated Links

Stay Connected

Follow Fisheries and Oceans Canada on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Follow the Canadian Coast Guard on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Subscribe to receive our news releases and more via RSS feeds. For more information or to subscribe, visit http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/rss-eng.htm

SOURCE Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Region

For further information: Jane Deeks, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, 343-550-9594, [email protected]; Media Relations, Fisheries and Oceans, Canada, 613-990-7537, [email protected]

Related Links

www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca



The secretary of biotechnology development department in Irans presidential office Mostafa Qanei said the necessary doses for inoculation against the coronavirus will be provided through purchase and domestic production and that the public vaccination will be complete by winter 2022.

According to Qanei, Iran is to provide around 16 million doses of the vaccine through the World Health Organization's COVAX program, 25 million doses through import, and 25 million through domestic production.

He went on to say that the first group of people will receive the vaccine this year and that the top-priority people on the list are healthcare staff and medical personnel, people with disabilities, and disabled war veterans,

Senior citizens, people with specific diseases, and those whose job requires contact with others will be vaccinated in spring, the secretary of biotechnology development department said.

Qanei added that in spring 2021, those over the age of 65, people with underlying diseases (aged 16-64), and those in contact with the public due to their job will receive the coronavirus vaccine, he noted, saying other groups to be injected in summer and fall 2021 will include residents of crowded places and the elderly aged between 55 and 65 without an underlying disease.

He added that all Iranians will have been vaccinated by next winter, IRNA reported.

Referring to the jointly produced vaccine by Iran and Cuba, he said that nine Iranian companies are developing a vaccine for COVID-19, three of which have reached the clinical trial phase.

In addition, Qanei said that the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has recognized Iran as one of the producers of COVID-19 vaccine.
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About 1,500 of the initial volunteers in a late-stage clinical trial of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine were given the wrong dose, but weren't informed that a mistake had been made after the blunder was discovered, documents obtained by Reuters show.

Instead, the dosing mishap was presented to the trial participants in a letter dated June 8 as an opportunity for University of Oxford researchers to learn how well the vaccine works at different doses. The letter was signed by the trial's chief investigator, Oxford professor Andrew J. Pollard, and sent to the trial subjects.

As Reuters reported on Dec. 24, participants were given about a half dose due to a measuring mistake by Oxford researchers. The Pollard letter didn't acknowledge any error. Nor did it disclose that researchers had reported the issue to British medical regulators, who then told Oxford to add another test group to receive the full dose, in line with the trial's original plan.

There is no suggestion there was any risk to the health of trial participants. Much is riding on the British-developed vaccine, which is being rolled out across the UK and has been touted as a low-cost weapon against the pandemic. The jab has come under scrutiny because of the dosing error in the Oxford trial and a paucity of data about its efficacy in older people who are most vulnerable to the virus.

Reuters shared the letter - which it obtained from the university through a Freedom of Information request - with three different experts in medical ethics. The ethicists all said it indicates the researchers may not have been transparent with trial participants. Volunteers in clinical trials are supposed to be kept fully informed about any changes.

"They are not clear at all about what they need to be clear about - what's going on, what they knew, the rationale for undertaking further research," said Arthur L. Caplan, founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. "It is lost in a snowstorm of verbiage."

Steve Pritchard, a spokesman for Oxford, told Reuters: "The half-dose group was unplanned, but we did know in advance that there was a discrepancy in the dose measurements and discussed this with the regulators before dosing and when the dosing was revised."

Pritchard also said, "We have not stated that a dosing error occurred." Pollard didn't respond to a request for comment.

The spokesman's suggestion that no error was made is contradicted by documents produced last year by Oxford and its vaccine partner, drugs giant AstraZeneca PLC. In December, Reuters reported that a "Global Statistical Analysis Plan" by Oxford/AstraZeneca, dated Nov. 17 and later published in the scientific journal The Lancet, called the dosing discrepancy "a potency miscalculation."

A spokesman for AstraZeneca declined to comment. The Health Research Authority, a British government agency responsible for approving medical research and ensuring it is ethical, said in a statement that changes to the study design and the letter sent to participants were approved by one of its ethics committees.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine recently has received authorization for use in a growing number of countries, including the United Kingdom, the European Union and India. The UK became the first country to approve it, and began rolling out the vaccine on January 4.

But questions surrounding the clinical trials continue to plague the vaccine. Last week, Germany's vaccine committee recommended it should only be given to people aged under 65, while the EU, which authorized it on Friday for people aged 18 and over, lowered its reported efficacy rate from 70.4% to 60%. In both cases, authorities cited a lack of sufficient data from the clinical trials. The EU also has sharply criticized AstraZeneca for cutting back its planned vaccine deliveries to the continent over the next few months. The company has said it is doing its best to boost supplies.

The mistaken half-dose - which prompted the letter in June to trial participants - continues to be a factor in the reported efficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. Oxford had reported interim results in November that showed the efficacy rate for trial subjects who mistakenly received a half-dose and a subsequent full-dose booster shot was 90%, and that the rate for those who received two full doses was 62%. Combining data from the two dosing regimens resulted in an efficacy of 70.4%.

In authorizing the vaccine, UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), accepted the pooled results, but didn't approve administering the half-dose/full-dose regimen. "There is not persuasive evidence of a real difference in" vaccine efficacy between the two different dosing regimens, it said.

"RECENT CHANGES"

The vaccine's late-stage clinical trial began on May 28. Within days, Oxford researchers realized trial participants had been given lower doses than planned after they displayed milder than expected side effects, such as fever and fatigue. They alerted British medical regulators.

On June 5, the researchers amended the trial protocol at the request of regulators to add a new group that would receive the correct full dose of the vaccine. Three days later, they alerted trial subjects to what they called "recent changes in the study" in a two-page letter attached to an updated 13-page "Participant Information Sheet."

The letter, signed by chief investigator Pollard, stated that researchers "are not sure what dose of vaccine is most likely to be protective against Covid disease" and explained that doses "are measured using standard scientific test methods." It said the late-stage trial participants received a dose measured using one method and that another group will receive a dose measured using a different test to match the dose given in another clinical trial of the vaccine.

It said the lower dose is "still in the normal range of doses that are used in clinical trials" and "if it can provide protection, it might be better for use in vaccine programmes." Caplan said the explanation would be of "no interest whatsoever to the subject because it's too technical. To me, that qualifies as gobbledygook. What you want to know is, why are they doing this, we made an error, it involved dosing, we're not worried about it."

He and other ethicists interviewed by Reuters said researchers are obligated to be forthcoming with test subjects when things go wrong. "As a letter purporting to explain a) an error and b) a change of protocol I find this entirely inadequate," said Simon Woods, a professor of bioethics at Newcastle University, in an email. "It reads like a routine update (and a complex one at that)."

Emma Cave, a professor of healthcare law at Durham University's law school, said: "Presenting the dosing variation as a planned change in the study is potentially a breach of trust if in fact the dosing resulted from an error. The letter makes clear the dosing change but not the reason for the change."

Also read: COVID-19 vaccine: Dr Reddy's aims to roll out Russia's Sputnik V in India in March

Also read: Third coronavirus vaccine in India? Adar Poonawalla hopes to launch COVOVAX by June
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 16:43:33|Editor: huaxia

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QUITO, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador is heading towards general elections scheduled for Feb. 7, in which 16 candidates are vying for the presidency amid a fragmented political landscape.

According to observers, there has yet to be a consolidated political tendency, with splintered parties too small to represent a large portion of the population, and many of them are thus relying on temporary alliances to gather votes.

The fact that so many parties are in the running reflects Ecuador needs a political reform, especially given the approval ratings of some even lower than 1 percent, Juan Paz y Mino, an Ecuadorian political analyst and historian, told Xinhua.

In the elections, two historical economic models are at stake, namely "a neoliberal economic business model and a social economy model," he said.

Accordingly, there are two leading presidential hopefuls, with former banker and conservative candidate Guillermo Lasso representing the first model, and progressive candidate Andres Arauz representing the second, he said.

According to nine recent polls up to Jan. 23, Arauz, the candidate of the Union for Hope Alliance, which gathers left-leaning parties, leads with 37.4 percent of support among voters.

The 35-year-old politician and economist has the backing of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, in whose government Arauz served as the coordinating minister of knowledge and human talent.

Meanwhile, Lasso, with 24.3 percent of voter support, is the candidate of a right-wing alliance between the Creando Oportunidades movement and the Christian Social Party, which has its stronghold in the port city of Guayaquil, an important economic center.

It is Lasso's third run for the presidency, after he lost the 2013 race to Correa, and the 2017 race to incumbent President Lenin Moreno.

To win the first round, a candidate must get at least 40 percent of the vote with a 10-point lead over the second candidate. With so many candidates competing, there will likely be a runoff vote on April 11, Paz said.

Trailing in third place with 15.1 percent of approval is Yaku Perez, an indigenous leader and environmental activist representing the Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador.

According to international relations and political science expert Enrique Crespo, Perez aims to draw the progressive vote "that does not identify with Correa-ism and capitalize on the vote of those who are not satisfied or do not feel represented by the candidacies of Arauz and Lasso."

Paz agrees that a victory for Arauz would mean the return of "Correa-ism" and the ex-president's progressive proposals.

Paulina Recalde, a political analyst and director of private polling firm Profiles of Opinion, told local press that Arauz has an advantage in attracting the "historic diehard vote of the so-called Citizen Revolution," a political movement Correa spearheaded over a decade in power.

In that sense, the elections are likely to gauge the level of support for Correa's legacy, said Recalde.

Despite the approaching of the elections, the latest survey by private pollster Cedatos revealed notable voter apathy and indecision, as a whopping 62 percent of voters said they are undecided and many are even uninformed about the candidates.

Polibio Cordova, the director of Cedatos, told reporters only 30 percent of the population tuned in to the mandatory debate among the 16 candidates on Jan. 16 and 17.

A Cedatos survey showed people's greatest concerns were the economic situation, lack of employment and the health crisis of COVID-19.

With over 250,000 coronavirus cases and about 15,000 deaths Ecuador has registered as of Tuesday morning, the National Electoral Council has put strict social distancing measures in place for the election day to prevent voters from contracting the virus, and strives to ensure that the absenteeism rate would not go above the historical average of 25.6 percent. Enditem
A Texan florist who boasted about breaking down Nancy Pelosi's door during the Capitol riots has asked a judge for permission to travel to a Mexican beach resort for a 'work-related bonding retreat'.

Jenny Cudd, who ran for mayor of Midland, was arrested on January 13 on charges of entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct, and was freed on bail.

Under the terms of her bail she is not able to travel outside the area, but on February 1 she asked the judge for permission to fly to Mexico for the staff vacation.

'Prior to the alleged offense at issue, Ms Cudd planned and prepaid for a weekend retreat with her employees,' her attorneys stated in their court filing.

Jenny Cudd, on the left of the picture wearing a Trump flag, was among the mob on January 6

Cudd is pictured leaving the federal courthouse in Midland, Texas on January 13

Cudd owns Becky's Flowers in Midland, and said on Facebook that she employs nine people

Cudd hoped to travel to the Riviera Maya from February 18-21.

'This is a work-related bonding retreat for employees and their spouses,' they explained.

Cudd owns Becky's Flowers in Midland.

Cudd (pictured) came last in a three-way mayoral race in Midland, Texas, in November 2019, and current mayor Patrick Payton said he was 'saddened' by her involvement

With her business suffering during the pandemic, she received an Economic Injury Disaster Loan of $150,000, The Midland Reporter-Telegram said, and a $41,000 PPP loan.

'Considering the massive amount of taxes I pay and the fact that my business qualified for it and I applied, I viewed the PPP as getting some of my money back which paid the nine people whom I employ for a couple months,' she explained on Facebook.

Cudd is also a cannabis entrepreneur, with interests in two Oklahoma-based farms.

At the moment Cudd is required to check in once a week with the court and verify her address.

She is required to notify the court of the travel outside of Texas within the continental United States, and are not allowed to travel outside of the continental U.S. without written approval.

The next meeting will be a preliminary hearing on February 4, where the two will appear virtually before Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather, sitting in Washington DC, where the charges were filed.

Cudd is facing up to a year behind bars or a $100,000 fine if found guilty.

Her Mexican 'work bonding trip' is not the only request from rioters that has raised eyebrows.

Jacob Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli or the 'QAnon Shaman', refused to eat food that wasn't organic in jail after being arrested. A judge agreed that he should be served organic food.

Cudd went viral when she made a video from inside the Capitol, saying: 'We didn't knock down any statues, we didn't vandalize anything - but we did break down Nancy Pelosi's office door.'

She has since insisted that by 'we' she meant everyone inside the Capitol, rather than her personally. She denies doing anything violent or damaging property.

She said that she didn't personally go into Pelosi's office or see the breaking down of the door, but was speaking in a collective sense about people at the Capitol.

Her attorney, Don Flanary, said that the misdemeanor charges reflected that.

'She's basically just been charged with being there,' he told CBS . 'She did not break into Nancy Pelosi's office. She didn't go anywhere inside or near it.'

He added: 'We're pretty confident that the cameras will show she was only in the public portions of the Capitol.'

Cudd was charged alongside fellow Midland resident Eliel Rosa, a former immigration policy staffer for local Republican candidate Jamie Berryhill.

Rosa faces the same misdemeanor charges as Cudd.

Cudd was one of several political candidates who took part in the siege, along with former US House nominee Rick Saccone of Pennsylvania and recently-elected lawmaker Derrick Evans of West Virginia.

Cudd came last in a three-way mayoral race in Midland, Texas, in November 2019, and current mayor Patrick Payton said he was 'saddened' by her involvement in the mob.

'It saddens me. And that's just as far as I'm willing to comment on that. It saddens me,' he said.

Cudd is one of dozens arrested so far for their participation in the January 6 insurrection

The mob overran the Capitol Police shortly after Trump urged them to 'fight' on his behalf

A large crowd stormed the Capitol as terrified politicians ran for safety

Cudd claims she had merely taken pictures in the Capitol rotunda and did not intrude into the House or Senate chambers or congressional offices.

Condemning the violence that shocked the world, she claimed she had merely wanted to protest with fellow Trump supporters in a 'show of solidarity'.

But in her since-deleted Facebook video, she had spoken cheerfully about how 'we did break down Nancy Pelosi's office door'.

Speaking on Pennsylvania Avenue, she said she had listened to Trump's provocative speech near the White House before heading towards Congress.

'We start walking up to the Capitol, and we get the news that Pence betrayed us,' she said, referring to how the vice president refused to submit to Trump's demands to try and throw out electoral votes that were legitimately cast for Joe Biden.

'When Pence betrayed us is when we decided to storm the Capitol,' she said. 'So we get to the Capitol and some of the patriots had already broken down all of the barricades.'

Describing what happened inside, she said: 'We didn't knock down any statues, we didn't vandalize anything - but we did break down Nancy Pelosi's office door.

'Somebody stole her gavel, and took a picture sitting in the chair, flipping off the camera. Patriots got down on the floor and were sitting in the House members and the Senators' chairs.'

Cudd said the mob had stayed in the Capitol 'as long as we could until they started gassing us, and they started hitting patriots with batons'.

Repeatedly referring to the intruders as 'patriots', she said the MAGA mob was a 'bunch of red-blooded American patriots that actually give a s*** about our country and keeping it'.

She added: 'The government serves at the consent at the governed. Well the governed are p****d off, and the governed don't trust them.

'So yeah, I'm proud of everything that I was a part of today, and I'll be proud of everything that I'm a part of at the next one, and we'll see what happens at that.'

Cudd has since tried to distance herself from the violence, saying she left the rotunda after taking pictures for about 15 minutes.

A picture taken by a news agency showed her taking photos with her smartphone while fellow Trump supporters occupied the rotunda.
In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from an American medical school.

By Abigail Zuger, MD

Elizabeth Blackwell's life has long figured prominently in the standard inspirational liturgy for little girls. In 1849, Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from an American medical school. She completed rigorous postgraduate training and led a busy professional life. She unlocked the doors of the male medical world and propped them wide open for the rest of us.

Needless to say, this hoary version of events contains some inaccuracies. For one thing, some doors barring women from male-dominated medical spheres are even now not yet open. For another, during much of recorded history uncredentialed women functioned as society's primary healers. This truth strips any concept of first doctor of a certain amount of its sheen. And, most problematic of all, Blackwell was a real piece of work. As Janice P. Nimura makes clear in "The Doctors Blackwell," her impeccably researched and beautifully articulated retelling, Blackwell was neither iconic feminist nor iconic physician, but both less and perhaps more of each than generally advertised.

The story's arc is familiar enough. The first American female physician was actually not American at all. She emigrated from Britain in 1832, at age 11, with her large family of fervent abolitionists and religious dissenters. Although she spent time in the Midwest and practiced in New York City, Elizabeth always felt most at home in England, and would ultimately head back to retire there. Americans tended to find her stiff and standoffish in an off-putting British kind of a way. She, in turn, had fairly limited affection for those she once termed the "country boobies and boobyesses" of her adopted home.

The early death of Elizabeth's father forced her to teach for a living, a job she loathed. The study of medicine appealed to her mostly for the "great moral struggle" of getting admitted. Was it the plaintive wish of a dying friend for a female physician that finally made Blackwell take the plunge? Nimura wonders about veracity of this story  Elizabeth was seldom quite so cuddly  and highlights instead Elizabeth's grandiose notions that she was simply intended for great things: "I have a most perfect conviction, that holy influence surrounds me. I know that I am one of the Elect."

Elizabeth was firmly rejected from every medical school she approached. Then the irresolute faculty of little Geneva Medical College in upstate New York turned the big decision over to its student body, and those boys knew an excellent joke when they saw one. They unanimously voted Elizabeth in. She had a predictably lonely time among them, and, also predictably, graduated at the top of the class. Then she worked at a mental hospital in Philadelphia and the great city obstetric hospital in Paris, gaining huge clinical experience in medicine, obstetrics, and surgery.

Ironically, it was a baby who casually unraveled most of her dreams  not her own baby, as she never married or had children, but somebody else's. Tending to a Parisian newborn with congenital gonorrhea of the eyes, Elizabeth splashed infected fluid onto her face, infecting both of her eyes. The gruesome therapies of the day did little for her. Nine months later, her left eye was removed and Elizabeth's surgical career, impossible with monocular vision, was over before it began.

Back in New York, she established an office practice that went nowhere despite (or perhaps because of) her notoriety. But she delivered well-received lectures on health and hygiene, acquired some powerful supporters among the municipal elite, and joined forces with two other women who were soon to become medical school graduates themselves. One was a Polish emigree, Marie Zakrzewska, who proved to be a workhorse clinician and, unlike Elizabeth, loved medical work for its own sake. The other was Elizabeth's younger sister Emily, also far more of a clinician. These three founded and staffed first a clinic for women, then a women's hospital, and, finally, a uniquely rigorous women's medical school. The last was the acme of Elizabeth's trajectory. Soon after it opened in 1869, she returned to Britain and accomplished no more. She died in Britain in 1910, at almost 90 years old.

From this familiar outline, Nimura, a scholar whose academic credentials are in East Asian studies but whose interests have long encompassed women and medicine, spins out some fascinating threads.

First is Elizabeths prickly, iconoclastic personality. It is amusing to consider what a modern admissions committee might have made of her. Tell us about your interests, Miss Blackwell, they might have asked, only to hear, as she wrote in her memoirs, My favorite studies were history and metaphysics, and the very thought of dwelling on the physical structure of the body and its various ailments filled me with disgust.

Second, Elizabeths great moral crusade actually did not open many doors, at least not immediately. Her alma mater in Geneva declined to admit Emily when she applied three years after Elizabeth graduated. Instead, Emily talked herself into Rush Medical College in Chicago, but when she suddenly found herself expelled from Rush after a year (the faculty changed its mind) she had to persuade a dean in Cleveland to let her finish and graduate. A few womens medical colleges did open during these years, but they were not in any way a legacy of Elizabeths, or at least not one she would have accepted. She bitterly deplored their weak curricula and lack of rigour.

Elizabeth also was no feminist, at least not in any common sense of the word. The Blackwell family certainly supported womens rights. One brother married Lucy Stone, the renowned suffragist, and another married Antoinette Brown, the first American woman ordained a minister. Elizabeth tolerated her sisters-in-law, but she wanted nothing to do with their crusade. She found most women intellectually inferior to men and worth no ones trouble: The petty, trifling, priest-ridden, gossiping, stupid, inane, women of our day  what can we do with them? As Nimura points out, it might easily have been a paternalistic man writing.

From this profound contempt came Elizabeths self-assigned mission: to raise up the boobyesses and mold them in her own image of exalted, worthwhile humans. She delivered remarkably retro speeches: The grandest name of woman is mother  the noblest through of womanhood is maternity. Or was she simply blandly, cleverly mouthing familiar words to secure donations for her cause, as Nimura wonders? Was she acknowledging biology yet still demanding utter equality  a legitimate form of feminism? One never really knew with Elizabeth, and perhaps she never really knew with herself.

Her feelings about medicine were similarly muddled. It was always the right to practice the profession, rather than work itself, that appealed to her. She scorned 19th-century medical cults  Mesmerism, eclecticism, and the like  for their silliness. Yet regular 19th-century medical practice could horrify her too, with its violent purgatives and useless pseudoscientific routines. Her obsessions with preventive medicine and hygiene were prescient. Her obsessions with sexual prudence and moral rectitude, both of which she deemed essential for good health, were antique. She was an anti-vaxxer. She was all tangled up in theory and practice, good instincts, wishful thinking, and her own tactless, ambitious, narcissistic self.

Emily, by contrast, was simply a good doctor and a good soul. She had loved biology and the natural world from girlhood and gobbled up her medical studies. She became a skilled surgeon, and frequently served as intermediary between her difficult sister and the rest of the world. But Emily's story is less interesting than Elizabeth's.

Perhaps Elizabeth should be dethroned as the patron saint of medical women (Emily will do for that role) and anointed instead as the saint of another medical archetype: the ambivalent, conflicted, well-meaning doctor who chooses the profession for all the wrong reasons, and then somehow manages to stick it out, doing some little good in the process. We have more of these doctors than anyone might believe, and they will certainly recognize one of their own in Nimura's elegant and perceptive book.

Abigail Zuger is a physician in New York City and a longtime contributor to The New York Times.

This article was originally published on Undark. Read the original article.

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A YOUNG man is alleged to have kicked a womans front door in, punched her in the face when she tried to defend herself and threatened to burn her house down."

Cain Hutch (22) is accused of injuring the woman, who was also hit with the door when it opened and suffered concussion and vision problems after the alleged attack, a court heard.

Judge Bryan Smyth deferred a decision on a court venue for the case, saying he needed to see further medical evidence.

Mr Hutch, with an address at Berryfield Road, Finglas, appeared before Dublin District Court charged with assault causing harm to a woman in an incident last June 26.

He is also charged with public intoxication, threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour and resisting garda officers at Sean OCasey Avenue, Dublin 1.

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Garda Sarah Jane Frewen said the accused made no reply when charged, and the DPP consented to the case being dealt with summarily at district court level.

Judge Smyth asked for an outline of the prosecutions case in the assault charge so he could consider the issue of jurisdiction.

Gda Frewen said it was claimed that the accused forced his way in to the property by kicking in the door.

It was alleged the door hit the woman in the face and she then tried to defend herself, but the accused punched her and threatened to burn the house down. The prosecution would say he then fled.

The woman suffered concussion, migraines, problems with her vision and severe bruising to the face and head, the court heard. The public order charges arose from the same alleged incident.

Mr Hutch had also been charged with criminal damage, but that was withdrawn.

Clinical notes were handed in to court, but there had also been a follow-up medical report which was not available.

Judge Smyth said he would need to see it.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 22:23:12|Editor: huaxia

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DAMASCUS, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Kurdish militia of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) started ending a 23-day siege imposed on government zones in Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah on Tuesday, a war monitor reported.

The Kurdish security force, known as Assayish, opened the roads to the al-Tay neighborhood, which is one of the areas controlled by the Syrian government in Hasakah, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based watchdog group said civilians were also allowed to move in their cars between Kurdish-controlled areas and government zones.

Easing the siege comes as Russia is mediating a deal to end the tension between the Syrian government and the Kurdish militia in Hasakah, said the observatory.

Meanwhile, state news agency SANA also said the Kurdish militia started easing the siege in some areas in Hasakah.

It added that the siege is expected to end in more areas in Hasakah within the next hours.

The SDF has been laying a siege on government zones in Hasakah since Jan. 19, preventing the entry of food and other necessary items.

The Syrian government has for long slammed the SDF for their alliance with the U.S. forces in northeastern Syria while the SDF said the Syrian government forces were planning a military operation in Hasakah. Enditem
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa congratulating the graduating cadets at PAF Academy Tuesday said Pakistan was a peace loving country that had rendered great sacrifices for regional and global peace

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2021 ) :Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa congratulating the graduating cadets at PAF Academy Tuesday said Pakistan was a peace loving country that had rendered great sacrifices for regional and global peace.

The graduation ceremony of 144th GD (P), 90th Engineering Course and 100th AD courses was held at Pakistan Air Force (PAF) academy, Asghar Khan and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa was the chief guest on the occasion, said the Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a press release received here.

Chief of Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan was also present at the ceremony .

While addressing the graduating cadets, the COAS said that we stood firmly committed to the ideal of mutual respect and peaceful co-existence.

"It is time to extend hand of peace in all directions," he remarked.

Pakistan and India should also resolve the longstanding issue of Jammu and Kashmir in a dignified and peaceful manner as per the aspirations of people of Jammu and Kashmir and bring this human tragedy to its logical conclusion, the COAS emphasised. "However, we will not allow anybody or any entity to misinterpret our desire for peace as a sign of weakness," he added.

The army chief said that Armed Forces of Pakistan were fully capable and prepared to thwart any threat. The immaculate coordination and harmony displayed by all the three services in operations against the enemies of Pakistan had brought great improvement in the internal security environment, he said.

The COAS specially commended the critical role played by Pakistan Air Force in War on Terror.

"The outstanding courage and professional excellence displayed by brave air warriors of Pakistan Air Force during Operation Swift Retort is a manifestation of our resolve and capability. The whole nation is proud of its Air Force and I earnestly hope that PAF will scale new heights of glory and excellence in the years to come," the COAS reiterated.

He hailed presence of cadets from KSA for training at PAF Academy Asghar Khan. "This is a manifestation of warm fraternal ties between Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and our Defence Forces indeed. we are proud of the strong bonds of islam, brotherhood and cultural communion that bind us together," the COAS concluded .

A total of 133 graduating Cadets including 11 Royal Saudi Air Force Cadets and 6 lady cadets graduated at the occasion.

The COAS awarded branch insignias to the graduating officers and also gave away trophies to the distinction holders.

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Trophy for the best performance in General Service Training was awarded to Aviation Cadet Faizan Iqbal. Best Allied Cadet Trophy was won by RSAF Cadet Hatem Muhammad Alsofiani. Chief of the Air Staff trophy for overall best performance in Air Defence was won by Aviation Cadet Shahryar Khan. Chief of the Air Staff trophy for the best performance in Engineering was won by Aviation Cadet Muhammad Usman. Chief of the Air Staff trophy for best performance in Flying Training was awarded to Aviation Cadet Danish Qayyum. Sword of Honour for overall best performance in College of Aeronautical Engineering was won by Aviation Cadet Muhammad Usman. Sword of honour for overall best performance in college of Flying Training was won by Muhammad Ibtisam Naeem.

The ceremony was followed by a thrilling aerial display by PAF Academy Aerobatics team" Sherdil" and a specialized military drill" Hamza Flight" of the academy.

Earlier, on his arrival, the COAS was received by Air vice Marshal Shakil Ghazanfar, Air Officer Commanding, and PAF Asghar Khan Academy. The ceremony was witnessed by high-ranking Military & Civil Officials, Diplomats, foreign dignitaries and a large number of guests of graduating cadets.


Guo-Liang Yu, Ph.D., (China), and Sanjeev Redkar, Ph.D., (India), came to the U.S. in the 1980s. By anyone's reasonable measure, both have achieved the American Dream. However, their dream as scientists remained at arm's length.

HONG KONG, Feb 2, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - The American Dream is why the United States is considered the "land of opportunity," and why for centuries immigrants have flocked to our shores seeking their fortunes. Guo-Liang Yu, Ph.D., (China), and Sanjeev Redkar, Ph.D., (India), came to the U.S. in the 1980s. By anyone's reasonable measure, both have achieved the American Dream. However, their dream as scientists remained at arm's length. Their desire? Create a pharmaceutical company that leverages the best of what the U.S. and China have to offer toward discovering and developing new oncology therapeutics, while using the smallest drug development program possible to do so. This is the story of how the scientific careers of an intrapreneur (Redkar) and an entrepreneur (Yu) came together to cofound and co-lead Apollomics."The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement." -- James Truslow AdamsFrom Immigrant To Biopharma IntrapreneurAfter arriving in the U.S. in 1989, Redkar completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering and took a job as a research scientist with Matrix Pharmaceutical in the San Francisco Bay area. While those were formative years, it wasn't until 1998 when he joined SuperGen that the scientist embarked on his intrapreneurial journey. "We had a lab where we were coming up with novel formulations for cancer drugs," he recalls. "We formed an internal group, and I started filing and prosecuting a lot of patents." Prosecuting in the sense that he worked closely with company lawyers to figure out what was needed to get SuperGen's IP protected. Realizing he had much to learn, he took a week-long intensive course on patents. This helped him understand the importance of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), which is the "Bible" for patent attorneys and agents. Being able to apply this skill is one reason he holds more than 200 patents today.Redkar's stint at SuperGen (later renamed Astex Pharmaceuticals) lasted almost 18 years. "We had a lot of commercial programs for the oncology drugs we were bringing to market, so I got to work closely with my commercial colleagues, an experience I'd advocate for all scientists." This experience was, in part, why he went back to get an MBA in 2008. "If I wanted to be a leader in biopharma, I knew I needed to become more of a generalist in my knowledge base and experience."After holding senior level positions in various areas such as preclinical development, operations, and manufacturing, something interesting happened in 2011. "I had built a group in Pleasanton, CA and had begun filing patents to fill the R&D pipeline of Montigen Pharmaceuticals, a company we had acquired within SuperGen." His group also had a lab in Utah, and the two began collaborating on small molecule discovery. But then SuperGen merged with Astex.Pharmaceuticals leaving the company with four R&D operations. The decision was made to consolidate those four down to two, which meant closing the 20-person lab Redkar had built. "At that point I thought, maybe I should try my stint as an entrepreneur," he states. His idea was to find a compound that would fit into that lab, thereby keeping most of the team intact, while building a company around it.Working his network, Redkar came across a cytidine deaminase inhibitor (E-7727) owned by Eisai that made it possible to deliver cytosine-based nucleoside drugs in an oral pill. Eisai had decided to cut the program and were not going to make the payment to keep patent protection in place. Redkar saw potential. "We had worked on an oral cytidine hypomethylating agent for a long time, and we could combine it with E-7727 into one pill and form a small company around it." He negotiated the terms with Eisai, and with the Astex CEO's blessing, began creating a pitch deck. There was an understanding that he would found the new company outside of Astex, and Astex could choose whether or not to invest.Redkar began forming a team, building out a board, keeping his CEO in the loop while also continuing to do his day job and pitching investors. "I thought I could put together a development program for about $500,000." Considering Eisai had done a lot of work already on the asset, Redkar felt he could convince the FDA to utilize that information, along with the data from his company's drug, to prove the drug's safety in a combined form. That way, the company could work toward gaining an approval using a small Phase 3 trial of maybe 100 patients.About a month into the process, Redkar received a call from Astex' CEO asking, "What if Astex pays the half a million? If the program is as good as you say it is, convince some folks internally, convince the FDA, and then we can help you form the company." His first entrepreneurial journey suddenly shifted back to that of the intrapreneur, having to convince colleagues that this two-drug oral combination was something of value. "People were not easily convinced, because we were working on a lot of new drugs and new pathways." Fast-forward to the summer of 2020 and the drug, INQOVI, finally gained FDA approval for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). Although Redkar had left the company in 2016 to start his entrepreneurial journey in earnest, he takes delight in seeing his former colleagues succeed at bringing a new oral treatment to patients using only a 133-patient registration study.Guo-Liang Yu - The Making Of An EntrepreneurGuo-Liang Yu, Ph.D., cofounder, Chairman and CEO of Apollomics, came to the U.S. in 1984 to complete a Ph.D. "I joined Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn's lab, and contributed quite a bit to her and Carol Greider winning the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2009." Following a post-doc at Harvard, Yu was poised to become an academician, but got recruited to become a gene hunter at Human Genome Sciences (HGS) in 1993.At HGS, Yu and colleagues sought to find genes with interesting biological function. Those newly identified molecules would then serve as drug targets to treat various diseases. He also continued his education, as HGS, being in Rockville, MD, was not far from Johns Hopkins University. "I took night classes for business law and marketing for a year to gain a better understanding for how businesses work." He became very interested in patents, inventors, and inventions, and his "education" in that respect would continue as he worked at HGS. "When we were sequencing genes at HGS, we were taught to file patents on any molecule that looked interesting, along with how to do additional experiments to have strong claims protection." As a result, today Yu is associated with more than 500 patents and has become an expert at strategizing IP protection. "When younger companies come to me for help, I always encourage them to build a strong patent portfolio."One of the molecules was Benlysta, which eventually was approved by the FDA. "Today, it remains the only drug discovered through the human genome project and is the only treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)," he attests. Yu credits HGS as his first exposure to entrepreneurship. "I witnessed how HGS needed a multinational like GSK and support of the chemical market to bring a treatment to market." And being that HGS was still very much a startup when he first joined, he also got to observe how management made decisions.Preferring the Bay area, Yu moved back West and joined Mendel Biotechnology in 1998, before starting his first company, Epitomics, in 2001. "That was my first actual entrepreneurial experience that involved raising money, building a budget, delivering on what was promised operationally, and figuring out how to grow the company." The company had two primary activities, building research tools and diagnostic reagents and developing therapeutic antibodies. The life science part was sold to Abcam in 2012 for about $170 million, while the therapeutic arm was spun out as Apexigen, an immuno-antibody company that is still in existence.Having provided a fine return for investors and himself, Yu was recruited to join a CRO, Crown Biosciences in 2013. "At the time, many Chinese scientists who had trained in the U.S. were going back to China and building CROs to provide services to larger companies looking to enter the market," he explains. But according to Yu, being good at science and being good at business are two different things, and as Crown wasn't doing well financially, the board hired him in hopes he could turn it around. The process took about three years. Yu's plan was to do what he had done with Epitomics - spin out a therapeutics company. But that new company would need a CEO.Biopharma Startup Requires The Connecting Of "Preneurs"Redkar and Yu met while each was serving on the advisory board of the University of Pacific (UOP) School of Pharmacy. Yu had told the dean of the college he was looking for a CEO for a startup, and asked if there was someone he could recommend. "He said, 'Why don't you see if Sanjeev is willing to jump out of a large pharma to become an entrepreneur," Yu recalls.At the time, Redkar was looking to pivot from being an intrapreneur to an entrepreneur, and Yu already was the cofounder on more than two dozen companies. The two began discussing entrepreneurship, and the topic of Crown Biosciences eventually came up. Crown had some oncology assets and was interested in seeing how these could be developed outside of China. Having spent his entire career focused on oncology, Redkar's interest was piqued. "I spent the next three months reviewing information, got my China visa, and went over for a visit," he elaborates. Seeing what he thought were gaps, Redkar spent the next four months creating a plan for how these compounds could be developed, along with how he'd pitch investors. He gave a convincing presentation to Crown's board in 2015, and the decision was made to spin out the company. Redkar would be given some seed funding to lead the effort to build a team in the U.S.But leaving an 18-year career as an intrapreneur was not an easy decision, because by now Astex had been acquired by Otsuka, and he had gained a fondness for how this company valued people. Plus, Otsuka was doing well financially. "I knew that becoming the CEO of a startup was going to involve a huge step down in salary and benefits," he shares. He also understood that taking this position would place him in in a more generalist role, and if things didn't work out, it may have been difficult to go back and apply for jobs as a domain expert. He deliberated for about a month, speaking to mentors, entrepreneurs, board members, and his family as he weighed the decision.Resigning from Otsuka at the end of 2015, Redkar attended the annual J.P. Morgan healthcare conference (JPM) in January 2016. There, Yu introduced him to some people from OrbiMed, a life science venture capital group. Subsequently, Redkar conducted a formal presentation of the startup to OrbiMed. "I had begun putting together a development plan, but at that point, I was a single-person company." He remembers the presentation involving about 15 to 20 people from OribMeds' India, Asia, and New York offices, and how they deliberated about investing in a one-person company, something they, "normally never do." But given Yu's consistent success, they decided to make an exception, and agreed to provide the company $10 million to fund its series A. At the time, the company was registered in the Cayman Islands as CB Therapeutics (the CB coming from Crown Biosciences), and one of Redkar's first tasks was to register the company in the U.S. Unfortunately, that name was taken. "I quickly had to decide upon a new name, which is how we ended up with CBT Pharmaceuticals."From One-Person Company To $125 Million Series CWorking as CEO, Redkar grew the company to seven employees and several pipeline assets by the end of 2017. At the same time, Yu was running Crown Biosciences, but near the end of 2017 the company was acquired. Redkar seized on this opportunity to get Yu more actively involved in CBT. "He was chairing our board, but I asked if he'd come on as CEO," Redkar says. In turn, Redkar would take the position of president, and the two would apply a co-leadership approach. "I wasn't really sure how this would work, but we determined that I would focus on all development and operational activities, while Yu would spearhead the funding along with building out an office in Hangzhou China. We'd collaborate on building the company's strategic path."That plan worked out well, as early 2109 brought an announced $100 million series B - and a new name. "We were trying to come up with a better name for the company, and we recalled that our first combination trial was called APOLLO, derived from the Greek God of healing," explains Redkar. That was written on the whiteboard. "Apollymi means to destroy," he adds. That, along with others, also were added to the whiteboard. "Omics is a term used for large amounts of biological data, a coming together, if you will." The three words were combined to come up with Apollomics, signify a group of people coming together to destroy cancer.Now, with a new name and $100 million in the bank, the next steps were to hire a CFO and chief medical officer. These positions were filled in 2019, and by Q3 of 2020, the company had grown to approximately 50 employees, with about 30 in the U.S. and 20 in China. It even completed a $125 million series C financing in Nov. 2020, and has plans for building out R&D and manufacturing operations in China."Our dream is to build Apollomics into a cross-border innovation engine between China and the U.S., by conducting small clinical trials with equal representation between the two countries so a package can be registerable anywhere in the world," Redkar says. For example, in January 2020, Apollomics announced an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with GlycoMimetics to develop and commercialize Uproleselan and GMI-1687 in greater China. GlycoMimetics already had received an FDA breakthrough therapy designation for uproleselan for relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 2017 and has started a Phase 3 global clinical trial for uproleselan for that breakthrough indication. "We've negotiated with China's National Medical Products Administration [NMPA] to do a Phase 3 bridging study for the same compound [APL-106 in the Apollomics portfolio] in combination with chemotherapy in r/r AML, with plans to borrow data readouts from the GlycoMimetics global trial to bridge our Phase 3, significantly speeding China development."Sounds like the entrepreneur is borrowing from his intrapreneurial toolbox. One compound at a time, Redkar and Yu move ever closer to achieving what every scientist dreams of - making a positive difference for humankind. And if you think about it, doesn't that seem well aligned with what many Americans dream of?"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." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.Sidebar 1: Leveraging The Best Of The U.S. And China"We wanted to create a biopharmaceutical company with a slightly different business model," says Guo-Liang Yu, Ph.D., cofounder and CEO of Apollomics. The company wanted to be in the U.S., as that is where the best scientific expertise and thinking still resides. But with China having more than 500 million people residing below poverty, that is where the most significant impact on global health can be had. However, Yu realized that, given the current state of geopolitical affairs, it would be difficult to run a business in China. Besides, Yu hoped that by having operations in both countries, the Chinese team could learn the best practices of their U.S. counterparts, and then apply those in developing products best suited for the Chinese market.Given the current market, raising money does not seem to be a challenge for Yu. All of the funds Apollomics has raised thus far (i.e., $235 million) is of Chinese origin, although in U.S. dollars. "Sanjeev [Redkar] is handling the clinical operations and U.S. buildout, while I've been taking care of most of the finances and the China buildout," Yu says.One challenge they are experiencing is the big difference in market perceptions of value between the two countries. In the U.S., very few biotechs are willing or able to move into clinical development with multiple assets. "Most senior leaders and board members will typically agree that we should focus all our resources on the most promising asset." But Yu says that's not the culture of a Chinese biotech. "If you look at all the public Chinese biotechs, they have at least a dozen assets/molecules moving toward clinical development." From his U.S.-trained perspective, having too many assets moving toward the clinic sends the signal that you really don't have a strong lead candidate to begin with. "It is just a show, and something I still struggle with, as I have to think about how I'm being perceived as an entrepreneur to Chinese investors who might not yet see things the same as their U.S. counterparts." So, one of the challenges is that by having operations in both countries, the company will be compared to other Chinese biotechs with lengthy pipelines, many of which Yu says don't even make sense scientifically. "In China, some companies will count their assets as a means of deriving valuation to investors," he explains. Regardless, he says the Apollomics approach is to put most of the company's resources into its lead product, as that is the product that will either make or break the company.Sidebar 2: Entrepreneurs Need To Be Good StorytellersGuo-Ling Yu, Ph.D., is a highly successful entrepreneur who has served as co-founder of more than two dozen companies and made successful exits from at least two that provided handsome returns for investors and himself. But a venture never gets off the ground without money. And getting investors to want to give money requires an entrepreneur to be a good storyteller. With complicated science, sometimes this means having to "dumb things down." Yu says when preparing to pitch his approach is to think from a layperson's point of view and use a variety of metaphors. He then tests them to see which resonate best. This requires practice. "Try thinking about how you can ask a question so the other side can answer using the metaphor. That way you are facilitating communication and understanding instead of just forcing people to listen to what you have to say."Yu adds that leading in an entrepreneurial setting requires a whole different set of skills - and a willingness to change old habits. "You need to find a way to treat employees so that, if there are business challenges, they don't immediately want to jump ship. And you need to make sure they are having fun while still putting in the long hours and workweeks that a startup requires."One more trait of a good entrepreneur is the ability to teach everyone in the company the importance of being frugal. Yu's approach was to be overly transparent. For example, he remembers raising $1 million dollars for his very first startup, Epitomics. "I called a staff meeting and said, "I have good news and bad news. The good news is we now have $3 million. The bad news is that we as a company now have to generate a certain level of revenue and results if we hope to stay alive." According to Yu, most scientists don't often worry about the revenue component, because that's not their responsibility. But in a startup, you need to train your scientists why they need to care about it, because biotech is a game of survival, and money needs to be stretched as far as possible to get to the next raise.Finally, Yu says that being a good entrepreneur requires a change in mindset, from inductive thinking to deductive thinking. "Inductive thinking is: We have this technology, now what can we develop to sell to the market," Yu explains. "Deductive thinking is: Here's a market with an unmet need. Now, how can that need be satisfied?" In other words, inductive thinking is a solution in search of a problem, while deductive thinking begins with the end in mind.BTPP 1: Have You Heard Of The Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association (CBA)?The Chinese Biopharmaceutical Association (CBA) is one of the largest Chinese American professional associations in the U.S. (www.cba-usa.org). It was founded in 1995 by Guo-Liang Yu, Ph.D., who today is the cofounder and CEO of Apollomics, an oncology therapeutic discovery and development company (to be featured in an upcoming issue of Life Science Leader). But back then, he was still at his first job, working as a "gene hunter" at Human Genome Sciences (HGS) in Rockville, MD. "At the time, HGS had a good group of Chinese scientists who had come from all over the country. Plus, with AstraZeneca, MedImmune, and the FDA and NIH nearby, it was a very nice biopharmaceutical community." As such, Yu began discussing with his friends and colleagues the idea of forming some sort of association. "We could help one another as we became entrepreneurs, along with helping to bridge the gap between the U.S. and China, and academia and industry." Twenty-five years later, CBA remains headquartered in Maryland, but now boasts more than 700 active members, over 8,000 registered individual members, and more than 100 institutional members. While most hail from the nearby geography, the association now has chapters in Canada and China. "When you set up such an organization, it is really important to put some thought around the bylaws." For example, Yu only stayed one term as president, and insisted that each subsequent president do the same. "A CBA president needs to give to the community and grow themselves as leaders, but by limiting that responsibility to just a year, many more will gain the opportunity to learn, grow and lead," he contends. "Every single CBA president has become successful, and many have gone on to found companies, with at least three now having gone public," Yu contends.BTPP 2: We Need To Expand How We Value CompaniesDuring an interview for an upcoming feature in Life Science Leader, Sanjeev Redkar, Ph.D., cofounder and president of Apollomics (a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing oncology treatments), discussed the topic of an exit strategy. "Are you looking to exit or leave a legacy?" I queried. "To build something," he replied. But the question must have touched a nerve, as Redkar began to opine about how biopharmaceutical companies are valued. "We always evaluate companies based on their PE ratios, speed to market, return, stock price, and all that, but there is no value assigned to the social impact a company has," he contends. Take J&J for example, which employs about 100,000 people globally. Depending on the size of the families associated with all those employees, that could equate to J&J helping to feed half a million people. "If J&J's stock price goes up by 5%, and another public company employing 50 people goes up by 5%, the market treats them the same. But the social impact had by J&J is much more significant. As a society, this is something we need to figure out." Redkar says that if you go to any financial or investment website, none will have anything recognizing the social impact those companies have on people. "Maybe we need a PE ratio to the number of employees employed," he considers. "Sure, we've talked about being green, and there are metrics to measure a company's sustainability, but that misses much of what I see as 'social impact.'"By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science LeaderFollow Him On Twitter @RfwrightLSLBe sure to not miss the upcoming feature about Apollomics and Sanjeev Redkar by subscribing to Life Science Leader today. For more information, please find the links below:- This article: https://www.lifescienceleader.com/doc/two-immigrants-one-unique-plan-for-a-biopharma-0001- The full publication, digital edition: http://digitaledition.qwinc.com/publication/?m=53489&i=690286Source: Life Science Leader, Magazine Article | February 1, 2021Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
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Technology alone wont be enough for the Australian economy to live up to the Prime Ministers hopes of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, experts say.

Giving voice to the most ambitious climate aspirations since forming Coalition government, Scott Morrison on Monday said our goal is to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says new technology will drive Australia towards net zero emissions. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

New technology was crucial to drive down the cost of lower emissions industries, Mr Morrison said, and he ruled out any new tax that put a price on carbon.

However, experts said government policy such as mandated emissions caps or financial incentives to reduce greenhouse gases are not only necessary to reach the goal but would benefit the economy.
The Holiday Guru is always on hand to answer your questions.

This week he offers advice around refunds from easyJet, Eurotunnel - and more.

Q. We visited Kefalonia in Greece in 2019 and were intrigued by the neighbouring island of Ithaca. We want to book a package this summer. Any tips?

Lisa Smith, Norwich, Norfolk.

Ithaca is known for its secluded beaches and charming villages

A. Ithaca, the mythical home of Odysseus, is a peaceful island with secluded beaches and charming villages. You fly to Kefalonia and catch a ferry or water taxi across. If you book with a tour operator and have to cancel because of travel restrictions, you will be due a full refund within 14 days. Try sunvil.co.uk or olympicholidays.com.

Q. My daughter and I are due to travel to Brazil to see Rio de Janeiro and the Iguazu Falls in March. But that seems extremely unlikely, especially due to the Brazilian strain of Covid and what Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said about restrictions possibly continuing in March.

We have paid 3,792 for a package. How long before departure is it normal for a tour operator to cancel and offer a refund if restrictions remain?

Gillian Davies, via email.

One reader has booked a package holiday to Brazil in March and wants to know when they'll get notice about a refund if the trip is cancelled

A. You should hear around February 15, when the Government is expected to make its next big lockdown announcement. There is no rule about how soon before a trip an operator must cancel, but companies are careful not to call them off early in case they subsequently can go ahead.

As things stand, all operators are cancelling until the end of February  the known extent of the lockdown. ABTA says decisions on refunds for March and beyond can be expected on a rolling basis from around February 15.

Q. Do you know easyJets cancellation policy? We have Lanzarote flights booked for March 13.

Richard Adams, via email.

A. While lockdowns are in place, all easyJet customers, whether their flights are cancelled or scheduled, can transfer to a later date for free, or receive a voucher or a refund.

Q. In January 2020 I booked Eurotunnel crossings to be used in May that year, costing 176, but could not go because of the first lockdown. Eurotunnel refuses to give me a refund and merely offers a credit. I am about to turn 80 and may not ever go. Am I due a refund?

Patrick Widdowson, via email.

This week the Guru offers advice around refunds from easyJet, Eurotunnel - and more

A. Your standard non-refundable ticket is indeed only eligible for a travel credit. However, given you could not legally travel, it appears a refund ought to be forthcoming under the Competition and Markets Authoritys understanding of consumer law. Your could take Eurotunnel to small claims court or  perhaps more realistically, given the small amount of the claim  hope that travel will be possible soon so you can use the credit. Good luck.

Q. We are both OAPs. We booked four nights at Parkdean Resorts Cayton Bay Holiday Park in Yorkshire in November but could not go because of the lockdown. We still have not had a refund. Can you help?

Mr P. Johnson, Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham.

A. Parkdean Resorts is refunding your money and apologises for the delay. A spokesman says that customers at its 67 resorts in the UK have the option of a full refund, a credit for 120 per cent of their balance or to change their booking date.

Q. We are due to go on a cruise on April 21. The travel agent wants the final payment and says we will lose the deposit if we do not pay. What should we do?

Sue and Ron Capp, via email.

A. If the agent is reputable, ATOL-bonded (Air Travel Organisers Licence) and Abta-bonded, make the payment. If the trip is cancelled you will receive a full refund under law.

WERE HERE TO HELP

If you need advice, the Holiday Guru is here to answer your questions. Email them to: holidayplanner@dailymail.co.uk.
Burglary Suspect Faces Additional Charges

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MCCRACKEN COUNTY - The McCracken County Sheriff's Department has made an arrest in connection to a burglary at the Lone Oak Hank Brother's True Value.On Friday, deputies requested the public's assistance in a burglary investigation after several suspects forced their way into the hardware store and stole power tools and other items.After receiving numerous tips, authorities reportedly learned that 32-year-old Daniel Hartig of Paducah had attempted to pawn some of the stolen property.Detectives say they were able to recover some of the stolen property at the pawnshop that was still in the factory boxes and marked with "Hank Brother's True Value." The investigation then led detectives to a Lone Oak home, where they allegedly found the rest of the stolen property.Detectives questioned two women at the home but believe they were not involved. Hartig, who is currently jailed in Marshall County for an unrelated burglary, was then interviewed and reportedly confessed to the burglary.Authorities believe the stolen property has an estimated value of over $10,000.Hartig is charged with third-degree burglary and theft by unlawful taking over $500.On the Net:
The ongoing farmers movements have helped to revive the best traditions of Indian freedom struggle that shaped Indian politics

The solidarity protest movements in Pakistan in support of Indian farmers have planted new seeds of hope for regional peace and unity. It helps in healing the wounds of partition. The two waring governments and the religious lunatics of both these countries have failed to divide the working classes and peasantry. The farmers of India and Pakistan suffers from the same economic policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. The farmers from both these countries suffer from corporatisation of agriculture that empowers large capitalist classes and causes land alienation.

The cross-border unity and solidarity of farmers and workings classes can establish the hopes for lasting peace, brotherhood and democracy in India and Pakistan. All the powers of Hindutva forces in India and Muslim fundamentalists in Pakistan have failed to divide the working classes on religious and nationalist lines. The future of India and Pakistan relationship looks bright in future amidst the gloomy present.

In spite of all odds, the ongoing farmers movements have helped to revive the best traditions of Indian freedom struggle that shaped Indian politics and its constitutional practice. The call for brotherhood, non-violence, communal, religious harmony, peace, unity, solidarities, inclusivity, secularism and justice represent the best constitutional values enshrined in Indian constitution. The idea of India based on unity in diversity is rejuvenated by the farmers and working classes of India to reclaim the republic and reinforce their citizenship rights granted by the Indian constitution.

The farmers movements uphold the best Indian tradition of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family) that the Hindutva forces are destroying every day. The farmers movement provides formidable momentum to halt the forward march of Hindutva in India. The electoral expediency of the democratic practice is not sustainable in spite of money and muscle power of the Hindutva brigade.

The farmers movement dragged Indian democracy where it belongs. The issues of the marginalised masses and their collective class consciousness will shape Indian democracy in the next decade. The farmers movements have contributed immensely in shaping the collective consciousness to deepen democracy, secularism and welfare state in India. Therefore, it is important to locate the wider impacts farmers movements in India beyond territorial boundaries. These movements have helped to revive and inspire democratic struggles against capitalism to protect people and their planet.

India needs uninterrupted and continuous mass movements to safeguard inalienable and universal nature of citizenship rights and democracy from the Hindutva forces and market fundamentalists. The working classes, farmers, religious minorities, Dalits, tribals and women are the best custodians of the Indian Constitution and its promises for an egalitarian, democratic, secular and socialist India. The farmers movement is a great beginning to defeat all reactionary, patriarchal, feudal and Brahminical Hindutva forces in India.

---

University of Glasgow, UK

In the darkness of nights, the Hindutva forces and their trained henchmen are trying to attack farmers protests and provoke violence with the help of police. The objective of the BJP government is to discredit the peaceful and democratic movements of the Indian farmers. All slanderous campaign by the ruling classes against farmers movements have failed. But the days of Indian democracy looks gloomy as the Hindutva forces standing in defence of corporations and their pet project of establishing agribusiness in India.Indian farmers are fighting against corporatisation of agriculture and land grab by the big corporations to establish full-fledged agricultural capitalism in India. The farmers have realised it from their everyday experiences from the 1991 new economic reforms that all economic reform programmes were carried out to promote and protect corporations and marginalised the masses. This realisation has forced farmers to reclaim their citizenship rights over their own livelihoods and land by opposing the newly legislated agricultural black laws.The bone breaking north Indian cold, Hindutva threats and police intimidation did not stop the farmers to continue their protest against three laws concomitant with corporate interests. These agricultural reforms are detrimental to Indian farmers in particular, rural and agricultural economy in general.The apathetic Modi led BJP government refuses to repeal these laws even after nine weeks of peaceful protests. In spite of all nefarious strategies of misinformation campaigns, the Modi government has failed to contain the spread of the movement to different parts of the country. More people have joined the movement since it began. The farmers protest movement has revived hopes of deepening democracy, solidarity and peace across borders.The farmers movement is a new form of class struggle that breeds regional and international solidarity and moves beyond immediate interests of farmers and their class interests. It inspires brotherhood and reclaims lost peace, democracy and citizenship rights in a period of organized deception of Hindutva forces.Politically speaking, the farmers movement have provided much needed energy and hope to otherwise resigned political opposition in India. The opposition parties have revived their hope that Hindutva forces can be fought and defeated. The farmers movements have also produced a new generation of young leadership committed to the idea of secular democracy in India. The defiance of the farmers protests are not only mounting pressure on the Government of India led by Narendra Modi but also exposed the naked foundation of Hindutva and its relationship with capitalism.It has provoked international solidarity movements in support of Indian farmers. The solidarity protest movements in Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Korea, New Zealand, Portugal, United States of America, United Kingdom and in different parts of Europe have given a sense of internationalism. The farmer organisations and activists in Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, Portugal, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh have extended their solidarity with Indian farmers and demanded to roll back the agricultural reforms.The All Nepal Peasants Federation, the Korean Peasant League in South Korea, the Korean Women Peasant Association, the Indonesian Peasants Union, the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, the Confederation of National Agricultural Association (CNA) from Portugal, National Farmers Union in Canada, the Land Workers Alliance (LWA) in the UK, and the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee have followed the best traditions of internationalism by standing with Indian farmers movements. These solidarity struggles reinforce human values of interconnectedness in struggles for justice beyond territorial boundaries.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 2, 2021 - 14:25 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan expressed concern Tuesday after the European Union recently tightened its export controls of coronavirus vaccines produced within the bloc, with a Cabinet minister indicating the move could affect the schedule for inoculations in the country.

"Supply in Japan cannot be confirmed (due to the controls)," said Taro Kono, administrative reform minister who leads the domestic vaccination efforts, in a press conference.

Kono also said he has heard that the supply of vaccines manufactured in the European Union has fallen significantly short of its initial plan.

"We want to request prompt export of the amount that has already been contracted," he said.

Japan is hoping to begin vaccinating people by late February, with medical workers first in line, using the vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech SE.

The doses produced by Pfizer within the European Union are now subject to the stricter export controls, introduced Friday and effective through March.

Under the rules, any pharmaceutical company seeking to export coronavirus vaccines produced within the bloc needs to first notify national authorities and obtain approval. The measure came amid the 27-member body's efforts to secure enough vaccines in the region.

On Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi urged Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president of the European Commission, in a videoconference to make sure that EU exports of vaccines to Japan will not be affected by the new controls.

Dombrovskis said the European Union understands Japan's concerns and will make maximum efforts to ensure exports run smoothly to Japan, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Japan has agreed to secure 144 million doses from Pfizer, 120 million from AstraZeneca Plc. of Britain, and 50 million from U.S. firm Moderna Inc., the health ministry has said.

Related coverage:

Japan to extend virus emergency to March 7 as hospitals strained

FOCUS: Japan taking cautious approach to COVID-19 vaccination rollout

U.S. firm Novavax says its vaccine 89% effective in British study
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MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Jaws Mustang Acquisition Corporation (the "Company"), a special purpose acquisition company formed for the purpose of entering into a combination with one or more businesses, today announced the pricing of its upsized initial public offering of 90,000,000 units at a price of $10.00 per unit. The units will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trade under the ticker symbol "JWSM.U" beginning February 2, 2021. Each unit consists of one Class A ordinary share of the Company and one-fourth of one redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share of the Company at a price of $11.50 per share. Once the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, the Class A ordinary shares and warrants are expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols "JWSM" and "JWSM WS," respectively.

Led by Chairman Barry S. Sternlicht and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Klaber, Jaws Mustang Acquisition Corporation expects to focus on leading companies across a variety of industries with attractive growth-oriented characteristics and strong underlying demand drivers and with all or a substantial portion of activities in North America and/or Europe.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC is serving as lead book-running manager for this offering. BofA Securities and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC are serving as book-running managers for the offering. The Company has granted the underwriter a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 11,250,000 units at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments, if any.

The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the prospectus may be obtained from: Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Attn: Prospectus Department, 6933 Louis Stephens Drive, Morrisville, NC 27560, telephone: 1-800-221-1037, email: [email protected]; BofA Securities, Attn: Prospectus Department, 200 North College Street, 3rd Floor, Charlotte, NC 28255, telephone: 1-800-299-1322, email: [email protected]; Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attn: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, telephone: 1-866-471-2526, email: [email protected].

Registration statements relating to the securities have become effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

The offering is expected to close on February 4, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.

Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements," including with respect to the proposed initial public offering and the anticipated use of the net proceeds. No assurance can be given that the offering discussed above will be completed on the terms described, or at all, or that the net proceeds of the offering will be used as indicated. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's registration statement and preliminary prospectus for the Company's offering filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Copies are available on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law.

SOURCE Jaws Mustang Acquisition Corp.

Berger said when he read the findings of the first probe, "it was pretty clear to me we needed to do a follow-on...
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making capitalism work for everyone, today launched the Framework for Inclusive Capitalism: A New Compact Among Business, Government, and American Workers. The framework demonstrates the potential for business to work with labor to craft bold but pragmatic policies that equitably extend the benefits of our economic prosperity to all workers. It rests on three core objectives: create more worker opportunity, expand the workforce, and enable fair gainsharing for workers. To achieve these objectives, the framework outlines 21 policy and business practice recommendations to ensure equitable and more inclusive outcomes for the American worker.

For decades, business practices and economic policies adopted by both parties have favored capital over labor, but the crises of the past year have created new urgency to reverse these trends and improve the financial security of America's nearly 160 million workers and their families.

"The vast inequalities in our economic system hurt not only American workers and their families, but also undermine the strength of the economy and the potential for our recovery," said Lynn Forester de Rothschild, founder of the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism and managing partner of Inclusive Capital Partners. "As long as the market continues to be decoupled from the needs of society, our nation will fail to reach its full potential."

Recommendations outlined in the Framework range from stimulating growth of new jobs to creating greater portability of worker benefits and training programs while rapidly increasing worker pay and worker voice in corporations. The Framework also identifies proposals to ensure the health and safety of the workforce and incentivizing companies to invest in workers and eradicating discriminatory policies and practices holding workers back. Download the full report here.

"As we rebuild the American economy, we must reevaluate how our system prepares those who power it. Having workers gain the skills to benefit from their labor and broadly share in America's prosperity is critical to our nation's sustained recovery and economic growth," said R. Glenn Hubbard, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush and the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics and Dean Emeritus of Columbia Business School.

"As President Biden focuses on the urgent challenges of containing the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting the faltering and uneven recovery, and giving emergency relief to households, the Framework for Inclusive Capitalism provides recommendations for how to 'build back better' to achieve sustainable growth and broadly shared prosperity," said Laura D. Tyson, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and director of the National Economic Council under President Bill Clinton and currently Distinguished Professor of the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley.

Developed by a bi-partisan, cross-sector commission, the Framework for Inclusive Capitalism demonstrates that a broad consensus is emerging around critical worker issues.

Commissioners include:

Zoe Baird, Markle Foundation CEO and President

The Hon. Steve Bartlett, former U.S. Congressman and Mayor of Dallas

David J. Berger, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Xavier de Souza Briggs, PhD, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program Senior Fellow

Walter Bumphus, PhD American Association of Community Colleges President

Ursula Burns, former Xerox Chair and CEO and former Chair and CEO of VEON Ltd

Antonio Flores, PhD, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities President

Roger W. Ferguson, PhD, TIAA CEO and former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Inclusive Capital Partners Managing Partner and Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism Founder

R. Glenn Hubbard, PhD, Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics and Dean emeritus of Columbia Business School and former Council of Economic Advisers Chair

Janet Murguia, UnidosUS President and CEO

Andrew McAfee, PhD, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Initiative on the Digital Economy Principal Research Scientist, MIT Sloan School of Management

Ted Mitchell, PhD, American Council on Education President and former Under Secretary of Education

Eduardo Padron, PhD, Miami Dade College President Emeritus

David M. Rolf, SEIU 775 Founder and President Emeritus

Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, Rockefeller Foundation President and former USAID Administrator

The Hon. Leo E. Strine, Jr., former Chancellor and Chief Justice of Delaware

Laura D. Tyson, PhD, Distinguished Professor of the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley and former Council of Economic Advisors Chair

Darren Walker, Ford Foundation President

Ashbel C. Williams, Jr., Chair of the Council of Institutional Investors

Thomas L. Williams, North American Properties President and CEO

*Affiliations are for identification purposes only

"The time has come, as President Biden has promised, to 'reward work and not wealth,' and the proposals of this commission prove that, while the challenges are all around us, consensus solutions are within reach," said David J. Berger, partner of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

On February 3 at 11 AM EST, the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Ford Foundation will host a virtual event to launch the framework featuring Senators Mark Warner and Rob Portman as well as CEOs, labor representatives, and civic leaders. Watch the event here.

About the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism

The Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism is a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to making capitalism work for everyone. The Coalition partners with private, public, and civic sector leaders on initiatives to make capitalism inclusive and its benefits more widely shared. Learn more at www.coalitionforinclusivecapitalism.com.

SOURCE Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism

Related Links

https://www.coalitionforinclusivecapitalism.com/


A day after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented a reform-oriented Union Budget with focus on pushing spending on infrastructure to put the economy ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic back on growth track, expenditure secretary TV Somanathan, in the Ministry of Finance explains the rationale of the Budget and initial hesitancy of the government to push spending. Edited excerpts:

What was the philosophy behind the Budget this time?

The philosophy was to rekindle growth by focusing on labour intensive infrastructure projects because it has the twin advantage of rekindling growth and of creating jobs for the unskilled and the semi-skilled, the exact section of society we want to address. That was the main focus at least on the expenditure side of the Budget I am in charge of.

The total expenditure for nine months to December in FY21 stood at 22.8 trillion whereas the revised estimate (RE) in the Budget for the full year is 34.5 trillion. Where and how will you be able to spend 11.7 trillion in just three months time?

There are a lot of big ticket items to come like fertilizer subsidy worth 65,000 crore, part of the food subsidy needs to be absorbed in this (fourth) quarter. These are big ticket, lumpy expenditures. So we are very likely to reach that figure. The extrapolation this year is going to be very misleading. In the first six months, expenditure was artificially restricted. The restrictions on expenditure were imposed till the end of Q2 (September quarter). They have been relaxed and removed.

So, the pace of expenditure is not a steady graph with a lot of administrative control on expenditure which has affected it. Some of the package announcements will be released in the last (March) quarter. Similarly, some of the additional provisions we have made in the RE for railways and highways etc will get spent in this quarter. So we are fairly confident that the RE numbers will be approximately correct.

Shouldnt such expenditure have been frontloaded in a recession year and spent especially during September quarter when government expenditure contracted? Instead of counter-cyclical support, arent you providing pro-cyclical support?

Thats true. We felt that there is no point in attempting to spend money at a time when the economy was physically under health restrictions. For example, in the case of capital expenditure, we had not put restrictions on capital spending ministries such as highways and railways but yet they could not spent because workers, contractors were not coming; machines could not be operated, so several work sites were closed.

Till September, most of the country was in lockdown in some form or the other. It is only after September, many of the work sites for capital works opened. So trying to force people to spend money at that time would have led to agencies simply releasing the money and it would have landed up in somebodys bank account without being spent. We felt timing was important. The expenditure push should be timed after artificial health restrain on activities has ended. Now when you spend, it results in activities. Earlier, if we had spent, it may not have resulted in activities, but it would have worsened our fiscal position.

Though experts argue that starting June, lockdown was eased and government could have pushed expenditure in the second quarter.

Its not correct. Easing was gradual, there were many containment zones. Even if part of a state is in containment zone, transportation, workers are affected. Even your engineer may be caught in a containment zone. So lots of obstacles were there.

While government has talked about a V-shaped recovery in the economy, the discussion among economists is about a K-shaped recovery with the vulnerable and poor being impacted disproportionately with massive job losses in the informal sector. Many argue that the Budget has little for this section of the society.

I wouldnt agree. A lot of the commentary looks only at cash support. In our system, we provide income support in kind. We provided free food including pulses to 800 million people for eight months till November. That is a big fiscal push. The fact that it comes from an existing system doesnt make it to be not a fiscal push. And other countries dont have the system, so they give cash handouts and then people buy the food. In our case, we directly transfer food, gas cylinders and we have also provided some cash transfers.

So, it is not accurate so say that the vulnerable have been left out. A lot of steps have been taken to protect the vulnerable. Going forward the infrastructure push, resumption of capital projects will provide a lot of assistance to them. And they are already bearing to see some tapering of the demand in the rural employment.

The covid vaccination programme for which government has provided 35,000 crore, will it be a central scheme or states have to contribute to it? And will it be free for everybody?

That is yet to be decided. A decision will be taken by the health ministry in consultation with Niti Aayog. So the manner of funding etc they will decide.

But shouldnt the Budget be making such things clear because states will have to plan and prepare their budgets accordingly.

The ongoing vaccination programme for 3 crore people, it is fully funded by the centre. When we come to a more advanced stage of the first phase of vaccination, it will be decided separately after consultation with states. It will be decided much before the start of the next financial year.

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Gardai have seized 1.1 million euro of drugs and a number of imitation firearms in Dublin.

Cannabis, cocaine and crack were discovered during a search of a storage facility in the City West area on Tuesday.

Officers from the District Detective Unit in Tallaght carried out the search of 27 storage containers.

Gardai recovered drugs including 452,100 euro of cannabis, 542,500 euro of crack cocaine and 70,000 euro of cocaine.

GardaA in Tallaght have seized drugs with an estimated value of a1.1m (pending analysis) along with a number of imitation firearms during a search of a storage facility in the City West area of Dublin.



No arrests were made in this phase of the investigation. pic.twitter.com/PIPf8gRJct  Garda Info (@gardainfo) February 2, 2021

The operation was led by the Tallaght unit, assisted by a unit from Rathfarnham, the burglary response team, emergency response officers and the dog unit.

Four imitation firearms were also seized during the searches.

No arrests were made, gardai said.

The scene is being preserved pending technical and forensic examination.

Investigations are ongoing.
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Bolivia began the 2021 school year Monday amid a spike in coronavirus infections.

President Luis Arce inaugurated the school year in a rural school facility in the south of the country, where students attended wearing masks and sat down respecting social distancing.

The government announced classes would be face-to-face, blended or virtual, depending on the epidemiological situation in each region.

Arce said face-to-face classes will return as the levels of risk of contagion of coronavirus decrease.

"It's the best way to transmit knowledge," he said.

In August, the then interim president Jeanine Anez closed the school year because the State couldn't guarantee access to virtual education, especially in rural areas.

The technological situation has not improved but the Arce administration announced that classes will be taught on television, radio and a free digital platform.

Coronavirus infections continue to rise across the Andean Country. The Ministry of Health reported that in January there were more than 60 deaths per day.

To date, Bolivia reported 218,299 COVID-19 cases and 10,439 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University.

(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)

Andrew Yang, CEO of Venture for America, outside his office in Manhattan on Nov. 24, 2014. Venture for America is a fellowship program for recent college graduates to learn how to excel in startup companies and then progress as successful entrepreneurs. (Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times)

Andrew Yang Tests Positive for CCP Virus

Andrew Yang, the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, announced Tuesday that hes tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus and is experiencing mild symptoms, but is in good spirits.

After testing negative as recently as this weekend, I have taken a positive COVID rapid test. Im experiencing mild symptoms, but am otherwise feeling well & in good spirits, the former Democratic candidate for president said in a Twitter post. Im quarantining & adhering to public health guidelines until I can get back out on the campaign trail.

This situation may have a significant effect on his campaign. Yang has been one of the most active public runners on the mayoral campaign trail, despite all forums and debates being held virtually.

But his campaign team said that he will continue with virtual events.

Yang announced his quarantine two weeks ago after potential exposure to COVID-19 from a campaign assistant.

A December poll shows have Yang leading a crowded field for the late-June Democratic primary, with a narrow edge over Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

More than a dozen candidates have announced bids to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio, including former mayoral counsel Maya Wiley, Comptroller Scott Stringer, and Councilman Carlos Menchaca.

The primaries will take place in June. Theyll mark the first time the city will use ranked-choice voting, which lets voters choose multiple candidates in order of preference instead of just one. The winner of the Democrat primary usually goes on to win the race in New York City.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
The UK has launched its biggest mass-vaccination program, and ACF Technologies aims to support them with technology capable of scheduling millions per week

ACF Technologies, Inc., the leader in Patient Experience Management (PXM) solutions, today announced that it has partnered with United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) to deliver Intelligent Appointment Scheduling (IAS) capable of scheduling a half a million appointments per day.

"For the second time in a year I'm lucky enough to have been a part of quite literally a life-saving solution, the team worked tirelessly to support the NHS in delivering a system capable of supporting one of the biggest mass vaccinations in the history of the UK," said Andy Hart, Managing Director of ACF Technologies UK. "And to be able to say that and have achieved it within the timescales we were asked is something that all the team is immensely proud of. It wasn't just the software and the infrastructure that made it possible, it was a team of people coming together to work for each other and the nation."

The appointment booking system is capable of automatically adjusting to complex vaccination regimes, including multiple vaccine types and dosage variations. Notifications and the ability to manage bookings will ensure patients remain informed of their appointment status supporting the successful completion of the vaccination process.

Simon Ronald, VP of Business Development, said: "Our vaccination platform is the result of a close working relationship with the NHS, and a significant research and development investment. As far as possible we've created a system that not only meets the immediate needs of healthcare providers in their campaigns to vaccinate against COVID-19 but also offers a future-proof solution that will take us a significant step forward in our fight against viruses."

Patients with specialized accessibility needs are automatically matched with nearby locations capable of meeting their unique requirements. Data from all locations is fed into a national reporting system, delivering critical decision-making information to Government and the National Health Services.

About ACF Technologies, Inc.

ACF Technologies helps organizations improve patient experiences using queue management, appointment scheduling, wayfinding, and machine learning technologies. By integrating these technologies into existing business systems, organizations can access real-time insights into patient journeys, and use this information to improve patient experiences. ACF has over 4,000 global installations in healthcare, government, finance, telco, retail, and education organizations.

ACF Technologies' patient experience solutions can be found at www.acftechnologies.com or on our podcast, CX Insider.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005840/en/

Contacts:

Simon Ronald (simon.ronald@acftechnologies.com)
Nearly three months after the inauguration of Godwin Obaseki and Philip Shaibu as Governor and Deputy Governor of Edo State respectively for a second term in office, constituents of. 14 state constituencies have raised concerns over their non-representation in the House of Assembly in nearly two years.

Mr Obaseki and his deputy were inaugurated for a second term in office on November 12, 2020 after the winning the September 19 governorship election in the state.

Before then, 14 lawmakers-elect had their seats declared vacant in December 2019 by the former factional Speaker of the House, Frank Okiye, for being absent from the House proceedings for the mandatory 181 days.

The crisis in the Edo State House of Assembly began when only 12 out of 24 lawmakers-elect were inaugurated under controversial circumstances in the late hours of June 17, 2019 following a proclamation by the governor.

Those affected were Vincent Uwadiae, Ovia North-East II; Ugiagbe Dumez, Ovia North-East I; Washington Osifo, Uhunmwode; Victor Edoror, Esan Central; Kingsley Ugabi, Etsako East and Michael Ohio-Ezomo, Owan West.

Others were Sunday Aghedo, Ovia South-West; Chris Okaeben, Oredo West; Crosby Eribo, Egor; Aliyu Oshiomhole, Etsako West II; Oshomah Ahmed, Etsako Central, and Ganiyu Audu, Etsako West I.

All of them are political allies of a former national chairperson of the All Progressives Congress, Adam Oshiomhole, who was engaged in a protracted political battle with Governor Obaseki.

Two other lawmakers from Oredo East and Owan East, who were sworn-in, also had their seats declared vacant because they were said to have failed to meet the mandatory 181-day sitting requirement for a member in a calendar year.

The former Speaker consequently had called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct by-elections within 90 days in the affected constituencies.

But on August 6, 2020, the crisis took a different turn following the inauguration of the 12 lawmakers in a private residence in Benin. Three other lawmakers joined their aggrieved colleagues to elect Victor Edoror as a factional speaker.

Over 1.6 million constituents affected

From the 2006 population census data for Edo State, over 1.6million constituents may not be getting the needed representation in the state assembly. The number could even be more, apparently.

A breakdown showed that Ovia North-East 1 and 2 constituencies has a population of over 155,344 persons; Uhunmwode, 121,749; Esan Central, 105,242; Etsako East, 147,335; Owan West, 99,056; Ovia South-West, 138,072; Oredo, 374,515; Egor, 340,287; Etsako West, 127,718; and Etsako Central, 94,228.

The implication is that the voices of over 1.6million people are not being heard in the House.

Concerns by lawmakers, constituents

The factional speaker, Victor Edoror, told PREMIUM TIMES that the constituencies of the 14 lawmakers, including himself, whose seats have been declared vacant, are currently not having the expected representation in the assembly.

Although, the Mr Edoror-led faction of the Assembly claimed to have been sitting since they were inaugurated on August 6, but their resolutions do not get to Governor Obaseki.

Mr Edoror said, It is not as if we are not doing what we should do but the government of the day has chosen to select constituencies to listen to. So, my constituency and that of others are not being represented.

The factional speaker urged the government to obey the rules of democracy, adding that Nigerians are watching with disappointment the development in Edo State.

As we speak, in the eye of the law, what is happening in Edo is illegal government because before you can have a government you must have the judiciary, legislature, and executive. One organ cannot be having k-leg (defective) and you think you are running a government because all decisions that are taken in the state are no decisions until the Assembly is well constituted, Mr Edoror said.

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But Marcus Onobun, the second factional Speaker, says he is worried that several constituencies are currently not represented in the Assembly.

Mr Onobun, whose 10-man led assembly is recognised and loyal to the administration of Mr Obaseki, said the available lawmakers were stretched to do the job of the 24-member Assembly.

He, however, admitted that representatives from each constituency would have been in the best position to speak for their constituents.

The speaker said, Yes I am worried, but as representative of the people, we have to do the business of Edo. We do the job of the 24 of us at the moment, so, I do not see a lack of representation. The only difference is that you cannot get an Esan man to speak for an Etsako man the way an Etsako man will speak for his people.

Shine Omokhuale, a constituent of Esan Central State Constituency, said there had been no constituency project in his area because their representative was shut out of the assembly.

He said what is happening in the Edo assembly was the case of the governor usurping the powers of the legislature.

Mr Omokhuale said, The fault may be in the constitution because under a real democratic system should the House of Assembly be under the governor? It should be an arm of its own. The governor is elected by the people and the same with the members of the House of Assembly.

Friday Osaro, a constituent of Ovia South-West State Constituency, said the present impasse in the House has silenced the voices of the electorate.

Mr Osaro said, It is like we do not exist. We have been cut off from the development plans in the state. No representative and every effort to resolve this has not been successful because the governor does not want it at all.

Governor Obasekis inability to resolve the assembly crisis shows his poor leadership qualities, he said.

Similarly, Yakubu Musa, a resident of Auchi whose representative in the House, Aliyu Oshiomhole, is among those shut out, said he was not happy that his constituency is not represented in the assembly.

Mr Musa, a former chairman of Etsako West Local Government Area, said the current composition of the assembly negates the number stipulated by the Nigerian constitution.

It appeared the governor has made up his mind on the matter and painfully the people would have to wait for the long process of a legal tussle to be over, he said.

The way forward?

The factional speakers, Messrs Edoror and Onobun have offered their suggestions for the way forward.

We are all members of the Edo State House of Assembly and not until our inauguration, Edo does not seem to have an Assembly. Before you can have an Assembly you must obey section 91 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It stipulates that for a state to have an Assembly in Nigeria you must have membership not less than 24, Mr Edoror said.

So, having less in an assembly is not an assembly.

It is the majority members that decide while the minority have their say. I am the only Speaker that has been elected in Edo under 17 members. Every other speaker claiming to be speaker, to the law, is null and void and it is fake, he added.

Mr Onobun, on the other hand, said the matter was beyond him.

The matter has gone beyond me as Speaker. I was part of those 10 members that took a resolution after they waited for 181 days where they refused to show up for inauguration to represent their people their seats should be declared vacant.

This is politics, if they can find the solution, good. I foresaw a House of 24 before I came in, but that we are only 10 doing the job of 24 members, it is not easy on us at all. I hope that someday, the House will be fully represented, he said.

Obasekis position

Mr Obaseki said he did not have the power to bring back the 14 lawmakers.

They were listening to their godfather who kept hoping and promising that he would unconstitutionally get the state House of Assembly to re-issue a proclamation even after the court had settled the matter.

For more than 180 days they did not come. They refused to represent the people. Those seats became vacant; thats what the constitution says. They went to court after the seats were declared vacant by the Speaker. There is nothing I can do about that at this time, the governor said, according to a report in the Punch newspaper.
France and China made recent headlines when a French beauty federation announced it was the first EU country to bystep China's animal testing mandate to import 'ordinary' cosmetics into the country. This stirred new hope that the region would end the animal testing requirement for cosmeticsthough regulators underlined that products must meet stringent requirements for approval (read on for details).

This is one of several examples of recent changes in Asian policies for cosmetic products and ingredients. From testing and labeling to ingredient approvals and restrictions, China, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand have been especially busy writing rules and regulations. Following is an overview just within the past month (from December 2020 to Feb. 1, 2021). All reports are according to the Asia-Pacific regulatory source Chemlinked.

Thailand to Permit Cannabis, Hemp Ingredients in Cosmetics

After the legalization of medical cannabis in February 2019, the Thai government proposed a plan to expand the application scope of cannabidiol (CBD) and hemp to food and cosmetics. The Thailand Food and Drug Administration is drafting a new regulation to this effect to allow a maximum CBD and THC content of 0.2%. Other Asian countries reportedly vary widely in their oversight of CBD.

In addition, the Thai government approved low-THC hemp ingredients for domestic cosmetics on Jan. 12, 2021. Manufacturers can now produce cosmetics containing hemp seed oil or extract provided they also do not have a THC level exceeding 0.2% by weight.

China Approves Four Cosmetic Ingredients

On Dec. 28, 2020, the National Medical Products Association (NMPA) officially approved methacrylate/glyceryl diisostearate methacrylate copolymer, calcium phosphoryl oligosaccharides and steareth-200 as cosmetic ingredients. It also approved ethyl lauroyl arginate HCl as a cosmetic preservative.

China on Transitional and Final CSAR Registration and Notification Measures, and CSAR Implementation

China's Cosmetic Supervision and Administration Regulation (CSAR) took effect on Jan. 1, 2021. As such, regulators offered transitional measures to cosmetic manufacturers. For one, all holders of special cosmetics registration certificates and completed notifications of general cosmetics are to take on responsibility for the quality, safety and efficacy of cosmetics.

The measures also outline that products in the registration process prior to the finalization of registration and notification are to submit dossiers according to the current guidelines, whereas new notifications should submit according to the new guidelines. For special cosmetics with a registration decision made after Jan. 1, 2021, the registration certificate will be valid for five years.

Also beginning on Jan. 1, five special use cosmetics (hair growth products, depilatories, breast beauty products, slimming products and deodorants) will no longer be managed as special cosmetics. See Chemlinked for the full transitional measures.

On Jan. 12, the finalized Administrative Measures on Cosmetic Registration and Notification were officially published, which will take full effect on May 1, 2021. According to Chemlinked, the new regulation includes a total of six chapters and 63 articles. Compared with the draft version released in July 2020, the final measures include seven main changes:

Deleting several articles in the previous draft; Clarifying the qualification of cosmetic registrants and notifiers; Adding one responsibility of domestic responsible persons; Requiring the monitoring of ingredients similar to notified/registered new cosmetic ingredients; Emphasizing the protection of cosmetic formulas; Requiring valid contact information; and Extending the validity of special cosmetic registration license.

The new regulation is reportedly simplified to add clarity and increase logicality. Example measures specified include the following, among others:

Having a quality management system compatible with cosmetics to be registered or notified;

Having the ability for adverse reaction monitoring and evaluation;

For responsible persons:

Registering or notifying cosmetics or new ingredients in the name of the registrant or notifier;



Assisting the registrant or notifier to implement the recall of cosmetics and new cosmetic ingredients;



Bearing corresponding quality and safety responsibilities per the agreement with the registrant and notifier; and



Cooperating with the supervision and inspection of medical product administration departments.

For domestic cosmetics, confirming the entrusted production relationship through the information services platform upon notification; and

For imported cosmetics, submitting the entrustment relationship documents by the cosmetics registrant or notifier.

Furthermore, the new measures stipulate that notified general cosmetics are not allowed to change their product formula, except for minor changes caused by changes in the source of ingredients. Provisions related to soap management also were removed.

Finally, the NMPA held a news briefing to answer questions about CSAR implementation. Key take-aways included: there is no pre-market review on notification documents; efficacy claims will be managed through social supervision; and cosmetic online sales will become a regulatory focus.

South Korea Revises Functional Cosmetics Regulation, Expands Exemptions

The Regulation on the Examination of Functional Cosmetics in South Korea outlines the requirements to evaluate functional cosmetic registrations. A draft of this regulation was implemented on Dec. 30, 2020, and includes amendments such redefining the category "Functional Cosmetics Helpful in Alleviating the Skin Dryness Caused by Atopy," to "Functional Cosmetics Helpful in Restoring the Skin Barrier Function to Relieve Skin Itching." Based on this change, a general testing institution is now capable of evaluating products for itch alleviation; previously, only medical and pharma institutions could perform the test. In addition, the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) has exempted skin whitening, anti-wrinkle and hair dye products from evaluations.

South Korea Updates Color Additive Rules, Tests

In order to align with global regulations, the MFDS added to and updated its color regulations so that internationally accepted pigments may be utilized in cosmetics. For example, pigments such as lycopene that are approved for use in foreign countries will now include their synthetic and microbial origins, which will make their use in cosmetics permissible. Additional test methods, revisions and corrections also were outlined and clarified, including those related to reagents, orange pigments, Yellow 403, beta-carotene, potassium ferricyanide, potassium ferricyanide solution and others.

Indonesia Eyes Cosmetic Advertising

On Dec. 28, 2020, Indonesia's BPOM agency released a second draft of its Technical Guidelines for Cosmetics Advertising covering requirements for advertising content, media, plans for oversight and penalties. According to Chemlinked, detailed instructions and examples are given for how to label the required information.

As an example, disease prevention claims are now prohibited. Also, specific labeling guidelines for sunscreens, skin care products containing alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) and teeth whitening products containing or releasing hydrogen peroxide are provided. Administrative penalties imposed on enterprises using illegal labeling additionally were adjusted.

China Mandates Efficacy and Safety Data on Toothpastes

On Jan. 6, 2021, China's NMPA released draft Instructions for Toothpaste Notification Dossiers. According to the CSAR, toothpaste will be regulated in accordance with the regulations for general cosmetics, requiring notification, testing, safety assessment, efficacy evaluation and new toothpaste ingredient application, among others. One mandate for notification is that the notifier to annually report on the manufacture, import and adverse reaction monitoring of the notified toothpaste to the competent authority.

Circumventing Animal Testing in China

As previously reported, the French Federation des Entreprises de la Beaute (FEBEA) announced the French government would issue the GMP certificates for local cosmetic manufacturers to import general cosmetics to China without mandatory animal testing. Reportedly, the government has already launched an online platform to obtain these certificates. As such, Chemlinked outlined the specifics to meet this requirement as follows.

1. General Cosmetics May Be Exempted

These include any products that comply with the definition for cosmetics per the CSAR. Exceptions include the following special cosmetics: hair dyes, hair perming products, freckle-removing and whitening products, sunscreens, anti-hair-loss products and cosmetics claiming new efficacy.

2. Two Preconditions for Exemption and Three Exceptions

Only by meeting two conditions can companies apply for the animal testing exemption:

General cosmetic manufacturers must have obtained the GMP certificates issue by the competent authority of the country (region) where they are located; and

Safety assessment results must fully confirm the safety of products.

If one of the following conditions applies, cosmetic companies are still required to conduct animal testing:

Products claim to be used for infants and children;

Products use new cosmetic ingredients during their 3 yr of required monitoring; and

The notifier/responsible person/manufacturer is listed as a key supervision target according to the results of the quantitative rating system established by NMPA.

More countries in Europe are also considering this move. The UK government is working closely with industry to create a certification system that will satisfy new Chinese regulations on cosmetics, following the removal of the requirement for animal testing on imported cosmetics, said a UK Department of International Trade spokesperson, according to Chemlinked.

Nevertheless, the Chinese government must recognize the GMP certificates in order for them to be valid. In addition, the safety assessment mandate for the animal testing exemption may pose a challenge for cosmetic companies as well.

China released the draft Technical Guidelines for Cosmetic Safety Assessment for public consultation on July 29, 2020, introducing strict requirements, such as: for finished products, the safety assessment must focus on ingredients as well as the overall stability of the product, even the interaction of the packaging material and the content; also, safety assessors are required to have a professional background, such as pharmacy, chemistry or toxicology; at least 5 yr of relevant working experience; and need to understand the cosmetic production process, quality and safety control requirements, toxicological assessment methods, etc.

Chemlinked adds that the draft guidelines have not clearly stated whether China will recognize the safety assessment report issued by foreign institutions or foreign safety assessors. However, the guidelines have not been finalized.

China Adds 17 Ingredients to Prohibited List, Releases Inventory of Existing Cosmetic Ingredients

Finally, the China National Institutes for Food and Drug Control released a draft amended Inventory of Prohibited Cosmetic Ingredients and Inventory of Prohibited Plant (Animal) Cosmetic Ingredients for public comments, which will be accepted by Feb. 18, 2021. The 17 newly added prohibited ingredients include:

3-Benzylidene camphor,

3-and 4-(4-Hydroxy-4-methylpentyl) cyclohex-3-ene-1-carbaldehyde (HICC),

Tagetes erecta L. (Tagetes erecta flower extract; Tagetes erecta flower oil),

2-Chlorobenzene-1,4-diamine (2-chloro-p-phenylenediamine) and its sulfate,

Boric acid,

Borates and tetraborates and other borates and esters,

Sodium perborate,

Formaldehyde,

Paraformaldehyde,

Dichloromethane,

Methylene chloride,

Phenacetin,

2,6-Dihydroxy-4-methyl-benzaldehyde (atranol),

3-Chloro-2,6-dihydroxy-4-methyl-benzaldehyde (chloroatranol), clorofene,

2-Benzyl-4-chlorophenol,

Cyclohexylamine, and

Imidazole.

In addition, 13 prohibited ingredients were amended. Furthermore, the China National Institutes for Food and Drug Control released a draft of the new Inventory of Existing Cosmetic Ingredients in China (the "draft IECIC") for public comments. The same deadline for comments holds for the draft IECIC: Feb. 18.

According to Chemlinked, compared with the existing version, the most significant change made in the draft IECIC is the addition of ingredients highest historical use concentration. Other changes include adding 197 ingredients, deleting 7 ingredients, amending 50 ingredients information, and correcting ingredient naming errors.

For full details on these and other Asia-Pacific-related regulations, see Chemlinked.
[February 01, 2021] The Yosakoi Challenge: Yosakoi Your Way to Happiness

KOCHI, Japan, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kochi Prefecture (Japan) is holding The Yosakoi Challenge: Yosakoi Your Way to Happiness social media event from February 1st to February 28th, 2021. The challenge aims to let people learn more about the Yosakoi festival and Kochi Prefecture, where Yosakoi originated. Although in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kochi Prefecture is challenging those outside Japan to help bring smiles to people around the world by making a one-minute Yosakoi Dance video from home. Post the video on social media to be entered in a lottery for a chance to win one of 60 prize posts from Kochi Prefecture.



About Kochi Prefecture Located in the Shikoku region of Japan, Kochi is a warm climate tourist destination, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and steep mountains.

Its nature consists of rivers (Shimanto River, Niyodo River) containing some of the best water quality in Japan and geological features (Muroto UNESCO Global Geopark, Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park, Shikoku Karst), and panoramas of beautiful scenery. About Yosakoi The Yosakoi Festival, is one of the country's most famous festivals. Variations of this festival are held in over 200 locations in Japan and 29 countries/regions. It is a dance festival where dancers hold Naruko (wooden clappers), in both hands and dance to original choreography and music that incorporates Japanese traditional dance and other motifs. The Yosakoi Challenge: Yosakoi Your Way to Happiness https://yosakoi-nippon.jp/remix/ Application Period: February 1st (Mon.) - February 28th (Sun.), 2021 (*JST) Prize/Number of Winners: Yosakoi related goods from Kochi to be given to 60 people by lottery Qualification Requirements: Individuals or groups living in countries or regions outside Japan

Anyone with an Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter account About the Song "Yosakoi Remix" "Yosakoi Remix", the music for the one minute challenge, is based on the Yosakoi Dance melody and arranged by U.S. and Japan-based DJ KAORI. Originally from Kochi Prefecture, DJ KAORI traveled to New York City and became the first Japanese artist to appear as a DJ on TV and radio stations channels including HOT97, BET, and FOX. Sponsor International Tourism Division, Kochi Prefectural Government SOURCE International Tourism Division, Kochi Prefectural Government

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Ten regions in Peru, including the capital Lima, went into lockdown on Sunday, as the country suffered a resurgence in COVID-19 cases that has brought healthcare services to their maximum capacity.

Authorities ordered that for two weeks citizens will be only allowed to leave home for one hour between 6 am and 6 pm, and that gyms, churches, hair salons, museums and libraries will remain closed.

In the streets, some residents did not fully comply with the measures on Sunday.

People in the crowded street markets wore masks but left their noses uncovered or haven't kept the social distance.

Resident Santa Paredes said she disagrees with the lockdown measures, as many people have already lost their jobs due to the coronavirus crisis.

President Francisco Sagasti said Sunday that the current lockdown, as it was announced in advance, has given time for the population to return to their home places if needed.

In 2020, Peru established a 106-day lockdown that devastated the economy and left seven million unemployed.

The second wave of coronavirus infections began in early January and has caused hospitals to collapse and intensive care beds have thousands on a waiting list.

Peru, a country of 33 million inhabitants, has not yet received vaccines. Over 40,000 people have been reported to have died and more than a million have been confirmed infected with COVID-19.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Optimism: five new office projects were started in Belfast last year

New office builds buoyed construction activity in Belfast last year though two-thirds of space is still available to let, according to a report today.

The annual Belfast crane survey by business advisory firm Deloitte said construction in the city had been resilient during 2020. There were five new office projects started in Belfast last year totalling 1.3 million sq ft.

They were among 23 schemes which were under construction or finished in 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic - a slight fall on 2019's tally of 26.

However, there had been 35 active projects in 2018 - translating as a fall of 34% in the intervening two years. There were seven all-new projects, down from 11 in 2019. But two-thirds of the new office space remains available to let, Deloitte said, as companies delay signing up to new office space in light of working from home habits adopted since the pandemic began last year. Simon Bedford, a partner in Deloitte real estate, said a survey by the firm predicted homeworking would increase by five-fold in 2025. "The role of the office could flex to meet shifting demands for collaborative and creative space, as organisations re-evaluate their needs," he said. And while the pace of decision-making is expected to ease due to the pervading uncertainty, there continues to be ambitious mixed-use developments in Belfast's pipeline. "There remains optimism that the office will continue to play a key role in the future of work, in a hybrid model alongside rising home-working." The new office projects include Olympic House, a 148,000 sq ft joint venture between Titanic Quarter and Belfast Harbour, 35DP, a five-storey refurbished office development Donegall Place, and the 11-storey Paper Exchange. Work continued on Belfast Harbour's City Quays 3 offices project, after starting in late 2019 There were 11 office projects under way in total, as well as four student accommodation sites, one residential development, four education sites, two retail projects and one leisure scheme. But there were no new residential starts in 2020. Mr Bedford said the city was showing resilience. "While overall development figures dipped slightly, there remained a significant amount of development delivered over the year." The two retail developments were the renovation of Primark's home at Bank Buildings, and the redevelopment of the former DV8 premises nearby. Work also continued on the redevelopment of Odyssey Pavilion complex - the only leisure scheme in this year's survey. In the education sector work continued on the Ulster University Belfast campus, now due to complete in September.
David Schoen was surprised to get the personal phone call from former President Donald Trump, who was looking for a new lawyer to represent him at his impeachment trial.

I was flattered he asked me and Im honored to represent him, said Schoen, who lives in Atlanta and has law offices in New York and Montgomery, Alabama.

Schoen will represent Trump at the Feb. 9 Senate trial along with Philadelphia attorney Bruce Castor Jr., a former prosecutor. They replace a number of attorneys who had been preparing to defend Trump but recently and abruptly withdrew.

As for defending the conservative 45th president, you wouldnt put me in that category ordinarily, said Schoen, who considers himself first and foremost a civil rights lawyer.

Just last year, Schoen successfully filed suit to get presidential candidate Gloria La Riva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation on the ballot in the District of Columbia. For decades, Schoen has represented the poor and the powerless in civil rights litigation across the South and has, free of charge, taken on death penalty cases, trying to win new trials for condemned inmates.

In one civil rights case decades ago, Schoen, representing emotionally disturbed children, got a federal judge to strike down Alabamas foster care system as unconstitutional. Just recently, he obtained a settlement for the estate of Phillip Anderson, who died in 2015 at the Tuscaloosa County Jail of a perforated ulcer. The lawsuit contended jail staff ignored and belittled Andersons repeated pleas and screams of pain in the days before he died.

Hes a hell of a lawyer, Phillip Fikes, one of Andersons children, said of Schoen. He wouldnt give up. It was great getting to know him, and I feel like he did the best he could for us.

In 1995, the American Bar Association recognized Schoens legal work by presenting him its Pro Bono Publico Award.

Schoen, who sits on the board of the Zionist Organization of America, has represented families whose relatives died from terrorist attacks in Israel. In 2017, he helped moderate a United Nations panel on the glorification of terrorism. He has also been an active member of the Jewish community in Atlanta.

More recently, Schoen represented Trumps longtime confidant Roger Stone after he was convicted of making false statements, witness tampering and obstruction in the Robert Mueller investigation. Trump ended up commuting Stones prison sentence last summer and granting him a full pardon in December.

Schoen also met with financier Jeffrey Epstein at the Manhattan jail for several hours nine days before Epsteins death on Aug. 1, 2019. Because Epstein appeared eager to fight his sexual assault convictions, Schoen has questioned whether his client really committed suicide, as determined by the New York City medical examiners office.

I dont know what happened, but he didnt seem to me to be someone who would kill himself, Schoen said.

In his telephone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Schoen said he is not representing Trump with plans to argue that fraudulent voting cost him reelection. Im not in this case for that, he said.

Instead, Schoen said he finds two constitutional issues raised by the trial to be extremely important.

First, there is the question of whether you can have an impeachment trial of a president after hes left office, he said. I dont believe you can and we will be arguing against it.

The other important issue, Schoen said, is whether Trumps words at the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the assault on the Capitol are protected by the First Amendment.

Ive read his speech many times now and I dont think that in any way, shape or form did it constitute incitement, he said. Theres now evidence a lot of what happened was preplanned. I think theres been a real rush to judgment here.

During the interview, Schoen often had to pause because of a persistent cough, a lingering reminder of his contracting COVID-19 several weeks ago. Although he feels fine physically, Schoen broke down when talking about his 90-year-old mother, who recently succumbed to the virus.

His mother, who lived next door, was his best friend and adviser, he said. She meant the absolute world to me, he said, adding that every time he leaves home he still expects to stop by his moms house to see her.

Schoen noted that soon after it was made public that he was going to represent Trump at the impeachment trial, he began receiving hate mail and threatening messages.

Maybe, I guess I was a bit naive, he said. But Ive got 36 years experience as a civil rights lawyer. This is what I do.

ABOUT DAVID SCHOEN  David Schoen, who lives in Atlanta, has law offices in New York and Montgomery, Alabama.  For decades, he has specialized in civil rights litigation and has been recognized by the American Bar Association for his pro bono (free of charge) legal work.  He also has defended clients in a number of high-profile criminal cases, including Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of former President Donald Trump.  He is one of two lawyers who will defend Trump at his impeachment trial on Feb. 9.

___

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Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has pulled up the State Election Commission for failing to keep track of the progress of a contempt of court petition it filed with the HC against the state government  SEC not enquiring as to whether it had come up for hearing, or why if it has not, for the past several days.

A single judge bench headed by Justice Battu Devanand held a hearing on the contempt of court petition filed by SEC on Monday.

The judge observed that the SEC filed the petition on December 18 and details of the petition were widely covered in the media the next day. Yet, why did the SEC fail in approaching the court to check as to why the petition was not taken up for hearing? Was the filing of the petition aimed only at gaining publicity, the court asked the SEC, and added that it inferred the SEC was mounting pressure on the respondents.

The judge asked SECs counsel to inform the SEC that it should not give others information pertaining to the petitions it filed in the court.

The SEC had filed a petition in the court alleging that there was no cooperation from the state government with regard to allocation of funds. The court directed the state government to submit a status report. The SEC however filed a contempt of court petition on Dec. 18.

The court asked the registrar general to find out who are the court officials responsible for not posting the petition for hearing for several days. It issued directions to serve notices on former chief secretary Nilam Sawhney, present chief secretary Adityanath Das and panchayat raj principal secretary Gopala Krishna Dwivedi. The case is posted for next hearing on Feb. 15.

In a separate development, SEC Ramesh Kumar refused to react on the Telugu Desam supporters attack on YSR Congress activists at Nimmada of Srikakulam district during his visit. When the media asked him as to what action was initiated against the culprits, he kept mum.

YSR Congress co-ordinator Duvvada Srinivas complained to the election commissioner on the TD attack on party activists.

Meanwhile, the AP Intellectuals and Citizens Forum (APIC) has urged the governor to intervene in the matter so as to protect and uphold the spirit of the Constitution.

Former RTI commissioner, P Vijaya Babu, said the SEC looking at the HC verdicts as conduct certificates to him and using court verdicts as a weapon to use against others was objectionable. He said the SEC dealt with the government advisor and ministers as an autocrat, and the government did not take a serious note of this.

He felt that the SEC was troubling the government and ignoring the rights of a legislator. One constitutional body (SEC) cannot suppress the rights of another constitutional body (government). The SEC went on the Ontimitta tour with public money though it was a personal visit. He urged the AP assembly speaker Tammineni Sitaram and governor Biswabhushan Harichandan to issue a privilege notice to Ramesh Kumar to protect the rights of legislators.

Meanwhile, Speaker Sitaram initiated measures on the complaint notices filed by ministers Botsa Satyanarayana and Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy against Ramesh Kumar. He forwarded the notices to the privilege committee, directing it to take necessary action.
Unique Identifier Resolves, Matches and Manages Customer Data for Atlanta Group

LONDON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Merger and acquisition activityi, high levels of switching and separated database infrastructures have made customer data management one of the insurance market's biggest challenges. At the same time, the FCA has issued a final report containing proposed remedies to address the need for insurance firms to provide fair value to their customers and greater pricing transparency to the FCAii. Responding to these challenges, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a leading provider of insurance data and analytics, can now help insurance providers create a cohesive single-customer view across underwriting, pricing, renewals and claims. LexID is the unique identifier built from proprietary linking technology and vast data resources including insurance specific data to match disparate identity information.

A study by the Managing General Agents Association found only 30% of MGAs use their data for cross-sellingiii. LexID for Insurance finds common threads across customer records pulling on a wide range of data sets, comprising circa 2.3bn records including public and insurance policy history data, to help build the picture of the individual to support all parts of the insurance continuum.

Atlanta Group, one of the fastest growing brokers in the UK market, consisting of brands including Swinton, Autonet and Carole Nash is one of the first insurance providers to take advantage of LexID for Insurance in the UK. Atlanta Group said: "LexID for Insurance is enabling us to improve uniformity of our customer data to create a single customer view across all our brands. This also improves data accuracy, helping us to identify new ways to deliver value to our customers."

Disparate records can be linked into a common LexID identifier using LexisNexis Scalable Automated Linking Technology, a patented method of linking and clustering data. By pulling together data from multiple touchpoints - quote, renewal, claims and marketing - insurance providers can build a comprehensive and accurate representation of their customer.

James Burton, senior director of product management, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, U.K. & I, said: "Data stored in multiple silos as a result of legacy systems or merger and acquisition activity risks becoming outdated, incorrect and inconsistent. Individuals may appear in multiple disparate customer databases within the same insurance group. This can lead to wasted marketing budgets, customer service inefficiencies, inaccurate pricing and wasted data storage costs."

"At the same time, the market is under pressure to support customers impacted by the pandemic and needs to prepare for the proposed new pricing regulations. This starts with ensuring you have a complete, single view of your customer's history across all products and all touchpoints."

"An insurance provider that knows the details of a customer's wider insurance requirements, renewal dates and up-to-date contact information is much more likely to be able to carry out effective communication at all stages of the customer journey, and in turn, cross-sell relevant products at the right time. This can be achieved with a consistent methodology for standardisation and matching of customer data across multiple databases."

A proven ID matching solution, LexID has been the bedrock of LexisNexis Risk Solutions products and services for over a decade. Now, it is available to help bring sense and order to insurance provider-held customer databases.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions

LexisNexis Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, please visit www.risk.lexisnexis.co.uk and www.relx.com.

Media contacts:

Alison Reeson, Parm Heer, Clare Watson, Jane Lewis at HSL

M: 07876 597466

O: 0208 977 9132

lnrs@harrisonsadler.com

Regina Haas

Senior Director, Communications

Insurance, Coplogic Solutions and Connected Car

LexisNexis Risk Solutions

O: +1.678.694.3569

M: +1.678.896.1463

Regina.Haas@lexisnexisrisk.com

i https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/financial-services/articles/insurance-m-and-a-outlook.html

ii https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/market-studies/ms18-1-general-insurance-pricing-practices-market-study

iii https://www.postonline.co.uk/technology/7717331/blog-ecosystems-will-be-the-saviour-of-brokers

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An Oxford University don who sued after his mother fell for a female lawyer half her age and disinherited him has been handed a payout of almost 1million.

Archaeology Professor Christopher Gosden said Dr Jean Weddell had vowed in 2003 to leave him her London home, but he was left with nothing when she died in 2013.

It was after she fell in love with Wendy Cook, a barrister 37 years her junior, and formed a civil partnership in 2007 aged 78.

By the time she died in 2013, she had made a new will, handing nothing to her son, but leaving much of her estate to her new partner.

The professor later found out his mother's 1.25million home had been sold without his knowledge in 2010, and by the time she died there was 5,000 left in her estate.

Professor Gosden launched a court fight, claiming a trust scheme his mother set up in 2003 to minimise inheritance tax ought to have given him and his wife Jane Kaye the right to veto the sale of the house.

He said he would never have let the house be sold, given that Ms Cook - whom he regarded with 'distrust' - would be 'the ultimate beneficiary of the proceeds of sale' after his mother's death, following the new will earlier that year.

The couple sued the solicitors responsible for drawing up the trust agreement, Halliwell Landau, claiming they bungled by leaving a loophole which allowed the house in Denny Crescent, Kennington, to be sold without their knowledge.

Professor Christopher Godsen (left) and his wife Professor Jane Kaye (right) took legal action against a firm of solicitors who failed to register an interest in the home of Professor Godsen's mother Dr Jean Weddell who agreed to leave the Kensington property to her son in the event of her death

They were negligent in failing to register a restriction on the house with the Land Registry, which would have kept Professor Gosden and his wife in control of whether or not it was sold, he argued.

Last January, after battling all the way up to the Court of Appeal, the couple won a ruling that the 'negligence' of the solicitors firm had led to them taking a financial hit.

Today Judge Mark Pelling QC, sitting at the High Court, ruled the firm must pay the eminent academic 985,299 in damages for their blunder.

Dr Weddell, who died in 2013 aged 84, lived a colourful life, enrolling as one of the first female students at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School in 1947.

She enjoyed a glittering international career, helping set up a children's hospital in Korea following the end of the war there in the 1950s, then spending time in Jordan, treating youngsters with tuberculosis.

Wendy Cook (right) during her civil partnership ceremony to Dr Jean Weddell (left) in 2007

She went on to do research work in the field of controlling epidemics, carried out groundbreaking work with stroke patients and toured the world stage as a lecturer for the World Health Organisation.

Dr Weddell, who was also a dedicated church bell ringer, gave birth to her son Christopher just before she left for Korea, but gave him up for adoption.

He was taken to live in Australia by his new family, but returned to the UK and re-established a 'strong and happy relationship with his mother' in 1987.

Professor Gosden went on to become one of the UK's top archaeologists.

He has served as curator of the Pitt-Rivers Museum and is currently Professor of European Archaeology at Oxford University and a trustee of the British Museum.

Dr Weddell regarded her son with 'affection and generosity' and had left him and his wife her whole estate by a will she made in 2003, said the judge.

At the same time, she set up an 'estate protection scheme,' putting her house into a trust which promised to deliver the property, or the money from its sale, into the hands of her son and his family in a tax efficient manner.

Professor Gosden and Professor Kaye were appointed trustees of the scheme, along with Ms Weddell.

But in February 2010, she made the new will, leaving much of her wealth to Wendy Cook. Later that year, the house was sold for 710,000.

Lord Justice Patten in the appeal hearing said Professor Gosden made it clear the house had been a 'much-loved family home' which his mother was anxious to pass on to her family.

Prof Goodsen claimed his solicitor should have put a note on the deeds of the property (pictured, the 1.25million home in Kennington) at the Land Registry which would have prevented the disposal of the home without his knowledge

'He said he believed it was Ms Cook, rather than his mother, who chose to sell the property and many of his answers indicate a deep distrust of Ms Cook and her motives.

'[Since] Dr Weddell had gone to live with Ms Cook on the Isle of Wight, there had been the significant diminution of contact between Prof Gosden and his mother... and a corresponding concern on the part of Prof Gosden and Prof Kaye about Dr Weddell's capacity and what they regarded as the malign influence of Ms Cook in the arrangement of Dr Weddell's affairs,' he added.

In February 2019, Judge Pelling found the solicitors' firm had been negligent in failing to register the restriction on the sale of the house but dismissed the claim against them.

He ruled Professor Gosden had not established that the solicitors' error had caused him any loss, finding even had he and his wife known the sale of the house was planned, Dr Weddell would have persuaded them to agree to it being sold and the proceeds put into her estate.

Overruling that finding, Lord Justice Patten said Judge Pelling had accepted Professor Gosden and Professor Kaye had those concerns and it was 'difficult to see upon what evidence the judge could properly have based his conclusion that they would have consented to the sale'.

The High Court originally ruled Prof Godsen's solicitors had not breached their duty of care because their mistake had not cost them any money. The High Court suggested Prof Godsen would have accepted any decision to sell the property

'The only realistic and proper conclusion available to the judge was that they would not have consented to the sale,' he said.

'The judge was therefore wrong in my view to have held that the solicitors' negligence had not caused Prof Gosden and Prof Kaye any damage.'

Lord Justice Patten said the judge had been wrong to conclude Professor Gosden and Professor Kaye would have let the house be sold in circumstances where they both had 'concern... about Dr Weddell's capacity and what they regarded as the malign influence of Ms Cook in the arrangement of Dr Weddell's affairs.'

'What they lost through the solicitor's negligence was the power to veto the sale,' he said.

'Had Halliwell Landau registered the restriction in accordance with the duty of care which they owed Prof Gosden and his wife, no sale could have taken place without their consent.'

The case was sent back for Judge Pelling to decide how much Professor Gosden is due in damages with the solicitors firm contesting the matter for more than a year.

Today, the judge said during a brief court hearing that the lawyers' firm will have to pay 985,299 in damages to Professor Gosden.

Halliwell Landau also face paying the costs for the action which lawyers today described as 'substantial, well into six figures'.

A fully detailed judgement will be handed down by Judge Pelling at a later date. There was no claim against Ms Cook, who was not a party to the action.


Bong County  The Central Bank of Liberia over the weekend broke grounds for the construction of a Four Hundred Thousand United States Dollars Regional Banking Hub in Gbarnga.

A financial hub, also known as a financial center by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is a city or region where a large number and a variety of financial services institutions are headquartered.

According to CBL's Executive Governor, Aloysius Tarlue, the bank when constructed will promote the free flow of cash among business people and the entire citizenry of the central region.

Mr.Tarlue explained that the Regional Banking Hub will be the first to be established outside Monrovia, with a call for citizens of the central region to see the project as theirs.

He narrated that the hub will further relieve citizens of the challenges to travel to Monrovia and other places and also stand in long queues to do transactions with the central bank.

The CBL Executive Governor revealed that the second phase of the project will affect counties in the south eastern region and other parts of Liberia.

For her part, Bong County Superintendent pledged the countys fullest commitment to working with the Central Bank of Liberia and the contractors for the timely and proper implementation of the project. Madam Walker at the same time extolled the county Legislative Caucus for ensuring that Bong benefits from the first phase of the CBLs project.

Also speaking, Bong County District #3 Representative, Marvin Cole expressed delight over the CBL's decision to choose Gbarnga as the base for the regional banking hub, which he believes will address some of the financial constraints faced by residents of the county.
Plants sending out e-mails sounds like a concept from a science-fiction film set in the distant future. This feat has actually been achieved in 2021 as scientists in the real world have managed to engineer spinach plants that are capable of sending out emails.

Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through the use of nanotechnology have transformed spinach plants into sensors which have explosive material detection capabilities. Using nanotechnology, these spinach plants are able to relay this information to the scientists in the form of an e-mail.

Spinach roots can detect the presence of a specific explosive material in the groundwater. The carbon nanotubes within the spinach leaves emit a signal after the roots detect the explosive material. This signal is received by an infrared camera which then sends out an email to the scientists, alerting them about the explosive material.

This experiment by MIT engineers is part of a broader research program that involves engineering electronic components into plants, according to Euronews. This developing technology is known as "plant nanobionics". Through this technology, plants can be given new abilities.

Professor Michael Strano, who is the lead researcher on this project, explains, "Plants are very good analytical chemists. They have an extensive root network in the soil, are constantly sampling groundwater, and have a way to self-power the transport of that water up into the leaves."

"This is a novel demonstration of how we have overcome the plant/human communication barrier," he adds.

While this particular experiment was about detecting explosive materials, Strano and other scientist think that this technology can be used to warn researchers about pollution and other environmental factors.

"Plants are very environmentally responsive," Strano states. "They know that there is going to be a drought long before we do. They can detect small changes in the properties of soil and water potential. If we tap into those chemical signalling pathways, there is a wealth of information to access", they added.

Also Read: Farmers' protest causes Rs 600 crore loss in toll collections; debt worth Rs 9,300 crore at risk: ICRA
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Nasser Sultan caused controversy during the Married At First Sight Grand Reunion on Sunday night, after he refused to apologise for trolling the other stars of the show.

But Michael Goonan showed his support for 'Mr Reality' as he caught up on the Channel Nine special on Monday.

The 30-year-old, who starred on season seven of the controversial experiment, watched as Nasser was confronted by the likes of Michael Brunelli and Cyrell Paule at the wild dinner party about his online trolling on social media.

Show of support: Married At First Sight's Michael Goonan showed support for Nasser Sultan as he caught up on the recent MAFS Grand Reunion episodes on Monday

Micky shared an Instagram Story post showing Nasser sitting at the dinner table looking nervous as they demanded an apology.

The Adelaide-based millionaire, who famously tied the knot with Stacey Hampton on the show last year, wrote in the caption: 'I got to be honest I don't mind you trolling me - and your s**t comments.'

'But you know it's coming lad... "cause I just don't give a f**k,"' he added, hinting at some sort of retribution in the future.

Having a laugh: The Adelaide-based millionaire, who famously tied the knot with Stacey Hampton on the show last year, wrote in the caption: 'I got to be honest I don't mind you trolling me - and your s**t comments'

You've been warned: However, he did issue Nasser with a warning - writing: 'But you know it's coming lad... "cause I just don't give a f**k,"' hinting at some sort of retribution in the future

On Sunday, viewers watched Nasser insist he wasn't a troll, and simply made the comments because he is a 'media personality'.

His co-stars did not agree and demanded he say sorry for the hurt he caused, which he failed to do.

Nasser instead stormed out, saying: 'I'm a rock star. I'm the people's celebrity. I am Mr Reality. They can kiss my Arabic hairy a**e!'

However, he changed his tune when he told Not Another Reality TV Podcast he's been 'playing the character' of a 'deluded reality star' for three years.

Sorry, not sorry: On Sunday, viewers watched Nasser insist he wasn't a troll, and simply made the comments because he is a media personality. His co-stars did not agree and demanded he say sorry for the hurt he caused, which he failed to do

On Tuesday, he explained: 'It's not easy, it's not like switching a light off. I am obsessed with it - why am I caring about these people?'

And while he did say sorry on the podcast for some of his more 'personal' insults, Nasser blamed his behaviour on a 'split personality'.

He went on to say that he's played the character of a villain 'very well', but he can't continue to do it forever.

'There has to be a limit where [I say], "Enough now, I have to change direction,"' he said.
New Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell (left) chatting with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin after the ceremony in St Mary's Pro Cathedral. Photo: John Mc Elroy

NEW Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell has warned that the Church must never again put its needs before the needs of the little ones.

Dr Farrell formally succeeded Dr Diarmuid Martin as leader of the countrys largest Catholic diocese in a scaled-back private ceremony this morning at Dublins Pro Cathedral.

Dr Farrell gave writer LP Hartleys famous phrase a twist when he stated, the future is a different country, we must do things differently there. He added: This is not to forget the past, and especially not the painful past where so many were hurt.

The Archdiocese of Dublin has grappled with the fallout of the findings of the Murphy Commissions investigation of the mishandling of allegations of clerical sexual abuse which was published in 2009.

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Speaking during the ceremony, where he concelebrated with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Jude Okolo, Dr Farrell acknowledged that he was coming to Dublin knowing very few of you.

The Westmeath native, who was Bishop of Ossory prior to being appointed to Dublin, also admitted there was no pre-packaged plan to address the reality in which we find ourselves.

The 66-year-old said the only viable pastoral plan for the future will be one which comes from genuine dialogue and discernment between the people, clergy and religious.

The Church of the future wouldhave to be a synodal church or it would not be at all, he said. It would have to be a Church that listens to the faithful people of God, the priest, the bishop, the Holy Father, all listening to each other, all listening to the Holy Spirit", he said.

That will involve not only working together in new ways, but getting to know each other anew.

The active participation of the laity would be essential as they constitute the vast majority of the people of God, while leadership in the Church, he added, was not about telling people what to do but promoting co-responsibility and overcoming the mindset which runs the risk of relegating the baptised to a subordinate role, effectively keeping them on the edges of Church life.

Those who hanker for a golden age in the past were warned against being focused short-sightedly on the glory of the past, and the magnificent institutions which our sisters and brothers before us built.

There are many challenges awaiting Dr Farrell in Dublin, including an ageing priesthood, where half of the dioceses clergy are aged 70 or older, as well as ageing and diminishing congregations. The Covid-19 pandemic has also seen finances in the diocese collapse.

The eldest of seven children, Dr Farrells father, a daily Mass-goer, was a farmer in Garthy, near the Co Westmeath town of Castletown-Geoghegan.

Ordained in 1980, the incoming Primate of Ireland has a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome and served for a time as director of formation in the Irish College in Rome before he returned to Maynooth to lecture in moral theology.

He was later appointed President of St Patricks College in 1996 and retired from this position in 2007. He served as parish priest in Dunboyne for 11 years until his move to Kilkenny city as Bishop of Ossory.
The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine will not be recommended for over-65s in France or Sweden, the countries' health ministries announced today.

It comes after Germany advised against administering the jab to those over 65 and Emmanuel Macron claimed it was 'almost ineffective' for the age bracket.

Continental objections to the jab last week came amid a furious row between the Bloc and AstraZeneca over lagging supply, which has seen newly-unshackled Brexit Britain storm ahead in its immunisation roll-out.

Stockholm and Paris today agreed with Berlin that there was not enough data to show how the vaccine affects elderly patients.

Boris Johnson and UK health chiefs have insisted that the jab, made by Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, is effective for all age groups.

But pouring petrol on the row again today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen accused Britain of compromising on safety by giving swift approval to the jab.

Sweden, with a population of 10 million, registered 224 new deaths Tuesday, taking the total to 11,815. The deaths registered have occurred over several days and sometimes weeks.

Sweden, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, registered 9,649 new coronavirus cases since Friday, Health Agency statistics showed on Tuesday. The figure compares to 9,123 cases in the corresponding period last week. New cases and hospitalisations have come down significantly in recent weeks.

Sweden's King Carl Gustaf, 74, receives a Pfizer vaccine on January 15 at Stenhammar Palace

The former German defence minister also took the chance to throw her deputy leader under the bus over the EU vaccine shambles.

Brussels last week descended into bitter attacks on Britain and AstraZeneca, which it accused of reneging on it contractual obligations to deliver the jab, with suspicions raised that the company had supplied the UK with the EU's doses.

EU Vaccine approval: State of play Approved for the EU BioNTech/Pfizer (German/US, mRNA vaccine, 95-percent efficacy according the European Medicines Agency): 600 million doses. Its first-quarter deliveries to EU member states were cut by as much as half, but the company vows they will be back to normal by mid-February. Moderna: (US, mRNA vaccine, 94-percent efficacy): 160 million doses. AstraZeneca (Anglo-Swedish, adenovirus, 60-percent efficacy): 400 million doses. It was meant to have delivered more than 100 million doses in the first quarter, but on December 22 said that would be cut to 31 million. Von der Leyen announced on Sunday that would now be boosted to 40 million. Pending approval Johnson & Johnson (US, adenovirus, efficacy unknown): 400 million doses. The Commission says 100 million should be delivered by June if this single-shot vaccine is approved. CureVac (Germany/US, mRNA, efficacy unknown): 405 million doses. Sanofi/GSK (France/UK, recombinant spike protein, efficacy unknown): 300 million doses. After a disappointing Phase 2 trial, the companies are trying a different antigen formulation and are now aiming for production late this year. The Commission is also in exploratory talks with Novavax (US, recombinant spike protein, efficacy unknown) for up to 200 million doses and with Valneva (French, inactivated virus vaccine, efficacy unknown) for up to 60 million doses. Advertisement

Mr Johnson said on Friday that the vaccine 'is very good and efficacious' after health officials in Berlin warned that there was 'insufficient data to assess the efficacy of the vaccine for persons aged 65 years and older.'

AstraZeneca has been open about their initial tests in which only 10 per cent of the participants were 65 or older.

However, there are trials ongoing throughout the world to prove its efficacy further in the older age groups.

Amid EU rancour last Friday, the European Medicines Agency, the Bloc's regulator, granted approval to the AstraZeneca vaccine for all age groups.

The British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the jab in December, well before its European counterparts.

As a result of the fast approval and Britain's investment in its vaccine programme, the UK - which finally quit the EU on January 1 - has taken the lead in the roll-out stakes.

As of Sunday, Britain had dished out 14.42 jabs per 100 people, while Germany has only managed 2.95 and France 2.35.

The UK committed 1.67 billion to ordering doses, while the EU spent only 1.57 billion for its 27 member states.

That works out to 25.00 per capita for Britain, compared to 3.51 for Europe.

Germany's medicines regulator, STIKO, did not reveal the specific data used to come to their conclusion about not recommending the jab for over-65s.

But last week as the jab war raged between London and Brussels, two prominent German media outlets claimed the efficacy for over-65s was below 10 per cent.

The reports were firmly rejected by AstraZeneca as well as by the German health ministry.

'A false claim does not become true just because it is repeated,' a German health ministry spokesman said of the reports.

He noted that it is a known fact that the AstraZeneca trials involved fewer older people than other manufacturers'.

But 'that the efficacy is only eight percent is incomprehensible and in our view, wrong,' he added.

STIKO said that apart from the 'limitation' in data on older people, the vaccine was 'considered appropriate' for 18 to 64-year-olds.

The UK committed 1.67billion on Covid vaccines before it was known whether they would be effective - more than the 1.57billion the EU put forward for its 448million people, with Britain spending 25.00 per capita compared to 3.51 for Brussels. The US government spent 7.9billion in total, according to the figures from science analytics firm Airfinity, an outlay of 24.02 for each of its 330million people

EU country's vaccination programmes have been lagging behind other nations as the bloc continues to struggle with its rollout following the fiasco

British regulators had said that 660 older people took part in the Oxford AstraZeneca trials, acknowledging that there were too few to derive an efficacy figure for that specific group.

The trials showed one out of 341 older vaccine recipients testing positive for Covid-19, compared to one out of 319 who received a dummy jab - making a senior-specific comparison almost pointless.

But the vaccine did generate antibodies in all the over-65s who received two doses of the jab, which AstraZeneca cited as evidence that they had 'strong immune responses to the vaccine'.

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said that older people had not been vaccinated until later in the trial because 'very ethical' Oxford scientists wanted to confirm there would be no negative side-effects.

'They're very ethical, and very academic. So they didn't want to vaccinate older people until they had accumulated a lot of safety data in the 18 to 55 group,' he said.

'They said it was not ethical to vaccinate old people until they had enough safety data in younger people.

'Other companies took this risk, went ahead and vaccinated older people faster or earlier. If you start earlier, you have more data. Essentially, because Oxford started vaccinating older people later, we don't have a huge number of older people who have been vaccinated.'

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, pictured in Brussels on Sunday, has come under pressure over the EU's slow jab rollout and her attempt to control vaccine exports

But Mrs Von der Leyen reignited the row today as she accused Britain of compromising on the safety of its citizens.

How did the UK end up as one of the world's leading countries on the vaccine roll-out? The UK is one of the world's leading countries when it comes to the speed of the roll-out of its coronavirus vaccination programme - a fact made all the more impressive given where the nation started when the pandemic hit early last year. At that point the country had just one vaccine manufacturing site - a facility in Liverpool which made flu jabs. But the Government quickly set up a vaccine task force in April to make sure the UK was well-positioned to benefit from medical breakthroughs. The experts appointed to the task force reportedly recommended seven projects for investment within its first two weeks, according to The Times. Advance purchase orders were hammered out by the task force with suppliers despite the fact there were no guarantees that any of the vaccines would work or that they would be signed off by regulators. That early work meant the UK was in pole position to receive the jabs, if and when they were shown to be effective and safe. The task force's strategy means two companies have been relied upon to do much of the heavy lifting during the UK's vaccine roll-out: Pfizer and AstraZeneca. The UK ordered 40 million doses from the former and 100 million doses from the latter. Agreements are also in place with a handful of other would-be suppliers should their products get the green light. The speed with which the UK moved on vaccines was perhaps best illustrated this week when Pascal Soriot, the chief executive of AstraZeneca, revealed the deal with Britain was agreed three months before the EU's. The UK's supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine is made at sites in Oxford and Staffordshire before it is put into vials at a facility in Wrexham, while the Pfizer jab is made in Belgium. Every new batch of vaccine in the UK has to be safety tested by the National Institute of Biological Standards and Control in Hertfordshire before it can be sent for delivery. This process takes about four days and once each batch has been rubber-stamped it is taken to secure Government warehouses where the NHS takes over the process and decides where the doses will be sent. The physical roll-out of the vaccine is headquartered from an NHS office in London, with doses sent to more than 1,400 vaccine sites across the country. It is easily the biggest vaccination drive in the history of the health service and many believe it will become an annual programme. Advertisement

Her comments came after she pinned the blame for the vaccine supply shambles -that saw Brussels threaten Britain with a vaccine export ban - on her deputy Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for Trade.

The under-fire European commission president said she was committed to her role, and that she should be judged at the end of her term in 2024.

She also refused to apologise for the coronavirus vaccines row last week that saw Brussels threaten to introduce a hard Irish border to block vaccine exports to the UK.

But pressure is mounting on the former German defence minister, particularly from her home country, where German MPs are planning to call her in for questioning over her handling of the EU's slow vaccination programme.

Speaking on Monday, Mrs von der Leyen defended the EU's slower vaccine approvals policy, while criticising Britain's for compromising on 'safety and efficacy'.

'Some countries started to vaccinate a little before Europe, it is true,' she said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde when asked about Britain.

'But they resorted to emergency, 24-hour marketing authorisation procedures. The commission and the member states agreed not to compromise with the safety and efficacy requirements linked to the authorisation of a vaccine,' she said.

'Time had to be taken to analyse the data, which, even minimised, takes three to four weeks. So, yes, Europe left it later, but it was the right decision. I remind you that a vaccine is the injection of an active biological substance into a healthy body. We are talking about mass vaccination here, it is a gigantic responsibility.'

Through her spokesman, Mrs von der Leyen also threw her deputy leader under the bus over the EU vaccine shambles, that saw Brussels decide to trigger Article 16 before performing a later U-turn.

Brussels accused pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca of breaching its contract with the EU, amid suspicion that the company had supplied the UK with stock that was meant to go to countries in the bloc.

Britain used emergency procedures to grant market approval to the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, and signed a contract three months earlier than the EU, which used a slower approval process.

Mrs von der Leyen said she did not take personal responsibility for the decision to trigger Article 16 of the Brexit treaty, which would have seen a hard 'vaccine border' in Ireland to stop vaccines from being smuggled through a back door, but she did admit the decision was an error.

Instead, the European commission president said that the responsibility lay with Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for Trade.

'This regulation falls under the responsibility of Mr Dombrovskis,' Eric Mamer, the European Commission's chief spokesman, said on Monday of the former prime minister of Latvia.

'In my country we have a saying, 'Only the Pope is infallible,'' Mr Mamer said.

'Mistakes can happen along the way the important thing is that you recognise them early on.'

Speaking herself during the newspaper interview, Mrs von der Leyen said: 'I know how sensitive the Irish subject is. But when you take urgent decisions - in this year of crisis, the Commission has taken almost 900 - there is always a risk of missing something. I am relieved that we were able to find a solution.'

The legislation was met with a fierce backlash, and was amended after Mr Johnson and the Irish prime minister Micheal Martin called Mrs von der Leyen.

Pictured: German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaking after a vaccine 'summit' that brought together key players. She renewed a promise to offer every German citizen a vaccine by the end of September

France's president Emmanuel Macron (pictured Thursday) has astonishingly claimed the AstraZeneca vaccine is 'almost ineffective' on people who are over 65 years of age

After years of Brexit negotiations between Britain and the EU to avoid a hard border on the island, the move would have created a 'vaccine border'.

It was announced without notifying either Ireland or Britain.

Von der Leyen's initial comments attempting to avoid blame were met with scathing criticism from Alexander Stubb, the former prime minister of Finland, who campaigned to be appointed European Commission president himself.

'Number one rule of any leader: if your organisation screws up; never, ever blame your team publicly,' he said in response.

To add to her woes, von der Leyen's predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker said he was 'very much opposed' to her export restriction measures during a speech in Stuttgart on Sunday.

The Brussels-imposed export controls were introduced last week to supervise vaccines leaving the bloc for other countries, after AstraZeneca said it was cutting supplies to the EU in the first quarter of 2021.

'It all went too slow, it all should have been done more transparently, even though that would have been difficult,' Juncker said.

Mr Mamer said the regulation to create an 'export transparency mechanism', which included the Article 16 measure, was passed provisionally and hurriedly by the College of Commissioners on Friday.

'We believe that we are on the right track since the beginning of this pandemic in ensuring there is as cohesive and as effective a European response as possible,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

But Mrs Von der Leyen attempt to pass the blame on to her deputy has led to suggestions from EU diplomats that she has gone rogue, and to German MPs in Berlin planning to summon her in for questioning.

To make matters worse for her, the move by German MPs was led by legislators from her own party, Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

The European Commission president pinned the fiasco - that saw Brussels threaten to implement a hard Irish border - on Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for Trade (pictured in Brussels on January 29)

Thus far, Mrs von der Leyen has refused calls for a public debate on the fiasco in the European Parliament, and she will instead hold closed-door meetings with MEPs on Tuesday with parties who approved her appointment.

In an interview on German television, she denied that the EU was losing a vaccine race against Britain, insisting that the only race was against the virus and time.

She also gave an assurance that neither the EU or Britain would block each other's vaccine supplies.

The EU and many of its 27 members have faced criticism over their sluggish rollout, with fewer than 10million people getting a dose so far across the entire bloc.

Von der Leyen's European Commission has invested 2.7 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to secure 2.3 billion doses from companies making potential vaccines, mostly using European factories.

Three vaccines are so far authorised for use across the EU's 27 member countries: one by German outfit BioNTech with US giant Pfizer; one by US company Moderna; and most recently one by Anglo-Swedish group AstraZeneca.

All three firms are undershooting on delivery schedules for the January-March first-quarter period.

While excessive bureaucracy in countries such as France and Germany has been one reason for the slow start, the EU has also struggled to get hold of enough supplies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday defended the European Union's troubled vaccine drive, saying there were 'good reasons' the rollout had got off to a slower start than in some other countries.

Speaking after a vaccine 'summit' that brought together key players, Merkel renewed a promise to offer every German citizen a vaccine by the end of September.

Merkel had convened the online talks in response to growing anger in the 27-member bloc over the sluggish rollout of Covid-19 jabs, which has been beset with delivery delays and piled political pressure on EU leaders.

'It is true that in some areas, the pace became slower, but there were good reasons for it to be slower,' Merkel told reporters in Berlin.

Merkel, the leader of Europe's largest economy, acknowledged that the United States, Israel and Britain were further along with their inoculations.

But she said the EU had deliberately avoided rushed emergency approvals, as seen in the UK, to bolster public 'confidence' in the jabs.

The EU had also at times negotiated 'for a very long time' to ensure pharma companies took on enough liability, she said.

And the bloc chose not to sacrifice data protection, Merkel added, in a nod to Israel's deal with Pfizer/BioNTech to offer data on its inoculation campaign in exchange for doses.

German media has been scathing about the EU's troubled vaccine drive, with the topselling Bild daily calling it a 'disaster'.

Mrs Von der Leyen did not join Merkel's meeting with top German politicians, but the EU commissioners for health and the internal market did.

A string of vaccine makers also took part, including Pfizer, BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and CureVac.

'The months ahead will be challenging. We must all continue working together in solidarity to find solutions,' said Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.

Like other EU leaders, Merkel has come under fire for the decision to pursue an EU-wide rather than a national strategy on inoculations.

She has said a go-it-alone drive would have inflated prices, left pockets of the continent more vulnerable to the pandemic and poisoned political unity in the bloc.

The German debate has been supercharged by the start of a general election year to choose a successor to Merkel, who has led the country since 2005.

The Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Merkel's loveless 'grand coalition' government, at the weekend demanded she produce a 'roadmap' toward the September vaccinations goal.

Pfizer and BioNTech have slowed down production to make manufacturing changes, while AstraZeneca said it was cutting supplies to the EU in the first quarter of 2021.

That prompted outrage from Brussels, which imposed export controls last week to supervise vaccines leaving the bloc for other countries.

Pharmaceutical companies have since made public pledges to make up for the shortfalls with additional doses later on - though none has pledged to speed up the initial delivery, meaning the EU's Covid pain will drag on for some time.

BioNTech and Pfizer have promised to send up to 75 million extra doses to the bloc in the spring thanks to progress at key manufacturing sites.

Meanwhile Mrs von der Leyen, who signed the vaccine contracts on behalf of the bloc, said Sunday that AstraZeneca would deliver 40 million doses in total in the first quarter - 30 per cent more previously promised - but shipments will not start until the second week of February.

And chemicals giant Bayer announced that from 2022 it would produce a coronavirus vaccine that fellow German pharmaceuticals company CureVac is developing.

CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas said his company would also produce several hundred million doses of its own vaccine by the end of 2021.

CureVac's mRNA vaccine has yet to receive the green light from regulators, but German health minister Jens Spahn said it was 'on its way to approval in the coming weeks'.

French pharma group Sanofi agreed last week to help produce 125 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

A European source said on Monday that Germany was putting 'tremendous' pressure on the Commission to improve the vaccine rollout, adding that von der Leyen's position had been 'severely weakened'.

The Brussels-imposed export controls were introduced last week to supervise vaccines leaving the bloc for other countries, after AstraZeneca said it was cutting supplies to the EU in the first quarter of 2021. Pictured: health worker draws a dose of the AstraZeneca's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine in Newcastle upon Tyne, Britain, January 30

While Brussels boasts of having a portfolio of 2.3billion doses, it has paid dearly for failing to sign its agreement with AstraZeneca until August last year.

Meanwhile, the EU's contract with Pfizer was not signed until November 2020, two days after the company had announced its successful trial results.

The Pfizer rollout did not begin until the very end of December, and even a month later the daily vaccination rates in countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain are well below those in Britain and the US.

Brussels did sign a deal with Moderna days before Britain, but again this was after the jab had already passed clinical trials.

And the EU was again shown to be lagging when the Novavax trial results were published last week showing 89.3 per cent efficacy.

While Britain has 60million doses ordered, the EU has only conducted 'exploratory talks' with the manufacturer, which were completed in December.

Even then, the 200million doses envisaged in an 'exploratory contract' are a smaller stockpile when adjusted for population size than Britain has ordered.

The EU also has other agreements in place with vaccines from Sanofi-GSK and CureVac, which have yet to conclude clinical trials.

Each EU member state is responsible for its own rollout. Most are giving priority to the elderly and frontline health workers.

Almost all the vaccines require two jabs for a full vaccination. (Johnson & Johnson is aiming for a single-shot regimen, subject to trials and EMA approval.)

Collectively, the European Union as of Saturday had provided 2.4 doses per 100 people, according to official sources collated by the website Our World in Data.

Top performers are Malta (6.08 doses per 100 people), Denmark (4.47), Slovenia (3.65) and Romania (3.50).

The bigger countries are trailing: Germany has given 2.8 doses per 100 people, France 2.34, Italy 3.16 and Spain 3.1.

The countries leading the world in giving jabs are Israel (54.7 per 100 people, with most of those over 70 already having been vaccinated with their two injections), the United Arab Emirates (33.7) and Britain (13.9).

Britain, which left the EU last year, is focused on giving the maximum number of people one injection and stretching out the time before they become completely vaccinated through their second injection.

France and other EU countries, in contrast, say they are maintaining stocks to give the second jab as recommended, even if that means a slowdown in their first jab programme.

Some EU countries, particularly in the poorer east of the bloc, are sensitive to the cost of vaccinating their populations. The logistical challenge of the mRNA-type vaccines that require sub-Arctic temperatures is also a factor.

While the price of each vaccine has been kept secret in the European Commission's contracts, a Belgian minister's tweet in December - deleted afterwards - gave a breakdown.

The Moderna vaccine was listed as most expensive, with Brussels paying 14.70 euros a dose. The BioNTech/Pfizer one 12 euros. The AstraZeneca vaccine came in at 1.78 euros a dose.
Navalny sentenced to more than 2 years in prison

A Moscow court found that President Vladimir Putins loudest critic had violated his parole. Aleksei Navalny, Russias most prominent opposition leader, was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Tuesday, a decision likely to send him to a far-flung penal colony for the first time.

The authorities have put several of his top allies under house arrest, and on Sunday they deployed a huge police presence in cities across Russia to quell protests calling for his release  some of the biggest street demonstrations of the Putin era.

You cannot lock up the whole country, Mr. Navalny told the court. He said the Russian president was angry at him for surviving after being poisoned with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok in August.

Accusations: Prosecutors claimed that Mr. Navalny had violated parole on a suspended prison sentence that he received in 2014. He and his brother were convicted of stealing from two companies, a conviction that the European Court of Human Rights called arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.
A San Francisco teacher has been ridiculed for her 'performative wokeness' after she claimed that viral Bernie Sanders wearing mittens at President Joe Biden's inauguration was a lesson in 'white privilege and male privilege.'

High school teacher Ingrid Seyer-Ochi penned the San Francisco Chronicle op-ed published on Sunday, nearly two weeks after Sanders and his mittens took the internet by storm.

In it, she criticized the 79-year-old senator for wrapping up against the cold in his mittens and winter coat, while she claimed that his female colleagues, and especially women of color such as Vice President Kamala Harris, did not have the same opportunity to dress down for such a prestigious event.

'Sen. Sanders is no white supremacist insurrectionist. But he manifests privilege, white privilege, male privilege and class privilege, in ways that my students could see and feel,' Seyer-Ochi, who earns six figures working for the San Francisco Unified School District, wrote.

The internet was quick to respond to the the 'stupid and appalling' comments, with many pointing out that Sanders had used the social media buzz about his appearance to raise money for charity by selling merchandise.

Others ridiculed Seyer-Ochi for using her platform to attack Biden instead of discussing the first female president or the other women in politics she claimed to support.

'Imagine having a platform to write about anything, and choosing to dunk on Bernie's mittens,' BBC journalist Benjamin Ramm commented.

Laura Bassett, a political journalist and columnist, tweeted: 'What fresh hell is this take, I don't even understand. The dude wore mittens and a big coat because it was cold and then he turned around and raised a ton of money for charity.'

One Twitter user slammed the op-ed for being 'performative wokeness.'

Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, a high school teacher in San Franscisco, has received criticism after publishing an op-ed calling Bernie Sanders' mittens a lesson in 'white privilege'

Bernie Sanders was seen wearing knit mittens and a puffy jacket during the inauguration of Joe Biden

'He was wearing a suit under the coat, which seems highly appropriate. The mittens were knitted by a constituent - a queer woman, no less - so they are also highly appropriate,' wrote @bgluckman.

Ash Sarkar, a contributing editor at Novaramedia, wrote: 'No, Bernie's mittens are not a manifestation of white privilege. Give me strength.'

Political journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote: 'What a stupid and appalling article: all based on how Bernie dressed. As stupid and gross as it is, it represents a large and growing sector of left-liberal thought.

Others said that they understood some of the roots at the base of the op-ed but ripped Seyer-Ochi for 'blaming Bernie.'

'I can kinda understand complaining that we all focused too much on Bernie and not enough on the first BIPOC woman VP... But to actually blame Bernie for that is... a take,' wrote @jurfinkel.

'And then to complain that he didn't get dressed up *enough*? He should have spent more money on clothes?'

Jordan Uhl, a progressive activist, praised Sanders for using the mittens fame to raise $1.8million for charity.

'When he turned around and used that moment to raise millions for charity that was also traumatizing for my students too,' Uhl wrote.

Others, who admitted to not liking Sanders, also came to the defense of the Socialist Democrat.

'I'm not even a Bernie fan. But I'm a lifelong New Englander neighbor to VT and all I can say is the writer has been in SF too long. We don't do fashion, especially when we're a member of a winter audience. Dressing with common sense is not white privilege,' wrote @HawthorneJunipe.

Another Twitter user wrote: 'The guy next to him is wearing a similar jacket. I'm not a huge bernie fan, but that's going a little too far. Bernie has no style and doesn't care. Peeps need to let it go. Tired of the memes as well.'

People posted memes of the Bernie Sanders picture online after he went viral for wearing the mittens

Seyer-Ochi started her opinion piece by telling readers that she and her students had analyzed images from the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

'This is white supremacy, this is white privilege. It can be hard to pinpoint, but when we see, it, we know it,' Seyer-Ochi said, recounting a Zoom lecture with her students.

'Across our Zoom screen, they affirmed, with nods, thumbs-ups, and emojis of anger and frustration.'

She said that two weeks later, her students once again analysed images  this time from the inauguaration where students 'saw diversity, creativity and humanity.'

'On the day of the inauguration, Bernie Sanders was barely on our radar. The next day, he was everywhere,' Seyer-Ochi wrote.

The teacher, who previously worked as a professor at UC Berkeley and Mills College, said students 'saw a white man in a puffy jacket and huge mittens, distant not only in his social distancing, but in his demeanor and attire.'

Journalists lambasted the San Francisco Chronicle op-ed as 'stupid' and said they were not 'white privilege'

Seyer-Ochi said she was 'puzzled and fumed' as she saw the 'incredibly well-educated and -privileged white man, showing up for perhaps the most important ritual of the decade, in a puffy jacket and huge mittens.'

The teacher does not go much further in the op-ed explaining how 79-year-old man wearing a jacket is white privilege, especially when the temperatures on inauguration day reached a low below freezing.

'I am beyond puzzled as to why so many are loving the images of Bernie and his gloves. Sweet, yes, the gloves, knit by an educator. So 'Bernie,' she wrote.

'Not so sweet? The blindness I see, of so many (Bernie included), to the privileges Bernie represents.'

Seyer-Ochi previously worked as a college professor at UC Berkley before penning the op-ed

Seyer-Ochi made a whopping $123,682 in 2017 and $130,637 in 2018 from pay and benefits as the former principal of an elementary school, according to TransparentCalifornia.com.

Her pay dropped down to a total package of only $69,966 in 2019  the last year her records appear to be public.

Critics were quick to point out Seyer-Ochi and her own privilege, pointing to her salary. Another with linked to a dissertation paper written by a former student on which she is listed as an adviser.

'If I was Ingrid Seyer-Ochi and I authored academic papers that blamed African American parents instead of institutional racism that creates obstacles to Black children's success then I would back off Bernie's whites privilege and check my own,' wrote @rootsreggaepunk.

The mittens were knitted by Vermont elementary school teacher Jen Ellis, 42, who has a side hustle making mittens out of recycled wool sweaters and and fleece made from recycled plastic bottles.

She has since partnered with the Vermont Teddy Bear Company to create a mitten line to meet her new demand, the company announced on its website.

'I can't be more thrilled, because I personally can't make 18,000 pairs of mittens,' Ellis told The Associated Press. 'Everybody will get their mittens -- everybody.'

Maybe someone should knit Seyer-Ochi mittens of her own to warm her cold heart.
National Partners in Healthcare continues expansion in Salt Lake City, Utah with Intermountain Anesthesia Consultants. Tweet this

"We are excited about our new partnership with IAC and our collective ability to support the ongoing high-quality anesthesia services to the patients, surgeons and facilities they serve," said Mike Saunders, CEO of NPH. "Adding IAC to NPH continues to prove our commitment to adding high quality leaders in the anesthesia community."

About National Partners in Healthcare:

NPH is a national healthcare organization delivering best in class anesthesiology services. NPH is dedicated to partnering with high quality anesthesiologists and CRNAs providing the expertise, resources, and long-term sustainable solutions to their medical practices. NPH's anesthesiology partners retain autonomy of their practice while collaborating with each NPH clinical team to achieve and deliver the highest quality patient care. For more information, www.nphllc.com .

NPH is a joint venture between Archimedes Health Investors LLC, a healthcare-focused private equity firm, and Assured Healthcare Partners (AHP), a private equity firm providing growth, consolidation, and repositioning capital solutions in the healthcare services industry. For more information about AHP, please visit www.ahpartners.com.

Rebecca Brophy, Holly Buckley and Thomas Zahn, of McGuireWoods LLP, provided legal counsel to NPH. Intermountain Anesthesia Consultants and its partners were represented in the transaction by Rob Yates of Kirton McConkie, Salt Lake City, Utah.

SOURCE National Partners in Healthcare

Related Links

http://www.nphllc.com


Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Medical science has come a long way since the days of "bikini medicine," when the only time doctors managed a woman's health differently than a man's was when treating the parts of her body found under a bikini.

Over the past few decades, researchers have uncovered countless ways in which women's and men's bodies react differently to the same diseases. And just as it's now widely recognized women experience heart disease differently than men, scientists are beginning to understand why the sexes experience illness differently in another vital organthe brain.

It's not that male and female brains are built differently, said Lisa Mosconi, director of the Women's Brain Initiative at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. It's that they age differently.

Women bear the brunt of Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, accounting for two of every three people diagnosed. Women are twice as likely as men to experience major depression. They are three times more likely to be diagnosed with autoimmune disorders that attack the brain, such as multiple sclerosis. They are four times more likely to have migraines and also are more likely to die from strokes.

What's driving these disparities? While multiple factors are at play, Mosconi said, it's hormonestestosterone in men and estrogen in womenthat are the orchestral conductors of the brain. They are responsible for whether it performs well, or not.

"We are used to thinking of sex hormones as important for fertility and reproduction," Mosconi said. "But hormones also play crucial roles in brain health."

Estradiol, the type of estrogen produced by the ovaries during a woman's reproductive years, is the most important driver of brain health, said Dr. Kejal Kantarci, director of the Women's Health Research Center and a radiology professor at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Her research suggests longer exposure to estradiol may offer some protection to the brain.

In a 2020 study published in Brain Communications, she showed women with longer reproductive periodsmeasured from the time they start menstruation to the time they enter menopausewere better protected against progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. The study also showed the more pregnancies a woman had, the less her disease progressed, suggesting that the flood of estrogen during pregnancy increased protection.

Losing estradiol, on the other hand, can harm the brain. The end of a woman's reproductive years and the accompanying drop in estradiol triggers numerous brain changes, some of which, researchers are learning, may not become evident until decades later.

For example, studies show Alzheimer's disease, typically diagnosed in a woman's 70s, likely begins to develop while she is still in her 50s. Mosconi's research found evidence that amyloid plaques, the proteins associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease, were already accumulating in the brains of women as they transitioned to menopause, though the women showed no evidence of cognitive decline at that age. She also found shrinkage in the memory centers of the women's brains.

"We never talk about Alzheimer's disease as something that happens in midlife," Mosconi said. "But for women, that's the timeline we need to think about."

There are other signs the brain is changing at midlife, when the loss of estradiol makes women more vulnerable to disease, Mosconi said. Studies have shown an increase in anxiety, depression, multiple sclerosis and other immune disorders during menopause. "For women with a predisposition to these conditions, this is when the condition seems to get activated."

Mosconi has used imaging to track brain energy levels, showing that, on average, it "declines by 20% or more during menopause." Men at the same age showed no changes, she said, which could be because they don't typically experience a hormone decline as rapidly or as early as women do.

But more estrogen isn't always better, Kantarci said. "You can't just say estrogens are good for you. It's not that simple."

A growing body of research suggests that it's not just about how much estrogen a woman's brain gets exposed tobut when.

For example, a 2005 review published in The Lancet Neurology about clinical trials in postmenopausal women 65 or older showed women who received hormone therapy, including estrogen, had an increased risk for dementia and other types of cognitive decline. But a more recent study in 2019 in the journal Menopause found taking estrogen therapy earlierwithin the first five years of menopausemight protect against cognitive decline. It also showed women exposed longer to natural estrogen because of more reproductive years had better cognitive function later in life.

Kantarci's work supports the idea that the transition to menopause offers a critical window for intervention. Her research found women given estradiol in a patch during their 50s showed less brain shrinkage in later years. "The front of the brain, which is used for decision-making and attention, was relatively preserved," she said. "It did not decline as much as it did in the placebo group."

In an ongoing study, she and her team will continue to explore whether hormone therapy given during the transition to menopause is associated with any long-term cognitive impacts.

But Kantarci cautioned against placing all the blame on hormones.

"Women are also the caregivers to dementia patients, and they are at higher risk for mental health issues that may also increase their risk of cognitive impairment," she said. "They live longer, and they are caregivers. And because they are caregivers, they are at higher risk. It's a circular problem."
Tunis/Tunisia  The governorate of Kebili recorded, on Monday, three deaths as a result of the Coronavirus, bringing to 178 the total number of deaths due to the pandemic in the region since the spread of the virus, Head of Health programmes in Kebili, Ali Haddad, told TAP.

Besides, 23 additional cases of infection by COVID-19 were detected in the governorate, following the publication of the results of the tests taken on January 26, 27, 28 and 29.

The total number of positive cases in the region reached 4,677 cases since the outbreak of the virus including several patients recovered while 325 others still carry the virus, according to the same source.
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American Energy Independence at Risk With Biden Orders, Experts Say

The Biden administration has clamped down hard on energy and oil as part of its climate change agenda. But experts warn that the presidents recent actions will have long-term impacts on production and the economyit will also mean more dependence from imports.

President Joe Biden recently issued a slew of executive orders including freezing new oil or natural gas leases and drilling permits on federal land, as well as canceling the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. While the moves were hailed by environmentalists, experts told The Epoch Times the drawbacks outweigh any potential benefits.

If no new leases are granted on federal lands and waters, the hydrocarbon production from these areas will decline, according to Paul Bommer, senior lecturer of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas.

So will the revenue to the federal and state governments by way of taxes and royalties, Bommer told The Epoch Times. Employment in these areas will also go down. This is dire for those areas and people employed in those areas.

If demand goes up, Bommer said the private sector could improve production through drilling and completing new wells on private and state-controlled land and waters, assuming the federal freeze stays in place. But in states such as New Mexico, half of all the states oil and gas production is on federal land, meaning workers and companies will be forced to relocate to states with more private land.

Saudi Arabia this month pledged additional, voluntary oil output cuts, sending oil prices to the highest rate in nearly a year. Higher prices have prompted U.S. energy firms to increase drilling, with U.S. oil rig activity rising in the first week of January to its highest since May 2020, according to Reuters.

If the executive freeze is extended, it will have a major impact on production, said Patrick Moore, policy adviser and founding director of the CO2 Coalition. Moore co-founded Greenpeace, the worlds largest environmental activist group, before he became a critic of the environmental movement.

The loss of fracked oil and gas from public lands will mean dependence on more imports, Moore told The Epoch Times. There is nothing in the pipe to make up for a large decrease in oil and gas production.

Two oil pumpjacks on May 4, 2020, in Cushing, Oklahoma. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)

Fracking accounted for 67 percent of natural gas production and more than 50 percent of domestic U.S. oil production in 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). And in 2016, hydraulically fractured horizontal wells accounted for 69 percent of oil and natural gas wells drilled in the United States.

In 2019, the United States became energy independent for the first time since 1957, according to the Institute for Energy Research. U.S. energy production in that year was higher than U.S. energy consumption for the first time in 62 years. Total U.S. energy production increased by 5.7 percent in 2019, the institute said, while U.S. energy demand fell by 0.9 percent.

In 2020, the United States exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported on an annual basis for the first time in the EIAs data series that dates back to 1949, EIA Administrator Linda Capuano said.

Bidens executive order to freeze oil and gas leasing has resulted in multiple lawsuits. The Western Energy Alliance, a group representing fossil fuel producers on federal lands, sued the administration on Jan. 27, filing it in the U.S. District Court in Wyoming. According to the alliance, Biden exceeded his authority with the recent order.

The law is clear. Presidents dont have authority to ban leasing on public lands. All Americans own the oil and natural gas beneath public lands, and Congress has directed them to be responsibly developed on their behalf, Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma said, The Washington Times reported. Drying up new leasing puts future development as well as existing projects at risk.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has also vowed to oppose what he called the Biden administrations bid to destroy jobs with its targeting of the oil and gas industry. Abbott during a press conference in Odessa on Jan. 28 signed an executive order directing all state agencies to sue the Biden administration for any federal actions that threaten the Lone Star States energy sector.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Biden administration for comment, but didnt receive a response by press time.

President Joe Biden prepares to sign executives orders in the State Dining Room of the White House on January 26, 2021. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

Executives at the U.S. Energy Development Corporation (USEDC) told The Epoch Times the recent executive actions will impact the long-term future of energy production more so than the short term. USEDC is an oil and natural gas driller and producer that, according to its website, has invested in, operated and/or drilled more than 2,400 wells in 13 states and Canada and has deployed more than $1.5 billion on behalf of our partners over the past 40 years.

Because there are existing permits in place, the impact will not be felt immediately, and energy independence will remain short-term, Jordan Jayson, CEO of USEDC, told The Epoch Times via email. However, long-term, these decision will ultimately force U.S. production to decline over the next several years and cause a greater dependence on foreign oil in the future.

The companys executive vice president, Matthew Iak, said its clear that the administrations executive orders were intended to make a statement and to keep their campaign promises to move away from long-term reliance on fossil fuels. He said the pipeline decision is an indicator that the administration will create a difficult regulatory environment for fossil fuels in the U.S.

This was done in part to appease its base, and not necessarily because it makes sense or whats best for the environment, Iak told The Epoch Times via email.

Some experts, however, argue the administrations moves will not have major impacts on energy production and will instead bolster alternative, renewable energy sources. The Biden administration has ambitious energy and climate plans which should be able to lower emissions and accelerate the transition of the countrys energy system from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of production, Gilbert Michaud, professor of instruction at Ohio Universitys Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, told The Epoch Times. While the United States might export less coal and oil due to the forthcoming energy transitions under Biden, we will also import and consume less, as we fill these gaps with alternative technologies such as solar and wind, said Michaud, whose research portfolio focuses on renewable energy policy, electric utilities, and state politics. According to Michaud, any changes to import or export markets as well as to the average American family, will probably be negligible in the short term. He also said that federal actions for sweeping energy changes rarely stimulate drastic shifts in the means of production.
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This Document May Not Be Published, Distributed or Circulated, Either Directly or Indirectly, in the United States of America, Canada, Australia or Japan

Offer oversubscribed 4 times, with global demand totaling 28.1 million

Capital increase of approximately 8 million, after full exercise of the Extension Clause

Trading in the Company's shares begins on February 5, 2021 (FR0011651694 ALPHE)

Regulatory News:

Pherecydes Pharma (Paris:ALPHE) (FR0011651694 ALPHE), a biotechnology company specializing in precision phage therapy to treat resistant and/or complicated bacterial infections, today announces the resounding success of its initial public offering on the Euronext Growth market in Paris.

Guy-Charles Fanneau de La Horie, Chairman of the Executive Board of Pherecydes Pharma, says: "I am particularly sensitive to the high level of interest the financial community has shown in our IPO project, both institutional and individual investors. I would like to thank all our shareholders, longstanding and new, who have chosen to accompany us through this next stage in our development. Thanks to the funds raised, we now have the necessary means to develop precision phage therapy more broadly. The launch of our first clinical trials with our anti-Staphylococcus aureus phages and the availability of our anti-Staphylococcus aureus and anti-Pseudomonas aeruginosa phages under Early Access Program (EAP) for the medical community in France from the second half of this year will position us even more as a global leader in this field.

Result of the Offer

Total demand expressed was for 4,690,361 shares, or 39% with respect to the global placement (the "Global Placement") (via 25 orders from French and foreign institutional investors, representing demand of approximately 10.9 million) and 61% with respect to the fixed-price offer (the "Fixed-Price Offer" or "FPO", and, together with the Global Placement, the "Offer") (via near to 11,000 orders from individual investors, representing demand of approximately 17.2 million). Given the high level of demand, i.e. 28.1 million, the Company has decided to fully exercise the Extension Clause.

Allocation of the Offer

Altogether, the number of shares issued after exercise of the Extension Clause is 1,333,265new shares, allocated as follows:

999,949 new shares within the framework of the Global Placement primarily for institutional investors in France and certain other countries (notably excluding the United States of America, Australia, Canada and Japan), representing approximately 6 million , or 75% of the total number of shares allocated; and

primarily for institutional investors in France and certain other countries (notably excluding the United States of America, Australia, Canada and Japan), representing approximately , or of the total number of shares allocated; and 333,316 new shares within the framework of the FPO, representing approximately 2million, or 25% of the total number of shares allocated. Within the framework of the FPO, the allotment rate will be 15% for A1 orders (from 1 to 250 shares included) and 7.9% for A2 orders (more than 250 shares).

The gross proceeds of the Company's capital increase total approximately 8 million, issue premium included.

After implementation of the capital increase, Pherecydes Pharma's share capital amounts to 5,824,253 euros, consisting of 5,824,253 shares with a nominal value of 1 euro each. On this basis and taking into account the IPO price of 6.00 per share, Pherecydes Pharma has a market capitalization of approximately 34.9 million.

The float represents 19.2% of the Company's capital (excl. subscriptions by longstanding shareholders).

Settlement-delivery of the shares is scheduled for February 4, 2021 and continuous trading in the Company's shares on the Euronext Growth market in Paris will begin on February 5, 2021 (ISIN: FR0011651694 Ticker: ALPHE).

Reasons for the Offer and use of the raised funds

The net proceeds from the raised funds will allow the Company to pursue the following objectives:

Clinical development of its portfolio of anti-Staphylococcus aureus phages; Preclinical and clinical development of its portfolio of anti-Escherichia Coli phages The availability of phages in the context of the Early Access Program, issued by the ANSM to allow certain categories of patients in France to use drugs that have not yet received marketing authorization (MA), and the development of the Phagogram, which makes it possible to test the sensitivity of a patient's bacterial strain to several phages, to increase the speed, reliability, reproducibility and sensitivity of the tests carried out.

Lock-up commitment Company

For a period of 180 calendar days from the date of settlement-delivery, subject to certain exceptions.

Lock-up commitment shareholders

As a reminder, the historical shareholders of the Company have subscribed, subject to certain exceptions, to a 12-month lock-up commitment from the date of settlement-delivery of the Offer.

Next steps

Feb. 4, 2021 Settlement-Delivery of the Fixed-Price Offer and Global Placement Feb. 5, 2021 The Company's shares begin trading on the Euronext Growth market in Paris

Breakdown of capital and voting rights

Prior to the Offer and following the Offer (after the exercise of the extension clause), the share capital and voting rights of the Company will be distributed as follows:

Before the Offer After the Offer

(full exercise of the Extension Clause) Shareholders Number of shares and

voting rights % of shares and

voting rights Number of shares and

voting rights % of shares and

voting rights Members of the Executive Board 30,704 0.68% 30,704 0.53% ACE Management 1,384,564 30.83% 1,384,564 23.77% Omnes Capital 399,155 8.89% 399,155 6.85% Elaia Capital 950,003 21.15% 1,060,003 18.20% Go Capital 620,628 13.82% 699,828 12.02% Participations Besancon 243,819 5.43% 243,819 4.19% Pool GR* 352,859 7.86% 357,220 6.13% Other historical shareholders 509,256 11.34% 531,456 9.12% Free float 0.00% 1,117,504 19.19% Total 4,490,988 100.00% 5,824,253 100.00%

* The "Pool GR" group comprises individual shareholders who are legal entities or individuals who have entered into an agreement to act in concert with each other that has been brought to the Company's attention. Guy Rigaud, a member of the Company's Supervisory Board, belongs to this group.

Eligibility of the Offer for PEA and PEA-PME equity savings plans and qualification for Bpifrance Entreprise innovante status

Pherecydes Pharma announces that it complies with the criteria to be eligible for PEA-PME equity savings plans specified in articles L. 221-32-2 and D. 221-113-5 et seq. of the Monetary and Financial Code. Accordingly, Pherecydes Pharma shares can be included in PEA equity savings plans and PEA-PME equity savings accounts, which enjoy the same tax benefits as traditional PEA plans.

Pherecydes Pharma has also been assigned "Entreprise Innovante" (innovative company) status by Bpifrance.

Information on Pherecydes Pharma's IPO on Euronext Growth in Paris

Copies of the Document d'Information is available free of charge from Pherecydes Pharma, and on the websites of Pherecydes Pharma (www.pherecydes-pharma.com) and Euronext (www.euronext.com).

For a description of the risks and uncertainties that could affect the results, financial position, performance and achievements of Pherecydes Pharma, please see the "Risk Factors" section of the Document d'Information, which is available on the websites of Pherecydes Pharma (pherecydes-pharma.com) and Euronext (www.euronext.com).

Investment Advisors

PORTZAMPARC

BNP PARIBAS GROUP

Global Coordinator, Bookkeeper and Listing Sponsor

You can find all relevant information about Pherecydes Pharma's IPO project at www.pherecydes-finance.com

Legal advice

Lexelians acted as deal counsel on the legal aspects of the transaction.

About Pherecydes Pharma

Founded in 2006, Pherecydes Pharma is a biotechnology company that develops treatments against resistant bacterial infections, responsible for many serious infections. The Company has developed an innovative approach, precision phage therapy, based on the use of phages, natural bacteria-killing viruses. Pherecydes Pharma is developing a portfolio of phages targeting 3 of the most resistant and dangerous bacteria, which alone account for more than two thirds of hospital-acquired resistant infections: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The concept of precision phage therapy has been successfully applied in 22 patients in the context of compassionate use, under the supervision of the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM). Headquartered in Nantes, Pherecydes Pharma has a team of 21 experts from the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology sector and academic research.

For more information, www.pherecydes-pharma.com.

Disclaimer

This document does not constitute or should not be considered as a public offering, an offer to subscribe company's securities or a public solicitation in preparation for a public offering of Pherecydes Pharma's securities. Pursuant to the provisions of Article L.411-2 of the French Monetary and Financial Code and Article 211-2 of the General Regulations of the French Market Authority (Autorite des Marches Financiers AMF), any offer for a total amount of less than 8,000,000 shall not give rise to a Prospectus approved by the AMF. This press release does not constitute a prospectus within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 (the "Prospectus Regulation").

In the United Kingdom, this document is addressed to and intended solely for those persons who are qualified investors pursuant to Article 2(1)(e) (i), (ii) and (iii) of the Prospectus Directive of the European Union, and who are also considered as (i) investment professionals (persons with professional investing experience) pursuant to Article 19(5) of the 2000 Financial Services and Markets Act (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (as amended, the Order), (ii) persons included in the scope of Article 49(2)(a) to (d) ("high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.") of the Order, or (iii) persons invited or urged to participate in an investment activity (pursuant to Article 21 of the 2000 Financial Services and Markets Act) in connection with the issuance or the sale of financial securities (all such persons being designated together as the "interested Persons"). In the United Kingdom, this document is addressed solely to the Interested Persons and no person other than an interested person must use or rely on this document. Any investment or investment activity to which this document refers shall be accessible only to the Interested Persons and shall be undertaken only with Interested Persons.

This document does not constitute an offer to sell Pherecydes Pharma's securities in the United States of America. Pherecydes Pharma's securities cannot be sold in the United States of America without the registration or an exemption from registration under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Pherecydes Pharma is not contemplating registering an offer or any public offering of securities, in the United States of America.

The diffusion of this document in other countries may result in violating applicable rules governing securities law. This document does not constitute an offer of Pherecydes Pharma's securities in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Japan or in any other country. This document must not be published, transmitted or distributed, directly or indirectly, in the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan.

Finally, this press release may be drafted in French and English languages. If both versions are interpreted differently, the French language version shall prevail.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202006039/en/

Contacts:

Pherecydes Pharma

Philippe Rousseau

CFO

investors@pherecydes-pharma.com

NewCap

Dusan Oresansky

Investor Relations

pherecydes@newcap.eu

+33 1 44 71 94 92

NewCap

Nicolas Merigeau

Media Relations

pherecydes@newcap.eu

+33 1 44 71 94 98

KYODO NEWS - Feb 1, 2021 - 22:06 | All, World, Japan

The United Kingdom made a formal request Monday to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact, the first accession application by a member outside the 11 participating Pacific countries.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said in a videoconference with her Japanese and New Zealand counterparts, "I want Britain's accession to the CPTPP to help build back better the global trading system."

Truss was referring to the pact's formal name -- the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Japan and other TPP members have welcomed the new development, seeing it as an impetus to expanding free trade based on high-standard investment and trade rules. The United Kingdom is expected to enter talks with TPP members in the spring.

The trade agreement, which came into force in 2018, covers 13 percent of global gross domestic product and groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

"As we seek to recover from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 it's all the more important for like-minded allies to work together to make the case for free trade and put it into action," Truss told Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan's minister in charge of TPP negotiations, and New Zealand Trade Minister Damien O'Connor.

"I hope that Britain acceding will encourage others who share our views and outlook to consider joining this important group," she said.

Nishimura said Japan "will lead the discussion towards the evolution and the expansion of the CPTPP."

Japan assumes the presidency of the TPP's decision-making body this year, while New Zealand is responsible for receiving accession requests as the depositary for the trade pact.

Once the decision-making body approves the start of the process for London's entry, a working-level group will be set up to proceed with accession talks.

Related coverage:

Britain to apply to join Asia-Pacific free trade pact

South Korea to consider joining TPP trade pact: President Moon

Thailand to apply to join trans-Pacific FTA this month: official

In the negotiations, the United Kingdom will need to show that it can comply with TPP rules, while entering tariff negotiations on a bilateral basis with the 11 members.

Its accession will ultimately need to be approved by consensus at the decision-making body.

Japan is hoping for the return of the United States to the trade accord, which was initially promoted by former U.S. President Barack Obama to balance China's growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Obama's successor Donald Trump pulled the country out soon after taking office in 2017 under his "America First" mantra.

Washington's return to the pact is unlikely anytime soon, however, as President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump, has signaled his administration would first focus on the domestic economy and the novel coronavirus response.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, showed eagerness to join the TPP at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum held in November.

But China's desire is unlikely to be satisfied easily due to the TPP's high-standard free trade rules, such as a ban on preferential treatment for state-owned enterprises and stronger intellectual property rights protection, Japanese officials said.

Besides China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand have also expressed interest in joining the TPP.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been in office less than a month, but shes already drawing attention for some pretty disturbing superlatives. Shes the only known congressperson to believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory. She filed articles of impeachment against Joe Biden on his first week in office. And a few days back, she got into an argument in the hallway with another freshman congresswoman, Cori Bush. Afterward, Bush moved her offices at the Capitol just to avoid Greene. Over the past couple of weeks, videos have also been surfacing of Greenes political life before she was elected to office. In one, she seems to have traveled to the Capitol simply to follow a Parkland school shooting survivor around, to try to pick a fight with him. In another, she attempts to tell Muslim congresswomen that they cant be sworn in using a Quran.

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The rise of Marjorie Taylor Greene cant be disconnected from the rise of President Donald Trump. Like Trump, her superpower is railing against the establishmentan establishment shes now becoming part of. You could see this contradiction most clearly last month, when the House met to debate Trumps second impeachment, and Greene wore a mask with the word censored across the front, even though she was speaking to millions, live. On Tuesdays episode of What Next, I spoke with Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein about Greenes lucky political break, how shes used racism and conspiracy theories to fuel her rise, and why her new colleagues arent sure of the best way to stop her. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Mary Harris: Theres another way Greene is like Trump, right? While she has aggressively courted a rural base, she doesnt come from the same world as her constituents.

Greg Bluestein: This gets missed a lot in the national conversation: Shes not some, like, backwoods redneckpeople will put these Deliverance memes up when she speaksshes not that type. Shes from a very wealthy neighborhood in metro Atlanta. Her kids went to very expensive private schools. She comes from a very affluent background. Some of her critics want to paint her as some backwoods bumpkin, and thats just not who she is.

Can we talk about the people in her district and what they think of all this? Shes in this very white district thats been hit really hard by COVID.

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Its very white, very conservative, very rural with a mix of some exurbs. Theres not a very dominant news outlet or newspaper that provides information, so a lot of the voters I talked to during my visits to the district told me that their primary sources of information were social media or very conservative outlets.

Liz Cheney is getting more backlash for voting for impeachment than Marjorie Taylor Greene did for endorsing the death of the House speaker.  Greg Bluestein

A couple of days ago, Marjorie Taylor Green held several town hall meetings for constituents. And over and over again, you heard this fantasy narrative playing out, because she sponsored some kind of push to impeach Joe Biden. She was the only sponsor period on this legislation thats going to go nowhere to impeach Joe Biden just as he took office. And yet, at these town hall meetings, her constituents are treating it seriously. Theyre asking serious questions about why is the mainstream media not paying attention? When is the hearing going to start? How soon is Joe Biden going to be out of office? Those kinds of questions about legislation that objectively is going nowherethat not even Fox News is reporting as viable. But her constituents are getting the message from alternative news sources that this is somehow this legit push to remove Joe Biden from office.

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Thats such an important point, that part of the way the disinformation spreads and grows is when theres no trusted, vetted source out there. And it sounds like thats another way that Marjorie Taylor Greene got lucky.

I went to some of these Stop the Steal rallies in Georgia, and I would interview people afterward and identify myself as an AJC reporter. And they all know the AJC, and theyd be honest: Theyd say, Were not reading you guys at all. But they also would talk about how frustrated they were because they wanted to vote, but they didnt know how to because they had been told by President Trump that vote by mail was fraudulent. But they had also been told by President Trump and his allies that there were problems with Georgias electronic voting machines. So they were genuinely frustrated and conflicted.

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I wonder if your Republican political contacts are looking back at how they played things with Marjorie Taylor Greene and expressing regret or thinking of doing things differently moving forward.

I think its a mix of regret and just resignation, because they felt like at the time, given the context of those races, they did what they had to do in order to have a chance at keeping Georgia red. And of course, it didnt work out for them. And now, theyre going to have to deal with her for at least the next two years, but probably deep into this decade as she continues to give them headaches. And theres no easy answer for those Republicans now who have suddenly awoken to the fact that she is going to be an embarrassment to the party for a while and that Democrats are eagerly, and probably successfully, going to brand her as the face of the Georgia GOP.

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I feel like some of the national coverage has talked about a war within the GOP, but when I hear you talk, it doesnt sound like a war. It sounds like very polite, slow-moving negotiations. Im not sure how effective that is in quieting down the kind of rhetoric that Marjorie Taylor Greene is putting out there now.

Its almost like appeasement. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, says hell have a conversation with her. Thats not exactly the type of response that we could have expected a few years ago in the pre-Trump era.

More than a few people have noted that the Republican response to Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress has been far more muted than the Republican response to Liz Cheney, who is one of the 10 Republicans who voted for the impeachment of President Trump. You know, that Liz Cheney is getting more backlash for voting for impeachment than Marjorie Taylor Greene did for endorsing the death of the House speaker.

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And that may tell you what you need to know.

Thats true to a lesser degree in Georgia. Were not hearing the governor or the former senators or any of the partys top statesmen coming out and warning what would happen, saying that Marjorie Taylor Greene needs to be ousted or censored or whatever, or saying this does not represent Georgia. It mirrored what happened after Trump lost Georgia in November. It took a very long time for Republican leaders to speak out against Trump calling it a rigged election. It was this gradual process.

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Its Democrats who are calling for Greene to be held to account. Some have called for censure, even expulsion from office. This week, Democratic leadership gave the GOP an ultimatum: strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her assignments on the education and budget committees within 72 hours, or theyll do it themselves. But in some ways, you think that reaction plays right into Marjorie Taylor Greenes hands, right?

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She wants to be martyred, and you can tell by her Twitter feed that all this does is fuel her claims that she is being censored, that she is being cast aside. But, look, House lawmakers are in a very tough situation with this because Democrats at first said this is a Republican issue. They prefer that Republicans deal with this. But when Republican leaders put her on the education committee, even after videos came forward that showed that she was mocking victims of mass shootings at Sandy Hook and at Parkland, it became an untenable situation for Democrats.

How do you think her constituents are going to see all this?

Most of them, the people who supported her in November, are going to echo what shes been saying. Theyre going to echo the fact that this is another example of Republican Trump supporters being silenced. Its why shes wearing a censored mask. She will definitely be sending fundraising emails out about it. Shell probably raise another boatload of cash off this. She raised about $1.6 million in a few days in the run-up to the last big controversy. Thats a lot of money. And shes got this national audience now. She has more than 300,000 followers on Twitter. Thats a powerful megaphone to raise cash and to get your message out.

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I wonder if you feel like youve learned anything from covering the Trump years that you now want to apply to covering Marjorie Taylor Green, because she really is borrowing from the playbook.

Yeah, a couple of things. First, were not breathlessly reporting everything she says. Thats what a lot of media did with Trump, including the AJC.

Second, we cant discount that appeal she has. We cant just ignore what shes saying, that the grievances shes playing into are doing so for a reason and that there is a deep well of support for her. This isnt just some fluke. She did take advantage of an unbelievable situation to win. But she won for a reason and she beat out all those other local Republicans, including a neurosurgeon, John Cowan, who had lived in the district for decades.

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And third, weve got to call it out as often as we can when theres lies, when theres falsehoods, when theres racist and anti-Semitic and xenophobic remarks. We dont use racially tinged or those kinds of mealy-mouth words. We say in pretty much every story that she has a history of racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic remarks. We include links to those in the stories. We call out the fact that she has been promoting lies about widespread voting fraud and that she is being blamed by Republicans for contributing to the election defeats of Sens. Loeffler and Perdue in January. Were not letting folks forget about that background.

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A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build an eight-storey apartment block on lands at the former Bessborough mother and baby home estate in Cork has been rejected.

The rejection was welcomed by campaigners who opposed development on the Blackrock estate site of what was once Ireland's largest mother and baby home.

Campaigners now want the site to be assessed for any remaining undiscovered infant graves  and for those areas to be properly preserved as cemeteries.

Further, campaigners including Catherine Coffey O'Brien want a fitting memorial developed on the estate in the shape of a wild flower meadow.

Cork City Council has now ruled against the proposed eight-storey apartment block.

Developer MWB Two Ltd had submitted two proposals  one to City Hall was for an eight-storey apartment block including 67 residential units in a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments.

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The second proposal was for a strategic housing development on other lands at Bessborough including three apartment blocks of between five and seven storeys, offering a total of 179 residential units.

A decision on this second project is not due from An Bord Pleanala before the end of March.

The local authority is understood to have rejected the proposed eight-storey apartment block on the basis of its scale and its relationship to the historic lands at Bessborough.

MWB Two Ltd acknowledged the decision by Cork City Council. The developer said it would now carefully consider the decision over the coming days.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin last month acknowledged he had deep concerns over the developments at Bessborough.

There needs to be first of all an examination, and the proper robust identification of the burial sites of all children, he said.

I would have deep concerns about construction going ahead, in the absence of that having been established and protected, and measures taken to protect such a burial site.

Ms Coffey OBrien said a proper investigation of the Bessborough site was now warranted.

We want an independent body to come in and carefully assess the site. We then want the ground handed over to Cork City Council, to protect the site and to preserve it as a graveyard.

She said survivors did not want exhumations.

Campaigner Ann OGorman said Ireland owed a duty to those who suffered at Bessborough to locate and properly mark any burial plots.

Ms OGorman had a baby girl, Evelyn, at Bessborough but was told her baby girl had died.

I want to see this investigated properly. We need closure  it would make me so happy to see that done.

Of the more than 900 babies who died at Bessborough or in Cork hospitals having been transferred from the mother and babies home over seven decades, fewer than 70 have known burial sites. Bessborough was infamous for its high infant mortality rate.
document

The Election Resource Centre joins the High Court of Zimbabwe, Judicial Services Commission and the legal fraternity in expressing our heartfelt condolences to the Phiri family, following the passing of High Court Judge, Justice Clement Phiri.

Justice Phiri leaves a legacy where his jurisprudence worked towards achieving free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe. Justice Phiri was instrumental in attempting to curb the partisan conduct of traditional leaders in elections. In a 2018 High Court judgement, Justice Phiri held that the conduct of the National Council of Chiefs President Chief Fortune Charumbira and traditional leaders in general in participating in partisan politics was unconstitutional. Participating in partisan politics has always been a scourge that impairs the freeness and fairness of the electoral environment in Zimbabwe and beyond where such structures exist.

Unfortunately, the efforts by the now late Justice Phiri towards achieving a level playing field that promotes a free and fair election in Zimbabwe continue to be frustrated as Chief Fortune Charumbira, the National Council of Chiefs and the Minister of Local Government ignore the High Court order.

May His Soul Rest In Peace.

Source: Election Resource Centre
Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the release from prison on Tuesday of Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, a ringleader in the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl by al Qaeda and Pakistani terrorists in 2002. Pakistan's government had appealed to the court on Friday to review its decision to free the British-born Islamist and three others convicted in the case, a day after their acquittal by a panel of three judges. The United States also expressed concern over Sheikh's acquittal, and top US diplomat Antony Blinken repeated a call for accountability in his first ...
JOHANNESBURG - South African nurses called on the government on Monday to ensure overstretched workers in rural clinics and hospitals get access to Covid-19 vaccines as the hard-hit country received its first batch of doses.

A health worker treats a patient at a temporary field hospital set up by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in Khayelitsha township near Cape Town, South Africa, July 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

Herd immunity

Rural nurses have reported shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks during the pandemic and - with few detailed announcements about inoculation plans for remote areas - many fear they could be last in line."Healthcare workers' hands are full as we speak, we are very concerned about overstretching them to breaking point," said Sibongiseni Delihlazo, spokesman for the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), a union."It is important to not forget them," Delihlazo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.South Africa has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases on the continent with more than 1.4-million cases and over 43,000 deaths to date.One million shots of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine will be given to healthcare workers in the coming months, with an extra 500,000 set to arrive in February.A recent health ministry presentation showed there were about 1.25-million health workers to be vaccinated and unions are already calling for more vaccines as each healthcare worker will need two doses.In places so remote that they cannot be reached by car, healthcare employees fear limited access to vaccines could exacerbate difficult working conditions."Ordinarily those clinics don't have resources or even water, ablutions are not in good conditions," said Kedibone Mdolo, the north west acting provincial secretary of Denosa."Those nurses out there are forgotten so it will be a test for the (health) department to see how best they will reach them," she said, adding that officials had given only "general answers" on rural roll-out plans.The Department of Health did not respond to requests for comment, but health minister Zweli Mkhize said recently the "entire country" was being contemplated in the inoculation programme."In some of those areas we will go to a rural hospital and use it as a base to go to various clinics to make sure people can be accessed in nearby areas," Mkhize said in a local television interview.The North West province, where health workers have spoken out about PPE shortages, said vaccination sites will administer 500 doses per day and although more work had to be done, they were working on informing all citizens of the roll-out plan.Healthcare workers will be first in line for vaccination under the programme, followed by essential workers, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions."The biggest risk would be not reaching herd immunity, and the healthcare workers become the patients. Who will look after them?" Delihlazo said.
"We've already hit the ground running in 2021, and this latest integration with Visa Direct further improves our leading customer experience and will help execute our strategy to scale digital growth in one of the largest remittance markets in the world," said Grant Lines, Global Chief Revenue Officer at MoneyGram. "We've built a modern, mobile, and API-driven company that has enabled MoneyGram to become the preferred partner for cross-border transfers, and we're excited to continue to expand our real-time transfer capabilities with Visa Direct."

"Our digital solution will enable MoneyGram consumers to quickly and conveniently receive money directly into their bank accounts via Visa Direct," said Madame Dang Tuyet Dung, Country Manager at Visa Vietnam and Laos. "Cardholders can use any Visa debit or prepaid card to receive cross-border payments via Visa's real-time push payment solution. This partnership with MoneyGram will support Vietnam's economic growth and streamline the remittance transferring process, which is vital to our customers' digital experience and helps introduce our innovations to consumers."

Vietnam is estimated to be one of the top-10 remittance recipients in the world. The millions of Vietnamese living and working abroad will now be able to use MoneyGram to send money seamlessly and conveniently to family and friends back at home.

"In this digital age, we believe it is important to introduce solutions that can improve our cardholders' lives," said Nguyen Minh Tam, Deputy General Manager at Sacombank. "We're excited to once again be at the forefront of innovation with Visa Direct making cross-border remittances hassle-free and efficient to any Sacombank account holder in Vietnam using their Visa card on Sacombank Pay application."

With Visa Direct, customers can now transfer up to 2,500 USD per transaction and 10,000 USD per day. From now until June 30, 2021, consumers can send money to a Visa debit card in Vietnam without incurring a transfer fee.

About MoneyGram International, Inc.

MoneyGram is a global leader in cross-border P2P payments and money transfers. Its consumer-centric capabilities enable family and friends to quickly and affordably send money in more than 200 countries and territories, with 89 now digitally enabled.

MoneyGram leverages its modern, mobile, and API-driven platform and collaborates with the world's leading brands to serve millions of people each year through both its walk-in business and its direct-to-consumer digital business.

With a strong culture of innovation and a relentless focus on utilizing technology to deliver the world's best customer experience, MoneyGram is leading the evolution of digital P2P payments.

For more information, please visit ir.moneygram.com and follow @MoneyGram.

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. is the world's leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company's relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa , visa.com/blog and @VisaNews .

MoneyGram Media Contact

Stephen Reiff

[email protected]

Visa Media Contact

Nguyen Thi Phuong Trang

[email protected]

1 France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech, Poland, Greece, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Netherlands and Portugal.

2 Actual fund availability depends on receiving financial institution and region. Visa requires fast-funds enabled issuers to make funds available to their recipient cardholders within a maximum of 30 minutes of approving the transaction.

SOURCE MoneyGram

Related Links

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have discussed the strengthening of the strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States and the prospects for maintaining contacts at all levels, including the highest level, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service has reported, following the first phone call between Kuleba and Blinken.

"The interlocutors reaffirmed the importance of strengthening the strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States, mutual intention to make it more ambitious. [...] They discussed prospects for contacts at all levels, including the highest level, and reaffirmed a mutual invitation to pay working visits when circumstances and restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic allow doing so," the report reads.

Kuleba said that Ukraine was ready to continue to play the role of a reliable European partner of the United States in the Black Sea region and Central Europe.

He also noted that Ukraine would welcome the strengthening of the U.S. role in diplomatic efforts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict and ensure the de-occupation of Donbas and Crimea.

"Russia must feel that the price of aggression is too high to continue it," he said.

Kuleba stressed the importance of U.S. involvement in the Crimean Platform and received assurances of U.S. support for this initiative.

Blinken, in turn, assured Kuleba of unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and its Euro-Atlantic aspirations. He stressed that sanctions against Russia for its aggression in Donbas and Crimea should remain in place until Moscow fully fulfills its commitments on the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Blinken also assured Kuleba of the new U.S. administration's readiness to develop strong economic and military support for Ukraine, including the provision of lethal weapons.

Both parties discussed the deepening of cooperation in the political, security, military, trade, economic and investment spheres, as well as the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both parties reaffirmed the importance of maintaining progress in economic reforms in Ukraine, ensuring the rule of law and judicial reform, and strengthening the system of anti-corruption institutions.

Particular attention was paid to joint efforts to counter hybrid threats and disinformation.

Kuleba informed Blinken about the initiative to establish in Ukraine an international center to combat disinformation and propaganda and stressed the country's readiness to share best practices in this area.

op


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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin takes a question during the daily Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing, China, on July 24, 2020. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

Beijing Angered Over Wu-Han T-shirts Ordered by Canadian Diplomat

Communist China has just found a new reason to vent its anger on Canada. This time over a customized T-shirt with the word Wuhan in place of Wu-Tang across the Wu-Tang Clan logo.

Earlier this week, images of the Wuhan T-shirt, which features a stylized W that resembles a bat, went viral on Chinese social media, as the parcel sticker indicated the delivery destination to be the Canadian embassy in Beijing and the recipient to be Canadian diplomat Chad Hensler.

Chinese netizens found the bat-like resemblance of the American hip hop group logo as offensive, seeing it as referencing early reports of the origins of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which was initially reported to have surfaced after a man in Wuhan had eaten a bat.

While neither Hensler nor the Canadian embassy have commented on the incident, a Canadian Foreign Affairs official confirmed that Hensler had ordered the T-shirts.

The T-shirt logo designed by a member of the Embassy shows a stylized W, and is not intended to represent a bat. It was created for the team of Embassy staff working on repatriation of Canadians from Wuhan in early 2020, the official told Reuters in an email on Feb. 2. We regret the misunderstanding.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin demanded that Canada immediately thoroughly investigate the incident and give China a clear explanation during a press conference on Feb. 1.

Former Canadian Ambassador to China David Mulroney, however, wrote on Twitter: I worked with Chad, who is smart, decent, dedicated. Were lucky to have him. Not his fault if China goes batty over the Wu-Tang Clans logo. Guilty conscience?

Beijing has taken a hostile stance against Ottawa following Canadas 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Hauwei, on an extradition request from the United States. Meng faces bank fraud charges for allegedly misleading HSBC to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Shortly after Mengs arrest, China detained two CanadiansMichael Spavor and and Michael Kovrigwho are still being held in Chinese prisons.

Wu-Tang Clans logo does not depict a bat, but is a stylized W drawn by member Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, known as RZA.

Beijing has fiercely rejected allegations of being the origin of the CCP virus, and instead promoted theories about international transmission from a U.S. military base that have little international scientific backing.

The World Health Organization dispatched a team of medical experts to Wuhan in January 2021 to investigate the origin of the CCP virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease. The probe was agreed to by Chinese authorities after extended negotiations and delays.
(Natural News) Despite all of the unresolved issues that came with allowing mail-in voting during last years general election, Democratic lawmakers on Thursday, Jan. 28, introduced a bill that will make that system of voting permanent by expanding it.

The bill, known as the Vote at Home Act seeks to massively expand vote-at-home ballot access. The bill was filed in the Senate and the House by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, respectively. Both legislators represent the State of Oregon.

According to a statement released by their offices, the legislation follows the successful expansion of alternative options to in-person voting with nearly 50 percent of the November 2020 voters using mail-in voting options, which is an all-time high for federal elections.

Our democracy is stronger when every American can vote, without standing in ridiculous lines or having to take time off work or school to exercise their Constitutional rights, said Wyden.

The individual right to vote, the cornerstone of our democracy, is under threat in communities across America, said Blumenauer. We should continue to make voting easier, not harder. This important bill would strengthen and clarify the right to vote at home, the most secure and convenient way for voters to exercise the franchise.

Expansion of voting by mail ignores potential increase in voter fraud incidents

The bill will expand voting by mail in four different ways. First, it will give all registered voters ballots several weeks before Election Day, which will supposedly allow voters to carefully research candidates and issues. Second, the bill allows registered voters to cast their ballots through mail or a drop-off site.

Third, the legislation will provide the Postal Service with funding, supposedly to cover the costs that are associated with giving every single registered voter in the country a ballot and then collecting them and sending them to ballot counting stations. The two Oregon Democrats claimed, albeit without evidence, that funneling millions of dollars into the USPS would reduce a major barrier for voters and would save taxpayers money.

Finally, the bill will compel states to enact automatic voter registration as soon as a resident provides their identification to a state motor vehicle authority.

The bill already has 13 co-sponsors in the Senate. If no Democrat breaks ranks and the Republicans dont filibuster it, then it will likely pass in Congress without much difficulty.

This bill is just one of many attempts by Democrats in both the House and the Senate to reintroduce bills that failed to pass during previous congresses that revolve around voting and elections.

For example, Democrats in the Senate are attempting to reintroduce a bill known as the Honest Ads Act, which would give the government more control over election advertisements that show up on social media.

Critics of expanding mail-in voting have repeatedly warned that such efforts can lead to an increase in voter fraud, allegations of which were abundant during the previous election but were never addressed because of interference or a lack of action from election officials, national legislators, the Justice Department and the mainstream media.

Oregon is one of a handful of states that had mail-in voting options prior to the 2020 election and is one of the first states in the country to vote almost entirely by mail.

In fact, it has been noted that the Vote At Home Act emulates a lot of the ways Oregonians have been voting for decades, wherein state residents are automatically registered to vote when they obtain a drivers license and mail-in ballots are sent directly to their homes. (Related: Democrats are lying: Vote fraud IS real and its been occurring in THEIR cities for years, says an operative who ran ballot fraud operations for Dems.)

Our 30-year-old vote-by-mail system took a turn on the national stage as states across the country shifted to voting by mail, and voting early, to enable people to vote safely and securely, said Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who is also a Democrat. Brown has signaled her willingness to work with Congressional Democrats regarding establishing a nationwide mail-in voting system.

A lot of the issues with regards to voting by mail never went away with the ushering in of the new Democratic administration. Learn about all the pending election-related cases that the courts are refusing to hear by reading the latest articles at VoteFraud.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Wyden.Senate.gov

TheHill.com

KATU.com
Why North Star felt it was key to keep in-person education amid COVID
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SpaceX launched its latest Starship prototype Serial Number 9 (SN9) for its first high-altitude test that followed the same six-mile path as the SN8 and ended with the same outcome - with the massive craft exploding while attempting to land.

SN9 took off around 3:24pm Eastern Time from SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas, testing facility and appeared to have met all the marks for a successful flight as it climbed through the sky - from venting to turning off its Raptor engines one-by-one and performing a 'belly flop.'

The vehicle hit the six-mile goal about four minutes into flight and then successfully performed an aerodynamic descent on its side while falling to the earth.

However, the prototype was unable to maneuver into the vertical position before landing on the launch pad, hindering its ability to stick the landing.

It landed with a deafening crash, and exploded into bright orange flames and a dust cloud, but the fire did not spread.

It is not yet clear whether SN9's demise will be celebrated a success like its predecessor that CEO Elon Musk called a 'triumph mission,' but the billionaire vowed to take a break from Twitter so the world may never know.

Scroll down for videos

SpaceX launched its latest Starship prototype Serial Number 9 (SN9) for its first high-altitude test that followed the same six mile path as the SN8 and ended with the same outcome - the massive craft exploded on the launch pad

It landed with a deafening crash, and exploded into bright orange flames and a dust cloud, but the fire did not spread

'We had, again, another great flight up ... we've just got to work on that landing a little bit,' SpaceX principal integration engineer John Insprucker said on the company's webcast of the flight.

'We demonstrated the ability to transition the engines to the landing propellant tanks.'

'The subsonic reentry looked very good and stable like we saw last December, so we've got a lot of good data on flap control.'

The launch comes after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave SpaceX the green light to launch SN9 Tuesday morning, following it being grounded last week due to a non-compliance issue by SpaceX regarding its previous prototype, SN8.

SN9 took off around 3:24pm from SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas testing facility. It let out a load roar from the base and fired up its massive Raptor engines before taking off to the sky

The world watched as SpaceX attempted a high-altitude test with a second prototype. SN9 took off from the launch pad and darted up with the hopes of reaching six miles

It is not yet clear whether SN9's demise will be celebrated a success like its predecessor that CEO Elon Musk called a 'triumph mission,' but the billionaire vowed to take a break from Twitter so the world may never know

The Musk-owned firm had requested a waiver from the division to 'exceed the maximum public risk allowed by federal safety regulations' and even though it was denied, SpaceX still went ahead with the flight test.

As a result of this non-compliance, according to the FAA, all testing at the Boca Chica, Texas, facility was suspended until SpaceX conducted an investigation into the exploding SN8.

SN9 waited patiently on the launch pad Tuesday, with the latest prototype, SN10, standing at a nearby pad that could also take its first flight later this month.

Within seconds of launch, SN9 let out a load roar from its base and ignited its Raptor engines for takeoff.

It soared out over the Gulf of Mexico and after about five minutes, it flipped sideways as planned and descended in a free-fall back to the southeastern tip of Texas near the Mexican border.

The sideways flip, dubbed a 'belly flop' maneuver by Musk, was designed to mimic the technique Starship will use when returning through Earth's atmosphere from space - presenting the 'belly' as it enters the atmosphere reduces the speed of descent as it approaches the ground.

However, the rocket is suppose to twist to reorient itself so it can land in the position it took off, but it seemed as if SN9 was unable to make the maneuver in time and exploded upon reading the launch pad - leaving nothing behind but a thick cloud of smoke and debris.

SN9 is the second Starship prototype to include the nose cone and fairings. The massive rocket is constructed of stainless steel and is poised to one day take humans to Mars

As Starship SN9 gain altitude it began to turn off its three Raptor engines one-by-one. The lasted prototype followed the same path as its predecessor, SN8, that launched in December

Tt seems the prototype was unable to maneuver into the vertical position before landing on the launch pad, hindering its ability to stick the landing and exploded upon impact. Pictured is SN9 right before crashing down into the pad

The entire rocket ignited into a ball of flame that could be seen miles away

SN9 (right) was seen waiting patiently on the launch pad Tuesday, with the latest prototype, SN10 (left), standing at nearby pad that could also take its first flight later this month

The development of Starship has been rapid, with new prototypes and next generation models developed concurrently to allow for quick changes.

In the past year alone SpaceX has completed two low-altitude flight tests with SN5 and SN6 and over 16,000 seconds of run time during ground engine starts.

Musk recently an ambitious plan to get humans on Mars by 2026  seven years before NASA aims to land astronauts on the Red Planet.

And Starship rockets are key players in turning that dream into a reality.
ndia's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (2R) along with her staff poses for pictures as she leaves the Finance Ministry to present the annual budget in parliament in New Delhi on February 1, 2021. (AFP)

New Delhi: The Union Budget on Monday saw the Center announcing a number of multi-crore fund allocation for infrastructure in the four poll bound states of West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam. The BJP is keen to expand its footprint in these states. Though it is in power in Assam it wants to retain power in the state while wanting to be a real challenger in the others. These states are scheduled to go to polls after April and May this year.

In Tamil Nadu, where the BJP is trying to expand its footprint, a 3,500-km long highway with an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crore was announced. Amidst cheers from her party MPs in Parliament, the finance minister announced that the allocation would include the construction of the Madurai-Kollam economic corridor. Additionally, a Kochi-Chennai-Visakhapatnam fisheries hub is to be set up along with a multipurpose seaweed park in that state.

Kerala got a Rs 65,000-crore road infrastructure project under the 2021-22 Budget. This would entail construction of 1,100 km of roads in the state. The finance minister specifically mentioned that the phase two of the Kochi metro railway, covering a length of 11.5 km at a cost of Rs 1957.05 crore, would be carried out from the allocation, besides including the 600-km section of the Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor that would pass through Kerala.

Additionally, Rs 1,957 crore will be allotted to the Chennai Metro project, addressing a public demand for better public transport options in the city.

For West Bengal, the finance minister announced Rs 25,000-crore worth of road projects. A stretch of 675 kilometres of National Highway is to be created. The FM also stressed on the redevelopment of the Kolkata-Siliguri highway. A welfare fund of 1,000 crore is also to be set up for tea estate workers in Assam and West Bengal.
As many as 26,210 doses of the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine will be distributed in Romania on Wednesday to the regional centres nationwide for the immunisation with the first dose of persons appointed for vaccination via the appointment scheduling platform, according to the National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV), as reported by AGERPRES.

According to CNCAV, the vaccine doses will be flown on an aircraft of the Interior Ministry or driven in vehicles of the Ministry of National Defence.

"The vaccines are shipped under the best safety conditions by respecting the cold chain requirement, at a temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius," CNCAV points out.From the Bucharest National Distribution Centre, the doses will be distributed as follows:* Brasov Regional Distribution Centre: 4,810 doses;* Cluj Regional Distribution Centre: 5,290 doses;* Constanta Regional Distribution Centre: 4,360 doses;* Craiova Regional Distribution Centre: 4,220 doses;* Iasi Regional Distribution Centre: 5,210 doses;* Timisoara Regional Distribution Centre: 2,320 doses.As many as 9,790 doses will remain at the Bucharest National Distribution Centre."At the vaccination centres, both doses received by Romania in the current batch and in the previous batch will be used, based on the requests submitted to the national storage centre and regional storage centres through the county and Bucharest public health directorates. In Romania, the allocation of vaccine doses is made according to a delivery schedule provided by the manufacturing company, meaning that Romania regularly receives the vaccine batches necessary to immunise its population. As more batches arrive to Romania, the appointment scheduling application is updated to allow for a continuation in the scheduling process for the current categories of the population," CNCAV shows.
Restaurant owners say they hate the food delivery behemoths because their fees are high and client support is low. Many restaurant patrons feel the same way. Yet few independent alternatives to the major players have emerged because the complexities of delivery make it almost impossible for a small-scale operation to compete.

But areas that arent served by DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub are ideal testing grounds for entrepreneurial models of getting restaurant food into peoples homes. Kiawah and Seabrook islands, for instance, have two new delivery platforms developed by residents attuned to their neighbors needs.

Neither Curbside Gourmet CHS nor Delivery Boy charge restaurants. In both systems, all fees are paid by customers.

Lets face it: People who live in Kiawah and Seabrook have the money, says Fred Stuart of Curbside Gourmet CHS, who adds a flat $25 surcharge to every order he drives back from downtown, although he reserves the right to adjust that figure upward for larger and more expensive hauls.

By contrast, Dave Woodson and Jaime Corrado developed a variable fee structure for Delivery Boy, with the price ranging from nothing to $6.99, depending on the customers address.

Its totally free for the restaurants, Woodson stresses. Our main goal was to support the small business community. We want to help these restaurants keep their doors open.

Delivery Boy functions much like the best-known delivery services, with delivery available from partner restaurants whenever theyre open. The majority of the nine restaurants listed on the Delivery Boy site are located on Johns Island, although Woodson says they hope to add more restaurants to the lineup.

As theyve discovered in their first weeks of business, restaurant meals arent all that Kiawah and Seabrook residents want. Theyve interpreted Delivery Boys promise of white glove service to mean they can use Delivery Boy as a traditional courier.

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Woodson says hes already exchanged one customers propane tank and brought a heavy package to FedEx for another customer.

From a logistical standpoint, it can be challenging; even Uber Eats doesnt make any money, Woodson says. But if youre able to scale slowly and methodically, and operate locally, you can make it work.

Curbside Gourmet CHS requires more advance planning on the customers part.

Its not for someone who feels like Mexican, Stuart explains. Instead, customers choose from a curated list of Charleston-area restaurants the day before they want their meals, then meet Stuart near Freshfields Village the following afternoon to pick up their orders.

Right now, Curbside Gourmet CHS is only delivering from Lewis Barbecue and Sugar Bakeshop, as well as Hamby Catering and Cru Catering. The biggest hitch, Stuart says, is finding restaurants which offer dinner-worthy food in the middle of the day.

Stuart is also wary of carting kinds of foods back to Kiawah Island because hes worried that they wouldnt withstand the trip. Still, hes looking to grow his restaurant roster, too.

When you live out here, youre limited to the 10 or so same restaurants out here, plus the various club facilities, he says. During the pandemic, a lot of people got sick of the same old thing.

Restaurant owners whove become accustomed to shouldering fees of as much as 30 percent can relate.
Greg Sukiennik has worked at all three Vermont News & Media newspapers and was their managing editor from 2017-19. He previously worked for ESPN.com, for the AP in Boston, and at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass.
DUBLIN, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Radiotherapy Market Research Report: By Type (External Beam, Internal Beam, Systemic), End User (Hospitals, Independent Radiotherapy Centers, Cancer Research Institutes) - Global Industry Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global radiotherapy market is projected to attain a revenue of $17,194.4 million by 2030, advancing at an 8.4% CAGR during 2020-2030.



A major factor leading to the growth of the market is the increasing healthcare expenditure around the world. A number of developing and developed countries are significantly investing in the industry for upgrading their healthcare systems.



As per the World Bank Group, the worldwide healthcare expenditure rose to 9.9% of the global gross domestic product in 2017 from 8.6% in 2000. This rise in the healthcare expenditure is predicted to lead to upgraded infrastructure, such as installation of innovative medical systems in different healthcare settings. The disruption of the supply chain, however, due to the current pandemic situation has slowed down the growth of the market across the globe. Lockdown in various parts of the world has resulted in the shutdown of a number of manufacturing facilities.



Geographically, North America dominated the radiotherapy market in the past, owing to the presence of major players, surging expenditure in the healthcare sector, rapid improvements in the healthcare infrastructure, regular strategic developments, and rapid increasing number of cancer cases in Canada and the U.S. The growing number of patients in the region are opening up various opportunities for the companies in the domain.



Some of the key players in the global radiotherapy market are Accuray Incorporated, Elekta AB, Hitachi Ltd., Dickinson and Company, Becton, Ion Beam Applications SA, Provision Healthcare, Isoray Inc., Varian Medical Systems Inc., Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd., Mevion Medical Systems Inc., ViewRay Inc., Panacea Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Optivus Proton Therapy Inc., and P-Cure Ltd.



Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Research Background



Chapter 2. Research Methodology



Chapter 3. Executive Summary



Chapter 4. Introduction

4.1 Definition of Market Segments

4.1.1 By Type

4.1.1.1 External beam

4.1.1.1.1 By product

4.1.1.1.1.1 LINACs

4.1.1.1.1.2 Particle/proton therapy systems

4.1.1.1.1.3 Conventional cobalt-60 teletherapy systems

4.1.1.1.2 By technology

4.1.1.1.2.1 Stereotactic therapy

4.1.1.1.2.2 Image-guided

4.1.1.1.2.3 Intensity-modulated

4.1.1.1.2.4 Particle beam therapy

4.1.1.1.2.5 3D conformal

4.1.1.2 Internal beam

4.1.1.2.1 By product

4.1.1.2.1.1 Seeds

4.1.1.2.1.2 Electronic brachytherapy systems

4.1.1.2.1.3 Afterloaders

4.1.1.2.1.4 Applicators

4.1.1.2.2 By technology

4.1.1.2.2.1 HDR

4.1.1.2.2.2 LDR

4.1.1.2.2.3 PDR

4.1.1.3 Systemic

4.1.2 By End User

4.1.2.1 Hospitals

4.1.2.2 Independent radiotherapy centers

4.1.2.3 Cancer research institutes

4.2 Market Dynamics

4.2.1 Trends

4.2.1.1 Accelerating evolution in radiotherapy techniques

4.2.2 Drivers

4.2.2.1 Technological advancements in radiation therapy

4.2.2.2 Increasing incidence of cancer

4.2.2.3 Increasing healthcare expenditure

4.2.2.4 Impact analysis of drivers on market forecast

4.2.3 Restraints

4.2.3.1 Challenges in identifying molecular predictors of response to radiotherapy

4.2.3.2 Lack of skilled personnel

4.2.3.3 Impact analysis of restraints on market forecast

4.2.4 Opportunities

4.2.4.1 Untapped markets in low-income countries to generate opportunity

4.2.4.2 Positioning devices to improve radiotherapy and patient experience

4.3 Impact of COVID-19

4.3.1 Supply Side Analysis

4.3.2 Demand Side Analysis

4.4 Regulatory Overview for Radiotherapy

4.4.1 U.S.

4.4.2 Canada

4.4.3 Europe

4.4.4 U.K.

4.4.5 APAC

4.4.6 India

4.4.7 LATAM

4.4.8 MEA

4.5 Porter's Five Forces Analysis



Chapter 5. Global Market Size and Forecast

5.1 By Type

5.1.1 External Beam Radiotherapy Market, by Product

5.1.2 Internal Beam Radiotherapy Market, by Product

5.1.3 External Beam Radiotherapy Market, by Technology

5.1.4 Internal Beam Radiotherapy Market, by Technology

5.2 By End User

5.3 By Region



Chapter 6. North America Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 7. Europe Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 8. APAC Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 9. LATAM Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 10. MEA Market Size and Forecast



Chapter 11. Competitive Landscape



Chapter 12. Company Profiles

12.1 Business Overview

12.2 Product and Service Offerings

12.3 Key Financial Summary

Elekta AB

Accuray Incorporated

Hitachi Ltd.

Becton, Dickinson and Company

Ion Beam Applications SA

Isoray Inc.

Provision Healthcare

Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd.

Varian Medical Systems Inc.

ViewRay Inc.

Mevion Medical Systems Inc.

Optivus Proton Therapy Inc.

Panacea Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

P-Cure Ltd.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/fmpr34



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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Insurance fraud seems like it might be an easy thing to do. Insurance companies are often so huge, one wonders how they might not even notic...
Progressive hostility toward law enforcement will have some dire consequences.

A serious problem for the Deep State is its perception that its enforcement arm contains a large number of "deplorables." These deplorables, in their minds, were indistinguishable from actual extremists. The Daily Beast asserts, "For years, local police and the FBI just couldn't recognize crazy-talking, highly armed white men as a systematic, potential terrorism threat." A recently retired FBI special agent, Frank Montoya, Jr., claimed that the Capitol siege indicates that far-right extremism is a "fundamental" threat to national security, even more so than foreign terror groups," implying that police were part of it.

Montoya believes: "The threat we're facing right now is not only real but deeply embedded  and cult-like  in our society. Look at how many military and law enforcement types were involved in the Capitol assault and how many people in Congress supported the effort to overturn a free and fair election on January 6." DJ Peterson, the president of Longview Global Advisors, claims: "If you look at law enforcement in the U.S., there's generally a high risk of these organizations being permeated by white, right-wing extremists." John Cohen, who oversaw DHS's counterterrorism portfolio from 2011 to 2014, claims that "the most significant terror-related threat facing the U.S. today comes from violent extremists who are motivated by white supremacy and other far-right ideological causes."

The belief that law enforcement is a threat to national security is rife throughout the federal government. The State Department's newly installed deputy spokesperson, Jalina Porter, claimed that the "largest threat to U.S. national security are [sic] cops. Not ISIS, not Russian hackers, not anyone or anything else. If y'all don't wake up and rise up to this truth, the genocide against Blacks in America will continue until we are near extinct." Despite her language skills, Porter is something of a renaissance woman. She was a congressional aide, a communications official for a think-tank, and a dancer for the NFL's Oakland Raiders and the NBA's Washington Wizards.

The Deep State media have joined the fray. The Los Angeles Times reported, "White supremacist extremists are the nation's deadliest terror threat." The Times claims that many of the over 70 million Trump voters suffer from a "a mass delusion that government is run by Satan-worshiping child-sex traffickers, or an odd alliance between those misguided souls and violent racists, all cheered on by the president of the United States in service of the lie that his phantom reelection was stolen from him." The New York Times published an op-ed by anti-criminalization activist Mariame Kaba where she declared, "Yes, we mean literally abolish the police." Kaba suggests directing funds to "health care, housing, education and good jobs." This would lead to a lesser "need for the police in the first place," and "community care workers" can "do mental-health checks" for people who need help.

Kaba's vision appears to be shared by Biden's new head of the Domestic Policy Council, Susan Rice. She believes that to end America's "long history of inequality, of oppression," we should be "re-imagining the role of the police." The Biden/Harris administration will bring this "re-imagining" of police forces to a national level.

The "re-imagining" movement (a code word for the voter-unpopular "defund") is based on the demonization of the police. Police are frequently portrayed as white supremacists. "White supremacy," however, is a subjective and amorphous term. Activist Shaun King believes that statues of Jesus Christ are a "form of white supremacy" and should be torn down. The New York City Department of Education has instructed its teachers that concepts like "perfectionism," "paternalism," and "objectivity" are part of "white supremacy culture." At the same time, there is a virtual deification of criminals like George Floyd. Floyd was a felon who broke into a home with a gang and pointed a gun at a pregnant woman's stomach. He terrorized the women in his community. He sired and abandoned multiple children, playing no part in their support or upbringing. He was a drug addict and sometime drug-dealer. His gold coffin sat upon a horse-drawn bier. His death is universally described as a murder. The word "allegedly" is never used, and it is never pointed out that Officer Derek Chauvin is innocent until he is proven guilty.

Nationally, police are "standing down" to avoid violent confrontations. It will not be necessary to defund them. Many may be unwilling to enforce the law where there is a chance they might be injured, their careers ended, or their actions resulting in possible jail time. There will be incidents in the future involving police and black males. Also, trials of officers involved in previous incidents may result in acquittals. This will lead to future riots. How will depleted police forces deal with these situations? It will be necessary for the federal government to stop it. The government has a history of jumping in. They sent 15 FBI agents to Talladega Speedway to investigate a fake noose in Bubba Wallace's NASCAR garage. It spent untold man-hours investigating Jussie Smollett's false allegations of a men-in-MAGA-hats attack on him in the dead of the Chicago winter.

John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing). He has a Master of Arts degree in international relations from St. Mary's University. He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. He is featured on the BBC's program "Things We Forgot to Remember:" Morgenthau Plan and Post-War Germany.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.
A man wearing a face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus passes by a banner calling on residents to refrain from visiting families and relatives during the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays that start Feb. 11, in front of Seoul City Hall in Seoul, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. AP



South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed in the 300s for the third straight day on Tuesday as health authorities extended tough virus curbs amid a continued rise in cluster infections.



The country added 336 more COVID-19 cases, including 295 local infections, raising the total caseload to 78,844, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).



The daily caseload stood at 305 cases on Monday and 355 on Sunday, when the tally fell back to the 300s for the first time in five days.



Health authorities said they could loosen social distancing measures ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday that falls on Feb. 11-13 if the number of infections significantly slows down.



New virus cases recently spiked again due mainly to cluster infections from unauthorized education facilities run by a local Christian missionary group, called the International Mission (IM).



Amid a flare-up in virus cases, health authorities on Sunday extended Level 2.5 social distancing rules, the second highest in its five-tier scheme, in the greater Seoul area and Level 2 measures in other regions for another two weeks until Feb. 14.



Under the extended rules, gatherings of five or more people are also banned almost across the entire country.



The move, aimed at helping the country smoothly begin COVID-19 vaccinations next month and start the school spring semester in March, however, has drawn fierce protest from small merchants hit hard by prolonged restrictions from state and local virus measures.



Since the third wave of the pandemic peaked at a record high of 1,241 on Dec. 25, new virus infections have been slowing down.



But authorities believe relaxing the curbs runs the risk of an uptick as cluster infections have continued to pop up at religious facilities, hospitals and other risk-prone establishments.



Of the newly identified local infections, 121 cases were reported in Seoul and 70 cases in Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital. Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, reported eight more cases.



The southern city of Gwangju reported 23 more virus cases, and Busan also added 10 more cases.



The country added 41 imported cases, increasing the total to 6,369. Seventeen cases came from Asian countries excluding China, followed by 14 from the United States, seven from Europe and three from Africa.



The country added 10 more deaths, raising the total to 1,435. The fatality rate was 1.82 percent.



The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients reached 224, down from 225 a day earlier.



The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries stood at 68,775, up 466 from the previous day.



The country has carried out 5,711,413 coronavirus tests since Jan. 3, 2020. The country reported its first case on Jan. 20 last year.



Meanwhile, South Korea has extended the ban on passenger flights arriving from Britain until Feb. 11, which has been in place since Dec. 23, to block the new virus variant that was first identified in Britain.



All foreign entrants are required to present papers showing negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests taken within 72 hours of their departure to the nation.



The pandemic, which started in China in late 2019, has killed more than 2.2 million people worldwide and infected more than 103 million as of Feb. 1, 2021, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. (Yonhap)


The sailors from a South Korean tanker seized in the Persian Gulf by Iranian troops last month are free to leave the country on humanitarian grounds, Iran's state TV said Tuesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said a legal investigation into the tanker and its captain would continue. Iran maintains the tanker and its 20-member crew and captain were stopped because of the vessel's `environmental pollution,' a claim rejected by the vessel's owner.

Despite that claim, it appeared the South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi's seizure in the crucial Strait of Hormuz was an attempt by the Islamic Republic to increase its leverage over Seoul. The move came ahead of negotiations over billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets tied up in South Korean banks amid a U.S. pressure campaign targeting Iran.

The tanker crew, including sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, were in custody at the port city of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz. The state TV report did not say whether the captain will be allowed to leave the country or when the sailors might actually be released.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry late Tuesday welcomed the decision to release the 19 crew members, saying it hoped Tehran would also free the captain and the ship.

A ministry statement said Iran's vice foreign minister, Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, informed his South Korean counterpart, Choi Jong Kun, of the crew's planned release during a phone conversation Tuesday evening.

Iran state TV said Araghchi and Choi also discussed the issue of the release of Iran's frozen assets.

Choi and his delegation visited Tehran last month to discuss the release of the ship and crew and some $7 billion in Iranian assets from oil sales tied up in the country's banks due to American sanctions.

But Iran's foreign minister had told the visiting South Korean delegation that the release of its vessel and crew was a matter for the courts and out of the government's hands.

In the South Korean statement, Choi urged Iran to quickly release the captain, a South Korean national, and the seized tanker. The Iranian deputy foreign minister told Choi the captain would be provided with sufficient consular services and receive humanitarian treatment during judiciary proceedings, the statement said.

`The two vice foreign ministers said their governments took an important, first step toward restoring confidence between South Korea and Iran,' the statement said. `They agreed to restore their countries' traditional, friendly ties of supporting each other when they face difficulties by resolving the issue of the frozen fund.''

To resolve the frozen funds issue, Choi told his Iranian counterpart that South Korea will consult with the U.S. while pushing for unspecified swift steps in areas where it can act unilaterally, the statement said. South Korea and Iran agreed to continue close diplomatic consultations, it said.

The head of Iran's central bank has said the country wants to use the funds tied up in South Korea to purchase coronavirus vaccines through COVAX, an international program designed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to participating countries.

At the time of the ship's seizure Jan. 5, an official at DM Shipping Co. Ltd. of Busan, South Korea, said that initially, Iranian forces had said they wanted to run an unspecified check on the tanker. As the vessel's captain spoke to company security officials back in South Korea, armed Iranian troops stormed the tanker as an Iranian helicopter flew overhead, the official said. The troops demanded the captain sail the tanker into Iranian waters over an unspecified investigation and refused to explain themselves, the official added.

Last year, Iran similarly seized a British-flagged oil tanker and held it for months after one of its tankers was held off Gibraltar.

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Schools in the Amansie South District of the Ashanti Region have received 10,000 nose masks and face shields to protect both teachers and pupils against the novel coronavirus as the virus still remains a health threat to society.



The gesture by Heritage Imperial Mining Company, a gold mining firm in the area was part of their Corporate Social Responsibility as a mining company in providing their quota to supplement the efforts made by the government in mitigating the impact of coronavirus.



The mining company manned by Ghanaians since their operation has been embarking series of developmental projects within their catchment areas to contribute to addressing pressing social and environmental problems facing these communities.



Report gathered by Peacefmonline indicated that some schools in the District are yet to receive their Personal Protective Equipment after resuming though most of the schools have already gotten theirs.



In an interview with the District Education Director, Mr. Stephen Adu Darko when Heritage Imperial Mining Company presented 10,000 pieces of nose masks and face shields to the District Assembly to be distributed to various schools, he indicated that parents have been implored to provide their wards with the masks when coming to school as they wait for the government own.



Mr. Stephen Adu Darko again commented that school has been effective after reopening and level of compliance in regards to the Covid -19 Safety protocols is quite encouraging commending teachers for their supervision.



"In fact we have received tissue papers and Veronica buckets more than enough and what we are looking forward to receiving are nose masks of which we are told will be in shortly he added.



The District Education Director mentioned that no single student or pupil has tested positive for coronavirus since school reopened.



He later appreciated the gestures of the mining company and called other companies to emulate in protecting the lives of the young ones against the novel pandemic.



The DCE in the area, Hon Clement Opoku Gyamfi, noted that in as much as the government is striving hard to protect the young ones in schools against the pandemic, there is also the need for individuals, groups, institutions to also support this worthy course in fighting the virus.



Reacting to the ban on social activities like funerals, weddings among others, the District Chief Executive said the assembly together with the Police will be enforcing the restrictions in order to mitigate the spread of coronavirus in the area.

A Senior Supervisor at Heritage imperial mining company, Prince Kwame Asante after the presentation said the company was inspired to donate these face masks which currently have become one essential commodity" in the world today to the schools because they need to argument the effort by the government in fighting coronavirus in schools.



Ghana recorded her first case of the novel pandemic in March last year and since then the Government have been imposing restrictions on some activities.



However, getting to the end of the year, some restrictions were eased when the case counts begin to decrease but unfortunately after the yuletide, the case counts have risen sharply compelling the President to re-impose ban on some social gatherings.



According to the President, HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo on his 23rd address on measures taken to mitigate the pandemic in the country, Ghana has been recording 700 case counts daily which he described as worrying.



He has therefore urged all to comply with safety protocols since it is the surest way of avoiding the infections.

Source: Sampson Kwame Nyamekye/Peacefmonline.com/A-R









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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Lower Merion has been ranked the second-best place to live and work from home, according to a Money magazine analysis of U.S. cities and towns.

Of the 10 locations the magazine lauded, Lower Merion, which had around 59,000 residents in 2019, had the highest percentage of residents working from home pre-COVID-19 pandemic, at 9.6%. The Philadelphia suburbs ranking was bested only by Reston, Va., after the analysis took into account more factors like racial diversity, median sale prices of homes, education, and amenities.

The rankings were determined by selecting towns and cities with a minimum population of 25,000, which allowed the final list to span areas like Tewksbury, Mass. (population of 31,044 last year), and Portland, Ore. (population of 664,605.) The magazine cut out places that were overly expensive, had high crime, low racial diversity, and disproportionately low household incomes relative to the rest of the state. It also considered the prevalence of residents who had high-speed internet, heating and air-conditioning, and easy access to restaurants, pharmacies, day cares, and parks.

The median home price in Reston was $434,000, and 88% of residents lived within 10 minutes of a park, according to the magazines analysis. In contrast, the median home price in Lower Merion was $500,000  the highest out of everywhere on the list  and 59.1% of residents were walking distance to a park.

Money analyzed 157,000 data points across nearly 2,000 cities and towns.

Naperville, Ill., was in third place, followed by Ann Arbor, Mich.; Roseville, Calif.; Parker, Colo.; Cedar Park, Texas; Portland, Ore.; Greenville, S.C.; and Tewksbury, Mass.
RYE BROOK, N.Y., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Westmed Women's Health and Pediatrics departments are offering complimentary virtual breastfeeding classes to Westmed patients as part of an effort to promote the many benefits of breastfeeding. Offered in partnership with The Parent Collective, these classes are designed to provide Westmed patients evidence-based information on how to breastfeed and are intended to help them get off to the best possible start.

"Both the Women's Health and Pediatrics Departments at Westmed strongly support breastfeeding for as long as possible to extend the health benefits for both mother and child," says Dr. Patricia Calayag, deputy medical director at Westmed Medical Group. "Due to the current circumstances related to the pandemic, many new mothers are finding themselves with limited support as they isolate at home in order to keep their newborns as safe as possible. New motherhood can be challenging under normal circumstances, the pandemic has made it even more challenging for mothers to get the support they need. The first few weeks of parenthood are crucial to helping mothers to establish a healthy breastfeeding relationship with baby. Westmed is committed to removing barriers to care and support for mothers by providing education and guidance in this effort."

In addition to the expert facilitators from The Parent Collective, a Westmed pediatrician, obstetrician or Westmed lactation specialist will also join the class to help patients start planning for their own breastfeeding experience. In this class mothers will receive information about topics such as initiating breastfeeding, latching on, hunger cues, feeding schedules, pumping and storing milk as well as formula feeding. Support will also be offered for those who will be breastfeeding twins or breastfeeding with a breast reduction or augmentation. Additional postpartum support will be available with a follow-up class for those who register. There will also be classes offered in Spanish.

"Our pediatricians believe breastfeeding gives infants their healthiest start. We are delighted to join with our obstetricians in supporting new mothers in this important parenting stage," said Dr. Sara Kenamore, head of pediatrics at Westmed.

"Many feel that breastfeeding should come easily," states Dr. Rosalie Alvarado, OB-GYN and lactation specialist at Westmed. "However, this is often not the case, and many mothers will need support from their community and lactation specialists to get off to the best start. By offering these classes, we want to encourage the breastfeeding conversation, help families feel prepared and help mothers feel comfortable to seek support if they are experiencing challenges. "

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants be exclusively breastfed for about the first 6 months of life with continued breastfeeding along with introducing appropriate complementary foods for 1 year or longer.*

About Westmed Medical Group

Westmed Medical Group is an award-winning multispecialty medical practice, staffed by a team of 500 top physicians and advanced care providers, and 1,500 clinical employees, who are all dedicated to providing patients with comprehensive, lifelong care. The practice has 13 locations in Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT, and is known for the convenience of its full-service medical facilities, and national reputation for measured healthcare excellence. Westmed has New York medical offices in White Plains, Rye, Yonkers, Purchase, Scarsdale and New Rochelle, in addition to Connecticut offices in Greenwich, Darien, Stamford and Norwalk. For more information, visit www.westmedgroup.com.

About The Parent Collective (TPC)

The Parent Collective, LLC, offers prenatal and parenting education designed to provide postnatal support to new parents. At TPC, our aim is to prepare expectant parents with all of the essential information they need to feel confident for baby's arrival, without the extras that might leave them feeling overwhelmed. Whether in our prenatal series or one-time classes, we provide unbiased, evidence-based instruction in a format that allows participants to ask questions and establish connections with other expectant parents. To learn more about The Parent Collective, read testimonials and see our range of new parent supports including new parent virtual meet ups, educational workshops, CPR, first-aid and one-on-one instruction, please visit: www.theparentcollective.com.

For Inquiries:

Anna Robinson

Public Relations and Content Manager

914-681-5282

[email protected]

(*Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention)

SOURCE Westmed Medical Group

Related Links

http://www.westmedgroup.com


Spains hospitality sector, which is taking the brunt of the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, now faces its toughest months since the country emerged from its first state of alarm in June. Between the start of the summer and the third wave of the pandemic, there were certain restrictions in place, but the vast majority of establishments were still able to stay open. Now, with the post-Christmas surge in Covid-19 cases filling hospitals intensive care units, the authorities have once again been obliged to crack down. The sector is in ruins, we are closed in half of Spain, notes Jose Luis Yzuel, president of the hospitality business association Hosteleria de Espana.

Ten of the countrys 17 regions have shut their bars and restaurants  with the exception of several low-incidence municipalities  and allow only home delivery, while the remaining seven regions, as well as the North African exclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla, have brought forward closing times, eliminating dinner service  one of the sectors mainstays.

To cope with its losses, the industry is demanding an injection of non-refundable cash. We need direct aid that will allow us to stay afloat; getting into debt is not the solution, says Yzuel. The latest response from the government came in December in the form of a rescue plan that included rent reductions, access to financing, and cuts in taxes and Social Security contributions, but it was a far cry from what the sector is demanding. Yzuel does recognize that some regional governments have offered direct aid, but not as much as the companies are requesting. We need an injection of funds similar to what some European countries have done  10,000 the first month, and a percentage of turnover in the following months.

Around 363,000 peoples livelihoods depend on the sectors recovery. This figure is the total number of the industrys employees who are still on the governments ERTE furlough scheme. They account for nearly half of the total number of workers in Spain who are still on ERTEs. It does not include the 400,000 jobs that were altogether lost in the hostelry sector during 2020, most of them, 267,000, in restaurants.

The last three months of the year had a particularly devastating impact on employment due to the tightening of restrictions during the second wave of the pandemic. Catalonia, Navarre, Asturias, the Basque Country and Castilla y Leon introduced a total closure of bars and restaurants, and the resulting economic impact gives us some indication of what we can expect from the January restrictions. Asturias closed bars and restaurants for 40 days between November and mid-December and only allowed home delivery. According to data from the Spanish Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Catering Distribution Companies (Fedishoreca), barely 3% of establishments were open during that period and sales fell by 98% in the region. In the Basque Country, closures ran to 90% and revenue fell by the same figure.

These losses are much higher than the national average in 2020, when sales dropped 42% from 2019. The current slump has so far led to the closure of one in five businesses  around 60,000, according to Jose Manuel Fernandez, director of Fedishoreca. The consulting firm Dipcom estimates that 75,000 companies in the sector either went under or changed hands in the past year, a dramatic situation that will continue in 2021, with estimated closures of between 25,000 and 50,000 businesses.

Four restaurateurs told EL PAIS what it means to face new restrictions after 10 months of the pandemic.

Open for card games

Cafe Bar Viaducto | Madrid

These days I open for the sake of opening, says Carlos Lloret. Thats not just a figure of speech, it really is the case: during the first two days of the new restrictions, he has had just seven customers  his friends, who come to play cards to keep him company. He has been running the Viaducto bar for the past 21 years  a bar just a stones throw from the Royal Palace in Madrid and that used to open at the time it now has to close. Those of us who either dont have outdoor seating or dont open in the mornings are essentially dead, he says. Since March, there hasnt been a month when Lloret has covered his expenses and, until last week, he was making even less than just 20% of what he made last year.

Carlos Lloret, owner of Cafe Bar Viaducto in Madrid. David G. Folgueiras / EL PAIS

Just when he thought things couldnt get any worse, the Madrid region moved closing time forward from 11pm to 9pm. Traditionally, Llorets bar would attract people coming out of the restaurants in the area as well as young people who were out in La Latina. But thats all gone by the wayside. With the new opening hours, his friends suggested he should reinvent himself and start serving snacks at noon. After 20 years doing the same thing? Do I start serving vermouth? Do I start a kitchen service? Reinventing yourself sounds great, but Im not an inventor, he says.

The surrounding businesses are just as badly off or worse, says Lloret, who survives thanks to his savings and the fact that he has no employees to support. He does the math and, of six businesses in the vicinity, four are going down the drain and the other two have already closed.

Asked for his opinion about the coming months, Lloret sounds pessimistic but resigned. I do better in winter than in summer, but Ive just had the worst Christmas I can remember, he says. Bars in the area depend a lot on the local fiestas of San Isidro and La Paloma, held in the months of May and August, so 2021 is looking to be a complicated year as well.

No exceptions for luxury dining

Restaurante Via Veneto | Barcelona

Pere Monje runs the Michelin-starred Via Veneto restaurant in Barcelona. He opened the premises in 1967 and in all this time he had never experienced restrictions like the ones imposed in 2020 and 2021. A restaurant reflects the economic level of society, says Monje. At Via Veneto, we have weathered the oil crisis and the 2008 crisis. We have had difficult times, but also fantastic times. But the crisis triggered by the coronavirus is unprecedented.

Pere Monje, director of Via Veneto restaurant in Barcelona. Consuelo Bautista

This crisis is very different because, for the first time, we have had opening restrictions imposed on us, he explains. Some of them are extremely tough. From the start, both at management level and as a team, we have tried to respond, knowing that it was impossible to make forecasts and that it was very important for the whole team to adapt.

The Via Veneto transitioned from a strict lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic to almost normal hours, only to end up with the current situation in which there are no dinners  just lunches from 1pm to 3.30pm. We have been adapting to the regulations and we have noticed that our regular clients have shown a lot of loyalty in these complicated times, says Monje. The pandemic has prompted us to add takeaway to our services, something that used to be considered very informal but which we have also adopted as a philosophy.

In more normal times, the Via Veneto had a midday clientele which was more business-oriented and a dinner clientele that consisted mostly of couples and groups. But the latter can no longer dine here. Even so, says Monje, we will continue to pour our energy into our work and give the best service to the customer. We have adapted our restaurant, we ionize the rooms daily [which disinfects the air] and the entire team is subject to regular PCR tests to make our customers feel at home. Via Veneto has also had to resort to the ERTE furlough scheme, but is confident that the situation will soon be much more bearable for everyone.

Selling four coffees to go doesnt pay off

Cafeteria Paradiso | Santiago de Compostela

Agustin Ares has been running the Cafeteria Paradiso for 29 years. This establishment with almost half a century of history lies in the heart of the old quarter of Santiago de Compostela, in the northeastern region of Galicia just 250 meters from Obradoiro square. Anyone strolling around the outside of the cathedral will notice its green doors with glass panels. The location once helped make it a go-to destination for Camino de Santiago pilgrims wandering the narrow streets of this part of the Galician capital. But today it is empty.

Agustin Ares, manager of Bar Paradiso in Santiago de Compostela. OSCAR CORRAL / EL PAIS

Ares, 60, runs the cafeteria with his wife and his son Pablo, 28. They reopened in June, at the end of the national lockdown, closed again in October when restrictions were imposed again in Santiago, reopened in December, and then closed again in January as they waited for a permit for a sidewalk seating area. On January 8, they set up the tables outside and then Galicia imposed the toughest restrictions since the first wave. El Paradiso will not open again until February 17: Selling four coffees to go doesnt pay off, he says.

Ares is not sure how things will turn out. This year will be complicated, he says. If it were just the country that was in bad shape, wed roll up our sleeves and rise above it. But its not, its the whole world. There are no visitors, no pilgrims. While tourism is essential to the citys economy, the fact locals are staying away too is exacerbating the situation. There are regulars who dont come now, elderly people who prefer to stay at home, he says. However, Ares chooses to see his glass half full, despite the cloud of uncertainty hovering over him, pointing out that he has managed to keep going until now. But if the situation does not improve, hes not sure what hell do. Being a family business, its part of you. In the hospitality sector we were born to work.

Wed never been closed for so long. Not even during the Civil War

Bodega de la Ardosa | Madrid

Bodega de la Ardosa, one of 12 bars in the capital over 100 years old, first opened in 1892 yet it has never experienced a year like 2020. This place lived through the Civil War and the flu pandemic of 1918, but it had never been closed for so long. Its been almost four months, says Victor Diaz, the Ardosas manager.

Victor Diaz, manager of Bodega de la Ardosa in Madrid. David G. Folgueiras / EL PAIS

Bringing forward the closing time to 9pm has meant no more dinner service, one of the cornerstones of the business, according to Diaz. If losses amounted to between 70% and 80% of revenue up to now, the new restrictions imposed last Monday has pushed this to its limit. The first day with the new hours, we made half of what we did the previous Monday, he says.

Due to the narrow sidewalks, the lack of parking space and the fact that the venue is located in an acoustic protection zone, the Bodega de la Ardosa is unable to set up outdoor seating, which has become essential to weathering the crisis. Right now, people are really thinking twice about going into closed spaces and that has especially hurt the small premises, he says. How to get out of the predicament, then? The solution is to avoid getting deeper into debt; the solution is direct aid, an amount based on the previous years turnover, he says.

Diaz recognizes that Madrid is not among the regions with the severest restrictions on hospitality, and that there are those who are even worse off. But he does fear that things will get uglier in the coming weeks: Dear Lord, please let things stay the way they are! he says.
Syzygy and Velossents combined solutions provide the people, process and technology capabilities for companies to thrive in the next era of digitization, knowing their environments are secure.

Aprio, LLP, a nationally-recognized, top 50 CPA-led business advisory firm, announced today that it has acquired highly acclaimed digital transformation and cybersecurity consulting company Syzygy Solutions and its IT staffing firm Velossent. Twenty-five team members from Syzygy Solutions and Velossent will join Aprios Advisory Services group.

Syzygy Solutions leverages digital strategies to create competitive advantages for their clients while proactively enhancing data privacy and security. Their service offerings strongly complement Aprios data & analytics and business technology consulting services as well as its privacy and security risk assessment and attestation services, including ISO, SOC, PCI, and HITRUST. Velossent specializes in placing top-performing developers, engineers, technology leaders and recruiters with the most desirable companies in the industry. Velossents IT staffing will expand under Aprio to include accounting and finance staffing, which will be called Aprio Talent Solutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made digital transformation a business imperative. Companies need to develop and execute on a digital roadmap that will create competitive advantage and increase profitability while providing peace of mind, said Richard Kopelman, CEO and Managing Partner of Aprio. Syzygy and Velossents combined solutions provide the people, process and technology capabilities for companies to thrive in the next era of digitization, knowing their environments are secure.

Syzygy Solutions has been an Aprio client since 2014, during which time the founders grew to know Aprio as an organization with a like-minded culture and values. Syzygy and Velossents founders and managing partners - Mitch Nelson, CEO, Jeff Kramer, COO and Scott Sarris, CIO - will join Aprio as Managing Directors of Digital Transformation Advisory Services. Mitch Nelson will also serve as Managing Director of Aprio Talent Solutions.

We knew we wanted to combine with a firm that would help on our growth trajectory and that shared our entrepreneurial spirit - Aprio became the obvious choice, said Nelson. Our established digital transformation service offerings backed by Aprios comprehensive accounting and advisory services will enable us to drive value for Aprios clients and deepen relationships with our existing clients.

Syzygy, now as Aprio, will continue its longstanding relationship with Secureworks, a managed security solution provider based in Atlanta.

Secureworks is excited about the Syzygy and Aprio combination, Maureen Perrelli, Secureworks Chief Channel Officer. Syzygy has been a valued Secureworks partner for over three years, and now as part of Aprio, a national business advisory firm, will continue to be a strategic partner critical to enabling our customers long-term success.

Since 2013, Aprio has combined with eleven strategically chosen organizations as part of their initiative focusing on serving the needs of their clients. The firm plans to continue making strategic combinations in the years ahead.

For more information on Aprios Digital Transformation Advisory Services, visit http://www.aprio.com/services/digital-transformation/advisory/.

About Aprio

Aprio is a premier full-service, CPA-led business advisory firm that advises clients and associates on how to achieve whats next. Aprios associates work as integrated teams across advisory, assurance, tax, cloud accounting solutions and private client services, bringing the best thinking and personal commitment to each client. Across practices, Aprio brings together proven expertise, deep understanding and strategic foresight for industries including Manufacturing and Distribution; Non-Profit and Education; Professional Services; Real Estate and Construction; Retail, Franchise and Hospitality; and Technology and Blockchain. In 65 years, Aprio has grown to over 600 team members. To serve clients wherever life or business may take them, Aprios teams speak more than 30 languages and work with clients in over 40 countries. The firm is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For more, visit https://www.aprio.com.
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Last week, nine statewide health professions organizations sent a letter to legislators and the governor in support of the 2021 Health Security Bill. 

Our nine organizations represent almost every arm of the states health-care system. We treat those with heart disease, and we start IVs. We help people with debilitating pain find relief, as well as those with mental health conditions. We fill prescriptions, do health screenings and deliver babies. In clinics, offices, pharmacies, ERs and hospitals across New Mexico, we are there. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued to be there for our fellow New Mexicans.

Your political philosophies, as well as personal or family experiences, likely shape your conclusions about how to fix the widespread problems in American health care. Those factors hold true for us, too. But unlike most of you, every week we see up close the harm done from being uninsured, the tough dilemmas from being under-insured, the worry caused by provider shortages and the distress about unaffordable medications.

Too often it seems that we are wasting considerable time, money and morale as we navigate  for our patients  irrational obstacles to care. Those come from insurance company authorizations, differing drug formularies, computer entry requirements, too many middlemen, byzantine coding systems, rejections of legitimate charges, distorted incentives and more.

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................................................................

All this means that we have, collectively, a deep understanding of what is broken and wasteful in todays health system. Many of us have watched for decades as one hot new reform after another has been tried, with most leading to more complexities, less focus on the patients we serve and mind-boggling costs.

Given this background, the organizations we represent believe the proposed Health Security approach has multiple major advantages over todays complicated system. Taking this path would ensure near universal health coverage in our state, with most New Mexicans covered by the comprehensive Health Security Plan itself. That would allow providers to focus much more on each patients needs and less on their insurance plan. Drawing clinicians to the state would likely get much easier.

We also appreciate that the Health Security Plan eliminates networks for its members but does not disrupt how care is actually delivered today via private and public practitioners and facilities. In addition, three independent analyses have now shown that Health Security would save New Mexicans hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Importantly, the 2020 study explicitly assumes stable provider incomes and fair future increases.

For these reasons and more, we support the passage of the Health Security bill this winter. We are pleading (with our legislators): Please listen to those of us in the trenches and take this critical step now, so that we clinicians can, in just a few years, be less burdened while giving high quality care to all New Mexicans at a lower cost.
The Cabinet Committee on Security had on 13 January approved the Rs 48,000-crore deal to procure 73 Tejas Mk-1A variants and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 trainer aircraft from HAL for the Indian Air Force

Bengaluru: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday that India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence and that the indigenously developed Tejas was better than its foreign equivalents on several parameters and also comparatively cheaper.

Under the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan', India is looking forward to increase its defence manufacturing capabilities, said Singh, who inaugurated Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's second LCA-Tejas production plant in Bengaluru. "India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence", he said.

Inaugurated the HAL's new LCA-Tejas Production Line in Bengaluru today. Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan India is looking forward to increase its defence manufacturing capabilities. India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence. @HALHQBLR pic.twitter.com/7HCmYnjp1P  Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) February 2, 2021

Singh said Tejas is not only indigenous, but better than its foreign equivalents on several parameters and also comparatively cheaper.

"Many countries have shown interest in Tejas. India will achieve the target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore in the field of defence manufacturing in (a) few years", he said.

The delivery of the Tejas LCA to the Indian Air Force under a Rs 48,000-crore deal will begin from March 2024 and around 16 aircraft will be rolled out annually till the completion of the total supply of 83 jets, Chairman and Managing Director of HAL, R Madhavan said recently.

He had also said that a number of countries have shown keen interest in procurement of the Tejas and that the first export order is likely to come by in the next couple of years.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 13 January approved the Rs 48,000-

crore deal to procure 73 Tejas Mk-1A variants and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 trainer aircraft from HAL to boost the Indian Air Force's combat prowess.

A HAL statement said Singh lauded the company's efforts to increase the production capacity of LCA, which is going to be the backbone of IAF fighter fleet in years to come.

'HALs new LCA facility is example of how 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' is shaping and HAL deserves the largest indigenous order of 83 LCA Mk-IA. LCA is the pride of India and sends the right message to others that India can make fighters of class in-house", he was quoted as saying in the HAL statement.

"The fighter is superior in many ways when compared to other fighters in its category, besides being cost-effective. I compliment HAL for working through the COVID times and bringing out this facility. The Company has a lot of talent and more orders should come in its way in future. We cannot depend on others on security issues and therefore will make HAL stronger, whatever it takes", Singh added, according to the statement.

Madhavan said on Tuesday that phase -1 of the facility, getting ready on 35 acres, will enable HAL enhance its production capacity to 16 from the current eight aircraft every year.

HAL said the 83 LCA Mk1A aircraft will be produced in two production lines in Bengaluru with over 500 plus production partners

across India.

"All the 83 aircraft would be delivered to the Indian Air Force in the next decade, commencing 36 months from contract signing."

HAL would be delivering 16 aircraft in a year to the Air Force.

"The programne will catalyze the aerospace ecosystem in India and would enable India to be an epitome in Prime Ministers vision for 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'", HAL said


The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington on June 13, 2005. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Biden Admin Asks Supreme Court to Cancel Asylum, Border Wall Arguments

The Biden administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to cancel oral arguments in two cases separately challenging former President Donald Trumps border wall and remain in Mexico policies.

The requests come after the administration took action to undo both policies, possibly rendering the challenges moot.

Acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar asked the nations top court in separate court filings to remove the cases from the courts calendar pending a review of Trumps policies.

The case challenging the transfer of $2.5 billion in military funding for the border wall construction was originally scheduled for argument on Feb. 22. President Joe Biden, just hours after his inauguration, signed an executive order to terminate the emergency declaration on the southern border and halt border wall construction. The emergency declaration was previously extended by Trump until February 2022.

The order also directs the executive branch to assess the legality of the funding and contracting methods used to construct the wall.

It would therefore be appropriate for the Court to hold further proceedings in this case in abeyance to allow for the completion of the process that the President has directed, Prelogar argued (pdf).

Meanwhile, the case challenging a policy that would send illegal immigrants entering via the southern border back to Mexico while they wait for a court to process their claims was scheduled for argument on March 1. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Jan. 20 that it would no longer enroll newly arriving asylum seekers at the southern border into one of Trumps key immigration policies known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).

The MPP, more commonly known as the Remain in Mexico policy, was enacted in January 2019 in an attempt to curb the flow of illegal immigration into the United States and prevent fraudulent or nonmeritorious cases. It sends asylum seekers back to Mexico while they wait for their cases to be heard. The policy aims to end loopholes in the current catch and release policy, under which asylum seekers are allowed to remain in the United States as they await a court hearing, in many cases, never to be seen again.

Given DHSs suspension of new enrollments in MPP and its current review of the program, it would be appropriate for the Court to hold further proceedings in this case in abeyance to allow for the completion of that review, the acting solicitor general wrote (pdf).

Prelogar noted in both requests that the challengers in the cases agreed with the proposal.

Since taking office, Biden has issued a flurry of executive orders, some of which overturn actions taken by Trump. Trumps border wall and MPP were his signature immigration policies aimed at alleviating the bottleneck of asylum applications and serve as a deterrent for unqualified migrants, often economic migrants, who take their chances for a better life with the long and dangerous journey.

Migrants wait to receive donated food and water outside a temporary shelter set up for members of the migrant caravan in Tijuana, Mexico, on Nov. 28, 2018. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The fourth migrant caravan crossed the Suchiate River into Mexico on Nov. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Oscar Rivera)

The flow of migrants arriving at the southern border has dropped significantly following the implementation of these stringent measures.

Biden has also signed orders to revoke a travel ban that Trump had placed on terror-prone countries that had consistently failed to provide terrorist, criminal, or identity information for their travelers, ordered the DHS to continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, and suspended deportations of illegal aliens for 100 days.

A federal judge has ruled to temporarily block Bidens order to suspend the deportations.

Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.
An innovative and unique partnership: WHO, Sweden and Somalia work together to improve health outcomes for all Somalis
With the massive, three-day winter storm that hit the Lehigh Valley winding down, adults awoke Tuesday to the unpleasant task of shoveling their sidewalks while kids looked out their windows excitedly to a winter wonderland full of snow-filled possibilities.

But, should you wear a mask while plowing your driveway or digging your car out of mountains of flakes? What about your kids when theyre gleefully sledding at the popular park?

The answer echoes what public health officials have been suggesting since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, with the ability to social distance playing a big role in whether to mask up.

People dont need to wear a face covering if they arent shoveling near others who are outside of their immediate bubble, says Dr. Kanad Mukherjee, family medicine physician and assistant professor at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine.

However, you should still keep a mask in your pocket in case you unexpectedly end up having close contact with a neighbor or passing pedestrian for an extended period of time, Mukherjee said.

The Centers for Disease Control defines a close contact as someone who spends 15 minutes or more within six feet of a person with COVID-19 over a period of 24 hours.

You end up being around people casually (while shoveling). You still dont know if they or even yourself are an asymptomatic carrier, and thats ultimately why wearing masks while youre shoveling is helpful, he said. I would at least keep it with you in case you end up having a casual encounter with somebody.

Steve Burt of Urban Chaos helps out a neighbor by shoveling snow. Start of what could be a major snow event, in Somerville, N.J. January, 31, 2021Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

For younger ones taking advantage of a snow day, masking up is a little more complicated.

Kids on a crowded sledding hill or having a snow day with friends should mask up if they are going to be within six feet of other children they dont live with for more than 15 minutes, said Dr. Stephanie Silvera, a professor at Montclair State Universitys Department of Public Health.

(In that case), then a mask is a good idea to lower their risk of potentially spreading/contracting the virus, Silvera said.

Mukherjee says parent discretion can be used.

If a child is playing in the snow with siblings, a parent or guardian or someone who lives with them, face coverings are not necessary, he said. But if they are heading out with a group of friends, a mask should be worn, even if the child was already vaccinated as part of the cohort of 16-64-year-olds with certain medical conditions.

If it ends up being how like when I was a kid  I would leave my house and go with a bunch of friends  all those activities inherently involve a lot of yelling, and its that part thats always concerning for the virus, Mukherjee said. As it becomes more social and outside of your bubble, the child or teenager should be wearing a mask.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order in July requiring people to wear a mask outside in public spaces when social distancing isnt possible. There are exceptions though, including if you are able to social distance, if wearing a face covering endangers your health and if you are engaging in high-intensity aerobic or anaerobic activities.

Cardiologists often warn that snow shoveling can trigger heart attacks. Thats because shoveling is typically done without warm-up and requires the use of seldom-used arm muscles. Frigid temperatures also cause arteries to shrink, which decreases blood and oxygen supplies to the heart.

So, is it safe to wear a mask while shoveling?

For most people who are relatively physically active, it is safe, Silvera said. However, someone with a pre-existing heart condition or who isnt physically active should be extra careful while shoveling in general, with or without a mask, she said.

You should be sure to take frequent breaks and be sure to stay hydrated, she said.

Mukherjee suggests people use a good, sturdy shovel and lift the snow with their legs, not their back to avoid overexertion. Wearing a mask, though, wouldnt increase the risk of heart attack, he said.

Its not related to the mask. Its is exclusively related to the amount of exertion youre giving and the mask doesnt necessarily affect that, he said.

Pandemic aside, wearing a mask has other perks.

The piece of fabric can protect your face from the harsh elements and possible frostbite, Mukherjee and Silvera agree. Mukherjee says frostbite can also be avoided by limiting caffeine and alcohol intake prior to shoveling, wearing winter clothes that arent too constricting and covering all parts of your skin (hence where the mask comes in).

(The mask) actually keeps you warm, which is an underrated benefit, he said. It helps with preventing frostbite. As part of the protective wear, I think its a good accessory to have.

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Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.
CLAWSON, MI  A man allegedly fatally shot his friend, and then caused a ruckus in a Clawson neighborhood over the weekend.

The body of a 34-year-old man was found in the suspects Clawson home after police arrested him for causing disturbances in the neighborhood during the early hours of Sunday, WXYZ Detroit reports. Its the first homicide in Clawson since 2004.

The 37-year-old suspect allegedly banged on his neighbors door around 11 p.m. Saturday, but was gone when the neighbor answered, the TV station reports. He then allegedly stole an American flag off someones porch, and proceeded down the street until he found an unlocked door. With the flag draped over his shoulders, the suspect allegedly introduced himself to the residents before grabbing a beer bottle and throwing it at a woman. It hit her on the forehead and shattered; she was treated at the scene and is OK.

The suspect then left the house, the report said. He was apprehended by neighbors until police arrived. Police arrested the suspect and searched his home where they discovered the body.

The suspects behavior was out of character, neighbor Sean McGowan told WXYZ. Something happened in that house that set him off on that crazy little rampage he had up and down the street here.

Police have not released the names of the suspect or victim. The suspect is expected to be arraigned today, the report said.

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Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos will step down from his post in the third quarter of 2021 and be replaced by Andy Jassy, the head of the companys cloud computing unit.

Jassy, 53, for years has been seen as a potential successor to Bezos, who founded the company as an online bookstore from his Seattle garage more than 25 years ago and became one of the worlds wealthiest men. Jassys likelihood as successor seemed inevitable last year when Jeff Wilke, who was the consumer business chief and was also seen as a potential successor, announced hed be leaving this year.

Bezos, 57, the companys driving force since its founding, will become executive chairman, Amazon said Tuesday in a statement.

The transition arrives at time when Amazon seems unstoppable, fueled by record sales amid the pandemic and generating massive cash and profits from Amazon Web Services, which Jassy helped create and manage. Bezos isnt going far, much the way Bill Gates remained chairman of Microsoft Corp. after ceding the CEO role.

When you look at our financial results, what youre actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention, Bezos said in a statement. Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.

TOMLINSON: Texas business owners deserve answers from Ken Paxton on Amazon

The reaction on Wall Street was mostly positive, even as Amazon turned in another blockbuster quarter and solid guidance.

Revenue will be $100 billion to $106 billion in the quarter ending in March, the Seattle-based company said Tuesday in a statement. Amazon projected operating income of $3 billion to $6.5 billion. Analysts, on average, estimated profit of $6.07 billion on sales of $95.72 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The online retailer reported fourth-quarter sales jumped 44% to $125.6 billion, beating analysts average estimate of $119.7 billion. Earnings were $14.09 per share, compared with analyst projections of $7.34. The shares were little changed in post-market trading.

Still, investors remain mindful of Amazons rising expenses. Costs related to Covid-19, which include lost productivity due to social distancing as well as stepped up cleaning throughout its warehouses and shipping centers, will add $2 billion to expenses in the current quarter, Amazon said.

Jassy, who served as a technical adviser to Bezos earlier in his career, is cut from the same cloth as his boss, current and former colleagues say. He prefers data-driven decision-making and puts customers at the center of the companys thinking. Jassy is also known as an occasional micromanager on projects close to his heart, another trait he has in common with Bezos. Colleagues are impressed with his ability to recall small details about projects from long-ago meetings.

Jassys rise to CEO is probably bad news for companies like Oracle Corp., Microsoft and Google that compete with Amazon in cloud computing, said Sucharita Kodali, an analyst at Forrester.Andy Jassy for almost two decades now has focused on the AWS side of Amazon, she said. CEOs focus on their babies. If I were Oracle or Google or Microsoft, Id be more nervous.
Republican officials from the George W Bush administration have fled the GOP in droves, calling it "the cult of Trump".

According to Reuters, the mass exodus is driven by the party's unwillingness to hold Mr Trump accountable for the attack on Congress by his supporters on 6 January.

Some disillusioned Republicans hoped that Mr Trump finally leaving the White House while facing a second impeachment would make him so repellant that the party would have no choice but to distance itself from him and move on.

However, it appears not even the stink of sedition and death can break the hold Mr Trump has over the party; Republicans in the Senate have largely signalled they plan to vote to acquit the former president when he faces his second impeachment trial later this month.

Faced with that reality, dozens of Republicans appear to be abandoning the party.

"The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I'd call it the cult of Trump," Jimmy Furule, undersecretary of the Treasury and Financial Intelligence during the Bush administration, told Reuters.

According to Kristopher Purcell, a Bush-era communications officer, approximately 60 to 70 former Bush officials are either leaving the party or cutting ties over its allegiance to Trump.

"The number is growing every day," Mr Purcell said. "We have QAnon members of Congress. It's appalling."

During a recent interview, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told Fox Business that the civil war between Trump loyalists and traditional conservatives was a "spat" but that the party would come together.

If it does not, Republican strategists fear the party will be split during national elections and lose as a result.

Ms McDaniel appears confident the party will find common ground, but that may a more difficult proposal than she projects.

Rosario Marin, formerly a Treasurer of the US during the Bush years, suggested that people like her would not be returning without significant change to the party's loyalties.

"If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back," Ms Marin said. "Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders."

It should be noted that these former Bush officials served under a president that started an illegal war that has lasted two decades, cost the US at least $757bn, and left an estimated 200,000 civilians dead.
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NEW YORK  Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon as an online bookstore and built it into a shopping and entertainment behemoth, will step down later this year as CEO, a role hes had for nearly 30 years, to become executive chairman, the company announced Tuesday.

Bezos, 57, will be replaced in the summer by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazons cloud-computing business.

In a blog post to employees, Bezos said he planned to focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon. He said he would have more time for side projects, including his space exploration company Blue Origin, his philanthropic initiatives and overseeing The Washington Post, which he owns.

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Bezos, who is the companys biggest shareholder, will still have broad influence over Amazon.

Jeff is really not going anywhere, Amazons Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a call with reporters. Its more of a restructuring of whos doing what.

Launched in 1995, Amazon was a pioneer of fast, free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything else. Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a common sight in living rooms.

As a child, Bezos was intrigued by computers and interested in building things, such as alarms he rigged in his parents home. He got a degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, and then worked at several Wall Street companies.

He quit his job at D.E. Shaw to start an online retail business  though at first he wasnt sure what to sell. Bezos quickly determined that an online bookstore would resonate with consumers. He and his now ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, whom he met at D.E. Shaw and married in 1993, set out on a road trip to Seattle  a city chosen for its abundance of tech talent and proximity to a large book distributor in Roseburg, Oregon.

While Scott drove, Bezos wrote up the business plan for what would become Amazon.com. Bezos convinced his parents and some friends to invest in the idea, and Amazon began operating out of the Bezos Seattle garage on July 16, 1995.

Amazon has gone far beyond selling paperbacks. It now produces movies, makes sofas, owns a grocery chain and even has plans to send satellites into space to beam internet service to earth. The company is one of the most valuable in the world, worth nearly $1.7 trillion.

During the pandemic, Amazon was one of the few retailers to benefit as shoppers stayed clear of malls and shopped from their phones. On the same day Amazon announced Bezos would step down, the company reported making a record profit in the last three months of 2020, and its quarterly revenue shot past $100 billion for the first time.

Bezos riches have also swelled: His stake in Amazon is currently worth about $180 billion. For years he stayed behind the scenes, running the company. More recently, he sometimes stepped into the spotlight, showing up at movie premieres and Hollywood parties.

In 2019, he announced he was divorcing Scott in a tweet, just before the National Enquirer published a cover story saying Bezos had an affair with a former TV host. Scott received a stake in Amazon after the divorce worth nearly $40 billion at the time. She has pledged to give away half her fortune to charities.

As Amazon has grown, so has scrutiny. Amazon and other tech giants have enjoyed light-touch regulation and star status in Washington for decades, but calls for greater regulation are growing. A report by the House Judiciary Committee in October called for possibly breaking up Amazon and others, making it harder for them to acquire companies and imposing new rules to safeguard competition.

Bezos is one of the last founders of a big tech company to still be CEO. The founders of Google, Oracle and Microsoft have all stepped down from the top job of the companies they created. Facebook is still led by co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Jassy, Bezos replacement, is a longtime Amazon executive, having worked at the company since 1997. The cloud-computing business he runs powers video-streaming site Netflix and many other companies, and it has become Amazons most profitable business.

Hes deeply steeped in technology and a very seasoned executive in his own right, Gartner analyst Ed Anderson said.

But he will also face many challenges.

Amazons size makes some industries uncomfortable, some governments uncomfortable, and Andy Jassy will have to deal with the consequences, Anderson said. That will be some of the new era of his leadership.

___

Associated Press writers Matt OBrien in Providence, Rhode Island, Mae Anderson in New York and Anne DInnocenzio in New York contributed to this report. ___

This story has been updated to correct the transition period to summer, not fall.

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Washington, Feb 2(UNI) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that his government's policy towards North Korea is under review and additional sanctions are among the options being considered.

Blinken made the remark in an interview with NBC News aired on Monday.

He referred to North Korea saying "This is a bad problem that has gotten worse over time."

The US Secretary of State claimed that North Korea's nuclear and missile programs advanced during Donald Trump's presidency, despite the fact that Trump held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Blinken indicated a shift in US policy towards North Korea, saying "The first thing we're going to do is to review the policy across the board."

On the subject of China he felt that the communist nation had acted "egregiously" by undermining its commitments to Hong Kong and said the US might follow the example of Britain by accepting people fleeing Hong Kong.

UNI XC RKM SB 1157
NAPLES, FEB 2 - A large landslide crashed onto the state highway at Amalfi near Naples on Tuesday. The cliff above the road crumbled sending earth, rocks and boulders onto the road below. There were no immediate reports of victims but sources said they could not be ruled out yet either. Part of the landslide also reached the beach below the road. Amalfi Mayor Daniele Milano said it would take hours to clear the highway. Only then would authorities be sure there were no victims, he said. A number of houses will be evacuated, Milano said. Highway company ANAS said circulation along the highway had been interrupted. Former Amalfi mayor Antonio De Luca said consolidation work on that stretch of cliff had been done two years ago. He said the police should investigate how the work was done. The Amalfi Coast is one of Italy's most iconic tourist destinations. (ANSA).
WASHINGTON - After months of planning - of false starts, teacher protests, arbitration, a court filing and a final snow delay - District of Columbia public schools opened their doors to teachers and students for in-person learning Tuesday for the first time in nearly a year.

About 9,000 of the school system's 52,000 students were expected to be in a school building this week. The majority of charter students, who account for more than 45% of the city's public school population, are staying home.

Tuesday marks a long-awaited reopening day that city leaders hope will lead to more students in school buildings.

"We know our students are ready, we know our buildings are ready, we know our staff is ready, and we cannot wait to see you in the classroom," Chancellor Lewis Ferebee wrote in a letter last week to families and staff members.

But the first day of school during the coronavirus pandemic - pushed to Tuesday instead of Monday because of the region's snowstorm - is clouded by virus fears and an increasingly strained relationship between the city and the Washington Teachers' Union, whose 4,000 educators largely oppose the return to school. About 1,800 teachers were assigned to go back to classrooms.

The teachers union has said no organized sickout or work stoppage was planned, but the school system feared that teachers could unravel the reopening plans, and it requested Monday that a judge grant a temporary restraining order against the union to stop any talk of a strike.

A ruling had not been made as of mid-Tuesday.

A top school official sent principals a letter Monday evening, telling them that they should report any staff absences to the central office by 8:30 a.m. so they can cancel any classes before students arrive and ensure that special education students 3644 the only students in D.C. eligible to take school buses during the pandemic - are not transported to school.

"Please work with your instructional superintendent should staffing shortages necessitate a need to close a classroom," the letter reads.

Washington Teachers' Union President Elizabeth Davis and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second-largest teachers union, were scheduled to host a joint news conference Tuesday morning.

Students' days will not be uniform, with every school designing its own reopening plan. In part of the city where demand was high for in-person learning, elementary students may be reporting to classrooms for only a few hours in the morning, with another group coming in the afternoon. Some students will go full-time. At the middle school and high school levels, some students may be reporting to classrooms for a few hours each week to receive academic support or to take a technical education class in person.

The city said it spent $34 million to make buildings safer, with much of that coming from federal relief funding. School will look very different. Students will be grouped in cohorts of no more than 11 people, whom they will be with whenever they are in school buildings. There are mask mandates and tape around desks, an attempt to ensure that no one breaches the six-foot social-distancing rule.

With most students choosing to continue distance learning, some teachers will be leading in-person classes, while streaming them to students at home.

Adam Severs, a first-grade teacher at Hyde-Addison Elementary School, said he would be in his classroom Tuesday, even though he does not think schools should reopen yet. He said that he is in a newly renovated building and that his school administrators have properly implemented safety measures, but he fears for his colleagues in older buildings.

He said parents of some of his students have emailed him to tell him that they are praying for his safety and that their children fear he will contract the virus.

"I don't think they should be opening their doors until community spread is at a safer level or until teachers get both their vaccine doses," Severs said.

Most returning teachers and staff members received their first vaccine dose last week. The city put them in a priority group to get their vaccines before many other essential workers - a controversial decision because teachers had not yet resumed in-person instruction.

Many teachers have said the city should delay reopening until staff members receive both vaccine doses that take full effect.

Katherine Bonilla, 16, said her mother had concerns about her being back in a school building, but the 10th-grader at Columbia Heights Education Campus wanted to experience it for herself.

"Virtual learning didn't work for me," Bonilla said. "I told [my mom], I'm going to just see how it's going to be."

At Savoy Elementary School on Tuesday morning, Tiera Hill was "ecstatic" after dropping off her second grader and two kindergartners. Not even a two-hour snow delay dampened her enthusiasm.

"I'm just super excited. I could scream at the top of my lungs," Hill said as she comforted her 3-year-old daughter who was sad about not being able to go to school with her siblings.

With four young children, learning from home has been difficult, Hill said.

"It was just hard to keep them focused," she said. "It was a real test, that's what I'll say."

Hill's children were among the few who opted for the in-class learning Tuesday at Savoy. The six-foot social-distancing stickers leading the ramp to the recently renovated school proved unnecessary, at least on this first day.

Principal Lisa Rosado said 10 students decided to attend in-person, with the rest remaining online. That was partly due to the weather and the pushed back start time. The school had planned for 56 students to return and Rosado said she hopes they will all be there Thursday, the next opportunity for in-person classes.

"We're very happy to have children back in the building and our staff is very excited to welcome them," Rosado said. "It's not a school unless we have kids here."

Quiana Barnes, who has three children in the school, was not ready for them to return. She waited outside for a replacement charger for her son's computer.

"As a mom, I'm just scared about covid. I have a son with bad asthma and I don't want to risk it," Barnes said.

Barnes said that she was glad the school was open and happy for the kids who were back in the classroom but that she was not prepared to send hers back yet.

"I just can't do it," she said.

She is satisfied with her children continuing to learn from home.

"To me, that has been great. I have been able to see the teachers interact with the students and they're very patient with them," Barnes said. "My kids have been learning, so I'm happy about it."

Kevin McGilly said he was "delighted" that his son foster son Antwon got a seat for in-person learning. Antwon is a high school student with special education needs who takes classes to prepare him to live an independent life as an adult. McGilly said that he is a social teenager who is known by everyone at school, that he had missed school and that he is eager to return.

McGilly said that Antwon had been slipping behind and that his reading and math skills are where they were three years ago. Still, Antwon would be reporting to school for one class half a day per week.

"Two Fridays ago, restaurants reopened for indoor dining," McGilly said. "And my kid was invited to go back to school for a half a day a week. I still think there is something wrong with that."
A new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, identified in Brazil, is likely more transmissible than its parent strain because of mutations in the spike protein, according to researchers.

The P1 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, found in the city of Manaus, has a number of mutations compared to the B.1.1.28 lineage, especially in the spike protein region, says Esther Sabino, one of the researchers involved in its genetic characterization.

This would lead to an increase in its transmissibility, although it is not known currently whether it would also lead to an increased risk of severe infections, researchers say.

The health system in Manaus, capital of the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas, has collapsed for a second time amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported this month, with insufficient oxygen supplies leaving some hospitals unable to ventilate patients.

This spike protein is found on the surface of the virus and binds to receptors in human cells. Mutations in this region in general can alter the behavior of viruses, increasing their transmissibility." Esther Sabino, Researcher

The researcher added that the 'spike' is the most important protein in the development of vaccines because the virus uses it as a gateway to infect human cells.

Sabino leads the Brazilian research team of the Brazil-UK Centre for Arbovirus Discovery, Diagnosis, Genomics and Epidemiology (CADDE), that between 15 and 23 December tested 31 COVID-19 positive samples from Manaus.

Thirteen of those samples exhibited the P1 variant, which had not been detected in previous surveillance samples in the city between March and November 2020, the study found. The variant has also been detected in Japan in people arriving from Brazil.

The study, which is still in the preprint phase and has not yet been peer-reviewed, has been published on Virological.org, a website showing the most recent findings about the evolution and epidemiology of the virus.

The CADDE team has shared samples of the virus with other laboratories for in vitro research and is developing tools for faster detection of the variant in COVID-19 tests.

Evolving strains

According to the authors, the variant found in Manaus is different from others identified around the world, such as B.1.1.7 in the United Kingdom and B.1.351 in South Africa, and even elsewhere in Brazil, like the P2 in Rio de Janeiro and another in Rio Grande do Sul.

These variants have different origins, but share similar mutations, said Fernando Spilki, a virology professor at Feevale University and coordinator of Brazils science ministry Corona-omics Network, who did not take part in the study.

Although all of them share mutations, researchers do not know whether the variants evolved independently from each other or if they are related.

What is known is that the variant found in Manaus has alterations of its own and is adapting to the local population to increase its adaptive advantage and survive longer.

Co-author and genetics expert Renato Aguiar, a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, explains that viruses are only able to thrive because of the speed with which they mutate and evolve by copying parts of the genetic code of their hosts. This is how they manage to jump from a bat to a pangolin, then to a macaque or a human, for example, he said.

While the new variant may increase the number of re-infections, theres no evidence that it causes new infections to be more severe, says Aguiar.

The severity of and mortality [rate] from COVID-19 has no direct connection with mutations  it has much more to do with characteristics of hosts, in this case, humans, he noted.

The behavior of the P1 strain will depend on how humans behave, he warned: More gatherings will stimulate the virus to spread faster. Its a cascade: the more gatherings, the more the virus replicates. The more it replicates, the more it mutates. The more it mutates, the more abundant it becomes.

This in turn leads to more severe cases and deaths, as is the case in Manaus, the only city with ICU beds in the Amazonas state, with more than 4.2 million inhabitants.

More than 7,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Amazonas since the pandemic began in early 2020, with more than 47,500 confirmed cases this January alone.

Sabino says the group does not yet have data to predict how the immune system of vaccinated people will behave in contact with the P1 strain.

However, Spilki emphasized that the most important and effective measure to avoid new coronavirus strains from evolving resistance to vaccines is effective vaccination. Ideally, we would need vaccination as fast and as wide as possible to stop the virus from mutating and to avoid trouble with new variants in the future, he added.
Several hominin teeth found the Paleolithic site of La Cotte de St Brelade in Jersey may belong to Neanderthal-Homo sapiens hybrids, according to new research led by the Natural History Museum, London.

The thirteen permanent fully erupted teeth were excavated at the Paleolithic site of La Cotte de St Brelade in 1910 and 1911.

They were all found in the same location, on a ledge behind a hearth within the cave.

La Cotte de St Brelade is a site of huge importance and it continues to reveal stories about our ancient predecessors, said Olga Finch, Jersey Heritages Curator of Archaeology.

While the La Cotte teeth have Neanderthal characteristics, several specimens lack features normally found in Neanderthals, and certain aspects of their shape are typical of anatomically modern humans.

Recent dating of adjacent sediments suggested a probable age of less than 48,000 years for the fossils. This suggests they could have represented some of the youngest Neanderthal remains known.

Given that modern humans overlapped with Neanderthals in some parts of Europe after 45,000 years ago, the unusual features of these La Cotte individuals suggest that they could have had a dual Neanderthal-modern human ancestry, said senior author Professor Chris Stringer, a researcher in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum, London.

This idea of a hybrid population could be tested by the recovery of ancient DNA from the teeth, something that is now under investigation.

The La Cotte teeth were previously recorded as belonging to a single Neanderthal individual.

However, Professor Stringer and colleagues found that the teeth are from at least two adult individuals who share the same distinctive features, suggesting traits prevalent in their population.

This work offers us a glimpse of a new and intriguing population of Neanderthal people and opens the door to a new phase of discovery at the site, said co-author Dr. Matt Pope, a researcher in the Institute of Archaeology at University College London.

We will now work with Jersey Heritage to recover new finds and fossils from La Cotte de St Brelade, undertake a new programme analysis with our scientific colleagues, and put in place engineering to protect this very vulnerable site for the future.

It will be a mammoth project and one to watch for those fascinated by our closest evolutionary relatives.

The results were published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

_____

Tim Compton et al. 2021. The morphology of the Late Pleistocene hominin remains from the site of La Cotte de St Brelade, Jersey (Channel Islands). Journal of Human Evolution 152: 102939; doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102939

This article is based on text provided by the Natural History Museum, London.
Hub International Ltd., the Chicago-based insurance broker, announced it has acquired John Galon Insurance Services Ltd. and Galon Management Ltd., collectively known as Galon Insurance Brokers.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Located in the cities of Regina and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada, Galon Insurance Brokers is a three-generation full-service insurance brokerage that provides personal, commercial and agribusiness insurance, as well as government auto and various other professional services.

The Galon Insurance team further enhances our capabilities in the region, said Keith Jordan, president & CEO of Hub International Manitoba Ltd. (Hub Prairies). The combination of their industry expertise and strong relationships with clients is a critical component as we continue to be a one-stop shop for our clients.

Brian Galon, president of Galons Regina operations, and Phil Galon, president of Galons Saskatoon operations, are joining the HUB Prairies team along with the Galon families third generation of leadership: Jason Galon in Regina, and Daniel Galon, Jeff Galon and Jennifer Galon in Saskatoon.

Were excited to join Hub, commented Brian Galon. Through our partnership, clients will get full-service, expert advice on all aspects of insurance and delivered in a more thoughtful and integrated way.

Phil Galon added, Its an exciting new chapter for the company, which will help fuel our growth and provide additional resources and services for the benefit our clients and employees.

Source: Hub International Ltd.

Topics Mergers Canada
Children attending special schools are to return to classrooms within a fortnight.

Under the plans to be issued to schools today, in-person education for children in special schools is to resume on a phased basis from February 11, operating at 50% capacity on alternate days.

On February 22, all children in special classes in mainstream primary schools will go back to the classroom.

Unions have scrutinised the plans which they say include significantly enhanced safety measures for both students and staff.

An agreement on in-person learning for children with additional needs in mainstream classes has not been reached.

Education minister Norma Foley said it was hugely positive that there is a concrete plan in place.

I want to thank everyone who has engaged in this process, from the very beginning, to reach a solution.

It is regrettable that a pathway for a return to in-class learning for children with additional needs in mainstream schools could not be reached but we will continue to work with our partners to provide a resolution for this cohort of pupils.

Forsas head of education, Andy Pike, said newly-agreed safety measures, together with declining community transmission of Covid-19, meant the reopening plan was as safe as it could be.

"SNAs and others working with students with additional needs are more aware than most of the urgent need to begin the resumption of services," he said.

Irish National Teachers' Organisation president Mary Magner said the union will continue to monitor the public health situation.

Over the coming weeks, our attention will turn to the general reopening of all primary schools," she said.

Against an improving public health landscape, we believe this is possible. However, the power to make this happen rests with each and every one of us.

Meanwhile, it has emerged the Government has yet to decide on plans for the Leaving Certificate and it will be at least next Tuesday before any announcement is made.

Minister Foley said she hopes to make a full announcement as soon as possible, saying a "number of options are on the table".

This includes a "hybrid model", the most likely outcome, which is a form of calculated grades and assessment.

Sources say the chances of a traditional exam is decreasing rapidly as children spend longer out of the classroom.

Another option has been floated to hold the Leaving Cert at a later date, well into July.

"The reality is, once you can't hold the traditional exam, there is no silver bullet solution, no option doesn't pose a challenge," one cabinet source said.

However, another source cautioned that the Government "isn't even close to a decision" on the State exam.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-01 17:49:28|Editor: huaxia

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Afghan municipality employees work at the site of a blast in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Feb. 1, 2021. Two people were killed and another injured in a blast hitting a vehicle in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Monday, Kabul police spokesman Ferdaus Faramarz said. (Str/Xinhua)

KABUL, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and another injured in a blast hitting a vehicle in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Monday, Kabul police spokesman Ferdaus Faramarz said.

The blast targeted a Ranger-type vehicle in Jangalak locality of Police District 7 at around 12:10 p.m. local time. A security personnel and a civilian were killed and another security personnel was injured, the spokesman said.

Police and army personnel often drive Ranger-type vehicles in Afghanistan.

This is the second blast targeting vehicles in Kabul since Monday morning.

The first blast struck a Land Cruiser jeep of an official with the state ministry for peace affairs at 7:30 a.m. local time in Police District 10, destroying the vehicle but causing no casualties, police said. Enditem
The Global Times quoted unnamed experts as saying the generals' power-grab could be seen as 'an adjustment to the country's dysfunctional power structure'

The military takeover in Myanmar and detention of Aung San Suu Kyi was "a major cabinet reshuffle" according to Chinese state media, who rolled out the euphemisms to avoid calling a coup a coup.

As democratic leaders around the world slammed the Burmese military and President Joe Biden said the US was "taking note" of who was standing up for Myanmar's people, China's communist leadership took a softly-softly approach.

Beijing called for all parties in Myanmar to "resolve their differences", and the official Xinhua news agency on Monday described the military replacing elected ministers after the coup as a "major cabinet reshuffle".

The nationalist Global Times meanwhile quoted unnamed experts as saying the generals' power-grab could be seen as "an adjustment to the country's dysfunctional power structure".

But the paper -- known for its fiery commentaries against China's critics -- also used the occasion to take a pop at former US president Donald Trump, whose combative approach to Beijing had plunged US-China ties to their lowest in decades.

"Some experts mentioned that... Trump, who refused to admit his election defeat and reportedly incited the Capitol riots, might be the Myanmar military's inspiration," it wrote.

Beijing has long rebuffed what it sees as interference in its "internal affairs" -- such as criticism over its human rights record -- and has taken a similarly neutral stance on most foreign affairs.

Myanmar is also a vital piece of Beijing's huge Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

President Xi Jinping visited the country last January, and promised to support the Myanmar government on a development path "suited to its own national conditions".

Biden has called for a quick restoration of democracy in Myanmar, while United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the European Union and Australia were among others to condemn the coup.

The Myanmar military has justified its seizure of power by alleging widespread fraud in elections held three months ago that the NLD won in a landslide. It has imposed a state of emergency for a year, and claimed it would then hold fresh elections.
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nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

As the Union Budget boosted investor sentiment once again after a week of weak trade, Indigo Paints shares listed on bourses on February 2 with a stellar premium of 75 percent.

The listing premium is much higher than analysts' expectations. The healthy subscription figure of 117 times and strong earnings growth also supported the listing price.

The stock rallied as much as 110 percent to hit an intraday high of Rs 3,129 on the BSE, which was also a 20 percent upper circuit over opening price. The stock was opened with a 75 percent premium at Rs 2,607.5 against issue price of Rs 1,490.

Experts now advise investors to book partial profits on listing day and hold some of the stock allotment for long term.

"The fundamentals of the company are strong. Investors with a short to long term view may hold on to their holdings," Gaurav Garg, Head of Research at CapitalVia Global Research told Moneycontrol.

Indigo Paints enjoys early mover advantage in floor painting, with growing sale of differentiated products which yields higher margin. "We like the fact that company remain least affected during COVID-19 period (growth in sales & on EBITDA margin terms) as compared to peers due to extensive presence in small towns which might be one of the reason that led company outperform its peers during COVID times & now expanding faster into large cities," Astha Jain, Senior Research Analyst at Hem Securities said.

She recommended booking partial profit on listing day if stock is available more than 50 percent premium to issue price and hold remaining quantity for long term horizon.

But investors who want to buy shares can avoid buying today given the much higher-than-expected listing.

On listing day for fresh buying, Astha Jain recommended wait.

Prashanth Tapse, AVP Research at Mehta Equities also advised investors to avoid buying Indigo Paints on listing day. "Post listing one can relook to accumulate Indigo Paints once valuations matches' industry peers as we believe IPO valuations were aggressively priced compared to industry leaders. We will remain optimistic on Indigo's long term growth prospects."

If still investors want to buy, they can buy if it is available in the range of Rs 2,000-2,250 per share, according to Gaurav Garg.

Indigo Paints is the fifth largest company in Indian decorative paint industry in terms of revenue from operations in fiscal 2020. Company has created brand 'Indigo' on back of multi pronged approach strategies.

The company raised Rs 1,170 crore via public issue including fresh issue of Rs 300 crore which will be utilised for capacity expansion in Pudukkottai plant, purchase of tinting machines and retiring some borrowings on books.

Indigo Paints operates 3 manufacturing facilities in India, located in Rajasthan, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with current installed production capacity at 1,01,903 KLPA and 93,118 MTPA as of March 2020.

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

YANGON, Myanmar  At 6 a.m. on Monday, my phone rang mercilessly. I ignored the first call, assuming that a Taiwanese friend had forgotten about the time difference. I was still struggling to sleep, and then I saw my mothers name flash on the screen. My mother, who lives in Mandalay, in the middle of Myanmar, about 400 miles from Yangon, never calls that early in the morning.

A few hours later, Myanmars recently elected parliament was expected to convene its first session. Daw Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy had won more than 80 percent of the vote in the November elections and was about to start its second term in government. The military, which is led by Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, had been contesting the validity of the elections. Throughout the weekend, most of the conversations I had were with friends and family debating the probability of a coup.

When I saw my mother calling, I knew: There has been a coup.

Go stay with your aunt, my mother told me. Gather with your family and trust no one else. My paternal grandparents, who were from a vulnerable minority, hid in the home of various family members during the 1962 coup, when the military, led by Gen. Ne Win, replaced the civilian government of Prime Minister U Nu in a coup.

During the student-led uprising in 1988 against the dictatorship, my mother and her siblings alternated between marching in the streets and diving into sewers to avoid gunfire, facing the crackdown led by President Sein Lwin. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi formed the National League for Democracy in the aftermath of that brutal crackdown.
Paris  By promoting culture, including during the Covid-19 pandemic, and by proving to the whole world that we can reconcile culture and health, Morocco, under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, sets an example, said the President of the Arab World Institute (IMA), Jack Lang.

"I am happy that Morocco has taken the decision to maintain the link with culture during the pandemic. It is a model for other countries. I believe that this initiative is excellent and deserves to be followed", Lang pointed out in an interview with MAP.

In this regard, the President of the IMA paid tribute to HM King Mohammed VI, "a man always very attentive to the development of cultural and intellectual life".

"I have seen videos and pictures that show that in Morocco, there is a real enthusiasm of citizens of all ages to discover the works of museums and at the same time a real respect for health preventive measures. So the demonstration is clearly made by the National Foundation of Museums of Morocco (FNMM), that we can now open museums while respecting the requirements established by the health authorities ", he said.

"The Moroccan model is quite remarkable" and the decision to maintain a cultural life in Morocco is "a happy decision" which must be applauded and deserves to be followed by other countries.

He also said, in this regard, that he was "so touched and enthusiastic" by Morocco's initiatives to the point of making them known in France. "I wrote to the Minister of Culture and other French authorities to report to them the example of Morocco, telling them to follow the example of the Kingdom which is quite remarkable and which shows that we can reconcile culture and health", the President of the Institute added.

Regarding the current cultural effervescence in Morocco (opening of museums in particular the Villa Haris museum in Tangier, the music museum in Meknes, start of construction work of the Judaism museum in Fez, etc.), the president of the IMA noted that "once again, Morocco shows that it is an exceptional country".

With regard to the museum policy underway in Morocco, in particular with the Museum Label Law currently being examined in Parliament and which seeks to frame the name "Museum" which must comply with precise global standards, "a first in Africa and in the Arab world", the former French minister of Culture commended "a very good decision".

"It is important both to encourage the flourishing of private, public, associative or other initiatives and at the same time, it is a good thing that an authority recognized by the State, in this case the FNMM, can assign a label, I think it is necessary ", he said.

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According to him, a Museum label is "a good thing". "It is not a question of undermining the freedom of initiative of each other, but of introducing a little clarity, also ensuring compliance with the necessary requirements.

In this interview with MAP, the President of the IMA also commented Morocco's management of the Covid-19 crisis and the vaccination campaign that has just started. "Once again, Morocco is an exemplary country. The initiatives taken by the Moroccan authorities over the past year have aroused admiration and respect. At a time when in France, for example, we were running out of masks, Morocco was making a lot of them and invited the inhabitants to wear them, and even Morocco succeeded in exporting them. It is really a remarkable success," said Lang.

He was also delighted that "the vaccination campaign has started today and launched at the highest level in the country". "It is a very good thing that the highest authority of the State sets an example," he said.

A Clarks Summit man was charged with aggravated assault and related counts after police said he fought officers investigating an alleged violation of an emergency protection-from-abuse order.

John Thomas Trolio, 39, 220 Colburn Ave., was served with the PFA Saturday after making threats against Catherine Wazny, according to Clarks Summit police. Just after midnight Sunday, borough police officers spotted him in a parking lot on Highland Avenue and spoke to him briefly about not returning to the residence on Colburn Avenue, which he was barred from under the PFA. He said he would not, but about 20 minutes later, officers were called to the Colburn Avenue home, according to the criminal complaint.

Officers found Trolio in the driveway and, when they tried to handcuff him, he resisted. He tried to kick the officers, who restrained him against the patrol car, damaging the windows rain guard, according to the criminal complaint.

Trolio remains in Lackwanna County Prison in lieu of $20,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8.

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By correspondent,

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 1-The fast-growing no fee money transfer service Taptap Send has announced it has launched its services to Kenya.

This will enable the diaspora in the UK and Europe to send money to theirloved ones instantly and affordably straight to Mpesa wallets or bank accounts.

"Taptap Send is on a mission to make remittances to Kenya easier and cheaper in line with the UN sustainable development goal. It can achieve this with secure technology, online only transactions and community focused marketing. Using word of mouth referrals both by our friends and family in Kenya and influential community leaders is our way of keeping remittance costs down for everyone," Darryl Abraham, Africa growth director.

Remittance makes up a significant part of Africa's main source of currency, contributing to above 5percent of GDP in 15 African countries.

The Central Bank of Kenya notes that on average, Kenya received more than 200,000 USD monthly, which reached its peak in June 2020 at 288,544 USD.

As a result of the ongoing pandemic, more than ever Africans have leaned intoproviding support back home through affordable digital finance platforms including Taptap Send.

These remittances help thousands of Kenyan families pay for essential needs such ashealthcare, household bills and education.

In line with the UN sustainability goal of reducing the cost of transfers to less than 3percent of migrant remittance costs by 2030, Taptap Send has since 2018 contributed to this by providing the opportunity for migrants from the UK to send money home within this threshold.

New customers can receive an additional 5 on their first send by using the code

Since launching in summer 2018, Taptap Send has reached hundreds of thousands of customers.

Taptap Send is live in seven European countries, supporting payments into Senegal, Mali, Zambia, Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar, and Bangladesh.
Myanmars military, also known as the Tatmadaw, yesterday seized control of the country in a coup and arrested the top leaders of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), including Aung San Suu Kyi. A state of emergency has been declared for a year, handing far-reaching powers to the armed forces. The militarys commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has taken power.

The military took over the media and telecommunications. Reports from the commercial centre of Yangon and other cities indicated that the services of four of the countrys telecom companies had been cut off, as were some internet services. TV broadcasts were restricted to the militarys Myawaddy TV channel. Troops and armoured vehicles had already been on the streets.

Myanmars leader Aung San Suu Kyi addresses the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

The pretext for the coup was alleged irregularities in the November 8 national election, in which the NLD won 83 percent of the vote and took 396 out of 476 seats in the combined lower and upper houses of parliament. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development party won only 33 seats. The new parliament was due to convene yesterday.

The military refused to recognise the result of the election and in mid-January claimed that more than 90,000 cases of election fraud had taken place. No proof was provided publicly. Last week, military spokesman General Zaw Min Tun warned of a coup if allegations were not addressed. Last Thursday, the election commission dismissed claims of irregularities, which have been largely rejected by international observers.

Last Friday, the US and its allies, including Britain, Australia and New Zealand, issued a statement warning Myanmars military against a coup. Responding on Saturday, its commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing did not deny that the army was planning a coup but declared it would abide by the constitution.

A military spokesperson yesterday insisted there were huge discrepancies and terrible fraud in the election results, which the countrys election commission had failed to settle. The military invoked article 417 of the constitution, which allows for the declaration of a state of emergency in conditions that threaten to disintegrate the union or disintegrate national solidarity. It declared that new elections would be held but provided no timeline.

The previous military junta drew up the 2008 constitution to ensure that it continued to hold key levers of power. A quarter of seats in both parliamentary houses are reserved for military appointees, ensuring that it can block any constitutional amendment. The military also remains in control of powerful ministries, including defence and home affairs, and is thus excluded from any civilian oversight.

Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest in 2010, and her NLD agreed to this democratic charade, which was part of the militarys shift away from China and toward the US. The NLD represents sections of the countrys ruling class who regard the militarys domination as a barrier to their business interests. They oriented to the West for support. For the Obama administration, Myanmars turn toward Washington was regarded as one of the successes of its confrontational pivot to Asia against China. Washington ended Myanmars pariah status, dropped economic sanctions and proclaimed it to be a developing democracy.

The NLD won the 2016 elections and formed a government. Suu Kyi, the supposed icon of democracy, became a roving ambassador for what in effect was a military-backed regime, seeking foreign investment and defending the military against charges of gross human rights abuse as it conducted its murderous operations against the Muslim Rohingya minority that drove hundreds of thousands to flee the country.

The militarys decision to take back full control of the country is no doubt conditioned in part by the turn to authoritarian and fascist forms of rule internationally amid the deepening crisis of capitalism triggered by the COVID-19 pandemicnot least in the United States. Significantly, Myanmars military has followed the playbook of Trump, who on the basis of lies about electoral fraud and a stolen election attempted to engineer a fascist coup by storming the Capitol on January 6.

Myanmar is confronting a worsening economic and social crisis as a result of a surge in COVID-19 cases since mid-August. Between late March to early August, Myanmar recorded just 360 cases and six deaths. However, those figures have risen dramatically to the current level of 140,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths, putting huge strains on the countrys limited health care system. Economic growth for the financial year 201920 (starting on October 1) is projected to be 3.2 percent, sharply down from 6.8 percent in the previous year. Growth for 202021 is expected to be just 0.5 percent.

Lockdowns have contributed to major job losses and a dramatic rise in poverty. A poll by the International Food Policy Research Institute last September found that 59 percent of 1,000 households surveyed in urban Yangon and 66 percent of 1,000 households surveyed in the countrys rural dry zone earned less than $US1.90 a daya commonly used benchmark for extreme poverty. Only 16 percent of respondents in a similar survey in January 2020 were in extreme poverty.

That level of poverty poses huge risks for food insecurity and malnutrition, Derek Headey, lead author of the study, commented. Though necessary to control the virus, lockdown periods have resulted in disastrous impacts on poverty and need to be accompanied by larger and better targeted cash transfers if Myanmar is to successfully contain the economic destruction of COVID-19s second wave. Since that September survey, the plight of the urban and rural poor has undoubtedly worsened, fuelling sharp social tensions.

In comments to the media about the coup, Myanmar historian Thant Myint-U warned: The doors just opened to a different, almost certainly darker future. Myanmar is a country already at war with itself, awash in weapons, with millions barely able to feed themselves, deeply divided along religious and ethnic lines Im not sure anyone will be able to control what comes next.

The new Biden administration had previously signalled a hard line toward Myanmar. During his congressional confirmation hearing, incoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would oversee an inter-agency review to determine whether Myanmars atrocities against Rohingya constituted genocide. Myanmars top generals, including Min Aung Hlaing, are already facing hearings in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which started last year, over their human rights abuses.

In response to yesterdays coup, Biden warned of the re-imposition of sanctions on Myanmar. The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy, he said, invoking Myanmars traditional name. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action.

Like Obama, Biden is not motivated by any genuine interest in defending human rights. Rather the US is driven by renewed concern of growing Chinese influence. The failure of Myanmar to attract significant foreign investment, along with growing international criticism of the treatment of the Rohingya, compelled Suu Kyi, her government and the military to increasingly turn back to Beijing for financial and diplomatic assistance.

Myanmars dependence on Beijing deepened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, including for a free supply of vaccines developed in China. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar last month to discuss closer collaboration on its Belt and Road Initiative, which includes strategic transport routes and pipelines through Myanmar to southern China. For Beijing, an alternative to the US-controlled sealanes through the Strait of Malacca is vital to ensure supplies of energy and raw materials as tensions with Washington continue to rise.

Chinas response to the coup has been decidedly muted. Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said only: We hope that all sides in Myanmar can appropriately handle their differences under the constitution and legal framework and safeguard political and social stability.

The prospect of a renewed human rights offensive and economic sanctions by US imperialism and its allies could have been a significant factor in prompting Myanmars military to take power directly, rather than relying on the potentially unreliable support of Suu Kyi and the NLD. Suu Kyi has now called for protests against the coup. Despite her much tarnished image as a democracy symbol, she will undoubtedly turn to Washington for backing.
Kansas City placed two players on the reserve/COVID-19 list after they were ruled a close contact to a person who tested positive for the virus, according to a report.

Kansas City reserve wide receiver Demarcus Robinson and backup center Daniel Kilgore were each placed on the list on Monday, six days before Kansas City faces the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55 on Sunday (3:30 p.m. PT/6:30 p.m. ET, CBS).

And Super Bowl LV has its first COVID issues: Chiefs placed center Daniel Kilgore and WR Demarcus Robinson on the Reserve/COVID-19 due to close contact, per source.  Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 1, 2021

The two have not tested positive, but Kilgore reportedly had his hair cut by a barber who later learned he tested positive for COVID-19. The haircut occurred at Kansas Citys practice facility and the barber had tested negative five consecutive days before he tested positive on Sunday. The barber revealed he had also cut Robinsons hair the previous day away from the facility.

All parties were masked during the encounters. However, given the duration of the encounters and close proximity, both players were deemed high-risk close contacts of the barber and had to be placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

Because they have been ruled as close contacts, Robinson and Kilgore must isolate for five days and cannot practice with the team during that time. They can rejoin the team after five days if they produce daily negative tests and do not become symptomatic. If the two test negative and display no symptoms after the isolation period, they will be eligible to return to Kansas Citys active roster in time to face the Buccaneers.

-- Geoffrey C. Arnold | @geoffreyCarnold
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-01 22:50:03|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to provide COVID-19 vaccines to other countries, especially the developing ones, in a timely manner within its capacity and contribute to the building of a community of health for all, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a daily press briefing after announcing that China donated COVID-19 vaccines to Pakistan on Monday morning, the first shipment of China's vaccine aid to other countries.

Reiterating China's commitment to making its COVID-19 vaccines a global public good once developed and put into use, Wang said China will contribute to achieving the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries. "We act on our words."

Besides Pakistan, China is also providing vaccine aid to 13 developing countries, including Brunei, Nepal, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Palestine, Belarus, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, with 38 more developing countries in need slated to receive China's vaccine aid at a later stage.

"We are also participating actively in the WHO-led COVAX initiative to provide vaccines to developing countries," the spokesperson added.

China has supported its companies in conducting joint research and production of vaccines with foreign partners and already exported Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines to countries including the UAE, Morocco, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, and Chile, Wang noted.

Besides, China also supported relevant companies in exporting vaccines to countries that were in urgent need, recognized Chinese vaccines, and authorized the emergency use of Chinese vaccines in their countries, Wang said.

He added that China expects the international community to make joint efforts in promoting the equitable distribution and use of vaccines and ensure the availability and affordability of vaccines in developing countries.
An explosion in the Salim Karwan area in on Tuesday morning claimed the lives of two people and wounded two others, reported TOLO News.

"Two people were killed and two more were wounded in this morning's explosion in Salim Karwan in #Kabul," tweeted TOLO News.

So far, no terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

More details are awaited.

In another incident on Tuesday morning, a vehicle carrying Abdul Wasi Rahimi, the acting police chief of Parwan, was targeted by an IED blast in the city of Charikar in Parwan province.

Security sources informed that no one was hurt in the explosion.

"A vehicle carrying Abdul Wasi Rahimi, the acting police chief of Parwan, was targeted by an IED blast in the city of Charikar in Parwan province this morning, security sources said, adding that no one was hurt in the explosion," reported TOLO News.

Meanwhile, four policemen were killed and three more wounded in a Taliban attack on an outpost in the city of Kunduz on Monday night. Fawzia Yaftali, a provincial council member reported the incident.

"Four policemen were killed and three more were wounded in a Taliban attack on an outpost in the city of #Kunduz on Monday night, said Fawzia Yaftali, a provincial council member," reported TOLO News.

Data from the Independent Human Rights Commission shows that in 2020 over 2,000 people were killed in incidents for which no one claimed responsibility, reported TOLO News.

Moreover, the US-Taliban deal, signed in Doha last year in February that calls for the full withdrawal of US forces from by the end of May, has resulted in an increase in violence.

Taking stock of the situation, US President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, earlier said that they are "taking a hard look" at how the Taliban is complying with its agreement with the US before deciding how to proceed, reported TOLO News.

(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.)
Among the reasons Aleksei Navalny has drawn a wide following across Russia is the acerbic wit he has employed in video blogs and lively reports documenting alleged corruption at the highest levels.

It was on full display during the February 2 proceedings that ended with a judge ordering him to serve 2 years and 8 months in prison -- with prosecutors, prison officials, and President Vladimir Putin as the foils.

In a roughly 30-minute speech given from the courtrooms glass-walled holding pen, Navalny cut into his main opponent, Putin, whom Navalny has repeatedly blamed for his near-fatal poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent in Siberia last summer. The poison was allegedly administered via his underpants, by a secret team from the Federal Security Service -- an accusation the Kremlin has dismissed despite evidence.

Murder is the only way he knows how to fight. Hell go down in history as nothing but a poisoner, Navalny said, as he then cited some of Russias most famous rulers.

LISTEN To Excerpts Of Navalny's Speech In Court

We all remember Aleksandr the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise. Well, now well have Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants, he said.

The quip was in keeping with the sometimes absurd atmosphere of the proceedings -- and the outlandish air of the entire saga surrounding Navalnys ordeals in confrontation with the Russian state.

Navalny has been convicted twice on what he calls fabricated fraud charges; he has run for public office; he has pioneered a system of alternative voting; he has tamped down his nationalist and xenophobic rhetoric. Most of all, he has vexed the Kremlin with searing documentary investigations linking opulent homes, lavish lifestyles, and bling with some of Putins closest advisers and friends.

Putin has made his own contributions to the sense of absurdity, both by refusing to even utter Navalnys name -- referring to him as the patient in Berlin among other things, and dismissing him with wording like Who needs him? even as observers say the Kremlin clearly sees him as a threat.

And amid the gravity of the Moscow City Court hearing, the underpants jibe was in line with the strange narrative arc of Navalnys case.

The hearing also seemed rooted in a history of Russian and Soviet court proceedings that have veered into the theater of the absurd -- the most famous being the 1964 trial of poet Joseph Brodsky, where a Soviet judge asked him, Who has enrolled you in the ranks of poets? Brodsky retorted: No one. Who enrolled me in the ranks of the human race?

Here are some notable moments from the proceedings on February 2, both inside the court and out:

'How About I Was In A Coma?'

Midway through the morning session, Navalny was allowed to cross-examine the representative of Russias federal prison authority, which had asked the court to change Navalnys suspended sentence from a controversial financial-crimes conviction into a 3 1/2 year prison sentence.

Among the arguments cited by the prison service and prosecutors for changing Navalnys sentence was the claim that he failed to notify the prisons probation office of his whereabouts when he was undergoing treatment in Germany after the August 20 poisoning with a Novichok-like substance.

Can you explain to me what I was supposed to be doing better in terms of notifying you where I was? Navalny asked the prison representative.

You were obligated to provide documents and provide proper explanations for not attending probation meetings, the official responded.

How about I was in a coma? Navalny said. Then I was in intensive care. I provided medical documents. You had my place of residence and contact information.

That drew a rapier-sharp tweet from Navalnys top ally, Lyubov Sobol, invoking the 2010 science-fiction thriller Inception, in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays a man who steals information from people by entering their dreams.

So youre saying I need to go into Navalnys coma and deliver a notice from him to the prison service? the tweet shows DiCaprios character saying.

'Psychological Pressure'

The saga surrounding Navalny -- his corruption investigations, the court cases, his poisoning, his dramatic return to Russia and airport arrest, the bombshell documentary on Putins Palace, the protests, the crackdown -- has resonated well beyond Russias borders.

In the eyes of a growing number of foreign governments, his case has also turned into a litmus test for the Putin government and how it deals with the growing political threat posed by Navalny.

Britain, the European Union, the United States, and others have criticized the heavy police crackdown on Russian protesters who have taken to the streets for two straight weekends at Navalnys behest.

And diplomats from about 20 countries attended the hearing at Moscow City Court. International conventions typically allow foreign diplomats to attend another countrys court proceedings regardless of whether the defendant is a citizen of the diplomats country or not. It is also common practice for foreign diplomats to attend key hearings in high-profile trials that touch on issues such as human rights.

Still, the presence of so many Western diplomats apparently irked Russias Foreign Ministry, whose acerbic spokeswoman suggested without evidence that their presence was a plot to influence the Russian judge.

This is no longer just interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. It is the self-exposure of the unsightly and illegal role of the collective West in its attempt to contain Russia, she wrote in a post to Facebook. Or is it an attempt to put psychological pressure on the judge?

More Detentions

On January 31, tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets for the second straight weekend to call for Navalnys release from pretrial detention and voice their anger about the high-level corruption he has worked to expose. Police and security forces cracked down hard, wielding truncheons and electric shock batons and detaining some 5,700 people.

Two days later, the detentions continued outside the heavily guarded Moscow City Court courthouse, with more than 350 people hauled away, according to the monitoring group OVD-Info.

Reporters and those being detained noted that in addition to phalanxes of riot police from various Interior Ministry units, there were also police who sought to obscure their badges, or identifying insignias, using what appeared to be belts from their uniforms.

Journalists and activists also reported that police appeared to be detaining passersby without clear explanation: one person was shown being arrested entering a convenience store; social media showed at least two men walking along a snowy sidewalk, apparently near the courthouse, and being approached by helmeted riot police who grabbed them and forcibly marched them away.

Where Do You Live?

Prosecutors cross-examination of Navalny handed him several opportunities to brandish the wit that has helped make him Putins most prominent foe.



As officials sought to pin him down on his exact physical location, Navalny again expressed incredulity at the Federal Prison Services assertion that they could not locate him.

Youre saying that you didnt know where I was even though the president said, on live television, that I was getting treatment in Germany, Navalny said.

"I fell into a coma, they sent you all the documents about my health and whereabouts. Then I got on a plane and flew out. What else could I do? You say that you came to my house, but I was not there. Of course, I was not there. What else could I do? he said.

Putin did in fact take credit for allowing Navalny to be flown from Siberia to Germany after his poisoning -- even as he belittled him in an annual press conference on December 17: "Regarding the patient in the Berlin clinic...this does not mean at all that he must have been poisoned, Putin said. Who cares about him anyway? His wife appealed to me, and I gave the green light to have him treated in Germany."

And the judge presiding over the hearing, Natalya Repnikova, also prompted a wry retort when she asked, at the opening of the hearing, where he currently resided.

Now? In Detention Center No. 1," he said -- a reference to the notorious Moscow jail known also as Matrosskaya Tishina.

Hold The Fries?

At the conclusion of the morning session, the judge called for a two-hour break, apparently for lunch. Navalny, who earlier said he had been at the court since 7 a.m., clearly was hungry.

Is it possible to send someone out to McDonalds? he asked his lawyers.
Buhari, Osoba, Obi, Dania of Auchi, Agba, Ibori, Sanwo-Olu, Amaechi, others mourn

ELDER Statesman, media czar, lawyer and politician, Prince Tony Momoh, yesterday, passed on exactly 85 days to his 82nd birthday.

Born on April 27, 1939 in Auchi, Edo State as the 165th child of King Momoh I of Auchi, Prince Momoh was vivacious and full of life when he granted his last interview to Vanguard on January 20, 2021.

Confirming his death, his son, Abdulrasheed Momoh, said he died in a private hospital in Abuja, yesterday afternoon.

"Daddy has been ill for some time due to old age. He died some hours ago in a private hospital in Abuja. I am in Lagos now. I will go to Abuja tomorrow, " he told Vanguard on phone at 7.15 pm, yesterday.

The death of Prince Momoh, who left indelible marks in journalism, law, administration and political strategy elicited eulogies, yesterday, from some eminent Nigerians.

President Muhammadu Buhari expressed grief at the passing of his long time ally, friend, political loyalist.

President Buhari said Prince Momoh stood with him through thick and thin, adding: "His brand of loyalty is very rare in the politics of today. I will greatly miss him."

The President, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina, recalled that as chairman, Media and Publicity of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) Campaign Organisation in the 2003 and 2007 elections as well as Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the late Auchi Prince contributed in no small measure to the growth and strengthening of the organizations, leading to the eventual formation of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

President Buhari commiserated with the media industry on the loss of a veteran, who put in a lot to raise the bar of the profession in various ways as editor, manager, administrator, President and Trustee of the Guild of Editors, urging them to sustain his legacies.

He also condoled with the Auchi Kingdom, the government and people of Edo State on this great loss, the President prayed that God will grant the departed eternal rest and comfort family, friends and political associates in this period of grief.

Osoba, Obi, Dania of Auchi, Agba, Ibori, Sanwo-- Olu, Amaechi, others mourn

Former Governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, said Prince Momoh would be sorely missed in the Media profession.

His words: "Prince Momoh was truly a princely journalist. He was a powerful member of the intellectual wing of the profession. He brought deep thoughts and serious mindedness into the profession. He was nicknamed lawyer-journalist by late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and he lived up to it. He left an indelible mark in the media. God bless his soul."

Also, former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, described Prince Tony Momoh as a renowned Journalist who was committed to the good of the country.

Mr. Obi prayed God to grant him eternal rest, and called for the continued deepening of the ethos of journalism through looking up to the legacies of men such as Prince Momoh.

The Dania of Auchi Kingdom, Alhaji Usman Abudah; and Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba yesterday described the death of Prince Tony Momoh as a big loss to the country and Edo State.

The Dania of Auchi Sacred kingdom, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State where Prince Momoh hailed from, Alhaji Usman Abudah, described his death as "a big loss. It is a loss to the Ikelebe dynasty of Auchi, it is a loss to Edo State. He was a self-made man, his yes was his yes, he will never look into any matter because you are his relation, he will give verdict on any issue how he sees it. He was the second of the mother's three sons for Momoh I."

According to Abudah, who Momoh's cousin, the deceased attended Government School, Auchi from where he proceeded to Abudu Grade III Teacher's College from there he went to Government Teachers College in Abraka, present day Delta State.

Dennis Idahosa, Member Representing Ovia Federal Constituency, Edo state expressed shock and sadness over the death of Prince Tony Momoh, describing it as a huge loss to Edo and the nation at large.

The member representing Ovia Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives in a statement by his Media Aide, Friday Aghedo described Momoh as an accomplished journalist, politician and patriotic Nigerian.

Former President of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, Comrade Peter Esele, said: "It was a big loss to Nigeria and Edo in particular. A worthy son of Edo, he contributed so much to everything he found himself doing. He was well known in the media and politics. Whatever he touched became gold. He will be greatly missed, and I pray God grants the family d fortitude to bear his demise."

Former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori said that with the passing of Prince Tony Momoh, Nigeria has lost a remarkable elder statesman - a renowned journalist, the first Chairman, Board of Directors of the Independent Newspapers Ltd (INL), an eminent public servant, a totally detribalised Nigerian, and a pillar of the APC, who nevertheless, had a rewarding relationship with members of the other political parties.

Chief Ibori said: "Though Prince Tony Momoh and I were never in the same party all through, he was civilized enough to respect the boundaries of friendship.".

Ibori recalled that he and the late Prince Momoh had a rewarding friendship that lasted for decades. This bond became stronger when Prince Momoh graciously served as the first Chairman, Board of Directors of the Independent Newspapers Ltd (INL). He said that in that capacity, Tony Momoh's professionalism was on display as he reached into the great depths of his experience and journalism prowess to help give birth to an exciting newspaper stable which introduced many novel features into Nigerian journalism.

Chief Ibori condoled Tony Momoh's family and the Auchi Ruling House for this pronounced loss and prayed that God will give them the fortitude to bear this loss and grant Momoh's soul eternal rest.

Momoh's services impacted on Nigeria's devt - Amaechi

Also speaking, Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, described late Momoh as a Nigerian compatriot and colossus whose services impacted national development especially in journalism. According to Amaechi: "It is sad to witness the death of such a colossus and a literary giant especially in journalism. He is a Nigerian patriot whose services impacted on the development of the nation. May God give his family the fortitude to bear this irreplaceable loss."

It's a colossal loss to Nigeria, says Sanwo-Olu

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu described the death of Prince Tony Momoh, as a colossal loss to Nigeria and the ruling APC.

Sanwo-Olu in a condolence message by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Gboyega Akosile, said the death of the elder statesman, politician and journalist was painful and heartbreaking.

The governor urged family, friends and colleagues of the deceased as well as leadership of the APC to work towards immortalising the late Momoh, saying what he stood for and advocated during his lifetime was a better Nigeria.

He said: "The death of Prince Tony Momoh is a great loss to Nigeria. The late Momoh made lots of positive impact in Nigeria during his life time as a journalist, media manager, lawyer, politician and elder statesman.

"As Minister of Information and Culture between 1986 and 1990 during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, Prince Momoh served his nation meritoriously.

"As a democrat, he played active roles in the formation of various political platforms at the transition stage of Nigeria from military dictatorship to civilian rule. He led his former party, the CPC to form the APC with other political Parties and contributed positively to the party's victories in the 2015 and 2019 general elections.

"I sympathise with President Muhammadu Buhari, the entire leadership and members of our party.

I also commiserate with Government and people of Edo State on the loss of their illustrious son.

"I pray that God will grant him eternal rest and give the immediate family and friends the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss."

His footprints on sands of time

Momoh attended Government School Auchi (1949-1954) and Anglican School Okpe (1954).He was Pupil Teacher at the Anglican School, Auchi (January-December 1955) and Headmaster at the Anglican School, Ubuneke, Ivbiaro, Owan Local Government (January 1958 - December 1959).He went to the Provincial Teachers Training College, Abudu, Edo State and Government Teachers College, Abraka in Western Region (1960-1961).

Later, while working at the Daily Times or on sabbatical, he attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (September 1964 - October 1966) where he earned a degree in Mass communication, and then the University of Lagos where he studied Law. He attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos (October 1974 - May 1975), and was called to the bar in June 1975

Momoh started his journalism career as a sub-editor at the Daily Times in October 1962, rising steadily through the ranks to become Editor and deputy general manager (June 1976 - May 1980).

Momoh was general manager of the Times from June 1984 to Sept 1986.

He was appointed Minister of Information and Culture by General Ibrahim Babangida, holding this position from September 1986 until 1990. He was Chairman of the African Conference of Information Ministers from 1988 to 1990.

Momoh was Chairman of the board of directors of Nigerian Airways from 1991 to 1993. He was appointed a member of the Edo State Economic Advisory Committee in 1991, and a member of the Nigerian Press Council in December 1992. For many years in the 1990s he was one of the directors of Newswatch magazine, said to have a circulation of 150,000 copies in Africa, Europe and North America at its peak

Momoh's battle for journalism

In 1981, according to Wikipedia, the Senate led by Joseph Wayas summoned Momoh for contempt. This caused a major legal battle in which Momoh successfully argued that as a journalist he was empowered by the constitution to hold government accountable at all times.

In Tony Momoh v. Speaker, House of Representatives (1982) it was held that a person had the right to refuse to disclose their source of information.

However, in Senate v. Tony Momoh (1983) the Court of Appeals held that the press is not a fourth arm of government. A newspaper publisher has no special immunity and the press can be ordered to disclose its sources in some cases.

Momoh the political strategist

The late elder statesman also made his mark in politics where played at the very top. He was one of the foundingmembers of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and director of the Alex Ekwueme Presidential Campaign Organization in1999.

He chaired the screening committee and conducted the PDP Governorship and State House of Assembly primaries in Kano for the 1999 general elections.

Following the 'maltreatment' of Ekwueme and other issues, Momoh left the PDP for then main opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, as the 2003 general polls approached. He teamed up General Muhammadu Buhari.

He was chairman, Media and Publicity of the ANPP Campaign Organisation in the 2003 and 2007 elections that fought Buhari's presidential election battles.. He was also chairman of the Political Committee of the Muhammadu Buhari Organisation.

In January 2011, Prince Momoh was appointed chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, in the lead-up to the April 2011 national elections, with Malam Buba Galadima as national secretary. This was the platform on which Major General Buhari sought the presidency for the third time in a roll.

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Following Buhari's loss at the April 2011 elections, Momoh asserted that massive rigging had taken place. However, he described the CPC as a mass movement that was bound to grow and achieve the high goals of its founders.

Indeed, the CPC merged with ANPP, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, to form the All Progressives Congress, APC in 2014. the party fielded Buhari as its presidential standard bearer and went on to win the 2015 election. It was the first time that an opposition party would beat the ruling party in a presidential election in Nigeria. Prince Momoh was one of those who led the campaign for Buhari

How to save Nigeria - Momoh

In his last interview with Vanguard, published last Saturday, Prince Momoh, who said the APC had lived up expectation since coming to power in 2015, called for the reduction of the 93 items on the Exclusive List handled by the Federal Government to 24 to quicken the nation's development.

His words: "Although Police is supposed to be central, even now people (states) are attempting to have their own secure network. So, we must de-congest the political space by reducing the powers at the centre which are 93. The federal government oversees 93 areas of laws that have been made by the National Assembly. We have to reduce them to less than 24. That is how Federations work.

"A federation is not a centralised government. We are running a centralised government in the name of a Federation in Nigeria. Where you have regional governments as we had in the First Republic which had powers and part-time legislature, now everything is a full time, it cannot work.

"We must look back, have one lawmaking arm at the Centre because that is what we need now and lawmakers will be part-time. Then perhaps, in the regions or so, we have a Parliamentary system because in the states, for now, only the governor is elected, the deputy governor is a spare tyre. The governor has all the money coming to the state, he pockets it and decides what to do with it. But if we have a Parliamentary system in the states, for instance, the majority would form a government and execute the programmes of the zones. So, we have six federating units that the powers at the Centre would go to and then the regions can make arrangements for security like Amotekun.

"If you have Amotekun in six zones, within six months there won't be kidnapping, there won't be banditry. What we have now is that our federal government is struggling with activities it cannot supervise or even effectively monitor. Until we have the will power to de-congest the political space, I do not think Nigeria can work."

Vanguard News Nigeria
He demanded, I think by contract, that no one could look at him.



Sounds like he's doing them all a favor to me.







Jokes aside, Did the director do anything? (probs not, but yanno)

Will the people who flip their fandom on for this man for some reason come through with "He has ANXIETY"?

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It's Terry "white men are victimised" Gilliam. He probably thought it was okay for Adam to act like that towards others.

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The director is Terry Gilliam, so he probably actually encouraged the men to be awful.

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this is such a psychotic thing to ask of people...like these celebs who go to restaurants and salons etc. they are so f*cking deluded

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Apparently his "aggression" was jumping out of his chair in a scene and it bumped hers. She clarified: https://twitter.com/AdamDriverFiles/status/1357070454696026114

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Honestly what is it with famous narcissistic people and you can't look me in the eyes?? They're all assholes. And so many productions enable these behaviours. It's so messed up. Esp for a nobody like him..... disgusting.



Expose them all.

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IKR? I don't get it. It seems such like a frequent request.



Which reminds me, there was this one story on one those Vh1 shows, and I guess Prince sent out a letter from his team to everyone who was to be sitting near him at the AMAs where it was just basically like, "don't make eye contact with him", and one of those people was Weird Al. So Weird Al sent out his own thing where he asked Prince to also not look him in the eye, lol.

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Good an Al lmao Prince was a creep. Fuck him.

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nnnnn dont look me in the eye either, you fuck!

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Prince is always so highly regarded and while I loved his music and when he kicked Kim off the stage, guy is an asshole. and Weird Al continues to be awesome ;)

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LOL i love Weird Al DEARLY for this

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Al is such a treasure lmfao

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I feel like it's gotta be an insecurity thing where they don't wanna be vulnerable to strangers offscreen, or a massive ego thing where they feel like "lessers" should never deem to connect at their level.

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I mean sometimes eye contact is uncomfortable and you feel like a freak when someone looks at you.......

HOOOWWEVER, ADAM! And everyone else 



Theres a way to be gracious about it.....a way to get the message across while maintaining your social skills.



Obviously  this scenario Lidia told us doesnt apply to what I typed. Hes just an ego maniac who doesnt care about being appropriate and unprofessional.



And did I read that right  shes 78!

HOW DARE HE (yes any age- but imagine being berated by some 17 year old while youre in your late 30s early 40s..)



FUCK HIM!





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when i was volunteering for fifa wwc there was one team we weren't allowed to look at at all. so stupid.

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That is the stupid shit to me. Put a blindfold on and solve all of our problems tbh

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The eye contact thing goes back to old Hollywood. It was common with big stars like Joan Crawford. They claimed that when they were on set they didn't want to be distracted and get pulled out of character by needing to see/greet everyone they came in contact with.



It's real diva behavior but that was the original thinking.

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I would assume they're famous, they're constantly being looked at, and want to control that when they can. But doesn't make it any less of an absurd and ridiculous demand to make.

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it honestly reminds me of:





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knew this day would come eventually, white men do nothing but disappoint :/

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thanks for wasting my time!!!

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prompto in your icon there however remains flawless and has never done a thing wrong in his life



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May you never have a fav again







Jk lol Im sorry sis <3

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never love anything!!!!



j/k love women. they tend to disappoint on a less frequent schedule.

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It's true. Girl we knew the risks.

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Liking any male celeb is just a countdown until the inevitable bad news drops! Goddamn it, Adam, we were (like four of us on ONTD) all rooting for you!

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we already knew he sucked. yall played yourselves defending him.





Edited at 2021-02-03 12:52 am (UTC)

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I'm most upset for John Oliver

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Ehhh, hang in there. Look at the evidence:



In 2 years, nobody else has come forward and said he behaved inappropriately. Certainly not the rampaging terror she suggests.



We already know he has focus issues and can be rude on set when people interrupt that focus. (We also know quite a lot of people say he's a delight when working on something, but we have to acknowledge that there's a range of responses.)



He might have hit/kicked a chair, but that's something he has said before--he was mad at Juilliard (at himself) and broke something. For that reason, I don't think him doing something to a chair is impossible, but I also think it is VERY unlikely it had anything to do with the lady.



All in all: The lady expects a more serene on-set experience. She's not wrong in that at all. But it sure sounds like she took his on-set anger more personally than she ought to do. And Adam needs to work on ways to release his anger/irritation. (He partially founded AITAF as a way of expressing emotions that were otherwise coming out in anger, I remember.)



Also, for the record, she first made this claim a year ago and absolutely nobody spoke out to confirm/back up/elaborate on her story. Again, I don't think she's making things up, but I think that points to the fact the story's a non-starter from the perspectives of others around AD at the time.





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2021 is the year of destroying white faves and honestly i'm loving it

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I'm reacting positively to this post but whoo boy I hope this does not affect the 1.7 white people I do like.

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Lmao same honestly

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not 1.7! 

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I'm curious about who the 0.7 is

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LMAOOOOOO I only have Dolly left and if she starts acting up I'm gone with the whites. end of

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LMAOOO this is killing my sides with laughter because its true 

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At this point liking White people feels a lot like Lucky with the football, every time you think there's a good one they turn around and say/support/or do something stupid or racist.

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I absolutely believe this. He is a massive douche.

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sounds on brand -- isnt this like the 100th story about his shitty behaviors BTS?

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I've only heard the one where he said he used to make people cry when he was a Julliard. what is the chisme on the others?

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Edit: found a good write-up of that situation and Fresh Airs confusion about it.



Edited at 2021-02-03 01:15 am (UTC) I remember him storming out of an interview with Terry Gross back in 2019 because he didnt like that she asked him to listen back to scenes of his movies. She (or the Fresh Air team) stated later that they have plenty of experience with actors disliking doing that and that she always offers that they can just take off their headphones if theyre uncomfortable with those bits but apparently that wasnt a reasonable compromise for Driver.Edit: found a good write-up of that situation and Fresh Airs confusion about it. https://www.google.de/amp/s/variety.com/2019/film/news/adam-driver-npr-fresh-air-interview-1203445542/amp/

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I'm weary of anyone who has or is in the military. A lot of them tend to be massive narcissists in real life.

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I'm shocked that a man who said he wanted to be in the military so he could kill people turned out to be a violent, entitled piece of shit

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Yep. Should've seen it coming smh 

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what in gods name

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He joined the military after 9/11 to get revenge on Muslims.

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holy shit I never knew that....fuck him, seriously yall.

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Get ready to be attacked by his crazy stans, that have a blind following of the US military.

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specifically muslims.

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I still remember folks defending that with "he was a young kid who was overcome with grief that his country was attacked!" Like and??? Still doesn't justify his reasoning

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where the fuck are those users that were defending this bullshit the last time this was brought up

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omfg

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someone who has a hard on for the military being a violent asshole? I am shocked.

man I remember his tragic stans trying to end John Boyega's career over jokes/misconstrued statements, wonder if they will keep the same energy now

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wonder if they will keep the same energy now

they will always have the energy to be racist and to attack Black people

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The type of people who went after Boyega, will always defend the straight white man.

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i actually think i got into a fight with someone here over that lol. his stans straight up spread fake screenshots!!

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I made the post here linking to lindsay romain's fuckery and she then deleted lmaooo

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This is the first time Ive heard of the Boyega incident and jfc people are so inherently racist. They seriously wanted to end the career of an actor who made one comment (that I gather from the other replies to this post here wasnt even offensive), but vehemently defend a white dude with a history of problematic behaviour?

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they're going at it on tumblr lol

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I will never understand the hate for Finn. He was such an interesting character in the first film. A defected Stormtrooper? And they did absolutely nothing with that? Not even when they had him actively fight against the family and friends he grew up with?

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My stanning of him had died down but I am now throwing him in the dumpster. Hes dead to me.

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Wasn't he the guy that stormed off a podcast because he was so angry the host played a clip he didn't want him to? And ONTD defended the fuck out of him like this kind of piss poor little mantrum isn't incredibly immature, childish and unprofessional??



Not fucking surprised.

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He said he hated watching/hearing himself act, the host or whoever gave him plenty of warning that they were going to play a clip from a movie, and he still stormed off like a dick. But then people defended him because everyone on the internet claims to have some sort of anxiety disorder.

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Ridiculous. Does he storm out of the building everytime a clip of him is played at award shows? Go to therapy and deal with your anxiety instead of screaming at people, firing them for looking at you and walking out of your professional engagements cause you're so upset at the thought of people looking at you or something.



Or, you know, don't be an actor! Where people looking at you is literally your entire job!!

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Dickhead didn't walk out during Oscars did he??

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This is the main thing I associate him with now. I guess it's too hard to just take your headphones off for a minute or just like... get the fuck over it and continue on like the overpaid professional you're supposed to be.

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I remember the post here about it. Hilarious.

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wasn't that on fresh air?!

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Yes! And so many people on ONTD made excuses for him and those of us that called him out were called insensitive and there were a gazillion comments along the lines of but, he has anxiety - it was a mess.

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I vaguely remember this what a POS

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still can't believe the way ppl defended him

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Terry gross is a known instigator during interviews... his team asked her not to play a certain clip she then played the clip so he left.

Feel free to google this actress making these claims. She is frequently in the press making up elaborate stories about her friends stealing all her money and leaving her penniless. Its insane.

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I wonder if his fans will just defend him by saying he has anxiety 

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I remember that incident (there was a post here) where he walked away from an interview with a senior and respected radio host/interviewer without saying nothing and people were defending his unprofessional behavior because he has 'anxiety'. He always gets a pass 

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What bs. There are many MANY people who have anxiety, including me, and they dont act unprofessionally like that. Hes just an entitled asshole. But hes white. Of course they roll out the mental illness excuse to justify his attitude. Ugh.

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I have anxiety, but it doesnt make me a dick.



Me being a dick is just a coincidence.

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Oh, I can practically see the tweet: "I, too, beat up a grandma when I have anxiety. Doesn't everyone?"







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I have anxiety (like all of the internet, I know, I know) and it makes me easily irritable, but I am aware that I still need to control my own reactions. Being stressed is one thing, but not taking it out on other people is something everybody needs to work on and there's no excuse for not doing that.

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Based on this and other incidents acting is not the best profession for him. This is not the first time he's behaved unprofessionally, and this field is bringing out all of his negative traits. Also: fuck you for hitting a 76 year old lady.

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Seriously. He doesn't want people to look at him or watch his own work so he's...an actor.

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He didn't hit her. The translation suggests he did something to a chair in her presence and she felt threatened by it, as if he were transferring his anger to the chair.



Definitely not great, but also definitely not hitting her.



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Sounds like he angrily kicked a chair.

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I hate Adam driver but this translation is also really confusing?

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What's confusing? I don't say that to be a smartass, bc I get translations can be odd. 'camouflaged with a chair' sounds like he was like pushing a chair into her to escape other people's notice.

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Mostly the "attack camouflaged as a chair" part??

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yeah, I don't understand exactly what she's saying happened.

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The correct translation is 'it was a hidden assault, with a chair' as in using the chair to assault her instead of his own body parts.

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I read a translation on Twitter with the interviewers parts and it sounds like he hurt her with a chair while they were filming but it wasnt meant to be part of the scene. So it was considered legal because it was camouflaged by the scene.

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Idk why feel like we knew about his violent behavior already.

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I'm sure it was all just method, we just don't understand.

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"And he poured himself into studying theater with unusual intensity, binge-watching old movies, or reading play after play in the library.



I think he thought other people werent as committed, said Richard Feldman, a professor at Juilliard.



Drivers hardcore personality continued in class when they were practicing a scene. He surprised his classmates, who werent used to the intense nature of his dedication to the art. I think I made a lot of people cry, Driver admitted. "

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Calm down sir

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for someone who looks like he fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch down and then fell into cow manure, he needs to calm the fuck down.

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every theater program has an insufferable student like this, but most don't become Hollywood stars

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Ugh.



I hate when actors mis-use and misinterpret method acting. They weaponize it and, especially for male actors (it's almost always male actors), it's a way of making the process of acting more "masculine" to people. I hate it. It creates an unhealthy work environment and there is almost no room for collaboration when actors use that type of method acting (that's the whole point of creating art like film and theatre for heaven's sake!).



That's why it's called acting in the first place.

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The claim is related to Tupytsky's suspension from office.

Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Oleksandr Tupytsky, has challenged in the Supreme Court the decree issued by President Volodymyr Zelensky on own dismissal from office.

That's according to the Supreme Court's press service.

"On February 1, the Administrative Court of Cassation that is part of the Supreme Court received a claim where the plaintiff appeals against the Decree of the President of Ukraine of December 29, 2020, No. 607/2020 'On the dismissal of a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine', from the moment of its adoption," the statement says.

Judging by the data published on the Sudova Vlada web portal, the plaintiff is CCU chief Judge Oleksandr Tupytsky, while President Volodymyr Zelensky is the defendant.

Read alsoPresident's Office: CCU statement defying Zelensky's decree "null and void"Tupitsky requests that the decree be declared unlawful and null.

Constitutional crisis in Ukraine: Background

On October 27, the Constitutional Court, on the motion of 47 MPs, adopted a decision repealing Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code, which had provided for liability for inaccurate declaration of assets by government officials.

The Constitutional Court also recognized unconstitutional the provisions of laws on the verification of e-declarations, and abolished the powers of the NACP to verify such declarations and identify conflict of interest.

President Volodymyr Zelensky tabled bill No. 4288 in parliament to terminate the powers of all Constitutional Court judges. The document states, in particular, that the decision of the Constitutional Court of October 27 is "null and void" (such that it does not create legal consequences) as such that was adopted by the Constitutional Court judges in conditions of a real conflict of interests." Zelensky proposes the termination of the powers of Constitutional Court judges, suggesting that actors authorized to appoint new judges immediately begin the competitive selection.

Head of the Constitutional Court Oleksandr Tupytsky claimed the president's proposals directly contradicted the Constitution.

The Venice Commission has acknowledged that the Constitutional Court's decision of October 27 "lacks clear reasoning, has no firm basis in international law, and was possibly tainted with a major procedural flaw  an unresolved question of a conflict of interest of some judges."

President Volodymyr Zelensky on December 29 suspended Oleksandr Tupytsky, Head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, for a period of two months.

On January 25, 2021, the Ambassadors of the G7 countries (the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan) in Ukraine have provided advice to the Ukrainian authorities on how to reform the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU) and conduct judicial reform in general.

On January 27, 2021, President Zelensky recalled from the Rada his bill No. 4288 on terminating the powers of Constitutional Court judges.

On January 28, Chairperson of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov has requested the Venice Commission's opinion on draft laws regarding the Constitutional Court reform.

Reporting by UNIAN
HAMBURG, Germany, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DIGITEC has appointed Peer Joost COO. In this newly-created role, Peer will bring his significant expertise to bear across DIGITEC's product portfolio, consisting of the D3 pricing engine for FX Swaps, NDFs and Forwards as well as the DIGITEC / 360T Swaps Data Feed (SDF). Peer will be responsible for all business operations, reporting directly to the CEO.

"I am thrilled about this new adventure and I'm looking forward to creating even more best-in-class products and services together with our outstanding team of experts here at DIGITEC. After two years of record growth, we have very ambitious goals for 2021 and a roadmap that is stronger than ever," commented Peer Joost.

Peer has held senior roles at DIGITEC over the past ten years. He successfully headed the sales department for the last four years, making DIGITEC's D3 the world-leading pricing engine for FX trading desks of over forty banking corporations. As the co-founder of the DIGITEC / 360T Swaps Data Feed (SDF), Peer has identified a significant gap in the market and has helped to bring a disruptive market data feed from idea to reality.

"Peer is a decisive manager who can handle complex issues to enhance businesses. He has shown a unique understanding of the emerging technologies and the digital needs that are reshaping the FX industry. We are thrilled to now have him on board as COO," adds CEO Hans-Jurgen Joost.

In 2021, DIGITEC will focus on expanding D3's customer base from tier 2 to tier 3 and regional banks, as Peer explains: "We're eager to also support smaller banks in becoming competitive market makers. With a bundle of D3 and the SDF, banks will have access to reliable, very granular and affordable swaps data and can enhance their market making capabilities with D3. DIGITEC's fully scalable SaaS solution furthermore simplifies setup, maintenance and costs for the customer."

About DIGITEC

DIGITEC is the company behind the world-leading Foreign Exchange and Money Market pricing engine D3. Its customers are amongst the top 100 global acting banks, who run the software on a 24h basis in different trading centres globally. Furthermore, DIGITEC is equal partner of the Swaps market data product, the DIGITEC/360T Swaps Data Feed (SDF). The company is based in Hamburg, Germany. For more information, please visit https://www.digitec.de.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1429479/DIGITEC_COO_Peer_Joost.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1429480/DIGITEC_Logo.jpg

Media Contact:

Sibylle Helms

s.helms@digitec.de

+49-40-23776 185
WASHINGTON  House Democrats are mounting an effort to formally rebuke Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a newly elected Georgia Republican with a history of making racist remarks, embracing conspiracy theories and endorsing violence directed at Democrats.

Democrats have teed up action Wednesday to send a resolution to the House floor that would strip Greene of assignments on the House education and budget committees, if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., doesnt do so first.

It is my hope and expectation that Republicans will do the right thing and hold Rep. Greene accountable, and we will not need to consider this resolution, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. But we are prepared to do so if necessary.

Some Democrats have called for going further and expelling Greene from the House  an unlikely outcome that would require backing from Republicans, since expulsion requires a two-thirds vote. Another option is censure.

Democrats willingness to act against a member of the opposing party underscores their desire to confront far-right politicians, like Greene, who are closely aligned with some of former President Donald Trumps fringe supporters, including extremist groups that were involved in the violent Capitol insurrection. It also shines a light on the GOPs reluctance to punish Trump supporters in their ranks for fear of alienating some of the former presidents most ardent voters.

If Republicans wont police their own, the House must step in, said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who is sponsoring the measure to remove Greene from the committees.

In a tweet over the weekend, Greene sounded a defiant tone. She also said she had spoken to Trump and was grateful for his support.

I will never back down and will stand up against the never ending blood thirsty mob, she tweeted.

On Monday, she tweeted that Democrats, if they move forward, will come to regret the precedent they are setting, arguing that it would be used extensively against members on their side once we regain the majority after the 2022 elections.

Greenes views were in the spotlight even before she joined the House last month.

The Georgia Republican has expressed support for QAnon conspiracy theories, which focus on the debunked belief that top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking, Satan worship and cannibalism. Facebook videos surfaced last year showing shed expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views. Top Republicans denounced her at the time, hoping to block her from capturing the GOP nomination in her reliably red congressional district in northwest Georgia.

But after she won her primary, they largely accepted her.

In recent years, she liked Facebook posts that advocated violence against Democrats and the FBI. One suggested shooting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head. In response to a post raising the prospect of hanging former President Barack Obama, Greene responded that the stage is being set.

In an undated video posted online, Greene floated a conspiracy theory that falsely suggests that the 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas could have been a false flag operation to build support for gun control legislation.

How do you get avid gun owners and people that support the Second Amendment to give up their guns and go along with anti-gun legislation? Greene said in the video. You make them scared, you make them victims and you change their mindset and then possibly you can pass anti-gun legislation. Is that what happened in Las Vegas?

She also liked a Facebook post that challenged the veracity of a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Another video captured her confronting Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg.

After her election, she seized on Trumps false claims that the election was stolen and cheered on his supporters the day before the Capitol was stormed.

Its our 1776 moment! she posted on the conservative friendly social media platform Parler.

Last week, Pelosi pressed for House Republicans to take action against Greene.

Assigning her to the education committee, when she has mocked the killing of little children in Newtown, what could they be thinking, or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing? Pelosi said of Republican leaders. Its absolutely appalling.

McCarthy is supposed to meet privately with Greene this week. A spokesperson for the Republican leader declined to comment on Monday.

Although its not certain he will take action against Greene, McCarthy has punished members of the House Republican caucus before. Former Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was stripped of all his committee assignments after expressing support for white supremacists in 2019.

Wasserman Schultz acknowledged Monday that it had long been left up to leaders to remove members of Congress of their own party of their committee assignments. But she said Republicans reluctance to take action left Democrats with little choice.

Rep. Greenes appalling behavior both before her election and during her term has helped fuel domestic terrorism, endangered lives of her colleagues and brought shame on the entire House of Representatives, Wasserman Schultz said. Based on her actions and statements and her belligerent refusal to disavow them, she should not be permitted to participate in the important work of these two influential committees.

--The Associated Press

"Im thrilled to be joining a community that features so many big-picture thinkers driving innovation and change in the real estate industry" - Matt Avital

Matthew Avital, Founder & Principal of both Ascenda Capital and Ascenda Funding, has been accepted into the Forbes Real Estate Council, an invitation-only community for executives in the real estate industry. Matt was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.

Matt boasts extensive experience across all facets of real estate, having closed over $1 billion in transactions across acquisitions, development, and financing during his career. In 2018, Matt founded Ascenda Capital, a privately held real estate investment & development company focused on the strategic acquisition and development of market rate, affordable, and workforce housing multifamily properties throughout the country. Matt also founded Ascenda Funding, a lending platform focused on providing HUD financing to multifamily property owners nationwide.

We are honored to welcome Matt into the community, said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Real Estate Business Council. Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world.

As an accepted member of the Council, Matt will be invited to work with a professional editorial team to share his expert insights in original business articles on Forbes.com. It is an honor to have been accepted to the Forbes Real Estate Council, Matt said. Im thrilled to be joining a community that features so many big-picture thinkers driving innovation and change in the real estate industry. I am looking forward to using this platform to share the lessons Ive learned working across all facets of real estate during the last decade with the Forbes community.

About Ascenda Capital:

Ascenda Capital is a privately held real estate investment & development firm specializing in the strategic acquisition and development of market rate, affordable, and workforce housing multifamily assets nationwide. Since its inception in 2018, Ascenda Capital has been involved in the acquisition of over 2,700 multifamily units throughout the country, with a primary focus in California and Texas. The firm is also active in the ground-up development space. Ascenda Capital and its partners are among the first groups to bring the detached Build-to-Rent (BTR) asset class to California, with plans to bring both market-rate and Low-income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) BTR projects to market throughout Southern California. The firm is currently under construction for their first 172 units in Lancaster, CA with a development pipeline to bring over 1,000 affordable and market-rate units to market over the next two years.

About Ascenda Funding:

Ascenda Funding serves as the lending platform of Ascenda Capital. Ascenda Fundings primary lending niche is in HUD financing, although the firm also provides agency financing and bridge loans for select multifamily properties. The Ascenda Funding team leverages both their extensive collective experience as well as their deep-rooted industry connections to add value to their clients businesses and provide them with the best loan product for their financing needs. Since its inception, Ascenda Funding has processed over $750 million in HUD loans, making the firm one of the fastest growing HUD loan originators in the nation.
Marcus Bloom (pictured above) was a businessman before he joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Marcus Bloom was an unlikely spy. A bon viveur who followed a playboy lifestyle of swish apartments, expense accounts and beautiful women, he was far from the dashing, image of a secret agent.

He drove a pale blue convertible Delage classic car, an icon of French style, was often seen at the wheel sporting a white pilot's flying helmet, and owned a Great Dane called Sphinx.

In his mid-30s with a balding head, reddish moustache and a figure turned decidedly portly from the good life, he even struggled to enlist at the start of World War Two.

But his intelligence and ingenuity elevated him to the elite level of British spies risking their lives to disrupt and derail the Nazi war machine in France.

For almost a year he adopted the persona of French citizen Michel Boileau living near Toulouse while dodging German patrols to operate a prized radio set that relayed vital information between his Special Operations Executive (SOE) handlers and Resistance groups.

The Super Palace theatre in Battersea where a young Bloom was manager. He also managed a restaurant in Hove before being sent to Paris to run its burgeoning European operation

Bloom was instrumental in saving downed Allied airmen, took part in sabotage missions and supplied his French comrades with arms, money and information until he was betrayed, beaten up, tortured and then shipped to a notorious concentration camp.

Witness reports tell of him being dragged bloodied through the streets of Toulouse and being systematically beaten when transferred to a prison, in Paris.

He did not crack but was one of 104 agents  13 of them women  who were killed or executed in France.

Bloom in uniform. He was instrumental in saving downed Allied airmen and took part in sabotage missions

Every bit of Marcus Bloom's story is astonishing and it is only coming to full light now thanks to the research of historian Paul McCue and archivist Martin Sugarman, of the Association of Jewish Ex-servicemen and women (AJEX).

'He was an ebullient entrepreneur who, on the surface, would not have appeared ideal spy material but he hated Fascism and was prepared to stand up to it,' said McCue, an author and trustee of the Secret World War 2 Learning Network. 'His bravery was astounding and it is right that his story is being told.'

Bloom's family, which had Polish roots, had humble beginnings in London's East End but his father became a pioneer of mail order goods and they prospered and sent their four boys to private schools.

The second eldest, he stood out for his gregarious, enterprising character and was soon working in the family business, which had diversified into textiles and running a chain of cinemas, at a time when they were packed nightly. He enjoyed the profile of managing the Super Palace cinema in Battersea, London, and a restaurant in Hove before being sent to Paris to run its burgeoning European operation.

Bloom developed an interest in polo, shooting and mixed with aristocracy at Parisian racecourses and would have remained in France but for a business downturn and the start of WW2. He returned to England determined to enlist and utilise his French knowledge and contacts but was rebuffed.

Wanborough Manor, near Guildford, an SOE training base during WW2. Bloom joined an intake that was trained at the Elizabethan manor house

Nazi forces were storming across Europe and France was about to fall when his obvious potential was recognised but he still faced suspicion when he finally made it to the SOE training courses.

His lack of physical prowess was one thing but being Jewish marked him out for concern with one senior officer observing: 'Physical effort seems to come hard to this pink yid' while another described him as 'slightly Jewish in his outlook and appearance'.

Bloom joined an intake that was trained at Wanborough Manor, an Elizabethan manor house near Guildford that was requisitioned by the SOE. Other graduates were the agents Violette Szabo and Noor Inayat Khan, who were both executed at concentration camps.

Bloom's intelligence, resilience and easy charm lifted him above the petty discriminations which were more a symptom of ageing officer class attitudes than operational barriers.

The chateau home of Count Jean DAligny, who had hidden 35 tons of French military supplies on his estate, where the Gestapo captured Bloom after his network was betrayed

He was spirited into France by boat, landing near Marseille with fellow Jewish agent Captain Isidore Newman, a 28-year-old teacher from Hull, and they joined separated networks only meeting again just before their grisly deaths.

Codenamed BISHOP, he operated effectively, helping destroy an explosives factory and derail a supply train as well as coordinating the return of British airmen via Spain. He was based at the chateau home of Count Jean d'Aligny, who had hidden 35 tons of French military supplies on his estate, but was rounded up after being betrayed by a double agent.

Handcuffed to a Spanish member of his group, the pair leapt from a window of the chateau and escaped across country, crossing a river several times to throw pursuing dogs off their scent before attempting to contact a pro-Resistance gendarmerie 12 kilometres away only to be met by the Gestapo and they were re-arrested.

The notorious Mauthausen concentration camp, which was run by members of the SS Death's Head unit, near Linz in Austria, where Bloom met his death

Guards at Mauthausen. The Nazis were desperate to stamp out the growing Resistance movement which was causing huge impact and embarrassment

German officers walk up the Stairs of Death. Mauthausen was built next to a granite quarry where inmates were set to work, cracking rocks then carrying them up 180 narrow steps

Retribution was swift and brutal and Bloom was seen being led through the streets of Toulouse with a blooded face. His next stop was Fresnes Prison, in the heart of Paris, where he was regularly ferried to the Gestapo base at Avenue Foch for beatings and torture.

'He was badly beaten but appears to have given nothing away which is a very admirable thing,' adds McCue. 'He didn't give away any of his radio codes or security checks.

'He was very brave and held out under brutal interrogation. Bloom was an ordinary man who volunteered for a highly-dangerous role in the war, believing that his chances of survival were only 50:50. He had a love of France and a hatred of fascism and was prepared to stand up for his beliefs and risk his life for them.'

A memorial tablet to the Allied agents murdered at Mauthausen, with Bloom's name seen on the left, sixth from the top

The Nazis were desperate to stamp out the growing Resistance movement which, supported and supplied by SOE agents, was causing huge impact and embarrassment. Captured spies were tortured and then dispatched to concentration camps.

Bloom's French wife Germaine was able to visit him in Paris and provide some food and comfort during what would be his final days before he was moved to high security prison in Silesia and then, in a party of 47 Allied agents, to Mauthausen concentration camp, near Linz in Austria, which claimed 300,000 victims gassed, hanged, shot, drowned in huge water cisterns, clubbed or worked to death before it was liberated.

Mauthausen, which was run by members of the SS Death's Head unit, was built next to a granite quarry where inmates were set to work, cracking rocks then carrying them up 180 narrow, uneven steps, known as 'The Stairs of Death'.

Bloom, and 28-year-old Newman, arrived on September 5, 1944, and were kept for two days in a garage before having numbers 1 to 47 painted on their chests  the order in which they were to be executed. They were marched down to the quarry floor and told to pick up rocks and run up the stairs where they were shot in the back and officially recorded as 'killed while trying to escape'.

Bloom reportedly threw his rock at a guard and ran up the steps before being gunned down. His body was never recovered.

The pitiful scenes of hundreds of prisoners carrying heavy rocks up the 180 steps of the 'Stairs of Death' - 180 narrow, uneven steps

Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive, Holocaust Educational Trust says: 'It is so important to share these stories. Everyone should know the names of Lt Marcus Bloom and Captain Isidore Newman, two British heroes who fought the Nazis. They were brutally tortured and murdered at the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp.

'These stories shine a light on brave efforts of individuals in the most awful of times. This year, as we mark Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember the victims persecuted by the Nazis and those who survived, but we also pay tribute to those who stood against the darkness. The Holocaust is part of British history, a part of our national consciousness, and we should all know and remember these two names.'

Marcus Bloom is officially commemorated on the Brookwood Memorial near Woking, Surrey, and the Valencay memorial, a monument to SOE agents in France. He is also remembered on a plaque to the 47 murdered agents and on a private memorial erected by his family at Mauthausen.
The operation began before dawn  another precious consignment of Mail Force laptops that will transform the lives of yet more schoolchildren.

The computers were ready just before 6am yesterday and were on their way up the motorway from the depot in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, within the hour.

They were destined for a school in Manchester and by late morning were in the hands of their new owners  a group of delighted youngsters from Moston Fields Primary.

The delivery, courtesy of Mail Force and Mail readers, prompted one grateful mother to declare: God bless them.

Nearly half of the 450 children at Moston Fields are on free school meals and the national lockdown threatens to widen the digital divide between those pupils able to follow online classes and those falling further and further behind.

Delivered: Mail Force laptops in the hands of Moston Fields pupils and (back right) head Sarah Murray

The Government is helping, and yesterday 48 laptops from the Department for Education were dropped off at the school.

And, to the delight of teachers, a bonus consignment of Mail Force laptops  Microsoft Surface 2 Go devices with detachable screens  were added to the delivery.

Amy Cooke, who teaches nine to ten-year-olds, said: These laptops are going to change the childrens lives over the next couple of months.

The electrifying Mail Force campaign to get lockdown pupils online has raised more than 5million in its first week and been hailed by teachers and parents.

The charity  initially set up to get PPE to nurses and doctors last year  is now helping to tackle the peril of lost education.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates missed lessons will cost each child 40,000 in earnings on average over their lifetime.

5.45AM, BOXED AND READY TO GO: Another consignment of Mail Force laptops

6.30AM, EARLY START: It is still dark when the laptops leave the depot to meet their new young owners

Yesterday Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was more worried about the pandemics impact on childrens education than the economy.

He said: The economy, I think, can bounce back very, very strongly  the UK has immense natural resilience.

The thing that really concerns me at the moment is education and the deficit in our childrens education that we have run up as a result of these lockdowns.

The Daily Mails Computers for Kids campaign was launched to help the Government get laptops to lockdown schoolchildren as fast as possible.

At Moston Fields Primary, head Sarah Murray said: It will make a huge difference. There are a lot of families who do not have, or who have only one device.

We also have families whose only access to remote learning is by mobile phone, which can be problematic.

11.19AM, TIMELY: The precious consignment is unloaded at Moston Fields Primary...

... along with a delivery from the Department for Education

Miss Cooke, who is in charge of computer learning at Moston Fields, said: We sent an email out just a couple of weeks ago, asking teachers to speak with children and find out who needed a device. There were hundreds of replies.

The latest online donations to Mail Force include 100 in Six Nations sweepstake winnings from Gareth James and a pensioners superfluous winter fuel allowance.

Itll make all the difference

One of the first to get a device was the Brady household where screen time was being rationed because just one tablet is shared by Jess, eight, Paul, seven, and Paige, three.

Their mother Raynor Brady, 36, is leaving her own online needs until last.

12.05AM: One of the first to get a device was the Brady household where screen time was being rationed because just one tablet is shared by Jess, eight, Paul, seven, and Paige, three

She said: I have forfeited my right to my tablet because their education is so important. Having an extra computer will make all the difference.

Im trying to keep to a schedule but its hard for myself and a lot of parents. Id like to say a big thank you to all the people who donated to Mail Force.

Had to rely on a mobile

Half an hour after the Brady household received their device, Deborah Abolarinwa, 11, received her laptop.

She had been relying on a mobile phone to access her online lessons.

12.33PM: Half an hour after the Brady household received their device, Deborah Abolarinwa, 11, received her laptop

There is only one laptop in the house she shares with brother Rafael, 13, and mother Mercy Mensah, 45  who is studying a business management course.

In a message to Mail readers who have sent in donations, Mrs Mensah declared: I would say a big thank you  God bless them.

I want to say thank you!

Struggling with just a small touch screen on a smart phone is not the best way to connect with her online classes, admits Mercy Ezomo-Oghagbon  especially when her mother needs to borrow it.

1.36PM: Struggling with just a small touch screen on a smart phone is not the best way to connect with her online classes, admits Mercy Ezomo-Oghagbon

Mercy, 11, a Year 6 pupil at Moston Fields, said: I cant study so much at the moment. Now I am being given a laptop, it will make a difference.

Mercys mother, Eghosa, 42, said: To everyone who has given their support to the campaign, thank you.

Now we wont have to share

Last (but not least) to get his device was Luca, ten. He and brother Rocco, seven, have been having to share an iPad. Oldest sibling Charlie has his own PC.

2.03PM: Last (but not least) to get his device was Luca, ten. He and brother Rocco, seven, have been having to share an iPad. Oldest sibling Charlie has his own PC.

Their mother, Joanna Evans, 36, said: Its been hard especially because recently Luca has started having an extra video class each day.

Having the laptop will be great  itll be a lot easier because it will free up the iPad for Rocco and it means both boys can take part in all their lessons.
INVESTOR ALERT: Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP Investigates American Express Company's Directors and Officers for Breach of Fiduciary Duties - AXP

Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP ("Scott+Scott"), an international securities and consumer rights litigation firm, is investigating certain directors and officers of American Express (News - Alert) Company ("American Express") (NYSE: AXP) for breaching their fiduciary duties to American Express and its shareholders. If you are an American Express shareholder, you may contact attorney Joe Pettigrew for additional information toll-free at 844-818-6982 or jpettigrew@scott-scott.com.

Scott+Scott is investigating whethe American Express's board of directors or senior management failed to manage American Express in an acceptable manner, in breach of their fiduciary duties to American Express, and whether American Express has suffered damages as a result.







On January 7, 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that American Express was being investigated by the Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Reserve. The regulatory agencies are reportedly investigating aggressive and misleading sales tactics used by American Express to sell card products to business owners.

What You Can Do

If you are an American Express shareholder, you may have legal claims against American Express's directors and officers. If you wish to discuss this investigation, or have questions about this notice or your legal rights, please contact attorney Joe Pettigrew toll-free at 844-818-6982 or jpettigrew@scott-scott.com.

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Recently, a video surfaced showing a group of elderly people in Madhya Pradesh being mistreated by employees of the local municipal corporation, packed in a bus and dumped in the outskirts of Indore, on the Indore-Dewas highway. The video created a furore on social media. Netizens strongly reacted to the atrocities committed on the elderly and took to their social networking accounts to express their anger and discontentment.

Sonu has now come forward to extend a helping hand. In a video message, the actor urged everyone residing in Indore to join him in providing a safe space for the old.

In a video message, he said: "Yesterday, I had come across this piece of news where the elderly were ostracised from the city and dumped in the outskirts. I would like to urge my brothers and sisters from Indore to come together and work towards providing a roof over their heads. I want to give them their rights back. I would also like to distribute food and drinking water to them. All this will be difficult to achieve without your help. This should be a lesson to all the children out there who have left their aged parents. They should hold them close and take care of them. Dear citizens of Indore, let us come together and set an example so that the elderly are never left to feel lonely and helpless. I will try to give them their rights back. This should be a lesson to all the children out there who have left and ostracised their aged parents. They should hold them close and take care of them."

Sonu has also offered to build houses and arrange for food, water and other essential supplies for the affected elderly.

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Border inspection officers at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai stopped him from joining a flight to San Francisco last week, his elder sister and friends said. I must immediately get to the United States and pour all my energies into caring for her, Yang had written in an open letter to Chinese leaders a day before his planned flight. He wrote that his wife has given everything for me, and today its my turn to give everything for her.
There will be a lot to witness during the three-day event, which is Indias first hybrid air show, where delegates will be able to participate physically as well as virtually.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - Before the pandemic hit, mental health problems like depression and anxiety were on the rise in children between the age of 6 and 17, according to the CDC. That number only increased over the past year.

We all know students everywhere have gone through so many obstacles during the pandemic. Are they in school? Are they learning through the computer? Are they getting enough food? The list is endless, so of course it's taking a toll on some of the youngest minds. This week is National Child Mental Health Awareness week and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, wants to share the meaning behind it. Kids often times don't know how to comprehend their feelings and if they do, then they might not know how to share them. The executive director of NAMI Southeast Minnesota, Sean Kinsella, explained it's up to the adults to help guide them through that.

When children feel safe and trust who they're talking to, then they're more inclined to open up. It's also important to note that bringing up an issue with a young one won't necessarily enhance that issue. "Asking someone about their mental health will not trigger them to act in an irrational manner such as with attempting suicide," explained Kinsella. "So we encourage people to have those conversations because there's no correlation between the conversation and people having further mental health issues."

During the pandemic, children are reporting feeling more alone and isolated. However, many resources have been created to help them feel safe. "Students can really reach out to their school, their teacher and get connected with the school resources," Kinsella said. "The last one of course is always letting their friends know too. that can be a safe thing to do."

The CDC stated the earlier you address any mental health issues, the earlier you can help. If you think there's something more serious going on, you're urged to reach out to your child's pediatrician.
Planning permission for a new hotel in Dublin city centre has been refused by Dublin City Council over concerns about the overconcentration of hotels in the area.

The council said plans for a 142-bedroom hotel at the corner of Capel Street and Strand Street Little would exacerbate a situation where a large number of new hotels had been approved in the same neighbourhood in recent years with several others in the pipeline.

It is believed to be the first time council planners have cited concerns about the growing number of hotel developments in parts of the city as a reason to refuse planning permission for a new hotel project.

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It follows a surge in applications for planning permission to develop new hotels and extend existing ones in Dublin in recent years in response to a shortage of visitor accommodation for record numbers of international and domestic tourists to the city.

The council said the plans for the nine-storey hotel by Ringline Investments would undermine the vision of the Dublin City Development Plan for a dynamic mix of uses within the city centre and exacerbate the existing saturation of hotel rooms within the immediate vicinity.

Council planners noted that eight other applications to build hotels and aparthotels providing a total of 1,985 bedrooms had been granted planning permission within 350 metres of Ringlines site since 2017.

Another two hotel projects which would provide an additional 163 bedrooms are also currently in the planning process. They include plans for a 98-bedroom hotel by Northern Ireland hotel group, Beannchor on the site of the former Bolands factory off Capel Street.

The council contended there is now an overconcentration of hotels in the area which could fundamentally undermine the mixed-use ethos and vision for this portion of the city centre as well as impact on efforts to create a sense of community.

While more than 2,150 extra bedrooms could be added in that part of the city in the space of a few years, the council said the provision of new housing in the same area had not kept pace with hotel development.

It also refused Ringlines application on grounds that it would result in the loss of existing and potential residential development as well as its excessive height.

The council has refused planning permission for a number of hotel projects in the capital in recent years but the grounds for refusal have mostly related to height, inappropriate design and the loss of residential units.

In 2019, councillors passed a motion seeking a change to the city development plan to limit the number of hotels in Dublin due to the housing shortage in the capital.

However, the measure was resisted by council management who said limiting hotels would leave the council open to legal action.

A major policy of the council under the existing development plan is to promote tourism in Dublin through supporting the provision of a necessary, significant increase in facilities like hotels and aparthotels.

Twelve months ago, it was estimated that 100 new hotel or aparthotel projects were either under construction in the capital or in the planning process with a further 49 extensions of existing ones which would provide an additional 15,000 rooms to the existing stock of 18,000 rooms provided by 250 hotels already in operation.

However, a subsequent report by commercial real estate agency, Savills, last May revised its forecast for the provision of new hotel bedrooms in Dublin up to the end of 2022 downwards by 32pc to 4,057 from 5,926 because of the impact of Covid-19.

Ringline, which is one-third owned by a company linked to Adrian Rezmerita, the owner of Polonez, a chain of supermarkets specialising in Polish and eastern European food, said its proposed hotel was due to be operated by the Accor hotel chain under its new Tribe brand.

The company claimed there was still a need for new hotel developments on the northside of Dublin notwithstanding the impact of Covid-19.

While Ringline acknowledged that a number of other hotels had already been approved for the same area in recent years, it argued the figures were coming from a relatively low base.

The future of the development will rest with An Bord Pleanala as the company has lodged an appeal in a bid to reverse the councils decision.

Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 00:10:12|Editor: huaxia

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WINDHOEK, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Funds from the intended auction of 170 Namibian elephants will be deposited in country's Game Product Trust Fund (GPTF) for use on wildlife conservation and rural development projects, an official said Monday.

These include projects of wildlife crime prevention and law enforcement, protected area management and human-wildlife conflict mitigation measures including the provision of alternative water points for elephants to prevent them from using community ones, said Teofilus Nghitila, executive director of Namibia's Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.

"The GPTF is a mechanism to ensure that revenue realized from the sale of wildlife products is used for wildlife conservation, communal conservation and rural development programs aimed at harmonizing the co-existence of human and wildlife, thus securing a future for wildlife outside and within protected areas in Namibia," he said.

According to Nghitila, Namibia's elephant population is a healthy and growing population.

"The 170 off-take is extremely conservative. This is well below sustainable off-take levels, and the population continues to grow and expand," he said, adding that the removal of the elephants will amount to less than 1 percent of the country's elephant population.

Furthermore, he said the intention is to remove around half of the elephants in four conflict hotspots only, and not to reduce the population in general.

"The elephants will not be removed from conservancies and national parks but from communal and commercial farming areas," he added after the ministry received a backlash from international media institutions, animal rights groups, individuals and self-proclaimed conservationists on the auction of the animals.

Meanwhile, he said Namibia is selling 170 elephants due to drought and increase in elephant numbers coupled with human-elephant conflict incidences.

"Besides the sale of elephants being based on scientific evidence, the ministry has also followed the legal procedures for the sale and tender procedures," he added. Enditem
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ordered an audit of the entire IT infrastructure of HDFC Bank through an external professional IT firm, the private lender said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

"..kindly note that RBI has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the Bank under Section 30 (1B) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (the Act"), at the cost of the Bank under Section 30 (1C) of the Act," the bank said in a statement to stock exchanges.

In December, the RBI had issued an order to HDFC Bank with regard to certain incidents of outages in the Internet banking, mobile banking and payment utilities of the bank over the past two years.

This included the recent outages in the banks Internet banking and payment system on November 21, 2020 due to a power failure in the primary data centre.

"The Bank shall accordingly extend its cooperation to the external professional IT firm so appointed by RBI for conducting the special IT audit as above," it said.

HDFC Bank's shares today hit a new high when they surged over 6% to 1565.

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NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Optimizely (formerly Episerver), the leading provider of digital experience platform solutions, today announced it is positioned in the Leaders quadrant of the January 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms.1 This announcement comes on the heels of the company's recent move to rebrand as Optimizely, timed with the launch of Optimization-as-a-Service, and its latest Headless CMS release.

The report evaluated 16 vendors, and Episerver (Optimizely) remained a Leader once again based on its ability to execute the DXP market through its Completeness of Vision. Recent acquisitions include Idio (November 2019) for advanced personalization  which is now part of Optimizely Intelligence Cloud  Insite Software (December 2019) for B2B Commerce  which is now part of Optimizely Commerce Cloud  as well as Optimizely (October 2020) for experience optimization which became the company's new name and brand image this year.

Optimizely's content management, digital commerce, personalization, and analytics capabilities allow the delivery and optimization of digital experiences across multi-experience customer journeys for 9,000 business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) organizations. Brands like eBay, KLM, Toyota and Santander, choose Optimizely's DXP, enabling them to provide the best digital experiences for customers, with the flexibility needed to map capabilities to desired business outcomes.

"Being named a Leader by Gartner for a second consecutive year is an honor and we believe it validates our purpose to empower people to unlock digital potential," Alex Atzberger, CEO of Optimizely. "Companies need to move from guesswork to a data-driven approach to achieve high ROI for their digital investment and content creation. At Optimizely, we remain focused on delivering the most modern Digital Experience Platform so marketers, developers, content editors and product teams can deliver outsized outcomes for their business."

Download the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms to learn more about Optimizely's Leader position.

[1] Gartner, "Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms," Irina Guseva, Mick MacComascaigh, Mike Lowndes, 27 January 2021.

Gartner Disclaimer:

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Optimizely

At Optimizely (Episerver), we're on a mission to help people unlock their digital potential. With our leading digital experience platform (DXP), we equip teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new and novel ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely's 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Toyota, Santander, eBay, KLM and Mazda, enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands. Learn more at optimizely.com.

Matthew Erickson

Sr. Manager of Global PR & Thought Leadership

[email protected]

SOURCE Episerver

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The Oyo State government has commenced the distribution of 5000 employment letters to the newly-recruited teachers under the state's Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) yesterday.

This was done after a long period of scrutiny and verification to correct all errors that might have been noticed during and after the conduct of examination and oral test for the exercise.

According to the chairman of Oyo State Teaching Service commission (TESCOM), Pastor Akinade Alamu, the government approved 5,000 appointment letters for distribution and 4,400 letters have been released by TESCOM, while the remaining were withheld due to certain errors on the part of the applicants.

He hinted that the errors include misspelt names as well as invalid emails among others, assuring those yet to receive theirs that the letters would be collected immediately after correction of errors by the applicants.

Pastor Alamu mentioned that the letters were sent to the centralixed zones in the 33 local government areas for collection in other to avoid overcrowding and to stick to the Covid-19 protocols.

He, therefore, implored the chosen candidates to resume immediately considering that the academic session has commenced.

"While congratulating the successful applicants, we want to appeal to those that are also successful but yet to get their letters to exercise patience."

"We discovered that 600 among the letters have errors that need to be rectified, that is already being sorted and corrected as we speak and will be distributed as well," Alamu said.

However the Permanent Secretary, TESCOM, Mrs Olabisi Oderinde congratulated the selected candidates for their patience despite several breaks in the process of the appointment due to Covid-19.

She, therefore, urged them to prepare to work diligently as this will bring the Governor's passion for education to reality.

The zonal heads also commended the present administration for regular positive responses on education policies in the state and promised their unwavering support towards education development in the state.
The purpose of promoting democracy should not be to promote democracy itself or gain political points, but to benefit the people of countries like Myanmar.

The situation in Myanmar presents the world a hot potato issue. The Biden administration demanded that the Myanmar military release those detained and threatened to re-impose sanctions on Myanmar. But the Biden administration has refrained from immediately using the word "coup" to describe the Myanmar military's actions as Britain has done, it waited until Tuesday to do so. This shows that the situation in Myanmar is a thorny issue for Washington.

Myanmar's neighboring countries, such as ASEAN member states and China, hold similar views - they hope all sides in Myanmar could be restrained and solve the crisis within the framework of the constitution and the law in a peaceful way. Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines said this is the "internal affairs" of Myanmar. Even Singapore, the closest with the West in ASEAN, did not follow the US and the UK and held similar views with other ASEAN countries.

The situation in Myanmar matters to regional peace and stability and the interests of its neighbors. They do not want to see a chaotic Myanmar, nor do they want to get involved in the internal conflicts of Myanmar. Asian countries recognize the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs, which has been practiced throughout the region, because this principle is the most realistic choice of Asian countries.

Western countries have been very aggressive, demanding directly that the Myanmar military take immediate action to reverse the situation, and their interference has become part of the situation in Myanmar. The battle between the Myanmar military and pressure from the West will be the main theme of Myanmar's situation for some time to come.

Myanmar's neighbors have not commented on Western involvement as well. Some Western public opinion complained that China and other countries haven't followed the attitude of the US and Europe. Such an accusation has gone too far. It is the equivalent of public opinion in Myanmar's neighboring countries complaining that the US and the Europe have not followed their lead in calling for restraint.

For neighboring countries, it is in everyone's interest to ensure that Myanmar is peaceful and stable, and that the country's legal and political framework can best support that vision. When the country is experiencing turbulence, we should not exacerbate the problem, but try to defuse it in a moderate way. This is what neighboring countries hope to see. It is a realistic attitude, full of goodwill and pragmatism.

Western countries are far away from Myanmar, and they are forcefully intervening by projecting their political influence. Whether they are doing it right or not needs to be tested by the effect. That is to say, their intervention should be conducive to promoting dialogue among all parties in Myanmar and peacefully resolving the crisis. It should not aggravate tensions or provoke more confrontation and turn the situation in Myanmar into a new deadlock. That outcome is clearly not what the Myanmar people and the region want to see.

The purpose of promoting democracy should not be to promote democracy itself or gain political points, but to benefit the people of countries like Myanmar. There must be internal reasons for what is happening in Myanmar, and the outside world needs to be patient and help it through the difficulties in a way that is least costly to Myanmar society.

This is the 21st century, not decades ago. Myanmar has gone through more than a decade of democratization. This time and effort cannot be cut off like an appendix. Monday's statement from the Myanmar military was informative, which is probably why the US did not immediately use the word "coup." We hope that the situation is not going to get worse, but that it will finally find a way out.

( Global Times Editorial)
Sick conmen are posing as a grieving widow with Down's Syndrome in a bid to try and swindle her social media followers out of cash - launching a fake fundraiser in her husband's memory.

Beloved Tommy Pilling lost his battle to Covid-19 on New Year's Day, aged 62 - leaving his doting wife Maryanne, 49, heartbroken.

The couple, from Shoebury, Essex, who both have Down's Syndrome, made history last summer when they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary - making them the longest-married couple of anyone with the condition.

But Tommy was admitted to Southend Hospital on December 10 with chest pains and pneumonia and contracted Covid-19 while he was there - sadly losing his battle just three weeks later, on January 1.

Conmen have set up a fake Instagram account to reportedly take cash from followers, posing as widow Maryanne Pilling, 49. Pictured: Maryanne with her husband Tommy

Tommy Pilling tragically lost his battle with Covid on New Year's Day after going into hospital before Christmas. Pictured: The couple on their wedding day in 1995 when they became the UK's first couple with Down's Syndrome to marry

And Maryanne's devastated family - who were also the only family that Tommy had - have been left 'disgusted' after coming across fake social media profiles on Instagram and Facebook, claiming to be raising cash in memory of Tommy.

The couple have almost 75,000 followers on their official Facebook page and almost 6,000 followers on Instagram - with 265 pictures and videos posted on their Instagram account.

But the fake profile, which is private, has just 11 posts, and 35 followers.

The biography of the fake account reads: 'NEW ACCOUNT. Maryanne & Tommy are UK's first & currently the worlds longest married couple with #downsyndrome. Married for 25 years...'

Maryanne's sister, Lindi Newman, 33, took to Facebook and Instagram to slam the fraudsters, who are allegedly messaging their followers asking for money in Tommy's memory.

Maryanne's family are said to be devastated by the social media account which poses as the 49-year-old widow

She wrote: 'Some people are really sick. A fake Instagram account has been made in Maryanne and Tom's name. They are messaging people asking for money.

'Thank you to all their loyal followers for letting us know.'

In a later post, Lindi added: 'The fake Instagram profile is called Maryannne&tommy with a lower case t. Their genuine one is: Maryanne&Tommy.

'It also does not have any videos that will play because they are screenshots and not the original file. All pictures were added two days ago.

'Their genuine Instagram account was started on the 16th February 2018, has 265 posts and 5,832 followers.

'They are messaging people asking for money. We would NEVER ask you guys for money.'

The couple, from Shoebury, Essex, who both have Down's Syndrome, made history last summer when they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary

They are believed to be the longest-married couple of anyone with the condition

And, speaking to a local paper, Lindi said: 'It's so awful - they've now blocked us so we can't see what they are doing and I think it's an attempt to cover it up.

'Lots of people have reported the fake accounts but they are so similar and I am concerned people will not know the difference.

'We had about 50 messages from people who were contacted by these people and they were asking us if it was true.

'They would have never asked for money like this and anything that was donated went to homeless charities or organisations.'

She added: 'It's disgusting that people have seen his passing as an opportunity. It's only just a month since he died and we've got enough to deal with without all this too.

'I just hope their followers do not stop supporting them, but I do not think anyone has given any money and most people knew it was a scam.

Maryanne's sister Lindi told her local paper that the Instagram page had now blocked the family so they are unable to see what they are posting

Her sister said the family would never ask their followers for money and branded the conmen as 'really sick'

'Their real social media accounts were never about this but are about sharing their story.'

In early December, Tommy tripped in the bathroom at his flat he shared with Maryanne and hit his head.

At Southend General Hospital he was examined and discharged but, four days later, on December 10, he complained of chest pains and was admitted to the wards.

It later came as some consolation that the family had encouraged Tommy and Maryanne to open the Christmas presents theyd bought for one another (Elvis memorabilia from her, perfume and a necklace from him) a few hours before the ambulance arrived.

By then, Tommy had undergone two Covid tests at the hospital, and both were negative. After a week, he had a third, which was positive.

For a 62-year-old man with Downs Syndrome, Alzheimers and a chest infection, the outlook was grave.

He was transferred to Thurrock Community Hospital, where Maryanne saw him for the last time through that frosted window, then to Basildon University Hospital where, on New Years Day, he died.

Lindi said that her sister is 'not coping well at all' since her husband passed away.

Writing on Facebook, she said: 'She is having terrible dreams at night which she finds confusing, she says Tommy comes back to her, talks to her and hugs her.

'She talks to him whenever she is alone, she sings to him and says prayers.

'It is truly heartbreaking, our poor mum is exhausted but she will not allow Maryanne to deal with it by herself and is supporting her 24/7.'

Visit Maryanne & Tommy's Instagram for any official fundraisers set up.

Florida and California are now the nation's super-covid hotspots with 147 and 113 cases of the UK variant, respectively.

The 70 percent more infectious variant has been reported in at least 32 states and there are at least 482 cases across the US, according to DailyMail.com analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state data.

CDC scientists believe the UK variant, formally known as B117, could become the dominant form in America by March, potentially fueling another surge in COVID-19 cases.

So far, it hasn't outcompeted other 'wild-type' variants in the US, but it is certainly gaining a foothold in the two coastal states.

It's too soon to say why exactly Florida and California have been hit so hard with the B117 variant, experts told DailyMail.com. But both states remain warm, making it easier for people to be outside dining and socializing, and continue to have high case rates - factors linked to rapid spread and viral evolution.

Scientists are growing more concerned over the B117 variant. At first, it appeared only more transmissible but no deadlier and, most importantly, it didn't seem to make vaccines less effective.

But that may all be changing after evidence emerged last week that the variant may be 30 percent more fatal than other forms.

And new research revealed that in at least 11 cases in the UK, the British variant has developed the same mutation that makes the feared South African more resistant to COVID-19 vaccines.

California and Florida are the two US hotspots for the UK variant with 113 and 147 cases respectively. UK scientist have found 11 worrying cases of B117 there with an additional mutation seen in the South African variant, which may evade vaccines

The spike protein mutation known as E484K has been spotted in the genome sequences of viral samples taken from at least 11 people in the UK who had the B117 variant.

Dr Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester, called this evolution a 'worrying development.'

B117 has several mutations that make it better at latching onto human cells than previous forms of the virus, including the N501Y mutation.

It shares the N501Y mutation with the South African and Brazilian variants.

That common mutation in three separate variants that appear to have arisen on three separate continents independently was enough to raise scientists' suspicions that 'evolutionary convergence' is happening.

Evolutionary convergence happens when unrelated species of animals or strains of viruses happen to develop the same mutations or traits that turn out to be advantageous.

California has struggled to keep hospitals from being overrun as cases surge there. The state already has 113 cases of B117. If the more infectious variant becomes dominant, hospitals could easily run out of beds again, as they did last month

Florida could be in a tough race against time if the variant gets a better foothold there. It has a large senior population and just 8% of its population has had one or more shots

In other words, the virus is inadvertently getting better at what it does, by similar methods, in different places.

In the US, the UK variant, which first emerged in Kent, has led to only a handful of clusters.

California and Florida have by far the largest clusters.

The largest group of B117 cases in California is in San Diego County, where at least 109 connected people have been infected.

Another 44 cases are also linked to that outbreak.

And one person - a 71-year-old man - has died of the variant in San Diego. His is one of just two deaths in the US linked to B117.

San Bernadino and Los Angeles each have two cases.

Florida's Broward and Miami-Dade counties each have 28 and 23 cases, respectively and there is a cluster of 11 collective cases stretching Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, according to USA Today.

The UK variant has now been found in various counties across the state.

In California, scientists suspect it now accounts for about five percent of all statewide COVID-19 cases.

But unlike its rampage across the UK, the B117 variant has thus far only been detected in patches of country.

'I'm not sure why the UK variant in the US has stayed so regional for the last month (happy it has though),' said Dr Daniel Jones, an Ohio State University molecular pathologist whose team discovered two of America's own homegrown coronavirus variants (including one that is virtually identical to, but evolved separately from the UK variant).

'But it may be dips in travel after the holidays.'

So why then are there so many cases in California and Florida?

It's tempting to draw climate parallels between two of the nation's seaside states, but far too soon to make anything of that commonality.

Another possibility is simply behavioral.

WHAT ARE THE 'SUPER-COVID' VARIANTS SPREADING AROUND THE WORLD? UK'S 'KENT' VARIANT - B.1.1.7 UK health officials announced in December that a 'variant of concern' had emerged in the county of Kent. The variant is known to scientists as B.1.1.7, a name derived from the location of its most significant mutations. B117 appears to be more infectious than older 'wild-type' coronavirus variants. Most estimates put it at about 70% more infectious, but some studies suggest it could be twice as infectious, while more moderate projections say its transmissibility is only about 56% higher. B117 quickly became dominant in the UK, and now accounts for at least 90% of cases in the European country. It has been detected in more than 70 countries, including the US, where the CDC estimates the variant makes up at least 44% of cases. While its mutations seemed to quite clearly make the variant more infectious, it didn't seem to change the odds of severe COVID-19 or death. UK health officials say it may be 30 to 40% more deadly, based on how many people infected with it die. The mortality rate for people hospitalized with B.1.1.7. in the UK appears no different from that of older variants. After reviewing the UK's data, Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said it may indeed be deadlier. However, he and UK officials still say other variants are more concerning because they may make vaccines less effective - which doesn't seem to be the case with the UK variant. SOUTH AFRICAN VARIANT - B.1.351 A new variant was announced in South Africa on December 18. It shares a mutation with the UK variant - in a location on its genome known as 501Y - but also has several other mutations. The South African variant is estimated to be about 50 percent more contagious and is already dominant there. It has spread to at least 20 countries, including the US, but the CDC estimates the variant makes up just 0.7% of cases. In January, President Joe Biden invoked a travel ban on people coming from South Africa in an effort to stop importation of the new variant. Dr Fauci says that the South African variant is the most concerning one because it might render vaccines less effective due to mutations that help it 'hide' from antibodies developed after vaccination or a previous bout of COVID-19. BRAZIL'S VARIANT - P,1 The variant first caught international attention when four travelers arriving to Tokyo from Manaus, Brazil, tested positive on January 2. The variant has the same spike protein mutation as the highly transmissible versions found in Kent and South Africa  named N501Y  which makes the spike better able to bind to receptors inside the body. Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon, has been devastated by COVID-19. Hospitals are running out of oxygen and Brazilian officials have said it is in a state of crisis. The new variant accounts for nearly half of all cases there and is thought to be more contagious and possibly make vaccines less effective. It has spread to at least 15 countries, including the U.S., where it has become the second-most dominant variant, accounting for between 1% and 2% of all cases. Advertisement

Los Angeles scientists have traced about one fifth of the county's coronavirus cases to outdoor dining.

It's certainly safer than indoor dining but also means people are spending prolonged periods of time without masks, talking, laughing and eating relatively close together.

A recent White House report on how each state is faring in its fight against COVID-19 found that Florida was in the red, and advised that Florida's indoor dining should be closed or 'substantially curtailed' considering its sustained spread.

A third possibility is simply that Florida and California have spotted more cases than other states - regardless of whether they actually have more B117 infections.

'Molecular surveillance is patchy, so we need to be cautious about interpreting frequency of reports of variants in different geographic regions,' Dr Stuart Ray, a Johns Hopkins University Vice Chair of Medicine for Data Integrity and Analytics told DailyMail.com in an email.

Whatever the case may be, keeping the UK variant from spreading more will be key to keeping COVID-19 case, hospitalization and death numbers down, and to preventing further mutations.

Dr Anthony Fauci has reminded Americans that the virus can only mutate if it has the chance to replicate - a process which vaccines can currently combat for all variants (although less effectively, in the case of the South African and Brazilian variants).

The UK is leading the US in the vaccination race - nearly 14 percent of Britons have had at least one dose, compared to 8.1 percent of Americans - but it is still struggling to outpace the spread and evolution of B117.

One of the key mutations on the South African and Brazilian variants appear to make the virus more able to resist immunity that has been developed by past infection or from the current vaccines.

And this mutation has now been found at least 11 times in different cases of people infected with the Kent variant, Public Health England revealed, raising fears it could become a permanent feature of the British strain.

Both the Kent and South African variants already share one mutation, named N501Y, which makes the virus spread faster. And if this mutation, named E484K, sticks around as well the variants could become extremely similar.

E484K has been concerning scientists because it changes the shape of the virus's outer spike protein in a way that makes it difficult for the body to recognize it if it is only used to looking for older versions of the virus without the mutation.

This could raise the risk of reinfection or reduce how well vaccines work  but top Government advisers insist jabs should still be effective. The jabs, however, have been made to specifically target an older version of the virus that didn't have the mutation, meaning that major changes to the virus might make it less able to spot and fix to it.

SAGE adviser Professor Calum Semple suggested today that the risk of the Kent variant  and other versions of the virus  continuing to evolve was 'inevitable' and 'will occur in time', and this mutation would likely be part of that.

Speaking about the threat, Dr Ravi Gupta, an infectious diseases expert at Cambridge University, said: 'The number of sequences is low at present, though enhanced surveillance is being undertaken by PHE. There may be more cases out there given how high transmission has been. We need to continue vaccinating and drive down transmission.'

The worrying development comes as local authorities in eight parts of the country today began mass community testing to try and weed out the South African variant after it was found in 11 unconnected cases.

Scientists have voiced confusion about the sudden panic over the South African variant, with UK infectious diseases expert, Dr Andrew Hayward saying the newly identified cases were the 'tip of the iceberg' and a 'big under-estimation' of the true number already in the UK, and Leicester University's Dr Julian Tang said its spread was 'not surprising'.

Dr Ray, on the other hand, cautioned the added mutation to B117 is rare, as of yet, and whether it will have the same dulling effect on vaccines is not known.

'484K is found in very few of the B.1.1.7 isolates from UK - about 1 in 10 000 - hard to say that it's demonstrating a big advantage,' he said.

'These mutations probably don't act alone, but rather are likely to interact (so the genome context may matter more than we realize right now). More to learn. We also see E484K arising de novo in other lineages (including here in Maryland), the significance of which is unclear.
He wanted his lawyers to make the case that he won the election and they quit, so this should be fun.  JIMMY KIMMEL

Yep, Trump and his lawyers disagreed on strategy. Apparently Trump got upset when they wanted to have one.  JIMMY FALLON

Aha, the brilliant legal strategy of pointing out to the jury how motivated you were to commit the crime.  STEPHEN COLBERT

At this rate, Trumps going to be the first president to show up to his impeachment trial with a public defender.  SETH MEYERS

Trump suddenly found himself without any legal representation, which is still a huge improvement over being represented by Rudy Giuliani.  JAMES CORDEN

Trump was furious  not that they quit, that he couldnt fire them on Twitter.  JIMMY FALLON

A source close to the ex-president described it as a mutual decision. Oh, totally mutual! No, Carol did not divorce me  we divorced me. We also agreed that the lawn was the perfect place for all my shirts.  STEPHEN COLBERT
On the Bad Shape of the Philippine Economy

More at: https://pinglacson.net/2021/02/02/on-the-bad-shape-of-the-philippine-economy/

The Philippine economy is definitely in bad shape, made even worse by the difficult choice between addressing health-related problems and the sinking economy.

A classic example is the NEDA's recommendation to the President to allow children 10 years old and above to go out of their homes with their parents, as NEDA studies show 50 percent of the economy is driven by family activities outside their homes.

It was a very sound NEDA suggestion that was initially given due course but recalled immediately, instead of first considering a middle ground that would have accomplished both - like closely supervised or monitored family outings.

Policy decisions play a vital role in striking a balance between long-term implications on the economy and the immediate effects on our people's health concerns. The right decisions will chart our path towards a sustainable "new normal," pull us out from pits of social and economic distress, and shape a safer and more resilient society.
Joseph V. Micallef is a best-selling military history and world affairs author, and keynote speaker. Follow him on Twitter @JosephVMicallef.

It has been a little more than a year since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Chinese city of Wuhan was first disclosed. Since then, some 26.1 million Americans have been infected with the COVID-19 virus, and more than 439,0000 have died. Worldwide, 103 million people have come down with COVID-19, and 2.2 million have died from it.

The U.S. has gone through an extensive shutdown with, at its peak on April 7, 2020, roughly 93% of Americans "sheltering in place." Nine months later, a majority of Americans are still living under some form of safer-at-home recommendation and/or restrictions on public gatherings.

The development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines have emerged as a source of diplomatic rivalry between the United States and China -- and, to a lesser extent, Russia. A looming vaccine shortage has also generated what the World Health Organization, or WHO, is calling "vaccine nationalism" -- a scramble to secure sufficient supplies.

The European Union, or EU, after being advised by manufacturers Pfizer and AstraZeneca that they would be unable to meet their commitment for vaccine deliveries in the first quarter, has imposed restrictions on vaccine exports. The United Kingdom is considering the same.

Are there national security implications to the U.S. from how the vaccine rollout is handled internationally, and will the vaccines become a new point of friction between Washington, Beijing and Moscow?

The State of COVID-19 Vaccination

As of the end of January 2021, two COVID-19 vaccines have been given emergency authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: one from Pfizer/BioNTech and the other from Moderna. A third vaccine from Oxford-AstraZeneca is expected to be approved by the FDA in February. It has already been approved by the EU for distribution in Europe. A fourth vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson, is expected to be approved by March or April. There are also additional vaccines and therapies being developed by other, smaller companies.

In addition, the People's Republic of China has approved COVID-19 vaccines from two Chinese companies: Sinovac and Sinopharm. Two additional vaccines from CanSino Biologics and Anhui Zhifei Longcom are under development. The Russian Federation has approved a vaccine, Sputnik 5, developed by the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, a Russian research institute that dates back to 1891.

The Chinese vaccines are based on the traditional technique of taking viruses that have been killed and injecting them into a human body. Killing the virus reduces the risk of infecting the subject, although it has been known to happen in rare cases and induces the body to produce antibodies that will confer a high degree of protection against the disease.

The Russian offering is an adenovirus vaccine. Adenoviruses, found in the adenoids, cause acute respiratory infections and are quite common. In such a vaccine, an adenovirus is genetically altered to contain genetic material from the target virus, while at the same time the gene responsible for replication is removed to prevent the virus from duplicating itself and spreading. When this viral vector is injected into a human body, it triggers the production of antibodies.

The Moderna and Pfizer options are mRNA vaccines, a new type that has never been used before. In this case, a segment of the coronavirus genetic code is injected into the body. The injection triggers the subject to make some of the viral proteins, but the included genetic material is insufficient to replicate the entire virus. Those viral proteins trigger the production of antibodies that will neutralize SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

All of the vaccines currently approved or under development, with the exception of the Johnson & Johnson version, require two doses. That doubles the number of vaccines that have to be produced.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have to be stored at sub-zero temperatures: minus 20 degrees Celsius for the Moderna vaccine and minus 70 degrees Celsius for the Pfizer vaccine. This complicates their distribution and is a particular problem for those parts of the world that lack the appropriate refrigeration infrastructure.

By comparison, the Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Gamaleya and Johnson & Johnson vaccines require only conventional refrigeration, making them much easier to ship and distribute.

The vaccines' effectiveness varies widely. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are rated at 95% effective and the Sputnik V at 92%, although there are some doubts about the reliability of the Russian data. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was 62% to 90% effective in Stage 3 trials.

The effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine ranged from 91% in Stage 3 trials in Turkey to 50% in Brazil, while the Sinopharm vaccine was 86% effective in Stage 3 trials in the United Arab Emirates.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 72% effective, although its effectiveness was only 51% in South Africa and 60% in Latin America Stage 3 trials.

A vaccine's effectiveness measures its success in preventing the disease from developing. More important is its ability to reduce the effects of the disease sufficiently to forestall hospitalization.

In the case of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it was 85% effective in forestalling hospitalization. Coupled with the fact that it requires only one dose and conventional refrigeration, that makes the Johnson & Johnson vaccine particularly useful.

Bear in mind, however, that a vaccine's real-world performance usually lags behind the official results.

Moderna has a production capacity of approximately 500 million doses in 2021. Pfizer's estimated production capacity is around two billion doses. Astra-Zeneca aims o produce 700 million doses in the first quarter of 2021, and is targeting a production of more than three billion doses over the course of the year.

It's believed that Sinovac currently has a capacity of around 500 million doses a year, although it is planning to double its capacity. Johnson & Johnson probably has a capacity of 200 to 300 million doses. The production capacity of the smaller pharmaceutical companies is unclear. Some pharmaceutical companies like Merck, which have not developed a vaccine, also have production capacity that could be used to produce COVID-19 vaccines.

Producing billions of vaccine doses is as much an artform as it is a science. With a population of just under eight billion people, the world will need upward of 16 billion vaccine doses, since most of the vaccines require two doses.

Subtract from that number those individuals who have had the disease and recovered, and who may not need a vaccination. But add back a quantity for the inevitable wastage and production issues that will arise, and the number of doses required is probably in excess of 18 billion. If you exempt children from vaccination, that number will be significantly lower but it is still a sizable, multi-year quantity.

Current yearly production capacity is less than half the required doses, and that assumes that vaccine producers have the capacity to scale up production to meet their ambitious targets. Even if you settle for 80% to 85% of the world's population, the threshold level of achieving herd immunity, you are going to need roughly two years to vaccinate everyone.

National Security and COVID-19 Vaccines

The developed world will succeed in vaccinating the bulk of its citizens over the course of 2021. The rest of the world will lag behind into 2022 or even later.

As of Jan. 30, 2021, the U.S. leads the world in total vaccinations at 30 million, followed by China at 23 million, and the U.K. at nine million. Israel has vaccinated 4.7 million people, and India has vaccinated 3.7 million.

As a percentage of the population, Israel leads the world with a rate of 2% of the population per day, followed by the United Arab Emirates at 1%, Serbia at .65% and the U.K. at .53%. The U.S. is currently fifth with a vaccination rate of .39% per day. At that rate, it will take six to eight months to vaccinate every American. From a practical standpoint, that means the U.S. will have achieved a working level of herd immunity by late June, although sporadic outbreaks will continue to persist over the summer.

The fact that the COVID-19 pandemic will persist into the third quarter of 2021 in most developed countries, and well into 2022 if not 2023 in less developed portions of the world, creates several national security concerns for the U.S. These generally fall into three categories: the possibility that the virus could mutate into a variant that current vaccines can't control or is more transmissible, continuing attempts by America's adversaries to sow distrust among Americans about the effectiveness of the vaccines, and political instability in poorer countries that can result in regional conflict and political chaos.

To date, according to the WHO, dozens of different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been identified. There are probably many more that have not yet been found. This is not unusual because coronaviruses mutate readily. The risk is that a variant could emerge that is either more lethal or more contagious.

Traditionally, the typical evolution of a coronavirus is toward less lethal forms. As epidemiologists like to point out, however, a coronavirus "can get lucky" and mutate into a deadlier variant. The more people who are infected with COVID-19, the greater the probability that a deadlier mutation could emerge. If it is going to take upward of two years to vaccinate the rest of the world, the possibility of a deadlier virus emerging increases proportionately.

A second consideration is transmissibility. As of January, four variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been identified that appear to be more contagious. These are the U.K. variant (B.1.1.7), which caused a massive case spike in the U.K. and Ireland; the South African variant (B.1.351); the Brazilian variant (P.1); and the Southern California variant (CAL.20C).

None of these variants appears to be more lethal, but they do seem to be more easily transmissible. It's estimated that these variants are possibly 50% to 75% more contagious. What does that mean? A single infection of COVID-19 can, on average, give rise to 64 new infections over the space of a week or so. A variant that is 75% more transmissible would give rise to around 1,800 new cases.

It was precisely these rapid and dramatic spikes that were observed in Ireland and the U.K. over the month of December. In Manaus, Brazil, the epicenter of the Brazilian variant, there was a dramatic spike in January 2021, even though 75% of the city had already been infected previously.

As of Jan. 31, the U.S. had seen approximately 300 cases of the first three variants: U.K., 308; South African, 2; and Brazilian, 1. Most of these cases do not have direct links to the countries where the variants emerged, suggesting that community spread is already occurring for all.

In the case of the Southern California variant, it's estimated that one-third of all present cases in the region are caused by this local mutation.

The risks of a dramatic spike in new infections are that new cases will overwhelm the hospital system and that the larger numbers of infected individuals could give rise to even more mutations. Moreover, these spikes will slow down reopening the U.S. economy and increase the economic costs of the pandemic.

It's possible that, over the next four to six weeks, the U.S. could see the sort of dramatic spike in infections that the U.K. and Ireland experienced in December. The current vaccines appear to still be effective against these new variants, but less so than against the original versions of the virus. New variants could mean that existing vaccines will have to be modified further, or some vaccines will need to be re-administered, stretching out the time it will take to vaccinate the rest of the world.

In recent years, the Chinese government has adopted an aggressive posture in the press and social media against the U.S. Dubbed "Wolf Warrior Diplomacy," Beijing, using both official government spokespersons and private individuals, has sharply criticized the U.S. and its policies.

In regard to COVID-19, this has taken the form of accusations that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was actually brought to China by U.S. servicemen competing in the 2019 Military World Games that were held in Wuhan. Chinese officials have claimed that the "American vaccines" (Pfizer and Moderna) are less effective and more dangerous than the Chinese vaccines.

Recently, Chinese officials demanded that the WHO, which currently has a delegation in Wuhan studying the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, should also investigate the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, in Fredrick, Maryland, as a possible source of the virus.

China has also been aggressively promoting its vaccine diplomacy, offering its vaccines to countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Beijing has pledged to provide $2 billion in vaccines to African countries, and has offered loans of $1 billion to Latin American countries. The cost of vaccines and their distribution for the third world will likely run between $25 billion and $50 billion.

Beijing has also criticized the U.S., the EU and other "rich countries" for hoarding vaccine supplies at the expense of poorer countries -- a criticism also levied by WHO. Beijing must see significant leverage in its vaccine diplomacy since, based on the most recent data, China will require at least a year and likely closer to two years to vaccinate its own population, and that's before diverting any of its vaccine production elsewhere.

According to numerous intelligence sources, both China and Russia, and possibly even Iran, are actively promoting fears of the vaccine on American social media and encouraging so-called "anti-vaxxers" from taking the vaccine.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted in November 2020 found that 39% of Americans were unwilling to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Surprisingly, up to 20% of medical personnel and frontline workers felt the same way. The risks to U.S. national security are obvious. The longer it takes to achieve herd immunity in the U.S., the longer the economic debilitating consequences of the pandemic will persist and the greater the chance that new variants can cause a resurgence of the disease.

The third issue that will likely emerge is regional and domestic instability in those countries that lack the ability, either financially or administratively, to vaccinate their citizens, or will be unable to achieve this for several years. Not only will this failure be a source of domestic unrest but, especially in those countries that depend heavily on tourism, it will quickly magnify the economic dislocations that have already been wrought by the pandemic.

The pandemic has already highlighted social divisions between "haves" and "have nots." The former can get access to vaccines, while the latter cannot. That discrepancy could produce an "Arab Spring-like" effect in certain parts of the world. In regions where governmental authority can be fleeting, like the Sahel region of Africa, the inability of central governments to roll out vaccine programs could rebound in favor of jihadist or other insurgency groups. This is especially true if minority groups in those countries are the last to receive vaccines.

What impact this sort of instability may have on U.S. national security will depend, in large part, on where it occurs.

What is likely to happen is that pockets of COVID-19 infection will persist in certain parts of the world for several years until a natural immunity develops. Until then, these areas will represent sources of new variants and potential contagion for the rest of the world. The U.S. and the EU need to take the lead in addressing the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in the underdeveloped world. Realistically, no rich country is going to defer vaccinating its own citizens in favor of helping poorer countries. That means in the third world, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will linger well into 2022, and likely into 2023.

The growing availability of COVID-19 vaccines will begin to roll back the medical, social and economic consequences of the pandemic. Even with the massive scale up in vaccine production, however, it will be mid to late summer at the earliest before some semblance of herd immunity will have been achieved in most of the developed world. In the third world, it will likely be several years until the same level of immunity is reached. That means that the economic consequences of the pandemic will continue to linger and many industries in that part of the world -- especially, travel, hospitality and tourism -- will continue to suffer.

In the meantime, the risk that new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus will emerge will continue to be an issue. America's opponents will continue to use misinformation about the pandemic and the vaccines developed to combat it to create domestic discord in the U.S., as well as seek diplomatic leverage internationally at the expense of the U.S. Washington should not discount the value of vaccine diplomacy or abandon that arena to Beijing.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill's famous comment after the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942, the COVID-19 vaccines are not the end or even the beginning of the end of the pandemic, but they are at least the end of the beginning.

-- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Senator Rob Portman was among the group of Republican Senators who sent a letter to President Biden Sunday seeking a meeting to pitch their Covid-relief proposal, thankfully not QAnon. The meeting took place in the Oval office late Monday afternoon, lasting two hours.

The group was led by Senator Susan Collins. In addition to Sen Portman, the group included Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Rounds of South Dakota.

In the spirit of bipartisanship and unity, we have developed a Covid-19 relief framework that builds on prior COVID assistance laws, all of which passed with bipartisan support. We request the opportunity to meet with you to discuss our proposal in greater detail and how we can work together to meet the needs of the American people during this persistent pandemic, the Senators wrote.

Appearing Sunday morning on CNNs State of the Union Portman said the letter was sent after President Biden announced his $1.9 trillion Covid-relief package that was drawn up without first consulting any Republicans or Democrats in Congress, despite his advocating bipartisanship.

Portman noted the previous five Covid packages that are entirely bipartisan, lets do it again, that would be best for the country.

The Senator from Ohio said they would be offering a counter proposal more targeted and appropriate for the times. The letter said the Senators believed it could be approved quickly with bipartisan support. But its unlikely to be adopted by the Biden administration.

Coming in just over $600 billion, the groups offer is 1/3rd the size of Bidens plan. It excludes aid to State and Local governments. It doesnt expand the child tax credit.

GOP PLAN CUTS STIMULUS PAYMENTS TO THOSE MAKING MORE THAN 50K.

Most prominently, the millionaire Republicans plan reduces individual stimulus payments to $1,000, from $1,400 and limits them to only people earning $50,000 or less. Theyre supposed to be wearing masks over their mouths and noses, not over tone deaf ears.

Biden and other Democrats had promised Georgia Senate voters they would deliver the wanted $2,000 stimulus payment. Polls have shown an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Americans support a larger Covid relief package. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other leading economists agree that their is greater risk to the economy and the nations financial stability with a Covid-relief package that is too small, rather than one that is too big.

The Monday meeting was Bidens first in the White House with any Senators, Democrat or Republican, and was also attended by Vice President Kamala Harris.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said afterward that the President wants a package that meets the moment.

The President expressed his hope that the group could continue to discuss ways to strengthen the American Rescue plan as it moves forward, and find areas of common ground - including work on small business support and nutrition programs.

He reiterated, however, that he will not slow down work on the urgent crisis response, and will not settle for a package that fails to meet the moment.

Sen Collins tried to put a positive spin on the meeting after exiting calling it very productive.

I wouldnt say we came together on a package tonight. No one expected that, but what we did agree to do is to follow up and talk further.

Were very appreciative, as his first official meeting in the Oval Office, that the president chose to spend so much time with us in a frank and very useful discussion.

Speaking of being frank, Biden and Senate Democrats havent forgotten how they were burned by Sen Collins and other Republicans in bipartisan negotiations on President Obamas economic stimulus package, after his first taking office, and later on Obamacare.

The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress adopted may Republican adjustments to both those packages, only for all but one Republican to vote for either of them.

Economists concluded that the Obama era economic recovery was slowed by his stimulus package being reduced by Republican amendments to it.

Thats why the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress are now prepared, if necessary, to use the Budget Reconciliation mechanism to pass Bidens Covid-relief package with few, if any changes, by March, the latest. Biden wants and the nation needs an expedited and fully funded Covid-relief package

PORTMAN VOTED FOR BUDGET RECONCILIATION TWICE BEFORE

In his State of the Union interview, Sen Portman warned Biden against using Budget Reconciliation to pass his Covid deal.

It will set President Biden down a path of partisanship that I think will poison the well for other bipartisanship we will need on so many issues,

Portman voted in sync with Trump 88% of the time and took his time acknowledging Biden defeated him. His routine partisan voting record included twice voting with Budget Reconciliation on Trumps major tax cuts and the failed attempt to overturn Obamacare.

It matched Portman agreeing with blocking Obamas SCOTUS nomination in his final year while confirming Trumps SCOTUS nomination the month before the election.

Sen. Portman announced his Senate retirement, but not the retirement of his double standards.

Wetlands are a precious taonga and must be protected, preserved and restored, says Environment Minister David Parker on World Wetlands Day.

Wetlands filter out unhealthy and damaging substances, and act as buffers for flooding, as nutrient cyclers, water purifiers and as important carbon sinks.

In addition, wetlands provide vital habitat for a diverse range of endemic flora and fauna, including critically endangered birds like matuku and kotuku, as well as 67 per cent of freshwater and estuarine fish species and 13 per cent of nationally threatened plant species.

Wetlands play a central role in our freshwater system but are extremely fragile. The job for us is to make sure our wetlands can continue to survive, thrive and support a healthy environment for all New Zealanders.

The value of wetlands has not always been recognised, and many were drained for housing and development, and other land uses. As a result 90 per cent of our wetlands have been lost.

We have put in place the Essential Freshwater package of regulatory reforms which aims to stop further degradation, show material improvements within five years and restore our waterways to health within a generation. Strong wetland protection and measures to encourage regeneration are a key part of this, says Parker.

Funding, through the Governments Jobs for Nature programme, is supporting the implementation of the new regulations and the restoration and protection of wetlands around the country.

In 2020 the Government committed more than $64 million from Jobs for Nature towards council projects, many of which involve wetland restoration. This includes the Opuatia Wetlands Project in Waikato and the Wairarapa Moana Wetlands project.

The Government is committed to strong protection for our wetlands to recognise the valuable role they play and the large-scale loss of wetlands due to human activity.
Head of the House of Representatives Human Rights Committee Tarek Radwan held on Monday a meeting with chairman of the National Press Authority Abdel-Sadeq El-Shorbagy to discuss aspects of bilateral cooperation and joint action with the aim of responding to allegations and false reports about human rights conditions in Egypt.

The meeting also touched on creating communication platforms with the West to deliver the true image of Egypt and human rights conditions there.

The gathering comes as part of a series of meetings held by the parliament's human rights committee with press and media institutions to probe joint cooperation.

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Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 19:51:13|Editor: huaxia

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LISBON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's National Statistics Institute (INE) reported on Tuesday that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 7.6 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, when it registered a 2.2-percent growth.

According to the official statistics agency, this was "the most intense contraction in the economy" since the 1960s, when national accounts began to be registered.

According to INE, the drop in GDP reflected "the markedly adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic activity."

The result, however, was below what was expected by the Portuguese government, which projected an 8.5 percent drop in the economy.

INE highlighted that domestic demand had "a significant negative contribution" to the decrease in GDP, reflecting especially a contraction in private consumption.

External demand was also negative in 2020, with intense reductions in exports and imports of goods and services, and "unprecedented decrease in tourism."

Mario Centeno, governor of the Bank of Portugal, has been saying that the contraction of the economy is "a consequence of the second wave of the pandemic and of the confinement measures," and that the government expects a recovery from the crisis with the beginning of the vaccination against COVID-19.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines, including Portugal.

Meanwhile, 237 candidate vaccines are still 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 the World Health Organization on Jan. 29. Enditem
This is the overview of news that happened in Slovakia on Tuesday, February 2, 2021. 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.

Neighbouring states impose stricter rules on borders

In an attempt to prevent the spread of new mutations of the coronavirus, the Czech Republic and Austria will impose stricter measures at the borders and limit travel within both countries. Hungary has prolonged border checks.

Everyone travelling to the Czech Republic who has spent more than 12 hours in Slovakia in the past 14 days will be obliged to fill in an electronic document before entering the Czech Republic, which can be found here.

You must have a negative test result when crossing the border and must stay in home isolation. After five days, you have to undergo another round of the testing. Moreover, in the first ten days after arrival, you are required to wear a respirator everywhere except home, even after you test negative.

Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer confirmed that cross-border commuters will be obliged to register upon arrival like other travellers and they will have to show a negative PCR test result once a week, Czech newswire CTK informed.

Cross-border commuters working in Austria will be obliged to register and provide their contact information via a document that is accessible in German or English on https://www.oesterreich.gv.at.

Czech Republic will impose stricter measures at borders Read more

Fico moved to another luxurious address

Robert Fico, a longtime former PM and leader of the now opposition Smer, is renting a flat from his colleague and Smer MP Dusan Munko. The luxurious residence Sokolska, near the Slavin monument in Bratislava, is worth more than half a million euros.

Fico has faced journalists' questions about his living whereabouts before because, in the past, he chose residences that he could not afford with his declared income as prime minister.

Fico moved into the apartment on the top floor of the Sokolska Residence on January 5, Munko claims. He is paying his fellow Smer MP between a thousand and two thousand euros in rent, according to Munko, who said he bought the property for about 600,000.

The flat spreads over an area of about 80 square metres, with a terrace of more than 130 square metres. The price of rent could be a result of the situation on the real estate market in the capital, Jan Palencar, President of the National Association of Real Estate Agencies, told Sme.

After Bonaparte, Fico rents another luxury flat owned by his party colleague Read more

Photo of the day:

The water mill in Kolarovo belongs to the last floating water mills in Slovakia. (Source: TASR)

Coronavirus-related news:

Jan Acai, a 63-year-old rescuer of Rescue Service Kosice, died of COVID-19 on February 1 . He worked in Moldava nad Bodvou.

of Rescue Service Kosice, . He worked in Moldava nad Bodvou. The Public Health Authority tested 113 positive samples from January and the end of December for the British strain. They found the B.1.1.7 mutation in 27 percent of all samples. The majority of these samples were from the east and north-west of the country.

Feature story for today:

What impact did the coronavirus pandemic have on the business service centres (BSC) sector in Slovakia and what impact did the pandemic have on the lack of qualified labour force the BSCs in Slovakia have been complaining of?

Business and shared service centres are used to working remotely and use the latest technology in their operations. The pandemic has thus not been as much of a blow as in other sectors, say the people who represent the sector in Slovakia.

Going remote and still meeting customers demands. Business centres adapt to the pandemic situation Read more

In other news:

Schools should open for some pupils as of Monday, February 8 . Children should return to kindergartens and pupils of the first through fourth years of primary schools should return to schools. Their parents and teachers must present a negative test result . Students of the final years of secondary vocational schools may return as well.

. Children should return to kindergartens and pupils of the first through fourth years of primary schools should return to schools. Their parents and teachers must present a . Students of the final years of secondary vocational schools may return as well. Experts and ministers have agreed to tighten some rules for the Covid automat warning system.

automat warning system. Former State Secretary Monika Jankovska 's attorney Peter Erdos said after a visit in the hospital that Jankovska attempted to commit suicide . (TASR)

's attorney Peter Erdos said after a visit in the hospital that . (TASR) The only candidate running for the first chair of Supreme Administrative Court is Jaroslav Macek.

Jozef Brhel, who is believed to be an oligarch with ties to Smer and one of the most influential persons in the energy business, has been detained after interrogation . He arrived in a private plane at Vienna airport on Monday evening. He is charged with establishing an organised group whose aim was to profit from IT orders at the Financial Administration .

. He arrived in a private plane at Vienna airport on Monday evening. He is charged with establishing an . On February 1, the requirement for launching immediate payments in Slovakia was fulfilled . Such payments should be launched in a year, on February 1, 2022 . On this date, three banks are expected to launch the payments: Slovenska Sporitelna, VUB and Tatra bank . Others will join later.

. Such payments should be launched . On this date, three banks are expected to launch the payments: . Others will join later. The average price of real estate increased by 11.9 percent in 2020 when compared to 2019, showed an analysis of National Bank of Slovakia. Prices have grown the most in Bratislava Region, Banska Bystrica Region and Presov Region , while in other regions, prices have stagnated or dropped a bit.

when compared to 2019, showed an analysis of National Bank of Slovakia. Prices have grown the most in , while in other regions, prices have stagnated or dropped a bit. The Slovak police discovered almost 700,000 smuggled cigarettes at the border crossing Vysne Nemecke  Uzhorod . Financial evasion on tolls and taxes totals more than 115,600 .

. totals . The public grilling of the candidates for the Special Prosecutor's Office is over. Members of the parliamentary committee recommended all four candidates: Peter Kysel, Daniel Lipsic, Jan Santa and Vasil Spirko. The election in parliament is expected to take place during the next session, most likely next week.

Do not miss on Spectator.sk today:

One in ten Slovaks have a problem with alcohol Read more
(TNS)  Oklahoma lawmakers have filed a bill to give citizens more online privacy, and it has already garnered bipartisan support in the state House of Representatives.Authored by Rep. Josh West, R-Grove; and Rep. Collin Walke, D-OKC; the Oklahoma Computer Data Privacy Act would require Internet tech companies to obtain explicit permission to collect and sell personal data. With increasing concern over dataveillance and what companies do with information users provide  knowingly or unknowingly  several states are mulling such legislation."For far too long, we have pretended the data that technology companies collect from us is harmless," West said. "Over the past several years, we have seen how our data can be used by tech companies to manipulate ourselves and others. That doesn't even take into consideration the fact that these companies are free to sell our information to whomever they choose. I believe in the beneficial uses of technology and that there are many positive aspects to our interconnected networks. But we must realize when the services are free, we become the product."Companies store copious amounts of personal data, so those with a greater dependency on advertising revenue tend to collect and store more of it. The information people release on social media platforms and search engines is often shared with advertisers so they can tailor their pitch to individual users.Rep. West said Americans, historically, have had concerns about the extent of surveillance by the government, which is why the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution exists. It gives people the right to be secure in their own homes and prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures."Since development of the Internet, we have been willingly providing much more intimate information to tech companies whose sole motive is profit," said West. "The fruits of data harvesting and data manipulation are plainly visible and lead only toward a dystopian future in which nothing we say or do is private."Several years ago, researchers rebuked a Facebook experiment that manipulated news feeds to gage whether the platform could impact users' emotions. Then, the company was wrapped up in a scandal with Cambridge Analytica, a strategic communication firm, wherein the data of millions of people was used to create psychological profiles for the purpose of political advertising.With millions of people providing personal information to tech companies, that data is worth a lot of money to certain businesses. Data brokers -companies that collect information to re-sell to other companies for marketing purposes  try collecting as much information about individuals as possible. The data brokering industry is considered to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.Dell Barnes, Cherokee County Democratic Party vice chair, thinks legislation to require consent to store and sell private information is a good idea."Data is both useful and valuable and firms have been making plenty of cash from selling it," he said. "It's time for people to become aware of the privacy and compensation issues surrounding data privacy, and be in a position to regulate, give consent and bargain."The legislation would be one of the first "opt-in" data privacy bills in the U.S. California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act in 2018, with the intention of providing residents with the right to know what personal data is being collected and to be able to prevent the sale of their information.The cost of expanding data management systems could deter tech companies from implementing change, and startup companies could have a harder time investing enough to comply with regulations. But while there is likely to be adverse interests opposing the legislation, it's one that could likely receive support from both sides of the aisle.State Sen. Blake Stephens, R-Tahlequah, compared it to a bill he filed this year that would prohibit the sharing of immunization records or other data without consent."I'm all about privacy," said Stephens. "That's one of the bills I'm running on vaccines. That's a personal choice in terms of where your information goes and who gets it, and if you want it stricken from the record, you should have the ability to do so."After speaking with West about the legislation on Friday, Stephens said State Sen. John Michael Montgomery, R-Lawton, would be running it in the Senate, and he plans to help co-author it.State Sen. Dewayne Pemberton, R-Muskogee, doesn't think it's right for companies to sell personal information without consent, but wonders whether legislation from federal officials will be needed to curb the problem."If they're going to sell my personal data, I should have the right to say yes or no  and not just because I clicked on your website and purchased something that now, you can take my personal information and share it with other companies," he said. "My concern is how much control can we have at the local level. A lot of this stuff is [Federal Communications Commission] regulated. It's like all of those robocalls. We can't, at the state level, do anything about robocalls. The federal government has worked on it before, but for some reason can't seem to get any legislation passed that stops all of those."State Rep. Bob Ed Culver, R-Tahlequah; Cherokee County Republican Party Chair Josh Owen; and County Libertarian Party Chair Shannon Grimes, did not return inquiries by press time.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2021 / Golcap Resources Corp. (CSE:GCP) (the "Company" or "Golcap") is pleased to announce that, subject to CSE approval, it has extended the expiry period of warrants previously issued on April 30, 2020 and June 30, 2020, prior to completing its initial public offering on December 22, 2020. A total of 3,250,000 warrants exercisable at $0.30, price unchanged, will now expire on December 22, 2021.

The Company also announces the appointment of Betty Anne Loy as Corporate Secretary, replacing Alan Tam who remains as Chief Financial Officer.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Gordon Lam

|President and Chief Executive Officer

Email: info@golcapresources.com

Telephone: (604) 675-2011

Website: www.golcapresources.com

The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward looking statements. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Because of these risks and uncertainties and as a result of a variety of factors, the actual results, expectations, achievements or performance may differ materially from those anticipated and indicated by these forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, the Company's proposed use of the proceeds of its initial public offering. Any number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as well as future results. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward looking statements will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward looking statements or otherwise.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Golcap Resources Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627223/Golcap-Extends-Warrant-Expiry
China says it has lodged a formal complaint with Canada over T-shirts ordered by one of the country's Beijing Embassy staff that allegedly mocked China's response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday that China called on Canada to thoroughly investigate the incident and give China a clear explanation.

The incident arose after a T-shirt maker posted on the Chinese internet that a staff member from the Canadian Embassy had ordered T-shirts with a bat print. That appeared to reference allegations that the virus developed in China from bats and then spread to humans in the city of Wuhan where infections were first reported in late 2019. Canadian media reports said the logo was a W in homage to the New York hip-hop group the Wu Tang clan and that Ottawa had apologized for any misunderstanding.

China's government is extremely sensitive to accusations it was the source of the pandemic and failed to respond quickly enough when cases were first reported in Wuhan.

The T-shirts were reportedly ordered last summer and it wasn't clear if any were still in circulation.

The controversy underscores the plunge in relations between the countries in the past two years over China's demand that Canada release a top executive of communications giant Huawei who is wanted on fraud charges in the United States.

Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the company's founder, denies the charges. China says her case is politically motivated as part of a US effort to stifle the nation's global economic expansion. Her lawyers argue she has been subjected to abuse of process and should be freed.

Canada arrested Meng at Vancouvers airport in late 2018. In apparent retaliation, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor, placed restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, and sentenced a convicted Canadian drug smuggler to death in a sudden retrial.
Sandra Fiorenza In the real estate market, instead of merely selling property, she outshines her competitors by pursuing spaces where she knows clients will thrive.

Haute Residence is pleased to welcome Sandra Fiorenza to the exclusive Haute Residence Network as its representative in the Miami Beach, Florida luxury real estate market.

Sandra Fiorenza lives and breathes her creations, whether in luxury real estate, lifestyle branding, or philanthropy. In the real estate market, instead of merely selling property, she outshines her competitors by pursuing spaces where she knows clients will thrive. Sandras lifestyle products, in turn, are an extension of a life lived among global and local elites: her expertise as a purveyor of luxury experiences is exceptional because it is grounded in decades of personal immersion.

Sandras career in luxury real estate is as profound as it is dazzling, beginning when she relocated to Miami from her native Germany in 1998. She was prescient in recognizing Miamis potential as a location poised for global significance as early as 1992 when she briefly called the city home during an internship. Even then, when Miami was still sleepy, I thought: this is where I want to live. She returned to Europe with her heart set on her dream destination, earning her MBA and working in the advertising and fashion industries. Six years later, Sandra was ready to make Miami her forever home, arriving just in time to witness  and participate in  the citys transformation into a cultural mecca, global lifestyle destination, and international business hub.

In 2010, she partnered with ONE Sothebys International Realty and grew her sphere of influence from Miami Beachs waterfront and the surrounding islands to high-end Coral Gables, Pinecrest, and neighboring communities, utilizing her extensive social network and global acumen to deliver unique homes to local, national, and international clients. Sandra has accumulated about $300 million in total sales with $30 million just in 2020.

Sandras latest lifestyle project will only be accessible to a few hand-picked clients, so I cant reveal too many details, she says. Suffice it to say it revolves around creating bespoke, ultra-luxurious travel experiences on the new 900-feet super yacht Njord, which is designed by Ocean Residences and will house 118 luxury apartments alongside helicopters, flat-bottom RIBs for Antarctica, and limousine tenders for the Mediterranean. Sandras experience in the international luxury world and lifestyle sector perfectly position her to market the project and select suitable clients from around the world. With Njord, were placing the world at your feet and allowing a few like-minded individuals to circumnavigate the globe from the comfort of their luxury homes.

Visit Sandra Fiorenza's Haute Residence profile: https://www.hauteresidence.com/member/sandra-fiorenza/

Visit Sandra Fiorenza's website: https://www.sandrafiorenza.com/

ABOUT HAUTE RESIDENCE

Designed as a partnership-driven luxury real estate portal, Haute Residence connects its affluent readers with top real estate professionals, while offering the latest in real estate news, showcasing the worlds most extraordinary residences on the market and sharing expert advice from its knowledgeable and experienced real estate partners.

The invitation-only luxury real estate network, which partners with just one agent in every market, unites a distinguished collective of leading real estate agents and brokers and highlights the most extravagant properties in leading markets around the globe for affluent buyers, sellers, and real estate enthusiasts.

HauteResidence.com has grown to be the number one news source for million-dollar listings, high-end residential developments, celebrity real estate, and more.

Access all of this information and more by visiting http://www.hauteresidence.com
Sydneys porn king has told a court his former employee stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his business while he was preoccupied with various personal matters, including being assaulted, fire-bombed, and diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

Con Ange, 61, owns the Everything Adult brand which runs about 10 adult stores in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, but he said it would be wrong to describe this as a large retail pornography business.

Con Ange leaves court on Tuesday. Credit:Kate Geraghty

In 2014, Mr Ange hired Neva Lozzi, 45, to help with the financial side of his business. The pair parted ways in 2020, and Mr Ange soon accused Ms Lozzi of taking money she was not entitled to over several years, including to pay her rent.

Ms Lozzi argues Mr Ange gave his permission for the transactions, including offering rent as part of her remuneration. However, the pair had a falling-out and Mr Ange now claims he had no idea.
David Schoen, one of Donald Trumps impeachment lawyers, claimed the former president had nothing to do" with the deadly Capitol Hill riots that killed five people, and that his trial is tearing the country apart.

Mr Schoen, an Atlanta based lawyer, is one of the two attorneys appointed by Mr Trump on Sunday to represent him in the historic impeachment hearing.

In the first interview after his appointment, Mr Schoen told Fox News that the trial of the former president was unconstitutional and a very very dangerous road to take.

It [trial] is tearing the country apart at a time when we don't need anything like that," Mr Schoen told Sean Hannity on Fox News. He also called the trial the most ill-advised legislative action he has seen.

This is the political weaponisation of the impeachment process, Mr Schoen said, stating that there was a rush to judgement."

The former president was impeached on 13 January for the second time following the Capitol riots, becoming the only president to be impeached twice. The House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump, including ten Republicans. The hearing is set to begin from 9 February.

Defending Mr Trumps role in the Capitol violence, Mr Schoen said: He condemned violence at all times. Read the words of his speech. It calls for peacefulness.

This has nothing to do with President Trump and the country doesn't need to just watch videos of riots and unrest. We need to heal now. We need to move forward, he said.

Calling the trial unfair and biased, he alleged that the Senators have already made up their mind that Mr Trump is guilty.

"I would say you also should be able to call, then, many of the senators as witnesses, because of the awful bias and prejudgment they've shown, said Mr Schoen.

Can you imagine any American citizen considering to be in a trial where the judge and jury has already announced publicly that the defendant must be convicted in this case?

"It undercuts democracy, he added. How could you possibly have a fair trial? Senator Schumer promised a fair and full trial. You can't when you know that they are biased going in.

He also hit out at President Biden for missing a great opportunity to be a statesman.

Mr Trump's impeachment trial will be the first of a US president who is no longer in office.

The agenda'' from the Democrats, he said, was to simply to bar President Trump from ever running for president again. And that is about as undemocratic as you could get, he added.

Can you imagine the slap in the face that is to the 75 million or more voters who voted for Donald Trump? Mr Schoen further said.

Mr Schoen will be representing Mr Trump along with Bruce Castor, the former district attorney in Pennsylvania.

Mr Trump announced the names after his former lawyer left the case, reportedly due to disagreement over trial strategy.
Highlights Hackers allegedly leaked data of 2.5 million Airtel subscribers.

Airtel says the claims made by the hacker group has glaring inaccuracies.

The websites that hosted the leaked numbers and details are no longer accessible.

Millions of Airtel numbers may have been part of a recent leak that reportedly saw telephone numbers alongside personal details like address, city, Aadhaar card number, and gender details being up for sale on the web. India Today Tech has seen the details of the data dump and has verified that many numbers part of it do belong to Airtel customers.

In total hackers allegedly put out details over 2.5 million Airtel users. However, they were claiming that they had details of all Airtel users in India and that they wanted to sell the data.

The information has been revealed by Rajshekhar Rajaharia, an Internet security researcher. India Today Tech learns from him that the hackers even communicated with Airtel security teams and then tried to blackmail the company and extort $3500 in Bitcoins from it.

However, it seems that the hackers failed and in the frustration, they put up the data on sale on the web, by creating a website for it and showing a sample of the user details that they had.

This website is no longer available. India Today Tech learns that the data may not have been leaked from Airtel's systems or servers. Instead, it could have been leaked from other sources, possibly the government agencies, which get access to some of the telecom data for security purposes. This is likely to be why the leaked 25 lakh -- 2.5 million -- numbers belong to subscribers in the J&K region.

According to Rajaharia, the hackers allegedly uploaded details of 2.5 million Airtel subscribers as a sample in January 2021 and tried to "extort money" from the company. "Everything was posted on the web... not on the dark web," he said.

He added that the sample data dump of 25 lakh Airtel subscribers belongs to one region that is Jammu and Kashmir.

We independently verified some of the leaked numbers. We tallied these numbers with the respective names on Truecaller, a caller identification app, and could see that the details (like the name of the subscriber and telecom provider) matched.

Responding to the story, Airtel in a statement said, "Airtel takes great pride in deploying various measures to safeguard the privacy of its customers. In this specific case, we confirm that there is no data breach at our end. In fact, the claims made by this group reveal glaring inaccuracies and a large proportion of the data records do not even belong to Airtel. We have already apprised the relevant authorities of the matter."

A screenshot of Airtel data dump accessed by India Today Tech

India Today Tech also got access to a proof of concept video that shows a chat between the Red Rabbit team, the alleged hacker group holding the Airtel data, and Airtel's online security team.

In a thread of emails, one of the purported emails seen in POC video shows some visible lines from the hacker group to Airtel that read, "After few hours we will down our website and go for next phase. Not possible to trace us, dear, even on the clean net. Let you may consult your team that either they want to continue the cyber fight or finalise deal. We really do not want to harm your business and network, but your team is forcing to do this."

On the above mail, the Airtel team responded, "Dear team, We are sharing what you have shared with our seniors to respond, please allow us some time to get back to you. Please confirm what is the next phase and if you can take this website down till we confirm on next steps."

Another screenshot of Airtel data dump accessed by India Today Tech

The above mail is from December 12, 2020, as per the researcher's video shared with the India Today Tech team.

Next mail dated December 31, 2020, sees the hacker group responding with another warning. "Still you have time, we can make deal and we will not sale your database to any hostile entity or others and will also patch vulnerabilities. After few hours, we will down our website and will go for next phase...."

In the next few mails, the hackers stressed that they had access to Airtel's database and the network while the online security team kept buying more time.

The website screenshot claiming to host Airtel subscribers data

The security researcher said that the website where the user data was hosted was taken down earlier on Tuesday. It is not clear if why the hackers took down the website.
The Israel Embassy blast case on Tuesday has been officially handed over to National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the Ministry of Home Affairs, as per Government sources. The premier investigative agency NIA handles such cases that are linked to terror.

A day after the blast, the Delhi Police special cell had begun an investigation into the case and an FIR lodged. An alert was issued at all airports, important installations, and government buildings in view of the blast, and enhanced security measures were put in place by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

A copy of a threat letter addressed to the "Israel Embassy Ambassador" was recovered from the site of the blast by the Delhi Police on Monday. The letter written in English mentions the names of Gen Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force who was killed in a US airstrike in January 2020, and Iran's top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizad, who played a crucial role in the country's nuclear programme and was assassinated near Tehran in November the same year, also by the US.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday had a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express gratitude for the efforts to retain Israeli representatives following the terrorist incident near the Israeli Embassy in India. As the investigating agencies were then yet to identify any suspect related to the minor blast of January 29 near the Israeli Embassy, the Israel PMs office said that PM Modi has stated that India is committed to human society and that New Delhi will continue to cooperate with Jerusalem in the fight against terrorism.

On January 31, the Himachal Pradesh Police had also sounded an alert and intensified patrolling in Israeli-dominated areas of the state in wake of the IED blast.

READ | Delhi IED Blast: Police Detains Cab Driver Spotted In CCTV Footage; Investigation Underway

Blast near Israel Embassy

On the 29th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Israel after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off around 5:05 PM on Friday causing a minor blast. While no injuries have been reported due to the blast, the windows of few cars in the vicinity were shattered due to the impact. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has sought a report on the incident and Home Minister Amit Shah has been briefed by Delhi Commissioner, NSA Ajit Doval, and top IB officials. Doval has taken stock of the situation while enhanced security measures have been put in place. The blast took place a few kilometers from Vijay Chowk, where President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were attending the Beating Retreat ceremony that marked the culmination of Republic Day celebrations.

READ | Delhi IED Blast: Israeli-populated Areas Of Himachal Put On Alert; Patrolling Intensified

READ | Delhi IED Blast: City Police Seeks Information Of Foreigners Entering National Capital

READ | Israeli Officials May Visit India To Probe Blast Near Embassy; Bigger Explosion Suspected
SAGINAW, MI  A recent raid on a Saginaw house saw police seize 62 grams of illicit drugs, according to the Michigan State Police.

The Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team (or BAYANET) and the Michigan State Police Emergency Support Team on Thursday, Jan. 28, executed a search warrant on a Saginaw residence in the 1800 block of Vermont Street as part of an investigation into the sale of crack cocaine and heroin.

Police seized 18 grams of crack, 16 grams of heroin, and 28 grams of cocaine, as well as more than $4,000 in cash and a 2009 Dodge Ram pickup truck, according to police.

Police also arrested a 29-year-old male resident of the home on three counts of possessing a narcotic or cocaine with intent to distribute and maintaining a drug house.

The suspect was released from the Saginaw County Jail on the afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 31, pending further investigation. His name is being withheld pending arraignment in Saginaw County District Court.

Read more:

Tip leads police in Saginaw to arrest man found with guns and illegal drugs

Saginaw man accused of selling drug that caused another mans overdose death

Michigan man accused of trying to kill 5 state police by booby-trapping house

Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 21:43:25|Editor: huaxia

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Healthcare workers tranfer a patient into a hospital in New York, the United States, Jan. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday expressed the hope that the U.S. government will invite World Health Organization (WHO) experts to carry out novel coronavirus source tracing research in the United States.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview that China's arrangements for WHO experts were not transparent.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, China has always maintained close communication and cooperation with WHO on the source tracing issue in an open and transparent manner, Wang noted, adding that the visit of WHO experts to China is part of the global scientific research cooperation on source tracing. The Chinese government has provided strong support and assistance to this end.

"Chinese experts have shared a large amount of information and research results with their counterparts and conducted several rounds of in-depth exchanges on scientific issues of common concern. WHO and international experts made positive comments on this," said the spokesperson.

Virus source tracing is a complex scientific issue involving many countries and places. Many clues, reports and studies indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic had already broken out in many parts of the world as early as the second half of 2019, Wang added.

He cited the example of a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which says COVID-19 antibodies were found in blood samples from routine blood donations collected in December 2019 in the United States.

This means COVID-19 infections may have occurred in the U.S. at that time, earlier than the country's first official case on Jan. 21, 2020, he said.

"It is hoped that the U.S. side will adopt a positive, scientific and cooperative attitude and maintain transparency on the virus source tracing issue, as China has done, and invite WHO experts to carry out source tracing research in the United States, so as to make positive contributions to international anti-epidemic cooperation and scientific source tracing," he said. 
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Photo taken on Jan. 1, 2021 shows that college students assist with information registration at a hospital in Tongjiang County in central China's Sichuan Province. During winter break, students volunteer to help carry out epidemic prevention measures at train stations and hospitals, taking part in the fight against COVID-19. (Cheng Cong/Guangming Picture)

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We kind of laugh. It feels like its been Groundhog Day going all the way back to March 2020, since seemingly every few weeks we get some market-moving news. Quite frankly, over the past couple of weeks postelection, its been more of the same, said Kyle Schrad, vice president, Global Dairy and Food Operations, StoneX Financial Inc.

Though Schrad was hoping for more market and economic clarity postelection, markets still remain volatile. However, he does have projections about the coming year on foreign and domestic activity.

The first elephant

The biggest thing to keep an eye on from the dairy perspective is Chinese purchases, he said. China is the elephant in the room.

Schrad does have more of a bullish feeling about China due to the current equivalent import for food use versus equivalent imports for feed use, particularly proteins and dry whey.

The second elephant

As for the domestic market, The U.S. government and USDA has been the other big elephant in the room, as it caused a lot of the volatility, he added.

With the new Biden administration, analysts initially thought the governmental Farmers to Family Food Box program was going to transition away from direct dairy purchase into directing funds more toward Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Woman Infants and Children (WIC) payments. One of the reasons for this was the fear that the direct purchases caused too much of a market disruption and as a result, too much uncertainty. However, the most recent stimulus bill is still directing $1.5 billion toward the Food Box program.

Thats thrown the market for a loop again . . . is this a political ploy, or because of COVID-19, or because of the long lines to pick up the boxes? What do they ultimately decide to do?

I throw my hands up in the air, Schrad said during Navigating Markets for Procurement Success in 2021, a webinar hosted by StoneX Group Inc.

The USDA has pre-announced they are planning to buy $60 million of fluid milk, $50 million of butter, and another $40 million of butter and $40 million of cheese. They are still developing the rules and reimbursement rates on a dairy donation program, which has the potential to have a big impact, particularly on butter prices.

Most of this value has been announced, Schrad said. The USDA has put this out to give us the idea of what theyre going to spend. Through the year, more announcements  and clarity  should continue to come.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2021

January 28, 2021
She welcomed her first child just over a week ago.

And Dani Dyer enjoyed her first outing with her son Santiago on Tuesday, heading out for a walk with the newborn and her boyfriend Sammy Kimmence near their Essex home.

The Love Island star, 24, pushed her baby boy in his pram as the new parents grabbed a well-deserved takeaway coffee.

Outing: Dani Dyer enjoyed her first outing with her newborn son Santiago on Tuesday, heading out for a walk with the newborn and her boyfriend Sammy Kimmence

Dani took charge of her baby boy's pram while Sammy carried home the coffees and some treats.

The couple matched in their cosy padded jackets, with Dani accessorising with a pretty floral scarf.

The new mum hid any sign of sleepless nights with a pair of chic sunglasses and tied her hair back into a casual top knot.

Little Santiago, who the couple have nicknamed Santi, stayed warm in his pram for the short outing.

New mum: The Love Island star, 24, pushed her baby boy in his pram as the new parents grabbed a well-deserved takeaway coffee

Caffeine fix: Dani took charge of her baby boy's pram while Sammy carried home the coffees and some treats

After returning home doting mum Dani shared a sweet new Instagram snap of her first child modelling a personalised bobble hat, which she revealed was a gift from a friend.

Dani paid a touching tribute to her partner Sammy and their newborn son in a post shared to Instagram Stories on Saturday to mark one week since the arrival of her baby boy.

The reality star uploaded a sweet snap of herself shortly after the birth, kissing baby Santiago's head while Sammy touched his hand.

Looking good: The couple matched in their cosy padded jackets, with Dani accessorising with a pretty floral scarf

Parents: The new mum hid any sign of sleepless nights with a pair of chic sunglasses and tied her hair back into a casual top knot

She captioned the post: 'One week ago today we met the love of our lives, welling up writing this

'I love you so much @SK_2796 [Sammy] couldn't haven't got through this day without you. (sic)'

Shortly after, Dani shared a small clip of Santiago wearing a new white babygro, as she wrote: 'All fresh and clean in his @bebebordada outfit.'

The TV personality revealed the name of her son three days after giving birth, on the podcast she shares with her father, actor Danny Dyer.

Under wraps: Little Santiago, who the couple have nicknamed Santi, stayed warm in his pram for the short outing

Baby bubble: Dani and Sammy welcomed their son just over a week ago, with the Love Island star sharing regular updates on social media in the days since the birth

Unique name: The TV personality revealed the name of her son three days after giving birth, on the podcast she shares with her father, actor Danny Dyer

Sweet: Dani told fans that she and Sammy had named their newborn Santiago in a voice memo played by her dad

Dani told fans that she and Sammy had named their newborn Santiago in a voice memo played by her dad on last week's episode of Sorted With The Dyers.

Danny introduced the latest instalment of the podcast by telling listeners: 'So this episode is going to start a bit differently as we've got some massive news. It's f**king huge.

'Because I'm a grandad! Yeah, Grandad Danny is what I'm now known as. And Dani has sent a voice memo to update us, which I think is very, very lovely'

Happiness: Dani sounded emotional as she said in the voice note: 'I honestly can't believe it, he's finally here, our little boy. I never thought I'd meet him'

Glowing: 'Me and Sammy are so in love with him. He's just so perfect and the feeling is just incredible, I can't put into words how it feels,' the gushed

Spanish vibes: She then revealed his name, teasing: 'I know you're all probably wondering what we've called him

Sweet nickname: 'I know a lot of you are probably thinking, 'What?!', but that is his name, but we are going to be calling him Santi'

Dani sounded emotional as she said in the voice note: 'I honestly can't believe it, he's finally here, our little boy. I never thought I'd meet him. I felt like it was going on and on.

'But me and Sammy are so in love with him. He's just so perfect and the feeling is just incredible, I can't put into words how it feels.'

She then revealed his name, teasing: 'I know you're all probably wondering what we've called him. There's been a lot of assumptions going, some are actually really funny to be fair, but his name is Santiago.

'I know a lot of you are probably thinking, 'What?!', but that is his name, but we are going to be calling him Santi.'

She added: 'I think it sounds nice on the birth certificate.

Snoozing: Dani shared a sweet photo of her son peacefyll sleeping during the walk on her Instagram page

Gorgeous: After returning home for their walk doting mum Dani shared a sweet new Instagram snap of her first child, modelling a personalised bobble hat

Sweet: Dani paid a touching tribute to her partner and their newborn son Santiago in a new post shared to Instagram Stories on Saturday, one week on from the birth

Dani previously confirmed the birth of her son in an Instagram post. The new mother posted a picture of her cradling the newborn in her arms.

She wrote: 'After a very long day and night finally our special little boy arrived 23/01/2021 Weighing 7 pound

'We are in a complete baby bubble and enjoying every moment, can not believe he is ours, completely in love and so grateful to be his mummy

'Sending all my love to all the other mommas to be out there in lockdown the best experience ever will never forget this day. (sic)'
TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SWOP Behind Bars - in partnership with Woodhull Freedom Foundation , Metro Inclusive Health , LIPS Tampa and Big John's Bail Bonds - has set up a bail and legal assistance fund for sex workers detained by "anti trafficking" stings around this year's Big Game. Already 71 people have been arrested. Widely reported as anti trafficking initiatives, these arrests ruin lives, hurting victims and consensual sex workers alike.

This week, a small army of activists and community organizers will monitor areas where arrests trend upward in anticipation of the major sporting event.

SWOP Behind Bars' Alex Andrews will direct a network of allies to bail out those arrested on prostitution charges. While many will be released on their own recognizance (ROR), repeat offenders can face up to one year in prison in the state of Florida. Sex worker advocates will show up for first appearance hearings to bond out those not granted ROR. Additional volunteers will meet people once they are released from jail to connect them with services.

Available services and referrals include:

Bail and court fine assistance

Legal fee assistance and access to pre-vetted legal representation

Housing, SNAP and other public assistance application guidance

HIV/HEP C testing courtesy of Metro Inclusive Health

"The consequences of criminalization are devastating," says Andrews, "The public has been led to believe that increased resources for law enforcement efforts will go to 'saving' victims of sexual exploitation, when in fact arrests only hurt those they claim to help."

For more information on how to support this nationwide community of sex workers, activists and organizers visit https://www.swopbehindbars.org/national-sex-worker-bond-fund/ .

SOURCE SWOP Behind Bars

Related Links

https://www.swopbehindbars.org


Third Army boss plays down influx threat

THAILAND: The Third Army has given assurances that there will be no influx of Myanmar people into Thailand in the wake of the military seizure of power in the bloodless coup yesterday (Feb 1).

CoronavirusCOVID-19Myanmar

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 2 February 2021, 08:56AM

Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy Party converge outside the Myanmar embassy on Sathon Road yesterday to condemn the military coup and demand her release. Photo: Varuth Hirunyatheb.

Third Army commander Lt Gen Apichet Suesat, in charge of the northern region, reassured the public that there were Thai forces stationed along the Thai-Myanmar border to prevent illegal entry during the COVID-19 pandemic and anyone caught trying to cross illegally would be arrested.

Lt Gen Apichet was responding to media questions about a possible exodus after the coup.

We are closely monitoring the situation. Myanmar people themselves may not be affected, but I told soldiers to step up inspections at the border in case [Myanmar] politicians or VIPs [illegally] enter into the country to hide, he said.

He went on to say that the coup situation inside Myanmar is not likely to affect ethnic minority groups along the border as it appears that the two sides had already begun work on a fresh peace process, currently delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yesterday, Thai-Myanmar checkpoints between Tachileik and Thailands Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai closed four hours.

Tanee Sangrat, director-general of the Department of Information and spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Royal Thai Embassy in Yangon has been in close contact with state officials. For the moment, Thai citizens in Myanmar are advised to remain vigilant and follow the news and official announcements.

Myanmar is a close neighbour of Thailand and an important member of Asean. Thailand hopes to see continued peace and stability in Myanmar, and that the current situation is resolved peacefully with a return to normalcy soon for the benefit of the people of Myanmar, Mr Tanee said.

Spokesman for the Immigration Bureau Pol Maj Gen Archayon Kraithong confirmed that for the moment numbers attempting illegal crossings had not spiked.

One group of 106 illegal Myanmar workers were sent back over the border in Mae Sot, Chiang Rai yesterday, while another, also of around 100, was returned to Kawthaung, he said.

Lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science Chulalongkorn University, Naruemon Thabchumpon, said it had not exactly been a coup detat since the Myanmar constitution allows for a transfer of power to the commander-in-chief.

The constitution also allows the commander-in-chief to remain in power for a year after the seizure of power, said the academic.

A week earlier, the Myanmar military announced that it was concerned over the latest general election in which the National League for Democracy won a landslide victory, saying the election might not have been free and fair.

Protests

Meanwhile, police broke up a rally in front of the Myanmar embassy in central Bangkok yesterday as enraged Myanmar citizens demanded the immediate release of the countrys de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected politicians.

About 200 people gathered in front of the embassy on Sathon Road, supported by about 20 Thai protesters, including Parit Penguin Chiwarak, Chinawat Jankrajang, Panusaya Rung Sithijirawattanakul and Piyarat Toto Chongthep.

Most of the Myanmar protesters were migrant workers and most wore National League for Democracy (NLD) T-shirts and face masks with the NLDs white star and gold bird on it.

Although the protest was peaceful, about 150 riot police broke it up and arrested a Thai protester. At least two people were reportedly injured.

A police source said a security guard was arrested, but Mr Piyarat of the We Volunteer (WeVo) Thai pro-democracy group posted a message saying at least three people were detained.

Thailand must not endorse and legitimise this coup  as well as coup government, WeVo said in a statement.
San Antonios winter coronavirus surge continued its downswing Monday, as officials reported sustained improvements to several key measures of community transmission.

Over the past week, the positivity rate, or portion of tests that came back positive for the virus, declined 4.6 percentage points, to 11.4 percent. The number of infections per 100,000 residents has dropped to 70.1, a decrease of 10.1 points.

Overall, it is looking a lot better, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said at the daily coronavirus briefing.

The surge reached a crescendo in mid-January, when a record 1,520 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, placing enormous stress on the local health care system. The case rate rose to a staggering 103.4 per 100,000 people and the seven-day average for new cases reached 2,260, its highest level at any point in the pandemic.

On ExpressNews.com: Hospitals full. Thousands infected with coronavirus each week. San Antonio pays the price for failing to flatten the curve.

Since then, those measures have consistently fallen, along with the number of people in need of medical care for COVID-19.

However, officials warned that the virus is still circulating at high levels in the community and continues to pose a risk to residents.

Its probably the worst time to sit back and relax, because we are on a downward trajectory, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said during the briefing. We do want to maintain that trajectory.

On Monday, there were 1,171 patients being treated for COVID, about 230 fewer patients than a week ago and 350 compared with two weeks ago. In the past day, hospitals admitted 99 coronavirus patients, the fewest number of pandemic-related admissions since Dec. 26.

But it will be some time before the stress of the surge lessens on area hospitals, where patients with COVID still account for 29.7 percent of all patients. Intensive care units are still caring for 399 critically ill patients, including 244 breathing with support from a ventilator.

A high number of deaths from the surge are also expected to continue for some time, even as the threat of the virus begins to recede.

On ExpressNews.com: COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to fall in San Antonio as officials report 11 new, 72 backlogged deaths

On Monday, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District reported nine deaths from the past two weeks, raising Bexar Countys death toll to 2,152. They include a woman in her 40s, a man in his 50s, three men in their 60s and four people in their 70s.

Nirenberg said a San Antonio police officer also recently died of COVID.

Since early December, when the surge was underway in earnest, San Antonio has recorded more than 430 new COVID deaths.

San Antonio recorded 2,376 new cases, a total that included cases from Sunday, when Metro Health did not receive a report from the state laboratory. The seven-day average for new cases stands at 1,447, down from 1,722 a week ago.

To date, at least 175,530 residents in Bexar County have been infected with the virus.

With the positivity rate still more than double the 5 percent threshold health officials are aiming to reach, Nirenberg discouraged residents from hosting Super Bowl parties this upcoming weekend.

Realistically, it is not a time to be having a Super Bowl party with people outside of your household, when you know that is going to very likely result in  mathematically  someone with COVID inside of your house, he said.

Vaccine update

Even as the surge has loosened its grip on San Antonio, local officials continue to contend with problems with vaccine distribution.

On Monday, city officials announced that second-dose appointments scheduled Tuesday through Thursday at the Alamodome only would be pushed to Feb. 16-18, after a shipment from the state health department was delayed. The situation will affect more than 5,000 people, said Anita Kurian, head of the communicable disease division at Metro Health.

She said the delay was the result of the Texas Department of State Health Services attempts to migrate its vaccine distribution system from paper to electronic. During the migration, orders from San Antonio and other jurisdictions across the state were not processed in time, she added.

Per guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, second doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines can both be administered up to six weeks, or 42 days, after the first shot. Even beyond six weeks, Kurian said federal guidelines do not recommend having to restart the vaccine series.

Officials also announced that San Antonio is expecting to receive 1,000 vaccines a week dedicated to the inoculation of home-bound seniors, an effort that began Monday. Nirenberg said the city was working with Meals on Wheels and the San Antonio Housing Authority to identify eligible people to be vaccinated by the San Antonio Fire Department.

lcaruba@express-news.net
Authorities in the central Chinese province of Henan have struck off a human rights lawyer after he tried to represent one of the 12 Hong Kong protesters detained by the China Coast Guard as they tried to flee to the democratic island of Taiwan.



Ren Quanniu received a notice from the Henan provincial bureau of judicial affairs on Tuesday informing him that his license to practice had been revoked on the grounds that he "used a cult to undermine the law" in November 2018.



The letter said Ren had "seriously damaged the image of the legal profession" after he defended a member of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, which has been designated an "evil cult" by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).



Ren said he didn't believe the reason stated in the letter was the main factor behind the decision, however.



"One factor was my involvement in the Hong Kong 12 case, which was much deeper [than in the other case]," he told RFA on Tuesday. "The other was [my defense of citizen journalist] Zhang Zhan."



"I gave a lot of media interviews about those two cases, so I think they are more likely to have been the main reasons," Ren said.



Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have already suspended the license of fellow rights attorney Lu Siwei, citing his public comments on the case of the 12 Hong Kong activists detained at sea in August 2020.

'Inappropriate remarks'



Judicial authorities in Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu moved on Jan. 4 to strike Lu off, alleging that he made "inappropriate remarks" in public about the case, thereby "breaking Chinese law and professional guidelines for lawyers."



None of the attorneys hired by the families of the 12 detainees was allowed to see their clients, who had lawyers appointed for them by the local government instead.



Ren also defended Zhang Zhan, who was sentenced to four years' imprisonment in December 2020 for posting reports from Wuhan during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the city.



She was found guilty of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on the basis that she had published "false information" about the pandemic on social media sites.



Ren had given media interviews detailing her physical condition as she engaged in a hunger strike in protest at her treatment.

No regrets



Ren, who is now effectively barred from working as a lawyer in China, said he has no regrets, however.



"I think that rights lawyers in mainland China should stand with the people of Hong Kong, even if it means that they wind up losing their licenses," Ren said. "Hong Kong people have always been at the forefront of Chinese people's hopes for their own society."



"So many paid a heavy price and were arrested, and the [authorities'] persecution [of activists] has been pretty serious," he said. "I had no hesitation [in taking the case] and felt we should do our best to help them."



Hong Kong rights lawyer Albert Ho, who heads the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, said the suspension of Lu and Ren's licenses are the latest in a long litany of actions taken by the CCP against human rights lawyers in China, starting with a nationwide police operation in July 2015.



"If lawyers have no protection for their own rights, then how can they defend their clients' rights?" Ho said. "How does one defend disadvantaged groups who have no legal knowledge at all?"



"Things are moving towards a state of lawlessness [in China], slowly inching back towards the Cultural Revolution," he said, in a reference to an era of political violence and social turmoil from 1966 to 1976 under late supreme leader Mao Zedong and the Gang of Four.



Reported by Lu Xi for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
STOCKHOLM (dpa-AFX) - Swedish home appliances giant Electrolux AB (0MDT.L, 0GQ1.L, ELUXY.PK) reported Tuesday that its fourth-quarter income surged to 1.86 billion Swedish kronor from last year's 366 million kronor. Earnings per share were 6.47 kronor, up from 1.27 kronor a year ago. Operating income amounted to 2.50 billion kronor, up 160 percent. Operating margin improved to 7.4% from 3 percent last year, driven by higher prices and innovative high-margin products. The company recorded strong sales and earnings across all business areas. Net sales amounted to 33.90 billion kronor, up 6 percent from 32.01 billion kronor a year ago. Organic sales increased by 17.5%, benefiting from continued high levels of home-improvement spending as well as positive mix and price development. Further, the Board proposed a dividend for 2020 of 8 kronor per share, higher than last year's 7 kronor per share, to be paid in two equal installments. Looking ahead to fiscal 2021, visibility remains limited due to the ongoing pandemic. However, for the first half, the company anticipates demand to exceed normal seasonal levels across main markets. Assuming that consumer spending patterns start to normalize by mid-year, the company estimates that also market demand will normalize during the second half. All together, market demand for appliances for the full year 2021 will be positive in main markets. For 2021 the company expects a continued positive organic contribution from volume, price and mix driven by a favorable market demand, higher prices compensating for raw material headwind, and increases in innovation/marketing investments. 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.
Zurick Labrier, Broker Associate, ALC Zuricks strong agriculture background raised on his familys New Mexico ranch, working a cow-calf operation is the live it to know it foundation and approach we bring to all of our clients. He is a person of character with unwavering cowboy ethics and family values.

Raised in Dalhart, Texas Zurick Labrier grew up working on the family cow calf ranch in New Mexico. During his adult career he has been building relationships for 35 years in the agricultural Industry throughout the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and Northeast New Mexico into Southwest Kansas. During the last 17 years he has focused primarily on farm and ranch real estate sales for clients across the southwest. In 2011, Zurick received his Accredited Land Consultant, ALC designation and is recognized as one of the top land broker professionals in the industry year after year by the Realtor Land Institute.

Zuricks strong agriculture background raised on his familys New Mexico ranch, working a cow-calf operation is the live it to know it foundation and approach we bring to all of our clients. He is a person of character with unwavering cowboy ethics and family values who appreciates an opportunity to help others. Were fortunate to bring on Zurick as an owner of Mason Morse Ranch Company and continue our services helping clients with their farms, ranches and recreational land real estate investments. Bart Miller, Managing Broker, ALC, Mason Morse Ranch Company.

Labrier wanted to be involved with fellow land brokers who have a passion for the land along with high character and integrity as individuals, who are forward thinking in terms of marketing and industry knowledge to best serve clients in the farm and ranch real estate sector.

This is what Mason Morse Ranch Company offers to me as a land broker. All of our people have a background and a base of knowledge of the land that we deal with every day. We also try to continue our education and help each other to stay ahead of the curve to help provide the best possible service to our clients. We are a people and relationship-based business, Said Zurick Labrier. It is not about how many dollars we can report. For us we are trying to help people obtain their goals buying or selling that next piece of land.

Zurick resides in the Canyon Texas area with his wife Paula and enjoys farm, ranch brokerage, spending time with his family and new granddaughter as well as some team roping.

About Mason & Morse Ranch Company

A leading provider of farm, ranch and recreational land brokerage services throughout Oklahoma, Texas and across the American west into Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Services include traditional real estate brokerage and auction. With roots dating back to 1961 along the Roaring Fork Valley from Aspen, Colorado, the company specializes in marketing high-value and large acreage farms, working ranches and recreational land properties. Combined, Mason & Morse Ranch Company agents offer clients more than 133 years of experience in real estate land sales. Live it to Know it http://www.ranchland.com | http://www.ranchbrokers.com
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During the last election, tens of millions of Americans cast votes to reaffirm that our democracy is defined by our people, not our politicians. In an historic moment, they demonstrated our democracy works best when the people  regardless of race, heritage or even geography  can participate in our elections, and New Mexico is now among a small number of states leading in powerful, voter-first policies such as same-day registration and automatic voter registration (AVR).

And now, we have the opportunity to further improve our election system and further strengthen our democracy with what is termed back-end automatic voter registration.

As a quick refresher, New Mexicos current form of AVR includes a voter registration prompt during a persons transaction at the Motor Vehicle Division. In a 2019 landmark bill supported by Gov. (Michelle) Lujan Grisham, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto and Rep. Linda Trujillo, New Mexico implemented front-end AVR, which was a tremendous step forward in voting rights and resulted in thousands of eligible citizens registering to vote.

But front-end AVR was just a first step. I am sponsoring a bill this session which would upgrade our system to back-end automatic-voter registration. The eligible voter information would be automatically transferred to our election officials, who then send the voter a postcard providing them the opportunity to decline registration, choose a political party or update their information. Its as simple as that.

With back-end AVR, voters arent met with unexpected, potentially confusing prompts while completing a transaction at the MVD. Instead the state agency securely and automatically sends over the eligible voters accurate information to the states Office of Elections. This small upgrade will save customers and staff time at the MVD, and takes the responsibility of determining voter eligibility out of the hands of staff, reducing the risk for human error and ensuring that people who arent eligible to register are protected from inadvertent interaction with the system.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip



................................................................

Look no further than Colorado, Oregon and Nevada to find states where back-end AVR is already in action. In mid-2020, Colorado saw a significant increase in voter registrations when compared to the same period in 2016, when Colorado used a front-end system  even amid a global pandemic.

One of our states greatest strengths is its diversity. But there is much to be done to ensure the voters accurately reflect that diversity. Though we are a majority- minority state, voter analysis has shown that both Hispanic and Native American citizens are registered to vote at a lower rate than their demographic representation. With back-end AVR, we can expect voter registration to better reflect the make-up of New Mexicos people and further strengthen the foundation of our democracy.
A 73-year-old bookkeeper who was hired by a rare wine dealer after it was plundered by another employee has been jailed after stealing more than 800,000 from the company.

Patricia Mann was hired by Vintage Wines Ltd, which supplies and stores rare bottles for wealthy clients, to sort out a financial mess left by a previous worker who had defrauded the firm.

But Mann used her position at the company in Nottingham to funnel hundreds of thousands of pounds into her own account.

Owner Terry Rockley told a court: 'Patricia Mann did not just copy a terrible crime she had been entrusted to sort out, but it escalated it to an astonishing level.'

Last October thieves spent two days tunnelling into the cellar of the shop and stole 250,000 of stock - but left behind a priceless bottle once owned by Whitney Houston.

Patricia Mann was hired by Vintage Wines Ltd, which supplies and stores rare bottles for wealthy clients, to sort out a financial mess left by a previous employer - but took the opportunity to steal more money

Last October, thieves carried out the raids of the 'prized cellar' over two days. The first incident happened on October 17 when staff found two people in the cellar (pictured) who posed as new tenants from a neighbouring building

In 2016 Mann told her boss Terry Rockley that the company was having cash flow problems and in 2018 again warned the firm had a 'substantial deficit' in cash flow, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

It was discovered that Mann, who had worked for the firm since 2004, had been paying cash from the business account into her own bank.

She admitted stealing 50,000 and offered to pay it back but an investigation revealed the actual figure she took was 801,000.

Mann, from Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, admitted fraud and was jailed for three years and nine months last week.

Mr Rockley, who owns Vintage Wines Ltd, said: 'Patricia Mann did not just copy a terrible crime, she had been entrusted to sort out, but it escalated it to an astonishing level with no regard for myself, the company or the staff who trusted her.

'She ended up funding family members and benefitted greatly from the proceeds of crime.

'Hopefully now, at long last, after more than two years of investigation work and this sentence, some justice can be delivered.'

Mr Rockley was forced to sell his own personal property and cash in his pension to save the business from going bankrupt.

In the theft last year, the thieves escaped by the time police arrived to the scene and staff realised a number of bottles were missing. They gained entry by forcing their way through fire doors (pictured)

Detective Constable Chris Underwood, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: 'When Mann was hired she seemed the ideal replacement.

'She fitted in well with the company and her attitude towards running the company was described as 'second to none'.

'She had full control of the company finances, including wages, banking and cash flow forecasts.

'In 2016 the company started to show a downturn in cash flow. Mann told the victim that she had no idea why this happened and agreed that the company might well shut.

'This would have clearly been ideal for Mann as it would have covered her tracks. The victim employed new accountants to identify any issues.

'It was found that she was paying herself directly unauthorised amounts of money from the business account into her own bank account.

'Mann stole directly from the company who had held her in high esteem and she knew she was wrong in doing this.

'Greed just took over her.

'Her actions caused a huge amount of stress to not only the victim but that of other employees as they feared for losing their jobs and livelihood.'

Last year, two men were jailed after targeting the store in a series of raids. Between October 17 and 23, they attempted to carry out three burglaries, making off with some 250,000 of stock.
ANN ARBOR, MI  A drive-thru COVID-19 testing site will be established outside Briarwood Mall, according to a resolution passed by the Ann Arbor City Council.

The resolution for a special event designation at Briarwood Mall, 100 Briarwood Circle, from Feb. 20, 2021 through April 2021 for drive-thru COVID-19 testing passed unanimously at the Feb. 1 Ann Arbor City Council meeting.

Simon Properties, owners and managers of the Briarwood Mall, is requesting to host a drive-thru COVID testing site in the area of the mall south of the former Sears wing, City Planner Alexis DiLeo said in a memo to council.

The testing site will be located in an area of the parking lot zoned P (Parking). Appointments will be required, although some walk-ins may be accommodated, officials said.

Up to 50 people per day can be tested with rapid antibody and antigen tests as well as regular RT-PCR tests, which take about 10 minutes each to administer.

While City Council can designate certain locations as special events or temporary outdoor activity areas, since the COVID-19 testing site exceeds the limitations to be designated as a temporary activity, it will be allowed under special exception use approval, the memo said.

Staff recommend designating this special event until the end of 2021, longer than requested by the applicant, given the need for accessible COVID testing is likely to last beyond April 15, 2021, DiLeo said.

Washtenaw County health officials have urged residents to get tested for COVID-19 after the health department traced the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant back to the Meijer on Saline Road and the Briarwood Mall.

The Washtenaw County Health Department, MDHHS and the University of Michigan are working closely to monitor the spread of the variant, officials said.

READ MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS:

Washtenaw County Health Department alerts public to possible exposures to COVID-19 variant, urges testing

Ann Arbor restaurants welcome back customers for in-person dining

Ann Arbor proposes $83k traffic calming devices on local road




TWO DIRECTORS REPRESENTING EMPLOYEES JOIN SOITEC BOARD

Trade union CGT appoints Wisseme Allali

Trade union CFE-CGC appoints Didier Landru

Bernin (Grenoble), France, February 2, 2021 - Soitec (Euronext Paris), a world leader in designing and manufacturing innovative semiconductor materials, announces the appointment of two new Directors to Soitec's Board of Directors, representing Soitec's employees.

In accordance with article 12 of the company bylaws implemented pursuant to Article L225-27-1 et seq. of the French Commercial Code, Soitec invited the two trade unions that obtained the most votes in the first round of the elections referred to in Articles L. 2122-1 and L. 2122-4 of the French Labour Code to each appoint one Board Director representing Soitec's employees.

The CGT Soitec trade union appointed Wisseme Allali and the Metallurgie Isere CFE-CGC trade union appointed Didier Landru.

Their office term shall expire at the end of the Shareholders General Meeting called to approve the financial statements related to the 2023-2024 financial year.

The members of the Board of Directors welcome their two new colleagues.

Wisseme Allali

Wisseme Allali joined the quality department at Soitec in 2011, continuing a career as a quality specialist in various industries. She was promoted engineer in 2018, following a master's degree in continuous improvement and operational excellence. In addition,Wisseme Allali was employee representative on the company's CHSCT (health, safety and working conditions committee) from 2013 to 2015.

Didier Landru

Didier Landru is a senior expert in Soitec's innovation department, where he held various R&D positions over the past 15 years, after initial experience in a major semiconductor industry group. Didier Landru is a materials science engineer from Grenoble INP-Phelma and obtained his PhD in 2000 from the University of Grenoble-Alpes, in partnership with the University of Cambridge. In addition, Didier Landru has been an employee representative and trade union representative in various employee representative bodies.

Eric Meurice, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Soitec, said: "The Board of Directors is delighted to warmly welcome Wisseme Allali and Didier Landru to our Board. With their long-standing professional experience, they will bring important added value and ensure the representation of our employees on the highest level of Soitec's corporate governance."

"We have always attached a particular importance to the quality of the social dialogue and cohesion throughout our company, as evidenced by the numerous collective agreements signed with our trade unions. Soitec's transformation since the turnaround in 2015 was only possible and driven by our participatory approach." recalls Paul Boudre, CEO of Soitec, "The appointment of Wisseme and Didier to our Board is another step to include our employees in our governance bodies. They will bring a valuable contribution to the work and missions of the Board."

About Soitec

Soitec (Euronext, Tech 40 Paris) is a world leader in designing and manufacturing innovative semiconductor materials. The company uses its unique technologies and semiconductor expertise to serve the electronics markets. With more than 3,300 patents worldwide, Soitec's strategy is based on disruptive innovation to answer its customers' needs for high performance, energy efficiency and cost competitiveness. Soitec has manufacturing facilities, R&D centers and offices in Europe, the U.S. and Asia.

Soitec and Smart Cut are registered trademarks of Soitec.

For more information, please visit www.soitec.comand follow us on Twitter: @Soitec_EN

For additional information, please contact:

Investor Relations:







Steve Babureck

+33(0)6 16 38 56 27

+65 9231 9735



steve.babureck@soitec.com (mailto:steve.babureck@soitec.com)



Financial Media Contact:







Isabelle Laurent

+33(0)1 53 32 61 51

isabelle.laurent@oprgfinancial.fr (mailto:isabelle.laurent@oprgfinancial.fr) Contact Media



Markus PAYER (WaveL)

+352 621 968 002

markus.payer-ext@soitec.com Fabrice Baron

+33(0)1 53 32 61 27

fabrice.baron@ddbfinancial.fr (mailto:fabrice.baron@ddbfinancial.fr)

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Soitec is a French joint-stock corporation with a Board of Directors (Societe Anonyme a Conseil d'administration) with a share capital of  66,730,446.00, having its registered office located at Parc Technologique des Fontaines - Chemin des Franques - 38190 Bernin (France), and registered with the Grenoble Trade and Companies Register under number 384 711 909.





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Over 100 people, largely Christians, killed in mass attacks in DRC: Open Doors

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A militant Islamic group with an expansionist agenda has killed at least 100 people, mostly Christian, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent weeks, according to a report by the persecution watchdog Open Doors.

More than 100 people were killed in three large attacks by the Islamic extremist group called Allied Democratic Forces in the Christian-majority country, Open Doors reported.

On Jan. 14, about 46 people belonging to the Pygmy ethnic group were killed in Ituri province by suspected militants of the extremist group, which is known for attacking, kidnapping, and killing Christians, as well as training and sending jihadists to other countries in Africa.

The roughly half a million Pygmy people face extensive persecution and discrimination in the country, Open Doors noted.

On Jan. 4, about 22 civilians were estimated to be killed with guns and machetes in an overnight attack on Mwenda village in the Beni region of neighboring North Kivu province.

Militants from the Allied Democratic Forces, which is based in neighboring Uganda, killed 25 more people in Tingwe village in the same region the same day.

At least 17 nearby villagers had been murdered with machetes a week earlier in Mwenda village.

The majority of those killed in the three attacks in the Beni region were Christians.

Islamic extremist groups have a clear Islamic expansionist agenda, Illia Djadi, an Open Doors spokesperson on freedom of religion or belief in sub-Saharan Africa, said. It is a reminder of what is happening in other parts of the central Sahel region  groups like Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria, for example. The ideology, the agenda of establishing a caliphate in the region, and the way they operate is the same, and we can see how they afflict terrible suffering on innocent people.

Between Nov. 20 and Dec. 3 last year, men from the Allied Democratic Forces killed at least 30 Christians, raped 10 young women and girls, and abducted several others from churches in a string of attacks on five villages in North Kivu province, according to the Barnabas Fund.

Last October, militants believed to be from the Allied Democratic Forces killed at least 18 people, and burned down a church and several homes in an overnight attack in Baeti Village in the North Kivu province, Reuters reported at the time.

The Allied Democratic Forces was formed in 1996, merging several existing rebel groups.

In a 2020 report, the U.N. acknowledged that widespread, systematic and extremely brutal human rights abuses by the Islamic militant group could constitute, by their nature and scope, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

While the militant group has not formally linked itself with the Islamic State terrorist group, IS has claimed responsibility for some of their attacks, calling Congo the Central Africa Province of the caliphate.

DRC is at No. 40 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2021, up from No. 57 the previous year.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  A Cleveland health commissioner who was among the employees Mayor Frank Jacksons administration said could face disciplinary action after a departmental shakeup has resigned.

The Jackson administration on Monday announced the resignation of Persis Sosiak, commissioner of public health. The announcement was contained in the administrations briefing note released after hours. The administration had no other comment, other than to say the job will be posted after Sosiak leaves work on Friday.

Sosiak was one of two employees singled out for a pre-disciplinary review in September when Jackson reorganized the health department. The mayors actions followed an internal investigation.

Health Director Merle Gordon was reassigned to a lower-paying job outside of the department. Brian Kimball, who at the time was the environmental health commissioner, was elevated to interim director.



Pre-disciplinary hearings for Sosiak and the lead epidemiologist, Katherine Romig, were ordered.



The mayor ordered that a grant oversight panel be established that would regularly audit grants in the Health Department to be sure they are complying with performance targets and objectives. That followed the loss of a $1.5-million AIDS grant from the state.



An EEO investigation into complaints filed by an employee was reopened after it was determined that an initial investigation was overbroad and misleading in its assumptions.



Sosiak was the departments public health commissioner.

Romig previously resigned.

The position of chief epidemiologist and two other epidemiologist positions have been posted.

In the meantime, the city is working with Case Western Reserve University, which is providing support to strengthen the epidemiology unit.
The Egyptian embassy in the US held a virtual meeting on Monday with Congress aides from the House and Senate to discuss Cairo's stance towards the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations and developments.

The virtual meeting was attended by a large number of congressional aides from the committees of foreign relations, appropriations, military services, and specialists from the Africa subcommittee.

Egyptian Ambassador to the US Moataz Zahran briefed the aides on the negative repercussions of the Ethiopian dam's construction on the water security of Egypt and Sudan and expounded Cairo's relentless efforts to reach a comprehensive agreement on the dam's filling and operation.

During the meeting, Zahran affirmed that no party had the right to take a unilateral action and stressed Egypt's stance on the need to reach a legally binding agreement between the three sides.

Egypt is not against Ethiopia's right to development, provided that its aspirations do not harm Egypt's interests and water security, he told the aides.

Last year, the Trump administration brokered talks in Washington DC between the three sides to break the years-long deadlock in negotiations but failed to secure an Ethiopian signature on a draft agreement.

In September, the US suspended aid to Ethiopia, as the Trump administration blamed the deadlock inthe GERD negotiations on Addis Ababa's intransigence .

Ethiopia announced last July the completion of the first filling of the dam and plans to finish the second filling this year despite the absence of a legally binding agreement between the three parties.

Sudan has recently refused to participate in further talks until experts from the African Union, which has brokered several rounds of negotiations between the three sides, are given more opportunity to help bridge differences between the parties.

Egypt has accused Ethiopia of disrupting GERD negotiations and evading commitment to a binding deal.

Last night's meeting was part of a series of virtual sessions organised by the Egyptian Embassy in Washington for congressional aides, with the start of the 117th session, on regional issues of priority to Egypt's national security and to highlight Egypt's achievements in the economic, social, and political fields.

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The Monday death of storied private eye Jack Palladino raised the legal stakes for the two men accused of trying to rob him, who now could face murder charges in addition to a slew of other felony crimes.

Prosecutors have already filed charges, including attempted murder and attempted robbery, against Lawrence Thomas, 24, of Pittsburg and Tyjone Flournoy, 23, of San Francisco, whom police arrested over the weekend. But that was before Palladino died after sustaining massive head injuries in the Thursday incident.

Well likely elevate it to a murder charge once we get an opinion from the medical examiner about cause of death, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said Monday afternoon.

Boudin said prosecutors will ask a judge Tuesday to hold Thomas and Flournoy in jail during pretrial proceedings.

Palladino was in a coma and died Monday after his family removed him from life support Sunday.

Palladinos career spanned five decades, and he racked up a star-studded roster of clients that included political heavyweights and Hollywood celebrities. He worked on some of the most controversial cases of a generation, probes that involved quelling rumors about Bill Clintons mistresses, challenging the credibility of Harvey Weinsteins accusers and helping to secure a 14-year-old boys multimillion-dollar settlement against pop star Michael Jackson for alleged molestation.

His final case would be his own.

Palladinos wife and fellow sleuth Sandra Sutherland said her husband had rushed outside their Haight-Ashbury home on Thursday afternoon with his camera, ready to capture evidence against people causing mischief in the neighborhood.

With the camera strapped around his neck, Palladino took a few shots before the suspects spotted him and attempted to wrestle his camera away. Palladino struck his head on the pavement when he fell in the struggle to keep his camera, authorities said. The suspects fled without the camera.

Sutherland told The Chronicle Sunday that she didnt know what her husbands photos show, but police found that evidence very useful in apprehending these two people.

In addition to attempted murder and attempted robbery, Thomas and Flournoy face a raft of charges that could include kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury and elder abuse. Californias definition of kidnapping includes forcibly detaining someone and moving them elsewhere.

Flournoy was in the middle of three years of probation after pleading no contest to a February 2019 auto burglary. He was later one of four men arrested in November in the 2019 slaying of 33-year-old Ronisha Cook in San Francisco, but he was not charged in her death. Two others were charged and Boudin said prosecutors asked police to continue investigating Flournoy and another person in connection with that case.

Flournoy and Thomas are scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
DGAP Voting Rights Announcement: QIAGEN N.V.

QIAGEN N.V.: Release according to Article 40, Section 1 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act] with the objective of Europe-wide distribution



02.02.2021 / 22:06

Dissemination of a Voting Rights Announcement transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The AFM (the Netherlands Authority For the Financial Markets has informed us on January 29, 2021 that a notification related to our institution has been released by the AFM. The following notification has been disclosed in the relevant register on the AFM website: Date of transaction: 25 jan 2021

Person obliged to notify: JP Morgan Chase & Co

Issuing institution: Qiagen N.V.

Registration Chamber of Commerce: 12036979

Place of residence: VENLO Distribution in numbers Type of share Number of shares Number of voting rights Capital interest Voting rights Manner of disposal Settlement Convertible bond 439.323,00 439.323,00 Potential Potential J.P. Morgan Securities LLC Ordinary share 1.491.939,00 1.491.924,08 Real Real J.P. Morgan Securities Plc Equity Swap 1.020.521,00 1.020.521,00 Potential Potential J.P. Morgan Securities Plc Call-option 50.000,00 50.000,00 Potential Potential J.P. Morgan Securities Plc Ordinary share 3.268.526,00 3.268.493,31 Real Real J.P. Morgan Securities LLC Ordinary share 5.434,00 5.433,95 Potential Potential J.P. Morgan Securities Plc Equity Swap 20.800,00 20.800,00 Potential Potential J.P. Morgan Securities LLC Convertible bond 441.397,00 441.397,00 Potential Potential J.P. Morgan Securities Plc Put option 50.000,00 50.000,00 Potential Potential J.P. Morgan Securities Plc Distribution in percentages Type Total holding Directly real Directly potential Indirectly real Indirectly potential Capital interest 2,94% 0,00% 0,00% 2,06% 0,88% Voting rights 2,94% 0,00% 0,00% 2,06% 0,88% QIAGEN N.V. is not responsible for the accuracy and correctness of the notification above. The content has been taken from the relevant register of the AFM:

https://www.afm.nl/en/professionals/registers/meldingenregisters/substantiele-deelnemingen/details?id=105417

02.02.2021 The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


COLUMBUS, Ga., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac Incorporated, a leading provider of supplemental insurance products through its subsidiaries in the U.S. and Japan, today announced it has received two major recognitions while making significant strides related to gender equality and LGBTQ initiatives. The company was named a World's Most Admired Company by Fortune Magazine for the 20th year and appears on Bloomberg's Gender-Equality Index for the second consecutive year. Aflac also saw a 15-point increase in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2021 Corporate Equality Index score, reflecting the company's ongoing commitment to being a strong corporate citizen through its invigorated environmental, social and governance (ESG) program.

"More than 65 years ago, Aflac was founded on the notion that if you treat your employees well, they will take care of the business, establishing our company as a leader in corporate social responsibility," said Aflac Chairman and CEO Dan Amos. "We are pleased by these honors and are proud of our company's ongoing commitment to diversity, inclusion and fairness in all of our business practices."

"It is always an honor to be recognized by organizations at the forefront of measuring corporate cultures to ensure that our actions are aligned with the interests of consumers, shareholders, and stakeholders across the nation and the world," said Aflac Incorporated President Fred Crawford. "But beyond the accolades, these third-party validations provide a window into the priorities that we have established as a company. As we strive to deliver value to our shareholders, we are clear that being truthful to what our company stands for is as important as the products and services we provide."

As of Dec. 31, 2020, nearly 50% of Aflac U.S. employees are minorities and approximately 66% are women. At the same time, the company upholds fair and equitable compensation practices, paying men and women at par. In Japan, through its Women's Empowerment Program, Aflac surpassed its goal of reaching 30% of women in leadership positions (assistant manager or higher) one year ahead of schedule. Aflac Japan has now raised the bar and is on pace for a new target of 30% of manager or higher positions to be filled by women by the end of 2025.

In 2020, Aflac Incorporated actively responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with $11 million in contributions to provide PPE and mental health care to frontline workers while engaging in proactive measures that benefited customers and employees alike, including Aflac Japan, which contributed 500 million yen to medical institutions and health care professionals across Japan.

Aflac Incorporated provided  and continues to provide, as it has since before the Civil Rights Movement  an active voice in calling for racial justice, including working with the Congressional Black Caucus Institute to enact meaningful change. Company and senior leadership's support for the Georgia Hate Crimes Bill and its active membership with the Business Roundtable contributed to the 15-point spike in Aflac's Corporate Equality Index score.

"We realize the vital concerns that every stakeholder has about corporate integrity and governance, which is why while we view our ESG and CSR programs as robust, we know that there is always room for improvement. We are extremely proud of these awards and look forward to these achievements and more today and into the future," Crawford said.

For more information about Aflac's commitment to corporate responsibility, please visit esg.aflac.com.

About Aflac Incorporated

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) is a Fortune 500 company helping provide protection to more than 50 million people through its subsidiaries in Japan and the U.S., where it is a leading supplemental insurer, by paying cash fast when policyholders get sick or injured. For more than six decades, insurance policies of Aflac Incorporated's subsidiaries have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. Aflac Life Insurance Japan is the leading provider of medical and cancer insurance in Japan, where it insures 1 in 4 households. For 14 consecutive years, Aflac Incorporated has been recognized by Ethisphere as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. In 2021, Fortune included Aflac Incorporated on its list of World's Most Admired Companies for the 20th time, and Bloomberg added Aflac Incorporated to its Gender-Equality Index, which tracks the financial performance of public companies committed to supporting gender equality through policy development, representation and transparency, for the second consecutive year. To find out how to get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover, get to know us at aflac.com or aflac.com/espanol.

Aflac | Aflac NY | WWHQ | 1932 Wynnton Road | Columbus, GA 31999.

Media contact  Aflac - Jon A. Sullivan, 706-763-4813 or [email protected]

Analyst and investor contact  David A. Young, 706-596-3264, 800-235-2667 or [email protected]

SOURCE Aflac

Related Links

http://www.aflac.com


The reform measures announced in the budget 2021-22 are aimed at taking India out of the COVID-19-induced downturn and making the country a better destination for private investment, both for domestic and foreign investors, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Tuesday.

In an interview with PTI, Kumar further said he is confident that the government will cross the next fiscal year's disinvestment target of 1.75 lakh crore.

He also stressed that reform measures announced in the Budget will help us achieve the target of $5 trillion economy.

"The direction of the Budget 2021-22 is to accelerate growth and take India out of COVID-19 pandemic induced downturn," Kumar said. "... (the aim of budget) is also to give better access and opportunities to the private sector by improving its confidence, and making India a better destination for private investment both domestic and foreign," he added.

On disinvestment target of 1.75 lakh crore for the next fiscal year, Kumar said a lot of preparatory work has already been done in the last 8-9 months, and now market conditions have changed.

"I am confident this target (disinvestment target for 2021-22) will probably be over-achieved," he said.

Noting that for the first time, the finance minister has announced a real-time dashboard for monitoring the progress of asset monetisation and disinvestments, Kumar said, "So, there is focus on implementation this time."

The Niti Aayog VC pointed out that in the absence of strong private investor appetite, the government has to take up the running. "And we are hoping once this is done, it will attract investment both domestic and foreign and that will help us achieve a target of $5 trillion economy."

Asked how soon India can see a recovery on the job front, Kumar said the Budget has announced huge investments in the infrastructure sector which has a massive multiplier effect in related sectors.

"And for the first time, you have seen that 1.97 lakh crore has been allocated for fiscal incentives, for all those companies which will come establish plants that will improve manufacturing jobs and employment generation.

"And the seven mega textile parks, were again, labour intensity is high," he pointed out.

On the government's proposal to privatise two public sector banks and one general insurance company in 2021-22, Kumar said all the necessary preparation has to be done which includes engaging with all the stakeholders.

"As to why such a reform is essential for improving growth prospects and employment prospects of the country and why it cannot be an unending story of taxpayers money going into some direction and being wasted whether it is in public sector banks recapitalisation or in making in losses of central public sector enterprises," he said.

Kumar also emphasised that some steps have to be taken to overcome the vested interests, which are keeping the country from maximising its growth potential.

On the government's proposal to set up a 20,000 crore Development Finance Institution (DFI), he said given the climate today it is very clear that infrastructure financing needs long-term debt finance. "We have to learn from the basic mistake that the DFI should not be run on the basis of any phone banking," he said, adding they have to be managed professionally and they have to be at arm's length from the government.

Kumar expressed confidence that this time around, DFI will be able to do what it is supposed to do and attract long-term financing from overseas funds.

Commenting on the threat of rating downgrade, the Niti Aayog VC said the next fiscal year's budget has taken a very bold step to bring food subsidy in the budget and not outside.

"And the rating agencies will recognise that this budget has been more transparent and has improved the quality of expenditure by raising the share of capital expenditure," he asserted.

Noting that the extra additional budget has not been handed out in terms of subsidies, Kumar said, "therefore, I would be very surprised if there is any rating agencies which behave otherwise."

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Nurses are cheering Californias decision to end emergency waivers to hospitals and nursing homes, which have allowed the institutions to require nurses to care for more patients than state law allows at any one time.

Hundreds of nursing homes and more than 100 hospitals received the waivers since the program began in December, when surging cases of COVID-19 led to a severe nursing shortage up and down the state. Nurses staged protests when the waivers were announced, saying exceeding the cap on nurse-to-patient ratios put patients in danger.

Now, state public health officials say the nursing shortage is over, and the emergency waivers are no longer needed.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are falling across the state, after a difficult holiday surge. Across California, the number of people in the hospital with COVID dropped by 27% during the second half of January, to 1,531 from 2,107. By contrast, hospitalizations more than tripled from November to December.

Staffing resources are more readily available, with thousands of health care workers ready to deploy to individual facilities on an as-needed basis, a state public health spokesperson told The Chronicle Tuesday. As a result, the goal is to get those needed staff to the facilities rather than (issue) waivers.

State law limits intensive care unit nurses to two patients. The waiver allowed a third. In regular hospital units, nurses can care for up to five patients. The waiver let hospitals raise that to seven. Telemetry nurses, who provide cardiac monitoring, can care for four patients. With a waiver, that could rise to six.

The waivers were to expire March 1, but the state will end them on Friday.

The California Department of Public Health will no longer accept any new expedited staffing waivers, the state said in a message to hospitals on Monday that did not say why. All existing approved staffing waivers will expire on February 8, 2021 unless CDPH determines on an individual waiver basis that there is an unprecedented circumstance.

The California Nurses Association, which had said the waivers allowed hospitals to avoid hiring more nurses, greeted the news with delight.

The end of the waivers is an incredible victory for patients and nurses, because we know that safe staffing saves lives, said Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, president of the state nurses association and National Nurses United.

The states decision to allow the emergency waivers in December was the second time during the pandemic began that hospitals were allowed to temporarily exceed those patient-to-nurse ratios.

Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted the caps entirely from March through June, prompting statewide protests from nurses.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
An illegal dog breeding establishment has been discovered in Co Offaly after a joint operation was conducted by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) and Offaly County Council.

A total of 44 breeding females, nine male dogs and six litters of pups were found on the premises which had been operating without a licence.

In addition to not being legally registered, the conditions on the property fell below the standards required under the Dog Breeding Establishments Act (DBEA) and its associated guidelines.

Sixty-two dogs and puppies were surrendered by the operator of the puppy farm and taken into the care of Offaly County Council and the ISPCA where they are currently being assessed.

Read More

Offaly County Council subsequently served a closure notice on the operator, which stated that the continued operation of the farm would pose a serious threat to the welfare and safety of the animals.

An ISPCA spokesperson said: The dogs are receiving ongoing assessment and care.

Some of the puppies are very young and will be in care for many weeks and wont be available for rehoming for some time.

A high demand for dogs during lockdown has driven puppy prices up by more than four or five times their usual value, leading to a surge in the illegal puppy trade.

Read More

Illegal breeders have been cashing in on the demand for pandemic puppies, with puppy farmers stepping in to fill the supply gap.

Despite the dangers involved, people are continuing to use social media sites to buy illegally bred puppies without any information about the animals background.

The ISPCA thanked Offaly County Council for their co-operation in the case and urged the public to continue to report animal cruelty, neglect or abuse in confidence to the National Animal Cruelty Helpline on 1890 515 515 or by email to helpline@ispca.ie.
To ensure the co-existence of marine diamond and fishing industries can continue and their environmental impact is kept to a minimum, both industries are monitored and managed. According to the Chamber of Mines of Namibia, the same approach should also be considered for marine phosphate mining in Namibia, which has a comparatively smaller footprint in the marine ecosystem and will not encroach on any of the commercial activities in the marine space.

In a recent article titled "Can Phosphate mining co-exist with Namibia's commercial marine activities?", the Chamber noted that seabed mining in Namibia is not a new commercial activity.

To support these claims the Chamber points out that the combined annual footprint of the proposed phosphate mining projects is significantly smaller than marine diamond mining and fish trawling.

"Marine diamond mining and commercial fishing have co-existed, harmoniously, in the same marine ecosystem for over 25 years with adequate mechanisms in place to monitor, control, and evaluate their impact on the marine environment. The scientific evidence available, and a comparison of other areas employing similar mining methods, confirm that a mutual and harmonious co-existence of sectors is possible and the inclusion of marine phosphate mining into the marine ecosystem will neither be detrimental to Namibia's fishing sector nor her environment," the Chamber's article reads.

"For over 25 years, the marine diamond mining industry has co-existed in the same marine ecosystem as the fishing sector, allowing for both industries to become major economic contributors," the Chamber stated.

The article continued that since 2012, a conflict between the proponents of phosphate mining and commercial marine activities, which the Chamber said is fuelled by misinformation, suggests a scientifically unsubstantiated threat of potential catastrophic and irreversible damage to the marine environment and the collapse of the fishing industry.

However, the Chamber is adamant that a considerable volume of site-specific surveys, scientific studies, evidence and expert opinion conclude that marine phosphate mining, like marine diamond mining, will present no significant harm to the Benguela marine environment, can coexist without posing any threat to the commercial fishing industry and can contribute significant socio-economic benefits that are far greater than the costs to the environment, as is the case with marine diamond mining.

The Chamber's article further noted that in Namibia seabed mining for diamonds and phosphate both utilise seabed dredging technology. Similarly, the United Kingdom's marine aggregate mining industry (consisting of a fleet of 28 dredgers) has been operating for 30 years and is a similar dredging operation to that proposed by the marine phosphate industry in Namibia, only at shallower water depths. These vessels remove the top layer of sediment and transport the material to shore

"Globally, there are many current examples (United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, to name a few) where marine commercial industries, including seabed mining/dredging, oil and gas, and fishing, have co-existed effectively for many years based on the application of accepted management principles and structures for co-existence," the article reads.

The Chamber of Mines article further states that using similar dredging processes, seabed and environmental impacts of both marine diamond mining and phosphate mining operations are comparable. However, the scale of impacts differ due to the sizes of the mining areas on the seabed.

"Marine diamond mining impacts a larger area and affects greater expanses of the ocean floor ecosystems than the envisaged phosphate mining activities. Commercial demersal fishing operations (bottom trawling) also impact the seabed and marine ecosystem but are undertaken at a far larger scale than both the current and proposed seabed mining operations," the article asserts.

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The Chamber is also of the opinion that while abundant conclusive physical evidence indicates the impact of seabed excavation for marine diamond mining does alter the habitat in the mining area, it is not significant at the scale of the operations when compared to the overall marine ecosystem and that in fact the seabed does recover over time, albeit at differing rates

In Namibia, given the small size and scale of the proposed mining activities, a comforting element is that adequate controls and measures already exist in current legislation to regulate marine phosphate mining activities, alongside existing commercial marine activities (Minerals Act 1992, Environmental Act 2009).
PHOENIX, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Thunderbirds Charities awarded the Zion Institute $80K, funding the replication of its quality educational childcare model. This allows low-income families access to the same level of service private preschools provide. "Zion's approach reaches beyond childcare, equipping children for entering school, focusing on the holistic health of each family to foster an improved quality of life," said Zion's founder and CEO, Shawn Pearson.

Under the direction and support of Zion Institute, the Thunderbird Charities grant allows Life Changers Global Ministries of South Phoenix, to launch the Zion preschool model at their location. The anticipated 50 youth enrolled in the preschool will now have access to high-quality learning, laying the foundation for positive educational outcomes going forward, as well as a supportive network of relationships for the family. In honor of this event, Life Changers preschool space will be named "The Thunderbirds Charities Imagination Learning Center."

Facing stark economic, educational, health, and resource disparities, residents are in dire need of access to resources and support. One-third of the South Phoenix community lives in poverty, and 35% of residents never graduated high school. Each childcare provider will become a profitable business, creating jobs, and building economic prospects. The Zion Institute's model strengthens the families and is a critical step towards ending the school to prison pipeline.

Participation in quality early learning programs is an investment in the community's future. With a strong start, positive outcomes continue with students performing better academically, graduating high school, and pursuing higher education.

Open Table's Community Convening Process, drawing together the social capital of communities for the common good has helped fuel the Zion project. Lead convener Phoenix Police Department brings 10 representatives from business, education, healthcare, legal, and other sectors to co-invest knowledge, skills and relationships to support the preschool's operations.

ABOUT ZION INSTITUTE

Zion Institute, with its network of service partners, provides resources designed to stimulate economic growth, revitalize neighborhoods, and strengthen social bonds among people. Since 2014, Zion has helped to launch or enhance 37 resident-owned businesses, stimulating approximately $1M in economic activity in the area, and served 300 children and families through Zion Early Learning Academy.

SOURCE Zion Institute
Axiom Space

Axiom Space , a manufacturer of orbital modules, revealed the names of the four billionaire tourists who will travel to the International Space Station on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

The flight commanded by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria , - who is vice president of Axiom Space-, will have as passengers the American investor Larry Connor , the Canadian philanthropist Mark Pathy and the Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe .
UTICA, N.Y.  Oneida County declared Monday Burton Jones Day, in honor of a local 100-year-old World War II veterans birthday.

Burton Jones lives at the Masonic Care Community in Utica. He was a fighter pilot for the 457th airwing out of Fort Worth, Texas, and served as a crew chief at Iwo Jima.

A parade of local veterans, police officers, firefighters and sheriffs deputies drove by to celebrate as Burton watched out his window Monday afternoon. He also received more than 100 birthday cards from the local community and military members across the country.

Even Gen. Charles Q. Bronwn Jr., the chief of staff for the U.S. Air Force, sent Burton a birthday card.

"I just want to say thank you to everyone that sent cards. People who didnt even know my dad. People who are complete strangers. Classrooms of students sent cards and its just such an outpouring of love and kindness, said Priscilla Jones Heburn, Burtons daughter.

In addition to Feb. 1 becoming Burton Jones Day, Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol also made Burton an honorary deputy.
In the Union Budget for 2021-22, presented amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman batted for economic growth by increasing government's capital expenditure to Rs 5.54 lakh crore.

However, she resisted the temptation to hike taxes at a time when there were suggestions to increase tax rate for super-rich or levy a COVID tax. Instead, the finance minister banked on disinvestment and asset monetisation to increase government's revenue.

In her Budget speech, Sitharaman laid down an ambitious asset monetisation plan for public infrastructure which will help the government raise revenue not only in FY22 but for many more years.

Get complete coverage of the Union Budget here

"Monetising operating public infrastructure assets is a very important financing option for new infrastructure construction. A 'National Monetisation Pipeline' of potential brownfield infrastructure assets will be launched," the finance minister said in her speech.

Besides, she also announced setting up an asset monetisation dashboard to track the progress and provide visibility to investors.

The government will transfer five operational roads, with an enterprise value of Rs 5,000 crore, to the Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). It will also transfer transmission assets of Rs 7,000 crore value to PowerGrid's InvIT.

Besides, Indian Railways will monetise its Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) assets for operations and maintenance, after commissioning, while the government will also come out with the next lot of airports for monetisation through operations and management concession, the finance minister said.

Operational toll roads of NHAI, transmission assets of PowerGrid, oil and gas pipelines of GAIL, Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum, Airports Authority of India's airports in tier-II and tier-III cities, warehousing assets of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), among others, are the other infrastructure assets that will be brought under the asset monetisation programme, Sitharaman said.

The government is also banking on asset monetisation to help bring its fiscal deficit to below 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26. The finance minister pegged India's fiscal deficit at 9.5 per cent in 2020-21 and 6.8 per cent in 2021-22.

"We hope to achieve the (fiscal) consolidation by first, increasing the buoyancy of tax revenue through improved compliance, and secondly, by increased receipts from monetisation of assets, including Public Sector Enterprises and land," she said.

The fiscal consolidation path also factors in government's receipts from sale of stake in public sector enterprises, or disinvestment. The government targets to get Rs 1.75 lakh crore from disinvestment in FY22.

"In spite of COVID-19, we have kept working towards strategic disinvestment. A number of transactions namely BPCL, Air India, Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans, Neelachal Ispat Nigam limited among others would be completed in 2021-22," Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.

The government has also proposed privatisation of two public sector banks, other than IDBI Bank, and one general insurance company in FY22. "In 2021-22 we would also bring the IPO of LIC for which I am bringing the requisite amendments in this Session itself," the finance minister said.

The government has also asked NITI Aayog to prepare a list of CPSEs that can be taken up for disinvestment.

The government had set an ambitious target of raising Rs 2.1 lakh crore through disinvestment in FY21. However, adverse market conditions because of the pandemic affected its plans and disinvestment in FY21 was revised to Rs 32,000 crore in the Budget.

The disinvestment and asset monetisation plan, if executed properly, can help the government in infrastructure creation and fiscal consolidation, experts believe.

Also read: Budget 2021: LIC IPO in FY22 as government looks to resurrect poor disinvestment record

Also read: Budget 2021: Govt simplifies ITR filing; dividend, interest income, capital gains to come pre-filled
The coup followed a landslide win for Suu Kyis NLD in an election on November 8, a result the military has refused to accept citing unsubstantiated allegations of fraud. The army handed power to its commander, General Min Aung Hlaing, and imposed a state of emergency for a year. Myanmar army soldiers at a barricaded road leading to the Parliament building. Credit:AP Min Aung Hlaing told the first meeting of his new government on Tuesday that it was inevitable the army would have to take power after its protests over alleged election fraud last year. Despite the Tatmadaws (army) repeated requests, this path was chosen inevitably for the country. Until the next government is formed after the upcoming election, we need to steer the country, Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying by army information service.

The election and fighting COVID-19 were the juntas priorities, he said. He had earlier promised a free and fair election and a handover of power to the winner, but without giving a timeframe. The electoral commission has dismissed the fraud claims. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The NLDs executive committee demanded the release of all detainees as soon as possible. In a post on the Facebook page of senior party official May Win Myint, the committee also called for the military to acknowledge the election results and for the new parliament to be allowed to sit. It had been due to meet on Monday for the first time since the election.

Various activist groups on Tuesday issued a flurry of messages on social media urging civil disobedience. Loading Suu Kyi endured about 15 years of house arrest between 1989 and 2010 as she led a democracy movement against the military, which had seized power in a 1962 coup and stamped out all dissent until her party came to power in 2015. Her international standing as a human rights icon was badly damaged after she failed to stop the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims in 2017 and defended the military against accusations of genocide. She remains hugely popular at home and is revered as the daughter of Myanmars independence hero, Aung San. International condemnation

US President Joe Biden called the crisis a direct assault on Myanmars transition to democracy. We will work with our partners throughout the region and the world to support the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, as well as to hold accountable those responsible for overturning Burmas democratic transition, Biden said in a statement. A man reads at a newspaper, which reports on the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar on Tuesday. Credit:AP The United Nations also condemned the coup and called for the release of detainees, in comments echoed by Australia, the European Union, India and Japan as well as former colonial ruler Britain. China did not join the condemnation, saying only that it noted the events and called on all sides to respect the constitution. The streets of Myanmar were quiet on Tuesday as they have been for weeks because of the coronavirus. Troops and riot police took up positions in Naypyitaw and the main commercial centre Yangon.

Phone and internet connections had been restored and banks in Yangon reopened after halting services on Monday due to poor internet connections and amid a rush to withdraw cash. Myanmars international airport in Yangon will stay closed until April or even May, its manager, Phone Myint, said. He did not say why. Immediate response One of the first calls for specific action to oppose the coup came from the Yangon Youth Network, one of Myanmars biggest activist groups. Any street protests will raise alarm in a country with a grim record of military crackdowns.

Chinas state Xinhua news agency quoted a military official as saying most regional and state leaders who were detained during the takeover were released on Tuesday. Loading The chief minister of the Sagaing region, Myint Naing, told the BBC after his release that he had been treated well. I worry for the future of the nation. We hoped for the best but the worst is happening, he said. The coup marks the second time the military has refused to recognise a landslide election win for the NLD, having also rejected the result of 1990 polls that were meant to pave the way for multi-party government.

analysis

Zimbabwe reported a 65% decline in positive Covid-19 cases over 72 hours. A closer inspection reveals that testing dropped by 59% over the same period amid the extension of a hard lockdown by another two weeks.

A more aggressive second wave of Covid-19 has put pressure on Zimbabwe's dysfunctional public health system, and further eroded confidence in the ability of the government to safeguard its citizens who are unable to afford private healthcare.

Health workers at major public hospitals have been embarking on sporadic strikes since 2020 because of lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) among other essentials, while the government insists that all is under control.

Authorities have accused the media of peddling falsehoods and exaggerating the coronavirus situation in the country.

Addressing journalists in the capital on 25 January, the Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Permanent Secretary, Aaron Nhepera, said: "Government has noted with deep concern the recent developments where mainstream media and individuals are spreading falsehoods on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the nation's leadership.

"It is unacceptable and unethical to publicise falsehoods in a democratic society. Let us be reminded that such acts have the effect of causing alarm and despondency, not only to the...
Washington  US President Joe Biden on Monday named Dr. Raj Panjabi to lead the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI).

Mr. Panjabi's grandparents were refugees from Sindh Province following the British Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, resettling in Mumbai and Indore in India. A generation later, Panjabi's parents migrated to West Africa, where Panjabi was born and raised in Monrovia, Liberia. After civil war broke out in Liberia in 1989, Panjabi, at age nine, and his family fled on a rescue cargo plane to Sierra Leone and eventually sought asylum in the United States, resettling initially with a host family in High Point, North Carolina.

The ascendance of Dr. Punjabi is likely to resurrect debate over Liberia's controversial citizenhip laws which confers nationality solely on the basis of race.

'Racist Clause' Controversy

Upon assuming the presidency in January 2018, President George Weah called for the removal of what he described as a "racist" clause in the constitution which restricts citizenship to black people.

Under the current Liberian constitution, only persons of black African origins may obtain citizenship, although Liberian law allows members of other races to hold permanent residency status. Within Liberia itself, the wider implications of the policy are part of a heated debate in which some native Liberians themselves have acknowledged that non-black African permanent residents are crucial contributors to the country's economic activities and innovation system, mainly the Lebanese community.

Features of the first constitution that have been upheld include: Article V, Section 13 of the 1847 Constitution which states: "The great object of forming these Colonies, being to provide a home for the dispersed and oppressed children of Africa, and to regenerate and enlighten this benighted continent, none but persons of colour shall be eligible to citizenship in this Republic." The phrasing "persons of colour" was changed to "Negroes or persons of Negro descent" in a 1955 revision.

The Liberian legislature was charged with establishing criteria for naturalization. All applicants must be black Africans to be naturalized.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, Liberia has a stateless population in large part due to the high numbers of women who fled the country during its civil wars from 1989 to 2003 and gave birth to children, during their time in exile, with foreigners. "In Liberia, this has left an estimated 4,000 children inside Liberia potentially stateless and nearly 3,200 children outside the country potentially stateless; but the number could be higher. Without a nationality, many of these children cannot go to school, receive medical care or travel freely outside of the country," according to the UNHCR.

The December 2020 referendum which fell short of passage, only sought to amend Article 28 of the constitution seeking to grant citizenship automatically if both parents were Liberian citizens at the time of their birth.

The amendments proposed require only one parent to be a Liberian citizen, removes the ability of the government to legislate to remove citizenship of natural born citizens and prohibits citizens with dual citizenship from holding senior positions, including justices of the Supreme Court, ministerial positions, heads of government agencies, ambassadorships and the chief of staff and deputy chief of staff of the military.

'Grateful for Chance to Serve'

In social media posts Monday, Dr. Punjabi trumpeted his Liberia ties.

Dr. Punjabi wrote:

After being sworn in this morning, I'm honored to share that I've been appointed by President Biden as the President's Malaria Coordinator to lead the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI). I'm grateful for this chance to serve.

My family and I arrived in America 30 years ago after fleeing civil war in Liberia. A community of Americans rallied around my family to help us build back our lives. It's an honor to serve the country that helped build back my own life as part of the Biden-Harris Administration. In the face of unprecedented crises, I am humbled by the challenges our country and our world faces to build back better. But as I have learned in America: we are not defined by the conditions we face, we are defined by how we respond.

As a doctor and public health professional that has cared for patients alongside local health workers, Ministry of Health officials and staff at the President's Malaria Initiative, US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and our partners, I've been inspired by how they've responded to fight malaria, one of the oldest and deadliest pandemics, and saved lives around the world. As it is for many of my colleagues, this mission is personal for me. My grandparents and parents were infected with malaria while living in India. As a child in Liberia, I fell sick with malaria, and as a doctor serving in Africa, I have seen this disease take too many lives.

I've seen how PMI and its partners have responded, with resolve, in the countries where it operates. I've seen the relief on the faces of parents whose children survived malaria because they were treated with medicines and by health workers backed by its support. And I've seen how these investments to fight malaria can strengthen health systems where they are weak -- helping stop other epidemics at their source and keeping us all safer.

I'm privileged to serve with and learn from the teams at PMI, USAID, CDC and our partners. Together, we will fight malaria. We will save lives. We will build health systems. And, together, we will work to eliminate malaria once and for all.

Dr. Panjabi graduated with bachelor and medical degrees from the University of North Carolina School at Chapel Hill and received a Masters of Public Health in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School, and trained in internal medicine and primary care at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

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In the United States, Panjabi trained and worked as a clinical provider in community health systems in rural Alaska, North Carolina and Massachusetts.

Co-Chaired Panel with Ex-President Sirleaf

Dr. Punjabi is the co-founder and CEO of Last Mile Health. Panjabi serves as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital Beck Visiting Social Innovator at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

In July 2020, Panjabi was appointed Advisor to former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Co-Chair (with former Prime Minister Helen Clark) of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

The Independent Panel is charged with carrying out an independent, impartial, comprehensive evaluation of the World Health Organization and the international health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and making recommendations to Member States for strengthening global preparedness and response to the next pandemic.

Dr. Panjabi was named as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2016, one of TIME's 50 Most Influential People in Health Care in 2018, received the 2017 TED Prize, and was listed as one of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune in 2015 and in 2017.
The Supreme Court Monday asked instant messaging app WhatsApp to file response on a plea seeking a direction to the RBI and the NPCI to ensure that data collected on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platforms is not shared with their parent company or any other third party under any circumstances.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said if WhatsApp does not file its reply, then the averment made in the writ petition filed by petitioner Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam will be taken as accepted.

Several interlocutory applications have been filed in the plea which also seek direction for framing regulation to ensure that data collected on UPI platforms is not exploited or used in any manner other than for processing payments.

Senior advocate Arvind Dattar, appearing for WhatsApp India, said however no formal notice has been issued to it in the plea for impleadment in the matter.

Senior advocate V Giri, appearing for Reserve Bank of India, informed the top court that they have filed their reply in the matter.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, also appearing for WhatsApp, said 'WhatsApp Pay' has received all necessary permission.

Senior advocate Krishna Venugopal, appearing for the petitioner, said the last time the court asked the company if Israeli sypware Pegasus has breached their system, it stated that the issue was not pleaded in the petition, which is wrong.

The bench said that it proposes that the petition be tagged with a similar plea pending in the top court and asked the Centre to file an affidavit on the issue of spyware.

Venugopal said that till date Facebook and WhatsApp have not filed a counter-affidavit in the matter, despite the petition being pending for months and they should also be asked to file counter-affidavit.

At the fag end of the hearing, the CJI told the counsels for WhatsApp that pleas challenging its new privacy policy are pending before the Supreme Court and posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks.

In its affidavit, the RBI has told the top court that it has no responsibility to conduct audit of members of United Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem and responsibility to ensure that private firms like Google and WhatsApp comply with norms lies with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

The RBI also said that the matters related to data privacy and data sharing are the domain of the central government.

It also sought dismissal of the PIL filed by Viswam seeking direction to it to frame regulation to ensure that data collected on UPI platforms is not exploited or used in any manner other than for processing payments.

The affidavit said: It is submitted that RBI's directions issued vide circular dated April 6, 2018 on storage of payment system data pertain only to payment date storage and not sharing or privacy.

RBI has not issued any instructions on data sharing by TPAPs (Third Party Application Providers) or the participants of UPI. Matters related to data privacy and data sharing come under the domain of Government of India.

It said that since NPCI is the owner and operator of the UPI, it would be more appropriate for them to respond on the status of compliance of WhatsApp with the system rules /procedural guidelines governing UPI".

Earlier, WhatsApp had denied in the court the allegations that its data can be hacked by Israeli sypware Pegasus, which had led to a controversy last year over breach of privacy following claims that Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities.

Prior to this, the apex court on October 15, last year had issued notice to RBI and others on the plea of Viswam seeking direction for framing regulation to ensure that data collected on UPI platforms is not exploited or used in any manner other than for processing payments.

It had also sought responses of the Centre, RBI, NPCI and others including Google Inc, Facebook Inc, WhatsApp and Amazon Inc on the plea.

The RBI and NPCI have permitted the three members of 'Big Four Tech Giants' i.e. Amazon, Google and Facebook/WhatsApp (Beta phase) to participate in the UPI ecosystem without much scrutiny and in spite of blatant violations of UPI guidelines and RBI regulations, the plea has claimed.

The plea has alleged that this conduct of RBI and NPCI put the sensitive financial data of Indian users at huge risks, especially when these entities have been continuously accused of abusing dominance and compromising data, among other things.

It said these allegations have become particularly worrisome at a time when India has banned host of Chinese applications on the ground that those applications were or could be used for data theft and could lead to security breaches.

It has further sought a direction that RBI and NPCI should ensure that WhatsApp is not permitted to launch full scale operations of 'WhatsApp Pay' in India without fulfilling all legal compliances to the satisfaction of the court regarding requisite regulatory compliances.
Two men who were shot by deputies and arrested after separate chases about 12 hours apart in West Bexar County were identified Monday.

At about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, authorities received a call that Daniel McCloud was firing guns from his window in the 2600 block of Muddy Peak Drive, according to the Bexar County Sheriffs Office.

McCloud, 38, was then standing outside his home and allegedly pointed two guns at two deputies when they arrived. Both deputies, a 19-year veteran and an 11-year veteran, fired multiple shots at McCloud, hitting him several times.

After he was struck, officials said McCloud tried to flee in his vehicle. He abandoned the vehicle moments later down the street and was taken into custody.

On ExpressNews.com: Fiesta San Antonio postponed until June but signature parades canceled, officials say

Officials said deputies placed tourniquets on McCloud before he was transported to University Hospital. McCloud has since been booked on two counts of aggravated assault against a public servant. His bail totals $150,000.

At 10:21 p.m., deputies with the traffic safety spotted Samuel Eric Castillo, 19, allegedly driving recklessly in the 4600 Block of Southwest Military Drive. He was traveling at 80 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone, Sheriff Javier Salazar said Saturday.

Deputies attempted to stop the sedan, but Castillo kept going. During the ensuing chase, he pointed a realistic pellet gun at the deputies, Salazar said.

The pursuit came to an end in the 6500 block of Westfield, about 5 miles from where it began, officials said Monday.

Castillo exited the vehicle and allegedly aimed the pellet gun at deputies, officials said. One deputy fired several rounds at Castillo striking him in the arm, officials said.

He was arrested and transported to University Hospital for treatment, the sheriffs office said. The deputy who fired the shot has been with the department for one year.

The deputies involved in both shootings were not injured and have been placed on administrative duty, a BCSO spokesman said.

Castillo has since been charged with two counts of aggravated assault against a public servant and evading arrest. His bail totals $225,000.

He was previously arrested on Dec. 20 and charged with retaliation as well as aggravated assault causing bodily injury-married, court records state. He had been out on bonds totaling $7,000.

On ExpressNews.com: Coronavirus transmission declines in San Antonio with improvements to positivity, case rates

Saturdays incidents are the third and fourth officer-involved shootings in less than a week.

The first occurred Tuesday when Felix Santos, 48, led authorities on a pursuit that started in Atascosa County and ended in front of a San Antonio elementary school. Santos was then hit multiple times during a shootout with Bexar County deputies and died at a local hospital Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, Erick Mejia, 26, was pulled over while driving a tractor-trailer rig near Interstate 35 and South Zarzamora Street and ran from the truck into South Park Mall. When he exited the mall, he was shot and killed by San Antonio police after raising a gun near officers.

None of the officers or deputies involved in these shootings have been identified.
The ABC and Nine have been ordered to pay Chinese-Australian businessman Chau Chak Wing $590,000 in damages after a Federal Court judge found the media outlets defamed him by suggesting he paid bribes in the form of political donations.

The media outlets said they were deeply disappointed by the judgment and urged state and territory legislators to take urgent steps to pass reforms to defamation laws that have been agreed upon by a national working group.

Mr Chau launched defamation proceedings in July 2017 against the ABC, Nine Entertainment Co and journalist Nick McKenzie, an investigative reporter at the Nine-owned The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, over a Four Corners broadcast presented by McKenzie in June that year.

Businessman Chau Chak Wing leaves the Federal Court in Sydney in 2018. Credit:Peter Rae

In a statement of claim, Mr Chaus lawyers alleged the program defamed their client in six ways, including by suggesting he is a spy who betrayed his country, Australia in order to serve Chinas interests; carried out the work of a secret lobbying arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the United Front Work Department; and paid large sums to Australian political parties as bribes intended to influence politicians to favour the CCP.
The second supermajor to report full-year results, BP, said today it had lost $5.7 billion last year because of the oil price slump and demand destruction caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Weaknesses in the gas market also contributed to the negative net result, BP noted in its filing, which compared with a profit of $10 billion for the previous year.

During the last quarter of 2020, the company eked out a profit, but it was below estimates due mostly to weaker downstream demand.

The UK-based supermajor is among the most ambitious in the sector when it comes to a renewable shift and the pandemic probably added motivation for its efforts as the industry watched oil prices sink, rendering billions of barrels of oil unprofitable.

As part of its transition efforts, BP said it will reduce its oil and gas production by 40 percent by 2030 while boosting investments in renewable energy by $5 billion a year in the same periodten times its current level of investment in low-carbon energy.

The company also said it will divest assets worth $25 billion over the next five years, which should help it weather the adverse effects of its core business plans, notably lower oil and gas revenues.

Most recently, the company sold a third of its 60-percent stake in an Omani gas block to the national oil company of Thailand. The price tag of the deal was $2.6 billion. Last year, BP also sold its petrochemical business for $3.5 billion. So far, more than half of the $25-billion divestment target has been reached, BP said in its 2020 financial report.

BP also reported net debt of $39 billion at the end of 2020, down by $6.5 billion from 2019. Operating cash flow stood at $13.8 billion for the year, excluding payments made as compensation for the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

This year, BP expects the oil market to rebalance thanks to OPEC+s efforts and prices to recover. Gas prices should also recover as tighter supply drives them up internationally, the supermajor said.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
There has been no lockdown for the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in Egypt, but the cultural scene was nonetheless hit hard. The Panorama of European Film hosted by Zawya Art House, for example, was scheduled to take place last month. But due to governmental measures to curb the spread of the virus, Zawya head filmmaker-producer Marianne Khoury announced that the Panorama would be postponed till further notice. Most cultural centres also closed, so did cinemas like Zamalek. Other movie theatres are holding only commercial screenings at a low capacity.



It was in this context that I recalled, again, the two classic movies that I regard as the most significant films in Egyptian cinema; Youssef Chahines Cairo Station (1958) and Kamal El Sheikhs Al-Leila Al-Akhira (The Last Night, 1963). The latter was selected to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964. I saw it for the first time only a few years ago, but Ive come to regard it as one of the most underrated masterpieces ever made. Unlike Chahines work, which is widely celebrated and viewed, El Sheikhs is often  unjustly  forgotten.

When I realised tomorrow marks El Sheikhs birthday, it felt like the perfect time to organise my own little retrospective.Born on 5 February 1919 in Menofiya, EL Sheikh joined the team of Studio Misr in 1937 and was trained by the late famous director Niazi Mustafa, the head of the editing department at the time.

It came as no surprise for me that he started his career as a film editor. His debut in filmmaking was Al-Manzil Rakam 13 (House Number 13, 1952), starring Faten Hamama and Emad Hamdi, with a screenplay co-written by El Sheikh and Ali Al-Zorkani.

It spelled the birth of an extraordinary filmmaker, with a work built around the real-life case of a Scottish doctor who used to hypnotise one of his patients to commit crimes through him. It not only established his credentials but created his trademark, with a slow-burn psychodramas and suspense earning him the title of the Hitchcock of Egyptian cinema. His virtuosity is especially evident in pacing, with an uncanny ability to keep the viewer hooked and breathless till the last moment.



Exploring El Sheikhs world is an engrossing experience. Watching The Last Night one more time proved as stimulating as before. The psychodrama is set on 5 October 1942, as Hamamas narration specifies. This is the date of Nadia Borhans wedding, but when Nadia wakes up that day she finds herself in her sister Fawzias bed. Her brother-in-law walks in and, calling her Fawzia, behaves as though she were his wife. Later she finds out it is her daughters wedding and the house will be filled with guests. But Nadia keeps her cool as she endeavours to understand what is going on.

The powerful premise is effectively pursued, with El Sheikh pacing things perfectly as the story is plotted. Alongside excellent performances from the two male leads, Mahmoud Morsi and Ahmed Mazhar, Hamama gives an exemplary performance  a true lesson in acting  with inner turmoil balanced against outer calm in astonishing ways.



Though he acknowledged Hitchcocks influence, in a televised interview El Sheikh cited Fritz Langs The Woman in the Window (1944) as his major source of inspiration. The most important and the most difficult stage in making a film is the screenplay, he told the host. I have to be convinced of the incidents in the script so that my style can come through in the film.

Using this method, El Sheikh spent an average of two years to make a film like Al-Suoud Ila Al-Hawya (Ascent to the Abyss, 1978) or Qahir Al-Zaman (Time Conqueror, 1987), the latter, a science fiction classic  and a rare thing indeed in Arab cinema  being his last film. Asked about working with actors, he gave a brilliant answer: When we do the rehearsals, I ask the actors not to give their full performance. I want the full performance to come out in front of the camera. I dont wish to drain the actor, I prefer to save their emotions and energy for the camera.

El Sheikh often joined forces with the late screenwriter and director Rafaat El-Mihi and so they founded a production company together.

Their first production was El Sheikhs Ala Maan Notlek Al-Rasas (Who Should We Shoot, 1975), another classic example of tightly controlled suspense in the service of a political message. After a powerful and suspenseful opening  in which the actor Mahmoud Yassin is seen asking to meet the chairman of one of the leading government owned real estate companies, only to shoot the man dead once he enters his office  the film quickly becomes a statement on corruption and decadence.

It tells the dual stories of the man who is shot (Gamil Rateb) and his killer, later hit by a car  as well as their wives, played by Soad Hosni and Fardous Abdel-Hamid, respectively  as they lie side by side in the same hospital.

In 1970, before the launch of their production company, El Sheikh and El-Mihi collaborated on the film Ghoroub wa Shorouk (Sunset and Sunrise), based on Gamal Hammads novel with a screenplay by El-Mihi.

Set on 26 January 1952 in the wake of the Cairo Fire, the film follows Madiha (Soad Hosni), the daughter of Azmi Pasha the head of the secret police (brilliantly played by Mahmoud Al-Meligi), as she ends up alone at the flat of her husband Samirs womanizer friend Essam (Roushdy Abaza), who is hit by a car and, not knowing she is his wife, asks Samir to go to the flat to let her know and let her out.This eventually results in Azmi Pasha having Samir (Salah Dhulfuqar) killed and Madiha marrying Essam, who as it turns out is a political dissident who uses the opportunity to end Azmi Pashas career.

El Sheikh also directed films based on the novels Al-Leiss Wal Kelab (The Thief and the Dogs, 1962) and Miramar (1969) by Naguib Mahfouz, Al-Ragol Alladhi Faqad Dhelo (The Man Who has lost his Shadow, 1968) by Fathi Ghanem, and Shiee fi Sadry (Something in My Heart, 1971) by Ihsan Abdel-Quddous.Another remarkable film is Al-Tawous (The Peacock, 1982), starring Nour El-Sherif, Laila Taher, Raghda and Salah Zulfakar, with a screenplay by Abdel-Hai Adeeb. Hamdi (Nour El-Sherif) is secretly in love with his sister-in-law Samiha (Raghda). Confronted by his wife Nadia (Laila Taher) on their anniversary, he ends up having a car accident that temporarily paralyses him. But when he is able to walk again Hamdi keeps it a secret so as to carry out his plan of murdering Nadia  only to be exposed thanks to Nadias uncle (Salah Zulfakar) and a peacock-shaped brooch.

Here as elsewhere in his work El Sheikhs brand of suspense is subtle, and his unhurried pace makes it all the more effective. In Haya aw Mout (Life or Death, 1954), for example, a little girl picks up the medicine for her father and leaves before the pharmacist realises he made a fatal mistake in the preparation and attempts to find her to save the mans life.El Sheikh died in 2004 at the age of 84, having received the State Appreciation Award in Arts in 1991.

Filmography:



*1952: Al-Manzil Rakam 13 (House Number 13)



*1953: Mouamra (Conspiracy)



*1954: Haya aw Mout (Life or Death)



*1955: Hob wa Demou (Love and Tears)



*1956: Hob wa Eadam (Love and Execution)



*1956: Al-Gharib (The Stranger)



*1956: Ard Al-Ahlam (The Land of Dreams)



*1957: Togar Al-Mout (Death Merchants)



*1957: Al-Malak Al-Saghir (The Small Angel)



*1957: Ard Al-Salam (Land of Peace)



*1958: Sayedet Al-Qasr (Lady of the Palace)



*1959: Min Agl Hobi (For the Sake of My Love)



*1959: Min Agl Emraa (For the Sake of a Woman)



*1959: Qalb Yahtarek (A Burning Heart)



*1960: Malak wi Shitan (An Angel and a Devil)



*1960: Hobi Al-Wahid (My Only Love)



*1961: Lan Ataref (I Wont Confess)



*1962: Al-Leiss Wal Kelab (The Thief and the Dogs)



*1963: Al-Leila Al-Akhira (The Last Night)



*1963: Al-Shitan Al-Saghir (The Little Devil)



*1965: Al-Khaaena (The Unfaithful)



*1966: 3 Prisoners



*1967: Al-Mokhareboun (Saboteurs)



*1968: Al-Ragol Alladhi Faqad Dhelo (The Man Who has lost his Shadow)



*1968: Aboul Houl Al-Zogagi (The Glass Sphinx)



*1969: Miramar



*1969: Beir Al-Herman (The Well of Deprivation)



*1970: Ghoroub wa Shorouk (Sunset and Sunrise)



*1971: Shiee fi Sadry (Something in My Heart)



*1974: Al-Hareb (The Fugitive)



*1975: Ala Maan Notlek Al-Rasas (Who Should We Shoot)



*1978: Wa Thalethoum Al-Shitan (The Devil Makes Three)



*1978: Al-Soud Ela Al-Hawya (The Ascent to the Abyss)



*1982: Al-Tawous (The Peacock)



*1987: Qahir Al-Zaman (The Time Conqueror)

*A version of this article appears in print in the 4 February , 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Joseph Flavill, a 19-year-old emerged from a 10-month long coma and has no knowledge of the novel coronavirus outbreak despite having caught the disease twice, reports The Guardian. The teenager was hit by a car reportedly while walking in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire on March 1, 2020, which was just three weeks before UK imposed the first national lockdown to curb the drastic spread of COVID-19. Flavill spent months in a coma after suffering a traumatic brain injury but slowly began recovering and eventually started responding.

His aunt, Sally Flavill Smith told the media outlet that the 19-year-old wont know anything about the pandemic that has already claimed more than 103 million lives across the globe. Sally also disclosed that hes been asleep for 10 months and even though his awareness has started to improve, the family doesnt know what he knows. She also said Ive got no idea how Joseph is going to react when he will fully understand the present situation especially when she herself wouldnt have believed if someone told her about the last year when the world went standstill because of the pandemic.

Sally told the media outlet, I just dont know where to start with it. A year ago if someone had told me what was going to happen over the last year, I dont think I would have believed it. Ive got no idea how Josephs going to come to understand what weve all been through.

Read - Prince Harry Accepts Apology, Wins 'significant Damages' In UK Libel Suit

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Family is trying to explain Joseph over video calls

As per the report, Flavill family is trying to explain Joseph over video call because they are unable to be with him in person due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, they have not attempted to explain the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic. While talking to the media outlet, Sally said that when Joesph is in his room hes not going to have any idea why hes there. Nevertheless, the family has been trying to break it down to him why they cant be with him or hold hands because of COVID-19.

Further, Sally reportedly also said that they are trying to keep it as simple as possible and noted that they do not have time to go into the COVID-19 pandemics huge explanation because it just doesnt feel real does it?. Josephs aunt said that  When he can actually have the face-to-face contact, that will be the opportunity to actually try to explain to him what has happened.

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Berwyn, Pennsylvania--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2021) - Annovis Bio Inc. (NYSE American: ANVS), a clinical-stage drug platform company addressing Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases, today announced study data showing that a combination treatment using the Company's lead candidate ANVS401 and pifithrin-a (PFT-a) after stroke improved mice locomotor activity and cognitive function more so than treatment with just one or the other agent.

The published study, "Sequential combined Treatment of Pifithrin-a and Posiphen Enhances Neurogenesis and Functional Recovery After Stroke," was conducted by Yu "Agnes" Luo, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

The study challenged mice with MCAo-induced stroke (middle carotid artery occlusion induced stoke) and after four weeks, the number of surviving neurons was quantified and the locomotor function, behavior, and cognition of the mice were evaluated.

While both treatments yielded improvements in locomotor and cognitive function, the combined ANVS401/PFT-a treatment proved able to enhance stroke-induced endogenous neurogenesis and improve the functional recovery in stroke animals. The combined treatment also significantly improved cognitive function more than the single treatment with PFT-a alone.

"This study adds another animal model of neurodegenerative disorders to our existing panel of animal models," commented Maria Maccecchini, Ph.D., CEO of Annovis Bio. "To date we have shown that ANVS401 fully recovers memory and learning in animals with Alzheimer's disease, Down syndrome and traumatic brain injury, fully recovers function in animals with Parkinson's disease and frontotemporal dementia, and recovers sight in rats with glaucoma. In this study we have found that our drug fully recovers cognition and function in stroke mice. Each successful study further supports our plans to move into late-stage studies of ANVS401."

About Annovis Bio

Headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Annovis Bio, Inc. (Annovis) is a clinical-stage, drug platform company addressing neurodegeneration, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's in Down Syndrome (AD-DS). We believe that we are the only company developing a drug for AD, PD and AD-DS that inhibits more than one neurotoxic protein and, thereby, improves the information highway of the nerve cell, known as axonal transport. When this information flow is impaired, the nerve cell gets sick and dies. We expect our treatment to improve memory loss and dementia associated with AD and AD-DS, as well as body and brain function in PD. We have two ongoing Phase 2a studies: one in AD patients and one in both AD and PD patients. For more information on Annovis, please visit the company's website: www.annovisbio.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release contain "forward-looking statements" that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "expect," "believe," "will," "may," "should," "estimate," "project," "outlook," "forecast" or other similar words, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the timing, effectiveness and anticipated results of ANVS401 clinical trials. Forward-looking statements are based on Annovis Bio, Inc.'s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate, including that clinical trials may be delayed. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled "Risk Factors" in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Annovis Bio, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

Investor Relations:

Dave Gentry, CEO

RedChip Companies Inc.

407-491-4498

Dave@redchip.com

SOURCE: Annovis Bio, Inc.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/73425
Americas oldest brewery is making a bold move with its latest mango-infused release sold in brightly colored cans.

D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc. in Pottsville announced today it is releasing Raging Eagle Mango Beer, a pilsner made with natural mango flavor.

We saw an opportunity to leverage our six generations of brewing expertise to create a refreshing mango beer that appeals to adventurous drinkers and adds a bold new brand to our portfolio of iconic beers, said Jen Yuengling, sixth generation brewer.

Raging Eagle, she added is geared toward beer consumers ages 21 to 35.

READ MORE: Pa. craft brewers adapt as they face uncertain future due to coronavirus pandemic

Yuengling describes Raging Eagle as contemporary, edgy and flavorful brewed for those looking for bold, invigorating flavor in their next beer adventure. Raging Eagle is brewed with classic hops and clocks in at 6.0% alcohol by volume.

The beer will be sold year-round in 24-ounce cans at convenience stores in 22 states where Yuengling beer is carried. Yuengling said later this year it will roll out new packaging configurations.

The release comes less than a month after the brewer announced expansion plans to Texas made possible through a partnership with Molson Coors Beverage Company.
Actress Carey Mulligan said she felt like a chancer early in her career because she did not attend drama school (Harpers Bazaar UK/ Quentin Jones/PA)

Actress Carey Mulligan said she felt like a chancer early in her career because she did not attend drama school.

Mulligan, who is expected to compete for top honours during awards season for her starring role in Promising Young Woman, was rejected by a host of drama schools as a teenager.

The 35-year-old got her big break in 2005s Pride & Prejudice adaptation which featured Keira Knightley in the lead role.

Mulligan, the cover star of Harpers Bazaar UKs March issue, told the magazine her lack of an acting education compelled her to do loads of homework.

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She said: I didnt go to drama school, I kind of felt like a chancer, so I figured that I had to do loads of homework so that I was allowed to be here.

Mulligan, who has two children with musician husband Marcus Mumford, added: The reality of my life now is that I have two kids under the age of five, and Im lucky if I can learn my lines and show up.

Mulligan plays a woman out for revenge after her best friend is raped in Promising Young Woman, written and directed by The Crowns Emerald Fennell. Her performance has been acclaimed as among the best of the year by critics.

Mulligan said the industry has realised audiences want to see complicated women on screen, pointing to TV dramas Fleabag and I May Destroy You as examples.

She said: We are finally understanding that audiences want to see stories about women who arent necessarily always nice.

You still root for them, you still care about them  its brilliantly done in Fleabag, and brilliantly done in I May Destroy You.

Some of the stuff that both of those characters do is totally morally questionable and unpleasant, but youre 100% behind them, the whole way through. Its really fun to see people behaving badly.

The March issue of Harpers Bazaar is on sale from February 3.
As American workers face ongoing economic hardship and an increasingly urgent savings crisis, these changes to the financial system infrastructure will provide a critical foundation to financial security for all Americans.

In a major step forward in advancing systemic change in the financial sector, retirement company Voya Financial, one of the leading retirement plan providers in the U.S., has joined BlackRocks Emergency Savings Initiative. Voya will collaborate with the national nonprofit Commonwealth, an industry expert partner in BlackRocks Emergency Savings Initiative, to provide tools and opportunities for individuals to save more for their future and build greater financial stability. Voya is the first recordkeeper to join the Initiative, providing unparalleled access for millions of working Americans to the Initiatives leading innovations and solutions that support broader holistic workplace wellness needs.

Retirement recordkeepers and workplace retirement savings are a significant opportunity to advance emergency savings, as industry data shows more than 58 million Americans participate in 401(k) plans. Voyas platform alone reaches over 6.1 million retirement plan participants.

Providing access to emergency savings opportunities can allow working individuals to avoid tapping their retirement funds for unexpected expenses and reduces employee financial stress. According to data from Voyas retirement plan participants, individuals with inadequate emergency funds are 13 times more likely to take a hardship withdrawal from their retirement account (1). Voya research also found an increased interest in saving as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as 62% of Americans note they plan to save more money to cover possible unexpected expenses given their experiences with COVID-19 (2). Financial insecurity affects employers as well. Nine in ten US employees report that COVID-19 is causing stress on their personal finances and research shows that stress costs employers $250 billion per year.

We recognize that individuals today face competing needs and financial priorities now more than ever before, but we also understand the important role emergency savings can have in keeping ones retirement intact, said Jeff Cimini, SVP, Retirement Product Management at Voya Financial. As employees are increasingly looking toward their employers for support with their broader health and wellness needs, its important to focus on ways to make the most out of workplace savings. Our collaboration with Commonwealth and BlackRocks Emergency Savings Initiative can help to provide new opportunities for working individuals to save more for the future.

Voya acts as a recordkeeper for more than 51,000 employers, providing an opportunity to scale worker emergency savings and financial security on a wide scale, said Commonwealth Co-Founder and Executive Director Timothy Flacke. As American workers face ongoing economic hardship and an increasingly urgent savings crisis, these changes to the financial system infrastructure will provide a critical foundation to financial security for all Americans. Large-scale partnerships like this one can deliver proven emergency savings innovations to millions of workers at scale.

BlackRocks Emergency Savings Initiative has made a $50 million commitment to help millions of people living on low and moderate incomes gain access to and increase usage of proven savings strategies and tools.

We launched BlackRocks Emergency Savings Initiative to make savings easier and more accessible for low- and moderate-income workers, said BlackRocks Global Head of Social Impact and President of the BlackRock Foundation, Deborah Winshel. We are proud to welcome Voya to the Initiative, a clear milestone on our path to advancing emergency savings solutions at scale.

--

1. Voya Financial internal retirement plan participant data, adequate emergency fund is defined as 3+ months of living expenses (Feb. 2020).

2. Voya Financial survey conducted through Ipsos on the Ipsos eNation omnibus online platform among 1,004 adults aged 18+ in the U.S. (including 534 who are currently working). Research was conducted Nov. 19-20, 2020.

--

About BlackRocks Emergency Savings Initiative

BlackRock announced a $50 million philanthropic commitment to help millions of people living on low to moderate incomes gain access to and increase usage of proven savings strategies and tools  ultimately helping them establish an important safety net. The size and scale of the savings problem requires the knowledge and expertise of established industry experts that are recognized leaders in savings research and interventions on an individual and corporate level. Led by its Social Impact team, BlackRock is partnering with innovative industry experts Common Cents Lab, Commonwealth, and the Financial Health Network to give the initiative a comprehensive and multilayered approach to address the savings crisis. Payroll providers, recordkeepers, employers and fintechs have joined BlackRocks Emergency Savings Initiative to help their employees and customers take the essential first step toward long-term financial well-being.

About Commonwealth

Commonwealth is a national nonprofit building financial security and opportunity for financially vulnerable people through innovation and partnerships to change systems. Black, Latinx and Female-led households disproportionately experience financial insecurity due in large part to longstanding, systemic racism and gender discrimination. Commonwealths collaborations with consumers, the financial services industry, fintechs, employers, policymakers and mission-driven organizations result in solutions that are grounded in real life and based on a deep understanding of financially vulnerable people. Commonwealth has designed effective innovations, products, and policies enabling over 750,000 people to accumulate more than $3 billion in savings. For more information, visit buildcommonwealth.org.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), helps Americans plan, invest and protect their savings  to get ready to retire better. Serving the financial needs of approximately 13.8 million individual and institutional customers in the United States, Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $7.5 billion in revenue in 2019. The company had $657 billion in total assets under management and administration as of Sept. 30, 2020. With a clear mission to make a secure financial future possible  one person, one family, one institution at a time  Voyas vision is to be Americas Retirement Company. Certified as a Great Place to Work by the Great Place to Work Institute, Voya is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has been recognized as a 2020 Worlds Most Admired Company by Fortune magazine; one of the 2020 Worlds Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute; as a member of the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index; and as a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion on the Disability Equality Index by Disability:IN. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @Voya.
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One of the infamous tools of British law was the Star Chamber. It was created in the late 15th century as a court of equity and one that could deal with wrongdoing among the highest in the land and initially functioned efficiently and openly. By the early years 16th century, though, it had turned into a purely political tool advancing the crown's interests and breaking those who threatened the king's power. That perfectly describes the Senate Ethics Committee's announcement that it will engage in a secretive proceeding to review Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley because they argued that the 2020 presidential election had significant fraud that needed to be investigated.

Even Democrat senators know that objecting to an election does not justify investigating fellow senators. Instead, the charge here is that, by questioning the election results, Cruz and Hawley incited the events at the Capitol on January 6, which the Democrats call an "insurrection" (a word Democrats never used when their supporters stormed Congress and the Senate office buildings in connection with the Kavanaugh hearings).

We know that the Capitol incursion was planned months in advance; that Trump spoke only of peacefully approaching the Capitol (unlike the Democrats' military branches of BLM and Antifa, which like to storm places); that police invited people in, and that the small percentage of rally attendees who entered the Capitol was already on the move before Trump had even finished speaking.

Additionally, we know with certainty that, of the 180 people arrested (out of the hundreds present at the Capitol), some of them were neither Trump-supporters nor Republicans:

According to CNN, which analyzed the data of over 180 of those arrested, "at least eight of the people who are now facing criminal charges for their involvement in the events at the Capitol did not vote in the November 2020 presidential election, according to an analysis of voting records from the states where protestors were arrested and those states where public records show they have lived." While it is true that "most" of the 80 had voted in the presidential election and "many" were registered Republicans, the analysis found that "a handful were registered as Democrats in those jurisdictions that provided party information."

Moreover, one of the leaders, John Sullivan, is a known leftist activist.

Even though the incursion on the Capitol had nothing to do with Trump or with anything Hawley or Cruz said or did, the leftists who control the Democrat party are determined to proceed with a full Stalinist purge. According to Politico:

After multiple leading Democrats called for the two Republicans to resign, Cruz and Hawley's challenge to President Joe Biden's Electoral College win is now tied up in the opaque Senate Ethics Committee. And while Trump's impeachment trial will conclude quickly, the probe into whether the two senators played a role in inciting the violent Capitol attack will unwind over an interminable timetable with little hint of where it is going. The committee says nothing about its business until actions are taken. And it has a lot of business before it: Seven Democratic senators filed a complaint against the two GOP senators who led the effort to object to the election results, arguing that they 'lent legitimacy" to the cause of those who invaded the Capitol. Hawley fired back with a counter complaint alleging "improper conduct" for partisan gain.

The fact that this Star Chamberesque panel is led by Chris Coons (D-Del.), who already called for Cruz and Hawley to resign, suggests that its outcome is foreordained, and that's despite Vice Chair James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the weaklings who has accepted the ludicrous Democrat narrative about January 6. The proceeding also says sitting senators no longer have the protection of the First Amendment.

Leftists may run their cities into the ground, accept with aplomb violent street fighting and looting from their shock troops in BLM and Antifa, and label their ideologies as "science" to silence opposition, but you must give them credit for one thing: when they achieve power, they use it with speed, discipline, and aggression, not just to silence the opposition, but to destroy their opponents completely.

Image: Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. YouTube screen grab.
Should grocery workers, who spend hours indoors in businesses catering to a wide range of customers, receive hazard pay?

Bay Area and other California cities are increasingly saying yes to that question, creating momentum that could spread nationwide.

Oaklands City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to require large grocery stores to add $5 an hour onto the pay of workers. The San Jose City Council on Tuesday weighed a similar measure. Other Bay Area cities including Berkeley, Concord and Antioch are considering following suit, according to union representatives.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors last week voted to craft an ordinance to give $5-an-hour hazard pay to essential workers in grocery stores, pharmacies and fast food outlets. The supervisors plan to vote on it Feb. 9.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to ask city attorneys to draft an ordinance for a $5-an-hour hero pay boost for workers at large grocers and drugstores for 120 days. The council still must vote to pass that ordinance.

Meanwhile, Long Beach and Seattle have already implemented similar measures.

California is definitely at the cutting edge of local governments mandating this, said Molly Kinder, a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution think tank who has written reports saying that big retailers should provide hazard pay. It started in Long Beach, and spread like wildfire.

In Oakland, the new measure will affect about 2,000 grocery workers starting immediately, according to the City Council.

The national retail grocery chains are making enormous profits through this pandemic, said Oakland council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, who co-sponsored the citys proposal. It seems only fair that we provide hazard pay as a way to appreciate and fairly compensate the workers who are allowing us to continue to purchase the food and supplies we need despite sheltering in place. This is something that is long overdue.

Her proposal applies to grocery stores with at least 15,000 square feet of retail space and at least 500 employees nationwide. It will last until Alameda County is in Californias yellow tier, a state category where the spread of the coronavirus is deemed minimal. Santa Clara Countys ordinance would last for 180 days after implementation, while San Joses would last until the countys coronavirus health orders are lifted.

Some supermarkets said they cannot afford the pay bumps, and that ultimately consumers would pay higher prices if they pass.

Extra pay mandates will have severe unintended consequences on not only grocers, but on their workers and their customers, Ron Fong, CEO of the California Grocers Association, said in a statement. A 28% increase in labor costs is huge. Grocers will not be able to absorb those costs and negative repercussions are unavoidable.

The trade group, which represents grocery store owners, commissioned a study that said grocery costs could increase substantially if hazard pay is mandated.

Oakland council members noted that the states anti-gouging law for disasters would come into play if prices rose more than 10%. Lucky did not raise prices despite offering extra pay throughout the pandemic, they noted.

Fong said that such ordinances cause real economic harm for many grocers and could lead to store closures. In fact, Kroger this month said it soon will close a Ralphs and Food 4 Less in Long Beach, after that city implemented a $4-an-hour increase for grocery workers. It specifically cited the misguided city rule as a reason for shuttering.

The grocers trade group in January sued Long Beach, the first city in California to mandate hazard pay for supermarket workers, calling the measure unconstitutional. Its court request for a temporary restraining order against Long Beach was not granted, and the trade group is still seeking a preliminary injunction hearing date.

When the pandemic started, many major supermarket chains voluntarily offered temporary pay bumps to their workers  calling this hero pay, appreciation money or hazard pay  but those largely disappeared in June when most shelter-in-place orders were lifted, said Jim Araby, a spokesman for United Food and Commercial Workers 5, which represents about 23,000 grocery workers in Northern California.

Its high time to act, he said. Grocery workers are more at risk of exposure and infection because they are essential workers.

The Save Mart Companies, with 16,000 employees at 225 stores operating under names including Lucky, Save Mart and FoodMaxx, was the only unionized supermarket chain to continue its supplemental pay, which ranges from $2.50 to $3.50 an hour in the Bay Area, Araby said. It has committed to continue until the pandemic is over.

Trader Joes, which is not unionized, began providing an additional $2-an-hour thank you pay for hourly workers at the beginning of the pandemic. On Monday it said it would boost the amount to $4 an hour.

Bas legislation would give stores like Lucky a waiver, and also provide credit for any other grocers who were already paying workers extra. Oakland stores that fall into the ordinances size criteria include Safeway, Whole Foods, Target and Cardenas, she said.

Grocery store workers, who generally make around $18 an hour  skimpy wages for the pricey Bay Area  said they would appreciate the pay boosts during the pandemic.

The risks are a lot higher since the pandemic started, said John Gomez, who works in a grocery store he declined to name for fear of retaliation. Besides that, suppose we come down with COVID. The sick pay thats allotted only goes so far. (Extra pay) would give peace of mind that if you have to take time off to quarantine you will have a cushion to pay bills, put food on the table, not have to worry about paying rent.

Interactive Vaccine Tracker: Latest developments Detailed information about the coronavirus vaccines as it becomes available.

The recent emergence of more-contagious strains adds to the anxiety, he said. You think: Is today going to be the day it hits me because of the level of exposure Im at?

Gomez is now double-masking but is acutely aware that while he stocks shelves and watches over the cash register, hes coming into close contact with myriad people every day.

Theres not a moment that goes by that theres not customers in the store in close proximity, he said.

Kinder from the Brookings Institution, said that the current wave of cities and counties stepping up reflects how inadequate hazard pay has been to date. Although Democrats at the federal level discussed the idea, it never made it through Congress, she said.

These are really small paychecks, she said of grocery workers. The job they signed up for was not a dangerous job and suddenly now it is. Every hour they work is a concern to them and their families.

Meanwhile, retail giants have seen enormous profit growth during the pandemic even while small stores struggle; some shoppers are choosing to go to one big store instead of several smaller ones to limit their exposure.

Mega-retailers are being parsimonious with their workers despite the booming profits, she said. The nations three largest grocery providers, Walmart, Kroger and Albertsons, saw profits soar $6.8 billion or 98%, in the first three quarters of 2020, compared to the same period a year earlier, while they provided hazard pay averaging 76 cents an hour, her report said.

President Bidens $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan calls upon employers to pay more  including back pay  to essential workers who have risked their lives to stock shelves, harvest crops, and care for the sick during this crisis, says a White House document.

They have kept the country running even during the darkest days of the pandemic, it said. A number of large employers, especially in the retail and grocery sectors, have seen bumper profitability in 2020 and yet done little or nothing at all to compensate their workers for the risks they took.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will be asking CEOs and other business leaders to take action to meet these obligations, it said.

Carolyn Said and Shwanika Narayan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com, shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @CSaid, @shwanika

On Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the financial years 2021-2022. As the whole country waited with bated breaths to see how the new budget would affect them, a witty reply by Sitharaman during the post-Budget press conference is winning hearts on social media.

After presenting the budget in the Parliament, Sitharaman attended a press conference with other officials of the Finance Ministry, At the presser, several journalists from various Indian publications asked the FM questions which she answered for nearly an hour. At one point, a female journalist from a reputed publication got up and told Sitharaman that she wanted to ask her two questions.

Sitharaman nodded her head in approval and asked her to proceed. At this point, the journalist was interrupted by Press Information Bureau (PIB) chief KS Dhatwalia who said "No, only one, others are there."

In the clip that has gone viral, Sitharaman asked Dhatwalia why he had said that to only her, and not to the guys who had asked her multiple questions previously.

You can see the clip in this video of the presser by the PIB here. To just see the clip, you can fastforward to the 49 minute mark:

At this point, everyone started laughing and the journalist thanked Sitharaman for defending her.

During the budget, Sitharaman announced a slew of measures including in the health sector, railways, road infrastructure among others.

Sitharaman said that the preparation for this budget was like never before, because of Covid-19. "We could not have imagined last year that global economy which was already suffering will have to endure loss of near and dear ones due to pandemic," she said.

This budget is a first of its kind, with Covid-19 restrictions in place. Even the Bahi Khata went digital with Sitharaman carrying a made India tablet, keeping in line with the government's push for Atmanirbhar Bharat.

The finance minister said that there are six pillars of the budget  health and well-being, physical and financial capital, and infra inclusive development, human capital, innovation and R&D, minimum government, maximum governance.

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. A stable operational situation with no incidents has been maintained along the Armenian-Azerbaijani line of contact of the Armenian state border overnight February 1-2, the Defense Ministry of Armenia told Armenpress.

According to the information provided by the Armenian National Security Service, no border incidents were registered in Vorotan-Davit Bek section of the Goris-Kapan inter-state road which is under the responsibility of the NSS border troops.

The Armed Forces of Armenia and the NSS border troops confidently control the border situation along the entire length of the border zone and fulfill their tasks.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The Supreme Court has sided the cassation appeal of Tedis Ukraine against the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and invalidated the earlier decision of the committee to impose a fine of UAH 3.4 billion on the tobacco distributor.

"Today the Supreme Court put an end to the dispute between Tedis Ukraine and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, which accused the company of allegedly committing anti-competitive concerted actions and imposed a fine of UAH 3.4 billion. This decision is final and not subject to appeal," the company said in a press-release on Tuesday.

According to it, the Supreme Court overturned the decisions of the trial court and the court of appeals, made in favor of the committee.

"From the very beginning of this trial, we clearly understood that justice would be on our side and were able to prove it before the highest judicial body of the country," the company said, quoting Director General Taras Korniyachenko as saying. According to him, the company has been working exclusively in the legal field throughout its ten-year history.

As reported, the committee in October 2019 imposed a fine of UAH 6.5 billion for anticompetitive concerted actions on four tobacco producers and Tedis Ukraine. Philip Morris International (PMI) at the end of last year filed a lawsuit with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID, Washington, DC, the United States) on bilateral investment arbitration against Ukraine in connection with an unfair, in their opinion, fine of the committee. British American Tobacco, which lost an appeal at the end of January, also announced such plans.

Tedis Ukraine is one of the largest Ukrainian distribution companies. The company employs about 2,300 employees. The regional network consists of 32 structural divisions throughout the country. The company covers a retail network of about 45,000 retail points throughout Ukraine.
NASA and SpaceX plan to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station on a Falcon 9 rocket including two international crew members for the first time.

The second crew mission of the commercial spacecraft will leave Earth no earlier than April 20 from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship will take NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough, acting as spacecraft commander, and Megan McArthur, pilot, to the ISS.

They will be joined by European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Akihiko Hoshide from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

This will be only the second time astronauts have launched from a commercial spacecraft and flown in a non-government backed spaceship to the ISS.

It will also mark only the second time since the space shuttle last flew in July 2011 that astronauts have launched for the ISS from US soil.

Members of the SpaceX Crew-2 mission - ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet (left), NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough (centre), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshid (right) - in training

Launching at some point from April 20 and no later than early May, the spaceship will lift off from the Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The crew are scheduled for a long-duration stay on the orbiting lab where they will live and work as part of a seven-member crew.

They will overlap with some of the first astronauts sent up to the ISS on the first Crew Dragon spaceship in November 2020.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen here as it approaches the International Space Station for a docking on November 17, 2020. The second Crew Dragon is due to leave in April

WHO ARE THE ASTRONAUTS? NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur will serve as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet will join as mission specialists. They are expected to return to Earth in the autumn of 2021 Advertisement

Crew-1 astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker from NASA, as well as JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi are scheduled to return early May on the Crew-2 ship - with the second crew returning later in 2021.

NASA is also working with SpaceX for its third crew launch mission in the autumn.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program has worked with several American aerospace industry companies to develop US human spaceflight systems since 2010.

The agency says the goal is to have safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and foster commercial access to other potential low-Earth orbit destinations in the future.

NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX in September 2014 to transport crew to the International Space Station from US soil.

These integrated spacecraft, rockets and associated systems will carry up to four astronauts on NASA missions, maintaining a space station crew of seven to maximise time dedicated to scientific research on the orbiting laboratory.

So far only SpaceX has managed to launch crew to the ISS, although Boeing is containing to test its Starliner crew capsule.

The next test is due to happen on March 25 - an uncrewed flight that is a critical developmental milestone in Boeing's bid to fly astronauts in space.

It will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and if successful, dock with the International Space Station before returning to Earth.
Prue Leith has received her second dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The Great British Bake Off judge, 80, received her first jab in early December and described the procedure as painless.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain, she said the local vaccination centre near her home in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, had been very efficient over the Christmas period.

She said: I have had both jabs. I had my first one before Christmas. My little local health centre, Chipping Norton Health Centre, is very efficient.

They had all the 80s in practically before Christmas and had (them) done. And they did the rest of us almost three weeks later, and so we are all fine.

Leith also encouraged others to have the vaccine when offered.

She said: I have to say, I would encourage people to do it because I do think, I feel really sorry for France because they have such an enormous anti-vaxxer population who just dont like needles of dont like chemicals or dont like whatever it is they dont like.

But it is so crazy that really our only way out of this is for the nation to be sufficiently immune  we will never be completely immune  to get Covid under control.

Almost nine in 10 of all those aged over 80 have been vaccinated, with more than half of those in their 70s receiving a jab.

Entertainer Lionel Blair, 92, is also among those stars to have received their second dose.

Famous faces including naturalist Sir David Attenborough, 94, actor Sir Ian McKellen, 81, and actress Dame Judi Dench, 86, have received their first jabs.
SEONGNAM-SI, South Korea, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Humax, a total mobility platform provider, has signed a contract with Saudi Arabian business WTC Auto Rent - the leading car rental organisation in the Middle East. This new agreement will see Humax supply WTC with the RAiDEA mobility service platform (powered by its affiliated company, Alticast) for contactless car rental automation services.

RAiDEA is an all-in-one mobility service platform that provides an array of services such as B2C, B2B and P2P. This technology is suitable for round trip, one way and free-floating infrastructures, and is designed for vehicles including cars, motorcycles, bikes and electric scooters.

As a result of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, car rental operators around the world are facing significant business challenges due to reduced utilisation and poor financial performance. In an effort to overcome these difficulties and improve the business environment, WTC will introduce the RAiDEA platform to provide contactless rental car services.

These services will enable WTC to reduce costs through contactless operation and automation of existing face-to-face transactions, increase vehicle utilisation and diversify revenue through the application of new rental business models. Furthermore, customer loyalty is expected to grow thanks to improvements in the digital rental experience.

Mi-sung Cho, CTO at Alticast, said: "After successfully commercialising the RAiDEA platform through Carplat, a Korean corporate car-sharing service provider, in June 2020, Humax is pleased to be partnering with WTC to enhance its contactless services. This collaboration recognises the competitiveness of RAiDEA as a comprehensive, all-in-one platform that offers a complete solution including rental automation and car sharing services."

Jeff Kim, EVP of Worldwide Sales at Humax, said: "Following this agreement, we expect our global business expansion to accelerate rapidly with major Car Sharing Operators (CSOs) and car rental companies."

Learn more about Humax's mobility solutions at https://biz.humaxdigital.com.

About Humax

Founded in 1989, Humax is a leading gateway developer dedicated to providing better content delivery systems for consumers through continuous research, development and innovations. With 20 overseas subsidiaries and branches across the globe, Humax currently provides 80 major broadcasting companies and mobile carriers with high-quality video gateways, set-top boxes and broadband gateways. Humax is also active in the field of mobility business encompassing mobility service platform, mobility device platform and mobility hub platform.
[February 02, 2021] Hyundai Launches VR Training Initiative to Grow Manufacturing Talent in Alabama

AIDT, Alabama's state workforce development agency, today announced a statewide program in collaboration with Hyundai Power Transformers (HPT), the division of Hyundai Electric Systems that specializes in the manufacture of power transformers used in electrical grids across the U.S. Built in collaboration with immersive learning startup TRANSFR, the partnership is making job training in one of Alabama's fastest-growing industries accessible to thousands of unemployed workers and aspiring manufacturing professionals across the state. "This is an application of VR technology that extends well beyond what many of us are familiar with from gaming or consumer apps. It's about harnessing the potential of immersive learning to train and certify employees on critical, in-demand skills at unprecedented scale," said Tony Wojciechowski, Chief Human Resource Officer at HPT. "It's providing employers like us with a powerful new tool to train, recruit, and hire talent right here in Alabama." According to the National Association of Manufacturers, the manufacturing sector accounts for 17% of Alabama's total economic output (nearly $38 billion as of 2018) and 13% percent of the state's jobs (271,000 total jobs as of 2019). The latest collaboration between AIDT and HPT, a partnership that dates back more than a decade, is helping to address part of the ambitious state economic development goal set by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey in 2018 to add 500,000 highly skilled employees to Alabama's workforce by 2025. "By putting this powerful solution in the hands of employers like HPT, we're helping them to make good on their commitment to hire Alabama residents for good-paying manufacturing jobs," said Ed Castile, deputy secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce and Executive Director, AIDT. "This is about not just meeting the training and safety needs of industry partners, but also creating a repeatable and cost-efficient approach that can be applied in the context of other heavy industries, such as aviation and shipbuilding." At the core of the unique public-private partnership is a simulation of HPT's seven-story manufacturing facility developed by immersive learning pioneer TRANSFR. ithin the simulation, workers gain first-hand invaluable experiences with the safety protocols required to operate heavy machinery and equipment of up to 400 tons, lifting power transformers as heavy as 800,000 pounds.



The training initiative is helping to increase compliance with industry standards as HPT employees learn how to operate and service cranes within OSHA standards, using a highly repeatable and consistent training process. "Alabama is leading the way in harnessing the potential of technology to unlock economic opportunity for citizens across the state," said Bharani Rajakumar, founder and CEO of TRANSFR. "This is about expanding access to complex and high-stakes training to fulfill the state's workforce development goals and fulfill growing demand from major manufacturers like HPT."

Hyundai Power Transformers and the State of Alabama are leaders within a fast-growing community of states, community colleges, and employers including Lockheed Martin (News - Alert) , that are now leveraging the power of virtual simulations to boost employee performance, drive retention, and help workers develop hands-on skills required for on-the-job success. To learn more, join leaders from AIDT and Hyundai Power Transformers on February 3 for a panel discussion on the Hoist and Crane safety training. About AIDT: AIDT is a state agency established to build a healthy state economy by recruiting and training a skilled workforce to attract new industries to the state and to expand existing industries. As a division of the Alabama Department of Commerce, AIDT provides a full range of customized technical training programs that are offered at no cost to employers and to the trainees. Leadership training programs are also available. In addition to training, AIDT offers services including trainee recruitment and screening, safety assistance, and industrial maintenance assessments. About Hyundai Power Transformers: Hyundai Power Transformers utilizes the most recently developed technology and design to create power transformers that fit the customer's various requirements. The product lines of the plant include an oil immersed transformer, a dry type transformer, a cast resin transformer, and a special type transformer. The newly constructed Hyundai Power Transformers USA facility has the ability to become the leading plant in the power industry due to its highly developed technology and proven commitment to building the best product line for its customers. For more information, visit: www.hhiamerica.com. About TRANSFR: TRANSFR is on a mission to make learning more intuitive by helping individuals develop the skills they need for career success. What began as an idea quickly transformed into a movement; TRANSFR is built on the understanding that we must disrupt the status quo to create a more prosperous future, building bridges between schools, workplaces, and governments to make jobs more accessible and create a better tomorrow, today. For more information, visit transfrvr.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005355/en/

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(Natural News) Former President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress long maintained that there was no way he was guilty of obstructing justice when then-FBI Director James Comey was fired.

Political, legal and constitutional experts made the same claim: As president, he was head of the Executive Branch, and all staffers that serve within the Executive Branch served at his pleasure.

He could simply wake up in the morning and fire anyone (and everyone) if he so chose to  just like every single president before him.

So, if thats true  and it is  how could Trump have obstructed justice, especially since he never ordered the then-fledgling Russian collusion investigation (into a hoax) shut down?

Well, that was a legal, political and constitutional argument to make, but declassified documents prove that there was another reason why Trump never obstructed anything: The process to fire Comey was already in the works.

Newly declassified FBI memos provide startling new details that undercut the frenzied 2017 effort to investigate Donald Trump for obstruction, revealing the FBI knew Director James Comeys firing had been conceived by Justice Department leadership long before the president pulled the trigger during a key moment in the Russia probe, according to Just the News, which reviewed the document trove.

The memos written in May 2017 by Acting Director Andrew McCabe and a lieutenant also provide contemporaneous proof for some of the more jaw-dropping lore of the now-discredited Russia collusion scandal, the outlet continued.

For example, the memos specifically note that then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made an offer to wear a wire so he could secretly record Trump in the Oval Office (remember when that scumbag denied it in a lie before a Senate committee  a criminal offense?). Also, the memos show that Rosenstein wanted to get Comeys advice after he was terminated about the appointment of a Russia special counsel. But the bureau said no to both suggestions, according to the memos. (Related: Mark Levin: Trump-Russia collusion hoax executed by the Obama administration.)

The documents  declassified by Trump during his final 24 hours in office  also provide a tantalizing list of names the Trump administration considered for FBI director, including former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, ex-director and eventual Russia Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and retired Gen. John Kelly, Just the News reported.

But Trump wound up settling on Chris Wray for the post.

Some of the more explosive revelations, however, detail how McCabe decided early on in his tenure to begin a formal investigation into a president he hated on grounds that Comeys termination was aimed at thwarting the Russian collusion investigation (which he knew was a hoax as well).

McCabe told Rosenstein on May 16, 2017  one of the first meetings between both men after Comey was fired and McCabe was elevated to acting director  that he launched an obstruction investigation.

I explained that the purpose of the investigation was to investigate allegations of possible collusion between the President and the Russian government, possible obstruction of justice related to the firing of FBI Director James Comey and possible conspiracy to obstruct justice, McCabe wrote, according to a declassified memo.

In her own notes, then-FBI attorney Lisa Page wrote that it seemed odd that Rosenstein appeared angered by Comeys firing since he and newly-appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had been considering it since January 2017.

This was a strange comment, she wrote, because it was my understanding that the DAG had previously indicated that he and AG Sessions had been discussing firing Director Comey since January, but given the nature of the conversation there was no room for follow-up.

Bottom line: There was so much deep state chicanery involved in the early days of the new Trump Administration that its obvious there were multiple efforts already underway to trip him up and depose him  just as we and a few other outlets reported and just as the president himself suspected.

See more reporting like this at DeepState.news.

Sources include:

JustTheNews.com

NaturalNews.com
Srinagar:

Protests due to proposed rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Jammu and Kashmir lead to closure of most shops and business establishments in Kashmir on Wednesday.

The Jammu and Kashmir Coordination Committee (JKCC) called the strike which forced the authorities to implement restrictions in parts of Srinagar.

Most of the shops and other business establishments in Srinagar were closed.

JKCC, which has been opposing proposed introduction of GST in the state in its current form, is an umbrella body representing trade, commerce and industrial organisations, besides civil society formations, in the valley.

JKCC called the general strike across the valley today to protest against what they termed as high-handedness of the authorities and the proposed GST launch in the state.

Yesterday, several traders were detained after they tried to march towards the state Assembly. Condemning the police action, JKCC called the strike.

However, public transport remained unaffected.

Restrictions are in force in areas under jurisdictions of police stations Nowhatta, M R Gunj, Rainawari, Khanyar and Safakadal, District Magistrate (Deputy Commissioner) Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Lone told PTI.

Lone said the curbs were imposed as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order.

Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country which is yet to implement the new tax regime.

Opposition parties, the business community and the civil society are opposing the implementation of GST in its present form, claiming it would undermine the states special status as guaranteed under Article 370 of the Constitution and its fiscal autonomy.

With PTI inputs

Also read: Put stickers of revised MRP on unsold pre-GST goods till September 30: Govt

Also read: GST | 'I can lynch you here: J&K minister to opposition MLA in Assembly

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Yesterday, Stadia Vice President and General Manager Phil Harrison announced that the studios Google built to make games for the cloud gaming service would close. Jade Raymond, the star producer that Google wooed to lead the effort, would depart the company at the same time. In a blog post, Harrison said that Google remained committed to its cloud gaming platform but would focus on working with industry partners. Essentially, rather than selling a mix of homegrown and third-party titles, Stadia would become a storefront for whatever cross-platform games are made available. But if Googles executives arent comfortable growing this platform by investing their time and money into it, then why should I?

When Google originally announced Stadia, it seemed like it could offer a real alternative to the console arms race. Rather than buying a $500 console every few years, you could leverage the power of Googles servers and your own fast broadband connection. A casual gamer like me could keep up without spending thousands on a new PC, or hundreds on a new console, every few years. And with Stadia Pro, there was the promise of a Netflix-for-gaming library of titles I could dip in and out of, plus the retail store for anything I was desperate to play at launch.

For me, that would have been a compelling alternative to just buying a PlayStation 5, whenever that happened. The perks Stadia offered, too, with cross-device play and the ability to jump into an existing game with State Share, were wonderfully tempting. Why bother with a walkthrough when you can let a pro-YouTuber do the bit you find tricky, and pick up straight afterward? Hell, if that existed a generation ago, I might have been able to finish Far Cry 3.

Unfortunately, there is always uncertainty when investing money on a new service built by Google. Its a notoriously impatient company with a knack of killing products long before they have a chance to take off, and even some after they have. Maybe thats great for the bottom line, but it robs you of any faith that the service youve bought in to will still be in operation two or three years after it was launched.

Sony and Microsoft, meanwhile, have made more effort to ensure that their hardware is backward compatible with older titles. The PS5 can play more than 4,000 titles originally released for the PS4, while the Xbox Series X can play every Xbox One (and Xbox 360) title that doesnt need the Kinect sensor. Steam, which has been running for nearly twenty years, essentially leaves you full access to every title youve bought  compatibility issues aside. When gamers can expect to get a decades worth of play from each title, the short-term risk of Stadia seems even greater.

And Im still not sure that Google knows who Stadia is meant to be aimed at. Is it hardcore gamers who can expect blistering high-end performance and a vast library of AAA-titles? Is it casuals, like me, who see little value in investing in console hardware and just want to pick up and play without having to think too much about it? Is it somewhere in between those two poles? My colleague, Nick Summers, did a deep dive into Stadia a year after launch back in November 2020, saying that the service still felt half-baked. He concluded that there were better ways to spend $10 per month.

Its worth asking, too, why Google felt the need to close its first-party division so soon after forming it. As a rule of thumb, most big games take between three and five years to develop, so what exactly was Google expecting Raymond to turn around in her short tenure?

While Stadia struggles, I notice how much effort that Microsoft is putting into its own cloud gaming service. The creators of the Xbox spent a decade, and a fortune, to turn the Xbox from a joke into a gaming behemoth, and is now the owner of some of the biggest studios in gaming. And it has its xCloud and Xbox All Access, where for $25 a month, you get a substantial library of big-budget titles, cloud gaming and a console thrown in, essentially, for free.

Obviously, Microsofts end goal is to reel in as many customers as it can, but its also a show of faith thats sorely lacking from Stadia.
While the Egyptian Pharmacists Syndicate has called for banning the purchasing and selling of medical drugs online and has stepped up its actions by filing about nine reports to the Public Prosecutor against a number of applications and online platforms not conforming to its resolution, Vezeeta announced on Tuesday the launch of its e-pharmacy platform in the Egyptian market.

In an interview, Ahram Online discussed with the CEO and Founder of Vezeeta, Amir Barsoum, the details of this new service and how the Egyptian market is expected to respond to it amid the current circumstances.

Barsoum affirmed that this action is compatible with Egyptian laws and will be expanded all over the country very soon.

Ahram Online also discussed with Barsoum Vezeetas investments in Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa, as he unveiled that the company will inject an extra $25 million in the Egyptian market in 2021.

Ahram Online: How has healthcare tech become a key component of the new normal imposed by the pandemic?

Amir Barsoum: In very simple terms, COVID-19 has not changed the landscape, but it has just accelerated the pace of making healthcare tech, as you said, a key component of individuals lives through depending on healthcare providers, including remote healthcare services that rely on virtual solutions.

A year ago, the market in Egypt was not receptive to tele-consultation options and there was little support for the idea and very little uptake from the patients side as well as the doctors themselves.

COVID-19, however, has educated everybody that you can get high-quality healthcare remotely.

On the other hand, when we have a look on how the healthcare system and hospitals have reacted to the pandemic, we will see that people in the first wave of the virus were eager to go to hospitals to get diagnosed and treated, which was not the case in the second wave, as a large segment of the population avoided going due to overcrowding and the shortage in intensive care units.

In a nutshell, without technology, patients, nurses, and doctors couldnt be matched easily as we are witnessing in the ongoing second wave, and without COVID-19, nobody would have accepted a change like this to happen. The trajectory of the new normal is going towards utilising technologies in every aspect of life.

AO: How has the pandemic boosted healthcare tech businesses and investments in the Middle East and Africa, including Egypt?

AB: So, COVID-19 has increased the number of users of tech-based healthcare services platforms.

Here, let me say that healthcare tech and fintech, if compared with other sectors that are utilising technology, are the two sectors that require a lot of education and different circumstances that could help them accelerate and grow when starting a new business or investing in one.

COVID-19 has leveraged the base of healthcare tech in areas of choosing the doctors, booking them, booking an appointment in the radiology centre, ordering home visits, purchasing drugs from online pharmacies, and receiving them through home delivery options.

Healthcare tech will be promising for investment channels in the Egyptian market and in the MENA region going forward, especially since the Egyptian market is a huge market that needs this kind of investments and businesses.

I think the Egyptian market will be seeing foreign and domestic investments in this field and it is expected to witness the emergence of mega healthcare providers in the country.

AO: What is the role the private sector can play in supporting and financing this sort of businesses in the region, including Egypt?

AB: The private sector has a major role to play in changing the landscape of the industry. The public sector has the role of setting regulations, but the private sector is responsible for introducing innovation.

However, if the innovation does not cater to the ecosystems needs, it will not succeed. I mean that private sector providers need to offer affordable healthcare services for clients first.

This is what Vezeeta did, which resulted in a significant increase in providers, including doctors and hospitals, who provide their services through our platform and even a number of military hospitals in Egypt have become among Vezeetas providers.

AO: Since you mentioned the public sector, is there any kind of coordination between Vezeeta and the government?

AB: Of course. we are working very closely with the Ministry of Health, especially amid the pandemic. We have implemented three major initiatives with the ministry that have focused on introducing free medical consultations and providing automation options for doctors on the frontlines.

Moreover, we are currently in talks with a number of public sector bodies that will be announced soon.

The public sectors and our ultimate objective is allowing patients to access healthcare in a better format and to improve the general experience.

What is phenomenal in Egypt today is that all parties are actually looking for better healthcare services to be extended to Egyptian patients.

Really, I have never seen the government thinking this way before or being adamant about providing such an experience to citizens, which makes us enthusiastic to cooperate with it.

AO: What about Vezeetas business in Egypt and how it has grown in the domestic market amid the pandemic?

AB: Vezeeta is an Egyptian company, indeed. Egypt is a phenomenal place filled with talents and its a ripe market that has lot of innovation that can be used locally or exported.

We are committed to invest more in the Egyptian market, as we plan to invest an extra $25 million throughout 2021 on tech investments, launching new services, and upscaling fragmentations in the industry.

The Egyptian market is definitely attractive despite the ongoing harsh conditions. Under the great leadership of Egypt today, we are seeing phenomenal economic improvement and conditions that are contributing to making the market more attractive for investments and are encouraging us to expand the online pharmaceutical industry.

AO: What about your current investments in Egypt and how they have been affected by the pandemic?

AB: To date, we have invested about $35 million, with 100 engineers in the Egypt office.

We are actually doubling our investments every year, and in 2020 we tripled our business inside the Egyptian market and outside it.

AO: Tell us more about the new AI-led pharmacy service that Vezeeta has launched recently.

AB: On 2 February, we launched our ePharmacy solution (Vezeeta Pharmacy) that enables its users to order their prescription medications through the mobile app.

Through the mobile app, users can upload their e-prescriptions, add their insurance preference, choose cash or cashless payment options before checking out, and schedule same-day home deliveries in Cairo and Giza.

Patients can also combine their pharmacy experience with doctors teleconsultations, as well as 24/7 access to licensed pharmacists and customer care providers.

We aim to change the traditional pharmacy experience in the Egyptian market. We are also planning to reach other cities around the country very soon.

AO: Do you think that the Egyptian market will respond positively to the idea of purchasing drugs from an online platform over a traditional pharmacy?

AB: Egyptian purchasing behaviour during the pandemic proves that an online pharmacy will be accepted.

I think our industry is facing three major challenges, including a lack of data  as patients do not have medical records and doctors do not save them either  the consistency of the medical delivery service, and the dependency on assistants more than pharmacists in traditional pharmacies.

All these challenges that have contributed drastically in the deterioration of the healthcare sector in Egypt can be tamed by online pharmacies.

AO: And yet, the Egyptian Pharmacists Syndicate has called for the ban of selling pharmaceuticals and drugs through online resources, how did you deal with that?

AB: We are 100 percent committed to Egyptian law. We do not send any drugs that have not come out of a licensed pharmacy in the market. We never rely on distribution centres or warehouses.

We are not competing with pharmacists at all, but we are a healthcare tech provider company that is working on automating the whole industry.

Vezeeta is not breaching the law by taking this action, and laws in Egypt should actually support this kind of system and push forward prescriptions that improve the quality of the healthcare service in the market and, in return, criminalise hand-written prescriptions as is the case in Europe and the US, where hand-writing prescriptions is penalised.

E-prescriptions mean less mistakes, covering data, and keeping it. It has become a new normal in the healthcare scene as well.

AO: Does this mean that there was some sort of coordination with the Egyptian government and the Pharmacists Syndicate regarding providing an online pharmacy service in the local market?

AB: We are pretty close to the ministry of health and had started talks with it in this regard. But we have to attain some success before introducing a complete vision of an e-pharmacy system to the government to get its support.

Short link:


Global technology powerhouse Siemens said its Egypt unit has appointed Dalia Shoukry as the new chief financial officer.

Shoukry has over two decades of experience in corporate finance in the pharmaceutical industry.

Prior to Siemens, she was AstraZenecas international finance director, and previously held senior financial roles based in Egypt, the UK and France with responsibilities spanning Europe, the Middle East and Africa at AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb. She earned a degree in accounting from Ain Shams University.

Lauding the appointment, Siemens Egypt CEO Mostafa El Bagoury said: "We are very happy to welcome Shoukry to our team in Egypt. Financing is a crucial component of our business, as it not only defines, manages, and oversees all budgets, but it also monitors the performance and ensures the financial health and stability of Siemens Egypt."

"We wish Shoukry great success in supporting us, our customers and the country as Egypt continues its digitalization and development journey," he added.

Siemens has been active in Egypt ever since its founder, Werner von Siemens, laid a communications cable through the Red Sea in 1859 to link Suez and Aden. In 1901 Siemens opened its first office in Cairo and since then, the company has been a key contributor to critical infrastructure in Egypt.

On her appointment, Shoukry said: "This is an exciting time to join a technology company thats deeply involved in the digitalization of infrastructure and industry, which is at the core of Egypts major development projects."

"I look forward to providing Siemens and our customers with the appropriate financing arrangements and processes that will turn these ambitious visions into a reality," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - A man who was allegedly caught in the act of stealing items from a garage has been arrested after his getaway plan failed.

Joey Allen, 40, is facing charges of third-degree burglary and attempted burglary in connection to an incident just after 4 a.m. Sunday.

Police said a neighbor in the 700 block of N. 16th Ct. heard a noise, looked out his window and saw a male taking items from a garage.

Allen was allegedly putting the items on a bike trailer that he was pulling with his bike.

The neighbor ran outside and when Allen tried to flee on his bike, he slipped and fell due to the icy conditions. Allen ran from the scene but the bike and the items he attempted to steal were left behind.
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I knew that I needed a strong consensus builder, Governor Cooper said.

One of Mr. Regans main achievements in North Carolina was brokering a multibillion-dollar settlement for coal ash cleanup with Duke Energy, the states largest electric utility, which won praise from both industry and environmental groups.

He was a leader of high integrity, who worked to bring stakeholders together to advance environmental protections, Julie Janson, executive vice president of Duke Energy and president of its Carolinas region, said in a statement.

Interviews with more than a dozen people who worked with Mr. Regan both in the nonprofit world and in government describe him as charismatic, with a megawatt smile who can command a room without dominating it. Virtually everyone who has come in contact with him praised his willingness to meet personally with people to hear out their concerns.

Yet some in North Carolinas environmental community said they feared Mr. Regan was too eager to find middle ground.

Mr. Norris and others in the environmental community criticized the state agency under Mr. Regans leadership for not blocking permits for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that has since been canceled. They praised Mr. Regan for establishing an Environmental Justice and Equity advisory board, the first for the agency, but they also accused him of not doing enough to work with communities most directly affected by big industrial projects, like a liquefied natural gas site in Robeson County and wood pellet plants that routinely received permits despite concerns about deforestation.

Donna Chavis, senior fossil fuel campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said Mr. Regan would certainly leave the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality in better shape than he found it. The department had been decimated by budget cuts and led by a Republican who was hostile to climate change.

But, she said, Michael set a floor of what D.E.Q. can do but didnt reach for the ceiling.

Others, including Governor Cooper, defended Mr. Regan and said they believed that he was the leader that the E.P.A. needed. During the Trump years, nearly 5 percent of the E.P.A.s federal work force quit or retired. Employee satisfaction plummeted and concerns about the politicization of science skyrocketed.
A push to move a Bossier City riverboat casino to rural Tangipahoa Parish remained barely alive after a Louisiana House committee Wednesday took no action on the measure in the face of strong opposition.

State Rep. Steve Pugh, R-Ponchatoula, asked the House Criminal Justice Committee to not take a vote rather than have the committee kill the measure, House Bill 438.

Pughs request was the best available tactical move after state Rep. Sherman Mack, R-Albany, moved to kill HB438. Mack deferred to Pughs request, which the committee approved. Even then, Mack warned Pugh that he did not plan to reschedule the bill anytime during the final weeks of the legislative session.

Despite tall odds, Pugh is not giving up.

Its not dead yet, he said afterward.

The lawmaker can ask the House to direct the committee to advance the bill to the full chamber, but thats a parliamentary move that rarely occurs.

The House committees action came a day after the state Senate rejected an identical measure, Senate Bill 417, on a 15-18 vote. It needed 20 votes to pass.

The sponsor of SB417, state Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, made a parliamentary move immediately afterward that would allow him to try again to pass the measure. So it remains barely alive in the Senate as well.

Im not relaxing, Gene Mills, president of Louisiana Family Forum, said afterward, but added, Sherman Macks committee sent a pretty strong message to the Senate regarding the Tangipahoa move.

Mills, whose group has rallied conservative faith-based opponents to both bills, believes the measure represents an expansion of gambling into Tangipahoa Parish and would harm families there.

Los Angeles-based Peninsula Pacific has been pushing both measures to win legislative authorization to move its Bossier City boat, DiamondJacks, to a site located at Interstate-12 and Louisiana Highway 445, just east of Hammond and just west of the St. Tammany Parish border

Peninsula Pacifics lobbyists induced lawmakers to introduce bills in both the House and the Senate to create a back-up option in case the measure stalled in one chamber or the other. Their problem now is that lawmakers in both chambers have shown no appetite for the move.

HB438 and SB417 would designate the Tangipahoa River as one of the waterways where floating casinos can be berthed  state law prohibits locating a boat there today  and authorize the parish council to call a referendum on whether to permit the move.

On a 6-3 vote, the parish council approved a November election, but that election would occur only if the Legislature approves either HB438 or SB417.

This is one of the cases where Baton Rouge is telling the people of Tangipahoa Parish whats best for them, Pugh said afterward. Im disappointed that the people of Tangipahoa Parish wont be heard.

Earlier, Parish President Robby Miller told committee members what hes been saying for weeks: Give us the chance to vote.

Brent Stevens, Peninsula Pacifics managing partner, attempted to entice lawmakers with the promise that his company would spend $100 million to create a casino complex with 500 jobs.

DiamondJacks is the worst performing casino in Louisiana, two years after Peninsula Pacific bought it following a bankruptcy under the previous owner. Peninsula Pacific initially sought to move the boat to Slidell but couldnt find a willing seller of land at its preferred site.

At least 18 lobbyists are working to win legislative authorization for the move, although only 11 of them are registered with the state ethics board. The others confirmed to The Advocate that they are lobbying for the move.

Committee chairmen typically try not to show their hand on measures before their panel, but Mack sought to derail HB438.

Four Baptist ministers in Tangipahoa Parish warned that the bill would create more gambling addicts in their communities.

There will be families that will not be able to put food on the table, said Jeff Robinson, the pastor at First Baptist Church of Hammond.

Gov. John Bel Edwards supports the measure.

In a text afterward, Miller said he didnt understand why this bill faces such strong opposition while other gambling measures have advanced.

On Tuesday, minutes before rejecting Whites SB417, the Senate approved a measure allowing the states floating casinos to operate on land and to have more slot machines than allowed today. Senate Bill 316 is now awaiting a vote before Macks committee.

Meanwhile, the House has passed a bill sought by Harrahs that would give a no-bid, 30-year extension to the companys state license to operate the only land-based casino in New Orleans, in exchange for the companys pledge to invest $350 million to build a new hotel and add a food court and night club. House Bill 553 is likely to be heard on Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary B Committee, which has favored most gambling bills before it this year.

One difference between the different pro-gambling bills is that lobbyists for video poker truck stop owners have been opposing DiamondJacks move to Tangipahoa Parish because of the competition it would mean for truck stops in St. Helena and St. John parishes. Boyd Gaming, which owns the Treasure Chest in Kenner, the nearest casino, has also been opposing the measure.
(Photo : Screenshot From Pxhere Official Website) Google to Pay $3.8 Million for Overlooked Candidates They did NOT Hire and Underpaid Female Engineers

Google is now being forced to pay up roughly about $3.8 million in order to settle certain allegations when it comes to hiring and pay discrimination. The money would go out to the people they did not hire as well as the unfair and underpaid female engineers.

US Department of Labor fines Google

The US Department of Labor had officially announced the fine. At issue were certain allegations that the company had underpaid certain women engineers somewhat less compared to their own male counterparts. The allegations also included that the hiring process had certain disadvantages for both the woman and the Asian applicants for the software engineering roles.

The Dept of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs or OFCCP had uncovered what it now termed as "systematic" problems over the full course of a certain routine compliance evaluation that was focused on Google's very own Mountain View, Seattle, California, Washington, and the Kirkland, Washington offices in between both 2014 up to 2017.

Google's alleged bias

According to the article by Mashable, it was noted that those millions are not going directly to the Department of Labor but $1.35 million of it will be back pay and interest going to around 2,565 women all working in the engineering positions that were the subject of pay discrimination. The additional $1.23 million is also slated for both the women and Asian applicants.

As noted by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs' very own regional director Jane Suhr noted that regardless of how complex or regardless of the size of the given workforce, it is important to remain committed to enforcing fair and equal opportunity laws in order to ensure equity and non-discrimination within the workforce.

Read Also: Who is Timnit Gebru? Google Scholar Fired Over Controversial Email with Jeff Dean

Google required to hold another $1.25 million

Google has recently agreed to hold aside around another $1.25 million in certain pay-equity adjustments. Bloomberg Law now reports that the "early resolution has been reached by Google and the official Department of Labor which gives the former some sort of extra breathing room. Specifically, it was noted that the latter would not audit the 39 Google locations for about 5 years.

Despite the given mutual nature of the said agreement, Google, has previously fought tooth and nail in order to deprive the government of certain pay and hiring data. Critics had also excoriated Google back in December when it had pushed out Timnit Gebru, a particular AI researcher who had complained in an email towards staff regarding the company's very own paltry efforts to hire additional women, reported by the Platformer.

According to her email, she stated that life gets worse when people start advocating for the underrepresented people. Google is now not the only tech giant that still stands accused of alleged pay discrimination. Back in 2017, the US Department of Labor had also accused Oracle as well for paying Caucasian male workers higher than their counterparts for the exact same jobs.

Related Article: Google AI Researchers Want Timnit Gebru to Come Back at Higher Position Among Other Demands

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Urian Buenconsejo

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Love Island star Anton Danyluk has been hit with death threats from cruel trolls over his working trip to Dubai amid the COVID pandemic.

The personal trainer, 25, who shot to fame on 2019's fifth season, joined a legion of influencers in coming under fire for jetting to Dubai under the guise of 'essential travel and business trips' despite strict lockdown rules.

Despite insisting he was working within the guidelines, the Scot admitted he was being severely trolled, which he confessed was alarming given Love Island host Caroline Flack's tragic suicide in February last year.

Shock: Love Island star Anton Danyluk has been hit with death threats from cruel trolls over his working trip to Dubai amid the COVID pandemic

Anton and his mother Sherie Ann spoke on their new podcast What's the Crack?, a name making reference to the infamous reveal that Sherie Ann shaves Anton's bottom - during which they weighed in on his trip.

He has gone into length in details of the trip, claiming he initially jetted to the UAE to promote a hotel, before launch his own gym and fitness business - something he himself admitted he 'got a lot of stick for.'

On the trip, he said: 'I came to Dubai in December when travel restrictions weren't in place  it was a working trip to promote a hotel...

'I got to know the owner, and then the opportunity rose to open a gym and fitness business in Dubai. I've got my working visa, so I'm not coming home.'

Tragic: Despite insisting he was working within the guidelines, the Scot admitted he was being severely trolled, which he confessed was alarming given Love Island host Caroline Flack's tragic suicide in February last year

'I know people in the UK are getting annoyed because they see others saying they are working in Dubai when they aren't, but I am starting my business.'

On the trolling he has received, he said: 'It's been awful  I've had death threats, people calling me  it's horrible that this sort of thing still happens after the death of Caroline last year, but they still do it...

'I'm a strong-minded person, but it does get to me some days. I hope my actions speak louder than words  I'll keep my head down until I'm ready to show what I'm working on.'

Way back when: The personal trainer, 25, who shot to fame on 2019's fifth season, joined a legion of influencers in coming under fire for jetting to Dubai under the guise of 'essential travel and business trips' despite strict lockdown rules

Caroline died of suicide on 15 February last year, when she took her own life at her London home while awaiting trial for assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton.

She hanged herself after hearing she would be prosecuted for assault, a coroner ruled in August after her mother confronted the police officer who pushed for her to be charged at her inquest and said, 'you should be disgusted with yourself'.

After facing cruelty from trolls when she was alive, she frequently urged: 'In a world where you can be anything, be kind', something often quoted to help quell the surge in online bullying.

What's the Crack? is a Podcast Radio original with the first episode broadcast on Podcast Radio at 5pm on Wednesday, 3rd February and through the Podcast Radio. It launches on all major podcast services on Friday, 5th February.
TASHKENT  Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar, Chief of Staff to President, Mohammad Shakir Kargar, and their accompanying delegation met with the Uzbek Foreign Minister, Abdulaziz Kamilov, to discuss the development of bilateral relations, lasting regional peace, economic cooperation, and Afghanistan's position as regional connector.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar conveyed the Afghanistan President's good wishes and gratitude to Foreign Minister Kamilov for the strong support of the Uzbek government and the people of Uzbekistan for the peace process and the preservation of democratic achievements within the framework of the republic. Mr. Atmar said: "The Government of Afghanistan is fully committed to its pledges in the peace process and seeks a solution that arises from the free will of the people and leads to lasting peace."

Welcoming the Afghan delegation's presence, the Uzbek Foreign Minister expressed his country's firm support for the Afghan peace process and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's commitment to ending the war, securing the ceasefire, and preserving the achievements of the last two decades. Mr Kamilov added that Uzbekistan expects the Taliban to recognize democratic progress and fulfill their commitments to reduce violence, establish a ceasefire and reach a political solution. To support peace in Afghanistan, we need a consolidated stance by countries in the region and the world," Kamilov said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs praised the support of the region's countries for ensuring peace and stability and thanked Uzbekistan for its effective role in the framework of regional structures, especially the P5 + 1. Mr. Atmar praised Uzbekistan's hosting of the trilateral meeting to approve the roadmap for the Mazar-Kabul-Peshawar railway and expressed hope that work on the Mazar-Herat-Kandahar-Quetta railway begins soon.

Mr. Kamilov highlighted the holding of the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral meeting to approve the Mazar-Kabul-Peshawar railway roadmap for economic development cooperation and the connection of Central Asia to South Asia via Afghanistan. In addition to that, the Uzbek Foreign Minister said a major regional conference entitled "Central Asia-South Asia: Connectivity, Opportunities and Challenges" with a focus on economic relations and cooperation will be held at the level of foreign ministers of the region and the world, in May. He added that "We want Afghanistan to play a pivotal role in this conference."

Mr. Atmar called the mentioned grand conference a significant step in strengthening regional and global relations and announced the Government of Afghanistan's full support in this regard. In the end, the two sides held comprehensive discussions on the expansion of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

In addition to the heads of the Afghan delegation, Kabir Isakhel, Senior Legal Advisor to Afghanistan President, Khalid Elmi, Afghan Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Barry Salaam, Senior Advisor to the Foreign Ministry, and Sultan Ahmad Bahin, Director General of 3rd Political Department of the Asian Affairs of Ministry of Foreign Affairs attended the meeting.
SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- USAA announced today that Paul Vincent will take the helm as the new USAA Federal Savings Bank President and Neeraj Singh has been selected as the company's new Chief Risk Officer. Both roles report to USAA CEO Wayne Peacock.

Vincent was chosen to lead USAA Federal Savings Bank after seven years of leadership at USAA, including the past two years as senior vice president and head of retail banking where he was responsible for deposits, credit card and payments business. Singh joins USAA from Citigroup, where he was chief risk officer for U.S. consumer banking and head of global consumer risk modeling.

"Paul is a proven leader and has contributed greatly to USAA's success and to serving our members," said Peacock. "His financial services background and risk management experience combined with his deep appreciation for the military community give him the right combination of banking leadership experience and mission focus to keep pace with what our members need from their bank."

Over his USAA career, Vincent has served as head of member service centers and senior vice president of bank operations. Prior to USAA, Vincent spent 15 years progressing through senior-level roles with Capital One in operations, channels, finance, analytics, and strategy. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor's degree in economics and previously served on the board of directors for the Association of Military Banks of America.

"With Neeraj Singh, USAA is adding a highly talented risk professional with two decades of global leadership and risk management experience," said Peacock. "We are excited to benefit from his deep experience across multiple products, services and risk types, and his proven ability to build strong teams."

Singh, who will lead USAA's risk and compliance organization, managed the strategic direction and execution of risk management priorities for a significant business line in his previous role with Citigroup. During his career, Singh has also held customer and risk management leadership positions with TD Bank in Canada and the U.S and Barclays in the U.K. and the U.S. He received his undergraduate degree from Birla Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland.

USAA

Founded in 1922 by a group of military officers, USAA is among the leading providers of insurance, banking and investment and retirement solutions to 13 million members of the U.S. military, veterans who have honorably served and their families. Headquartered in San Antonio, Tex., USAA has offices in seven U.S. cities and three overseas locations and employs more than 35,000 people worldwide. Each year, the company contributes to national and local nonprofits in support of military families and communities where employees live and work. For more information about USAA, follow us on Facebook or Twitter (@USAA), or visit usaa.com.

Contact: USAA Media Relations

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(Natural News) Medical tyranny continues. The Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington violated both ethics and law when they falsely imprisoned an elderly woman in their facility. According to family reports, the falsely imprisoned woman was admitted for a urinary tract infection and agreed to stay overnight in the hospital. Upon entry, she did not show any sign of respiratory illness and therefore did not consent to a covid-19 test swab.

The next day, the woman was reportedly held in the facility against her will, and was not allowed to leave. Her family was denied access to her as well. The power of attorney (her daughter) was barred from entering the hospital as the hospitals security personnel blocked the entrance. The security personnel aggressively pushed the daughter back after she tried to enter the facility.

Hospital conscripts 22 officers to lock down the facility, prevent family from seeing their mother

The sheriffs office received a call from a family member of the elderly patient at 4:50 PM on Friday January 29th. The caller, claiming Medical Power of Attorney, reported that her mother was being held against her will; and that, as her daughter, she was being kept from her mother.

Instead of responding to the distressed woman, the Sheriffs office ignored her request and dispatched twenty-two officers to the hospital to help lock it down and prevent the woman from accessing her mother. The officers filed in around 6:30 p.m. In the most cruel, inhumane fashion, the hospital conspired with the sheriffs department to deprive the family of their civil liberties and falsely imprison the matriarch of the family. One man tried to get into the hospital, thrusting open the doors, but he was pepper sprayed through the crack in the door. The man spit the pepper spray out instantly and continued to fight for his family, prying at the doors again. A group of friends came to support the family outside the hospital and began interrogating the officers and demanding the family have access to one other.

Elderly woman stripped of her rights, barred from family and forced to take unnecessary test

By 8:30 p.m., a spokesperson at Legacy Salmon Creek said the hospital was in a so-called silver lock down and was not letting anyone in. Reportedly, the hospital would not release the elderly woman until she produced a negative covid-19 test result from a highly inaccurate, non-transparent testing protocol. By forcing this on the woman, the hospital broke the law, denying the patient her right to body autonomy, and essentially forcing her into medical experimentation. At approximately 9 p.m. the patient was allowed to leave and deputies were notified that preparations were underway to discharge her. She left with her family and the crowd dispersed shortly after, according to the sheriffs office.

When it comes to situations like this, the American Medical Association is clear. Informed consent to medical treatment is fundamental in both ethics and law. Patients have the right to receive information and ask questions about recommended treatments so that they can make well-considered decisions about care. Communication is essential for establishing trust in the doctor-patient relationship so a sound decision can be made.

Instead of standing with the family, supporting basic human rights, and calling for medical ethics and informed consent, the sheriffs department protected the establishment that wrongfully stereotyped the forcibly-separated family and falsely imprisoned their mother, calling them covid-deniers and anti-vaxxers. These baseless attacks toward the family are an insult to victims of medical tyranny and do not address the hospitals repeated violation of medical ethics and their tyrannical abandonment of informed consent and basic human decency.

Watch at live-streamed clip at Brighteon.com:

Sources include:

CitizenFreePress.com

AMA.org

ConservativeUS.com

Brighteon.com
ROME, FEB 2 - A 39-year-old man on Tuesday confessed to stabbing to death his former girlfriend in a town in the southern region of Puglia late on Monday, sources said. Sonia Di Maggio, 29, was murdered while she was out walking hand-in-hand with her new boyfriend in Minervino di Lecce, the sources said. The suspected murderer, originally from the province of Naples town of Torre Annunziata, was detained in Otranto early on Tuesday. He has a criminal record, the sources said. The new boyfriend, 29-year-old carpenter Francesco Damiano, told a local TV channel that Di Maggio was stabbed around 20 times by the assailant, who suddenly attacked while the couple were on the way to a supermarket. Sources said that, after confessing, the suspect was set to take police to the place where he disposed of the murder weapon. Italy has had an alarming spate of femicides, in which women are killed by their partners or ex-parters, in recent years. (ANSA).
Nicola Sturgeon gave Scottish schools the green light to start reopening after half term next month as she suggested the country could start exiting lockdown at the start of March.

Primary, nursery and some secondary pupils will head back to class from February 22 - a full fortnight before they are due to return in England - if the coronavirus rate is low enough, the First Minister told Holyrood today.

She also confirmed that she was introducing a blanket requirement for international arrivals to Scotland to go into hotel quarantine for a fortnight, making her border rules tougher than those introduced by Boris Johnson.

In a direct attack on the Prime Minister's decision only to target travellers from 'red list' countries, Ms Sturgeon said it would not work well enough to reduce the risk of infections arriving from abroad.

She said she could not 'unilaterally' impose such restrictions on people landing elsewhere in the UK and travelling to Scotland, but hoped the other administrations would work with the Scottish Government to reduce the number of people doing so.

Updating MSPs in Holyrood on Tuesday, the First Minister said progress had been made as a result of compliance with lockdown restrictions, but 'continued caution' was needed.

From February 22 all children under school age in early learning and childcare will return. Pupils in Primary 1 to Primary 3 will also be allowed back into school, as will those in the senior phase of secondary school.

However, the First Minister said older pupils will only be able to return to ensure practical work important to achieving qualifications is completed, and only between 5 per cent and 8 per cent of any school's roll should be able to return.

Ms Sturgeon also said there could be some 'gradual easing' of the level 4 lockdown from the start of March.

'If our progress continues, then I am cautiously optimistic that, as more and more people get vaccinated and with the protection of some of the additional measures that I will cover shortly, we may be able to begin looking towards a careful and gradual easing around the start of March.'

An update on possible easing will be given in two weeks, Ms Sturgeon said.

But as a payoff she cast doubt on the ability of Scots to head abroad on holiday this year.

After ministers in England suggested the country could be back to a relative normal life by the summer, she told MSPs: 'I am afraid we will also have to accept that the price of greater domestic normality is likely to be, for a period at least, not going on holiday overseas.'

Professor Jason Leitch claimed 'progress' is being made against the coronavirus and he recommended to the SNP Government that younger children can return.

Primary, nursery and some secondary pupils will head back to class from February 22 if the coronavirus rate is low enough, the First Minister told Holyrood today

Scots vaccine rollout slower 'because some GPs don't work Sundays' Scotland's top medic today said that Scotland's slow vaccine rollout had been hindered by GPs whose surgeries are closed on Sundays. Holyrood ministers have been accused of being too slow over the vaccination rollout in recent days, with opposition politicians saying the rest of the UK is moving faster. On Sunday, just 9,628 vaccinations were completed in Scotland, out of a UK-wide total of 322,000. Speaking to the BBC today Prof Leitch said 'Sundays are a little bit tricky' and that the vaccination team has been asked to 'have a look at that'. He added that the reason for the drop on Sunday was because of where the jabs are being administered, with most being delivered in GP practices which 'didn't all work (on) Sunday'. 'We decided to do the over-80s in their own practices, where they would know their nurses, where they would know their GPs, where they would be close to home,' he said. Advertisement

The schools announcement came after Ms Sturgeon's chief medical officer said it was safe.

Professor Jason Leitch claimed 'progress' is being made against the coronavirus and he has recommended to the SNP Government that younger children can return.

'We're heading in the right direction,' he told the BBC this morning.

'I can break the secret - you definitely won't see all of lockdown lifted, but there is progress and therefore you've got to think, as public health advisers, what is the first thing you should do? The most important thing is children.

'That's what we've trailed in the last few weeks that, if we can, we will get some kids back to school.'

At the last review on January 19 the Scottish Government said the earliest date schools could possibly open for pupils who are not vulnerable or children of key workers was being pushed back to at least mid-February.

In England, schools are not expected to reopen until March 8 at the earliest, with scientists casting doubt today on even that target.

Anyone working in schools or childcare settings in Scotland, as well as older pupils, will be routinely tested twice a week, Ms Sturgeon added.

'All senior-phase secondary school students will be offered this too,' she said.

'This testing offer will be in place for schools as soon as possible to support their return, and we will extend it to the wider childcare sector in the weeks after that.

'We are determined to get our children back to normal schooling just as quickly as it is safe to do so. It is our overriding priority.'

The First Minister said a system of 'managed quarantine' would be put in place for anyone arriving directly to Scotland, going further than systems announced in the rest of the UK.

Ms Sturgeon told MSPs: 'The firm view of the Scottish Government is that in order to minimise the risk of new strains coming into the country, managed quarantine must be much more comprehensive.

'I can therefore confirm today that we intend to introduce a managed quarantine requirement for anyone who arrives directly into Scotland, regardless of which country they have come from.'

The First Minister also said that she could not 'unilaterally' impose such restrictions on people landing elsewhere in the UK and travelling to Scotland, but hoped the other administrations would work with the Scottish Government to reduce the number of people doing so.
50th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between China and Kuwait

GUANGZHOU, China, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- March 22, 2021, marks the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between China and Kuwait. Kuwait is the first country in the Gulf Arab States to establish diplomatic relations with China. Since initiating diplomatic ties in 1971, bilateral relations between the two countries have continued to develop into one of mutual trust and sincere cooperation.

In order to better develop bilateral friendship, promote win-win cooperation between China and Kuwait, more Chinese companies have chosen to "go global". Being a leader and pioneer in China's automobile industry, GAC MOTOR has set a benchmark for leading the transformation and upgrading of Chinese automobile enterprises with its unique development path.

GAC MOTOR entered the Kuwaiti market in 2013 and set up the Kuwait GAC showroom. Through continuous efforts, GAC MOTOR has gradually developed into one of the most popular Chinese brands among consumers in the Middle East.

The relationship between GAC MOTOR and Kuwait's partner Mutawa Alkazi Company "MAC" began in October 2012. In June 2013, MAC officially became the first authorized dealer of GAC Group overseas; since then, a long-term and stable cooperative relationship was established.

Through eight years of joint efforts with Kuwaiti distributor, GAC MOTOR has gained good market feedback and become one of the most popular Chinese brands among consumers in the Middle East with its excellent product quality, sales channels, and after-sales service.

GAC MOTOR has continued to enhance its brand presence in Kuwait with its reputation for high quality. With enhanced automotive safety configuration, superior space performance, and intelligent technological strength, GAC MOTOR provides diversified transport options for local consumers. Currently, GAC MOTOR Kuwait has 9 models on sale. Not only has the emergence of GAC MOTOR in the Kuwaiti market helped Chinese automobile brands to go abroad, but it has also promoted the development of the Kuwaiti automobile industry, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results between the two countries.

With the continuous deepening of the strategic partnership between China and Kuwait, bilateral cooperation has entered the "fast lane". This is a period of strategic opportunities that Chinese enterprises should not miss. GAC MOTOR will also accelerate to improve its brand competitiveness in the global market, helping Sino-Kuwaiti economic cooperation reach a new milestone.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1431271/1.jpg
Bladder cancer patients should be given a shorter, more intense course of radiotherapy, say researchers, because it lowers the risk of the disease returning by 29 per cent.

Researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research and the University of Manchester analysed data from two previous clinical trials on radiotherapy treatments.

They found that giving fewer but larger doses of radiation not only reduces the risk of the disease returning, but involves fewer hospital visits - reducing Covid-19 risks.

Best of all, fewer doses - resulting in 12 fewer trips to hospital - didn't lead to any increase in side effects compared with those having more, but lower doses of radiation.

The authors recommend a shorter course of radiotherapy but with higher individual doses of radiation should be adopted as standard practice in the NHS.

Researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research and the University of Manchester analysed data from two previous clinical trials on radiotherapy treatments. Stock image

WHAT IS BLADDER CANCER? Bladder cancer is caused by a tumour developing in the lining of the bladder or the organ's muscle. Around 10,200 new cases are diagnosed in the UK each year and 81,400 people in the US, according to figures. It is the 10th most common cancer in the UK - but a little more prevalent in the US - and accounts for about three per cent of all cases. The cancer is more common in men and has a 10-year survival rate of about 50 per cent. Around half of cases are considered preventable. Symptoms of the disease include blood in the urine, needing to urinate more often or more urgently than normal and pelvic pain. However, unexpected weight loss and swelling of the legs can also be signs of the killer disease. Smoking and exposure to chemicals in plastics and paints at work can increase the risk of getting bladder cancer. Treatment varies depending on how advanced the cancer is, and may include surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

The study is the first to directly compare the two radiotherapy schedules that are currently used to treat muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

The researchers said their findings supported a change in standard of care for the cancer  particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.

They found that patients who received a 20-dose radiotherapy course delivered over four weeks had a 29 per cent lower risk of their cancer returning, over the five years following treatment, than those receiving a 32-dose course over six and a half weeks.

The reduced risk of disease returning was observed whether patients received a combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, or radiotherapy alone.

Patients on the shorter course received a total of only 55 Gy of radiation, compared with 64 Gy on the longer one.

A Gy is a unit of measurement for determining how much radiation someone has been exposed to - It is called the gray and is the absorption of one joule of radiation energy per kg of matter.

Professor Charlie Swanton, Cancer Research UKs Chief Clinician, said that while developing new treatments is important, so is improving ones we already have.

'This study found that when comparing two current radiotherapy plans for bladder cancer, a higher dose shorter course had a similar survival outcome to a lower dose longer course, without additional side effects.'

According to Cancer Research UK there are about 10,200 new bladder cancer cases in the UK every year and is the 11th most common form of cancer.

The study found no increased risk of side effects with the shorter course, and no significant difference in quality of life and overall survival between patients receiving the two radiotherapy schedules.

This led the team to conclude that the shorter course of more intense radiation produces a similar outcome - but using fewer resources and fewer visits to hospital.

They found that giving fewer but larger doses of radiation not only reduce the risk of the disease returning, but involves fewer hospital visits - reducing Covid-19 risk. Stock image

'Minimising hospital visits for cancer patients reduces their risk of exposure to Covid-19, and is more convenient for patients, while reducing demand,' they said.

The two trials were the largest national phase III randomised clinical trials in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated with radiotherapy.

Joint study leader Professor Ananya Choudhury, Consultant in Clinical Oncology at The Christie and The University of Manchester, described the results as exciting.

'We have made significant progress in understanding how radiotherapy can help bladder cancer patients,' Choudhury explained.

'We know bladder cancer can advance rapidly, so giving a higher dose over a shorter time can really benefit the patient.

'Around 10,200 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer in the UK every year. We hope these findings will lead to a new standard of care which will increase survival rates and extend the lives of many thousands of people in the future.'

Co-lead Professor Robert Huddart of the Institute of Cancer Research said: 'We are strongly advocating the widespread use of the shorter course of radiotherapy for bladder cancer.

'The findings are an important step forward in bringing kinder, smarter treatment to patients with bladder cancer and are especially timely in the current Covid-19 era, where there is a real imperative to keep patients out of hospital wherever possible.'

The findings have been published in the journal The Lancet.
Violence in Cabo Delgado has forced hundreds of people to flee their homes.

analysis

Journalist Tom Bowker has been covering the Islamist insurgency in the far north of the country.

Journalist and editor Tom Bowker, an important source of reliable news from the conflict in northern Mozambique, is set to be deported from the country this week.

It seems the Mozambique authorities want him out because of his comprehensive reporting on the growing extremist insurgency in the country's northernmost province Cabo Delgado.

As founder and editor of the respected Zitamar newsletter, a partner in the bulletin Cabo Ligado, Bowker's journalism has often reflected the Mozambique government's failure to counter the insurgency.

The insurgents have become ever more deeply entrenched in Cabo Delgado and have occupied the important port town of Mocimboa da Praia since early August 2020.

Joseph Hanlon, veteran chronicler of the Mozambique scene, disclosed Bowker's imminent expulsion in his own newsletter last week.

He said Bowker, a British citizen, who has been a journalist in Mozambique for seven years, had been ordered to leave the country by Saturday. "The expulsion is entirely unofficial - there is nothing in writing," Hanlon said. Daily Maverick was able to confirm Bowker's expulsion independently and reliably - although other sources said he has to leave by...
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, lowers his face mask before testifying at a Senate committee in Washington on June 30, 2020. (Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Dr. Fauci Says No Data to Indicate Wearing Multiple Masks Is More Effective

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases revised his suggestion of wearing more masks on Wednesday, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a mask mandate on all U.S. travelers.

Therere many people who feel, you know, if you really want to have extra a little bit of protection, maybe I should put two masks on, theres nothing wrong with that but theres no data that indicates that that is going to make a difference, Fauci told the presidents of teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the National Education Association (NEA).

As more contagious variants of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus emerge in the United States, some public health experts including Dr. Fauci have recommended more layers of masks.

The chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden said on NBCs TODAY show on Jan. 25, that wearing 2 masks is likely safer, due to common sense.

It likely does [help] because this is a physical covering to prevent droplets and virus to get in. If you have a physical covering with one layer and you put another layer on it, it just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective, Fauci said.

The CDC recommended wearing a cloth mask made with two or more layers and ensuring it covers your nose and mouth properly.

Dr. David Hamer, an infectious disease expert at Boston University suggested that wearing one mask should be enough for most situations, as long as it fits well and isnt loose.

Dr. Fauci said that even vaccinated individuals should wear masks because they might carry the virus, and spread the virus when theyre asymptomatic.

The CDC Saturday issued a new mask mandate for U.S. travelers, starting from next week, travelers and commuters will be required to wear face masks on nearly all forms of public transportation.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been authorized to fine passengers who do not meet the mask requirement on public transportation systems.

Depending on the circumstance, those who refuse to wear a mask may be subject to a civil penalty for attempting to circumvent screening requirements, interfering with screening personnel, or a combination of those offenses, TSA announced on Sunday.
ZANU PF legislators yesterday spent the day fasting, and praying for mercy and healing as COVID-19 continues to ravage the party, as well as hundreds of ordinary Zimbabweans on a daily basis.

This was revealed by the partys chief whip in the National Assembly, Pupurai Togarepi, who told NewsDay that it was heart-breaking that coronavirus was ravaging the nation, and taking away close colleagues, hence the need for the ruling party MPs to pray for wisdom and solutions.

How can we be happy when we are losing comrades like this? It is difficult to see friends and colleagues passing on everyday like this, he said.

As of yesterday morning, Health and Child Care ministry statistics showed that 1 217 people had died of COVID-19, while 33 388 cumulative cases had been recorded.

Some of the people that succumbed to the respiratory virus were top government officials that included ministers Sibusiso Moyo (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), Joel Biggie Matiza (Transport and Infrastructural Development) and former Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services boss, Commissioner-General Paradzai Zimondi, who were all buried on the same day last week at the National Heroes Acre.

Agriculture minister Perrance Shiri and Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Ellen Gwaradzimba are some of the high-profile politicians that have succumbed to the deadly virus, as well as former Primary and Secondary Education minister Aeneas Chigwedere.

The latest high-profile deaths from COVID-19 yesterday included former Zanu PF legislator for Mbare and ex-Lands and Resettlement deputy minister, Tendai Savanhu, Consumer Council of Zimbabwe boss Rosemary Siyachitema and High Court judge Justice Clement Phiri.

Today, all MPs countrywide are fasting in support of our President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and the leadership of the country in the fight against COVID-19. It is important that each of us takes a few minutes to pray for our great nation, Togarepi said.

He said the MPs were taking a cue from First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwas calls for prayers.

We said to ourselves, why dont we, as representatives of the people, talk to God through fasting today so that God gives our leadership wisdom and ways to fight COVID-19, Togarepi said.

We are praying for all the ways that we can find, like getting a vaccine and giving wisdom to our scientists here in Zimbabwe and throughout the world to find solutions to COVID-19.

He said the ruling party had also spoken to opposition MPs on the need for unity in prayer.

It is for all Zimbabweans across the political divide, but you cannot say to other people come let us pray. They have their own ways of doing things. But I spoke to the MDC-T chief whip Paurina Mpariwa, and she said it was a noble idea and acknowledged that she was touched by the First Ladys move to want to pray. As for Zanu PF MPs, all of them are in the same prayer mode today, he said.

Despite the prayers, Zanu PF bigwigs stand accused of looting millions of dollars of COVID-19 funds and neglecting local health facilities.

The ruling partys national chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri last year claimed COVID-19 was Gods punishment against the West for imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe. Newsday
ALBANY  An hour before a woman was fatally shot and four others were wounded Saturday evening, the city's codes and police departments were called to 251 Central Ave. for a large party of 75 to 100 people.

It was the second time the city had shut down a party at that address since November. Both times, partiers told city employees that the celebration was for the opening of a new business. But the business had no permits, and inside codes staff found alcohol, tables set up for gambling and crowds that exceeded state public health guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic, said Rick LaJoy, the city's director of the department of buildings.

As codes employees tried to clear the building, some people became hostile, forcing police to call for additional units.

Shanita Thomas and a smaller group moved the remaining food down the street to an apartment at 211 Central Ave. At around 11 p.m. Thomas was shot and killed. It's unclear if Thomas was the intended target of the shooting or what sparked the gunfire. Thomas left behind two children and there is a GoFundMe to support them.

Two women and two men were also wounded.

"It's a sad situation," said Joyce Love, the councilwoman who represents the area. "Our young people are dying rapidly."

Police Chief Eric Hawkins on Monday said detectives had interviewed the victims in the shooting, but shared little else about the investigation. He added that police are looking to speak with others who were at the party.

Were asking them to share the outrage that we have. And to come up and step up with the information that they have, Hawkins said.

Albany party ends with five people shot, one dead, in Central Avenue violence

Thomas is the city's second homicide victim of 2021. Hawkins insisted the violence was not widespread.

This is a very, very small number of people who are involved in violence, he said. Its not normal to use weapons to resolve a conflict."

Mayor Kathy Sheehan call the homicide tragic for the victim, her family and the community.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Albany Police Detective Division at 518-462-8039. 100% anonymous tips may also be submitted to Capital Region Crime Stoppers at www.capitalregioncrimestoppers.com or by downloading the free P3 Tips mobile app.

*A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Shanita Thomas as the business owner.
Updates on CCP Virus: GOP Moves to Condemn Early Vaccine Shots for Kansas Inmates

Republican lawmakers in Kansas are moving toward formally condemning Democratic Gov. Laura Kellys decision to give prison inmates COVID-19 vaccinations ahead of others.

The state Senates health committee agreed Tuesday to sponsor a resolution from its GOP chair, Sen. Richard Hilderbrand, that calls on Kelly to reverse her policy on inoculating inmates.

South Korea Curbing Travel, Gatherings for Holiday

South Korean officials are moving to limit travel and gatherings during next weeks Lunar New Year holidays by allowing train operators to sell only window seats and passenger vessels to operate at half capacity.

Officials also plan to strengthen sanitation and install more thermal cameras at train stations, bus terminals, and airports. Travelers will be required to be masked at all times and will be prohibited from eating food at highway rest areas.

January Was Nevadas Deadliest Virus Month

Nevada has recorded its deadliest month of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic in January after reporting eight additional virus deaths over the weekend.

The additional deaths on Sunday boosted the statewide death toll for the month to 1,132. Thats more than a quarter of the 4,278 confirmed deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Lebanon Breaks Single-Day Record of Virus Deaths

Lebanon has broken its single-day record of virus deaths with 81 as the country continued its nationwide lockdown for the third week.

The health ministry has registered a total of 306,000 cases since the start of the pandemic.

Pressure Builds on Schools to Reopen

Pressure is building on school systems in multiple states to reopen classrooms for students who have been learning online for nearly a year.

In Chicago, the rancor is so great that teachers are on the brink of striking. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom implored schools to find a way to reopen. In Cincinnati, some students returned to classrooms Tuesday after a judge threw out a teachers union lawsuit over safety concerns. In Nashua, New Hampshire, the school board voted to stick with remote learning for most students until the city meets certain targets on infections, hospitalizations, and tests coming back positive for the virus.

UK Tests House-to-House in Hunt for New Variant

England has begun house-by-house COVID-19 testing in some communities as authorities try to snuff out a new variant of the CCP virus before it spreads widely and undermines a nationwide vaccination program.

Authorities want to reach the 80,000 residents of eight areas where the variant, first identified in South Africa, is known to be spreading because a handful of cases have been detected among people who have had no contact with the country or anyone who traveled there.

Dutch PM Confirms Lockdown to Last Until at Least March

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Tuesday that most of the lockdown measures in the Netherlands, many of which have been in place since October, will remain in place for weeks due to fears over a surge in cases as a result of variant strains.

Ruttes government is still weighing whether to continue an evening curfew that has triggered rioting in some Dutch cities beyond next week, the prime minister told a press briefing. The government announced earlier this week that primary schools and daycares will reopen on Feb. 8, adding that it is also looking at possibly reopening secondary schools but that will not happen before March.

African Countries Scramble to Bury Dead

Shipping containers have become overflow mortuaries for the dead from COVID-19 in South Africa, driven by the more infectious variant, 501Y.V2, now dominant in the country, South Africa had a resurgence of the CCP virus that saw confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths reach nearly double the numbers of the first surge last year.

As mortuaries reached capacity, the countrys largest firm of undertakers, AVBOB, distributed 22 refrigerated shipping containers to its funeral homes. South Africa has had more than 1.4 million confirmed cases, including 44,399 deaths, representing more than 40 percent of all cases reported across the African continent of 1.3 billion people.

No Data to Indicate Wearing Multiple Masks Is More Effective: Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases revised his suggestion of wearing more masks on Wednesday, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a mask mandate on all U.S. travelers.

Therere many people who feel, you know, if you really want to have extra a little bit of protection, maybe I should put two masks on, theres nothing wrong with that but theres no data that indicates that that is going to make a difference, Fauci told the presidents of teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the National Education Association (NEA).

UK Monitoring Vaccine Efficacy Against Variants

The British government is monitoring the efficacy of existing CCP virus vaccines to see if the jabs need to be modified for new variants of the virus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday.

We are doing a huge amount of work with the scientists and the pharmaceutical industry to develop modified vaccines, should they be necessary. Were also monitoring the results of work to understand the efficacy of the existing vaccines against the variants of concern, Hancock told the House of Commons.

Over Half in New Delhi May Have Had Virus, Survey Shows

More than half of New Delhis 20 million inhabitants may have been infected with the CCP virus, according to a government serological survey whose findings echoed earlier private-sector research.

India has reported 10.8 million COVID-19 infections, the most anywhere outside the United States. But Tuesdays survey, based on some 28,000 samples, suggests the true figure among its 1.35 billion population is dramatically higher and approaching herd immunity levels.

WHO Team Visits Animal Disease Center in China

A World Health Organization team of international experts visited an animal disease center in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Tuesday as part of their investigation into the origins of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

Team member Peter Daszak, a zoologist with the EcoHealth Alliance, said on Twitter that they had met with staff in charge of livestock health, toured laboratories, and had an in-depth discussion along with questions and answers. Further details of the visit were not announced in what has been a tightly controlled trip, with the media only able to glimpse the team coming and going from its hotel and site visits.

Japan Set to Extend State of Emergency for Another Month

Japan is set to extend a state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions for another month on Tuesday, seeking to keep the upper hand over a COVID-19 outbreak even as daily case numbers begin to edge down.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to formally announce the extension to March 7 later in the day following a recommendation from an expert CCP virus response panel. Japan has reported a total of just under 392,000 COVID-19 cases, including just over 5,800 deaths.

Housebound Elderly Slipping Through the Cracks in Vaccine Rollout

Compared to their counterparts living in care homes, many elderly people being cared for at home may be slipping through the cracks by missing out on vaccines against the CCP virus, one of the UKs largest domiciliary care providers has warned.

Home care provider Cera said on Monday that just 1 percent of its 10,000 service users, over half of whom are over 80, had thus far received a vaccine in the governments rapid roll-out program. In contrast, just over 50 percent of its 5,000 care workers had so far been vaccinated.

CDC Should Clarify Guidance on Vaccinating Those Previously Infected

A public health agency should clarify whether Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine showed efficacy in those with a previous infection, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory committee last month published recommendations for use of the vaccine. It said that a clinical trial showed the vaccine had consistently high efficacy for people with or without a previous infection. Massie alleged the interpretation wasnt true. He called the CDC and spoke with multiple officials, with several appearing to admit the wording needed to be updated.

Pfizer Sees About $15 Billion in 2021 Sales From Vaccine

Pfizer Inc. said on Tuesday it expects to generate about $15 billion in sales this year from the COVID-19 vaccine that it developed with German partner BioNTech.

The drugmaker is trying to deliver two billion doses of the vaccine in 2021 at a breakneck pace as countries rush to sign supply deals. Pfizer has supplied 65 million doses of the vaccine globally and 29 million doses to the United States as of Jan. 31. It expects to supply 200 million doses to the U.S. government by the end of May.

Alexander Zhang, Gary Du, Mary Clark, Zachary Stieber, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

She's currently filming the Marvel sequel Thor: Love and Thunder in Sydney.

But on Tuesday, Tessa Thompson enjoyed some down time and went horse riding in Centennial Park.

The 37-year-old actress looked as if she was participating in a photo shoot dressed in a unique printed jacket which featured wool around its sleeves.

Break time! American actress Tessa Thompson, 37, (pictured) enjoyed some down time as she went horse riding in Sydney during a break from filming Thor: Love and Thunder on Tuesday

Tessa paired her look with jeans and a riding helmet for the outing.

She also wore a pair of black leather boots and round sunglasses as she sat on the horse.

The actress showed off her natural complexion and appeared to be wearing little makeup during the outing.

Stylish: The Hollywood actress looked as if she was participating in a photo shoot dressed in a unique printed jacket which featured wool around its sleeves

Safety first! Tessa paired her look with jeans and a riding helmet for the outing

At one point, Tessa was seen chatting to a male companion, who was riding a horse nearby.

It comes just days after Tessa and her co-stars Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth started filming Thor: Love and Thunder at Sydney's Fox Studios.

The film will see her character Valkyrie return to the Marvel Universe for the latest installment of the super hero series.

Company: At one point Tessa was seen chatting to a male companion, who was riding a horse nearby

Joy: Tessa was all smiles during the outing and appeared confident while riding the horse

Working: It comes just days after Tessa and her co-stars Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt and Chris Hemsworth started filming Thor: Love and Thunder at Sydney's Fox Studios

Her character Valkyrie was previously revealed to be one of the first LGBTQ characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The franchise has previously been criticised for merely paying lip service by making its LGBTQ characters supporting or background players and diminishing their queerness.

Tessa arrived in Australia just three weeks ago, and has since been spotted soaking up Sydney's hot spots including Bondi Beach and Crown Sydney's Nobu restaurant.

Leading the way: Thompson's character Valkyrie was previously revealed to be one of the first LGBTQ characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
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While small businesses across the state struggled get government loans to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic, a Secaucus teen and a Clifton man were awarded a $10,000 in loans for companies they fabricated, authorities say.

Adam Rodriguez, 22, and Madison Sedell, 19, of Secaucus, applied for three Small Business Administration loans for made-up companies, ranging from agricultural companies to a marketing company, Secaucus Police Chief Dennis Miller said. And while legitimate business owners were denied, Rodriguez and Sedell were approved.

Rodriguez also forged a check belonging to Clean Eats, LLC, in the amount of $1,900, while he, Sedell and Jadyn Brower, a 19-year-old from Secaucus, conspired to launder the money by transferring some of the money to one another through various online cash applications, Miller said.

All three were arrested Tuesday. Rodriguez was charged with forgery, money laundering, three counts of falsifying records, theft by deception, two counts of criminal attempt to commit theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception. Sedell and Brower were each charged with conspiracy to commit theft by deception and money laundering.

I applaud Detective Aniello Schaffer for his determination in following up on what initially was received as a tip on our tip line and bringing these three defendants to justice, Miller said. It is very unfortunate that even during a pandemic, criminals will find a way to commit nefarious acts.

Miller also credited Homeland Security Investigations Newark Division for its assistance in the investigation.

Tips can be made by calling 201-330-2049, emailing spdtips@secaucus.net or submitting anonymously through the departments website at www.secaucuspolice.org.
MINNEAPOLIS- February 2, 2021 - In Minnesota, there are currently about 60 diseases that all newborns are screened for at birth using a heel prick and a few drops of blood. Of all the screenable disorders combined, newborn infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) is most common, and it is ranked as the most prevalent infectious disease in the U.S. and Europe that causes birth defects, long-term disabilities and deafness in babies.

Yet, current routine screening practices do not include monitoring for CMV. The lack of blood spot screening may be due to past studies not showing a good enough detection rate for CMV, using the blood spot test, that would be sufficiently sensitive to justify universal screening.

Mark Schleiss, MD, pediatric infectious disease physician with the University of Minnesota Medical School and M Health Fairview, led a study that used improved techniques to show that the dried blood spot taken at birth can, in fact, find CMV infection in the newborn with almost 90% accuracy. The study was recently published in JAMA Pediatrics.

"This is a major new development in the field and means that automated testing for CMV could be done for this infection using the standard dried blood spot tests that are already obtained on all newborns, using existing infrastructure and requiring no new tests on the baby," said Schleiss, who is the principal investigator of the study. "Identifying CMV at birth, in turn, allows for earlier intervention that can improve the outcome for these children."

Earlier intervention could improve hearing, speech, language and intellectual/neurodevelopmental outcomes for newborns with CMV.

Schleiss will continue his work with the Minnesota Department of Health to encourage that the results are translated into action, by considering adding the CMV screening to all newborn dried blood spot tests currently done in Minnesota newborns. Ultimately, he would like to see it become standard practice nationally.

###

Other U of M Medical School faculty involved in this research include Erin Osterholm, MD, and research associate Nelmary Hernandez-Alvarado, both in the Department of Pediatrics.

About the University of Minnesota Medical School

The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. Visit med.umn.edu to learn how the University of Minnesota is innovating all aspects of medicine.
In his message, Thongloun Sisoulith said Trongs re-election as the Party General Secretary during the 13th National Party Congress demonstrates appreciation and trust of the whole Party, army and people in the Party chiefs outstanding role and leadership experience.

The Lao leader expressed his belief that under the sound leadership of the CPV headed by Trong, Vietnamese people will reap more achievements in realising the Resolution adopted at the 13th National Party Congress, thus turning Vietnam into a modernity-oriented industrial country.

He affirmed to continue working together with Party General Secretary and State President Trong and other new leaders of the CPV to further cultivate the Vietnam-Laos relationship.

He believed the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, States and peoples would further prosper, for the interests of the two countries people, and for peace, friendship, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

In his message, President Bounnhang Vorachith shared the Lao Party General Secretary and PMs view, saying achievements by Party General Secretary and State President Trong have significantly contributed to elevating Vietnams role and position in the regional and international arena.

Under the sound leadership of the CPV and the Vietnamese State, along with Trongs experience, Vietnamese people will obtain more fruits in national construction, defence and development, he said.

Bounnhang Vorachith said he hopes that Trong will contribute more to the bilateral friendship.



GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Gang rivalry led to a fatal shooting after the 2019 Fourth of July fireworks in Grand Rapids, testimony showed.

The shooting, near Fish Ladder Park, killed Saul Espinoza, 20, and sent fireworks visitors rushing for cover as at least two dozen gunshots were fired at his car.

A passenger was injured.

Witnesses testified Monday, Feb. 1, that Espinoza was believed to be part of the Mexican Mob gang when he was targeted by a group of Latin Kings.

Ulises Ferrer, 21, and Oscar Alexis Urtiz-Esquivel, 18, were ordered to stand trial in the July 6, 2019, shooting, on multiple charges, including open murder, after a preliminary examination before Nicholas Ayoub.

Grand Rapids police Detective Case Weston said that police recovered 24 shell casings from two 9mm handguns.

The shots were fired in seconds, witnesses said.

Espinoza, who was driving, was tied up in traffic when he was struck once in the left side of his chest. The bullet went through the window and hit both lungs, aorta and liver, a forensic pathologist testified.

Surveillance video showed what appeared to be a family of five, including an adult pushing a stroller, suddenly turn and rush away as gunfire erupted. Members of Latin Kings testified that Ferrer and Urtiz-Esquivel had guns and that Espinosa was considered an enemy of the Latin Kings.

Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Gerard Faber said that the defendants appeared to act in concert when they ambushed the young man and his girlfriend in the car.

The gunfire last only a couple of seconds, he said.

He noted there were innocent families walking on the sidewalk after the fireworks.

He said the defendants  a third suspect is also being sought  aided and abetted each in the killing. It was uncertain who fired the fatal shot.

Defense attorney John Pyrski, representing Urtiz-Esquivel, said witnesses didnt see his client fire a gun. He attacked the credibility of witnesses, including a man who is jailed for an earlier perjury conviction.

Mark Hunting, representing Ferrer, disputed the prosecutors theory the defendants conspired with each other.

There are factual flaws with no one able to show who fired the fatal shot.

Who shot him? Who fired that bullet? Hunting asked.

He said that other Latin Kings thought there would be a fight, not a shooting, and it happened fast.

Faber, the prosecutor, said the defendants instantly produced handguns and started blasting.

It was either a conspiracy to light up this car with gunfire or each of them spontaneously, at some cosmic coincidence, all decided at exactly the same moment and exactly the same time to produce firearms and shoot this car.

Read more:

West Michigan woman mourns loss of husband, daughter after two pandemics a decade apart

Wayne County dismisses 1,600-plus violations of Whitmers overturned coronavirus orders

Michigan Secretary of State wants absentee ballot applications mailed to voters every federal election cycle
Bollywood heartthrob Vicky Kaushal just realized one of his fans dreams on Tuesday. The actor who is shooting for his upcoming movie with 2017 Miss World Manushi Chillar in Madhya Pradeshs Maheshwar, met one of his dedicated fans at Indore airport today.

Vicky shared the incident through his Instagram post a few hours ago where he posted a picture with a samosa. Captioning the picture, the 32-year-old actor described how he ended up with the samosa in his hand. It was when one of his ardent fans named Harshita, who runs an Instagram fan account of the actor by the name @vickyyismylifeline, arrived at the Indore airport with the samosas and jalebis . Vicky further wrote that he is glad to know that he has a fan who knows that he is perpetually hungry. He also had a message for Harshitas parents who did not know that their daughter was at the airport to meet Vicky. The actor said, Aunty Uncle gussa mat karna agar padh lo toh . He also mentioned how Indores samosas are uniquely special in their own way.

The post has been liked by 4,52,545 Instagram users as netizens commented with their reactions. One of the users commented, So sweet!

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Vicky Kaushal (@vickykaushal09)

Meanwhile, the fan who met Vicky has no words to express her experience. Harshita was sharing updates ahead of meeting Vicky on her Instagram fan page. Harshita had shared a picture of a news report that had mentioned that the actor will be arriving at Maheshwar for the shooting of his upcoming movie. The news report prompted Harshita to plan her meeting with the actor. The enthused fan wrote how she was getting ready and could not even sleep the whole night a day before she planned to meet him at the arrival.

After finally delivering the Jalebis and Samosas to the actor whom she claims to be in love with for the past three years Harshita mentioned in her Story that Vickys post for her has got her dead.
"Despite the pandemic we achieved a lot throughout 2020 and the momentum has continued into 2021 with a very busy January. We have opened our new manufacturing facility "Silver One", announced additional non-dilutive funding of approximately $4 million and presented the first data from our large-scale lung cancer study," commented Cameron Reynolds, President and Group Chief Executive Officer. "As we transition from a research and development company to a commercial company, we are delighted to strengthen the leadership team with the appointment of Terig and Gael and the well-deserved promotions of Gaetan and Mark. All four bring strong global expertise and experience to their respective roles and these appointments aim to provide a very strong product focus to our management team. Please take a few minutes to watch the video below for a company update and to meet the new members of our management team."

Mr. Reynolds added, "We would also like to thank Mr. David Vanston, our former Chief Financial Officer, for his contributions to Volition during his tenure with us and we wish him well in his future endeavors."

Watch a video providing a business update and introducing Volition's new team members here - https://youtu.be/JznLeU0UOtg

Mr. Hughes, our new Chief Financial Officer, is a seasoned finance professional with over twenty-five years of accounting, finance and business management experience gained through an international career spanning the United States, Europe and Asia and joins Volition from AUM Biosciences Pte. Ltd., a fast-growing biotechnology company focused on developing novel cancer drugs, where he acted as Chief Financial Officer since 2018. Prior to then, Mr. Hughes held a number of senior leadership positions at Elsevier, a division of RELX Group plc, a FTSE 100 company, including regional Managing Director and regional Finance Director for Elsevier Health Solutions. He has extensive experience in financial reporting, planning & analysis, and profit and loss management, as well as product commercialization, licensing and distributor management.

Mr. Hughes holds a Bachelor's degree in Accounting and Law from De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.

Commenting on his appointment Mr. Hughes said, "I am delighted to join Volition at this exciting time, not only will product launches help saves lives through earlier diagnosis they should also help provide long term value for our stockholders."

Mr. Gael Forterre, our new Chief Commercial Officer, has over 15 years of experience investing in and scaling fast growing companies. Mr. Forterre started his career as a hedge fund analyst in Paris and worked in a number of investment banking and trading roles over ten plus years, including launching Armori Capital Management LLC in 2014, for which he conducted a large number of investments on behalf of family offices/institutional investors and became active in supporting the growth of its portfolio companies. Most recently, from 2017 until joining Volition, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Ucroo Incorporated, a fast-growing collaboration and communication technology company, which he led to a tripling in revenue growth two years in a row. Mr. Forterre continues to serve as a board member of Ucroo Incorporated and Article22.

Mr. Forterre holds a Master's degree in finance from Sorbonne Paris I and a double MBA from Columbia Business School and the London Business School.

"After more than 15 years of investing and helping companies scale, I find Volition to have the most compelling potential," commented Mr. Forterre, "and am delighted to join the passionate team to drive commercialization of the product pipeline."

Mr. Forterre will focus on building a strong commercialization plan and team to drive the extensive range of products to be developed using the Nu.Q platform.

Dr. Gaetan Michel, our new Chief Operating Officer, has been with Volition almost seven years, previously serving as Chief Operating Officer of Belgian Volition and currently as Chief Executive Officer of Belgian Volition. With over 15 years of project management, manufacturing and operational experience, Dr. Michel is ideally placed to oversee and expand Volition's global operations including the newly opened Innovation Hub in San Diego, the manufacturing facility "Silver One" and Research and Development Facility in Belgium, as well as expanding the veterinary subsidiary in Texas, U.S.A.

"I am honored to accept the position of Chief Operating Officer of Volition," commented Dr. Michel, " and look forward to executing our expansion plans throughout 2021 and beyond as we roll out our Nu.Q platform worldwide."

Dr. Mark Eccleston, one of Volition's founding scientists will now serve as our new Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Eccleston has over 20 years' experience in the biotechnology sector and holds a PhD in Polymer Chemistry for biomedical applications. In this new role, he will identify and review new and innovative infrastructures which will aid in the deployment of Volition's proprietary Nu.Q platform.

"After ten years with Volition it is still tremendously rewarding working on such a cutting-edge technology," commented Dr. Eccleston, "Nu.Q not only has the potential to help diagnose cancer, but potentially many other serious conditions. I look forward to this new role where I can play a key part in evaluation and sourcing the technology platforms that can assist with a range of Nu.Q product launches."

For further details please contact [email protected].

About Volition

Volition is a multi-national epigenetics company developing simple, easy to use, cost effective blood tests to help diagnose a range of cancers and other diseases. Early diagnosis has the potential to not only prolong the life of patients, but also to improve their quality of life. The tests are based on the science of NucleosomicsTM, which is the practice of identifying and measuring nucleosomes in the bloodstream or other bodily fluid - an indication that disease is present. Volition is primarily focused on human diagnostics but also has a subsidiary focused on animal diagnostics.

Volition's research and development activities are centered in Belgium, with a small laboratory in California and additional offices in Texas, London and Singapore, as the company focuses on bringing its diagnostic products to market.

For more information about Volition, visit Volition's website volition.com or connect with us via:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/volitionrx

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/volitionrx

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VolitionRx/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/VolitionRx

The contents found at Volition's website address, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube are not incorporated by reference into this document and should not be considered part of this document. The addresses for Volition's website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube are included in this document as inactive textual references only.

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Statements in this press release may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that concern matters that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or projected in the forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "aims," "targets," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "optimizing," "potential," "goal," "suggests," "could," "would," "should," "may," "will" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to the effectiveness of Volition's blood-based diagnostic and prognostic tests, and Volition's ability to develop and successfully commercialize such test platforms for early detection of cancer and other diseases. Volition's actual results may differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements due to numerous risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, results of studies testing the efficacy of its tests. For instance, if Volition fails to develop and commercialize diagnostic or prognostic products, it may be unable to execute its plan of operations. Other risks and uncertainties include Volition's failure to obtain necessary regulatory clearances or approvals to distribute and market future products; a failure by the marketplace to accept the products in Volition's development pipeline or any other diagnostic or prognostic products Volition might develop; Volition's failure to secure adequate intellectual property protection; Volition will face fierce competition and Volition's intended products may become obsolete due to the highly competitive nature of the diagnostics market and its rapid technological change; downturns in domestic and foreign economies; and other risks identified in Volition's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, as well as other documents that Volition files with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Volition's business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and, except as required by law, Volition does not undertake an obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

Pursuant to the disclosure requirements of the NYSE American Company Guide Section 711(a), Volition is reporting that its Board of Directors (including all of its independent directors) has approved the issuance of a warrant to purchase up to 185,000 shares of Volition common stock (the "Warrant") to Mr. Terig Hughes as a material inducement for his entering employment with Singapore Volition Pte. Limited, Volition's wholly-owned subsidiary, as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. The Warrant has an exercise price of $4.90 per share and is exercisable commencing February 1, 2022 (subject to (i) continued employment through such date, and (ii) the shares underlying the Warrant shall have been duly approved for listing by the NYSE American prior to exercise) with an expiration date of February 1, 2027.

Nucleosomics and Nu.Q and their respective logos are trademarks and/or service marks of VolitionRx Limited and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, service marks and trade names referred to in this press release are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE VolitionRx Ltd

Related Links

http://www.volitionrx.com



SEATTLE, WA and BERLIN, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Globally-trusted IP address and geolocation data provider IPinfo announced today that their IP data will now be available on Datarade, the fastest-growing global e-commerce platform for commercial datasets. IPinfo's data products can now be leveraged by Datarade's tens of thousands of data buyers from every industry.

"We are very excited to partner with Datarade in their mission to make data accessible to everyone. We share their belief that high-quality commercial data sets are essential to scaling any business in today's global economy. Through this partnership, our data will be more widely available than ever before to data buyers worldwide." - Ben Dowling, CEO & Founder, IPinfo.

IPinfo provides the fastest, most reliable, and most accurate IP datasets. Datarade users will now be able to easily access data including geolocation, ASN, IP to company, privacy detection (VPN, proxy, Tor), IP to carrier, IP ranges, and hosted domain data sets. Aggregated from multiple sources and updated daily, they can be confident that IPinfo's data is always accurate and up to date.

"Datarade's partnership with IPinfo will benefit data users worldwide. Our companies' collaboration means that it's as easy as possible to buy reliable IP address data from a source which is trusted by global brands. We're excited to see our work with IPinfo grow."

- Richard Hoffmann, CCO & Co-Founder, Datarade.

About IPinfo

IPInfo is an internet infrastructure data company that provides the most reliable, fastest, and most accurate data sets via API for geolocation, as well as for company IPs, mobile carrier IPs, and domains. Originally started as a community project in 2013, the IPInfo platform has processed terabytes of data to produce its custom data sets that allow companies to pinpoint their users' locations, customize their experiences, prevent fraud and ensure compliance. More than 100,000 developers and businesses, from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies, use IPInfo as a trusted source for security, performance, and fraud detection. Locate IPInfo at ipinfo.io.

About Datarade

Datarade is the world's fastest-growing e-commerce platform for data. With a persistent focus on crafting the ultimate data shopping experience, Datarade has helped thousands of data buyers find the right data for their business, effortlessly. More than 2,000 data providers across 300+ data categories are already listed on Datarade, enabling organizations across industries to connect with trusted providers and access the best datasets and APIs. Datarade was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

Contact:

Jan Wnek

York IE

jan@york.ie

SOURCE: IPinfo.io

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627132/IPinfo-Partners-with-Datarade-to-Connect-Users-Worldwide-With-Fastest-Available-IP-Address-Data
March 11, 2021

CDC, public health and regulatory officials in several states, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) collected and analyzed different types of data but were unable to identify the food source of this multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections.

As of March 11, 2021, this outbreak is over.

Epidemiologic Data

As of March 10, 2021, a total of 22 people infected with the outbreak strain were reported from 7 states (see map). Illnesses started on dates ranging from December 18, 2020, to January 12, 2021 (see timeline).

Sick people ranged in age from 10 to 95 years, with a median age of 28, and 68% were female. Of 20 people with information available, 11 were hospitalized. Of 18 people with information, 3 developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). One death was reported from Washington.

State and local public health officials interviewed people about the foods they ate in the week before they got sick. CDC analyzed the interview data and did not identify a specific food item as a potential source of this outbreak. People reported eating a variety of food items, including leafy greens, broccoli, cucumbers, and strawberries. However, none of the food items were reported significantly more by sick people in this outbreak when compared to healthy people in the FoodNet population survey.

Laboratory and Traceback Data

Public health investigators used the PulseNet system to identify illnesses that were part of this outbreak. CDC PulseNet manages a national database of DNA fingerprints of bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses. DNA fingerprinting is performed on bacteria using a method called whole genome sequencing (WGS).

WGS showed that bacteria from sick peoples samples were closely related genetically. This means that people in this outbreak likely got sick from eating the same food.

WGS predicted that bacteria from 14 peoples samples were resistant to all of the following antibiotics: chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulfisoxazole, tetracycline, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. CDCs National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) laboratory is currently conducting standard antibiotic resistance testing. These findings do not affect treatment options for people in this outbreak. This is because antibiotics are not recommended for treating E. coli O157:H7 illnesses.

WGS also showed that this outbreak strain was previously linked to various sources, including romaine lettuce and recreational water.

FDA conducted traceback investigations on several produce items but did not identify a common source or potential point of contamination.
[February 02, 2021] ManifestSeven Opens Scaled Multi-Purpose Facility in San Francisco Bay Area

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 2, 2021 /CNW/ -- ManifestSeven Holdings Corporation (CSE: MSVN; OTCMKTS: MNFSF) ("M7" or the "Company"), California's first integrated omnichannel platform for legal cannabis, today announced the opening of its fully-licensed, multi-purpose facility in Brisbane, California, located directly south of San Francisco. The Brisbane facility marks a significant strategic milestone for M7 as it progresses the statewide expansion of the Company's core regulated cannabis operations. The Brisbane facility functions as M7's centralized distribution and logistics hub serving the Northern California cannabis marketcovering a geographic region of 48 counties from the Emerald Triangle in the north to Monterey County and the San Joaquin Valley in the southand supports licensed cannabis cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers operating in some of the state's largest markets, including the San Francisco Bay area, the Greater Sacramento area, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. The Brisbane facility is M7's largest distribution center to date and significantly expands the Company's operational capabilities and logistical efficiency in the region. "With the launch of our largest facility yet, we are accomplishing more than just expanding our distribution capabilities and asset footprint in Northern California," stated Sturges Karban, Chief Executive Officer of M7. "Our operations in Brisbane are ideally situated within one of the state's most diverse and commercially dynamic regionsnot only an epicenter of California's unparalleled cultivation activity but also home to a countless number of the state's leading brands and retailers." The new facility enables M7 to unlock, for the benefit of businesses and consumers alike, more timely and cost-effective access to many of the state's most recognizable cannabis brands. The Company's optimized presence in Northern California complements its growing distribution and retail infrastructure in Southern California, supporting a more robust commercial corridor efficiently connecting the two primary regions of the world's largest legal cannabis market. The Brisbane facility will allow M7 to continue expanding its bulk wholesale capabilities, improving the Company's ability to support its distribution clients throughout California by providing reliable, consistent sources of raw materials critical to their operations, includng cannabis flower, biomass, and oil. The facility will also accommodate manufacturing activities such as packaging and labeling, co-packing, white-labeling, and infusion, further augmenting the existing suite of value-added services M7 can offer to its distribution clients.



Mr. Karban continued, "On behalf of M7, I would like to thank the City of Brisbane and its staff for their warm welcome into the Brisbane community. The City has worked hard to promote a supportive and entrepreneurial environment for growing companies like ours. We are excited both to join and soon give back to its already thriving local economy and help create permanent, well-paying jobs in the area." About ManifestSeven:

ManifestSeven is the first integrated omnichannel platform for legal cannabis, merging compliant distribution with a retail superhighway. M7, headquartered in Irvine, California, services the needs of lawful operators across the supply chain, from the cultivator to the consumer, through an expansive network of four facilities stretching from the San Francisco Bay Area to San Diego. M7 further augments its business-to-business value proposition with a growing portfolio of owned and operated retail operations located in major metro markets, including brick-and-mortar dispensaries, local on-demand delivery services, e-commerce, and subscription offerings. Learn more at manifest7.com.

To receive Company updates and be added to the email distribution list, please sign up here. Follow the Company on YouTube here and join the Company's conversation on Telegram here. CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND STATEMENTS: This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs and assumptions regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. This forward-looking information is based on certain assumptions made by management and other factors used by management in developing such information. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice. The Company's securities referred to in this press release have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws. Accordingly, the Company's securities may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy any Company's securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/manifestseven-opens-scaled-multi-purpose-facility-in-san-francisco-bay-area-301219644.html SOURCE ManifestSeven

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Amid the explosive growth of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil and throughout the world, Brazilian state governments are forcing their schools to reopen. A powerful wave of opposition to this homicidal policy of the ruling class is growing among Brazilian educators, with strikes being called in different parts of the country.

The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous and most affected by the virus, is leading the national campaign to reopen schools. This Monday, February 1, on-site classes were resumed in private schools. The states public school network is set to reopen for students on February 8. On-site planning meetings have already begun.

Brazilian teachers on strike last year in Recife. (Facebook)

In a virtual confession of the murderous character of this measure, the Sao Paulo government led by Governor Joao Doria of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) issued an official statement last Wednesday titled Sao Paulo: new cases of COVID-19 in January reached a record since the beginning of the pandemic. It declares:

January set a record for new COVID-19 cases in the state of Sao Paulo for all months of the pandemic, reaching 268,997 confirmed infections to this day. With four days to go to the end of the month, almost 7,000 more cases have already been reported than in August, which had registered 262,038 new cases and until now was the month with the highest number of infections.

Since the second week of January, the seven-day moving average of new deaths exceeds 200 deaths per day. This level is similar to the one seen between June and August, peak months of the first wave of the pandemic.

By Saturday, COVID-19 had already killed 52,954 people in Sao Paulo, about a quarter of the total 224,124 deaths in Brazil. If it were a country, Sao Paulo would be 13th in COVID-19 deaths, with the number of deaths close to that of Germany, which has almost twice the population.

New variants of the virus and the imminent dangers of reopening schools

Reopening schools in Sao Paulo is like pouring gasoline into a burning building. More than 13 million, or 32 percent of the states population, including both students and educational workers, will be sent to the streets and school facilities that will serve as centers of proliferation of the coronavirus. The states rate of social isolation would be reduced to less than 10 percent of the population.

The capital of Sao Paulo has the largest school district in Brazil, with 2,099,438 students enrolled in kindergartens, elementary and high schools according to 2018 data by the IBGE. The city concentrates almost twice as many students as New York City, the largest school district in the United States, with 1,126,501 students in total.

A simulation done by researchers at leading Brazilian and international universities in mid-2020, taking into account the conditions of schools in Sao Paulo and the functioning standards determined by the government, concluded that in just three months of reopening, up to 46 percent of teachers and students would be infected.

Recent factors in the evolution of the pandemic in Brazil and internationally threaten to make this measure even more catastrophic. New, more contagious variants of COVID-19, such as those found in the United Kingdom and in the Brazilian city of Manaus, have already been identified in Sao Paulo.

The variant of the virus discovered last December in Manaus has been singled out by infectious disease researchers as strongly responsible for the explosion of cases that led to the collapse of the health care system of the Amazonian city. This variant has quickly spread through Manaus, with its percentage detected in infected patients jumping from around 50 percent in mid-December to over 90 percent on January 13. Marcus Lacerda, a Fiocruz Amazonas researcher, estimated that it will take only one month until this variant prevails across Brazil.

The reopening of schools in Sao Paulo and Brazil as a whole will not only boost the spread of these variants but will stimulate the development of new strains. The more the coronavirus spreads, the more mutations it produces. The emergence of the new variant of the virus in Manaus was a direct product of the reopening of schools promoted by the government of Amazonas last August .

The mutations of the virus make it less susceptible to vaccines, threatening to effectively sabotage COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. It has already been reported that the Johnson & Johnson and Novavax vaccines had their efficacy radically reduced in face of the new variant discovered in South Africa.

The anti-science policy of the ruling class

These risks are being consciously ignored to force the reopening of schools in the interests of the ruling class. To this end, the Sao Paulo government in December declared the functioning of schools an essential activity, contrary to previous norms set by governments own plan.

This policy is based on the anti-scientific claims that have been aggressively promoted by Sao Paulos Secretary of Education Rossieli Soares. He insists on the supposed success of the European experience of keeping schools functioning even with the pandemic out of control. This claim is absolutely denied by science. A recent British study, from Public Health England, found schools to be responsible for 26 percent of infections in the investigated groups, a number three times greater than infections occurring in hospitals. Several other studies reveal the substantial impact of school closures on reducing cases and deaths.

This unmasks the secretarys statement that the virus is very rare among children as a complete lie. In addition, there is a growing wave of childhood deaths from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C) associated with COVID-19. The US has recently reported dozens of deaths from MIS-C among children between four and six years of age in 47 different states. In 2020, Brazil reported 39 child and adolescent deaths from MIS-C and 577 cases.

Feigning concern for the privations facing students, Soares characterized school closures as an educational massacre. This cynical statement contrasts with the decades of attacks on education, classroom closures, and destruction of teachers living standards promoted by the PSDB governments in Sao Paulo. It is totally unmasked by the absence of any concrete measure by the government to guarantee distance learning throughout 2020.

The real interests behind the reopening of schools were expressed by Brazils largest educational think tank, Todos Pela Educacao, which speaks on behalf of the banks and big business. The organizations president, Priscila Cruz, defined the opening of schools as the pillar of support for economic recovery, that is, as a key factor in forcing workers back to their jobs, even in the face of increasingly unsafe conditions.

The preservation of the profit interests of the ruling class in the context of the pandemic, and more fundamentally the global capitalist crisis, is deeply interrelated with a right-wing turn in politics and attacks on scientific truth. Brazils fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro, the advocate of widespread infection of the population and captain of his self-proclaimed war on lockdowns, is the most direct expression of these socially destructive interests.

The program to fight the pandemic and save lives defended by serious scientists, who are increasingly speaking out for an urgent lockdown in Brazil, can only be implemented through the independent political mobilization of the working class.

Opposition grows among Brazilian educators

A general reopening of schools in Brazil did not occur in 2020 only because the plans of the ruling class confronted mass opposition from educators and working class families.

At the end of last year, strikes against the reopening of schools were declared in Amazonas, Pernambuco, Parana and Rio de Janeiro, while dozens of other teacher protests erupted across Brazil. Opinion polls showed the opposition of the vast majority of Brazilians to the back-to-school campaign. In Sao Paulo, a survey promoted by City Hall among parents showed that 90 percent refused to send their children to school.

Faced with a new and more aggressive campaign from Brazils ruling class, as the new school year begins, a new wave of opposition has emerged among educators and students.

On January 17, a million students boycotted the National High School Exam (ENEM), giving a practical statement of opposition to the policy of reopening schools and universities in the country.

On January 23, more than 1,100 teachers in the state of Parana decided on a general strike against the plans of Ratinho Juniors government of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) to reopen schools on February 18.

In meetings held last Friday and Saturday, thousands of state and municipal teachers in Rio de Janeiro massively voted for a strike against the reopening of schools on February 8.

The same anger against the criminal reopening of schools is emerging among educators in Sao Paulo, with numerous strike calls on social media. Among municipal teachers of Sao Paulo, a publication with a major following cried out: If we do not begin immediately a STRIKE movement independent of the union, many who are here in this group will be occupying a vacancy in the cemetery.

The teachers unions of Sao Paulo, among them SINPEEM and APEOESP (which claims to be the largest union in Latin America), are making an effort to stifle workers opposition, having so far prevented them from organizing a strike or any action to confront the states policy.

The unions are effectively collaborating with the ruling classs back-to-school campaign. The SINPEEMs president, the reactionary councilman of Cidadania, Claudio Fonseca, is proposing merely a postponement of only two weeks for a return to classes to supposedly have a better health situation.

The unions are also promoting the demand that teachers be vaccinated before other workers so that schools can be reopened safely. This is a fraud! In addition to the fact that the available vaccines cannot yet be applied to children and teenagers, who will continue to be exposed to the deadly virus and bring it to their homes, this aims to block a broader struggle with other sections of workers who continue to suffer from the pandemic.

These trade unions have acted for decades to suppress teachers struggles against pro-business and privatizing state policies, sabotaging strikes and helping to implement pension reforms and precarious teacher contracts.

One teacher from Sao Paulo questioned on social media: I am in favor and so are many, is there a possibility of striking without unions? To build a political leadership in the working class independent of the corporate trade unions is not only possible, but the most urgent task.

To do so, it is necessary to establish rank-and-file committees in every school to lead a nationally unified strike movement, driving an all-working-class struggle to confront capitalist interests and implement the scientifically necessary measures to halt the COVID-19 pandemic.

Education workers around the world are confronting the same attacks. In Chicago, where educators have organized a rank-and-file committee, they are entering into a direct conflict with the drive by the Biden administration to reopen schools throughout the US.

Every effort must be made to build these committees among all workers, in Brazil and internationally, to develop a unified movement of the working class fighting for its own interests.
Photo: The Canadian Press A sign is placed on a truck windshield as members of the advocacy group Banished Veterans protest outside the Veterans Affairs office in Halifax on Thursday, June 16, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

One of the unions representing workers at Veterans Affairs Canada is sounding the alarm over what it alleges is widespread harassment and discrimination within the department.

The Union of Veterans Affairs Employees says it surveyed more than 350 of its roughly 2,700 members in the fall, and found more than one in three had experienced some form of harassment in the workplace.

Meanwhile, the union reported that nearly one in five respondents had faced some sort of discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexuality or another factor.

We should not be having so many instances of harassment discrimination happening within the department, UVAE national president Virginia Vaillancourt said in an interview on Tuesday. And some of these are at the senior executive level.

Vaillancourt said the union, which represents front line workers and administrative staff at Veterans Affairs locations across the country, took its concerns directly to the departments top managers.

But Vaillancourt, who said she was consulted on five discrimination cases last week alone, was unsatisfied with their answer, alleging they wanted to refer the issue to the departments human-resources section rather than get personally involved.

They always say that they value employees mental health, and that they want to ensure that people have a workplace free from harassment, she said. But that's not the reality of what our members are facing on a daily basis.

The UVAEs survey found more reported discrimination and harassment than a separate survey the government itself conducts each year.

In 2019, the wider survey found 13 per cent of Veterans Affairs employees had suffered harassment. Five per cent reported being victims of discrimination.

Both those results were a decline from the previous year.

Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Emily Gauthier noted those figures in an email on Tuesday, adding the governmentwide survey included more employees from the department than the one conducted by the UVAE.

The department has also set up a new organization to help employees facing workplace harassment or violence, Gauthier said, while training has been implemented alongside new rules banning misconduct across government.

Asked about the discrepancy between the governmentwide survey and the unions results, Vaillancourt suggested members were more forthright to the latter because they took it more seriously and due to privacy concerns.

We guaranteed their anonymity, where with the Public Service Employee Survey, we know the government is able to break it down into specific offices, she said. And if it's broken down into specific offices, there's some situations that can be identifiable.

Veterans Affairs has faced significant pressure in recent years to deal with a growing influx of applications for assistance from former military personnel suffering from service-related illnesses and disabilities.

That influx has not been matched by added investment from the Liberals into the department, which was significantly slashed nearly a decade ago as part of the previous Conservative governments budget-cutting efforts.

The result has been an explosion in wait times for services and delays in the processing of applications, which has resulted in a massive backlog that has become a source of anger for veterans and a black eye to the government and the department.

Vaillancourt said most of the harassment and discrimination reported by staff originated from within Veterans Affairs, including from supervisors and managers. Yet she said some comes from outside the department.

We do have situations which it does involve veterans with cyberbullying and things like that, she said. We're still trying to deal with the department to find some sort of mechanism or process to deal cyberbullying.



[February 02, 2021]

Sierra Digital acquires Stonebridge Consulting, doubling world class tech solution delivery capacity in Energy

HOUSTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sierra Digital, Inc., Houston-based specialists in Digital Transformation, today announced the acquisition of Stonebridge Consulting, a privately held technology solutions provider to energy industries. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

The two best-in-class technology solutions providers, each with impressive asset portfolios, create a combined resource base for business strategy, change management, process optimization and more, offering energy customers a superior investment choice for sustainable performance and returns. Key benefits include:

Compelling combination of size, best-in-class assets, financial strength, and operating capability with scalability and relevance to Energy

Proven technical and operational expertise with "Best Practices" project approach

Significant ability to drive uplift in business value through cost minimization and investment in tech innovations

The acquisition includes both product and service offerings, according to Senthil Kumar, CEO of Sierra Digital. "We are extremely impressed with recent Stonebridge innovations," Kumar said. "The PelotonReady Accelerator, EnerHubTM, and new EnerPubSM product lines offer excellent ways to speed solution delivery and optimize data value. Combined now with a host of Automation, Analytics, and Experience Management, solutions pioneered by Sierra, our two organizations are now uniquely positioned to double value to customers."

Sierra Digital's premiere innovation, OhZoneTM, is a cloud-based flexible workflow platform augmented with automation, analytics, and XM capability. "OhZone can reduce project spend by 50% while helping people work smarter, more efficiently, and with superior customer focus," Kumar said. "We're excited to link Sierra innovations with solutions such as EnerHub and Peloton Ready, offering a unified system for listening, innovating, and successfully implementing optimization initiatives."

"This transaction helps technologists embrace a seismic shift in the way we approach business," said James Ivy, CEO of Stonebridge Consulting. "Changing customer experience expectations are driving the need for better ways to do business. Sierra and Stonebridge now offer unparalleled combined team expertise, breakthrough solutions, and a direct pipeline to Sierra's longtime partners, including SAP, Microsoft, and Qualtrics."

The two companies will discuss the promise of today's announcement at Noon Central on Thursday, February 25. The webinar event, titled "Doubling Business Value in Energy", will feature Geoffrey Cann, a leading voice of Digital Transformation in Energy. Register free at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/doubling-business-value-in-energy-registration-138778236441.

Learn more at https://sierradigitalinc.com/sierra-digital-acquires-stonebridge/.









CONTACT: Thomas Merrill, VP of Branding & Marketing

Sierra Digital, Inc.

t.merrill@sierradigitalinc.com

234-207-7500



View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sierra-digital-acquires-stonebridge-consulting-doubling-world-class-tech-solution-delivery-capacity-in-energy-301220412.html

SOURCE Sierra Digital Inc.
News

New York - A Florida man was arrested Wednesday morning on charges of conspiring with others in advance of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election to use various social media platforms to disseminate misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.

Douglass Mackey, aka Ricky Vaughn, 31, of West Palm Beach, was charged by criminal complaint in the Eastern District of New York. He was taken into custody this morning in West Palm Beach and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart of the Southern District of Florida.

According to the allegations in the complaint, the defendant exploited a social media platform to infringe one the of most basic and sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution: the right to vote, said Nicholas L. McQuaid, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. This complaint underscores the departments commitment to investigating and prosecuting those who would undermine citizens voting rights.

There is no place in public discourse for lies and misinformation to defraud citizens of their right to vote, said Seth D. DuCharme, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. With Mackeys arrest, we serve notice that those who would subvert the democratic process in this manner cannot rely on the cloak of Internet anonymity to evade responsibility for their crimes. They will be investigated, caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Protecting every American citizens right to cast a legitimate vote is a key to the success of our republic, said William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs New York Field Office. What Mackey allegedly did to interfere with this process  by soliciting voters to cast their ballots via text  amounted to nothing short of vote theft. It is illegal behavior and contributes to the erosion of the publics trust in our electoral processes. He may have been a powerful social media influencer at the time, but a quick Internet search of his name today will reveal an entirely different story.

The complaint alleges that in 2016, Mackey established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming Election, ranking his account above outlets and individuals such as NBC News (#114), Stephen Colbert (#119) and Newt Gingrich (#141).

As alleged in the complaint, between September 2016 and November 2016, in the lead up to the Nov. 8, 2016, U.S. Presidential Election, Mackey conspired with others to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages designed to encourage supporters of one of the presidential candidates (the Candidate) to vote via text message or social media, a legally invalid method of voting.

For example, on Nov. 1, 2016, Mackey allegedly tweeted an image that featured an African American woman standing in front of an African Americans for [the Candidate] sign. The image included the following text: Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text [Candidates first name] to 59925[.] Vote for [the Candidate] and be a part of history. The fine print at the bottom of the image stated: Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by [Candidate] for President 2016.

The tweet included the typed hashtags #Go [Candidate] and another slogan frequently used by the Candidate. On or about and before Election Day 2016, at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted [Candidates first name] or some derivative to the 59925 text number, which was used in multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by the defendant and his co-conspirators.

The charges in the complaint are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erik Paulsen and Nathan Reilly of the Eastern District of New York, and Trial Attorney James Mann of the Criminal Divisions Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday, asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to send the corruption trial of a former Governor of Abia State, Uzor Kalu, back to the Lagos Division of the court.

Mr Kalu, who is a serving senator representing Abia North and the Senates Chief Whip, was earlier convicted on the N7.1billion fraud at the courts Lagos division, but the Supreme Court set aside the conviction and ordered the re-trial of the case, last year.

After the Supreme Court judgment, the management of the court reassigned the case to Inyang Ekwo, a judge in the Abuja division.

Mr Ekwo subsequently fixed Tuesday for the re-arraignment of Mr Kalu and his co-defendant, Ude Udeogu.

Tuesday hearing

But on Tuesdays hearing, EFCCs prosecuting counsel, Chile Okoroma, informed the court that there was a pending letter sent to the Chief Judge of the court asking for the transfer of the case to Lagos.

On January 20, 2021, the prosecution had written a letter to the CJ requesting the case file to be transferred to the Lagos division, Mr Okoroma said

We have also written a reminder dated February 2, to the Deputy Chief Registrar.

The matter cannot proceed in Abuja if not it would be an exercise in futility.

He also said none of the offences were committed in Abuja, adding that the appellate court had ruled that the case could not be heard in Abuja but Lagos.

He urged the court to adjourn the matter sine die (indefinitely) pending a reply from the CJ on the issue.

Mr Kalus lawyer, Awa Kalu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, did not comment on Mr Okoromas application for adjournment, but said he had a pending motion.

Wait for Chief Judges action

Ruling on the prosecutors request, Mr Ekwo said, Even without your application, the matter cannot go on.

But I cannot adjourn the matter sine die. There must be a specific date for the report, he said.

The judge adjourned the case till June 7, for feedback.

Road to retrial

The EFCC had prosecuted Mr Kalr alongside Ude Udeogu, a former director of finance and accounts with the Abia State Government, and Mr Kalus company, Slok Nigeria Limited, on 39 counts of fraud involving about N7.1billion at the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The trial judge, Mohammed Idris, who is now a Justice of the Court of Appeal, had at the end of the trial, sentenced Mr Kalu to 12 years imprisonment and Mr Udeogu was sentenced to 10 years jail term.

The third defendant, Mr Kalus company, Slok Nigeria Limited, was ordered to be wound up and its assets forfeited to the Nigerian government.

But on May 8, 2020, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision of its seven-member panel, nullified Mr Kalus conviction and ordered a retrial.

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The apex court ruled and held that the trial was a nullity on the grounds that Mr Idris, the trial judge, had been elevated to the Court of Appeal and no longer a judge of the Federal High Court as of the time he concluded the trial and handed down his verdict.


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DuckDuckGo, the search engine that prioritizes privacy, reached a significant milestone last week, racking up more than 100 million searches in a single day.

According to the search engine's website, it recorded 102,251,307 searches on Jan. 11, an historical high for the 12-year-old company. For the month, it's averaging more than 90 million searches a day, a 73 percent increase over the same period in 2020, when the average was around 52 million searches per day.

While still a paltry number compared to the more than five billion daily searches performed by market leader Google, the milestone is a major one for the search engine that doesn't store any of its users' personal information, doesn't archive their search histories, and doesn't track their search activity.

"It's a significant milestone, especially since it surpassed Bing and Yahoo to get there," said Charles King, the principal analyst at Pund-IT, a technology advisory firm in Hayward, Calif.

"That's a solid sign of DuckDuckGo's vitality but also reflects the waning influence of what were once dominant industry platforms," he told TechNewsWorld.

"There really hasn't been a significant competitor to lower players like Bing and Yahoo in the search engine game for some time," added Liz Miller, vice president and a principal analyst at Constellation Research, a technology research and advisory firm in Cupertino, Calif.

"To cross the 100 million line is promising for DuckDuckGo," she told TechNewsWorld.

Leg Up in Mobile

While DuckDuckGo is in sixth place in the search engine market worldwide, with less than one percent of the search pie, it is number two in the important mobile search market, with a 2.25 percent share, followed by Yahoo with 1.94 percent and Bing with 1.13 percent, according to Statcounter.

The overwhelming leader in the market is Google, with a 94.48 percent share.

"Mobile website views surpassed traditional PC views in 2016," King said. "The coming wave of next gen 5G-enabled smart phones and other devices is likely to help mobile search grow significantly."

"People are living on their mobile devices a lot more than they used to. Having that kind of power in mobile is handy," observed Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore.

"The desktop segment is locked up," he told TechNewsWorld. "Mobile isn't so much, so there's more opportunity in mobile."

Miller noted that 60 percent of searches are now conducted on mobile devices.

"I don't expect that to slow any time soon," she said. "Even in the pandemic when you could argue that more folks were in a desktop environment, mobile search still surged."

"DDG has tremendous opportunity here because of their multi-source search and user opt-in controls that give users the feeling of accuracy with control," she added.

Advertising and Privacy Coexistence

A number of factors are driving DuckDuckGo's growth, not the least of which is its emphasis on privacy.

"DuckDuckGo has been growing steadily over time," said Greg Sterling, vice president of market insights at Uberall, a maker of location marketing solutions based in Berlin.

"It's increasing adoption is by people concerned about privacy," he told TechNewsWorld. "It's the most well-known of the privacy friendly search engines and browsers."

"Consumers and businesses are becoming increasingly aware and tired of how their personal search data is being used for targeted online advertising," added King. "At the same time, DuckDuckGo has crafted a solid solution that makes private searching simple and effective."

DuckDuckGo emphasis on privacy doesn't mean it has forsaken the advertising business model, Miller noted. The difference between DuckDuckGo and others, though, is its use of opt-in advertising controls.

"In the end of the day, they are -- and are transparent about -- being an ad-powered business," she explained. "The key difference is that they put the controls of advertising-based results in the hands of users."

"DDG has embraced the notion that personalization and privacy can coexist in collecting less data that users define as relevant to what they want to receive," she continued. "So people are enjoying the experience of control and are being rewarded with results they feel are accurate for them."

Not Big Tech

DuckDuckGo's growth is also being fired by its image as a player not under the umbrella of Big Tech.

"DuckDuckGo has been lumped into this band of anti-big-tech, free-speech solutions with a little privacy tucked in there, albeit without an accurate definition or understanding of privacy in the modern world," Miller said.

"With headlines and breaking news pieces from politicized camps saying that Big Tech is out to get the average citizen in the U.S., alternatives are being offered up as the cure," she explained. "DDG is part of that offering."

The search engine's recent growth was also fueled by seasonal factors and current events.

DuckDuckGo Vice President for Communications GoKamyl Bazbaz explained that the company generally sees a larger than normal uptick in searches and downloads around the New Year as people try to clean up their digital tools and footprint around that time.

Building market share will continue to be a challenging task for DuckDuckGo. "Most people continue to use Google out of habit and because they're tied into many other Google services, such as Gmail, Maps, News, YouTube, Android phone and so forth," explained Sterling.

"There's also a perception, which is partly justified, that Google is the best search engine available," he continued.

"It's unlikely that DDG will ever be a serious challenger to Google but they may be able to build a sustainable business," he added.

To do that, DuckDuckGo will need to grow and keep their customers happy.

"In order to cut down on tracking, I switched from Chrome to Firefox and from Google to DuckDuckGo," explained Dan Kennedy, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston.

"I wasn't concerned about privacy especially, but I was tired of looking up, say, a product a student had written about in order to check the spelling and then seeing a constant stream of ads for that product for the next six months," he continued.

"Unfortunately, I didn't think the results from DuckDuckGo were very good, and I found myself using Google frequently when I couldn't find what I was looking for," he said. "So after maybe a couple of months I switched back to Google. I have stuck with Firefox, and that seems to have all but eliminated the tracking."

John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.


File / Hearst Connecticut Media

GREENWICH  A Greenwich man accused of selling prescription pills was the subject of an investigation by the narcotics squad that resulted in his arrest late last week, police said.

According to the arrest report, Charlee Lora-Rodriguez, 29, of Davis Avenue, was selling Xanax pills to buyers in the area. Police had an undercover operative make a purchase, the report stated, and Lora-Rodriguez was arrested Friday.

Tata group , Indias largest conglomerate, is gearing to build a military aircraft in a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi s mission of supporting local defense capabilities and reducing dependence on costly imports.

Closely-held Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. will showcase its capabilities in high-altitude twin engine aircraft" for military use in a defense expo in Bengaluru this week, a company spokesperson said in an email Tuesday, without sharing further details.

A media report earlier stated that the Tata firm had acquired the necessary intellectual property rights from a German-origin platform.

The venture, if successful, will mark the first time an private sector entity has managed to build military-grade aircrafts -- an area of high-tech expertise that has traditionally been the exclusive domain of the state-sponsored Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. or foreign defense contractors. It also underscores Modis push for Self-Reliant India and Make In India -- his signature programs aimed at boosting local manufacturing and consumption.

Border surveillance

Tatas new aircraft, once inducted, can be used for border surveillance among other military purposes. It will be presented in Aero India 2021, the spokesperson said. The aerospace and defense exhibition thats organized every alternate year in Bengaluru, will be held from Feb. 3 to Feb. 5.

While Modis initiatives have opened business prospects worth billions of dollars for Indian conglomerates such as the Tata group, Adani Group, Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Mahindra & Mahindra Group, the ability to manufacture military aircrafts requires deep pockets and a tenacity to overcome multiple setbacks. Many Indian groups have been attempting to make such aircrafts for decades, with little success.

So far, only Hindustan Aeronautics has managed this feat. It produced the twin engine HF-24 Marut six decades ago -- Indias first indigenous fighter-bomber -- and more recently, developed the light combat aircraft, Tejas.

Any new venture in the field of aerospace is welcome, it adds to the eco-system," said Air Marshal Ragunath Nambiar, former vice chief of the Indian Air Force. He also cautioned that he wasnt sure if the Indian Air Force needed enough aircrafts in the near future to justify a production line."

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Michigans health officials have identified 164 new coronavirus outbreaks over the last week, including 43 linked to long-term care facilities and 31 tied to K-12 schools.

The new clusters were in addition to 704 ongoing clusters that appeared in previous weekly reports from the Department of Health and Human Services. The latest report, published Monday, Feb. 1, noted 868 total active COVID-19 outbreaks being tracked by the state as of Thursday, Jan. 28.

An outbreak is generally defined as an instance in which two or more cases are linked by a place and time, indicating a shared exposure outside of a household. New outbreaks increased almost 19% week-over-week, while total active outbreaks climbed less than 2%.

Clusters being tracked by local health departments are included in the states online outbreak tracker, which is updated weekly on Mondays.

With some schools returning to in-person learning last week, school-related outbreaks increased from 70 to 105 new and ongoing outbreaks.

Related: 129 infected in 38 new coronavirus outbreaks, says Michigans Feb. 1 school outbreak report

Outside of K-12 schools and colleges, MDHHS is not identifying specific locations or the number of coronavirus cases.

However, it is listing the information by the states eight health district regions. (Note those regions have different numbers than the MI Safe Start Plan.)

By region, the breakdown of the clusters:

Region 1 (Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Hillsdale, Ingham, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston and Shiawassee counties): 141 clusters, with 26 new and 115 ongoing outbreaks.



Region 2N (Macomb, Oakland and St. Clair counties): 149 clusters, with 32 new and 117 ongoing outbreaks.



Region 2S (city of Detroit and Monroe, Washtenaw and Wayne counties): 110 clusters, with 15 new and 95 ongoing outbreaks.



Region 3 (Saginaw, Alcona, Iosco, Ogemaw, Arenac, Gladwin, Midland, Bay, Genesee, Tuscola, Lapeer, Sanilac and Huron counties): 165 clusters, with 11 new and 154 ongoing outbreaks.



Region 5 (Allegan, Barry, Calhoun, Branch, St. Joseph, Cass, Berrien, Van Buren and Kalamazoo counties): 65 clusters, with 22 new and 43 ongoing outbreaks.



Region 6 (Clare, Ionia, Isabella, Kent, Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Osceola and Ottawa counties): 135 clusters, with 30 new and 105 ongoing outbreaks.



Region 7 (Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Benzie, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Crawford, Oscoda, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Ilse, Cheboygan, Emmet and Charlevoix counties): 73 clusters, with 20 new and 53 ongoing outbreaks.



Region 8 (Upper Peninsula): 30 clusters, with eight new and 22 ongoing outbreaks.



By category, the outbreaks totaled:

390 clusters (43 new and 347 ongoing) at long-term care facilities, which include skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, adult day cares and group homes.

105 clusters (35 new and 70 ongoing) were linked to K-12 schools or college communities. A total of 86 outbreaks involved K-12 schools, and the remainder were on or around college campuses.



90 clusters (13 new and 77 ongoing) were linked to manufacturing or construction sites.



58 clusters (13 new and 45 ongoing) involved retail businesses.

55 clusters (10 new and 45 ongoing,) were at health-care sites, which would include hospitals, medical and dental offices, dialysis centers and other facilities providing health-care services.



33 clusters (17 new and 16 ongoing) in office settings.



24 clusters (three new and 21 ongoing) linked to private social gatherings, such as a wedding, funeral or party.



24 clusters (12 new and 12 ongoing) occurred at child-care centers or youth programs not associated with a school.



17 clusters (two new and 15 ongoing) associated with religious services.

12 clusters (two new, 10 ongoing) at migrant camps or other agriculture workplaces, such as food-processing plants.

Seven clusters (two new and five ongoing) were linked to shelters or settings that provide services for people experiencing homelessness.



Six clusters (three new and three ongoing) were linked to bars or restaurants. All of the cases were employee associated.



Two new clusters were linked to personal services, such as a hair and/or nail salon, or a spa or gym.



Two clusters were linked to an indoor community event, such as a meeting or concert.



Outbreaks will be removed from the database if there are no additional cases through a 14-day period, state MDHHS officials have said.

State officials note that the chart does not provide a complete picture of outbreaks in Michigan, and an absence of identified outbreak in a particular setting is not evidence that the setting is not having outbreaks.

Many factors, including the lack of ability to conduct effective contact tracing in certain settings, may result in significant under-reporting of outbreaks, the states website reads.

Below is an interactive map showing both new and ongoing outbreaks listed in the Monday, Jan. 25, report. You can put your cursor over a dot to see the underlying data.

To find a testing site near you, check out the states online test finder, here, send an email to COVID19@michigan.gov, or call 888-535-6136 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Read more on MLive:

Michigan reports 2,066 new coronavirus cases, 8 new deaths for Sunday and Monday, Jan. 31-Feb. 1

Unemployment login page down as Michigan expands eligibility

Upper Peninsula leads the way in coronavirus vaccinations

Michigan asking feds to cancel standardized tests after year of inconsistent education
Here what to do in Ocean City on rainy days
A Frenchman has risked the wrath of Britons after labelling Greggs sausage rolls 'bland and revolting.'

Nicholas Henry was forced into having a Greggs for breakfast after managing to avoid it for more than two and a half years while living in Britain.

The 29-year-old 'French food snob' was treated to a sausage roll and a sausage, bean and cheese melt for his breakfast so he could enjoy the offerings while sobering up - but his review was scathing.

His review, which began with a prologue, delivery notes, interlude, and conclusion, has sparked a lively debate on social media.

As he detailed how he 'soldiered on' through the experience, he wrote: 'I always assumed sausage rolls were cylindrical..The sausage is all over the place, sometimes it feels like mushy gelatin, sometimes it's spicy.'

Greggs, an honest review: The review was shared with other users on Reddit

Nicholas Henry, 29, (left) and Layke Lemercier (right), who treated him to a Greggs

Nicholas was bought a sausage roll and a sausage, bean and cheese melt for his breakfast - and didn't like either

Layke Lemercier, who lives in Derby with Nicholas, uploaded the review to Reddit with the caption: 'My French friend has lived in the UK for almost three years and has never been to Greggs.

'Obviously being British I just couldn't let it go, so I got Greggs sausage roll delivered to his door. An hour later he sent me this.'

Nicholas wrote: 'I know British people are sometimes described as explorers or pioneers. And I have to admit that Gregg's managed to do something groundbreaking with their sausage roll.

'As I chewed and swallowed I simply couldn't understand how something could taste so bland yet so revolting at the same time.

'Amazing. The crust tastes like cardboard that was passed through a food blender and then compressed together into a puff pastry.

'The sausage is all over the place, sometimes it feels like mushy gelatin, sometimes it's spicy. Yet I chewed through it and bite after bite I could see it's intrinsic value.'

He then reviewed the sausage, bean and cheese melt, which he admits he couldn't eat because it reminded him of school food.

The review prompted a debate on the site, as some mused about how much they missed Greggs' cuisine and others slammed the French national for his criticism

He wrote: 'I don't want to sound like an ungrateful b*****d...but this one I just couldn't...I enjoyed the moment.

'I enjoyed that Layke ordered me breakfast today after a rough hangover, and I got to experience a true British moment.

'And I now appreciate why some guys in the morning go 'd'you know wha' mate? I could really go for sum fooking sausage roll now'. I get it now.

'That's what Gregg's is. It's like a nice neighbour. He sits there quietly and when you need him to help you fill up after a rough night, he will be there for you.'

Speaking today, Nicholas said: 'I thought it was funny and I tried to be like a food critic with it. The food looks very off putting. It is like a British institution; you haven't done it correctly if you haven't had a Greggs.'

Layke added: 'He always refused to have a Greggs when we walk past it, as he is a bit of a food snob because he is French. I thought it was the best thing I read. It made my week.'
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Farmers and industry groups have paid their tributes following the sudden loss of farming stalwart Donald Biggar, aged 68.

Mr Biggar, of the renowned Chapelton herd, passed away at his home, Chapelton Farm near Castle Douglas, on Saturday (30 January).

Described as a 'great stalwart' of native British beef breeds, he was Chair of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) from 2005 to 2011.

QMS said he achieved outcomes that paved the way for a sustainable and profitable Scottish red meat industry.

The body said he was dedicated to ensuring that all aspects of the supply chain could move forward with confidence.

As Chair, he was involved in the levy bodys transition from private company to public body accountable to the Scottish government.

He helped secure the return of over 3.5m in levy from Meat and Livestock Commission before the formation of AHDB.

Today our thoughts are with Mr Biggars wife Emma, children Jamie, Rachael and Duncan as well as all of his family," said Alan Clarke, chief executive of QMS.

The Aberdeen Angus Society described Mr Biggar as a 'great stalwart' of native British beef herds.

Chapleton had pedigree herds of Aberdeen-Angus, Beef Shorthorn and a 250 head of commercial cattle that was maintained with genetics from the two pedigree herds.

"He was known by many and will be sadly missed by all who had the opportunity to meet and interact with him," the society said in a statement.

"Our thoughts and condolences go out to Emma, James, Rachel and Duncan at this very sad time."
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Legend Power Systems (TSXV:LPS)(OTCQB:LPSIF) a global leader in commercial electrical system solutions, today announced the completion of the first installation of the SmartGATE platform through a major ESCO (Energy Services Company) in a State of New York school. The system has met its expected energy savings of 7.3%, and the completed installation is the first of several expected installations in the NY / NJ area with the ESCO.

"We have a deep heritage of success in hundreds of schools in Canada and we are very excited about our first deployment into a school in the New York region" says Mike Cioce, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Legend Power Systems. "This particular ESCO is winning more business by adding our Intelligent Active Power Management System to the list of ECM's (energy conversation measures) they package for their Energy Performance Contracting business. Hitting our expected savings on top of the other measures they provide is critical for their long-term success, and we are pleased to have delivered for them and look forward to many more to come. We expect the second system to be complete in the coming weeks."

"Additionally, the SmartGATE Insights platform has identified multiple locations where the ESCO partner has long-term performance risk without the SmartGATE system. In fact, the ESCO partner appreciates that not only does SmartGATE save energy but also predicts and protects the other equipment they are installing. Ensuring our ESCO partners have the best possible chances of keeping these new measures functioning for the duration of these long-term agreements is key," said Mr. Cioce. "No building operator wants expensive electrical assets to deteriorate prematurely because of grid stability problems. Our SmartGATE platform finds these risks and protects these assets from the variability on the grid. Building operators simply cannot control the grid without SmartGATE."

The ESCO market in the U.S. is a US$15 billion a year business that bundles energy conservation measures for large public entities such as government organizations and others. SmartGATE is a patented, unique and differentiated offering, which provides our new partner a significant competitive advantage. These advantages include enhanced energy savings performance, electrical systems reliability and power quality management capabilities which boost our ESCO partner's value proposition and delivers it more sales wins.

About SmartGATE

SmartGATE is an industry-leading, turnkey solution, which identifies and fixes underperformance and waste in the electrical system of a commercial building. These performance issues often impact key areas of commercial real estate metrics including occupant safety and satisfaction and financial performance. This waste can also lead to higher operating costs, lower net operating income and other potential financial risks to the building owner, including damaged tenant experience.

About Legend Power Systems Inc.

Legend Power Systems Inc. (www.legendpower.com) provides an intelligent energy management platform that analyzes and improves building energy challenges, significantly impacting asset management and corporate performance. Legend's proven solutions support proactive executive decision-making in a complex and volatile business and energy environment.

For further information, please contact:

Steve Vanry, CFO

+ 1 604 671 9522

svanry@legendpower.com

Sean Peasgood, Investor Relations

+ 1 647 503 1054

sean@sophiccapital.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This Press Release may contain statements which constitute "forward-looking information", including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities or performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Such risks, uncertainties and factors are described in the periodic filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including the Company's quarterly and annual Management's Discussion & Analysis, which may be viewed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results to not be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements other than as may be required by applicable law.

SOURCE: Legend Power Systems Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627193/Legend-Installs-First-of-Two-SmartGATE-Platforms-into-NY-School-through-Fortune-100-Energy-Services-Company
CHEYENNE, Wyo., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Charlie Health, a virtual intensive outpatient (IOP) provider of mental health and substance use treatment for teens and young adults, today announced its expansion of services to Wyoming. Charlie Health's announcement marks a new, accessible group-based treatment option for youth in Wyoming.

By partnering with key community members, hospitals, insurance companies, schools, and local therapists, Charlie Health provides treatment for clients who required more than weekly individual therapy or who are transitioning back to home and school after residential or hospital-based treatment.

Charlie Health has provided Montana youth with unprecedented access to intensive therapy, and is now partnering with Wyoming behavioral health leaders to provide Wyoming youth with similar access.

"It's been exciting to witness and be a part of the successful launch of Charlie Health in Montana last year," said Charlie Health's Medical Director, Dr. Eric Arzubi. "The virtual IOP model fills a huge gap in the mental health care continuum among rural and frontier communities. I've been caring for patients in this region for nearly 8 years. I know that scores of adolescents and young adults in Wyoming will benefit from this much-needed clinical service."

The mental health crisis is urgent for youth in Wyomingthe adolescent suicide rate is more than double the national average. According to SAMHSA survey data, only 40% of Wyoming youth who suffered a major depressive episode within the year prior to survey received treatment. Of Wyoming high school students surveyed, 20% experienced suicidal ideation during the 12 months before the survey period, according to Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System data.

Charlie Health remains committed to providing quality, personalized care. Rather than group patients together based on their physical location, Charlie Health customizes treatment plans and carefully matches patients in groups of peers with similar needs. Patients are then assigned therapists that specialize in those needs. Charlie Health leverages comprehensive, evidence-based treatment programs from expert, licensed clinicians to allow healing from the comfort of clients' homes.

About Charlie Health

Charlie Health provides personalized, video-based treatments for teens and young adults suffering with mental health and substance use disorders. Through providing quality, accessible behavioral health support, Charlie Health hopes to remind the Wyoming community that recovery is possible. To learn more, visit www.charliehealth.com.

Contact: Laura Sebulsky, [email protected]

(406) 624-7049

SOURCE Charlie Health

Related Links

https://www.charliehealth.com


FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, today announced that new clinical data have found robust evidence that using a vascular care solution can help improve outcomes for patients requiring peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs).

The results of the CLEAN3 trial1, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, showed the use of the BD vascular care solution resulted in fewer PIVC failures compared with the standard group (34.8% vs. 47.5%, respectively) and extended the median time between catheter insertion and failure (50.4 hours vs 30.0 hours, respectively). PIVC failure was defined as any premature removal of PIVC before end of treatment  other than for routine replacement  and included phlebitis, infiltration, occlusion, dislodgment, local infection and catheter-related bloodstream infection (whichever occurred first).

The CLEAN3 trial also evaluated skin antiseptics with 2% chlorhexidine-gluconate (CHG) 70% isopropyl alcohol (IPA) single use, sterile applicator versus 5% povidone iodine (PVI) 69% ethanol applied with sterile gauze in preventing infectious complications related to the use of PIVCs (catheter colonization: 0.9% vs. 16.9%, respectively; local infection: 0% vs. 1.2%, respectively).

The trial, which involved approximately 1,000 patients from nine different medical wards within a single university hospital (Poitiers University Hospital, France), evaluated PIVC failure rates by comparing the BD vascular care solution for PIVCs, which included an integrated PIVC (BD Nexiva), a positive displacement needle-free connector (BD MaxZero), a disinfecting cap (BD PureHub) and a sterile prefilled flush syringe (BD PosiFlush)  compared with a standard group, which included a straight safety PIVC (BD Insyte Autoguard BC Winged), extension set three-way stopcock; the PIVCs were continuously infused with saline or polyionic solution, by gravity.

"The findings of the CLEAN3 trial support the use of an integrated solution as the best practice standard when peripheral IV catheter dwell time is expected to exceed 24 hours," said Professor Olivier Mimoz, head of the emergency department at Poitiers University Hospital, France, and principal investigator of the CLEAN3 trial. "Furthermore, the study shows that the use of 2% CHG-70% IPA single use, sterile applicator should become the first-line antiseptic for skin disinfection prior to PIVC insertion. We believe that the results can be extrapolated to all adult patients admitted to a medical ward requiring a PIVC placement and, by extrapolation, to those admitted to a surgical ward."

PIVCs are the most commonly used invasive medical devices in hospitals, where about 2 billion are placed annually worldwide.2,3 However, in hospitals, 35% to 50% of PIVCs do not meet their intended dwell time and need to be removed prematurely due to preventable complications, such as infection, occlusion, phlebitis, dislodgment and infiltration.2 This can lead to longer hospital stays, higher inpatient costs, and greater risk of death than in patients without these preventable complications.4 In addition, unnecessary PIVC replacement can be painful to patients and lead to additional costs,5 as well as have an effect on health care professionals' ability to support other patients. Bloodstream infections can have an even greater impact, by prolonging hospitalization and increasing treatment costs and mortality.4

"Despite the extensive use of PIVCs in hospitals and the frequency and severity of complications that can be associated with them, CLEAN3 is the first large-scale, randomized clinical trial of its kind, looking at an integrated solution to prevent complications leading to catheter failure and assessing the efficacy of two skin antiseptics in preventing catheter-related complications," said Dr. Klaus Hoerauf, vice president, global medical affairs, Medication Delivery Solutions for BD. "The BD vascular care solution for peripheral IV catheters and skin antiseptic that were found to be efficacious in this trial are part of our integrated approach to help clinicians reduce complications and improve patient safety and care."

View the study publication in The Lancet Infectious Diseases here: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30738-6/fulltext.

About BD

BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. The company supports the heroes on the frontlines of health care by developing innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for health care providers. BD and its 65,000 employees have a passion and commitment to help enhance the safety and efficiency of clinicians' care delivery process, enable laboratory scientists to accurately detect disease and advance researchers' capabilities to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics. BD has a presence in virtually every country and partners with organizations around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. By working in close collaboration with customers, BD can help enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety and expand access to health care. For more information on BD, please visit bd.com .

This was an investigator-sponsored study (Poitiers University Hospital, France) supported by Becton Dickinson (BD). BD had no role in trial initiation, study design, choice of antiseptic products, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, writing of the report, or the decision to submit. The authors had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

BD, the BD Logo, Insyte Autoguard, MaxZero, Nexiva, PosiFlush and PureHub are trademarks of Becton, Dickinson and Company or its affiliates.

 2021 BD. All rights reserved.

BD PureHub  BD Nexiva  BD Insyte Autoguard  BD MaxZero  BD PosiFlush

These medical devices are CE marked and are CE certified by BSI Group The Netherlands B.V.

Product indications and registrations may vary by country and regions.

Contacts:

Troy Kirkpatrick

BD Public Relations

858.617.2361

[email protected]

Kristen M. Stewart, CFA

BD Investor Relations

845.642.1256

[email protected]

References

Guenezan J, Marjanovic N, Drugeon B, O Neill R, Liuu E, Roblot F, Palazzo P, Bironneau V, Prevost F, Paul J, Pichon M, Boisson M, Frasca D, Mimoz O. Chlorhexidine plus alcohol versus povidone iodine plus alcohol, combined or not with innovative devices, for prevention of short-term peripheral venous catheter infection and failure (CLEAN 3 study): an investigator-initiated, open-label, single centre, randomised-controlled, two-by-two factorial trial. Lancet Infect Dis 2021. Published online February 1 , 2021. Helm RE, Klausner JD, Klemperer JD, Flint LM, Huang E. Accepted but unacceptable: peripheral IV catheter failure. J Infus Nurs 2015; 38: 189203. Rickard CM, Marsh N, Webster J, et al. Dressings and securements for the prevention of peripheral intravenous catheter failure in adults (SAVE): a pragmatic, randomized controlled, superiority trial. Lancet 2018; 392: 41930. Lim S, Gangoli G, Adams E, et al. Increased clinical and economic burden associated with peripheral intravenous catheter-related complications: Analysis of a US hospital discharge database. Inquiry 2019; 56: 46958019875562. Tuffaha HW, Rickard CM, Webster J, et al. Cost-effectiveness analysis of clinically indicated versus routine replacement of peripheral intravenous catheters. Appl Health Econ Health Policy 2014; 12: 518.

SOURCE BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company)

Related Links

www.bd.com


Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 09:19:17|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Three quarters of Australians plan to have COVID-19 vaccination when the rollout begins, a survey has found.

A special edition of Newspoll published by The Australian on Tuesday found that 75 percent of Australians said that they would either "definitely" or "probably" get vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to 17 percent who said they would not. Eight percent of respondents were undecided.

Support for vaccines was strongest among Australians aged 65 and over while men were more likely to say they would get vaccinated than women.

The Australian government is planning to begin administering vaccines in late February with the aim to offer all Australians the opportunity to be vaccinated by October of this year.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday urged Australians to disregard conspiracy theories about vaccines that have circulated on social media.

"We've been very clear to point out where you get your information from," he said in a speech detailing the planned vaccine rollout at the National Press Club.

"You don't get it from Facebook. You get it from official government websites."

The poll of more than 1,500 voters also revealed increasing confidence in the ability of the public health system to cope with outbreaks.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents said they thought the system was well-equipped compared to 59 percent in July 2020.

More than 80 percent said that international travellers should be vaccinated as a condition of travel and 80 percent want vaccines to be mandatory for aged care workers.

As of Monday afternoon, there had been 28,818 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the numbers of locally and overseas acquired cases in the last 24 hours were one and seven respectively, according to the latest figures updated on Monday evening from the Department of Health. Enditem
Health official: 'I am hopeful for the brighter days ahead'
02/02/2021

Photo source: FDA House-Autry Mills is recalling 9-oz. Bottles of House-Autry Tartar Sauce.

The companys co-manufacturer's has verified spoilage associated with the product, making it unsuitable for consumption.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The product was distributed between December 15, 2020, and January 18, 2021. The products are packaged in 9 oz. clear plastic bottles and sold to distribution centers in the following states: South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio.

No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this issue.

The following product, sold to distribution centers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio, is being recalled:

9-oz. Bottles of House-Autry Tartar Sauce, UPC: 0 73484-60013 4, with the following Best By dates:

BB 08182021 (located on the top portion of the bottle)

BB 08232021 (located on the top portion of the bottle)

BB 09162021 (located on the top portion of the bottle)

BB 09172021 (located on the top portion of the bottle)

BB 09182021 (located on the top portion of the bottle)

BB 09212021 (located on the top portion of the bottle)

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product should not consume it, but return it the place of purchase for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at (800) 849-0802, 8am-5pm EST daily, or by email at Retail@House-Autry.com.
A new exclusive from The Daily Beast titled White House Reporters: Biden Team Wanted Our Questions in Advance reports that the White House press corps is being pressured to provide briefing questions ahead of time in a way that makes even mainstream media journalists uncomfortable.

While its a relief to see briefings return, particularly with a commitment to factual information, the press cant really do its job in the briefing room if the White House is picking and choosing the questions they want, one White House correspondent told The Daily Beast. Thats not really a free press at all.

It pissed off enough reporters for people to flag it for the [White House Correspondents Association] for them to deal with it, another source reportedly said.

While Obamas deputy press secretary Eric Schultz calls the move textbook communications work designed to ensure that Bidens press secretary has answers ready instead of having to repeatedly punt questions, clearly the reporters on the job feel differently.

The requests prompted concerns among the White House press corps, whose members, like many reporters, are sensitive to the perception that they are coordinating with political communications staffers, writes the Beast.

Having questions in advance would indeed be a good way to help insulate press secretary Jen Psaki (for whom liberals are already developing an unwholesome celebrity crush) from hard questions. This would avoid sticky situations like when Psaki deflected inquiries about treasury secretary Janet Yellens conflict of interest with the Citadel controversy by babbling about Yellen being the first woman in her position and claiming that receiving $800,000 in speaking fees from that company is no reason for her to recuse herself.

So this is just one more item on the steadily growing pile of fake things about this administration. Everything about it is phony. This is the Astroturf Administration.

Biden and his cohorts point-blank lied about sending out $2000 checks.

Deportations are continuing unimpeded despite all the campaign pledges to the contrary.

The kids in cages that made Rachel Maddow cry on air during the Trump administration are still in their cages and will remain there for the foreseeable future.

The pro-environment candidate has authorized dozens of new oil drilling permits within days of taking office.

Re-entering the Iran nuclear deal seems as far off as ever, with the administration continuing Trumps maximum pressure campaign even as Tehran says the US ending its cruel sanctions is a precondition to resuming the deal.

Biden still hasnt taken any solid steps to end the horrific war on Yemen, or even to end US facilitation of the slaughter as he promised on the campaign trail (he could have taken major steps toward doing this the day he took office and chose not to).

While this president hides from the press due to his rapidly deteriorating ability to answer questions in complete sentences, the mass media churn out think pieces about how taking himself out of the spotlight is actually a brilliant political move.

As Our Hidden History recently put it, We got sold a sack of political oregano.

And thats all the US empire ever is, really: a murderous, tyrannical planetary oppressor covered up by varying degrees of dishonesty. During the Trump administration the depravity was a little more honest about itself, now during the Biden administration its a little more dishonest. The only major change is the thickness with which the makeup is slathered over the skull.

Everything about life in our current world order is dominated by phoniness. Our culture is manufactured by Hollywood. Our dominating political structure is manufactured by think tanks. Our perceptions of whats going on in the world are manufactured in Langley and Arlington. The whole thing is so fake and stupid. Weve got to figure out a way to snap out of these artificial boxes they are placing over our minds and these perceptual filters they are placing over our eyes, and birth something real and authentic into our world.

_______________________

Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my new book Poems For Rebels (you can also download a PDF for five bucks) or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what Im trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else Ive written) in any way they like free of charge.

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She's no stranger to a sizzling swimwear ensemble.

And Georgia Harrison was sure to command attention as she flaunted her curves in a blue bikini while at the beach in Dubai on Monday.

The Love Island beauty, 26, posed up a storm as she showcased her pert posterior in a thong two-piece and cheekily cupped her peachy cheeks.

Work it! Georgia Harrison was sure to command attention as she flaunted her curves in a blue thong bikini while at the beach in Dubai on Monday

Georgia exuded confidence as she looked over one shoulder and smouldered for the camera.

She let her long blonde locks cascade down her toned back for the sun-kissed snap after tying some of her tresses back with a pale blue hair scrunchie.

Ensuring all eyes were on her impressive rear, Georgia kept her accessories to a minimum only donning a smart gold watch and a simple touch of makeup.

The reality star playfully captioned her picture: 'Oi, stop talking behind my back.'

Stunning: The Love Island star, 26, who is living in Dubai and has rented out her UK home, also shared a sizzling snap of herself rocking pink hair to Instagram Stories

It comes after Georgia's ex-boyfriend Stephen Bear was arrested at Heathrow Airport on January 15 for allegedly filming them without her knowledge as they had sex. He denies the claims.

The blonde believes former boyfriend Bear showed an intimate recording of them to least 'two friends' and claims the footage was being widely shared on WhatsApp.

Georgia also alleges he shared screenshots of the video to followers on his OnlyFans account, but the social media star has denied it was her in the video.

Essex police have since announced a formal charge is yet to be made while the investigation continues, with Bear released on bail until February.

In statement to MailOnline, a spokesperson confirmed: 'A 31-year-old man from Loughton, who was arrested on suspicion of disclosing private sexual images or film without consent with intent to cause distress, voyeurism, harassment and obstructing a police officer, has been released on bail until 10 February.'

Controversy: It comes after Georgia's ex Stephen Bear was arrested at Heathrow Airport on January 15 for allegedly filming them having sex without her consent - he has denied this

The former TOWIE star has since thanked her fans and 'everyone that has reached out' following his arrest.

In a statement given to The Sun, 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.

'I have a fantastic team around me including friends, family and colleagues who are just some of the many reasons I have be able to stay positive right now.'

It hasn't been the easiest of months for Georgia, with the beauty also having to hit back at critics claiming she's on holiday in Dubai.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, she said: 'I rented out my flat, sold my car and moved to Dubai months ago. I'm not stuck here, I live here.'

Nineteen-year-old Isaiah Jason Maza Jr. was on a pass from his inpatient alcohol treatment at the Oregon Recovery Center when he was fatally stabbed near his mothers home Sunday in Northeast Portland.

Maza had been released in September pending trial on federal charges for allegedly tossing an explosive through a broken window of the federal courthouse downtown in July and injuring a deputy U.S. marshal.

His mother, his defense lawyer and even prosecutors said Maza had been doing everything right while on release.

He had a job at Macys, was taking his treatment seriously, had applied to Portland State University to continue his education and was fighting to get visitation rights with his young daughter, whose name he had tattooed on his neck.

His mother Renee Maza said she was making dinner Sunday night when her son and his girlfriend wanted to walk to a nearby corner store to buy Takis chips.

I dont ever let my kids walk at night here, Renee Maza said Monday. Its a bad area. I usually drive them. But I was cooking and I said to him, There are a lot of thugs out there. You know how I feel about walking. He said to me, Mama, Ill be safe. We are just getting chips. I love you.'

Isaiah Maza didnt get far. He was stabbed around 5:30 p.m. near Northeast 120th Avenue and Couch Street outside an apartment complex next to his mothers home, according to the teens girlfriend and mother.

Police are seeking a suspect on a murder allegation but havent publicly identified him.

Mazas 17-year-old girlfriend said she witnessed the stabbing.

She said they were headed to the market but barely even made it a few feet from his mothers home when another teenager and his girlfriend approached from an apartment complex and walked toward Maza, saying, Whats up?

She said she didnt know the teen but thought maybe he was friends with Maza. The other teen asked, So are we going to do this? and Maza responded, Do what? she said.

Then the other teenager suddenly started punching Maza and the two traded punches for about 10 to 15 seconds before the other teen stabbed Maza in the chest and he collapsed on the sidewalk, she said. She called 911 and applied pressure to his chest until police arrived, she said, before running to alert Mazas mother.

Maza knew his attacker and had problems with him in the past, his mother said.

In the courthouse case, Isaiah Maza had appeared in August on allegations of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon and depredation of federal government property.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Sussman at the time described Maza as a very dangerous man who was caught on video tearing plywood covering the courthouses front glass panes. The video caught him lighting a fuse, then tossing a hand-sized explosive through the broken glass.

Noah Horst, Mazas lawyer, a month later convinced U.S. Magistrate Judge Youlee Yim You to release Maza to get treatment. Horst had laid out Mazas troubled past, his desire to address his problems and a proposed treatment plan.

Maza was doing well as a student at Rosemary Anderson High School until the pandemic forced a transition to remote learning last year, his lawyer said. He struggled with lack of structure and alcohol addiction and spiraled out of control into a mental health crisis, according to documents Horst filed in court.

Pandemic-related budget cuts also stopped sessions that Maza was having with a mental health counselor who had become a strong male role model, Horst said.

Maza was drinking heavily when the alleged federal offense occurred, according to his defense lawyers court filing.

Under the proposed treatment plan approved by the court, Maza was to be in treatment for a year or more for alcohol use and mental health issues.

Horst picked Maza up after his release from jail on Sept. 14 and drove him to the Oregon Recovery Center. The judge also ordered Maza be placed on GPS monitoring. Once he completed treatment at the recovery center, he was going to transition to a sober living program and therapeutic work at the Blanchet Farm, a residential treatment program on a Yamhill County farm.

Isaiah was doing all the work he needed to do to prove to the court that he was on a better path, Horst said.

For this to happen when hes on the way up is just so sad, Horst said. He had a lot going for him. He did everything we asked of him. I wanted him to be able to be one of those clients who would come back year after year after year and tell me how great he was doing. He was on a mission to be a role model for his younger brother and to make his mom proud.

Renee Maza, who had been in regular contact with Horst in recent months, frantically called him Sunday night to tell him of her sons death.

Isaiah was my world, my light and my breath, she said. He has been through so much in life you couldnt even imagine. He would get kicked down and get right back up.  This is all too much.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

Subscribe to Facebook page

State heritage-listed Shafston House is under new management, with plans for a full restoration, apart from the Shafston International College campus buildings, which will be demolished.

The site is the third-oldest residence in Brisbane. It is situated on the Brisbane River at Kangaroo Point and was built in stages from 1851 to the 1930s.

Shafston House was designed by one of Brisbanes most sacred architects, Robin Dods. Credit:Queensland Heritage Register

The historic riverfront site attracted national and international interest when former owner Keith Lloyd put it on the market in November last year.

In doing so, Mr Lloyd also announced the closure of Shafston International College.
Axiom Space

Axiom Space , a manufacturer of orbital modules, revealed the names of the four billionaire tourists who will travel to the International Space Station on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

The flight commanded by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria , - who is vice president of Axiom Space-, will have as passengers the American investor Larry Connor , the Canadian philanthropist Mark Pathy and the Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe .
Company continues democratizing customer service with new enterprise-grade capabilities designed to make it easier and faster for companies to provide better customer support

Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN), a customer service software company with support and sales products designed to improve customer relationships, today announced the general availability of its comprehensive messaging solution as part of the new Zendesk Suite. The new package brings together all Zendesk's service capabilities, including messaging, into one complete offering that brings radical simplicity to the enterprise software space.

Zendesk's powerful messaging tools are designed to give businesses the ability to have continuous, convenient and personalized conversations whether customers want to text, chat on their computer, reach out over WhatsApp, and more. Companies can now provide connected conversational experiences across web, mobile, and social channels that work easily out-of-the-box with built in automation and the power to scale to support modern enterprise needs. Zendesk's messaging solution also offers advanced capabilities including proactive notifications, enabling specialized third-party bots, and allowing customers to transact directly within the conversation when browsing products, reserving seats, or making payments.

"Today's customers demand real-time experiences at a level and pace we've never seen before. Companies cannot take customer loyalty for granted, and using outdated, expensive enterprise software that takes months to get up and running is a thing of the past," said Adrian McDermott, President of Products at Zendesk. "Businesses need the best possible technology to remain agile and face customers' ever-evolving needs. Within hours, Zendesk can help businesses deliver great customer experiences, with messaging front and center."

Messaging has quickly become the preferred way for businesses and customers to communicate because it is convenient, fast and feels more personalized than ever before. Reinforcing this shift, Zendesk's Customer Experience (CX) Trends Report 2021 showed a 110% increase in the use of social messaging, and in 2020, 64% of consumers said they tried a new way to get in touch with customer service, with messaging and bots leading the change.

"People today want to connect with businesses the same way they chat with their friends and family with personal messaging to get questions answered and receive support quickly and conveniently. With more than 175 million people across the world already messaging a business account on WhatsApp every day, businesses of all sizes can deepen their customer relationships and increase their efficiency by turning to messaging to meet people where they want to be met," said Kyle Jenke, partnerships director at WhatsApp. "Through partnerships with companies like Zendesk, we're making it easier for businesses to shift their operations online during the ongoing pandemic so they can stay close to their customers even when they're physically apart."

Zendesk was one of the first SaaS companies to democratize the way businesses offered email support, and with its new Suite, is now leading the shift to messaging-driven relationships. In recent years, the company wholly focused on being champions of customer service, and built solutions on the belief that every relationship between a customer and brand should be reflected through one, ongoing conversation, no matter the channel or device.

By evolving the new Suite to include its comprehensive messaging solutions, Zendesk continues to arm businesses with the best technology to meet their customers' needs it makes it easy for companies to give customers the support they want, sets teams up for success with a unified agent workspace, and helps keep businesses in sync with an open and flexible platform. In addition, Zendesk's enterprise-class security, scalable infrastructure, and industry leading workforce and change management tools provide all businesses with the ability to manage their teams, data and operations.

As part of the new Zendesk Suite, Zendesk also packaged all its service capabilities into one comprehensive solution with five new plans that include everything a business needs to succeed. The new streamlined experience makes it easy to choose the right plan for a business's unique needs. For more information about the new Zendesk Suite, please go to www.zendesk.com/service.

About Zendesk Champions of Customer Service

At Zendesk, we believe that every great customer relationship stems from a conversation. So we built a customer service software company that designs solutions to foster better customer relationships. From large enterprises to startups, powerful, innovative customer experiences should be within reach for every company, no matter the size, industry or ambition. Zendesk serves more than 160,000 customers across a multitude of industries in over 30 languages. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, and operates offices worldwide. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005090/en/

Contacts:

Erica Faltous, Group Manager Public Relations Communications, EMEA

efaltous@zendesk.com
Rio mayor nixes F1 circuit project

A bid to launch a Formula 1 race in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro has now collapsed.

Earlier, former F1 CEO Chase Carey reached a deal in principle with race organisers for a race in the Deodoro region, with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro saying the chances of it going ahead were "99 percent".

However, the project hit environmental snags due to the Camboata forest area that would apparently be affected, and Rio mayor Eduardo Paes has now told state environmental authorities to stop the process for a construction license.

"We have to talk about restoring green spaces, not destroying them," the mayor said.

The city's environmental boss Eduardo Cavaliere added: "Rio is racing for a sustainable future.

"Camboata Forest shall not be supplanted by Rio international race track. Under Mayor Eduardo Paes' leadership we have officially withdrawn the construction licensing process," he added.

Globo Esporte claims that mayor Paes is now looking into an alternate location for a Formula 1 circuit in Rio.
analysis

Foreign nationals continue to face an uncertain future in South Africa as anti-foreigner behaviour and violence grow.

The past few weeks have seen attacks on foreign businesses in the Durban CBD at least twice during marches organised by the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans (MKMVA). And on Monday, 1 February KwaZulu-Natal police confirmed more attacks on two foreign-owned businesses.

KZN South African Police Services (SAPS) spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker said: "This morning, at 09:00, a group of about 40 people entered the two business premises situated at the corner of Field Street and Prince Edward. The shop owners abandoned the shops upon seeing the group."

Naicker said members of the group helped themselves to cash and property and that no injuries had been reported. A case of public violence was opened by the Central Durban SAPS.

Naicker said a suspect had been arrested for public violence during the previous attacks.

The MKMVA - at least two of the incidents happened during its marches - said the organisation was on record as having expressed its concern that undocumented foreigners were allowed to participate in South Africa's economy and run businesses. The group denied responsibility for the violence and denied that the violence...
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.

Photo: The Canadian Press Vice President Kamala Harris, left, listens as President Joe Biden speaks about the coronavirus, in the State Dinning Room of the White House on January 21, 2021, in Washington. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Alex Brandon

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke by phone today with U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, her first call with a foreign leader since taking office.

The Prime Minister's Office says the two discussed the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada-U. S. relations and Harris's time as a high schooler in Montreal.

They also discussed what a PMO readout of the call describes as "avoiding the unintended consequences" of President Joe Biden's protectionist Buy American policies.

Those policies have Canadian manufacturers and suppliers worried that they will be frozen out of bidding on U.S. procurement contracts.

A White House version of the call describes Canada's "deep importance to the U.S. as an economic and strategic partner."

The PMO language hints at what will be Ottawa's main argument for an exemption from the rules: that Canada is not the intended target of the measures.

Today's readout makes no explicit mention of another irritant: Biden's Day 1 decision to cancel the cross-border Keystone XL pipeline expansion.

Instead, it's all about shared priorities, "including fighting the COVID-19 pandemic through close collaboration on borders and access to vaccines, and to building back better," the statement said, borrowing a favourite Biden-Harris campaign slogan.

Trudeau "also looked forward to strengthening the bilateral trading relationship and Canada-U. S. supply chains, and avoiding the unintended consequences of Buy America policies, for the benefit of people in both countries."

The only reference to Keystone XL was an oblique reference to "strengthening North American energy security."

Other topics included a shared bilateral respect for democratic principles, the rule of law and justice, and a collective need to "increase trust in government."

The U.S. is a country divided, still reeling from the Jan. 6 riots on Capitol Hill that followed former president Donald Trump's campaign to undermine last year's presidential election.

The two also discussed diversity, mental health, and the need to address online hate, gun trafficking and gender-based violence, the PMO statement said.

Trudeau also thanked Harris for the U.S. supporting efforts to secure the release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, two Canadian citizens who have been languishing in custody in China for more than two years.

"The vice-president also expressed strong solidarity with Canada regarding the issue of two Canadian citizens unjustly detained by China, and she made clear that the United States would continue to do everything it can to secure their release," the White House said.

The Canadian statement also made reference to an upcoming "bilateral meeting" between Trudeau and Biden, which the two leaders agreed to last month. Details, including timing and whether the meeting might take place in person, have not been released.
BJP tally in Rajya Sabha likely to go up by 1 next year

Opposition parties walk out of Rajya Sabha demanding discussion on farm agitation

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 02: Opposition parties including the Congress, Left, TMC and DMK on Tuesday staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha after their demand for suspension of business of the day to take up a discussion on more than two-month-old farmers'' agitation was rejected by the Chairman.

The opposition parties had given notice under rule 267 calling for the suspension of business of the day to take up discussion on the ongoing agitation by farmers on Delhi borders against three new farm laws.

When the House met for the day, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said he has received notice under rule 267 from various members but the issue can be raised during the discussion on motion of thanks to the President''s address to the joint sitting of both House of Parliament.

The President, he said, had referred to the farmer''s agitation in his address made at the start of the Budget session of Parliament last week.

While the Lok Sabha is scheduled to start a discussion on the motion on Tuesday, the Rajya Sabha will do so on Wednesday.

"As we are going to start a discussion on Motion of Thanks to President''s Address tomorrow, members can participate and raise their concerns," he said rejecting the 267 notice.

He said several rounds of discussions have happened between the government and the farmers'' group.

"I understand the concern (of members) for the need to resolve the issue at the earliest date," he said.

Farmers have been camping on Delhi''s border with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for over two months now, protesting against three farm laws that they say would favour corporate entities and would bring down the curtain on minimum support price (MSP) based procurement by the government.

The government has vehemently denied these allegations and stated that MSP will continue.

Naidu, however, allowed members who gave notices to make very brief mentions.

Budget 2021: 15th Finance Commission report recommends 42 per cent share for states

Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the farmers have been camping for more than two months and the issue needs to be discussed.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) said the House is not aware of what is going on between the government and farmers and the House should discuss the issue separately from the Motion of Thanks.

"We want a discussion on a specific issue," he said.

While CPI leader Elamaram Kareem said water and electricity supply to the protest sites has been cut, DMK''s Tiruchi Siva said farmers have been sitting on roads for over two months in the bitter cold and the issue needs to be discussed separately.

Manoj Jha (RJD) said Parliament should at least discuss the issue.

However, Naidu did not agree to their motion after which the members of Congress, Left, TMC, DMK and RJD staged a walkout.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

"No one is stopping you from discussing the issue tomorrow. Tomorrow you will get an opportunity," he said.

Naidu said 10 hours have been allocated for discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President''s address and an equivalent amount given for discussion on the Budget. "Please take the opportunity tomorrow," he said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 11:10 [IST]
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National Guard troops are shown near the U.S. Capitol following the inauguration of President Joe Biden in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs Urges Biden to Clear Mines

Commentary

Chinas state-run media Xinhua published an article on Jan. 21, titled Farewell, Trump, which was ranked first as top news. This one-paragraph article with less than 200 Chinese characters stated: Trump steps down  in the past four years, the world has not seen America become great again the beacon is collapsing, and a city upon a hill myth is being shattered.

Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Jan. 20. The Xinhua article claimed that the United States was collapsing. Around the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also announced sanctions on former Trump administration officials and asked President Biden to clear mines.

The top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have recently repeated the propaganda targeting Biden but received no response. The current U.S.-China relationship is giving the CCP a lot of pressure. The CCP hoped that Biden would help to clear mines, but the regime has recently adopted more confrontational tactics. The outcome may be counterproductive again.

Is the CCP Severing Ties With the US?

The Xinhua articles headline, Farewell, Trump! was very similar to Mao Zedongs 1949 article, titled Farewell, Leighton Stuart! I doubt if the CCP is aware of the fact that when Mao published his article, it meant the end of the era of befriending the United States. Stuarts leaving was a symbol of the CCPs long-term policy of making the United States the No. 1 enemy. That policy has never changed. The CCP officially closed the door to the United States and chose to go one-sided to the former Soviet Union. In 1950, the CCP sent troops to North Korea to fight a proxy war for the former Soviet Union. The casualties were tragic and severe.

Based on the tone of Xinhuas article, is the CCP preparing to sever diplomatic relations or even go to war with the United States?

The former U.S. ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, left his post in October last year and a successor has not been appointed yet. The CCP should have been anxious to restore the U.S.-China relations with the Biden administration. Even if relations cannot return to the same state as it was under the Obama administration, both countries can at least try to stop the decoupling process, including the cancellation of a series of sanctions and even high tariffs on Chinese goods imposed by the Trump administration.

The article does not attempt to restore the U.S.-China relations but aims to take advantage of the supposed chaotic situation of the United States. If the United States is declining as the article claimed, not seen America become great again  the beacon is collapsing, then why should the CCP care so much about the U.S.-China relations?

Judging from the public announcements made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the CCP is very concerned about the attitude of the United States. However, since theres no public response from Biden, the CCP is trying hard to pressure him to submit to their will.

Clear Mines

In November last year, after Biden announced his winning the election, he began the process of forming a team and continued to communicate with world leaders. But so far, there has been no communication between Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, otherwise the state-run media would have made it loud and clear.

In the last four years, the Trump administration has confronted the CCP on a range of issues, including unfair trade practices, espionage, malign influence in the United States, security threats posed by Chinese technology, and its human rights abuses against religious minorities and Hong Kong residents. From the end of March 2020, Trump cut off the channel of communication with Xi. Experts suggest that the Chinese regime interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to ensure that Trump doesnt get re-elected for a second term, as Chinese state-run media have openly stated their preference for Biden.

Demonstrators take part in a protest against the new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

Bidens critics have expressed concerns that the new administration would be soft on China. The CCP hopes that Biden can reverse Trumps policies. On Jan. 19, Chinas state-run media Global Times reported that any changes that Biden made will at least be better than Trumps policies, quoting a Chinese researcher from the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. So far, the CCP has not received a response from Biden.

At a press briefing on Jan. 21, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying said,  President Biden has repeatedly stressed the term unity in his inaugural address, which is precisely whats needed in current China-U.S. relations.

The so-called unity is a term used by the CCP with socialist and communist connotations. Does that mean Hua regards Biden as a comrade? She expects a lot from him. Hua said, In the past few years, the Trump administration, especially Pompeo, has laid too many mines, burned too many bridges, and destroyed too many roads in China-U.S. relations, which are waiting to be cleared, rebuilt, and repaired.

Huas statement was quickly published and placed in a prominent spot on Xinhuas homepagethis was surely an order from the top. The Trump administrations tough-on-China policies have really hurt the CCPs top leaders, and the CCP has been forced to face the issue of its own survival.

On Jan. 20, the CCP announced sanctions against 28 former officials under the Trump administration, including former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser Robert OBrien. The Xinhua report on this announcement ranked second on its hot news list.

At the press conference on Jan. 21, a Bloomberg reporter asked: The U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman called Chinas sanctions on Trump officials unproductive. She said that President Biden is looking forward to working with leaders in both parties to position America to out-compete China. What is the foreign ministrys comment?

Hua responded, We hope the new U.S. administration  uphold the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation  and bring China-U.S. relations back onto the track of sound and stable development.

The CCP contradicts itself. While it calls for non-conflict, non-confrontation with the United States, it does not regard its sanctions against former U.S. officials as an attack. While the CCP asked Biden to demine, it set up mines for itself.

During the Jan. 21 press conference, a Reuters reporter asked: Was the Chinese ambassador invited to President Bidens inauguration ceremony? Taiwans representative to the United States attended the ceremony. I wonder whats your comment?

Hua answered, The Chinese embassy has received an invitation to attend President Bidens inauguration ceremony. The Chinese side has extended congratulations to President Biden.

Huas answer revealed the CCPs attitude toward Taiwan. Although the Chinese Embassy in the United States was invited, it is very likely that it did not want to attend Bidens inauguration. Cui Tiankai, the CCP ambassador to the United States, would be the one to attend such events but there was no report of him being there. Instead, the representative of Taiwan in the United States released pictures and information on the ceremony. I think that the CCP was expressing their dissatisfaction over Taiwans attendance by not allowing Cui to attend Bidens ceremony, and perhaps it sent the lower-level personnel to attend the event instead.

When Bloomberg asked if China plans to send a delegation to the United States to meet with the Biden administration, Hua responded, Theres no information to offer at this moment.

Joe Biden is sworn in as U.S. president during his inauguration on the West Front of the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

If the CCP chose not to send its ambassador to Bidens inauguration, it is tantamount to severing diplomatic relations and sends a strong signal of wanting to fight with the United States. In addition, leaders of various countries openly congratulated Biden on his inauguration last month, but Xi Jinping did not. It actually shows that the top CCP leaders are seriously dissatisfied with Bidens lack of response.

The Unexpected Responses

Several important cabinet members nominated by Biden were asked about their stance on China during their confirmation hearing in the Senate last month. Their answers should have annoyed the CCP.

The Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken said, I think that what weve seen in recent years, particularly since the rise of Xi Jinping as the leader, has been that the hiding and bidding has gone away.  They are much more assertive in making clear that they seek to become in effect the leading country in the world, the country that sets the norms, that sets the standards, and to put forward a model they hope other countries and people will ascribe to.

Blinken said that the United States can outcompete China. He also said that the United States will uphold its commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to ensure that Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, has the ability to defend itself against aggression. Blinken agreed with the previous administrations assessment that China committed genocide against the minority Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Blinken also agreed that China had misled the world on the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bidens defense secretary pick retired Gen. Lloyd Austin expressed his support for Taiwan when senators asked if he would be ready to support the self-governed island if Beijing decided to take it by force. Austin said,  I see China in particular as a pacing challenge for the department.  Our efforts will be to ensure that we do everything to make sure that China doesnt take that decision.  And certainly, Ill make sure that were living up to our commitments to support Taiwans ability to defend itself.

On the importance of the Chinese intelligence threat, Avril Haines, Bidens choice for the top U.S. intelligence job, said she would make it a priority to devote more resources to China.

Our approach to China has to evolve and essentially meet the reality of the particularly assertive and aggressive China that we see today, she said. I do support an aggressive stance, in a sense, to deal with the challenge that we are facing.

Bidens nominee for secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, told lawmakers that China is clearly Americas most important strategic competitor. She said, China is undercutting American companies by dumping products, erecting trade barriers, and giving illegal subsidies to corporations.  Were prepared to use the full array of tools to address .

Regarding Chinas sanctions on former Trump administration officials, Emily Horne, a spokesperson for Bidens National Security Council, said, Imposing these sanctions on Inauguration Day is seemingly an attempt to play to partisan divides.  President Biden looks forward to working with leaders in both parties to position America to out-compete China.

Of course, these statements are not what the CCP expected from the new U.S. administration. Recent actions of the CCP, including continuous military drills, and high-profile interactions with North Korea and Iran, seem to be self-defeating.

Yang Wei has been closely following China affairs for many years. He has been contributing political commentary on China for the Chinese language Epoch Times since 2019.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Former President Donald Trump's lawyers are expected to argue that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional as he no longer works as the commander-in-chief.

Impeachment trial is unconstitutional

At Trump's impeachment trial next week, his new legal team, supported by the majority of Senate Republicans in charge of his fate, are expected to argue that the trial is unconstitutional. However, it remains unclear if they have entirely discharged Trump's election fraud allegations, the issue that dissolved Trump's prior legal team.

Over the weekend, the former president and his first lawyers have parted over trial strategy, USA Today reported. Trump wants to emphasize "voter fraud" issues amid the impeachment trial, a person familiar with the legal discussions said.

But the original lawyers wanted to point out that the Senate should not hold the trial of a former officeholder and that the former president's comments amid the January 6 Capitol rally that led to a deadly riot did not incite the mob.

Read also: Biden, Democrats Prepare To Start Pursuing Republicans, Adopting More 'Muscular Approach'

Meanwhile, the new legal team says fraud is not the center of the arguments and does not close the door on them. On Sunday evening, Trump announced Bruce Castor Jr., a former district attorney in Pennsylvania, and David Schoen, a criminal defense attorney who works in New York and Alabama, would lead Trump's defense.

In an interview with The Washington Post Sunday, Schoen offered few insights on the path forward. He planned to focus on the "weaponization of the impeachment process" and would not argue Trump's voter fraud claims, Schoen said.

Democrats use the upcoming Trump's impeachment trial as a political "weapon" in barring the former president from seeking office again, as per the NBC New York. Besides, the party is pursuing an "undemocratic" case, one of Trump's lawyers said on Monday night.

Read also: Former President Trump Would Not Consider Launching Third Party, Adviser Says

Political weaponization

According to The Epoch Times, Democrat lawmakers call for Trump's impeachment since the start of his term. The upcoming trial is their chance to target the former president and carry out their plan of preventing him from running for office ever again.

Schoen told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Monday, "This is the political weaponization of the impeachment process." Trump's new lawyer added that he thinks it is the most ill-advised legislative action he has seen in his lifetime, and it tears the country apart.

On January 13, the Democrat-controlled House voted 232-197 to impeach the former president on a single impeachment article, alleging Trump inciting an "insurrection" that led the US Capitol riot. Republicans have criticized the impeachment that took seven hours for the practicality and lack of proper process. The question prompted a heated public debate among lawmakers and legal scholars, if the Senate trial is constitutional, as per the Epoch Times.

Read also: Republicans To Invite Trump To Gathering for Donors and Potential 2024 Candidates

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UW LRCC Announces Recipient of 2020 Carol Mead Leaders in Literacy Award

John Jorgensen, of Casper, founder of the Sue Jorgensen Library Foundation and Wyoming Reads Program, is the recipient of the 2020 Carol Mead Leaders in Literacy Award by the University of Wyoming Literacy Research Center and Clinics (LRCC) Outreach Advisory Board.

Jorgensen has demonstrated a passion for promoting literacy not only in Natrona County, but also across Wyoming and outside the state. He first established the Sue Jorgensen Library Foundation in 1996, in honor of his late wife, to commemorate her commitment to literacy and books.

His work expanded statewide in 2006 with Wyoming Reads. Each year, the program gives the states first graders the opportunity to choose one of six hardcover books free to take home. Nearly 7,500 Wyoming first graders received a book in 2019, and the program has grown to include other states, including Oregon and Minnesota.

LRCC Outreach Advisory Board Co-Chair Judy Catchpole and Sen. Jeff Wasserburger will present the award to Jorgensen May 18. Jorgensen will receive a plaque and $4,000 to continue his efforts to improve literacy across the state. He was nominated for the award by the executive director of the Natrona County Library, Lisa Scroggins.

The Wyoming Reads program ensures that every student in Wyoming has access to books that can be read to them or that they can read themselves, says LRCC Executive Director Dana Robertson. This exposure is fundamental to students having a hopeful and positive spiral of experiences with literacy that leads them to more reading, greater academic achievement and personal fulfillment in their lives.

Runner-up for the award was Friends of Washakie County Library, which will receive a certificate and $3,000 to support the construction of a new library in the county. The award will be presented to the Friends of Washakie County Library Board later this spring. Board secretary Laura McDonald nominated the group.

Friends of Washakie County Library has supported literacy by sponsoring the annual Read Across America celebration in its libraries, by providing free reading materials at locations, such as community centers and Little Free Libraries installed in local parks, and also by providing nearly $20,000 the last decade to support literacy projects and scholarships in small communities.

The Carol Mead Leaders in Literacy Award is a way to recognize and honor Wyoming citizens, organizations, businesses or communities that have made substantial contributions that enhance the literacy development among the Wyoming community. Formerly known as the First Ladys Leaders in Literacy Award, the honor was established in 2016 by the LRCC Outreach Advisory Board to recognize the work of Wyomings former first lady, Carol Mead, to promote literacy education throughout the state. The award, in 2019, was renamed to honor the legacy of the former first lady and her impact on the literacy and education of students in Wyoming.
MPs, Lords and Whitehall staff spent more than 280,000 quenching their thirst at bars in the Houses of Parliament last year, it was revealed today.

Of the 281,107 total for 2020, just 22,062 or 8 per cent was spent from July 4 when UK venues were initially allowed to reopen following the first national lockdown.

Some 133,672 was spent in the Smoking Room, Strangers Bar and Pugin Room at the House of Commons - as well as 147,434 across bars in the House of Lords.

More than 280,000 was spent on drinks at bars at Parliament, including Strangers Bar

The figures for the venues in Westminster last year were revealed in a response to a freedom of information request by the pub trade magazine The Morning Advertiser.

It compares to a 507,723 total revealed in a previous FOI response between January and October 2019, including 85,819 in July 2019 compared to 4,718 in July 2020.

The House of Commons and the House of Lords supplied figures to the publication for January, February, March, July, September and October 2020.

In addition, the House of Lords said 555 was spent in the first four days of November, before England went into its second lockdown on November 5.

There were no alcohol sales in April, May, June or December due to restrictions, or while Parliament was in summer recess between July 22 and September 1.

The Smoking Room at the House of Commons is another venue where MPs can drink alcohol

The FOI response said more than 15,000 people can access the Parliamentary estate and use its services, of which 650 are MPs.

The research also revealed that drinks prices are often cheaper in Parliament's bars than in nearby pubs and on average across Britain.

A pint of Peroni lager in a House of Lords bar was 3.70 last year, 45p less than the UK average and 2.40 less than at the Red Lion pub in Westminster.

A pint of Guinness cost peers 4.10 at a House of Lords bar, which is 12p less than the average price - and the same drink would be 5.50 at the Red Lion.

Visitors to Parliament could also drink a House of Lords own-brand malt whisky for 3.51, significantly lower than the average price of 4.28.

More than 15,000 people have access to the Parliamentary estate and use its services

However, some Parliamentary drinks prices were more expensive than elsewhere.

A House of Lords gin would set back drinkers 4, compared to the UK average of 3.73. And a glass of pinot grigio wine was 32p more expensive was the UK average.

A House of Commons spokesman told the Morning Advertiser: 'Our food and drink offering is regularly benchmarked against similar outlets outside Parliament,

'These services are accessible to all passholders, inclduing staff, members and journalists.'

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has backed efforts to increase the number of low and no alcohol drinks in MPs' bars.

Nuclear War With China or Russia A Very Real Possibility, US Admiral Warns

The United States must be ready for a nuclear war with Russia and China while seeking methods to curb their use of strategic weapons, said the commander of the U.S. Strategic Commandthe department that manages the U.S. integrated missile defense and other systems.

Adm. Charles Richard wrote that there is a real possibility for a regional crisis with China or Russia that could escalate quickly to a conflict involving nuclear weapons, if they perceived a conventional loss would threaten the regime or state.

Consequently, the U.S. military must shift its principal assumption from nuclear employment is not possible to nuclear employment is a very real possibility, and act to meet and deter that reality, he wrote for the U.S. Naval Institutes February journal. We cannot approach nuclear deterrence the same way. It must be tailored and evolved for the dynamic environment we face.

Richard said the department should establish unity to deal with Russian and Chinese aggression, while understanding they require different deterrence approaches, and incorporating that thinking into professional military education at the earliest opportunity.

Moscow and Beijing in recent years have invested in nuclear capabilities designed to constrain and counter the United States and even escalate past us, Richard added.

Chinese military vehicles carrying DF-41 ballistic missiles roll during a parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Oct. 1, 2019. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Until we, as a [Defense] Department, come to understand, if not accept, what we are facing and what should be done about it, we run the risk of developing plans we cannot execute and procuring capabilities that will not deliver desired outcomes, Richard argued. In the absence of change, we are on the path, once again, to prepare for the conflict we prefer, instead of one we are likely to face.

Speaking to the Washington Times, Richard said both Russia and China could become two nuclear-capable peers by the end of this decade, which he described as unprecedented.

Weve assumed strategic deterrence will hold in the future, but as the threat environment changes, this may not be the case, he added. We need to be ready to respond to cross-domain threats to ensure the security of our nation and allies by thinking holistically about strategic deterrence in the 21st century.

Last week, the Kremlin and United States announced they came to an agreement to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty following a phone call between President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Following the agreement, Russian officials said the agreement was reached on our terms.

Former President Donald Trump had sought to not renew the pact, saying that Russia didnt adhere to the pact.
A young Ballymena boy who appears in new film Nowhere Special has been hailed as the next Marlon Brando by his famous co-star.

Daniel Lamont, who is now six, plays alongside actor James Norton in the movie about a dying single father preparing his young son for a life without him.

Norton, known for roles in Grantchester and Happy Valley, praised Daniel as an "absolute inspiration" in his role as Michael, the son of his character John.

He predicted the youngster will go far.

"If I knew exactly what Daniel's magic was and could put it into words and replicate it, then I'd be sorted - as an actor and as a human being," Norton said in a behind-the-scenes video revealed by the Daily Mail.

The star, who walked the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival last year with Daniel on his shoulders, said he was impressed by the boy's professionalism.

"All the time leading up to the movie and the whole time of the movie... I've not seen Daniel shed one tear," he said.

"I've not seen him lose his patience, I've not really seen him act like a child. He's just been a very mature but joyful presence.

"He can be bouncing around, throwing sticks and balls, and then they call 'action' and he just goes into his self and he centres and he finds Michael, and he becomes this very thoughtful, quite sombre child.

"It's amazing, it's inspirational. I've never had an experience like it on a film set."

Daniel won his part in the film at the age of four after his mother Kasia responded to an open casting-call on Facebook. Her son was selected by director Uberto Pasolini, who also wrote the film and co-produced it along with Chris Martin.

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Norton visited their home in Ballymena for dinner to meet Daniel, his father Geoffrey and older sister Erin.

In the video Norton asks the youngster what the audience can expect from the film, to which Daniel replies: "Some bits are sad and some bits are happy."

Norton says: "It's been an amazing shoot, a total privilege and a complete eye-opener for me to work with a four-year-old who is the future Marlon Brando."

In the same video Daniel says: "Working with James is fun - he does funny faces.

"James helps me with my lines."

Daniel's mum said she was "stunned" by how her son was "able to focus extremely well".

But she said his film career is not his family's first priority, adding that while he enjoyed the experience and took to acting "very naturally" despite having only appeared in a playschool production, the possibility of future roles would require consideration.

"We'd have to think about it very carefully if something else came up," she said.

"Above all, we want him to have a happy childhood and to enjoy his life."
[February 02, 2021] Arch RoamRight Introduces New Product Upgrade and Online Tool to Help Travel Advisors Responding to COVID-19

Arch RoamRight has introduced a COVID-19 response designed to help travel advisors better react to changing travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This response from Arch RoamRight features the introduction of the new Platinum Upgrade, which increases benefit limits of key coverages to meet certain destination requirements and includes access to up-to-date information on risks, requirements and restrictions in popular international destinations from risk assessment provider WorldAware. "We heard the concerns that many of our travel providers were facing and felt it was important for us to supply our travel advisors with the necessary tools to navigate this post-COVID-19 travel environment effectively," says Cory Sobczyk, vice president of business development for Arch RoamRight. "The Platinum Upgrade and the WorldAware risk assessment tool, combined with our existing products and award-winning services, all can help our valued travel advisors better navigate this pandemic." The new Platinum Upgrade is an optional upgrade available with the Arch RoamRight Pro Plus plan. The upgrade increases the limits for emergency medical, medical evacuation and trip delay benefits. These increased limits help travelers meet the benefit minimums now required by some international destinations, such as Costa Rica. In addition, Arch RoamRight has arranged with risk assessment provider WorldAware to give travel advisors access to up-to-date, in-country information regarding COVID-19 requirements and conditions within a specific destination. These reports can be accessed within the dedicated advisors' Arch RoamRight portal, and applicable reports can be emailed to travelers prior to departing. Other terms apply for the Platinum Upgrade. For travel advisors looking to learn more about Arch RoamRight's COVID response or to learn how to sign-up to offer Arch RoamRight travel insurance to travelers, contact the Arch RoamRight sales team at partner@roamright.com. For more information on Arch RoamRight travel insurance, visit www.roamright.com.



About Arch RoamRight Arch RoamRight (www.RoamRight.com), an Arch Insurance Company brand based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, provides travel insurance to help U.S. residents traveling around the world. RoamRight offers travel insurance plans for leisure, business, student and group travelers taking both domestic and international trips. From trip cancellation to travel medical insurance plans and an award-winning mobile app and website, RoamRight is an industry leader in innovation and technological solutions. In 2019, Arch RoamRight was given the Excellence in Customer Service Award by Business Intelligence Group, and also won the bronze Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year in the American Business Awards.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. This release or any other written or oral statements made by or on behalf of Arch Capital Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries may include forward-looking statements, which reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included in or incorporated by reference in this release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe" or "continue" or their negative or variations or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements involve our current assessment of risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. A non-exclusive list of the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements includes the following: adverse general economic and market conditions; increased competition; pricing and policy term trends; fluctuations in the actions of rating agencies and the Company's ability to maintain and improve its ratings; investment performance; the loss of key personnel; the adequacy of the Company's loss reserves, severity and/or frequency of losses, greater than expected loss ratios and adverse development on claim and/or claim expense liabilities; greater frequency or severity of unpredictable natural and man-made catastrophic events, including pandemics such as COVID-19; the impact of acts of terrorism and acts of war; changes in regulations and/or tax laws in the United States or elsewhere; the Company's ability to successfully integrate, establish and maintain operating procedures as well as consummate acquisitions and integrate the businesses the Company has acquired or may acquire into the existing operations; changes in accounting principles or policies; material differences between actual and expected assessments for guaranty funds and mandatory pooling arrangements; availability and cost to the Company of reinsurance to manage the Company's gross and net exposures; the failure of others to meet their obligations to the Company; changes in the method for determining the London Inter-bank Offered Rate ("LIBOR") and the potential replacement of LIBOR and other factors identified in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (" SEC (News - Alert) "). The foregoing review of important factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with other cautionary statements that are included herein or elsewhere. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Tag: arch-insurance

Source (News - Alert) : Arch Insurance View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005828/en/

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Calm returns to the streets after yesterday's coup. General Min Aung Hlaing forms the new government. Analysts: the coup dictated by the personal interests of the army chief. Washington threatens sanctions. Tokyo: Keep the channels open so as not to hand Naypyidaw over to China.

Yangon (AsiaNews) - The National League for Democracy (NLD) today broke its silence and demanded the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all the other party members.

Yesterday, a few hours after the new Parliament took office, the military took control of the country by declaring a state of emergency for a year and entrusting all powers to General Min Aung Hlaing, commander of the Armed Forces.

Suu Kyi, head of the civilian government, and President Win Myint are under arrest in an unspecified location. NLD MPs are locked in their army-controlled quarters in Naypyidaw.

The coup d'etat comes after the extraordinary victory of the NLD in the elections last November, where the military party won only 25 seats in Parliament, against 346 (more than 80% of the votes) of the formation led by the democratic leader.

The army claims to have intervened after having found 10 thousand irregularities in the recent elections. Aung Hlaing said that a new vote will be organized as soon as possible, and then power will be returned to the civil authorities.

Meanwhile, the coup general has formed a new executive. It comprises generals and former soldiers together with some exponents of the Union of Solidarity and Development Party, the political arm of the Armed Forces. Many of the new ministers were part of U Thein Sein's government, which led Myanmar before Suu Kyi.

According to several observers, the military intervened for fear of losing control of the country. With its large parliamentary majority, the NLD could have tried to change the Constitution, which assigns 25% of the seats to the armed forces and some key ministries, such as Defence and Internal Security.

The military oligarchy has had power over Myanmar since a coup d'etat in 1962. Popular demonstrations and international pressure led to a rewrite of the Constitution in 2008, and in 2011 to the release of Suu Kyi. Between 1989 and 2010, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was under house arrest. In November 2015, the NLD won the first free elections in 25 years.

The Constitution, however, guaranteed the military power in Parliament and in society: all industries, businesses, natural wealth and relations with foreign countries are still managed by the military, making any transition to greater democracy difficult.

Analysts note that Aung Hlaing's political survival was in danger before the coup. Destined for retirement, the head of the Tatmadaw thus remains in power: He needs the protection this affords, given that part of the international community wants him to be tried for the massacres committed by the army against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that has always been discriminated against in Myanmar.

After yesterday's blockade, internet and telephone communications are back in operation. Hordes of soldiers guard the streets of Naypyidaw and Yangon, with a situation of apparent calm. The population is critical of the military coup, but is waiting to gauge developments.

The United States, the European Union and the UN secretary general have called for the restoration of democratic order. Other Western countries have done the same, as sectors of civil society: Italy-Burma Together launched a petition on Change.org calling for the immediate release of the democratic leadership and the restoration of the rule of law in Myanmar.

The ASEAN nations (Association of Southeast Asian Countries) demand restraint without expressing a full condemnation. For Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand it is an "internal issue" in Myanmar.

China said it has taken note of what is happening in the neighbouring country. Beijing has urged stakeholders to "resolve their differences" so that stability is ensured. Some Chinese media have dismissed the crisis as a "government reshuffle".

Joe Biden has ordered his administration to review the Myanmar policy. Without the restitution of power to the Suu Kyi government, the new US president will re-establish the sanctions that Washington cancelled or softened after the start of the democratic transition in 2011.

Japan, however, invites Washington not to close the channels of communication with the military junta. According to the Japanese Deputy Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayama, a policy of sanctions and total closure will bring Myanmar even more into alignment with China, strengthening the geopolitical position of the Asian giant in the region.
HALIFAX, NS / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Silver Tiger Metals Inc. (TSXV:SLVR)(OTCQX:SLVTF) ("Silver Tiger" or the "Corporation") has intersected 11.75 meters grading 667.9 grams per tonne silver equivalent within 22.2 meters grading 381.9 grams per tonne silver equivalent approximately 12 meters beyond the footwall of the Sooy Vein. Drill Hole 202 was drilled to test the down dip potential of the Sooy Vein targeting just under the lowest mine level approximately 150 meters from surface where mining ceased abruptly with the onset of the Great Depression in 1930. Drill Hole 202 passed through mine workings on the Sooy Vein as it was not targeted deep enough below the workings. The technical team opted to continue drilling beyond the footwall of the Sooy Vein and discovered a new style of wide high grade mineralization in the Flat Formation that is not the traditional quartz vein ore that had been previously mined at El Tigre. See attached El Tigre Cross Section 4900N and Plan Map of El Tigre Veins and Drill Holes.

Other highlights from drill hole ET-20-202 are listed below:

22.2 meters grading 381.9 g/t AgEq from 234.10 meters to 256.30 meters

from 234.10 meters to 256.30 meters including 6.95 meters grading 787.5 g/t AgEq from 239.90 meters to 246.85 meters

from 239.90 meters to 246.85 meters including 1.55 meters grading 1,065.8 g/t AgEq from 241.90 meters to 243.45 meters

from 241.90 meters to 243.45 meters including 1.00 meters grading 1,741.4 g/t AgEq from 245.85 meters to 246.85 meters

See details in Drill Hole ET-20-202 Results Table below for the calculation of the silver equivalent grades. Silver Equivalent ("EqAg") grades are based on a silver to gold price ratio of 75:1 (Au:Ag). Copper, lead and zinc are converted using $3.66/lb copper, $0.90/lb lead, $1.26/lb zinc at 100% metal recoveries based on a silver price of $26.00/oz.

"The decision by the technical team to continue drilling 50 meters past the targeted Sooy Vein has been rewarded by the discovery of a wide zone of high grade mineralization totally unlike the quartz vein ore previously mined at El Tigre" said Glenn Jessome, President and CEO of Silver Tiger. "We are of the view that we have discovered what may be a significant new style of wide high grade mineralization to target with our exploration, that was in the past overlooked."

The mineralized intersection in Hole 202 is 1.2 kilometers along strike to the south of the newly discovered Benjamin Vein, also in the Flat Formation, that was announced last week. Silver Tiger is immediately following up with two drill rigs to further test the down dip potential of the unmined Sooy Vein and this new style wide mineralized zone outside the vein in the Flat Formation.

In 1896, gold was first discovered on the El Tigre property in the Gold Hill area and mining started with the Brown Shaft in 1903. The focus soon changed to mining high-grade silver veins in the area with production coming from 3 parallel veins: the El Tigre Vein, the Seitz Kelley Vein and the Sooy Vein. Underground mining on the middle El Tigre vein extended 1,450 meters along strike and was mined on 14 levels to a depth of approximately 450 meters. The eastern Seitz Kelley Vein was mined along strike for 1 kilometer to a depth of approximately 200 meters. The western Sooy Vein was only mined along strike for 250 meters to a depth of approximately 150 meters (see attached Plan Map of El Tigre Veins and Drill Holes). Mining abruptly stopped on all 3 of these veins when the price of silver collapsed to less than 20 per ounce with the onset of the Great Depression in 1930. By the time the mine closed in 1930, it is reported to have produced a total of 353,000 ounces of gold and 67.4 million ounces of silver from 1.87 million tons (Craig, 2012). The average grade mined during this period was over 2 kilograms silver equivalent per ton.

Drill Hole ET 20-202 Results Table

Comment From To Length(1) Au Ag Cu Pb Zn AgEq(2) m m m g/t g/t % % % g/t Sooy Vein 234.10 256.30 22.20 1.12 176.9 0.23 1.43 1.96 381.9 including 235.10 246.85 11.75 2.02 305.0 0.39 2.34 3.56 667.9 including 239.90 246.85 6.95 3.34 344.7 0.33 2.05 3.36 787.5 including 241.90 243.45 1.55 0.13 657.9 0.46 4.25 7.64 1,065.8 including 239.90 240.40 0.50 0.14 1,496.0 1.43 3.90 6.69 1,958.1 including 241.90 242.45 0.55 0.22 1,096.0 0.47 5.79 14.25 1,767.4 including 245.85 246.85 1.00 22.50 28.9 0.01 0.49 0.37 1,741.4

Notes: 1. Not true width.

2. Silver Equivalent ("EqAg") ratios are based on a silver to gold price ratio of 75:1 (Au:Ag). Copper, lead and zinc are converted using $3.66/lb copper, $0.90/lb lead, $1.26/lb zinc at 100% metal recoveries based on a silver price of $26.00/oz.

See attached El Tigre Cross Section 4900N.

Drill Hole Location Table

Drill Hole Easting Northing Elevation Az Dip Depth ET-20-202 670739 3384897 1866 90 -60 312.1

El Tigre Cross Section 4900N

Plan Map of El Tigre Veins and Drill Holes

El Tigre Resource Estimate

After acquiring El Tigre, Silver Tiger drilled 12,500 meters to define the wide halo of near surface gold mineralization around the mined high-grade veins of the historic El Tigre Mine. This allowed Silver Tiger to deliver a maiden resource estimate for the El Tigre Property to a depth of 150 meters containing indicated resources of 661,000 gold equivalent ounces at 0.77 g/t (21 g/t silver and 0.51 g/t gold) and inferred resources of 341,000 gold equivalent ounces at 1.59 g/t (88 g/t silver and 0.52 g/t gold). The National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate on the El Tigre Project, Sonora, Mexico" effective as of September 7, 2017 and dated October 26, 2017 prepared by David Burga, P.Geo., Yungang Wu, P.Geo., Fred Brown, P.Geo., Jarita Barry, P.Geo., Eugene Puritch, P.Eng., FEC, CET, Alfred Hayden, P.Eng. and Richard H. Sutcliffe, Ph.D., P.Geo. of P&E Mining Consultants Inc. is available on the Corporation's website at www.silvertigermetals.com and on www.sedar.com under the Corporation's profile.

About the El Tigre Historic Mine District

The El Tigre historic mine district is located in Sonora, Mexico and lies at the northern end of the Sierra Madre silver and gold belt which hosts many epithermal silver and gold deposits, including Dolores, Santa Elena and Las Chispas at the northern end. In 1896, gold was first discovered on the property in the Gold Hill area and mining started with the Brown Shaft in 1903. The focus soon changed to mining high-grade silver veins in the area with production coming from 3 parallel veins the El Tigre Vein, the Seitz Kelley Vein and the Sooy Vein. Underground mining on the middle El Tigre vein extended 1,450 meters along strike and was mined on 14 levels to a depth of approximately 450 meters. The Seitz Kelley Vein was mine along strike for 1 kilometer to a depth of approximately 200 meters. The Sooy Vein was only mined along strike for 250 meters to a depth of approximately 150 meters. Mining abruptly stopped on all 3 of these veins when the price of silver collapsed to less than 20 per ounce with the onset of the Great Depression. By the time the mine closed in 1930, it is reported to have produced a total of 353,000 ounces of gold and 67.4 million ounces of silver from 1.87 million tons (Craig, 2012). The average grade mined during this period was over 2 kilograms silver equivalent per ton.

Silver Tiger's district scale El Tigre concessions are approximately 35 kilometers long and comprise 28,414 hectares, including 25 kilometers of the prolific Sierra Madre trend. The El Tigre silver and gold deposit is related to a series of high-grade epithermal veins controlled by a north-south trending structure cutting across the andesitic and rhyolitic tuffs of the Sierra Madre Volcanic Complex within a broad silver and gold mineralized prophylitic alteration zone developed in the El Tigre Formation that can be up to 150 meters wide. The veins dip steeply to the west and are typically 0.5 meter wide but locally can be up to 5 meters in width. The veins, structures and mineralized zones outcrop on surface and have been traced for 5.3 kilometers along strike in our brownfield exploration area. Historical mining and exploration activities focused on a 1.5 kilometer portion of the southern end of the deposits, principally on the El Tigre, Seitz Kelly and Sooy veins. The unexplored Caleigh, the Protectora and the Fundadora exposed veins continue north for more than 3 kilometers and are the target of Silver Tiger's current exploration.

Silver Tiger's limited drilling in these vein extensions located north of the historic El Tigre Mine intersected similar-style silver-gold mineralization in the El Tigre formation including a new discovery in the Caleigh Vein. Drill hole ET-17-144 returned 0.85 meters of the Caleigh Vein grading 10,128.9 g/t silver equivalent consisting of 7,338.9 g/t silver, 37.2 g/t gold (75:1 Ag:Au). Drill hole 144 was a step-out hole located approximately 1.7 kilometers to the north of the historic El Tigre Mine. The mineralized zone consists of several vuggy quartz veins and veinlets carrying galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, stromeyerite and pyrite within a strongly silicified and kaolinized alteration zone. As well, drill holes ET-17-145 and ET-17-148, which were drilled by Silver Tiger in its previous drill program, intersected similar-style silver-gold mineralization.

The Silver Tiger exploration team is fully funded for and is currently diamond drilling 20,000 meters of HQ core with three drill rigs targeting the 3 kilometers of vein extensions north of the historic El Tigre Mine. The drilling program is focused on the Caleigh, the Protectora and the Fundadora veins, all of which outcrop on surface and are exposed in exploration drifts in the three kilometers north of the historic El Tigre Mine.

VRIFY Slide Deck and 3D Presentation - Silver Tiger's El Tigre Project

VRIFY is a platform being used by companies to communicate with investors using 360 virtual tours of remote mining assets, 3D models and interactive presentations. VRIFY can be accessed by website and with the VRIFY iOS and Android apps.

Access the Silver Tiger Metals Inc. Company Profile on VRIFY at: https://vrify.com

The VRIFY Slide Deck and 3D Presentation for Silver Tiger Metals Inc. can be viewed at: https://vrify.com/explore/decks/492 and on the Company's website at: www.silvertigermetals.com.

Procedure, Quality Assurance / Quality Control and Data Verification

The diamond drill core (HQ size) is geologically logged, photographed and marked for sampling. When the sample lengths are determined, the full core is sawn with a diamond blade core saw with one half of the core being bagged and tagged for assay. The remaining half portion is returned to the core trays for storage and/or for metallurgical test work.

The sealed and tagged sample bags are transported to the Bureau Veritas facility in Hermosillo, Mexico. Bureau Veritas crushes the samples (Code PRP70-250) and prepares 200-300 gram pulp samples with ninety percent passing Tyler 200 mesh (Code PUL85). The pulps are assayed for gold using a 30-gram charge by fire assay (Code FA630) and over limits greater than 10 grams per tonne are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code FA530). Silver and multi-element analysis is completed using total digestion (Code MA200 Total Digestion ICP). Over limits greater than 100 grams per tonne silver are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code FA530).

Quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC") procedures monitor the chain-of-custody of the samples and includes the systematic insertion and monitoring of appropriate reference materials (certified standards, blanks and duplicates) into the sample strings. The results of the assaying of the QA/QC material included in each batch are tracked to ensure the integrity of the assay data. All results stated in this announcement have passed Silver Tiger's QA/QC protocols.

Qualified Person

David R. Duncan, P. Geo., V.P. Exploration of the Corporation, is the Qualified Person for Silver Tiger as defined under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Duncan has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.

Deferred Share Unit Plan

Silver Tiger reports that at the annual and special meeting of the shareholders of the Corporation held on September 29, 2020, a majority of the disinterested shareholders of the Corporation approved the increase in the maximum number of common shares issuable under the Corporation's deferred share unit plan from 7,500,000 to 10,000,000.

For further information, please contact:

Glenn Jessome

President and CEO

902 492 0298

jessome@silvertigermetals.com

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT:

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization, resources and reserves, the ability to convert inferred resources to indicated resources, the ability to complete future drilling programs and infill sampling, the ability to extend resource blocks, the similarity of mineralization at El Tigre to Delores, Santa Elena and Chispas, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of Silver Tiger, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "may", "is expected to", "anticipates", "estimates", "intends", "plans", "projection", "could", "vision", "goals", "objective" and "outlook" and other similar words. Although Silver Tiger believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Silver Tiger's expectations include risks and uncertainties related to exploration, development, operations, commodity prices and global financial volatility, risk and uncertainties of operating in a foreign jurisdiction as well as additional risks described from time to time in the filings made by Silver Tiger with securities regulators.

SOURCE: Silver Tiger Metals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627249/Silver-Tiger-Intersects-1175-meters-Grading-6679-gt-AgEq-within-222-meters-of-3819-gt-AgEq-in-new-Discovery
A Moscow court on Tuesday jailed the Kremlins most prominent critic Alexei Navalny for nearly three years, triggering fierce condemnation from the West and calls for his immediate release.

The courts decision to turn a 2014 suspended sentence into real jail time will see Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner who accuses the Kremlin of poisoning him last year, serve a lengthy prison term for the first time.

Britain, France, Germany, the United States and the European Union denounced the ruling, as Moscow accused the West of interfering in its affairs.

Navalnys supporters called for more demonstrations over the ruling, after thousands joined nationwide protests against Navalnys arrest over the last two weekends.

The case is presenting one of the most serious challenges to the Kremlin in years, with some in the West calling for new sanctions against Russia.

Judge Natalya Repnikova ordered a suspended three-and-a-half-year sentence Navalny received on fraud charges in 2014 to be changed to time in a penal colony, an AFP journalist at the courthouse said.

He was accused of violating parole conditions by refusing to check in with prison officials and was arrested when he flew back to Moscow on January 17 from Germany, where he spent months recovering from the poisoning.

Navalny said it was impossible to make the appointments while in Germany, but the judge said he had skipped meetings even prior to the poisoning.

Navalny had spent time under house arrest after the 2014 conviction  which was denounced by the European Court of Human Rights  and Repnikova said that would count as time served.

His lawyer Olga Mikhailova told journalists this meant he would now serve around two years and eight months in prison.

His legal team planned to appeal, she said, and Navalny was expected to stay in detention in Moscow during the appeal.

 Poisoner of underpants 

Navalnys Anti-Corruption Fund immediately called for a protest in central Moscow.

Several hundred of his supporters marched through the streets and AFP journalists saw police in riot gear detaining at least 15 people at a central square near the Kremlin.

In a fiery courtroom speech ahead of the ruling, Navalny accused Putin of trying to intimidate his critics and mocked the Russian leader over allegations the Novichok nerve agent used to poison him had been placed in his underwear.

They are putting one person behind bars to scare millions, Navalny said.

While Putin wanted to be seen as a great statesman, Navalny said, the Russian leader instead will go down in history as a poisoner of underpants.

After the ruling, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Russia to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Navalny, warning that Washington and its allies would hold Russia accountable for failing to uphold the rights of its citizens.

French President Emmanuel Macron also called for his release, saying respect for human rights and democratic freedom are non-negotiable.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the ruling perverse, while German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the decision was a bitter blow against fundamental freedoms & the rule of law in Russia.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who is due in Moscow for a visit later this week, said the ruling runs counter to Russias international commitments on rule of law and fundamental freedoms.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the Western reaction as disconnected from reality, adding: There is no need to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of Moscow and other Russian cities over the last two weekends to call for Navalnys release, prompting a massive police clampdown that saw several thousand people arrested.

Police arrested more protesters outside the courtroom and on the streets of Moscow on Tuesday, with OVD-Info, a group that monitors arrests and opposition protests, saying nearly 500 people had been detained.

 Exposing corruption 

While he has never held elected office, Navalny has made a name for himself with anti-graft investigations exposing the wealthy lifestyles of Russias elite.

Two days after he was placed in pre-trial custody last month, his team released an investigation into an opulent seaside property Navalny claims was given to Putin through a billion-dollar scheme financed by close associates who head state companies.

The probe was published alongside a YouTube video report that has garnered more than 100 million views.

Putin denied owning the property and last week a billionaire businessman close to the Russian leader, Arkady Rotenberg, said he was the owner and was turning it into a hotel.

SOURCE: AFP
When Mitch Morgan was growing up in the Brentwood School District, he was one of two Jews.

The other was his younger brother, Sean.

Kids would ask us if we were Hanukkah, Morgan recalls and laughs.

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He met his first Jewish friend at the Jewish Community Center of St. Louis, where he attended day camps. That led him to the place that changed his life: Camp Sabra at Lake of the Ozarks.

When you talk about ruach, spirit, its this invisible thing, and thats the magic of camp. It has the power to move you. Its the feeling that you get cheering at the dining hall, the loud song sessions, but also the ones around the campfire. Its just being with your friends and having a whole other family, said Morgan.

That experience sparked a lifelong dream that Morgan was recently able to fulfill: owning an overnight summer camp.

On Dec. 15, he and a friend, Jodi Sperling, became owners of Camp Kingswood in Bridgeton, Maine.

Its exciting that its us making the decisions, and its also really scary because its us making the decisions, said Morgan, who attended Sabra throughout his childhood and teenage years and then worked as a counselor and eventually, assistant director.

Morgan went on to serve as director of Kingswood, which had been owned by the Boston JCC, and as executive director of Pinemere Camp, a Jewish camp in Stroudsburg, Pa.

The Jewish camp vibe also stirred something in Morgans brother, who went on to work in the camp world. Sean served as assistant director of Camp Wise in Chardon, Ohio, where his boss was Sperling, Mitchs new business partner.

The camping world is incredibly collaborative and open and helpful to each other, Morgan said.

The opportunity in Maine arose because of an unfortunate development: the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many organizations, the Boston JCC had to cancel camp last summer, which obviously had a significant financial effect on the organization.

The organization decided to focus its energy and resources on its early childhood center and other programs.

Morgan had kept in touch with his former colleagues who believed that Morgan would take the camp in good hands and keep it as a Jewish camp, so the organization sold it to him, he said.

Now Morgan is preparing for his first summer as co-owner of a camp. It will be nestled before a beautiful lake at the base of the White Mountains  amidst an ongoing pandemic.

Working at camp is an amazing experience that challenges you in ways that you didnt even expect and gives you things that you never thought it would give you and some of that is being incredibly resilient, Morgan said. And if you are going to get through COVID, I want to do it with a whole bunch of camp people because its going to make for some really tough conversations, its going to mean creating some flexibility, and we are going to have put in guidelines that we never thought we would have to do, but we are going to have fun doing it and still reach our goals and create an amazing experience for people.
Paul Buckowski/Albany Times Union

ALBANY  Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced various traffic restrictions on highways Monday night as the snowstorm hit downstate hard  including instituting a 45 mph speed limit on I-87 from Albany's Exit 24 to New York City.

The speed reduction also is for the Berkshire Spur, as well as other highways going in and out of the New York City area.
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Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey announced an additional $1 million for a statewide program aimed at helping Arizona restaurants and other dining establishments expand outdoor seating and limit the spread of COVID-19.

Restaurants throughout the state have expanded outdoor dining to welcome more customers while limiting the spread of COVID-19, said Governor Ducey. We want to make sure more of our hard-working local restaurants have the opportunity to do the same. Todays funding will help restaurants purchase items like outdoor furniture and barriers so they can safely serve patrons. Im grateful to the businesses across Arizona working to protect our communities and keep our economy moving forward.



The funding announced today will be directed to pending applications submitted to the Safest Outside Restaurant Assistance Program, launched in December 2020 to support local restaurants.



Governor Ducey announced an initial investment of $1 million for the program on December 2 and an additional $2 million on January 5. The Governor also issued an Executive Order on December 2 easing red tape on outdoor dining, helping restaurants expand seating outdoors on a temporary basis.



Gone West Family Restaurant, located in Page, will receive $10,000 from the additional funding announced today.



We are thrilled to receive $10,000 from the Governors Office to expand outdoor dining at our restaurant, said Gone West Family Restaurant owner Lisa Byrd. Our 11 employees work hard every day to serve customers and ensure all precautions to limit the spread of COVID-19 are being followed  and this funding will support these efforts and help protect our community. Thank you to Governor Ducey and everyone working to support local businesses during the pandemic!



Funding has been provided to nearly all eligible businesses that have been approved for an extension of premises. To be eligible, applicants must: comply with all COVID-19 related Executive Orders; demonstrate a new extension of premises that has been approved by the local governing body and the Arizona Department of Liquor, if applicable; plan to extend the premises for a minimum of three months; have fewer than 50 employees; be Arizona-owned and-operated, and more.



The $1 million comes from the states Crisis Contingency and Safety Net Fund, a bipartisan budget agreement signed by the Governor that added $50 million for Arizonas COVID-19 response.


A North Alabama man turned himself in to authorities Monday and was charged with abusing the corpse of a woman whose body was found in late December, the Morgan County Sheriffs Office said.

Darrell Bruce Reeves, 40, of Hartselle, was booked Monday into the Morgan County Jail and charged with abuse of a corpse after surrendering to authorities, the sheriffs office said.

A hunter discovered the body of 43-year-old Bobbie Jolynn Garrison on the morning of Dec. 27 off of State Highway 36 in unincorporated Hartselle, authorities said.

Sheriffs deputies tried to execute a search warrant at Reeves home when he turned himself in.

Abuse of a corpse is a Class C felony in Alabama that is committed when a person knowingly treats a human corpse in a way that would outrage ordinary family sensibilities.

According to the CDC, autism effects an estimated 1 in 54 children in the U.S., and though autism can be reliably diagnosed as early as age 18 months, the signs can begin to appear even earlier. Despite this, the average age of diagnosis is 4 years and 3 months, and even later in minority and low-income communities. This later diagnosis results in missing out on access to critical, life-enhancing resources and supports. As COVID-19 prevented many families from regular well-visits to assess progress toward developmental milestones, experts believe that even more children have gone undiagnosed in recent months.

The new campaign, which features three children on the spectrum and their families, centers on a series of birthday parties with select examples of how children with autism may respond differently to day-to-day situations and how parents can identify the signs and support their child's healthy development. The spots resolve in the positive outcomes that are possible following a diagnosis  conveying how identifying a child's unique needs can be a pivotal turning point to help them achieve better outcomes.

The awareness campaign prompts parents and families to provide early support by visiting ScreenForAutism.org or DeteccionDeAutismo.org, to access both English and Spanish resources to identify the signs of autism, take part in a screening questionnaire and request information from the Autism Speaks Autism Response Team before, during and after a child's diagnosis. In addition, the site features free, bilingual materials such as the 100 Day Kit, providing families pivotal information and advice for making the best possible use of the first 100 days following a diagnosis.

Autism Speaks also offers a virtual adaptation of the Caregiver Skills Training (CST) program, developed with support from the World Health Organization. CST is an evidence-based program that helps bring autism best practices to low-resource settings, and it has been successfully implemented in 33 countries around the world. This series of animated videos makes it easy for parents and caregivers to learn how to support their child's development through everyday routines and activities, which is more important today than ever for the many families whose access to intervention has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

"Increasing early screening and timely interventions for kids on the spectrum is a crucial part of our mission, and our work with the Ad Council is so important to advancing this effort," said Pamela Dixon, director of clinical services and inclusion at Autism Speaks. "The earlier a child can receive support  whatever their unique set of strengths and challenges are  the better their future outcomes can be. We believe in a world where all people with autism can reach their full potential, and early diagnosis is critical to making this a reality."

By sharing the positive outcomes that can follow a diagnosis, the campaign aims to destigmatize autism screenings, by encouraging the dialogue that is essential to accessing support. Research shows that early intervention can improve learning, communication and social skills among young children with autism. The campaign urges parents to understand how learning the signs of autism, many of which are identifiable early in a child's life, can afford the best opportunities to deliver benefits across the entire life span.

"It was important that the ultimate takeaway was one of hope and positivity. We chose to use a childhood birthday to underscore the message that it's never too early to look for signs of autism, and reassure parents that a screening is not something to fear, but rather the first step to a better life for their child," says David Povill, executive creative director at BBDO.

"Early detection and screening for autism continues to be an important issue for the Ad Council to communicate to families because diagnosis and early intervention improve outcomes for children. And COVID presents a particularly unique challenge for parents of young children right now, since they aren't interacting with physicians or childcare workers as much as they normally would," said Ad Council Chief Campaign Development Officer Heidi Arthur. "On the other hand, parents and caregivers are spending more time with their children than ever before. It's critically important that those parents know what signs to look for and know where to go to learn more."

To learn more about early screening for autism, visit ScreenforAutism.org or join the conversation with @AutismSpeaks on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For personalized support and questions, contact Autism Speaks' Autism Response Team at 1-888-AUTISM2, en Espanol at 1-888-772-9050 or email [email protected].

About autism

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. We know that there is not one autism but many subtypes, and each person with autism can have unique strengths and challenges. A combination of genetic and environmental factors influence the development of autism, and autism often is accompanied by medical issues such as GI disorders, seizures and sleep disturbances.

About Autism Speaks

Autism Speaks is dedicated to promoting solutions, across the spectrum and throughout the life span, for the needs of individuals with autism and their families. We do this through advocacy and support; increasing understanding and acceptance of people with autism spectrum disorder; and advancing research into causes and better interventions for autism spectrum disorder and related conditions. To find resources, join a fundraising walk or make a donation, go to www.AutismSpeaks.org .

About the Ad Council

The Ad Council brings together the most creative minds in advertising and media to address the most worthy causes. Its innovative, pro bono social good campaigns raise awareness. They inspire action. They save lives. To learn more, visit www.adcouncil.org , follow the Ad Council's communities on Facebook and Twitter , and view our creative on YouTube .

SOURCE Ad Council
MUMBAI: Nia Sharma took her 5.6 million followers' breath away when she posted pictures from her sultry bridal photoshoot on Instagram. The stunning actress was seen striking killer poses while wearing a blue lehenga choli with intricate embroidery and a heavy choker. Her hair and makeup was on point too, with her teal-blue eyeshadow and voluminous curls stealing the show.

The shoot was part of a collaboration with Wedding Vows Magazine and was shot by Amit Khanna photography.

Take a look at the latest bridal photoshoot pictures of Nia Sharma which have gone viral on the internet. We bet that these pics will surely leave you speechless!

The photoshoot garnered a lot of attention from her fans and peers. Actor, Sudanshu Pandey, commented, "This may call for a third lockdown" to which Nia replied with a smiling emoji. Television actress Shiny Doshi also complimented Nia and said, "Fire".

Recently, Nia bought home a cool black XC90 Inscription by Volvo and posted a video too.

The actress won the adventure reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi Made In India which was a special edition in 2020. She participated with other known telly faces such as Bharti Singh, Harsh Limbachhiya, Karan Wahi, Rithvik Dhanjani, Karan Patel etc.

Nia Sharma is a well-known television actress and model who has starred in TV soaps such as 'Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai' (2011) and the popular supernatural fantasy thriller show, 'Naagin: Bhagya Ka Zehreela Khel' (2019). She has also been featured in the Top 50 Sexiest Asian Women by Eastern Eye newspaper in 2016 and 2017.
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A suspected paedophile British schoolteacher is facing the cane and jail time in Singapore after he admitted to molesting a four-year-old girl while teaching her English.

The teacher, identified as Richard Christopher Monks, 29, was employed to teach reading to a class of five children aged between four and five at a language centre in the island state of Singapore.

Monks was reportedly caught on CCTV lifting up the dress of his victim and touching her inappropriately with his left hand for a period of 15 minutes,

Richard Christopher Monks, 29, was employed to teach reading to a class of five children aged between four and five at a language centre in the island state of Singapore

Footage taken on October 20, 2018, also shows Monks using his right hand to point a camera up the girl's skirt. Monks, who was 27 at the time, also used his own mobile phone to film the abuse.

The incident came to light when the girl refused to go to the class and complained to her mother that 'teacher Richard' had been touching her.

'The victim was uncomfortable with the accused's touch, and expressed her discomfort by fidgeting and turning back to look at him several times during the said duration,' Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Hsiao Tien said.

'Despite (her) discomfort, the accused continued to touch and caress her buttocks.'

The mother reported the case to the Kampong Java Police Centre.

Monks was arrested in November 1, 2018 after he re-entered the country from a short trip to Thailand.

Police were unable to establish how many photos or videos were taken by Monks as he claimed he lost the phone while travelling in Thailand.

Initially, Monks denied any abuse but later confessed to a single instance and the case was adjourned for sentencing.

His next court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday for mitigation and sentencing.

He faces a fine, being caned, and a jail term of up to five years.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Arrasid Adjing Halissam, also known as Guru Ara, was killed in a police operation in Zamboanga City on Tuesday.

Police said Ara, a "trusted aide" of slain Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, tried to evade arrest when they served a search warrant in Margarita Drive, Barangay San Roque.

Ara, also a facilitator of the late Malaysian international terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir, alias Marwan, allegedly fired back at police officers which prompted them to shoot back.

Law enforcers recovered a loaded pistol, a hand grenade, and an improvised explosive device during the search.

Authorities said Ara was involved in several bombing and kidnapping incidents in the Zamboanga Peninsula, Sulu, Basilan, and Bohol. He also allegedly took part in the Jolo Cathedral bomb attack in January 2019 which left 20 people dead and 105 hurt, and the twin bombings also in Jolo in August 2020 which killed 14 and wounded 75.

NEW YORK  Johren, an online anime adult game platform, is launching the Valentines Day campaign Johrens Shades of Red, offering Johren Credits, bonuses, in-game special offers and premium game discounts through Feb. 19.

All new users will receive 300 Johren Credits upon registration, and all users who verify their emails will receive an extra 500 credits. To see campaign page, click here. For the mobile site, click here.



The Johren Credits bonuses are available for all players are:

3,300 Johren Credits: $30 (10 percent bonus)

5,750 Johren Credits: $50 (15 percent bonus)

12,000 Johren Credits: $100 (20 percent bonus)

25,000 Johren Credits: $200 (25 percent bonus)

37,500 Johren Credits: $300 (25 percent bonus)

The in-game offers are:

Magicami DX: New event Into the Demon World, Get FREE UR Dress Gacha Event, New Phoenixes Gacha and Valentine Day Packs On Sale

Kamihime Project: 4th Year Anniversary Grab Bag, Valentine Special Step-up Gacha, Special Star Coin Campaign, Free 10 Chain Gacha Campaign

Versus Tales X: Valentine Celebration Gacha, New Event Valentine Eradication PTA, 100 Gacha Draws for free

Taimanin Asagi: Free 10 Chain Gacha Campaign on Valentines Day, Unobtained UR Guaranteed Gacha, LR Guaranteed 20x Gacha, Chinese New Year Step Up Gacha

Fans will also receive premium game discounts of 25 percent off for Meteor World Actor, Edens Ritter Paladins of Ecstasy, Your Diary+, Sakura Magistrate and 50 percent discount for more than 150 Japanese premium game titles.

For more updates, Johren is on Facebook, Discord and Twitter.

For more information, please visit Johren.games.
Public transportation agencies in the Lehigh Valley have had mask mandates in place for months during the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring travelers to wear face masks.

But a new executive order by President Joe Biden mandating face masks for travelers using public transportation is adding teeth to the local mandates.

On Jan. 21, Biden signed the order on Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel. It requires masks be worn in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in airports, and on commercial aircraft, trains, public maritime vessels, including ferries, and bus services.

On Saturday, the CDC announced an order for masks to be required by all travelers into, within, or out of the United States, while on airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares.

The Transportation Security Administration announced that starting Tuesday, travelers would be required to wear masks at its screening checkpoints and throughout commercial and public transportation systems.

Face masks should cover the nose and mouth, and fit snugly against the sides of the face without gaps, according to the CDC. The requirement will be in effect until May 11, 2021.

LANTA has required riders to wear masks or face coverings for several months, but has allowed non-complying riders to remain on the buses.

The new directive requires LANTA to deny service to mask-less riders, authority spokesman Chuck Genna said.

LANTA is developing procedures to follow in light of the new mandates, and is also preparing a communications plan to inform riders and the general public about what is required.

Genna said LANTAs current procedures will remain in place until a date is decided for the new requirements to go into effect on LANTA services.

Lehigh Valley International Airport implemented a mask mandate for its property months ago, said spokesman Colin Riccobon.

If a traveler does not have a mask, Riccobon said airport employees ask the person to wear one and have a supply of masks to give to the person.

If the traveler does not comply, they will be escorted out of the airport, Riccobon said. The airport has its own police department to assist with that effort.

The TSA requires all passengers ages 2 and older to wear a face mask through the security screening process.

Passengers without a mask may be denied entry, boarding, or continued transport, the TSA said, and failing to comply with the mask requirement can lead to civil penalties.

Exemptions to the mask mandate include include travelers under the age of 2; those with a disability who cannot wear a mask, or cannot safely wear a mask because of the disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act; and those for whom a mask would create a risk to workplace health, safety, or job duty as determined by relevant workplace safety guidelines or federal regulations.

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

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
Greg Sukiennik has worked at all three Vermont News & Media newspapers and was their managing editor from 2017-19. He previously worked for ESPN.com, for the AP in Boston, and at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass.
It was a hard but fast decision that we had to make, said Witsil. They knew theyd have to leave Napa, but where would they move?

We looked from Spokane to Bakersfield and at the end of the day we needed to be close enough to friends and family in the Napa community, they decided. However, they did not want to live in a fire zone, said Witsil, which eliminated many parts of the state.

But Fresno? Yep, its a surprise to even them. Before this, If you had said Fresno, Id say you were crazy, admitted Witsil. Not a place Ive spent much time. They know no one in Fresno.

However, after visiting dozens of other communities where they might relocate, they zeroed in on the city, which is about 3.5 hours from Napa.

We kind of fell in love with it, and started talking to people in the community and getting pretty excited about living here.

And you just get way more bang for your buck here, said Witsil. In October, the couple sold their Napa home, where theyd lived for 28 years.

Their new home in Fresno would sell for about $1 million in Napa, she said. In Fresno, it was closer to $400,000.
Channel Seven has confirmed that The Chase host Andrew OKeefe departed the network before he was charged over an alleged domestic assault on his partner.

Seven is obviously very concerned to read the reports regarding Andrew OKeefe, a Seven spokesman said in a statement.

Channel Seven personality Andrew OKeefe is facing domestic violence charges. Credit:Simon Schluter

Seven has had a 17-year relationship with Andrew across a number of programs, although he is no longer with the network.

As this is a police matter before the courts, we cannot comment further. The program hosted by Andrew, The Chase Australia, is not currently in production. The program is produced for Seven by ITV Studios Australia. Production will resume soon and a decision about who will host future series is still to be made.
WELLINGTON, Fla., Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Spearhead, a premier wealth management and administration solutions provider to ultra-high net worth investors, family offices, and private placement markets, is pleased to announce that Alyson Kest has joined its team as Chief Compliance Officer and Deputy General Counsel, effective January 2021.

"Spearhead's continued growth has allowed us to attract top talent, such as Alyson, from the wealth advisory and compliance space," remarked Todd Walters, Managing Partner & Co-Founder. He further commented, "Alyson's shared experiences working with a variety of firms  both boutique as well as institutional in nature - will help us to not only advance the interests of our clients, but also enable us to further expand our platform."

Jarrett Bostwick, Partner, General Counsel and Co-Founder, commented, "Alyson brings an unparalleled knowledge base and perspective to the team that will be a huge value-add both to our partners in the marketplace and clients alike. We look forward to having someone with Alyson's depth of knowledge joining our team."

Ms. Kest has 15+ years of legal and compliance experience within the financial services industry. Most recently, she was the Chief Compliance Officer and Counsel for WBI Investments, Inc. and its affiliates Millington Securities, Inc. and Hartshorne Group, Inc. In this role, Ms. Kest was responsible for the investment advisory and broker dealer compliance programs across the entities.

Prior to WBI, Ms. Kest acted as compliance counsel for the investment team at Catlin, Inc. where she focused on investment rules and regulations for the global specialty insurance/reinsurance company. Before joining Catlin, Ms. Kest was designated compliance coverage for the credit sales and trading group at Macquarie after initially joining the firm's central compliance group to help oversee the compliance program of the US broker dealer.

Prior to Macquarie, Ms. Kest held a variety of compliance and risk roles within Morgan Stanley's institutional sales and trading division, within both core compliance teams and in the fixed income, prime brokerage and securities lending divisions.

Ms. Kest began her legal and compliance career as Associate General Counsel at Royal Alliance, where she focused on litigation. Ms. Kest holds a JD from Seton Hall Law School and a BA in Communications from Marist College. Ms. Kest holds Series 7, 24, 66 and 99 registrations and is licensed to practice law in the State of New Jersey.

About Spearhead

Spearhead is a privately held financial services firm exclusively focused on providing premier wealth management and administration solutions to ultra-high net worth investors, family offices, and private placement markets. The firm strives to provide long-term value to clients on an after income and estate tax basis by combining balance sheet risk management techniques with investment strategies.

Spearhead has offices in Florida and Massachusetts.

All Securities are offered through Spearhead Capital, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services are offered through Spearhead Capital Advisors, LLC. Consulting and Administration services are offered through Spearhead Innovative Solutions, LLC and its subsidiaries.

SOURCE Spearhead

February is a busy month for retailers marketing the promise of "happily ever after" to girls around the world. But for tens of millions of girls, this is just a fairytale. Their girlhoods are ending, not with storybook romance but with harmful rites of passage such as child marriage and female genital mutilation - practices believed to be increasing as the COVID-19 pandemic forces girls out of school and drags their families into poverty.

There is strong international consensus that child marriage and female genital mutilation are human rights violations that must stop, yet the practices persist. Globally, some 200 million women or girls alive today have experienced female genital mutilation, and at least 4 million girls are at risk of undergoing the practice each year. Some 650 million women alive today were married off before their 18th birthdays, and tens of thousands more are married every day.

Last year, UNFPA and partners projected that the pandemic would likely delay efforts to end both practices. These delays could result in 2 million more cases of female genital mutilation over a 10-year period that could otherwise have been averted. Deferred efforts to end child marriage, along with increasing rates of poverty, could lead to 13 million more cases of child marriage over the same decade-long period.

Advocates are now ramping up efforts to prevent these grim forecasts from taking hold.

The sixth of February is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, and Valentine's Day, on the 14th, is a moment when child marriage advocates traditionally sound the alarm over early marriage. This year, advocates are calling on leaders, community members and parents to take decisive action against both practices. It is time, they say, to give girls the power to claim their bodies and futures for themselves.

Chinara Kojaeva, now 20, chose her own path. She escaped child marriage twice in her native Georgia, at ages 14 and 17. "My life is not theirs to decide," she says.

Global action to empower girls

Together, UNFPA and UNICEF are running two of the world's largest collaborations to end these harmful practices.

The UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation works in 16 countries where the practice is prevalent. In 2019, these efforts resulted in more than 2.8 million people in 3,362 communities publicly declaring they would abandon female genital mutilation.

In Kenya, one of the Joint Programme countries, former circumcisers are being mobilized to fight against the practice they once profited from. "After a night of singing and dancing, the girls would wake up at the crack of dawn and shower. We would then proceed to the cowshed where I performed the cut," described Kokarupe Lorwu, who performed female genital mutilation for 20 years.

She learned the tradition from her grandmother, who was also a circumciser. But once she learned about the harmful effects of the practice - including haemorrhage, infection and even death - she put down her tools.

The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage covers 12 countries that account for over 300 million of the world's current and former child brides. Between 2016 and 2019, the Global Programme reached 7.9 million girls with empowerment programmes teaching girls about their rights and bodily autonomy and the harms of child marriage. A further 240 million individuals have been reached through media campaigns.

In Nepal, one of the Global Programme countries, Bindu Kumari was married off at age 17.

"Daughters were considered a burden on a family and any financial investment in her would be deemed worthless," she told UNFPA recently.

She later became an elected leader in her municipality. Today, she calls on parents to educate their daughters. "Your daughter is not yours to deny an education," she said. "A girl is not yours to force into marriage at a young age."

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Leaders like Ms. Kumari are determined to turn the tide. But much more needs to be done, as the pandemic threatens their hard-won progress.

Communities and countries must unite in opposition to these practices.

In Turkey, Nuray Ergin, a health mediator, is trying to do just that. "We will visit the homes, go through the neighbourhoods, informing people, and put an end to early marriage," she said. "We'll say no. All together."

And in Indonesia, advoate Listyowati is working in her community to raise awareness of women's rights and end female genital mutilation. "Save girls from all forms of violence," she says. "Her body is hers, not yours."
George Mireku Duker, Member of Parliament (MP) for Tarkwa-Nsuaem constituency, has advised President Nana Akufo-Addo's appointees to work hard and support the vision of the President.



Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo, Hon. Mireku Duker urged the appointees not to slack in their duties stressing the President has done lots of good works for Ghanaians and stays committed to improving the the living condidtions of the citizenry.



He warned the appointees to not also misconduct themselves but rather execute their duties effectively and bring honor to the President.



"The President is not God. He can't see everything. His appointees must help him and we should all conduct ourselves properly and work to honor him," he said.







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.

Featured Video
"Our goal in Chicago is to vaccinate as many residents as possible as fast as we can," said Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. "While vaccine availability is still very limited nationwide, this exciting new partnership with Zocdoc is another step toward empowering individuals and families as we fight this disease and lean into the historic recovery that is sure to follow."

"Zocdoc provides a great service that will help people access vaccines as the supply increases over the coming weeks and months, and Chicago residents can also sign up to be notified when new appointments become available," said Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) Commissioner Allison Arwady, M.D. "We will still need people to be patient as the vaccine rollout continues, but we're excited about this partnership as it provides Chicagoans another option to connect with providers as they receive more vaccines."

Chicago is the first city to implement Zocdoc Vaccine Scheduler , a new service that any care organization or public health entity can use - completely free of charge - to support streamlined vaccine scheduling. Chicago residents can visit zocdoc.com/vaccine , where they'll confirm their location and eligibility. If eligible under Illinois guidelines, Zocdoc will show nearby vaccination locations and their real-time appointment availability. Eligible residents will then be able to select a date, time, and location, and instantly book an appointment online. Importantly, this service will offer embedded translation support for more than 100 languages, including Spanish. It also has a variety of accessibility tools that users can enable if they need additional support or modifications.

"We are honored to help fast-track vaccinations for the City of Chicago and its residents, and we commend Mayor Lightfoot and her team on their fast decision-making and speedy implementation," said Oliver Kharraz , M.D., Zocdoc founder & CEO. "Just as the vaccines were developed in record speed thanks to public-private collaboration, so too should their rollout. This is a model for other cities to emulate because we just don't have time for trial and error. Simplifying healthcare logistics is at the core of what Zocdoc has been doing for 13 years, and our team stands ready, willing, and able to help facilitate vaccinations for as many Americans as quickly as possible."

Although the supply of vaccines is currently very limited, appointments will be added on an ongoing basis as more vaccines are allocated to providers. The City and Zocdoc expect more local healthcare providers - including other hospital systems and Federally Qualified Health Centers - to join in this important effort, and the Illinois Health and Hospital Association is encouraging its members to participate. Dr. Arwady notes that Chicagoans are encouraged to seek a vaccine appointment first with their primary care providers, if they have one, and also through local pharmacies or their employers, if available. But the Zocdoc Vaccine Scheduler will serve as a free, public resource for Chicago residents who otherwise might have difficulty finding and accessing a vaccine.

Leveraging its distinctive booking technology and experience facilitating millions of healthcare appointments, Zocdoc is offering its Vaccine Scheduler , free of charge, to any city, state, or large care organization as a public health service. Healthcare providers can integrate this new solution with their existing scheduling system, or they can use Zocdoc's dedicated, web-based calendar to support online scheduling. This unique capability makes it possible for Zocdoc to aggregate and centrally surface available vaccine appointments to users in real-time, making them easily discoverable and instantly bookable online.

"Demand for the vaccine is understandably high, and it is essential that we have tools that make it easy for eligible patients to get it safely and efficiently," said Paul Casey, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Rush University Medical System. "At Rush, we are focused on ensuring that no drop of vaccine is wasted or sitting on a shelf, and this collaboration furthers that objective by connecting our work with vaccination efforts across the City of Chicago. The Zocdoc platform provides a seamless way for those who are eligible to locate a vaccination site, including Rush University Medical Center."

In addition to its new Vaccine Scheduler, Zocdoc recently rolled out a personalized vaccine tracking service , which distributes need-to-know information to consumers and helps provide answers to common questions. Over time, this service will become more actionable and help users nationwide easily develop a vaccine plan, including finding a nearby vaccination location and booking an appointment online.

Chicago continues to vaccinate individuals in phase 1a of the vaccine rollout  healthcare workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities  and recently moved into the early stages of 1b. This means Chicagoans age 65+ and specific groups of highest-risk and frontline essential workers are now eligible for vaccinations. Even when eligible, it may take weeks to get an appointment due to the very limited vaccine supply the City is receiving from the federal government at this time. Phase 1b is expected to last through at least February and March. The vaccine is offered at no cost to all Chicagoans who want it, but patience is needed while vaccine quantities increase.

For more information on Chicago's vaccine rollout, visit www.chicago.gov/covidvax . To learn more about implementing Zocdoc Vaccine Scheduler, visit zocdoc.com/vaccine/provider .

About Zocdoc

Zocdoc is the leading digital healthcare marketplace for in-person or virtual care. Each month, millions of people use our free service, via Zocdoc.com or the Zocdoc app, to find in-network doctors, instantly book in-person or virtual appointments, read reviews from verified users, get reminders for upcoming appointments and preventive checkups, and more. With a mission to give power to the patient, Zocdoc's platform delivers the accessible and simple experience they expect and deserve.

Contacts:

Chicago Department of Public Health

Andrew Buchanan

[email protected]

Zocdoc

Jessica Aptman

[email protected]

SOURCE Zocdoc
[February 02, 2021] In Light of the Global Water Crisis, Two Green Tech Companies Announce the BlueTech Alliance for Water Generation

Florida and Germany, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Under the banner The BlueTech Alliance, Energy And Water Development Corp (OTCQB:EAWD) and ENVELON UG, a producer and engineering service provider for solar panels, have signed a comprehensive agreement for production of so-called Solar Powered Atmospheric Water Towers (eAWGT).

The Solar Powered Atmosphere Water Generation Towers (eAWGT), a stand-alone but also building attached the Solar block, sizes 10 meters long wide, 8 meters high, and would be able to generate 10,000 Liters of water per day, completely independent of use of ground water or fossil fuels.



According to the World Water Council, the tripling of the worlds population in the 20th century increased the use of renewable water resources six-fold. This growth and the increased industrialization and urbanization, has resulted as an increasing demand for water, even in developed and high income countries, which tend to use more water for energy generation and industry, for example the water supply for Teslas upcoming factory in Germany, which has been a topic of concern for some residents of nearby communities and for TESLA itself. The eAWGT represents an immediate and sustainable solution for the water crisis in the manufacturing industry and we are pleased to find a partner in Germany that provides the know-how and technology for solar energy generation, Ralph Hofmeier  CEO of EAWD stated. This alliance helps us to further develop our products and to deliver the requested volume of water and energy generation products for the worldwide demand, Mr. Hofmeier concluded. ENVELON UG is a producer and engineering service provider for solar panels that are typically used for the building envelope of public buildings, office and/or big residential buildigs. With the BlueTech Alliance, ENVELON UG starts to transfer its technology to a variety of applications, now including the Self-Sufficient Energy Powered Atmosphere Water Generation Systems (eAWGs), as well as this new development of building-attached eAWGT, Mr. Jochen Weick, Founder and CEO of ENVELON UG, stated. With the establishment of the BlueTech Alliance with EAWD, we extend our product range in the segment of infrastructure technology, engineering and services for projects; we are looking forward to seeing the first serial products to be built in Hamburg, Mr. Weick concluded.



About Energy and Water Development (OTCQB:EAWD). Energy and Water Development Corporation is a green-tech engineering solution company focused on delivering water and energy to extreme environments. The Company offers design, construction, maintenance, and specialty consulting services to private companies, government entities and non-government organizations (NGOs). EAWD builds water and energy systems out of already-existing, proven technologies, utilizing their technical know-how to customize solutions to their clients needs. The Companys website is: www.eawctechnologies.com

About ENVELON UG. ENVELON is German-based producer and engineering service provider for fully integrated solutions for the building envelope. According to the companys mission, Turn on the building envelope, ENVELONs product MATERIA is an active facade material that can replace classic building material without comprising on the esthetical quality. The main applications are public building, commercial and office buildings as well as big residential buildings. In cooperation with its wide-ranged network of companies ENVELON delivers full solutions including turn-key solutions for solar facades. For more details, visit www.envelon.de Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements. The words believe, expect, should, intend, estimate, projects, variations of such words and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not a forward-looking statement. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Companys current expectations and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Companys filings. Contact Information: Energy and Water Development Corp. Irma Velazquez, Chief Operating Officer Email: velazquezi@eawctechnologies.com Tel. +1 347 871 8927 Tel. +49 179 911 9256 Attachment EAWD



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Public school teachers in Washington D.C. have been ordered back to in-person classes this week after an arbitration court on Saturday ruled against a last-minute complaint filed by the teachers union.

On Sunday, a major snowstorm forced the city to backtrack on its plans for Monday in-person classes. With consummate cynicism, Democratic Mayor Muriel E. Bowser resisted canceling classes until the last moment, even as the city declared a citywide emergency, which will last until Tuesday. Students and teachers have been told to be in class Tuesday.

As many as 15,000 pre-kindergarten and elementary school students will begin returning to classes in the nations capital this week, which marks the beginning of the DC Public School (DCPS) systems third quarter. In addition, 4,200 school staff workers are obligated to report in-person this week.

While DCPS teachers have been cleared to receive doses of the vaccine, last week DC health director LaQuandra Nesbitt told reporters that the citys vaccination program was operating at a dismal level. As of Saturday, only 1,330 DCPS teachers and 800 charter staff have received the vaccine, which could take weeks before providing full protection. Even if timely vaccinations of school staff were possible, children could still become infected and pass COVID-19 to their parents and each other.

The Washington Teachers Union (WTU) filed a last-minute claim against the District last month alleging that the city administration had failed to honor conditions in the plan struck in December between the WTU and DCPS. The WTU stated that DCPS had not provided proof that it had repaired its ailing HVAC systems, or conducted satisfactory walkthroughs at each school.

In its ruling, the city arbitration panel found that DCPS had failed to honor its agreement in certain instances, but it did not justify delaying the re-openings. The panel ruled that two schools, Calvin Coolidge High School and Watkins Elementary, would have to delay their openings to provide satisfactory walkthroughs for city staff before reopening.

The DCPS-WTU Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) struck in December was wholly inadequate for ensuring safety to teachers, administrators and students. The World Socialist Web Site at the time labeled the MOAs standards cosmetic, adding that its demands for walk-through teams at each school had little say-so over final decisions and had none of the necessary expertise in occupational safety and health to properly evaluate the safety of school buildings, many of which are decades old and dilapidated.

Due to widespread opposition from teachers, the school system was repeatedly forced to delay in-person classes, which originally were set to start in November but were disrupted by a wave of teacher sickouts. Ultimately, DCPS and the WTU agreed to put off the plan.

Democratic Party and union officials calculated that reopening with the support of a Democratic Biden administration would be preferable to forcing a reopening in the midst of the US election and threats from Republican President Donald Trump. Small groups of students were still encouraged to attend in person in specially designed CARE classrooms, monitored by school staff.

Now, however, DCPS and the Bowser administration have committed to the homicidal school reopening plans which are being pursued by the Biden administration at the national level and local governments led by both Republicans and Democrats in cities and towns across the country.

While presenting delays at a handful of locations as significant wins, the WTU has utterly capitulated to Mayor Bowsers demands for schools to be open as COVID-19 cases continue to climb in the District. In response to the panels ruling, WTU President Elizabeth Davis has floated the possibility that her organization may issue more impotent legal actions.

A DCPS teacher who spoke to the WSWS explained how the WTU has stifled educators opposition to the reopening. A lot of members are upset that the WTU had forced them to put their hopes in the arbitration panels decision, the teacher said, preferring anonymity to speak freely. They said, the rank and file had little part in deciding the terms which are present in the DCPS-WTU agreement on reopening and that the strategy of relying on the city government to rule against itself had hurt morale.

According to this teacher, a large portion of the rank and file support collective action against DCPSs reckless reopening plans. There is a group [of teachers] that has been left in the dark because there has been no organizing for a struggle, the teacher said. Teachers had little confidence that any struggle organized on such a basis could win.

Over the course of the pandemic, government officials have quietly ended their claims of observing health metrics in their decision-making processes for reopening schools. In a press statement over the weekend, DC schools Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee gloated: The arbitrators decision makes it clear: all of our schools are safe and ready to reopen, and we look forward to welcoming back thousands of students and teachers on Monday. This followed Mayor Bowsers declaration last week that [w]e need our school buildings open.

According to Washington D.C. official numbers, only 9,000 students have signed up for in-person classes. The Washington Post cited statements from Sharra Greer of the Childrens Law Center, an advocate for the citys impoverished families. Greer told the Post most of her clients are struggling with virtual learning but declined a slot for-person classes because they didnt feel safe.

The main concern of the advocates of an in-person return to class is so that parents can get back to work, as President Biden has repeatedly said.

Parents have been asked to monitor their children for COVID-19 symptoms on a daily basis and withhold their child from the roll if they exhibit sickness. Such do-it-yourself prescriptions for maintaining public health and safety were proven to be catastrophic failures throughout the fall. To date, over 2 million US children have tested positive for COVID-19.

The science rests entirely on the side of public health officials and workers who refuse to reopen schools until the pandemic is safely brought under control. Current conditions in Washington D.C. are dire. The daily case average in the District increased Saturday to 256 COVID-19 cases. The city has counted over 30,000 cases.

Neighboring Virginia and Maryland have seen averages that are triple and double the amount recorded in spring, respectively. The more transmissible British and South African coronavirus variants have been reported in both Virginia and Maryland. Over the weekend, officials in Baltimore reported that community transmission of the South African strand was likely. Baltimore Public Schools has announced plans to reopen later this month.

In nearby Northern Virginia, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the nations 11th largest school system, has demanded students and teachers begin returning for in-person instruction by February 16. FCPS, with over 180,000 children, plans to return at least half of its massive study body to in-person classes by next month. This has continued even after teacher vaccinations were halted last week when supplies ran low.

Fairfax teachers have repeatedly forced the school board to delay the resumption of in-class schooling, however. The Fairfax Education Association agreed to a return if teachers were vaccinated but has now said the start date should be pushed to March 2 because of vaccine shortages. The resistance of Fairfax teachers has provoked the ire of the national news media, including Jeff Bezos Washington Post, which have given outsized publicity to small groups of parents who have denounced teachers for defending their lives and those of their students and communities.

It is now an urgent task that teachers in D.C., Fairfax and Baltimore form rank-and-file educators safety committees to oppose the reckless reopening policy. Teachers must reach out to other sections of working people, including logistics, transit workers, city and federal employees and others, in order to prepare a general strike to force the closure of schools and nonessential businesses and provide genuine public health measures and income protection to workers and small businesses.

The World Socialist Web Site Educators Newsletter will offer all assistance possible to educators seeking a genuine fight against the inhumane policies of big business and herd immunity. To get more information and to join the national and international network of educators rank-and-file safety committees, contact us today.

Bloodlands is the new drama with James Nesbitt coming to BBC One.

Bloodlands sees James Nesbitt starring as Northern Irish police detective Tom Brannick

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When a car containing a possible suicide note is pulled out of Strangford Lough, Tom quickly connects it to an infamous cold case with enormous personal significance. Bloodlands follows his dogged hunt for a legendary assassin known as 'Goliath', an explosive cat-and-mouse game where the stakes have never been higher.

Bloodlands will start on BBC One later in 2021 - for now you can watch a first look trailer below...

Bloodlands cast

Joining James Nesbitt (The Missing, Cold Feet) in the drama are Lisa Dwan (Top Boy, Trust), Lorcan Cranitch (Fortitude, The Dig), Charlene McKenna (Ripper Street, Vienna Blood), Ian McElhinney (Derry Girls, Game Of Thrones), Lola Petticrew (My Left Nut, Come Home), Chris Walley (The Young Offenders, 1917), Michael Smiley (Luther, Death and Nightingales), Kathy Kiera Clarke (Derry Girls, The Pale Horse), and Susan Lynch (Happy Valley, Save Me).

Additional cast include Peter Ballance, Asan NJie, Cara Kelly and Flora Montgomery.

James Nesbitt said: Its great to be back making a drama in and about Northern Ireland, which now has a film and television industry as good as any in the world.

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"We have compelling scripts from a brilliant young writer who was raised in County Down, which are very exciting and psychologically complex. I cant wait to start.

The piece will be written by Chris Brandon and executive produced by Line Of Duty and Bodyguard's Jed Mercurio.

Chris Brandon said: Im absolutely delighted that the first opportunity I get to tell a story on this scale, it is one that is so close to home and the people and places that raised me.

"On top of that, to be telling it with James Nesbitt, Jed Mercurio and the incredible team at HTM is a total privilege.

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Jed Mercurio added: It's been incredibly rewarding to discover Chris Brandon's work and to witness the development of an outstanding new voice in contemporary television thriller writing, added to which everyone at HTM Television is honoured an actor of James Nesbitt's brilliance will star in our debut production.

Picture: BBC
The Mets announced on Monday that they have acquired right-handed pitcher Jordan Yamamoto from the Miami Marlins in exchange for minor league infielder Federico Polanco.

In a corresponding move, the Mets designated infielder Robel Garcia for assignment.

Yamamoto, 24, came to Miami by way of the Milwaukee Brewers in the blockbuster Christian Yelich trade prior to the 2018 season.

The Hawaii native debuted the following year and appeared in 15 games for Miami, and pitched to a 4.46 ERA, 4.51 FIP and 4.89 xFIP. He was also worth 0.9 fWAR.

In the shortened 2020 season, Yamamoto toed the rubber in just four games and had a dismal 18.26 ERA, 11.93 FIP and 6.66 xFIP. He was designated for assignment by Miami last week.

While Yamamoto doesnt possess high velo on his fastball, he makes up for it with decent spin, as he ranked in the 64th percentile by Statcast in 2019. His curveball spin is also solid, as it ranked in the 69th percentile that year.

Heres a glimpse of what the right-hander brings to the table:

Going back to Miami is infield prospect Federico Polanco, who is the cousin of Mets top prospect Ronny Mauricio.

As Jacob Resnick adds on Twitter, Polanco, 19, signed with the Mets in 2017 and received a $325 thousand signing bonus. Polanco was not ranked by MLB Pipeline in their top 30 Mets prospects.

Garcia, 27, was claimed off waivers by the Mets in October prior to the finalization of the teams sale to Steve Cohen.

The Dominican Republic native did not play in 2020 at the big league level, but had a cup of coffee with the Chicago Cubs in 2019.

Yamamoto is free agent eligible in 2027.
Imperial Valley News Center

Department of Justice Launches Global Action Against NetWalker Ransomware

Washington, DC - The Department of Justice Wednesday announced a coordinated international law enforcement action to disrupt a sophisticated form of ransomware known as NetWalker.

NetWalker ransomware has impacted numerous victims, including companies, municipalities, hospitals, law enforcement, emergency services, school districts, colleges, and universities. Attacks have specifically targeted the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking advantage of the global crisis to extort victims.

We are striking back against the growing threat of ransomware by not only bringing criminal charges against the responsible actors, but also disrupting criminal online infrastructure and, wherever possible, recovering ransom payments extorted from victims, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. Ransomware victims should know that coming forward to law enforcement as soon as possible after an attack can lead to significant results like those achieved in todays multi-faceted operation.

The NetWalker action includes charges against a Canadian national in relation to NetWalker ransomware attacks in which tens of millions of dollars were allegedly obtained, the seizure of approximately $454,530.19 in cryptocurrency from ransom payments, and the disablement of a dark web hidden resource used to communicate with NetWalker ransomware victims.

This action reflects the resolve of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Florida to target and disrupt sophisticated, international cybercrime schemes, said U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida. While these individuals believe they operate anonymously in the digital space, we have the skill and tenacity to identify and prosecute these actors to the full extent of the law and seize their criminal proceeds.

According to court documents, NetWalker operates as a so-called ransomware-as-a-service model, featuring developers and affiliates. Developers are responsible for creating and updating the ransomware and making it available to affiliates. Affiliates are responsible for identifying and attacking high-value victims with the ransomware, according to the affidavit. After a victim pays, developers and affiliates split the ransom.

This case illustrates the FBIs capabilities and global partnerships in tracking ransomware attackers, unmasking them, and holding them accountable for their alleged criminal actions, said Special Agent in Charge Michael F. McPherson of the FBIs Tampa Field Office. If you are a victim of ransomware, contact your local FBI field office or submit a tip to tips.fbi.gov. You can also file a complaint with the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

Seizure page of dark web hidden resource used to communicate with NetWalker ransomware victims.

According to the affidavit, once a victims computer network is compromised and data is encrypted, actors that deploy NetWalker deliver a file, or ransom note, to the victim. Using Tor, a computer network designed to facilitate anonymous communication over the internet, the victim is then provided with the amount of ransom demanded and instructions for payment.

Actors that deploy NetWalker commonly gain unauthorized access to a victims computer network days or weeks prior to the delivery of the ransom note. During this time, they surreptitiously elevate their privileges within the network while spreading the ransomware from workstation to workstation. They then send the ransom note only once they are satisfied that they have sufficiently infiltrated the victims network to extort payment, according to the affidavit.

According to an indictment unsealed today, Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins of Gatineau, a Canadian national, was charged in the Middle District of Florida. Vachon-Desjardins is alleged to have obtained at least over $27.6 million as a result of the offenses charged in the indictment.

The Justice Department further announced that on Jan. 10, law enforcement seized approximately $454,530.19 in cryptocurrency, which was comprised of ransom payments made by victims of three separate NetWalker ransomware attacks.

This week, authorities in Bulgaria also seized a dark web hidden resource used by NetWalker ransomware affiliates to provide payment instructions and communicate with victims. Visitors to the resource will now find a seizure banner that notifies them that it has been seized by law enforcement authorities.

The investigation was led by the FBIs Tampa field office.

Trial Attorneys S. Riane Harper and Brian Mund of the Criminal Divisions Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlton C. Gammons and Suzanne Nebesky of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Florida are prosecuting the case against Vachon-Desjardins.

Substantial assistance was provided by the Department of Justices Office of International Affairs. Additionally, the Bulgarian National Investigation Service and General Directorate Combating Organized Crime provided substantial assistance in the seizure of the dark web hidden resource.

An indictment is merely an allegation. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Hyderabad, Feb 2 : Ocugen Inc and Bharat Biotech on Tuesday announced they have entered into a definitive agreement to co-develop, supply and commercialise Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, an advanced stage whole-virion inactivated Covid-19 vaccine candidate, for the United States market.

Ocugen, a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercialising gene therapies to cure blindness diseases and developing a vaccine to fight Covid-19, will have US rights to the vaccine candidate and will be responsible for clinical development, regulatory approval (including EUA) and commercialisation for the US market.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech said in a statement that will supply initial doses to be used in the US upon Ocugen's receipt of an EUA. In addition, Bharat Biotech will support the technology transfer for manufacturing in the US. In consideration for the exclusive license to the US market, Ocugen will share the profits from the sale of Covaxin in the US market with Bharat Biotech, with Ocugen retaining 45 per cent of the profits.

The collaboration will leverage the vaccine expertise of Ocugen's leadership team. In preparation for the development of Covaxin in the US, Ocugen's Vaccine Scientific Advisory Board and Ocugen management have initiated discussions with the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop a regulatory path to EUA and eventually, biologics license application (BLA) approval in the US market for Covaxin.

Ocugen is also in active discussions with manufacturers in the US to produce a significant number of doses of Covaxin to support its US immunisation programme.

"The evaluation of Covaxin has resulted in several unique product characteristics including long-term persistence of immune responses to multiple viral proteins, as opposed to only the spike protein and has demonstrated broad spectrum neutralizing capability with heterologous SARS-CoV-2 strains, thus potentially reducing or eliminating escape mutants.

Requiring only a standard vaccine storage temperature of 2-8oC and with the potential to treat all age-groups, Covaxin may offer an important option to protect lives across America," said Shankar Musunuri, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Ocugen.

The Central Licensing Authority in India has granted permission for the sale or distribution of Covaxin for restricted use in emergency situations in the public interest, in clinical trial mode.

"Covaxin has generated excellent safety data with robust immune responses to multiple viral proteins that persist. With the recent progression of Covaxin use under EUA in India, I am confident that we will be able to work with Ocugen to develop a plan to bring Covaxin to the US market.," said Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Biotech.
Army chaplain under investigation over Facebook posts critical of transgender troops

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A U.S. Army chaplain based in Texas faces an investigation after he made a social media post suggesting that transgender individuals are mentally unfit to serve in the military.

In a Jan. 26 tweet, the Armys Security Force Assistance Command announced that the recent comments posted to the Army Times Facebook page by Maj. Andrew Calvert regarding President Joe Biden's policy on transgender service members are under investigation.

How is rejecting reality (biology) not evidence that a person is mentally unfit (ill), and thus making that person unqualified to serve? asked Calvert as he commented on a Facebook post from the Army Times.

A Twitter user flagged Calvert's posts and argued that Calvert "cannot be trusted to support soldiers for another minute."

In his post, Calvert argued that there is "little difference" between those who believe in transgenderism and "those who believe and argue for a flat earth' despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

"The motivation is different, but the argument is the same," the chaplain stated. This person is a MedBoard for Mental Wellness waiting to happen. What a waste of military resources and funding!

In his Facebook profile, Calvert describes himself as a Christian, Husband, Father, Pastor, Army Chaplain. His profile also notes that he is employed as a brigade chaplain at the 3rd Security Force Assistance Brigade, located in Fort Hood, Texas.

In a subsequent Facebook comment, Calvert argued that his position was not extreme in the slightest.

The most nurturing counsel I can give to someone who is under the delusion of transgenderism (gender dysphoria) is to recommend professional counseling to assist in the healing process," Calvert reportedly wrote in the post. "To not do so, and merely pander to make-believe social whims of the moment, is not only damaging but idiocy.

Calverts Facebook posts came after Biden, who took office on Jan. 20, announced the reversal of President Donald Trumps ban on transgender troops serving in the military.

The former president cited the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail as the justification for his decision. By doing so, Trump reversed an Obama-era policy allowing openly transgender individuals to serve in the Armed Forces.

Additionally, the Security Force Assistance Command's post instructed members of the Army to Always remember to Think, Type, Post when it comes to engaging in conversation on social media platforms."

"We are soldiers 24/7 and that means always treating people with dignity and respect," the tweet reads.

A Christian professor has also faced consequences for his criticism of Bidens reversal of Trump's military transgender policy.

Professor Robert Gagnon of Houston Baptist University was locked out of his Facebook account for 24 hours after referring to transgender ideology as a religious cult and a pseudo-science in a comment defending a friends satirical commentary about Bidens reversal of the transgender military ban.

In addition to Calvert and Gagnon, prominent conservative organizations were also quick to criticize Bidens executive order.

Tony Perkins, president of the socially conservative activist organization Family Research Council, asserted that by signing the executive order, Biden was diverting precious dollars from mission-critical training to something as controversial as gender reassignment surgery.

Perkins added that the military cannot focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars when it is being used as a vehicle to advance the far-left agenda.

After considerable study, the previous administration found gender dysphoric people attempt suicide at about nine times the rate of the general population," said Lt. Gen. Tom Spoehr, the director of the conservative Heritage Foundations Center for National Defense.

"Service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria are also nine times more likely to have mental health encounters with a professional."

Spoehr contends that it would be "immoral" to place individuals at higher risk from mental injury in situations "where they are likely to experience extraordinary stress."

Calvert is hardly the first Army chaplain to face the prospect of punishment for holding to biblical Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality.

Scott Squires, who served as an Army chaplain at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, faced the possibility of career-ending punishment in 2018 after telling a lesbian couple that they could not participate in a marriage retreat he was hosting because his religious beliefs taught him that marriage was a union between a man and a woman.

Ultimately, the couple was allowed to attend the retreat after another chaplain was tapped to host the event. While the U.S. Army initially recommended that Squires be charged with dereliction of duty, the chaplain was cleared of all charges a year later.
Beijing:

Upping the ante on the Sikkim standoff, China today accused India of trampling on the Panchsheel principles and asked New Delhi to correct its mistakes as soon as possible by pulling back troops.



China also claimed that India was misleading the public by saying that Chinese troops are building a road close to the Chickens Neck in the Sikkim sector which could endanger Indias access to its north-eastern states.



I want to point that the relevant actions by the Indian side violated the purposes and principles of the UN Charter in defiance of the international law and international norms. As we all know in 1950s China, India and Myanmar proposed the five principles (Panchsheel) of co-existence, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Gen Shuang told reporters here.



However to the surprise of everyone, the Indian side trampled on the basic norms governing the international relations proposed by itself by illegally crossing into other countrys territory, he said.



The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, known as the Panchsheel, are a series of principles which have formed the bedrock of the relationship between India and China. Their first formal codification in treaty form was in an agreement between China and India in 1954.



Geng said this time the Indian troops crossed the delineated boundary into the Chinese side and nature of the incident was very serious.

ALSO READ | China claimed sizeable Bhutan territory, Nehru told Zhou Enlai in letter



China and India have been in contact through the special representatives mechanism to solve the boundary question but this incident, I believe, violates the spirit upheld by the Special Representatives mechanism and goes in contrast to the efforts made by the two countries, he said.



China has already lodged a protest with India on this, Geng said. Indian border troops are still staying on the Chinese territory, he said.



The situation is yet to be resolved and India should pull back the troops that is precondition to avoid worsening of the situation, Geng said.



Troops should be pulled back as soon as possible to demonstrate the sincerity to improve bilateral ties so as create conditions for the normal development of bilateral relations, he said.



If the Indian side refuses to correct its mistakes in a timely fashion, how it proposes to win the trust of its neighbours and how it is supposed to play a bigger role in the international affairs, he said.



We once again urge the Indian side to abide by the boundary convention and respect the Chinese sovereignty and immediately withdraw the border troops and properly deal with the incident in a timely fashion, Geng said.



The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson claimed that the incident has nothing to do with the tri-junction between China, India and Bhutan.



In disregard of the 1890 Sino-Britain convention, the Indian side said that Doklam is located within the tri-junction of the three countries, that is misleading the public, he said.

ALSO READ | Sikkim standoff: China says 'no scope for compromise' in military deadlock, situation is 'grave'



The 1890 convention said that the Sikkim section of the boundary commences from East mountain and the incident (of road building) took place about 2,000 meters away from Mount Gipmochi, Geng asserted.



The Indian side is actually misleading the public by saying that the incident took place at the tri-junction point, Geng said, defending Chinas road building which India and Bhutan have objected to.



India has expressed concern over the road building, apprehending that it may allow Chinese troops to cut Indias access to its northeastern states.



Geng also said that besides former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru endorsing the 1890 Sino-British convention on Sikkim in a letter to his Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai in 1959, the Indian Embassy in a note to the Chinese government in February, 1960, also endorsed it.



The note said that the boundary between Sikkim and Chinas Tibet has already been delineated and there is no dispute about that in the map and in practice, he said.



Quoting the note, Geng said, The Indian government would like to add one more thing that the boundary has already been demarcated as well on the ground.



The above mentioned was written in black and white in the note from India, Geng said.



Asked about Nehru, in his letter to Zhou, pointing out that Chinese maps showed Bhutanese territory as part of Chin, Geng said, there is no such consent as you mentioned.



The former prime minister had pointed out to China that it was claiming sizable part of Bhutans territory.



It is not clear to us what exactly is the implication of your statement that the boundaries of Sikkim and Bhutan do not fall within the scope of the present discussion, Nehru wrote in the letter to Zhou.



In fact, Chinese maps show sizable areas of Bhutan as part of Tibet, Nehru had said.



Geng said, Since the illegal trespass of the border troops, both sides have expressed stern position. The fact is that the Sikkim section of the China India boundary has already been delineated.



Since Indias independence, the Indian government has repeatedly affirmed the fact that the Sikkim section has been delineated by this convention, he said.



Gengs remarks come a day after, in unusually blunt remarks, Chinas Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui said the ball is in Indias court and it was for the Indian government to decide what options could be on the table to resolve the standoff.



Asked about remarks by official Chinese media and think-tanks that the conflict can lead to a war if not handled properly, the ambassador had said ,There has been talk about this option, that option. It is up to your government policy (whether to exercise military option).



Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modis comments that not a bullet has been fired at the India-China boundary for two decades, Geng said, I want to point settlement of the boundary serves the fundamental interests of the two sides.



It is also a strategic target, two sides are working to achieve. We have been trying to explore ways to resolve the boundary question with in the Special Representatives mechanism and we have jointly taken measure to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas, Geng said.



What is shocking is that the India border troops entered into the Chinese side of the delineated border in the Sikkim section which is serious in nature, he sad.

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Thousands of Topshop store staff were only officially informed that their jobs were likely to go two hours after Asos announced their 295 million takeover of the brand, it has emerged.

Angry workers flooded social media complaining that they found out the online giant would not be buying stores  and saving their jobs  via Twitter and through media reports.

Asos announced the deal to save the Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands at 7am, and by 7.45am the online retailer sent out a tweet welcoming Topshop and Topman to the Asos family.

The rumours are true... @Topshop & @Topman are now part of the ASOS family   ASOS (@ASOS) February 1, 2021

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But it took Deloitte until 9am to inform around 2,500 staff at 70 remaining Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge stores that they would not be part of the acquisition, the PA news agency understands.

Administrators later confirmed that only about 300 jobs would be saved as part of the deal.

It is understood that these staff are highly likely to be made redundant, although some workers could be retained for a short period to process remaining stock, which has been bought by Asos, and send from stores.

Weare not part of ayour familya... weave all lost our jobs and been made redundant. All stores are closing, we closed ours this week. Spare a thought for all of us staff, especially those who have just found out they are jobless through the media and your tweet. Not good enough  lisa (@Lisaa_Mchendry) February 1, 2021

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About 13,000 jobs were put at risk when Arcadia first tumbled into administration at the start of December.

Online retailer Boohoo is also in exclusive talks to buy Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton brands, in a move which will also not include stores.

One twitter user, @lisaa_Mchendry said in response to a tweet from Asos welcoming Topshop and Topman as part of the Asos family: Were not part of your family weve all lost our jobs and been made redundant.

Itas actually disgusting. Iave worked for Topshop for 2 years & my own manager found out through Sky News as the Administrators didnat inform us, the press/social media knew before we did. Disappointed isnat the word today.  Beccy (@Billies_Wife) February 1, 2021

All stores are closing, we closed ours this week. Spare a thought for all of us staff, especially those who have just found out they are jobless through the media and your tweet. Not good enough.

Another Twitter user, Beccy, said: Its actually disgusting. Ive worked for Topshop for 2 years & my own manager found out through Sky News as the Administrators didnt inform us, the press/social media knew before we did. Disappointed isnt the word today.

Thank you for telling me I lost my job before my employer even got round to doing it, could you not have waited at least 1 day before announcing that you have bought out thousands of jobs from people...especially in a time like this!  Scarlet Rawson (@scarletrawson) February 1, 2021

Scarlet Rawson tweeted: Thank you for telling me I lost my job before my employer even got round to doing it, could you not have waited at least 1 day before announcing that you have bought out thousands of jobs from peopleespecially in a time like this!

Deloitte has been contacted for comment.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has tried to find out questions from reporters before her press briefings, it emerged Tuesday.

The attempts to probe for what she will be asked at the on-camera briefings caused such concern that it was raised at a private meeting of the White House Correspondents Association, the Daily Beast reported.

Multiple sources said leaders of the White House Correspondents Association, a group dedicated to maintaining journalists' access to the executive branch of government, advised reporters to push back against any of these requests from Biden's press team or to not reply.

White House reporters also expressed concern that the disclosure that Psaki's team were trying to find out what she would be asked could create the perception they are coordinating with the messaging political communication staff are trying to push for their bosses.

There is no suggestion any reporters complied with the White House and the meeting last Friday was the first opportunity for the association to discuss the issue since Psaki began her role less than two weeks ago.

'While it's a relief to see briefings return, particularly with a commitment to factual information, the press can't really do its job in the briefing room if the White House is picking and choosing the questions they want,' a White House correspondent said, according to The Daily Beast. 'That's not really a free press at all.'

'It p***ed off enough reporters for people to flag it for the [WHCA] for them to deal with it,' another source said.

The White House did not deny that Psaki has asked journalists to preview questions they plan to ask but said the goal is to make briefings to be 'informative.'

A report Monday evening revealed White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tries to find out and field questions from reporters before press briefings

The revelations have sparked a debate among journalists who cover the White House, with some claiming it's improper and other's maintaining it's normal protocol among political press teams

Politico reporter Tara Palmeri lamented the report reveals that if Psaki doesn't like a question, she can refuse to call on a certain reporter. In her only two weeks as White House press secretary, Psaki has called on every reporter in the briefing room  sometimes more than once

Former Bloomberg White House correspondent Cheryl Bolen Smelson said: 'When I covered the WH my questions were mostly obscure policy/regulatory/legislative in nature I'd often email a Q to the press office in the morning knowing I could get an informed answer from @joshearnest during the briefing'

'Our goal is to make the daily briefing as useful and informative as possible for both reporters and the public,' a White House spokesperson told DailyMail.com.

'Part of meeting that objective means regularly engaging with the reporters who will be in the briefing room to understand how the White House can be most helpful in getting them the information they need.'

The official added: 'That two-way conversation is an important part of keeping the American people updated about how government is serving them.'

Psaki promised 'transparency' at her first briefing and an attempt to change the tone from the Trump era, which saw the press briefing become irregular  and at one point canceled for almost a year. Successive press secretaries also used their public interactions with the press to berate individual reporters and the mainstream media at large.

Trump's administration also invited sympathetic reporters to press briefings, including representatives of One American News and on one occasion Sean Spicer, Trump's own former press secretary who now hosts a Newsmax show.

The report Monday evening sparked a debate among journalists and politicians, with some enraged over the incident and others claiming asking for questions ahead of time to prepare is not unusual.

Concern about White House officials trying to find out questions in advance covers administrations of both parties at least as far back as Bill Clinton.

Donald Trump's longest-serving White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was known to quiz outlets on their questions before high-profile presidential press conferences or events, two people with direct knowledge outlined to the Daily Beast.

The same was typical during both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations if reporters wanted to interview the president or cabinet members.

'Hmmm, when I covered the Clinton WH, the morning gaggle was a way for Spox [the White House press secretary] to find out what questions were on reporters's minds in order to answer on camera at the briefing,' Washington Post fact checker editor Glenn Kessler tweeted

Psaki has previously attracted criticism from the right for having worked as an analyst for CNN - something which Trumps press secretary Kayleigh McEnany also did. There have been accusations from pro-Trump commentators that Psaki is getting 'softball' questions at briefings.

But the disclosure that she or her aides had attempted to find out questions divided political reporters in Washington.

'To everyone asking why this matters: If Psaki doesn't like your question, she doesn't call on you,' Politico reporter Tara Palmeri posted to Twitter.

In Psaki's first week-and-a-half as White House press secretary, she has called on every reporter seated in the briefing room  sometimes more than once.

Palmeri added in another tweet: 'This harassment of reporters is just 'fake news' by another name. If Psaki knows you have a tough question she doesn't have to call on you. So far, she hasn't had to deal with a real bomb.'

Other reporters downplayed the disclosure, and said these protocols are not out of the norm for past administrations and that in pre-Trump White House there had been informal off-camera questions to the press secretary in a 'gaggle' which meant they had insight into the issues reporters were likely to push.

Additionally, the COVID restrictions at the White House mean that journalists are no longer able to walk into Psaki's office or those of her aides to talk to them, something which former press staff say helped them work out what might be asked.

'Hmmm, when I covered the Clinton WH, the morning gaggle was a way for Spox [the White House press secretary] to find out what questions were on reporters's minds in order to answer on camera at the briefing,' Washington Post fact checker editor Glenn Kessler tweeted.

'This story (toward the end) kind of concedes this is similar in a pandemic world. Fewer 'circle backs'!'

Former Bloomberg White House correspondent Cheryl Bolen Smelson took to Twitter to weigh in and said she would ask the Obama White House questions by email then press for an answer at the briefing.

'When I covered the WH my questions were mostly obscure policy/regulatory/legislative in nature I'd often email a Q to the press office in the morning knowing I could get an informed answer from @joshearnest during the briefing.'

A Republican communications specialist said that press staff should try to work out what they might be asked.

Ohio GOP senator Rob Portman's former communications director, Jeff Sadosky tweeted: 'Any press team, Dem or GOP, would be failing at its job if they weren't trying to get a handle of what's incoming so the spokesperson was prepped ahead of time.

'This isn't new, and the reporter is exposing nothing here beyond their own inexperience.'
LAKEVIEW, Ore.  Governor Kate Brown's plan to close three Oregon state prisons would be a "grave mistake," according to state lawmaker E. Werner Reschke, who represents much of Klamath and Lake counties.

Governor Brown's most recent budget proposal includes the closure of Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview, Shutter Creek in North Bend, and Mill Creek in Salem  reviving and expanding on a proposal that originated in July of last year.

The July push to close Warner Creek drew fierce resistance from the Lake County community, which considers the prison to be a vital part of the local economy.

On Monday, Representative Reschke issued a statement decrying the negative economic impact that the closures would cause. But facing what may be an inevitability, the lawmaker is proposing an alternative.

The political leadership remains in favor of closing Warner Creek Correctional Facility by mid-2022. I am strongly committed to making it clear to the Governor and legislators in Salem that closing Warner Creek Correctional Facility is a grave mistake for several reasons, said Rep. Reschke.

Reschke says that he has joined Senator Lynn Findley in proposing a bill that would transfer Warner Creek to the administration of Lake County, allowing the county a one-time land use change. This would allow the County to either directly use the facility, or find a private entity to buy or lease the property.

While SB 19 does not immediately replace all the lost jobs due to a prison closure, it provides a far better future for Lake County than the States plan of shuttering the facility for non-use, said Rep. Reschke.

Warner Creek is a minimum security prison opened in 2005 and designed to hold just over 400 inmates. It employs more than 100 people in rural Lake County, and represents an economic boon to the Lakeview area measured in millions of dollars per year.
A council has U-turned on plans to remove a statue of a Victoria Cross-winning British war hero after 9,000 people signed a petition to defend him.

The monument of General Sir Redvers Buller has been in place outside Exeter College for more than 100 years, but its future was in doubt after the city council announced a review in response to the Black Lives Matters protests.

The authority had begun the process to relocate the statue as it was deemed 'inappropriate' to be so close to a 'learning environment.'

But thousands protested against the move, with a petition set up to drive opposition declaring: 'We cannot stand by and let historically illiterate people erase our history.'

One of General Buller's family members also jumped to his defence, describing him as a 'compassionate, sympathetic and liberal man'.

Now, amid growing backlash, and new powers for Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick, who can call in any application to relocate historic monuments and ensure the law is followed, the council has confirmed it has dropped the plans.

As a result, the statue will stay where it has been since 1905.

Exeter City Council has U-turned over plans to remove of a statue of a British war hero. The council had set up a task group to decide whether a statue (right) of General Sir Redvers Buller (left) should be moved from its prominent position in the city

Who was General Sir Redvers Buller? General Redvers Buller, born in 1839 near Crediton, in Devon, purchased a commission in the British Army in 1858. He has been criticised for his ruthless defeat of the Zulu people while serving as commander of the mounted infantry of the northern British column in 1879 during the Second Zulu War. But he won the Victoria Cross by rescuing two fellow officers during a pitched battle in what is now modern day South Africa. He was later appointed head of the British forces sent to South Africa during the Second Boer War, presiding over Black Week in which it was defeated three times by the Boers with nearly 3,000 men killed, wounded and captured. Upon his return from South Africa, the British Army requested he resign, in part as a scapegoat for the failures of the military command. Despite this General Buller was awarded the freedom of Exeter and presented with a jewelled sword by the County of Devon. A bronze statue depicting him astride his favourite horse was erected St David's Church in Exeter, Devon, in 1905. Unusually the statue, paid for by public subscription, was unveiled while he was still alive. The local newspaper said he was rumoured to have been involved in the introduction of concentration camps in the Boer War but historians have disputed the accuracy of these claims. Advertisement

The Grade-II listed bronze statue depicts the general astride his favourite horse Biffen.

The words 'He saved Natal' on its plinth are a reference to General Buller's actions in South Africa.

The general, born in 1839 near Crediton, in Devon, purchased a commission in the British Army and won the Victoria Cross during the Second Zulu War, rescuing a number of comrades while under enemy fire.

He was later appointed head of the British forces sent to South Africa during the Second Boer War, presiding over Black Week in which it was defeated three times by the Boers with nearly 3,000 men killed, wounded and captured.

Upon his return from South Africa, the British Army requested he resign, in part as a scapegoat for the failures of the military command.

Despite this General Buller was awarded the freedom of Exeter and presented with a jewelled sword by the County of Devon. Unusually the statue, paid for by public subscription, was unveiled while he was still alive.

The local newspaper said he was rumoured to have been involved in the introduction of concentration camps in the Boer War but historians have disputed the accuracy of these claims.

Historian Andrew Roberts argued anger at General Buller was misdirected.

He said: 'I think it is important to point out that the general fought against the white regime in South Africa. In the year 1900 every man was a sexist.

'This is ridiculous and historical wokery at its worst. There are reasons why they should not have put up a statue in the first place - he was a bad general.

'But these are really bad reasons. The lot of women was improved by the British Empire.'

Last month, the city council unanimously agreed an application should be made for listing building consent to relocate it.

The review said: 'The current location is inappropriate because it is outside an educational establishment, which includes young people from diverse backgrounds.'

But when councillors meet next week, they are now being recommended to drop the application with the report outlining potential new legislation that could block it.

Historian Andrew Roberts (left) argued anger at General Buller (right) was misdirected. He said: 'This is ridiculous and historical wokery at its worst'

It comes after statues and their role in public life were thrown into the spotlight amid the global Black Lives Matter movement (protests in London in June 2020, pictured)

The Government recently revealed plans for a new law on cultural and historic heritage which will 'make clear that historic monuments should be retained and explained.'

It would give the Secretary of State power to call in any application and ensure the law is followed.

Cllr Phil Bialyk, leader of the council, confirmed that in light of the new comments made by government, it would no longer be submitting a planning application to relocate the Buller statue.

He added: 'But I must stress that we will be addressing the issues which first brought this to the attention of many councillors.'

He said the council would strive to make public art and monuments as 'representative of our inclusive and diverse communities as possible.'

As part of the review, a relative of General Buller made an impassioned plea for it to stay.

David Michael Buller Curtis conceded that the Victorian-era general was far from perfect, but argued that he was a 'compassionate, sympathetic and liberal man who in fact helped many both at home and abroad'.

He wrote: 'Please consider this before knee jerk removal of statues (Sir Redvers Buller) or nameplates in Exeter or elsewhere.

'Buller was an admired, sometimes controversial figure who helped develop logistical and tactical ideas in the British army going forward into the 20th century.

'He was noted for his empathy with his men and his bravery under fire as well as a certain lack of tact.

'By no means perfect? Undoubtedly so, but I would hesitate before dismantling an important part of Devon's history.'

In June, protesters in Bristol pulled down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston (pictured)

Reviews into statues such as Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University's Oriel College (pictured) and Thomas Guy - the founder of Guy's Hospital in Southwark, south London - are also being carried out

Dr Todd Gray, from the University of Exeter, said General Buller was 'a very straightforward wealthy elite empire man' who distinguished himself in the army in the Boer War in South Africa in the 1880s, before his competence as a leader was criticised.

He added: 'It's part of that public humiliation, of him being thrown out of the army, that produces this statue which is one of the most iconic in the South West.

'It is a tremendous statue.'

Dr Gray added that the 'triumphant' nature and prominence of the statue outside Exeter College 'annoys some people'.

The statue of Buller, who was born in Crediton, Devon, on his horse has previously been vandalised and had banners hung from it saying 'wanted for war crimes'.

The statue was given Grade II listing preservation status in 1953.
A trial has begun for a Winnipeg man arrested in the beating death of his girlfriends toddler son.

A trial has begun for a Winnipeg man arrested in the beating death of his girlfriends toddler son.

Allen Beardy, 25, was originally charged with manslaughter in the August 2018 death of 22-month-old Drake Catcheway, but is standing trial for second-degree murder.

Paramedics were called to Beardys mothers Idlewild Bay home shortly before 11 p.m.

Chris McCartney told court he and three other paramedics arrived at the house to find Beardy performing CPR on Drake in the living room, as three or four people sat on a couch watching television.

"It was as if they didnt even notice what was happening in front of them," McCartney said. "There was very little emotion, given the situation."

McCartney said Beardy told him the boy fell and hit his head about an hour earlier, but after crying for a short time resumed playing with no indication he was hurt.

Court heard paramedics were unable to revive the boy. Drake was rushed to Health Sciences Centres Childrens Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

In a subsequent police interview, Beardy told investigators Drake had fallen on his head three times that day: once as he and the boys mother were packing to leave for his mothers house, a second time when he fell off a bed, and a third when he was jumping on a couch.

Beardy said he checked on the boy in bed late that evening, and told Drake's mother he was worried about his condition.

The woman checked on Drake "and started screaming that he wasnt breathing," Beardy told police. "His head was all wobbly, like he couldnt keep it straight."

Beardy said his sister called 911 and he performed CPR on the boy until paramedics arrived. Beardy told police he and the boys mother, April Thompson, had met just six months earlier, but he already considered Drake "as my own."

"I just cant believe that hes gone," Beardy told investigators. "I was going to sign those papers to become his real dad."

Police arrested Beardy a month later, saying, at the time, Drake died from blunt force trauma to his upper body.

Thompson is scheduled to testify today.

The trial is set for three weeks.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
While most of the COVID-related problems that plagued UK commercial property insurers will abate after the March anniversary of lockdowns, battles with reinsurers and damaged reputations are lingering impacts, AM Best said.

In a commentary report, UK Commercial Property InsurersLooking Beyond a Difficult 2020, published Friday in the wake of the UK Supreme Courts ruling in a test case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority, AM Best analysts mainly described the financial impact of the decision.

It is important for the insurance industrys reputation that transparency is improved and there is greater clarity as to what is covered in a BI policy.

The rating agency does not expect the level of reserve strengthening required following the UK Supreme Courts Jan. 15 ruling on the non-damage business interruption case to have a material effect on the capital or earnings of companies affected by findings for policyholders.

The majority of those losses had already been booked in September, AM Best reports.

Still, the report says, It is important for the insurance industrys reputation that transparency is improved and there is greater clarity as to what is covered in a BI [business interruption] policy, pointing to the challenge facing this industry to rebuild its reputation with small business customers.

That work is already underway, the report said, noting that uncertainty regarding claims development and negative press around BI issues forced UK commercial property insurers to amend policy wordings, clearly defining the scope of coverage and specifically excluding pandemic cover. As a result, the impact of further lockdowns in late 2020 and early 2021 that could potentially have given rise to more claims will be muted. In addition, the majority of exposures from 2020 will run off soon after the anniversary of initial lockdowns in March.

Insurers may, however, still face battles with reinsurers, the report suggests, noting that while reinsurers are committed to follow the cedents fortunes on quota-share contracts, non-proportional agreements may have some issues. Specifically, the report calls out the prospect of different interpretations of the aggregation of COVID-related claims within and across different lines and geographies, and the definition of event or occurrence that triggers reinsurance coverage.

The report also gives a description of the gap between insurers and customers understanding of what was covered in the policy language at issue in the FCA test case. While UK BI endorsements usually only cover loss of earnings in relation to physical damage, a limited number of policies cover BI from causes like infectious disease. Best says the intent there was to cover closure of a property owing to a local outbreak of a notifiable disease on a specified site, adding that insurers were surprised by the idea that these policies should respond to lockdown measuresan exposure that they hadnt priced into their policies.

The Supreme Courts January 2021 ruling, expands a September 2020 High Court ruling on appeal, allowing for a broader interpretation of what can be claimed for partial closures and providing guidance on reference earnings for loss of earnings calculations, according to the Best report. The rating agency believes, however, that resulting increases in claim liabilities were largely booked back in September.

This article first was published in Insurance Journals sister publication, Carrier Management.

Related:

Topics Carriers AM Best
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  After an agency official initially announced the implementation of price ceilings on pork and chicken products sold in Metro Manila will be delayed to Feb. 8, the Agriculture Department now clarifies Executive Order No. 124 will not be postponed.

"Again, hindi po natin pinopostpone ang [we are not postponing] EO 124," Agriculture Assistant Secretary and Spokesperson Noel Reyes said in a virtual presser on Tuesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte issued EO 124, which placed a price cap on pork and chicken products in the capital region, on Monday. The order mandates price ceilings of 270 per kilogram for kasim and pigue, 300 per kilogram for liempo, and 160 per kilogram for dressed chicken sold in the capital region for 60 days.

Hours before the briefing, Reyes told CNN Philippines in a text message that Agriculture Secretary William Dar granted the request of hog raisers, traders, wholesalers and retailers to extend the implementation to Feb 8, Monday, to give them time to adjust.

Dar likewise said the EO will take effect upon publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation during a joint briefing of the House committees on agriculture and food and trade and industry, the agency spokesman added.

This was specifically stated in the actual order, which was also signed and published on the Official Gazettes website on Feb. 1.

Reyes added that the DA is making attendant arrangements to coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Metro Manila Development Authority and Metro Manila Council members for the efficient implementation of the executive order.

These include publication and announcement of EO 124 in all media platforms; printing of tarps to be displayed in all public and supermarkets in Metro Manila; and conduct of coordinative meetings with respective LPCCs in Metro Manila, he said.
Police in Mozambique are yet to pass on details of their investigation into the suspected murder of a Melbourne woman, four years after her body was found on a beach in the east African country.

Elly Warren was found face down in the sand at the back of a toilet block in the coastal town of Tofo on November 9, 2016.

The 20-year-old aspiring marine biologist from Mordialloc had been volunteering on a marine conservation project in the area.

Australian authorities have asked Mozambique police to hand over documents from their investigations, including crime scene evidence, police theories, witness statements and potential suspects, ahead of a Victorian coronial investigation into Ms Warrens death.
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Yunnan, located in southwestern China, is one of the most popular tourism destinations in the country for international travelers. In 2019, global travelers made a total of 7.39 million trips to the province, which features an extraordinary mix of ethnic minority culture, fascinating landscapes and diverse eco-system. The province's famous tourism destinations include Lijiang, Dali, Shangri-La and Xishuangbanna.

Yunnan ranks top in China for its biodiversity. From snowy mountains to tropical rainforests, the province hosts the greatest number of plant species in the country, providing a wonderland for a wide range of animal species. It is known as the "kingdom of fauna" and the "kingdom of flora". There are many rare and endangered animals in Yunnan, many of which can't be found elsewhere in China.

The global tourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, as international travel has been seriously limited since last year. The local tourism industry hopes the photo competition can remind global travelers of their own memories of Yunnan, share their experiences and help take care of the vulnerable ecosystem and our mother Earth.

The competition organizer, on behalf of the Yunnan tourism industry, also extends an invitation to visitors across the world to revisit this magical place. Yunnan is ready to host international tourists to enjoy the beauty there once international travel reopens.

Post Your Photo Right Now

Instagram users just need to post their photos with the hashtag #wildyunnanthroughthelens to take part. All kinds of photos about Yunnan are welcomed, especially those featuring:

Cultural diversity in Yunnan , a major attraction for tourists and an important asset for the development of the local tourism industry.

, a major attraction for tourists and an important asset for the development of the local tourism industry. Yunnan's unique and fabulous ecotourism experiences, such as rainforest trekking with a local guide, camping trips in the mountains or natural hot springs.

unique and fabulous ecotourism experiences, such as rainforest trekking with a local guide, camping trips in the mountains or natural hot springs. Yunnan's rich natural resources, including photos featuring the most diverse ecosystem in China .

rich natural resources, including photos featuring the most diverse ecosystem in . Festivals and activities in Yunnan , full of myths and celebrated by singing, dancing and painting.

, full of myths and celebrated by singing, dancing and painting. Yunnan's breathtaking landscapes and scenery from snow-capped mountains to a true tropical environment.

Awards and Prizes: Your next trip reimbursed

The winners will be selected by a combination of an expert panel of highly-qualified tourism professionals and the numbers of "likes" and "comments" on Instagram.

The top 5 winners will receive the following prizes:

1st Place: a Yunnan travel fund of RMB 8,000 ;

travel fund of ; 2nd Place: a Yunnan travel fund of RMB 5,000 ;

travel fund of ; 3rd to 5th Place: a RMB 3,000 Yunnan travel fund.

The travel fund will be valid from May 1st 2021 to the end of 2024. All five winners will also be granted the title "Tourism Recommendation Officer of the Year".

In addition, 20 high-quality photography works selected from this campaign will be displayed during the 2021 United Nations Biodiversity Conference.

The members of judging panel will be announced soon.

SOURCE iFeng.com
This is in regards to the swearing in of the politicians as jurors for the impeachment. That is just so ridiculous, and they know it. You would get a better, more honest answer if you were to swear in a 4-year-old child and ask them if they finished their vegetables. Or better, if you swore in the family pet and asked them if they stole meat off the counter. You cant swear in politicians.
The military has seized power in Myanmar and detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected leaders including President U Win Myint from the ruling party. These disturbing developments have put the country earlier known as Burma in deep crisis.

The military has seized power in Myanmar and detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected leaders including President U Win Myint from the ruling party. These disturbing developments have put the country earlier known as Burma in deep crisis. Following the coup, Myanmar military declared a state of emergency in the country for one year and the state power has been handed over to Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Min Aung Hlaing, while Myanmars first Vice-President Myint Swe will serve as the acting president of the country.

Alleging the recent landslide election win by Ms Suu Kyis party was marred by fraud, the Myanmar military said on Monday the new election in the country will be held after the end of the one-year emergency. Suu Kyi urged her supporters that the militarys actions would put the country back under a dictatorship. Many pro-democracy supporters took to the streets of the main city, Yangon and expressed their fear of feeling that their hard-fought battle for democracy had been lost.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday the United States may re-impose sanctions on Myanmar in connection in response to the military coup. Biden called out these developments as a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy and the rule of law and said that Washington will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack. Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi rose to international acclaim after she spent nearly 15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010.

Also Read: East & South Union Budget Bonanza: FM announces National Highway projects for 4 poll bound states

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The United States had earlier removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. However, following the coup Biden suggested there might be an immediate review of sanction laws and authorities which would be followed by appropriate action. Hailed as a beacon of democracy Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. But the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar made her expose to criticism worldwide as she was unable to condemn the actions of the military towards the linguistic indigenous community.
By David J. Neal, Michelle Marchante, Jay Weaver, and David Ovalle, The Miami Herald (TNS)

Two agents were shot and killed and three wounded while serving a warrant at a Sunrise, Fla., home Tuesday morning, the FBI confirmed Tuesday morning.

After barricading himself in the home for several hours, the suspected gunman is believed to have shot and killed himself, one law-enforcement source said.

Sunrise police said the suspect, a man suspected of child pornography possession, had holed up in his home at an apartment complex at on Reflections Boulevard West.

Two wounded agents were transported to hospital and are in stable condition, the FBI said in a statement. The statement did not address the condition of the third agent. The victims appeared to have been taken to the trauma unit at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. Dozen of police officers from area agencies were already gathered outside by 11 a.m.

The shooting happened around 6 a.m. The child pornography case was being investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by federal prosecutors in Fort Lauderdale.

Davie police were at the scene along with the FBI because it is routine while executing a search warrant to have a marked police car parked outside the home of the target. Police from other agencies swarmed the area after the shooting.

When the FBI child-porn squad arrived at the Sunrise residence on Tuesday morning, the agents were carrying out a routine search warrant to seize the suspects computer and other evidence, according to law enforcement sources.

The FBI obtained the internet protocol address for the suspects computer from an internet service provider and then matched that with the suspects physical address. Depending on the evidence found on the suspects home, the FBI and federal prosecutors would have likely filed a criminal complaint charging him with some type of child pornography charge, sources said.

Law enforcement officers walk near the entrance to an apartment complex where a shooting involved several FBI agents serving an arrest warrant, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)AP

Tuesdays shootings of the FBI agents may rival the deadliest in the bureaus history  a bloody shootout between a group of agents and a pair of bank robbers in South Miami-Dade nearly 35 years ago.

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LONDON and SYDNEY, Australia and JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Feb. 02, 2021('FXCM Group' or 'FXCM'), the leading international provider of online foreign exchange trading, CFD trading, cryptocurrencies and related services, is today announcing a further expansion of its Stock Basket offering to customers. FXCM previously introduced a portfolio of Stock Baskets in May 2020 and are now expanding this offering with the addition of seven new baskets.



Currently, FXCM offers six Stock Baskets to its retail clients. These feature some of the most widely traded companies globally and are made up into the following: Big US Tech ("FAANG"), Esports & Gaming, Biotechnology, Cannabis, China Technology and China E-commerce. These baskets have proven to be popular with their customers and as a result they are expanding this area with a host of new products.

The new sectors added include Airlines, Casinos, Travel & Hospitality, US Automotive, US Banks, US E-commerce, and 'Work From Home'.

FXCM's Stock Basket products combine the shares of multiple companies from one sector into a single tradeable instrument. This allows customers to speculate on sectors as a whole instead of having to depend on the performance of a single company.

For example, the 'Work From Home' basket combines the companies that have become front and centre of every day life for many under lockdown, including Zoom Video Communications Inc, Slack Technologies Inc, Twilio Inc, as well as Chewy Inc and Peloton Interactive Inc. With these companies having prospered during the pandemic, there was a lot of interest from FXCM's customers to invest in them. The 'Work From Home' basket pools these companies and allows for smaller investors to invest some of these key companies.

The list of companies and weightings is available on FXCM's stock basket website:).

This announcement follows on from a year which saw FXCM launch US, UK and European Single Shares trading, with the broker expected to add trading on more individual company stocks and new exchanges throughout 2021.

Brendan Callan, CEO of FXCM said: "We are always looking to create new opportunities for our customers to capitalise on, and this is continued with these new baskets reflecting some of the industries that have seen the biggest market movement during the pandemic. Their addition to our offering will provide our customers with the ability to speculate on the fluctuation of companies that have dominated the headlines throughout 2020 in a more cost-effective way, while minimising their risk by spreading exposure across multiple stocks in just a single click."

About FXCM:

FXCMis a leading provider of online foreign exchangeprovides retail brokers, small hedge funds and emerging market banks access to wholesale execution and liquidity, while providing high and medium frequency funds access to prime brokerage services via FXCM Prime. FXCM is a Leucadia Company.

Forex Capital Markets Limited: FCA registration number 217689)

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.

74.74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

FXCM EU LTD: CySEC license number 392/20)

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.

The vast majority of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs.

You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

FXCM Australia Pty. Limited: AFSL 309763. Losses can exceed your deposited funds. The products may not be suitable for all investors. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved. If you decide to trade products offered by FXCM AU, you must read and understand the Financial Services Guide, Product Disclosure Statement, and Terms of Businesson www.fxcm.com/au .

FXCM South Africa). Our service includes products that are traded on margin and carry a risk of losses in excess of your deposited funds. The products may not be suitable for all investors. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.

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Lauren Duncan, a registered nurse at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, in Brattleboro, gives a thumbs up to the camera as Katherine Cummings, care coordinator at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, administers Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 16, 2020. The hospital hosted a clinic to start administering the COVID-19 vaccines to frontline workers and first responders.

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In the battle of prestige in MP, Scindia goes past Kamal Nath

Had Scindia remained in Congress he would have become CM: Rahul Gandhi

Wish he was as concerned earlier as he is now Jyotiraditya Scindia hits back at Rahul Gandhi

Scindia loyalists not feeling insecure in BJP: Rao

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Indore, Feb 02: BJP's Madhya Pradesh in-charge P Muralidhar Rao has termed Jyotiraditya Scindia as the "leader of the entire BJP", and said the Rajya Sabha member and others who had joined the saffron party along with him do not have any feeling of insecurity.

Talking to reporters on Sunday on the sidelines of first meeting of the state BJP's newly formed executive committee, Rao said now Scindia is not just the leader of those who left the Congress along with him (last year) and joined the BJP.

Anti-people budget by BJP: Mamata Banerjee

"He is the leader of the entire BJP. Scindia or those who have come with him to the party have no feeling of insecurity," he asserted.

"All these leaders may have come from anywhere, now they have gelled with the BJP," Rao said.

He was replying to a query on Scindia loyalists not getting adequate representation in the executive committee.

"Tell me what is this adequate space? Have all our workers, who worked tirelessly to enrol one crore members in the (state) BJP got an opportunity (in the newly set up executive committee)?" he asked.

"Please remember that we pushed behind our senior leaders to give ministerial berths to those who came to the BJP along with Scindia," Rao said.

Actually, there is no issue of giving more or less weightage to any leader in the BJP, he added.

In March last year, 22 Congress MLAs, mostly Scindia loyalists, quit the party and resigned from their Assembly membership, causing downfall of the Kamal Nath government.

Rahul Gandhi slams centre on Farmer protest, says 'Build bridges, not walls'| Oneindia News

The BJP then returned to power in the state under the leadership of Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 9:41 [IST]
Outraged Australians are urging Bunnings to ban pets from entering its stores following a fatal dog attack over the weekend.

A pit bull mauled and killed a smaller dog in front of terrified shoppers at the hardware giant's Stafford outlet in Brisbane on Sunday.

Witnesses said employees asked the larger animal's owner to put him on a leash before entering the store.

Bunnings allows dogs to enter stores but states they must be of a 'friendly' nature and need to be either on a lead, wearing a muzzle, carried or safely secured in a trolley. A dog not involved in Sunday's incident is pictured inside a Bunnings store

But the pit bull lunged at the smaller dog and grabbed him by the neck, leaving it with injuries that were too severe to recover from.

Bunnings policy allows dogs to enter its stores, but states they must be of a 'friendly' nature and need to be either on a lead, wearing a muzzle, carried or safely secured in a trolley/vehicle.

Gina Gilmore, who witnessed the attack, labelled it as 'brutal and graphic'.

She tried to help staff pry the smaller dog free from the pit bull's jaws.

A large pit bull (not pictured) mauled and killed a smaller dog in front of terrified onlookers in a Stafford Bunnings on January 31. Pictured: A dog not involved to Sunday's incident muzzled inside a Bunnings store

'I'm all for businesses allowing pets if people follow the rules,' Ms Gilmore told news.com.au.

'I think in this case the pit bull owner let that dog down terribly. It was clearly vicious and should never have been in a public place, let alone Bunnings.'

Bunnings has extended its support to the owner of the deceased dog.

However, the company did not answer questions about whether Bunnings would change its store policy on dogs.

The Bunnings policy allows dogs to enter stores (pictured) but they need to be either on a lead, wearing a muzzle, carried or safely secured in a trolley/vehicle

Thousands of social media users have entered a fierce debate over whether or not dogs should be allowed inside the hardware store.

'Why on earth anyone would take a dog into Bunnings (unless it was a visually impaired person or someone with a comfort dog) is beyond me,' one commented on a Daily Mail Australia post.

'Why do people feel the need to take their dogs everywhere they go? It's ridiculous! Also not very considerate for those children and adults who may be scared of dogs. Do us all a favour and leave the ANIMALS at home!' another said.

Social media users have been outraged by the attack with some saying that only guide and assistance dogs should be allowed into any shop, retail store or shopping centre. Pictured: A dog not involved in Sunday's incident muzzled and on lead inside a store

Others condemned the 'irresponsible' owner of the pit bull.

'Why did he bring his dog there like that? What on earth did he think? His dog was so special it didn't require a muzzle or lead?', one person said.

'There goes taking any pets to Bunnings,' a second commented.

Brisbane City Council has been made aware of the 'terrible incident' and an investigation is underway.

'Pet owners must show responsibility, and we expect all owners to ensure their animal is under effective control at all times when in public and at home,' Councillor Kim Marx said.
Jenny Cudd, the Midland business owner who was charged last month for her participation in riots at the U.S. Capitol, asked in court documents filed Monday for permission to travel to Mexico for a work-related bonding retreat.

Cudd and fellow Midlander Eliel Rosa were charged with entering and remaining on restricted grounds, a class A misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct or violent entry, a class B misdemeanor, on Jan. 13. They were released on personal recognizance bonds the day they were arrested.
A Florida city is planning to formally recognize May 20 as the date slaves were emancipated in the state.

The city commission plans to approve a resolution Monday declaring May 20 as Florida Emancipation Day, The Ledger in Lakeland reported.

That would mark the anniversary of when slavery became illegal in the state. Its earlier than the Juneteenth date in which slaves in Texas were informed on June 19, 1865 that they were free.

In Florida, the date was May 20, 1865, when Union Brigadier Gen. Edward McCook formally announced President Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation from the steps of the Knott House in Tallahassee.

Lakeland commissioner Philip Walker says there are efforts around Florida to have cities and counties recognize May 20 as the date of slave emancipation in the state.

Farmers' Protest: What is 'chakka jam' that farmers have announced for Saturday?

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Feb 02: As part of the ongoing protest against the three farm laws, farmer unions have given a call for a nationwide "chakka jam" on February 6 (Saturday). The kisan unions have announced that they would create blockades at various national and state highways across the country for three hours on Saturday.

According to reports, the "chakka jam" will be enforced by farmer unions to protest against the ban on internet services which has been imposed in areas near their protest sites by the government. The unions have called it harassment by authorities.

Aero India 2021 takes off on Feb 3 amidst Covid, buzz around 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'

Addressing a press conference, kisan union leaders said that highways and roads would be blocked between 12 noon and 3 pm on February 6 (Saturday).

The unions said that the authorities were trying to kill off their protests by cutting water and power supply to the protesting sites. They also alleged that mobile toilet blocks are also being taken away from the protest venues.

Farmers' Protest: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut to reach Ghazipur border at 1 pm today

According to the Samkyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of protesting farmer unions, Twitter accounts of Kisan Ekta Morcha and others involved in the agitation were being blocked on the instructions of the Central government.

Farmers give call for a nationwide agitation on Feb 6th, to block all roads| Oneindia News

According to Punjab farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal, unions will hold a meet to work out the modalities of the February 6 'chakka jam'.

Stronger barricades, nail-studded roads: Farmers protest sites turn fortresses

"Our February 6 protest would also be against this harassment faced by journalists who are trying to report the truth from the ground, and the Twitter restrictions," Rajewal said.

On Monday, the government asserted that it was committed to the welfare of farmers. Presenting the Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a 10 per cent hike in farm loan disbursal target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore.

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Story first published: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 11:44 [IST]
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SANTA FE  Rodents running around the kitchen, feces in food and their rotting bodies found inside food storage areas are only some of the conditions former Western New Mexico Corrections Facility inmates say they had to live with.

After receiving repeated reports about the alleged ongoing rodent infestation at the facility at Grants in Cibola County, the New Mexico Prison and Jail Project filed a federal lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Susie Zapata and Monica Garcia, who were both released from the prison in 2019, names the food provider at the prison, Summit Food Service, and other prison officials as defendants. The lawsuit asks for monetary damages for Zapata and Garcia due to inhumane conditions of confinement and negligence.

It shouldnt take a lawsuit to make a difference, but thats the reality we live here in New Mexico, said Matthew Coyte, attorney and project steering committee member. The prison system doesnt do anything unless you sue them for it.

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Eric Harrison, a spokesman for the New Mexico Corrections Department, said the department doesnt comment on active litigation.

Garcia and Zapata worked in the prisons kitchens and were required to remove rodents caught on glue traps and put them in a plastic bag and stomp on them until they were dead, the lawsuit stated.

Despite their efforts, rodents still ran rampant in the kitchen. There were holes chewed in dry storage bags and feces in food, the lawsuit stated.

In one instance, Zapata and Garcia said they found a dead rodent in stew about to be served. Their Summit Food Service supervisor told them to scoop the rodent out and serve the stew anyway, according to the lawsuit. Another time, a dead rodent was found in a pot of oatmeal that was being served, Zapata and Garcia said. Several women had already consumed the food and began throwing up.

Rodents can cause multiple, potentially fatal, diseases in people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One disease is the Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome and Cibola County has the fourth highest rate of the Hantavirus in New Mexico, said project director Steven Robert Allen.

The New Mexico Environment Department also never got an opportunity to properly inspect the facility, the lawsuit stated. Usually, the departments inspections are random and unannounced, but the Corrections Department required them to give advance notice. Despite advanced notice, the Environment Department still found several rodent-related violations.

But the infestation extended beyond the kitchen.

Women regularly saw rodents running through the cafeteria when they were eating, the lawsuit says, and the two cell block units closest to the kitchen. Garcia and Zapata lived in one of the units adjacent to the kitchen and regularly had rodents come into their cell. They tried to block their doorway, but the rodents would still get in.

They want their own justice in court, Allen said. Theyre doing this partly for the women that they left behind in this prison. They still have friends there that are as close to them as family.
The value of Bahrains exports of national origin increased by 4% to BD2.387 billion ($6.3 billion) during year 2020, compared to BD2.298 billion for the previous year, said the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) in its foreign trade report.



The top 10 countries in terms of the value of exports of national origin purchased from Bahrain accounted for 74% of the total value, with the remaining countries accounting for 26%.



The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked first among countries receiving Bahraini exports of national origin, importing BD536 million from Bahrain. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates was second with BD207 million and the US third with BD201 million.



Unwrought aluminium alloyed emerged as the top products exported duringyear2020 with BD383 million, unwrought aluminium (not alloyed) was second with a value of BD361 million, and Agglomerated iron ores and concentrates third with BD257 million.



The total value of re-exports decreased by15% to reach BD676 million during year 2020, compared to BD795 million for the same previous year. The top 10 countries accounted for 87% of the re-exported value, while the remaining countries accounted for the 13%.TheKingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked first with BD197 million, the United Arab Emirates second with BD178 million, and the US third with BD63 million.



Four-wheel drive cars emerged as the top product re-exported from Bahrain with BD100 million, gold ingots came in second place with BD54 million, and agglomerated iron ores and concentrates came thirdwithBD35 million.



The trade balance, the difference between exports and imports, recorded a deficit totalling BD1.735 billion during year2020compared to BD1.892 billion for the same previous year, an improvement of the trade balance by8%.



Imports



The value of imports decreased by 4%, reaching BD4.798 billion during year 2020 compared to BD4.984 billion for the previous year. The top 10 countries accounted for 66% of the value of imports, with the remaining countries accounting for 34%.



According to the report, China ranked first when it came to imports to Bahrain, with a total ofBD664 million, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was second with BD352 million, and Australia was third with BD330 million.



Aluminium oxide emerged as the top product imported into Bahrain with a total value of BD332 million, while non- agglomerated iron ores and concentrates was second with BD292 million, and four-wheel drive cars third with BD175 million.  TradeArabia News Service
Defence Minister said on Tuesday India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence.

Under the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan India is looking forward to increase its defence manufacturing capabilities, said Singh, who inaugurated Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's second LCA-Tejas production line here.

"India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence", he said.

Singh said Tejas is not only indigenous, but is also better than its foreign equivalents on several parameters and also comparatively cheaper.

"Many countries have shown interest in Tejas.

India will achieve the target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore in the field of defence manufacturing in (a) few years", the Minister said.

The delivery of the Tejas LCA to the Indian Air Force under a Rs 48,000-crore deal will begin from March 2024 and around 16 aircraft will be rolled out annually till the completion of the total supply of 83 jets, Chairman and Managing Director of HAL, R Madhavan said recently.

Madhavan had also said that a number of countries have shown keen interest in procurement of Tejas and that the first export order is likely to come by in the next couple of years.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 13 approved the Rs 48,000- crore deal to procure 73 Tejas Mk-1A variants and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 trainer aircraft from the HAL to boost the Indian Air Force's combat prowess.

(CNN) -- Three men are facing murder charges after two women were killed -- including the sister of one of the men -- in a murder-for-hire plot gone wrong, according to Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet.

During a press conference Monday, the sheriff said Beaux Cormier hired Andrew Eskine and Dalvin Wilson to kill a rape victim who was set to testify against him.

In a press release, the sheriff's office said that Cormier, 35, of Kaplan, Lousiana, Eskine, 25, of Carencro, Louisiana, and Wilson, 22, of Rayne, Louisiana traveled to Montegut, Louisiana to do surveillance on the residence and had, on a prior occasion, attempted to carry out the murder but were unsuccessful.

Montegut is about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans.

Shooting victim was protecting rape victim

On January 13, Wilson went to the home in Montegut and asked for the rape victim by name. Brittany Cormier, Beaux's sister, told the shooter that it was her, in an attempt to protect the victim, the sheriff said, noting that she was "accepting her fate to save the life of the actual victim."

Brittany Cormier was shot along with her neighbor, Hope Nettleton, who was at the home visiting and had tried to fight off the shooter, according to Soignet. Both women died at the scene. Neither woman was the person the suspects were hired to kill, according to the sheriff.

"We don't get these types of things happen, double homicides, in Terrabonne Parish," the sheriff said. "Especially, Montegut, [it's] is a small town."

He added: "There were good people that ended up dying."

Beaux Cormier, Wilson and Eskine are each charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Although Eskine was not at the scene of the crime, he is also being charged in the murders because he facilitated the vehicle and helped make the plan, the release said.

"This really hit that community hard so we worked real hard to bring peace to the families and the community," the sheriff said of the arrests.

It is unknown if any of the suspects have attorneys. The criminal complaint in the case is not yet available, the sheriff's office told CNN.

The DA wants to keep suspects off the streets

Terrebonne Parish District Attorney Joseph Waitz told reporters that he was in the process of scheduling a meeting with the victims before deciding on whether to seek the death penalty in these cases, though, he said, the death penalty is "absolutely on the table."

According to jail records, all three suspects remain in custody of the Terrebonne Sheriff's office. They are being held on a $2 million bond each, Waitz said, adding that he is considering filing a motion to increase the bond amounts in order to keep them behind bars.

"These are very very dangerous people, I do not want them on the streets," the DA said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Two women were killed in murder-for-hire plot gone wrong, Louisiana sheriff says"
As per the glide path, fiscal deficit should be 6 percent in 2021-22, 5.5 percent in 2022-23, 5 percent in 2023-24, 4.5 percent in 2024-25, and 4 percent in 2025-26

New Delhi: The 15th Finance Commission has recommended that states, along with Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, be given 42 percent share in the divisible tax pool of the centre during the period 2021-22 to 2025-26.

The panel's report also provides a range for fiscal deficit and debt path of both the union and states. It further recommended additional borrowing room to states based on performance in power sector reforms.

Excluding the union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, the tax devolution share suggested by the Finance Commission is 41 percent of the total divisible pool, which is arrived at after deducting cesses and surcharges and cost of collection from total tax collection.

Finance Commission is a constitutional body that gives suggestions on centre-state financial relations. The report of the 15th Finance Commission was tabled in Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

In order to maintain predictability and stability of resources, especially during the pandemic, the 15th Finance Commission has recommended "maintaining the vertical devolution at 41 percent  the same as in our report for 2020-21," an official statement said.

It is at the same level of 42 percent of the divisible pool as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission, the statement said, adding that, however, a required adjustment has been made of "about 1 percent due to the changed status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into the new union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir".

As per the glide path, fiscal deficit should be 6 percent in 2021-22, 5.5 percent in 2022-23, 5 percent in 2023-24, 4.5 percent in 2024-25, and 4 percent in 2025-26.

Addressing a post-budget press conference, Finance Minister Sitharaman said the tax devolution share was brought to 41 percent even this year after Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh was formed.

"When the state becomes a UT, the funding of the UT is with the centre. So, 42 percent was brought down to 41 percent; and to that extent because it was recognised as a union territory. The centre has been given the responsibility to fund it," she said.

The panel, headed by former bureaucrat NK Singh, had in November last year submitted its report titled "Finance Commission in COVID Times" to President Ram Nath Kovind.

The gross tax revenue for a five-year period is expected to be Rs 135.2 lakh crore. Out of that, divisible pool is estimated to be Rs 103 lakh crore, as per the commission.

States' share at 41 percent of divisible pool comes to 42.2 lakh crore for 2021-26 period.

"Including total grants of Rs 10.33 lakh crore and tax devolution of Rs 42.2 lakh crore, aggregate transfers to states is estimated to remain at around 50.9 percent of the divisible pool during 2021-26 period," it said.

Total transfers (devolution + grants) constitutes about 34 percent of estimated gross revenue receipts of the union leaving adequate fiscal space for the union to meet its resource requirements and spending obligations on national development priorities, the commission added.

The commission was asked to give its recommendations on wide-ranging issues. Apart from tax devolution, the commission was asked to recommend performance incentives for states in many areas like power sector, adoption of DBT and solid waste management as well as funding mechanism for defence and internal security.

This report has been organised in four volumes. Volume I and II, as in the past, contain the main report and the accompanying annexes. Volume III is devoted to the union government and examines key departments in greater depth, with the medium-term challenges and the road map ahead. Volume IV is entirely devoted to states.

The report provided range for fiscal deficit and debt path of both the Union and states. It also recommended additional borrowing room to states based on performance in power sector reforms.

In view of the uncertainty that prevails at the stage that the 15th Finance Commission has done its analysis, as well as the contemporary realities and challenges, "we recognise that the FRBM Act needs a major restructuring and recommend that the time-table for defining and achieving debt sustainability may be examined by a High-powered inter-governmental group," the statement said.

This high-powered group can craft the new FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act) framework and oversee its implementation, it added.

It suggested that the union and state governments amend their FRBM Acts, based on the recommendations of the group, so as to ensure that their legislations are consistent with the fiscal sustainability framework put in place.

This group could also be tasked to oversee the implementation of the 15th Finance Commissions diverse recommendations.

State governments may explore formation of independent public debt management cells which will chart their borrowing programme efficiently, it added.
Among his first actions in office, President Joe Biden proposed a five-year extension of the New START Treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia. The treaty is set to expire on February 5.

In their first phone call, President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed their countries willingness to extend New START, and they agreed to have their teams work urgently to complete the extension by February 5, the White House said in a January 26 readout of the call.

The day after the two presidents spoke, both houses of the Russian parliament voted unanimously to extend the treaty for five years.

The New START treaty was signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It limits each country to 1550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM and SLBM launchers and bombers. It also allows for extensive on-site inspections to verify compliance.

White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki noted in a briefing to reporters that New START is the only remaining treaty constraining Russian nuclear forces and is an anchor of strategic stability between our two countries.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that Russias compliance with the New START treaty has served our national security interests well, and Americans are much safer with New START intact and extended.

He added, Extending the treatys limitations on stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons until 2026 allows time and space for our two nations to explore new verifiable arms control arrangements that could further reduce risks to Americans.

The United States remains clear-eyed about the challenges Russia presents, however, and the potential for arms control to contend with Chinas rapidly growing nuclear arsenal. In the call with President Putin, besides discussing the extension of the New START, President Biden raised several destabilizing actions on Russias part, including its threats to Ukraines sovereignty; the SolarWinds cyber hack that compromised companies and U.S. government agencies; interference in the 2020 U.S. election; reports of Russias placing bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan; and the poisoning of Russian dissident Aleksey Navalny.

President Biden told reporters, I find that we can both operate in the mutual self-interest of our countries, as [with] a new START agreement, and make it clear to Russia that we are very concerned about their behavior.
(Newser)  He didn't name her, but Mitch McConnell on Monday issued what is being described in multiple outlets as a "scathing" rebuke of controversial GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. And she then shot right back. The statements:

McConnell: Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country," said the Senate minority leader, per the Hill. "Somebody whos suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.

Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country," said the Senate minority leader, per the Hill. "Somebody whos suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party. Greene: "The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully," Greene tweeted in response. "This is why we are losing our country."

story continues below

Context: In another statement, McConnell voiced support for House No. 3 Liz Cheney, who is facing a revolt from the right because she voted to impeach former President Trump, reports CNN. Taken together, the two statements "amounted to a rare step by the most powerful Republican in Washington to insert himself into an increasingly ugly intraparty feud," per the New York Times.

In another statement, McConnell voiced support for House No. 3 Liz Cheney, who is facing a revolt from the right because she voted to impeach former President Trump, reports CNN. Taken together, the two statements "amounted to a rare step by the most powerful Republican in Washington to insert himself into an increasingly ugly intraparty feud," per the New York Times. Pressure on McCarthy: All of this raises pressure on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is scheduled to meet with Taylor Greene this week. Democrats say if he doesn't remove her from committees, they will force the issue in a rare move, but Taylor Greene says she has Trump's full support after speaking with him this weekend. No matter what he does, McCarthy risks further dividing the House GOP conference, which the Hill notes is "already embroiled in a civil war on where to turn next in a post-Trump era." McCarthy also will oversee a conference meeting Wednesday about Cheney. As of Monday night, it was unclear how he would proceed on either front, reports the Politico Playbook.

(Read more Marjorie Taylor Greene stories.)
NEW DELHI : The Indian Air Force will award a 48,000 crore order to state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for 83 light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas in a major push for the local manufacture of cutting-edge military hardware.

The order was cleared by the Union cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.

Ahead of the formal contract signing ceremony, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday opened HALs second LCA plant in Bengaluru, which will double production capacity of the Tejas to 16 aircraft a year. The indigenously-developed LCA is being billed as the backbone" of the air forces fighter fleet in the years to come.

HALs new LCA facility is an example of how Aatmanirbhar Bharat is shaping up and HAL deserves the largest indigenous order of 83 LCA Mk-IA," Singh said. The LCA is the pride of India and sends the right message to others that India can make fighters of class in-house. The fighter is superior in many ways when compared to others fighters in its category, besides being cost effective," the minister said.

We cannot depend on others on security issues and, therefore, will make HAL stronger, whatever it takes," Singh said.

All the 83 fighter jets would be delivered to IAF within a decade starting 36 months after the signing of the pact, HAL said. The programme will catalyse the aerospace ecosystem in India and would enable India to be the epitome of the prime ministers vision for Aatmanirbhar Bharat," it said.

The global business community had responded with enthusiasm to the Indian economys revivalist fervour and Aero India will further showcase the nations accomplishment in defence manufacturing and position India as an innovative defence manufacturer", Singh told a gathering on the eve of the three-day Aero India show.

This years event is expected to see the signing of 200 preliminary pacts between Indian companies and their partners from abroad, Singh said. The world has now started to recognize India as a trusted defence investment destination," he said

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Three new billboards popped up in San Antonio recently demanding the resignation of Sen. Ted Cruz for his actions preceding the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol. A group of Republicans is paying for the signage in San Antonio and across Texas.

The Republican Accountability Project, launched by Defending Democracy Together in response to the Jan. 6 capitol attack, kicked off a $1 million billboard campaign recently calling on Congressional members including Cruz to resign.

RELATED: San Antonio man called out for Capitol riot on TikTok to see case play out in Washington D.C.

Texas newspapers, political peers and celebrities have also called on Cruz for his role in leading a group of lawmakers objecting the certification of electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania. The day ended in a Pro-Trump mob breaching the U.S. Capitol. The riot left five dead and forced congressional members into hiding.

The Cruz-focused billboard says: "You lied about the election. The Capitol was attacked. Sen. Cruz: Resign."

RAP also put up billboards calling on Cruz to resign in Dallas-Fort Worth, Corpus Christi and Austin. RAP spokeswoman Meaghan Leister said nearly 20 more will go up in the Texas markets next week.

The local billboards are off Interstate 10 at Crossroads, which has an ad facing north and south, and another at U.S. Highway 281 and Evans Road.

The campaign paid for 100 static and digital billboards to run daily for the next month. There will be similar signage targeting Republican Sen. Josh Hawley in St. Louis, Columbia and Jefferson City in Missouri.

RELATED: Seth Rogen tells Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to 'get f**ked' in Twitter feud

"The billboard campaign will be followed in the coming weeks with additional condemnations by RAP of such behavior by elected leaders," RAP said in a news release.

Another form of criticism will be shown in upcoming ads which will air statewide in Texas and Missouri starting next week. RAP said the commercials will show "the direct impact of the words from these members on the crowd on January 6."

"These representatives and senators helped incite the attack on the Capitol by spreading lies about the election," Executive Director of RAP Sarah Longwell said. "They have proved that they are unfit to hold office. They should be nowhere near power."

Cruz's press office was not immediately available to comment on the billboard campaign.

Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye


Waterland Capital is currently based in Singapore, which commits to provide high-end customized services for high-net-worth individuals and families in the Greater China region in the direction of overseas asset allocation, migration assistance, children's education, insurance financing, family office and other aspects. Relying on our strong industry background, smooth integration of top industry resources, efficiency and responsible is present to assist high net worth people to achieve their goals. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / PRURGENT





Asia has the fastest-growing economies in the world, especially in Southeast Asia and China. In the last 10 years, the GDP of both regions increased by over 6% every year. This has led to a much larger middle class and, in turn, a stronger spending power. As a result of this, a great number of millionaires emerge in those 2 regions. According to statista.com, in the last 8 years, there have been over a million new millionaires in China every year. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/702759/china-number-of-millionaires/).



What are the benefits of Global Citizenship Programs?



On the other side of the coin, rapid growth also changes the way people spend their money and, as a consequence, many millionaires and billionaires lose their wealth, due to economical challenges or changes in government regulations. Another important factor is, unlike Europe and the US, Chinas economy is very state-controlled. In many cases, a millionaire can get out of favor, and his business can slow down and be outcompeted by his rivals.



As a result of this, the new rich in Asia, who are aware of these circumstances, have developed a new set of skills and strategies to protect their social status and income. This is in stark contrast to their American and European counterparts. There are 2 major things emerging Chinese millionaires are doing to protect their wealth.



First, they are investing in multiple businesses in different locations. This is especially difficult for Chinese citizens as the government has strict policies when it comes to bringing money out of China. Those who manage to do so tend to park their money in real estate, especially in countries like Australia, the US, UK, and Singapore. That is pretty common for many millionaires around the globe.



The second and more unique trend is getting a second citizenship. This industry is gaining popularity over time as it provides those millionaires a safety net and allows them to relocate their wealth. Furthermore, traveling becomes easier with the right passport.



Where to find the service in Singapore?



To understand this new trend and why it is getting more popular, we had a short interview with James Bian from Waterland Capital, the top company in Singapore when it comes to second citizenship applications. Waterland Capital and James have helped 100s of people all around China and SEA to get a second citizenship and has allowed many of those people to live under a totally different identity in their new countries.



Interviewer:

Waterland Capital has been the fastest-growing second citizenship consultancy in Singapore. How did the agency come to be?



James:

Prior to the establishment of Waterland Capital, Our founder had been running a successful property and wealth management firm. Over many years, however, many clients have voiced their interest in second residency planning. We decided to focus on the second residency. For the sake of serving our clients, this is the most effective way to help them reduce tax tremendously and reallocate assets more effectively. We have since been officially appointed the Vanuatu Citizenship by Investment operating licensee with the right to operate the Vanuatu Trade Commission. And we have become a one-stop solution that serves clients more conveniently.



Interviewer:

As you mentioned, giving your clients what they want is the main motive. When it comes to second citizenships, what do clients want and care about?



James:

Professionalism is the prerequisite for us, and delivering liberty and protecting the clients privacy is our priority. We are laser-focused on privacy and efficiency, as every case has a different and specific connection and skillset are required to accomplish each task. Avoiding mistakes is of utmost importance as mistakes can jeopardize clients wellbeing.



Interviewer:

You mentioned convenience and speed. Is it not more convenient if your clients choose a local firm in their home country, that they can monitor the progress regularly if needed?



James:

The advancement of the internet causes affluent people around the world to not only be concerned about cybersecurity but also their physical privacy. Singapore, as Asias resource traffic, financial and trading hub, conveniently allows the clients to be able to be connected seamlessly to some of the worlds best programs. There are programs that they cannot gain access to with the agencies from their home country.

Singapore is not only a physical free trade port but also a place where the resources of East and West interchange. We can easily deliver the kind of flexibility that clients are not able to enjoy in their home country. Furthermore, Singapore is a British commonwealth country with a holistic rule of law that provides clients with ease of mind when it comes to privacy, security, and most importantly, the reliability of the company.



Interviewer:

My friend recently got citizenship in Singapore. She mentioned it is a step-by-step process and she did not use any agents. What are the benefits of applying through an agency? Can people do this on their own?



James:

Immigration is an obscure and complicated procedure; it requires a high level of professionalism in terms of preparation, operation, and delivery during the progress. As our target market is clients with ultra-high net worth, they are willing to fork out the necessary fee to get everything settled and put into place without worrying about where might go wrong. It is a form of risk transfer; clients pay and leave the risk management up to our company to handle and we will minimize the risk level to its lowest. For example, for Vanuatu, the application cannot be done as an individual. Therefore, it does not make any sense for clients to register their own company and go through all the hassle just to acquire a Vanuatu passport. Thus, we are here to simplify the obscure procedures and efficiently deliver what clients want without the client having to do any unnecessary tasks unless required specifically by the government.



Interviewer:

I can see it is an intricate process. What matters is that I get my passport. So once I get the passport, how to use it? Can I just take the passport and start my new life? What are some things that I should look out for?



James:

In our industry, a huge problem that arises is that most companies only assist the clients in obtaining the passport but do not train the client on how to use the passport. It is as if a helicopter company only delivers the helicopter to you without telling you the model and teaching you how to operate it. We are like a company that, metaphorically speaking, helps you select the right helicopter that suits you and teaches you how to fly it. We analyze and determine which passport is the most suitable for the client and tailor-make a proposal that the clients can follow, and effectively maximize the potential of the passport that he purchases. The key here is we determine how pragmatic the program is for the client before execution.



Interviewer:

Wow, that really opens my eyes. Since you promise results and can even offer a money-back guarantee, how do you assess what a person can get, how long it will take, or what issues they might face?



James:

Every client is unique and we assess each client by conducting a short 30-minute call. Even if the client wishes to remain anonymous, we will still be able to check out their options for them. Only if they decide to work with us, we will get their details and kick start things. Every program is different and clients face different issues in every program. The pertinent issues clients face is too diverse to list; most of the time, clients do not fit the requirements for the program but have the money to participate. Our experts in the company can resolve these handles and come up with the most viable solution in the shortest amount of time. The fastest we have processed an application is 8 days, but express processing fees were charged.



Interviewer:

Great! How can our readers learn more and kickstart this process?



James:

Everyone is welcome to visit our website www.waterlandcap.com to view what services we offer, which is better for you, and book your call!



If you are interested in second citizenship and want to learn more about how it can work for you, you can always contact James Bian through his company website which you can find in the description below.



Media Contact

Company Name: Waterland Capital

Contact Person: James

Phone: +65 8866 5586

Address:8 Marina Boulevard #14-03A, Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 1 S018981

City: Singapore

Country: Singapore

Website: www.waterlandcap.com
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Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020
Tom Reel, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer

As of Monday, Hays County businesses cans start operating at 75 percent capacity, bars can reopen and elective surgeries can resume because of a decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations, officials said.

Per Gov. Greg Abbott's executive orders, counties can lift certain restrictions if coronavirus hospitalizations at county hospitals are under 15 percent for seven consecutive days.
Authorities with the Chinese Communist Party accused a Christian man of violating multiple anti-religion laws after hosting a Christmas celebration and fined him nearly $25,000.

Niu Guobao, a Christian who lives in Huang Zhang Liang village in Lushan county, organized a Christmas celebration over the holidays with more than 40 Christian guests, including 20 children, to pray and sing hymns in honor of Jesus Christ's birth according to Christian Post.

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights, Bitter Winter, wrote that the police raided Guobao's home and told him that he violated a number of crimes including organizing an illegal religious gathering under Article 71 of the Regulation of Religious Affairs, possession of Christian calendars and unauthorized religious books, and involving minors in religious activities which are all forbidden in China.

Guobao has been fined 160,000 yuan (about $24,777.76 as of publishing time) for the violations he committed - an amount that is "astronomical" for a villager as described by Bitter Winter.

The money that Guobao will pay will reportedly remain with the local Religious Affairs Bureau, "a kind of governmental agency that is often in need of cash" says Bitter Winter.

It seems that heavy fines such as this villager's case, is not only imposed to terrorize religious people and prevent them from exercising their beliefs but are also a way to finance the bureaucrats.

The Chinese authorities have long cracked down on non-Chinese celebrations since 2017 after President Xi Jinping told a Communist Party Congress that "the leadership persists in advancing the Sinicisation of our country's religions."

The CPP's central committee and state council issued an official document that same year entitled "Suggestions on the implementation of projects to promote and develop traditional Chinese culture excellence."

An article from Christian Post in 2020 reported that Christians in China faced increased persecution throughout the entire Christmas season and authorities have shut down many worship services and caroling events.

To further discourage religious activities from meeting for the holidays, Chinese government officials required a state-sanctioned Catholic church in Jiangsu province's Wuxi City to obtain approval from at least 8 offices before they can hold a Christmas mass.

But when Father Francis Liu came to get the approval, he saw riot police standing in front of Xishiku Cathedral in Beijing's Xicheng district with a signboard outside of the cathedral's gate saying "Due to the pandemic, all church activities have been halted."

In Fujian province, Christians were also prohibited from singing Christmas songs in a shopping mall even though they were invited to perform in the mall.

Children in Chinese schools were even told that "Christmas should not be celebrated, and gifts should not be exchanged," Bitter Winter wrote.

China has made it its agenda to prevent believers from celebrating Christmas and even asking people to remove Christmas decorations in some cities.

Now that the Christian population is growing at a rapid speed and is set to reach 300 million by 2030, the CCP is threatened and has heightened surveillance even more.

"We think the evidence as to why the Chinese Church is so targeted, is that the leaders are scared of the size of the Church and the growth of the Church," Open Doors' Ron Boyd-MacMillan said.

"And if it grows at the rate that it has done since 1980, and that's about between 7 and 8 percent a year, then you're looking at a group of people that will be 300 million strong, nearly by 2030. And the Chinese leadership, they really do long-term planning. Their economic plan goes to 2049, so this bothers them. Because I think if the Church continues to grow like that, then they'll have to share power."

On Open Door USA's World Watch List, China is ranked No. 17 on the list of countries known for persecuting Christians. They noted that all churches a perceived as a threat if they become too large, too political, or invite foreign guests.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Harley-Davidson, Inc. (HOG) on Tuesday unveiled 'The Hardwire', its 2021-2025 strategic plan that targets long-term profitable growth and shareholder value, and also aims to enhance its position in the strongest motorcycle segments. The motorcycle maker targets increased profitability and low double-digit earnings per share growth through 2025. It also projects single-digit revenue growth in the Motorcycles segment, with solid growth expectations across all businesses. Harley-Davidson said it will invest in the core segments of Touring, large Cruiser and Trike to strengthen and grow its position. The company will expand into Adventure Touring and increase profitability within the Cruiser segment to unlock untapped volume and margin. The company noted that Pan America, its first Adventure Touring motorcycle, is an example of the company's selective expansion into a high-potential segment that has untapped potential in the U.S. As part of expanding its Financial Services offerings, the company will launch Harley-Davidson Certified, a pre-owned motorcycle program supporting growth expected across all complementary businesses. The company said it will strengthen its commitment to electric motorcycles with the creation of a dedicated division focused exclusively on leading the future of electric motorcycles, following the success of its LiveWire motorcycle. Harley-Davidson also said it will extend employee ownership to all employees by offering an equity grant to about 4,500 employees, aligning with its new approach to Inclusive Stakeholder Management. 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.
OAKVILLE, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Adam Spencer is pleased to announce the launch of his brand new personal and professional website.

Adam Spencer has an impressive entrepreneurial career and currently serves as the CEO and founder of AbleDocs in Oakville, Ontario. AbleDocs was founded in 2019 and is a rapidly growing global company dedicated to making digital document accessibility easy for people with disabilities.

Spencer's new website covers both his lengthy professional career and provides links to the different articles and interviews he has been featured in.

The "About" page describes how Mr. Spencer got to where he is now. Spencer went to university originally planning to earn a degree in economics and political science in order to go into a career in law. However, in his second year, Spencer officially became an entrepreneur when he started a company with some friends that installed wireless networking in student houses. He loved the feeling of building a business from the ground up and was fascinated by the field of computer technology. This experience ended up defining Adam Spencer's career, as he went on to be a lifelong entrepreneur working in the digital content niche.

It wasn't until 2009 that he made his foray into the world of digital accessibility. He was asked for help by his mother to look into document accessibility that would allow her staff members who had print disabilities to read online documents. Spencer believed this to be a great opportunity and it led to him co-founding the company Accessibil-IT. Although

he built Accessibil-IT into an industry recognized leader, Spencer decided to move on in 2018, and AbleDocs was born.

Beyond detailing Adam Spencer's professional career, the new website also provides links and previews of the online publications that Spencer has been featured in. Spencer has written about a series of topics on his professional blog, such as how document accessibility can help organizations reach more customers and how both individuals and businesses can work to make their documents, websites, and videos more user-friendly for people with disabilities.

For more information, visit https://adam-spencer.com/.

About Adam Spencer

Adam Spencer is a serial entrepreneur from Oakville, Ontario. He has worked within the digital accessibility niche for over 10 years, trying to make online content more accessible for people with disabilities. He co-founded Accessibil-IT in 2009 before going on to found AbleDocs, where he now serves as the President and CEO.

Contact:

Adam Spencer

Email: connect@adam-spencer.com

SOURCE: Adam Spencer

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627344/Canadian-CEO-Adam-Spencer-Launches-a-New-Personal-and-Professional-Website
The former president of the United Methodist University Alumni Association Abraham Nyenswah has challenged alumni of the university to support their alma mater in the wake of economic constraint confronting the nation. He said alumnus of UMU should realize that they obtain the first undergraduate degree from UMU before moving on in the academic sojourn.

Mr. Nyenswah made the call at the Sixth General Assembly of UMUAA held in Monrovia over the weekend. He noted that graduates from UMU are contributing to the growth and development of Liberia and should understand that the foundation of their expertise was provided by the university.

He said it's about time they look back and support the university with whatever little contribution they have in fostering its progress. Mr. Nyenswah stressed the need for all who passed through walls of UMU to give back, noting that UMU is their home.

He said the university played significant role in building their potential and skills to have access to the larger society. He said graduates should not sit on the fence and allow UMU to go through financial struggle alone when they are up there.

Mr. Nyenswah said as alumnus, UMU has contributed significantly to their educational sojourn, so they cannot afford to stand back from helping the university at this critical time in its quest to provide quality education to Liberian children.

The United Methodist University is established and owned by the Liberian Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The university also has a nursing school at the Ganta United Methodist Hospital in Ganta, Nimba County. Editing by Jonathan Browne
The global fruit & vegetable processing enzymes market has grown steadily in the last few years. The market size is projected to reach USD 41.39 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of around 6.7% from 2016 to 2022. The high specificity of enzymes in biochemical reactions is the major driving factor of this market.

The global market based on sources has been segmented into bacteria and fungi. This is because bacteria is largely used to increase the shelf-life of fruits & vegetables for a prolonged time. Moreover, bacteria contributes to the easy genetic transformation for enzyme, which has led to the dominance of bacteria compared to other microorganisms in the fruit & vegetable processing enzymes market.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=253649892

The global market, based on type, has been segmented into amylase, pectinase, protease, and cellulase. The amylase segment accounted for the largest share of the fruit & vegetable processing enzymes market in 2015. Amylases are mainly used in industries, such as food & beverages due to its cost effectiveness, and less time-consuming methods, and therefore the demand is high. Microorganisms are considered as the best source of these enzymes. Alpha-amylase, beta-amylase, and gluco-amylase are the major types of amylases. Out of the three types, a-amylase and gluco-amylase are used in a wider range of products in the food & beverage industry.

In the form segment, the market has been segmented on the basis of liquid and powder. The liquid form accounted for the largest share in 2015. The liquid enzyme is used directly in its liquid form or sprayed and absorbed onto a solid carrier. The liquid formulation of enzyme is supplied as a liquid solution, which is sprayed on the pellets. The growth in this segment is attributed to three major components, such as enzymatic, physical, and microbial stabilities are considered by manufacturers during the production stage which has resulted in the increased demand.

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to surpass Europe as the second-largest consumer of fruit & vegetable processing enzymes. This is due to the rising demand from India and China, which has contributed to the industrial growth for food & beverages. More than two-thirds of the fruit & vegetable processing enzymes market in the Asia-Pacific region is import-dominated. Therefore, enzyme manufacturers have investment opportunities in new product developments across the Asia-Pacific region.

This report includes a study of marketing and development strategies, along with the product portfolio of leading companies. It includes the profiles of leading companies such as E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Associated British Foods Plc (U.K.), Koninklijke DSM N.V. (The Netherlands), Novozymes A/S (Denmark), and Group Soufflet (France).

Speak to Analyst:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=253649892

Target Audience:
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 22:44:51|Editor: huaxia

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MALE, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Health officials in the Maldives have confirmed the spread of a new variant of COVID-19, local media reported on Tuesday.

Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) consultant Sheena Moosa said in a statement that the recent increase in cases, amounting to around 2000 in January, was partly due to a new variant of the virus.

"Around 30 percent, one-third of the infections to people are through this variant," Moosa was quoted as saying in the Sun Online.

The Maldives has imposed restrictions under a State of Public Health Emergency and a nationwide vaccination program is currently being carried out.

The Maldives currently has 16,056 confirmed cases of COVID-19, out of which 14,190 have fully recovered and 52 have died. Enditem
Bills, legal documents and packages are still getting held up in the morass that is the U.S. Postal Service as mail carriers and sorters grapple with the twin crises of the coronavirus and changes handed down by the outgoing Trump administration.

And the arrival of President Joe Biden, whos less inclined than his predecessor to dismantle a public mail system, wont bring immediate relief because the agencys leadership isnt directly under his control.

The holidays were always tough but this wasnt a holiday issue, said one Harrisburg-area mail carrier. This started last spring with DeJoy. Every time I say that name, I want to spit.

That would be Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

DeJoy, the former head of a private logistics company, rolled out a series of changes last spring designed to cut costs across the agency. That included the removal of five mail sorting machines from the facility on Crooked Hill Road in Susquehanna Township in advance of a Nov. 3 election that relied heavily on mail-in ballots.

The resulting slowdown didnt only impact ballots. And it continues to this day.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies before a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on the Postal Service on Capitol Hill, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020, in Washington. (Tom Brenner/Pool via AP)AP

Before the changes, 92% of all first-class mail in central Pennsylvania arrived at its destination within five days, according to internal USPS data. That fell to 67.5% by mid-July and, after some wild fluctuations in the summer and fall, hit a new low of 26% at Christmas.

A USPS spokesman could not provide current mail delivery data. The agency, which is in the midst of an assortment of lawsuits over the slowdown, is no longer required to supply that information to the courts on a weekly basis.

Its getting to the point the people of this country cannot have the service they are promised under the law, Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, said in a recent Q&A with its 220,000 members.

The slowdown wreaks havoc on all sorts of businesses and ordinary people.

At the Lebanon-based Strickler Insurance, customers saw their policies lapse because bills and checks are delayed in the mail. Similarly, businesses like construction contractors run into problems when certificates of insurance they need to enter a jobsite or receive payment for completed work are lost in the mail.

Weve been getting panicked phone calls from clients or emails from the holders confirming coverage so our clients can work or be paid, said Wesley Gehman, a spokesman for the insurance broker.

READ MORE: Why is your mail late? A look inside central Pa.s increasingly dysfunctional postal service

Strickler recently advised all of its customers to make payments online in an effort to ward off mail-related problems.

Annie Miller, a 75-year-old retiree from Lancaster, is one of many readers who reached out to PennLive about delays. For her, lost pension checks forced her to borrow money from her son to cover a leaky roof.

I keep telling people, when it rains, it pours, Miller said. Coronavirus, my house falling apart and now this.

Last month, John Rubisch of Marysville watched with growing anxiety as his arthritis medication criss-crossed the country, from Crooked Hill to West Virginia to South Carolina to Florida and back to Pennsylvania. He eventually got his package but his mail is still routinely delayed.

I mailed a letter to Susquenita High School, maybe seven miles from my house, the retired guidance counselor said. The principal got it five days later. I probably couldve walked it up there faster.

FILE - In this May 6, 2020, photo, United States Postal Service carrier Henrietta Dixon gets into her truck to deliver mail in Philadelphia. Officials from six states and the District of Columbia are in court Thursday, Sept. 24, to ask a federal judge to halt alleged slowdowns at the U.S. Postal Service that they say threaten the upcoming presidential election(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)AP

All of this is the result of a kind of perfect storm.

More than a decade ago, a Republican-led Congress passed legislation requiring the USPS to pay its retirement obligations 75 years into the future, something virtually no other business has to do. The state of Pennsylvanias two pension systems, for example, has an unfunded liability of at least $72 billion.

For the self-funded USPS, that change, when combined with budget cuts and increasing competition from private package haulers like UPS and Amazon, drove the agencys finances increasingly into the red.

It also contributed to chronic short-staffing thats existed even before 2020. For example, a 2014 report by the USPS inspector general concluded that short staffing in Harrisburg contributed to the delay of 98 million pieces of mail in a single 3-month period.

Coronavirus hit the agency particularly hard.

Many postal workers fell ill with COVID-19  exact figures, if they exist, have not been released  and a liberal leave policy meant that many vulnerable employees left the workforce without being replaced. According to the union, as of earlier this month there were some 14,500 postal workers under quarantine.

Coronavirus also increased demand on the USPS, since more and more people turned to Internet retailers to buy essential supplies. Then came the holidays, which were always a busy shipping season.

READ MORE: Slammed: Overwhelmed postal service means a late Christmas for many

DeJoys changes, made in the lead-up to the election, simply added to the maelstrom by reducing available overtime for the employees who remained and removing machines that help sort the mail.

I think its getting better, one employee at Crooked Hill said, but theres a backlog thats not going to simply disappear. Its a daily battle and it takes time.

In recent weeks, the USPS dropped its appeals in a number of lawsuits over the slowdown. That does not mean those cases have disappeared. One spearheaded by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro is still working its way through the courts.

These ongoing mail delays are unacceptable, a spokesperson for the attorney generals office said in a written statement. Our office continues to press ahead with our lawsuit against the Postal Service, and we will continue to demand answers and work to ensure the mail is flowing on time for Pennsylvanians.

Gary Stevens of Newberry Twp. processes mail at the U.S. Postal Service Harrisburg processing and distribution center on Crooked Hill Rd. in Susquehanna Twp. December 11, 2009. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.comTHE PATRIOT-NEWS

The USPS said its withdrawal of appeals is not an admission of fault.

While we do not intend to comment about our litigation strategy, it remains our view that none of the Election Mail lawsuits were justified by the facts or supported by the applicable law, spokesman Desai Abdul-Razzaaq said, in a written statement.

Abdul-Razzaaq said the court injunctions from this fall and winter were undoubtedly a distraction for the organization, requiring the diversion of resources and keeping critical postal leadership from their primary duty of ensuring that that the nations election mail was being handled expeditiously.

At the same time, the USPS denied that there were significant ongoing disruptions or that the delays were part of an intentional slowdown. The spokesman noted that the USPS delivered 1.1 billion packages over the holiday season.

Dimondstein, the union president, said there are some positive signs: USPS management agreed to hire 5,500 new union positions nationwide. Contract negotiations, meanwhile, are expected to resume in June.

[We have] a more favorable political climate, he said, but the struggle over privatization continues.

Whatevers happening right now, turnover at the presidential level doesnt guarantee leadership changes within the USPS.

The agencys head honcho, currently DeJoy, is selected by a 9-member board of governors who are appointed by the president. For now, that means theres no obvious mechanism to remove DeJoy from office unless he resigns. There are, however, three vacancies on the board that Biden could fill. A fourth members term has expired but the member can continue to serve for another year.

Gary Stevens of Newberry Twp. processes mail at the U.S. Postal Service Harrisburg processing and distribution center on Crooked Hill Rd. in Susquehanna Twp. December 11, 2009. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.comTHE PATRIOT-NEWS

Last week, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., outlined another possibility in a letter to Biden in which he warned that the USPS was teetering on the brink of destruction. Pascrell suggested Biden fire the current board members for cause, namely the ongoing mail delivery slowdown.

The process of removing DeJoy, of course, could take months since any Biden appointees to the USPS Board of Governors would need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, which has a full plate of tasks already, from the pending Trump impeachment trial to a COVID-19 stimulus package to confirmation hearings for the rest of Bidens Cabinet.

Bidens press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked about the USPS in her first full week on the job. She said she wasnt aware of any plan to oust DeJoy but noted that the administration supports its mail carriers.

None of this internal strife is lost on postal workers.

Everyone likes to say support front-line workers, another employee at Crooked Hill said. Heres one way Joe Biden can do that. Its time to put up or shut up.

Wallace McKelvey may be reached at wmckelvey@pennlive.com. Follow him on Twitter @wjmckelvey. Find PennLive on Facebook.

Read the The hunt for Ray Gricar.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 21:14:14|Editor: huaxia

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KAMPALA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Uganda has approved the purchase of 18 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, said a government statement issued here Tuesday.

Uganda Media Center in a statement said cabinet ministers in a meeting on Monday approved the purchase of the vaccine that will be used to vaccinate the elderly, people with underlying health issues, health workers, and security personnel among other essential social service providers.

The statement said a total of 9 million people will receive the vaccine in two doses separated by 28 days.

A tentative allocation of more than 3.5 million doses are expected by the end of this month or early next month. The balance is expected on a quarterly basis, said the government source.

The statement said there is an emerging opportunity of acquiring vaccines through the African Union mechanism coordinated by the African Vaccines Delivery Alliance. Through this initiative, an initial 270 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the continent have been secured.

There is growing interest from the private sector to participate in the COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

"The interest of the private sector ranges from financing for vaccines targeting their staff and host communities on one hand to supporting the general service delivery components," the statement said.

It said the Ministry of Health has developed a draft concept note to guide the participation of the private sector, detailing the regulatory process and controls to ensure harmonious implementation of the vaccination activities in the country. Enditem
Iran has added new coronavirus-related restrictions on travelers coming from the European Union.

Travelers entering Iran from the EU must quarantine for two weeks upon entering Iran. They must also test negative for COVID-19, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a government spokesman.

The previous entry requirement was only a negative coronavirus test. This still applies to travelers from other countries, according to the outlet.

Iran is one of the countries most hardest hit by the virus in the Middle East, despite the government instituting numerous restrictions in 2020 to mitigate its spread. Authorities are now reporting a substantial increase in virus cases among young Iranians. Iran registered 6,597 new cases on Monday, according to the state-run Tasnim News Agency.

The EU quarantine follows other related restrictions. Iranian authorities suspended flights from the United Kingdom in December in an effort to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus strain spreading there. Many other countries in the European Union are likewise experiencing large outbreaks this winter.

Relief could be on the horizon. On Monday, Iranian officials said the first batch of Russian-made COVID-19 vaccine doses will arrive in Iran this week, the state-run Press TV reported. Iran has yet to begin administering vaccines.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  The Albuquerque Police Department says a suspected shooter is dead after he turned a gun on himself Monday afternoon.

Officers responded to a shooting at the Landmark apartment complex in Uptown just before noon and found a male victim in the parking lot with a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital and is in stable condition, APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said.

About an hour later, officers responded to reports of a person matching the description of the suspect. The suspect fled at a high speed and drove dangerously throughout the city, Gallegos said.

The driver eventually stopped on Virginia NE, north of Lomas, and apparently shot himself inside his car. Gallegos said he was taken to a hospital and died from his injuries.

The Multi-Agency Task Force is investigating the self-inflicted shooting since it happened in the presence of officers, Gallegos said.

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Nairobi  After 40 years of diligent service, most of it at the pinnacle; steering Britam Holdings Plc as Group Managing Director, the C-suite doors at Britam revolved today when Benson Wairegi, formally handed over the company's reins of leadership to Tavaziva Madzinga effective today February 1st 2021.

Wairegi leaves the NSE-listed company, happy with the tremendous growth and development that Britam Holdings Plc. has achieved over the past four decades, transforming the once modest home service Life insurance firm into a Pan-African financial services powerhouse

Wairegi also led Britam's forays into the region, driving the now largest life insurance firm into six others East, Central and Southern Africa markets. He retired on December 31st, 2020.

While handing over the reins of leadership to Madzinga, Wairegi welcomed the new Group Managing Director and wished him well.

"I am delighted to handover to you the overall management of Britam Holdings Plc. You can count on my support and I am confident that you will lead the company into new frontiers," said Wairegi.

On his part, Madzinga, thanked Wairegi for his long and enduring service that saw him not only champion the growth of Britam Holdings Plc. but also for his personal contribution to the development and growth of the insurance industry in Kenya and the region.

"I feel privileged and appreciate the board's confidence and support. The detailed handover and transitioning plan in place will enable me tap into Dr. Wairegi's vast experience. I look forward to working closely with the staff, management and the board together with our partners and clients to chart the next course for Britam in the years to come," said Madzinga.

Madzinga said Britam's stakeholders can expect continued growth and expansion into new markets and a focused client value driven by new technology.

The case against Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh appears to have fallen apart because of the contradictory evidence produced during his original trial in 2002 and the decision by the prosecution at the time to try him and three other accused co-conspirators together.

According to the Pearl family lawyer, Faisal Siddiqi, this means that doubt about the guilt of one translates into a doubt about all.

Washington has expressed outrage, promising to pursue extradition of Sheikh on two separate US indictments against him.

For its part, Pakistan's government has thrown up every legal hurdle it could to keep Sheikh in jail following his acquittal last April by a lower court.

WHAT LEGAL OPTIONS REMAIN FOR PAKISTAN?

The provincial Sindh government took the last remaining legal step by filing a review petition on Friday with the Supreme Court.

It has not changed the outcome, but it could give the provincial government legal cover to keep Sheikh in jail in the port city of Karachi, the capital of the southern Sindh province.

Defying the Supreme Court order to free Sheikh could again leave the Sindh government facing contempt charges.

It already defended itself against earlier charges of contempt for previously refusing to release him, ignoring an order from a lower court.

Pakistan also might consider charging Sheikh in connection with allegations that he possessed nine different SIM cards for phones he used to contact friends, including some in Britain, in 2009 while on death row.

There have been suggestions in the local media in Pakistan that he used the SIM cards to call for assistance to break him out of the Hyderabad jail where he'd been on death row since his 2002 conviction.

He was moved to a Karachi jail after his April acquittal.

WHAT OPTIONS ARE OPEN FOR THE US?

US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Washington was ready to extradite Sheikh to answer two indictments against him in US courts  one for his involvement in the beheading of Pearl and the other for his involvement in the kidnapping of an American in Indian-ruled Kashmir in 1994, alongside three British tourists. All four were eventually freed unhurt.

There are a couple of hurdles to extradition: Pakistan, like the United States, has a double jeopardy rule that prevents a person from being tried for the same offence twice.

The US also does not have an extradition treaty with Pakistan, although Islamabad has in the past bypassed legalities to send suspects to the US, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Mohammed has been in US custody on Guantanamo Bay since his arrest in Pakistan in March 2003. He also confessed that he killed Pearl himself, but has not been charged in the Wall Street Journal reporter's death.

The most recent example of Pakistan allowing someone accused of a crime to leave for the US was in 2011, when Raymond Davis, an American contractor at the US Embassy, returned home after gunning down two people in the eastern city of Lahore.

He said he opened fire because he felt threatened.

HOW MIGHT THIS CASE IMPACT US-PAKISTAN RELATIONS?

The case could be one of the first major tests for President Joe Biden and US-Pakistan relations have historically been tumultuous.

Pakistan likely will play a crucial role in the Biden administration's attempts to navigate the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Pakistan was seen as key to getting the Taliban into negotiations with the Kabul government, even if those talks have been excruciatingly slow and until now have garnered little success, even as violence has spiked.

Mohammad Amir Rana, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, said Sheikh's acquittal has created a conundrum for both countries.

Until now, Pakistan has taken every legal step to keep Sheikh in jail but sending him to America could rile up opposition at home, Rana explained.

For America, snubbing Pakistan just when the two have agreed on exchanging intelligence on terror financing and the road to a political settlement in Afghanistan is at a critical juncture, could result in setbacks on both fronts.

WHO IS AHMAD SAEED OMAR SHEIKH?

A British national of Pakistani heritage, Sheikh lived a relatively privileged life in Britain, where he attended the prestigious London School of Economics.

It appears he was inspired to jihad by the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, relentless attacks on Muslims in Bosnia at the time, their treatment in Bosnian Serb camps and what Sheikh perceived as Western indifference to their plight.

He traveled to Bosnia and later joined Harakat-a-Ansar, a Pakistan-based militant group that was declared a terrorist group by the US in 1997 and later became known as Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen.

He also travelled to the Indian-ruled section of Kashmir to wage war against India in the Muslim-majority region. The disputed Himalayan region is split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety.

Sheikh's strength seemed to be his ability to use his British upbringing to entice foreigners to trust him. That ability led to the kidnapping of the American tourist in 1994, and according to some evidence, eased any concerns Pearl might have had as he sought to track militants in Pakistan.

Sheikh was arrested by India after the 1994 kidnappings but was among the terror suspects freed by India on December 31, 1999 in exchange for the hostages on an Indian Airlines aircraft that was hijacked and taken from Nepal to then Taliban-controlled Afghan city of Kandahar.

Source: AP
BOSTON  Coronavirus vaccination sites across the Northeast ramped back up Tuesday after a two-day snowstorm that also shut down public transport, closed schools and stranded travelers with canceled flights.

Some officials said that since vaccine supplies were thin to begin with, they didnt anticipate having big problems getting caught up on distribution after a day or two of canceled appointments.

In New Jersey, travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday described being forced to endure widespread disruptions. Keno Walter-White said he got stranded at the airport after his flight was canceled and bus and tram services were suspended.

Ive been in the airport for three days, snowed in, said Walter-White, of Las Vegas. No kind of accommodations.

Bands of snow continued through parts of the region Tuesday afternoon, but the worst was over, with more than 30 inches in parts of New Jersey and just a few inches in Boston.

Lara Pagano, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in College Park, Maryland, noted that while several areas in the mid-Atlantic saw measurable snowfall for a few consecutive days, that hasnt shattered such records.

For example, she said, the most consecutive days with measured snowfall for Washington is four, while the mark is five for New York City and six for Philadelphia.

While this storm has been a prolonged event, its not a record-setter in that sense, but it does rank up there pretty high of course, she said.

The sprawling, lumbering storm had already walloped the eastern United States by Monday. More than 17 inches of snow dropped on Manhattans Central Park, and as much as 30 inches was reported in northern New Jersey.

While New York City school kids had another day of all-remote learning because of the snow, above-ground subway and train service returned early Tuesday, and a ban on certain large trucks on state highways was lifted. Some vaccination sites in the city remained closed, but others, including those run by the public hospital system, were open Tuesday.

High tide caused flooding early Tuesday in coastal areas of Massachusetts, where the storm had already disrupted the second phase of the states vaccine rollout as a Boston site that was supposed to open Monday for residents ages 75 and older did not; some other mass vaccination sites remained open.

Several areas of Massachusetts were hit with 18-plus inches of snow, including the central Massachusetts communities of Fitchburg, Lunenburg and Ashburnham.

Much of southern New Hampshire got about a foot of snow. Parts of northern New Hampshire, where the states ski resorts and most of the snowmobile trails are, got 9 to 10 inches.

For the next couple of weeks, the conditions are going to be phenomenal, Gov. Chris Sununu said Tuesday during an interview on WZID-FM.

The storm raged offshore, making it inhospitable for mariners. Off the Maine coast, waves were approaching 30 feet, and a 73-mph gust was recorded at an offshore buoy.

In Connecticut, the storm  which dumped up to 19 inches of snow in some areas  forced the cancellations of 10,000 vaccination appointments Monday, state officials said. Efforts are underway to provide vaccinations by the end of the week to people whose appointments were canceled.

A state of emergency imposed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy remained in effect Tuesday and the states six megasites for COVID-19 vaccines were still closed as plow operators faced snow showers and blowing snow.

The New Jersey State Police reported that as of 7 p.m. Monday, troopers had responded to 661 crashes and come to the aid of 1,050 motorists since 6 p.m. Sunday.

There was also concern about coastal flooding in New Jersey. In a Facebook video posted by Union Beach Police, Keyport Police Chief Shannon Torres and Capt. Michael Ferm were shown rescuing a man who was showing signs of hypothermia in his car from floodwaters.

In Virginia, four firefighters were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life threatening after their firetruck overturned Sunday on snow-covered roads in Henrico County, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Power outages appeared to be minimal. About 5,000 customers in Massachusetts and about 3,000 in New York were without power Tuesday morning.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf declared a disaster emergency after snowfall of up to 30 inches throughout central and eastern regions. The proclamation freed up millions of dollars for snow removal and authorized officials to request help from the National Guard.

Authorities said a 67-year-old woman with Alzheimers disease who wandered away from her home was found dead of hypothermia on an Allentown street Monday morning.

About 60 miles north in Plains Township, a shooting after an argument over snow removal killed a married couple, and the suspect was later found dead at his nearby home of a wound believed to have been self-inflicted, officials in Luzerne County said.
Congressional Democrats are moving forward with a $1.9trn Covid-relief proposal from Joe Biden after receiving the presidents blessing to bypass a sceptical Republican minority.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi initiated a so-called budget reconciliation process earlier this week that would allow Senate Democrats, who control a 50-50 Senate by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris tiebreaker vote, to pass the administrations massive Covid aid package on a simple majority basis instead of the Senates traditional 60-vote threshold.

We're moving forward under the reconciliation. That is what President Biden wants us to do, and that is what we're doing, Mr Schumer told reporters on Tuesday, after wrapping up a lunchtime meeting with his caucus. Mr Biden and his Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, also attended the virtual meeting.

Mr Schumer confirmed to Capitol Hill press multiple times at his news conference that Mr Biden had given him explicit consent to move forward with the partisan legislative process, which will use what is known as a joint budget resolution as a vehicle to pass the Covid relief bill.

Joe Biden is totally on board with using reconciliation. I've been talking to him every day. Our staffs have been talking multiple times a day. And I believe that we will pass the resolution this afternoon, Mr Schumer said.

The Senate passed that budget resolution on a party-line 50-49 vote on Tuesday.

Our work continues, Mr Schumer said shortly after that afternoon vote, indicating it was a major first step towards getting Americans relief to make it through the next several months of the coronavirus pandemic.

When both the House and Senate pass the joint budget resolution on Tuesday, that will trigger a round of reconciliation negotiations between the sibling committees from each chamber. The committees will meet to carve out a final reconciliation bill within the spending parameters laid out in Tuesdays initial budget resolution.

A group of 10 Republican senators, led by Maines Susan Collins, met with Mr Biden for two hours on Monday evening to urge him to negotiate with them on a bipartisan compromise bill.

But Democrats in Washington across the board believe the GOPs counter-proposal, with a top-line price tag of $618bn, less than a third of Mr Bidens package, is woefully inadequate.

Mr Biden, Ms Yellen, and Senate Democrats all agreed on Tuesday that if we did a package that small, we'd be mired in the Covid crisis for years, Mr Schumer said.

We share President Biden's desire to advance this legislation in a bipartisan way. But the work must move forward. We are not going to dilute, dither, or delay.

The White House on Tuesday confirmed that Mr Biden told Republicans at the Oval Office on Monday their plan was way too small.

While there has already been substantial hand-wringing from Republicans about the partisan legislative process Mr Schumer and Ms Pelosi are pursuing to pass another monumental outlay of government spending, the GOP used the same process in 2017 for their massive tax code overhaul that was estimated to add between $1trn and $2trn to the federal deficit over a 10-year period.

After weeks of calling for unity and bipartisanship, the Biden Administration has decided to ignore Congressional Republicans, and the millions of Americans they represent, to ram through a partisan Covid-relief bill that will cost nearly $2 trillion, the office of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said in a press release on Tuesday.

Again, despite calls for bipartisanship, there is no indication President Biden will change so much as a cent of his plan to accommodate Republican concerns, the press release stated.

Earlier in the week, Mr Schumer said he would welcome Republican input on the final reconciliation bill.

There is nothing in this process that will preclude it from being bipartisan, the majority leader said.
The Union Budget 2021 has brought much cheer to the start-up camp. Tax holidays for start-ups have been extended by one year, till March 31, 2022. Meanwhile, the capital gains exemption given to start-ups was also extended by one more year. The Government also proposes to reduce margin money requirements from 25% to 15% for start-ups.

Moreover, in her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, further said that the definition of small companies under the Companies Act 2013 will be revised. As per the revised norms, companies with paid-up capital of up to Rs 2 crore and turnover of up to Rs 20 crore will fall under small companies. This will benefit more than 2 lakh companies in compliance required.

The Government also proposes to provide incentives to one person companies, which will further give a boost to start-ups. Restrictions on paid-up capital or turnover for one person companies will be lifted, besides they will also have the liberty to convert into any other type of company at any time.

Adgully reached out to start-ups from different sectors to get their reactions to Union Budget 2021-22.

Rohit Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, OYO India & South Asia:

It is heartening to see a Budget entirely focussed on revitalising the economy. On the backbone of the proposed reforms, we believe that a focus on growth-oriented measures, economic reforms and inclusive growth would pave the way for extensive economic recovery. The Governments focus on extending and improving transport (road, railway, metro) infrastructure with nearly 217 projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore to be completed under National Infrastructure Pipeline will enable travellers to explore hidden gems and therefore bolster the domestic tourism and hospitality industries. Additionally, keeping up with the changing times, an overall focus on technology with interventions like incentivising and promoting digital payments will fast track Indias transition into a digitally-enabled economy.

We are confident that with the series of interventions announced by the Honorable Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, our country is on the path of stable and quick economic recovery. With the mantra of Atmanirbhar Bharat and initiatives reducing compliances for one-person-companies, a boost for MSMEs, the reduction in corporate taxation along with the steps to simplify GST for companies further and ease tax compliance will boost morale across industries. The funds allocated to COVID-19 vaccines will also strengthen confidence among travellers and boost faster recovery in the service sectors. The Governments efforts towards skilling the countrys youth and collaborating with other countries will spur entrepreneurship and enable job creation as well. This Budget truly has the potential for transforming India.

Vivek Bansal, Group CFO, InCred:

This is a growth-focussed Budget for sure! The Budget signals big intent for decade to come and compliments to honourable PM and FM for the same. Much needed focus on health & infrastructure, greater transparency on fiscal situation, attempt to make the regulatory framework more efficient through tax, move to privatise struggling PSUs/PSBs are some path breaking changes. The Government has also paved the way for the development of a world-class fintech hub at GIFT City in Gujarat. It has simultaneously pledged to set up a Development Finance Institution with Rs 20,000 crores capital infusion, which will augur well for long term growth and innovation. Another Rs 20,000 crore have been earmarked for Public Sector Bank, which should further strengthen ability to lend. NPAs will be tackled separately with the constitution of Asset Reconstruction Management Company in a bold move which will make financial sector stronger for future. All in all, the Budget has lived up to its expectations in the current landscape and we await to see the fine prints.

Shyatto Raha, Founder & CEO, My Healthcare:

The Budget of 2021-2022 has brought about some positive sentiment for the healthcare industry, especially in the wake of the recent pandemic and healthcare crisis. Stepping into 2021, we believe that a focus on growth-oriented measures, economic & policy reforms and inclusive growth would pave the way for a larger economic recovery. With the increase of 137% in the Budget outlay from last year, introduction of PM Swasthya Yojana and te Government investing immensely in the healthcare segment over the next 6 years, the focus needs to be in building a healthcare ecosystem will get be effective in delivering quality primary care to all citizens of India. The allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for COVID-19 vaccines and the targeted roll-out of the vaccination programme across the country, the Government has ensured the safety and well-being of its citizens.

We are confident that with the series of interventions announced in the Budget by Honorable Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, our country would see the much needed recovery and boost to the healthcare sector of India. Setting the goal of AtmaNirbhar Bharat, an allocation of Rs 15,700 crore to MSMEs and increasing the tax holiday for start-ups, the government has reposed its faith in the idea of entrepreneurship, thereby boosting confidence among aspiring young entrepreneurs and the start-up world.

Nikhil Barshikar, Founder and Managing Director, Imarticus Learning:

The Central Government has proposed the implementation of Data Analytics, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to upgrade the functioning of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Specifically, the Ministrys database management systems will be overhauled, leading to increased efficiency in e-scrutiny, e-adjudication, e-consultation and compliance management. To accomplish this, highly skilled Indian Data Scientists and Analysts will be required.

We have also been informed that a Trans-Asian partnership between India, Japan and the UAE is in the pipeline, wherein Workforce Upskilling initiatives and Diploma & Skill Certification programs will be jointly supported by the three nations. Given that Imarticus Learning has already established a presence in the UAE this year, this development is of particular interest to us, and we will pay close attention as more information comes to light.

Furthermore, Rs 3,000 crore has been allocated to upskilling and training Indian Engineering Graduates and Diploma recipients, in view of modernising Indias domestic talent pool.

Vinayak Nath, Founder and CEO, My Place Coworking:

The Budget has some hits and misses for the start-up ecosystem. Exemption on capital gains on investments in start-ups and allowing OPC for NRIs will surely improve investment opportunities and cash liquidity. Tax holiday also comes as a relief to the start-ups that are striving to survive in these challenging times.

Bala Parthasarathy, Co-founder and CEO, MoneyTap:

We have seen India become one of the fastest-growing Fintech Markets in the world. We have no doubt that the Governments support in creating and promoting a world-class Fintech hub at GIFT City will draw everyones attention, and can soon become the cradle of developing Fintech companies. We do see enormous growth not only in that region but also in creating jobs, drawing more people to work in Fintech. The exposure can bring in more innovation, technical know-how, help companies thrive in a joint collaboration set up, attract many incubators, investors, accelerators, help in creating an ecosystem for growth.

Regarding the Governments Rs 1,500 crore influx to support digital payments, we all know that The Digital India Program is a flagship program by the Government of India. MoneyTap has also mirrored this goal in its aim to make more Indians digitally empowered, be able to use financial apps in better ways, improve knowledge and create apps that are easy to use, flexible, and can make peoples lives more secure. So, we are hopeful that any influx like this will help people get more convenience and accessibility to financial payments online.

Subho Ray, President, IAMAI:

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has welcomed the positive outlook on the digital industry and the push to provide much needed support to the start-up ecosystem. IAMAI believes the announcements made by Honourable Minister of Finance Smt. Nirmala Sitaraman will promote entrepreneurship and will boost investments.

The focus on digital payments and overall Infrastructure development is a step towards realising the trillion-dollar economy and will open up new opportunities for demand generation in the country.

The six-pillar vision of the FM  Health and well-being, physical and financial capital and infrastructure, inclusive development for aspirational India, reinvigorating human capital, innovation and R&D and minimum government and maximum governance  will lead to an inclusive development in India.

The FMs announcement of a scheme to provide financial incentive to promote digital payments is a welcome step and will further boost the digital payments ecosystem in India.

Ankit Prasad, founder and CEO, Bobble AI:

We welcome and applaud Hon'ble FM on a landmark Union Budget 2021-22, as Indias start-up sector recovers from the effects of the pandemic. The key announcements such as extending tax holiday and the capital gains tax exemption till March 31, 2022, revision of the definition of small companies under Companies Act 2013 along with the decision to incentivise incorporation of one-person companies, that would help them grow without any restriction on paid-up capital or turnover and to convert into any other type of company at any time  are a clear reflection of the governments commitment to resurrect this sector and provide the much needed support.

We also welcome the Governments move to launch data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning driven MCA21 Version 3.0. The e-scrutiny, e-adjudication, e-consultation and compliance management should also make our life much easier.

It is important to understand that Indian start-up ecosystem, which houses thousands of start-ups, has the true potential to be the key driver of the digital revolution in India and can exploit the huge opportunity that lies ahead for the benefit of the countrys economy. With as many as 38 unicorns, of which 12 of them coming up last year, Indias start-up ecosystem is currently the worlds third-largest. As per Economic Survey 2020-21, of the 41,061 Government-recognised start-ups in India, over 39,000 start-ups accounted for 470,000 jobs as of December. One can imagine the immense opportunity for job creation in a digitally evolving economy such as ours if the Government offers impetus for growth to this sector. We believe that these latest announcements will give the much needed push that the sector desires at the moment.

Joji George, Co-Founder, Gonuts:

The Budget 2021 announced by Honble Finance Minister though positive, left us wanting some more from a start-up and MSMEs perspective. That said, the Budget did reflect the Indian Governments commitment to boost the Indian start-up ecosystem.

A boost from the Budget for startups is important as it carves the next phase for the start-up ecosystem post the pandemic. The Governments decision to bring in institutional investors to invest in startups is a positive move and will help encourage more investment into the start-up community. Of course, the start-up community needs to see and understand the fine print.

FM has announced, registration of one-person firms with no limit to paid up capital will boost the start-up ecosystem. That helps small entrepreneurs to take the leap.

The Government has doubled its expenditure allocation towards micro small and medium enterprises to Rs 15,700 crore in FY22. This is an excellent move for companies like us that work with large number of MSMEs.

Another boost offered by the Government is extension of tax holiday for start-ups by one more year. This will help get start-ups on their feet as they grapple with cash flow and investment.

In the near future, we would want the FM to give a concrete plan on ESOP taxation and hope that the initial deliberation of a 5-year term to pay tax on ESOP is implemented and there is a rationalisation.

We welcome this Budget and appreciate the Governments steps to fuel the growth of start-ups in India.
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The Ministry of External Affairs has been allocated with 18,154.73 crore for the financial year 2021-22 in the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday. This year allocation is 21 % higher than the estimated 15,000 cr for 2020-21. It also includes the aid of 7,148.95 crore for 20 countries.

"A budget of 18154.73 crores has been allocated for MEA for the financial year 2021-22. This budget includes the aid of 7635.15 crore to 20 countries, international training programmes and also art and cultural heritage projects, as per the Budget statement".

An outlay of more than 7,000 crore as foreign assistance in the budget for 2021-22 was unveiled. Bhutan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar, Mongolia, Mauritius, Seychelles and some African and Eurasian are among the 20 countries to receive the aid.

READ | NITI Aayog VC Calls Budget 2021 'unprecedented'; Lauds Focus On Public Capex And Health

This year's budget also allocated 100 cr for the development of the Chabahar port and disaster relief, as there was no allocation for Chabahar port during fiscal 2019-20.

In the MEA budget, 4,328.75 crore will be spent on maintenance of aircraft of Air India for VVIP travel, Nalanda University, South Asian University, Demarcation of Boundaries, Celebration of Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, Expenditure relating to Pilgrimages abroad, Grants to Institutions, Training, Actual Recoveries, Special Diplomatic Expenditure, International Cooperation, Loss by the exchange.

READ | PM Modi Hails 'all-round' Budget 2021; Emphasises Focus On South, East & Coastal Areas

5,857.69 crore of the MEA budget will be spent on the establishment which includes secretariat, embassies and missions, passport, emigration and other expenditure of the Ministry.

A total of 333.14 crore for Grants-in-aid-Salaries and Grants-in aid-General for Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and Society for Research and Information System for Non-Aligned, Other Developing Countries (RIS) and India Centre for Migration. An allocation of 400 crores has been made for the United Nations.

READ | Budget 2021 FULL Speech & Text: Finance Minister Sitharaman Presents 1st Paperless Budget

35,000 Cr Budget Allocation For COVID Vaccine

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for COVID-19 vaccination in the Union Budget and said it would help the country become free of the viral disease. The government on Monday proposed a budget outlay of Rs 2,23,846 crore for health and wellbeing in 2021-2022, an increase of 137% from the previous year, with Rs 35,000 crore earmarked for COVID-19 vaccine in the upcoming fiscal. Presenting the budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman positioned health and wellbeing as one of the six crucial pillars of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India).

READ | 'Great Step Ahead': Bharat Biotech Hails Rs 35,000 Cr Budget Allocation For COVID Vaccine

(With ANI Inputs)
Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/01/2021 -- According to the new market research report "Text-to-Speech Market with COVID-19 Impact by Offering (Software, Services), Vertical (Enterprise, Consumer Electronics, Education, Retail), Deployment, Language, Organization Size, Voice Type, and Geography-Forecast 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Text-to-Speech Market was valued at USD 2.0 billion in 2020 and is estimated to reach USD 5.0 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 14.6% during the forecast period.



Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=2434298



The major factors driving the growth of the text-to-speech market are rising demand for handheld devices, increased government spending on education for differently-abled, the dependence of the growing elderly population on technology, and the rising number of people with different learning disabilities or learning styles are factors driving the growth of the text-to-speech market. However, the lack of prosody and pronunciation of naturally occurring speech may restrain the growth of the market during the review period.



Services are projected to witness the highest CAGR for the forecast period



Services are expected to hold a major share during the forecast period. Services play a vital role in the functionality of text-to-speech software. They are an integral step in deploying tools and are taken care of by solution, platform, and service providers. The major companies in various industries are adopting text-to-speech to deal with the rapidly increasing audio/video-based content. This is helping companies find new ways to tap the wealth of data to develop new products, services, and processes, thus gaining a competitive advantage.



Neural and Custom voice type to account for largest share of text-to-speech market during forecast period



The neural and custom voice type is expected to account for a larger market size during the forecast period owing to its ability to generate speech with humanlike intonation, engagement, and personalized user experience, which is expected to drive the adoption of neural and custom voice systems and software during the forecast period.



Cloud based deployment mode will have highest growth in coming years



The cloud segment, on the contrary, benefits organizations with increased scalability, speed, 24/7 service, and enhanced IT security. The growing adoption of SaaS applications by enterprises is generating huge growth prospects for cloud-based text-to-speech software. The cloud-based deployment mode is expected to account for larger market size and its market is growing at a higher CAGR. The COVID-19 crisis has also driven the growth of the market for cloud-based deployment mode due to its scalability, security, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.



Large Enterprises are leading adopters of text-to-speech software and services in 2020



Large enterprises are the leading adopters of text-to-speech software and services with the increasing need for speech recognition, virtual assistants, and chatbots. Hence, large enterprises accounted for significant share in 2020. SMEs have been gradually recognizing the importance of text-to-speech solutions and have started deploying them to enhance customer experience and gain a leading edge in the market. Owing to the availability of cost-effective cloud solutions, text-to-speech software and services are expected to witness a prominent growth rate among SMEs during the forecast period.



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English and Mandarin Chinese, by language in text-to-speech market hold the highest and second highest share in coming years



The demand for English and Mandarin Chinese languages in text-to-speech software tends to increase as roughly 1.1 billion or 15% of the global population can speak English followed by Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish. The English language holds a major share of the text-to-speech market in 2020 while the market for Spanish is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period of 20212026.



APAC is attributed to grow at the highest CAGR in the text-to-speech market during ther forecast period (2021-2026)



APAC is witnessing increased traction for speech recognition solutions integrated with text-to-speech due to the growing penetration of AI, analytics, and IoT devices in the region. This is creating a favorable market environment, and the region is witnessing rising adoption of voice-activated technology in the Asian markets, such as India, China, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, and Singapore. In Japan and China, text-to-speech systems have been deployed at airports and ATMs. Other countries, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Malaysia, are looking forward to integrating new technologies into their businesses.



The Text-to-Speech market was dominated by Nuance Communication (US), Microsoft Corporation (US), IBM Corporation (US), Google, Inc. (US) and Amazon.com (US)



Related Reports:



Speech and Voice Recognition Market by Technology (Speech and Voice Recognition), Vertical (Automotive, Consumer, Government, Enterprise, Healthcare, BFSI), Deployment (On Cloud & On-Premises/Embedded), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2024



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[February 02, 2021] $ 247.46 Billion Growth in Global Online Education Market During 2020-2024 | Featuring Key Vendors Including 2U Inc., Ambow Education Holding Ltd., and Coursera Inc. | Technavio

Technavio announces the release of its latest report on the online education market. The market is segmented by type (primary and secondary supplemental education, reskilling and online certifications, higher education, test preparation, and language and casual learning) and geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America). The report offers an in-depth analysis of recent developments, changes in market regulations, product approvals, product launches, and market behavior across various segments. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005529/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Online Education Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Get a Free Sample Report Delivered Instantly to Know More Online Education Market: Key Findings Online education market value to grow by USD 247.46 billion at over 18% CAGR during 2020-2024

34% of market growth to originate from APAC during the forecast period

Based on the type, the primary and secondary supplemental education segment will offer maximum opportunities for vendors during the forecast period

Online education market is expected to have a positive impact due to the spread of COVID-19 Online Education Market: Growth Drivers The advantages of online learning is one of the prime factors driving the growth of the market. In addition, the rapid penetration of internet-enabled devices will further boost market growth during the forecast period. Develop Smart Strategies for Your Business: Get a Free Sample Report Now!



Online Education Market: Major Vendors 2U Inc.

2U Inc. operates its business through segments such as Graduate Program and Alternative Credential. The company offers a line of low-cost tools to help students better engage in online learning. Ambow Education Holding Ltd. Ambow Education Holding Ltd. operates its business through segments such as Better Schools, Better Jobs, and Others. The company offers a line of courses related to school education, tutoring services, international education programs, and online educational offerings through its business segment K-12 Education. Coursera Inc. Coursera Inc. operates its business through segments such as For Campus, For Government, and For Enterprise. The company offers online courses including free courses and university degrees at a breakthrough price. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Related Reports on Consumer Discretionary Include: Global Digital Education Content Market - Global digital education content market is segmented by end-user (K-12 and higher education) and geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America). Click Here to Get an Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Education Consulting Market - Global education consulting market is segmented by type (K-12 and higher education) and geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America). Click Here to Get an Exclusive Free Sample Report About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005529/en/

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Hong Kong: Temporary hospital opens Feb 26

The Hospital Authority today said North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre (HKICC) will open on February 26.

It will mainly accept mild or moderate COVID-19 patients aged between 16 and 65 with appropriate clinical conditions.

Princess Margaret Hospital Associate Consultant (Medicine & Geriatrics) Dr Jacky Chan told reporters at the HKICC media tour ahead of its opening that different categories of patients will be admitted.

The first category is those new COVID-19 cases from the community, who can be sent here directly from the community. Second, we can receive step-up cases from the AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE). Because nowadays we have a certain amount of patients staying in the AWE requiring further medical assessment, if the HKICC is opened, some of these patients can be transferred here, instead of sending them out to the acute hospitals."

North Lantau Hospital Deputy Hospital Chief Executive Dr Michael Wong explained that the HKICC's laboratory with fully automatic advanced equipment, will conduct COVID-19 tests more effectively and efficiently.

This machine could process a lot of specimens in a certain period of time. For an eight-hour shift, we could process nearly 1,000 specimens. If we perform it overnight, 24 hours, we could process nearly 4,000 specimens over the day.

So the throughput is very high. We could perform a lot of testing. We actually have a high demand for testing. Now every patient admitted needs to have COVID-19 screening, so some of these specimens will come here for the testing, not only for HKICC patients.

Six ward blocks provide 816 isolation beds. In the first phase of opening, 48 isolation beds in Block F are scheduled to receive patients on February 26.

This story has been published on: 2021-02-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Gogglebox stars Matty and Sarah Marie Fahd welcomed their first child, a son, Malik in October last year.

And on Tuesday, Sarah shared a series of never-before-seen photos of little Malik being christened at a lavish ceremony in Sydney earlier this month.

Proud parents Matty and Sarah Marie, both 33, documented the event in a series of gorgeous photos shared to Instagram.

So cute! Gogglebox star Sarah Marie Fahd, 33, (pictured) shared a series of never-before-seen photos from baby Malik's christening on Tuesday

Little Malik donned a white ensemble by Sydney designer Lillian Khallouf.

Meanwhile, Sarah wore a figure-hugging white dress, while Matty looked dapper in a pin-striped suit.

One photo shows proud Matty, wearing a black face mask while holding his little boy, while a second sees Sarah holding her bundle of joy.

Milestone: One photo shows proud Matty wearing a black face mask while holding his little boy

So cute! Little Malik donned a white ensemble by Sydney designer Lillian Khallouf

The guest list included the Fahds' friend and Gogglebox co-star Jad Nehmetallah.

Previously speaking to Daily Mail Australia in the lead-up to the event, Matty said he was nervous the Covid-19 restrictions in NSW could hinder the big day.

'We've got Malik's Christening, which we are so excited for... provided Covid doesn't ruin it for the third time,' he said.

Covid-safe christening: The christening was held in a Sydney church and all the adult guests wore masks in accordance with the statewide mandate

The christening was held in a Sydney church and all the adult guests wore masks in accordance with the statewide mandate.

After the ceremony, a post-christening event was held at Oliveto Ristorante.

The couple hired a professional photographer from Siempre Weddings, styling and florals were provided by Royal Balloonz, and Buttercreme Lane baked the cake.
Matt James finally got rid of his show's 'mean girls' on Monday's episode of The Bachelor.

In a move that relieved many in the cast, the 29-year-old star decided to eliminate Anna Redman, 24, and Victoria Larson, 28.

He realized after hearing from others that they were persecuting women unnecessarily, and decided it was time for them to go.

Reign over: Self-declared 'queen' Victoria Larson was sent home on Monday's episode of The Bachelor during a purge by Matt James of mean girls

'I owe it to these women to create a safe space for them, and that's what I'm going to do,' Matt emphasized as he bade Anna goodbye.

Anna, a copywriter from Chicago, had recently spread a rumor that model Brittany Galvin, 23, was an escort in that city.

Matt had also heard that Victoria, a self-described 'queen' from Los Angeles, was being nasty to contestants.

He eliminated her at the rose ceremony itself, along with three other women.

Sent home: Anna Redman, 24, also was sent home after spreading a nasty rumor

In her usual fashion, Victoria did not go quietly, telling Matt, 'I honestly feel so sorry for you that you would listen to hearsay and not all the facts behind a situation.'

To the cameras, she snapped, 'You think I'm gonna go hug him goodbye? No. And he just stared at me. How dare you? He is not my king, and I am still a queen.'

'The whole house is gonna feel like s*** that I'm gone,' Victoria vowed. 'I brought so many people joy.'

Dramatic exit: In her usual fashion, Victoria did not go quietly, telling Matt, 'I honestly feel so sorry for you that you would listen to hearsay and not all the facts behind a situation'

She promised never to date another Matt 'as long as I live. I hate that name now.'

Drama had been swirling for days at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, Pennsylvania, where 20 original contestants and four new girls were staying.

Some of the originals savaged the more recent arrivals, calling them 'newbies' to their 'OGs'.

Over him: Victoria promised never to date another Matt 'as long as I live. I hate that name now'

Katie Thurston, 29, a bank marketing manager from Renton, Washington, told Matt that the house was getting 'toxic.'

'If you're going to be a mean girl, I'm going to call you out,' she said to the cameras.

Matt then confronted the issue at the rose ceremony, laying it out for the women.

Safe space: Matt then confronted the issue at the rose ceremony, laying it out for the women that he wanted a safe space for everyone

'I want to address something that was brought to my attention last night, about the environment in the house,' he said. 'How toxic it is, how there's a mob mentality with the new women, the old women, this ''us vs. them,'' a culture of bullying.'

'I also want to address some rumors floating around that could potentially ruin someone's life,' he went on, as Anna's expression soured. 'If you have to belittle someone else for you to shine, then those aren't the qualities I'm looking for in my wife.'

Matt took Brittany aside to see how she was doing, and she affirmed that Anna had called her an escort, before denying it.

Troubling remarks: 'I also want to address some rumors floating around that could potentially ruin someone's life,' Matt went on, as Anna's expression soured

Escort rumor:Matt took Brittany Galvin aside to see how she was doing, and she affirmed that Anna had called her an escort, before denying it

'That's not true, and everyone back at home knows that it's not true,' Brittany said, weeping. 'It sucks because this is national TVmy mom watches this show, and this could ruin my entire life. I didn't sign up to be bullied and harassed; I signed up to find love, and to meet you finally.'

Matt then spoke to Anna, who confessed that she'd been 'a shallow person in the worst moment ever,' and claimed she was 'so sad and upset' with herself for spreading rumors.

'I feel so horrible,' she shared. 'I'm breaking out in a rash because I'm so sad.'

So sad: 'I feel so horrible,' Anna shared. 'I'm breaking out in a rash because I'm so sad'

'Listen, you're not a horrible person,' Matt replied. 'But I have a responsibility to the women that are here, to Brittany, to myself, to follow my heart. And unfortunately, I can't see you being part of that journey anymore.'

He walked Anna to a waiting limo as the worried OGs apologized to the newbies.

'I can't even explain the kiss-a**ery that is going on,' said Serena Chew, 24, a flight attendant from San Francisco, laughing as she watched.

Journey over: 'Listen, you're not a horrible person,' Matt replied. 'But I have a responsibility to the women that are here, to Brittany, to myself, to follow my heart. And unfortunately, I can't see you being part of that journey anymore'

Limo ride: Anna admitted that she only had herself to blame during the limo ride out

Victoria first attempted to make things right with Catalina Morales, 29, a former beauty queen from Caguas, Puerto Rico, whose crown she had ripped off on night one.

She was more miffed when she heard that Ryan Claytor, 26, a dancer from Brooklyn, had told Matt she called her a 'ho.'

'Lit-er-ally, everything is going amazing,' Victoria moaned afterward. 'Li-ter-ally. I am the perfect person to be his wife, but then these losers create these problems when everything is fine.'

Getting emotional: Ryan Claytor, 26, a dancer from Brooklyn, got emotional as she told Matt that Victoria called her a 'ho'

She loudly denounced Ryan's 'shadiness' and insisted she was the only contestant with a 'working brain in this room.'

Matt admitted that he'd always thought Victoria had 'a big heart,' but he no longer supported her actions.

When he handed out roses that evening, Victoria didn't get one, nor did Catalina, Lauren Maddox, 29, or Mari Pepin, 24.

Rose ceremony: When Matt handed out roses that evening, Victoria didn't get one, nor did Catalina, Lauren Maddox, 29, or Mari Pepin, 24

The next day, he took Rachael Kirkconnell, 24, a graphic designer from Cumming, Georgia, on a one-on-one fantasy date.

She got a fashion makeover from celebrity stylist Ty Hunter, 49, and was gifted expensive clothes and Louboutin heels.

Matt slid them on her feet as she marveled, 'I've never had a pair of shoes that cost more than $40.'

The frontrunner: Rachael Kirkconnell, 24, a graphic designer from Cumming, Georgia, went on a one-on-one fantasy date with Matt

Red soles: The brunette beauty got a fashion makeover from celebrity stylist Ty Hunter, 49, and was gifted expensive clothes and Louboutin heels

He also sent Rachael a blue gown for their dinner that night, making the other girls jealous.

As they ate, Rachael told Matt that she had felt 'undeserving' of her good fortune that day, laughing as she said he was 'out of my league' and that she'd often felt 'scared' to open up.

Nervously, she added that she was falling in love with him and could see their future together, and Matt agreed, beaming at her.

Falling hard: Rachael added that she was falling in love with him and could see their future together, and Matt agreed, beaming at her

'It is scary to say, but when I'm with you, it just feels right,' he told Rachael, giving her a date rose before taking her on a horse-drawn carriage ride.

Matt's weekly group date involved a day working on a farm.

MJ Snyder, 23, a hairstylist from Hudson, Ohio, flirted with Matt aggressively, but he ended up making out with Pieper James, 23, a student from Happy Valley, Oregon, in front of her.

Date rose: Matt handed Rachael a date rose after their one-on-one date

Farm date: The weekly group date involved a day working on a farm

At the cocktail party, he also lavished attention on runway model Chelsea Vaughn, 28, from Brooklyn.

He then had a big moment with Abigail Heringer, 25, a financial manager from Beaverton, Oregon, who is deaf.

Abigail told Matt she worried that if they had kids, they could very possibly be deaf.

Deaf contestant: Abigail Heringer told Matt she worried that if they had kids, they could very possibly be deaf

She revealed that her 'birth father' had left her family after she and her sister got cochlear implants.

Matt had been raised by a single mom and told Abigail that the things she saw as 'roadblocks' to their love were among the things he admired about her most.

To her delight, he ended up giving her the group date rose.

Outdoors fun: The group date helped showcase Matt's country roots

Matt had less admiration for MJ, telling her that he'd lately heard she was an 'antagonist' who caused 'divisiveness' in the house.

When MJ asked the girls who'd said it, Jessenia Cruz, 28, a social media marketer from San Antonio, Texas, said she'd told Matt that MJ had described women as 'varsity' or 'JV.'

'I lead by example,' MJ insisted, and Jessenia retorted, 'You made it uncomfortable for these girls. That's what you did.'

Speaking up: Jessenia Cruz, 28, a social media marketer from San Antonio, Texas, admitted that she'd told Matt that MJ had described women as 'varsity' or 'JV'

Matt's final one-on-one was with Kit Keenan, 21, a fashion entrepreneur from New York City and the daughter of famed designer Cynthia Rowley.

Kit's socialite life featured 'gold Bentleys and red carpets,' but she told Matt that she usually had her guard up, and said he had helped her get in touch with her emotions.

After the two of them cooked dinner together, Kit told Matt she was falling in love with him, and he gave her a date rose.

Fashion entrepreneur: Matt's final one-on-one was with Kit Keenan, 21, a fashion entrepreneur from New York City and the daughter of famed designer Cynthia Rowley

The next day, as the women waited for another rose ceremony, the bachelor sent out a missive.

'MJ and Jessenia, I need to know the truth,' he wrote. 'Meet me before the cocktail party.'

The pair got dressed and arrived at the main hall together, where they ceaselessly sniped at each other until Matt arrived.

He sat down on the couch and they fell silent, waiting for what he'd do next.

The Bachelor will return next week on ABC.

Date rose: After the two of them cooked dinner together, Kit told Matt she was falling in love with him, and he gave her a date rose
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2) The Cebu City government will reimpose a liquor ban amid the rising number of coronavirus infections, its mayor said on Tuesday.

In a Facebook post, Mayor Edgar Labella said the spike in COVID-19 cases has forced the city government to make the difficult decision.

The City Government of Cebu sees the need to reimpose a total liquor ban as a measure to prevent non-essential gatherings in public places and to mitigate the spread of COVID, read Executive Order No. 117, a copy of which was shared by Labella on social media.

The post said the policy will take effect on Feb. 3 and will remain until otherwise amended or revoked.

While drinking and serving liquor in public places are not allowed, the order said hotels, resorts, and other accommodation establishments can serve alcoholic drinks but only for in-house guests and pursuant to guidelines set by the Tourism and Trade Departments.

Cebu City lifted the liquor ban in October last year as it transitioned to MGCQ.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell denounced QAnon congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday, calling her 'loony lies' a 'cancer for the Republican Party.'

He didn't specifically name the freshman lawmaker to The Hill, but referenced several of the bizarre conspiracy theories the far-right Georgia congresswoman has pushed.

'Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.s airplane is not living in reality,' said McConnell.

'This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.'

It came as McConnell also threw his support behind Rep. Liz Cheney for her 'courage' in voting to impeach President Donald Trump last month.

Cheney has faced efforts to push her from her third-ranking spot in the House GOP leadership after she voted for Trump to be impeached on the charge that he was guilty of inciting the deadly insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Yet influential Republicans, including McConnell, are beginning to speak out in her defense.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (pictured) denounced QAnon congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday while voicing his support for Rep. Liz Cheney

McConnell called Greene's (pictured left) 'loony lies' a 'cancer for the Republican Party' while stating that Cheney (pictured right) had 'courage' for voting to impeach Trump

'Liz Cheney is a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them,' McConnell said in a statement to CNN.

'She is an important leader in our party and in our nation. I am grateful for her service and look forward to continuing to work with her on the crucial issues facing our nation.'

Greene immediately pushed back on McConnell's comments on Twitter, writing that 'the real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully'.

'This is why we are losing our country,' she added.

McConnell's statement on Green comes as House Democrats are mounting an effort to formally rebuke the newly-elected congresswoman, who has a history of making racist remarks, embracing conspiracy theories and endorsing violence directed at Democrats.

It also puts pressure on House Republican leaders to discipline her, despite Greene boasting on Monday that she would soon be visiting Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

On Saturday, she had also claimed that she enjoyed a 'great call' with the former president and that he fully supported her.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is set to meet with Greene on Tueday yet he is not anticipated to act given her support from Trump, who still holds enourmous sway with Republican voters.

A spokesperson for the Republican leader declined to comment on Monday.

Democrats have teed up action Wednesday to send a resolution to the House floor that would strip Greene of assignments on the House education and budget committees, if McCarthy doesn't do so first.

'It is my hope and expectation that Republicans will do the right thing and hold Rep. Greene accountable, and we will not need to consider this resolution,' said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

'But we are prepared to do so if necessary.'

Greene immediately hit back at McConnell's comments on Twitter, as pictured

House Democrats are mounting an effort to formally rebuke the newly-elected, far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, pictured above on January 6

Some Democrats have called for going further and expelling Greene from the House - an unlikely outcome that would require backing from Republicans, since expulsion requires a two-thirds vote. Another option is censure.

Democrats' willingness to act against a member of the opposing party underscores their desire to confront far-right politicians, like Greene, who are closely aligned with some of Trump's fringe supporters, including extremist groups that were involved in the violent Capitol insurrection.

TAYLOR GREENE'S BIZARRE CLAIMS The California Camp Fire which killed at least 85 was caused by a space laser linked to the Rothschilds and the state's high-speed rail. PG&E admitted it was caused by a faulty power line and went into bankruptcy to fund a $13.5bn settlement and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin cut off a child's face while she was alive, Clinton wore it as a mask so the terrified child would produce 'adrenachrome' and then organized the killing of a cop who knew about it.

The Las Vegas massacre was organized by Democrats to help them ban guns and shooter Stephen Paddock was not a lone wolf.

There's no evidence of a plane hitting the Pentagon on 9/11.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre which cost the lives of 17 students was a 'false flag planned shooting.'

' I am told that Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that we need another school shooting in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control.'

Seth Rich leaked Hillary Clinton's emails and was murdered in revenge by her aide John Podesta because the emails revealed that a D.C. pizza restaurant had a child-smuggling operation in its basement. It does not even have a basement.

The world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles and the Q in QAnon exists and is the 'best chance to take them out.'

Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett are Muslims.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced by a body double.

She wasn't the person who posted a call to assassinate Nancy Pelosi to her own Facebook page. Advertisement

It also shines a light on the GOP's reluctance to punish Trump supporters in their ranks for fear of alienating some of the former president's most ardent voters.

'If Republicans won't police their own, the House must step in,' said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is sponsoring the measure to remove Greene from the committees.

In a tweet over the weekend, Greene sounded a defiant tone.

She also said she had spoken to Trump and was 'grateful for his support.'

'I will never back down and will stand up against the never ending blood thirsty mob,' she tweeted.

On Monday, she tweeted that Democrats, if they move forward, will come to regret the 'precedent they are setting,' arguing that it would be 'used extensively against members on their side once we regain the majority after the 2022 elections.'

Greene's views were in the spotlight even before she joined the House last month.

The Georgia Republican has expressed support for QAnon conspiracy theories, which focus on the debunked belief that top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking, Satan worship and cannibalism.

Facebook videos surfaced last year showing shed expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views.

Top Republicans denounced her at the time, hoping to block her from capturing the GOP nomination in her reliably red congressional district in northwest Georgia.

But after she won her primary, they largely accepted her. Since then, even more of her past comments, postings and videos have been unearthed, though many were deleted recently after drawing attention.

She 'liked' Facebook posts that advocated violence against Democrats and the FBI. One suggested shooting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head.

In response to a post raising the prospect of hanging former President Barack Obama, Greene responded that the 'stage is being set.'

In an undated video posted online, Greene floated a conspiracy theory that falsely suggests that the 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas could have been a false flag operation to build support for gun control legislation.

'How do you get avid gun owners and people that support the Second Amendment to give up their guns and go along with anti-gun legislation?' Greene said in the video.

'You make them scared, you make them victims and you change their mindset and then possibly you can pass anti-gun legislation. Is that what happened in Las Vegas?'

She also 'liked' a Facebook post that challenged the veracity of a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Another video captured her confronting Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (center) previously appeared alongside President Donald Trump (left) at a Dalton, Georgia rally on January 4 on behalf of two Republicans senators who lost their run-off races the next day to Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock

After her election, she seized on Trump's false claims that the election was stolen and cheered on his supporters the day before the Capitol was stormed.

'It's our 1776 moment!' she posted on the conservative friendly social media platform Parler.

Last week, Pelosi pressed for House Republicans to take action against Greene.

'Assigning her to the education committee, when she has mocked the killing of little children' in Newtown, 'what could they be thinking, or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing?' Pelosi said of Republican leaders.

'It's absolutely appalling.'

Although it's not certain he will take action against Greene, McCarthy has punished members of the House Republican caucus before.

Former Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was stripped of all his committee assignments after expressing support for white supremacists in 2019.

Wasserman Schultz acknowledged Monday that it had long been left up to leaders to remove members of Congress of their own party of their committee assignments. But she said Republicans' reluctance to take action left Democrats with little choice.

'Rep. Greene's appalling behavior both before her election and during her term has helped fuel domestic terrorism, endangered lives of her colleagues and brought shame on the entire House of Representatives,' Wasserman Schultz said.

'Based on her actions and statements and her belligerent refusal to disavow them, she should not be permitted to participate in the important work of these two influential committees.'

As for Cheney, a cross-section of GOP lawmakers is rushing to her defense after calls for her to be pushed out over her impeachment vote, as well as former President George W. Bush.

Donald Trump Jr. last week called into a Wyoming rally attended by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a close Trump ally, that demanded Cheney be defeated in the next primary.

According to CNN, President Trump has himself focused on efforts to remove Cheney from her leadership position.

Nine other House Republicans voted to impeach Trump last month.

While supporting Cheney's decision, McConnell himself sided with other GOP Senators last week in voting to dismiss the Senate impeachment trial on constitutional grounds.

CNN reports that McCarthy has not spoken to Trump since December 15.
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Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Monday announced her office is dismissing more than 1,600 ordinance violations and misdemeanor citations involving violations of Gov. Gretchen Whitmers coronavirus emergency orders that were later determined to violate the Michigan Constitution.

Police throughout Michigan began enforcing various emergency orders that limited social gatherings, commerce and other activity under the authority of emergency orders issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer between April and October, when the state Supreme Court ruled a 1945 law underpinning the orders was unconstitutional.

As a result of the Michigan Supreme Court ruling (the Wayne County Prosecutors Office) conducted a review of the cases and it was determined that there is not a legal basis to proceed with them, Worthys office said in a statement Monday. (The Wayne County Prosecutors Office) will be dismissing all adjudicated cases and all pending cases.

It is important to note that the dismissal of these cases is not a reflection upon the conduct of any law enforcement agency, since the applicable law was followed at the time of the alleged offenses.

Wayne County Prosecutors Office spokesperson Maria Miller said any refunds related to fines or fees will be determined and ordered by the respective courts.

More than 1,600 of the citations or ordinances violations occurred in Detroit. Dearborn, with 71 cases, had the second most in Wayne County.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in a split decision on Oct. 2 that Whitmer didnt have authority under the states emergency statutes to continue extending the coronavirus state of emergency without the support of the Legislature.

The court declared Whitmer did not have authority under the 1976 Emergency Management Act, and found the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act that she used to support her unilateral emergency orders was unconstitutional.

We conclude that the Governor lacked the authority to declare a state of emergency or a state of disaster under the EMA after April 30, 2020, on the basis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we conclude that the EPGA is in violation of the Constitution of our state because it purports to delegate to the executive branch the legislative powers of state government-- including its plenary police powers-- and to allow the exercise of such powers indefinitely, wrote Justice Stephen J. Markman in the majority opinion.

As a consequence, the EPGA cannot continue to provide a basis for the Governor to exercise emergency powers.

Shortly after the emergency orders were rescinded, similar rules were reissued by former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon under emergency state public health laws.

The public health law states that if the health director determines control of an epidemic is necessary to protect the public health, the director by emergency order may prohibit the gathering of people for any purpose and may establish procedures to be followed during the epidemic to insure continuation of essential public health services and enforcement of health laws.

That law has been the basis for ongoing coronaviurs restrictions.

More on MLive:

Public heath orders are legal

Whitmer disagrees with court ruling

Gov. has no authority to continue state of emergency, Michigan Supreme Court rules
About $114 million from the states unexpected surge in sales and income tax revenue should be used to help make up for decades of under-funding the way Connecticut reimburses towns and cities for hosting colleges, hospitals and state-owned property, Democratic majority leaders said Monday.

They currently have no specific plan on how to pay for the proposal, as Gov. Ned Lamont prepares his two-year budget proposal for release next week.

In a joint news conference with members of the bipartisan Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, some Republicans offered qualified support for a three-tiered idea of sending money to cities and towns, as long as it doesnt include an increase in tax rates.

Without the supplemental aid  announced as part of the three-tier plan that would give more money to large cities with higher taxes, but would give affluent towns such as Darien a small bump  New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said his city will face a $66-million budget shortfall that could prompt him to push for a 20 percent increase in local property taxes.

New Haven would get an extra $42 million a year under the proposal, which Speaker of the House Matt Ritter of Hartford and Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney of New Haven said they will make part of this years budget negotiations when Gov. Ned Lamont presents his two-year plan for taxing and spending on Feb. 10.

Looney said that in calculations that include equity and need, 32 towns and cities would receive the highest amounts of additional aid for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT), a program that dates to the late 1970s, but which has never been fully funded. One hundred and one towns would be in the middle tier and the 36 richest towns would make up the third, least-reimbursed tier.

Needs of towns and cities have also been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has exposed the cycle of highly taxed cities with minority communities and under-performing schools, the leaders said.

Some towns have very healthy grand lists per-capita, Looney said during a noontime news conference. Others do not. Greenwich for instance has a net grand list per capita of $735,000 and at the other end of the spectrum is New Britain at $50,000.

Looney noted that in recent years, about $355 million that was supposed to flow each year to towns and cities as part of the 2011 increase in the sales tax from 6 percent to 6.35 percent, has been postponed amid state budget constraints.

Under the proposal, Bridgeport would make an extra $5.8 million the first year; Middletown $3.6 million; Stamford $2 million; Danbury $1.3 million; Norwalk $536,000; North Haven, $419,000 and Darien, $53,000. The 32 top-tier towns and cities would see a doubling of their current PILOT payments.

Communities who have both inadequate tax bases and this very modest rate of reimbursement on PILOT really are struggling with an inadequate grand list under which to provide services, Looney said, stressing that the state does not have a county-government system that could help absorb some costs.

The legislature just has to make it a priority, said Ritter, D-Hartford, who appreciated the bipartisan support from Republicans on the CCM board including Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson and North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda. Weve talked about PILOT for a long time and the legislature just has to make it a priority. If youre an suburban town, at the end of the day you want your cities to thrive, you want them to succeed. Its about health care and education.

Elicker said 27 local leaders have signed on to the idea in a letter to the governor, who is preparing his biennial budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

For New Haven, roughly 60 percent of our property is non-taxable, so that means New Haven residents and business owners that own 40 percent of the property in the city have to pay 100 percent of the taxes, Elicker said, underscoring historical inequities and racism that are the center of public discussions over the last year.

Black residents of our state pay the highest tax rates, yet still send their children to the lowest-funded schools, Elicker said. I think the governor in the next day or two still has an opportunity to help ensure that this is likely to have the support it needs through his budget.

Its a serious, well-structured and long-overdue proposal, said Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, the current president of the CCM board. Communities of all sizes, represented by Republicans and Democrats, cities, suburbs and small towns alike benefit to varying degrees under this proposal.

Freda, past-president of CCM, said he understands the importance of helping urban centers. We need strong cities in Connecticut, he said.

Much of the success of the idea will depend on the continued flow of revenue, which in recent months erased a projected $854 million deficit in the current fiscal year and turned it into a $70 million surplus. Looney said that other potential ways to pay for the increased PILOT would be a surcharge on capital gains; an increase in the highest income-tax bracket; a portion of the projected municipal share of the sales-tax revenue; or an added charge on homes well above average value.

Looney proposed that latter idea separately last year, suggesting a state tax of $1 per $1,000 of assessed value over $300,000. The owner of a house worth $1 million would pay an extra $400 to the state under that plan.

The owners of a house worth $428,500 or less, assessed at $300,000, would not pay anything under Looneys plan.

Ritter believes no new revenue sources would be needed, if the current revenue estimates hold. This is a very, very important policy to the Senate president and the speaker, he said.

I firmly acknowledge that the devil is in the revenue details, said Stevenson, who opposes higher taxes. I do support the concept and I want to be a team player, understanding the challenges in our urban centers, but we cant ignore the fact that we have to find the right revenue source.

Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, warned that Democrats want the middle class to pay more. Theyve targeted middle class families wallets for years and now theyre coming after our homes, he said in a statement.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has exonerated itself from any blame in connection with the incessant load shedding and power outages in the country.

General Manager, Public Affairs of the organisation, Mrs. Ndidi Mbah, in a statement in Abuja, explained that the TCN does not also switch off consumer power feeders, contrary to misconceptions in certain quarters.

She maintained that off-taking 12MW through an 11kV distribution feeder for onward delivery to customers, remains the responsibility of power distributors like the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and not the TCN.

"For the purpose of clarification, TCN does not distribute electricity to electricity consumers and cannot also switch off consumer feeders. Its jurisdiction on the network is from 330 kilovolt (kV) to 132kV power lines.

The company cannot switch off consumers' feeders as it is not within TCN's jurisdiction.

"The fact is that electricity cannot be stored; therefore, power generation, transmission and distribution occur simultaneously. What determines what is put on the grid, is what the distribution companies are ready to off-take.

"This equally regulates what the generator would generate, which is why the Discos are required to nominate what they would off-take a day ahead. It is important to note that whatever happens on the downstream network, impacts on transmission and generators.

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"The TCN grid network has the capacity of 8,100MW even as it continues to work towards completing ongoing projects to further increase its capacity," she stated.

The TCN explained that it would be wrong to attribute most localised outages and load-shedding of consumers' feeders to it, insisting that Discos can only off-take what is generated, while Gencos can only generate what Discos can off take.

"Each of the 11 Discos has its own challenges which may necessitate outage in certain places per time. Under Abuja region of TCN, Gwagwalade-Karu line does not exist as has been mentioned in some quarters. There is no direct link between Gwagwalada and Karu Transmission Substation.

"On the Gwagwalada - Apo line however, there is a tee-off on the line which feeds Kukwaba Transmission Substation through Apo Transmission Substation. TCN does not have any problem at its Kukwaba or Apo Substation that would require cutting supply to any of Abuja Disco feeders.

"Electricity customers are connected directly on 33kV lines which TCN operators have no control over, except during extreme emergency requiring operations crew to quickly open such feeder to enable maintenance service," the company noted.

TCN further stressed that it had in recent times taken a more responsive approach serving the Gencos in its upstream and the Discos in its downstream, while optimising its available resources to through effective maintenance of the existing grid network.
Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly has backed down in a dispute over treatments for COVID-19 after a clash with Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek and a reprimand from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Mr Kelly issued a statement of support for vaccination after Ms Plibersek confronted him in Parliament House over his disputed claims, telling him he was putting public health at risk.

A series of photos showing Labor MP Tanya Plibersek and Liberal MP Craig Kelly having a robust discussion as they cross paths in the corridor of Parliament Houses press gallery. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Ms Plibersek, a former health minister, warned Mr Kelly that his comments could spread doubt about vaccines and leave people exposed to those who were carrying the coronavirus.

My Mum lives in your electorate and I dont want her exposed to people who are not going to be vaccinated because of these crazy conspiracy theories that youre spreading, Ms Plibersek said.
Volta FinanceLimited (VTA/VTAS)

Notification of transactions by directors, persons discharging managerial

responsibilities and persons closely associated with them

NOT FOR RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLICATION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES

*****

Guernsey, 2 February 2021

Pursuant to the announcements made on 5 April 2019 and 26 June 2020 relating to changes to the payment of directors fees, Volta Finance Limited (the "Company" or "Volta") has purchased 3,710 ordinary shares of no par value in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at an average price of 5.88 per share.

Each director receives 30% of his Director's fees for any year in the form of shares, which they are required to retain for a period of no less than one year from their respective date of issue.

The shares will be issued to the Directors, who for the purposes of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 on Market Abuse ("MAR") are "persons discharging managerial responsibilities" (a "PDMR")

Paul Meader, Chairman and a PDMR for the purposes of MAR, acquired 1,124 additional Ordinary Shares in the Company. Following the settlement of this transaction, Mr Meader & persons closely associated with Mr Meader will have an interest in 42,956 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.12% of the issued shares of the Company;



Paul Varotsis, Director and a PDMR for the purposes of MAR, acquired 787 additional Ordinary Shares in the Company. Following the settlement of this transaction, Mr Varotsis will have an interest in 209,181 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.57% of the issued shares of the Company;



Steve Le Page, Director and a PDMR for the purposes of MAR, acquired 956 additional Ordinary Shares in the Company. Following the settlement of this transaction, Mr Le Page will have an interest in 37,253 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.10% of the issued shares of the Company;



Graham Harrison, Director and a PDMR for the purposes of MAR, acquired 843 additional Ordinary Shares in the Company. Following the settlement of this transaction, Mr Harrison will have an interest in 20,993 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.06% of the issued shares of the Company;

The notifications below, made in accordance with the requirements of MAR, provide further detail in relation to the above transactions:





1.Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated



a)

Paul Meader

Chairman and Director b)

Paul Varotsis

Director c)

Steve Le Page

Director d)

Graham Harrison

Director 2 Reason for the notification (a) Position/status



Director (b) Initial notification/Amendment



Initial notification 3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor (a) Name



Volta Finance Limited (b) LEI



2138004N6QDNAZ2V3W80 4 Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted (a) Description of financial instrument, type of instrument

Identification code Ordinary Shares







GB00B1GHHH78 (b) Nature of the transaction



Purchase and allocation of Ordinary Shares relation to the part-payment of Directors' fees for the quarter ended 31 January 2021



(c) Price(s) and volume(s)



Price(s) Volume(s) 5.88 Total 3,710



(d)

Aggregate information











Aggregated volume



Price a)

Paul Meader

Chairman and Director







1,124











5.88 b)

Paul Varotsis

Director











787











5.88 c)

Steve Le Page

Director











956











5.88 d)

Graham Harrison

Director











843











5.88 (e) Date of transaction 1 February 2021 (f) Place of transaction On-market - London

CONTACTS

For the Investment Manager

AXA Investment Managers Paris

Serge Demay

serge.demay@axa-im.com



+33 (0) 1 44 45 84 47

Company Secretary and Administrator

BNP Paribas Securities Services S.C.A, Guernsey Branch

guernsey.bp2s.volta.cosec@bnpparibas.com

+44 (0) 1481 750 853

Corporate Broker

Cenkos Securities plc

Andrew Worne

Daniel Balabanoff

Will Talkington+44 (0) 20 7397 8900

*****

ABOUT VOLTA FINANCE LIMITED

Volta Finance Limited is incorporated in Guernsey under The Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (as amended) and listed on Euronext Amsterdam and the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities. Volta's home member state for the purposes of the EU Transparency Directive is the Netherlands. As such, Volta is subject to regulation and supervision by the AFM, being the regulator for financial markets in the Netherlands.

Volta's investment objectives are to preserve capital across the credit cycle and to provide a stable stream of income to its shareholders through dividends. Volta seeks to attain its investment objectives predominantly through diversified investments in structured finance assets. The assets that the Company may invest in either directly or indirectly include, but are not limited to: corporate credits; sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt; residential mortgage loans; and, automobile loans. The Company's approach to investment is through vehicles and arrangements that essentially provide leveraged exposure to portfolios of such underlying assets. The Company has appointed AXA Investment Managers Paris an investment management company with a division specialised in structured credit, for the investment management of all its assets.

*****

ABOUT AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a multi-expert asset management company within the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA IM is one of the largest European-based asset managers with 753 investment professionals and 801 billion in assets under management as of the end of April 2020.

*****

This press release is for information only and does not constitute an invitation or inducement to acquire shares in Volta Finance. Its circulation may be prohibited in certain jurisdictions and no recipient may circulate copies of this document in breach of such limitations or restrictions. This document is not an offer for sale of the securities referred to herein in the United States or to persons who are "U.S. persons" for purposes of Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or otherwise in circumstances where such offer would be restricted by applicable law. Such securities may not be sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration from the Securities Act. The company does not intend to register any portion of the offer of such securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of such securities in the United States.

*****

This communication is only being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth companies, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The securities referred to herein are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents. Past performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.

*****
The Biden administration is currently trying to find outside firms to help boost production of coronavirus vaccines, a new report claims.

White House officials have allegedly reached out to several companies to ask about aiding with the fill and finish portion, or filling vials with the vaccine itself, sources exclusively told The Daily Beast.

It is unclear which companies the administration has approached but several are potential 'frontrunners' an announcement could be made in the coming days, the sources say.

Both Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc, the makers of the only approved vaccines in the U.S., are running their factories at top speed and have been under pressure to scale-up manufacturing capacity.

Prior to taking office, President Joe Biden announced a rather ambitious goal of getting 100 million shots in arms in his first 100 days.

But the president and his team have since found themselves floundering and grappling to keep the virus under control while simultaneously dealing with a vaccine shortage.

So far, 31.8 million people - or 9.6 percent of the population - have received at least one dose and 5.6 million have been fully immunized.

The Biden administration is trying to sign agreements with other companies to help with what is called the fill and finish portion, or filling vials with the coronavirus vaccine itself. Pictured: Walgreens pharmacist Jessica Sahni prepares a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at The New Jewish Home long-term care facility in New York, December 2020

It comes as daily vaccinations finally increased to levels seen on Inauguration Day with 1.7 million people vaccinated on Thursday and 1.6 million each on Thursday and Friday

So far, 31.8 million people - or 9.6 percent of the population - have received at least one dose and 5.6 million have been fully immunized

The U.S. is not the first to attempt to make partnerships in an attempt to speed up the vaccine rollout that has lagged since its beginning.

French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi has signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE to help manufacture their COVID-19 vaccine.

Sanofi is currently developing its own vaccine with British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, but production is delayed after early clinical trial data proved disappointing.

With no vaccine of its own ready to produce, Sanofi decided to help BioNTech and Pfizer increase its manufacturing capacity.

'We asked ourselves how we could render ourselves useful in the present, how to participate in the collective effort to get out of this crisis as quickly as possible,' Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson told Le Figaro, according to a DailyMail.com translation.

'We are going to use our factor in Frankfurt, Germany, to package the product that will be supplied to us by Pfizer-BioNTech.'

According to Hudson, Sanofi plans to produce 100 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson's candidate is not expected to be approved until potentially next month and Merck announced last week it was canceling development of both of its COVID-19 vaccine candidates after poor trials results.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized Merck's decision on Monday during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe and said the company should focus on producing vaccines due to the shortage.

It comes as the Biden administration looks for ways to boost production capacity as new variants continue to sweep the country.

Among those efforts are talks to purchase 100 million more doses of the vaccine each from Pfizer and from Moderna.

The federal government had already signed an agreement with each company to purchase. 200 million doses of the inoculation.

This would bring the total number of doses purchase from the two firms from 400 million to 600 million.

Meanwhile, as Biden as sough to ramp up vaccination efforts, several states have been plagued by tech glitches and crashing websites.

California, Idaho, Mississippi and Georgia have all reported failing registration sites, undercounted appointments and a buggy tracking system.

Meanwhile, a Politico report on Saturday revealed the Biden administration has still yet to locate 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses distributed to the states in December.

'They are planning. They are competent. It's just the weight of everything when you sit down in that chair. It's heavy,' a source with knowledge of the situation told Politico.
The security measures, meant to restrict the movement of farmers protesting the Centre's new laws, have evoked sharp condemnation from Opposition leaders, with Rahul Gandhi exhorting the government to 'build bridges, not walls'

Security has been stepped up manifold at Delhis borders on Tuesday, with the deployment of police and paramilitary personnel and the setting up of concrete barricades, razor wires and ditches.

The security measures, meant to restrict the movement of farmers protesting the Centre's new laws, have evoked sharp condemnation from Opposition leaders. Workers, under the watch of police personnel, were seen hooking iron rods between two rows of cement barriers on a flank of the main highway at the Singhu border.

Another portion of the highway at the Delhi-Haryana border is practically blocked now as a makeshift cement wall has come up there.

At Singhu today. Multiple barricades, more concrete. pic.twitter.com/HFqH5HzFVA  Kainat Sarfaraz. (@kainisms) February 1, 2021

These security measures have also led to traffic snarls on many key roads in the National Capital.

Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Traffic Police alerted commuters about the closure of borders and suggested alternative roads for travel.

The

Gazipur border is closed for traffic because of farmer protests. Please take alternate route via Anad Vihar, Chilla,DND, Apsara, bhopra & Loni borders. @CPDelhi @SplCPTrafficDel @DelhiPolice @dtptraffic  Addl. CP Traffic, Outer Range, Delhi (@dcptrafficouter) February 2, 2021

Besides the makeshift wall on the highway, a small trench was also dug up earlier across an inner street a little off the highway and cement barricades put up on both the sides.

On Monday, the Delhi side of the Singhu border saw a sparse crowd of protesters while the Haryana side was dominated by vociferous speeches denouncing the new farm laws and clarion calls to infuse a new sense of solidarity in the agitation after the Republic Day incident.

'Build bridges, not walls', says Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday attacked the government over barricades and roadblocks set up at farmer agitation sites on Delhi's borders, and asked the Centre to "build bridges and not walls".

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also slammed the government over the issue, asking it if it 'wants to wage war against its own farmers.'

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav remarked, "This government is indeed strange  it erects walls to block roads, sets up barbed wires, and then calls for dialogue."

'Barricades can't cage our spirits'

Despite the stringent security arrangements, the protesting farmers and leaders at the site showed no signs of being cowed down and asserted that "these barricades put up around us can't cage our spirit".

They alleged that on 26 January, "a conspiracy was made to malign this movement" and "defame it", and more such attempts are being made while asserting that the agitation has "come out stronger" now.

Balwinder Singh Sirsa, a farmer leader from Sirsa, Haryana, exhorted people to not get demotivated by what happened during the January 26 incident, as it was "orchestrated by some people to denigrate the movement".

A woman protester from Haryana, addressing a huge gathering from the dais, said the alleged conspiracy on that day has "failed to weaken this movement" and has rather injected "a new lease of life" in it.

Randhir Singh, 85, a farmer from Haryana, also addressed the gathering saying "I have worked with legends Mahendra Singh Tikait and I know how Jat movement was weakened a few years ago".

"What happened on January 26 was a conspiracy. It was not done by farmers but all were part of a smear campaign bring run to defame the movement," he alleged.

"We are not terrorists or Khalistanis. We are fighting for our rights. Attempts are still being made to defame and weaken us. But (Bharatiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh) Tikait's tears have awakened the farmers of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and other states," he said.

The move comes days after the violent clashes between some protesters and police on January 26 during the tractor parade by the agitating farmers.

The section of the highway at the Singhu border, which has been the epicentre of the farmers' protests for over 60 days, had also seen a clash recently between farmers and a group of people who claimed to be local residents.

With inputs from PTI
Kuaishou Mired in Music Copyright Troubles on Eve of Hong Kong Share Trading

By Ding Yi / Feb 02, 2021 12:58 PM / Business & Tech

A Chinese copyright body has requested Kuaishou remove 10,000 videos from its platform for alleged infringement of intellectual property rights, and that may just be the start. The order comes as the short video app prepares to trade its shares in Hong Kong.

The China Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA), a government-backed social organization that engages in collective copyright management and collects fees from licensing its members music and videos, said in a statement on Monday that it found some 155 million videos on Kuaishou that used copyrighted background music without authorization.

CAVCA provided links to the first batch of 10,000 videos using unauthorized music to Kuaishou and asked for them to be deleted from the platform.

Kuaishou did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by Caixin on Tuesday morning.

CAVCAs demand comes just days before Kuaishou, the worlds second-largest short video app after ByteDances TikTok, is set to trade its shares in Hong Kong on Feb. 5. Tencent-backed Kuaishou wrapped up its Hong Kong IPO last Friday raising $5.4 billion, and offers from retail investors have reached $164.8 billion, according to the South China Morning Post.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Chinas No. 2 Short Video App Kuaishou Set for Feb. 5 IPO, Source Says
Blinded lorry driver Fra McCaffrey may be the first victim of a renegade loyalist group who are ready to go to war over the Irish Sea border.

The west Belfast lorry driver was left with serious head injuries as well as being blinded in one eye after a group dumped a bin load of rocks over an overpass in Larne  close to the port although Fra had not come through the new so-called border.

Police were stumped at the shocking and bizarre attack on the 56-year-old which happened three weeks ago and appeared to have no clear motive.

But we can reveal detectives are now investigating whether the incident was part of new loyalist campaign against any kind of border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

They believe the random attack was carefully planned, with a car needed to transport the brown bin full of large rocks to the Ballyboley overpass, which is in the countryside and without cameras.

Expand Close Fra McCaffery's lorry cab after the attack. / Facebook

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Sources have claimed the same group, who some say is called Loyalist Resistance, were also behind an arson attack on the multicultural centre in south Belfast a week later.

Tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused to the centre which police say was targeted in a hate crime.

Last July another shadowy loyalist group, calling themselves Orange Vanguard, warned they would target any physical Irish Sea border posts when they were first suggested.

Meanwhile we understand frustrated loyalist paramilitaries from various terror groups are starting to organise with one loyalist telling the Sunday World: Theres deep anger and frustration at the leaders of loyalism who appear to be doing nothing while Northern Ireland is separated from the UK.

Pressure is going to be put on the commanders of the UDA and the UVF to get involved in some form of action  otherwise whats the point of calling themselves loyalists?

There is a small minority who are ready to go back to war over this, thats the truth.

We can also reveal sinister threats were made through this newspaper against any EU personnel staffing border posts.

Using a codeword the group, who would only say they were a loyalist resistance grouping, also warned local politicians implementing partition were legitimate targets.

This week a senior PSNI officer said the force was monitoring loyalist discontent around the issue while North Antrim MP Ian Paisley suggested the officer was downplaying the threat of violence adding: Some sections of the community are starting to sense they are sitting on a powder keg.

Expand Close Graffiti appeared in Belfast recently / Facebook

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Whatsapp Graffiti appeared in Belfast recently

And on Thursday night Justice Minister Naomi Long described a hoax bomb alert at her constituency office as nonsense adding the police already have enough to deal with.

On Thursday morning an anonymous caller to the Sunday World made a direct threat to EU personnel and anyone else involved in what they describe as implementing partition from the rest of the UK.

Expand Close The office of DUP MLA Christopher Stalford on sandy road was dubbed with graffiti / Facebook

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Whatsapp The office of DUP MLA Christopher Stalford on sandy road was dubbed with graffiti

The man reading the prepared statement, which we immediately reported to the PSNI, used what he claims were two old recognised paramilitary codewords before giving a new one.

The statement read: All EU staff and personnel staffing border posts from whatever persuasion are now considered legitimate targets.

Border staff are now considered agents of a unity project and therefore the onus is now on those personnel to desist from their actions.

Since the present course impacts on the wellbeing of the wider unionist, loyalist tradition its only fair to extend this warning to immediate family members of all who implement partition from the mainland UK.

Its not clear if these are empty threats but they are symptomatic of a swell of discontent over the Irish Sea border caused by Brexit which took effect at the start of the month.

What is not in doubt is that loyalists are recruiting so-called foot soldiers for some form of protest though few believe theres the stomach to return to the violence witnessed during the Troubles.

And all this was already happening before it was announced on Friday that under the protocol, the MoD must now give 15 days notice and fill out customs declaration forms before the Army moves equipment from GB to NI.

The symbolism of that will not be lost on even the most liberal of unionists and combined with the EUs calamitous invoking, however brifely, of Article 16, the fans have been flamed for loyalists.

The pandemic is believed to have put the brakes on a wider protest campaign but loyalists say they wont be held back indefinitely.

If you thought the flag protests were bad wait until this thing starts to snowball, one loyalist told the Sunday World last night.

Theres massive pressure for the UVF and the UDA leadership to get involved and lead the way because so many loyalists are angry at what they see as partition from the UK.

If the mainstream loyalist groups sit back and do nothing then others will step in and do the job. Its time to stop all the drug dealing and time for the leaders of the UVF and UDA to remember what loyalists are supposed to be about.

If lorry driver Fra McCaffrey was a victim of anti-border loyalists its a disturbing development.

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Thats what Ive been told, said a loyalist. I was told the group Loyalist Resistance definitely attacked the multicultural centre in Donegall Pass but also that loyalists from the UDA in Larne orchestrated the attack on the lorry driver.

I dont think they intended to hurt anyone. I was told they wanted to cause damage to a lorry and then claim it but it went wrong and the driver was very badly hurt.

The police havent arrested anyone. It was too organised to be bored teenagers and Im told it was loyalists behind it. They picked a spot on a bridge that wasnt covered by cameras.

If it was anti-border loyalists it was completely botched operation as Mr McCaffrey hadnt come through any border. Instead he was leaving off a large delivery of mail.

Giving evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan told MPs this week that the health pandemic may be moderating peoples behaviour in terms of the desire to protest.

Were we not in this current environment we would probably see a more visible outworking of that on the streets, he said.

This week graffiti was sprayed on the shutters of South Belfast MLA Christopher Stalfords constituency office in Sandy Row and a threat to Tanaiste Leo Varadkar was painted on a south Belfast wall.

It came as unionists were urged to unite and send letters to their MLAs making them aware of their disgust and plan to withdraw future electoral support.

The UPRG, aligned to the UDA, shared a post urging unionist politicians to withdraw support for the Good Friday Agreement.

It said: Unionism now has a very stark choice  make a stand or be routed, derailed and defeated.

steven.moore@sundayworld.com
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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[February 02, 2021] RiskIQ's 2020 Mobile Threat Landscape Report Finds 33% Growth in Mobile Apps, Malicious Feral Apps Explode

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RiskIQ, the global leader in attack surface management, today published its 2020 Mobile App Threat Landscape report, an analysis of the murky mobile app underworld spanning the open web and app stores around the world.

With a proactive, store-first scanning mentality, RiskIQ observes and categorizes the threat landscape as a user would see it, monitoring both the well-known stores like the Apple App Store and Google Play and more than 120 secondary stores around the world. RiskIQ also leverages daily scans of nearly two billion resources to look for mobile apps in the wild. Every app encountered is downloaded, analyzed, and stored to record changes and new versions. The report gives a snapshot of 2020's mobile threat landscape and dives into emerging trends for 2021. 2020 key findings include: Overall mobile apps available grew 33%

RiskIQs Internet Intelligence Graph cataloged 30% more apps in 2020 but noted only 102,312 blacklisted apps, more than 67% fewer than in 2019

cataloged 30% more apps in 2020 but noted only 102,312 blacklisted apps, more than 67% fewer than in 2019 Play store dropped an impressive 60% in 2020. Weve found that blacklisted apps have now fallen in Google Play for two consecutive years

Despite blacklisted apps falling 67%, blacklisted feral apps rose nearly 58% This hidden obile threat landscape is a branding and consumer trust nightmare for businesses. Even though an organization doesn't own or manage a copycat app, it's still part of its attack surface because the copycat app is leveraging the organizations branding and targeting its prospects, customers, and employees. Security teams must detect and address them.



Extending security and IT protection outside the firewall requires mapping these billions of relationships between the internet components belonging to every organization, business, and threat actor on Earth. These include mobile apps. RiskIQ built our Internet Intelligence Graph to prepare enterprises for this reality by enabling them to discover unknowns across their attack surface and investigate threats to their organization. RiskIQ provides both detection data of these malicious apps and tips for spotting them. For specific metrics or to learn more, download the 2020 RiskIQ Mobile Threat Landscape report here: https://www.riskiq.com/resources/research/2020-mobile-threat-landscape-report/

About RiskIQ RiskIQ is the leader in digital threat management, providing the most comprehensive discovery, intelligence, and mitigation of threats associated with an organization's digital presence. With more than 75% of attacks originating outside the firewall, RiskIQ allows enterprises to gain unified insight and control over web, social and mobile exposures. Trusted by thousands of security analysts, security teams, and CISO's, RiskIQ's platform combines advanced internet data reconnaissance and analytics to expedite investigations, understand digital attack surfaces, assess risk, and take action to protect the business, brand, and customers. Based in San Francisco, the company is backed by Summit Partners, Battery Ventures, Georgian Partners, MassMutual Ventures, and NationalGrid Partners. Try RiskIQ Community Edition for free by visiting https://www.riskiq.com/community/. To learn more about RiskIQ, visit www.riskiq.com . Contact

Holly Hitchcock

Front Lines Media

Holly@FrontLines.io



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Representative image.

The Rajya Sabha was on February 2 was adjourned till February 3 after members of the Opposition parties raised slogans demanding the suspension of the business of the day and take up discussions over the farmer's protest.

Members of opposition parties, including the Congress, the DMK, the TMC, and CPI (M), had moved adjournment notices in the upper house to suspend the business of the day to debate the three farm laws. Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, however, rejected the notices saying that the house will take up the issue in its scheduled discussions over President's Address on February 3.

I understand the concern the issue raised by the members. President has referred to farmers' protest in his address on January 29. We will discuss the Presidents address tomorrow and members can take the opportunity," Naidu said.

A section of Opposition members walked out of the proceedings and the Question Hour started. In some time the members returned and started raising slogans in the house. Since the slogans didn't stop the Chairman adjourned the house till 10.30 am. The house assembled again only to be adjourned till 11.30 am, then again till 12.30 am when the deputy chairman adjourned it for the day.

This is the third business day of the ongoing budget session that started on January 29. The first two days which also saw the presentation of Budget 2021, passed off peacefully.

The Opposition, which boycotted the President's Address, has planned to corner the government on the issue of the three contentious farm laws.

President Ram Nath Kovind on January 29 condemned the violence during the tractors rally on Republic Day while asserting that with the new three agricultural reforms, the government has provided new facilities and rights to farmers.

Enacted in September 2020, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector. But, thousands of protesting farmers, primarily from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at several Delhi border points for over two months, demanding the repeal of the laws, and a legal guarantee on minimum support prices (MSP) for their crops.
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WASHINGTON  Less than two weeks in office, President Joe Biden is facing two critical tests of whether the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol has damaged Americas standing as a beacon for democracy.

Protests in Russia and a military coup in Myanmar come as American credibility on the world stage has plummeted after last months storming of the Capitol by a pro-Donald Trump mob looking to stop the certification of Bidens election victory.

That adds to the weight on Biden as he seeks to fulfill a campaign pledge to dramatically reposition the U.S. as a global leader following four years of a Trump foreign policy driven by an America First mantra. That policy was marked by the frequent disparagement of democratic allies and the occasional embrace of authoritarian leaders.

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Bidens top diplomat, Antony Blinken, acknowledged the difficulty.

I think theres no doubt that the attack on our own democracy on Jan. 6 creates an even greater challenge for us to be carrying the banner of democracy and freedom and human rights around the world because, for sure, people in other countries are saying to us, Well, why dont you look at yourselves first?' the secretary of state said in an interview with NBC News.

Blinken added, The difference, though, between us and so many other countries is that when we are challenged, including when we challenge ourselves  were doing it in full daylight with full transparency.

Biden, in the early days of his presidency, has sought to send the message in a series of calls with foreign leaders that America is back.

Hes reassured Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that the U.S. has its support in an ongoing territorial dispute with China over islets in the East China Sea. Hes sought to reset the relationship with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was belittled by Trump as dishonest & weak. And hes told Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that the U.S. would send $4 billion to help development in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala  nations whose hardships have spawned tides of migration through Mexico toward the United States.

The United States remains a country in the world that is looked to for leadership, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. Its going to take some time, but hes certainly committed to doing that.

But the crises in Myanmar and Russia present Biden with difficult tests of his promise to reestablish global leadership that are likely to be far more complicated than mending fences with traditional allies.

Biden on Monday threatened to slap new sanctions on Myanmar after a coup that saw the military arrest the civilian leaders of its government, calling the episode a direct assault on the countrys transition to democracy and the rule of law.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who for years has taken a special interest in Myanmar, on Tuesday complimented the Biden administrations initial response but urged it to quickly follow through with meaningful penalties against the nations military leaders. Later Tuesday, the State Department announced it had determined that the military takeover was a coup, setting the stage for the Biden administration to move forward with sanctions and other measures targeting military officials.

In his first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin as counterparts last week, Biden raised concerns about the detention of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the crackdown on supporters backing his arrest. The mass arrests have only accelerated in the days since the two leaders spoke as protests have continued across the country.

For Putin, he looks at the Capitol riot and sees it as more evidence of his worldview, a continuation of the degradation of liberalism in the world, said Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration. The Biden election doesnt mean much to him about his theory about liberal democracy. Whereas Putins opponents are very encouraged by the election of President Biden because it shows that American democratic institutions were resilient.

To that end, Navalnys supporters wrote to Biden over the weekend urging him to take meaningful action with sanctions against members of Putins inner circle to demonstrate that hes serious about reclaiming the U.S. role as a champion of democracy.

Their argument is, If you just sanction a bunch of no-name, low-level colonels  thats exactly who Putin is expecting, McFaul said. They want the Biden administration to sanction the economic actors in the Putin regime, and theyve made it easy for the Biden administration in theyve named them all in their seven-page letter.

But Moscow chided the criticism of the Navalny verdict, with Russias deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky tweeting, A Russian citizen sentenced by Russian court in accordance with Russian laws. Who gave US the right to judge if it was wrongful or not? Wouldnt you mind your own business, gentlemen? Recent events show that there are a lot of things for you to mend!

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, drew a line from Trump to the coup in Myanmar. Trump had made baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud that were rejected by multiple courts as well as Trumps own Justice Department.

An announcement read on Myanmars military-owned Myawaddy TV explained that the seizure was necessary because the government had not acted on the militarys unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the Southeast Asian nations recent elections. The military claimed the takeover was legal under the constitution

When America speaks and acts, the world watches, and when our leaders propagate conspiracy theories and subvert democracy here at home, it sets a dangerous example for the rest of the world, Schiff said.

Adversaries such as China, Iran and Venezuela pointed to the Capitol riot as evidence of the fragility of U.S. democracy. Even some allies said the scene was unsettling and has caused them to reconsider the United States position as the self-proclaimed beacon of democracy.

After something like this, I believe it would be very difficult for the world to see the United States as a symbol of democracy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy said in an interview with Axios on HBO.

___

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

Juba  South Sudan has once again been ranked the most corrupt country in the East African region.

A 2020 report by Transparency International ranked the country the second most corrupt across the globe, followed by Somalia. Syria took the lead.

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI), ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives.

It uses a scale of 0 to 100, zero being the score for the most corrupt. A score below 50 indicates serious levels of corruption in the public sector.

In the latest report, Rwanda was ranked the least corrupt in East Africa with 54 points and was followed by Tanzania with 38, Kenya with 31, Uganda 27 and Burundi 19.

Vice widespread

In a 2019 report released by Transparency International, South Sudan was ranked the most corrupt country in East Africa followed by Burundi.

Kenya and Uganda tied in third position, while Rwanda was rated the least corrupt country in the region and the only EAC state to score above the global average rate of 43 points, after garnering 53 points.

A 2013 report about corruption in South Sudan, released by The Sentry, indicated that the vice spreads across all sectors of the economy and all levels of government.

It said that since independence, President Salva Kiir's country has taken steps to promote transparency and accountability in its fight against corruption, but that a lack of capacity, resources and political will often hampers effective implementation.

In September 2019, The Sentry published a report titled "The Taking of South Sudan", which accused regional and international companies of profiting from the conflict in the country.

It accused seven of President Kiir's immediate family members of forging partnerships with Chinese-Malaysian oil giants, British tycoons and networks of traders from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Uganda.

But Presidential Press Secretary, Ateny Wek Ateny dismissed the allegations as biased and not backed by evidence.

UN reports

In October 2020, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights accused some South Sudanese politicians and senior government officials of embezzling at least $36 million since 2016.

In December that year, The Sentry reported that some South Sudanese leaders carry out money laundering and grand corruption through networks in the United Kingdom.

According to the 2019 global Multidimensional Poverty Index from the UN Development Programme in sub-Saharan Africa, the level of inequality in South Sudan is described as "massive".

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It ranges from 6.3 per cent in South Africa to 91.9 per cent in South Sudan.

Other countries

In TI's 2020 report, Denmark and New Zealand topped the list with 88 points, followed by Finland and Singapore with 85.

The report revealed that 22 countries significantly decreased their scores, including Bosnia and Herzegovina (35), Guatemala (25), Lebanon (25), Malawi (30), Malta (53) and Poland (56).

It states that since 2012, the earliest point of comparison in the current CPI methodology, 26 countries significantly improved their CPI scores.

They include Ecuador (39), Greece (50), Guyana (41), Myanmar (28) and South Korea (61).

The global civil organisation against corruption recommended that governments take steps such as strengthening their oversight institutions, defending democracy and expanding their civic space, publishing relevant data and guaranteeing access to information.
Vienna, N.Y.  A 42-year-old man was shot during an argument Tuesday morning inside a home near Sylvan Beach, troopers said.

The accused assailant was arrested at the residence, said Trooper Jack Keller, a New York State Police spokesman. The attackers name and charges were not immediately available.

The shooting was reported at 7:09 a.m. at 7289 state Route 13, a home on the east side of Oneida Lake just outside of Sylvan Beach.

Its unclear how the gun went off. The two men were arguing when one pulled out the weapon, Keller said.

Besides the two men involved in the argument, there were two women also inside the residence, Keller said.

The man was shot in the upper torso, which is anywhere between the waist and the neck. He was taken to Oneida Hospital, then transferred to Upstate University Hospital, in Syracuse. Hes expected to survive.

Troopers remain on scene.

More information will be shared when it is available.

Staff writer Samantha House covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a question, a story idea or a comment? Reach her at shouse@syracuse.com.

I suspect that regret already is setting in among his handlers over their pick of Kamala Harris for Joe Biden's running mate. The first of what will be many clean-up efforts began yesterday for her bungling an incident eight days in office.

CNN reports:

The White House called Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin after Vice President Kamala Harris conducted interviews with West Virginia media, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation. The outreach comes after Harris' apparent move to apply pressure on Manchin frustrated the conservative Democrat, something that he made clear over the weekend.

The pressure V.P. Harris attempted to apply came in the form of an exclusive interview she granted to WSAZ TV in Huntington, W.Va. Curiously, I have been unable to locate a video clip on Rumble or YouTube or Twitter. Even WSAZ's own website is not making available what has to be one of the most newsworthy broadcast moments in the station's history.

Update: Here is a link to the interview on WSAZ. Hat tip to reader Mike.

In the interview, Harris tried to pressure the popular former governor by speaking directly to his own constituents:

On Thursday, Harris promoted the $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan in interviews with television stations in West Virginia and Arizona  states that are home to Democrats whose votes could be critical to passing Covid relief, including Manchin in West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, along with Sen. Mark Kelly, who will face re-election in the state in 2022, in Arizona. In an interview with WSAZ Thursday, Harris said she and Biden believe it's important to "work with a sense of urgency" to address the public health and economic crisis. The Vice President touted the package, saying it's "about opening schools back up in a safe way, it's about getting support for small businesses, getting relief for families." Harris also spoke about the economic situation of the West Virginia coal industry. "All of those skilled workers who are in the coal industry and transferring those skills to what we need to do in terms of dealing with reclaiming abandoned land mines; what we need to do around plugging leaks from oil and gas wells; and, transferring those important skills to the work that has yet to be done that needs to get done," she said.

I am fairly certain Harris did not mean what she literally said: that unemployed coal miners ought to hunt for unexploded land mines, one of the most horrifically dangerous occupations imaginable (and a favorite cause of Princess Di). She probably meant reclaiming old coal mines by decontamination and planting of ground cover over the sites where people used to earn a good living. But such is her arrogance that she has not admitted that she misspoke.

Manchin publicly complained (video at the link) on the same West Virginia TV station about not being consulted before being, in essence, shamed before his electorate:

"I saw [the interview], I couldn't believe it. No one called me [about it]," Manchin said. "We're going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward, but we need to work together. That's not a way of working together."

Given the 50-50 split of the Senate, the Democrats can't afford to lose Manchin's vote on any measure that won't attract Republican votes. They ought to be flattering and offering boons to him at every opportunity, not shaming him. That, apparently, never occurred to Kamala, her aides, or whatever White House staff (if any) were consulted about the interview.

So, Jen Psaki had to admit yesterday, without even her customary dodge of circling back, that someone  she would not say who  had phoned Senator Manchin about the interview, presumably to make amends. Even CNN, well connected with the Biden White House, could not even get a straight answer:

The source ["a person with knowledge of the conversation"] declined to say what the White House said to Manchin or who from the White House called him, but the call underscores the delicate balancing act President Joe Biden faces as he and Democrats try to hold a narrow Senate majority together to pass a sweeping Covid relief plan  and any other legislation this year.

I am pretty sure that this means that some heavy-duty groveling was involved. Like many people widely mocked outside their home state, West Virginians are a proud bunch and do not react well to strangers looking down their noses at them. Harris, already a wealthy Californian, whose stepdaughter just received a modeling contract that is difficult to justify on aesthetic grounds, personifies status, privilege, and arrogance.

At the time, then-senator Harris was chosen as Biden's running mate, a female who could claim Black heritage. Demographically, that was almost mandatory, given the role of the Black constituency in putting Biden over the top in the South Carolina primary and its standing as a quarter of the Dems' voting base. And, if the party were going to go with another white male at the top of the ticket, a female also was virtually mandatory in the veep slot.

But Harris has no subtlety, no finesse. She got her start in politics by sleeping with the (married) most powerful politician in California, and since then, she has risen through the hierarchy of public offices based on identity politics and personal pull in a one-party state.

With Biden's physical and mental health questionable, she has a good chance to become the first female POTUS without being elected to the office. Cleaning up after her messes then, in the hands of her chosen staff of lackeys, may be costly to all of us, not just to her dignity.

Caricature by Donkey Hotey (cropped), CC BY 2.0 license.
Anya Pratskevich had Hawaiis colorful underwater world of tropical fish, coral reefs and crystal clear water all to herself.

You guys are so lucky! her snorkeling instructor at Oahus Hanauma Bay said. There used to be a 100-person line here, but today its only six or seven people.

With fewer visitors nowadays, the San Francisco product marketing managers first time snorkeling in Oahu this past December turned into a semi-private tour of the famed crescent-shaped nature preserve.

Pratskevich, along with her husband, rented a condo on the island for a month in December to take advantage of their ability to work remotely and explore the capital of the Hawaiian islands.

Anya Pratskevich/Courtesy

On their hikes, they encountered far fewer tourists than they did on other islands during pre-pandemic times.

I wouldnt call it a typical Hawaii experience, she said. It was a different vibe.

Despite reopening to tourism in mid-October by allowing visitors to bypass lengthy mandatory quarantines through negative COVID-19 tests, recovery for Hawaiis tourism industry is moving at a sluggish pace. Stay-at-home orders, post-travel quarantines and surging COVID-19 infections in core markets for the islands, like the Bay Area and Los Angeles, are keeping many visitors away.

It had some severe impact, said Anneke Marchese, a travel planner who specializes in vacations to the islands. It really devastated my Hawaii business. I had nothing on the books.

Airlines are taking notice too, with some carriers pulling back on flights in the coming months.

Southwest Airlines removed two nonstop flights from Lihue to Oakland and San Jose, Calif., through June because visitation [on Kauai] remains effectively suspended by restrictions, an airline spokesperson said. Yet, we continue to offer an ability for essential travel and movement of critical supplies through inter-island flying between Lihue and Honolulu, which is connected several times daily nonstop to the Bay Area.

United Airlines suspended its nonstop flight between Newark, N.J., and Honolulu through February. A United spokesperson said the suspension was made to match capacity with customer demand but anticipated the flight would resume operating soon.

On Uniteds flights between San Francisco International Airport and Hawaii, demand is meeting our expectations at this time, the airline said.

United remains bullish on the Bay Area to Hawaii market. It plans to reinstate a third daily flight between SFO and Honolulu in February and fly a larger Boeing 777-200 jet on one of its several daily flights to Maui. Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines also fly between all three Bay Area airports and Hawaii.

Marchese said her bookings to Hawaii are improving after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a negative COVID-19 test requirement for international travelers arriving in the U.S. Vacationers are switching planned beach getaways in Mexico for places in Hawaii out of fear that theyll be stranded abroad if they test positive.

Overall, our sense is that there is still good demand to the Hawaii market, said SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel. He said demand dipped a bit in December because of health orders and travel advisories recommending people stay home.

In its annual economic forecast released in December, the University of Hawaiis Economic Research Organization said the state would face a bleak winter.

Visitor arrivals in November, the first full month of the Safe Travels program, increased to less than one quarter of their level a year earlier, the authors noted. They add, In our baseline forecast scenario, visitor arrivals will stagnate in the near term due to the mainland surge in COVID-19 cases and the tightening of Hawaii quarantine rules.

Tourism is forecast to pick up in the latter half of 2021, once more people get vaccinated and confidence picks up for leisure travel, according to the report. Full recovery probably wont happen for years, even under the most optimistic scenarios.

The drive to see Hawaiis tourism sector recover is competing with an opposing sentiment: Residents of Hawaii really arent eager to see visitors come back.

Nearly two-thirds of state residents surveyed by the Hawaii Tourism Authority responded that people from outside the state should not be visiting Hawaii right now. Meanwhile, 62% of respondents disagreed with the idea that its state and local governments would be able to reopen the islands safely.

Its a double-edged sword, Marchese said. You dont want to have the wrong kind of tourists thats bringing their drama and problems, but at the same time you have a family feed. Its a large conundrum.

Tim Jue writes about travel and the airlines. Follow him on Twitter @timjue.
COVID-19 Policy

UNESCO Promotes Safe Reopening of Schools; Putting Teachers Up Front for Vaccines

UNESCO, the United Nations agency responsible for education, and Education International, the global federation of education unions, has made a plea for schools worldwide to reopen "safely" and to keep them open "as long as possible." That would require that teachers and others working in schools be considered part of a "priority 1" group for vaccines. The comments came during By UNESCO's recent International Day of Education, which took place online.

According to tracking by UNESCO, at least half of the world's student population--more than 800 million students--are continuing to face disruptions in their studies. Schools are fully closed in 31 countries and reduced to part-time schedules in another 48 countries. Those continued closures in response to COVID-19 are generating a learning loss of about two-thirds of an academic year, on average, the agency estimated, even taking into account delivery of virtual learning.

An interactive map with daily updates on the UNESCO website showed that schools have been fully closed for an average of 14 weeks since the beginning of the current pandemic, and that rose to 22 weeks when taking into account localized school closures. At its height, 190 countries had undergone country-wide closures; now schools are fully open in 101 countries.

"Prolonged and repeated closures of educational institutions are taking a rising psycho-social toll on students, increasing learning losses and the risk of dropping out, disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable," said Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, in a statement. "Full school closures must therefore be a last resort and reopening them safely a priority."

In a video, David Edwards, general secretary of Education International, emphasized that "schools are irreplaceable. Reopening schools and education institutions safely and keeping them open as long as possible is an imperative."

"In this context, as we see positive developments regarding vaccination, we believe that teachers and education support personnel must be considered a priority group," Azoulay added in that same video. The number of people in that priority group, according to a UNESCO count, was about 100 million.

Azoulay also urged world leaders to commit to financial recovery packages "to reopen schools safely, targeting those most in need and setting education back on track for the COVID-19 generation."

Worldwide, education has received less than one percent (0.78 percent) of relief funding, according to UNESCO data published in 2020. Aid to education was on target to decline by 12 percent as a result of the economic fallout of the pandemic, the agency stated. UNESCO researchers have suggested that upfront investment in catch-up and remedial programs would "save money down the line" by as much as 75 percent by reducing the expense of repairing the damage caused by COVID-19.
Combining the Sputnik and Oxford vaccines could offer the best protection against Covid-19 mutations, scientists suggested yesterday.

One dose of each may boost the immune response and better combat the changing strains, according to the funding body behind the Russia-made jab.

Trial results out yesterday show Sputnik is 92 per cent effective against Covid-19 after two jabs. Only 16 of 16,500 people given it had symptoms. No one died from the disease or needed hospital treatment.

Kirill Dmitriev, of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said combining it with the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab could help.

Oxford's AstraZeneca jab is given to an elderly woman at a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, yesterday

The funding body behind Russia's Sputnik V vaccine said yesterday that mixing it with Oxford's AstraZeneca jab could help offer enhanced protection against the virus

We generally believe that two shots of different vaccines AstraZeneca and Sputnik  may actually work better because immunity gets stronger, he told BBC Radio 4s World At One.

This idea, called heterogeneous boosting, is at the core of the Sputnik vaccine because we use two different shots and believe this is the best way to fight with mutations, and this also fosters a partnership between different vaccine manufacturers.

Asked whether the UK had contacted RDIF about acquiring some of the vaccine, Mr Dmitriev said: Not yet, but I think once we have proven the efficacy of an AstraZeneca-Sputnik combination, I think it is possible to have this discussion with the UK.

A November 2020 file photo shows vials of Oxford's AstraZeneca vaccine

Russia became the first country to register a Covid vaccine for emergency use back in August, despite it only having been tested on a handful of people.

Scientists say the findings  published in The Lancet  show it has joined the ranks of Pfizer, Oxford, Moderna and Janssen as a proven effective vaccine.

The Russian vaccine, which works in the same way as the Oxford jab, was found to be 74 per cent effective at blocking Covid after just a single dose and worked for all ages. In a comment published with the paper, Professor Ian Jones, of the University of Reading, said: The Sputnik V vaccine has been criticised for unseemly haste, corner cutting, and an absence of transparency.

But the outcome reported here is clear and the scientific principle of vaccination is demonstrated, which means another vaccine can now join the fight to reduce the incidence of Covid-19.

Dr Julian Tang, a clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, added: Despite the earlier misgivings about the way this Russian vaccine was rolled out more widely... this approach has been justified to some extent now.
Germany said it plans to complete the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipeline project despite opposition from France over Moscows jailing of opposition figure Alexey Navalny.

The stance of the German government "has not changed" in recent days, deputy government spokeswoman Martina Fietz said, after Frances secretary of state for Europe Clement Beaune asked Germany to halt the project.

A spokesman for Germanys Federal Foreign Office in Berlin told Die Welt that although the project is going ahead, the German government was aware of the French position and having a "very close exchange" with Paris on the pipeline issue.

Work resumed on Nord Stream 2 in December after being on hold for almost a year because of American sanctions.
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Members of the union of delivery service workers under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) hold a press conference in front of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) office in Seoul, Tuesday, before submitting a petition against apartments and buildings, claiming that they have been treating delivery workers unfairly. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



Delivery workers filed a petition with the state human rights watchdog against more than 80 residential and office buildings, Tuesday, claiming that "unfair" regulations such as forcing the workers to use freight elevators have infringed on their rights.



The union of delivery service workers under the progressive Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) asked the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) to investigate 83 apartments and other buildings that are mostly located in Seoul.



"Delivery workers have played an important role in enabling people to use contactless services in the COVID-19 era, but the workers' own human rights have not been guaranteed," a union official said during a press conference held in front of the commission building.



"We urge the commission to thoroughly investigate the internal regulations of those buildings, and come up with measures to protect the human rights of delivery workers."



The union went on to list 76 apartment buildings, including 32 high-priced ones in Seoul's Gangnam District and 17 in Seocho District, in addition to seven commercial buildings. The seven other buildings included the head offices of two large companies in Yongsan District and Jung District, and a shopping mall complex on Yeouido.



According to the union, some of the buildings have forced delivery workers to use freight elevators, expressing concerns that the smell of food could be displeasing to residents.



Others have been treating delivery workers like "potential criminals," forcing them to take off their helmets and even jackets when entering the buildings. When a delivery worker asked why he had to take off his jacket, he was told, "You could be hiding a weapon in your jacket," according to the union.



"What has enraged us more was the fact that these cases occurred more often at high-priced buildings. This amounts to a modern-day caste system," the union official said.



The union is planning to operate a center to help them handle more reports of unfair treatment. It will also push to have a conversation with food delivery platforms such as Baedal Minjok and Yogiyo as well as resident representatives of the buildings in question in order to address the problems directly.



The union submitted the petition a day after another union representing gig workers of food delivery apps submitted a separate petition online to the human rights watchdog against 103 apartment buildings.



Rider Union has created a list of 103 apartment buildings across the country after receiving reports from delivery workers.



Cases included luxury apartment buildings in Gangnam District forcing delivery riders to deliver food on foot, so as to avoid noise from motorcycles.



"It takes twice as long when we deliver food on foot," a Rider Union member said.


A Houston man was sentenced Monday to nearly 42 years in prison following a Christmas week robbery spree in 2017, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Robert Charles Wooten, 43, was convicted after a two-day trial on five counts of interference with commerce by robbery and five related charges of using, carrying or brandishing a firearm in connection with a violent crime.

In one robbery, Wooten enlisted the help of his son, who unknowingly drove him to what would become a crime scene, authorities said.

U.S. District Judge Lynn H. Hughes on Monday handed Wooten a combined 80-month sentence on the robbery charges. Wooten also received a 420-month sentence for the gun-related charges.

At the hearing, the court noted that although his prior offenses were not violent in nature, Wooten is a menace to society, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The first in the string of robberies occurred Christmas Day 2017 at a Walgreens on Little York. Over the next five days, Wooten also robbed three Metro PCS stores, Bayou Pawn on Shepherd and a Family Dollar on Tidwell -- all located near his residence, officials said.

Wooten would wear makeup, cream or bandages to help cover his distinct facial tattoos when he entered the businesses. Among his tattoos, his social security number is inked on his forehead, Houston police previously told KPRC-TV.

In the Walgreens robbery, Wooten waited in line before demanding that the cashier place cigarettes and money into a duffel bag.

On Dec. 29, Wooten entered Bayou Pawn, where he was a frequent customer, and acted as if he wanted to sell a bicycle. Once an employee approached Wooten, he pushed a gun into the employees side and demanded money, authorities said.

The manager had been watching from another room. He confronted Wooten when he saw him put his hands on the employee, without realizing Wooten intended to rob the store, authorities said.

Wooten acted as if nothing was wrong and asked the manager to come outside and look at the bicycle. Someone at the store then called the police.

That same day, Wooten asked his son to drive him to a Metro PCS store. When they arrived, the son walked into a nearby Family Dollar. A short time later, Wooten poked his head in the store and told his son they needed to leave immediately, authorities said.

Wootens son got in the car, but noticed people taking photos of him, his dad and his vehicle, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. He asked Wooten about it, but he just ordered his son to drive.

The son later notified authorities when he learned his dad had robbed the store.

Wooten was identified by his makeup and similar items used during the robberies. Several victims also identified him.

Wooten will remain in custody pending a transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.

The Houston Police Department and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jill Stotts and Erin Epley are prosecuting the case.

julian.gill@chron.com
Advocacy for stakeholders, stewardship of public space, economic development planning, business recruitment and retainment, and events and marketing.

These are the five pillars of the Flemington Community Partnership, a business improvement district that seeks to foster a thriving business community in Flemington. And over the course of 2021, the nonprofit organization hopes to advance these pillars by accomplishing a multitude of different goals.

The partnership recently received an honorable mention from Downtown New Jersey as part of its annual awards program for its multi-pronged marketing campaign to encourage people to shop and eat downtown.

Recently, the partnership played a role in orchestrating Wednesday evenings community action plan meeting, for which input from borough residents, neighboring communities, business and property owners was sought to shape a draft plan document for the revitalization of the boroughs downtown environment.

The Community Action Plan is funded by the $100,000 Opportunity Zone grant awarded by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in November 2019, which the Flemington Opportunity Zone Partnership applied for earlier last year. In December, the borough announced its decision to hire Stantec, an international global design firm, to reinvent the boroughs business districts and improve its overall walkability and livability through gathering extensive community input.

Wednesdays meeting marked one of numerous sessions that have been held as a result of this action, and the last to be held prior to the release of a draft plan document by the project team.

Robin Lapidus, executive director of the Flemington Community Partnership, said the plan must be completed and submitted to the NJEDA by March.

Describing the meeting, which was virtually attended by dozens from in and beyond the Flemington community, as high level and high energy, Lapidus expressed her belief that a sort of consensus was built around how to best guide the borough into the future.

We really felt that getting to consensus, getting the community to agree on what kind of community we want to be in the future, was the most important thing we can do, Lapidus said. Some other opportunity zones in New Jersey are a three-block tract of streets, or parcels of land, but all of Flemington  the entire 1.4 square mile borough  is an opportunity zone. So every corner of our borough is there for us to look at for potential opportunity zone development.

Caitlin Giles-McCormick, Borough Council president and liaison to the Flemington Community Partnership, called the meeting productive in enhancing the level of conversation in community.

People were honest, Giles-McCormick said. Each of the sessions that weve done have had a different kind of feel to them, and I think thats been actually really good. This one had more conversations around diversity, public goods, wanting to make sure we keep the arts space thats here with Flemington DIY  all stuff that I think we agree on, but as we tease out these conversations and have more of them, that wish list for Flemington grows.

Flemington DIY, an arts organization located at 90 Main St., is relocating soon in coordination with the Courthouse Square redevelopment project, which began renovations in November and was approved by the borough in fall 2020. Site plans for the latest scaled-back project will be reviewed in a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 9.

18 Renovations begin at Union Hotel in Flemington

Paul Marciano, chair for the Flemington Community Partnership, reflected on the contentiousness that has long surrounded the redevelopment plan while emphasizing the success of the meeting.

Five, four, three, even two years ago, there was a lot of conflict in Flemington about what to do with the whole Union Hotel and the project. So my experience has been, as of last night  there was always a lot of passion, but there wasnt as much enthusiasm in terms of what the opportunities and the possibilities were going forward, Marciano said. I think we were as a community busy just tripping each other. And now its like, Alright, lets do this!

(The partnership) spent a lot of time figuring out what we really wanted to be; not just a business partner, but we wanted to partner with our community and with the surrounding communities, and thats a philosophy that Stantec is bringing, Marciano added. For me anyway, thats just a really important part of this process, because what we dont want to have is developers coming in and saying, Were going to do this; were going to do that because it makes sense for the finance people. It should actually make sense for our community as well.

In recognizing the progress of the Courthouse Square project, Marciano underscored the partnerships intention to continue prioritizing the input of the Flemington community and its businesses as redevelopment advances.

The Courthouse Square project, theres going to be some level of disruption. So as the FCP, we are definitely going to work hard to take care of those existing businesses that are going to be impacted, Marciano said. We very clearly want to support developers once they have already been approved  we survey our stakeholders to death because we want to know their opinions, and they have in very large part ... the vast majority of existing business owners support this project and development in general.

Echoing Marciano, Lapidus said the focus of the partnership now and as the borough changes is for our business areas to thrive, to be exemplary, and to really make sense.

I feel like the FCPs role is to really help and assist and work closely with our council and our planning board, and provide as much assistance as we can, Lapidus said. However, our interests our in commercial and business development, so we want to be sure that whatever economic planning takes place, that it really takes the business community into consideration, and it improves their ability to do business, and it also improves our ability to be a commercial destination for the region.

Since the coronavirus pandemic swept across New Jersey in mid-March, over a dozen Flemington businesses have closed. However, the majority of these businesses were part of a national chain and only a few that closed were located on Main Street, according to Lapidus.

Marciano credits the resilience of the boroughs Main Street to Flemington being a town that really does care enormously about their small business owners.

FCP, from pretty early on, we were just 100% behind our small businesses and doing whatever we can, Marciano said. One of the things we really pushed for was to buy gift certificates just to help cash flow. And I know several landlords suspended or greatly reduced peoples rent.

Lapidus said that approximately $21 million in loans and $667,000 in grants were awarded to Flemington businesses this past year to help keep them afloat. This was partly because of the efforts of the partnerships efforts to encourage business owners to apply for financial assistance, according to Lapidus.

We shifted gears, and instead of doing events and other things  which we couldnt do anyway  we really spent all of our energy on helping them find grants and loans, Lapidus said. And we sent reminders every time a new loan was opening so they were prepared, and it took some encouragement ... our small businesses were not in the habit of applying for grants and loans, so its really new to them. "

Some of the grants and loans took more businesses in in opportunity zone areas than in another area. So it gave our businesses a little more of an edge, to believe that if they applied, they might get the assistance. And they did, she added.

Beyond altering priorities to support small businesses throughout the borough, the organization also committed much of its time this past year to updating the Invest Local section of its website, which Lapidus said will continue to evolve throughout the coming year.

Weve always had a lot of events and a lot of listings for our businesses, and a lot of marketing and promotions, but this year we added a commercial property locator, Lapidus said. So all of the businesses and buildings and parcels that are available in Flemington are right on our website.

Were also adding a photojournalism area of photo albums so we can document some of the commercial buildings that are changing, like the filling station ... which will hopefully someday soon be a wonderful restaurant.

She added the partnership wants to enhance its business recruitment process to further build the boroughs economy.

We want to do the kind of recruitment that we havent necessarily done before, where were really going to other towns and looking at different types of businesses that are doing well in other places and seeing who really would fit and trying to match them with property owners, Lapidus said. At this moment in time, most of our property owners are still willing to negotiate good deals with tenants, and its exciting.

Downtown FlemingtonCourtesy

Another immediate goal of the organization is to clarify parking signage throughout the borough.

We want to find ways to connect the Liberty Village area to Main Street in a way that will provide some attraction, but also really solve a problem we have  which is that our business areas dont always make sense to people coming to town, Lapidus said. Weve done several walk-throughs with several of our vested partners, police, DPW, town engineer, and we have a few more people to take on the walk of parking communications, so we will improve our signage.

The partnership wants to bring our history back to the streets by creating interpretative panels with paths throughout the borough.

We have such a rich history of innovation and agriculture and in the arts ...and we have an absolutely fantastic historical home and building walking tour, and anybody who takes that map and takes that tour would be richly rewarded. But theres other aspects of our history that might make for a great walking path or biking riding path with arts and history sown in, Lapidus said.

Looking forward, Marciano labeled the greatest challenge ahead for the organization to be bringing the 300-year-old infrastructure of the borough into the future to attract more youth and vibrancy.

Part of what makes change difficult is the more nebulous it is, the less fact-based and emotional-based, the more difficult it is, Marciano said. Theres a trend toward younger people wanting to live in a walkable downtown, which is what we have and were even making more so. Thats really a big part of our focus. So taking a look at those demographic community trends over the next five or ten years, and then using that to inform the kind of developers that we bring and what were looking for.

Reflecting upon what she personally feels the partnerships greatest impending obstacles to be, Lapidus simply responded that shes a cockeyed optimist  while also acknowledging that theres always conflicts in change.

Change is about causing a little bit of friction; its about moving forward and taking some risks, Lapidus said. And I think that theres always the potential for conflict, but Im really optimistic that we can get through this ... and make really good decisions for the future of Flemington.

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Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com.

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High school students at private and government schools seemed excited about meeting their classmates after the long gap.  DC Image

Hyderabad: After almost 11 months, students stepped out with books and bags in hand, as over 14,000 high schools, about 2,500 junior colleges and over 1,000 graduate and postgraduate colleges started physical classes on Monday. Students and teachers obliged the mask mandate, a new normal at educational institutions, and maintained social distance.

As per data released by the education department on Monday, the total attendance stood at 45 per cent for Classes 9 and 10.

High school students at private and government schools seemed excited about meeting their classmates after the long gap. Parents felt confident in sending kids to school.

"We are scared of catching the virus, but more excited to be able to see our friends and get back to the routine of school life after such a long time", said a Class 9 student from Hyderabad Public School.

At Johnson Grammar School and government schools in East Marredpally and Lalapet, among others, students were seen chatting with each other while keeping a safe distance between themselves during the breaks.

Sophia Reena Leo, Principal of Johnson Grammar School, Nacharam, said, "We did not expect such a huge turn-out on the first day itself. The parents came to drop their kids and even took a tour of the premises to ensure the safety of their child. I think they went back satisfied."

Schools have set up special time tables to accommodate both in-person and online classes. There is also a system at some schools where each class batch has been allotted alternate days to attend online and physical classes.

Minu Salooja, assistant director, Glendale Academy, said the response among parents was picking up and several have consented to sitting for physical exams. She added that it is likely that in the coming weeks, more students will come to school considering the positive response on the first day.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 02:16:19|Editor: huaxia

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A medical worker receives an injection with a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at the Spallanzani Hospital in Rome, Italy, Dec. 27, 2020. (Photo by Andrea Sabbadini/Xinhua)

The vaccines approved so far by the EU are from U.S.-German joint venture Pfizer and BioNTech, British-Swedish multinational AstraZeneca, and Moderna from the United States.

A senior European Commission official told Xinhua that the slowdown showed the need to have access to vaccines beyond the three already in the pipeline.

ROME, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's (EU) vaccine rollout plan has been thrown into disarray after the manufacturers of all three vaccines approved for use in Europe warned countries of delivery delays over the coming weeks and months.

The announcements prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday to call an emergency meeting with regional leaders and vaccine makers. Italy is mulling a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that have failed to honor vaccine supply schedules.

Spain and France said on Friday that they would have to delay new first-dose injections for as long as two weeks to ensure that those who received their first dose can get the second, and Portugal said last week that the completion of its first-dose vaccinations could be delayed by up to two months.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said in a statement last week that he supported the use of "all legal means and enforcement measures at our disposal under the (EU) Treaties ... to ensure effective vaccine production and supply for our population."

A registration sign for the vaccination against COVID-19 is seen at the entrance of the University hospital of Essen in Essen, Germany, Jan. 18, 2021. (Photo by Tang Ying/Xinhua)

The vaccines approved so far by the EU are from U.S.-German joint venture Pfizer and BioNTech, British-Swedish multinational AstraZeneca, and Moderna from the United States.

Pfizer and BioNTech said on Monday they would deliver more than two billion doses globally this year rather than 1.3 billion as previously announced, including an extra 75 million doses for the European countries between April and June. AstraZeneca said it would supply an extra nine million doses of its vaccine by March, though this will still leave the company well below its original target. Neither increase is expected to have a big impact in the short term.

Health sector analysts said the delays create serious problems on multiple fronts.

"The most immediate impact comes from the thousands of European Union residents dying each day and the tens of thousands infected each day due to the coronavirus," Silvio Garattini, a research scientist and former director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, told Xinhua. "But even more problematic is that the longer the virus is in circulation the more variants will evolve."

Some variants that have evolved so far have earned headlines, including those detected in Brazil, the United Kingdom and South Africa. But Garattini said that more than 30,000 different variants have been recorded so far, with more emerging every day.

A medical worker is seen at a temporary vaccination center on the first day of its opening, in Clichy, France, Jan. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

A few of these variants are "weaker than the ones we have already seen," Garattini said, but others "will be more deadly or more transmissible. Therefore we have to act urgently to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible, not only in Europe but globally."

More than 3.5 million vaccine doses had been sent to Germany, of which 2.2 million were already used as of last Friday, according to German Minister of Health Jens Spahn. So far, 2.2 percent of the German population has received their first vaccination.

Italy, with nearly 1.6 million and Spain with nearly 1.4 million, were next, followed by France with 1.1 million. No other EU member state had topped one million, though Poland is expected to pass that figure this week.

On a per-capita basis, states with smaller populations led the way, with Malta, Denmark and Ireland the only member states to have distributed at least one vaccine dose to at least three percent of their populations.

The trend is similar for those who have already received two full doses of the vaccine. Belgium, with more than two percent of its population fully vaccinated (a stage that requires two doses within a fixed period), is the leader in that category by a larger margin. The Czech Republic and Denmark are the only other countries to have fully vaccinated at least 0.5 percent of their population, though Italy is also nearing this milestone.

A medical worker prepares an injection with a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at the Spallanzani Hospital in Rome, Italy, Dec. 27, 2020. (Photo by Andrea Sabbadini/Xinhua)

In an e-mailed response to questions from Xinhua, a senior European Commission official said the slowdown showed the need to have access to vaccines beyond the three already in the pipeline.

"Europe needs a broad portfolio of vaccine candidates based on different technological approaches in order to maximize the chances of quickly developing, manufacturing and deploying a vaccine for all Europeans," said the official, who preferred to remain anonymous.

In the same vein, the President of Italy's Higher Health Council Franco Locatelli and virologist Matteo Bassetti last week called for Italy to start using Sputnik V, a vaccine developed in Russia, and urged the evaluation of vaccines manufactured in China.

For now, Hungary is the only EU member state that has authorized the use of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine and the Russian vaccine.

"There are more than 60 vaccines in clinical trials and we should be studying all of them," Garattini said.

A total of 236 candidate vaccines are still 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 the World Health Organization on Jan. 26. 
A stepson has been remanded in custody on attempted murder charges after he allegedly kicked his elderly stepfather in the face and ran him down with a car.

The incident began at the pair's family home in Telopea, western Sydney, on Sunday afternoon when Mark Morgan, 30, allegedly assaulting the 70-year-old man inside the house.

Morgan then allegedly dragged his stepfather outside onto the property's nature strip and kicked him in the face before driving off.

Police say he then drove back to the home and allegedly hit the victim with his car.

The impact of the collision threw the 70-year-old at least three metres and knocked him unconscious. He remains in hospital.

Mark Morgan has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly dragging his elderly stepfather down a driveway and attempting to mow him down

Morgan then allegedly fled on foot to a Carlingford home where he smashed furniture and a window, causing $50,000 worth of damage, and was arrested at the house after a brief struggle with police.

He was duly charged with domestic violence-related attempted murder, as well as break and enter and police assault offences.

Morgan on Tuesday faced Hornsby Local Court, where he did not apply for bail, which was formally refused by magistrate Carl Milovanovich.

He'll next face Parramatta Local Court on March 25.

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Morgan allegedly dragged his stepfather outside onto the property's nature strip and kicked him in the face
The Chief Executive Officer for the Accra Digital Center Kofi Ofosu Nkansah has said that any politician who desires to go very far must empower young people in every sphere. He said selfish people in politics will never succeed.



According to him, as a politician, you should always have the wellbeing of the people around you at heart because that is how youll succeed.



Citing President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as an example, he indicated that he was cut to succeed because he had the people who were closer to him at heart and ensured that they achieved greatness in their careers and in politics.



He said in a post he shared on Facebook that In Politics, if you want to grow, one of your first checklists should be how you treat those in your immediate surroundings. If you cant treat your own office staff well and you want to chop big post, 3nfa. I know someone who wanted to be a Presidential candidate and even his own driver was saying behind him he is P33p33 so people shouldnt vote for him.



You see how the President has mentored and tutored many who came into contact with him both in his Law Practice and Politics?



He was always going to succeed with such a kind heart. You cant succeed Politically if you are selfish. Charity, they say, begins at home.









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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Similar to Chicagos earlier decision to stick with stricter restrictions than allowed by the state, Cook County officials said Tuesday they plan to keep some rules in place that are tighter than state guidelines, including the indoor gathering limit of up to 25 people or 25% of room capacity. Restaurants will still be allowed parties of only up to 6 people, as long as tables remain six feet apart. Also, indoor playgrounds and trampoline parks remain closed while museums and zoos remain limited to 25% capacity.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 2)  The countrys outstanding debt slightly fell at the end of 2020 after the government settled more of its domestic loans.

The Treasury Bureau reported on Tuesday total government loans stood at 9.795 trillion, 3.3% less than the 10.13 trillion logged in November. However, it was 26.7% higher than the debt stock at end-2019, with the increase driven by the funding demands of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The end-Decembers figure was close to the expected 10.16 trillion total outstanding debt by the end of 2020 posted earlier by the Budget Departments data.

Debts to local sources amounted to 6.694 trillion at end-2020, 6.9% lower than the level in November primarily due to the repayment of the 540 billion provisional advances from BSP, the bureau said.

The central bank earlier approved the national governments request for a short-term 540 billion loan to support its funding needs as the countrys budget deficit continued to balloon due to spendings incurred to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, external loans reached 3.1 billion as of end-December, 5.4% higher from the month prior. Net availment of foreign debts reached 151.43 billion, which included the newly issued Republic of the Philippines bonds worth 132.06 billion.

[T]he appreciation in third-currency denominated loans added 10.67 billion to the peso value of external obligations, said the bureau, while appreciation of the peso trimmed 3.91 billion.

The government has resorted to foreign and local sources to secure funds for its measures to confront the health crisis. With this, the countrys outstanding loans are now equivalent to 54.5% of the local economy, a far cry from the 39.6% debt-to-GDP ratio recorded at end-2019.

This resulted from the higher financing requirement to address the pandemic alongside a 9.5% contraction in the economy for the year, the bureau explained.

In mid-2020, the Finance Department said the government would keep national borrowings at half the size of the economy to allay worries the Philippines will drown in debt. Meanwhile, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno earlier said its still manageable to keep the debt-to-GDP ratio at 60 percent or lower.

In a market report, RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort said national debt could still go up in the coming months. This is in view of the recent borrowings by the government, both commercial and multilateral/official development assistance (ODA); partly to finance various COVID-19 programs, he said, also including additional loans to fund the purchases of vaccine doses.

The governments payment guarantees also went up as of end-2020 by 15.52 billion, 3.5% higher than end-Novembers figures. The bureau attributed this to the net availment of domestic guarantees amounting to 27.52 billion, with third currency adjustment adding 1.47 billion to external guarantees peso value.

These more than offset the 0.29 billion effect of local currency appreciation and 13.18 billion net repayment of external guarantees, the Treasury Bureau added.
A beekeeper trying to bring 15 million bees into the UK has been told they could be seized and burned because of post-Brexit laws.

Patrick Murfet wants to import the baby Italian bees for his Kent business and to help farmers pollinate valuable crops.

But new laws that came into effect after the UK left the single market mean bringing bees into the country is banned.

Since the end of the transition period, only queen bees can be imported into Great Britain, rather than colonies and packages of bees.

Mr Murfet, a beekeeper of 20 years, has already paid a deposit of about 20,000 for the bees and stands to lose nearly 100,000 in costs alone if he cannot bring them into the country.

This comes as Brexit checks on animal and food products arriving at ports in Northern Ireland are suspended amid 'an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks'.

Import inspections at Belfast and Larne were stopped 'with immediate effect' last night as Stormont's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) assessed risk to workers at the sites.

Beekeeper Patrick Murfet checks the bees in some of his hives in an orchard near Canterbury in Kent

Mr Murfet has been told the 15 million bees he wants to bring into the UK for next spring may be seized and destroyed

The EU rules causing a headache for beekeepers The Bees Act 1980 is an Act of Parliament which governs the import and keeping of bees. When bees are imported from outside the EU they must be presented at an approved Border Inspection Post (BIP). In the UK, the only approved BIPs are Heathrow and Gatwick airports where the health certificates and paper checks will be dealt with by Defra veterinary inspectors before being conveyed through. Prior to the end of the transition period, bee importers were able to import colonies, packages and queen bees into the UK. Since the end of the transition period, only queen bees can be imported into Great Britain. The import of packages of bees from third countries to Great Britain is prohibited. In 2020 the UK imported 21,405 queens, 1,882 packages, and 363 colonies from the EU. The UK is not self-sufficient in honey production and estimates suggest that less than 20% of the total sold in the UK is produced domestically. DEFRA says it is the responsibility of the importer to ensure that goods dispatched from Northern Ireland meet the definition of NI qualifying goods or meet import requirements. Advertisement

Confusion over whether bees can be brought in via Northern Ireland has caused a legal headache.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it is working with the devolved administrations to find a solution.

'I am a passionate beekeeper, I've been doing it for nearly 20 years,' Mr Murfet said.

He is managing director of Bee Equipment, based near Canterbury, and every year he imports large numbers of bees from breeders in Italy, where the climate is warmer.

For decades, bees have been imported to replenish stocks, strengthen breeding lines and as early-awakening pollinators for fruit and honey farms in the UK.

But the new ban could put this in jeopardy, Mr Murfet said.

'It's a monumentally stupid situation for a country supposed to be standing on its own two feet and exporting round the world.'

In an effort to avoid the import ban and abide by the new laws, Mr Murfet arranged for his usual importation of 15 million bees to arrive via Northern Ireland in April, but said he has been told they may be destroyed if he tries.

He added: 'I don't care what they think it should say. At present the rules are clear that bees from Northern Ireland can enter the UK legally.

'If the law intended something else, they have not written it into legislation.'

He says his enquiries into the reasoning behind the ban on imported bees have been met with a wall of silence.

He claims he has merely been sent an email reading: 'Illegal imports will be sent back or destroyed, and enforcement action (criminal charges) will be brought against the importer.'

He added: 'So far the department has overseen a policy whereby the UK is only one of three countries in Europe to see a decline in bee colonies.

'Fewer honeybees means less pollination, less top fruits and more imports.'

Mr Murfet said: 'It's a monumentally stupid situation for a country supposed to be standing on its own two feet and exporting round the world.'

In an effort to avoid the import ban and abide by the new laws, Mr Murfet arranged for his usual importation of 15 million bees to arrive via Northern Ireland in April, but said he has been told they may be destroyed if he tries

Defra said bee health is a devolved matter and it is working to find a solution.

A department spokesperson said it will provide guidance to bee importers and beekeepers as soon as possible.

It is the responsibility of the importer to ensure that goods dispatched from Northern Ireland meet the definition of NI qualifying goods or meet import requirements, they added.

NI border checks are halted over 'loyalist threats': Council staff making Brexit inspections on food heading from Great Britain to Ulster are withdrawn after 'menacing' graffiti warning 'No Irish Sea border'

All Brexit checks on animal and food products arriving at ports in Northern Ireland have been suspended over threatening loyalist behaviour.

Import inspections at Belfast and Larne were stopped 'with immediate effect' last night as Stormont's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) assessed risk to workers at the sites.

The decision came after a local council decided to remove 12 of its staff at Larne port due to 'an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks'.

A Daera spokesman said: 'On the basis of information received today and pending further discussions with the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland), Daera has decided in the interests of the wellbeing of staff to temporarily suspend physical inspections of products of animal origin at Larne and Belfast.

'The situation will be kept under review and in the meantime full documentary checks will continue to be carried out as usual.'

The implementation of the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, a system of Irish Sea regulatory and customs checks required under the terms of the Brexit divorce deal, has inflamed community tensions.

Politicians on both sides have appealed for calm, with the DUP warning that 'all threats must be condemned'.

Animal and food product inspections at Northern Ireland's Belfast and Larne ports were stopped 'with immediate effect' last night over safety fears for staff

The decision came after a local council agreed to remove 12 of its staff at Larne port due to 'an upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks'.

Last month graffiti appeared near to the ports, with one message saying 'No Irish sea border' and another 'Ulster sold out!'.

Another also referenced tensions about the impact of the Northern Ireland Protocol and describing all port staff as 'targets'.

There have also been a number of daubings in Belfast amid anger at the protocol, with a raft of new checks on goods arriving at ports from Great Britain introduced at the start of the year.

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council said the situation had caused 'extreme distress and worry to staff' and it had 'no option but to withdraw them from their duties in order to fulfil its duty of care and carry out a full risk assessment with the PSNI, Food Standards Agency and Daera'.

It apologised for any disruption but said 'the safety and wellbeing of staff is of paramount importance'.

In addition to fears over graffiti, it is understood staff expressed concerns that individuals had been spotted taking down number plate details.

Outgoing Stormont minister Edwin Poots said 'it is a time for calm heads and a time for wise behaviour' as he warned the protocol had 'certainly created a lot of tension in the community'.

The senior Democratic Unionist, who stepped down at midnight ahead of undergoing cancer treatment, said: 'Ultimately the people who are doing their jobs, who are going to their work, are not their enemies.

'They are people who are simply carrying out a job, whether it is the Department of Agriculture, the local council or Food Standards Agency.'

The former agriculture minister added: 'Those people should be allowed to do their jobs in peace. Any threat against them should be withdrawn and allow people to carry on their duties.'

Loyalists are angry at the imposition of a new economic border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The suspension of checks came as focus on the protocol intensified following last week's ill-fated move by the EU to suspend aspects of its operation amid the furore over vaccine supply in the bloc.

The European Commission swiftly backtracked after facing intense criticism for attempting to hinder the free flow of movement across the Irish border in respect of vaccines.

Police last month warned that discontent in loyalist communities was 'growing' over the protocol, which is designed to make sure Northern Ireland follows EU customs rules but has caused delays at ports because of new declarations and checks.

The PSNI are to hold talks with border agencies and the Northern Irish government later today about the physical Brexit checks that have been in place since January 1.

'The safety of staff working at points of entry is of the utmost importance to us,' said PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan. 'Where we have any credible information we will share that with our partners and take appropriate action.

'We have increased patrols at Larne Port and other points of entry in order to reassure staff and the local community.'

Peter Johnston, the Mayor of Mid and East Antrim where the port of Larne is located said: 'We have seen what I would describe as deeply troubling graffiti and a very notable upping of community tensions towards the NI Protocol, particularly in recent days.

A police investigation was launched after the words 'all border post staff are targets' (pictured) appeared spray painted on a wall in Larne, County Antrim, on Thursday

'The health and wellbeing of our staff is always this council's number one priority and that is why the decision has been taken to withdraw them from their work at the port with immediate effect until we have very real assurances and full confidence that they can go about their duties without fear, threat or concern for their wellbeing.'

Sinn Fein councillor James McKeown said: 'Our staff will step away from this work and will only return when we are totally satisfied it is safe and right for them to do so.

'There are simmering tensions within the local community at present and we will not stand by and let our staff be targeted when they are just doing their jobs.'

The DUP has been vociferous in its opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol's operation.

The party's North Antrim MP Ian Paisley condemned the threats to staff but said the protocol was 'bound to cause these problems'.

'Such tactics have no place in a democracy,' he said.

'This is the sad reality of those who imposed terms on Northern Ireland without the consent of the delicate community balance which exists here. The protocol was bound to end in tears and here we have society's structure falling apart.

'When (former Irish premier) Leo Varadkar shamefully distributed copies of border posts being blown up in Newry 30 years ago around EU Commission members, he demonstrated that violence and the threat of violence has a seat at the table.

Last month graffiti appeared near to the ports, with one message saying 'No Irish sea border' and another 'Ulster sold out!'

'At the heart of progress in Northern Ireland has been cross-community consent.

'Those who thought they could impose something against the will of every unionist are now reaping the seeds of division they have sown.

'The protocol was bound to cause these problems given the triumphant approach by republicans and nationalists and the wilful ignorance that 50 per cent of the population was opposed to the protocol.'

Fellow DUP MP Sammy Wilson echoed a similar sentiment as he tweeted: 'The safety of all staff - Council & otherwise - must be paramount.

'All threats must be condemned and cross party support for withdrawal is welcome.

'Those parties who talked up the threat of violence during the negotiations need to reflect. The NIP must go but politics is the way.'
Burma Coup to Dampen US Trade, Impact Footwear Companies, Experts Warn

WASHINGTONThe coup in Burma is expected to dampen the already tepid interest of U.S. and Western companies in investing in Burma, and may prompt some big U.S. companies to pull out, trade experts and analysts said on Monday.

Total trade in goods between Burma and the United States amounted to nearly $1.3 billion in the first 11 months of 2020, up from $1.2 billion in all of 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Apparel and footwear accounted for 41.4 percent of total U.S. goods imports, followed by luggage, which accounted for nearly 30 percent, and fish, which accounted for just over four percent, said Panjiva, the supply chain research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

A staff member arranges footwear from a wholesale shop in Yangon, Burma, on April 26, 2019. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

Luggage maker Samsonite and privately owned apparel maker LL Bean are among big importers, along with retailer H&M and Adidas, Panjiva said.

U.S. direct investment data is unavailable, the U.S. Trade Representatives office said.

Burmas army on Monday handed power to military chief General Min Aung Hlaing and imposed a year-long state of emergency, saying it had responded to what it called election fraud.

The move sparked condemnation from Western leaders and a threat of renewed sanctions by the U.S. government.

Lucas Myers, analyst with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the coup would exacerbate strains in U.S.-Burma ties following sanctions imposed by Washington in December 2019 and would further complicate trade relations.

William Reinsch, trade expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said U.S. companies could opt to pull out of Burma, given new developments and the Biden administrations vow to focus more on human rights.

While some U.S. companies had moved work from China to Burma in recent years to take advantage of lower wages, the countrys infrastructure was still lacking, which had kept investment from booming, he added.

Most of the U.S. work was in relatively low capital-intensive industries and could be relocated fairly easily, Reinsch said. Its not semiconductors. These factories are relatively easy to set up, he said.

Stephen Lamar, president of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, said many of the trade groups members did business in Burma, also known as Myanmar, and found the coup deeply concerning.

We urge the full and immediate restoration of democratic rights and institutions, he said. Our hearts and prayers are with the Myanmar people for a swift, peaceful, and democratic resolution to this crisisone that does not take away the economic progress made by the hardworking people of Myanmar.

A spokesperson for H&M said the company was monitoring events and was in close contact with suppliers, but had no immediate plans to change its sourcing strategy. We are closely following the developments, but refrain from speculating about what this will mean for us going forward, the official said.

By Andrea Shalal

The Health Ministry confirmed 31 new Covid-19 infections Tuesday evening, including 30 domestic cases from the ongoing outbreak.

Eighteen of the new cases are in the northern province of Hai Duong, now the epicenter of the outbreak.

Quang Ninh, which neighbors Hai Duong and is also a major Covid-19 cluster, has eight, the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai has three and Hanoi has one.

The patients in Gia Lai and Hanoi are related to previous cases confirmed in Hai Duong and Quang Ninh, where the first domestic transmissions of the new outbreak were detected on January 28.

While the source of transmissions of the ongoing outbreak is yet to be identified, it has been determined that it was caused by the U.K. variant, which has been described as more contagious and having a shorter incubation time.

The other case reported Tuesday evening is an imported one, a 43-year-old male Russian expert who landed in Hanoi Monday on AZUR Air flight ZF2074/2078.

Six days since Vietnam recorded the return of Covid-19 community transmissions after 55 clean days, the number of infections have jumped to 301, including 224 in Hai Duong and 38 in Quang Ninh. Infections have spread to eight other cities and provinces - Hanoi with 20 cases, Gia Lai with nine, Bac Ninh three, Hoa Binh two, Binh Duong two, and HCMC, Hai Phong and Bac Giang one each.

So far, the country has recorded a total of 1,882 Covid-119 cases of which 383 are active.
Bacanora has a well-established, long-standing partnership with Ganfeng

Bacanora Lithium PLC ( ) said it has signed a new joint venture agreement with its cornerstone investor and offtake partner, Ganfeng Lithium Co Ltd.

Ganfeng recently exercised its option to take its stake in the holding company which owns Bacanoras Sonoara lithium project in Mexico from 22.5% to 50%.

Completion of the joint venture remains conditional upon certain approvals and consents from authorities in the People's Republic of China.

Once Ganfeng has received approval from the relevant authorities in China and the holding company, SLL, has received 21.9mln of funds in payment from Ganfeng, completion will take place.

Bacanora will remain as the operator of the project, while Ganfeng will be responsible for leading the engineering, procurement and construction activities.

Ganfeng is continuing to integrate its flow sheet for the production of battery grade lithium into the final engineering design and remains on schedule to deliver its final engineering packages to Bacanora during the first half of this year.

"We are pleased that Ganfeng and Bacanora have agreed terms on the updated joint venture agreements and look forward to completion of Ganfeng's investment to own 50% of the Sonora Lithium project, said Bacanora chief executive Peter Secker in a statement.

Their investment further de-risks the project and reduces the equity demands on Bacanora's own shareholders to fund Phase 1 of the project. The Sonora lithium project is now well placed to be in production in 2023 and delivering battery-grade lithium products into the fast-growing energy storage market."
An ongoing delay in getting vaccinations to those in long-term care facilities has some questioning the prioritization of the distribution of vaccinations.

In Illinois, many local health departments  such as Greene County  are vaccinating residents ages 65 or over as well as and any remaining health care workers. Others are working within the age group but focusing on older populations, such as those 70 or above in Morgan County and 80 or above in Pike County.

But those in long-term care facilities are being handled by a federal contract between the government and several pharmacies, including Walgreens and CVS, which are overseeing administration for both residents and staff.

Floyd Musch, a resident at Cedarhurst of Jacksonville senior living facility, said it is taking a long time for the shots to be administered there.

Ive been told Cedarhurst is getting vaccinated on Feb. 10, then well get the second dosage in March, Musch said.

Though the shot is scheduled, the fact that it is taking weeks isnt encouraging, Musch said, noting that the populations in long-term facilities are older or health care workers  both groups that already should have been prioritized.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been vocal about his own displeasure with the progress of vaccinating long-term care facilities, calling out Walgreens and CVS over the slow distribution.

That program has gone exceedingly slow, Pritzker said. All the vaccinations that are necessary for that entire group have been taken out already of our allotment and they sit on shelves because that federal pharmacy partnership is so slow at the job.

Musch said he has seen pictures of cars lining up for people to receive their shots and, while he is glad people are receiving the vaccine, he feels there needs to be more focus on long-term facilities.

I read that only one-fourth of facilities have even gotten the vaccine, Musch said.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, 496,100 vaccines have been allocated for the program in Illinois and 156,872  roughly 31%  have been administered.

The Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program was launched Dec. 21 for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and on Dec. 28 for the Moderna vaccine.

Facilities sign up for the program and a participating pharmacy  CVS, Walgreens and Pharmscript in Illinois  will send a pharmacist to administer the shots.

According to a statement from Walgreens, the company plans to have all of its first doses administered to its participating facilities by mid-February and already has provided more than 1.3 million vaccinations in facilities across the country.

Musch said those in long-term care facilities are some of the most vulnerable populations, so they and their caregivers should be a high priority.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were about 616,000 COVID-19 cases and 91,500 deaths reported by Nov. 6 in long-term facilities nationwide.

In Illinois, there have been 71,946 cases in long-term care facilities with 9,461 deaths as of Friday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. In Brown County, there have been 52 cases reported at long-term care facilities with nine deaths. Cass County has reported 104 long-term care cases and 21 deaths, Greene reported 126 cases and 25 deaths, Morgan reported 373 cases and 64 deaths, Pike reported 249 cases and 31 deaths, Scott reported nine cases with no deaths and Schuyler reported 42 cases and 13 deaths.

It just seems like we are being ignored, Musch said.
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The new U.S. administration should return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program without preconditions, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Wang Wenbin said.



"The JCPOA is in a key phase, and each of the parties must speed up the implementation of its conditions in order to influence the United States to return to the JCPOA as soon as possible without any preconditions and ensure that all sanctions are lifted," TASS cited him as saying.



Iran also needs to resume the implementation of the terms of the agreement: "We support the phased solution of existing problems and will continue to work with the relevant parties and the international community for the early return of the JCPOA and a political settlement," the diplomat added.



The United States promised to honor its obligations under the 2015 nuclear pact only once Iran returns to full compliance. Tehran maintains the U.S. should first meet its obligations and lift sanctions before it returns to compliance.
Hal Holbrook, the actor best known for portraying Mark Twain and other historic American figures on television and onstage during a career that spanned six decades, has died. He was 95.

He died on Jan. 23 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., according to the New York Times, citing Holbrook's assistant, Joyce Cohen, who confirmed the news Monday night.

Holbrook won a Tony Award for his 1966 one-man show as Twain on Broadway and Emmy Awards for television performances including one as Abraham Lincoln.

He was weeks shy of his 83rd birthday when he finally snagged an Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actor in "Into the Wild," the real-life story of a young adventurer who starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness. Holbrook played a widower befriended by the protagonist before his departure. He lost the award to Javier Bardem, honored for his role in "No Country for Old Men."

His best-known film role may have been as the mysterious, cigarette-smoking tipster known as Deep Throat in 1976's "All the President's Men," the true account of how Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward unraveled the Watergate political scandal. In a key moment in the film, at one of their furtive meetings, Holbrook instructs Robert Redford, playing Woodward, to "follow the money."

Holbrook initially turned down the Deep Throat role, thinking it was too small, he said in a 2009 interview with National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" program. He said Redford, a close friend, "came over to the house and said, 'Hal, I'm going to promise you that this role will be remembered more than anything in the film.' And I said, 'Come on, you got to be kidding.' "

Holbrook said the Deep Throat character he envisioned and created was, in the end, different from W. Mark Felt, the former FBI associate director who, in 2005, finally confirmed that he was the famous Watergate source. Holbrook said he had imagined Deep Throat to be "an elder statesman who had served several presidents of either party, both parties," one now "faced with an extraordinary choice between his allegiance to his president and his allegiance to his country."

In the Oliver Stone-directed "Wall Street" (1987), Holbrook played an old-school stockbroker, Lou Mannheim, aware that booms don't last forever. "You're on a roll, kid -- enjoy it while it lasts, 'cause it never does," he admonishes the brash young trader Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen.

And when Fox's insider dealing finally catches up with him, Mannheim offers this consolation: "Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss."

Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. was born on Feb. 17, 1925, in Cleveland, the middle child of three. His shoe-salesman father, Harold, abandoned the family, and his mother, Aileen, a vaudeville dancer, left home to continue her career when Holbrook was 2. He and his two sisters were raised mainly by their paternal grandparents in South Weymouth, Massachusetts.

He attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana, served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in World War II and studied theater at Denison University in Ohio, graduating in 1948.

It was at Denison that, for his senior-year honors project, he created a show with his first wife, actress Ruby Johnston, based on his characterization of Mark Twain, the author and satirist who created Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and skewered what he saw as absurdity and corruption in 19th-century American politics.

They took their production to schools and clubs across the country over the next five years -- "a tiny speck racing across America" in a Ford station wagon, Holbrook recalled in his 2011 memoir, "Harold: The Boy Who Became Mark Twain."

Holbrook turned his Twain into a one-man show, performing off-Broadway in New York before taking it on tour. When he brought "Mark Twain Tonight!" to Broadway in 1966, he won his Tony. A television version for CBS was nominated for an Emmy.

Holbrook continued his Twain performances every year for the rest of his career. The U.S. State Department sent Holbrook's Twain on a tour of Europe in the late 1950s and of Europe and Asia in the 1980s.

Twain "never has ceased to astound me," Holbrook told NPR in 2009. "He had a bead on the corruption that went on late in his lifetime, in his country. I mean, the corruption is so similar to what's going on today."

Holbrook's other films included "Magnum Force" (1973), "Midway" (1976), "The Firm" (1993) and "Men of Honor" (2000).

On television, his Emmys were for "The Bold Ones: The Senator," "Pueblo, " "Sandburg's Lincoln" and as host of "Portrait of America: Alaska."

His first marriage, to Johnston, produced two children, Victoria and David, before ending in divorce. He had a daughter, Eve, with his second wife, actress Carol Rossen. His 1984 marriage to actress Dixie Carter was the third for each. Carter died in 2010.
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Islamabad, Feb 2 : The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday ordered immediate release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the prime accused in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, from his death cell, notifying authorities to move him to a government rest house within two days.

The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by the Sindh provincial government, appealing against the Sindh High Court (SHC) decision of December 24 to release the prime accused Omar Saeed Sheikh.

As per the court's order, authorities have been told to keep Sheikh at a better location in the jail in an open room for two days before being transferred to the government rest house.

The court has also ordered to ensure deployment of security around the rest house. However, the court has not allowed Sheikh to have access to a mobile phone or internet facility.

The court has allowed the family of Sheikh to stay with him at the rest house from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"Sheikh should not have access to the outside world from the rest house. He should be allowed to spend the 'Kashmir Day' with his family members", read the court's order.

The decision came after Pakistan's top court again rejected the government's appeal to suspend the SHC's verdict on the acquittal of the accused, stating that the federal government could file an appeal against the SHC's decision.

"How can the federal government object to the decision of the Sindh High Court?" questioned the Sindh Advocate General.

However, the judges maintained "Ahmed Omar Sheikh and other detainees cannot be called as accused".

The case of Daniel Pearl's murder has become a testing assessment for Pakistan as the United States has raised serious reservations on the court's decision to acquit the suspects and later to retain the SHC's decision by Pakistan's top court.

The US has already shared its serious concerns over the legal proceedings in the case with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi through a telephone conversation.

The US has also stated that it is ready to bring Sheikh to the US and put him to trial in the US courts, hinting at its distrust over the legal proceedings of the case in Pakistan.

Qureshi, however, has maintained that the case is being taken forward as per the legal justice system of Pakistan.

Analysts on the other hand, have criticised the Pakistan government for not rejecting the US' call of extradition of the accused from Pakistan and the trial to be held in US courts.

"How can the US question the legal system of Pakistan and decisions being taken by the top court? Why should Sheikh be sent to the US for trial? Pakistan has its own law of the land and it should tell the US in clear words that the country's legal system will take its course," said security and defence analyst Lt General Retd Amjad Shoaib.
Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper says he sees Kate Middleton as 'a friend' and claims she's just 'like a normal young lady'.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 39, joined Zigi, 91, and his friend Manfred Goldberg, 90, whom he met as a teenager at the Stutthof concentration camp, for a video call last week.

Kate, who is currently spending lockdown at Anmer Hall with Prince William, 38, and their three children, previously met the two men when she and the Duke visited Stutthof in Poland in 2017.

The trio reconnected during a virtual meeting last Wednesday to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning, Zigi, who lives in Hertfordshire, said the Duchess made him and Manfred feel 'very, very comfortable'.

Holocaust survivor Zigi Shipper says he sees Kate Middleton as 'a friend' and claims she's just 'like a normal young lady'

The Duchess of Cambridge, 39, joined Zigi, 91, and his friend Manfred Goldberg, 90, whom he met as a teenager at the Stutthof concentration camp, for a video call last week

'She was so wonderful, she was like an ordinary, you wouldn't... nobody would have thought that she's a duchess. Like she was a friend,' he said. 'She was like a normal young lady, honestly.'

Zigi's daughter Lu Lawrence, who joined him for the interview with Louise Minchin, added: 'She made them feel very comfortable and very at ease.'

As young boys, Zigi and Manfred both spent time in ghettos and a number of forced labour and concentration camps, including Stutthof near Danzig (now Gdansk) where they met for the first time in 1944.

The past year has been particularly tough for Zigi, who lost his beloved wife Jeannette in July. The couple had been together for 71 years and married for 66.

The Duchess of Cambridge first met Manfred and Zigi while visiting the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland in 2017 alongside the Duke

Jeannette, who suffered from Alzheimer's, was rushed to hospital during the first lockdown and later moved to a care home when she became too unwell to remain at home.

'Like every marriage, our 66 years, some are good, some are bad, but the last few years was unbelievable,' Zigi explained.

'She used to go to bed early, around 9 o'clock, and I'd look and a light was still on and I went in and said, "Why is the light still on?"... "Well I didn't come to kiss you" [she said].'

Zigi's daughter Michelle Richman recalled: 'It was actually horrific, the day she had to go to a care home, because we couldn't hug Dad, we couldn't hug Mum, we couldn't hug each other, we couldn't look at the care home... I would say of all of it that was the worst part.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning, Zigi, who lives in Hertfordshire, said the Duchess made him and Manfred feel 'very, very comfortable'

Zigi's daughter Lu Lawrence, who joined him for the interview with Louise Minchin, added that Kate made the two men feel 'very comfortable and very at ease'

'I think people don't really see that side of the virus very much, how it can affect families.'

Lu said the most distressing part of the ordeal was watching their father, who 'couldn't bear' to see his wife in such a state.

'Her hearing was really very poor towards the end,' Lu explained. 'She was inside the home, we were outside the home in a little makeshift marquee which was very noisy from the wind, so she couldn't really see us, she couldn't really hear us, we couldn't touch her.

'Dad would just cry and be in the most awful state afterwards and you kind of came away thinking, I'm not sure whether it was worth the effort of going to see Mum because I don't think anybody benefited from the visits.'

The past year has been particularly tough for Zigi, who lost his beloved wife Jeannette in July. The couple had been together for 71 years and married for 66

Zigi said of his 66 years of marriage: 'Some are good, some are bad, but the last few years was unbelievable'

Zigi, who has received his first Covid vaccination, admitted he's struggled with loneliness during the pandemic, particularly when he's unable to be with his daughters.

'At home, and I'm alone and I look at the pictures, it makes me cry,' he said. 'When I walk around, when I'm in a car - I'm not driving anymore - but when I'm in a car and I pass by the [cemetery] I wave to her and I start crying.'

He said the thing he's most looking forward to when life gets back to normal is visiting his new great-granddaughter, whom he hasn't yet met. He is already a grandfather-of-six and has four great-grandsons.

'I always pray that maybe I'll be here to be able to speak to them, they will be able to call me Grandpa,' he said.

Jeannette, who suffered from Alzheimer's, was rushed to hospital during the first lockdown and later moved to a care home when she became too unwell to remain at home

Lu said the most distressing part of the ordeal was watching their father, who 'couldn't bear' to see his wife in such a state. Pictured: Jeannette in a care home

Last week Zigi joked he was only interested in speaking to Kate when Prince William didn't appear on the video call.

Seeing the duchess appear on screen, he teased: 'I was so happy, you know. I didnt need your husband. You are the one that I wanted.'

Kate laughed: Well Zigi I will tell him you miss him very much. And he sends his regards as well, obviously... it's lovely to see you again.'

Born in January 1930, to a Jewish family in odz, Poland, Zigi's parents divorced when he was five and he was brought up by his grandmother and father, having been told his mother had died.

In 1939 his father escaped to the Soviet Union, believing that it was only young Jewish men who were at risk, and not children or the elderly, and Zigi never saw him again. His grandmother tragically died the day of the liberation.

Zigi, who has received his first Covid vaccination, admitted he's struggled with loneliness during the pandemic, particularly when he's unable to be with his daughters

In 1944, Zigi and his grandmother, whom he was brought up by, were taken to a train station and transported to Auschwitz.

After he was freed in May 1945, he got a letter from England - a country he had never visited - which was written by a Polish woman.

She explained that she was searching for her son and had found his name on a British Red Cross List.

She asked him to check if he had a scar on his left wrist that he suffered after burning himself as a two-year-old. He did.

At first he refused to leave as his friends, including Manfred, were the only family he had. But 10 months later he travelled to England to be reunited with his mother, whom he had barely met.

Zigi said his first six months in the UK were hell because he missed his friends so much but that he went on to have a wonderful, wonderful life.

Zigi, who worked as a stationer in the UK, is keen to tell his story because he wanted young people to know about what happened during the Holocaust.
India's proposed plan to improve operations and finances of state-owned distribution (discoms), the weakest link in power supply value chain, will help mitigate cash flow stress observed in rated power generation (gencos) over time, according to Ratings.

The 41 billion dollar plan intends to trim electricity losses, gradually narrow discoms' cost-revenue gap, improve the reliability and quality of power supply, and promote more sustainable competition in the sector over FY22 to FY25 (fiscal years ending March 2022-2025).

said are saddled with huge accumulated losses due to a combination of crippling debt, expensive power, technical and commercial losses, and less-than-commensurate increases in tariffs.

The government in 2015 introduced a voluntary rehabilitation scheme, Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), to turn around distressed While UDAY was more comprehensive than previous packages, it primarily drove debt restructuring of without significant sustained reduction in technical and commercial losses, and the cost-revenue gap.

The pandemic aggravated the discoms' difficulties due to the fall in electricity demand from higher-paying commercial and industrial customers, payment concessions, and delay in cash collections.

The government's liquidity support through Rs 1.2 lakh crore of conditional concessionary loans alleviated the situation. However, adequate tariff hikes and reduction of losses are essential for a sustainable structural improvement of the state discoms.

To this end, a holistic approach that includes infrastructure updates, smart metering, demand-side management and regular tariff revisions will go further, said

Typically, the rating on a power generation company's debt instrument is capped by the credit quality of its revenue counterparties. While Fitch does not rate state-owned discoms, most of the rated renewable power portfolios diversify away the counterparty risk through exposure to multiple states.

In other instances, where a rated company is a significant power producer in its region, Fitch considers the counterparty risk to be systemic in nature. The extended payment cycles of discoms put pressure on the working capital of generation companies, weakening their cash flows available for debt servicing.

Discoms have also tried to renegotiate power purchase agreements to capitalise on falling solar and wind tariffs.

In its project finance ratings, Fitch considers the impact of exposure to state discoms as a possible liquidity stress as they have a history of payment delays. As a result, Fitch expects associated portfolios to meet a higher threshold to achieve the same rating as other projects with strong counterparties, all else being equal.

Hence, Fitch bases credit assessments on the indicative debt service coverage ratio thresholds applicable to merchant projects instead of the ones for fully contracted projects while the cash flows are evaluated based on the contracted prices, which is variation from its renewable energy project rating criteria.

A meaningful improvement in discoms' economics will benefit power generation via higher utilisations and timely clearance of dues.

While renewable players benefit from 'must-run' status in India, thermal power plants have suffered part curtailment and lower capacity utilisation driven primarily by stressed discoms, which are unable to buy electricity because of their weak financial positions.

(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 YORK, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Atento S.A. (NYSE: ATTO) ("Atento" or the "Company"), the largest provider of customer relationship management and business-process outsourcing services in Latin America, and among the top five providers globally based on revenue, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Atento Luxco 1 (the "Issuer"), is making an any and all cash tender offer to refinance the Issuer's outstanding 6.125% Senior Secured Notes due 2022 (the "Notes"). Concurrent with the announcement of this tender offer, Atento has announced the launch of a proposed new secured notes offering by the Issuer, the net proceeds of which the Issuer intends to use, together with cash on hand, to finance the tender offer.

Title of Security CUSIP/ISIN Principal Amount

Outstanding Tender Offer

Consideration(1)(2) Early Tender

Payment(1) Total

Consideration(1)(2)(3) 6.125% Senior

Secured Notes due

2022 CUSIPs: 04684LAA6

L0427PAA4

L0427PAB2 ISINs: US04684LAA61

USL0427PAA41

USL0427PAB24 U.S.$500,000,000 U.S.$985.31 U.S.$30.00 U.S.$1,015.31

(1) Per U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase. (2) Does not include accrued interest that will be paid on the Notes accepted for purchase or any additional amounts that may be payable on the Notes accepted for purchase. (3) The Total Consideration includes the Early Tender Payment of U.S. $30.00.

The tender offer consists of an offer to purchase any and all of the Notes for cash. The tender offer is being made on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the offer to purchase dated February 2, 2021 (the "Offer to Purchase").

Holders of the Notes are urged to read carefully the Offer to Purchase before making any decision with respect to the tender offer.

The tender offer will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time on March 2, 2021, unless extended or earlier terminated by the Issuer (the "Expiration Time"). Tenders of Notes may be validly withdrawn at any time prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time on February 16, 2021, unless extended or earlier terminated by the Issuer.

To be eligible to receive the total consideration, which includes the early tender payment, each as set forth in the table above, holders of Notes must validly tender and not validly withdraw their tendered Notes at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time on February 16, 2021, unless extended by the Issuer (the "Early Tender Time"). Holders of Notes who validly tender their Notes after the Early Tender Time but at or prior to the Expiration Time will be eligible to receive the tender offer consideration, which does not include the early tender payment, as set forth in the table above. All Notes tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Time will have priority over Notes tendered after the Early Tender Time.

The Issuer may increase the tender offer consideration at any time prior to the Expiration Time. If the Issuer increases the tender offer consideration such that the tender offer consideration is greater than the total consideration, any Notes previously tendered that would otherwise be entitled to the total consideration will be entitled to receive the increased tender offer consideration instead of the Total Consideration.

The holders of Notes purchased pursuant to the tender offer will also receive any accrued and unpaid interest from the last interest payment date of the Notes up to, but excluding, the applicable settlement date (as set out below) as well as any additional amounts that may be payable on the Notes.

Payment for the Notes that are validly tendered (and are not validly withdrawn) prior to the Early Tender Time and that are accepted for purchase by the Issuer is expected to be made on February 17, 2021, unless extended. Payment for the Notes that are validly tendered after the Early Tender Time but at or prior to the Expiration Time and that are accepted for purchase by the Issuer is expected to be made on March 3, 2021, unless extended.

Notes will be accepted for purchase only in minimum denominations of $2,000 and integral multiples of $1,000 in excess thereof.

The Issuer's obligation to accept for purchase and pay for the Notes validly tendered in the tender offer is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions described in the Offer to Purchase, including the Issuer generating net proceeds from a concurrent offering of senior secured notes in an aggregate amount sufficient to pay the total consideration, as set forth in the table above, with respect to all Notes that are the subject of the tender offer, including the payment of any premiums, accrued interest and costs, additional amounts payable and expenses incurred in connection therewith.

The Issuer may, in its sole discretion, (i) terminate the tender offer, (ii) waive any and all conditions to the tender offer, (iii) extend the tender offer period, or (iv) otherwise amend the tender offer in any respect, subject to applicable law.

Information Relating to the Tender Offer

The Issuer has retained Banco BTG Pactual S.A.Cayman Branch, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Itau BBA USA Securities, Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC to serve as dealer managers for the tender offer. Ipreo LLC has been retained to serve as the information agent and the tender agent for the tender offer.

Questions regarding the tender offer may be directed to: (i) Atento at the details in the table below, (ii) Banco BTG Pactual S.A.Cayman Branch at +1 (212) 293-4600 (Collect), (iii) Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC at +1 (800) 828-3182 (U.S. toll free) or +1 (212) 357-1452 (Collect), (iv) Itau BBA USA Securities, Inc. at +1 (212) 710-6749 (Collect) and (v) Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC at +1 (800) 624-1808 (U.S. Toll Free) or +1 (212) 761-1057 (Collect). The Offer to Purchase may be obtained from Ipreo LLC by calling collect +1 (212) 849-3880 (bankers and brokers) or toll free + 1 (888) 593-9546 (all others), or emailing [email protected].

This press release is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to purchase or a solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes or any other securities. The Issuer is making the tender offer only by, and pursuant to, the terms of the Offer to Purchase. The tender offer is not being made in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities laws, blue sky laws or other laws of such jurisdiction. None of Atento, the Issuer, the dealer managers, and the information agent and the tender agent is making any recommendation as to whether holders should tender or refrain from tendering their Notes in response to the tender offer or how much they should tender. Each holder must make his, her or its own decision as to whether to tender or refrain from tendering Notes, and, if a holder determines to tender, as to how many Notes to tender.

About Atento

Atento is the largest provider of customer relationship management and business process outsourcing ("CRM BPO") services in Latin America, and among the top five providers globally, based on revenue. Atento is also a leading provider of nearshoring CRM BPO services to companies that carry out their activities in the United States. Since 1999, the company has developed its business model in 13 countries where it employs approximately 137,000 people. Atento has over 400 clients to whom it offers a wide range of CRM BPO services through multiple channels. Atento's clients are mostly leading multinational corporations in sectors such as telecommunications, banking and financial services, health, retail and public administrations, among others. Atento's shares trade under the symbol ATTO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In 2019, Atento was named one of the World's 25 Best Multinational Workplaces and one of the Best Multinationals to Work for in Latin America by Great Place to Work. Atento is also the world's first CRM company to be ISO 56002 certified in Innovation Management. For more information visit www.atento.com

Investor Relations Shay Chor +55 11 3293-5926 [email protected] Investor Relations Fernando Schneider + 55 11 3779-8119 [email protected] Media Relations Pablo Sanchez Perez +34 670031347 [email protected]

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "intends," "continue" or similar terminology. These statements reflect only Atento's current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance or results. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic, and governments' extraordinary measures to limit the spread of the virus, are disrupting the global economy and Atento's industry, and consequently adversely affecting the Company's business, results of operation and cash flows and, as conditions are recent, uncertain and changing rapidly, it is difficult to predict the full extent of the impact that the pandemic will have. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, competition in Atento's highly competitive industries; increases in the cost of voice and data services or significant interruptions in these services; Atento's ability to keep pace with its clients' needs for rapid technological change and systems availability; the continued deployment and adoption of emerging technologies; the loss, financial difficulties or bankruptcy of any key clients; the effects of global economic trends on the businesses of Atento's clients; the non-exclusive nature of Atento's client contracts and the absence of revenue commitments; security and privacy breaches of the systems Atento uses to protect personal data; the cost of pending and future litigation; the cost of defending Atento against intellectual property infringement claims; extensive regulation affecting many of Atento's businesses; Atento's ability to protect its proprietary information or technology; service interruptions to Atento's data and operation centers; Atento's ability to retain key personnel and attract a sufficient number of qualified employees; increases in labor costs and turnover rates; the political, economic and other conditions in the countries where Atento operates; changes in foreign exchange rates; Atento's ability to complete future acquisitions and integrate or achieve the objectives of its recent and future acquisitions; future impairments of our substantial goodwill, intangible assets, or other long-lived assets; and Atento's ability to recover consumer receivables on behalf of its clients. In addition, Atento is subject to risks related to its level of indebtedness. Such risks include Atento's ability to generate sufficient cash to service its indebtedness and fund its other liquidity needs; Atento's ability to comply with covenants contained in its debt instruments; the ability to obtain additional financing; the incurrence of significant additional indebtedness by Atento and its subsidiaries; and the ability of Atento's lenders to fulfill their lending commitments. Atento is also subject to other risk factors described in documents filed by the company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which the statements were made. Atento undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Atento S.A.

Related Links

http://www.atento.com


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The global Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment Market report offers a comprehensive analysis of current trends and future opportunities. This report is responsible for quantitative estimation and foreseen future for upcoming years based on the recent companies strategic moves and historical data. Further, the market report is categorized into different segments, regions, and countries level. This report also provides competitor analysis with its market share and developments.

The final report will cover the impact of COVID-19 on this industry.

The global Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment market report presents a complete research-based study of the industry including details such as company shares, forecast data, in-depth analysis and an outlook of the market on a worldwide platform. The report further highlights the market drivers, restraints, and the top manufacturers at the global and regional levels. For a thorough understanding, the report also offers market segmentation and regional analysis for the forecast period from 2021 to 2026.

Click here to get a Sample PDF Copy of the Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-31749

According to this latest study, the 2020 growth of Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment will have significant change from previous year. By the most conservative estimates of global Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment market size (most likely outcome) will be a year-over-year revenue growth rate of XX% in 2020, from US$ 4763.9 million in 2019. Over the next five years, the Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment market will register a 14.5% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ 8194.7 million by 2025.

This Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment market report also splits the market by regions: Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), APAC (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain), Middle East & Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, GCC Countries).

This report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of the Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment market by type, application, key manufacturers, key regions, and countries.

The key manufacturers covered in this report: Breakdown data in Chapter 3.

Wuxi Lead

Yinghe Technology

CHR

Shenzhen Haoneng Technology

Blue Key

Hirano Tecseed

Manz

Putailai

Hitachi High-Technologies

CKD

Toray

Golden Milky

Sovema

PNT

KUBT

Buhler

Shenzhen Geesun

Kataoka

Others

To inquire about report customization, feel free to reach out to our team of expert analysts @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/ask-questions-31749

This study considers the Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment value and volume generated from the sales of the following segments:

Segmentation by type: breakdown data from 2016 to 2021, in Section 2.3; and forecast to 2026 in section 11.7.

Pretreatment

Cell Assembly

Post Processing

Segmentation by application: breakdown data from 2016 to 2021, in Section 2.4; and forecast to 2026 in section 11.8.

Consumer Electronics

Power Industry

Others

In addition, this report discusses the key drivers influencing market growth, opportunities, challenges, and the risks faced by key manufacturers and the market as a whole. It also analyzes key emerging trends and their impact on present and future development.

Purchase the Complete Global Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-31749

Research Objectives

To study and analyze the global Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment consumption (value & volume) by key regions/countries, type and application, history data from 2016 to 2020, and forecast to 2026.

To understand the structure of the Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment market by identifying its various subsegments.

Focuses on the key global Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment manufacturers, to define, describe, and analyze the sales volume, value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in the next few years.

To analyze the Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market.

To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).

To project the consumption of Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment submarkets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries).

To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.

About Us:

DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research report provider, enriching decision-makers, and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research reports, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.

Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed.

For more details:

DecisionDatabases.com

E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com

Phone: +91 90 28 057900

Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/

Reference Source:

https://www.topnewscorner.com/lithium-battery-manufacturing-equipment-market-study-by-observing-top-players-trends-forecast-till-2026/
Mayor London Breed brought together San Franciscos top law enforcement officials Tuesday in an attempt to reassure residents that the city is committed to keeping the public safe in the wake of violent street attacks that left two elderly men dead.

The brazen, broad-daylight attacks that led to the deaths of Jack Palladino and Vicha Ratanapakdee in recent days have rattled a city already reeling from a sharp rise in incidents of gunfire and a surge of break-ins to residential and commercial properties.

Alongside Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin at a virtual news conference, Breed said city officials are working to hold those suspected of the killings accountable.

When I think about whats happening in San Francisco  the violent crime, the domestic violence, the attacks on our seniors, the gun violence  it reminds me of when I was growing up in public housing in San Francisco, Breed said. The mayor was raised by her grandmother in a neighborhood riven by violence.

I love my community, but there were so many days where I lived in fear because of the violence, not knowing if a stray bullet might hit me or people that I love and care about, she said.

As the mayor made her comments, police were investigating a triple shooting in the Bayview district that left a 40-year-old man dead and two others injured. The shooting happened at 9:44 a.m. at 3rd and Palou streets. Police did not release details about the circumstances.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

San Francisco police said Ratanapakdee, 84, was attacked Thursday morning in the citys Anza Vista neighborhood. A man ran up and shoved him to the pavement before he and a woman fled, police reported. When officers arrived at the scene, they found Ratanapakdee lying on the sidewalk and administered first aid before transporting him to a hospital. He died Saturday, police said.

Breed, evidently stirred by widely circulated video that captured the incident, said it was a heartbreaking thing to watch, and the fact that another human being would do that to an elderly senior in our community is one of the most disgusting things Ive ever seen.

Police on Saturday arrested Daly City residents Antoine Watson, 19, and Maylasia Goo, 20, on suspicion of the killing of Ratanapakdee. Boudin said prosecutors would be charging Watson with murder and elder abuse causing death. Boudin said that while the case is still under active investigation, there is no evidence Goo played any role in Ratanapakdees death.

I was almost in tears when I heard about this, said longtime Anza Vista resident Gary Gan, who lives a half dozen doors north on Fortuna Avenue from where Ratanapakdee was shoved. Its too close to home. Its horrible. And theyre targeting older people. Like me.

Gan said he still feels safe walking in the neighborhood because he takes his husky, Zulu, with him. Hes not sure whether hed go walking without the dog.

You can only do so much to defend yourself, he said. On the same morning of the deadly attack, Gan said there was a break-in in the garage of his neighbor across the street.

They stole three bicycles, he said. Its happening in our community more and more. It makes you angry. Its not petty crime. Nothing petty about it.

Palladino, a storied private detective, was attacked outside his home Sunday by two men allegedly trying to rob him. He was rushed to UCSF, where he never regained consciousness and was taken off life support on Sunday. Officials said Palladino, 76, succumbed to a traumatic brain injury Monday.

The two suspects, Lawrence Thomas and Tyjone Flournoy, were originally charged with attempted murder, but Boudin said the District Attorneys Office expects to to charge the men with murder following Palladinos death, pending a report from the Medical Examiners office. Boudin said he requested that both men be held without bail.

A sharp rise in shootings in San Francisco  incidents where guns were fired  over the first half of 2020 has also spurred concerns about rising violence. The city recorded 48 killings in 2020, up from 41 a year earlier. But the number of recorded shots fired in the first seven months of 2020 jumped by 32% compared to the same period a year prior.

Across San Francisco, burglaries rose by 47% in 2020 compared with a year prior. In response, some residents have formed neighborhood coalitions to help one another safeguard their properties.

Despite the recent, high-profile incidents, including the deaths of Palladino and Ratanapakdee, San Francisco is and will continue to be a safe city, Boudin said. You have all of our commitments that we will defend the safety of our communities, no matter what it takes. It was especially important that we help elderly San Franciscans feel safe, and be safe, he said.

The death of Ratanapakdee, a native of Thailand, inflamed concerns among the Asian American Pacific Islander population, particularly about keeping elderly and vulnerable members of the community safe. The AAPI community was still reeling from a rash of incidents in 2019 and 2020 where elderly individuals were victimized, including one in which an elderly man was taunted as he was beaten  an incident captured on video.

As an organization with members who serve tens of thousands of elders in this city, we cant help but feel like Mr. Ratanapakdee could have been any one of us  a father, a grandfather, an immigrant, said Rob Chua, a representative from the API Council, an advocacy group. These acts of violence toward our community are approaching a fever pitch and they have not subsided.

Scott, the citys police chief, said that while the investigation into Ratanapakdees death is ongoing, there was no evidence suggesting it was a hate crime.

Anybody who thinks that they can attack elderly individuals in our city, you need to think twice, Scott said. We will bring every resource to bear to bring you to account, and we wont rest until thats done.

Chronicle staff writers

Steve Rubenstein and

Michael Cabanatuan contributed to this report.

Vanessa Arredondo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vanessa.arredondo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @v_anana
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A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin with a BA in Government-Pre-Law and a MSc in Community and Regional Planning (MSCRP), Kimberly became Vice President of HDR in Chicago, IL, in 2013, where she oversaw the development of transportation plans in 16 states. In 2018, she joined HNTB, where she was the Transit & Rail Market Leader for the entire US.

In addition, Kimberly is an active leader in the transportation industry. Last year the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) appointed Kim to lead a subcommittee for the Mobility Restoration & Recovery Task Force. Kim has also served on the APTA Board of Directors and Business Members Board of Governors, Business Council of the African American Mayors Association, Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS), Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), and the March of Dimes. In 2019, she served on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's transportation transition team, and is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Kimberly Slaughter succeeds Stanley Rosenblum, who took over as head of our US operations in September 2016 and retired at the end of 2020.

Jean-Charles Vollery, Chief International & Development Officer said: "I would like to welcome Kimberly to SYSTRA. We are counting on her in-depth knowledge of the North American market to increase our presence there, at a time when the country is being increasingly called upon to make a firmer commitment to ecological transition. I would like to thank and congratulate Stanley Rosenblum for the work he has done at SYSTRA: it has been a little over three years marked by growth in our activities in the United States, with a consolidation of our influence in New York and strong development in new markets such as buses, accessibility and metro automation, and the West Coast all of which hold great promise for the future of our Group."

SYSTRA in the United States: a presence for 35 years

SYSTRA is a consulting firm specializing in engineering, architecture, and construction management services for the transportation, infrastructure, and facilities markets. We have been working with rail and transportation agencies throughout the United States since 1985. From commuter, heavy, high-speed, intercity, and light rail systems to electric and autonomous vehicles and bus systems and their infrastructure, SYSTRA offers expertise in all design and engineering technical disciplines. We are part of SYSTRA Group, one of the world's leading engineering and consulting groups specializing in public transportation and mobility solutions. Comprised of 7,336 employees worldwide, SYSTRA Group creates and innovates transportation that is more efficient and designed for today and the future.

A leading provider of CBTC expertise in the US, SYSTRA is heading signal modernization projects for New York City Transit (NYCT) and San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), as well as overseeing the deployment of Positive Train Control (PTC) on Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Metro-North Railroad's (MNR) rail networks. We are also part of major design-build projects such as the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Red/Purple Line Modernization, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Dulles Corridor Metrorail Yard & Maintenance Facility, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line Extension. Our construction management teams have overseen American with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility upgrades at various NYCT stations. In addition, SYSTRA is a member of the program management team supporting Capital Metro in Austin as it implements the voter-mandated Project Connect program.

Our offices are in New York, NY (headquarters), Bloomfield and Newark, NJ (headquarters of SYSTRA A+E, our local architecture and engineering subsidiary), Philadelphia, PA, Alexandria, VA, and Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA. SYSTRA also has a presence in the United States via SYSTRA IBT, based in San Diego, CA. For more information, please visit www.systrausa.com.

SOURCE SYSTRA USA

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Isgec Heavy Engineering rose 9.28% to Rs 402.85 After the company said it received two orders - one for a Cement Waste Heat Recovery Boiler (CWHRB), and another for conducting Remnant Life Assessment (RLA) study.

The order for CWHRB is from a leading cement manufacturer for their Plant site in Meghalaya. The order for conducting the RLA study has been received from a steel major in Jharkhand for their 3 boilers.

Isgec Heavy Engineering is a diversified heavy engineering company engaged in manufacturing and project businesses with an extensive global presence.

The company's consolidated net profit jumped 71.70% to Rs 77.81 crore on a 6% decline in net sales to Rs 1,344.59 crore in Q2 FY21 over Q2 FY20.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Catholics in Brazil hold a day of prayer on Tuesday to implore "a light of hope", as a new variant of the coronavirus drives a surge in infections in the northern city of Manaus.

By Lisa Zengarini

The Brazilian Catholic Bishops Conference (CNBB) has invited the faithful to join a National Day of Prayer on February 2, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas Day), asking the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Joseph to intercede in the ongoing fight against Covid-19.

The aim is to ask God to nurture our hope and give us courage in facing the pandemic, said the Secretary General of the CNBB, Bishop Portella Amado.

Light of hope

"Keep alight the light of hope is the motto chosen for the Day of Prayer.

Catholics are invited to light a candle and to place it outside by a window when the night falls, as a symbolic gesture of hope and communion.

The faithful can also share photographs of their candle on social media with the hashtag #LuzdaEsperanca. The idea is that, even if small, the light radiates to other people as a sign of hope, the Bishop said.

The Day is celebrated at a national and local level, and the events, which include prayers and reflections, will be broadcast partly on television, partly on social media.

Events during the Day of Prayer

It kicks off at 9 am, local time, with a Mass in the Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy of Belo Horizonte (State of Minas Geiras), presided over by the local Archbishop Walmor Oliveira de Azevedo, President of the CNBB.

It will be followed by an online seminar which will offer reflections on the spiritual sources of encouragement in times of pandemic.

At 7 pm the Rosary will be broadcast from the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida. The Day will end at 9 pm with the Night Prayer in the Chapel of Our Lady of Aparecida at the CNBB headquarters in Brasilia.

New variant, worsening crisis

Brazil remains one of the worst-hit countries by Covid-19, with over 9.2 million cases and over 225,000 deaths.

A variant called P.1, which emerged in early December in Manaus, caused a massive resurgence in cases in January, pushing the health system in the capital of Brazil's Amazonas State to collapse.

In mid-January the Archbishop Leonardo Steiner of Manaus launched a dramatic appeal for oxygen supplies in the State. Pope Francis immediately responded to the appeal with a donation.

Over the last months Brazilian Bishops have called on the federal government to enact a more effective response and stricter measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has always denied the seriousness of the pandemic and refused stricter protective measures.
Just a year after he was declared unfit for ministry due to accusations of "ungodly and immoral behavior," a Canadian preacher announces his return claiming to have a God-given mandate "focused on the Harvest and the nations."

Todd Bentley, evangelist and Fresh Fire USA founder, posted on Facebook that he had life-changing encounters with angels and God who spoke to him about the 25-year mandate, The Christian Post wrote.

"It was last summer in July/ August 2020 that I had a series of angelic encounters, visions and personal encounters with the Lord that were absolutely life-changing. At the same time Jess and I used this time to see healing and incredible restoration in our own lives and marriage. During this awesome season of almost daily personal encounters the Lord spoke to me about my 45th birthday, which took place on January 10, 2021," he said.

"I thought it was very unusual for the Lord to be speaking to me six months before the day I was born but he spoke to me about picking up the mantle in a new 25-year mandate focused on the Harvest and the nations. Imagine waiting those six months for your actual birthday to see if something supernatural would happen and when my birthday came, I did pray and received what I believe the Lord spoke to me in faith and I'm ready to walk it out this year," the preacher continued.

Bentley further said that he is working on a new podcast which the content will be focused on walking with God. He also plans to build a new platform for television and media ministry and taking some ministry engagements in the spring and summer of this year.

In addition, he said that he is also working on a new series of online training schools and soul winning crusades in America, Africa, Europe and Asia. He requested for prayers so the Holy Spirit would give them wisdom in handling their schedules given the difficulty of international travel caused by the pandemic.

According to an article by Christianity Today published in January 2020, Bentley was declared unqualified for ministry by a group of charismatic ministers following allegations of "ungodly and immoral conduct" which includes substance abuse, adultery and sexting.

Fire School Ministry founder and and Line of Fire host Michael Brown posted the pastors' statement on Facebook. The group include James W. Goll, Joseph Mattera, Bishop Harry Jackson, Nashville minister Don Finto and Jane Hamon,

"Based on our careful review of numerous first-hand reports, some of them dating back to 2004, we state our theological opinion and can say with one voice that, without a doubt, Todd is not qualified to serve in leadership or ministry today," they said.

They continued saying, "There are credible accusations of a steady pattern of ungodly and immoral behavior, confirmed by an independent investigator's interviews dating from 2008 up through 2019, along with other testimonies dating back to 2004. And while we only took into account first-hand reports, there are many other second and third-hand reports repeating the same accusations, often from people in different parts of the country (or, world) who had no connection between them, other than their interaction with Todd."

Further to the Christian Post's report, it was Bentley's estranged protege Stephen Powell who first revealed about the preacher's sexual conduct allegations.

Powell said that Bentley has a "perverse sexual addiction" and preyed on interns in 2013 and beyond. He accused that the evangelist "has an appetite for a variety of sexual sins" which include both homosexual and heterosexual activities and indulged in an open marriage with his wife.

Currently, while the pandemic keeps him grounded, Bentley said that he makes himself busy by mentoring his daughter. The evangelist is also encouraging people to give to his ministry.
Activating qualified clinicians for faster COVID-19 vaccine administration requires rapid onboarding by an already taxed healthcare workforce

Wolters Kluwer:

What: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a fifth amendment to the Declaration under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) to add additional categories of qualified persons authorized to prescribe, dispense, and administer COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This action would enable retired or inactive doctors and nurses to administer COVID-19 vaccines.

Why: Creative solutions are needed urgently as the U.S. struggles to disseminate COVID-19 vaccine doses quickly and efficiently to millions of Americans, however there are downstream implications of such changes for hospitals and health systems that are already underwater. A cohesive and rapid onboarding strategy at these facilities is needed to ensure the burden of supporting newly activated staff does not fall on an already over-taxed workforce.

Who: Anne Dabrow Woods, DNP, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC, AGACNP-BC, FAAN, is a practicing nurse practitioner in critical care for Penn Medicine, Chester County Hospital and clinical adjunct faculty for the College of Nursing Health Professions for Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Anne has over 36 years of experience in nursing and 22 years of experience as a nurse practitioner. She currently serves as Chief Nurse of Health Learning, Research Practice, Wolters Kluwer.

"HHS's most recent initiative acknowledges that we desperately need more support in handling this pandemic. I want to urge however that this is not going to be a plug-and-play solution. Clinicians entering the workforce or returning from retirement will need training and support around COVID-19 vaccine administration, and we need to do everything we can to ensure this responsibility doesn't fall on our already over-worked frontline providers."

"While HHS' latest program to allow nursing students and recently retired nurses to support COVID-19 vaccination efforts is a step in the right direction, in some ways it is like putting a Band-Aid on something that needs sutures. There is a much bigger problem facing our nurses as they care for COVID patients from the ICU all the way to patients with long-haul symptoms in the community. Supporting vaccine distribution is critical to scaling the effort effectively and it adds a new dimension to the need for more cross training of our existing nursing workforce to create agility and efficiency within our existing health systems."

"Hospitals have had to make impossible choices over the last few months. In many cases, elective procedures have been paused, forcing hospitals to furlough underutilized staff. However, these same facilities are experiencing massive nursing shortages in their ICUs, stepdown units, telemetry units and EDs. Instead of experiencing this staffing disparity, cross functional training can support load balancing of nurses across a hospital, preventing furloughs and staffing shortages."

How: Contact Ashley Beine at ashley.beine@wolterskluwer.com to schedule an interview with Anne Dabrow Woods. Journalists may also publish quotes above with proper attribution.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the clinicians, nurses, accountants, lawyers, and tax, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of 4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students with advanced clinical decision support, learning and research and clinical intelligence. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth.

For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005775/en/

Contacts:

Media

Andre Rebelo

Sr. Global Public Relations Manager

Wolters Kluwer Health

+1 (781) 392-2411

andre.rebelo@wolterskluwer.com
A proposal for revision of the income criteria for determining the creamy layer amongst other backward classes (OBCs) is under consideration of the government, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

In written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Pal Gurjar said the proposal was made after due consultation with the Commission for the Backward Classes.

"A proposal for revision of the income criteria for determining the creamy layer amongst OBCs is under consideration of the government," he said.

Responding to another question, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Rattan Lal Kataria said a committee was constituted to make in-depth analysis of the reasons for non-filling up of reserved vacancies/less employability of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in government sector and suggest remedial measures.

Some of the reasons for non-filling of seats include unavailability of adequately qualified candidates for Group A and Group B posts and technical and scientific posts, need of special attention for people with disabilities and low utilisation of funds for the benefit of persons with disabilities under various poverty alleviation schemes.

(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 bus makes its way through Chinatown after heavy snowfall in Manhattan, New York City, on Feb. 2, 2021. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

US Northeast Digs Out After Massive Snowstorm, Two Dead

People across the U.S. Northeast were digging themselves out on Tuesday after a powerful storm blanketed parts of the region with more than 2 feet of snow, prompting airlines to cancel flights and contributing to at least two deaths.

The noreasteran East Coast storm whose winds blow from the northeastcut power to thousands of households, and halted some subway and train service in and around New York City. It dropped about 30 inches of snow in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and up to 18 inches in New York City.

A person uses a phone next to a snowman at Sunset Park with lower Manhattan in the background, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, on Feb. 2, 2021. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

The snowy weather was expected to continue in parts of the Northeast, with a stretch from upstate New York to northern Maine hit the hardest, the National Weather Service said in its latest forecast on Tuesday. Snow could develop in the Upper Midwest on Wednesday before the storm runs its course, it said.

In Allentown, Pennsylvania, a 67-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimers disease was found lying dead in the snow on Monday after wandering away from her home, police said.

A man in Newark, New Jersey, died after being found lying in the snow on Monday, according to police officials, who said the death was not considered suspicious.

In New York City, public transit was coming back to life. Outdoor subway service, which had been suspended, resumed, buses were running on reduced schedules, and the areas major commuter railroads had resumed partial or full operations.

The citys LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, where flights were canceled on Monday, both said they were working to clear the snow and that they expected activity to pick up later on Tuesday.

The storm prompted widespread closings of schools and COVID-19 vaccination sites. In Connecticut, about 10,000 vaccination appointments were canceled on Monday, with plans to reschedule them for later this week.

By Nathan Layne and Maria Caspani
State Track: Arrows' Mack and Heesch among six area event winners on opening day

Watertown seniors Cooper Mack and Maggie Heesch and four other area athletes notched event wins Friday during the opening day of the 2021 State High School Track and Field Meet.
A 22-year-old Drew University student has been missing for two weeks, authorities and his family said.

Ajay Sah, a junior in the College of Liberal Arts and a resident assistant, was last seen exiting a New Jersey Transit train at New York Penn Station around midnight on Jan. 19, the Madison-based school and the Morris County Prosecutors Office said.

His laptop, assignments and study materials were left on his desk at school as if he planned to return, according to family and friends. Shah has not posted on social media since leaving his room and his last credit card transaction was for the purchase of his train ticket.

Shah, a native of Nepal, is about 5-foot-7, 125 pounds with black hair and black eyes. He was last seen wearing a black leather jacket with a gray hoodie and khakis, his brother Shiva Shah said.

 URGENT! Ajay Sah, age 22 and a student at Drew University, boarded a train in Madison, NJ on Tuesday, January 19, 2021... Posted by Missing Pieces Network on Saturday, January 30, 2021

Shah often travels to New York City and also has ties to Texas, the prosecutors office said.

Ajay is an important and well-known member of our community and we are working toward and hopeful for his safe return to Drew, the school said in a statement following his disappearance.

The prosecutors office and Shiva Shah couldnt immediately be reached by NJ Advance Media on Tuesday morning.

Shahs brother has established a GoFundMe.com page to cover travel expenses to the U.S. for their parents.

Anyone with information about Shahs whereabout is asked to call Madison police at 973-593-3000 or the Morris County Prosecutors Office Missing Persons Unit through the Morris County Communications Center at 973-285-2900. Anyone with information who wants to remain anonymous can contact Morris County Crimestoppers at 1-800-743-7433.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JGoldmanNJ.

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

The scientists were able to use their technique to take images of muons and positrons as they passed through water and a plastic scintillator. Credit: Seiichi Yamamoto

A new technique has taken the first images of muon particle beams. Nagoya University scientists designed the imaging technique with colleagues in Osaka University and KEK, Japan and describe it in the journal Scientific Reports. They plan to use it to assess the quality of these beams, which are being used more and more in advanced imaging applications.

Muons are charged particles that are 207 times the mass of electrons. They naturally form when cosmic rays strike atoms in the upper atmosphere, showering down onto every part of Earth's surface. They can penetrate through hundreds of meters of solids before being absorbed.

Scientists have used naturally occurring muon particles as a way to peek through huge solid structures. For example, in 2017 scientists announced they had found a hidden chamber inside the Khufu Pyramid of Giza by comparing the muon intensities measured by detectors located inside and outside the pyramid. Particle accelerator facilities can now also generate muon beams, which are used in a variety of applications, like non-destructive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Muon beams are also expected to be adapted for cancer radiotherapy.

Nagoya University biomedical nuclear scientist Seiichi Yamamoto and colleagues developed a new imaging technique that they say shows promise for quality assessment and research of muon beams, and should be of benefit for muon radiotherapy in the future.

The technique depends on a phenomenon that occurs when charged particles travel through transparent media, like water. Water slows light down relative to high-energy particles. Particles moving faster than light cause something similar to the sonic boom we hear when a jet plane breaks through the sound barrier. In the case of the particles, an 'optical boom," called the Cherenkov effect, causes a brief flash.

Yamamoto and his colleagues imaged this effect with a special camera when a muon beam was directed through water or a plastic scintillator block. The technique allowed them to image muons and the positrons that form when muons decay. This helped them measure the beam's range through the water or plastic scintillator, and the deviation of its momentum, as well as clarify the direction of positron movement.

"The system is compact, low cost and easy to use, showing promise as a tool for quality assessment in muon beam facilities," says Yamamoto.

Explore further A full-scale prototype for muon tomography

More information: Seiichi Yamamoto et al. Optical imaging of muons, Scientific Reports (2020). Journal information: Scientific Reports Seiichi Yamamoto et al. Optical imaging of muons,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-76652-8
Burma Military Tells Members of Myanmars Dissolved Parliament They Can Go Home

Soldiers and military trucks are seen outside the government guest house in Naypyitaw where MPs who were elected in last years poll reside, after the Tatmadaw staged a coup on Feb. 1, 2021. / The Irrawaddy

Members of Myanmars Parliament elected in the 2020 vote who are currently confined in Naypyitaws government guesthouse following the coup on Monday were told by a military official on Tuesday afternoon that they can return home.

The MPs-elect arrived in the capital within the past two weeks to attend the Parliament, but it was dissolved when the military staged the coup hours before the Lower House parliamentary session was due to convene on Monday.

MPs told The Irrawaddy prior to the coup that they were ready to attend the parliamentary sessions in adherence with COVID-19 preventative measures.

The military detained senior NLD leaders, including President U Win Myint, and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday.

Security has been tightened in the capital, including at the governments guesthouse where the soldiers and military trucks are patrolling outside the compound.

Sai Thiha Kyaw, the Lower House parliamentarian for Mai Yel Township in Shan State, representing the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, confirmed that the MPs were told to return.

But he said they would not go home yet because they still need to discuss it among themselves.

The ethnic Shan MP said, We will also consult with our partys leaders on what to do next.

U Kyi Toe, a member of the National League for Democracy Central Information Committee, said the NLD MPs-elect have been told to wait for their party leaders decisions.

One of the NLD MPs also told The Irrawaddy that they will stay in Naypyitaw until Feb. 6.

On Tuesday, the military released the State and Regional Chief Ministers from military detention and ordered them to move out of their official residences, but will place them under house arrest.

U Kyi Toe posted on his Facebook that the government ministers and deputy ministers, dismissed by the military, have been ordered to move from their residences within three days. To allow that, the barriers at the entrance to the ministerial residences have been lifted, he said.

The NLD on Tuesday called for the immediate release of President U Win Myint, the State Counselor and others, and urged the military to respect the election results.

After the military announced it had taken control of the country and declared a one-year state of emergency, commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said the Tatmadaw would hold a new election as soon as it completed implementing emergency measures, and would hand power to the winner of the election.

MP Sai Thiha Kyaw said, We did not expect that the military would do such a takeover of power in the country, and we didnt want it to happen, either.

We want a stable country, which is free of conflicts, he said, adding that the ethnic states, including Shan State, have had enough suffering from the previous military regimes and armed conflicts.

You may also like these stories:

US President Joe Biden Threatens New Sanctions on Myanmar After Coup

Myanmars Ousted NLD Demands Military Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President
(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co will tap into software, artificial intelligence and cloud computing offered by Alphabet Inc's Google to develop new consumer services and modernize internal operations, the companies said on Monday. As part of a six-year partnership, the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker will incorporate the tech giant's Android operating system into its Ford and Lincoln vehicles starting in 2023. Ford will offer its customers built-in Google apps, including its map and voice technology. It will deploy Google artificial intelligence technology to improve the ...
[February 02, 2021] China Mobile International Opens Frankfurt Data Centre

FRANKFURT, Germany, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new China Mobile International Limited (CMI) data centre is now open in Germany. The purpose-built Tier III facility is located in Frankfurt, the financial capital of the European Union. Trade between Asia and Europe remains strong with significant inter-regional investment flows and growing collaboration in education, research, and other areas. The Frankfurt Data Centre is an important addition to CMI's growing global network and serves as both an International Network Exchange hub and an Internet Data Centre (IDC). "CMI is locating our second data centre in Europe in Frankfurt to help provide secure and reliable high-speed connections and enable closer ties between Europe and Asia. COVID-19 has meant more users spending more time online, with increased reliance on digital tools for remote working and learning and online shopping. Technology is now an intrinsic part of almost all aspects of our lives, so more data needs to be processed and stored. This in turn means greater demand for cloud and content delivery solutions," said Dr Li Feng, Chairman & CEO of CMI. "CMI provides professional one-stop-shop services to help carrier and enterprise customers respond to and meet the needs of their users in a new era of digital globalization." The new Frankfurt facility seamlessly connects with CMI's Singapore and UK data centres, its Global Network Centre in Hong Kong and its extensive global mobile communications and cloud network infrastructure. The new data centre will strengthen the international connectivity of iConnect, an integrated solution for carriers and deliver enterprise services to businesses worldwide via CMI iSolutions and mCloud. More than 2,000 international businesses currently leverage CMI's iSolutions product suite for connectivity and secialist solutions covering IDC, information and communications technology, Internet of Things and cloud, while more than 10,000 enterprise users rely on CMI's mCloud cloud-network integration platform.



CMI's global footprint includes cable systems, points of presence (POPs) and data centres, as well as collaborative agreements with 29 data centre service providers that extend its services to more than 210 cities worldwide. An expert team helps global financial sector organizations build flexible hybrid IT infrastructure that meets the industry's exacting security and compliance requirements across public cloud, private cloud, and physical architecture. CMI's integrated cloud networking products help banks, insurers, security firms and fintechs access secure global data centres, dedicated low-latency routes and cloud connections. CMI leverages its global network infrastructure to offer a service-ready cross-border backbone via mCloud that slashes cloud provisioning lead time to secondsa fraction of that required for traditional connectivity service deployments. It also ensures 99.99% availability for POP-to-POP connections with mCloud's Cloud Connect solution smoothly integrating different cloud regions around the world.

"With an extensive footprint of cable systems, data centres and more than 80 Cloud Connect POPs, CMI provides global access with ample bandwidth, flexible connectivity and comprehensive one-stop services," Dr Li Feng said. "Serving international customers, especially Chinese enterprises looking to expand in Europe, our new facility is helping confirm Frankfurt as a premier data centre hub." Located in Morfelden, the CMI Frankfurt Data Centre is designed with two individual cable lead-ins with dual diversity paths and advanced nine-layer security control. The newly built facility is served by a dual power supply from two different power substations. The power system is supported by 2N Transformers and Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS), which is equipped with a 12-minute backup battery. The data centre's cooling system includes chilled water storage reserved for continuous cooling backup. The new data centre is a Tier III data centre certified by the Uptime Institute under its Tier Certification of Design Documents (TCDD) standard. CMI expects to confirm other international certifications including Payment Card Industry - Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), TUViT Trusted Site Infrastructure (TSI) Level 3, Tier Certification of Constructed Facilities (TCCF) standards, and relevant ISO certifications for security and quality management. With enterprises increasingly wanting the benefits of comprehensive one-stop-shop solutions, CMI is committed to offering a complete range of value-added services, including professional colocation, cross-connect and remote hands support. The latter provides on-site technicians for maintenance tasks and IT management on behalf of the enterprise and minimises the need for site visits by their in-house personnel. To meet the growing demands of multinational companies, CMI will continue to advance its presence across the globe and maximise its data centre synergies to achieve efficient convergence and agility, providing global access with large bandwidth connectivity. About China Mobile International Limited China Mobile International Limited (CMI) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Mobile, mainly responsible for the operation of China Mobile's international business. In order to provide better services to meet the growing demand in the international telecommunications market, China Mobile established a subsidiary, CMI, in December 2010. CMI currently has 70+ terrestrial and submarine cable resources worldwide, with a total international transmission bandwidth of over 90T, and a total of 180 POPs. With Hong Kong, China as its launchpad, CMI has significantly accelerated global IDC development, creating a strong network for data centre cloudification. Leveraging the strong support by China Mobile, CMI is a trusted partner that provides comprehensive international telecom services and solutions to international enterprises, carriers and mobile users. Headquartered in Hong Kong, China, CMI has expanded its footprint in 37 countries and regions. For more information, please visit www.cmi.chinamobile.com. SOURCE China Mobile International Limited (CMI)

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Without having any links to people who travelled recently, 11 people in the United Kingdom have tested positive for the South African variant. On Monday, February 1, the UK government said that the people are self-isolating and the government has started with the process of contact tracing so that the people who have been in contact with them can also self isolate. The people were detected from eight postal codes, including 3 in London, 2 in south east, 1 in West Midlands and few in the North West.

Read: UK Bans Flights From UAE, Burundi And Rwanda Shutting World's Busiest International Route

Travel banned

Earlier, the UK banned travel from South Africa and Portugal. UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, in a statement, said, I've taken the urgent decision to ban arrivals from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela  from tomorrow, 15 Jan at 4 am following evidence of a new variant in Brazil''. UKs Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the British press that the ban imposed to contain the spread of the new Brazilian variant was extended to Portugal because travellers from Portugal arriving in Europe from South America.

Shapps told UKs BBC, that there were no known cases of the Brazilian strain at the moment, and the ban was a precautionary approach. He added that the government wanted to ensure that they do everything possible so that vaccine rollout can continue and the spread of the new variant could be mitigated. Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva reportedly condemned the UKs decision, saying that the ban was without logic. Furthermore, he informed that he would hold talks with his British counterparts about suspending flights from Portugal.

Read: UK Expresses Concern Over Suu Kyi's Detainment; Summons Myanmar Ambassador In London

In another significant development, the Brazilian variant made its first appearance in the US. According to the State Health Officials, the case was detected in a person who recently returned to Minnesota after travelling to Brazil. Earlier, as per the reports by the state department, the Brazil variant was found in a specimen from a patient who lives in Minneapolis-St. Paul as he became ill during the first week of January.

Read: UK Set To Join Asia-Pacific Free Trade Pact A Year After Leaving EU

Also Read: UK Orders More Valneva Vaccine To Prepare For Repeated Jabs

(Image Credits: AP/Unsplash)
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A fire broke out at a studio in Mumbai's Goregaon on Tuesday. The scale of the fire is yet to be known but the fire department rushed eight fire tenders to the spot. No one was hurt or injured as the studio was reportedly shut when the incident took place.

#WATCH I Mumbai: A fire has broken out at a studio in Goregaon; 8 fire tenders present at the spot. No injuries reported yet. More details awaited. pic.twitter.com/GJ9pNB0q0x  ANI (@ANI) February 2, 2021

The studio is located near Inorbit Mall in Goregaon West. Initial reports suggest that the fire was triggered by a short circuit, India Today reported.
Theres no relationship between two countries on Earth quite like that between the United States and Taiwan. The island nation is Americas ninth-largest trading partner and one of the main global customers for U.S. arms exports. As containing Chinas regional ambitions has become a guiding aim of U.S. policy in East Asia, the defense of Taiwan, with its strategically vital location, has only grown in importance. As a now-consolidated democracy, Taiwan enjoys strong bipartisan support in Washington, and its remarkably successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has only boosted its public image.

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But for all that support, official U.S. policy does not recognize Taiwan as an independent nation.

The Chinese government in Beijing considers the island part of its own territory and does not recognize the legitimacy of the modern nation of Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China. The nation dates back to 1949, when Chinese nationalists fled the mainland after losing a war with Mao Zedongs communists.For decades after its founding, the Taiwanese government was recognized by the U.S. as the legitimate government of all of China, and it held Chinas seat on the U.N. Security Council. That changed in 1979, when Jimmy Carters administration normalized relations with the Peoples Republic of China and severed diplomatic ties with the Taiwanese government.

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That year, it became the official U.S. position that the Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China. Every administration has nominally adhered to the so-called one China policy since then. Rather than an official embassy, a nonprofit known as the American Institute in Taiwan represents U.S. interests in Taipei. This is a strange and hypocritical arrangement, but one that has benefited both the U.S. and Taiwan. Taiwan has maintained its de facto independenceunlike in Hong Kong or Macao, Taiwanese citizens and institutions are mostly free from Beijings influenceand recent decades have brought a transition to democracy and rising prosperity. The U.S., meanwhile, has been able to maintain a valuable alliance while avoiding a military confrontation with another nuclear-armed superpower. The question is how long this unusual arrangement can last.

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Last week brought an alarming reminder of the stakes. On two consecutive days, 15 Chinese warplanes, including eight bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons, entered Taiwans air defense identification area, a no-go zone that, while not recognized by international law, the Chinese military had respected for years. Taiwans air force responded on Tuesday by scrambling jets for a simulated war scenario. A spokesman for Chinas ministry of defense issued a sharp statement, declaring, We warn those Taiwan independence elements: those who play with fire will burn themselves, and Taiwan independence means war.

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This was a way to intentionally provoke the security situation, says Tan Sun Chen, a former foreign minister of Taiwan. China is trying to test the waters of the real intentions of the U.S. government, to see how strongly they support Taiwan.

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The Trump administration broke from the status quo on Taiwan early on. During the previous presidential transition in 2016, Trump accepted a congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wenthe first direct conversations between the leaders of the two countries since the 1970s. (More problematic than the call itself was the fact that Trump seemed to have gone into it with no preparation or awareness of the risks involved.) Over the years, the Trump administration approved major arms sales to Taiwan, including missile systems that pushed the long-standing policy of selling the island defensive weapons to the limit. Senior administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, visited Taipei in a show of support at a time when the U.S. was casting blame for the global pandemic on the Chinese government. In his final days in office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lifted long-standing restrictions on contact between officials of the two governments. A long-touted trip by Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft had been scheduled for Trumps final weeks in office but was ultimately canceled amid the chaos of the Biden-Trump transition. All in all, the Trump administration worked out well for Taipeis aspirations to normalize its ties to Washington. As with much of the administrations policy, the president himself was probably less interested in the issue than his advisers. According to former National Security Adviser and staunch Taiwan backer John Bolton, Trump would frequently point to the tip of one of his Sharpies and say, This is Taiwan, then point to the Resolute Desk and say, This is China.

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Pompeos moves pushed Taiwan to the top of the agenda Beijing will want to raise with the new administration, says Ryan Hass, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Chinese leaders presumably want Biden to reverse Pompeos move to loosen the restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan official contacts. Hass suspects the new administration is more likely to seek a middle ground. Countermanding or disavowing Pompeos announcements would set the U.S.-Taiwan relationship off on an uncomfortable footing. Fully embracing them invites a fair bit of risk for managing the most sensitive issue in Americas foreign policy portfolio, he says. This could mean a review of current policy and perhaps some changes around the edges.

There are already some signs the new administration will be a tad bolder on Taiwan than previous administrations. While Biden himself did not speak with Tsai during his transition, Secretary of State Antony Blinken did shortly after the election. Taiwans de facto ambassador in Washington was also invited to Bidens inauguration, the first time this has happened since 1979. Biden himself is a long-standing Taiwan backerhe voted for the Taiwan Relations Act, which defines U.S. support for the country, all the way back in 1979.

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In response to Chinas aerial incursion last week, State Department spokesperson Ned Price issued a statement urging China to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and affirming that our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid.

The dark question hanging over U.S. Taiwan policy is the question of what the U.S. would do if China actually tried to take over Taiwan by force. While Taiwan has gotten less media attention than other Asian flashpoints like North Korea and the South China Sea in recent years, an invasion could be a nightmare scenario that should be taken seriously, if only because its the most likely place where the two most powerful countries in the world would go to war.

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The Taiwan Relations Act states that any threat to Taiwan is a grave concern to the United States and that in the event of such a threat, The President and the Congress shall determine, in accordance with constitutional processes, appropriate action by the United States. This is pretty vague, and some say it doesnt go far enough.

In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and research fellow David Sacks called for the U.S. to abandon its long-standing policy of strategic ambiguity when it comes to Taiwans defense and explicitly state that it would come to Taiwans defense, in order to deter any thoughts from China of launching an attack.

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The problem with such a policy of strategic clarity is that it would put Tsai in a position of having to pursue independence more aggressively. Tsai is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, which is often referred to as the more pro-independence of the countrys two main political parties. Taiwan is already de facto independent, but it has not formally declared independence under the name Taiwan, which would likely provoke an aggressive response from China. The convenient fiction that the Taiwanese government is the Republic of China allows Taiwan to have its cake and eat it too: Its for all intents and purposes a separate country but doesnt call itself one.

This delicate state of affairs means that seemingly inconsequential matters such as whether Republic of China or Taiwan is printed larger on the countrys passports draws intense global scrutiny.

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The thing about Tsai Ing-wen is that shes very moderate when it comes to issues of sovereignty, says Margaret Lewis, a professor of law and China specialist at Seton Hall University and visiting scholar at Taiwans Academia Sinica. Taiwan is in a challenging position because it doesnt want to end up as a pawn between Beijing and D.C.

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Tsai has sought to bolster Taiwans global profile, maintain its few remaining formal diplomatic relationships, and seek membership in multilateral organizations. And she certainly sought to press Taiwans advantage as far as possible during the Trump years. But shes also carefully avoided doing anything that could be seen as a move toward full independence.

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A formal defense pact with the U.S. could raise pressure on her from her partys nationalist base to be bolder. A future president, such as Tsais rival-turnedVice President William Lai, could take a more aggressive approach toward independence.

What are Chinas actual future intentions for Taiwan? The goal is really to convince the people of Taiwan that they have no choice but to unify with China and that the United States cant save them. Its part of a psychological campaign, says Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Unfortunately for Beijing, the political trends are headed in the wrong direction for them. About two-thirds of Taiwanese no longer identify as Chinese, according to a recent poll. Chinas recent crackdown on dissents in Hong Kong only solidified Taiwanese opposition to rule from Beijing under a one country, two systems arrangement. Tsai even used footage from Hong Kong in her campaign ads.

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If Chinas carrots dont work, the stick may eventually become inevitable, though likely not in the short term. While sources like the ultranationalist state-run tabloid Global Times often threaten Taiwan with violence, Xi Jinping himself has been slightly more cryptic. In a 2019 speech, Xi said that the Taiwan conflict cannot be dragged on generation after generation and that resolving it is a must for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Since Xi has said this great rejuvenation should be achieved by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, some have interpreted that as a deadline for reunification. That doesnt necessarily mean it would happen by forceXi said that peaceful unification was still the preferred optionand he can afford to bide his time as long as Taiwan refrains from pursuing full-fledged independence.

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But you dont have to look very far to see how these tensions can quickly escalate into a crisis. Its happened before. In 1995, against the wishes of the Bill Clinton administration but with strong support from Congress, Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui traveled to the United States to attend a reunion at his alma mater, Cornell, where he made a speech using the politically fraught term Republic of China on Taiwan. China responded with two days of missile tests just 100 miles north of Taiwan and by redeploying forces to coastal areas facing the island. More military drills and test firings followed, with China hoping to influence the 1996 Taiwanese election. The U.S. then sent an aircraft carrier group through the Taiwan strait in December 1995 and deployed a second one to the area in 1996at the time, the biggest display of U.S. military power in Asia since the Vietnam War. While the situation eventually quieted down, Secretary of State Warren Christopher later recalled feeling that a simple miscalculation or misstep could lead to unintended war.

The White House declined to comment for this article, but in all likelihood, the Biden administration will continue to quietly back Taiwan without the fireworks of the Trump years. There are even some opportunities to go further: Haass notes that The Trump administration for all their enthusiastic support of Taiwan, moved the ball forward absolutely zero on trade. Politically, were likely to see the administration continue arms sales and statements of support while carefully monitoring and controlling official contacts between the two governments. The administration may also continue to lobby other countries and organizations to maintain ties with Taiwan in spite of Beijings pressure campaign, though those entities could say they are making the same calculation the U.S. made in 1979. The administration will seek to preserve the ambiguityhypocrisy if youre feeling ungenerousthat has long characterized U.S.-Taiwan relations.

Geopolitics abhors ambiguity and sooner or later the U.S. position will stop being sustainable. If the Biden team is lucky, it wont happen on their watch.

Update, Feb. 4, 2021: This article has been updated to clarify the origins of Taiwan.
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NEW YORK - Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon as an online bookstore and built it into a shopping and entertainment behemoth, will step down later this year as CEO, a role he's had for nearly 30 years, to become executive chairman, the company announced Tuesday.

FILE - In this Thursday, June 6, 2019, file photo, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks at the Amazon re:MARS convention, in Las Vegas. Amazon said Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, that Bezos is stepping down as CEO later in the year, a role he's had since he founded the company nearly 30 years ago. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

NEW YORK - Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon as an online bookstore and built it into a shopping and entertainment behemoth, will step down later this year as CEO, a role he's had for nearly 30 years, to become executive chairman, the company announced Tuesday.

Bezos, 57, will be replaced in the summer by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon's cloud-computing business.

In a blog post to employees, Bezos said he planned to focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon. He said he would have more time for side projects, including his space exploration company Blue Origin, his philanthropic initiatives and overseeing The Washington Post, which he owns.

Bezos, who is the company's biggest shareholder, will still have broad influence over Amazon.

Jeff is really not going anywhere," Amazon's Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a call with reporters. Its more of a restructuring of whos doing what."

Launched in 1995, Amazon was a pioneer of fast, free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything else. Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a common sight in living rooms.

FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2020, file photo, an Amazon Prime logo appears on the side of a delivery van as it departs an Amazon Warehouse location in Dedham, Mass. Amazon said Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, that CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping down later in the year, a role he's had since he founded the company nearly 30 years ago. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

As a child, Bezos was intrigued by computers and interested in building things, such as alarms he rigged in his parents home. He got a degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, and then worked at several Wall Street companies.

He quit his job at D.E. Shaw to start an online retail business  though at first he wasnt sure what to sell. Bezos quickly determined that an online bookstore would resonate with consumers. He and his now ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, whom he met at D.E. Shaw and married in 1993, set out on a road trip to Seattle  a city chosen for its abundance of tech talent and proximity to a large book distributor in Roseburg, Oregon.

While Scott drove, Bezos wrote up the business plan for what would become Amazon.com. Bezos convinced his parents and some friends to invest in the idea, and Amazon began operating out of the Bezos Seattle garage on July 16, 1995.

Amazon has gone far beyond selling paperbacks. It now produces movies, makes sofas, owns a grocery chain and even has plans to send satellites into space to beam internet service to earth. The company is one of the most valuable in the world, worth nearly $1.7 trillion.

During the pandemic, Amazon was one of the few retailers to benefit as shoppers stayed clear of malls and shopped from their phones. On the same day Amazon announced Bezos would step down, the company reported making a record profit in the last three months of 2020, and its quarterly revenue shot past $100 billion for the first time.

Bezos' riches have also swelled: His stake in Amazon is currently worth about $180 billion. For years he stayed behind the scenes, running the company. More recently, he sometimes stepped into the spotlight, showing up at movie premieres and Hollywood parties.

In 2019, he announced he was divorcing Scott in a tweet, just before the National Enquirer published a cover story saying Bezos had an affair with a former TV host. Scott received a stake in Amazon after the divorce worth nearly $40 billion at the time. She has pledged to give away half her fortune to charities.

As Amazon has grown, so has scrutiny. Amazon and other tech giants have enjoyed light-touch regulation and star status in Washington for decades, but calls for greater regulation are growing. A report by the House Judiciary Committee in October called for possibly breaking up Amazon and others, making it harder for them to acquire companies and imposing new rules to safeguard competition.

Bezos is one of the last founders of a big tech company to still be CEO. The founders of Google, Oracle and Microsoft have all stepped down from the top job of the companies they created. Facebook is still led by co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Jassy, Bezos replacement, is a longtime Amazon executive, having worked at the company since 1997. The cloud-computing business he runs powers video-streaming site Netflix and many other companies, and it has become Amazon's most profitable business.

Hes deeply steeped in technology and a very seasoned executive in his own right, Gartner analyst Ed Anderson said.

But he will also face many challenges.

Amazons size makes some industries uncomfortable, some governments uncomfortable, and Andy Jassy will have to deal with the consequences, Anderson said. That will be some of the new era of his leadership.

Associated Press writers Matt O'Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, Mae Anderson in New York and Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report. ___

This story has been updated to correct the transition period to summer, not fall.
Wearable sensor monitors health, administers drugs using saliva and tears

A new kind of wearable health device would deliver real-time medical data to those with eye or mouth diseases, according to Huanyu 'Larry' Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in the Penn State Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM).

Cheng recently published a paper in Microsystems & Nanoengineering on new micro- and nano-device technology that could revolutionize how certain health conditions are monitored and treated.

"We sought to create a device that collects both small and large substances of biofluids such as tears and saliva, which can be analyzed for certain conditions on a rapid, continuous basis, rather than waiting on test results from samples in a lab," he said.

The sensors would be placed near the tear duct or mouth to collect samples, which would then produce data viewable on a user's smartphone or sent to their doctor, according to Cheng.

"But a device like this would have to be discreet, soft and comfortable for a patient to agree to wear it," he said. "And it would have to be a low-cost option for patients."

The tears- and saliva-sensing technology can help manage diseases like oral ulcers, oral cancer, eye wrinkles and oral or eye infections like keratitis, which is inflammation of the clear tissue on the front of the eye.

Last year, Cheng published on a similar wearable skin patch that collects sweat and tests for pH, sodium and glucose levels -- most helpful for those with hypoglycemia or diabetes.

This new device not only collects data but also administers medicine with a microneedle through the skin around the eye, mouth or tongue.

"Through nano- to micro-steel ports on the device, we can probe the cell to deliver molecular drugs for treatment in a very efficient process at the cellular level," Cheng said. "Conversely, the ports can allow us to get access to the gene and coding information on the cell."

The researchers are developing working prototypes and are in talks with local manufacturers as well as the National Institutes of Health and Amazon for manufacturing the device on a large scale.

"This is a mature technology with a lot of interest behind it," Cheng said. "There are many possible uses for the device if it makes it to the commercial marketplace."

With future support from the National Science Foundation, Cheng hopes to extend the technology to other applications as well.

"There is strong motivation for us to apply this technology to similar sensing devices in the future," he said.

###

In addition to Cheng, other authors are Cheng's graduate student Jia Zhu, Penn State doctoral candidate in ESM, as well as An'an Sheng, Long Lin, Jian Li, Jian Zhuang and Lingqian Chang, all from universities and research labs in China.

The Doctoral New Investigator grant from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, the National Science Foundation and Penn State supported this work.

This story has been published on: 2021-02-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said clinical tests of the Russian Sputnik V anti-coronavirus vaccine demonstrated its 100% efficacy.

"We conducted tests in Venezuela and it [the vaccine] demonstrated one hundred percent efficacy," he said in an interview broadcast on his Twitter account.

He also said that no serious complications after vaccination with the Russian vaccine had been registered in Venezuela.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in December that an agreement had been reached with the Russian side on supplies of the Sputnik V vaccine.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 18:45:10|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Israel's army said on Tuesday that one of its drones has crashed over the Gaza Strip during a military activity in the area.

The drone fell near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip "during an operational activity," the military spokesperson said in a statement, adding that no information has been compromised.

The spokesperson did not elaborate on the reasons for the crash.

It was the second time this week that Israeli military drone has crashed. On Monday, an army drone was shot down by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, according to a statement issued by the Lebanese armed group. Enditem
New Delhi, Feb 2 : With the Union Budget for 2021-22 laying a major focus on the launch of a National Hydrogen Mission for generating hydrogen from green power sources, a survey by international researchers on Tuesday said there is $104 billion in stranded asset risk for oil and gas pipelines in India.

While the Indian government has not announced any net zero targets, continued deflation in renewable energy price is making its economics of continued dependency on fossils untenable. India's energy sector has the highest exposure to nonperforming assets (NPAs), said the survey by Global Energy Monitor.

Globally, continuing a decade-long slowdown and year-on-year oil and gas pipeline additions fell by 13 per cent in 2020. Nevertheless, over $1 trillion in pipeline expansion projects are in development, drastically undermining pledges by the world's major economies to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century.

The report cites seven major policy options available to the Biden Administration for reining in pipeline overbuilding.

The report findings include stranded asset risk of $1 trillion. A planned 2,12,000-km expansion in the global system of oil and gas transmission pipelines, amounting to $1 trillion in capital expenditures, is on a collision course with commitments by most large economies to transition to carbon neutrality by mid-century, setting the stage for large amounts of stranded assets.

It says there is lock-in of future emissions. Pipeline projects under construction and in pre-construction will support a lifetime increase in oil and gas CO2 emissions of 170 gigatonnes, only 15 per cent less than the projected lifetime CO2 emissions of the currently operating global coal plant fleet.

The gas dominates the mix. Eighteen of the 20 longest pipelines in development and 82.7 per cent of all pipelines in development will carry gas, reflecting the fossil fuel industry's success in perpetuating the myth that gas can be a "bridge fuel" to a clean energy future.

The findings say the US is the leading developer of pipelines as measured by capacity, with 19.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in development. This expansion presents a major climate risk since US exports of liquified natural gas have the highest greenhouse gas intensity of any major exporter, according to Boston Consulting Group.

China continues a massive 32,800-km expansion of the country's oil and gas pipeline network. That network is being consolidated under a new company, PipeChina, which will soon be the largest builder of gas pipelines in the world, says the report.

The global pipeline expansion has slowed in the past decade and some projects were delayed in 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, however, the expansion curve has been bent rather than broken, with pipelines continuing to enjoy both policy support and financial support by governments and major financial institutions.

The findings are based on the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project-by-project survey of oil and gas pipelines and terminals.

"The policy landscape facing the new administration in 2021 is radically different from the one that Biden left in 2017," said James Browning, lead author of the report.

"Fossil gas is now recognised as a climate buster, not a climate solution. That means Biden faces the tough decision to rein in gas infrastructure, which is the most effective way to limit emissions." "Last month the head of the European Investment Bank, the world's biggest publicly owned financial institution, remarked that 'Gas is over'," said Greig Aitken, GEM's finance researcher.

"It's high time for other significant financial institutions, both public and private, to step up and follow the EIB's lead in ending their support for oil and gas infrastructure projects and companies."
Saeed Adyani/NetflixWill Smith and Larry Wilmore have teamed up for a new docuseries focused on the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship and protection to all persons born or naturalized in the United States.

On Tuesday, Netflix released the trailer and announced a February 17 premiere date for Amend: The Fight for America, a series that will explore the ongoing challenges that Americans face when it comes to equality. Co-executive produced by Smith and Wilmore, the upcoming series features a star studded line-up that includes Mahershala Ali, Diane Lane, Samuel L. Jackson, Pedro Pascal, Yara Shahidi, and more.

Hosted by Smith, the doc will include speeches and writings from historic figures such as Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Andrew Johnson. It will also provide insight from contemporary thought leaders and experts.

We are living in unprecedented days as a society, as a country, and as a human family, Smith said in a statement. I believe that the cultivation of personal and historical understanding is the imperative spark igniting the flames of desperately needed compassion and healing."

"Our hope with this series is to illuminate the beauty that is the promise of America and to share a message of connection and shared humanity so that we will be able to better understand and celebrate our different experiences as Americans and promote progress toward the true equality promised to all persons under the 14th amendment, he added.

Meanwhile, Wilmore said he hoped the series would serve as "a compelling conversation starter."

"Everything weve seen happen in America in the last few years is about what Black people and other marginalized groups have always wanted: to make sure that we are really part of America and have everything thats been promised to us by the Constitution," he said.

By Candice Williams

Copyright  2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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The nation's first reinsurance firm, Ethiopian Reinsurance S.C., aka Ethio-Re, made a huge profit in the last fiscal year for the second year running. Ethio-Re bagged 164.6 million Br in net profit, a 23pc rise from the previous year.

The underwriting profit of the company also registered a remarkable 42.5pc increase, reaching 105.3 million Br. However, the earnings per share of the firm sunk slightly to 21.3pc from 21.4pc.

This considerable increase must have been good news to the shareholders, according to Abdulmenan Mohammed, a financial statement analyst with two decades of experience.

The performance has already delighted Robel Yimer, one of the shareholders, who says that the firm's achievements exceeded his expectations.

"I expected that the transition of the CEO could have an impact," he said. "But it was smooth and didn't affect its performance."

Following the departure of founding CEO Yewondwossen Itefa, the board of directors appointed Fikru Tsegaye as acting CEO, effective September 19, 2020. Fikru had been serving as an executive officer of strategic planning and business development at Ethio-Re.

The major cause for improved performance of the firm was an increase in gross premium and investment income combined with minimal claims growth.

Gross underwriting premiums showed a striking 25pc increase to 874.7 million Br, out of which 202.2 million Br was transferred as retrocession, which went up by 82.7pc. Ethio-Re ceded 189.3 million Br to reinsurers, marking a 12pc increase.

The gross written premium growth is way above the industry average of 18pc, according to Fikru.

The 1.2 billion Br investment in time deposits and the 121.9 million Br equity in bonds generated 129.2 million Br in income. This investment income registered a 25pc spike.

Ethio-Re did very well in investment activities, according to Abdulmenan.

Claims paid and provided for slightly rose by two percent to 335.7 million Br. This shows that Ethio-Re controlled claims very well, according to Abdulmenan, adding that this helped Ethio-Re considerably in improving its profit after tax.

Operating and other expenses at Ethio-Re rose by 46.5pc to 48 million Br, which the expert asserted was a considerable increase requiring the management's attention.

Fikiru says that expenses have expanded due to the support the company provided to national projects such as Dine for Sheger and Dine for Nation and various school feeding projects.

The company's total assets increased by 10.5pc in value, reaching almost 1.8 billion Br, and long-term insurance business assets represented nine percent of the total, a rise from the 7.3pc recorded the previous year.

Ethio-Re invested 1.2 billion Br in time deposits, 52.2 million Br in shares and 121.7 million Br in bonds. These investments account for 74pc of the total assets of Ethio-Re.

This is a considerable proportion by industry standards, for which the management should be applauded, according to Abdulmenan.

Liquidity analysis shows that the liquidity level of Ethio-Re declined both in value and relative terms. Its cash and bank balances decreased by eight percent to 101.2 million Br, while the ratio of cash and bank balances to total assets dropped to 5.6pc from 6.7pc.

Ethio-Re should take precautions against a further reduction, according to Abdulmenan.

Fikru asserted that the firm has adequate preparation for meeting its liabilities.

"Our risk management report shows a healthier liquidity ratio, and [we are] the most liquid financial institution in Ethiopia," he said.

Ethio-Re also managed to raise its paid-up capital by 30pc to 787.6 million Br. The company's capital and non-distributable reserves accounted for 46.6pc of its total assets, demonstrating that the firm's strong capital base is far higher than its operational needs.

Ethio-Re needs to use its capital efficiently, according to Abdulmenan.

Ethio-Re incurred losses during the first two years of operation following its founding in July 2016.

The board has been exerting maximum effort to understand the business environment, major challenges, and opportunities facing the company to take the necessary corrective measures and bring the company on track, according to Hailemariam Assefa, the board chairperson of Ethio-Re, which signed a memorandum of understanding for future cooperation with Oman Re early last week.

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"During the course of the stay," said Hailemariam, "we've been engrossed in strengthening the relationship with the primary insurance market, the regulator, our business partners, shareholders and other stakeholders to guide the company to perform as expected."

All 17 insurance firms transfer five percent of all insurance policies to Ethio-Re, 25pc of treaty sessions, and policy coverages, assigned to other reinsurers. In August, the central bank also issued a directive that made Ethio-Re the lead reinsurer for any risk that falls out of a treaty signed between the insurance company and reinsurance firm. The directive also requires insurance companies to receive confirmation from Ethio-Re before covering a risk that exceeds 30pc of their gross retention capacity.

Robel also anticipates that the company will perform better in the coming years as it is the lone local reinsurance firm.

"I expect a major shift in the coming years," he told Fortune. "I also see a bright future for the company in the coming years as many international companies are coming to the country."
For the months of January to March, the vaccination drive is expected to cost about Rs 2,700 crore, Expenditure Secretary TV Somanathan said

New Delhi: The PM-CARES fund, which has been set up to provide relief during the coronavirus pandemic, has contributed over Rs 2,200 crore for the first phase of vaccination drive, which is looking to inoculate frontline healthcare workers, the Expenditure Secretary said on Tuesday.

Set up in March 2020, the exact collections made by the fund through voluntary contribution by individuals and corporates, are not known but the corpus managed by the PMO has been providing relief to pandemic-hit sectors.

With the Budget for the current fiscal, which was presented before the onset of the pandemic, making no separate allocation for vaccination, more than 82 per cent of the cost of the same during January to March is being borne by the PM CARES Fund.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget for the next fiscal beginning April 2021 has set aside Rs 35,000 crore towards COVID vaccination.

In an interview with PTI, Expenditure Secretary TV Somanathan said the cost of vaccination of frontline and healthcare workers in the current fiscal is being borne fully by the central government and the money is coming from PM CARES fund and Health Ministry.

"For January-March the (vaccination) cost is expected to be about Rs 2,700 crore approximately. Part of it is coming from the Health Ministry and some part of it is funded from the PM CARES fund. This is for the first round of 3 crore frontline and health workers," he said.

The entire cost of this round will be borne by the Central Government, he said.

"We had provided extra funds to the Health Ministry for incidental costs to vaccination. We made an additional allocation of Rs 480 crore just for the 3 crore batch of vaccination," he said.

The remaining about Rs 2,220 crore will come from PM-CARES fund.

"Yes, that is my information," he said when asked if the remainder of the Rs 2,700 crore cost of the vaccination drive, after accounting for Rs 480 crore from the health ministry, will come from the PM CARES Fund.

Opposition and rights activists have criticised the secrecy behind the PM-CARES Fund. This is because information on donations made and expenditure has not been shared citing the fund not being a "public authority" under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

The Prime Minister Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) was set up in March last year where people can contribute to help the government fight against coronavirus and similar "distressing situations".

The trust is headed by the Prime Minister. The other ex-officio members of the trust are the defence minister, the home minister and the finance minister.

India in January approved two vaccines, Oxford's Covishield manufactured by SII in the country and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, for restricted emergency use. The country launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 16 in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the world's largest inoculation programme with priority to be given to nearly three crore healthcare and frontline workers.

According to the COVID-19 Vaccine Operational Guidelines, 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 based on evolving pandemic situation.

The Budget on Monday proposed a budget outlay of over Rs 2.23 lakh crore for health and well being in 2021-2022, an increase of 137 per cent from the previous year.

Sitharaman in her Budget speech had said that India has two vaccines available, and has begun medically safeguarding not only her own citizens against COVID-19 , but also those of 100 or more countries.

"It is added comfort to know that two or more vaccines are also expected soon," she said.

Somanathan said the recommendations of the Finance Commission in the area of health relating to local body grants have been accepted in full.

"Whatever the Commission has recommended in the area of local body grants for health, water and sanitation are being accepted in full and will be implemented. We have also made the necessary budget provisions for those grants," he added.
Tamir Al Hammad was assaulted while covering demonstrations against SDF, he was beaten but managed to escape arrest.



Qamishli is mostly under the control of the SDF with the exception of the centre of the city and a few neighbourhoods which remain under the control of the Syrian government and its army. The city has witnessed regular military confrontations between the two sides. Since the beginning of January, the SDF has periodically imposed a siege on these areas, cutting food supplies and disrupting the daily lives of the local population.



The SJU said: We condemn these attacks against media professionals who are subjected to violence and kidnapping for no reason other than doing their job.



IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: "The IFJ is deeply concerned over the situation of journalists covering the conflict in Syria. We condemn the SDF attack on Tamir Al Hammad and wish him a quick recovery. All parties involved in the conflict in Syria must stop their attacks on journalists and the media".
Marathi actor Suyash Tilak, who is currently playing the lead role in Shubhmangal Online, recently decided to quit social media. The actor informed about the same on Instagram. He posted a quote of famous Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran that read, "Travel and tell no one, live a true love story and tell no one, live happily and tell no one, people ruin beautiful things." He captioned the post as, "Good bye social media."

Apart from the post, Suyash Tilak also posted his last Instagram story, in which he wrote, "Offline is the new luxury, Good bye to social media." Whencontacted the Khaali Peeli actor to know the reason behind his step, he said, "No reason I wanted to go off social media for a while." Looks like, Suyash wants to explore himself more by staying away from social media.

Nowadays, quitting social media has become very normal for actors. Earlier, Marathi celebs like Siddharth Chandekar and Subodh Bhave have quit Twitter due to the negativity on the platform.

Also Read : Suyash Tilak & Mitali Mayekar To Share Screen Space For The First Time In Hashtag Prem

Coming back to Suyash Tilak, the actor will next be seen sharing screen space with Mitali Mayekar in his upcoming Marathi film Hashtag Prem. The actor's ongoing serial Shubhmangal Online also stars Sayali Sanjeev, Sukanya Mone and others in key roles. It airs on Colors Marathi from Monday to Saturday at 10 pm.

Also Read : Parna Pethe Reminisces About Her College Days By Posting Old Picture With BFF Suyash Tilak
South African regulator ICASA has confirmed that it will challenge MTNs legal appeal against a regulatory decision that the operator group claims is unlawful.

MTN South Africas urgent court application against ICASA was filed with the Pretoria High Court in late January, and relates to the regulators decision to grant the first bidding rights for 5G-capable 3.5GHz spectrum to smaller operators.

As noted by CommsUpdate, MTNs appeal call for ICASAs proposed 3.5GHz auction process to be ruled unlawful as it would split operators into two tiers, with major players MTN and Vodacom falling into the tier-1 category and smaller rivals Cell C, Liquid Telecom, Telkom and other players labelled as tier-2.

ICASA proposes holding an opt-in round of bidding for tier-2 operators only, effectively barring MTN and Vodacom from entering. MTNs legal appeal argues that the criteria used to determine an operators tier rating are vague, arbitrary and unreasonable.

In a statement, the regulator said: The authority would like to point out that it has been in constant communication with MTN on the issues raised in its court application. It is unfortunate that MTN has elected to proceed with instituting legal proceedings  We will go to court and argue our case in defence and furtherance of ICASAs public interest mandate.
It is important that money coming from land sales be allocated towards specific infrastructure projects, preferably in the very state where land is being sold.

As the Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech: Idle assets will not contribute to AtmaNirbhar Bharat. The non-core assets largely consist of surplus land with government Ministries/Departments and Public Sector Enterprises. Monetising of land can either be by way of direct sale or concession or by similar means. This requires special abilities and for this purpose, I propose to use a Special Purpose Vehicle in the form of a company that would carry out this activity.

This is a good and innovative idea which some of the previous budgets lacked. Lets look at this in greater detail and pointwise:

1 If you are the kind who likes walking around Indias big cities, you would definitely see a lot of government land lying unused bang in the middle of Indias biggest cities. Close to where I live in central Mumbai is the Bicycle Corporation of India, in one of the by lanes of Worli. In the one and half decades, I have walked past the company, I havent seen any economic activity happening. Peepul trees now grow from the walls.

This is a few acres of property bang in the middle of Mumbai, some of the most expensive real estate in the world, lying unused. This is criminal to say the least. Another great example of unused real estate is all the MTNL offices, all across Mumbai and Delhi.

2 Its time to put these assets to some use and for the government to earn some money in the process. Its not just the big cities that have all this excess land lying unused. Even a hill-station like Ooty, has acres and acres of land lying unused thanks to the Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Company Ltd, which is largely not functional.

Given this, one of the first things that the government needs to do is to make an inventory of all this land and put it up in the public domain. Of course, this inventory is not going to be made overnight and will take time. But it is important that this is done in the most transparent way, given that corruption and land sales, almost go hand in hand.

This is even more important because the government considers this route as an important source of revenue in the years to come. As the finance minister said in the Budget that over the years the government hopes to earn more money by increased receipts from monetisation of assets, including Public Sector Enterprises and land. Hence, getting the process right is very important. Any scandal can derail the entire process.

3 In cases where the land was taken from state governments to start a public sector enterprise, it is important that the land be returned to the state government and let the state government decide what it wants to do with it. In the years to come, state governments will also be running short of money to meet their expenditure. Also, this is the right thing to do. The state government can also use the land to attract more investment into the state. In some cities where there arent enough public parks, some land can even go to develop such infrastructure. The aim shouldnt be to maximise the money earned all the time.

4 There is another factor that needs to be kept in mind here. Real estate prices in most big Indian cities have remained and continue to remain high. One of the major reasons for this lies in the fact that the land prices remain expensive across Indian cities. Hence, it is important that some of this land be sold to build affordable housing. Only if land prices come down, will home prices come down.

Other than helping people buy affordable homes to live in, the real estate sector has the ability to create a large number of jobs very quickly. It also has the capability to have a multiplier effect across many other sectors. Building real estate requires cement, sand, steel, bricks, pipes, etc., and so on. Once the real estate has been built in, moving into a home requires its own set of purchases. Buying homes also give a fillip to the home loans business of banks and housing finance companies.

5 Finally, it is important that the money earned through this route be used for a specific purpose and not just for bringing down the fiscal deficit, which has ballooned to Rs 18.49 lakh crore or 9.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) this year. The fiscal deficit is the difference between what a government earns and what it spends and is expressed as a percentage of the GDP.

It is important that money coming from land sales be allocated towards specific infrastructure projects, preferably in the very state where land is being sold.

To conclude, the monetisation of excess government land is a great idea. Having said that, it needs to be executed in a proper process-driven and transparent way.

The writer is author of Bad Money.

As of Tuesday, Feb. 2, Spotify has officially launched in South Korea, officially providing the country with the widest catalog of music. Keep on reading to learn more.

Spotify Korea and the Influence of K-Pop

As of Feb. 2, South Koreans can now use Spotify and have access to over 60 million songs and over 4 billion playlists from all around the world. Spotify has also carefully curated 120 local playlists, including popular local genres such as K-pop, K-rock, K-hip-hop, K-indie, OSTs (Soundtracks), ballads, and trot.

According to Jeremy Erlich, Spotify's global co-head of music, these carefully curated playlists will help attract domestic subscribers and help Spotify stand on even groups with already established streaming platforms. It will also help consumers switch from physical formats and shift to streaming online. Jeremy Erlich said that they know it is difficult to compete but that the support of the local culture and local artists can help them.

Spotify is set to exert most of its efforts on the global success of K-pop. They have good reason to. In the last six-year, streamers on the platform have listened to more than 180 billion minutes of K-pop, with K-pop listening increased by over 2,000% in the same time period.

However, according to Jeremy Erlich, they are also going to be helping all artists in the Korean music industry. They acknowledge that K-pop is the most visible part of the country's music culture. They do not want to just focus on that one genre.

How Will Spotify Compete in the South Korean Market?

South Korea is Spotify's 93rd country it is active. Back in July 2020, Spotify launched in Russia and other 12 Central-European countries. In 2019, Spotify launched in India.

It is a difficult task for Spotify to crack in Asia's number 2 music market (trailing after Japan). South Korea already has established streamings services. The number one leading streaming service is MelOn, while other established streaming services include Naver Music, Genie, Mnet, and Bugs. International streaming services that are already active in South Korea are YouTube Music and Apple Music.

To break into the market, Spotify has established a team of local editors, artists, and label relations staff in Seoul. Spotify Asia's office in Singapore and its headquarters in the United States will also offer further support to Spotify Korea.

Are you in South Korea and want Spotify Premium? It will cost 10,900 KRW (approx. USD 9.74) for a solo plan and 16,350 KRW (approx. USD 14.62) for a duo plan.

According to Jeremy Erlich, the company waited a long time to enter South Korea because they wanted to do it in the right way. South Korea, according to him, is a mature market with established players. They respect them and the country's culture and dynamics. Still, he believes that Spotify has something special that their rivals do not and that they can help local music grow both in and out of Korea. Spotify is set to be the platform for the globally-minded artist.

Jeremy Erlich references BLACKPINK and BTS's performance on the Spotify Global Charts and how it is evidence that the platform can help grow an artist's career beyond their home borders. He states that many Korean acts can benefit from this system, which can help amplify Korean culture.

Congratulations on entering the South Korean market, Spotify!

For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Alexa Lewis

James Faluszczak in 2018 testified in the grand jury investigation that uncovered widespread clergy sex abuse across the state. Since then he has lent his voice to the effort to reform the statute of limitations.

On Tuesday, Faluszczak was back at it, joining about two dozen other survivors of child sex abuse on a one-hour video phone chat with Gov. Tom Wolf to ask him to do all in his power to urge the General Assembly to not let victims down.

One day after the collapse of an effort to see through a constitutional amendment that would have given victims timed out of the courts a chance at justice, Faluszczak and the other survivors asked the governor to push legislators to forgo another protracted referendum process and immediately enact statutory changes to the states child sex crime laws.

Wolf said it could happen as early as next week, said Faluszczak, who was molested as a child by a priest in his home diocese of Erie. But I thought that two years ago. They can do this next week.

On Monday, the Wolf administration announced the stunning news that a ballot referendum option would be delayed by two years because the Department of State had failed to fulfill the legal requirements under the law. Lawmakers had been poised to approve a measure to amend the constitution this week, which was expected to be the final step before it could get on the ballot for voter approval this spring.

The mistake means that the earliest voters can decide whether to create a two-year window is spring of 2023. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar is slated to resign her position later this week and took responsibility for her departments failure to advertise the proposed amendment, as required by law.

State Representatives Mark Rozzi and Jim Gregory, the sponsors of two key pieces of reform legislation, vowed to push through for legislative action. Some Democratic lawmakers have said they want to move forward with revamping state law to allow a retroactive window for victims.

Republican leadership called for an investigation into the blunder, but did not signal willingness to push through legislative action. Republicans, in general, have over the years argued that lifting expired civil statutes of limitations was unconstitutional, but should be put to a ballot referendum.

The bill authored by Gregory, R-Blair County, called for such a vote, which could have been on the ballot for the May 18 primary.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Josh Shapiro joined Wolf in speaking with the sexual abuse survivors and their family via teleconference. The governor apologized to the victims.

The governor is committed to exploring all options to fix this error and prevent it from happening again, said governor spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger.

Faluszczak said he detected a new level of commitment from the governor to push for an immediate resolution.

Hes always said he would sign a bill that lands on his desk. He said that again today, he said. I said we already know that. We know you support that. We need him to be a standard bearer on this and to do more than pledge his signature. We need him to work whatever levers and dialogue that he can engage in. Hes the one who said this could happen next week.

Faluszczak said survivors are devastated at the news.

Some of these folks are parents. Their kids died because of this, he said. Weve all struggled with addictions or relationships or professional responsibilities. That was more the substance of the call. He knows us, but he really knows us now.

Faluszczak said Wolf was 100 percent accountable for what he considers a failure on the executive level.

I would say none of us on the call were there to put his feet to the fire, he said. I think we all know he is a supporter of our plight. He is an advocate for justice. You dont see people of his stature taking responsibility on a call. Five or six times he made it clear, unprompted, that he considers this an executive failure, and he considers it a failure for what he is trying to do for us. You could sense he regards this as a failure in his advocacy.

A request for comment from the governors office by PennLive was not immediately returned
Joanna Lumley has recounted the time she dressed up like Donald Trump's ex-wife Ivana to prank Trump at a swanky party - only for the joke to fall flat.

The Absolutely Fabulous star, 74, recounted the story behind the awkward encounter she had with the former US president on BBC's The One Show on Monday evening.

The actress, who played outrageous magazine fashion editor Patsy Stone in the legendary 90s sitcom, explained that her character in the show 'admired' Ivana Trump.

Awkward encounter: Joanna Lumley, 74, recounted the time she dressed up like Donald Trump's ex-wife Ivana to prank him at a party on on BBC's The One Show on Monday

The show's creator, Jennifer Saunders, thought there was a striking resemblance between the two women's hair as Patsy wore a similar style to Ivana's iconic beehive and fringe in the sitcom.

'In Ab Fab [sic], Jennifer wrote that Patsy admired Ivana Trump,' Joanna said.

'She was married to Donald at the time and Patsy pretty much liked her and Jennifer thought my hair looked like hers.

'So this was something that was written in as [a line]: 'I rather admire Ivana Trump'.

Striking: The actress, who played Patsy Stone in 90s sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, (left) explained her character 'admired' Ivana Trump (right, in 2007) and wore a similar style

The strange meeting between Joanna and Trump took place after his marriage to Ivana had ended and he was married to actress Marla Maples - between 1993 and 1999.

The prank was the brainchild of a British socialite, Lady Elizabeth Anson, a first cousin to Queen Elizabeth, who was known for organising the capital's best and most lavish celebrations.

Lady Elizabeth had to throw a large party for Trump in London at 'somewhere like Claridge's' and came up with the idea that it would be 'really funny' for Joanna to put her hair up like Patsy, and the businessman might mistake her for his ex-wife.

Not impressed: They met at a party in London in the 90s when Trump was married to actress Marla Maples (pictured together) but the prank fell flat and left Joanna feeling 'deflated'

Joanna eventually agreed to the prank, saying; 'I put on high heels, lashings of make-up and I put my hair up as Patsy-ish as I could possibly be.

'And I shimmied across the room towards him. There he was, usual sort of orange, yellow.

'And I sort of went "Hi", like that. And he looked at me in amazement.

'But his nice little wife at the time, Marla Maples, said, "I think you look wonderful, how lovely to meet you". So I felt a little bit deflated.'

Joanna shot to fame playing the iconic Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous and won two BAFTAs for her role in the comedy series.

Iconic role: Joanna shot to fame playing the glamorous Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous and won two BAFTAs for her role in the comedy series

Her latest role is in ITV's upcoming Finding Alice, where she stars as Alice's mother Sarah, and the actress admitted she enjoyed playing a 'beastly mother' in the show.

The six-part series focuses on how Alice slowly picks herself up and finds her inner strength, as the police investigate how her husband came to fall down the stairs.

The first time fans see Joanna's character Sarah is when she and her husband Roger arrive to comfort Alice, to which she asks her grieving daughter: 'What on earth are you wearing?'

Talking about the role, Joanna told Radio Times: 'My character Sarah is tricky, and I think this may be my new role in dramas: rather beastly mothers. I'm hoping it's cast against type!'
They had a tumultuous romance on Married at First Sight, ultimately parting ways at the end of season six.

And during the Grand Reunion on Monday, a tearful Mike Gunner admitted his ex Heidi Latcham was a 'missed opportunity' and said he regretted their break-up.

Despite confirming he was dating someone else, the 45-year-old electrician confessed he would probably 'just kiss' Heidi if he ever saw her again.

Speaking out: Married At First Sight star Mike Gunner choked up as he spoke about his former relationship with Heidi Latcham at the Grand Reunion on Monday night

'She could light up a room like no one I've ever met. Everybody fell for it, and I see it as a huge missed opportunity,' he said.

'I don't know if I've made peace with it, even two years later.

'I made a lot of mistakes. They were hurtful to her and damaging to our relationship.'

Regret: Mike admitted Heidi (left) was a 'missed opportunity' and said he regretted their split

When asked if the former couple were still in touch, he said: 'I've tried, but she doesn't message back.'

During their season, Mike infamously told Heidi 'I'm not your therapist' on their honeymoon while she tried to open up to him about her past.

Mike admitted at Monday's reunion that his attitude back then was 'wrong', adding: 'I apologise for that behavior.

'I just can't imagine what I was thinking, and I think I needed this perspective to see where I was going wrong.'

Regret: 'She could light up a room like no one I've ever met,' Mike said of Heidi (pictured)

Despite speaking about his ex on the show - which was filmed in December - Mike said he was happy with his girlfriend, Sonja.

Speaking to 9Now on Tuesday, Mike revealed more details about his new relationship after meeting Sonja on the dating app Bumble.

'I've been dating a girl for a few months. She's from Brisbane and spends a lot of time down here on the Gold Coast with me. Things are going really well,' he said.

'She's a real sweetheart and so gentle and she doesn't have any judgements. She doesn't make criticisms. She's just got a positive outlook and has good energy.'
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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Im thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Smile Brands to open this state-of-the-art facility and serve the community of Knoxville.

Smile Brands Inc., one of the nations leading providers of business support services to dental groups in the United States, today announced the grand opening of another affiliated Castle Dental office, serving the community of Knoxville, TN.

Patients will enjoy convenient hours, a comfortable office, and full-service care at the new Knoxville location. The newest Castle Dental office provides full-service general dentistry, plus specialty care services, such as orthodontics (braces), Invisalign, oral surgery, periodontics, endodontics, and implants. Located at 6461 Kingston Pike in Knoxville, the office will be open five days a week, and one Saturday a month. Castle Dental accepts most major insurance plans and offers flexible financing options so patients can afford the care they need.

To celebrate the grand opening, the new Knoxville office will offer a special $39 new patient check-up package, including an exam and digital x-rays, and $100 off dental services over $300. Opening this new location helps Smile Brands and its affiliated dental groups achieve their mission to provide Smiles for Everyone by bringing affordable dental care to local neighborhoods.

Leading the clinical team in the new Castle Dental office is Dr. Hong N. Tran. Dr. Tran has advanced training in General Dentistry and is committed to providing a friendly and knowledgeable approach to patients so they are happy with their smiles.

I strive to treat everyone with the highest level of care and compassion, and enjoy getting to know my patients on a personal level, explains Dr. Tran. Im thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Smile Brands to open this state-of-the-art facility and serve the community of Knoxville.

Prospective patients can call the new Knoxville Castle Dental office at 865-867-3150 or toll-free at 1-800-TO-SMILE (1-800-867-6453). People can also visit us online to schedule an appointment at the new Knoxville location.

About Smile Brands Inc.

Based in Irvine California, Smile Brands Inc. is one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States. The organizations award-winning culture has made it the only dental support organization on Glassdoors Best Places to Work list for the past three years. Smile Brands affiliated dentists leverage industry-leading business support services so that they can spend more time caring for patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. The organization was founded in 1998 and supports 650 affiliated practices and 60 brands across 30 states. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit http://www.smilebrands.com.
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There is a real, present and urgent health crisis in WA, afflicting mainly the elderly and vulnerable. It is not COVID-19.

It is known by its shorthand  ambulance ramping  but that clinical-sounding term doesnt do much to convey the reality.

There is no daily press conference about the scores of people receiving dangerous health outcomes because of ambulance ramping. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola

That reality is delayed care for the sick and injured: a frail senior citizen, lying in pain on the floor for hours after a fall, then waiting longer still on a hospital gurney to be admitted to an emergency room.

Or an infant with a fever and seizures whose parents anxiously count the seconds for an ambulance to arrive.
LONDON, ENGLAND / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2021 / Zain Andani, the managing director of Fatemah Investments LTD, is excited to announce the company's intention to invest in new projects.

Andani has a background in finance, having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Finance and Banking from Portsmouth University. Since graduating, he has served as managing director for not one but three successful companies, Fatemah Investments LTD, Fatemah Properties LTD, and Fatemah Nurseries. Zain Andani manages these three businesses alongside his father.

Zain Andani works as a capital investor for Fatemah Investments LTD. It is this part of the business that Andani is currently looking to expand.

Examples of Zain Andani's existing investments under Fatemah Investments LTD include the five racehorses that he owns. The five horses race on an annual basis in different countries, including India, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Andani also owns a few different properties around the world, in Qatar, India, and the United Kingdom mainly, which have served both Fatemah Investments LTD and Fatemah Properties LTD well.

Andani helps up and coming businesses (primarily in the UK) prosper by providing them with capital in exchange for becoming a shareholder.

Overall, Zain Andani has seen much success working as a capital investor under Fatemah Investments LTD. Now, he wishes to grow the business even more by investing in new projects. These new projects can be local to the United Kingdom or international, as the company and Andani himself have experience with both domestic and global investments. Given Andani's wide variety of current investments, ranging from racehorses to real estate, he is open to any and all exciting opportunities.

About Zain Andani

Zain Andani is a businessman and entrepreneur with a background in international finance and banking. He currently serves as the managing director of Fatemah Nurseries. Andani also manages Fatemah Nurseries' two sister companies alongside his father, Fatemah Properties LTD and Fatemah Investments LTD. These companies purchase assets, make investments, and aid in expansion processes. Andani currently resides in London, United Kingdom. In his spare time, Andani is a philanthropist who is very active in volunteering and charity working, helping his local community and other communities across the United Kingdom.

Contact:

Zain Andani

07869123480

00919712225555 (international number)

nursery@fatemah.org.uk

SOURCE: Zain Andani

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/627288/Fatemah-Investments-Managing-Director-Zain-Andani-Looking-to-Invest-in-New-Projects
Gaborone  Government has budgeted total revenues and grants at P64.58 billion against an expenditure of P70.61 billion for the 2021/22 financial year.

Presenting the budget proposals in Parliament February 1, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Dr Thapelo Matsheka proposed P50.66 billion for recurrent and P14.75 billion as development budget.

Recurrent expenditure, used to cover operational costs including public officer's salaries, has declined by P714.71 million over the current year's approved budget.

In keeping with tradition, the Ministry of Basic Education has continued to receive the lion's share of the recurrent budget at P9.52 billion.

Minister Matsheka said the budget had been increased to cater for 1 751 extra teachers needed to cater for additional classrooms required due to COVID-19 protocols.

The Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security is to receive 16.6 per cent of the total recurrent budget, or P8.39 billion which is a decline of P172.81 million over the 2020/21 budget.

Dr Matsheka said the budget would go towards the Botswana Defence Force, Botswana Police Service as well as Prisons and Rehabilitation Services.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness is to receive P7.90 billion which is an increase of P165.32 million over the 2020/21 approved budget.

Dr Matsheka said additional funding had been included to further support government's response and interventions to contain the pandemic and mitigate the risks of new infections, spread or resurgence of the disease.

It comprised personal protective equipment for public health personnel and other frontline workers, medicines for the fight against the pandemic, quarantine costs and acquisition of vaccines in line with the agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO), he said.

Other funds are to cater for the provision of drugs, dressings and vaccines, including anti-retroviral therapy programme and laboratory supplies as well as Botswana Public Officers Medical Aid Scheme service charges and maintenance of health facilities.

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is to receive P7.14 billion, P12.34 million lower than the budget for the current financial year.

Dr Matsheka said the main cost was the Revenue Support Grant allocated to district and urban councils, which accounted for 57.6 per cent of the ministry's total budget.

The budget also covers COVID-19 preventive measures in primary schools.

Dr Matsheka said the Old Age Pension Scheme had registered growth arising from the increased number of beneficiaries by 11.2 per cent, from 124 078 to 137 981 projected for 2021/22.

The minister has called upon local authorities to maximize revenue collection efforts instead of relying on the central government.

Dr Matsheka said the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology has been allocated P4.6 billion to cover amongst others, tertiary student's sponsorship programme and staff and operational costs of tertiary institutions and parastatals under the ministry.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications' budget of P1.82 billion is to be used for fuel and lubricants, road maintenance, computer systems consumables and maintenance, postal charges and agency fees, office equipment.

Part of the funds would be used to cover Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB) operational costs.

The Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration has been allocated P1.58 billion to help the ministry in its quest to safeguard and promote good governance as well as sustainable socio-economic growth and development.

Dr Matsheka said the budget covered the envisaged constitutional review exercise and also for the Directorate on Intelligence and Security Services (DIS).

Other costs are subscription for access to the television satellite and maintenance of transmitter contracts as well as subventions to the Red Cross, 2036 Vision Council and Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatization Agency (PEEPA).

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As for the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security, it will receive P1.39 billion to support the agricultural sector in pursuit of improved domestic food production to achieve a higher degree of self-sufficiency.

The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry has been allocated P975.03 million and 76.8 per cent of this amount will be transferred to the parastatals under the ministry, including Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) in implementation of the revised guidelines.

Dr Matsheka has proposed P966.92 million to fund the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to cover operational costs as well as subventions to parastatals under the ministry.

The Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services will receive P963.95 million, with 57.8 per cent of the total amount transferred to land boards across the country.

Minister Matsheka said the remaining P5.61 billion would be shared among the rest of the ministries and extra-ministerial departments.

Source : BOPA
Future Group Chairman Kishore Biyani.

The Kishore Biyani-led Future Group on February 2 rejected the Delhi High Court's proposal to enter into talks with e-commerce giant Amazon for amicable resolution with the latter in a Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Industries (RIL), according to a report by CNBC-TV18.

The Delhi High Court had proposed the appointment of a two-judge panel to help Amazon and Future Group negotiate a settlement.

However, Future Group turned down the proposal and said a lot of water has flown under the bridge and the talks will not lead anywhere."We have no privity of contract with Amazon. It will create tremendous confusion to have talks with Amazon. We do not concede to this suggestion," the business channel reported quoting Senior Advocate Darius Khambata for Future Retail as saying.

Future Group further said that Future Retail (FRL) is a publicly-listed company and has no contract with Amazon.

It added that it has entered scheme with Reliance, and has already filed for NCLT approval.

Last week, Kishore Biyani said that Amazons bid to stall Future Groups $3.4 billion retail assets sale is similar to Alexander the Greats ruthless ambition to scorch the earth."

Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - A new COVID-19 vaccination site is allowing more people to get the vaccine quickly and efficiently.

The new site offers more space which can accommodate more patients. Health officials say this will be beneficial as more people get in line to get the vaccine. According to the Vigo County Health Department, nearly 250 people per day will be vaccinated at this site.

"This is a stage toward normalcy and getting back to the way things should be," Mike Papinchock, COVID-19 Vaccine recipient said.

Getting people like Papinchock vaccinated would not be possible without the help of dozens of volunteers. Nursing students and emergency medical technicians (EMT) are helping make this vaccination clinic come to life.

"It is great just seeing the reaction on all of these peoples' faces and they are just so thankful that we finally have something to get us going in the right direction and ending this pandemic," Lania Garrison, Ivy Tech Nusring Student and volunteer said.

By volunteering at the vaccination sites, the nursing students are able to focus on their clinical training while giving back to the community.

"It makes me feel humbled and honored to see it help so many people especially in the first tiers that are able to come, and we can provide help," Tiffany Schiver, Ivy Tech Nusring Student and volunteer said.

The volunteers hope the vaccine will allow more people to reunite with family and friends, which many, like Papinchock, have not seen in months.

"I have family in Colorado, granddaughters and hopefully we will be able to schedule a visit with them and take them to Disney World."

As more people get vaccinated, the county hopes that we can all return to a sense of normalcy once again. If you are eligible, you can sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine at Ourshot.IN.GOV.
The reaction of China was very strange. Its Foreign Office Spokesman merely noted the developments and refused to discuss the issue further.

by Dr. S. Chandrasekharan

In the early hours of the morning of 1st February when the newly elected members of the Parliament had assembled in Naypyitaw, the Army moved in by arresting Suu Kyi, th President Dr. U Win Myint, many leaders of the NLD, Members of the Union Election Commission and Chief Ministers of other States and the regions. The Army take over was justified by the need to resolve huge instances of alleged fraud in the November 8 Elections.

A day before the Coup, on 30th Jan the Army issued a statement that the statements of the Military Chief of abandoning the Constitution as one of misinterpretation and that it would go by the 2008 Constitution and the laws of the land. This now looks now that it was done more to mislead the public when the Army had already planned to seize power. Some analysts (not the author) had been fooled by this statement and had begun to comment that the Army had finally taken a step back!

A decade after handing over power, the Army has once again taken control of the Country by devious means as we will explain later. The Army appears to get the feeling of obligation and entitlement when it comes to rule the country!

Suu Kyi and other leaders did expect the Coup and had prepared themselves for the move. Suu Kyi who is now in detention in an Army facility left a note to the public to resist the military coup. The message of the NLD had also appeared in the Face Book calling on the people to resist the Coup.

After the arrest of the President and the Counselor, the Army continued with the drama of following the 2008 Constitution. The arrest of the two functionaries had no legal basis either in the Constitution or in the laws of the land which the military made a strong statement only a day before that the Army would protect and abide by the Constitution.

The sidekick- the Armys proxy- the USDP staged a demonstration at Naypyitaw calling for cancellation of the elections on the 31st Jan, a day before the new Parliament was to begin. The disciplined demonstrators called for the removal of the Election Commission and called it a National Threat.

Having removed the President by unlawful means, the Army invoked Article 73 of the Constitution wherein the First Vice President U Myint Swe who is an Army nominee to take over as the Interim President. He in turn called for a meeting of the National Defence and Security Council that had never met before during the five-year rule of the NLD. The NDSC in turn under Article 417 of the Constitution declared one year of emergency under which the countrys legislature, administrative and Judicial powers were handed over under Article 418 of the Constitution to the Army Chief!

Thus, the Army tried to give a legal and Constitutional cover that did not exist and chose to follow the Constitution when it suited them and chose not to when it did not suit them as in the arrest of the President and the State Counselor. This was at a time when the then Supreme Court had not yet come to any decision on the sustainability of the petitions signed on Armys behalf by the USDP on the supposed election fraud and was being heard.

The Army declared in a statement that it intends to reconstitute the Election Commission, Voters list investigated and then a free and fair multi party elections will be held. After this the responsibility of the State will be handed over to the winning party, meeting the norms and standards of the democracy (Devil quoting the Scriptures!)

The US among the Western Countries issued the strongest statement and said The US is opposed to any attempt to alter the outcome of the elections or impede Myanmars democratic transition and will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed. As we had seen in the past, only the people will suffer by the sanctions and not the perpetrators of the Coup.

Among the ASEAN, Singapore expressed its concern and so did the UN Secretary General. India also expressed its deep concern over detentions and the reports of a military coupand said that it had always been steadfast in its support of democratic transition in Myanmar.

The reaction of China was very strange. Its Foreign Office Spokesman merely noted the developments and refused to discuss the issue further.

I had always maintained that the Army Chief did discuss the supposed election fraud with the Chinese Premier on 12th of Jan and it is almost certain that he had given a hint on the nature of action the Army would be taking. In my view the Army would not have made this drastic move without a hint of support from China. China in its own predatory interest under the Belt and Road Initiative would need a more pliable and beholden administration to see their projects through. This suits both the parties.

The road map laid out by the Army has many hurdles including the participation of the NLD in the elections. It is most likely that the new elections will be rigged to get as many seats as possible for the Army Proxy so that USDP with the help of one fourth of the Army members of the Parliament may make the Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing as the President. The Chief has ambitions too and may try for the post through the seemingly legal but totally illegal means!

Suu Kyi in her tenure took every step possible not to annoy the Army and in the process was discredited internationally. Still she held on and even went to the ICJ to speak in support of the Army. Her plans to get round the Army- the so-called detente did not work. This is a bitter lesson she had to learn at the fag end of her life!

The Indian position is rather delicate. It cannot brazenly support an entity that has little democratic norms and standards and had snuffed out-of whatever that was in the name of democracy.

Yet India and other countries like Japan should do nothing that would givefully both the political and economic space to China as it happened during the Army regime ten years before.
Going into the 2022 election cycle, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has a lot of supporters and millions of dollars to prove it.

Shes not on the ballot again until 2022, but Whitmer spent 2020 amassing a campaign war chest. According to a campaign finance report filed Monday, her campaign closed out the year having raised $5.58 million so far this cycle.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer continues to tackle our states greatest challenges with grit and compassion, said Christopher Mills, senior advisor for the Whitmer campaign.

Its clear that Michiganders overwhelmingly trust Governor Whitmer to lead our state through one of the most difficult periods in Michigans history. As we begin to build our way out of the pandemic, Governor Whitmer has outlined an economic recovery plan that will rebuild the states economy in a way that makes it stronger for generations to come. We will always prioritize people over politics to get things done for Michiganders.

Its spent money on things like staff and legal fees, but still has $3.5 million in cash on hand.

Its a big haul nearly two years out from being on the ballot.

As a point of comparison, Michigans last incumbent governor, Rick Snyder, had pulled in $950,381 at this point in the cycle ahead of his race for a second term and had $828,041 in cash on hand. Of course, that was in 2012 -- close to a decade ago, and campaign spending has increased significantly over the years.

Simon D. Schuster, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, said Whitmers haul was a big one.

Its very large, and it can go a long way. I think that this is an unprecedented amount of fundraising for this point in her term, Schuster said.

Whitmer also did well in 2020 compared to other statewide officeholders also up for reelection in 2022.

Attorney General Dana Nessel has raised $223,909 so far this cycle and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has raised $145,395 so far this cycle. Those numbers for the AG and SOS clock in below what their predecessors, former Secretary of State Ruth Johnson and Attorney General Bill Schuette had raised at this point in the run-up to their second terms.

Its not clear, yet, which big-name Republican challengers will vie to take Whitmer on in the 2022 cycle. Three Republicans have filed for the race so far, heres where they clocked in with fundraising:

Bob Scott - has not yet filed for this period, but had raised $225 as of an Oct. 2020 statement.

Austin Chenge - has obtained a reporting waiver, meaning he plans to spend less than $1,000 on his campaign.

Ryan Kelly - just filed recently and has not yet been required to file fundraising reports.

Schuster said he does think there are Republicans who have the fundraising prowess to raise money to rival what Whitmer has amassed, should they enter the race.

More on MLive:

Michigan Republicans seek strong gubernatorial challenger to Whitmer as big names bow out

Whitmer calls for bipartisan COVID-19, economic progress in State of the State address
Here what to do in Ocean City on rainy days
Of all those patients who pass through our public hospitals, 99.999 per cent will have a positive outcome, a spokesperson said. Just 0.001 per cent of all patients discharged from hospital will be involved in a clinical incident which results in serious patient harm, known as a sentinel event. The spokesperson said the NSW government has built or upgraded more than 130 hospitals and health facilities since 2011, with a further 80 projects under way and more than two-thirds of those in rural and regional areas. A further 8300 frontline staff were being added this term of government with 45 per cent going to the regions, the spokesperson said. The submissions - heavily redacted by the inquirys staff - include multiple letters from whistleblowing nurses and doctors fearful of retribution from management if they are publicly named.

An anaesthetist from Lismore Base Hospital recounted their shock at the horrendous workload of two junior nurses, describing the ward as looking like a mini-tornado had gone through. It would have taken an Olympic effort to get through all that and have clean, pain-free, well-fed and hydrated patients, never mind their medications, the anaesthetist said. One nurse said the situation was desperate at Batemans Bay and Moruya hospitals on the South Coast. The hospitals were so understaffed nurses left their shifts emotionally and physically shattered. You should come down here and shadow us  youll be incredibly proud of us, but also embarrassed that you are letting us work in these conditions. Patients in regional areas turn up to the emergency departments where no doctors are physically present, leaving treatment via videolink the only option.

A woman said her son had been left with a deformity after a nurse at Cobar Hospital had to apply a plaster to his broken hand, while the doctor watched via videolink. His hand has healed with a large knuckle protruding from the side, the parent said. The same resident said her husband was misdiagnosed as having an anxiety attack when he attended Cobar Hospital with blood clots in his lungs. Locals are complaining about Cobar Hospital, which they claim doesnt meet the communitys health needs. Credit:Janie Barrett Condobolin resident Allan Small told the inquiry a virtual doctor in emergency misdiagnosed his appendicitis as gastro.

This potentially fatal mistake I believe could have been averted if there was a doctor in person, he said. Coolah hospital has been without a doctor since January, a situation branded a disaster by locals. One community member said they were offered a telehealth doctor when they turned up at the hospital with a lacerated foot. I have no idea how the doctor through a screen was going to stitch my foot, they said. After over an hour of the nurse trying to stop the bleeding I was sent home with this injury unstitched.

I feel that this is a totally unacceptable level of healthcare in Australia. Glen Innes mayor Carol Sparks said a young woman recently died from what was believed to be an inadequate assessment on arriving at the local hospital. People from the city laugh when we say we dont have a doctor at our hospital, she said. Mid-Western Regional Council said it was extremely concerned about the use of telehealth as the default for emergency treatment. Glen Innes mayor Carol Sparks.

Gunnedah Council surveyed its employees and 91 per cent rated the availability of medical services in the town as bad or terrible. General manager Eric Groth said the situation was a handbrake on the regions growth. One man described waiting 15 months for a colonoscopy at Broken Hill Hospital after an urgent referral due to abnormal test results. It was only after he turned up bleeding at emergency that he underwent the procedure, which uncovered bowel cancer. If this was seen to back in 2019 when it was URGENT, I wouldnt be looking at all this pain, suffering and anguish, he wrote. Richard Doyle, 92, was sent home from Kempsey Hospital with a broken neck after the doctor misread his X-ray.

Loading His plight was detailed by the Macleay Valley Branch of the ALP, which said: The hospital buildings are first class but are understaffed and under-resourced. A woman told the inquiry she had a caesarean in agony at Griffith Base Hospital because the anaesthetic didnt work. My anaesthetist gave me the warnings about the possible complications  all the while telling me how tired he was and that he had been on the ward for nearly 24 hours, she said. She would never forgive the hospital for the trauma the ordeal caused.

The inquiry heard Griffith Base Hospital requested another patients relatives bring their own bandages to dress a leg wound, which they thought seemed ridiculous. The Council of the Ageing said some patients were discharged late at night with scant public transport options and unable to afford the expense of a taxi. It was aware of a situation where an older woman began walking five kilometres home until she was picked up by a passer-by. One complainant took her elderly mother to Gulgong Hospital, where she was seen by three telehealth doctors in three days for an infected bedsore. The third doctor suggested going home and let nature take its course.
RICHLAND, Mich.Ralph Greco Jr.s latest collection of short stories, No Whip, No Problem, has been published by Pink Flamingo Media, a well-known erotic publisher and portal of adult material. This marks Mr. Greco's debut work with Pink Flamingo.

Both Greco Jr. and Pink Flamingo have been producing erotica for several years. Greco Jr.s erotica has been published in anthologies, online, via small press and major market magazines around the world, as well as in various single-author short story collections. Greco Jr. also works as a copywriter in the adult space for such clients as The Erotic Heritage Museum, HotMovies.com and Tracys Dog adult toy manufacturer. He also works as a copywriter for mainstream clients, from latex clothing designers to oil machine part fabricators to sourdough bread bakers. Along with fellow erotica writer M. Christian, Greco Jr. co-hosts the "Licking Non-Vanilla" podcast.

In business for over a quarter century, Pink Flamingo has become recognized as one of the leading publishers of BDSM-related fiction.

As all erotic authors do, Ive known about Pink Flamingo for years, Greco Jr. stated. I had always hoped that one day I could call myself one of their authors; having this book of Femdom fiction published by them is a real honor for me.

As with all Pink Flamingo's titles, Greco Jr.s No Whip, No Problem collection will be available in both eBook and print format and sold on the Pink Flamingo website as well as at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Fiction4All, Bookwire and a host of other places.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-02 19:42:47|Editor: huaxia

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Medical workers go about their business at a COVID-19 test point in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Feb. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

South Africa has received the country's first consignment of 1 million COVID-19 vaccines.

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Africa has received the country's first consignment of 1 million Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccines which arrived from the Serum Institute of India (SII).

President Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy President David Mabuza and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, among other officials, lined up on the tarmac of OR Tambo airport on Monday to welcome the vaccine cargo.

Ramaphosa said the vaccine would boost the fight against the pandemic.

Medical workers go about their business at a COVID-19 test point in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Feb. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

"Today marks a major milestone in our fight against the coronavirus pandemic as we receive our first consignment of the vaccine. This batch will benefit our healthcare workers who have been at the forefront of keeping us all safe," Ramaphosa said.

"We thank all South Africans and all the researchers who have contributed toward ensuring the successful development of the vaccine," he added.

The vaccination program was said to be organized and coordinated through the committee chaired by Deputy President Mabuza, which focuses on procurement, distribution, actual vaccination, monitoring, communication and mobilization.
Navalnys suspended sentence in Ives Rocher embezzlement case replaced with prison term

 RAPSI

20:40 02/02/2021

MOSCOW, February 2 (RAPSI)  The Simonovsky District Court during an offsite hearing in the Moscow City Court on Tuesday overturned a suspended sentence given to Alexey Navalny in the Ives Rocher embezzlement case and ordered him to 3.5 years in jail, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

Taking into account the term Navalny spent under house arrest he is to serve over 2.5 years in prison.

In December 2014, Navalny received a 3.5-year suspended sentence, a 500,000-ruble fine ($6,500 at the current exchange rate) for embezzlement and 5-year probation after the sentence is served. In August 2017, probation was extended for a year.

In August 2020, 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.

In late December, 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 January 17, the blogger was arrested at the Sheremetyevo Airport on his return from Germany based on the search warrant issued in late December. Upon a court order, he was placed in detention until February 15.

Currently, the blogger is also a defendant in two other criminal cases: over fraud and defamation against war veteran Ignat Artemenko.
[February 02, 2021] Federal Reserve Updates FedNowSM Service Launch to 2023

With development of the FedNow Service well under way, the Federal Reserve today amended the industrywide launch timing for its instant payments platform to 2023. The announcement narrows the delivery timeframe by a full year, updating a previous notice in 2019 that indicated industrywide availability in 2023 or 2024. Future updates are expected to further narrow the industrywide launch timeframe. "Over the last several months, we've made significant strides toward our program milestones for the FedNow Service," said Esther George, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and executive sponsor of the FedNow program. "Based on the FedNow team's progress, we are pleased to share this updated timeline so the industry can continue to prepare for the adoption of FedNow." The Federal Reserve is taking a phased approach to expedite bringing the FedNow Service to market. Its initial launch will include core clearing and settlement functionality and key value-added features, such as a request-for-payment capabilit and tools to support participants in their handling of payment inquiries, reconcilements and certain exceptions. The Federal Reserve intends to augment and enhance features in subsequent releases to continue to meet industry needs. General availability of the FedNow Service will occur after extensive testing by more than 110 participants in the FedNow Pilot Program to ensure the service is market-ready.



"We are working hard to respond to the industry's call for urgency and growing demand for the service, which is evident in the widespread response to our call for pilot participants," said Kenneth C. Montgomery, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston first vice president and chief operating officer and FedNow program executive. "As part of our commitment to transparency, we will continue to provide updates and further narrow our launch window as we achieve additional program milestones." About the FedNow Service

The Federal Reserve Banks are developing the FedNow Service to facilitate nationwide reach of instant payment services by financial institutions - regardless of size or geographic location - in near real time, around the clock, every day of the year. Through financial institutions participating in the FedNow Service, businesses and individuals will be able to send and receive instant payments around the clock conveniently, and recipients will have full access to funds within seconds, giving them greater flexibility to manage their money and make time-sensitive payments. Access will be provided through the Federal Reserve's FedLine network, which serves more than 10,000 financial institutions directly or through their agents. For more information, visit FedNow.org. The Financial Services logo, "FedNow," "FRBservices.org and "FedLine" are service marks of the Federal Reserve Banks. A list of marks related to financial services products that are offered to financial institutions by the Federal Reserve Banks is available at FRBservices.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210202005862/en/

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The Kent Covid variant has started to mutate further to become more like the one that evolved in South Africa in what scientists have dubbed a 'worrying development' that could make vaccines less effective.

One of the key mutations on the South African and Brazilian variants appear to make the virus more able to resist immunity that has been developed by past infection or from the current vaccines.

And this mutation has now been found at least 11 times in different cases of people infected with the Kent variant, Public Health England revealed, raising fears it could become a permanent feature of the British strain.

Both the Kent and South African variants already share one mutation, named N501Y, which makes the virus spread faster. And if this mutation, named E484K, sticks around as well the variants could become extremely similar.

E484K has been concerning scientists because it changes the shape of the virus's outer spike protein in a way that makes it difficult for the body to recognise it if it is only used to looking for older versions of the virus without the mutation.

This could raise the risk of reinfection or reduce how well vaccines work  but top Government advisers insist jabs should still be effective. The jabs, however, have been made to specifically target an older version of the virus that didn't have the mutation, meaning that major changes to the virus might make it less able to spot and fix to it.

SAGE adviser Professor Calum Semple suggested today that the risk of the Kent variant  and other versions of the virus  continuing to evolve was 'inevitable' and 'will occur in time', and this mutation would likely be part of that.

Speaking about the threat, Professor Ravi Gupta, an infectious diseases expert at Cambridge University, said: 'The number of sequences is low at present, though enhanced surveillance is being undertaken by PHE. There may be more cases out there given how high transmission has been. We need to continue vaccinating and drive down transmission.'

The worrying development comes as local authorities in eight parts of the country today began mass community testing to try and weed out the South African variant after it was found in 11 unconnected cases.

Council, police and fire officials will go door to door dropping off Covid testing kits in parts of Surrey, Walsall, London, Kent, Hertfordshire and Lancashire as Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned last night 'we need to come down on it hard and we will'.

Scientists have voiced confusion about the sudden panic over the South African variant, with SAGE's Professor Andrew Hayward saying the newly identified cases were the 'tip of the iceberg' and a 'big under-estimation' of the true number already in the UK, and Leicester University's Dr Julian Tang said its spread was 'not surprising'.

A Public Health England report yesterday revealed that the E484K coronavirus mutation, a key difference found in the South African variant, had been found in 11 cases of the Kent strain of the virus (B1.1.7). It said there had been 'more than one acquisition event', meaning the virus had mutated separately in multiple different people at random

PHE scientists revealed they had found the E484K mutation in the Kent variant in a paper published yesterday.

The report said the mutation, best known for being the most worrying part of the South African and two Brazilian variants, had been found in 11 cases of the Kent strain up to January 26.

It said: 'Preliminary information suggests more than one acquisition event,' which means the cases were not all part of the same outbreak and the mutation had sprung up randomly on multiple occasions in different places.

The coronavirus is mutating all the time as a result of genetic errors when it multiplies, and the changes that make it able to spread more quickly or to survive longer inside the human body are the ones that are likely to stick around.

They will be passed on to future generations if they give the virus a survival advantage, and the ability to spread faster and keep spreading for longer will help versions of the virus with that mutation to become dominant by overtaking slower, weaker versions.

Experts said it was likely that the E484K mutation had appeared in cases of the Kent variant by chance, although it was possible someone had been infected simultaneously with the South African strain.

PHE's report suggested that, by mid-January, the Kent variant was accounting for up to 90 per cent of coronavirus cases in the community across England, with this rising to a possible 95-97 per cent in London, the East and South East.

The risk of the Kent variant picking up the mutation found in the South African strain is that it will be equally fast-spreading and also more likely to reinfect people and to make vaccines less effective, scientists say.

SOUTH AFRICA HAD 16 VERSIONS OF VIRUS IN FIRST SIX MONTHS OF THE PANDEMIC A study has found that there were at least 16 different variations of the coronavirus circulating in South Africa during the first six months of the pandemic. In the first half of 2020, scientists there examined the genetics of 1,300 virus samples submitted by people testing positive for Covid-19. They found that there were 16 new lineages of the virus after the introduction of the original version of the virus that came from China. Each distinct lineage is one where a mutation means the genetic sequence of the virus has changed in a way that physically affects it. Most of these mutations do not have a significant effect on how the virus behaves, and many are overwritten or fade away over time. But one of the most concerning variants in the world has emerged in South Africa, with it carrying a mutation that may help the virus to survive attack from immune system antibodies made to target older versions of the virus. The emergence of this is likely the result of the virus being allowed to spread so rampantly around the world, giving it ample opportunity to mutate. The research was done by scientists at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, and published in the journal Nature Medicine today. Advertisement

Studies have found that people who have had Covid in the past or have received one of the current vaccines have significantly fewer antibodies that are able to tackle the South African variant, compared to the Kent variant or other strains of the virus. But antibodies are only one part of the immune system  and it is not clear whether T cell immunity is affected.

And this level of genetic analysis, to work out how often the Kent variant is developing the immune-resistant mutation, is detailed scientific work meaning it can only spot the problem after it has become widespread.

Speaking about efforts to contain the South African variant, SAGE and Liverpool University infectious disease expert Professor Calum Semple said on BBC Radio 4 this morning: 'It's incredibly important to snuff it out where you can and seek it out where you can, and use that time of suppression to maximise vaccination within the population.

'But there is an inevitability with these viruses, particularly with these mutations that we're now seeing arising spontaneously in Brazil and in the South African strain.

'The mutation of most concern, which we call the E484K has also occurred spontaneously in the new Kent strain in parts of the country, too.

'So that, and the other mutations that can occur, will occur in time but it's very important to take every opportunity now to catch the so-called South African variant, suppress it, keep it down and allow the vaccine schedule to get ahead of it.'

Other experts said the discovery of this mutation was not a surprise because the virus is reproducing billions of times a day and the change is clearly an advantage for it.

Dr Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester, said: 'This updated PHE report on [mentions] the acquisition of the E484K mutation  which is a worrying development, though not entirely unexpected.'

He explained that it could have happened because the same cells had been infected with two different variants of the coronavirus, but said that this was rare.

Cases of people being infected with two variants of coronavirus at the same time have been reported in Brazil, and experts say it is certainly possible but not particularly likely when there is one dominant variant of the virus, as there is with Covid in the UK.

It was more likely, Dr Tang said, that the evolution had happened randomly each time through natural selection.

He added: 'This is another reason to follow the Covid-19 restrictions more strictly  otherwise not only can the virus continue to spread, it can also evolve.

'Unfortunately, the lack of control of these different variants in the UK may lead this population to become a melting pot for different emerging variants  so we really need to reduce our contact rates to reduce the opportunities for viral spread and replication to reduce the speed with which these different virus variants can evolve.

'Closing borders and restricting travel may help a little with this, but there is now probably already a sufficient critical mass of virus-infected people within the endemic UK population to allow this evolution to proceed  as this report suggests  so we really need to stick to the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions as much as possible.'

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at the University of Reading, said the cases were 'ultimately no surprise' and added: 'It does not mean that this mutation is present in all versions of this variant.'

The worry about the South African mutation is that it will make reinfection more likely and reduce the efficacy of vaccines because it changes the virus's spike protein in a way that makes older antibodies worse at attacking it.

Antibodies  substances made by the immune system  appear to be less able to recognise and attack viruses with the E484K mutation if they were made in response to a version of the virus that didn't have the mutation.

WHERE IS DOOR-TO-DOOR TESTING BEING OFFERED? London W7: Hanwell

N17: Tottenham

CR4: Mitcham West Midlands WS2: Walsall East of England EN10: Broxbourne South East ME15: Maidstone

GU21: Woking North West PR9: Southport Advertisement

Antibodies are extremely specific and can be outwitted by a virus that changes radically, even if it is essentially the same virus.

South African academics found that 48 per cent of blood samples from people who had been infected in the past did not show an immune response to the new variant. One researcher said it was 'clear that we have a problem'.

Vaccine makers, however, have tried to reassure the public that their vaccines will still work well and will only be made slightly less effective by the variant.

Concerns about new variants emerging in the UK were ramped up yesterday by the Government when it launched a frantic bid to contain South African strain after it was recently spotted in 11 people who had not been to the country.

From today health officials joined forces with local police, councillors and firefighters to visit homes in Woking in Surrey, Walsall in the West Midlands, as well as parts of London, Kent, Hertfordshire and Lancashire, to offer residents a swab.

The discovery of those 11 cases suggests there may be hundreds more unidentified infections. Matt Hancock called for residents in the eight affected areas in England to stay home and take extra special precautions.

We need to come down on it hard and we will, warned the Health Secretary, adding: 'It's a big effort getting this new variant essentially finding every single case of it, that is the goal.'

A briefing document described the plan as a two-week sprint ordered by Mr Hancock in an attempt at eradication of the new variant if at all possible.

Labour said the development was deeply worrying and showed that quarantine controls for international arrivals were not working.

SAGE experts warned the government to close borders to stop the spread of the South African variant of coronavirus weeks ago, it emerged last night, only for Boris Johnson to ignore their recommendations.

The Prime Minister announced hotel quarantine measures for arrivals from 30 countries last week, though he stopped short of closing the borders completely. However, it has now emerged he made the move against SAGE advice.

According to the Times, the experts told the government that Britain's borders must be fully closed to stop the variant spreading.

In a desperate attempt to keep track of the South African variant that experts fear could effect the current crop of vaccines, health officials will carry out swabs in Woking in Surrey, Walsall in the West Midlands, as well as parts of London, Kent, Hertfordshire and Lancashire

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE SOUTH AFRICAN VARIANT? The variant has mutations on its spike protein which scientists fear will make it difficult for the immune system to recognise, even in vaccinated people Real name: B.1.351 When and where was it discovered? Scientists first noticed in December 2020 that the variant, named B.1.351, was genetically different in a way that could change how it acts. It was picked up through random genetic sampling of swabs submitted by people testing positive for the virus, and was first found in Nelson Mandela Bay, around Port Elizabeth. Using a computer to analyse the genetic code of the virus  which is viewed as a sequence of letters that correspond to thousands of molecules called nucleotides  can help experts to see where the code has changed and how this affects the virus. What mutations did scientists find? There are two key mutations on the South African variant that appear to give it an advantage over older versions of the virus  these are called N501Y and E484K. Both are on the spike protein of the virus, which is a part of its outer shell that it uses to stick to cells inside the body, and which the immune system uses as a target. They appear to make the virus spread faster and may give it the ability to slip past immune cells that have been made in response to a previous infection or a vaccine. What does N501Y do? N501Y changes the spike in a way which makes it better at binding to cells inside the body. This means the viruses have a higher success rate when trying to enter cells when they get inside the body, meaning that it is more infectious and faster to spread. This corresponds to a rise in the R rate of the virus, meaning each infected person passes it on to more others. N501Y is also found in the Kent variant found in England, and the two Brazilian variants of concern  P.1. and P.2. What does E484K do? The E484K mutation found on the South African variant is more concerning because it tampers with the way immune cells latch onto the virus and destroy it. Antibodies  substances made by the immune system  appear to be less able to recognise and attack viruses with the E484K mutation if they were made in response to a version of the virus that didn't have the mutation. Antibodies are extremely specific and can be outwitted by a virus that changes radically, even if it is essentially the same virus. South African academics found that 48 per cent of blood samples from people who had been infected in the past did not show an immune response to the new variant. One researcher said it was 'clear that we have a problem'. Vaccine makers, however, have tried to reassure the public that their vaccines will still work well and will only be made slightly less effective by the variant. How many people in the UK have been infected with the variant? At least 105 Brits have been infected with this variant, according to Public Health England's random sampling. The number is likely to be far higher, however, because PHE has only picked up these cases by randomly scanning the genetics of around one in 10 of all positive Covid tests in the UK. This suggests that there have been at least 1,050 cases between December and January 27. Where else has it been found? According to the PANGO Lineages website, the variant has been officially recorded in 31 other countries worldwide. The UK has had the second highest number of cases after South Africa itself. But other nations where it has been found include South Korea, Sweden, France, Australia, Germany, Kenya, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Norway, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, USA, Netherlands, Mozambique, Ireland, Botswana, New Zealand, Finland, Spain and the French island territory Mayotte. Will vaccines still work against the variant? So far, Pfizer and Moderna's jabs appear only slightly less effective against the South African variant. Researchers took blood samples from vaccinated patients and exposed them to an engineered virus with the worrying E484K mutation found on the South African variant. They found there was a noticeable reduction in the production of antibodies, which are virus-fighting proteins made in the blood after vaccination or natural infection. But it still made enough to hit the threshold required to kill the virus and to prevent serious illness, they believe. There are still concerns about how effective a single dose of vaccine will be against the strain. So far Pfizer and Moderna's studies have only looked at how people given two doses react to the South African variant. Studies into how well Oxford University/AstraZeneca's jab will work against the South African strain are still ongoing. Johnson & Johnson actually trialled its jab in South Africa while the variant was circulating and confirmed that it blocked 57 per cent of coronavirus infections in South Africa, which meets the World Health Organization's 50 per cent efficacy threshold. Advertisement

Failing that, the body advised the introduction of mandatory quarantine measures for everyone coming into the UK.

Instead, the PM opted to go for geographically targeted travel bans against 'high-risk' countries.

Public Health England has already spotted 105 cases of the 'B.1.351' South African variant since December 22, including at least 11 people who were struck down with the virus but had no history of international travel.

SAGE met on January 21 to discuss the variant with the minutes from the meeting reading: 'The emergence of new variants of concern around the world presents a rationale for attempting to reduce importation of even small numbers of infectious cases.

'No intervention, other than a complete, pre-emptive closure of borders, or the mandatory quarantine of all visitors upon arrival in designated facilities, irrespective of testing history, can get close to fully preventing the importation of new cases or new variants.'

The minutes also said: 'Reactive, geographically targeted travel bans cannot be relied upon to stop importation of new variants.'

It is believed that that Home Secretary Priti Patel and Health Secretary Matt Hancock both argued for the closure of the borders last week, only to be overruled by the PM who opted against a total border lockdown.

It comes as door-to-door coronavirus testing was launched across eight parts of England where it is feared the South African variant causing panic around the world is spreading in the community.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last night that people in those areas must take 'extra special precautions' amid the threat of an outbreak of the new, highly-infectious variant.

Speaking at last night's Downing Street press conference, he added: 'The stay at home message is there for everyone but in particular in those areas it's absolutely vital that people minimise all social contact and get a test when the opportunity arises.

More than 80,000 over-16s will be targeted as part of the huge surveillance scheme and residents will be asked to take a test regardless of whether or not they have symptoms. Mr Hancock said it was 'imperative' that people in these areas stay at home and get a test when it is offered to them.

As well as knocking on doors and asking residents to take tests there and then, extra mobile swabbing units will be deployed to all eight postcodes and home testing kits will be available to order online for residents to do themselves.

Mr Hancock said 'enhanced contact tracing' had been carried out to isolate the 11 patients' close contacts. There is currently no evidence that the variant causes more severe illness and early studies suggest the current crop of jabs are good enough to protect against it.

Experts fear there could be hundreds more cases already in the UK because PHE only analyses one in 10 random positive samples and the strain cannot be spotted in standard PCR tests. All of the swabs confirmed to have Covid will be sent to labs for further testing.

Health officials are anxious not to let another Covid variant run rampant, after Britain struggled to get a grip on the Kent strain which sparked a devastating second wave that plunged England into its third lockdown at the start of January.

Like the Kent variant, the South African version carries the N501Y mutation which makes it far more transmissible than the original Covid strain. And it has the additional mutation on its spike protein which scientists fear will make it difficult for the immune system to recognise, even in vaccinated people.

Ministers have already banned travel from South Africa and surrounding countries in response to the threat. In response to the ever-growing threat of dangerous new variants, the Government last week ordered mandatory hotel-quarantines for arrivals from 30 'red list' countries  including Portugal and South Africa.

The PCR test  considered the gold standard method worldwide  looks for three genes present on the original virus that came out of China, the S gene, N gene and ORF1ab. Health officials are able to spot the Kent strain with regular PCR because that variant is missing the S gene.

But the South African version is much harder to track because it shares all three genes with the original strain so PCR results cannot differentiate between the two, meaning researchers need to manually sequence each sample in a laboratory.

PHE sources claimed yesterday they were 'not expecting a surge in cases' because the strain is no more transmissible than the dominant Kent one currently plaguing the country, so it has no 'evolutionary edge' over it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said this morning he was 'confident' that all the vaccines the UK has ordered will 'provide a high degree of immunity and protection against all variants'.

And Mr Johnson said he was convinced lockdown was now working and bringing even the fast-spreading variants of the virus under control in Britain, with an internal report leaked yesterday revealing ministers believe the outbreak is 'stabilising'.

But Labour said it was 'deeply worrying' that the South African strain appeared to be spreading in the community, claiming it 'shows the UK Government's quarantine system is not working'.

Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Labour's Shadow Home Secretary, said: 'This is deeply worrying. It shows the UK Government's quarantine system is not working with the country being exposed to dangerous strains of the virus and new cases now appearing.

'While door-to-door testing is welcome in areas where cases of the South African variant with no links to travel have been identified, how can the Home Secretary justify keeping our borders open to Covid, allowing around 21,000 people to arrive every day?

'Conservative MPs must vote with Labour today to secure our borders against Covid and help to prevent progress on the vaccine being undermined. The Government must also ensure that adequate isolation support is put in place for those required to self-isolate.'

Matt Hancock said it was 'on all of us' to contain the new South African variant within the community.

'It is not straightforward and as you say there may be further cases we don't know about yet and our genomic sequencing is in place to try to spot them,' he told a Downing Street press conference.

'The most important thing is that people in the postcode areas outlined need to take extra special precautions.

'It is absolutely vital that people in those areas minimise all social contact and get a test when the opportunity arises'.

Mr Hancock added that the Government contact tracing system now finds 95 per cent of contacts.

'It has built up to this very effective level,' he said.

So far Pfizer and Moderna's jabs, of which the UK has ordered 57million doses, appear only slightly less effective against the South African variant, according to lab studies by the jab makers published last week.

Even with the slight reduction in efficacy, the research strongly suggests the vaccines will still be able to kill off the new strain before it can cause serious illness.

Researchers took blood samples from vaccinated patients and exposed them to an engineered virus with the worrying mutations found on the South African variant.

They found there was about a noticeable reduction in the production of antibodies, which are virus-fighting proteins made in the blood after vaccination or natural infection.

But, in a boost to the world's immunisation efforts, the team said the number of antibodies produced was still high enough to kill the mutant strain.

There are still concerns about how effective a single dose of vaccine will be against the strain. So far Pfizer and Moderna's studies have only looked at how people given two doses react to the South African variant, and Britain has decided to delay giving people two doses to get more people jabbed quickly.

Johnson & Johnson confirmed last week that its world-first single shot jab, which Britain has pre-ordered 30million doses of, blocked 57 per cent of coronavirus infections in South Africa, which meets the World Health Organization's 50 per cent efficacy threshold and hints that one shot may be enough to fend off the new strain. That jab is expected to be rolled out in the coming months once it seals approval.

Studies into Oxford University/AstraZeneca's jab, which Britain has ordered 100million doses of and is already dishing out to the most vulnerable, and the South African strain are still ongoing.

Reacting to yesterday's announcement, Professor Jonathan Ball, a molecular virologist at the University of Nottingham, said: 'We know that some coronavirus variants might be less easily killed by antibodies raised against some of the existing vaccines, but the levels of immunity are hopefully still sufficient to prevent serious disease.

'But we can't be certain that vaccine immunity might not be adversely impacted, especially after a single dose, which is why it is important to try to prevent these variants from spreading widely.

'That will mean effective social distancing and identifying where the variants are currently circulating, so we can stop them in their tracks through effective testing, track and trace and isolating infected individuals.'
COVID-19 vaccines may soon be available at your neighborhood drugstore, but for now quantities are limited.

CVS Health announced Tuesday that 70 pharmacy locations across Texas will offer the vaccinations starting Feb. 11, as they will in 10 other states. But only about 38,000 doses will be available initially for all those states.

Texas CVS pharmacies participating in the rollout include locations in San Antonio, as well as Abilene, Amarillo, Beaumont, Brownsville, El Paso, Houston, Laredo, Lubbock, Midland, Plano and Waco.

Not all pharmacies will be offering the vaccine and specific locations in San Antonio are not yet available.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus cases in San Antonio

Consumers will be able to book an appointment for the vaccine as early as Feb. 9 with stores receiving weekly shipments. The shots authorized in the U.S. for emergency use require two shots, taken three or four weeks apart.

As more supply becomes available the company will expand to more locations and offer additional appointments, CVS spokeswoman Monica Prinzing said.

Walk-in vaccinations without an appointment will not be allowed. Patients must register in advance at CVS.com, through the CVS Pharmacy app or by calling customer service at 800-746-7287.

One of our greatest strengths as a company is our presence in communities across the country, which makes us an ideal partner for administering vaccines in a safe, convenient, and familiar manner, said Karen S. Lynch, president and CEO of CVS Health, which is based in Woonsocket, R.I.

The company said its initial supply of vaccines will go to stores in Texas, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia.

CVS is one of 21 national pharmacy partners that agreed to administer the COVID-19 vaccines to priority groups as part of a federal retail pharmacy program, according to a White House statement.

Not all pharmacies will be active next week, but the federal list includes Walgreens, H-E-B, Walmart, Sams Club and Costco.

Walgreens officials said the chain will start offering the vaccines in 15 states, but Texas is not among them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worked with states to select pharmacy partners largely based on their ability to reach some of the populations most at risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

On ExpressNews.com: Latinos and other underserved San Antonio groups most impacted by pandemic, but reluctant to take vaccine

Vaccines at retail pharmacies will be available to individuals meeting current state criteria, which will be confirmed by the state in advance of the rollout. In Texas, vaccines are designated for health care workers, long-term care residents and anyone 65 and older or those 16 and older with a chronic medical condition, including pregnancy.

The CDC also partnered with retail pharmacy giants, CVS and Walgreens, and a few others to administer vaccines to long-term care residents when they first came out in late December.

Since then, 3.2 million residents and staff have been vaccinated through the national program.

laura.garcia@express-news.net
A burglar broke into a holidaying couple's home and lived there for a week - eating their food, driving their car and sleeping in their bed.

Glebs Zaicevs made the property in Swansea his own until he was caught red-handed by the homeowners when they returned, at which point he removed his jacket from their wardrobe and left, muttering: 'This is embarrassing'.

He was arrested a month later for shoplifting and possession of a knife.

Glebs Zaicevs made the property in Swansea his own until he was caught red-handed by the homeowners when they returned, at which point he removed his jacket from their wardrobe and left, muttering: 'This is embarrassing'

Swansea Crown Court heard that on November 10 last year a couple living in Tycoch went away for the week.

Hannah George, prosecuting, said they left the property secure, and the alarm system activated.

Two days later Zaicevs broke into the house, disabling the internet connection and alarm, and deactivating the external lights.

The prosecutor said the 29-year-old then proceeded to 'treat the property as his own', eating food from the fridge, sleeping in the couple's bed, and using their vehicle which had been parked outside.

When the couple returned home at the end of their holiday they noticed their car was not where they left it, and half a tank of petrol had been used.

As they approached the house there were noises and a strong smell of smoke coming from within.

The court heard Zaicevs was found in the bedroom of the house - when challenged he said he had stayed in the house because it was raining before.

He then retrieved his jacket from the couple's wardrobe, said 'this is embarrassing' and then left.

He was arrested a month later after police were called to deal with a shoplifter at the Co-op store in Killay. When searched he was found to be in possession of flick knife and a small quantity of amphetamine.

The court heard he was then further arrested on suspicion of being involved in the earlier Tycoch burglary 'but could not be interviewed because of his behaviour'.

Zaicevs, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 36 weeks in prison after the burglary on Hendrefoilan Road, pictured

Zaicevs, of no fixed abode, had previously pleaded guilty to burglary, theft of nuts and tea light candles from the Co-op, and possession of a bladed article and amphetamine when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

The Latvian national was unrepresented in court, and when asked if he wanted a lawyer said that he did not.

Giving the defendant a one-quarter discount for his guilty plea to burglary judge Paul Thomas QC sentenced him to 36 weeks in prison.

He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

The court heard magistrates had already sentenced Zaicevs to a total of eight weeks in prison for the shoplifting, knife, and drug matters - judge Thomas said he was concerned that justices had decided to sentence the offending in a 'piecemeal' fashion.
In this Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020 file photo, a medical worker prepares a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Moscow, Russia. Russian scientists say the country's Sputnik V vaccine appears safe and effective against COVID-19, according to early results of an advanced study published on Tuesday Feb. 2, 2021, in a British medical journal. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

Russian scientists say the country's Sputnik V vaccine appears safe and effective against COVID-19, according to early results of an advanced study published Tuesday in a British medical journal.

The news is a boost for the vaccine, which governments around the world increasingly are purchasing in the race to stop the devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Researchers said that based on a fall trial involving about 20,000 people in Russia, the vaccine is about 91% effective and appears to prevent inoculated individuals from becoming severely ill with COVID-19. But it is unclear if Sputnik V can stop transmission. The study was published online Tuesday in The Lancet.

Scientists not linked to the research acknowledged that the speed at which the vaccine was made and rolled out had brought criticism of the Russian effort's "unseemly haste, corner cutting and an absence of transparency."

"But the outcome reported here is clear," British scientists Ian Jones and Polly Roy wrote in an accompanying commentary. "Another vaccine can now join the fight to reduce the incidence of COVID-19."

The vaccine was approved by the Russian government with much fanfare on Aug. 11. President Vladimir Putin personally broke the news on national television and said one of his daughters had already received it. At the time, the vaccine had only been tested in several dozen people, and the move elicited criticism from experts both at home and abroad.

A healthcare worker prepares a dose of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, at the Del Norte Hospital in El Alto, Bolivia, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the development of the shot, called the study in The Lancet "check and mate to the critics of the Russian vaccine."

"Russia was right from the very beginning," he said.

Outside Russia, Sputnik V has received authorization in over a dozen countries, according to the fundincluding the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Armenia and Turkmenistan; Latin American nations including Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela; African nations such as Algeria as well as Serbia, Iran, Palestine and UAE.

Batches of the vaccine have already been supplied to six countries. In all, more than 50 countries have submitted applications for 2.4 billion doses, an RDIF spokesman told The Associated Press.

The latest study is based on research involving about 20,000 people over 18 at 25 hospitals in Moscow between September and November, of whom three-quarters got two doses of the Russian vaccine 21 days apart and the remainder got placebo shots.

Serious side effects were reported rare in both groups and four deaths were reported, although none were considered to be the result of the vaccine.

People stand in a queue to get a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in a vaccination center in GUM State Department store in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Russia started a mass coronavirus vaccination campaign on Monday, Jan. 18. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

The study included more than 2,100 people over age 60 and the vaccine appeared to be about 92% effective in them. The research is ongoing, but Russia's Health Ministry said in December it was cutting the size of the study from the planned 40,000 subjects to about 31,000 already enrolled volunteers, with developers citing ethical concerns about using placebo shots.

The Russian vaccine uses a modified version of the common cold-causing adenovirus to carry genes for the spike protein in the coronavirus as a way to prime the body to react if COVID-19 comes along. That's a similar technology to the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. But unlike AstraZeneca's two-dose vaccine, the Russians used a slightly different adenovirus for the second booster shot.

"This aims to drive higher immune responses to the target 'spike' by using two slightly different jabs," said Alexander Edwards, an associate professor in biomedical technology at Britain's University of Reading, who was not connected to the Russian research. He said if you have two identical shots, it's possible the immune system doesn't get as big a boost from the second injection.

Roy, a professor of virology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said there should no longer be any doubts about the Russian vaccine. She said the high level of antibodies produced by Sputnik V suggest that it could also protect against some of the new COVID-19 variants that have been detected recently, but more studies are needed to verify that.

"Initially, I had some concerns about what they were saying and thought they were getting too much publicity, but the data are now very strong," Roy said.

Sputnik V was rolled out in a large-scale vaccination campaign in Russia in December, with doctors and teachers the first in line. Last month, Putin ordered mass immunizations to start.

A Russian medical worker, right, administers a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to a patient in a vaccination center in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Russia started a mass coronavirus vaccination campaign on Monday, Jan. 18. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

In early January, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said over 1 million Russians had already been vaccinated. Some Russian media questioned the number, suggesting that the rollout had been much slower, with many Russian regions reporting small numbers of vaccinations.

The production of Sputnik V will span several countries, including India, South Korea, Brazil, China. "We will also manufacture vaccines in Kazakhstan, develop (production) in Belarus, in Turkey, and possibly even in Iran," Dmitriev said, adding that the production in China will start at the end of the month.

Algeria will begin producing the Sputnik V vaccine "within the coming weeks," Kamel Mansouri, the head of Algeria's national agency for pharmaceuticals, said Tuesday. The first batch of 50,000 doses arrived in Algeria last week.

The European Medicines Agency said the developers of Sputnik V recently asked for advice on what data they needed to submit for the vaccine to be licensed across the 27-nation European Union.

Hungary's first shipment of Sputnik V40,000 dosesarrived on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook. Hungary expects to get enough Sputnik V vaccine to treat 1 million people in the next three months.

Hungarian health authorities were the first in the EU to approve the vaccine on Jan. 21, but the National Public Health Center must still give its final approval before shots are distributed to the public.

People queue to get a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in GUM State Department store in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Russia started a mass coronavirus vaccination campaign on Monday. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

The minister took the opportunity to blast the EU's own vaccination rollout, which has been much slower than ones in Israel, Britain or the United States.

"Brussels' centralized vaccine procurement has been a failure, which has risked the lives of Europeans and the swiftest restarting of the European economy," Szijjarto said.

"We were the first, but we probably won't be the only ones" in the EU to consider using Russian and Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, he added.

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

More information: Safety and efficacy of an rAd26 and rAd5 vector-based heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccine: an interim analysis of a randomised controlled phase 3 trial in Russia, The Lancet (2021). www.thelancet.com/journals/lan  (21)00234-8/fulltext Journal information: The Lancet Safety and efficacy of an rAd26 and rAd5 vector-based heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccine: an interim analysis of a randomised controlled phase 3 trial in Russia,(2021). doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00234-8

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A 'for-rent' sign is posted in front of an apartment building in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2017. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Orange County Launches Rental Assistance Program, but Some Renters Face Hurdles

As Orange County began rolling out $66 million in federal relief funding for renters on Feb. 1, a local advocate called for more support for Santa Anas struggling residents.

What weve been discussing is how inaccessible it is and how hard it is for tenants to have access to the Internet [to apply for aid], David Carbajal, a member of Tenants United Santa Ana, told The Epoch Times.

In order to help them more, these funds should be more easily available and more easily accessible, and right now one of the biggest barriers is that we have some tenants who applied for funds over three or four months ago, their rent is still piling, theyre still waiting, he said. The point that we want to make is theyre very inaccessible.

His comments come as Orange County launched its emergency rental assistance (ERA) program Feb. 1. It will distribute about $66 million to residents affected by the pandemic who need help covering rent and utility payments. Recipients can receive up to $10,000 in funds if they meet specific income requirements.

The program, which is part of a $25 billion federal stimulus package, leaves out Irvine, Anaheim, and Santa Ana, since those cities will be launching their own rental assistance programs.

The Santa Ana Vital Eviction Solution (SAVES) program also began accepting applications Feb 1. It permits renters who have been impacted by COVID-19 and are behind on bills to apply for up to one year of aid and receive free legal and mediation services.

In Santa Ana, renters face challenges receiving aid, Carbajal said. Hes been meeting with city councilmembers, urging them to do more direct outreach in the community.

He helps renters in his coalition connect to financial aid, as many of them struggle through the application process. Tenants United Santa Ana focuses on championing local policy, such as rent control in Santa Ana.

Ill be bringing up at the next council meeting about how we could do more outreach to the community and letting them know that funds are available, and eliminating barriers, he said.

Some of those hurdles include language barriers and a lack of access to resources to apply online for help. As well, many workers in Santa Ana were part of the gig economy, so they didnt qualify for financial aid.

We have people who were either in the service industry or the gig economy, meaning they dont necessarily qualify for any unemployment opportunity, Carbajal said, adding that many in the community are also undocumented, which presents its own set of challenges.

The SAVES program has the same requirements as the countys ERA, except that renters wont have to show documentation of citizenship. They will have to provide proof, such as an eviction notice or notification from their landlord, showing their tenancy is being eliminated.

Rental Relief

Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said he hoped the rental relief packages would provide residents with a last push of support to carry them through the pandemic.

Everybodys been damaged, economically, emotionally, physically, mentally, by the pandemic, Wagner told The Epoch Times. What were hoping is that this modest relief allows people to hang on and get through the last couple of tough months until we get the vaccine rolled out, until we get a better handle on this, [and] until we can safely get stuff reopened.

Eligible ERA residents will have to meet one or more of the benchmarks on the countys website, which states that individuals can qualify for unemployment if: they experienced a significant reduction in income due to COVID-19, may be at risk of becoming homeless, have a total household income at or below 80 percent of the areas median income, and assistance isnt duplicative of any other federally funded aid.

While the county tackles the issue locally, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Jan. 29 signed SB 91 which will extend rent assistance and eviction moratorium until June 2021.

This law not only provides greatly needed support for tenants, but also provides relief to small-property owners in need of assistance to pay for mortgages, thanks to $2.6 billion in federal stimulus funding, Newsom said in a press release.
A 16-year-old boy who was on juvenile parole for assault and other crimes was arrested late last week in a fatal shooting in Salem in mid-January.

The murder case is among the first to be charged under Oregons new juvenile justice law, which shifts the prosecution of major felonies from the adult system to the juvenile one.

Marion County juvenile authorities identified the teen as Gerardo Trujillo-Torres, 16, and said he was arrested Friday and accused of first-degree murder, attempted murder, intentional first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon in the Jan. 16 killing of Joshua Steward, 24.

Court records identify a woman as a second victim at the scene who survived.

Trujillo-Torres made a brief appearance Monday in Marion County Juvenile Court. Judge Manuel Perez ruled Trujillo-Torres will remain in juvenile custody for now.

Marion County Deputy District Attorney Brendan Murphy told the judge that prosecutors plan to request a hearing where they will argue to have the case moved from Juvenile Court into adult Circuit Court.

The teens court-appointed attorney, Phillip Wiseman, did not return an email seeking comment.

Legislators passed a law that went into effect last year that aims to keep teens accused of crimes such as murder and rape in the juvenile system, which places an emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment. It requires that prosecutors request a hearing to determine whether youths ages 15 to 17 who face Measure 11 charges should be moved to adult court. Previously, their cases automatically went to adult court. Measure 11, Oregons mandatory minimum sentencing law, applies to the most serious offenses.

The Oregon Youth Authority determines the sentences for teens prosecuted under the juvenile system. By law, the agency cannot keep them in custody beyond their 25th birthday.

Trujillo-Torres has a criminal history. He was sent to a locked juvenile facility a year ago for third-degree assault, a felony, and multiple misdemeanors, including criminal mischief, interfering with a police officer and resisting arrest, according to Benjamin Chambers, a spokesman for the Oregon Youth Authority.

Chambers said the court committed Trujillo-Torres the youth authority until Jan. 25, 2025.

A team of agency officials decide when to release a youth from custody, Chambers said. In Trujillo-Torres case, the officials made the decision to parole him last July, seven months into his confinement, he said.

This is a terrible tragedy for the victim, their family and loved ones, Chambers said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive. We manage high-risk, emotionally reactive young people, and we do our best to hold them accountable and help them develop the skills they need to be contributing members of society.

He said the Oregon Youth Authority will undertake a review of its handling of Trujillo-Torres to determine which, if any, procedures can be changed to prevent an incident such as this from happening in the future.

Salem police have released few details about the case. In a press release issued over the weekend, they said officers responded to a traffic crash earlier this month and that detectives determined the crash was the result of an earlier shooting.

The mortally wounded driver, Steward, crashed the car nearby. A young woman who was also in the car was treated at Salem Health.

The womans mother addressed the court during Mondays hearing and said she worries about the prospect of Trujillo-Torres being released.

I would like to know how to keep my daughter safe so I dont have to worry about her getting hurt, she told the judge. Shes been through enough.

I dont want to have to worry about her getting killed, she said.

The judge suggested the mother address her concerns with Murphy, the prosecutor.

Salem police last week arrested a second suspect in the killing, court records show. Frederic Ferguson, 23, is accused of conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation of murder, delivery of cocaine, unlawful possession of cocaine and money laundering.

Ferguson was arraigned last week and is being held without bail.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie